Tuesday, September 30, 2008

September's Theme: Hiding Beneath


Still as busy as usual, I’m going to type up this summary article very sloppily (if you’d consider it that way). It seems, though, that the Acquired Minds really were "hiding beneath" this month...
Without further interruptions...

Dragging Along – An update article, along with some talk about Political Conventions.
To work up a smile. – Dodging realities and the hidden truth.
Radio Waves of the Heart (or maybe just the head) – The never-ending issues of opposing genders.
underground or above? – Are you truly ‘legal’ at 18?
State of MIND. – The indefinite feelings of emotions.
Glass Against My Face – Simple may not be as ‘simple’ as you may think.
I A.M. a Follower – Become Acquired Minds’ follower if you’re a reader!

As I sit here and stare at my computer screen...looking at this article that I’m typing...well, it just looks so forlorn. Eight articles! Just eight. *sigh* Oh well...Septembers are never really good.
Cheers to next month’s (October's) theme: Lost in Mind.

-the clam.

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Sunday, September 21, 2008

I A.M. a Follower...Are You?

If you're reader of Acquired Minds, be sure to be our follower!

Blogger has released the Follower feature for quite some time now, but I've only added it just now. On the right sidebar, scroll down until you see the Follower widget. Just click on "Be a Follower" to...well, be a follower :). Whenever A.M. updates, you'll know all about it. You'll also help us pass the word about A.M., so make sure you start following us!

In other A.M. news, we're currently testing and developing yet another branch to the blog. You can track its progress in the Info-Center (under 'Coming Soon'). It's going to be awesome once it's finished! Much thanks to M.G.E. for suggesting it.

Oh, the drama of life...

-the clam.

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Saturday, September 20, 2008

Glass Against My Face

Are simple things really better? People say that the best things are things that say what they mean using the fewest amount of words, or images, or etc. The things that are the easiest to take in, the easiest to understand, have the most meaning and resolve in them: but is this really true? Can something so simple, so easy to make, mean more?

Or do the complex things give off more. They are the things the connoisseurs can enjoy and applaud. The things with every ounce of detail and intricacy you could care for, even with little parts that most people wouldn’t care about, or won’t even catch. Are these things, the ones that take you a second to take in and to develop your feelings on, better?

Is the complex music video better than the strikingly simple one? Is the song with fewer parts in it better than the one with sparse parts? Is that magnificent piece of art better than a hugely plain, but beautiful, one?

There’s the whole DIY argument, the whole indie, lo-fi thing. They hate overproduction in music, hate having things be done for them that are too complicated. If you can do it yourself, why not?

At the end of the day though, does it really matter? As long as the end product works out, is it ok? Does the ends justify the means? As long as what you get from it is great…who cares…

--

Do the things you do reflect who you are? The music you listen to, the way you play tennis, the guitar you want, the way you act, the way you speak, does it really say something about who you are? I don’t mean the simple things; like that person doesn’t talk much or anything like that. Can they really mean something a little deeper than something on the surface? Can they give an insight into who, or what, someone truly is?

Is it true that, if you never explain your problems, then people will never see them? People can’t guess something, and if they do, they might not be entirely sure about it, especially if it has anything to do with something that’s important to them. Either that, or they’re just arrogant and brash.

--

Are you really that different from other people? It seems like people always say that their job just sucks, or they’re life isn’t exactly going the way they want. Is it true that that’s probably going on for a lot of people? I mean in no way to say that one person’s problems are bigger than someone else’s, or someone’s is useless. Everyone’s problems are important to one person, that person is the most important person regarding that problem, and it’s themselves. People like talking about themselves, they like to talk about the things that are important to them.

Whenever things aren’t exactly going my way, I always have this little period of time, where I just start to reflect on my life. I just kind of lie down, or relax, and think away. They’re usually not exactly great thoughts either, nothing that will bring joy definitely. But I always try to tell myself that everyone has to go through stuff, stuff twice as worst as my stupid obstacles. I try to tell myself to just walk it off, after an hour or too back in the real world, I’ll be fine. But it’ll come up again anyway…


should i stop?

or have i never started?

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Thursday, September 18, 2008

State of MIND.


For you, what's the greatest feeling ever??? It might be making someone smile (or better, laugh). You can get that wonderful feeling after you've just been asked out, for some, or after acing a really hard test, for others. For me, I really love the idea of being needed as a friend. It gives me a reason or role to play in life. You can always tell when someone is happy. I have a thing for those occasional moments where I just can't seem to stop smiling...Don't you just love that? (They occur as often as I'd like...)

How about the worst emotion you can get? Is it losing an important sports game, breaking up with a boy/girlfriend, failing a test? It makes me feel extremely horrible whenever my presence is not acknowledged...Don't you just hate it when you're not included in certain activities, when your left out of this and that, or when a jerk just totally ruins a perfectly beautiful day? If I lose someone special, that's pretty harsh on me, also...

Sometimes, you can get these moments where you're experiencing indefinite feelings...You can't describe them at all, and you're head is about to explode! Feelings are too real. What would happen if we didn't have emotions at all?

-my.great.ESCAPE.

(P.S. Comment and share your most greatest and worst feelings...I'd like to know ;)


(Photo credits go to Photobucket.com)

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Monday, September 15, 2008

underground or above?

In the minds of many young adults across the states, turning twenty one is probably the day they can’t wait for. Why? Because of the one thing they’ll have access to once they reach that age- alcohol. Many long for the day to wake up and go to Vegas to gamble and drink the night away, and some just can’t wait. Underage drinking is a big problem in the U.S. but drunk driving is one, too. Combine the two together and you can’t really tell which is worse, can you? The “responsible” 21 year old who drank one too many beers and died in a car crash, or the 18 year old partier who got caught by the police.

What are the cons to changing the legal drinking age to eighteen? To list a few the main one would be that the number of drinkers in both high school and college will likely increase. People can easily fake eighteen rather than twenty-one, therefore making alcohol a larger constant in their life. Think about it, some seniors in high school are eighteen already, and with the combination of being able to legally buy alcohol and the number of younger peers around them, the results could lead to even more underage drinkers. People are influenced by others around them, and with their peers buying alcohol what do you think they’d want to do to fit in?

In an age where immaturity is ever so common and looking cool is the top priority for many (especially girls), a lowered drinking age will cause the headline ‘girl killed from drunk driving incident’ to frequent front pages more often.

Alcohol poisoning will probably happen left and right, and if underage drinkers start around the age of sixteen to eighteen, then won’t lowering the drinking age make even younger kids start to drink? Being able to drink legally at eighteen seems only a faraway idea to be laughed at to us. Or at least so some may believe.

I came across a webpage that had a petition for college students to sign in support of lowering the drinking age to eighteen. At first I believed that the reasons they were going to have would be idiotic and completely illegible, but when I read into it a little more I realized that some reasons were actually, well, reasonable.

Now many of you reading this are probably in support of changing the drinking age to eighteen because of the fact that you’re young and you just like to think like that. Our parents and teachers and basically everyone have told us all our lives that drinking is bad, and alcohol shouldn’t be consumed-ever. Despite the constant ragging however, teens being teens have rebelled and gone on to do what their parents forebode them to do- drink. What’s the point of a law that everyone breaks?

Perhaps lowering the drinking age may lower the pure excitement of it all. We as teens are known to want what we can’t have, and maybe if we were to have that object of our affection given to us earlier, the excitement of it all might fade away, leaving it to be nothing less of a normal thing that no one has to break the law to get.

At the age of eighteen you’re viewed as an adult. You’re allowed to get married, and you can serve your country. Thinking of the former, young couples seeking to marry at eighteen are restricted from drinking wine at their own wedding. For many this is a big disappointment. At the age of eighteen you are allowed the privilege to vote, and you are allowed to smoke, yet many think it is unfair that you can’t consume alcohol. If you’re considered an adult, why not get all the privileges they have instead of having to wait a full three years in order to get one simple add-on?

Although the numbers of seniors in high school lowered after the drinking age going up, the number of underground drinkers rose to a new level. Because they couldn’t do it that often or in public, drinking was brought to behind closed doors and underground, where the young drank as much as they could while they couldn’t get caught. Binge drinking was happening left and right; and binge drinking can lead to death. So although the drinking age at twenty-one still helps publicly, it’s the underground life that you can’t see that makes it seem horrible. Being twenty-one or eighteen doesn’t stop people from drinking themselves to the hospital or grave.

In places like Canada, provinces are allowed to choose their drinking age. The drinking age is usually between 18 and 19 and for all United States citizen studying there, going back home is like “stepping back in time”. Some college students even say that although there are reckless drunken parties, they occur less often than the ones in America.

College parties are always about alcohol and partying, but does anyone ever stop and think about the fact that most college students are underage? If a twenty-one year old person can barely handle alcohol what makes anyone think an eighteen year old can? In the end, I’m not trying to say that the drinking age should be lowered to eighteen, but that it’s not as preposterous as many of our parents may think.


reprinted with permission from original writer;

Karma Police

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Saturday, September 13, 2008

Radio Waves of the Heart (or maybe just the head)


A sensitive issue these days is the issue of the opposite genders. There are the obvious differences, the unchangeable biological differences, and then there are some similarities. It’s odd, the battle of the sexes debate is so much more, for lack of a better way to put it, unique than other kinds of discrimination. In racism, the differences are almost negligible compared to the differences in men and women. While one race can make up a large part of the world, men and women basically make up all of it. That just makes the issue all more significant and controversial.

Feminism, it seems, is the standard now, its understood now, almost like how “going green” is now supposed the right and neat thing to do. In the media, in regular conversations everywhere, feminism gets the high reputation. This often causes other issues to go overlooked. Yes, there is a wage gap, and it’s a terrible thing. But, if you were asked, who in this world is the one most likely to get a job that is rated as one of the worst jobs in America (or in this world I should say)? Well, you’d probably answer men. Which gender most often (there’s never an always) does the most menial, dirty, downright despised jobs? Who’s usually on Dirty Jobs anyway? Also, in domestic issues, women get the upper hand. As stated by one person, (I’m sorry I don’t know who this is, but it’s a memorable quote), “the women who gets divorced three times and doesn’t have a Ferrari is doing something wrong.” In custody issues, guess who usually wins? I remember a story where some male workers (construction maybe? I’m not sure…) had a rally because they were not allowed to see any of there children. If I remember quite right, they were struck down fairly fast and ruthlessly. Also, men aren’t the only ones that commit domestic (or other forms of abuse too) abuse. Both genders do (even if the statistics on who commits it more are disputed, it’s undeniable that both genders commit domestic abuse), but you never hear about the other side of the coin. Men probably don’t report abuse as much either, because of social constraints, and the f@#%!&* parameters of convention. In the past quarter century, we exposed biases against other races and called it racism, and we exposed biases against women and called it sexism. Biases against men we call humor (Warren Farrel, Women Can’t Hear What Men Don’t Say.

But as always, there’s the other side of the coin. Now it just gets annoying. Yes, men do get advantages too. In politics, back in the cloakrooms of Congress or elsewhere, males (most often Caucasian) are mostly dominant. Yes, there’s Hillary Clinton, and now Sarah Palin, but Congress and most of the government is still controlled by men. Many men are still chauvinists, misogyny is still alive. There are still many that see females as the weaker race, just as how racism is still alive in today’s world. You know, I won’t go into further detail, but anyone reading this can’ think of countless more ways men get the upper hand. In the music business I’m sure, there are more successful male musicians. More male producers, more male A &R people, more males in general probably. In business, in science, in mathematics, men have the home court advantage. Sure there are a lot of prominent women, but when did Einstein, or Newton, or Tesla get a sex change?

Another thing is the portrayal of this issue. Depending on who you talk to, and about what, sometimes it seems men are the underdogs, and sometimes women are. But the media always has a funny view on things. The media will always conform to the people, because that’s what people want to read about, what they want to watch. Men can be portrayed as the pervert, the rapist, the asshole abuser, the bum, the idiotic jackass, the nerd, the shy guy, while women can be perceived as sluts, money loving whores, emotionally uncaring bitches. It goes both ways. I’m not saying which is more prominent, which is more important, but both are there. I mean, just look at the t-shirt there. What does that do to kids? When boys see something like that, they’ll see women don’t care, they’ll become emotionally shy. Although I don’t think I was, I don’t think I saw any of that as a kid, and I doubt I cared either. It could do the same to girls too. But today, with the media and internet everywhere, who knows?

Can this all work out? Will stereotypes be gone? That’s easily doubted, but how prominent will this issue be in the future? Personally, I don’t what to think. I choose neither side. Picking a side in an issue like this is fucking stupid. Compromise probably won’t lead anywhere either. Heck, my favorite musicians are females, and gay. My favorite guitarists are males. Most of my favorite films have male leads. I almost actually prefer female singers too. So, ummm…, who cares.

Can you see my problems, if I never explain it?


-digital delay


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Wednesday, September 10, 2008

To work up a smile.

We Wear the Mask (by Paul Laurence Dunbar)

We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,--
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be overwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!

I bet a lot of you can be able to relate to the poem above. Many of us have had stories we just didn't want to share, right? You've probably had things you'd rather just not talk about. So maybe you tend to hide your feelings, keeping them to yourself. Some people like the idea of anonymity more than familiarity. Then again, others don't. Believe it or not, your words are important.

When you're having one of those "bad days", do you mope around or fake a smile, covering up the truth? Should you lie to others, let alone yourself, or turn to a friend who might happen to be able to cheer you up? With your feelings, I think it's best not to fool others with a mask they might be able to see through it if it's transparent. Come out from under that heavy rock and stop hiding beneath it. Maybe your "mask" was meant to be noticed.


This gets me every time,
-my.great.ESCAPE.

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Friday, September 5, 2008

Dragging Along

Things are obviously going extremely slow during the past five days of September. It's a really busy month for everyone, so don't expect articles popping out like wildfire such as July (although, I have to admit—I've had a bad case of writer's block...I can't think of things to talk about). Our header is especially off the norm though. I don't usually have anything related to something that people don't like to be reminded of, although school is starting again, and it was just the first thing that came to mind.

I don't have anything in particular to write about "hiding beneath". But I'll just throw a couple things out there.

How about the U.S. Party National Conventions? I didn't watch a majority of it, but the hype around it has been crazy (have you seen all those Yahoo articles that are on the main page of the site?). Hmm, the only things I know are: Sen. Obama had a giant crowd and a fancy stage, Sen. McCain's choice in Palin had caused a huge uprising—with her young experience as a governor, and also of her daughter (which I won't go into detail, because that would be rude). That's about it. Oh, and all that bashing against each other...which I find extremely funny. "No, he's not ready. I am!" *flip to the other side* "Does he seem ready for the job? No, I am!"

Anything else?... Hmm...

Okay, my writer's block is taking over again. I guess that's it for now (darn, what a short post). Hopefully, someone else is going to update this lonely place soon...

-the clam.

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