Year End Post

Dear readers,

I would like us all to take a moment to sit back and look back on the year we've had. There's certainly been highs and lows. For some people I know they're at a high while others are at a low. And while I sit here looking back on all the things I've both accomplished and failed to accomplished I have to come the most important realization of myself.

My entire life I've run from the facts of life. I looked away from the terrible only to look at the positives but thinking on it, is it right? Not for me it isn't. Today, I have to stop running. Life happens and it will always move at the same pace. A pace I have to keep with. This weekend reminded me that every second with everyone and everything counts and I'm not going to use that time running.

My name is Michael Hand. This is my blog: A soul of its own. For the last time this year ending a blog post.

Hoping you have a good New Years,

Mike Hand

In Memory of Urryan

Dear readers,

This is likely a post I won't put up because I doubt many of you will actually care. It is simply something I find myself writing to help myself cope.

That said it is time to get down to business: This morning I woke up like every other morning and see that an old acquaintance of mine had passed away. Nor is it a joke; Lawrence High School has a memorial set for tomorrow. Myself and many friends of mine are, to put it lightly, shocked. Urryan was a funny guy and more importantly a good guy.

I do believe once I wrote that I'd write my thoughts on death and this seems the occasion I need to. Death is a thing we can not see pass and which has a state of permanence. They say the only things that are permanent are changes but this not true; The only things that are permanent are changes and death. All my life death has run circles around me, constantly reminding myself of the fact that I am mortal. I always have glanced over this though; I am young and I have nothing to fear. Of course today I was reminded that that is not the case at all.

In the case I've never said this, I love and appreciate you all as friends. From everyone I've learned something new and it is an understatement to say that it helps me develop as a person. So it is that I hate to weigh you down with my problem but at the same time this is something I need to type.

So before I start speaking circles I'll close this off. Rest in Peace Urryan, you died to young,

Mike Hand

Holiday Posting

Dear readers,

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and to all a good New Year's Eve. In all seriousness as I type I'm trying to find something to type about. So instead I will type about how somewhat difficult it is for me to find something to type.

It's counter intuitive; I got a new instrument, hat, vest, am done with my PiG paper, will be pretty much done with school entirely after this quarter, am planning to make a band and see as many movies as possible during this break but at the same time I'm grasping at straws that just don't seem to be there.

At the moment none of these are making me want to write but all I want to do is write. For me it is self exploration to sit down, think and record my thoughts but at the same exact time some thoughts I can't right on. Who cares about my thoughts on Christmas and crazy people? Probably only I do. The list could go on but I feel that the point is known.

So really this post is to wish all of you a happy holiday.

Hoping the holiday is enjoyable,

Mike Hand

Time Flew

Dear readers,

Right now I'm dealing with something a little strange for myself. Did you ever have one of those instances when people say something and you think, "that will never happen to me"? I have and those are senior speeches in congress. Every year people break down crying and say that no one can know why until they stand up there themselves. Now don't be mistaken any one crying isn't crying for the sake of it, most of them centered their entire high school around this club. We all went in there awkward freshman or otherwise and returned from the battle field of debate as man. This is no joke, I would have people tell you how awkward I was freshman year at the first congress but most of those people graduated. What remains is a few people and then myself. I who can tell you how awkward the majority of the people in every school's club were when I first met them, I who could tell there growth intellectually and socially, I who was approached by many people with important questions and then I who will graduate and leave.

What I'm grappling with is "and then what?" Ultimately the moment I leave for college I will slowly be erased from the memory of the club which made what was probably the biggest impact on my four years of high school. It used to be that I cared about awards but that ended after the first congress when I realized my joy could never be in awards but only in speaking and being near a group of people who far exceeded in intelligence and creativity most people I knew at school.

And when I go to college I lose all that. More then that I may lose myself. Is that a bad thing? Maybe, maybe not but I guess the only thing I can do is go boldly towards the future.

Looking to what's ahead,

Mike Hand

Evolution of trashed Jei Woo song

Dear readers,

Today I will consider the evolution of things Jei Woo throws in the trash. First Jei throws it out. Then Scott takes it and tells me to complete then. Then I complete them several separate times. Finally I do a preliminary presentation at a congress talent show as a performance art piece at a congress talent show that my friend Sam tells me was good. And so I develop and evolve the work of others making it a story of a the single event that made a person lose everything.

First I destroyed the primary phrase in it just to see what would happen. From there I developed it closer to my own style. After this I saw the primary phase still worked so I reworked it in and made another draft with it reworked in to make it more natural. So now I will show the original (Jei Woo's original and my ending) so that when the current is truly complete and finalized I can look back at this and see where the evolution has gone from.

Original:

Standing in line for the second time

Tonight by the way I see you

Naked in the rain.

Lately

Lately

Break it down

Break

At this point Jei stopped writing and I did a quick completion on the spot:

Break, break

Lately I've seen

Truth in sheep's clothes

Now I know

I know now

Lately

Lately

Break it down

Break

Break, Break.

I hope that A. Jei has no problem with me putting that first part up. B. That when I look back at this when all is said and done I will see a more clear evolution of writing.

Thank you for reading,

Mike Hand

12 Monkeys

Dear readers,

I know what you are thinking, "Michael you were not in today, how could you have watched the movie?" I looked it up online to keep my mind off things. Good news is that I am feeling better and should be in tomorrow.

Anyways, back to what is more important. This film was definitely a change of pace for me as this last week end I saw Harold and Maude (not hard to follow) and the new Pokemon film (very easy to follow). Then we have 12 Monkeys. I can easily see why we were told not to miss a second as there was a quite a large attention to detail (the guy who appeared out side of the town who appeared in that picture in the presentation they showed James Cole wounded in World War 1 was the same guy preaching outside the church later in the film).

James Cole's slip into questioning his sanity was very well executed. We had a bit of a hint that he could go insane (the scientists said this is why they use criminals instead) and after that he begins to question what the present is. It's a question that appears surprisingly little in science fiction. If you are present in one time long enough but from another time does this new time because your 'present'? In fact is there even a present?

The other thing I liked was the ending. From the moment he gets that gun and the moment that strange guy who first appeared halfway through the movie is revealed as the carrier we realize that the entire time the scientists must have known this was going to happen. Why? They were in the air port as well, watching. Jose is given the gun to give to James but why couldn't Jose shoot the guy instead? The answer would have to be that the scientists always knew that James would end up dead and that they would make sure he would end up dead.

Now here's where it gets a little more interesting. By this point he has been pardoned of his crime and has no need to do anything for them. Worst case scenario they kill him. But once again why couldn't Jose kill the guy? Because James was supposed to die trying. He was supposed to be both dead and alive at the same time. None of this film was actually stopping the virus but making sure that what was supposed to happen happened properly. The scientists now know who releases the virus but will likely do nothing about it. It doesn't appear that you time travel with any clothes so the only way to carry a sample of the un mutated form is to ingest it which doesn't seem like a good idea. If anything the future is still grim with no signs of sunny weather coming any time soon and maybe that is why I loved the end to this movie. It told the story of James Cole, the man who died when he saw himself, and how we cannot change the future.

Signing out,

Mike Hand

Breeding One's Enemy

Dear readers,

I've done even more thinking and came upon a realization, for what ever reason all enemies seem to be from the same source. What can that possibly mean? By that I mean we always seem to make our own enemies on a personal and global scale and it does not matter whether we realize what our actions caused or were.

Now remember my last post? The idea in that has evolved into this: To tell the stories of the defeated from the perspective of the defeated detailing what caused the conflict from both perspectives to show how an individual's actions, how ever meaningless, effects the environment around them on a large scale.

There is also evidence of this right now and for that look no further than New York City. Would there be protests if the protesters did not feel let down, betrayed and/or kicked by those they are protesting? Not at all because then they would be happy how ever a few things got to the protesters. First off quite a few of them are in a terrible economic position so it makes sense to protest at Wall Street, the economic capitol of the greatest city in the world. Second off is that the rich have a lot that the protesters do not have. The rich have helicopters, security guards, bomb shelters, the ability to subvert nations by making them over blow construction projects and throwing them in to debt. I have the ability to do none of those things. Really though that last one is enough to justify a revolution.

Regardless of whether or not you support the protests it is quite possible to see that big business has gotten enough of the "99%" angry enough by not sharing to protest. Could anyone predict that not sharing would cause months of protests? Perhaps, but regardless as to whether or not they predicted it the enemy to themselves were bred and now they have a formidable movement to deal with and to be honest I don't think any one can come out with a clear outcome for the movement yet.

Hoping it was a good example,

Mike Hand

Why the Stories of the Defeated Should be Told from their Perspective at least Once

Dear readers,

There is a lot of talk of mortality going around and before I get to the topic of this post I would like to say that all death is is a thing. All we are is a thing and perhaps I will go more in depth into this in another post. I'm not sure yet but it will probably come after I've compiled my feelings on Occupy Wall Street.

So what is this topic? This topic is the telling of stories and how some stories are never told. I have always found it surprising that while we go to a school that prides itself in being of a high tier that very few people I talk to can tell Torrijos and Colonel Custer apart despite the obvious differences in a Panamanian communist leader who was at odds with the US and a colonel for the US Army that was defeated in an uprising by Native Americans.

Today as I went to pick my brother up from college the large amounts of traffic gave me a lot of time to think why I want to see a history of America done from the perspective of those who "lost" America: The Native Americans. I have to say that there are compelling stories out there and it is interesting how every tribe has it's own culture yet people can't tell Navajo from Iroquois so how is it that we remember all the different political natures in Chinese Civil Wars when we don't remember things that happened on our own continent?

I feel simply that one of the loser stories must be told from how the losers saw it. South America fought Spain for independence and was slapped with the Monroe Doctrine. Africa had bustling trade empires of great wealth that people can't be caught dead remembering. America had the Native Americans who were willing to share land but were ravaged by disease, war and trickery. All of these have the potential for amazing storytelling, all that has to be done is to tell the story and while telling the story find the lessons that can be picked out and taught today so that we may prevent injustice to man.

Hoping you may see where this is coming from,

Mike Hand

Video Games

Dear readers,

Today I shall do some talking. By talking I mean typing. And in this installment I shall discuss video games. Why video games? A friend of mine and myself were discussing them as an art form and it made me think, how much more art is in say Angry Birds to say Lunar: The Silver Star Story.

By "how much more art" I wish to mean should one type of game be considered more an art than another or should they simply be to each other what rock music is to country music and country music to classical music.

For the first option I can actually see that as realistic. Some video games require extensive amounts of script writing, voice acting and animation. Others like Tetris are essentially just the animation. Is Tetris as much fun or more fun than the other games? Yes, yes it is so instead of thinking of Tetris for the next sentence or so think of any other simple game that is addictive and played on a regular basis that also has no story line. A lot of people I know would argue that that game is far less fun then anything that has a story line. Which presents the problem, is one more art than another?

How ever before that question shall be addressed the question of whether or not is whether Tetris is on the same playing field as other puzzle games such as Portal. My answer to this would be simple, they are not. An action-adventure game designed for children (specifically as in not one for all ages) can't hold a candle to anything in the Lunar series let alone any mainstream Pokemon game. The way I see it the genres are going to become more and more split until they are more clearly defined at which point we will have to ask whether or not games like Angry Birds are video games. Regardless of the answer we will be answering the first question asked.

Hoping you enjoyed this outlook,

Mike Hand

Character Development to Celebrate New Quarter

Dear readers,

As this new quarter has started I have figured that I may as well make a post because of the new quarter. To be perfectly serious the original intention of this post was turtles. Of course turtles don't make the best content so I took a walk and found ducks. Ducks however seem to make even less content for me then turtles so instead I will speak of what I'd do if I was an evil power hungry behind the scenes business executive because why not?

First off I would need cookies. They are a tasty treat and not so hard to make so in case I'm overthrown by some number two commander I will still have a souvenir from my time in power as long as the coup doesn't eat them.

Second off I would declare myself the Lord Supreme of all the Earth. Promptly after doing so I would tell the laws of nature to go away and find every place I can consider hell such as Centralia in Pennsylvania, Siberia and New Jersey. For those unaware Centralia is a place in Pennsylvania where a mine fire in the 60's was started causing dangerous toxins to be thrown into the air. And the fire rages to this day and is currently expanding. I would then use these places as threats to keep my subjects safe.

Third on the agenda is to destroy communism. Evil business man (and business man in general) hate communism and all it stands for so all that I said above? It's all part of a crusade against communism. The character is no longer evil but a relic of the cold war.

Can you see what I just did? Created a character that is in a position of power to celebrate the entering of the second quarter.

Hoping you enjoyed,

Mike Hand

Possible Life Ambition?

Dear readers,

I am going to make a new post today. I'm not entirely sure what it will be on so let's see what I can come up with on the spot. Music? That is a start. So what is it about music I shall discuss? Whatever pops in my head first.

Actually I'm going to take the time right now to ask a question. Does any one know where I can find sheet music for a diatonic jazz harmonica in the key of C? Because I have no idea.

Speaking of harmonicas I think I will reveal my new life ambition. No this ambition is not to conquer the dragons through the power of harmonica music. This ambition is far far worse. I shall start a folk rock band and to this end I will learn to play bass. And just to be a hipster it shall be an acoustic bass. Why folk rock? I've been listening to a lot recently and I like it. Why bass? I know to many guitarists and not enough bassists.

Wow this was a short post. To think of it I don't think there is much content here but if anyone can help me with the sheet music I'd really appreciate that.

Good night,

Mike Hand

What is Art?

Dear Readers,

Today I will attempt to define one of the most blatantly undefined terms of the world through logic. For the many of you who can read and for the few who read the title you would know that this concept is art. For those who didn't read the title the concept is art.

The reason why this is so hard to explain is simple. We go back hundreds of years and what we have is beautiful paintings which are greatly detailed. We go to today and we have poles painted red and placed in the middle of a museum. We go back to the time of Greece and we have epic poems. We go to today and we have Twilight, Star Wars, and Harry Potter. Not that I have any issue with the latter two works as I think they are great coming of age/ destruction of an evil empire stories it's simply that looking backwards and comparing something like Twilight to Othello our artistic standards have dropped.

However if we place all that aside we note something interesting. Art is in the eye of the beholder. I know people who love the red pole and Twilight while I hate it. There are people who tell me Green Day are punks when I settle for nothing less then the Dead Kennedies, the Sex Pistols and The Misfits as standards for punks.

I am friends with many people through Model Congress and many of them are fellow writers, musicians, actors and even some dancers. It was only inevitable from day one that I would see people whose skills only continue to amaze me. And recently it struck me while I was talking with some of them that some of the things that impressed me they shrugged off while some of the things that impressed them I shrugged off.

If they shrugged it off why do I call it art? Why do I see them as artists? The question is the same for me, how am I an artist? At this point I'd have to define art simply. Art is a form of trade which is ever evolving to adapt to the changing times, people and society. Art is commonly shared among this society in order to strengthen social bonds however in recent times art has become something that has turned to us questioning our standards for art and society itself. Art in its current form is often left to the viewer as many pieces of art are obscure and has room to maneuver.

Will have a much better definition the next time I touch on this subject,

Mike Hand

The Dwarf

Dear readers,

So I looked up the Dwarf's name from Hanna and it is Isaac. After telling this to Luke and he brought up about how the name has religious meaning I have decided to investigate every last part of it and list it here:

• Only son of Abraham
• Patriarch of Isrealites (one of three)
• Lived until he was 180 years old (pretty sure this wasn't the case with The Dwarf)
• Name means "He laughs/will laugh"
• Biblical character himself could represent old legendary heroes, semi nomadic leaders or a figure representing tribal history.

Of course we can't follow this to the bullet point because the Dwarf definitely did not live until he was 180 years old, his club does not appear to be called Isrealites and we don't know if his father was named Abraham. Although the character definitely seemed like the character that would want to get in the last laugh, with all the club owning, criminal activity and murdering for the a rogue government agent going on.

Semi nomadic leaders I can definitely see. Nomadic tribes are known for hunting and his goal in the film was hunting (in this case he was hunting Hanna). He would only be semi nomadic because he owns a club and could theoretically stay at the club however they in both cases the hunt would be out necessity. Perhaps back in nomadic days they had to leave for new pastures and in the case of the Dwarf he left because the Witch likely had blackmail on him and his criminal activities.

This is the relations I found and I hope it is enjoyable,

Mike Hand

Power struggles

Dear readers,

I usually post for the sake of posting or to simply not to forget posting. However I see a lot of people posting about the events of the last few days so I feel as if it would be best for me to post my views on here. However before I post any view on here I would first like to make a disclaimer: if there is any seeming bias on this post not blatantly intended by myself then please tell me and on Monday that bias will be thrown out. The purpose of this post is to create a blank slate for which I can work with next week.

That said I thought Ashley's idea is sheer genius. A massive multi media project encompassing music, acting, film, photography and possibly more. It is an amazingly ambitious project that I'm surprised more people didn't think of instantly. I would like to ask that any and all seniors reading this take a second thought on the idea for the simple reason that it is a genius idea.

Now I'd like to give a reason for why I'm against improv. Yes, you are STAC. Yes, you are some of the most talented, if not the most talented, people at what you do. That said I have ridden horses for over half a decade and was usually put into competitions that I shouldn't have been able to have handled (especially not at five in the morning). Did I win all of them? No, but I never "lost" one and I always came home with something.

What I'm trying to say is a few things. First off we can't win everything. Do we have to lose everything? Not at all but it is impossible to win at everything but I would love it if we all walked away with from this project with something.

Now for the next thing I have to do another anecdote which would make the first line of that paragraph just a little while ago make sense. "Now I'd like to give a reason for why I'm against improv." I believe it was. Last year almost a year ago a friend of mine called me and a bunch of other people to create a film group because he had to make a video project so why not make a film group? The majority of the video was improv however my friend knew the ending, he had a clear assignment and criteria that we followed and it was a great video. Then he called us together for a project that he had no real vision for the ending. It turned out terribly and I asked if I could write a script and was turned down. We then made another version of it which they insisted on showing to Mr. Brogan. He complimented me and that was our highest honor because the video was terrible. To date now this project has wasted hours of my time and we have ten scripts that will probably never meet the camera.

What does this have to do with any of you? It's the reason why I'm against doing Improv in a large project like this. Sure you might say "But we're more responsible and better" but that's what those people thought until they deluded themselves into thinking there project was good. Like wise what proof do I have that any one's more responsible when none of these people have been screwing around on random computers while there is a discussion going on?

If you read any part of this then read this. Power struggles are fun to watch but not be a part of. What I'm scared of is that everyone will come in on Monday with everything but a clean slate. What I fear is that we will break out into another struggle. I'll even drop my reasons against doing improv if everyone else drops all hostilities, be they accidental or purposeful, speaks respectfully to one another and comes in with an open mind.

Surprised if you read all that,

Mike Hand

Nein, nein, 9

Dear Readers,

October 12, we are nearly half way through this month and I only have one blog post up. As such I have decided that this must be remedied.

So today my topic of thought will be the 999 plan (which was not named by people yelling "no" in German) and more specifically how ridiculous some media has been with the title. The 999 plan is an economic plan one of the current Republican candidates for president, Herman Cain, has come up with. Before I say anything on the plan I must both applaud and disdain him for having a plan this early on. Applaud because he has a plan for something many don't and disdain because it isn't even 2012 yet and he is already campaigning hard enough to show off his plan.

But what actually got me interested in this is when you flip 999 you get 666 and you can find the devil in that. I was watching the news and someone said that, I forget who but it wasn't Michelle Bachman which does surprise me. Our news is at the point as to attack a political plan not by its contents but by trying to find the number of the beast in the plan. It's almost like saying Roosevelt Field Mall is actually a secret demonic prison made to house Cthulu because the office building across the street from it and by Panera's address is 666.

But because I think it is early to actually comment on the plan I will leave that for a later time and will provide you with a link about what the plan says.

(http://www.hermancain.com/999plan) That's straight from the devil's mouth itself.

Hoping you enjoyed,

Mike Hand

25 Follower special

I have been debating if I would have another follower special and so I decided I would. This will be a stream of consciousness script.

(Begin scene. There are 2 man, one has an orange and the other does not. The first man bounces the orange while the other stares at it, ready to pounce. A bear is heard outside.)

Man 1: Why are you looking at my orange?

Man 2: Well what else would I look at?

Man 1: My face.

(There is a long pause as Man 2 is simply disgusted and walks around there small confines to find anything to eat going so far as to crawl on the floor.)

Man 1: Ok, this has gone on far to long. You only haven't eaten in an hour how can you be that hungry?

Man 2: It is not right to taunt a starving man.

Man 1: How have I- oh right the orange. Do you want the orange?

Man 2: Not after you have defiled its sacredness!

(Man 1 begins to eat the orange while man 2 throws himself at man 1's feet. The bear is heard again but louder.)

Man 2: You can't I'm starving.

Man 1: Look be quiet.

Man 2 (violently): I'm starving!

Man 1 (screaming): There's a bear out there!

Man 2: Oh.

(Suddenly the bear is heard again as the tent is ripped open. The bear is revealed to be a group of teenagers who all happen to be controlled by a single unified consciousness as represented be a long colorful scarf. Everyone laughs as they show their fruit basket as Man 2 throws himself at the fruit basket and eats the fruit. Everyone looks puzzled including a real bear that has wandered in. The bear then exits the same way it came in. Everyone is puzzled but proceed to laugh anyways. End scene.)

Trip writing

Dear readers,

As you might be able to tell I am about to give up numbering my adventures. This is until I can actually define to my self what an "adventure" is as they are not always as clear cut as slaying dragons.

Now for sheer brutal honestly I *dramatic drum roll followed by long and unnecessary pause*. Go on, take your pause even though I know you won't. I absolutely loved this trip. I loved the adventure in the Whitney, I loved the sculpture center, I loved PS1 and I loved the Krane Theater. If this trip has done anything for me I know have an idea, the next time I write for any film group that I also end up directing then I shall make everyone do my directions literally and see how that turns out. All I will need is a makeshift wizard and unicorn.

Currently searching for supplies,

Mike Hand

Dear readers,

Today is simply a random update (did you really expect anything else?) Well if you did then good because that first sentence was a lie.

In all reality I am writing this for one reason and that is to ask of Midas had donkey ears before or after he got the gold touch. However making a post simply asking that is one of the most boring things ever conceived so I will attempt to think of something else.

While on this topic then why not mythology? Ok let me speak about how insane mythology becomes when one actually thinks about how insane mythology is in the first place. To begin with the origin of all things is insane as either some supreme being calls it into existence, said being is a great turtle or said being walks out of a "Watery Abyss" (see Ra's birth in Egyptian mythology. And yes, the water speaks). Then there must always be a flood myth followed by tales about why we must be good or else the gods punish us by turning us into spiders (arachne) or if you kill your child you get subject to the torment of Tantulus (but only if you lie to the gods about it). Narcissus didn't get off any easier, he died after rejecting a male suitor who he didn't see as good enough for him and the only person he ever loved (himself) caused his own death. In some sense he didn't cause any death as it was his suitor's choice to commit suicide. Let it sink in for a minute, he was killed for deaths that was caused by people over reacting that the most beautiful sixteen year old said no. Did I mention that he was sixteen?

I am now ultimately convinced that we've been reading the wrong myths and that we need to read more myths with great turtles.

Hoping this was of interest,

Mike Hand

PiG frustration

Dear readers,

It has struck me that today I have not put up my conventional post. While I can just leave my post at that, that would be the rude thing to do. So instead I will talk about the PiG paper and how it makes me think that the government is sleeping right now.

First off for any of my readers do not know PiG stands for "Participation in Government". While it would seem that there are a hundred issues to choose from there really aren't. Think how many arguments that are made that use global warming as a clutch. The use of fossil fuels, recycling and the use of alternative energies. That's probably what you think of doing when you think of how government is trying to help us and most papers will probably be about how getting rid of fossil fuels and placing solar plants everywhere will save man kind. http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2110183/jinko-apologises-solar-plant-leak This is about a leak that originated from a solar plant and contaminated ground water in China. http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/07/the_global_warming_hoax_how_soon_we_forget.html

That is an article about Global Warming and how the idea of it is used by politicians to play the general population like an instrument to forward what ever goals they may have. So now we have counters to what you will be saying for a whole ten pages however to write about those is to be looked down upon because you are handing the paper not to people of science but to historians who simply listened to Al Gore and ignore all other arguments.

However it is not like these issues were what interested me. What I was interested in was what the federal government was doing against the discrimination of people who have autism and other like diseases. What I found was that there is a movement to lower the amount of chemicals we use in items that a pregnant woman would come into contact with to lower the chances of getting autism. While I'm all for just getting rid of harmful chemicals something struck me. What struck me was that while I have seen harmful words thrown at such people I saw no solution to that problem as if it was entirely ignored. Correction: it was entirely ignored.

Everyone has made a big deal about bullying and yet there is nothing about that on the internet. So maybe the internet just grew stupid but I'm guessing its the governments fault so I will do what my instinct tells me to always do: Blame a politician and put on punk music.

Hoping something here added to a library,

Mike Hand

Clarification

Dear readers,

I understand that I have some clarification issues which I plan to resolve here. First off I did not mean project anger as in the emotion. More so I meant a face of anger which to me is a completely different thing. I apologize it was late and I was tired.

Second off I did not mean to snipe anyone in the second part of my post. The person that part is about knows who he is and for obvious reasons I will not type the name how ever I am not in class with this person at all. I would agree that I need to apologize and forgive this person and I will take the time to do so now.

Once again, I apologize for any confusion I have caused,

Mike Hand

Adventure #6 Anger projection

Dear readers,

Today we were suggested to blog about things that bring about certain emotions. Given that I have already done horses, discussed pinkle and politics I must now have a new topic of discussion. And today this topic shall be people who think they are more important then they actually are.

While to an extent this does fall under small time politicians (most people don't care that you were once on school board but were voted off by the ignorant hillbillies of Herricks for example) however it is a far wider category of people. For example I was driving my friend home when I glance the person in the car in front of us flip us off for no reasons. I broke no laws, drove at the speed everyone else drove at and he had space between the two of us in case he had to stop. In short he had no reason to flip me off except that he believes us to be enemies. Do I care? Not at all. What bothers me is that he suddenly thinks that he is important to me. He has no reason to think this although my theory is that he has to compensate for his small ego.

Now this category does not end there but continues to any one not called a director who instead of giving me critical feedback says something completely stupid like "your over acting in Urinetown" (I will note here that when the rehearsals began I asked Tommie about how crazy I should be and he told me that he would stop me if I thought I got to crazy).

So keep in mind this when I project anger on you,

Mike Hand

Horses

Dear readers,

To be honest I have no idea what this post is going to be about at all. I could make a post about nothing however there is a problem with that. The problem is that to make a post about nothing would be making a post about something. You know what, let's talk about how we change the meaning of words and one other thing that has been on my mind which is how everyone can understand horse talk.

Seriously it does not take a whisperer. For example if two horses are always together then that is their herd like structure. If a horse tries to bite you then you've either done something wrong or the horse is a big meanie. If a horse cribs (term for when horses place their mouth on wood, arcs their neck and sucks in air) then they are bored, being detrimental to their health (can cause colic which is abdominal pain which is one of the leading causes of premature death in domesticated horses when related to the gastrointestinal tract), a sign of OCD and a sign of addiction (it can get them naturally high). There is also no magic cure all for the behavior and horses quickly learn it from one another.

Now what does that have to do with a post about how we change words? Absolutely everything because when you think of a druggie most people think of a person hiding under stairs in a condemned house shooting heroin. How ever I have just connected it to horses. Think about it, there really isn't much of a difference. I have only seen one place of hundreds even tolerant of cribbing so we have their a behavior that is frowned upon. It's bad for their health like many illegal drugs are for the health of people. And there is no way to instantly cure all people of addiction.

Really that is just one example but I'm going to stop there about atrocious behaviors that occur in horses because if I went with that it would take a while to finish.

Hoping you enjoyed,

Mike Hand

The color Pinkle

Dear readers,


I am sure you have just seen that title and decided that there must be something insane going on. Seriously, the color pinkle? Is that even a color?


The story behind it was that I was painting a hall over at my church and one of the colors we painted with was completely alien. The person pouring it onto the tray made it look like some sort of ectoplasmic trail left by ghosts in horror movies. None of us could tell if it was pink or purple so rather have a debate on the issue I simply called it pinkle and it caught onto atleast one other person.


So now for our amusement I will list the purposes of the color pinkle and all of its magical properties:


1. It's Pinkle
2. Unicorns eat it to survive
3. I still can't tell if it's purple or pink.


And I really need to stop typing this because the letter "p" is screwed up on this keyboard.


Hoping you enjoyed Pinkle,


Mike Hand

Edit: Made on 7/13/13. I overlooked an omission of the letter "p" in the word "completely". It only took over a year to notice...

WW1 and Art

Dear readers,

As it appears that all of you are in STAC I now know that I alienate no one by talking, almost, exclusively about STAC. Today is the obvious thoughts of war and art so let's give war and art a try.

War is a horrifying thing but public opinion influences ones view of war. War is more horrifying when society tires of the war. In other words we only think of the horror of war when it goes on to long and we are tired of the war being on going in the first place. At the beginning of a war the chances are that we would love the war and it would be reflected in the things we make. We would make great patriotic movies about how we are right and then maybe five years later when the public re thought their opinion we make a depressing film about war that horrifies people.

Now I will look at some historical context of WW1. It happened immediately because the head of a nation was killed in an assassination attempt by foreign anarchists. All of these participants, killers and victim, were from small and other wise insignificant (to me at least) European countries. How ever because everyone wanted to try out their air planes and mustard gas as weapons and no body could have predicted how much a success they were. Deadly gases were so, well deadly, that they were banned from war fare and had the words "chemical war fare" slapped on them. Currently chemical war fare is frowned upon by most large nations which are threats to each other and many small nations. In short nobody uses them because the big boys on the black say not to. I'm digressing. Because most European wars were fought in the open techniques such as charging were common how ever due to the new deadlier weapons it also meant certain death.

This certain death is what caused art to look at war and become horrified. It went from one day glorifying war to making absolutely no sense what so ever in order to show how war no longer has sense. When once you could face the enemy with honor you were now namelessly mowed down by machine guns if you were lucky. If you were unlucky deadly gases would get you. And so DADA was created.

Ok, that was more WW1 history of weapons then its influence on art so I'll sum it up in a sentence. WW1 had new and horrifying weapons which changed the definition of war, created new fears of war and influenced artists by causing them to make DADA to show how little sense the war made.

Hoping this post made sense,

Mike Hand

Adventure #5 Hat Thieving and Walking

Dear readers,

In this fifth adventure some of you probably can tell me what has effected me more and be correct: hat thieving or walking.

Let's start with what effected me the least: the hat. It's strange the hat effected every one on a deep emotional level but to me a hat is a hat and to my family it is a hat. It easily could have gone missing and no body would have cared or given a second thought. Maybe that is why the hat stealing did not send me into some deep spiritual journey.

To be honest something I do every day sent me on that task. And it's not like it is an under appreciated task; I often walk for long periods of time reflecting. So why is it that this time everything good and bad that has happened to me in a long time flood my head? Why is it that every significant thing I've heard; every important connection I've made in high school; many faces I saw once but have long forgotten have suddenly come back as if they are visiting me as a friend?

Some of these things I look back now and laugh so why was it that instead of laughing I felt how I felt then but amplified? Maybe there is no good reason or maybe there is only a good reason but at the end of the day that isn't what mattered: What mattered is that it happened. It reminded me not who I am or was but what I was and am.

We all sit down and wonder who we are but we always miss the other questions such as what we are. In the end the experience has left me content.

Hoping it has left you content to,

Mike Hand

Adventure #4 More DADA

Dear readers,

Good evening, this evening's post centers around more DADA. As we have already established DADA unrecognized is an evil grizzly bear but recognize it is a tasty ice cream cone of goodness.

Let's try an entire post as ice creamy goodness and no smelly grizzlies.

Because all my readers are in STAC (or at least that is my belief. If you are not please comment so I know) I shouldn't have to make it clear that I was in art. How ever I just did so this post will take your entire cone. First off we wrote manifestos, which while it sounds inherently communist, is not. Rather the communists put bad jives on the word, silly communists.

Once done with my manifesto I sat down and attempted to make the "art" as strange as possible. This is done by oil pastels, 3d objects, words that are out of order and/or blurred, possibly with little reason to be there and water color.

For example, I never thought cutting a "o" in half and putting them across from each other, making them 3d and then putting them at different angles. Next week I'm thinking some weird bridge thing. Not sure yet but hopefully will be next week.

Did that take all your ice cream? Yes? Good.

Good Night,

Mike Hand

Adventure #3 Attempt at Poking DADA with a Stick

Dear Readers,

This post is going to be all about DADA. In other words I shall write about nonsense. For example, my favorite nonsense question is "Is potato sauce Irish?" because who cares if potato sauce is Irish, especially when you probably didn't even know potato sauce existed.

Now to move on and actually talk about DADA it self and not nonsense because that clearly isn't working. First off DADA does not sound like a teddy bear so while discussing it I'm poking it with a stick, in the middle of winter and DADA is a five hundred pound grizzly bear. Did I mention the part about the grizzly?

DADA is simply another way at seeing the world and everyday objects. Sure to you this potato sauce is sauce but to me it is a prison in an alternate universe that contains the worst magic villains in existence. Or to you this is a chair but to me it would go perfectly well with bananas glued around the edges and with some glitter sprayed on the legs of the chair. May as well title it "Throne of the King" or something like that.

What purposes does glue, bananas and glitter serve a chair? The same purpose putting Christmas lights on a bike and hanging it on a ceiling do. The answer being non at all. So why do it? We do it because its fun. DADA is fun. DADA no longer a grizzly bear but an ice cream cone.

Hope you all enjoy your DADA ice cream cone,

Mike Hand

Adventure interlude #2 Thoughts based from Scott

Dear readers,

Today I feel not like discussing DADA, that shall be done at a later date. Today everything is about something Scott caused me to think about. Yes it was when he was talking about my hat and he high lighted the differences between the two of us (he wears a hat to show off while I seem to wear one for a deeper reason). This got me thinking about why I'm here and there happens to be a direct correlation to my hat in this.

As you know from a previous blog post politicians are not my favorite people how ever had it not been for politics I would not be here at the moment. Guitar and acting are all a supplement partially to one thing which is my writing and if it weren't indirectly for politics I would of never written meaning, in short, I would not be with you today. I'll let you judge if this is a good or bad thing.

Before I give you this story which will immediately take away all mystery that Scott may have surrounding my hat I will point out something very simple; I did not wear a hat when the story began. I didn't wear one until mid way through sophomore year. One more thing before I enter this story: this is a story untold and I'm leaving it here in writing. This is because horseback riding has taught me how important trust is: If the horse does not trust you he will bolt when spooked and you can get hurt.

So to begin the story I joined my first club in the high school because of my brother's interest in politics and he told me to join. The nervousness effecting other noobs effected me in another way. The nervousness made me want to speak. That club was Model Congress and while I was in a Creative Writing class at the time poetry did not find me until November of that year at the first congress when I returned inspired and wrote what was on my mind. Looking back it was terrible but for some reason other people loved it and have asked me to read it to this day as there is an apparent shortage of guys not scared to read poetry.

Now for the hat, in this club there was a man I respected very much. He was one of the greatest speakers I have seen and he would easily sway the opinions of many when he stepped on that floor and opened his mouth. The original hat was a gift from him and you shall see it later in the year.

Scott, I hope this answers any deep questions you have about why I where hat.

To everyone else please be well,

Mike Hand

Quotes

"Today was an interesting day"- Scott

"Sometimes I think the emotions we feel are false" -Ellen

"I am not this lonely blog" -Grace

"This year I am vulnerable but in a confident way" -Viviana

"What the hell is this?" -Jillian

"It's an icebreaker game, and a baptism"- John

"I've wanted to write and direct a play, and this year I'm going to do it." -Ilana

"There is much failure we have to do before success" -Luke

"...what's the point in having a blog with lies?" -Caitlin

"Reality was chaos in differently sized shapes and words" -Elisa

"I was expecting something like Mike Hand" -Kaitlyn

"But everyone seems dead honest in their posts, it seems" -Jei

"I think he has a whole secret agenda 99% of the time. I digress" -Matt

Adventure Pit Stop

Dear readers,

Before I say anything in this post please have a moment of silence as ten years ago today a few thousand innocent people died and if I was to type anything with out acknowledging crimes done against them I would be committing a crime myself.

I hope you stayed with me after that moment. The reason I have put that there is simple, everything to be said on the matter has been said in full and in detail and if I was to say anything on it I would be beating a dead horse. As such this post is not on 9/11.

I will like to assure you that quotes will be up quite soon. In this post I would like to discuss something else and that is that I have finished reading Derrida. So of course I'm going to try and figure out what I got from Derrida by trying to write about it in a blog post. I expect this to be a bit of a failure but let's try it.

First off he liked to deconstruct a word by looking at its meaning and then looking at what the roots of the word mean. He would then look at the deeper meaning this has for the word such as with "hospitality" he pointed out that it had hostile in it because hospitality cannot be true hospitality because you never give up power fully and instead people can only be hospitable when they are in control. So to be truly hospitable one must allow one into their home and allow the other to be at home instead of allowing themselves to be at an almost home. Nor can it be used to show off how much cool stuff you own to another person. At the same time you can't give everything away because that would be saintly and not hospitable.

And so he decided that to find the true meaning of a word one must look at its limitations and then command the word to exceed those limitations and invent itself anew. And thinking about that isn't that what artists do? How could art ever improve if one does not set their limitations ever higher. Sure when we were younger the cave paintings of a cave man look cool and N'Sync are the bomb but when we get older we set ourselves higher than that and may prefer Picasso to a caveman and most other things to N'Sync (or at least that is the case with my self).

Well then again art and philosophy are the same. They are connected. They are simply different ways of expressing the same thing. That thing which we all love and fear. The thing which some believe defines us as humans. The human soul.

And with that I wish you good night and you will be seeing more from this blog in a few hours,

Mike Hand

PS. We're all friends here, there is no reason to call me Mike Hand. Please just call me a variation of Mike or simply "Hand".

10 follower special

Dear readers,

While at the moment of writing I may be one short of 10 I see 9 as close enough and would like to celebrate this marker. First off I'd like to thank everyone for clicking the follow button. Second off I'd like to inform you that the content of this post will discuss one of the largest evils in the known universe. This nearly unspeakable evil is politics or more specifically how ridiculously early people start running for President.

For some background it will be necessary for me to tell you how I see a fundraiser hosted by a large name politician. A fundraiser to me is a half decent party where you invite people who you then over charge for a few drinks and then tell them that they better vote for you. In short you become the worst guess in the world.

Here is a list of declared, withdrawn, suspected and denied candidates of the 2012 election: http://2012.presidential-candidates.org/. There is more then a year until the 2012 election and there are currently over 20 candidates. Sure you may ask how that can be negative. It gets negative incredibly fast: First there is the money issue because if you have declared candidacy you are most likely touring the nation to get your name out there. Second we have an issue of what happens after people get tired of hearing your name. And third off what will someone do when they've exhausted most of the money by the time primaries come around.

That third one is particularly important to everything. You can be the best candidate in the world but the best candidate doesn't always win, the most popular with the most money will be the one to win. Keep in mind I'm just talking about the primary and nothing else. There are no people from other parties voting in this just people with nearly identical viewpoints to your own who have to choose between a few candidates of the same beliefs. So when you run out of money you have to fund raise how ever if the voters think you are an old washed up politician who they are tired of hearing about they will give you no money and you can say good bye presidency.

And all because you jumped into a race to early.

Hoping you enjoyed and/or actually cared,

Mike Hand

Adventure #1 Decorating School Walls

Dear readers,

First thing's first and that thing is a simplification of the TNG post. To put it more simply no psychologist knows what causes homosexuality and it is believed that some may control it. Therefore the ending is not a cop out but a showing of a psychological theory.

Second thing is that today I was reminded by how disorderly I am. Our assignment was to help decorate the school by creating word chains which work by writing something and then why we love it and when something is in common with each other we connect the chains. While every one else had nicely organized and pretty chains my chain was a chaotic jumble of thought that was pretty much one big mess compared to everyone else's.

It's not like I had high expectations out of this, I generally don't keep high expectations for anything, but out of chaos one can find order and through this I learned more then I could of expected. I learned exactly what I need to do. I'm not sure if it'll be easy but I'm sure it is easier to conceive of then to put into effect. What the "it" I refer to is organizing my thoughts in a coherent way with out a large amount of premeditation on a topic.

I hope you've enjoyed your time reading this post,

Mike Hand

Update

Dear readers,

Do you know how to posts ago I said that I was going to give you an exciting adventure on this blog? Of course you do but I have a confession, I have chosen to move that to another blog dedicated solely to that project so I never feel like I have slammed it down your throat. Now of course this project requires some explanation into what it is. The story behind it is that the previous writer, Jared Charnov, approached me with a story he had been writing and asked me if I'd like to take the story over and because I am never one to avoid a perceived challenge have accepted the task. Today the first story has gone up at cosmicwarsaga.blogspot.com. This title is only temporary for know as the project is not fully complete how ever I know exactly where it will end. Now do not think this blog will become barren as I will continue to have semi regular updates between these two blogs with this blog focusing on thoughts and reflections while the other focuses on what I write for the story.

Sincerely,

Mike Hand

Star Trek TNG reflection

Dear Readers,

I'm going to attempt a reflection on a heavy episode of Star Trek TNG. Let's see what we have:

The episode with the aliens of no gender. At first glance it would appear to possibly be about how people would deal with other people who are different and my first thought upon the first time I ever saw this episode ever was "this has to be about illegal aliens and immigrants". But it absolutely isn't and I don't know why I ever thought that when the issue to begin with was about gender. What really has to be talked about is the ending. The question we were asked in class was whether or not it was a cop out and while my answer could take a sociological approach (The effects the people around the person have on the persons decisions) I will attempt a psychological approach (The effect of an individual's mind on their decisions). My source shall be an article written by the APA (seen here: http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/sexual-orientation.aspx). Now there are a few reasons I thought the end was not a cop out, for example "most people experience little or no sense of choice about their sexual orientation" which is all caused by nature and nurture of an individual. However the keyword there is "most" which is because people studying homosexuality have no idea what causes it which means there could be several different ways for its causation. Perhaps one of these ways is choice at least on a subconscious level and no longer is it so insane that some therapy would make Soran the same as the rest of her species (having no orientation) but created a perfect balance to the rest of the episode which showed Soran being a functioning member of her society (despite what would have been discrimination against her had she been open) and her coming out speech (which show case the thoughts of many liberals as to why homosexuals are happy as they are, require no cure and don't choose to be that way), thereby not making the end a cop out as the writers simply show cased a rebuttal which all good arguments do however instead of choosing a winner they allow the watcher to choose a winner and hand power to the viewer. I would like to state now that I am not saying that everything I just wrote is necessarily true as the jury is still out on causation but it is a theory which I believe fits the episode very well.

Thank you for reading,

Mike Hand

Welcome

Dear my valued readers,

First off this post is a welcoming post and is nothing special but please do not let that stop you from pressing the follow button. In fact I promise that by the end of the week I will have two stories up that will have people asking questions about the fictional world it is set in.

Of course to you I am probably a total stranger who is asking you to "follow" me. Now this probably seems creepy but I'd like to assure you that I am as strange to myself as I am to you.

What I promise you is excitement and adventure. Comedy and tragedy. For all of our sake I will do my best to deliver effectively on every promise I just made.

Know declaring this blog officially opened,

Michael Hand