All animals are equal

I know this blog is supposed to follow the average life of a student here (namely mine), but sometimes I just think and think and think about something until it nearly drives me mad. And so, I’ve decided to blog it. My mate Jess tells me it’s therapeutic, or something.

In class today, I and a few friends stumbled upon a very peculiar thing being discussed. Conversation is such a funny thing, evolving and fluid, changing topic and course constantly, and very soon our conversation had steered its course onto that of Homosexuals, in particular the homosexual community at Rhodes.

Now, my experience with homosexuals has been nothing but great. Hell, my gaydar (people still say that, right?) is terrible, and so usually (as was the case with two of the first gay guys I met at Rhodes University) I just think that the people in question are very friendly, effeminate guys, until my later embarrassment (because to everyone else it’s apparently SO obvious). The Rhodes Gay community, or at least the little bit that I’ve been exposed to, has been awesome. They’re a fun-loving group, with a lot of them being the Drama Department (a place I have always secretly adored since Innovations last year, where I sang that duet rendition with Spha- one of the aforementioned men whom my gaydar totally missed).

Anyway, these two friends of mine (who, for friendship’s sake, will remain nameless) were discussing quite vehemently a girl they know who gets a little over the top and in-your-face about her lesbian-ness since coming out of the closet. I’ve always thought that whom you choose to love should be like which kind of ice cream you prefer to eat: it should be a personal choice that needs no public airing or explanation. Maybe if people started acting as if gayness was normalness, we wouldn’t need to make being gay a big deal, in both a bad and good sense; hence why I’ve always thought Gay Pride events are a little self-defeating. Ah! But I digress again! So, Friend 1 mentions that there’s a thing called being “an All-Star gay” or a “Gold-Star gay” or something along those lines. Basically what this entails is that the gay in question is an “original gay” ie has never slept with someone of the opposite sex.

This shocked me. Even as a joke (under the ever-popular political justification of “context”), it’s a little stupid. Class distinctions (because that is exactly what that is) are never good. They create an “us – them” Othering mentality, which, even if we think it is harmless, is hugely problematic.

Let us consider Gay Rights. The world has things like Proposition 8 in California of 2008, a constitutional amendment that nullified the previously acceptable gay marriages (following the passing of Propostition 22 of the year 2000). Closer to home, we have massive hate crimes against gay people, especially where so-called “corrective rape” (a fucking nauseating term, if you’ll excuse my French) is concerned.

In light of this, I don’t think anyone should make subclasses or distinguish between different levels of gayness, or even, for that matter, anything-ness. What immediately comes to mind are images from George Orwell’s Animal Farm: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. Or maybe I’m just overreacting.

But then this got me thinking: about Rights, primarily. How many rights have we (I use the collective ‘we’ here, to refer to humans in general) fought tooth and nail for, and how many of these rights do we take utterly for granted? I think of all the times I could have voted but claimed to be too busy. I think of all the times I could have gone to lectures, but skipped class.

I think what I’m trying to say is that I think that we all need to be a little more appreciative of the things we can do without being imprisoned, and of the people around us. We should measure the quality of a person by the size of his or her heart, and their his or her overall humanity, and not by some social hierarchy.

One hell of a weekend

Following Friday night, my body and I aren't exactly friends. I think I might have bronchitis.
That, however, doesn't stop me doing the things that I love to do: I played at Champs Action Bar on Saturday night. It's an okay venue; it honestly seems like the new SlipStream Sports bar. The layout isn't exactly conducive to live performances. The acoustics aren't the best, and the guys on the soundboard, well, they could have been a little more reactive. By my last song (and what a short set!) I could barely hear my own guitar. I tried to compensate by turning up the volume on my guitar, but then they turned the master down.
Yeah, I know, right?
Oh well, at least it was a great opportunity to show my new Spanish and flamenco influences. I sang a couple of covers, which I thought went really well, but it was the lightning-fast, blitzing hand action of Spanish triplets that was the real icing on the cake. Eyes were opened, and jaws dropped.
I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I can't wait for next Wednesday. I just hope that this time I play AFTER 9pm (before that, and you're playing to an empty bar; not fun).

Other than that, I spent three hours in the Drama Department playing and rehearsing our performance in late March. It's gonna be a lot of fun. Robynne's voice wasn't on form today, but I think if we get some more practice in she will really shine. The dancing is pretty great as well. I'm looking forward to it.

Until Wednesday, Dear Reader.

... and steps.

6.30am run planned for tomorrow, then it's off to practise guitar for the Innovations performance with my friend Robz Peatfield. I also have assignments due, but hey: this is 3rd year. What did I expect?

In other guitar news, our GuitarSociety sign-up went just fine, thank you very much. We signed about 50 or more people, and there are still a lot more who are expressing interest in joining our fledgling society and taking their first steps towards great guitardom. Now we just need venues, practice slots, and equipment... Sheesh...
Also: Cait is strange. Left hand guitar, what?! Who does that?! (Yes, Hendrix, I know).
In further developments, still nothing going with this Rodrigo y Gabriella duo idea that I had with George (of GuitarSoc, the founding father, so to speak), which is slightly disappointing. We could make some people's jaws drop, I tell you.

And on the subject of jaw-dropping, I hope to see yours doing similar actions at Champs Action Bar (where Scott's Spot - a place visited only once - used to be). Doors open at 7pm, the Acoustic Fireside Jam starts at 9pm, and goes on until 12. Not sure when I'm on yet, but I will let you know.

Peace

The first of many

Played a set at Pirates bar last night, which was exciting. It's the first gig of the year in Grahamstown, and there are set to be many, many more. I'll probably be playing again on Saturday at Champs Action Bar for the Acoustic Fireside Jam. These performances will mark a definite shift away from covers. I mean, we all love covers (especially drunk people who believe with all their heart that they can sing), but I feel that I have to take Phil Moffet's advice (he's a great guitarist who used to play/study/work/live in Grahamstown) and get into my own style and songs. It was also the first time I've unveiled my spanish and flamenco influences. I am very excited about where this is all going (although it would have been nice to have had a bigger crowd - i guess that's what you get for taking the too-early 8pm slot).

Nothing much has happened on the rowing front. I have what appears to be the preliminary stages of bronchitis, and so i'm trying to nuke that while it's still in the bud (thank God for Louis Pasteur). I tried going for a run yesterday, but after 7km my lungs almost seized up; it felt like I was trying to breathe through sand.
I'll just have to postpone serious training until my body is ready for it. I know it is possible to train when sick, but I'd rather not chance it.

And for all those University party lovers, it's our rowing party on Friday, coupled with my and a friend's 21st celebrations!

Until next time, Dear Reader.

Baby steps

And so the journey has begun.

On the Rowing/sporting front, I've finally signed up for the gym (a New Year's resolution most don't succeed in) and woke up at 6am for a 7km run. Ended up only running at 6.30am, though: had one of those dreams - you know, the ones where you dream you have gotten out of bed and are pulling on your clothes? Yeah. Sneaky, my brain. Sneaky.

Guitar is also looking good! If you haven't caught up with my Youtube guitar channel, Dear Reader, you can do so now. Playing my first Grahamstown gig of the year tonight at Pirates pizza bar (I forget its formal business name, but down here we Rhodents just call it Pirates), and have gotten an email to play on Saturday at another bar called Champs. Baby steps, so to speak.

And, just to round this post up (can't talk only about work and, well, passion under the guise of work) it's my 21st party on Friday, which might get just a little bit out of hand. But hey, that's a few days away, so let's take this week as it comes.

Baby steps.

2012 and new directions

With us only just into the what will turn out to be NOT the last year of the world, I've decided to revamp this whole blog. Sure, ranting and raving about the things that make you seethe might be entertaining once in a while (Facebook is just one such thing), but at the end of the day it's just a bunch of hot air.

So, in which new direction shall this old blog be travelling? Well, I figured that I should just make it about the quotidian life of a university student living, partying and (contrary to popular belief) working damn hard at Rhodes University. Since that last blog post (geez, 2010 was SO long ago; it only hit me now how much time has passed since I walked through those hypothetical University gates) I've become a lot more... well, at home.
My Rowing has taken off since April last year (won Boatrace two years running against UJ), as has guitar, partying and just about everything else you could imagine. Let's be honest here: Third year is the bomb.


And so, this blog shall cover a bit of everything: music that inspires me, guitar clips of my own, things that frustrate or excite me, and the latest developments in my social, academic and sporting lives.


Let's make this year a good one.

Peace

Facebook's greatest fallacies

I love facebook. And yet, I hate it.

There is much about facebook that is useful and good and just plain awesome. We can socialise across the world, stay in contact with friends, and even talk to people that we went to junior school with- people whom we would normally never hear from again until a reunion fifty years later where we discover that they in fact died eight years previously. Facebook also opens up your world to an endless world of possibilities and ideas that we never would have come across. I must admit that it was through facebook that I discovered my love for experimental hiphop and dubstep, and was able to find new artists to listen to. In a nutshell, facebook is what we would refer to in internet culture as win.

However, there is so much about facebook that makes me rage with pure, unadulterated and unfiltered frustration. I will break these down into their simplest, rage-inducing points. They range from giving me a slight niggling feeling of annoyance followed by a facepalm, to full on rage, with a long “FFFFFUUUUUUU” and wild gestures aimed at the world of today in general (some so bad I feel like becoming an hero).

First of all, Friend adds. Yes, everyone has friends. However, let us just be honest with ourselves. Who, in all seriousness, has 883 friends? It seems that the world is trying desperately to force the Oxford English dictionary to change the definition of “friend” from “a person you know well and regard with affection and trust” to “someone I met randomly, I think we said hi to one another in that club a couple of weeks ago.” Oh, and adding friends as siblings: not cool.

Next: Personal Information. This is such a useful tool: it tells us basically who you are, where you are from, and generally what you are interested in. However, many see this as an opportunity to be quirky and random, and do things that transcend the boundaries or idiocy. Instead of posting something true or meaningful, people take the opportunity to write something false and usually arrogant. Some even go so far as to put a lame inside joke as their middle name or nickname. My sister put hers as “Wingnut” for reasons still unknown to me; another friend lists his middle name as “Still Procrastinating” and I almost clicked ‘unfriend’.

Stupid info I have come across:

• Religious views: Basketball is my religion and Steve Nash is my God!!!
• Religious views: Dassiesm- power of the dassie!!!
• Political views: Screw Authority!!!

Which brings us onto the point of Privacy. I cannot tell you how many times the abovementioned individuals with said plethora of friends have complained that they have friends they don’t even know, or that random individuals comment on their activity. Firstly, if there isn’t someone you want reading or commenting, you shouldn’t have accepted their friend request in the first place, or better yet just REMOVE THEM. At the very least, change your privacy settings to “Friends only”, so that only people you know can view or comment on your activity.

Extending on this last point, is the sometimes idiocy of having family members on facebook. Sure, it is nice (at maybe one time in your life) to have your parents on facebook, but let us be honest with ourselves: having them acting as a watchdog over our profiles just restricts the freedom that the internet is supposed to give you. Put in simple terms: you don’t have your parents reading your SMS, instant message and real life conversations with your friends because that is just plain stupid. Many a time I have had a comment or post of mine deleted followed by a message to the effect of “my mom will see this”. I usually reply “tell your mom 'tits or GTFO'”. In rare cases it might be in the best interest of parents so see what their children are up to online (maybe if their children are 4 years old and therefore should not even be anywhere near the internet), but in this particular example it is just silly and unnecessary.

Next on the rack: Statuses. These are usually inane, random and meaningless, and, for the vast majority, in English so bad it looks like the person had an epileptic fit on his keyboard.

Top Dumb status genres

• Song Lyrics.
• Vague statuses posted with the intent of talking about someone or stressing (in a passive way) one’s frustration/unhappiness/disappointment at someone
• Statuses directed at significant others without the use of the addressing @sign
• “Memorable” and “inspiring” quotes from generic sports or feel-good movies
•  Anything with “omg” or “lol”, no matter how much of a Valley Girl you are.
• Anything with a “quirky” sign like <3, or any form of Textese.
• Any status containing more than one smiley, or more than one exclamation mark in a row.
• Any status that is ‘Liked’ by the person who posted it. That is kinda like masturbating to your reflection in the mirror.
• Any status is ALL CAPS. It is not, contrary to popular belief, cruise control for cool.
• Any status with a mixture of uppercase and lowercase characters.
• Anything related to how awesome the upcoming weekend will be. These statuses come EVERY seven day cycle, and are therefore redundant
• Anything related to how much you hate your boss/a subject at school/exams/life in general
• Statuses pretending to hold great depth, insight and profundity: this is facebook, people, not a self-help forum.
• Anything pertaining to Twilight.
• Statuses written in a language you don’t speak. Any tool can use Google translate.
• Etcetera, etcetera, ad infinitum, ad nauseam. Bad status genres are too numerous to mention.

It is actually rather amusing that the abovementioned statuses are usually posted by the same individuals over and over again.

The most awesome brainless examples I can think of:

• Girl wat u don understand Is i'd catch a GRENADE 4 u..Throw ma hand on a BLADE 4 u..I'd jump infront of a TRAIN 4 u..Yeah i'd do ANYTHIN 4 ya..C i wud go thru all this PAIN..Take a bullet straight through ma BRAIN.. Yes i wud DIE 4 u baby..BUT YOU WON'T DO THE SAME...!!!
• I'm that STAR up in e sky.. I'm that mountain PEAK up high.. Hey i made It.. I'm e WORLDS GREATEST..!! I'm that lil bit of HOPE.. When ma backs up against e ropes, hey i made It.. Yeah i'm e WORLDS GREATEST...!!! :-)

Note the use of the lowercase ‘i’? *Author facepalms so hard that the back of his head aches*.

This brings us to the next frustrating point: Comments. Secretly, we all want everyone of our friends to like and comment on our statuses. To feel loved, accepted. To be cool. But after reading some comments on facebook I want to cut out my own eyes with a fork and die in a pool of my own blood. The worst are comments that have a serious message or meaning, which are then suddenly covered up or made meaningless by the inclusion of a smiley or false  “ahahahahaha!” or even , God forbid, a ‘lol’. For example: “OMG gurl you are such a hoe slut you got no idea lol hahahahahha luvz ya J”. Best example (again, by the same individuals over and over again):

• NO RAUF I WANT 2 MARRY AMY DHA hahahahahahaha and Only mad bcoz u dnt understand dat AMY is WAY out of ur league and will neva say yes to goin out wit u bcoz of who u R DDDDHHHAAAAA when will u get that and u just make urself luk stupid by replyin my comment SO take my advice and shut the hell up hahahahahahahahahahaha and yes take dat from a form 1 cos u r so smart ...isnt dat rite

Now Grammar. Now, let us be clear: I love English. Being editor of the Opinion section of the campus newpaper (the better one), and a bit of an obsessive compulsive when it comes to grammar and simple spelling that a four year (the one that isn’t on facebook because he/she is not old enough), merely being on facebook is enough to make me depressed. 4chan might be where the internet goes to die (or the intRwebz, as I like to call them), but facebook is where English finds its final resting place. Facebook was invented as a convenience and time-saver for you. It isn’t like an SMS or Tweet on Twitter (God, THAT is subject for another day) that is limited to a certain number of characters and therefore necessitates the use of text slang, cutting out all vowels, and other such methods that shorten what one is trying to say. But the whole point of facebook is that it has already saved you all the time and money that you need to communicate accurately and comprehensively. Also, you are online for FFFFFUUUUUU!-sakes: if you don’t know the meaning or spelling of a word (and even I sometimes don’t) just open a new tab and look it up! At the very least you will learn something or avoid looking like a total retard with your post being on Failbook or Lamebook.

Next up on the chopping block: Advocacy. No don’t get me wrong: I think huge social issues and drives should be supported, and many merit the use of as many communication portals as possible to gain support and attention. However, the use of silly memes (“I like it on the...”, anyone?) and posts put up with the sole intention of guilting you into following their cause have no place on me wall (hence why I click the little blue ‘X’ and say ‘Hide’; possible Rage averted). I think the worst are the kind that say something along the lines of “everyone has 10 000 wishes; Cancer victims have only one: to get better. 93% won’t post this as their status”. First of all, I personally am not that greedy when it comes to wishes. Secondly: 93%? Exactly? Because that doesn’t sound at all like a bullshit, made-up statistic aimed at evoking feelings of guilt. And woe betide anyone who comments and tries to show the silliness of such posts: I did so, at my own peril, and ended up having a huge blowout with one of my closest friends. One would think that close friends wouldn’t see facebook activity as an indication of real personality. Oh, and having a huge online reaction and ‘holier that thou’ attitude is stupid. You are just feeding the troll. Never feed the troll.

Another annoying aspect: applications. These are vastly useless and pointless, and, though they used to be easy enough to access, now require you jump through more hoops and tests than forty trained circus animals to “prove that you are human”. I mean, what is wrong with the Captcha system that the rest of the bloody internet uses to foil bots and programs from creating false accounts? And please, please, never even mention the word Farmville. Another wonderful application: Photos. This usually consists of photographs (obviously) of the two times that human beings take photos: users posting self-portraits in strange quirky poses; or, alternatively, drunken nights out.

Photos and albums that make me want to wash my face with battery acid:

• Any album with the word “random” used anywhere.
• Self portraits, especially those taken whilst driving.
• Any photo that someone posts and then comments on saying how fat/ugly they are. These are always invariably followed by one of their 883 friends saying, “oh no hunz lol ur so beautifl u alwys r k luv u hunz 4eva BFF mwa” or something to that effect.

Now it’s time for the ‘Like’ (by far the worse and most cringe-worthy) function of facebook to step up to the guillotine. Two friends of mine once came up on my news feed with the report “X likes ‘[generic subject]’ and 435 other pages.” All that went through my mind was “obviously none of them are ‘real life’”. Whoever came up with this needs to be castrated lest his offspring inherit some of his genius. Or better yet, shoot the bastard before he has kids.

In all of  these aspects facebook takes a graceful swan dive off the highest pedestal of my respect and lands face first on a rock covered in a layer of pig shit made purposefully thin so that the diver dies a horrific, painful death accompanied by a wonderful new sound consisting of a satisfying crunch and a sickening splat. Of course, at the end of it all I have to stick my hand up and join the countless guilty faces in admitting that even I sometimes infringe these simple No-Nos. Lyrics in my status? Check. “What happened last night? Got so wasted!”? Double check. So in hindsight, I am sorry if I made you scream out in frustration. I am trying to mend my ways. I think that after all is said and done, you can’t take facebook too srsly (zOMG, did I just make this whole article redundant?!). It has its fallacies and its uses, but at the end of the day, it is merely a fun bit of silliness that you log on repeatedly to pretend that you have real frie... I mean, to socialise with people no matter where you are on the globe.

Oh, and if you read this and recognise yourself/your post, don't rage.

Change it.