Song Review: P.O.S feat. Justin Vernon -- Where We Land

I am once again trying something new with something that blends two of my passions: music and politics.

Today I'm going to look at a song and do my best to way over-analyze it. Shouldn't be too hard.

First off, here's the song:

Review of the Second Presidential Debate Q2, CROSSTALK 2012

And we're back. When we left before, Obama was talking shit about Romney, and Romney was spewing lies. Nothing new. Once again, I'm using the Washington Post transcript of the debate.

CROWLEY: Mr. President, the next question is going to be for you here.

And, Mr. Romney — Governor Romney — there’ll be plenty of chances here to go on, but I want to…

ROMNEY: That — that Detroit — that Detroit answer…

CROWLEY: We have all these folks.

ROMNEY: … that Detroit answer…

CROWLEY: I will let you absolutely…

ROMNEY: … and the rest of the answer, way off the mark.

CROWLEY: OK. Will — will — you certainly will have lots of time here coming up.

Review of the Second Presidential Debate, Question 1 with rebuttals

So, trying something new here. I'm going to go through a transcript of the Presidential debate, and just give a sort of commentary on it. Not quite sure how it'll work, but hopefully something interesting will come of it. Let me know what you guys think.

Why I'm not voting for Obama

I'm not going to vote for Barack Obama on November 6, 2012. As of today, October 16, Obama has a 52.5% chance of winning Colorado. As of yesterday, it was a 50.3%  chance of a Romney win in Colorado. So, it's entirely a toss-up in Colorado. But, regardless of whether Obama or Romney win, Colorado only has a 7% chance of being the state that pushes the election over the top.

And regardless, Obama has a 66 percent chance of winning the election, even after his shitty Presidential debate and the toss-up VP debate. This is all from the Five Thirty Eight Blog over on NYTimes. Really love what he's doing, and would love to do something like that some day.

There is my case as to why it is okay for me to not vote for Obama, even though I'm in a swing state, and even though it's such a tight election. If I lived in Ohio, you bet I'd be voting for Obama.

Given the case, I feel comfortable voting for my values, instead of trying to pick the least bad evil guy to put in office.

Your Brain On Drugs

I found Nemo!

So, September happened. I had a bunch of fun, went up to Cairns, and had class and stuff. Writing about my life got kind of boring, so yeah. If there are any interesting stories, I'll start writing them here. Most all of you have heard my wonderful skateboard story, so there's no need to post it here. It's a classic though.

In other news, it's already October. Or, should I say, Ocsober. I'm staying entirely sober this month (wow, what a challenge...). But, it's for a good reason. I'm attempting to raise money, quite unsuccessfully, but you know. It goes to help educate Aussie youth about drug and alcohol awareness/proper use. So that's cool. Here's a link to my page that has another blog on it. Yeah, metablogging. http://fundraise.ocsober.com.au/jay_nogami

Books, and thoughts

Oxford comma. I've started reading again. And I'm glad. I still love Vonnegut. The Breakfast of Champions was sort of funny, but mostly it was enthralling. There was like after line of things I appreciated. On my Kindle I can highlight things, and that's all I do when reading his books. I have to make sure I don't just underline everything because it would ruin the point.

"I had come suddenly to pity them, for I understood how innocent and natural it was for them to behave so abominably, and with such abominable results: They were doing there best to live like people invented in story books."

Why don't people write about life? Vonnegut answered it in his book, but his answer was bullshit and he knows it because he writes about ordinary people.

I've also read Murakami, multiple Bukowski, multiple Wodehouse, and another Bukowski right now. They write about life, if somewhat fancifully on Murakami's part. Why do other people write about shit? Is it really an escape?

Oh well. People are people and are allowed to read what they want. That seems like a cop out too but I don't have an answer.

Reading through my trusty notebook. There's lots of shit in there. Oh well.

I wrote a short story based on my economics lecture. It was fun, but sputtered out pretty quickly. Trade off between food and books!

I like this bit, but it's because I just wrote it two minutes or so ago. "I don't give a shit. But I do. It's an awful feeling. But I don't have to dwell on it any longer. It's just a part of life. Is that normal? Why am I so worried about being normal?"

Does normal exist? Dunno. Thanks y'all. Not advertising this one on the Face, because it's very irrelevant. If anyone wants to find it, they will. I'm the real audience so that's what matters.

On Wallabies, and Youtube

There honestly isn't a whole lot going on right now. I am going to start going to what appear to be bi-weekly meetings of the "Socialist Alternative." They have had meetings about Marxism and on Tuesday they had a meeting about Occupy I do believe. I haven't had a change to go yet, but I am pretty sure it will be worthwhile, and give me some blog fodder. School is pretty much exactly the same as back home, except that I have "tutorials" in all of my classes in addition to the lectures.

You still don't actually have to go to lectures, but in the tutorials you work problems or discuss or whatever depending on the class. It is much easier to just go to the tutes and learn everything there than go to lectures, but don't tell anyone that. I still go to the lectures that I like, but I can watch the other ones online after the fact. Pretty relaxed.

Short Story 1

It doesn't have a title yet, but maybe I'll think of one eventually. I can't remember the last time I wrote something that wasn't obligatory or non-fiction.


Onwards. Upwards.

"This could be the end...."

I glared at my iPod and ripped the aux cable out. Figures. The shuffle loves insulting me. Isn't it ironic? Don't you think? It's not like I'm driving off into the sunset, never to be heard from again.

Am I?

Three days ago everything was fine. It had all changed so suddenly, but please, don't try to empathize. Now is the time to be looking forwards. Onwards and upwards, they always say. Who are they? The rich, mostly. They are the ones who have hardships when they can only afford to go to Mexico this year instead of Italy. We all go through tough times, but together we move on and the rich keep moving up.

Through the present

I'm really tired of talking about things that happened way in the past, so I'm just going to summarise up to there, then I'll actually be in the present and be able to write about things as they happen. Seems pretty exciting. After Christchurch, I took a bus up to Methven, and skiied and did other things. The skiing was pretty great on the first day, and I got to hit up some really cool shit. They're called the towers, and they were rather terrifying. The second day of skiing was cut a bit short, because I kind of sort of ate shit really hard. I fell probably halfway down the mountain after losing both of my skis. Was kind of terrifying, but I'm still in one piece so no worries.

The only other thing of note from Methven was Saturday night. Apparently once a year the Brown Pub (the other is the Blue Pub, great names) has a very kiwi party.

Wandering Through Christchurch

I didn't get to my hostel in Christchurch until around six on the night of the fifth because of the huge delay at the airport. I had dragged my shit probably 1.5 km from the bus stop to the Jailhouse Accomodation. And I'll tell you what, it was so worth it. The location was perfect. It was close to the city centre and the museum and the botanical gardens, and was located in what is now the center of what is left of nightlife in Christchurch, Addington. The hostel itself was really cool. It's a historic jail that has been converted into a hostel. The rooms are all old jail cells and stuff life that, and they had a huge TV and tons of DVDs to watch. They even had two cells on display so you could look and see what they used to be like. It was a really cozy and clean hostel.

I had some more of my Mi Gorang noodles, which I can't stress enough, are fucking delicious, and just sort of hung out. I met a guy from Britain, John Chinaski, and we talked a good bit about random shit. We watched Borat the first night. Still an awesome movie, except for the random Aussie chick who asked her American friend about ten dozen times if that actually happens in America. You don't need to interrupt a movie to ask the same question over and over and over. Shit.

Aside from that, it was a pretty boring night. I slept pretty early again, as became pretty common in New Zealand. Woke up super early again, but John had alreadly left. So I decided I'd go wander around Christchurch. Unfortunately, it was really foggy. I went to a coffee shop, the Addington Co-op, which supposedly has delicious coffee. I tried to order a house coffee, and they looked at me weirdly and asked what kind I wanted. I quickly looked up, and saw staring at me "Long Black, Short Black, Flat White, Mochaccino, Cappuccino, Macchiato." So it was all espresso. Easy enough, I'll just get an Americano, I thought. But shit, which one is an Americano?

"A, uh, long black please?"

I paid and they gave me a flag so they knew who was who. The oh so kind people at this coffee shop gave me an American flag, I'm sure by coincidence. So, I got to sit there and wave my American flag back and forth while I waited for my coffee. And then they brought me decaf coffee. But, coffee is coffee, and it still woke me up. And made me less cold. So I started my journey across Christchurch.

I wanted to go into the city centre because I knew that's where most of the earthquake damage was. I had been told that there  wasn't much left to do in Christchurch, but that was one of the things. But, almost all of the city centre is still cordoned off from the public. And with the fog, it made it really hard to see anything at all.

Instead I went to the museum, which had apparently just reopened a week or so before I showed up. About half of the exhibits were still closed because they were still doing repairs on the building, but they had fun stuff about Maori history and early Europeans, and a weird little street that showed what historic Christchurch was probably like. The highlight of the museum was their temporary exhibit space. It was all about the earthquakes in Christchurch. They had footage of all of the different earthquakes, and responses, and even a piece of the cathedral that has been at the center of attention. They had a room with interviews of people's experiences during the earthquakes looping. It was all so sad. I can't imagine what it must have been like living through all of it, and having the city you called home being completely changed forever.

John and I and a Swiss named something went back later in the day when the sun came up to look at all of the wreckage. I knew that they've had several earthquakes in Christchurch over the past year and a half or so, and I knew that there was a lot of broken shit there, but I had no idea it would be as overwhelming as it was. I had no idea so much would still be so fucked up. It was crazy. There really isn't a good way to describe it other than devastating. And seeing the cathedral, which they are now set to demolish, partially crumbled was depressing. We talked to some locals, and they were happy to see that people are still coming to Christchurch, but talking about the earthquake you could see how big of an effect it had on the city. Even though they aren't very religious, the catherdral has a huge part of the city centre, and losing it means losing a big part of their history and what makes Christchurch unique.

I didn't take any pictures in Christchurch because it was much too depressing. I did wander around the botanic gardens for a few hours in the fog. Everything was pretty, and it is such a big park for being in the middle of the city. It was definitely bigger than City Park, and entry into the gardens was free, which is nice. Christchurch really is an amazing city, even if it is in bad shape right now. I'm sure it was something else before all of the shit happened.

That night was the semifinal of Wimbeldon, and seeing as our Swiss friend was Swiss, he was very excited to watch Roger Federer. It was essentially for the championship, because Andy Murray was going to win the other semi, and we all know that he was never going to actually win at Wimbeldon. We got some cheapish beer, and at midnight started watching ourselves some tennis. There was a group of kids who were at a science fair in Christchurch who had to leave at like three in the morning, so there were a bunch of people up watching with us as well. It's fun that I get to call them kids because some of them were like 17, but you know, I'm an adult or something. Who knows? It was a fun night, and Roger Federer won so Swiss man was happy. The next day I was off to Methven.

On an unrelated note, they had the cheapest and most delicious fish and chips ever. Huge thing of fish and a ton of chips for NZ$4.00. It was perfect.

And Methven and Mt Hutt to come.

Auckland: The rest of it

By my best estimate, I had slept for fourteen hours. I did however have to compensate for going a very long time without sleeping, and having a long, walking filled day. So, it adds up about right in my book. The next day was the 4th(!) of July, and it looked like it would be another rainy one.

Yet, after I had my delicious breakfast of gold kiwi and gold kiwi and gold kiwi, the sun came out. Julie woke up, and we decided to wander off into Auckland to see what there was to do. As it turns out, there isn't all that much to do in the city. We wandered around some of the areas I was at the day before, but in the pleasant weather it was much nicer. We also took a stroll down Queen Street, which is where all of the shopping and eating things are in Auckland. There were approximately two karaoke bars for every three blocks in Auckland, and well over 75 percent of them were "Japanese karaoke bars" specifically. Evidently all of the Asians in Auckland -- of which there are many --  love them some karaoke.

There was an awesome and cheap sushi place somewhere right along Queen Street. I got sushi lunch for under five dollars. They do some different sushi here that I had never seen in the US. The best was teriyaki chicken sushi. It was makizushi but instead of normal things in the middle it was teriyaki chicken. They also had a roll that they slice and then fry the pieces in tempura batter. It was also delicious, if not a bit heavy. Well worth it though.

We wound up at the ferry terminal eventually and had a quick decision to make. We could buy a ticket on a ferry leaving in three minutes to some island where we would have no idea what to do, or we could take our time and take a bus to the zoo. The pamphlet for the island made it seem promising, but lack of decision making skills on my part meant that the decision was made for us. Easy. With the sun still barely poking its head through the clouds, we got on a bus that would take us near the zoo.

To Auckland Pt. 2

I have pretty much no notes for the rest of day, but I'll manage.

I left the hostel with every intention of going to Auckland Domain, as there was a museum there. I enjoy museums, and they are even dry! Since it was not even noon yet, I figured I had to go do something to pass the time. I imagined that the Museum wasn't too far away, having looked it up on a map.

Boy was I wrong. Well, it wasn't that far away, but I managed to get terribly lost on my way there. Several times I had to stop and look at my trusty map from the tourist guide, which was actually pretty useful once I figured out which direction was which. I walked probably five times further than I actually needed to walk, so it took me over an hour to actually get to the museum. The rain had let up a bit, but there was still a constant drizzle. I was soaking wet still. I made it to the museum though! And I wandered in, and couldn't figure out where I was supposed to pay. They had free internet, so that was cool. I went to their website and saw that admission was free, but that they asked for a ten dollar donation. Seeing as there was nowhere at all to make a donation, I wandered into the exhibits.

To Auckland and Beyond

The guy sitting next to me was named Wooster. He was a strapping young chap from Alaska. Pretty chill guy, and he had been all over everywhere apparently. A big traveler, it would seem. He was on his way to Sydney to go travel with a friend, which seems pretty awesome to me. Sadly, I had more important things to do, like go to New Zealand and travel with myself. We talked some, but the flight was rather uneventful.

Air New Zealand was super cushy though, and I am going to do my best to find cheaper flights on it every single time. Not only were there lots of entertainment options, we had two meals that were actually pretty decent. Some pasta thing with some other stuff for dinner, then an omelette* with sausage and a side of fruit for brekkie. And, free drinks the entire time. And, apparently I'm of legal age in midair. Who would have thought.

*Omelette looks like the most awkward word ever. Apparently it's also proper to spell it omelet? They both look terrible. I am sitting here debating whether to cull it entirely and just call it "eggs with cheese." But then readers will think, does he mean an omelet? What kind of asshole doesn't even know the word for omelet. So, it appears to be a losing wager for me.

After what didn't seem like thirteen hours at all, I was in Auckland. I was waiting in the customs line, and learned many useful facts about New Zealand that all of the other foreigners from the hostels started to repeat over the next few days. New Zealand is slightly larger than Great Britain. Over 75 percent of the local flora is unique to New Zealand. Child pornography/child molestation earns you a minimum 25 year sentence in a federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison.

Airport problems

My brother dropped me off at DIA, and everything was okay. I was through check-in in no time, and on my way to the concourse to wait for my flight to LA. I got there, and sat down next to the moving walkway. It was nearing its end, please watch your step.

I was however, just beginning my journey. It was the first of July. And I thought I was going to cry. I was terrified. I was leaving for a year. I haven't actually been away from home for more than like three months before, even though I go to school in Mississippi. The prospect of being gone for a year was, to say the least, scary. I felt like I was going to fall off the face of the planet, and I kind of was. I was on my way to New Zealand for nine days and then on to Sydney for 365.