One Minute in My Brain
Ten ten two one zen eleven Ben
Where are all my riders then?
Grieve the poem and knock the rain
Don't go down the drain again
Buzz the ear and roll the street
Let's walk down and market meat.
Eat some food and drink some wine
Get it down the íntestine.
Break for me and die for me
And let's get making symphony
La, la, siss boom bah
Be a man and dance all night
And tender man
man man man man man man man
Look him in his tender booms
And sweep away his misty rains
And let's be funny, let's be men
Let's pull up our skirts again.
Sing a song for loving prove
And all the world is fun and love
I love it, and I feel it now. Just
Through my senses is all I feel
Like I must know you but it's gust
A récognition down the mind
Yet still I see your face it sets
It off.
the neurons shoot
Let's get down. Let's get down
Jump around.
And touch the ground.
Feel the love and reach your arms
Around the world
Poems have a logic too.
What am I doing?
Who are you?
Josh Treleaven, July 2009. Edited February 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
To a Spojwoggner
Oh mamsantical spojwoggner
in the whilent glade:
Thy spamtiggles glisten breeble
under the cooling shade.
Behold now thy honk doffnet
with a gaffinour bleeze,
And sheggle forth the nonpellure
to gazble among the trees.
in the whilent glade:
Thy spamtiggles glisten breeble
under the cooling shade.
Behold now thy honk doffnet
with a gaffinour bleeze,
And sheggle forth the nonpellure
to gazble among the trees.
Friday, February 5, 2010
I Just Realized I'm a Nerd
I never thought I was qualified to be a nerd. I've always known that I'm socially awkward, but that's only ever part of the equation. To truly qualify as a nerd or a geek, I've never believed that it's enough to know how to play, and enjoy, eg.: chess, video games, pen-and-paper role playing games, literature, etc.
Two things put me over the edge though. One was listening to Wil Wheaton's podcast. One of the things Wil pointed out was how he ranted at his friend Brent Spiner who had made absolutely zero effort at consistency in his portrayal of the android character in Star Trek. Brent's response to Wil's criticism was "You're the nerd, Wil. I just did what was fun." That was when I realized that I was treating Star Trek exactly the same way as Wil and countless nerd Trekkies, who treated it as if it was meant to be "real", as if you were really supposed to lose yourself in the narrative, rather than just kind of laugh at the idea of weird people in space.
Okay, evidence that I'm a nerd: I know who Wil Wheaton is. I know he was Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: the Next Generation. I know that he plays role-playing games, which I also happen to play. I know what a podcast is.
But, I'm still hesitant to call myself a true nerd, because I don't own any copies of Wil Wheaton's books, neither in DTF (dead tree format, ie. paper) nor even in electronic format. I can't list the names of every Star Trek episode, and I don't remember what stardate it was that Wesley Crusher ascended to a higher plane of existence and left the Enterprise. I've forgotten most of what I know about role-playing games, and my extent of role-playing knowledge only ever really covered about one and a half Editions of the game of Dungeons & Dragons. I was never nerdy enough to go all the way back to Second Edition D&D, even though I did manage to acquire the books, I could never get through them. And when Fourth Edition Dungeons & Dragons came out, I was too lazy to learn a whole new ruleset. I tried, but I just couldn't get into it.
I know what a podcast is, and how to download them, but I don't have my own podcast. I don't know how to use XML, let alone other complicated programming languages like HTML, Java, C++, or even the names of other languages. Perl? I think.
I know how to edit Wikipedia, but I don't know how to create a template. See? I really don't deserve to be called nerdy.
The second thing that put me over the nerd edge though, was when I watched a video game review appear on The Young Turks radio show, for a video game called "Dragon Age." I don't know about the average guy on the street, but if you mention "dragons" to me, I think it's pretty awesome. But the host of the Young Turks, Cenk Uygur, immediately went to "Dragons? Aren't dragons kind of gay?"
Gay? I was not expecting that at all. I was expecting "Dragons? Isn't that kind of nerdy?" or "Dragons? That's a Chinese thing, right?" or "Dragons? Like as in King Arthur, right?" I do get it though, the psychological implications of being obsessed with dragons. If I was a true nerd, I could tell you if it was a Jungian or Freudian idea that dragons represent unbridled sexuality in the subconscious. Maybe it's a mix of both. But yes, I do get that dragons represent male sexuality, and a man obsessed with dragons might be expressing some unfulfilled desires in other areas of his life. But that doesn't change the fact, to me, that dragons are cool! Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, as Freud said. And sometimes an awesome literary trope is just an awesome literary trope. And an author or a reader armed with this information can actually get a whole new level of understanding out of literature and video games, but it doesn't erase the other meanings that dragons carry to those of us who think about them and use them in our imaginative dealings.
Anyways, I'm just saying I think I might be a nerd if my first reaction to the idea of a dragon is "Cool!" rather than "Ew, gay!"
Two things put me over the edge though. One was listening to Wil Wheaton's podcast. One of the things Wil pointed out was how he ranted at his friend Brent Spiner who had made absolutely zero effort at consistency in his portrayal of the android character in Star Trek. Brent's response to Wil's criticism was "You're the nerd, Wil. I just did what was fun." That was when I realized that I was treating Star Trek exactly the same way as Wil and countless nerd Trekkies, who treated it as if it was meant to be "real", as if you were really supposed to lose yourself in the narrative, rather than just kind of laugh at the idea of weird people in space.
Okay, evidence that I'm a nerd: I know who Wil Wheaton is. I know he was Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: the Next Generation. I know that he plays role-playing games, which I also happen to play. I know what a podcast is.
But, I'm still hesitant to call myself a true nerd, because I don't own any copies of Wil Wheaton's books, neither in DTF (dead tree format, ie. paper) nor even in electronic format. I can't list the names of every Star Trek episode, and I don't remember what stardate it was that Wesley Crusher ascended to a higher plane of existence and left the Enterprise. I've forgotten most of what I know about role-playing games, and my extent of role-playing knowledge only ever really covered about one and a half Editions of the game of Dungeons & Dragons. I was never nerdy enough to go all the way back to Second Edition D&D, even though I did manage to acquire the books, I could never get through them. And when Fourth Edition Dungeons & Dragons came out, I was too lazy to learn a whole new ruleset. I tried, but I just couldn't get into it.
I know what a podcast is, and how to download them, but I don't have my own podcast. I don't know how to use XML, let alone other complicated programming languages like HTML, Java, C++, or even the names of other languages. Perl? I think.
I know how to edit Wikipedia, but I don't know how to create a template. See? I really don't deserve to be called nerdy.
The second thing that put me over the nerd edge though, was when I watched a video game review appear on The Young Turks radio show, for a video game called "Dragon Age." I don't know about the average guy on the street, but if you mention "dragons" to me, I think it's pretty awesome. But the host of the Young Turks, Cenk Uygur, immediately went to "Dragons? Aren't dragons kind of gay?"
Gay? I was not expecting that at all. I was expecting "Dragons? Isn't that kind of nerdy?" or "Dragons? That's a Chinese thing, right?" or "Dragons? Like as in King Arthur, right?" I do get it though, the psychological implications of being obsessed with dragons. If I was a true nerd, I could tell you if it was a Jungian or Freudian idea that dragons represent unbridled sexuality in the subconscious. Maybe it's a mix of both. But yes, I do get that dragons represent male sexuality, and a man obsessed with dragons might be expressing some unfulfilled desires in other areas of his life. But that doesn't change the fact, to me, that dragons are cool! Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, as Freud said. And sometimes an awesome literary trope is just an awesome literary trope. And an author or a reader armed with this information can actually get a whole new level of understanding out of literature and video games, but it doesn't erase the other meanings that dragons carry to those of us who think about them and use them in our imaginative dealings.
Anyways, I'm just saying I think I might be a nerd if my first reaction to the idea of a dragon is "Cool!" rather than "Ew, gay!"
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