****WARNING: THIS STORY IS NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED, SQUEEMISH, WEAK STOMACHED, OR THOSE WHO ARE PREGNANT OR MAY BECOME PREGNANT. IF YOU ARE ANY OF THE ABOVE...DO NOT READ THIS BLOG.****
It all started at swim practice on February 21, 2011. It was a normal practice, and I was feeling really good. Then, I started hacking, coughing amazingly. The chlorine fumes from the pool had combined with the oxygen in my lungs and it wasn't a nice combination. So there I was, hacking away, when a strange feeling overtook my epiglottal region. I screamed (quietly), and next thing I know there's a burning sensation in my whole thoracic cage. The pain was intense, I've never experienced anything quite like it. I thought I was going to die from the all consuming fire in my lungs and throat. Then it started moving. I had no idea what it was, but it felt like something was trying to force its way out of my trachea...something that wasn't supposed to be there. It was a curious sensation. I didn't know what to think, I didn't know what to do. Then...it started moving up, toward my mouth.
Approximately 3.2 milliseconds later, Muctor was born. From the hideous, Hadatian depths of the planet Mucosa, this creature was 25 feet tall. He had arms that could crush steel, they could crush it right into powder. His legs were as big around as tree trunks...really big tree trunks. He was solid, but amorphous. He could change his appearance at will. He was hideous...and I had birthed him.
What could I do? I was swimming. I had to prepare, but I couldn't let Muctor loose on the HealthPark and the rest of Owensboro. What were my options?
Before I could think of anything to do, Muctor took the decision out of my hands. He had started to terrorize the little kids on the team. I couldn't let that happen. I've always had a soft spot for the little children, and their screams were filled with such terror that my heart was ripped to pieces over and over. I had to act.
Activating my Speedo tool belt, I produced an alien ray shooter. I had never seen it before. I didn't know how to work it, but I had to figure out...and fast. More kids were perishing with each passing second. I found the trigger and pulled it.........only to have my right arm fall off. I had it pointed at myself. I turned it around and made mincemeat of Muctor. The kids were safe, they would survive til tomorrow. My creation was dead, my heart was torn, but everyone was thankful that such a hero was there to help them and to save their children.
So...that's how Graham Duncan, brave space cowboy, gave birth and subsequently defeated an alien species bent on the destruction of Earth's little children.
And so we go.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
A Faster Ride
So much of society today is about getting things quickly, and getting things done quickly. It's not so much about making something that is quality, it's how much can you make in a short amount of time. Quality has gone out the window.
What's happened to us? Since when has it been acceptable to crank out a ton of something that is very crappily made? Why can't we slow down?
There used to be days when making a good quality product was what people desired. A good quality something that would last. It didn't matter what it was, it was well made and someone had taken into consideration that quality is better than quantity. There used to be more differences between things too. Society is too "cookie cutter" these days. If everything is made the same way, it streamlines production and it can double output...but what if the output is crap? Is that really better for the customer?
I recently listened to a song title (ironically) "A Faster Ride" by Cartel. It's all about how a guy's girlfriend wanted a "faster ride". All innuendos aside, this is also a problem today. Everyone needs to fall in love and get married as quick as possible. There's no get to know you stage, the dating stage is very short, engagement and marriage come before you know it...and then divorce follows when one finds out the person who they "fell in love with" is completely different. We just need to slow down. Get to know somebody. What's the rush? In the song, the guy ends up leaving his girlfriend because he can't give her the "faster ride". He didn't want to move more quickly...it was time to leave.
Rushing things has become a major part of what we are today. Everything needs to be done quickly and quality has become secondary. And there are some who wonder why things have gotten bad these days...
and so we go.
What's happened to us? Since when has it been acceptable to crank out a ton of something that is very crappily made? Why can't we slow down?
There used to be days when making a good quality product was what people desired. A good quality something that would last. It didn't matter what it was, it was well made and someone had taken into consideration that quality is better than quantity. There used to be more differences between things too. Society is too "cookie cutter" these days. If everything is made the same way, it streamlines production and it can double output...but what if the output is crap? Is that really better for the customer?
I recently listened to a song title (ironically) "A Faster Ride" by Cartel. It's all about how a guy's girlfriend wanted a "faster ride". All innuendos aside, this is also a problem today. Everyone needs to fall in love and get married as quick as possible. There's no get to know you stage, the dating stage is very short, engagement and marriage come before you know it...and then divorce follows when one finds out the person who they "fell in love with" is completely different. We just need to slow down. Get to know somebody. What's the rush? In the song, the guy ends up leaving his girlfriend because he can't give her the "faster ride". He didn't want to move more quickly...it was time to leave.
Rushing things has become a major part of what we are today. Everything needs to be done quickly and quality has become secondary. And there are some who wonder why things have gotten bad these days...
and so we go.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Grades
School is neverending. The pressure is crushing. The situations are many and varied. It never lets up. School is always on your back, dragging you down, holding you accountable, everchanging and never the same. We're expected to devote 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, to this institution of education. For what? The grades. The grades that lead to placement in advanced classes to set high achieving students above their peers in an attempt to get them as prepared for college. Grades rule a student's life. It's all about the grades. You need good grades to get into a good college to get good preparation to live a good life. It's a circle that never ends. And it always comes back to grades.
In this second semester of my junior year I'm starting to see how good grades and good academic performance can set you apart from others. I scored a 30 on my ACT. Before I took the test and (stupidly) got my scores sent across the United States I was recieving minimal college mail traffic. It was enough to weigh down the mail whenever we got it, but it wasn't off the charts. After the ACT, there was a sharp increase in college mail for me. Colleges are looking for those students that will make them look good, the students who are strong academically. They don't want the average kids. They are willing to do more and go the extra mile to obtain a strong performer on the academic side of school. Grades are everything.
I don't want to brag, but I'm a straight A student. I have been ever since I started to get letter grades. No blemishes on my academic record. I'm a good student, some would say great, and it comes pretty easily to me. I don't know why, but I just...get it. Good grades are something that have always come my way because I put in the effort and I want to learn. I'm eager to expand my knowledge. It's not that hard to get the good grades people like to see...you just have to be willing to put in the effort. With that being said, I have lapses. I just got my progress report for the third nine weeks and, for the first time ever, I have a B and (gasp) a C. What was my first reaction? There was none. I was shocked. I had become so accustomed to getting the grades, making those A's, getting mercilessly (and teasingly) ragged for being so good in the classroom that seeing a C on my progress report....it was a shock. How could this have happened to me? "Graham Duncan doesn't get C's", "Graham is too good for that", "What has the world come to?" that's what my friends will say. And you know what, that will be worse for me than anything I can say to myself. I have this obsession with being what others see me as. They see me as smart, so that's what I am. I am what they expect me to be, and what I expect myself to be. But comments from friends always affect us as much, if not more, than our own comments ever could, after all they are friends. To those of you who read this, I don't want any of you to feel bad, this isn't a call for pity. This is an expulsion of my thoughts and feelings into a blog that I have to write for school. This is everything that I'm thinking as it runs through my head. I'm bearing my soul to the merciless filter of the Internet, what an idiotic thing to do.
Ah well, I have vented my feelings and surprisingly I feel better about everything. The pressure from school is neverending. We have to succeed and be successful. There's just too much negativity surround success. The only thing the successful have that they unsuccessful don't have is the desire to be successful. They want to succeed...so they do. That is a principle that has been lost through the years. As success seems to become hereditary and people lose their drive to succeed, that's when the problem starts. My grades will come up, I have to look good for colleges and meet the expectations that everyone has for me. But most of all, I have to do it for myself...
And so we go.
In this second semester of my junior year I'm starting to see how good grades and good academic performance can set you apart from others. I scored a 30 on my ACT. Before I took the test and (stupidly) got my scores sent across the United States I was recieving minimal college mail traffic. It was enough to weigh down the mail whenever we got it, but it wasn't off the charts. After the ACT, there was a sharp increase in college mail for me. Colleges are looking for those students that will make them look good, the students who are strong academically. They don't want the average kids. They are willing to do more and go the extra mile to obtain a strong performer on the academic side of school. Grades are everything.
I don't want to brag, but I'm a straight A student. I have been ever since I started to get letter grades. No blemishes on my academic record. I'm a good student, some would say great, and it comes pretty easily to me. I don't know why, but I just...get it. Good grades are something that have always come my way because I put in the effort and I want to learn. I'm eager to expand my knowledge. It's not that hard to get the good grades people like to see...you just have to be willing to put in the effort. With that being said, I have lapses. I just got my progress report for the third nine weeks and, for the first time ever, I have a B and (gasp) a C. What was my first reaction? There was none. I was shocked. I had become so accustomed to getting the grades, making those A's, getting mercilessly (and teasingly) ragged for being so good in the classroom that seeing a C on my progress report....it was a shock. How could this have happened to me? "Graham Duncan doesn't get C's", "Graham is too good for that", "What has the world come to?" that's what my friends will say. And you know what, that will be worse for me than anything I can say to myself. I have this obsession with being what others see me as. They see me as smart, so that's what I am. I am what they expect me to be, and what I expect myself to be. But comments from friends always affect us as much, if not more, than our own comments ever could, after all they are friends. To those of you who read this, I don't want any of you to feel bad, this isn't a call for pity. This is an expulsion of my thoughts and feelings into a blog that I have to write for school. This is everything that I'm thinking as it runs through my head. I'm bearing my soul to the merciless filter of the Internet, what an idiotic thing to do.
Ah well, I have vented my feelings and surprisingly I feel better about everything. The pressure from school is neverending. We have to succeed and be successful. There's just too much negativity surround success. The only thing the successful have that they unsuccessful don't have is the desire to be successful. They want to succeed...so they do. That is a principle that has been lost through the years. As success seems to become hereditary and people lose their drive to succeed, that's when the problem starts. My grades will come up, I have to look good for colleges and meet the expectations that everyone has for me. But most of all, I have to do it for myself...
And so we go.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Stumped
Have you ever found yourself searching for a good idea? Or, having already thought of said idea but promptly forgetting it, searching your memory for that idea? That's kind of how I feel right now.
I'm sitting in English now, waiting for inspiration to strike me in the middle of the forehead, and guess what...nothing is happening. I hate these moments. Earlier in study hall, I had a host of good ideas. And I even wrote those ideas down so I wouldn't forget them...but now I can't remember where I put those ideas. It's been a bad day. But what really gets me off about all this is that I had a really good blog in study hall...and now.........................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................
...............................................................................................there's nothing useful circulating through my wonderfully human brain. Kudos to failure...and kudos to being stumped.
And so we go.
I'm sitting in English now, waiting for inspiration to strike me in the middle of the forehead, and guess what...nothing is happening. I hate these moments. Earlier in study hall, I had a host of good ideas. And I even wrote those ideas down so I wouldn't forget them...but now I can't remember where I put those ideas. It's been a bad day. But what really gets me off about all this is that I had a really good blog in study hall...and now.........................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................
...............................................................................................there's nothing useful circulating through my wonderfully human brain. Kudos to failure...and kudos to being stumped.
And so we go.
Again...There's Nothing Here
As I sit here in study hall (we're in the Commons Area today, its a refreshing change from the auditorium), I'm struggling internally with what to blog about, how to blog, and why I even feel the need to blog today, right now. It's just one of those questioning days, probably borne from my half awakeness and my body struggling to recover from my emotional high at the Region Swim meet this weekend. Who knows? I certainly don't.
Question One: What do I blog about?
This question arises quite a lot, especially as my creative, one word, attention grabbing blog title ideas dry up. I feel as if I've evolved as a blogger throughout this semester, and a little bit, of serious blogging for a grade. In the beginning I would try to be funny while being deep. I think I probably got there with a few of my blogs. Then I switched to trying to take a single word or idea and trying to attach a deeper meaning, kind of like English teachers do with that random symbol in a supposedly important book. That was fun, and it definitely encouraged my thinking, but soon that too ceased to bring me satisfaction that I had done a good job. And now I'm at the place where ideas to blog about are slowly drying up, I no longer have a definite idea about what I want to blog about. It's not as if I don't have enough in my life to blog about, or enough opinions on current issues, or any of that...I just don't have that something that made it easy in the beginning to come up with ideas. So I'm constantly faced with the question, What do I blog about?
Question Two: How should I blog?
This is a big one. I want to know what people want to read, I want to know what they would enjoy, I don't want to disappoint my hordes (11) of readers. Do they want something funny? Do they want to find some deeper meaning about something? Do they want to read my thoughts on some random idea? What do they want and how do I give them what they want? I want people to visit my blog and I want them to come away with something. Whether that something was a laugh when they were having a bad day, or just a new way of looking a some random, seemingly unimportant idea. I want to have done something for someone. How should I blog? How do I reach who I want to reach? How do I know that I have done what I wanted to do?
Question Three: Why do I feel the need to blog?
Is it because I know at the end of the month there is a 30 point grade for my blogs? Is it because I just saw something that I find repulsive, or funny, or horrendous, or ridiculous, or life changing? What motivates me to blog? Why do I continue to visit this site to type my thoughts for people to read? I don't see the point (outside of the whole grade thing) of blogging. I mean honestly who cares? Why would anyone want to read what someone else thinks? What difference does it make? Blogging is almost completely useless. Self-expression. That's the answer to the question raised above. The need to get myself out there and have people know what I think. We all need a place to go where we can rant, rage, comment, note, or whatever about how we feel. We, living in this society today, are fortunate enough to have many different outlets for these feelings. We have so many ways to get our thoughts out there and shown for everyone to see. That's why I blog, I need to get my thoughts out of my head, I need to express myself electronically.
As I sit here in study hall, in the refreshingly new environment of the Commons Area, I feel a little better. My internal struggles have been expressed and thought out. Blogging is like having an internal conversation with yourself, while also talking to hundreds of people. It lets you sift through your thoughts, it allows you to examine them for yourself without the filter of other people. You can get it all out there, and then people can comment on it and supply their own thoughts to yours. Its therapeutic.
And so we go.
Question One: What do I blog about?
This question arises quite a lot, especially as my creative, one word, attention grabbing blog title ideas dry up. I feel as if I've evolved as a blogger throughout this semester, and a little bit, of serious blogging for a grade. In the beginning I would try to be funny while being deep. I think I probably got there with a few of my blogs. Then I switched to trying to take a single word or idea and trying to attach a deeper meaning, kind of like English teachers do with that random symbol in a supposedly important book. That was fun, and it definitely encouraged my thinking, but soon that too ceased to bring me satisfaction that I had done a good job. And now I'm at the place where ideas to blog about are slowly drying up, I no longer have a definite idea about what I want to blog about. It's not as if I don't have enough in my life to blog about, or enough opinions on current issues, or any of that...I just don't have that something that made it easy in the beginning to come up with ideas. So I'm constantly faced with the question, What do I blog about?
Question Two: How should I blog?
This is a big one. I want to know what people want to read, I want to know what they would enjoy, I don't want to disappoint my hordes (11) of readers. Do they want something funny? Do they want to find some deeper meaning about something? Do they want to read my thoughts on some random idea? What do they want and how do I give them what they want? I want people to visit my blog and I want them to come away with something. Whether that something was a laugh when they were having a bad day, or just a new way of looking a some random, seemingly unimportant idea. I want to have done something for someone. How should I blog? How do I reach who I want to reach? How do I know that I have done what I wanted to do?
Question Three: Why do I feel the need to blog?
Is it because I know at the end of the month there is a 30 point grade for my blogs? Is it because I just saw something that I find repulsive, or funny, or horrendous, or ridiculous, or life changing? What motivates me to blog? Why do I continue to visit this site to type my thoughts for people to read? I don't see the point (outside of the whole grade thing) of blogging. I mean honestly who cares? Why would anyone want to read what someone else thinks? What difference does it make? Blogging is almost completely useless. Self-expression. That's the answer to the question raised above. The need to get myself out there and have people know what I think. We all need a place to go where we can rant, rage, comment, note, or whatever about how we feel. We, living in this society today, are fortunate enough to have many different outlets for these feelings. We have so many ways to get our thoughts out there and shown for everyone to see. That's why I blog, I need to get my thoughts out of my head, I need to express myself electronically.
As I sit here in study hall, in the refreshingly new environment of the Commons Area, I feel a little better. My internal struggles have been expressed and thought out. Blogging is like having an internal conversation with yourself, while also talking to hundreds of people. It lets you sift through your thoughts, it allows you to examine them for yourself without the filter of other people. You can get it all out there, and then people can comment on it and supply their own thoughts to yours. Its therapeutic.
And so we go.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Bad Ideas
1. Running through traffic like you're Frogger from the old video game.
2. Siphoning gas with your mouth.
3. Jumping into an ice covered pond without wearing any clothes.
4. Hunting moose from a helicopter.
5. Wearing black with navy blue.
6. Attempting to annihilate a social group.
7. Ponzi schemes.
8. Adopting a pet tiger from Siam (seeing as tigers don't live in Siam, this would be not only a bad idea, but an impossible dream).
9. Running an insane asylum.
10. Paper shredders.
11. Asking your mom to go to prom with you because you can't get a date from high school.
12. Grabbing the hot metal of a pot that contains boiling water.
13. Plagiarism.
14. Attempting to be flawless and perfect.
15. Throwing yourself off a building because you think you can fly.
16. Climbing a tree in the rain forest.
17. Trying to be Siegfried and Roy...or being Siegfried and Roy.
18. Bear baiting.
19. Reading Ye Olde English.
20. Marriage.
21. Traveling the world with Dory from Finding Nemo.
22. Accepting a free car from Oprah.
23. Accepting anything from Oprah.
24. Screaming "Fire!!!" in a crowded movie theater.
25. Spending your entire life in the world of Facebook.
26. Keeping your old Myspace account.
27. Walking across a lake that is covered in thin ice.
28. Teaching elementary kids how to finger paint.
And so we go.
2. Siphoning gas with your mouth.
3. Jumping into an ice covered pond without wearing any clothes.
4. Hunting moose from a helicopter.
5. Wearing black with navy blue.
6. Attempting to annihilate a social group.
7. Ponzi schemes.
8. Adopting a pet tiger from Siam (seeing as tigers don't live in Siam, this would be not only a bad idea, but an impossible dream).
9. Running an insane asylum.
10. Paper shredders.
11. Asking your mom to go to prom with you because you can't get a date from high school.
12. Grabbing the hot metal of a pot that contains boiling water.
13. Plagiarism.
14. Attempting to be flawless and perfect.
15. Throwing yourself off a building because you think you can fly.
16. Climbing a tree in the rain forest.
17. Trying to be Siegfried and Roy...or being Siegfried and Roy.
18. Bear baiting.
19. Reading Ye Olde English.
20. Marriage.
21. Traveling the world with Dory from Finding Nemo.
22. Accepting a free car from Oprah.
23. Accepting anything from Oprah.
24. Screaming "Fire!!!" in a crowded movie theater.
25. Spending your entire life in the world of Facebook.
26. Keeping your old Myspace account.
27. Walking across a lake that is covered in thin ice.
28. Teaching elementary kids how to finger paint.
And so we go.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Tired
I'm tired. I'm tired of the state of things today. I'm tired of people like Luke blaming me for things that happen that were directely his fault, but could be slightly not really at all remotely indirectly my fault, like that time he hit my girlfriend Morgan in the face with a tennis ball and said it was my fault. I'm tired. I'm tired of failure. I'm tired of people sleeping in class. I'm tired of people who use their right hand to throw the baseball but they bat left handed. I'm tired. I'm tired of people talking. I'm tired of people who put drink mixes in a perfectly good bottle of distilled and purified water. I'm tired of people who wear hunter orange and camo even when they don't hunt. I'm tired of hicks. I'm tired of people who think all of Kentucky is like Eastern Kentucky (as far as I'm concerned Eastern Kentucky is a seperate state, kinda like Tennessee). I'm tired of racial injustice. I'm tired of reverse racism. I'm tired of white guilt. I'm tired of minorities using their minority status to get their way...just because they're a minority. I'm tired of Eminem advertising for Lipton Brisk Tea. I'm tired of Steelers fans. I'm tired. I'm tired of semi-good Super Bowl commercials. I'm tired of Spanish class. I'm tired of Apollo's gym uniform. I'm just plain tired of everything. We need to grow up, and I need to get some sleep.
And so we go.
And so we go.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Sickness
Let me be the first, and definitely not the only, person to tell you that being sick is terrible. I'm currently battling some sort of cold/sinus/congestion/bronchitis/everything respiratory disease. And it's terrible. Now its not just this respiratory stuff that stinks. It's being sick in general. Your body feels run down, you're always tired as your body fights off the infection, you become more susceptible to other diseases, your body aches, and you just feel everything more than when you're healthy. I'm so tired, and I'm tired of being sick. I'm just ready to get it all over with and feel better...especially since I have the Region One Championship Swim Meet next weekend...
And so we go.
And so we go.
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