www.onemanga.com

Do you ever see something in a store that you really, really want, but all you can do is look at it because you can't buy it? That's how I felt when I looked at www.onemanga.com just now. I checked to see what has come out. Of course new Naruto and Bleach are out...halkj4 yla;kjy4la. AND they have new Kurohime. Oh geez. Oh my.

I stayed strong though. I didn't read. I got this. 44 more days. Perfect.

Zangief.

45 Days Later

As many of you now know, the secret thing I'm giving up for Lent is being "mean." By mean, I mean the good-natured ribbing I put all of you through when you interact with me. My actions have come under much scrutiny. Don't lie, I've been doing a good job. ;)

However, for all those that do things, advertently or inadvertently, to try and provoke the usual Emil response...

45 days later...

...you will all get great big hugs because I love you all since you're all trying to make me an even better person by subjecting me to the temptation of meanly responding. By not succumbing, my resolve and will are growing stronger.

=D Good night.

Lent

The Lenten season is about to begin again. Going back to Church and trying to get my spiritual life in order again has me wondering what I'm going to give up this year for Lent. The past years I have usually gone with my usual bullshit of, "I'm giving up giving things up for Lent." Since it's been a while, I'm going to give up more than one thing.

You're probably (not) wondering what I'm going to give up for Lent. Well, you're in luck, because I'm going to tell you! I'm going to give up fast food, soda and candy. That's already going to suck, but I'm also going to give up...

...

Reading manga. FAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK! I'm going to be so out of the loop with Naruto and Bleach. But hey, you have to sacrifice during this time, and this is something that's going to be really difficult for me. Jesus gave up his life for us, what's a month and ten days of giving up reading manga? Yeah.

"Oh my goodness. You're giving all of that up, Emil?! CAN YOU REALLY DO THAT?!" Yes. Ahh, I almost forgot, I'm going to give up cussing. That's a toughie, too. However, I'm not done. There's one more thing I'm going to give up. It's going to be the most difficult thing I'm giving up, even more so than not reading manga. And no, it's not anything sick or disgusting, so take your minds out of the gutter, Jeremy and Derek and Brian and everyone. You'll all probably notice. If not, it'll make it that much easier.

So yes, let's recap: I'm giving up fast food, soda, candy, reading manga, swearing and something secret. 40 days. I'm ready...ready, eady, eady. Happy Lent soon! Love yall, dawgs!

Poetry

It used to be a little known fact, but more and more people have come to find out that I am a big fan of reading and writing poetry. Ok, mostly writing since I'm too lazy to look for poems to read. However, the poetry class I took last quarter was awesome since it introduced me to many new ways of writing poems through reading various styles of poetry.

What makes poetry so great are all the interesting things that make it up. The subject matter, the structure of the poem, the rhyme scheme, the meter, the rhythm...all (and more) come together to form a poem. Also, you can interpret a poem however you want, though usually the poet will have his or her own intended meaning. It's because of all of these things that I enjoy writing poetry.

I like to write because it's my way of expressing myself. Some people draw, paint, play instruments, sing...I write poetry. I've been at it for a while, sort of. I began writing in middle school, then I stopped for a while and resumed late in high school. I don't write as often as I would like, so I'm not really good. I just enjoy it.

Most of the poems I write are...love poems. Yeah, I said it. Love poems. My biggest inspirations are Shakespeare and Lord Byron (surprise). Not all of them are though. I want to try writing other kinds of poetry more, but we'll see what happens with that. I like to make my poems rhyme, but I'm not adverse to prose-poems or straight up prose. I don't pay too much attention to the rhythm and meter, mostly because it would take me forever to write a poem if I did. I also usually don't come right out and say what I'm feeling: I use imagery and other poetic devices to express it, though I'm not against writing exactly what I'm feeling in a not so round-a-bout fashion.

I will do my best to share some of the new poems that I write on here. Depends on how I feel about the poem. Since I should be doing some homework but I don't want to leave all of you hanging, here are two untitled poems I wrote a while back:

The sun sets with scant clouds in the sky,
Leaving you feeling euphoric, a natural high.
With night coming to life and day about to die,
Light is left for the moon and stars to supply.



It would be sweeter still to taste the cloaked one’s kiss
than to continue on in immense anguish like this.
Yet I’m not ready to commit, I must stay here
to see my outcome, for it may not be what I fear.

I'd be interested in reading all of your interpretations of these poems. Good night, everyone. Love yyyyyaaaaaaaallllllllllllll!

Street Fighter IV

Fuck this game.

I'm just a hater because I can't stop playing it. This game is crack. I need this quarter to end so I can have that week to try to get good at this game. Fack.

Emily won't be quiet, so I'm going to see what's up with her. I'll hit this up more soon, I swear! Be good while I'm away.

Valentine's Day

Yes, Valentine's Day is on February 16th now. Shut up, I'm late on blogging about it. Well, I wasn't really planning to, but here I go.

I remember when I used to be excited about this "holiday." Most of us were excited for it. Getting candy AND cool cards to read? What's not to like? Um, everything. We were feeding each other empty calories and those cards could have given us severe paper cuts. Severe. We were all just blinded before, but now we can see.

Besides all the evil we really wished upon each other when we were children, Valentine's Day is pretty fake. None of the St. Valentines that the holiday could be referring to have anything to do with romance. At least the Welsh's Dydd Santes Dwynwen celebrated on January 25th makes sense since St. Dwynwen is the patron saint of Welsh lovers.

If you had told me like 2 years ago I'm writing this because I'm bitter, you may have been correct. But after really having thought about it, it's pretty dumb. We should all just set an arbitrary date for love. Mine will be May 32nd.

I have no idea why I did this since I just finished playing Halo 3 not too long ago. I guess it's poisoning my mind. Go to sleep, everyone. I'm going to watch Hulk vs. Thor and Hulk vs. Wolverine now.

Friday the 13th

Wowowee, Halo 3. I swear to God I play that game to relieve stress, but it doesn't always work out that way. I know I'm not the best Halo 3 player, but damn, some of these people online must be spending more than half the time suckin' balls with their eyes closed while they're playing. That's the only reason why they could die so often and kill so sparingly. This is why I need my dudes on my team. You guys know who you are. It's whatever though, I guess, dawg.

Orrrrr, maybe I kept losing because it's Friday the 13th. Bad luck. But, if I lost, that means the other team won, and if Friday the 13th brought bad luck, why did they get to win? That's stupid. Whatever, I don't even believe this Friday the 13th bullshit. Or bad luck stemming from doing shit like breaking mirrors or black cats or whatever. People that suffer from accidents when that shit happens probably become so afraid and concerned that something "ominous" has occurred and they forget to...look where they're driving, walking, running, whatevering. They focus so heavily on the idea of having bad luck that they become less aware of everything happening around them.

Hmmm...no Naruto yet. I'm so cool, sitting here and refreshing waiting for new manga to come out. MANGA! Friday the 13 strikes again. I better finish this now before my laptop explodes.

Pffftt, I don't believe that shit.

Bright and Early

Wow, I hate falling asleep when I have shit to do.

...And I hate doing other shit when I have more important things to do. I'll be back.

Insults

The art of insulting: easy to begin, difficult to master but very rewarding upon mastery.

I'm a huge fan of insults; I usually use them during good-natured ribbing between my friends and I. There are various ways to verbally insult someone, which I will cover more in-depth later. One can even non-verbally insult another, but I'll be mainly dealing with verbal insults here.

You may be wondering, "Hmm, what makes a good insult?" Great question, great question. I'm not trying to speak for anyone, but I'll share what I think makes a good insult.

1. Creativity

Be original with your insults. Sure, someone somewhere in the world may have already used your insult or may be using it the same time as you, probably in a different language, but I think you're looking at too large of a picture, asshole. This criterion can be broken up into a few different parts though:

a. Word choice

You can use words that you barely hear used in insults. I'm not saying to return to using Shakespearean insults, like referring to someone as "beefheaded whoreson cur" or something like that. You can use a synonym of a word or a synonymous phrase.

Example: You asshole. -> You anus.

Simple, but it can make a difference when using other words.

You can also make up a new one on the spot. Typical "new" words can just be a combination of two words commonly used as insults or in insults.

Example: You assfuck.

b. Context

This can (and will) be its own criterion, but in a slightly different way. Now, what I'm getting at here is that you can use cliche insults in different contexts to make them more original.

Example: Friend 1: Dude, I'm about to be having sex with your girl tonight.

Friend 2: Oh, whaaaaaat? I think you have to postpone that because she and I are about to have a threesome with your mom tonight.

See what I did there? "Mom" insults are some of the most commonly used insults, but you can still keep them entertaining by creatively using them in various contexts...even though I only showed one.

c. Spontaneity/Randomness/Nonsense

This is not everyone's cup of tea, but I think it's funny when an insult is just pretty random or nonsensical. I guess this goes with context as well because you're using an insult that has nothing to do with anything, so it's out of any context.

Example: Friend 1: Dude, why are your feet so white? I thought they would be dark as hell.

Friend 2: Shut up.

Friend 3: (to Friend 1) Why are YOUR feet so black?

Friend 1: (despite Friend 1 having a very light skinned face) Because I been stepping all over your face!

That last line doesn't make any sense since the person it was said to has a light-skinned face, but it was said anyways and it's original in the sense that not many people would probably say something like that in that situation. I think.

2. Timing

Very important and fairly universal, as any comedian can tell you. I add this here since insults can also be jokes...though of course they can be serious too. That's another story. Anyways, there are ways to simulate the natural skill of timing, like a sort of storylike joke that ends in a punchline insult.

Example: Someone: (speaking to a bunch of his/her friends) So I was hanging out with Derek yesterday and before we could hit the gym, he had to pick some shit up from his apartment. When we got there and I met his roommates, I finally got why he said he loves to have sex at his apartment: because it's full of guys.

I apologize to any of my homosexual friends that may read this, love yall. But yes, you set yourself up that little story, then POW! right in the kisser. Of course, if you don't have that natural talent of timing or if you haven't practiced, you could still butcher that joke.

Having a sharp wit helps your timing, like being able to instantly counter someone's insult with an insult of your own.

Example: Friend 1: Haaaaaaa, I heard your penis is only like an inch.

Friend 2: (instantly after hearing that) Nah, it only looked that way because the other 8 inches were inside your girlfriend.

For another example, refer to the example under, "Context."

3. Delivery

Ok, so maybe your timing isn't the best. That's ok, just make the delivery great. Of course, it would be stupendous if you could have great timing and delivery, but it's not always so.

You can deliver an insult in different ways. You can say it slowly, loudly, angrily, sadly, or whatever. You can gesticulate wildly while saying it, or you can be absolutely still. It's up to you to figure out which would work best, and it's always important to change things up.

I won't have an example for this one since it's hard to illustrate good delivery in typed words. If you MUST have an example, come find me and I'll do my best to deliver an insult well.

4. Context/Audience Awareness

When insulting someone, you have to be aware of who is listening. While a sexually explicit insult can be funny, it's just distasteful to say one in the presence of children or adults you're not familiar with (or even ones that you know!) Remember, creativity! Not every insult has to have swearing in it or mention of genitalia or material similar to that.

Example: Friend 1: (with children present) Man, you are fucking stupid.

Friend 2: (children still present) You inconsiderate butt! There are kids around. Weren't you taught anything other than how to be ugly?

No "fuck," "bitch," "shit," "cock," or "balls." However, still effective and even the children can join in laughing! Holla at those PG insults.

5. Universality

Inside jokes that lead to inside insults are great. They are the livelihood of great friendships, and they can make some of the best insults. However, it is also good to use insults at which everyone can laugh. Of course, people can still find those inside insults funny, but not always, so don't take it for granted. Jerk.

Most of the insults I have used as examples have been fairly universal and do not contain any inside material, so feel free to refer to them to see examples.

Those are the criteria that I could think of that make a good insult (for me). Now...I'm going to add one more that you shouldn't consider incorporating into your insults regularly, but it is the criterion that, added with the other five that I have mentioned, make a GREAT insult.

6. Hurtful

Insults are put-downs. Yes, as I have said, we use them with friends to have a good laugh and what not, but you can't forget insults ARE put-downs. So, obviously, the more hurtful you can make it, the greater it is, objectively speaking. I mean, hey, sometimes those insults you use with your friends can hurt them too, so be careful, damn it. But yes, save those great insults for someone that has genuinely pushed your buttons.

I won't put an example of the great insults I can think of because...well, d'uh, they're very hurtful. Once again, if you REALLY need an example, ask me. I probably won't oblige you though since I don't want to hurt your feelings. Maybe.

I hope you have learned much about the art of insulting. I don't think myself too great at it, but I try. Fack, I should still be writing my paper and reading, but whatever. I did some of it. Time to finish that shit. Good night, all.

Amazing

Man, you have to love those weeks in college where you just get absolutely inundated with shit to do in your classes. Then, something comes along to just top all that off. Instead of icing on a cake, which is a rather pleasant image, it's more like animal droppings on top of already rancid garbage.

It's all good though, sort of. Got to keep going. World's not going to stop even if the world in your head does. Fack.

I just wanted to get this up and started, spurred by my great friend and big BOSS, The Tita. May God have mercy on your soul...and boreophyll!

I'm so rude. I don't know who will see this, so I should introduce myself. My name is Emil. That is pronounced Ee-mehl. I like that pronunciation, not my mom's (Eh-meal...but the "meal" sounds like a mix between "meal" and "mill"). All you need to know about me is that for now; I'm sure as this blog goes on, you can deduce the type of person I am. Welcome.