Month: February 2013

Pay the Way

frog3Leave a comment

fefe

Warriors fight and die for a nation.

Never questioning the validity of their cause.

They act selflessly asking and receiving very little in return.

They die in the deserts, thousands of miles away from their homes.

Enduring unimaginable physical and mental wounds.

Limbs missing and soul shattered.

Yet never questioning the validity of their cause.

The nation and its leaders will never understand.

Their pay cut and for what, to balance scales.

No no its politics, the goal is to simply appear to solve problems.

The soldiers are cut, their sacrifices are diminished.

All they have given to a nation is forgotten.

Once.

eternity1030Leave a comment

It emerged only once
When he warmly beams
It flashed only once
When she euphonically sings

Time
ceases
Time
flies
Time
freezes

You breezily flipped my fragile heart once
And you always will

I believe
In that moment
Called
once

I ran
For you,
For once.

Drama, Drama, Drama

Daphne PsaledakisLeave a comment

As you would expect of a dorm filled with girls, there is a lot of drama here at OVS, and probably more than usual because of the small size of the student body. We’re all friends in the girls dorm. Sure, you get the couple of girls who absolutely hate each other, or the few that don’t bother to speak to the rest. But I think I speak for everyone when I say we’re all here for each other.

That being said, I don’t understand how we can be so awful to one another. It begins with the infamous Freshman drama, which I am ashamed to say I played a part in last year. But looking back now, I see that we argued over the most pointless things we could possibly have thought of. And this years Freshman class is doing the exact same thing.

After the Freshman drama comes the realization of who your real friends are. I imagined this as being a mental process you think about inside your head, and don’t necessarily talk about to other people. After all, talking smack about others is the root of pretty much all the problems.

Unfortunately, I was wrong. I thought the cattiness would end after last year, but it’s far from it. I sit on my bed and watch a stream of girls come into my room to talk to my roommate, either about their drama or hers. I honestly can’t keep up with it all.

We all live together. We go to school together. We eat together, sleep in the same building, use the same showers. We know each other so well, and if we tried we could all be as close as sisters. We just all have to learn to get along. I understand that it isn’t easy when you throw a bunch of hormonal teenage girls into the same radius. But instead of tearing each other apart, we need to learn to live together and start letting things go.

Eclipse.

eternity1030Leave a comment


I stared at you into your deep blue eyes
My Mr. moon who will you smile at, tonight
I remembered you have been mine once
Which made me smirk like a blest bride
But after the eclipse last night
You became the Mr. moon of another sky

I am coward of darkness now
After my heart shattered without your light
I know there are thousand stars like me out there
But you are the only sparkle in my sight

Crossroads

smackyjackjackLeave a comment

Well.

Every year it’s something. Some place and festival I want to go to. Three years ago it was Soundset, last year it was Outsidelands, this year its the Crossroads Guitar Festival. But, I get the feeling that until I actually go to Crossroads, I won’t ever be able to stop wanting to.

Crossroads is a music festival started for charity by none other than the wife-stealing guitar god Eric Clapton.

That name alone should make you want to go. But just in case it doesn’t here’s some of the headliners for this year’s festival; Jeff Beck, Booker T, (what’s left of) The Allman Brother Band, Gary Clark Jr., Robbie Robertson, Vince Gill, BB King and Sonny Landreth, among plenty of others.

The festival was started by Clapton and all the profits will go to the Crossroads Festival in Antigua.

Steve Windwood (one of the greatest singers ever) has made several appearances at the festival. Here he is playing one of the greatest songs ever.

Blind Faith should have stayed together. I said it. Ginger Baker needs to come out of hiding in Africa and play with those two again.

Other than the tickets being wildly overpriced, I won’t be able to go because this year it’s in stupid New York and its stupid Square Garden. A campaign needs to be started to bring it to LA next year.

And just because we should end on an awesome note:

Glass

callmemaybe32Leave a comment

I have always wanted to live near the glass.

Open and cold

Pure and nice.

Crystalline structures formed feet above the surface.

The glass is the only thing that serves a purpose.

Frozen water, a protector from the sub zero abyss.

The sun sets and rises and reflects of the face, until the heat comes then it’s a race.

A race against time

To finish through the line.

The Finale/Beginning of the NFL Season

backinphillyLeave a comment

Well it’s all over now. The Super Bowl is finished and another season is in the books. The Baltimore Ravens have emerged as the Super Bowl Champions over the favored San Francisco 49ers. The Ravens were in control for most of the game, and for a moment, really lost their edge. However, the Ravens were able to get it together when it mattered, and held on to win. The Harbowl ended with John very badly outcoaching his brother, Jim. John went for some very gutsy calls all game.

His first was a fake field goal run for Justin Tucker that while did not result in a first down or a score, resulted in a 3 and out for the 9ers on their own 6 yard line. It was a win-win for John. The next gut-wrencher was when John decided to call a pass on a 3rd down and short that resulted in a 15-20 yard gain from Joe Flacco to Anquan Boldin. It was a great pass and catch, but was somewhat unneeded. The final one was the most impressive, however. With 13 seconds left in the game, the punter, Sam Koch, must have been told to HOLD ONTO THE BALL AT ALL COSTS. DO NOT PUNT. DO NOT FUMBLE!!!

The play resulted in the 9ers getting a safety. But the clock ran down so far, that Colin Kaepernick was not going to step on the field again. The game was left to the return game with only 4 seconds left. The kick off was taken and the rest is history. No score meant a ravens victory.

My shoutout goes to Ray Lewis, who has been an idol of mine since the very beginning. I gotta love that guy.

The 2012/2013 season has come to a close, but the new 2013/2014 season began at 12 AM eastern time. The new season is an hour and a half old. Time to get back to work. Many trades, contracts and player drama will occur in the coming months. Free agency opens in a month and a half, which is one of my favorite times of the league year. I love watching money go flying. Hopefully my Eagles can pick up some big names. But the night belongs to Baltimore. Congratulations to Ray Lewis on finishing his career on a high note, and congrats to the Baltimore Ravens. They earned it!

Super Bowl Week

backinphillyLeave a comment

This has been a somewhat ridiculous Super Bowl week filled with rumors, dumb comments and of course drama.

The rumors start with Ray Lewis and deer antler spray. For those that have no idea what deer antler spray is, you’re not alone. I don’t really know that much about it either. What I do know is that one ingredient in the spray is on the NFL’s list of banned substances. The ingredient is considered a performance enhancing drug.

Ray Lewis is rumored to have used the spray in order to heal faster from his torn triceps injury. One of his doctors has “confirmed” that he in fact did prescribe the spray to Lewis. However, one big piece of the story was left out.

Ray was never tested. There is absolutely no proof that he was or is currently on any form of PED. There was no test. There are only stupid rumors. Ray issued a denial (duh) immediately following the allegations. He’s still playing so don’t be upset. I guess the doctor must have been a San Fran fan.

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American Guns

smackyjackjackLeave a comment

The White House just came out with this dashing photo of Obama shooting clay pigeons at Camp David.

I really love the way the White House is trying to look “pro-gun” by releasing this photo. There really shouldn’t have to be so much of an effort by the White House to try to convince so many gun-advocate dunderheads that their president isn’t going to come to their house and steal their guns when they sleep.

America has a weird fascination with guns. About 40% of Americans have guns in their house. This is one of the only developed countries on the planet where the citizens feel the need to own assault weapons and as many magazines as they can handle. There really is no reason for people to own these types of weapons. The only benefit of an assault weapons is that they don’t leave time for people to think in between shots.

Take Australia for example. My cousin, a police officer in Tasmania, came over to California just after the Sandy Hook shootings. He and his entire family really could not understand the gun laws here in the States. In Australia, no one is allowed assault weapons, guns must be kept in locked containers and police officers check to see if your house is suitable for guns. I asked him if there are many shootings in Australia, and he replied, “Um, no. Of course not.”

What a luxury it must be to live in a country where shootings aren’t something common. It really is not hard  to make that dream become a reality. America could take a page from Australia’s law book. This is something that can happen, it’s just a matter of how much people care about saftey.

Adrift

displacedlocalLeave a comment


I am adrift at sea, each wave weakens my already weak raft. Every gust of wind feels like it may be my last. I am running out of water. Land is still not in sight.

I am out of water. I may have one more day left. I am writing this note on the last piece of paper I have. hopefully someone finds it.

Help.

10 years later this note arrives on a shore in California. A man picks it up and reads it. He recognizes his own hand writing immediately. He rips up the note and throws the bottle out to sea to get swallowed by the waves.