I love food. I would spend all day eating food if I could, which I basically already do. I have around five a six meals daily. Small meals yes, but meals nonetheless. Actually, my absolute favorite foods are mushrooms, sweet potatoes and pineapple. And raspberries. And almonds. Now this, my friends, is where the paleolithic commences.
I have recently begun dabbling in the so called "paleolithic diet." The name alone is very interesting, referring to the caveman's ancient diet of plants and animals. In short, you can eat whatever the heck you want, as long as it isn't processed crap. There are so many delicious recipes that go along with this lifestyle, and to be perfectly honest, I am seriously considering going full paleo within a few months (only I plan on eating yogurt forever because no one puts baby in the corner). Rather than being used as an aid to weight loss, the paleo diet is carried out with the intention of lowering and eliminating the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, cancers, and depression, along with other avoidable diseases that harm the quality of life.
I plan on giving my final thoughts regarding the paleolithic diet after a few months of participation, so wish me luck! Stay healthy my lemondrops :)
Middle school. A time of pressure, both psychosocial and emotional. To survive this precursor to high school--or as I like to call it, eternal damnation--one must dress, act, and appear like everyone else. During my time in purgatory, one was judged by the clothes on their back. It was only "cool" to wear brand names, these being Hollister and Abercrombie and American Eagle and whichever others styled a piece of cloth and put a label on it. It is thanks to these stores that I have been inspired to rant.
Shopping at Hollister was a traumatic experience for my middle school self. I would make sure that I looked "acceptable" on their standards, and even then I never felt good enough to be shopping there. Maybe it was due to the super model looks of the employees, or perhaps because of the array of shirtless men posted to the walls. Either way, I felt so, absolutely self-conscious in these stores. And to top it all off, the crappy tees and poorly fashioned sandals were ridiculously overpriced. Why then, did I continue to put myself through the anxiety of shopping at said store? It was simple. I did it so that I could fit in.
This being said, I was not surprised to find that Abercrombie and Hollister truly are as superficial as they seem to be. Their vision of the "all-American" girl is entirely skewed. It is unfortunate that these are the stores that young girls are so attracted to. I wish that I could go to all of the girls like myself, those that are stuck in a time of self-loathing, and help them to realize the unimportance brig "cool."
My advice to you? Shop at Walmart for God sake. Seriously, Walmart is awesome.
Dear Shiva,
I cannot mentally grasp the current mindset of the so-called "Grande Old Party." Obviously the happenings that have taken place in Benghazi within the past nine months have been less than favorable, but to attack President Obama in the hopes to impeach him from office? Ha, good luck with that, you lot of wingnuts. I, just as everyone else, was very disturbed with the death of Christopher Stevens and the three other officials back in September, but recognized it as a result of terror. The mere fact that the GOP is attacking Obama now, in reference to an event that happened eight months ago and is now regrettably irrelevant, makes me furious.
Sincerely,
A cynical libretarian
P.S. I hope that you do some destroying in the near future, for I do not think that I will be able to physically and emotionally handle the right wing conservatives who reside in this county for much longer.
Eminem is, for lack of a better word, a genius. I may not love all poetry, but Eminem takes my perception of "poetry" to another level. Eminem stands among the ranks of Tupac and Biggie, far above those self-proclaimed rappers that mar the modern era. As far as I see it, Eminem is one of the leaders of the lyrical poetry, and is holding the genre of rap together with his raw talent. There is a very obvious maturation displayed in his album, Recovery. For years Eminem has only had his pain and anger from the problems with
his mother and ex-wife to rap about. Now that he has gone through the
hardships of life and gotten all of that out of the way he's rapping
about real things. I have been a lifetime fan of Mathers, I have never
fully hated any of his albums yet at the same time I felt he was just
dragging on his effort. Eminem in my
humble opinion is now better than he ever has been and it shows in the
production and effort he put into this album.
I chose to display "Not Afraid," for I feel as though it was the song that proved Eminem had reached the top again. Though this was not my favorite track on the album, I find that the lyrics have an inspirational nature and are easy to relate to. Anyway, I had planned on adding a short review of every track on the album, as a sort of ode to my favorite rapper.
1. Cold Wind Blows 8/10: This track is absolutely hysterical. It was the first song that I had heard off of the album, and absolutely loved it.
2. Talkin' 2 Myself ft. Kobe 10/10: This song is very
engrossing. I had never
heard of this "Kobe" character before, but the track was very effective, and most importantly
enjoyable.
3. On Fire 7/10: Awesome lyrics, and that's really all I have to say.
4. Won't Back Down ft. Pink 6/10: This song
is a very good collaboration between the two artists (both of whom I love). However, I found the pairing between Pink and Eminem to be sort of awkward, but it's a decent song regardless.
5. W.T.P. 7/10: This is old school Slim Shady. I can definitely tell that he put a lot of effort into making his
rhymes meaningful.
6. Going Through Changes 11/10: This song
was simply amazing. It was a suprise to me, but it melds
pefectly and makes the track flawless.
7. Not Afraid 9/10: This
song has been played heavily on MTV and other music networks. I felt
this song was a very good way to put the new song and feel out there for
fans to know Eminem was back and ontop once again.
8. Seduction 5/10: Not one of my favorites. It is
alledgedly about Mariah Carey?
9.
No Love ft. Lil' Wayne 9/10: The only reason I did not make this a 10/10
is because I had mixed emotions about this song from the start. At
first I did not like it feeling the two didn't really mix, but then
after listening more closely I found myself listening and singing along. I may be a bit biased though, seeing as I completely despise Lil' Wayne.
10.
Space Bound 10/10: One of my absolute favorites on the album. This song
is totally out of the norm for Eminem, and to be completely honest, it makes him sound like a softy. It's different yes, but it works
and he set the track on fire.
11. Cinderella Man 11/10: The only
other song I rate 11/10 because it has such a flow that you just can't
help yourself but listen. I love the rhythm and his rhymes are sick.
Great track.
12. 25 to Life 9/10: This song has a good feel and
it seems he put alot of emotion into it while recording. The female
vocals are a nice touch, and ultimately add more feeling to the track.
13.
So Bad 6/10: Decent lyrics, yet for some reason the song doesn't quite
feel the same as the rest of the album. I cannot help but think that it might have been a filter track.
14. Almost
Famous 10/10: This track just makes me want to get up and start moshing. The beat is sick, so mad props to the
producer. The lyrics are very good as well as he takes many shots at
himself for his previous failures in music.
15. Love The Way You
Lie ft Rihanna 6/10: This may be an unpopular opinion, but there is just something about Rihanna that I despise.
16. You're Never Over 10/10: This
gets a 10 because it is a very heart filled and melodic tribute to Proof
of D12. Eminem made an effort to tribute Proof every chance he had.
This song was not at all hard to listen to and may possibly have meaning
to others.
17. Untitled (Here We Go) 5/10: I'm not actually sure why this track was added to the album. I feel as though Eminem should have ended the album with "You're Never Over," but that is just my opinion.
Eminem is a truly talented, truly inspirational artist, and I hope that his career and works continue to flourish.
I have somewhat recently entered a cult phase, in which I am attempting to view every "Cult Classic" before going off to college. Most of the classics I have seen thus far are campy horror films that should have been put out of their misery years ago, yet are entertaining nonetheless. I remember seeing Ichi on the shelves of the Video Showplace that used to take root a few minutes from my home, primarily because the cover of the movie was so disturbing that it had haunted me from first grade on. Ah but I digress, for I must begin my comments regarding the manga.
As it turns out, Ichi the Killer was originally a manga written by the great Hideo Yamamoto. As it also turns out, all ten volumes of the manga were available on Manga Fox, thus provoking me to read the series. When the series was first released, it was actually banned in several sections of Japan and Malaysia. Why is this? Let me put it this way: the extremely graphic depictions of cruelty throughout the comic were seen to be 'too' controversial among many readers. Nevertheless, I read, and to my surprise, adored the series!
Despite the fact that the characters were just a lot of immoral Yakuza, most of them turned out to be extremely dynamic. Kakihara, a masochist, is hands down the most twisted antagonist that I have ever come across (and I have seen a lot of twisted stuff, my friends). He has a slit mouth, scars covering his face, and several dozen piercings, and wants nothing more than to find Ichi--the allusive murderer of his beloved Anjou. The series itself follows the story of Ichi, a boy who has been psychologically scarred from being bullied as a child ( as a side-note, Ichi is socially inept and has the inability to smile like a normal person, as picture above). I won't go into any more details as to prevent spoilers, but I would very easily present Ichi with a five star rating.
