Please Don’t Hurt Me : I Will Sell You My Pogs

That guy, Brian Rand? Turns out, he didn’t do it. But enough of that. There is a new author afoot.

Check out the section by molly b in the poetry page. I highly recommend it.

It seems that the arts sections have been a little dry lately. I’ll try to fix that. I’m gonna type up some new poetry (and some old) and post some of the stuff I had on last time (lazy lazy lazy).

Hang tight, kids. We’ll see if I get beat up anytime soon. It seems the Brian Rand thing may be at an end. He apologized and denied involvement with the poster putter-uppers. I (for now) believe him and am out to figure out who the Benedict Arnolds are that live in this hall.

You see, all the signs/posters that were up before got taken down (by us this time) and we’ve started anew. Welcome to “exploding dog” city. I, however, got a letter written to me. I won’t post it here (Darin told me that I should quit feeding the fire), but suffice to say they want me badly hurt.

Oh my. What should I do? How about … nothing. Let ’em come. I haven’t gotten into a fight for ages, and I think all of them have been with Bryce, so I have lots of pent up aggression waiting to ‘splode.

Sorry – no funny commentary today – I feel drained and it’s only a quarter to 7pm. There should be no more problems with the site from here on in (I hope), so post your hearts off.

| You’re eyes must do some raining, if you’re ever gonna grow |

A Response to a Vandal

Since the “pick your favorite Awayken.com moment” isn’t quite taking off, I’ve decided to just pick what I want out of it and rewrite those. As it is, the wall outside our room was vandalized again. This time I am taking it personal. So I found out his name, Brian Rand, and I wrote him a letter. I sent it to him, too. Here it is.

Dear Brian Rand:

Wow. You’re right. All those things you said about me, they are correct. You know me pretty well, Miss (you’re a girl right? Or do you just act like one? He he, j/k). I’ve been thinking about it, and I am a jackass. I have a very small, but very beautiful, collection of pogs, too! I don’t know how you figured that one, buddy, but you must have a psychic dick cause you nailed that one.

You don’t know how excited/happy I was when I woke up this morning and saw all the cool sayings (both funny AND witty) on my wall. The wall right next to my door, no less! You seem to have a knack for decorating that few but the most … efeminate of our sex attain. I’m not saying that you’re gay; I’m just saying your experimentation with your father has paid off! Good job, mate.

And now it is my turn to apologize. You must have heard that thing I said about you being impotent, right? Gosh, is my face red. I can’t believe that I said that. I mean, you couldn’t be to put posters up. I mean, they look just like the ones I had up there before; that’s what you call a good parody. And I should have known, from seeing your trashy, whore of a girlfriend, that you probably have sex with her a lot. Well, at least when your herpes isn’t acting up. Am I right? Am I right?

The duck (or duct, whichever) was a nice touch, also. Though you left some finger nail polish on one side of it. Ooops. Out with the “boys” again, sweetheart? Just kidding! Though I thought I saw you going into that gay club down in Sioux Falls. Or maybe that was your mom’s house. Who can tell? I’m not gay.

I’m not sure how Bill Gates came into the picture, but I’m betting that you pirate his software. I don’t mean to sound like a Negative Nancy (is your nickname Nancy, or did I hear wrong?), but that kind of behavior only hurts yourself. See, what’ll happen when that cool video game playing and beer drinking job you’ve been dreaming of falls though? It’s hard to get software (pirated or not) when you’re homeless and sucking off Japanese businessmen who seem to pay too little (even if it IS in yen). I could say pirate now, worry later, but when the FBI finds all that little boy porn (it doesn’t help that you have the whole ‘Preteen Love’ folder shared) they might write you up for charges like that, too.

And I’m sure you’ve heard stories about what they do to people like that in jail from your Dad. Is he in jail again, or did he outrun them this time? That man, he never knows when a girl means no, does he? Oh, well, I’m sure you’re not down that road. After all, you’re Dad can’t spell like you can. He spelled “cock” with only one ‘c’. You remember that, don’t you? In court? Maybe you blocked that from your memmory. I mean, if it was MY DAD who did THOSE THINGS to ME, I’d probably pretend I had no idea what you were talking about either.

Well, I should go. See, I have a 4.0 gpa and I didn’t get it by writing letters. I wish I could have that care free life that you have. You don’t have to go to classes (well, I mean, the academic probation says you have to, but they also say you have to go to those AA meetings, right?), you don’t have to clean the vomit off your bed in the morning if you don’t want to. You are truly one for me to look up to.

Hey, stay cool and keep those wonderful signs going! I think you have a future in that!

Yours in Wall Art,

317.

Send Brian your own letters! randb@pluto.dsu.edu.

| Baby, you’re a lost cause |

I Hate Browser Crashes and Network Outages

Awayken.com needs your help.

Awayken.com wants to know what you thought were the funniest posts on here. No wait. Awayken.com wants to know which posts would cut it in a newspaper at a college.

It’ll work like this. In the comments for this post, paste either the title or the url of the post(s) that you like. Which ever posts get the most votes will get submitted (of course, I have my own list.)

So what do you think can make it in the hard hitting, fast-paced, hoe-hum world of Newspaper humour writing (yeah, I’m going for humour in most of these)? Let me know! (or I will clean your clock, I promise you).

I Had Some Time, So I Figured I’d Ruin Your Life

I have a great idea for this post. Today I am going to copy over some questions that have appeared in the Ann Landers (among others) columns in newspapers around this pathetic world. Then I am going to answer them. These poor people have no bloody idea what they are asking.

Thus, I give you, Ask Someone Who Cares.

I am so miserable and unhappy. My husband retired in February, and I will retire next year. This man does nothing but go golfing every day and then hang out at the local bar. He never spent time in a bar in our 30 years of marriage, and now, all of a sudden, he’s a regular.

[Sir or Madam], my husband does nothing around the house. I get up at 4:30 every morning and don’t get home until 5:30 p.m. I thought when he retired he would at least help do the grocery shopping, but he won’t. I even have to take out the garbage.

My husband has ulcers, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and I’m sure drinking all that beer isn’t helping. He used to be such a wonderful man, but he’s turned into a jerk who thinks he only has 10 more years of life left — and he’s trying to cram in 20. He refuses to go for counseling, and I am at my wits’ end. I can’t live like this anymore. Please help me.

Well, I have a two part answer for you. The first is, you’re making this up. You live alone and have your whole life. You can’t hold a job and your idea of grocery shopping is picking the dumpster outside of Taco John’s or McDonald’s. Me? I’m a Burger King fan.

The real truth is that you could never get a husband because of how utterly stupid you are. And if they could ever get over your obvious “special” status, then they’d have to deal with the whole “ugly like buddah” face you’ve got sporting. For you it’s Halloween everyday, isn’t it?

Part two, just in case you’re not a pathetic loser/liar, is that maybe the problem is you. When he had a job was it long? Was he out of the house a lot? Did he have very attractive secretaries who’d come over to the house for “business purposes”? Ladies and Gentlemen, I think we have a winner.

My solution is to buy a shotgun and do him in. He’s worthless, like you said, and the long list of health problems will not get shorter before it gets longer. Illness = $$$$. I suggest using one barrel on your hubby (get him while he’s intoxicated and lying down) and using the second on yourself. This way you won’t go to jail. And, if you are pathetic and a loser/liar, this way you end your misery.

Last year, my sister announced that she was pregnant. Because “Jane” was unmarried, she decided to allow my brother and his wife to adopt her unborn child.

My brother completed all the necessary legal requirements for the adoption, not to mention he helped out financially. We were overjoyed when Jane announced in her fourth month that she was having twins! As her due date drew closer, she seemed more and more remote. In her ninth month, she “disappeared” for several days. We finally found her hiding in a closet in her apartment. She was upset and asked that we leave her alone.

After she was forced to get medical attention, we learned that Jane was never pregnant and that she had been stuffing pillows under her clothes. Later, we found out she had had a hysterectomy 10 years ago.

The emotional damage she has caused is indescribable. Although this has not soured my brother and his wife on adoption, I feel something needs to be done about the adoption laws so this type of fraud can be avoided. Perhaps the adoptive parents or the adoption agency should have direct contact with the obstetrician. What do you say, [Sir or Madam]?

Holy crap. Your sister is a nutcase. What the hell is going on in that family? Did you guys all make fun of her or something? Did you hit her with things and say “You can never get pregnant! You’ll always be alone without children or a husband (but especially children)?” If you did, well, looks like she got you back.

Now, I’m not a photography expert, but how hard can it be to tell if someone has pillows stuffed up her shirt and not a baby stuffed up her … you know – baby place. I would think that when you saw feathers that would be a tip off. Or how about the unusual square shape of the stomach? Or the fact that she had the pillow case sitting on the couch in the picture.

I can see that no one came to see her 9 months. Come on – 9 months? No one visited her once? You didn’t have a baby shower or a belly warming party or whatever you women do to celebrate the labour you’re about to go through. You didn’t send her a card, pop by for tea, or any of that?

Maybe the problem isn’t a psychotic who pretends she’s pregnant. Maybe the real problem is called bonding. And the problem is that you don’t have enough of it. Am I right?

My husband has developed the habit of opening ALL our mail, even when it is addressed only to me. I was taught when growing up that one never opens another person’s mail unless specifically requested to do so. I do not open mail addressed to my husband.

We are both retired, professional people, and frankly, opening my mail is one of the few pleasures I enjoy these days. I have told my husband that I prefer to open the mail addressed to me, but if I am not at home when the postman comes, he proceeds to open all the mail regardless. I need to know if I am overreacting, as my husband says.

What is with the elderly writing in all these questions? Oh wait, it’s because they have no jobs and so they have nothing better to do than to bother me. Well… okay not me, but someone like me. That is someone who writes words.

I was taught that it is okay to open other people’s mail until they learn that you are doing it. Then you have to figure another way to do it. My dad taught me that. He also taught me how to cure a hangover and how to make a shiv out of a bedpost. He was a handy guy when he wasn’t beating us.

The point is you have to physically hurt your husband to get him to listen to you. Or use your feminine wiles on him. Either way, you have to break him. Try seducing the mailman to get him to give you your mail later in the day, away from your husband. Or mail yourself a letter bomb and make sure you’re far away from the house when mailman gets there.

If this is really one of the “few pleasures” (wink wink) you get, then maybe you need a hobby. Maybe you should go looking for whiner number one’s hubby in one of the many bars in the area, no doubt complaining about his life/wife to whoever can stomach him. Or you could find complainer number two’s crackpot sister and get her drunk enough to pretend to have triplets.

I guess what I’m really saying is that there is no way you can solve this problem that doesn’t involve ending your short, pityful, meaningless life. Do you understand me? You don’t care about the mail.

You don’t, really. Just get out – and start opening your death.

| Everything’s not lost |

A Sophomoric Attitude on Blasphemy

Valentine’s Day. It’s coming up and I figured that I’d kick the holiday in the nuts with a preemptive strike.

There’s not much I can say positive about this day except that it’s a halfway for me. I do not like Valentine’s Day. I really don’t. I’m gonna give you reasons, but in a humourous form so that the utter depression that sinks over this post doesn’t permeate into your life as it has mine.

Uh, that was supposed to be funny, too. Here goes!

  1. You can’t even see your heart. Why would I want your heart. It doesn’t even look like that. Give me a tasteful primary organ in a vacuum sealed plastic sack – now THAT’S love.
  2. Boys are dumb. (that line especially for Missa). But, really, they are. And to try to explain it to them is like teaching algebra to golden labs. Or like teaching univeristy physics to chickens. Or any of my other classes to livestock.
  3. Girls are evil. (that line especially for Me). But, really, they are. And to explain it to them is like teaching hardware to an education major. Or like teaching Photoshop to a music major. Or any of my other classes to dorks (ooo, controversy – comment about it!).
  4. Love is a lost cause. There is a phrase, “It is better to have lost and loved than to never have loved at all.” How many flavors of Peyote do you have to smoke to come up with that? Look at all the pop culture devoted to lost love. And how much it bloody sucks. Look at it – all the music, movies, books, and so on devoted to the pains and labours of lovin’ and losin’.
  5. Jones Cream Soda. (consider this filler)
  6. Valentines suck. You can never find a good valentine. They are all the same tiny cards of thin, government grade cardboard with the same tired, lame sayings that some creepy old guy who has a penchant for watching the boys swim at the ‘Y’ made up sometime after the Big Bang but before our years hit Zero.
  7. Because Valentine’s Day makes you do things like massacre people.
  8. Because love makes you do things like be creative.
  9. Because Hitler loved people, too. You don’t want to be like Hitler, do you?
    and
  10. In 1958, a man was born with the power to move things with his mind. He sought guidance with his unusual gift, but he found nothing but pain and hardship. Soon he met a special Ninja frog who could help the boy harness his power. This frog, Dais, had devoted his life to the abomination of nonAmphibian persons, however, and used the boy in his quest.
    The boy’s mind grew sharper and stronger. He was soon convincing waterfalls to return to their roots and animals to march to their death. Then he turned this to humans. Thousands upon Thousands of Men and Women were marched into the streets, stripped naked, and then tossed into the air. Many were hurt a little bit, but the rest were stone dead.
    Then the boy flew to the moon on the back of the Frog. They stood on the highest Moon Peak overlooking the earth and in a fell swoop of his mind, the boy had completely erased the world from existance. Nevermind those who he had already killed. Add to that (large) number a number equal to all who lived on earth in 1958 and who no longer live. This is the total number of those whom he killed.
    As they stood cackling at their evil, the moon stood in it’s fourteenth house of Jupiter. The boy turned to the sun and screamed his name to the darkness of space. His name was Sir Valentine. Sir Valentine of Dais on the fourteenth house of the February planet, Jupiter.
    This is the history of Valentine’s Day as it was passed from generation to generation by the family decendants of Dais (who was both female and pregnant pre-1958 Erase). It was discovered by accident and translated from it’s ancient Moon-Toad writing into common day English.
    Then I found the story in the library in a notebook where I had written it. And so it is.

This Valentine’s Day, when you think of all the reasons to be sad that you don’t have a date (and don’t worry – you won’t) just remember these 10 reasons why you should be glad you don’t participate in this holiday.

And also remember that the ACM chapter at DSU is holding a LAN party on the 15th, so you can drown your love-lusting lorn in litres of blood. It’s not like you’ll be making out with anyone…

| There’s someone listening in… |

What Happened to Step Two?

Our lives end in circles. They begin in hard points that conjoin and twist themselves into squares. Life starts off difficult, but simple. It starts off with no chance in the world, but the world a square of land in a circle of blue.

Then, oh then, it starts to repeat. As it repeats, it softens. You learn the dance by heart, but the music is mute. You’re heart skips with the tempo, and your brain vibrates to the tune.

You live, but you control nothing.

As you learn history repeats itself, it leads you to examine your history. Doesn’t it? There comes a point in your life (anyone’s, I guess) where you realize that up until this point you’ve been useless and, after this point (repeating until death), you will continue to be useless.

What you decide to do with this knowledge makes you great, or it makes you nothing.

This isn’t funny. I’m not sure if it’s sad. It’s pensive, and I hope you take time to think about what it means. I was drawing today. Lacey came up to DSU (what else would you do on a Friday night?) and one of the things the three of us did was make posters. I drew; Lacey colored; Jeff placed on the wall.

This sounds silly to saw out loud, but this is my method to art. The method is this : I do what I’m told. When I type, the words put themselves onto paper. There are lots of ways I could explain, but I guess the best one is to say that I’m a vessel. I am a channel for something else. I am an instrument of someone.

The same goes for drawing mostly. The better stuff is done through (though many would argue that none of it is good stuff). Any way, that makes it hard for me to explain my art, but I can eventually come up with what it means if you give me a sec.

Did you ever “feel” bugs on your skin and then there was nothing there?
Did you ever “see” something on your monitor and then there was nothing there?

Have you ever had a moment where you could do anything. Let me explain. I was in those crappy, low-budget, once-a-school-year, grade school productions put on by a group of gypsies with scripts and tshirts. This particular incident happened when I was in seventh grade. On the final night we were giving this girl in the grade ahead of me a ride back to her house. Before the vehicle left the parking lot, as we waited for my mother, this girl and I chatted. Suddenly a strange feeling came over me. It was akin to being drowsy very quickly. I felt like I was outside of myself. Maybe not physically, but my mind was suddenly in a different place. It was like I was thrust into a dream.

In dreams you can do anything. My mind told me this as I sat there. I thought, “I could just reach out and kiss her now. I can do anything right now. This feels just like a dream…” but before any sort of action the feeling waned away.

Has this ever happened to you? I am going to call this a “kissdream” (because the first thing I thought to do was kiss the girl) and maybe it’s something that other people have experienced. I have had several more kissdreams since then. They scare me deeply. I never realize that I’ve experienced one until it’s leaving, and it is then that I realize that I was very close to doing quite unnatural things that could ruin my life or others.

I’m tired. I’m spent. And I think that I pissed Lacey off when she was here. So I’m going to bed.

| Just remember, we’re at the center, not you. |