SpawnPoint

Well, I had a nifty idea for a blog, once a week I could write about a song whose lyrics made me think more than usual, that songs meaning, and if I would recommend buying the song/album, I thought it would be cool, and depending on the feedback I get I may or may not keep it going.

This weeks song:

Song-    A Plateful of Our Dead
Artist-    Protest The Hero
Album-  Kezia

Lyrics:   Don't ever ask us to define our morals
Sometimes when fundamentals meet teenage heartbreak
Some of us are all of us; half-selves that love whole hopes
And hara-kiri heartbreak

There's almost nothing worse than never being real
Strained voices crying wolf when nobody can hear
If I had a gun I'd pump your ethics full of lead
If I believed in meat I'd eat a plateful of our dead

There's merit in construction when it's done with your own hands
There's beauty in destruction, resurrection, another chance
There's a you and I in union but just an I in my beliefs
There's a crashing plane with a banner that reads everyone's naïve

The only proof that I have that we shot and killed this horse
Is the sounds of whips on flesh and a bleeding heart remorse
When I'm In this state of reflection and you hand me whips
And two by fours I could never bring them down and beat the same horse as before

I'd rather kill a stupid flower and spread its seeds around
Until a garden with our bullet-laden morals will be found

Alright, well, first you need to start off with the OVERALL meaning of the song. The album Kezia tells its own story, of a woman named Kezia who is killed for being a "whore", even though she was sent to be the savior of man from poverty. It is told in four perspectives:  3 songs as The Prison Guard, 3 songs as The Prison Priest,  3 songs as Kezia herself and then this one song from a mix of the three.

The songs nuances and subtleties have obvious references to the wars in Iraq and a few different groups possible perspectives on that, the goods and bads of the war, and what Kezia herself would have rather had than a war. Now, in the beginning it talks of a steryotypical teenagers view, coming from the things they go through day to day. It basically references many teens' apathy towards the war as a whole. In the second stanza it proceeds to blatantly attack the morals of the current war itself, and then I think maybe the "If I believed in meat" may be a reference to Kezia being a vegan. I haven't decided that for myself quite yet.

The third stanza is a reference on the nobilities of the war, had it been carried our for the right reasons, and had the occupants of the Middle East seen things from a non-religious standpoint. There would be merit in rebuilding Iraq, it would have been beautiful to destroy a bad regime and give the Middle East a second chance at being stable. Theres a you(the Middle East) and I(world powers) in union, but just an I(The people killing in the name of religion) in my beliefs. That is a reference to the two sides of the conflict fighting for totally different causes. The last line is a reference to 9/11, basically saying the whole world is so unsophisticated and ignorant that we must resort to violence to get a point across. It can also be taken as a message that we should have been prepared for an attack.

The second to last stanza is basically saying the only proof of how we screwed up the Middle East is that the Middle East is screwed up, possibly hinting at the both Bush administration's secrecy and seeming inability to accept blame. Then saying that once we went to Iraq this second time, when there was a call to arms the prison guard was unable to accept, possibly why is working where he is.

Finally, the last statement is that Kezia would rather pick a flower and spread its seeds to make a beautiful garden that shows the Middle East how we mean to help, and rebuild, than to use bullets. The garden of flowers is meant as a symbol of peace an reconstruction, and it says that since we didn't take the peaceful route our morals have been diluted (possible hinting towards the patriot act or the law passed to allow intense interrogation)

I HIGHLY recommend LEGALLY downloading this song, and if you're feeling like a shot of amazing music then the whole album. I started this blog off on a very difficult song to interperate, it probably wasn't the smartest idea. For those of you who actually read this whole thing, you may have different views on some of the lyrics, if so I would love to hear them, this is an open discussion I designed to increase a little blog participation. Thanks for reading, and please comment and participate in some way.

My senior year of high school comes up this coming Monday... woo boy am I not excited. I moved to this new school last year and during my whole year last year I was basically miserable. Where I used to go to school, basically the whole school was friends with everyone else, it was nice. Here though, its freaking awful... Most of the people I talked to were just immensely annoying, or creepy... I can honestly say I had two...maybe three friend I actually enjoyed being around. I'm just not looking forward to going back.

I made a "pre-emptive" strike on the misery this year though, by taking some classes I will actually like. Now, this pissed my dad off (a lot) but its not really his decision anyway. I am very much looking forward to my Power/Auto lvl 2 class (lighting stuff on fire ftw) and my Music Theory and Harmony classes. Those should make my days much much better. I'm a little peeved that they wont let me take gym as an elective either, because dodgeball is just amazing, I am a gym warrior :) Other than that, I have pre-calculus and English12 (British lit for the loss :-\) Ive got band (oh yeah, don't mess with my trumpet..) Though, I am so sick of band. Really, I don't really like almost all of the music so I get bored, I haven't practiced outside of class since I got the trumpet, and I really honestly don't care. It will look good on a college transcript and that is all. To make it worse the stuck-uppy kids almost have heart attacks every time I go to play a ska song on my horn.. its like "Zomg... is that actual talent? No we cant have free spirit in here, this is school, hand over your soul please". Theres more, but I'm not in the mood to type it.

Hopefully though, this year will be better and Ill get through it well enough. I'm not freaking about college like most other kids because I'm not too worried if I can get into a nice criminal justice school and get a good degree. If not, I have no problem joining the military and getting a degree through there, I'm confident about my life ahead of me... its just this damn senior year.

I'm honestly not sure why I added this pic, It just makes me laugh :) I won all those pixie sticks in the Mohegan Sun game room and that is my friend Brittany that helped :-D I'm so bored I felt like adding an image.

Alright, if you have ever played with a member of EC, chances are you have heard us say one of our battle-cries. We have quite a few, some of which being SAMATRON, CAAAPTAINN PLANNETTTT, and Sometimes rabid sea turtles kill people....not often. Those aside, the saying with possibly the most "truth" or meaning behind it is TMP POWER. Now, early off in our clans days, we started messing around with the TMP, only to find out how amazing it actually is. Green even coined the acronym, Terrible Manripper of Pain to describe its ferocity.

If you're using a TMP, don't be stupid and shoot body shots, it is nearly worthless for that. If you can get in close range with the ability to point your mouse at head level though, you win. With that seemingly small clip with those seemingly powerless rounds lies a power that no other gun touches. Now, I don't proclaim myself to be a master of the weapon either. Admittedly Green and Free have a one-up on me when it comes to this. I am dedicating this blog to feats of TMP supremacy. Please send any TMP screenshots to dcutt3@yahoo.com and I will put them up on this blog. If you didn't get the story with a screenshot, comment this blog and tell everyone about it! Remember though, to reinforce its power when you get a good kill with it you must type/say in mic: TMP POWER!!!

Hey guys, thought I'd tell you all about a really good time we at EC just had. As a few of you know, I hosted a lan for some of my CS buddies here at my home in CT. We had a freaking blast, even though it only lasted a day. In total we had 5 of us here, with 3 computers and 2 Xbox 360s. We should have had 7 people in all but two dropped out at the last minute due to "personal lives" :-p.




We had Nibbles and Clinik drive in to the heart of CT from PA, and I cant say they fully enjoyed the drive, coupled with getting the wrong directions and being lost in CT for an hour and a half. We had Free come down from eastern MA, and then my friend Skylar (woo, not a total dudefest) come in from the town over. We were supposed to have Kristen come with Free, and Mofreaka come from my old hometown but one had family trouble and one had work so they couldn't make it.



Let me tell you though, for a bunch of complete strangers we had a damn good time. There were the occasional awkward slips of calling another person by their gamer tag, but other than that we just messed around and trashed my apartment with a plethora of pizza and random junk to eat/drink. It was strange how we played CS:S for such a small amount of time, but we ended up playing Gears Of War and Halo2 for a long time, as well ass this new MMO 2 Moons. For those of you wondering, 2 Moons is AWESOME and you can get the full game FREE PC download here: http://www.spawnpoint.com/games/profile/downloads/file/6150/835/Two_Moons_Full_Game_Client/



Other than that, we watched a little comedy off of Clinik's Xbox, and went swimming. Just a general good time. We will have another one for sure, we just don't know when or where yet. We wouldn't mind having a few other friendly people show up as well *cough* [PHXX]Ghost* *Greenblaster* cough*. Basically, it was an AWESOME time, and I look forward to the next one.



On a side note...For those of you wondering, 2 Moons is AWESOME and you can get the full game FREE PC download here: http://www.spawnpoint.com/games/profile/downloads/file/6150/835/Two_Moons_Full_Game_Client/
Remember, its a free PC game, full free download, full free MMO... no reason not to play!!! WOO.



-Streetbum

Alright, before I go off, Id like to point out that I'm all for taxes. They get us all the nice things we have in this country, and they are a necessary part of our lives. Ok, here we go.

    After all the hospital bills and time out of work we went through at my house after my Lyme disease ordeal, we have been in need of a little extra cash. Sounds easy right? Work a little more, get more money, its just a matter of effort. WRONG. My mom worked 12-15 hour days all week, and she put in 60 hours of time. Thats anywhere from 12-20 hours of OT depending on the job/state. With a salary of around 16 dollars an hour, we were expecting to be all set, with like 900-1000 dollars. Thats about 300 dollars in over time. You know how much came in? 30 freaking dollars. 730 dollars in all. How is a family supposed to get ahead? Rent here is 760 alone. You know how discouraging that is? 90% of the OT, taken away? Now were faced with falling more and more behind, with no ways out.

    As it is, she makes too much for state health care, so to insure us all it would be 800 dollars (yes, for 3 people). That means that all my medical bills for the deer tick were uninsured. That also means that she needs help from organizations to get all her tests done, because she may have breast cancer. What the hell! This country would rather let her DIE than give her a test that costs them nothing but an hour or two of time. So basically, we have too much income for any help, but too little to get by with much of anything. If you are going to take so much from us in taxes, so its actually a struggle to live in this small apartment, please use the money for US, so we can at least be healthy while falling into debt.

    This effects me as well. How do you think I'm going to pay for college? I have to do it myself. I'm not "gifted" enough for so many scholarships, I'm not rich enough to pay my way in. I have a car, but I cant insure it/register it/pay for gas by myself. Do you think I can get help? No. Even if I got it up and running, paying for everything would cause me to have so little money, the only thing I would be able to drive to do is errands.. I mean, after insurance and gas I wouldn't be able to do more than grab something to eat a few times a month. I haven't even bothered to finish up getting my license because I would rather just use my money for things that make more sense and DON'T get me stressed out. It is made almost impossible to do things unless you start off with money. If you don't, you better be poor but really smart. If you aren't really smart, have fun doing manual labor the rest of life. I don't know if Ill be able to break this ****ed up circle the USA has us running in, but I damn well plan on trying. I don't want my kids being in this position, and if they are, I hope they try just as hard to get out. I just want out.

    So, Green and I have been debating what to do about some of members recently. We have had a bunch of inactive members (Ill get into that in a moment), and a bunch of dedicated new(ish) membes. What is the point at which those old should be kicked, and those new should be promoted? Once we get there, who gets the bump up in "status"?

    Well, this afternoon, Green officially made three inactive members from our clan ex-clan members. They will have a place back if and when they return. It worries me though, they all disappeared without a trace, after being huge parts of the clan. EskimoBOB made out website, ToeTag bought all the webspace himself, and Grasshopper....well.. he was our very own "Ancient Admin" you might say. The very strange thing about their going missing though, is that they are all from Canada... That brings the number of our Canadian members down to two... just a very strange coincidence. I just hope they're OK :)

   Well, to take their place, we have promoted two members of our clan to senior member status. Cool beans right? Congratulations to Nibbles and Free, the new super cool kids on the block. They got the spot because not only have they been around in some way or another since before EC was founded, but because they show the most dedication to us, and have incessantly been a major factor in the goings ons we have everyday. Good job to them, its been in the works for a while now.

   Ill continue to blog here about anything that goes on in EC worth blogging about. Woot.

    Well, this sucks.... PWND broke up. You guys were an awesome clan, had a good run. Its just too bad to see all that go away so quickly. I get a little annoyed when I talk to some of the old PWND members and you can tell they don't even care. Almost all of them joined DRF, and it seems so stupid to me... I mean, we scrimmed and 4 of your 5 were PWND members... its pathetic. I told you "Good luck you guys, hope all ends up well" and you were like "Oh, we don't even care, PWND was going nowhere and we hated it." My bet is that PWND was going nowhere because of attitudes like those. Why do you think Blood left in the first place? Because crappy members like that didn't put in their share and he got tired... Coop will know better than to take them back.

    Ive invited any people (Blood and Coop personally) that haven't yet jumped xxxx with PWND to hang with us at EC, they have to go through the same process other members do though. If PWND does end up fixing itself,  those members will promptly be returned back obviously. I have a serious issue with DRF accepting those people without talking with Coop and Blood, since we are supposed to be all friends here at SP....

    It seems pretty low to me, especially since I was up for an extra hour last night getting accused of letting my clan run wild, being disrespectful, and being unfit for OGL by the same person who allowed all of this to happen.... That set me off, and I know I went off on a certain person quite rudely, but I was defending my clan. You don't come into my clan Ventrilo and insult my clan (Unless you're a cool SP person that actually has a say/has good advice to lend). If you come into my vent and get insulted, take it to me, not that individual member, its your own fault if you don't do that.... Agh I'm freaking annoyed right now.

    Of course, crap like this goes down when Green isn't here... So the person actually has the gall to tell me he knows Green very well and that we shouldnt let the clan run wild while he was away. God, why must people make me angry? Those of you who actually know me, I am a very hard person to set off, but that did it last night. Then, to put the cherry on the cake, he starts dropping names of people in SP who he could call in to get me in trouble (I'm not sure how, but still...I don't like being threatened)

Wow, well this went from a farewell to PWND to an annoying rant about last nights activities. I actually just went back and created a new category for rants, and renamed the thread haha. WOW I go off topic. Basically, I'm sorry to hear about all this PWND, and shame on the members that jumped ship so easily. Shame on DRF for taking them in, and shame on a certain person for setting me off last night. Though, I am regretful for having been set off so easily, I am not sorry as I was defending a member of my clan....

-Street

Well, I figured I would set up my blog this Sunday morning, and my first topic will be the EC clan. As most of you probably know, were a friendly bunch (sometimes) and we like to have fun with all sorts of new people. Why don't some of you stop by the site sometime? The URL is www.elitecrewcss.com.

In recent time we've had a few people asking for recruitment, but you know it seems that most of them are either incredibly annoying or not anywhere near dedicated enough to be in a clan. Really though, we had one guy who hung with us in vent, but he had talk-to-speak on...so we had to listen to him breath CONSTANTLY.... god it was terrible. Needless to say he was out. Then we had one guy who just tried to bribe his way in... what was he thinking?

Well, skill isn't really a factor to getting in at all. All we ask is for you to be on regularly, be active with us, and with SpawnPoint, and to have fun and contribute to our atmosphere. Any one of you looking for a clan should check us out. Visit the site, get to know us, play with us. You all have a shot. Looking forward to seeing some of you.

    You know, I just don't understand people sometimes. I know I have only been around for 16 years, but what I have come to understand is that a person is measured by the content of their character, not by their age, race, or sexual orientation. Why then, am I (and countless others) subjected to discrimination, and labels set on us by other people. I know I am only 16, but when I take steps in my life like I have I feel like I shouldnt be labeled as "some kid". I think other people out there as well know exactly what I'm saying, and I'm going to take a moment to talk about it.

    When my mom had her heart attacks, I chose to move down to CT, away from my friends and life, to try to do the right thing and help her so she isn't under so much stress. Of course, this caused me stress, but it was my mom and I thought I was just being a good person. Along with that, I took on the responsibility of my little brother, walking a mile everyday to get him, and watching him for a good 20-30 hours a week. I feel like taking on this responsibility (for no money) merits at least a little respect from those around me. I don't drink, smoke weed, do anything a lot of the kids around me are doing. Even still, I get labeled as "some teenage pothead" because I have longer hair and play guitar/bass. How is that fair that I get suxxxxious looks in my direction? How is it fair that when I write a letter to my congressmen, I get a letter back all "cutesied" up like I'm some kid sitting on Santas lap. I'm writing about real things, just like other adults. I genuinely don't understand how I get labeled without being known.

    It confuses me about how racism is still able to be around as well. I was in my history final just this Friday and I saw a prime example. There is a kid, Adam, who sits 2 seats away from me. He looks like the typical farmer kid, and he is generally nice. He loves farming, and I believe that will be his career choice. He was always nice to me, but a lot of people might call him a "redneck" which is a pretty rare thing to find up here in CT. As we were taking our history final, he got to the essay portion, the question had to do with civil rights, Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The kid promptly writes down a paragraph of only god knows what, and hands it in. My history teacher got nervous and asked him "Is that really all? That cant be all.." The kid replied with "If I wrote anymore, I would get myself in a lot of trouble.".

    Why does he feel this way? I don understand it at all. There were two black girls sitting only seats away from him, and he hadn't once showed any negativity or hate towards them, but he clearly expressed his distaste only feet away from them. I don't understand what one person could have against another person because the pigment in their skin is different. It must be ignorance. I just don't understand who could be that ignorant then. What exactly does he want from the hate? Does he want a return of slavery, or segregation? Even if he does, what does he think that will do? What does he expect to come of the hatred?  I just don't understand.... anyone wiser or more experienced want to shed some light on the subject for me? Im open to all ideas, because I really just don't get it.