*insert corny rock joke here*

I feel bad for Cummingtonite. I mean, really, what an unfortunate name for a rock. I'll bet you anything that he was the rock that got teased all through school - "Hey, you!" "What?" "Are you really Cummingtonite? Hahahahahahaha!" Among them as well are Arsole, Dickite, and Moronic acid. So here is my ode to unfortunately named minerals/molecules/substances (to the tune of "I've Been Everywhere.")

I was surfin' the net one fine (hot as hell) summer day
When along came an idea that I thought might be okay
I remembered a thing called "Cummingtonite," right
And I figured - that couldn't be the only funny one on site!
I found a site that listed named for funny substances you see
Now I know where the teachers got the words for that damn spelling bee!

Now I've seen everything, man
I've seen everything, man
Read about arsole, man
Laughed at bastardane, man
Of munchnones I've had my share, man
I've seen everything.

I've seen:
Dickite
Fukalite
Fucitol
Arabitol
Erotic Acid
Traumatic Acid
Crapinon
Bis(pinacolato)diboron

Now I've seen everything, man
I've seen everything, man
Read about arsole, man
Laughed at bastardane, man
Of munchnones I've had my share, man
I've seen everything.

I've seen:
Penguinone
Nonanone
Vaginatin
Clitorin
Apatite
Carnallite
Uranate
Furfuryl Furfurate

Now I've seen everything, man
I've seen everything, man
Read about arsole, man
Laughed at bastardane, man
Of munchnones I've had my share, man
I've seen everything.

I've seen:
Draculin
Conantokin
Windowpane
Churchane
Psicose
Godnose
Ovalene
Sexithiophene.

To read about everything mentioned here and more, Molecules With Silly or Unusual Names.

-Com, who has way too much time on her hands

To the fundies...

If you don't want me to think you're stupid, then for the love of the whales, don't ask stupid questions. Really, the basic ones are fun at first, but they really start to get on your nerves - morals, hatred, Pascal's Wager, etc. And then there's the question of reason for living. Pfft. Like Christians have any reason for living beyond popping kids out, fearing going to hell for suicide, and annoying me. So. I've compiled a not-so-short list of why I live.

I live for knowledge
I live for experience
I live for the places
I live for the faces
I live for the mountains
I live for the glaciers
I live for the valleys
And earthquakes, what shakers.

I live for the whales
I live for the oceans
I live for the waves
And icebergs well frozen
I live for the cats
I live for the dogs
I live for the rats
I live for the hogs.

I live for ice cream
I live for love
I live for chocolate
(More so the above)
I live for family
I live for friends
I live for the sun
The moon its pretense.

I live to be big
And I live to be small
I live for the life
That we have in us all
I live for the sunset
And for the sunrise
I live for the things
I can see with my eyes.

So, you can see
My life is complete
Really it is - you can never compete
I strive to be great
But remember I'm small
Something we have to keep in mind
In the conscience of all
I have no great plan
I have no destiny
I have only the places
Where my dreams can take me.

-Com

Oh His Noodley Appendage, I'm Insane

I am now considering Geology for a career (or, if you want to get technical, field of study).

Why yes, I am insane.

I can't in good conscience live off poetry - I love poetry to bits, but I also get depressed very easily if I'm not exposed to new things. To give you a little perspective: I love school and learning, but I get completely and utterly exhausted by the monotony of it all. There's also little to no money in poetry unless you write something of the caliber of Shakespeare, which, in today's world, is akin to drilling oil from a water fountain.

To further convince you that my choice is not completely wacko, I present my case: creativity is directly linked to depression. No joke. I've seen it happen, in others and in myself. Name one creative person that didn't go through depression in one way or another - Beethoven? Yep. Van Gogh? Yep. Edgar Allan Poe? Yesiree. Hemingway? You got it. Plus, I have most of the respected scientific community on my side. Not that you care if you're a cdesign proponentsist, in which case I invite you to - ah, yes, where was I...

I'm thinking Geology for several reasons. For one, I want to travel. Desperately. Two, I love rocks, what makes up rocks, what effects rocks, and why everyone should think rocks are sexy. Three, I want to by able to have a talk with a cdesign proponentsist, point out a rock three feet away, and observe that it is older than their dear old sky pixie. And four...well, it sounds pretty cool.

I'm currently looking into Canadian Universities, because Canada is awesome, but if you drop me a line on some good geology programs anywhere, Canada, U.S. (not Jesusland, preferably - above the Mason-Dixon line), the Federated States of Micronesia, anywhere, I'll love you forever.

Now, on to poetry. In this particular poem, I wanted to convey a sort of transition - nature is reclaiming the earth, but parts of our legacy still remains, whether that is good or bad. The burnt cross symbolizes something sinister whose mask has been torn off - people seek comfort in crosses, but when you take away the false face you see the evil underneath. I'll leave you to consider what everything else in this poem means - as I've said before, things can be interpreted however you like (and I love to hear how you interpret them!).

Sunlight is a lethargic thing
Falling lazily across the forest floor
Leaves drift down from the tree tops
From a fall sky of cerulean blue.
A creek runs between shining rocks
A can washes upon a concrete shore
Where the remnants of ashes are blown by a cool wind
Where a burnt wooden cross still laughs in glee at the destruction.

-Com

For Those of You Haven't Heard

For those of you who haven't heard
"I'm not Christian," those are dirty words
Why don't we shut up? Why do we cry out?
What really is it we're crying about?

You know, I've been thinking and have come to the conclusion that America isn't so different from the various demockcracies (intentional misspelling) in the Middle East. Let me present a hypothetical situation - say Iraq is one of the most advanced countries in the world instead of the US, the the US is just a minuscule little thorn in the side of this superpower. Now, say Iraq decides to invade and completely redefine our government "for our own good." If we had a dictator in power, sure thing, come on in, but get the hell out once you get him/her out of power. Assume that, like the US, Iraq decides to mill around in our country, mess with our values, and turn us into mini-Iraq. We have every right to be indignant, yes?

This is why I wouldn't put it past Bush (or McCain, for that matter) to start their very own Holy War. They don't seem capable of thinking things through. If Iraq wants to be a third world cow pen, leave them alone and give them a slap in the face whenever they try to impose their rules on us. However, we have no right to slap them in the face when we are imposing so much on them. That's why I think stopping the violence is a moot point as long as we're doing the same thing to them. If we want to end this war and everything that it's caused, we need to step back, take a few deep breaths, and talk. To hell with not negotiating with terrorists - talking does not necessarily mean negotiating. All we have to do is sit down and say "You stay out of our business and we'll stay out of yours as long as your people are content in how they are living."

It is not some holier than thou country's business to impose a new kind of government on a country that obviously doesn't understand or want that kind of government. Let's step back and let them blow each other up - we don't need to get in the middle of it. Hell, let them wipe each other off the map. The international community will thank you for it. I give no sympathy to a militant religion that created its own problems.

Why, hello there God!
Your definition is rather broad
Your as jealous as a child
And your son isn't mild
Indeed, you're more fit for a fraud

You've made your point
I'm stuck in Hell Joint
While I'm burning
You're learning
What it's like when followers disappoint

They're hypocrites, the lot of them
From them so called "goodness" stems
But hear your son revel
He's upstairs with the devil
Yes, indeed, this is a problem.

-Com, who likes being sarcastic and biting.

Limericks Are The Bane of My Existence

No, really, I can never get them quite right. In any case, I finally got around the next poem, and took the challenge of doing something that resembled a limerick in a lazy, unhinged kind of way.

People shouting in the rain
Chaos looming, a sad song’s refrain
Twenty men in a shrouded room
Conspire quietly what to do
Their actions the future explain.

A leader falls as siege is laid
A helpful cover the silence made
Order lost in a flow of fright
Working quietly through the night
Easy to see what they’re all afraid.

Anyone who can guess the dual meaning of "twenty men" gets a cookie.

My exam went well, pretty easy actually. I love some aspects of mathematics, though some parts just annoy me. My brain went blank at the end of it, so I had to guess - I completely forgot how to find the x-intercept of a linear equation. The people taking the test with me were mostly "future criminals," as I like to call kids who get in trouble all the time because they think it makes them look cool. I was a tiny bit paranoid about not letting any of them cheat off me.

I'm now displaying a scarlet "F" under my scarlet "A" (ironic, no?) for High School Freethinkers. I'm basically in high school already, and I will be officially this fall, so I don't see any problem with it. Young intellectuals need to start coming out of their shells and need to be told that it's cool to be smart, even despite what their so-called "friends" say. In my own case, I quickly dismiss people who think it's cool to be brainless slackers. It's not cool, it's anti-intellectual, condescending, and it should be a criminal offense to encourage it.

Speaking of condescending anti-intellectualism, a new bit of stupidity from Minnesota has cropped up.

A Muslim high school student's intolerance for a service dog needed by a student teacher with a disability has reportedly prompted the student teacher to abandon the last 10 hours of his scheduled assignment at Technical High School in St. Cloud, Minn. (© 2008 WorldNetDaily)

What the? Really, if I wanted to hear about stuff like this, I'd subscribe to Saudi Arabia Today. While I respect that this teacher would be disturbed by something like this, they really should have stood up for themselves instead of bowing out to someone spouting crap like that. I do love cultural diversity, but cultural diversity does NOT mean you can walk into a foreign country and expect them to bend to fit your dogma's rules (pun intended). Islam may find canines unclean, but we treasure them as friends and family pets. If you don't like it, go back to your third world country.

I've actually heard of this happening before - a lady in a heavily Muslim community was discriminated against because of her service dog. She would walk into the supermarket, someone would scream, and instead of the managers escorting the screaming person out, they evicted the lady with the perfectly calm, nice dog who she needed to get around because of a disability.

Let me make this clear: I don't give a damn what your two thousand year old book says. This is the twenty first century, you're (albeit delusional) adults, stop your immature whining.

Apparently, the student also threatened to kill the dog. Why does this not surprise me? Why don't we just set up Future Jihadists of America while we're at it? We can put it right next to George Bush's Hitler Youth.

Sigh. My country depresses me. This is why I'm planning to a) go to college somewhere else or b) go the college in the US but do overseas programs for the majority of my time there. I need to see things for myself before I'm as blindly patriotic as it seems everyone here is.

-Com

The Blondes Lead the Blind

Still pondering politics, in the middle of studying for an exam on Wednesday, so I'm not really getting anywhere on either playing field. With little hope for inspiration, I've been listening to Streetlight Manifesto, which I would highly recommend. Ska is very much an acquired taste, but it's great when you've got a feel for it. Most of their songs allude to religion in one way or another, whether it be vaguely or "in your face atheism," as some have put it. The solar storm poem is going well, it may be one of my favorites from the whole project, even as I'm just working my way into Chapter Two. A little bit of it...

Particles colliding in the night
A show before the storm
As satellites crash through the atmosphere
Leaving burning trails across the sky.

And in the glittering cities
Where people have paused to watch the lights
The electricity will soon go out
And plunge them into darkness.

In other news, Christians are praying for the end of the world! I would be glad to see them go, but who am I supposed to write about when they're all gone? I suppose Islam could work, but the US just doesn't have enough to make as big an impact as they need to for the story to work. In any case, should they be taken in rapture, I call dibs on the nicest cars.

Minnesota is officially getting my Stupid of the Week award, following this little bit of insanity in the classroom.

Three small-town eighth-graders in Minnesota were suspended by their principal for not standing Thursday morning for the Pledge of Allegiance, violating a district policy that the principal now says may soon be reworded to protect free speech rights.

Ever heard of the First Amendment? It's a handy little passage in the Bill of Rights. Obviously, it's the History teachers in Minnesota who need to be suspended for letting these "administrators" graduate. For what it's worth, I don't stand for the Pledge either, so I applaud these kids for sitting tall in the face of opposition. If we want a healthy America, intelligence needs to start early.

How To Cause the Collapse of Modern Society 101

So I was watching the Discovery Channel, and got really into a show on what would happen if a giant solar storm hit the Earth. This may actually be the missing link I was looking for. I had to have a way for most of the world's systems to collapse, and I couldn't well blame that on the fundamentalists, as they're bumbling bureaucrats who bide their time waiting. How I'm going to write a poem about a solar storm, I have no idea.

This had been an issue mostly because I needed something that would knock out technology, not people. I had contemplated a meteor strike, but, for one, it would take millions of years for the planet to recover. Two, it would wipe out the human race, and we can't have that. Who am I supposed to torture without anyone around!? A solar storm is perfect because, if no steps were taken, it would knock out the transformers for a good few years, giving the fundies time to conspire the eventual destruction of our government infrastructure. We'd be so wrapped up in providing aid and emergency services, and pretty much preventing chaos, that they could do it pretty easily.

There still is the problem of how I get Manhattan to go back to rolling hills in less than a thousand years. Having also seen After People I know this is going to be tricky. It would be helpful if there was something that could level the skyscrapers.

I'll be pondering it. For now, another snippet.

It started so long ago
Nobody knows for sure
The Church keeps it hidden
They’ve always been good at lying.

It is said that the sky rained fire
Shining objects falling from the heavens
That carriages without horses
Once charged over the fields we sow

Don't worry - I'll soon be introducing the characters that I'll be following through the story. What, you thought I was going to write purely on vague theory?

-Com

An Introduction of Sorts

My name here shall be Comanche, or Com for short, as my real name is irrelevant until the time in which I manage to get published (even then I'll probably end up writing under a pseudonym, per request by the family). I'm a young atheist who likes to make a stir. I love to get people to ask questions and not take anything at face value. The book I'm working on right now is called The Darkened Face of Heaven, and is a collection of connected poems in which the world isn't quite the same one we live in today. It is my view on what the world might become if we continue in the same direction that religious fundamentalists would like us to. You ask me, why write poetry? Why not non-fiction?

The thing is, a lot of people don't read non-fiction heavily. Intellectuals, yes, but the average person? Hardly at all. Through poetry, I hope to strike a cord that resonates with a community focused mainly on media, circumstance, and the drama that surrounds an increasingly materialistic world. Poetry also allows me to be biting, eloquent, and a little vague. My poems are open to interpretation, and I'm always eager to hear what you see in them that may differ from what I see in them.

Since I really am hoping to get this published, I'll only be posting snippets here. To start off, the poem which the first chapter is named for, Burning Books.

Burning books
Have a peculiar smell
As smoke wafts
Above the treetops
Like knowledge escaping
To be written again.

I should probably also mention that most of these don't follow any set criteria - I write what comes to mind with little regard for mechanics. However, there will be some rhythm and rhyme later on. I will also be discussing the news, and how different items of the world's happenings will figure into this story.

That said...I have work to do, and I will be going back to public school this fall (yes, I am that young) and will be dealing with the various terrifying things that make me as misanthropic as I am. I will try to be consistent in posting, though.

-Com