rant about drugs and stuff

For my final independent reading novel I chose DMT:The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences. This books focuses primarily on the psychedelic Dimethyltryptamine: an incredibly potent drug that immerses the user in a brief, but profound glimpse at another reality. I chose this novel because I had seen a documentary based on this novel on Netflix and was intrigued by this relatively unknown substance. What interested me even more was the claims that the author, Rick Strassman, made about this particular drug. Basically, he believes that DMT occurs naturally in the brain in the pineal gland. He makes this claim by asserting that tryptophan, an amino acid that is found in all living things, can synthesize with two other enzymes in the brain to form tryptamine, an essential component necessary to form DMT. I thought it was absolutely fascinating that an incredibly powerful psychedelic like DMT was produced naturally in the human brain. But then I actually read the book. In this book Strassman explains how DMT could potentially formed in the brain and what implications this would have on people's lives. From 1990-1995 he injected nearly 60 volunteers with DMT and studied its subsequent effects on the users. The effects of the drug could be felt in the volunteers only 30 seconds after the injection. The user would then see an array of geometric patterns and lights in the test room before being essentially transported to another realm. They would report encountering anthropomorphic beings who guided them throughout their trip. These beings would often communicate with the volunteers through non-verbal means and would grant them some new insight on life. This entire encounter lasted around 5-10 minutes to Strassman but appeared to be a lifetime to the patients. Strassman likened these events as being analogous to near-death experiences. He believes that endogenous DMT (DMT produced naturally in the brain) is released periodically through a persons life to assist them with stressful situations. This is where I started to think of everything in the book as completely ridiculous. Just because the necessary ingredients to synthesize DMT are produced in the brain doesn't mean it is actually created. And to speculate further on this erratic notion by claiming that this remarkably potent psychedelic is released throughout a persons life is naive and rash. soooo yeah. I was getting really tired of people saying that DMT is found in the brain when there is absolutely no discernible evidence to support that claim right now so I needed to get my rant in. but yeah, drugs are bad and what not so stay away from those pesky guys

I found a way to use the word 'fortnight' in my blog tonight.

Normally when I'm in a sour mood books seem to be the last place I ever want to turn to (making book puns already). It often seems difficult for me to focus on reading when I'm perturbed and this only results in further frustration. However, I have started to wonder that this problem isn't attributed solely to that I'm reading, but what it is I'm reading. I'm sure there are many people in this world who can manage reading multiple books at once. Or those who can breeze through novel's and reading requirements as if they were nothing. I, however, am different. I don't allocate too much of my free time for literature and is therefore problematic for me to read multiple stories simultaneously or even finish a book in under a fortnight. This ties into my earlier point because much of what I read these days is required for this class. Of course I have some freedom in my choices (the 3 novels we could pick for the independent reading project), but these novels are all essentially the same and offer no especially unique idea's. So reading in relatively recent time periods, since school started, has not helped me deal with or alleviate problem's since I don't have much control over what I'm reading. Trying to read The Road whilst in a chipper mood is simply impossible. Reading Beloved without wanting to jam a stake through my eyes was also pretty hard. And trying to figure out what is happening in Emily Dickinson's mind as she writes her mood shattering poetry is torture. But reading books I get to choose definitely helps my attitude. I don't think the content or genre of the books I read for pleasure much matters. I thoroughly enjoy reading when I can do so at my leisure and have an interest in subject matter. This being said, I can't wait to finish any reading requirements we will have for this class. The Hobbit  has been gathering dust next to my bed for nearly 3 months since I haven't had time for it. I'm also interested in No Country for Old Men, Fight Club, maybe some more Cormac McCarthy and  Tolkien if I have time before college starts.

Obligatory Poetry Blog

In class the other day I initially chose #19 from the list of definition's of poetry. This quote reads as "Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotion know what it means to want to escape from these things." I'm not sure why exactly I chose this quote. It just stood out to me. After much contemplation I decided that this quote meant that poetry isn't a form of expressing emotions; but instead a way to escape them. This of course only makes sense if you want to escape happiness for anger and frustration since poetry does nothing but annoy me. Another quote that really stuck out to me was the one by Isaac Newton: "(Poetry is) a kind of ingenious nonsense." I really liked this one because it describes exactly how I feel about the majority of poems that I read. At first glance, most poems seem vague and lack any inherent meaning. But upon further reading, it is usually likely to find implicit messages that were not visible before. Whether or not these messages were intended is often irrelevant since it only matters what people interpret it as. However, I still think that poetry is just a way for authors to string together incoherent and purposefully ambiguous phrases in hopes that people will mistake complexity for proficiency.

Balls in Space: Random Blog about Spaceballs

I was torn on what to blog about tonight. I figured I could do the cliche blog about the end of Beloved  and how much I just absolutely adored that book, or write about my independent reading book and how that ties into my project. And then I thought "meh I could also just write about some movie cuz books are lame and stuff." But unlike my other blogs about movies ( There Will Be Blood/No Country for Old Men) this movie has close to zero literary significance or merit. But it's hilarious and would've fit into our satire mini-unit but I kinda forgot about it until just now. It's Spaceballs of course. The movie that made fun of Star Wars before it was cool. This movie is essentially 90 minutes of puns and terribly hilarious and obvious parodies about Star Wars and other prevalent sci-fi films of the times. What I love about this movie is how incredibly stupid it is. My dad made me watch it when I was young so of course I found all its immature humor appealing then. But even when I watched today I found myself dying at some of the jokes. I don't want to give too much away, but probably one of my favorites things about this movie is how frequently the actors acknowledge that they are in a movie. In fact, in one scene the villains find a copy of this movie, put in the VHS player, and watch their own movie so they can see what they need to do next. It's hard to explain with words but trust me, it's a funny movie. 




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtkK3eijBso

Probably my favorite scene in the movie. Also, I guess I should note that that clip has an utterance of an absolutely horrifying, terrible swear word so you know, hide yo kids hide yo wife.