It all started when I received an invitation to go to the ‘Yearbook dinner’ which is where all the Yearbook members come together and celebrate all the hard work they have put into the, well, the Yearbook (which is super duper  awesome by the way). The festivities began at 8pm and took place at a restaurant called ‘DOTS Experimental Sushi’ which I found to be quite an amusing name…what exactly were they experimenting with or on? Were the guests Guinea Pigs? Would I receive mysterious, glowing, radioactive Sushi?? But anyway, that would have been cool…

Anywho, I had done nothing but sleep and watch Wall-E….which is really cool btw…for the whole day and when it was finally 7:12pm I decided to get ready. I went and took a shower and carried out all the necessary ablutions, when it suddenly sort of dawned on me, I didn’t really know where this place was…typical Matthew…I thought . After quickly getting dressed and slipping on my awesome shoes I ran to the computer and went to my facebook account and began to hunt for phone numbers…but alas I could find none and so I went onto facebook chat and prayed I would find a fellow yearbooker on the chat, and lo and behold there was Lenny! Quick as a flash I clicked on his name and typed the message, ‘Do you know Silvia’s number?’ as fast as I could. I then sat and waited apprehensively for his reply…his reply was, ‘No, sorry’ or something like that. Damn it! I thought…but then I asked, ‘Are you going to the yearbook thingy tonight?’

‘Yes’ he replied…

He then continued to give me directions to the restaurant, and I thanked him and logged out of facebook.

Good. I thought. I just need to catch the U3 to Zieglergasse and walk towards 103 Mariahilferstrasse…cool.

I then picked up my fully charged phone, my wallet, that contained 46 Euros, my house keys and, by far the most important accessory, my iPod with the headphones already attached. I said goodbye to my mother, my father and my sister as I listened to the awesomeness that is Jack Johnson.

I stepped out of my apartment and moved towards the small, fragile elevator that took me to the ground floor.

It wasn’t long before I was across the street and near the other elevator that would take me down to the Nestroyplatz station. I bought a 24 hour ticket, which cost about 6 Euros, as I mouthed the words to the chorus of ‘Anything but the Truth’. However, my terribly relaxed mood was quickly destroyed as I spun around to see that a small pale looking lady had entered the elevator. Now, being the kind, friendly people who Austrians so often are, I knew that if I didn’t run for the elevator and nearly kill myself in the process, I would not get onto the elevator and would be late for the Yearbook dinner. So I ran, and leapt onto the elevator as the door was closing. But my victory was short-lived, as in my haste I had forgotten to validate my ticket (there was a blue-box thing just outside the elevator and there were none of them down in the U-bahn station, well they were located down stairs but they were by the stairs, which was quite far away) so I decided to exit the elevator and quickly validated my ticket. I muttered an inaudible ‘Entshüldigung’ and re-entered the elevator, my head-phones now slightly lop-sided. The pale, pointed faced lady, with her dark shark eyes, didn’t smile in an understanding manner…instead she gave me a sharp icy look and muttered ‘Danke’ quite loudly. At first I had no idea what she was talking about, so I uttered ‘Bitte’ and smiled. But as her grimace deepened and her eyes darkened, I came to understand that she wasn’t saying ‘thank you’, she wanted me to say ‘thank you’. But why? She hadn’t helped me, she hadn’t made any attempt tho hold the door for me. So she wanted me to thank her for having the audacity to hang around me for a few extra seconds. And most of all, when we got down to the station it wasn’t like the 4 extra seconds had cost her a train, for the train she was going to catch was about to arrive…in 2 minutes. So as I stepped off the elevator, I simply looked at her once more and smiled my biggest, cheesiest and cheekiest grin and gave her a small wave. Her face was like a lump of melted putty, all bent and flexed into what must have been a very uncomfortable position that was full of hate and disgust. Now, most of me, about 65% didn’t care, but the remaining 35% couldn’t help but feel bad, even though my logic told me that she was being ridiculous… I couldn’t help but feel a little bit bad.

Anyway, I was soon on the U3 and even sooner than I thought I was exiting the station and was walking up the steps towards the busy street. At first I had no idea where I was really, but I then remembered that a map I had looked at said that DOTS was located West of the Zieglergase station so I looked for the setting sun, but alas all the stupid grey buildings were in the way so I decided to find 103 manually.

Very soon I was at DOTS but I couldn’t see anyone else anywhere…and I was feeling quite apprehensive and lost…but this only lasted for about 34 seconds. After this time had lapsed I saw a familiar face walking towards me…Hayden Lemire. Cool. At least I wasn’t lost alone now. We said our formal greetings and he called various people and asked them about their current locations. Soon afterward he spotted Mr. Bancroft and Sophie…yeah! All was not lost! Whilst we waited for the rest of the team to arrive Hayden commented on how expensive this restaurant was and how it had could cost 2 people about 250 Euros just to eat there. We both laughed at the thought of the Yearbook team’s bill at the end of the evening. ‘It would be like 21 times that amount!’

A few other yearbookers arrived shortly afterward and Mr. Bancroft took us inside.

Like all restaurants it had its pros and its cons…Well, the decorum was strange, (con) to say the least and we ended up having our own little room to ourselves, which was very convenient (pro). Mr. Bancroft then commented on how the chandelier hung from the bare ventilation that hung mechanically from the ceiling (con), which was something I hadn’t noticed. It was on odd sort of place, and the chairs we got were difficult to get into and out of. One had to be double-jointed or maybe even quadruple-jointed in order to sit down and stand up without having to resort to amateur gymnastics (con).

Once everyone had arrived, the drinks were ordered. I had a normal coke of course. Very typical of me, and apparently very ‘boring’ of me (as I usually am) as Lenny said to, I think it was, Xiaozhou who simply rolled her eyes at the remark as she had ordered a normal coke as well.

Anyway, I can’t remember most of the conversations that followed as I took part in hardly any of them and decided to test the heat conductivity of the chop-sticks I had been given. Now at first they appeared to be steel but on a closer inspection I believed them to be to made of some kind of plastic that was spray-painted…or at least it was steel I had never held before…but the heat-conductivity experiments continued. I began to rub down on the chopsticks to develop heat via friction, and as I did so I timed how long it would take for the heat to spread from one area to another, but the experiment didn’t really work…of course. Now, and this always happens, Silvia and her minions looked over at me and asked, ‘Matthew, what are you doing?’ and as I always reply I said, ‘I don’t know’ as I often don’t feel like explaining myself…

The experiments continued with me staring into my glass (which was now devoid of any coke) and I experimented with the magnifying properties of the glass and was fascinated by the kaleidoscope effect the glass had on the light. Again I was confronted by the question, ‘What are you doing?’ and again I replied, ‘I don’t know’.

Then the food arrived….

I ordered the Misosuppe, and the Steak and Cheese Maki thingy…

The Misosuppe was good, but a little bit salty for me…but it was good overall (3.5/5 Yes, now I’m a food critic)

Then the main-course arrived and it was delicious (5/5)…what made it especially nice was the fact that it was plated with gold sprinkles, 24 karats At first I tried to collect all of the gold off of the sushi but found that as I did so the gold simply faded away and meshed to pieces of the sticky rice and simply disappeared. Disappointed that my get rich-quick-scheme had failed I continued to eat the rest of my Sushi. Afterwards I felt like a million-buks! PUN INTENDED…

My side of the table then began to argue over the importance and significance of sport…and the differences in the etymologies between the word ‘sport’ and the word ‘game’. This argument soon revealed those who were enthusiastic and excited for the Fifa World Cup and those, like me, who were not. And I mean, I’m not disappointed and upset that the Fifa World Cup is occurring…I am, as I have always and will probably always be, indifferent…I don’t care…However, I do hate it when someone assumes that because I’m South African and the World Cup is being hosted in SA that I would immediately be excited and patriotic about it. And of course, I am not saying I’m not patriotic, I’m just not super duper patriotic, I mean I’ll support SA in the World Cup but if we go to war, then SA can piss off…I ain’t gonna kill anyone just because my country says so. So I wouldn’t go to war for my country, and unlike most blindly patriotic and biased folk, I have no illusions about South Africa…at all.

Anyway, the feast was over and the grade 11s had to return home early because they have or had school tomorrow…or today…it’s currently 1:21am in the morning. And they had to study for History…oh yes…I remember when I had to study…and go to school…fun times.

Anyway, (wow, I say ‘anyway’, a lot) soon after, we grade 12s had to leave…and went down to the train station, Hayden and Calvin went on a bus though, so it was only, Franni, Silvia, Linda, Isuru and I…Juhee, Yayra Cecilia, and Jane had left earlier on I think. I then got separated from Linda and Franni as Isuru, Silvia and I stepped off of the U3 onto the Stefansplatz platform (and I was glad too as there had been some very strange and fearsome fellows sitting behind us on the U3).

What was this? It appears that Xiaozhou, Surbhi, Yangyang and Yayra had stepped off of the same train…but they had left a good 20 minutes before us…So jokingly I asked if they had got stuck in some kind of time-vortex or if they had been messing with relativity. Xiaozhou replied that they had simply got on the wrong train or something or the other…So we all walked to the U1 station…except in a moment of confusion Silvia and Isuru broke off from the pack and went up the escalators instead of down them…anywho, Xiaozhou, Yayra, Yangyang, Surbhi and I soon arrived at the correct U1 station…and after 7 minutes of small-talk and spending time amongst Xiaozhou’s so called ”awesomness” or so she said, I wasn’t convinced, we bordered the train. At first no one sat, as if we had done so the group would have been broken up, and so Yayra was held back, and did not sit despite the fact that she really wanted to sit.

Soon just about all the seats were clear and so the group sat down…but alas, I was to get off at the next station -.-

I then tried to fix my headphone wire-thing (it’s been a bit weird at the moment) by shortening it and tying it in a knot, but I was only scoffed at once more and recall Yangyang saying, ‘It isn’t going to work’. Thanx a bunch…

Soon I was off the train and said goodbye to everyone…and began to walk towards the stairs when I suddenly noticed I was walking in the wrong direction…I quickly spun around on my heels and walked swiftly towards the stairs on the opposite side of the U-bahn (the elevator was too full for me to get on, damn mothers with their prams) and sped past Xiaozhou, Yayra, Surbhi and Yangayang. When they realized it was me, (I was quite embarrassed), and that I had been walking in the wrong direction most of them must have laughed but I could see Xiaozhou was laughing the most (I felt my face go red)—–thanx…I live to be ridiculed….

JK I don’t mind…

My perennial silhouette blackens my dark cold heart,

cools my icy flesh, steals all my warmth, all my Liebe it takes,

instills (only devouring) ruminations and splits my husk soul apart.

All these enduring, mirthful years. Fakes.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

The star is greater now; I have watched it redden for Armageddon,

it be a glow of great irony, for what once was vida is now death.

The rest have wasted, blasted, but I remain, never to deaden.

Cursed, and damned, condemned I still gnaw on breath.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

The Earth beneath me crumbles, scorched, cracks,

There exist sands, cendre, where once there was Them,

Oh! But now only ash, sand. Dust. Bones of backs.

I have seen all, been all, I know all, and I be where true dark does stem.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

I fall to my jong knees, grasp my forever-same hair and in despair, suddenly chortle,

because all the memories that in me exist, make all I have been and seen…immortal.

BTW: ‘………………………………’ means end of stanza

Cycle Pectus Pectoris

Guided and content:

a home makes a place on your heart,

its ivy coils dig and they dart,

deeper they sink,

down the fleshy pink,

even though they may one day be torn apart.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

True, those all for,

But not for mine.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Torn and bleeding:

after home is torn away,

the pectus is raw,

and we roar,

for all is salt…

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

True, those all for,

But not for mine.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Aimless and empty:

But the pectus pectoris heals a nasty sheath,

thickened and leathery,

it’s like a blind eye,

or untasting tongue,

we are cold.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Revelation:

We forgive, but we never truly forget,

we learn…

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Guided and content:

a home makes a place on your heart,

its ivy coils dig and they dart,

deeper they sink,

down the fleshy pink,

even though they may one day be torn apart.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

True, those all for,

But not for mine.

]]> http://emc7.wordpress.com/2010/05/20/heres-a-poem-i-wrote-recently-enjoy/feed/ 0 emc7 http://emc7.wordpress.com/2010/01/22/who-ever-said-the-ib-couldnt-induce-vivid-hallucinations-and-sleep-paralysis-a-lawsuit-is-imminent/ http://emc7.wordpress.com/2010/01/22/who-ever-said-the-ib-couldnt-induce-vivid-hallucinations-and-sleep-paralysis-a-lawsuit-is-imminent/#comments Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:48:07 +0000 emc7 http://emc7.wordpress.com/?p=22 ]]> I had better write these down whilst they are fresh in my mind.

I had the weirdest dreams last night. Now usually my dreams aren’t too bad, but these were, to use a colloquialism, ‘redonkulous’ (I suppose it’s supposed to a clever and witty form of the term ‘ridiculous’).

As most of you know (well I hope for most of the people who read this blog are in my grade) for the next three (well now it’s two) weeks the grade 12s at VIS will be undergoing a new form of torture, the IB Mock exams.

Now I have been studying for these exams day and night without rest (as those who have seen my schedule know), as the school did not give us adequate time to study for them properly (as we grade 12s had been mostly studying for our A1 IB orals that have just been completed).

Anyway, I had my English A1 exams on Tuesday, then I and about 8 other people had philosophy exams on Wednesday and yesterday everyone did their mathematics exams.

So yesterday when I got home I was little bit tired. And when I say a little bit tired, I am of course being sarcastic, for I actually passed out from exhaustion upon my arrival. This ‘unconscious state’ I was in lasted for about 3 hours.

However I did not have my strange dreams at this point. This is why I called it an ‘unconscious state’, I was not asleep. My theory is that I was so tired that my brain did not have sufficient energy to conjure the images of my dreams in my brain.

Anyway, I woke up to have dinner, I watched some Smallville, and I then returned to my room to write the blog I posted yesterday.

But when I went back to sleep at about 23:30, I was propelled into a weird, ‘trippy’ and spectacular world.

Now, as most of you will know, even if you aren’t in my grade, dreams are very tricky to describe, for when one is asleep one believes things to be true or possible in the ‘dream world’ when they are actually impossible (well, I like to believe that nothing is impossible, it’s just some events or ‘things’ are more improbable than others).

Furthermore, dreams change quickly, as in one second you’re running away from a monster, you are absolutely terrified, then BAM, you’re in a car, and you’re happy because you’re off to go see you grandma, who has actually been dead for 10 years.

Anyway, I’ll try to describe them as well as I can:

1) First off, I was in a highly advanced helicopter type thing. It’s propulsion system seem to use some kind of anti-gravity engine. I was, and this will be hard to believe, holding onto a large machine-gun, and I was shooting at something. And, oh yes, I was shouting and screaming with anguish. The helicopter soon landed and I leapt out.

2) Next thing I knew I was in my old house, the one I used to own in South Africa. However, my bedroom was a room I had never been in or seen before. It was a really cool room. Anyway, suddenly these two people came into my room. The first was an Asian man who was dressed in the style of a ninja (he looked like that guy from Ninja Assassin) and a women who looked average looking and, like my  bedroom, I had never seen her before.  Now these two people said, ‘We’re here to check your passport’. I however did not think this was odd at all, but in my dream I did feel nervous, my heart was beating fast, and I remember thinking that these guys were ‘bad guys’ and I was actually a secret agent (yes, just like 007), but how that made any sense is a mystery to me. Suddenly, alarms were going off and they were wearing gas-masks. They said ‘Your passport is fake. You’re the one we’ve been looking for.’ Suddenly a strange milky white gas filled the room (by the way I was lying on my bed the whole time this was happening, and I felt no urge to stop them). ‘Yes! We’ve activated the house’s security system, the gas will kill you in 2 minutes!’ they said as they walked out of the room and locked the door. Indeed, I did feel like I was dying, it was so real! My chest was getting heavy and tight, I coughed for my throat felt ticklish and a numbness was spreading through my extremities. My vision was going blurred and was becoming bordered by a white light as I hurried towards the open window. I had no strength in my body and so I only just managed to climb through the window. Immediately I was better. I then ran as fast as I could, which was surprisingly fast in my dream, and arrived at a gate that was 3 meters high. I leapt over it with ease.

3) The next thing I knew I was at the airport (again an airport I had never seen before), and I was sitting next two the Queen and my parents were there as well. My dad then said, ‘Hey they’re showing Sherlock Holmes here, do you want to go see it?’ I said yes and off we went.

4) As we arrived at the line which was at the Cinema I turned around and was not surprised to see my dad was gone. He had been replaced by the whole 12th grade. Bashar was right behind me followed by Daniel Stuessy, and Raphael. Oh yes, we weren’t going to see Sherlock Holmes anymore, we were here to see The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

5) Oh yes, then my real heart gave way and started to beat so fast it felt like it was humming and I awoke. However, I was unable to breath and move. I was paralyzed. This only lasted for at least 5 dreadful seconds. Afterwards I could move properly again. I was sweating profusely and it was 12:03.

After a few seconds rest I ran to my laptop to check to see what had just happened and it seemed I had experienced ‘Sleep Paralysis‘ (look it up it’s pretty cool).

Well, that was just about it, it was the most exciting experience I had, well, experienced in a while.

And on a final note, I blame the IB.

It was a Monday, if I remember correctly it was raining, it was cold and I had a lot of German to catch up on (I had not done any of my german homework over the winter break, and I had to start writing up my German articles for my orals, but let’s just keep that between you and me ), and as most of you know, German is of course my favourite subject…

NOT!

I despise it with every single fiber of my being (and yes I do use italics to emphasize things), well to tell you the truth, I don’t mind the teachers I just dislike the subject for I suck at German. Furthermore, I am just fed up with it, because if I learn or study for German I get a 4 or a 5, and if I don’t, I get a 4 or a 5, so all in all it doesn’t matter what I do, but, anyway, I still had to do it.

So as I stood in the U-bahn, near to the U-bahn door, I did what I usually do on days such as these: I choose to listen to Snow Patrol and Coldplay, I turn the volume on my iPod to full power,  I contemplate my sad situation and begin to ruminate on my own finitude, the futility of existence and the injustice of life, when, all of a sudden, the train stopped at Vorgartenstrasse.

When I say this I don’t mean: Oh my word, the train actually stopped! How strange!

I mean that I had not noticed that I was already so close to Nestroyplatz, and it felt as if I had just got on the train.

There was also one other reason I had noticed the sudden change in the inertial state of the train, and this reason was the strange man who had just entered the carriage. At first I thought my eyes were deceiving me, but in the end they weren’t. The man, who was short, bald, and Italian looking had something strange hidden under his tattered jacket. He stood there for a few moments, sweat visually dripping from his face. His head swiveled about as he looked up and down the carriage, but what he was looking for was a mystery.

It was then that I noticed that this odd man was being flanked by two hideous, hygienically challenged women. They too stood staring suspiciously, there beady eyes also searching for the ‘unknown factor’.

I was frightened as I had no idea what to expect. Questions sprang to life in my brain: What was hidden under that man’s jacket? Is it a bomb? A gun? What were they looking for? What is happening? Our carriage is cut off from the others, what will I do? What will happen? I began to feel slightly claustrophobic. I suddenly noticed that I was not the only one who was eyeing these strange and smelly ‘weirdos’ (for lack of a better word), for nearly everyone else in the carriage (I estimated there to be at least 12 of us) was doing so as well.

These last few paragraphs however happened within seconds and soon the doors shut, and the terror commenced.

My heart thumped in my chest, everything happened as if in slow motion, and I watched  the man pull out…………………(I use the full-stops to build suspense)………… an accordion?

What?

Surprise and relief flooded through me, but these soon dissipated as the music began. Sorry, did I say music? I meant cacophony!

Wow! That made me angry, quite angry.

Furthermore, the fact that these women pulled out small paper cups and then ran up to people to disturb them for money made me even more angry.

I was very pissed off.

It was as if they thought we wanted them to play loud and terrible ‘noises’ (I will refrain from calling it ‘music’ as that would be blasphemy) on a public train. Why can’t they just go away and get a job like normal people?

As one of these ladies approached me (I could smell her horrible, gingivitis-drenched/beer-soaked/fungal-lined flatulence from a mile away) I fixed her with a very deadly stare.

She backed off immediately.

Good. I was in no mood to be approached or engaged by fools (and anyway I had no money).

And the siege was over as suddenly  as it had begun.

The man and the two ‘ladies’ got off at Praterstern and were gone, having only scraped about 4 euros out of those who were kind enough to provide them with the money they so desperately needed (to fix their teeth).

For a few moments I felt better as I compared my situation to theirs. So, in the end, the attack of the smelly accordion-man turned out to be quite a positive experience.

However, as I am unable to hold onto these happy feelings and optimistic thoughts (optimistic ideas continue to and always will allude me), they disappeared completely as I stepped onto the Nestroyplatz platform and I returned to my original gloomy state.

Yip. I hate them too.

I suppose I am more into Hamlet-ism  then Fortinbas-ism (those of you who have studied Hamlet as extensively as I have will understand).

Now, I suppose you were wondering what exactly prompted this sudden burst of fury towards the military. Well, it’s not exactly the real military, I have no real, concrete evidence to support this claim in the real world, but in the land of fiction and especially sci-fi, I see it so often.

I have just watched The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008 Version) for the 5th time and I just thought it would be interesting to talk about this in my first blog, because I have been meaning to write it for a while, I just have not thought of anything, so I chose this.

Anyway, this is how stories involving the ignorance of the military and aliens go. A highly advanced and kick-ass alien arrives on Earth, the military shoot it first, and, when it shoots back they wonder why.

Fools!

For once, I wish that they could think this through logically! This is what a normal person would do:

FIRST, these aliens can travel at approximately 3×10^7m/s (for those of you who are not physicists this is approaching the speed of light, which is approx. 3×10^8m/s or 299792458m/s. So, yeah, it is pretty fast), and SECONDLY, they were able to de-activate the human defense systems by unknown means, so, the last thing you would do is shoot them! DUH! But anyway, here are some more reasons (other than the obvious ones that have been given):

Scenario 1) If the aliens are peaceful, and are just here to say hello, or if they are here to ask for our help, nothing overly bad will happen, correct? BUT if you shoot at them before you know what the hell is going on, then you may anger the aliens slightly, and they may just, well, I don’t know, WIPE OUT ALL LIFE ON EARTH BECAUSE THE MILITARY CAN’T THINK IN A LOGICAL MANNER! So, if we shoot the result is total oblivion.

Scenario 2) If the aliens are hostile, then, obviously they know our puny human weapons are just about as useful as sore teeth, (well they may not know this, but it is safe to assume this for if we had weaponry that could destroy them, why would they choose to attack us so openly?) so shooting is not going to help at all. In fact it will ruin the slim chance we have at developing a truce between the aliens and us, so, DON’T SHOOT! And, so again, if we shoot (or if we don’t) the result is total oblivion.

So, the alien’s intentions don’t really matter in the end (well they do, but we will destroy any positive scenarios by shooting), what does matter is that we don’t shoot at them before we know what they are there for.

Furthermore, if the alien asks to go see the UN then you had better let him do that, or he’ll kill you, or at least incapacitate  you, and go and do it anyway.

However, I do agree with what the secretary in the movie did say, that in first encounters between civilizations, the weaker one is either wiped out or enslaved, however, those interactions were all between humans, whose to say it will be the same with the aliens? You cannot really make that conclusion based on that observation! Honestly, haven’t these people ever heard of uncertainty?

But hey, this is all just my opinion.