There Will Be Nun Of That. Posted by Happy Blogger , 1.9.09 at Tuesday, September 01, 2009, in

As of today, I never have to take another Religious course again. ever. DONE.

I came home, and told my mother the good news, and then blah blah blah, now she wants me to be a nun. A nun. Like a black dress wearing, nun. Now, if you really knew me, I think you'd understand that I would be like Maria from the Sound of Music, and everytime I would do something wrong, there would be a chorus of nuns, standing in perfect staggered positions, singing 'how do you solve a problem like happy blogger'. And then they'd insist that I leave, and then I sing songs with some random children, and we all live happily ever after, climbing every mountain...

A flippitygibbet, a willawisp, a clown...

Sorry 'Ladies and Gentleman', I have fallen short of ideas.
I don't want to be a nun. Just saying.
-Happy Blogger

Have a bit of fun Posted by Sad Blogger , at Tuesday, September 01, 2009, in

Because I'm a pretentious douche bag, I was reading poetry just for the heck of it this morning and I stumbled across Percy Bysshe Shelley's To a Skylark and the usage of the word fascinated me. So I did some research. And so the following was born. I'll start with the opening lines of To a Skylark.

HAIL to thee, blithe spirit!
Bird thou never wert—
That from heaven or near it
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.

The term "skylark", more commonly associated with the species of bird, was first printed in 1809 as a verb, meaning "to engage in harmless fun or mischief." Before that, sailors used the term to describe the antics of those that would scurry about the rigging of a ship in port. As the ship approached land, the crew would "lark" about with the anticipation of seeing their families.
It is not certain how the meaning of the word came about. One theory is that the meaning of the word is associated with the free-spirited nature of the bird it derives its name from. Another possibility is that the verb "lark" began as a misinterpretation of the old British verb "lake," which meant "to play or frolic."

I know the meaning of the word "frolic." When I was a kid, my family had some money problems and couldn't afford many toys. We had to find fun the old fashioned way. Honestly, we probably had more fun than the other kids. We lived in a duplex in Vancouver for a short while and our neighbor, Craig, was the most spoiled kid you ever could have imagined. He was the first kid I knew to own a Playstation and I remember his mom inviting my brother and I over to play with it and he never let us touch it. But we really didn't care. We'd hang out in the back yard and play tag or catch or soccer for hours. Now and then we'd see Craig in the back yard, riding around on his little electric Jeep. Remember those? Yeah, he had one of those too. But he wasn't having near as much fun as my brother and I were, tossing the baseball to each other, digging holes in the yard with sticks, using a volleyball as a soccer ball and taking shots.

Kids are so hypnotized by crap these days. There's so much garbage shoveled onto them by the Grand Market of Crap. They sit there all day and stroke their iPods, poke at their cellphones, scream at their video games. Even the toys for younger kids are ridiculous. And the kids watch so much damned TV that there's never anything that they don't want. They're exposed to an endless stream of toys and games that they must own. People forget how to make their own fun anymore. Nobody just sits in their yard and plays "She Loves Me Not" with a flower or pretends they're an airplane. I used to pretend I was an airplane all the time. In Vancouver, you could be in the backyard and it would be raining. You could run to the front yard and it would be dry. I would run back and forth for an hour, laughing at how magical and amazing it was. People hardly do that anymore.

What happened to that sparkle? That skylark in all of us? Think of the elation in those larking sailors as they came home to their families. Or how it must feel to the skylark to fly. To fly!!! Can you imagine? Percy Bysshe Shelley called it the "blithe spirit" of the skylark. That means to be completely filled; to be composed of happiness and lightheartedness.

Of course I'm not saying that that blithe spirit has gone from everyone. Maybe you haven't lost it. But it's just something to think about as the new school year takes off. Maybe you've been swept up in something too. Not just toys. Maybe your mind has dulled over the last two months. Well take 5 seconds to think about it...5...4...3...2...1...okay. Yeah? I know, right? It kinda sucks. But it's a new school year. Some might be starting high school for the first time. Or maybe even college. You're going to have a thousand opportunities to wake that kid up inside and have some real new experiences. Have a little fun. Promise? C'mon. Let that skylark out.

As always,

- The Sad Blogger