Recent posts by amitgordon1 on Kongregate

Topic: Music / Music forum game

Storm the Gates – P:ano

Topic: Music / Music forum game

Cocktail Vampire – Les Georges Leningrad

Topic: Music / Modest Mouse

Modest Mouse are pretty good. I haven’t actually listened to them for a while, as my music tastes have been getting very much more obscure, and very much more pretentious. However, I still hold a place in my heart for Isaac Brock, after seeing him stagger around on stage after their fifth(!!!) night in a row playing the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, OR, completely butchering every song. what a glorious first concert. Even though it was fun to see them all completely and utterly trashed, hopefully they will be a little more sober when I see them at Sasquatch! Music Festival in May.

Topic: Music / what concerts have you seen/will you see this summer?

I will be riding off to Sasquatch! Music Festival this coming Memorial Day weekend (May 24th-26th) to see R.E.M., The Cure, The Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse, The New Pornographers, M.I.A., The National, Flight of the Conchords, Beirut, Okkervil River, Battles, and a ton of other awesome bands. Before then, though, I will hopefully be able to go see Black Moth Super Rainbow, and maybe Crystal Castles. I just went to see a band called Blitzen Trapper, and they were pretty awesome.

Topic: Serious Discussion / UFO's

I believe that there is a scientific explanation to pretty much everything. However, I also believe that there is a limited amount of people who actually understand those scientific explanations. I know that even the slightest thought of how large infinity really is (hint: really, really, really large) just gives me a headache, and some scientist can try and explain to me what causes those silly floating lights up in the sky, and even though chances are I won’t understand him, I will trust that he is telling the truth, because I have been raised to trust science. In cases where a person experiences something they do not understand, like witnessing a floating light that doesn’t look light a plane or something, and do not trust a scientist to give them an explanation, I kind of admire their spirit. They don’t just want to give up and let someone else come up with the explanation for them. I guess compared to them I am lazy and just let other people do my thinking for me. However, the majority of the people who do see things they believe to be extraterrestrial do not have the capability of doing research to find out what it might be, so just fall back on the only explanation they can come up with, which is that it is an alien piloted UFO. I do not want to sound presumptuous or offensive, and don’t want to imply that all of these people are ignorant or stupid, but if you don’t have the resources to find out what something is, it really is just easier to accept it as being something as extreme and extraordinary as an alien.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Who will win the election!?!?

I definitely believe that Obama is going to be the Democratic nominee, and I also believe that he has more of a chance of beating McCain than Clinton does. I guess we just have to see how the whole scandal thing plays out with McCain, and it might hurt him enough to make Obama’s chances even greater. However, I do hope that if Obama wins, that won’t be the reason, I would much rather him win as a legitimately better candidate. However, I disagree with Malachi and warsoldier. I originally thought that there was no way a republican could be elected after Bush, considering what a mess he left us in, both domestically, and abroad. However, when I started looking at the republican candidates, it seemed a little less certain that this was true, because of the fact that none of the candidates were Bush (although Huckabee could have gone in that direction). I think that McCain is so drastically different from Bush (and, I have to admit, much more intelligent and well spoken ), that if he loses, which I hope he does, it won’t be because of Bush, but because of Obama. However, if McCain wins, I am blaming it on Nader.

Topic: Serious Discussion / legalization of marijuana

I think you may have misunderstood, I said that marijuana is LESS damaging than alcohol, but yes, I do not think that it should be allowed on public property, the same that I do not think that any mind altering substance should be allowed on public property. If a person wants to take drugs, that is their own business, they shouldn’t be able to disrupt others. I find public drunkenness to be quite unattractive.

Topic: Serious Discussion / A Department of Defense employee getting some thoughts out.

What bothers me most about the large portion of uninformed, ignorant citizens of the US (not any of you, you all seem to be fairly intelligent, if maybe just a wee bit volatile people) is the idea that all Islamic people are terrorists. This is the same thing that happens with fundamental muslims who decide to become terrorists. This is where I would like some clarification, Demonic. Do you not believe that there is a hatred that is brewed by fundamentalism and propaganda in some groups in the Middle East? I have talked to super right-wing people here in the US, and they have been convinced that attacks such as on the World Trade Center exemplify the feeling of all the residents of the Middle East, and that, I quote, “we need to go over there and kill every single Sand N*” (a word that I find seriously offensive, as I have many muslim friends, and come from the Middle East myself (although in this case, Israel hardly counts)) I find it hard to believe that the same hatred does not exist there, although definitely not in the majority. I cannot see someone flying a plane into a building without that strong belief that America is what is wrong with the world, the same that my American friend thinks that the Middle East is what is wrong with the world.

Sorry if some of this is a little bit convoluted, but when I have strong opinions, I kind of just blurt them out.

Also, Demonic, something I actually want your opinion on, is the state of transportation security, specifically in airports. Do you think that an adequate job is being done in airports to prevent terrorism? I kind of think that a lot of it is unnecessary, and if not unnecessary, poorly implemented, but I would like to hear the opinion of someone who might know a little bit more about the issue than me.

Topic: Serious Discussion / legalization of marijuana

I think that the worst effect of marijuana is caused by it being illegal. It is harmful to society because it forces users to buy it illegally, thus making them criminals. In many cases, the trafficking and selling of marijuana leads to other, even more serious crime. Marijuana is considered a gateway drug because it is illegal. Once you decide to break the law by buying weed, it is not going to be very hard to break the law to buy cocaine or heroin. I seriously believe that the legalization of marijuana, which is far less damaging a drug than both Alcohol and Tobacco, two culturally accepted, legal drugs, would see a serious drop in crime, and other drug use. In response to whoever said they would vote against the legalization of Marijuana because “it smells bad, and I don’t want to be around people who are smoking it” (an approximate quote), I think that having to smell marijuana every once in a while (and you probably wouldn’t have to, as it could be regulated, i.e. no smoking in public, etc.) is not such a high price to pay for keeping kids off the street and out of jail. Another serious concern is the amount of underage people who smoke marijuana (I will admit that I am one of the many). I can say right now that it is a lot harder for me to obtain alcohol here in the US than it is for me to obtain marijuana. If marijuana had been legalized when I started high school, I probably would not start smoking it until I turned 18, or 21, or maybe even not at all.

However, before any steps towards legalization are really taken, there needs to be a paradigm shift when it comes to the way people view the drug. The social stigma needs to be removed, and people need to really understand what the drug does. This is going to take a while, considering the (failed) War on Drugs, the pharmaceutical companies wanting to keep us full of their own drugs, and the fact that people’s minds are on other issues (think terrorism, war, genocide, and all the other bad things in the world, which yes, I admit we should focus on first). But we can hold out hope that things will get better, and that patterns will change, and that people will realize what is in their best interest, and everyone else’s best interest.

That’s all I have to say.

Topic: Music / Battles

Battles are fantastic. I listen to them while I run.