How to get stoked?

I was linked to this and thought some of you might appreciate it. It's a little too assumptive for my personal tastes, but you might glean something from it.

Simple Daily Habits to Ignite Your (Creative) Passion

Cheers,

Crash

Introduction: New writer!

I'd like to introduce MelLissa Brien. (Pronounced: Mel-Lisa) She'll be writing sports. While she has a very busy schedule (I'll let her tell you about it herself), she's very interested in becoming involved with the paper. Be sure to give her a warm welcome when you next see her.

The financial collapse of America

It’s finally here. The time we’ve all dreaded. Most of us knew it would come down to this. The draconian lies of the Republican Party, and the Machiavellian ideals of the Democrats. Either party is a vote for business. To paraphrase Noam Chomsky, there are not two parties in America to vote for. There is one: the business party. Both say they have differences of opinion, but both are simply factions to one party: business. To serve the interest of the ruling class, hasn’t that always been what power is about? From the days of “democracy” in Ancient Greece, where only the ruling class could vote, to the Roman Republic, whose history has so many parallels with America right now many enlightened people call New York City “New Rome,” and Americans the “New Romans.” Fast forward through the dark ages and we have the church, structured in such a way as to serve the interest of the ruling papacy. No one had the authority to interpret scripture until the Protestant Reformation.  We have the “divine right of kings,” where nobility, moreover, the monarch, was no less than Jesus in vicar. The peasants were kept stupid and were robbed of their labor, land, and rights. Feudalism is not different than Capitalism. The CEOs and Presidents and government officials are simply the new nobility. And the working class is simply peasants, robbed for their time, lives, health, humanity, freedom, love, dignity. Only now we have the illusion that we’re free to vote. The Republican Party has done a fine job at concealing the fact that labor unions fight for health care, decent pay, shorter days, and a guaranteed job. But a vote for them is a vote for the off-shoring of jobs, of tax-breaks for the super rich, of people like the Koch brothers who have so much money and are so disgustingly libertarian they’d rather there be no social safety net and America be anarchistic, but to the point of chaos, not ideologically. And now, instead of compromising with the Democrats, they want to let America collapse because they don’t want tax increases on corporations or the mega-rich.  Gotta love them Republicans, whose voter base is highly religious, which is one of the illusions that keep them in power. Jesus wouldn’t have stood for privatized tyranny, so why should the right-wing base? And to the left, with such grand plans as NAFTA, simply another form of neo-colonialism. And so, as we stand here on the eve of financial collapse, we should all be wondering, when is enough? When have the people had enough? When will the people wake from their apathetic slumbers, as MLK once said? When will something truly equitable come along to replace this illusion of a two party system, a system which has America cornered, in check, with very little hope to get out of it? Ask yourself, when the **** have you had enough? Get out there and protest! It’s your constitutional right to do so! It’s your responsibility as an American! Tell Congress that the only anti-Americanism is their support of corporate, privatized tyranny here at home and abroad and soon enough the whole thing is going to fall. Then we’ll have to deal with China.

Introduction: Nicole Livingston

Hello and welcome to my introduction,

I'm pretty new to the concept of blogging, but I'll give it a shot. My name is Nicole Livingston and I am a Sophomore at EWU majoring in Journalism. I came to EWU with the intention of studying Nursing and found out that chemistry was not my strong suit. After coming to the tough conclusion that I just wasn't cut out to be a nurse and suffering a very long winter of depression I started pursuing something that had always been a passion of mine: writing. My small, supportive circle of friends encouraged me to start writing poems. Not only did this get me through my depression, but it inspired me to pursue a career choice that would let me write every day. I hope to one day take the knowledge I gain through my coursework at EWU and my time as a member of The Easterner and become a magazine editor.

I'm a pretty eclectic girl. I'll listen to any kind of music at least once and I can never settle on one particular style when it comes to clothing. Hiking, photography, thrift shopping, crafts and movie watching are just a few of my many hobbies. As nice as it is to be by myself sometimes, I rather enjoy surrounding myself with people. I am probably one of the best spellers you'll ever find and have a very extensive vocabulary. When I'm not busy studying at EWU you can find me spending time in my hometown of Pomeroy, WA where I volunteer as an EMT and spend time with my mother and little brother.

I hope two paragraphs was enough of an introduction. I look forward to working with all of the staff at The Easterner and getting familiar with how a newspaper works this fall.

-NL

Introduction: Davis Hill

Hey everyone,

My name is Davis Hill and I've been hired on as a Staff Writer for next year. I'm excited to have the opportunity to work with everyone, and to try my hand at professional writing.

I'm a composer and pianist, and next year is the last year (hopefully) of my B.A. music degree here at Eastern. I'm musically eclectic; I've written film music, jazz, contemporary, pop, rock, electronic, and experimental music. Whenever I mention that I'm a composer, people always want to know "what kind" of composer I am, and, while I appreciate their interest, I just don't feel that this is a relevant question for someone like me. I come from a jazz background, but I write in many different styles; at the end of the day, my goal is simply to advance the art form, in any and every way possible.

You can learn more about me and hear recordings of work at my website, davishillmusic.com, or at my Soundcloud page. I also play with the local psychedelic rock band Mirror Mirror (check us out on Facebook).

I'm taking this summer to expand my portfolio, work on my website and social networking, and practice and play a lot more. This week I'm in Seattle for a four-day intensive workshop on Classical Persian Music. It's fascinating - so many possibilities are left out of the Western music with which most of us are familiar. I'll be writing a little about my experience on my website, and possibly posting some recordings of the workshop, so stay tuned.

In my spare time I enjoy reading more than anything else. My passions are Classical and ludic (gaming) philosophy, mythology (any, but especially Greek), science fiction, Tolkien, and American and English classics. Much of my work is influenced by epic narratives like the Iliad, Odyssey, Beowulf, and the Lord of the Rings. When I have time, I also like to read about religion, spirituality, and social/gender issues.

I'm currently working on setting text to the Legend of Zelda theme in a way that approximates the oral epic tradition of Homer. This is probably my biggest project coming into next year; I'll also be working on pieces for the acid jazz/jazz fusion band I hope to start in September, and on a series of microtonal improvisations based on my experience with Persian classical music at Cornish.

Incomplete, but okay with it today...

I feel comfortable sharing my incomplete VCD project with all of you, partly because I am proud of how much I learned, and partly because I learned something about myself in the process.

I am taking VCD 1 as we speak. We were given an assignment (and maybe some of you have already taken this class at EWU from Prof. Hwang) in which we are given a single word to express with a graphic illustration or photo. I chose the word "revive" if you can't make it out by looking at the picture. Here is how it turned out. It is what it is at this point.

I should have chosen the word "incomplete". It wasn't one of the choices, but incomplete is what it is, and will probably stay that way for a while. Then I got to thinking, I am incomplete. I am a work in progress. And that is okay!

I get frustrated because I am a perfectionist. If it isn't perfect it usually gets stuck in a drawer or thrown out. But, for the first time in my life I am not going to throw out my imperfect work. I am going to keep it. Maybe it will help me to remember that it is okay to leave something incomplete, but it is not okay to give up. It is okay to set lofty goals for yourself, but it isn't okay to give up because you aren't perfect the first time or make a mistake.

I hope you enjoy my imperfect art. I hope you aren't afraid to share your "works in progress" either.