Doctor Dray designs some kinda decent earphones

Bought a pair of TDK earbuds apparently designed by some fellow with a doctorate in earbud design (I assume. He’s called Doctor Dray or something like that. I surmise he’s some distinguished English audiophile who could tell the difference in quality from leads made with slightly different alloys) mostly because they were the most decent sounding pieces I could find. I’d bought a pair of generic, unbranded ones a week earlier and they’d sounded like someone shitting straight into my ear.

Well it turns out this particular pair the doctor must have made for that hippity hoppity stuff or something because the low end is stupidly powerful, so much so that it drowns out any kind of proper singing or progressive/solo guitar work, which makes up the vast majority of my music. As a result, I’m forced to switch my iPod 6^th gen Nano (which I got for 20 bucks from a friend who “got it from his cousin”)’s  EQ to Treble Booster in order to get decent sound sound definition. I’ll admit that with this setting  it’s pretty good, better than most generic brands I’ve used though not quite as full bodied as my old Samsung pair which I foolishly left in my track jacket pocket when I put it in the wash. Also, TessaracT’s music sounds quite oddly muted, though it sounded very normal in my Samsungs. It doesn’t do this with any other artist’s stuff, or even any other djent songs.

Another, upshot of this is that treble boost consumes battery power like crazy! I just discovered this after barely four hours of play, right as I’m psyching myself up to listen to the latest episode of The Cracked Podcast (which became my favorite podcast with its first episode. Go check it out now, the back catalogue’s still just five episodes thick, so there’s not much catching up to do) when the ‘Pod (does anyone call it that? Or will I have a mob of angry malophiles kicking down my door soon?) tells me I need to plug in. For comparison, I’ve been on 18 hour bus trips listening to back-to-back podcasts and audiobooks and  to loud, techy death metal while I catch some approximation of sleep (I can’t sleep when I can hear the drone of an engine), and never once got that message.

To make things worse, it’s a typical evening in Zimbabwe right now, meaning we have no power, so I’m reduced to the ridiculous situation of powering up my laptop just to charge the ‘Pod (dear Jobs forgive me if I have taken the name of thy product in vain), and writing this post in Word to pass the time and it has just* occurred to me that I could have been listening to the podcast using iTunes (‘Tunes?) all this time. This post really has no point anymore, so I guess the moral of the story is that anything worth doing is worth a hand in the bush.

 _________________________ 

To make this worth your while, here’s my favorite TessaracT song. Enjoy.

They cut the second best part of the song – the chilled out trail after the super techy bridge – out for this video. Here’s a full version. In fact, check out the full Concealing Fate if you're up for an excellent 25 minutes. It's absolutely beautiful.

 _________________________ 

*P.S. Honesty compels me to tell you that I didn’t *just* realise this. I realized it somewhere around the beginning of the second paragraph.

Sabbath School 29/10/11 - Fiction

In our local Adventist churches, there is always a story told for the children before the main sermon every Sabbath. Usually, these take the form of morality tales that reinforce simple values like kindness and honesty, or retell Bible stories in the form of modern allegories. Occasionally, though, you'll get the miracle stories. Many are innocent enough - "answered prayers" wierd coincidences that are attributed to God and such, but sometimes there'll be truly fantastical ones, which tend for some reason to always be the ones set in rural Africa. The one we ahd last week was one of the former type. It was about a couple of kids who were lost in the bush when they came across a lion. One of them remembers that their mother had told them that they should sing if ever they're cornered by a lion, so they start singing one of the well known hymns and the lion leaves them be. A short while later, some villagers who'd been looking for them arrive at the scene. They remark that they'd been led there when they heard a multitude of voices singing, the implication being that angels had joined the kids and scared the lion away.

"Well, it's just a story," some might say. What's wrong with that? Well, I have no problem with stories. I do have a problem, however, when they're being peddled to children in order to reinforce superstition. We can almost be certain that no such event has ever happened, but a child has no way of knowing that. To a child, everything you tell them is true. Every word is laden with vivid fact and they find it hard to tell what is true, what is allegory and what is pure imagination. Fairy tales also deliver to kids the same type of feeling, one of wonder at things which are not 100% true. Unlike fairytales, however, stories told in a religious setting are reinforced and never revealed outright to be simply imagination conveying a message. In the same breath, children are also told similarly fantastic stories from the Bible, which they are told are 100% infallible truth. Such stories wind up being a tool for crushing minds to better take in religious indoctrination - the child grows up with a stunted ability to tell the difference between fact and fiction, ripe for inculcating with all sorts of superstition, stories of miracles and the like.

Tomorrow, I will talk about the admissibility of stories as evidence, with particular attention paid to miracle stories.

***

Avenged Sevenfold - Fiction

Breaking Out, Breaking Down

So, I've got my internet back, and after a few solid weeks of leaching from the great blood vessel of knowledge I think it's time I seeded from the contents of my rich and beautiful mind. But first, let me catch you up on what's been going on in my life.

About a month ago I had a bit of a crisis because of which I came pretty damn close to coming out of the closet. Ours is a really small church, so it's impossible to hide behind other members - everyone is expected to pull their weight, be a part of running things and occasionally show their face up front. I've done so before without much of a problem, but things were different then. I was quite depressed at the time - things hadn't been going well in my life, I was hard at work self tutoring for my frickin A Levels and I didn't want to add to the stress by having to deal with the fallout of refusing to do it and possibly having to come out, so I sucked it up and did it, and managed to fake a smile while I was at it. Things had changed a month ago. I was feeling much better with myself, I'd been too late to register for exams this November and so will be writing next June, so a whole load of stress had been lifted off my shoulders. So when my mother told me I was supposed to be preaching the next Saturday I was just kind of like, "bleh". I really wasn't under any pressure and didn't care much.

It was the Friday before the big day that I started to freak out. I realised just how little I gave a damn, how I seriously couldn't be bothered to even pull something random out of my ass like I usually did when in this situation, and realised the implications of it. I was going to have to come out, tell everyone just why I couldn't stand up and defecate out of my mouth anymore. Looking for some assistance and support, I turned to the group Ex-Adventists and Seventh-day Atheists on Atheist Nexus. The conversation is on the comment wall. So thanks to advice from Dustin Williams (creator of the group and author of the great blog dwnomad) I decided to pull some stock sermon from the internet on a subject of basic morality and give that. I settled on this sermon, emphasising on how even the godless are moral folk and cutting out that downright libellous second paragraph. I'd then proceed to out myself that evening while everyone was having cake.

Well, things didn't quite go as planned. I discovered the next morning that I had been rescheduled - one of the church elders was taking that day and I would be preaching the next week. This kind of robbed me of my momentum. I decided not to do it that day and deliberate whether I would go for it sometime during the week. Other doubts began to crop up in my head - how would my parents react to my being atheist? Would they take away my allowance and computer privileges? Would I be forced to attend until the day I left home? My parents are pretty hard to read sometimes. At times I think they might be accepting and treat me like an adult. Then they say or do something that convinces me never, ever to say a thing. In the end I decided not to do it, but just do the sermon which was really about something every moral person ought to agree with. I ended up not having to give the sermon anyway - a visiting pastor was around and took over that week's activities.

Other than that, my life's been peachy. We just moved to a new neighbourhood and will probably be switching churches as well since our old one is now almost 30 minutes' dive away. The church we'll probably be moving to is much bigger than our old one, so I can blend in and keep a low profile. I promise I'll be a lot more active on the blogging front - I came to an epiphany a short while ago. Being an undercover atheist does have its advantages. Listening to all the kookoo things the religious people around me say gives me great ammo for my blog and allows me a glimpse into the psyche of the religious mind. So at the very least you can expect a weekly "Sabbath School" post about something I heard at church, as well as a few miscellaneous random things that kind of pop into my head. I'm also working on a series of essays detailing my journey to godlessness so that I can have a handy resource to point anyone wondering how I got where I am today and who wants to understand the reasoning behind the decisions I've made. I think they'll come invaluable when I finally do come out.

Also, metal!

Hiatus...and To Hell With God

Just want to say that my internet is down, so to any followers - I won't be posting much for quite a while.

This track somehow found its way onto my playlist. It isn't the greatest composition ever, nor is it the paragon of lyrical genius, but hell, I just love the title.

Asking Alexandria - Final Episode...OH MY FUCKING GOD!!!

Following my last two music posts, here's something at the very least refreshingly secular...

From their debut album, Stand Up and Scream. Lyrics:

Oh my God.
Oh my God.
If only he knew,
If only he knew,
If only he knew about the world without the bullshit and the lies,
We could have saved him.
They could have saved me.
But instead I'm here drowning in my own fucking mind,
And I'll be damned if you're the death of me.

Blood and ink stain the walls.
Silently with bloodied knuckles, I carry on
Hoping it's not too wrong.
You said the nights were far too long.
'Honey, it's just the start of it.'

Oh my God.
If only he knew.
Oh my God.
If only he knew.
If only he knew!
If only he knew.

Just stand up and scream.
The tainted clock is counting down.
(Faster and fast!)
You gave in to me.
Would you say the nights are far too long now?
(Faster, faster and fast!)

Oh my God!
Oh my fucking God!

The tears that stain my cheek must make me look weak!
I wear them proudly!
I wear them proud!


Just stand up and scream.
The tainted clock is counting down.
(Faster and fast!)
You gave in to me.
Would you say the nights are far too long now?
(Faster, faster and fast!)

Your knife,
My back!
My gun,
Your head!
[x2]

You need a doctor baby,
You scared?
You need a doctor baby,
You scared?
You need a doctor baby,
You scared?
You need a doctor baby,
You scared,
You scared,
You scared!
Yeah!
You need a doctor baby,
You scared!
You need a doctor baby,
You scared!
You need a doctor baby!
You need a doctor baby!
You scared!

OH MY FUCKING GOD this is a great song. I think I'm making it this blog's unofficial anthem :)

Just to squeeze some anti-stupidity sentiment from it, does anyone else hear this line:

If only he knew about the world without the bullshit and the lies

...and just find themselves thinking "creotards..."?

Heidevolk - Ostara

Today's little ditty comes from Dutch folk metal band Heidevolk...

From their album Uit Oude Grond.

Lyrics (Dutch):

In het veld gehuld, in mist en kou
Schijnt een glinstering, in de dauw
Als de hemel kleurt van zwart naart blauw
Ostara
In het oosten waar de nacht begon
Ontwaakt het licht der morgenzon
Haar ochtend zegent onze bron
Ostara

In de vroegte, als de dag begint
En de zon het sterrenveld verblindt
Als de lente winter overwint
Ostara
Bij de dageraad, door ans aanschouwd
Baant zonlicht zich een pad von goud
Door de kille nevels in het woud
Ostara

Nacht en dag bereiken evenwicht
Langverwachte terugkeer van het licht
Als de zon herrijst en kou verdwijnt
En het levenslicht het land beschijnt
Voel de warmte in de morgenstond
Weelderig groen ontspruit uit koude grond
Als het Saksisch volk de zon begroet
Op de heuvels badend in haar gloed

Lyrics (English):

in the field covered, in fog and cold
shines a sparkle, in the dew
when heaven colors from black to blue
Ostara (spring)
in the east where the night began
wakes the light of morningsun
her morning blesses our well
Ostara

early in the morning, when the day begins
and when the sun blinds the starfield
when spring conquers winter
Ostara
at dawn, seen by us
opens sunlight a path of gold
through the chilly fog in the woods
Ostara

night and day reaches balance
long expected return of the light
when the sun returns and cold vanishes
and the light of life shines on the soil
feel the warmth in the morning
abundant green shoots from cold soil
when the Saxon people greets the sun
on the hills bathing in her glow

As many may know, according to the sources the fictional Jewish Zombie's death occured around the time of the Jewish Passover. Now, all know the Catholic church's method of converting the pagan cultures consisted of a mixture of brute-force coercion and cultural assimilation, so the chronological equivalent they found to their Zombie Master's death and resurrection was the Spring fertility celebration, Ostara - Ēostre in the Anglo-Saxon dialect. And thus Easter was born.

So, always remember...

Nacht en dag bereiken evenwicht,

night and day reaches balance

...is the real reason for the Easter season.

Behemoth - No Sympathy For Fools

I feel I must, after last week's secrilege, atone for my sin against Athe. Therefore:

From their album Zos Kia Cultus

Lrics:

FOOLS! I cast you all aside!
Your bullets harm me not
I am heresy, blazing hell
The embodiment ov all you fear
I am all which you can never be
A truth revealing hate machine
No longer will I tolerate
Lies from a kingdom built on dread
Yet what if naught exists above?
No shining glory and no god
You question not, blindly believe
Upon your ignorance I shall feast
Damn higher virtues, divine love
Your wooden idols and your law
Kneel before your god yet do not see
He doth feel you lies

[ From: http://www.metrolyrics.com/no-sympathy-for-fools-lyrics-behemoth.html ]

Blinds you with fear
Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth
Your hearts I shall tear
With paws ov truth
With slashing jaws I rape
Your feeble womb
No god exists to save you from thy doom

You will never see the light!
Bound to always live by lies!

This is what I listen too when I'm kind of both pissed of and bewildered by the antics of the religious folk surrounding me. The lyrics,

Fools!

I cast you all aside!

also convey a sense of I am not one of them, which is something I find myself thinking a lot when I'm out with them in public or on their "community outreach" drives.

As some may know,Behemoth is a Blackened Death Metal band that extensively uses Satanic and Thelemic themes in their music, so it isn't quite the paragon of atheisticness either. However, just like with The Devil Wears Prada I can find elements in their music which I can identify with (though I may not exactly wish to perform certain of the acts in the song).

I have found myself gravitating towards heavier music of late, particularly Death Metal and Black Metal acts, many of which, like Dimmu Borgir, Hellhammer and Venom to name but a few, use occult themes. Many, though, have identified themselves a s atheists or simply anti-religionists who use Satanism because of its popularity, its use as a conduit for their anti-religious lyrics or simply for its shock value (which is why most people, myself included, listen to those bands. There is nothing more hilarious than the look on the face of a hitchhiker you've picked up in your car when you start playing Death Metal on the radio while dressed up all black, in a band T-shirt and some skull jewellery. Try it sometime). And I like listening to any music that trashes the highly opressive middle eastern religions that are so popular today (and so does Diego Lecca of Su Nombre en Vano - some time ago, he posted a pagan metal song on Facebook with an awesome cross chopping scene at the end).

So, I'd like to know, what do other atheists think about this? Do you think it's OK to listen to pagan and satanic songs and cite them publicly as representing your own anti- or a-theistic views? Is it OK to listen to any religious music? For those who cannot identify with my metal addiction, I'm sure you are aware of some classical music written with a religious agenda (Handel's Messiah is one of my personal favorites) or may enjoy the odd carol during Christmas. What are your views on this?

I've set up a poll in the right margin of the blog. Please do vote, and comment to tell me your views. I know, though, that the beauty of atheism is that there is no central dogmatic authority that tells others what to do, so whatever you have to say will have no bearing whatsoever on any decision I make (:P). I'd just like to hear your opinion on it, is all.

The Devil Wears Prada - HTML Rulez d00d

Lyrics:

Oh and yet, I've been cleansed.

And yet I've been cleansed with the water.
A purity no mind can grasp.
A purity so cool upon my fingertips.

The vision that I have seen.
This is the action that spawns from the end.
For the longest time, I've been watching the world breathe again.

What lies here.
What lies here,
Are mountains composed of tombstones, tombstones, tombstones, tombstones.

Examine these beautiful faces, keep singing now, keep singing now.
Examine these beautiful faces, keep singing now.
Examine these beautiful faces. Oh.

Will we push bedlam noise to the state of blissfulness?
Display her beauty to the people, to the people. Oh.

A purity no mind can grasp.

From their album Plagues.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is my vice, my drug, my one greatest pitfall. A simple glance at the lyrics above will tell you on what end of the religious spectrum this band lies. Yah.

But how, how can an anti-religious angry young man like myself even countenance something so egregiously jebus crastian and, even worse, actually enjoy it? Fact is, I love metalcore in general and tend to focus more on the musical styles and the feelings evoked by them more than the actual lyrical content. HTML Rulez was really the first metalcore track I listened to and the one that got me hooked. The song was perfect: Mike Hranica's deathly screams counterpointed beautifully with Jeremy dePoyster's almost angelic clean vocals, that "thoom thoom thoom" p;ercussion in the middle and the vicious breakdown at the end just had me in the music's thrall from the very beginning.

The thing I like about TDWP most is how ambiguous most of their lyrics are. You'll get the occassional "Christ is the deduction" and stuff, but generally you'll just get fuzzy, almost deist proclamations like "all glory to the one in existence", "all of love can be traced to a maker" and so on. This is a really good thing as it takes a very small mental flip to turn them into anthems for my favorite sci-fi/fantasy franchise, Warhammer 40,000. In fact, I recently made a mental exercise of matching each of the books in the Gaunt's Ghosts series with a song by TDWP. HTML Rulez d00d got Sabbat Martyr, for example (which I'll be ranting about later).

Another thing is, I can also agree with a lot of their lyrics too. The band's name was meant to be anit-materialistic (as in possessions materialistic) and I kind of concur with that. Also, lyrics like "the concept of fashion(...) painting a portrait of convictionless existence" and "Emeralds hold no hope" are quite profoundly agreeable. All in all, I'll say that good music knows no boundaries, be they political, cultural or religious. Until they start saying stuff like "teach the controversy", "you're going to burn in hell while we're chilling with Jesus" or "god hates faggots/atheists/evilutionists" or whatever is the day I'll stop listening to them.

Godsmack - Bad Religion

From their album Godsmack.

Lyrics:

[Preacher:] The word of God says that we will recieve
praise of God. God will begin to speak forth, our
Righteousness is of him, sayith the Lord
[Music Begins]

Get back

Can you feel Im not like you anymore.
I cant see,
I cant breathe.
See you quiver like the dogs on the street,
Looking down on as I beat you.

Oh, its a bad religion,
From a broken nation.
Its a contradiction,
And I cant take it anymore, yeah.

Who's to say I wont like you anyway?
Take a deep breath,
Im alive.
Can you hear me,
Im alive inside you.
Agony creeps up behind you.>

Oh, Its a bad religion (Bad religion)
From a broken nation (A broken nation)
Its a contradiction,
And I cant take it any f***ing way

Its a bad religion (bad religion, bad religion, bad religion)
From a broken nation (Broken nation)
Its a contradiction.
Yeah.

Can you feel it?
I gotta live with it everyday
And I cant take the pressure.
Im goin' insane,
Now go away

Go away

[Preacher:] Now you start praising God where ever you
are. I dont care where you are, I dont care what is
happening, just begin to praise God, just begin to
praise him and praise him and praise him and praise
him and worship him, and bless him... [Trails off]

(courtesy of Lyricsmania)

Too true...

I feel this song typifies my experience as a closet atheist, especially this part:

Can you feel it?
I gotta live with it everyday
And I cant take the pressure.
Im goin' insane,
Now go away

Church every week, my achievements (my fucking blood, sweat and tears! I didn't fucking pray once to pass my exams) being belittled by being attributed to "God", watching my younger brothers being brainwashed and family prayers day after day after fucking day! It really is enough to drive a guy insane! Listening to something that my mind interprets as being about someone sharing my experience certainly helps to bleed some of the pressure off.

Enter Shikari - Mothership

EPIC song... and yes, my nickname is based on their band name.

EDIT: It's just occurred to me that it may be a good idea to stick the song's lyrics in. It goes like so:

Go tell all your friends that this is the end
Go tell all your friends that this is the end
Go tell all your friends that this is the end
This is the end

I don't understand a word you're saying
what are the crowds running from?
There's something in the air tonight
Something is wrong, spit it out!

I just fell from the Mothership
They said that
Your answers, were always lying on the ocean bed
Your answers, were always lying on the ocean bed

There's something in the air
There's something in the air
In the air, in the air
Tonight, I'm wide awake, I'm wide awake
In the air, in the air
Tonight, I'm wide awake, I'm wide awake

And I'll plead with a thousand voices...
I am sane
I am sane
My soul felt so safe up there
No self-centred natives destroying our earth

I just fell from the Mothership
They said that
Your answers, were always lying on the ocean bed
Your answers (your answers, your answers) were always lying on the ocean bed

Walk the plank, walk the plank, walk the plank
Walk the plank, walk the plank, walk the plank
Walk the plank
Your answers were always lying on the ocean bed
Your answers were always lying on the ocean bed
Your answers were always lying on the ocean bed
Your answers were always lying on the ocean bed

(Courtesy of Sing365)