SLU Literary Award Don DeLillo

http://www.stlmag.com/Blogs/SLM-Daily/October-2010/Don-DeLillo-The-Truth-of-Fiction/

My First Review

Link to my first review on the Fantasy Shop Website. This is a review of a great series titled, Daytripper.
http://www.fantasyshoponline.com/reviews/2010/8/6/lane-lectures-every-day-as-if-it-were-your-last.html

Professions and Legitimacy

I find it extremely fascinating when "downtrodden" people can hit it big. Now they might not be down and out, but they didn't go to college, but now they are having their dream jobs. For example, it's a great thing that Kurt Cobain and Nirvana could go on to become a huge success. They didn't get trained at the Julliard School of Music or learn from some stuck up professor or conductor. At least, I think they didn't.
Anyway, that is great. Man pulls himself up by his talents and reaps his rewards. I love it, capitalism. However, could it be considered a bad thing when one of Tiger Woods' mistresses(her name isn't worth finding), gets a hit column as a "celebrity" journalist? She was hired because she fucked Tiger Woods. Masters in Journalism work their years away to get jobs like this.
Is this a good thing? Does this show the decline of our society? I don't know. Anyone?

New Names for Future Children

Girl's names- Louisa, Meredith, Persephone, Cecilia

Boy's names- William, Ernest, Llywelyn

A Man Said to the Universe

A Man Said to the Universe

by Stephen Crane

A man said to the universe:

“Sir, I exist!

“However,” replied the universe,

“The fact has not created in me

“A sense of obligation.”

Through a Glass, Darkly George S. Patton, Jr.

Through a Glass, Darkly
George S. Patton, Jr.

Through the travail of the ages,
Midst the pomp and toil of war,
Have I fought and strove and perished
Countless times upon this star.

In the form of many people
In all panoplies of time
Have I seen the luring vision
Of the Victory Maid, sublime.

I have battled for fresh mammoth,
I have warred for pastures new,
I have listened to the whispers
When the race trek instinct grew.

I have known the call to battle
In each changeless changing shape
From the high souled voice of conscience
To the beastly lust for rape.

I have sinned and I have suffered,
Played the hero and the knave;
Fought for belly, shame, or country,
And for each have found a grave.

I cannot name my battles
For the visions are not clear,
Yet, I see the twisted faces
And I feel the rending spear.

Perhaps I stabbed our Savior
In His sacred helpless side.
Yet, I've called His name in blessing
When after times I died.

In the dimness of the shadows
Where we hairy heathens warred,
I can taste in thought the lifeblood;
We used teeth before the sword.

While in later clearer vision
I can sense the coppery sweat,
Feel the pikes grow wet and slippery
When our Phalanx, Cyrus met.

Hear the rattle of the harness
Where the Persian darts bounced clear,
See their chariots wheel in panic
>From the Hoplite's leveled spear.

See the goal grow monthly longer,
Reaching for the walls of Tyre.
Hear the crash of tons of granite,
Smell the quenchless eastern fire.

Still more clearly as a Roman,
Can I see the Legion close,
As our third rank moved in forward
And the short sword found our foes.

Once again I feel the anguish
Of that blistering treeless plain
When the Parthian showered death bolts,
And our discipline was in vain.

I remember all the suffering
Of those arrows in my neck.
Yet, I stabbed a grinning savage
As I died upon my back.

Once again I smell the heat sparks
When my Flemish plate gave way
And the lance ripped through my entrails
As on Crecy's field I lay.

In the windless, blinding stillness
Of the glittering tropic sea
I can see the bubbles rising
Where we set the captives free.

Midst the spume of half a tempest
I have heard the bulwarks go
When the crashing, point blank round shot
Sent destruction to our foe.

I have fought with gun and cutlass
On the red and slippery deck
With all Hell aflame within me
And a rope around my neck.

And still later as a General
Have I galloped with Murat
When we laughed at death and numbers
Trusting in the Emperor's Star.

Till at last our star faded,
And we shouted to our doom
Where the sunken road of Ohein
Closed us in its quivering gloom.

So but now with tanks a'clatter
Have I waddled on the foe
Belching death at twenty paces,
By the star shell's ghastly glow.

So as through a glass, and darkly
The age long strife I see
Where I fought in many guises,
Many names, but always me.

And I see not in my blindness
What the objects were I wrought,
But as God rules o'er our bickerings
It was through His will I fought.

So forever in the future,
Shall I battle as of yore,
Dying to be born a fighter,
But to die again, once more.

My "new" favorite song, "Suicide is Painless"

Suicide is Painless

Through early morning fog I see
Visions of the things to be
The pains that are withheld for me
I realize and I can see, that

Suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please

Try to find a way to make
All our little joys relate
Without that ever-present hate
But now I know that it's too late

The game of life is hard to play
I'm gonna lose it anyway
The losing card I'll someday lay
So this is all I have to say

The only way to win is cheat
And lay it down before I'm beat
And to another give my seat
For that's the only painless feat

The sword of time will pierce our skin
It doesn't hurt when it begins
But as it works its way on in
The pain grows stronger, watch it grin

A brave man once requested me
To answer questions that are key
Is it to be or not to be
And I replied, oh, why ask me

And you can do the same thing
If you please