> The Compression Chamber

That’s it; it’s finally happened. The DVD revolution has penetrated the book world.

Earlier this year, I bought my first copy of “The Bell Jar.” I tore through the book pretty quickly, and was mildly confused when I got to the end but still had 30 some odd pages to go. After flipping through it, I realized that inside were numerous “special features” – biographical info about Sylvia Plath, original drawings, etc.

“Deck the halls with lots of money, fat fat fat fat…” Is anybody else sick of Christmas already? I am. The sad thing is, I used to love the holiday. The sadder thing is; I was sick of Christmas before Halloween even came.

The holiday of Christmas is cheap enough as it is; just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, people began preparing for it well over six weeks in advance.

Contrary to popular belief, Da Vinci did not paint the Last Supper painting so many travel halfway around the world every year to see. Michelangelo didn’t paint the Sistine Chapel, either.

Yes, there is flawed logic in this argument. The real artists are actually the people who were paid to restore these works. These individuals painted over some parts of these paintings that were falling apart so they could be better preserved for the ages.

OK drivers, let’s be clear. You don’t like me, and I don’t like you. I am a possible impediment to your reaching your final destination in the least amount of time, and you operate the possible instrument of my destruction.

I cannot begin to count how many times I have had to either jump out of the way or run across a street simply to avoid one of you mowing me down. Frankly, I’m pretty sick of it.

There is nothing good about any person who insists on keeping secrets. Secrets give cause for mistrust, and if there is one thing that all people should strive to be, it is trustworthy.

This same rule applies to our government. Over the past few years, there has been a great deal of talk about the USA PATRIOT Act, which in theory is meant to better protect our freedoms by taking some of those very freedoms away from us.

Cults of personality worry me in ways that I cannot possibly express in words (though obviously I am going to try). The recent death of Heath Ledger has I’m sure given Hollywood something to cry and moan about for the next decade, as they always do when one of their own bites it before 30.

There are too many people out there who have this ridiculous “live fast and die young” mentality, and anyone who fits the description is immediately elevated to hero status simply because they died before they completely outgrew adolescence.

The term “sell-out” used to get tossed around a lot at my high school. Since I mostly hung out with the punker/stoner kids, I heard it a lot more than others may have.

The lines were pretty clearly drawn: Marilyn Manson was a sell-out, Rancid was close but not quite there, Green Day was a group of sell-outs to top all sell-outs, etc, but not once did I ever hear anybody talk about selling in.