Another Hiatus

I haven't been on in a while, which would mean a lot more if I had people following my blog (hint, hint). Somehow, I've come to find this less and less practical. I don't really know why I need this blog at all. To whoever may read this, why would I need a blog if I don't have anything to blog about?

La Malinche

In World History, we learned about Hernando Cortes, who, I'm guessing, saw himself as a "Conquistador Extraordinaire." The article we got for homework says he was an arrogant, power-hungry man. But what really caught my eye was his relationship with his Native American translator, a woman known as La Malinche.
The story goes that, when Cortes arrived in the Aztec Empire, whether or not they were seen as gods, they were given 20 slavegirls. La Malinche, one of them, was in her late teens or twenties at the time. She was noted for her beauty and grace, or whatever, and learned Spanish quickly and efficiently enough to be Cortes's translator. She became his mistress, even though he already had eight or so children from previous marriages. She bore him a son, Don Martin, one of the first Mestizo (person with mixed European and Native American ancestry).
But what I was wondering was, what did she think about Cortes and the Spanish? Did she think of them as gods or did she just pass them off as impostors? And Cortes, did she really love him or did he force her into a relationship? And when he conquered Tenochtitlan, did she feel guilty for letting him do what he did or was she glad to be rid of a society she felt no part of?
If anyone has any resources on something she said or wrote from a first-person point of view, that would be much appreciated.

Invisible Children

So near the end of the day, I went to an assembly at my school about child soldiers in Northern Uganda. We saw a movie about it, heard from a guy from Northern Uganda who somehow managed to evade being a soldier, and it really frightened me how this could happen. I can't remember the whole story, but I remember this guy, Joseph Kony, being in charge of the Northern Ugandan army, which is made up mostly of children that were abducted from their homes. If anyone else has the full details, let me know please.

Jazz Ensemble

So, Thursday, I went to my school's jazz ensemble. It was good; the teacher was friendly, the kids were OK. But there were assignments from the previous week that I needed to sightread. It was hard on some songs, I remember on one song there were only two chords to play and the melody was hard, too, so I just played the two chords over and over.
Sunday, I'm going trick-or-treating as Elton John. I wonder what he would think of it. Then, November 2 is Election Day, so I get off from school. After all that, I move on with my life. That's pretty much all I have to say right now.

Return from Hiatus

I had a huge hiatus from this blog. I think the last time I was here was May 2009. Anyways, I hope to blog as much as I can, starting now:
Sometimes fighting fire with fire isn't the answer. Let's say there are two friends. One friend is angry at the other for not getting him a birthday card. The second friend could defend himself, but since it usually is in an angry tone, that anger would escalate into a serious hatred for each other. Instead, the second friend should say, calmly, "You know what, I did forget to buy you a card. I'm sorry, I'll be sure to get you one." The whole thing is resolved. All he had to do was admit he made a mistake. Imagine how much better the world would be if we admitted our mistakes instead of fighting fire with fire, because that has been known to burn people.

Press Freedom Day

May 3 is World Press Freedom Day (also Constitution Day in Poland and Japan). Let's better get to know "freedom of the press."
This liberty is protection to the media and other published materials, giving people the right to print anything in public reading material without interference (as long as it's true/practical). This right is addressed in the U.S. Constitution or, more accurately, the Bill of Rights. However, with more and more people questioning this right, it is harder to take what people print seriously. And people in the news can pretty much say whatever they want, which has made several misleading "facts." Like "The president's a socialist Muslim Nazi terrorist who's Kenyan voodoo health-care program will take over America," so pretty much anything they say on Fox News.
I wonder if other countries deal with this kind of stuff.

Greetings!

Hello, my name is Daniel. This is where I introduce myself, say what I like, talk about my life, etc. But I digress. I think what I like above all things is playing piano. I'm trying to write songs, but the hardest part for me is making the music, because the song could end up sounding like every other song. In other words, writing the song isn't hard, but making the music to it is.
Anyways, I'm politically moderate, since I don't have any opinion on the economy whatsoever, but I'm for equal rights. Gays, women, Jews, Muslims, and pretty much any minority you can think of.
I love Jewish humor, which I recently discovered after having someone perform at my synagogue. Besides that, I don't have anything else to say besides "Welcome to my blog."