And It's Row, Me Bully Boys; We're in a Hurry, Boys · 9:01pm May 26th
One of my Personal Principles when posting on this website is that I don't want to waste anyone's time; anything I write -- be it a blog, a story, or a comic -- has to add something to the reader's day. Maybe it'll be genuinely interesting, maybe it'll be a little essay on literature, or maybe it'll be straight up funny. Doesn't matter! It has to actively be worth the effor I ask of the reader.
It's a pretty good rule because I am a profoundly boring person, and this stops me from being myself too much. "Oh that's such a lie, Aragón", you might be saying. "You're such a fun person" WRONG.
YOU CANNOT CONCEIVE HOW TEDIOUS I AM.
Anyway -- the downside of the aforementioned Personal Principle is that this makes it very easy for me to disappear for months at a time.Cause like, it's not going to rock your world, so why bother? And then it's been so long since I posted anything that I gotta post something really good to come back, and thus I keep putting it off, and so more time passes... It's a vicious cycle.
All this to say, hey, remember the entire judge shit I've got going on? That's still going on! I had the exam on April, and it went REALLY well. Like, REALLY really well. For around 24 hours, I was the top scoring student in all of Spain! I'm probably going to end up top 20 once everybody's done!
Lil' refresher for those curious: To become a judge of law in Spain, you need to pass three hilariously difficult exams, and my dayjob currently is basically to prepare for them, studying up to 10 hours a day. You gotta pass all three exams in a row in one year; you skip or fail one, you gotta start from scratch. As I write this right now, i've passed the first two this year with flying colors, and only one exam is left -- if I pass that one, I'm a judge, and I'm set for life.
That's a huge deal because there's 1,300 people taking these exams, and only 120 of us will get a job. So, you know, you need to be in the top 8% or so. Gotta BUST YOUR ASS. Me getting such a high score from the get go is great, and it means I have very good chances to become a judge by the end of the year.
So that's why I've been so utterly silent -- exams, exams, more exams. Next one will be around... September? And I cannot waste this opportunity, I have to score as high as possible to guarantee myself the position. This means I need to dedicate myself completely to my studies, and, sadly, writing or drawing comics takes a backseat.
Disappointing, I know. I only posted one comic last year, and I'm really scared I might not finish the next one till fucking January (I haven't even started to THINK about it) but it is what it is. I'm still alive, I still wanna do comics, I wish I could post more often, but I simply do not have the time until after I'm done with this next (and last) exam, and that'll be done in September.
So, uh, yeah, sorry, I'm not going to be very present for a while. Wish me luck, come say hi on my Discord server, etc. etc. That said I do have a pretty long, involved blog in mind I wanna work on -- one that won't be a waste of your time! Remember when I used to do like, good blogs? Those were the times weren't they. I can scarcely believe it nowadays.
Anyway, it'll take like a month, so look forward to that. Now, what will the blog be about? Hm. That's a good question!
Take a guess!!!!!
Man, Discord fucking up image embeds has been such a bother. it's so clunky to post screenshots nowadays.
There are some very obvious parallels to be made – parallels others have already made for sure – between your growing obsession with Moby Dick, and Ishmael's obsession with hunting the whale that builds and builds as the story goes on.
For real, though, I think most folks fear that they're boring unless they have something worth sharing. So even as I near-always find your casual banter very interesting (well, maybe the Moby Dick thing has worn thin by now, but your infatuation remains contagious, or at least energetic), I get it. Lord knows I constantly fear that I'm boring and uninteresting, despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary, and how often numerous people tell me I'm very interesting and funny and excitable. Hell, it's probably an occupational hazard of getting that kind of praise!
Myself, were it not for Ponyfic reviewing, I'd probably go ages without blogs except when I had something worth sharing. For half of 2020 and all of 2021, I had just seven blogs, sure.
So, I really get it. Down to how it's a vicious, self-refuelling cycle. More than you know.
Otherwise, as always, keep at it with the buckling down for the final exam, bud (it'll make for a great birthday treat, for one). You're gonna knock 'em bandy.
Good luck with your studies and exams!
I assume once you're a judge, you can slack off and pony to your heart's content?
Best of luck in the utter insanity that is the Spanish judicial exam. It's been a delight seeing you take solace in Melville as you chase your own symbol of the uncaring nature of reality.
ig trying to become a Spanish judge and Moby Dick are a lot alike
Both about becoming borderline insane obsessed, staying at that level for one to several years
Spanish legal exam system somewhat less likely to physically crush or drown a person, though (metaphorically crushed or drowned? Mmmaybe similar level of risk.)
Would be judges even learning how to sing lengthy 'law shanties'
My heart is genuinely warmed 🐳🐋
I read Moby Dick for the first time a few months ago and-
HOLY SHIT i RELATE SO MUCH TO THIS!
IT WAS SO GOOD HOLY SHIT!
TALK NERDY TO ME
-We've got a long way to go!
And we'll sing and we'll dance
And bid farewell to France
And it's row me bully boys row!
Great song that, a classic even.
Also, on the subject of being boring... azquotes.com/public/picture_quotes/0e/2a/0e2a829926b744550a198f0c0a5dedf8/gilbert-k-chesterton-941648.jpg
No pasa nada, Aragón. Entendemos que por tus estudios apenas puedas dedicar tiempo a este sitio web. Lo primero es lo primero. Nosotros te esperaremos pacientemente cuanto haga falta, años si es preciso. Pero de todos modos, seguro que apruebas en septiembre. La última vez poco te faltó, y eso habiéndolo tenido todo en tu contra. Ahora, nada puede pararte. ¡A por todas!
Congratulations on passing the first tests and best of luck on passing the last one with a great score!
You worry about your studies and taking care of yourself. We’ll all be here cheering you on and sending you positive energy and good vibes.
OMFstarry-manedG!!! Moby Dick is the best!
I have annoyed and terrified so many people by geeking out about Moby Dick! What nobody seems to realize is that It is a fundamentally hilarious book. Most people who claim to have read it in America have either just watched a movie version of it, or when assigned it in school, read the Cliff Notes* version, both of which suck all of the life and joy out of it! I swear, Melville was the Terry Pratchett of his more restrained and oblique age.
I think that most people need to be told something is funny before they can see it, and because English Professors set this book up as a "profound" metaphor for Man's obsessive struggle with somedamnedshit, everybody can only see that, even if they actually read the damned book!
For example: So many times I heard people go on about the "significance" of Ahab not appearing on deck until three days after they set sail, painting it as a profound mystery, symbolic of some stupid theme or something. That sort of encounter only tells me the commenter is just regurgitating someone else's opinion! If they had actually read the damned book they would have known exactly why he didn't put in an appearance until so late:
(Spoilered for people who want to read the book for themselves.) Before departure, Ahab is stumping around the town, cursing Moby Dick and vowing revenge, and he kicks a curbstone so hard that his peg leg breaks off, bounces off the ground and into his balls so hard that he passes out from the pain. He is found and dragged back to Pequod where he has to remain in bed for three days until the swelling in his nuts goes down to the point where he can walk again! How is that not freaking hilarious?!
And that just one of the dozen goofy moments that happens in the first few chapters.
Speaking of chapters, there are two whole chapters on why white is a scary color.
Oh, and if you like Moby Dick, I highly recommend White Jacket which is an almost forgotten book of Melville's, that is just as funny.
BTW, you have no idea how much effort I had to expend to restrain myself to only this much of a rant.
EDIT: Oh yeah, best of the best of luck with exam number three!
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* In case they aren't known in Europe, that's a series summarizing all the key points of most famous works of literature, for students that can't be assed to actually read.
Congratulations on doing so well on the exam! May you go from strength to strength.
Something something an Entirely In Character Rant from Ishmael/Herman Melville
Oh, you liar, you, was my first thought at that.
Fuck. Called out immediately!
Good luck! Smash that exam!
We're all still waiting for the day you start a court session with, "All right everypony, settle down!"
So do you have good suggestions for sea shanties on YouTube because it's a genre of song I want more on my playlist but I keep only finding the same handful over and over again or things that are like sea shanties but are not actually sea shanties and really i just want some good sea shanties to
rock the boatsing along to when I that mood.((Now I'm going to have "Fiddler on the deck" stuck in my head.))
If you sail without Queequeeg
You won't attract the Whale
If you sail without Queequeeg
You won't attract the Whale
If you sail without Queequeeg
You won't attract the Whale;
But if you sail with him
Huh! You'll never fail.
-- Wait, Wrong Moby
5783091
I know a few, stop me if you've heard these before...
5783108
This one is a bit newer than most, but it's a great song to row to!
Good luck in your next exam!
You say you are a deeply unfunny person but you also "Rainbow Dash as Ahab"
so which one is it?
Luck on the exams! And worth remembering that just because *you* think you're boring, doesn't mean others will concur.
I swear someday I'll pop in the discord...
5783108
Thank you! I like the beat for all of these but really like the last one.
5783143
No, no, no. Not unfunny. Boring. INCREDIBLY important difference let me tell you.
5783055
Dude there's a scene where Ahab dares the sky to strike him down with lightning, grabbing a lightning rod during a massive typhoon, St. Elmo's fires all around him. Shakespearean as hell, that one is; one of the few moments where ahab lets his true madness come out and be seen by everyone on the ship!
And then the next chapter is like. Two mates tying ropes going "O-kaaay. So, uh. That was intense?" "Dude, what the fuck." "Dude what the fuck." "You know what. I think ships with this guy as a captain should have to pay extra insurance. This doesn't feel responsible." "Like when you carry dynamite?" "Exactly like when you carry dynamite. Like what the fuck, right?"
And it made me laugh so hard I had to sent Mousse 15 minutes of audio recordings of me laughing about it and gushing about it. It's an incredible book, and I think the philosophical insights are the best part of it, but the humor pops up now and then and makes you laugh out loud, it's great.
5783328
It is a damned brilliant and entertaining book! It's been decades since I read it, and I think I need to go back for a re-read sometime very soon.
5783330
I'm one of those people who feel the incredibly rambling asides full of True Whale Facts ™️ are the funniest part of the book. 🐋
Hey, they knew exactly what they were doing for once.
5783055
I had to read Great Gatsby in HS and yeah, professors/teachers can definitely kill or save a book and love of reading in general. This might be part of the reason why I keep going back to Pony fics over spending untold hours at the local library.
5783379
Honestly, I'm an avid reader for the fun of it, and to blazes with themes and metaphors! That doesn't mean that "literary" classics can't be cracking good reads; you just have to mostly ignore what the English Majors have told you that you have to think about them. I don't remember who did the survey, but it seems that nearly half of what people read nowadays is fanfic of one sort or another, so you're in good company.
5783386
My mom loves a writer called Jodi Picoult and our local city library probably holds over a thousand books. It's less the telling me what to think but the killing of the joy just to pass a stupid test. A good teacher can make for example a project where you learn about the book in question but still have fun. Or they'll bring the book to life as it were. Bad teacher just "sit down and read X amount, and only approved classic literature" not that ugh fanfic garbage.
First off: best fuckin wishes for the test. Keep at it. Keep studying. Push on.
Secondly, incredible coincidence that I, too, am reading Moby Dick! I've been on a kick for reading classical novels for a few years now, and I too am fascinating by how weirdly awesome it is. I admit fully that I skim chapters where he goes into the minutia of whaling, but everything else is so banger. Dude gay marries a cannibal in like the first fifty pages and it all keeps going from there!
5783100
At first I thought this was a filk of "walk without rhythm so you don't attract the worm".
Man, fucking Moby Dick. I generally have limited patience for the 'greats', but they're generally good for a book. Just one - I kind of lost interest in Billy Budd, for instance. And didn't get far into Return of the Native or Daniel Deronda. But that doesn't mean that Moby Dick, Middlemarch, and goddamn Jude the Obscure weren't huge, glorious parts of my late Nineties.
And that I was so, so glad that I managed to get through school without reading any of the three - Dickens was ruined for me by English teachers. And I only eventually came back to The Great Gatsby in a receptive mood.
Yes, 'On the Whiteness of the Whale' is gonzo beyond compare, but the sermon from the Pulpit was glorious in its own crazed right.
For I was not prepared to see Father Mapple after gaining the height, slowly turn round, and stooping over the pulpit, deliberately drag up the ladder step by step, till the whole was deposited within, leaving him impregnable in his little Quebec.
5783431
Welcome to the new
Harpoon of Choice...
I'm excited to be a part of this current madness, even as only a spectator. The world sorely lacks for wholesome enthusiasm.
I don't dare borrow that book from the library and leave it anywhere my wife can see it. (she's a bit sensitive about her weight, and we've been married 40 years now, so I've been doing a fair job of not peaving her off so far...)
You may well be the nerdiest man alive. I am in awe.
And great to hear that the first couple exams went so well! Best of luck on the third!
5783345
5783330
5783328
Huh. I've read it a couple of times (but not in years), and although I thoroughly enjoyed it each time, I don't think I ever found it funny. I found that the mentioned incidents were less funny and more surreal, as though the ship left normality, reality, when it left the dock.
5783622
I can see what you mean, but I guess it's dependent on what an individual finds funny. Personally, there are dozens of places in the book that I find literally* laugh-out-loud funny. When Queequeg bursts in on Ishmael in the middle of the night with an axe in one hand and a bunch of shrunken heads it the other, the picture that put in my head, absolutely slew me. I had to put the book down and go find some kleenex to wipe the tears out of my eyes!
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* Literally, literally, not figuratively literally.
5783622
Yeah, it's a very abstract kind of comedy; I mentioned a case of me actually laughing while reading, but often I found myself finding it amusing, then telling someone else about it, then laughing really hard.
I didn't find the book to be an outright comedy, but the comedy added to the book a lot. Ditto the drama, the philosophy, the cetology... God, I need to write that blog asap.
How about instead of shanties, a Moby Dick rap?
McLars has several literary themed raps. My personal favorite is Edgar Allan Poe.