Phoenix

On the pyre
Burned alive
Rise from ashes
Life revived

July 6, 2009

In the Valley of the Dying Sun – An Interpretation

Some of you may have heard the House of Heroes song “In the Valley of the Dying Sun”.  For those of you who haven’t, let me try describe it:  It’s weird.  When I first heard it, I first noted the “epic sound” it attempted to convey, as if this were something big.  And then I heard the unusual lyrics.  And then I thought “What planet are they from?”.  Ultimately, it was really, really weird.

So because of the unique weirdness of the song, there’s probably plenty of people who are confused about the meaning of it.  I know I was bewildered by the otherworldly words.  But after listening to it countless times, I have finally figured it out:

The song is about Star Wars.

Ha.  Bet you weren’t expecting that.  But it’s true.  And here follows a line-by-line interpretation:

• In the valley of the dying sun
  In the third movie of the original Star Wars trilogy, “Return of the Jedi”, Luke Skywalker is on the moon of Endor. This song is sung in first person, from the perspective of Luke.
• I walk a crooked path alone
  He is alone because he left his friends with the Ewoks.
• I came across the shadow of a man
  This is clearly a reference to Darth Vader. The shadow can refer to the fact that he part machine and not fully man, or simply that he wears black.
• With an angel’s breath
  Vader is strong in the ways of the Force, and it is prevalent by his presence.
• “O boy” he said to me
  Here, Vader begins to speak to Luke
• “I see your future
  Vader believes that he knows Luke’s future, as told to him by the emperor.
• And though you long for peace
  Like his master Obi Wan, Luke hates violence.
• The sword is your father
  Most likely, the author of this song originally wrote “Luke, I am your father”. He probably changed it because die-hard fans would have been quick to point out that Vader already said this in the previous movie, “The Empire Strikes Back”. As it is, it is clearly a threat to Luke. As Vader said to the Emperor, “He shall join us, or die.”
  Many interpreters believe that the Vader quote ends with this line. However, I believe that it continues for obvious reasons that I will nevertheless explain below.
• I’m thinking of you
  Darth Vader’s thoughts frequently turn to his son. He probably additionally wonders what life would have been like had he not turned to the dark side.
• I’m thinking of you when I kill a good man
  To keep myself from being killed by him
  This is an obvious reference to Anakin Skywalker’s mentor, Obi Wan. After turning to the dark side, Vader killed him in the Death Star.
• I’m thinking of you
  See above.
• I’m thinking of you when I hold my girl
  And wonder if she’ll ever love again
  Anakin was married to Padmé Amidala, who lost her hope in her husband, fell into despair, and lost the will to live after Anakin’s turn to the dark side.
• I’m thinking of, I’m thinking of, I’m thinking of, I’m thinking of you
  He’s emphasizing his point.
• Wash the blood off my hands
  He wants to be vindicated of the evil he has done.
• I’m thinking of, I’m thinking of, I’m thinking of, I’m thinking of you
  Got it.

I think that’s enough interpreting for now. You’re probably weirded out enough by just this. But anyway, tell me what you think of this so far. I’m guessing that most of you think I’ve gone mad.

One minor note before I finish. As usual, the music video has absolutely nothing to do with the song itself.  Just wanted to remind you of that so you don’t start looking for Star Wars references in it.

Commitments and Philosophy

Well, I made a few mistakes recently.  Probably the biggest one that concerns blogging is the fact that I broke one of the rules I had so clearly defined – no commitments.  Yet in my last couple posts, I stupidly made commitments.  So as you probably expected, I didn’t write the post on why Lincoln was wrong.

Part of that was due to the fact that I had to reconsider my philosophy judging that matter.  For when there is no firm truth on a matter, we can only turn to philosophy, which is merely the flawed ideas of man.  The Bible does not contain specific mandates on how we must operate our government, so this is left to the realm of philosophy.  Sometime, I hope to publish my musings on the subject, though I do not make any commitments on the matter.

Speaking of commitments, I recently commited to writing a blog post, on an undisclosed topic, on an undisclosed blog, on an unknown date.  I’ll post details here once I actually write it.  But you’ll probably see it there before you see my announcement of it here.

[Note: It appears that this theme is now showing the titles to my posts. I'm happy now.]

Conclusion and Introduction

I didn’t keep up with this blog very well last week.  I state the obvious.  But I did finish most of my regular work.  Keeping off of instant messaging really did limit my computer time.  It was extremely boring without it.  It appears that I’m rarely interested in electronics unless it facilitates interaction with other human beings.  So to some degree, my hypothesis was confirmed.

I don’t feel like writing something long right now, but I have an idea for my next long post.  I’ll start by stating a little-known fact that nobody is going to like to hear:

Lincoln was wrong.

The IM Experiment: Day One

As you probably know, instant messaging is my primary form of communication.  Being homeschooled, I don’t get to see my friends every day.  I also only see my friends at church once a week, since we don’t hold Wednesday night activities.  So Internet communication has been a blessing in that regard.  However, I don’t care to email people because I desire conversation.  Writing on Facebook walls has more of a conversational feel, but it’s a very slow conversation.  So I prefer to use IM services to “talk” to my friends.  Although it too has its limitations, I think it’s the best the internet has to offer in communication.

However, instant messaging is also very addicting for me.  I find that nearly every night, I’m either chatting with friends, or just sitting there waiting for someone to get online.  Although our conversations can be beneficial, I find that I waste a lot of time that could be better spent by reading or writing or pursuing music.  Even worse is that my schoolwork and family relationships have suffered this past year due to such.  But the biggest problem is that my relationship with God has not progressed the way that it should, since I don’t frequently dedicated time to studying and meditating on the scriptures.

Last week was different though.  For reasons that God alone knows, I stayed dedicated to my work, and was very productive every day.  I spent a minimal amount of time on IM, and had more time to devote to more important things.  While keeping in touch with people through Facebook, I finished most of my work for the week, and even took the time to go look for a job.

So this week, I’m going launch my IM experiment.  My hypothesis is as follows:

When instant messaging activities decrease, substantial and important activities will increase.

I’ll try to follow up each day or two on the progress of the experiment.  I don’t have it in my official hypothesis, but I also expect other computer-related activities to increase as well, though not to the same level as IM.  This proved true today.  I spent a portion of my evening on Facebook, which was a lot more interesting than normal.  Since almost everyone reading this is my friend on Facebook though, you can probably just go to my profile to see some of the details.  Important activities this evening included two tests, math and Spanish, both of which went well.  I’m doing writing practice right now.  I’m going to read a few chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird and the Bible before I go to bed.  So tonight will end more productive than usual.

Instant messaging is a tool.  Like any tool, it is not inherently evil.  But people, like me, often use it for such, being inherently evil.  So the success of this experiment will require God’s help.  I tried giving up all computers for a week on my own strength before.  I failed.  But in my failure, I cried to God for help, and I succeeded on my second try, through his power.  So this week, and always, I need to remember that I can only rely on God alone for the ability to do what is good.

[Note:  Because the purpose of this blog is merely for me to write, the preceeding post was published with little to no editing.  I am capable of writing better than this, but since good writing isn't my point, I didn't bother to do so.  But this did end up being a lot better and longer than Twitter quality, which I totally didn't expect.]

[Another note:  I'm going to mess around with the visual theme for my blog some more.  I'd prefer for it to show the post titles.]

I’m still messing around with the techn…

I’m still messing around with the technical aspects of the blog. There’s some weird things about this theme I’m using. Since it’s supposed to look and function kind of like Twitter, there’s a box at the top for me to post in when I log in. However, there’s no title to see, so this post is primarily just to see how it titles it. So, my apologies to those who were unlucky enough to subscribe who were expecting a witty and interesting post. But life isn’t always witty and interesting. Sometimes it’s just plain weird.

The Beginning

The only purpose behind this blog is for me to get into the habit of writing regulary.  I’m currently making no commitments to anything.  I do not plan to ever write anything on here that would ever be suitable for a decent blog.   I expect most of my posts to be of Twitter quality, while being longer than 140 characters.  Hence, the Twitter-like theme.  I also do not expect any regular readers, except maybe one or two friends who don’t want me to feel bad about getting zero views a day.  Which is just silly.  Like I said, I don’t expect it, so I don’t care.  Hopefully, once I get more used to regular writing, I’ll be able to increase the quality of my work and start a fairly nice blog.

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