Dust

There's one thing in this life that you will learn:

Dust you are, and to dust you will return!

They say time is the fire in which we burn.

Dust you are, and to dust you will return!

Eat and drink, and weep with those who mourn.

Dust you are, and to dust you will return!

Death comes for every person who is born.

Dust you are. To dust you will return!

Dust you are. To dust you will return!

It was years ago, I was twenty-two,

Ready to go, fresh out of school.

I had so much that I wanted to do.

I had no idea I was such a fool.

There's one thing in this life that you will learn:

Dust you are, and to dust you will return!

They say time is the fire in which we burn.

Dust you are, and to dust you will return!

Eat and drink, and weep with those who mourn.

Dust you are, and to dust you will return!

Death comes for every person who is born.

Dust you are. To dust you will return!

Dust you are. To dust you will return!

I couldn't change the world by myself,

[But] I had ideas and a full bookshelf.

I saw the world and I saw the grief,

[But] if we worked hard it could be enough.

There's one thing in this life that you will learn:

Dust you are, and to dust you will return!

They say time is the fire in which we burn.

Dust you are, and to dust you will return!

Eat and drink, and weep with those who mourn.

Dust you are, and to dust you will return!

Death comes for every person who is born.

Dust you are. To dust you will return!

Dust you are. To dust you will return!

It seemed to me that the plan was sound,

Get a group together and buckle down,

With sweat and tears and some common ground,

We could bring the world around.

There's one thing in this life that you will learn:

Dust you are, and to dust you will return!

They say time is the fire in which we burn.

Dust you are, and to dust you will return!

Eat and drink, and weep with those who mourn.

Dust you are, and to dust you will return!

Death comes for every person who is born.

Dust you are. To dust you will return!

Dust you are. To dust you will return!

Personified

I am the pain, I am the sorrow.

Here today and gone tomorrow.

I am anger, I am suffering.

I am the death I am the carcass.

Light has come, but men love darkness.

I am terror, I am far from grace.

I am the bruise, I am the black eye.

Life's a b-word, and then you die.

I am sickness, I am damaged goods.

I am the wrong, I am the failure.

This world is a dumpster fire.

I am ruin, I am broken dreams.

I Have Wandered

I have wandered lost and blind,

Within the confines of my mind.

My mental state was slowly sinking.

I needed to explore my thinking.

But the dolor that is lodged

Within my brain, still remains,

When I am done rethinking.

 

My mind has such a hollow shape,

An empty cage I can't escape.

If all my thoughts could be directed,

A useful structure thus erected,

Something good and useful might

Even be gained, or obtained,

Some evil circumvented.

 

Would I, could I, do some good?

I have no doubt at all I should.

Alas, I doubt that I am able,

The notion seems like just a fable,

For the focus, I am missing,

And the lack, holds me back,

Making me quite unstable.

 

[instrumental metal segment here, with maybe some incomprehensible growl vocals]

 

Chained to myself, I cannot break away.

I babble, but I know I have nothing good to say.

Sick to death of life, I am terrified to die,

I question all my goals, and I cannot answer why.

My dark thoughts tear me up, I have no one to confide,

It's eating me alive, all bottled up inside.

I want to go away, but there's nowhere left to turn.

I'm doomed to ride it out, and then in hell to burn.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

 

In the dark I sit and brood,

Savoring my somber mood.

But all my thinking turns to folly,

Empty, hollow, meloncholy,

And dejected, I return

To what I know, so I go

Back to the crass and bloody,

 

For I am quite unstable,

Oooooooooooooooooooooooh!

And I am done with thinking.

 

Microsoft Has Nerve

I just directly and personally witnessed the Automatic Updates system of Windows 10, flashing a computer's firmware without getting any kind of permission for that specific action from the user or system administrator.

The PC in question is a recent-model (less than three months old) Dell desktop, though I'm not sure whether this fact is significant.

I'm not going to explain the implications in detail, because if you don't already have a pretty good idea, you likely wouldn't understand the explanation either.

I don't happen to know whether the motherboard on this model has a backup firmware chip, in case of power outage during flash. Hopefully it should, because that is a reasonably common feature these days. But I don't feel like opening the case to verify it at the moment. Nonetheless, I'm going to give Microsoft the benefit of every doubt here and tentatively assume that surely they are only doing this on systems that have that safeguard. (Not because of virtue, but because of the potential for really nasty bad publicity.)

The stated reason (which was displayed on screen as the flash was happening) is, of course, security; but Microsoft cares about your security like Apple cares about your budget. With that said, I looked at the firmware setup after the flash occurred, and it doesn't seem any more egregious than the usual UEFI setup. I'm tempted to put a small Devuan install on the thing, even though it isn't needed on this system, just to verify that it works as expected; but I don't see any indications in the firmware setup that would suggest a problem in that regard, at this time. Secure Boot is enabled, but it appears to still be possible to disable it. So if this is a major power grab or exclusivity lock, I'm missing something.

But I sure don't like the precedent.

Londonderry Err

O [person], Dear,

Mine heart, mine heart is broken,

For I dispair, to ever hear a word,

A word from you,

A word that love betokens,

That word I long to hear,

But I will not.

 

And so I go,

I go but I am saddened.

I go to live a life of solitude,

A life alone,

Without you in my presence,

Oh [person] dear, oh dear,

I am alone.

 

So fear ye not,

Oh [person] dear, be happy,

For if I leave, I leave you well alone.

And if I go,

I'm sure you will find someone,

A better man, for you,

Than I could be.

 

And as for me,

Mine end, mine end is fitting,

There is for me, a better match indeed.

For if I can't

Have you then I want no one.

And that is good,

For no one wants me too.

 

Sung to the tune Londonderry Air

The GOAT

Verse One:

We couldn't believe it, although we were told.

He wasn't an actor, musician or such.

He came out of nowhere and wasn't that old.

And no one expected from him all that much.

When we finally noticed him,

He didn't seem that great.

How could we have known about

His complicated fate?

We thought we knew about him:

He grew up down the road.

But when his life was finished, (finished)

It turned out he's the GOAT.

 

Bridge:

It was in the dark at night,

My people made their way.

And when we saw the dawning light,

We knew we couldn't stay.

The fighting and the looting then

Were like a holiday.

We shouted in excitement,

But we barely got away.

We had to hide the evidence,

We had to burn our clothes,

But we forgot we'd left him there.

We'd left him there exposed,

And he became the GOAT.

 

Verse Two:

He wasn't important, as far as we knew.

And so when he walked by, we all turned away.

We laughed behind his back, in front of him too.

We thought he was nothing, till that fateful day.

And when it finally happened,

He suffered all that pain.

The things that happened to him then

Were simply not humane.

He didn't try to stop it,

Just took it like a sport.

He took it all and finished, (finished)

Because he was the GOAT.

 

Chorus:

He stood accused of all our crime,

The greatest scapegoat of all time.

They laid it all upon his back,

And so he took up all our slack.

He took it all and paid the cost,

An endless well of pain and loss,

The greatest scapegoat of all time,

The greatest scapegoat of all time.

 

Verse Three:

They asked for his defense. He kept his mouth shut.

He just wouldn't answer whatever they asked.

He could have gone free if he ratted us out,

But he remained silent and finished his task.

And when they read that judgement

He didn't say a word.

He let them sentence him to death,

Although it was absurd.

He knew that we were guilty,

But he was not a turncoat.

He took the execution, (finished)

Because he was the GOAT.

 

Chorus:

He stood accused of all our crime,

The greatest scapegoat of all time.

They laid it all upon his back,

And so he took up all our slack.

He took it all and paid the cost,

An endless well of pain and loss.

He owned our debt and paid our price,

Our greatest scapegoat, Jesus Christ,

The one who paid for all our crime,

The greatest scapegoat of all time,

The greatest scapegoat of all time,

The greatest scapegoat of all time.

 

Final Chorus:

He stood accused of all our crime,

They laid it all upon his back,

The greatest scapegoat of all time.

The one who took up all our slack.

He took it all and paid the cost,

An endless well of pain and loss.

He owned our debt and paid our price,

Our greatest scapegoat, Jesus Christ,

The one who paid for all our crime,

The greatest scapegoat of all time,

The greatest scapegoat of all time,

The greatest scapegoat of all time,

Because he was the GOAT.

Sheet music is available at musescore.com. Besides lead and backup vocals, the arrangement that I put up there also calls for oboe, piano, timpani, a drumkit, violas, and double bass. However, I believe the song could be adapted for other combinations.

Purple Frogs

I search the world for purple frogs.

They bring me such delight!

I love their croaking, smooth and clear,

Their colours bold and bright.

The way they swim around the bog,

And lay their eggs at night,

Their mating dance while people sleep,

Is such an awesome sight!

 

The purple frogs are edible,

And this is my advice:

If you can capture purple frogs,

They bring a handsome price.

When cooking purple frogs in stew,

I season them with spice.

Their smoky taste, with vegetables,

Makes dinner very nice.

 

I teach the purple frogs to speak,

And I have always found,

That once they learn our English words,

Their thoughts are most profound.

This world has many governments,

Some good, some inept, some harsh;

But soon with the help of the purple frogs,

They'll all be ruled from the marsh!

 

This is written in the common meter, so it can be sung to any number of existing tunes. Nonetheless, I intend to write original music for it at some point. Ad interim, I saw no reason not to go ahead and post the lyrics. Enjoy, or whatever.

Sing to Yourself and to God

I sing, when I am alone,
Then I get into the zone.
I sing with the rest of my squad.
I sing even though I am flawed.
I sing and I clap, stomp, and nod.
I sing to myself and to God.

Waking up to dawn's first light,
I stand up and stifle a yawn.
I didn't get enough sleep last night;
I'll take what I got and move on.
I wanna be happy and bright,
Like a person whose troubles are gone.
Well music makes me feel alright, [so]
I'll sing to myself and to God.
Oh I'll sing to myself and to God.
I gotta sing to myself and to God.

I sing, when I am alone,
Then I get into the zone.
I sing with the rest of my squad.
I sing even though I am flawed.
I sing and I clap, stomp, and nod.
I sing to myself and to God.

I sing to myself and to God.
I sing to myself and to God.
Sing to yourself and to God.

When everything goes your way,
When everything's going to pot,
When you're having a really good day,
And when you're really really not,
Nevermind what people might say,
Set aside that insecure thought.
They are not your judges today,
Sing to yourself and to God.
Sing to yourself and to God.

Sing, sing when you are alone.
Sing and get into the zone.
Sing with the rest of your squad.
Sing even though you are flawed.
Sing, now clap stomp and nod.
Sing to yourself and to God.

Voices

Why're you always asking who I'm talking to?
I thought it was apparent, I wasn't talking to you.
You ain't got no business, asking about what I said.
It wasn't meant for you but for the voices in my head.

Voices in my head, voices in my head,
When I hear them talk to me, I've never been mislead.
Voices in my head, right between my ears,
They have kept me company for many many years.

People often interrupt the voices in my head.
So then they have to say again, whatever they just said.
I know the people mean no harm, they're simply unaware,
But to the voices in my head, it really seems unfair.

Voices in my head, voices in my head,
When I hear them talk to me, I've never been mislead.
Voices in my head, voices in my mind,
They tell me things, and then I find,
That I'm the only one they told,
The only one of all mankind,
The only one who stayed enrolled,
The only one who can still hear the voices in my head.

[whispered] The voices in my head, say that I'm inbred,
[whispered] 'Cause both my grandparents also heard voices in their head.

I am always talking to the voices in my head.
If I don't keep them listening, they talk to me instead,
And once they start to argue, I can't hear myself think.
If I don't keep them quiet, they drive me to the brink.

The voices in my head, voices in my head,
When I hear them talk to me, I've never been mislead.
Voices in my head, right between my ears,
They have kept me company for many many years.
Voices in my head, voices in my mind,
They tell me things, and then I find,
That I'm the only one they told,
The only one of all mankind,
The only one who stayed enrolled,
The only one who can still hear
The voices in my head.
The voices in my head.
The voices in my head.