Numbers

Well this last couple of weeks has been amazing. It may have been a lucky holiday rush but in the last two weeks our views went up to 22,390 which is about a 390 more views these two weeks than the last two weeks. Our channel views went up 1,229. This update will be moved from bi-weekly to weekly to compensate for more views per week and to have a clearer picture of the data.

Today another video was released which everyone should checkout. www.youtube.com/mysticteacupproject .

Site Updates

Today a new layout option was added to the site. To change from the default "Space Age" to "Rustic" there is a small pull down menu on the right side of the page. The new layout looks pretty good so try it out. The others page is taking a long time to take shape and most if not all of the links will be on there by this time next week. Don't forget to sign the guest book :)

Wii

So my younger brother got a Wii for Christmas and I was messing around with it. So I hooked it up to our wi-fi and did some other things and this little window popped up, "Would you like to preform a Wii System update?" it asked. "Well sure," I thought. So I agree to the next window and the update commences. After about a minute the first little line of blue appears and I think, "Well it won't fill up the whole bar like the first time. " I was wrong. It is currently around 2 inches from the end of the bar and all of my valuable time is going to waste. I guess it isn't all lost because I am sitting here telling the world my WOES. But aside from the 30 minute updates the Wii is fun and flawless. No wonder it has outsold its competitors. At least it is revolutionary.

Christmas Eve, Mulled Wine, Jethro Tull, and Chillaxing

Usually, I find myself hating Christmas (especially Christmas Eve) because of the false face I have to put on when I opening presents I don't like. Plus, I'm still warming up to my grandfather's new girlfriend, though she is really nice. But anyway, the tenseness got to me, and my parents just tolled my to just relax and drink some Glogg (a Swedish mulled wine (we are of recent Swedish desent (from my momma's mother (who was Swedish)))). So I did, and I listened to the Jethro Tulll Chrismas songs and it was real good. I feel like soo much better now that I did that its amazing.

Merry Christmas

Well I know it is a little late but I hope everyone has a warm and merry Christmas and a happy holidays. We also want to go ahead and wish everyone a happy New Years and a fun 2008.

Cheers,
MTCP Crew.

Updates

The "Others" page and a guestbook have been added to the site. Next time you visit feel free to sign the guestbook and give us some feedback.

Expansion

We now have the capabilities to create Dashboard Widgets (MACs only) and other Applications for the OS X operating system. If you would like a custom Widget contact us here

New Videos

We have 4 new videos added to our YouTube page and they are pretty funny. Take a look.

21000

Well it has been around 2 weeks and we have received another 1000 video views. this is looking good. There are roughly 52 weeks in a year, so 52/2=26, 26*1000=26000 more views by next year!! And of course we should have new material by then which would raise that number even more. 22 out of our 29 videos have over 100 views now.

"If you don't write an entry, I'll eat your face" or something to that nature...

Hey guys, its a NEW BLOGGER! I haven't been blogging cause I'm lazy, but I hope to make up for it in this entry. My associate did semi-threaten me to blog something so bare (bear?) with me while I state my blogging rules. From this point on, grammar does not matter that much (neither does common sense). So lets begin with life. I have exams coming up tomorrow (which is of course why I'm not studying, but instead blogging). I've never really had major exams since I'm new to my school so it'll probably be awful. Of course, my lack of sleep have caused me to have dangerous violent thoughts towards the creator of exams along with the cravings of a pregnant woman and a disturbing fetish for the french band called Yelle. To be honest, I would like to go back in time (or whenever) to meet the guy who made exams and tie him to a tree and let muskrats slowly eat his face while I show him the horror he has created. Or better yet, I could use telepathy to make him completely hysterically mad. Either way, we'd still have exams because if it wasn't that guy, its another, I'm only one plus murder to add to my list (just kidding). The reason for this, is because despite our 'democratic' (cough fascist/ communist cough) society, humans have the strange desire to test each other rigorously simply because they had to do it when they were young. So clearly, the only solution is to destroy/ erase the minds of the people who have taken exams and then get rid of them. Then, no one would feel obliged to force these exams on people. Despite this we'd still all have to do other things we don't like. For instance, eating casserole. I once met a man who forced me to eat spinach casserole every day for all my meals. This was when I was (a classified location) while doing my former job has a secret political figure. Of course, it was a good job: nice private jets, unlimited power without getting blamed, etc., but still all I remember was checking my long emails. I would so many emails to check. Every day! And you know what most of them were?!?!?! CHAIN MAILS! I HATE CHAIN MAILS!!! You get these chain mails that are like "Hi, I'm a kid with cancer. The more you forward this, the more money Make- A - Wish donates to my surgery to LIVE." And of course everyone sends it to each other in a perpetual, never-ending cycle. So every day you have to send it to everyone. Of course, you say "Why not just not send it, random blogging person/ procrastinator?" Well, I'll tell you, horrible, cancer-kid killing reader. IF YOU DON'T SEND THE MESSAGE, YOU ARE DOOMED TO LIVE WITH THE GUILT THAT YOU COULD HAVE JUST KILLED THAT CANCER KID!! And sure it might not exist at all, but what if it does? The guilt of some cute little kid coming up as a ghost it too much to bear. Of course, I guess the point of all this is maybe more than exams: I HATE SPINACH CASSEROLE. But of course that does keep the incessant thumping out my head that continuely says "Spinach Casserole for dinner tonight!" or "Exams tomorrow!" With that, I truly must study. (p.s. everything you have read probably just lowered your IQ. haha if you're taking exams!) (p.p.s. any unethical thing i said should be taken with a smile. Just imagine patting my head while I'm in a straight jackey)

Site Updates

The site has had some major interface changes occur this weekend. The main body of the pages now has a brushed metal look. The text is all dark gray and a deep red color. A new background has been added behind all of this to give the site a very clean and futuristic look. Check it out and enjoy.

20,000 and 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!!!

We have officially reached 20,000 total views and it's our one year anniversary. We are totally having a Fire Emblem Party at Christmas for this. 1 whole year. Feels like it's been ten years. Anyway absolutely awesome stuff here.

Site Redesign

Well the site has changed a lot in the last 12 hours. It now has a very nice CSS layout and a nicer and more ergonomic user interface. All of the videos we have currently released on the web are on the site and soon there will be our favorites in high quality, non-youtube format. Also we will have some other non-video things we will be publishing on the site such as that paper that was posted awhile back on Edwin Arlington Robinson. So there is a lot to look forward to next time you visit the site: New layout, All of the videos in order of newest at the top and oldest at the bottom, extra stuff, and a better UI. So come check out the site today at www.mysticteacupproject.com .

Summary and Review of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

First, read some stuff about Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance on Wikipedia.
This game starts off about a year after Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. Back in PoR, after Mad Kind Ashnard of Daein was defeated, the Empire of Beignon was given control of Daein during its reconstruction. In Radiant Dawn, we learn that the senators of Beignon have been taking advantage of Daein and its citizens since Beignon was given control. The game starts out with the player learning about the Dawn Brigade led by Macaiah and Sothe, the sucky character from PoR, whose mission is to free Daein from Beignon oppression. At the end of the first part, the Dawn Brigade wins Daein's independence. In the second part, we find ourselves back in Crimea, where Queen Elincia's leadership is under question by the nobles of her country. In this part, you fight against the armies of the nobles to assert Elincia's leadership. In the cutscene at the end, one of Elincia's closest advisors, Lucia, is about to be hanged when (yay!) the Griel Mercenaries show up and save her. In part 3, Beignon abruptly and unexpectedly attacks the Laguz, and an all out war between the Laguz Army (consisting of Crimea, the Griel Mercenaries, and the forces of the beast, hawk, and raven Laguz tribes) and the Beignon Empire (who forces Daein to fight with them through a blood pact with Daein King Pelleas). In the last few chapters of the third part, you alternate between fighting with the Dawn Brigade forces you trained in Part 1, who are forced to fight for Beignon) and the Griel Mercenaries. In some chapters, you face characters from the other team. In the end of part 3, you must awaken the "dark" goddess from Lehran's Medallion and the goddess Ashera before she is awaken by war, because if she is awaken by war, she will destroy their entire world based on a contract she made with the people of Tellius (their continent) years before. With the help of the goddess that everyone considered to be evil, Yune, you must defeat Ashera because she still plans to destroy the continent. She also turns everyone into statues (except for all of the main characters... what an unexpected convenient coincidence [actually the characters attribute this to them being stronger than all of the other soldiers]), and unfreezes those who will help her. Before you face the big bad goddess you learn that Sephiran (a good guy) used the Black Knight a.k.a. General Zelgius (just research that, takes too long to explain) to orchestrate the whole war in the hopes that the goddess Ashera would destroy all people. That was a pretty big unexpected shocker, actually. Of course, in the end, you do defeat Ashera, and everything goes back to normal.

Anyway... onto what I think of the game.

Part 1: Wii-ness
Looking at it as a game for the Wii and all of the features it entails, it lacks severely. You can't even wave around the controller to do anything. It's all boring button pressing. You can even use a Gamecube controller to control the game. WTF NINTENDO?!? IT'S A WII GAME NOT A GAMECUBE GAME!! That's probably my biggest concern.

Part 2: Part 1
The characters were OK. Definitely not my favorite part of the game, but the cutscene at the beginning is really cool. Nolan and Edward are actually really good, and so is Jill (actually she's awesome as long as you don't let her die like me).

Part 3: Part 2
My least favorite part. It's short and no where near as fun and entertaining as the other parts. Two things make it worth it, though. You get the best player in the game in my opinion, Nephenee, and the cutscene at the end is awesome because you are reintroduced to the Greil Mercenaries, the real characters of the game.

Part 4: Part 3
I love this part because you get to destroy everything with the Griel Mercenaries and you get most of them up to third teir unit. In the chapters you have to play with the Dawn Brigade, you realize how weak they are compared to the Griel Mercenaries. The cutscenes in this part are really awesome, too.

Part 5: Part 4
This is the best part, even though it's much shorter than Part 3 and maybe Part 1. It contains 7 chapters: the prologue, chapters 1-5, and final chapter, but the final chapter is actually divided into five mini chapters. The battles in this part are really awesome and the final chapter is really awesome. The last part of this part, though, the epilogue, is the most boring forty five minutes of the whole game because all you do is read a bunch of text. The cutscene at the end of this part is really cool.

Overall, the game rocks. It's better than Path of Radiance and might just be better than Sacred Stones. Buy the game and play it. I could have done better in this review, but that would take way too much time.

Oh and my five best players in Radiant Dawn (as rated by the game by # of kills):
5. Mia (Griel Mercenaries)
4. Boyd (Griel Mercenaries)
3. Ike (Commander, Griel Mercenaries)
2. Gatrie (Griel Mercenaries)
1. Nephenee (Griel Mercenaries)

I give it an 8.5 out of 10.

American Pie: The Best Song Ever? Yes.

Listen to it. Try to figure out what it means. It's really long, yet it doesn't get boring. Plus, it is really cryptic. If you do some research though, you figure out that it's about the death of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and "The Big Bopper". The whole song then goes on to trace the downward history of rock and music in general after their deaths, mainly Buddy Holly. It's amazing how well the song flows when the whole thing is filled with metaphors and puns referring to musicians. Some references that stand out:

• Miss American Pie: The rock and roll of the '50s. It's virgin, innocent music (hence Miss) that is as big a part of America as apple pie, therefore it's the "American Pie". With the death of Buddy Holly, this music went with him.
• The line, "Did you write the Book of Love and do you have faith in God above" is a reference to the hit, "The Book of Love" by The Monotones in '58. We are getting in to the end of the '50s.
• "I was a lonely teenage bronkin' buck \ With a pink carnation and a pick up truck \ But I knew I was out of luck, \ The day, the music, died." This makes reference to "A White Sport Coat (And a Pink Carnation)", a hit from Marty Robbins in '57. He finds himself lonely because this type of music is no more.
• Bob Dylan is the jester. He took the place of Elvis after Elvis died.
• The football metaphor refers to The Rolling Stones.
• The "girl who sang the blues" is Janet Joplin. She sings the music that used to be.
• In the verse that makes reference to Janet Joplin, this song (American Pie) is taken to the sacred store (the record companies) to be recorded. He is told that the music won't play anymore. The long songs from back when with interpretive lyrics won't cut it anymore. It's all about the money now. The quality doesn't matter as much. (Scary accurate when looking at our record companies today.)
  
• "The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost" refers to Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens.
• "They caught the last train for the coast" means that this kind of music is dead now. Buddy Holly, Elvis, and the rest are gone. Rock'n'Roll is dead in its original form. It's no longer what it used to be.

There are many more references than this in the song, but these are a few. The song follows the path of rock so accurately and without a single straight out reference that it definitely is among the top songs in the history of America. Could it be the best? Yes it could.

Numbers!! 11-19-07

So today we have a numbers update. Total video views on youtube has reached over 19,000
views. Our most viewed video, Genghis Khan, has 5,942 views so it is very close to hitting 6,000. Our site has over 800 hits as of today. These numbers are quite special. Almost 1 week ago we had broken 18,000 total views on youtube which means we are getting roughly 1,000 views a week, which I think is awesome. Oh our channel now has 1,073 views so that went up around 50 from last week. We would only expect the growth of views to exponential (literally
speaking, so with every new view it increases our next chance of views so our total views would have an exponential growth pattern). Yay! Expect a party at 20,000.

All In One Computers

Recently designs have been released that feature challenges to the popular iMac. Sony, Gateway, and Dell are gearing up for releases of their first All In One PCs. It is an obvious attempt to curb the popularity of Apple's iMac. So what are these new models going to be like? Sony's will have a 19'' screen and be $1900 for the base model, Gateway's will have 19" and it will be around $1299
for the base model and finally Dell's will have a 22" screen and will have a base price around $2000. The iMac if you were wondering has a 20" screen and starts at $1199 plus it is a Mac. All of the competitors of Apple have added built in cameras to at least one of their models. So what do they look like? iMac:


Sony VAIO VGC-LS1:


Gateway One:


And Dell's XPS something or other:


So there you have it. Processors and RAM and graphics stay about the same for every model. Some of the high end models made by Gateway and Sony have blu-ray drives and burners but that wouldn't make any difference to the standard buyer. Of ocurse I have to say that copies are never as good as the original, so I vote for the cheaper, more reliable iMac.

New Video

Not really a video but it counts. www.youtube.com/mysticteacupproject

Pencil

Well there has been a lot to post about today. So awhile back I downloaded a free animation program called Pencil. Today was the first time I had really tried to use it and it turns out to be a powerful little app. Here is the video I made, it is short and really bad, but I was just getting used to things.

Yeah you can expect a whole new breed of videos now. Don't worry though, they will actually have a story and some quality when we actually release them.

Site Updates

Well today a lot of work has been done on the site. Two themes have been added to the welcome page, night and light (really creative names). Night features an all black background, usual gray text, and one of the images from a previous blog post. Light has a yellow background, orange text, and an all new picture that was mostly hand drawn (obviously). Of course the original is still there with its white background, gray text, and original emblem. Night is my personal favorite. Also the entire site is now set up so that it can be easily navigated using a non-javascript enabled browser such as the one on the iPhone. Keep on the lookout for more themes and new features.

Numbers!!

Our total video views on YouTube has broken 18,000 and our channel views have broken 1000! And our total site views has broken 700! I'll bet 10 dollars every single one of our site views was us... But that's OK because it's awsome!

Public School Bureaucracy

So, I go JCIB. At least, that's what they want you to think before you get there. Once you are there, you realize that all you are is just Shades Valley High School's way of making their test scores look better. The beastmaster (who recently decided to appoint herself principal of JCIB) of the whole thing is Ms. Baker, who cares more about how she looks with the test scores of her students than she does the actual well being of them. If she did really care, JCIB would be a separate school. I've thought about writing the Jefferson County Board of Education about the unfair use of JCIB students and the fact that we are being forced to say that "we are part of the Shades Valley family." It occurred to me, though, that for how long they have been letting this go on, they must be in line with Ms. Baker, making writing a letter pointless. Anyway, they want to make Shades Valley be the Jefferson County flagship school, and they really do not want magnet schools like JCIB. The only reason they keep it around is because of it's national recognition. They'd rather the smart students not be able to be together under their own separate building, but as part of Shades Valley. What really makes this bad is the offenses that if repeated can get you suspended in Shades Valley, which are also enforced on the JCIB students because of the beastmaster:

• Bringing a bookbag (even if empty) in to the lunch room
• Bringing a bookbag to a classroom
• Leaving your shirt untucked
• Bringing a blanket to class
• Closing your eyes in a classroom

On top of this Bureaucratic BS, if you are late to a class, you'll find the door locked, and you must report to the library to get written up and miss 30 minutes of class. At lunch, you cannot buy any item of food separately, because it's against Jefferson County regulations. You must buy a whole lunch, even if you just want a milk. This leads to a whole lot of wasted food. It's also against the rules to use a bookbag that is not mesh or plastic. Their reasoning for these rules (I'm not making this up) is that in a bookbag, you could hide a bomb or a gun. This is also why you can't bring a bookbag to lunch or to a classroom. In your pants, you could hide a gun if your shirt was untucked. A blanket represents sleeping. Now the teachers at JCIB (and the real principal of JCIB, Mrs. Jones) thinks all of this is stupid. And since the board wants JCIB so much to be a part of Shades Valley, we have got to adhere to all of the crap rules.
That's bureaucracy in Jefferson County.

Stuff I have been working on

So recently I have been reading some photoshop tutorials and have been inspired to do some things for the site. Here are two main new things I have made. Oh and now you can expect holiday or seasonal layouts for the site. Such as Christmas, Valentines, etc. Here are the pics.

Leopard Log: Day 7 ( I think) and some other updates.

Well Leopard continues to preform flawlessly. Today was the first major software update that i have had for Leopard, so that was exciting.
So for other updates. I have spent a few hours in Photoshop and come up with a pretty nice picture, well nice by my standards. And now the page that comes up when you visit our site
you will see he picture and after 5 seconds be redirected to the main page. It is pretty snazzy.

Leopard Log: Day 4 or 5

Sorry I had no time to report over the last day or so, so here we are. So far nothing new aside from the amazingness of the OS. It is soooo sleek and fast. I have noticed that the start-up and shut-down times have decreased since tiger. Well I read that over 2 million copies of Leopard have been sold since its release so thats 2 million people like us, basking in its glory.

Leopard Log: Day 2

So the second full day of Leopard was just as good as the first. I stumbled onto how one would restore email messages through time machine. Open Mail and have the window sitting on the desktop. Then simply open Time Machine and the Mail window slides into place ready to find your lost messages. About that little icon problem, well it fixed itself last night and has not occurred again even though I have been deleting more useless free apps. Yay day two= flawless victory.

Leopard Log: Day 1

So for the next few weeks or more (Depends on how long it takes for me to get tired of doing this or lose interest.) I will be updating the world on how each day goes by using Leopard.
Well today was great. The first full day of use and everything is rolling just fine. The Wallpapers are amazing, I can't seem to decide which one I want to use. I don't see how I, or anyone, survived without quicklook. It really makes finding documents and other file types easy and is a great complement to the Coverflow view. Though I don't use Coverflow in iTunes I love the way it works in Finder. Spaces has been a dream. It is very easy to use and is surprisingly useful to the everyday consumer. Time Machine is great as well. I have found myself deleting files on purpose just to watch them be brought back. It is very simple and easy to use and looks great. So those things are all great but we have one "snag" for today. In my Applications stack I made the first app and the app that shows up as the icon was Address Book. I noticed just a second ago that it was a strange bright blue-greenish color, definately not what it was supposed to be. I had been deleting some apps when I noticed it, but nothing was wrong with the way the icon looked in the Finder and I hadn't deleted any important app that would control this. So it may be due to the major changes I made to the folder and therfore the stack but it doesn't effect anything else. I will see if the icon has fixed itself tomorrow, but for now I am using a different ordering so it doesn't show up. Overall the first day of Leopard has been great, it is tons of fun to show to my family and friends.

MORE LEOPARD!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, so I know one of us has already posted Leopard pics, but i really want to also, so...

Spaces with the Apple Final Cut Studio apps open


A picture of Time Machine


Time Machine while it's cycling through windows


A Firefox window going into the doc


The dock


So yeah. Awesome huh?

OSX 10.5 is finally out. After waiting 2 hours at the Apple Store we finally have it. Here are some screenshots:

Time Machine, Desktop, Spaces, and Coverflow in Finder. 

Yay, it is AWESOME!!

iMovie '08 Review

This is a little late but I was inspired by the upcoming release of OSX 10.5 . Ok so like any mac freak I went out and bought iLife '08 and iWork '08. I will be talking about iMovie '08 a very important part of the overall iLife '08 package. So I installed iLife '08 and was very pleased with the new iPhoto, iDvd, iWeb, and GarageBand. As you can see iMovie was not mentioned and here's why. So iMoive '06 was amazing. Video effects, audio effects, a time line and clip view, multiple audio tracks and a few other features were included. The user interface was simple and fit the times. Now iMovie '08 the new user interface is very pretty. The library approach to organizing files is very nice. But what happened to all of the features? No more video and audio effects? Not as many titles options and not as many transitions? So what can you do with the new iMovie? Well I guess you can stitch together clips and make videos with a single background track and limited sound effects. Why would you cut down on the OLD features? Well I asked the apple guy at one of the Apple Retail Stores and he basically said they left it open for updates and more third party compatibility. I haven't seen any of those yet, not that they won't come. Luckily iMovie '06 can be downloaded off of the apple site anytime. Not a good iMovie. It was so hated actually that the ratings for iLife '08 on Apple's site is around a 3. But we carry on because we use Final Cut Pro anyway. No harm done, just don't mess up anything else. :p

Vitamin E, Vitamin A, and Selenium

About vitamin A overdose, taken from Wikipedia:
"As vitamin A is fat-soluble, disposing of any excesses taken in through diet is a lot harder than with water-soluble vitamins B and C. As such, vitamin A toxicity can result. This can lead to nausea, jaundice, irritability, anorexia (not to be confused with anorexia nervosa, the eating disorder), vomiting, blurry vision, headaches, muscle and abdominal pain and weakness, drowsiness and altered mentality.In chronic cases, hair loss, drying of the mucous membranes, fever, insomnia, fatigue, weight loss, bone fractures, anemia, and diarrhea can all be evident on top of the symptoms associated with less serious toxicity."

About vitamin E overdose, from Drugs.com:
"Symptoms of a vitamin E overdose may include fatigue, weakness, nausea, headache, blurred vision, flatulence, and diarrhea."

About selenium overdose, from Wikipedia:
Exceeding the Tolerable Upper Intake Level of 400 micrograms per day can lead to selenosis. Symptoms of selenosis include a garlic odour on the breath, gastrointestinal disorders, hair loss, sloughing of nails, fatigue, irritability and neurological damage. Extreme cases of selenosis can result in cirrhosis of the liver, pulmonary edema and death.

Right now, based on the fact that I'm having the worst headache I've ever had, having diarrhea, constantly on and off disillusioned, tired, and just really not feeling good, I thing I need to lay off on all those nutrient filled drinks. Yeah I'm not too hot right now. I just hope I don't die.

New TMBG Video

Yay:
"
BRAND-NEW VIDEO "THE MESOPOTAMIANS" IS REALLY OUT!
Directed by David Cowles, animated by Chris Timmons
vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=19482974

ATTENTION: The band is respectfully requesting ALL TMBG fans to FORWARD THIS LINK to ALL their friends, post it on their blogs and social networking pages. Think of the potential exposure!
"

I think that quote says it all.

Random Stuff

Ok so I walked in to the bank and this guy came up to me and said hey what are you doing and I said hey what are you doing and he said what are you doing in a bank and I said I was getting money from my bank account and he was like why would you do that and I was like because I wanted to go buy something and he was like why would you want to go buy something and I said because its fun to buy stuff and he said:
FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY
And I was like why would I care about that and he said its important to know about finances and I was like that sound boring and he said what kind of retirement do you want a retirement in which you live from social security check to social security check or a retirement in which youre in control of you money and I said I would like to have control of my money and live a good life and he said well then save up. Then I left the bank.

This is a research paper about Edward Arlington Robinson. I just really felt like posting something totally random. Enjoy.

Alone by the Hand of Edwin Arlington Robinson

Edwin Arlington Robinson, born in 1869 to a wealthy family in Maine, was the youngest of three sons. He pursued poetry even as a child and was the youngest member of a local poetry club. He attended Harvard, but personal tragedy including the death of his mother and father set aside his personal goals. A few years later, his middle brother committed suicide by drug overdose. Robinson lived in poverty until President Teddy Roosevelt began to patronize him, arranging a job for Robinson at a customhouse. After Roosevelt left office, Robinson was forced to quit. In 1910, Robinson became critically acclaimed for “The Town Down the River”, and won three Pulitzer Prizes in 1922, 1925, and 1928. He later died in 1935. In the poems “Miniver Cheevy”, “Mr. Flood’s Party”, “Reuben Bright”, “Eros Turannos”, “The Mill”, and “Richard Cory”, Robinson shows the agony of his early life through the theme of loneliness in man’s soul.
The loneliness of a man “lost in the modern world” is seen in “Miniver Cheevy” (Untermeyer 53). Miniver Cheevy is called “child of scorn”, denoting his worthlessness in the eyes of the people. Miniver Cheevy “assailed the seasons”, basically cursing life, as people do in fits of personal loss and loneliness. Cheevy wept that he was ever born, and one might weep if he felt disliked and alone. In the next five stanzas, Miniver Cheevy dreams his wish to live in medieval, bygone times. Miniver Cheevy must be unhappy since there is no one to comfort him. The end of the seventh stanza sums up his living in illusory worlds to escape from loneliness, stating: “Miniver thought, and thought, and thought, and thought, / And thought about it.” The last stanza begins with “Miniver Cheevy, born too late” suggesting that Miniver Cheevy might have had friends had he lived in the medieval time period, and continues with “Scratched his head and kept on thinking”, again reiterating Cheevy escaping from his loneliness in the real world. Robinson writes: “Miniver coughed, and called it fate.” The cough might have been “suggesting pulmonary tuberculosis and/ or the pneumonia to which alcoholics are prey” (Cervo 213). The poem ends summing up Cheevy’s need to live in illusory worlds, and his lack of concern for his health, both culprits of loneliness: “And kept on drinking.”
Much like Miniver Cheevy’s loneliness, “Mr. Flood’s Party” shows the loneliness of an “aging drunkard” who outlives his friends (Lucas 27). “Mr. Flood’s Party” shows loneliness in the first line, which states: “Old Eben Flood, climbing alone one night”. In the second stanza, Flood begins to talk to himself and carry on an imaginative party, a sure sign of loneliness (Pack 74). He becomes filled with drink to wash away his pain from loneliness. He sets the jug, his only treasure, down “as a mother lays her sleeping child”, so carefully as if “knowing that most things break”. Mr. Flood takes precautions in setting down the jug because it only can stave off the total encroachment of loneliness. Flood continues his conversation with himself, until Robinson ends the poem summing up the origin of Old Eben Flood’s loneliness: “And there was nothing in the town below- / Where strangers would have shut many doors / That many friends would have opened long ago.” Mr. Flood experiences loneliness through outliving all of his past friends.
Just as “Mr. Flood’s Party” shows the loneliness of a man who has lost his friends, the poem “Reuben Bright” shows the loneliness of a man who has lost his wife. In this poem, Robinson focuses on “moments of sadness, desperation, and loss” (Lucas 35). The poem begins with a description of the butcher, but then switches to his reaction to the death of his wife. He is described as “shaking with grief and fright,” a reasonable reaction to the loneliness caused by the personal loss of a loved one. He cries so hard that it “made the women cry to see him cry”, until the grief from loneliness totally overcomes Bright. Much like the ending of “Richard Cory”, it is rather shocking to read the second part of the last line: “and tore down the slaughter-house.” This “wild grief” was the culmination of Ruben Bright’s loneliness caused by the loss of his wife (Hall 12).
While Reuben Bright is alone due to the loss of his wife, the inevitable loneliness of a couple is shown in “Eros Turannos”. The poem begins with Robinson stating that the woman dislikes the man with whom she is having a love affair. As Donald Hall explains, the woman in “Eros Turranos has a love affair only to avoid “solitary old age” (Hall 9). The woman fears that losing this man would cause her to be “Drawn slowly to the foamless weirs [dams]”, meaning that she would drown and die in a sea of loneliness. This plan seems to be a double-edged sword, though, because disliking her lover puts her in a constant state of loneliness, as she really has no actual lover. The gossiping villagers force her to isolate herself in her house. At the end, “Each [of the characters] is finally left empty and isolate” states Anna Blumenthal (411). The two lovers are again left separate and in a state of loneliness.
Sharing with “Eros Turranos” the connection between loneliness and a couple, “The Mill” is about the loneliness created by personal loss and the accompanying “suicide and failure” (Hall 10). As Glorianna Locklear said, “‘The Mill’ is … a sad tale of double suicide brought on by the encroachment of the modern world and personal loss” (175). The miller seems to show loneliness saying “There are no millers anymore”. The industrial revolution has made the antiquated miller job obsolete, so he was fired. This realization of no longer being needed creates loneliness, as this was his livelihood, and so the miller hung himself. His wife feels loneliness at the loss of her husband and provider. Therefore, the miller’s wife commits suicide drowning herself. This double tragedy showed loneliness through the personal loss and failure of a husband and wife.
While “The Mill” showed loneliness in a couple, “Richard Cory” shows how even the rich, who appear to have everything, can be lonely. The poem begins with a description of Cory, calling him “a gentlemen from sole to crown”, “clean favored”, and “imperially slim”, all denoting that he is of high status and wealth. Part of the second stanza states “But still he fluttered pulses when he said, / ‘Good-morning’”. David Kelly explains, Cory “created abnormal excitement with such regular expressions as ‘Good-morning’” (117). Such simple expressions would only be said in such a way if Cory had no friend to talk to, denoting loneliness. In the third stanza, the line “In fine, we thought that he was everything” is in past tense, denoting this is not believed anymore. Also, the word fine has many different meanings to suggest his loneliness and ultimate choice to end his loneliness. Kelly wrote that fine could mean “the end” as in music, foreshadowing Cory’s death of loneliness, or could mean “a monetary penalty”, as the common people want to take all his money from him because they do not know what it is like to be in Cory’s position (117). The last stanza of the poem begins with the common man ironically stating his plight of life without money, and then ends with Cory, despite his wealth, making the ultimate decision based on his loneliness and disconnect from society: “And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, / Went home and put a bullet through his head.”
Edwin Arlington Robinson wrote about the theme of loneliness often in his poetry. This was understandable, as he was separated from society at some points in his life (Cowley 132). In “Richard Cory” and “The Mill” the characters approach loneliness by committing suicide. In others, such as “Mr. Flood’s Party” and “Miniver Cheevy” the loneliness leads to constant drinking of alcohol. In “Reuben Bright”, the main character becomes filled with rage because of loneliness, and in “Eros Turannos” the supposed cure for loneliness ultimately leads to more loneliness. All of these characters share the fact that they in some way become outcasts from society, leading to loneliness. E. A. Robinson often wrote about loneliness in the souls of many different peoples in his poetry.




Works Consulted

• Blumenthal, Anna Sabol. “Edwin Arlington Robinson’s Tilbury Town Poems and William James.” Dalhouse Review. Winter 1991/1992: 411-437.
• Cervo, Nathan A. “Robinson’s ‘Miniver Cheevy.’” The Explicator. Summer 2004: 213.
• Cowley, Malcolm. “Edwin Arlington Robinson: Defeat and Triumph.” New England Writers and Writing. Ed. Donald W. Faulkner. Biddeford, Maine: UP of New England, 1996.
• Hall, Donald. The Essential Robinson. New York: Ecco Press, 1994.
• Joyner, Nance Carol. “Edwin Arlington Robinson.” Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 54. Ed. Peter Quatermain. Detroit: The Gale Group, 1987.
• Kelly, David. “‘Richard Cory.’” Poetry for Students, Volume 4. Ed. Mark K. Ruby. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale Research, 1999.
• Locklear, Glorianna. “Robinson’s ‘The Mill.’” The Explicator. Spring 1993: 175.
• Lucas, John. “The Poetry of Edwin Arlington Robinson.” Moderns & Contemporaries: Novelists, Poets, Critics. New York: Harvester Press, 1985.
• Pack, Robert. “Laughter at the Abyss: Hardy and Robinson.” The Long View: Essays on the Discipline of Hope and Poetic Craft. Boston: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1991.
• Robinson, Edwin Arlington. Collected Poems. New York: Macmillan, 1921.
• Untermeyer, Louis, “Edwin Arlington Robinson.” American Poetry Since 1900. Baltimore: Henry Holt, 1923.

Videos Page Up And Running!!!

After completely recoding the videos page it is ready to be graced by your eyes. There are six videos on right now but that number will increase daily. Enjoy!
~~MTCP Web Guy

Site Makeover!

Well now the site looks a lot better some places, a little better in some places and is still under construction in other places. Thanks to iWeb '08 we have been able to drastically change our site. We plan to put the videos on in a non Youtube way, possibly by directly uploading them. The videos page is not fully functional right now and we are not sure why so please bear with us.
Thanks
~~MTCP Web Guy

Ok so about Mr. A...

Yeah... See we're really lazy and maybe one day we will get together and work on Mr. Apocalypse... but it'll be a while. In the meantime, you can read a working summary.

A man comes and takes Benjamin Franklin captive who is from the future today. He is cloned in the future and becomes: bumbumbum: Mr. Apocalypse. Now, because Benjamin Frankin has been taken out of the past, the past is just going insane. Also, Mr. Apocalypse is totally anhiallating the future today. At this same time in the present, gourd man is on his quest to defeat the sad sack with the group of children that follow you around from the Bahamas. Now, a man (the same man who got ben frank out of the past) goes and gets Mr. Apocalypse from the future today (which mr. apocalypse has totally anhiallated) and brings him to the present. This is when the originally planned story starts. Mr. Apocalypse uses his evil plan of daylights slavings time (the opposite of daylight savings time which he thought up in the future today) to begin destruction on the present. The problem is, he doesnt know that Arizona and Japan completely ignore his system of daylight slavings time, and they both are an hour behind what is daylight savings time because they are not recognizing daylight savings time, but not not recognizing daylight slavings time, they just completely ignore it. So, Japan and Arizona (a glitch in the system) last for an hour after the apocalypse and are really rallied up to defeat Mr. Apocalypse. From here, the team of heroes (wagon wheel of premature judgement, lunch the half troll, toad the wet sprocket, etc.) comes. Of course, this team of heroes never really does anything, but gourd man pushes and Easy button and Mr. Apocalypse is defeated. I need to add that during this, about when the battle almost gets started, the evil man who captures Ben Frank accidentally fell in the cloning machine and a good clone was made of him, and he goes to the past past before the evil version of him and tells ben frank to ignore a guy that comes to the past and looks like him, thus apparently saving the past so the present will stay stable.

Now: there are two possible endings: of course Mr. Apocalypse is defeated in both.

First: ben frank does not listen to good guy, and is captured, and the last lines are to the effect of: "wait guys isn't the past still in danger?" "nah, time doesn't work li..." (everything destroyed by giant black hole)

Second: this is when ben frank did listen, so everything is ok and great in the past.
"Yes! We have defeated Mr. Apocalypse!" "Uhh... didn't he already destroy the future?"

The slavings and savings have been double checked


Yeah it's a bit complicated, but that's what makes it fun. Maybe one day it will get off the ground.

So anyway i was going to the drug store yesterday, and this guy comes up to me and asks me, "where did you get you belt?" and i said, i don't know, i found it in a dumpster. and he said how did you find it in a dumpster that's kind of weird and i said i know. it is. but then he walked in the store and saw him buy three packs of cheese sticks and a coke. I asked him where he got the three packs of cheese sticks and the cokes from and he said from the dumpster. And i said i just saw you get those from the shelf. How could those be from the dumpster? and he said oh yeah you did see me get them. And he bought them and asked for my belt. I gave him my belt and he drove off.

Good cheese comes from happy cows. Happy cows come from lame political jokes.

Well, with Mr. Apocalypse pre production rolling (and behind schedule), we are working hard to update stuff. It'll stilll be awhile due to our exorbitant amount of laziness, but it will be done hopefully sometime soon.

Anyway, the title. Yeah, I read a lot of lame "You have two cows" political jokes and now they are stuck in my head.

For those of you that have read the sci-fi conspiracy blog, you know how sci-fi is trying to force all of the good sci-fi shows off the air. Also, you probably know that Stargate SG-1 is ending at its tenth season. Some research of mine says that there will be two direct-to-DVD stargate sg-1 movies (yay) and a new TV series called Stargate Universe! Exciting!