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		<title>ZGeek - Bitching and Rants</title>
		<link>http://www.zgeek.com/forum</link>
		<description>If you need to bitch about some crap customer, event, current affair or object then do it here.Please note: Those easily offended, DO NOT READ THIS FORUM!!!</description>
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			<title>ZGeek - Bitching and Rants</title>
			<link>http://www.zgeek.com/forum</link>
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		<item>
			<title>fucking girlfriends</title>
			<link>http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=88396&amp;goto=newpost</link>
			<pubDate>Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:51:57 GMT</pubDate>
			<description>mine just broke up with me yesterday. 
 
her reason: she needs time to sort shit out. 
the real reason: because i am a unique male who has a tendency to think with my brain, and not my dick. 
 
I have worked hard to establish myself in my job. if i was to move to ippy with her, i would either have...</description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>mine just broke up with me yesterday.<br />
<br />
her reason: she needs time to sort shit out.<br />
the real reason: because i am a unique male who has a tendency to think with my brain, and not my dick.<br />
<br />
I have worked hard to establish myself in my job. if i was to move to ippy with her, i would either have to travel 2 and a half hours to and from work, or stop working with my company. this would mean that i would be jobless. <br />
<br />
she would not move down to logan for the exact same reason as i would not move up there.<br />
<br />
if she wants to find a pathetic reason like that to end our nearly full year relationship, then fuck her anyways<br />
<br />
fuck! who needs the other half anyways. all it ever comes down it is males= sperm donor.<br />
and females= sperm bank<br />
<br />
:fuckit::swear:</div>

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			<category domain="http://www.zgeek.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=5">Bitching and Rants</category>
			<dc:creator>apt.pupil</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=88396</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title>FUCKING KRISEZ</title>
			<link>http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=88092&amp;goto=newpost</link>
			<pubDate>Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:22:49 GMT</pubDate>
			<description>Sup mang, can you cunt up the forums or something? The site is lacking funny today.</description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>Sup mang, can you cunt up the forums or something? The site is lacking funny today.</div>

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			<category domain="http://www.zgeek.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=5">Bitching and Rants</category>
			<dc:creator>Kez</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=88092</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title>Mobility scooters</title>
			<link>http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87909&amp;goto=newpost</link>
			<pubDate>Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:38:37 GMT</pubDate>
			<description><![CDATA[I know these things are for people too decrepit(or just lazy) to walk the places they need to go & can probably no longer legally drive a car but seriously, mobility scooters should require some sort of licensing, there is some old dude who most Sundays rides his mobility scooter up the wrong side...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>I know these things are for people too decrepit(or just lazy) to walk the places they need to go &amp; can probably no longer legally drive a car but seriously, mobility scooters should require some sort of licensing, there is some old dude who most Sundays rides his mobility scooter up the wrong side of my street.</div>

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			<category domain="http://www.zgeek.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=5">Bitching and Rants</category>
			<dc:creator>That Bloke</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87909</guid>
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		<item>
			<title>Evony banner ads</title>
			<link>http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87896&amp;goto=newpost</link>
			<pubDate>Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:50:39 GMT</pubDate>
			<description>Oh why Pirate, did you stoop so low as to allow Evony banner ads on this site? 
WHY????? 
oh wait, the ads have boobs in them... I understand now. :clap:</description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>Oh why Pirate, did you stoop so low as to allow Evony banner ads on this site?<br />
WHY?????<br />
oh wait, the ads have boobs in them... I understand now. :clap:</div>

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			<category domain="http://www.zgeek.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=5">Bitching and Rants</category>
			<dc:creator>SamBo</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87896</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title>Task:</title>
			<link>http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87718&amp;goto=newpost</link>
			<pubDate>Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:26:12 GMT</pubDate>
			<description>go to the main page, scroll down to the bottom. 
  
thats right fuckers, its me and tunesday carrying this site. 
  
make me a mod, you have no choice now.</description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>go to the main page, scroll down to the bottom.<br />
 <br />
thats right fuckers, its me and tunesday carrying this site.<br />
 <br />
make me a mod, you have no choice now.</div>

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			<category domain="http://www.zgeek.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=5">Bitching and Rants</category>
			<dc:creator>KrisEz</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87718</guid>
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		<item>
			<title>What shits you about film and television?</title>
			<link>http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87269&amp;goto=newpost</link>
			<pubDate>Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:21:58 GMT</pubDate>
			<description><![CDATA[When will graphic artists and the coke-addled producers who control them learn that when you fire a bullet THE SHELL CASING STAYS IN THE FUCKING GUN? 
 
Second one that shat me tonight was the need to explain things we can probably work out for ourselves, if we don't already know them. "It's an...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>When will graphic artists and the coke-addled producers who control them learn that when you fire a bullet THE SHELL CASING STAYS IN THE FUCKING GUN?<br />
<br />
Second one that shat me tonight was the need to explain things we can probably work out for ourselves, if we don't already know them. &quot;It's an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, often called a UAV&quot;. Thanks, guys, because if you used the acronym later on without first introducing it I'd be like &quot;Hey, wasn't this show about Unmanned Aerial Vehicles before? What's this UAV shit? And what was that drone thing they were talking about at the start of the episode, you haven't explained that to us?&quot;. Fucking retards.</div>

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			<category domain="http://www.zgeek.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=5">Bitching and Rants</category>
			<dc:creator>LethalCorpse</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87269</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title>Collection to buy hazza an iPhone</title>
			<link>http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87151&amp;goto=newpost</link>
			<pubDate>Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:34:57 GMT</pubDate>
			<description><![CDATA[Shitbiscuit doesnt have an iphone, and its now OUR problem because he wont shut his whiney trap about it. 
See: 
http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1515243&postcount=19 
http://www.zgeek.com/forum/f180/nokia-e71-and-other-symbian-phones-t86855/ 
and im sure many others to come. 
  
in this...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>Shitbiscuit doesnt have an iphone, and its now OUR problem because he wont shut his whiney trap about it.<br />
See:<br />
<a href="http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1515243&amp;postcount=19" target="_blank">http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showpost....3&amp;postcount=19</a><br />
<a href="http://www.zgeek.com/forum/f180/nokia-e71-and-other-symbian-phones-t86855/" target="_blank">http://www.zgeek.com/forum/f180/noki...phones-t86855/</a><br />
and im sure many others to come.<br />
 <br />
in this thread you can pledge money to get him to shut the fuck up.<br />
hazza its up to you to collect the pledges and go buy your way to coolness.<br />
 <br />
dick.</div>

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			<category domain="http://www.zgeek.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=5">Bitching and Rants</category>
			<dc:creator>KrisEz</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87151</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title>hey jimma</title>
			<link>http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87101&amp;goto=newpost</link>
			<pubDate>Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:27:36 GMT</pubDate>
			<description>park life 
(after erol alkan @ oxford arts) 
harbor life 
stereosonic  
field day 
 
hopefully bdo too</description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>park life<br />
(after erol alkan @ oxford arts)<br />
harbor life<br />
stereosonic <br />
field day<br />
<br />
hopefully bdo too</div>

]]></content:encoded>
			<category domain="http://www.zgeek.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=5">Bitching and Rants</category>
			<dc:creator>hazza</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87101</guid>
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		<item>
			<title>Worst value ever</title>
			<link>http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86948&amp;goto=newpost</link>
			<pubDate>Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:10:54 GMT</pubDate>
			<description><![CDATA[You can't get anything for a decent price these days. Take for example this Zimbabwean 1c coin: 
 
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/COIN-ZIMBABWE-1-CENT-1983_W0QQitemZ390030027766QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Coins2?hash=item5acf99ebf6&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14 
 
It's going for two million billion trillion quadrillion...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>You can't get anything for a decent price these days. Take for example this Zimbabwean 1c coin:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://cgi.ebay.com.au/COIN-ZIMBABWE-1-CENT-1983_W0QQitemZ390030027766QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Coins2?hash=item5acf99ebf6&amp;_trksid=p3286.c0.m14" target="_blank">http://cgi.ebay.com.au/COIN-ZIMBABWE...d=p3286.c0.m14</a><br />
<br />
It's going for two million billion trillion quadrillion times what it's worth.<br />
<br />
I actually did the maths on that by the way.</div>

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			<category domain="http://www.zgeek.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=5">Bitching and Rants</category>
			<dc:creator>Jimma</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86948</guid>
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		<item>
			<title>Change your panties bitches</title>
			<link>http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86853&amp;goto=newpost</link>
			<pubDate>Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:42:08 GMT</pubDate>
			<description>cos im back</description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>cos im back</div>

]]></content:encoded>
			<category domain="http://www.zgeek.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=5">Bitching and Rants</category>
			<dc:creator>hazza</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86853</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title>The photography butthurt thread</title>
			<link>http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86796&amp;goto=newpost</link>
			<pubDate>Sun, 20 Sep 2009 12:47:00 GMT</pubDate>
			<description><![CDATA[Sore arse? Don't like someone else's shit composition, cliche techniques or lack of originality? Can't make constructive comments and just want to stir shit.   Post about it here. Or scribble it down on paper, then wipe your arse with it. No-one gives a fuck either way.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>Sore arse? Don't like someone else's shit composition, cliche techniques or lack of originality? Can't make constructive comments and just want to stir shit.   Post about it here. Or scribble it down on paper, then wipe your arse with it. No-one gives a fuck either way.</div>

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			<category domain="http://www.zgeek.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=5">Bitching and Rants</category>
			<dc:creator>carls</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86796</guid>
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		<item>
			<title>FUCKING RAPIDSHIT</title>
			<link>http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86782&amp;goto=newpost</link>
			<pubDate>Sat, 19 Sep 2009 11:19:11 GMT</pubDate>
			<description>Since when do I have to wait 90 sec to start downloading my zip of Bach at a shitslow rate?</description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>Since when do I have to wait 90 sec to start downloading my zip of Bach at a shitslow rate?</div>

]]></content:encoded>
			<category domain="http://www.zgeek.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=5">Bitching and Rants</category>
			<dc:creator>purplepong</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86782</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title>Foam packing peanuts</title>
			<link>http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86748&amp;goto=newpost</link>
			<pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:14:00 GMT</pubDate>
			<description><![CDATA[Seriously, which fucking retard thought they were a good idea as a packaging material? If you ever get something that is packed in them you can't get the item out of the box without them overflowing everywhere & then you just keep finding the things weeks later, & then you get the people who think...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>Seriously, which fucking retard thought they were a good idea as a packaging material? If you ever get something that is packed in them you can't get the item out of the box without them overflowing everywhere &amp; then you just keep finding the things weeks later, &amp; then you get the people who think it's a good idea to use the packing peanuts for things that have openings in them but never seem to think of covering the openings.<br />
<br />
Packing peanuts should never be used for shipping anything but this goes double for the following:<br />
<ul><li>Engines</li>
<li>Manifolds</li>
<li>Vented speakers</li>
<li>Superchargers/Turbochargers</li>
<li>Acoustic Guitars</li>
<li>Hollow Bodied electric guitars</li>
<li>Anything with cooling vents</li>
<li>Pumps</li>
</ul></div>

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			<category domain="http://www.zgeek.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=5">Bitching and Rants</category>
			<dc:creator>That Bloke</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86748</guid>
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		<item>
			<title><![CDATA["I HATE WHITE PEOPLE" - Kanye West]]></title>
			<link>http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86632&amp;goto=newpost</link>
			<pubDate>Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:05:52 GMT</pubDate>
			<description>Does he not realize that he is about the most racist fuck on TV today?  From his comments about George Bush to this (http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/09/13/kanye-  
wests-vmas-stage-invasion-and-infamous-awards-moments/). 
 
But with his displays like this...</description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>Does he not realize that he is about the most racist fuck on TV today?  From his comments about George Bush to <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/09/13/kanye- <br />
wests-vmas-stage-invasion-and-infamous-awards-moments/" target="_blank">this</a>.<br />
<br />
But with his displays like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-631TgPP2s" target="_blank">this</a> it's clear to see he's just a spoiled black man living in America who has no idea what freedom, oppression, poverty, or hard times are.  He thinks the world is owed to him and has no respect for races other then his own that he believes has been eternally held back.  I got news for ya nigga...  Your free because the white man allowed it.  Your free to do what you do right now because the white man brought your ancestors to America and had you build this great nation with us.  You don't like our now only sometimes white presidents?  You don't like our white entertainers?  Go back to Africa...  seriously...  try to make it in Africa, because you don't like white people.  Either that or understand EVERYONE in the US has a fair chance at happiness, just because you don't get everything you demand does not mean the white man is bringing you down, you stupid racist fuck. <br />
<br />
None the less, I've lived a whole life tired as hell about hearing about oppressed people in the US.  Our homeless and criminals are less oppressed then most nations.  Our original slaves now have the highest ranking job in the world.  I would say we have abolished racism and slavery as a whole.  Now if we could just get some straggling idiots up to PAR, or at least away from the spotlight, that would be great. <br />
<br />
Being this wasn't on the news page yet, I almost posted there for some front page additive, but fuck that.  I have an opinion that really needed out on this topic.  He's proof any dumb-ass can make it rich in America and still be ungrateful about all of it and think the world still owes them everything.  Oh yeah, and don't forget to have the whole world feel bad for him losing his mom.  He's the only person to ever have to go through something so tragic....<br />
<br />
KANYE!!!  YOUR A POTHETIC RACIST NIGGER!</div>

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			<category domain="http://www.zgeek.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=5">Bitching and Rants</category>
			<dc:creator>stimpy</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86632</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title>Aion Head Start</title>
			<link>http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86546&amp;goto=newpost</link>
			<pubDate>Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:37:04 GMT</pubDate>
			<description>Chapter i - LOOMINGS 
page 1 
 
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the...</description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>Chapter i - LOOMINGS<br />
page 1<br />
<br />
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.<br />
<br />
There now is your insular city of the Manhattoes, belted round by wharves as Indian isles by coral reefs - commerce surrounds it with her surf. Right and left, the streets take you waterward. Its extreme down-town is the battery, where that noble mole is washed by waves, and cooled by breezes, which a few hours previous were out of sight of land. Look at the crowds of water-gazers there.<br />
<br />
Circumambulate the city of a dreamy Sabbath afternoon. Go from Corlears Hook to Coenties Slip, and from thence, by Whitehall northward. What do you see? - Posted like silent sentinels all around the town, stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries. Some leaning against the spiles; some seated upon the pier-heads; some looking over the bulwarks<br />
page 2<br />
<br />
of ships from China; some high aloft in the rigging, as if striving to get a still better seaward peep. But these are all landsmen; of week days pent up in lath and plaster - tied to counters, nailed to benches, clinched to desks. How then is this? Are the green fields gone? What do they here?<br />
<br />
But look! here come more crowds, pacing straight for the water, and seemingly bound for a dive. Strange! Nothing will content them but the extremest limit of the land; loitering under the shady lee of yonder warehouses will not suffice. No. They must get just as nigh the water as they possibly can without falling in. And there they stand - miles of them - leagues. Inlanders all, they come from lanes and alleys, streets and avenues, - north, east, south, and west. Yet here they all unite. Tell me, does the magnetic virtue of the needles of the compasses of all those ships attract them thither?<br />
<br />
Once more. Say, you are in the country; in some high land of lakes. Take almost any path you please, and ten to one it carries you down in a dale, and leaves you there by a pool in the stream. There is magic in it. Let the most absent- minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries - stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region. Should you ever be athirst in the great American desert, try this experiment, if your caravan happen to be supplied with a metaphysical professor. Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded for ever.<br />
<br />
But here is an artist. He desires to paint you the dreamiest, shadiest, quietest, most enchanting bit of romantic landscape in all the valley of the Saco. What is the chief element he employs? There stand his trees, each with a hollow trunk, as if a hermit and a crucifix were within; and here sleeps his meadow, and there sleep his cattle; and up from yonder cottage goes a sleepy smoke. Deep into distant woodlands winds a mazy way, reaching to overlapping spurs of mountains bathed in their hill-side blue. But though the picture lies thus tranced, and though this pine-tree shakes down its sighs like leaves upon this shepherd's head, yet all were vain, unless the shepherd's eye were fixed upon the magic stream before him. Go visit the Prairies in June,<br />
page 3<br />
<br />
when for scores on scores of miles you wade knee-deep among Tiger- lilies - what is the one charm wanting? - Water - there is not a drop of water there! Were Niagara but a cataract of sand, would you travel your thousand miles to see it? Why did the poor poet of Tennessee, upon suddenly receiving two handfuls of silver, deliberate whether to buy him a coat, which he sadly needed, or invest his money in a pedestrian trip to Rockaway Beach? Why is almost every robust healthy boy with a robust healthy soul in him, at some time or other crazy to go to sea? Why upon your first voyage as a passenger, did you yourself feel such a mystical vibration, when first told that you and your ship were now out of sight of land? Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother of Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning. And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting, mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all.<br />
<br />
Now, when I say that I am in the habit of going to sea whenever I begin to grow hazy about the eyes, and begin to be over conscious of my lungs, I do not mean to have it inferred that I ever go to sea as a passenger. For to go as a passenger you must needs have a purse, and a purse is but a rag unless you have something in it. Besides, passengers get sea-sick - grow quarrelsome - don't sleep of nights - do not enjoy themselves much, as a general thing; - no, I never go as a passenger; nor, though I am something of a salt, do I ever go to sea as a Commodore, or a Captain, or a Cook. I abandon the glory and distinction of such offices to those who like them. For my part, I abominate all honorable respectable toils, trials, and tribulations of every kind whatsoever. It is quite as much as I can do to take care of myself, without taking care of ships, barques, brigs, schooners, and what not. And as for going as cook, - though I confess there is considerable glory in that, a cook being a sort of officer on ship-board - yet, somehow, I never fancied broiling fowls; - though once broiled, judiciously buttered, and judgmatically salted and peppered, there is no one who will<br />
page 4<br />
<br />
speak more respectfully, not to say reverentially, of a broiled fowl than I will. It is out of the idolatrous dotings of the old Egyptians upon broiled ibis and roasted river horse, that you see the mummies of those creatures in their huge bake-houses the pyramids.<br />
<br />
No, when I go to sea, I go as a simple sailor, right before the mast, plumb down into the forecastle, aloft there to the royal mast-head. True, they rather order me about some, and make me jump from spar to spar, like a grasshopper in a May meadow. And at first, this sort of thing is unpleasant enough. It touches one's sense of honor, particularly if you come of an old established family in the land, the van Rensselaers, or Randolphs, or Hardicanutes. And more than all, if just previous to putting your hand into the tar-pot, you have been lording it as a country schoolmaster, making the tallest boys stand in awe of you. The transition is a keen one, I assure you, from the schoolmaster to a sailor, and requires a strong decoction of Seneca and the Stoics to enable you to grin and bear it. But even this wears off in time.<br />
<br />
What of it, if some old hunks of a sea-captain orders me to get a broom and sweep down the decks? What does that indignity amount to, weighed, I mean, in the scales of the New Testament? Do you think the archangel Gabriel thinks anything the less of me, because I promptly and respectfully obey that old hunks in that particular instance? Who aint a slave? Tell me that. Well, then, however the old sea-captains may order me about - however they may thump and punch me about, I have the satisfaction of knowing that it is all right; that everybody else is one way or other served in much the same way - either in a physical or metaphysical point of view, that is; and so the universal thump is passed round, and all hands should rub each other's shoulder-blades, and be content.<br />
<br />
Again, I always go to sea as a sailor, because they make a point of paying me for my trouble, whereas they never pay passengers a single penny that I ever heard of. On the contrary, passengers themselves must pay. And there is all the difference in the world between paying and being paid. The act of paying is perhaps the most uncomfortable infliction that the two orchard<br />
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thieves entailed upon us. But being paid, - what will compare with it? The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvellous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account can a monied man enter heaven. Ah! how cheerfully we consign ourselves to perdition!<br />
<br />
Finally, I always go to sea as a sailor, because of the wholesome exercise and pure air of the forecastle deck. For as in this world, head winds are far more prevalent than winds from astern (that is, if you never violate the Pythagorean maxim), so for the most part the Commodore on the quarter-deck gets his atmosphere at second hand from the sailors on the forecastle. He thinks he breathes it first; but not so. In much the same way do the commonalty lead their leaders in many other things, at the same time that the leaders little suspect it. But wherefore it was that after having repeatedly smelt the sea as a merchant sailor, I should now take it into my head to go on a whaling voyage; this the invisible police officer of the Fates, who has the constant surveillance of me, and secretly dogs me, and influences me in some unaccountable way - he can better answer than any one else. And, doubtless, my going on this whaling voyage, formed part of the grand programme of Providence that was drawn up a long time ago. It came in as a sort of brief interlude and solo between more extensive performances. I take it that this part of the bill must have run something like this:<br />
<br />
Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States<br />
<br />
Whaling Voyage by one Ishmael<br />
<br />
BLOODY BATTLE IN AFFGHANISTAN<br />
<br />
Though I cannot tell why it was exactly that those stage managers, the Fates, put me down for this shabby part of a whaling voyage, when others were set down for magnificent parts in high tragedies, and short and easy parts in genteel comedies, and jolly parts in farces - though I cannot tell why this was exactly; yet, now that I recall all the circumstances, I think I can see a little into the springs and motives which being cunningly presented to me under various disguises, induced me to set about<br />
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performing the part I did, besides cajoling me into the delusion that it was a choice resulting from my own unbiased freewill and discriminating judgment.<br />
<br />
Chief among these motives was the overwhelming idea of the great whale himself. Such a portentous and mysterious monster roused all my curiosity. Then the wild and distant seas where he rolled his island bulk; the undeliverable, nameless perils of the whale; these, with all the attending marvels of a thousand Patagonian sights and sounds, helped to sway me to my wish. With other men, perhaps, such things would not have been inducements; but as for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts. Not ignoring what is good, I am quick to perceive a horror, and could still be social with it - would they let me - since it is but well to be on friendly terms with all the inmates of the place one lodges in.<br />
<br />
By reason of these things, then, the whaling voyage was welcome; the great flood-gates of the wonder-world swung open, and in the wild conceits that swayed me to my purpose, two and two there floated into my inmost soul, endless processions of the whale, and, mid most of them all, one grand hooded phantom, like a snow hill in the air.</div>

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