Archive for the ‘ Memoirs ’ Category

Confessions of a Facebook Dropout

Mark this down: On February 8, 2012, a day like any other day here in Philadelphia, the most dysfunctional city in America, I, Matthew Charles Scheck, being of sound mind and body, quit Facebook. Basically I de-friended all 270 of my Facebook friends as well, people from every era of my life dating back to [ READ MORE ]

Serious Changes

I’ve quit Facebook and it’s forever. I’m not much of a fan of Twitter. Therefore, all I have left is my blog, so please expect quite a bit of new activity here in the upcoming days, weeks, and months. What I’ll be writing is going to be all about politics and culture, and I warn [ READ MORE ]

Ten Great Post-Punk Songs

After the demise of Britain’s Punk explosion in 1976-77, bands who were influenced by Punk, or had started out as Punk bands, began making music that was more intelligent, experimental, and musically sophisticated than Punk. They successfully incorporated traditional rock music structures with a wide variety of underground sounds that were emerging in the British [ READ MORE ]

I, Atheist

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd. - Voltaire My atheism has been the easiest intellectual decision of my life, a view I’ve held since I began forming conscious memories as a child; indeed, I honestly have no recollection of ever seriously believing in god. After all these years of non-belief, and [ READ MORE ]

The Shroud of Ernie

[Author's note: I wrote this satire in 1990 to amuse my co-workers at Indiana Oxide Corporation in Brazil, Indiana. I slightly pilfered the idea from Berke Breathed's legendary 1980s comic strip, Bloom County. However, the point here was not to plagiarize Mr. Breathed's comic strip, it was to amuse my co-workers, as I used all [ READ MORE ]

Divide and Conquer 2011

1/19/2011 – Seattle Reading material: 1. Teacher Salaries Issue Sharpens Across Region by Kathy Boccella, December 20, 2010, The Philadelphia Enquirer 2. Republicans Incite Class Warfare—Within Middle Class y Matthew Rothschild, July 5, 2010, The Progressive 3. Washington State Education Leaders Lament Major Budget Cuts by Katherine Long, December 15, 2010, The Seattle Times 4. [ READ MORE ]

E Pluribus Me, Me, ME!

1/18/2011 – Seattle Reading material: 1. Social Animal by David Brooks, January 17, 2011, The New Yorker 1. The Rise of the New Global Elite by Chrystia Freeland, January/February, The Atlantic I haven’t written anything substantive in so long that I can’t even type very well, and I’m a goddamn computer geek. I’m sitting in [ READ MORE ]

On Government II: A Blast from the Past

This was written in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the massive destruction caused by the flooding of New Orleans. 9/14/2005 – Philadelphia On Government, Part II Two years ago I wrote a scathing screed about George W. Bush’s incompetent leadership in waging the Iraq War. It was an angry and sarcastic look at how [ READ MORE ]

Goodbye, Mom

Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not soe, For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow, Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee. From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee, Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow, And soonest [ READ MORE ]

Close Encounters with a Foul Fat Francophobe

A strange encounter that pretty much sums up the sorry state of American “patriotism” since the advent of the Global War on Terror. It begs the following question: Would you like some freedom fries with your wings, Fatso? 10/8/2003 – Philadelphia When there’s a baseball or hockey game on television and I want to watch [ READ MORE ]

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