I Guess I Better Call Saul!: The True Meaning Of Bleeding It Out

Well, hello there again everybody!

Taking a step back away from the main theme or such of my previous blogs, today, I get rather more ... political, could one say? Anyway, getting on the cautions again ... if you are not into references to suicide, please turn away because you may be offended. Please also turn away if you easily get offended ... this might throw a few sparks in your way.

So, today in my Communications Technology class—and this was during the first 20 or so minutes of it—my teacher told me, before my group and I began work on our news report (one of our ongoing assignments in the class), that he needed to talk to me. As usual, if not always, I thought to myself, Am I in trouble or something?, and so I asked, 'I'm not in trouble, am I?' He replied along the lines of 'Not really, but ...'

Our very first assignment in the class was one that I believe every Communications Technology class gets to do: produce a warning bell mix, consisting of:

• 3 minutes total;
• 3 songs: the first one playing at the 3-minute warning, number two at the 2-minute warning, and both of these playing for 15 seconds each, and then the last song at the 1-minute warning and playing for the whole minute ... and of course, they must all be approved by the teacher (thus school appropriate).

How this would all work in the end is that about 3 minutes before next period's class begins, a warning bell would ring, and then be followed by the warning bell mix. Mine consisted of some of my personal favourites: 'Born This Way' by Thousand Foot Krutch (by the way, they also follow me on Twitter!), 'Meltdown' by Love And Death, and my most favourite song in the world 'Bleed It Out' by Linkin Park (thus my beautifully punderful title from above!). Of course, 'Bleed It Out' originally containing to F-bombs in its lyrics, I was able to edit both out.

Now, back to mine and my teacher's conversation ... apparently some other student at the school, who remains anonymous, took offence to 'Bleed It Out' being in my mix. Just before he told me what this person thought the meaning to be, I wondered if it somehow had to do with the song originally being explicit, but then again, I had the expletives cut out, so there couldn't be a problem there ... To my surprise, and to my teacher's as well, this student believes 'Bleed It Out' is about suicide, and thus had found that offensive and so whomever at my school puts on the warning bell mixes via the school's PA system, in turn, removed it from circulation—my warning bell mix will no longer be played on the PA like the rest of the classes. As my teacher was explaining this to me, he told me that my mark still remains intact (I received a perfect mark on it). Still, this came as a pretty big surprise to me. I was thinking, Where the heck do that idea from? Since when does 'Bleed It Out' make ANY reference to suicide??

To avoid further blabber on my blog here, I am going to attach a copy of the document I wrote up and delivered to my school's principal's mailbox:

Another surprise that came to mind is that I'd somehow forgotten to sign this document for authenticity! Darn it! Oh well, our principal knows me well.

There is actually one thing my mom reminded me about, and that I should have mentioned: 'Bleed It Out' is something called music. The sort of thing in this world, maybe even a medium in the world, that is irrelevant and time-wasting to feel offended by. I mean, there are worse songs than 'Bleed It Out', whether it's the expletives OR the song supposedly being about suicide. Take a couple songs for example:

• 'Bullet' by Hollywood Undead: The whole song is about committing suicide and methods of doing so throughout, and would could be considered even more offensive about it is the upbeat tone to the song. Take its chorus to be more specific: ♫ I think I'll slit my wrists again ♫, ♫ A stomach full of pills didn't work again ♫, and lastly, ♫ I'll put a bullet in my head ♫ ... all these are methods of suicide: cutting one's wrist enough that blood loss kills them, a drug overdose, or the arguably popular one, shooting yourself in the head. As for the upbeat tone, the wrists and bullet parts each end with ♫ and I'm gone, gone, gone, gone ♫, if you sing that in your head with a cheerful tone, I won't say I'd advise you to, you'll get what I mean. Or, of course, just Google the song;
• 'Wasting My Time' by Default (they're Canadian, by the way!): I had loved the tune to this one since I was young (before preteens), but listening to it these days, I never noticed, but here's the chorus: ♫ Well this is not for real, Afraid to feel | I just hit the floor, Don't ask for more | I'm wasting my time, I'm wasting my time | You can't stop the feeling, And there's no reason | Let's make the call, And take it all again ♫ ... When you think about a person's struggle with life, it does make quite a bit of sense that this one holds reference to suicide. This one, I also don't mind recommending you listen so much.

I could also go on about how I, maybe not so much as get offended by it, but not appreciate listening to stuff like 50 Cent or the like. I'm just not a fan of the subject line of sex, drugs, and women ... of course, with an exception to Nickelback as they are soft about it compared to other artists or Robin Thicke's 'Blurred Lines', and I know some people who rather enjoy the song despite its meaning which I'd think is rather open to interpretation. But then, despite my tastes, I'm not going to go to whomever pressed play and tell them 'Hey, the song that you played offends me for this reason.' If I don't like a certain song, I'll have my own way of avoiding hearing the crap: it's called the skip button, plug in your ear or headphones, you name it. Maybe this person doesn't like the song for another reason: it could be that they just don't like its genre, the band, the album, me (if they even know whom made it), or whether they find it offensive because of a personal issue (a loved one having passed away) or because they think it's not school appropriate (which is nonsensical there). In any case, I see no justification for taking one's personal opinion of a song, whatever it may be, and it resulting in the cancellation of another person's ability to express themselves. In my case, I see no justification in whomever this person is, taking their opinion, and having the audacity to inform others about a song included in my creation, and thus my warning bell mix may no longer be played via the PA.

I suppose, for future reference, I could have used one of those songs listed above, or stick in a clip from Jeff Dunham! Cannot get enough of Achmed! Even more offence for everyone!

Actually, now that I mention Achmed ... and how he makes religious jokes ... that's another thing I wondered ... could it be something as lame as the first two songs in my mix, being 'Born This Way' and 'Meltdown', being Christian songs? Of course, arguably, that would be racist. Then again, I'm not sure if that would be considered, considering my school's GSA, with their rather hypocritical and figuratively one-sided posters. Another of-course, that's a whole 'nother rant!

Maybe before I end this blog, I'll quickly make a point about Jeremy Clarkson being dropped from 'the' BBC! I think BBC's quite likely screwed themselves over! Yes, it cannot be condoned, Mr Clarkson punching the producer ... although I do still wonder if the producer was being a smart-alec or the like before getting punched (he did give Mr Clarkson the wrong food, so whether that's something). But then, this is definitely a money-thing. Mr Clarkson losing his job at BBC has led to comrade Mr James May claiming he, Mr Clarkson, and Mr Hammond to be 'package', or in other words, inseparable hosts ... pretty much bringing in speculation that he may leave TopGear, especially considering his updated Twitter bio, and the likelihood that Mr Hammond would leave with: this'll easily lose BBC a lot of money, but also lots and lots of viewers, possibly even including myself (not that I watched as much TopGear as I should have).

In conclusion of this very blog, I do hope for a couple things ... that my warning bell mix is reinstated into circulation on my school's PA system, and also that our TopGear trio might get to start something big! On a side note, writing up that letter of complaint (or concern?) did cause me to possibly have missed out on ... well ... you might get my idea from my previous blogs!

I don't remember if this was the first time or not where something I've created for a class has been censored due to objection to its content, but this may be, and it honestly does bug me, although I still remain in hopes that is resolved ... maybe even in my favour, if I'm lucky!

I do apologize for the length of this blog, but it has actually taken me about an hour or so now to write this! Hope you all have a fine weekend and I shall see you all next week, whether you're from the internet or from my school!

Thanks again as always for reading me out!

~ JBJblaze

P.S. And I most likely will not be attending Minecon 2015 this year, but I am going to an open-house at Fanshawe College tomorrow (they even marked one of my tweets yesterday as a favourite!)!