Humorous News Flash/Thogughts on TV while sick in Bed

As you have gathered from the title of this post I'm sick in bed trying to find something to watch on TV and some interesting things have come up and I'll just lump them all together here.

I was flipping channels and came across a movie channel I generally have luck with and I saw an add about John Travolta. Now, I don't have a problem with John Travolta, he's a decent actor and isn't too terribly crazy. The ad was all about some of his more recent great roles (the ad even said some of his best) because they were having a Travolta-Thon soon. Now what confused me was the following: they left out Hairspray but kept Battlefield Earth. Yes. The kept Battlefield Earth...  Words fail. I get they were advertising action movies and therefore wouldn't want to show him in drag, but seriously keeping what is widely regarded as one of the worst movies of all time in your marathon and a prominent place in the advertisement for it? Why? Why? Why?....................Why?

The other day I was trying to decide wheter to watch History Channel or OWN. They were the only channels with something good on that day. History Channel was showing Apocalypse stuff, which I maintain is not History in the slightest. Oprah was showing Mystery Diagnosis. Now, nothing against Oprah, but I think History channel has a serious problem when HISTORY channel is losing the fact war to Oprah Winnfrey.

Which brings me to this problem: When did History stop being history? I mean sure, when I was younger I enjoyed the Nosteradamus special they showed on that very day. The differences are 1) I was thirteen. 2)There was actual fact to Nosteradamus as in he was a real person and his prophecies may (in hindsight) be applicable to certain historical moment as well as plenty of people who debunk this sort of things providing both sides of the argument. Now a days: The newer specials (especially the ones about the Mayan Prophecy) have very few skeptics and debunkers and when (and IF) they are featured are on for a little bit and not featured well at all. Yes, History Channel, is resorting to basic Creationist tactics. I honestly was watching a show called "Ancient Aliens" and the whole  premise of this episode was "What if Angels were Aliens?" And that's it. Just a bunch of people talking about the bible saying, "Well, you see it makes sense if angels were aliens because... because!" and "It's obvious they meant aliens because humans couldn't have done any of this on their own  and wings represent flight not actual wings." I don't see how this is historical in anyway. The Bible is not an accurate historical recording, even the parts that try to be. On top of that there was no evidence, just speculation. Following that interesting program I watched two episodes of "Brad Meltzer's Decoded" where one episode ignored history until the very end (This largely consisted of the eponymous Brad with his fingers in his ears going "NO, IT WAS THE MASONS!" which it wasn't.) and one episode that actually did stuff and proved some history, so at least that show was 50/50.

More thoughts in another one, because this post is too long.

A Case for Season 2 (Glee Rant)

I watched a couple of Tuesday agos night's Glee the following Wednesday night (I was busy Tuesday, sue me). My mind was blown clear out of the water and it fell into small pieces on the walls of my Residence Hall Rooms. (And I wrote part of this post a long time ago, can't you tell?)

The thing is, I don't understand how people don't like this season of Glee. I mean I've heard the complaints but the complaints I've heard from classmates and friends aren't articulated that well. What I've been hearing is "It's different."

And yeah, it IS different, but I realize this is all a matter of opinion, but MY opinion is that it isn't really THAT different and the differences are a step in the right direction. Glee now is what Glee has been aiming for since it began.

What I've noticed this season is more of a focus on the ensemble of the show not the "Will Schuster and Rachel Berry Show with cooky guys Kurt Hummel and Finn Hudson in recurring roles and Sue does things"  the first season had a feeling like. Sure the first season had a few episodes here and there where Artie, Quinn or Mercedez centric episodes here and there but season one focused on things Rachel did and things Mr. Schuster did, occasionally Finn's decisions and Kurt's life or Sue's evil machinations would affect the over all plot but at the end of the day the questions that drove everything were "What's going on with Schu? What's up with Rachel?"

I cannot make a claim without proof, so here's my proof: The reason we were interested in Quinn's pregnancy was because Quinn was dating Finn, who Rachel was attracted to and wanted to be her love interest.Quinn, along with Santana and Britney, joined Glee club because Quinn wanted to make sure Finn didn't up with Rachel with the added bonus of spying for Sue. Mercedez's temporary crush on Kurt had an attempted interruption by Tina and RACHEL. Finn finds out about the true father of Quinn's baby is through Rachel. She drives and is the reason for lots of drama. Except for shippers of quirky ships the source of a lot of the DRAMA of the first season (school kid side) was 'Will Rachel end up with Finn?' and all the questions that need clearing up to get to that point such as 'Will Finn find out the baby isn't his?' and 'Will Puck actually be able to make a move on Rachel?' This continued into the second half of the season. 'Will Rachel and Finn get BACK together?' 'Will Rachel see Jesse is an ass?' 'Can Rachel find her birth mother/' are big sources of drama in the second half of the season beyond the road to Regionals.

Will drove other parts of the plot of season one much the same way Rachel does. The main source of Will drama are his feuds with Sue, his sham of a marriage and subsequent 'pregnancy' with Terri, and finally his extramarital attraction to Emma and of course holding his rag-tag bunch of misfits, the Glee Club together. The  Will Schuster circle of plot influence is more equal than Rachel's. Sue starts grubbing all the budget in the school leaving Will to fight her for everything Glee club has. Sue is perhaps the only person, Schuster/Berry duo, who has direct influence on the plot and drama of Glee though generally it's in retaliation/reaction to the Will and the club. Even when it seems Will is fighting back with Sue, it's her reaction to his reaction that truly drives the plot (The Madonna episode anyone?). Terri and Emma though, only react to Will, or act on their own attraction to Will. Terri drives Emma to Ken because Terri is attempting to save her relationship with Will. Will's attraction to Emma drives Terri to fake her pregnancy to keep Will. Terri, Emma, even April only exist in their relationships with Will. Their plots genrally only add to the drama of "Will Will end up with the 'totally deserving' Emma?"

Sure sub plots exist and sometimes get more screen time which hints at a wish to be more of an ensemble cast type show. I always thought this would be a step in the right direction as, despite some of the obvious moments of absurdity, a fairly realistic show.

The second season mixes this up a bit and you get more of that ensemble feel. The show allows you to think of different couples through out the first season. Artie is now dating Britney and that is going well (well, except for the Santana drama), Will seems like a good match for Holly, and until Quinn went queen mega-bitch (which wasn't really that bad from her point of view, but it tore up Rachel) on Rachel I thought she and Finn might actually get back together. The subplots are more broad reaching. It doesn't feel like a specific Artie episode or Kurt Episode and like that. The large plot is much more spread out and feels grander in taking on the whole Glee Club (Plus Kurt and Blaine). Mr. Schuster's plot has also slowed down considerably. He has no rush to get back with Emma (as she's been showing up less and less) and it allows him to see more people. We also focus on Emma as a person and her deep problems with life, specifically sex.

Because of the slower feel things feel grander. When Emma still has the hots for Will despite being married to Carl, it's considered shocking because it's been a while since we've focused less on that and haven't seen her as much. It wouldn't be as surprising if he were hanging out with her every episode talking about their lives. When Rachel and Finn have a moment despite not being together or hanging out for a while, it leaves you questioning and it's surpising. Not to mention Kurt's subplot (from Kurofsky to Blaine), being used SO sparingly, has created some of the most heart-wrenching scenes in the entire show because by showing us so little we know what big of an impact it actually has on him.

This is my defense of season two, I'm not saying  there haven't  been missteps or an eyebrow raising moment here and there, but over all this is a good direction for the show to take and I'm excited for the few remaining weeks of Glee once it comes back.

Frustrated and Confused

This may seem hypocritical at first, but bear with me while I sort myself out.

Why is it that whiny, long facebook status posts are frowned upon for some people, but other people can not only totally get away with it, they get comments and likes and everything?

Or do I just save my whining and carrying-on for here? I mean, we all like to air our dirty laundry in various ways whether we admit it or not. People journal (classic), livejournal or blog, write semi-autobiographical coming of age novels, make horrendous movies about a Mary Sue, write Mary-Sue fan fiction and much more. If I can carry on here, some people feel they can carry-on on facebook without worry.

Maybe I'm crazy but I think there are some things you just don't do on facebook and other social networking sites. For example, I don't use people's actually names on this blog and some stuff I don't even talk about here, lest someone I know in real life find this who doesn't read this blog. I want to vent my feelings, not cause people to possibly lose jobs in the future.

But there are people who seriously whine all the time. EVERY single post they make is something like, "my life is terrible. I hate this. This sucks." I understand that sometimes things just don't go your way, but really, people make it seem like NOTHING GOOD happens to them, when you know they are just want all attention on themselves because that's what they do.

I'm not saying something I should, that might make me a little less self-righteous and a little more vindicated in my feelings, but perhaps a little evil for even bringing it up. See, I'm too nice to even  bring up something terrible about someone I really hate and have every right to bring it up. Here it is in the fairest way possible:

The person in question is a drama-whore (Bear with me on the fairness, it's coming). I'm trying to use non indicative gender cues, but I don't think it's working. Everything must be about them, and if anyone has any other 'drama' or REAL things happening to them they are quick to comment how they've gone through something terribly similar and go into minute detail about a story that may be only tangentially related to the original story. These were things I noticed while we were still friends.

The thing that crossed the line, wasn't when we had a public fight. I was ready to walk right past that. Fights happen and I am more mature than to let a fight get between me and a friend stop us. In fact, I apologized to the person about the entire situation almost immediately after it happened, both via a mutual friend and an email that I know she received, because they replied in length. In the email the person accused me of faking depression (or at least the incredibly depressed feelings I've fought with because I've never been officially diagnosed) that crossed a line from friend to jerk. The fall out of this fight isolated me for the rest of my senior year, a WONDERFUL time to feel isolated let me tell you.

So yeah, I'm biased when this person whines up and down her facebook like she has absolutely nothing going for them. I've talked with other friends and they agree when they say she needs attention constantly on her.

But back to the original reason for this post, is it acceptable to whine in front of all your real life friends like that? Especially if it is just for attention?

Is it any more acceptable to whine here? Or Twitter? Or writing semi-autobiographical fiction?

Why am I writing these questions? If a blogger posts a question but no one follows her is there a sound?

I Lied/Pokemon Geek Out

Yeah, my "Lenten Promise" has kinda been full of fail. I wish I could say I was sorry, but really I have so few followers I don't care that much. If you care, comment.

I've been playing Pokemon more and more. Yeah, that's one excuse as well as general schooling.

But anyway back to Pokemon. I've been playing through Heart Gold and I have a confession to make: I still haven't beaten the Elite Four, ever. I've tried many times, this game alone, and I still am falling behind. So, I've been training like no other and I'm hoping to beat the first half of Heart Gold today or tomorrow.

But the other Pokemon news I have started Pokemon Ruby and I've been considering doing a Nuzlocke Challenge. That basically means fainting=death of a pokemon and you must catch the first pokemon you see in an area. While it is an interesting, and perhaps realistic approach to the Pokemon Universe, I'm apprehensive. I already form ridiculous emotional attachments to computer generated characers in games.

I've never intentionally killed a Sim, I hate it when I lose too many Pikmin, and Pokemon... I hate it when I white/black out. I feel like I've failed as a trainer already when they faint, I can't imagine what I'd do if fainting equaled death.

Next in my Pokemon journeys are to buy Platinum and Black version. Hopefully I can finally start beating elite fours soon.

More Friday Thoughts

Yeah, I've been watching the video more and more. There's just so much to analyze here that one post just won't do.

According to Twitter this is Rebecca's 160 character bio: Rebecca Black is a fun, loving, 13 year old. She loves to sing, dance and act, and she is always looking to try something new. From los Angeles Ca.

She's 13?!!! That's not old enough to have a friend who drives, unless she's some kind of super slut who sleeps around with older kids, or the older kids have no lives. Seriously there is something messed up  there, but I can't figure out what. Although this explains why everyone in the video did not look old enough to be a "teenager."

Another thing: In the second verse when she sings, "Fun, Fun, think about fun!" it sounds more like a reminder to herself to keep her same half-smile thing, not an order to the audience anymore. I swear she's just  a stepford smiler and one wrong step she'll crack and sit in a corner sobbing about how her parents never loved her. There's some skeleton lurking in the closet there, if only I could investigate it.

It's so weird that her bio says she likes to sing, dance and act. Can she not do them all at the same time? Seriously, she was barely singing in the song, but there was no real dancing whatsoever or acting as previously discussed. You'd think they'd try and work in all these "abilities" she claims to have.

Friday (an analysis of a viral song)

So yeah, if you haven't heard this song by Rebecca Black called Friday is being called the "Worst. Song. Ever." To be honest, the lyrics definitely put it as a strong contender in this wonderful category.

Witness it for yourself here:

Wow, go take some ibuprofen before  the stupid headache gets you.

SO I'm going to provide an analysis from an English Major's perspective, because it's too fun not too. I'll start with a verse by verse break down and then do an overview because I'm cool like that...

The first verse explains her morning routine and unlike Ke$ha's (for the time being) immortal "Wake up in the Morning feeling like P. Diddy/ Grab my glasses I'm out the door, I'm gonna hit this city/ Before I leave brush my teeth with a bottle of jack/ Because when I leave for the night I aint comin' back." This leaves no interest in Rebecca's life. I don't care that she has cereal for breakfast or goes to the bus stop everyone does that until they get a friend with a car, which she then meets her friends with a car and can't decide where to sit (because the fate of the world depends upon where she sits). I don't know that many people who want to feel like P. Diddy or  brush their teeth with a bottle of Jack Daniels, that's interesting. The curiosity we, as listeners, feel toward Rebecca's daily routine is the fact that she can't make up her fucking mind about where she wants to sit in her friend's car. Which in the music video is even more peculiar as there is clearly only one seat available in the car (and most cars of that size really don't have a third seat in the back like the video suggests, nay is hoping you'll buy without worrying too much).

The first chorus has her repeating the title of the song ad nauseum and reminding us that she's "gotta get down" today. Because NO ONE parties at all on Saturdays.... She also reminds us everyone is looking forward to the weekend. Which I thought that "Everybody's Working for the Weekend" ? or am I just crazy? She then talks about, no, just says "Partyin'" over and over and everyone in the car agrees with her, though their shouts don't match what you'd think they'd sound like and really don't sound that enthusiastic either in acting or voices (seriously their 'voices' sound like some demon from Hell, possibly Legion). Her friends never just have quiet weekend get togethers where everyone talks and creates meaninful relationships, just partyin'? How superficial,  but of course this is studio manufactured music.

Second Verse and I'm already aching for alcohol for this girl, not me. She talks about cruising down the highway so fast she feels like flying. In the music video she's doing that 'cool' thing where you stand in the back seat of a convertable (By the way: how many teens do you know have brand new convertables?) and stand above the rest of the car which is generally only done at slower speeds because it's a fucking dangerous move. Cars, while fun like toys, are also to be treated with respect because they can kill you. She's just asking to die hanging out of a car going fast down the highway. Remember: she's probably going 55-70 mph so if she falls she's splattering on the ground. She then wants us to think about fun, which is so fun as opposed to going out and actually having fun. She reminds us "I got this, You got this" (don't ask what 'this' is, it's never explained) and then points out her friend is on her right. Now normally I could forgive a nonsequiter like that because sometimes a writer needed an easy rhyme, however that line goes with nothing, not even a half rhyme, it is completely pointless. On top of that she has another girl on her left in the music video who just gets the shaft. I guess they are just superficial friends. And then we know this. Know what? The epitome of bad song writing? She then shows that she can't make her mind up about what seat to sit in AGAIN! Despite being IN a moving car "in" a seat already and it's been the same seat all fucking day despite someone else driving the EXACT same car in front of a very obvious backdrop.

Why yes I'm getting more and more aggitated can you tell?

The second chorus is the same as the first lyrically, but the backdrop is more confusing. She's now at the party (oh thank God she doesn't have to worry about which seat to sit in in the car anymore!), but she's not ineracting with people that much. She waves at one person and some guy touches her shoulder right before it cuts to another scene where she doesn't interact with people except when they shout their standard "yeah" in agreement with her statement of "Partyin' Partyin.'" While the actors shouting "Yeah" are slightly more enthusiastic, the vocals are still the half-enthused non caring ones we heard before.

The Bridge: Oh the infamous bridge. In this lovely infamous bridge she goes over the days of the week, but not all of them, because that MIGHT be helpful in the long run. Because the youth of America are struggling in school and someone thought it was a good idea to put in a little reminder of the days of the week like the bridge of Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" reminded everyone how to spell "bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S!" which admittedly is a fucking catchy way to spell bananas. It's almost like Arthur spelling "aardvark" in that one episode. However, the key difference is kids know days of the week, I even learned them in song, but the difference is the catchyness. While "A-A-R-D-VA-RK!" and " B-A-N-A-N-A-S!" are quick and catchy, this is long and droning and says it is Friday, which it might not be whenever you hear this song, thankfully (or not) the music video has a constant reminder while attempting this really bad rotoscoping, flip book thing that is distracting.  It's like they were trying to repeat Ah-Ha's "Take On Me" and failing spectacularly. Then out of left field she loses her ability to use grammar properly. Seriously she just starts repeating "We, we, we, we" like a broken record before finally finishing her thought "so excited." And just when you think she made a mistake because of an actual broken record she repeats, "We so excited." She had grammar before, faltingly so, but now it's just MIA, maybe a POW of the war on America's sanity...? It gets WORSE when she then says "We gonna have a ball today." Yeah, grammar is  gone, dead, no more. Then we go back to our days of the week lesson. You know, the Animaniacs did a better job of teaching things in song, bring them back! She then shouts, "I don't want this weekend to ENNNNND!" My stuffed dog started howling... Obviously a bad sign.

Now for the obligatory rap part, because that's what you do in this kind of music! Yeah rap in this crap fest. Some gangster just cried out in pain and didn't know why, this is obviously the reason. Let me put on a sideways hat and analyze this. The rapper is someone I've never seen before, and his name isn't listed anywhere I can find on the video. He drives while he points out Rebecca's initials and her name, Because we needed to point out more obvious things in this song. He then (oh my god NO!) repeats the front and back seat and back seat thing and celebrates it... Head meet wall, ouch, but not as painful as the song. He goes on to advocate more dangerous driving such as switching in and out of lanes at highspeeds. What is it with this song and dangerous driving? I think the lyrics then imply he has a narrow miss with a car to his side because he hasn't been checking his blindspots. Way to go idiot! All he can say is "Woo." Yes, nearly side-swiping someone is something to "woo" about. It may be a near miss "woo" but he doesn't adjust his driving habits. He then complains about getting stuck behind a bus worring about all the fun hanging with tweens he's missing out on, still hopin he'll have fun this Friday.

The Chorus comes back again, twice. This time at the party which is made to look like it's in full swing. However, everyone has their hands awkwardly placed, generally down by their shoulders, because if they were to put them up they'd be in our little manufactured starlett's face. This is demonstrated the first time the crowd shouts "yeah" and fist pumps and covers her face. However, this wasn't corrected immediately and there are a couple awkward shots where her face is covered for a second. They obviously saw this problem and corrected for the second repetition of the refrain where everyone's hands are far out of the way of her face, even during the fist pumps. Why didn't they fix it in the first part? If I knew anything about this video I wouldn't be making this post. I forgot to mention she's on a stage above her peers, obviously providing the entertainment for the party. Oh, that's why she hasn't been interacting, she's the hired help. Seriously, who'd rather perform than have fun with their friends? Maybe her only friend is her roadie? This is interspersed with clips of the rapper guy driving in his car and largely doing nothing other than reminding us he's there and our little "starlett" in another part of the world. Where she's over-emoting some lyrics I can't make out. If she had just been emoting like this the whole time I wouldn't mind, however this super emotion is really weird and out of place comparison to her vague smile throughout the rest of the video. The video mercifully ends and the party goers applaud while she laughs in a a show of humility.

Overall, there were a couple of disturbing things I noticed throughout the video that were alluded to above but should still be addressed here in my general critique.

The song is incredibly formulaic: Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, rap section, chorus x2. While normally this wouldn't bother me, as structure can be a useful tool (Look at Shakespeare and the sonnets) it doesn't work when the lyrics have nothing behind them and generally suck. I feel like the song writers deceided, "What do teens like? Friday. What about Friday? Fun and the weekend. What's fun about the weekend? Parties. We need something for the bridge! Just list the days of the week. Ooh kids like rappers and driving fast how can we incoporate this? Oh we can have a rapper rap about driving fast. This is clearly song writing gold. Wait! we can't start with the party, we need a narrative of SOME kind. Just have her talk about her morning routine and tough decisions when going to school."

I also hate how this song kept reminding me of the great songs they were trying to bounce off of. They say bounce off, I say rip off. If you really stop and think about all the better songs they ripped off it goes from bad to horrendous.

I'm also really aggitated by the singer's voice, which I only briefly alluded to in my critique. It's very flat an monotonous. I don't know that much about music, but it sounds auto-tuned to hell and back, or she's just a robot. There is most definitely a metallic tinge to most of the song. Except during the parts  where there's a back up singer (implied to be her) that sounds okay, not great but tolerable. She also sounds average when she holds a longer note, but nothing amazing.

The acting of both Rebecca and the extras was abysmal. Remember what I said about her boring monotonous and emotionless smile, she has it throughout the entire music video (except precious exception, duh). Even when complaining or worrying about which damn seat to take she smiles like she secretly has a million worries behind her. The extras are no better, just watch the second verse and watch her friend on the right. By the way everyone in the back seat has the same hairstyle as her, which she apparently had to straighten like no other in the morning. Because individuality or having curls is a problem.

Again, the advocating of the dangerous driving bugs me, but I'm a car fan who like to drive my car properly, if fun, not like a fucking maniac.

That's my overly long break down.

TL;DR: This already formulaic song rips off actually good music, features a girl who can't sing and has terrible lyrics on top of everything else.

Rambling on King's Speech

I finally saw the King's Speech last night, I say finally because I felt like I saw a ton of Oscar nominated movies this year but took forever getting around to The King's Speech.

It was an interesting and moving experience.

Why that choice of words? Because my boyfriend also stammers.

So as you can see I had a really personal connection to this film. I think that may have taken me out of it/put me into it too much.

I found myself really identifying with Helena Bonham Carter's character, The Queen Mum Elizabeth. I felt myself thinking "Oh, I never realized that's how he feels" or "I know exactly what this feels like."

I realize that this should make me like it more, but I don't know, it felt too real sometimes. I was over associating my boyfriend and myself with these characters.

I'm not articulating this well I realize, but what can I do?

Let me say: I loved this film. I thought it deserved all the awards it won, and more. Helena and Geoffrey definitely deserved oscars, even though they didn't win.

I just feel like I need to see this film over and over again.

Maybe I did like it.

I'm confused.

Job Search?

I'm not sure what I want to do thsi summer about getting a job. I have yet to find a normal 'job' I tolerate or enjoy.

Last summer I got lucky and worked for my then-boyfriends mom, but now that he's my ex I'm not sure if I would want to do that, besides the commute was pretty long. Office work was fine.

I've also had another summer job, but i didn't enjoy that one either. I'm not going to go into details right now.

The other factor is my school year job requires a ton of training that will be done over the summer. I'm going to be an RA at my school and that obviously requires a ton of training. I don't know my summer training schedule, but I have a feeling once I figure that out I'll make a firm decision on what job I want to go for, if I do.

I want to be able just to write and hang out all summer, but I doubt my parents would let that happen. What my parents don't realize is that I never want to have a 'normal' job. I like having flexibility, yet accountability. That's why I set up my "Lenten" resolution. I have enough accountability to get my stuff done, yet it's my own schedule.

Maybe I'm too independent. I don't like people looking over my shoulder making sure I get my business done. I can get things done when left to my own devices, its when people poke and prod me to do things when I sieze up waiting for the next command. I'm fine on my own.

Lenten Challenge

Okay, so I don't actually celebrate Christian holidays if I'm not doing so for my parents but heres the deal:

I want to blog more regularly. I want to vlog more regularly. I want to write my stories more regularly. The only way to accomplish this is to make myself do them. The best way for me to do these this is to force myself, what better way than to do so for Lent? You get Sundays off (I'm not taking them off though) and 40 days is plenty of time to create and reinforce new behavior (thanks Intro to Psych!).

The rules which I made myself live to are: text blogs have to be over 200 words; vlogs have to be a minute long; if I miss a day/week I can make it up the next day/week by doing double duty (two seperate videos or two blog posts); it must be the immediately following day/week.

I've added a few more guidelines that aren't strictly rules: Vlogs should be about books/movies/TV and not about personal life/friends unless relevent (my upcoming Twilight video) or my explanation video. Blogs can be anything I want but not hey look I posted a video unless fufilling other requirements as well. I'll  try to have Blogs and Vlogs talk about different things, especially the same day posts. For example: I'm not going to bitch about my technology problems with video making right now as I kind of did that in my video.

So yeah, there it is, gauntlet thrown. I hope it all goes okay.

(FYI: Excluding this, this post is 260 words.)

My Life Goals

I've realized something over this first half of the semester: I won't be a good journalist.

This does not affect me that much.

You see, I never WANTED to be a journalist. I just sort of joined Newspaper last semester on a whim so I could meet people. It worked. I met people, and I admit, I had fun. However, the fun was found in class, with other English Majors just talking about anything and everything. Talking with like minded people is always fun. Going out and doing interviews, writing short choppy sentences just because, that isn't me.

I don't have time to do interviews this semester. I'm taking the same number of hours, but it's SO much harder to get in time for interviews this semester.

I know who I am. I'm not outgoing/interested in journalism to do that for my life. I think it would be easier to do interviews if I had a work time to do it, but I don't know. It doesn't feel like me.

What I want to do for the rest of my life is write. Whether novels or films (my friend who is a film major and I have been talking...) or short stories, FICTION or at least Narratives are what I want to do for the rest of my life.

I know me, now I just have to get through this semester.

I Used to Not Mind

I used to not mind politician/Fox News person Mike Huckabee. He always seemed like a decent guy. He'd sit down and talk rationally with people on the opposite side of the political spectrum.

Seriously, anyone who has ever seen him on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report knows he can be a completely normal guy when he wants to be. I didn't (and still don't) agree with him on almost every issue, but he seemed rational and calm when defending his issues and that is something to value in a world with Glenn Becks and Sarah Palins.

Enter the upcoming Presidential Election Year...

Twice this week alone he's said things that rub me the wrong way entirely.

First: The whole Barack Obama growing up in Kenya debacle. While I could understand occasionally saying one word when you mean another (I do it all the time) his statements literally make no sense if you just insert Indonesia where he said Kenya. The whole story falls apart. It's like saying Harry Potter wasn't a wizard, he was a ghost. The story stops working the way it should. This irritated me, but I just figured Huckabee felt the need to toss his hat in amongst the Tea-Party for easily secured votes.

Second (The reason for this post): Today I found an article about comments he made about Natalie Portman being a bad role model for "glorify and glamorize the idea" of being an unwed mother. First of all, if there is someone to look up to in Hollywood it's Natalie Portman. She's a great actress and she hasn't been caught in any kind of 'scandal' except for the scandalously bad Star Wars Prequels. Hell, she paused her career to focus on college when many actresses in her place may have just skipped college all together. What's not to like about that? More and more people are having children and relationships out of wedlock, it's just a sign of the times. She's not the first, nor will she be the last single mother. On top of all this: She's engaged to the father of her child and seems head over heels in love with him. It hardly seems like she's sleeping around willy-nilly. She's in what looks to be a committed and stable relationship and will love her baby. I ask again: What's not to like about that?

So, Mike Huckabee, you have fallen out of favor with me, a young and excited voter. If you honestly feel this way about these two issuses I no longer respect you. And if you said these things to garner tea party support, I respect you even less than that.

An Explanation

Last semester I dealt with a pretty bad roommate situation. People often wondered why I put up with the crazy things I did.

They wondered why I put up with the storage of alcohol in my fridge (we're in a dry dorm), the complete mess her side usually was, the guys in my room at 2-4 in the morning, sometimes vomitting, the drunken stumbling in early in the morning, the missing objects that were mine, the complete disrespect.

Because I read a story. I think I came across it my junior year, maybe sophomore, and it is truly the worst roommate story I have ever heard in my life.

Worst. Roommate. Ever.

Be warned, not for the faint of heart or the germaphobic. Rule of thumb:  More disgusting than most any of the episodes of Hoarders, even the episodes with animal hoarders.

Random Thoughts

M. Night Shyamalan was never that good to begin with. He based the Sixth Sense off of an 'Are You Afraid of the Dark?' episode. This "downward spiral" is simply a product of earlier events.

As the World gets smaller the easier it will be for one person to control as I am experiencing with College. Because of this I am afraid for the future and hope decency will save the day.

Jesus Christ didn't say all that much when compared to the entirety of the Bible and we don't know how much he actually did say. So much is forced into his mouth though, almost enough to feel bad for the guy.

It's not Scientology people hate, its just crazy people in general. Example: Will Smith-Scientologist-well liked. Tom Cruise-Scientologist-went crazy temporarily- still recovering in eyes of media.

A computer just cleaned the clock of two Jeopardy champions, mean while robots get more and more realistic. Cylons are only a matter of time. Thank God we haven't treated our robots too bad, yet.