Poor sad little blog…and also SUPERWIN for me

I haven’t abandoned you, really.  I’ ve just been searching for a general theme to kind of tie everything together.  I think I’ve got something coming together…we’ll see soon!

A few months ago, I posted a Twilight rant.  Don’t hold your breath, I still think those books aren’t worth a cent.  I’d just like to add that I have a famous author on my side!  I guess I wasn’t the only person who went apeshit when someone actually had the gall to compare Stephanie Meyer to J.K. Rowling. 

Stevie seyz; “The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephanie Meyer can’t write worth a darn.  She’s not very good.”

It’s like…I can hear the bells of intelligent thinking tolling in the background as people realize that Meyer is a bad writer. 

Stevie goes on to talk about how Meyer is appealing directly to young teenage girls and their tingly emotions about sex and love.  Did I, or did I not write that Meyer is a PANDERER and that her books are the adolescent girl’s WET DREAM?

I think I did. 

They’re like, dirty romance novels for tweens.  And believe me, I know.  I accidentally bought one when I was 13, and I was kind of disappointed to see that the book I bought wasn’t a mystery, like I thought, but instead a very…graphic…romance.

Anyways, I so called it about Meyer.  I want to send my Twilight rant to Stephen King, so I can be like, “we are SO on the same page, can I plz visit your FL pad?”

If you’d like to read, I dunno, a decent book, read “On Writing”, by Stephen King.  It’s a fantastic read, I’ve already gone through it like 5 times.  You discover surprising things, like that King wasn’t born in a monster factory (contrary to popular belief).

In all serious, it’s a memoir about King’s life and experience in writing.  It’s down to Earth, honest, and humorous.  It’s real life, vampires and werewolves not included.

On Accomplishment

This has to be fast, because I have a French dissertation to write, a political theory essay to write on Hobbes (possibly most difficult theorist in the history of life), the Federalist Papers to read, a 50-page chapter about Mexico to read and research on Cuba to do…

But I finished my fourteen page research paper on the polarization of abortion attitudes between the Democratic and Republican Parties, and I’d just like to say…

BAM!  WHAT, BITCH?  I FINISHED MY GODDAM PAPER!  IT’S DONE.  THREE MONTHS OF RESEARCHING AND WRITING AND EDITING…AND THE BITCH IS DONE.  W00T!  PARTY, ‘CUZ MY PAPER IS DONE!

And then, as I stood at my desk, holding those fourteen, freshly printed pages in my hands, all I could think was “I am holding three months worth of my work in my hands”.  And that was just SUCH a cool feeling. 

So now I am drinking a chai tea latte (Starbucks = my lifesaver) to refuel, so I can get started on my bitch of an essay for theory.

I am so FREAKING happy.  That’ll go away probably soon, but for now…I finished my paper!

I am left wondering, however, why I got the very first presentation slot the day we get back from Thanksgiving break for my paper’s topic.  What is UP with that??

To the Notre Dame Fans

To the Notre Dame fans who booed their football players and pelted them with snowballs:

Shame on you.

The fact that the snowballs were coming from the student section appalls me even more. 

You shouldn’t call yourselves fans any more.  Fans don’t stick with the team during the good days, and then mistreat them on the bad.  Fans don’t throw things at their players.

You love your team.  You love your team when they’re massacring the other guys, and you’re supposed to love them when they’re losing.  How can you expect them to even want to play anymore, after you threw things at them?

No one said it was easy, sticking to your team when they’re not playing well.  And it’s hard to hold your head up when the other team and their fans are cheering.  But for the men who train for you, who work for you, who represent you and who play for you…they do not deserve snowballs and jeers.

If you’re showing up for games, I already know you love your team.  No one sits still in the freezing cold for hours to watch something they don’t love.  That kind of thing – snow, sleet, wind - doesn’t matter to you.  You can bet it doesn’t matter to them, either. 

What does matter to them is you.  They play for you.  They live for your screams, your cheers, your love.  And to turn on them when they needed you the most…the team didn’t betray you, Notre Dame fans.  You betrayed the team.

Notre Dame fans have disappointed me today.

The Twilight Rant

That’s it, I have to get this off of my chest.  As for the hordes of tween fangirls bearing torches and plastic vampire fangs?  I can take ‘em.  I will brandish literature at them and they’ll vanish.

I just read a film review comparing Twilight to the Harry Potter series, and I literally wanted to die inside.  And it’s not because I am a rabid Harry Potter fan who dresses up on weekends and looks for Hogwarts during my free time.

It’s because J.K. Rowling can actually write a good story.  Her world was so unbelievably well constructed and thoroughly researched and well-thought out, and it contains those delightful little details (like those great mythological connections that you don’t find unless you’re really looking). 

Stephanie Meyer, on the other hand, writes the angsty world of the angst-ridden teenager.  And it’s boring.  It’s horrifically boring.  After reading thirty pages of the main character’s self-indulgent moaning, I wanted to shoot myself in the head.  I get that being ‘emo’ and having depressing feelings all the time is trendy right now, but really.  Is there anyone out there really like that?  If there is, I never want to meet them.

Which brings me to a character study.  We have, on one hand, Harry Potter, who does get angsty from time to time.  It’s a given in writing about teenagers.  They’re just an angsty bunch.  But does he complain all the time?  Does he always meditate on how plain his features are?  Does he moan ON AND ON AND ON for practically an entire series? And yes, Harry does play martyr occasionally.  But he doesn’t GO ON AND ON ABOUT IT FOR INFINITY PAGES.

Bella.  Not only is she a martyr (and a boring boring boring one at that), she’s a self-indulgent whining idiot.  Her character cannot be feasibly realistic, because it has to be physically impossible to be so miserable in such a shallow, stupid way. 

Don’t even get me started on how at least three boys fell madly in love with her within the first few minutes of meeting her, and she still feels ‘alone’.  Gag me.

Basically, Meyer has written down the wet dream of a pathetic, angst-ridden generation who, instead of realizing that there is an entire world of suffering far more signifcant than theirs, would rather meditate on their ‘alone’-ness.  And their ‘plain’-ness. 

I also feel that Meyer is pandering.  She knows what teenagers wants to read, so she writes that crap.  I think Meyer has potential; her other characters are interesting and show depth.  Bella has all the appeal (and personality) of a wet mop. 

Meyer: grow a pair and write a good story.  Stop worrying about pandering to a bunch of tweens and do your job as a writer: write the truth.  And if your truth is Bella…God help you, woman. 

I have another comment, more to express my incredulity at the sheer stupidity that is the character Bella than anything else.  Later in the series, she is perfectly happy to become a vampire without a second thought, but she’s not sure she wants to be married.  Uhm, I’m sorry…what?  Last I checked, marriage was a far less permanent stage than IMMORTALITY.  

I also happened to read that a lot of people thought Twilight was nice because it was a vampire story without any sex or violence, and there aren’t enough of those types of movies.  Apparently, they forget that the entire legacy of the vampire is sex and violence.  The vampire IS an emblem of sex and violence.  Dracula, the vampire of vampires, was based off of Vlad the Impaler.  He impaled people and then ate dinner beneath them.  This is violent.  Why did Stoker write Dracula?  As I, and many literary experts, believe, Stoker wrote his novel to express his frustrated sexuality in while remaining within the confines of polite Victorian society.  Basically, the part where the vampire drinks the blood is a metaphor for sex.

So, it’s kind of impossible to have vampires without the sex and the violence.  Sorry. 

To any Twilight fans reading this, I have two things to say to you before you go running for your capes:

1) Why?

2) Go read some real books.  I don’t care if it’s Bronte, I don’t care if it’s Dostoevsky, I don’t care if it’s Steinbeck.   Do yourself a favor, and enrich your minds instead of reading some manufactured drivel designed to be appealing.  That’s not writing, it’s manufacturing.   

I have been wanting to do that for SO LONG, and it felt SO GOOD.

And now I will go take cover from the fans.

Views from abroad

Though I wouldn’t call myself a supporter of Fidel Castro, I was amused by his article on the American elections: “McCain is old, bellicose, uncultured, not very intelligent and not in good health”. 

The article is available here http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2008/noviembre/mar4/45reflex3-i.html and it’s an interesting read, especially if you’re looking for a sort of ‘outsider’s’ opinion on the United States.

Is Castro’s animosity towards McCain the result of McCain’s unwillingness to have international negotiations with pre-conditions? 

What I find most interesting is Castro’s focus on Obama’s race and how he links it to Hispanic minorities.  This goes along with a lot of international sentiment about Obama, and how people outside of the US see Obama’s win as a triumph for the minority races. 

There may be a lot of Cuba stuff here in the weeks to come…I’m starting a paper on Machiavelli’s perspective of the Cuban embargo.

Stop saying that name

Is anyone else sick of hearing from Sarah Palin?  I don’t know why she feels that she is qualified to be the ‘new voice’ of the Republican Party.  She’s an idiot, and that has been proved many times over.  Why doesn’t she fall out of the news already?

And if I were a Republican, I would be concerned that Sarah Palin is looking to become the new ‘standard bearer’ of the GOP.  In fact, I’m still concerned.

Return-age

I know, I kind of fell off of the face of the Earth for a while.  I blame this MMORPG that my boyfriend and I found online.   But, the little screaming voice inside of me can’t be placated by quests and armor for very long, so here I am.

Also, my research paper is making my head explode (I honestly wish I were still writing it.  The fact that I forgot to cite page numbers for a lot of my research combined with the whole suckfest that is ‘editing’ is giving me a headache) so I thought I’d come online and a do a little ranting.

First on the rant list…Sarah Palin has expressed the desire to be the first female president.  HA DI FUCKIN’ HA HA.  I know I am a cynic and an evolving elitest, but even I have faith in the American people that they will not choose Palin to lead this country.  The woman is a dumbass.  Everytime she opens her mouth, all I can hear is STUPID pouring out of it.  Ugh.

Second on the rant list…secretarial etiquette (haha I have such a Great Lakes accent, I literally thought that etiquette was pronounced ‘ediquette’).  Because this secretary today really drove me ’round the bend. 

So, based on my experience this morning…THINGS NOT TO DO WHEN YOU’RE A SECRETARY:

1) IGNORE SOMEONE FOR A PERSONAL CONVERSATION WITH A COWORKER.  And I don’t mean important personal conversations, like if someone is on the verge of a nervous breakdown due to an impending divorce and is getting much-needed support from a coworker.  I don’t mind waiting for something like that.  But when you’re talking about Obama?  Please.  It’s not your job to talk about what Obama plans to do in office.   

2) BE CONDESCENDING TOWARD SOMEONE WAITING FOR YOU TO FINISH YOUR STUPID AND IRRELEVANT PERSONAL CONVERSATION.  I know, I am a college undergrad student.  I am young.  But when I go to you asking you to do your JOB and REGISTER me for a class, the appropriate response is not, “It’s going to be a couple minutes” and then continuing your personal conversation.  At the very least, be polite about ignoring me to continue your stupid conversation.  On a further note, when you work at a university, you probably shouldn’t be rude to the students.  Considering that without them, you would be jobless.

3) REFER TO THE PERSON YOU ARE HELPING AS ‘SOME GIRL’ ON THE PHONE WHEN THEY ARE IN EARSHOT.  Here, I almost lost it.  She could’ve called me a student.  Or something to that effect.  But ‘SOME GIRL’?  I just found that incredibly rude and I could not believe that she said that.  I officially hate it when people treat me like that just because I am young. 

The only things that kept me from going absolutely apeshit on this bitch were that I had class in five minutes and also I was afraid that she would sit on me and I would be crushed by undoubtably what was forty-five years and five hundred pounds accumulation of McDonald’s Brand lard.

I believe I am qualified to comment on how to be a decent secretary, considering that I was one at one point, and I can tell you that if I had pulled any of the shit that lardy-ass had, I would’ve been fired. 

Wow.  I forgot how good ranting into cyberspace can feel.

Taking a Stand

I’m going to have to take a deep breath and brace myself…because I’m sounding off on PETA.

I guess they recently sent a ‘stern letter’ to Phillies player Shane Victorino because his favorite food dish happens to contain Spam. 

Wow.  Will I be getting a letter too, PETA, because I happen to enjoy the occasional hamburger?  While it’s all well and good what the organization stands for, I think that’s crossing the line.  Really, what ran through my mind after I read the article was, “mind your own damn business!”. 

PETA needs to respect the choices, beliefs and tastes of other people.  I’ll tell you right now that I believe that it’s okay to eat meat.  In fact, I like several meat dishes.  But am I sending ‘stern letters’ to PETA trying to convince them that veganism is actually going against nature?  No.  PETA supporters can eat whatever they want.  So why should they try to dictate to other people what to do? 

PETA needs to stay in the realm of advocacy and awareness (which they do quite well in) and stop trying to do impose their own beliefs on everyone else.  Stern letters.  Give me a break.

My Evolving Laptop

So…it appears that my laptop has developed a strong dislike of the library…it refuses to turn on in the library, but when I bring it back into my room, it works just fine.  It almost gave me a heart attack earlier, before I figured out that it just doesn’t like the library.

Got a couple comments on my last entry…it’s exciting to know that I’m not just talking out into cyberspace! 

One comment asked me “How does a health issue or birth defect justify murder?”  So, here I go with my justification.  And, before I dive in, I beg everyone to remember that this is my personal opinion.  Do I think the whole world should agree with everything I say?  No.  I say that the whole world should be given the ability to choose what they believe.  This is what the pro-choice movement is all about.  If someone wants to believe that abortion is murder, great.  I respect that.  If someone else chooses to believe that life does not begin at conception, also great. 

Getting back on topic, I personally believe that it is more merciful to have a abortion than to bring a child into the world with a severe defect.  Now, I’m not saying that I think babies with six fingers or Down’s Syndrome should be aborted solely based on those conditions.  It all comes down to the quality of life for me.  I would not consider it merciful to have a child that has to spend his or her life in a hospital.

One problem with the abortion issue (for me, anyways) is that it is extremely circumstantial.  The only view of abortion that I have that doesn’t change is that it should be a choice, one that should be largely left in the hands of the mother.   

So that is how I justify murder.  I guess I’m just a mercy-killer at heart.

And I’m left wondering…how long until my laptop learns how to yell back when I go ballistic on it?

More stupidity of the Palin variety…

I love how this blog has become centered around ranting about Sarah Palin.

But, hey, someone’s gotta do it.

So, at a recent rally in Pennsylvania, Palin denounced Obama as a radical concerning abortion.  Ah yes, it is just so damn radical to want to give the ability to choose to the women most intimately involved with the issue.  Does Obama say whether one should or shouldn’t get an abortion?  No.  He says, “Hey, it’s up to you.  Your choice.  Do as you will.”  Palin, on the other hand, says, “No.  No abortions.  Nope.  I am choosing for you, so…suck it.  Your kid is gonna be born without a liver, kidneys or bladder?  Oh well.”

And we know the only reason she’s bringing out the abortion guns is because she wants to distract from the abuse of power scandal she’s involved in (surprisingly, there’s more than one).  How can someone who abuses her power to take people’s jobs away and nominate her buddies to government positions be able to preach on ethics with any type of credibility?

Sex education is important, Mrs. Palin.  I think she needs to consider that sex ed isn’t just about pregnancy.  Although, the one aim of sex ed is to PREVENT pregnancy, and therefore abortions of unwanted babies.  Let’s not forget about STD prevention either.  She jumped on Obama for saying that he doesn’t want his daughters being punished for not being (sexually) educated and making a mistake.  He didn’t just mean a baby, Palin.  STDs are definitely what I’d call unpleasant, and they’re also what sex ed aims to prevent.

She is so narrow-minded and black-and-white and ANNOYING, I just can’t stand this woman.