Tag Archives: Miscellaneous

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Then People Go A Little Crazy

I sat around watching the news recently, and wondered “are we getting more sensitive in our age, or are people just crazy?” I can’t say I ever truly figured out that answer. It’s always “____ group was offended because ____” and usually it’s something I can’t help but to tilt my head at the television, with a confused look on my face as if I were mimicking the dogs. What’s the big deal, I thought. So what? I can’t quite figure this out.

Just because I enjoy a steak, that doesn’t mean I enjoy a cow being tortured. It just means steak is delicious. One time my son approached me about why we eat meat, and if it’s cruel or not. I said “Dyl, people have been eating meat to survive for eons. Besides, if God didn’t intend you to eat bacon, why does it taste so good?” He nodded happily. I don’t care PETA exists, they have their purpose. Just because I enjoy a steak, doesn’t mean I want to wear a fur outfit from an animal I wouldn’t eat. Sure, killing an animal for it’s fur and tossing the remains aside is cruel, in my opinion. But it someone wants to wear a fur coat, it’s not my place to lecture them. So when I saw on the news that PETA was outraged by the killing of a spider, I thought I would’ve killed the freaking thing too. I don’t freak out on PETA for killing plants to eat, though plants are definitely living things. Who are they to decide what living thing is fit to be eaten? How do they know plants don’t have the capacity to feel pain or love?

I use this same philosophy on religions. I don’t care if they want a manger in the center of the town at Christmas time, no more than I’d care if they tossed up some other religious articles up at their holiday time. Atheists are allowed to be Atheists as Christians are allowed to be Christians, etc. If you don’t want to celebrate the holiday, then simply don’t celebrate it. I won’t judge you like you judge me. Being of one school of thought doesn’t make you smarter than another, unless you’re just a hateful bigot. Then I’ll ignore you on the grounds that I’m a better human being.

I think I figured it out. It’s not about the cause, it’s about the airtime you get for it. In this age of social networking and everyone being a photographer thanks to smartphones, news spreads. And people are suckers for stories on the news that makes us die a little on the inside because of the sheer stupidity of it. Do I think PETA is really offended by the killing of a spider? Probably, but I won’t tell them how many ants they probably kill walking around everyday. But crying outrage on stupid and asinine topics sells the real agenda you want them to, because you’ll get all the airtime you want.

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Random Musings From BooBoos to Another Plan

The best thing about weekends aren’t just the family time with my boys that I enjoy. It’s getting to sit around and listen to the current events so on Monday, I can run a nice commentary on. From the incredibly joy of headlines, and face-palming at others, Mondays are a day when I can share them with you. I admit, some of my comments today will be silly and childish, but sometimes things bring that out in me.

1) Not the Biebs! I have a soft spot for reading celebrity news. Sometimes you  just need the mindless crap those type of stories come across. Imagine my squealing with glee when I read the headline “Bieber was attacked!” I know, that might make me sound like a horrible person. I decided to stop making Bieber jokes a while back, after a Jimmy Fund girl had been treated very kindly by him. I changed my mind not too long after, deciding that based on actions and the way he presented himself, that a kind act can be forgotten if you’re a spoiled rotten and entitled brat. So seeing that he was attacked delighted me in such a way, until I discovered that he was merely poked or something similarly painless. I don’t want the kid dead, but I certainly think anyone who behaves as he allegedly behaves, could benefit from a little rough up. It builds character.

2) How about a “Plan C”? In the middle of crisis, we sure know how to put things in perspective and get our priorities straight. They have recently made Plan B accessible by 15-year-old girls. People are opposed this because “abortion is wrong” and “15-year-olds shouldn’t have sex anyways”. Let’s ignore the facts that “Plan B isn’t an abortion drug” or “15-year-olds are having sex anyways”. Or that so many people are morally outraged they teach sex-ed in schools or tried to make condoms accessible in the nurse’s office or hand them out to students. How’s teaching abstinence only working out? Oh right, it’s not otherwise 15-year-old girls wouldn’t need Plan B. Maybe we should consider educating our children properly so maybe we can reduce the amounts of “oops”, and there wouldn’t be as much of a need to make this medication accessible to kids.

3) World’s Most Eligible Bachlorette is no more. I tried to watch Honey Boo Boo once and I’m going to be completely honest here: I wanted to bash my head against a wall repeatedly in hopes that it’d dumb me down so much that I would understand what was going on. When I saw on the news that her mother got married, all I could think of was “really, that’s news? A dumb redneck married another dumb redneck, but it’s ok because they exploit their daughter and profit from it so this whole thing is newsworthy?” Sure, I detest her because her family is full of white trash you think really only exists in crappy movies and that’s how they are edited on television. Maybe they have some sort of intelligence, realizing that people enjoy watching stupid people do stupid things.

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The Next Project

My focus has suddenly come back. With the little one coming into an age where he actually enjoys naps I can finally focus back on my writing. I’m finally back into a groove with my blogging here, and I’m starting a nice groove on my Hubs. This is important to me, because it’s encouraging me to find my way back to my goals. I needed to refocus, I needed to set up goals to hit to force me back into my projects. My head has already started writing a new project, and trying to finish the next 3 done.

My next project, which I know I’ve promised already, is essentially done. It’s an anthology of short stories and poetry. Most of the poetry was written in high school, and though there’s something awful about them in quality, there’s a sort of purity in the rawness of it. I feel that poetry is something written from the heart and soul, and to do anything to edit that (no matter how awful) seems to ruin its integrity. That part makes the anthology easy in the editing department. The rest of the story anthology is another story.

It’ll be done, I’ll dedicate the rest of my weekend to it. It’ll be up, and my husband has volunteered to do the cover art this time. I wondered if he offered because he’s awesome, or because I asked him to help me with my blog and Hubs by getting him the camera of his dreams to be my personal freelance photographer. He can add that title to his “read to tell me if it sucks” one that he does for free. Well not for free, it costs me in time making sandwiches and coffees. But for more free than getting an editor or publishing company to do the jobs for me.

With any luck, I can add my second book onto my Kindle e-publishing author page. Which you should check out and maybe even buy my first publishing while you’re there, the link is on the side bar. At $0.99, it’s cheaper than a candy bar or a bag of chips. And if you enjoy an off color sense of humor, you might enjoy it. I’ll keep you guys posted when it gets put up for sale. I also apologize for the boring blog post, but I felt like sharing this for people who are also writers who understand the long process this finishing projects entail. Also, check out my Hub page, which also has a link to the side. Bookmark it, because I post there Tuesdays and Thursdays.

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Random Thoughts That Might Make You Hate Me

I can’t help but to sit and let my mind wander. And it definitely wanders all over the place. Elections, current events, whether I have pity for people, and people and their opinions. Then, while my mind ran away from me when I sat down to make my post, I realized I had no idea what to post about. Rather than admit defeat though, I decided to share my wandering thoughts with you. Then I thought, “I’ll probably upset a lot of people with them”. Then I considered that and realized I would probably upset those people in real life anyways. What do I have to lose? So here are my random musings of the day.

To start with, I was watching a morning show I tend to watch and they were discussing about how a ESPN commentator was discussing Jason Collins and his announcing his sexual orientation. He said about how sex outside of marriage was a sin, and so was being gay. I didn’t care, he’s a guy saying his opinion. Everyone who didn’t agree with him about homosexuality being a sin became nasty, spiteful people. Do I agree with him? Absolutely not. But I didn’t see people who disagreed about sex outside of being married was a sin also feverishly defending their views. Last I checked, he was a “commentator” and that means he is paid to give his opinion. Not everyone is going to agree with everyone. If you someone based solely on their opinions, what makes you really better than they are? I don’t agree with him, but he’s not on a soap box, calling for homosexuals to be tossed into a fiery pit. He stated an opinion. Now, if they force their opinion on other people and it affects their business life, then you can get aboard the “fight for your freedom” train. Until then, let a guy who’s paid to give his opinion have his opinion, it’s his right to have it whether you agree or not. Welcome to America, the land where you can tell other people how to think by bullying them. Besides, people shouldn’t think too much into it, I never even heard of either guy until this whole thing happened and I’ll probably forget the commentators name tomorrow.(I did need to look it up, and kept forgetting it so I felt that it wasn’t actually important to the point.)

I thought about pity and the type of person I pity. I realized I don’t actually “pity” anyone, that seems like such a negative term.  I feel bad for people who are forced into a life they can’t seem to get out of because of bad luck after bad luck. I don’t feel bad for ones that don’t try. I feel as bad for people like that as I do a drunk driver that kills himself in an accident. You knew better than getting into that car after drinking, and you died a horrible death. No, I don’t feel sorry for you for causing your own misery. People don’t realize consequences and actions, and these days no one ever makes people face them. Life can be crappy, but are you going to sit around crying about it or are you going to stand up and do what you need to in order to make the situation better? If the answer is “sit on your butt and feel sorry for yourself”, then why should I feel bad for you? The answer is “I shouldn’t”. We were given free will, and no one commands our lives but us. You want that job, work your butt off and get your dream. Eventually it’ll happen, with enough will and effort.

I know, these two paragraphs have probably upset some readers. But I write to put my opinion out there, and if you don’t agree then you don’t agree. I don’t think I should have to change what I think to make people like me, I’m only me. I don’t ask you to agree with my opinions anymore than I ask you to agree with opinions of people I don’t agree with at all. (See above.) Overall, my main point is that everyone should have the right to say what they believe without a fear of people egging their house or stalking them into the streets assaulting them. I don’t want to have people accuse me of being anti-gay because I said someone who believes homosexuality is a sin should be allowed his opinion. The great thing about people talking about their opinions, is if you don’t agree with it you can ignore it. That doesn’t mean they don’t have the right to say it.

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I Fear Them More Than They Fear Me

I went to take a nap yesterday, and when I moved the curtain away from the fan, something fell. All I could think of was “EEK! A SPIDER!”. I did what any rational person with irrational fears would do: I called my husband, begging him to save me from this maybe spider, and when none was found, I slid down the bed and went to sleep in the fetal position at the bottom of the bed. I admit it, I’m a “scaredy-cat.” No, I think I go a little beyond a simple “scaredy-cat”. I tip-toe that fine line between “scaredy-cat” and “irrationally phobic personality”. So, today I’ve decided to share my ridiculous fears to get them out there. Sure, I’m sure you’ll laugh reading them but that’s ok. I’ll probably laugh at how crazy they sound as I read this aloud.

1) Spiders. And anything else creepy crawly. I hate spiders, though I”m definitely getting a lot better. If I see a small one, I’ll smack it down and pretend I’m hardcore. I’m not, any spider bigger than an ant gets me to cower like a little baby. And don’t get me started on anything with a stinger or that looks like it has a potential to. And I have nightmares of earwigs, those things are just incredibly terrifying. Why do they need those pincers? Just to look like menacing ugly things? It works. And you can tell me a dozen times not to run away from a hornet, wasp or yellow jacket because it doesn’t help, but I’ll do it anyways because I really just want to get away from those things. I’ve never been stung and I don’t intend to start now.

2) Anything “too high up”. This might seem like a rational thing, not too many people aren’t afraid of being too high up. I assure you it’s just more insane than you  think. I do get freaked out looking out a 14th floor window. But I have trouble looking through on escalators because I’m “too high up with little protection”. So that adds another “afraid of escalators”, but that really doesn’t need it’s own paragraph, since the only real reason I’m afraid of it is watching myself go “too high”.  I plan trips around “which escalator am I least afraid of”. Stairs count too, I’m definitely afraid of certain stairs because of how high up they go and that I can see myself go up them. (Enclosed stairs are ok, those ones with the glass windows are not.)  This is probably what I’m the most afraid of.

3) Amusement park rides. You’d think the height would be what makes me terrified of these things, you’re wrong. Every creak on a ride, I freak out. I imagine the ride stopping abruptly, or just collapsing right there with me on it. I don’t like the feeling of being shaken around, swung around, or just not being in control of what’s happening to my body. I hate them, I think they are death traps, and when my son and husband are on them I close my eyes so I wouldn’t have to watch something happen to them.

4) Clowns. When I was younger, I was forced into watching “It”. I remember being instantly terrified of these clowns. I also remember having to sit through “Killer Clowns from Outer Space”, and it sent me over the edge. I then remember having my room decorated into a “circus” theme, and I remember having nightmares that the clowns in my room were going to come and kill me in my sleep. It was a rough time. I don’t remember when the clowns went away, and I don’t remember why. I’m glad it’s gone. I still close my eyes and see the room though, and it still gives me the creeps. Clowns, you aren’t happy or awesome. You are scary creatures, scary and freaky and ugly creatures.

5) Murders, Robbers, and Creeps oh my! I live in a nice area, where nothing of not really ever happens. Even still, I’ve watched enough television and movies to know that places that are quiet little holes in the walls are more likely to have shocking crimes happen to them. I obsessively check locks to make sure no one can come in and kill me or my family in my sleep. I make sure that my sons are not kidnapped, and that they are still breathing. Then I repeat that cycle a few times just to make sure. This is probably my most irrational of all of my fears, which says a lot because they are all a little silly.

Those are really just the top things that scare me. Mostly those are the only ones that I’d consider as “insane” fears. I’m a neurotic person with a few crazy irrational fears. That doesn’t make me less of a person; merely it makes me uniquely me. Share your thoughts, fears, and a laugh at my expense. I look forward to it.

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All About Politics, and the People Who Discuss Them (Rejected Blog Post)

I watch the news daily, I read about current events. I cry a little when I read the top headlines, because rather than any news of substance I see things like “_____ celebrities ate tacos”. I don’t care if some celebrity was walking around with a Cheeto bag, and when I do care I will read “Celebrity” news, not the top headlines of the day. Actual news should be separate from useless nonsense. It’s not hard to wonder why American’s need to be told “Chechnya is an entirely different nation than the Czech Republic”. All foreigners are the same and celebrities are more important than current events. Amurica. (Purposeful and sarcastic misspelling.) So this brings me to an Election Day post I rejected. I agree with the main point of “celebrities need to worry about being celebrities”, but I felt the post felt flat otherwise. Happy Friday!

I watch the news to see the pundits argue out their points. I watch entertainment to be entertained. I watch the Daily Show and Colbert Report to be entertained by comedians mocking the news. I don’t watch an interview with a celebrity to hear their political views, I want to hear about their new movie or something funny that happened while filming said movie. Likewise, I don’t want to hear a politician giving a review about a movie. I don’t care what they think. It’s great that they want to indulge themselves in whatever philanthropic pursuits they wish or is the “in” cause. It’s good that they incite the masses to donate whatever time, money and resources we have to help others and some of them actually put their money where their mouths are. That’s using their celebrity for good.

However, I don’t care who you vote for or what your political views are. You’re actors/singers/models, there to entertain. I will listen to your songs, political or not, because I like them and not because I want to vote for whomever you’re voting for. I don’t want to listen to an actor telling me what to do in elections, I pay you to at least decently act in whatever movie I’m choosing to see. I’m glad you’re voting. But I don’t care if you tell me to vote for Obama or Romney, because your opinion doesn’t matter to me and I’ll take whatever you see with the same grain of salt I’ll take the major news channels on their election information.

So my lovely celebrities, save your money from those commercials you make to try to sway our vote. I don’t care how many Academy Awards you have, reasonable people won’t vote for people because you tell them to. Everyone (whether they admit it or not) has pretty much decided how they are voting. Most of them are just going to vote along party lines like good little ducklings following along. And those that aren’t voting “the way they should” are probably too smart to care what an overpaid privileged celebrity says about elections or really just don’t care about voting. Maybe you should put that money someplace useful, like the open pantry or soup kitchens or battered women shelters.

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Guns Kill Immigrants? No Wait… Immigrants Kill Guns?

How I feel personally about immigration and gun control are irrelevant here. This isn’t a debated of “why I think guns should be legal/illegal/assault rifles banned” because I honestly think the politicians rooting for gun control are just appeasing masses that are traumatized by events like the Aurora movie theater shooting or the Newtown school shooting. Maybe they think “trying” to pass reform will make people feel better. News flash: it doesn’t. If politicians really wanted to make a change, they would do it and not spend 10 years talking about doing it.

Maybe I’m cynical. No, I take that back. I know I’m cynical. I don’t trust politicians, I repeat that every time I bring up politics but it never becomes less true. They sit and talk about a topic of relevance until they are blue in the face, and share how they are going to wave a magical wand and fix everything. They’re not fixing anything, unless by fixing it  you mean “further ruining”. Then, when the smoke clears away from that topic of relevance they move onto another “we need to fix this” discussion. With that said, a lot of talk about gun control and immigration confuse me. Maybe you can help explain this to me logically? (Not really, I already know the answer.)

In arguments about gun control, people anti-gun control argue about “what good is background checks? Bad guys are going to do bad things anyways. Why check out good guys?” I would have argued back “do you really need a gun that exact second you go into the store that you can’t wait until they make sure you’re not a psychopath?” I agree, if people want guns enough they are going to get them. But people are still going to get their hands on bombs, so should we legalize that? (That line came from something I watched, don’t ask what because I forgot. Point is, that wasn’t an original idea.) Now, follow me for a minute. In the immigration bill coming out, they are asking for people to have background checks before entering into this country. Because people won’t just come here anyways without people knowing because that’s never happened before. Right? So… why background check immigrants and not people with guns? Are you trying to tell me that an immigrant needs a background check to come here, but can get a gun no problem?

Logically, it doesn’t make sense to me. To me, if you background check one maybe you should check the other. That makes sense to me. I don’t think you can take guns off the street, I also don’t think you can keep people from illegally coming here. People are going to get guns and murder other people. People are going to still do drugs, so shouldn’t we just legalize them too? Actually, if you tax them maybe that wouldn’t be a bad idea. The point is simple though, what makes background checks amazingly intelligent in one scenario, but an incredibly stupid one in another. Maybe registries aren’t a bad idea in both cases. Maybe you can think about this topic and let me know.

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Hate

Normally I try to come up with as witty of a title as possible, but there’s no place for wit today. When the marathon bombing happened, I saw the best of humanity. I saw people running to help others though they knew another bomb could explode and kill them. That didn’t matter; they wanted to save lives and help. We stuck together and caught the guilty parties. We saluted and applauded our men and women of the law for their hard work in keeping us safe as if they were celebrities. They were not celebrities, all these heroes for their courage in such a dark time in our state. Did I mention we caught the guilty parties? This distinction comes into play later on, I promise.

After all this, I realized that soon I’d see the end of this amazing humanity. I’d start to see the worst in it, and it made me lose all that faith in people that I had gained. I was naïve, I admit. I should have known better. I saw in the news about a Muslim woman getting harassed and smacked around and yelled at “You caused the bombings! Terrorist!”, all because she was Muslim. A friend, that though I haven’t spoken to in years but still have great respect for, had her work’s windows smashed in because her and her family are Muslim. All because humans are hateful creatures. This hate against them is no different than the hate radicals have against us. I’ll probably get hate mail for saying this, but really who has the right to make that distinction that one version of hate is any better than the other? Both “haters” cause violence on innocent people. It’s sickening.

The people who did this to our state were caught. They were radical terrorists that happened to be Muslim. All Muslims are not terrorists. Are all white people terrorists because we have a few bad seeds that bomb innocent people? Then why do we consider all Muslim people terrorists because they have bad seeds too? Muslims probably look at terrorists the same way Christians look at the Westboro Baptist Church, they acknowledge the evil they preach under the guise of religious purity but refuse to be associated with them.

Hate is a terrible thing. Hate is just a cycle, one bad deed followed by a dozen more. The way to prove you are truly better than those who cause harm is to get the bad guys and leave the innocent ones alone. We can’t keep generalizing everyone in one group of “bad guys”, because every group has bad guys in it and I refuse to believe everyone on this planet is a bad guy.

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Modern Technology and Other Friday Craziness

The blog is late, I know. A power outage and a late night last night are my reasons for tardiness. So like a responsibly bad parent, I’m making use of my husband’s netbook and his work’s “mifi”, and posting while attending my son’s baseball practice. Hopefully, the rain holds off until I’m done, I’m sure he’ll be pissed if I ruin his work netbook for the selfish purpose of sharing my thoughts with you.

That’s the benefit of modern technology. I was unable to post earlier as a result of having any internet to function my blogging needs, and my phone’s app for posting is currently non-functioning. But thanks to a mobile hotspot, I can compensate for that instead of suffering through 9 and 10-year-olds whining about “is it my turn to bat yet?”. Except for my son, he just loves to play. Bless that angel of a boy.

Technology is amazing. My husband came across a Boston police scanner last night on his phone. He was determined to be able to here them “catch that S.O.B”, and used his wireless headset his awesome wife bought him for our anniversary to listen to it from his phone while doing the dishes. I laughed at him, asking if anything interesting happened. “No, they were just making fun of a Spanish-speaking person.”, he said. I went into the bedroom, and soon he bursts in. “An officer at MIT was shot.” 20 minutes later it was all over the news. I decided to try and go back to sleep, this week was stressful on all Americans and I didn’t think this had anything to do with the bombings. I soon learned that I was wrong.

While my husband sat up listening to the scanner, he burst in the room again as I was about to fall asleep in my denial. “Poop just hit the fan. There are machine guns and grenades. Poop just got real!” (Obviously, poop isn’t the word he used, but I try and to keep it as clean as possible here.) I didn’t believe him, but sure enough the news was 20 minutes behind again. I couldn’t sleep, and my husband stayed up all night obsessively waiting to hear that the suspects were caught and this was over.

One suspect was shot and killed. One suspect is doing what terrorists do, causing terror while we wait to see if he can get caught. The whole city is in lockdown, and the area surrounding it. Our sports teams were shut down, and people are stuck in their homes hoping the guy gets caught before he bangs on their doors. I have every faith he will be caught, in some form or another and will end up suffering for what he did in the end.

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At A Loss

I’ve dedicated this post to current events, but I’m at a loss here. I have 2 different commentaries on this topic, but neither felt right to write about today. One is a topic about racial profiling, and I felt strongly about it but this isn’t the right platform or time to discuss that. Maybe Friday, maybe next week. Maybe a year from now. The other is just a blanketed commentary about terrorism on our home ground, which to me felt wrong because it is so soon and I never ever wanted to exploit a tragedy for my own purposes. Exploit might be a bad word, I have no ill will in posting about the tragedy but it feels wrong to write about something like this for your own personal profit. I struggled with this idea all day, but when it comes down to it I felt I needed to say something and will say it.

I remember watching 9/11, which obviously is no comparison to the true horror that event caused in our nation as nearly 3,000 people died. But I remember watching it, terrified about what happened. That was a war happening in our country, a place where we’ve always felt safe from outside horrors. It was a wake up call that the war can happen in our land, and that was unacceptable to us. We were shocked, our disbelief ruled us for several days even weeks after the event. I felt terror, I felt empathy for the victims, you’d be un-American if you didn’t. We were spectators to this.

Monday, we had news alerts on our phones telling us that there were bombs exploding in Boston after the marathon. My heart sank so low, I wondered where it went. I saw the hotel, a hotel I’ve stayed at and loved on the news. I remembered walking down that street to my first ever geek convention. I remember that Dunkin’ Donuts we got our morning breakfast at, and the chocolate store I drooled at as we passed by it. I remember hanging out in Copley Square. This was different from 9/11 to me, because I had an emotional connection and memory at the places I was watching on the television. This wasn’t just “our” backyard, this was “my” backyard.

Then my mind went to an even more horrifying place. My husband was working out East someplace, I couldn’t think of where. Was he in Boston? No, he said he wasn’t. I remembered a few weeks prior calling him, asking him if he wanted tickets to the Patriots Day game for the Red Sox, because we might have gotten our hands on them for him and our oldest son. No, he had to work and the people gave the tickets to someone else anyways. I sat biting my nails, my family on my father’s side lived there, my cousin on my mother’s side attends school there. I saw on Facebook that I knew people at the marathon there. A child died, a child not much younger than my own. It was horrific and disgusting and a dozen other words that I probably can’t write here.

We like to think of ourselves as safe; we’re really not. The catch is what we do with that knowledge: do we cower and hide or do we continue living our lives? The answer is we live. They say it all the time, and it’s true: the terrorists win if they cause us to fear every day. We learn from this, that we’re resilient and unafraid. We saw people more concerned about helping others than hiding in case something happened to them. We learned that American’s can’t be knocked down, and if we get knocked down, we stand right up and do what needs to be done. The terrorists won’t win because we’re not quitters, we’re not afraid, and we won’t let them control our lives.

Also related: My discussion about this topic and parenting. http://t.co/rSu4nUHYq4