AS IF I NEEDED MORE REASONS TO WANT TO CRY!!!!

So, Supernatural is definitely the most heartbreaking piece of crap show ever. (By this I mean that I love it and I hate its ability to break my heart and it's wonderfulness and goddamn attractive and endearing cast/character list.)

The most recent episode, "The Mentalist," literally made me curl around a pillow in a fetal position with every intent to cry epic tears of ugly crying.

Seriously. Two frickin' lines. That's all it took.

WHY DO THEY KEEP TEASING US ABOUT ELLEN?! HAVEN'T WE THE FANS, let alone Sam and Dean, SUFFERED HER LOSS ENOUGH?

How dare they have her mom-ing from the grave! It's painful to think that even in death she's watching out for the boys and trying to help Dean because she can tell he's in a butt-ton of pain.

**Side note: My roommates and I watched this episode in my parents' basement while my mom was home. I mentioned that my mom might watch with us if she was bored enough and my roommate was concerned considering how often we squeal and generally make grabby hands at the TV during these episodes.

I told my roommate not to worry about it- I think my mom will understand that if there's anything even hinting at gay or Cas or gay and Cas we're dead to the world.

End side note***

Anyway! So I love that they're bringing back that whole "let's all mistake Sam and Dean for a gay couple" thing. They even threw in some Campbells that were "brothers" as a cover up- LOL!

But, long story short, we're all missing Cas. A lot. Especially Dean.

GAH! MORE CAPSLOCK IS NECESSARY FOR THIS!

EVER SINCE CAS BETRAYED HIM, DEAN HAS HAD A HARD TIME TRUSTING PEOPLE.

(In the interest of full disclosure- this had me in a fetal position so fast it's almost embarrassing.) Dean misses his angel and felt so betrayed that he can't even really trust is own brother T_T

I WEEP!

I'm convinced that Cas is coming back as a human. Nothing short of it happening differently will convince me otherwise.

(Also- the horrible part of me is glad this Amy bullshit is done. Seriously. I was tired of it the second episode they mentioned it.)

NaNo!!!

For those of you who don't recognize this term outside of it meaning tiny, NaNoWriMo means National Novel Writing Month- which November is.

The purpose of this is to encourage writers to write 50,000 words in one month (about 1,666 words a day)- this is about the equivalent of a 200-page book. It's supposed to be a finished story- but I don't think anyone is too disappointed if they reach the goal but aren't finished.

Anyway, I've always been interested in doing this. But I have a terrible habit of not being able to write anything of decent length (to date, my longest story was a little over 6,000 words).

But now- novel idea in hand, a job I don't particularly care for, and epic amounts of computer time available, I will begin this challenge!!!

So sit back and enjoy the ride as I will undoubtedly be coming on here to whine about how I have writer's block or how my story sucks!

Hopefully you'll get daily updates on whether or not I'm succeeding!

I miss sunlight...

So, I still work a night job at a hotel. Let me tell you- living in the northern hemisphere and working at night really cuts down on the amount of sunlight I get to see every day.

I go to work after the sun sets, leave work before the sun has risen, and wake up when the sun is setting.

Do you have any idea how depressing a thought that is? I'm practically a vampire! Except minus the drinking blood thing because I personally find that really nasty and distasteful. (Probably because I'm a woman and thus am forced to deal with bleeding I would give almost anything, short of getting preggers, to end.)

Anyway...I really wish I had something exciting to tell the internet, but I really don't.

Still trying to write a book...I have an idea of a plot and some really epically awesome scenes- it's the filling the space in between that gets me.

Why can't I ever have a useful imagination? You know, one that will actually give me a complete story rather than "OH GOD THAT WOULD BE SO COOL!!! AND THIS CAN HAPPEN TOO! AND THIS!!!"

But no, I get stuck with the ADD crackfest that is my brain. I seriously can't do anything without it trying to make me go crazy via awkward observation or plotbunny.(For those of you who aren't down with "fan speak" plotbunny is when there's enough of a hole in a plot for you to run wild with the "what if" scenarios. Or it's just plain hinted at. Whichever.)

Umm....I have been a terrible person and avoided writing this fanfic for about two months now. I feel awful because it was for someone's birthday. But I wrote it three different ways and I wasn't happy with any of them so I figured I would just keep going until I was satisfied and just beg forgiveness when I finally get around to posting it.

I feel incredibly dumb without school. My job doesn't require much thought or education and I like to learn things and I feel like the universe is shrinking around me because I spend all my time working or sleeping. I hate it. No amount of feeling burnt out is worth this disgusting gnawing in my gut that basically tells me my life is over and I wasted four years on an education I'll be paying for for the next ten years and isn't good for anything except saying that I have a BA.

Also- I have no social life. I barely see my roommates for more than a couple hours at a time; and rarely together. Sundays we get together with a few friends and do some home cooking and generally enjoy life...but then I head off to work while they all hang out and watch The Walking Dead.

Okay. That's enough of me being all teenage-level angst and depression for you guys!

Supernatural: Season 7 Premier

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alright, now onto the good stuff.

I didn't know it was possible to both hide in absolute horror and to love an episode so fucking much!

There was so much love but so much not okay between me and the Supernatural premier. I ALMOST CAN'T STAND IT!

Aside from the heartbreak of Cas basically telling them that if he sees Sam, Dean, or Bobby again he will end them- HE DIDN'T KILL THEM RIGHT AWAY!

Also- Dean being called a pet. <3

And the terrible sick scene of dead angels in Castiel's personal favorite corner of Heaven? FUCK YOU PURGATORY SOULS! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!

Anyway, then there's Dean rebuilding the Impala- again. Following Castiel's movements because he wants to know what his poor little lost angel is up to. T_T

AND SAM!!!! AND BOBBY!!! FOREVER TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT TO DO TO SAVE/END CAS!!! (And, on a related note, Dean's utter heartbreak because he can't do anything so he's just gonna fix his damn car. Also, DEAN IN A JUMPSUIT!)

God!Cas is awesome for the following reasons:
1. He's sexy. It's canon and fanon and thus cannot be disputed.
2. He's pansexual, as I've always suspected. He doesn't care who or what it is.
3. He's a complete and utter badass.
4. He smites people- particularly Christians and Republicans which makes me lol greatly.
5. His demeanor makes for some great lines.

God!Cas is not awesome for the following reasons:
1. He allows het fans to interpret his actions as anti-Destiel. (THEY'RE JUST ON A BREAK OKAY?!)
2. He KILLS ANGELS IN AN AUTISTIC MAN'S TUESDAY AFTERNOON!
3. He allows Castiel's once pristine trench coat to fall into disrepair. IT WENT TO HELL AND BACK AND SURVIVED YOU SON OF A BITCH! You smite
4. He destroys Castiel's gorgeous face. (I admit- I was surprised. I didn't think they would pull a "your vessel is too weak!" thing. I figured that was too easy, but ooohhh welll.)


Now, some other amazing things about this episode:
1. BOBBY!!! Loving your boys and believing in Cas! <3
2. CROWLEY!!!! Facial hair and desperately hoping to conspire with the Winchesters! <3
3. SAM!!! I sad!face for you and your crazy! D:
4. IMPALA! YOU'RE BACK YOU BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF METAL! (Stop dying on Dean before he has to make a "don't make me lose you too" speech to you!)

OUR CAS WILL BE BACK! But fuck! Leviathan!Cas is obviously their way of allowing Misha to be himself again. I mean, seriously. What is this? It's like they filmed him pretending Cas went Dark Side and then put it in the episode.

And! Cas- your last word is Dean! How utterly heartbreaking and wonderful at the same time!

...Alright, I should stop. BUT NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!

A Day Well Spent

I got off my night shift at about seven this morning and drove to the nearest Walmart where I purchased season 6 of Supernatural.

The radio knew what I was doing, apparently, and immediately began talking about Jared Padalecki and "the guy who was in Days of Our Lives, whatever his name is." Clearly they're big fans who understand how ridiculed Jensen is by his cast mates.

So at that point I'm like:



Because I'm fairly certain the only reason they would say that is if they were paid to. ...Or else they're massive fans.

Anyway, I woke up around 3 and finished Percy Jackson: The Last Olympian. (WHICH I LOVED. Rick Riordan is one of my favorite people right now.)

Around this time, my roommates were both around and we spent about a half hour thoroughly amusing ourselves by piling onto one of our beds and mocking each other.

We then decided that, instead of making ourselves good, informed, people via a serious discussion about arts by Colum McCann, we would order pizza (which we neither need nor deserve) and watch Supernatural.

We ended up watching the more interesting episodes (read: the ones with enough hilarity and gay that made the other episodes worth it).

I love it. SO. MUCH. I watched like...four or five episodes before work. Which is where I'm at now. Working. :(

Porn on the Internet (Or,This is when my mother weeps)

I have a bone to pick with some of the statistics floating around in the news. Okay...it's actually just one statistic and my mother will be horrified to read this but I need to get this out!

A recent statistic claims that social networking sites are not the number one use of internet.

I DO NOT AND WILL NOT BELIEVE THIS! EVER!

I'm sorry, but there's just no way that porn- the thing that has dominated the internet since it was born- would be taken over by Facebook.

Seriously- I refuse to believe it.

Now, I can understand the concept of social networking sites getting more traffic- Facebook alone probably has more unique users per day than all the porn combined. This makes sense, as it's accessible to people of all ages and generally won't offend the crazy old hairy bald guy walking behind you while you enjoy some internet.

But, the majority of the time it's a brief check to respond to an invite, look at a picture or post one was tagged in, or to upload pictures or whatnot.

The other 97% of the time you're on a porn website with Facebook open just for funsies.

I mean...come on. We're actually just a generation of creepers. We sometimes spend hours creeping around on profiles or through pictures, but I would say that's a small portion of Facebook users.

And they're just too embarrassed to watch porn...or they have no friends and have already watched all the porn.

But porn requires attention. You're certainly not going to spend an hour downloading a video- risking the health of your computer- just to have it on in the background.

Not to mention that there's so much more than just videos! There's all kinds of written smut on the internet, all kinds of comics and images in general that I would bet my nonexistent love life get more, uh, quality time than any social networking site.

But yeah, I guess my overall point is that while social networking sites may get a gazillion hits per day, they will never uproot porn from its place at the top.

COMIC-CON!!!!!!!!!

So I went to Comic-Con International out in San Diego last week. This had been a life goal of mine for about ten years- TOTALLY DESERVED IT!

It was so wonderful! I got to walk around with roughly 30,000 people who mostly understood every reference I could imagine making.

Seriously, I don't know if I could have had a better time (aside from the fact that we missed our plane connections both ways because Delta kinda sucks apparently).

My friends and I were out there for a week and it was amazing! The weather was perfect (though we all got sunburned), the con was great, SeaWorld is FANTASTIC, and all around we had a great time as a group.

Also, I GOT TO HUG VIC MIGNOGNA!!!! And got his autograph! And he liked my shirt!!!!

AND I GOT TO SEE MISHA COLLINS IN PERSON! (Though I didn't get to give him the shirt I bought for him back in February >_> probably a good thing.) I also got to see JENSEN ACKLES and JARED PADALECKI!!! (But I haven't posted about how they should take over the world so they're a little less relevant to this post BUT NOT BY MUCH!!!)

Every Supernatural person that I love was there! Including Jim Beaver and Mark Sheppard (since the jerk couldn't come to ValleyCon where I could actually speak to him). The only ones missing were Richard Speight Jr. and Sebastian Roche (again, probably a good thing because I have loved Sebastian Roche for about fourteen years and probably would have told him that I miss his long curly hair even though I don't!!).

I also purchased a pre-signed Misha Collins autograph card just because I could. He came with a side helping of Rob Benedict and Julie McNiven! Yay!

Let's see...I MET SHERRILYN KENYON!!! The woman who practically destroyed any hope I have of being a normal person with her delicious smutty romance novels!! I told her to just write the next book in this one series and she told me she had rewritten it twice! I can't even bring myself to write enough for one book!!!

Um...I saw the Being Human cast and loved loved loved Sam Huntington telling us that he, Meaghan, and Sam Witwer had all had sex together, even if it wasn't true.

Dear God! I SAW JASON ISAACS!!! He stopped by the Harry Potter fandom panel and we were all like "OMG WE LOVE YOU EVEN THOUGH YOU PLAY A BAD GUY!!!"

Lastly- THEY GIVE AWAY SO MUCH SWAG THEY ALSO GIVE OUT BAGS TO HOLD IT ALL! I got like...four free shirts, three free books, seven different magazines and comics, a couple free bags if you include this lovely bag. Isn't it beautiful? I had to steal mine from some woman because I got frickin' Vampire Diaries which meant I was never getting anything for that crap.

Onto more serious things (not really), I kept a terrific video journal of what all we were doing and on which days. As soon as I get my computer to properly function, I will try uploading video to this bad boy! My brother got a good laugh out of them when I screened them...they're really bad and have swearing in them but I enjoyed doing it for all of 10 minutes on the trip!

Finally, as I mentioned SeaWorld before I want to say it again- it is FANTASTIC! If you ever have the chance to go, DO IT! (Bring lots and lots of sunscreen and water bottles!)

LOL at Facebook

So, I recently determined that being allowed on Facebook at around 3 am is just about the worst possible thing for me to do.

I'm a night auditor, so it's not like any of my friends are on, but I will always be on. Because the actual amount of work we have to do ends at about 2 most nights (there are exceptions where we don't finish until like...5, but those are definitely the exceptions).

So I end up essentially spamming on peoples' walls and news in general.

This led me to believe that I should probably not be allowed on. Which led me to my settings page, hoping there was some kind of "lock-out" option for certain time gaps. (This should exist, BTW. People wouldn't be able to change it and might actually get their homework and other shit done.)

But I found no such thing.

Instead, I found "Account Security." Within "Account Security" is a list of places Facebook believes that I've been logging in from- based on my internet service provider and wireless carrier.

Here's the list of places it thinks that I've been:
May 26- Memphis, TN
May 27-28- Kansas City, MO
June 7-8- Back in Memphis
June 10- Sioux Falls, SD
June 11- Livingston, NJ
June 13-14- finally got it right with Fargo, ND.

I mean...seriously? I wish I traveled that much. But come on Facebook!

So I had a good laugh about their inability to actually locate me. If anyone is on the run from the FBI or IRS or something, don't worry, Facebook won't get you caught unless you stay in the same place for over a month.

In other news, still not king yet. Though I'm thrilled to be celebrating the 10-year Anniversary of the release of The Fellowship of the Ring movie this December! My life has never been the same since I learned what true obsession was from this glorious trilogy. *sigh*

(Anyone who didn't understand that, click here.)

In other, other news, I'm going to be a proper writer tomorrow and go buy a sad coffee at a Starbucks and spend my whole day writing. It's going to be wonderful. Because I'm too lazy to spend a half hour driving home and then back to work after only eight hours. (Somehow it doesn't seem worth it. So I guess I'm going to be trying gym showers after I exercise in the morning =/ )

Lastly, I'm torn between growing out my hair or cutting it again. Decisions, decisions. On the one hand, I prefer short hair because it's cheaper and I don't have to do anything to it. On the other hand, sometimes I want long hair.

It's currently at this awkward length where it's kind of uncomfortable- you know where it's too short to tie back but too long to ignore? It's also shorter than my brother's hair, which is sort of giving me a complex.

Inconsistent Blog is Inconsistent

It's so sad that this was so so very consistent at the beginning but now I'm kind of like "pffff whatevs."

It makes me sad for my future. Oh well- I'll manage somehow.

I decided at work tonight that I'm going to write a book at work. For real this time, not like the last time I said it where I had the idea and then decided no one would read it.

I'm gonna do it!

And, if I'm lucky, maybe I'll finish it by Christmas so I can get it published and then be like "that's right, Oprah's Book Club author!"

...yeah, my life is really this sad that these are the things I contemplate at work.

So yes, other than that I really want to give you all this:



You need to understand. Everyone knows, and we are proud of it! It makes me laugh every. single. time.

In other news, still working on that Darwinism thing. And my room is still...roomish. I kind of like my mattress being on the floor- I've wanted to do it since I was in junior high but my rooms have always been too small. I may continue in this fashion.

Also, I bought a camcorder!!! So I may end up randomly posting silly videos here. Yay!

The World Through the Eyes of Slash Fan (Part III): A Blessing and a Curse

Based on recent events (for those of you who don't want to go look at the pretty picture/ can't tell who they are anyway- it's Robert Pattinson KISSING Taylor Lautner at the MTV movie awards), my roommates and I have concluded that slash fans (otherwise known as "girls who like boys who like boys") are no longer a subculture.

We have moved into the great big world of...culture. WE ARE VICTORIOUS! Seriously though, it's kind of exciting to see that we don't necessarily have to hide anymore.

So yay! We're not exactly freaks who hide in basements and have credos like "the first rule of slashing is that you don't talk about slashing"- because, really, what's the point of slashing if you can't talk and squeal about it with other people who are slashing?

It's fantastic and fun and I love it. We have loads of fun and are some of the most enthusiastic fans you will find.

Unfortunately, I realize that there are some...counterproductive facets to my beloved culture.

Primarily- everything, EVERYTHING, is seen through hot-pink-hued "gay goggles." We can find something to slash in pretty much anything, and we will- rational or not- we will slash it.

This means irritating people around us who are less inclined toward slash. And possibly being banned from speaking during certain things...like Supernatural or X-Men First Class

Now, were I not a 20-something female and was already on in my years and wasn't failing Darwinism 101 and had managed to snag a guy and produce grandchildren for my parents to spoil, being a not-so-closet slash fan probably wouldn't be a problem. Probably. (I know of several really good slashfic authors who fall into the category I just mentioned.)

The sad thing, though, is that I am a 20-something female and I haven't yet passed Darwinism 101 and done above mentioned things.

And I am a not-so-closet slash fan.

What this means, is that on top of trying to convince some unfortunate guy that I'm not a waste of space, said unfortunate guy also has to contend with my gay goggles.

In other words, he would have to put up with me sometimes imagining him with other dudes. If I'm extremely lucky, he'll subscribe to Kinsey and call himself a 90-10 or an 80-20 (or even 50-50!) and it won't really bother him.

If I'm extremely unlucky, he would find out, be completely weirded out, and probably give me the "okay we need to talk" look (the breakup one, not just a "this concerns me and we should discuss it" one...because I would probably end up slashing him for it >_> ).

So, sorry Mom, I think you might have to wait on the grandkids another...couple decades. (At least from me! There's still hope on the younger sibling front!) :D

But, at least I'm in a better situation than one of my friends, who is basically only attracted to gay men. She has better gaydar than you could ever hope to buy from Radio Shack!

Canada...

I was struck by a realization while driving to work and a Nickelback song came on- Canada might just be the most unfortunate country ever.

There are a lot of pros to Canada:

* Universal health care
* Same-sex Marriage is legal
* Fantastic education system at all levels
* Neil Young
* Supernatural and a bunch of other shows are filmed there
* Female leaders
* A terrific list of actors who are from there
* Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe
* CHRIS JERICHO for you girls and PAM ANDERSON for you guys (anyone ever see Striperella?)
* Marconi invented AM radio up there, and other people developed things like phones...and TV...and apparently basketball (this belongs below, IMO so it's going there too)

The list could probably go on for quite a while, actually. And it would sound awesome! ...until I get to the cons.

Cons:

* Basketball
* No guns
* French
* "Eh?"
* Nickelback
* Celine Dion
* Justin Bieber

...and that's a 'nuff said for most people to point and laugh and never, ever consider going there for more than a week (two if the Olympics are there).

What I Learned in Nerd 101

Nerd 101, otherwise known as growing up with my father, taught me a few things that I carry with me still today.

1. Kirk and Spock are nothing without each other.
This is why they are the pairing that spawned "slash" and funny name-smashes for couples (Kock and Spork!!!). Okay...so that explanation has nothing to do with my dad's feelings on the matter...that doesn't make it any less true.

2. Don't sit with your back to a door, as portrayed in Dune.
It's a bad idea- especially if it's open!!! This is why I keep my door closed and I sit facing it. If I didn't an assassin would probably come try to literally stab me in the back.

3. Astronomy is one of the best home schooling classes ever!
Okay, so I wasn't actually home schooled. But one of my favorite memories is learning the names of constellations from my dad.

4. It's completely okay to make your child read a sci-fi or fantasy novel even though they don't want to- even if you've never read it!
So, when I was in junior high my parents gave me The Hobbit and Dune for Christmas. I was thrilled to get books- it meant my parents were accepting and encouraging my nerd side! I had never heard of Dune, and was reluctant to read it because it was 500-some pages. But my dad said it was a must-read, so I read it. I sort of enjoyed it...some of the ideas and points of it are okay (see above where one of my greatest life lessons comes from it), but mostly I was bored and just wanted it to be over.
I later found out that my dad had never read the book, and simply said he'd read it so I would finish it. Thanks Dad...really.

5. It is perfectly acceptable to quote nerdy things even though the people around you have no idea what you're talking about.
Actually, this is encouraged. This way you get to feel really smart and call other people losers for not knowing something.

...I'm done now.

Hotels and Horror Films: Part Deux

Alright, so I realized another reason or two why working in a hotel kind of reminds me of a horror film.

ELEVATORS AND CAMERAS!!! D:

They're terrifying! I was in the elevator (which is one of those stupid ones with mirrored walls so you're forced to look at yourself) and there was this thunk noise.

Um...Hannibal Lector possibly? All I know is that I grabbed the luggage cart and was prepared to ram it into someone's face.

And cameras. Some of them are a little glitchy...so there's random fuzz or dark spots. It's slightly horrifying.

Basically, I try not to go on the elevator or watch the cameras too often.

Yet Another Reason to Live in a Basement

So, I work from 11 pm to 7 am...I'm nearly completely nocturnal.

What this means, is that I sleep through the day...until about 2:30 or 3 in the afternoon unless I convince myself to get off my lazy butt and go exercise- in which case I sleep until about 4 or 4:30.

I recall saying that almost no light gets into the basement of my parents' house in a previous post...this is actually a wonderful thing.

I crawl into my sad little storage room bed chamber, collapse onto my mattress, and it's completely dark. I can barely tell the difference between noon and midnight.

THIS IS GLORIOUS FOR SOMEONE WHO HAS TO SLEEP DURING THE DAY.

Generally speaking, I don't really have a problem sleeping during the day. Light doesn't phase me because it makes me feel like I'm safe from monsters. But I enjoy the fact that I can just claim ignorance to whatever time it happens to be.

Typing the fact that I'm still scared of the monsters under my bed just made me realize something horrible: I LIVE UNDER MY BED!!!!

Okay, so technically my bed is a mattress on the floor because I have decided against using my loft...the loft is now the storage unit.

What this means, is that the monster that lives under my loft frame is probably like...sharing my pillows and creeping on my DVDs (reordering them no doubt, bastard).

Great, now I actually need to bring my dagger closer to me rather than leaving it on my bookshelf. *weeps*

Note: A friend of mine just mentioned that it could be Slender Man living under my bed. I'd prefer a monster.

How to Feel Like You're in a Horror Film

There are a lot of things about working in a hotel that is oddly reminiscent of horror films. I'm guessing this is why The Shining scares the living hell out of anyone that dares watch it.

#1: Things that go "bump" in the night
It's easy enough to ignore strange sounds when you're at home and there's light or other people to protect you from zombies or rabid mice-people or bats or whatever. But, when alone at home, even the smallest of noises can set you to curling under your comforter and closing your eyes tight enough to make you pass out.

Try hearing those sounds in a hotel. The sounds echo and reverberate to the point that you can't tell where they're coming from, or even how loud it should actually sound! It's mostly horrifying when you're standing at the front desk by

#2: Lights flickering
Sorry, can we get an electrician in here? Flickering lights are probably the most horrible things EVER! They can mean the power is being tampered with, they can mean that there's some crazy electrical interference, hell it can even mean that there's a demon or ghost standing behind you waiting for you to slip up enough for them to possess you!!! Blech, no thanks.

#3: Creepy guests
Okay, this isn't so much of a problem here. Most of the guests I've seen have been relatively friendly or at least not walking corpses. But, should there ever be a creeper, I will use my stapler as a gun!!! ...or I'll just quietly weep as they destroy me.

So...those are the three reasons I have for hotels being a terrible place to work...because they're like horror movies.

Et tu, MN?

I have lived in Minnesota my entire life. I have driven around to probably 90% of it. And I love it, dearly. In fact, convincing people that Minnesota is a great place to live despite its cold winters is one of the thing I consider myself best at.

But right now, I'm deeply shamed by my association with my beloved home.

For those of you who don't know, the Minnesota legislature just approved a vote on an amendment to the Constitution of the State. This amendment would destroy any hope of gay marriage becoming legal for Minnesota.

Okay, so it wouldn't destroy it, but the logistics of amending a Constitution to repeal this amendment are extremely costly both in time and money.

So here's me getting on my soapbox, once again, to try and convince my loyal readers that this amendment is bullshit.

There are some main arguments against gay marriage that I hope I will be able to counter well enough in this:
That gay marriage will destroy the institution of the family.
That gay marriage will destroy the institution of marriage.
That being gay is wrong.
That being gay is a choice.

So, on the issue of number one- the family. I understand family. No, really, I do. I come from a completely nuclear little family with a mom, dad, myself and my brother and our dog; I have 16 cousins between the two sides and I know their names and the names of all of my aunts and uncles; and there is virtually nothing that we won't all do for each other.

I get it.

What I also get is that most of my friends have parents who have been divorced and remarried, they have half-siblings and sometimes more step-siblings than they can bother to remember. And I'm fairly certain that some of them consider me and my family to be more like family to them than those elusive cousins and extended family.

That whole "you can't choose your family" idea? Strictly genetically, it's true. But genetics does not a family make. Yeah, in my little privileged world it works out that we all happen to share DNA and like each other; but that world is mostly a fantasy nowadays.

The only real argument that comes from this "destroying the family" thing is the fact that homosexuals, until now, have been forced to repress who and what they truly are. And now that they're finding the courage to come out, oftentimes they are separated from their family.

I'm sure it's awkward, I honestly can't even imagine what it must be like to one day have your father tell you that he was never attracted to your mother and had you and your siblings just because "that's what he was supposed to do." It's not that they don't still love their children, hell it's not even that they don't love their wife...it's just not what they were meant to have.

Which leads me into argument number two- that homosexuals destroy the institution of marriage.

Uhm...WHAT? Have you looked at the divorce rates these days? Over half of first marriages end in divorce.

You want marriage to be more sacred and lasting? LET MORE PEOPLE GET MARRIED! The sheer numbers will get that percentage down.

Do you even remember why divorce was originally allowed? To stop men from killing their wives when they got bored of them?

Marriage never has been, nor will it ever be, something truly special in a legal sense.

Marriage as a sacred rite, on the other hand?

Okay, as I said, my parents are still married. Lovely year number 27 this year. I'm also Catholic, which means that I get that marriage is forever unless annulled by the Church.

But really? Let's just focus on this one little fact: NOT EVERYONE IS OF THE SAME BELIEFS AS ME!

(Granted, this kind of goes against my whole argument that everyone should agree with me- but I'm right and they're wrong so I choose to ignore this.)

To impose your religious beliefs on someone is to take away their rights to freedom of thought and religion. (Please see the Constitution of the United States of America.)

To impose your religious beliefs on someone is to take away their right to equality of freedom and dignity. (This is where I happily give you all some info from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights...yet again.)

Article 16.
* (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
* (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
* (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

Regardless of that happy little note about the family being under protection by society and the State, let's look at that last little italicized bit. To "protect" the idea of family under this is a direct violation of their dignity, of their freedom to have a different system of beliefs and opinions. Above all, it takes away their rights to form a legally recognized family.

Lastly, I'm going to address the final two notes together: being gay is not wrong, and it is not a choice.

And even if it was a choice- they have protected rights to make said choice.

So, for all those hyper-religious people who believe that being gay is sinful or whatever, let me pose this question: Why would homosexuality exist if God didn't want it to be so?

The Bible says we are created in His image. It also tells countless stories of God destroying those things He deemed unworthy. Why, then, would homosexuality be allowed to exist?

Unless, of course, you want to accept that God's hand is no longer present in the world. In which case- why are you fighting so hard for bigoted beliefs?

Why fight for something that seems so wrong when Jesus asked us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves? When Christianity itself is based solely on the ideas of love and good will and choice?

And again, I should emphasize that it is not a choice. There is a legitimate difference between homosexuals and their heterosexual counterparts. But really? Who the hell really cares?

Unless you really want to discriminate based on their genes...in which case I will follow Godwin's Law and call you a Nazi sympathizer which is totally inappropriate and yet I think it effectively gets the point across.

From a biological standpoint, yeah, homosexuality doesn't make a lot of sense. It doesn't allow for procreation- which ultimately makes them evolutionary failures. And yet...they persist!

In fact, this is awesome because it works so well with the family argument. Sure, it's not what was once described as the ideal, but how can it be bad that two people who love each other will go to great lengths to adopt children who sorely need loving families?

Inappropriate jokes about population control aside- I think it's awesome.

Now is the part where I get emotional. This is the part where I say that I am tired of people insulting and demoralizing people I care about.

Because despite the beliefs of my Church and despite my completely heteronormative upbringing and lifestyle, most of my friends are affected by this war. (And yes, war is the word I want to use there despite the fact that many people will find it offensive given that we are still at armed war and people are dying for those causes.)

I don't like that my friends- who are like family to me- are being discriminated against because they happen to be different.

I don't like that my friends have had society tell them that it's wrong to be who they are.

I don't like that my friends, at one point, had to struggle with their sexual identity because that came with the realization that they were going to be hated by people who didn't even know them... simply because they're attracted to their own sex.

I don't like that my friends have to plan weddings or ceremonies around these stupid, fucked up laws that will stop it from legally meaning anything anyway.

I love that my friends are all strong enough to deal with this crap and take it, hoping that one day it will all be better.

But there are so many who aren't strong enough. There are so many who give up and go against what they want so they don't have to feel like a social pariah.

So, this is for my friends, certainly. But it's also for all those people who have lived lies to avoid hatred, for those people that will continue to live lies to avoid being "caught."

But honestly, my hope is that this is actually for the future. That kids growing up don't have to be afraid when some discover that they are homosexual. That kids growing up don't have to feel strange when they have two moms or dads.

This is for every look of hatred that I hope will never be seen by those kids.

This is for my hope that the next generation doesn't have to grow up bigoted, scared, and repressed.

This is for my hope that people will prove me wrong and not be colossal jackasses and just accept the differences between each of us.

This is for my belief that the only argument that should ever need to be made is this:

Love is love.

*Insert Clever Title Here*

Is it awful that I will never be able to write anything real because I can't do anything relating to character development. I can't even come up with good names!!!

I think that's why I enjoy writing fanfiction so much- I don't have to do anything except analyze the characters and put that analysis into words! I don't have to spend time describing the characters or outlining their past. I don't even have to name them.

All I have to do is go "Haaa, Balthazar said Cas' trench coat is dirty and that he loves Dean" and away my thoughts can go!

See, this is a problem, because in order to make myself feel like I'm accomplishing something by being a night auditor for a hotel, I've decided to try and write a book when we have free time. (This is the alternative to spending hours on Facebook each night.)

So, aside from character development fail, my other problem is coming up with a plot.

Most of my book ideas come from when I have cracked out dreams that don't relate to fandom. I dunno...they often intrigue me but then my description makes my friends go "...wha?" Leading me to believe that my ideas are probably not going to amuse anyone if I can't even get my friends to back the ideas.

In the meantime, I'm just going to keep blogging away about stuff I think about. Probably when I should be doing math or something...

Had to listen to myself on tape...

It wasn't pleasant.

You know how everyone has a mental image of themselves and to tell them anything that contradicts it is essentially asking to be bitched at by them? I have to imagine that everyone is the same way about the sound of their voice.

Obviously everyone has different hearing, just like they have different finger prints and taste buds. But I find it hard to believe that hearing could be so skewed so that I sound completely different to myself than on tape.

Though, as I understand it, hearing my voice via phones or other electronic devices is often shocking to people. I sound very...female on the phone whereas in person, while you can tell that I'm female when I speak, my voice is relatively low.

Anyway, long story short: I had to record a message for my new job(yay wake-up calls! It's the only consolation in all of this- no one will hear it until tonight when we record over it). I listened to it play back because I was morbidly curious- it's not like I often hear myself speaking via telephone.

Man was I surprised!

So yeah, job is going well. Diet...not so much. Though only having access to food for about six hours a day and then standing all night is bound to help...right? Gonna try exercising when my shift ends tomorrow.

...but if my feet hurt then I will be saying "screw you!" to Anytime Fitness for a few more days and just using my bike in the afternoon. It's a lovely bike and deserves proper attention.

30 more minutes!!! Whoever invented the 8-hour workday kind of sucks. Except I suppose a 40-hour workweek is better than what it used to be...twelve hour days six days a week. *Shudder* No thanks.

In other news, still not world dictator yet. Though I am making progress.

Look who fails again!

Hola loyal readers who still check this every day. I apologize for my epic failure in updating!

I started a new job this last week and have been working between 6pm and 2am for most of it. (It's night shift- four years of terrific college education and all I can get is a full-time 11pm-7am job! But I like the people I work with and the work isn't that bad and it pays enough to get me out of my parents' basement...so I'm okay! :D )

Thus far, I have learned that people who stay at hotels think that they're particularly cool. Unfortunately, I can't do my sarcastic bit and tell them that the fact that they've stayed at this hotel 45 times doesn't really mean a whole lot to me so no, I'm not going to switch your room.

Oh well, c'est la vie.

Guess that's all for tonight!

Thunderbolts and Lightning

Very, very frightening. Unless you're living in a basement. Then it just sounds like your dog is running around all night.

So, today's good reason to live in a basement- SOUND PROOFING!

Oh hey- thunder.

But yeah, mostly you can't hear anything outside so you're bound to get a great night's sleep. (Though the lack of windows really helps with that too.)

But seriously, I can't hear my parents yelling down for me...which is probably why we all text each other from the opposite floors.

I don't have to hear the televisions upstairs...unfortunately I can hear the Superbowl when it's on down here. Oh well, details.

So many blankets!

As promised, here's a little about why living in a storage room is an okay thing...except it might sound like a complaint. But only at first!

Our basement is really cold because it's mostly underground. There are only four windows and one of them is like...the size of my face.

What this means is that there are about four blankets on my bed. Usually, I just sleep with a fleece blanket (and a comforter if I'm afraid something will be grabbing my feet and trying to pull me from my bed). But here, there are two fleece blankets and a comforter.

This is awesome in the summer- none of this 90 degrees in my room bullshit.

However, in the winter or any time it's below 50 outside, it makes me relatively unhappy.

Anyway, my room is cold. It's both wonderful and terrible.

Back from Hiatus (Or, Is That a Theme I Smell?)

My God I am terrible at this whole daily blogging thing! I get the slightest bit busy and this is the last thing on the list of "To Dos."

So yes, I apologize to anyone who actually enjoys this! I've been desperately trying to finish up college (and succeeded- woo!) and find a job (which I also succeeded at).

Anyway, now that I've managed to graduate and find a job that will allow me to pay off the epic amounts of debt I've somehow managed to find myself in, I can once again attempt to blog daily.

I decided that this summer there will probably be a theme for the next few months. I've moved back into my parents' house for the summer because I wasn't entirely sure I would find a full-time job and a roommate who is willing to put up with me for another year. But I did, so I only have to spend a summer with the rents =P

(Love you, Mom. Really.)

Unfortunately, my parents got a little enthusiastic when I left for college. Meaning they turned my room into a home office and moved my bed into the storage room in our creepy-ass basement.

This was fine before, basically I was only here for a week at a time tops so it wasn't an issue. But now, with four months of dwelling taking place, I need some space that actually feels like a room.

This last week has been me reorganizing everything so storage is on my loft frame and my mattress/room is on the floor.

The bed hasn't fallen on me in the middle of the night yet, so I'm counting it a success. For now, at least.

So for now, an introduction to my room!

Basically, my room consisted of a loft bed and a dresser. The rest of the room was filled with stuff that had been saved over the years or seasonal clothing or Beanie Babies...and other junk that no sane people would probably keep.

When I moved my stuff back? There was no room. I put all my things on top of the bed just to get them out of the way.

It wasn't so bad moving everything out. But the living room looked like a Good Will store had vomited all over everything. (It's better now. Everything is back in its place...just where I should be sleeping rather than the floor where I am sleeping.)

Happily, my "room" is now a mattress, a shoe rack, a dresser, a bookshelf, and a DVD shelf (or two). And it feels like a room. (Mostly because I have a TV and N64 at the foot of my bed...no sleep ever!!! :D)

Anyway, be on the lookout for some pretty epic stories about the ghost I'm pretty sure is my roommate and other reasons why living in a storage room is probably one of the more interesting experiences one can have.

AHHHHHHHHH

SPN SPOILERS BELOW!

AHHHHHHHHHH SO MUCH CAPSLOCKING IS NECESSARY!!!!

I cannot believe this episode just happened. I don't even care about events so much as I care about characters...so that's how I'm sectioning this!

DEAN! WHY ARE YOU THE NERDIEST AND YET MOST ADORABLE FANBOY EVER????!!!!! Seriously, you are wonderful with your Western fetish and your Star Trek fanning (The Original Series I might add- suck it TNG bitches!)!!!!! And being Sheriff < 3

SAM!!! You and your acceptance of hunting as an entire life makes me both :D and D: I don't want you to be all "I'm trapped!!!!" But I like you hunting!!! GAH! SO TORN!

CAS!!!!!!!! WHAT THE FUCK ARE THE WRITERS DOING TO YOU?!?!?!???!!! AND WHY IS RACHEL SUCH A BITCH?! Okay, that you showed up is like...my favorite. That you asked about Dean's blanket is also my favorite. THAT YOU ARE BUILDING A GIANT WAR MACHINE MADE OF SOULS IS MY LEAST FAVORITE! CLEARLY MAKING OUT WITH MEG HAS HAD REPERCUSSIONS AND YOU MUST IMMEDIATELY MAKE OUT WITH DEAN TO MAKE IT BETTER! And they stabbed you and I didn't know if you were going to be a human! D: That needs to happen after all the big shit is through!

BOBBY!!!! I love that you love the boys and are willing to risk yourself for them. I LOVE THAT YOU ESSENTIALLY HUGGED CAS! (Even though it was sad and he was unconscious.) Thank you for recognizing that Cas is your ally and Dean's BF. That is all!

EVERYONE IN THE PAST!! THANK YOU FOR THINKING DEAN IS GAY. Because, clearly, he's too pretty and clean to be anything but "looking for a man."

Episode, never have I wanted to cry and laugh and bounce and squeal and hyperventilate so much in one episode. I both hate and love you.

And just to reiterate- DEAN IS THE BIGGEST NERD EVER!

The Scariest Horror Film

Okay, I've admitted before that I'm a little more paranoid than is probably healthy. I still maintain that this is what will ensure my survival of the zombie apocalypse, but that doesn't help anything leading up to said event.

Wednesday night my brother and I were asked to go get gas and a car wash for our mother's car. We griped a bit, but of course we were going to go do it.

Oh how I would have wished that I hadn't!

Getting gas was fine- we listened to some cheesy-ass love songs and made fun of each other. Good sibling bonding time.

But the second we got in the car wash...it got scary.

We drove in until it hit stop and the door behind us closed.

And we just sat there for one quick cycle of soap.

Then the door in front of us opened.

And we sat there.

For about two minutes.

That's when my brother decided it was about time to go talk to someone. So he got out of the car and went to the building...leaving me alone in the car.

Then this creepy guy came out and started fixing it. I thought I was going to be alone. Fortunately, my brother came back before it started up again.

But the guy just stood there watching our car!!!

We kept an eye on him as much as possible. But I couldn't shake this feeling that when the soap completely blocked our vision it would be cleared away and the guy would be standing outside my window.

I nearly cried at the thought. It was like my life had suddenly become a terrible horror film!

But he didn't. He just awkwardly watched our entire car wash until we left.

...I probably won't be going through car washes alone again. Ever.

Perfection

Last night, my roommate and I decided to watch some Disney movies. Specifically, we watched Beauty and the Beast.

Now, I vaguely remember seeing this movie in theaters. Seriously, the opening is breathtaking.

I don't know if anything will ever actually come close to matching the perfection of this movie. There's just so much to it that's glorious.

The animation is perfect, the music is perfect, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS MOVIE!!!

I love the subtle foreshadowing and symbolism.

For instance, the Beast and Gaston have the same eye color and at the beginning they're both all flat and dark and by the end the Beast's are all shiny and pretty. *Melt*

I mean...it got the Academy to add a frickin' category for it! Because they recognized that it was like...the most amazing thing ever, but since it utilized so many different techniques they added the animated film category.

AND THE BALLROOM SCENE!!! Not only does it have the fantastic song "Tale as Old as Time," it's got adorableness and a CG set.

There's just so much wonderful about this movie.

All in all. I love this movie and I will forever love this movie. I will buy it in any technology format I have to.

On the passage of time

Tomorrow never really comes. But I'm kind of dreading Wednesday. Seriously, I have three days of actual college left, then finals.

I feel so sad. Even though I've been wanting to get the hell out of here since last semester, I'm having this horrible nostalgia that is making me know that I'm going to cry when I graduate.

I just don't know what I'm gonna do.

How Celine Dion Made My Dreams Come True

Okay, not really. It's more like Celine Dion was a scapegoat for the Supernatural writers to admit how much fanfiction they've been reading.

So yeah, standard spoilers warning applies beyond this line.

How much fanfiction can one person read? Definitely enough to know that the writers have decided to go through pretty much every cliche that's been born within the fandom.

First- Bobby and Ellen. I've never quite understood it, still don't really, but I'm amused to say the least. I like Ellen, and I wish she was back for good- pain and suffering shall ensue if they toy with my emotions like this again.

Second- Holy Final Destination Batman! As predictable as it was, it was gory and delicious and I WANT MORE OF IT! Seriously. I want more.

Third- Balthazar. I love you. SO FREAKING MUCH. Why are you one of the most amusing characters ever? Seriously- your hatred of Titanic and Celine Dion pretty much made my evening. But not as much as when you said "You've got me confused with the other angel. You know, the one in the dirty trench coat who's in love with you."

I feel like a piece of my life has officially become complete. Oh if only.

Balthazar definitely made this episode glorious. And he should continue to do so. DO NOT KILL HIM!!!!

Now, I love the song "My Heart Will Go On," as I've mentioned before it's the best thing ever at breaking the karaoke ice. But, because hatred of it brought me this episode- hate away!!!

There was this glorious moment I wish I had the ambition to screencap where it just looked like Dean got it.

Finally, impossibly, got the fact that Cas would do just about anything to keep him and Sam safe from anything he possibly could- Fate included.

Now, Fate's a scary bitch. I almost want more of her, but then I mostly just want her to go away. So unless she intends to end Lisa, she should probably not exist for more than a little while.

(That may seem random, but we were discussing Lisa at dinner and the silent "what the fuckery" is still brewing under the surface.)

And lastly, Cas. We need to chat, hon. I wish you didn't have to do this war. I wish you could just end it and become human and stay with the boys FOREVER. But we need Gabriel to come back first, and that's not gonna just happen overnight. (I mean, seriously, if it took four months to find and rebuild Dean imagine how long it will take to find and rebuild a millenniums old Archangel.)

So you're gonna have to tough it out. But don't feel like you have to do everything! I love that you're protecting the boys because I know how important they are to you and I'm really thinking that they do get it now. (They better, bastards.) Even if I disagree with your decision to not tell them that you fucked your battle strategy for them...I know you did it so they wouldn't think less of you.

Um...I don't think I should write anymore. I'm starting to concern myself with the way I'm speaking to the characters.

Overall though- yay for hiatus being over. This was a win! :D

Shit just got real!

Okay, the revelation that I'm almost done with college has been slowly building over the last few months. The laziness and procrastination and stress has all been weighing me down and making it impossible to actually believe that I'm going to receive the grades I would like.

It's not that I don't know what I'm talking about, it's the fact that I know I"m going to pass my classes and thus I will graduate and thus I don't need to do anything because even zeros on the rest of my assignments will still get me the hell out of here.

Looking back, it's been awesome. I know I'm going to cry when it's all over.

Today- it became real.

I did the grown-up thing and called a workplace hoping they'll hire me. They would pay enough for me to not have to live with my parents for more than a month and still pay off the massive amounts of debt I somehow managed to accrue over the years.

Then I got my cap and gown.

It's sad that that's what actually made me realize that I'm graduating.

Until then, it had just been a continuation. Still not graduated yet. Now I have this stupid piece of fabric that I'll be forced to wear and an even stupider hat that doesn't fit my head properly...but it makes it feel so final.

Anyway, I'm down to one paper and then I'm done until I decide to go to grad school. Hopefully I still have the ambition to make it seem A worthy. (I just realized that a B average is kind of crappy and will not get me into any grad school...not that B+ will do me much better._

Why Nothing Gets Done by Governments

We all understand that governments have limitations. They have a lot to deal with and a lot of people to please.

Currently, one of my political science courses is running a simulation United Nations meeting- with Non-Governmental Organizations along for the ride.

None of us have anything to lose by participating and agreeing to whatever we feel like, the only thing that we have to worry about is saying enough to convince our professor to give us an A for the assignment.

And yet...we still don't accomplish anything. We've been sitting around for three days trying to convince each other that our wording is best and here's why.

I'm an NGO, national governments don't like my system or my policies. They really don't like the idea that I'm trying to tell them what to do within their country.

My point is- nothing is getting done and we're just sitting here trying to earn our grade. No wonder real governments and meetings don't accomplish anything.

It's really frustrating to deal with other people and their interpretations of words. I really can't be involved in politics unless I'm world dictator.

This Freaking Lamp

There's a light on my campus that is on an automatic timer. It will turn on and off continuously all evening.

Now, this doesn't sound bad. In fact, it almost seems like a way of conserving energy.

However, there's a right way and a wrong way of installing a lamp that will have "downtime." And this one does it wrong.

It's not a motion-sensor light. No, that would make too much sense. Instead, it's on like...a ten minute rotation. It will be on for about ten minutes, then off for ten minutes.

Unfortunately, because of this timer, there's no telling where it is in the cycle when walking under it. I can't even count the number of times that I'll be walking under it and the light will suddenly go out.

Sometimes it comes on, but that's not freaky.

Anyway, my point is, this lamp is seriously disconcerting. I know now, after several nights of watching it turn off and on and not observing anyone/thing moving under it, that it's just a crazy (and pointless) test.

But that didn't stop me from initially thinking that demons were around to try and like...eat me.

My point is, this lamp needs to have a different system set up. Because not only is the current timer kind of dumb, it's the only one of its kind on campus. What the hell?

Now I'm off to bed to contemplate my poli-sci final.

An Ode to my Faithful

Okay, so my odes will never actually be odes or anything. Just a post focused on something I love.

I would like to make a post about my former car, a trusty old Eagle Vision. It would almost always start.

However, I recently received a Mercury Mountaineer (please don't judge me- I enforce my love for the environment in other sectors of my life).

I love this new car, but as I was riding in a car with my dad I was struck with a moment of nostalgia.

The Eagle has been essentially my car for about three and a half years, it's been my family's car since 1996. We took it out to Montana on the one real vacation we took as a family. I learned to drive in that thing. I first held my dog in it.

I'm really excited for my new car. Thrilled even. Because as awesome as the Eagle was, it was getting old and having some problems.

It was time to move on. Maybe someone else will get it and enjoy it for a few years.

Anyway, that's all.

Another bathroom rant...

I figured it out. The ultimate reason why we all hate public bathrooms!

It's not because people might hear us, or smell us, or because we're nervous to pee when other people are around.

No.

It's because they don't touch the ground and zombies might shoot their arms out from under the stall wall and grab our legs or munch on our deliciously juicy calves.

Okay...so maybe that's a bit extreme. Doesn't mean I didn't think it while using a public restroom today.

I realized today that I'm having a panic attack and regressing to a childhood I wish I still had. I called my mom and told her I was going to be staying at the house this weekend and then bought myself a Mighty Kids Meal from McDonald's- their toys are based on the new show Young Justice, which is terrible. However, the Superboy toy is epic! He punches with the push of a button that also makes his "S" logo and eyes glow red!

And, for the record, one of my friends voted for Misha yesterday so I voted for Jensen. I'm still upset with E! for doing that to me.

The Worst Form of Torture

I had this horrible moment today when I came upon this: E Alpha Male Madness 2011.

As you can see, there are some very sexy men on this list.

As you can also see, this round is a big douche who has Jensen Ackles against Misha Collins.

How the hell am I supposed to pick between these two?!

The best logic I have is to flip a coin. That or go with the "Well, Jensen's picture is almost a threatening glare and Misha's is more of a 'What are you gonna do about it?' Meaning that Jensen is concerned that Misha will beat him."

Dear God I have no effing clue what to do with this.

E! You officially suck. While at the same time, you're epically awesome because you wrote this: "You SPN fans don't skimp on the enthusiasm for your boys, do you?"

No, no we do not.

Major Dilemma

I probably should have been an English education major. (I realize that I've said about sixteen different majors that I should have been, but I'm a little more serious about this one.)

Okay, so what I actually need to do is just pick a good story idea and write a book. That way I'm doing something useful that I like.

Not that I don't like my majors, but I need an education degree for one of them to be useful, a law degree for another, and at least a Master's for the other. And I am completely drained in the school area.

Oh well, I'm down to three presentations, two major projects, and two minor papers left until I graduate!

Still don't have a job yet...but I'm working on it!

Wow, Two Days in a Row

That was some epic fail, folks! Sorry about that!

Life is kind of kicking my ass right around now, so I apologize for the failings of amusing, daily blog.

Anyway, tonight I had my stats class as usual. Instead of doing useful things and listening to my prof preach some more about how everything I do needs to be professional, I tried to figure out a few reasons that stats classes should not exist.

I came up with pretty much the best one ever:

ZOMBIES WILL NOT BE DETERRED BY MATH!

If I'm being attacked by a hoard of brain-hungry zombies, I'm going to be throwing word problems at them. I'm going to raining fire and throwing all kinds of Molotov cocktails and grenades at them.

I will be destroying those bitches.

A few other reasons:

Basic math allows me to balance my checkbook and figure out baseball stats. I do not need calculus for either of these.

Class is boring. I love my professor, but I can't stand the class. I feel like the clock is mocking me with its ticking- like it's saying "You're never getting out of here, ever!"

Alright...I'm off to prepare a bunker for the zombie apocalypse rather than read stats books.

Baby Pictures

I was rummaging through some things of mine this weekend, instead of writing my 15-20 page paper that's due tomorrow, and found some baby pictures of myself.

You ever go "Dear God, what the heck happened to me?!"

I'm wearing pink in each of these pictures. I realize that I didn't really have much choice in what I was wearing, but still- I don't have anything that's pink really. Maybe two items...and they're socks.

Not entirely sure what happened there.

Trip down memory lane complete!

A Few Chairs in My Life

Chairs aren't that special...we sit on them and sometimes fall asleep on them. Some people put their coats or blankets or purses on chairs, and others decide to have all kinds of disgusting public sex on them.

Long story short- chairs are just furniture that we do whatever the hell we want with.

But there are three chairs in my life that...well, are special.

I'll go by the order I "met" these chairs.

The first chair is the captain's seat of my family's pontoon. It's in "captain" style, meaning that it has a nice high back, a large cushion, and two armrests.

This chair is awesome and special because it allows me to pretend I'm piloting The Enterprise. (You know...the ship from Star Trek. ) It's epic! I get to sit there and be like "Engage!!!" And the controls are an actual throttle so I get to just be really cool. Obviously.

It's also pretty comfy.

The second chair is the recumbent exercise bike in my parents' basement.

This one is not comfortable at all. But the setup lets me pretend to be an X-Wing pilot. It has a screen in front and two racing bike handles. Basically I bike and make little laser noises or say things like "Captain Skywalker, my fuel is low- can't make it back to the rendezvous point! I'm gonna have to make a crash-landing on the second moon of Hoth 6."

Don't judge me.

The last chair is what I happily refer to as "chair!bed." It's a low, square chair that pulls out into a mattress. It's glorious.

This chair is awesome because when I pull it out and put my TV pillow to supplement the back, I get to recline in it like I'm a queen in a throne.

Basically, things that enhance my ability to live in a fantasy world and not pay attention to reality are awesome.

And these three chairs win.

Terror...

So, we recently purchased all kinds of posters in my dorm. All kinds.

We put them up in our living room to try and make it less boring- since we took town our Christmas lights.

So our walls are now covered by things like: Harry Potter, Yoda, some Glee people, and...the two most impressive- Justin Bieber and a Zombie survival guide.

Pretty soon we'll copy the exorcism in Latin and put that up on our walls too. We will be prepared!

It kind of makes my week worth it.

I didn't get to go out last night for St. Patrick's Day...cuz I had work and things. Lame.

And I'm still in the hell that is hiatus, but Being Human is still going strong!!!

Alright, I'm off to hang with my dog before hanging with my roommies!

Ink Cartridges

This is a very good reason to go paperless, world! Printer ink is so ridiculously expensive.

I had to spend 45 dollars...for ink.

...never again. I'll forgo printing once I'm no longer in college.

In other news, I finally booked my plane ticket to Comic-Con!!!! Bwahahahahaha.

Also, I'm happy to say that Being Human got picked up for a second season!!! Yay!

And lastly, I am so close to done with school I can taste it! Just like...three more big projects. Then I'm done!

Now, off to do stats for two of my classes...gross.

Oh Wednesdays

Wednesdays are awesome...sort of. They're the days that I embrace my OCD and clean the kitchen and living room of my dorm. One of these days I will extend this into the bathroom...but I don't spend a whole lot of time in there (the last few days excluded- food poisoning is gone now!).

They're also the days when I'm stuck in stats class dying a little inside.

Today, it's laundry day instead of class. My professor got sick so I'm trying to be productive...at least the clothes got washed, right?

I put them on my bed so I would be forced to fold them before I try to go to sleep.

I have an earlier class on Wednesday, it's at 11:50 and I try desperately to survive it before exercising.

Wednesday is also Face Off night, and tonight is the season finale. And it got renewed for a second season! YAY!

Anyway, today I cleaned out one of our air vents because it was all dusty and linty because it's right by the laundry room. GROSS! Seriously.

So, there you have it. A nice Wednesday.

But...I really want a Popsicle (apparently this is a proper noun? spell-check is yelling at me for not capitalizing it). I need to go find something to snack on.

A few DDs

No, I'm not going to name a list of Designated Drivers. What would the point of that be?

Instead, I'm going to name a few really Disgusting Diseases. (Because you all need to know exactly how my brain works.)

Disease numero uno: EBOLA!
As much as I love this little guy, he's pretty nasty. Seriously, you bleed from everywhere, you vomit, you sweat, you form a river of diarrhea, it's just plain nasty.

Segundo: STOMACH FLU
Aside from the bleeding, everything I just listed above applies. I would live in a shower.

Disease the Third: DYSENTERY
Okay, this is gross. You just kind of...keep going to the bathroom (and potentially dying of dehydration amongst other things). Then, of course, you just don't feel well. Suck.

Disease 4: FOOD POISONING
Now, this makes the list because I currently have it. It's. Not. Fun! I've been trying to keep in good spirits about it, but after three bottles of apple juice, a Nalgene of water, and a muffin for today...I just want it to be over!

I hope you noticed the pattern here: Bodily fluids is what makes disease gross. That and polka dot patterns. They kind of make me want to vomit.

*EDIT* My roommate just reminded me of necrotizing facsciitis (or flesh-eating disease). Yes, it is as absolutely horrendous as it sounds.

Apparently...

People float.

I had a difficult time scuba diving because of this fact. It was difficult, and as such I didn't really enjoy my first experience so much.

But still it was fun. I can now assemble my scuba gear!

Class went over so I haven't really gotten to see Being Human yet...

That's all for today.

Hobos Live in My Living Room

Okay, not really, but there are often people sleeping in my living room. We actually keep air mattresses on hand just in case.

This week, we will have three different people squatting, stealing our food and our toilet paper.

But we love them, so it's okay.

I just find it amusing that we so often use something like an air mattress in a college dorm.

But then, we've gotten very good at packing over the years. If one of us doesn't have it, another one does.

Which is why we have enough blankets, pillows, and sheets to outfit a girl scout group.

Minnesota High School Hockey

For years, my family has been attending the Minnesota State High School League hockey tournament. It's pretty much the best four days of each year.

High school sports are when it's really the best to me. The athletes are dedicated and love what they're doing or else they wouldn't be wasting time on it. But it's still just about having fun and hanging out with your friends.

And being from the state of hockey, the high school hockey championships are really something to talk about.

I'm writing this while watching the championship game at home. I couldn't make it this year because of stupid homework- seriously, where are my priorities?

Though my high school team has never won, it's always a thrill to get sucked into the feeling of being a hockey fan and watching some of the best hockey you will ever see.

Really, it's a fantastic weekend of memories, and family, and friends, and fun...and I could probably wax poetic about it for an hour. But I won't do that.

Blogging

I watched an episode of House today where the patient is a blogger.

Of course, I got all excited because I blog...and then I realized that I really disliked this woman on the TV.

She spent half the episode blogging and paying more attention to her blog audience than her family and friends right there.

Yesterday I mentioned that the internet is anonymous, it's part of the allure to it. But it baffles me how someone can get totally lost in it.

...I just miss my TV shows. Everything is on hiatus. And I'm watching my puppy again this weekend.

I'm also stranded due to a blizzard. Seriously world, what is wrong with you?

***Forgive me my preachy moment***
I can't believe that horrible earthquake and string of tsunami! I was really concerned because I have friends over in Tokyo- but they're okay!

But yes, keep them in your thoughts!

If the internet is anonymous...

Why did I spend an hour last night trying to make a lot of my accounts private?

I find this funny, how we use the internet for anonymity while at the same time completely hiding who we really are.

So yeah, the internet isn't really as anonymous as we'd like it to be I guess...even though we use it to be recognized.

Whatever, I'm making my brain hurt.

Have a picture from Google:



This makes me think of chaos theory...one day I'll tell you all about it.

Ash Wednesday

My whole life, Ash Wednesday has been one of the most amusing days of every year.

Because every Ash Wednesday I have a black smudge on my forehead. And people will say: You have something on your forehead.

It's considerate of them, it really is. But I can't quite stop myself from raising my eyebrow and going "Yes?"

Then they don't get it so I have to point out which day it is.

Then they get embarrassed. And I feel bad.

Anyway, so today is Ash Wednesday but I went to mass at night- avoiding a day of people giving pitying looks and thinking I can't properly wash my face.

And now I'm off to do more work! I hate school.

12 Books I Own

I had a giant bowl of M&Ms in my dorm for about two weeks a month ago. I got bored one day while eating them and put them in front of books on my bookshelf.

I've decided to talk about each of these books briefly and try to convince all of you to read them.

1. The Count of Monte Cristo- Alexandre Dumas
This is a classic! Ultimately, it's meant as a triumph of the human spirit and an account of God working through mysterious ways...it's also about breaking out of prison. It's fantastic! Dumas is a brilliant writer and creates in-depth characters and riveting experiences for the reader.

2. Les Miserables- Victor Hugo
I think this might be one of my favorites. Set in France during the Napoleonic wars, it's the account of one Jean Valjean building himself up after society has pushed him down...it's another story about the triumph of the human spirit and faith! HA! Please, please do not be intimidated by its size. Read the abridged version if you must but it's so good it's worth every minute, I promise!

3. The Giver- Lois Lowry
This book could literally change your life. It's about a boy who is charged with keeping the memories of all of human history in a "perfect" society. It's actually a really dark book for a young readers' level, but you can really take what you will from it. It's just an interesting look at humanity.

4. Brave New World- Aldous Huxley
This one is actually like the adult version of The Giver. Except that it's more a look at government than humanity.

5. The Hobbit- J.R.R. Tolkien
Of course! Kid book or not I love this book! If you like fantasy this is a must-read. We get to meet Bilbo Baggins and discover where he got his love of adventure and excitement (clearly he cannot be a Jedi). And, of course, DRAGONS!

6. The Dumbest Generation- Mark Bauerlein
I bought this because the author is amazing. By that I mean that he's actually interesting to listen to. The book is about "Millennials," or those of us who were born 1985 and beyond. Mostly, it's a criticism of our inability to learn and use the resources available to us. It's really interesting, even though I disagree with some of it (some of us still read! I promise!)

7. Born of Night- Sherrilyn Kenyon
This is a random romance novel I own by my favorite author of such books. It's actually a sci-fi based one. Um...I'm actually not going to try to convince you too hard on this one- even though I did enjoy it!

8. Ender's Game- Orson Scott Card
I LOVE THIS BOOK!!! It's kid-level reading, but I read it in high school and ended up crying. It's set in the future when people are monitored for their ability to be soldiers. A young boy, Ender, is one of the children who make it past the initial level. I can't tell you too much because I'd just give everything away- BUT READ IT!

9. Cat's Cradle- Kurt Vonnegut
Oh Kurt Vonnegut, what can I really say about you? He's insane, but Cat's Cradle is so unique in it's crazy, almost religious, time-warping story that I was just awed. If that sounds too weird for you- Slaughter-house Five. So good.

10. Hadrian- Anthony Everitt
I love Ancient Rome. I love history. I love Hadrian. If you don't like any of these things, I wouldn't bother with this. But Hadrian is amazing!

11. The Constant Fire- Adam Frank
Since I can't stop talking about Dr. Adam Frank, his book would make this list. I bought this book so I could accurately describe the awesome that is Dr. Frank. His ideas surrounding religion and science are...perfect. One day I will tell you exactly how perfect, but if this debate interests you at all you really need to read this book.

12. The Lucifer Effect- Philip Zimbardo
I think people are fascinating. The things we will do and say and the ways we justify those actions are really neat. This book explains how good people can turn..well, evil.

Alright, that's a list of 12 books I own. I hope I've convinced you to pick one of them up from your local library :)

Air Freshener

Winter air in Minnesota is very dry. Air in houses in Minnesota is very dry and stale.

There's almost no circulation- at all.

Thus, the air kind of smells funny.

So, being that my room is a room inside a house in Minnesota it follows these principles.

I don't like when my room smells funny; I like when my room smells fresh and clean and...pleasant.

That's how I ended up with an air freshener.

I meant serious business when I bought this thing- it's one of those nice Febreze Noticeables so it's got all kinds of wonderful scents to choose from and a timer so that pretty smells are occasionally pumped into the air.

But I've learned that when Febreze says that it's "noticeable" they mean it. It's so "noticeable," in fact, that I had to move it for fear of literally suffocating from the smell while I slept.

And I put it on the "low" setting! God help me if I were to ever switch it to "high!"

I get that they're not really intended for small rooms, they're supposed to be in large, public areas with lots of traffic.

But my room isn't exactly small, and I leave my door open during the day so that what little circulation does happen will actually happen.

Their product works at least- and as advertised. So if you're looking for an air freshener, Febreze Noticeables should probably win.

Writing is hard T_T

First off, the two Ts and underscore are a crying face. (Every time I do an emoticon I have to explain it to my family, so better safe than sorry.)

It's been a writing intensive weekend for me. Pounding out something like 15,000 words between paper writing and project writing and blogging.

So many words! It's hard to believe I have any left!

I promise better posts this week, I'm just a little drained and I still have about three more hours of writing to go tonight because apparently the purpose of college is to try and break you two months before you're free forever.

So basically I'm going to have a fantastic freak-out this week in which I eat everything in sight and sit around bawling about everything. Sounds fun, right?

Shower Conversations

I don't know if y'all do this, but I have conversations with myself in the shower.

It's the time when I discuss things with myself that I generally don't feel necessary to bring up to people. I also have arguments with imaginary versions of people who are irritating me.

Recently, I had a conversation with myself about the differences in BC, BCE, AD 1, AD 2, and CE.

I'm a history major- these things matter.

So, the competitors are:
BC- Before Christ
BCE- Before Christian Era
AD 1- Anno Domini
AD 2- After Death
CE- Christian Era

Mostly, I wanted to determine which I would personally use- they all mean the same thing; the BC ones measure before year zero and the rest are post-year zero.

History uses BCE and CE.

I determined that I support the use of BCE. It makes total and complete sense over BC- As the last few years of BCE Jesus was alive and thus it can't really be Before Christ.

It's the other ones that really concern me.

Of course understand why AD became After Death- it's easier to remember and mostly makes sense. Except that you would technically have to start counting somewhere between 25- 32 AD (I'm not gonna put a specific date here since it's kind of up in the air).

Now, I also mostly support CE. Christian Era is fairly legit...except that they weren't technically called Christians for a while.

Which brings me to my point of why I support calling it Anno Domini.

Since Jesus wasn't really knowledgeable of his divinity until around year zero (he acknowledges God as his father somewhere around then), he kind of wasn't really "Our Lord" yet. Thus making Anno Domini, "The Year of Our Lord," make total sense to begin there.

But that's where the political part of me is like "Just use CE because it's so much more politically correct."

Ultimately, I got out of the shower thinking that the historians probably made a good move in the BCE and CE notations.

Good for them!

Swamped: Can't Blog Much

I promise a spectacular post tomorrow, but today I'm just kind of drained.

Four major writing projects will do that to you.

So I regret to say that today's post will be less than stellar.

Today, I'm going to briefly tell you about watching medical shows (e.g. House) with nursing students.

Don't do it.

Once they begin their actual nursing classes, it's over. Just leave if they turn the show on.

The problem is that House is almost entirely unethical and sometimes things get dramatized or are just wrong.

And they will point out every single thing!

We all get this way about something- for them it's this.

I suppose it goes for anyone working in/going to a hospital a lot.

We get it, it's a fictional show and it doesn't work like that in real life.

Got it.

Good.

Blog Fail

I intended to do this before my night class, but that never happened. So here I am at 10 PM remembering that I suck and didn't do this.

I'm going to tell you a story about what happens when I walk into an empty house.

As I mentioned once (in this post), I have a sort of weird paranoia.

I went home to watch my dog for a few hours, only to discover the little doggy gate we have wasn't up where it usually is.

I walk in a little more, a little concerned about Sophie going downstairs to do some business (if you know what I mean), but she was in my parents' room so I figured it was okay.

Then I walked her to our patio door, only to discover it was not locked...or even closed.

Those two things? Freaked me out!

I grabbed a steak knife and proceeded to walk through the house turning on lights and surveying a room like they do in all the cop shows.

I guess my point is- don't surprise me if I don't know you're in my house!

Onto other news, Being Human- I'm officially obsessed.

If you haven't started watching it- you should! Mondays, Syfy, 8 central. This last episode was probably the best thing I've seen since April when I started watching Supernatural. Seriously.

...I should probably find a job where I just sit around and review TV shows or movies. That would totally combine my loves of writing and watching things.

I'm done self-destructing for today.

Happy Hump Day!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Goya (In which I link spam and get excited about art)

I'm sure none of you know this, but I have a minor obsession with Francisco Goya. He's a Spanish painter from the 17-1800s, and is rather famous for his series of black paintings.

If you aren't familiar with his works, check it out here! (If you don't do this, you might be a little confused.)

Now, as my lovely profile box says, I'm a Spanish minor. Now, my school recommends that you study abroad, especially if you have any kind of language concentration.

Now, because I have no actual ability to focus, I have also taken art and psychology classes during my schooling careers.

That right there? EXACTLY why I have been exposed to Goya and his amazing works.

Goya is fascinating- his Black Paintings series can be analyzed in about a thousand different ways (though his dementia is definitely blamed). But the thing is, they've all got this terrific contrast! It's not just dark, bleak, gory, depressing pictures- they've got this brightness that almost implies what he found good about life.

And his paintings of the royal families! They're actually really amusing political commentaries. He didn't bother to idealize this family, even going so far as to subtract from them (mostly what's criticized are the eyes, they're dull and blank).

But my favorite is this one: The Third of May 1808. Because I love symbolism and color and history and this HAS IT ALL!!!

The history of Spain will pretty much make any historian drool because they've been invaded/exploited so often and yet managed to maintain their culture and language through almost all of it (the Romans kind of owned though...).

This particular painting is about the invasion of Napoleon's armies and the massacres that took place. Your eyes are immediately brought to the Spanish man wearing a bright white shirt, arms wide and his face pleading- but none of the soldiers with guns are looking.

Beside him is a pile of bodies of those already executed.

When I went to Spain, I got to see these paintings (and more, but I love him okay?) in person! I was putting my fangirling of other things to shame- which is actually impressive.

Seriously? One of the best things that has ever happened to me.

Everything Makes Sense Now!

Alright, so my entire life I have had kind of weird interests. History, mythology, comics, sports, I'm kind of everywhere on the spectrum.

But today I finally realized what's going on.

See, I've always had this desire to be famous (doesn't everyone?), but I'm not really spectacular at anything- I'm decent and I can get pretty good once I try something, but no natural awesome.

I realized today why all of these things are: I'm going to discover Atlantis. (Or Cthulu...I'm find with either.)

I'm starting scuba diving today- the final skill I would really need.

See, discovering Atlantis would take a few things: knowledge of history and mythology, the ability to read maps and use GIS equipment, and some way to go down into the depths.

(And a lot of money...and high-tech equipment...but that's beside the point.)

I'm really excited that it's all coming together and making sense now! And to learn to scuba dive.

Spring Break

Spring Break is supposed to be the one time college students truly unwind, lay back, and just enjoy life.

False.

Spring Break is a time when students are avoiding their homework by all means necessary, not sleeping, and getting drunk because they can't stand the thought of one more day working in groups to do projects or writing one more goddamn page on the difference between using Chicago or APA citation styles.

Now, the last three spring breaks, I have lived by the first model. I went to Hawaii, I went to Japan, then I went to Norway- I enjoyed life a lot.

This spring break, however, the second model won. I worked on campus to try and get some money because I need a camcorder for Comic-Con!!!!

I also spent most of the time avoiding writing a paper on green taxes placed on travel...

Then I had to go exercising because I'm determined to actually be in shape for once in my life (or at least in my life since dancing which ended in like...second grade).

It was a hectic week! I've decided that Easter to graduation will be my actual Spring Break this year since everything is due before then or during finals time.

Relaxation, you are only one and a half months away!

Public Bathrooms

I know, I know, every person in the history of people has complained about public bathrooms. But doesn't that just kind of prove how badly they suck?

Now, some public bathrooms are awesome. For example: The Xcel Energy Center has fantastic bathrooms! They're gigantic, well lit, have enough sinks for everyone, and are always clean!

Then there are public bathrooms like the one on firsts floor of my campus library. Three stalls, two sinks, built for 5-year-olds in terms of height, width, and general usefulness.

And no freaking lights above the toilets! AND there's an overhang. Meaning you're in a nasty, shadowed little stall.

Yeah, they're dark, cramped, and everything is wet because we're all slobs when not responsible for cleaning up.

But the conditions of the bathroom are probably the most minor inconvenience about having to use a public bathroom.

The worst part is the anxiety most people feel.

One of the main rules to using a public bathroom- for both men and women- is to not go right next to the other person. You find that open stall or urinal that's four away from the person in there!

A lot of people can't even go while other people are in the same room. It's nuts.

Then there's trying to wash your hands. There's never a lot of soap, the water is either freezing or scalding, and the paper towel dispenser are always empty- leaving you with the option of using your pants or the completely ineffective air-dryer.

People Who Inspire Me

I decided to update my Facebook profile a little today by adding some more likes to books, music, video games, and TV.

But there's this fancy little "philosophy" section of the profile that I've never touched.

It wants things like my religion and my political affiliation. No one needs to know that kind of stuff, right?

But then there's this "People who inspire me" section.

Of course, I can ramble off how my mom and dad and extended family inspire me (which they do, don't get me wrong), or about Jesus or something equally as cliche, but then I tried to think about it for real.

Who are the people who inspire the way I think and feel and act?

Now, the sad truth of the matter is that I'm much more likely to be inspired by a book or a movie than I am by a person in general. There's just something about the emotions those can evoke that make them so inspiring. And then I can formulate my own original opinions and whatnot.

But, I thought about it and I came up with this list:
The Dalai Llama
Pope John Paul II
Misha Collins
Niccolo Machiavelli

Yeah, the last two are kind of "Are you serious?" worthy, but yes- I am serious.

The Dalai Llama and JP2 are two of my favorite spiritual leaders. Their main messages are about peace and working together in the goal of making a better world. This is especially impressive of JP2, who's kind of the only pope that non-Catholics like. That deserves a shout out in my mind.

They just kind of focus on the matter at hand- faith and goodwill. Do we really need anything more than those? Don't our religious identities kind of drive a wedge between us? (I have a nice long essay about this...be on the lookout for it!)

The last two are more about activism and politics.

Though unconventional in most of his life, Misha uses his influence to try and make a difference (this is where I should rave about Random Acts again). He just kind of goes for it because he knows that people want to help and do the things that he's doing, they just don't know how or who to trust or maybe never even really thought about it before.

Now, Machiavelli holds a special place in my heart because I kind of follow his political doctrine as described in "The Prince" - The ends justify the means and it is better to be feared than to be loved.

I know, that sounds awful of me, but I think there's a lot of truth in that.

I'm very politically minded...when it comes to politics. I do believe that the needs of the many should probably outweigh the needs of the few, but I also believe that the many who have the means should help provide for the few that can't.

I also believe that there are certain things that are bigger than politics (e.g. getting food and water to everyone on the planet); we need to recognize that we have an obligation, as humans, to help other humans. This isn't the Roman Empire, we don't have to try and eradicate all other villages, forms of government, and cultures.

Similarly, I believe that politicians would probably be better if people feared them. In the United States, we elect politicians that supposedly reflect our own values; then they spend their 2-year or 4-year or 6-year terms trying to get reelected. Those years? Pretty much wasted as far as legislation and productivity go.

Hence- fear is the ultimate weapon. If they're too afraid not to vote for you come election time, it's a lot easier to do what you feel is best. (Also, it's a lot easier to get someone to fear you than to like you...at least in my experience, anyway.)

So, there's my list of people that inspire me. People who mostly look beyond all the crappy things about the world and hit the point right in the heart.

Ultimately, this list is composed of people who get that everything we do should be about people.

...and the planet, but I don't feel like saying that Aldo Leopold inspires me in any way other than to take a nap.

Ok...I do like Aldo Leopold's ideas, but he's so dry and boring. But he does make one really good point- "Think like a mountain."

Recognize that everything you do will last for a long, long time. Make sure that they're good things.