vp debate more helpful than figured

I was surprised! Palin wasn’t nearly as disastrous as everyone originally predicted she’d be. Not going so far as good, but she was definitely less “Skinny Bitch” and more of the other thouand diet books in the world. She said nothing blatantly offensive or stupid, but geared herself towards her own strain of tired, Republican rhetoric– and when she couldn’t think of an answer: “Drill, baby, drill!” (Diet books: “Grill, baby, grill!”)

I watched the debate on CSPAN. I swear, the other candidate was perpetually smirking at the other while one was talking. Except in Palin’s case, she also spent half her time reading her notes. I was totally dumbstruck when Obama first chose Biden, but I’m beginning to appreciate him. A few highlights… (few, because he’s been a Senator forever!)

BIDEN

• Led creation of Violence Against Women Act.
• Definitely experienced. (Take that!)
• Refused to take Political Courage Test.
• Voted to prohibit D&X (partial birth) abortion, and as far as I know, is still against it.
• Like Obama, against gay marriage, but for gay rights. (wait, don’t the two come hand in hand?)
• Works to minimize hate crime and discrimination.
• Very pro-education.
  

Switching Main Blog

I can’t stand half the posts in this blog. While I won’t delete it, I’m now posting in my new blog (of the same name) at http://veeqdee.wordpress.com.

Happy days.

Schools ban orange students

I can already imagine the uproar if this orange-skin fashion faux pas became widespread: “It’s what’s within, not on your skin!” “Orange ya glad we had the civil rights movement?” “This is discrimination, damnit!”

A head teacher is cracking down on schoolgirls who turn up for class looking “orange” after using fake tans.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure at first what to think of this. Don’t get me wrong– you couldn’t get any more entrenched in Ugly As Hell than orange fake tans. I’m not a fan of them, and I’m sure most sensible people aren’t either. These well-meaning teachers will not get much support, however, because they are doing what their pupils will interpret as a blatant truncation of their independence and creativity. (Nevermind that they’re all just trying to look like Paris Hilton– that’s not the point!)

The teacher has good intentions, believing (rightly) that the increased rate of melanoma isn’t worth it to turn the color of an overcooked sausage. She adds that they strive to “promote natural beauty and contentment with one’s looks”, which, if true, couldn’t make me happier.

The problem I do see with all this is that it can actually be counterintuitive. The kids see that their mentors and parents are telling them what to do and simply go, “fuck that”. They don’t hear “you’re beautiful just as you are”, but rather “I don’t like how you’re making yourself look, stop it.” In the end, it simply builds more pressure and tension: the media says yes and their loved ones say no; they’re trapped in a limbo between what is acceptable in popular culture and in their schools and homes. And which do you think will win in the end?

Perhaps if schools spent more time encouraging what they do think works, rather than discouraging what they think doesn’t…

Forgive my orwellian thoughts…

… and all the other sci-fi level creepiness in the following.

I understand that people are entitled entitled to their opinions, even hateful, toxic, hypocritical ones– as long as they are not acted upon.

How do we measure this when enough is enough? There is blatant hate: race, sexual orientation, and gender bigotry. And then there is the darkness that (excuse the hyperbole), like a wedge between the doors of hell, isn’t enough to mind but inevitably widens and holds people hostage until the last airs of common sense dissipate and all that’s left is a drone with Stockholm Syndrome.

We think pro-lifers are all cool because we know them and they’re our friends and family and celebrity role models. They’re so mainstream that we don’t think twice about the protesters that intimidate women’s clinic patients. We shrug to hear about a couple of death threats and HATE letters that creep into certain inboxes. We’ve come to the point where it’s typical for politicians giving the OK to hate-filled, misogynistic (don’t worry, I’ve used the right word) pharmacists to continue to be hate-filled, misogynistic pharmacists.

It’s not. It’s really not.

Because these mephitic thoughts are contagious. They are transferred and multiplied through naive children. They are preached to the point of exhaustion in church. They are taught as a moral prerogative. Facts are covered up or mixed up. (Plan B does not equal medical abortion!) And this HATE is allowed to fester and grow in the name of freedom and babies.

awkward conversations

I have a lot of these, but the worst ones are with your extended family who you don’t know enough to speak to and equally the same enough to shun.

I hung out with my grandma 24 hours a day until I was 9, and people from Vietnam began moving in. Then, when we moved out, she went to stay in cramped apartments with said relatives. I see her about once a year.

I had to sit between her and my mom as they chatted about mundane things such as children and pants and Los Angeles. I sat there and gave brief, monosyllabic replies whenever I was addressed to, most of the time without any real idea what they were talking about.

Grandma: She’s so big!
Mom: She has my eyes.
Me: …:)
Grandma: Her hair.
Mom: Her ears. :O Her earring holes closed up. Let’s repierce them.
Me: =|… :)…
Mom: Okay?
Me: ….:)…
Mom: What kind of girl doesn’t wear earrings??

And it kept going like that. My grandma told a story about how she almost killed me when I was a baby, and I was like, okay. THEN finally:

Grandma: yap yap yap.
Mom: yap yap yap. okay you can go now.

I felt it would come off as rude if I fled, so I was obligated to stay a few more minutes, until my mom thankfully told me I could go again.

Five Point 0

I’ve switched from freshwoman to fivepoint0. The URL is here:

fivepoint0.wordpress.com

US economy; what about us?!

warning: conjecture ahead

By now you’ve surely noticed the horrible trend of salary-cutting and job-booting. Unless we find a magical way to pull ourselves out of the ever-growing US debt, I think we’re all screwed. I mean, think about it. Maybe the THEMs will be okay doing manual labor and working at the local McDonalds (for some reason, we never seem to have a shortage of fast food restaurants). On the opposite end of the spectrum, people like my sister won’t have so much to worry about either. But what about the rest of us? The mediocre, the down-trodden, the 3.5 GPAs?

With the increase in the amount of incredible students, it becomes ever-harder to get into prestigious colleges. Without being in a prestigious college, it’s more difficult to get work experience. This rings especially true if you’re either in a very common field (e.g: graphic design and programming in the silicon valley–or anywhere, really) or an uncommon one (job title: Airedale Terrier Specialist Veterinarian)– why pick you, when there’s someone better? And without work experience, you can’t get a decent job.

But worse yet, employees are becoming increasingly selective. People are becoming increasingly smarter and productive. The bell curve is shifting east. What are we to do? How can we remedy this situation? Are we just running on a hamster wheel?

In short– we’re all doomed.

Okay.

So I’m doomed.

Disney’s darker themes

Take a look at Hellfire from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

I miss this side of Disney.

Goal Update: January

I wasn’t really paying much attention to my goals. I did decide to change some of them around.

1. Impose a study routine.
A study routine. Well, I am studying a bit, but I’m far from having any study routine. I have bought a few books, but I haven’t read them all yet.

2. Finish the second semester with a 4.0

3. Be more confident.
Nope.

4. Become a better writer, write 100 words a day.
I’m not really certain of my progress on this, because I  haven’t been keeping track. (shame on me!) But I do know that when I *do* sit down to write, I get a lot more than a 100 words.

5. Learn to ask for help.
Nope. Sometimes I think I enjoy being independent. Until I see my grades.

6. Complete Nano ’08.

7. Complete Script Frenzy

8. Finish 4+ short stories.
Er, I haven’t started on any of these yet. I guess it’s from all the beginning-of-the-semester panic. I’ll make a note to myself about this.

9. Quit MS.
This goal was originally “Be 70+”, but after the incident with the suspension, I decided that Nexon honestly was not worth my time.

10. Read 50 books.
Right, I need to make a book blog. This is a new goal, too. (10 is a better number than 9)

So all in all, it’s a bit of a flop. I do have a list of things I need to do, which I’ll try to get started this weekend.

1. Make tracksheet for 4th goal.
2. Think about my first story.
3. Start book blog. (btw, if anyone wants to collaborate with me, that would be fun.)

it’s ironic

It occurred to me that some people over the internet living across the country or halfway around the world know more about my interests than my parents do. Of course, this is partly my fault, because I never talk to them unless necessary. But it isn’t as if I make any attempt to hide it. I’ve checked out books that were called things like, “Jobs in Law” and nonchalantly left them in plain view. I have news articles open on the computer. I read through the 2008 election handbook during dinner.

So, I wasn’t at all surprised that 10 minutes ago, I was told this:

Mom: Vicky, I think you should become a lawyer.

I just shrugged as she pressed the issue, because frankly I don’t care what she thinks I should be, so I don’t want to promise anything. It’s strange that she didn’t bring it up in the 2 years I was fervently interested in going into law, but brought it up just as my resolve began to die. She talked more about how some of her friends had children that were all lawyers, and I pointedly ignored her.

Sometimes I still think I would like to be a lawyer, but I’m not so sure anymore. Regardless, I just thought it was interesting to share.