The Truth About Santa

http://beebo.org/smackerels/yes-virginia.html

I thought this was pretty cute, and clever. Of course, I can't understand how an 8 year old could possibly understand that letter. But, I'm sure that as she grew up the letter started to take on a whole new meaning for her. It's a great message, I think. Besides, it's so adorable that an 8 year old wrote to a newspaper to ask about Santa Clause :P

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Human Nature?

This is more of a general question than anything else. It may even be rhetorical, I'm not sure. But, why is it that we'll be laying around, bored, with nothing to do, and a friend you know well will come online, yet we don't even bother to just double click on their name and type "hi"? Even if it's a person we miss or haven't talked to in a while, for some reason there's this negative impulse to send them a quick hello.

Now, I'm not trying to criticize ANYONE. I do this all of the time. I'm sure we all do. But, it's a shame, isn't it, that we have all of this opportunity to communicate and we seem to take it for granted?

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A New Kind of Host

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/arts/television/30ryzi.html?ref=arts

I thought this was an interesting tidbit of news. The media seems to come up with new ideas all the time, even if they seem arbitrary or simple. I mean, who would think that a singing TV show host was new or innovative?

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A Long Ignored Poem

I wrote this last month...I think? It's just a product of an exercise I had to do for creative writing class. We had to write something using one-syllable words only. I have no idea what its significance is supposed to be. It's just random thoughts that passed by me.

Those who wish bring joy.
Those who dream have the world.

We wish in words.
We dream in shades,
Shades of the world we see, the way we see it

A wish asks.
A dream does.

The dream we think
Is a wish on wheels.

Consequences

Well, this is what you get, I guess, for not looking at your blog for a long time. You assume no one has posted, as usual. Until you take a closer look and see that oh my god! A famous slam poet commented on my blog! This is amazing! I feel like such a horrible person for not seeing this before! Well, I guess I'd better post more often, 'cause you never know who's going to come across it. Speaking of which, for those of you who come by, Happy Thanksgiving!

Poetry Exposure

So, I had the wonderful opportunity to go the the Dodge Poetry Festival on Thursday, and for the most part I was swept away. I discovered some awesome poets and poetry, and hopefully my work will not suck as much as I now have more references for inspiration. If you want to read some cool stuff, look up Patricia Smith, Roger Sedarat, Beth Ann Fennelly, Joseph O. Legaspi, Brenda Shaughnessy, and Luke Warm Water. They were awesome!

I also saw Ted Kooser. He writes some great stuff as well, and he has a cute book on love poems. He's also one hysterical dude. I've always liked his work, and he has an amazing history.

The only major dissapointment for me was Tracy K. Smith. She writes beautifully, but god is she boing to listen to.

So, thanks to Thursday, I'm now working on some new ideas, but I'm not putting any of them out as I dont' want to post anything crappy like much of what I've written before :P

New Yorker Recognition

So, I get so worked up over political misunderstandings, and I don't even address the fact that seven years ago today the Twin Tours, which were only an hour and a half away from my house, collapsed (along with the crash into the Pentagon and some field in Pennsylvania).

Anyway, I didn't personally lose any friends or family in the 9/11 incident, but I sympathise with those who do since, well, I have lost family members on other occasions and for the first 24 hours after the airplanes crashed I didn't know if my brother or sister were alive. It was a frightening time for everyone and I'd like to give my sympathies to those who are reminded again today of all they have lost.

Philosophy Versus Political Parties

Ok, this may sound like a complaint, and I'm terribly sorry if it does, but there is one major misconception that drives me insane. My history teacher this morning decides he's going to try to teach the class about what it means to be a "Democrat" and what it means to be a "Republican". Now, his basic definition that good majority of Democrats are liberal is correct, and that a good majority of Republicans are conservative, but he doesn't bother defining the difference between liberalism and conservatism. Thus, his lesson gave off the aura that Democrat = liberal and that Republican = conservative. As that may be the situation in present day America, that is just not politically correct (no pun intended). To be a Democrat, for the sake of simplicity, means to believe in large government, and to be a Republican means to believe in small government. But these are not the defining factors of what liberal and conservative mean.

Liberalism is the idealism that is new or revolutionary for the day. A liberal person believes in ideals that are not widely accepted (i.e. gay marriage, immigrant rights, universal health care, pro-choice, higher taxes, etc.) and that personal liberty is most important. Conservatism is the idealism that is "old" or widley accepted by the majority of the public (i.e. pro-life, smaller taxes, anti-gay rights, restricted immigrant rights, etc.) and they believe tradition is most important. This means that the role of a political party changes depending on the stand they take on social and economic issues. Today Democrats are stereotypically liberal and Republicans are stereotypically conservative. However, back in the 1860's, the Republicans were the liberal party and Democrats were the conservative party. The only thing that consistantly defines a Democrat or Republican is their view on the proper role of government.

In fact, this is the only factor that has stayed consistant throughout America's history. Politicians have been arguing about the role of government since the conception of The Constitution - federalists wanted a larger government, and anti-federalists wanted a smaller government. To some extent, these are now the parties that exist today, except under different names. Keep in mind that I'm leaving out a lot of history for simplicity's sake, but it's undeniable that this central arguement has been pivital within the past 221 years.

Otherwise, I think teachers need to make a point to explain to their students that Democratic-conservatives and Republican-liberals DO exist. You can believe that government should have a bigger role in people's lives but that a woman should not abort their children. You can believe that government should play a smaller role in America and believe that gays should have every right to marry. There is a difference between a political party and a political philosophy. The problem is Americans today seem to mesh the two ideas as if they're the same thing.

Now, that's not to say that I wasn't one of these Americans myself. I was extraordinarilly naive to this difference until just a while ago. But, the fact that I didn't understand this essential difference scares me, especially since I know I'm not the only one. We're living in this country and yet we don't understand the basic principles of how our politics work. Scarier still is that teachers don't even adress this issue. They leave students to believe stereotypes they take as truth, some even reinforce it.

A Non-Stereotypical Rant

So, ok, I haven't posted anything in a really long time. I barely touch this place, and I'm not one to simply leave something stagnant when I run out of ideas. I've also just realized that a great deal of my poetry is awful (except for one that I just recently finished). So, there's no point in waiting around for the next bright idea to pop into my head. I may as well use this for intelligent ranting as well like some other bloggers (I'm not into the unitelligible ranting that most bloggers are into lately). So, yes, this is my great enlightenment for the day, not that it's going to matter since, as far as I can see, no one reads this thing anyway :P Oh well, I guess it's also just fun to be able to tell someone "Hey, I have a blog!", and they give you the most terrible look as if now you're the stereotypical depressed blogger who rants about how aweful their life is :D Oh, and here's my recently finished poem/lyric that is NOT a piece of crap...

Tell me this isn't over
Too much has been done
For this to be a phase
Just one of those
Passing games

Tell me there is no end
For I fear the risk
Of becoming one of those fools
Who lets sweet moments as these
Come to only memory

For here we've become princes
No longer society's paupers
Free to our mind's content
Free to heart's desire

Tell me this will live
As a journey we'll embark together
That this will not die in memory
But grow in our history
As we grow closer still

For here we are friends
Not convenient acquaintances
Forever to grow
Forever to love

Through tears, through smiles
Through anger, through laughs
Through joy, through silence
We've stayed, we've loved

Tell me this isn't over
Tell me there is no end
Tell me this will live
Tell me this is home

I still haven't figured out a title for this one, but let me give you some background information on it. I was invited to studdy at Cambridge University (in England) for a month this summer, and I made some really close friends on that trip. I also really changed as a person, or, really, I became more comfortable with myself. It was the most "me" I had felt in a really long time, and I didn't want to leave the people who had made helped me reach this stage in my self exploration. They were also just really awesome kids who I wanted to take home with me and continue to do rediculous things with :D

Poci Again!

Poci cuddling up on the couch :P

A closeup of Poci cuddling

Don't ask, I don't know either

Tissues!!...again?

Now he's on the other side of the couch

And he's on the lamp shade!!!! He's so silly :P

Uh oh, he's hiding.....I wonder where he is :P

AAAHHH!!! POCI!!!! YOU SCARED ME!!!! :P

The News Site With Layers

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/82006 Just a REALLY funny podcast on "The Onion" :D Any Democrat or Onion fan will enjoy this :P

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A Difficult Subject

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/washington/26scotuscnd.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

I found this today on the front page of the New York Times, and at first it shocked me. How could the Supreme Court be so liberal on such a heinous crime like rape (and I'm a liberal myself). I don't think giving someone the death penalty for raping a child is in any way unconstitutional. First of all, it's rape for christ's sake. How is robbing a child of their innocence or violating someone's body any less damaging or horrifying than murder (other than the death part)?

However, as I continued to read I realized isn't life in prison with out parole just as bad if not worse than the death penalty? I mean, this is kind of harsh, but at least with the death penalty...you 're dead. Yes there's the horror of knowing you're going to die, but at least then the torment would end. Life with out parole is just a never ending torture. You live in a disgusting, tiny, inhabitable little cell, all by yourself, with no one to talk to other than the guard who escorts you. And you have to live, every day, with the memory of your mistake and wishing it never happened, and thanks to you're stupidity, you may as well be in hell.

Of course, there is the deranged criminal who has no feeling or soul, so either way doesn't make a difference because either A) they want to be dead, or B) they have no shame. I don't really know what I'm trying to say with this one, only I guess that with some it probably wouldn't matter. Thus the idea that life with out parole is bad or worse is irrelevant since it wouldn't matter?

But, again on the pro side of this court ruling, as one of the people interviewed mentioned in the article, removing the possibility of the death sentence removed the victim's wait for the punishment to go underway. Thus it removes the tension and drama of the whole process. Instead the case is over and you know that those conditions could start immediately. There isn't this constant reminder that the criminal who hurt you or your child still has yet to receive their proper punishment. That is, if you think life in jail with out parole is good enough of a punishment in your opinion.

However, there's still the factor that possibly this criminal has committed numerous sex offenses and other such crimes in the past. With all of the damage they've done to numerous people and/or children, I especially don't think that the death penalty is unconstitutional. This person has ruined so many people's lives that they may as well deserve to be on death row.

Awesome Video

This is such a clever video. At first you think it's just going to be one of those corny videos about how great the world is and whatnot. But it gives a great little twist at the end :P Enjoy!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=P1xLRJY6III&feature=related

Poci

So, a few months ago a friend of mine gave me this plushie as a gift (no special occasion, just wanted to give me a souvenir). It's a plushie of a pokemon in the current series (I don't play the game anymore, but I have too many friends who do :P ) called Piplup. However, I prefer its Japanese name, Pochama. But, that name's kinda long. So, I'm calling him Poci (poe-ki) :D I'm not really into Pokemon anymore, but I still think Poci is absolutely adorable (plus he's soft and squishy!) You'll be seeing a lot of him from now on :D

Here's Poci

Poci with a box of tissues...they were just there, I figured I'd use them as a prop :D

Poci being silly :P

Poci being tired of being silly :P

Me napping with Poci :D

The Truth of A Rose

Sorry for posting nothing the past few months. I've been really busy. So here's a poem I wrote a while ago (please critique!!)

A rose is a rose is just a rose
A stem with some petals
A pretty scented thing

And oh! how it is so dearly praised
The representation
Of love, of affection

But that's all it is, a mere symbol
'Tis not the love you share
'Tis not the one you love

I wish to love not with roses
But with my soul, with heart
For that is truly love

Help Only Hurts

Sorry for the corny title, I can't think of anything else at the moment. And sorry for not posting for so long. I've been busy and haven't been able to think of anything :P Anyway, here 's another poem ...

I try to help you
Instead I hurt you

I try to comfort you
Instead I torment you

I try to dry your tears
Instead I make them pour

I try to relieve the heartache
Instead I make it bleed

I try to make you see
Instead you only see your pain

I try to help you
But you'll never know...