Creative Title

But I have my first test of the semester tomorrow (calculus), and I'm actually quite nervous about it seeing as two years of homeschool have left me rather unconditioned to testing. On the plus side, I had a very good tendency to do well on tests before then--I'm actually not sure I ever studied. But as things stand, I've forgotten much math, which I haven't taken since summer, and just in case I didn't forget enough of it, my graduation project pushed the rest out of my head. When we wrote "intensive creative writing project" on the transcript, it was no exaggeration--in fact, it was probably an understatement.

So, interesting post tomorrow or so (depending on how much I'm forced to level my Warcraft character then), but tonight I have to (a) figure out how to study, and (b) actually study. I bid you farewell now, and offer The Picard Song in hopes of appeasement.


I need to watch both the original and TNG Star Trek, so I can decide whether I like Picard or Kirk better... So far, Picard's in lead, but only because of that song.

On friday, on my way back to the dorm barely 20 minutes before my parents arrived to pick me up, I was walking in a crowd of people. Within this crowd was a guy wearing both a Che jacket and a kaffiyeh scarf! Oh boy, so fashionable!


So that got me thinking a little over the rest of the weekend (or, rather, I'm thinking about it now since I'm somewhat overdue for a post) about communism and dictatorships, and why it would appeal to so many people--especially teenagers--to have one large entity providing everything to you under the condition that you never ever oppose them. Of course, it's not the providing part I'm confused about; it's the condition of living under someone else's absolute rule. What would make adolescents--people naturally against authority--ever want to be under the thumb of a big government? Are they so easily fooled as to listen without question to some nut proclaiming that a system proven to fail is better than any proven to work, and only because he's proclaiming it? Well, perhaps that's part of it. We teenagers are pretty dumb a lot of the time. But what of the parents teaching their children these ideals? What of the college professors who believe in this stuff? Are they all easily decieved? Some probably are, and many of the parents are likely to be. Especially if they were entrenched in the culture of the sixties and seventies as teenagers and young adults. And yet, even if one isn't an aging hippie, this sort of stuff has taken root in our everyday culture.

Take, for example, my first few days of class. I quickly figure out that most advertising done on campus is either painted in the "free expression tunnel" or written all over the sidewalks in chalk. So there's this radio station that I'm fairly sure is owned by the university. It plays some pretty good music, actually, though I have a few problems with it now. The first issue is that I pick it up when I try to listen to anything on my computer through my headphones. But that has nothing to do with the topic at hand. The other thing that bothered me is that it's a perfect exaple of how our mainstream society is essentially socialist. Now, perhaps I have this impression simply from being in college and thereby immersed in it, but what else is one to think? So, the radio station calls itself "The Revolution". Oh, but it gets worse--the sidewalk advertisements? The slogan on every single one was "Defeating Capitalist Radio". And no one even blinked.

So, a university radio station is anti-capitalist; big surprise, right? See, the problem is that that's not what surprised me. What surprised me is that after over two years of trying to fill my mind with Thomas Sowell Basic Economics goodness to replace that idealistic crap, the phrase still just sounded right to me. It's been instilled in our culture and in our minds since kindergarten ("Learn to share!" "You can all succeed!" "We'll take care of you!"), and now the people who don't become practically obsessed with not being pulled into it simply believe what's been spouted to the point of invading the mainstream, no matter how unreasonable it may be. Then again, people have done that since the beginning of time, haven't they? I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised that even nowadays they accept as fact anything that's been said enough ("The world is flat!" "Leeches will suck any disease out of you!" "Radiation can make you more 'potent'!")

No, it's not a problem that people join whomever has the most followers. You can't be human without doing that. It's that the movement is affecting the future of this country and, seemingly already, the entire world. What I want to know is why. No, not why; how. How did this grow so large as to draw people onto the bandwagon without even their realizing it? How did we go from the brave WWII generation to a country full of wimps, save for a few strong individuals, in only two generations? Was it the fact that personal responsiblility was no longer a necessity? How about simply the nice way of speaking the leaders of the movement had? Perhaps we all just want to connect with nature, and the same people promoting that also happened to be preaching the glories of a collective economy. It was likely a bit of all of those, plus many better ones that I can't quite think of right now since it's midnight.

I know I had more to say, but (1) I try not to ramble when I can help it, and (2) I completely forgot what other points I wanted to make. Keep in mind, I also have an 8am class and am worrying a little about waking up on time, so that helped push whatever it was out of my mind. So, the next post will likely be either a review of Pride and Prejudice (excuse for not having seen a more action-packed/bloody movie will be included) or a lengthy philosophical piece on the size that an enemy appears to be simply because they are an enemy. I'll see how much time I have in the next couple of days (Not likely to be much, by the way. I have a calculus test on wednesday and, while my grasp on the concepts is extremely strong, I'm pretty horrible at basic algebra; and my instructor doesn't allow calculators).

You know, the original plan for this post was to mention the guy, then put up a video of Pinky and The Brain singing about the parts of the brain. Heh.

Rambo comes out this weekend!


Thank goodness for people handing stuff out in the free expression tunnel, or I would have missed that entirely (and never have gotten a temporary tattoo for it).

So when my friend and I get together this weekend while I'm off campus, I'm convincing her to see either that or Sweeney Todd (which she doesn't think she'll like because she "doesn't like musicals". Pah! Sweeney Todd owns the musical genre in every way possible). Absolutely no other choices will be offered.

First, Fred is dropping out of the race. I despise all the other candidates with a passion, as none of them are much better than Hillary or Obama. There aren't even that many political issues that I care about. There's keeping the bill of rights (free speech, gun rights, etc), economics, the war in Iraq, and illegal aliens. I'm even fine with a compromise of some sort over most of those (not so much with the BOR). However, if a candidate is just a complete moron on any one of those, it's pretty much a deal-breaker. I'll not vote for someone who wants us to pull out of Iraq right now and leave the mideast in turmoil... at least, more turmoil than it will be in anyways. I'll not vote for someone who wants to take my money (or... at the moment, my parents' money) and give it to some schmuck who comes here, doesn't pay taxes, and then proceeds to tell us to leave. I'll never ever vote for someone who would take away the right for any of us to protect ourselves (though I still can't yet, but that's really not the point), nor someone who is against the right of someone to advertise for their candidate (or whatever McCain/Feingold was. I'm pretty sure that was it). All-in-all, I'm worried for our country and our future, and uncertain of what to do.

So there's that bit.

And then, even while I'm still processing the drop out, one of the girls on my hall comes in with the tragic news about Heath Ledger's death. According to the updats on Hot Air (the reference blog for the day), the cops are saying it's accidental, though I suppose that won't be certain until the autopsy. Granted, I haven't seen many of his movies, but I loved everything that I did see him in.

When I first started homeschooling, scifi channel was running a show that starred Heath Ledger. It only had 13 episodes, so it obviously wasn't very popular in its initial run. Nevertheless, I loved it, and watched it every time it came on (though that didn't happen often). It's called Roar, and is about the celts (irish, IIRC) fighting for their land and sovereignty at the time when the Romans were building their empire all over europe. So, in memory of Heath Ledger, a tribute to Roar that someone made back in 2006, but is especially fitting for today.


Rest in peace.

I deeply hope for better news soon.

Yeah, that's what I've been doing this weekend in the time that I had a computer. It was not terribly fun, but I suppose the soon-to-be-brother-in-law (A date was set, by the way. I get to wear a pretty dress!) would rather teach us to fish rather than just keep giving us fish. Darn that logic! It really needed to be done, though. I've had this computer for around 4 years now and it's been dying quite a bit lately. At least we got it done (on the second try)! Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to eat a little pizza and see if I can get my games and other necessary stuff back on here.

Something interesting later in the week. Hopefully not later than wednesday, but we'll see how things go.

Therfore, I will be computerless. Be back sunday or monday, I suppose, but I'll probably be doing some homework during that time. Sorry, I just don't have 800 bucks lying around to get a laptop. On the plus side, I just found out where my great-grandfather's writings on civil engineering are in the library. There aren't too many, but they sound pretty neat from the titles. Perhaps they're just interesting to me because they're by my ancestor, but it's still interesting to find out what he thought and the way he thought it. I just have a deep interest in family history, which was probably a large factor in my decision to go to NC State, as both he and my grandfather went to school and taught here.

So there, that's the deep, thought-provoking portion of the post. Now time for an old west, sci fi, kung fu, fantasy music video... although it seems to just take the silliest stereotypes/special effects from each genre. Something like that. Okay, before I go on ranting, here's Knights of Cydonia by Muse:

(I hereby warn commies)

Sign this petition. 'Tis for a good DC gun case SCOTUS vote!

H/T: Hot Air

So, that's all I have to say about that.

I haven't warned the hippies and commies in a while, but I am now! Warning: Follow only if ye be men of valour! For the entrance to this cave is guarded by a creature so foul, so cruel that no man yet has fought with it and lived! Bones of four fifty men lie strewn about its lair! So, brave knights, if you do doubt your courage or your strength, come nay further, for death awaits you all with nasty big pointy teeth!

Heh heh heh... Tim.

Now, in the course of my first week of school, I discovered this through The Jawa Report. Needless to say, it made me angry. Very angry. Actually, more like f***ing pissed off. Now, I don't get very passionate about too many things. Sadly, people sometimes force me to make decisions for them (where to go to eat, etc...) under the guise that I'm too indecisive because I just don't care. Yeah, I know that's not fair to me, blah blah blah, but I don't care about that either. However, when I do care about something, it is often deeply rooted and for a good reason. Gun rights happens to be one of these things. I haven't written about them in a while because of time constraints and the fact that I haven't found anything lately (I failed to bookmark The High Road when I made the switch to Firefox.

I am a rather petite girl. Not even average height, and barely over 115lbs. Not only that, but I am not very confident. Granted, it has been improving at a slow but steady rate over the past few months, but I still need a lot of work. Now, knowing that, what would happen if someone were to attack me? Even if I were to fight back (even with my tang soo do training, which is getting very near black belt)--which is often said to deter them--what would be my chances? And what if it were a group of them? What if they had a knife or a gun? I'm sorry, but I don't particularly want to be scraped off the bottom of a river months after being raped and killed.

I know all the mantra about walking in groups (because, you know, I have oh so many friends here), avoiding shady places, carrying a flashlight, not going out after dark, locking your doors, and appearing confident... all that stuff. I know it, I've heard it a thousand times. I take martial arts classes, and carry pepper spray (just got new Mean Green--it's pretty nifty), a flashlight, and a folded pocket knife with the blade under 4ish inches in length (in compliance with the law), but I still don't feel as safe as I want to be. Martial arts is only useful sofar as I can move my arms and legs. If a group of people attack me, there's no way I can defend against all of them or keep them from, say, pinning my arms and legs. Pepper spray is pretty great (a) if you can get to it quickly, easily, and without fine motor skills (which would likely be lost when under attack), (b) if the attacker isn't immune to the chemical (Quoth Reno 911: Miami, "There's no immunity to bullets!"), and (c) if you can run fast enough to get away. Granted, those three would likely line up, especially if only one person is attacking, but I would really rather not take chances. The flashlinght, well... heh. And the pocket knife carried in a folded position, as the law requires, is completely useless. It might make a nice gift to the attacker, though.

Ideally, I would want the entire society to stop being such idiots so that I can open-carry a nice 1911 everywhere--especially on college campus. Obviously, however, that ain't gonna happen. So I would like to settle for my little Kahr, concealed. Oh, but I'm under 18--I'm still a child, and therefore cannot be trusted with my own safety in any way, shape, or form. But seriously, DUDE!

What is most likely the overall point of this post, is the fact that people who want to carry firearms are not just the criminals on the streets. The people who should be "allowed" to carry them are not just the police officers. Women, generally, are physically far weaker than men (yes, femininsts are wrong), and therefore need a way to protect themselves from men who would burglarize, beat, rape and/or murder them. They need a way to protect their children. Teachers need a way to protect themselves and their students from, say, a psychopath who manages the oh-so-difficult task of carrying--what was it? 2 9mm?--onto campus and slaughtering 31 human beings. Of course, men need to be able to carry as well. If a woman, like many of her gender, is uncomfortable with carrying a gun but would allow her husband to do so (I know of a few cases), he should be able to defend his family when he can. Obviously, men can also be burglarized, beaten, raped, and murdered as well as women. One would probably be less likely to choose them for a violent attack as opposed to a woman, but it does happen.

So, the original overall point relates back to the link at the beginning. It seems the Department of Justice (which seems to translate to "Bush Administration," so I'm guessing the two are directly connected. I'm not a political science major.) filed a brief with the SCOTUS, asking them to overturn the appeals court decision on the D.C. gun ban, stating something along the lines of this: while it is blatantly obvious that the second amendment protects an individual's right to keep and bear arms, the government should still be able to impose "reasonable restrictions (Translate: bans)" on that right of the people that shall not be infringed. Feh.

Next time I have time to post: long guns!

I am not reading through all that, so my apologies for typos.

I wonder who my one reader is.

Translation: welcome to college. By the way, aforementioned sign was outside the worst-designed building ever.

Classes are all well thus far. But you don't care about that, am I right? Sure I am. But what do you care about? Well, I don't know. Until I think of some thought-provoking topic, watch the next youtube video I find:

was a load of PC crap. Don't sexually harass people, we create great opportunities to gurantee your success, the campus police will be there for after you get attacked, yay for affirmative action, etc. Those were the 9am speeches, and the rest of the day was mostly sitting around bored, occasionally listening to someone give a lecture. There was also the campus tour, which would have been far more interesting had I not already been taken around the campus a couple times and practically memorized the map.

So, classes start tomorrow. I'll see if that makes my brain start working again (HA!) such that I might think up some interesting post. Until then, watch the trailer for 3:10 to Yuma. Why? Because it's showing in the (a?) campus theater and I'm thinking I'll go see it later on.