{Insert Cliché and Overused "Poltergeist" Reference Here}

Hello all!

It's been years! Well, not literally, but it feels like it has been!

Now, while I have no excuse for not posting during January or February, I have a totally legitimate excuse for March! Really! See, my laptop broke and it was this total mission trying to get it fixed! I had to go back and forth from Pasadena and on public transportation no less! It was horrible! It took me like two hours to get there! I just got my computer back on Friday, so I'm deliriously happy. At this point, no one other than myself gets to touch it. (Btw, shout out to Betty who helped me out and listened to my whining and bitching and stupid questions during this really stressful month!)

There isn't much to say about what I have been doing as I haven't really been doing much. I purchased a Kindle, so I have been reading more, but since I lacked a way to access the internet (my laptop is the only sophisticated item of technology in my household) I have been totally disconnected from the world and current news. And no, I don't buy newspapers, so that's not an acceptable method of gathering intelligence.

Currently I'm on dregs of Spring Break, tragically watching as the days dwindle away into nothingness, waiting on the day when I shall have to pick up my pencil and armor once again and set forth, to battle radicals and imaginary numbers. Oh, and all my other classes, too. But math is more important.

Which reminds me; I've been making a strange amount of math jokes... as an English (possibly Art History) major, is the allowed? Like, will they take away my English major membership card?

I've passed my computer-less days watching continuous episodes of Criminal Minds, which was pretty fucking awesome. I realized that CM is quite honestly the only show where I don't hate any of the characters. In every other show that I watch religiously (meaning I stream on the internet) there's always that character that just needs to get thrown off a building and just die. But not in this one. It was just a really strange observation, seeing as I am currently immersing myself into television after a year of non-immersion. Plus I'm making all these really cool connections and catching all these random references to random shit that it just so random!

Like, I was able to catch a Shakespeare plot line by watching like a minute of a movie. It's honestly tripping me the fuck out.

But in a good way.

Also, I'm getting published!! I submitted a few poems I wrote to my college's literary journal and they got accepted! It's not much, but I'm like super stoked about it! Like, my name is going to be in print and distributed. My name! This is huge for me! And besides, everyone has to start out somewhere! ;)

{Although, to be completely honest, I did not think that my writing debut, so to speak, would have been with poetry. Apparently, I can write it. Who knew?}

I'll post up pictures when the journal comes out, so you all can see!

P.S. Should I make a Facebook like page for this blog? That way I can also share other random shit I find on the internet and wish to share with my readers! Yes, all two of you! What do you think?? Leave a comment, or just nod your head approvingly in front of your screen! I'm psychic. I'll know. :)

Boycott Reality Television; It's Fucking Stupid

So it's a new year. It's 2012, and it found me the way it always does; eating. I was enjoying a warm cinnamon buñuelo, made fresh yesterday, with a cup of cold apple cider. At this point, it's practically a family tradition. I hope all of you had a great time, regardless of what you did, be it getting plastered, spending time with family, or grooming your cats.

This blog post will not be about New Year's Eve, however. No; this post will be about something that pisses me off to no end. Something, that for anyone that knows me, I bitch about all the fucking time:

Reality Television.

I hate reality television with the passion of a thousand burning suns. And I don't mean competition shows like America's Next Top Model or RuPaul's Drag Race, which I don't personally watch, but don't seem to bad. I mean the stupid shows that follow around equally stupid people and their petty drama. Drama which, honestly, I do not understand why anyone gives a shit.

Yes, people. I'm talking about shows like Keeping Up With The Kardashians and Jersey Shore. These shows are about people who are not even marginally important in any way. Kim Kardashian, for example, who does absolutely nothing at all, and got famous off a pornographic video. Honestly, society? Are you fucking serious? Why are we giving someone so distasteful enough to display herself in such a shameful manner, then market herself to the world with said sex tape. Is that all anyone has to do? Film themselves having sex, release the tape, voila! They're famous?

It's stupid. How many of these people who shame pornographic actors, who can be considered the world's worst kept secret (everyone knows about them, but talking about them is taboo!), turn around and applaud Kim Kardashian taking a shit? A woman who is famous for exactly the same thing: taking a dick in front of a camera.

Seriously, I want to know. Why are they important? The "Guidos" on Jersey Shore. They do nothing except make fucking fools of themselves on Cable Television, and then endorse some fucking clothing line which the people gobble up like fucking starved maniacs. It's pathetic. It's stupid. And I don't fucking understand why people don't realize this?

(Note: "Guido" is considered a racial slur toward Italian Americans; do you think this makes MTV racist?)

These idiots do absolutely nothing for society; they're not doctors, they don't work, they're not artists, I'm positive most of them can't hold a note to save their sad existence... Hell! They're not even athletes! Generally, I have a low opinion of athletes and their not doing anything for society, but they, at least, do something for their money. Some of them just get pregnant at an insanely early age and get a fucking television show. Really? What the fuck. All these people do is entertain the idiotic masses with a sham wedding or a fucked up relationship and fist fights and they make millions.

There is something seriously wrong here.

I brought this subject up because there has been a recent phenomenon through the net; the "Boycott Kim Kardashian" website, which is comprised of a lot of ideas I believe are true. Here's the link. If you are outraged by this, I would suggest you sigh this petition and pass it along.

Really, we should have a "Boycott Reality TV" movement.

It's fucking stupid.

P.S. I mostly blame people for liking that shit, but then again, I'm a misanthropist. LOL

Thanks for reading!

Psycho Leopard Cocaine Party!

So... it's my birthday. I am officially twenty years old and all wrinkly. Ew. Omg, Botox party at my house guys! You bring the needles, I'll bring the plastic surgeon!

Anyway, beside having the extreme weight of no longer being a teenager on my shoulders (I have responsibilities- ew!), and constantly defending my stance on still being nineteen (but I'm not, sadface), I had a pretty decent birthday. Last night I had to stay up and type up a paper for my Chicano Literature class so I had the change to celebrate my birthday while writing about the Chicano movement and spamming Lady Gaga on twitter to tweet me happy birthday. Yes. You read that right. Don't hate. #hardcoremonster

Well, while finishing that paper and preparing my extra credit presentation for art history, I was attacked by all of these well-wishers and happy messages, which was pretty nice. Generally, when people attack me, they're mad 'cause I told them the truth and they didn't like it. Haters.

So I went to sleep and I slept. I had a great birthday sleep, thank-you-very-much.

Then I was woken up by my overzealous mother giving me birthday-hugs and presents; honestly, I could get used to that. Presents when you wake up? Sheer awesomeness. Then throughout the day, I was spammed by everyone I ever met wishing me happy stuff and fun stuff, and hoping I had a great day. It was great! Thanks, you guys! :D My phone kept vibrating and it was so awesome, because I kept checking it during class, and I expected stuff to happen. It was great.

After that, Vicki and I went to go eat, where we stuffed our faces and planned for my bday celebration on Saturday, just me and my hoodrats, and what exactly we were going to do and such. She didn't get to buy me cheesecake, but it's okay; the opportunity will present itself once more. Cheesecake!

However, I still cannot believe that fact that I'm old. I'm expecting to shrivel up like a prune and have to wear glasses and start making racist comments, 'cause I'm old and senile. I'm like twenty. That's like sixty! Woe is me! My childhood is over! *insert dramatic pose here*

I expected to end the day unwinding, binging on Cherry Garcia whilst watching "American Horror Story" with Coug over skype, but she has to study and shit, so I guess I'll watch Grimm, eat popcorn and read Andy Warhol's philosophy. We are currently discussing alternative timings in which to do this during the weekend. : )

And thus, ends a birthday in the life of moi.

P.S. Happy. Strangely enough.

Nothing Special!

There isn't much to say today, other that I'm writing this instead of working on my three essays, while the deadline creeps closer and closer and closer. If fact, one is practically nipping on my heels.

Well, 'wrimo was a total bust. I was good up until the second-ish week, where I decided to focus a bit on my schoolwork. What a fucking mistake. Not only did I get nothing done on my novel, I had to do homework! Bleh! I did get farther than I usually do; 23,000 words. It gives me confidence to keep writing and that yes, I can write decently and my dream is not a total waste of time.

In other news, I was a poet for a whole three weeks. I am currently pursuing this, and I shall update on how well this goes.

While procrastinating on my Art History essay on Pop Art, I am, ironically (or coincidentally?) reading "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol," by Andy Warhol. It's pretty interesting and I love it! I also bought "The Andy Warhol Diaries" which chronicles about a decade in Warhol's life. For those of you who do not know who he is, it is called Google. Please use it.

Note: It's this guy:

I love this picture, by the way. The world does fascinate me; what with its sheer stupidity and hatred for anyone who doesn't fit a certain image. Oh wait. Sorry, my misanthropic leanings are showing.

Anyway, today I also went to Walmart. That was a bad idea. Despite dealing with a bunch of annoying people who apparently do not know how to drive a shopping cart, I was also afraid I'd run into a whole bunch of booty-bouncing women, with questionable hygiene, bouncing around randomly through Walmart, with a guy behind them, reading a shopping list. If you do not know what I am talking about, consider yourselves lucky and please for the love of a possibly non-existent god, leave it at that. For those of you who are so morbidly curious, please go to YouTube and search "Mr. Ghetto" and "Walmart."

Prepare to be traumatized.

In other news, I have learned more about the city I live in. I went to this secondhand bookstore in Downtown Los Angeles, and oh my fucking god. It's called "The Last Bookstore" and it's like the Holy Grail of bookstores. If Jesus was real and read books, he'd go to that bookstore. Just... if you don't live in LA, and are ever there, you must go. If I had my way, that place would be a national landmark.

Betty and I went there on Friday after class, and yeah... I spent like fifteen on three books. Just adding to my ever-expanding library, that if it gets any bigger, I will have a fire hazard up in this bitch. Seriously; my poor bookcase cannot handle any more books! Not only is it collapsible, it's also strained to it's limits! If there was a fire, I'd be trapped by a burning wall of fire. Insert fire-y metaphor here. It's bad. I don't even have any more space to put in a new bookshelf, damn it!

Speaking of Betty, she's part of a group that runs Future Retro Gamer, a website run by gamers, that reviews games and well, they review games in very humorous ways. They're hilarious! Check them out here! And here's their Facebook Page. They're great!

I also decided that on random occasions, I will start posting some poetry on here, so you guys could give me a review, and stuff. Assuming that my readers actually exist and aren't just a fiction of my imagination. That, and possibly comments, comics and random pictures I take on other people's cameras, because mine sucks now that it refuses to work.

Maybe I should buy a new one?

I must also buy a new bookshelf and shove it into my already-crowded room. How do I do this? I need a carpenter, quick! Fuck. I suck at anything handyman-ish. It's times like these where I wish I was all rustic America and wrestled bears and killed moose and wolves with my bare hands like Sarah Palin. Then I realize what I just thought/wished, slap myself, and go watch American Horror Story.

P.S. A "q" is not a "g." Sorry to burst your bubble.

P.S.S. I want ice cream.

P.S.S.S. Be my friend, damn it! I'm like the nicest person, like, ever. : )

'WriMo, Day Eleven

Sorry I haven't been blogging recently. I have just been sooooooooo busy!

Oh, about eleven days ago, I started NaNoWriMo on a whim. While completely insane (some would argue, idiotic) I have begun to enjoy it. I started crafting my plot during a dark and stormy night, Halloween night, to be exact, and have enjoyed it so much! I try to craft some of it during the day before sitting down and writing, but some of it had been total improv.

However, the lack of pre-planning has affected me in ways I did not imagine; that and the Statewide meeting, and the Yardhouse in Pasadena. It's been crazy. I'm already like 9,000ishwords behind and I need to start soon!

So, random update, and leaving.

Also: It's 11/11/11.

...Cool.

: )

How Mainstream are YOU?

"Non-Mainstream" had become the new mainstream.

It's true. And it's just not the hipsters, although they are a large number of it. It's all of those people who shun anything "mainstream" because they're special or too "smart" to fall into the stupidity of the mainstream culture.

(Notice that I did not put stupidity in quotation marks; mainstream culture is dumb, but that's not my point. Just wanted to point it out.)

Most of these people feel like they're special because they dislike Lady Gaga or LMFAO and are into the music of this random, unknown, indie band from Bumtowm, Nowheresville. Do you want a cookie?

To be honest, I'm sure it has always started as a true movement to shun the usual stupidity prevalent in the mainstream culture. But then you get all of these little tag-alongs that just ruin everything, like the bratty kid brother that you're forced to bring along with you while hanging with your friends.

Exhibit A: Plugs and Gauges.

I assume that this plug/gauge thing started out with some sort of cultural significance. If it didn't than it makes it even more stupid.

Well, regardless of how it started, these things have taken over. People have them all over the place because they are unique, special little snowflakes.

People seem to think that if you have your ears stretched to the point of insanity that it makes them unique and different from anyone else, when in fact, they're just like everyone else. It's a fucking trend and some refuse to acknowledge this, thinking that it does make them different.

Newsflash: It does not.

Plugs/gauges are tacky and once you're actually done with them you end up with a nasty side effect, something that was recently coined as "Earlabia." (By Dan Savage, I believe.) Ears stretched to the point where they look like stretched out rubber-bands that just flop around doing absolutely nothing and looking totally gross. And when they have the little plastic stretch-thing on, they look like fucking cock-rings on your damn ears, bro.

If you have an real, culturally significant reason to have them, that they're respectable. It's all good. But if you're doing it because you want to be "different from the crowd" slap yourself.

Imagine if you will, two lines inside a circle. You have the mainstream, a red line, and you have the non-mainstream, a blue line. You want to be unique and non-mainstream, feel free to leave the red line and join the blue line. You are not a special little snowflake. You may not pass go and you sure as hell cannot have two-hundred dollars. You are just like every other person who is trying to be "cool" and go against "the mainstream." A dime a dozen.

If you truly want to be yourself in a society where being "yourself" is mainstream (or rather non-mainstream, since the two have now become synonymous) then don't follow the mainstream culture to know what you should shun or not. That's just lame.

Exhibit B: I remember that various people would tell me a different times that they dislike something because people all of sudden like it. This included various things: music, books, colors, clothes, ideas, shoes, television, facial expressions. (This is how the "Duck Face" happened), or my personal favorite, that idiotic way of texting. (Wiith extrah i's and h's and where g's become q's, iin thiis land thah qrammar forqott.)

If you're actively living to contradict the mainstream, then what the fuck are you doing? It's just a counter-culture that does the exact opposite from the other, no diversity. The only difference is that the "non-mainstreams" are more irritating about it, proclaiming that they're "different" and "unique," doing things their own way, when in fact, they're not.

Imagine the lines again, if you will. The red and blue line are totally different; one is the complete opposite from the other. (Rather like a mirror image.) They even move in separate directions! But they're still lines and move all the same.

If you truly want to be unique nowadays, you have to get away from the circle that moves around those two lines. Like what you like because you like it, regardless of who else likes it. Dress how you dress because you want to, not because people are dressing a certain way. Don't large pieces of plastic in your ear because everyone else is supposedly "not doing" it, and don't style your hair a certain way because everyone else is doing it.

In the case of the "non-mainstreams," stop trying to be the trendsetter and you will cease to be the trend.

Bite Much?

So I've been in a vampire-y mood recently.

I'm not sure exactly why, or how, it happened, all I know is that I've been watching episodes of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer over and over. Shit, I have probably watched "The Gift" like five times already. (You know, that episode where Buffy dies, the second time?)

Also, the number of Curses toward Stephanie Meyer has gone up.

It's very disconcerting, because once my interest in fictional vampire rises, my overwhelming hatred for Twilight rises as well. Not that this post will be about Twilight, because I don't feel up to it. I just wanted to point out that they're like connected, and my obsession on the paranormal had gotten to the point where I'm comparing everything. I think I reached the point where I could literally write essays on Pop Culture and vampires.

Like for example, The Vampire Diaries. Coug made me watch the pilot episode, which, shockingly, actually piqued my interest. So now, in the space of two days, I have watched about 8ish episodes. Honestly, it's not that bad of a show, if you like the drama. I dislike that the drama takes priority over the whole vampire thing, but since Meyer ruined vampires, it's the only thing that takes off.

Well, anyway, I've been watching that show, and it's not too shabby. I mean the writing sucks, and plot can be a bit campy, but otherwise, it's pretty entertaining. I guess my main problem with the show is that it feels like it's trying too hard to be Buffy. Bonnie, for example, is a werewolf (later, lesbian-witch) and red hair away from being Willow, and Jeremy's character is giving off a Xander-ish vibe, while his role is more Dawn-ish. Vicki is reminiscent of Faith, the "dark" Slayer, despite the fact that Vicki dies pretty quickly. And Caroline. *Sigh* Caroline, while being the stereotypical high-school-bitch character, is coming off very Cordelia-like, and is very bad at it. She's like Cordy-wannabe, and frankly it's annoying. Their roles are pretty much the same- the vapid bitchy girl who is always the victim, she goes after the main girl's vamp boyfriend, tactless, a cheerleader. She's pretty much a stock character, and although that's probably why the characters are so similar, Cordelia was so much better at it. I will say this, though: Damon, the second vampire, is awesome. He just is. The Mayor of Mystic Falls, Richard Lockwood, is too much like the Mayor of Sunnydale, Richard Wilkins, for my taste. Remember him? He turned into a pure demon at graduation. So I was kind of glad when Lockwood died.

And the whole Lapis Lazuli ring thing just screams Spike-With-The-Gem-of-Amara. That aspect of it is apparently of L.J Smith's creation, so I guess it's up to interpretation. The writing sucks, btw. I mean, some parts are pretty good, but others need some serious tightening up, if we're going to be honest. Also, Nina Dobrev sucks at playing a 1860's lady. It comes out fake, forced and slightly annoying.

I looked up the books. And just let me say, if the writers go with the original plot line, and Elena dies and comes back, they will kill the show. I do not care who came up with the resurrection thing first: Joss Whedon or L.J. Smith. Resurrecting the main female in a vampire/paranormal television show just screams "Buffy!" and the critics will probably eviscerate it. Violently.

However, despite my misgivings, the show is entertaining. Regardless of similarities, the show is no BtVS, but it is fun and entertaining nonetheless. Maybe later on it'll get better? Truly I don't know, but I look forward to finding out. : )