Big, Bold, and Beautiful

I Kissed A Girl

I researched the candidates’ views on “same-sex partnership benefits” and was not surprised at what I found.

McCain
It says he favors benefits but then it goes on to say:
Leave gay marriage to the states
1994: No Senate hiring discrimination by sexual orientation
Accepts gays in military under current policy
Would be “comfortable” with a gay president (I love the air quotes here, and I didn’t even put them in.)
1st Amend. not a shield for hate groups
Ban on same-sex marriage is unRepublican; leave it to states
Keep “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy - it works
Rated 33% by the HRC, indicating a mixed record on gay rights
YES on prohibiting same-sex marriage
NO on prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation
NO on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation
NO on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes
NO on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage

Palin
“Strongly opposes same-sex partnership benefits;” that’s really all I need to know but I’ll post the rest anyway.

Vetoed bill denying benefits to gays, as unconstitutional
Marriage only be between and man and a woman
Ok to deny benefits to homosexual couples
No spousal benefits for same-sex couples
Top priorities include preserving definition of "marriage” (Oh for crying out loud!)

Biden
“Strongly favors same-sex partnership benefits”

Nobody asks if you're gay in a foxhole (????)
More funding and stricter sentencing for hate crimes
Rated 78% by the HRC, indicating a pro-gay-rights stance
YES on prohibiting same-sex marriage
YES on prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation
YES on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation
YES on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes
NO on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage

And the best for last:

Obama
“Favors same-sex partnership benefits”

Gays should not face discrimination but should not marry
Decisions about marriage should be left to the states
Homosexuality no more immoral than heterosexuality
We need strong civil unions, not just weak civil unions
Opposes gay marriage; supports civil union & gay equality
Marriage not a human right; non-discrimination is
Include sexual orientation in anti-discrimination laws
Increase funding for AIDS treatment & prevention
Rated 89% by the HRC, indicating a pro-gay-rights stance
Provide benefits to domestic partners of Federal employees
NO on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage

I strongly support gay marriage and the rights that go along with it. My goddess (yes goddess) parents are a lesbian couple that has been together for about as long as I have been alive. (Longer I think actually.) A couple of years ago they got married in Toronto and my family couldn’t be there because they had to go all the way to freaking Toronto!

I would be fine with the government no longer using the word marriage at all, they could have only civil unions and the “marriage” aspect would come in where ever the couple had their ceremony, if they so chose.

Even though Obama and Biden do not support gay marriage, I don’t truly believe that they oppose it. Any candidate (especially democrat) that openly favors gay marriage becomes an easy target and is therefore not presidential candidate material. We, as a country, are not quite there yet. However, Obama/Biden will hopefully be a huge step forward for gay rights and will open the door for laws and candidates in the future to finally, lawfully, give marriage rights to homosexuals.

Now, you’re probably wondering what the deal is with the Obama logo. It is the “Deadheads for Obama” logo. If you’re not familiar with Deadheads they are fans (serious fans) of The Grateful Dead, Phil Lesh, The Dead, and any other grouping the members of those bands decide to put together. Grateful Dead is the original and, unfortunately, no longer exists; it stopped existing when guitar player Jerry Garcia died. Look ‘em up if you wanna know more.

Peace and love man.

Just to let everyone I'm going to try and put a music video with every entry. It may have something to do with the entry or it might just be a song I'm really into at the moment.
"Thought you ought a know."

Yesterday I met a girl for the first time and in the first half-hour of meeting her I started bitching her out.

I can’t remember what started the conversation but somehow we got on the topic of the book “Twilight.”

For those who don’t know “Twilight” is the first of a four book series that has gained tremendous popularity; mainly with girls in their pre-teens. However, like Harry Potter, it had a slow start, and like with any series that starts that way there are those that got into the series long before it became popular, and then there are those that are bitter about it.

This girl, we’ll call her Suzie, was one of those people.

Apparently she had really gotten into the first book, “Twilight,” before it had become popular and really enjoyed it. Then as it became popular she refused to read the rest of the books and told us how upset she was that other people were so into it and that it was so popular; because gods forbid that other people pick up the same book as you and enjoy it as much as you!

I asked her incredulously (having read the entire series), “You haven’t read the sequels?”

“No, I refuse to read them now that everyone’s so into them.”

She actually had the nerve to say that, I mean there are plenty of people out there who do that but they don’t have the cojones to say it.

Then she tipped me over the edge by saying this:

“Just like Harry Potter, I haven’t read the rest of those either.”

For those that haven’t noticed my Harry Potter shirts, or my sweatshirts (yes multiple), or maybe you haven’t seen my Gryffindor/Slytherin messenger bag, I’ll just come out and say it, I’m a HUGE Harry Potter fan, so this was just a push too far. (By the way the picture is probably going to be my Halloween costume, in case you didn't believe me.)

Though I didn’t actually start yelling my voice was so frustrated and annoyed that I’m pretty sure she actually backed up a step.

“Why do you care if other people started liking it too? If you like something then you shouldn’t care what anyone else thinks. And if someone else starts liking something that you like then why wouldn’t you be happy that you can share that thing that you enjoy so much with someone else. You’re just being nonconformist for the sake of being nonconformist and that’s stupid! You’re not actually different you’re just trying to be.”

Interspersed in this rant I believe she had said a few things here or there but mainly I was too pissed too listen, however, I did hear one thing that she said, and it really didn’t help anything.

“I know it’s lame but I’m proud of it.”

So, she knows that what she’s doing is completely retarded and affecting no one but herself, and in a negative way I should add, but she’s “proud” of it.

Right.

This isn’t the first time this kind of thing has pissed me off but it is the first time I’ve said anything about it, especially to someone who was actually doing it.

I think I scared her a little.

I think I’m okay with that.

I’m all for individuality and being yourself but that’s the exact problem with people like this, they aren’t being themselves.

If you like something then it shouldn’t matter what anyone else says, you should still like it. Even if you feel that you can’t talk about what you like for fear of repercussions (maybe your friends think a book about a vampire/human romance is creepy) but you still like it.

Pretending you don’t like something just because it’s become popular doesn’t make you cool; it just makes you a liar.

I will never understand why anyone would be upset that something they love has become popular. I love recommending books or music or movies or clothes or anything to people and getting their opinion on it, especially if they end up liking it too. To have that thing in common and be able to share it and discuss it is a great experience. I know this because I love the Twilight series, I love Harry Potter, and I love talking about them with other fans.

I consider my first real art experience to be when I first took ceramics class in my sophomore year. Although I was making art before then – I was making jewelry and other crafts for several years before that – I never considered them art, more than that I never thought I was very artistic.

Ceramics wasn’t an instant click; we started with pinch pots, which I suck at. While most people ended with a nicely rounded pot that would be adorable on their teacher’s desk holding pens, mine was a lumpy triangle which would have simply collapsed had I not made it into that odd shape.

I wasn’t great at ceramics for a while, not that I’m great at it now but, I’d like to think I’ve come a long way. None the less I loved it. I’d always tried to draw but couldn’t wrap my mind around making the 3-D figure in my head 2-D on the paper; in ceramics I could finally make the whole picture. I also loved working with my hands and being able to touch what I was making, not just look at it.

During my first year of ceramics I was lucky enough to have it every day. Every other day was different classes (block scheduling) except for third period, ceramics. What made it great though was the fact that my first class of each day grated on my nerves to the point that I would often come into ceramics fuming. As soon as I started kneading the clay though all my tension drained away and became something tangible and hopefully beautiful.

The piece I remember the most fondly is what I call the “Smurf House.” Our assignment was to create a bird house, a stupid assignment considering our medium. I was extremely annoyed at the assignment and just fussing with the clay, trying out a unicorn horn shape and failing, when I finally dropped the slab. Dejectedly I turned the – once again – lopsided shape around was suddenly stuck by it, it looked like a mushroom! Struck by its adorable possibilities I took off on it and made what I still consider to be one of my best – or at least cutest – pieces.

Ceramics opened my eyes to my possibilities when it came to art. I found myself taking more and more art classes as my electives opened up. I noticed that I was always looking forward to those classes more than any of my academic classes, which I simply tried to get out of with a decent grade. Eventually I realized that I was probably going to be an artist in some sense of the word and started looking at art schools for college.

Now I have three years of ceramics, two years of each web design and photography, one year of graphic design, and many years of jewelry under my belt and can’t wait to learn even more. I never thought I’d go to art school before a little more than a year ago, when I finally realized…there was nothing else I liked.

History is written by the winners.

Though I can’t think of any stories I was told in elementary or middle school I know that in my 20th Century Topics class last year we were exposed to a lot of history that surprised the class, myself included.

The subject I remember that most surprised us was Cuba.

We all thought we knew that Castro was nothing but a dictator and the U.S. was nothing but perfect and had done everything it could to prevent Cuba from becoming what it is today.

We were wrong.

To make a very long story short; the U.S. was using Cuba before Castro came into power. Our companies owned about 95% of the land in Cuba. When Castro came to power he basically kicked out all the U.S. companies and returned the land to the Cubans. This obviously pissed off the U.S. Now I can’t remember which event came first but Castro came to the U.S. looking to talk to the president, basically trying to make peace and talk about aid. The president said he was “too busy” when really he was golfing and instead had Nixon talk to him who the president knew wouldn’t even Castro seriously because he didn’t like him. (By the way after this meeting is when Castro turns to the Soviet Union for help. Is it really a surprise he became communist when he and his country were screwed over by the most powerful democratic nation that exists?) Later Kennedy pulls the Bay of Pigs fiasco, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, and altogether the U.S. comes out pretty bad when you really look at Cuba’s history.

Now this isn’t to say that Castro is a saint. He took power by force, not that Batista was an angel, once he got into power he killed something like 600 Batista supporters, he barely delivered any of his promises to his people, and he made himself basically dictator for life.
So really neither was very good but we’ve been lead to believe that Castro is just evil and we’re never told about how and why he came to power.

Also in Topics we were encouraged to debate what exactly sparked one thing or another; often though several of us in the class would argue that it was several different events or actions that set something off. This would usually frustrate our teacher though he knew were correct. (In his defense he was trying to get us to pick one thing and defend it so it would be easier to write our essay tests.)

The point though is that all of history is connected in one way or another and you can never truly single out an event and look at on its own without looking at its past.

Why is it that partying is code for drinking and smoking?

I would love to go party with my friends, by which I mean, I want to listen to loud music and dance; but I don’t, because they mean: “Lets get drunk.”

Likewise if someone asks you: “Do you party?” It’s code for “Do you drink?”

Let me back up and first just say that I have no problem with drinking, and that I would prefer people smoke pot than cigarettes. I don’t smoke, anything, because I think cigarettes are gross and I don’t want to get caught with weed. I don’t drink because I’m a total lightweight and I don’t like how I feel really even after one drink. I only drink with my parents, it’s usually only one drink, and it’s usually pretty good stuff. I have never continued to drink something I didn’t like the taste of and from what I’ve seen the main point of these parties is to simply get drunk and not really care about the taste of whatever it is because you’re either drinking it so fast that you don’t taste it anyway or because you’ve covered the taste with something else to make it drinkable.

Now I’m sure many of you are thinking “How you can judge us getting drunk if you’ve never done it?” I have gotten drunk, several times in fact. First time I got drunk I was about two so that probably doesn’t count. The other times however were all between the ages of about twelve and fifteen. Now you’re thinking “She must have been really out of control at a young age and just gotten it out of her system.” Nope, all of those times I was with my parents, or at least my mom. Want to know why she would let me do such a thing? I’ll tell you. Warning: Boys you may want to skip to the next paragraph, this may be more than you want to know. My mom made me each one of those drinks, and she made them strong, because I had cramps that bad. Yup, those drinks were actually medicinal. If you didn’t know already alcohol is a muscle relaxant and a damn good one at that. I used to have cramps so terrible that my mom often had to pick me up from school or keep me home altogether. Eventually the only that would knock them, and me, out would be a stiff drink.

Ok boys it’s safe now. So I know what it’s like to get drunk, mainly I get a little silly and then I just want to take a nap; far from the most fun thing I can think of, but I do plan on drinking more as I get older, just not drinking to get drunk.

A good friend of mine who does “party” said to me a few days ago “You should come partying with us!” Though I’d love to partake in what seems to be a big part of her life I had to ask “Yea but, do you do anything besides drink?” Even though I expected the answer I got I was still disappointed. “Not really, there are some dance parties but that’s pretty rare.”

So I don’t party. I hate saying it too, because I’d love to go to a club or house party to dance and have fun, but when someone asks me, “Do you party?” they’re really asking “Do you drink?” and I can’t honestly answer yes because I’m not going to go to some frat guy’s house and drink crappy beer or hard liquor so that I can get wasted and enjoy doing a lot of nothing.

Some of you are probably thinking “Why not just go to the party and not drink?” I don’t want to be that awkward friend that just ends up standing in the corner, or constantly refusing drinks because *yelling over the loud music* “I don’t drink.” I’ve been in this position before and even on a small scale it’s weird. I was with a handful of friends that were trying a cigar for the first time (one of them had just turned 18) which is fine, but several times I had to say “no thanks, I don’t smoke.” They were cool about it but still, having to deal with that on a larger scale with strangers asking would just be unbearably annoying, for both of us probably.

Sometimes I worry that I won’t find a boyfriend because of this (my friend has several guys that would love to be her boyfriend at the moment), or that I’m missing out on some great college experience, but I’ve pretty much made peace with that.

Feel free to comment in any way you like. Share an experience, tell me why I should go party if you want, I welcome it all.