Who are these Team Jacob people?

Who are these Team Jacob people? I understand how you could be a little upset with Edward for leaving in New Moon, but how could you completely switch to liking Jacob? Yeah, he's great for Bella when Edward's gone, but then when Edward comes back he becomes such a jerk. He rats her out so that she'll get grounded--what kind of friend does that? Then he just acts like a douche & bitches at Bella at how she shouldn't be with Edward and how unnatural vampires are, even though he's a werewolf because his ancestor shared a wolf's body to avoid moving on when someone stole his while he was out of it. Real natural, wolf boy (*cough*hypocrite*cough*).
I've been in an Eclipse-like situation & I haven't acted like Jacob. I want to deserve my man when I win him over. I haven't told his girlfriend how he feels about me because I'm not going to force his hand. When we spend time together, I don't bitch at him at how much prettier I am than her (note: I am in fact prettier than her, and that's an honest observation, not conceit or pettiness) or anything like that, or tell him that how much better for him than she is. I don't want to ruin the time we spend together like Jacob ruined the time he and Bella spent together by harping on him leave his girlfriend (again, like Jacob harped on Bella to leave Edward). I'm not going to lie to him or force myself on him like Jacob. I will deserve my victory. If he leaves his girlfriend for me, it's going to be because he sees, through our time together, that he likes how I treat him and feels he'd rather be with me, not because I manipulated him or forced myself on him. You can say all day long that you never know what you would do until you're in that situation--well, I've been in that situation, heck I'm in that situaion RIGHT NOW, and I can honestly say that I haven't acted like him & can't respect his tactics. I can't see how anyone can prefer a man who would leave you if it meant you would be happy to a man who bashes your beloved and manipulates you and forces himself on you.
Can any Team Jacobers explain this to me?

TSWRA & slightly more fluffy controversy

TSWRA stands for "The South Will Rise Again," something that is said (not chanted, as a chant is defined by repetition) at the end of "Dixie, With Love" when it is played at Ole Miss football games. There has been quite a bit of controversy over the phrase, opponents stating that it is a throwback from a racist past; supporters of the phrase claim that it means something different now, that it represents all that the South could be--they claim it's been redefined as a battle cry for progress.
Which group better defines TSWRA is not important; what is important is the University's official stance on the issue: any student caught "chanting" (I've already went over why it's not a chant) this phrase will be punished. What "punishment" is exactly has not been specified: it could be something as simply unpleasant as being escorted from Vault-Hemingway Stadium or it could be as severe as a fine (the bane of every student's existence) or even expulsion. The chancellor has reserved the right to dish out any of these punishments by not saying how students will be disciplined for their participation in saying TSWRA. This is a problem.
Another problem is the restriction of free speech inherent in this sort of stance. Racist or not, progressive or not, shouting out, "THE SOUTH WILL RISE AGAIN!" is every student's right as defined by the Constitution. The bleeding hearts will tell you to have compassion on those who used to be oppressed under the phrase; I say that if men can constitutionally speak out on abortion (something that is supposed to be a woman's right), I should be able to voice my opinion concerning my own right to shout whatever I want at a football game. This phrase has been screamed out in Vault for 7 years & only now that we have a new chancellor is it being brought up. And people thought our former chancellor was being unreasonable with the taking away of Colonel Reb. Yeah, that was pretty stupid, too, but at least it was within his right. Colonel Reb was a school emblem, therefore, he could do whatever he [the chancellor] wanted to with the mascot. TSWRA is not an official school anything; it was started by the students in 2002. This means that the university should have no control over it.
The most valid reason I have heard over banning TSWRA is that we will lose funding, but even this is a weak arguement. It would be like calling for the disbandment of CAN because a pro-war financier of the university was offended by its activities on campus. It's bogus. If someone is anti-Constitution (which you are if you agree with the unreasonable restriction of freedom of speech), then I don't want your money anyway. I'd rather pay more tuition (especially, admittedly, since I don't pay my tuition--ironically, the government does) than have my rights restricted because some people think it's wrong to not hide "the bad South," as TSWRA has quickly become associated with, in a closet & pretending it didn't happen. I'm not racist, I just don't believe that the freedom of speech should be restricted because someone finds it offensive.
Now that I've gotten that bit out of my system, I'm onto slightly less dire sources of controversy, such as the ending to Breaking Dawn. Many people believe that the ending would've been better served with a death; I disagree with every fiber of my being. I'm not normally an HEA kind of girl, but I felt this was the most appropriate ending to the series. Someone on a discussion board actually suggested that Renesmee should've never been born (which is pretty common, even though I think it's rather bogus) and that Bella & Edward should've sacrificed themselves for their family. WHAT?! That's like letting the bad guys win. Even if Edward & Bella's family defeated the villians or the sacrifices they made directly caused the villians' downfall, it still wouldn't have felt like victory to me. "Well, it's the last book, might as well kill everyone," is J.K. Rowling's style, not Stephenie Meyer's. If Bella & Edward would've died, I would've taken my copy of Breaking Dawn back to the store & demanded that they let me exchange it for something a little less lame and sold my copies of the other books on Amazon. I wouldn't have ever been able to see the Twilight Saga the same way again.
I feel terrible for not updating in weeks like I haven't, but I promise, I will start updating more often. Life just keeps getting in the way of my blog updates--ugh, stupid responsibilities.

Official Fanfic Author

That is what I am--an official fanfiction author. I've wrote the first chapters of 2 fanfics & posted a second chapter of one of the two. The New Moon fic I blogged about earler is called Alpha Girl and has the first chapter up--it's rated T for coarse language and violence; my other fanfic is a slashfic called Lovers and Friends--it's rated M for language and sex. Alpha Girl is a Romance/Angst fic & Lovers and Friends is a Romance/Drama fic. I'm pretty proud of both of them. I have a playlist for Alpha Girl--I'm considering posting the song list to my FF.Net profile.

Sometimes I despise my literary nature

I have a very literary heart--I love to read, but I also enjoy writing. For the longest time it has been original short stories that I only let small numbers of people read; lately though, I have begun writing a novel that I plan to submit for publishing. That's put on the backburner though because I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to get where I want to go with the story.Now I'm thinking of writing a New Moon fanfiction (the idea of re-interpreting any Twilight book is actually scarier than thoughts of the publishing process). I'm thinking of writing New Moon from Emily's POV. I've thought alot about alternative POVs because recently we read Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville in English 222 (Lit. before 1650) and just now I read this character analysis on Leah & Emily (which I plan on bookmarking). It talked about how the second-in-command in a wolf pack is the Alpha's mate (the Alpha Female), which would make Emily an incredibly powerful woman. Then I started thinking, "What would the events of New Moon look like to [Emily as] the second-in-command of the werewolf pack? Would it conflict with how she felt about them privately?" and that's where I got the idea for the fanfic. I also plan to explore Emily's feelings about her imprint with Sam and her possible guilt over how it affected Leah.
Well, I have to start writing now--when I get an idea in my head, I can't rest until I put it into action (hence why it sometimes sucks to have such a literary soul). I will post the link to the story as soon as I have the first chapter written & on a fanfic site (assuming I don't just write it on LivJournal for the sake of simplicity).

Sorry for the Sporadic Posts

Ugh, I am getting so lazy with this blog, but I promise I'm going to try to do better. Anyway, tomorrow's my 20th birthday & I'm psyched. My roommate made me a Twilight-themed birthday cake. Here are some pictures of the cake:

front view

right view

left view

top view

rear view

Pretty sweet cake, huh? The figurines are Edward, Bella, Jacob, & Renesmee; then there's the apple from the Twilight cover & the chess pieces and board from the Breaking Dawn cover; the grass is from the meadow; and the stuff around the cake represents First Beach (roomie is a wolf girl after all--gotta put some Rez in there somewhere).

I've had some romantic trouble recently, but I'm over that now--never make someone a priority that considers you an option.

I think I'm going to help my mom get a Facebook--I know I said I don't think parents who have teens on FB should be on Facebook, but mom won't use hers to spy on me (and after tomorrow I won't be a teen anymore anyway--haha). I still think there are some rules of ettiquette if you are the parent of a FB user who wants to get a Facebook; they are as follows:

1. Don't use it to spy on your kid; Facebook was created for social networking, not parental snooping
2. Don't post anything embarassing on your kid's Wall or any humiliating photos in your albums
3. Be careful when adding your kid's friends--it's better they come to you, especially if you've only met them recently

These are just some basics rules to follow--anything else is on a case-to-case basis between you and your kid.

I got the Us Weekly's special New Moon issue; I split the posters with my roomie because 1)I wanted to show her that I appreciated the effort it took to make that cake 2) I have no idea where I would put 7 posters--4 is much more manageable.

AngstGoddess003 wrote a one-shot to tide over her readers while she slaves over the Wide Awake epilogue--it's called Great Vexations. It's a slashfic, which I thought I would never like, but I do how she wrote it. It is SO GOOD! Go read it--now.

P.S.: For any of you on Twitter, you can follow my random ramblings here.

Catching Up

Sorry I haven't posted in so long--I didn't have much in the way of an Internet connection this summer. Anyway, I have a new apartment and constant Internet access is mine once again--yays! So, my bff had a baby boy--he's so cute and sweet! When you tell him that you love him, he tries to say it back. Also, I went to see Wicked at the Orpheum--so good! It followed the storline of the book pretty well, while at the same time showing some creative license that mixed really well. I also went to the Brooks Art Museum and the Memphis Zoo the same week. I got some awesome Andy Warhol magnets while I was there--they were $10 for 4 of them which is sort of steep, but I <3 Andy Warhol.
Also, I went to see my grandparents in July. It was nice, but I always feel like they refuse to see how much I've grown up, especially my grandfather. It's nice to be back where people look at me as an adult.
I bought this book in the campus bookstore called, You're Being Lied To by Russ Kick. He writes a few things in there, but it's mostly compiled by him--he asked alot of people from alot of different backgrounds. They're aren't alot of conservative opinions in there because Rush Limbough told them not to do it they didn't have anything to say. It doesn't have all the answers, but it does show how the "answers" we have now are wrong.
I joined the Campus Anti-War Network. No, that does not mean that I am anti-military--in fact, one of our goals is for all of those who served in the armed forces to get full physical and mental health benefits and educational funds, regardless of discharge status. We even have a guy who served in Iraq in our group and no one treats him badly or indifferently because he was in the military. The reason I joined CAN is because I don't believe we should be in Iraq, and we're actually in Afganistan for all the wrong reasons. We went over there to look for Osama bin Laden and his Al-Queda operatives and we're not even actually focused on that anymore. I also don't believe we should get involved in the civil wars of other nations or use the military to supposedly spread democracy. That's what being in CAN is about.

Squirrels

There are different types of squirrels: there are country squirrels who don't trust humans since usually rifles follow soon after when country squirrels see people; there are city squirrels who are street smart (literally--I've seen the cross the street and dodge cars and such) but, despite the fact they know we can't kill them with a shotgun, still don't trust humans; then there are Ole Miss squirrels. Maybe squirrels are like this at all universities, but I've only seen them at Ole Miss so that is how I categorize them. These squirrels are fearless--they can cross the road, they fear no human and will let you get within inches of them. They eat dropped food--once a friend of mine tossed an Ole Miss squirrel a waffle fry and it nibbled on it until it was gone. They will run out in front of people just to make them stop suddenly like the evil Geico squirrels who make the cars wreck for shits and giggles. I don't know what makes these Ole Miss squirrels so carefree--maybe it's Ole Miss's beautiful campus, maybe it's the no-gun policy the university holds, it may even be that we humans seem genuinely fond of the little creatures in a non-food sort of way. Whatever it is, there is something different about Ole Miss squirrels.

STEPHENIE SUED?!?!

I was on the FB group Because I read Twilight I have unrealistic expectations in Men and I happened upon a thread titled Woman claims Twilight as her story, production halted?! WTF?! According to the article posted within the thread, a woman by the name of Heidi Stanton, supposedly Meyer's college roommate, wrote a very similar story in 1993. She claims that she hadn't read Twilight or it's 3 sequels or watched the movie before now because she has 4 small children and didn't have time for such luxuries as reading or going to the movies. Now it's true that parents of small children have little time for themselves, but I don't know anyone who has small children who doesn't at least try to do something for themselves, like buy a book that their college roommate wrote (at least look at the inside cover to see what it's about). Another thing I feel is inaccurate about the article is that they say New Moon is being halted in the post-production phase. It's still filming, so it can't be in post-production. Also, the same site had stories claiming that Taylor Lautner died doing a stunt (soon after he was seen at the Kid's Choice Awards), so it's not exactly a credible site.
Twilight Lexicon reported on this rumor and considers it completely false.

Cool Fan-Made New Moon Posters

Here are my favorite Fan-Made New Moon posters. I didn't make any of these; they were all made by someone named Kim White, but ultimately, everything belongs to Stephenie Meyer and, to a lesser, extent, Summit Entertainment. Note: all the posters will link back to where they originated.

What are YOUR favorite fan-made posters for New Moon?

I KNEW IT!

I KNEW I WASN'T CRAZY OR DREAMING! Sorry. I'm just kind of excited. See, I read part of this book in Wal*Mart one day. On the cover it said Cathy's Book : If Found Call 650-266-8233 and had this packet of stuff inside it. It intrigued me so I read part of it and it was so good that for the first time in my life, I seriously considered stealing something (namely that book). Well, I finally got enough money to buy the book and guess what? I COULDN'T FIND IT!!!!!!!!!!!! I searched so thoroughly for this book it was unreal. My mom said I must have just been dreaming or something, but, even though I had begun to believe the same thing myself to an extent, I knew I wasn't because everything else concerning that day happened--it was really the last day of exams for the semester, I really ate at Sonic, I really picked Mom up from work.
Anyway, I belong to this survey site called ZoomPanel that gives you points for surveys and then you get to redeem them for stuff. I was trying to decide whether I wanted to wait until I got to 2,000 points to get something or go ahead and get a 1,000 point item. On page forty, I saw it--I saw the book that has eluded me for TWO YEARS! I saw Cathy's Book : If Found Call 650-266-8233 and I squealed like a twelve-year-old girl.
There's a sequel now: Cathy's Key: If Found 650-266-8202 and another Cathy's Ring that hasn't came out yet. Great--now I'm going to addicted to another book series. Oh well, at least I didn't dream Cathy's Book up. I was becoming so convinced that I dreamt the entire thing that I almost wrote the book myself...and then I would've beens sued for copyright infringement and my only arguement would be, "Well, I didn't realize that it was a REAL BOOK--I thought it was just a DREAM BOOK." Yeah, that would work.
I can't wait to read this book and post a review on Everyone's a Critic.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

Whichever you prefer, it's none of my business. I've got all my bases covered for the Easter holiday pictures. I never understood why exactly Jesus's resurrection inspired a holiday character such as the Easter Bunny until last year when I read the origin of the holiday's timing. You can read the story here. It's not why Christians celebrate Easter, it's why we celebrate it when we do. I'm not going to push any type of religious agenda on anyone, so I'll switch gears now.

Anyway, I opened my Easter gift (yes, I'm 19 and still get an Easter gift--I'm lucky like that) this morning and was pretty pysched to find an iTunes gift card in there. I was even more pysched to actually use the gift card. I got some awesome songs and still have a little bit more that I can download. I ate a great Easter dinner with some of my family and headed back to school.

Twilight Videos

I can't figure out how to imbed videos on Blogger, so I'll be doing this on my LiveJournal. This is the link to the post: Hilarious Twilight Videos. I thought the song-clip matches were right on and funny as hell. Oh, and here's a link to my LiveJournal: Random Ramblings. These came at just the right time, too; I need a good laugh right now.

I'm Such a Goof

I'm so goofy. Yesterday, me and some friends were talking and drinking coffee at the Starbucks on campus and we had been there for quite awhile when they said they were closing. Well, I still had my messenger bag that I carry my books in and I guess I was in a hurry because I forgot it! I got back to my dorm room and thought, "Where did I put my bookbag?" I searched the whole room, realized it must be at Starbucks and hoped nobody stole it. Well, I went to Starbucks today before I went to class and the staff had put it back for me. Thank God!
And I almost lost my cell phone the same day--I accidentally left in the library. Fortunately for me I realized it almost immediately and somone honest had picked it up and gave it to the library staff to hold on to.
I can't believe I almost lost 2 things in one day. I'm usually more observant than that. Fortunately, I still have my cell phone and my bookbag because, while I'm goofy, I'm apparently also lucky. :)

Another Name for a Twilighter or Twi-Hard...

Twi-tard. I hate that word. It's such a stupid word; people think they're being clever because it rhymes with "Twi-hard", but really they're just making asses of themselves when they use that term. The pathetic thing is though, the people who call Twilighters that (sometimes referred to as anti-Twilighters) are the real Twi-tards. Wanna know why? Because they're on the Internet, ranting about how much Twilight sucks with just as much zeal as the most overeager Twilighter gushes about how Twilight rocks; there is a difference between the overeager fangirl and the anti-Twilighter: the Twilighter is actually talking about something he/she enjoys and the anti-Twilighter is focusing on something they dislike when they could be reading a book or talking about a book that they actually enjoy.
Read a book, take a cycling class, become a painter, whatever, but there really must be more for these people to do with their time than sit around talking about how much Twilight sucks. Or maybe there's not. At any rate, I think focusing all your energy into any one particular thing is pathetic--everyone should have more than one hobby, especially when you're only hobby is bashing a book.

Bella Bracelets and Other Twilight Jewelry (This post contains SPOILERS for those not through with New Moon and Eclipse)

I've posted two serious posts, so I thought I might lighten things up with a little bit of Twilight news. The "Bella Bracelet" from Eclipse, the third installment of the Twilight Saga, is probably the most sought-after piece of Twilight jewelry. Representing the two loves in Bella's life, it's typically silver (though some are made in gold) and has a crystal heart (typically clear, but some makers offer different colors) charm and a wolf charm. The wolf charm in the book is carved from wood; however, most of the commercial real-life bracelets are not for various reasons--they are usually silver or copper charms. Some are carved from stone, there are not many carved from wood. If you're looking for your own "Bella bracelet", here are some links to sellers of this piece of Twilight memoribilia (I'm putting a link to a few different styles):

• This bracelet is a little different from the typical "Bella bracelet": the bracelet itself has an "antique" look and the wolf is gold. It has a clear heart. $22.00
• This one is also the typical "Bella Bracelet. $12.50
• This one is typical, except THE WOLF IS CARVED FROM WOOD--YEA! $65.00
• This one is in typical form, except the wolf is made from clay polymer rather than silver or copper. $15.00
• This one is a bit different: it's on a silver chain like most and has a silver wolf and a clear heart like most, but between the two typical charms is a silver apple--depicting the "forbidden fruit"--with a red jewel--"blood droplets" apparently--and onyx beads on the "outside" sides of the wolf and heart charms. $24.99
• This bracelet has a unique chain--I can't accurately explain it, you'll just have to look at it--with the typical heart charm on it and a red "blood droplet" jewel connected with a cherry-stained, hand-carved wolf. $29.99

Here's some more Twilight jewelry:

• Replica of the Cullen Crest Necklace that Nikki Reed as Rosalie wears in the movie. $24.99-$52.90
• Replica of the Cullen Crest choker that Ashley Greene as Alice wears in the movie. $24.99-$52.90
• Replica of the Cullen Crest wristband that Robert Pattinson, Kellan Lutz, and Jackson Rathbone as Edward, Emmett, and Jasper wear in the movie. $24.97-$145.99
• Replica of the Cullen Crest bracelet that Elizabeth Reaser as Esme wears in the movie. $24.84-$143.95
• Charm bracelet with mini-books on it. $21.00
• Charm bracelet with the heart charm to represent Edward and a gold wolf to represent Jacob, as well as a red apple charm, red "blood droplet" charm, queen chess piece, old truck, baseball mitt, puzzle piece, and topaz colored glass drop. $25.00
• Watch with a picture of Rob Pattinson and Kristen Stewart as Edward and Bella on it. $9.99
• Has two red "blood droplet" jewels, one near the clasp and one near the pendant. The pendant is handstamped with the word "Twilight"; it has a moon-and-star charm to represent twilight--actually representing Twilight. $35.00
• A Twilight Jewelry Box to keep all this jewelry you're buying in. $19.00-$195.99

There are other pieces of Twilight jewelry available at varying prices. It's quite common--you can Google it. :)

Ganja is kind of legal (especially if you're addicted to it)

The Supreme Court has ruled that you cannot be prosecuted for what you put in your own body-especially if you're addicted to it. In the early 1920s Dr. Linder was convicted for giving his patient who was a narcotics addict 1 morophine tablet & 3 cocaine tablets; his conviction was overturned because they declared it was acceptable to give addicts small amounts of drugs to alleviate pain from their addiction (Linder v. United States) .
A similar incident where a CA state law made it illegal to be an addict was overturned in 1962 because punishing an addict for being an addict is cruel & unusual, which makes it unconstitutional (Robinson v. California).
They clarified their ruling in Powell v. Texas six years later when a man tried to use the Robinson decision as precedent because he had been arrested for being drunk in public, arguing because he was an alcoholic he couldn't help it. They upheld his conviction, which basically said you cannot be convicted for ingesting drugs but you can for actions such as DUI or public drunkedness-- in other words, you may only be prosecuted for your conduct, not for what you put in your own body. Crazy huh? Pass the word around so this "forgotted precedent" won't be forgotten anymore & we can put criminals instead of addicts behind bars.

I got this information from a book called 100 Things You're Not Supposed to Know by Russ Kick.

Socialism

This word comes up alot today, so let me give you the definition: Socialism- economic theory that supports government ownersip of the production and distribution of goods and services. Social Security and Medicaid are not socialism, they are entitlement programs; government REGULATION of business is not socialist, it's smart because business owners will never do the right thing unless there are consequences for being corrupt, greedy sons of bitches. When conservatives think business practices will be regulated they scream, "SOCIALISM, THAT'S SOCIALISM!" because of the stigma connected with the word. You want to know a horrible socialist program that someone, somewhere in this great nation is using every day that it's open? The United States Postal Service...that's right the Postal Service is a socialist program (Amtrak is too). No one bitches and moans about the Postal Service being socialist, but it is; the United States Postal Service is government ownership of the distibution of the mail. FedEx and companies like it exist, but unless you specifically take your mail to FedEx (or a company like it) to have it shipped, your mail is picked up and dropped off by the United States Postal Service.
Now I'm not saying this is a bad thing, I'm just making a point: people try to label things socialist that aren't while everyone takes advantage of things that are truly socialist without batting an eyelash. Just remember: before putting a label on something, make sure you're actually using the label correctly and question labels when you think someone might not be accurate in what they're saying.

Twilight DVD

There were a few choices to choose from when considering which edition of Twilight you would from what store and how: would you get the 2-Disc Special Edition from Wal*Mart, the special editions from Borders or Chapters, or maybe you would go to Target for the 3-Disc Special Edition. Okay, now how are you going to get the the much-anticipated Twilight DVD of your choice? Are you going to pre-order it and wait for it to be mailed, or go to the store of your choice? If you go to the store that offers your preferred edition of the DVD will you brave it at midnight or pray they didn't put all the special editions out at midnight, leaving you with the single-disc version?
Millions of fans faced this question and had their answer by Friday, March 20, 2009 awaiting the midnight release of the Twilight DVD at the store of their choosing. I myself went to Wal*Mart, nice safe Wal*Mart. Wal*Mart, where the poor stock guy was trying not to get mobbed by Twilighters while putting out the Twilight stand; this stand, which didn't seem to move fast enough for the poor guy's personal taste, had the 2-Disc Special Edition, which Wal*Mart only put out a few the first time and people were snatching those things up like you wouldn't believe, the single-disc edition, posters, the soundtrack, and free guides to throwing a great viewing party. Hernando, MS's, Wal*Mart had its own little area where all the Twilight merchandise sat together (my more local Wal*Mart is re-arranging everything so they couldn't make a Twilight area). This merchandise included button pins, necklaces, keychains, bag charms, messenger bags, purses, T-Shirts, bracelets, and a trivia board game.
I admit it: I stalked like a creeper around looking for someone who could tell me when they were going to get more Special Edition DVDs out then ran for it to get one and I bought pretty much at least one of every kind of Twilight merchandise available at Wal*Mart. I have a messenger bag, a purse, 18 (3 packs) button pins, 2 (1 pack) bracelets, the board game, a necklace, a bag charm, 3 t-shirts, a poster, the soundtrack (that came with a mini-posters), and a calendar I bought about a month ago (that has 12 or 13 medium-sized posters). Did I mention I also bought a "Bella bracelet" not long after finishing Eclipse back in October? So, yeah, I think I have enough Twilight merchandise (I do, right? I don't need anymore?). The only good thing about New Moon being months from coming out in theatres is that my bank account will have time to recover from the massive amount of merchandise I bought.

Stephen King Bashes Stephenie Meyer (Among Others)

On February 2, 2009, Stephen King had an interview with USA Weekend to promote his new book. Well, what started with an innocent question on what influence he has had on authors such as Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and Twilight author Stephenie Meyer turned into a bash-session of mainstream writers; he was quoted saying, 'I think that has some kind of formative influence the same way reading Richard Matheson had an influence on me,' King explains. 'People always say to me, 'Well, what about H.P. Lovecraft?' And the thing was, you read Lovecraft when you were a kid but I never felt that he was speaking my language. It was chillier than my heart was, and when Matheson started to write about ordinary people and stuff, that was something that I wanted to do. I said, 'This is the way to do it. He’s showing the way.' I think that I serve that purpose for some writers, and that’s a good thing. Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people. ... The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.
"But then King recalls that when his mom was alive, she read all the Erle Stanley Gardner books, the Perry Mason mysteries, obsessively when he was growing up. 'He was a terrible writer, too, but he was very successful,' King says. 'Somebody who’s a terrific writer who’s been very, very successful is Jodi Picoult. You’ve got Dean Koontz, who can write like hell. And then sometimes he’s just awful. It varies. James Patterson is a terrible writer but he’s very very successful. People are attracted by the stories, by the pace and in the case of Stephenie Meyer, it’s very clear that she’s writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books. It’s exciting and it’s thrilling and it's not particularly threatening because they’re not overtly sexual. A lot of the physical side of it is conveyed in things like the vampire will touch her forearm or run a hand over skin, and she just flushes all hot and cold. And for girls, that’s a shorthand for all the feelings that they’re not ready to deal with yet.'

I didn't realize Mr. King had changed careers from author to literary critic. I personally enjoyed Twilight more than Harry Potter, and Dean Koontz's and James Patterson's books more than wise ol' Mr. Stephen King. I have literally been bored to snores reading a King novel--I stayed up 2 hours more than I intended to finish Breaking Dawn, the fourth book in the Twilight Saga. It was just a simple question--do you, Stephen King, think you have had any influence over today's authors? No one asked his opinion on these authors, just whether or not he believes he has had any influence.

Is Stephenie Meyer the world's best author? No, but again, I enjoy her books more than his, so she must be doing something he isn't. But Dean Koontz is a genius (I have never read anything better than the Odd Thomas series and I have read ALOT) and James Patterson has won a couple of awards and he is the first author to become a Harvard Business School case study. Harvard is teaching the future of corporate America how to succeed based on Patterson's publishing world successes. Yeah, that's gotta be some real "terrible" writing to be honored by Havard.

Also, back to his criticism of Stephenie Meyer, he has not taken the whole fandom into consideration when he made the comment about the "safe joining of love and sex." It may be true of some of the fans, but there are male fans and fans with children who are than capable of handling sex in a book (you know, since you have to HAVE SEX to have children?). I'm 19 years-old, if Stephenie Meyer had chosen to include the honeymoon scenes in Breaking Dawn, it wouldn't have bothered me one bit. Not everyone who reads Twilight cares about or needs the clear abstinence message. Not every fan is a pre-teen girl, or even a girl at all. Maybe King should do a little research into the nature of a fandom before categorizing its members.

So, if you please, Mr. K., please keep your opinions on other authors to yourself and simply plug your work when you are in an interview.

Parents on Facebook=FAIL

Preemptive Note: The following post only applies to parents who have teens because they're own teens and twenty-somethings are gone. I believe no over 30 belongs on FB, especially if they are a parent of an FB member and they are just using to spy on their kid.

Parents of teenagers do not belong on Facebook. I suppose if your child sends you an invite to join Facebook and be their friend then it'd be okay, but really, why would someone do that? It's just ridiculous. You are not twenty-something (if you have a fifteen year-old there's no way your twenties were yesterday) anymore; however, if you do feel the need to revive your more youthful self, please stay away from Facebook and the truly youthful members...especially your kid. If you feel your child is not trustworthy and you must become their Facebook friend to keep tabs on them, put that little bastard on a leash and save yourself the trouble of setting up an account. Facebook is for social networking, not parental meddling. It would be fruitless anyway--they could just set up their photos and such so that you could only see what they want you to which causes you to know less than you did because you would probably be satisfied with what you see.

Bottom line: Parents of teens need to shut down their Facebook accounts and open up communication lines with their kids if their purpose is to be involved in their child's life. If it is any other reason (other than professional networking, as it has brought to my attention that some join for this purpose), parents of teenagers need to close their Facebook accounts and simply get a life.

I Said on the Discussion Boards that I Would Stay Away from this Topic, but I Need to Say This...

I can't stand Kristen Stewart. And part of it is no fault of her own. See, I'm very annoyed by people in the entertainment industry such as actors/actresses, singers, writers, etc., who don't appreciate their fans. And K-Stew is a prime example of such an actress. There was a thread on a Twilight Discussion Board that was titled, "KRISTEN STEWART=WHINER!" and I posted on it concerning my distaste for her. Then when I went back to the Topics page there was one titled, "Negative attention to K-Stew." It was about how Kristen isn't used to all this fame and how the Twilight fandom can, admittedly, be really annoying sometimes and how people need to stop talking about her and blah blah blah, bullshit bullshit bullshit. So I posted there on my disagreement with the original post. Then everybody started arguing back and forth, and the more people re-iterated that people should not judge Kristen Stewart and how she's not used to the fame and how they don't blame her for being annoyed and all that other shit, the more I disliked everything her about that I had once ignored.

That's just my personality though: the more people try to defend something that mildly annoys me but I still don't feel deserves defending, the more I dislike it. She's not a good actress; she was an emotionally-stunted Bella Swan. The hospital scene was the worst.

I said on the discussion boards that I would avoid things concerning K-Stew because I'm the kind of person who generally ignores and avoids things she doesn't like (such as personality-lite actresses named Kristen Stewart), but I had to say something. I have said what I needed to say. I will now washed my hands of anything to do with that low-on-personality-high-on-bitchiness actress.

Hatin'

Look at me using slang in a title! Hahaha. Anyway, I hate it when you're obviously talking to one particular person in a thread on a discussion board and everyone feels like they need to add their 2 cents in. Everyone has a right to their opinion, but I have the right to not to be ganged up on and to have a semi-private conversation. I mean, if I'm directing a comment toward someone else, why do you give a damn if I type it? I would love to get comments on this blog, but it has nothing to do with what the comments say. Anybody who reads this this could say, "I think you're a stupid bitch who doesn't have an original idea in her head and I wish you just fuckin' die," and I would be cool with that. I just want feedback. If what is said/written/typed applies to more than one person or isn't directed toward a particular person, then it's not a big deal to me. I don't why I make that distinction--I just do.

Again, just needed to vent and thought my blog would be a good place to do that.

Twilight M&Ms

I made M&Ms on http://mms.com/us/becomeanmm/create/ that look like Twilight characters Alice Cullen & Rosalie Hale. I was gonna re-create the whole family M&M-style, but they didn't have the right hairstyles for the rest of them.

Pretty cool, huh?

Grrrrrr....

I'm so pissed at FanFiction.Net right now. There is a brilliant author on there by the screenname of AngstGoddess003 who writes an amazing Twilight fanfiction called Wide Awake. It's deep and interesting and amazing. Now FF.N has removed the last 2 chapters of her story AND taken away her posting rights until further notice for supposedly violating their Terms of Service---AAAAHHHHHH! I was looking foward to an update like a small child at Christmastime! What the hell? She appropriately rated her pieces and the sexual parts were so tastefully done. Grrrrrr.... Do YOU think she was out of line with FanFiction.Net's TOS? I got this information from someone called La-Mer-De-Lune (13th down).

I am not flaming FanFiction.Net or anyone involved in the suspension. AngstGoddeess003 has asked us to remain civil and I will respect her wishes because this affects her the most. I just needed to vent and I figured this would be a good place to do that.

AngstGoddes003 is now posting her story on LiveJournal. Just click "Next Chapter" to get to (duh!) the next chapter.

The Ultimate Post-It Note Prank

I just got an e-mail from my mom containing the Ultimate Post-It Note prank. Someone covered an entire car with Post-It Notes!

This DEFINITELY beats rolling or shaving cream! Think about the time and effort it took to do this. I counted 7 people in this picture putting Post-Its on this car. What could have possibly made these people want to cover a car in Post-It Notes?

I can't even imagine how pissed off the owner of this car is gonna be when they see this--they even put Post-Its on the wheels and the windshield! I wonder if they'll know who did this?

Weird March Holidays

I've done this for December and May, so I guess I'll do it for March since February is half-way over.

• March 1- National Pig Day; Peanut Butter Lover's Day
• March 2-8- National Pet Sitters Week
• March 2- Old Stuff Day
• March 3- National Education Association Read Across America Day; National Anthem Day; If Pets had Opposable Thumbs Day
• March 4- Vermont Statehood Day; Holy Experiment Day; International Scrap booking Day
• March 5- National Multiple Personalities Day
• March 6- National Frozen Food Day
• March 7- National Crown Roast of Pork Day (ironic it's in the same month as National Pig Day)
• March 8- Be Nasty Day
• March 9- Panic Day
• March 10- Festival of Life in the Cracks Day; Middle Name Pride Day
• March 11- Johnny Appleseed Day; Worship of Tools Day; Check Your Batteries Day
• March 12- Alfred Hitchcock Day; Plant a Flower Day
• March 13- Jewel Day; Ear Muff Day; National Open an Umbrella Inside Day
• March 14- National Potato Chip Day; National Save a Spider Day
• March 15- Buzzards Day; Everything You Think is Wrong Day; Ide of March
• March 16- Everything You Do is Right Day (to balance out the day before)
• March 17- Submarine Day; also St. Patrick's Day, but that's a given
• March 18- Supreme Sacrifice Day
• March 19- Poultry Day
• March 20- Absolutely Incredible Kid Day; Festival of Extraterrestrial Abductions Day; Proposal Day
• March 21- National Common Courtesy Day; Fragrance Day
• March 22- National Goof-off Day; Roller coaster Day
• March 23- National Chip and Dip Day; National Organize Your Home Office Day (your debt for goofing off on March 22)
• March 24- National Chocolate-Covered Raisins Day
• March 25- Pecan Day; Waffle Day
• March 26- Spinach Festival Day; Make Up Your Own Holiday Day (probably when these weird holidays were created)
• March 27- National "Joe" Day ("Joe" as in men named Joe or "Joe" as in coffee?)
• March 28- Something on a Stick Day
• March 29- Festival of Smoke and Mirrors Day; National Mom Pop Business Owners Day
• March 30- 150th Anniversary of the Pencil Patent; I am in Control Day; Take a Walk in the Park Day
• March 31- Eiffel Tower Anniversary; Bunsen Burner Day; National Clams on the Half-Shell Day

I got this information from the Real Estate Blog.

This is just bizarre...

I was on Facebook the other day and there was this thread concerning a Twilight Fan-Made item. Some weirdo made a felt model of Bella's womb with a little Renesmee fetus inside that looked more like a human-rabbit hybrid than a human-vampire hybrid. The womb looked like a fuzzy orange jelly bean or maybe one of those tribbles off the Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles." I'm all for creativity, but that is just so wrong. Who wakes up one day and says "I think I'll make a felt model of Bella's womb with a little fetus inside and post it on the Internet."? I mean, it doesn't even look like her womb is supposed to look--it's supposed to be similar to vampire skin, not a fuzzy Jelly Belly. Here is a picture that I have edited to include both parts of the sick creation:

I Won't Bite...

I have an unhealthy obsession with vampires. I find them fascinating. I finished the Twilight series and almost immediately started reading the Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris. I'm also reading Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. On top of all that, I'm starting to write a book about vampires. Are you seeing a pattern here? I love vampires. I went to see the new Underworld movie last night and wanted to be able to root for the fanged characters, but they were too evil--I was forced to cheer on the werewolves. My mother worries about this obsession; she's encouraging me to visit Psychological Services.