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.