Supernatural

What a wonderful show :). It's about 2 brothers who battle the things that go bump in the night. There's shapeshifters and demons and angels and even a vampire or two. My favorite character, however, is an agel named Castiel. Here are a few Castiel-oriented videos from YouTube:

I love Castiel. For one--he's often funny without meaning to be, like when he and Dean go to the whorehouse. He's gorgeous and deadpan awkward and his faith is so strong even though he has his doubts and concerns. It's been kind of sad for him because (SPOILERS!) he talked to someone who's been talking to God and he said that God knows what's going on, He's alive, but He just doesn't think it's His problem. It's really got Cas feeling very jaded and betrayed which makes me sad because he was so sure he could find God and He would fix this whole apocalypse mess. I'm going to get (or at least rent) all the seasons on DVD so that I can see the whole journey and where Castiel came in and all that.

It comes on Thursdays at 8 p.m. central on The CW & Monday thru Friday 9 & 10 a.m. central on TNT (after Charmed). It's an awesome show. =)

Rob is sad (Alternate Title: Why ADF is awesome)

You know why Rob is sad? Because someone is slandering his favorite Twilight fansite, ADifferentForest. Rob is so sad that he may not want to act or have pictures taken of his pretty face until people stop saying terrible things about ADF. Shame on anyone who has said anything that makes Rob sad.
Now here's why ADF is such an awesome site: because their motto is true--it truly is "A different place for vampires, wolves, and humans to celebrate the good, the bad, and the utterly ridiculous aspects of the Twilight universe." Everyone is so generous--just yesterday, we just had a thread where avatar-less members were helped by those who know how to use photoediting software. If anyone goes beyond constructive criticism into flaming, they are removed from the forest. Anyone who tells you anything different is just spreading lies. So, in conclusion, I say we all:

So that Rob can be like this again:

So, go over to ADF and see what it's all about. You may realize you like & wanna spend some considerable time there.

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LOLcatz

I just wanted to share some LOLcatz that I did recently.
This is angsty fic Bella (& kinda Bella in Eclipse):

This is Lauren the Super-Bitch that always gets portrayed in Twific (and alot in the Saga):

Conservatives Fear Progressives

Grrr....the older I get, the more I dislike conservatives. It's not that I love liberals more, I just hear more and more godawful bullspit from conservatives & it makes me go toward the liberal side of things. During CPAC, which has been dubbed "the Conservative Woodstock" (because, like Woodstock, the "message" is incoherent & quite possibly formulated under the influence of drugs), conservative politicians spewed a message of hate against so many groups it's freakin' ridiculous. They listed their "enemies", which didn't just include out-and-out liberals, but also a slew of others including progressives. Glenn Beck (who is quite possibly my least favorite person on the planet) tried to explain (again, incoherently) why we should hate progressives.
What the hell?! Progressives did so much for this country! It was the progressive movement that pushed for child labor laws; it was progressives that pushed for an 8-hour workday, a minimum wage, & safe working conditions; it was progressives who pushed for the public libraries where Beck claims to have educated himself on the inner-workings of government. Glenn Beck said, "You know how I learned all this? I educated myself; I went to the library--it's free, people!" No, Mr. Beck, libraries are NOT free; they are paid for by taxes and are community-owned. According to your own definition, you are a communist. I wish I had some way to make sure he would read this blog because someone needs to shame that man into silence (assuming the moron is capable of shame).

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Edward...Abusive Boyfriend?

I CAN'T STAND IT WHEN PEOPLE CALL EDWARD CULLEN ABUSIVE!
Ahem. Sorry about that. I just really, really needed to say that. Now, for anyone who might read my blog who either agrees with those that say Edward is abusive or who might be on the fence or who just want to know how I plan to back up my statement, I present the following statement-rebuttal form arguement:

• He's controlling/possessive.

Most male vampires are. They have a very possessive, territorial nature that makes them want to be in control of their mate. This is hard to detect when said male has a strong mate who will stand up to him. This is shown when Bella finally puts her foot down & declares that she will see Jacob and that he is not a danger to her; Edward relents as soon as Bella makes it clear that she will not put up with being bossed around. Bella only puts her foot down occassionally though, making her appear weak and Edward abusive when really she's just a non-confrontational, pick-your-battles kind of girl and he's got a normal attitude for a male vampire.

• He left when he should have known it would tear her apart.

How is supposed to have known that? Edward has been around romantic relationships, but has not had one of his own ever. Further complicating things, he's in love with his la tua cantante, whom he might lose control and harm/kill. He hasn't ever been around a romantic relationship with the sort of complications that his does. Also, Edward never understood why Bella loved him; he thought himself such a monster and so dangerous to Bella's well-being that he was positive that if he just removed his hypnotic presence, she would snap out of her love trance and see that he did the right thing for her and move on to a human man who could give her a normal life. He had no idea that it had nothing to do with the things that drew those who would've been prey in and everything to do with him and that she would not "snap out of" her love for him or move on. So there was no way he knew that leaving could have such a negative influence on her.

• He told her he had planned on killing himself.

I consider this a confidence. He wasn't telling her to make her feel responsible for his well-being or anything like that; he told her because it was the truth. I actually think it may have been a ploy meant to show Bella how fucked-up he was so that she would leave him for a safe, normal Mike Newton-type of guy.

• He snuck into her room when she was asleep without her knowledge.

I would consider this valid if, once he began spending the night in her with her knowing, he never told her. But he did tell her and she didn't care. If she had been upset, I might have even said it was wrong, but she didn't care. Besides, he wasn't doing it to be a creepy stalker guy, he was doing it because he was fascinated with watching her sleep. He never touched her or any of her things, he just sat and watch. Plus, you may not want to admit it, but I bet most of us would've been flattered that he spent his nights with us even before we knew he did.

• He isolates her from her friends

No, Bella just has little to no interest in her human friends. She wasn't real into them before she started dating Edward, then when she had someone else [Edward] to spend her time with, she had no reason to keep up the pretense of interest.

Anyone who wants me to tell me why they think or maybe just another reason that they've heard given that Edward is abusive, simply comment on this entry and I will either reply to the comment itself or if I get a few more maybe turn them into a new blog entry. I don't mind the possibility that you might want to comment and tell me how right I am :)

He's Just Not That Into You

"Oh, honey, it's okay. The only reason that little boy [insert hurtful name or action here] is because he likes you." This is the most dangerous thing that parents say to little girls. They tell us the same thing over and over again throughout elementary school: little boys are mean to the little girls they like. This translates into serious heartbreak when we start dating. Instead of pulling your hair, kicking dirt in your face, taking your toys, etc., the "little mean boy" doesn't call, cheats on you, refuses to marry you, or leads you on in some other way. And we make excuses for the men who do this ("He's intimidated by your success"; "He just got out of a serious relationship"; "He's had alot of changes in his life recently" blah blah blah) because we've been told since preschool that if a guy is mean to you or acts like he doesn't care, it's because he really likes you. In truth, He's Just Not That Into You.
I watched the movie and have read part of the book. I fully intend on buying it and reading it every once in awhile to de-program myself. I've made excuses for men who haven't called or who haven't given me what I needed emotionally. "He's not ready for a serious relationship"; "He's in law school and that keeps him really busy"; "He's worked really hard today and is probably super-tired" The list goes on and on. I've let myself believe that guys who were just not that into me were interested and wasted time I could've spent with a guy who actually cared. When I saw the authors talking about their book on some TV show one day, I blew it off as some lame-ass self-help novel. But then, a few months ago, I read part of it and realized that what it says makes alot of sense and was horrified because I realized that if I had just read the book, I would've saved myself alot of wasted time. Then I saw the movie, it made the book seem even more real (I was once again horrified because I realized that, even after reading part of the book, I had broken some of its rules). So I decided to blog about what both the book and the movie boil down to: assume you are the rule. If you do this and realize that you are the exception, well, glory in this knowledge. But, more than likely, you are the rule. So here's the rule: if a guy doesn't call, if he cheats, if he does something else that shows he doesn't care or that he doesn't want to be a couple, it doesn't matter how much fun you had or what a great connection the two of you share, he's not into you and you need to move on. We women thrive on stories like, "Well, I know this girl: she had a date with this guy and he didn't call for almost 2 weeks and now they're married and couldn't be happier." Or, "My mom knows this woman: her boyfriend cheated on her and then he repented and now they're married with a baby on the way." We even have hope when we hear, "Well, my uncle knows this guy: he was happily married for 13 years and met this woman in the Mini-Mart. The next day he told my uncle that he knew that he had met the woman of his dreams. He left his first wife and now he and the woman from the Mini-Mart have been blissfully married for 22 years." Don't listen to these stories--they are the exceptions. Assume you are the rule--then, when the guy turns out to not be interested you won't be heart-broken and if he is, you can revel in the knowledge that you are an exception. So ladies, why don't we save ourselves unneeded heartbreak and wasted time and realize when he just doesn't care.

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.