Okay, so as shocking as it might be that I'm actually able to find the time to post this week, the explanation is simple: The servers are down for maintenance. So, since I can't play, let's talk ABOUT the game play.

Things that are awesome:

The graphics. I freaking LOVE the graphics.

I like that you have a minimap. I like that it tells you where to go so you never get stuck in that stupid loop like I would in D2, where you passed the thing you needed to see but cant see the tiny black "unvisited" area on your map. And this happened like five times. And you wasted like an hour. The minimap is great because you can play without having to have the big annoying map up all the time, again something I used to do often.

I really like the health potion things that drop from killing stuff, and much like gold, you pick them up by walking by them. Super useful when you're low, or your team is low, on life and you need a boost and are out of real potions.

Generally, walking over gold to pick it up. No more wasting time because I need the cash, but have to sit around clicking shit!

Forging! It's amazing! You can basically trade in magic items to make items you NEED instead of those you have and won't use. Plus, I feel accomplished putting my money into something USEFUL by upgrading the forging guy rather than gambling and wasting it all.

Inventory, stash and equipment. Inventory is huge. Really great for money runs, I feel. Equipment has more than four items you can use and a weapon/shield. You have nearly 10 different items! Talk about good for variety. Certainly amazing in start of game, because nearly everything you find can be useful. And the stash is large, and can be upgraded to be larger. Not sure why you'd need such a huge stash [I'm still at start of game, I can't picture holding on to items or such things]. But it's great that you can have one!

Individual item pickup. I don't see what my friends get for item drops. My item drops are my own. Meaning I don't have to fight for them. Meaning my +MF items won't help THEM get MY awesome extra magic items.

Attacking. I like that your mana is Discipline for spells and Hatred for special attack. I like that regular attack builds your mana back up. It adds variety and really will show difference in the higher stages between the good players and the bad ones with knowing how to use the variety of attacks.

General usability. Very user friendly. Very instinctive gameplay. I like teleporting to people. I like joining games. I like the battletag.

Things that suck:

Skills. I hate the way the skills menu plain looks. It's not user friendly and it's ugly and it's stupid. It's a pain that you can't exactly "customize" your skill set...

Runes. I just plain hate the runes. No more finding runes? Or using the cube to make newer better runes to make whatever you want..?

There doesn't seem to be such a thing as mana potions...

Party size. Yes, everyone has complained. Seriously? FOUR players? That's TINY. 8 was a good size. 8 was a good LARGE party. 6 is reasonable, too. But FOUR? I just can't believe it's so small. Three hardly seems like a lot of people and that's a mostly filled group. Two is a bit lonely, really, and that's half a group! Sad.

Screen scrolling. You can't scroll the screen to see anything outside of you. Annoying because I'm used to that from HoN. But, meh.

Identifying items. Really..?? It was the one thing I liked Cain for. Now I can do it on my own. No wonder you killed him off... Such a waste. "Ooh, I have to click and hold?!?! WHAT A MYSTERY!" Sigh.

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Anyhow. That's most of what I have to say. The game is pure amazing. I would say worth the wait. Although, I'm just saying that because I never got bored of D2, haha. So. It is almost the announced "servers should be back online" time, so I will check up on that. If anyone wants to join me or add me online, I certainly would love that. My battletag is seelykay#1810 :) Hope everyone is enjoy the game as much as me! Also, I'm giving away my Guest passes. The person I just offered first dibs to, likely won't take them, so first come first serve for whoever wants them. Shoot me an email or hit me up on any other communication medium.




Minor thing to say, but I am super excited about it. I finally uploaded the old layouts. I have a good 15ish layouts, so I haven't posted all of them yet. I only posted the ones off SKnet, and I have yet to do the ones from my Priceless subdomains. Those might be a pain because some of them aren't screenshots, but just the background image I used in coding. And thanks to being a horribly disorganized person who couldn't keep her work backed up properly, all the code has been lost, so I can't remember 100% how everything looked. I will try best I can to photoshop in text where I think it should go in some layouts, so those won't be original screenshots, sadly.

Either way! I am about to upload the images of the ones that DO have screenshots and then write the little bit I do still remember for info and credits [not likely to be much :( ]

But! I am excited. Looking through some of the more complicated graphical things I've done when I was younger, I have a new burst of energy for wanting to make a prettier layout graphically. I think I will have to get on that soon.

Unfortunately, with Diablo 3 being released tonight at midnight, I will have very little time I will be willing to devote to this :( Ohwell, let's hope I can get through the game and be fed up with it in a month, because I really do have a lot I want to do with my website all of a sudden. Plus I have a BUNCH of really fun ideas with graphics. I think I might start matching my website layout theme to the image I'm using on my Facebook Timeline [God, I hate these stupid Timelines...]. But, we shall see how things end up going in a month or so.




Two things for today. Hoping both will be short. Also, I edited that horrible formatting error on my last post. Silly me.

First off, let's talk robotics! Researchers developed this grip tool that, as it turns out, is surprisingly simple, yet amazing. The reason it's a big deal [despite its simplicity] is because of its wide array of uses! Basically, it's been a bit of a speed bump to design something as versatile as the human hand in robotics. Human hands are incredible because of the opposable thumb. We can grip stuff and maneuver our hands easily. This might seem like a given, but it basically means we can do ANYTHING we want with our hands. In robotics, this had been a challenge because tools that have been created to emulate "grip" haven't been very elegant solutions to the problem. They're complex both on the engineering front and on the software front.

So, the amazing tool they made basically emulates grip. It's a balloon filled with coffee grounds attached to a vacuum. This works because coffee grounds have this amazing property, that few other solids have, where the little grains have very jagged edges. So when you compress them tight enough, the edges of the grains interlock like spokes and basically make them immutable. [Oh goodness, my college education is bleeding through in my writing... By immutable I essentially just meant immovable...]

So this simple tool basically makes it so that you can mold this balloon with coffee grounds to any object, and then upon vacuuming all the air out, you create an almost unbreakable hold on the object. This is a ridiculously simple solution to an assortment of engineering questions. What's great is that this, in robotics, can be applied for a whole possible list of more developments, including humanoid robotics, prosthetic limbs, etcetc.

Also I just plain think it's the coolest thing because of how SIMPLE the idea is. A balloon with grains. Amazing... How has no one thought of this yet..?!? Anyhow. For more on this, check out this article, complete with video of the robotic gripper tool.

So, moving on. I want to say something because it really irritated me to have someone bring this up with me. The CMS of this website is designed in two main parts. There is the bulk of it, which is the idea, the background coding and the set up. Then there is the organization, and personal editing to fit minor things I care about. The first part was NOT done by me. The second, however, was. I rewrote major chunks of code because I plain didn't like how it looked and blahblahblah, basically I just felt like it. But the concept, the code content, etc was not mine.

Now, the reason this is important is because in my about-my-site page, I credit everyone where needed. The SINGLE exception to this is the ONE link that is broken. To the person who coded my CMS. Who now has complained that I am taking credit for it and has asked me to take it down. Now, this confuses me. He specifically asked me to not put a single active link on my website to direct to his website. This kinda bummed me out because I liked having a subdomain. But, whatever. Now, a full year later, I find that someone is claiming I'm taking credit for something I have not done.

Hm.

So, just to REITERATE a point I've made before. I didn't design my CMS. I may have added and modified, but I never made it. I also never claimed to have made it. Never. More to the point, the thing that might be the cause of this confusion is when I say "my security system" this or "my"-whatever-CMS-related-thing-is-being-referred-to. Except, I call it mine because it's being used on my website. I'm calling it mine because it was written FOR me. Microsoft calls programs theirs when they get it from other companies for their products LEGITIMATELY.

Just, I'm incredibly annoyed that someone would call this into question because I have always been willing to give credit about the things I use on here. I felt the need to address that more publicly, besides replying to the person directly.

I'm not a huge fan of all this copyright BS that goes on nowadays with a bunch of electronic media. But the one thing I do care about is software and code being credited. I might not want to pay for a license to some software, but I would never code something that I didn't write and call it my own. I have never done that for my classes. I have never done that for my internships. I have just plain never done it and I'm a tad offended that someone would think I would do that.




Today was a very news-filled day for me. I have three things I'd like to share. I'm going to start off with the most graphic and ridiculous, because I don't want anyone's final palette to be as sour as mine is right now.

So, for those of you who don't know what the Kelly Thomas deal is, he was a homeless man who was essentially beaten to death and this was all caught on a security camera. You can watch the video. It's not as graphic as what I'm about to describe might make it sound like, but you ARE essentially watching a human being DIE, so be very wary. It shook me up pretty bad despite the fact that it's not quite as brutal as it sounds. He was schizophrenic homeless man and the two cops there were impatient and, as a lot of cops can be, abusive of their authority. They told him to do stuff and he didn't listen perfectly so it got physical. On their end, not his. Well, he SOMEWHAT resisted, but hardly. He died five days after this ordeal in the hospital from the wounds sustained that night. This has been a somewhat relevant case because it basically is seen as two cops killing a man who had problems. It's raised issues of abuse of authority, police brutality, mental health awareness, etc.

Usually I'd get caught up in the politics, but for once I can't even bring myself to think about it. As I said before, this video really shook me up. I watched the majority of the video hoping that people were exaggerating and thinking he had it coming, as a lot of people do. Well, the dialogue kind of took me by surprise. The cop tells the man to put his legs out. He does. The cop tells him to put his arms on his knees, he does. That's iffy, but in the end he still does. The cop doesn't say why or anything. The man gets annoyed and says this is bs basically and stops listening. So the cop starts getting violent. Which makes the guy run away. So the cop and his partner chase him, throw him to the ground and attack him. Much of this is hidden from the camera. But this whole time you hear the guy repeating for like five minutes straight "I'm sorry dude, sorry, dude, sorry, I'm sorry" just over and over again. This guy SEEMS willing enough to cooperate. And he flailed because he was being hurt and pinned. And they ask him to put his arms behind his back, but this whole time, they're pinning him down... I mean, how can they expect cooperation with something they are physically preventing..? Anyhow. It gets worse. This guy KEEPS saying he can't breathe over and over again. They don't let up. In fact, they bring back up in. And the cop starts hitting him with the flashlight while they have him pinned and he's moving around [not even too violently by the looks of things...] saying he can't breathe. This you can't see at first, but they hit him hard enough that he bleeds. Profusely. When the paramedics FINALLY lift him when he's practically non-responsive, if even conscious, there is a pretty giant pool of blood where he used to be. Enough blood to be seen by a black and white camera in the night. That got to me the most, really. They make him bleed like this, but don't let up on him..? I mean, WHY?? And this poor guy who is mentally ill [not that they know this, I'm assuming, at this point] is obviously being hurt, complaining he can't breathe and crying for help and for his dad. It's absolutely heartbreaking...

I don't even think I know what more to say on this. I don't understand what brought them to go so far. I don't understand how they can intentionally harm someone to THAT extent... It's not like they were in danger. They weren't protecting anyone. It wasn't one of those had-to-come-to-this situations. This absolutely appalled me to see. I don't have much more of an opinion on it. But I wanted to share it, nonetheless. I'm sure you can all make your own opinions of it.

Well, that out of the way, let's move on to happier subjects...

I read two very amazing articles today. One regarding a new study with mice. They did genetic work on mice with regards to aging. What they didn't wasn't the same old story about increasing lifespan or slowing down aging or anything that boring. They actually reversed the aging process of mice!

This study conducted at Harvard basically took old mice, and messed around with an enzyme called telomerase. Now, for those with a minor knowledge [or major knowledge] of genetics this might be a clue as to what they did.

Basically, it was longer ago deduced that telomeres were these little caps, sort of, on the end of chromosomes that protect the DNA inside the chomosome. When cells divide [and thereby reproduce], the telomerase enzyme basically makes these telomeres shorter and shorter, until they no longer actually cap the dna and protect the chromosome, or they start malfunctioning, etc. This basically means the cell stops functioning correctly, or doesn't work altogether and becomes dormant. Pretty lame, huh?

Well, what scientists at Harvard is they genetically engineered mice without telomerase altogether. Lacking this enzyme, the telomeres stopped working right, and basically the mice aged super fast. Afterwards, they injected the mice with a mixture of hormones or whatever to reactivate the telomerase that they didn't have. You would think giving the mice this enzyme would simply slow down an ongoing process. After all, you can only stop cells from deteriorating further, right? Wrong!

The mice, shockingly, [at least shocking to me...] not only stopped aging at their current pace, but the effect of aging were actually reversed! The deteriorating organs of the mice were rejuvenated over time and they didn't just up and die! Not only that, but this rapid cell regrowth was HEALTHY. The mice didn't have any cancer! Which is a major issue with cell regeneration.

But, this is just an idea that is COULD in THEORY help human aging. The human body is obviously very different and would react differently in all likelihood. Cancer in humans is different than in mice, especially in such a controlled environment.

Either way, can you imagine forty years from now when you're just getting old enough to worry about your impeding doom, you just go and buy some injection that heals you like some video game health potion and prolongs your life for another twenty years, but also brings you back to a healthier and younger body?? This might be so similar to that In Time movie. Those who are rich enough can live forever. Those who aren't, will run out of life. Because ultimately, what is the one thing people will strive for, if not life? All of a person's monetary saving will go into purchasing this serum that keeps you alive for longer. And those who are not fortunate enough to afford it will die off.

Kind of amazing, the prospects that a simple experiment can hold...

Anyhow, I will most likely write again before the week is out because I did find another super interesting story, but it will have to wait because it's late and I need my beauty rest! Unfortunately I don't have a bottle of this magic telomerase enzyme activation cocktail, so I'll have to make do with not killing my body with unhealthy habits. Goodnight!




If you've been keeping up, you may have noticed the change. Things are private because of some discomfort I've been having. Anyhow, anyone is welcome to create an account if you'd like to read things like before [or more :O].

Just a couple of notes about accounts because some people seem to be kind of, well, stupid. The reason I protect my shit with this fancy security thing is so that I don't share everything with random people and start feeling uncomfortable and judged. So, if you create an account with an email that I do not recognize or a username that says nothing to me, I will simply send a "how do you know about my site" or "who is this" type email. If you want to be anonymous, go for it [not like I have any kind of system in place that tracks who logs in after I give you your security pass anyhow, but whatever]. It just won't do you any good because all users start off with zero security clearance and I won't change it unless I can find a reason to. If people reply to the email I send checking on who you are [even if I don't know you, that's fine] and let me know why you made the account to begin with, I'll bump up the clearance. I just don't want to be writing all this super offensive stuff when I vent [which I do often, and tend to be careless about hurting people's feelings at times...] over something I likely didn't even fully mean but said out of anger. With accounts the innocent are safe! =D

So, I hope you can understand why I'm doing this and not take it as a reason to back off, because that's not my intent. I'm simply trying to be more careful with what I say because I actually do have problems upsetting people with what I've said before :( Also, it's been a real pain to write so much without using names and direct references about people, and I feel like my friends or whoever would have a problem with all these things about them being public. So!

That being said, I wrote a post a while back about user accounts. Just to refresh a few things that might be outdated or not quite obvious...

1. Everything is encoded to industry standards. MD5 encoding for those who care. Translation: I don't see your password. No one ever can or will see your password. If you ask me to retrieve it for you, I will tell you tough shit, I can't do it. Beyond that, it's encoded and only stored on a database that requires two passwords to get to, both of which I am the only person to possess. Yay, security.

2. I personally guarantee no misuse, abuse, harm, etc to come from having an account. I am the only one who can see your email and I give it out to absolutely no one. I will protect any and all information you have on this website whether it is your account information [all that my security system so far actually keeps track of] or comments, read posts, etc [hopefully I might get comments working one of these weeks, heh...]. The only exception is if I ask you in person [and in private] about your response assuming you'd read it or something.

3. I expect YOU to be responsible, too. Don't misuse, abuse, etc any of the information you may find on here. Don't cause drama with things you find out. Don't share accounts. Keep things to yourself, with the exception of comments [soon, I swear!] or bringing things up with me [and only me] personally. Don't spam, don't [when this is possible...] be rude, hurtful, etc in anything YOU can post on here.

Goodnight now, world. Bye.




So, this is most definitely the most interesting thing I've heard in the past... really long time.

First off, check this out for those who aren't up to speed, as I wasn't until about a few hours ago...

Second off, WOW.

This shakes the foundation of relativistic physics. Which is one thing, because it's a domain of physics that's fairly uncertain to begin with. I mean, all this quantum physics crap is most certainly causing a ruckus lately. But, the speed of light is something that has been known for ages. I mean, known in the sense that it was proved and it was an amazing discovery. The fact that it cannot be broken is actually somewhat simple to understand. At least in my opinion... But maybe all the suppositions that bring the reasoning to "you can't break the speed of light in a vacuum" bit are wrong. Although, the actual phrasing is "nothing travels faster than the speed of light in a vacuum". But, this came up YEARS ago. Since then a whole bunch of technology has been created that might surpass the suppositions that Einstein was using.

First off, something that seems relevant to me is that they fired neutrinos using the particle accelerator. Now, for those who don't know those are considered "massless". They HAVE a mass but it's so tiny that it's ignored in chemistry and biology... Obviously it's not like "light" is supposed to be where is has NO resting mass, but if you take something with such a small mass, and apply enough energy, you can in theory accelerate it TO the speed of light. But, you can't break it.

Here's my idea. What if light ISN'T fundamentally a massless energy form? What if light actually somehow IS made up of some kind of particles. I mean, that isn't so unreasonable is it? By that theory, light has its own resonance [the speed of light] but since it's not massless, that would require it travel at this one specific speed, constantly, and that if you had a particle of SMALLER mass or with an applied energy GREATER than that of light, then you CAN move beyond that resonance. I mean, I don't figure that principle is too far fetched.

And, why shouldn't light be made up of particles? After all, light already has the properties of BOTH a wave AND a particle. So, would it be so insane that light actually IS a particle, and that these particles BEHAVE like waves..?

I mean a thousand years ago, an atom was an indestructible object of the smallest size to exist. No smaller existing particle. Then they discovered electrons, neutrons and protons. And, of course, they decided nothing was smaller than those. But, lo and behold protons are made of quarks held together by a kind of boson particle. I mean, seriously, is it so unrealistic that, like atoms, there are parts of our world with undiscovered matter. Like light... Light could possibly be a form of matter in itself. Which is an INCREDIBLE discovery in itself, but it would provide an explanation for WHY it can be broken.

And in all fairness, time MIGHT slow down from the observer's point of view, but maybe that distorts vision or things like that, too. Light, like any particle, might react relatively like all else.

Either way, if the speed of light can be broken, that is amazing on SO many levels. It could provide a TON of new developments in the area of interstellar travel! Or just regular travel? Or it could provide developments in data manipulation. Information, up till now, could not be SENT faster than the speed of light, but what if it could? Then couldn't we communicate over VAST distances virtually instantly..? Imagine calling someone from the moon... I mean, just wow. We could move satellites farther out an declutter a little. We could explore. My goodness, what if this is a leading proof to alternate dimensions. It is a floating theory, after all. Maybe THAT explains breaking the light barrier. That you really in theory CAN'T break it, but it just travels to a different dimension past a certain energy point or resonance or speed or whatever and in that RELATIVE dimension, it "slows down" and when it comes to OUR dimension again, it has progressed farther than possible in linear/lateral or 3-dimensional travel. That's practically the idea of teleportation. What if we make advances there?!?!

Goodness I wish I can live to see all this come to life. I want to see the future and be a part of it. The irony of it though, I am in the "future" of 100 years ago or 1000 years ago. Relativity at its finest ;) Shame us humans are always trying to break it, hehe.




So, I'm sure everyone's heard about this by now so the introduction will be short. Virginia is currently trying to pass legislature for 2 things. One is a personhood bill that will basically state a "person" is defined as a living human being starting from when a human egg cell is fertilized by a sperm. It grants "personhood" to a cell basically. The second is a bill to require women to get an ultrasound before having an abortion.

So here's how I see this, they're trying to force the outlawing of abortion with these two bills. The personhood one basically would make it so that abortion could not be conducted without a case made FOR the cell. After all, to condemn a person to death, they get a trial and all. It could potentially lead to some weird cases in legislature or in court regarding the "murder" of "people". Sigh. I figure if you're not paying taxes for that thing, you sure as hell can't consider it a person under the law. Religious view and morals aside, the government's influence should be zero whether or not you consider that cell-cluster a "person" or a "human" or whatever you PERSONALLY think. I will not ever call someone out on personal views for this. But, the government doesn't get to call it anything. The government shouldn't be ALLOWED to give this cellball "rights" because it's not exactly "part" of the government. In other words, what taxes does the government collect on it? In other words, why should the government protect something and put money or effort or resources into something that isn't certain? It makes no sense. Also, I think it's absolutely insane to give a CELL personhood. I mean, come ON.

Now, I understand that this might just be a stepping stone. But, that's even more insane. The government SHOULDN'T be getting involved in a woman's personal business! Why should the state tell a woman that she can't abort her child..? It's not the state's child. It's not supposed to come out of the body of the state. It's not the state whose resources are being drained in effort to make this an ACTUAL child [by my definition of child] rather than a cluster of cells in a woman's uterus. It's not the state who should get to decide that a cell's life is more important than a woman's. What's next? Giving mosquitoes personhood because they live off our blood? Swatting them would give you jailtime! Sheesh, seriously. I get that there's a very large group of people that are strongly against abortion. And frankly, I somewhat am, too. I don't think a woman should be irresponsible and have an easy out with no consequences for her actions. I don't think you should get to use an abortion in order to make YOUR life simpler. But. My views aside, it is not the GOVERNMENT'S job to impose its views on ME. And the state of Virginia, in my mind, should be criticized much more harshly than it is for daring to get involved in this! It's completely and entirely unacceptable that my private life with my doctor is under the scrutiny of the government. If my doctor tells me that my body is too frail and if I keep this child I will never have children again, and likely have a stillborn, why should I not have a chance to right that..? The government doesn't pass "exceptions". They pass generalizations. Trying to outlaw abortion is like saying "this medical practice is no longer between you and your doctor, it's between you and the state." And if I ever wanted to hash this out with someone and see what my best option is, I'd have to do it in a courtroom with a lawyer defending my unborn fetus because the generalization is meant to do just that. Where is the freedom of the people in that..? You're taking the freedom that was once the people's and putting it in the hands of the government. And don't give me that shit about giving freedom to "people" where "people" is defined as any human cell, from conception because a single cell does not have any right to representation AGAINST me.

Okay, that got a little ranty and personal. Clearly, I'm against this whole personhood bill.

Now, the second one. This one, I'm a little torn on. Personally, I think it's silly that the second bill is getting so much attention. I genuinely don't this it should. Because here's the order of events in multiple cases. You find out you're preggerz. You either take a urine test at home, or you don't. You freak out, weigh options, come to the reasonable and smart decision to get an abortion. You call your doctor. Now, what kind of idiot would your doctor be to give you an abortion on just your word? That would be completely irresponsible of the medical system. No, they do a pregnancy test as well. And since urine tests are not wholly conclusive, I am fairly certain [I have not looked it up for statistics] that they give you an ultrasound. And here's why I think this. I personally know someone who went through exactly that, and they gave her an ultrasound because, as the doctors said "urine tests are not completely conclusive". Now, I'm sure you CAN refuse the ultrasound, but chances are that the woman won't, or that the doctor might even have it as a policy to not do abortions without verification of the pregnancy. So, in this scenario, the woman would get [huge shocker] a trans-vaginal ultrasound, because the tummy one is not conclusive that early in the pregnancy. So, for those of you who know the fuss about trans-vaginal-rape-mandate-bill, here's the deal. For an early stage pregnancy, they basically need to do one anyway to check that you're even pregnant. The woman does not get "raped" she always has to consent to all medical practices. It's just that if she refuses, the pregnancy might not even be certain to exist. I think that's just responsible medicine.

So, in scenario one you're getting an abortion anyway. In scenario two, it's the same, but you find out because your doctor sees it in a urine test. Not something hard to see. But, again, the doctor would ask for verification because hormones aren't always fully reliable. So, it ends the same as scenario one.

Scenario three. You've been preggerz long enough that it's OBVIOUS. If you have a belly and you have been to a doctor about your pregnancy, it is completely likely that you've already HAD an ultrasound either because you've crossed that at scenario two, or because you knowingly went to the doctor and went along with the baby-keeping plan, which requires ultrasounds as decently regular intervals. So, in this case, what's the big deal in getting one, cause you've had one already..?

Scenario four, you've kept your pregnancy a secret from the world and have a giant belly and go to get an abortion. Chances are, no one would ask.

Now. In all honesty, guys, how many people do you think get into the 3 month mark without going to the doctor? How many doctors would you think would give an abortion without checking the fetus? I would say few. I would say this situation is the least likely. So in my mind, it feels like this bill is completely meaningless because that percentage of people who wouldn't have already HAD ultrasounds is small. And those who haven't because their pregnancy is in the early stages are likely to have their doctor's require one anyway. So, what's the fuss for..?

I don't consider this an invasion of privacy between a doctor and a woman. I still am very much against the bill on the pure fact that it's wholly unnecessary. But, moreso, is the government seriously trying to GUILT people into keeping their children? Again, why is abortion their business? Sigh... I am very much against this bill for the pure practicality of it. It would cost money to enforce and establish. Why does the government need to be spending money on this? Are they serious??? Instead of having checks in medicine against women aborting children without major guilt trips, maybe they should put the money into checks in the medical system against fraud. That seems like a tad more useful. Especially when medical insurance money is just getting DRAINED like CRAZY because it's "there" so people feel the need to take advantage of it.

I am very annoyed with how big a deal this is causing because I feel like people are focusing on the wrong issues. It's not that big a deal that some senator wanted trans-vaginal ultrasounds. The government isn't trying to "shame women out of abortions by feeling raped". That's such a nonissue compared to the fact that the government is trying to put their grubby little hands on something that is NONE of their business. I have yet to hear some heated debate on the subject of "can you believe they're getting involved in my personal medical life" and I am growing tired of hearing all the "can you believe they want to force women to have babies and rape them with ultrasounds?!"

On another note, it really is getting tiresome to hear some people's view on this subject because they always exaggerate things so deeply. I am fully aware that I probably can, too, at times. But at least I'm not upset with the government for making all our country's rape victims lead miserable existences because they are refused abortions. I really think people need to get their facts straight on certain subjects. The majority of women who get abortions are NOT rape victims. Fact is, 49% of all abortions are because of improperly used condoms! Just condoms!! Not even because contraception was not used. Moreover, only 1% of abortions are due to rape and only 6% due to health. That's less than 10% of all cases that have LEGITIMATE grounds for this. And, no, being too poor to afford a baby is NOT legitimate, because no matter what ANYONE says you can raise a baby and be homeless or whatever. Sure, not ideal. Not the LEAST bit smart. But that one is a choice. Rape is not a choice. Health is not a choice. Not having a choice is when abortion is fully and COMPLETELY legitimate. Otherwise, there will be room for argument.

In conclusion, I really don't know what to say on this subject. Yes, the Virginia bills are pretty upsetting. But I think I am just as equally upset at people's reactions to these bills. I don't understand why so many people seem to miss the whole point of government sometimes.




Okay, this has been far long overdue. I'm not a fan of most of the GOP candidates this year. Gingrich is pretty much just insane, so there's that... I haven't even fully checked out his platform. But, my favorite part of his platform: "he thinks high school girls who graduate as virgins should be rewarded". That made me laugh... Heh. Honestly, sidenote before I compre Paul and Romney, I do really like Gingrich's stance on most of the things he believes. I mean, there are a few key ones I don't particularly like, but that's besides the point. He seems to be unreliable as a character and somewhat easily manipulated. I wouldn't want a man like that in a seat of power and representation. I feel like his personality is too moderate, and maybe his views are less so because of the fiscal and power gain he gets from picking a clear side on important issues.

Anyhow, I'm getting ahead of myself. I've had a hard time deciding between Romney and Paul because they're my two favorites. I've like Ron Paul before this election cam anywhere near close to discussions and debates. He is very right-wing, and on certain issues, it bothers me. He's very pro-life, and I don't really approve of his stance on that. He's very pro-America, which seems to be somewhat of a hinderance given that he wants to take the focus out of international business, or "the American Empire" as it apparently is called. I think that's somewhat a poor idea, because there are certain areas in the world that aren't noticing insane downturns in the economy. For example, China has a pretty booming business compared to most of the rest of the world. Stopping foreign investments and national interests might not be the best idea, even if it is going to cost a tad. I feel like we're fine enough on that front that it shouldn't matter much to our economy, and it seems to be the focal point of his stance, I think. I think bringing business back to America would simply drive up prices, and cause for more government regulation.

Unfortunately, Paul isn't exactly the biggest on his organizational skills [or his people aren't..?] so there are a lot of missing pieces. I do like his stance on education, and I think he's got some really good potential ideas. Making pay unequal amongst teachers would definitely drive up competition, just as it does in other jobs. I agree with him on the wars. And I agree with him on immigration [somewhat ironic, because he's against immigration...] But, really, there isn't too much I can strictly agree with him on because he's vague. Like, his stance on the deficit. He says it'll be our downfall and we need to decrease the size of the government. But he doesn't suggest how or anything of the sort.

Romney, on the other hand, is much more moderate, which annoys me a little because sometimes it seems like moderate views basically stand for "I can't really make up my mind one way or another, so meh." I like his stance on abortion because of this [Moderately Pro-Choice, but to the extent that it's acceptable in extremes, not for dumbass teens]. I hate his stance on health care for the same reason [Pro universal health care, but only to the extent that it's not government regulated through taxes]. I do like his financial ideas and I really like that he apparently already has some Bills/Plans? Idk? Out that are very clear cut that he wants to enact! It's such a huge bonus for him because others aren't this organized. He apparently already HAS things he wants to do, rather than talk about change for four years. Unfortunately, there isn't really much I can agree or disagree with him on, because it's all pretty generic... I don't care much for his stance on education, compared to Paul's because I don't feel like that's anything new. I don't care much for his stance on the environment, but that's because I'm a crazy hippy at heart....

So, yeah. That's how I see them. It's weird because really, they're the same candidate. They have some things I care for and some I don't. Though, given the time we're in, I'm very pro-Romney because he seems to have a much better fiscal plan, which I strongly approve of. It's not like the next term will focus on abortion issues when the economy is how it is. Immigration, yeah, probably. Health care, for sure. But some issues are more important. And, I hate to say it, but despite how strongly I'd align with Paul on most things, Romney seems a better candidate for the country's current state of being.

I really wish my opinion of Gingrich wasn't so... ruined. I pretty much agree with him on everything. Except, he, too, doesn't seem to have a concrete stance on the budget or finances or the economy. Which is what this country needs. Less beating around the bush and more damn action. They need to restructure a million institutions. They needs to stop funding all these useless sectors of government, like Planned Parenthood [thank goodness]. They need some serious remodeling for the entire tax system. They need to figure out how to STOP getting involved in business, without allowing businesses to run amok. [A personal dilemma in my mind, because if government steps out, businesses will pretty much screw everything up and take advantage of that to a degree that would not benefit the majority of the people. If they get involved, they never regulate things right and get so involved that it ends up just sucking money from the government...] But anyhow. My silly ideals won't ever work. I've never seen a candidate with whom I agreed on every single issue, so meh. Looks like Romney is my pick of the year.




I was looking through files and noticed that I hadn't uploaded the right files in two locations. One being the author page and the other being the domain page. Both were outdated by about a year. They have been updated!

That's all for now. Happy Wednesday everyone. It's the last day for NaNoWriMo. Hopefully everyone else wrote more than me... 9k words isn't even close to good. Ohwell. I will work on this throughout 2012. By next year's NaNoWriMo, I will certainly have an accomplishment to brag about regardless!




Today I'm going to get a tad more personal than I normally do. Something happened to me today, though, and I feel the need to talk a bit about it on a... higher level.

My car got broken into. Bummer and all. But... it got me thinking about the same thing we've been talking in class with interpreting real life events. And karma. We've been reading Quest for the Holy Grail in Lit. This is an interesting book for multiple reasons. For me, it's interesting because it's the most insane thing I have ever read. This book is religion on bread. It takes this super action-packed story and dumbs it down into religious interpretation. I find that a little hilarious because there's all these events that seem so ridiculously not meant to be interpreted, but then the author FORCES the interpretation on you. For example, Lancelot goes to fight in this tournament and he fights with the losing side, thinking they need help and he loses -- a first for him. Then he talks to a monk and the monk says, okay, the interpretation you should take from this is that you sided with sin and against God, which is why you lost. You should've fought on God's side which was the white knights, not the black knights. The only way to fix your life, Lancelot, is by giving up and repenting all your sins and you can real-life-version-of-win-that-tournament. And Lancelot goes, shit dude, I'm such a sinner... If I wasn't I surely would've chosen the side with the knights who were winning and I, too, would've been victorious. I gotta change, bro.

So, I find that hilarious because he was being perfectly noble by taking the greater challenge: fighting for the losing team. And somehow we're to interpret that he made a horrible choice in life from that..? Come on. I don't believe any religion is THAT ridiculous to not praise undertaking a noble challenge...

So the incident with my car made me think of that. I found it a little comical that I started to analyze my life in this "grand" sort of way. I started thinking about what karma I was paying back with this. Was it my teenage rebellion where I'd taken the car out without parental permission? Was it the fact that I once stole something, too? Was it retribution over the fact that I plainly had wronged others, whether it be cheating on a boyfriend or considering immoral things holistically? I got so determined to "right" this situation morally that I stopped considering that, hey, hold on a second, my car just got broken into!!! I laughed a little at the irony that I could take a book and find it so ridiculous to read into every single event to such a depth when I myself do it for my life. Granted, I don't do it to THAT great an extent but I still take things for more than face value sometimes.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a firm believer in fate and karma for the most part. But, I also like to think that I believe in living your life rather than analyzing it. It was wise advice I got once that stuck with me. Spending so much time questioning and analyzing every event in life is wasting time that could be spent living and enjoying it.

Sometimes I feel we all need a little dose of that. It makes things a lot easier to face. The reality of things is easier solved than asking yourself why something bad may have happened to you. If I was living my life as a devout religious person trying to attain some high understanding of life and enlightenment and the likes, I'm sure I would make a completely different argument. But, frankly, I don't think that's what my life is or will be any time soon. I'm not seeking religious enlightenment, so I don't see why I should be worrying about what things I need to atone for to get to some "higher" plane in my life.

I just thought it was an amusing little thought and figured I'd share it. Now, go live your life little ones! :)

And, side note! NaNoWriMo! I'm two pages in :) I'm glad I planned because this thing is flowing from me pretty well. It feels nice to write creatively again. You should all go try it, too!