The Wonders of Xanga or I Was an 8th Grade Weirdo

My sister and I kind of make fun of my brother all the time. He's kind of a weird kid. You know, the weird I am talking about. And if you don't I will describe it. If you went to high school anytime around the time that I did, you probably had those kids that were hardcore into anime and manga. They only read fantasy books and think that Christopher Paolini (or whatever young fantasy upstart exists at the time) can be likened to god. My brother isn't as extreme as they are, but he is about midway.

But at the same time, my brother reminds me a lot of myself when I was that age. I tell my sister that all the time. That we have no reason to be concerned about his social standing until he reaches 10th grade. That is about the time when I became like socially adept. I am still weird as fuck, but I also have really cool friends so I feel like I hit a really good median.

I say all this because recently I ran into my old Xanga. And promptly deleted it. It wasn't anything super embarrassing, but it reminded me of that person that I really just do not want to be. I like to think that I have grown since then. I don't settle so much and I have way more confidence.

Whatever.

What I am saying is that Xanga may be gone but I guess the angst isn't. Self-reflection 2012 style. Way less poetry and song lyrics and way more prose.

More insightful stuff to come. And hopefully more regular updates.

"You've Survived Death Roe" or Why I Am Pro-Choice

Today, I saw a flyer on a sandwich board that very boldly said "Death Roe." You could see that part from about 20 feet away, and being in the Agriculture School at the moment I thought it was something about fish (because we all know that roe and fish eggs are one in the same). So being that I was confused, I walked up to the flyer. That it when I realized that it actually said: "If you were born after 1973 then you've survived DEATH ROW." It was an advertisement for a meeting that the students for life club was having. Now when I see these kinds of things I get angry. And I feel that every woman should get angry at ads like this. Because that is just plain ignorant propaganda. But that one advertisement got me thinking of all the reasons I am pro-choice.

1. I am a living breathing human being. Not a clump of cells. Most women obtain abortions in the first trimester, and over half of all abortions occur before 8 weeks of pregnancy. At 8 weeks, the embryo isn't even considered a fetus. It doesn't look like a tiny baby that can experience pain and emotion, it looks like a squiggly alien.
2. I don't want doctors having the right to mislead patients. In Arizona, a doctor can intentionally leave out information when talking to parents regarding a fetuses health that may lead them to get an abortion (imagine being told that your child is healthy and not knowing until birth that they had a severe developmental disorder). 5 States (Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas) require doctors to LIE about a link between abortions and breast cancer. These laws were passed fairly recently. In 2003 though, the National Cancer Institute declared that abortion had no link to increased risk for breast cancer.
3. It's my body. It is my uterus. And it should be my decision. By not giving me a choice, you are essentially taking away my right to control what goes on in my own body. It is 2012. I should have full control over my own body.
4. Abortions are going to continue to happen regardless of the legality. I want any women that wishes to have an abortion to have the opportunity to have safe medical procedure. Back alley abortions are the dangerous abortions. Those are the abortions that lead to women dying. Abortions performed in a clinic with a certified medical doctor have no negative side effects.

Those are just four quick reasons. Sorry if it is a bit muddled. But it is literally ridiculous that it is 2012 and women are still fighting for the basic right to control what happens with their own bodies.

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I alluded to in my first post that I was not a fan of Ron Paul. Just to be clear, I am not a fan of any of the Republican candidates. But being an intensely liberal female, that is probably to be expected. But this video pretty much perfectly explains why I don't like Mitt Romney. I do believe that of the four potential candidates he is the one that is most tolerable and by that fact alone he will get the nomination. But while it is perfectly possible to view him as a viable candidate for the Republican ticket, it is incredulous to think that this man will be a potential candidate for President of the United States.

It is obvious that Romney is running his campaign at the moment saying whatever he needs to say in order to win the ticket. And if that is the direction he is going to take the campaign in the general election, then he is going to find himself drowning when everybody just wants to know why he can't seem to keep the facts straight.

The Switch: From Tumblr to Blogspot

I looked at my dash today on Tumblr and was assaulted with approximately 100 desaturated (or saturated) photos. The other half of my dash that isn't covered in inspirational photos is covered in .gifs for the Hunger Games. And it's not that I am repulsed by pretty "artsy" pictures or The Hunger Games, but it was just too much. So I stopped.

Tumblr is all about the reblog. This perpetuates a cycle of having as little original content as possible. It's cool when you want to spread the word about something, but distinctly not cool when you find yourself writing 600 word blog posts about why you disagree with the politics of Ron Paul or why everybody should be watching Community. And I think it goes without saying that I would rather write a soliloquy on why Ron Paul is not an appropriate or even viable candidate for the Republican party than reblog a photo that isn't mine.

I think some people use tumblr really well. My sister for one manages to have a pretty healthy ratio of original to non-original content along with a pretty loyal following. I think that http://rapindustryfanfiction.com/ and http://mybabyisaverage.tumblr.com/ are both really fucking hilarious. And I am a pretty avid follower of http://surisburnbook.tumblr.com/. But for all the sites I follow on tumblr, I may have symbolically followed them on their pages, but because of the muddled dash, I tend to just type in their url and read their actual sites. And when you are supposedly follow 150 blogs (which really, 135 of them could be the same blog and it would make no difference because there is nothing distinct about them) and you regularly only look up about 10, that's am issue.

Plus the fact that nobody comments on blogs like the way that tumblr reblogs makes it that much easier to pretend that somebody cares about what you are writing.

So here it is to blogger! Hopefully my posts sound much more coherent from here on out.