Life's Ironies...

First, let's set the mood for this entry. I was walking past my speech class (before the doors were opened), heading for the little girls room when I overheard some of my peers saying something along the lines of "it's definitely a life choice.."

I sort of glanced back at the statement, curious about the topic, but my bladder urged me onward to the ladies room. When I finished up, I went back to the circle of peers and asked very blatantly "So, what's a life choice?" and to no surprise on my part the response was "homosexuality." I sort of smirked and said "I figured as much." Before a nice heated debate could ensue the topic was changed and soon after the doors were opened. We proceeded into the classroom, leaving the topic in the hallway.

The assignment we were instructed to complete was finding a famous speech to deliver to the class next Thursday. Here's the irony. I've come across a lovely Gay Rights Movement speech by Urvashi Vaid that I plan to present. :D Our instructor encouraged us to take on the personality of the original speaker, so I've been on a hunt for footage from this speech. No luck, so far.

However, I did find this:

Back to School..

Friday is my first day of college! Not sure how I feel about it yet. It's more of an obligation than a desire for me. There's a few classes that I think might be interesting, but I'm so behind in math that I'll have to take remedial courses for the this and next semester before I even get to college-level math. And after I finish them, I'll bet you I forget it all again. I just don't use math on the level they want me to learn. I'd rather critique a literary piece than figure out what x equals.

Anyway, I'm looking in to The Art Institutes too. I'm thinking about it now because my rep guy keeps calling me. Their determination to enroll me with them makes me think it's a scam. The commercials and advertisements I see for them makes me think they're legit. I'm not sure which to believe.

This semester I'm going to be taking English 101, Fundamentals of Public Speaking, Basic Mathematics (because I'm mathematically dumb), and Master Student. The last one is a class that teaches you how to study. Figured I would need it since I haven't been in school for six years. :D Can't hurt.

I'm eager for next semester though, I'm planning to try enrolling in a photography class as well as a few computer classes, hopefully. Of course, I have to get another math knocked out. Stupid math. Well, that's it. Just wanted to share that I'm going back to school! :D Yay.

Opt-out of Google

So for the past few days a lot of members in the deviantART community have had a hissy fit about a new Share feature available on all artworks submitted to dA. They're storing their work away and claiming that a link to their work is infringing on their copyright. Until deviantART allows them to opt-out of this new feature they refuse to share their work. (Which a good bit of them don't have work worth sharing anyway, so we're really not at a loss, imho.) It has baffled me why these people are so against getting exposure, I've argued with some about it. Tried to explain the idiocracy of it. All in all it's been pretty ridiculous. Then one of my friends shared this:


Google Opt Out Feature Lets Users Protect Privacy By Moving To Remote Village

It made everything all better. :D hahaha

The worst day ever...

This morning started off with a cloud over head. I wasn't happy about having to go talk to a counselor (what for isn't important) and did so many things that just aren't the norm for me. When I was getting ready I decided to wash my face and put lotion on. Doing this required me to take off my ring since I didn't want to get lotion under the band. I put my beautiful white gold marquise cut diamond ring in my jean coin pocket and proceeded to apply my facial lotion, intending to return my ring to my finger promptly afterward. This whole process is something I never do. I actually nag my husband about taking his ring off when he goes shower because I'm afraid he'll lose it. (Which he has before, but we always recovered it.)

The series of events that followed this process just took my day into a downward spiral. I never took the ring out of my pocket. I left the house to go to this meeting and realized my ring was missing when I sat down. (Married folk will know that when you feel nervous you tend to twist your wedding band on your finger.) Immediately, I called Mario to look for the ring at the house. Before I'd left home I sat on the floor to fix Mollie's topknot, so that seemed the most logical place I lost it. He had to run to the store first, so we didn't check the house until an hour later.

We couldn't find the ring anywhere. I went back to the building where I met with the counselor and back-tracked my every step. Nothing. Mario moved the seat every which way to see if it didn't fall off in the car. Nothing. He gave up hope, but I couldn't let it go. After talking with my dad on the phone I decided to check the car again. I even put another ring in the same pocket and went through the same motions. When I sat down in the car was the first time the ring pushed out of my pocket slightly. So, I determined the most probable place for it to have fell was the parking lot, since we didn't find it in the car.

I told Mario I was going take a look while there was still sunlight out. Got Mollie in the car and headed toward the building. While I was driving I thought I saw my ring just beside the belt buckle. I looked down at just the right (or rather wrong) moment and ran into a high curb on the side of the road. The car jolted. I freaked out, jumped out and made sure the wheel was OK. It didn't look busted, so I decided to keep going.

I drove maybe 10 feet and the car was pulling hard to the left, so I got out again. Everything looked fine aside from some scraping. I tried to drive again and the car was pulling way too hard to the left. Something was wrong. So I drove back home and told Mario what happened. Tomorrow we'll take it to Sears to get it repaired. I hope it's not going to be insanely expensive. Losing the ring was bad enough. :(

Christian Arrogance

I was submitting this stamp to my gallery on deviantART and rather suddenly realized that the information I was pouring into my Artist's Comment deserved more light than just that. So, I'm going to express my thoughts here in the hopes that more will take away from it.

Nothing I ever share is a push on to anyone. You can take away from what I have to say, get angry about it, or completely ignore it. That is your choice and I always encourage self-thinking. All I ask is that you be respectful if you feel the urge to comment. Ignorant remarks will be ignored. They're not worth my time.
To begin, here's the stamp I created and shared on deviantART:


^{The Quote shown above is from the founder of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment.}

Now, I did not decide to create this stamp because I've jumped on board with this entire concept. I made it because I adore it's wording and the truth in it. Whether or not J.Z. Knight can channel Ramtha or that Ramtha is even a true entity at all is not something I'll even pretend to know or really care about. The quote is the only point here.

What I read from this Quote is that we (as human beings) have created God in our image and simply claim that God created us in his. That way it's by his design that we are the way we are. (If God Almighty is in fact a he.) With that frame of thought any actions or reactions we have in life is by the will of God himself.

The truth in this quote is that we are an arrogant being. Think about it, I mean really think about it. Everything we do in life is done in reflection of us. We assume that every living thing resembles us in some way. We imprint our ideals on other living things because all we know is what we experience. That's not to say we're terrible for doing this, but it is a fact of how we are as people. I'm guilty of it too, I'm not pointing a finger.

A little off-topic, but still relevant. Just the other day I went to Petsmart to get some goodies for my new puppy. Outside was an event for "Homeless Dogs" and all these dogs were in kennel's at the front of the store. When I looked at this, I saw imprisoned animals. They're not Homeless, they're enslaved. If those animals were able to actually communicate with us, do you think they'd want to be stuck in a kennel where kids come pet them and walk away all day? That must be torture.

My thoughts are partially based on the fact that I know animals are naturally wild creatures, but it's also due to my own thought of how I wouldn't enjoy being in a kennel the way they were. So you see, even I'm guilty of having this same arrogance. I assume that the things around me are relevant to my own thoughts and emotions. It's what I know.

I'm not saying that domesticated animals are not happy or should be returned to the wild and be free. A lot of pets are living lavish lives. Everything they need to survive is provided for them. In the wild it's survival of the fittest. I myself have two cats and a puppy. All three are spoiled. They have the best food money can buy, toys we can't even count, and a personal doctor any time they're feeling under the weather.

However, I discipline them. I discipline them because they are my property and I expect them to behave a certain way. Based on the natural order of things, I think the animal would rather be running free, not in a cage. Unfortunately they wouldn't last in the wild where they originated. We've spent too much time domesticating them. Molding these animals into our source of entertainment (and in some cases laborers). That is essentially their purpose, to entertain us. Again, really think about that for a moment.

Now to come back to the topic at hand. Just as we imprint ourselves on other living beings, we have imprinted ourselves on the Almighty. That's why I feel that this quote has truth. The other aspect of the quote is control. Human beings want to be in control. We want to understand what's going on and why. God gives us that satisfaction. Everything that happens is God's will.

I do believe that everything in life happens for a reason, but I don't think God has any part in it. If a divine power does have any part in our lives, the presence of that power isn't going to come from any one person. Take a moment to think about this one too. An all-knowing, all-seeing super being speaks a biased view to one person? But isn't able to speak to all people? Through this one person his word is spread? Human beings are selfish. They want to be listened to, obeyed. How easier can it be than to say God said so?

I'm sure that some people do believe they hear God, feel God. When you're a part of a group who believe this it's easy to fall for it. I was there once too. I wept during a sermain because it spoke to my heart. It related to pain I had in my life. The paster did the laying of the hands on me and I actually felt what I believed to be a holy presence. I fell to the ground and was unable to move, I saw what I thought to be the holy light of God.

This is something that I'm still unable to fully explain, but I don't believe it had anything to do with God. We are imaginative beings too. If you implant an idea into our mind and we want to believe it, we will make it real. That's the best means of explanation I can give. I saw what happened to others when they went to the pastor. I wanted my pain to go away, I wanted it to stop. I wanted the weight to be lifted off of my shoulders. So I made it happen and convinced myself it was through God.

The more I hear of radical religious believers, the more I'm convinced they need professional help. Everything is contradicting and twisted to meet their goals. If you question what they say, you're a heathen sinner. This is the radical's, not the Sunday Saints. To each their own on this whole matter. I'm sharing my own personal view on all of this. It's nothing more than that.

If you've made it to this point, thank you for having the patience to read this post. Please, share your thoughts with me. I'm always happy to know what others think. Whether or not you agree with my point of view. It's a means of learning more to discuss these sort of things with others.

All the best!

New addition to our family...

No, not a human baby. A puppy! :D Look how cute:




She's not in our possession yet, but she will be this Friday. I can't wait!

The above pictures were taken by the current owner of the puppy.

Celebrity deaths piss me off

Yea. I said it. It's Thursday night and I'm supposed to be able to watch my DVR recorded episodes of 30 Rock and The Office. Instead I've recorded old reruns from a perverted celebrity who went into cardiac arrest and died at 51. When my Aunt had a heart attack it didn't interrupt your day, did it? Why in the hell do I have to be subjected to this crap?

Not only has this turned into breaking news, they've started marathons in honor of him and the internet is buzzing with "Oh poor Michael." I'll bet 90% of his mourners didn't even know who the hell he was beyond the guy who invented the moon walk and did that "whoo hoo" move when he grabbed his crotch on stage.

It's not like the president was shot. Now that is something I could see being breaking news. He's the person responsible for running our country. There's a real purpose for him in our lives. Michael Jackson was entertainment for us. Not to say he wasn't entertaining, but holy shit. Does he have to ruin my Thursday? I didn't know the man personally, why am I expected to mourn him?

"Oh he's an icon, he's a legend."

He played the market and made a shitload of money while groping little boys in his spare time. And hell I don't even know if that is true. Nor do I really care. I just want to enjoy my Thursday in peace.