The "Rapture"

There's nothing specific to write about at the moment. Life is changing at a rapid rate for me even though outwardly it probably looks exactly the same. I have started volunteer training to be a sexual assault crisis counselor/advocate. It is once a week. It's helping me immensely. I like the format, I like the people, and I am learning things that are extremely relevant to my future career path should I choose to continue on to grad school with counseling. The actual volunteering may not be as involved as the training. It has the potential to go either way. I hope that it works out for the best. For now, at least, I think it was a good decision. It's the first good decision I've made in a long time concerning my future.

It's nice to feel like I'm making progress even if it's going very slowly and taking a long time. I'll get somewhere eventually. I really don't have a choice. I'm always slower to get things like this done than other people because I am not as quick as other people to jump into things in which I will be miserable. I have to take my time and find something that suits me and my needs and in which I feel comfortable. I feel like I'm wasting time otherwise. At least life isn't boring at the moment. In fact it's rather action packed. I should learn never to complain about a boring spell in my life because as my life tends to go, it will do a complete 180 and suddenly everything will be chaos again.

Some crazy religious fanatic predicted the end of the world for this past Saturday. The Rapture, he called it, when all non believers would descend to hell and all the believers would be taken in by God and live in eternal happiness or some such nonsense. Mostly this was all just amusing to me. Lots of people used it as an excuse to drink and throw parties. I know the majority didn't take it seriously of course but there are always whackjobs out there who will believe any crackpot theory someone comes up with because he suddenly "decoded" the bible and came up with a bunch of numbers and a formula to make it sound like he actually knew what he was talking about. I have a feeling that if God were going to end the world, He wouldn't let anyone know about it. We'd all be taken by surprise, and then, we'd all be dead. And who knows what would happen after that.

I'm clearly not a religious person. I wouldn't call myself an atheist but I tend to ignore most of it and not care very much. Some religions and religious ideas are interesting, but I certainly won't blindly follow a faith. Some people need that faith. I was raised without any religion, therefore I don't need it. It's completely unimportant to me and my life. I enjoy living life on my own terms, doing things as I wish to, and following my own moral code that has nothing to do with a book written a long long time in the past. I feel completely content knowing that I never have to feel guilty for the things I do and the choices I make. People are by nature imperfect, so you just have to do your best in today's world to be the best person you can be. Basically, I am untroubled by God, religion, religious rules, etc. My family is Catholic, so at times I do attend church for a wedding or funeral. There are definitely nice aspects of church and faith and good things that they do, but at the same time I know I'll never find a need to attend church on a regular basis. Anyway, this is also completely irrelevant to the point of religious fanaticism which I was trying to make. Pretty much all the fanatics do is provide entertainment for the non fanatics, so I suppose in a way they're still doing something good for society.

Another Quote

Another quote I pulled from a fashion blog I read religiously but never comment on because the comments entertain me fully. projectrungay.blogspot.com

""As we found out later, Joe doesn't really do insincere politeness. He's genuine, and when he says "Let's have lunch or drinks," he really means it. Believe us, in the 5 years of publishing this blog, we can't tell you how many people who never have any intention of doing so, say "Let's have drinks" to us."

Oh, I believe you all right. I literally did not know the meaning of the word "flaky" until I had met an American person for the first time.

But how could I have known that "We should hang out" really just means "goodbye", with zero intention of ever actually hanging out?""

I felt this was worthy of a comment as I think this is a flaw of the majority of Americans. I don't understand why Americans assume no one ever wants to spend time with them, and if someone says they want to, more likely than not, you never will. I think it's a combination of things. It's a "coolness" thing. An "I'm so busy I have no time for anyone thing, therefore I must be cool," combined with a poor confidence factor of "If I actually talk to this person they are going to think I am creepy and stalking them". The obvious answer to this dilemma for most Americans is to friend the person on facebook so they can stalk the shit out of them at their leisure without consequence. I guess I never realized it was a cultural thing until I read this comment though. To me, as an American, it's almost proper etiquette. I can remember times being distinctly weirded out if someone contacted me after meeting at a party only one time to hang out. It seems to be some sort of unwritten rule that you have to see someone a certain number of times before it becomes ok to spend time with them outside of that setting in a friendship type manner. Dating is excluded from these rules. I think it's because forced awkwardness is another unwritten rule of dating, and meeting someone only once and seeing them again almost guarantees awkwardness. I would like to point out that I am sure there are people to whom these rules don't matter and who march to their own drum, but I agree with the commenter that it is a distinctly normative thing to assume in our culture that even if you say that you want to "hang out sometime" you really don't mean it in most cases, and the other person is supposed to accept that without question and without getting offended. People are fucking weird. All of us.

Social culture is so strange when you break it down. I guess it becomes more obvious how ridiculous something like this is when it is mentioned to you by someone from the outside looking in.

Someone's Comment

"Man, mid twenties is a hard time. I feel like there's this societal pressure to have all our shit together, and that people who even vaguely do pretend that everything is super awesome and they're super together - and you know what I've discovered, whenever I've gotten close to anyone? No one has their shit together. Everyone has some aspect of their life, usually several, where stuff isn't together. And that's OK. That's being human. There's a lot on our plate in the modern world (really, any world - how nice is it to not worry about Tetanus and Cholera, amirite?) No one is all the way together. Let's celebrate the good we have. Sometimes our houses are messy. Sometimes we don't know what we're doing with ourselves. And I should stop drunk LJing. But so be it. Life is OK. What you're doing OK. "

A comment on a post from TQC, aka The Question Club, my absolute favorite community to stalk on Livejournal, and also the reason that I never delete my Livejournal account. Thank you. I needed this comment. Too fucking true. Anyone who wants to refute this point and try to prove their perfection...go ahead. All that means is that the next day your cat will die, your car will break down, you'll get laid off, and then to top it all off a bird will take a shit that happens to land on your head. Sorry people, that's just the way the world works. Appearances are just appearances. The people who are truly happy in their lives are the ones who are able to roll with whatever happens and laugh through the rain.

Planned Parenthood

The issue of Planned Parenthood has been brought to Congress, and while I usually avoid talking about politics, as a woman, it's an issue that just can't be ignored. It's also an issue I feel very strongly about. The issue here is to cut government funding for Planned Parenthood in order to lower our deficit.

One word can sum up how I feel about this. Ridiculous. Oh, also ludicrous. Completely backward, irresponsible, and quite honestly a little disgusting. It is pretty easy to see the arguments, and the people behind them. For whatever reason, Planned Parenthood seems to be in popular media associated almost exclusively with abortions. People who don't know any better and are anti-abortion think this is entirely beneficial. Except...the money that the government gives to Planned Parenthood does NOT cover abortions and never has. The government does not fund abortions in any way. If I want to kill my fetus, I'm paying for it myself, out of pocket. Planned Parenthood does, however, perform abortions if a woman chooses to have one, so it's pretty obvious that this "brilliant" plan to reduce our deficit is a masked attempt of conservatives to push along their anti abortion agenda. They don't want to back an organization that provides abortions to girls whether or not the majority of the services offered and utilized by women there are extremely beneficial to women and women's health. PP offers routine gynecological care as well as free screenings for all STI's and cervical cancer. They also offer many different types of contraception, pregnancy planning, etc etc etc. PP is great because it is easy, and it is anonymous. Their primary mission is to keep women healthy and educated. There are statistics that prove that they have succeeded. I have always felt at ease knowing that no matter what happens, I can rely on Planned Parenthood to be there in case I need it. I, in fact, did utilize their services at one point. I wanted to go on birth control. Not living at home at the time and not wanting to wait for an appointment with my regular ob-gyn, I used PP. It was easy, it was quick, and it was anonymous. For girls who can't afford a regular OB, Planned Parenthood is there. It makes me very angry to see this country even considering a piece of legislation so backward. It seems as if they would rather our country regress. America needs to stop being so afraid of change and move forward. We should be a nation of progress. It frustrates me that we are seeing things like this happen in today's day and age when women in the past stood up and said, hey, boys. We matter. We count. Our health counts. Our happiness counts. We can take care of ourselves. We want to take care of ourselves. And we're going to do that if you like it or not. Women have proved themselves, for years. We have proved ourselves to be intelligent and competent. Women successfully raise children while holding full time jobs. These things happen every day. In spite of all of this progress, we are still faced with politicians who can't come up with a better plan to reduce their deficit than denying millions of women preventative medical care.

My answer is, to the men: You are not women, and you will never understand what it is to be faced with even the prospect of carrying a child, and the life changing consequences that can have. You don't know what it feels like to worry constantly that you may get pregnant and not be able to support a baby, and that the guy might disappear as soon as your baby is born, and you might be left alone. You will never understand what it is to make these choices because you will never have to. Please, listen to the women who have fought hard to have things like Planned Parenthood available to them. Cutting funding will only increase the number of children born into unfortunate circumstances because of lack of access to proper contraception. More women will die, and we will spend more treating diseases and cancers in their later stages rather than preventing them or treating them early on. Planned Parenthood may provide a service that goes against your morals, but that is not the service you are cutting. Give us women a chance, please.
To the women (who are for this legislation): You insult us, and you drive us further backward in time. Do not deny the millions of women that have benefited from PP's services in favor of your own selfish beliefs.

I have a very hard time understanding women who speak in favor of things like this. It makes me think that they have never had anything denied them in their life and have always been able to afford quality care. You have to learn how to step out of your own shoes into another person's. You have to learn how to be critical of your own upbringing, and see where your beliefs truly come from. Educate yourself, learn, and read, and exercise compassion even when it is difficult. You never know where a person is coming from.

Downfall

Well, it's been a pretty boring two days but Sunday into Monday usually is. Last night I watched a German film called Downfall which is an account of Hitler's last 12 days in his bunker in Berlin. I forgot I had rented it, but I suppose it was mostly because it had so many good reviews. As far as movies go, it was very very well done. I am not too familiar with all the details of Hitler's time in power, but I spent a good amount of time today doing basic research about the main characters and events in the movie. The movie followed what I read very accurately. Some of the events are downright disturbing, but I suppose you can't expect much else from a movie about a psychopathic dictator. The most disturbing event is when Magda Goebbels systematically murders her six children. I had difficulty watching it. It wasn't gory, and it wasn't violent, but it disturbed me so much that I had trouble sleeping afterward. I've seen movies where children are violently shot and killed, but for some reason the calm and matter of fact way in which Magda went about it was especially bothersome to me. It's a scene that isn't going to leave my head anytime soon.

Rants, Raves, Thoughts

I've neglected blogging. I'd love to say I've been busy...partially true. I am busy about half the time, and the other half I either read or watch Netflix, which is a new and horrible addiction of mine. In general, in spite of all the ridiculous snow we've gotten, I feel pretty decent. Usually this time of year isn't great for me mentally. It does get tiring, but as my father says, we just have to embrace the weather, which means putting on your boots and hats and coats and scarves and buying snowshoes if necessary. I'm sure people back in the 1800's never bitched about this shit the way people do now. We are all spoiled little brats. I have never heard such bitching and complaining in my whole life as I have this winter. The joys of working customer service include listening to people bitch on all levels of everything.
Ex: "I just can't STAND all this snow, I'm moving to Florida! This is just ridiculous I just can't believe it bleh bleh blah blah moan moan cleaning snow sucks blah blah moan."

"No one can drive in the snow! I am the best driver ever in seen in snow and everyone else sucks, they're terrible, took me TWO HOURS to get to work blah blah moan moan."

That's enough examples. Thinking about these people makes me want to throw things. The biggest problem for me is that many of these snow bitchy people are people that I know and usually love. There are, of course, the people who love snow, and then do what I'm doing, which is to complain about the people who hate it, but it seems that these people are few and far between. I just get tired of listening to it after awhile. No one is original, but everyone thinks that they are. The morning after a huge snowstorm, when every status on Facebook is about snow or snow removal, and how bad your morning commute was, it's a little sad. I do not need a motherfucking picture of your snow covered car. MY CAR LOOKS EXACTLY THE SAME. I do not need a picture of yours. I can simply look out my window. Holy shit, a snow covered car! Imagine! Good thing I saw yours on the internet first so I could compare.

People in general make me angry lately. I guess I'm frustrated myself, but I feel as though I walk around in a world completely blinded to all truth. A woman was in the store the other day talking about how much school the kids have missed because of the snow. She was angry because "I already booked my vacation and now with all the snow, it's going to be that last week of school - well that's just too bad for the school, my kids are just not going to go. And can you imagine, the school is saying that kids will only be excused that week with a doctor's note! Well I never! No one could predict 80 inches of snow, and I already booked my vacation!"
I wanted to slap this woman so hard. Really? You already booked your vacation and your poor children might have to miss out because of some snow? How horrible that they might have to stay in school for an extra week! Fuck you, you entitled cunt. People are constantly blaming the schools for not properly educating children. This is a way for shitty parents to shift blame onto an institution for not raising their kids properly. The problem is with students who are ill-prepared and entitled and every time they fuck up get excused because Mommy and Daddy call the school and complain and threaten a lawsuit. How dare the school try to discipline your fragile little lamb of a child who can do no wrong. I certainly do not mean to say that there are no bad teachers and never a reason to complain about a school, or that the school always handles these issues properly. I'm simply pointing out that a lot of parents these days seem to think their kids are special little snowflakes who must be protected from everything, and this is why these kids grow up and become incompetent assholes who frequent my line in the package store to complain about everything.

This entry has turned into a rant. Since I'm ranting, I'll bring up another topic which caught my attention the other day - namely, some guy I read about on yahoo who is touting the idea that kids don't necessarily need to go to college because it is too expensive and a waste of time.
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/james-altucher%27s-8-alternatives-to-college-535903.html?tickers=COCO,APOL,ESI,DV,EDMC,STRA,^DJI

I think I found this interesting because I completely understand where this man is coming from and I think he has good intentions. It worries me though, that people will start to think this is legitimate. He obviously hasn't exactly thought his ideas through fully, since if you watch the video he basically says that he is not saying that no one should ever go to college but that for some kids it might be a good idea to wait and explore other options, and that not going to college doesn't necessarily mean you will end up flipping burgers the rest of your life. On this point, I agree. I do not agree, however, that we should start encouraging kids to not go to college. I struggled with and still struggle with some of the same questions he brought up - namely, how much you actually learn in college. As someone who attended a four year public university in a humanities major (which we all know we can't do much with in the field upon graduation with no advanced degree), I have an answer. That answer is that students learn a great deal in college. Unfortunately, most of that learning does not come in the form of test scores or essay grades. I was technically, in terms of grades, a poor student. I rarely studied. The problem is that the type of learning I'm talking about can't be measured or categorized. It comes in many different forms. Grades are so often not an accurate depiction of intelligence. I guess in tests where they test students to see what they have learned academically in college, they don't do much better four years later than they did entering as a freshman. I can completely see that. It makes perfect sense. Most classes I took I retained very little actual solid information. If it's information that you are not going to continue to use and is simply memorized in order to use it on a test, it won't be retained in the long run. The best way to retain important information is to use it in the real world, which the world of academia is severely lacking. After all of this and knowing that I wasn't such a huge fan of college, it seems odd that I would still advocate for it, but I do simply because there truly aren't any alternatives that are better. The pros outweigh the cons in this case for me. For most people who are not incredibly ambitious and need a little direction, college provides that. It also provides a bridge from high school to the real professional world.

I would say to anyone that has the resources and ambition to pull off any one of Altucher's alternatives to college to go for it. How I wish I had the funds to take time off and travel the world. Doesn't everyone? Unfortunately that is not a reality for most students. In fact, it is going to be easier for most students to travel while they are in college than not. It is probably easier to concentrate on creating great art while actually in school than just on your own. There are numerous opportunities available to college students that aren't available anywhere else. I wish that I took advantage of them now. Truthfully, I have some regrets about that time of my life. I feel a little bit as if I wasted it. On the other hand, I still feel I learned a lot, both in the classroom and out of it, and in so many different ways. I definitely think that college isn't for everyone. I agree that it is overpriced. I avoided being in a huge debt by attending a public in state university, so tuition was a lot lower. I certainly think that people should be asking these questions and trying to come up with solutions to them. I think that being able to cut tuition costs as well as add some sort of practical element to four year university study would be greatly beneficial to future students. I don't have any solutions for it, of course, but that's why I'm writing a blog about it and not an article. Problems like these are too complex to just start naming off rash solutions like don't send your kids to college at all. Too often we forget how statistics are generated. They don't take into account things that may be so important, so it's important to look at every statistic published with a critical eye. So often it's said that the most important skill people learn in college is critical thinking, and I completely agree.

Tis a New Year

Well, it's a New Year...rang in the New Year right this year. Tons of fun with my best friends. I couldn't ask for more. I hope this year will be a bit of a turning point for me. As of yet, though, I am making very little progress on the job front, which is totally my fault this time. I'm just not trying very hard. It's hard to care when everything else is going well, and I am having all kinds of fun. The thought of searching for a job, writing tons of bullshit about why I am so awesome, then sitting through a painfully awkward interview while some person who has no idea who I really am judges the shit out of me doesn't sound very appealing right now. I'll have to go through with it eventually...I have to do something. I have no choice. At the moment though, I am avoiding my responsibilities like the plague. All of this is completely ignoring the fact that it's difficult to even get to the painfully awkward interview stage, and at this point I am also feeling a little defeated when it comes to that.

Anyway, enough negativity. My positive energy has finally been coming through lately. My confidence has returned, I feel happy and hopeful. I hope this doesn't go away. I feel much more like myself again. I'm enjoying it. Since the past few months haven't been the easiest, this is a welcome change. I need to buy some new boots. I bought a guitar. I was hoping it would come today, but if not today, tomorrow. It's a cheap one, but I've always wanted to learn to play, and if it turns out I don't have enough patience for it, my mother told me she would help me out a bit with guitar lessons. I figure it can't be as hard as playing the violin, so it shouldn't be too bad if I can just for once commit enough time to it. Off I go I think - I'm hungry and I need a shower.