Posted in Teenage Life

Intro

Because I am new here, our esteemed webmistriss suggests I post a little intro describing myself.

I’m a cynical realist and a hopeless romantic. Qualities I appreciate in some I loathe in others. I seek originality but am charmed by cliches. I simultaneously want people to notice and ignore me. I don’t believe in perfection but constantly find myself wanting it. The more I get to know people the more I tend to dislike them. I ask numerous questions about other people but hate having them fired at me. I don’t believe in love or happily ever afters but find myself dreaming of my own.

Politics: Libertarian
Religion: Hakuna Matata
Colours: black, green, blue
Favourite new song: We’re Not Gonna Take It ~ twisted sister
Favourite group: Bowling for Soup
Favourite Book: Prisoner of Azkaban
Favourite slash pairing: Crowley/Aziraphale
Favourite brand of peanut butter: Peter Pan
Favourite movie: Silence of the Lambs

and, of course, my namesake:

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u236/Jonnieette/6-witches-flamingos-350.jpg

Posted in Movies

Australia Oscars

First off, I would like to add some potential nominees for The Dark Knight that I forgot last week. I watched it again last night, and it could have a chance at Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, and Best Editing.

So I went to see Australia yesterday with my mom, and about 4 months ago I would have thought it to be a big contender in the Oscars. But, the golden globe nominations are out, and Australia go 0, but for good reason. It was an average film, not wonderful, not horrible. There were parts that were good, and others that were just way to cliche and cheesy. So to me, Australia has almost no shot at Best Picture, but hey, we never know for sure. Cinematography could have a little shot, though I didn’t think it was too good, since there were moments of greatness and horribleness. But the main categories to watch out for are Art Direction and Costume Design. One thing I can say about Australia though, is that the sets felt real (for the most part) and the crew did a good job at making the movie seem like the 40s.

By the way, the Golden Globes nominations were announced this week, and Benjamin Button, Doubt, and Frost/Nixon were all tied for the most nominations. Hopefully, I’ll see Button in a few weeks, and the other two soon.

Watch out for:
Cinematography- Maybe
Art Direction- Good chance
Costume Design- Good Chance

Posted in Sports

Dude, spray those things with Windex

So one of the things I’ve recently learned while taking baseball lessons with my hitting coach is really the secret to success. Relaxation.

A lot of times you’re just struggling, desperately, and you can’t find a way to dig out of your hole. So you try harder and harder, putting all your aggression into it. And it’s normally to no avail.

But what people don’t realize is that aggression in many cases is the problem. Your muscles get tense and you just try and force things to happen. What you need to do is step back and just breathe. Take all the time you need, and refocus that energy to what is gonna fix your problem. Then just relax, go with the flow. Give yourself some flexibility and don’t get so tense. Then you can actually figure out what’s wrong and fix it, instead of maybe succeeding a couple times on pure luck.

Everything’s in your head most of the time, it’s your challenge to control it.

This is Scarface signing off.

Posted in Issues, Politics

A change in pace (capital punishment)

Well, although I don’t think we can ever thoroughly exhaust the topics of gay rights, it really is time for a chance of pace in the social issues department. This week’s topic of discussion: Capital Punishment (aka, the death penalty).
This is an extremely controversial topic, but it seems to get a bit drowned-out in all the noise from other social issues, such as gay rights and abortion. This is a very delicate subject, and there are many facets to it. Many argue such things as “eye for an eye” and justice, as well as what a civilized community should do, the right to life, the chance to repent before death, the mortal sin of murder, and many other things. It may take hours to explain them all, so I won’t even try.
Personally, I find the idea of capital punishment primitive. It doesn’t matter how “painless” and efficient the process becomes, it is, in it’s raw form, the most primitive legal act of our society. It goes by the “moral” that humans have upheld for centuries: “an eye for an eye.” It is one of those morals (like gay rights) that needs to be rethought. We may have rethought it on the lower levels: we constantly teach our children to never respond to violence with violence: always talk it out; always forgive. But when it comes to our harshest sentence, we are blatantly hypocritical.
Another thing worth mentioning is that this is one of the few social issues (if not the only social issue) where I concur with the Roman Catholic Church. Murder is a mortal sin, and that not only goes, of course, for the murderer himself, but for the executioner, who really is forced to murder by the job description. I do not doubt that most executioners kill more people than any murderers they have put to death. The emotional toll must be rather horrific, as well.
Also on the matter of mortal sin: those who are subjected to the death penalty never really get the chance to repent (even though I am agnostic, I still think that you really ought to have the chance to reconcile with yourself and the people whom you have hurt before the inevitable end: it gives a sense of finality to the whole matter). Sure, criminals end up on death row for years and years, but I don’t know if I would be able to come to any conclusion whilst berating my horrible demise day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, and, in some cases, decade after decade.
Now this brings up the point of the sense of justice that the family of the victim often desires. I can understand their anguish, but what they really desire is nothing more than petty revenge (this is assuming that they really believe that the person who killed their relative truly deserves death). I cannot begin to think what it would be like to loose a family member at the hands of a murderer, but I would certainly hope that I would retain my current outlook if I do: which is that I need to be the better person and allow that person to reconcile with himself, the victim’s family, and their god (if they believe in one). I don’t think I could ever truly forgive that person for what they did, but I would hope that I would not stoop to their level by thinking that capital punishment would be a just compromise for the loss of my own family member.

Well, I think that’s about the sum of my beliefs (and it truly is a summary – if you want to argue on the subject then you may hear more), so let’s hear your beliefs. What do you think of capital punishment? Good or bad? Necessary or primitive? Just or unjust? Whatever you’ve got to say, let’s hear it.

For now, this is Aardvarki, signing out.

Posted in Blog

Chop chop, he says I’m gonna win big

the Red Hot Chili Peppers are weird.

So, first I’d just like to mention how thankful I am for everyone who has been blogging and commenting lately. It warms my heart to see the thoughtful, intelligent posts and debates going on. I’d also like to say that my little bro, Godfather, has come a long way. His blogs, although not perfect, like mine(obviously), are actually pretty good. I’M even reading and enjoying them. Love ya, bro.

I’d also like to talk about what the esteemed webmistress is looking forward to seeing under her tree this Christmas:

-Gift cards to either Gap, Old Navy, Barnes and Nobles, or Borders.

-Music: “We sing. We dance. We steal things.-Jason Mraz CD”, any Jack’s Mannequin CD, any Metro Station CD, or a Meg and Dia CD.

-Black peacoat (These things are freaking expensive, though. If I wasn’t so cheap, I might have bought one myself a while ago)

-Red Converse, size 8 (I prefer the ankle ones… not high tops)

-Jason Mraz Calendar (or any calendar, I guess)

-Cool, non-holiday themed socks (that aren’t too thick)

This shirt

-Teeshirts from Snorg, BustedTees, or Threadless

-For the school newspaper to spell my name right

-Religious tolerance

-For the California Supreme Court to overturn Prop. 8

-For there to be a new human rights issue I can talk about, because gay marriage and abortion are getting old

-For either Jason Mraz, Liam Aiken, or Michael Phelps to propose to me

 

Oh, yeah, and world peace.

Actually, no. With Bart, I don’t think that’s ever possible.

Post your own wish lists! If you want me to hyperlink anything, let me know.

Posted in Movies

The Dark Knight Oscars

So I guess I’ll be writing about current contenders for Oscars these next few weeks, and unfortunately, there were no new real contenders out this weekend in our theaters, so I’ll have to talk about this one. Hopefully there will at least be one good looking one here next week, or else I’ll go see Australia. Anyway, to the article.

As all of you should have seen (who HASN’T seen The Dark Knight??), Christopher Nolan’s latest Batman movie has easily surpassed any others ever made, even his previous installment Batman Begins. It was a hit with both casual movie goers and film lovers alike, and broke all the box office records for opening weekends. But was it good enough for the Academy, who have surpassed many great films in the past like Fight Club, Se7en, The Usual Suspects, Assassination of Jesse James, and countless more? Well, it seems to me like most people think it has a chance in this category, and I’m one of them. So far this year, no other film has come close to matching The Dark Knight in really any aspect, except for maybe visual effects (Iron Man). But not having THE best effects of the year shouldn’t dampen it’s prospect should it? Most of the public would agree with me on this, even the film lovers are adoring it, so shouldn’t it be a lock? It should, but the academy has made some horrible choices with their nominations. Juno (Enjoyable, but Best of the year???? I don’t think so), Forrest Gump (It was one of the better films of the year, and I have no problem with it’s nomination, but in a year with Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction, there is no way it was best), and Jerry Maguire (Come on, really? Its like Juno, enjoyable but not amazing). It is definitely a contender for this spot, but I’m not so sure it’ll make it.

The other major award that it will be nominated for is Best Supporting Actor for Heath Ledger. Heath did a wonderful job with the great script and brought it to life with one of the greatest performances of all time, and he should be honored with this award even after his death. Oh, and Adapted Screenplay, its not a lock, but to me the whole reason the movie worked was that the screenplay was flawless, and allowed the actors to give great performances off it. So, awards to watch…

Best Picture (Maybe)
Best Supporting Actor (Lock)
Best Adapted Screenplay (Maybe)
Best Cinematography (Maybe)
Best Director (Maybe)

Posted in Issues

Ok….ok….STOP

This is a response blog to The Maker’s gay rights blog.

I did not hear about this blog of his until the morning after, when a friend (who happens to be gay) printed out several copies and handed one to me. “Read this,” he tells me.

Of course, I’m always happy when people go to my website of their own free will, so I gave it a look over. And, admittedly, my first reaction was chagrin and anger. He misquoted and misinterpreted me! The Maker and I have recently had an e-debate over email about this very subject, and all the points in his blog were ones that we’d already fought about. Then I got confused, because the week before, in Trig, he told me that he had revised his opinion because obviously, it’s not someone’s choice to be homosexual, so why should we restrict any rights?

Then I read his blog again. It says he doesn’t “necessarily” agree with the things he was about to write. I’ll admit that this was a badly phrased pre-reading statement, but he means well, guys. In Ford Prefect’s blog about Tolerance, there was a comment from someone asking for The Maker’s arguments AGAINST gay rights, even if he didn’t believe him. True to his word, The Maker posted just these.

HOWEVER, he does not believe the things he wrote. As he said, in speech and debate, we have to be constantly reminded of the “other side”. Those arguments are the “other side” of gay rights arguments. So please, cut the guy a break. It’s perfectly fine to argue against his points, but please, no personal attacks. Especially when he doesn’t believe in those things.

Something else was brought up in the comments section by Adventure Captain Pants, how it would be beneficial for the neutrality of the site if we could get a non-bigoted religious argument against gay rights, because that’s erally the only argument you can use against them. All others, as demonstrated in The Maker’s blog, fall through. So, if anyone is interested in writing a blog from the religious perspective, KEEPING IN MIND that you have to remain non-dogmatic and non-offensive, please let me know. I’m ashamed to admit that neither I nor most of my admins are very religious and cannot offer this other side. If you don’t already have an adminship and wish to write a guest blog, email me at brianna [at] brisownworld [dot] com with your blog. Please check for spelling and grammar, because I’m not going to correct it for you.

So, once again, leave The Maker alone. Argue about his blog, but not about him.

Posted in Issues

Homosexual Rights

Since it was requested, I will lay out my argument against homosexual rights, and I hope it does not leech interest in the much more intriguing Tolerance is Bad blog. Keep in mind that I don’t necessarily believe or support what is listed below.

I will say this again: I do NOT believe or support everything below: I apologize if I offend anyone, and I do know all the fallacies in this reasoning. This is my argument against Gay Rights, since Mr. Prefect asked, and, again, I do NOT believe everything posted below. I know that many of them are partially unsound: hey, everything mostly is, and especially for arguments advocating intolerance.

Also, I would like to mention that I was originally pro-gay, and would scream at everone against gay rights, but then I had a conversation with our esteemed webmistress concerning a philosopher we both knew. She brought up that he was not such a good person to believe, amoung other things, and that I shouldn’t follow his opinions. Many other people, including Mr. Aardvarki, who I had know had also attested to his alledged incompetance, and that originally sowed doubt into my opinions. I got better, eventually.

Again, I would like to reiterate that I do NOT believe most of the things down here (except the pollution clause, as pollution messes up so many things, and many chemicals simulate hormones and chemicals that are known to cause homosexuality, as Mr. N will attest. The homosexuality and AIDS clause is a real, if unpopular, theory, as many scientists refuse to admit the possibility that AIDS is not caused by a virus.). I deeply apologize if I offend anyone,

First point, and I have supported this all my life until Mr. N told me it was totally wrong: Genetics has nothing to do with it. The epiginome and prenatal chemical conditions have a little bit to do with it *, but mainly it’s the environmental effects. Tabula Rasa and all that: one’s sexual orientation is determined by choice and what they experience:

Thesis: Homosexuality is bad, and we should not encourage people to be homosexual, or condone homosexuality.

1: Homosexuality is bad because it is not how it’s supposed to work
a) It’s not natural
b) It’s not productive
c) It detrimentally affects both the homosexual individual and society.

a: Species did not get where they are by being gay.
This doesn’t mean homosexuality is not found in nature, it just means that it is not how it’s supposed to work. All species have a 1-2% anomalous population who are chemically messed up,(2) so homosexuality is accounted for, but, again, species did not get where they are by being gay.

b: From a genetic standpoint, the primary point of a species is to reproduce.
Some anomalies, such as sterile people and homosexual people, do exist, but, in a genetic standpoint, they can live normally and then die naturally, not passing on their genes and thus not affecting anyone else. But, now the homosexual population is increasing, so something must be wrong.

c) Being gay hurts everyone.
1: From personal expirience, most gay and lesbian people I have known are perverted and profane, rude, and basically just bad people. I have counted three people who are good enough to accept and be accepted, and every other gay guy I met is a jerkoff.

2: Another edition of Discover Magazine discusses a certain doctor’s theory on AIDS. I have been looking for this article with little success, and I don’t remember his name, but I think it’s German, but I would encourage all interested partys to look into it. Basically, since we have spent so much time trying to find exactly what causes AIDS, AIDS might not be caused by a virus. Back in the 70’s, gay men used a certain type of drug called Poppers to facilitate intercourse. These drugs actually lowered their immune system, and this evolved into AIDS. Coupled with the fact that, back then, a gay person might have had over one hundred companions in his lifetime, AIDS could have spread among the homosexual population and then spread through blood contamination to all sorts of people. This is why the first AIDS victims were homosexual, and while only 10% of the entire population is homosexual, 25% of the AIDS population is gay. There is a disproportionately large amount of homosexuals who have aids.

3: Homosexuality is a mental disorder:
It has been conclusively determined that homosexuals have a reciprocated hypothalamus,
something not normal affecting their brain. Although we do not look down on people with mental disorders, having a mental disorder is not something most of us would aspire to. (Note: this was originally upheld by the American Psychologists Assosiation.)

2: Someone could be born gay, someone could have seen jacked up muscular men so much that they turned lesbian, or someone could be bisexual because they are really desperate. Homosexuality is attributed to choice, social influences, environmental conditions, and a little bit to prenatal chemical conditions. The last one accounts from the 1-2% of homosexual humans, but the actual figure for homosexuality is more around 10%. This can be because:
a) more people are choosing to be gay
b) more people are turning gay because of social or environmental influences.

a) This could be the result of a degenerate culture, which now not only causes gun violence and prostitution, but now homosexuality

b) this could be the result of pollution and chemicals (Heard about Nalgene? Chinese toys? Chinese milk?) that contaminate the earth now more abundantly, contributing to prenatal chemical conditions. So not only does pollution cause cancer and Global Climate Change, it also causes homosexuality.

3. Even if people were born gay, they can change.
a) DNA changes in real time
b) We suppress genetic impulses all the time
c) The Empirical method.

a) please bear with me, I’m SO tired of explaining to all the ignorant plebeians about genetics. First, genes change in real time: people have studied twins, and their genes are identical at birth but start getting different as they get older and are subjected to various social, psychological, and biochemical influences.

b) We suppress the detrimental genetic impules sexual urges and tenancy to violence all the time, and the government takes pains to treat people who were born violent or addicted to drugs, so why should we condone homosexuality, just because “we were born that way”. I would like to site Mr. Bennett who has only one leg and continually assures everyone that it doesn’t matter.

c) We are not our genes. We are subjected to countless social, biochemical, and stuff whatsit thingamabobs that really determine our being. So what about genetics and all that junk? Be who you want to be, that’s the American idea.

Now consider the analogy of paraplegics:

Paraplegics can be paraplegic because they were born so, they suffered an accident or act of violence and became so, or (I know this is unlikely) they chose to become so.

And one would admit that, while paraplegics are not necessarily bad people, we do not want to many paraplegics rolling around.

So, even if gay people were not necessarily bad, and every population has it’s exceptional people, we do not want too many people to suffer from mental disorders, so we should not encourage people to be gay by condoning them, or offering too much incentive to be gay.

So, we should not encourage people to become homosexual.

Yet again, I reiterate that I do not necessarily believe all these arguments, and I, personally, believe that gay people should have thier rights. I apologize if I offend anyone.

Besides, isn’t the first step to being accepted accepting other people? Tolerate dissenting viewpoints!

I would include the counter-arguments, but I’ll leave that to our devoted viewers and our esteemed webmistress. I do realize that, basically, most of this is irrelevant to why gay people shound’t have rights.

*a 2006 Discover magazine edition revealed that mothers giving birth to male babies still had a bit of testosterone in their womb, which makes subsequent male babies more likely to be gay. The key word is more likely, while prenatal chemical condition effects sexual orientation, it is not conclusive.

Posted in Movies

Oscar Season

So, this is the time of year in which all the Oscar contenders come out and I want to know what you guys want me to write about. First, I could write about past winners of the award and what my take was on that year. So, for example, I would talk about last year’s Academy Awards and say that No Country for Old Men was the best movie, and that Juno, Michael Clayton, and Atonement were all poor choices for other nominees. Or, I could start talking more about this year’s movies. This would let you see an insight into some of the best movies to see over the holidays, and which ones would most likely be nominated for something. Changeling, for example, has a good chance at being nominated for Best Actress, Set Design, and maybe even costumes. Or, if you want me to just ignore the Oscars for right now, then vote for that option. I start next week, so get busy voting!

Posted in Movies

So we just take it back…

So me and Rachel went to see Twilight on Wednesday night. We knew it wasn’t going to live up to the books, of course, but dang, we didn’t think it would be THIS bad. It was awful, there was no character development or plot building, and it was HILARIOUS. We laughed at the most inappropriate parts, but oh well. To express my distaste, I’ll go character by character.

Edward: He wasn’t even that attractive, and his pale makeup didn’t go past his face, so he had a tan neck and a white face, which looked weird. Plus, he had the same expression the entire movie and he wasn’t seductive at all.

Bella: In the book, she’s got a good sense of humor and is very sarcastic. In the movie, she didn’t smile once, always seemed out of breath and afraid, and the actress wasn’t very good anyways. A huge disappointment.

Jacob: One of the only redeeming qualities of the movie. Attractive, once of the best actors in the film, and interesting. I can’t wait for New Moon, where he gets a bigger part.

James: Twisted his head to the side so often he looked like a confused dog.

Victoria: Too sweet looking… she needed to be more severe.

Laurent: He was a weird character anyways.

Mike: I LOVED him! He was probably the best actor, and he was hillarious!

Angela: Too outgoing and perky; she’s supposed to be quiet and reserved. They totally ruined her.

Jessica: They got her hair all wrong, but she wasn’t bad.

Lauren: Wasn’t even in the movie.

Tyler: Didn’t have a very big part, unimportant.

Eric: Entertaining, but I would have liked him to be a bit more nerdy.

Charlie: He was actually ok.

Billy: He wasn’t bad either, but how could he drive?? He’s in a wheelchair…

Jasper: He looked afraid the entire movie. The couple times he didn’t, he was a cutie!

Alice: Kind of odd, a little too cold to fit the actual character. She needed to be perkier.

Emmit: He was pretty good.

Rosalie: She did ok, but she looked kind of funny.

Carlisle: He was kind of scary looking, actually. He was one of the better actors, however.

Esme: She was kind of creepy too.

Overall, the movie was too intense to follow even the idea of the book. I was very disappointed, but at least I got a laugh out of it.