Realistic Vampires? Finally!!

Anyone who is completely sick of vampires, the whole vampire redundant story, and the damn bandwagon it rode in on, should watch the movie "Let Me In." Saying that it was brilliant would be a monumental understatement. Ever since I watched "Interview with the vampire" many, many years back, I have been thoroughly obsessed with the idea of vampires and their general allure. 

But I noticed, as I am sure most people will agree, that vampires are completely romanticized in film and literature. The immortal beings are seen as these beautiful, all powerful beings that are sex crazed and occasionally feast on human blood. The whole advent of the "good" vampire feeding on animal blood as opposed to human blood (thanks to the market savvy mind of Stephanie Meyer) has transformed vampires into beings equivalent to disobedient puppies that can be trained. "Let me In" however, brilliantly rips this aforementioned presentation into shreds and then takes a shit on it. I don't want to give anything away but the film leaves the viewer inundated with morbid pity and sadness for the life of the vampire, rather than fascination and desire which are commonplace emotions in relation to the mainstream vampires we are all accustomed to. 

In my humble opinion, it is the most accurate representation of what it would be like if vampires really did exist, and if you happened to know one. With the difficult task of bringing the novel "Let the right one in" by John Lindqvist to life, Matt Reeves is genius as the director of the film. He strikingly breaks all of my prior beliefs and images of the bloodsucker being and has me torn between the best interests of the two main characters while at the same time rooting for both the "good" guy and the "bad" guy simultaneously. 

Despite being fantastically blood filled, graphic (without a HINT of overdone visual effects or Hollywood fakeness), and un-apologetically sincere, the film at its very core, is a love story of the most honest and innocent variety. Developing the relationship between 12 year old mysterious Abby and 12 year old loner and bullied Owen was executed smoothly and was genuinely believable. I think that this is probably the take home message: It was totally believable, despite being a film about a fictional creature. A true masterpiece, and definitely a film you will want in your collection.

In slightly less important news, I am going to Jordan for 3 weeks in July. This is certain. What is uncertain is whether or not I will be able to sneak away to Greece for one of those weeks. It will only be a 2 hour distance, and I am sure I can find a decent hotel. I am staying with family in Jordan so I am happy to report that this trip will most certainly not leave me broke. It will also not leave me hitched, although that really is what my parents are hoping for lol. We will see anyway :)

Now, to bed.

Next blog will be the about the complete self-denial and pathetic imagination characteristic of the mind of the self-proclaimed "born-again christian." Should be a hoot to write.

Mandy

Todays Tea: Jasmine Green

Beyond a story book

Someone may feel as moody as this weather. Golden skies followed by torrential downpours and distastefully coloured skies. To compare this to love would be too easy and boring for that matter. Anyone who says that they've experienced love is just severely deluded in my opinion. I am not speaking of the maternal love or familial love or anything really that entitles you to a once very close proximity relationship with a person, I am referring to the pathetic excuse people call love. The love in which people all of a sudden feel a surge to get married and pop out disgusting little monsters reminiscent of the parents while simultaneously choosing to ignore the fact that there are billions upon billions of homeless children in the world with zero parents and even less food and shelter. 

I speak of this topic a lot because I am always fascinated and horrified by the subject of love. Even people in my life now who tell me they love me, past boyfriends or even friends, its ....Well I can't really muster up the right word to fit in how I feel about it all, but needless to say it doesn't exactly fill me up with pink fluffy clouds and get me excited. Most often, it makes me nauseated and grossed out. Love is just an excuse that people use to fuck consistently and call it a relationship. 

I'm not saying I'm completely devoid of feeling. I mean I have fantasies and shit but in all honesty in my head when I am imagining a scenario with my near perfect male specimen, I am more turned on by the situation and the environment rather than the actual relation between myself and him, or the fact that we "love" each other. And I will stake my life on the fact that this is the exact same way women and men feel when they are fantasizing as well (even if they do not want to admit it to themselves). 

The subject of our attraction can almost be categorized as an accessory to the fantasy itself. And even I think thats a pretty fucked up fact. Love is equivalent to religion. It is simply for people who choose to remain blissfully ignorant of the fact that neither of the two exist. I myself, choose to embrace complete awareness coupled with borderline contentment. And I'm okay with that. I think that people that feel the way I do read a lot in order to escape, in order to have some temporary relief from the aforementioned awareness, as it were. 


In the wake of all of this however, I still do not banish emotions that make me the way that I am. Rather, I am desperate to sculpt them into something useful. Something that I can turn off and on at my will. Things would be easier not just for me, but for everyone around me. I've lost some of my best friends because emotions ran rampant and destroyed our old life together. One in particular, I think I will spend the remainder of my life regretting. People keep telling me I'm a terrible person. Maybe I'm letting it get to me. 

Todays Tea: Jade snow green with lavender flowers.


My itunes shuffle knows me too well.

The Bitter Fruit of Osama's Death

So apparently Osama Bin Laddi' is dead, and I'm half expecting some kind of declaration of a "we killed Osama" day proposal by the White House where all the kiddies will have a day off from school to contemplate how we as a civilization solve our problems: By creating bigger ones.


Although I do understand its obviously necessary to stop terrorists and criminals, there is something about thousands upon thousands of crowds cheering over a corpse that seems very ominous and barbarian to me. And the overtly triumphant attitude by not just the news stations, but even President Obama himself is really surreal to hear and it all seems kind of like I've stepped into a older and more violent era in human history. What the fuck is the point in gloating over it? Thousands and thousands of innocent people were killed (on both American and foreign soil), and billions upon billions upon BILLIONS of dollars were spent over the course of a decade, and all we're going to justify all this with is the rotting corpse of an old and mentally disturbed man? I wouldn't exactly call that a victory.


This may sound negative but what's the point exactly? The people who died aren't going to come back to life. The Jihadist movement is not going to dissipate, if anything, this is simply going to add fuel to an already out of control flame. And despite what you creationists may believe, Osama is not going to "burn for all eternity" or get his precious 72 virgins. He's  just dead. Period. (i.e. no longer existing). Also referred to as the easy way out. Congratulations! You saved him years of dialysis treatment and hiding in fear like a little bitch (which he's been doing quite effectively up until a few weeks ago). 


Americans are still living in paranoid America, and the fearful focus will most likely shift from a (now) dead figurehead to some ambiguous collection of generic Muslims. The troops will stay put, civilians will continue to die and Airport security will make America's paranoia and cowardice painfully more obvious over time, while simultaneously expending a ridiculous amount of effort into national security often at the expense of individual rights and freedoms.


Nothing will change. We've already crossed the line from distrustful to a point where people will always need to continue to die in order to feed our apparent illusion of safety. All this while we at the same time, continue to ignore the bad shit that is being strengthened by our contradictory implementation of "peace" in world. Expect politicians to fall over each other in the next election each claiming that they had the bigger part in blowing bad shit up in order to get good shit done. And this violence will not only be accepted by the overwhelming majority of ignorant yes men and women, but will be ultimately encouraged and expected of politicians even more than it already is. Like a kind of lottery where a politician wins another 4 years in office by executing a known Muslim figurehead.


Annnnnnnnd cue the celebratory crowds.


Peace.


Todays Tea: Citrus Yerbe Mate

Brief Number Two

Also I read this post by one of my favorite bloggers: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/ and I just had to repost it because it gave me a little pick me up:

"A growing body of social science research reveals that atheists, and non-religious people in general, are far from the unsavory beings many assume them to be. On basic questions of morality and human decency — issues such as governmental use of torture, the death penalty, punitive hitting of children, racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, environmental degradation or human rights — the irreligious tend to be more ethical than their religious peers, particularly compared with those who describe themselves as very religious.

Consider that at the societal level, murder rates are far lower in secularized nations such as Japan or Sweden than they are in the much more religious United States, which also has a much greater portion of its population in prison. Even within this country, those states with the highest levels of church attendance, such as Louisiana and Mississippi, have significantly higher murder rates than far less religious states such as Vermont and Oregon.

As individuals, atheists tend to score high on measures of intelligence, especially verbal ability and scientific literacy. They tend to raise their children to solve problems rationally, to make up their own minds when it comes to existential questions and to obey the golden rule. They are more likely to practice safe sex than the strongly religious are, and are less likely to be nationalistic or ethnocentric. They value freedom of thought."

So if we're arrogant, it's easy to see why =)

Peace. (and still no tea...)

Brief (my lovely)

If I could just live inside my dreams, I think I would be exponentially happier than I am currently. People need to wake the hell up, and stop allowing some mystical ghost to make their decisions for them. You know what is right and what is wrong. YOU. Go with that, go with your damn morals, not on some bullshit fed to you by a pedophiliac priest and his holier-than-tho ghost. For fucks sake, just read deuteronomy! If thats not proof enough that your god was a sick, sadistic, ass wipe, then I dont know what is.


My back hurts, and I cannot wait to get out of this country for a few weeks, and just forget about everything. Also, all you people constantly complaining about having so much pain and about your constant need to take prescriptions opiates, if you don't want them, send them to me will ya?


Todays Tea: NOTHING yet....

State Pain for future pleasure

This summer is going to be annoyingly busy, and I really am grasping on to some lingering drops of achievement, and the hope that all this fucking work will pay off in the end.


I think education is the most important thing in the world. However you get that education (in school, through research, reading scholarly papers, online courses, ect....) makes no difference to the knowledge you soak up and dispense in the end. The point, albeit a gloomy one, is with no real formal education and no degrees, seemingly intelligent people are nothing more than people who like reading. People who are probably making no money, and usually dependent on others to get by. This is a small portion of the reason why I think education in Universities and Colleges should be free for all those who have the grades to get in, and who wont just fuck around in the process. Theres always the argument that you have to charge a lot for the "good" Universities so that they can hold higher standards than others, but in my opinion, money should not equal prestige. But it does. Tough. That's life. Although it is pretty disgusting when I see dumb ass people in my school, barely studying, and being satisfied with a 53% in a course just because it means they passed. Why? Because they dont have to pay! Their parents pay, and all they do is work as little as they possibly can, and float along. Education should not be a chore. People leave or stop going simply because they learn in a different way, and so do I in all honesty, and thats all well and great, but its not going to get you anywhere. Push yourself for a few of semesters, and you'll have all the rest you can dream of later. As crazy as this may seem, learning and studying get MUCH easier after University, and the really lovely, wonderful, spectacular beauty of learning is attempted on a much more personal level. I've realized something working 6 day weeks for the passed 3 weeks at a shit store with SHIT management, and even shittier idiots working around me: Formal Education is blind. It has no favorites, it has no sympathy, it has no emotions. You either have the marks and references that you need, or you dont. Period. At the dead end job I'm working at currently to make extra money to pay off OSAP however, myself and another employee are working with about 40 other people in setting up this new store. We are only tied to an employment contract for a 3 week period because they cant keep everyone and so they will base how hard we work during these weeks on who will be offered a position after the store opens. Now, I can pretty much stake my life on it that myself and the girl I work with (along with maybe a handful of others) are the only ones in the entire group who ACTUALLY work. There is a group of fuck tards however who (every time I have seem them) are either sitting and talking to each other, OR sitting down and drinking coffee and playing with their cell phones (both things we were not advised to do). Guess what? These fuck tards have already been offered jobs by one of the most vapid, and idiotic managers I have ever witnessed in my life. While myself and the people who do NOT stop working from the beginning to the end of our daily 9 hour shifts have had a grand total of ZERO offers. 


Now in addition to this throughly pissing me off and making me have recurrent urges stab them in their vaginas, it makes me really, REALLY appreciate the fact that I am simply there to work until the application process for grad school begins. Until the years I worked hard and got excellent grades pays off, leading me to a job where I will no longer have to deal with fuck tards who get beneficial treatment for simply being fuck tards, and a job where I am actually making a slight difference by helping people who need help and support, and a job where I will actually have a prestigious position in a work environment where I respect the people I work with, rather than pity them.


If its the last thing you do, work hard, and be the best person you can be. Don't settle. You can make a greater impact on the world this way. Things are not easy to achieve, and they will never be handed to you (unless you know a genie or you marry rich I guess). But myself, I'd rather be independent and intelligent any day.


Peace,


Todays Tea: Citrus Yerba Mate

Dreaming of hypersomnia

Things that I cannot wait to do after I finish finals:

• Take a fucking long ass bath
• Read all the books in my closet collecting dust that I haven't been able to read during school
• Watch my growing list of movies
• SLEEP IN
• Watch the TCM channel for an ENTIRE day with little or no disruptions
• Use all my gift cards I received as gifts for christmas that I've had no time to use
• Sleep (again, because I've been THAT deprived of it)
• Do yoga regularly and not just when I have time

....I have more to look forward to but I have to get back to studying :(

Todays Tea: Green tea with white tips (also called jade snow)

ps. I know more about the science of well-being than you every will. I guarantee you.

Peace