And I'm off on a rant (Part 1!)

Shame on me, second day of the new year and I'm already off on a rant! And part one of a rant as well! I have another part of this rant, on the same thought wave, but I'll save that for another day. Anyway, this is something I stew over a lot, and I need to hash it out, so here goes. Teenagers are idiots. I know I'm making a rash generalization, but its true. Seriously, they choose to love or hate things based on public opinion and celebrity endorsement. Who cares if its quality or not, right? Now, I'm going to go a bit more specific here and talk about one thing in particular.

High School Musical. Don't you dare run away now, if you automatically decide not to keep reading after I mentioned HSM, then you need to hear this. I'm talking to you. HSM is a perfect example of something good (not phenomenal or earth-shattering, but good) was turned into a leper by teenagers. It's not "cool" to like HSM, so no teenager does, or if they do they won't admit it. I'm not making this up either, it's ridiculous. I'm surrounded by people who hate things for no good reason. Let me recap for you a conversation I repeated over and over with many of the girls I asked about HSM. We'll call these girls "Amy".

Me: "So, do you like High School Musical?"
Amy: "Ugh, no!"
Me: "Why not?"
Amy: "It's lame."
Me: "What makes it lame?"
Amy: "Well, it's just not very good."
Me: "Specifically, why don't you like it?"
Amy: "Well, the first one was ok..."
Me: "So why is it lame?"
Amy: "I dunno."
Me: "Ok, what about the second one?"
Amy: "Oh, I didn't like the second one."
Me: "Well, the story wasn't as good, but the music was still really good."
Amy: "Yeah, that's true."
Me: "What about the third?"
Amy: "Oh, I didn't see the third."
Me: "Why not?"
Amy: "Cause the first two were so lame."

That's the point of the conversation where I went hunting for a brick wall to hit my head on. If you don't see any problems with that conversation, then I can't help you. For those of you who identified the screwy logic, let me assure you that I've had that conversation nearly verbatim with at least four girls, and similar conversations with several more. This really bugs me, and here's why. HSM is a very wholesome trilogy Disney released that includes lovable characters, great morals, catchy music, and a fun time. If you just don't like musicals, you're exempt from this rant. Somebody somewhere decided it wasn't cool to like HSM, since apparently all Disney shows/movies on the Disney Channel are for little kids. Therefore, you're not allowed to like HSM (or Hannah Montana, or Jonas, etc.). When we take something wholesome in its values and declare it to be uncool, we're sending a message to Hollywood, Disney, whoever, that they need to feed us more cursing, more violence, more sex, because that's what's cool. I don't know about you, but that's not the message I want to broadcast.

In The New Year

I made this in Photoshop because when I
googled 2011 all I got were pictures of cars.

Today is January 1st, 2011. Outside my window is the wide expanse of space, and my flying car is parked just outside ready to take me wherever in the universe I wish to go. Oops, I forgot. We aren't there yet! Remember watching cartoons as a kid? Every time a future featuring flying cars and other such tech was portrayed, it was always sometimes between 2010 and 2020, wasn't it? Sometimes later than that, but I always thought I'd at least have my own jetpack right now. Although I'd much prefer a teleport so I could easily visit everyone who doesn't live near me. Anyway, It's a new year and all over the world people have made resolutions. I don't usually make resolutions on New Years. I'm not against the concept, I just never really thought about it. What I do think about is what I'm looking forward to. So, for those interested parties, here is a list of 15 things I'm looking forward to in the order they occurred to me, so not chronological by any means. And more important things might occur to me later.

1. Dad coming home.
2. Turning 18.
3. Series 6 of Doctor Who.
4. Series 2 of Sherlock.
5. Visiting family in Colorado.
6. Graduating high school.
7. Finding out when/if I have to move.
8. The Secret of the Unicorn in December.
9. Hopefully seeing my best friend Ariel in December.
10. The next Bryan Davis book coming out.
11. The next Alex Rider series book coming out.
12. Meeting new people.
13. Going to Summit for camp in the summer.
14. The new Hawk Nelson album.
15. Finishing my afghan. Maybe.

Happy New Year!

Judgments and People

So I'm going to split this blog into two sections. First, my analysis of my most recent Lost viewings (my apologies to non Lost fans), which will lead directly into some observations I have about judgments I tend to make.

As far as Lost is concerned, there's some interesting stuff going on. Staying on the same theme I've been on in relation to this show, I want to talk about characters. Two characters specifically. The first is Sawyer. He's rude, haughty, self-serving, callous, and really fit. He's a fascinating character, and his back story includes a lot of stuff that would be a total plot give away if you haven't seen the show. He's not a likable character, but I like him. I can't stand him, but I like him. I know that doesn't make any sense, but it has to do with his character. A few episodes ago he won major points when he told another character something about his estranged father that meant a lot to the other guy. He didn't have to do that, and it didn't benefit him in any way, so that was out of character for him. He also got shot trying to protect someone else. So, I like him. As a character. He's very interesting to me. Now, there's a new character that's been introduced named Anna Lucia. I can't stand her. She seems to have a permanent look of scorn fixed to her face, and she acts like she's been appointed dictator for life. I really detest her. Plus she just murdered a character that was slowly growing on me. But for all I know, I might be making a pre-judgment of someone I'll grow to like. For instance, Locke is growing on me quite a bit, even though from the beginning he's given me the creeps. Its making judgments of people.

Which leads me to my second thought for tonight. I tend to judge people. I've gotten better about not blurting out my judgments, but I still think it. I heard a woman use a double negative several times when speaking to her children the other day, and I made a judgment about her skills in the English language. I could have been spot on there, I don't know, but the point is that I formed an opinion about this woman with no other knowledge about her. Which is wrong. Usually my problem has more to do with people's media decisions. There's a girl I know in my youth group who I alternate between wanted to throw something at her to feeling really sad for her. I get increasingly frustrated whenever I get into a conversation with her, and I have trouble suppressing that. Lately I've been checking that a lot better, but it's really hard. She and I used to be friends, but one of her very poor decisions led to us being very estranged, and it's something she never realized. Which is a big part of why she irritates me. She has no standards regarding what she reads, watches, or listens to, and she doesn't realize that there's anything wrong with that. Now this is what I've been working on. It's not my job to give her my standards. I'm not perfect, I watch movies with bad content sometimes (Inception was brilliant by the way, but the language was bad. Same thing with 2012.). So why do I am I so judgmental of her? Once I catch myself, I can reevaluate where my heart is and accordingly fix my attitude towards her. I still think she's making horrible decisions, and I feel really sad for her, but I'm learning that it is not my job to tell her what she should be doing, it's God's job. So I need to step back and let him fix both of us.

Happy Christmas

 So I've just got back from spending Christmas in Williamsburg, Virginia. Until yesterday there wasn't any snow, but the decorations were lovely. These are some of the decorations that we saw. They decorate with fruit and veg and greenery, even though that's not historically accurate. Apparently Williamsburg got serious criticism back in the 30's because they switched from decorations like these ^^^ to basic greenery, which is historically accurate. So, in order to maintain their good customer relations, Williamsburg sold out and put the prettier decorations back. Even if it isn't historically accurate, it looks good, so I don't mind.

In addition to Williamsburg, we also went to Christmas Town at Busch Gardens, which despite a depressing lack of open roller coasters was still fun, if cold. Yesterday we opened what little presents we had brought with us (for those interested, I got an Aeropostale gift card, an Amazon gift card, some note cards, and a movie), went to brunch at a local hotel, and then decorated gingerbread men. The remainder of the day we watched Lost (would someone please explain to me what on earth is up with those magic numbers?) and Mythbusters, which was a lot of fun. Today we successfully drove home, despite all the hype about a snowstorm. When we got home, I received an awesome TARDIS mug from one of my best friends. And hopefully tonight I can watch the Doctor Who Christmas special!

Geeky Day

The Science Of Deduction
The Blog of Dr. John Watson
So above, you'll see links to two websites. I know I just blogged early today, give me a break! This is me having a full out geek moment. These websites were put out by the BBC while Sherlock was airing early this year. So, obviously, they haven't been updated since then. However, I was just looking at Sherlock's website and Watson's blog!!!!! <- That's me having my geeky moment. How cool is that? So I've provided the links on the off chance that someone is interested. By the way, if you haven't watched Sherlock, go get the DVDs. They're brilliant!

Getting Lost

Sorry, I'm not getting deep here. I mean the TV show. I'm almost finished with season 1, and I have to say, it's interesting. Some TV shows, like Doctor Who, grabbed me right away and didn't let go. I'm a fan through and through and wait for every episode eagerly. This show, Lost, this bizarre and brilliant show, didn't do that. Instead of grabbing me right away, it slowly wrapped around me, and is only now beginning to cinch down. Before I get too caught up in that metaphor, I'll switch into normal terms. Lost is a show I'm not obsessive about. It's interesting, but not as phenomenal (to me) as some other shows. However, the writing and character development is amazing, and that's what I'm fascinated by. Over the course of the first season, my opinions of characters have flip flopped so much, and some characters I have five or six differing opinions on all at the same time. Some characters I flat out just like. I like Jack, Kate, Sun, Hurley, and I really like Charlie and Claire. Some characters I don't like at all. I don't like Jin. Some characters I go back and forth on, like Michael and Sayid. Some characters I like, or hate, and don't understand. That would include Locke (who gives me the creeps, even though I like him) and Sawyer (don't get me started on that guy). The fact that this show is able to stir up such fascination into the lives of seemingly ordinary people is very interesting to me, and that's why I'm enjoying Lost.

Pret A Manger

I can't remember if I've ever bothered to mention on this blog that I lived in England for three years. Most people who know me are probably tired of my stories by now. The reason I bring it up is because I was in Washington D.C. yesterday to see the Air Force Band and the Norman Rockwell exhibit at the Smithsonian. We (my mother, brother, and I) took the Metro into town. As we are riding the escalator to the street level, our heads emerge from the dark underground station and a heavenly light glowed upon us. Well, not really, but it was pretty close. Right in front of us at the very top of the escalator was a Pret A Manger. For the poor, sad, uninitiated, Pret is a pre-prepared sandwich place. They make everything that day, and whatever isn't sold is given to the homeless. It's also a place we frequented all the time in England. I looked it up when I got home and discovered that while officially 85% of Pret shops are in the UK, they have 2 stores in Washington D.C., 24 stores in New York, and 10 in Hong Kong. For those who've never been to Pret, I would heartily recommend it. It's delicious, and all natural. Not to sound like a commercial. Still, I was absolutely psyched to be able to have lunch at a Pret yesterday!