Light a Candle

Okay, I got this site from an email:

http://www.lightamillioncandles.com

Normally, I don't pay too much attention to emails that are being forwarded or the ones that tell you to go take some personality quiz because forwarded emails usually mean chain letters, which can be fun to read when you're seriously bored, but otherwise, a pathetic waste of time. But this time, I visited the site because I think its really a good cause. Basically, for those of you who are a bit too lazy or afraid to click random links in people's blogs, its a site that's trying to raise awareness about child pornography. Its really sickening how people would actually do this to a children younger than three sometimes. Its bad enough that they're abusing them this way but they have to leave a record of it and post it online for millions of other perverted people to see. These people who are looking at the pictures are abusers too. Just because they weren't there doing anything directly doesn't mean they didn't participate in the act. By looking at the pictures, they become one more person in the world who has seen someone's worse memory without permission, one more scar on their skin. I do know that some of these people who look at porn have a psychological problem and they can't control themselves and they should probably get help, but the thought of a cute little baby being hurt this way disgusts me. Click the link, visit the site. It won't take you any more than five minutes and pass it on to your friends. Make a difference.

He's Just Not That Into You

Intuition, female or male is something that guides us. An inner instinct that we use in everything from whether to cross the street when some creepy guy approaches to how we move our lips when we kiss. But sometimes, it just seems like intuition gets clouded. When you want something badly enough, it seems like your mind creates illusions to humour you. When he sits next to you, you feel like he's sitting just a bit closer than he needs to. When he dances with you, you think he might be holding you just a little closer. When he talks to you, it seems like you're the only person in the world. When he sees you passing by the hallway, he always does something to show that he sees you, and you're special. But as time goes by, you notice that he treats other girls the same way, he never calls or msgs, yet you still cling on. In an almost pathetic sort of way, you replay all the good memories of him you have, all the times he's done something sweet. You find yourself remembering all the conversations you've had with him. Finally, in desperation, you find yourself going after him, but he brushes you off like a piece of lint. You're not important to him, you never were. You were just another girl out of the sea of a million faces. Finally, you take a step back and look at the big picture. Its as if you've been released from chains, shackles. Because now, you've woken up, you've realized that he's just not that into you.

Fanfiction in Wall Street Journal

I saw this link on somebody's blog:

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB115836001321164886-GZsZGW_ngbeAjqwMADJDX2w0frg_20070916.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top

It would be so cool if people actually came out with HP fanfiction books, but I would still prefer reading them for free online.

The Blame Game

Sunday September seventeenth. Its drizzling outside, the sky a depressing shade of grey, weather of winter, me sitting in front of my computer. The weather of course, isn't the only depressing thing that seems to linger in the air. Just last week, a twenty five year old takes three machine guns into Dawson College in Montreal and starts randomly shooting students. One girl was killed and I think nineteen injured in the hospital with three still in critical condition. As usual, when something major like this happens, every newspaper, television station, and radio station drags every specialist they can think of out to talk about why someone might be compelled to do this, have some psychologist talk about emotions, the dangers of violent video games and the goth culture, etc. I suppose I have no right to talk about these things since I'm not a psychologist and I'm not directly affected by this incident, but I'm going to be a big mouth and talk about them anyways. I'm not a goth, I don't have any goth friends, I don't know much about the culture except for the fact that Marilyn Manson wears too much makeup and they sort of have this facisnation with death. On the other hand, I suppose all of us do. After all, every religion answers the question of what happens after you die and most horror movies use death, violent spirits, or haunted places as their central theme. I saw on the newspaper that the guy said that 'Life is like a video game, everyone has to die sometime.' If he were some nobel prize winner and he said that I think people would marvel at his philsophy and wisdom, of course because we know a murderer said this, it brings this chill in your heart. When someone goes out there and shoots twenty odd people for no reason and kills one, can we really blame Grand Theft Auto and Marilyn Manson? Do we ever think about what would really drive someone to do something like that in the first place? As a human, besides our basic needs of food and water, we also have other needs of survival. Things like love, friendship, and companionship. It sounds corny and Hallmark-y but its true. Could you imagine your life without anybody to call when you're bored or have no shoulder to cry on when you really need it? Memories are very complex things and can pop up when we least realize it. It leaves a deeper scar than any physical injury and will never heal completely. We can blame others all we want, but we are the ones to blame. If you've ever put down someone even without words, maybe with your head or with your body language. Maybe you stand further away from someone waiting for the bus with you because he has ragged clothes as opposed to the guy wearing a suit and tie. Maybe you don't want to talk to someone because they're 'uncool'. Maybe you don't want to go out with someone because they're 'not good enough'. Everything builds up over time. I've done most of these things before, I'm not a nice person, I admit that I automatically judge people when I see them, conciously and subconciously. All I'm saying is that we should at least make an effort to prevent creating another person angry at the world, determined to kill themselves in the most violent way possible and taking down as many people as they can along with them.

My greatest condolances to the family of the girl that was killed and I hope all the injured get well soon. Any school, no matter how boring, how difficult, should be safe. Nothing should ever change that.

9/11

Today's the five year anniversary of the terrorist attack. I remember on that day, I was starting level six swimming lessons. I heard that something big happened somewhere in the U.S., but I wasn't really sure what. So after school, I went as usual to the pool and I took a short cut through the shopping mall. Now, there were a whole bunch of stores that were closed because the owner lost friends or relatives in the attack. I didn't even know what happened until I saw on the news that night when every single television station devoted the entire news hour or had some sort of special broadcast that replayed the footage of the planes crashing into the twin towers. You see the big cloud of dust swallowing up people as they run frantically away away from the falling towers on the street. The chaos, screaming, and death. I mean, planes crashing into towers are the thing of movies. On the big screen, we admire the team of special effects people that made the fire, the explosion, the noise so real. When things like this happen, you just think that its not real. But an even worse fate for being killed in the attatck are the people that are left behind. The wives, husbands, childrens, friends of the victims. When the planes crashed into the towers, it left a hole in their hearts and lives that will never be filled. Also, the people living in Afganastan and Iraq. I'm not a specialist on Middle East affairs, but I don't know whether their lives have changed for better or worse after the US invasion. You always hear about suicide bombers, roadside bombing, how many civilians were caught in a crossfire and were killed. I wonder if there will ever be a day where all the events of 9/11 are settled and the dead can truly rest in peace.

Update On My Life

Oh la la, haven't blogged in ages. I've spent most of last week going out with friends. I think I've consumed more ice cream and sugar in the past two weeks than I have in the entire summer combined. It was fun though and suprisingly, I seemed to actually have a life outside my computer for once. Unfortunately, I'm now back in school and I can't seem to settle back in. I'm already counting down to the end of the day, procrastinating (sp?), and I hate my timetable.

Ugh, I miss summer.