feeding the soul

"i have an inward treasure, born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld: or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give."
~jane eyre

we all do. the purpose of the soul is not to go somewhere after we die, but to keep us alive when nothing else will.
feed your soul as you would feed your body; that is to say, do not fill yourself emotionally, mentally, or spiritually with garbage. believe the good that people tell you, not the bad; and love both yourself and others.

dear parents

the right to life

pro-life
the belief in the sanctity of human life
a child should not be brought into the world if it will have no life fit for a human being: a future of abuse, a painful disability that will result in its death anyway, the prospect of being bounced around an abusive system if put up for adoption.
if in giving birth, the mother's own life is endangered, both lives are at stake since the mother may not survive to bring up her child.
honor killings happen even in supposedly "civilized" countries. if an abortion can prevent a family from killing a daughter or a niece, where is the debate? surely it's better to save one life than neither.

pro-choice
the belief in a woman's right to choose what is best for her own life
many women are not ready to have children.
in some cases, they're university or graduate students on their way to a successful career, maybe even a professorship. a pregnancy can ruin those plans in an instant and she may never fulfill her dreams, choosing instead to have a shotgun wedding and become a stay-at-home mom, or to be a single mother who may not be able to continue and finish her education until it's too late. granted, there are some women who would not resent their children for causing this state of affairs, but there are all too many who would. harboring any sort of resentment in the first place can destroy a family: how much more, then, if it's specifically directed at your child?
and on the other side, we have the underprivileged teenage mother, who doesn't necessarily know how to take care of a baby, and her baby daddy, who assuredly does not. maybe one or both of them come from a broken home and have never lived in a functional family. or maybe he leaves her and she has no job, no way of supporting herself or the baby. what then? is that any sort of way for a child to grow up?

the right to life is not the right to a chance at being alive outside the womb. the right to life is the right to grow up healthy and functional; the right to a life that is as good as, if not better than, the way your parents grew up; the right to actually live.

tony awards (somewhat) liveblog

minor alert. i am not blogging the awards themselves, just my reactions to the whole thing. enjoy the madness.
8:03 OMG PURPLE DRESS karen olivo you are ahhhh gorg
8:04ish OH GOD IT IS BRET MICHAELS MY SOUL DIES
8:07 dolly parton should definitely be falling over. physics fail.
8:12 NEIL PATRICK HARRIS TAKE OFF YOUR CLOTHES your suit: is it leather? it shines much. also, you are hot.
8:15 damn jane fonda looks good. and she's 72. I WANT TO AGE LIKE HER.
8:28 GRATUITIOUS WICKED REFERENCE yeah shrek!
8:29 "and btw" oh neil patrick harris for speaking internet.
8:48 i want that purple dress so much and i must go see west side story
9:06 i suddenly feel the need to go see rock of ages. GRATUITOUS CROTCH SHOT WHAT
9:14 liza minelli is definitely drunk already. what. and you know if they turn the music up on her she will be like DO NOT CUT ME OFF BITCHES
9:18 sound fail. gosh.
9:20 I LOVE HIS VOICE and OMG WHERE DID SHE COME FROM WHAAAT that is not in guys and dolls. my high school is doing guys and dolls this fall.
9:28 WHAT are you wearing? both of you. feathers? a stripey bow? seriously?
9:29 i actually think i might love the bow.
9:32 OMG KAREN OLIVO I LOVE YOU she is bawling and it is adorable
9:51 broadway is dark.
10:03 i want to see god of carnage now.
10:08 good lord. the angry dance out of billy elliot. good lord.
10:16 YEEEE GREEK CHORUS legally blonde looks adorableeeee
10:35 HAIR
10:38 oh cheno =) you are so cute
10:43 this has been such fun, evidently i must do it for every awards show from now on, but i am so done for the night
10:51 OMG THE LITTLE BOYS AHHHH SO CUTE okay i am done for tonight

defcon is destroying my weekend

fuck you, defcon,

• for taking a few awesome people away from me for the entire weekend
• for destroying my chances of going to jp licks with said awesome people tonight
• for making me hella bored whenever it's discussed, because i'm no codemonkey
  
• for making me feel like a needy selfish bitch about it all

what the fuck.

mass media and fear. oh, and stupidity too.

it disturbs me that people can be so credulous of what the media feeds them. that stupid "vaccinations cause autism" scare going around? you'd think teachers would have the sense not to believe everything without checking it first, but that would appear to be the opposite of truth. of course, my high school orchestra director is also apparently a crazy bleeding-heart liberal and only posts media sensationalism on his facebook. he also plays the bagpipes and is an amusing man.
of course, there are other explanations for this too. maybe i'm much more of a skeptic than most people i know: but only the ones from high school. maybe it's the scientific mentality i have. or maybe my standards for the world are also too high. whatever the case may be, there is only one thing i can say that is most definitely truth. the mainstream media (both right and left) needs to have the stupid and the fear-mongering beat out of it. with a big stick.

fear

false
evidence
appearing
real

this is what fear is and i will not live in it.