You got a boyfriend?

Scene: Aunt Laura’s house.  I’m washing dishes while said auntie, mother, and 2 cousins are packing.  Cousin Joey is telling me of his vacation plans for later that summer.  He is taking a trip to the beach with his girlfriend and her family.

Joey: Hey Hannah, you’re a pretty girl, you got a boyfriend yet?

Me: Uh…ha, no. Not interested.

Joey: Just wait until you get to college. You’ll meet some guy who likes the same books and movies as you.

Me: …*laughs quietly*…

Joey: I love being that annoying person. *exit*

Me: *smirks*

I don’t even know what to say.  It was too funny.

New Outlet

I’ve created a new blog for poetry and creative writing.  Try me at Waking Life.

Tom, it wasn’t until I made the header of my blog that I realised it’s extremely similar to yours.  I’ll change it if you want me to.

In Which I Beast the AP

I have to update for this bit of exciting news: I received my AP exam results for AP Literature and AP Government.

AP Lit: 3

AP Gov’t: 4

I beasted. I soooo beasted.  AP Lit was a killer.  I walked out of that exam thinking I’d get a 3 if I was lucky.  For AP Gov’t, on the other hand, I was expecting either a 4 or a 5.

Politics As Usual

I have always respected the right wing.  Less government, more liberty.  Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.  Leave my doctor unmolested, thank you, and I’ll keep my money in my pocket.  The armed forces should not be used as a photo shoot prop for overpaid, overvalued politicians.  Vote for Obama!  He’s for the army, but he’ll cut out a chunk of money that would go to certifying Marines or producing more weapons.  Yup, this war will end in a hurry.  I won’t fall for good-feeling words like, “hope” or, “change.”  Stop generalizing and give me the game plan for your political agenda.

There’s an exception coming up.  Could you feel it?

My problem with the right wing is this: we are fighting in the wrong arena.  For the kind of change we are looking for, to demand our original liberties, to alter the course of an entire century’s-worth of government expansion, we must take matters into our own hands.  That does not only mean voting for the right representatives, but to make our demands a social movement.  I’m not talking about a few protesters dumping soda in a New York river, but thousands of people storming the national capital, a la MLK’s “I Have a Dream.”  We have to work in a way in which we cannot be ignored by Socialist America.  We have already seen 5-6 months of proof of the wheeling and dealing that Obama and his supporters are capable of: can’t get through Congress?  Don’t worry about it!  We have the bureaucracy in our back pocket!  Inspector General suspicious of your antics?  He was senile anyway.  Check out the fly Obama just swatted!

This amount of power is rediculous.  Each day the right wing lets it go in hopes of the next presidential election is another day that our liberties are shrinking.  We do not have the next presidential election.  We do not have tomorrow.  We only have today.  The right wing cannot set all its hopes on one person, who may or may not even win the next election.  It is fickle and it is unrealistic.

I am embarrassed for the right wing.  I am embarrassed of articles implying that God has left America because of its government, or that Christian politicians, or maybe just Sarah Palin, are going to turn this government around.  God has not left America, nor will He ever.  He is everywhere all the time, and last time I checked, He has never been intimidated by the workings of man.  And yes, certain politicians are to blame for the current state of affairs in the government, but it is our fault also.  As a people, we have been all too willing to look the other way or to watch and keep our mouths shut.  Some of the worst abuses have come from politicians on our own side!  This article makes me angry.  I am appalled by the gall of Mr. Schwartz to assume he has all the details of Sarah Palin’s personal spiritual life and its reflection on her leadership.  Never once did he source an interview with her explaining his statements.  Finally, he advocates for fighting in the wrong arena, as I said before, which is funny because it hasn’t worked in the past.  Who defined insanity as “Doing the same thing over again and expecting different results?”

Really, if the right wing and Sarah Palin were in a relationship, I’d say the right wing is that obnoxiously clingy girlfriend.  And everyone knows what happens to those kinds of girlfriends: they get used, and they get dumped.  Shall I say more, or was that picturesque enough?

Be careful, my fellow conservatives, how much you stake in political gambling.  We’ve already lost a fortune.  Don’t make us leave the table in shame.

On Writing

I have nothing to write about,  so I’m writing about the pains of having nothing to write about.  It gets a little annoying, going through every day in the summer thinking, “Maybe I’ll update my blog today,” and then getting to this blank “Add New Post” screen and letting the curser blink for a minute.

Blink blink.

Heaven forbid this blog turns into a teenybopper diary:

Dear Diary,

Today I wore my white skirt I bought at the market and my blue shirt with white lace.  I worked 9-5, and nothing happened at all.  Upon coming home, I ate dinner with my parents and went for a nice long walk.  I passed two soccer games.  I remembered my one-day stint playing soccer at a YMCA.  I didn’t like it.  The soccer moms were obnoxiously loud and my shins hurt from being kicked so much.  All the kids had played soccer before, the atmosphere was completely different from baseball, and I didn’t know anyone.  Soccer was the worst sport in the world.

I had no idea how hard it was to actually write a good story until I sat down one day and tried to do it.  After two false starts, I gave up the idea.  To actually develop something imagined into a believable character or plot is frustrating.  My problem in writing fiction is that what I see in my mind is never how it results.  I either become too sentimental, too wordy, or all my ideas are really another author’s.  On the other hand, I can see where I want the story to go, but I have problems thinking of events that would climax there.  I end up writing the one scene I see in my head, and then upon reading it over, it sounds amazingly stupid.

I’m afraid my prescription is more reading, more attempting, and more criticism.  The first is gradually underway, the second is nonexistent, and the third is far overdue.

We’ve Been Screwed

Did anybody see Glenn Beck’s program on Fox News today? Apparently Barack Obama fired his Inspector General after the inspector questioned one of Obama’s motives. Obama called him “crazy,” and “senile.”

5 minutes after seeing the program, I went on Yahoo to check my email, and what did I find?  This.

How quaint.  Now that the President has finally hunted down that blasted fly, maybe he can finally turn his attention to North Korea? Or perhaps brainstorm better excuses for firing his Inspector General?

And while we’re at it, I’d like to give a huge shout out to our major news networks.  Thank you, MSNBC & Co., for covering the story so exclusively.  I’d like to hear about a dead fly any day over an Inspector General getting canned.

All’s Well that Ends Well

This morning was not exactly the best I’ve had in a long time.  I got up this morning and thought, “Hm. I wonder if that book I’m reading for my paper in AP Lit is a literary canon.” So I turned on my computer and checked.  It wasn’t.

I got to band and realized, “Oh.  Volunteering hours for AP Government and NHS are due Monday.  The outline for my AP Government paper is also due Monday…WAIT. When am I going to get this all done?” Shortly after, my friend Belinda walked up to me and said, “Hey, did you know the senior recital is tonight?”  “No it’s not.”  “Yeah, we have to be here at 7.”  “Are you serious?!”

My friend Vivian walked up to me and said, “Hey, you okay? Looks like somebody didn’t have their tea this morning.”  To which I said, “Actually, I did.”

After practicing with my recital group, I came back into the band room where I managed to rethink all my previous thoughts about what was due…to the point where I almost started crying right then and there.  I held it together until the bell rang, walked to mom’s office, and promptly left school.  I came home and started working on my AP Government thesis, got some sources, went to 2 libraries, found some more sources online, made lunch, started reading Persuasion because it’s actually included on the canon list (I checked, don’t worry!), and switched back over to my first paper.  I’m officially one page down, but I have all the sources I need so far, so I’m starting to breathe again.

And whose fault is this? Mine.  Why is it my fault?  (1) Because I can’t manage time to save a life, (2) because I’m a lazy butt, and (3) because I misplaced my agenda.

Okay, that was too nice a phrase.  I lost my agenda.

But…this will all get done.  In 2 weeks, everything will be handed in on time, I’ll graduate with that super-duper blue sash NHS members get to wear, and then I’ll be free like a bird.

Anyway, senior recital wasn’t as annoying as I thought it would be.  It actually made my day.

The Doom of a Republic

Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville

“Among small nations, the eye of society sees everywhere; the spirit of improvement reaches the smallest details; national ambition is much affected by weakness; the efforts and the resources of the people turn almost entirely toward their inner prosperity and they are not prone to waste their labors upon the empty dreams of reputation…The ambitions of individual citizens grow with the power of the state…Great wealth, abject poverty, big cities, lax morality, personal egotism, and the confusion of interests are dangers just as likely to arise from the size of states…It is, therefore, permissible to say that in general terms nothing opposes the prosperity and freedom of men as much as great empires.”

Washington’s Farewell Address

“This spirit, [of political parties] unfortunately, is inseperable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind.  It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.  The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, naturally to party dissention, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.  But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism.  The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his cempetitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.  Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight) the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.”

I Ain’t Yo’ Cuppycake, Foo’!

There’s a new creeper on the scene.  He sits behind me in math and he never shuts up.  After playing with my hair, going through my purse, and being politely rejected from an invitation to a picnic with him and some of his friends, he still hasn’t gotten the idea that I’m not interested.

Oh, he’s a real killer.  He thinks he’s downright hilarious and claims that he has two personalities: the immature kid in school and the mature dude outside school.  And the chatting?  Oh my gosh.  I cannot stand chatters.  It’s really okay not to blurt out every thought that goes through one’s head.

Anyway, AP tests are being held in the band room, so the band has moved into the auditorium.  Since I get into school with relatively ample time before the warning bell rings, I hang out in the music hall with some friends.  AP testers also hang out here to wait for the band room to open.  As it so happens, the Human Kamikaze Fly turned into the hall because he had to take the English Composition exam.  I pretended I didn’t see him (I have awesome ignoring powers) and continued talking.  Unfortunately, as we were all really tired, the conversation lagged.  The creeper pounced.

“So how’s my little cupcake doing?”

My little cupcake?!

*Cue a dirty look, the warning bell, and a quick escape into the auditorium*

When guys see me, do they get some fantastic urge to annoy me?

Reading List

For my AP Government final paper:

• The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror by Natan Sharansky
• Supercapitalism by Robert B. Reich
• Moyers on Democracy by Bill Moyers
• Democracy in America and Two Essays on America by Alexis de Tocqueville

For my AP Literature final paper:

• Villette by Charlotte Bronte

or

• Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury