An almost philosophical conversation with a 4 year old...

...without words.

This happened to me several weeks ago, and I meant to blog about it but life got in the way.

I was running between the flute lesson I had just taught and a dance class, but I had just enough time to catch lunch. I wasn't super hungry, so I stopped in Panera and got myself a bagel.

I sat at a table by myself, and began one of my favorite activities to pass the time. People watching.

To my left were two ladies, both of which describing their vacations to each other in explicit detail. They were quite loud, and evidently jealous of each others destination choices. To my right were a mother and daughter, neither of which seemed to be very happy about anything.

Since neither of which people were altogether that interesting, I proceeded to just focus on eating my bagel. I then heard a very loud shout from the mother. "Heey!"

At this moment, a man, white, blond, and about the age of 30 stopped by the mother/daughter table. The mother seemed to know him quite well, but he didn't seem to be very sure of her identity. At his side was a little boy, whom the mother was told was the age of four.

My attention immediately switched to the child. He had mud brown hair, olive skin, and just slightly almond shaped eyes.
Oh yeah, I knew those traits.  I have those traits. I realized he must be half-asian like myself right as his mother walked up.
100% Korean. Yup.

As I was about to ignore the group and get back to my bagel, the boy locked eyes with me.
Seriously, he was staring at me. I wasn't really quite sure what to do, when he got the biggest grin on his face I had ever seen on a child.
At this moment I realized that I was probably the first half-asian he had ever seen in his short life. It also occurred to me that he was in fact four, and could be just being ridiculous and four.

As his parents were talking to the mother/daughter pair, the boy proceeded to have a conversation with me, without talking. It went like this.

First, the boy, who was also eating a bagel, raised his bagel slightly, took a large bite, and smiled.
Two could play this game.
I raised my bagel slightly, took a bite, and wiggled my eyebrows.

The boy started giggling. He tugged at his dad's shirt, but his dad couldn't care less. He attempted to push the boy behind him, but to no avail. The boy first poked his head around his dad to look at me, and then found his way back to his dad's other side to continue our conversation.

At this point the child just pointed at me. His grin might have actually gotten bigger. At this moment I wondered if anyone else had noticed our interaction, but they seemed too enthralled in their own conversations. The boy attempted to direct his father's attention at me, but again, his father did nothing except attempt to push him behind him again.

Finally, when I had decided that the boy was probably just being silly, he did something curious.
He tugged at his hair.
Then he pointed at himself.
And then at me.

The intent was clear.
"You are like me!"

The Truth Behind the Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz seems like a fairly innocent story. Filled with magic, rainbows, flying monkeys, and a rather strong desire to go back to the dirt-hole known as home. However, if you look past the lollipops and pink bubbles, throw away Dorothy's naivete, you have a tale of politics and corruption.

First - lets look at the start of the movie.
The witch gets squished.

                                                         that would just ruin your entire day
The rest of the movie revolves on the shiny, red, shoes (that weren't supposed to be red according to the book) - and ignores the real truth.

A person just DIED. And her poor sister is driven mad with grief. 
But who really caused the house to fall and KILL a person?

This person:

Pink, sweet, murderess.

 

Now why would the Good Witch of the West kill a fellow, also very powerful and influential witch?

Lets continue.

We know that at the end of the movie, Dorothy finds that she always had the power to go home. So why is it that Glinda decides to send Dorothy after the dead witch's sister to kill her, rather than just saying: "click your heels, and go home". At the start of the movie, Dorothy doesn't say: "I wanna go kill a witch!" She wants to find a way home.

So Dorothy kills the witch. She melts. 

Guess what? That means that Glinda is the only witch in the area of importance.

So what?

Well, killing apparently isn't the only way to get people to leave. The Wizard leaves too, to go home.

Which leaves pretty, sweet, Glinda to rule all of Munchkinland.

So yeah.

The story of the Wizard of Oz is actually a very complex plot in which Glinda kills off or gets rid of all her political adversaries, and ends up the sole dictator.

Not so rainbows and bubbles anymore huh?

Summer Ruminations

It's been a while since I last blogged. Summer has gotten to me - a mixture of lethargic-ness on hot days and being freakishly busy, downtime sandwiched in between hours of running from place to place, person to person. It's almost like being on two different clocks: one that speeds up, one that slows down.

I feel like I've gotten a lot accomplished.

I probably haven't.

I thought about what currently keeps me busy this summer, and I nearly broke out laughing.
Besides working on the flute, and teaching martial arts, my other "job" this summer is teaching a fitness class.

Let me back up.

If someone told me that I would be teaching a fitness class four years ago, I would have looked at them like they were crazy.

I'm the girl that couldn't lift 10 pounds.

I'm the girl that vomited every time I finished running a mile.

I'm the girl who got B's in gym class - when all my other grades were A's.

Fitness was the last thing on my agenda. I figured I'd never do a physical class again once I hit college. (Well, besides martial arts. But I was only vaguely good at that while in high school.)
I was not SUPPOSED to teach this class.

But I am.

My life is awkward,

And I like it that way.

A Perfectly Logical Argument for the Existence God by an Atheist Using Homosexuality

Yes, you read the title correctly.
Look at it again. It hasn't changed.

Most of the time, a statement like that would be considered a complete oxymoron. It most certainly is blasphemy. But I promise, it is perfectly logical.

First, a disclaimer: I am an atheist. What does this mean? I do not believe the argument in which I am presenting. It is just something that occurred to me that should make a perfectly logical argument for the existence of God, but I do not necessarily BELIEVE it. It's just humorous to me.

So why would homosexuality make God exist?

 (no amount of men wearing rainbows is going to bring about the "all-knowing")

Well, we have to look at evolution. 
The definition of biological evolution is:

Change in the genetic composition of a population during successive generations, as a result of natural selection acting on the genetic variation among individuals, and resulting in the development of new species. 

Quite simply, according to evolution, the population reproduces and takes the best qualities in order to create a stronger, smarter, healthier species.
According to evolution - Homosexuality shouldn't exist.

Why? Well, by nature of being homosexual, gay people can't reproduce. Yes, yes I know technically due to surrogates and such, homosexual partners can have a baby. But its a difficult, and not exactly natural process. So in short, without medical procedures, it is impossible for two men or two women to have a baby.

This would be moronic for evolution. Evolution is designed to propel the species to the next best generation, not to STOP it altogether. For lack of a better word, evolutionary speaking - homosexuality was a mistake.

*Disclaimer: I am a HUGE supporter of the LGBT community, being bisexual myself, so I'm not saying that I think homosexuality IS a mistake, I'm saying that it doesn't make logical sense according to the theory of evolution*

But hey - homosexuals are here to stay (whether the religious-right likes it or not). But why?

Well, if you can't have babies and you want one, what are you probably going to do?
Adopt.

As of right now, the amount of orphans in the world are approximately 16.2 MILLION.

Heterosexual couples tend to have their own children, and only the wealthy few who decided that they could afford to adopt tend to house and raise these orphans.

There are still millions of children who deserve to have healthy, happy homes, with loving parents that can support having a family.

The solution?

 
 These wonderful couples provide perfect homes for children that no longer have heterosexual parents,  and get to grow up in a loving environment to become successful adults.

Evolution couldn't have thought that far.

 Yes, the logical solution is this:

God made homosexuality in order to create the perfect parents for the rising orphan population problem.

If the church decided to take this idea and run with it, stop slandering the homosexual lifestyle, and decided to call homosexuality a "gift from god" - They'd be doing much better than they are now.

And they could reeeaaaally easily do so.

The only thing stopping them right now is Leviticus.

But hey, that's their problem.

Hunger Games - Train for your life

Suppose the world goes to shit. The zombie apocalypse. Or perhaps you get picked to participate in the "Hunger Games". Would you be ready?

I've had this concept for a while now, since I started reading the book series when it first came out. But now that nearly everyone has at least seen the movie, I figured now is more relevant to talk about it.

For those living under a rock, the concept of the Hunger Games is simple. The world is divided into twelve districts under the capitol. Each district deals with starvation and poverty (some more than others). Every year, one person is chose from each district (ages 12-18), to fight to death in an arena (which is more like a deserted environment).

When I read the books, it occurred to me that I WOULD NOT BE READY. If chosen, I would die, and probably quickly.

I am not a couch potato. I am not fat. I teach martial arts. This gives me an advantage. However:
I have no upper body strength.
I am not very good with weapons.
I cannot make snares/traps.
I can't run worth a shit.

While the weapons and traps are important, each tribute has a training course that they go through to get the basics. So this is helpful, but not by too much. Not my point though.

Upper body strength is great, but its not all important.
RUNNING is all important.

Why?

Within the first 10 seconds of the game, you have two options. Fight, and probably die, or run for your life.
Can't run?

You're a dead man.

And there's no last minute training for running. You either have it months in advance, or you don't, and you might as well be dead from the start.

It's not just sprinting either. It's endurance. Being able to run for long distances without water and the possibility of someone throwing a knife at your back.

Upper body strength is important too. Being able to climb a tree or lift heavy objects is always good for a survival situation.
How about agility? Can you dodge when a knife is being thrown at you? Can you block a punch to the face?

Even though the likely-hood of the Hunger Games becoming a reality is next to zero, the chances of a person needing to be physically fit for an extraordinary situation is much higher than we'd like to think.

My point?
Exercise.
Train like you are going to compete in the Hunger Games.

Not that I think you need to look like this:

Holy fuck, that's just unnatural.

But really, should you look like this?

I think you'd die of hunger before you made it to the games.

So work out. Ride a bike. Do some push-ups (I swear, they're possible, and you don't have to pay a dime.) Stop shoving cheetos into your mouth when you're bored.

And may the odds be EVER in your favor.

F-ing spider people.

Today, I took a nap, and I had the weirdest dream. I dreamt about spider people.

When I say spider people, I don't mean Spiderman. Because Spiderman is fucking cool. He swings around buildings using silly string that shoots out of his wrists, beats up bad guys, and kisses girls upside-down.

Kissing girls upside-down = cool

But these spider people weren't cool. They didn't kiss girls upside-down, and hell, you wouldn't want them to.
They had perfectly normal, human heads....but their bodies....
It was like someone stuck a human head on a giant, bloated spider.

The bodies weren't just like spiders either. They had clothes, that stretched over their freaky circular backs, and creepy arms/legs that stuck out of their many many sleeves with human hands stuck on the ends.

Interestingly though, they weren't really "bad" or evil. It wasn't a nightmare kinda situation. They were just freaky.

So what the hell does that mean? I don't even know.

All I know is, next time I dream about spider people, it better feature Spiderman.

...because Spiderman is fucking cool.

Phobia - 1 Me - 0

In case you didn't know, a phobia is defined as:

a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it.

Believe it or not, I suffer from a rather acute form of Ligyrophobia, also known as "the fear of noise". More specifically, I have the awful, all-encompassing fear of the sound of gunshot.

Let me back up a second. For those of you who know me quite well, you might be thinking, "Wait what? You know about guns, her friends love guns, what's the problem?"

I do not suffer from the fear of guns. I can see them, touch them, understand how they function and so on. I am not phobic about the idea of getting shot (I have a healthy dose of respect and normal fear like most people). However, I am literally terrified of the sound that it produces.
There is no logic behind this. I am a fairly logical individual, and I understand that there is no basis behind my fear. Therefore, it is a phobia.

It used to be worse. Anything remotely sounding like a gunshot would make me cry. For example, the sound of a bass drum being hit. I still have to either cover my ears or be indoors when fireworks go off, or I will in fact shriek in terror. I couldn't go to see a movie in theaters if I knew that there would be guns. At least I've gotten over that part.

So today, I decided to climb Mt.Everest. Unfortunately, the only ways to conquer a phobia is to either have hypnotism done (no thank you), or exposure therapy. I've been rather tired of running away from pretty firework displays and being unable to go to the range with my friends, so I went to the range today.

I shot an assault rifle - an Norinko SKS-D Sporter. Six times to be precise.

This is the part where you want to hear that I had a great experience, realized the irrationality of my fears, and cured myself of my phobia.
If you'd like to believe that, go ahead and stop reading. Change the page to youtube or something.

After the first shot, I started crying. I just told myself: "Don't run. Don't run." Over and over and over until I finished shooting. Once I left, I felt numb.
I crumbled. I couldn't really think for about an hour afterwards. I cried a lot. I might have screamed, but I really can't be sure. My everything trembled. I gnashed my teeth, pulled at my hair, and fell apart.

I don't know if I'll be able to do that again. I do know that I was able to pinpoint my phobia though - it was easier when I shot the gun because I knew when the sound would occur. But the people around that was shooting - that was the worst.

But hell, at least I did it. I gave it a fighting chance. And that's all I could really ask for.

New Format and Feelin' Squishy

I decided it was time for a change.
So "yay", new format.

It's going to take some getting used to, but I like it.

There's a new bar at the top of the page....it says "Home" and "Meet the Ranting Fool" and "About".
"Meet the Ranting Fool" will bring you to a little schpeel about me.

"About" will bring you to something that isn't in English. I have no idea what the hell it is, but I can't get rid of it. I have no idea how. I think its somehow a permanent link in the template, so I'm just going to have to deal with it. Don't click on it. Really. It's just weird. I'm going to try and make it go away....but we'll see.

*Edit: The bar is gone now! I just really wanted to get rid of that weird foreign website. So yeah, no more "Meet the Ranting Fool", but oh well.*

But that isn't the main purpose of this post.

The main focus is on a rather new blog.

If you've been following me for a while, you know that I post my poetry. My shitty, shitty poetry.
I tend to write really short, angry little poems, or just really vague stuff. And hey, if you like it, great.

But seriously? If you want to read some awesome poetry, I bid you to check out this blog.

http://oldthoughtsbyayoungman.blogspot.com/

Old Thoughts By a Young Man is a blog written by a friend of mine. His poetry is AMAZING. And he just started his blog! Huzzah! So read it.

Here's some symptoms you shall have from reading his poetry:

feeling squishy inside

swooning
deep contemplation
acute awareness of your limited vocabulary
acute awareness that your own poetry is shitty
giddiness
generally awesome feeling

So go read it. I wouldn't be sending over my own readers to another blog if I didn't think it was some of the most fantastic, pretty shiny things I have read in a while.

READ THE BOOK.

I happen to have a project now that I need to get done with two other individuals. Everything was going okay. We got the books needed to gather our information, and I was skimming through and taking notes.

And then this happened.

"Ugh, I can't believe this. I can't understand this. I hate it when you have to read these."

Really?

You're a college student - and you can't read a non-fiction book and understand it?

What the hell?

Are we so accustomed to professors spoon feeding our information through bullet points that actual college students can't take information from a book?

This cannot be right.

I do not care if you're better at math or science than you are at history.

All you have to do is READ THE BOOK. Its that simple. You don't even need to deduce conclusions from your information - you just need to READ THE INFORMATION.

GAH.

That one Asian chick

Being half-Caucasian and half-Chinese plus living in America means I get this one a lot:
"Hey, you're that one Asian chick!"

Yes, yes I am that one Asian chick. Good thing you know how to qualify my gender with the fact that you can't figure out whether I'm Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or a mix.

Americans (including people of minority ethnicities) have the habit of labeling people by their race, unless they're white. For example, if my friend is trying to explain her other friend to me I might hear:
"The tall blonde girl." Or "The short busty girl". Never the "Tall white red-head". Or the "French short girl."
However, if her friend is of another race I would hear:
"The black girl." or "The Hispanic girl with the curly hair."

Funny enough, Americans also have the habit of thinking that this wouldn't be the case if say, I were in China.
And they're right.
Sort of.
In China, I had the singular reaction of people pointing at me and saying:
"Foreigner!"
In fact, they do that to, well everyone, who isn't Chinese in China.
So they don't say "black person", or "white person", or even "mixed", they just go with "Foreign".

Obviously, this wouldn't really work in America. China has the advantage of the fact that the majority of their populace is Chinese, and all other ethnicities typically are just there on vacation. However, somehow I feel the reaction is a little better. For once I wasn't the Asian girl. I was just....different.

WTF Nebraska, WTF

Today, I drove home from school with the windows down.

.....

Yeah, it's not that interesting or terribly exciting.

But check out the date.

ITS JANUARY 30th.

I'm sitting outside on the porch, typing this post, in JANUARY.

For those of you not from Nebraska - this is rather strange. 70 degree weather doesn't happen in January. Ever.

Typically, Nebraska in January looks like heavy duty coats, three feet of snow, and -15 degree temperature.

It doesn't look like multitudes of people in the park, light jackets, and driving with the windows down.

So seriously Nebraska, WTF? The last time I checked, we were supposed to be having winter right now. But as far as I can tell, its either spring or late fall. Certainly not winter.

I just don't get it.

Review and Resolutions

2011 was a crazy year. After reminiscing about what all occurred in my life, I decided to write down some of the ridiculous shit and share them with you.
Oh, and also, I've got some stuff to say to 2012 too.

So lets check out 2011.

• accomplished first semester of college
• had several mental breakdowns throughout said semester
• didn't die, hooray!
  
• made strides to become more independent and self-sufficient
• used the metro bus system for the first time (add +30 to transportation)
  
• gained car (add +70 to transportation)
• lost/grew apart from close (and closest) friends
• found out who true friends really were (I LOVE YOU GUYS)

So 2012.

Here's the deal.

I've got some resolutions for you to tango with.

1. Find ways to de-stress regularly throughout the week. If I don't, I will break down from the stress of school. The end.
   
2. Don't die.
   
3. Become a better person. Hell, everyone needs improvements, and I know I have plenty of things I need to work on.

These aren't quite resolutions, but these are the things I'll be working on for 2012, so look out for them in the upcoming months:

Expanding YummyShinyThings (my jewelry line): I'll be actually creating an online store that will be fully functional hopefully in the next few weeks (definitely before the end of January!) I'm also going to try to get my jewelry in more shops for those of you that like to shop locally :D

Making Music: Besides the normal stuff you see from a music major in college, I'm going to attempt more online music projects, so keep an eye out for those.

Rantings: I'm going to continue to rant about stuff as regularly as possible, but I'm also gonna add some stuff. For example, I'm going to start making "How To" tutorials, and I'm going try to use more pictures in my rants for you to look at. If you have ANY suggestions as to what you'd like to read about, feel free to leave a comment!

And with that I'll leave you with a pretty picture for no reason whatsoever!

FWEEEEEEE!

....I need sleep.