I wanna hold your hand?

I know I haven't posted anything in forever, so I apologize, but today I have something truly full of angst to rant about today.

There is a boy that I teach. He is about ten years old, and he is a joy to be around. He constantly smiles and tries to make everyone around him laugh. He loves to play with anyone, and he adores being the center of attention.

This boy is Chinese. He was adopted into an American family very recently, so he's still mastering English. On top of that, he has a slight speech impediment due to the shape of his lips that makes him a little difficult to understand.

Despite these things, he has made himself extremely popular with my other students. He is well liked, and genuinely gets along with everyone else.

Today, I learned that this student of mine is ostracized by his fellow students at school.

He does not have very many friends.

The reason?


He likes to hold hands with his friends.




Due to this, he has been labeled a weirdo, and therefore cast out.

It breaks my heart.

This kind, loving child, in an act to show his friendship caused him to loose what friends he had.

Apparently, American children now think that if a boy holds hands with another boy he's "gay" or if a boy holds hands with another girl he's "flirting".
These children haven't even hit puberty.

My student doesn't think of these things when he wants to hold hands. In China, hand-holding is a sign of friendship.
Oh wait.
It's a sign of friendship in Japan too.
And India.
And Afghanistan.

and BASICALLY EVERYWHERE.

Why is it a symbol of sexuality or romantic intention here?

Moreover, why in the world do these very young children view it as such?

I remember when I was in elementary school,  girls would ask me "Which boy is the hottest?" as they pointed to the cover of an 'N Sync CD and I would be left with a blank stare. Frankly, I was far more concerned about dragons and spies than I was about boys. But even then holding hands between myself and my friends was a very innocent thing. We did it all the time.

I just don't understand how a very simple gesture has turned into something fairly taboo. How can children do that to another over something so innocent?

I'm honestly still struck with horror. I can only hope that my student will find someone who accepts him for the positive ray of sunshine that he is.

Kicking science in the mouth

Getting bored at a computer is a fascinating phenomena to me.

Don't get me wrong, I get bored sometimes on the computer. I check my facebook, devaintART, Etsy, and my webcomics. When I'm done, I browse around for a bit, and then I inevitably get bored.

Of course after the fact, I then realize how incredibly, ridiculously, LUDICROUS it is to be bored at a computer.

The computer is an amazing thing.

If you wanted to, you could find a song for every moment of your life. You could listen to something new every minute of your spare time.

There are THOUSANDS of books available online. You could read about anything. Fiction, non-fiction, classics, brand new authors, science. You could learn so much.

But if you didn't want to read a whole book, there are thousands more articles about anything and everything.

Don't want to read? TV shows, movies, and short films are all easily accessible thanks to youtube.

There are games, social media, "how-to" articles, photo editing, video creating, music writing, all kinds of media available at your fingertips.

And yet - you and I are bored.

Can you believe it? We are so INCREDIBLY FUCKING STUPID that we choose to sit there watching videos of cats jumping into boxes with our eyes glazed over and think: "By god! This is the best use of the internet I could possibly think of!"

REALLY?!

We essentially have a portal to all knowledge we could possibly want and all we do is look at pictures like this?

 

WHAT THE FUCK.

WE ARE  KICKING SCIENCE IN THE MOUTH.

Not so long ago, if you wanted to use a computer, you would have to leave your house, go to the nearest university, and access a computer THE SIZE OF A ROOM.

We now have PHONES with a higher processing capacity.

And yet, all anyone does with this phones is send pictures of "inspirational" cheesy quotes with blurred out backgrounds and sad looking dogs with signs tied around their necks!

I MEAN REALLY.

When was the last time you used the internet to actually LEARN SOMETHING?

Do yourself a favor. Look up a topic that you're genuinely interested in. FUCKING LEARN SOMETHING. Repeat this process every goddamn time you find yourself bored and staring at a computer screen.

....

and afterwards you can go look at lolcats.

Goodbye 2012 - Hello 2013

13 has always been a good number for me.
I was a miserable 12 year old. Really. I had a lot of bullies, I had to practice the piano far more often than I wanted to, and not that many friends.
But thirteen?
Thirteen was magical for me. I dreaded my fourteenth birthday. I wanted to be thirteen forever. So once I turned fourteen, I decided that thirteen was going to be my lucky number.
And it was.
The thirteenth day of the month was always a great day. Whenever I had to pick numbers I would pick thirteen, and it tended to get me a pleasant outcome.

So here's to hoping 2013 will be a good year.

Actually wait.

Screw that.

2013 will be a good year. Because it's my lucky number. And because I said so. And because I'll make it so.

On another note, here's my apology for the total lack of writing since September of 2012.
College ate my life.

In one fell swoop, music theory consumed all my waking hours.
So: sorry.

Well...
That's only half true.

The other half is that I have been writing.
But not a blog.

Since August of 2012, I have been working on a novel.
It's been a long process, but now I can officially say:

It's still in its beginning stages. I mean really. This novel is going to take freaking forever. But once things are more concrete, I'll be using this blog to update you readers about where that novel is going, or to answer any questions about it that you may have.

But that's all I have to say about it for now.

So see you soon dear readers. Maybe next time I'll have something more interesting to say.