There still are nice people in the world.

Everyday I catch the bus at the same time. Every day I fight myself to get up in the morning. And every day I grab a plethora of things in order to make it through the day. As a creature of habit, I realize that if I grab something that I don't usually bother with I end up forgetting something that I regularly get. Today I went for my lunch and a snack and ended up leaving my wallet.

I realized that my wallet was still in my house when I tried to get my money out for bus fare and nearly had a heart attack. Good thing for my the bus driver - who, let's face it, is a total flirt - is all about making sure that his regulars are taken care of. He allowed me to borrow $3.00 in order to get the bus pass that I needed. Then when I sat down on the bus another passenger, who shares the stop with me, went into her wallet and pulled out $5.00 and gave it to me. She said that it was in case I wanted to get lunch or something. She had left her wallet before and knew the feeling. Who would have thought that so many strangers would care to go out of their way to make sure a panicked, scatterbrain was covered for the day? Thank the Lord! There are still good people out there.

eventually the mask has to come off

So, there is this girl who decides to have a hymenoplasty, not because she wants to restore herself due to some back sliding she did in college. This really irks me. This girl is a "Western woman" of her own making. Raised under strict Muslim teachings in Birmingham, she lived her life without a backbone. Chopping up everything that she did to "all my friends were doing it...it was entirely accepted." Yeah, entirely accepted in the world of girls who have flings without thinking about the consequences. She takes birth control, becomes "sexually empowered" and sleeps with her boyfriends and some random guy from a party. All the while everytime she goes home she "plays" the devout muslim daughter for her parents. Praying five times a day, not listening to music, wearing her veil. She feels oppressed when she is in her parents presence. So, in the end she decides to agree to an arranged marrige to a Muslim in Pakistan? Why is that a good idea? She says that to do this is to be with a man who has the same beliefs as she does. No, it isn't. If she believed in the Muslim teachings so much she wouldn't be in the situation of having to recreate her hymen. She is doing this for all the wrong reasons. She has changed, not just strayed from her dad's teachings. She is a western woman. Living in the secular world and loving it. She says that she does not what to be "ostracized" from her family. She has already put a barrier there. She lied about her living situation for two years. She lived with her boyfriend, yeah boyfriend, no thoughts of marriage (which is against her strict Muslim upbringing). She stopped wearing her hijab, she was drinking, smoking, and sleeping around. All of this done with her hoping her parents don't find out. The only things that I can see for her future is her either abandoning her family to go back to her "western" ways or her killing herself to escape the oppression.

I am not knocking the Muslim world. I am not complaining about the male dominance. I am saying that she is chosing the wrong path. She needs to bone up and live her life the way she wants to. The Muslim teachings are not her beliefs. The only time that she claims them as her own is when she considers the pros of the marriage. All the other times she is "play[ing]" a role. What happens if her husband--who met her under the impression that she has not strayed from her beliefs--figures out a fraction of what she was into in college? She fears that her family could kill her if she doesn't bleed (honour killings are still justified), she could still end up dead at her husband's hand. You can't hide who you have become forever. Sooner or later every skeleton in her closet is going to be discovered.

grit my teeth and finish

I hate giving up on books without finishing them. On all the dozens of books that I have read in my lifetime, I can only remember giving up on three books. I will force myself to finish...I will try. Which brings me to today's point. I have decided that I would like to read a nice collections of books because I simply miss reading. A true geek, thank you. But I was reading a book already when I composed this list. Of course my review is premature and biased as I don't care much for athletes or football. The story centers around a displaced athlete and football jargon. I will finish the book, of course. His hormones are just really getting on my nerves. Between that and talk about the great game of Football Americano, I can't figure out where the story is going. It just this useless collections of words that isn't for me. I want it to end. I have better books to read.

I'm rolling my eyes at this book and I still haven't made it half way through. *sigh* This is so aggravating.

Intellectual...maybe

I have decided to follow the lead of my very best friend (who I look up to more than I will ever let him know) and contrive a reading list. I, however, am not going to read 50 books this year...not consciously. I came about my list in a very different way than my friend however. I am fairly certain that he sat down and carefully planned his. I was not so lucky. I went to Half Priced Books today with a thought to get my hands on one book: 1001 Arabian Nights. I didn't find it...not at Half Priced Books anyway...but, since I am a nerd, I cannot leave a book store empty handed. I went in for Arabian Nights and came out with others. Then promptly went to Barnes and Noble to continue my search for Arabian Nights...I found it and another. Some of the books are ones that I have read before. Others are ones that I know about from plays that I have done or movies that I have seen.
**While I was looking for books in Half Priced Books I couldn't find a few. When I was in Barnes and Noble I realized that I couldn't find that book because I was looking under the wrong author name...so I went back to Half Priced Books to find that book and ended up getting a three when I went in for one.

THE BOOK LIST

1. The Count of Monte Cristo (Complete and Unabridged) Alexandre Dumas
2. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams
3. The Arabian Nights Barnes and Noble Classics Edition
4. Wicked Gregory Maguire
5. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister Gregory Maguire
6. Mansfield Park Jane Austen
7. Emma Jane Austen
8. Mirror Mirror Gregory Maguire
9. Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
10. The Devil Wears Prada Lauren Weisberger
11. P.S. I Love You Cecelia Ahern
12. In Her Shoes Jennifer Weiner
13. Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen
14. Northanger Abbey Jane Austen
15. Persuasion Jane Austen
16. Lady Susan Jane Austen
17. Les Miserables Victor Hugo
18. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe Douglas Adams
19. Life, the Universe and Everything Douglas Adams
20. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish Douglas Adams
21. Mostly Harmless Douglas Adams
22. Young Zaphod Plays It Safe Douglas Adams
23. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone J. K. Rowling
24. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets J. K. Rowling
25. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkahban J. K. Rowling
26. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire J. K. Rowling
27. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix J. K. Rowling
28. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince J. K. Rowling
    -though not until after I see the movie
29. Turning Tables Heather & Rose MacDowell
30. Shoots to Kill Kate Collins
31. Sinister Sudoku Kaye Morgan
32. An Abundance of Katherines John Green
33. Dead Witch Walking Kim Harrison
34. Guilty Pleasures Laurell K. Hamilton

I am about to discover it what I always believed is true: The book is always better. As a lot of my books have movie adaptations.

HA! I knew it!

I have been an avid radio listener for almost a decade now and just last night I solved a mystery that I have been wondering about for about have that time. Well, not solved it so much as officially discovered. I have not ever been keen on listening to radio commercials. Especially when I am keyed up and I am using the radio to wind down. For me, radio commercials only cause more agitation. So I have ten radio stations that I listen to and about five that are favorites. Then on top of all of that there are at least four of the stations that play the same genre of another one of my favorites.



So now that we have all of the background information, here's my point.



106.1 Kiss FM has always bugged the crap out of me by playing their songs just a half beat faster than they were recorded. I used to notice this and ask people if they heard it as well. The answer was usually no. I am the type of person who sings along as closely as I can get to the artist. I like to know the phrasing, breathe when they breathe, and hold the note for exactly the same amount of time with the same level of power. So, if I have "trained" myself up on a song on a different station and then I listen to the same song on Kiss FM I immediately feel the difference.



When I first started to listen to Kiss FM I was also heavily into R&B. That was when I first noticed the modified speed on all of the songs with black artist. I even went so far as to think that it was a racial issue. Well, last night I found out that I was wrong.

I am a fan of P!nk. I have been since she busted on the scene with "Get the Party Started." It appealed to my immature taste at that point of my musical fanhood. Recently I acquired her newest CD, Funhouse, and fell in love with it. Everything about it plays on my interest: the way the music paints the image of her being in a Funhouse (on that track anyway), the double meanings in her lyrics, the stories that she tells. It's a fantastic CD. P!nk just released her second single off of her Funhouse CD, one of my favorites "Sober." It came on the Kiss FM and I felt almost immediately that the timing is off. Of course, then I realize that it is the station speeding up songs again. But as usual there was no one around to listen for this flaw with me, so I decided to see for myself if I am imagining it or if this is actually happening. I went to get my iPod and found the song and listened. I was trying to see if the timing would be noticeable if it was played side by side with the original speed. I couldn't get it directly aligned, so I settled for being a little ahead of the radio. While I was still trying to discern the difference of the lengths of pauses and held notes the radio answered my question. As I was listening the radio caught up with my iPod, ran about three beats in sync, then continued on ahead.

EUREKA!!!! Now I want to get in touch with the station and know why it is that they play the songs faster. That is my next mission.

We can't all have our very own Edward Cullen.

So last night I went to see Twilight...of course being me I saw it after dark and decided to walk home -alone- afterwards. The dark doesn't scare me because I believe the light is just as dangerous. Whatever. I was already wrapped up in my thoughts as I (over)analyzed the movie on my way home. I managed to get what I have never achieved before. I was seriously hit on by a woman. That is not, by any means, what bothered me about my walk home. In fact it was a self-esteem boost if anything. What has me irked to the point that I decided to discuss this in a blog is the loser that tried, persistently, to pick me up as a prostitute. It is annoying because if anything I looked like was a space cadet because I was trying to walk down the center of the road while stopping every couple of yards to stare up at the few stars that you can see in the city. I'd like to believe that the "Come Screw me" sign that seems to be in neon green over my head was left at home that night. Apparently I was wrong. Before the movie, on my wait out of Barnes and Noble I guy asked for my number. Walking home a chick tries to pick me up and I end the it all with offer to "make a little extra" extended to me.

The biggest issue that I have with this incident is that it is reocurring. This is not the first time that a person has tried to pick me up as a prostitute. Granted that the first time it happened I owned up to the fact that I placed myself in that situation by walking outside alone after 1am. Especially since I am already know my knack for attracting creeps. The ones who don't want to take me to a movie, just a hotel room. Who don't want to get to know me, just my bedroom. The whole thing gets old after a while. I no longer trust any man that tries to even half way sweet-talk me. As far as I'm concerned the ones bold enough to approach me aren't the ones that I want. This is where my own personal catch-22 comes into play.
---I can't trust the ones who approach me. I've been rejected before and therefore won't approach the ones I want.

Whatever, I'm moving on. I'm not analyzing the stupidity of y-chromosomes that choose to approach me.

I feel like the wind was knocked out of me, and I'm just a third party observer

I have found one of my favorite quotes. I can't exactly say why. It is a quote that explains how a woman literally is consumed with the agony of being alone. Being alone after she thought she had found her forever. It is unequivocally depressing. I know that. That is one of the reasons why I can't get enough of it. It's not just that quote. The way that the writer, Meyer, set that up. She led the reader to it. I was like a bird following bread crumbs. The gist of it is here, keep in mind that my summary does the passage no justice at all.


--She collapses, sinnking into the waters of her pain. States that she never resurfaces. Then, by using four pages, Meyer shows the numb passing of four months and opens the next chapter with this quote:


"Time passes. Even when it seems impossible. Even when each tick of the second hand aches like the pulse of blood behind a bruise. It passes unevenly, in strange lurches and dragging lulls, but pass it does. Even for me" (Meyer 93).




Brilliant. I read that the first time and got chills. Read it the second time and even when I knew it was coming I still had to pause to reflect on it. I'm thinking about how agony in a book is just so much more potent then any movie. Sure a great actor can portray it, but that could take weeks of shooting and at least ten minutes on the screen to only grasp a percentage of it. A writer, however, can dish it up in five sentences and I love it.
It is just so raw.