Preggo Eggo

I could care less that Adele is pregnant. People get pregnant every day, and I don't care about any of them. In fact, I'm terrified of them. Whenever I see a pregnant woman all I can think of is that scene from Alien when the alien rips its way out of that person's stomach and kills them. Maybe I'm crazy, maybe not. Either way, that is the only image in my head whenever I see a pregnant woman.

So not only do I not care that that Adele is pregnant, I'm also now even more terrified of her than before, when all I had to cope with was her horrible music.

Now I hope you will all suffer along with me when you see all your news feeds flooded with this apparent joyous news, and picture baby aliens clawing their way out of her body while she rolls around through the deep.

Digitizing History

I recently wrote this article for my school's paper: http://www.thecord.ca/?p=9148

I'm also a History major. While I did my best not to show any bias in the article, I think this project is fucking brilliant. Not only will it preserve (for as long as the internet is around) extremely valuable primary documents, but it will allow both academics and the general public to educate themselves. There really aren't many resources of such high calibre that the public can utilize to educate themselves regarding such intensive topics, so I'm really glad these are being made available. Hopefully it will pique some interest in our country's history and allow for more funding to go towards such projects. Lately, the government has been slashing funding to museums and archives, but maybe this will help shed some light as to how important it is to preserve the past in order to better the future. The pictures are also just straight up awesome.

As a History student, I'm also stoked because it will allow valuable primary documents to be accessible from remotely anywhere. I can't tell you how many times I have been unable to locate specific information on a given topic because no primary documents from that particular event were saved. This digitization project will, however, not only make these documents (potentially) free to everyone, but make them available at the press of a button. If that doesn't make research one million times easier, then I don't know what will. It's also awesome because they are photographs, which can be analyzed by anyone, despite language barriers. There have been countless times where I began to celebrate upon finding a document, only to find it only available in a foreign language I can't speak. Photographs, however, can be interpreted by anyone, despite their native tongue, or even age, for that matter.

So basically, I'm really happy this is being done, and even more excited to see the finished project in the next few years. The LCMSDS was extremely lucky to have acquired this collection of photographs, and it is not surprising that they have put them to such good use.

Guard Down

And yet another reason why bayonets are absolutely ridiculous.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/06/27/ottawa-ceremonial-guard-injured-after-falling-on-bayonet.html?cmp=rss

Category: Priorities

Apparently Alex Trebek, host of the ever popular game-show Jeopardy, suffered a heart attack this weekend. The only reason I know this is because my Twitter feed was littered with multiple 140-character sentences of concerned bullshit. Now, I'm not saying heart attacks aren't serious, because they are, but how many of my friends actually know Trebek? Probably none of them. So why do they care if he lives or not? (He is slowly making a recovery, by the way, according to some news sources.) Because if he does get worse, or dies, Jeopardy just wouldn't be the same anymore.

This kind of makes me mad.

I'm sure some people grew up watching Jeopardy, so I guess it would make sense for them to feel connected to Trebek, but it's not really a sense of connectedness. They've most likely never met him. They only want him to stay around so they can watch his show and feel successful when they get some totally irrelevant and random trivia question correct, which will probably never actually have any affect on their lives.

No. I really believe that people need to stop being so concerned about celebrities that they have no real connection to. People need to be more concerned about their immediate family and friends. Everyday people suffer heart attacks and other unfortunate ailments everyday, but we never seem to pay any attention to them. I bet More people found out about Trebek's situation today than they did about what was going on with their families.

To me, that is where the true tragedies lie.

Fucking Cats

I'm a cat person. I love cats; I love every kind of cat. At least I used to. My roommate recently got a kitten. It's adorable, as most kittens are. Ever since she came to live in our apartment, she has been extremely well behaved, and everyone has fallen in love with her. That was until last night. Upon returning home from a bar, I went into my roommates room to check up on the itty kitty, and, of course, I step in fucking cat shit. And not just a little bit of shit, but a huge fucking load of fresh cat shit. All over my foot. And being a little tipsy, I immediately freaked out, fell over, and spread the shit even more. What made it even better was that this all happened on my roommates rug, so it didn't make for an easy clean up.
Whoever told my roommate that this kitten was litter trained was a liar.

I've lost respect for "Time"

Recently, in North America, there have been a series of "cannibalistic attacks." First, a homeless man had his face eaten off. Then there was a report of another man killing and eating (I believe the brain and heart) of a family friend. Apparently there was also a woman who ate a baby. There have also been other strange incidents, one involving a suicidal man ripping out his own small intestine and throwing it at police officers. My brothers have also tried convincing me something happened regarding eyeballs being eaten, but I've yet to see anything in print about it, so for now I'll leave that one be.

Since our society is grossly obsessed with zombies, there have been many articles popping up online stating that the apocalypse is upon us, and that we better get our shit ready to fight. Because everything we learned from playing Left 4 Dead will actually save our sorry asses.

However, there have been others stating that civilization is taking a backwards spin and reverting back to savage behaviour by practicing cannibalism.
Now, the point of my explaining all this is because some ill-informed writer for Time wrote an article that really pissed me off.

You can see it here: http://ideas.time.com/2012/06/07/are-we-too-comfortable-with-cannibalism/?iid=op-main-lede

Her headline, to me, implies that we just love seeing other humans eat each other. Because, you know, I wake up everyday thinking "GOD my roommate looks delicious." She then goes on to question the CDC's announcement that there is no zombie apocalypse because in her mind, a few over-the-top incidents mean the undead are rising. The rest of her article just reiterates old stories of cannibalism and how Victorians felt it was "uncivilized" and gross (which it totally is). She ends by saying, once again, that we love it and see it all as a joke.

Well I beg to differ. When these events unfolded, I did not meet a single person who laughed. There were no outbursts of "OH SHIT, ZOMBIES ARE COMING GUYS, THIS IS SO COOL!" In fact, most of my friends were seriously concerned about the mental well-being of the attackers, not to mention the physical state of the victims. Not for a single second did anyone I spoke to (which happened to be a lot) think that these poor people woke up one day thinking "I want human flesh for breakfast." No. It not only worried them, but made them sick to their stomachs. No one saw this as a game. And no, I will not deny all the sick people who did see it as entertaining, but I'd like to think that's only because my friends are more enlightened than people who still live in their parents basement.

But what really baffles me about this article is how ignorant the author is to one vital piece of information regarding these attacks: bath salts. The article, which was published yesterday, came out well after the reasoning behind the attacks were explained. The attackers, surprise, were NOT self-proclaimed cannibals, but people on drugs. Bath salts, which are apparently all the rage now, made them eat people. They did not make themselves eat people. This is not a case of society reverting back to "savage times" but a case of substance abuse going too far.

What this author has done is taken the unfortunate case of 3-4 people and used them as an example for the entire planet. According to her, because a few people ate a few other people, society is now totally cool with the idea of cannibalism, and sees it as a form of entertainment. Well, no, that's not fucking true. The majority of viewers were appalled and concerned, not laughing or enjoying what they saw. We are NOT comfortable with the idea of eating each other. These were just a few unfortunate events, that were unfortunately blown up through the media.

The only thing this article says about society is how stupid some people can be.

Brief Introduction

I've been writing ever since I was taught how to write. When I was growing up, that was around the age of 6; today, it may be closer to twelve. I drew my inspiration for creativity from watching Polka Dot Door, and my bad-assery from April O'Neil's character on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was raised by what today might call "young parents" who inevitably allowed their culture and customs to also influence me while growing up. I distinctly remember my first favourite pair of shoes being red converse high-tops. Hopefully this description will allow you to imagine the type of person I am today. 

While I was young, my friends were always able to get me with the "did you know the word 'gullible' isn't in the dictionary?" joke, and I fell for it every time. My father was also one to give me misinformation, hoping I would take it upon myself to go look up the correct answer. I'd like to think it's because of these two reasons that I am now an extremely skeptical, critical and analytical person. I never take anything to be true without finding it out for myself, and upon acquiring new knowledge, I tend to further research until I feel I have a strong grasp on the subject. This sometimes turns into an obsession, but I like to know enough to form a non-biased view, and be able to converse with others regarding the given topic. 

With only a year left in my undergrad, and enough writing experience under my belt, I feel ready to share some of my thoughts with the online world. While you may not all agree with what I have to say, I hope you take the time to read and consider my opinions. Personally, I try to be as open-minded and respectful to the views of others, and can only hope to be given the same respect back. 

These are my skeptical thoughts regarding reality; these are events in my everyday life.