We Have A Voice

At the beginning of this election, I promised myself that I would not get involved-- just as I wasn't involved when our last president came into office.  I would not subject myself to the political views of this party or that party.  I would not let the judgement of others affect what I believed.

I broke my promise.  

Perhaps it is because I am older than I was with the last election.  Perhaps it is because this election was slandered with political propaganda, and my social media was full of it.  Perhaps it is because I see how the people with power truly influence the lesser people.  I don't know.  All I know is that I let myself be subjected to this amazing thing called democracy, and I'm appalled by the results.  

Before I truly begin my post, let me explain that this is not another post that is to demean the new president, or who almost became president.  This is not to subject you, my readers, to my own views.  (Because, quite frankly, I still don't know how to process this.)  This is not to meant to be another protesting post, with the same points as any other post in this country.  

This post is to establish to you that what is happening in America, to our people, is wrong, and we should not be silent.

Now, I said that this isn't a protesting post.  It isn't.  I'm not protesting that Trump became president, or that Hillary lost.  It isn't my place to.  I didn't vote.  I didn't want to vote.  And, if we are honest, he did win fair and square.  I don't care that he won.  Even though he had word vomit throughout the debates, I have a tiny bit of hope that he could be a good president to this country.  I would've said the same thing about Hillary.  No, what I'm protesting is how the American people are reacting, and the injustice.

There are two sides to this story.

On one side, you have Hillary supporters, who are rioting the streets, and are causing a big fuss.  I can understand your worry.  I can understand that you are afraid.  I do understand, truly.  And I am so, so terribly sorry that you are being subjected to this cruelty that your fellow countrymen are giving you.  However, there is no reason to become unruly.  Are you not the ones who wish for peace?  Demand peace with peace.  Be like Martin Luther King Jr. and the women's suffragettes.  Their points were heard, they were dealt with, but they were dealt with peacefully.  

On the other side, you have American people-- neighbors, brothers and sisters, friends, who are terrorizing innocent bystanders by ripping off their hijabs and attacking others.  African Americans and other colored people are being told to sit in the back of the bus again.  Women are afraid to walk on the street, for fear they'll be attacked.  Muslim women are not wearing their religious dressing because they are being called a terrorist, and are being physically assaulted.  Latinos are being told they are going to be deported, and that the wall couldn't come up soon enough.  These attacks, these threats, they are going without being reprimanded by law enforcement.  Other bystanders are just letting it happen.

What is this?  What is your goal in this?  

A better question is: Is this the world you want your children-- your sons and daughters, to grow up in?  

No!  

I can understand that we are not all influential people.  We do not all have money.  We do not all have the means to fight back.  But we all do have a voice.  We can speak out against these harmful doings.  We can protest civilly.  We can stay true to what America represents.  Without that, without staying true, we are nothing but a group of chickens with our heads cut off.

Everyone matters.  The Muslims, the LGBTQ+'s, the women, the children, the colored people, the Latino's, the white men, etc... Everyone matters.  We did not come so far in history, only to walk back a few decades in the course of a couple days.  No, America is stronger than that.  Like everything that we see, and everything that happens to us, we will overcome such wrongdoings and come out on top. 

Dear Readers, we are all the same.  Our skin tone, sexuality, or backgrounds do not change who we truly are.  We blame the new president for the American people's actions, but it is not his fault.  He is not the one committing such heinous acts of violence.  It is the people.  People on both sides are committing acts against the other.  It is time we stop this arguing, and time we unite again.  We may not see eye to eye, and that is okay.  We don't have to.  But we must get along, and work together to maintain peace within the country, lest we want another civil war.  

I am but one person.  I have a meek voice.  

But, together, we have a bellowing voice that can be heard for miles.  Perhaps it's time we use that voice, and do good, rather than bad. 

We Have A Voice

At the beginning of this election, I promised myself that I would not get involved-- just as I wasn't involved when our last president came into office.  I would not subject myself to the political views of this party or that party.  I would not let the judgement of others affect what I believed.

I broke my promise.  

Perhaps it is because I am older than I was with the last election.  Perhaps it is because this election was slandered with political propaganda, and my social media was full of it.  Perhaps it is because I see how the people with power truly influence the lesser people.  I don't know.  All I know is that I let myself be subjected to this amazing thing called democracy, and I'm appalled by the results.  

Before I truly begin my post, let me explain that this is not another post that is to demean the new president, or who almost became president.  This is not to subject you, my readers, to my own views.  (Because, quite frankly, I still don't know how to process this.)  This is not to meant to be another protesting post, with the same points as any other post in this country.  

This post is to establish to you that what is happening in America, to our people, is wrong, and we should not be silent.

Now, I said that this isn't a protesting post.  It isn't.  I'm not protesting that Trump became president, or that Hillary lost.  It isn't my place to.  I didn't vote.  I didn't want to vote.  And, if we are honest, he did win fair and square.  I don't care that he won.  Even though he had word vomit throughout the debates, I have a tiny bit of hope that he could be a good president to this country.  I would've said the same thing about Hillary.  No, what I'm protesting is how the American people are reacting, and the injustice.

There are two sides to this story.

On one side, you have Hillary supporters, who are rioting the streets, and are causing a big fuss.  I can understand your worry.  I can understand that you are afraid.  I do understand, truly.  And I am so, so terribly sorry that you are being subjected to this cruelty that your fellow countrymen are giving you.  However, there is no reason to become unruly.  Are you not the ones who wish for peace?  Demand peace with peace.  Be like Martin Luther King Jr. and the women's suffragettes.  Their points were heard, they were dealt with, but they were dealt with peacefully.  

On the other side, you have American people-- neighbors, brothers and sisters, friends, who are terrorizing innocent bystanders by ripping off their hijabs and attacking others.  African Americans and other colored people are being told to sit in the back of the bus again.  Women are afraid to walk on the street, for fear they'll be attacked.  Muslim women are not wearing their religious dressing because they are being called a terrorist, and are being physically assaulted.  Latinos are being told they are going to be deported, and that the wall couldn't come up soon enough.  These attacks, these threats, they are going without being reprimanded by law enforcement.  Other bystanders are just letting it happen.

What is this?  What is your goal in this?  

A better question is: Is this the world you want your children-- your sons and daughters, to grow up in?  

No!  

I can understand that we are not all influential people.  We do not all have money.  We do not all have the means to fight back.  But we all do have a voice.  We can speak out against these harmful doings.  We can protest civilly.  We can stay true to what America represents.  Without that, without staying true, we are nothing but a group of chickens with our heads cut off.

Everyone matters.  The Muslims, the LGBTQ+'s, the women, the children, the colored people, the Latino's, the white men, etc... Everyone matters.  We did not come so far in history, only to walk back a few decades in the course of a couple days.  No, America is stronger than that.  Like everything that we see, and everything that happens to us, we will overcome such wrongdoings and come out on top. 

Dear Readers, we are all the same.  Our skin tone, sexuality, or backgrounds do not change who we truly are.  We blame the new president for the American people's actions, but it is not his fault.  He is not the one committing such heinous acts of violence.  It is the people.  People on both sides are committing acts against the other.  It is time we stop this arguing, and time we unite again.  We may not see eye to eye, and that is okay.  We don't have to.  But we must get along, and work together to maintain peace within the country, lest we want another civil war.  

I am but one person.  I have a meek voice.  

But, together, we have a bellowing voice that can be heard for miles.  Perhaps it's time we use that voice, and do good, rather than bad. 

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

 

      I will let you know now, from the very beginning, that this book is one of the most emotional books that I have ever had the pleasure to read.   Yes, it is a book about cancer.  I'm not sure why I wanted to read it, but I finally mustered up enough emotional stability to go to my bookshelf, grab the book, and whole myself up in my room.  I finished the book in the matter of nine hours.  

      I will begin with a run down of family.

      Sara, the mom, is an ex-lawyer, who believes her older sister (who basically raised her) is ashamed of her since Sara became everything Zanne wasn't- a mother and married to someone who Zanne thinks is less than capable to take care of the family.  Her main purpose in this book is, of course, a mother, but also to keep Kate alive.

       Brian is the firefighter dad who stays at the firestation a little too often.  I think this is to distance himself away from breaking down due to his eldest daughters condition.

       Jesse is the typical juvenile deliquent.  He is given the spot light a few times in this book, but I wouldn't call him a vital character.  He is the brother of Anna and Kate, son of Brian and Sara, and lives in the apartment above the garage.  The most important characteristic about Jesse is he is the arsonist we hear Brian and his team talking about so much.

       Kate, I would say, is the second main character.  She was diagnosed when she was two with a rare form of leukemia.  It grows a resistance to most drugs once previously taken.  Basically, her body is falling apart, and she relies on her sister, Anna, to keep her going.  Literally.  I'd say half of Kate's blood is Anna's.  I suppose at some point, she lost her will to survive, and, when diagnosed with kidney failure, she made Anna promise to refuse a kidney transplant.

       Anna is the main character of the book, though it switches points of views nearly every chapter.  She was conceived to give Kate chord blood cells that Kate desperately needed.  Sara and Brian genetically modified the egg to be a perfect genetic match for Kate, so, in case the need ever arised, Anna can donate.  However, before you jump to conclusions about how horrible of parents they seem to be, they only thought it would be chord blood cells.  When Anna was 5, she donated Leukocytes, and when she was 8, she donated three rounds of granulocytes.  Now, at 13, her sister makes her promise to refuse to donate a kidney, so she can die.  It kills Anna, but she agrees, and files a lawsuit against her parents for medical emancipation.

 

      This is when we meet Campbell Alexander, the man with the backwards name or the man who is named after the soup.  He is Anna's case attourney.  He has a hard outer shell, and gives bazzare reasons why he must have his dog every where he goes.  We don't learn until late in the book that he developed epilepsy after a car accident, and Judge is his seizure dog.  Actually, we learn this by Campbell having a seizure in the middle of the court hearing.

      Julia is the guardian ad litem.  She observes Anna's family for much of the story.  Her and Campbell have past history, and their love again blossoms.

      Judge De Salvo is the judge who makes the ultimate decision for Anna to be medically emancipated from her parents.  

    

 

       Even though they won the case, the ending was still extremely tragic, and not what you would expect.

        Though this book was emotional, it was worth the read. 

      

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

      Jane Eyre is a timeless classic that I absolutely adore.  If I don't know what to read, I generally turn to Charlotte Bronte's great work.  It is so in depth with emotion- love, anguish, hatred, sorrow, etc....   To those who don't enjoy classics (I started to enjoy reading by the classics, so I'm partial to authors like Charles Dickens, Bronte, and even Shakespeare.), this tale could be difficult to get into, and is rather long for most peoples tastes.
      Jane is an orphan, having both her parents die when she was an infant.  Her mother's brother- Mr. Reed of Gateshead Hall, a rather rich man, took her in.  Soon after, however, he passed, and left her with his wife and three children who mistreated her terribly.  Accustomed to their torment, and often hearing how horrible and wicked a child she was, she usually sat quiet and brooding, dreaming of a time where she could leave Gateshead Hall.

      Her wishes were granted after the harsh punishment that left her unconscious in the Red Room.  Soon she was sent to Lowood Institution for girls- a quaint Christian school started by Naomi Brocklehurst- currently ran by Mr. Brocklehurst of Brocklehurst hall. There she meets a few people who she would hold dear to her heart.  There she would experience heartache, beginning when her dear friend dies during the typhus outbreak.

 

      Her vast knowledge she acquired at Lowood helps her become the governess to Miss Adele Varens at Thornfield.  There she meets Mr. Rochester.  Despite her curiosity towards him, she tries to keep her distance.  Despite that effort she does fall in love.  However, she feels he won't feel the same for her since she is a governess and he is a wealthy man.  This is not the case.  

      Their plans to marry were tarnished when an objector informed Jane and the Priest that Mr. Rochester's first wife (one who he did not marry, but could not leave due to her insanity) was still alive.  Jane leaves him for a number of years, but returns.

      There is a happy ending, and they are married, despite what others may think.

      Despite the length of the novel, and how most would think Charlotte Bronte's writing seemed to drone on and on, I like this classic.  Like I said in the beginning of this post, I often turn back to this work.  If you have a young reader, who reads on a level more mature than most, or prefers the finer things in life (well, finer literary works), I recommend Jane Eyre for them.  

DIY: Weeping Angel Costume

       This Halloween was quite exciting.  As you all know, I am a die hard Doctor Who fan, and am blessed with a family who also love the show.  This year for Halloween, my brother, sister, and I decided we were going to go as different characters from the show.  While I went as the Eleventh Doctor (with a bit of Steam-punk flare), and my brother as the Empty Child, my youngest sister went as a Weeping Angel.
      As excited as I was, I knew I couldn't tackle her costume by myself.  My mom (Yummy Bites by Amy) made her gown out of a gray pillow case and fitted sheet set we got from the store.  It was nothing extravagant- just a regular set that cost less that ten dollars.  The gown isn't sewn together.  It's two pieces: a top and skirt.  She cut the holes for her head and arms, then cleaned it up a bit.  For the skirt, she pinned different sections together in the back and waist before stitching them together.  When she wore it on Halloween, she wore a gray long sleeve shirt underneath.

      I was in charge of the wings.  

      The first thing you will want to do is measure out the size of your torso (from your shoulders to the small of your back) and the width in between your shoulder blades.  Write your measurements down on a piece of paper.  Use your measurements to cut out a base on whatever material you wish to use.  (I used a cardboard tri-fold.)  Sketch out a wing shape on your material.  You can see the shape I used in the picture above.  When you have the shape you desire, cut it out using either a box cutter or exact-o blade.  Caution: Those who haven't used the blade, I wouldn't let a child use it.  It's very sharp like a kitchen blade, and can easily cut someone.  Once I had my initial wing done, I flipped it over, traced it, and cut the other wing out.  

      Hot glue your wings onto your base like you see done in step two.  Afterwards, draw and cut out your feathers.  I made a simple oval shape, leaving the top of the feather straight as you can see.  

      Hot glue your feather shapes onto your blank wing shapes like you see in step four.  After that is done, paint your wings a light gray color.  For all of those who do art, I suggest that you throw technique out of the window for step five.  It will only frustrate and upset you.  Honestly, step five was my favorite part of building the wings, because I got to go crazy and let all frustration out on the board.  I did not paint each wing individually, because that would be painstaking and too time consuming.  I simply stippled, or dabbed viciously, a darker gray paint over my base coat.  When the dark gray dries, stipple another layer of light grey to give it a stone look.  

      My mom added elastic so my sister could wear them around while she trick-or-treated.

      Here are the pictures of my brother (The Empty Child [Are you my mummy?]), my sister (The Weeping Angel who we made this costume for), and myself (a Steampunk version of the Eleventh Doctor.)

All Souls Trilogy: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

This is a clickable image!

      It's been a while since I had posted something, and I had been wanting to do a book review for a long time, but classes have kept me extremely busy.  FINALLY, I had a little window of time, and read this book.  I've read it before, but forgot most of its content (sad, I know), and thought, "Hmm... a dose of magic will get me out of my writers block!"

       Interestingly enough, it did, and I was chomping at the bit to tell you all about it.  

      Diana Bishop, a descendant of the long line of Bishop witches, doesn't like to use her magic.  She believed, up until recently, her lack of spells and powers were her own doing since she only used them if she absolutely needed to.  Though she is a known professor at Yale University, she is studying at Oxford for a conference.  There she calls Ashmole 782, not thinking it would unleash a world of magic, chaos, and even love.

      Matthew de Clermont is one of those creatures interested in Diana's ability to call up the long lost manuscript.  It is supposed to hold the secrets of why Daemons, Vampires, and Witches are what they are, when they were created, and if there is a possibility of reversing their habits.  However, Diana doesn't take too kindly to Matthew at first, and, at one point, wanted to hit him with her rowing ore.  Though, for him, it was just fuel to his heart's flame.  He knew she was his mate, and eventually, Diana started to fall for him as well.

      This book isn't only about love and passion, though.  When you meet Ysabeau, Matthew's vampire mother, she doesn't take to kindly to Diana.  In fact, she hates her.  She hates all witches for what they assisted the Nazi's in doing to her husband.  Though her dislike of witches, Ysabeau ends up accepting Diana as her daughter.

      There's an imminent danger, and it seems like it would be settling down, but that is not the case.  A dangerous witch and a member of the Covenant kidnap Diana, and Matthew and his family have to save her.  Afterwards, she and Matthew travel back to Aunt Sara and Emily's house to stay to try and buy time.  There, Diana develops new powers.

      After that it is an amazing adventure, and I truly recommend it to anyone who is willing to read it. .

      

Confessions of a Teenage Nerd

      I've never given thought to what being a "Nerd" really means to a nerd vs. outsiders (Yes, I said Outsiders.) until the other day when my cousin called me up, asking to borrow my "Geeky Items."  My natural response was, "What do you mean "Geeky Items?"
      Her response actually silenced me for a few minutes. "You know, dorky glasses and knee high socks and stuff like that."
      Um.  I'm sorry.  Did you say dorky glasses?  Knee high socks?  Oh, okay, yes you did.  It's just... I didn't realize that glasses and socks were for dorks.  Thank you for enlightening me.  (To be clear, that was not my response.  I actually let her borrow a puzzle top.)
      That inspired me to write this post: Confessions of a Nerd.

      1. We do NOT  look like Steve Urkel. 
      In fact, I've never met a nerd that looked like Urkel.  This suspenders and glasses fad is exactly just that- a fad.  You want to know what a nerd looks like?  Pajamas, a sweater, socks, and a good book.  Although, I have to admit, the Doctor's attire really inspires me.

      2. We have too many fandoms.  

      For those who do not know what a fandom is, it a bunch of fans of a certain T.V. show, book, movie, etc..  For me, it would be Doctor Who, Big Bang Theory, and... I can't keep count.  It's a wide sea of fandoms out there: Supernatural, Sherlock, Divergent, Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Glee, and so, so, so much more.  

      3. If you date us, or even know us, it will be a reference bomb shell. 

      I realize way too often that I making references to Doctor Who.  It doesn't matter where I am, what I'm doing, or who I'm with.  I will make a reference.  One time while taking an art test, one of my friends whispered "May the odds be ever in your favor."  It can be quite scary sometimes.  

      4. We, too, like to look at pretty boys.

      My cousin is always telling me I don't like to be mesmerized by boys.  Um, no.  I like to stare at pretty boys.  I just don't stare at the hipster down the street.  I stare at the actors from the Avengers, does that count?  (Answer: yes, they does.)

       5.  We do not ALWAYS watch our shows, or read our favorite books... 

      Okay, sometimes we do, but only if there is absolutely nothing else going on.  We have lives, but our lives don't consist of going to the mall 20 times a month to just walk around, or hang out at the park.  Speaking for myself, if I were hanging out with someone, I'd want it to be in a house.  Of course, if your active a park is a perfect place.  

      6.  We're not in our rooms because we're antisocial.  We're in our rooms because we're reading or you're loud.

      Seriously.  I cannot explain this enough.  My parents have never accused me of being antisocial really, but my sister has.  Sometime we really are just being antisocial, but most of the time, you are just very loud.

      7. We didn't choose the nerd life.  The nerd life chose us.

      There isn't an explanation needed for this.

      I hope you enjoyed!