Lean more about the revolution…
Pop music is fun(ny). My adolescence was surrounded by it. I loved the catchy, easy lyrics and the simple beats. All kids do and that’s probably why so many want their own music careers. I will never hate on Justin Bieber living his dreams. Good for him. Especially since his mother keeps him squeaky clean sans the finger. I can forgive Usher and Sean Combs for supporting him because 1. he’s a money maker and 2. he’s not untalented.
I cannot forgive the parents of Rebecca Black. They should have known that much auto-tune means your kid can’t sing. I don’t want to say her parents are completely terrible, but they should have protected her. We all knew the moment she started singing that trolls were coming out from under their bridges just to make this sweet, adorable young girl feel like hell. It’s one thing to allow your child to be subjected to school bullying, but worldwide?!
By the way, you should be ashamed of yourself if you’ve talked trash about Rebecca Black or any other kid wanting to make their dreams come true. Focus on the parenting, please.
‘O.M.G’ - Jenna Rose ANALYSED - (WORST SONG EVER MADE???) (by CupOfTeamOfficial)
Something I will never understand is sex appeal. Well, I understand it when the sexual videos are coming from someone that is of legal age of consent, which is still young. We have Miss Britney Spears to thank for that. She was 15-years-old when …Baby, One More Time was released. In a majority of states, that’s too young too be giving off sexual vibes. She waited until just before her eighteenth birthday to really give off those vibes. Miley Cyrus waited until she was a few months away from becoming legal as well.
So, why can’t the parents of this 12-year-old girl stop here from being so incredibly inappropriate?! Oh, wait. Her resume, available on her website, points directly to her mother. Yes, that’s her official contact. This just gets worse by the minute. This deeply saddens me.
Do not blame Britney. Blame our lack of morals and boundaries as a society. If you were to watch Clueless, the television show or any teen movie from the 90’s you see it. Girls wearing mini-skirts and the midriffs shown off. Not cool America. Sop with the blame game and take responsibility. Western culture is getting out of hand. We might as well be Romans pre-Christianity.
As an adult with impressionable, curious, creative little girls in my life, I am disgusted by this. I found the video on YouTube. Comments and ratings had been disabled so I flagged it for child abuse. I selected child abuse of pornography because this young girl who has performed in productions such as The King and I is being led astray and this may be what destroys her life. I don’t want that for her. I definitely don’t want kids or adults viewing her in the light that her music video portrays.
Now I think I’m going to send a tweet to Bieber, commending his success and his mother.
Words are great. There’s nothing more relaxing than words. You can be carried away by the written word or by a soothing voice. No doubt English is one of the hardest languages to learn. Nobody should expect to know half of the words used in this language or to have perfect grammar.
There are millions of Americans that are illiterate and that breaks my heart. I don’t want to know how many people in this world are illiterate because I would possibly cry. Illiteracy upsets me, but society has truly disappointed me.
For years, I’ve relied on dictionaries and thesauruses to be sure I don’t use a word improperly or to add a little extra to a paper. We all do it. As of today, I’m quite sure that I will continue using these tools to improve my language skills.
Oxford English Dictionary has added acronyms to the list of acceptable words to communicate with. The list includes LOL, OMG, FYI, and “(heart).”
Honestly?! I can almost understand FYI. The one I have the biggest issue with is (heart). It ALREADY had multiple meanings. It’s an organ. It’s philosophical. Now the literate generations have their own language. Awesome. We do not need it. We need to learn how to speak and write proper English. Just because it’s printed on a shirt or typed in a quick message between friends doesn’t mean it’s actually useful.
Yes, I know good ol’ Merriam-Webster added these non-words a while back, but it’s so much more disappointing when the ultimate English reference guide adds non-words. Why isn’t anyone worried about illiteracy? Why is it so great that these non-words have been added to dictionaries? If Merriam-Webster and Oxford both believe these terms are so important, why not print a separate dictionary for slang only. That may not make sense to anyone else.
How long is it going to take to add non-words such as LMAO and STFU? At the rate society is going, I give it 10 years or less.
FYI Literacy is not a LOL matter. It’s an OMG factor that I do not (heart). Unless you want to see more ridiculous non-words accepted in everyday life, please support world literacy. I support literacy here.
No, I do not have children, nor do I have the urge to ever pop one out. I do, however, have two “baby” sisters. They are six and eight years old. I’m twenty-one. I’ve helped raise these children. Oh, and I’m one of the few left from my graduating (high school) class that hasn’t already had a child or decided who I’ll be sleeping with when I’m old and wrinkly. Yes, I think this makes me qualified to give out parenting advice…to the kids. I have common sense, unlike many, many kids or parents.
As you may have notice, I only blog about things that really get under my skin. I’m guessing you have your head cocked to the side and one eyebrow is higher than the other right now. What had irked me this time? PARENTS THAT CAN NOT LET GO OF THEIR BABY.
It is wonderful to have supportive, helpful parents. My best friend has an awesome mom. Sometimes i feel she’s a little extreme, but I can understand…to an extent. This is not the parent that has irked me. I’m sure that she could give the parent in question some pointers, though.
Now, what is bothering me is that this very sweet, caring mother I know is incredibly intrusive and too involved in her youngest son’s life. I wouldn’t be so bothered if I didn’t question how he was able to function in day-to-day life. That’s sounds bad and sad, but it’s true.
Her son is someone I know. He’s twenty-five-years-old. He lives on his own, has a dog, goes to school, and works part-time. As far as I am concerned, she is done. She was successful in raising a nice, polite, driven almost-man. All she needs to do now is be supportive and encourage him to do whatever it is he wants to do. Isn’t that all that any parent wants?
Well, she isn’t one of those parents. She cleans his apartment, washes and folds his clothes, helps him do research for college papers, and dotes on him constantly. She sometimes calls him several times a day, as he’s mentioned to me, disregarding that he may be in class or at work. I can tell it may bother him, but again, she raised him to be so polite that I’m sure he’d feel bad saying it out loud.
My mom has only called me during class once and that was because she was admitted to the hospital and needed to be sure I’d be home to baby-sit. She texts me at work to ask me to remind her of things when I get home. We have a very different relationship. Maybe the reason behind that is that I had to grow up when I was ten-years-old after my mom was in a terrible car accident. Having two younger sisters played into it, as well.
My mom hasn’t always been so quick to give me space, but the key is to assert independence and parents should encourage their children’s responsibility and independence as soon as possible. Yes, I know that the world isn’t as simple as it once was. The thing is, we’ve grown up equipped to deal with it as long as we don’t have overprotective parents.
I started working when I was sixteen. I managed my money. I paid my own bills and contributed to household bills. This was a choice I made, not my mom. i made this choice because I wanted to be prepared for what came after high school.
Finishing high school and the months that followed very much strained the relationship between my mom and me. I told her the summer before as soon as I had the opportunity, I’d be moving out. I finished school just a few weeks after I turned eighteen. A week later, I decided to move in with a guy I was dating, who already had a house about an hour away. My mom didn’t take it too well. She really freaked out. At one point, she said I’d abandoned her.
It had to be explained by people she loved that this wasn’t true. My grandparents reminded her that I was prepared and responsible, unlike she was at my age, doing the same thing. By asserting my independence and having people whom love both of us understand both sides of the argument, we got through it. I even live with her right now, but we both know that it’s for just a few more months. She treats me as an adult, her equal because she knows I am. I lived on my own (without the guy) for two years. She’s helping me start a new life, helping me re-build that independence.
The mother I’m irked with right now should understand. She left home at a young age. Her home is on a different continent. Maybe it’s hard for her because he’s the youngest and the last to stay close by. Whatever it is, I strongly believe he needs to assert his independence. If he doesn’t, he won’t find a girl willingly to deal with her intrusiveness (no matter how sweet she is) or be able to live his own life and reach his goals.
I will mention this to him, mainly because I want her to stop talking about him so much, but it will help him too.
As a female that grew up during a time when doing cocaine was expected of a model to keep the weight off of her body rather than her mind, I know what it’s like to feel insecure and want nothing more than to be thin. Yes, I was just a child when this was considered acceptable, but it has left a lasting impression on the media and fashion industries. Models, celebrities, even 12-year-old girls feel this pressure. Luckily, some of us have grown to be stronger than this. I’m proud to say I am one of them.
I am, however, very sorry to say that millions aren’t sure of their beauty and disgusting people like Kenneth Tong are feeding these sensitive, beautiful girls and women. Tong has a Twitter account, which he has used to project his insecurities onto the masses. He says that if a woman isn’t a size zero, then she is worthless. I’ve been worthless since I was 10-years-old according to that sentiment.
A reporter from The Huffington Post (Johann Hari) recently interviewed Tong, who I’m betting most professionals would call a sociopath, and was just as disgusted as anyone with solid self-esteem. Tong mentioned that his mother was never around, his dad was a playboy, and saddest of all, his great-aunt called him fat when he was around the age of 10.
I’m convinced that these three factors have a lot to do with what he’s doing and saying now. He’s just as insecure as all of us who’ve ever felt left out, confused, and hurt. I don’t really want to judge him or feel sympathy for him because if I tried, I’d be torn between the two. My focus on this man is intend to try to help others realize that they are amazing, beautiful, wonderful human beings. I’ve waited to address the subject because I am insecure and have experienced the pressure close to home, but now I’m ready because I have great people in my life that remind me I’m beautiful every day.
Tong tried retracting the interview an hour after Johann Hari pointed out his liability and overall impact that follow his words. Tong had a “revelation” and claimed it all to be a hoax. I agree with Hari, it is not a hoax. The man was tried for rape in 2009 and openly acknowledges it as if it were a joke. If that’s not despicable enough, he would also like to begin sell of his very own “managed anorexia” pill called the Size Zero pill.
ANOREXIA CANNOT AND SHOULD NOT BE MANAGED.
Puberty hit me hard. The summer before seventh grade, when I was 12, I went from a size 8 to a size 14 in juniors’ pants. I gained so much weight that I hated looking in the mirror and refused to allow anyone to take pictures of me that would show more than just my face. I was still insecure about those photos, too. I envied just about every girl I went to school with that fall. The only weight they seemed to gain was the weight I gained two summers earlier. Boobs. I had them too, along with a belly and stretch marks. I didn’t wear shorts or a bathing suit again until I was 18-years-old.
Until I was 17, I just accepted I was curvy. At least, I tried. At the beginning of most school years, I’d average a size 12/13 pant. By the time summer break rolled around, I would be a size 9. Junior prom was the beginning. I was a size 12. I was okay with that. My date was fine with that. He was gay. He’d tell me I was hot no matter what I looked like. The following September, he introduced me to a straight friend of his. This straight guy will remain nameless. I’ll call him…Will.
I met Will briefly the day of Prom. I saw him a few other times with my Prom date and my now best friend. He was older than me and had this aura that I tried to resist and was very annoyed by. Yes, I dated Will. I figured it’d be the fun reward for sacrificing my life for the past few years. We’d get bored and stop talking to each other within two months. Boy, was I wrong. I’m not going to say he’s a sociopath or crazy, but I do worry about him and his sanity quite a bit, even now.
Will was very charming. That was the aura that I wished was repulsive. He has a way with projecting himself onto you. I didn’t realize it at first, but he’d targeted me. I was somewhat of a mission. After showing him the smallest bit of vulnerability, he subtly began making me feel bad about myself. Once, he took me to a doctor’s appointment and afterward, I mentioned I’d lost about five pound in a two-week time. He smiled and said, “Well, it seems that whenever a girl dates me, she gets hotter, but I don’t.” I laughed it off. That wasn’t the only thing. He began telling me if I lost ten pounds that I’d have the perfect model’s body. Even though I knew it wasn’t true, I ate less and less over the course of our relationship.
I moved in with him, 45 minutes away from my home, in another state. By that point, all I could bring myself to eat was a single bagel with cream cheese every day. I also began to drink on a regular basis. In six months, I lost 30 pounds in one of the unhealthiest ways. Sadly, that is not what gave me the courage to leave him and that controlling way of life. He treated me unfairly and everyone around us told me I was too good for him. That included the only one of my friend’s that still spoke to me, as well as his friends and family.
Even after I left him, I couldn’t bring myself to eat more than twice a day. I had friends that would check up on me every day to make sure I was eating. If they weren’t satisfied with my response or my kitchen, they’d drag me to get fast food. Through out all of this, I was drinking on a daily basis.
Now, he wasn’t the only one to make me feel bad about myself. I could ignore the mean girls and stupid guys. My great-grandmother was ecstatic I lost weight and even when my doctor was worried about it, she told me to keep up the good work. I adore my great-grandmother. She is one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met and always will be. I do know that she struggles with her weight and is subconsciously projecting her insecurities onto me. It still hurts when she make those jabs, though. My family always comes to my defense and reassures me I’m the most beautiful me ever.
I don’t worry so much anymore. Ironically, I have a guy to thank for this. When we met, my friends were easing up on how often they checked my kitchen, but they still went behind my back to tell him it was now his responsibility. I think they were afraid that’d I’d fall back into the same routine of not eating. He did not allow that. He cared about my health and happiness. I’ll call this guy Andrew. Andrew once told me that he was afraid that I’d break if he hugged me too tightly and refused to touch me until I ate. During this relationship, and for a while after, he always made sure I ate. He’d go out and buy dinner for himself, but bring enough for me no matter how much I insisted I wasn’t hungry. Within nine months, I gained about 15 pounds due to his persistence.
Right now, I’d like to lose about 10 pounds because I’ve gained it by being jobless and lazy. I don’t go without eating anymore. I’m finally understanding what portions should be for my body. I will not say I’m trying to lose weight or am I a healthy person now. I’ve stopped drinking so much, I eat more, but I’m not perfect.
By no means am I supporting any eating disorders, underage drinking, or allowing anyone to be in any toxic relationship or situation. I want to share my struggle with everyone, I hope that others that are struggling can take something positive from my story.
People like Kenneth Tong and Will are what drive us all to be insecure and not see that they’re the ones in need of help, not us.
I am including links to organizations that may be of great benefit to anyone without the amazing support I have. Please, please share this with anyone and everyone who may benefit from reading it.
Sociopath Profile - http://www.exitsupportnetwork.com/artcls/socio.htm
Eating Disorders - http://www.something-fishy.org/
Domestic Violence/Abuse, Eating Disorders - http://helpguide.org/mental/domestic_violence_abuse_types_signs_causes_effects.htm
Teen Relationship Abuse - http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/tc/domestic-violence-teen-relationship-abuse
Alcohol Abuse - http://www.medicinenet.com/alcohol_abuse_and_alcoholism/article.htm
Project Life Size - http://www.youtube.com/user/ProjectLifesize
Religion has always been a red button issue, which is something I will never understand. Sure, I’m an Atheist, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to tell you that your faith is stupid. If you can’t get the facts straight about your religion or any other, I will be more than happy to tell you that you’re ignorant and need to study before opening your mouth again. There is no harm in knowing more about other religions. I’ve never heard of a God that would punish you for learning more about the world around you. I’ve chosen to write on this topic for two reasons. One being that I can’t stand that people of faith hate and recent events have got me thinking.
We all know about the Islamic Center proposed in New York City. Call me unpatriotic, a terrorist, whatever. I see nothing wrong with it. Not because of the questionable businesses nearby, but because our world can use another place for children to go to learn to be upstanding citizens of the United States (as well as their faith, if they choose).
Here is where you begin screaming at your computer screen because you haven’t given me a chance to explain. Now that you’ve decided to continue reading, open your mind and heart.
This Islamic Center isn’t being built to breed home-grown terrorists. It is the local government’s responsibility to be sure that is not the intent of a public, non-profit oganization. If you are truly worried about the community’s safety, then you need to bring this to the attention to those leaders. Do that by being prepared, rational, educated, and most importantly, professional.
The mission of this community center to help, just as any other. There are plenty of community centers in New York City that are affiliated with religons of many origins. Just because extremist criminals destroyed a part of us does not mean we should automatically hate anyone who associates themselves with Allah. I don’t believe anyone wants the future of our country to be what older generations already believe them to be. Community outreach programs, faith, and family can help heal this country. You cannot disagree with that.
September 11, 2001 will be a day I won’t forget. I won’t forget seeing a classmate scream and cry as we watched the second tower hit on live television. Her aunt lived blocks away. She luckily survived. I won’t forget the first Constitution Day assembly I went to during school. Also, I remember questioning how it was constitutional as I wrote a side bar atricle for the student newspaper that week. Not just the guidelines for such a day, but the way our government, our people view anything we’re not familiar with.
I would also like to bring a little light on a more local issue that hasn’t caused quite as much of a stir. Murfreesboro, Tennessee residents have been protesting the construction of an Islamic mosque. There isn’t a significant landmark anywhere close to it. It’s next to a Baptist church. That’s the issue. This frusterates me beyond voice. I have lived in the Bible Belt my entire life, so naturally I’m used to this kind of ignorance, but not like this. The town I’m from has a church on every corner, it seems. I understand that these are all Christian churches serving under various denominations, but if they can worship peacefully with their difference, then why can’t a less ignorant community broaden that idea?
Protesters have claimed that city leaders signed off on the mosque construction illegally because nobody else got a vote on the issue. Freedom of religion is one of the most beautiful things about the United States. It means that I can’t tell you that your religion is worthless, which is what these ignorant, prejudice citizens are conveying.
The points is there are crazy people affiliated with every religion. History has proved this over and over. It’s not the religion’s fault. The blame falls on those who prey on the weak and eager to please. Now that you’ve heard me out, I hope that you educate yourself as much as possible, whether it means you get Black Listed or not.
Many social and political issues irk me these days, as I’m sure they do you. The leaders of the United States need to learn that too little too late makes us all look like jackasses, especially when it comes to affect humanity. The bombing in Japan during World War II was pretty asinine, but what I’ve read in the news to day really bothers me.
Apparently, it recently came to light that from 1932-1972 American researchers infected innocent people with Syphillis. Yes, they knowingly gave many people a sexually transmitted disease. No, researchers weren’t promiscous and spreading the disease as it is typically spread today.
The point of the research was to study the effects of penicillin in patients with the now nonfatal virus. My issue is that the subjects were unaware of the disease that was making their life much more difficult.
There were two studies. One took place in Guatemala from 1946-1948. The other took place in Alabama from 1932-1976, studying 400 African-American men. These studies were approved by the National Institutes for Health and were federally funded. It wasn’t brought to life until a Wellesley College employee found undocumented, but archived notes.
Needless to say, this information came with an apology to Guatamala today. This is too little too late. These people were made ill for research that they probably didn’t want part in. That is not fair at all. The statement released also notes that practices as such are no longer legal and that investigations will begin to ensure us that it doesn’t happen again.
I am sad to say, I did not once hear of an apology to the American families affected by this research. Alabama in the mid-1900s was not an easy place for African-Americans to live, yet the government made it worse. In this time, work for women was hard to come by no matter the race and to hurt these families who primarily depended on the man of the house to provide, I can only imagine the struggle those years were. Not to mention, infecting their wives who inturn could infect their children by simply giving birth. This isn’t too little too late. This is completely unacceptable! Our leaders can apologize to others, but our own go unnoticed.
The statement issued also says that what happened in studies like this no longer represent America, however,we have treated our own people in such disgusting ways while taking down others, so we are labeled American. We see that as something to be proud of, but other countries see it as something totally different, an insult due to instences like this.