That poor, poor man.

From the LA Times: Bush never recovered from response to Katrina, aides say.

You know what else never recovered from the response to Katrina? NEW ORLEANS.

This piece almost reads like an Onion article.

"...entered a downward spiral from which he could never recover."
"Katrina to me was the tipping point."
"[I]t was the final nail in the coffin."
"The decline was accelerated."

No, they're not talking about New Orleans, but about the president. Who sat back and watched the devastation FROM AIR FORCE ONE. Honestly.

Somebody get me my throwing shoes.

I feel like writing about something I hate.

How about Twilight! OK.

Twilight is a poor excuse for erotica, a vampire story, a love story, and a collection of some words written down on paper. I hate that it has become the cultural phenomenon that it is, and that whenever I meet someone new the first question I’m asked is, “So, have you seen Twilight yet?”

No, I haven’t.

Twilight is poorly written. It’s repetitive, cliched, dull, and unimaginative, and it's full of plot holes. It makes vampires as un-scary as they can possibly be. It tries to pass chivalry, stalking, emotional abuse, physical abuse, and traditional gender roles off as TRUE LOVE <3

Obviously, I have serious issues with the series, and my opinion will not be changed by another reading, a viewing of the movie, or a decent review. Whether it is a good book, or even good vamp fiction, is up to the reader. But it is undeniably un-feminist, anti-choice, and very Mormon.

It's ok to like Twilight. But I wouldn’t mind listening to people go on and on about it if they realized how trivial it was, or how gratingly backwards it is. What disgusts me is the whole meme that Twilight is this wonderful book for girls, and it’s changing teen fiction, and it’s a cultural landmark, and it’s universally recognized as the perfect love story™.

Twilight is essentially one woman’s fantasies in book form. And while they may work for her, it saddens me that they’re expected to be the norm for all of us [women]. Not all of us adhere to such traditional gender roles. Some of us want to go to college, even if, horrors, it means we’ll have to be away from our boyfriends for a while. Some us would rather not die at 18 in order to live in isolation for the rest of eternity. Some of us do not think it is thrilling when a creepy guy watches us sleep, kidnaps us, or is chivalrous. How about writing a book that represents more varied ideas of love, some that transcend ‘traditional’ cultural values and norms? A strict reinforcement of (hetero)sexist standards of relationships is hardly groundbreaking.

Of course one can still be a feminist and love Twilight. I really don’t care about someone’s personal taste in literature. But I hope my generation isn’t shocked when this all fades away, doomed to obscurity, after legions of women rise up and realize how pathetic this ‘cultural phenomenon’ really was.

I do not in any way feel that Mormons are sexually repressed, but I do believe that Mormonism as a faith upholds ‘traditional values’ about sex that are inherently not progressive.

Things You Can Expect in this Blog

Well, there's really only one thing through which all other things are filtered: feminism. The other things are as followed:
Life (mine, though I will not divulge boring things or those which will attract stalkers)
Privilege (mostly mine)
Pop culture and TV
Writing
Fashion
Gender, race, and class
Books and music
Politics (not limited to US)
War
Kyriarchy, patriarchy, other systems of oppression
Religion
Science
Cats

Resolutions that aren't mine are pointless.

New Year's Eve (and New Year's Day, for that matter) is one of the stupidest faux-holidays there is, and there are a lot of them. The slow, steady, unending plod of time is hardly cause for celebration. January is a cold, boring month, but with the creation of New Year's, we have somehow injected meaning into it. Like most holidays, there are things you're supposed to eat (doughnuts, apparently), things you're supposed to watch (large objects descending from the sky), and things you're supposed to pretend aren't creepy when they really are (babies in sashes). But the weirdest ritual of all of them is creating New Year's Resolutions. Why would I be more willing to lose weight/change my life/repent for my sins in January than in any other month? Just because it's the beginning of a brand new year, it's supposedly full of inspiration and potential. And if you want to accomplish something, why wait until January to do it? Why not start as soon as you get the idea? Creating resolutions for the new year is a pathetic, meaningless hobby that sets one up for failure, and no one should do it.

Well, except me, of course.

Keeping up with a blog is my resolution. Like all other resolutions, it is pathetic, meaningless, and failure-setting-up. Unlike all other resolutions, I acknowledge this. I will probably get bored of this blog around, oh, January 7th or so. It says so right in the title. So when I do give up on this non-resolution, I won't feel guilty at all, and next year around the same time, I can start a whole 'nother one. In fact, this is my second blog. My other one, A Natural Selection, ended after about ten posts. This one will probably have the same fate, as will the next.

Much like the slow, steady, unending plod of time, it is a cycle that will never end.