1984

Have I commented on this before?

This summer I read the novel 1984 for the first time.

Some recent discoveries made me revisit it again, this time via Netflix (I tried to pick up the DVD but it is hard to find for any decent price!), as I watched the movie version. What can I say, this is a very faithful adaptation of the book. But mostly it got me thinking of current events.

Granted, 1984 marks the extreme in government manipulation, but with how the press is supposed to be free, and in an essence a check on the government, how the media is giving a pass on events that are happening right now. I don't know the full details to the global warming emails, showing that a lot of the data pertaining to global warming shows that it has been misrepresented to make it look worse then it is. Is this not manipulation of the facts by the government and otehr agencies in an effort to control the people? Cap and Trade comes to mind, the bill that's stalled in congress as of present.

Not to say that Republicans are exempt, the Patriot Act is a bit orwellian as well come to think of it, and I can see why some people are so opposed to it. Every government program may have good intentions behind it, but that program in time will become corrupt. Look at the Department of Homeland Security. It started as a very conservative idea, to secure our country against foreign threats, but now that Janet Napolitano is head of it, she's painted a broad stroke of possible terrorist suspects that falls under conservative ideals, and as far as I know, since that report we have had one guy shoot an abortionist? Meanwhile, we have extremists attacking our troops both on the inside and out.

Fortunately, i don't think things will ever be depicted as they are shown in 1984, at least, not in the US, we're to independant for that. But you can see in levels of the government that people in power are trying to get control over the people, and they start by taking away their freedoms and providing them with what they need. One of the reasons why I'm opposed to government providing me much of anything. There are only a certain things a government should do, but that's another blog post.

Back to 1984 itself, watching it I discovered a few things that it mentions from the book that I missed the first time I read it. If you haven't read it in a while, I would highly recommend checking this book out.

And remember, we've always been at war with Eastasia.

Twilight Hate

For those of you have read and like Twilight. See, I've got a friend. Surprisingly, we adamantly disagree on everything from religion to politics but we have somehow remained civil to each other and have remained friends on Livejournal and Facebook despite this.

She is currently reading the Twilight series, and she HATES it. She started a blog about it knowing she would hate it and is giving recaps. Her blog is somehow gaining a lot of traction and getting quite popular, which is surprising her. However, what's surprising her even more is her lack of hatemail and flames from people who love the books.

So if you like the series and want to defend it, go show her some love.

Even better, if you have read the series and think its kind of cheesy and corny like myself, or your curious at why this series is so popular and what its about, go check out her blog and get a laugh. Her recaps are actually quite funny, and so true.

But I'm sure a couple of my family members might take offense to her though. Especially those who love the books, and I know a few that do.

Guilty

Over the last week, I've been reading a lot when I am sitting around waiting, which is a lot, and read Ann Coulter's new book, Guilty. I have to say I like her. I guess there is something about strong conservative women that stick to their guns like Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin and Sarah Palin that I can appreciate. And I think I can fully realize why I like Sarah Palin so much now. I was trying to figure it out, its more then just that she's sincere and a real person and not just a public face, (as well as the whole gun chick thing, I might be drawn to another women who is into firearms) but I have also realized it's because she's unapologetic.

After reading Ann Coulter's new book, I realized that some Republicans seem to eager to please Democrats and feel the need to apologize for any offense we might cause. if something is misconstrued, damn it, the republican will apologize. The democrats never apologize, they just bitch on republicans and tell everyone about the right wing attack machine and make excuses.

I do not consider myself a republican, because I hate political parties. I'm a conservative. I don't have to apologize for my feelings and opinions, I know what I believe and if I don't know much about something, I don't hold an opinion of it until I thoroughly research it enough to make myself confident of an opinion.

This political season has got me ripped and fired up from my vantage point. I was outraged by the attack that went toward Sarah Palin, which was downright outragious. The whole 'trig palin is her grandson' and 'troopergate' scandals, which weren't scandals in the first place, had me furious at times. But what really got me going was how the similar criticisms were not levied toward others on the democratic ticket. And then there's that whole 'Joe the Plumber' deal. Why was an ordinary citizen attacked for asking Obama a question, deflecting the attention from Obama's very questionable answer?

Everyone harps on how Bush stole the election in 2000 (and try to claim that he repeated the act in 2004). Doesn't anybody find Christine Gregoire (my governor) and Al Frankin's 'Count the votes until we win' elections a little questionable?

I boycott the media now. I refuse to watch CNN or MSNBC, and Ann Coulter's book puts into words the insanity I witnessed during this election and why I pretty much stopped paying attention to the MSM. For the last eight years we've been forced to put up with a lot of crap on the left. Well guess what? That crap is about to hit the fan. The democrats managed to achieve the house, senate and the executive branch, within the next few years after a few justices retire, they'll have a solid hold on the judicial branch as well. Watch as the next couple of years the government goes into the toilet and we emerge as a socialist state. Let's see what a utopia it will be as well!

Anyway, Guilty is a fantastic book, which I highly recommend. Read it. We need to hold the freakin' media accountable for their obvious bias, and I will certainly keep tabs on this administration. It would be nice if more people paid attention to politics. Next up is Liberal Fascism. I've heard a lot of good things about it too, thought I would finally read it.

-In case your still wondering, yes, the blog is still going down. But I thought I would give praises to Ann Coulter's book regardless and tell people to go read it already.

Twilight

I have a confession to make.

I've read these books.

I have siblings who have read these books and gush over how great they are (well, one in particular, love ya Corinne) and just out of morbid curiousity and the fact that they are a very quick read, I read them.

Actually, I just finished the last book in the series, which makes me wonder, as a person who has a penchant for making up bizarre names, who the hell thought Renesmee was a pretty name? Let me clue you in. It's awful. Plus the character is a major Mary Sue to the point that I was hoping that one of the other characters would kill her in the climax.

Anyway, the books, while not bad, are not tremondously great, as the main character Bella is completely clueless and lacks any and all common sense. I never empathised with her, I think I am incapable of seeing her point of view because it lacks all logic and I am a very logical person most of the time, hence why I think I've never been in love. I did like the alternate version of the original book of Twilight from Edward's Point of view where he wants to kill her, for some reason, I found that particular story more fascinating then the original version, mostly because I think I enjoy tortured characters. Don't ask me why.

Regardless, somebody who wishes to remain anonymous asked me if I wanted to go see the movie version *hey, they were paying* and against my better judgment, I went.

After hearing about it, we went in with low expectations, as I have heard many people were disappointed with the movie (Every time I go to church, I run into at least a handful of people talking about this series and how great it is). Going in with low expectations actually made it half way bearable because it exceeded in that area. While not bad though, at times I was wondering if I could bare the over drawn dramatization and how absolutely unemotional the characters were. Bella, our protaganist, lacks any emotion except for an overbearing dryness and what is supposed to be an over agonizing passion for one another comes off as completely irrational and a little bit on the creep scale. Plus, the supporting characters that go to Bella's school are almost hyperactive while Bella comes off as EMO.

When Edward mentions that he's been coming into Bella's bedroom for the last couple months to watch her sleep, I looked at my movie watching companion and we both muttered 'creepy' to each other.

And could we please get a few more arial shots of them up in the tree? I don't think we got the hint enough. They are up in a tree making lovey dovey eyes at each other. Please, emphasize this some more. I think you missed a couple angles.

So, the Twilight Phenomenom somewhat skipped over me, (yes, I was quite into the Potter Books, and still maintain that fandom) even though I match the demographic quite well for its fanbase.

But I'll probably watch the next book to see how they work the character of Jacob, who I actually kind of like Bella when she's with him.

Anyway, I'll end on this. this is actually somewhat enjoyable to watch.

Occupying My Time

I may have mentioned that I have been let go from my civilian employer (but I have been meaning to quit so no loss there), my *six month* deployment has been pushed back a couple of months, and I cut my class load back to one class on Adobe InDesign which is about Digital Layout.

I have a lot of free time on my hands.

The thing is, I really enjoy working my creative side, so I thought about this and decided that I would utilize my creative side toward something that could eventually be productive and make me money.

I want to write a book.

And not just any type of book (I've written a gob of unpublishable crap that sits on my hard drive) I want to write a Children's Book.

When I was in first grade or something, I wrote a book about Animals doing fun things. The art in it can be described as cute, as I was quite a little artist at the time. And I've always wanted to go back and rewrite it and get this idea published.

So I was reassessing this little picture book I had planned when I was about seven years old and thinking to myself 'how can I make this idea work for print?' It occurred to me that I wanted to be the artist, but with some creative help, I could probably work on putting this book to verse.

I just hope that the idea is original enough that I'm not infringing on somebody else's creative genius. But the thing is, I had the idea for this book for something like twenty years now.

I think its doable. I just have to figure out the medium I want to work it toward.

An Inconvenient Book

Glenn Beck came out with a book this week that I so happened to buy. And actually read And I can whole heartily recommend as it is an amusing read that makes sense from a guy who just tries to make sense of what's going on in this country. And how to solve the problems the country is facing. Most of them being really basic answers that are politically incorrect, to include Political Correctness.

Of course, most of them the typical progressive minded thinker would probably not like, but the conservative thinker could only agree and thank Glenn for putting it into words that the average American can understand.

Of course, there's the chapter on Global Warming (an obvious jab at Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth) and what we can or can't do about it, and perhaps why some people are over reacting on the part of the end of the world thing, as well as Radical Islam and why perhaps there is a reason why we SHOULD be continuing the War on Terror, the problem with Media Bias, a chapter on parenting, and even one as so mundane as finding a movie to rent with your loved one (and the difference between a Laser Movie and a Bonnet Movie). I pretty much enjoyed it all the way through.

You may or may not agree with what Glenn Beck has to say, but its always good to have an open point of view and see what other people and their take on things are. Which is one of the reasons why I watched an Inconvenient Truth with an open mind.

And then I got Glenn's opposing viewpoint.

I have to say that by and large, I agree with Beck. Maybe that's one of the reasons why I like him so much.

Harry Potter - A Look Back

So I picked up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone back in the summer of '99. I had just graduated High School but I had found that kids books were fun and an easy read, and I kept hearing about this series of books. The hype was just beginning to start.

I actually just picked up the paperback version of one because I didn't expect to really get into it so much that I would want to buy the hardback of two, but I was instantly hooked. Sure, the series has a few weak points, like Sirius Black accessing the school through the Floo Network which makes me wonder why Voldemort doesn't just do it, but overall I was enthralled, read all three of the first books within a week of each other and was pleasantly entertained by the prospect of reading the next four over what I assumed would be a couple of years.

Its kind of odd to think that I didn't like the idea of them making these books into a movie, as I had a pretty set idea of what the characters and school looked like in my head and didn't want it to get ruined like Hollywood has a habit of doing.

Strange, as the series progressed, it gained in popularity to what can be percieved as quite explosive. This series of books is hugely popular to a point that has never been seen by anything that I know about. I mean, has there been anything in pop culture that has spawned something like this that you can think of? I guess in music there was Beatlemania, and movies have Star Wars, but really, I don't think I've seen a book series this popular before.

Well, I have read all seven books, buying Deathly Hallows right at Midnight and cracking that badboy open and reading all night. I took a break at around five am for sleep, and was back up by 830 to read some more. I was done by five that afternoon.

I cried. I laughed. I sniffled. I cried some more. I am engrossed, and I'm pretty sure that Severus Snape is quite possibly one of the best characters in the book because he's got so many layers to him, most of which we never see as the book takes place from Harry's viewpoint. We always see things from Harry's angle.

Whatever the case, without spoiling the book, which is excellent, I do have a biff with the Epilogue, and I've discovered I'm not alone. JK Rowling could have left it off and the book would have been fine. In fact, the Epilogue raises even more questions instead of bringing closure to the series, like it only tells of some characters, and introduces some that I personally don't care about. It was a bit of a disappointment.

Well, nix the epilogue chapter, and the series went out with a bang.

So, now what?

The Problem with History Books

Ok, History used to be one of those subjects in High School that I loathed. I wasn't much of a history buff, I didn't really care much about what happened in the past, mostly because I was very much a dreamer and mostly spent my time in the here and now. Or rather, some daydream that couldn't possibly exist.

Sometimes I'm still very much like that.

Anyway, that changed my Sophomore year of highschool, when I took American History and for some reason, how the teacher taught it, I thoroughly enjoyed it and learned muchly. Mostly because I actually absorbed what I was learning. Funny how not a lot of people liked this teacher because of his method of teaching wasn't very popular, but it clicked with me.

Still, I won't claim to be much of a history buff, because most of what you learn about history is either not entirely accurate or the basis of the historian who wrote the book you're reading's agenda. So sometimes crucial facts to be regarded are conveniantly left out.

Therefore, I haven't always been a huge fan of history and still am not. True, I like to learn about things from the past in small doses, but I've learned you can't entirely trust your source 100% of the time.

Well, anyway, I still have an interest in history and while ordering Lileks' latest book "Mommy Knows Worst" (Hilarious! Buy it!) on Amazon, I wanted to get something so I wouldn't have to pay for shipping with it. So I ordered the Politically Incorrect Guide to American History to get my 25 bucks and hence free shipping.

When I get both books in, my NCOIC (who's a major history buff, and yet a Democrat) asked to borrow the Guide while waiting for me to finish Lileks. He had it for a couple of days but found some misconceptions in it himself, as he said that there was an obvious conservative agenda with the book. I told him that I agreed that there probably was, but that's when you use history books to balance each other out. Such as this one. Besides, I've always taken history books with a grain of salt, especially if you find an error within it.

I still wanted to give the book the benefit of the doubt, as maybe there is some spin on it, it should at least give me some facts or maybe just trivia in general that I can use.

Well, I started reading it, thought it was interesting myself, until I came to the chapter about Clinton. In one of the headings under this chapter it goes into detail about Clinton's escapade while in office. Sure, I don't deny any of this happened, except when I got to page 243 in regards to the dillema of the Balkans, where he points out how Yugoslavia seperated peacefully at first with Slovenia, and then violently with the seperation of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzogovina, and 'the city of Kosovo'.

???

Having lived here for the last ten months, I know first hand that Kosovo is not a city. Its a province, like a state. There is no city or town that I know of within Kosovo that is itself named Kosovo (like New York, New York). Hmm, this strikes me as similar as the City of California, or Texas. Or even the city of Massachussetts.

True, maybe its just a small typo, and not even that big of a deal, but Damn! If you find something like that right away that you can debunk from first hand knowledge, you wonder what else is wrong with the book! Grr, that's frustrating. Maybe I shouldn't look into it. I guess I can still read it to get an idea of history from a different point of view then the usual history book, but still. It's frustrating.

You find one thing you can contradict, and it throws the entire thing out of whack. That's the true problem with History books.

Oh well, so far it has still proven to be interesting. I wouldn't condemn it just yet, but to rather use it as a balancing point with other history books to get the whole story, not just part.

• Read Harry Potter Five

As you can well see, I have my priorities all sorted out.

*continues cursing*

My online presence over the course of the next week will be. . . minimal.

To Do List

• Call Soldier - Well that was easy
  
• Finish Packing room
  
• Figure out what's wrong with YACCS
  
• Cover Three Canvases with paint
  
• Buy Harry Potter Five
  
• Read Harry Potter Five
  
• Put Together AGR Packet
  
• Get HIV Test- interesting story behind this too.
  
• Write Memo for Active Duty - Never Mind
  
• Fine Tune Current Comic
  
• Get next dozen or so Comics done so there is something on when I head to San Antonio
  
• Get back Watercolors From Karen - YAY!!!
  
• Take Egon Schiele Books back
  
• Prep Art for Storage (or find a place to hang it)
  
• get prepared for art show at Far West
  
• Hound the army to get my pay right
  
• Get room Ready to paint
  
• Paint Room
  
• Pack Clothes
  
• to be added too
  

I got a lot of things to do. My presence on the interent will be minimal. However, now i have an easy way to check up on my dozen or so current comics that I read.

PS- Harry Potter comes out tommorrow. In other news, I'm broke.