Nabooru is your mom

Hey, family!

2008-04-01T21:03:00.001-07:00

I know you guys read this thing. When are we all going to get together? I miss you guys. Soon, I hope? Before the reunion. Whenever that is.
ps. Sorry about the t-shirt. I'm lame. But I'm working on it, I swear. (feel free to pitch in better ideas anytime.)

I am young and still learning things, but I still complain about kids today who are so ungrateful with their rock music get off my lawn.

2008-03-27T05:49:00.000-07:00

ALSO FEATURED TODAY: BLATANT, CONTRADICTORY HYPOCRISY on part of teenage writer served with a dire lack of perspective and proper paragraph structure! ENJOY.

Hey everybody. Sorry I haven't updated since November; I've had a million projects going on.

To freshen things up, I thought I would share a depressing(?) revelation I had recently, probably cross-posted to my other blog. You probably don't know where that is anyways so nevermind. Ha ha.

I was thinking recently about perspective, and how I always lecture people around me on whining about their miniscule everyday troubles because starving Darfuris would totally beat the crap out of these kids for being so ungrateful if they could lift their skinny little limbs and do it. Okay sorry, but you know what I mean. I know I'm a huge hypocrite here, too, but sometimes when I step back, it just makes me downright mad that anyone (including me) would ever DREAM of lamenting things like "I lost my favourite pair of shoes" (because you have multiple pairs), "My boyfriend rejected me" (because you are not self-confident and mature enough to take it like a wo/man), "I have to work over vacation", "My boss is an a**hole", "My teacher made me stay after school", et cetera et cetera.
Aside from wanting to slap everybody who says things like this and makes it out to be the ultimate suffering (which, as an unnecessary judgment and getting-upset-over-what-other-people-could-be-doing-better, naturally stems from my own personal deep-rooted arrogance and insecurity, but that's another story), I just want to make everybody understand. Yes, you got extra homework! It's extra work, but it's also extra learning. You get homework because you have free education. FREE EDUCATION. Isn't that AWESOME? Do you know how many people in the world can't read? (I don't, but it's a lot.) You should be so enthused, you do all your homework with gusto. It is not a legitimate worry.
I could go on for hours. Yada yada. It would be nice (I'm sure you're all thinking) if I could remind myself of this more often, too, for sure. I'm not very good at that but getting better.

Now the thing with the starving Africans lecture is that it sounds like I'm saying none of you have a right to complain or be sad, ever. And this might even be true, but nobody is that perfect. At any rate, you might be making the case, "Well, of course there's always SOMEONE who has it worse off than you. Doesn't mean my situation isn't bad! I have the right to vent as much as I like."
That is the thing: being sad and venting are perfectly acceptable and sometimes necessary. It is the incessant bemoaning that drives me up the wall. The whining and crying over how hard your upper-middle-class-suburban-American-Dream life is. The why-does-this-sh*t-always-happen-to-me that I hear almost every day. You're not even TRYING to feel better. You just want something to rant about.
Don't do it. You have so much to be happy about. Look at that instead. Turn that frown upside down. Count your blessings.

Listen to me, I sound like I've got it all figured out. I'm quite the philosopher, really. But I hope I was successful in saying something in there that made me look deep or insightful rather than like an idiot. Or that maybe I inspired someone to look at the positive aspects of life more often. Or maybe it was just a big confusing mass of ramble that made no sense at all.
My money's on the latter.

Anyways, this is the actual revalation I had (I will try to make sense and be quick about it):
No matter what kind of reasons or system or rationalizations you come up with, reality is cruel and harsh and never ever fair. I can pretend to care about underprivileged peoples and world issues more than you, but if you honestly felt ALL the sorrows and tragedies that happen every day in the world to innocent, undeserving people, you would explode from sadness and grief.* The most you can hope to care is "more than everybody else", and not too much so that it interferes with your own happiness and daily life. A little bit, enough to feel good about yourself, that you are a responsible and caring individual.
BUT you might take this to mean someting like

"Reality is despair. The world is rotten, all the way through. There is no good in it. Nobody really cares, so we should all just stop pretending and admit life is cruel and sucks."

That's not what I'm saying in the least! No no no.
Self-delusion is necessary for survival. You have to invent SOMETHING in your mind to prevent you from having to care about all the world's problems. It's one of those things that isn't good or bad, per se. It just is. And you pick and choose which delusions you like. Personally, I like the one about "I'm bettering the world through my artwork someday, I am pretty much OK." I also like the one about ying/yang harmony and everything being in balance. It's neat.

It is okay to only care a little, because it is better than not caring at all.

I hope somebody understood most of that. I wrote most of it while I was sleep deprived. I am done for tonight. Just remember: it helps sometimes to remember how horrible life is for so many people, because it reminds you how great your own life probably is. (I missed a bunch of points, but I'll get them later.) That is all for this morning.

* Likewise, if you only realized how truly blessed you are by contrast, you'd wake up crying with joy every day. It's a shame hardly anybody does, eh?

2007-11-22T04:30:00.000-08:00

I took this quiz that's being spammed all over the internet to see how I would do.

HeavenEntryTest.com - Will You Make it to Heaven?
Your chances of getting into Heaven are: 57%

You lead a very balanced spiritual life.
People probably characterize you with
being a kind, sensitive giving person.
But it does not hurt to try to better yourself
in order to increase your chances of entrance to Heaven.

Because of course, the only reason we would ever want to better ourselves is to score heaven points.
Seriously, what?
(Some of the questions on the quiz are related to Bible knowledge. Does this mean people in third world countries who never learned how to read are less likely to get in? What if you look up the answers? Is that cheating?)

2007-11-17T06:15:00.000-08:00

The following image inspired some thoughts from me.

I think it's from Livejournal, I saw it in somebody's forum signature. Anyways.
"Every time you compliment her, I hate myself just a little bit more."
It looks to be coming from the point of view of someone who is not very attractive by society's ridiculous, Barbie-doll standards, who is probably distressed because the boy of their dreams (?) admires some thinner girl instead. It is a very emotional picture and it is also very nice and artfully composed, I think.
While it's true we all strive for an image of perfection nobody can achieve and which causes many girls to develop eating disorders etc blah blah, this is also what I think. If you're sad because your boyfriend would rather be with a girl who is physically fit and attractive, why not get off the couch and get fit? Get some exercise, maybe? Stop moping around about how nobody loves you? And if you do get to a weight where you're healthy and you're happy with yourself, and he still wants somebody thinner, then hey, it's his loss. But there's no reason why you should make it look like everyone else's fault if you're too insecure with your own body to handle skinny girls getting compliments.
If you hate the way you are, do something about it. Don't sit around whining. Self-love is the ultimate goal, no matter what.
People are way too concerned with what everybody else thinks, I swear.

Oh, and to tie this up, here is a picture I found on the internets, part of the 'demotivators' meme from 4chan:

2007-10-30T01:32:00.000-07:00

This animation (I can't link or embed it, so you'll have to go to the site and play it) was on one of the bumps on Adult Swim a while ago. I thought it was very nice and lovely.
Can anyone tell me where the music is from? I love it but I haven't got a clue. Any help at all would be appreciated.

2007-10-08T02:14:00.000-07:00

"...Remember Lot's wife.
She was not a homosexual, but she was a sodomite... where the custom of the place was to accept homosexuality as merely an innocent, alternate lifestyle, rather than the soul-damning, life-destroying, nation-dooming sin God Almighty declares it to be. Lot's wife simply could not accept the idea that God would actually destroy an entire nation for simply being tolerant of an innocent, alternate lifestyle. That's her thinking. Her relatives, friends and neighbors were practicing fags and dykes. She knew them well. She liked them. She looked back in anxious sympathy for them. And God struck her dead, and made her corpse a pillar of salt. Remember Lot's wife."
- Pastor Fred W. Phelps, Westboro Baptist Church

also

2007-10-07T12:39:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed this commercial as well.

Thanks everyone for wishing me a happy birthday like forever ago.

Again, I am not dead!

2007-09-21T14:46:00.000-07:00

In addition to the stomach ulcer that has been plaguing me for six months now, I have come down with a sudden and unexpected illness. I've got the works: nausea, fever, coughing, sneezing, congestion, runny nose, sore throat, lightheadedness, fatigue, and general feeling like crap. I think I caught whatever was going around. I except I'll get better soon, though.
The sickness has brought with it some strange sense of nostalgia. For some reason I felt exactly like I did two years ago, which was probably the last time I got whatever it is I have. Yesterday I was in a total wintery mood; all psyched for Halloween, and then Thanksgiving and Xmas, snowfall, scarves and coats, hot chocolate, apple cinnamon candles, sleigh rides and presents by the fireside. Today the weather changed dramatically... it must have been about 70 degrees, and all of a sudden I felt all summery. Like it was the first day in June and school just got out and all I wanted to do was frolick through the flowers, go swimming, and relax in the shade of the trees through the long summer evenings. Weird, huh? I might be going crazy.

Ponder this: some kids have never experienced any of the nice things I listed above. They live in dirt huts, eat bugs, drink muddy water they have to dig out of the dirt themselves, fend off wild desert wolves and AIDS, take care of their dying family, and will eventually starve to death. While we complain about the high prices of gas and the chilly weather and not getting that promotion, they thank [insert religious deity here] that they have enough food and water to live one more miserable day. There are more of these people than you think.
If you want, though, I'll pretend this doesn't happen so we can make your problems seem more tragic.

Anyways. I've been watching television lately (not so much anymore, though, because there's not really any good new shows on) and have noticed that commercials, yes that's right commercials, have become more clever and imaginitive lately. I will feature a few.

The following are all vodka commercials. Please drink responsibly.

There are more that I can't find, and more I can't remember. I'll post them later.

ANYWAYS, that's all for now. Sort of an abrupt end to this post but I'm bored and want to go play World of WarCraft now. So later, chumps.

Now in the news: Tintin is racist.

2007-07-28T14:39:00.000-07:00

Publishers Cancel 'Racist' Comic Book

I never read this one of the Tintin series. Apparently, it was just too racist to be translated into English. I suppose this can all be chalked up to the fact it was written decades ago, in a more racist era...

A note about my blogging

2007-06-11T16:57:00.000-07:00

In the couple of years since I've started this blog, I don't think I've left more than fifty coments on other peoples'. This was inconsiderate of me, especially since I've been expecting comments from everybody else. I will make an effort to rectify this in the future. Although, seriously, folks, try to make it easy for me and don't write paragraphs of dull, tedious nonsense. There is a limit to what I'll spend my time on.

That last part was just kidding.

In other news, I've noticed that every piece of writing is more interesting when there are pictures. Since there wasn't a picture in my last post or the one before, I will add two pictures to compensate. And here they are:

Enjoy.

another complaint

2007-06-11T16:54:00.000-07:00

You know what really irks me?
That they don't make geeky videogame shirts for girls.
I have several awesome shirts but they are all in guys' sizes. Not very flattering of my womanly curves. Also slightly uncomfortable.
I realize it is all supply and demand, but even Star Wars offers no ladies' shirts. You would think that of its millions of devoted fans, five or six of them would be females.
Oh well. If I work out and get a super-hot body someday, I won't have to worry about what to wear; everything will look good on me. But on the other hand, I really really like chocolate cake. More on this later.

Teen drama

2007-06-09T20:32:00.000-07:00

So here's the story. I have a friend I'll call Rachel. She goes to my school and we hang out plenty.
For a year and a half Rachel was going out with a boy I'll call Tom, also one of my pals.
About two months ago Tom left Rachel for another girl. Rachel was very upset for a long time.
Since then, she's apparently dated / fooled around with several other guys, one of them being a 20-year-old man. She confided in me it was because she was still in love with Tom and was trying to fill the void in her life. (She also started smoking again, but apparently she's quit now.) Now I'm no relationship expert but I'm pretty sure it is awfully unhealthy to have a lot of quickie relationships to try and get over a lost lover because they will usually make you feel worse. Am I right here?
For the past month she also would constantly pick on Tom, call him several times a day, until he finally snapped and yelled at her (whereupon she could blame her bad behaviour on his actions). The squabbling at the lunch table became almost too much to bear and Tom was about to break off from the group and sit at a different table, but I convinced him not to and did my best to keep them away from each other's throats.
Anyways, Rachel called me recently and told me she has a new boyfriend now, and she's totally happy. She doesn't even think about Tom anymore. I quote, "he's just another random person to me." She's supposedly known this new boy all her life, and just yesterday made out with him for an hour and now they're together.
As further proof that she is over Tom, she insisted the relationship was not that meaningful in the first place. All they did is make out, she says. She's sick of everyone telling her how she feels about Tom. She feels no emotion towards him whatsoever and she never did.

This is a picture perfect example of denial. Poor Rachel is obviously still getting over Tom and is setting herself up for misery.
My question is, what do I do? Friends aren't supposed to judge (I feel kinda bad taking this snarky, arrogant viewpoint), and I know I can't run other people's lives, but I really don't want to see her get hurt. If I lecture her, even if I'm totally right, she'll shut me out and never listen to me again. If I do nothing she might get worse and worse and perhaps even start using drugs again.
Do I talk to her? Do I make it clear I'm there for her but say nothing about the situation so she won't have to admit she was wrong? Do I shut up and stay out of it? I'm not sure she'll ask for my help if things get bad.

From all you former teenagers who read this blog, advice would be appreciated. thanks.

Find All The Bands Represented in This Image.

2007-05-27T11:12:00.000-07:00

I will do a couple for you:

Queen, Prince, Sex Pistols, Guns 'n' Roses.

2007-05-14T22:53:00.000-07:00

Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson to team up for Tintin movie

The Adventures of Tintin, in movie form! How exciting.
I enjoyed the books as a child, except for the part that they were kind of racist, but that's okay because everybody was racist in the 30s or whenever it was written. Whatever. Forget I said that.

So that's pretty much all I have to say about that. Saleswoman out.

this just in

2007-05-11T11:51:00.000-07:00

Maxwell House Coffee is without doubt THE BEST COFFEE EVER, or at the very least the best I've ever tasted.
If you haven't tried it, BUY SOME TODAY.
No joke.

Saleswoman out.

The city that never... stops raining?

2007-05-09T20:13:00.000-07:00

Pictured above: Seattle Center. It's pretty neat.

The other day I took the metro bus to Seattle (about 45 mins away from my hometown), walked around, browsed bookstores, and had some coffee. It was enjoyable and I handled the bus schedules and stuff expertly. I have decided that I like the city life, and I will definitely live there or maybe in San Francisco for several years or more, until I get married, or become fabulously wealthy, or get tired of it, or all of the above.
Funny thing is though, everybody thought I was 18. The bus driver charged me full fare, a survey taker asked me if I was registered to vote in King County, and some dude at the shopping center tried to get me to switch to T-Mobile. I also got hit on, which was creepy. I don't think I look that old, but apparently I do.
Things I like about the city as opposed to small towns or country livin':
- art
- ethnic diversity
- coffee shops
- the bus (convenient and cheap, although smelly)
- jazz music
- general openmindedness
- old fashioned buildings
Obviously the lifestyle isn't for everybody but I enjoy it.

Coffee shops are the best places in the world. When I am fabulously wealthy I will visit hundreds of them.

Another good thing about Seattle is Seattle Center, which has parks and fountains and plenty of fun things to do. The Northwest Folklife Festival is one such fun thing and it's just around the bend. I've been there twice before and it was quite enjoyable; lots of vendors, hippies, and music. And with my newfound bus riding skills, I don't have to make anybody drive me! Oh the indepenence, it's wonderful.

If you come visit Seattle, check out Pike Place Market. But if you visit in the Spring, make sure it's the late Spring, because the first two-thirds of the season are rainy and cold and icky. In fact, come visit in the summer. In fact, I'm moving to San Francisco for sure.

Ah, that's all for today. Saleswoman out.

stuff.

2007-04-27T15:43:00.000-07:00

The terrible nausea-inducing virus left to be replaced by the blues. The blues left to be replaced by terrible weather (I don't have a car, so I have to walk everywhere) and cranky family members. That too passed to be replaced by bad asthma (long periods of time not being able to take full breaths, which is scary), and then in turn another sickness... this time I've got the works: coughing, sneezing, fever, congestion, runny nose, fatigue, headaches, and general just feeling-like-crap. Plus my nose is raw because all we have is these cheap tissues that are about as smooth as sandpaper. Ow.
LIFE LESSON: Do not use Burt's Bees chapstick on your nose. Regular chapstick will do fine, but don't use that stuff on a chapped nose or you'll regret it. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Anyways, I'll get better soon I believe, but for now I don't feel like doing much of anything.
Bleh.

Saleswoman out.

A brand new day

2007-04-18T13:56:00.000-07:00

Today as I left for my walk to school, the rain had stopped, the sun was shining, the sky was blue and the clouds and scenery were beautiful and inspiring. The weather was warm, the walk was good exercise and the birds were chirping happily in the trees.
Oddly enough, I did not feel any better. There was still an air of depression about. I'm just not my usual cheery self lately and it's disconcerting. Nothing seems to make me happy. It's not the full-blown manic depressive emo cry-fest, just sort of... melancholy. "Meh" is a good word to describe it.
I'm getting all my responsibilities taken care of, I hope that helps. If not, well, maybe give it time. And if I'm depressed for the rest of my life, well, at least I had potential artistic talent I could have shared with the world and brightened their days with. But alas, such is life: unfair and cruel.

Saleswoman out.

I'm not dead, turns out

2007-04-15T20:07:00.000-07:00

At least you all didn't fall all over yourselves trying to find out where I was and if I was okay.
I bet a good lot of you didn't even notice I was gone! Did you, you scallywags. No, I think not. Hmph.

Well, I'll tell you what's going on. I'm sick. With terrible nausea. No actual vomiting for some reason. I might have a virus.
Medicine has helped a bit. I might be better in time for school. But perhaps not.

I'm having one of those lazy days. You know, where you just sit around and don't get anything done and nothing seems like fun and you're just totally depressed and feeling sort of "bleh"?
I realize of course that most kids who don't live in America would just love to sit around and do nothing all day and they would be totally grateful for what they have. But still. I am down in the dumps.
What cheers you up when you're having such a day? Please, do tell.

2007-03-17T14:01:00.000-07:00

YouTube: a huge, wonderful community with millions of videos of anything you can possibly think of.
Some aspiring musicians post videos of their performances and original compositions. Many of these are quite good. These are just a few that I've discovered so far and have enjoyed thoroughly. You don't actually have to watch the videos, just listen as you surf the net or comment on other blogs or whatever. They're really quite nice.

about smoking.

2007-03-09T23:29:00.000-08:00

In my last post I mentioned smokers and etiquette. I'd like to elaborate on that theme.

First of all, smoking is bad for you. It gives you cancer, makes your clothes stink and rots your teeth. Plus it's addictive and expensive and hard to quit. The bad-ness of smoke and sometimes secondhand smoke is not questioned in this post.
Now if you've gotta have a smoke, have a smoke. But you should go outside to do it, unless you're in a bar or restaurant or house where it's allowed and okay. Most smokers understand this, which is good.
HOWEVER. It is not okay for you (non-smoker) to walk by someone who is politely smoking outside and cough at them, cover your mouth, etc. This is extremely rude and it means you're criticizing somebody else's decisions, telling them how they shouldn't be living their lives, and informing them that what they're doing is killing them, in case they didn't already know. It never fails to amaze me how people think this kind of behavior is acceptable. An old friend of mine once said, "You jerks, do you dance in front of crippled guys too?" It's bad for your karma and don't do it.
Now, if the secondhand smoke actually does get in your lungs and make you cough, then by all means, hack away. But don't you go pretending that it does when it doesn't.
In most cases, you are perfectly capable of moving to a different spot and breathing over there instead (unless you're at a bus stop or something, in which case the smoker should move out of the way and smoke somewhere else). You don't have more of a right to the oxygen than the person next to you, so suck it up and move to a different area. Honestly, I'm disgusted with the selfishness of you people. Yeesh.

So anyways, that's my view. It's not completely educated because I'm young and naive, but still, if anyone wants to raise a counter-point go ahead. I really want to get better at this debate thing.

My first editorial cartoon

2007-03-09T12:56:00.000-08:00

It's not very skilled, but I think it adequately expresses my thoughts on public breastfeeding. And they are as follows:

SHUT UP. LOOK AWAY. IT'S NOT THAT HARD.
IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, NOBODY IS PUSHING YOUR FACE INTO HER BOSOM AND DEMANDING YOU LOOK. JUST MOVE AWAY. GO SOMEWHERE ELSE.
You're like the people who cough loudly at smokers. IT'S NOT A BOTHER TO YOU and don't you try to tell me it is. Shut your stupid spoiled little pieholes and face the other direction. Problem solved.
I don't care if you think womanhood is a disgusting thing. It isn't, in my opinion, but everybody has their own deal. However, most of the time, said mother is not hanging her knockers out and flashing everyone in the vicinity like it was Mardi Gras. So if suckling young makes you queasy, simply look away. The world was not made to make you comfortable.

So that's basically how I feel.

More about my brother

2007-03-07T10:41:00.000-08:00

Today, my brother is sick.
He was sick yesterday too, and the day before. Conveniently and, I'm sure, unrelated, he hates going to school, and he just got a brand new Xbox 360.
My dad hated going to school too, but that was because he was a hardworking kid who was unmercifully beat upon by bullies because he was nerdy, or something. Perhaps that's why he's so lenient. My brother, however, is a skater punk full of anger and rude, who considers a sneer to qualify as "provoking" him and excuding him from being responsible for fighting. He abuses everybody's trust by forgetting that everyone believes in him, and refuses to take any responsibility for anything. He can't get over his attitude. I would suggest just letting him hang, let him do what he likes without bailing him out, but I know he'd end up on drugs and/or in jail before the end of the year, and then there would be no coming back.

Side note: I just noticed that he doesn't wash his hands, ever. Even after he uses the restroom. It's disgusting to think that his hands, which have been in his pants, his nose, who knows where else, have been on places like the counter, the fridge, the sink, all the surfaces in the house. I don't think I could even get him to stop by explaining this as if it was a problem of mine, like I freak out unreasonably if people don't wash their hands before touching things. But I don't think that is quite enough for him to put forth the effort.

Ghost Rider

2007-02-17T23:39:00.000-08:00

This is coolness personified, I should think.

Just went to see Ghost Rider, the actiony action movie based on the Marvel comic series, starring Nicholas Cage and Eva Mandes. It was chok-full of flames and skulls and motorcycles and demons. Ordinarily, I would find this kind of thing unpleasant, uninteresting and not a very good use of time and money, but I actually enjoyed it. I found it to be tasteful and well-done. Perhaps I'd think less of it if I'd read the comics beforehand; I don't know how accurate it was to the original storyline. But I learned today that prejudices are a silly thing to have, and they get you nowhere and can even prevent you from enjoying some things. You already know this, but do you live it?

Anyways, I wholly reccommend it. If you've got $15 and nowhere to spend it, drop by your local theatre.

Saleswoman out.

thoughts

2007-02-11T02:12:00.000-08:00

The rest of New York was fun. See my dad's blog for photos and blahblahblah.

The internet keeps telling me my IQ is 129. Isn't that sort of smart? I dunno, maybe. The internet isn't your most accurate source, I realize. But it's comforting.
My mother also says that research will make me smarter. I think a good late new years' resolution would be to replace my 3 hours of TV with 3 hours of reading. TV is more interesting, but it's like candy. Too much, and your mind gets fat and weak and can't do much. Acceptable and common if you live in the land of abundance, but I'd like more out of life. Besides, I don't want to go spouting off opinions with no research behind them... do you? I'd sure hope not.

I've been wondering. How do they tell the story of the American Revolution over in England or wherever we came from? I'm sure it's not exactly portrayed as the heroic break away from the oppressive rule of King George (II? III?) to the land of prosperity and equal-ness, whereupon we severed our ties with their awful government and freed ourselves from their terrible taxes. And what about the Native Americans? We kind of stole their land, didn't we? Yeah. Assholes.
I think I might move to Canada. They have lovely scenery, and they haven't been in any wars, let alone any stupid and ill-conceived ones. But I might have a problem with the French. I can't speak it, and I kind of like Spanish as a secondary language.
That's another thing, America. Why are you so racist? Obviously illegal Mexican immigrants' strain on the economy isn't the problem. You just don't want Mexicans speaking Spanish on your land, in your stores and neighborhoods. You want it to be clean, pure, 100% White Christian America. Well, screw that. I say, let things be. And by golly, I'm going to treat every illegal Mexican I see with dignity and respect. So there. Take that, racist bastards.

Enough with the swearing. I'm done. See you folks later.