Just Sayin'

So, I have a series on this blog called "Serious Thoughts," which I use to write about serious problems that I feel strongly about. I haven't written one of these posts in a while, but there's a topic that's been making me angry recently, so you're going to hear about it. Every time I see an outdoor cat, my blood starts to BOIL. Now, I'm not talking about stray cats or feral cats that have no homes to go to. I'm talking about cats that belong to an individual person or family that are allowed to wander around outside freely. It makes me SO ANGRY. Allowing your cat to roam around freely is a pretty irresponsible thing to do. It's bad for the cat, for other animals, and for the planet in general. Now, I know that in many communities around the world, having pets/animals indoors is a foreign concept. I don't expect them to change over night. However, there are a lot of people living in my neck of the woods (Pennsylvania) who ought to know ...

I don't normally write "serious" blogs, but I feel the need to address the current KDR scandal at Penn State. In case you're unfamiliar with the situation, this article does a pretty good job of explaining everything that's happened; basically, the fraternity Kappa Delta Rho is being investigated after they used a private Facebook page to post nude photos of women who had passed out or were sleeping in their frat house. I only have one thing to say about this: Penn State, I am sick of this . Penn State has a huge problem when it comes to sexual assault and rape. Let me give you some quick facts: in 2012, Penn State had the highest number of reported sexual offenses of any campus in the country (according to The Washington Post); since February of this year, there have been 6 forcible sex offenses reported on campus; and sexual assault cases involving alcohol are often not prosecuted in State College. All of this is completely unacceptable. Penn State is a ...

So, the other day I was on Facebook, you know, like your typical college student with three billion pages to read a night, and I found one of those list challenge where you go through a list of things and mark all the things on the list you've done. Anyway, I found one that was called '50 Books to Read Before You Die'. Anyway, I read a lot, so I thought it I would try it, but out of 50, I'd only read 19, and, while most of the books on the list are famous and well known and note-worthy, I don't think my life would be significantly different if I hadn't read Frankenstein. Which, by the way, was like the dullest book I've ever read. I don't really like this whole idea of list of "necessary" books. It's hard to create a list of books that everyone should read before they die because, obviously, not everyone likes the same sort of thing. That's not to say that I don't think dark or boring books can be valuable. For example, Heart of ...

"Now is the winter of our discontent/ made glorious summer by this son of York."  So, lately I've thinking a lot about Richard III. Because, apparently, I have nothing more relevant to my own time period to be concerned about. As some of friends can attest to, I am legitimately upset about the malignant of Richard III. Ever since they found his skeleton, which you can read about here if you weren't aware of that, I've been reconsidering my view of the War of the Roses. You see, I am the sort of person who takes Shakespeare quite literally. As an English major, I am not supposed to question Shakespeare; I mean, that's literary sacrilege! In fact, about a year ago, I wrote a blog about how Richard III is my favorite literary villain. While that is still true, the key word there is literary , not real life. What really struck me about 'the king in the parking lot', as they've been calling him, is that the skeleton of Richard III had no physical d...

So, a few weeks ago, I read  this  blog post by Jenna Marbles, and, I have to say, it made me pretty angry. This is yet another example of how 'traditional' media just fails to understand how Youtube culture, and the internet in general, works. Come on Good Morning America, Jenna Marbles is "the most famous person you've never heard of"? I've got news for you, if I asked fifty Penn State students randomly if they knew who Jenna Marbles was, I'm sure more of them would say yes than if I asked them if they knew who Cecilia Vega was. I mean where do they get off saying that no one's ever heard of her? Clearly the fact that her videos get millions of views means absolutely nothing. Actually, I know quite a few people who don't even watch TV. If there's a particular show you want to see, you can usually watch it online and, anyway, Jenna Marbles' videos are way better than like 90% of the things on TV. Which is why when I read this  this  ar...

Recently, I read TIME's new article about the millennial generation and I have to say I was really offended. My first instinct was to write an angry rant about this article, but I realize that that doesn't really solve anything. Stein does make some valid points and, towards the end of the article, he does give millennials the credit they deserve, but, what I think he and a lot of other people fail to realize is that the millennial generation is a product of their time. 'Millenials' aren't 'millenials' because they are fundamentally different from other people, they are 'millenials' because of the greater forces that impact their lives. I mean, maybe if Thomas Edison had been born in the 80s he would have invented Facebook instead of Mark Zuckerburg. It's the nature versus nurture debate all over again and, in this case, I've got to say, it's nurture that makes the 'millenial' generation so 'millenial'. Don't get...

So, about a week ago, I saw the new Iron Man movie, Iron Man 3 , and, even though I have a long standing allegiance to Spider-Man, I have to say, it made Iron Man one of my favorite superheroes. And you all know how I feel about Spider-Man. I think that Iron Man is such a likeable character because he's not perfect. He doesn't even actually have super powers; he's human. Like, if you see Iron Man in the supermarket, you can be all "hey Tony - double stuffed Oreos? Good choice - so much better than regular stuffed", but, if you saw Superman in the supermarket, it would be really weird and awkward and he would be all like "excuse me, do you know if this cereal contains kryptonite?" and I would be like O_o. But, that sort of thing doesn't happen with Iron Man because Iron Man understands people. I mean, he's not really a people person, but he is a person who understands people. The problem with Superman is that he's so super, he doesn't ...

So, I recently saw Spider-Man 2 (from the original series) on television and, I've got to say, compared to the Amazing Spider-Man , it was kind of disappointing. And I'm not saying that just because Tobey Maguire is short and says things like 'gee' (although, don't get me wrong, that is a problem). Actually, I was really bothered by Mary Jane's portrayal in the movie, and, actually, in all of the other original Spider-Man movies. Just waiting to be saved It's not just that her hair is obviously dyed and she has horrible taste in blouses, she's just such a flat character. I mean, really, a howler monkey could play her part. All she does is stand around and scream and wait to be rescued. Not to mention that, in Spider-Man 2 , she gets engaged essentially just to spite Peter Parker and ends up leaving her fiancee at the altar. Obviously, she's not a terribly encouraging character from a feminist perspective. Take the third movie, it's been a w...

Before you say anything, I know I blog about Harry Potter a lot, you're all just going to have to get over it. So, as I do with a lot of things, I came a little late to the Harry Potter fandom. I'm not saying I just started reading the book yesterday or anything (actually, I've been reading them since I was like five) but, because I was quite young when all the books were coming out and the fandom was really taking shape, I'm really only truly experiencing it now. I mean, it's not like I didn't play potions as a kid or have the fake HP glasses or the Harry Potter Levitating Challenge game ('Focus' 'Keep Steady!' 'Concentrate!!!!!', but seriously, that was a tough game). Anyway, the sort of things I'm thinking about now are like fan art, Wizard rock, and fan fiction. Anyway, what brought this blog on was that I read this article ( http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/were-not-a-lost-generation-just-an-exposed-one/ ) and started to ...

So, I know I said that I wasn't going to write any more Game of Thrones blogs for a while, but this is a serious thoughts blog, so it's different. Anyway, I'm taking a comparative literature class right now and we've been talking about the knightly ideals of Nordic cultures in literature and their change over time, which I think is quite interesting. But, anyway, it's got me thinking about the representation of knighthood in A Song of Ice and Fire , which seems to share the sort of knightly ideal exhibited in early, Christian Europe, but it doesn't really seem to live up to that ideal (not to say that Europeans actually lived up to that ideal, although Britain did choose to make Paul McCartney a knight, so they're improving). Obviously, as, within the first five chapters of the first book, Jaime Lannister has already pushed a small boy out of a window because he saw him committing incest with his sister.  Hm. Well, as I said, this really doesn...

I am conflicted.  So, today is the anniversary of Joe Paterno's death and I have some stuff to say about him. Well, not him per say, but the way he is remembered. I'm not going to lie; it's sort of disturbing to see what is basically the modern day version of the "hero cult" develop around him. As a native of State College, I feel I am qualified to speak on this. Sure, he was a positive figure in the community and did a lot for Penn State, but I think what we need to remember is that Joe Paterno was fundamentally a human being and therefore, inherently flawed. Let's be clear here, I know that he did a lot for this university and for this community and I thank him for it, but there are other people in Penn State's history who have done equally as much for this university and receive not one tenth of the credit that he receives. Going hand in hand with that, I don't think there has been proper recognition of his humanity. There was a darker side to P...

So, last night my roommate and I were watching Mulan (finals, cough, cough, finals) and, I don't know if I've been indoctrinated with too much feminist film theory in English 200, but I have some thoughts about it that I never had before. For, example in the song "I'll Make a Man Out of You"; it's pretty ironic that Mulan, who is a women, is in fact the manliest person in the whole army. Which, may or may not be impressive because the other guys in Mulan's army are kind of wimpy (except for Shang who is the most chiseled cartoon character you will even meet), I mean, Chien-Po can't even swim! I would just like to point out that I've been swimming since I was five. But seriously, why is it necessary for Mulan to be so manly? She isn't a man. Why is it so desirable for women to act like men in this movie, I ask you? Like a Man! This is ironic because the whole film is supposedly about the importance of being yourself and, to 'be her...

So, today, in English, we were discussing books that have impacted our lives and someone brought up Harry Potter. Now, for me, most of my English class, and most Americans born in the 1990s, Harry Potter has had a tremendous impact. Mostly, because, well, it's Harry Frickin' Potter. I mean, It's basically the largest cultural phenomenon in the past fifteen-ish years. That's why it bothers me when people are like, "oh, Harry Potter, that's just for kids, it could never happen, it's so dumb". Well. First of all, if everything that "could never happen" is invalidate then I guess we can disregard most abstract philosophy, the Communist Manifesto, and every alien film that's ever been made, which makes me really, because, you know, Independence Day, Men in Black, and Will Frickin' Smith. Secondly, you don't have to be a kid to appreciate Harry Potter. In English class, we often discuss significant details and allusions in books and...

So, yeah, I feel the need to designate this as a serious blog because there is no joking about the state of music in the world. Take this weekend for instance, I was doing all well and good, buyin' stuff at Kohl's until they started playing some Bieber and I realized that I might be outgrowing the juniors section because there was a 1D t-shirt on display. I don't mean to step on any toes...but I'm gonna do it anyway. Popular music these days is incredibly formulaic. I mean, if I want a dirge about teenage emotion, I could always read Twilight (maybe I should do a serious blog about books?). Now, of course, there are exceptions to every rule, but come on, how many times can Taylor Swift have possibly have been dumped? Why does Ke$ha wake up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy? These are the questions that don't need to be answered! So, without further ado, I present to you my list of the top 100 pieces of music of all time (in my opinion). I promise I'll be ...