*Title*

Lately and especially tonight on Facebook and other social media sites, I’ve been seeing a lot of talk about the government shutdown. Everyone is making a giant deal about it without having much knowledge on the situation at all and it’s beginning to get on my nerves. I happen to be friends with some anarchists and to them apparently the term “government shutdown “ means no more government whatsoever and they’ve been making a huge hubbub about it. First of all, this doesn’t mean that there is no government; it just means that congress did not pass a bill that would allow the government more money, basically stopping funding for many government programs. Things such as National Parks, federal employee payrolls, and food stamp systems for mothers and the lower class will not have money going into them until the government acquires more money. I’ve been seeing way too many “let’s ring in the anarchy!” posts and honestly it’s so hard not to comment on them without being rude or demeaning, so I’ve avoided it all together. Not only is anarchy a flawed system, but many of its believers are uneducated on what it really means. Anarchy would only work if human beings were 100% perfect and honest, or if they were fine living in a state of chaos without a police force when it was needed. Everyone needs to stop getting there hopes up and realize that the shutdown is not going to ring in any kind of freedom or anarchy, but instead will be a huge inconvenience, not the start of a revolution.

Ranty Rant Rant

In almost 2 years of working retail, I keep thinking that I’ve seen it all, but every day I am challenged yet again with new customers that make me question whether or not there are decent human beings left on this earth. Being that I am in a customer service role, dealing directly with incorrect orders and deliveries, I am almost always have a giant target on my back. I’ve been called every heinous name you can imagine, called stupid, lazy, incompetent, and even physically threatened all because the store doesn’t have something in stock or the delivery man was 3 minutes late. Seeing what appear to be regular people snap on doe eyed minimum wage workers has not only toughened me up, but also made me lose a lot of faith in people and the way they treat each other. I may not always be the nicest person, and I’ll be the first to admit it, but I know how to treat people with at least a shred of respect. I don’t go into the workplace of others and throw fits because I am 98 days out of the return policy, or threaten the salesman because he sold the last iPhone 30 minutes before I came in. Where did this sense of entitlement come from? When did it become okay to harass employees for something they did not do? People have no consideration for others trying to do their jobs, yet demand respect from the same people they are treating so horribly. One important thing I’ve learned is that I am not obligated to respect a customer if they are not respecting me, and that has carried on into my personal life as well.

I Hate Hamlet

Maybe it’s because I don’t fully understand it, or maybe it’s because I just flat out don’t like it, but I am really hating Hamlet at the moment. Over the weekend I’ve really tried to read it and like it, but I always just end up throwing it across the room or giving up and sleeping. I understand what’s going on, it just bores me to death and I keep hoping that it will get better but so far it has not. Perhaps I’m just not a Shakespeare person, I never really enjoyed Romeo & Juliet, and Macbeth was only slightly cool because of the macabre nature, but so far I haven’t been very entranced with any works of Shakespeare. I really hope that at some point, though, I learn to like at least something Shakespeare related so I’m not completely exiled from the English world.

That’s another thing, too, I’ve watched many friends of mine hide their dislike for canon English works in some pretentious attempt to seem more intelligent to other people or construct some sort of persona. I would rather openly dislike something in the canon than have to fake my way through liking it just to impress people who probably don’t really care. Pretending to like Shakespeare won’t make you any more intelligent or well read than pretending to like Bukowski makes you deep. It’s okay to not like things and if people make you inferior about it then that makes them the uneducated asshole, not you.

What The Heck is a Sonnet

Recently as we’ve been reading and analyzing sonnets, I’ve begun to realize how complicated they are to write and the amount of thought it would take to even think of something so sophisticated and calculated. When I write, I basically just vomit my thoughts onto a page in hopes that it will make coherent sentences and convey my emotions somewhat intelligently. It’s excruciating for me to think about having to organize those thoughts by syllables or number of words, much less combine that into something that sounds intelligent and not like a 9 year old with dyslexia. As you’re reading a sonnet, you’re just like “oh cool this is a neat little poem”, but it’s more like a work of art. If I tried to write anything with that amount of precision, I’d probably end up crying from frustration and violently writing something way off topic because the idea of trying to organize my thoughts in anyway is enough to almost bring me to tears. I can only imagine how Shakespeare and the authors of other sonnets dealt with the stress of counting syllables and words and calculating how to make that all work with what they were trying to say, or if it just came easy to them because they were literary geniuses. Either way, it worked out well for them, or at least the authors I’ve read. While understanding sonnets will become easier as I progress through the school year, I still will never fully comprehend how such beautiful words and such sophisticated structure can go hand in hand, especially because it is beyond my own abilities.

Rambling? Ranting? Sorry.

For those of you who do not know, I have a very strained relationship with my father. My father is a radical Neo-Nazi and a proud skinhead. I used to be ashamed of my roots, but I’ve come to accept the fact that hiding the truth will not change who my father is and was. I, of course, no longer speak to him; have not in about 7-8 years.

Now to the point I am trying to make.

 Recently I was going through his Facebook, and came across a few very disrespectful and racist posts, all directly relating to my 12 year old brother (who he has legal custody of). One of which was relating to my brother’s school and how he had been in written up for wearing a baseball cap on the premises, to which my father responded with some very negative comments about how the school allows students of certain religious persuasions to wear articles on their heads. There were worse things written on his Facebook, but I’m not going into them because it will further piss me off.

People are always asking me is I miss my dad and the answer is no. I never have and never want to be associated will someone so vile and ignorant. And further more, it angers me when people use their background to back their horrible ideals saying, “well I was raised this way”. Well I WAS raised that way, but I am NOT that way. Your beliefs do not have to be influenced by those of your parents, especially if they are harmful. It is easy to live without one parent knowing that I am better off without him in my life.

Rants Rants Rants

I couldn’t really think of anything relating to the class to write about, so I’ve decided to just rant about what’s been on my mind lately.  Not that long ago, a few weeks maybe, Robin Thicke’s song “Blurred Lines” was named the “song of the summer” by Billboard. Not only is this disappointing because the song itself lacks creativity and meaning, but the lyrics and the artist behind it are themselves repulsive. If title itself doesn’t immediately set off some kind of warning in your mind (when I hear “blurred lines” I immediately think of the “yes means no” rape mentality), then maybe the song lyrics will illuminate for you what a truly vile song it is. Throughout the song/video, the phrase “I know you want it” is repeated over and over while topless models prance around being harassed and dominated by three well-dressed men. When asked if his song was degrading to women in an interview, Thicke replied with “Of course it is,what a pleasure it is to degrade a woman, I've never gotten to do that before, I've always respected women”, going along to defend him and his collaborators by saying that they are indeed gentlemen, as they all have wives and children, so by default they are incapable of being misogynistic pigs. As if being married automatically gives you the right to harass and be sexually imposing to women who do NOT want your attention. It angers me that this song has become so popular for all of the wrong reasons, and that millions of teenage girls are dancing and listening to this song and not realizing that by doing so they are perpetuating rape culture and patriarchy, things of which they should be fighting.

Dear Robin Thicke,

There are no “blurred lines”, only yes and no.

And the latter of which your mother should have said 36 years ago.