Gay abuse, Business classes, dumb people and other, much less important, things

Hello All, 

  

 I just watched a CNN segment about a 14 year old boy who took his own life after being bullied in school for being gay. FOURTEEN YEARS OLD. He's barely a man, barely old enough to know what love is, and he, and thousands of other boys, girls, men and women are being abused and persecuted for being attracted to the people they like.

   I'm not gay, but I can't stand it when people are ignorant and cruel to people who don't deserve this kind of behavior. That goes for all inexcusable behavior, but being a student in the number one LGBT-friendly college in America has me around the gay population more than most other minorities. All of these news casts and articles about tragedies, brought to light by bullies, literally has me crying for these misunderstood students, friends and children facing all of this adversity. It's not fair to them -what have any one of them done to justify being insulted, assaulted and abused for every single day? 

   I wish I could do more to support the gay community, but all I can do at this point in my life is write, and love and support my friends in their fight for equal treatment and understanding. I just hope that everyone struggling with these issues knows that they are not alone, and that they can always find support, if not from their friends or family, then from other people who've gone through what they have:

   On a lighter note:

   I have a business class every tuesday and thursday, and while I greatly respect and admire my professor, I am a little underwhelmed by this class. There's seemingly no order or outline to what happens in class, and I know I'm not learning anything about business other than what Apple Inc is doing or has done or will be doing that has made them one of the number one businesses in the world right now. It's basically a class about Apple and Steve Jobs.

Dumb People:

   My school has an incredible variety of extra curricular activities to pursue on campus, and a lot of these are student run. This is great, but there is a downside to that -young people are idiots. 

   I know, I know, who's the pot, who's the kettle. 

   But seriously? 

   My friends and I have a year of experience working on this one particular club, learning different roles and gaining a better understanding of how everything involved in making this whole project successful (no, I will not be saying what ex. curr. this is about), and I, at least expressed enthusiastic interest in becoming more involved and learning even more about how to make the project better, but, like a used and outdated car in the parking spot of some big-shot CEO, I've been replaced by the newer, less vocal and less attitude-prone freshmen.

   dumb.

Writing:

   Before moving back on campus, I started writing what I think will be this really cool fantasy novel series, but ever since getting back, I haven't been able to motivate myself to add to it much. Then, when I got bored one night and decided to pull out a DVD to watch, I made the mistake of pulling out Funimation and Gonzo's "RomeoxJuliet," and now I can't stop trying to write my R+J story (so cool in my head, I hope it translates as awesomely onto the page).

Finally:

   Being a girl really sucks sometimes, just ask Viola, from Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night." Not only did she have to dress up and act like a guy and work for the dude she was in love with, she had to pretend to not be in love with him AND fight off affections from the chick that Viola's boss was in love with. (We're reading that in another class of mine, so it's on my mind a little bit.)

   My life isn't exactly as crazy as that right now, but i fear this ugly blemish on my face will permanently scar me for the rest of my life, resulting in terribly insulting names, not being able to face all of my prettier friends, and never fulfilling my dream of being an international super spy. 

   Okay, so maybe the insulting names part was a little over dramatic, but still! Why do we have to deal with hormones and acne and other bad biology crap when we really don't need it? It's super distracting from what I'd rather be doing (aka: being a vain b**ch and staring at myself in the mirror.)

Well that's all for now, sorry this one was a little whiney.

Thanks for reading,

Amy Liz

One Giant Summer 2011 post

Hello all,

So...... I've been pretty much AWOL since the semester ended, and I wanted to apologize for that. This was supposed to be a way to help me keep writing a little bit every day, but I'm not very good at keeping up with it. I'll try to work on that.
On the upside, I haven't really had time to update the blog very often because I've been -dun-dun-DUN! -distracted!! That's right, for almost four months, I've been distracted by a large number of things that have prevented me from updating my posts. For example, I have two jobs to juggle this summer; I've been helping a dear and wonderful friend through a tough time in her life; I'm constantly keeping track of the weather so I know when I can spend all day at the beach; and let's not forget the recent liquidation of my favorite store, Borders.

Mini-Post I: Retail "Therapy"

People suck.
Let's just make that clear.
You are probably thinking that I'm just a hermit holed up by her computer all day, but really I like being with my friends, and going out, dressing up, and having fun just as much as the next person. I'm not exactly a social butterfly (in fact I'd classify myself as socially awkward), but I put myself out there, so it's not like I hate the world or anything dismal like that.
But I do hate people. Especially people who go into stores and think that it's "okay" to steal, or leave things that fell off their hangers on the floor, or ask for a thousand different shoes to try on, then dump all of the boxes on the floor and not buy a single thing (despite a great sale), or return a shirt you bought ten minutes ago because you "wouldn't have enough money for the train ticket home" if you kept it. (All of these are true scenarios, btw, experienced firsthand by yours truly).
I love working at Charlotte Russe, I really do. I love the clothes and the shoes, and the people I work with are very diverse and interesting in their personalities and habits (they're chill). The time passes quickly when I'm working, especially if I happen to be working the register. But come closing time, I remember (if I hadn't been physically reminded face-to-face) just how much I don't like customer service.  I don't like working for other people because those people are dumb. Seriously, if you pull out a shirt to get a better look, put it back WHERE YOU FOUND IT and in the condition you found it it. Don't let it drop to the floor, or put it down on the shoe bench, or place it back on the rack sideways. That is making my job harder, and it makes everyone working there that day lose faith in humanity just a little bit more. The worst part: until you are out of earshot, I have to pretend like I enjoy kissing your ass, and if I can't, I at least have to be polite when I'm telling you to get lost.
For example, when I work with the shoes in the store, I have no choice but to interact with no less than (but not limited to) 20 to 80 people in a single shift, because the customers cannot get a full pair of shoes themselves. I don't know how many times I've had someone come up to me and ask "can I have this -shoves shoe in my face- in a size 8 and a half?" I tell them we don't stock any half sizes in our shoes because WE DON'T. They say "oh, well then can I have the 6?" That's quite the size difference in what you're asking, besides, the smallest size we have in that one is an 8, like the one in your hand. "oh....can I have a 5 and a half?"
Dumb dumb dumb dumb.
That has been more than half of my summer. Dumbass people spending way too much money on clothes they don't fit into.

Mini-Post II: Books

I'm a writer, so obviously one of my favorite pastimes is reading books. Mostly I stick to young adult novels (it's what I write, so I should experience as much of it as I can -that's my justification, at least). At the beginning of the summer I had a list of all of the books that I owned that I was going to read before going back to school in the fall. I got to maybe four of those books before the news of Borders closing hit me, and now I have more books than I have room for, and no time to read most of them.

I do, however, have a new fascination with Rachel Caine's YA series, The Morganville Vampires. It's an interesting new way to do vampires, similar to Charlaine Harris's mainstreaming vamps, but normal humans only know about vampires in this one town, Morganville, and it's because the vamps rule it. They're more like mobsters, or the mafia than police and politicians, and there's about an equal mix of the old vampire lore and new Caine-vamp "science" to make these monsters seem new and exciting. Definitely worth a trip to Morganville if you enjoy vampires and twisted, semi-political fiction power struggles.

I didn't get a lot of reading down this summer aside from what's been released of the Morganville books, but I did read "Girl in the Arena" by Lise Haines; "Along for the Ride" by Sarah Dessen; "Crescendo" by Becca Fitzgerald; "Living Dead in Dallas" by Charlaine Harris; and a variety of graphic novels, including "From Far Away", "Ouran High School Host Club", and "Pandora Hearts."

That's all I can think of updating right now (it's 3am, so I really don't want to be thinking anymore) so,

Thanks for reading!
Amy Liz

WARNING

Warning: Attention All Workers

The following is true, no matter who you are, where you go, or what work you have to do:

If you have a TON of work due in the next 24 hours, your shitty, crappy nasty bed whose sheets you haven't washed in a month will magically transform into a Master Suite bed from the Marriott!
What ever you do, do NOT lay down, even for a minute.
It's the "minutes" that get you.

Shameless

Hi all,

This is a shameless plug for my school, but I can't help but be proud of all of the AMAZING things that go on here at Emerson College.

We have the LARGEST student-run award show here at Emerson called the EVVY Awards, and this year we put together an 8 minute Lady GaGa Lip Dub to advertise not just the EVVY Awards, but also Emerson as a whole. In the video, you get a glimpse at some of the groups and activities that we have going on here at Emerson, and you also get a sense of how close, collaborative and welcoming that we all are here at Emerson.

Not to mention productive! This whole video was shot in a SINGLE DAY!
So go watch it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=854oZgIC8WU

(sorry about all of the capital letters, I just really love this school).

Thanks for reading!
Amy Liz

April Fools?

Hey All,

So apparently Mother Nature has decided to play a fun little joke on all of us here in the New England region. It's April 1st, and Boston is covered in a beautifully wet and slushy layer of snow. And it was so nice last Friday, over 60 degrees!! Thanks. We get it, don't get too complacent in the certainty that winter HAS to end by the time Spring comes around.

So there's that wonderfully distracting twist of weather affecting all of my work, but there's also...

Did you know that one of the most distracting places to try and get anything done is your room? I didn't until I tried doing my homework in the library and OMG I got so much accomplished!! In just two hours at a little study desk in the library, I got a whole weekend's worth of homework done, and I only checked Facebook and my email twice! I know that this is supposed to be describing all the ways I'm NOT getting my work done, but I found this discovery of studying in another location fascinating, I needed to tell the world (the incredibly small world of people that actually read this blog).

Back to distractions:
I started reading a new graphic novel series early in December, called Kobato (by CLAMP) and it's absolutely adorable, and I was really sad to find out that there's only 3 volumes out so far in America (only 5 in Japan). Then I googled the series and found out that it's a television show, as well...a COMPLETED ONE.
Needless to say, I spent the last two weeks avoiding my homework to watch the show. Absolutely adorable, and I now own the DVDs. I won't be getting much work done anytime soon -I must rewatch them all! lol

Another distraction:
Some of my younger friends are in the period of their lives where they must decide on a future (aka respond to college acceptances) and a few certain people are (in my opinion) choosing a very "difficult" path for themselves, and are choosing to ignore my well-intentioned advice. Whatever. Go ruin your lives, why should I have to baby them?

More!
Sometimes people can be really REALLY dumb. And repetitive. People have patterns and habits in their daily behaviors, so they can also be very predictable. I've recently discovered this first-hand, and while I like to think of myself as an intelligent individual, maybe I'm not, because I simply cannot fathom why someone can keep repeating the same actions over and over again, expecting a different result, yet secretly knowing that they're just going to get hurt again. Whatever, I mean, it's not my life, and I guess I can't really force other people to do what I think is right.

Well that's it for now,
Thanks for reading,
Amy Liz

Spring Distractions (way late, sorry, forgot to press "publish")

Hello All,

So for those of you who don't know, I'm Christian -I try not to let my religion slip into my writing, but it did give me a pretty damn good moral system, so I have to give credit where credit is due. Thank you, God. Because of this little detail, I have to give up something for Lent, the 40 days before Easter.

Now, I forgot that it was Lent until, like, yesterday, so kinda decided what I'm giving up a little later than I should have, but hey, better late than never, right? So I decided to give up "procrastination" for Lent, which isn't good for this blog, because that's WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT!  But I think for this Spring, I'll tell you guys what's making it SOOO DIFFICULT for me to not procrastinate.

StumbleUpon.com and Facebook are always temptations, especially because I'm just so used to opening my computer, clicking the Internet, and typing in "fa"-which directs me right to Facebook! Grr!
Also, I'm right in the middle of watching a TV show on DVD, and I REALLY want to watch an episode or five while I'm at work (it's not like I'm a doctor or anything, this isn't hurting anyone), or in between classes! Or just the bubblepop game on my dashboard (for the computer) is a REALLY great way to waste about four hours.

That's it for now,
Thanks for reading,
Amy Liz

Spring Break Distractions, part three

Hello All,

So...I just saw Amanda Seyfreid's and Gary Oldman's new movie, "Red Riding Hood" and when I tell you that it is WORSE than "Twilight" -trust me, because it is!
And what makes me so mad is that it had SUCH potential. I mean, come on, you're taking from an OLD story, and you have the ability to change it in any way possible, and you choose that?!?
First of all, don't make the adults so obviously despicable. We get it, the teens are the heroes. And why does there have to be a love triangle? Why does this ONE GIRL have to be so irresistible that everyone is obsessed with her? Even a freaking feral dog?!
I will give the writer credit for this, the Wolf was NOT who I expected it to be, so kudos on creativity. But I gotta say -really? REALLY? I mean, those lines were SOO sexual -you just CAN'T do that! It's creepy! About twenty minutes into the film, I thought of another interesting possibility that would make a good Wolf to be obsessed with the main character, Valerie, and the film did suggest that it could be going this way, but then it turned around and turned terrible and just plain sketchy. I won't give away who the Wolf is, but just know that you will NOT be happy about it.
The writing and dialogue was mediocre, at best, and a wider audience could have been reached -and freaked out- with some more graphic detail when considering those killed in the film. The audience could barely see them, and I truly believe that we would have been more scared or more psychologically freaked out if we could have seen these injuries.
There were so many cliches throughout the film that it was laughable, and some of the set pieces were a little too obviously fake. What was with the pointy-branched trees? Every single tree had branches that were all the same length with a big point at the end, no leaves or other branches on them. I was just..."whaaaa?"

After the movie, my best friend and I walked, talking about how terrible we thought it was, and we decided we should rewrite it the way it should be. This probably won't happen, because we are both busy with school, but if you do read this blog, you may be seeing some excerpts from a Red Riding Hood-inspired story up here every once in a while.

Thank you for reading,
Amy Liz