My Brother Says Crazy Things

Or: Things My Brother and I Talk About That He Doesn't Understand
  
For example: Dragons.
My brother says that dragons are dangerous.  Duh!  I think we can all agree on this point.  What he is missing is that dragons evolved to be big, scary, and hard to kill, so they don't need to be aggressive.  I don't mean aggressive like "Food! Nom nom nom."  I mean aggressive like "How dare you enter my country!  Die, ignorant swine!"  Human aggression.  Dragons don't need that.  And why would they?  They're big, scary and hard to kill.  He just couldn't get that through his head.
Not that dragons can't be aggressive.  It's just that I think it's probably a learned thing, not a survival instinct, like it is for us humans.  Humans are paranoid.  Our aggression is a survival instinct.
And I'm talking European dragons here.  Not Asian.  That's a whole different thing.  Because dragons are scary.  As stated above.  Twice.  Dragons are giant, scaled, fire-breathing, 80 ft long, flying creatures, and they are built to scare the living daylight out of anything that sees them until all our human brains can think is "RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!" and then we all panic and scream and don't notice that the dragon doesn't even attack.
Whereas dragons, upon seeing us, will probably think "Oh, look at this strange, fur-less, pink bag of flesh come to poke me with a shiny stick." and then returns to thinking about philosophy or lady dragons or possibly even goes to sleep, because really, what are we going to do except declaim grandiose speeches at it and try fruitlessly to kill it?  I mean, if the dragon doesn't expose it's soft underbelly to us, there's not a lot we can do.  So dragons don't need to be aggressive.  That's all I'm saying.  Really.  My brother just didn't get it.

Another thing he didn't get: Ninjas and Samurai.
My brother seems to believe they don't exist anymore.  He even said so.  I laughed so hard when he said this.  Then I asked him why he thought that.  He went through this whole thing about them not having jobs anymore and I just laughed.  He also thought that since there was no proof of ninjas that that meant they didn't exist anymore. 
To this I replied "Dearest, darlingest brother, the whole point of ninjas is that they don't leave any proof!  If anything, the lack of proof is proof!" 
And he said "That makes no sense!" 
And I said "You know nothing."
And I am right.
His whole thing about samurai was along the same lines: no jobs, no samurai.  I said "Brother, there are schools for samurai skills."
And he said "Do they walk around carrying swords?"
And I said "No, that would be insane."
And he said "Then there are no samurai."
And I said "They reenact battles, probably, like there are Civil War Reenacters and WWII Reenacters."
And he said "WWII!"
And I said "Yes."

Which brings me to my next point.  WWII Reenacting.
He couldn't get his head around it.  I said "Brother, it's very carefully choreographed.  They get the uniforms, the weapons, and the troop movements and they meticulously plan it so it all goes well."
"What about the planes?"  He said.  "They had planes in WWII."
"They do the ground-troop movements."  I said.  "Planes didn't drop bombs on the troops."
"But they went ahead and bombed cities."  He said.  "That's what the Blitzkrieg was all about."
And I said "Yes, I know, but the reenacters only do the ground troop movements."
He kept talking about planes.  Eventually, I said, "Brother, I know a WWII reenacter.  Do you want me to call him and have him explain it to you?"
He refused, pretended to get it (or actually got it, I don't know), and left.

What do they teach in schools?

A Variety of Things

So.  A lot has happened since I last posted.

Let me first say that my ceiling is not yet fixed and is still leaking.  It is very annoying and uncomfortable.  I have nearly given up all hope of actually having a light before the end of the year.  Luckily, the light that is gone is the one by the window, so it evens out during the day.  Night is a different story, as it usually is.
No matter.  We manage.

Humans versus Zombies is going on right now.  For those of you who don't know, Humans vs. Zombies is basically a giant game of tag.  I am playing, and am still human.  It's fun so far!

Also, my friends and I have decided to play DnD.  I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm having fun!  We just started to make our characters last nigh.  I am an half-elf healer.  Strangely, I fit the criteria quite well.

My ceiling just leaked for a solid thirty seconds.  Now it is dripping persistently and annoyingly.  Oh joy.

In more somber news, Osama bin Laden is dead.  I hope this brings some peace of mind for anyone who lost someone in the 9/11 attack or the wars that came after.
What this means in terms of the future, I do not know.  Hopefully something good.

Also!  Doctor Who is back on!  My friends and I have to watch it on iTunes the next day, but that's okay!  It is sooooo gooood!  I am very excited for this new Series.  I will not say any more here because some people may not have seen it yet, but it is good.  I am very excited for the fourth episode, which Neil Gaiman wrote.  It should be amazing!

 I kind of just put down my thoughts as they came to me.  I apologize for the randomness...

What DOES terrible weather do to YOUR day?

So.  Despite the title, the weather today has not been terrible.  If not for other circumstances, today would be quite pleasant.  Yet, life happens and has happened to me.  Today.  In my room.  But that is not where the story starts.  The story starts last Wednesday.

Last Wednesday, my Creative Writing Professor informed us that we must do five Perception-Altering Experiences and write about them.  One of the options was to stay awake for 36 hours straight.  I of course choose to do this one.  I did it over the weekend, from Saturday, 9:30 am to Sunday, 9:30 pm.  It was exhausting, especially from 5-7 Sunday morning.  My eyes stopped focusing all the time - everything would just go out of focus.  Some friends and I played Rock Band Sunday afternoon.  Once, I nearly fell asleep.  DURING a song!  I was singing.  That's how tired I was.  When I went to bed, I fell asleep immediately.

My alarm went off at 8am this morning, to which I said "screw this, I'm going back to sleep" and turned off my alarm.  Luckily, I can do this as I do not have class until 9:30 on Mondays.  I got out of bed at 8:45, when I knew I could no longer remain in bed.  I go through my morning routine, and at 9am, the fire alarm goes off.  I suppose I should be glad that I wasn't in bed, but I honestly would have preferred it to not go off at all.  I didn't get to have tea because of the fire alarm!  I was rushing to get to class.

The day progressed fairly normally from there - aside from the insistent yawns - and I was feeling pretty good.  I had lunch, and was sitting on my bed, reading a book, when half the light fell of the ceiling and started dripping.  Naturally, I freaked out.  I put a bowl under the light and ran down the hall to get my RA, who was out.  I left a note on her board and went to get a friend, who was ALSO out.  Her roommate came and looked at the light and gave me the excellent advice of turning it off, which I did.  I then went to get the other RA, who was thankfully in.  She came and looked at it and helped me make sure that the light wouldn't fall all the way off.  It looked like this:

I put in a service request and settled back in nervously.  I texted my roommate so she wouldn't freak when she got back and tried to relax.  My roommate got back around quarter til two.  No sooner had she done so, the fire alarm goes off.  Again.  I immediately expressed my disapproval to the world.  It was raining outside, you see.  It was coming down like cats and dogs, as it is now.  While I'm on the subject, why do people say "It's raining cats and dogs out there."?  Has anyone actually seen cats and dogs fall from the sky during the rain?  And if they did, WTF?
I digress.  The point is, it was raining and humid and I didn't like it.  Luckily, I have a rain coat and was done with classes for the day.  We were outside for quite a few minutes - 10 ish I believe.  Upon our reentry to the building, we were told that the fire alarms had gone off due to water damage.  I now know that this was in my RA's room - the water had flooded on the plaster and to the fire detector in her room and this caused it to go off.

My roommate and I returned to our room and settled in to wait for the maintenance guys.  We didn't have to wait long.  The came in and took out the light.  Here is the structure w/out the light:

Here is what it looks like w/out the light or the structure:

The recycling bin is to catch the water.

The light was over my bed to some degree.   Here is a close up of the ceiling:

The ring of mold is evil.

The ring of mold alarms me.  Water stains I can deal with; mold?  Not so much.

And that has been my oh-so-exciting day.  I could have done without most of it, honestly.

This Title Has Nothing To Do With the Post

So.  I just read an article on Huffington Post about a new abortion bill.  It might be more accurate to say that it's anti-abortion bill, but that's really just a minor detail.  The bill is about abortion.  From what I gathered in the article (here), the bill would make abortions illegal except in cases of incest and 'forcible rape' whatever that means.  It seems no one is sure.

So maybe I'm a feminist.  In fact, I'm sure I am, and by feminist I mean "Hey! I'm a woman.  I am also a person.  Deal with it and get your overly religious b.s. out of my life!" because most people who advocate abortions, most but not all, are very religious.  I find this incredibly offensive.  I mean, I really don't care what you believe.  Just don't force it down my throat.  This abortion bill is absolutely attempting to force religion down my throat.  It needs to stop.

One day I'll right a more substantial post about religion and those who shout loudly about theirs.  It might even be a series of posts, I don't know.

And the whole Right to Life vs. Right of Choice debate is, in my opinion, pointless.  No one likes abortions; I just want to be able to decide how my life is going to go.  I don't think that's too much to ask.  And doesn't it make sense to concentrate on the people who are alive now rather than pour a bunch of money into a system that is flawed at best?  Because, really, has anyone who supports that plan ever talked to a teenager?  No?  That's all right, they do what they're told all the time.  Really.  And when their Health Teacher says "abstain!" they will!  Don't worry about it!  They only teens who are getting pregnant are the sluts!  Everything's fine!  ...  I'm pretty sure someone said something similar just before the Stock Market crashed.  So yeah.  It's all good.

I like to think of myself as a pretty easy going person.  I like to think I'm kind.  I probably am, but after reading the two articles above, all I wanted to do was go to D.C., find the people who signed this bill and shout abuse at them.  It might not accomplish much, but it would make me feel better.  Quite a bit better, if I'm being perfectly honest.

Because, really, what does anyone in Congress know about me?  Do they know my hopes and dreams, do they know where I'm from, what I've been through?  Do they know my name?

I'm gonna go with no to all of the above.

So what right do they have to tell me what I should do?

Just the fact that bills like this are considered makes me despair.  It's almost as if the people who support it think that I'm less of a person because I'm a woman.  It's like they believe women are somehow less because they aren't men, and really, how the hell does that make any sort of sense?
I am a person, and you can just deal with it.

And Mr. White-Religious-Man in Congress?  You can shut up.

The Shouting

So.  It has been a largely uneventful weekend, barring occasional bouts of semi-hysterical laughter when Andy and I have one of those unnervingly in-sinc thought processes that turn into words that continually baffle the people we are talking to, resulting in a largely-incoherent explanation.  We have watched lots and lots of things on Netflix, like Doctor Who and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, both of which are awesome.
So yeah, largely uneventful.
However, recently, we have been hearing large amounts of random shouting from outside my window.  Every time we open them to look out to laugh at those who are drunk enough to go around at night, in the cold, shouting, we cannot seem to see them.  We end up looking at each other and laughing our heads off.  Pretty fun and very collegey.  Let me describe it to you.
The Shouting has been indistinct.
The Shouting has been near our dorm, in the middle of campus.
The Shouting is hilarious.
The Shouting is by some stupid fraternity.
The Shouting is out of our sight, although I would wish otherwise, if only to be able to see who I am laughing at.
As I said, very collegey.  It has pretty much made my night.  The only reason it has not is the fact that Andy has the soundtracks to both 'How to Train Your Dragon' and 'Sherlock Holmes: 2009' on her iPod and that is what we are listening to.  So yeah, pretty good night.

Last Thursday, on a slightly, yet completely different note, I had a Psychology test.  Thanks to my foresight of taking what is probably the exact same class in High School, I am doing quite well in this class.  The tests are easier than AP Psych, in case you were curious. 
That is not the point, however.  The point is that I had a test in this class, and it was easy.  You see, there was this one problem, about how you can sense something, but not perceive it.  The question wanted the term for that in regards to sight, but I forgot the precise term.  Not wanting to spend any more time than necessary in the classroom, as we got to leave when we were finished, I naturally did the next best thing and used a term from Doctor Who in it.  Perception Filter.  It was completely amazing.  It definitely made my day.  Then I had lunch with my mom, which was quite nice, as she had Inception and was feeding me.

The Shouting just went by the library.  Which is next to my dorm.  I could see Them.  It was quite amusing.

Anyways, after lunch with my mom, I went to my next class, where I was told we were watching a movie in the next class, and that we could lay down, bring blankets and pillows, and even popcorn!  Assuming, of course, that the Science building has microwaves on the nursing floor.  Or that you can make popcorn in your dorm with out the fire alarms going off.

And, speaking of the nursing floor in the Science building, there are mannequins there that completely freak me out.  They just lie there, mouths open, looking like leftover props from the pilot episode of Nu Who.  No, really, that's what they look like.  I have to walk past them to get to and from class, and I keep expecting them to get up and try to kill me.  I'm serious!  They are Freaky!  I walked past on Thursday, and one of them was disassembled and the arm was lying on the table with its hand pointed towards the door and in a sort of curled motion and I thought I was gonna die!  I don't like it and I am glad I'm not in Nursing.  Although, I would be an amazing nurse.  I'd have an awesome bedside manner.  I'm just very nice like that.

So that's it, I think.  If I can get a picture of the Shouting, I'll post it here.  Maybe.

Tea and Across the Universe

So.  My friend Andy is meditating with tea.  Normally, I would not find this strange, and I don't really find it strange, to tell the truth.  It's just that she never does this, not really.  It's also a fact that it is usually me meditating with tea.  It's usually me who is keeping everyone at the dinner table whilst I finish my tea.  So, of course, I teased her about it.  She was very indignant.  I laughed.  Check out her version here: http://theincoherentbabbleofanoveractivemind.blogspot.com/2011/01/on-benefits-of-tea-and-imagination.html

Also, today Andy and I watched Across the Universe.  It was absolutely beautiful.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it and enjoys the Beatles.  It spoke to me on some level, what with how the female lead reacted to the Vietnam War after her boyfriend was killed there and her brother got drafted.  Or maybe it was just the music.  It was probably a combination of the two.

No Iffy Middle-Ground

So.  Today Andy and I had a brief discussion about Twilight.

Well, let me give you some background.  Recently in my English class, we have been discussing monsters, both the human and non-human variety.  Today, we had a speaker, the author of the book On Monsters, Steven Asma.  He was a very nice, intelligent man, who thought about the questions he was posed and seemed comfortable answering them.  He mentioned, during a discussion on vampires (who, I believe are BOTH human and non-human) that his niece had recently made him watch one of the Twilight movies with him.  He knew almost nothing about these books, but had formed the opinion that pre-teens like the Twilight Saga because it makes abstinence a viable option and gives them an attractive alternative to sex.  Now this, I believe, is a perfectly logical thought to have if one has not read the actual books.  When informed that the author is a member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, I believe his opinion changed somewhat.  He never actually said anything of the sort, but that is what I believe.

Then, at dinner, I told Andy about this.  We had a brief, yet delightful, conversation about how Asma's theory is only viable if one has not read the books, as Bella spends most of Eclipse trying to get Edward to sleep with her.  And, considering the fact that Edward routinely climbed through Bella's window and watched her sleep before they started dating, it also gives us the fact that the Twilight Saga does not inform young, impressionable girls about healthy relationships.  Edward is a creeper, plain and simple.
The only way I would allow a boy to climb through my window is if we're in a serious, committed relationship, or are completely platonic.  No iffy middle-ground allowed.