ARGABLARGBLARG

So just yesterday I had an ecology test, a Chinese quiz on 120 characters, a mini-lab due, and two newspaper articles due. And they were all assigned last Friday. That is two days to do all of that. GAH. And today I have another newspaper article due, Chinese quiz, English rough-draft due, and a math project due.

And it continues like this for the rest of the week while adding on a six-page Monoculture vs. Polyculture paper. FML.

If I only had my ID this is what I would be doing right now.

I will not be posting for the like rest of the school year because my life is effed right now and I think I might die of grade and exam anxiety.

Anyone else feeling this way right now? A good way to relieve the stress is to just put off the work and watch 30 Rock. Well it doesn’t put off the stress, but it make you laugh sooo I think it’s a good plan.

Kisses. xxx

‘Emma is to Clueless’ as ‘The Great Gatsby is to The Notebook’

I recently watched the original The Great Gatsby (Of course it was the original, the other one hasn’t come out yet. Silly me. Sorry.). As I watched Robert Redford and Mia Farrow embark on their affair that could be from a fairy tale, I realized how stupid people are.

Yeah, change of tone.

Gatsby and Daisy are fools. Crazy, pampered, delusional fools. Just because your skirt gets shorter and you can fall into a fountain drunk, doesn’t mean you can get away with adultery. Now I’m not saying that I didn’t want them to end up together. Because I did. I just want to point out how crazy it is for me to want that for them. I know it’s a fictional story, but it still bothers me.

When I was watching the movie, I was rooting for them to be together. I justified their cheating with the fact that her husband cheats too, they are each others true loves, they met before she got married, they were meant for each other, etc., but it’s not moral and there is nothing that you can say that excuses what they were all doing, lying and cheating.

Side Note: I know I sound like some Sanctity of Marriage Act fanatic, but I’m not. I don’t believe in true love, I don’t think everyone has to stay married to each other, divorce is a perfectly fine thing to have. It’s sad when it happens, but if you can’t get along with your wife/husband and you are miserable, there is no point in staying miserable together. You should just go for the person you like after you get a divorce. You decided to get married and you should have a moral obligation to uphold the vows you took when you made that decision.

I know Daisy’s husband is a skeezy cheater too, but two wrongs don’t make a right. This applies to the narrator, Nick Carraway, as well. He sees all of the wrong doings of all of his friends and does nothing but aid their self-destructive plans. He knows what Daisy and Gatsby are doing and not only says nothing against it, he helps them get together behind Daisy’s husbands back. He doesn’t say anything to stop them from continuing to see each other even when people start to get suspicious. *SPOILERS* (though most of you have probably seen or read this story by now) He doesn’t tell anyone that Daisy was the one who killed her husband’s mistress. And finally, he doesn’t reprimand Daisy and her husband for running off on a vacation while they get their house redone like Gatsby hadn’t just been killed on Daisy’s husband’s command. IT IS A LOAD OF BS.

Most people say that Daisy is the most disappointing character in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, but  I say it’s Nick Carraway because of his failure to grow some balls and tell people what’s what. He could have tried to stop Daisy or told her off for acting like she hadn’t just lost the love of her life, but he didn’t and that is just sad and wimpy.

Surprisingly, I found my favorite character to be Jordan because she knew what she wanted, how to get it, knew what the world was like, accepted it, and used her knowledge to the best of her abilities. She was smart and fully stayed out of other peoples’ business. She hung out with Gatsby and Daisy, but never once tried to encourage them or get them together. All she said was that Daisy deserved to be happy. She never said how that should happen.

Now that I have ranted about the whole movie I am going to get to the point of the post. Yeah sorry, you guys, still haven’t got there.

As I watched the movie I realized how similar it was to The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. Nicholas Sparks basically recreated The Great Gatsby. I have yet to read The Great Gatsby, but it is on my to-read list so I will get back to you on the book version’s similarity to each other, but the movies are basically the same up until the ending.

I don’t really feel like explaining this through typing because I’m just too lazy to do that right now, so here’s a Ven Diagram:

See, basically the same storyline.

So yeah. Not that I have anything against movie recreations, I loved the way they plopped the story of Emma into the adolescent, social, and fabulous world of Cher in Clueless. Love that movie.

Has anyone else noticed that? Or is what I’m saying completely wrong and I’m making myself look like an idiot?

Kisses. xxx

P.s. I will come back with an update on the similarities of the books sometime.

P.p.s. Sorry my ven is small. Click on it and you should be able to see what I typed in the diagram better.

DIE WORDPRESS! DIE!

I swear to God. If WordPress fails save my drafts one more time, I’m going to friggin’ rip my laptop in two. Is it really that hard to save my work when I press “Save Draft?” That’s what it’s there for right? WRONG.

It’s there to delete the post you have spent the past 45 minutes writing, that’s what it’s there for! And I feel like crying right now, because I was appropriately witty and informative the whole post and now its ALL GONE.

And since I got my blog, which isn’t that long ago this is about the 5th time it has happened to me. What is up people?

What is the point of even having that stupid button if it’s not going to do what it was put on this planet for? It is a waste of space. Why waste your blog time making the effing button if it’s not going to work? OH MY GOSH I WANT TO PUNCH SOMETHING.

Does this happen to y’all? And if so, do you feel like punching something? Cause’ I would love to get together with you sometime and bond over this infuriating experience.

ANGRY Kisses. xxx 😦

And Love Was Supposed to Conquer All

Over the summer I was assigned the book, ‘Zeitoun’ by Dave Eggers. Of course I wasn’t incredibly excited about reading it because it was a true story and it was summer. I love to read, but come on! I would much rather be reading a fantasy or thriller!

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a book I could skim through and then spout fluff about how much a certain part spoke to me. So, after putting it off for basically 3/4’s of my summer I started to read it and found that I really liked it! The story was great, the situation they were put in was one I hadn’t heard about before, I learned about the Muslim religion and how the stereotypes out there aren’t true, and in the end the characters won their battle because of their love for their family.

It was the perfect story. I even thought about finding more books like it (Key word: thought).

Summer ends and it’s the first week of school and I’m all prepped to discuss ‘Zeitoun’. Until this happened:

“…But in recent years, the stable, loving relationship between Mr. Zeitoun and his wife, Kathy, that was described in the 2009 best seller has taken a series of dark turns. The couple divorced last year after he was convicted of assaulting her. And on Wednesday, the New Orleans police charged him with plotting to have Kathy Zeitoun, her son and another man murdered,” (Celebrated Hero in ‘Zeitoun’ Book Facing Charges in New Orleans, Robbie Brown, New York Times).

and my school ignored the fact that they ever made us read it.

So everything that I admired about ‘Zeitoun’ has all gone to… You can fill in the blank and I wasted the last few days of my summer vacation reading something that I wasn’t even going to need for school.

And this isn’t the first time our school has assigned us a true story book that has come back and bitten them in the butt. The first time this happened was when we were to read, ‘Three Cups of Tea’ by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.

Now that book was awful. I’m sorry everybody, but that book was the most tedious read of my life. I wanted to rip the book in half and shred it, but I pulled through and finished it.

And then this happened:

“…The report, to be aired by CBS on its “60 Minutes” programme on Sunday night, alleges that Mortenson’s charitable organisation has also taken credit for building schools that do not exist or were built by others. Mortenson was awarded among others the Sitara-e-Pakistan for his work.

The investigation by correspondent Steve Kroft quotes Into Thin Air author and mountaineer Jon Krakauer as saying he learned from one of Mortenson’s companions that the tale of how Mortenson got started was “a beautiful story” but “a lie,”” (Three cups of tea: ‘US author fabricated charity work in Pakistan’, Agencies, The Express Tribune).

This was literally the worst experience of my life due to the fact that (unlike ‘Zeitoun’) I had to write about five papers on this book and then it just didn’t count anymore.

So the lesson to this story is: Always make sure you’re not about to read BS and to be really safe, just stick to fantasy and fiction.

Kisses. xxx

Hi My Name Is… DaisyDukeDragonDemolisher and…

Pseudonyms. Some of the best writers in history have used them (Frost, Mark Twain, etc. etc.) and I think that is really cool. Live your life peacefully, but still have famous books. It’s my dream.

Then there are those people who write as themselves and also have a pseudonym, but keep them separate. I get that too. Some things you write could affect the way people think of your other novels, so you use a pseudonym. That’s a really smart plan. Kudos to you for being innovative with your profession.

And then there are the people *acidic glare* who write as themselves and from a pseudonym, but tell everyone that they are the same person.

WHAT IS THE POINT OF HAVING A PSEUDONYM IF YOU ARE GOING TO TELL EVERYONE YOU ARE THE SAME?

This is honestly one of my weirdest and biggest pet peeves. There is no point in having a pseudonym if you are going to reveal that the pseudonym is yourself. No point at all, it’s a waste of brain cells and it confuses the fudge out of your readers.

Nerdy Girl 1: Hey Nerdy Girl 2! Have you read J. Lynn’s book, Wait for You, yet?

Nerdy Girl 2: J. Lynn wrote that? Who is that? I thought Wait for You was by Jennifer L. Armentrout.

Nerdy Girl 1: No, it says it’s by J. Lynn on the cover.

Nerdy Girl 2: I thought it said Jennifer L. Armentrout.

Nerdy Girl 1: Well who wrote it?

To figure out the mystery of J. Lynn and Jennifer L. Armentrout look below:

I didn’t want to point fingers, but I’m going to have to.

***By the way, I don’t dislike this author as a writer or as a person.***

Jennifer L. Armentrout. She writes sappy, goopey, romances that contain all of the Young Adult romance book flaws from my other article (The Sad [but true] Thing About Romance). I’ve read her books. Some I really dislike. Others are okay. But I have now (just on principle) decided that I will never read her work again because of the one incredibly frustrating thing she did:

What? Does she have multiple personality disorder? Is J. Lynn one of her alters?

NO. So why would she have a pseudonym if she’s okay with people knowing her real name and writing from her real name? THERE IS NO POINT.

It’s like having your username: DaisyDukeDragonDemolisher for World of Warcraft and then telling everyone you meet your real name.

What was the point of coming up with a username that would make you anonymous to people if you were just going to tell everyone online your real name anyways?

And for those who are wondering about examples of the people who write as themselves and from a pseudonym so that no one will know that it’s them. I can’t give you any because they unlike some people, they don’t tell everyone who they are when they are using their pseudonyms.

Exhausted and frustrated kisses. xxx

The Sad (but true) Thing About Romance

You know that giddy feeling you get when the girl gets the guy in some heart-meltingly sweet way at the end of the book?

*raises hand* I DO!

Yeah, those books are the best. I love em’ to death. I really do.

BUT… Yep there is a ‘but.’
But it will never happen to you, him, her, me… cat (hehe embarrassing Twilight moment).

All of those darling romance novels create a false hope and high expectations within us all. This process starts at an early age, maybe 1 or 2 when you first see Cinderella or Snow White. I know that I was spell-bound (no pun intended… Okay definitely a pun intended) by the happily ever afters and singing animals.

Well reality check! There sure as hell aren’t any singing chipmunks at my window helping me get ready for my first date with my future high school sweetheart/rich husband that makes his fortune off of bettering the world through his innovative phone app! (That might have been a little specific. :P)

Every teenage girl needs to look deep into her heart and ask herself this question: Am I really going to be the one to change him?

And I know random question! But come on people, we all know that is what most of these Young Adult romances are about! (That and abuse!)

Just look at all of the popular romance novels for teens today! Abuse, foster care, bad-boy with a gooey center, death in the family, substance abuse, etc. etc.

Every. Single. One.

And in the end the bad-boy changes and becomes monogamous, the two down on their luck foster kids end up married after one gets almost beat to death, they run away as wolf lovers, she conquers her fear of her rapist and learns to trust her new boyfriend, she finally regains her memory of her mom trying to kill her and her boyfriend finally trusts his brothers foster parents and they go live together, blah blah yuck.

I’m taking this goop to task. It’s not realistic. It’s not practical. It’s just not something you should be investing your free time in.

Read Fantasy. Now you might be saying, “Now hold up! How is reading Fantasy not going against everything you said up there?”

And now I shall answer you:
We all know magic, witches, and dragons aren’t real. We can separately define Fantasy and reality, but we can’t define fantastical romance and reality without getting the two all muddled up in each other.

You know that you are never going to get your Hogwarts letter (though you might hope), you just decide to go to Universal Studios Hogwarts. But romance is such a broad and intricate notion that is all over the world. So you can’t help but hope that you might find your one true love and live peacefully in a picture perfect house, alternating your time between your adorable kids and your husband’s (and your) demanding libido.

All of these expectations let us girls down and actually will really harm our future relationships.

So in conclusion:
All you teenagers (and this applies to me too! I have read all of those books I described up there) hoping and dreaming for your Young Adult romance novel perfect relationship, give up! I’m sorry if this is depressing, but it’s going to be a whole lot more depressing when you have to settle.

Think about it.

Kisses. xxx