Yawn.

I like to consider myself a thoughtful college student. Not that I've never been tardy, and yes, my phone has gone off ONCE before, but I never do these things intentionally. I'm generally on time and pay attention. If I do glance at my phone, I try to be discreet, and I never just completely ignore classroom etiquette to eat, do unrelated homework or read materials not associated with the class I'm in (of course, smaller, informal-like classrooms are often a different story). So when I see people getting away with things like...

1) Playing games in class. There's this one guy who sits diagonally from me in my political science who never brings a notebook or pencil and is constantly playing Tetris on his iPod Touch. ... Why even come?

2) People who come to class LATE on exam days and jiggle the door handle or knock when they've been locked out. Seriously?

3) People who are just habitually late.

4) People who can't accomplish the simple task of silencing their phones.

... I sometimes feel a little frustrated. I don't know how most professors stand it, honestly. But was this Cornell professor did completely necessary?

Yawns happen. I doubt it was voluntary. The volume of said yawn probably could have been controlled better, but I doubt the student was actively try to disrespect the professor. Just reading the word yawn or thinking about the word yawn can spur your mouth into action. Didn't you just yawn reading that? And I bet you weren't even sleepy.

I used to overlook Veteran's Day. If it didn't get me out of school, then it ranked dangerously low as a priority. I didn't beg my parents to put out the American flag, hug my relatives for their services to the country or even verbally acknowledge the day. It just was.

Then, of course, you lose people, and you start to think, start to look beyond the shallow confines of your own little world. Veterans Day hit me hard this year.

Both my grandfather and his brother served in World War II, and both came back different people. My grandfather never talked about the war, what he'd seen or what he did. It was a topic that we - the grandchildren - respectfully avoided, though we were always itching to know the details. My Great-Uncle Oz, however, loved to rehash his glory days. He killed for his country, and he was proud to tell anyone while showing off his spoils from war (an old German Luger and a Hitler Youth Knife, both of which we still have).

I used to resent how quiet my grandfather was about the whole thing. Partly because of how exclusive the knowledge was (I'll still never know; my grandmother has aggressive dementia and mostly just talks to herself, and my mom and uncles don't know much about what happened either) and also because I felt like we were too close to each other to keep secrets.

Now that he's gone (he fought hard, but the cancer fought harder), I realize all the things he did share with me have been taken for granted. There are so many things that he taught and told me, things I didn't think about at the time because I was just a selfish little kid. And I wonder if he were here now, would be be proud of the person I've become?

I love and miss you, Glenwood Adams. 

Trying to go to my happy place right now.

I'm reserving this blog space for a personal rant. One of the few things I liked about ULM was the arrangement of the campus: it was more compact, and parking was more accommodating. Tech's campus is spread out, and while the parking isn't great, it's adequate. Still, many people complain about the parking, and with good reason.

It's not that there aren't enough spaces. It's just that, for some reason, students like to park in ways that leave enough space between cars to fit another car, but not enough space to maneuver into the empty spot successfully. I can not tell you how many times I've come to school, seen a sliver of room, and then tried to wiggle my car into place. After a few minutes, I usually give up. Sad thing is, I drive a pretty small car - 2006 Toyota Corolla, specifically. Even my carpool buddy has issues trying to snag these spots, and she drives an even smaller Mazda Protege.

It's really - excuse the language - really fucking annoying. I wish I would've thought to take pictures, though I can imagine anyone else reading this blog that's a student at Tech knows exactly what I'm talking about. It's not enough that I leave for class an hour early, but then I have to creep and stalk around the parking lot like a lion looking for some wounded gazelle to pounce on. I don't have the patience. I waste it on more important things: like waiting on tech support over the phone, and sitting in the bank drive through and suffering through back-to-back episodes of NCIS to get to Law & Order.

So please, quit parking like an asshole. It really drives me crazy.

Can't fix stupid.

A couple attempting to have their second child was told by doctors that their 16-week-old baby wouldn't make it. She suffered from "Mermaid Syndrome," and if carried to term, she would've been stillborn. Aaron Gouveia and his wife made the decision that many people can't bring themselves to do: to terminate the pregnancy. On the way to the clinic, the couple was confronted by two anti-abortion protesters who made a point to further traumatize them about their decision.

Their ignorance made Aaron snap, and rightfully so. While his wife was in surgery, he went back outside to speak to the two women still standing outside. He also brought his cell phone to record video footage.

Abortion really strikes a nerve with me. Not because I'm against it, but because I'm so frustrated by the public's lack of empathy. Why should a woman be forced to carry a dying or dead baby to term? What does this accomplish? Furthermore, what if the mother's health is at risk? What if the child is a product of incest or rape?

This is pure common sense. And the people who do abuse abortion as their form of birth control shouldn't represent the women who have legitimate reasons. I'm willing to bet that half of the protesters you see holding up pictures of mangled fetuses would change their tune in a minute if they were put in such a situation.

Links:

Aaron's story

"That's the side effects: hungry, happy, sleepy."

Just to set the record straight: no, I am not a pothead. Caffeine has always been my poison of choice. But I still can't understand why our government is so against recreational marijuana use. Even if California does manage to pass Proposition 19, it will still be illegal under the Controlled Substances Act, which I think is a load of shit.

Pot isn't chemically addictive. No one has ever died from smoking one too many doobies (not directly, anyway). Marijuana also has medicinal potential.

... So why is it illegal, again?

Prohibition of alcohol at least made sense. Not only can you literally drink yourself to death - and many people do - but many people also lose their lives to drunk drivers. According to these statistics, drunk drivers claim lives at the rate of one every 39 minutes. Not only that, but I have personally seen friends suffer through living with alcoholic, abusive parents.

I don't think marijuana is totally harmless or without consequence, and I'm not saying that I don't drink. But if I had to choose the lesser of two evils, I'd definitely take an ounce of pot over a bottle of Jägermeister.



Dr. Jocelyn Elders, former Surgeon General under Bill Clinton, expressed her opinion in a CNN interview that it shouldn't be criminalized. I really hope she can use her influence to change public opinion.

To me, Katt Williams said it best: "Well why the fuck it's [weed] illegal I don't know. Aspirin is perfectly legal, but if you take 13 of them motherfuckers it'll be your last headache."

Are you starting to sense a theme with these entries? It wasn't intentional.

Finally, someone had the balls to do what Congress should have done ages ago.

Judge Virginia Phillips declared the United States military's "Don't ask, don't tell" legislation unconstitutional back in September, then completely discontinued its enforcement today. Though her ruling is effective immediately, the Department of Justice has 60 days to appeal the decision -- not that it's hinted whether or not it will stand by this ruling or fight it. 

Technically, there's no legal obligation for the opposition to appeal her decision. And while this might be wishful thinking, I'm hoping that the Obama administration is either too lazy preoccupied to pursue it. Ideally, I would hope that some minds have changed for the better since the "Don't ask, don't tell" rally in Maine, but I think I've run out of patience for the Obama administration.

And now to get a little bit off topic, but not completely:

I remember watching this video and respecting the man for not letting his beliefs compromise common sense. Now, his administration wants to appeal a previous ruling that called parts of the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional.

Now, I'm not an idiot. I know social issues aren't the MOST important element of our government. Still, it just seems like a crappy thing to lie to some of your biggest supporters, tell them you've got their back, then turn around and disappoint us by conveniently losing your backbone.

Links:

Obama admin. appeals DOMA ruling

Pentagon must stop 'don't ask, don't tell,' federal judge rules

The bullying epidemic

There have been at least four nationally acknowledged suicides since September, each one of them a result of anti-gay, peer-to-peer bullying. Billy Lucas, 15, hanged himself from the rafters of his family's barn on Sept. 9. After being outed on the internet, Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi jumped off the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 22. Thirteen-year-old Asher Brown fatally shot himself in his father's closet on Sept. 23. Seth Walsh, also 13 years old, hanged himself and spent nine days in a coma before he died on Sept. 28.

Contemplating suicide is painful enough. When you're to the point that you're purposefully veering off the road or making a last goodbye cocktail from the contents of your family medicine cabinet, you know you've gone to a dark place. It hurts. I might live in the heart of the Bible Belt, but at least I know I have an extensive, compassionate support network of both family and friends to pull me out of such desperate thinking. These four boys might have lived longer, happier lives if their peers hadn't carelessly thrown around insults every day, pushing them deeper into despair. Many people who look down on suicide have posted hateful comments in response to these tragedies: They were selfish, How pathetic, They should have gotten over it. Do you want to know what's really pathetic to me? People who try to validate themselves by out-casting others are pathetic. The school administrations that stood by and did nothing while these children were being bullied are pathetic. The people who blame the victims are pathetic.

In response to the death of Billy Lucas, a YouTube channel was created to spread awareness of anti-gay bullying and give hope to those who have also found themselves at a similar low in life. The "It Gets Better Project" was started by Dan Savage and features video testimonials by gays from all walks of life. There are over 600 uploaded videos (possibly more) and the channel has been viewed over 1 million times.

"Billy Lucas was just 15 when he hanged himself in a barn on his grandmother's property. He reportedly endured intense bullying at the hands of his classmates—classmates who called him a fag and told him to kill himself. His mother found his body.... I wish I could have talked to this kid for five minutes. I wish I could have told Billy that it gets better. I wish I could have told him that, however bad things were, however isolated and alone he was, it gets better." -- Dan Savage

Talk-show host and comedian Ellen Degeneres is also joining the cause, along with many other celebrities - some of them gay, some of them not. She posted this video several days ago:

Links:

Article from My Fox: Boston

It Gets Better Project