Ramble for 7/19

Found this article on AOL

"CHICAGO (July 18) - Maybe it's because young computer gurus are now enjoying the millionaire life. Perhaps it has something to do with the unexpected popularity last year of the movie "Napoleon Dynamite," about a quirky, dancing teen and his sleepy Idaho town.

Whatever the reason, being a nerd, a geek, a dork - whatever you want to call the tragically unhip - is becoming a source of pride.

Case in point: Steffi Weiss, a 15-year-old in the Chicago suburb of Lake Zurich, who plays violin in the school's orchestra.

This spring, she and a friend bought black mesh sports jerseys - something like the football team's - and added "ORCH DORKS" in white letters on the front, their last names on the back and their instrument on the sleeves (VLN I, for first violin, in Weiss' case).

"We used to not be able to stand the fact that we were in orchestra," says Weiss, who's been playing the violin since fourth grade and proudly wore the shirt to her high school this year. "Finally, we realized that's where all our friends are and that's where we have the most fun.

"So why not just say we're dorks?"

There was a time when teens who tried something like that would have been asking for some serious goofing. But today being smart and sensitive, even a little socially awkward, is often considered cool - and the signs are everywhere.

"The O.C.," a TV show popular with teens, has Seth, a comic-book loving nerd played by actor Adam Brody. Bands such as Weezer also feed off the dork image, complete with horn-rimmed glasses and a song about being OK with not fitting the Beverly Hills mold. "Napoleon Dynamite" has a fan club; its Web site claims 150,000 members.

And, increasingly, people are parading around in shirts that say "Dork Pride!" among other things. Such items have gotten so popular that CafePress.com, an online merchandiser, has created a special category for shirts and other items celebrating geeks, dorks and nerds.

Philip Kaplan, the 29-year-old founder of the startup online ad company AdBrite - and one who's long played upon his own dorky reputation - finds the whole phenomenon amusing.

"In high school, I didn't go to parties. I didn't have a lot of friends," says Kaplan, who lives in San Francisco and also created a tongue-in-cheek Web site that chronicled the dot-com bust. "Now all the people from high school are asking me if I have a job for them. So I guess it wasn't so bad to be a dork."

People who track youth trends have noticed the shift in attitude, too.

"It feels like, for a while there, we were hearing so much about bullying in schools - and this is almost a time for the geeks to stand up for themselves," says Schuyler Brown, a trendspotter for advertising and marketing firm Euro RSCG.

Michael Lee, a self-proclaimed nerd, is happy it's happening. "It's society validating who I am," says the 28-year-old marketing manager from in Perris, Calif.

 
"The label of geek actually has nothing to do with computers anymore. It's become about irony."
-Nick Ross, self-described dork 
 
But he also worries that the popularity will be short-lived, returning he and fellow nerds to a life of ridicule. "Because it is a trend," he says, "it'll become extremely untrendy."

For now, though, he's going with it and has put a bumper sticker on his motorcycle that says "Talk Nerdy To Me" so he attracts the kind of women he's looking for - "a librarian type girl," who likes to go to bookstores and art galleries and whose eyes don't glaze over when he starts talking about the finer points of "Babylon 5" or "Battlestar Galactica."

"It's like (the movie) 'American Pie' with the band geek girl," Lee says. "That is definitely part of the fantasy."

Still others are feeling a little territorial about their geek status.

Nick Ross, a 26-year-old freelance artist and animator, wrote The True Geek Test, a set of online questions aimed at weeding out the "posers." He says people often want to play the part but, in this case, know little about the worlds of computers and gaming - something Ross says is a must to truly be a geek.

"The label of geek actually has nothing to do with computers anymore. It's become about irony," says Ross, who lives in Ellington, Conn. "Among young people, liking something cool is uncool, and vice versa. There is no logic behind it at all."

But Uyen Mai says she knows how to spot a true geek, dork or nerd - and she likes what she sees.

"I see them as eccentrics or maybe smart, gentle people with a passion for something that may not be popular at the moment, like maybe computers, 'Star Wars,' physics," says Mai, a 28-year-old university employee who lives in Walnut, Calif. "Say, for instance, we're watching a dream movie with Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, Brad Pitt and Topher Grace. I'd gush over Topher Grace," she adds, referring to an actor from "That '70s Show" who's known for his geek appeal.

To prove her point, Mai has an "I (Heart) Dorks" tank top, which she wears often.

"My husband is not nearly as amused by the shirt as I am. I thought he'd be flattered," she says. "Oh well.""

Damn..what is this world coming to when my being uncool is suddenly cool.

I really don't want to be "cool". I've been a geek all my life, and now that it's cool to be uncool, I feel like...well.. that girl that think's she's original because she's got this one shirt, but when she gets to school, EVERYONE has that shirt, and she just looks like another trendhopper.

-.-

I really don't want to be cool. That's why I'm uncool. That's the point of uncool. Not to be cool. So why is it cool all of a sudden?!?!

I've bolded out the part that I agree and yet, disagree with. I think that people are faking being uncool, and the test is a good idea, but being uncool and a geek doesn't mean you just deal with games and computers alone. It means you're a social outcast, thrown out because your hobbies aren't shopping, vomiting up every meal you eat and your hair. It's being yourself, and not being accepted by most of the student body. You can be a geek and love books, or writing or drawing. It's not just computers and games.

There's one person to blame for this: Napoleon Dynamite...

Damn Napoleon Dynamite.. Making uncool cool....
But I still love your movie and the poster is still staying on my door.

Ramble for 7/18

Sorry. I'm feeling bitchy. This is the bitchiest I've felt for months... Sorry.

If Your Child is a Gothic, Reform Through the Lord!
Listed below are some warning signs to indicate if your child may have gone astray from the Lord. Gothic (or goth) is a very obscure and often dangerous culture that young teenagers are prone to participating in.
The gothic culture leads young, susceptible minds into an imagined world of evil, darkness, and violence. Please seek immediate attention through counselling, prayer, and parental guidance to rid your child of Satan's temptations if five or more of the following are applicable to your child:
-Frequently wears black clothing.
-Wears band and/or rock t-shirts.
-Wears excessive black eye makeup, lipstick or nailpolish.
-Wears any odd, silver jewelry or symbols. Some of these include: reversed crosses, pentagrams, pentacles, ankhs or various other Satanic worshipping symbols.
-Shows an interest in piercings or tattoos.
-Listens to gothic or any other anti-social genres of music. (Marilyn Manson claims to be the anti-Christ, and publicly speaks against the Lord. Please discard any such albums IMMEDIATELY.)
-Associates with other people that dress, act or speak eccentrically. ((Nuuuuu!))
-Shows a declining interest in wholesome activities, such as: the Bible, prayer, church or sports. (
-Shows an increasing interest in death, vampires, magic, the occult, witchcraft or anything else that involves Satan.
-Takes drugs.
-Drinks alcohol.
-Is suicidal and/or depressed.
-Cuts, burns or partakes in any other method of self-mutilation. (This is a Satanic ritual that uses pain to detract from the light of God and His love. Please seek immediate attention for this at your local mental health center.)
-Complains of boredom.
-Sleeps too excessively or too little.
-Is excessively awake during the night.
-Dislikes sunlight or any other form of light. (This pertains to vampires promoting the idea that His light is of no use.)
-Demands an unusual amount of privacy.
-Spends large amounts of time alone.
-Requests time alone and quietness. (This is so that your child may speak to evil sprits through
meditation.)
-Insists on spending time with friends while unaccompanied by an adult.
-Disregards authority figures; teachers, priests, nuns and elders are but a few examples of this.
-Misbehaves at school.
-Misbehaves at home.
-Eats goth-related foods. Count Dracula cereal is an example of this.
-Drinks blood or expresses an interest in drinking blood.
(Vampires believe this is how to attain Satan. This act is very
dangerous and should be stopped immediately.)
-Watches cable television or any other corrupted media sources. (Ask your local church for proper programs that your
child may watch.)
-Plays videos games that contains violence or are of a role-playing nature. ((>.>))
-Uses the internet excessively and frequently makes time for the computer.
-Makes Satanic symbols and/or violently shakes head to music.
-Dances to music in a provocative or sexual manner.
-Expresses an interest in sex. ((because we should all be like Ken. Anatomically incorrect.))
-Masturbates
-Is homosexual and/or bisexual.
-Pursues dangerous cult religions. Such include: Satanism, Scientology, Philosophy, Paganism, Wicca, Hinduism and Buddhism.
-Wears pins, stickers or anything else that contains these various phrases: "I'm so gothic, I'm dead", "woe is me", "I'm a goth".
-Claims to be a goth.
If five or more of these apply to your child, please intervene immediately. The gothic culture is dangerous and Satan thrives within it. If any of these problems persist, enlist your child into your local mental health center.
~St. Mary's Catholic Church"

I found this on one of the sites I inhabit. I doubt its true, but it's still funny, since most of those things teens actually do.
And my score was 32/37...
I'm a goth..apparently.

Ramble of the Day for 07/17

Nosy people just annoy me. There are too many annoying nosy people in the world, so I'm going to narrow it down. People who stick their noses in other people's relationships annoy me.

They stick their noses in the relationship, think they know everything about the relationship when in fact they really don't, and end up hindering the relationship.

And as I get older, I see more and more people fucking with relationships and whatnot that they should have left alone.

-.-

Ramble of the Day for 07/16.

Ok. So I went to the movies this weekend, twice. Once at night and once in the day.

At night, I noticed alot of teenage girls wearing extremely whorish clothes. I mean, skirts that looked like they were made out of a yard of jeans with holes torn in them and slutty tank tops that went way down. I was like "WTF?"..

So then I thought it must be a date thing. So when I went today, it was the exact same thing. Short skirts, slutty tops, and the shorts that don't cover much of anything.

My mom actually said to me" I'm so glad you don't dress slutty"....

What is this new found obessession to dress like a whore? I don't get it. Women for ages have been fighting to be treated like equals, and then we go and do shit like wear clothes sluts and whores wear.

"Respect me as a woman, but look at my breasts.."

-.-

And they pay out of their asses for clothes like that. It's like you step into Abercrombie and Fitch and their pants have holes in them and torn and the price tag is $80. Damn, I have a pair of $10 pants in my room (somewhere) and I've attacked them with a pair of scissors and they look almost the same.

And the slutty shirts.. $25. I just don't get it. Why do people wear these things? It's not attractive in the least.

From my favorite anime, AzuManga Daioh

This is Brian. Brian is a female, not a guy.

Brian'll come up later, so wait damnit!

I've decided to clear out my journal.

So I have.

Obviously.
...

...

...

Well..
not anymore now that I have an entry in.

Fuck it. Main message: It's cleared out