The News Conspiracy and Adult Content

You know what I hate about the news? That no matter which news station you listen to, which channel you watch, you hear the same exact stories repeated over and over and over...

We were in the car coming back from my cousins' house and listening to the news. For about a half-hour it was the same stories (Hillary Clinton, arson in Conneticut or something, car crash, traffic jam, top 5 movies this weekend... and then Hilary Clinton, arson in Conneticut, etc). And when Dad switched to another channel, guess what was playing? Hillary Clinton, arson in Conneticut, car crash, traffic jam, top 5 movies this weekend. Okay, they scattered some other stories in it here adn there, but I highly doubt that the most important thing that has happened in the past two days is that Hillary Clinton decided to run for president, because we all knew she was going to already.

I think it's a conspiracy. I think they want us to become so hypnotized by 16-year-olds-getting-killed-in-car-accidents that we forget the rest of the world. Call me paranoid, but I don't hear the news the same way that normal, sane people hear it. I hear:

"Forget Darfur... forget nuclear weapons in Iran and Korea... forget the fact that most of the world hates the US...forget the thousands of people dying of or suffering from starvation and AIDS in Africa....forget the millions of acres of rainforest being destroyed every day...forget global warming....
Focus on car crashes.... focus on arson reports...focus on kidnappings...focus on Steve Irwin action figures... focus on what Brittney Spears wore to the Golden Globes (Whatever... I don't pay attention to celebrities)... focus on- STUFF THAT HAPPENS EVERY F***ING DAY SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME AND THAT NONE OF US GIVE A DAMN ABOUT!! You are getting sleepy... veerrry sleeepyyyy..."

It pisses me off. There are so many more problems in the world than some kidnapper talking about his life. I don't care what psycopathic people have to say about their lives. I want to know about the things that MATTER.


The other thing that's been bothering me is suppressing of my constitutional rights. Freedom of Expression, to be presice. Let me put it this way: If I am 16 years old and want to write hot, steamy love stories and post it on the internet on a site specifically designed for that purpose, THEN I SHOULD DAMN WELL BE ABLE TO!! The site says, "If you are a minor and do not wish to veiw adult material please click here. OK... What if I'm a minor and I DO wish to veiw adult content? HMMM?
What, just 'cause I'm technically too young to HAVE sex, I can't FANTASIZE about it either? Its a free country! I have the RIGHT to... write... whatever I please and it pisses me off that the government tries to stop me. That goes for drawing too. Naked people is apparantly a too inappropriate subject to put on the web, even with an "Adult Content" warning. I don't get it. Its one of those not-so-obvious subversion of our constitutional rights that, because it isn't so blatantly in-your-face, no one bothers to do anything about.

Of Horses and Circles

I really dislike those drawing books (especially for animals like horses) that tell you to draw circles. A horse is NOT a bunch of circles, no matter how hard you try and make it look like one. Horses are complicated animals with complicated faces and legs, and that cannot be achieved by drawing circles. Yeah, OK, maybe to START circles are OK, but the book I have doesn't even explain how they got from a bunch of connected ovals to something even vaguely resembling a horse! There are no intermediate steps--just BAM! A horse.

If the book explains how they got from said connected ovular shapes to horse-ish structure, than I have no problem with it. It just bothers me that most of the books I've seen DON'T. Especially with legs. Legs are quite possibly the second most difficult thing (the first being the head) to draw on a horse, and never do I see explanations of leg-length-to-body ratios, how to draw the knees and ankles, how high from the hoof the knee should be, how to transfer from body to legs...nothing. If I knew how to draw horses well enough to figure all that out myself, I wouldn't need the book now would I!?

Combat Boots and Airport Security

One thing that irritates me is people who INSIST on wearing calf-high, combat style laced boots when flying. It holds up the line at security, which is already unbearably long to begin with, and makes Mom frantic and anxious, which makes Dad start snapping at her, which makes ME start yelling at both of them. Also, we all hate waiting in line, especially airport security lines, and having to stand for another five minutes while this idiot takes off her boots and then ANOTHER five minutes after we go through while she puts them back ON. I mean, she must have KNOWN she would have to take her shoes off; she must have KNOWN that boots like that take forever to put on and take off. SO WHY WEAR THEM!? Ugh.

At the airport today, this middle-aged woman with like thirty small children threw a hissy fit when the metal detector-cum-liqued-that's-not-in-a-3-ounce-container-sealed-in-a-clear-Ziploc-bag-detector picked up her bottle of water. Never mind the signs every 3 feet stating the rules for transporting liqueds. Never mind the announcements every 4 minutes (I timed it. I was bored) stating the same. This lady INSISTED on bringing her water. I was about to take the damn bottle and shove it up her @$$. Then she'd be able to bring it wherever she bloody pleased.