iCan't

Let me preface this rant by giving a brief explanation:
At my school, you are required to pass a "computer competency" test in order to take certain classes. It basically tests your knowledge of Microsoft Office programs and your computer in general. You have to score a 90% on all 5 exams.
That being said, these tests are impossible! I am completely incapable of passing a single one of these tests and let me tell you, it's not for lack of trying. The hours I have spent pouring over the tutorials and googling answers were to no avail because I failed every test multiple times. And the best part is, once you fail, they change the questions so you can't even go off of what you know. You have to go back to step one and pour over the tutorials and google all the answers only to fail again and wish computers had never been invented.
I have reached that point. I totally resent technology at this point in my life. I hate my phone and that it progresses faster than I can understand. I hate my computer because something new goes wrong everyday (my keyboard locked earlier and it took at least a half hour to figure out how to undo it).
Everything just feels so over complicated.
Sure, writing essays with a pen and paper would be horribly time consuming but they would save you the strife of accidentally not saving the file correctly and losing all of your work.
Staying connected via snail mail is just as rewarding if not more so than the social media platforms available to us currently.
Even this blog. I don't need to tell the internet how I feel; I could simply keep a diary for myself.
Technology is too much for me to handle. With Apple creating new iPhones and iPods and iDontKnows, and Microsoft updating Word every year, I just sit by waiting for one of these industrial dynamos to make a time machine so I can ship myself back to 1920, Midnight in Paris style.
Unfortunately, until that happens, I have to prove that I know the difference between an icon and shortcut (SPOILER ALERT: I don't).

Sincerely,
Mare

Guided Assignment 5

This post is for the purpose of brainstorming topics for paper 3.
I have been conducting research on gun control and looking at opinions from political leaders and the general public. I have also been reviewing Supreme Court cases.
I have to relate this topic to social justice, race, or gender. I believe gun control lends itself best to social justice. I will be writing to persuade my audience that stricter gun control laws are necessary to reduce the number of mass shootings.
I will be looking at mass shootings that have occurred in the passt two or three years and discussing the number of victims, the gunman's profile, and statements made by political leaders following the incidences. I will also be looking at proposed laws that came up as a response.

Have You Read the YouTube Comments Lately?

Half of my lecture course on the 60s is about the arts and activism of the time so we listen to a lot of songs as homework. Recently we were assigned "Feel Like I'm Fixing to Die" by Country Joe McDonald. Out of curiosity I looked at some of the comments. A lot of people replaced the times McDonald says Viet Nam with Syria or Afghanistan which didn't half surprise me but then I stumbled across an interesting one.

In a nutshell, this person was suggesting that we all start gardens and move off the grid but keep our guns because our second amendment rights protect us so we can shoot members of the KKK if we feel threatened by them.
An elegant solution, sir.
Although I don't agree with this man, at least he is proposing a solution other than war. The issue in Syria continues to escalate and it is unclear if the US will physically engage with them. There has to be a way other than war to resolve our issues in the Middle East. Negotiation can be difficult but it's worth a shot. If it doesn't work though, I think we ought to let whatever happens, happen. It's not our place to be there.
To that, most people argue: but what about WWII? There was a mass genocide going on. It was our moral obligation to stop it. I agree that anything that can be done to stop unnecessary killing should be done but WWII was a different situation entirely. Back then we were fighting against the cancer that was fascism so that those infected nations could have the opportunity for freedom and self determination; now we're fighting to protect our oil interests.
A positive thing we have now that we didn't have during WWII is the United Nations. If we remove our military from the Middle East, we can keep UN representatives there to monitor diplomacy and look out for any type of genocide or killing of civilians. These representatives can then alert the Security Council and they can make a decision about how to stop whatever injustice is being performed. Other than that, I think our involvement should be very minimal.
If my plan doesn't work, we can always move off the grid and kill the Klan.

Sincerely,
Mare

Home Is Where the Heart Is

I always knew that coming all the way to Austin for college was going to be difficult. I wouldn't be able to get home as much as the other kids; I would have to adjust to the culture; I would have to get along without a support system.
I feel like I've done all that. I'm okay with the fact that I can't see my family every month or even every weekend. I've started saying y'all, so I'm pretty much a certified Texan. And I've made some really great friends. They're so good to me.
I just didn't realize how hard it would be to watch everyone stay so connected with their family and friends. Only a few girls in my class made it west of the Mississippi, but most of them went to California. Me, I'm in Texas, all by myself. I don't get to go home on the weekends like a lot of kids here. I don't have an aunt or an uncle I can go see and catch up with. I don't even have a family that can afford a flight home for Thanksgiving.
I love it here, don't get me wrong. I just didn't expect to have to grow up so fast. I don't see my family and friends every single day anymore. It's quite a rude awakening to know that after 18 years of support, you're cut off.
I wish I could go home for Thanksgiving, or at least fly to St. Louis to see my sister. Money's been tight though and I don't want to be selfish. I chose this life. My parents did enough to get me out here. The least I can do is tough it out for a few days in November. And besides, after that, it's only a few weeks until winter break which happens to start on my mom's birthday. It'll be great to celebrate with her. It'll be great to just be held by her and hear her call me "honey bunny" the way she does when she's poking fun at me. God, I miss that woman.
I miss home. I'll never really be whole while I'm away, but I'm starting to think that's true of Austin too. This is my city now, and although looking out over Lady Bird Lake isn't the same as the Potomac (or the Anacostia), it's getting to be familiar. It's getting to be like home.

Sincerely,
Mare

Let's Talk About Sex, Baby

Growing up Catholic, I was always taught that premarital sex was wrong. But looking around, I got a different impression. Television, movies, advertisements, everything was telling me that sex was cool and that you could do it whenever you wanted.
These conflicting ideas were cause for much consternation during my development. I spent a lot of time wondering if I was missing something, or if sex was even as important as the church made it seem.
Eventually, I came to the conclusion that sex is a very big deal indeed. To me, sex is something that should be shared by people who are in love and who are willing to commit 100% of themselves to each other. The decision to do it should be made after college at least so you have a little more life experience and maturity. I plan to wait until marriage or at least until I'm engaged because I want this to be something I share with only one person.
I know that a lot of people are more lax about it and that they'd rather not wait and I'm no one to judge, I just have a deep respect for sex and I plan to remain chaste (probably because of the prayers of my improv team as well as my own mentality).
However, when I say I'm not one to judge, that doesn't mean I won't give my opinion. For instance, my best friend is planning to lose her virginity when she comes home for Thanksgiving break. When she told me this, I went a little bananas (or a lot). I don't think she's mature enough to be making this decision. Her history with this boy is spastic and complicated. They don't have a healthy relationship, and it's been even worse because she's away at college and the boys there give her a lot of attention which she is all too happy to return. I spent a lot of time asking her questions and making sure she knew what she was getting into and after all that she still hasn't made me believe her. Instead she started ignoring me and I haven't spoken to her in a few weeks.
I know she doesn't share my views and I know she doesn't agree with the church but her view of sex is so skewed because all she really knows comes from the media. She believes sex isn't anything special and that wanting to do it is the same as being ready to do it. I think this is due in part to how casually it's treated in this day and age. Shows like Gossip Girl or Grey's Anatomy treat sex like a cigarette break: something pleasurable done a few times a day to relieve stress.
I really miss the days when to know about sex was to experience it firsthand in privacy, if not in wedlock. Let's start leaving things up to the imagination shall we?

Sincerely,
Mare

Guided Assignment 4

My rhet and comp class is taken in conjunction with a lecture on the 60s. This lecture covers everything about the 60s including the Vietnam War which is the topic we're currently discussing.
Right now, we're looking a the use of the media and comparing to other wars America has been/is involved in.
This is a really fascinating topic for me, history buff that I am, because of the way the media has evolved over time. Most of the pictures and posters I see from WWI and WWII are propaganda used to support or condemn the war. Then we move into the Cold War. Propaganda was important during the Cold War as well but we also begin to see uncensored pictures of devastated areas like East Berlin. It wasn't really until Vietnam, the first televised war, that Americans were really aware of what their soldiers faced. Much of it was censored so that support of the war wouldn't drop (which it did anyway), but it was still more than the public had previously seen. Now, in the midst of the War in Afghanistan, correspondents are risking their lives more than ever to provide Americans with the truth about what's happening to their soldiers but magazines and newspapers are too afraid to print the more graphic pictures for fear of losing readers. The Department of Defense also has precautionary regulations when it comes to printing pictures taken from the front.
In my opinion, these images must be shared. It is only once the public gets get an honest idea of the war that they can begin to make informed decisions about if they want this to continue or not. The victims portrayed in these startling pictures are human begins, regardless of race or relationship to the Taliban, and the sooner we realize that the better.
Make love not war y'all.