Reasons Why I hate "We Can't Stop"

I started this list and had saved it for a rainy day, but after the VMAs now seems as good of time as any to post all the reasons "We Can't Stop" is the pits.

-Being vaguely lesbian is not the same as being edgy. That stopped being a thing in the 90s. Actually, it was never a thing, but it stopped being recognized then.

-You can't have your "I'm a woman now" debut by humping huge stuffed animals. Actually, there was nothing that rang even close to "I'm a woman now" in the performance or the video.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/what-miley-cyrus-was-trying-to-do-at-the-vmas-vs-what-miley

-Sticking your tongue out a lot reminds me not of Kiss or any other heavy rock star, but of the poses I used to make when my grandmother took my picture when I was a toddler.


-Saying "it's my mouth I can say what I want to" and all the other blah blah blah variations comes off as those obnoxious people that say "I can do what I want, America is a free country" when you ask them to stop pulling your hair. I know this is a nitpick point, because it isn't like any of her other songs are lyrical masterpieces, but this is the biggie for me. Maybe I'm just an old grouch, but all the teens out there (and I worked with a lot of them over the summer) love the song because it's a "let me be free to be me" song. I perceive it more as a bratty 5 year old than a liberated 20 something.

-Same with the "only God can judge me" line. Wrong. We are all judging you. These are all cliches that got used up in the 8th grade.

So that's all I have to say about that. Hating on child stars is pretty tired, and now hating on this particular song is as well, so no use going much into it. But seriously, I hate this song.

Maybe You Get Bad Customer Service because you're a Bad Customer

"And even if the powers that be at these corporate chains push this "customer is always right" crap because they've decided it's good business to placate horrible jerks, in the real world, outside the land of plastic chairs and soda fountains, adults who throw temper tantrums in public are never right about anything."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-walsh/bad-customer-service_b_3799574.html

Proposals, not packing

Ergh, the angst of repacking everything! Why did my apartment have to be so big? Why does my dorm room have to be so small??

Instead, I'm enjoying this video of my favorite youtube star (it's actually the only channel I subscribe to) proposing to his girlfriend at one of his big live broadcasts. Precious.

Being sick

It's the worst! I'm glad it happened before I moved back to school, though. That's a relief.

I'm all ache-y, my skin hurts, and I miss breathing.

But on the bright side, I figured out how to put gifs in my blog. So that's flashy.

Next Semester- Senior Year??

Originally, I had promised myself I wasn't going to be that senior that posts a status about it being their last first day of school, or weep at every big event, etc etc. But I've spent my whole college career trying not to make big deals about things, and not getting overly emotional. I haven't fully participated. I was a wall flower. So this year, I'm just going to embrace all those stupid lasts, and let myself enjoy it.

I never knew my great-grandbig, so we don't have any real traditions for that. But this year, I'm going to wear the "senior" crown on bid day. I'm going to be the old one. I realized, the new members I mentored last year- they're going to grow up and mentor these next women, and I'm mostly going to be on the sidelines watching. And that's pretty awesome. It's one circumstance where you can be nothing but proud to be a wallflower. 

A few goals, for the Fall:

1. I would really, really like to get a 4.0. I've never gotten one before, and I'm running out of time. I'm prepared to have a semester full of no social life, and full scholastic and leadership engagement. 

2. This is going to seem contradictory, but-- I want to say yes to more things. I want to DO more. I don't mean going out- I've played that scene, and it doesn't make me happy. I mean going to shows in Cleveland, and exploring downtown, and meeting new people. Last year, when I was a rho gamma, I went to a few club meetings just because I didn't have anything else to do, and that was pretty cool. I need to see more than greek life and yearbook.

3. Find my faith. It's somewhere, I'm pretty sure. I don't know if it's in the Episcopal church, or at our Thursday services, or the Methodist church, but I plan on finding out.

4. Learn to use the weight room. I'm so comfortable at the gym, but I've never crossed over to do the weights, and I need to just do that. Along with this goal, I want to run a 5k. I want to be a runner. 

5. Find a healthy routine! I'm going to get up early and have my orange juice while I read the news. I'm going to eat three meals, where I sit down and actually absorb nutrients. Less multitasking, more focus on what I'm doing. When I have a meeting, I'll be in that meeting. When I have class, I'll be in that class. I can juggle all the things I'm involved in, I'm positive. But it will all come down to focus!

Fall Semester, 2013. The beginning of the end. 

Best Friends, and The Yellow Crayon speech.

I couldn't find a video of this scene. But it's still precious. 

Willow: You can't stop this.

Xander: Yeah. I get that. It's just, where else am I gonna go? You've been my best friend my whole life. World gonna end, where else would I wanna be?

Willow: Is this the master plan? You're gonna stop me by telling me you love me?

Xander: Well, I was gonna walk you off a cliff and hand you an anvil, but it seemed kinda cartoony.

Willow: Still making jokes.

Xander: Well, I'm not joking. I know you're in pain. I can't imagine the pain you're in. And I know you're about to do something apocalyptically evil and stupid. And, hey, I still wanna hang! You're Willow.

Willow: Don't call me that!

Xander: The first day of kindergarten, you cried because you broke the yellow crayon and you were too afraid to tell anyone. You've come pretty far. Ending the world - not a terrific notion... But the thing is... yeah, I love you. I love crayon-breaky Willow and I love scary, veiny Willow. So if I'm goin' out, it's here. If you wanna kill the world, well, then start with me. I've earned that.

Willow: You think I won't?

Xander: It doesn't matter. I'll still love you.

Joss Whedon (Spoiler Alert)

I've been rewatching my way through Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and just finished the 6th season (I was exiled to my bed, thanks to a summer cold, so I've had some free time on my hands).

Joss Whedon, you are a dick. I used to love you. Now, I don't. You are a soul crushing, unimaginative, high school boy.

Whedon is known for killing off his characters. Killing Sheppard Book and Wash in Serenity? Pretty unnecesary. I get that we needed some sacrifice, but Jane would have been a perfect character to lose to war. Not Wash. You can make a good argument for Book needing to die to create some faith in Mal, but there were a lot of other ways to do that. Dr. Horrible? It's a fun comedy, that ends in a pretty dark place. Accidentally killing Penny, after he did all this work to prove how great he could be? Lame, Whedon. Way to completely change the tone of the movie in the last 5 minutes.

And then, we get to Buffy. Where he proves that he really has no concept of character development. To him, developing characters means making them more and more miserable, and breaking them down into shadows of their previous self. Everyone blames SMG for ending BtVS, but if Joss hadn't strayed so far from the character, I don't think she would have left. Turning her into this disillusioned, whiny, weirdly self destructive girl- that's not who we all fell in love with. Sure, she can get lost sometimes, but two full seasons of it? Wildly unnecessary. Everyone was ready for her to be done.

All the Angel drama season 2 was perfect. She was struggling, but she was true to herself and she did what she had to do. We all felt for her and cried with her. But at some point after that, she started to get self righteous and hard. There's that whole weird thing going on where apparently she doesn't really love Riley. Then she has to be the world's biggest brat about Dawn (who, admittedly, is also a huge pain in the ass).

Killing Joyce ruined Buffy. The character, not the show. Making her this weak, incapable character was so out of character. She should struggle. We should see her struggle. But this girl has died, killed her first love, and reversed several apocalypses. She can figure out how to pay bills. She can live life without an abusive relationship. Also, that sucked. Spike loved her, we could have just skipped all that drama and made it a healthy relationship. But no. It has to somehow be destructive.

Killing Tara? Rude. Just rude. I love having Willow be the bad ass, I love Xander saving the day...but it's like he started formulating what would be the most outrageously painful combination of loss he could manage.

There are other ways to get reactions out of your audience, and other ways to develop characters. That's really all I wanted to say.

Irrationally Angry

At work the other day, one of my coworkers was getting all riled up about something that I didn't feel was all that big of a deal. I reminded him that if he just had a positive attitude, it wouldn't be so bad-- generally my life philosophy. We're as happy as we make up our minds to be. Admittedly, I made up my mind to be a grouch for a good chunk of my life, so maybe that's why I found the value in a positive attitude.

It also has something to do with the tennis team. I was so awful, but because I kept the moral up and was generally in a ridiculously good mood, I was just as valuable as the people that could actually play tennis. It's not a universal law, but generally people will tolerate your inadequacies a lot more if you're incredibly friendly while being inadequate. Sometimes at work, I'm slow to make milkshakes, or I put mustard on a hot dog that needs ketchup. These mistakes are much more forgivable if you're smiling.

So while I just couldn't understand why he was getting so fussy about this seemingly small issue, he pointed out that I'm the first one to lose my temper when someone gets in my space. And that's true. For some people, not an issue- for me, I lose it. Everyone has their own sensitivities to certain things. We think about this a lot more in regards to sadness- no one can judge how deeply another person suffers. But what about understanding people's anger? Isn't that just as legitimate, that there are things that might seem petty to one person and inexcusable to another?

So I made a list of the things that make me angry:

1. People that are rude to their servers. Or just rude in general, actually.
2. Being ignored
3. Cinnamon gumballs-- seriously, I could rage for hours about these abominations
4. People getting in my way/space.
4a. Old people that stand in front of the doorway of walmart
4b. People that drive 30 on Pone Lane when I'm trying to get to work
5. When people say "when you put 60 girls together, there's going to be drama," or anything similar. Using your gender as an excuse to be a shitty person, and suggesting that it is BECAUSE of your gender that you are a shitty person, really does not fly with me.

Listed this way, most of these seem pretty legitimate to me (except #3, maybe. But until you've gotten that nasty surprise you really can't judge.). But my coworker felt that his button-pushers were equally legitimate. So this week, I'm going to make a conscious effort to recognize when one of these situations starts to happen, and try not to let it rile me up.

I believe in positive attitudes.

...even when the coleslaw explodes all over the shop.