I'm back...(maybe)

So I have started but then stopped writing about a million blog posts in the last few weeks. Part of the reason I haven't written so long really is because my work schedule changed and its been hard for me to adjust to normal people time. Part of the reason is also because my computer was having problems, but to be honest a big part of the reason is because I got burnt out.

Not on writing, I pretty much love to write. What I got burnt out on was following politics. When I first started this blog, that wasn't going to be the central focus of what I wrote. I was just going to write about my everyday life and see what I came up with. However, it was not a huge surprise that what I came up with was politics.

Since I was a kid, economics and discrimination and woman's rights issues has always been something that fascinated me. Fascinated seems like a weird way to put it, but it seems so simple to me the way that poverty and racism and sexism are all inherent traits of capitalism and I have always been compelled (much to the annoyance of my friends and family I'm sure) to convince everyone around me why it all needs to change.

So when I started writing on here, it was really neat to find a way to connect with other people who felt the same way. I would write on here and get comments about people that thought about the same stuff I did. I would go on other blogs and learn about stuff I'd never be exposed to otherwise. Overall, it was cool.

So anyway, after writing for awhile I started to spend more and more time looking about stuff about these issues. I started watching mainstream media more trying to get a sense of why everyone else has such weird ideas about things (i.e. teabaggers). I started reading more essays by people that disagreed with what I thought. And the end result of all that was that I got so disgusted that I needed a little time away from right-wing equals family, freedom and hard work and left-wing equals fascism, baby murder and high taxes. Overall, I got cynical and burnt out.

It seems like instead of seeing the recent depression as a clear sign that the rich screw over the poor at every chance they get, the super scary teabaggers have convinced the working poor to become their foot soldiers.

 They throw around words like family, “real” Americans and freedom and suddenly neoliberalism is this fancy new idea thought up around a roaring log fire by Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck. They are literally proposing that the problems caused by neoliberalism and rampant, non-regulated capitalism can be solved by even less regulations, lower taxes and fewer social services. And of course by getting rid of undocumented workers...because obviously THEY are the reason that wall street fell apart.

Anyway, the conservative movements stance on the solution to this country's problems is basically like saying the way to put out a fire is by dousing it in gasoline. And people are buying it...hook, line and sinker. And the political ads for the midterm election? GA-ross. They're idiotic.  No one says what their politics are, they just say that they
for: hardworking Americans, freedom, change and against; Washington, job loss and pork barrel spending. 

here is an example of one:

Ron Johnson

What the eff does that even mean? I will tell you what it means, nothing.  It is basically like me saying that you should vote for me, if you vote me into office I will be against toddler beating, stealing from old people and making McDonalds illegal and I will fight to make donuts free, a six day weekend and spending Christmas with your loved ones.

My point is, all that modern political ads say are that the candidates are against vaguely
bad things and for vaguely good things. They never get into what they would concretely change or what their own political history is. Its disgusting. And fyi, it isn't just the right that do this, all politicians are guilty of it.

Anyway, back to the point I was making, the fact that the conservative movement in the US is nutso isn't exactly breaking news but what does this have to do with this blog? Well, last weekend I was visiting my dad and I said to him that I was fed up with politics....And I got a very,very, very, VERY long lecture. Now to put this in perspective, my dad is not a lecturer. He is about the most laid back person you could find but a few hours after I made that comment, he knocked on the door and basically gave me an hour long speech about how doing nothing was about as useful as hopping on the teabagger train.

Now don't get me wrong, its not like I think that this little blog is going to swing an election (VOTE FOR RUSS FEINGOLD!) but my dad did have a point. Even if the only difference I can make is to educate myself, (and of course N. who is forced to listen to just about any interesting/aggravating thing that I learn) at least I'll be able to fight back if I am cornered by a rabid republican. Ugh, I guess we'll see. Anyway, hopefully my readers haven't completely given up on looking at my site.

Bookish, English Orphans.

I'm rereading Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham. Such a good book, the beginning reminds me of Jane Eyre and Dickens (are all English children little orphaned waifs who usually live with wealthy and resentful relatives? Seriously, Jane Eyre, Great Expectations, Vanity Fair, Oliver Twist, this book..even Harry Potter. Where the eff are all the English parents?). Anyway there is a quote in OHB that I absolutely love,

“Insensibly he formed the most delightful habit in the world, the habit of reading: he did not know that thus he was providing himself with a refuge from all the distress of life; he did not know either that he was creating for himself an unreal world which would make the real world of everyday a source of bitter disappointment.”...brilliant.

Is it weird that I tend to love books about impoverished children? I mean, not like I like to hear about people being poor but there are pretty much two genres I always like; kids in poverty (like Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Angela’s Ashes, Bastard out of Carolina etc) and dis-utopian stories (like 1984, Brave New World, Clockwork Orange, Fahrenheit 451, Anthem etc). Ugh, I am making myself sound depressing.

N. (my roommate/soon-to-be-husband) is reading 1984 for the first time. He is usually a nonfiction sort of guy but has been raiding my bookshelf lately. I try not to talk about it to him because I really love that story and I am afraid I'll be talking about the plot and give away the ending, he seems to like it so far.

Speaking of Harry Potter (and I was a few paragraphs ago) I've read those books and the whole time I was reading them, I was like why does this story seem so familiar? Then, when my dad moved a few weeks ago and made me clean out my room, I found a box of YA books I hadn't seen in years. In it was a book called, Wizard's Hall by Jane Yolen.

Ok, so here is a story plot. An eleven year old boy goes off to wizarding school. He befriends a girl and boy who know more about the school than he does and they form a little trio. He doesn't do very well, but because of a legendary story about the boy, everyone expects him to be great. There is this wizard who used to be a student there but then grew up and now he hates the school and wants to ruin it. There are many times when the importance of saying the bad wizard's true name is discussed. Anyway, the bad wizard manages to sneak in to the school (did I mention that all over the school are pictures and paintings where the people walk around and talk to passersby and to each other?) and after he sneaks into the school he almost kills everyone until the little boy defeats him and saves the day. Yeah, the little boy in THIS story is named Henry and this book came out years before the Harry Potter series. Weird right?

Anyway, you are probably asking yourself, what was the point of this post? Well, sorry, it was mainly just rambling about English orphaned kids. I just got off a double shift and I am too tired to write anything more substantial...

Also, are you wondering why I haven't written is sooo long? Its because I now work days, usually over eight hour long shifts...hopefully I will get back into the swing of things now. Also, my computer has been working crappy lately but its fixed now....