The State of Being Hu(wo)man.

May 15, 1991, I made my debut to life. I was destined to grow a womb, weight on my chest, curvy hips, and a bit more body fat than my best friend. I was to be the object of eyes instead of ears; of superficial worth instead of intellectual savvy. By birth, my head was shadowed by a sheet of glass, which, day by day, inched closer to me. I never noticed it as I grew up, because I never cared for female company. Legos, Hot Wheels, and toy guns graced by toy box, and I spend my days being an elite spy for the CIA (a better one, in fact, than my friend Lucas).

It wasn’t until high school when I felt the first stings of male chauvinism. As puberty progressed, people often remarked on my decent physical appearance. I had a Filipino mother, a White father, and had been an athlete for my whole life, so naturally, my face was unique and my body was sculpted relatively well. But perhaps what hurt more was that I was never called “smart,” “witty,” or “funny.” I sort of was, in grammar school, when I had brightly colored braces, unflattering glasses, and no shape to my prepubescent body. I tried to rationalize it, to say that it was just McNair’s effect on me, that I was absorbed in a highly competitive atmosphere and though I may have been bright, I seemed duller when placed in the same room as a genius. I still do try to rationalize it as so. But I know that once I’m out of 123 Coles, I’m going to see exactly the same thing, and I won’t have a competitive atmosphere to use as an excuse for it.

It was also high school when I set my mind on not having children. Why? Sorry, I have no intelligible excuse for this except “Kids suck.” To be truly honest, I don’t believe I’d successfully raise them, I’d probably neglect them like I neglect everything else, and I don’t want to deal with the responsibility of ensuring a human being’s future. It was my grandmother who told me that “Menstruating is a little monthly sacrifice for the privilege to make life.” Though this is a cute way to look at bleeding out of a vagina, I’ll have to be blunt. It effing sucks that I still have to endure a painful week (instead of three days), every three weeks (instead of four). I won’t get detailed, don’t worry. It’s not only an annoyance, it’s another force (working in cohorts with friends, family, and other adults) pressuring me to have a child. I don’t want one, but to think that every month I have to sit out and sometimes even call out of school because of the pain I feel, and that the pain is for nothing… well, you reconsider.

But let’s talk about things that matter right now: I’m a junior in high school, I’m looking at colleges and I’m going to be applying in a few months. The number of women in college (and in the overall population) exceeds that of men, so the odds are highly against us (unless we’re interested in West Point or some other rare colleges). A woman is running for the Democratic primaries. Maybe it’s a step forward. Really, I don’t see the step, because the discrimination is still full-throttle, we still judge her ability to be president just based on her femininity. (I’m even guilty of it.)

To even simply accept the social (and unrealistic) expectations of being perfectly beautiful is hard. Look at our movies. All the ones that have women as the protagonist heroines are the ones with women (Sorry Ms. Jolie) like Angelina playing Lara Croft, with voluptuous breasts, curvacious hips, and amazingly strong arms and abs. Or it fails like Ultraviolet (I hated that movie so much..) where the plot FAILS. The only way women ever look appealing is if they’re attractive, badass, or GOD you’re lucky if you’re both. The meaning of sexy is almost unattainable by most average ordinary women.

So all in all, there’s mounting pressure to be a mother, a wife, to be just an attractive sidekick to the all-powerful male boss, to battle the millions of other women trying to surpass that expectation and attain CEO status, and even worse: we need to look perfect. It’s no wonder more women than men report a history of attempted suicide, with a gender ratio of 3:1. (Yes, it’s that bad.)

I also notice that no one likes women writers because of the expectation that all we’ll ever write is sappy love novels. I must strongly disagree with that, just look at Nora Roberts. Or JK Rowling. You know you love their books. I prefer writing horror/occult fiction. =D But yeah, y’all suck.

I don’t know why I wrote this. I guess I was just PMSing. (I must admit, I do have a point.)

That’s all for now. Peace homes.

-Therese

Anti-Piracy PSA with some washed-up actor who once played a character named McLovin.

funnier than you think

“Piracy PSA” with Christopher Mintz-Plasse on FunnyOrDie.com

Janina San Miguel – Miss Philippines World 2008 – WITH SUBS

Atleast shes pretty.

“If” They Walk Away…

After staring at that for about a good ten minutes, I came to the conclusion that if they were worth fighting for, you would never let them go.

Hell, a thousand reasons could be present for why they walked away…
- they could have loved you so much, that they believe that they will hold you back
- they could have cared for you so much, that they want you to be free to do whatever you desire
- they could have thought, “there is no way, I could get someone that great.”
- they could have cherished you so much, that they wanted you to have a great life and that you are the only mistake in it at the moment
- they could have adored you so much, that the only thing they wanted you to do was live a life where you could find the guy/girl of your dreams because they “think” that they aren’t your one and only

I could have came up with a hundred more reasons… but like they said…

“If you love someone, just tell them… before the moment passes by.“
and
“Don’t wait for the one you can live with, wait for the one you can’t live without.“

I’ll leave you with that…

- Jed

obama has no dirt on his shoulders.

word.

-julian

Just a thought (about greatness).

We’re always taught to aspire to greatness. And that’s what we do: aspire to greatness.

And maybe it’s because we’re not being motivated by such a phrase, although that’s its purpose of existing.

Truth is, we’re probably being hindered by the idea more than encouraged.

No one has yet told us to “Achieve greatness.”

Then again, it wouldn’t be greatness if everyone did it.

Just a thought.

- Therese

Surf’s Up, Hawaii! …or not. How much I despise “break homework”

So yeah, I have to say I’ve had one of the most enjoyable Spring Break vacations I’ve ever had. While I know many a soul had a terrible break, I try not to dampen their already grief-sodden spirits. It’s just very unfortunate that teachers decide to put a bulk of work on students’ shoulders while students try desperately to get the ADD monster out of their systems so that by the time school comes, there’s nothing to worry about. “Break” isn’t break anymore. It’s “a few days off from school where you’ll have some time on your hands so here’s a bunch of work for you to do!” I understand it’s supposed to keep our minds stimulated, but really, if it’s more beneficial for us to stay active and go out during break, then surely, it would be wiser to assign us something like, I don’t know, going to Rex Plex or something. Seriously!

But maybe what bothers me most is how, this entire week, I was out being active, doing things outside, having a good time. Hell, I learned how to surf in Hawaii, dude! Then, I went to start doing homework, and look what happened: I wrote a post on TPOT, did a bunch of forms for The Awakening Project, spent time on Facebook, AIM, and what’s worse: I cleaned my room instead of doing homework. Now, maybe if the homework was something less chair-binding, I’d be out doing it. Especially if it’s research, I mean, you’re just ASKING me to procrastinate on all of my work.

Alright I better stop now. I’m making matters worse for myself, homework-wise. Haha. Peace homes.

- Therese

Kobe and an Aston Martin

Ok maybe he can’t do it.

-julian

Don’t Regret.

Usually I have a thousand thoughts on regrets… but this one thing sums it all up.

So don’t be afraid to take those chances or else you might regret missing out with the ones you love, or could have loved.

- Jed

Fanfiction

Definition from Urban Dictionary:

Fanfiction [also spelled fan fiction and fanfic(s)] – n. Stories written by fans of a certain TV show, cartoon, anime, book, or movie using existing plots, characters, or ideas from the series then continuing the story, adding new characters, changing the ending, or changing the plot.

Really, that is just a broad definition of what a really fanfiction is. Fanfiction are a group of stories that allows readers to shape the characters and the plots they love to fit their imaginations. To change the roles and the situations that was previously written and adjust them to their own likings.

Of course, there are some writers who don’t do the story justice and write a crappy form of the anime/manga that results in “flaming” or really “constructive criticism.” At the same time there are actually a few fanfics that grab me and pulls me in. (Note from this point of the post and on, I’ll be referring only to those “good” fanfics, unless otherwise noted.) They grab my attention and keep me hanging on by threads that won’t let me go no matter how hard i try to pull away. The way the story captures the true natures of the characters and puts them in situations that has me building the picture deep within my mind.

Some fanfics can grab your emotions and push them to extremes as you feel what the character feels, get drawn in by all the situations that are occurring, and be dragged by a thought through a thousand words of charged and passionate sentences that take your breath away without a second thought. In times like these, you become inspired to read more and even write fanfictions of your own.

And sometimes the type of fanfictions you read may be categorized into their own specific categories such as AAMRN’s (Ash and Misty Romance Novels) or SasuSaku’s (Sasuke and Sakura Romance Novels).

Of course, you have many categories of fanfiction. And searching for them may be quite confusing at first, so here is the common method of searching through fanfictions. (This is through the use of fanfiction.net and similar sights.)
1. You can first search for the type of Anime or Manga you want to read. So we’ll use Pokemon in this example.
2. Then you can follow up with the rating of the book from General Audience to a Mature Rating.
3. After that you can follow up with the type of Genre you want, which ranges from romance to an action/adventure type story.
4. Which is finished up with how long of a story you want to read, the type of writing style, or how many words the story contains.
5. After experience, you can probably tell which stories are good by just reading the first few paragraphs or your gut feeling.

So happy fanfiction hunting and enjoy reading those fan-written stories.
As a treat, here is a link to one of my favorite fanfics, it’s an AAMRN and is decently lengthy and very well written…
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1548383/1/The_Game_of_Love

- Jed