State-Sanctioned Rape? Excuse Me?

I just finished reading Nicolas Kristof's article called, "When States Abuse Women." It was mainly about how many states are taking extreme measures to prevent abortions. In states like Texas, women getting an abortion are required (yes, it's MANDATORY) to get a vaginal ultrasound, listen to the fetus' heartbeat, watch it on a screen and listen to the doctor explain about all of the fetus' organs. Then, the girl has to sign papers saying she understands all of it, go home and wait 24 hours before she can come back and actually get the abortion. Many people are saying it borders on the definition of rape.

Rape is, after all, "putting any object into an orifice against a person’s will." That's what this is, except the state government is organizing it. "Twenty states now require abortion providers to conduct ultrasounds first in some situations, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization. The new Texas law is the most extreme to take effect so far, but similar laws have been passed in North Carolina and Oklahoma and are on hold pending legal battles." Read that again. TWENTY STATES. That's almost half of our country. What I'm wondering is if these laws are constitutional. They probably are, but I'd like to investigate some more. I am just so shocked to learn about this. Yes, I knew people were against abortion. I knew a lot of people were against abortion. This just seems like a little bit over the boundary.

All these people seem just a tad hypocritical to me. They are so against abortion, yet they still do the following. "The small proportion of women and girls who aren't using contraceptives account for half of all abortions in America, according to Guttmacher. Yet Texas has some of the weakest sex-eduction programs in the nation, and last year but spending for family planning by 66 percent." It honestly makes no sense to me how they could possibly make women go through such hoops to get an abortion when in fact they are doing little to stop it from happening in the first place. I understand that they have their opinion about the matter, and I respect that, but they can't just complain about a problem and make it worse if they didn't try to prevent it in the first place! 



Personally, I am pro-choice. I think if a women wants an abortion, she should be able to get one, especially for young girls. People shouldn't bring a child into the world unless they are going to take care of it to the best of their ability, love it with all their heart, and provide it with a good life. That's my personal opinion on the matter. After reading the article, it just made me even more pro-choice, if that's even possible. I just couldn't believe some of the bigotry in our country. If a doctor has to probe a woman's vagina to stop her from getting an ultrasound, and make her do all that other crazy stuff, things are clearly out of hand. Some people see that, but until more people see that, nothing is going to get better any time soon.


Here's a link to the article if you want to check it out for yourself, which you should.

Invisible...For Good or Bad?

Skylar Grey is a very talented yet little-known artist, and I just love her. (She's the one that sings the chorus in Coming Home, by Diddy-Dirty Money.) I've been addicted to her song, Invisible, for the past few weeks and I really wanted to look a little deeper into it. Boy, was I surprised what I found. I thought I liked this song because it had a nice tune and she had such a nice voice, but now I like it for so much more.

People probably hear this song the first time, and think, wow, this girl is seriously depressed. (I'm not going to lie, that's what I thought as well the first time I heard it.) If they took the time to really unpack the lyrics, they would see that it's so much more than that. The first few lines are, "I take these pills, to make me thin. / I die my hair, I cut my skin. / I try everything, to make them see me, / But all they see, is someone who's not me." Okay, I see she has some issues here...but are they really her issues? I think she is characterizing the common image of beautiful with her words, and it's just about someone who's failed to conform. All the stereotypes of modern beauty make tons of girls and women feel self-conscious and just not pretty in general. It's true, what's she's saying. People who don't fit the exact criteria for beautiful often do things like taking pills, and cutting their skin, to make themselves feel better, or relieve the stress.

It's sad that beauty is so unrealistic and unachievable. In the chorus, she says, "Even when I'm walking on the wire, / Even when I set myself on fire, / Why do I always feel invisible, invisible. / Everyday I try to look my best, / Even though inside I'm such a mess, / Why do I always feel invisible, invisible." I don't think she's literally walking on a wire or setting herself on fire here, it's definitely more of a metaphor. Perhaps "walking on the wire" actually means when things matter, or when she's atop the world. Setting herself on fire probably means making a big show of herself. It hurts, when people try so hard to get noticed, and yet nothing happens. Beauty should be subjective, yet modern media and modern publicity have made it nearly unattainable. People have developed a definite opinion of what beauty should be, and that's the absolutely wrong thing to do. A skinny girl wearing lots of make-up should have the same beauty-value, shall we say, as an overweight girl au-natural. Skylar Grey demonstrates this with her lyrics. She's saying even when she does conform to the modern stereotypes and standards of beauty, (everyday I try to look my best), she STILL isn't getting recognized. That's the bitter truth. Girls gunk themselves up to look "pretty," and wear the latest styles to be, "cool," but all they are doing is supporting the messed up world we live in. And they STILL aren't there yet. They are the ones that feed the ever-growing monster of a concept we call, "beauty."

To wrap up, basically, this song has a lot more than it appears to on the surface, just like in people. What she is implying about beauty is spot on, and I've come to believe it. Maybe that makes me a cynic, or maybe it just makes me truthful. You decide. This song is what happens to people who have lost hope in all that is good, and realize the truth about life. This is one of those examples of what not to do (if you take it literally) when you become "invisible" in your own way. Everyone is invisible to something or someone, but if we dig deep enough, we can all find that thing that makes us stand out.

This is the song if you want to give it a listen...just remember she took some artistic liberties in the music video, specifically when she shows the lyrics literally.

Mercutio: The Forgotten Influence of Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet are probably the most recognizable names in romance. Even if you haven't read the play yet, everyone knows a little about the tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet. Most people know Romeo and Juliet are the main characters, maybe a true Shakespearian might even know a thing or two about the secondary characters, like Friar Lawrence, the Nurse, Benvolio, and Tybalt. I know that before studying this text closely, I had no idea who most of the people I just named are. I certainly didn't have any idea about who Mercutio was. Oh yeah, Mercutio. Did you forget about him too momentarily? Too bad. Mercutio is a way under appreciated character. Mercutio's role in the play is just as pivotal and important as that of Romeo and Juliet.

Romeo and Juliet met at a party thrown by the Capulets (Juliet's family) and Romeo crashed it. (You see, the Capulets and the Montagues, Romeo's family, have been having this ancient grudge that has prevented the two families from getting along. ) The two decide to get married after knowing each other only a few hours. Romeo kills Tybalt, and he is then banished. Juliet and Friar hatch a plan where Juliet drinks a potion that will make her appear dead for a day, and when she wakes up, Romeo will be waiting to run away with her. When they got back, everyone would be so happy Juliet was alive, they would forget about Romeo's wrongdoings. Unfortunately, Romeo didn't get the memo before he killed himself by Juliet's side, and then Juliet woke up and killed herself. You might be asking yourself, what did Mercutio have to with any of this? Well, to put it simply-everything.

Mercutio was the one who persuaded Romeo to go to the party in the first place. Act 1, scene 4, is all about Mercutio telling Romeo to go to the party, and give love another chance. "And to sink in it, should you burthen love-Too great oppression for such a tender thing...If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.— Give me a case to put my visage in! A visor for a visor.—What care I what curious eye doth cote deformities? Here are the beetle brows shall blush for me." To put simply, Mercutio is telling Romeo to give love another chance, and when it brings him down, to keep trying. If you really think about it, this interaction is what sets off the course of events for the rest of the play. If Romeo hadn't gone to that party, he would never have met Juliet. Mercutio is pretty much responsible for them falling in love in the first place.


Mercutio's death is what changed the play from a comedy to a tragedy. There is a big fight scene involving Romeo, Tybalt, Mercutio, and Benvolio. Benvolio of course is the one who is trying to keep the peace between the two sides, but that doesn't really work out. Tybalt comes at Romeo because he is mad that he crashed the party. Romeo couldn't fight back because he was Tybalt's kinsman, but Tybalt did not know this. Since Romeo didn't fight, Mercutio provoked Tybalt and fought him himself. His last words were, "A plague on both your houses!" (3.1) This means that Mercutio wants both houses to suffer for their immaturity and meaningless fighting. Death was the outcome. Mercutio's cry was the unintentional wake-up call both houses needed. Without his death, Romeo wouldn't have killed Tybalt, which wouldn't have led to hin getting banished, which wouldn't have lead to Romeo's and Juliet's death. Mercutio, in his own way, set the dominos falling.


Many people believe it was Romeo's and Juliet's decisions that lead to the outcome of the play, but I believe differently. I believe that it was Mercutio had just as big an influence on everything as they did. He is literally the turning point of the play. He shapes the entire plot. He is important in so many scenes, and his actions lead to others that set up everything in the play. I will never forget the character of Mercutio. Never, ever, ever.

Books Can Be Shy, Too. [Eragon Spolier Alert]

What do you think of when you hear the word, "fantasy?" The genre? Specific series like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings of The Chronicles of Narnia? That's what most people think of. What most people don't think of, however, is Eragon. It is just sad that so little people have read it. It deserves to be in the same category as the series aforementioned. It is really terrific, every last detail down from the characters to the setting to the symbolism to all the hidden meanings...but no one gets to know this because the book is so shrouded and no one knows about it. I was reluctant to read it until recently when I read the first few pages in Barnes & Nobles. I always thought it would be too long, or too fantastical for me, and other books took priority. Now I realized that I wasted 3 years waiting to read this book.

I am not very far into it, as some of the language is a bit confusing and I have to take time to really comprehend every page. Eragon is the name of the main protagonist (not the dragon as I previously thought) and he lives in what reminds me of medieval Europe. (It's not though, its in some other form of earth I guess.) A quick synopsis of the plot is that he hunts in a mystical forest called the Spine (which many people are afraid of so I thought it is important) and one day he found a curious bluish-white stone. He lives in a protected valley, and it seems like his whole country is controlled by an evil dictator who used to be a dragon rider. Dragon riders were very special to the people because they protected them and were highly respected. The only ones left are evil. Eragon's stone turned out to be a dragon egg, and when the government found out, they sent people to burn down his house. The egg matured into nearly a full size dragon that he calls Saphira. He was destined to be a rider. Eragon has sworn vendetta on these people and is going on a quest, with the old, experienced story-teller Brom, so he can kill them.


I think the main reason I am loving this fantastic piece of literature so much is because of the detail Christopher Paolini put into it. Considering he wrote the first manuscript for it when he was only fifteen, I am amazed at his extensive vocabulary and powerful writing skills. In some books, over-describing settings makes it boring and very blah. This guy manages to do it in a way that makes me question every detail, wonder if it has significance, and I think that is the sign of a great writer. The way he does this with Eragon himself is absolutely marvelous.


Usually I would be bored out of my mind, reading about a male protagonist in a fantasy novel, but somehow I am not. Paulini describes Eragon through little details, especially through his actions, that help the reader to slowly understand more about his character and traits.The fact that the story is told in third person instead of first person helps you to know him better, and get to know him like you were actually there. If you were inside his head, it would be less of a challenge to figure him out. For example, when Eragon first touched his dragon hatchling, he felt an icy pain that ran all the way up his arm and left a shiny scar in his palm. He tried to cover it up, so no one would notice. I believe this says a lot about his character. After only meeting the creature for five minutes, he was already thinking about how to be considerate and how he was already thinking of the dragon's safety.


Later, Eragon and Brom are attacked by Urgals, evil creatures that work for Galbatorix. They come to an abandoned town and find all the people dead. When they are attacked, Eragon fends off the blows coming from one of the urgals, and Brom is doing the same thing with the other. Brom is wounded very badly, so Eragon's first instinct is too lead the monsters away from those in danger, putting himself in more danger. I love how nice he is. (I know it's not the highest-level word in the world, but it is exactly what he is.) He fights them off and knocks them out with a strange power from inside him that he didn't know existed, and he nearly collapses from weakness. Before even examining himself, he hobbles to Brom to make sure that he is okay. That alone says so much about Eragon, it hardly needs any explaining. The bottom line is, Eragon always puts others before himself.


It is really a shame that this work isn't recognized by more of my peers. It would be a great book to try out, especially if you like fantasy. Like I said in the title, books can be shy, too. Eragon (the book not the character) isn't very out-there with advertisements like Harry Potter was, and how Twilight was. We make it shy, just like how we make series like the Hunger Games and Harry Potter outspoken and bubbly. (Metaphorically, of course.) Even non-fantasy readers can pull something from this book. I am excited to learn more about Eragon (the character) and dive deep into his world. Hopefully, you are too.

Extra Credit Poem

Life is an egg, fragile and weak.

We are the yolk, unprotected, so to speak.

Life is an egg, delicate and small.

We must stick together to do anything at all.

Life is a sunrise, a beacon of hope.

When we stick together, we are able to cope.

If life is an egg, small and weak,

we are one move away from a terrifying shriek.

If our fragile egg broke, what would happen to us?

The entire world would be in a fuss.

But perhaps, if we keep hoping, things will turn out for the best.

After all, isn't that really life's test?

To expect the worst, but hope for the best?

If we do that, we might all be blessed. 

But there's one thing we manage to all fail to spot.

The sad thing is we overlook it a lot.

Think about it-how could an egg really survive?

How can the fragile thing keep us alive?

The help of others, that's what we miss.

We are always wrapped up in our ignorant bliss.

It's their support that keeps us awake.

Without them, our fragile egg shell would break.

Woah, How Did I Miss That? (art post)

This painting is called Sunrise by the Ocean, by Vladimir Kush.

At a fist glance, what do you see? An egg spilling yolk and the white stuff that comes out of it, whatever that is. If you had just walked by it in a museum, would you have given it a second glance, or would you have just walked right on by, concluding you initial assumption, the one of the egg, was correct? I would just like to point out the Kush's attention to detail, and the sheer realism of it, reminds me of Salvador Dali (another great surreal artist to check out). I was googling images of paintings for a long time, when I came across this one. And I overlooked it. About half an hour later, I stumbled across it again, and I figured, hey, why not. Well, the second time I looked at it I looked closer, and saw all the details that I'd missed the first time.

Most people's first impression of it is just a broken egg, but I think that is apart of the magic of this image. At a first glance, you see the fragile world, represented by the egg, broken in two, with yolk, possibly representing happiness, spilling out as well as the white stuff, which could represent all the people the world protects. Yes, at a first glance, it seems broken. At a second glance, you notice the support systems and scaffolding supporting it. This is part of the message! You can even go one step further, and say the people are fragile on the outside but sturdy on the inside.

It's safe to assume that the ocean continues going on towards the distance. I think that this supports my statement by representing that hope continues into yesterday and tomorrow. That little figure in the foreground of the picture is toting the little shell with another person, which could represent the hard struggles that today's generations are going through so that tomorrow's have a better life. The little person towards the right of the water source is clutching their knees. I think that this person represents the people who are resistant to change, an look where's it's gotten them? The other guy is moving forward, while that guy is standing still, afraid.

This painting connects to humanity in a number of ways. First of all, it could connect to changes in governments, or the artists ideas reflecting a specific bill or law. However, I think it has more to do with society as a general. I believe it is about moving forward as the human race, not specifically this select group of people or that select group of people. It's about the fact we are all human, and, at the beginning, we were all eggs. More symbolically, we are all eggs, just waiting to be broken. Life is tough, and it's important to hold on to hope (the sun/yolk). If we do that, others will support us, and aid us, so as for humans to advance. There are some core values that all humans share, and I think this painting really demonstrates the basic needs we all have, how we overcome challenges, and our beliefs the citizens of the world.

Be More Chill, by Ned Vizzini

I picked up this book because I had already read It's Kind of a Funny Story by this author and I liked it. In that book, the main character was funny, intelligent, clumsy, unlucky, and depressed. All these things combined made him very lovable and relatable. I'm not terribly far into this book, but I have a feeling I'm gonna like it too.

The main character in this book is named Jeremy Heere. He's pretty much your average, high school dork. He's in every drama production the school puts on, he is madly in love with a girl he will never get to have, and he doesn't have that many friends. Your typical high school-loser cliche. But somehow, Vizzini is managing to put his own spin on it.

One of the things I hate the most in literature, especially realistic fiction, are all the stereotypes and cliches. Normally, I'd put down this book right away and start something more original. I just can't seem to do that though. The main issue in books with a geeky, male protagonist is usually self-esteem or acceptance. Although I can see both of those issues pooping up, the author hasn't emphasized them enough to make them the main issues. I still feel like the real conflict hasn't been introduced yet. I am still waiting for Jeremy to make a mistake.

I am very interested in Jeremy as a character, and I will be tracking his development throughout this story. Right now, he is kind of sad and it is obvious he thinks he needs change in his life. I think he really wants to change, and I think that he will try to make it happen, unlike Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye. The two seem kind of similar; both are unlucky, bad at social interactions, and have a cynical outlook on life. The whole book, Holden complained and complained, and he wasn't doing anything about it. It took a very bad experience to wake him up and jumpstart his change. Jeremy on the other hand is different. He has this huge crush on a girl, and he tried speaking to her. He was going to give her chocolate, but it melted. He failed for a different reason than Holden: rotten luck. One thing all really good characters have in common is that they fail in some way. Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird did not win the case. However, he knew in his heart he was right, and it added to him as a character. Holden failed at everything, but eventually he learned from his mistakes and changed for the better. Jeremy failed this time, but it's safe to assume he will do a better job next time.

I think by the end of the book Jeremy will be what he hopes to be, which is popular. I think he will get the girl, and he will also become a better person, just from my other experiences with this author.

Hopefully, I'm right.