Columbus Day

Ah Columbus Day, that awkward holiday that sneaks up on us in the middle of October, and you really only care about it if you're in elementary school, because the teacher takes the day off (or part of it) to teach about how Columbus discovered America. You do a little fist bump to yourself because you get to color a ship and you don't have any math homework. Also apparently it warrants flags to be put up by the Boy Scouts in people's yards like you would for Memorial Day, Fourth of July, or Flag Day.

I hate this holiday with a seething fire that burns hotter than wildfire that happened in Yosemite National Park this past summer.

Here's why:

1) Columbus didn't DISCOVER or even land in America. Funny thing, I'm pretty sure you have to land in America to discover it. From my knowledge he landed in the islands now known as the Bahamas.

2) He enslaved and killed many of the native people from the Bahamas. Because of that, nowadays, there aren't any of those native people anymore.

You can make the argument that he set the foundation for exploration, and because of that America was eventually discovered by Europeans, but I don't think it should concern us. I wouldn't dislike it so much if people got their facts right. A small unit on it in elementary school and then in middle school should suffice, but no, we had to go and erect a holiday for it.

When I see flags in yards for Columbus Day, all I can think is, "We salute you, mass murderer person you."

I'm sure Columbus was a great guy, but I think all those dead Native Americans would beg to differ.

This is why we can't have nice things.

A story that my friend told my friends and I infuriated me, to no end. My friend is half Latina, her mom is the one that's Latina.

This said friend of mine explained that she went to the grocery store with her mom, and she switched back and forth between registers because people kept butting in front of her. Finally this person got angry at my friend's mom and yelled at her to go back from where she came from. My friend said that her mom just shrugged it off because she's used to it. The guy at the cash register apologized fervently for this man's behavior.

My other friend then proceeded to say that if she was the manager of that store, she would ban that person from the store.

I on the other hand, don't think that this is proper punishment for a person as ignorant as this. He shouldn't be banned from the store, he should be banned from life itself. A person like that should just stay in their house all day and not interact with other humans.

I would have said this if I was in the cash register's position.

I think my friend's story may have struck a nerve.

No, this is Patrick.

For anyone that speaks the English language, my surname should be the easiest in the world. It's Best, a name with no alternate spellings, no weird way of pronouncing it. People always get it wrong when I try to verbally tell them what it is. Why is this so hard for the general public?

This video sums up how I feel about it, just yesterday I had spell it out to a guy.

Guy: "Okay, what's your last name?"

Me: "Best."

Guy: "Okay, so that's Beth?"

Me: No, it's BesT" (emphasis on the T)

Guy: "So that's spelled B-E-T-H?"

Me: "No, it's B-E-S-T."

This wouldn't bother me nearly as much if it didn't happen so often. Maybe I need a microphone installed in my throat so people can hear me better.

Guilty pleasures

I know we all have these, I think my favorite guilty pleasure is reading soap opera comics. There a multiple opportunities to laugh, gawk, and snark at these specimens of comic. While there are many out there, I really only follow two: Rex Morgan MD, and Mary Worth.

These strips want to be taken seriously, but oh man they are laughably horrible sometimes. Most of them have been around for what seems like centuries, and I'm fairly convinced that the authors that write the strip only do it because they want to retire, but didn't get enough pension.

What takes the cake for these laughable strips is the illustrations. Whenever the text in the strip wants a nice picture to convey what the character is saying/doing/feeling it makes you wanna either facepalm, or laugh your guts out. Take today's Rex Morgan for example:

Forget your husband, look at that hunky statue in the background!

June is talking with a museum working about a book deal for her precocious little daughter, Sarah. While they are discussing the details, Rex has some news for June, but uh oh! It looks like the museum worker is smitten over Rex. Which is a common theme in this strip. I'm serious, everywhere Rex and June go, there is always some female that falls head over heels for this chiseled beauty. Rex goes and leaves a path of smitten females in his wake. When in reality, real women that read the strip find him about as attractive as an unsightly wart.

It's hard to find him attractive when he makes faces like this:

What we can conclude:

1. Rex is trying to make his face recede back into his skull

2. Rex is taking The Bible very literally (I'll just be quoting from memory here) "If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out."

3. Rex is horny

4. Rex has some kind of skin pigmentation disease, and also his daughter Sarah is consumed some of Willy Wonka's gum that is a meal, and the dessert is a blueberry pie and ice cream, so she is turning into a blueberry. You can just picture the Jaws theme while Sarah is trying to prey on her unsuspecting dad. 

 

For anyone that asks

School starts for me in less than a week now. I'm not really looking forward to it, like 99% of the adolescent population. Contrary to what you might think, it's not for typical reasons, such as:

"I hate getting up so early."

Not a problem, I'm actually a morning person and can get ready for school pretty quick.

"I hate learning, it makes my brain hurt."

I love to learn, it's one of the best things under the sun to do.

"I hate all my teachers, and they hate me."

I hardly have problems with my teachers, sure some of them are really boring, but they've done nothing to warrant any hate from me. My surname is Best, and as you can imagine, being the good student that I am, I have had a lot of "you're the Best!" puns thrown my way by teachers my entire student-hood. 

"I don't wanna deal with all these drama llamas!" -rich girl pout-

I've never really had to deal with drama, save it be a few things. I haven't made any enemies, as far as I know, no one has a real beef with me. I stay out of the way and keep my head down, I listen to other people's drama, and then stay out of it. 

Now now, I bet you're getting sick of my Mary Sue perfectly perfect attitude about school, so what do I hate about it?

Atmosphere

+

People

=

\

If there were less (insert every negative adjective here) people in the world, school would be a better place. The one answer you here from lots of college graduates about why they liked college more than high school is because it's a friendlier place. The people that go to college usually want to be there. I strive for a place where I can learn and do my own thing and not be afraid of ridicule. Someday...

This is why I am excited for next year. 

1. I will be a senior, no more...no more

2. My favorite English teacher is hopefully going to be running a creative writing class. Ah yes, hopefully the people that take that class will want to be there, and not be there as a result if needing that one last credit. 

R.I.P. Nicholas Black

This past Saturday, a classmate of mine named Nick Black died.

It was all very sudden, and it came like a hawk in the night, silent. All was right with the world, it was this past Wednesday, I had just dyed my hair blue and was excited to show everyone at church. Every Wednesday the youth of my church gather together and do activities. One of the youth leaders got up to announce some things, including Nick's death. It was all very surreal. I was never friends with Nick, and my mom wasn't too fond of him or his sister. Long story short, my mom is a Sunday school teacher for my church, Nick's family used to come every once in while, and my mom taught both Nick and Jessica (his sister) and they were downright rude and disruptive.

I didn't really mope about it yesterday, but today I feel particularly sad about it. This makes me wonder, if I feel this sad over someone I barely know, what will it be like when someone close to me passes? Person on the other side of the screen, don't go anywhere anytime soon please.

I was looking for a specific poem on the internet and found this instead. It has no correlation to the Black family, but I think it's nice.

All I Know Is...

All I know is.... I will always miss my Nick and long for him. 
All I know is.... one minute I'm together and the next I'm falling apart. 
All I know is.... my heart hurts all the time and it has never felt whole since the day he died. 
All I know is.... the tears won't stop filling up my eyes, soaking my pillows or staining my face. 
All I know is.... I "Really Really" miss him.
All I know is.....it hurts ALL the time. 
All I know is.....I want him back.
All I know is.....sometimes I want him so badly, that I want to go to him. 
All I know is.... there is no greater ache in this world than my child dying.
All I know is.....I love him, even in death, I love him so much.

By: Tina Pielstick 10-19-09

Writing challenge

I have decided to write about this little guy:

I cannot take credit for drawing this, it was done by someone on a site that I frequent.  She invited anyone who likes to write to do this. She gave us the following scene: 

"Let's set the scene first. I'm a fanatic who's collecting newspaper clippings and articles about strange occurences: plushies being found in cases of missing people; people who the public dismissed as insane have told of animals, insignificant people, etc turning into plushies; and mysterious groups who claim that the world is going to end at the hand of a certain plushie. 

Your challenge? 

You're a journalist, reporter, editor, freelance writer, etc and you're writing about one of these incidences (or another if you so choose. Your imagination is the limit ;D). You can write it as an article, editorial, in code, a police report, an old song/poem written thousands of years ago. It's up to you. 

I will do all the formatting so don't worry about that =) Length doesn't matter either~ 


Info about Horus: 

Horus is the man (or plushie) behind the action. Picture here. He does not talk and he no one will ever see how he moves. He just randomly appears in places. It's unclear whether how he chooses his victims, but it is a permanent thing. Once you turn into a plushie, there's no going back. 

To turn into a plushie, the victim must look into his eye. Here's a sample passage of a transformation: 

He thought it was a pity that the doll was missing an eye. The one it had was so… alluring. Leaning in to get a closer look, the backdrop of the store slowly slipped away until only the eye of the plushie remained. There were no other feelings, thoughts, or reactions. Simply the emerald button eye."

This just fascinates me for some reason, so I've decided to write a small passage on it.

How did this all start? I Amy, never intended to become a fanatic of this particular thing. It first started as a hobby, but now I think it means something more. It spared me for some reason. When I had heard of a particular plushie always showing up at crime scenes that involved missing people, I started saving those newspaper clippings and printed out articles that involved it. I was hoping to see if I could connect the stories somehow and solve the mystery. I wasn't even trying to stumble across it, but I did. 

The plushie without a name

It happened in a cabin that I own in the woods. I use it as an escape to do whatever I want. I wasn't even thinking about the plushie. I stopped collecting articles and accounts from people that claim they've seen it, it just slipped off of my to-do list because it didn't seem important anymore. 

The main reason I bought this cabin is because it has internet and a signal so I can look at my phone. You might think that's the opposite of being alone, but what if some emergency comes up? What if I want to write about something, but can't because I don't have adequate resources? Anyway, I was taking a break from a picture that I was painting and looked at pictures on my phone. I wanted to see if there was a picture of a drawing that I wanted to send to my Mom. Suddenly I came across a photo of the plushie, the plushie missing an eye. My muscles started to tense up, like when you know a scary scene is coming up in a movie.

Then I looked up. 

Nothing. 

Okay, I think I'm just paranoid, but why am I so afraid? No one can either confirm on deny that this plushie really is dangerous. Lots of people pass it off as coincidence, because there is a company that specifically makes unique plushies that are only released in stores for a limited time. They're very popular collector items. Everyone and anyone that is a plushie collector buys at least one of the company's limited edition plushies, there must be several of these plushies all around the world. 

The light switched off suddenly, which caused me to gasp really loud. I fumbled around in the dark and found a light switch, but it wouldn't turn on. There has to be a fuse box in here somewhere.  With my phone as my only light source, I found the fuse box and turned on the lights. 

I was walking to my bed when suddenly I tripped over something. My face must have been bright red, I mean, really? Of all the annoying things to happen this has...to...happen

to

me?

I was staring straight into the plushie's eyes, but nothing was happening. The staring match seemed to go on for hours. 

Then I blinked, and it was gone. All that was left behind was an emerald button. I gingerly picked it up and examined it. What was I supposed to do now? Nothing but 'whys' were running through my head. I put the button in my pocket and booted up my computer. I thought I saw a figure out of the corner of my eye. 

...

Nope, I guess it was nothing. 

It was time to do some research.

~End