Went to Florida on vacation.
Took lots of photos.
Blogger hates me, so see them here.
Enjoy your lives.
-Chichi
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Today I Honor the Kids
I started writing a post about violence and shootings after the Oregon mall shooting a few days ago.
"All These People Shooting Each Other," I called it.
What kind of sick bastard goes into an elementary school with a gun? What kind of twisted person would do something like that?
In today's world political correctness is emphasized. There is importance put under not passing judgment. We preach tolerance like it is its own religion and we try to be accepting. Anti-bullying, anti-discrimination, pro-equality. Any other day, any other circumstances, I would strive to meet every one of those conditions. I would strive to follow every one of those pocket rules to being a better person. But not today.
Today, I am judgmental.
Today, I am judging the shooter. Media has reported that he was not diagnosed as mentally ill, but displayed characteristics and was a recluse with a troubled mind. His killing spree was not cold nor calculated. It was full out angst triggered massacre. Adam Lanza would have known he had a problem. He should have.
Today, I am judging the mother. No one needs two assault weapons but the police. One, I'm okay with if you're using it for hunting or for some twisted method of self protection. Or even if you're collecting them but not buying rounds of ammunition for them or firing them. But loaded firearms? In a tiny little place like Newtown, Connecticut? Nancy Lanza did not need to semiautomatic rifles. No one does.
Today, I am judging America's lax gun policies. I personally think self-defense is important, and we do bear a right to carry firearms. But we have absolutely no need to carry assault rifles. We really don't. We're not shooting a bunch of resilient things at once when we exercise our right to bear arms. We're exercising self defense. I'm all for hand guns. But I can't help but think that those other countries with so few deaths caused by gun violence, many of them amounting to a total less than a single recent US massacre, I can't help but think that they're doing something right. America, we're missing something.
Today, I am not a person with a concrete moral compass. I am a sad person. This could have been in my town, in my school. It could have been my friends dead, my teachers smushing us into cupboards to stay alive, or in a nightmare of all nightmares, it could have been my little sister's daycare.
Today, I am a scared person. Newtown is just like Cary, but smaller. We think Cary is safe. We rarely have major crime. Cary in the top cities to live in the country and we have incredible cops. But we're not safe, not really. No one is.
Today, I am reading the news. I am keeping up with each development they have. I want to know why this happened. Who this shrouded in a cloud of mystery killer is. Why things like Aurora and Sandy Hook and Virginia Tech and Columbine and Clackamas Town Center happen. Why the United States averages twenty mass shootings a year, yet other countries sometimes don't even reach twenty gun violence deaths a year.
Today, and tomorrow, and the next, I want answers.
But first. Today we honor the victims. We honor the heroes, we honor the innocent lives lost. We think of angelic little ones, with bouncing ponytails and curious, bright, shining eyes. We remember that they were people, they were children. They are not just corpses, not just target practice for a sick man. Today we remember they were people, and today we wish all the best in recovery for the town.
"All These People Shooting Each Other," I called it.
The first thing that's on my homepage is Google. Okay. Normal. But I also make it a habit to open Yahoo after Google. I don't use yahoo to search, just the front news page.
And every day, swimming out from the little icons in bright purple lettering prancing across the website home page: death. shooting. killed. fatality.
Recently there have been several high profile cases, like the Aurora one, the Walmart one just a few days ago, and the one in the Oregon mall just several hours ago.
What kind of sick bastard goes into an elementary school with a gun? What kind of twisted person would do something like that?
In today's world political correctness is emphasized. There is importance put under not passing judgment. We preach tolerance like it is its own religion and we try to be accepting. Anti-bullying, anti-discrimination, pro-equality. Any other day, any other circumstances, I would strive to meet every one of those conditions. I would strive to follow every one of those pocket rules to being a better person. But not today.
Today, I am judgmental.
Today, I am judging the shooter. Media has reported that he was not diagnosed as mentally ill, but displayed characteristics and was a recluse with a troubled mind. His killing spree was not cold nor calculated. It was full out angst triggered massacre. Adam Lanza would have known he had a problem. He should have.
Today, I am judging the mother. No one needs two assault weapons but the police. One, I'm okay with if you're using it for hunting or for some twisted method of self protection. Or even if you're collecting them but not buying rounds of ammunition for them or firing them. But loaded firearms? In a tiny little place like Newtown, Connecticut? Nancy Lanza did not need to semiautomatic rifles. No one does.
Today, I am judging America's lax gun policies. I personally think self-defense is important, and we do bear a right to carry firearms. But we have absolutely no need to carry assault rifles. We really don't. We're not shooting a bunch of resilient things at once when we exercise our right to bear arms. We're exercising self defense. I'm all for hand guns. But I can't help but think that those other countries with so few deaths caused by gun violence, many of them amounting to a total less than a single recent US massacre, I can't help but think that they're doing something right. America, we're missing something.
Today, I am not a person with a concrete moral compass. I am a sad person. This could have been in my town, in my school. It could have been my friends dead, my teachers smushing us into cupboards to stay alive, or in a nightmare of all nightmares, it could have been my little sister's daycare.
Today, I am a scared person. Newtown is just like Cary, but smaller. We think Cary is safe. We rarely have major crime. Cary in the top cities to live in the country and we have incredible cops. But we're not safe, not really. No one is.
Today, I am reading the news. I am keeping up with each development they have. I want to know why this happened. Who this shrouded in a cloud of mystery killer is. Why things like Aurora and Sandy Hook and Virginia Tech and Columbine and Clackamas Town Center happen. Why the United States averages twenty mass shootings a year, yet other countries sometimes don't even reach twenty gun violence deaths a year.
Today, and tomorrow, and the next, I want answers.
But first. Today we honor the victims. We honor the heroes, we honor the innocent lives lost. We think of angelic little ones, with bouncing ponytails and curious, bright, shining eyes. We remember that they were people, they were children. They are not just corpses, not just target practice for a sick man. Today we remember they were people, and today we wish all the best in recovery for the town.
 |
| The names were released by the Connecticut State Police today. All the kids were either six or seven years old. Such beautiful lives, filled with promises of longevity and love and happiness, just ended. |
Monday, December 10, 2012
Night Ramblings
Before you even start reading:
Thinking of starting a blog?
Don't choose Blogger!
It is the slowest, most unreliable thing on the planet of blogging. I would switch to Wordpress but I'm already too scatterbrained, I can't handle transferring ALL THE POSTS and learning the antics of yet another thingymerbob.
Not happy with you, Blogger.
It's literally nearly four in the morning and I'm completely wide awake. During the school week I average roughly 3 or 4 hours of sleep a night, so I don't know why I don't grow some brains and use Sundays to catch up on sleep (Saturday counts as a school day cause I have to wake up at 8:00, though it sure is a lot better than 6:00 like normal).
I had a whole slew of things to rant about as well as a serious topic, so I'm going to do my serious topic in another post some day.
First things first: Youtube changed it's format thing. Google people, Facebook people, internet people, when will you stop pulling format changes on us? Just kidding, keep doing it. I actually really like the new format, even though it's a bit weird. I actually kind of watched it change. I was watching a video by vlogger AmazingPhil, left to go do whatever, came back for the next one, and boom! New format.
Yeah.
That brings us to item number two! Vloggers. And British people. British vloggers. They are the coolest people ever. I sound extremely ditsy and typical American girl saying that (disregarding the fact that I'm Chinese), but I literally cannot stop watching those videos. I used to fangirl over charlieissocoollike and nerimon but now I've added like four others, including said vlogger above and his friend danisnotonfire. I'd be a horrible vlogger. I sound like an idiot on camera and I stink and talking, so here I am hiding behind my keyboard and writing. But it's so AWESOME.
Item number three. Peak Gymnastics Academy. I wrote about that in another post somewhere (here) in a news article style thing. Well, it's completely becoming a reality. Last week, we got our demo/spirit leotards, team colored grip bags, headbands, and hair ties, we've had our first demo (go Middle Creek Elementary Book Fair!) and we have MAGNETS.
And a leotard and hair tie which do look fantastic in real life, just I have a weird angle here:
[imagine it cause Blogger flips out when I try to upload it]
1. No Peak Gymnastics website yet. :(
2. Ms. Angie and Ms. Brittany rock.
3. Mike from Kenney's rocks for putting up with us for six months!!
4. E.O. Wilson Global Town Hall at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences on Thursday, livestream it in science class or something here!
5. Kylie met Santa and didn't cry.
[another unuploadable picture]
6. Happy birthday Sandy who I wished a happy birthday to a bunch of days late so now I'm making up for it.
Good night, small group of stalkers and other viewers who have stumbled upon this rambling post!
P.S. I won (finished) NaNoWriMo! 50,000+ thousand words during the month of November. :))
Thinking of starting a blog?
Don't choose Blogger!
It is the slowest, most unreliable thing on the planet of blogging. I would switch to Wordpress but I'm already too scatterbrained, I can't handle transferring ALL THE POSTS and learning the antics of yet another thingymerbob.
Not happy with you, Blogger.
It's literally nearly four in the morning and I'm completely wide awake. During the school week I average roughly 3 or 4 hours of sleep a night, so I don't know why I don't grow some brains and use Sundays to catch up on sleep (Saturday counts as a school day cause I have to wake up at 8:00, though it sure is a lot better than 6:00 like normal).
I had a whole slew of things to rant about as well as a serious topic, so I'm going to do my serious topic in another post some day.
First things first: Youtube changed it's format thing. Google people, Facebook people, internet people, when will you stop pulling format changes on us? Just kidding, keep doing it. I actually really like the new format, even though it's a bit weird. I actually kind of watched it change. I was watching a video by vlogger AmazingPhil, left to go do whatever, came back for the next one, and boom! New format.
Yeah.
That brings us to item number two! Vloggers. And British people. British vloggers. They are the coolest people ever. I sound extremely ditsy and typical American girl saying that (disregarding the fact that I'm Chinese), but I literally cannot stop watching those videos. I used to fangirl over charlieissocoollike and nerimon but now I've added like four others, including said vlogger above and his friend danisnotonfire. I'd be a horrible vlogger. I sound like an idiot on camera and I stink and talking, so here I am hiding behind my keyboard and writing. But it's so AWESOME.
Item number three. Peak Gymnastics Academy. I wrote about that in another post somewhere (here) in a news article style thing. Well, it's completely becoming a reality. Last week, we got our demo/spirit leotards, team colored grip bags, headbands, and hair ties, we've had our first demo (go Middle Creek Elementary Book Fair!) and we have MAGNETS.
[imagine it cause Blogger flips out when I try to upload it]
And past this I wrote a bunch
earlier, then my browser crashed, and it only saved this much of my post. But
apparently if you use too many pictures [ahem, guilty] it doesn't actually
save... The rest of it went something along the lines of:
1. No Peak Gymnastics website yet. :(
 |
| Peak website maybe soon? |
2. Ms. Angie and Ms. Brittany rock.
3. Mike from Kenney's rocks for putting up with us for six months!!
4. E.O. Wilson Global Town Hall at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences on Thursday, livestream it in science class or something here!
5. Kylie met Santa and didn't cry.
[another unuploadable picture]
6. Happy birthday Sandy who I wished a happy birthday to a bunch of days late so now I'm making up for it.
Good night, small group of stalkers and other viewers who have stumbled upon this rambling post!
P.S. I won (finished) NaNoWriMo! 50,000+ thousand words during the month of November. :))
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