Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat” takes us through the experience of four men stranded in the ocean. These four men are an oiler, a cook, a correspondent, and a captain. When reading between the lines, one will realize that these men are obviously attracted to each other. The cook, the captain, and the correspondent clearly admire the masculinity of the oiler and totally want in his pants.

Not only on The Open Boat does Crane do this. His novel The Red Badge of Courage was slow and filled with homosexuality. Except instead of four being in the middle of the ocean, there are hundreds of young men in a battlefield contemplating their cowardice and sexual preference. And honestly, if anyone can be so descriptive and poetic about anything, they are obviously gay. They should not be published. They should not have their works be required reading for high school and college students all over the United States. These kids are being brainwashed by the work of Stephen Crane and will eventually realize that they too want to be homosexuals and surrounded by men at all times.

(didn’t bother to proofread, so sorry if there are a lot of mistakes!)

Now,  I should start working on my actual essay!

Yes, I know. This video doesn’t apply to every community college student, lol. Only to those who are in their first year, don’t have much going on, and live with their parents. This will be how you feel most of your first year at a CC and, well… if it IS your first year it might not’ve hit you yet (it’s barely September, after all). But it will… once they start posting pictures on their Facebooks… and when they tell you all those cool stories about roomates, getting drunk, going to parties, school traditions, etc. Beware.

For those of you watching that don’t know what community college is, here’s a description: public institution of higher education. Community colleges are characterized by a two-year curriculum that leads to either the associate degree or transfer to a four-year college. The transfer program parallels the first two years of a four-year college. The degree program generally prepares students for direct entrance into an occupation. They are also referred to as junior colleges.

I always told myself I wouldn’t end up at a community college. Specifically, the one I’m going to right now. Though it feels like a giant bowl of suck a lot of the time, it’s not that bad at all.

Oh, and…
I’ll be reading 3 books in September because they all have really close release dates:

Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse
by Kaleb Nation

Catching Fire
by Suzanne Collins

The Lost Symbol
by Dan Brown

• Arrive to the mass early or be there right when it begins. If you get there after the mass starts, you are a distraction. Also, seats tend to get full after a certain amout of time. Being on time to church will not only save you the embarassment of walking into a quiet room and heads turning to look at you with disgust, you will also have the freedom of choosing to sit near someone you know rather than a total stranger.
• Dress appropriately. I know my mom always tells me to wear my sunday best when I go to church, but nowadays more and more people are starting to dress casually for church. If you want to dress that way, it’s okay with me (as long as it’s accepted by the religion). Just don’t wear anything that you would wear to sleep like sweats, a tank top, a muscle shirt,  or an oversized t-shirt. And use common sense: don’t wear something that says “I’m with stupid.” In fact, try to avoid wearing anything with words or logos.
• Turn off your cell phones and electronic devices. Wait… Who am I kidding? No one turns their cell phones off anymore. Put them on silent. No, not vibrate. Silent. I know for a fact that if it vibrates, you will be tempted to sneak a look into your pocket to see who called or texted you.
• Don’t walk in and out of church during the service. Go to the restroom and take care of everything you need to take care of before the mass starts. On a similar note: don’t leave church early. That’s disrespectful.
• Try to avoid talking. If you talk, it implies that you’re not paying attention and disrespecting the word of God. Even if you don’t believe in what’s being said, have some respect for everyone else.
• Don’t chew gum. That’s just tacky.
• If you have small children, don’t feed them snacks. The opening of wrappers and chewing of food is annoying and distracting. (Also, I hope you have the sense not to be eating snacks yourself.)
• If you have a baby and it begins to cry, please take it outside. There’s something just not right about people who go to church against their will covering their ears to drown out the sound of a baby’s cries instead of the preacher’s sermon.

If you know me pretty well or follow me on Twitter or DailyBooth, you’ve probably noticed that I visit the library a lot. If I talk to you regularly, you probably know the type of people I run into at the library. I’m flattered that somebody would go out of his way to write me a note and/or talk to me. Really. But I always laugh at the type of people that seem interested in me.  I know this isn’t the first I’ve talked of this, but it gives me something to write about and maybe have a little laugh at. I don’t know if I feel bad for making fun of these guys or not. Anyway, I wanted to talk about two people that have confronted me when I’ve been at the library.

Library guy number one. If you haven’t seen this video, go watch it now because I don’t wanna type the story. The guy I’m talking about in that video is the same one I’m referring to below.

Since this guy was so eager to contact me on MySpace, I decided to take a look at his profile when I got home that day. Even though a lot of people have totally different identities on MySpace than they do in real life, you do learn a lot about them through their profiles. Some of them are just a total lolfest. Here are some things I found on this library creeper’s profile:

This guy's name is Johnny and he lives in two places. Probably leading a double life. His headline makes me wonder who this so-called Jason is and what he's got to do with natural organic hair products. Maybe it's his alter-ego. I'm not sure which one lives where, though. Don't worry, Johnny. Your secret's safe with us.

I scrolled down a bit and found out that yes, he will. Only me. Zero Nine Two Two. Perhaps he shares a birthday with Tom Felton.

That's his About Me. If you're too lazy to click and read it, just know that the first and most important thing he wants you to know about him are his birthday (which is already in his URL), and the fact that he can type really fast without looking at the keyboard. He also lets us know that he lives with his grandmother and tells us who lived in the back of his residence and when they moved out. He goes on to inform us that he has soft hands and juicy lips and gives us a very concise history of his parents' relationship. After that, there's some sort of fragment saying "HONDA-CRV 2009." The end. Thank you, Johnny...or should I say Jason? I feel very enlightened.

This is his favorite book. It's pretty safe to assume he went to a midnight release party when its sequel, "More Natural 'Cures' Revealed," was released. Maybe he even got to meet Kevin Trudeau himself there!

Library guy number two. I was about to sit down and read Little Brother on my netbook when I made eye contact with a guy sitting a few feet away from me. He wasn’t hideously ugly, nor supre cute. Just kinda meh. He looked like he was doing some sort of math or science work. I dunno. All I know is he had a calculator on him. About two hours after I got there, I decided I wanted to go home, so I packed my stuff and headed outside. I stopped by this tiny store outside the library where they sell cheap books that no one wants any more to see if I found anything interesting. When I was in there, I noticed that guy look towards my direction and walk outside. He seemed to be stalling. As I walked outside, he tapped me on the shoulder, and said “for you.” He handed this note and walked back inside:

I was about to take every sentence in that letter and be my stupid/smartass/sarcastic self analyzing that shit... but I'm feeling too lazy. Just take a look at it and see for yourself.

Sucks. When he tapped my shoulder, I was thinking “yay. this guy’s gonna talk to me.” Then I heard the accent he said “for you” with and was skeptical about him. Some people have thick accents but are still decent with language, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt. When I opened the letter I had a total FML moment. Hahaha. I’m such a bad person. And to think I’m always complaining about how nobody likes or notices me. Like my mom always tell me, soy pobre pero delicada! (I’m poor but delicate. I guess that saying is a cousin to the English saying “beggars can’t be choosers.”)

Question: If I e-mail this guy back (for the lulz), what should I say? Leave a comment!

]]> http://reinix.wordpress.com/2009/07/25/people-at-libraries-should-be-more-literate/feed/ 3 reinix Headline URL About Me Book letter/note from library guy http://reinix.wordpress.com/2009/07/17/harry-potter-and-the-half-blood-prince-movie-review/ http://reinix.wordpress.com/2009/07/17/harry-potter-and-the-half-blood-prince-movie-review/#comments Sat, 18 Jul 2009 00:46:00 +0000 reinix http://reinix.wordpress.com/?p=1063 ]]> You can either watch the video:

… or just read it here if you don’t feel like listening to my obnoxious voice:

So I finally saw HBP. I wasn’t fully satisfied with it, but not too disappointed either. I guess this is the part where I talk about a few scenes, and tell you what I thought about them movie in general.

Fred and George’s joke shop was exactly what I pictured it to be inside. So colorful, noisy, and fun. It was just… perfect.

During quidditch tryouts, Ron Weasley le daba unos cabezasos a esa quaffle! He swears he was playing soccer! It was funny to watch, though.

What the hell? They burned down the Burrow? I mean, it didn’t bother me as much as it did other people, but did they really have to? If they wanted more action in the movie, they could’ve added a lot near the end with all the death eaters. But whatever.

Also, they didn’t provide us with much background information. I guess Fernir Greyback was just some random death eater and of no importance to Harry’s loved-ones, like Remus Lupin, or even ron’s brother bill… who, by the way, wasn’t really in this movie.

The Quidditch match, like always, was fun to watch. And I loved that they played the theme music similar to the one from Prisoner of Azkaban. I’m not sure if it was like that in the other movies, but I really enjoyed the soundtrack during Quidditch.

Looking back the the first movie, though. All the flying scenes looked so fake. Then the second movie with the lame basilisk and shit. Hahaha. I much prefer the more recent ones. In fact, visual effects improved so much that I got completely disgusted by the Inferi on HBP. Especially when Harry falls under water and that thing just grabs him. Ugh!

I loved Michael Gambon’s portrayal of Dumbledore during that scene,though. When Harry had to make him drink that potion and Dumbledore was all twitching and making it look disgusting. I swear, I could feel that potion going down my own throat. And at the end of that scene, when Dumbledore makes that huge ring of fire, he makes like a pathway with it sorta. Freakin’ moses shit right there.

Oh man, when Harry drank that Felix Felicis. He was just being a smartass and wouldn’t shut up, and laughed about everything. It was so funny, and kinda cute.

Oh my gosh. That scene where Harry and Ron are laying down in the dormitory and then Harry mentions that Ginny’s attractive… and adds that it’s because of her skin, then Ron says the same about Hermione. Then they just keep talking about skin! I rofl’d. I guess Dean Thomas doesn’t like black girls. Either that, or Ginny just has a really nice complexion.

Then there’s the scene after Hermione sees Ron making out with (or snogging, whatever) Lavender Brown and Harry goes talk to and comfort her. Then she asks “How does it feel? When you see Dean with Ginny?” and he pretty much tells her he feels the same was as she does with Ron. I don’t remember a scene like that being in the book at all, but I thought it was such a sweet little moment to add between two best friends who can obviously relate to each other. And since this isn’t about magic or killing dark wizards, the audience themselves were able to relate, even if they’re not Harry Potter fans. I thought that was a nice touch.

Speaking of relationships and such… was it just me, or did some characters seem oddly attractive? None of them stayed attractive throughout, though. Actually, I take that back, Cormac McLaggen managed to stay sexy the whole time, especially during the scene when they’re having dinner with Slughorn and the looks at Hermione like *insert natalie tranish porno music and slowly lick fingers.* Besides that, there were some scenes when Harry looked cute. He also looked super hot when they were in the great hall before the Quidditch match and he was wearing his Gryffindor sweater. Damn, Harry, let me tap that. Besides that, though… the way he parted his hair down the middle was a total turn-off. Jtot. But yeah! Ron Weasley and even that black Slytherin guy (I think it was Blaise Zabini) were definitely looking good in some scenes.

Umm… Yeah. I wasn’t really impressed with the Room of Requirement scene with Ginny and Harry. Their kiss was just awkward, and looked like an exact replica of the kissing scene with Cho Chang in OotP. I think it would’ve been cute if Harry and Ginny’s first kiss was in a happier setting, sorta like it was in the book, where Ron even gives him the okay to do it and everyone’s just having a really good time. I swear, Harry never even puts his arms around the girl or anything. They just sorta stand there and let their lips touch.

And I dunno why, but it never fully hits me when a character first dies in a movie. I didn’t cry when it happened to Cedric or Sirius, and I didn’t cry with Dumbledore. It always hits me harder the second time around, though. So maybe I’ll feel really sad next time I watch it. I thought it was a nice touch, though when everyone raised their wands to I guess pay their respects to Dumbledore.

The movie ended with this whole we’re-all-in-this-together High School Musical speech from Hermione.

I wasn’t, however, very impressed with the ending. It didn’t really go anywhere. If Harry were active on the internet, he’d probably go on fmylife.com and post “Today, I went on a mission to find a Horcrux with my headmaster. He was killed in the process, and the horcrux we found was fake. FML.”

I don’t think Warner Bros should’ve made us wait this long. It cause a lot of overhype and disappointment.

—

It’s never fair to compare the book to the movie. I try to avoid that. As long as this movie was, though. They left a lot out. This includes, but isn’t limited to: Fleur and Bill being engaged (I really wanted to see that scene where Molly Weasley and Fleur are finally brought together because of their unconditional love for Bill), maybe a little more of Percy Weasley (even if not in great detail), Dumbledore’s Funeral, (though I heard something about this being the first scene in the next film), and if they’d shown more of Harry and Ginny’s relationship I would’ve definitely wanted to see their Spidermanesque break-up!

Thursday: Typical summer session day. Went to class, took notes, etc. I got home, went online for a while and then got something to eat. When I came back on the computer, I refreshed Twitter found out Michael Jackson had died. That sucks, I thought. I also thought WTF? I leave the internet for like 15 minutes and Michael Jackson dies?! Wack. There were many grieving, and many making way-too-soon jokes about it. I guess I’ll post my view on it now. As a person in general, he did a lot of fishy things. All those accusations of molestation and shit, and the whole thing where he was swinging a baby from the window and who knows what else. What the fuck was that all about? Anyway… he was an amazing performer and pop culture icon. He was the king of fucking pop! I would even always say when there was a dispute about what song should be played that “you can never go wrong with Michael Jackson.” Ever. RIPMJ♥

Friday: Mom woke me up so I could start cleaning the house in case people came over. Well, a few rooms in it anyway. After that, I went to this salon nearby with my mom to check out hairstyles and stuff for Chava’s wedding. I didn’t find one that suited me, but whatever. At least my mom did. I kinda already knew how I wanted my hair to be anyway. Not so long after that, I went to get my nails done at this nail/spa place nearby. Gosh, I love where I live. All these places are just walking distance from my house. Anyway, Nery walked into the place when I was getting my nails done and I left with her when I was done, since we had already planned on going to the movies that day. We picked up Danny, then met up with Rick and his sisters in Hollywood. We watched Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen at the Arclight. Movie-wise, it was okay I guess. Not the best movie in the world, but not as boring as others said it was. I mostly liked the effects and all that shit. It was pretty tight.

Saturday: I woke up at 6:30 ’cause my mother and I had appointments at the hair salon at 7am. Gosh, I looked so dead when I got there. Got my hair and make-up done there. Not much to say about that. After that, I pretty much just waited ’til it was time to get ready for Chava’s wedding.

We got to the church with a lot of time to spare. The ceremony itself was nice. Apparently the minister was a family friend or something and they surprised Cristina by having him marry her. My tio Ruben was singing with his group during the mass. That was cool too. Angie, Jay, and two of Cristina’s family members did some of the readings, and the minister joked a lot. It was cool.

The reception was fun too. My cousins from my dad’s side seemed to have a lot of fun, it was cute to watch. The food was spicy and the cake kicked ass. Woot. Also, they had these really cool liquor things on the table with Cristina and Chava’s names on them that everyone liked and many took home:

As for me, I was walking in heels the whole day for the first time. Boy, I sucked at it. Hahahaha. The day was fun, though. Congrats big brother and new sister in law!

Sunday: Despite the fact that the previous day had been long and left me a bit exhausted, I woke up early to help my mother with the food and stuff because people came over. I made two salads. I swear, that’s all mom ever makes me do when she tells me to help her cook. I just make salads. Sometimes rice too. Meh, I don’t mind. Anyway, a lot of family members came over for lunch or whatever. We had birria and chicken. At one point, mostly all the dudes and kids were in my living room watching the USA vs. Brazil soccer game. It looked something like this (except less blurry):

Later on, I went to the beach and Hollywood with my cousins from Colorado. It wasn’t as fun as I would’ve wanted it to be, but still pretty cool. It’s nice to get out of the house and go somewhere with people you don’t see very often.

Monday: I woke up thinking something along the lines of Awesome, History class got cancelled today. That means I only have one class! When I arrived to my Health class, though, I came to find that that class had also been canceled. I love it when that happens, even though there’s also the whole thought process I go through where I realize I could’ve just stayed home and not missed a thing. Hahaha. I stayed at school for a bit ’cause Zack texted me that his Sociology class got cancelled, so we hung out after he got out of his first class. We ate at Thai House (no surprise there). He threw up. We brushed our teeth. We met up with Dan. I swear, I don’t know if I can fully get into the habit of just saying ‘Dan.’ I actually typed ‘Daniel’ and then backspaced because I realized that if I wrote ‘Zack’ instead of ‘Zachary’ then I should write ‘Dan’ instead of ‘Daniel.’ Anyway… we went to Pasadena, just for the hell of it. It was pretty fun. Like usual, we went to Barnes & Noble, the Apple Store, Urban Outfitters, and a few other shops. Is it proper to call them shops? Or are they stores? Because when I call them shops, I picture like, more of a local family-owned little store.  I felt kinda bad, though ’cause we kept physically hurting Dan. Pobresito.

Today is tuesday the 30th. Crap, that means I can’t use my TAP card tomorrow. I should renew that shit. Too bad I have no cash and don’t wanna use my own money.

Update — I actually came back to finish this blog because… I dunno what happened, but I never got a chance to finish. It is now wednesday. Boy, I’m a lagger. I guess I might as well let you know that I finished reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower today.

Also, I didn’t bother to proofread this. Sorry for the mistakes.