January 3rd, 2013

I was looking at my dashboard on Tumblr just now and came across something that absolutely disgusts me. It's a text post that says, "My mum said if I accidentally let my sister's guinea pig out of it's cage and into the garden so it never came back she'd buy me a mcdonalds." Underneath this text, there is a picture of a young girl drinking a large McDonalds drink, a large fry, and what looks like a hamburger box. Now, for the people who know me, I love guinea pigs. I've had the pleasure of raising a total of nine guinea pigs (my first one being when I was in 4th grade and having 4 babies). So seeing this post upset me for a huge reason. Pet guinea pigs are pets for a reason. In America, we raise them as domestic animals instead of just pulling them from the wild (and in some countries, eating them). This means that although guinea pigs have natural animal instincts, raising them as pets and then releasing them is going to leave them more defenseless. Not only that, but it also means that they aren't very likely to survive as long as wild guinea pigs. But the most upsetting thing about it is that this... there are so many horrible words I could use as accurate adjectives right now... little monster of a girl (she literally looks evil in this picture) carelessly set this little animal free... for FUCKING MCDONALDS. I mean, seriously? SERIOUSLY? Who does that? Who takes a defenseless animal and throws it into the wild just because someone offers you fucking McDonalds? I sure wouldn't trust her with my life. "Hey, if you kill your sister, I'll buy you McDonalds." "Okay!"

Now, maybe she didn't really do it. Maybe her mom just bought her McDonalds one day and she decided to try and be funny. But I don't see how that is funny at all. Some people may think I'm overreacting, but I do not support any form of animal cruelty, and to me, this is one. Why? Because a good pet owner does not just throw an animal out when he/she gets tired of it. It doesn't matter if it's a dog, cat, guinea pig, or mouse. It's just wrong. Your pet is part of your family, and in a way, it's like disowning a child, which is frowned upon.

I sure hope this little girl didn't really do that. I don't want to have another reason to lose faith in humanity.

Some final favorite Looking for Alaska quotes by John Green

"And what is an 'instant' death anyway? How long is an instant? Is it one second? Ten? The pain of those seconds must have been awful as her heart burst and her lungs collapsed and there was no air and no blood to her brain and only raw panic. What the hell is instant? Nothing is instant: Instant rice takes five minutes, instant pudding an hour. I doubt that an instant of blinding pain feels particularly instantaneous." -Pudge (Miles Halter) pg. 146

"He was gone, and I did not have time to tell him what I had just now realized: that I forgave him, and that she forgave us, and that we had to forgive to survive the labyrinth." -Pudge (Miles Halter) pg. 218

"When adults say 'Teenagers think they are invincible' with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don't know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We think that we are invincible because we are. We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations. They forget that when they get old. They are scared of losing and failing. But that part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, and so cannot fail." -Pudge (Miles Halter) pgs. 220-221

"Thomas Edison's last words were: 'It's very beautiful over there.' I don't know where there is, but I believe it's somewhere, and I hope it's beautiful." -Pudge (Miles Halter) pg. 221

December 22nd, 2012

"Turning off your computer is like turning off life support." Really? I mean, I know that was meant in a joking way, but have we really resorted to making technology a life or death situation in such a context as that? Let me tell you, when I was younger, I found absolutely no need for the internet. There was a world still existing around me; a world that did not run virtually. You know what's hard? Watching someone die who is actually taken off of life support; watching the life drain from their body as the monitor readings begin to lower and completely crap out. It's a moment where you're actually on planet Earth, and where the last thing that is on your mind is what you're new Facebook status will be or what you're going to reblog on Tumblr later. You realize that even when you aren't on the internet, the world is still spinning and children are playing with their friends, and people are at amusement parks riding rides or going on dates or taking really important tests that are going to determine their futures and careers. So to say that turning off a computer is like turning off life support is so wrong in so many ways. There are people out there who are dying and have lived an amazing life without even touching the mouse of a computer. It's so sad what kinds of things we compare the internet to these days without even stopping to think first. Have we really become so dependent on the virtual world that we can't live a life outside of it?

Looking for Alaska by John Green pg. 80

"I'm just scared of ghosts, Pudge. And home is full of them." -Alaska

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton pg.92

"We pushed open the door to the back room and found four or five little kids, about eight years old or younger, huddled in a corner. One was screaming his head off, and Johnny yelled, 'Shut up! we're goin' to get you out!' The kid looked surprised and quit hollering. I blinked myself -- Johnny wasn't behaving at all like his old self. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the door was blocked by flames, then pushed open the window and tossed out the nearest kid. I caught one quick look at his face; it was red-marked from falling embers and sweat-streaked, but he grinned at me. He wasn't scared either. That was the only time I can think of when I saw him without that defeated, suspicious look in his eyes. He looked like he was having the time of his life." -Ponyboy

December 16th, 2012 Entry

Why is it that we ponder all of life's mysteries while we're in the shower? Most people shower to get clean. But people like me tend to stand under the hot water, feeling each bead slide down the slope of my nose, dripping onto the shower floor while my mind goes back in time and wonders if my grandma felt any pain the day my mom stroked her hair and watched her open her eyes one last time, a single tear slipping down her cheek. I can feel myself forgetting that I'm even in a shower, and for a moment, become an old woman lying in a hospital bed, unaware that my family is surrounding me, crying. I wonder if grandma felt death that entire time, or whether it was just that one moment when the touch of my mother's hand triggered her mind to realize that there was a world still outside of her. And in that moment, I wonder if she knew she was leaving us, and if she was scared. I realized I was in the shower, dripping wet with my hair soaked and curling itself in clumps. I bent over and washed my feet, but I also took a good look at them and recognized them, not as my feet, but as a body part alone. I think you know when you're dying. You feel your body giving out on you, and it's amazing how healthy you look outside when you feel so sick inside.

What is it about being naked, drenched in water, and surrounded by steam that makes you think of the bigger picture?

Looking for Alaska by John Green page 56

"Sometimes you lose a battle. But mischief always wins the war." -Alaska