Oh he's just so British.

So refined.

Jelena knows exactly the kind of voice I'm saying this in.

I'm such a silly Canadian girl. Ugh.

How could that guy even consider Cuba a "successful communist nation"? There's a middle class. There's poverty. There's a leader.

In a truly communist nation, there wouldn't be a government. The fact that Castro is even there living in luxery completely contradicts the foundations of communism.

Maybe he wasn't talking about Marxist communism?

I'm confused.

This is ridiculous.

I'm ridiculous.

But I'm so unbelievably happy right now. Ridiculously happy, even.

How am I supposed to sleep?

Ridiculous.

Had a good day downtown.

Went with Jelena to change my nose stud. Ended up buying an expensive pair of boots. Go figure.

So as we were walking, there was a guy handing out flyers. When I took one, he said "thank you for supporting human rights". I read the flyer, curious as to what it said.

It was protesting a "naval blockade" that the US has against Cuba. Now, I know that the US hasn't had an actual blockade since the Cold War. So we went back to ask him what he was talking about.

When we asked what the flyer was talking about, he said that the US is keeping Cuba poor with the trade embargos that they have placed. There is going to be a rally at 4:30, he told us. It's about basic human rights, he said.

This is where I was a little confused.

"Wait. You're talking about human rights - you haven't forgotten that Cuba is communist, right?"

Jelena cuts in with a "oh no, here we go..." remark.

"No, I haven't. Communism isn't what's keeping the Cuba poor. Have you read anything about communism?"

"Enough to know that theoretical Marxist communism can't work."

Cutting in - I realize that this point is debatable. But any theory that sits on a rule that says that all leadership will fall away and a successful communist nation will be established after an "undetermined amount of time" doesn't revolce around logic.

"Oh, have you read the Communist Manifesto? Adam Smith?"

"Adam Smith has a book about lassiez-faire economcs, not about communism. What difference would it have made if I've read that or not?"

Now, cutting in here, I realize that communism is more of an economic theory than a political ideology. But Adam Smith isn't communist, and his overall message is to keep the government out of the economy - something that obviously didn't work during the Great Depression.

"You were born in a capitalist country. You have been raised to think that communism is bad. I'm a psychology student. I've studied these things. "

"Actually, my mom was in Vietnam during the war. The communists burned down her house and murdered a bunch of her friends and family members. I have a very good reason not to like communism".

"Well, my dad's been to Cuba, and he's seen that it's the result of the US trade embargoes that everyone is poor, not Fidel Castro. Castro is actually a good man and leader. Cuba is the world's first and only successful communist country."

So this guy hasn't even been to Cuba.

"I've been to Cuba too."

"Where did you go? Havana?"

"Well, yes..."

"See, you need to go and see the poverty. The poor districts. Where people are starving."

"I did go there. That was the basis of my trip. And they're not starving because of the US, they're starving because the government takes most of their money. And if it's all about human rights, what about the fact that they buldoze down churches and houses? That they murder pastors and kidnap children?"

"Oh, don't get me wrong, Communism isn't great or anything..."

This is, of course, an abreviated version of the conversation. He said something about how great their education system is. It ended because he had to give out more flyers, and to get into a real debate would have been silly. Not that the whole conversation wasn't. But whatever.

Wish I could spend more time on this entry, but I can't. Maybe I'll discuss it later.

I am so proud of myself.

Now, as you read this, please keep in mind that I am in no way technologically inclined. Not in the least. See? I can't even spell the word.

Today the SHAW guys came and connected us up to the internet. But dad is off at a meeting, and mom said that he would probably be too tired to connect up the computer and all that. So I said that I would do it. After all, how hard can it be?

It's my whole "I'm independant" thing going on. It surfaced a few weeks ago when I went to IHOP by myself and ate pancakes. A whole booth, all to myself.

My thinking going into the whole thing was to simply connect the wires that matched. In the end, I connected the whole thing - speakers, internet, webcam, keyboard, mouse - the whole lot. All without having any idea what I was doing, and not even having a desk to put it on. Right now it's set up on a semi large cabinet, and it's not very comfortable at all to sit at. But that's not the point. The point is that I set up a computer without knowing how to do it. And without any help at all.

I know that it's not that difficult. And that you don't have to be smart to do it. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that I did it. Sarah would be impressed.

Yes, I am excited. And proud. Much more than I should be.

So, time for an update.

Not much to say. We moved, and boxes are everywhere. It's rather frusterating getting ready in the morning. Nothing is where it should be - hell, nothing is where it shouldn't be. It's just everywhere.

And the carpets in our new house are pink. Not even a light pink, they're a pink pink. Think pink lemonade. It doesn't look as terrible with all the furniture in it and stuff, but still. It's pink.

And now now I can't paint my room the colour that I wanted to. Mixed with my 70's retro couches? You wouldn't have to get stoned to get loopy by looking at it, as my father says.

Not that I've ever been stoned. But that's beside the point. Very far beside.

Sarah called me today. My phone is breaking - every so often it goes blank, and I can't see anything on it, including call display. So I answer.

"Hello?"

"Hi! Where are you?"

"Who are you?"

"I'm your sister!"

Now, at this point, I'm wondering why my sister would be wanting to know where I am, seeing as how she's on the other side of the country. And the way she asked made it sound like I had forgotten to pick her up or something.

"Oh, hi. I'm in British Columbia. But you already knew that."

And it went on from there. Very odd. Nice to talk to her for a few seconds. But it was odd indeed.

And that's it. Tomorrow we get internet and cable, which will be much appreciated. This is kind of a weird setup. Shaunn in the living room watching TV, Jelena at the kitchen table memorizing Safeway codes, and me at the computer taking advantage of his house.

Ah, friends.

When Doug and I broke up, we promised each other that we would always give each other any changing phone numbers, in case we ever needed each other for an important reason.

As tomorrow is moving day, I emailed him my new phone number tonight. My email consisted of a song that I consider to be appropriate, my number, and an invitation to call me if he ever needs me.

Wheel
John Mayer

People have the right to fly
And will when it gets compromised
Their hearts say "Move along"
Their minds say "Gotcha heart"
Let's move it along

And airports
See it all the time
With someone's last goodbye
Blends in with someone's sigh
Cause someone's coming home
In hand a single rose

And that's the way this wheel keeps working now
That's the way this wheel keeps working now
And I won't be the last
No I won't be the last
To love her

And you can't build a house of leaves
And live like it's an evergreen
It's just a season thing
It's just this thing that seasons do

And that's the way this wheel keeps working now
That's the way this wheel keeps working now
And you won't be the first
No you won't be the first
To love me

You can find me, if you ever want to give
I'll be around the bend
I'll be around the bend
I'll be around

And if you never stop when you wave goodbye
You just might find if you give it time you will wave hello again
You just might wave hello again

And that's the way this wheel keeps working now
That's the way this wheel keeps working now

You can't love too much one part of it
You can't love too much one part of it

I believe that my life's gonna see
The love I give returned to me

I found the earring.

Somehow it ended up in my zip up hoodie thing.

And speaking of things being found in odd places, when I cleaned out my car the other day I found a toothbrush. Still in it's case and all - I think I got it from the dentist a long time ago. Hm.

Well, I'm a terrible daughter.

Why? Because I was borrowing mom's earrings, and one of them fell out of my ear.

I wasn't being irresponsible, it just fell out of my ear. These things happen. Of course, it happened to be a solid gold earring.

At least she never wears them, I said. She got mad.

Well, she didn't get mad. She gave me a guilt trip - which isn't particularily fair, because I didn't actually do anything wrong, but anyways, I feel bad.

I would be annoyed too if I was in her position. But it wasn't anybody's fault. And making me feel guilty about it isn't going to help anything.

She also got mad at me because I wanted to watch Larry King Live over MASH. We had already watched JAG, and one episode of MASH, I hadn't chosen one thing. I just wanted to watch a half hour debate on Intelligent Design being taught in schools (or rather the evidence against Dawin's theory being presented). She had left for a bit, she came back, I had changed the channel, and she asked "are you going to be watching that?". I said yes, and then she spazzed. In the end, I watched it upstairs.

I can't stand it when mom is stressed. It makes my life miserable.

Now, regarding the debate.

There was an extremely religious (and annoying) pastor on there. He could barely bring himself to say that Adam and Eve shouldn't be taught in schools.

The rational people on the panel agreed on the same point: it's fair that the strongest evidence for and against Darwin's theory should be presented. I agree with this. Keep God out of it, I say. God isn't science, God is faith. He should be taught in churches, homes, and private schools - not public school science classrooms. With that being said, though, I think that teachers should be allowed to present both sides of the issue. As it stands now, many teachers in the US are not allowed to display any articles or ideas critisizing Darwin - it puts their reputation and job at stake. That is something that I don't agree with.

It would be very difficult to accurately present both the fors and againsts for Darwin. There seems to be a shortage of teachers capable of teaching something in a non biased way. So you'd either get someone who protrays Darwin in a bad way or the evidence against in a bad way. Open up Pandora's box and there would be fire from all sides.

On the other hand, to not be able to present arguments from the opposing sides seems wrong.

I don't know what the solution is. Maybe just find good teachers. Present both sides fairly and accurately, and let the students gather their own opinions. By the age that evolution is taught, students should be smart enough to figure out what they believe, or have already learned it already. Who knows, maybe it would encourage them to think a little bit.

And what of love, master?
And he answered saying:
When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
When his wings enfold you yield to him,
And when he speaks to you believe in him.
Love gives naught but itself and takes
Naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say,
"God is in my heart", but rather,
"I am in the heart of God".
But if you love and most needs have desires,
Let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook
That sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own
Understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart
And give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the nooon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved
In your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

I must confess that at one point, I thought Phreadom and I could be friends. I allowed him to add me to his MSN.

Yesterday he messages me with the overall purpose of telling me that he has found my new blog, and to insult me.

I had to ask him "you actually looked for me?". I still can't believe it. I think in one of his comments he said to me that, should I shut down my blog, he wouldn't be petty enough to try and find me.

Anyways, as long as he doesn't leave comments, I don't care if he's here. I don't read his blog anymore, so I won't see any of his bitching about what I'm writing (and I'm far beyond the point of caring). It's quite irrelevant that he's here.

So his other reason for messaging me was to insult me. It didn't take me long to block him. I deleted him as well, so if in some drunken state I wish to unblock him, I can't even do that. I could re add him and all that, but hopefully by the time I found his email address I would return to my senses, realize what I was doing, and back away from the computer.

Oh, drama.

Apparently there are people in this world who are mean simply to be mean. And I guess that when dealing with bullies, you can't count on them having any self control or dropping an issue. I even let him have the last word. Good grief, what more do you want?

Kora, you may still have a chance to bear his children. If you ask nicely.

Kora and I spent a short time bashing our psuedo-intellectual friend.

I feel better.

I need to not read Bubble Head's blog. Ever again.

It pisses me off.

He called me weak. And a "fucking dellusional sheep".

He couldn't win the argument with me, so he changed the topic to bashing Christianity. When I tried to keep on topic and didn't respond to his Christianity crap, he assumed it was because I just don't get it. I get what you're saying, dipshit. I just don't care.

Why do I do this to myself? It's like reading the Vancouver Sun.

I can't stand it.

But I blame you, Chris, for not being online when you said you would, and me in turn being bored and looking for things to do whilst waiting for you.

Ok. So I'm not actually done with high school yet.

I came on to complain about the Cold War, and how I hate it.

I don't so much hate the years of history itself, but I DO hate the little tiny-fonted piece of paper that I have been squinting at for the last hour and a half. And the writing style is terrible. And the author does not understand how to use commas, or any kind of punctiation, for that matter (minus the period - they seemed to have grasped that one). As I'm reading this, I can't help but think that this person must have been ESL.

Gah. 11:49. I have until 2AM to cram as much Cold War into this brain as possible.

Sob.

Ok, so I might be on here when I shouldn't be.

It's not my fault. I was checking my email. And then I had to write emails.

I've got a provincial tomorrow at 12. It'll go better than the last one, hopefully. I think I'm concentrating my effort in the right direction this time.

Wish me luck. Come next post, I'll be done with high school for forever.

Ok. Hopefully the last blog that I have to create.

Chris brought to my attention that I need to change my user name, otherwise all Phreadom has to do is click on my name and can find me.

So this is Stanley the second penguin. I always did love Stanley. A good penguin, really.

Speaking of penguins, there's a movie coming out called The March of the Penguins. I don't know what it's about, but apparently its got something to do with Morgan Freeman. And it has pengunins in it, and they are indeed very cute.

You know who I love? The Kratt borthers. I remember watching them when I was a little kid, they had a show called Kratt's Creatures. How awesome would it be to actually make a career out of learning about and playing with animals?

Maybe I should become a zoologist.