In Which Shay just DOESN'T UNDERSTAND

Seriously. These past months have been full of people I generally like all discovering that they hate each other, hate the world, or hate ALL THE THINGS someone else may believe in. I'm all for each person believing in something different. That's great. I don't see a need to hate them for it. Difference is what makes us unique and special butterflies. I don't understand the thought process of "you don't believe what I believe therefore you are a fucking moron". I just don't.

Recently a person of the friendly acquaintance persuasion made a comment about how it was wrong of President Obama to even think about opening the Democratic Convention with a Muslim Prayer, but won't let Billy Graham say a prayer on the steps of the White House. "We are one nation UNDER GOD". Cool.

Let me point something out. Christians, Jews, and Muslims ALL BELIEVE IN THE SAME FREAKING GOD. THE SAME ONE. All three count themselves as Sons of Abraham. ALL THREE. SAME GOD. The BIGGEST difference in the three is that Christians believe that Jesus is the son of that God. The Jews and Muslims do not, HOWEVER, the Muslims DO acknowledge that Jesus was a prophet...albeit not as great a prophet as their Mohammed. But, a prophet none the less. Pretty smart dude that Jesus. I can't remember if Judaism sees him as Prophet or Teacher...but that's a different story.

Jesus was Jewish. We all know this. I can't remember the particular verse, its been a LONG time since I was transcribing my Preacher uncle's sermons for him, but there was a verse that BASICALLY said "I did not come here to change my Father's teachings, only to have you follow them."  What that says to me is that Jesus was not sent here to CHANGE Judasim. And yet the Christian faith has, throughout the ages, persecuted those people that their Son of God was a PART OF. And said "well I deny your belief, you're wrong!"  Isn't that basically denying their Faith??

I see great strides in some people. I have AMAZING friends who are Christian, Jewish, and Muslim. I've seen them get along and celebrate lives ups and downs together. I've seen them not judge each other because they believe in something just a little bit differently than the other. These people are my heroes and I wish the world could hear about them more than the HATE and BIGOTRY I see on the news and around me EVERY SINGLE DAY.

THEN there's the people who are "Muslims are terrorists waiting to kill us all!" Holy crap. Listen to yourselves. Get to learn about the people you are criticizing before you go all ape-shit holy war. The basic structure of Muslim is joy and love of the one True God. You know? That one that Christians and the Jewish worship? Yeah, that one. Sure....there's extremists. There's always the ones who take it just that step to far. All backgrounds and beliefs are capable of great evil. Or do we NOT recall The Branch Davidians? That guy in Oslo who killed a bunch of Children recently? Hitler? Or how about the guy who also just shot up a Sikh Temple for no real reason? Come to think of it I've never heard of a crazy Zoroastrian...soooo there's that.

And another thing that pisses me right the hell off. The saying "Kill 'em All, let God Sort them Out!"
I believe that there are these series of Commandments. Ten of them to be exact. One of those Commandments? Thou shalt not Kill. Practice what you preach before you advocate something that is direct opposition to the belief you claim to hold to.

There is not a single one of us who should be judging the other. Ever. We all have something that goes against someone else's basic practices. That doesn't mean we have the right to judge. Judgement is left to whoever it is that ends up being in charge of this Universe.

Okay. I think I've ranted all I can on this topic. I still don't understand. I expect a lot of friends who see this will probably lump me into their "hate this person because she criticized me" category. That's cool. I probably don't need those people in my life anyways. I'm going to go play Kingdom Hearts now. It has Disney and makes me happy and less angry.

*Edit!
And as an update. Turns out there isn't going to be an Islamic opening Prayer at the Democratic Convention. But Cardinal Dolan will do the closing prayer just like he did at the Republican National Convention. Which is a shame. I think it would've shown a certain unity to do it both ways. *shrug*

In Which Shay What rants in a nerd type fashion (the Movie Edition)

So upon waking this morning I did the usual bit of checking what happened in the world while I was sleeping. This usually involves checking the Email and then Facebook before anything else. The first thing I noticed was a few people had mentioned another remake on the Hollywood chalkboard.

Well, crap.

Another remake.

Hot damn.

A story we already know and have seen (given the history of Hollywood) within AT LEAST the past 30 years.

Be still my heart.

So, now I ask why. And I'm sure, given the topic, the rant of books made into movies will come up. Or I'll save it for later. We'll see.

It seems to have become "The Thing" in Hollywood recently to remake movies. Great, Classic Movies. Movies that weren't so great when they first appeared, but you grew to love them. And Movies that JUST SHOULDN'T have existed the first time around.

True Grit, Clash of the Titans, Fright Night, The Haunting, House on Haunted Hill and a myriad of other movies that I can't currently recall while I type. *insert a break to check and see if the interwebs had a list of movie remakes*

Turns out they did.

Wikipedia's list A-M

Wikipedia's list N-Z

Now, keep in mind, those lists do not account for ONLY Hollywood and are not limited to the last few years. Remakes have been an ongoing thing. But lately...lately it just seems to be all over place. Oh! Conan the Barbarian. That's the other one I was kind of irritated by. I'd also heard a rumour that they're considering remaking Short Circuit.

Bleh.

My biggest question is why? There are hundreds of people who have, quite possibly, great ideas. There are amazing storytellers out there. Why do they feel the need to constantly remake the same story instead of branching out and trying something new. I'm pretty sure the public would LOVE to see a new story.

I know I would.

And then there's turning old TV shows into Movies. NONE of them have been overly worth the money spent on a story we already know. Dukes of Hazard? Miami Vice? Get Smart? Granted, I LIKED Get Smart. I squeed like a little girl with some of the refrences. But, overall, it wasn't gripping as a story. I knew the story. I knew the formulic way it would run. Give me something new Hollywood!

And books. OMG Books. But...I think I'm gonna save that for tomorrow. Tomorrow being the next time I think to update.

P.S.

George Lucas. What happened to you man? You haven't had a single original idea since 1982. Quit poking and prodding the "THING" you're known for and go make something new.

In Which Shay What Makes No Apologies (but somehow still comes off sounding apologetic?)

Recently a famous person died. Like a lot of famous people these days it happened due to a series of poor mistakes made on the part of said famous person. Death of said famous person coincided with an event that is now Historical (for all the bad reasons). A bunch of people were, essentially, massacred in Norway because a guy hates Muslims.

So, before I begin my rambling let me clarify something:

Yes it IS sad that said Famous Person died.

Now, here's where I get probably kinda nasty depending on how you view things.

Absolutely zero of my sympathy is extended towards the decedent in this case. None. Whatsoever. She made her decisions. She stayed on the road she was on. She knew the possible results of her actions. I have a very hard time assigning sympathy to those types of people. I have had this conversation several times in my 29 years. Each person offers a perfectly valid reason (or excuse) as to WHY I should  feel sympathy for these people.

One person offered the opinion of "its an addiction. You can't just quit an addiction. You have to WANT to."

Knowing what addictions like that can do and what has happened to others I find that to be more than a little selfish. It's like slowly committing suicide (of which I have very definite ideas on as well). Only those around you are watching you die. They don't "get" to wake up one morning and hear you just offed yourself. Instead they watch you slowly disappear. I guess that gives they time to adjust.

I have a deep love and affection for my friends who have ginormous hearts. They care about everyone and everything. I just can't do that. I just can't seem to find the energy or time to care about people who didn't care about themselves or the people they were hurting. It DOES make me sad though when those people (in my head) appear to think less of me because I can't fit everyone into my worldview.

I tried that once. It just didn't work.

Someone told me once (when I was in High School) I was too young to be such a pessimist.

I don't look at it as pessimism really. I've always classified it as realism.

And some people may say "Well, I hope nothing like that ever happens to you" and to that I say if it does I don't expect anyone to feel sorry for me. I'd have brought it on myself. I have TRIED to bring it on myself (turns out I fail at things). But if I had succeeded, oh so many years ago, it would've been my own stupid fault and I wouldn't have been deserving of anyone's sympathy. Family? Friends? Sure. Me? Not so much.Selfish and stupid people deserve nothing.


I think this may have come out a bit more caustic than planned. And, sure, I could backspace it all away. But...where's the truth in that?

In Which Shay spouts Politics

Let me preface what's to come by saying I don't like politics. I know enough to briefly understand what is KINDA happening and to know that I don't agree with the beliefs and ideologies of a great many people/politicians. For someone who, admittedly, spouts some pretty random crap sometimes my worldview can sometimes be very black and white with very little room for grey. This usually comes into play with concepts that, to me, should be decided with a heavy dose of "Common Sense".

"So," you ask. "Why are you making your first blog post about politics? Why not something fun like Unicorns and Squids and the havoc these two could cause if they teamed up to overthrow the world?"

Good question, that.Ya see, I work for a large mutual fond/stock brokerage company and when I'm not on the phone my brain wanders. A lot. It covers a bevy of topics ranging from the mundane (what should I pick up for dinner at the Kroger?) to the weird (Unicorns and Squids united would be a catastrophe). Lately my job has been preparing for, what we assume, will be an onslaught of phone calls on August 2nd, 2011.

"But Shay," you query. "What happens August 2nd?"

Firstly, crawl out from under the rock you've been living in and buy a newspaper or turn on the television, or even pop on over to CNN.com. There's this whole debt crisis/balance the budget debacle going on. Essentially it boils down to if the guys and gals on Capitol Hill don't make a decision by August 2nd, the country won't be able to pay its debts and things will go to hell.

Essentially.

So, I sit and read the news and I wonder. Common sense tells me that a balance budget makes sense. Cut spending on things we don't really need and make people who make thousands of dollars more than I do pay a little more. Why on earth do they get tax breaks anyway? That concept never made much sense to me. Congratulations! You got lucky! Here, have a break.  Whereas other people (like moi) are barely getting by paycheck to paycheck. We're not losers. We didn't do anything wrong or right. Some of us even went to school and have degrees. Its just the way Fate kinda fell I suppose. But, here we are...no real end in sight...paying taxes and wondering WHY THE HELL our elected representatives are fighting over stupid things like balancing a budget.

Meh.


But, that was only partially the reason I decided to write this today. As I thought about this I started to get a little angry and then I thought of some of my friends who would argue with me (they like politics you see and will argue them for days. Seems I also have friends on both sides of the proverbial fence). So, as I thought of this I started to get indignant over a conversation that hadn't even HAPPENED yet (but one that sounded like so many others I had previously experienced) that I felt the need to be wordy.

As mentioned before I don't know much in the grand scheme of Politics. I know that I have very definite beliefs and I don't understand why Common Sense, apparently, plays no part at all. I go out of my way to avoid political confrontations. Its not that I don't care, but I see no point in getting myself worked up and angry at friends (or people in general). Politics is one of those topics that you will hardly ever find an average person discussing quietly over tea. It usually involves yelling and, in extreme cases, charts and graphs. Dangerous charts and graphs. With teeth. 

I have no desire to engage in that amount of stupidity.

The idealist in me likes to think that we can all get along, even with our varying beliefs.

So, I think in the long run, all I really wanted to say is "if ya ain't got nothin' nice t' say, don't say it at t'all."  Or something. Don't come to me looking to argue politics (storylines and anime is a different matter). Don't expect me to switch my belief system just because you think you're smarter with all your clever yelling. And don't be surprised if I haul off and pants you when you piss me off.