para la dia de san valentin

Wow yes it's Valentine's Day. I enjoy it just as much as the next guy, even if I'm not directly involved. Lots of my friends are happy and have gr8 days planned with their significant others! Sweet! And tomorrow will be Bargain Chocolate Day! Hell yes.

But the other day, I was thinking about this guy who really makes me mad, and then I wrote a really angry, bitter poem about it, and now I'm posting it here, today, in dedication to all the disgusting misogynists who will show their ugly mugs on this beautiful day. Enjoy, you horrendous sexists. Enjoy.
-------------

Grass is green
Violets are blue
Holy shit—
I am sick of you

Roses are red
And so is your blood
I dream to push you down
Right in the mud

The sun is so hot
Your soul is so cold
And I’d like to meet the demon
To whom it’s been sold

Birds fly in the sky
Fish swim in the sea
You don’t even know
How sorry you’ll be

Yes, roses are red
No, violets ain’t blue
Just what did you think
You’d be able to do?

To sway my affections?
To win over my heart?
You’d be considered Picasso
If love were an art—

Not cool or unique
I mean, a total mess
Unlike L’Demoiselles d’Avignon
Your work is worth much less

You see women as nothing
More than a prize
So I see you as nothing
Just a boy to chastise

We are not your playthings
You can’t just trade us in
Put one girl in the dump
Take one out of the bin

The roses are dead
The violets are poo
I won’t be doing it
But seriously, fuck you

Review: High School Story

High School Story is a phone game created by Pixelberry Studios.

You are a new high school student in the area, and it is your job to make a better school than the local Hearst High School (booo Hearst). This is done by recruiting more students, building new facilities, and completing various quests that the characters present you with.

I was admittedly pretty dubious about this game when my sister told me about, especially because she described it as, "Farmville but with high school." But it gets really addicting really fast. The best thing about this game is the level of customization you get with all of your students (except for the plot-relevant characters that the game gives you, which you are not changable) as well as the campus itself. You can build classrooms and hangouts for your students wherever you want, as well as throwing in things like balloons and flower hedges.

One of the most fun features is the Isle of Love, where you can put your students on dates, including your own avatar and the plot-important characters. And, like in most things I review, you don't have to be in a straight relationship if you don't want! Woohoo! It's also really cool how, after sending the couple on a lot of successful dates, they move on from "Flirting" to "Crushing" to "Online Official" and probably a bunch of other levels that I personally haven't achieved yet. And while I'm on the subject of breaking out of social normacy, this game largely features people of color as the protagonists or antagonists instead of making everyone white (there are, like, 6 or 7 different skin color swatches to choose from).

I give this game an A- for its characters that actually make me care about them and its fun gameplay that makes you strategize to have optimal gain rather than tapping the screen endlessly like some other phone-based games. My only complaints are how the higher level you get, the longer quests and construction and other things take (once a couple is at Online Official, their dates can take upwards of 7 hours).
Still, I recommend this game; but just a friendly tip: don't spend all your rings too fast bc omg they are so important in later levels ok HOARD YOUR RINGS

You can download this app from Google Play.

this is my campus :)))

my avatar lmao yes lv6 nerd
and my gf rose (lv5 student gov)

Found Poem

This could certainly be qualified as a dream of mine, though more in the aspiration for change sense rather than sleeping dreams.

The Agenda

“Dressing up for a safe environment?”

Sick.

Women:

Change global society

Debate policy
Prevail the costs 

Celebrate personality

Thrive on success

The perfect blend

Men, time for you:

Your required work? 

Be an ally

To be assistance to excellence

Out of sight recognition

My  fight

My exit speech

Make it a great day to be a woman

These are the words & phrases I found:
exit - the perfect blend - your work to - our edition - personal - debate - policy - superior - sick - others - global society - men - must be - women - personality - if it can fit - your photo - dressing up for - safe environment - required - celebrate - thrive on success - speech - change minds - my fight - seeing - costs - eligible - open - prevail the - intellectual growth - social - interests - aspirations - individuals - out of sight - recognition - excellence - guidance - personalize - time for you! - spirit - congratulations - assistance - for after - chicago - make it a great day to be a - be the change - change policies - ally 

Review: Fly Guy

Fly Guy is a browser-based game created by Trevor Van Meter. 

just doing some copying in the sky hbu

The basic premise is that you are a middle-aged balding man in sensible clothes, evidently waiting for the bus, who just happens to be able to fly. Using the arrow keys, you navigate around the sky, interacting with different passersby (to do this, you just have to fly up to them and their action with activate). There are many different people and objects to interact with, and the higher you fly up the more interesting things get.

he got so tired waiting for the bus
he spontaneously learned how to fly

I love this game because it is so simplistic yet still so fun. Everything is in black-and-white so it isn't hard on the eyes, and the drawing style is very minimalist, which serves to make the player pay closer attention to what is happening rather than what they are looking at. The background music, ever-looping, does not get boring or tedious even after a long session of flying around because it is so relaxing and enjoyable.

The game is not win-lose (although there are some frustrating times when interacting with certain people or objects transport you back down to the bus stop!), and so you do not get stressed out when playing it like you would other games that have actual stakes. You are simply a balding man in a suit flying around and having a super time talking to people and and sitting in chairs with wings.

ok thanks floating guru man

I give this game an A for its relaxing nature and unique concept (not an A+ simply for all the times I got momentarily peeved when a sea monster ate me or something (you'll find out when you play)). If you ever feel like you need to wind down or calm yourself, I highly recommend playing this game, or even just running it in the background so you can sit and listen to the relaxing music.

You can play the game here.

Review: Welcome to Night Vale

Welcome to Night Vale is a podcast created by Joseph Fink and Jeffery Cranor, who have co-created other projects, all hosted on their website, Commonplace Books.

I would describe Night Vale as a mix between NPR and The Twilight Zone. And, speaking of NPR, Joseph Fink talked about the origins of the story in an NPR interview: "(We) came up with this idea of a town in that desert where all conspiracy theories were real," which is a very good way to sum up the gist of what Night Vale is all about.

It's set in the fictional town of Night Vale, way out in the middle of the desert. The podcast is set up as a radio show, with the host, Cecil Palmer (voiced by Cecil Baldwin), talking to his fellow townies about the goings-on. This news-based aspect is the NPR bit. The Twilight Zone bit comes in with the nature of the stories: in Night Vale, bloodstone rituals and floating cats with poisonous spinal ridges are seen as completely commonplace and ordinary. Helicopters fly overhead, manned by the Sheriff's (not-so) Secret Police to watch the town. The dog park is occupied by malicious supernatural creatures that will steal you away.

It's a very interesting and unique concept that can appeal to just about anyone. What I think is so great about this being a podcast rather than a TV show is that, as there are rarely any in-depth physical descriptions of the characters, Cecil included, people can dream up what they think the Night Vale citizens look like, and it's all completely valid. Okay, well, mostly valid -- what's not cool is whitewashing characters like Carlos (Cecil's love interest) or Tamika Flynn, who are very obviously people of color.

Which, speaking of Carlos, he's also another really important facet to this story. Oftentimes in media today, when there is a gay romance plot, there's a whole big to-do about the characters being gay in a straight-centric society, and will they be okay? how ever will the family react? can the couple stay together throughout the trials and tribulations of being in a homosexual relationship??? The plot is more focused on the fact that they're gay rather than the fact that they're in love. Not Night Vale. When Cecil falls for Carlos (which is in the very first episode, so it's not really a spoiler), it's because Carlos is Carlos, and that's it. Their relationship is dealt with wonderfully and realistically -- I don't think the word "gay" ever even comes up in the entire podcast.

The final big thing I adore about this podcast (besides absolutely everything about it) is the amazing attention to detail the writers have. A big issue in television or book series is laziness on the writers' parts, who leave out plot points that had been brought up in earlier seasons or episodes, totally disregarding continuity. Not Night Vale!!! The writers bring back characters and plots from several episodes back, catching the listener off-guard and making them stop to think, remember where they heard that name before. It keeps the audience on their toes, as they never know what character is going to come back and wreak havoc at any point!

Each episode ranges from 20 to 30 minutes. Two episodes are released every month (there are a total of 40 published episodes to date). Though Cecil is the main voice on the show, other characters sometimes come in to have a few words themselves. There is music under much of the stories (created by Disparition), but there is one specific segment, the weather, where new music from a different artist each episode is played -- which is something I really love, because it gets bands and singers that might have gone under the radar for a long time some very good exposure. And, just as a head's up, Cecil's voice is so smooth that it will literally lull you to sleep, so make sure you're sitting up or doing something else when listening, or you're a goner.

I give this podcast an A+ for its immersive and intriguing storylines that keep listeners interested, keeping us coming back to hear the resolution of each subplot, as well as having really great characters and relationships.

Start listening by downloading the (free!) episodes: iTunes - Stitcher - Libsyn - Feedburner - Soundcloud

Dreams (text contribution)

I'm sure there are boatloads of fine examples of poems and stories discussing the world of dreams, I would like to state some interesting facts. I learned this in my Zoology & Botany class.

We, as humans, are capable of very complex, intricate dreams. Sometimes, our dreams reflect past events in the day, month, year -- whatever. We pull in personal experiences as well as family and friends to star in our dreams. Or, we can dream about completely abstract, impossible things, in fantastic landscapes. This is thanks to our highly evolved, complicated brain structure.

But do animals other than ourselves dream? And if yes, then what do they dream about?

In a study by MIT, it has been found that other animals do, indeed, dream. It has also been shown that there is a direct correlation between the evolved state of the animals brain and the complexity of the dreams they dream.

Dogs are able to dream about any past event they have experienced in their lives, most often about running or chasing something; if you've ever seen your dog twitching their legs in their sleep, that's why! They're replaying the moment, and feel it as if they're there again, reliving it.

Rats and mice are even simpler minded, and consequentially have very limited dream ability. Rats and mice are able to dream only about that past day's events. This was discovered by MIT through a simple test: they put a rat through a maze and measured its brainwaves all the while. Then, when the rat fell asleep, they measured the brainwaves while it dreamed. The activity was exactly identical, meaning that the rat was replaying precisely what had happened that day.

Here's an article about the MIT research.

I just thought this was very interesting, as many people do not always think that other animals besides ourselves can dream! (Animal rights activist plug: homo sapiens aren't the end-all be-all kings of the world! We're not all that special, biologically speaking, aside from our disastrously gigantic brain! Just saying!)