Books, books, books.

A Course in Miracles
by Helen Schucman

Unfortunately I started this book with a distaste for Christianity and was put off by the mentioning of God. It has some interesting lessons and I do plan on rereading this book in the future with a more open mind.

I can harbor respect for this book, but it just was not what I had in mind. It's recommendable but only to those who will not stick to their presupposition of what Christianity is.

The Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthorne

I read The Scarlet Letter in my junior American Literature class in high school. While many of the other students disliked the book for its complex sentences and advanced syntax and Puritan diction, I found myself very fond of this Nathaniel Hawthorne novel.

Hester Prynne is the super woman of Puritan Boston. She is the epitome of what most Calvinist women lacked: courage, freethought, independence, and deep reevaluation of morals and values.

A lot of the other students also found themselves overwhelmed by the amount of symbolism, themes, and motifs in the novel. Personally, I think that is what really shapes the story and makes this Hawthorne's "magnum opus." The copious amount of symbolism is what makes this book unique.

Overall, it is a great book and I am glad I was introduced to it. I highly recommend it. Themes it explores are society vs nature, human condition, and self vs society.

The Catcher in the Rye
by J.D. Salinger

A very well written book that is either underestimated or over appreciated for the wrong reasons. We follow the "plot" by the first person narration of Holden Caulfield, who goes through extreme existentialism with a hint of misanthropy, often mistaken for teenage angst (or are they mutual?), and ends up in an asylum.

It is not one of my top books, but it is definitely a book I really like. I find myself being able to relate in some aspects to Holden from past ideologies and experiences. The main problem that Holden comes across is his fixation on preserving innocence. That is where we no longer relate. He tries to be that "catcher in rye" and we don't exactly find out if his perception on that changes by the end of book. (Correct me if I am wrong.)

I find it almost ironic that schools ban this book because of the explicit language. They are trying to bubble-wrap their students and preserve their innocence, just like Holden tries to do so with his sister. If only Holden knew the amount of kids he is corrupting...

A day of giving grace.

As my fellow Americans know, yesterday was Thanksgiving - a day to give thanks for everything that we have. For this post I was going to go into the hypocrisy found in this holiday, but I will keep my reserve.

Instead, I am going to thank all of you for reading my thoughts and staying interested. I want to give thanks to everyone who is doing their part in making this world a better place, a thanks to those battling against negative stereotypes, those who are tearing down the walls of prejudice, and so on so forth. I am thankful for the people in my life constantly. I try to keep them aware of my love for them. I am thankful for the person who I am in love with, I am thankful for the people who challenge me, I am thankful.

I'm not sure what I want the direction of this post to be, but before it gets any cheesier, I think I'll stop. I hope everyone has not only a fantastic holiday, but a wonderful life.


-Gabriela

Remember, remember the Fifth of November

The Gunpowder Treason and Plot
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

Let us not only dedicate this day but each day as a remembrance of those who exercise their voice - from 1605 to 2009, from London to Gaza, and all around the time spectrum and globe. And let us not only leave it as a remembrance but a reminder that we, too, have a voice.

I AM NOT A SEX OBJECT

I'm tired of seeing advertisements everywhere objectifying women as sex objects. No, if you buy Axe cologne women won't swarm all over you lavishing your scent. And you eating that double cheeseburger from Carl's Jr. will definitely not get you a one night stand with a super model. Why am I seeing almost naked women in the cover of Sports Illustrated? What does her exposing everything but her nipples have to do with sports?

There is an unnecessary pressure being built on females from a young age to fit 'the image'. Girls are beginning to feel inadequate and "unsexy" at a younger age now than before
.
Yep, you guessed it. Wearing D&G won't get you hot, steamy sex. That leads me to my next question: What are they trying to sell? Are they trying to sell sex? the image of women? or... their clothing?
Because now you totally want to buy one their subs.

I'm not saying males don't get pressure from our current culture either. With such things as Viagra, men are expected to last longer in bed. Don't you think your grandparents should stop having sex already?

The book I recommend for better understanding of the female development and how they are being "girl poisoned" read Reviving Ophelia by Mary Pipher. For better understanding of boys and the emotional straitjackets they are being forced into read Real Boys by William Pollack.

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

Please.

Please help find this artist by the name of Deca Caszm. The story and a song is in the following url:

http://www.cxcr6.com/whereisdecacaszm

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NP: Mice Parade - Satchelaise

"We tried to make our conversation seem like more than an interview."