Rawr

I did absolutely nothing this weekend.

Well, not quite. I went to a gun show on Saturday and that was fun. I've decided that I like gun shows, and if I were rich, I would go all the time. Sunday I did homework for about half an hour at the most and then...yeah that was it. Plus it was a NICE weekend and it was my Dad's birthday weekend!

Today. *sigh* Back to school. I went to Curves, which has changed. They added new contests, etc. Pretty cool, but I didn't have time to really check everything out. I was in a rush to get to school. For my first class which lasted 30 minutes and could very well have been skipped because we literally did nothing. >.< So then I sat around, doing various other homework-y things and some wasting time things until my afternoon class at 3.

And here I am!

Things I'm looking forward to: Richmond Tax Day Tea Party protest on April 15 and Empty Holster Protest Week April 20-24. Check 'em out, get involved!

I like nice people

I don't really have anything of importance to say.

Mostly I was just thinking how much I like nice people, the ones who don't get offended/stop talking to you just because you don't think the same way they do. I like it when I can feel free to talk to someone who totally disagrees with me and not have them hate me for it. I know too few people like that, so it's always nice when I meet a new person like that.

So, if you are a nice person, thank you for being nice.

And if you are NOT a nice person, that is very sad.

That's all.

^_^

More on diversity...

Because of a comment from Etenesh, I decided to write more and try to clarify my diversity rant a bit. I hope that neither Etenesh nor anyone else takes offense from what I write. I am merely expressing my opinion, which is the purpose of my blog, and I totally understand and respect that many do not agree with me. That's totally fine. We don't have to agree with each other on everything, as long as we can disagree and discuss with maturity and civility.

Now that I'm done with THAT rant...

I'm going to use a really simply example of race. I don't think about what race someone is unless it's pointed out to me. I don't think about it in my personal life, my professional life, or my school life - including when I am writing news stories/interviewing people. I have grown up believing that the race of a person is not an issue. People are people to me. Period.

My teachers like to belabor the point that when we interview and write, we need to be sure we include people of different races (etc.) to have diversity in our stories. So basically, they are telling us TO take notice of someone's race and that race IS an issue.

I'm sorry?

So, if I understand this correctly, when I'm writing, I am supposed to take into account a person's race. To me, interviewing or not interviewing someone based on their race is MORE racist than just not even thinking about it. If I specifically look for someone black to interview because of the fact that they are black, that, to me, is blatant racism. All my life I've been told not to treat people differently because of their race, but now all of a sudden that's different. I have to seek out black people to interview because they are a different color than I am.

This goes against everything I believe and everything I've been taught.

In my opinion, giving ANYONE special treatment because of their race equals racism - whether that person is black, white, brown, yellow...doesn't matter. And that is why I don't like my teachers harping on diversity all the time. I am not opposed to diversity - in fact, I think diversity is a great thing. But I get really sick my teachers assuming that everyone in the class is racist/sexist/anti-whatever.

I refuse to give anyone special treatment because of their color/gender/whatever. Just like I don't want special treatment because of MY color/gender/whatever.

(This also goes along with affirmative action. But that's a later rant for a later time.)

If I haven't explained myself clearly, please let me know. I don't want to offend anyone and I definitely want to make sure I'm not misunderstood.

Diversity...stop pressing the issue

I really think my school needs to let up on the diversity thing a bit. I HEAR IT EVERYWHERE and it makes me want to pull my hair out.

In my broadcast journalism class, my teacher just handed out this questionnaire thing for us to answer - just for ourselves - with regard to diversity in the media. It's true/false. Here are some of the questions....

Whites are generally portrayed in a more positive light than are minorities, i.e., as officials or experts.

(There is no opposite question like "Non-whites are generally portrayed positively...")

I think religious issues are generally treated in a balanced way on the news.

If I were Muslim, I would feel that my beliefs and viewpoints are treated in a balanced way on the news.


(There is no opposite question like "If I were Christian/Jewish/Buddhist/Mormon/etc....")

I think I can generally tell the race and often the sexual orientation of a person when talking to him or her on the phone.

I believe that judging a person's race or sexual orientation based on the sound of his or her voice always leads to bias.

......and so on......If you want the rest of the questions posted, I can.

Anyone who knows me, knows that this would DRIVE ME NUTS. It really annoys me. Makes me angry. I really think my ears are turning red because I'm so irritated.

GIVE IT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you stop making it a big deal, it won't be a big deal anymore.

GAH.

I don't even know what to say to express my annoyance.

Oh yes. I remember now.

Told you I would remember as soon as I hit publish.

CLICK ON MY ADS! I NEED MONEY.

Just a hint. ^_^

By the way...

I also wanted to say that I cannot for the life of me find a Blogger template that I like that looks good with my setup and works the way I want it to! I mean, a template that was NOT designed by Blogger. It makes me very sad. Maybe I am just too picky? Anyway, if you find any, let me know. It has to be one of the new Blogger format kind, though, not the old one!

AND...there was something else. What was it?

*thinking*

Alas, I can't remember. I probably will as soon as I hit "publish post".

I'm such a slacker

I haven't done anything with Blogger in so long.

FAIL.

I was reading (definitely just typed readying) my friends' blogs and I realized that even Chris has updated since I last wrote. That was an indicator that I really needed to hurry up and add to my blog.

Not that there's much to say.

Still school. Still work. Still no money.

I'm on spring break this week, which is lovely, except that it means the second half of the semester is coming up on Monday. Workload doubles, big projects are due, studying for finals, and dealing with big, scary cameras in my TV production class.

Which reminds me, I need to buy a VHS tape. DON'T FORGET.

This week I worked in the garden a bit, worked at work a bit, applied for a few different jobs, got my van inspected...

Oh there's a story. If you remember, I wrecked my parents' van in January - ran into a tree because of slipper roads. It wasn't TOO bad, as in, it could still be driven. My dad got pieces and mostly fixed it, but he couldn't get the headlight adjusted back the right way. So I got it inspected on Monday and it was a definitely fail because of the headlight. I had to go to a bodyshop to get it fixed, and I was afraid it was going to cost like $1000 or more. BUT!!!!!! Mom and I managed to find a bodyshop that fixed it for us; they said it was a really simple fix and they weren't going to even charge us anything! We gave them some money anyway. And then got the van reinspected and it passed.

w00t w00t!

So the plan is for me to buy the van from mom and dad, and I'll be selling my old one. It's sad because I really did like my old van, but I can't afford a new transmission for it and it's been having all sorts of problems that in a way I'll be glad to be rid of it.

So yes.

Also, I have Twitter which I like very much so look me up - notashamed87.

Not that anyone actually reads this blog.

*sigh*