so i have a real problem with the fact that while genocide is a war crime and punishable in all kinds of ways, ethnic cleansing is aparently acceptable to the UN....WHAT THE FUCK!!! ok sure genocide is a lot worse because it is the annialation of an entire race and or ethnic group  and any proof that it exhisted while ethnic cleansing is the killing, and exhiling of a race or ethnic group, as well as the burning down of all important buildings and monuments to that culture.  both are horrible and end up killing thousands of innocent people and the people who commit these horrors should be punished.  many military officials or warlords remain in power and untouched because they claim they were just "ethnically cleansing" their home lands......
its disgusting

that random girl who loves pie!!! 

 Art Blog

 

I chose the painting of the house with the light for the blog. I think this is one of the most amazing pictures because of its simplicity and how it looks so much like a photograph. To be able to take a beautiful photograph is amazing enough, but to be able to paint with such realism that it can be deceived as a photograph is on a completely different level.
The artist uses colors and tones to confuse us into thinking the picture is set at night until you look at the sky and realize that its color suggests daytime. These contrasts are really confusing and it almost freaked me out at first. The main thing that seemed to trick me was the reflection of the pond, the distinction of the light and house suggests that it’s night time and the way the colors appear shiny make the painting appear like a photograph. 
For some reason this picture makes me feel really calm and relaxed. It reminds me of this place we walked by in London. It was in the city but we passed by it during night time but there was only one light on and barely shined through the fog. I get the same relaxing feeling when I look at this picture as when I walked by that small apartment. The way the artist manipulates sizes and colors in this picture as well as others creates this sort of alternate reality that is free to be interpreted as you choose to. It’s hard to create a work of art with out trying to force the way people interpret it. 
I think that Magritte wanted to change the perspective of simple things. A house that it in half day half night makes you think about what time it truly is. A painting of a pipe with the label “this is not a pipe” challenges you to think about what else it could be and a bedroom with a giant comb make you wonder what’s actually the real size. To be able to think so deeply about such a simple painting shows how strong the painters intent was.

 

I can’t believe Mr. Ross is making me do this when I could be watching TV. I just started watching law and order and it’s so funny not as beasting as bones though. Some versions of it have ice-t which is really tight! My mom is being really controlling and psycho. I really want some popcorn or cheese, or cheesy popcorn, although that sounds kind of nasty. My mom thinks I need to concentrate while ranting but I really hate silence like I really, really hate silence. I’m so hungry, my stupid little nieces ate all of my food, including the chips that I bought with my own money because they were to caught up in my nieces preschool play that they’ve seen like four times already to spend fifteen minutes to take me to lucky’s. God all I want is some good food. I can’t wait to go to Utah with Gabe, but I do not with every fiber of my being want to share a room with his mom. She’s kind of controlling and over protective. And the super bowl is on Sunday and I was planning on eating a lot of potato chips and ribs and fake cheese dip. I wish my brother wasn’t such a health freak, then I wouldn’t have my nieces eating all my food. All they have in their house is whole wheat granola bars and snacks with no sugar no eggs no meat no dairy no flour no fat no calories no cholesterol no salt the list goes on. Yea it’s ok to be healthy but I mean come on their fucking 4 years old! They don’t need to be on a diet just because their mom is. Those kids will never be normal ever in their life. Their going to grow up to be those creepy theatre people who try to hard to be dramatic and shit. I want to go see GWAR again that was so amazing raw! I’m going to be so amazingly soar from snowboarding this weekend, and Mr. Ross is going to call me a baby or a wussy or something. Hey I’m less of a wuss than Lyla so I have that going for me. This weird monster thing Gabe gave me is really weird. I can’t believe that we’ve been together for more than a year, it’s so exciting, off topic but I hate when people who are really nice go out with people who are really mean and bitchy. I won’t drop names, but this dude who I’m friends with just started going out with this girl who hates me for no fucking reason and she glares at everyone and just looks like she hates the world. Meanwhile this guy is actually really nice and it just makes no sense to me, he’s going to be whipped in no time and it makes me really sad….12 minutes are up wudyaknow?

Sam Spade Mixed Tape Lydia Turnshek

Per 2

Track 1: Gyp the Cat- Bobby Darin

This song comes from the time period that The Maltese Falcon takes place in; this is what Sam Spade would have probably listened to on the radio or on a record. The song talks about a notorious pick pocket in a town much like San Francisco, someone who Sam Spade may sometimes associate with. “And though Gyp the Cat has a-lotta dough; is the money his or part of plunder. Gyp says, ‘Go and wonder.’” This relates to Spade’s personality, he gets a lot of his information from maybe unreliable sources, at least according to police. But if you were to try and ask him where he got is tips, he’d say it was none of your business. Spade is straight to the business and keeps to his own, unless it involves you, he doesn’t think you should know. As the song progresses, Gyp the Cat carries out a number of crimes until he is mistaken for dead. “And at the services, everybody cried, ‘cept for one peculiar, smiling’ mourner; Pickin’ pockets in the corner…“ In the story, people often mistake Spade for a stupid man, when on the contrary he is extremely bright and witty. Spade often uses this misconception to his advantage to gain trust and information. Gyp uses the mistaken identity to pick the pockets of those who came to his so-called funeral. Both Gyp the Cat and Sam Spade keeps their wits around them no matter how dangerous the situation may be. Their only difference is that Gyp works exclusively while Spade stays within the law as much as possible. They rarely feel the sympathy most expect when a life is lost, and to them it just complicates their journey to get what they want. “…One peculiar smiling’ mourner…while they set his brother in the ground…” When Spade’s partner is shot, he is definitely not as devastated as one would think. Spade sees Archer’s death as a new puzzle piece that should be put aside until more pieces fall into place. Gyp uses the death of his brother, who was mistaken as him, to gain money with a ghostly grace. To people who have lived on the edge for so long, death just isn’t as amazing as it seemingly should be.

Track 2: Burn in Hell-Twisted Sister

“Without even trying, I’ve lived on the edge of a knife.” Sam Spade doesn’t try to attract danger and bad characters, they just kind of fall into his path. Although he’d prefer to live with out them, he accepts that it’s part of his career choice and knows that to ignore them would put him in more danger. In his line of work, he is often held up or physically threatened, he takes risks that if it weren’t for his reflexes, and he wouldn’t have made it out alive. The next lines of the song, “So I think that it’s time for a turn; before I burn in hell.” The story ends with Spade telling the newly apprehended Brigid O’Shaungnessy that he was going to take a small break from the private detecting work to get his head and wits straight once again. He doesn’t want to go down and completely loose all of his credibility as well as his mind. In a few short days his life has gone from fairly normal, to completely out of his control, which is something he isn’t used to. It freaks him out and is just barely able to remain strong through the whole affair. “Hear no evil, don’t you see no evil, don’t you lay no evil down on me.” This is a really good, short statement of Spade’s attitude towards people. For the most part, Spade turns a blind eye to little things that happen, he doesn’t mind if people get rough as long as he doesn’t get involved to much. But if for some reason, it brings trouble to him, all hell will break loose.

Track 3: Die With Your Boots On-Iron Maiden

Spade goes into all cases with a sort of get tough or get out attitude, he doesn’t want to waste his time with people who are just going to complain about their situation for no reason at all. “If your gonna try, just stick around, gonna cry just move along, ’cos if your gonna die your gonna die.” When Spade first meets Brigid, she cries and lies and complains and mopes, which does nothing to help Spade solve the case. Once she opens up, and turns into a true Femme Fatal, he gets his information, and she proves to be a real help to him. “No point asking what’s the game, no point asking who’s to blame.” Spade doesn’t really blame anyone for the murders of Archer and Thursby until the end, when he can fully understand the situation at hand. He saves all of his deeper thoughts until all of the pieces have fallen together and he can look at the big picture. At first, Spade tries to figure out what’s going on with the falcon, and who’s after it, but he can’t fully grasp the whole story until it is explained by Gutman. In Spade’s line of work, sometimes it’s more beneficial to know only the partial story and use that to gain trust as well as figure out what the sides are. Spade is a master at putting the right pieces together at the right time. “If your gonna die, die with your boots on.” This really characterizes how Spade is petal to the metal all the time. He doesn’t mind physical danger and believes that dying for a worthy cause and dying while doing what you’re supposed to do is more admiral than any other kind of death in the world. That applies to any work where physical danger can become a reality. When Archer is killed, Spade accepts it extremely easy, easier than if Archer had died in bed sick at home. It goes the same for the captain of the La Paloma, Spade wouldn’t have been as remorseful if the guy had walked in with the falcon and fallen dead from a heart attack. But when he comes in with a bunch of holes in him, Spade has as much sympathy as he can muster because he died and kept going for as long as he could, he never took his boots off.

Track 4: Back Down-50 Cent

Every one in the story carry guns, save for Spade, but the most packing gunman is Wilber. “Hold a gun big enough to hold fucking Shaq down.” Wilmer is always armed and ready to use them even though he probably never ACTUALLY needs them, they just make his life easier. He carries two guns that are big enough and powerful enough to bring anyone down who stands in his way. “You can buy cars but he can’t buy respect in the hood.” Throughout the story, Spade demonstrates his cautious relationship the cops, he doesn’t trust them and they don’t trust him. They may be all official and flashy with their shiny cars, but if they went to the kind of places Spade went to, and tried to talk to the people he is on fairly good terms with, every one would shut up like clams. Spade spends so much time in the lower districts on San Francisco that people know him and have some respect for him; he can speak their language and can get good information from them. “Now you stay the fuck outta my zone…” Spade is constantly under the watchful eye of the police who would just love to have a reason to take his license, but at the same time, they are making it hard for him to find anything that could get him in trouble in the first place. He can’t go outside without running into the cop’s and they begin to ruin some of his street cred and make finding out information even harder than it was while they had other fish to fry.

Track 5: Soul Survivor

Spade quickly falls for the infamously stunning Brigid O’Shaugnessy, who turns out to a much more cynical person then she leads Spade to believe. In the end, she’s the one responsible for Archer’s death, but Spade still is insanely in love with her. “I guess we got the same dreams, or is it the same nightmares.” As the cops take Brigid away, Spade tells her that if she gets out of jail in time, they can be together but just because they’re in love doesn’t mean that Spade is going to let her get away with murder. They both share the dream of being together but as she is being taken away, the dream turns into a nightmare that will go on, maybe for the rest of their lives. Between the lies that were put on by Brigid and the different characters coming into play, Spade hardly has time to rest, “I can sleep when I die.” Spade doesn’t seem to mind that much and just keeps going until every loose end is tied up. To him, sleeping is a waste of time when so many things make no sense and need to be discovered. He has to be careful with what he does and how he acts because the police are waiting on pins and needles for him to screw up big time, “gotta watch er’ move ‘cuz them eyes be on you.” Spade tries his hardest to stay under the radar when it comes to the cops because they seem to watch his every move. This becomes even more of a problem once Archer is killed and Spade seems to be their first suspect. As the story moves on, not only does he fall under the watchful eyes of the police, but a Wilmer, a hired gunman. Spade can’t seem to go anywhere without some other force knowing his position.

     
A Childhood Fear

                The greatest childhood fear I have is that of the energizer bunny. I don’t know what it is about him, but those pink ears, black shades, and big drum scare the shit out of me to this day. It probably started when I was about four, I was watching T.V. with my oldest brother matt and there was a documentary about bunnies on. Some of the bunnies they showed were white with red eyes, my brother decided to scare me and told me that they were giant killer bunnies that lived in Africa. That just started a train of bunny nightmares that plagued me for about a year. Then one day I was watching T.V., again with my brother and the energizer bunny came on. He saw this as another chance to terrify his little sister, and he began a long tale about the energizer bunny. I don’t remember it completely but I know it had something to do with aliens. The nightmares grew from the simplicity of a few bunnies, to an army of bunnies that are as big as a house, to just the energizer bunny sitting in the black. Drumming, drumming, drumming. 
                 I still have reoccurring nightmares about the energizer bunny, and the occasional white bunny with red eyes, and I cringe at every energizer commercial. Everyone tells me that I’m crazy but I think their the ones who are crazy. I mean how can u not be freaked out by him? HE NEVER STOPS!! I think that the most ironic thing about my bunny fear is that now, my nickname is bunny. Who knew that my greatest childhood fear would turn into a name for myself. I’ve slowly gotten over most of my bunny fears, and they have turned full circle to me wanting a bunny. But the energizer bunny will still be scarier than any zombie or alien that is in the newest sci-fi movie.

                    The song I chose was Story of My Life by Social Distortion. One of the main ints this song touches on is that the good times in our lives only last so long, so we have to enjoy every minute of them, because it’s impossible to get them to last forever. If you were to try and make a good time last forever it will lose it’s meaning. The rest of our lives may go by in a blur of stress that it takes the most strength to hold on to the moments that we can bring back to help us through the hardest times in our lives. “Good times come and good times go[…and] I think about the good times[…]and why they had to end.” We all wish that those days that are just perfect and there’s nothing wrong keep going, but in the end, if we didn’t have the bad days as well as the good days, the good days will seem even better. More people need to realize how precious these times are to our everyday lives, and how lucky we are that these days even happen.

                   “Life goes by so fast, you only want to do what you think is right. Close your eyes and it’s past; story of my life.” Sometimes it seems like the week will never end, like it will take forever just to get to the next day. Then, when you look back on your life, you realize that all those days when time stretches out in front of you are just as much of a blur as the good days that seem to go by so quick.

                 To me this song is one of those songs you listen to when your having one of those days, even though the actual content of the song is a little bit sad, the way the singer portrays all of these things is in a positive way. I think that the main message of this song is that sometimes life sucks, a lot, but if you look back on your life, the good and bad things mesh together to create a really diverse memory that is better than any single memory you could pull up.