Sunshine Award

I thoroughly enjoy getting nominated for awards, as for one it's an award and I should enjoy it for that reason in and of itself, but more so because it's a blog post basically already written. I do some copying and pasting, answer questions about myself (which I enjoy to begin with), thank the blogger who nominated me, and post that biz up for the world to see.

With that wonderful introduction, I was nominated for the Sunshine Award!

I'd first off like to thank Envy at Picking Up the Pieces for making all this fantasticness happen in the first place. I've been following her blog for a while and I'd highly recommend you go over and follow her yourself because I can't do all this work for you.

Next off are the rules because I hear there's a blog award mafia that lurks in the corner of every good blogger's computer room where they intend to strike whenever necessary. (Literally I make this joke every time I get an award, it's basically become another rule.)

Thank the person who nominated you. 
Answer the questions. 
Nominate a bunch of other people. 
Give them questions for homework. 
Tell them they've got homework. 
Put the award picture on your blog. 

Now onto Envy's questions:

1. What is your favorite book and why?

This is probably the hardest question to ever answer because it's very taxing to go through your entire reading history and pick just one measly book to represent every thing you love. On that note, I'll provide everyone a list, in no particular order:

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

3. Every Harry Potter book ever written

2. Do you have any hobbies that your friends think are ridiculous, but that you totally like?

I strangely don't, but I'm pretty sure that's because everything I would consider "strange" that I do, I usually don't tell people even if we're really good friends. I like having a hint of privacy about myself that if I died tomorrow and something about myself came up, everyone would be surprised that I ever did such a thing. This probably sounds extremely absurd to everyone, but I like to keep certain things private about myself especially in a world where everyone knows everything. 

Also when my friends move/go off to college, I want to have some super secret thing about myself that I can conceal to them before we part ways.

3. What's the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you?
My life is essentially one big embarrassing moment if that helps. I say dumb stuff all the time. I'm wrong a lot and argue that my wrong reason is right ending in embarrassing defeat. I think I'll stop here before I go into a nervous breakdown over my life.

4. What would you miss most about blogging if you had to stop?
Probably pulling up blogger on my computer and getting that feeling of happiness because you have a new comment. I love hearing from everyone!

5. Who's your biggest inspiration? (Not sure if I'm asking this question the right way... but I hope you understand what I mean)
This probably sounds extremely bad, but I have never really pin pointed that one person that I can dub as my true inspiration. There are a lot of celebrities that I would probably die, resurrect, die, and resurrect again if I ever met in person (Amy Poehler, any celeb from Grey's Anatomy, Michaela Conlin, Taylor Schilling, Betty White, anyone from the Kardashian lineage, etc.), but not necessarily someone that I absolutely 100% aspire to be like in every aspect of my life. If you know of any such person, I'm all ears.

Now Onto My Questions:

1. If you wrote a memoir on your life, what would you title it?

2. What is your favorite political issue to debate (gay marriage, immigration, etc.)?

3. Favorite crummy joke that's been told 100 million times and you are about to make it 100 million and one?

4. Reason behind your blog name?

5. Favorite TV show to binge watch on Netflix?

Nominating people is probably the absolute worst thing ever because you have to choose people and link their blogs and comment to tell them and you get all antsy because you think that they think they're obligated to do all this stuff. So to make this award go by without all this mess I am nominating EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU.

If you read that sentence you are nominated (therefore, no need to comment on your blog as I'm busy writing 10 million and one other blog posts that I'm sure you would rather me be doing for entertainment purposes). I'm not even kidding people, forget all that obligation anxiety I wrote about above, because you are all now obligated to write up a post on this award I'm giving you in a Vanna White presentation. 

In case I have some foreigners who are unaware of Vanna's fame.

So go forth and write and have fun answering questions about yourself. I even give you the copyrights to my "nominate everyone who is reading this" speach.

(Also I just found out I have another award blog post that needs to be written so I hope you're enjoying this haha!)

Have a fabulous day.

Summer Reading + Summer Movies

To keep my brain from exploding and myself from sitting in front of a dead computer for hours on end this summer, I'd like to make a list of books I'm going to read and movies that I'll get around to watching. I know I'm a little late on getting this started as I'm already four weeks into summer, but I still have a solid month with a week or so to spare till I go back to school.

(Some of these books are already crossed off because I've been writing this post for about a week now and went ahead and started reading some of the books.)

Books:
The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

The Blue Mirror by Kathe Koja

Divergent by Veronica Roth
Post Secret by Frank Warren
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Under the Dome by Stephen King

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Looking for Alaska by John Green

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

Movies:

The Silence of the Lambs

Jobs

Rent 

Amber Alert

The Diary of Anne Frank

Devil's Knot

Love Actually

The Blair Witch Project

Contracted
Sightseers
Heathers
Antiviral

Once I complete everything on the list (hopefully by the end of the summer) I'll do a review of both the books and the movies. I'll pair one book with one movie in each post and my hope is to do it weekly. This'll give me a good steady blog post idea for twelve weeks (as there are twelve books and twelve movies), so I hope you don't get bored with me. I also promise I'll be posting more than just these reviews so no worries, you don't need to take a mad dash to the unfollow button.

I hope you'll enjoy this.

Have a fabulous day.

Throwback?

If you're reading this post, then somehow I figured out how to pre-schedule posts. These computers are just the darnedest things sometimes I'm telling ya. Right now I hope I'm somewhere on the ocean reading a book (I'm currently working on The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult) with only good feelings being felt.

But enough about me.

I'm typing this on the fourth of July right now and I'm sure for a lot of people this date seems insignificant. But it just so happens to be the day that our Declaration of Independence was signed and ratified and we began a movement that eventually freed us from Great Britain's rule. I'm sure that was a nice American history lesson for everyone.

If you can't tell I'm rambling because I kept putting off writing this post and now there is little time for me to write something significant. I actually have a post half written about grief and all these nonhappy feelings I've been feeling lately, but it's been a slow process putting my emotions into writing.

So without a better idea to lean on, I'm going to do a little bit of a throwback to one of my older blog posts entitled: Why I Hate Blogging.

Enjoy.

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I'll be hitting the one year mark of my blog later this month and as I was drawing my thoughts from the past twelve months to make some overly cliche post about my one year anniversary, my mind took a different train for a moment. Instead of focusing on all the fantastic times I've had blogging, I've decided to take another approach:

Why I Hate Blogging 

Note: This won't replace my soon to come one year anniversary post.

1. Everyone Can Do It

The biggest beauty of blogging is ironically its greatest downfall. Creating your "one of a kind" blog is as simple as an email address and five minutes. Websites and other bloggers promise that everyone can do it, but in reality they can't and probably shouldn't. As harsh as this sounds, some people are just plain boring (and I hope I'm not perceived as one of them).

2. It's a Number Game

This is my biggest pet peeve of blogging. Everyone's obsession is either directly or indirectly related to the numbers that appear on their blog's dashboard. And I've fallen prey to this compulsion once twice multiple times before, but I've noticed some people take these figures too far. It's a sucky realization that people aren't reading your blog as much as you want them to, but every once in a while we just all need to chill out and have a muffin. If you're writing for page views and followers, you're doing it wrong.

3. Comments are More of a Way to Promote Your Blog Instead of Your Thoughts and Ideas

I want to take back my first statement in #2, because I have changed my mind. THIS IS MY BIGGEST PET PEEVE OF ALL TIME BLOGGING OR NOT. This loops back to number two like a big Christmas bow because it's probably one of the most common pawns in the number game of blogging. People leave two word comments with their blog linked to the end of their not so insightful words. Don't get me wrong, people who leave meaningful comments and then put their blog's URL at the end don't bother me. It's more like those who say "nice post *insert blog*" and call it day.

I usually don't leave my blog's URL at the end of my own comments and I usually don't mind when others do, but there's a boundary between commenting to promote your blog and commenting because you have something to say. Luckily, I've never had a comment left on my own personal corner of the internet aka my blog where the commentor's sole purpose was to endorse their blog, but it doesn't mean I don't see it happen ALL THE TIME.

4. People Quit Writing

Sometimes I see blogs that have lost the meaning of writing a blog somewhere between them posting every single day and their 1,000 blog followers that they most likely accumulated from "love your blog do you think you could check out mine?" type comments. They crank out meaningless posts of random pictures and copy and pasted recipes like a blog writing factory with the saying "less is more" meaning nothing to them.

Instead of writing a thoughtful post once or twice a week, they find a way to copy and paste a post together every single day, completely defeating the purpose of a blog: to write.

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For a blog with the word sunset in the title, I sure don't post enough of these. And a big thanks for enduring my post from way back when (November to be exact).

Have a fabulous day.

When Did a Penis decide what I Could Do With My Uterus? (A Story Told via Tweets and Maybe a Few Words)

A very, very controversial and long awaited verdict came in this week through the Supreme Court. A few years back President Obama endorsed and Congress passed the Affordable Care Act which, among other things, stated that all employers must provide their full-time employees with health care. (I know, so radical.) This bill set a guideline of things that the insurance must in some form or another cover such as doctor visits, emergency room visits, prescription drugs, and mental health services to name a few.

The law has taken a while to go into effect, with the biggest changes happening earlier this year and with anything, there was a lot of controversy. The most recent (and what the SCOTUS ruling focused on) was that employers had to provide birth control for their employees, which *gasp*, is such a completely absurd idea. (I hope you all are sensing my sarcasm here.)

The case was brought forth by a craft store chain by the name of Hobby Lobby, which is about as bad of a store that its cheesy name hints (it was also brought forth with another company by the name of Conestoga Wood Specialties, but they didn't play as big of role as the former, or at least that's how it seems). But let's stay on topic here. Hobby Lobby was getting their paint brushes in a twist because their deeply held religious conviction just couldn't allow them to provide their employees with emergency contraception.

There are a few points I'd like to bring up here, so I'll try to put this in a formatted and bold form to allow easy following for those of you tuning in at home.

They brought forth this lawsuit under the title of religious freedom, but what about the religious freedom of their employees who may or may not hold the same faith as them?

I thoroughly wish I could find stats on the percent of Hobby Lobby employees who are Christian and the percent of employees who hold the same religious conviction against the morning after pill and IUDs as the corporation (as even if all their employees are Christian which is practically impossible, there's no way to assume that they also hold the same religious feelings as them as well).

There are multiple sightings in our Constitution on religious freedom and yes, the Hobby Lobby corporation has the right to oppose IUDs and such, but they don't have the right to impress their own religious beliefs on their employees. By not having to provide these things under their ideals, their religious freedom is taking precedent over their 21,000 employee's religious freedom.

My point being, you can't refuse to provide something like this to your employees on the grounds of religious freedom unless 100% of your employees hold the exact same beliefs as you.

When was my employer given this much say in what I do with my body?

I highly doubt when these employees signed on to work for Hobby Lobby they knew they were also giving their employer a say in their reproductive health. I don't know when the men in suits will realize that they don't have a say in women's reproductive choices.

Who is to say IUDs and the morning after pill are considered abortions?

This is a long talked about argument. From my understanding Hobby Lobby isn't 100% against contraception. They'll provide insurance that covers birth control pills and condoms because these things prevent sperm from reaching the egg or egg reaching the sperm, however you want to put this. *Cue horrible flashbacks to 6th grade sex ed.*

But the problem is that the morning after pill and in *some* cases with IUDs, they keep a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus, which in Hobby Lobby's terms is considered a borderline abortion or at least that's how I'll put it for a lack of I don't know the real scientific term they use. Don't mind that a majority of doctors agree that a pregnancy is considered when the fertilized egg attaches to the uterus, therefore removing this life would be considered an abortion. Hobby Lobby just happens to think that if anything happens to a fertilized egg it is considered an abortion, whether it actually attaches to the uterus or not and becomes a real pregnancy.

Also might I add that generally IUDs work JUST LIKE CONDOMS. They simply keep sperm from reaching the egg. The only time that they keep a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus is if they're inserted when a woman already has a fertilized egg in her uterus and is used as emergency contraception. And we don't even know that either. It *might* do that, we just don't know. If you want to get more on this 'are IUDs causing abortions or not' argument check out this fascinating article here.

In all honesty, this just all sounds like Hobby Lobby should be taking an eighth grade science class, not making lawsuits.

Why do the corporate giants running the business matter more than the thousands of individual employees?

When you own a business, you do things for your employees because in almost all cases there are a lot more people working for you than you or the group of 'yous' who are running the place. It's common business practice. DON'T PISS OFF YOUR EMPLOYEES BECAUSE THEY KINDA RUN THE PLACE. You do things with the thoughts of your employees in mind and Hobby Lobby has yet to find this out. It's also irritating as with this movement they're shoving the I hate these things that I think cause abortions, but really don't according to a large percentage of the medical field message down their worker's throats.

Also our country is repeatedly going in the direction where big huge, non person, corporations are considered people. And not only that, but they're given precedent over REAL LIVING BREATHING PERSONS. Absurd, really.

How did we get in a mess where five guys with penises made this huge groundbreaking decision over something that doesn't even work with their male anatomy?

For those unfamiliar with our Supreme Court make-up, we have nine justices. We have six men and three women, a ratio that isn't exactly well representative of our American population to begin with.

Anyways.

The decision was 5-4 (five in favor of Hobby Lobby, four in favor of women everywhere), not to mention all three women were against Hobby Lobby's "right" to not provide IUDs to their employees. THAT MEANS FIVE PENISES JUST TOLD ME MY EMPLOYER CAN REFUSE TO GIVE ME SOMETHING THAT SOME CONSIDER VITAL TO WOMEN EVERYWHERE AND THEIR WELL BEING (PHYSICALLY, MENTALLY, IN TERMS OF A SUCCESSFUL CAREER, ETC.).

Periods are painful and these "things" that you oppose often help.

IUDs are often used to treat painful periods. They're like, imagine this, prescribed by a doctor who I can almost guarantee spent more time training and in school for his job than you did.

Also on a side note, where will these "religious exemptions" end. Theoretically, anything a doctor can prescribe, your employer could be against. What about religions who have convictions against organ donations and blood transfusions? Will these people's beliefs be able to get them out of providing their employees coverage for these things? I can almost guarantee that cases like this will arise, and the court can't just pick and choose which religions can have an exemption. If they do, that will open an entirely new can of worms with the court favoring one religion over the other.

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So here comes the fun part. Does this get you just as riled up as I am (bold and caps lock for the win)? Or do you have a completely different outlook (really don't be afraid I'm a lot more friendly than these seemingly yelling sentences imply)?

Regardless, have a fabulous day.

Tidbits of Thoughts

A lot of things have started to look up since my last post. It started with the release of Ed Sheeran's new album which alone made me happier than a 12 year old creating her very first instagram account. Also, at the moment I'm about 11,000 words into my never ending project of writing my first book. I now I follow a lot of other aspiring novelists so I have no clue if this is even considered a general accomplishment, but I've never made it this far into a storyline without the plot going dead.

I'm trying to take a lesson from the last time I left town without a word, so I should probably add that I'll be leaving for the beach at the end of this week. I'm trying to set up that fancy process that allows me to pre-write posts and schedule their publish time, but the last time I did that things did not exactly work out.

Also, on a far less happier end of the spectrum I caught an article on Facebook (which is regrettably about the only news source I have besides following CNN on Twitter which is extremely sad) about a little girl who had recently died. She had Down Syndrome and was in need of a heart transplant, but was never even put on the list because of her genetic make-up. I wrote a post about a very similar situation back in November (which you can read here) about a little boy who was disabled and also denied a heart transplant.

I would link an article about the little girl here, but the one I read on Facebook was a little too off topic and put the blame on people whom were almost irrelevant to the situation. (She blamed the liberals and the Nazis. ?) I've tried looking for a news article of any kind, but can't seem to find one in the vasts depths of Google. It's quite upsetting that organs are so scarce that we have to put in place such inhumane practices, but even more upsetting that these inhumane practices exist. How in the world can someone possibly put a worth on some one's life?

But I won't be ending things here on such a low note, no worries.

I recently got a way to watch Netflix on my TV as before I was stuck with watching it on my phone or computer which is not as nearly satisfying (first world problems?). With that, I've been immersed in watching a million new TV shows. I finished the two seasons of American Horror Story that was available and now I just need to find a way to capture the third season. It's horrifyingly great and terrifying all at once and I'd highly recommend it. I'm working on Orange is the New Black which oddly makes prison look extremely fun. Or at least extremely funny.

Also I've got a good post in the making that's not a life update or I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while update. Hopefully I'll get it up by tomorrow so stay tuned.

Have a fabulous days.

P.S. Thanks to everyone for your comments on my last post. Your thoughts and condolences mean a lot more to me than you probably know.