Tuesday, December 20, 2011

2011: A Weird Year

2011
What can I say about this year?  It was a weird one indeed.  When we rang in 2011, I was still in the midst of grieving the loss of a brother and an aunt and I had high hopes that 2011 would be a turning point in my life.  And in a way, it was.  I learned to accept myself a little more and to stand up for myself against those people who had always made me feel inferior.  So here we are a year later, 11 days away from 2012.  I will perhaps post another blog soon about my feelings toward 2012, but for now I am going to write about 2011.  I realize that I am going to miss a lot of topics, mostly due to space issues, but also because some of it wasn't important to me and I could care less about them.

In 2011, a child murderer walked free and a religious fanatic got his due.  We said good-bye to Steve Jobs, Borders Books, Harry Potter, the Iraq War and a whole slew of terrorists, dictators, and many innocent lives.    My reactions to each: Steve Jobs, not really bothered by it as I did not worship him like so many did.  To me, he was another CEO;  Harry Potter: Good series, never read the book, indeed the end of something that held people together for the last decade;  The Iraq War, another campaign promise kept, and good riddance to it.  It was a war started on false information and cost us many of our best men and civilians on both sides; Border Books, this made me sad.  I preferred Borders to Barnes and Noble.  Luckily, there is Books a Million to fill the gap. 

A Royal Wedding


For years, I have followed Prince William.  Not followed in the stalker sense, but followed out of reverence.  I saw how this young man was able to stand up under pressure when his mother died and grieved publicly.  I knew that he would grow up to be an exceptional person and would carry his mother's interests forward as he became a man.  His charities worldwide are a living tribute to the late Princess Diana.  And I knew that someday, he and Kate Middleton would tie the knot.  When they briefly separated last year, I was sad.  I felt like William would never find someone so right for him as Kate was.  And then they reconciled and announced their engagement in November 2010.  I have great hopes for their marriage.  Sometimes, time apart is just what people need.  And it doesn't always mean that they do not love one another, it is what it is.  And besides, we as Americans can hardly make it our business to judge them and vex them.  I read too many comments and posts during the wedding, mostly from Americans condemning the happy couple and saying stuff like 'it will never last'.  Yeah, Americans with your bigotry and 60% divorce rate cannot talk!

East Coast Earthquake



As if the summer-long drought couldn't make life on the East Coast any more interesting, we get an earthquake!  Of course, I grew up in California and was quite used to earthquakes.  And I didn't even feel the earthquake.  Me and a friend were driving at the time and I attributed the little shudder I felt to the motions of the car.  When my husband called me and said 'earthquake!', I thought he was crazy.  Then my friends husband called.  And when we arrived at the store, people everywhere were talking about it.  Leave the Yankees to make a big deal out of a little shudder.

World Population: 7 Billion



Say hello to Danica May Camacho, the 7 billionth person on Earth.
I have heard talk that the world cannot possibly support this many people.  I say that it can.  The world is abundant!  Those people who believe that it cannot support this many people lack two very important things: Faith and Understanding.  For me, faith is a very real and important part of my life.  The Gods can provide for any number of people.  And Understanding; the reason some parts of the world lack basic resources is the result of several factors.  Population density is one of them.  We have so many people all shoved into cities worldwide and entire countries with just a few inhabitants.  Then consumption is another problem.  'Western countries' consume the majority of the world's food, despite not being the largest countries in the world.  Rampant fast food and obesity are the consequences.  People consume more food than needs to be and therefore, people around the world go without.  And it is not just that, the tyrants have control over a large portion of the food as well, and they use it as a tool of emotional torture against their people.  If there were true equality, compassion, and understanding, no one would go hungry.

The End of an Era






Good-bye shuttle :(  This was truly the end of a glorious era.  But it meant something so personal to me.  As a child, I dreamed of going to space.  I worked hard to learn the ins and outs of the shuttle program, even tried for a scholarship to Space Camp and briefly entertained thoughts of joining the Air Force.  And now I realize, perhaps even if my dreams of joining the space program would have come to fruition, I would never have rode that great flying bird to space.  I watched all of the remaining launches and I had to fight back emotions as I watched Atlantis launch for the last time.  It was like watching the death knell of my childhood.  Perhaps those emotions run too deep for me to put it entirely into words.


The Occupy Movement


A little humor.  And I feel that is what has become of the Occupy Movement, a source of entertainment and humor for the Right and late night TV.  Their intentions were noble, but like most noble causes, have died a quick death.  The Occupy movement in my city have been there for 2 months.  They even received a permit to occupy the park from our Republican mayor.  Perhaps so he could make fun of them?  I wish they would do something more than just leave their tents in the park to kill the grass.  Maybe they should get serious.  This is some revolution...

Rapture (maybe?)

Strike one!  Strike two!  When will the fanatics learn?  Even their Scripture says 'no man will know the end of times'.  So why do they try?  All these people were good for was a laugh and clogging the entrance to my local Walmart with their leaflets.  What a waste of paper!


Weird Weather and Global Warming




Earlier this year, I posted a brief comment on Facebook about my annoyance with snow in October and someone replied 'so much for Global Warming'.  With that simple reply, he displayed to me his ignorance.  Global Warming is not just about the Earth warming up, which it is.  It is also about unstable weather patterns as a result of the warming oceans.  This year was ripe with examples of unstable weather patterns.  Crazy blizzards kick started 2011 and set records in places not usually known for their snow fall.  All through spring and summer, the country suffered from rare tornadoes, droughts, wildfires, and late season snowfall.  In my area of the country, the summer drought was so bad the farmers feared losing their crops.  And they did, just not like they thought it would happen.  Hurricane Irene skated its way up the Eastern seaboard and dumped record rain, causing flooding not seen since Hurricane Agnes.  And shortly after clean-up from Irene, a bizarre October Nor-ester came and dumped record snowfall the week of Samhain (Halloween).  I am not a snow person and needless to say, I was very much annoyed with snow everywhere when I was just getting excited about Halloween.  AND DON'T GET ME STARTED on the racks of CHRISTMAS stuff at my local stores the week BEFORE Halloween and the HALLOWEEN stuff on clearance before it was even HALLOWEEN!

All in all, 2011 was a very trying year for me and I hope that I will get some peace in 2012.  I will post later on my thoughts for 2012, my goals, and most of all my thoughts on December 21, 2012.