someone needed to say it.

I’ve kept this post as a draft for a while now, and debated if it was worth posting. Not because it is any less important than hogzilla, but I have many friends who are guilty of these about-to-be-named faults. After talking with a friend though I decided this was no real reason to hold back.

I am a bit of a social networking site snob. I can think of no reason I will ever use a twitter or tumblr. I enjoy facebooking, but mostly consider it to be a joke as well. I had a discussion the other day about how essentially every social networking site is created for the sole purpose of self-promotion, and I believe that to be an absolute truth. People tweet because they think whatever they have to say in 150 characters (this is an arbitrary guess) or less is important enough for others to follow. People set up myspace and facebook accounts to see how many “friends” they can accumulate. And since these sites have been created with no disclaimer or guide to inform users of what is and is not appropriate, I’ve taken it upon myself to set a few standards.

1. Facebook is not the place to let people know your life is falling apart. Everyone has bad days, and sometimes those stretch into patches of just plain bad luck. But everyone on your “friends” list does not need to know how bad things in your life have become. There is actually a term for this, vaguebooking. It’s easy to spot, too- “wondering if it is worth it all” or “ready to just give up.” Having this as your status is a quick way to get people who don’t know you very well to give you loads of attention. More importantly, if your real friends are anything like me, this will only irritate them and they won’t take you seriously until you talk to them directly.

2. Facebook is not twitter. It is equally annoying when you clog my newsfeed with a different status every five minutes. I really don’t care. I don’t care.

3. Don’t put song lyrics as your status. If you’re still in high school and you’re using msn messenger and chatting with your besties, it’s fine. If you’re in your mid-twenties and still posting self-reflective song lyrics but always follow with, “they’re just lyrics, I really like the song”, reevaluate things. I really like the song Parting Gift by Fiona Apple. I think the lyrics are easily relatable, but I would never put them as my status, and I think the reasons should be fairly obvious.

4. Stop using your status as a way to make passive aggressive comments about/towards your ex. Everyone has had a bad break up(s). They’re tough, but the heartache (just like the relationship) is transient. The longer you hold a grudge, and the more you comment on his or her actions, will just add to the time it will take to get over the person.

5. Finally, stop using facebook to spread ignorance. If you have the urge to make a comment about a person or group’s race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexual orientation, or ability, stop, think about the one thing you have struggled with most, and imagine someone posting it as their status.

hogzilla.

this morning i watched a national geographic documentary on hogzilla, pictured above. lisa ling investigated what she referred to as a "new monster roaming our swamps." the man who shot hogzilla is chris griffin, a professional hunting guide. he claimed hogzilla was 12 feet long and weighted over a ton, comparing its size to a rhino. national geographic investigators exhumed the hog's body- it was absolutely disgusting to see a 6-month old, decomposing hog carcass. examiners also had to dig up the severed head, because griffin buried it in a secret location to keep grave robbers from taking the head and having it taxidermed. anyway, this team of hog experts determined that griffin had exaggerated hogzilla's original size. it was a little sad to see this group of scientists call griffin out on his lie, especially after the georgia town declared griffin a hero, complete with an annual parade, after he'd killed the animal.

other interesting bits i learned from this documentary: the pig is the smartest of all domesticated animals. it has taken thousands of years for pigs to evolve into more gentler version we have today, but once released into the wild a pig's natural instincts can take over in a matter of weeks. once this happens its hair becomes courser, it begins to grow tusks, and becomes increasingly more aggressive. also, feral pigs can be found on every continent, living in every ecosystem, except antarctica.

apparently it is very likely that there are many other 800-1,000 pound boars roaming around the southern swamps. wild hogs have been spotted as far north as the canadian tundra. this is slightly terrifying, and frankly i blame factory farmers. after scientists genetically tested hogzilla's DNA they found that he had both wild and domesticated chromosomes, suggesting inter-breeding between wild and domesticated pigs. there can potentially be thousands of hybrid hogs living in the wild. though the pork industry in the united states is not on the same scale as china- apparently china is considered to be the world's powerhouse of pork production- we have a substantially large number of pork producers. i already blame factory pork farms for most of the e-coli outbreaks and antibiotic resistant MRSA.

most terrifying of all, now there's this- the hogzilla b-horror movie.

i think this speaks for itself.

i rediscovered this when i was going through the pictures on my phone. i don't remember when or where i took it originally, but i'm so glad i found it.

self-diagnosis is kinda my thing.

despite being a bit of a hypochondriac i hate visiting the doctor. there are several contributing neurosis that i think cause me to actively avoid the doctor's office. partly it is due to my mother insisting on going into the exam room with me until i was 17 and then speaking for me when the doctor would ask what the problem was. additionally, on a couple of visits to the student health center the nurse not so subtly suggested i have an eating disorder. also, i hate sitting in the waiting room. i get anxious when i am sitting around so many other sick people, i'm afraid that if my immune system is already slightly weakened then i have an increased risk of catching something else. because of this, i self-diagnosis myself on web-md constantly. in the past week i've thought it possible that i have both pneumonia and thrush. rationally, i know there is very little chance i have either of these, let alone both. at the slightest symptom though my first instinct is to check every possibility on the web.

i am also prone to picking up the symptoms of the latest fad illness. in high school when the pope developed an urinary tract infection i was positive i had one, too. whenever the west nile virus started to spread through parts of the south i caught it, twice. and in 2006 when there was an e. coli outbreak reported in packaged spinach i woke up the day after eating a salad from the dining hall just knowing i had food poisoning. lucky for me most of my various self-diagnosed viruses/infections/illnesses cure themselves within 24-48 hours with a lot of napping on the couch and a little bit of self-loathing.

palin in 2012

i should begin by saying i have absolutely no respect for sarah palin. i do not believe she has the political experience necessary for national politics, and considering she resigned midway through her gubernatorial term, she will not have the experience when 2012 gets here either. i am frustrated with the argument that she is relatable. yes, she is folksy and a working mother, but those are not credible references to qualify a person to run a country. i am still frustrated that she misquoted madeleine albright. partly because i think she knowingly misquoted her because she could make herself sound better with the rewording, and also because sarah palin does not support other women. in fact, she speaks quite negatively about other women leaders. finally, and this may push some buttons, i think she exploits her youngest child in order to push her pro-life platform. that said, she is the perfect face to brand white elitism all over the tea party convention.

as for the tea party... since when did making jim crow references in the disguised argument of saving the constitution become okay? racial oppression is just as abhorrent today as it ever was. and seriously, tea baggers? first national convention held at a place called the gaylord opryland? either these people are completely clueless or there is a campaign organizer laughing her or his ass off every night. the irony isn't even funny at this point.

finally, what happened to the uber patriotic rhetoric we were hearing just a couple years back about how anti-american it is to criticize our president while he is still in office? isn't that just what the terrorists want? obama has only been in office a year and republican politicians and supporters are treating him with a lack of respect that took bush at least four years to achieve. fair and balanced my ass.

grammy's... more like bore-me's.

i didn't watch the grammy's. most award shows are boring and predictable to me. based off the flood of facebook statuses i noticed before going to bed last night though here's my wrap-up of the 2010 grammy's- people wasted their night being upset with a 20 year old white girl.

taylor swift is cute and naive and a safe, family-friendly choice. and even though lady gaga didn't win album of the year, she does have a larger fan base and the better career, so did she really loose much last night?

also, it seems people were so blinded with taylor swift hate, no one noticed the homophobic song "Run This Town," won best rap collaboration.

misanthrope is my favorite word.

quite often i am frustrated by main-stream america. while i can't imagine growing up anywhere else, i am often embarrassed at what has become american culture. this isn't to say that i am not grateful for the privileges i've grown up with. i'm very appreciative of my freedoms, though i don't necessarily believe i enjoy them because of military protection. what i am mostly bothered by are the moronic things that have become popular because so many people award them undeserved attention. nascar, nicolas cage, american cheese, recently elected massachusetts senator scott brown, the new york times fashion&style section- to name a few. i have to feel though that the united states as reached a new low point though when mattel introduced twitter for dogs.

i realize, and enjoy to some degree, social networking- this blog serves as proof. i have always thought that twitter is for the most egocentric of people though. i can think of only a small hand-full of times when using twitter is justifiable: keeping patrons up-to-date on happy hour specials, grassroots organizing, and promotions for food delivery deals. everything else seems like an insult to the inventors of the internet.

back to puppy tweets, this device attaches to a dog's collar and comes with pre-recordings like, "I finally caught that tail I've been chasing and...OOUUUCHH!" and "YAHOOOOOOO! Somedays you just gotta get your bark on."

this all leads me to believe that the type of person who would buy this product is also the type of person who doesn't leave their house enough to need to follow their dog's twitter.