Thoughts on Anomosity

I have found myself with an extra load of time so like any responsible adult I am pre-writing a few blog posts. Or like one blog post. Nothing plural about it. This is actually pretty monumental for me considering I am pretty sure I have never returned a single library book on time a day in my life (even though the fine is only 10 cents per day I have racked up a lot of fines). I'm sure my local librarians hate me, but I'm also sure I am one of the few teenagers who come to the library, so it is most certainly a love/hate relationship.

Anyway.

I have a relatively funny store to tell. So the other day my English teacher mentioned that each of us would be individually writing a blog for her class, and we are of course using Blogger to create our blogs. She asked if any of us already had a blog and naturally I pretended to sip my coffee and pretend like the blogging world was some mystical place I had never ventured to, but inwardly I was like "YES YES I LOVE BLOGGER AND I HAVE BEEN WRITING A BLOG FOR NEARLY THREE YEARS I AM SO HAPPY TO GET TO BRING MY LOVE OF BLOGGING INTO AN ACTUAL CLASS."  I of course had to create new blog that was connected to my school email, and the blog posts are not nearly as exciting/interesting/whimsical as my personal blog posts, but it has been an overall very fun project.

When we were writing our second or third blog post my friend commented that I was navigating Blogger really well (a lot of kids in our class were very overwhelmed with Blogger, its features, navigation, etc.), and I just slyly smiled like ah yes if only you knew.

All of this has kind of brought back the topic and issue of me having an anonymous blog and keeping it that way. I haven't told anyone about this little place (not even my parents or very closest friends), although I have my suspicions that my parents know about this because I'm pretty sure I have kept the Blogger tab open on our family computer before, but I digress.

When I started this blog, I had envisioned keeping myself secluded by giving away as little personal info as possible, but that's kind of waned in the past years. As my blog is about to celebrate its three year birthday, I realize that I have given away a lot more info that I would have ever imagined I would. Most of this stuff however is very basic such as what state I live in, how old I am, etc. and honestly they are not that important, but I have certainly been reflecting on how my attitude has changed.

There have been a couple of times when I have come very close to making a blog post to formally introduce myself including my real name, close up and frontward facing pictures of me (as all the pictures I have ever put on here of me either don't show my face or my back is facing the camera), and all sorts of other things that I'm sure you all have been wondering about me, but I always stop myself. I decided a long time ago that if/when I end my blogging journey I want my last post to include all these things that I have been keeping secret these past few years, and this decision is one of the few things that have kept me from posting this tell-all beforehand.

Despite all the comfortableness I have acclimated since starting this blog, I'm still extremely paranoid that someone I know will find my blog. I am very self conscious of my writing, my ideas, and my life in general, and the thought of someone I know in real life coming across this place is a daunting and stomach twisting scenario.

I'm curious as to what you all think and feel. When you created your own personal blog, what compelled you to make it either anonymous or not anonymous? Have you told your family/friends about it?

I look forward to reading your answers. Have a fabulous day.

Dreary Back Roads

I'm writing to the hum of rain and stress.

These two things seem to have characterized this weekend well. It has rained for three days straight in my part of the woods, a slow drizzle that never worked its way up to be anything more. The rain naturally makes me want to do very little while life tells me that I need to do a lot. I know I have mentioned (probably way too much) about the level of overwhelmingness I have been feeling recently, but that is currently my life. There are a lot of deadlines coming up that are very close together  and are uber important to my life and future and financial situation, so stressful I am.

Despite this, I bring you rainy pictures of the road. It's my lame attempt at being an iPhone photographer (I blame Steve Jobs). I took these pictures while I was on my way home from my grandmother's house that requires a delightful back road drive to get to. Actually, you can take the interstate just as easily to get to her house, but that drive just isn't as scenic. The interstate drones on and on so monotonously, so why would I ever take that when I could view this for 45 minutes straight?

And on that note, I sincerely hope you enjoyed my conglomerate of back road pictures. Have a fabulous Sunday.

Ten Presidential Facts (For No Good Reason)

I just broke through a mound of three tests in one week plus birthday celebrations (an odd mix of stress and beauty). Despite the passing week though, I'm still in the rut of scholarship applications/college applications/life applications. Okay, I admit there's no such thing as life applications, but it wouldn't surprise me if they miraculously sprung up.

As I procrastinate working on said applications, I bring to you a blog post on presidents because a love for weird history facts is just another one of my strange quirks that I would only share in my Internet life because y'all don't judge. At least, y'all usually don't.

I don't guarantee the accuracy of any of these facts because most of them I have read on the Internet over the years, so don't hold me on this. Hold off on your lawyers if in ten years you find out something on here is not right. Hear my warning now.

1. Our first president, George Washington, was also the wealthiest president. Although we seem to regard Washington as being very humble and down to Earth, he had a net worth of $525 million and his plantation consisted of five separate farms on 8,000 acres of farmland.

2. Thomas Jefferson — our third president — invented the swivel chair, an obviously fundamental and important item of the American office.

3. William G. Harding reportedly took his KKK oath in the Green Room of the White House.

The casual historical racism adds such a beautiful touch, obviously. Source.

4. John C. Calhoun was the only person to serve as Vice President for two presidents, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. 

5. Martin Van Buren was the first president who was born an American citizen. Before that, all presidents had been born British subjects.

6. Ronald Reagan is the only president to have ever gotten a divorce.

7. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s  "I Have a Dream" speech was so inspiring to President Bill Clinton that he memorized it.

8. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the first president to speak on television. It's kind of ironic because this was a HUGE deal, and today very few American citizens tune in when the president has a televised speech.

Source.

9. In 1992, President George H.W. Bush Sr. vomited on the Prime Minister of Japan.

10. No president has ever been an only child. Despite this, there are four who have had only half siblings (so some do consider them to be only children), Franklin Roosevelt, Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama (he had 10 half siblings!).

Because of time and the various applications that must be filled out, I must end here, but most certainly there will be more to come. Anyone know of any interesting presidential facts not mentioned above? Or perhaps your country's leaders have some sort of strange facts you'd like to share?

Have a fabulous day.

Politics!!

Politics!! Yes, two exclamation points are necessary because that is exactly how excited I get about politics. I've "declared" my major as political science on multiple college applications at this point which is not binding by any means, but it is something. Whether I run for president or work for a local legislator all my life, I feel confident I will be content with what I do.

Sunday I attended my first political rally. With my 18th birthday being this Wednesday it seemed appropriate for my political nerd self, and appropriate it was. The rally as specifically for Bernie Sanders whom I adore. I'm a registered independent, but I am about 90% sure I'll be voting in the Democratic primary. (In my state if you are a registered independent you can choose to either vote in the Democratic or Republican primary just not both.) If I do vote in the Democratic Primary I am about 99% certain I will vote for Bernie. I was a fan of Hillary Clinton for some time but that began to wane within a month or so of her announcing her run.

It was extremely crowded which I can't say is a bad thing as crowds=support

When I discovered Bernie though, I was fairly confident I had found my candidate. My biggest excitement towards him is his stance on campaign finance reform. He refuses to be endorsed by a Super PAC and out of 400,000 donations, the average donation amount was $30 (edit: I cannot remember the exact amount but it was around $30/$31 which is INSANE in the best way possible).

My biggest pet peeve of American democracy is the vast amount of money that gets poured into campaigns. Companies and the wealthy elite can give millions of dollars to Super PACs which "endorse" specific candidates (the Federal Election Commission says that individuals can only donate $2,700 to an individual candidate but they get around this rule by donating to Super PACs which then back a candidate). Then when said candidate wins the election he/she will not represent his/her constituency, but instead the special interest of their biggest campaign donors.

For example, say Pacific Gas and Electric donates $5 million to Joe Smith's campaign run for the U.S. Senate. When Joe Smith wins the election, Pacific Gas and Electric will expect that Mr. Smith will represent their interest in Congress to pass laxer environmental laws and provide tax cuts to their corporation, despite how Joe Smith's actual constituents feel about these laws. In return, Pacific Gas and Electric will promise Joe Smith another political donation when it comes time for him to run for re-election.

Excuse the crumpled-ness of the sticker. 

Large campaign donations are just another way for the wealthy and corporations to buy more influence and power. And I want to clarify that I am certainly not saying that we should eliminate campaign contributions all together as this is a form of political speech, but I am saying that a candidate will definitely remember the person who gave $1 million dollars to their campaign but not the person who gave $20. In order for a candidate to fairly and objectively represent the people who elected him/her, s/he cannot have numerous big money donors controlling every move because they were able to afford to give a large sum to his campaign.

Bernie realizes this. He is one of the only candidates (Democrat or Republican) who refuses to accept money from a Super PAC. (I do have to admit for the sake of accuracy that Donald Trump is also refusing to be endorsed by a Super PAC but that is only because he is already extremely rich and wealthy to begin with. He is doing this not to make a point about campaign finance reform but because he does not want to comply with the rules and regulations that are in place over Super PACs. Voters need to keep in mind that Donald Trump is a literal billionaire and can easily self fund his campaign.)

I could go on and on about this, but my birthday is tomorrow (!!!) and I have a major bio test at the end of this week that requires major studying. Until then, have a fabulous day.