Don't Be a Hofstadter

I like "Big Bang Theory", let me start with that. Maybe it's because I love comic books or I can relate to the social awkwardness of the guys. Whatever the reason, the show is on every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday on TBS without fail in our household.

For those of you that haven't seen the show (I'm not going to question your sanity, because not everybody likes the same thing) I'll give you the brief synopsis.

So basically, there's an apartment building in Pasadena, California. In that building is apartment 4A. In THAT apartment -- dubbed Nerdvana -- live roommates Experimental Physicist Leonard Hofstadter PhD and Theoretical Physicist Sheldon Lee Cooper B.S., M.S., M.A., Ph.D., Sc.D. Their friends are one  Rajesh 'Raj' Koothrapali PhD an Astrophysicist and Aerospace Engineer Howard Wolowitz. All of them work at Caltech and all are nerds as per this definition:

Nerd – intelligent, industrious, understands things

And maybe you could say they are geeks:

Geek – Interested in things that others are not interested in, know a lot about their interests, but usually do not understand underlying principle

And all of them could be dorks to some extent:

Dork – Foolish, stupid, clumsy

Then came the aspiring actress Penny (last name currently unknown) from Omaha, Nebraska who moved into 4B across the hall. She's the beautiful, popular girl that has captured Leonard's eye. She's a borderline alcoholic, calls everybody sweetie, promiscuous (I think she's slept with 31 guys according to Sheldon) and is somewhat rude.

Sheldon is particular (living off a weekly schedule) and very smart with an IQ of 187. Because of this, he comes across as condescending. However, there's this innocence about him, like how he's obsessed with Spock, his fits when his routine is disturbed, or giving Penny money when she needed it. When he knocks, it's always three knocks followed by the name of the person, done thrice -- apparently that's a word. Thanks Rose Nylund!

Howard, or Wolowitz, is "creepy" as Penny would describe him. He can find a sexual meaning in anything. His clothes are extremely amusing though, it seems his favorites are primary colors, skinny jeans, canvas shoes and the ever present dickie -- not a turtleneck. I can't hate his character though because he just looks so odd with his clothing and bowl cut and he's funny.

I don't really know much about Raj Koothrapali but I like his character. He and Wolowitz are best friends and the show hints at his homosexual tendencies. One, he likes Sandra Bullock movies and refers to her as Sandra B, he watches Sex and the City, the Good Wife -- all stereotypical girl activities -- and not to mention the occasional Howard-Raj married joke. Two, he has selective mutism, often speaking into Howard's ear. In other words, he can't speak to women without alcohol. Though he does become a bit of an asshole when drunk. He always wears ugly vests too. Just thought I'd add that.

There are other characters, the most prevalent now in the fifth series are Amy Farrah Fowler, Sheldon's girlfriend who is shockingly similar, and Bernadette Rostenkowski, Howard's fiancée -- I guess now wife. I haven't seen the fifth season yet. Both have PhDs. Bernadette's the blond.

Last, but not least -- or maybe least, according the title of this blog -- is Leonard Hofstadter. I don't hate his character, but I don't like his character either. I guess between him and Penny, I'd pick Penny over Leonard... by a very small margin.

First, Leonard comes across as needy and desperate -- maybe that's the fault of his cold Psychiatrist/Neuroscientist mother, Beverly. The first time he sees Penny, he's absolutely head over heels in love with her, commenting that their children will be smart and beautiful. Okay, so he was attracted to her, and looks have something to do with attraction, but was it love?

Second, He claims he loves her but jumps at any chance he could get to have sex, and it doesn't matter if it's with Penny. Even when they were dating, it seemed the only thing they had in common was sex. Sure they occasionally hung out together... but it looked like they were just friends with benefits with the label of 'boyfriend and girlfriend'. I hate that term 'Friends with Benefits'.

Even after they broke up, he jumps into bed with some physicist that stayed with them in 4A and fell in "love".

I'd say Penny is similar, except for the fact that she doesn't have a PhD, she isn't as needy, nor does she seem to fall in love as quickly as Leonard does.

There was supposed to be a moral here, but I kind of forgot after screaming like a banshee for nearly an hour (my brother was kind of missing in another state) so I forgot my train of thought. However, whenever I'm trying to look at myself and change what I deem annoying or hindering to my success, I think of Leonard.

I'm not saying he isn't successful, that part is probably a given since he has a PhD. But I don't want to be as self-conscious, or fickle as him.

Living in constant need of approval and attention would just make you paranoid.

If you want to be a nerd and read more about what makes a geek a geek  how it differs from a dork just for the sake of knowledge, click this wonderfully bold paragraph.

Okay, so it wasn't as brief as I had hoped... so sue me. Good luck bringing that up in court.

The Little Mermaid's Graduation

No, Ariel the Little Mermaid did not graduate on May 18 of this wonderful year, but a boy -- yes boy -- of the same name left the University of Washington in St. Louis Missouri for the cold, unforgiving, vampire that is the world. Just thought I'd use that metaphor from my Language Arts class at Northwest Jr. High. For seriously.

And my little brother graduated just in four years... little shit. Always has to do one better than me.

But seriously, I'm proud of him and wish him all the best in his endeavors. Hope he bypasses the dreaded Quarter-life Crisis.

When I graduated from the University of Iowa, the class was small we had plenty of time to walk across the stage and get our diplomas. It was a nice feeling being there and knowing that I was done with school, but I was also disappointed because I was expecting one of those outside ceremonies that you see in most high school and college graduations that appear in movies; they so totally could have done that at Pentacrest but I guess they didn't want people to freeze in early December. Never even got that for my high school graduation.

So I was sort of excited that my brother's graduation took place outside. However, it was sooooo hot out and I was boiling under my hair. (I've taken to wearing it naturally in a pseudo-afro because one: it looks cute-ish, and two: all I have to do is wash, moisturize and go.) -- Which made me rethink the whole outside graduation thing. Also, I was the one who had camera duty and it was so hard to see the stage from where we were seated let alone take a picture of Ariel or any other grads sitting to our right. I did take a picture of a random grad's hat though.

They didn't even hand out diplomas so the ceremony was really them sitting and listening to important University people speak. I guess they let him know three days prior to the ceremony that a students would be walking the day before the ceremony so he walked on Thursday at 9:00am and the real ceremony -- the one that was in all of our graduation information -- was at 8:30am on Friday. ON FRIDAY. Who fucking does that during the week?

It really was beautiful though. After ceremony, we walked around campus. Seemed like Ariel had so much to do. He had to pick up his diploma -- which he missed doing and now has to wait until July 4 to get it, have us meet his friends -- which I wasn't feeling at first, but then I'm like "what the hell, it's his day" -- and... just sit around?

Anyway, of course there was the family drama that would no doubt occur when your parents are divorced. Thankfully it was slight and hadn't really ruined my bro's day... though he did comment on it. I guess we're all just extremely passive aggressive. I was worried about my mother meeting my dad's wife, but she's so nice that it wasn't a problem... thank God. I hate taking sides and all that.

Ariel decided to stay in Missouri, which is okay; it's his life. I did want to tell him that now he had no excuse to drink as much as he did, but I'm sure he already knew that.

And as for this title, he's probably going to be pissed, but tough shit. He doesn't read this blog anyway.

And on another note, I'm addicted to beer bread. I know the alcohol evaporates, but it's like it gets me drunk.

I don't drink beer because I can't stand the taste, but oddly enough, I like the taste it gives the bread. The recipe is really easy so I think I'll continue to buy beer to make it. Not only will that make me look cool, but I'll make my own homemade bread and anything homemade has got to be healthier right?

My Views...

Hey all, I'm back after so long and I gotta say it feels better. I think blogging is a nice practice for building confidence. I already feel like I'm being lifted from this funk I've been in for the past year.

Anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk about.

As you may or may not know, Obama has announced that he supports same-sex marriage. Bravo!

Now anybody that has the had the pleasure, or displeasure, of making my acquaintance knows that I'm not into politics, I don't enjoy speaking about religion, nor do I like to debate on pretty much any heated topic known to man i.e. abortion, gay rights, Harry Potter vs. Twilight (my answer... neither. but I digress)

However, I think I have to speak up on my views on same-sex marriage. I know writing this may not sway anybody in favor of or against same-sex marriage. I don't even know who reads this blog daily, especially since I don't have a set updating schedule, but I'm writing this for me. It's a fact that if I have something in my head, it doesn't go away until I write it... so that's what I'm doing.

I don't follow politics at all, maybe that's a good thing, maybe it's a bad thing. Maybe that just points out how ignorant I am. It just doesn't interest me. So, how I heard about this was during tonight's episode of 'Conan'. When it was announced, I mentally clapped in my head and said out loud, "That's good news." to which my mother, a 50 something Christian, looked at me with unamused eyes and a raised eyebrow that I had only seen in my younger days when I "accidentally" flipped her the bird for telling me to clean my room instead of playing video games all day.

She said to me, "No, it's not a good thing... it's wrong." I tried not to cringe at her patronizing voice but just retaliated with, "Everybody should have the right to get married."

Then she said, "No, it's wrong," and turned her head back to Conan, cutting off eye contact with me. "God didn't create Adán y Pedro" or Adam and Steve as our pastor once said -- which people think is so clever but it's not. I just scoff and say, "The Bible was translated, how do you know that it wasn't mistranslated. The only way for you to know what it really said was to be present back then." Which, in retrospect, probably wasn't a good idea since she just turned to me again and said, with her serious 'mom-mode' look, "Same-sex marriage and acts are wrong according to the Bible... and YOU know that, so don't say that."

Needless to say, I backed off at that point. I really hate debating, it gives me a headache because my brain goes a mile a minute with so many ideas passing through while I stumble on my words, saying things that often times don't make sense and those debating with me give me the dreaded, "What are you saying?" or "Are you serious?" look. Not pleasant.

I couldn't even enjoy the rest of the show because I kept thinking about Christianity and homosexuality. I love my mom, and we're a lot alike, but homosexuality is one of the many things we don't agree on. Another being the evolution and creationism (in which I believe both, where, surprise surprise, she's an adamant creationist.) For four years, I was a good Christian just like her, believing in heterosexuality as being right and homosexuality being frowned upon. However, recent events, and the revelation that many Christians at our church are judgmental hypocrites who think they're better than anyone because they preach or help out in the church the most, thus are closer to God, made me think differently.

If Christianity preached to always love your neighbor, that God held an unconditional love for everyone on Earth, AND that homosexuals would go to Hell -- maybe not in those words -- then I couldn't love my neighbor who just happened to be gay and instead should throw a Bible at him and tell him he'd burn in Hell?

I was conflicted and I started hating going to church. Not only was it the longest three hours of my life and seriously cutting into my video game day, but my head hurt with it's contrasting messages.

The next few incidents all played out like the previous, where my mother and I would watch TV, someone would mention something about homosexuality or two members of the same sex would kiss on TV and my mother would say some comment contra the homosexual act and I would try and defend it in my own way. This ended the same with me just rolling my eyes and burying myself in my laptop. We wouldn't speak the rest of the day, which luckily was two or three hours until she fell asleep.

I can't figuratively bash my mother though. There was a point where I was staunchly against homosexuality, but early on in life, I was turned away from that thinking. At this point, I didn't know what I believed in, but I knew that homosexuality was something I didn't want to think of.

The last incident, or second chronologically speaking, was when I witnessed a woman practically applauding her son on showing hostility toward openly gay men who hit on him. Granted, she also said they were obnoxious, but she used that particular story to point out that her son was a raging heterosexual and -- in her words -- had no patience for gays.

Um... maybe they were just obnoxious... I'd definitely lose my patience for annoying folk too and I get how he wouldn't appreciate the attention being a heterosexual. That got me thinking though, why should homosexuals be treated any different from heterosexuals?

I'm not homosexual, but I have had homosexual friends at different points in my life and many of my favorite actors and actresses are homosexual. Everybody has been speaking about this, so why not me?
The biggest thing I'm told whenever I try to say something pro same-sex marriage is simply that it's wrong according to the Bible. Okay... fine. But as I tried to tell my mother -- and what I garnered from a documentary about the Bible on the history channel -- is that the bible isn't the complete word of God. I know that's what it is technically, but the documentary showed that Jewish and Christian leaders at the time decided what books would make it into the Bible. Unless you dig deep into the history of the Bible, you wouldn't know about Lilith, Adam's first wife.

According to the documentary, there were different versions of the creationism story. Why? Because of the different leaders adding things or taking things out. Apparently Lilith was to strong of a woman, and some leader who feared a woman with a mind, decided to edit her out.
I thought it was fascinating. What I got from it was that the Bible isn't exactly a pure representation of God's word and Jesus' teachings. Mistranslations take place, books get lost either intentionally or rather shady-like, and humans who can't deal with something conveniently change the story, kind of like a comic book. (I'm not comparing the Bible to a comic book so people who would get offended easily, know this... I'm not trying to offend anybody. Just stating my own view, hence the title.)

As for the phrase "God didn't create Adam and Steve" well, if He wanted His new creation to be the father of a new civilization, then it was an easy choice to choose a woman to create next. You don't hear that he created artificial insemination and the like. Though, provided that the first man had the reproductive organs needed to have a child then he very well could have made Adam's mate Steve.

What's to say that Eve isn't just a mutated man with breasts, no penis, a smaller frame (maybe... we only have pictures drawn hundred years after the supposed event) and a uterus? Or that Adam was a mutated WOMAN with some thing between his legs... OK now I'm just being facetious. But no, we're told that God doesn't make mistakes.

The Bible says God created man in His image, what exactly do we know about God though. What did He or She look like? How did God know the difference between man and woman if the world was just a clean slate and there was no such thing? I think everything goes back to Him and Adam and Eve... and Lilith if you want to add her.

Next time, when saying that marriage is just between a man and a woman think about the above statement. Or, for something less ridiculous sounding, think of equality and the unconditional love of Jesus or whichever deity you pray to if applicable. Know that what one feels comfortable with, whether it's a man loving a man or a woman loving a man, or something in between -- sometimes one has no choice in their preferences or whom their heart chooses to love -- it doesn't matter what others say and think. All that matters is that you're happy. More people should be like that.

Or don't think that... who am I to tell you what to think, but I darn well will tell people my opinion from now on -- hopefully not as long as this. There's a sense of freedom and euphoria in doing so.

Phew... how's that for a comeback. I really do enjoy blogging about random things. Maybe I'll come back tomorrow.