A Child

Imagine, if you would, you're a small child, and your parents decided they'd had enough. You color on the walls, play with your food at every opportunity, and even do some painful hair pulling when you're angry. They know they could teach you proper manners if they put the time and effort into it, but they're simply too busy, and let's be honest, that's a lot of work for an energy filled kid like you. So they take the easy route; they take you to the doctor, put you under some general anesthesia and they cut off a finger, right at the first knuckle. But they don't stop there. They decide to cut off all your fingers in such a way, leaving you with ten little nubs sticking out from your palms. Problem solved, no more stick figures on the bathroom wall.

You awaken from your troubled slumber in complete dismay; you're in horrible pain, and are horrified and confused as to what has just happened. You have a difficult time picking up food to feed yourself, and the pain of trying to button your pants after going to the bathroom is so horrid you avoid it as much as possible. Playing with your little mini piano and building sand castles a the beach are things of the past, at least for a great while until the pain subsides and they've healed, but they are not the only things you struggle with. Drawing, putting on clothes, even changing the channel and playing video games, all the normal activities you once did now present a challenge for losing such small bits of your hand. You experience the pain of phantom limbs, something as many as half the people who've had a body part amputated experience; a painful burning sensation or an itchiness that refuses to go away, distracting you and keeping you up at all hours of the night. One of the phalanges was not amputated correctly, resulting in painful regrowth which you had to get surgery on again, extending your healing time and amount of pain you must endure. You become distant and reclusive, wallowing in the loss of what you once took for granted.

As a child, you are hurt your parents would put you through such an experience; they are there to protect you, to love you and nurture you, and you trusted them to do that. They betrayed that trust, for their own convenience.


In our society today, amputation is regarded as either barbaric torture (as a form of punishment for stealing in many countries) or as a desperate medical procedure when a limb has become too damaged or diseased to keep. No one, other than the ones we would consider completely mental, would dare think of doing this type of procedure to a child to convenience ourselves, and would never do it except in the most dire of circumstances.

So why do so many in the United States continue to do this to their innocent feline friends? They either care more about their couches and carpets than the physical and mental health of their cats, or they are simply uneducated, not realizing declawing removes an important part of the cats foot. The only difference between cats and this story is that cats have it worse off. They don't receive as good of pain medication as a human would, and as many already know, their claws are their first line of defense. Yes, they can still catch food in most cases, and use their teeth to fend off predators. But cats walk mainly on their toes; by declawing them, they are forced to walk around on stumps for the entire healing process, and the rest of their lives, though you wouldn't know the pain they are going through. Cats are too manly; they don't show their pain.

My kitty Olivia.

It is a sad fate for such innocent and lovely creatures. It truly makes my heart break when I hear of people getting their pets declawed. If only they knew what it was really like. A couch or a bit of carpet can be replaced for a price. The life and happiness of a living creature cannot.

Shoulder cat.

I want to go swimming...

It's been soooo nice out lately. I always want to go swimming so bad this time of year, even though I know it's too cold. Pretty sure the last like three years in a row I've tried swimming in April and each time I'm like 'WTF THE WATERS COLD'. I just never learn my lesson...

Good news! Found out the apartment my friends and I were looking at will allow dogs, so we are good to go! I'm so pumped to move. We get the first months rent free (June), and our lease at the place I'm at now goes thru June, so I feel like we should have an easier time moving since we'll have more than just a day to get our shit packed in the cars. Plus we'll have more time to clean up, so hopefully we'll get more of our deposit back. Gosh, in less than two months I'll finally be outta this hole!

Waiting at the bus stop. It was hot as hell today!

I also saw today while grocery shopping they're hiring at the co-op. I'm thinkin' about applying; I'm assuming they get some kind of deal (which would be fantastic since I easily spend double when I shop there). And I feel like if I worked there it'd be great for me cuz I'd learn more about food and what not. I just wish it was closer!

Tired

Uff. I feel like I haven't done anything the last couple days except look at photography related stuff online. I haven't worked on my story in a week other than little notes here and there. I have come up with quite a few little photo ideas to work on this summer, though, which should be fun. Meh, time for bed.

I usually call my eyes green, even though if you look closely their not.

Joker

I literally just finished reading the graphic novel Joker, which I got at the comic book store downtown a couple days ago. I was actually intending to get the next Y: The Last Man book (I've only read the first two), but they didn't have it in. Kinda glad I got this one instead, though.  It was very interesting. It was told from the perspective of one of his henchmen just after he is released from Arkham Asylum. I loved the different view point; just about every other Gotham story is from that his perspective, Batman's.  He was barely in this story at all, until the very end. It was still a wonderful take on it, the author did a good job of getting the Joker's personality down, and of some of the other well-known Gotham villains (Harvey Dent for one). I'll definitely have to read it again. Often I have to read the same page a couple times because the first time around I don't get the right context without looking at what's actually happening. I guess I got too used to reading just text from all those years in middle school pouring over novels from the library. I'm getting better at it, though.

I loved Harley Quinn in this picture; I loved this whole scene, actually, with the Riddler and all.

365 Project

So about the same time I started this blog, I joined another site called 365 Project. Basically what it is is a site about photography, and you put up one picture you take each day to help you improve. There are little contests you can take part in (this week it's 'tiny things'), and I just found a tag-challenge, where you basically randomly click on two tags in the browse section and whatever you get that's you're challenge for the week, to try to take a picture combining those two things. I've actually learned a pretty decent amount from the like week and a half that I've been on the site (I finally figured out what ISO is haha!). It's nice because it's not so big you get lost in it, but big enough that there's still a ton of pictures to look at and little articles and what not in the forums to read. I quite enjoy it. It's almost kind of frustrating only being able to put up one picture a day, but at the same time it's nice. It's forcing me to be more critical of my work. Which one is my best? Which one, out of all them I've taken, do I want people to see? That and seeing the great work of so many other more experienced photographers is making me really try to step up my game and try to take some "wow" worthy shots. If anyone else is into photography, I'd totally recommend this site. It's simple and not overwhelming, and gives you just enough push to help you move those little baby steps forward.

Cleaned the Bathroom

I experimented a bit more with my pictures today. I cleaned the bathroom so people wouldn't see how gross it is, haha, so it was a perfect combo. It was actually real easy to do this, but I had some trouble getting my expressions down. I spent a lot of time in the bathroom trying to get those good shots. I think it was worth it, though. It was fun.

Bitchin' bar, dude.

Last night I went to a kid named Ryan's place with Mike, as we were very bored and had little else to do but wander around campus in the middle of the night. Ryan lives in a frat house, and they had a seriously bitchin' living area. Bar, two big mirrors, tons of black lights, and a giant projector. Looked like it would have been way too fun to party there, hah! Or just play some kinect on the projector. Maybe they'll let me celebrate my birthday there this year, I'll be twenty-one afterall.... :D

Bottle+highlighter+water+blacklight=supercoollooking

My favorite kicks. Backlight, bitches.

We were playin' with hats.

Finally got to celebrate Easter, today, too. Went to my dads, where my dog Frankie had a blast following around and bugging my dads dog Watson.