I’ll be honest: I’m a bitch. I have no problem telling it like it is, talking about someone behind his/her back or telling secrets about people I hate. This is why people fight to stay on my good side.

Which is why people are so surprised when they find out about my passion for animals. I cry when those commercials for animal shelters come on the TV, I have to look away from movies or TV shows when an animal gets injured and I wanted to personally kill Michael Vick when it was discovered he was running that evil dog fighting ring.

It is weird, I know, but I can’t help but feel for creatures who don’t have a voice to defend themselves. Yes, even if they have the teeth or claws to do so.

Like sharks. (Yes, I am being completely serious!) Sharks are most often thought of as predators, but lately off the coast of Florida they have become victims. In the past year more and more sharks have been found murdered in the water. There is no excuse for harming another life – especially an innocent one – and it is up to us to protect every creature on this planet.

Please take a moment to sign the attached petition and protect the sharks and our planet’s wildlife.

While the VTech tragedy was a rare, stupefying, isolated incident, the debate over carrying concealed weapons has been cracked open once again.

Here in Texas, now the site of the second-and-third most deadly mass shootings on American soil, people from students to doctors are arguing passionately for their right to carry a gun. Many conservative pundits (check out nationalreview.com for coverage of the pro-gun debate) are suggesting that it may be essential for every student to carry a gun in order to protect themselves should something happen in a classroom, or anywhere, for that matter.

I never really consider if anyone around me is carrying a gun; I don’t think I’ve even ever seen a real gun up close, besides on a police officer. But it is frightening to think that more people than I could imagine have weapons in their homes, their cars or actually on them.

And the thought of guns in the classroom, well, it makes me not want to go to class. Ever. I value safety and security, but not to the point where the pursuit of it causes me to live in fear of my lab partner’s semi-automatic going off in class. Read More »

I think we’re all at a point in our lives where an instant without our beloved cell pieces gives us some serious anxiety. I mean, what if that cute guy from my senior seminar sends me a text? I’d totally die if I missed him. Or what if there’s an insanely funny photo op and I can’t whip out my camera phone? That would suck. But what if, I reallllly needed to get in touch with someone in an emergency?

Obviously, every student on Virgina Tech’s campus had their trusty Motorola‘s, LG‘s and Samsung‘s on hand Monday. Victims were able to warn fellow students of the shooter, his location, his appearace … They were even able to contact their parents and friends to say goodbye, or alert them to the fortunate fact that they were okay. And some even took the time to take camera pics and videos of what was going down. Read More »

“Cho was a loner and authorities are having a hard time finding information about him”

(Read the rest of the article here)

I’ve been checking CNN.com as much as possible these last couple of days, reading updates about VTech, wanting, like everyone else, answers. I want to know why. Who. Who does this sort of thing and why?

As of 2:00 pm this afternoon, nobody really knows. Authorities have his name, but that’s about it. They have his name and they know he was “a loner”.

I’m tired of that word. I’m sick and tired of hearing it attached to these boys who walk into their schools and shoot innocent people. When we’re grasping for reasons, grasping for solutions, this is word we keep slapping on the front page of every media outlet going to print. He was a loner. As if that explains everything.

It doesn’t. It never has. Not to me.

What does the word loner even mean? These killers had no friends? These killers never talked to anyone around them? They ate alone? They had no roommates? They never raised their hands in class? They didn’t interact with their families? They had social issues that everyone could feel? They dressed strange? All of the above?? Read More »