In edinburgh :D

Prop 8

The fact that this even made it onto the ballot in this day and age
makes me angry.

Whilst all over the world gay rights are moving forward (you now get
civil unions in Uruguay or can get married in Norway for example),
across America they have taken a huge step backwards.
America might have just voted Barack Obama as their next president,
arguably the most gay friendly president yet (he even mentioned gay people in his acceptance speech), but gay Americans are still facing discrimination every day.

On ballots, this past election day, there was Prop 102 in Arizona and
Amendment 2 in Florida, both of which banned gay marriage by amending
the respective state's constitutions to define marriage as only "between
one man and one woman". Both passed. Also, in Arkansas, Initiated Act 1,
banned gay couples from adopting, under the guise of banning "all
unmarried couples".
Worst of all there was Prop 8 in California, also to amend the state's
constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman. What
makes Prop 8 worse than Prop 102 and Amendment 2, was the fact the same
sex marriage had been legal in California since May this year. So by
passing it, rights were actually taken away from people, rather than
just not being given to them in the first place. It also seems to have
passed. However the vote was so close (52% for, 48% against), it will not be official
until December 9th when the official final election results are
published. Although most realize it has probably passed and have
continued to fight it, instead of sitting around, waiting for the final
announcement. Thousands of people across California have already marched
to protest the results. (For details of protests in California, see here)

Picture from here

The battle against Prop 8 was 2nd only to the actual presidential race
in terms of the amount of money donated (over $38 million) The campaign
had the support of huge companies like Apple and Google and celebrities
such as Brad Pitt, Steven Spielberg and Pauley Perrette (she believes
"this is the biggest civil rights issue of our generation.").
Even Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican Governor of California, and
Barack Obama, now the President elect, were against Prop 8. However it
should be noted that both of them were against any attempts to amend the
state's constitution, rather than for gay marriage.

In contrast the yes on prop 8 campaign raised just over $36 million, and
most of that came from the Mormon church (is there not a separation of
church and state? I don't think a church with non-profit status should
be allowed to contribute that much towards changing laws). Not
surprisingly it's near impossible to find many big names that gave money
towards the yes campaign.

Many people might wonder why I care so much about fighting prop 8. I
don't live in California, heck, I don't even live in America. In fact I
live in the UK which already allows civil unions/partnerships which give
me every right that a straight married couple has.
However, civil unions are not equal to marriage, they have a different
name. We are not equal until there is no difference and I am allowed to
get married, just like my straight friends.
I believe that no-one should have to face discrimination, no matter
where they live. Just because it doesn't affect me directly now, doesn't
mean that it won't in the future.

I have this in the window of my flat and I'm hoping to
organize some sort of protest/gathering/something here in the UK (if
anyone wants to help, drop me a message or something), to show that
people across the world are against 8.
If I could, I would be in California protesting with everyone else, but
since I'm stuck where I am right now, I'm going to do everything that I
can from here.

If you still don't understand why I'm fighting against Prop 8, I'll
leave you with these two quotes.

"Be the change that you want to see in the world."
Gandhi

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps
to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is
really cooperating with it."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Insomnia list 1

Things to do after midnight

1. Go shopping at a 24hr store.

2. Buy some sort of reduced price quiche at the 24hr store

3. Drink lots (and lots) of vodka/pepsi, vodka/orange juice, and beer

4. Catch up on various vlogs

5. Watch too much TV

6. Eat some of the reduced price quiche

7. Feel ill

8. Write a blog post

9. Tidy up a little

10. Play some tegan and sara songs on your guitar

This was brought to you by the time of 3.30-ish am.

I hate insomnia :/

*is gonna pretend to sleep for a while*

I miss this cat already and i only gave her back to her mother a few hours ago :/

I wish i had a cat. Or maybe a dog. I'm not that fussy really.

ANTM thoughts

1. Uh, the robot thing at the beginning? Awesomely horrific! Especially all those bad effects so obviously added in later. Apparently some of those girls can [sorta] act :P

2. I lol'd at them showing the hug between Elina and her crush, Clark.
It shows that the show is 90% editing.

3. That alaskan girl (hannah) who keeps going on about having no electricity, heating or billboards back home. I get it! You're alaskan, and alaska apparently sucks. Stop talking about it already.

4. That blond french girl (marjorie) sounds like she might explode at any second, she's so scared! And that nervous laugh, jeez, i think she needs to calm down a little :P

5. One of the judges (Paulina?) said "O rly? " !!! Not "oh really", but "o rly" ! *almost dies of laughter*

6. I love isis, she knows her stuff! I don't care what anyone else says :)

7. "Smile. *pause* Smile. *pause* Well not that much." Said by one of the make up artists to samantha. Now that's just plain mean (and hilarious at the same time!)
Not quite as good as her pose though :P

8. Clark = a pretty face, but not much else :/ She didn't know what bureaucracy was? O rly?And she was so mean about Isis.

9. I've watched a quite a few cycles now, and i still don't know how to smile with my god damn my eyes! I wish tyra would teach me, it seems like it might be the answer to everything :(

10. Note to Sharaun: You don't work through anything, you model through it! Have you not watched top model before?? [probably why she got cut to be honest]

11. I'm over Nikeysha and her "Heyyy!!!"'s. So, so over :/ I'm hoping she gets cut next week *fingers crossed*

12. Hannah loves Gossip Girl! It's like her favorite show! That's like so totally awesome!
Anyone wanna, like, go to the mall with me?

13. WTF is a fleh-dunk-a-saurus? Is that real, or did J make that up?

What I learned from ANTM today:

Model opposites:
When you're wearing a sexy, spakley red dress, model it as though you are wearing jeans and timberland boots.

My favorites just now: Samantha, Isis and Marjorie

The 10 steps to making that "new" show 90210

1. Go watch the first season of South Of Nowhere if you haven't already.
Take notes, you'll need them.

2. Take the characters of Glen and Clay and mush them together till you
get a sporty black kid who was adopted into a white family at a fairly
late age (like 8 years old or something)

3. Take Spencer, instead of being from Ohio, say she is from Kansas.
(Both in the midwest right?) Keep her fairly naive and don't give her
dark hair, give her blond highlights or red hair or something.

4. Give Ashley some puppets and a blog/vlog. Keep her dark hair and
sarcastic/bitchy outlook on life. She'll need that to write her blog.

5. Take the Arthur/the dad, make him the principle of the kid's high
school instead of having him work in social work. (He's still working
with kids so he'll manage fine)

6. You can't do anything with Paula, since Maeve is supposed to be in
this show as well (although in the 1hr 20 minutes of this [these] first
episode[s], i don't remember seeing her much/at all...) She'd probably
spot someone ripping off her character and all.

7. Take Aiden, and make his hair blond. And a little shorter. Have him
fall for Spencer.

8. Keep Madison exactly the same as she is at the beginning of season 1
down to the fact she is dating Aiden, used to be best friends with
Ashley and is a total bee-atch.

9. Remove almost every trace of gay-ness

10. Change the characters names and Re-name your show "90210".

Don't forget to have the family move to LA after the school year has
already begun, and start the season off with them in the car.

Congratulations you've made a "new" show :D Go sell it to some
unsuspecting network and watch the money come rolling in.