Morbid Romantic

bringing you quality randomness since 1981

Everyone who knows me knows that Blood and Gold: the Story of Marius is my favorite book of all time. It’s a very important book to me. Very Important.

Lookie what I got!

A framed promotional poster to hang on my wall.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Robert J. Cottrol, Robert, Raymond T. D Amond, Leland B. Ware, and Raymond T. Diamond
Publisher: University Press of Kansas; 2003
Genre: Historical
Pages: 272
Rating: 3 stars

This book does not begin with the famous Brown decision of 1954, but it begins pre-Civil War, pre-Progressive Era, pre-Civil Rights. In fact, the Brown decision doesn’t come up until half of the book is already complete. The preceding chapters sort of build you up, sets up a framework of laws and culture that help properly understand how very important the Brown decision was. You go from the 14th Amendment to Plessy and then all the way to Brown with a whole lot of stuff happening in between. With almost 100 years of dynamic racial history leading up to Brown, the book properly gives credit to how groundbreaking Brown truly was and how it is, as as result, changed the way America is today.

- More can be found on my Library page¹

Popularity: 18% [?]

1. Disclaimer: This review is an expression of my own opinions and contains my own personal analysis. [↩]

Exposure to the sun damages the skin, dries it out, and causes it to eventually lose its elasticity. Yeah, we’ve old seen those older men and woman who have sagging, dry skin. Touch your cheek right now, pat it, and pull of it. See how plump your skin is? How healthy and quick to bounce back it is? Don’t you want to protect your skin so that it will retain some of its health for the rest of your life? R.G. Skin Revitalizer is made of a rejuvenating fruit, “Gâc” (Momordia Cochinchinemis Spreng), which is grown and largely found in Vietnam. This fruit has been used in Asian medicine for a long time. Finally we are too able to benefit from what the Gac fruit can do. The Gac fruit is packed with antioxidants known as carotenoids that nourish the skin and support skin rejuvenation. In fact, the antioxidants lycopene and beta-carotene help restore cells all over the body, inside and out. With just a few easily absorbed and digestible capsules, the Gac fruit dietary supplement restores the body and boosts the immune system. With cold season looming, I think our bodies need all the help they can get from disease.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Oh no! DUMBLEDORE IS GAY!!!. You mean the wizard who wears a dress, never married, and had an intimate-something-more-than-meets-the-eye relationship with Gellert Grindelwald is gay!? NO?! REALLY!?

Seriously, people. Duh. Did so many people really not see this coming?

I don’t know why so many people are freaking out.

Did you like the character before his ultimately unimportant sexuality came out? His character never changed, hasn’t changed, you just know one detail about him that doesn’t in the least change anything that happened. Does it matter now? Is he any different from the respectable people you meet along the way in your life that you don’t know the intimate lifestyles of? Do you ask them, “are you gay?” and then dislike them after you’ve already gotten to know them and like them? If so, you’ve got more to worry out than reading a book with an OMGhorribleGAYwizard!!!. Is he going to infect your innocent childrens with the gay now? Because nothing that happened has changed, has it? I don’t remember any explicit gay lovemaking in the series (I wish, right?). I don’t recall Dumbledore ever molesting poor Harry Potter in his office. I don’t remember anything even slightly odd coming up (unless you’re intuitive and just knew that Dumbledore took it a little hard [HA! PUN!]). Your kids didn’t know then, they won’t know now, nothing in the course of the books has changed. I mean, if he didn’t turn them gay then, I don’t think it’s going to magically happy now.

It’s sad to think of so many people being so intolerant over a detail that does not really matter.

Popularity: 20% [?]

I put up three new essays. They will be, of course, edited as I see fit since no matter how many times I read and correct, I always miss one or two mistakes.

• Religions of Asia: A comparison and contrasting of the religions of Asia, how they influenced development, and how they are significant to the history of Asia.
• Rome and the “Struggle of the Orders”: Highlights of some of the most important events in the “Struggle of the Orders” in Roman Republic history.
• Rome’s Early Expansion: A brief discussion on some of the ways Rome was able to gain and maintain a large territorial state during the centuries of the Republic.
• Virgils The Aenied and Rome: A brief paper discussing the conditions under which Virgil wrote The Aeneid, the significance to the Roman people, and how The Aeneid has influenced us today.

Popularity: 26% [?]

Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture), David Howard-Pitney
Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin’s; 2004
Genre: Historical
Pages: 207
Rating: 5 stars

Simplification is necessary when it comes to history. Without it, our volumes of information would be so overwhelming that few would be brave enough to dive into them. It also allows people to easily understand a very complex set of interrelationships and interaction. Polar opposites, while perhaps not as polar as they seem, allow people to categorize information and easily recall it. It’s a necessary evil. In history classes, we are taught two sets of polar opposite simplifications: Martin Luther King Jr. was the peaceful preacher who advocated integration and Malcolm X was the frightening and violent advocate of action against whites. These are simplifications. Also, they are definitions lacking the proper train of understanding at their core. Meaning, we give the ends without discussing the means. The whys and hows are missing, which does a great disservice to the legacy of these two influential men. The reasons to buy, read, and love this book are many. First, it dispels the oversimplification in just a few short chapters. It does what lengthy biography and years of discussion has largely failed to instill in the modern mind. To look at Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X is not to see integration vs. separation, peaceful resistance vs. ‘any means necessary,’ or love vs. hate. One of the great thing that this book does is show that in addition to many differences, these men did also have a lot of similarities. Indeed, they even began to modify their views in time to meet in the middle, though a few fundamentals never wavered. Another valuable thing that this book does is present a short introduction, but allow the bulk of the book to consist of primary documents that put words to detail. In the end, the most important thing is not to agree with everything that is said, but to understand it. It is easy, for example, to feel frightened by Malcolm X and his views. But without context and a proper understanding of his history and his person is to make assumptions about him without justification. One can only make decisions when informed. The same goes for Martin Luther King Jr. and the idea that he was a peaceful, speech giving womanizer. While these might fit the standard mold, truth is more complex and infinitely more interesting. If you at all have any interest in Civil Rights or the 1960s, I feel that this book is essential. Not only does it chronicle two important and influential men, but it gives a good picture of the ideas, troubles, and influences of the highly dynamic and trouble ridden time.

- More can be found on my Library page¹

Popularity: 28% [?]

1. Disclaimer: This review is an expression of my own opinions and contains my own personal analysis. [↩]

In some ways, I have been fortunate. Though I was a bad child who ate a lot of candy but never brushed her teeth, I have had very few cavities. In my life, I have had two, and both of those I got when I was just a child. As a teenager and an adult, none. Unfortunately, no one told me that they can sometimes loosen and sometimes come out completely. The pain started out as a mild sting whenever something would touch the tooth. I would chew on that side of my mouth or touch it with my tongue and I would feel a sharp twinge in the area. Honestly, I really thought nothing about it. I have always had sensitive teeth, so I assumed that the pain was merely a nerve that was acting up for some reason or another.

I admit it, I have absolutely no knowledge about teeth, fillings, or tooth nerves.

A few weeks later, I had all but learned to live with the pain. Like I said, my teeth are sensitive, so I am used to something occasionally irritating them. It wasn’t until, as I ate dinner, the filling fell out that I realized what the true cause of the pain was. It didn’t roll out of my mouth and fall, but it was pulled out of my tooth and landed on my tongue with the food that I chewed. It was at the same time that I bit the filling that I felt the pain.

It was excruciating. Like a thousand nerve stings all at once. My gum felt like it was on fire and it spread all the way to my ear down to my neck. The entire side of my face throbbed. My mother was staring me with a face of absolute fear as I clutched my face and tried to spit the hard filling out before I swallowed it or choked on it. It was horrible. I was in pain for days. I thought that maybe the exposed area would numb, but I was wrong. I couldn’t eat… I even sort of slurred when I talked because it hurt to move my mouth and cheek.

If I would have had Dentemp OS, I would have saved myself a lot of pain. Dentemp OS is a 60 second solution to filling in areas where fillings have fallen out or where dental caps have gotten loose. Instead of enduring the days of pain, I could have just filled in the tooth. Relief from dental pain is fast, though Dentemp OS is meant to be temporary dental repair, not a permanent fix. Several applications come in one vial. Application is easy. All you do is remove the vial and repair your tooth with the already prepared mix. After thirty minutes, you can even start eating again. And for everyone who is wondering, Dentemp OS has been tested and complies with FDA Regulations for Oral Care.

Popularity: 15% [?]

We got to talk about one of my favorite historical figures today: Lyndon B. Johnson.

I don’t know why, but he is one of the most forgotten president’s in recent history. People don’t give him enough credit for what he accomplished. Lyndon B. Johnson is just a hazy figure between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. We hear so, so much about those two, but all we hear about Lyndon was that he led us into the Vietnam War (ignore, of course, that every president since Roosevelt had increased American presence and participation in Vietnam). Johnson made a mistake. A BIG mistake. Because of him not wanting to be the President to lose the Vietnam War, he ended up killing a lot of boys. The Vietnam war was sort of the event that really humbled America; it knocked us down from the pedestal we had put ourselves on after two successful wars and affluence.

It wasn’t Kennedy who passed the Civil Rights Act or the Voting Rights Act. True, he messed up when he decided to support both his Great Society and the Vietnam War, but I sincerely believe that underneath his boorish and self-gratifying persona was a man who did genuinely want to do something GOOD. LBJ started Head Start. Those are only three pieces of a very large series of legislative accomplishments.

Unfortunately, most of what LBJ did turned out for nothing. Some had modest success, some had to be completely cut (Community Action, for one), and some where later revoked by successive Presidents. I do agree, too, that some of Lyndon’s programs (loosely Affirmative Action) encouraged a welfare state. I think so.

But, I still think that it’s a shame we overlook him as one of the greatest Presidents.

And for you:
Tom Paxton- Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation <— Anti-War/Anti-LBJ protest song set during Vietnam war

Popularity: 17% [?]

Every other year, 20 University teams from around the world are selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to participate in the BP Solar Decathlon. This year, the teams range from Carnegie Melon, to MIT, to the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. The tasks of these teams is to design and built a house that is livable, attractive, energy efficient, and solar powered. This is one more positive step in the search for alternative energy resources. Solar power is a great resource to harness and use. Not only is it abundant, but it is renewable.

Every October, the teams move their solar houses to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. This year, the event will last from October 11 to October 19. At the National Mall, the teams take part in a series of ten contests where their houses are scored on things such as engineering, appliances, comfort, and energy balance. Most important, the houses have to generate enough solar power that they can support everything within the household. The goal is full energy conversion, and the most efficient possible.

It is the hope of the Decathlon that the competition will raise awareness about energy and resource issues, educate about the benefits of solar energy, and push solar energy into the marketplace faster. Currently, to convert to solar power is expensive. If there is ever going to be any widespread support for solar power, it needs to become cheaper for the average citizen to afford and install.

If you would like to know where you stand on the greencurve, there is a test found here. Not only does it give you a profile, but it also gives you tips on how you can become more energy efficent. Remember, guys: it is important to live for the future and not the present. We have to leave something beautiful and sustainable behind for our children, our children’s children.

Popularity: 7% [?]

I have been quiet for a while now?  Why?  Because if I were to blog, I would only complain about the work I have to do.  I mean… on Friday, I have a presentation, a research list, and a test due.  On Monday, I have two four page papers.  Then, on Friday, I have to have an entire book read to give a report and presentation on.  I am going to be so swamped these two weeks that I can’t help but feel depressed and overworked.  Right now, I am just trying to do everything piece by piece.  I am going to finish up the paper/presentation due Friday and then study.  Tomorrow, I will study, read some of the book that I have to have read and written about by next Friday, and then get in what I want to write in the papers for Monday.  Then, when the weekend comes, I can finish reading the book and finish both of the papers that are due on Monday.

I have to use my time wisely in order to get everything done.  So, I had better go so that I can get back to work. 

Popularity: 10% [?]