R.I.P. Childhood

Okay, so it's been a while since I used this thing. Heart's doin' good and all, but something has happened that has caused me to feel the need- no, hear the calling to write this post. "What could be so epic?" you may be asking. Nothing short of this: The last vestige of my, nay, many of our childhoods. As this article reports, Cartoon Network is dead.

If you don't feel like reading, let me sum it up for you. As many of us know, Cartoon Network's quality has been declining. The exact beginning of the end is up for interpretation and personal opinion. Some feel it was with the launch of the networks first live-action show. Others feel it was much earlier, when the network pulled classic cartoons such as The Looney Toons to another channel. I say, however, that it started with the first new cartoons to air after Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, e.g. Flapjack, 6Teen, Total Drama Island/Action and even, though it pains me to say it, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. What was the cause of this trend, and of the reality shows that followed? Enter Stuart Snyder who became network president in 2007. Almost immediately, massive restructuring of the entire network began. This led to new logos, new promos, and new shows. From Canada. Need I say more?

So what does it matter? What's the point? The point is, we're losing our childhoods. Yes, we all grow up; yes, we all change; yes, the same thing happened to our parents, and our grandparents. But we're different. We have something they didn't: power. Power given to us by this great behemoth known as the Internet. Friends, Romans, countrymen-and-women, I have a suggestion. I call for a boycott of Cartoon Network. For some reason Stuart Snyder and Cartoon Network want to shove sub-par, hideous, and live programming down the next generations throats. I say we stop them. Don't let your kids watch it, don't watch it yourself, and use the what is possibly the greatest and saddest thing on the internet: YouTube. Watch the classic cartoons there. Shows like Dexter's Lab, Ed, Edd, and Eddy, Johnny Bravo, Courage the Cowardly Dog, and of your favorites. Vote them up and let them rise to the top! Maybe, just maybe we can win back our childhoods and share them with the next generation.

Viva la libertad -- A Friend.

At the request of a friend.

Heart Update

So here's the latest on my heart health. Echo was good, strength is up to %53, so it's gettin' better. That means that I won't be having any open heart surgery, just the e.p. study. In two or three months.

In other news, dad's been watchin' documentaries again, and has decided that I'm never, ever gonna be able to get medicade or insurance, so the only option we're going to have is to move to Canada for a year. Riiiiiiiiiight.

Hospital Trip

So, I got to do somethin' fun Thursday...spend all day in the hospital. Lemme explain:

I woke up around 6 in the a.m. with my chest feelin' funny. Not hurting, exactly, just tight. And my heart was beating really fast. I had eaten dinner late Wednesday, so I just thought it was gas. I took some tums, and some aspirin in case somethin' weird was goin' on. After around 15 minutes, it wasn't any better, so I went and woke my mom the nurse up. I was supposed to take her to work anyways, so after checking my pulse she said she would take me in and do an EKG. And that's when it got bad.

I got a little dizzy on the car ride over, and that worried her. We went in, she tied me into the machine and hit start. Now, for some of you who don't know, the EKG is that green line they show on tv doctor shows that does a sharp peak and then dip every second or so. That's normal. Mine looked like a seismograph registerin' a level 5 earthquake. A regular heartbeat is between 60-110 beats a minute. Mine was bouncin' between 175 and 280. And I felt fine. Blood pressure was good, temperature was good, and I could move, talk, and walk. So the doc that she works for got there, looked at it, and said "I'll call you from the hospital when I have a room."

So then I went to the E.R. They gave me meds to try and bring it down, and they didn't work. I had two different doctors checkin' me out, and after about an hour they decided to send me to the cardiac wing. At this point, it had actually sped up and wasn't dropping below 200 and managed to hit 300 a couple of times. So I went upstairs, where every doctor, nurse, assistant, and janitor was watchin' the screen. This whole experience wasn't scary. What worried me was that according to the doc's, I shouldn't have been conscious, much less walking and talking. But I felt fine. They asked me a hundred questions and I answered every one. So the main heart doctor gets there and says, "What're we standin' around for? Why haven't we shocked him?"

So basically what they proceeded to do was give me a shot that paralyzed me and put me to sleep, stop my heart, wait a second, and then start it back again via a large amount of electricity. So, depending on your definition, I was dead for a few seconds. Wasn't that much fun. So to make an already long story a little shorter, I stayed overnight, had a few more tests done, and managed to dodge any operations for now. That may change at some point though.

I got sent home with a prescription, and no caffeine and no alcohol orders. Nothin' left to live for right? Got some follow up tests in a few weeks. At that point, hopefully I'll know what, if anything, comes next. If you got any questions, you know where to call! Y'all take care, now.

Movie Time

Okay, so I went yesterday and saw "He's Just Not That Into You." Here's what I thought:

Way too long. 2 hours and 9 minutes is what it's clocked at, but it felt muuuuuch longer. It was decent in spots, they were just kinda few and far between. Had some decent-to-good humor and lots of big name actors. Nice to see ol' Kris Kristofferson again. Language was pretty strong throughout, however.

And as far as the message of the movie, lemme just say this: I appreciated the "Don't think you're the exception" part of the message. Don't set stupid expectations of every person you meet. Makes sense. But the rest of it really didn't.

Anyways, that's just what I thought. I can see why it hit number 1 so fast, and it'll probably get a few award nods due to all the big actors.

Random thoughts

Here's the first in what's sure to be a series of random thought posts.

You know what I miss? Peanut Butter. I love peanut butter. Seriously, every so often I just get a big ol' tablespoon of peanut butter and eat it. Not no more. All this salmonella stuff that's goin' on has me just a tad nervous to buy any. So I'm using what I have left. And I'm kinda scared to open the last jar I bought. Got it right when all this stuff started. I just read a headline on CNN that said it was caused by rat crap and carcass's. And that's just gross. You know what would taste awesome right about now? Peanut butter fudge.

Another thing is buggin' me. I read an article today about underage drinking here in my home state. Now in Georgia, it's legal for parents to give their underage kids an alchoholic beverage in their own home. There are a few other states where this is legal as well. However, nationwide underage binge drinking is becoming a more and more serious problem. Why is that happening? Mostly, because parents are morons. The article focused on a case in a little town called Powder Springs where a young man was given alchohol by his friends' parents to an excess, and then the kid was allowed to drive home. He hit another car on the way and was killed. A tragic loss for his family, his friends, and the comunity. All of which could have been avoided if the kid, his buddies, and especially the parents had used some common sense. Don't drink and drive. Kids here it from grade school up. But maybe the parents should be reminded too.

Last subject; cool thing about our bodies. Our skin color, hair color, and eye color are all controlled by the same chemical, melanin. The particular shades of your coloring -including freckles, tans, salt-and-pepper hair, and eyes that change color- are all determined by what type of malanin your body produces and how much of it it makes. So, for example, dark skinned people obviously have more melanin in their skin, which makes it more likely that their hair and eyes will also be dark. But it's more likely for eye color to be different because it's produced differently than skin and hair. Have you ever known anyone who's eyes seem to change color depending on what they wear or when you look at them? It's because they have light gray eyes! It's a mixture of slightly more or less melanin production and optical illusion. Whatever color they're surrounded by, they're eyes seem to take on that hue a bit more. Green and blue colorings seem to be the most common, although shades of brown and even hazel have been noticed.

That ends the random thoughts for today. Y'all come back now.

First Post

Well, here it is; my first post. I decided that I finally needed an outlet for my ideas and writing. The blogosphere has been calling my name for a while now, so I'm going to buckle down and start writing. I'll probably post once a week, and I'll try to keep them as nice and upbeat as I can. I like a lot of things, and have plenty of opinions, so I'll also try and keep it interesting. Enjoy reading!