BOOMmaker

late

So I've been reading the Hunger Games series for the first time. I'm on the last book right now, and something struck me. The character Plutarch tells Katniss that the Capitol uses a form of control on its citizens called Panem et Circenses, which is Latin for "Bread and circuses". Plutarch explains it by saying: "The writer was saying that in return for full bellies and entertainment, his people had given up their political responsibilities and therefore their power."  And then a few sentences later: "... As long as that kept rolling in, the Capitol could control its little empire..."

And I couldn't help but be reminded of America, and the hedonist mindset that seems to dominate our culture here. Is it possible that our government is employing this same tactic on us? Overfeeding us (as evidenced by the amount of obesity) and keeping us so fixed on entertainment and the hype of getting whatever's new (the newest technology, the newest fashion, the newest product) that we forget what others are going through around the world, and about what our government is choosing to do? An adult I was talking to the other day told me that public school isn't meant to turn out thinkers, it's meant to turn out workers, workers who pay the taxes and elect politicians to do the thinking for them. So now I can't help but wonder if he was right. Is it possible that our government is slowly doing this to us, eliminating the capacity of the new generation to think beyond what is on the surface, keeping them distracted by trivial topics, all while easing us into a more and more tyrannical government? They already tried taking our guns (under the pretense of stopping shootings. But honestly, who can believe for a moment that criminals won't break laws to get guns if they're really that set on killing people?), which would eliminate our ability to fight back if they ended up doing things that aren't good or just. It's just scary to think about, how easily a government could do this to its people, and how likely it is that they are doing that. Any thoughts?

Why are so many people here so rude to new people and those who don't have good grammar? On many topics I see that are newbies posting their rigs or animation, or even just asking for help, the majority of posts are either mocking the OP, using sarcasm against the OP in an insulting and rude way, or just people flat out saying that he sucks or is bad at using Mineimator... Then there are the JonTron videos and meme responses... And finally, the worst of it all, people encourage this behavior by liking the rude posts, adding their own rudeness to it by quoting the rude post, and then to wrap it up, they hide behind: "It's just a joke", "it's fun", or "well, it's true, and I don't believe in lying to people". Seriously. Doing this is immature and very rude... I'm honestly not surprised that the Disqus people hated us. 

Okay, get the firing squads ready while the Mando'ade go and capture Jar Jar Abrams. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGbxmsDFVnE

Anyone watch this as a younger child? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECYWHaQUKNY

You know, I'd like Minecraft servers a lot better if they were just vanilla and on Survival. No plug-ins, no cheat codes, no claiming land or locking chests. No back-ups either. If griefers strike, deal with it and rebuild. It would be a lot more fun.

Hmm... I have found that shaving one's eyebrows isn't a good idea. 

So I started reading The Hunger Games yesterday... I have about 64 pages left. So far I'm not impressed with the story. I've spotted multiple fragments and run-on-sentences, first off. Secondly, the descriptions of children as young as twelve years old pleading for their lives, along with the descriptions of the "agonizing screams" of the same children don't really appeal to me. Thirdly, the romance thing between Peeta and Katniss is sort of dumb. Seems kind of like the romantic fantasy of a young girl (which may be the point). And lastly, there's very little suspense in it for me. Obviously Katniss wins, because she's in the next books, and she's the main character, so she has to at least survive. Maybe Peeta will die, but who cares about him? Either he's a treacherous and vile human being, or he's a cliched boyfriend character... And the writing in this book isn't really all that great either. It's not bad, and I've made note of the good metaphors and descriptions Collins uses, but all in all, I'd say this book is pretty average so far... Not sure what all the hype about it is about..

Bro, what's with the profile picture? It makes me think of Pennywise and Oddbob...

ALRIGHTY... That was... not good... At all... In the book series I'm reading, the basic idea is that there is a crazy dude wanting to eliminate most of the human race so that he can start over; as he thinks the world is too corrupt to continue and will tear itself apart anyways. His plan is to use an airborne toxin that reproduces itself at rapid rates. Now, it starts out as a liquid, and is vaporized upon its release from containment; or that's how it is supposed to work. And there's a baby that they think is immune to the toxin and could stop it from being released to destroy the world... So they.... feed the poison to the baby, and it doesn't work... and then the author went into graphic detail to describe to the readers how the baby dies.... Not cool. Not cool at all.... Especially if you're a person who has younger siblings and you can picture what he describes happening to your own siblings... Bleh.... 

WAIT A MINUTE.... Why does Mermaid Man look like Aquaman? Was that intentional?

Ah! I was reading a book... and... and... and... the author... he... he... he used the word "grizzly" (as in grizzly bear).... instead of "grisly" (as in horrifying and/or disgusting)... And I looked it up just to be sure that the word "grizzly" couldn't be used in place of the word "grisly"... and I was correct in thinking that it couldn't.... This bothers me. This bothers me a lot. IMMERSION RUINED! Destroy not the author, but rather, destroy his editor who did not catch this error immediately!

Hmm... I'm curious. Three common grammar mistakes people make when writing are:

Confusion of the words "to", "two", and "too",

confusion of the words: "where" and "were",

and confusion of the words: "they're", "their", and "there". 

I've never understood the confusion. No one ever taught me the difference between them, I just read a lot and figured it out on my own. I've never had trouble with it, and it's not like I had an awesome teacher who went out of his/her way to teach me; in fact, I'm homeschooled and I teach myself most of the time. I just don't understand how people (who have English as their first language) have that confusion. Is public school just really bad at teaching it, do people not read like I did and do, or am I just lucky to not have trouble with it?

Hmm... Taking the ACT in about ten hours. Should be fun.

I don't know why, but your profile picture bothers me (not trying to get you to change it or anything, just to be clear). I'm not sure what makes it so, but for some reason, my eyes don't like it.

Okay, the song Watch Me by Silentó needs to be destroyed with fire. As soon as possible. 

Where are you going with this: "Do you like memes" thing? You've done it to four people so far (maybe you're just asking if people like memes, but it feels like there's some sort of prank or punchline coming). 

Playing Pokemon Blue on the Gameboy Color system. My Rattata finally evolved into Raticate!  

I never understood the name "Garret"... I know it's spelled differently, but that's the title of a machine used for executions...  And a weapon that is pretty much used to strangle a person or to cut their throat.... I just wouldn't be able to name a kid Garret knowing that... 

Playing Star Wars: Bounty Hunter on the PS2. I just finished Chapter 4: A Tense Partnership, subcategory: The Death Stick Factory. What I discovered is that I really, really, don't like the Bando Gora. They either hide with high-powered sniper rifles that have an equally high rate-of-fire, or run at me in mobs like a pack of lunatics. Most of the time I was saying: "No! Die! Back off!" and blasting them with my flamethrower... Bleh. 

I've been feeling randomly tired/upset/angry recently... No inciting incidents at all. It's completely illogical and stupid. Is this what normal teenagers feel like all the time? I'm fifteen, and this is the first time that this has happened to me. I don't like it. 

Wait, I can access the chat room again? What sorcery is this?

One thing I don't understand... I'm homeschooled, and today I got my work done early. An hour and a half of work altogether (not that much, but I got what I needed to get done within it, and I do reading, writing, Bible, and 3D Art on my own)... And my mom still manages to be discouraging. Instead of being happy that I got my work done so early, in contrast to the usual way things go, she told me that kids at public school do school for eight hours every day and that I should ask Dad for more work... Now, I don't have a problem with more work... My problem is her comparing me to public schoolers like that... One of the very reasons we homeschool is because my parents feel that eight hours of being at school a day is excessive, when you could get it done in half the time or less at home (there are other reasons, that's just one of them)... So when I get done early, like they want, her response is that public schoolers, whose system we do not want to follow, do more than I do? Seems like a contradiction of our view on schooling to me...

I don't understand why most books about teenagers always have the teenage characters act so dumb. Like: "I can't believe they still treat me like a seven year old!" Seriously. Who acts like that? It's ridiculous. 

I'm pretty sure what I just saw go through my yard was a coyote... Couldn't find it when we went looking for it a few moments later, but the chickens weren't happy.