Sinead's Hand

I do not get political too often, but certain topics get me riled up. One of them is definitely gay marriage. I do not understand why people feel that it is their right to deny a legal union to someone else. Who are you to pass judgment on them?

I don't even understand how it is illegal. Marriage is a union between two people. What does it matter what sex they are? As long as both people are willing and able, it's their choice to make. It's a personal decision that should not even need to be voted on by a government.

Below is an Irish commercial that conveys this sentiment perfectly. A man goes from house to house asking for his partner's hand in marriage. Because sadly it is up to the people - who vote in the legislators - to decide if this man is allowed to get married. That's just insane.

It's a powerful message. I think that they should make an American version of it. Maybe it will bring the point home for those who disapprove.


All I have to say is that I will be terribly disappointed in the USA if Ireland legalizes gay marriage before us.

What's Awesome Now? Glee

My new obsession is the show Glee. I just love it. It's so hilarious.

I also love that they pick a random variety of songs to feature. Although I must say, it has not been great for my budget as I like to go to Itunes and buy songs after watching the show. Oh well, at least they are not that expensive.

One of my favorite moments so far is the Glee version of Gold Digger. I've featured it below. Enjoy!

10 Feistiest Female Characters in Literature

As promised, it's time to talk about female literary characters. The UK did not do a poll about the most romantic female characters. I think this is because people do not tend to look at the female characters as being the "romantic" ones in literature.

So, I'm listing the 10 feistiest female characters - in my humble opinion of course. Feisty seemed to be a good counterpart to romantic.

1. Anne Shirley of Lucy Maud's Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables - she's the best. No doubt about it.
2. Marianne Dashwood of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility - I love Marianne. She's so free spirited and not afraid to leap into life. It ends up almost destroying her, but I still admire her for it.
   
3. Becky Sharpe of William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair - A scheming opportunist for sure but still a very strong female character.
4. Scarlett O'Hara of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind - the ultimate strong female character. She's a survivor.
   
5. Jo March of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women - she turns down Laurie and conventional life in search of finding her own identity. That's pretty cool!
6. Isolde of Tristan and Isolde - Tristan is totally to blame for the downfall of this couple.
7. Jane Eyre of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre - not many women could handle crazy hidden wives, gypsies, illegitimate children, and public scrutiny and still come out swinging.
   
8. Beatrice of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing - She gives Benedict such a hard time and I love her for it!
9. Elizabeth Bennett of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice - She doesn't settle and I admire that.
   
10. Lily Mars of Booth Tarkington's Presenting Lily Mars - a little known book but a great one

Honorable mentions - these aren't quite "literary" characters but I love them anyway.

1. Hermione Granger of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series - Harry would have been in deep trouble without her.
2. Becky Bloomwood of Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic series - I want to be Becky Bloomwood. Enough said.
3. Mia Thermopolis of Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries series - I swear when I read these books it's like Meg Cabot knows how I think.
4. Tatiana Metanova of Paullina Simons The Bronze Horseman - She goes through A LOT in this book and survives. That's feisty.
   

Annual Review Time!

Last week, I had my annual performance review. It's no secret that I hate any kind of evaluation and I always have. My nerves always get the better of me no matter how confident I feel about my performance.

Lately, I've been thinking about the line between confidence and arrogance. This came up because before every annual evaluation, each employee is asked to fill out a self-evaluation. Self-evaluations are always tricky.

Is it ok to list tasks that you've completed and their impact in all their glory or should you temper it so that you do not appear arrogant? I think this is especially a conundrum for women. Many women are raised not to be "braggers." And in effect, a self-evaluation is exactly that - a place for you to brag about yourself.

It also gives you the chance to remark on where you can improve. But, I think that people tend to focus too much on listing improvements. They don't want to be seen as someone who cannot recognize their own faults. However, they then run the risk of being too hard on themselves and listing weaknesses that might to be considered weaknesses. They can hurt themselves in the long run. Maybe in the end it's better to focus on the positive.

So is self-evaluation time the one time a year that you should throw all thoughts of decorum to the wind and let loose and brag about yourself? I suppose so because if you do not promote yourself to your employer, no one else will.

Literature's Most Romantic Heroes

Recently, the British Telegraph conducted a poll of the most romantic heroes in literature. I personally think that the results of this poll are garbage. That's not to say that the heroes listed are not romantic - some of them definitely are. But the order is all wrong and some fantastic literary characters were left off.

This is the original list - with my color commentary of course.

1. Edward Rochester of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre - Romantic for sure but he's not my number 1.
2. Richard Sharpe of Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe series. - I don't even know who this is.
3. Fitzwilliam Darcy of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice - Yes, he should be on the list
4. Heathcliff of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights - No way! Heathcliff is the worst hero ever.
5. Rhett Butler of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind - Hell yeah. But, why is he #5?
6. Mark Darcy, of Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’ Diary - Considering he's the modern day #3, I think that this is cheating
7. Captain Corelli of Louis de Berniere’s Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - yeah, no.
8. Henry DeTamble of Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife - I love this book but I actually would not include him on this list. Plus I'm not sure this book counts as "literature"
9. Gabriel Oak of Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crow - I never read this book so no comment.
10. Rupert Campbell Black of Jilly Cooper's The Rutshire Chronicles - Yeah, I never read this book either.

I am still not sure how a British poll could completely exclude Shakespeare. That just seems bizarre to me. Regardless, I've decided to right the wrong of this poll and devise my own list. Here we go!

1. Gilbert Blythe of Lucy Maude Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables - He's truly the perfect hero. Anne is basically a total spaz throughout all the books and runs him around in circles but he still never gives up.
2. Rhett Butler of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind - Who doesn't love a rake?
3. Colonel Brandon of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility - He's so patient and that helps him eventually win the girl. How could you not love that?
4. Edward Rochester of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre - The ultimate tortured soul, which is always romantic.
5. Benedict of Shapekespeare's Much Ado About Nothing - Because he makes me laugh and that is an important trait in my book.
6. Edmund Dantes of Alexander Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo - Because revenge just makes him that much more attractive
7. Theodore "Laurie" Laurence of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women - Because I cry every time he gets his heart broken when Jo turns down his proposal.
8. Yuri Zhivago of Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago - This book is Russian and tragic so basically it was written just for me. It does bother me that he cheats on his wife though which is why Yuri is down at #8.
9. Fitzwilliam Darcy of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice - I'm a big fan of the whole fight./flirt literary device.
10. Charles Ryder of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited - Poor guy can never win.

Honorable Mention: Alexander Barrington of Paullina Simmons' The Bronze Horseman - This is not considered "literature" but it's one of my favorite books and he's awesome so he gets an honorable mention.

I'm an equal opportunist so I'll post soon with a list of my 10 favorite female literary characters. Stay tuned!

Where I Stood by Missy Higgins

Yesterday, I was finishing up the dreaded task of cleaning out my closet. To make this chore more palatable, I decided I needed music. So, I put my IPod on random.

I LOVE when I rediscover music that I forgot about. It's such a nice surprise because you rediscover something fun without actually having to pay for it.

In this case, I came across the song Where I Stood by Missing Higgins. I have no idea where I first heard it but at some point, I downloaded it from ITunes.

It's kind of a sad song (big surprise that I like it, I know) but it's very poignant. Anyway, the music did help me finish up the closet cleaning. Now, it's on to my dresser. . .

Get Your Guns While You Still Can

After 5+ years of working with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the sign above horrified me. I saw it while I was recently in Pittsburgh.

It's an ad for a gun show and the tag line at the bottom says "Get Your Guns While You Still Can."

This annoys me for several reasons.

1. Who is trying to take their guns away? Not the Brady Campaign. They just want you to buy them legally and pass a background check. And - we can barely get that law enforced. So current and future NRA members of America have no fear that one day guns will be outlawed.
   
2. What makes these people think that there is an imminent threat to take away guns? The gun control lobby has been trying to close the gun show loophole for years and nothing has happened. Plus, even if the loophole is closed that does not mean you cannot buy a gun - it would just mean that you have to actually pass a background check to buy it. I'm sure this sounds like a terrible law - we would not want to be able to actually block criminals or terrorists from buying guns. That would be a tragedy.
   
3. Does this country really need a "run" on guns because people want to stockpile them in case they are not available in the future? That would make me feel safe. A bunch of people with their own arsenals.