If you just skim through my posts, if you never listen to anything I have to say, heck, if you just accidently stumbled onto here, listen to what I have to say now.

Let me get one thing off the bat right now: I am not one of those crazy "OMG CAPTIVTY BAD BAD BAD UNDER ALL CIRCUMSTANCES" people. If my word isn't enough, I want nothing more in life than to work at Sea World for the rest of my life. I just wrote a paper for Senior Project about why captivity can be good under the right circumstances.

This has pissed me off like nothing has pissed me off before though. Through all the anti-gay marriage jerks, blind followers of Bush, and rednecks in my town, I have never found myself more angry than I am now.

And it begins and ends with a little place called Miami Seaquarium.

No, I will not be sued for what I'm about to say here. Slander is claims that are not true. I really wish this were slander... With all my heart.

Let's start with a killer whale named Lolita. She has been deemed the "worst-kept killer whale" in the world. Her conditions are so bad, she has her own documentary: Lolita: Slave to Entertainment. She's about 40 years old. Guess what? She's 22 feet long and her tank is 18 feet deep. Whenever her head comes out of the water, her tail touched the ground. Her tank is so small it's ILLEGAL. She has no toys, no shade, and dirty water. She hasn't seen another killer whale in 20 years since her mate Hugo died by ramming his head into the wall repeatedly. (When he died, they dumped his body in a landfill, and now it's as if he never existed.) MSQ has promised to build her a bigger tank for over 20 YEARS NOW!!!!!!

The manatees live in a small tank. A former worker said he had to leave the room when the food was being prepared, because he couldn't stand the smell of the mold growing on the lettuce.

Over 55 sea lions have died in the park. From odd circumstances like "electrocution". ELECTROCUTION!!!!!!! They have bug bites on their skin and look generally unhealthy all the time.

You don't know filthy until you've seen this place. The top floor of the aquarium was closed because of poor construction. Lolita's stadium was closed due to unsafe railings. The back of the stadium is totally dripping sea water. The fish tanks are leaking. All the tanks are so caked with gunk, you can barely see inside. The park has several potential fire and electrical hazards.

And for the love of god, I have no idea why animal control or ANYONE isn't on top of this. I'm definitely writing a letter to the governor abour this, as mom suggested, and several of the contacts for Miami business regulations. And if it doesn't work, I will MAKE MY VOICE HEARD. A teacher at my school hosts several acitvists clubs, so maybe he'll sponor me for one too.

Don't sit back and assume someone else will do the work. A silent majortiy achieves nothing. Go onto youtube and google Lolita or MSQ to see these things happening if you don't want to take my word for it. Go to MiamiSeaPrison.com and write to the people on their contact list. Find a copy of Lolita: Slave to Entertainment on youtube or at the video store or something. Support organizations like Sea World who are aiming to stop crap like this from happening.

But don't sit around and wish. Stand up and do. I know I'm going to.

And now I'm off to cuddle with my Kasatka plushie, eat ice cream, and think happy thoughts until the time comes to write those letters.

Thanks for listening.

-Chi <3

So me and Cheri are talking about Charlotte's Web and whether the cartoon or the movie was better.

Now I jump up right away and say that the movie was better. Yes, the cartoon was a classic. But the characterization errors drove me slightly nuts, and I think they can be described best in me and Cheri's reenactment of the movie (Sadly, this is the actual conversation we had):

"Wilbur: :3 I totally sound 30 years old then my age. See the emo tears I cry in waterfalls. ;-;
Charlotte: Wilbur, I SWEAR TO GOD, IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP I WILL HAUNT YOU IN YOUR SLEEP AND PERSONALLY MAKE SURE YOU BECOME ZUCKERMAN'S BREAKFAST TOMORROW MORNING!!!! X(
Templeton: :3 Guess what you guys? I joined the peace corps this morning!!! ^--------^"

Yes, we are freaks, and we pride ourselves on it :3

But seirously. That bugged me. Wilbur was too emo, Charlotte was too mean, and Templeton was way too nice.

And I guess that bothers me because it's a statement to the filmmaker's ability to understand a mere children's book. Cause I can see where they were going.... In the book, of course Wilbur's gonna carry on a lot (Wouldn't YOU if you were gonna die?) but he's definitely not the whiner they made him in the cartoon. In the book, Charlotte is BLUNT. That's a lot different than mean. And I dunno how they could have screwed up Templeton. The book clearly states he has "no morals, no decency, no milk of rodent kindness", how do you screw that up? Is it because he gets all the words for Charlotte? Did someone in the studio think it would be funny if he and Charlotte had a thing for each other? Seriously, WTH.

And it took them 50 years to make it right... Maybe filmmakers are just better at reading? Wilbur sounded his age and was no longer an emo whiner, Charlotte was restored to her position of serrogate mother instead of parrol officer, and Templeton was restored to his self-serving a-hole glory. And it wasn't that hard to do. If one 17 year old alone can read the book and convey the personalities correctly, it tells me the cartoon was more CHA-CHING, let's rush through the book so we can make our money, and the movie was more about the message. I did like the cartoon, but if you're gonna see one for the first time, make sure it's the movie.

*ahem*

*bows and slinks away*

-Chi <3

P.S. Now why can't I write an analysis like that in AP English? Oh yea... I DO. So why do I have a B in there right now? These are the questions...

Boo-frikken-YA!!!

All I've wanted to do since the 8th grade is go to San Diego State University. I applied on October 1st, the DAY they started accepting applications.

Today is February 4, 2007. And on February 3rd, I was offically accepted into SDSU.

Yes, in five months I will be living in San Diego. A fifteen minute drive from Sea World and two hours from Disneyland when the homework's all done.

I can't believe I'm gonig to my DREAM COLLEGE. People don't get into their dream colleges. Especially me, an out-of-state student trying to get into the most academically competitve university in Southern California. Only 44% of applicants get into SDSU, and only 5% of them are out-of-state. I can't believe it.

This is a big step in my life. Well duh, but I mean, this was IMPORTANT. VERY important to my hopes of working at Sea World. I'm going to be fifteen minutes away from baby Kalia and her mommy Kasatka and my buddy Ulises. I can't believe my dream is frikken coming true; this is INSANE.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!! :3

-Soon-to-be Freshman Chi <3