OMIGOSH.

Where the Wild Things Are is SOOOOO GOOD. SOOO GOOD. If you haven't seen it yet, I will see it again with you. Really. It's SOOOO GOOD.

I get the coolest ideas in the shower

Social experiment that should be tried at Breck!!!! Cleverly titled, "The Island", in this experiment people from various groups who don't know each other very well would be put in a group. This group would only be allowed to talk to other people in the group and teachers. And then we see what happens.

Issues this would address:
Friendship- does it mean sharing interests with someone, relying on them, or something else entirely, like a comforting habit?
School groups (psh, cliques)- Most people have at least one thing in common. Can we go from there and use forced social interaction to create new groups? How did the old groups get there in the first place?
As you get to know someone better and understand their reasoning behind their actions, etc., do you like them more or dislike them more?

...It sounds cooler in my head, I guess. Once I think about it a bit more it'll translate better.

The threat is not real, people, but it might be, so...

I just saw the movie Zombieland. (By the way, Gaia, I also saw Fight Club the other day and DUUUUUUUUDE) Now, for some, at the back of their brain they are always planning the ultimate treehouse. Me, I'm always planning and replanning zombie defense strategies. Yup, ever since I saw the beginning of 28 Days Later (Never actually was able to finish the movie, sadly). Considering weapons, rations, and shelters. Sometimes when I meet people I figure out how saw I would be if I had to kill them if they turned into zombies.

This new movie Zombieland only brought these things to the surface. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, of course (You all would probably hate it unless you enjoy the whole zombie thing). Me and the main character share a fear of clowns. Seriously, whoever invented clowns was on sick motherfucker. The only reason I worry about zombies is because out of all the creepy movie monsters, they are the most plausible. Not the old-timey movie zombies who were "reawakened" from the dead by a voodoo priest, but more like the 28 Days Later or Resident Evil zombies, who actually some sort of disease that makes them vicious. Think about it: Vampires- magical (Except for the Peeps series by the guy who wrote Uglies) Werewolves- magical, Lagoon creature-..., Frankenstein- impossible (Although actually, if you had a living brain... never mind) But ZOMBIES, man, ZOMBIES.

So I'd just like to spread awareness. If for some reason there was a zombie outbreak, our biggest disadvantage would be not having a plan. We have plans to deal with natural and man-made disasters, wars, famines, but not zombies. That means that we would be taken completely by surprise, going "OMG ZOMBIEZ!!!" while being eviscerated alive.

I'm not saying we should waste government money on zombie missiles or research or whatever. I'm just saying, hey, make a plan. Outline it in a file, put it somewhere you can find it, and consult it if zombies appear. Things will go much more smoothly.

Before I go, a few of my own zombie theories and strategies. First, I think that zombies will most likely be caused by some sort of parasite. We already know of several parasites that take over their hosts so much that they actually control them completely. Granted, their hosts are ants and snails, but it could happen that a parasite evolves that uses humans as hosts. I theorize that these parasites would enter a host's brain and consume everything but the medulla oblongata, which connects to the spinal cord and controls movement. In essence, the hosts would be dead, but the parasites would be able to control their movements through the spinal cord. The parasite would then reproduce, and make its host seek out other possible hosts to infect, probably by some sort of bite. These zombies would be able to move fairly normally until injured, but their biggest strength would be that they cannot feel pain and they do not stop. These zombies would have to be killed immediately. Their medulla oblongata must be destroyed or at least disconnected from the spinal cord. Any other injury is merely a hindrance and would not stop them. Another strategy is to simply break their back, paralyzing them. NEVER LIGHT ZOMBIES ON FIRE. It NEVER works. All you get it a flaming zombie, which is worse than before.

Anyway, like any of you care. Hmph. See if I let you in my fort when the zombie apocalypse comes.

I expect I shall be considered presumptuous in mentioning it again, especially as in discussing it I shall depart from the methods of other people. But, it being my intention to write a thing which shall be useful to him who apprehends it, it appears to me more appropriate to follow up the real truth of a matter than the imagination of it; for many have pictured republics and principalities which in fact have never been known or seen, because how one lives is so far distant from how one ought to live, that he who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation; for a man who wishes to act entirely up to his professions of virtue soon meets with what destroys him among so much that is evil.

-Machiavelli