Anonymous and Habbo Hotel

About four years ago, I saw a commercial on the Canadian TV channel, Much Music. It was for this neat looking website, called Habbo Hotel, an online, virtual hang-out for teens. After seeing the commercial I decided to try it out, so I typed in http://www.habbohotel.com/. This was actually a mistake, since the website the advertisement was for was the Canadian hotel, http://www.habbohotel.ca/. At the time, the American hotel wasn't open, so I was redirected to the UK hotel, which still remains one of the largest, and most up to date hotels. A few months later, I discovered my mistake, and became a member of the Canadian hotel... along with all of the other hotels at the time, including those that weren't English. But by then, the "damage" had been done. I met my best friend on the UK hotel, and although we don't talk every single day anymore, the fact remains, this friend has changed my life. Habbo is pretty much the only place I've met people online, which sets me apart from my real-life friends, because none of them have gone on Habbo, nor do they really meet, or make friends with people online.
Anyway, it seems that I've gotten a bit carried away. Mainly, I wanted to make the point that I still go on Habbo, even though most people who go on are 14, and I kind of have a soft spot for it. About a week ago though, there was a supposed "take-over" of the Canadian hotel. It involved people who make their Habbo's be black males, with large afros, wearing suits. They can often be found in the pool rooms of the hotel, blocking pool entrances, "flooding" the rooms with song lyrics (particularly The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), or comments on how stupid Habbo and the people who use it are. I don't mind this too much, as these "blockers" have been on Habbo for as long as I can remember (though less frequently), usually leave one pool entrance open, and there's a handy dandy "ignore" button. However, when they did the "takeover" these people took things a little too far. I don't think many people minded as much as I did, either because they didn't really get it, or they could care less, but the "blockers" were being rather racist and prejudiced. They called themselves "nigras", saying things like "we are nigra, we are proud". And of course, the most ironic thing, and the thing that got to me the most, they'd get together, and make a "swastigat". And some normal habbo's would join in, and help make a big swastika in the middle of a room, mainly made of black habbos. The irony killed me, but the ease with which the other habbo's viewed them making this sign of hate was making me furious! The habbo's were more upset when they blocked pool entrances! I don't think that I saw one habbo protest to the swastikas. The mods would eventually step in, and just clear out the room, but the "nigras" just went into other rooms and did it again.
Out of curiosity, I checked out Habbo Hotel's Wiki page, which linked to the Wiki page about the internet group, Anonymous, who seem to be the main culprit's behind the "takeover". During it, a few did shout out comments about "Anonymous". I read a bit about the group, and it sounded rather interesting, and like something that, if used in the right way could bring about a positive change in the internet, and those who use it. But the same aspect that makes the group appealing is also it's downfall. No one leads it, and it's every man for himself. It seems like any one can join. You make your own battles, and chose your own wars. Two different groups of people that claim to be a part of Anonymous, could be fighting the same war, with conflicting interests really. Anyone that acts anonymously on the internet could be a part of Anonymous. It probably gets blamed for more bad things than it's actually done, but some of the things it is accused of are pretty horrible.
Anyway, it's getting so late, I'm barely making sense to myself. I just wanted to get Anonymous out there.

Book Reviews
In an uncharacteristic move, I'd decided to do a little book reviewing sooner rather than later. Of course, it didn't turn out that way in the end, as I didn't publish this when I wrote it, before I went away on vacation.


First up: DragonLight by Donita K. Paul

A good finish to a great series. Despite it being a Christian book (and series), I enjoyed the new adventure. Luckily I've been able to see past the allegory in the book, in reference to certain make-believe supreme being and their spokespeople, because really, they're great books. I found Gilda to be even more annoying in this book though, so I was happy for her redemption, although, as I said, I'm not really into the allegorical religious aspects of the book. I found the reference to Mary through Toopka to be particularly annoying, although I'm glad the mystery of Toopka was taken care of (I still can't get over how much she reminds me of my youngest cousin!). In all, a good book, although maybe not my favourite in the series. Now I'm looking forward to Paul's new series! (It's set in the same world, in a different time)



Duchessina: A Novel of Catherine de' Medici by Carolyn Meyer

I didn't care for this book as much as I thought I would. The novel skipped along, at a fast enough pace to keep the reader pretty interested, but it moved along in an erratic way. One thing I'd hoped to find in this book was a little bit of romance, but I only got a tiny hint at it, which was rather disappointing, as it seemed that there were some good places to slip some in. The other main disappointing aspect of the novel was the ending. It was kind of rushed, and rather unhappy. I didn't really feel any closure to the story. The whole story was just kind of there.

Well that's all I'm going to say for now, I think this post has gone on long enough, as it's been a few weeks since I last touched it.
For my next book reviews, I have a fabbity-fab-fab subject =)

People are crazy. That's all I have to say. Well, actually, not quite. I'm very happy to hear that long-time women's rights activist Dr. Morgentaler is to receive the Order of Canada. On the CBC's news post, I'm glad to see that the most recommended comments were full of praise. However, as I worked through the comments, as I expected, there were tons of negative, pro-life comment. You'd think that if a woman is mature enough to have a child, then she must also be mature enough to make the decision, and choose to have the child. People on the site talked about a woman's responsibility to control herself, but condoms break, and the pill isn't 100% effective; you could be completely responsible, and still end up pregnant. And then there's also rape victims. One commenter said that abortion was a torture device, devised completely by men, so they could rape and have no consequences. This made me laugh and gag at the same time. I don't even want to know how the commenter got so deluded. Would it not be torture to have to carry a reminder of a rape for nine months? And what if the victim were to keep the child once it was born (because if they put it up for adoption the rapist still has no such consequences)? Abortion has been a great help for thousands of women. It will be a very sad day if the pro-lifer's get their wish, and abortion is again made illegal (in Canada that is).

Another reason I say people are crazy... I was watching a video about the importance of separation of church and state, and out of curiosity, I read a few of the comments. Big mistake. Oh the internet, where the idiots roam free.... this is what one commenter had to say (it's a good laugh ;] ):

I love how secularist always say stop pushing the religion on everyone. But why is it always the secularist trying to ban my guns, teach my kids about ass fucking, give 12 year olds rubbers, trying to lower sentences on child fuckers, control the media, push their propaganda in every movie, ban home schooling, ban talk radio, raise taxes, etc.. If most secularist were libertarians, I would listen. But they are not. I am not for religious theocracy. But I am not for secular dictatorship either.

Wow. Let me pick 3 particularly funny ones that I might be able to respond to without laughing too much...
1) "it always the secularist trying to ban my guns" Hahahahaha! I don't really get this one. There is no place in the bible that has any mention of guns... there were no such things! Whether you want to ban guns or not has nothing to do with religion (however they can easily be tied together by intelligence, but that's for another time).
2)"teach my kids about ass fucking" Again, wow. Just because a true separation of church and state would mean equal rights for homosexuals, does not mean this! It's just funny someone would think this....
3)"ban talk radio" This has nothing to do with the separation of church and state unless the radio show is government funded and has to do with a particular religion.

Anyway, I think I'm done my rant for the moment. On to some entertainment.

Right now I'm reading "On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God" by Louise Rennison. It's the second in the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson. I adore this series! It's so cute, and light and fun. I've been saving this one and the 3rd in the series for my upcoming vacation in 2 days, because to me, they're the perfect vacation books. Georgia's sister Libby is hilarious, and I particularly enjoyed Georgia's comment about her mother, "...she just tutted and adjusted her bra like a Russian roulette player. (Or do I mean disco thrower?)" The idea that this instilled in me cracked me up.

On the musical front, I just got MGMT's (pronounced management) new CD, Oracular Spectacular. It's such a neat, different sound. It really sets them apart. My favourite songs are Electric Feel, Kids, and The Youth. Electric Feel is the perfect dancing song, and whenever I hear it I get the urge to get up and jump around. Another good song to note is "Say" by Low Level Flight. I like it even better than their song "Change for Me" (which is similar to Say).

I've also just got Guitar Hero: On Tour, because Nintendo DS is the only platform that I have that I can get Guitar Hero for. It's so addicting (but also kinda painful for my hand). It introduced me to Bloc Party's song Helicopter (is it weird that whenever I write out "Bloc Party", I think of Bloc Quebecois?).

Anyway, I really should be off to bed. Next time I hope to write about some of the many books I've read since (and including,) DragonLight.
(Maybe I can begin ending my procrastination... well after my vacation that is ;] )

Oh, and Happy Canada Day! =D