Rest in Peace, Ozzy

Ozzy

He was fine this morning. I made sure he had food, scratched him behind his little ears, then went out to the car with Mom. He followed us. I started the engine, and we thought he’d run back down to the porch. When we got back from work, we couldn’t find him. After yelling his name we found him at the top of the hill, padding towards us. He must’ve ran into the woods when the noise of the engine scared him. I took him inside and held him in my arms. He seemed tired. I was stupid and believed it was just because he’d been wandering around for a few hours out in the woods. I put him in his kitty bed outside, he slept, he ate, he drank, but he still acted strange. But I was too stupid to realize that something was wrong.

We found him outside an hour ago. It must have been a snake bite or some kind of poison. He’d held on for a long time… two hours at least. We buried him out back, I called Brian, and I cried my eyes out.

I get that bad things happen, but he was just too little… I’m through with taking care of animals. I always wind up killing them.

RIP little kitter. I’m sorry.

My Goodbye: A Tribute to the King of Pop

A few days have gone by since the death of Michael Jackson. I’ve spent many hours in shock and in sadness, and I’ve tried so many times to think of a worthy tribute to such an epic man. I’ve finally decided to deal with it the best way I know how: by writing.

For me, Michael Jackson was my first crush. When I was 4 or 5, I remember digging out VHS tapes of Michael’s short films and watching them over and over again. Beat It was and still is my favorite. I get a mix of tears and laughter when I think about my five year old self dancing around my room in my pink ballarina outfit to the tune of that song. I grew up listening to his albums and watching his videos, so seeing them now has a very emotional impact on me. I’m still amazed every time I see that man dance. And I’ll be damned if I ever give up trying to learn how to do that moonwalk.

There is a negative side to his death that I refuse to acknowledge. The tabloids, the accusations and the labels that Michael suffered throughout his life were nothing to me then, and they are nothing to me now. All you have to do is look at what he did with his life. Look at the charities he helped, the time and the money he spent to make the world a better place. He cared about the beauty and wonder that the world had to offer, and he wanted to make an impact that would allow future generations to see that same beauty, or perhaps even more.

Though his childhood was lost in a sea of cameras, platinum albums and screaming fans, he still clung to the elementary thoughts and dreams that every child has. He believed that peace and happiness could be found by seeing the world through a child’s eyes. It makes me sad to think that he was unable to enjoy the young, carefree years that every child should have, and was then ridiculed for the seemingly abnormal behaviour that resulted. But that’s the cruel truth to the world, I suppose: the twisted and negative spin that can be put on any behavior unless it is socially considered “normal”.

I believed in the innocence, the talent and the kindness that was so obviously in his heart. His incredible life has changed and influenced many other lives, including mine. The final weeks before his death taught me something: that we all have the strength to persevere and stand up whenever life kicks you down. Had his life not been cut short so suddenly by this tragic twist of fate, I truly believe that our star would have risen again.

Second star to the right and straight on till morning. That’s where I believe he is now, young again and happy. I’m jealous of Neverland.

I miss you, I love you. Rest in peace.

Love always,

Shaina

 

 

My New Home

Ah, a brand new start. And wow, this place is in serious need of a makeover! I’ll have to get right on that.

So I guess I should tell everyone who I am. My name is Shaina (a lot of people know me online by VampirateLoyal, but calling me Shaina is cool too) and I used to run a little domain called dare-to-live.net under the crappe netfirms.com hosting company. Believe me, don’t fall into that trap. It’s money down the drain in return for countless hours of downtime because their security sucks too much to keep out hackers and phishers. On Dare To Live, I posted endless blogs reguarding excuse after excuse for not updating the graphics/content pages, along with things I actually cared about, like events, fun lists, dreams, ambitions and the like. I’m not sure when I started to love writing more than art, but it definitely took over during my “webmistress” stage.

So what I plan to do here is simple: I plan to write a blog, design a few profile pages, maybe offer a few tutorials, tidbits, anecdotes and such to all of you, but from now on my space is going to be about me. It may seem selfish and arrogant, but after running a content site (not very well, I might add) I want to do a little something for myself. If you like what you read, please feel free to comment! If you don’t like it, also feel free to comment, but do so tastefully. I can take criticism just fine, but not abuse. Other than that, I won’t give you a big list of rules and restrictions. Language will probably be used here, but I will definitely try to keep it in moderation… it’s one of the things on my to-do list. ^_^

Now that the introduction is out of the way, I can jump right into the fun part: customizing my new home! Check back, cuz it’s gonna be awesome. For now though, goodnight world!

- VPL