This week has been so faded for me....
But like whatever you know?
I've come to the realization that either my friends are out-growing me or I'm outgrowing my friends, I'm still unsure on that whole matter(although I think it's the latter considering the fact that I have WAYY too much fun with my freshman friends in Biology. But we'll see what time tells us. Like, I'm actually REALLY worried about my "friend" situation for senior year seeing as how so many things have changed throughout this year, ya know?
crap guys I gotta finish this later but there's a ton I need to talk about,
not in the least of which include the fact that:
I want to write stories/ or books - I find that I can better express my creativity in my writing outside of assignments for english class. As such I wanna write! Although I'm unsure yet about the subject matter of my material. Do I wanna write short stories, long stories, narratives, fiction, irony, poetry.... I'll find out. The main point here is that I think I may have found another one of my "callings".
Hawaiian airfare prices are going up. :( - God damn it! Although I don't really care tho, I'm willing to pay up to 1,000 dollars to visit that damn rock again. Shit was so cash! lol! But srsly I don't care about price I just care about getting a job to pay for the ticket. :) A few days ago prices were only 600 but now they'ye 630. :(
Ms. Fallon had her baby today.
We are officially out of food.
I can't find clean underwear.
13! yes, srsly! 13! (stupid time I ate all that sour in one gulp)
I'm getting my fucking wisdom teeth removed!
The days are getting ridiculously longer
tests are a bitch.
Youtube is a really good swimming tutorial tool. :P
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Shop at Macy's!
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/05/15/amanpour.rwanda/index.html
GITARAMA, Rwanda (CNN) -- What does Macy's have to do with healing from genocide? Nothing and everything.
Fourteen years after Hutu extremists killed between 800,000 and 1 million people -- mostly Tutsis -- in a devastating slaughter, Rwandan women are weaving peace baskets for sale at Macy's in the United States. Not only does the work bring them a regular salary, the business is also fostering reconciliation between victim and perpetrator.
Iphigenia Mukantabana, a master weaver, sits in front of her house in Gitarama -- an hour from the capital, Kigali -- making beautiful baskets with her friend Epiphania Mukanyndwi.
In 1994, Mukantabana's husband and five of her children were hacked and clubbed to death by marauding Hutu militias. Among her family's killers was Jean-Bosco Bizimana, Mukanyndwi's husband.
"In my heart, the dead are dead, and they cannot come back again," Mukantabana said of those she lost. "So I have to get on with the others and forget what has happened."
Forgetting and forgiving everything she lost, everything she witnessed.
"Women and girls were raped, and I saw it all," she told CNN. "The men and boys were beaten and then slaughtered. They told others to dig a hole, get in, then they piled earth on top of them, while they were still alive."
Yet today, Mukantabana shares her future and her family meals with Bizimana, the killer she knew, and his wife, her friend Mukanyndwi.
Bizimana did spend seven years in jail. He then went before a tribal gathering, part of a return to traditional ways by the new government in 2002 with Rwanda's justice system unable to cope and process hundreds of thousands of imprisoned perpetrators.
The government decided that the master planners and worst perpetrators would face formal justice. But lower-level killers were allowed to publicly confess and apologize to the families of their victims at gacaca courts, where elders would hear grievances and decide on the punishments.
"In the gacaca court, I told them how we killed our fellow men, and I asked for forgiveness in front of the court, and the whole district was there," Bizimana said.
"The people who died in this very area -- I knew all of them because they were our neighbors."
He places blame squarely on the extremist Hutu government at the time and on vile radio broadcasts that urged on the killers during the 100-day slaughter.
"They were giving instructions all the time that was from the government, and so we thought it as the right thing because we were getting this instruction from the government," Bizimana said.
He showed where he and a Hutu mob had killed 25 people, including members of Mukantabana's family, a few yards from where he had just shared lunch with her. "We used machetes, hoes and wooden clubs," he told CNN.
Mukantabana admits that it was difficult to forgive. She said she did not speak to Bizimana or his wife for four years after the killings. What put her on the road to healing, she said, was the gacaca process.
"It has not just helped me, it has helped all Rwandans because someone comes and accepts what he did and he asks for forgiveness from the whole community, from all Rwandans," she said.
Bizimana said he did just that.
"You go in front of the people like we are standing here and ask for forgiveness," he said.
But despite his confession and apology, Iphigenia said, reconciliation would not have happened unless she had decided to open her heart and accept his pleas.
"I am a Christian, and I pray a lot," she said, the pain etched in the lines on her face and around her sad eyes.
But the basket business also played a key role in forging forgiveness and reconciliation after the horror.
"We knew how to weave baskets," Mukantabana explained. "It helped unite Rwandans in this area because they accepted me as the master weaver, and I could not say, 'I am not taking your basket' or 'I am not helping you because you did something bad to me.' "
Macy's sold the first "peace baskets" in 2005, and officials say the deal generates between $300,000 and $400,000 a year. A Rwandan weaver can earn about $14 per week -- a king's ransom in a country where so many live on less than $1 per week.
The international project is a far cry from 1994, when the United States, Europe, the United Nations and the rest of the world turned away while the genocide went unchecked in Rwanda.
"They didn't care; they were totally indifferent," Rwandan President Paul Kagame told CNN in his office in Kigali.
He said the world thought Rwanda "was just another bloody African situation where people just kill each other and that's it." Video Watch Kagame explain why he sought reconciliation »
Today, Rwanda is an African success story. It has one of the fastest economic growth rates in the region, one of the lowest crime rates and the lowest rate of HIV-AIDS. About one-third of Rwanda's cabinet are female ministers, and 48 percent of parliamentarians are women -- the highest anywhere in the world, according to the United Nations.
The country is clean because of a mandatory policy that sees even government ministers participate in clean-up once a month. Plastic bags are banned. The international business community praises Rwanda's good governance and the absence of official corruption or graft.
Kagame is credited not just with turning Rwanda around, but with being the driving force behind rejecting revenge.
"We were in danger of having another genocide," he said.
"People were so badly aggrieved they could easily have turned on those they thought were responsible for this and actually killed them in another wave of killings. But that did not happen," he said. "We said building a nation is the most important thing."
Now no one talks about Hutus or Tutsis, he explained. "There is Rwanda, there are Rwandans, and the common interest we have for a better future for this country is more important than any other interest."
advertisement
In Gitarama, Bizimana said, "It hurts my heart to see that I did something wrong to friends of my family, to people who we even shared meals with," he said. "I am still asking for forgiveness from the people I hurt."
Amazingly, many seem to have forgiven.
GITARAMA, Rwanda (CNN) -- What does Macy's have to do with healing from genocide? Nothing and everything.
Fourteen years after Hutu extremists killed between 800,000 and 1 million people -- mostly Tutsis -- in a devastating slaughter, Rwandan women are weaving peace baskets for sale at Macy's in the United States. Not only does the work bring them a regular salary, the business is also fostering reconciliation between victim and perpetrator.
Iphigenia Mukantabana, a master weaver, sits in front of her house in Gitarama -- an hour from the capital, Kigali -- making beautiful baskets with her friend Epiphania Mukanyndwi.
In 1994, Mukantabana's husband and five of her children were hacked and clubbed to death by marauding Hutu militias. Among her family's killers was Jean-Bosco Bizimana, Mukanyndwi's husband.
"In my heart, the dead are dead, and they cannot come back again," Mukantabana said of those she lost. "So I have to get on with the others and forget what has happened."
Forgetting and forgiving everything she lost, everything she witnessed.
"Women and girls were raped, and I saw it all," she told CNN. "The men and boys were beaten and then slaughtered. They told others to dig a hole, get in, then they piled earth on top of them, while they were still alive."
Yet today, Mukantabana shares her future and her family meals with Bizimana, the killer she knew, and his wife, her friend Mukanyndwi.
Bizimana did spend seven years in jail. He then went before a tribal gathering, part of a return to traditional ways by the new government in 2002 with Rwanda's justice system unable to cope and process hundreds of thousands of imprisoned perpetrators.
The government decided that the master planners and worst perpetrators would face formal justice. But lower-level killers were allowed to publicly confess and apologize to the families of their victims at gacaca courts, where elders would hear grievances and decide on the punishments.
"In the gacaca court, I told them how we killed our fellow men, and I asked for forgiveness in front of the court, and the whole district was there," Bizimana said.
"The people who died in this very area -- I knew all of them because they were our neighbors."
He places blame squarely on the extremist Hutu government at the time and on vile radio broadcasts that urged on the killers during the 100-day slaughter.
"They were giving instructions all the time that was from the government, and so we thought it as the right thing because we were getting this instruction from the government," Bizimana said.
He showed where he and a Hutu mob had killed 25 people, including members of Mukantabana's family, a few yards from where he had just shared lunch with her. "We used machetes, hoes and wooden clubs," he told CNN.
Mukantabana admits that it was difficult to forgive. She said she did not speak to Bizimana or his wife for four years after the killings. What put her on the road to healing, she said, was the gacaca process.
"It has not just helped me, it has helped all Rwandans because someone comes and accepts what he did and he asks for forgiveness from the whole community, from all Rwandans," she said.
Bizimana said he did just that.
"You go in front of the people like we are standing here and ask for forgiveness," he said.
But despite his confession and apology, Iphigenia said, reconciliation would not have happened unless she had decided to open her heart and accept his pleas.
"I am a Christian, and I pray a lot," she said, the pain etched in the lines on her face and around her sad eyes.
But the basket business also played a key role in forging forgiveness and reconciliation after the horror.
"We knew how to weave baskets," Mukantabana explained. "It helped unite Rwandans in this area because they accepted me as the master weaver, and I could not say, 'I am not taking your basket' or 'I am not helping you because you did something bad to me.' "
Macy's sold the first "peace baskets" in 2005, and officials say the deal generates between $300,000 and $400,000 a year. A Rwandan weaver can earn about $14 per week -- a king's ransom in a country where so many live on less than $1 per week.
The international project is a far cry from 1994, when the United States, Europe, the United Nations and the rest of the world turned away while the genocide went unchecked in Rwanda.
"They didn't care; they were totally indifferent," Rwandan President Paul Kagame told CNN in his office in Kigali.
He said the world thought Rwanda "was just another bloody African situation where people just kill each other and that's it." Video Watch Kagame explain why he sought reconciliation »
Today, Rwanda is an African success story. It has one of the fastest economic growth rates in the region, one of the lowest crime rates and the lowest rate of HIV-AIDS. About one-third of Rwanda's cabinet are female ministers, and 48 percent of parliamentarians are women -- the highest anywhere in the world, according to the United Nations.
The country is clean because of a mandatory policy that sees even government ministers participate in clean-up once a month. Plastic bags are banned. The international business community praises Rwanda's good governance and the absence of official corruption or graft.
Kagame is credited not just with turning Rwanda around, but with being the driving force behind rejecting revenge.
"We were in danger of having another genocide," he said.
"People were so badly aggrieved they could easily have turned on those they thought were responsible for this and actually killed them in another wave of killings. But that did not happen," he said. "We said building a nation is the most important thing."
Now no one talks about Hutus or Tutsis, he explained. "There is Rwanda, there are Rwandans, and the common interest we have for a better future for this country is more important than any other interest."
advertisement
In Gitarama, Bizimana said, "It hurts my heart to see that I did something wrong to friends of my family, to people who we even shared meals with," he said. "I am still asking for forgiveness from the people I hurt."
Amazingly, many seem to have forgiven.
Damn!
The video is hard to turn away from. A sobbing 16-year-old sits in her bedroom and, staring into a camera, says she has been raped.
"Hi, my name is Crystal. ... I need some help. I didn't want to do it this way, but it's the only way I know that's going to work, that someone out there in the world is gonna listen to me."
The teen, whom CNN interviewed but is not identifying by her last name, is among dozens of young people who are turning to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace to talk about sexual assault.
For an online generation, the Web offers what traditional counseling does not. It's a chance to communicate without having to face someone or fear their judgment. Some people are seeking legal advice and medical information, and many younger victims believe that they can warn others about their accused attacker, counselors say.
There also are people like Crystal, whose case was dropped by the Orange County, Florida, state attorney's office, who feel slighted by the justice system.
"Young victims, particularly girls, turn inward. They are going to reach out and try to connect in the isolation of their dorm room or their bedrooms," said Jennifer Dritt, the director of the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence. "Most young women feel like they want somebody to know that someone did this to them."
One in four American women under the age of 25 report that they have been sexually assaulted, according to the nation's largest rape crisis counseling organization, RAINN, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.
"We noticed that this trend of posting details of an attack really picked up speed a few years ago," said Scott Berkowitz, RAINN's founder and president. "A rape survivor's intention may be to reach out, and we encourage that, but this is a dangerous way to do it."
Advocates worry that victims are divulging too much information. CNN found several Facebook and MySpace profiles on which young people say they have been raped. The postings include their names, photographs and hometowns. But Crystal is probably one of the few who have gone so far as to post a plea for help on YouTube.
Because anything posted on the Web is available forever through an Internet search, a rape survivor must consider how they would feel if that information were dredged up in the future, counselors said. By making themselves -- or their IP address -- available, victims open themselves to unreliable and unprofessional advice and the harsh judgment of their peers.
Perhaps worst of all, they could give their perpetrator a chance to find them again or gain more satisfaction.
In April, RAINN teamed with online security company McAfee Inc. and launched an anonymous and secure chat service where assault survivors can communicate with trained professionals. IP addresses are not tracked and transcripts of conversations -- which look like instant message boxes -- are not recorded. The service has helped more than 10,000 people, Berkowitz said. Go to RAINN's Web hotline
But counselors said survivors are going to look wherever they can to find help and comfort, particularly when they don't get it through the court system.
Fewer than 5 percent of reported cases in Florida make it to a prosecutor's office, Dritt said. Whether because of lack of forensic evidence or because many are he said/she said accounts, rape cases can be very difficult to try.
"What you hear from every rape crisis center from Pensacola to Key West is that there are hardly ever any prosecutions," she said. "Most sexual violence is acquaintance rape, and unfortunately, a lot of juries still think that if a victim had a relationship with their attacker, then they cannot be raped by that person."
Stacy, 25, worried about that when she was raped by a man she knew as a friend in 2001 while attending Ohio State University. Although she has spoken publicly numerous times about her experience, CNN is not using her last name in keeping with its policy of not identifying sexual assault victims.
As is typical of younger survivors, Stacy spent the days and weeks after her assault struggling to assure her friends and family that she was OK. She reported the assault to university authorities, but her attacker continued to go to class. She grew increasingly depressed and anxious. Her grades plummeted, and she gained weight.
"I thought that people who had never been assaulted would never understand. I thought I had no one to talk to, but then I realized, I had the Internet," she said. "Sometimes, talking to people who were not close to me was refreshing because there was no judgment to face. If you talk to someone online, there's no judgment, right? How can they judge you when they don't even know you?"
She began instant messaging in chat rooms but quickly realized that many people who initially seemed sympathetic were only pretending.
"The next thing you know, they are making it seem like they are turned on. They were asking me for details of my rape. It was very disturbing," she said. "I had to block several people. After that, I thought the worst of the world. I thought everyone was a perpetrator, and I trusted no one."
After years of face-to-face therapy, Stacy began to heal and feel more confident. She partly credits RAINN, which she found via an Internet search, for helping her recover. Other female students came forward to say they, too, had been assaulted by her attacker. He was expelled from the university and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge -- sexual imposition, a misdemeanor -- and was placed on probation.
Stacy watched Crystal's video.
"That's just heartbreaking," she said. "I feel really sad for her because no one seems to have explained that the justice system isn't always going to help. I understand why she's outraged. That's exactly how I felt, too."
Orange County authorities charged the 23-year-old man Crystal accused of assaulting her with lewd or lascivious battery. According to court documents, Crystal and the man both said they had an ongoing sexual relationship.
The prosecutor, who declined to comment to CNN, concluded that the teen and the 23-year-old had consensual sex, according to the case file.
Florida law states that a 15-year-old cannot give consent to sex. And though Crystal was 15 at the time of the alleged forced encounter, the prosecutor wrote that the case would not be prosecuted because Crystal was "a mere 1 month away" from turning 16, when it would be "legal to give consent," according to documents.
A spokeswoman for the Orange County state attorney's office declined to comment further.
Stacy had some advice for Crystal: Get counseling and keep talking.
"You're not always going to get what you want from the court system," she said. "So you've got to think about yourself, figure out who you are and realize that you're stronger than what he did to you."
"Hi, my name is Crystal. ... I need some help. I didn't want to do it this way, but it's the only way I know that's going to work, that someone out there in the world is gonna listen to me."
The teen, whom CNN interviewed but is not identifying by her last name, is among dozens of young people who are turning to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace to talk about sexual assault.
For an online generation, the Web offers what traditional counseling does not. It's a chance to communicate without having to face someone or fear their judgment. Some people are seeking legal advice and medical information, and many younger victims believe that they can warn others about their accused attacker, counselors say.
There also are people like Crystal, whose case was dropped by the Orange County, Florida, state attorney's office, who feel slighted by the justice system.
"Young victims, particularly girls, turn inward. They are going to reach out and try to connect in the isolation of their dorm room or their bedrooms," said Jennifer Dritt, the director of the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence. "Most young women feel like they want somebody to know that someone did this to them."
One in four American women under the age of 25 report that they have been sexually assaulted, according to the nation's largest rape crisis counseling organization, RAINN, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.
"We noticed that this trend of posting details of an attack really picked up speed a few years ago," said Scott Berkowitz, RAINN's founder and president. "A rape survivor's intention may be to reach out, and we encourage that, but this is a dangerous way to do it."
Advocates worry that victims are divulging too much information. CNN found several Facebook and MySpace profiles on which young people say they have been raped. The postings include their names, photographs and hometowns. But Crystal is probably one of the few who have gone so far as to post a plea for help on YouTube.
Because anything posted on the Web is available forever through an Internet search, a rape survivor must consider how they would feel if that information were dredged up in the future, counselors said. By making themselves -- or their IP address -- available, victims open themselves to unreliable and unprofessional advice and the harsh judgment of their peers.
Perhaps worst of all, they could give their perpetrator a chance to find them again or gain more satisfaction.
In April, RAINN teamed with online security company McAfee Inc. and launched an anonymous and secure chat service where assault survivors can communicate with trained professionals. IP addresses are not tracked and transcripts of conversations -- which look like instant message boxes -- are not recorded. The service has helped more than 10,000 people, Berkowitz said. Go to RAINN's Web hotline
But counselors said survivors are going to look wherever they can to find help and comfort, particularly when they don't get it through the court system.
Fewer than 5 percent of reported cases in Florida make it to a prosecutor's office, Dritt said. Whether because of lack of forensic evidence or because many are he said/she said accounts, rape cases can be very difficult to try.
"What you hear from every rape crisis center from Pensacola to Key West is that there are hardly ever any prosecutions," she said. "Most sexual violence is acquaintance rape, and unfortunately, a lot of juries still think that if a victim had a relationship with their attacker, then they cannot be raped by that person."
Stacy, 25, worried about that when she was raped by a man she knew as a friend in 2001 while attending Ohio State University. Although she has spoken publicly numerous times about her experience, CNN is not using her last name in keeping with its policy of not identifying sexual assault victims.
As is typical of younger survivors, Stacy spent the days and weeks after her assault struggling to assure her friends and family that she was OK. She reported the assault to university authorities, but her attacker continued to go to class. She grew increasingly depressed and anxious. Her grades plummeted, and she gained weight.
"I thought that people who had never been assaulted would never understand. I thought I had no one to talk to, but then I realized, I had the Internet," she said. "Sometimes, talking to people who were not close to me was refreshing because there was no judgment to face. If you talk to someone online, there's no judgment, right? How can they judge you when they don't even know you?"
She began instant messaging in chat rooms but quickly realized that many people who initially seemed sympathetic were only pretending.
"The next thing you know, they are making it seem like they are turned on. They were asking me for details of my rape. It was very disturbing," she said. "I had to block several people. After that, I thought the worst of the world. I thought everyone was a perpetrator, and I trusted no one."
After years of face-to-face therapy, Stacy began to heal and feel more confident. She partly credits RAINN, which she found via an Internet search, for helping her recover. Other female students came forward to say they, too, had been assaulted by her attacker. He was expelled from the university and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge -- sexual imposition, a misdemeanor -- and was placed on probation.
Stacy watched Crystal's video.
"That's just heartbreaking," she said. "I feel really sad for her because no one seems to have explained that the justice system isn't always going to help. I understand why she's outraged. That's exactly how I felt, too."
Orange County authorities charged the 23-year-old man Crystal accused of assaulting her with lewd or lascivious battery. According to court documents, Crystal and the man both said they had an ongoing sexual relationship.
The prosecutor, who declined to comment to CNN, concluded that the teen and the 23-year-old had consensual sex, according to the case file.
Florida law states that a 15-year-old cannot give consent to sex. And though Crystal was 15 at the time of the alleged forced encounter, the prosecutor wrote that the case would not be prosecuted because Crystal was "a mere 1 month away" from turning 16, when it would be "legal to give consent," according to documents.
A spokeswoman for the Orange County state attorney's office declined to comment further.
Stacy had some advice for Crystal: Get counseling and keep talking.
"You're not always going to get what you want from the court system," she said. "So you've got to think about yourself, figure out who you are and realize that you're stronger than what he did to you."
Jesus!
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/05/15/internet.suicide/index.html
Bitches are crazy!
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A Missouri mom was indicted Thursday for her alleged role in the death of a teen who killed herself over a failed Internet romance that turned out to be a hoax.
A federal indictment accuses Lori Drew, 49, of O'Fallon, Missouri, of using the social networking Web site MySpace.com to pose as a 16-year-old boy and feign romantic interest in the girl.
The girl, Megan Meier, committed suicide after her online love interest spurned her, according to prosecutors, telling her the world would be a better place without her.
Drew faces up to 20 years in prison on charges of conspiracy and accessing protected computers to obtain information to inflict emotional distress.
The indictment, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, accuses Drew and others of registering on MySpace as "Josh Evans" and using the account to lure Meier into an an online romance.
Authorities have previously said that Drew set up the account to find out what Meier, who lived in her neighborhood, was saying about her daughter.
Prosecutors allege that Drew and the others violated MySpace's terms of service by using false information to create the account so they could "harass, abuse or harm" Meier, according to the indictment.
The two corresponded for about four weeks before "Josh" broke off the relationship, authorities said. Within an hour, Meier hanged herself in her room and died the next day.
The indictment does not allege that Drew sent the final message telling Meier the world would be a better place without her. Instead, it blames her unnamed co-conspirators, who authorities have previously said include a teenage girl.
After Drew learned of the teen's suicide, the indictment alleges, she directed one of the teens involved to "keep her mouth shut" and deleted the account.
Meier's mother, Tina Meier, told CNN in November that her daughter had self-esteem issues and had struggled with depression since childhood.
She said when her daughter began receiving messages from "Josh" telling her she was pretty, she was thrilled.
When "Josh" broke off the relationship, Tina Meier said, her daughter was devastated.
"She was looking for me to help calm herself down like I always did and be there for her. And I was upset because I didn't like the language she was using, and I was angry she didn't sign off when I told her to," Tina Meier told CNN.
"She said to me, 'You're supposed to be my mom, you're supposed to be on my side,' and then took off running upstairs," Tina Meier said.
Tina Meier found her daughter hanging by a belt shortly afterward.
"It's as if my daughter killed herself with a gun," Meier's father, Ron, told CNN. "And it's as if they loaded the gun for her."
Drew is scheduled for arraignment in June.
"This adult woman allegedly used the Internet to target a young teenage girl, with horrendous ramifications," U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien said in a written statement.
"Any adult who uses the Internet or a social gathering Web site to bully or harass another person, particularly a young teenage girl, needs to realize that their actions can have serious consequences," O'Brien said.
In December, Missouri prosecutors declined to file charges against Drew, saying there was no law under which she could be charged.
"There is no way that anybody could know that talking to someone or saying that you're mean to your friends on the Internet would create a substantial risk," St. Charles County Prosecutor Jack Banas said. "Under the law, we just couldn't show that."
Bitches are crazy!
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A Missouri mom was indicted Thursday for her alleged role in the death of a teen who killed herself over a failed Internet romance that turned out to be a hoax.
A federal indictment accuses Lori Drew, 49, of O'Fallon, Missouri, of using the social networking Web site MySpace.com to pose as a 16-year-old boy and feign romantic interest in the girl.
The girl, Megan Meier, committed suicide after her online love interest spurned her, according to prosecutors, telling her the world would be a better place without her.
Drew faces up to 20 years in prison on charges of conspiracy and accessing protected computers to obtain information to inflict emotional distress.
The indictment, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, accuses Drew and others of registering on MySpace as "Josh Evans" and using the account to lure Meier into an an online romance.
Authorities have previously said that Drew set up the account to find out what Meier, who lived in her neighborhood, was saying about her daughter.
Prosecutors allege that Drew and the others violated MySpace's terms of service by using false information to create the account so they could "harass, abuse or harm" Meier, according to the indictment.
The two corresponded for about four weeks before "Josh" broke off the relationship, authorities said. Within an hour, Meier hanged herself in her room and died the next day.
The indictment does not allege that Drew sent the final message telling Meier the world would be a better place without her. Instead, it blames her unnamed co-conspirators, who authorities have previously said include a teenage girl.
After Drew learned of the teen's suicide, the indictment alleges, she directed one of the teens involved to "keep her mouth shut" and deleted the account.
Meier's mother, Tina Meier, told CNN in November that her daughter had self-esteem issues and had struggled with depression since childhood.
She said when her daughter began receiving messages from "Josh" telling her she was pretty, she was thrilled.
When "Josh" broke off the relationship, Tina Meier said, her daughter was devastated.
"She was looking for me to help calm herself down like I always did and be there for her. And I was upset because I didn't like the language she was using, and I was angry she didn't sign off when I told her to," Tina Meier told CNN.
"She said to me, 'You're supposed to be my mom, you're supposed to be on my side,' and then took off running upstairs," Tina Meier said.
Tina Meier found her daughter hanging by a belt shortly afterward.
"It's as if my daughter killed herself with a gun," Meier's father, Ron, told CNN. "And it's as if they loaded the gun for her."
Drew is scheduled for arraignment in June.
"This adult woman allegedly used the Internet to target a young teenage girl, with horrendous ramifications," U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien said in a written statement.
"Any adult who uses the Internet or a social gathering Web site to bully or harass another person, particularly a young teenage girl, needs to realize that their actions can have serious consequences," O'Brien said.
In December, Missouri prosecutors declined to file charges against Drew, saying there was no law under which she could be charged.
"There is no way that anybody could know that talking to someone or saying that you're mean to your friends on the Internet would create a substantial risk," St. Charles County Prosecutor Jack Banas said. "Under the law, we just couldn't show that."
Friday, May 9, 2008
Blog Time!
Damn, I haven't done one of these in a while! so good news, I figured out how to work the family video camera onto the computer which in short means that I can(and have started) now make Youtube videos! my youtube vlog link is.
www.youtube.com/parwanifilms
Umm so far it's just vlogs and some reverse motion stuff, but I want to get more into it as time goes along, who knows maybe a skit or two here and there. umm but yeah I wanted to post a blog today because I don't feel like getting the camera ready and all that. In any case, today I took my AP US History test and I found it to be moderately difficult, but I know that if I were ot study any more than I already had I wouldn't have done any better than I had done today. It's so funny bcuz dem AP bitches are always sayin' that we can't talk about the test ever and then my school's like heard counselor just waltzes on past my friends and I as we were talking to my history teacher of all people(even though we weren't supposed too) and we we're talking about the test too (a major no-no). But umm yeah might as well post an hour by hour play-through of my day so far yah?
I went to sleep like an idiot at around 1 or 2 the details aren't engraved in stone here. then I woke up at like 6 I think expecting to study some more but no I passed out/stayed in bed 'til like 6:30 in which case I had an urge to not to anything but check my myspace/facebook/youtube for fun/ the hell of it, so I did. nothing new, oh well. Then I started this frantic mission to find my newly acquired sunglasses(I got 'em like 2-3 days ago) but to no avail( I actually just found them like 10 minutes ago, they were hidden beneath a shirt I pout atop my printer that I was going ot change into after I showered last night but the shower never came and I picked a different shirt to change into this morning and so the glasses remained there.) so then I just ate some fig newtons(no liquids as I have a tendency to pee a lot when I'm nervous, example being the SATs) and left. Oh but before I got in the car I checked hte station wagon for my shades, but again to no avail... :( So I arrive at school and am like the first one at Brown's door and of course on the morning of the most important day of the year for us he's not there... I wander about until I see Vanessa whom I cling onto like a magnet to a fridge(in a joking manner of course) and am like I'M SCARED! and she's like relax. and then as we come near the door again I saw Patrick and wandered off to hang with him. Oh I almost forgot, before I took the test I visited the auditorium to get a glimpse of where I was going to die, then I went and found Vanessa. Anyways after I found Patrick for some reason the rest of the gang started to show up and by the time the mob that had gathered around Mr. Brown's room started to look really agitated he finally showed up, we dumped our shit, had like a 2 minute prep time. He shook our hands.(weird I know) So we took our test from like 8 until 11:15 and I thought it was okay.(side note: during the test I noticed that like everyone had given up on the essays, oh and also some lost girl(who I know) was like, so how many documents do we use for our DBQ? and the entire auditorium was like, god don't you know they can't tell us that and we have to figure that out ourselves stupid, and yeah.... oh oh oh and Vanessa being the brain she was worked on all the essays until time was called. OH OH OH and finally, I kept the some memorabilia from the test for when I want ot remember this hellish day. the multiple choice questions went from easy to hard to medium tho, which was odd. then came the godforsaken essays, please don't talk to me 'bout those damn essays. anyways we were let out at 11:16 in which case I said EFF these essays out loud(I guess) and left for Brown's I got my stuff and met up with the guys pretty quickly however I didn't want to be around all those damn smart kids as they were talking about what (correct answers) they wrote on their essays. So I headed back to psyche and was like in a state of lost-ness. and the seniors interviewed me and I told them what I could.('cause they wanted to compare our test to theirs etc.) then lunch came 'round and me and Stephen explored the campus some, while trying to delude Cathy(who caressed me in a sickening manner) from us. Vehar's was closed so I introduced Stephen to Ms. Stanley. I don't think she likes him very much.... so then after lunch came math in which case we had a sub and so of course played charades. my first act was Marvin Gaye's "Let's get it on" it was interesting to say the least...... den bio, den drama, den home... last slice of pizza. :( and someone ate most of the cheesecake... :(
www.youtube.com/parwanifilms
Umm so far it's just vlogs and some reverse motion stuff, but I want to get more into it as time goes along, who knows maybe a skit or two here and there. umm but yeah I wanted to post a blog today because I don't feel like getting the camera ready and all that. In any case, today I took my AP US History test and I found it to be moderately difficult, but I know that if I were ot study any more than I already had I wouldn't have done any better than I had done today. It's so funny bcuz dem AP bitches are always sayin' that we can't talk about the test ever and then my school's like heard counselor just waltzes on past my friends and I as we were talking to my history teacher of all people(even though we weren't supposed too) and we we're talking about the test too (a major no-no). But umm yeah might as well post an hour by hour play-through of my day so far yah?
I went to sleep like an idiot at around 1 or 2 the details aren't engraved in stone here. then I woke up at like 6 I think expecting to study some more but no I passed out/stayed in bed 'til like 6:30 in which case I had an urge to not to anything but check my myspace/facebook/youtube for fun/ the hell of it, so I did. nothing new, oh well. Then I started this frantic mission to find my newly acquired sunglasses(I got 'em like 2-3 days ago) but to no avail( I actually just found them like 10 minutes ago, they were hidden beneath a shirt I pout atop my printer that I was going ot change into after I showered last night but the shower never came and I picked a different shirt to change into this morning and so the glasses remained there.) so then I just ate some fig newtons(no liquids as I have a tendency to pee a lot when I'm nervous, example being the SATs) and left. Oh but before I got in the car I checked hte station wagon for my shades, but again to no avail... :( So I arrive at school and am like the first one at Brown's door and of course on the morning of the most important day of the year for us he's not there... I wander about until I see Vanessa whom I cling onto like a magnet to a fridge(in a joking manner of course) and am like I'M SCARED! and she's like relax. and then as we come near the door again I saw Patrick and wandered off to hang with him. Oh I almost forgot, before I took the test I visited the auditorium to get a glimpse of where I was going to die, then I went and found Vanessa. Anyways after I found Patrick for some reason the rest of the gang started to show up and by the time the mob that had gathered around Mr. Brown's room started to look really agitated he finally showed up, we dumped our shit, had like a 2 minute prep time. He shook our hands.(weird I know) So we took our test from like 8 until 11:15 and I thought it was okay.(side note: during the test I noticed that like everyone had given up on the essays, oh and also some lost girl(who I know) was like, so how many documents do we use for our DBQ? and the entire auditorium was like, god don't you know they can't tell us that and we have to figure that out ourselves stupid, and yeah.... oh oh oh and Vanessa being the brain she was worked on all the essays until time was called. OH OH OH and finally, I kept the some memorabilia from the test for when I want ot remember this hellish day. the multiple choice questions went from easy to hard to medium tho, which was odd. then came the godforsaken essays, please don't talk to me 'bout those damn essays. anyways we were let out at 11:16 in which case I said EFF these essays out loud(I guess) and left for Brown's I got my stuff and met up with the guys pretty quickly however I didn't want to be around all those damn smart kids as they were talking about what (correct answers) they wrote on their essays. So I headed back to psyche and was like in a state of lost-ness. and the seniors interviewed me and I told them what I could.('cause they wanted to compare our test to theirs etc.) then lunch came 'round and me and Stephen explored the campus some, while trying to delude Cathy(who caressed me in a sickening manner) from us. Vehar's was closed so I introduced Stephen to Ms. Stanley. I don't think she likes him very much.... so then after lunch came math in which case we had a sub and so of course played charades. my first act was Marvin Gaye's "Let's get it on" it was interesting to say the least...... den bio, den drama, den home... last slice of pizza. :( and someone ate most of the cheesecake... :(
Friday, May 2, 2008
Omg.....
I figured out how to work my video camera on my computer last night! yay! my mom is getting surgery soon and I'm gonna log it. this ought to be interesting.....
I wanna start making some reverse motion movies soon....
I've also already made 4 seconds on my MIA video!
I wanna start making some reverse motion movies soon....
I've also already made 4 seconds on my MIA video!
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