It's clobbering time!

I'm currently re-reading the two Fantastic Four books I have in my room. The two I have are part of Mike Wieringo and Mark Waid's run. I'm not sure when they did it, or for how long, but I find their run is easily my favorite of the Fantastic Four, and quite possibly, the Marvel Universe. Considering those two men also invented my top most favoritest favorite character ever, Impulse, I might be biased. But something about the Fantastic Four series as illustrated by Wieringo and written by Waid is just so full of emotion and humor.The two books I have in my room-I have several other books from the same run in storage-are two of my favorite books: Hereafter and Rising Storm. In the first Ben dies and Reed and the others go to Heaven and battle the archangels and reject their versions of Paradise so they can bring Ben back and that story always makes me emotional. Just the idea of these people loving him so much they break into an other-dimensional realm and refuse God and his offer of time in Paradise so they can be together again in life, that's just the most perfect and beautiful example of teammwork and friendship. It's on the top of my most emotional stories ever. And the cameo they have, of presenting 'God' as, I believe, Jack Kirby? That's just..perfect.

Rising Storm, I have to re-read it, but it's pretty Johnny-centric and I love me some Johnny Storm. He ends up being chosen as Galactus's herald because Reed did something and now Johnny and Sue's powers are reversed so Sue is now the one with flame powers and Johnny is the Invisible Man. He figures out a way to keep Galactus from devouring worlds until the other Fantastic Four show up and Galactus is reverted to a humanoid man. The book shows us Galactus's past and how he ended up as the World Eater. But I really just like that in Waid's run, Johnny isn't presented as the stereotypical one sided human torch. Some stories in the past have shown Johnny to be more dimensional than we would give him credit, but most, if not all of the stories I'd read, he always ended up going back to the way he was before, and the status quo was never changed. Johnny is always the hotheaded immature brother of Sue, who plays and doesn't take anything serious. But in Waid's run, he changes. I'm not sure how things are now, what with Waid no longer writing him and the whole Civil War thing, but in Waid's run, consistence was key. Johnny was given responsibility as CFO of the Fantastic Four's business, the finances side of it, and as such he acted accordingly. He didn't go back to watching cartoons and playing around with pretty girls at the end of the issue. He continued as CFO from issue to issue and you can see his more serious an mature side coming out. Waid gave Johnny a chance to grow. Wieringo gave Johnny a really cute look-ok, I admit, I think Wieringo's version of Johnny is the best one yet and no one else has managed to capture his 'Johnny-ness' the way Wieringo did-and I love their Fantastic Four. It was serious, emotional, funny, and sweet all at once. Now I gotta go get the rest of my books out and re-read them all.

Flaunt Magazine: The Wanderlust of Anton Yelchin

Flaunt Magazine: The Wanderlust of Anton Yelchin

Currently I'm in the middle of trying to acquire the copy of this issue that has his interview, it's very thought-provoking and inspirational but whenever I try to print said article, the text is too small and faint to read!

APEcon 2009

Last Saturday I went to APEcon 09 with my friend Jenna. This is the second year we've gone. We had a lot of fun and I got a sketch of Impulse and a comic about women in the civil war. I love me some women in the civil war stories! We accidently wandered into some socialist liberation party rally on the way there and it was kind of creepy as heck. But I love APEcon, I'm starting to think I might like it more than Wondercon, but I'm not sure yet. We met alot of creators and indie artists and they were really nice and willing to tell us about themselves instead of just trying to get us to buy stuff. I wish I'd gotten a couple of things but I think I can live without them. I picked alot of business cards as is my habit and I plan to preview their sites and see what else they have to offer on their sites. Next post, maybe I'll share of my favoritest sites.

Also, I'm just recently getting behind 'Glee' but then, who isn't? I think I like Kurt, Andy and Tina the best. And the OCD woman but man, Sue is the most awesome caricature of a villianess ever!

Someone you're not

I just saw the very first episode of the original Star Trek series, the very very first one, before William Shatner was Kirk. It was about Christopher Pike-I actually wrote Chris Pine first before I noticed- and had Majel Barrett as Number One. She later on went to play Nurse Christine Chapel in the Star Trek series. Anyways. I found myself wishing they could have continued that particular crew's adventures. They had Spock there, but a kinder and gentler version, and they had a hyper active ensign, whose name was probably never mentioned. Pike called the doctor a dirty old man and the doctor told him drinking was the solution to a lot of problems and these aliens tried to hook Pike up with three women, and I was thinking, 'does he have to choose?' and it was pretty damn awesome considering it was from the 60s. I mean, some of the lines and actions were pretty racy for those standards. I loved the ending, how the girl got what she wanted and it turned out the aliens weren't bad, they were just trying to help the woman be happy. D'awwwww.

But anyways. I loved how Number One was shown. Considering this was the 60s and women were just beginning to come into their own rights considering equality and the such, to see Gene Roddenberry give a high ranking position to a woman, to have the captain tell her 'we need the officer with the most experience to watch out for us', to have her (and the other female officers) wearing pants, and to have even the doctor defer to her...Well..it was pretty cool. She was so authoritative without coming across as bitchy or overly compensating for something, she was able to remain in charge and in control of her emotions when the aliens were humiliating her in front of Pike. She was able to admit her mistakes and learn from them, and she was, in general, a well written female character in a show from the 60s. I didn't detect any sexism in that show. I wish they could have continued that particular show, but if they had, we wouldn't have had Kirk and Bones and all the rest I suppose. I think I'd rather have Bones than Number One, but I wish I didn't have to choose.

Cute!

In looking up Sally Jupiter cosplay, I found this cosplayer, and her friend. The friend isn't cosplaying, but the actual cosplayer wrote in her blurb that she felt her friend looked so much like Malin Ackerman that she made her take a picture with her as Laurie. I think it's so cute! I kind of want to get my bangs cut like hers now.

Also, in case I didn't mention, I recently got back from a trip to Japan, and I have a blog that I co-write with my friend, Jenna. The link is here!

I'm looking forward to the next APE con, whenever it is, I'll have to look it up and see.

I just recently finished Alison Bechdel's "Funhouse: A Family Tragicomic'. I found the beginning, and some aspects, particularly the part where she talks about her father and her reading classics to be kind of overwrought, and I found some parts of her narrative to be trying too hard, whether it was to be sentimental, or dramatic, or to prove to the reader that she'd studied her literature, but once she stopped trying to show off her classical knowledge, and focused on her story(or rather, her father's story), I found it an interesting story. I felt so bad for her father, being trapped in a marriage and a small town and a life he felt himself too big for. He was gay, and he had to hide it from everyone. It ended up alienating him from his own kids. But I liked how at the end, she explains that his failure to be himself, helped her be strong enough to be herself.

Recently I just

finished "The Virgin Suicides" by Jeffery Eugenides, and watched "Bigga Than Ben' featuring Ben Barnes and Andrey Chadov. Well..Let's start.

I have this weird long relationship with 'The Virgin Suicides'. It came out when I was in middle school and I wanted to see it because I was intrigued by the title and because it starred Kirsten Dunst, who was my favorite actress at the time. I wasn't allowed to see it though and eventually forgot about it until I was in college and caught the ending of the movie on tv. I liked the way it was set up, kind of melodramatic but really poignant at the same time. I resolved to find it and watch it on dvd. I forgot about it. Then I saw the middle of the movie when it re-showed. Lather, rinse, repeat, etc. I kept seeing parts of it and kept resolving to see it all, then forgetting. Eventually I did see the whole thing, except for a couple of minutes in the beginning. So anyways, I liked the movie, but when I was told it was based on a book, I decided to go read the book. I never found that exact book but my roommate had another Jeffery Eugenides book, "Middlesex' and let me read it. I like his tone, his style of writing, its overly blown and full of attention to details, some of which is irrelevant to the story but helps to maintain a picture in the reader's head. When I look at his work critically, I think it comes across as him trying too hard to be relevant, to be thought-provoking, to be dramatic. But god, I wish I could spin a tale like him! I try not to look at his work as a critic, I enjoy his ideas and his way of getting them across. I finally found a copy of 'The Virgin Suicides' and read it. I think I like best of everything in the book, the fact that no one ever knows why they killed themselves. There's only conjectures and theories, but I find it more unsettling and more true to life to feel like the girls killed themselves for a mysterious unknowable reason. It leads the reader to think on why they did it. I think, maybe the girls killed themselves because their baby sister killed herself and they couldn't live without her, with the feeling that they could have done something, or should have done something. I don't know why Cecilia killed herself, but I felt for her the most out of the entire book. I liked her the most, and I wish she had lived longer in the book so we could get to know her better.But that was also another point of the book, was that it was written from these neighbor boys' points of views and not the girls', so we never get to know the girls at all, so we never get to understand why they did what they did. If we got to know Cecilia better, her suicide would probably make sense or its impact be lessened by our familiarity with her. I don't know. But I'm glad I got to read the book. It was one of those novels that I just couldn't put down and as soon as I finished, I just sat there thinking about what I'd just read. I sat there running the descriptions of the boys emotions in my head, and thinking about Cecilia and everything they'd said about her. What motivated her to take her life? Was it because of her that her sisters killed themselves too, or was Cecilia just the last straw? What kind of person had she been like when she was alive? Was she depressed? Was she just too dreamy for this world, like one of the characters suggested. I liked the book. It'll stay on my bookshelf for a long long time, along side the 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' and that book has its own shelf.

Yeah, I love Douglas Adams's stuff that much.

He Aint Here, But He Sure Went Past

Title from the Clash's Jimmy Jazz song.

I've been watching reruns of the Star Trek show, the original one, and really appreciating it and what it did for generations. I'm not going to go into the whole technological aspect of it, and the fact that it was years ahead of its time with its portrayal of women and its willingness to have people of different races in prominent roles, its all been said and explored and done. I found this site that does a really good job of listing the different women and the different ways that they were considered strong women and I like to read it and see what characters I have yet to see and adore.

The site is Star Trek Women: The Women of TOS Its a fascinating read and I like to skim through it, and read about the different personalities and learn how Roddenberry dealt with them.

I remember, as a kid, watching my generation's Star Trek,TNG, wondering why the moment a woman showed up and was confident and was boss and was, basically, a strong woman, they died, or transferred, or left in some form, or was quickly rewritten to be more gentle, more..weaker..I still don't know why. I liked Troi and I love Beverly, but Troi was dressed so inappropriately for someone in her professional field, so I was conflicted. Beverly was just bombastically kick ass. She was my first exposure to doctors in Star Trek and I loved her, so well rounded and so competent yet not too masculine, in that she could straddle the line between being boss and being a woman so well that I doubt anyone could use the usual go-to terms to degrade a woman in position to refer to her. In case that last sentence didn't make sense, I mean, usually, when people are intimidated by a woman in an authority role, they refer to said woman as a bitch, whore, cunt, other degrading terms tailored specifically for a woman. I doubt any one could call Dr Crusher those words! But I've heard people refer to Troi as a whore..I liked her. Lt. Yar was a strong woman too, a strong force. And I realize the actress quit, but I wonder if maybe she quit because she knew the writers wouldn't treat her character well and wanted to go to a different show where she could be a strong female role character without worrying about being suddenly demoted or sexualized.

Well, that went off into a tangent I didn't mean to go off into.

I was only going to talk about how I like Star Trek and enjoy when they have Bones and Chekov in scenes together. Bones was always my favorite from when I was little and saw the movies, and seeing the new movie made me really adore and love Chekov (probably mostly based on how he was portrayed by Anton Yelchin, that is one awesome guy-I've read interviews with him, he seems like a guy I'd love to buy a drink for.Once he's 21, that is.-)So to see the original show and to see my two favorites, Long Time Fav. Bones and Newly Admired Chekov in scenes together makes me giddy. All they needed was to add Nurse Chapel in the mix and I'd have been ecstatic!

I LOVE NURSE CHAPEL!

I've only seen her in one episode but I already love her. Must be something about women medical officers.

Also, can anyone believe that Nurse Chapel and Luxuwanna Troi are the same woman? They are, and I can't believe it! She looks so vastly different from one show to the next!

I really hope she's in the next Star Trek movie, and I really hope the actress they pick is able to capture her...Chapel-ness..You know, competent but compassionate, a good natured foil to Bones' irascibility, and rocking the blue uniform. Also, I really hope, if she is in the next movie, they don't reduce her to a romantic interest for anyone, like they tend to do for other movies. She's cool enough to be a single gal among good looking men. Yes ma'am

Theological Question

I was talking religion and god with my mother today and something occurred to me regarding Christians vs. Muslims and Christians vs. Jews.

Now, I haven't studied religion and theology in depth, its not something I care to study, because I get confused by the layers and intricate lines and connections of it all.Knowing my ignorance, I still wonder...

Ok, so the Bible was written in the middle east. That means it was written by middle eastern men, yes? The first Christians were middle eastern. Jesus was a Jew. Middle eastern people were Jewish.

So when Christians say they strongly dislike or disagree with Jews (not to say that Christians hate them all, but rather that when I mention Jews and their beliefs to strongly Christians, I usually get a scoff and an eye roll in response.) and they hate middle eastern people for their beliefs and cultures, I get confused. I mean, wasn't Jesus middle eastern? Wasn't Jesus Jewish? Why do Christians hate the very thing that their worship figure is? Also, if Jesus is a Jew, why was Christianity made? Why not just follow Jesus's religion instead of making him the figurehead for a different religion? I just don't understand that.

Taking the Rough with the Smooth

Title is from "Fur Soft as Fur' by The Boy Least Likely To..

I suppose it kind of ties in to what I plan to talk about but mostly,boy it is hard to come up with titles!

I've been reading the website that hosts Post Secret,which you can find by clicking here.

I like reading these things, maybe because there's a voyeuristic part of me that likes to read other people's thoughts and see their creativity explored in a limitless media(just look at all the different styles and techniques employed on each postcard! Some are so incredibly beautiful, I can't believe the person who made it has such a horrible ugly secret to share, others are so well done I would like to find that person and ask them to make me my own postcard to share) but I really like the sentiments on a lot of them, I even go as far as to save the ones that have such meaningful words that I think, "I can stand behind that."
Reading this archive makes me feel like I'm not as horrible a person as I think I am, and makes me want to go out and get postcards and decorate them and...I don't know.I wouldn't go so far as to mail them into Post Secrets, right now.But I definitely think this Frank guy is the instigator to some new sort of art form and art movement, expressed through 8 by 10 cardstock and people's hidden sicknesses.

Or maybe I'm just thinking too hard.

I think I'd like to share some of the ones that meant something to me

Every time I have a converstaion with my family and certain friends about God and religion and their views on life and it comes out as such angry, hateful, narrowmindedness, where they use Jesus and God as an excuse for their hate of homosexuality, non-Christians, pro-choicers, anyone and everyone who does not fit into their rules as a 'decent' human being, I always lost the words to say what I wanted, the words to express how I feel about using a symbol of love as a reason to destroy.This postcard made me sit back and think, "yeah, that's a good point.I don't want to share Paradise with people so full of sorrow and anger."

Maybe, for me, it's not the BEST feeling, but it's pretty gratifying. I was born sick, shoulda died.Didn't. Lost my hearing. Shoulda been reduced to a lifetime of illiteracy, isolation and helplessness as a deaf person in a hearing world. I wasn't. I learned to talk.I learned to read. I kept up with my hearing peers, and in some cases, surpassed them. I love the look on people who are prepared to knock me down, people who are preparing themselves to tell me I'm not as good or as smart or as advanced or as..anything, as a hearing person, and its about time I got back to my 'place' in the disabled world,I love the look on their faces when they realize: I'm not letting them keep me down and I'm not going to let anyone hold me back. I'm proving everyone wrong, all the time, and while it's not the best feeling-it's tainted by the feeling that I SHOULDN'T HAVE to prove myself-it's pretty damn good.

I felt that way during the Hurricane. I always feel that way during emergencies and crisis situations: I care more about the pets than the humans.I suppose because the way I see it, is the humans are more able to take care of themselves, the animals aren't.

I feel this way so much, so many times, but I'm scared to take the first step. I want someone to go on the journey with me.

Reading Post Secret, and my enjoyment of it shouldn't surprise me, now that I think about it. One of my favorite, if not my most favorite, webcomics is A Softer World.

It's along the same vein as Post Secret, words and photos and creativity fused together to tell a story in a short frame. I enjoy almost all the strips, each one of them is so unusual and unique that I always enjoy them and their story telling styles. I love the idea of words and photos being mixed together, like a comic, but not in any linear way of story telling.

My favorite from A Softer World, though, is this one

I wish I was more bold, to be able to take that last panel's advice to heart, maybe I'd have a more interesting life if I did.

And one last thing:

WHAT THE F!?

A real duck!? Or a toy? Or...What? What made this person decide that course of action? And am I the only one who sees the genius in it?

This Woman, This Mutant,This Phoenix

This symbol is recognized rather easily, isn't it? Its a good design, simple, elegant, perfectly expresses the power and the story of the woman who has it.I love it.

I love Phoenix.I love Jean Grey. She's gotta be in my top 5 favorite female comic book characters.

But for a long long time, I hated her. I didn't get her story, the point of her character. I was only exposed to her from the early 90's comics and the cartoons and the movies and they all portrayed her as the gorgeous girl next door, the one every man loves and every woman wants to be friends with, and so sweet and so smart and so powerful and perfect and oh my god! In fandom, a character who is perfect,with no flaws, and who obviously is a stand in for the author/creator is called a Mary Sue. I felt Jean Grey was a Mary Sue. She was so perfect and fabulous and I didn't care. I didn't see the conflict with her, the layers, the depths.I thought she was just supposed to be the reader and the author's dream girl,the one who doesn't exist and if she did, she wouldn't love them. I hated her for taking attention away from the more interesting, more flawed characters, like Kitty Pryde, Dazzler, Storm, Magik. Ho-hum, her love story with Scott transcends time and space. Ho-hum, she's a model, the first female student of Xavier's, everybody's best friend, most powerful psychic.Ho-hum,she has an intergalactic omnipresent spirit of a god-like creature inside her. Where was the villian who could threaten her? Where was the foe that would scare her, make her fear for her survival, make her question her motives, her existence? Where was the story? How was I supposed to relate to her? She's all powerful right? Why is she still with the X-Men? Isn't she stronger then them all combined? What a good girl, to stay with the team, to be a team player, even if she was strong enough to destroy worlds.

So. For years.I didn't like her.I didn't relate to her. I didn't adore her and admire her and respect her and want to know more about her story.

Until I found out Cyclops had an affair with Emma Frost.

But wait! Scott and Jean, they were the golden pair, the perfect couple, the one that would last! He fought armies of space warriors for her, she died for him! How could he!?

And so I began to sympathize with her. She couldn't be so omnipresent, so invincible, if her husband would cheat on her. She couldn't be perfect, not with a crumbling marriage like that. She had to have layers now,to deal with his betrayal.

So I re-read my X-Men novels.Not the ones from the 90's, they don't show her in a duality type position. But the Claremont run, the books stemming from the 70's and the 80's.

I saw her before she was Phoenix, when she was new, and young, and idealistic,and-considering the times she was created-a strong and good female role,not sitting on the sidelines but engaging in battle with her team, and not as head over heels in love with Cyclops as I'd believed. She loved him, even then, but she didn't let her love blind her or make her act stupid, something I thought she would have done. She held her own with a group of men. She held her own with enemies. She was scared.She was brave. She was bold.She was shy.She was her own person. She was loyal to the team but not enough to lose her identity among them.

I read the Dark Phoenix Saga, and understood. She worked hard, she fought hard, she was still fighting, to get to where she was. She fought for her identity,she fought for Scott.For her team. She fought the Phoenix Force and she won. She won as best as a human woman could, she became one with it, but was able to remain in control of it. For someone to endure what she did, to go through what she did, and come out on the other side, still loving, still kind, still herself, still able to be herself and use this invader in her skin to benefit her team and her people... DAMN. She is one hell of a woman. One powerful woman that deserves the Phoenix.

Jean Grey, I'm sorry I didn't understand.

Pretty Pretties part2

Another installment of Pretty Pretties, this time featuring James Jean.

 I first found out about him from reading the series 'Fables' and I just fell in love with his art.He has a way of mastering light and shades, and has a talent for attention to detail.His work is so delicately rendered but so powerful.

The above is one of my particular favorites of his.

These were found on his official site-http://www.jamesjean.com/ where there's a whole lot more of his art of course, as well as details on how he did his work.

Pretty Pretties part 1

I' m a visual person, I collect images I like, or images that are well done. I also like to share the pictures too, to get the artist more fans. I'm going to start a series called Pretty Pretties featuring artwork I like by artists I like, whether its fanart or offical, comic book related or photography or anything, whatever.I just want to share these works of art and hopefully have people like them and search out the artist.I'll try to post the name or site of the artist, but sometimes I just don't know who did the picture, I just like it.

I'm starting this series with work by American Virgin/ NYX cover artist Joshua Middleton.

To start with,why I like his work.

I find his subject matter very intriguing, and the way he places his subjects are very attention grabbing.Instead of just action poses, prepare-for-battle poses or face shots, he tries different perspectives and different poses that convey the character's personality or inner thoughts. He also uses colors and has specific techniques that I love and adore.I find his style over all very visually pleasing but also very emotionally moving.

I guess I can't share ALL the pictures I had from him, too bad.

He has a site here: http://www.joshuamiddleton.com/

And he even shares process works to show how his work progresses from line art to final project, its so awesome to look at!

Check him out and look at his pretty and neat art

RIP Dr. George Tiller

I know I'm like, three days late, but I'm sure you've all read about Dr. George Tiller being shot and killed by a pro-lifer? 

Yeah I'm not about to go on a tirade or anything or contribute anything new or significant or earthshaking or anything about the whole thing. This site says everything I wish I was verbal enough to put to words (here). 

I'm a supporter of abortion. I feel women have the right to choose what happens in their bodies, not an arbitrary body of politics or a book or anyone. It's my uterus, not anyone else's.But like I said, I'm not here to debate or argue. I'm sorry he died, I'm sorry he spent his life helping women who had no where to go, and was harassed for it, and threatened. I'm sorry he was killed and my condolences goes out to his family.

I'm writing this because the first thing that went through my head when I read the report, besides, 'poor guy.' was this: WTF? How ironic is it that a pro-lifer whose argument against abortion is that all life is sacred and no one has the right to decide who lives and who dies gets the right to go out and shoot and kill a human being in cold blood because he doesn't agree with their policy? Am I the only one who sees the irony of a man who declares that fetuses in a woman's stomach acids is so precious, so special, so sacred and unique and one of a kind and right from GOD's hands that he gets to go out and find a full grown human being, someone born, someone alive, and loving, and loved, and human, and breathing and walking, and, yes, right from GOD's hands, and kill himkillhimkillhim! Am I the only one confused and seeing the irony and kinda getting a bit mad? Don't tell me that fetuses are deserving of life if you're going to buy a gun and end someone else's life. Practice what you preach.

I Jumped Through Time

The title's from a song by Abney Park, called Post-Punk Apocalypse. Its a pretty cool band and song,I dig the whole visual style they've got going.

Anyways, so I've been kinda wasting my vacation, reading fmylife.com and reading the stories on the Star Trek XI kink meme.

I have so much unrestrained love for the new Chekov it's not really that funny. Except to E. it is.I made her drive me to Toys R Us so I could get a Chekov doll,who now rides around in my purse with me. I plan to get a Bones at some point too. I grew up on the star trek stuff, and Bones was my favorite on TOS, which set a precedent for me,I guess, all my favorites on the following Star Trek series were doctors: Crusher,Bashir,the Doctor.I didn't watch Enterprise but I'm sure the doctor on that show would have been my favorite.

So its a surprise that I'm head over heels a Chekov fangirl.Although,well...not that surprising..Look at him!

As a result of me liking imdb.com, I then sought out other movies the actor,Anton Yelchin,has been in.I've seen Star Trek,Terminator:Salvation, Alpha Dog and Charlie Bartlett back to back. I liked Star Trek and Charlie Bartlett best.

I then found a site that had a lot of Adam Hughes's stuff and so I've been stockpiling on his works.He's so awesome,I would die happy if I could ever get to be as good an illustrator as he is.

Which reminds me,not that I forgot. But I swore to myself I'd start working on my comic,but I haven't.But I guess I can justify it by saying I want to wait until I write all 24 scripts for the book,and I can't start on the second books til I get my 1st books back from my dad with his corrections to the reality of the characters,for continuity reasons,so..yeah. I want the book to be as good as it can possibly be,so I want to get all the minute details out of the way, the details that tie the world to the real world to make readers feel like they know the universe my characters are in. I want to get everything fleshed out and written out and perfect and seamless before I start illustrating,so that the visual clues and contexts are matching.

So that's out of the schedule until I see my dad and get his painstakingly poured over and written out notes and corrections. I love that I have my dad to check and correct my story's background.

But even if I have these reasons/excuses I still feel guilty and shamed.

I think next post I'll try to write about something of value.

The Answer is 42

If you can't tell by the title,and my profile(if you haven't read my profile yet,what are you waiting for, its full of thought provoking ideas and philosophical challenges!-Well not really.) I love the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

I read it in the winter of my first year in college,while I was on Maui with my maternal family, and it was so..I don't even know how to describe it or explain it but it was one of those books, like Terry Pratchett's Good Omens,that in the split second between reading the last word on the last page of the book, and looking up in to the environment around you, everything is SO CLEAR . You understand what it's all about,and why we're here and what the point is and wow.

I re-read the book trying to re-capture that feeling, to better hold on to that sense of understanding so I can get through the days,instead of saying,"once I understood,that's gonna have to be enough." Do you understand what I mean? My friend C could explain it so much better,but I've lost the email. Anyways,so that book changed my life, literally.After reading about Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent and their adventures,I realized I was like Arthur,staid and staying in one place, determined to not stand out and not going out of his way to have an adventure, too scared to try anything. But he had Ford Prefect to come along and shake that out of him and take him away from himself,and I don't. I wanted to be Ford Prefect so much that when I realized I was Arthur,I decided that I wasn't going to be lucky like him,I had to make my own Ford Prefect,so I applied for school in Hawaii, and I went there.

My time in Hawaii,the first year at least, wasn't as great and wonderful as I would have liked,but the fact that I tried, I should consider than an accomplishment,shouldn't I?

So anyways. Ever since that book,I've been dwelling on trying to break out of my mold and go experience the world,which is why I decided to be a world traveler(that and also my old roomie from Hawaii, D. inspired me so much with her stories of fun in other countries and her encouragement for me to get out there.) so I started focusing on traveling and reading books about travelers and seeing movies about traveling.  I hope I can achieve all my goals on traveling,I even have a list of places to see.

It's a little scary to think that I might have to be going to places by myself,since I'm a naturally shy and 'Arthur Dent'like person,as well as my deaf-ness which is hard enough to live with in America,I don't want to think of how it will be perceived in other cultures. So far, I've been lucky,Jenna's going with me to Japan, E and C want to go on a road trip with me to Metropolis and New Orleans,C. is willing to go to Greece(if she can get the money, and if I can too!) and Mom is up for Australia at a later date. But what about Europe and England and Russia and the UK? I hope by the time I have the money and time to go to those places,my friends will be eager to go world travel,and I can get a buddy.

Infinity and Beyond!

It seems I'm obsessed with starting things and not finishing them. I started a blog/site (http://redheadinglasses.weebly.com/index.html ) but got bored with it-it also was really hard to customize and such. Hopefully this one is better.

And I won't be so specific on what I'm doing with this blog.Basically,this is now my online diary,in lieu of my lj,which was waaay too much drama.

I just recently watched four movies  featuring Anton Yelchin back to back: Star Trek, Terminator, Alpha Dog and Charlie Bartlett. Maybe I'm biased because I totally adore him to pieces,but I think he's a talented actor and I wish him all the luck and selfishly want to meet him  in person.

I recently got to spend the weekend/week with my close friend,we'll call her C and as if that wasn't awesome enough,I also got to spend some time with another, hopefully soon to be just as close,friend E. We went to Flying Colors, and E got a Rorschach tattoo and she even drove me to Toys R Us so I could get a Chekov action figure and we had so much fun making fun of each other and people and children.I wish I could take that time and put it in one of those glass vial necklaces with the powder in it and the pewter fairy wrapped around it and wear it all day.

Well.Until next time.

Cheers