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.