I Used To....

I think I've mentioned this before, but I used to randomly go into these weird funks during which I was just utterly bored with everything about my appearance. I would feel compelled to buy new makeup, or new clothes, or change my hair color, anything to look different than the way I did. Don't get me wrong, this still happens. I am currently fighting with myself over changing my hair again; I honestly think this color suits me the best of any color I have tried, but I'm getting pretty bored, so we'll see what happens. I say this "used to" happen because these feeling of boredom have evolved from something only concerned with my appearance to a deeper feeling about my self. 

I will randomly wake up one day and realize that I need to learn about some particular topic, or master some new skill, or change some aspect of my behavior. This generally results in me 1- Slightly injuring myself trying to do something I don't know how to do, and possibly buying some sort of equipment necessary for said thing. 2- Buying a shit-ton of books, not necessarily because I want to read them, but because I feel I should read them (for whatever reason). And 3- considering (yet again) going back to school and/or taking some sort of online class. 

In case you were wondering, I have purchased about thirty books, and a bo staff, in the past few weeks. I feel that it is absolutely vital that I master the salmon ladder and also learn to do parkour. And I'm seriously considering trying to finish my psychology degree and/or take this online nutrition class I found and/or trying to learn a second language. In all likelihood, the only thing I will actually accomplish is reading the books, which I am quickly working my way through, but you never know I guess.  

Who doesn't love Mitch Hedberg? 

Daredevil

My mom and I finished watching Daredevil about a week ago, and now I'm almost through it for the second time. It's just so good that I had to share with you guys exactly what is so amazing about it.

First of all, it is much darker and more depressing than anything else I've ever seen from Marvel. Which is great, because the only thing I don't like about Marvel is that they aren't usually dark and depressing enough (I'm being sincere there, by the way, I like my superheros sad and tortured. What can I say?)

I got to the confession scene, which is about five minutes into the first episode, and knew that they had me; there would be no escape. I tried to find a video of it on Youtube, so you could see what I'm talking about, but I couldn't so you'll just have to trust me on this.

Anyway, here are some of my favorite things abut the show.

1- There is a much more intense emotionally aspect to it than you find in most superhero shows/movies, which lends to the dark, depressing tone mentioned above.

2- The villain is truly frightening, but still somehow sympathetic. They give us some glimpses int his back-story and thought process, and it makes it so you can't really hate him even while he is doing truly horrible things (like decapitating a guy with a car door, which was exactly as gruesome as it sounds).

3- I think for the first time I have ever seen, the female lead is not the one criticizing the hero's methods. Karen is actually the biggest proponent of using violence, when other tactics don't work out. I thought this was a really cool change of pace from the usual lecturing, guilt-tripping female lead.

4- The interaction between the characters, particularly Matt and Foggy, is so excellent! They feel like people you would want to hang out with.

5- The fight choreography is also excellent. Pretty much every episode has at least one great fight scene.

6- I assume do to the fact that this is on Netflix as opposed to TV, they really took their time with things. The pace of each scene was a bit slower than most shows, which made it feel more real and also added a sense of tension. They even threw in a few scenes that seemed to be intended almost entirely to add artistic value, which I loved and felt contributed real depth to the show.

7- None of the characters felt one-dimensional. Even the villains were likable, to some extent. And even the smallest characters felt like real people.

8- Again because this is Netflix and not TV, they used more realistic language (everything up to, but not including "fuck"). That is something that I find really annoying about most shows. I'm constantly thinking "No one talks like that!" So yeah, no pathetic replacements for cuss words in this show.

9- I think my favorite thing about the whole show though, was Matt's overall attitude about what he was doing. He was trying to help people, to make a difference, to do the right thing, but he also just kind of couldn't help himself. You get the distinct impression that he needed the release of fighting. It also seemed like, the more he got hurt, the more compelled he was to go back and do it again. I liked this because I, personally, am really bored with the whole "reluctant hero" thing. Every other hero is like "I don't want to do this, but I have to." Matt fucking wants to. I like that.

10- Even the opening credits ^ are badass! 

Getting thrown out of a window is just motivation for him.

Seriously!?

On Thursday, when I got home from work, my dad had a video up on Facebook and told me to watch it. At first, I thought it was just a video of some guy doing a salmon ladder. Then I thought "Wait! That's my salmon ladder!" Then, out loud, I said "Who is that guy?!" My dad just told me to keep watching the video. Finally, after I watched him get to one rung below the top, he told me that the guy was one of his coworkers. My dad had talked about building the salmon ladder at work, and when this guy heard him say that it was finished, he just had to try it. So he came home with my dad after work, and got almost all the way to the top. Now I'm super fucking pissed that I can't do it! I kind of thought that it was one of those things that you couldn't just do without practicing it for a while first but apparently not, since this guy had never done it before. Now I know that it's just me, and it makes me really mad!

Also, I bought an SD card for my GoPro yesterday and it turned out I got the wrong one. Apparently it has to be "class 10" whatever the fuck that means. I just couldn't make myself go back to Wal Mart today, so I just ordered a new one online instead. So it's still going to be a while before I can make my first video.

I Don't Know What I'm Doing

Last night in class, we worked on kicks again. There were three guys there, one of whom I'm pretty sure was the guy who was in the class when I started, but I haven't seen since probably my second class. So that was kind of weird. I ended up working with the Young Girl and her Mom though. It wasn't terribly exciting, but it went okay overall.

Also, I don't think I mentioned before, apparently my Instructor is leaving and the Other Instructor is taking over the class, which is fine since he has been around enough that I'm pretty comfortable with him. Anyway, he taught the class last night and, at the end of class, I'm like 99% sure he was flirting with me. I was really confused by it because 1- I'm fairly certain I am a lot older than him, and 2- I thought he had a girlfriend. Nonetheless, since I am so incredibly bad at recognizing any sort of social cues, I'm thinking the fact that even I saw it as flirting probably means that it really was. Unfortunately, I probably didn't handle it properly.....you know, because I never do. 

I mean....... I think you are. I think.

Ⓥ Subliminal

I feel like I am constantly noticing, what seem to be, subtle animal rights related messages in movies and TV shows. I always wonder if I only see these things because I want to, or if other people notice them too. I especially wonder if people who are not interested in animal rights are ever affected by them, even subconsciously. At least in the kind of shows that I watch, there is pretty frequently a correlation made between violence toward animals and violence toward humans, or between animal flesh and human flesh. I feel like on some level, that must make people question whether there really is a difference between the two.
I feel like Supernatural, one of my very favorite shows, does this pretty regularly. There was one episode, pretty early on in the series, in which a family had started kidnapping people so that they could "hunt" them, because they had decided that hunting animals was not exciting enough. In a later episode, there was a man who was eating different animals in order to absorb their abilities, and then later had no qualms about doing the same with humans. I feel like seeing that would almost have to make a person question why it is that we draw such a distinct line between killing animals and killing humans. Then, of course, there is Supernatural's frequent use of the term "meat suit" in reference to a person's body. I have always found that quite funny, because I had already come to terms with the fact that there is really no difference between human flesh and non-human flesh, so if animals are considered meat then humans should be as well. I wonder though, how people who have not accepted that fact feel about the term? Does it make them questions their beliefs at all? or do they just write it off as a joke?

A similar situation showed up on the most recent episode of iZombie. A zombie opened a butcher shop, which sells all sorts of exotic meats. The real purpose of the shop though is as a cover for his murder of humans for their brains, which he then combines with the other meats. As soon as I saw this, I thought "That's so great! They're making a connection between killing animals for their flesh and killing humans for their brains!" Then I wondered if that was really what the writers were intending. Were they actually making a statement about the similarity between killing animals and killing humans, or did they just think that a butcher shop would make a good cover for a brain harvesting operation?

To be honest, I don't even think it matters what the writers of these shows had in mind when they wrote them. What matters is how the audience is affected. So I guess what I really want to know is, do things like this make people question the way we treat animals, and the way we separate ourselves from them, or is that just wishful thinking on my part?

^ zombie butcher shop. 

Come and Get Them!

I got my "Virago" pendants finished and I will be selling them, along with a bunch of other stuff, at the Artist Weekend in Morgantown on Saturday, at the Arts Mon building. So if you want to buy one and/or see some cool local artists come check out the Artist Weekend!

I'm thinking I need to make a sign to go with them, to let everyone know what the word means. I'm trying to decide though, would it be better to just give the definition that I am trying to encourage, or should I put both definitions and a brief explanation of what I'm trying to do? I'm thinking about something like this-

The word virago was originally defined as "a strong, brave or warlike woman; a woman who demonstrates exemplary and heroic qualities." Then, over the years, it somehow came to mean "a loud-voiced, ill-tempered, scolding woman; shrew." I think that's unacceptable, don't you? Let's save this beautiful word and change it back to what it once was! 

What do you guys think?  Do you think that will make people want to help me on my mission?

The Best Laid Plans

I finally unpacked my GoPro today, with every intention of actually making a video. Well, it turns out it needs a micro SD card that doesn't come with it. That would have been good to know before, like last weekend when I could have bought one. I am going to get one this weekend and I'm really going to try to actually get my introductory video posted sometime next week.

Also, the salmon ladder is finally finished. I took the braces off of it today. I also tried it out.......and fell...and landed flat on my back.....in the mud. It was raining this morning, and I thought "You know, I should probably wait until it's not raining to try this." Then I thought "Naaaa." Then I smashed my head into a mud hole. So yeah, it looks like this is going to be even harder than I expected. I knew I would fall, but I thought I would at least land on my feet. Turns out not.

Image me like this, except with mud instead of blood and a bar instead of a harpoon.