Cartoons: the modern day fairytale

I have always enjoyed cartoons. I am sure as a kid it was the bright colors and cool sound effects that drew me in, not to mention fight sequences in say TMNT. Around twelve or thirteen, my brother got a huge book of the tales of the Brothers Grimm. My brother's library was really just an extension of my own, and so I read and read and read the fairy tales that I largely knew only by reputation. I found that these stories often ended with a few sentences explaining the moral of the story. I would mentally think back on the events and see how the story had been carefully crafted to make that one moral point. I really enjoyed the fairytales and have also purchased a book of fairy tales from Asbjørnsen and Moe, written in Norwegian of course. Since then I have been on the lookout for fairy tales in other forms and found them in cartoons. Okay so not all cartoons have moral messages beyond the old good versus evil stuff. However, there is one cartoon at least that digs a little deeper: Teen Titans. Ah, even the name is cool, plus it gets bonus points for alliteration. Seriously though, the show has a lot of good messages. Take Raven for instance, she makes a very concentrated effort to control her emotions. Juxtaposed with Raven's dark and somber character is Starfire, who is extremely emotional and bubbly. There is an episode called "Switched" in which their souls are swapped and they have to learn how to become the other person. At first glance, cartoons may not seem to offer much in the way of ethics or problem solving skills. Keep looking though and you'll see that some of them deal with real problems.

So I don't really feel like this all the time, but some days yeah...

So am I just a masicist or what?

I have been something of a social hermit for most of my life. Sure, I enjoy talking to people and all that, but only so long as it doesn't threaten to stretch or burst my little comfort bubble. There are a few notable exceptions to this such as my social dance class I took a few years ago. My sole object there was to force myself to become more socially capable; the results were mixed. For whatever reason though, before I decided to take the class I formed this idea that, the less I wanted to participate in a social event, that I knew was inherently good, the more I thought I should participate in said event. Maybe this is a strange sort of "whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger." And so here it is, the weekend, and I have been invited to go camping with a few of my friends. The catch is that there are several other people going that I only rather awkwardly know. Given my hypothesis about awkwardness and discomfort being good for me I feel rather compelled to go by my own desire for self-improvement. Is this just crazy or does everyone else do it? Or is it crazy but everyone does it?

Adversity is the first path to truth.
~Lord Byron

Nickled and Dimed

I have to say I really love and really hate the beginning of a new semester. There are lots of new people to meet, (in low effort, comfortable settings) and there are some classes I really enjoy. However, on the other side of things I just forked out about $2000 for tuition and for rent. Now, I realize most of you may be thinking "Hey that's not as much as I'm paying." Well this is probably true, but then who else has organized crime connections? Anyone....I thought not. Anyway, unless you are ridiculously wealthy two thousand dollars is a good chunk of money. Considering I am a poor student this is pretty much a crippling blow to any entertainment plans involving the use of money in some form. I am still waiting on my telephone adapter so we can use our internet connection for a telephone. Not having a phone for people to call me at, I have yet to apply for any jobs. This is very very bad. Not only does this mean I am not currently earning that most useful of social tokens, but I am also losing jobs to those who are not, shall we say, "phone impaired." These things and well some others have combined into a sort of stress time bomb. It's no longer a question of if I am going to snap, but rather when and what the resulting lawsuits will cost me.

Time for school and all it's complications

This past Wednesday I moved back to Provo for school. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here thus far, even though activates have been rather spotty at best. The primary concern I have at the moment is getting our phone connected. For some reason, my apartment management has decided to let the tenants take care of power and phone connections. Granted all we have to do with power is call Provo city, but with phone we need to find our own service and set up the arrangements. Consequently we've decided to go with Vonage or something like that which hooks our telephone up through our internet connection. This of course means we need to take care of our internet connection first. To compound the issue I am currently searching for gainful employment, but to send in a resume void of any number to contact me at seems to me pointless. Additionally, I recently discovered that in preparing my computer for the coming semester and upgrading my flagging hard drive that I neglected to back up my files as I should have. Consequently, I erased nearly all of my documents of any real value, such as my current resume. So having no way to reach anyone short of walking back and forth to campus, having no internet connection at home, and the bookstore packed silly with people preventing me from making purchases in a timely manner I have a lot of empty time on my hands. It always seems we have time when we don't want it and don't have it when we do want it. Ah well.

Knowledge of the ages from respected sages

I hope to broach this subject with the eloquence I believe it deserves. Quotes to me have always been a source of hope, courage, and understanding. Somehow there seems to me a certain magic in the words of great leaders and philosophers. One such quote that had meant a great deal to me personally is what George Henry Lewes said of grief, "The only cure for grief is action." I spent a good number of painful nights without this knowledge, simply resigning myself to certain fates and, I'm not proud to say, taking what comfort I could from self-pity. Having read the previous statement no one should suppose that such is my challenge at present for such is not the case. It seems a simple statement perhaps, but it has, to use an old cliché, changed my life. I know that in my own life real knowledge, applicable knowledge or wisdom is not an easy thing to obtain. So quotes to me represent more than simple advice, but rather a gift made most precious by the difficulty in attaining it. Perhaps I am attributing too much nobility to a very simple matter, but I don't think so. One of my favorite poems, which I include among my quotes is this one.

I walked a mile with Pleasure,
She chatted all the way,
But left me none the wiser,
For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow,
And ne’er a word said she;
But oh! The things I learned from her,
When Sorrow walked with me.
~Anonymous

Sometimes it's just not your day

War and Peace

In an effort to broaden my horizons and get better acquainted with the classics I have started to read War and Peace by Tolstoy. The general reply I get to this is "You're ambitious." Personally, I find this reaction strange. I enjoy reading immensely and when I come to the end of a book I am rather depressed it is over. With that in mind, I can't understand why people would not welcome the opportunity to read a book reported to be among the greatest books of all time and to have that book be quite lengthy. I am about 100 pages into the roughly 1900-2000 page work. I am impressed by the uniqueness of the characters and the details given for even minor characters that somehow only adds to the book and does not distract (ala Dickens). It also surprises me how many people simply don't read period. A few months ago I bought the biography of Neal A. Maxwell and enjoyed reading about and learning from his life. This turned out to be rather "serendipitous" since my father is going through much of the same experience with leukemia. When I visited him on Sunday he said he couldn't hardly keep track of the book since he had been sharing it with some of the other patients. It truly is a shame that as a society we have become much more involved in the, shall we say, less thought-intensive forms of media.

Life takes a sharp right turn

I found out last Tuesday that my father has leukimia, which is a cancer of the bone marrow. I am still having a hard time adjusting to the whole situation but I feel worlds better today. It seems in life that whenever you get comfortable with a situation it changes. This is of course a blessing in that it provides us a myriad of opportunities to learn and grow but the price for personal growth seems the same as muscle growth, pain. It would seem that they caught the disease in an early state and all seems to going well at this point. Once again my father has taught me by his example. He has yet to utter a negative comment about the whole situation as far as any of us can tell. Rather than turn to a weakening self-pity he has continued as the workhorse he has always been. His work is a little different now but he has adapted well to talking to other patients, learning what he can do for his condition through books and the internet, and walking as much as possible. George Henry Lewes said, "The only cure for grief is action." I have found this to be true in many instances and this is no exception. Is the situation still hard? Yes, but in it we have all seen that attitude is the hinge upon which the door of learning opens or closes.

Yet more proof that nature is nothing if not adaptive

The futility of social activity...yes a rant

Admittedly, I am not a particularly social person by nature. This is something I have been working on with arguably mixed results. Part of the problem as I see it, is that social activities don't really introduce you to other people as a general rule. I mean really think about the last time you went to something like a dance where there were loads and loads of people to meet. Did you tell your friends, "Catch you later, I need to talk to strangers"? Somehow I doubt it. The only time we actually meet a new person at such a gathering is through a mutual friend and really what are the chances of meeting them again? Okay, so admittedly people have been known to strike up conversations with a total stranger. However, I've experimented with this a little and found people find this unnerving. One day I was walking home and started talking to a girl who was walking the same way. She was less than enthusiastic and seemed to be considering breaking into a dead run. Now there are always exceptions to such things I'm sure but it somehow doesn't really seem worth it, somewhat akin to the lottery ticket. I think my luck with social situations is about to change though. I got a fortune cookie a week ago that says "You will be advanced socially, without any special effort on your part." Without any special effort....I've wondered if that means it will just take effort but not special effort. Either way it is about my only shot at social progress.

Awakenings

A while back I had an epiphany. It occurred to me that no matter how bland or uninteresting a person may appear to be they can be fascinating. I'll explain because I know that doesn't make sense right off. As I've observed people interacting with each other I've found that unless someone is talking to someone they care about or trust there is a tendency for people to be, for lack of a better word, shallow. I don't mean shallow in the materialistic or petty sense but in the sense of how deep the interaction is. Think of it this way, if a teacher asks you what your greatest aspiration is you may respond that you want to be a writer. Now, take that same question and think about if you really thought about what you want most out of life, out of yourself. When people greet each other with "How's it going?" the expected response is good or fine. I've caught myself responding fine by reflex when my day has been awful. So I guess what I am trying to say is that there are times in life where we see in others or in ourselves their "true self" or what they have the potential to be all the time. I've been trying to reach this myself by being honest and open with others and especially myself. To quote the bard "This above all; to thine own self be true."

The esoteric search for the holy grail

The title of this post is from a humanities class I took. This class was a colossal waste of time. However, most things are not entirely good or entirely bad and there was one discussion that has stuck with me. This was our discussion of heroes. Our teacher told us that one of the defining characteristics of a hero is what he called a "divine wound". This was an injury that made the hero both stronger and weaker and was also the impetus for the classic hero's journey of self-discovery. Initially I was skeptical but consider superman, batman, and Spiderman. Superman's wound was the loss of his parents and life among his people. Additionally, kryptonite from the heart of krypton is Superman’s one real weakness. However, it was this loss that made Superman super. Living on earth and absorbing rays of yellow sun is what gives him his power. I'll let you think about batman and Spiderman but trust me it works. So it seems that some heroes are heroes because of the way they deal with personal tragedy; growing stronger because of it rather than letting it weaken them. Guess it is that whole lemons to lemonade deal on a more dramatic scale.

You are nice

I look back fondly on my elementary school days. I enjoyed jumping off of swings and playing vicious games of foursquare. Amongst the happy memories is a darker one. The assignment would begin as all the others; put your name at the top of the page. Then to my horror we passed the paper to the kid next to us and were instructed to compliment them. Somehow I have never really gotten over the irony of forcing kids to praise everyone. Think, "You’re special; just like everyone else". I managed to figure out something to say for all the other kids that was at least mildly positive, probably something like "good luck with the paste eating". I will admit that, was a little excited to see what the other kids had said, forgetting that they were coerced to be complimentary. I read through my paper and discovered a general theme. At least half of the comments consisted of "you are nice" or a variation on the theme. This firmly established me as one of the nice guys. Growing up in the public school system, I discovered that while being nice wasn't too bad in elementary school it was essentially the kiss of death in middle school and high school. I haven't decided on college yet but the results thus far are discouraging. I watched as girls paid attention to guys that were jerks. I also watched as time and again the squeaky wheel got the oil, rather than the punch in the face I would have thought fitting. I really am nice, but even nice people have their limits. I guess what I saying is mean people suck. Meanness should be treated like leprosy where mean people would be forced to live in colonies with one another. Then they could shout "Unkind!" if a nice person was to wander too close. Think about it.

This was about my reaction to my new job.

Our economy: A product of miscommunication

I started work today at a mortgage company. I must admit my job is not what you would call "challenging". My main responsibility consists of taking a folder with two separate piles and rearranging them to form one pile in a specific order. If you think reading about it is great just imagine doing it for eight hours! Another employee pointed out today that if the companies submitting paperwork to us would simply use the same order as we do it would make things easier. It occurred to me that it would eliminate my job, thus it seems my job is a result of two groups unable to decide what forms go where. Later I realized that there are a larger number of jobs geared towards this gap or lack of communication. Psychologists, counselors especially marriage counselors, political cartoonists, and psychics all seem to tap into this whole miscommunication market. Then I considered the process I've come to know as McDonaldization (not my term though I would claim it) by which processes, especially human processes, become dehumanized. As humans become increasingly exposed to dehumanized interactions, we gradually lose what we might call our social graces, think engineers. I don't think it is a real stretch to conclude that, the less we interact in human conditions the worse we become with such situations and from that comes miscommunication. So from what I see as the world becomes more and more dehumanized the economy will only grow in the areas related to miscommunication. So yes, the science fiction writers had it right all along, machines will rule the world. The twist is that we will be those robots. Make a difference. Talk to your cashier, save humanity! People say that hydrogen is the most plentiful element in the universe. Personally, I have to vote for ignorance.

Why is this here? Because cartoons stave off responsibility, old age, and lackluster lifestyles.

Concerts and a special brand of insanity

I am, as my profile attests, a big fan of Jimmy Eat World. In fact today I just purchased the Futures album. Mmmm musical goodness. I mean how can you not like a band with lyrics like these: "I'm not alone cause the TV's on yeah. I'm not crazy cause I take the right pills everyday." These lines come aptly from a song entitled Bleed American. If you don't know why that's fitting then I really can't help you. Okay so I could, but I don't help your kind. So given my predisposition to the music of J.E.W (are they trying to tell us something) I thought twenty bucks was a good deal to see them perform live. Such was not the case. I went to the concert with the intent to listen to Jimmy Eat World. Apparently, people don't go to concerts to listen to a band. As I observed it people were primarily involved in sneaking onto the floor, talking or rather shouting to their friends, or simply creating noise in one unintelligent form or another. Somehow it seems counterintuitive to make a lot of noise during your "favorite" songs since your own incoherent utterances would impede you from hearing the music. Perhaps, I am more sensitive to this as I am very attentive to lyrics. In the end, I've decided I'm better off to use my twenty bucks on a cd. No masses of crazed fans, no distractions, no insanity.

Call me Ishmael

Squitchy is a word near and dear to my heart. The first time I ever saw the word squitchy was in a first edition of Moby Dick. It is entirely possible that it is used in other editions but that's not the point. A painting in the book is described as being squitchy. It is also described as a sort of blackish-gray mass depicting a shipwreck as I recall. In the end I have an idea of what the word squitchy means but not a definitive answer. The closest I can come is that if a picture is squitchy it is the sort of thing that you have to squint and concentrate to figure out exactly what it is. I thought it appropriate. Chances are if you are reading this you know me already and I've shamelessly directed here in an attempt to wow you with my linguistic skills. After all girls like guys with skills, Bo staff, tetherball, or otherwise. As a suggestion, read each of these posts fully expecting to loathe and despise each and every word I write, then when you don't hate every word (for example, perhaps you're partial to pariah, delusional, or inconsequential) I've exceeded your expectations. So the moral of the story is set your sights low and you'll always hit the dirt you're aiming for. Thusly begins the blog, and yes, thusly is a word.