Don't Hate Valentines Day...

I realized how few people actually like valentines day. Apparently singles don't like it because it reminds them of their single status, guys in couples don't like it because it just one more thing they have to remember, and they feel pressured to appease their girlfriend/wife by getting her an expensive gift, and the women in couples don't like it because it's never quite right, no matter what they get.

So I guess that leaves me as the only person in the whole world who likes Valentine's day.


Don't get me wrong, the above reasons are pretty legit reasons for dislike but I think that people don't realize the positives. They don't look for the reasons that could make them like valentines day. For example, chocolate is about to go on sale! Single people GO BUY CHOCOLATE ON DISCOUNT! And besides, valentines doesn't have to be all about the couples. take the time to show your appreciation for friends, siblings, mentors, and parents. They need to feel the love too!

Guys, just try to put some thought into it. it doesn't need to be crazy expensive, it just needs to show her that some one out there cares. And don't just focus on your significant other, get something for your mom too.

Ladies, no matter what he gives you, he tried to express his love, and we have to cut the guys some slack at times. And we shouldn't be content with just receiving, we should give as well.



In fact, I really like the Japanese tradition for valentine's day. The idea is that the girls give the men in their life chocolate on Valentine's day, and then a month later, on March 14th, the boys that received the chocolate give the girl a gift in return, which can be anything. Cool huh?

Of course I'm biased because my birthday is the day afterwards. I don't know something about my birthday being near, and being surrounded by chocolates, roses, pinks, reds, and oodles of hearts just makes me really happy. So I'm always supper excited despite not really having anything to look forward to on the actual day. Still I have received an odd valentine here and there over the years, and I love making and giving them so... I'll take it!

in closing I'll leave you with the best valentine that I have ever received:



Yes Link, I will be your valentine! (romantic sigh, followed by an extremely girlish giggle)

~Your ever romantic Princess

The Spark of Love

This post shall be a curious one, and I run a certain risk of revealing a generous slice of my madness. Nonetheless, I lay it out here, like an excerpt from my own personal Necronomicon.

To introduce my topic: What is it that makes a man notice a woman? More so, what makes one woman stand out from the crowd and captivate a particular dude, in extreme cases driving him to crushing obsession? There's no one answer to that question, for a number of good reasons, and the following doesn't attempt to provide a comprehensive answer. Consider it more a meditation.

Certainly, oftentimes, physical beauty plays a role, especially in the initial attraction. But ideals of feminine beauty are often as numerous as the men who hold them, and almost universally a man thinks the woman he loves is the pinnacle of beauty--not necessarily because everyone else thinks so, but because his love enhances and reveals her native beauty. This is one of the properties of that unique love which is termed "romantic".

I tend to think that men usually have their attention caught by some tiny spark, perhaps the shade of her eyes, the sound of her laugh, the unique shape of her smile, some skill of hers, the way she speaks, the way she treats a friend or a relative. A tiny characteristic, unique in the eyes of the man, highlights her among a crowd and attracts his particular attention. Once that attention is caught, it might quickly die. . .or it might find other things to attract it, other good qualities of mind, spirit, and body that give that spark fuel and allow it to build into a flame.

For example, one of my favorite movies. . .Beauty and the Beast. (Save your laughter for when I explain the nature of brotherly friendship from Sam and Max: Surfin' the Highway, people!) The movie presents two men who love (or believe they love) Belle. Gaston's attachment is based on the rawest kind of physical attraction, combined with a sort of pride--she attracts him simply by being, in his judgment, the top of her class in sheer beauty, and thus the only woman worthy of his notice. His affection never really grows beyond that or seeks to comprehend the rest of her self--it remains very much fixated on her beauty as a kind of trophy to aid to his collection.

The Beast, on the other hand, seems to find his initial spark in her kindness, initially her willingness to exchange her freedom for her father's, and then in her willingness to bind his wounds after the wolf attack. His first confession of loves comes after her kindness is demonstrated a third time, once more sacrificing her own happiness for her father's well-being. Certainly, he appreciates her beauty, but he also finds delight in her love of books, her manners, her playfulness. A love sparked by her simple kindness expands and gains dimension, until it becomes something general, encompassing the totality of her person. Arguably, Belle undergoes a similar process (her spark is his courage, fed by his generosity, his gentleness, and his own kindness).

Among the reasons I think the story of the Phantom of the Opera is so enduring (been going solid for a good century) is the dark force of the Phantom's attachment for Christine. Here, his love begins and ends with the heartbreaking beauty of her voice. One gets the feeling, both in the original novel and in the Webber adaption, that it wouldn't matter to the Phantom if Christine were the ten-time winner of the Homeliest Woman in France Pagent--her angelic voice is everything to him, the perfection of music, the fulfilment of all the beauty he's ever hungered for. She is his "angel of music", she alone can sing his music as it was meant to be sung. His love for her voice is nearly idolatrous.

Neither book nor musical is particularly about Raoul, but he arguably takes a more complete view of Christine--he knew her as a child and loves her personality, her beauty, her innocence. He surely isn't deaf to her voice, but it isn't the only thing he loves, nor does it seem to be the foundation of his love.

The Phantom's eventual decision to let her go is rendered all the more poignant by the fact that he is sacrificing, not merely the possibility for love, but to some degree the art which his captivated his soul. His last line is: "It's over now, the music of the night!"

These initial moments of spark are apparent in all kinds of other movies, from Princess Mononoke to The Sound of Music. But, um, perhaps my keyboard has rattled on for long enough.

In conclusion, here's a picture of Sam and Max.
Peace out, all, from the Knight of the Woeful Contenance, Don Quixote de la Madison!

Ramblings on Gender

Recently I have been doing a lot of thinking on the subject of gender, gender roles, and interactions between the sexes. It is a complex subject and I feel that before hand I should warn you that my thoughts are highly disorganized, and try as I might some male bashing may slip in. I'm sorry guys, it happens.

On principle I am against giving the guys a hard time. Not to say that men can't have very unfair assumptions and attitudes, but I feel this is over emphasized in our modern society. In fact I feel that these days that we are in fact over compensating for the past and discriminating against men, and not bothering to give them the benefit of doubt. I guess when there is such drastic change, there is always a bit of whiplash of some sort.

Of course upon hearing this, some may ask,"so... are you a feminist, princess?" and I don't have a very good response for that. I think because I believe in the equal dignity of women I am a feminist, but I'm a very strange feminist. For one thing I'm rather pessimistic about the whole thing. While we have come a long way, a lot of it is forced and over the top, and I feel until we can appreciate both the differences and the similarities between the sexes there will never be true equality. I think it will happen,just probably not be during my life time.

On one hand there is the problem of holding each other at arms length because the two have such clear differences. We both hold the same dignity and intellect that is intrinsic to being human, so why don't we stand together, why do we fixate on the differences? As I have said I doubt this will be fully addressed during my lifetime. But then again this may just be due to our fallen nature, and in fact there is a certain amount of recognition of differences that is healthy. I guess I just don't understand why we think these differences are perceived as bad.

I mean, there are times when I just want to prance about and say, "thank goodness I'm a girl!". I get to wear pretty dresses, I'm more likely to get to hold a baby, I have the power to bring a child into this world, I can inspire in men great emotion for both great good and great evil. I hope some day to become the one person cheer leading squad for that one special some one who has promised to both protect and love me as long as we both shall live. Truly I am a being of both power and beauty. I was created in the image and likeness of God for a special purpose. No, I would not trade my femininity for anything in the world.

But what good is all of this if there are no manly men? We are both incomplete with out the other, and on no account should this be tampered with by repressing manly nature. Let men be men, and let women be women. I'm not saying men can't be good nurses, and women can't be good firefighters, I'm just saying that we should be happy for the little differences that give our live variety and joy.

But alas we are fallen... and try as we might, nothing is perfect. But despite my pessimism I feel that nothing good will happen unless we keep working. So take time to appreciate your own gender, then take some more to marvel at how well we mesh by our differences.

~Your meditative Princess

In praise of Avatar

I am now completely smitten with Avatar. "Oh," you say, "You mean the James Cameron mega-hit block-pulverizer that is sending geysers of money into theaters around the world?". Nice try, but no! I speak here of the Nickelodeon kid's cartoon titled "Avatar: The Last Airbender". I resisted watching this show for the longest time. I remember Nickelodeon from my younger days, and I associate them with at best the grotesque and funny like Ren and Stimpy and at worst the grotesque and boring like Rugrats.

So avatar had two strikes against it. One, it was aired on Nickelodeon, and two, that kid has a blue arrow on his head! But after all these years, I've heard it recommended from multiple sources whose opinions I trust, and the mind-reading robot at netflix gave me an 80% chance of rating it 5 stars. So I finally decided to give it a try, and boy am I glad I did.

Avatar is set in an unapologetically Asian-flavored world composed of four kingdoms, each dedicated to one of the four classical elements (Earth, Air, Fire, and Water). Talented individuals from each kingdom can control their native element through the art of "bending", a fusion between magic and kung-fu.

Our hero is a boy named Aang, who is the reincarnation of the Avatar, a hero who is reborn in each generation, and who has the ability to bend all four elements. Through most of history, the Avatar has used his (sometimes her) power to preserve peace between the four nations. However, Aang had the misfortune of getting frozen in the middle of an iceberg. And it seems like about the time he disappeared, the Fire Nation decided it was a fine time to make like the Japanese in WWII and conquer the world. The show begins a hundred years later, when Aang finally gets thawed out of the ice, and finds that the Fire Nation is coming close to sealing their victory after a century of war.

Video Games | | Avatar the last air bender (intro)

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

So far, it doesn't sound too atypical, but it is the execution where Avatar shines. Avatar contains better storytelling and greater depth that I have ever seen in American television animation.

At its core, Avatar is an American anime. For those of you who have not experienced this wonderful storytelling medium, anime (pronouced ah-ni-may) is a term for animation in the Japanese style. My full extended hymn to Japanese cartoons and comic books is material for a separate post, but suffice it to say that if you have no experience with them, you are missing out.

The drawing style of Avatar, in the way light plays across surfaces and in the basic character designs, shows clear influence from anime. But maybe the most critical influence is in the acting. TV animation is necessarily produced with a lower budget than its theatrical cousin. But most American TV animation saves on budget by giving its characters atrocious acting. When they are not just talking heads (a la South Park) they are prone to weird arm-flailing gestures that no actual human ever makes.

Japanese animation does not have this problem. Quite the opposite, they draw their characters with giant eyes and exaggerated movements that combine to give them a greater-than-human range of expression, even when on a minimum budget. Avatar combines this with excellent writing and voice acting to produce the most convincing, most alive characters I have ever seen in American TV animation. Special mention has to go to Sokka, Aang's traveling companion from the water tribe. A lesser show could have easily made Sokka into a mere comic buffoon or a punching bag for his water-bending sister's girl power. Certainly he contributes to the comedy elements of the show, roughly half the time at his expense, but he also has many genuinely touching moments. He conveys very well the struggle of a boy who is forced to assume the responsibilities of a man at a young age, and he grows into a capable fighter, despite having no bending powers.

The fight scenes are another area where avatar shines. For the elemental benders, fighting does not consist of standing placidly and shooting blasts of fire and ice at each other. Instead, their bending appears to be a projection of their skill at kung-fu onto the external elements that surround them. Avatar involves the best martial arts choreography I can remember seeing on any TV show, animated or otherwise. It even includes a few epic battle sequences, which are likewise superb. But despite this, Avatar remains true to its position as a children's cartoon. There is plenty of excellent action, but very little real violence. It has neither onscreen killing nor implied offscreen killing, as the heroes are content to simply knock out or disable the Fire Nation minions they fight, or blast them out of the arena, or send them running away in startled retreat.

Indeed, Avatar is just the kind of entertainment I would want my children to grow up with. Though it is a kid's show, it never dumbs itself down. Even though it has little immediate violence, it is refreshingly honest about themes that you would expect a kids show to shy away from, about the reality of death and the horrors of war. It is a constant hardship for Aang that all the people he knew before becoming frozen is the iceberg have died in the intervening century. One of the most touching moments in the first season comes when Aang reunites with a former playmate who is still alive as a hundred-plus-year-old man, and discovers that even though his friend has changed so much, their friendship has not.

There is more to love. Rather than running for season after season until its popularity and artistic merit runs dry, Avatar again borrows from the traditions of Japanese animation by telling a complete story arc over its three seasons. But it also retains the best aspects of American animation, such as the brilliant slapstick that is our legacy from the Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry. Overall Avatar does so many things wonderfully right that it becomes more than sum of its parts. I have only finished the first season, but every single episode so far has been a winner. I am hungry for more.

My Life Among the Engineers

Disclaimer: Because I am one I can make fun of them ;)

For a long time the engineer has been considered one of the more mysterious and frustrating of all the majors.

There are several explanations for this. Some claim that they are impossible to understand due to their strange dialect which only scientists and other engineers have been able to decode. Others claim it is due to an arrogance and attitude of "better than thou", to which many engineers will respond that they're simply better, and that it should just be accepted. Some even claim that it due to an abnormal lack of social skills that would allow them to mesh better with the rest of society.

I do not claim to have all the answers, but I do hope to shed some light on these strange creatures by recording my observations from my time spent among them.

The first thing that caught my attention was the lack of female in the species. True there are a few, and I am told that the number is growing, but the fact is that few males can hope to find a partner of their own kind and will have to look to other majors. One may think this wouldn't be such a huge problem, but the fact that engineers speak a strange dialect, and they do not understand that a girl just wants to see a musical sometimes... or talk about clothes. They also do not understand that when a woman shares her woes and problems, she doesn't necessarily want them solved, which is the natural instinct of and engineer.

Now, while it is commonly observed that these creatures hold any major not associated with their own, I also discovered that there is a hierarchy of clans within the species. It is a very convoluted system so I can only guess, but here is my best theory: The Engineering physics clan is at the top, followed by the electrical and mechanical clans.this seems due to the fact that no one actually knows what they do. At the bottom is the industrial clan, also called "imaginary" engineers. despite this, they will all unite against, say, a business major.

Yes, it is a harsh society, but the engineers seem to like it none the less.

The engineers have only a few natural predators. The two that come immediately to mind are writing and presenting. Classes have been instigated to help protect, but only those who put great effort into evolving will survive I fear.

Hopefully my brief observations will help others to understand these creatures. If you too have spent time with and have some observations of these poor majors, feel free to share.

~your friendly neighborhood Princess

As some of you may know I like to fold paper stars, and my most recent thing has been to turn them in jewelry.

I would love to turn the stars pictured here into a bracelet, and I guess I wanted to know If any one would buy it for 5.00? What can I say? I'm a poor college student ;).

And if you happen to attend SAA I'd be totally be willing to add a hold medal to make it dress code appropriate. No matter what it would be given a coating to make it durable and waterproof. (Though I wouldn't submerge it if I were you)

So step out in style and let me know if you'd like to buy it.

~Princess

Welcome

Don't let the title scare you. Hopefully this blog won't be too emo. Now you may be wondering what I'll talk about on this blog. To be brief: everything. But more specifically I'll be rambling about one thing or another, reviewing something, letting people know when I have a star bracelet to sell, etc. My brothers will be doing something similar.

So I hope you'll read and enjoy!