>
Ok, so I got some pretty intense and serious replies to my last little rant here, and in responding in the comment section I realised that my reply was HUGE! so Im making this new post, but for those who commented on the last one, I just wanted to let you know that I took a little time to do it, but have replied to all. Thanks for your patience.
So I decided to try something a little different this time – a touch seriousness and a little chilling all in one post, read which part you will, or read it all and have a blog cocktail! Cheers!
Now, Ive been leaving some pretty serious shite out here on my blog the last couple of times out so I thought some lighter stuff and some amusement might be in order.
With that in mind, I have for you folks this video from Collegehumour called “Justice Rats”.. For those that dont get the reference here, this is cartoon clip combining cartoon footage from old school cartoons with some movie dialogue and for fans of ‘Mallrats’ and/or pretty much anything Kevin Smith, you’ll get a good laugh out of this.
In the event that you have never seen this movie or even heard of Kevin Smith, well just watch it with an open mind and you will probably get your share of giggles as well my partially
informed chums! 😉
http://www.collegehumor.com/moogaloop/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1700906&fullscreen=1
Next up, we have an interview I liked with the oh-so-cute Kristen Bell where she talks about her movies(Forgetting Sarah Marshall – hilarious flick!), tv show (Veronica Mars – great cult hit) and more importantly her love for comics!
Famous Fangirls: Kristen Bell
It gives me a warm glow when people talk honestly about these things and the way she puts it so simply explains a basic love of the genre and what it offers to creators and followers alike.
Oh yeah, for anyone that doesnt know her, this is Kristen:
And lastly, some musings from my ever rambling consciousness..
Psychiatrists often have this concept where if you have a negative thought in your mind like for instance killing someone, then accept who you are in your head and get past it. Yeah, never worked for me. I still want to kill people left right and centre and do some really horrible things – and some exciting – to a great many people from across the planet. If I have a thought about something like that, what good does it do me to ignore them all?
Sure, being a raving psychotic isnt exactly anyone’s goal in life but how do you know? Ive always been someone with a high threshold for things. Dont get me wrong, I get grossed out and scared and happy and giggly and sad and depressed and all the colours of the emotional rainbow become me – I just seem to have better control over them.
Its in the vein of (but let me be clear is not an MCP thing) the whole ‘boys dont cry’ thing.. I do believe that as creatures of intellect and intuition, we have to use our minds to rein in our instinctive responses at times. People do it all the time but mostly without realising it – pretending to be happy for someone else’s sake, looking sad at someone you dont really care abouts funeral, hiding relief or anger for any number of reasons, etc, etc, the list goes on.. am I wrong? All Im saying is that I took this to a more serious level and decided to be more aware of what I do and why I do it – maybe thats a side effect of being a writer, I observe details and people in the world around me and this may just be an extension of that, but it did make me realise that more people should try it.
But I meander again (as is often my habit – thank you for staying with me this long dear readers..)… When I watch a gory movie or read a book about a horrifying character or as sometimes happens when you day dream, imagine strange things.. Like who hasnt thought about offing their boss at least once? Or about punching that annoying person right in the mouth? Or worse? Sometimes it happens and to be honest, I give full credit to that show Ally McBeal for putting it on film where Im talking to someone and suddenly Im so pissed off that in my mind im imagining a bunch of arrows just flying straight into said persons heart.. Brutal, but its in my mind.
I read once somewhere that one in every few hundred people (more or less) is capable of at a moments notice snapping something in their brains and becoming serial killers and mass murderers. Makes you think again about living in a huge city doesnt it? Even if that number was one in a thousand, one in ten thousand (neither of which is true) it would still scare the shit out of most folks.
What Im getting at essentially is that we should never be afraid to let our minds wander, let them roam when you can because a lot of what you hold in your heart without realising it comes when you put yourself on auto-pilot. This is something very, VERY few people would even consider, forget try. In my case I do it lot more by keeping dream journals and when I can, inducing lucid dreams. You’d be amazed at the things you an learn about yourself, your limitations, your motivations, your true desires and your capabilities when you study yourself.
And being afraid to cross a line in the real world is no reason, watch the movie, read the book, play the video game and think hard about your responses and feeling to them. Ask yourself difficult questions – Ive even wondered about torture and killing people, not from a killers point of view, but more like a soldier who is doint so under a duty and love of country, blah, blah.. could you? Would you? And what would that do to you? Could you take the gore or would you piss yourself and break down?
For those who read the type, you might have already had some inkling of where Im coming from with all this, for the rest you should know Im a bit of a Nietzschean (i.e. Im of the Friedrich Nietzsche school of thought for those unaware of who he is..) in my thinking and I was reading his “Twilight of the Idols” while on a recent work trip so it reignited certain old debates in my mind. People generally either love him or hate him, but I guess each person is entitled to their own opinions… One thing that springs to mind is something he said to the effect that one must do a thing completely.
To do something in small measures is a failure to start with – if I want to be a thinking, reasoning human being who can grow, I have to study and embrace all parts of myself first. I have to realise that be it minor peccadilloes like cracking your knuckles or farting in your sleep or more serious desires like latent sexual needs that convention does not allow. You may choose tolet that desire overwhelm you like an animals instincts and hungers, or you can be human and control yourself.
You might ask, “is it not better to just not know that part of yourself? Why put yourself through all that to repress it again?” Well quite simply, its like Pandora’s box would be my answer. If you are content living as a cog in the machine with no interest in changing anything in yourself – let alone the world around you – then so be it, I concur that ignorance often is bliss. But if you have even a glimpse, there is not going back. Knowledge is a weapon – all knowledge. If you read enough stories or even watch enough movies, you know its the badass hero who’s had the journey of self discovery or faced his/her demons who is the strongest, the best, the one you most want to be or be with (as the case may be). So why should that not apply to the rest of us? Should we not all want to be the most we can? Life is too short in my view to live in a bubble, but again, I believe in freedom of choice so to each his own, now and always.
Cheers..
Its in the vein of (but let me be clear is not an MCP thing) the whole ‘boys dont cry’ thing.. I do believe that as creatures of intellect and intuition, we have to use our minds to rein in our instinctive responses at times. People do it all the time but mostly without realising it – pretending to be happy for someone else’s sake, looking sad at someone you dont really care abouts funeral, hiding relief or anger for any number of reasons, etc, etc, the list goes on.. am I wrong? All Im saying is that I took this to a more serious level and decided to be more aware of what I do and why I do it – maybe thats a side effect of being a writer, I observe details and people in the world around me and this may just be an extension of that, but it did make me realise that more people should try it.
But I meander again (as is often my habit – thank you for staying with me this long dear readers..)… When I watch a gory movie or read a book about a horrifying character or as sometimes happens when you day dream, imagine strange things.. Like who hasnt thought about offing their boss at least once? Or about punching that annoying person right in the mouth? Or worse? Sometimes it happens and to be honest, I give full credit to that show Ally McBeal for putting it on film where Im talking to someone and suddenly Im so pissed off that in my mind im imagining a bunch of arrows just flying straight into said persons heart.. Brutal, but its in my mind.
I read once somewhere that one in every few hundred people (more or less) is capable of at a moments notice snapping something in their brains and becoming serial killers and mass murderers. Makes you think again about living in a huge city doesnt it? Even if that number was one in a thousand, one in ten thousand (neither of which is true) it would still scare the shit out of most folks.
What Im getting at essentially is that we should never be afraid to let our minds wander, let them roam when you can because a lot of what you hold in your heart without realising it comes when you put yourself on auto-pilot. This is something very, VERY few people would even consider, forget try. In my case I do it lot more by keeping dream journals and when I can, inducing lucid dreams. You’d be amazed at the things you an learn about yourself, your limitations, your motivations, your true desires and your capabilities when you study yourself.
And being afraid to cross a line in the real world is no reason, watch the movie, read the book, play the video game and think hard about your responses and feeling to them. Ask yourself difficult questions – Ive even wondered about torture and killing people, not from a killers point of view, but more like a soldier who is doint so under a duty and love of country, blah, blah.. could you? Would you? And what would that do to you? Could you take the gore or would you piss yourself and break down?
For those who read the type, you might have already had some inkling of where Im coming from with all this, for the rest you should know Im a bit of a Nietzschean (i.e. Im of the Friedrich Nietzsche school of thought for those unaware of who he is..) in my thinking and I was reading his “Twilight of the Idols” while on a recent work trip so it reignited certain old debates in my mind. People generally either love him or hate him, but I guess each person is entitled to their own opinions… One thing that springs to mind is something he said to the effect that one must do a thing completely.
To do something in small measures is a failure to start with – if I want to be a thinking, reasoning human being who can grow, I have to study and embrace all parts of myself first. I have to realise that be it minor peccadilloes like cracking your knuckles or farting in your sleep or more serious desires like latent sexual needs that convention does not allow. You may choose tolet that desire overwhelm you like an animals instincts and hungers, or you can be human and control yourself.
You might ask, “is it not better to just not know that part of yourself? Why put yourself through all that to repress it again?” Well quite simply, its like Pandora’s box would be my answer. If you are content living as a cog in the machine with no interest in changing anything in yourself – let alone the world around you – then so be it, I concur that ignorance often is bliss. But if you have even a glimpse, there is not going back. Knowledge is a weapon – all knowledge. If you read enough stories or even watch enough movies, you know its the badass hero who’s had the journey of self discovery or faced his/her demons who is the strongest, the best, the one you most want to be or be with (as the case may be). So why should that not apply to the rest of us? Should we not all want to be the most we can? Life is too short in my view to live in a bubble, but again, I believe in freedom of choice so to each his own, now and always.
Cheers..
One Happy Monk 
Leave a comment