So, yeah, I kind of got side-tracked between bad weather, housework, and close-out sales (great deal at Payless shoe store in a nearby city) and managed not to type up any posts. So here is that promised post about Valentine's and the Chinese New Year.
Valentine's is considered a couple's holiday. For me, that means my husband cooks dinner and if I'm lucky he gives me flowers or a trinket or some kind of candy. I usually get him some kind of treat (usually a couple of packs/boxes of one of his favorite candies) and this year I was only treated to dinner in. Am I upset? Sometimes, but last year we took a trip to a town about an hour away to avoid anyone we knew for the whole weekend and then took the scenic route back. This year, we happen to be a bit cash-strapped. Overall, I'm just happy he cooked and served me rather than us having left-overs and/or me having to get my own dinner, so for me, it was a really good Valentine's.
On top of that, some games will provide special things for the holidays. In fact, Gloria Victus introduced heart-shaped ammo and catapults to their game which can be found on Steam. (Eventually, I hope to write a review on this game!) Both Merge Dragons and Clash Royale gave special extras and releases for the Chinese New Year - a day that for many Americans is just another excuse to get drunk, at least those that don't actually follow or celebrate the Chinese New Year. Also, just a little side note for you when looking at the Chinese Zodiac - the new year begins in February. If you were born in January look at the previous year's Zodiac sign and if you were born in February, look up when the new year began before figuring out what your Zodiac sign is. So enjoy this Year of the Pig and hopefully, I'll get my March plans out this weekend!
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
Feb Plans
So, this should have been actually typed and posted on the third, but I let other things get in the way - my February posting plans. Since February has a couple of decent and popular holidays, at least in The United States. Those two holidays happen to be the Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day. At first, I was planning on writing an article regarding both of these, but with me being all writing this after my original plan to type it up I have decided to change my plans. Instead, I'll attempt an article regarding both holidays for the 24th. The article won't be an in-depth explanation of either holiday but will give some information and my own thoughts regarding both holidays.
For the tenth's article, I think I'll remain without a post. It's not because I want to, but if I try to play catch-up I could fall further behind. It's only about two weeks into the second month of the year and I'd rather get into a steady habit with the occasional missed post than have a large number of missed posts because I tried to keep to a schedule that I just couldn't seem to. Hopefully, despite my personal issues and what occurs in real life, I'll be able to type up something for this Sunday. Until then, who knows what else will come to mind. After all, there is any number of things that occur in the month of February including the flooding of every form of media to celebrate Black History Month.
For the tenth's article, I think I'll remain without a post. It's not because I want to, but if I try to play catch-up I could fall further behind. It's only about two weeks into the second month of the year and I'd rather get into a steady habit with the occasional missed post than have a large number of missed posts because I tried to keep to a schedule that I just couldn't seem to. Hopefully, despite my personal issues and what occurs in real life, I'll be able to type up something for this Sunday. Until then, who knows what else will come to mind. After all, there is any number of things that occur in the month of February including the flooding of every form of media to celebrate Black History Month.
Saturday, February 2, 2019
Resolutions Too Soon
It's not even been a full month since the new year started and I've heard radio commercials that basically have declared that you likely won't reach your resolutions for the year. I find this annoying and disheartening. When a person makes a New Year's Resolution, they make a promise - if only to themself - that by the end of the year the will be successful in what their goals are. That means that that person has at least 365 days to meet that goal.
I've never been successful with mine, but that's because I don't like to set goals. I don't like to be held to a standard I may not be able to keep. I don't need to lose weight and while I would love to be gung-ho about certain things, I have a husband to think about as well as myself. I would not be able to just disappear to unknown locations or take time to just ignore things going on around me. There aren't enough ways to remind people about their resolutions that to me feel as though they aren't trying to perform a complete overhaul or basically intrude in a stranger's life.
I just wish every once in a while that instead of reminding how hard meeting our resolution is or that we've forgotten it or told we've failed already, someone or something would remind us we still have the time or that it's not too late to meet our resolutions or at least make some headway. Is that too much to ask?
**This should have been the post for this past Sunday, but at least I've posted it!
I've never been successful with mine, but that's because I don't like to set goals. I don't like to be held to a standard I may not be able to keep. I don't need to lose weight and while I would love to be gung-ho about certain things, I have a husband to think about as well as myself. I would not be able to just disappear to unknown locations or take time to just ignore things going on around me. There aren't enough ways to remind people about their resolutions that to me feel as though they aren't trying to perform a complete overhaul or basically intrude in a stranger's life.
I just wish every once in a while that instead of reminding how hard meeting our resolution is or that we've forgotten it or told we've failed already, someone or something would remind us we still have the time or that it's not too late to meet our resolutions or at least make some headway. Is that too much to ask?
**This should have been the post for this past Sunday, but at least I've posted it!
Friday, February 1, 2019
Prejudice in Reverse?
In a world that has been increasingly made aware of the continuous prejudices in the world, I can't help but wonder why it seems like the issues are striving to go to the opposite extreme.
Don't get me wrong, prejudice in all forms exists. Racism, ageism, sizism, gender discrimination, etc. permeate all realms of our lives. Hell, I grew up attending mostly white schools. My mother upon hearing I had signed up for the military had a few "words of wisdom" to impart. Basically, what those words were showed that though she had denied being so when I was growing up, she was racist. She told me to be careful, especially of the black guys. I had a black male friend and I couldn't help wondering how she really felt about several of my friends - most of whom were males and some were not white. She moved us because she didn't want us to be influenced by her parents who were according to her, chauvinistic. While my grandfather may have had problems with my mother doing things that were seen as male, I remember him and my grandmother encouraging us to do as we wanted even if those dreams weren't what they thought we should do.
Recently, I read a story about a woman who has had to put down books written by guys telling a story from a female point of view because they'll have a woman walking alone at night, but there is no thought about her own safety or how she might be attacked on her way home. As a young-ish female, I have to admit that I have had walks where those thoughts do come into play. However, it's not a regular occurrence. In fact, it's really only a thought that I have every once in a small while unless I go somewhere I don't know very well. This, however, got me to wondering if guys who read books from a male point of view see the same disparities that women notice.
See, I've read numerous stories and I can't always tell the gender of the author based on what I'm reading because even if it is typical of a gender according to society, it does not mean it's unrealistic. Typically females will ask for directions according to general society, however, MythBusters did happen to bust it, and I can further confirm that not all females will ask for help. It just fits the mold we've tried to condemn ourselves to constantly.
Beyond that, we think of WW2 as a prime example of racism when the Jewish religion is not a race, but religion or faith. Being Jewish is the same as being Muslim, Catholic, or Wiccan - not defined by how one looks but by personal beliefs. But prejudice doesn't just get perpetrated by the perceived majorities. Women are considered a minority even though they make up just over half of the population. In South America, blacks made the majority but racism is considered to be perpetrated solely by the white people who were in control. There are still problems with whites and males thinking they are better than everyone else and who wish to keep control as a white patriarchal society, but the so-called minorities are fighting back and have been since the very beginning. We usually refer to teenage rebellion, but isn't that exactly what we need? The feelings of oppression that make us refuse to bow down to someone else's idea of whom we should be? These are things that have caused change to all of a sudden take over the news.
Legalized same-sex marriage, the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and so much more are the results of people refusing to be told that they are wrong, that they're feelings are incorrect. In fact, these people countered societal norms, which is good. The problem is that there are people who are trying to beat the past into our faces as problems that need to be removed from existence. We, women, get all upset over men who think they know what we go through or deal with and yet we do the same to them. We get yelled at for "cultural appropriation" and get told we can no longer use certain words because they are offensive. Then we use them because that's what we've grown into a habit of doing or that's how we were taught, we get penalized for not immediately conforming to avoiding using things that others find offensive.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't be aware of what we've done or said, but that doesn't mean we should remove all traces of what our past is. In fact, that could cause more issues because we have forgotten what was done. In doing that, we open ourselves to repeating the mistakes of the past in a manner that could actually be worse.
This brings us to what I started with. Are there things that readers have noticed that immediately aided in helping them to identify something about the author? Something other than what we get told about?
**This was started to be posted on the 20th of January. I apologize for the long wait but I was deterred by other things. I will also have last week's original posting and hopefully this week's by the end of the day Sunday.
Don't get me wrong, prejudice in all forms exists. Racism, ageism, sizism, gender discrimination, etc. permeate all realms of our lives. Hell, I grew up attending mostly white schools. My mother upon hearing I had signed up for the military had a few "words of wisdom" to impart. Basically, what those words were showed that though she had denied being so when I was growing up, she was racist. She told me to be careful, especially of the black guys. I had a black male friend and I couldn't help wondering how she really felt about several of my friends - most of whom were males and some were not white. She moved us because she didn't want us to be influenced by her parents who were according to her, chauvinistic. While my grandfather may have had problems with my mother doing things that were seen as male, I remember him and my grandmother encouraging us to do as we wanted even if those dreams weren't what they thought we should do.
Recently, I read a story about a woman who has had to put down books written by guys telling a story from a female point of view because they'll have a woman walking alone at night, but there is no thought about her own safety or how she might be attacked on her way home. As a young-ish female, I have to admit that I have had walks where those thoughts do come into play. However, it's not a regular occurrence. In fact, it's really only a thought that I have every once in a small while unless I go somewhere I don't know very well. This, however, got me to wondering if guys who read books from a male point of view see the same disparities that women notice.
See, I've read numerous stories and I can't always tell the gender of the author based on what I'm reading because even if it is typical of a gender according to society, it does not mean it's unrealistic. Typically females will ask for directions according to general society, however, MythBusters did happen to bust it, and I can further confirm that not all females will ask for help. It just fits the mold we've tried to condemn ourselves to constantly.
Beyond that, we think of WW2 as a prime example of racism when the Jewish religion is not a race, but religion or faith. Being Jewish is the same as being Muslim, Catholic, or Wiccan - not defined by how one looks but by personal beliefs. But prejudice doesn't just get perpetrated by the perceived majorities. Women are considered a minority even though they make up just over half of the population. In South America, blacks made the majority but racism is considered to be perpetrated solely by the white people who were in control. There are still problems with whites and males thinking they are better than everyone else and who wish to keep control as a white patriarchal society, but the so-called minorities are fighting back and have been since the very beginning. We usually refer to teenage rebellion, but isn't that exactly what we need? The feelings of oppression that make us refuse to bow down to someone else's idea of whom we should be? These are things that have caused change to all of a sudden take over the news.
Legalized same-sex marriage, the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and so much more are the results of people refusing to be told that they are wrong, that they're feelings are incorrect. In fact, these people countered societal norms, which is good. The problem is that there are people who are trying to beat the past into our faces as problems that need to be removed from existence. We, women, get all upset over men who think they know what we go through or deal with and yet we do the same to them. We get yelled at for "cultural appropriation" and get told we can no longer use certain words because they are offensive. Then we use them because that's what we've grown into a habit of doing or that's how we were taught, we get penalized for not immediately conforming to avoiding using things that others find offensive.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't be aware of what we've done or said, but that doesn't mean we should remove all traces of what our past is. In fact, that could cause more issues because we have forgotten what was done. In doing that, we open ourselves to repeating the mistakes of the past in a manner that could actually be worse.
This brings us to what I started with. Are there things that readers have noticed that immediately aided in helping them to identify something about the author? Something other than what we get told about?
**This was started to be posted on the 20th of January. I apologize for the long wait but I was deterred by other things. I will also have last week's original posting and hopefully this week's by the end of the day Sunday.
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