Intertainment and Mythical Beasts

Over the past few months I have discovered the joy of watching well-made vlogs. I have found a couple different people that I really enjoy watching. And we all know the best ones have music videos. I will now share a few choice videos with you. The videos don't quite fit and I don't know how to fix that, so if you'd like to see them for real, please go to the vlog sites.

The first I discovered is Julian Smith. I saw a video on Facebook, which you may have seen as well. 25 Things I Hate About Facebook. Enjoy.

Those were a few of my personal favorites. Another vlogger, or vlogger duo I should say, that I really enjoy watching can be found at RhettandLink.com. I found them when they did a video in conjunction with Julian Smith. Their videos are more music videos, and I think they're histerical. Please enjoy these next few videos.

Don't these just bring you happiness? I would strongly suggest popping on over to the RhettandLinKommunity and becoming a Mythical Beast yourself. There are hours and hours of video up on their vlog and most of it is pretty darn enjoyable.

Truth of My Youth

Let's reminisce, shall we? Remember those shows you watched as a child? One of my personal favorites was Arthur. "And I say Hey! (HEY!) What a wonderful kind of day, where we can learn to work and play, and get along with each other."

I'll admit that I totally still watch this one when it's on tv. I would totally watch the others if I had those stations or if they were still on air. Who doesn't love this show? And the dynamic friendship between Arthur and Buster - Who could top that?

Aren't you just feeling great right about now? How about another of my favorites? How could anyone ever forget good old Bill Nye the science guy?

He's a childhood classic! Watching episodes of this man was not only awesome but educational! I remember us always begging the teachers to let us watch Bill Nye for science in elementary school. And at an average of $30 an episode, it's obvious that I'm not the only one with a thing for the science guy. He's histerical, funny looking (but in a good way), and super smart. Could you ask for more? I submit you could not. I saw an episode of Stargate Atlantis with Bill Nye in it, playing himself. It was odd, but I enjoyed seeing him in something other than the usual Nye episodes.

Does everyone remember your favorite dog Wishbone? What a great way to teach kids about folk tales and old stories that they've stopped teaching in school. I learned much more about mythology from Wishbone than I ever did through the edumacation system. My personal favorites? The Arabian Nights episodes. The ones about the story telling spider. The Sleepy Hollow episode. And how about Robin Hood!

I loved the episodes about Odysseus and greek mythologies. Wishbone is such a fantastic show. I recently saw an episode and got so excited that they were still playing! I'm sure they stopped filming years ago, but this is a show I would love to own. For myself.

Now my next childhood show here is a legend. My first crush. Well, my first two crushes I guess. Two brilliantly attractive zoologists who spend their time educataining people (educate + entertain. Brilliant, no?). What I'm talking about is none other than the show Kratt's Creatures. The Kratt brothers are the freaking BOMB!

And let's not forget their later show, Zoboomafoo! This show spawned my lifelong love of lemurs. They're just awesome. The Kratt brothers Chris and Martin, Zoboomafoo, lemurs, animals, learning. I can't even handle it.

I loved the Kratt brothers. In fact, I'm feeling the need to start buying their shows on DVD. Immediately. My children WILL be watching these shows. All of them. That is non-negotiable. Well, they would be watching Bill Nye as well were it not so darn expensive!

There are so many other fantastic shows that I haven't mentioned. The above are the ones that I remember best from my childhood. We never had cable, so most the shows I watched were under the PBS umbrella, but here are some other great shows of note that I watched occassionally:

-Hey Arnold

-Doug (That's for you, Josh)

-Pepper Ann

-Sabrina the Teenage Witch (The cartoon version AND the real life version)

I've missed many that I will remember later and be upset over, but for now I will bring this to a close and run the risk. There is one show that I didn't mention that I feel deserves to be noted. This is a show that I didn't necessarily watch as a child, it was more around my junior high/early high school time. Many people haven't heard of this show, but it's bloody brilliant. I present, The TICK!

Everything from his outfit, to his awesome sidekick moth-friend Arthur, to his warcry SPOOOOOOOON! is just fantastic. I pity all those who have not experienced the greatness that is the Tick. I have two episode which are my personal favorites. The first is 'Mustache Feeling,' where the Tick wakes to find he has an awesome new mustache. Soon he discovers, however, that it has a mind of its own. Never fear though! The Tick will save the day. Eventually.

My other favorite episode is the 'Filth' episode. The mantra of the Filth has stuck with me for years. "We're filth! We're filth! We come from filth, we're going to filth! We're filth!"

It's fantastic. I challenge anyone to not love the Tick in some way. It's just......the Tick. There's no more to say.

And on that note I will conclude this voyage to the past. I hope you enjoyed! Do you feel that I missed any shows that are extremely worthy of note? Let me know!

Obsession Nocturne

I never realized before how much I really like owls. It's something that's never really come up before. I mean, owls aren't really a common thing around here, so I've never given them much thought. I see them at zoos and we've had one on our porch maybe two or three times, but that's the extent of my contact with them.

When I went to the Philippines, for some reason they had a lot of things having to do with owls. There were owl woodcarvings and jewelry with owls that I found especially interesting. For some reason, as soon as I saw these owls I immediately fell in love. Maybe I was reminiscing on my first real contact with owls?

Remember the owl from Zelda? Ya, I think he was my first love. I mean, how histerical is an old, wise, talking owl? How much cooler could it get??

Anyways, I found it interesting that I was so attracted to the owl paraphernalia they had. Apparently I really, really like owls. Who knew? I bought a couple carvings there and I kind of wish I'd gotten more of them, but whatever. I also got a pair of earings and two necklaces that have owls made out of some kind of shell I think. I love them! They are awfully fun. This is a new found interest that I will be using in my decorating in the future. Owls are pretty darn cool. And everything they represent makes you feel smart. They represent wisdom, intelligence, and focus for me. I mean, the staring eyes just make you feel like they're paying such good attention to everything, haha. And I love the way their heads turn around.

It is one of my non-negotiable life goals to have a library of some sort, and I would really enjoy some owl bookends. I think I will make an effort to find some that I like, but I would never get a stuffed owl. I've seen stuffed owls as decorations before, including in a library and I find it to be kind of terrifying. I don't want something dead watching me walk around. Eek.

But anyhow, owls are just plain cool. That is all.

Finger Monkeys!

Yes, these are real.

I need one.

See I'm Smiling...

Life still rocks and I love it, but sometimes I look at other people and I think, man....I'm doing nothing productive. Everything is so easy. I could do so much more. But I don't. Boo.

I want a boyfriend. I guess when I said everything is easy I forgot about this. I've never been good with guys. I fail at making conversation, especially in person. I'm much better in writing. Plus I just flat out don't like very many people. I know that seems like a downer, but I don't find that many people genuinely interesting. Not to be a terrible person or anything.....Ok, that was kind of a lie. I don't find many people genuinely interesting AND attractive. I actually find a LOT of people really interesting. I just don't think they're very good looking. That's a little rude too I guess. Blah.

I don't know what to do. I know it'll all work out and all that uplifting cliche crap, but for now it just kinda bites. I'm in a stupid mood. I should go to bed and stop feeling sorry for myself.

I feel like I need to do something new now. All my friends are moving on with their lives, going back to school, getting married, going on missions. I'm doing none of those things and I have so many things I want to do but I'm not doing any of it yet. I need to work and earn money and live in the real world. It's starting to make me tired again. Life tired. Life bored. I loathe that feeling. It's frustrating and makes me too blah to even cry. I feel void of emotions. RAAAAWR!!! I'll be better tomorrow. G'night.

Aint Goin' Down

Life rocks right now. I love life. Even when I don't particularly like it, I love it. I just got back from my performing tour to the Philippines and I met the most amazing people in the entire world. I plan on writing a more indepth blog about that with some choice pictures, but for now I'll just say that if I hadn't gotten sick I would have loved to stay there for so so much longer. The people there were so friendly and happy with their lives that it made me grateful to be alive. As I got off the plane in America I immediately saw the difference between there and here. I've never really noticed but the people in America are so suspicious and cautious about everything. We've become uncomfortable with being friendly and I'm no longer okay with that.

I've gotten back my passion in life. Not that I had been particularly depressed, but I was going through a slump where I didn't really know what to do with myself. I feel as though I've finally gotten back out of that. Being in a foreign country made me feel my familiar but long-forgotten need to communicate. I wanted to cry because I didn't know the language. I wanted to be able to blend into the culture and share with these beautiful, beautiful people in their own tongue. It's a strange feeling that I can only describe again as a need. Not a desire to communicate, but a need.

As I've been back in America for a couple days I realize how much I've been out of touch with myself, with my responsibility and my enthusiasm. I'm gonna fix that right now. I have given myself a huge opportunity in my life for the next year and I'm going to run with it. Run as fast and far as I can.

I got the promotion I hoped for at work and I'm grateful. I started training today and it wasn't nearly as terrifying as I thought it was going to be. I was afraid that there would be more resentment towards me, but I have to say that I respect some people I work with so much more after today. There was someone else who I know applied for the position as well and I feel like she really deserves it as much as I do. Where she lacks in leadership skills, I lack in knowledge and experience. I think that's what got me the position. Experience is something easier to acquire. I really respect her for the way she acted today. I was told that I got the position right before my shift started. So were those who did not get the position. And they still had to work as servers while they watched me being trained. I have to imagine that would be terribly depressing. I would have been dissappointed enough to have wanted to go home. I wouldn't want to have to spend the next 4 hours trying to please people who are sometimes very impatient and ungrateful. I expected a bit more animosity, but I apparently was not giving this girl enough credit. I admire her for the way she reacted. With was happened, I know I would have been a bit bitter and would not have been able to recover as she did. As I watched her today I realized that's something I need to work on in the future. It left a big impression on me.

I'm very happy to have gotten the position. Especially now that Synergy is almost over and I will no longer have rehearsals, I was hoping to be able to get more hours again. I imagine that I will be scheduled a lot more often again, particularly because I now will be scheduled as a server AND a house manager. I'm quite excited and I appreciate having gotten the position. It makes me a lot more confident for future jobs and a lot more confident in my own skills. I was particularly nervous during the interview and I know it showed, but it's a comfort to know that despite that I was still hired. So at least my interview skills aren't particularly detrimental, haha. But knowing that I can progress like this is comforting knowing that I want so much from life. I just have to go out and get it.

Perhaps the most impactful words on my life recently have been these:

"The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson