My Life as a Conservative in Liberal Land

I am an artist, it is some what strange then, that I consider myself conservative. Here’s the thing though, I am against the government regulating a woman’s right to choose, I don’t like Fox News and I’m not offended by The Daily Show. I’m a feminist and I believe there’s a lot of work we still have to do before we actually see equal rights for not just gender but race in our society. I think the government should make up it’s mind as to whether marriage is a religious institution that it should keep it’s nose out of or a governmental one that it should keep religion out of.

Here’s the other thing. How I think these things should be accomplished and how a liberal thinks these things should be accomplished are not always the same. I feel that just because I don’t embrace the liberal political philosophy it doesn’t make me close minded. I don’t fly into a blind rage every time a woman gets an abortion. Yes, I don’t agree with her choice but I do think it’s her choice to make.

I’m surrounded by people who think that’s what I do because I’m a conservative. It is often addressed by blogs, talk shows and any other form of media where the news and politics is discussed the fact that the Fox News network is harmful to liberal philosophies and people because they take such an antagonistic stance toward anyone who does not wholeheartedly agree with them. Fox News has sort have become the conservative straw-man in any political argument and paints a grotesque caricature of people who ascribe to conservative political philosophy.

Politics is not my favorite topic of discussion with friends, family and the Internet at large. In my opinion, that is what I pay politicians for (with my tax money, I don’t actually have any politicians in my pocket…yet). Still, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to keep abreast of what’s going on. So yes, my liberal friends, I read your blogs, watch your news shows, listen to your broadcasts and manage to not act like a raging lunatic just because someone doesn’t agree with me. I would really really appreciate it if you would stop telling me to go away if I don’t like what you’re saying. I usually don’t like it, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear it.

Because really, if you don’t respect someone else’s opinion, how can you expect them to respect yours?

The Internet is Distracting

Bored

I think it was originally my teacher, and later my mother that used to tell me only boring people get bored. And i am so bored. And so very boring right now. Other than marathoning Star Trek Deep Space Nine for the last three weeks, the most exciting thing that has happened was my brother butt dialed me on Sunday.

But I've decided to go do something tomorrow. Anything. I don't know yet, but it will involve the need to wear pants. Something I've been sorely lacking for the last month or so. Maybe I'll go be one of those dweebs at the coffee shop writing a novel. I mean, why not? I've put in job applications to everywhere that will give me one so my days are mostly just filled with waiting to go to sleep again.

Grah. I wish I was still a teenager and satisfied with playing video games all day.

Technical Difficulties and Subtle Sexism

So once I get my camera and computer on speaking terms again, I will make up for the lack of posts this week.

In the mean time I thought I'd share with you a great example of what I mean when I talk about the subtle sexism that permeates our society. And since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's a two thousand word essay on the subject:

Japanese Cover to a Star Wars book

At first glance, you're probably thinking "what sexism?" There are two Jedi here prepared for battle and the woman (Mara) is actually wearing clothes. But...

Altered cover submitted to Escher Girls by nelc

Would you look at that. Suddenly Mara looks more like she's ready for battle and less like she's dancing. And Luke when from Jedi master to cheesecake. Huh.

This along with many others of terrible portrayal of women in media can be found on Escher Girls, a tumblr dedicated to "...female characters in impossible or ridiculous poses or with disturbing anatomy because the artist needed to show teh sexy."

Experience

Recently, due to lack of better things to do with my day, I've been watching a lot of anime with a friend of mine. We've been rewatching a lot of series I saw oh so many years ago in high school when I was first introduced to anime, including Chobits and Trigun.

I so very distinctly remember when I first saw those cartoons, wishing I could draw so well. Now that I've been through art school, oh. my. gosh. There are so many things that are just wrong. And I've come to realize I hate cell shading, I much prefer flats and a higher frame rate to 'shadow'. The biggest problem with anime is  the low frame rate, programs often use one still image and just animate the mouth. This means the characters have zero facial expressions. Which is why the voice acting always sounds terrible. I used to think it was English dubbing, but no, I realized the reason it seems so terrible sometimes is because it is extremely difficult to match voice emotion when every character looks like they just came from a botox appointment.

Dominique the Cyclops, how do your shoulders work? This makes no anatomical sense. Seriously, try and imagine her body under the clothes. Creepy as all get up, right?

If it wasn't for hairstyle, all the women in this picture would look exactly the same. They are one wig shop adventure away from a hilarious mistaken identity episode.

It's not that I don't like anime now, although I think I have a distinct preference for American animation over Japanese as far as character design, attention to detail and acting (facial expressions help so much). It just that my eyes, and judgement have changed with experience and I find that so interesting. Culture may extol the benefits of youth (particularly for women), but I wouldn't go backwards for anything. Mostly because I am less of an idiot as I grow older and I'm quite proud of that.

Random Word Generated Fridays: Contradiction

Aaahh contradiction. One of my favorite things to do. I think a lot of people around me believe I do it to be argumentative or that I enjoy playing the devil's advocate. My reasons for being contrary most of the time is it makes people think. There are dozens of ways to get people's gears turning without getting them hot under the collar, but I don't find them nearly as effective or quick then making them argue their point.

This is a tactic my professors often used in art school. They always would rip apart a students work so they would have to defend their decisions. This quickly weeded out artists who would just stick their pencil to paper and start drawing without a plan. Which is a hint. Good artists always plan. A painting is a well thought out idea at it's very birth.

Of course now I have difficulty saying the word without a faux Scottish accent thanks to the Starburst commercials.

Adventure Day: Nine Days Without Coffee

Alright, so not exactly the photo essay of the awesome places I explore I usually give you but it was an adventure. As stated in my post "Caffeine Withdrawal" I gave up caffeine for nine days because, well, I was having problems. It went a little something like this:

Day 1: Well. This isn't so bad. No symptoms as of yet. Maybe I was over-attributing my headaches to the coffee. It could have been stress. Oh well, I'll just keep going since it's probably a healthy idea to detox the caffeine in my system anyways.

Day 2: AAAAAAAAAAAAA! The PAIN. This is the MOTHER OF ALL HEADACHES EVER. WHY? WHY! WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHY!!!!!!!

Day 3: I hurt everywhere. What the &$#%! was I thinking? Who does this to themselves? Me. That's who. I'm a &$#%! idiot.

Day 4: Silent weeping when I realize my pain relief medicine has caffeine in it.

Day 5: I lost this day somewhere. I seriously went to sleep Tuesday and woke up Thursday or something. No idea what happened to Wednesday. None.

Day 6: I should clean the kitchen. No. Wait. The bathroom. LET'S GO FOR A WALK! My laundry needs to be done. OOO! KITTY! Hey! What's that shiny thing? LOOK AT THIS MAGNIFICENT ROCK. LOOK AT IT! Did I leave the stove on? (The answer was yes, yes I did...derp)

Day 7: Woke up, walked down stairs, took nap on couch. Woke up, ate bowl of cereal, took another nap. Woke up, watched TV, took nap. Woke up, went to bed.

Day 8: 36 hours 21 minutes and 30 seconds until I can have coffee again...36 hours 21 minutes and 29 seconds until I can have coffee again...36 hours 21 minutes and 28 seconds until I can have coffee again...

Day 9: Maybe if I play video games all day I won't notice HOW SLOW TIME SEEMS TO BE PASSING

Day 10: COFFEE MY LOVE! Let us never be apart again <3

I never want to go through that again. Never. It was awful. The most surprising thing is that even when the symptoms of withdrawal subsided, I still wanted coffee. I did not realize how much a part of my life the drink had become, often substituting a large cup of java for meals or using it as a motivational tool to get something done like chores or homework. Even as I sit here typing this I am being kept company by a travel mug of coffee.

Although I will probably never quite again for anything short of religious or medical reasons, I am moderating my intake of caffeine now. I'm giving up the Diet Coke permanently along with most other caffeinated sodas (the exception being Taco Bell's Baja Blast Mountain Dew because, delicious) and am only brewing one 32  oz pot of regular a day with decaf coffee making itself a new staple in my pantry. I learned a lot about myself during this experiment and probably a lot about addiction.