Social Expectations

So I was reading an article in the newspaper this evening and there was one particular article that got my attention. It was about all the social expectations on adolescent males these days, and it's something that I suppose I can relate to. You do hear a lot about the social expectations of teenage girls, but not a whole lot about the boys, so it is at least somewhat reassuring in some respect to see articles like these in the newspaper.
As you probably could imagine, relationships, sex, drugs, etc, they all feature very highly in the article, in all manners of aspects and such.
In my opinion I think that there is obviously a culture of competition between males, everyone is always looking to top another persons story, trying to do better, more crazy, more outlandish things than the next guy. I suppose the alpha male rule kind of exists in this sense. But also, on another level, i think that that type of goings on only really happens in the beginning of a friendship, when you're meeting someone new, etc. I don't feel like I have to openly compete with all my friends per se, but as soon as you put in a new kind of element or person into the game, you're almost instantaneously going to swap stories, give the highlights in order to be more interesting. At least in my experience, when you meet someone new, I try and be as interesting as possible without kind of coming off really weird, because that's all that I can do. I don't really feel remarkably interesting, with uni and everything, so it's all I can go on really.
The one other thing that rang true is that there is a lot of pressure on relationships, in terms of getting and being in one. In almost every form of media out there, every guy ends up having a girlfriend, or being in relationships, its essentially a fundamental for almost everything entertaining. I am really hard pressed to think of a tv show that doesn't have some type of relationship woven through the plot, and the most popular sitcoms, like Friends, for example, are almost solely revolving around their relatsionships, with each other and others. Then you've got all the american examples, like asking a girl to the prom, and you hear about people who just didn't go to the prom if they weren't able to get a date. It might be generalising, I know, but there are these kinds of influences out there. When I was in Finland last year, there is a similar type of dance, where people have to ask each other to the dance. I wasn't actually involved in it, I arrived in the country too late, but I kind of appreciate that fact that life was kind of easy for not ever having to do that during high school.
And then something kind of sprung on me, at this very moment, it is difficult to think of a lot of people who aren't in relationships. And it's weird, I never really felt the pressure to get a girlfriend before, because I always knew people who were in the same boat as me. But now it kind of seems that most of the people I know are sort of getting into serious relationships, and I don't really know where that puts me in terms of my general friends, not being in a relationship of any kind really. I mean, I've played third wheel far too many times than I would care to remember. I know it's bad, but I don't really enjoy my friends as much when they're with respective partners, it just feels awkward most of the time.
To start off with, parties are kind of weird to go to now, and really annoying, because it's kind of like 'best of show' in some respects. Everyone has their respective partners, generally they are inseperable, and it's very easy to feel third-wheely, and here is where the pressure really comes on, and I can see why this is newsworthy material, because it is very easy to form a perspective such as 'it's not really anyone elses fault, it's all on you'. And in reality, this is true, you kind of have to get off your ass and find a girlfriend, it's not your friends' fault that you don't have one. But then again, you kind of have to remember that it's not yours. I think that that is where people can really go off the rails. There's a whole lot of issues that can come from this which all relates back to social expectations. Like, when is it normal to have you're first girlfriend, when should you start thinking about getting in a serious relationship, blah blah blah. They're things that shouldn't  really matter, but seem to matter terribly, which makes the pressures all the much harder.
Even when I was in Finland, touring around everyone, it was kind of normal to have a relationship with someone else, which was kind of unexpected and kind of ostracising in some respects. Just to show that these kind of issues are able to permeate anywhere you go.
Now with uni and everything, a lot of people seem to have boyfriends and girlfriends already, which kind of makes me wonder if I haven't already missed that milestone. Not in any kind of self-pity way, but more of a 'where the hell did the time go?' kind of way. But it just seems like absolutely everyone i meet who is my age is always already in a relationship, the parties i go to are full of people going out, so I kind of just kind of keep studying every Saturday night so I can do well in uni. Such is life though. But I suppose my kind of lack of self maintenance would stem somewhat from that, I never generally look to impress anybody because really, why bother?

All in all though, it doesn't get you down as much as you would think, it's just kind of there all the time, hanging. You kind of just live through it and devote your time to everything else in your life, which is probably why I do so well at uni. Which would definitely be my advice, and is kind of my plan, as sad as it sounds. Just do really well, get really well educated, as much as you are able to do, and then wait till you're older and more impressive, and see how it goes then.

Obviously this is a topic that I was more passionate about than I thought at first, which is good. I don't think that people think about this stuff as often as they could, and it's great to just bring it up to the table every now and again.

See you guys later, have an awesome rest of the weekend!
matty

Kitten Mittens

Ah this makes me laugh, I love Charlie from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. I kind of find that show to be incredibly life affirming, and just makes me feel like a better person, because they're all so horrible.
But yeah, it's coming up to the LAST WEEK OF UNI, which is in fact this coming week. I am pretty excited to be honest, but that also kind of means I'm pretty flat out at the moment with the end of semester assignments and stuff like that, so I haven't been as good on the blog posting as I should be.
The good thing is though that I will have nigh on two months semester break, but I don't have a job yet. Annoying. I apply to a whole heap, but I never really hear back from any of them, so I'll just keep applying I suppose.
But in the meantime, it means I'll have plenty of free time during the holidays. :D there's always a silver lining to the black clouds, children.

Pan's Labyrinth

Today I was finally able to find a copy of Pan's Labyrinth, or El laberinto del fauno, at Video Ezy, and I must say that I really loved the movie. Here's a trailer for your viewing pleasure.



First of all, it was all in Spanish, and even though I did have the subtitles on, I kind of made an effort not to look at them as much as I could have done. Plus it was actual Peninsular Spanish, scripted as anyway, so it was a pretty good opportunity to kind of get used to the way things are done up in Spain.

Apart from that, it was just a real gem of a movie in my opinion. A lot of my friends said that it was a pretty weird film, and to be honest, they're right, it is kind of almost too unreal and then too real at times, but in a way I think that that works for the film. The kind of funny thing that came up with me when watching the film is how little i really cared about Ofelia, the young girl 'protagonist'.
In a sense, although she is essentially the driving force of the movie, it's slightly weird in a way that she often takes a back seat to the other characters in the film, especially Mercedes. Not that I'm complaining about it, it's really more of an observation than anything else. I know that there was definitely a two pronged story effect going on here, which really worked for the film as a whole, I just didn't really find myself as attached to the main character as I would have with other roles and movies, and even with the other characters in the film.
I suppose her lack of dialogue really doesn't help out that situation, she tended to have very little but very precise dialogue, which spurred on the movie. The fact that she's not a big talker really does work into her role though, in a way it's a perfect representation of what her character is in that film, kind of a bit off in her own world, apart from everyone else.

Regardless of any criticism I would have for the more technical parts, I think that it is an AMAZING movie, and is a definite must see. I really do think that it is a kind of fairy tale story for adults, which in a way is kind of refreshing. It is nice to have an element of fantasy to movies these days, without it going ridiculously over the top. I think that Guillermo Del Toro did an excellent job overall, and the actors and actresses in the movie gave amazing and solid performances. Even if you end up hating their character at the end of the movie, there is no denying that so much effort went in to making this movie a masterpiece.

I think the best thing about this movie though, or more like the cherry on top, is the fact that it doesn't really feel like a subtitled movie does. And I think that it's here where the sheer directness of the dialogue comes to the fore, because not only does it work in English, it also works in Spanish as well, which is something that is very hard to achieve. There can be really great films out there, but as soon as you subtitle them, they can kind of loose all their charm. Luckily, in this case, the story does not bear the grunt of any sort of translation shortcuts or blunders, and it just flows really well. You can really get lost in the movie even whilst reading the subtitles, and there are plenty of simply visual scenes which hold a lot of power in the plotline. I must say one of the best visual masterpieces I have seen in a very long time, and I really do recommend that you check this movie out, whether you speak Spanish or not.

Champagne, Tshirts and Celebrations

First of all, the champagne and celebrations.
IT'S MY 40TH POST! I can't believe it, I never thought that would have found the gumph to keep on blogging, but I am sure glad that I have. For the keen follower, you may have noticed that I am in a particularly bloggy mood, so I am going to try and captialise on this as much as I can and catch up as much as I can for all the days that I've missed. I think that I had kind of forgotten that there is always a plethora of stuff out there to blog about, even if I think that I've had a particularly boring kind of day. In fact, it can sometimes even brighten up my day, especially to see that some people are actually reading what I put up on here, even if what I have put up isn't very interesting to begin with.

I think one of the aims for my blogging in the future is just to be a little less self-critical about what I write, just because I think that these kind of posts where I just type turn out to be pretty good, in my opinion.

And now for some good stuff. T-shirts.
Any of you out there who know me well will know that I absolutely LOVE tshirts. Normally I'm not the kind of guy that thinks alot about what I'm wearing in particular, but I always love having great tshirts with really awesome designs. There is really something to be said about wearing an awesome tshirt in my opinion, it can really make or break the image. It's where a lot of people have slogans, bands, pictures reflecting who they are or how they'd like to be perceived as, so I like to keep it as light and cool as possible with my tshirts.

But then there is this. Design By Humans is an amazing website, and I really to recommend that you check it out if you haven't already. I don't really want to break any copyrighting laws by putting up some of the designs, but they are absolutely awesome. Some of the designs can be a bit overwhelming at times, but there are some really golden ones out there.
Just putting it out there as well, I would kill to have any one of those tshirt designs, I actually haven't seen one that I flat out haven't liked, but there are definitely a couple that reall stand out at me. "The Perfect Tee", "Sleuth" and "Robots Can't Smile" are just three that jump out at me, but really, I could (and have) spent hours practically drooling over all the designs.
The best thing is that all these designs are actually done by normal people. Or, perhaps to but it better, everyone has the chance to put their designs in to the website to win various competitions, and have their designs printed onto a tshirt. Naturally, I signed up and I'm thinking about various designs I could put on a blank canvas.
Anyway, I think that that website is just a real little gem, because not only is it a place where you can get great tees, but it's also a place where, if you have the talent, you could be able to stamp your mark on a t-shirt. Definitely worth a check out.

So on that, I really don't think that I could find anything better at the moment to end my 40th blog post ever :D hope you find something you like out there.

Time goes by SO fast

Like literally, whenever anybody ever asks me the date, I'm always like two weeks or so behind. This is one of the things that are kind of just really depressing. But also really very humourous in retrospect.
At the moment, I am watching the first Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and I must say that it is really shocking to see how much people can grow up and mature in really such a very short time.
Just for your information, I am quite a big Harry Potter fan, one of the original ones I must say. I read the book when it came out at school, and to be honest it felt like it took forever to read that book, whereas nowadays it will really only take me a good day of solid reading to finish it. The funny thing is, it is one of those things that I am more than happy to read again and again, it's quite simple to read and can grab you at any age in my opinion. But that really is just my imagination.

So anyway, I am watching the first Harry Potter movie at the moment, and it just is really bizarre to see all those little pre-pubescent faces on the screen. All the young actors and actresses seem kind of, for want of a better word, clumsy on the screen, much more to do with their age than their acting skills to be honest. I think it's kind of that awkward teenager stage, right before anything actually starts changing, and like all those avid Potter fans, you'll notice that things kind of start to happen, voices break, heights lengthen, but for the most part it is kind of unnoticeable, unless you've watched them more than one time.

One of the things I've kind of noticed about that example in particular is that they were really lucky in a way that everyone grew up to be of quite "normal" proportions. None of them are too short, too fat, and of course you would have to assume that there would have to always be some kind of touching up going on behind the scenes, but in general all of these gawky little kids have come to be teenage heart-throbbers. The injustice of it all.

So when I was watching the latest movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, it was kind of a bit of a shock to see how much all the characters have grown up, because in essence I am just a fraction younger than them, and I suppose it hasn't really dawned on me how much I've changed in however long the Harry Potter films have been out for. I don't really reflect on this too often, because for the most part I would rather think about how I am in the moment rather than in the past, something that you can't really change.

At any rate, it is kind of cool looking at the child actors and just see how they grow up, its kind of like those picture slideshows where they take a picture every day of a plant grown from a seed. Those are really cool to see, and I definitely recommend you even try and make some of your own, just so you can see how nature works.

And to be honest, nature is exactly what it all come's down too, not only is it the food source and energy supplier for our little planet, but it's also pretty entertaining at times. I find it almost as entertaining and fulfilling seeing the plants you have planted and looked after grow, as much as seeing a new film and stuff like that. It's very self-gratifying, just doing you're little part and contributing to the ecosystem, even growing your own vegetables and fruit. That particularly is one of the most rewarding things ever, being able to say you've grown all this food from scratch.

On a final note, yesterday was World Turtle Day, but I don't really see any reason why we can't celebrate world turtle day today. They are really one of the few animals that I think almost everyone likes, every pretty much has a soft spot for turtles, whether you're a fan of the turtles in Finding Nemo or of the turtles in the Galapagos Islands, they're really amazing, and I love them. So if you do find that you have a penchant for our shelled reptilian friends of the sea, check out the Wilderness society page on World Turtle Day. The idea was to build turtles out of sand on the beach, and it was unfortunately supposed to be yesterday, but I don't see the harm of building a turtle next time you go to the beach. Heck, build a turtle sculpture every time you go to the beach, they're well worth saving.

Really Tired

It's been a pretty long day, so I will keep this blog post kind of short. Plus I'm pretty tired, and actually getting a good, full night's worth of sleep is very enticing at the moment.

I was mainly assignmenting today, nothing to interesting to be honest, but yeah. I think this is going to be like the final push before the end of semester, it kind of feels like it. I'll just have to keep plodding on, but I think that it should be all good.

But yeah, I've been listening to a lot of music by Vanessa Da Mata at the moment. I think that she's pretty awesome, one of the best singers I've heard in a long time and just really great to chill out to. Kind of like the ultimate studying music. Not so dulcent that I get so tired, it's got kind of a cool beat that keeps you going through all those long hours of learning Japanese vocabulary at 2 oclock in the morning if you can't sleep. Or something.

Anyway, now that I have kind of finished my part of the linguistics assignment, I can kind of breathe a bit of a sigh of relief, apart from the actual exams now, I don't think that I have a whole lot of assignments left. So I spose Ms Da Mata will go back into storage until my next stressed-out assignment time, although I think that I'll add all of her music to my commuting playlist, I could definitely see her as being part of the everyday listening on my ipod.

Another achievement for today is that I have blogged for about the fourth day in a row. I'm actually really enthused now that I have found my blogging gusto once more, it's a little bit exciting. Even if I don't have a lot to talk about at the moment, apart from how the Dari language is largely unrepresented in the local area, even though it is one of the largest ethnic minority languages here. But that would be boring, because that is assignment stuff. But i suppose what you take from that is that I am actually learning something at university, even if it is kind of passively, but regardless, things are going in my brain and actually staying there :D. I am mega-happy about that last bit.

Interestind Discovery

More about myself, rather than any amazing city of gold. Although that would be equally as nice.

But no. I was discussing with a couple of friends today, as people generally do, as to what parts of the opposite sex we find most attractive, and of course you get the normal, stock standard answers, but then it kind of actually got me thinking for once.

It kind of relates somewhat to my bus adventures in the mornings and afternoons, and just in general, but I think the part of someone's body, or more like what I find most appealing, is actually their voice.
I don't know if many people would actually agree, but I think that there is nothing worse than having a really bad voice. And it's not even something naturally, it's kind of just the way that that person would talk, I suppose I'm kind of drifting towards the typical 'westie' kind of woman more than anything, they just talk really harshly and their voices are wayyyy too heavily deteriorated by drugs and alcohol compared to that of a normal person.

I actually thought that I would be able to make that argument a little bit more concise, but I suppose it's not just the voice, per se, but the way that they would use it. No matter how good looking a girl could be, i don't know if I could stand it if she spoke really bluntly. I suppose we all have to be judgmental in some little way, I think that I've just found my little inlet of judging.

On the opposite of that, and I think that here is where my argument will come to fore, if someone has a nice sounding type of voice, it's sooo much of a big tick I can't explain. It would probably actually make up for everything else, but i'm not a hundo sure.
I think the underlying thing with this though is that you can get a general gist of someones personality by the way they speak, and I think that if someone doesn't really cut it on the voice, it kind of, in a way, would reflect kind of badly on the personality. I think generally people can get what I mean, the 'westie' people, normally drunk or on some sort of narcotic, or both, and they just swear their heads off and talk really loud. The intimidating people on trains and busses, if you will.

Whatever the hell that was, the voice wins me over.