A Month of Simple Pleasures, Day 9

Aaaaaand I'm caught up! I feel accomplished, faceless internet. I hardly ever manage to do things like this properly, and yet here I am, writing on the ninth day about the ninth thing on my list. Woo!

And for those of you with memory like mine, that was:
9. Changing my appearance (hair color/style, piercings, tattoos, etc)

This is a very apt day for this particular item, and I'm kind of pleased with myself, despite planning nothing of the kind.

Change is more or less a necessity for me. I get restless and bored very quickly. This may have something to do with the general lack of stability in most of my life, or it might be the cause of it. Who knows. I embrace change most of the time, though. I view it as an adventure; change is exciting and fun more often than not, so when I come across people who want constant stability and who resist or fear change, I'm kind of at a loss. My man is like that to some degree, and it spawns some very interesting discussions. Yay balance!

Anyway, the reason the timing for this post is so perfect is that I dyed my hair last night. I've just ended what was quite possibly a record for the last three years of having the same hair color and style. I dyed it red in like mid-November, so like three or four months of the same color, and I've been trying to grow it back out, so no new cuts. So I've been kind of excited about that for most of today. It's bleached and black. I would say "blonde," but it transitions from platinum at my roots to a kind of light brown, orangey color at the ends.

But I have this joy from newness. I have two tattoos, five piercings (three if we're counting pairs), and I change my hair around every month or two. I like to alter my appearance to fit my whims, and I like to surprise people with the way I look. Very little consideration goes into these decisions (except tattoos. Those are permanent.), because I tend to be enthusiastic and impulsive, and it makes me happy.

I feel like I probably ought to talk about the ethics of body-modification, and about my own views on it, but Skyrim is waiting for me, and I feel like that deserves it's own post. So I'll post something about that sometime in the indefinite future.

A Month of Simple Pleasures, Days 7 and 8

Sadly, my computer has still insubordinate the last couple days, but I think whatever disagreement Kate was having with Chrome is over now, because things are working much better. She might just have been angry at me for leaving her all alone and shut down for most of the week.

So to continue my list.

(The original post, there's also Days 1-6 in another post)

7. Gummy candy of almost all varieties
This is one of the many things that can make some degree of happy regardless of what's going on, or how I am emotionally at that moment. I was really obsessed with gummi bears for a long time, and I had a cup full of the really weird ones. If I had resin, I probably would have made jewelry with them. I'm not sure if it's the colors, flavors, or texture, or some combination of all of them that makes them so much fun to eat, but they're basically awesome. It could also just be that I'm a slight sugar-fiend sometimes.

I got really excited about the Paradise Mango Pepsi Next because it totally tasted like peach rings.

8. New shoes
I have upwards of twenty pairs of shoes, audience, and most of them are boots. Maybe someday I'll share a photo montage of my wonderful shoes, as many of them are quite fabulous, but you'll just have to take my word for it for now. The trouble is that I love getting new shoes. I get excited like a small child every time I wear them until they become mundane and common to me, and even then, I sometimes get joyously happy about wearing them. Like my Iron Man shoes, or my green boots, or my red, witch shoes...

I may have a problem...

Anyway! I think there's a song somewhere about new shoes, and how they basically make the entire world awesome for a day. As soon as I have a chance to show someone, I get excited all over again.

And now my empty belly says it's breakfast time, so I shall end this post and go forage.

A Month of Simple Pleasures, Days 1-6

So, as predicted, I might have missed a few days starting this. My defense, probable audience, is that I was out of town helping my sister move, and we had no internet until monday night, and we were busy hanging out.

So! My random, happy-inducing things:

1. Power Metal
I like many varieties of that genre of music, but power metal pretty much never fails to make me smile. It's partly due to the sheer silliness of it sometimes, but also because it has an insane lot of energy and, gasp, power. The wails that I associate most heavily with it are almost otherworldly, like some awesome, hardcore bird-demon-creature, except for all the hair, and the fact that it's tied inextricably to the same era as glam rock.

2. Little boys (under five years old) in suits, vests, sweater vests, ties, or any other classy apparel
This is partly due to how ridiculous and incongruous little boys always look in formal attire. I find it unavoidably cute. This may also have to do with the fact that I always appreciate a well-dressed man, but, really, who doesn't? My sons will always look classy and adorable. Because I'm going to have sons, and there will be battles and shenanigans, and we'll be Vikings together.

Heck yes.

3. Bubbles

I defy anyone to tell me bubbles aren't awesome. They're one of the simplest things that can turn everyone into a child. They float away in these clouds of little bubbles, shining iridescent and reflective, and then land on the ground and hesitate for a moment before popping. And when they pop, it isn't like a balloon or a water-droplet. They simply disappear as though they never were, except they leave a little ring of moisture, just in case you weren't sure where they landed. Feeling bubbles pop on your skin is also amazing. It's just the lightest sensation against your arms, face, nose, eyelashes, just a slight brush and then the suggestion of moisture.

Few things are as exciting as batting at bubbles, chasing them until they're all gone, or blowing carefully and gently until you have one as big as your face, full and glistening, wobbling with its own weight, and trying to escape your pathetic bubble-wand.

4. Finding surprise money in my pocket
This is the kind of thing that can make any day awesome, even if it's just a dollar, and you don't actually need it. It's just an exciting moment of discovery. It's like you found buried treasure, or the universe was like, "here, Rachel. Have some money." Nevermind that it's your money to begin with. This the same kind of joy I get from remembering I have pie in the fridge, or a delicious coffee waiting for me.

5. Looking fabulous
I have news for you, guys: I am very vain, and I enjoy it immensely. Everyone knows the smug pleasure of thinking you look ridiculously good, but I'm talking about specifically looking fabulious.

Dictionary.com defines "fabulous" as
1.      almost impossible to believe; incredible.

2.

Informal. exceptionally good or unusual; marvelous; superb: a fabulous bargain; a fabulous new house.

3.

told about in fables; purely imaginary: the fabulous exploits of Hercules.

4.

known about only through myths or legends.

I mean something between the first two definitions. I have a slight penchant for somewhat loud, slightly outlandish dress and makeup, so when I wear something that looks awesome to me, it's probably slightly absurd, but definitely fabulous in the way that I'm using it. It makes me incredibly happy to look the way I enjoy looking, especially when I'm required by my job to look so hideously boring.

6. Being cooked for
This is a slightly odd one, even for me, but I like to cook for people, and I like to be cooked for. There's a special companionship about making and sharing food, and it can be an indication of effort and care. It's a nice way to be taken care of without being annoying or excessive, and it's not specific thing to anyone.

And now I have lost steam for further writing, so I shall call this the end. Hopefully my computer is behaving better tomorrow.

Why I Hate Traditional Weddings

Let me preface this, dear, theoretical audience, by saying this: I'm all for life-long, monogamous partnerships and all that jazz. I just happen to hate how most people go about the relationships preceding it, and the marriage proceedings themselves. Why you ask? I shall tell you! In my habitual lack of order, here are my reasons:

1. The dress

It is traditional on one's Special Day to wear a highly expensive white dress of one style or another. Does anyone know why that is? Yes! Purity. Because it is traditional for a woman's value to be judged by the state of her hymen. A white dress in western culture is symbolic of a virgin bride (in some other cultures, white is a color of death and mourning. Coincidence? I think not!), so wearing a dress of a more interesting hue can bring on lots of speculation and sideways glances. Someone I once knew was married in a pink (if I remember correctly) dress, just because she had a child out of wedlock. But lets actually think about this for a second: Who actually wants to wear excessive amounts of white clothing? The number is pretty small, boys and girls, and if you don't want to wear a white dress proclaiming your snowy virgin pureness, why should you be expected to? Also, the number of women who are not even a little bit virginal who have worn white wedding dresses is probably staggering. The color of your clothing should have nothing to do with how much sex you've had. Thank you, Hester Prynne!

Someday, I'm going to walk into a bridal shop solely to ask if they have bridal gowns in any other color and watch the response. And then, I'll have an incredibly loud, public breakdown and sob that I don't want to get married after all. Who wants to join me?

2. Family

Hey, everyone I have any kind of blood or legal relationship to, want to join my friends, coworkers, neighbors, church people, and dry-cleaners in watching me and my significant other spend thousands of unnecessary dollars to engage in a joint legal and social contract? :D

Wrong. Half of them aren't going to be able to make it, and most of them won't actually even talk to you at the ceremony/reception. Because there's an obscene number of people who will want to talk to you, or they're there with people they can interact with more easily and comfortably.

That's probably actually why people bring dates to weddings.

3. Being walked down the aisle

This is the same problem I have with veils. It's another archaic and patriarchal tradition. I told my father that if he was going to walk me down the aisle, we'd better have at least a goat and a few chickens in tow. Because what it represents is the bride being "given away," as though she is the property of her father to be transferred to the man who will be her husband. It's an anachronism left over from a time of arranged marriages and bride-prices/dowries. My father huffily explained that it's a symbolic transfer of authority, and that too is unnecessary. If/when I get married, it will be under my own power, and by my own decision. There will be none of this "asking for permission" crap. I am an adult and capable of making my own decisions, and everyone that decides to share their life with someone else should be too.

She cooks and cleans well enough, but her

 hips might be a little narrow for bearing your thirteen sons.

14. Money

What's the deal with this obsession with flushing tons of money down the toilet to have a big to-do rather than using it to start a life? Weddings cost thousands and thousands of dollars, and they don't need to.There's the dress, which is somewhere between a few hundred and a few thousand, the tuxes, the food, the flowers, the venue, the invitations, the photographer, the rings, and so on, and so on. That stuff isn't necessary to get married, or to celebrate it. Do you know what will be at my wedding? Me, my man, rings, a license, and someone to officiate. You're there to bind your fate to someone else's, not to impress everyone else.

Which brings me to another point, which wasn't next, but I'm going to make it number 5 now, because I was about to start that rant anyway.

5. They're treated like a performance

There is very little about weddings that is truly genuine and sincere. Except the silk and the four hundred dollar roses. It's all about everything looking beautiful and perfect, and pretending that it actually is, even though everything on the planet is going wrong at the least convenient times (I've been to way too many weddings, and I've been in two. Trust me). It's like the wedding isn't even about the fact that two people are getting married. It's for the benefit of the people watching the performance, and making it a spectacle for them. Maybe it's just that the bride and groom are needy attention-whores more often than not, but I feel like a wedding should be about the two people saying the damned vows.

6. Success

How often is it even worth it to have a huge wedding? More often than not, you could save that money and then pay for your divorce five years later instead. Doesn't it strike anyone else as totally absurd to have a weddings ceremony, with the expensive dress you'll never wear again, and everyone you know (and probably some people you don't) watching, only to have it end with an expensive divorce? It does quite often, and it strikes me as utterly foolish. Unless it's a full circle thing. "Lets blow lots of money and start this thing publicly, and then end it the same way ten or twelve years down the road! I'm a little shaky on the cake and champagne; is it inappropriate to have a divorce party?"

7. TIME

This is my main complaint during most weddings I'v been to. It does not take that freaking long to promise to be together for the remainder of your lives and such. For some reason, people feel like the middle of a wedding is a great time for a sermon, or an overview of the bride and groom's entire lives, or about eighty hymns, or whatever. Things that don't need to take up my entire afternoon.

8. Expectations

Any time someone announces they're getting married, there's immediately this boatload of expectations about the wedding, the vows, the colors, the bridal party, the guest list, the cake, blah, blah, blah, wedding things, etc. It's stupid. Weddings are like this evil morass of tradition and family demands. I don't know how anyone puts up with it. I can't even tolerate the expectations I have now by virtue of being a twenty-something girl.

9. Weddings are treated as an endpoint

Think about it. Where does every Disney Princess movie end? On the wedding day. Where does every chick flick end? The relationship.

We see marriage as a destination without realizing that it's only a destination in the way that a dock or an airport is; it's a launch point for the next phase of life, an entirely new trip on its own. But we as a culture, end up glorifying the journey to that point rather than actually examining it as another journey. I want there to be a movie about a married couple that isn't stupid comedy, worthless drama, or geared toward old people. Stories don't start or end with a marriage or a wedding. They're important plot point, but not the whole thing.

It takes a brilliant strategist to make one happen, lots of alcohol to get everyone through it, and way more money, conflict, violence, tears, shopping, decision-making, and negotiation than anything smaller than a war should get.

And I probably have a few more reasons lurking in my ranty little brain, but I can't think of any others. I was going to add "Hypocrisy" as the tenth reason, but I realized I would mostly be repeating myself. So look for the things I said that have an undercurrent about the hypocrisy in weddings, and you'll probably get most of what I was going to say in that section.

And now, I declare it the end.

31 Things That Make Me Stupidly Happly

1. Power Metal
2. Little Boys (under five years old) in suits, vests, sweater vests, ties, or any other classy apparel
3. Bubbles
4. Finding surprise money in my pocket
5. Looking fabulous
6. Being cooked for
7. Gummy candy of almost all varieties
8. New shoes
9. Changing my appearance (hair color/style, piercings, tattoos, etc)
10. Smelling lilacs before I see them
11. Candles everywhere
12. Epic quest music while I run a mundane errand
13. Effectively translating something from thought into a tangible substance
14. Witty banter
15. Rereading books I love
16. Lightning storms
17. Driving under trains
18. Laughing out loud at something in my head when no one else said anything
19. Skipping, twirling, jumping, or dancing while walking somewhere
20. Moshing
21. Well mixed drinks
22. Sitting in a ray of sunshine, feeling like a lizard, or a cat.
23. Fluffy skirts
24. Viking metal
25. Babies making outlandish noises
26. Dessert
27. Shouting compliments at strangers
28. Painting
29. Being tired because I've done things
30. Being loud because I feel like it
31. Yummy meats

So there's this writing prompt I found a while ago where you're supposed to write out thirty-one things that give you pleasure, and then you write about each one every day for a month. I was at work tonight, listening to Ensiferum's "Deathbringer from the Sky," and it starts with this super awesome power metal wail, which never fails to make me smile, so I was thinking about that, and then I started making a list in my head, which turned into this post, which made me remember that prompt. So you're welcome for wasting your time for free. But I think I'm gonna have to try doing that for March. That has 31 days, right? So I'll just put up a quick post for each of these, and some of them will probably go together when I forget to do it.

Feel free to ignore everything I say next month.

The end.

Thinking About Art Again

So I was in my 3-D Design class (traditional, not digital) today, and I was thinking about art. Go figure, right? Thinking about art in my art class? What nonsense you spew, Rachel!

Anyway, we were discussing the pyramidal structure, and I had this thought.

For those of you who haven't taken any art history or design, we as human beings like things to be structured as triangles. They automatically create this mysterious sense of unity in a composition, and it's subconsciously pleasing. You see it a lot in classical art, especially the early to mid Renaissance, but it's been around for ages, and we still use it.

This is what I'm talking about. Just look at the number of triangles you can draw.

So we were talking about structure, and the way it can affect the space a piece of art fills and how you perceive it. 

And if you don't know what I mean, I don't really know how to explain that for you.

Anyway, I commented that I think a lot of structure is actually instinctual in art. It transcends cultures and training and skill level in a lot of ways, solely because it feels right.

And that, I think, is what really makes an artist. Obviously training and disposition and interest come heavily into it, but what I seem to find consistently with artists is that they operate a lot on their instinct without knowing the terms or techniques they're using. Many times, I've drawn or painted something, and then in a class or something I learn about radial nuclear compositions or some other technical term, and I end up thinking, "Hey, I do that all the time!"

So my thought for the day, which I've taken my sweet time in getting to, is that art is really about understanding what feels right, and running with it. That's where it starts. It's not a whole bunch of artists looking at their predecessors and going, "You know, he did that, and it worked out really well. Maybe I should try using diagonal lines and the relationship of objects to create movement and drama in my art." They usually just go, " You know what would look cool?" or "Something about this feels off somehow...." and then comes the execution, which someone looks at later and praises the balance of the composition, or the unity of color, or whatever thing they're looking at.

It's as much about instinct as it is about skill.

Mouthwash by Kate Nash

This is my face,
Covered in freckles
With the occasional spot
And some veins.

This is my body,
Covered in skin,
And not all of it
You can see.

And this is my mind.
It goes over and over
The same old lines.

And this is my brain.
It's torturous, analytical thoughts
Make me go insane.

And I use mouthwash.
Sometimes I floss.
I've got a family,
And I drink cups of tea

I've got nostalgic pavements;
I've got familiar faces;
I've got a mixed-up memory,
And I've got favorite places

And I'm singing "oh oh" on a Friday night. [3x]
And I hope everything's gonna be alright.
And I'm singing "oh oh" on a Friday night.
And I hope everything's gonna be alright.

This is my face.
I've got a thousand opinions,
And not the time to explain

And this is my body,
And no matter how you try and disable it,
Yes, I'll still be here.

And this is my mind,
And although you try to infringe,
You cannot confine.

And this is my brain,
And even if you try and hold me back,
There's nothing that you can gain,

'Cause I use mouthwash.
Sometimes I floss.
I've got a family,
And I drink cups of tea.

I've got nostalgic pavements.
I've got familiar faces.
I've got a mixed-up memory,
And I've got favorite places

I'm singing "oh oh" on a Friday night.
And I'm singing "oh oh" on a Friday night.[2x]
And I hope everything's gonna be alright.
And I'm singing "oh oh" on a Friday night.
And I hope everything's gonna be alright.
Oh oh oh oh oh oh

Happy February, people.