Halloween is drawing near. It's never been my favourite holiday. There's something about the tinsel and snow of Christmas that can't be beat by kids in cheaply made costumes who take my candy. I mean, really. Which would you pick? (I ask this, of course, assuming you are not a five-year-old child, in which case the day on which you get to take candy from your neighbours is the best day of the year).
Still, I have a soft spot for the spooky fun of Halloween. Especially because, this year, I will be spending it with friends, having the living s**** scared out of me by various horror movies. I've never been a true horror fanatic, but I can stomach it, and it's fun when you're amongst good company. We have been trying to decide for a while which movies to watch for this get-together, and I have heard many, many summaries of different movies, all of which I apparently "have to see."
Now, I'm sure all the movies I have heard about have their own merit and are worth watching, but all this talking about horror movies has got me thinking about why we love horror so much. Why do we love scaring ourselves senseless? Why do we want to believe that there are truly horrible things - ghosts, werewolves, ax/chainsaw/fishing-hook -murderers - lurking just beyond our range of sight? It's kind of a counter-intuitive thing for a species to want to do, but I've come to the conclusion that horror movies are, in fact, much more comforting than they appear.
We want to believe in the paranormal, the gruesome, the unknown, for the same reason we want to believe in religion. Because if there is not the possibility, however slight, that there IS something hiding from us in the shadowy corners of a remote forest, something we could never even imagine, then what is there? There is just this, just what we know. There are trees all grouped together in a night poorly lit by the moon. There's no excitement in that; there is nothing to believe in. If there are no ghosts (or demons or gods, etc.), then all that happens after we die is that our bodies decompose in the ground and we are slowly, eventually, forgotten. If there are no demons, then there are just people who do bad things, not because they are inherently evil, but because there is something deeply wrong with the way their brains function - something that could happen to any of us, given the right circumstances.
People need to believe that there is something more to life than just what we can see, because what we can see is not movie-worthy, most of the time. It's standing in line at the grocery store and being $.50 off for a cup of coffee after waiting in line for fifteen minutes. It's having to clean up with a pounding headache and noticing obscure stains on the shirt that you JUST PUT ON five minutes ago. Most of the time, our lives are not note-worthy. If something terrible or scary does happen, it's not thrilling. It's sad and awful, and full of the tears of those close to the victims.
And there has to be, just has to be, more than that.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Thoughts
Hello all.
I don't have much time to write tonight, and yes, I realize I haven't been very consistent with my blogging, but I have been very busy! Still, I am trying to be more punctual with post updates by blogging more FREQUENTLY, even if the posts are OF THE MINI SIZE.
So, I've had a bit of a trying week. My schoolwork has gotten very hard, very fast. In some ways, I relish it (we are learning about verb structure in Latin, which, as a dork, I find very exciting. Also, I am tickled pink about our poetry unit in English - can you believe that for five years, my school's senior english teachers have not felt it necessary to have a poetry unit? Shame.) But then again, I am also an adolescent, and straining my brain goes against my natural impulses, so the mind-bending formulae we are learning in my Chemistry class have me hyperventilating in anticipation for the test. Formulae: i iz doin' dem wrong.
And I realize that schoolwork is not an excuse for not blogging, but there you have it. That is the best I've got. A few exciting things have happened since I last updated, though. (Well, exciting for me. You may find them utterly inconsequential, but I hope I can make it a little bit interesting for you). The most important thing is that I have recently been accepted as a volunteer for my community's humane society! This is very exciting for two reasons: one, I love animals and have been rejected as a volunteer from every other pet clinic/rescuce/store in the region, so this ACCEPTANCE is very new and thrilling for me. Secondly, having experience working with animals is something that will become very important for me if I pursue becoming a veterinarian (which I think I will).
The second important thing, which happened just a few hours ago, was that I read a blog post by the endlessly fabulous Libba Bray, a Young Adult author whose blog breathes life back into the blogosphere. I intend to write a more full reply to it when I get the chance, but for now, I'll just post the link for those of you who might be interested in checking it out. It'll be worth your while, trust me, especially if you are a soon-to-be or recent high school graduate.
So, without further ado, here is the link! : http://libba-bray.livejournal.com/58659.html
See you soon!
I don't have much time to write tonight, and yes, I realize I haven't been very consistent with my blogging, but I have been very busy! Still, I am trying to be more punctual with post updates by blogging more FREQUENTLY, even if the posts are OF THE MINI SIZE.
So, I've had a bit of a trying week. My schoolwork has gotten very hard, very fast. In some ways, I relish it (we are learning about verb structure in Latin, which, as a dork, I find very exciting. Also, I am tickled pink about our poetry unit in English - can you believe that for five years, my school's senior english teachers have not felt it necessary to have a poetry unit? Shame.) But then again, I am also an adolescent, and straining my brain goes against my natural impulses, so the mind-bending formulae we are learning in my Chemistry class have me hyperventilating in anticipation for the test. Formulae: i iz doin' dem wrong.
And I realize that schoolwork is not an excuse for not blogging, but there you have it. That is the best I've got. A few exciting things have happened since I last updated, though. (Well, exciting for me. You may find them utterly inconsequential, but I hope I can make it a little bit interesting for you). The most important thing is that I have recently been accepted as a volunteer for my community's humane society! This is very exciting for two reasons: one, I love animals and have been rejected as a volunteer from every other pet clinic/rescuce/store in the region, so this ACCEPTANCE is very new and thrilling for me. Secondly, having experience working with animals is something that will become very important for me if I pursue becoming a veterinarian (which I think I will).
The second important thing, which happened just a few hours ago, was that I read a blog post by the endlessly fabulous Libba Bray, a Young Adult author whose blog breathes life back into the blogosphere. I intend to write a more full reply to it when I get the chance, but for now, I'll just post the link for those of you who might be interested in checking it out. It'll be worth your while, trust me, especially if you are a soon-to-be or recent high school graduate.
So, without further ado, here is the link! : http://libba-bray.livejournal.com/58659.html
See you soon!
Monday, October 11, 2010
Valentino Wonders
Hello again, blog. Haven't seen you in a while. Why haven't I seen you for so long? Good question. Well, it seems that my teachers have taken it upon themselves to cleverly plan all their major tests so that I have a test and/or quiz EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR OVER A WEEK. The teachers, I think, find this VERY FUNNY. I can just see them now, eating doughnut holes and laughing in their secret faculty lounge, watching footage of me breathing into a paper bag outside the school building. They find my misery AMUSING.
But, alas, there is nothing the teachers can do to stop Thanksgiving from rolling around. Every year it comes, and all the children reflect upon the blessings that have been bestowed upon them, and on the wonderful family that they love, and - aw, screw it. We love having Mondays off. Unfortunately, as a kind of f-u to the day off we've been given, some of my teachers like to give us tests on the TUESDAY WE RETURN, so that we are forced to study during our holiday. Despite this nasty little trick of my teachers', I've managed to have an excellent long weekend.
Firstly, I spent the entire weekend in Toronto, which is both one hour and an eternity away from the suburbs in which I live. I wore nice dresses and went out to the movies, saw pretty things in nice stores, and ate out - a lot. My dad doesn't see me very often, and I guess he just wanted to make our Thanksgiving together special. Well, it was. But not for the heartwarmingly mushy reasons that it should have been, I'm afraid. No, this weekend, I saw something the likes of which I have never seen. I have never fallen more completely in love with anything before in my life.
I walked into David's, the most ridiculously expensive shoe store in Toronto, and came upon these shoes: http://www.chiq.com/valentino/peep-toe-lace-couture-dorsay-pumps Now, I would've been more than happy to give up a limb for these things, but the fancy store manager probably wouldn't have had much use for a detached arm. Other than that, the only way I could have obtained those perfect pumps would have been by buying them. But, oh shoot. I forgot my $905 (tax not included) that I usually spend on shoes in my OTHER PURSE.
Anyways, since I don't own a chain of fast-food restaurants, the only thing I could do with the Valentino wonders was try them (even that was hard to do - I was afraid they might crumble at my clumsy, cheap touch) on and stare adoringly. When we left the store, my father told me that if I studied really hard and became a lawyer, I could go back there someday and buy those shoes. And that's when I asked myself: would I ever give up my passion, the thing that, for me, validates existence, that gives me hope and makes me happy...for shoes, however amazing?
Never.
Not even if you paid me $905 plus tax.
But, alas, there is nothing the teachers can do to stop Thanksgiving from rolling around. Every year it comes, and all the children reflect upon the blessings that have been bestowed upon them, and on the wonderful family that they love, and - aw, screw it. We love having Mondays off. Unfortunately, as a kind of f-u to the day off we've been given, some of my teachers like to give us tests on the TUESDAY WE RETURN, so that we are forced to study during our holiday. Despite this nasty little trick of my teachers', I've managed to have an excellent long weekend.
Firstly, I spent the entire weekend in Toronto, which is both one hour and an eternity away from the suburbs in which I live. I wore nice dresses and went out to the movies, saw pretty things in nice stores, and ate out - a lot. My dad doesn't see me very often, and I guess he just wanted to make our Thanksgiving together special. Well, it was. But not for the heartwarmingly mushy reasons that it should have been, I'm afraid. No, this weekend, I saw something the likes of which I have never seen. I have never fallen more completely in love with anything before in my life.
I walked into David's, the most ridiculously expensive shoe store in Toronto, and came upon these shoes: http://www.chiq.com/valentino/peep-toe-lace-couture-dorsay-pumps Now, I would've been more than happy to give up a limb for these things, but the fancy store manager probably wouldn't have had much use for a detached arm. Other than that, the only way I could have obtained those perfect pumps would have been by buying them. But, oh shoot. I forgot my $905 (tax not included) that I usually spend on shoes in my OTHER PURSE.
Anyways, since I don't own a chain of fast-food restaurants, the only thing I could do with the Valentino wonders was try them (even that was hard to do - I was afraid they might crumble at my clumsy, cheap touch) on and stare adoringly. When we left the store, my father told me that if I studied really hard and became a lawyer, I could go back there someday and buy those shoes. And that's when I asked myself: would I ever give up my passion, the thing that, for me, validates existence, that gives me hope and makes me happy...for shoes, however amazing?
Never.
Not even if you paid me $905 plus tax.
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