For Christmas my brother got me a gift certificate for the mall - I bought World of Warcraft with it - but to his dismay. However, its turning out to be….not so awful. John and I play together - me as a mage and him as a paladin. At first this sounded like it was going to be really cute and really fun. But… in all honesty, it just makes us fight non-stop. He tries to lead, and I want to learn. And all he wants to do is level up, but I want to explore and mine and see different animals. I want to look in all the little huts and stuff but he’s in SUCH a hurry to level up so that he can “party” with his friends. This has led us to some pretty horrific fights.

It’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be, anyway. I think I *might* like playing alone, more than I like playing with John, only because I can do my own thing. …I totally just mill around and look at things and talk to as many people as possible. And my primary objective is to look as pretty as possible…… which I think bothers John a bit. But…I really want an all blue outfit, and this task proves harder than it sounds.

I’m still playing the Sims though, no worries. Now I just spend more time playing games than usual. Its going to be tough when school gets back in. There will be so little time for games, blogging and etc. Such is life I guess.

I like WoW! yay!

Justin and I have started a blog…I haven’t really written anything for it. Mostly because I’m at a loss for what to write. Is gender even an issue that I’m willing to go up against? Is it an issue that even is worthy of our time? How clear cut is everything?

Feminism has a long and drawn out history. Feminist scholars divide the movement into three distinct “waves” of thought and action. The first and second waves, the ones we really needed, are associated with women’s suffrage and women’s liberation in the way of legal and social equality. Third wave is a supposed reaction to the failures of second wave feminism which began in the 1990’s. So…The Margret Sanger’s, Susan B Anthony’s and E C Stanton’s of the first wave got women the vote in the early 1900’s. Bettry Friedan got women to think outside of the kitchen, and made it alright for us to do so. And third wave feminism gave us all a headache. And now we’re left with a mix of faux-third wave feminists who argue over which feminism is better and some post-feminists who appreciate everything that’s be done…but would like people to move on now.

Its hard to do a quick description of an over all “man’s movement”. There is the father’s right movement and the overall examination of masculinities - but no real concrete movement such as feminism.

So what’s left? Women seem to more terrified to walk through dark allies. While boys have a higher chance of being abused as children. Both genders have unreal stereotypes to attempt to live up to as the media tells us all what the ideal look and personality of all of us should be.

The size of media men keep getting bigger and bigger. Batman as Adam West wasn’t nearly as defined and gigantic and seductive as when Batman was George Clooney or Val Kilmer. As time progresses the guns get bigger too. Humphrey Bogart’s gun was simply an accessory to the man where as Rambo and the Terminator are men as an accessory to the guns and muscles.

Then you get suburban middle class white kids who need immediate respect, and this is show via the media to be violence easily brought on by a gun. This is a horribly narrow and destructive up bringing. The American high school shootings that we’ve seen throughout the past few years have been played out by the kids who couldn’t fit into this “tough” role. Pearly Mississippi, Red Lake Minnesota, Springfield Oregon, Columbine, The Trench Coat Mafia… all these words/places connect to school shootings that were carried out by “loners” or boys who just couldn’t fit in and be the tough, big or cool guy. These killers attempted social integration and failed. The next easiest way to gain respect and to adjust their social standing from being the wuss, pussy, loser or freak was to become the master of violence and the killer for the toughest guy in the world can become scared at gun point. They weren’t big strong and muscular, but guns had that ability and they got that grotesque respect.

Father’s have issues when it comes to divorce, there is often sexism in the court room. Women still can’t enter into a man’s world, such as a factory, retain their femininity and still get respect - she has to put on the bitch face. Men hit women, a lot. And women hit men quite a bit too. Men are shipped off to war and women are raped much more frequently.

There has been a very strong need for feminism in the past. And now - I’d say that the need for feminism is deteriorating. Is life equal yet? Absolutely not, but it probably never will be. The posts that Justin has written here have really focused on men as a victim. Men as needing the next feminist movement. At this point in the history of human beings focusing on one sex is no longer acceptable, it’s as sexist as it gets. Cherry picking statistics and attempting to make men look severely victimized in a society where they have been on top (and really…still are on top) for centuries is simply ludicrous.

Gender equality isn’t perfect yet, and it likely never will be. The fact that we’re already 2 separate groups, with a very small percentage of the population blurring the line between being a man and a woman, makes it impossible for there to be true social equality. As long as the media is perpetuating stereotypes and making money off of doing so - it will continue. There is a divide between men and women, and there always will be. Some things women will be better at, and other things men will be.

There are differances that we have to live with. …There are differences that we dont have to live with. …I dont know.

The Best and the Worst of 2008

It’s that time!

CDs

5. Sarah McLachlan - Closer: The Best Of … I’ve always loved S.M. I used to joke with Sam that I have a “Sarah Sense” because I’d always seem to find her music on the radio. She has probably been the most consistently admired and loved singers since I was like 10.
4. Josh Martinez - World Famous Sex Buffet …I love a little hiphop
3. Mr. Scruff - Ninja Tuna
2. Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
1. Girl Talk - Feed The Animals …I read an article recently about “girl talk killing music” because he uses clips of essentially illegal bits to make his music…but gets around it because they’re all online samples and stuff. …His mixes are amazing.

That category is always the hardest, other bands who released beauties: Tokyo Police Club, cat power, tv on the radio, the walkmen, mates of state, british sea power, …and others. sigh.

Movies

5. The Dark Knight - I’m still having a hard time deciding if I like this movie because it was so entertaining and so like…comic book looking, or if its because Heath Ledger died so there was a huge hype around his acting. I’ll say this - he did a great job. But some people were saying he should be given an award for it…even though he’s dead. I don’t really think that’s necessary. Anyway, I think the movie was really good. It was dark, but it was also a lot like the Batman with poison Ivy in it - it had that cool comic book feel to it.
4. The Strangers - this movie was weird.  …I love Liv Tyler and it scared me to death.
3. Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - i think CON are really cute stories. Despite the obvious religious undertones to them, I really really like them.
2. Sex and the City - much anticipated and not disappointed …although I don’t think I’ve ever cried so much in a theater as I did when I saw this movie. It may have been the fact that we were drinking wine in the front row, so we were a little tipsy, or it just could have been that it was so tragic to see the girls is such sad situations. Sigh.
1. Wall-E - not only was it mine and John’s first date movie…it has a great message about the environment and mocks our consumerism. Which I always like It was by far the best movie John and I could have seen on a first date. Robot love? Seriously, it doesn’t get any better.

Books

5. In Search of Time by Dan Falk
4. The Forever War by Dexter Filkins
3. A Madman Dreams Of Turing Machines by Janna Levin
2. Hurry Down Sunshine by Michael Greenberg
1. Factory Girls by Leslie T Chang

Gadgets:

5. Nokia N95 8 gb - My new phone! 8 GB worth of space, Wifi, 5 mp camera with carl zeiss optics, radio, mobile e-mail, vision tv/radio, a gorgeous screen with DVD like video capabilities, 35mm headphone jack, 8 gb internal memory, gps with preloaded maps… and best of all, it doesn’t have a full keyboard. I was so sick of the full keyboard, bulky shape and “smart phone” look of my blackberry. The Nokia looks like a normal phone, but totally does more. Its great.
4. HTC Diamond - my brothers phone… it’s sleeker and more easily customizable thank the iPhone. The only reason I didn’t get this over my phone is that it is a touch screen. They seem to be all the craze right now, but I just don’t like them.
3. Flip MinoHD - a tiny HD camcorder for only like $200… mostly because it only has 4gb worth of space…
2. The nikon D90 - *drools* an HD camera. …
1. Optoma Pico PK-101 - the MP3 player projector… I really need to get me one of these. Its the size of a regular iPod, plugs in and plays your movies on the wall. …awesome.

Games
I dont really do a whole lot of game playing…

5. Wii boxing…i played it once
4. Rock Band …I pretty much rock at everything except the drums. But…i’ll get to those in 2009
3. I started playing WoW a couple days ago, i’ve played twice
2.Sims!…one of the expansion packs came out this year, i dont remember which one. But thanks to john i have ALL the expansion packs and have WAY too many options. Its awesome.
1. Spore…. cooool

Hits of the financial crisis:

5. AIG’s credit fiasco
4. No more Fords and Chevys - the Detroit big three went belly up! the earth is happy, but hummer drivers are not.
3. Citibanks 75 000 job cuts
2. Greenspan - people are living in tents!
1. Iceland …is broke, needing to take billions of dollars from the IMF, Sweden, Germany, Denmark and Finland.

Sciencey Stories:

5. The Invisibility Cloak
4. Bigfoot is a rubber suit with dead animals inside of it
3. a squid with elbows
2. something tugging at the universe
1. The Large Hadron Collider

Absolutely Hilarious

5. The McCain green screen challenge - McCain did an interview in front of a green background, prompting Colbert to challenge his audience to come up with the best scenes to put McCain into
4. Letterman to McCain “You don’t show up for me, America doesn’t show up for you!”…after McCain stood up Letterman, and was shown at another interview instead, it was the core of Lettermans jokes for weeks.
3. The writers strike… so many late night talk show hosts were SO strapped for content. …hahahaha suckers.
2. is america ready for a woman president? - Samantha Bee as Carrie Bradshaw
1. Tina as Palin…and she didn’t change any words.

Personal Worsts:

5. Working in retail - even though I was the boss, i hated it. i hated bending over backwards for jerk ass customers and seeing people spend 800 dollars on clothes. I hated fitting plus women for bras in the summer when they smelled funny and I hated answering to my overly bitchy and micromanaging district manager. She treated me like a moron. I hated that job.
4. I miss a lot of people including Shaneka, Mark, Caitlin, Torrie, Ashley, Dan, Patrick, Karl and family
3. My currently housing situation - my roommates are annoying, they turn the heat up to over 30 (literally!) and leave messes in the kitchen all the time. My door doesn’t really lock and I’m an hour out of the city. I can’t walk around with no pants on and I have to pay to wash my clothes.
2. The York U strike…dont even get me started
1. My grandma died and it was the sadest of all sad.

Personal Bests:

5. Working at acculink where I met Christine and Stacey - two of the best women I’ve ever met in my life. Plus it made me value the 4/10hr shifts a week thing, and loved being on midnights.
4. Moving to Toronto in June. Although I had to shack up with Allen for quite sometime, I love living here and will be sad if I ever have to move out of the city.
3. Getting a job at CFI… my job is to advance science and secularism in society. How cool is that?
2. I’ve lost 20 lbs in the past 2 months! woo!! i love weight watchers…except now the skin on my belly feels really weird, like loose. its kinda gross.
1. June 24th - John and I had our first kiss and were a “couple” by the next day. awe, <3

For like the third time this winter, I am sick. Its like my body is making up for the fact that I’m rarely ever sick. Boo.

On the upside, it’s pretty much Christmas. We’re having dinner at John’s tomorrow night and then we’re off to my house for a few days to hang out with my mom and family. Im really excited to give everyone what I got them… I’d list it all, but they all read! So I’ll tell you after christmas.

It’s interesting celebrating christmas wtih someone who genuinely never celebrated it. John doesn’t really get the whole presents-for-everyone thing, and doesn’t get nearly as excited for christmas day as I do. In face he’s coming with me on christmas eve to stay in Guelph. I was shocked when he said this was no big deal. I would absolutely hate the idea of being away from home on christmas eve. Weird.

I guess this is actually the time of the year that I’d do my “i hate christmas so much…blah blah blah” post. But, I don’t think I hate it this year. Don’t get me wrong, the waste and the consumerism is disgusting. But I like seeing my family a lot. We always have a lot of fun.

I thought it was hilarious (and really sad at the same time) to go to the mall and see people’s faces. They weren’t enjoying themselves, or being happy in the holiday at all. They were scared they weren’t going to get something, bitchy at other people in line ups and frantically rushing to get the last toy on the shelf. that’s pathetic, honestly. …sigh

Anyway - Merry Christmas! My new years resolution is to keep losing weight and to blog more. Yay!

13 years ago today my dad died.

I wish I had something more to tack onto that. It’s weird how… I’m still technically sad about it, because I’ll always miss him. But then again, he died when I was so young that I remember so little about him. It’s like missing someone I can’t even remember. Why would someone miss something that they don’t remember?

I remember bits and pieces and I know that I have an obvious emotional connection to him and that I’ll love him forever. It’s just a little strange.

I do remember that he was a pretty awesome guy and a lot of fun. I also remember reading his first thoughts about me on the day I was born in his journal. That is something I will keep with me forever…knowing that he loved me soooo much.

Anyway, happy december 7th to everyone else. I’ll be spending the day digging in snow to find my dad’s grave and seeing my grandma… and apparently going to my “little” cousins hockey game. I use the term “little” because he’s yonger than me, but could easily snap me in half with 2 fingers.