Welcome to Nerdophilia! Don't worry, there's no sex, just R-rated language! And nudity only if it's integral to the plot!
This blog is about anything I consider to be interesting or important, but mostly both. I am a believer in the paranormal and a fan of Nerdist, MythBusters, Ghost Adventures, science, and nerdy stuff.
Some tunes to listen to if you wanted…..a playlist! Yays!
After the previous blog post, I feel this urge to apologize for freaking people out with my possibly-withdrawal-induced feelings of depression and hopelessness where I felt the need to painfully rip off the blindfold I was wearing while running from the black hole-like sinkhole. (I actually shouldn’t; it’s okay for me to share these feelings, even healthy.) It was a letter to myself, an important conversation that needed to be had in order for problems to be solved. It was also a great big flashing sign I could use to direct people in a direction that many people would call “making progress,” even though (to me, at least) it is comparable to me being the reporter out in the field running for her life from a sinkhole, while the hosts of the news channels watched with genuine concern.
I think this warrants an update: I’m doing better emotionally, which probably can be attributed to the withdrawal from lack of ADD meds. I suspect that this withdrawal (which took place for three or four weeks, during which my doctor pulled a dick move by not filling any of my ADD meds--which meant I ran out, something one should never do ever with any psychiatric meds--until I get my fasting blood tests done) was responsible for most of the issues I had, probably proof it messed up my brain. At least, now I can attribute the need to be fed properly in the morning and the weird I-skipped-on-my-meds dreams to the stimulants and lack thereof, respectively.
But that’s not what you’re here for--you want to know my thoughts on Furiously Happy, the new book by Jenny Lawson (the Bloggess) that JUST came out! Right?! (As in at midnight the night of September 21st--because midnight is when September 22nd starts. Thanks, temporal druids known as Jesuits for inventing this weird concept!) I was so excited and eager that I was able to get my own copy from Target with Dad’s help--thank you, Papa Spock! (I did pay him back for my copy.) And I was so happy I even texted my older sister….to which she responded with a question: “Did the Amazon Pre-Order get there already???” HUH????? After a puzzled response (probably along the lines of “What are you talking about?”), I found out that my sister had pre-ordered the book for me from Amazon the moment she heard me talk about it weeks before it even came out. Which is sweet, but left me with a dilemma: which copy of the book should I return?!?!?! My answer/decision was NEITHER!!!! I opted to keep them both because I don’t want to feel weird about it; Papa Spock went out of his way to get me a copy of my own, and my sis was thinking of me and being incredibly awesome by gift-ordering a copy of the book that she knew I really wanted and was determined to get. (At least now we know that next time, probably when Jenny’s third book is coming out--hopefully, even though I shouldn’t count my chicks before their eggs are even laid--my sis will tell me whether she pre-ordered it or not so that this weird situation doesn’t happen again.) On the bright side, I get TWICE the furious happiness!!!!
Anyways, if you’d rather a look at the content I may or may not have spoiled with Twitter breadcrumbs, here’s my Storify compilation:
Yes, those are the breadcrumbs I left on Twitter with the hope that the strangers who are following me on Twitter will read and be like, “HUH? Oh my goddess’ titties! Lol! I should take a look at this “Furiously Happy” thing….. *click* Oh, wow, people love it! I should get it!” (I’m not sure if #FuriouslyHappy was trending on the Twitters, but if it did, AWESOME!)
In reality, while reading and tweeting along by text message, I was wearing my pajamas (a nightshirt and yoga pants) and a Darn Good Yarn magic skirt (made of SILK) while laying on my couch and reading furiously (happily) in an effort to finish the book before the day was over so I can post this review. And while reading, I was giggling, quiet with awe, nodding with understanding, crying with laughter, and then crying at the end because I knew what Jenny was talking about. I truly understood the battle that so many people, myself among them, are fighting every single day. I was empathizing on a deeper level, because I knew that my own battle was quite a bit different from everyone else’s. It’s at this point (at the end) where I wanted to just run (or quickly walk up) to Jenny, and embrace her tightly while crying into her shoulder (which is a little overboard for an interaction between two people who only know each other through the Interwebs) and going, “Thank you! THANK YOU!!!! You understand it--thank youuuu!!!! I love you for this!!!!” (I’m crying even while typing this.) I probably wouldn’t do that last proclamation, but when a fan of yours runs up and hugs you, molesting your boobs with tears and shouting “thank you,” over and over again, it could go that way.
I’m giving this book over 9,000 white-point stars/plungers out of 5 (the plungers are for the Daleks), not just because it was funny, but because it was a truth that needed to be shared with the world. People, not just those with depression, but also government officials, doctors in all fields, insurance company employees, family members, friends, etc., should know what life with depression could be like. They should know that even celebrities such as Wil Wheaton and Phil Plait and other well-known faces in the celebri-sphere have some sort of mental illness, and that having a mental illness or emotional/mental diffability should not be stigmatized! As much as you think it’s super rare, when you read the comments on Jenny’s blog posts about depression, you’ll realize that it is a lot more common than you think, and that we are not alone in our struggles. There are at least 50 other people in the world fighting to escape similar sinkholes to the one I’m running from, struggling and fighting to stay ahead, but wearing themselves out in the process. There are times when even I get tired and would stop to catch my breath only to feel the earth beneath my feet start to give way, which tells me that I have only an opportunity window of a few seconds (relatively speaking) to fire the grappling hook at something far off in the distance for help. That the battles we’re fighting could be described differently from my sinkhole metaphor, as trenches filling with water that we have to escape, lest we drown.
So, yeah, depression is a bitch and an asshole because it’s lying to you and bullying you into thinking “Life would be so much better without me.” That is bullshit, and I can attest to that--when my sis and I were growing up in the hellhole in the middle of nowhere (in Pennsylvania; sorry, Iowa, but you can’t change history), we were relentlessly picked on; I was bullied, she was bullied….It was hard, but it got worse still when her classmates in a Catholic high school where picking on her, to the point when they were saying that she should “just kill herself.” How could they?! That is WRONG! Nobody should EVER encourage taking their own life! Not even CEOs of Evil Corp! (spoiler alert for Mr. Robot fans who did not see the season 1 finale) This is why we should educate people on mental illness so that they are well-informed and less of a dick about living with depression and/or anxiety.
Look, you’re not alone in your struggles. I have them. Mama Squirrel and my sis have them. LOTS of people have them, and we will feel alone during these times; but we should know that our tribe is out there. Yes, I’m a member of Jenny Lawson’s tribe of weirdos who fight with depression, and I’m proud of it! I’m a member of the Church of Bloggessianism! I frequently tweet with Daleks on Twitter! I even joke around with my parents about needing towels and possibly also getting a giant metal chicken during that shopping trip! This is the tribe I belong to, the nerdy weirdos wielding plungers at trees that we thought were zombies!
You may be weird and even a little fucked-up, but so am I. What’s important is deciding whether you should march alone or with the rest of us; because people marching by themselves are looked upon as “stupid” and “childish” and “wrong,” but people marching together? That’s a full fuckin’ marching band with its own class and character!!!!
Keep this in mind while reading this book--which you should buy your own copy of! Unless your sister already ordered it for you; you should check with her first before buying it…..
Until then, ENJOY YOUR ANTIDEPRESSANT-LAIDEN NON-LEATHERY GALLSTONE-FREE
FURIOUSLY HAPPY TACQUITO!!!!!
Apologies for the long absence. Life happened. It usually does. Not to mention that the evil Writer's Block just stopped me for a few months…..I couldn't figure out ANYTHING to write about. So, I guess I owe you a brief update: attended the Pennsylvania Autism Training Conference again, selling two paintings (only it was Mom who sold them—thanks, Mama Squirrel!); walked an entire 5K color run/walk event; still working on getting my shit together; ran out of ADD meds, but did a fasting blood test so I can get more; having weird dreams due to the absence of the ADD meds, etc.
This time around, I have decided to publish a blog post where I could be more honest to everyone (including myself), to a degree (since the Interwebs is full of creeps and criminals, in addition to the awesome, nice people online). And I've decided, after some consideration, to write a letter addressed to myself, which I know is already bringing me to tears; it's hard to be raw and real in an environment populated with trolls and cyberbullies, and I've become far too cautious for that, but I've decided to just answer Yoda's "Do or Do Not" lesson by choosing "Do," and even go so far as publishing it, regardless of the reactions readers may have. This isn't just for you—it's for me.
Anyways, make sure to have tissues ready, because things are about to get more real and more honest than they have been so far on the Interwebs! (Hence, the "KLEENEX ALERT!")
No, it's not a gimmick: I really did have a hard time typing this up. But it's worth it. Disclaimer: I'm NOT suicidal, and I have NO intentions or plans to hurt myself, okay? Please. I don't want people to freak out over this. I'll be okay, as long as I get the help I need.
Dearest Eden,
Hey. It's you. Well, actually it's yourself, the part of you who wants to live a happy and fulfilling life.
Why are we writing a letter to ourselves? Because it's time to do away with the jokes for a while and address what's been going on within ourselves for a long time now. We need to talk.
I know what we've been feeling, lately. Yes, we're lonely, we're incurably sad, and we don't want to grow up or for things to change. But why is that? Why are we torturing ourselves emotionally by thinking, "Why can't I just be a four-year old again?" Is it because we deserve this masochism of the mind? Or is it that we secretly want to fall down that metaphorical sinkhole we've been running from for a few weeks now?
I can tell you right now that, yes, life is hard. It's difficult, and for us, unless we're distracted (and especially off the medications), it feels incredibly lonely. It's hard to remember that we have friends and family who want to help us, despite the voice inside of our head saying that nothing will work and nobody can help.
Perhaps it's a bit too much pride and egotism that prevents us from asking for help easily.
Or perhaps we're really just scared of change in life.
Yes, change can suck. But it's the metabolism of life on Earth. Some changes are bad (deforestation, changes in policy that allow politicians to be bought by corporations, global warming, political shifts in the Middle East giving rise to a group of militants who know how to really hurt us from the inside, etc.). But why get sad at the good changes, too? Is it because we've become too comfortable with the way things were before the change? Why is that?
I actually don't have an answer for that question.
Try as we might, it's incredibly hard for us to live happily. We live with depression (and its bedfellow, anxiety), which we fear is getting worse, whether it's because we were medicating irregularly, or that it's truly, independently getting worse, making us feel unstable in life.
Remember that post on Hyperbole-And-A-Half, about the time Allie Brosh was struggling with her depression to the point where just feeling any emotions is horribly terrifying and painful? And that she wound up ditching her emotions for "robot mode"? And this led to the feelings of not wanting to live anymore? We can't allow this to happen to ourselves. We have reasons to live, whether it's a temporary noble reason (raising awareness and paving the way towards acceptance of neurodiversity) or a temporary petty one (Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, releasing her second book, which should be just as hilarious as her first one). We can't give up on ourselves and just check in to the mental hospital and go, "Help me feel as though I can be happy again without feeling my heart break for myself!"
It's too terrifying to even go that far, even if it means that we wind up getting outpatient psychiatric care due to our ex-psychiatrist not being helpful with insurance bullshit. (Seriously, this area that we live in is the worst in the State for mental health service availability; local health networks don't do outpatient psychiatric services unless we get admitted to the hospital for mental health reasons, which we really don't want to happen!)
Life is amazing and beautiful and something to be witnessed. We shouldn't scare ourselves with the negatives that lurk within the Deep Web, like Cthulhu being held in the deepest and darkest depths of the sea, waiting to be released to cause chaos and world destruction. Instead, we should figure out a way to either get the fuck away from the metaphorical sinkhole of despair, or just stop it entirely.
As much as it hurts, just talk to Mom and Dad about it. Or your sister; they'll understand that you're feeling hurt inside, and that you want it to stop but are scared to do so.
They're walking similar paths to yours, and they can't help you unless you tell them, unless we muster up the courage to just say the following four words:
Hi, y'all! Sorry for failing to post for so long.... I've been nuts as of lately. How? Like this:
Me: *Looks around* "Dammit! I've fucked up and now it's time to fix everything. No more extremely slow downward spiral for me!" *cracks knuckles*
My Depression/Anxiety: *Perks eyebrow* "Really? Are you sure you want to do that?"
Me: "Yes, motherfuckers! My brain isn't some place where you can camp out and run self-destructive programming for free! I'm tired of sleeping all day, not taking my pills--which can make me sick--and not being productive! I have stuff I need to do!"
D/A: "Uh, no, you don't! You have other stuff that's more fun! Besides, chores and responsibility are boring and lame; you'll be boring and lame if you do them, and they're not fun in an ironic sense!"
Me: "LIESSSS!!! I have dishes to do, a living room to clean up, a bathroom to scrub clean.... I have to start now!"
D/A: "No, your inner Lazy Dalek says that you can do it later, following it up with repeated chanting of 'PROCRASTINATE! PROCRASTINATE!' Plus, isn't it lonely? You don't have many fr--"
Me: "SILENCE! I shall be productive today! Not later--TODAY!!!"
D/A: "Crap! Uh, uh....! Hey, Attention Deficit Disorder! A little help here?"
That's a sort-of typical conversation that led to me to a lot of unmedicated days of sleeping, nights staying up until 6 am EDT, and not even following through on plans that can help me be Pro-Eden.
Yeps. Pro-Eden, meaning helping me make positive changes towards my life. How come? Go listen to the Pro You Podcast on the Nerdist Podcast Network! Episode I, Inertia--the Real Phantom Menace, should explain everything, and help you start on your way towards better awareness, and, ultimately, a better lifestyle.
It's because of this podcast that I've decided to get going with my climb up Mt. Molehill; I've even gone so far as to not refer to workouts as "workouts," but as "Pro You Moments". I've been tweeting with their Twitter account, and been giving updates with my progress. Here's a couple of the latest ones that I sent them recently (before this blog post):
Just to report in: had another #ProYouMoment! Just signed up for membership at Planet Fitness. Meeting with someone tomorrow! @proyoupodcast
— Lady Eden Pyrithea (@LadyEden1337) April 29, 2015
Seriously, this podcast is awesome, especially after all the talking is done, when Tom (one of the hosts) gives you a chillaxing Pro You Moment, where you can meditate with food for thought.
Beyond that, some other stuff happened, which I will update in another blog post, one that I'll publish once I've stopped yanking my hair out over Artist's Block, aaand, for the most part, being like this:
In any case, be consistent (especially with medications), be aware, and ENJOY YOUR TACQUITO!!!!
Sorry
for not posting anything as of lately.
I've been quite busy with life. I
had to be out in public and get a new laptop of my own and new headphones and
stuff. (What?! I want to blend in with the background, to
make it impossible for y'all to see me!
I'M INVISIBLE TO YOUR OCULAR SENSORS!
MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!)
Anyways…..I
figured I should post SOMETHING to keep people from going, "OH, NO! SHE'S DEAD!" (Well, at least the people who don't watch my
twitter feed. Those who do, or those who
are friends with me on Facebook, or interact with me regularly on Deviant Art
know that I'm alive and well.) That and
to rant a wee bit on Star Wars.
Okay,
more than a wee bit. But I do have some
nerd frustrations that need to be unleashed.
(No, not THOSE nerd frustrations!
Gawd, get your minds out of the gutter!)
That and some funny shit to share.
So, sit
back, relax, tune out to "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger," (the"Deadmau5 remix" according to my library) by Daft Punk (which Papa
Spock needs to listen to more). And remember
that at the time of my drafting this, I am actually very tired. My butt was kicked by Thursday, and I still haven't
recovered much; instead, I've been reading Bill Nye's Undeniable and Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy in bed, like I "should" be doing.
So Far, So Good…. I Think…..
So, a
status update: I don't exactly know what I'm doing right. I have tons of cleaning to do (still), a few
appointments to either check up on or set up, a whole dozen others to attend,
and a bunch of distractions in between.
I've accomplished stuff, made the opposite of progress on other stuff,
and there's
not enough time in the day to do it all!!! Really, the word, "Bleh," pretty
much sums up my current mental state.
Let's do
a quick run-through here….
~~Public
speaking—I've had to do a couple of presentations in "public"
to a group of young adults with disabilities about social media. Yes, apparently, I'm an expert. (What I did, however, was share my firsthand
experiences online with these people.)
And I enjoyed the satisfaction of surprising myself with how well I did
(according to audience feedback), which is a really good booster for my
low-to-medium self-esteem. And yes, I
got paid for it in gift cards provided by the sponsor, which is a very popular
large (national? world?) retail company found
all over the US. And when I was done, I
was also given a gift (that isn't exactly necessary but very, very, very
helpful, since I can't take my not-so-portable desktop computer everywhere)
that was provided by this sponsor: a new laptop! BUT, I still don't have Internet at home. Oh well.
~~Exercising:
My FitNerd Journey—I've also started doing a sort-of-kind-of exercise
routine. Basically, twice a week, on
Tuesdays and Thursdays, I go out in exercise clothes to do some…. PHYSICAL
THERAPY!!!! Yays!!!!
What? Did you expect me to just say, "I go out
to some lunkhead dungeon to have a stranger yell at me to work through the pain
of my muscles tearing as I try to do the impossible, only to return home in
tears and swearing to punch them in the face next time I go before passing out
on the bed"? Seriously, I know for
a fact that the scenario I just described is detrimental to any sort of routine
construction, and destructive to the nerd psyche many of us tend to have. That and because I'm worried about certain
other medical conditions, which means I'd rather take a step between
"regular workouts at the gym" and "not exercising very
much." That step, for me, is
physical therapy. No, I'm not injured; I
just want to start in a supervised setting that will allow me to get the
fitness-and-health-goal cheese wheel rolling down the hill. And so far, I've been doing really well,
exercising my legs and my arms and increasing my endurance a bit so I don't
feel like I'm dying when rushing to catch the bus. I've figured out the ideal posture (which is
just like the posture I had when I was doing horseback riding: spine straight
and tall, shoulders down and back a bit, sitting on your tailbone with your
legs relatively underneath your profile, but relaxed, with your stomach tucked
in), and I've also been able to do better leg curls and bicep workouts. It's awesome, and a really good self-esteem
booster.
That's
all for now, with the updates. You can find
more on Twitter. As for the Team
Savage-vs.-Team Bagans internet battle, I've put together a journal entry on
Deviant Art, complete with links to tweets, blog posts, videos, etc., so if you
want to find out everything quickly, go check that out.
That's
it for now, mostly because there is a disturbance in the Force that I've been
ignoring up until now—and I can't take it anymore!!!!
Star Wars-Episode Everything: The Approaching Doom
Alright,
even though the official teaser is cool (with the Garth Brooks version made by
@midnight being super funny—POINTS(!) to them for it)……
……and there are pictures of what's happening behind the
scenes, I am worried about the fate of the current Star Wars universe. No, not the one Disney has constructed! The one that existed before Disney decided to
fuck us nerds over!
You see,
I've been prowling through the Nerdist site lately, and I've found some awesome
articles that I've shared with people on dAmn (the Deviant Art messaging
network, which is basically just a bunch of chat rooms created by DevArt staff
and users). But lately, I've come across
some news that should excite people, but actually just made a lot of us nerds
angry with grief over how a sandcastle empire (that each of us nerds and fans
and nerdy fans have contributed to with careful precision and painstaking
effort to make it juuuust right) was destroyed by Disney just stomping their way
through.
As many
of us are all aware, Disney bought the rights to Star Wars and have hired J.J.
Abrams to direct the new Star Wars movie, Episode VII: The Force
Awakens….. Shouldn't that be "Reawakens"? Because last I checked, at the end of Episode
VI-Return of the Jedi, it was already awake, but feeling quite lonely!
So, when
THIS article was posted, I was shocked.
I could only skim through part of it, before immediately jumping down to
the Comments section to post my complaints:
Before long, I got some responses:
And I felt the frustrations rise, which resulted in me
posting a response to one:
However, I was fortunate enough to have a brief encounter
with some extremely funny nerds on there, offering replies that made me laugh
hard!
Thank
you, kind strangers of the nerd population, for giving me a bit of comic relief when
I was still feeling the sting of having Disney smash what we had to pieces.
Seriously,
what happened was that the Expanded Universe (much of it documented on
Wookieepedia) was just erased from existence.
None of it (the books, especially) is canon anymore. The only stuff that is canon is everything
that is in all the movies, plus the Star Wars: Clone Wars series and whatever
specials that they have. That's it; the
Thrawn Trilogy books that I have yet to read, anything that involves an
agreement as to how Boba Fett escaped the Pit of Sarlacc, what happened with
Darth Maul, all of that is no longer "accepted" as Star Wars lore.
I
expressed these frustrations to Papa Spock recently, and he responded with his
usual Spockish answer: It's because what was already there was too restrictive
for them to do anything creative with the storyline in order to draw in more
people. I suspect that J.J. was a large
part of that decision, seeing that he was the one who did the Star Trek:
Alternate Universe movie series! And
because of that, the Star Trek Online game was completely changed! Like, WHAT THE FUCK?!?! It's frustrating, especially since people are
going to respond with "It's Disney, not ours. They can do whatever they want with it,
seeing as it's their Jeep and no longer the Jeep that George Lucas has allowed
all of us nerds to go joyriding in. They
can change the radio station presets on it to whatever they want, and you
shouldn't worry about it."
I am
worried about it. So much has been
ruined lately; nerds are being sexist with their anger, saying, "HOW DAREYOU MAKE MY GHOSTBUSTERS WOMEN!!!"
And many of us are still Klingoning (Heh, get it?! Klingon…ing?
Never mind, I meant, "clinging on"….) to the Original Star Trek
series, to Next Generation, Voyager, and Deep Space 9, to keep alive the
memories of what we enjoyed the first time around. It sucks!
You see,
we nerds (especially those of us on the Autism Spectrum) are resistant to
change (much like conservatives and Republicans—*shudders* That felt creepier
than I thought it would be….), and if you introduce sweeping changes all across
the major nerdism nodes (like superhero genders, storylines we grew up with and
memorized every detail of, Star Wars universe elements and happenings that take
place outside of the movies and television series, etc.), we're going to be
resistant. Like, we're fine with the way
things are, and they made sense; why did you change everything that was
working? You can't fix what isn't broken,
and the worlds we dive into oftentimes (Marvel comics printed on paper, DC
comics printed on paper, Star Trek series before effects got super
high-definition cool, Star Wars the way George Lucas did it originally, etc.)
just seemed to work for us. So, it's
frustrating to force us to accept sudden changes to the worlds we love. And like I said, we're resistant to changes;
you might be able drag our bodies into the theatres through persuasion by
awesome trailers, but you will never be able to take hold of all of our minds
and hearts that were dedicated to the original stories.
(I'm
going to nitpick here: the longsword with its lightsaber Crusader hilt,
amazingly cool as it is, doesn't have to be done like that. According to Wookiepedia, there is
such a thing as a darksaber, where it's a lightsaber that seems to
"glow" black, and isn't in the general rapier style we have
grown accustomed to, but rather like a katana. If you have read Wookiepedia, you wouldn't
have to piss off so fucking many nerds!
Now back to my regular spiel….)
Evolution: It's a Painfully Long Process That is a Part
of Life
Now, a
proposal for the solution to everyone's problems….
Has it
ever occurred to you that mayyybe Papa Spock (who is quite biased, considering
that he's a Disney Geek for reals; don't go, "Team Disney," at me,
Dad!) could be right in some aspects?
That they're being too limited by our expansion of the Star Wars
universe, ruled over by the god known as George Lucas, who caused that
universe's Big Bang with an awesome idea?
And,
Disney and other involved parties: you're losing us over your changes. Would it really hurt to include us nerds in
the process of creating this new movie?
Or are you too busy focusing on the movie and not on what the reception
of the movie might be like? (Same for
you, Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Star Trek, and video game companies/franchises,
with your products!) Our demographic is
highly populated with early-adopters; a new gadget or video game or Marvel
movie comes out, and within hours, you have thousands of nerds stampeding forth
to line up for the midnight releases, shoving money into your faces while
scrabbling at whatever we could grab on to while pitching tents in our pants
over how excited we are for this new addition to our universes. We live, not just in our physical universe,
but also mentally in thousands of abstract universes that might actually be
real universes that exist somewhere within the multiverse! Why else do you think we play Dungeons &
Dragons or Magic the Gathering? We tend
to argue over certain minute details, but we're happy to add to what we have,
rather than just knocking it down and starting over.
We
should get involved with each other…..
(Oi, gutter brains! Not
sexually! Okay? Get back to reading!) Nerd-sourcing, similar to crowd-sourcing, is
incredibly cheap; we highly value the mental and emotional parts of producing
nerdy content, which means that even if we don't get paid, we are likely to still
do the work just to be a part of something special. How else do you think Ok Go (Shit Fuck) was
able to do the Rube Goldberg music video without spending way too much
money? Nerds pitched in because they
knew it would be a good idea that needed to be created and put out onto the
Internwebz.
I
propose that the resistant members of the nerd community rejects the rejection,
and keep the Expanded Universe alive. while cherry-picking what Disney
introduces to us; this is what they plan on doing to our EU, anyways, adding
what they like and erasing what they don't like officially. Nothing says that we can't have fan-created
content just because someone bought the rights to something. (Yes, Disney, there is such a thing as
fan-fiction and fan art. Also,
Wookipedia is OURS!!! So if you get lawyer-happy,
we'll rally around our own kind, outright rejecting you altogether. At least, that's what I think will happen….)
Anyways,
we should have two parallel Star Wars universes, with galaxies inside that
reflect what we nerds accept inside one of them, while Disney gets to have
their own universe; this way, we can both be happy! *uses Jedi mind trick on Disney's Star Wars
dept* You will accept this idea
and implement it without issue…..
That's
all I can say about this for now. Of
course, it's still up for discussion; discussion and healthy debates (and not
just flame wars that involve name calling and cursing and whatnot) are good for
society and its many demographics. It's
what Athens was built upon way back when; why can't we do the same?
Chew(bacca)
on that. In the meantime, enjoy your
Greedo Tacquito!
Happy New
Year, y'all! It's 2015 and EVERYTHING
SUCKS already! *sniffles* Sorry, just went through a hard time, and
still doing so; I'll explain why when the time is right. However, I have a few things to express. First of all, I have a few goals for this
year: EDUCATE people about how vaccines do NOT cause Autistic Spectrum
Disorders AT ALL(!); explore how humanity is getting worse and worse
(especially American society and government); how ghosts MAY exist or how your
brain can trick you; celebrating science and positive changes being made in the
world, etc! I'll also continue to review
books, movies, television shows, and continue to nerd my pants over certain
shows and celebrities. I plan to lose
mass (at least better than I have been last year—it fell apart from lack of
momentum!) and become more confident, and I have an even better reason to do so
now (the hard time stuff).
Anyways, I
should also add that what happened with the satirical magazine in France is
TRAGIC! ISIS is a group full of assholes
and they should be EXTERMINATED! They
retaliated in the wrong manner in response to a cartoon that was published by a
SATIRICAL newspaper! The following
tweets express my feelings:
I have no words for the tragedy in France, in French or English. Except that i'm pretty sure the ISIS idiots don't know what "satire" means.
— Lady Eden Pyrithea (@LadyEden1337) January 8, 2015
I am
Charlie, and I'm not afraid! (More will
be expressed on my DeviantArt page….)
Two Shows I Nerd My Pants Over, One Time Slot (Porno, Anyone?)
So, yeah,
that subheading title is a reference towards that Two Girls, One Cup porno
(which should NEVER be watched or googled), but it's in regards to a dilemma I
decided to tweet about, tagging Adam Savage of MythBusters on Discovery
Channel, and Zak Bagans of Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel:
I did not
expect to get a response….but I totally DID!!!!
From Adam Savage—SQUEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
His response was almost typical because I expected something along the
lines of "MythBusters because we're real." I did NOT expect the fans' reactions! My cell phone (Obamaphone, free unlimited
text messaging, I get mentions, direct messages, favorites and retweets
directly on my phone through text message…) started blowing up with
responses! A ton are funny, but a lot
were REALLY uncalled for! I can't just
embed them ALL into my blog post at once because that's a LOT of tweets to
embed and it makes the blog post here TOO DAMN LONG!!!! So, I've decided to Storify it…..
Those last
few tweets bashing on Adam is just really dickish! Since when is it okay to tweet to an
influential someone to say, "FUCK YOU!
I'm never watching your show again!
Your an asshole! Suck a dick and
go die from a demon attack at Bobby Mackey's!" (For your information, I would NEVER endorse
the last one! Bobby Mackey's, if you're
unfamiliar with their reputation beyond being a country club already, is really
infested with demons! These dickhead
demonic entities are really nasty to the point where if you ever mention Zak
Bagans' name inside that place, you get attacked! It's really insanely bad energy inside there,
and to suggest to a skeptic to go in there, mouth running off with insults and saying
Zak's name over and over is irresponsible, mean, dickheaded, immoral, and all
out WRONG! Especially if they did not
have any experience with a demonic entity scratching you, insulting you, trying
to possess you, oppression and attachment, etc.
It's a real danger—which is why I vehemently CONDEMN such a response!)
Has anyone
ever heard of Wheaton's Law? Anyone?
If you're that good of a nerd, you'll already know it by heart, but I'll
share it here as a refresher:
DON'T BE A DICK!!!!!!
It was first stated by Wil Wheaton (friendly co-performer at
W00tstock to Adam Savage) to his team at PAX one year, and before long, it was
being quoted in forums and on websites and it earned the name "Wheaton's
Law," and it's a REALLY GOOD LAW TO HAVE!
In fact, when I was in Nerf Club at college, when we first drafted up
the rules, Wheaton's Law was Rule #1; Rule #2 was "Always follow Rule
#1!"
So, when
one is a fan of Ghost Adventures and MythBusters and reads Adam's tweet,
they're obviously going to take it a bit too personally, assuming that it's
negating their beliefs in an afterlife.
Granted, Adam is a definite skeptic, and he doesn't believe in ghosts
and demons and what-not, but to raise a stink over a single tweet?! That's immature and ridiculous! I'm sure that Adam did NOT mean it like that
at all (then again, he could have—I don't know for sure; I also am not
affiliated with him in any way beyond being a fan of his and MythBusters), but
don't call him a cunt and a dick and an asshole just because he shared his
opinion and input in response to my dilemma to ME.
Let's Break It Down!
*Beatboxes*
MythBusters
is an excellent show, promoting critical thinking and applying common sense to
life so that you don't have to spend time and energy worrying about something
that isn't true or factual (i.e., water heater explosions, earthquake survival,
the JATO rocket Darwin Award myth), and learn what it takes for things to be
real, as well as being surprised by things that are real. So, even though Adam isn't, as Phil Plait
would put it, a "classically trained scientist," he still has
experience with the Hollywood special effects tricks of the trade, being able
to bust myths that stem from movies, television shows, etc. And who (besides terrorists) can go wrong
with explosions?! That cement truck just
disappeared like Alderaan! So, even
though the show's name is "MythBusters," it's not proof
that they're "fake"! It's a
short, easy title that describes EXACTLY what they do: they bust myths! Also, they're based in San Francisco;
Hollywood is a "little" TOO FAR SOUTH to be where they're at! (However, if they want to take a field trip
there, they certainly can!)
As for
Ghost Adventures, it's not a show that "looks for ghosts," the way
Finding Bigfoot tries to find a Sasquatch; it's actually a show that is all
about gathering evidence in support of proving the existence of ghosts, as well as
researching what a ghost could be, and even possibly helping homeowners or
property owners and their families and friends realize that they
aren't crazy!!! Or that what
they're afraid of really isn't dangerous at all. So that weird feeling that trolls get in
their pants when tweeting their rage at Adam with misspellings and all isn't a
ghost; it's just them cranking one out from being a dick (thereby violating
Wheaton's Law). It's obvious that a lot
of fans love this show, especially since the members of the investigation crew
are the producers, the camera crew, the host, etc.; they created the show, they
film the show themselves, there's no glamour or Hollywood involved—it's raw,
it's real, it's almost indie and very, very organic. Stemming from a self-shot documentary from
the early-mid naughties (2000-2009), this is also a way to help boost tourism
to certain locations, which helps generate revenue for the locations and tax
dollars for the cities and states these are all located in.
Also, I
should point out that the science labs aren't the places that are haunted, it's
these places such as the Washoe Club, the Winchester Mystery House, the Sun Inn
located in Bethlehem, PA, etc. And any
good scientist should know that if you can't create this situation in the lab
to study, you should conduct a field study.
So, discounting ghosts completely without fully investigating the culture
and approaches and the evidence is just…..I don't have a word to describe it,
but it's equivalent to mixing up, "close-minded, presumptive," and
either "fearful of the results" or "lazy". And don't assume that one show was running
longer than the other: Ghost Adventures started airing in 2008, and MythBusters
definitely started earlier than that, with 10 YEARS under their belt! So, they both have a ton of positive
points. So, tweeting, "FUCK
U!" to someone really isn't the way to go…..
Ethical Criticism: Why the Internet Has a Larger Underbelly
Than It Should
Most
hate-tweets are very unproductive and have a total lack of class and
character. Criticism is helpful because
it allows people to improve in the areas that are addressed. However, haters and trolls just do it to be a
dick. Trolls gonna troll, haters are
gonna hate, and even them Sontaran taters are gonna tate, no matter what. BUT, you can ditch these labels and provide
tweets that are better constructed. Adam
won't listen to "EAT A DICK!" (I received this tweet directly; my
response was, "As long as it's not yours!") but it's very likely that
instead of allowing your emotions to be in charge of your twitter feed, you
provide a calmer response that goes along the lines of "I disagree with your
statement, because…"
Bad:
"Ghost Adventures is REAL! So, fuck
you, loser!"
Good: "I disagree: it's
real because….."
Bad:
"You're an asshole! I'm never
watching your show again!"
Good: "I now feel like my
beliefs have been devalued.
Thanks!"
I hope
everyone gets this, because I don't ever want to cover this topic ever
again! We have the ability to use a wide
range of words that will make us sound educated; why not use it? (Flame wars are pointless; don't engage in
them!)
Diffusing the Rage
As many of
the tweets have suggested, several Ghost Adventures fans believe that Mr. Adam
Savage should go on Ghost Adventures to prove his point. "Why?
It'll just be a waste of time!"
How would you know that if you've never conducted an experiment to prove
or disprove this hypothesis? The only
way to prove that it's a waste of time is to 1.) Be patient and 2.) just join
Zak and crew on a lockdown. Just make
sure that it's the Ghost Adventures Crew, and not some other paranormal
investigation crew, because if it's someone else, the camera crew might be
allowed in, and their job would be to film the talent, not the evidence or
activity. So, if it's just Zak, Nick,
Aaron, Billy, and Jay, with the camera crew hanging out at nerve center,
there's less contamination, and a better likelihood of capturing evidence that
isn't easily debunked.
So, I
agree: Adam Savage should go on a full 12-hour lockdown with the GAC on their
show, and try to debunk the evidence if he would wish to. At least he'll know (without assuming
anything) that ghosts do exist, and that Ghost Adventures
isn't fiction.
But I'm
very sure that I've said all I needed to say, and that it seems like I should
start taking cover before the bullets start flying between the fans of
Mythbusters who are hardcore skeptics of ghosts, and the fans of Ghost
Adventures who are hardcore skeptics of skeptics! (HA!
See what I did there?!) In the
meantime, keep it cool, keep yourself warm, enjoy your tacquitos, and above
all, DON'T BE A DICK!!!!!
*dons dragonskin
vest and other armor, then takes cover in a warm bunker!*
Just
a warning: your mind might be blown; you could get minor headaches or migraines
from thinking about what I'm about to share with you too hard; I'm not
responsible for either of these things, or for breaking you to the point that
requires some therapy. Seriously, I'm
sorry for what happens to you after, despite your reaction to this post being
COMPLETELY up to you.
I will
be honest here: I think I'm having a little bit of an existential crisis. It's not exactly like, "What's my
purpose in life?! I NEED RELIGIONS TO
GUIDE ME!" and it's definitely not like that more familiar Midlife Crisis
of "Hey! I'm not that old! I can
still do young stuff! BATCYCLE, TO
ME!" I know I'm addressing
things that are WAY outside of most people's perspectives, but I'm serious—I'm
having an existential crisis at the universal we're-too-small-to-have-any-major-impact-on-the-whole-of-the-universe-and-are-helpless-at-this-point-in-time-being-at-the-mercy-of-our-solar-system
level.
What I
gathered from these two shows is that we, the denizens of the planet Earth
(Sol-3), are not exactly the creation of a deity. We're not living in the only solar system
that exists in this universe (If you need more proof, just look at science
headlines that go along the lines of "NEW EARTHLIKE PLANET
DISCOVERED!"), and our physical selves did not just come out of
nothing. We're made of STUFF, these
different elements such as iron, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, calcium,
iodine, sodium, etc, that did NOT exist at time of the Big Bang.
Instead,
we're the product of a series of VERY fortunate happy accidents.
Think
about it: we're probably in one of very few (out of an infinite number of)
universes that actually supports the existence of life, that mysterious
chemical reaction that results in organic multi-cellular beings, with each one
made of an uncountable number of molecules, making up a shit ton of cells that
are able work together to function as a whole system by itself. This universe was able to form out of matter
and not antimatter, just because particles of matter simply just happenedto outnumber antimatter particles. The
universe that then formed after this cosmic battle of matter-vs.-antimatter
(which results in the destruction of both particles, by the way) just happened
to be uneven enough for gravity to attract these particles to each other,
enough to form the first stars. These
stars just happened to create the
elements (out of hydrogen nuclear fusion) necessary to build us.
Yes,
we're not made of regular dust just like the Bible states in the Book of Genesis;
we're made of stardust! Which is
pretty neat, if you think about it long enough; it's kind of romantic, in a
sense.
Anyways,
some of these stars just happened to explode, creating enough
material to form our current solar system, and the sun (Sol, of course) just happened
to form successfully, and in just the right size in the PERFECT
spot in the Milky Way Galaxy: not too far from the central supermassive black
hole, but also not too close to whip us around at impossible speeds, expose us
to deadly radiation or to suck us into the black hole.
And, in
addition to the whole "What the Fuckery?" I just laid out, the Earth
formed in just the right spot in the solar system, at just
the right size with the perfect amount of gravity and
elements, AND survived the Hundred-Planet Demolition Derby that took
place after the sun first formed. Not to
mention that enough comets hit the surface of this rocky and hot world to give
us exactly
the right amount of water (give or take a few litres) to cool it down to exactly
the right temperature. Plus, the atoms
of specific elements successfully created these molecules that formed the first
cells and, therefore, the first forms of life!
And to
top it all off, Jupiter, our big tough super-strong super popular planetary
brother, formed far enough away to not affect us, but also to act as our
bodyguard, deflecting and/or attracting in-bound comets and asteroids that
would've hit Earth and prevented our existence otherwise. Plus, the moon formed and took its spot at
the right distance for us to land on it, and gives us almost the right amount
of light at night so we can still see just enough to be able to not trip on
something in the meadows and grasslands.
(Well, in my opinion, at least…)
AND, to
top it all off, that comet/asteroid that hit Earth millions of years ago wiped
out all the dinosaurs, to allow US, the mammals, to survive, and evolve into
creatures that can understand and map the universe! We are simply the product of a series of
accidents who can create abstract ideas that have no solid tangible presence in
the universe, and extremely large solid objects made up of the same stardust as
us that DO have such a presence!
Which. Is. Weird!!!!
What the
hell?! What is humanity's purpose in the
universe? Are we really experiments,
something that just SO happened to form as part of a simulation (which I suspect due to the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle, or the Keyon, as I like to call it)? Or are we the creation of the universe itself
so that this (possibly sentient) universe could understand itself—making us its
neurons in three-dimensional space? I
have so many questions, many of them being "WHY….?" and eager for an
answer that doesn't just have any basis in statistics and probability.
Perspective: Now You Have It
It's
frustrating and scary to see how we have all of this amazing stuff going on
and NONE of it is the primary focus of the human race! We're all on the same spherical rocky
iron(ic) boat, orbiting the same star, paying witness to some of
the same
awesome stuff in the skies (including the moon), and yet we're too busy
bickering with each other about police brutality and who crossed which lines in
the sand, eager to collect all parts of an abstract creation of ours, an idea
that we place numerical value upon, despite it having not a lot of purpose
besides being a tool that we use in a system that we set up, and
fighting over how people see other people who are different from them (Sunni
vs. Shiite and Middle East vs. America—everyone wants to be right, nobody wants
to be wrong; it's pointless to force your ideas of how people should
live/think/function onto someone else, and that goes QUADRUPLE to the (tel)evangelists
and racist fucknuts out there!). Why do
this, when we have a whole other realm to explore?
And why
destroy the planet we're all living on? IT'S
THE SAME PLANET EARTH!!!! The
climate-change global warming deniers (read: idiots) are poisoning the same air
that everyone else is breathing and relying on for survival, only because they're
not educated enough or they don't believe that we're all going to destroy
ourselves as the result of our own actions.
We're making each other sick, we're killing each other, and we're
ruining ourselves because of disagreements and bullshitting. (Also, any deniers are NOT going to be
allowed in my boat. You cause it, you
suffer the consequences—have fun either treading water or drowning or dying
from dehydration!)
Why
fight? Why destroy things? We could be the only witnesses to everything
the universe is showing us, and yet, we're staring at the ground and our cell
phones and computer and/or television screens, and glaring at everyone
else. We're unhappy narcissistic
creatures that are intent on focusing on ourselves and our own problems. Our world-view is small, limited to what we
each see around us, when we could just look up together and learn what we have
yet to know about everything and everyone.
Why
don't we just do this right?!
This is
all I can say right now. That is the
gist of my sort-of existential crisis.
That is the result of watching those two shows on DVD—and I think
everyone else should do this, too. It
would be good for you, at least, to realize what I have learned: we're a
miracle that isn't acting like one, and should start in order to save itself
from the extinction we've forced on many other creatures that live on the same
planet we do. If we do get our act
together, cooperate and accept everyone's differences (including the colors of
our skin, the religions we practice, and the fact that many of us have Autistic
Spectrum Disorders and other disabilities), we can do incredible things, which
can help us understand the universe (that can be scary due to the sheer size
and scale of it—but only if you look at it that way) and also ensure the
survival of the human race in case the universe decides to butt-fuck us again,
with Apophis or whatever else is out there.
Random Thoughts Are Random
I know:
I was "thinking like a crazy person" (despite being completely
reasonable) prior to this part, so why not share some thoughts that I had
amidst this whole existential crisis I'm having and before?
Aw, @Macys! Plz use "Question!" next yr, if not to promote critical thinking, then to have buildings across the st. do "Answer!" in reply!
— Eden Pyrithea (@LadyEden1337) December 1, 2014
to me, right now, a lot of things don't just not "matter" to me--actually, they #antimatter to me. HAHA! #neilwithit
— Eden Pyrithea (@LadyEden1337) December 2, 2014
I wonder what would happen if you stab someone with a #unicorn horn. What magic would take place? @TheBloggess
— Eden Pyrithea (@LadyEden1337) December 1, 2014
That's
all for now, folks! Keep sharing this
blog, and ENJOY YOUR COSMIC TACQUITOS!
