My favourite place on earth

It seems silly and unorthodox to me that I haven’t approached this subject sooner. It seems completely unfair that my heart hasn’t bounced and pondered over this very incandescent, I feel. Everyone holds a torch for somewhere and my torch is elevated for California. As an English born-and-bred girl of the world, I cannot possibly speak of life in California, as I have no frame of reference. I can talk of love and hopefulness, that’s what us Brits do best.

When I was a wee gal, I enthralled in a stunning obsession with the WWF (now commonly known as the WWE), in which a strange fantasy about San Diego began. This was for the meaningless reason that ‘Rey Mysterio Jr’ originated from there. He was my favourite. Probably because of his mask. Probably because he wasn’t so hench. Probably because he was different.

Since then, the name has played on certain strings of my heart. I’ve yet to find a negative. So, after a lot of overtime at work, me and my friend headed on a quest to California where we visited: Pomona, we visited LA, we rode a tram in San Fran, we were inspired at Alcatraz, we were in awe at Beverly Hills, in love at Universal Studios, confused by the early morning heat in Valencia (Six Flags theme park) and taken aback by the Grand Canyon. Really, there aren’t enough boasting-positive-breath-taking adjectives in the world to describe it and the California deserts.

To anyone who lives in the Sunny State I am sure this is all very stereotypical of a tourist attraction.

Let me explain. Here in England we have do have beautiful landscapes like: the Valleys and hill tops in Northern Wales, the acres of countryside in the South west of England (Devon/Cornwall), the shimmering views of the Lake District and these are just to name a view. There are many beautiful places in our part of the world, none are comparable to the masses and masses I saw in the summer. Being in a theme park in Valencia and seeing mountain upon mountain, all sides, all ways for miles, this is just something I couldn’t get my head around. It’s the same way I couldn’t get my head around the fact that New York City is always alive, the height of the buildings, the flashing lights at 4am, at 6am, at midday….it’s a completely different culture. One that I want to indulge in and lose myself in and breathe in.

I’m keeping this short and sweet, because the feeling of love is not one that can be duplicated, it is not one people can fully relate to (as people experience feelings to different to everyone else), it is not one you can confirm a concrete definition for. Here I’ve dealt with the concrete land, a place that encompasses all my happiness, but of course, my favourite place to be is in the cuddlin-arms, and that is where we’re all happiest.

Life-Impact

How much of a life-impact do the things we ‘enjoy’ have on us?

People ask me on a regular basis because of the part-time job I have, what else I do. When I tell them I’m at University, they ask what I’m studying, why I am studying English Literature, what made me do so, what I want to be etc.

An obvious answer, I enjoy literature - I want to write. But, recently whilst in a mist of stress and confusion, as anyone who has been to University (or College) will know the feeling all too well, that there are no clear choices as to why I’m here.

I could date back to my childhood yet for simplicity, I’ll withdraw and I’ll backtrack only as far as the summer before I started University. I was working as a Marketing Assistant for a Language College, and I’d applied and successfully been accepted for a place on a Marketing Degree at a prestigious University. I was heavily into my music back then, not that my love has dwindled, (it has just been sidelined for more important responsibilities). I unfortunately cannot remember how, albeit the path of a British Indie-Rock band called ‘Maximo Park’ aligned with mine. Incase you’re interested in knowing more about them, all that is really important to know is that they are lyrically very good. Many of (if not all) of their songs being able to be read stand-alone as poems and very beautifully at that. I was in aw, I grew up with simple lyrics to simple music (pop-punk). This band single-handedly transformed my future musical collection, I no longer looked for one-liners or ‘fun and meaningless’ lyrics, I instead dominated my collection with romantic poems, songs filled with picture-perfect metaphors and imagery that left my jaw dropped. Of course, I still enjoyed music for the musical goodness it had and classical music remains my favourite genre, but something had changed and made an impact on my mind in a way that nothing ever had before.

A few months after this discovery, I was hit by some bad news, as I’d never really experienced anything negative in my life before, I did not know how to deal with this. I’m not one that could douse myself in alcohol or junk food, so I decided to write in a complex style, much more complex than I had ever written before. I decided to follow this project through to the end even when my melancholy sadness had evaporated.

Alongside my writing and the starting of my Marketing degree, I concluded in my mind that I was undertaking the wrong degree. In a rapid turn of events, I dropped out of the University and was very very fortunate to be accepted onto a course just a few weeks after the start (the degree I’m currently taking).

Two and a half years later and I still find the same thrill in writing as I did that day I tried to cure my unhappiness, and now write when in all variants of moods. This is hardly a biographical acknowledgement as my career has barely begun, though one silly YouTube search a few years has shaped how I’ve spent the past three years of my life, the people I’ve met and the interests I’ve made. I’m intrigued in myself to see how far those first three minutes I spent listening and watching that music video, can take me.

How is maths important in our lives?

I want to start off by saying that this is not going to be a long fragmented piece about how you-need-to-learn-maths-at-school-kids because one day you may have to do some simple adding and subtracting. Y’know, when you grow up and get a real job and have incomes/outcomes and budgets and life to deal with. No, this is going to be an article about the real maths we encounter. The - how many minutes in an hour, how to tell the time on a 24 hour clock (which to my horror is still a major task for some of the population, how? I’m not sure either.) The real Maths in our lives. The schedules. Do you make schedules? Yes of course you do. And, do you stick to them? Perhaps sometimes, depending on what you do for a living, I suppose?

As soon as you mention the word timetables or schedules, an instant groan appears across the sweat-drenched acne-ridden teenager in the corner who now has to slave away from his Warhammer for a night. Or, the middle-aged bearded man who has to peel himself off his rotten sofa, drop the weed he was going to smoke and concentrate on a given task. I may be a bit harsh here, though it’s the lack of freedom which is the main contributor as to why many object the idea of scheduling.

Infact there are several kinds of freedom and usually a misunderstanding between two of them leads to a confusion.

First: the freedom to choose, to perform a free act.
It means that a human person cannot be forced to perform any free act against his/her will. This a negative form of freedom, because it is freedom from external necessity (such as physical coercion)

Second: the freedom to determine oneself to form oneself and one’s act. This is a positive freedom for one’s goal.

According to: The Augustine Club, at Columbia University.

Apparently a common understanding of the latter explanation can lead you to believe you’re not free at all. Let me explain with an example we’ve all experienced once or twice before. It’s a sunny day, so one might be tempted to enjoy a day at the beach or the park. There is nothing freer, in my opinion than being at one with nature. Although if you spend the day have fun then it could result in failure in your exam. Therefore, if you study then you become “free” to pass the exam and the new (or revised) knowledge could enable you to pass and better fulfil your goal in life.

Schedules are important because they me the: “ability to do what I want with my life as a whole”. In a mixed up kind of way, Maths is essential in our life, and no, I did not take Maths further than the compulsory.

pont des Arts and other magical beauties

Pont des Arts, and other magical beauties

The ‘Pont des Arts’ is a famous bridge, which crosses the Scine River in Paris. When you stand on the bridge you are apparently at the centre of Civilisation. On one side you can see the institute of France, a College which was built in 1670 and is a seat for education. On the other side you see the Louvre – the Palace of Art. If you look up stream then you are greeted by the Cathedral of Notre Dame. As a writer, artist – really anyone in the arts, to stand here is a dream come true. Many people have walked along the bridge just to feel inspired and take in what the city has to offer. Many great Novels have been written based on this spectacular landmark. One to note is Wilhelm Hauff’s Novel ‘Die Betterin vom Pont des Arts (1826; The True Lover’s Fortune; or The Beggar of the Pont des Arts), which he wrote while on a journey through France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Another example, of a place so inspiring the words just fling out of people’s minds onto their paper is Venice. Venice’s attributes are best described by Sergei Diaghilev, he said: “all that is real is in constant contact with magic and mystery”. There are many different explanations to this critique of Venice. Venice is built on water, reflections are darting off of the water so that you are never alone, the cobbled streets bring out the subtlety or blunt tones of your feet as the sound echoes its way into your ears and the translucence of the city toys with your vision. Just as the water will fall through your fingers so will the City. Light and darkness are never more prominent than in the Venetian City. Housing home to a magnificent cemetery that has buried the likes of Stravinsky amongst many other famous names and playing with the idea of what we see being light and dark. In terms of morality, sin, redemption etc. we are mis-led by the fact that we are enjoying the view. The patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark (or Saint Mark’s Basilica) is a beautiful stature. It is one that many visit but it is full of stolen property. An arsenal of stolen property, even. Venice used to be the centre of trade, and therefore the Venetian Empire took from the world anything possibly could. They claimed it was done for spiritual reasons however.

The list of novels then which are set in Venice is remarkable. A few include: Michelle Lovric ‘The Remedy’, Donna Leon’s ‘Death at la Fenice’, and Michael Didbins ‘Dead Lagoon’. If you’re interested, a man called Jeff Cotton has compiled an extensive list of Novels set in the City along with various interviews and accreditations over at: fictionalcities.co.uk/venice

Going back to the Pont des Arts, and the centre of civilisation A question over what is civilisation needs to be asked. Civilisation is something that you are born into. Like a pack of wolves they are a civilisation, despite the fact they are hunting and killing food which is considered to be ‘uncivil’ by some. There has to be a higher acceptance, or morality that the way things are being done is correct. When a breakdown in civilisation occurs and conflict emerges, we start to question the human truths. Stolen items are in these magnificent buildings in Paris, these buildings were constructed by working-class people. The higher people are accepted but the lowers are doing the work. All that being said Venice and Paris are beautiful cities that continue to enlight and motivate hundreds every day.

The Element of Fear

“Try laughing, so that whatever scares you goes away” hosts Japanese Film, ‘My Neighbour Totoro‘. This is referring to a haunted house in the middle of a deserted countryside. This is very much still a shared concern amongst people, as portrayed in the Horror Movies: ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ (1974), the recent ‘The Stranglers’ (2008) amongst many others, just pick out a handful of Horror Movies and this will be a running theme - away from humanity and surrounded by nature.

According to the Dictionary, Fear, is: an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.

Fear is still a physical feat, but has it escalated past that, mostly? In a world where we are so concerned that our Iphones boot up correctly, the internet connection runs smoothly on our flashy hi-tech laptops (which it ironically isn’t as I type this…and yes I freaked out, it’s been down for many hours now), and when our Facebook refuses to load due to a technical glitch, so we cannot spy on the world or inflict the world with our life stories. What makes the news regarding youngsters at the moment are protests, demonstration movements and of course, looting. Granted that this is just a minority but the video games we have been playing for years such as, Tekken, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Halo and Red Dead Redemption are all factors into why I feel a lot of people fear things that will never cause pain but, lack the fear when perhaps it would sensible to fear.

I’m no different - I’d happily walk down a side road at midnight on my own, or crossover a motorway at peak time or order a McDonalds for Breakfast. Okay, so the last one’s a lie, I would only ever order one of those in a fatal emergency. I’m not slating the company, just all fast-good outlets. My point being that the things that worry me most (excepting a few obviously) are things that really don’t matter. So, my Cell has no signal or battery - the other person isn’t going to die if they have to wait an hour longer for a text/call. Despite this known fact, I still feel as if rapidity is the correct and if not the only way.

A few common fears amongst people seem to be: death (themselves or people close to them) and an epidemic. Countlessly I’ve loaded myself into an early morning train and been greeted with an abundance of sniffles, coughs and hanky-shakings. I instantly attempt to shield my mouth and nose before realising I’m in an enclosed space and therefore the bacteria will succeed.

Not afraid of rollercoasters, or being in a Vehicle driving too fast down the M27 or M25 (British Motorways), but afraid of catching a cold, whether my clothes match or whether the flying insect above my head is going to drop onto me. Are all my fears wrong?

A scientific answer to what fear is could be “Fear has a certain contagious feature to it, so the fear in others can elicit fear in ourselves. It’s conditioning, like Pavlov and the salivating dog.” In other words, we can be drawn to fear, so perhaps it is still that we fear these things, but we’ve become immune to the feeling, so therefore do not feel it as fear. We feel it as a similar emotion to those we feel everyday.

Posh.

It is human nature to want to be something you are not. Recently I’ve grown an obsession with TV Sitcom ‘Frasier’ . Incase, you are unfamiliar with the show, firstly - why? Secondly, find it…re-runs happen regularly on both UK and US TV, I know. The show centres around two Psychiatrist brothers and their problems in dealing with ‘normal’ people. I use the term not in a sense of sane or insane, I mean posh and standard -the everyday person, whom makes up their family and friends. The brothers consider themselves to be of high society and almost frown upon a cheap champagne or a mix-match or clothes, or a piece of furniture which does not fit in with the décor of their room/s,

It’s like a universe out of my galaxy - I know that is a completely un-scientific sentence, but take it. The cavalier, the etiquette, the 1961 Colheita Port. These are all things many of us will not have experienced much of. So, when questioning what it is to be post, I found that one response, which became a regular statement was to “be outraged at everything”. Was this true, I thought to myself? Using ‘Frasier’ as a reference, I found that many rants were amidst including: “My suede shoes, you spilled latte on them, they’re ruined”, “for god’s sake that wine has spent more time in the bottle” and personal favourite “my favourite pair of socks has been reduced to one argyle”.

While I am back-tracking in historical time, at present I am watching ‘A Room with a View’ which is a 1985 film adaptation of E.M. Forsters’ 1908 Novel. It is a tale about a young woman in the repressed culture of Edwardian England, set in Italy and England. It is a story of both Romance and a critique of English Society at the beginning of the 20th Century. I mention this as it shows how the civilised world then, are nowadays perceived as snobbish. Look at that hairstyle, look at their attire, she/he has no prospect you cannot marry into that family.

As time has moved on, has the way the higher-class are different? The Royal Family in England are at least trying to make an effort to be relatable to our nation, though whether successful is debatable. But, they are not perceived to be uptight, they do occasionally mingle with those lesser than them, but still do not marry into much lesser families.

What do you think? And, how is it in America? It’s a subject I’m a little lacking in knowledge in and would be interested in.

Anime - explanation?

Anime is popular. Simple and concise sentence. Anime is popular around the world. Anime conventions despite being on a grand scale in the UK, are nothing compared to the amount that occupy the Americas. I’ve scoured the databases for lists and in California alone, there are handfuls yearly. [Soft Break][Soft Break]My question is why do people enjoy Anime? To me it’s a comic and a relief away from the stress in my everyday life. It is more relaxing than a simple film or novel, as it is a reminiscent of my childhood. The reason it sticks in my mind is the over-exaggeration in not only the dialect of the characters (and the over-emphasised punctuation following it), but also how their faces are filled with more emotion than humanly possible - the wide mouth, the drooping eyes, the tears sprawled across the face, the boldened font to the side of a character when the ‘anger’ emotion is being portrayed. The way that the characters are minimised.

The reason I love Anime is the same reason everyone my age loved Pokemon, and Digimon, and Yu-Gi-Oh when they were younger. The believable and the un-believable stories have a paradigm. The way how you believed that when you grew older there was a chance you could be a Pokemon Master, and that that life was real, but the way that you are able to distinguish between the character who head multiplies in size, and the one drop of sweat on his forehead when he is furious, from being realistic.[Soft Break][Soft Break]The current Series I am reading is called ‘Chocolat’, the customised backgrounds, which are a slide away from the story and a continuity error (if Anime cared for that). The little side boxes which are the internal thoughts of the characters, are so sarcastic, which in turn reminds me of the British Comedy and British Humour. [Soft Break][Soft Break]The dazed-knocked out look is something that defines the genre in full to me. It is in a way something I wish that could be translated into real life. The swirly eyes, the lines and tears across the face, the wide mouth and the the steam hat us eluding out of them as they are mercilessly dragged across the floor by a non-sentimental character.

To wrap up, Anime is popular as it is aimed at Children, Teenagers and Adults. There can be simple storylines such as in Chobits (where a robotic character attaches to it’s master and in-turn “loves” him), or complex story lines such as the feature-film ‘Paprika’ (where refrigerators are dancing, dreams within dreams within dreams are happening). Regardless of the story, one thing is certain and that is the precision of the art-direction, it is simply superb. No faults. Whether you are a frantic lover of Anime or have yet to see anything other than the few TV programs that you by-chance caught as they were on your prime-time Television sets, I would recommend nipping down to your cheapest DVD shop and purchasing something. It’s really like no other genre, in my opinion, gives you a lot of time for interpretation.