Self Motivation Tips

This isn’t a list of sanctioned tips, these did not come from any medical society at all.  But it’s stuff that worked for me.  These aren’t the be all and end all of self motivating yourself.  These are just some examples of what I use and maybe they will help you.

1. Eat.

Eat some food, even if it’s just milk and cereal.  Eat something that has some nutritional value to it.  It helps to give a bit of a spark.  Even better, if you’ve got access to fruit like apples or oranges, grab one and chow down.

2. Take a shower

I’m not saying you’re stinky.  Really.  Though, foregoing bathing is one of the steps that helps anxiety/depression get worse.  If you’re going out somewhere, have a shower, change into some clean clothes, and brush back your hair.  Tie it up, even.  If you aren’t planning on going out, a good face wash, teeth brushing and slapping on some deodorant helps.

3. Let in the light

As much as many of us like to say we’re night owls and we like the night, it’s not a bad idea to open up the blinds on the windows and let in some afternoon light (this works even on cloudy days).  Doing an activity in a well lit room can help progress said activity.

4. Let yourself laugh

Find something that you find funny.  Really funny.  Stuff that actually makes you laugh out loud, clap your hands, and smile.  You don’t need to do this in public, its something to help you.  It’s good to let out a laugh to help motivate yourself.

These aren’t to motivate a person to accomplish that novel, film that short, or draw the next Mona Lisa.  These are things to help you get on with your day, even if it’s something as simple as doing the laundry.

There’s lots of ways to motivate yourself, these are just the ones I found work for me. Got more?  Add to this list.

 

2014 becomes 2015

It’s New Years Eve, and while I thought about doing a 2014 in review today and yesterday, the topics made me rather tired.  My planned topics were to discuss Ferguson and GamerGate, but I really didn’t want to talk about whiney piss babies who complain that they can’t get laid while policing the sexuality of all women.  Plus, discussing police brutality just made me very tired.  I mean, exhausted.

So here we are, one last day in 2014 before the new year rolls over from the old.  We’re time traveling forward into the future just as expected; one second at a time.

2014 brought us a lot of things that were really great, but 2014 also brought on a lot of things that really sucked and were truly awful.  The aforementioned GamerGate was a prime example.  GamerGate, like many organized protests of it’s like, was the worst planned thing, made under the absolute worst intentions.  A group of guys who can’t stand that a woman had sex, then has her game reviewed in a rather positive light (by the guy she had sex with, apparently).  Oh, and naturally it all began with the woman’s ex-boyfriend.  That entire thing is the beginning opus of GamerGate.  There was no call for any sort of ethics in journalism (and even that three word phrase is not entirely true, as it was ethics in game journalism) to take place when the first complaints were about a woman having sex.  Really, who cares.

Another awful thing was what happened in Ferguson, and continued to domino right up until the last week.  Police officers killing young men.  I should add, they were all young black men, and in some cases, black boys.  Children.  Many of the victims were still in their teens.  It’s shocking for me because when a person is tasered in Canada, there’s a huge public inquiry.

However, this is the last day of 2014, and here is a list of things I would hope that comes about.

• An end to the war on women.
• An to treating other countries as a place where really bad things happen.  Because they happen here too.
• An end to Men’s Rights Activism.  It’s pointless and does nothing.  MRAs only exist to derail actual conversations.
• An end to right wing extremism.  Right wing extremism is a puss on society, and ends up hurting everyone.

These are merely things I would hope to see happen.  There’s a lot of things I would love to see, but that would take some time to think about and list them all here.  I do have two New Years resolutions, however.

1. Stop reading the comments on internet sites and Youtube videos.
2. Get that book going.

Happy New Year, everyone.

 

2014: In Review – Representation

2014 has been a mixed bag when it comes to representation.  By that, I’m talking about the representation of visible minorities and those who have different sexual orientations.  I say it’s a mixed bag due to the fact that it hasn’t been exactly the best year for such things.

We’ve been fortunate to have a lot of really good authors, both up and coming and some long time authors, make big strides in writing books and putting characters into them that do represent people of colour, women of colour, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.  So we’ve got a good representation there.  But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows.

Books, while good, aren’t visual catching.  Comic books, Television and movies, on the other hand, are pretty in your face when it comes to representation.  And this year has been pretty whitewashed, male, and heterosexual.  In other words, the same bland crap we’ve received all the time in the medium.  There have been strides, however.  The excellent tumblr blog DC Women Kicking Ass has gone out of it’s way to showcase good comics (not just from DC) that not only feature women, but a diverse range of women.  Storm came out this year, Ms Marvel had a great run this year, doulby good considering the book is about a Pakistani American teenager.  Captain Marvel, and others.  Marvel Comics has done well with their stable, but that doesn’t mean there’s still some flaws there.  It took them a while to finally announce a female lead movie in Captain Marvel, but the fanbase is still waiting on one for Black Widow.  And it hasn’t been sunshine and rainbows for female lead books, there’s been some cancellations, such as the Fearless Defneders, for example.

Meanwhile, the Distinguished Competition hasn’t been doing much better.  Trying to follow in Marvel’s footsteps, they’ve announced a great deal of movies that are forthcoming with Wonder Woman being in the mix.  How it’s going to turn out is unknown at this point in time.  But at the comic book level, things haven’t been doing so well.  Female lead books aren’t doing well.  One of the best written books is being cancelled after a hack kneed decision of making sure superheroes don’t lead happy lives was announced.  Batwoman won’t get married, and to add insult to injury, the current writing team (who replaced the original writing team) decided a kidnapping and rape would have been a great story arch to the series.  There’s also the Huntress, both Wayne and Bertinelli.  Helena Wayne was essentially stuffed in a refridgerator, and Helena Bertinelli is hardly recognizable as the daughter of a mob boss anymore.  One good light is that the Secret Six is back, written by the pre-52 creator Gail Simone.

Outside of the big two, there’s been other promising titles, such as Bitch Planet written by Kelly Sue Deconnick.  So, there’s some progress, but it’s painfully slow.  Here’s hoping 2015 picks up the pace a bit.

This is a screen capture from Dreamworks Prince of Egypt. Which was a superior film than Exodus: Gods and Kings.

Movies haven’t exactly been great either.  The biggest disappointment was Exodus: Gods and Kings, where every character is portrayed by a white person which is strange for a region that is predominantly filled with brown skinned people.  And to those who say that white Europeans were traveling around, think again.  It was Middle Eastern and South East Asian people (Arabic, North African, Pakistani and East Indian) who developed the Silk Road.   The movie didn’t do well at all at the box office, and one comment said it all.  For people of colour, don’t think of Exodus: Gods and Kings as a missed opportunity but as a bullet dodged.

It isn’t all bad, though.  We’ve had a lot of really great discussions and education with people who have been working hard to turn the old stereotypes on their heads.  Laverna Cox and Janet Mock, along with Laura Jane Grace have been really working hard to show that transgender people are just everyday ordinary people.  And that there is a huge difference that comes up in interviews with transgender people as opposed to cisgender people.  There’s differences in the interviews with gay and lesbian people than there is with hetero people.

And there year did come to a close with a picture perfect ending.

The Nick cartoon, Legend of Korra ended on a bang of a hote, as the finale for Book four showed something incredible.  For the first time in a kids cartoon (in recent memory, at least, and completely visible), Korra walked off into the sunset (spirit portal) with Asami, marking a same sex relationship.  This was confirmed by series co-creator Bryan Konietzko:

You can celebrate it, embrace it, accept it, get over it, or whatever you feel the need to do, but there is no denying it. That is the official story. We received some wonderful press in the wake of the series finale at the end of last week, and just about every piece I read got it right: Korra and Asami fell in love. Were they friends? Yes, and they still are, but they also grew to have romantic feelings for each other.

The only downside to all of this, is that it’s taken so long.  We’re almost at 2015, and we’re still fighting to have proper representation in books, comics, movies, and television.  We made some gains, but there was an equal number of failures and fumbled balls.  Hopefully, 2015 will see more major wins as far as representation goes.

 

2014 in review: Team Canada Gold In Sochi

Among the horrible conditions, the rampant worry about Russia’s stand on LGBTQ+ rights, and the overall feeling in the Olympics as a whole, there still was sports to be played, events to witness and history to see.  In the end, Canada came away third in the medal standings with 10 gold, 10 silver and 5 bronze.  Russia was first with 13 gold, 11 silver and 9 brozne and Norway came in second in the medal standings with 11 gold, 5 silver and 10 bronze medals.

But the showcase for Canada was capped off with the game everyone was waiting for.  In the gold medal game, Canada played Sweden for hockey supremacy.

First Period

Second Period

Third Period

The Canadians beat the Sweds 3-0 to take the gold medal.  Four years before, Team Canada beat the Americans on an overtime winner from Sidney Crosby in Vancouver.

Earlier in the Olympic schedule, Team Canada’s women beat the Americans in an overtime thriller, 3-2 to take the gold medal.

 

2014: A week of memories – Oh Canada

As the last week of the year unfolds and we head into 2015, I’m reminded of a lot of things from this past year.  One of the big things that I think back on is the tragic events of October 22nd in Ottawa, when a lone gunman shot and killed 24 year old Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial before storming the Houses of Parliament.  It was an act of terror that had been felt in this country in this manner.  In a separate attack, Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent was also killed.

There was such an outpouring of hope and condolences after this attack.  And it came from one of the places one doesn’t often think of.  The world of sports.

On October 22nd, the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs were to play in Ottawa.  After the attacks, the game was postponed.  But that night, in Pittsburg, the Canadian National Anthem was sung before the game between the Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers.  Two American teams, on American soil, and the crowd belting out Oh Canada in support of something that affected this entire country.

The first game to be played in Ottawa after the shooting wasn’t a hockey game, it was a football game between the Ottawa RedBlacks and the Montreal Alouettes.  There was no soloist, and members of both teams along with volunteers held the edges of the Canadian flag as the crowd sung the national anthem.

And finally, when the Ottawa Senators got back on the ice on their home turf, they hosted the New Jersey Devils, and one last tribute, which was joined by the home crowds in Toronto and Montreal.

Through the culture of sports, we were able to honour two fallen soldiers that were a part of the Canadian Armed Forces, and attempt to heal as a country.  This attack wasn’t huge, such as what happened in 2001 in New York, but it still had a shocking and terrible loss of life.

It is hoped that something like this will never happen again, that we grow stronger and defend our friends and family in this country, no matter who they are or where they came from.  Everyone came to Canada for a reason, everyone lives in this country for a reason.  I would hope that an attack such as this only makes us stronger and more unified in our love and friendship of our neighbours throughout this country.

 

Winter mornings

The scene that greets me every day so far this winter.

I can deal with winter when I’ve got this wonderful area around me.  There’s no buildings to block the view, lots of trees, and just enough light to help out.  I’ve got a few neighbours and from what I understand there’s two more trailers being put in between mine and my closest neighbour, which means it’ll feel much more like a community and neighbourhood.

And thank goodness I had my tripod this morning, or else all of my photos would be nothing but blurs from the amount of shaking my hands go through when I’m actively attempting to be steady.

 

Rape Culture; here we go again

I guess that I really shouldn’t be surprised that this comes up again.  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that there’s still clueless idiots who are too stupid to see the forest for the trees to realize the culture of rape, or better known as rape culture, is a pervasive and constant aspect of North American culture.  The two go hand in hand, really.  And it’s something I’ve talked about before.

And we see this in another area; comic books.  We have this very ingrained and stereotypical view of women who enjoy and read comics.  Women are questioned and grilled and forced to justify why they read comic books.  A woman walks into a comic book shop (for this shop, it may be her first time even though she’s an avid reader).  The men in that shop will automatically justify the reason why she’s there.  Say there’s ten men in the shop, chances are that only one will think “she’s here to pick up some comics or reserve a pull box for comics for the week”.  The rest will think she has either A) come in to meet her boyfriend B) come in to see if there’s some crappy indie comic C) has come into the wrong shop D) needs to get out of the rain/snow/wind and the shop was the closest.  There’s probably other automatic instances that come to mind, but for me those things are things I’ve actually thought of in the past.

Rape Culture is pervasive in every culture, Turn the Page, September 29, 2014

But here we are again because the conversation, or rather the demand, that Rape Culture’s existence be proven.  If someone needs proof that rape culture exists, then that someone lives in a dank, dark cave with their Fedora (Trilby) squarely placed on their head.  Or they’ve already chosen to ignore the evidence and live happily ignorant with blissful cognitive dissonance.

Rape Culture is demanding that women say yes to something when they really don’t want to because saying no may mean someone will die.

So now we have a new school shooting, based solely on the fact some guy couldn’t get laid, and I see men, boys, applaudin him, or if they’re not applauding him, they’re laying blame on women as a whole. Just like my sister’s friends did. Just like the boys in my Criminal Justice class did.

This isn’t something that’s rare. This isn’t something that never happens, or that a select group of men feel as if they are so entitled to women that saying no is not only the worst possible thing a woman can do, but is considered a form of “defence” when they commit a crime upon them (whether it be rape or murder-as-a-reaction-towards-rejection).

Girls are being killed for saying no to prom invites. Girls are being killed for saying no to men. They are creating an atmosphere where women are too scared to say no, and the worst part is? They are doing it intentionally. They want society to be that way, they want women to say yes entirely out of fear. Even the boys and men who aren’t showing up to schools with guns are saying; “Well, you know, I wouldn’t do that, but you have to admit that if she had just said yes …”

cry laugh feel love peace panic

Rape Culture is an invisible evil that only a select few are seeing.  For everyone else it’s business as usual.  It’s normal every day stuff.  But that’s slowly changing.

To point out and say that Rape Culture doesn’t exist is incredibly ignorant.  It means that you are willing to ignore the injustices in the world.  And that’s flat out wrong.

The evidence of Rape Culture existing is huge and it’s hard to ignore.  It’s worse than the white elephant in the room, because this elephant is a dying, rotting carcass and can’t be ignored for much longer.

Rape Culture is the constant policing of women’s clothing and bodies.  Those who wear religious garb are oppressed; those who wear short cut off shorts and midriff exposing shirts are sluts; those who wear more conservative attire are prudish; those who wear a lot of makeup are tramps.

Rape Culture is asking what the victim was doing and shifting blame from the abuser to the victim.  What was she doing in order to get raped?  When instead, the question should be, why did he rape her?

Rape Culture is Stubenville, when a young woman is raped, violated, urinated on, and video taped at a party and no one steps in to say “hey, this might not be a good idea”.  Rape Culture is the parents, the police, the judge, and the school system defending the two who committed the rape when all evidence said they did rape a young woman.

Rape Culture is defending a football coaching legend instead of letting an investigation go forward into allegations that he molested teenage boys.

Rape Culture is using terms like “bitch”, “cunt”, “pussy”, “don’t act like a girl” and equating weakness to being a woman.

Rape Culture is telling women to carry a gun when the one place that women are subject to rape is the military.

Rape Culture is being a video game and pop culture critic and getting rape and death threats because you don’t agree with how a game or movie is presented and how it presents women.

Rape Culture is being a First Nations woman and knowing that, not if, but when you get raped the chances of the accused being a white male are above 75%.

Rape Culture is an authority figure telling a young boy that he shouldn’t tell anyone because no one will believe him.

Rape Culture is being an NHL player tormented by memories of what happened at the hands of a head coach for a Western Hockey League team in Saskatchewan and taking years to come to terms with it.

Rape Culture is being more offended by a woman breast feeding her child than seeing the exposed breasts of a woman on the cover of a porno magazine.

Rape Culture is telling a little boy to stop crying and be a man, while telling a little girl to let it all out and that daddy’s here to protect her, instilling the attitude in boys that crying is bad, while instilling it’s okay for girls.

Rape Culture is looking at another nation and how they treat rape and saying it is barbaric while ignoring the rape that happens in their own country.

Rape Culture is a Roman Catholic priest who has become such a trusted authority figure that the public ignores the abuses he commits against young boys.

Rape Culture is a justice system that sentences someone found with a gram of weed for more jail time than a teacher who has abused and sexually assaulted dozens of children and teens.  A judicial system that believes two years less a day is fine.

Rape Culture is a woman who fires her weapon in the air to protect herself from her abusive partner and receives a life sentence for unlawfully discharging a weapon and is never allowed to use the Stand Your Ground defense.

Rape Culture is calling a woman a bitch or pushy when she’s being assertive, but a man is called a go getter.

Rape Culture is sitting there silently when someone says over xBox Live “we really raped those guys”.

Rape Culture is the culture we live in.  It is the normal, everyday things we face.  Most men don’t see it because we don’t live with it 24/7.

response to “Why I Think Modern Feminism Is Bullshit“

If you don’t want to admit that these things exist, that they are a part of Rape Culture, then by all means, just admit that you’re against equality and progress.

But stand the fuck out of the way while everyone else tries to move forward.  We don’t mind leaving a few dinosaurs behind.

 

It’s December 10th

I’m avoiding Christmas Carols like the plague.

Yeah, I know, it’s a very curmudgeonly attitude to have.  All this “Bah-humbug” around Christmas.  But there are reasons for this, I can assure you.

From 1989 to 1998 I worked in broadcasting.  Five years of that as an on air announcer.  Also known as a disc jockey.  I wanted to be Dr. Johnny Fever (WKRP In Cincinnati reference).  Needless to say, I became more akin to Les Nesman (one of my news jobs even had tape on the floor where walls would be).  But, that time while I was an on air announcer, there was many a Christmas of late night and weekend afternoons filled with multiple versions of Jingle Bell Rock, Rockin’ ‘Round the Christmas Tree, Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, and various other Christmas songs which could work on Adult Contemporary, Hard Rock, or Country format radio.

I will admit, I loved Twisted Sister’s Christmas album, that was awesome.  But one can only take hearing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer before threatening bloody murder if the song comes up again for the 50th time in a day.

Many people might not know this, but the average length of time for a Christmas song for Adult Rock, Hard Rock or Country is about 2 minutes in length.  In an hour, that’s 30 songs.  With talking and commercials, maybe 20.  Keep in mind, this is late night and afternoon weekends.  Six hour shifts.

Which only got worse the closer to Christmas you got.

The format was as follows.  December 1 to December 7: One Christmas song per day.  December 8 to December 14: One Christmas song per shift.  December 15 to December 20: One Christmas song per hour.  December 21 to December 23: One Christmas song per quarter hour.  December 24 and December 25: No other songs except for Christmas songs exist, play nothing but Christmas songs.  December 26: Never play a Christmas song again.

For me, a lot of times I was the guy who had to work Christmas day.  Which meant an 8 hour shift, not a 6 hour shift like usual.

So, I have my reasons for my “bah-humbug” attitude with regard to Christmas songs.

 

The Miracle of Christmas

If you believe that the paintings in your local church that depict Christ as a white man, then you need to re-examine this.

Jesus Christ, born to a single mother, poor, and a father figure who’s only income was carpentry, was born in the Middle East.  A Jewish man born in the Middle East.  And, of course there are white Jews, there are thousands that live in Europe and North America.  But Christ was born before the famed Silk Road began taking merchandise from the Middle East to North Africa, India, China and even into Europe.  At this point, many Jews, Arabs, and North Africans began moving and settling in new regions.  This was done as well during the height of the Roman Empire, but often if anyone came back to the central location of the Empire, it would have been Rome, not the Middle East.

So if you’re miracle of Christmas is that Jesus Christ, a Jewish man born in the Middle east to a Jewish woman, is that he was white, then I have news for you friend.  You’re racist.

Jews in the Middle East, those who were born in that region all those thousands of years ago, are people of colour.  Even if they would have had relations with others, such as those of Arabic or North African or even Greek or Italian ancestry, they still are people of colour.

So trying to argue that Christ looked like some long haired version of Kenny Rogers or a young Chris Christopherson is complete bullshit.

You’re just a racist.  Unless you’re willing to learn.  If that’s the case, then there’s hope for ya.  If not, then you’re just a racist.