Hiddlestoner

Hello Readers!

So in my other blog I talked about the new Star Trek movie, Into Darkness, and how I loved Benedict Cumberbatch in it. That got me thinking about other British Actors that I love. I think most of my favourite actors are British. I think it's the accent. It excites me! I also tend to like British TV series and shows more than American ones. Two of my favourite shows are British, Doctor Who and Sherlock (if you haven't checked either out, I would strongly recommend that you do. While I love Cumberbatch and David Tennant will always hold a place in my heart (he was the 10th Doctor, the first Doctor I ever watched on Doctor Who--and a nice piece of man-candy with awesome hair). While I do love these two men, and other British Actors, everyone pales in comparison to my current obsession, TOM HIDDLESTON.

Who is Tom Hiddleston? you may ask. He's a British actor, obviously, who is probably best known for playing Loki in the Avengers's movies as well as the Thor series of movies. I'm a super superhero nerd, especially Marvel superheros, so of course this fact just adds to his awesomeness to me. (Side note, I have been intending to, and have finally, bought and started reading DeadPool comics, and am in love. He can't rival my love of Spiderman, but I do enjoy reading about the Merc with a mouth). I loved Loki's character when I read the Thor comics, as there is just something tragic about his character, and as mentioned before, I kinda have a thing for the villains. It was in this role that I was first introduced to Hiddleston (Hiddles, as his fans like to affectionately call him). Even playing a villain, with long, greasy hair, my heart was lost. I couldn't tell you exactly what it is about him, but there is something. After seeing him in that movie I was hungry for  more, so I started watching other movies and TV shows that he was in.

I absolutely love British actors for another reason, they act in movie productions of Shakespearean plays quite often. For example, David Tennant gives my favourite portrayal of Hamlet ever. Hiddles acted in the movie productions of King Henry IV part 1 and part 2. All together that is like 4 hours of Hiddleston screen time, so of course I'm going to watch it. A good friend of mine and fellow Hiddlestoner came over and we thoroughly enjoyed our evening watching Hiddles. Shakespeare and Hiddleston, what could be better?

Hiddles also acted in the TV series Wallander, which is a detective series, and is actually pretty good. Not the best show I've seen the BBC broadcast, but it was definitely interesting. Tom is not the main character in this show, but plays a lesser role and is sort of the "tech guy" in this show--kinda. The main character orders him around and doesn't appreciate him, which makes me angry and sad at the same time.

Hiddles was also in War Horse, for all of 10 minutes. I watched the movie till the end in hopes that his character would come back, but sadly he didn't. That 10 minutes was awesome though.

If you are a Hiddles fan, I'd recommend you watch the movie, Deep Blue Sea. It is a romance movie, in a sense, and you get to see Hiddles bum in it, bonus. If you aren't a fan, the movie won't do much for you.

Hiddlston has been in so much more, but I won't list everything. If interested that is what the internet is for. What is weird to me about this obsession, is that it is an obsession. I've never obsessed about anyone before. I've had my fair number of celebrity crushes, Ryan Gosling, Ben Kowalewicz, just to name a few, but I have never truly obsessed over them. I never go into super "fangirl" mode. But I do for Hiddles. My heart races when he is on screen and I can't stop smiling. I've watched so many interviews that he's done on youtube that the channel is contently giving me recommendations to other interviews. And the oddest thing is that I can't pinpoint what makes him so different from other people I've crushed on before. Maybe it is because he makes my nerd heart sing, which is rare for other celebrities to do, as he acts in movies that really appeal to that part of me.

Ohh well, that's my post for today. Nothing too interesting, just something I had to get off of my chest. My dream is to meet him someday, but I realistically know that that will never happen, but a girl can dream, right?

Do you have any celebrity obsession you will admit to? Let me know in the comments.

xoxoxo
Becca

Ohh and here's a picture I found on facebook. It encapsulates two of my favourite things, Hiddles and Doctor Who. It's from the page "Doctor Who and the Tardis by Craig Hurle" https://www.facebook.com/The.Doctor.Who.Tardis

It's Hiddles as the embodiment of the Doctor's Time Machine, the Tardis. Enjoy:

Prince Charming.

Hello Readers. So going kind of off what I wrote about last week, and more off of what I wrote for my first post in my other blog, I decided to rant a little on Princes, specifically Disney princes and the ones that I like and the ones that I dislike.

So, on my other blog, I discussed the movie "Tangled". This is one of my favourite movies, mostly because the "prince" actually does something to help the princess achieve her goals, or to save her life. That one fact pretty much separates the Disney princes I love from those that I hate. Before I watched Tangled, my favourite Disney prince was undoubtedly the Prince from Sleeping Beauty, Prince Philip. He fell in love with Aurora even before he knew that she was a princess, and he was willing to throw away his father's favour and the future arranged marriage that his family had set up, in order to be with her. I'm a sucker for romances like that. When the truth is discovered that Aurora is the princess, who had just been hidden away for her safety, it should have been happy. Instead, Aurora gets kidnapped, and the whole kingdom gets placed under a sleeping spell, with the exception of Philip. Philip then goes and saves Aurora, fighting through a field of thorns, and eventually getting captured, and after escaping (with some help from the fairy godmothers) challenges Maleficent who battles him in dragon form. It is only after this that he kisses Aurora and wakes her and breaks the spell that allows everyone else to wake up. This journey he takes, as well as his courage gives Philip top marks in my book. In comparison to Snow White's prince, who basically just stumbles upon her sleeping form and decides to kiss her...LAME!!

I know that the Disney version comes from the Grim Brother's fairy tales, which are dark and mostly twisted (I have a book of a few of their stories) and as much as I love the Grim tales, I much prefer the Disney version of Sleeping Beauty, because the Prince remains courageous and brave, instead of a rapist....Anywho, so the Disney version is better.

I do like the darker version of the Little Mermaid, though. The idea that Ariel would give up her life and her voice to be with a guy, who then decides to leave her and marry someone else, is too rich and delicious to not enjoy. I know it is depressing, and in the end Ariel essentially kills herself, but I like it better than the Disney version, for an unknown reason.  I rarely like completely happy endings in things, so perhaps that is why.

Another Disney "Prince" that I have learned to love recently, is Aladdin. He actually does stuff to save Jasmine and protect her. Which pretty much gives him awesome points in my book. I didn't really watch Aladdin much as a kid, but as I was having this discussion (about Disney princes) with my roommate, she pointed out that Aladdin fit into my category. So I re-watched the movie and was happy to find that she was right. Now while he isn't my favourite, because I don't get that feeling of nostalgia when I watch his movie, he is a definite bad-ass, and deserves recognition. Flynn Rider reminds me of Aladdin in some ways, so of course I would have to love Aladdin a little bit.

So, for a recap, I love certain Disney Princes such as Philip or Aladdin, or Flynn Rider, because they assist their princesses in different ways, and go through different trials in order to save them, which is romantic and shows that they actually have feelings for those girls, as no one with a simple infatuation would risk their lives for a girl. Instead of stupid Princes like Erik or Snow White's prince (i don't even know his name, nor do I care to) who just take the easy way out and don't have to truly fight for their love. I admire courage and bravery and stubbornness in men, and perhaps that is why I love these characters so.

Who is your favourite Disney prince? Or favourite Disney character in general?

xoxoxo
Becca

Ohh and here's a link to my post on Tangled: http://reallifeinmypretendworld.blogspot.ca/2013/05/tangled.html

Dating...

Hello Readers!

I hope that your lives are going well, especially your love lives, which is what I'm going to be talking about today. Now, it is kind of important that you understand where I'm coming from here. My last "real" relationship ended about a year ago, and while I have gone on several dates, and saw a few guys for more than a couple weeks, something always went wrong and I have remained single.

I love being single, don't get me wrong. I enjoy it, and love going out with my girlfriends (most of whom are single as well) and having a great night, dancing with whomever we please. That part is awesome, but life does get a little lonely. I'm not actively seeking a relationship, really, but I felt like I needed to expand my methods in trying to meet people. The whole bar scene is sketchy and being perfectly honest, even if I do give my number to a guy at the end of the night, I rarely get a text from him the next day, and even if I happen to, I usually don't respond. It's like an unspoken code. It is a nice gesture made by a guy at the end of the night to make a girl feel less....used I suppose, but it is not really ever going to go anywhere. That being said, my parents met at a bar and have been married now for 23 years. I don't know if times have changed of if people have changed, or if my expectations and standards are just too high.

Another place to supposedly meet people is in school. This is a great idea, in theory. As someone taking the same class as you must have at least a few common interests, such as whatever subject you are taking. Now while in high school, this was how I met my first boyfriend, in University it becomes a little more difficult. I admit as soon as i sit down in a new class, I scope out the attractive men in the room, and sadly my program (while having more men than others) is very woman dominated--which is great, but not for finding male companionship. Also, the class sizes are generally bigger than they were in high school, and even if they are small there is a division. This past year I was a terrible person, and did not try to make many new friends. I was in third year, and it just so happened that I had at least one friend in most of my courses. This meant that I had no real reason to socialize with other people, which probably closed me off to many opportunities for friendships.  While I did make a few new friends this year, it was because they started talking to me and my friend(s) first, so then we welcomed them. When having a friend in class you don't have to put yourself out there. Also, I fret about hitting on a guy and finding out that he has a girlfriend, I don't know why but that would really bother me. I've been hit on when I've had a boyfriend, and it was no big deal, but when the situation is reversed, I feel extremely uncomfortable. So I take the approach of talking to them, neutrally, hoping to find out if they have a significant other or not. This takes time, and can sometimes be a waste. For example. There was this guy, lets call him Mark. So Mark was in two of my classes this past semester. We seemed to get along really well, and he meshed with my friends really well too. Perfect, right? So I went about trying to find out if he had a girlfriend. I'd ask him like, "How was your weekend?" "Do anything exciting?" for Valentine's day I asked him if he was doing anything, and in all those questions he never once mentioned having a girlfriend. So by this point I had decided to make my move, because it the coast was clear. So then it happened, I flirted blatantly and he threw the girlfriend in my face. I was blindsided by this, as I thought I had figured him out. (Also, in a side note. While most people think putting their relationships on Facebook is stupid, I'm an advocate for it, just so single girls like me can creep and see if you are single and free). SO obviously my method of finding out about a potential girlfriend is lacking.

So, where does that leave me? School doesn't seem to work, and I will not depend on the bar scene. A friend of mine recommended online dating. I was/ and am still extremely skeptical of this forum, but I decided to give it a try. Now, I'm not at a point to start paying for someone to match me with someone else, so I wasn't going to go on a dating site where you had to pay for it, I'm super cheap. So there's a free one that my friend had tried, so I decided to follow in her footsteps (she found her present boyfriend on that site). Now, there are a lot of creepy guys that are just looking for sex, or old men looking for a lot younger women, so beware. I've had no real luck as of yet (as I'm still single) but I think it is a alright place to meet people. My philosophy to using the site is that I get to creep people in advance, knowing what they are generally into and doing with their lives, (and knowing that they are single) and after exchanging a few messages, I want to meet. I'm not going to be one of those people who will message a stranger for a year online before meeting them. I give the guy about a week of chatting, and then if he hasn't already asked me out, I do it (yay aggressive women). If the guy doesn't want to, or cancels on me more than once, I cut him lose. I'm not looking for someone to chat with on the computer. I use the site as a initial meeting point. As mentioned above, I'm still skeptical of online dating, and if it doesn't go anywhere I wouldn't be surprised.

There, my dirty little secret is out now. Have you ever tried online dating? Or would you ever consider it? Let me know in the comments, or just tell me any date stories that you may have. I have some horrible ones myself--but that can be a post for a later date.

I guess I'll just have to wait for my true love, Tom Hiddleston, to come and sweep me off my feet....sigh.

xoxoxo
Becca

P.S. I started another blog years ago, which didn't end up going anywhere. I've decided to change it into a forum where I talk about movies I've seen and books I've read. If that interests you, go check it out:
http://reallifeinmypretendworld.blogspot.ca

"one may smile, and smile, and be a villain"

Hello Readers!

In case you are not a super Shakespeare nerd like I am, the title of this post comes from the play Hamlet. Hamlet is my absolute favourite of Shakespeare`s tragedies, and could rival for the position of my favourite Shakespearean play. If you would have asked me before this year, I would have told you it was my favourite.

I have read Hamlet at least five times. Three times through school necessity, and twice on my own for my own enjoyment (I told you I was a nerd). I love Shakespeare so much that I took a full year course dedicated to studying the works of Shakespeare, or at least as many as we could cover. This course was undoubtedly my favourite from my third year of University. The professor was amazing, and really passionate about the subject he was teaching. I find that is really important. If the professor loves what he/she is teaching, it becomes hard not to follow their enthusiasm and love it yourself. I don't think that would have been a problem for me, regardless, but it was nice to have a dedicated teacher. But, back to the point. Before this year and my amazing professor, Hamlet would have been my favourite play. But I was introduced to many of Shakespeare's comedies---which I never really had looked into. I'd read most of his tragedies, but had always skipped over the comedies. Not this year--as we had to study them and write papers on them. My favourite comedy we've studied, and that I've read, is Much Ado About Nothing. It is witty and strangely romantic. I loved the characters of Benedick and Beatrice, and their banter with each other. I loved Shakespeare's portrayal of women through Beatrice, who is saucy and authoritative and witty. My favourite quote from that play is  "’As they say, when the age is in, the wit is out." The play is full of hilarious lines such as that. 

Hamlet is still close to being my favourite, because it contains everything that Shakespeare has ever written about: lust, sexual disgust, revenge, madness, murder, fights...just to name a few points. I think that I love Hamlet the character, and that I could possibly be in love with him. He is crazy and a murderer, yes, but that really doesn't surprise me. 

I tend to always cheer for the bad boys in fictional stories. I'm obsessed with Loki from Thor (the comics started my love, although Tom Hiddleston doesn't hurt my affection). Hamlet's madness is explainable and his genuine regret and grief when his love (SPOILER!!!!) Ophelia kills herself because of her own grief. It is in moments of sadness and lamentation that my love for Hamlet as a character grows.  My love of the bad boys has lead me to read the a series by Marie Hall, the Kingdom Series Collection. In which a fairy god-mother finds soul mates for notorious bad boys, like the Mad Hatter (my favourite), or the Big Bad Wolf.  This series satisfies my need for the "bad boy" who really isn't that bad. I love the bad boys with a soft side. Hence my love of Hamlet. 

This is probably one of the most pointless, and random posts I've made. Just the mood that I'm in I guess. Check out all the pieces of literature I mentioned for awesome reads. I'm obsessed with books in general so it shouldn't really be a surprise that my post is about this lol. 



Am I insane? Do you have a favourite Shakespeare play or character?

Love, 
Becca
xoxoxo

Silence Will Fall

Yays!! Everyone crack open something alcoholic in order to celebrate. As of an hour ago I have successfully completed my third year of university. I'm so relieved to be done, it is not even funny. These past few weeks---well this past month really---have turned me into a huge stress ball. But it is done now! So after this weekend break, I will be looking for a job. I've decided that I'm staying here for the summer, so I'll need to find a new job.

Now, that we have all that boring information out of the way, (just in case you guys care what is going on in my life) I can rant about what I really came to discuss. Impossible Astronaut Day.

If you know what I'm talking about, or at least know what the Impossible Astronaut is, you have just gained like a billion notches on my respect pole. But that is besides the point, Impossible Astronaut Day was Tuesday and I celebrated like the nerd girl that I am. It was really simple, actually, just drawing tally marks on your arms, and if you were really hardcore on your face. It was a simple shout out to all the other Whovians out there.

Now, I shall explain in proper English instead of nerd-speak. This was a day celebrating being a fan of an awesome British T.V. show called Doctor Who. Needless to say this show is freaking amazing, and is easily my favourite show of all time, although Sherlock does come in a close second. What can I say, I love me some BBC. But back to Impossible Astronaut Day. This was a day where all the Doctor Who nerds and fans could show their fandom together, which makes me giddy inside just thinking about. It was all over twitter, and I suppose facebook, although I was the only person who participated in my friend group, which was fairly disappointing because some of my friends are huge Doctor Who fans, I guess not as big as me though!

In case you are a Doctor Who fan (not Dr. Who---there is a special place in hell for people who write it that way) I won't give away the importance of the particular series of episodes that deal with these markings, which can be found that the end of Season 6 of the reboot. (the classic Doctor Who was entertaining, but none of the Doctors got my blood boiling, but David Tennant sure did, and I'll admit that Matt Smith is growing on me).

ANYWAYS, the episodes deal with a particular alien called The Silence. These aliens have a defense mechanism where the minute you stop looking at one of them, you forget they exist. In the show they are the bad guys (I won't get into why I hate them), and are trying to harm the Doctor and his companions. SO, in the genius that is the Doctor, they devise a method where every time you see the Silence you draw one tally mark on your arm. It becomes really creepy as the characters suddenly look at their arms and there are a bunch of tally marks on them, telling them that the Silence is all around them. *Shivers* it also doesn't help that the Silence are creepy looking bastards (picture below).

Anyways, I just had to talk about how cool it was that there was an organized Doctor Who day, and that I actually knew about it (i usually miss out on cool things like that because I live under a rock).  I hope I haven't really freaked out anyone with my nerdiness, but if I have I'm not sorry, as that is what you can expect when it comes to reading anything that I write about.

Doctor Who I love you. Especially the 10th Doctor.

SILENCE WILL FALL!!!

xoxox,
Becca

Mr. Pound...

Hello world!

I am still riding the high that I got from seeing my favourite band Billy Talent in concert last night. It was the fourth time I've seen them live, and I was still blown away and amazed. I don't think I will love anything as much as I love that band....perhaps my own children someday, but who knows. Despite the craptastic weather (seriously Spring, wtf?) I made it there with only a few blips in the trip. It was my first time actually busing out to the Scotiabank Place, and it was terrible, as the one bus that took us directly there broke down, and a friend and I had to ask directions and take other buses and walk forever in order to get there though. Thank goodness I decided to leave early.  The concert was well worth the trouble, and even the crazy mosh-pit pushing fest was tolerable. I cried...yep. I cried at a punk rock concert. They played my favourite song "Surrender" and I lost it. I just couldn't help myself. I earned many weird looks from the other concert goers.

That was just a side note, to tell you what has gotten me jazzed. I really needed that concert as a reward after finishing all my essays for the term and as a little break before I get into exams. .

Now, for the real meat and potatoes of this post. In my Reading Poetry course in University, we studied a well known poet named Ezra Pound. I was familiar with a few of his works, mainly his poem "In a Station of the Metro":

In a Station of the Metro

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

I had studied this poem in my grade 12 course on literature. ( I ended up taking three English courses in grade 12, yes I am one of those kids). However, for this Poetry class, we looked at Pound's The Pisan Cantos--which he wrote while imprisoned in a war camp during WW2 (not a concentration camp, but a camp where American or allied soldiers that tried to desert went, to be "refitted" to go back into the trenches). He was an old man at the time, and was put under horrible conditions.
Ohh, I suppose it is worth mentioning that he was put in that prison because he put anti-american propaganda out on a radio station, and he was a huge supporter of Mussolini.
Anywho, in these Pisan Cantos, Pound comes off as crazy and is very difficult to understand. My professor even told us that when Pound set out the work he told critics and people that he didn't expect them to understand him for more than three-five lines of text at a time.  (these Cantos take up an full book). So, in this class we had to write an essay, comparing things and juxtaposing things in Pound's work and we had to determine why he wrote things as he did. It was so tempting to just write "He was crazy" and hand the assignment in, but alas I could not. I'm no where near that brave. So i ended up creating some b.s. about Pound painting himself as an Epic Hero. The ability to bullshit and pull points and arguments out of your ass is a necessary skill for anyone in English, even if just doing a English minor, like I am.

So, in summary: I still love Billy Talent. I hate Ezra Pound and I don't regard him as one of the most amazing poets ever....he is one of my least favourite. He is batshit crazy, and makes things difficult for us poor students expected to understand and analyze his work.

Exam time is on, so my posts might be sparse. I've already wrote one, which I think went really well.

Keep it Classy!!

xoxoxo
Becca

Legal Musings (post 1).

So, long time no see! It's been about a year since I last posted here. I guess I just ran out of things to say. Life gets busy and I feel like I should have better things to do with my time than write on the internet....but sadly my test of my life failed miserably as I realized that I really don't have anything better to do. This is not a promise to write more, but perhaps an explanation.

Now, to the real reason I'm writing this post. As some of you may know, I'm studying Law. This means I look at cases, and through scholarly articles until my eyes bleed. However, today I was informed of a case that made my skin crawl and had me questioning a basis of both the Canadian legal system as well as that of the United States. I live in Canada, for reference.

This particular case was brought to my attention through information about a plea for mercy from a convicted killer in the U.S.A. This man, Steven Smith, raped his girlfriend's 6 month old baby to death, and is pleading for mercy from the death penalty.

While I am not normally a proponent for the Death Penalty, and am glad that Canada abolished it, I feel no remorse for the state wanting to murder this man, as he confessed and the evidence is indisputable.

However, while this is horrible, it is not the part that most piqued my interest. The defense for this monster argued that because Smith was drunk he could not therefore, form the necessary intent to be sentenced to death (as Ohio law requires intent to be a necessity when dealing with the death penalty).  This is the part that interested me. I started thinking about whether in certain cases involving heinous crimes, whether intent should really be relied heavily upon.

Even in Canada's legal system, in order to get a full blown Murder 1 conviction, you have to prove the Mens Rea (the guilty mind) and the Actus Reus (the guilty act). The mens rea of a crime deals with intent, willfulness, planning, etc. While the actus reus is just the act of the crime itself, in this example it would be the rape, and therefore murder of the 6 month old girl, Autumn. Smith and his legal team are arguing that because of his intoxication, Smith could not form the mens rea requirement, yet the jury persecuted him to the extent of the law, as they should.  While I realize that in certain cases where death was accidental the intent of the offender is important, but what can really be accidental in raping a 6 month old. I believe in the legal system there is sometimes too much insistence on the intent of the offender. In Smith's case, whether he intended to kill the child or not should be irrelevant. He was still planning on committing a terrible act to a child, which should have been a foreseeable way to cause death.
I think it is worth mentioning here that this raping, was full blown rape. Penetration included. First of all, what the fuck would posses you to stick your penis inside a 6 month old baby, but that is besides the point.
The test in the legal system is an objective one, and that of a "reasonable person". This test entails the courts looking at what a "reasonable person" aka an everyday ordinary person, what they would do in this situation, or how they would react to a certain situation.
I believe a reasonable person would firstly, not drink until baby rape seems like a good idea, and secondly know that putting your weight on top of a 6 month old for any period of time, (even without the rape part) is a terrible idea. While Smith didn't "intend" to kill this baby, he did intend to rape her and push her face into a pillow to keep her quiet. This is brutal and violent even without the intent of murder. Intent in this case should not be emphasized as a super important part of deciding the severity of the murder charge.In heinous cases such as this I think Intent should take a back seat.   I am pleased that the courts have upheld the case so far, and hope that they continue to look at intent as a perhaps less important factor in this case.

I hope the courts continue to do so, and ignore his last plea for his life. I hope that this intent argument does not fly, as it could set a dangerous precedent. Smith is set for execution on May 1st 2013.

Please keep in mind that this is just my understanding of the case, and the events surrounding it after reading the case itself, and looking at a few news sources.

I can't for the life of me decide if I want Smith to die by the state, or if I want him to instead have to suffer life in prison, as child molesters and child killers generally do not do well in prison. If not for the dangerous precedent for the value of intent that could be set for this case, I would advocate for the later option. So I'll just have to keep watching the case, and swallow my revulsion for this man a little, and attempt to view it with an objective eye...but I already know I won't be able to do that.

Ohh, in case you were wondering, the incident of rape happened in around 1998, and Smith is only coming up for execution now.

Sorry for the morbid topic, but after this was brought to my attention i could not hold in my urge to blog about it. I haven't been this mad since reading about the Stubenville rape case, and more specifically, the media portrayal of that case...but that is a post for another time.

Comment what you think about either the case, or my take on Intent. I realize that I am terribly biased.


Becca
XOXOXO



Case:
State v. Smith, 97 Ohio St.3d 367, 2002-Ohio-6659
News Sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/02/steven-smith-death-sentence_n_2996518.html