Movies

Movies are magical creations and can transport us to different worlds. Movies can make us feel good, or they can make us feel bad. Sometimes movies can scare us and other times make us laugh. The good thing about movies is that they come in many different lengths and genres meaning they could suit anybody. You have documentaries, comedies, sci-fi films, chick flicks (sorry for sounding so colloquial), Romances or even a western. Of course, there are also many other genres out there (like Anime) but if I listed them all we would be here for days. Personally I enjoy movies as they allow me to escape somewhere I have never been before, even if just for an hour or two. Of course, not all movies are good and some of them make us wish we could have our time back. A good example of a movie like this was the movie called "The Tree of Life" which I think starred Brad Pitt. Some of the critics were saying how great the movie was and how deep and entertaining it was and while I was watching I actually fell asleep. It was utter crap in my opinion but still, some people like that kind of movie which is why I say they appeal to everybody, although people will certainly not always like the same thing.

Image Source: http://publicimageafrica.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/out-and-about-at-movies.html

Sometimes movies are made based on books, 'true' events, manga or some other type of text. Sometimes the film adaptation is a whole lot better than the original (not that I can think of any off the top of my head), some of them were on the same par as the original (like Beautiful Creatures) and some of them are just plain horrible. Sometimes film-makers try to stretch out an already over-stretched film franchise and it is just one of those things you go to see knowing you won't enjoy it but you still want to go. You would not believe how many times that has happened to me, although (admittedly) sometimes I do enjoy myself and pretend not to so I don't embarrass myself. Basically, I like films when they are good and to my liking. Sometimes film franchises are really successful (like James Bond or Harry Potter) and you can not wait to see the next one. Those are the sort of movies I like as they have a continuation rather than just one movie and that is it. I like to find out what happens after the resolution. It's probably the reason why I like vlogs on YouTube; I like to see how people's lives turn out but not in a stalker-ish fashion (that's right, over 100 posts and I'm still making up words). Movies, for me, are a wonderful invention and I wonder what our World would be like without them.

Be sure to be mindful of other cinema-goers, see you tomorrow!

Fanfiction

Continuing on with the theme of writing I just want to point out fan fiction to you. Fan fiction is a story (often about well-known people like celebrities, books, movies or television shows) that is written by fans [just in case you did not get that from the prefix]. Some of them are really well-written and very descriptive. They can often give you an insight into someone else's interpretation of a book and may even shed light on something subtle you may have missed. Sometimes it even continues the story the way fans want it to. The best part about it is that these people who write it are doing it for free and so are writing what they are passionate about. It really is amazing.

Image Source: http://www.insomniverse.net/csifanfiction.html

Sometimes when I'm bored I might just Google Hunger Games fan fiction or something similar and thousands of results pop up. There are whole sites like http://www.fanfiction.net/ which are full of millions (literally millions) of stories written by fans. Sometimes they can continue a story you may have really loved. Sometimes they are good and sometimes they are really bad. Fan fiction is just one of many ways for people to get their writing out there and some of it is publishing quality. The best part about it, as I already said, is that these people are writing it purely because they want to and are passionate about it. It really brings out the true creativity of a person because it isn't a chore and they can stop whenever they want because it is their writing, their rules and what they want. Some people do not like writing blogs and so turn to the casual writing of fan fiction.

Image Source: 

http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/random/articles/200526/title/harry-potter-hunger-games-fanfiction-d

In the world of fan fiction anything goes. There are no publishers or editors telling you to change anything. It is purely what you want when you want it. It also allows people to express themselves in writing and enjoy writing stories about their favourite book characters. Stories like this would never otherwise be published because it would be copyright on the original author of the source series. Some fan fictions out-shine their original counterparts and can even create a mix of two different series others would not think of. A great example of this is "The Potter Games" (as pictured above) which is a mix of Harry Potter and  The Hunger Games. There is actually a site called The Potter Games (I'm not sure if it is the same thing as pictured above) where you read a paragraph and at the bottom there are choices you make and each choice continues on to a different story line so it is like one of those choose-your-own-adventure books. That is one of the advantages of the online world, you can easily do this just by creating a hyperlink to a new page. It is also one of the reasons I love fan fiction. If you have not ever read any fan fiction then I really recommend you should because they are fantastic!

Image Source: http://www.outpost-daria.com/fan_fiction.html

May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!

Books

Books open up gateways to other worlds and take us to places we couldn't dream of otherwise. Books are important in our world and provide us with entertainment as well as memories. We hold an emotional attachment to books, some more than others. Books are magical creations and it takes a skilled author to bring a world in a book alive.

Books are great sources of entertainment and can often remind people of fond times long since past. What do most people do when the power goes out or they get sick of watching television? They reach for a book. Books are always ready to transport us to far away lands and give us insights into cultures and people we otherwise have never experienced. Books are also good as they can contain information and vocabulary that will assist in education. Books are versatile and come in many categories, shapes and sizes. There are adventure books, comedies, romances and mysteries. There are large books, small books, round books and square books. Books that contain facts and books that contain fiction. There are so many different books around us and it takes a curious mind to uncover them (I totally just ripped off an advertisement just then, comment down below on what advertisement you think I copied). People often associate books with memories. Personally, I relate reading "Where's Wally" with happy car-trips with my family when I was young. Others may relate other books to past experiences in their lives. Books hold an emotional connection with people and it isn't until we look back that we realise this.

Often people hold emotional attachments to books and grow to love the characters within them. Sometimes these connections can stem out into obsessions (like Twilight or Harry Potter but not The Hunger Games [you can never be too obsessed with The Hunger Games]). These emotional connections can cause passion about a book and often we can begin to feel empathy for the character we are reading about. We may start to grow feelings of hatred against the antagonist, or feelings of love towards the characters families. Sometimes we even get upset when something sad happens to characters. Marley and Me is a great example of this. I grew an emotional attachment to Marley and so I got upset when, in the end, Marley got sick (especially in the movie, I was actually crying a little) and had to be put down. It is times like these that you realise how skilled the author must be to be able to hook a reader in and have them grow emphatic feelings towards the characters. Good authors are adept at doing this and a great book is one that hooks you in and doesn't let you go until the last word.

May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!

Causing Offence

Causing offence is really easy today. Hell, it's highly probably causing offence right now (especially since I used the 'h' word, you know 'high'). People just need to toughen up (I said 'up', woops) sometimes because they are taking offence to everything. There are, of course, some things that are genuinely offensive and I can see how they get offended. Then there are the people who just go through sites like Facebook looking to be offended. Finally, there are just those people who get offended at everything and it is easier not to say anything so that people don't get offended.

First, the things that are clearly offensive. These are the posts, images and pages going around the internet that are clearly offensive and intended to cause offense. These can be anti-muslim (or any other religion, that was just the easiest term to put "anti-" in front of), sexist or any other offensive thing. Sometimes they are about religion or views but they can often be on interests (such as film, entertainment or games). These can be in the form of a direct attack (like "Harry Potter is crap and it's fans are stupid") or a subtle attack (like "The new union strikes are really stupid, like the boy with the lightning scar"). Sometimes these can offend a large number of people or it just offends a particular group (such as the Harry Potter Fandom).

Now there are the people that seem to go looking to be offended. These are the people who go on Facebook and look through pages that are going to offend them. So if they were a fan of Harry Potter they would go searching through anti-Harry Potter (I chose Harry Potter because it is the 11th most liked page on Facebook [as of January 2013] and shouldn't offend as many people as if I chose the KKK as an example) Pages and would then get really offended and be one of those people who comment on the post to share their anger at it. It is just a bit weird that people go looking to get offended and then complain because they are. It's just a little infuriating some times when you read these comments (besides the fact that they cause an interesting 'debate') and it just takes up some space in the comments section.

Finally there are those things that shouldn't offend anyone but somehow do. I saw a post that was literally "..." and then people in the comments section were having a giant debate about how offensive it was and I just kept scrolling before I lost my mind. Then there was a person who made a post about how the sky was a deep blue and then someone in the comments had a full-out argument saying something about someone dying and it being related to the colour blue (a person hadn't actually died and it was just an analogy, a stupid one). Again, sometimes I'm amazed I haven't lost my faith in humanity yet. I have learnt that some people are incredibly stupid and it just goes to show that even the most innocent of posts can be offensive in some way. Some people just seem to love being offended and sometimes it is just way too easy to cause offence. Some people just need to learn some resilience.

May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!