Voluntary Words Meme
23minus12 gave me 7 words/subjects to write about. If you want, you can request in the comments and I'll give you 7 things to write about too!
Your words: Birds, comics, internet, Pokemon, home, colors, and music.
Birds:
With a few exceptions most people do like birds on some level, once you remind them that in addition to house sparrows, pigeons, and "seagulls" there are also eagles, penguins, parrots, and birds-of-paradise. The sad thing is, most people take birds for granted. They don't realize what lovely, charismatic little jewels they are missing simply because they have never taken the time to look for them - or worse, because they've accepted some kind of stereotype that certain birds are "good" or "bad". There are around 10,000 species of birds in the world. Most of them are actually NOT identical-looking drab brown things. Depending on where you live there may be dozens, scores, or even HUNDREDS of species found in the area around your home. Unlike a lot of other living things birds are not hard to find, observe, and identify - it just takes a little patience, knowledge, and a willingness to look at commonplace things with new eyes. On a personal level, bird watching is one of the things which I consider to have helped me with overcoming much of my depression and anxiety. It gets me outside (both physically and emotionally) and focused on something that's calming and happy and offers the hope of experiencing something lovely and new every time. It doesn't require a lot of work. There's no insecurity involved. There's just birds. I think more people should give thought to the hobby of bird-watching on account of these benefits. You don't have to be a crazy globe-trotter like me - but chances are if you learn to love birds you may WANT to!
Okay I'll end this here because I can literally talk about birds ALL DAY. >_>
Comics: Confession: I don't actually read any mainstream comic books. I know a heck of a lot about Batman, but I don't think I've actually read any Batman books myself. I don't know how this works. I prefer indie comics, naturally. But I haven't read a whole lot of those either. Just a few series like Bone and Scott Pilgrim and whatever the libraries had. There were books I could have read but didn't because I was too chicken or they looked boring. I don't know. I was really weird about books - and probably still am. It's weird because I don't like reading scanned comics on the computer very well (hence I've not read much manga, either) but I am absolutely PEACHY with reading webcomics! I've definitely read more webcomics than anything else. I dunno why they are somehow more accessible to me... Perhaps because they're free and it takes longer to read them and therefore I wind up caring more about them? I dunno. I love how many more well-drawn comics there are online these days. And I love how the medium allows me to read comics that lack professional polish but are still amazing. Watching an artist improve is always great (Check out http://wintersinlavelle.com for a good example of this!). Of course, my own ambition is to draw great comics. It's like it's in my blood somehow. Comics are a good fit for me because I'm a writer who has no patience for writing descriptions, and an artist who prefers to draw character-based art rather than topic-based art. I used to draw tons of stapled-together comic books when I was a kid. Now here I am looking forward to having printed volumes of my current work. I don't think I can actually make money doing this, but it is what I love doing so I'm okay with that.
Internet: I met my spouse and nearly all of my friends on the internet. I would not be the person I am today without it. The internet is big and ugly and full of THINGS. A large percentage of those things are poorly-drawn Sonic porn, but hey it's whatever. I wouldn't really have it any other way. I want the internet protected from meddling by governments and corporations. It may be too late for that. The internet may fracture as some parts are forced underground while others strive to maintain legality for all the moms on facebook and whatnot. I don't know if the free internet can ever be like it once was, but I don't think they can put the genie back in the bottle. A connected world is probably here to stay. What form it takes is another matter entirely.
Pokemon: I'm the weirdest Pokemon fan. I'm more than old enough to be the biggest "Pokemon Hipster" in the world, but I'm not. I was not able to like Pokemon when I was young. I didn't start liking it until I was about 24 years old. Pokemon appeals to me because it's easy enough to not frustrate me as a game, but challenging enough to hold my interest. Unlike many video games it features CUTE ANIMALS rather than scary or ugly monsters (even the scary-looking pokemons are generally more majestic than they are terrifying). Since Zoo Tycoon is dead Pokemon is my new game of choice (Actually Zoo Tycoon is STILL my game of choice, but, well, all good things must come to an end, I guess). I'm still not like some HUGE fan - I just like the games, mostly, though the "Best Wishes" anime is decent. Unlike most people my age I LIKE the 5th gen. I don't really have a bunch of strong opinions about Pokemon, I guess. It's just a fun and relaxing game to play and it lets me connect with my younger siblings in a way I never could before.
Home: Where is my home? In a way I suppose it will always relate to where I grew up, since I lived in the same house for all but the first few years of my childhood. But other than that, home is wherever I live now. Home is with Devon. Home is where I can feel safe and relax and be myself. I've lived in a hotel, and that was "home" for a while. I lived with my grandparents for a while in 2009 but that didn't feel like home because it wasn't MY OWN place and Devon wasn't there. I lived in an apartment with my sister in 2010 and that DID sort of feel like home because I was comfortable there - even though it lacked Devon. Devon didn't live in the same house his whole childhood, so he has even less connection to a past "home" than I do. I dunno. It's a weird thing.
Colors: FRICKIN RAINBOWS, MAN. RAINBOWS. I used to have to resist the urge to use EVERY COLOR in every picture I drew. Sometimes I still do. Rainbows, man. Pretty much the best thing. The more colors something has the more dramatically I respond to it. I don't have a favorite color - unless you count black. All colors are necessary. I need them in my life. I used to go into the aisle at Wal-mart that had all the bath towels lined up by color. It was like a drug, to me. If I have to sort things I often arrange them by color in rainbolical order. I know that's not a real word, but it is the word I have always used in my head. Maybe my obsession with colors has something to do with why I love birds so much? Rainbows.
Music: I was a real jerk about music up until a couple of years ago. I may still be a jerk about it in very particular ways, but these days it's mostly just for the sake of being contrarian. I have learned to like what I like and to like a lot of what other people like, too. I like old music and new music pretty equally. The music I listened to as a kid/teen holds a LOT less appeal to me than it does for most people - probably because I was only supposed to like Christian stuff back then and some of that stuff has NOT held up well. I'm not going to go around saying "I can't stand this genre of music!" because it's actually NOT TRUE. Maybe I don't like the bulk of it, maybe there are particular variations or sub-genres that I actually more or less hate. Maybe I just disagree with the message or the mentality of the fans. But there are country songs I like. There are certain flavors of hip-hop that I actually quite enjoy. I love metal SO MUCH but unfortunately the stuff that is famous is usually the WORST of that genre, for reasons that elude me. Punk is still cool, but I admit that now that I'm on the other side of 25 it's not as appealing as it once was - but I think that has to do with my appreciation of ARTISTRY more than anything. Part of growing up is being okay with admitting to yourself that some of the music you like it kinda lame but it's okay to love it anyway (I am looking at you, Synthpop). I listen to stuff now that young me could probably not have tolerated - but I listen to a lot of other stuff that young me would have absolutely eaten up. The thing is, I love music. I love it more than most people who are fans of bands or artists - because I don't actually care WHO makes the music, I just know what I like.
Oh, but I still think Radiohead is overrated. ;)
THE END.
Your words: Birds, comics, internet, Pokemon, home, colors, and music.
Birds:
With a few exceptions most people do like birds on some level, once you remind them that in addition to house sparrows, pigeons, and "seagulls" there are also eagles, penguins, parrots, and birds-of-paradise. The sad thing is, most people take birds for granted. They don't realize what lovely, charismatic little jewels they are missing simply because they have never taken the time to look for them - or worse, because they've accepted some kind of stereotype that certain birds are "good" or "bad". There are around 10,000 species of birds in the world. Most of them are actually NOT identical-looking drab brown things. Depending on where you live there may be dozens, scores, or even HUNDREDS of species found in the area around your home. Unlike a lot of other living things birds are not hard to find, observe, and identify - it just takes a little patience, knowledge, and a willingness to look at commonplace things with new eyes. On a personal level, bird watching is one of the things which I consider to have helped me with overcoming much of my depression and anxiety. It gets me outside (both physically and emotionally) and focused on something that's calming and happy and offers the hope of experiencing something lovely and new every time. It doesn't require a lot of work. There's no insecurity involved. There's just birds. I think more people should give thought to the hobby of bird-watching on account of these benefits. You don't have to be a crazy globe-trotter like me - but chances are if you learn to love birds you may WANT to!
Okay I'll end this here because I can literally talk about birds ALL DAY. >_>
Comics: Confession: I don't actually read any mainstream comic books. I know a heck of a lot about Batman, but I don't think I've actually read any Batman books myself. I don't know how this works. I prefer indie comics, naturally. But I haven't read a whole lot of those either. Just a few series like Bone and Scott Pilgrim and whatever the libraries had. There were books I could have read but didn't because I was too chicken or they looked boring. I don't know. I was really weird about books - and probably still am. It's weird because I don't like reading scanned comics on the computer very well (hence I've not read much manga, either) but I am absolutely PEACHY with reading webcomics! I've definitely read more webcomics than anything else. I dunno why they are somehow more accessible to me... Perhaps because they're free and it takes longer to read them and therefore I wind up caring more about them? I dunno. I love how many more well-drawn comics there are online these days. And I love how the medium allows me to read comics that lack professional polish but are still amazing. Watching an artist improve is always great (Check out http://wintersinlavelle.com for a good example of this!). Of course, my own ambition is to draw great comics. It's like it's in my blood somehow. Comics are a good fit for me because I'm a writer who has no patience for writing descriptions, and an artist who prefers to draw character-based art rather than topic-based art. I used to draw tons of stapled-together comic books when I was a kid. Now here I am looking forward to having printed volumes of my current work. I don't think I can actually make money doing this, but it is what I love doing so I'm okay with that.
Internet: I met my spouse and nearly all of my friends on the internet. I would not be the person I am today without it. The internet is big and ugly and full of THINGS. A large percentage of those things are poorly-drawn Sonic porn, but hey it's whatever. I wouldn't really have it any other way. I want the internet protected from meddling by governments and corporations. It may be too late for that. The internet may fracture as some parts are forced underground while others strive to maintain legality for all the moms on facebook and whatnot. I don't know if the free internet can ever be like it once was, but I don't think they can put the genie back in the bottle. A connected world is probably here to stay. What form it takes is another matter entirely.
Pokemon: I'm the weirdest Pokemon fan. I'm more than old enough to be the biggest "Pokemon Hipster" in the world, but I'm not. I was not able to like Pokemon when I was young. I didn't start liking it until I was about 24 years old. Pokemon appeals to me because it's easy enough to not frustrate me as a game, but challenging enough to hold my interest. Unlike many video games it features CUTE ANIMALS rather than scary or ugly monsters (even the scary-looking pokemons are generally more majestic than they are terrifying). Since Zoo Tycoon is dead Pokemon is my new game of choice (Actually Zoo Tycoon is STILL my game of choice, but, well, all good things must come to an end, I guess). I'm still not like some HUGE fan - I just like the games, mostly, though the "Best Wishes" anime is decent. Unlike most people my age I LIKE the 5th gen. I don't really have a bunch of strong opinions about Pokemon, I guess. It's just a fun and relaxing game to play and it lets me connect with my younger siblings in a way I never could before.
Home: Where is my home? In a way I suppose it will always relate to where I grew up, since I lived in the same house for all but the first few years of my childhood. But other than that, home is wherever I live now. Home is with Devon. Home is where I can feel safe and relax and be myself. I've lived in a hotel, and that was "home" for a while. I lived with my grandparents for a while in 2009 but that didn't feel like home because it wasn't MY OWN place and Devon wasn't there. I lived in an apartment with my sister in 2010 and that DID sort of feel like home because I was comfortable there - even though it lacked Devon. Devon didn't live in the same house his whole childhood, so he has even less connection to a past "home" than I do. I dunno. It's a weird thing.
Colors: FRICKIN RAINBOWS, MAN. RAINBOWS. I used to have to resist the urge to use EVERY COLOR in every picture I drew. Sometimes I still do. Rainbows, man. Pretty much the best thing. The more colors something has the more dramatically I respond to it. I don't have a favorite color - unless you count black. All colors are necessary. I need them in my life. I used to go into the aisle at Wal-mart that had all the bath towels lined up by color. It was like a drug, to me. If I have to sort things I often arrange them by color in rainbolical order. I know that's not a real word, but it is the word I have always used in my head. Maybe my obsession with colors has something to do with why I love birds so much? Rainbows.
Music: I was a real jerk about music up until a couple of years ago. I may still be a jerk about it in very particular ways, but these days it's mostly just for the sake of being contrarian. I have learned to like what I like and to like a lot of what other people like, too. I like old music and new music pretty equally. The music I listened to as a kid/teen holds a LOT less appeal to me than it does for most people - probably because I was only supposed to like Christian stuff back then and some of that stuff has NOT held up well. I'm not going to go around saying "I can't stand this genre of music!" because it's actually NOT TRUE. Maybe I don't like the bulk of it, maybe there are particular variations or sub-genres that I actually more or less hate. Maybe I just disagree with the message or the mentality of the fans. But there are country songs I like. There are certain flavors of hip-hop that I actually quite enjoy. I love metal SO MUCH but unfortunately the stuff that is famous is usually the WORST of that genre, for reasons that elude me. Punk is still cool, but I admit that now that I'm on the other side of 25 it's not as appealing as it once was - but I think that has to do with my appreciation of ARTISTRY more than anything. Part of growing up is being okay with admitting to yourself that some of the music you like it kinda lame but it's okay to love it anyway (I am looking at you, Synthpop). I listen to stuff now that young me could probably not have tolerated - but I listen to a lot of other stuff that young me would have absolutely eaten up. The thing is, I love music. I love it more than most people who are fans of bands or artists - because I don't actually care WHO makes the music, I just know what I like.
Oh, but I still think Radiohead is overrated. ;)
THE END.