On May 6th:

I think this my first post on my day in general; perhaps this is something that should happen more often.

Either way, here is my day:

I met Justin Trudeau at a Liberal "event" (my friend and I were told by a woman, rather condescendingly, that "this isn't an event"). It was very charming; he really was as nice as everyone made him out to be. I met some very kind seniors at the Seniors Centre where it was being held, and some peers who were a part of the Young Liberals (my friend included) and who tried to get me to join.

I suppose this is my first foray into publicly stating my views, so remember that these are completely my own views and do not represent the organizations that I'm a part of (if someone "important" does end up stumbling on this).

I don't know if I will register as a card-carrying Liberal. I really don't know. I was immensely uncomfortable with how the people at the event were so adamant about "creating the Justin brand", which, for all intents and purposes, is about recreating the Liberal brand as a personality cult, which is not only wrong, but so dangerous for the Liberal party. I know I'm mimicking certain pundits when I talk about this danger, but it's hard to ignore when Tom Mulcair's NDP (in the wake of Jack Layton's personality cult) is staring us all in the face.
However, the idea that the Liberal policy will be built from a grassroots level is absolutely delicious-- it's this ideal of participatory democracy that's so lacking in the Harper government that really intrigues me, and is really enticing me to join.

I chatted with our Ward Councillor (Marianne Wilkinson) while we were waiting for the event, and she told me to remember that a membership was not for life (and that's a valuable way to build connections).

I'll update you all on my decision, but either way, it won't be easy. I've long believed that it's better to be multi-partisan, but it's worth a try, right?

My friend Benet, JT, and I.

Then I came home and played Pokemon Emerald for five hours. I'm not going to comment any more on this because I'm stuck at a certain gym and I am literally so frustrated I aksdjfaksdjf

(I'm very much out of Poke-shape.)

And finally, my family learned today that we were the victims of a home invasion-- by ants.

We discovered this today when my grandparents started noticing ants crawling around the front door. At first, we just thought they had been getting through the open door, but then we found a whole bunch in the study that debunked that idea because it was much too far away from the front door. 

Throughout the afternoon and evening, we squished ants (individually, I might add) and swept around the infected areas, and my father and I went to Canadian Tire to buy some Raid. It turns out that we bought a shitty version that'll take a few days to work because it actually requires the ants to take them back to their colonies and feed each other the Raid. 

My mom poured boiling water down a massive colony/hole/home of ants I found close to the front entrance and the area became a scene of complete carnage. 

(Warning: graphic ant photo)

Those little specks of dirt are actually ant bodies. What a gorefest.

Anyway, thanks to the internet, we're trying Windex on the ants to kill them, but I'm not sure if they're being affected by the toxins or if they're being drowned. 

How do we get rid of ants?

My best friend just alerted me that comments are disabled. I have no idea how to enable them, so I'll be fiddling around with blogger.

Help please?

On my favourite adjective:

Everyone has that list of adjectives stowed somewhere in the back of their brains that describe them-- you know the one I'm talking about. The one that you pull out when the interviewer asks you to describe yourself, or the one you use on your twitter profile.

Some people have their favourite adjectives, adjectives that they strive to be, adjectives that, in their fantasy moments, they want their favourite eloquent writer to use in describing them.

I've had many adjectives thrown at me over the years, both gently and full force. I don't rightly know which ones fit and which ones don't, though I think they all kind of do in one way or another.

My favourite adjective, one that I'd love to have attributed to me, and that I consider to be the most gorgeous, would be lovely.

Dictionary.com describes lovely as "of a great moral or spiritual beauty" or "having a beauty that appeals to the heart or mind as well as to the eye, as a person or a face", but I see it as more, or it's always appeared as more in my mind. In searching lovely's etymology, love comes from the Old English word "lufu", which means "love, affection and friendliness", with the suffix "-ly" denoting "having qualities of, appropriate to, fitting".

So perhaps something more akin to "having qualities of love", or similar to love-- "-ly" is used frequently to describe how something is done ("weakly", "thankfully").

But I think of lovely as a word that implies the evocation of love: when you describe something as "lovely", you speak of it as something that inspires love for it, and maybe for the things around it.

To me, I feel a few complimentary adjectives are fleeting, backhandedly offensive-- "pretty", "handsome", "gorgeous" are all words that are attributed to outside looks, which fade. Beauty comes and goes, and there is a standard of facial structure, body mass that is wordlessly attributed to these words.

But lovely implies that you are lovable in spite of being damaged, broken, not necessarily beautiful, unimaginative, blunt, unsure, lost. It is in spite of everything that you are and that you aren't, you are still lovable, capable of evoking love.

What's your favourite adjective?

A.

On Sailor Moon:

After a stressful semester/exam period, there's nothing I like better than sleeping in and watching my cherished childhood cartoons/animes so I can regress and attempt to erase the horrors of exam-week madness from my mind (in addition to Comic Alliance's demise, RIP, which I will also write about later).

This semester led to Sailor Moon, for no particular reason at all. Well, considering the fact that I only ever watched three animes probably didn't help the odds, and the new SM anime that was supposed to come out this summer probably subconsciously influenced my decision.

But for a manga/anime franchise that is around 20 years old, there is still so much fun, beauty, and relevance in its story arcs, themes and characters. I realize there are imperfections (what show doesn't): it's extremely corny, follows the exact same narrative structure for each episode, and I've always been uncomfortable with how the show gives Usagi all the power. And the English Dub-- I cannot watch a single Sailor Moon episode in English because all the emotions are so contrived- everything's been forced into a soap opera (that's why I refer to the characters by their Japanese names because that's all they'll be in my head).

But there is so much to love about the series... I love the way they encourage young viewers to be themselves, the way the entire series revolves around the power of friendship, and how important it is to love.

There's so much diversity in the characters, and not just in sexual orientation or body shape, but in their personalities and dreams. All of the senshi are completely round characters, and they each house these intense conflicting qualities, like in real life, but the dichotomy is accepted and appreciated in the series-- they are more than the senshi they transform into, and they are more the students that they transform out of.

Take Makoto, for instance. Sailor Jupiter. She's introduced in the series as  this physically menacing figure who transferred schools after beating people up. Makoto transfers to Usagi's school, where they become friends, and she is revealed to be Sailor Jupiter and the audience gets to learn much more about her-- in reality, she is an immensely soft, romantic and feminine character, who loves to cook, and dreams about a "senpai" to marry and be housewife to. Such a difference from her outward appearance, and such a powerful figure, both physically and internally.

Passing over outward appearances, we often see the inner senshi (Makoto, Minako, Ami, Rei, Usagi) idly gossiping, going shopping, hanging out at the Crown, just generally doing normal teenage girl things; they like to be in their depowered forms. It should be noted that they always stay in their civilian forms until the last possible moment (usually the behest of the cats, or when they're in "grave" danger), and how they keep the identities so separate from each other, only addressing each other by "Sailor ____" instead of their actual names. It should be noted that when Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask "re-awaken" in episodes 45-whatever, they refer to each other as "Usagi" and "Mamoru", not "Endymion" or "Serenity" from their past lives or even worse, "Tuxedo Mask" or "Sailor Moon"-- their love is for each other, as people, and not for their past identity or their facade. There is this dichotomy of having two people living inside one body, like a superhero, but there's always the question of whether the identity is the disguise or if the disguise is identity. I know multiple people have heard me made the argument that Bruce Wayne is Batman's disguise, but we see here that the Sailor titles are truly these girls' disguises, and that they value their persons more than their powers. 

But we still see the senshi completely embracing their other civilian and senshi identities, often discussing their enemies while in civilian form, or even being their goofy selves as senshi, especially with Usagi. I'm not sure about anyone else, but I've always had the uncomfortable feeling of having multiple identities/masks (the one you show to the public, the one to the private, etc.) and being sometimes unsure of which one is the real one. The seepage between their various masks comforting because it infers that your personality, your "you" is a mix of all these identities together-- you are not just one mask. You are many. And that's okay. 

They're still complete goofballs

Regardless of form. 

I also love the Super S season of Sailor Moon, though everyone seems to hate it because of Chibiusa (whatever, I've always loved the familial interaction between the Chiba-Tsukino family but haters gonna hate). That's not the reason why I love it: I love it because of the dream aspect. Essentially the bad guys are searching for beautiful dreams in which they'll find Pegasus, but they target every sort of dream imaginable-- dreams of completing a Masters in Europe, of being a Japanese swordswoman, and to find a prince to dance with and marry. The inclusion of such a diverse range of hopes and dreams is inspiring to see because they infer that every dream is important, regardless of whether it requires more practice, more brains, or more hope-- no dream is useless, every dream is beautiful. 

The series is focuses so intensely on the idea of friendship, and the ties that bind. There are so many instances through the entire series that really highlights how this love saves these characters from themselves and help each other. The most notable example would be Usagi, obviously, for the four inner senshi, in that she adds to their lives and helps them find happiness (especially seen in all those cut scenes in the first Sailor Moon movie when the inner senshi are thinking of how much Usagi really means to them as a friend). When I was younger, I always thought the show was unfair in that the show's limelight was always given to Sailor Moon, and that she was the one who was got to use the cool weapons and had the best powers, but she requires the entire cast (both the powers of the inner and outer senshi) to create the Grail to become Super Sailor Moon. 

Emotionally, Sailor Moon is utterly useless without her supporting cast. In every single occurrence where she was required to defeat the enemy, she was only able to do it if her friends were with her, emotionally or physically, or if it's to save one of her friends (reference the last episode of the first season, or when she goes into the crazy fucking maelstrom where Sailor Saturn goes to sacrifice herself). I personally always enjoy the episode where all the characters are interacting together and we are able to see the interplay of relationship and differences in personality-- that's another reason why I always like Super S, because it literally is a giant family having fun. The power of their friendships are what give each other physical power. 

Anyways, I'm off to give in to my urges and watch the S Movie (Hearts in Ice). I might pick up on the subject again later. 

Do you have a favourite childhood program that really speaks to you? 

A. 

P.S. My favourite senshi is Haruka Tenou (Sailor Uranus).