gay comment in ABC Family movie

I watched ABC Family’s Princess last night. The movie was all right. Nothing spectacular because hey, it was a tv movie, and a family one at that. My favorite part was probably Ithaca’s clothes. XD;

I almost forgot to watch it, even though I’d been planning to watch it since commercials aired in March. Luckily Hidek had to go work in his studio so I made dinner late and caught the movie ten minutes in.

(Spoiler, sort of.) One thing I wonder about, plot-wise, is if Ithaca is 25 and the girl is somewhere in her teens (I assume 15+ but I’m not a good judge of age), then how the heck is that workable? Calliope (the girl) would go through all that training, then in ten years her rule is up, and they need to find the next girl? What? Ithaca was found at 5 … correct? So she had her powers for 20 years. Maybe what’s-his-face (sorry can’t remember his name … William?) was supposed to be searching for those 20 years for the next girl? Or at least 15 or whatever years, however old Calliope is. But then he’s only in his 20s himself, so he would have begun searching at 10? What was that whole thing about seekers being old? (End of spoiler.)

I don’t know, I shouldn’t bother with the little things, it was only a tv movie. *grin*

The big thing I do want to complain about is a comment made by the character William. Remember, I didn’t see the first ten minutes of the movie the first time around, so I watched the rerun at 10 o’clock.

The reporter friend guy gets the invitation to Ithaca’s dinner thing in the mail and his wife says he and William should go, since she’s so very pregnant and can’t fit into any sort of nice evening gown. Then William says (paraphrasing), “Sure, like two guys going to a ball isn’t gay.” What?!

The comment itself isn’t what’s bugging me, it wasn’t that bad (right? I’m not underreacting, am I?). But I do hate that this is a movie airing on ABC Family, so probably kids as young as … 8? could be watching it. I don’t care that William used the word “gay” when kids are watching, but I can’t stand that he used it in that joking, derogatory manner.

Maybe I’m overreacting about this and gays have become so much a part of the norm we can joke about them now…? But it still creates this idea for kids that it’s okay to say things like that! They might say it around other kids, who might or might not be gay, and those kids will feel … however they feel. Marginalized?

:x Sorry, my brain’s shutting down now … this is why I suck at blogging. Argh.

Closing statement … stupid Disney is still furthering a world where gays are seen as bad and can be shot or tortured. Am I going too far there? Oh yeah.

a thought

(I’m writing down notes from 202 at the moment.)

I just had a thought. Back when they first came out with cameras, even back when they had only pinhole cameras, did anyone ever think that there would be something that could take the picture for you? i.e. point-and-shoot cameras. No need to understand aperture and shutter speed (thank the good Lord :b), just hit a button and you’ve got a fairly nice image. Much better than pinhole camera results, at least, and in much less time.

But then, I suppose it’s like me thinking of cars driving us around in the future. I can’t imagine it. I just don’t know how it would work. Computers, yes, but … someone else’ll have to figure it out. I don’t see it happening, really.

Aly & AJ

Huh, talk about a delayed reaction …

I was listening to Aly & AJ’s song “Not This Year” on their album Acoustic Hearts of Christmas. It just made me really sad and I felt like crying. ^^;; The song is about one Christmas they had after their Grandmother (? I don’t really remember) passed away and they just weren’t in the mood for celebrating.

Then there was that moment at Thanksgiving … weird. I don’t know. I’d just never given it a thought before. I just took it at face value that she isn’t around (in flesh and blood) any more. But now it’s like, oh yeah, she’s not here.

Eh, it’s probably because I’ve been thinking about other sad things, and it all just culminated with that song.

Another song on that CD that I enjoy (don’t get me wrong, I think “Not This Year” is a really good song, maybe perhaps the best song [to me] on the album) is “Let It Snow.” It’s so different! I’ve never heard a version of the song like this one. XD They use bongos and some guitar-ish instrument on it, and it kinda sounds like it’s taking place on a tropical island. And they’re singing about snow. I love it! XD

Borders trip and journals

As mentioned in the previous entry, I went with Hidek to Borders. I was going to buy a mag to get one last example of a grid for my art class, but I forgot to check natalieportman.com to see if she was in any new mags. (She isn’t. I guess she’s really busy working now.) Didn’t know if Evanescence was in any magazine out now either. So I didn’t buy any magazines.

I was looking at this one mag, I forget what it’s called… It’s about (I don’t even know the word) modifying/editing/cutting up/accentuating/something your clothes. I was gonna buy it, but it’s $14. ACK! There was also this drawing magazine that looked interesting (despite my lack of drawing as of late), but that was expensive too, $12, so I didn’t get it. *tear*

(I have, or had, $60 allowance [four weeks’ worth, since I won’t be home for a while], I spent $16.08 on a CD with ten songs on it [but it ended up being worth it XD], and I still need to buy Christmas presents. I won’t actually need all my allowance, but I also want to go on a clothes shopping spree since I haven’t really bought anything since spring [tank tops absolutely don’t count], and I’m thinking of spending my Christmas money on a GBA SP since the DS doesn’t play Gameboy games and I don’t like GBA games sticking out at the bottom and I don’t know why but the D-pad on the DS Lite doesn’t work for me. Either it’s too small or my thumb is too fat or maybe there isn’t enough height to it; I just find myself working a lot more to move around than I would on, say, the N64 D-pad. [I think my favorite D-pad would be on the Super NES uber-tastic controller, whatever it’s called, the one with all the little switches on the top. I don’t like the Gamecube’s, just because you have to reach so far over to get to it.] Wow I’m being really rambly and long-sentence-winded. Too much caffeine! O_O But back to the original point of this parenthetical aside, that’s why I didn’t want to buy the magazines. Or what I’m mentioning next.)

After that I looked at the notebooks Borders has (no Moleskines, curse Barnes & Noble!). I really really really like journals … I remember the first one I bought. It was one of those cheap ones with a plastic cover and tabs for a lock to go through. (Apparently at that age, no one would think of just tearing the plastic tabs off.) The pages would fall out after a few turns, too. I bought it at a … thing, I forget what it’s called; it was at my elementary school, where all these cheap (but some nice) things would be brought to the cafetorium for kids to buy for the winter holidays as gifts, and where I would end up spending half my money on myself. XD;;

I don’t think I’ve bought a nice journal for myself since then. (I never used that journal either. I think I wrote a short entry on the first page, but lost interest after that page fell out.) I’ve bought boring notebooks at Staples or whatever office supply store. I bought a sketchbook at Michael’s (made from recycled paper, of course). Also bought a blank “Sketchbook” (with the big “S”) from Borders for a multimedia class (it was required for a journal, but I never kept it up *shame*).

Even so, I’ve discovered that I really like journals. I suppose I’ve said it elsewhere, but I just like the potential of creation that these things symbolize (to me). I’d love to buy a nice blank journal and fill it up with anything that I deem worthy. The problem is I don’t have anything I deem worthy of going in a storehouse of creativity. (“Anything” would be thoughts, doodles, sketches, poems, lines, ideas, anything.) So I don’t buy anything nice. :(

But, I think this Christmas, if I have any money left over, I’m just going to go to Borders and splurge on the start of my journal collection. And I’ll force myself to put something in them. Even just dots. Yeah. Dots are good. That’s what’s used in printing. *nod*

I saw this one notebook today. It has “Desire” on, erm, if not the cover, then on the inside. It’s lined, and it has quotes and pictures in it. I thought it was really attractive. :o Partly probably because of The Sandman and the Endless. XD I’ll buy that if I find it again. But I think the first notebook I have to buy is a Moleskine. Definitely.

Natalie Portman and heels

I’d always wondered why Natalie Portman wore heels. It would seem like a person like Natalie Portman, who is empowered and seeks knowledge and … I don’t know what else, would be against something so opressing and … not exactly demeaning … as heels.

I’m not totally against heels. I’d wear 2-inch heels if I ever found shoes I liked that were comfortable, and wouldn’t cause me to hurt my back or tendons or anything (if worn for a long time). But I won’t go higher than that. It seems stupid to me. Ruin parts of my body, just to look “better” by other people’s standards?

Take Sarah Jessica Parker. She hurt her ankle somewhat recently because she wears heels all the time, causing her tendons to weaken, so when she was running (in heels) there was just no strength to keep the pace. Seriously? She’ll give up the ability to run just for a few inches? I like to think that I can run, if I ever need to. (Living in L.A. … maybe I’d need to run from a gang shooting. Or a crazed driver. You never know.)

But then I read this article, where she says she feels like starting a revolution against heels. Yay! I’m not totally wrong about her! (Then one wonders how much say certain celebrities have in presenting themselves to everyone.)

(I say heels are oppressive and somewhat demeaning, only because my Ethnic Studies professor likened Western style of beauty to the burqa worn in the Middle East. She meant how women feel they need to dress in specific ways. But I think American women have more of a choice in the matter. We don’t have a group of people with guns ordering us to dress a certain way. Although I kind of agree with what she said, mainly because whenever I look in shoe stores I can’t find many nice non-killer heeled or even unheeled shoes.)