Dear Prince Rupert.

Dear Prince Rupert,

I know I don’t live in you anymore, and I haven’t for years and it has been four years since my last visit but I do love you and I want the best for you.  I think what’s best for you is Blair. I’ve known Blair for I’d say 13 years now, and yes for a majority of that we haven’t lived in the same place so I wouldn’t call us close, but none the less I do consider him a friend and I know that gives me a certain bias. I do believe that my love for Prince Rupert outweighs that bias, and I know the mayoral and city council doesn’t exactly affect me but it does affect you and I care about you.

Let me tell you about Blair. In all the time that I’ve known him, I have not known Blair to make the bad choice; where bad is meaning not good and not bad meaning wrong. He has never been one to talk about people behind their backs or even to speak ill about people in general and he tended to be inclusive no matter how weird the person(me). Blair has always been smart and reliable but he has never been cocky about it. He is and always has been a good person. Now, ask yourselves in today’s world what does politics need? and the answer is good people this is because good people will bring about a good change wherever they have influence.

It is my belief that Blair Mirau is one of these people for Prince Rupert. He is running on a platform of accountability, efficiency, and prosperity and how I see it those also branch off to transparency, fiscal responsibility, and increased inter-community co-operation. I know what you might be thinking now, these are all common promises made by many politicians running for office.  But it in my heart I know that if there were one person who could make these promises and do their hardest to follow through on them, that person is Blair Mirau.

In closing, I believe in Blair Mirau.

From Tommy Roberts

Pretty, Cute, Beautiful, Hot: a guide to proper use and distinction.

In a way all four of those words could be used in one way or another to describe the attractiveness of someone. But how do you know which word is right to use and when it was right to use them. Welcome to another lesson on the words we choose to use. And much link where I talked about Sluts,Skanks, and Whores, these are words we use to describe people. (I chose not to include handsome as I don’t use it like ever.)

I’d like to start with a brief explanation as to the order: Pretty, Cute, Beautiful, and Hot. Now it may have been easier to do it alphabetically, or I could try and sort them into a leveling system where each one quantified attractiveness. But no, what I did was pair them off, pretty and cute, then beautiful and hot, now I did this because though they all are different words which describe attractiveness I believe the pairs are conflicting sets. Not in the sense that they are so different that they are conflicting, but in the sense that they are so similar and yet so different that they are in conflict. That is why I chose to clarify their meanings and usages.

First: Pretty and Cute.

Now these two words have an old meaning in common, and it was a far less superficial meaning. They both at one time meant clever, but this was back when clever was not quite as much an admirable trait as it is nowadays. But that was then, and now they have more, I don’t want to say superficial but since they are about positive physical attributes, I don’t quite know how to put it. I mean think about it, Pretty is “attractive in a delicate, dainty, or graceful way without stateliness” and Cute is a “shy attractiveness” or “attractive, endearing, charming, clever, or ingenious” but those are just dictionary definitions. But how can you tell which to use in common language? Well I guess that’s what I’m doing here.

So pretty is a form of attractiveness (obviously), it is not subtle, but also is not obvious. A pretty thing or person is delicate or possesses a delicate manner. Their appeal is a simple thing, meaning that it does not need to be thought upon, if asked why something is pretty the only answer to that should be “because it is”. If there was a word that meant intensely pleasing but not shockingly so (in association to appearance), that word would perfectly describe how I tend to use pretty. Now cute can be another form of attractiveness (again obviously), unlike pretty though it is not necessarily a physical thing. (This is not saying pretty is only physical, but it’s primarily attribute is physical).Cuteness is a clever thing; it is subtle which is why it is called a “shy attractiveness”. But this is still about the physical in actuality; cute is a way to describe someone’s overflowing passion for a thing. Cute can also be an emotional reaction; so happy you’re literally or even figuratively bouncing up and down, an authentic or even fake pouty disappointment. I’ve always seen cute as being a specific term, not a generalization. In closing, pretty is primarily physical and cute is a blend of physical and non-physical. (My preference is cute over pretty, but that’s just me).

Second: Beautiful and Hot.

These two are more intense, and differed greatly where Pretty and Cute did only slightly. But, I will begin by defining hot and switching the order around because I am more passionate about the word Beautiful.

Hot in this sense has a slang definition; good looking, sexy, lustful, or sexually aroused. Also could be intense sexual desire or attraction. In a definition that I am not going to explore it means passionate or excited. Now that is the dictionary definition, not mine, not exactly. On to mine now, Hot is used to describe something solely physical or sexual. It is a very simple thing, if you find their body physically or sexually appealing even without knowing anything else about them then hot is the appropriate word. Finding or thinking someone hot is an immediate reactionary response; it is a base animalistic reaction. Now if I were to say Hot is something very superficial, you might think I were saying it was a bad thing but it is not, it is instinct, natural, normal to find someone hot. But it is not necessarily good either, because of its’ simple nature some people tend to rely in it far too much. Now, on to Beautiful. Beautiful is rooted in Latin words meaning pretty, fine, or blessed and happy, now blessed is probably the closest of these that come to my “true meaning”. Beautiful is a complex word, it is not simple or something that could be boxed up. It is not to be a reactionary word, its’ usage is meant to be a well thought out thing. (Now I don’t really want to go into an examination of the question “what is beauty?” because that would be a post on to its self, and this is more about the word beautiful and when to use it). So where hot was purely one thing, and that one thing being physical, beautiful is to be used for instances or more than physicality but including the physical, it is an all-encompassing thing. Being beautiful is more than one thing; it is not the singular parts of a thing, but the whole of it. Where the whole is body, and mind, and soul; if you think of it like one of those fighting video games like Tekken or Street Fighter, beautiful is the penultimate combo move, or Scorpions’ finishing move in the original Mortal Kombat game. It is like combining the Triforce of power, wisdom, and courage. Okay now getting away from video game analogies. And it has to be a complete combination, not just one part, two parts, but it has to be all parts. So see, an excerpt from a book can be good, but it is not a complete novel, in the same way a person can be physically attractive and intellectually appealing, but unless they are a good person as well they are not beautiful. To be clear, it’s okay to be hot, and it is okay to want to be hot, but really what you want is to be beautiful, or find someone who thinks you’re beautiful, that way you know it matters, because that way you know it’s real. I mean you want to sleep with hot; you might even want to date hot but really hot is just a shadow of beautiful. Because you still want to sleep with beautiful, date beautiful, but really it is really just a pleasure to be around beautiful things and people.

In conclusion, these words are not bad things; I mean they all had to do with attraction and attractivity. And attractiveness is a desirable trait but really it is not something that should be a person’s primary focus. It’s good if you’re pretty sure, but unless you’re something more it’s just dull. It is truly more important to be interesting than attractive. But that is why what is good is to be beautiful, but still not the only thing you should be.

Post Script: It feels good to be blogging again. Now I don’t know when this is going to be posted because though it is the first one being typed up I know that it won’t be the first one posted, that honour is reserved for my In memoriam. But I am writing and typing and posting, and that just feel more right.

Redheads.

So I am not one to try and hide my nerdiness on this blog, I mean I’ve written two blog posts involving Final Fantasy VII. So it really shouldn’t be too much of a stretch for you to learn that my attraction to redheads started with Jean Grey, she was smart, hot for a comic book/cartoon character, and also she could read minds and had telekinesis. Also when I was younger Cyclops had personality traits which I aspired to have: leadership, respect, superpowers, and the girl. Now, I see that he’s a bit of a douche, has a hard time thinking for himself, and habitually plagued with self-doubt (but that’s probably why when I was younger I wanted to be Spider-Man, but then Mary-Jane Watson there fueled my redheaded love). But Scott Summers is not what I am here to talk about. And though for a long time I lacked any opportunity to express it, my affection for redheads didn’t wane.

It wasn’t again until high school that I met my first redheaded crush.  And well from there I formed my first opinion on redheads. And sadly it was a generalization, but it was more of an environmental thing rather than people’s personalities being in any way related to their hair colour. It was a dumbass thing to think at the time, and I know that I should have known better especially even then I knew that the reputation blondes is completely false.

So here is an excerpt from a thing I wrote in 2008 on redheads.

“Redheads, gingers, touched by fire, call them what you want they have always eluded me everything from behavioral pattern to common interests, all but one thing I have observed they they all seem to have in common. A superiority complex, they may not admit it but they all protrude an air of being better than all the rest.”

It is so obvious to me now that I was so very wrong. I never saw their passion, their intelligence, their creativity, or their determination. I only ever saw the fire in their hair, but never the fire in their souls.

Now I know I am still putting a lot of stock into physical appearance, and still am making plenty assumptions about people passed on a single physical attribute. I know this is wrong, I know that. Whole heartedly I know that the physical is fleeting and that it is on the inside that counts. But that’s not saying that the physical has no effect on personality, because it does. But that’s what I am looking for though, someone with passion, intelligence, determination and someone who lets their souls' fire burn bright and hot. Someone who is a redhead on the inside.

Before I finish I’d like to address the supposed soullessness of redheads. Because to lack a soul is to lack fundamental personhood, for someone to be soulless is to truly be less than human, they would be literally a sub-human species. And to classify someone let alone a whole group of people in that way is just far too degrading to be allowed to happen.

Post Script: If it wasn’t obvious, I’m back. Now in my defense I did say it might be a while. Plus the summer weather is a little too nice to write and not going out exploring, enjoying and photographing.

In Memoriam.

Now I don’t claim to be the right person to write this, because I didn’t know the man, and I never even met him. I only know him through some of his work. (If that could be considered knowing.) I am of course talking about the late Robin Williams. This is written in his memory; it is a thank you letter of sorts.

I’d like to preface his by saying that of the many things I am, one of them is an escape artist. Meaning that when I find myself in a bind or a tough situation in general I tend to escape if that means cutting ties, submerging myself into work, or ignoring the world by diving into the many worlds of books, movies or video games; even your own imagination can be an escape. I’ve been escaping reality for as long as I can remember. This is because growing up wasn’t always the easiest thing for me and escaping was.

Most of the Robin Williams movies that I’ve watched for the first time were in a period before Netflix, Facebook, or even Myspace, in the 90’s and early 2000’s. This was the time period of my life where I found myself in elementary school, most of which I found myself getting bullied at school and part of it I found myself getting verbally abused at home. So I would escape because that’s what came naturally to me. At that time my preferred modes of escape were TV/movies and my own imagination, and besides Star Wars my most commonly watched movies were comedies because who doesn’t link to laugh when they’re having a bad day. So I would watch Aladdin, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Hook… his kid-centric movies. Then as I got older I’d watch Jack, Jumanji, Bicentennial Man. And though my taste in movies matured I still went on to enjoy his style. And I’d laugh and be happy during the time his movies provided; they allowed a brief escape from my reality.

But I didn’t stop watching his movies once my reality changed, it only meant that I didn’t have to rely or use them to make me laugh. I could watch them for the purpose of enjoyment, because I wanted to, I could even watch Robin Williams’ movies for nostalgic reasons.

I wish I could have met you and told you this in person, and sadly now I cannot. But Thank you Robin Williams, for all that you’ve done for me and everyone else that you’ve touched.

O, captain my captain. You Will be missed.

No post script here, not this time.