Mental Health Awareness Week: IT’S IMPORTANT
Apparently I’ve basically missed Mental Health Awareness Week, which is something I wish I’d heard about earlier because it’s something I feel very positive about. It’s been a while since I’ve written much, so now feels as good as any a time to talk a little bit about mental illness and how it’s affected me.
You’re probably asking, how many more personal posts do I have in me? And I’d reply with a winky face, because I could talk about myself for yonks.
The Grass is Green
As I write this post I’m making pizza. Is this relevant at all? Well, no. And yes. I’m making it as a celebration of sorts, because right now I feel like a real person.
When I was young, my mum used to make pizza as a treat. I don’t know how she made it, but I’ve never had anything like her dough since. When I was sick I would always ask her to make her pizza for dinner, because somehow it always made me better again. In a way, that’s what I’m going for. But also, I just really love pizza.
You Make Me Sick
Most of my life I’ve been an insomniac. I don’t have the nice kind of insomnia that only pops around a couple times a year for a day or two, but the real serious kind where I can go over a week without sleep. That’s fine, I’m used to it. You grow up learning to deal with the sleepless nights and foggy days. It becomes normal.
Guardians of the Galaxy: How Marvel Can Do Better
There’s no denying that Guardians of the Galaxy is the space opera of the year. I’ve seen the film twice and thoroughly enjoyed it both times. A fun, spectacularly shot sci-fi with some great characters, it’s a real experience. But as much as I loved the film, there are a few things that really broke the immersion for me.
Spoiler warnings from here on.
To Ruapehu (and Nearby)
The sun was still rising when my alarm startled me awake Thursday morning. I begrudgingly rolled out of bed and into the car, off to the bus station in the city. The cityscape was gorgeous and glimmering as we crossed the harbour. An exhausting, but good start to an adventure.
What’s Really “Ruining” Cosplay (Is Your Toxic Views)
One of the first characters I ever wanted to be was Leia Organa. Or Supergirl. A force-sensitive princess, a super-powered alien gal — they were both basically everything a four-year-old Saf could ever have dreamt of being. And while I didn’t know it at the time, they were the first characters I ever felt the urge to cosplay.
Sexuality in Space
Science fiction is the broadening of horizons. It’s the extending of what is real for us, now, into what could (perhaps) be real to us in the future. So many of our realities are echoed in these stories set in the far future — or even a long, long time ago — but not so much for folk who fall under the LGBT umbrella. There seems mostly to be a set sexuality in space: heterosexual.
Star Wars, as anyone who has ever talked to me would know, is hugely important to me. However, there’s one (now non-canon!) character I can identify with, sexuality-wise. One! Out of hundreds! My darling Juhani from Knights of the Old Republic, who is often looked over in favour of Carth or Bastila. She is either lesbian or, because of a bug apparently, bisexual. When I first learnt I could romance her with my lady jedi I literally whooped with joy, and she never left my side from the moment she joined my party.
Bare Arms-ageddon
Good news everyone! It’s 4 in the morn’ and I’m listening to a remix of Binary Sunset while a heater blasts my tired feet. I should be asleep, but instead I’m starting this post about the weekend just been.
Armageddon Expo, the big con of lil’ ol’ New Zealand, has just been. The second-to-last ‘geddon of the year is over, now leaving us with a con-less gap until late October. Boo! But the weekend has been utterly amazing, helped in large part by my wonderful friends, cosplayers and civilians alike.
Boba Fett Is Not White
As is the apparent norm for inspiration for new posts for me — I stumbled upon something someone said on the internet. I say I stumbled upon, but I rather mean a tweet popped onto my tweetfeed. The tweet featured a picture of a man in Mandalorian armour, which obviously attracted my attention. Then I saw the face also in the picture. Then I read the text.
I won’t quote directly, because 1. I’ve lost the tweet completely and 2. I don’t want to give it attention. But the gist of it was “rooting for Cumberbatch for Boba Fett!”
In Defense of Satine & Others of Her Kind
It’s not uncommon among the Star Wars fandom on tumblr to find some pretty awesome gifsets made by some pretty talented people. It is also unfortunately not uncommon to find a tag on any of these gifsets saying something along the lines of:
“I didn’t like this character at first because they were so annoying/just a love interest/fought with [male character]/so on and so forth.”
If you’re nodding along to that and thinking that yeah, maybe that’s a reasonable line of thinking, I want you to stop and reconsider. You’re thinking of a female character, right? Any male characters that you hate spring to mind for any of those reasons?
