Best Engagement Photo Ever

Or should I say best wife ever. She let him do this. I want one when I get married—with a TARDIS flying through.

Molly Hooper–The One That Counts

If I still had a working heart, this would have brought a tear to my eye.

There is a trend in media for strong women who are outwardly so. They are witty, snarky, toned, and know how to hold a gun. The role model being pushed is that of the ultimate woman. It’s progress – I wouldn’t trade River Song for a hundred people from Hollywood’s past – but there’s a silent repercussion, a fortification of the idea that women have to be twice as accomplished to be considered half as good, to deserve this screen time at all. They are always extraordinary, always the one in a million. Importantly, there’s no variety – only one mould to fit ourselves into. It’s a great mould, yes, but not for everyone – because there is no such thing as a real woman, no one mould that anyone should have to squeeze themselves into if it doesn’t fit.

Molly Hooper is, finally, different. Molly Hooper is kind, thoughtful, always smiling, and intelligent in a way that you don’t really notice until you remember she’s a pathologist. She asks after people and cares about the answers, remembers little details because everything someone says is important. She probably still remembers how Sherlock likes his coffee. Her blog is pink, covered in kittens, and uses Comic Sans. She blunders her way through speaking, has serious foot-in-mouth syndrome, and can’t put on a pair of plastic gloves without making faces. She is one of the strongest women I have ever seen.

She puts up with what can only be described as “total bullshit.” You might say that makes her a bit of a doormat, but for people like Molly (like me), who like kindness and hate conflict, it takes serious guts to call someone on their behaviour and say you’re hurting me. It takes guts to carry that kind of unrequited love and still first and foremost be a friend, to ask what do you need? Molly Hooper makes Sherlock Holmes, a man who can barely articulate anything beyond the scientific, try to be kinder. In the end, Molly isn’t the woman who counts, but the friend.

Not Bothering

I’m not running the rat race with women anymore. I’ve put in enough time and effort trying to talk to girls I was generally interested in thinking that it actually meant something. It doesn’t.

So I don’t feel like its worth the effort chasing after this shit anymore when there are much easier goals to attain that don’t rely on someone else’s feelings and other bullshit being in tune and them having some level of sanity. Not really going to bother with anyone who’s wanting me to work to be with them or work to gain their attention initially.

Trust me, you’re not as special as you think.

My Photos So Far

This is my gallery for anyone looking at this. It’s all work safe.

Flickr

Writing Binge

I’ve been on a writing binge while my ear is getting better. Two days ago I couldn’t hear and now I’m actually able to hear out of the left side again. The right side is seemingly fine. It’s always the same ear too! Which I really don’t get but whatever.

As for what I’ve been writing. Short answer is not what I’m supposed to be writing. I did some fan fictions and I am finishing up one of my longer fics now. There’ll be links below.

Devil on the Isle of Dogs – My first big Sherlock fic, its pretty much centered on Molly and it features a cameo by Holly and Lewis.

Danger Night – more Molly/Sherlock pairing dribble.

Driver – Sherlock gives Molly a birthday gift, though this one was just smut for the sake of it.

The Next Great Adventure – a kind of general story featuring Sherlock and my character Dee.

These are just the completed or near completed works.

Probably Not That Surprising

I’m constantly surprised by how far some men will go to get the attention of all the women around them. I’m even more shocked by how many women give it to them, knowing that this guy is currently involved with someone else.

And when the guy sleeps with a girl and calls her a slut to his male and female friends, I like how nothing is said about his behavior and how the fact that he cheated is never the issue.

Sorry, I’m watching this cycle at work and what’s most frustrating is that its effecting me, the noise, the arguing, the little BS going on around me and I can’t move because we only have so many places to sit and all of them are around this bullshit.

Forums

Coming home from work at this time feels weird. But I felt I needed to post something here just because I have been thinking it. I spent a lot of my time on forums a while back, one forum in particular and these days it just feels like a waste to even log in most of the time. I rarely if ever feel like the things these people are saying interest me and the little things I do still like to do there are so few that I can handle them simply by hitting the place up once a week.

Not that I am shunning forums all together, the Canon Camera photography boards and the Something Awful writers forum have been very helpful to me in finding people with whom to get tips from and share ideas.

If not for my time on forums though I wouldn’t have met some of my very favorite people. At the same time I think the relationship between me and forums is coming to a close.

Other Projects

I’ve been working on some things: besides the novel and the fan fiction. Probably the biggest two are a second story with a different cast and my photography.

The other story doesn’t have a name but its got a plot outlined. It’s about a girl who dies but continues to live a kind of half life in her body. The Angel of Death gives her a second chance, but is unable to repair damage done to her soul so he patches her soul with that of her sister who also died. Her being dead and her sister being a vengeful spirit who wrestles control from her on occasion is supposed to make for interesting situations. Rounding out the cast is a necromancer/best friend, a vampire and a police officer who turns caretaker to the girl.

And then there is the photography thing, this development has been taking center stage a lot and rightfully so. The big thing I had planned that went off pretty well was my Doctor Who shoot, featuring a friend from work as the Doctor. (A fictional female Doctor)

Forced Hand

I was trying to decide what to do, but I think my hand is being forced…

365 Days of Summer

My mind has been in overdrive these last few days and I’m struggling to figure out what course of action to take about this situation with a woman at work I shouldn’t be dating but can’t get out of my head.

I’ve been thinking about some other things too, like how I kind of want to try something my friend Kara did. Now we all know how I feel about New Year’s Resolutions but hear me out.

I want to try and take a photo everyday for a year. Not of me, just of anything or anyone. I think it would be a fun project and it doesn’t have to be with my big camera. I might even make a blog or something and post the images there. I think that would challenge me to keep up with something and actually get out and do more with cameras and my camera.

So I’m doing it, starting on the first of the year.

Settling?

When is it time to settle or is there ever a time to settle. I’ve gotten it beaten into my head that I can’t get what I want romantically and that’s all there’s left to do. My first instinct at this point when I really, really want someone is to ignore it and push the thought out of my head.

Everyone always says the same thing: “The worst they can say is no.” But when you have something you really want no can be everything. I’ve gone through that before and its not like no just comes easily or like its just no. It messes up friendships or in some cases, like my most recent little try with someone it makes the girl hate you for no reason.

Here’s the thing, on one hand I have a girl who is somewhat interested in me and willing to go out with me but I’m only mildly interested in. There’s nothing wrong with her, but there’s a girl at work who I’m just beginning to realize is the picture of perfection to me and while it makes me want to try something it scares me. Because I already know her answer going into it.

Do I want to lose another friend to that awkwardness or deal with the long wait for things to return to normal. I’ve only ever had one friendship that stood up through that rejection and I don’t think me and this person are that strong yet or if we ever can be.

So do I settle, I mean like I said there is nothing wrong with this other girl. Hell, probably the only reason I’m not able to give her my full attention is the other girl. I don’t want to string anyone along and I’d like to think I have an idea of what I want in someone else. I also think its realistic and completely able to be found.

I guess it doesn’t help that I don’t think I deserve it.

She’s Not That Into You

Been pretty absent from here as its getting harder and harder for me to find a reason to be anywhere online that’s not Facebook or the Something Awful Forums. I’ve been reading constantly, though most of it has been fan fiction or photography books. I’ve even started to take some notes in that last area. Needless to say my control over the camera has gotten a lot better.

A while ago something like this would have been impossible for me. So just knowing what stuff does helps tremendously.

Then there’s been some other, minor annoyances. One of them I think I will concentrate on here. There’s a person from my facebook who went to high school with me (meaning that he’s also twenty-five) that pretty much posts things like this all day:

“Great night talkin to her. (: she's the best(: ♥”

The “her” in question is his girlfriend and this is a direct quote from him I just took off my wall. My issue here is that he does this all day long and that he also draws little things that say his name ♥’s her name and posts them on his wall.

Now I’ve never been one to shy away from talking about a girl I liked. And if I love someone I don’t feel like I need to hide it. But if I ever get to the annoying level where I make hearts and seriously mean it, I hope that my girlfriend has the foresight to slap me as hard as she can.

Thing is you never see the girl respond or say anything about him, so either she’s embarrassed or she’s not that into him.

Don’t Want to Be Here

I haven’t forgotten this place, not by a long shot. I’ve been trying to stay busy off line more often and I’m about to crawl into bed as soon as I finish this post.

The final half of this year has been a pretty scary time in the U.S. and the future looks bleak when it comes to the freedoms people have long enjoyed. The most disheartening thing about it all is that people don’t seem to care. They just want to go on about their lives without thinking about it and worrying about it.

I’ve come to the point where I don’t want to live here anymore, we’ve gotten in the habit of being largely embarrassing. People in other parts of the world called us stupid for so long and it seems like its become true. People are fighting against themselves all over the country, working to pass laws that impoverish and hurt them and the most watched news station in the country is a lie mill that’s easily bending to the will of one political party.

Starting to hate your own country is never fun, but its hard to stick up for something that’s become so visibly messed up.

Old Friends

I went into Wal-Mart today to buy a space heater. For those of you who don’t know the heat in my house works when its convenient for it and the space heater I had before caught fire thrice. So some new equipment was in order.

When I was about to check out I ran into a girl whom I work with but never talk to. This same girl is also someone I knew from high school, she was about thirteen or twelve when I first met her. Of course she’s not a child anymore, she’s twenty two or so.

She’d lost her dog recently and we just spent time in the store talking. I felt odd, like something might happen that just caused trouble or caused an argument but it didn’t and we just talked for a while and parted ways.

I don’t think things will change between us, but its weird to see someone like that and just kind of link up to talk like everything is normal, especially when it feels genuine.

The SOPA Bill

If you don’t know you need to read up on it, check Wikipedia or the news—but not the television. You won’t find it there because the news agencies have pretty much kept it from being spoken about at all on the TV. From what I understand this bill covers every kind of freedom infringement from monitoring everything sent across networks to completely shutting down websites and/or blocking the public from accessing them.

So why is the government allowed to pass this and where is the opposition? Well it consists of some pretty big names that include Google, Facebook, Flickr and some others. It could also lead to abuse by different ISP companies to make a buck off their customers. Imagine not to being able to read a site for a Coca Cola product because the ISP you use gets money from Pepsi. Basically this is the whole net neutrality thing but worse.

And the government has been trying to slip this shit past in one form or another for the last few years. John McCain sponsored a bill called the Internet Freedom act that was something like this and then there was the COICA last year. The thing is that this bill actually threatens the freedom of the internet as a place to share ideas, sell products and other things.

It’s filled with vague language which reads like the kind of thing written for the government to take advantage of and it’s a huge deal. Though you haven’t heard much about it on any major outlets because the bill serves their needs.

In the last year any faith I’ve had in Congress and their political process in general has broken down. Between the Supreme Court, Congress and the Debt Ceiling and the Tea Party and their big glut of bullshit and now this mess it seems like the only excuse is to throw out the way the government works with corporations and Wall Street and regulate the Hell out of it all.

Better Person

Despite my anger at this girl for what she pulled last weekend, I ended up calling her and telling her I knew and just asking her to apologize. She sounded sincerely embarrassed and sorry and even then I didn’t even want her to feel bad about it and told her she would be my friend still.

It feels odd but the more I thought about it, the more I realized someone who would do this sort of thing more than likely has a lot going on in their life and I don’t want to add to the pile of bad things happening with them.

I’m not that guy, I mean I spend enough of my time hating myself. I don’t need to give those thoughts actual clout.

De-Valued

This Saturday ended badly. Had I been a worse kind of person I would have easily done something horrid to this person but I think they really undermined their own value in their attempt to get what they wanted.

The story goes like this: I went to see Rickey this weekend and we went to have sushi because, well sushi is fucking delicious. Anyway there’s this girl I wanted to take out and she knew as much. She was told last week and we were making plans to go out. Rickey knows her too, he’s how I met her so he called her up and convinced her to come out. Well that’s when the trouble began.

We hung out at Starbucks, that was fine. Then we went to Gringos where we had to wait for a table because its Gringos. Well while we waited this girl spends her whole time talking to Rickey about how awesome he is and how he dates girls too ugly for him and how he shouldn’t go after these scrawny women. When we got inside I piped up and it ended up being a little more of a chipper conversation but there was a lot of texting going on, admittedly some of it was me texting Rickey about her but it wasn’t bad comments.

On the other hand she was texting someone too.

So the night moves on from there and a third person joins us and we go to a bar, I hate bars because its impossible to get to know someone but this wasn’t so bad. Well the bar thing went on for a few hours and then we went back to an apartment for some drinks with other friends. I was pretty drunk but not to the point I couldn’t reason or speak. Well I talked to this girl outside and she instantly launches into this speech about how she doesn’t want to hurt my feelings and she wants us to be friends and wants things to be normal and not awkward. Why does this sound familiar?

Thing is I wasn’t mad and I kind of expected us to not work out but I had expected a slight chance. But when I told her that Rickey wasn’t into her, which I just knew from knowing him and I knew she liked him because she told me, she tells me that she needs time alone. Well I left her for several minutes and she plays some sad songs on her phone outside alone and then moves to the other side of the apartment (out front). I go out to take her a bottle of water to check on her and she refuses it and tells me just send Rickey. That kind of pissed me off because it was rude but I did as I was told.

He spends an hour outside and when we finally go to leave they’re all up next to each other sitting on the steps. We walk back to the car all together and the ride home is quiet and awkward. We drop off the girls and after I tried to talk to her again she basically cut me short to leave.

So I go home with Rickey to get my car and he tells me she was texting him at the table in Gringos. I kind of figured as much but the thing was what she was texting him…she basically told him that she liked him right then and there while I was sitting across the table from her and she picks the worst time to do so. Now bare in mind this is a girl who had agreed to go out with me that next week and who had given me her number willingly too.

Old me, me from before 2007 would be manning the battle stations getting ready to make her world crumble around her. The me now is…more adult, tamer and I’m not doing anything but telling her friend why I can’t be around them for a while. I like her friend and her birthday is coming up soon—I’d love to go but I can’t. I can handle rejection but I can’t be asked to be in a room with someone so inconsiderate and I don’t think I would be able to handle her trying to do whatever it is that she would be doing in the situation so I’m bowing out.

Funny part of the story is that if she wanted Rickey to like her she pretty much de-valued herself and if she were to come back to me and want to try again I wouldn’t have her because she showed how horrible her manners are. It’s funny what people do while completely sober and in the heat of the moment. Remember girls, not every guy out there is chasing ass and tits…some of us want our women to have a mind, a heart, some value other than their looks.

Something pretty and otherwise worthless is still worthless.

The New Camera

Met a girl at a party the other night thought I don’t think I have the means to really chase after anyone right now. The Russian girl and I are pretty much done because she didn’t understand that I couldn’t drive seventy miles to come see her every day after I had been at work ten hours.

But enough of that, I got to debut the new camera at the party and Rickey was debuting his new costume. Here is how things turned out.

R.I.P. Carlen 2001-2011

Carly was the first dog I had that was honestly my own. She was a puppy when we got her and her sister and she was always the adventurous one. She loved to climb and was friendlier and sweeter than her sister Tina.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dog with more personality. There were her little quirks like loving to ride in golf cars or tractors or putting clothes in her own water bowl for whatever reason. She was just a really odd dog, but she was smart and loved and anyone who came over couldn’t help but play with her.

My mom called me Saturday to say Carly had died and we really didn’t go to find out how. But I knew I needed to bury her. I couldn’t touch her body I had to have a friend help me and I put her out back on top of a small hill (she liked to be up high). I think I feel a little silly because I miss her so much and its embarrassing I guess but I don’t care, I really loved her and she was just a great dog. I went out with friends Saturday night to help me not think about it but its bothering me and it will for a while. I really, honestly loved Carly and people might find it stupid to say that because they think she was just an animal or she probably didn’t understand love.

But Carly had a way of acting like she understood. Back when Tina died years ago she was so sad and she wouldn’t go outside in the dark alone for about a year and a half because that was where something got Tina. If you said Tina even years later she would just look at you. And when I was down she would come and just cuddle up and there’s some comfort in that. So here’s to Carly, you’ll be missed girl.

Long Overdue

I went ahead and purchased an iPOD and a Canon SLR camera, both things I have wanted for a long while now. The thing is that I want to get back into photography and that was what held me back, lack of a real camera. So expect this place to become more laden with photos. Except pretty girls, couples, kids laughing, beaches, shitty sunsets, very little of my stupid face and a lot of new stories.

I’ve lined up some friends to help me in the form of models…lets see how this works out.