Wild Moon Swings

Friday, February 29, 2008

The 'Other' Woman

Lately I was listening to a song on the radio about a girl who is having an affair with a man who's already taken. I'm not sure if normal people put this much thought into lame songs they hear on the radio while they're commuting, but I was thinking about this one. What kind of a girl would put with with being second? I came up with some possible reasons.

  1. They don't have enough self-respect to be someone's first and only love.
  2. They love the guy so much that they can't leave a relationship with him alone, even if they are hurting an innocent person.
  3. They are turned on by the thrill of not getting caught.
  4. They are turned on by the idea of hurting his girlfriend/wife.
I thought of a couple more besides this, but I couldn't get my reaction to this out of my head. Of course, this was my thought pattern back in the day when I was dating.

If he was dating someone else or even had feelings for someone else and didn't want to date me when I offered, I would have been totally confused. I absolutely would not have understood a guy wanting to be with someone else besides me. I would have been staring at him wondering exactly how brain damaged a guy would have to be to escape being completely smitten with me.

Now that I'm older, I realize that I made lots of mistakes while dating. One of my boyfriends I used to elbow. Yeah, I don't think he liked that very much. Another one, I wouldn't ask him to dance when we went dancing even though he told me that that sort of thing turned him on - a girl being forward enough to ask for what she wanted (I just didn't operate that way back then). There was another one that I refused to tell the real reason why I was breaking up with him. If I had told him, he probably could have worked on it and we wouldn't have broken up. But, there weren't very many of my boyfriends that I really liked. I usually only consented to be someone's girlfriend when I was feeling emotionally unstable and needed a little pick-me-up. Sad eh?

But today I'm going to share some pearls to help you single gals catch or hang onto your man. A couple rules that you absolutely MUST not do while in the presence of a guy you like.
  1. Do not bash or criticize other girls. This makes them look interesting and misunderstood, and it makes you look jealous and petty. I don't know how many guys who have dated me have told me that they heard some girl complain about me. It usually gets their interest.
  2. Do not praise other guys for anything. This makes it look like you have eyes for men other than them - they don't like this either.
  3. Don't kill spiders. Don't scream either. Just calmly and a little ashamedly go ask him to take care of it for you. This will make him feel tough by doing almost nothing.
That's enough for now - though I know more. So much more.

Friday, February 15, 2008

The Worth of a Tree


I live in an extremely wealthy part of my city. It's not that I'm rich, because I could never afford to buy a house down here. Most of the people who live here have either lived here for the past 50 years (before it was a real estate hot spot) or they have built their home in the past five years and even though it's a house on a piece of land the size of a postage stamp - their home is easily worth over a millions dollars. I often clash with the people who live in this area because I have spent most of my life so incredibly poor that the idea of buying a hamburger at McDonald's is luxurious in my world. The people down here would never eat at McDonald's for ethical reasons, environmental reasons, and because they are just too good to step into a restaurant like that.

Lately, there was a dispute about a spruce tree that was growing on the property line between two houses (there's a picture of a spruce tree, but trust me - that one is a lot more beautiful than on the one everyone was fighting about). One of the houses was sold and immediately torn down to make room for a larger house. The old one was about the size of a double garage. Like I said, the lots around here are the size of postage stamps, so to make a house of a reasonable size, the entire lot would have to be used - including the space that half of this spruce tree occupied.

The whole neighborhood was in a knot about this for environmental reasons, but when I heard about it I didn't understand what the fuss was about. Yes, cutting down trees is sad, but in my opinion - someone's house is a good cause. And LEGALLY - I believe the people cutting it down were completely within their rights if it's on the property line.

Today I was walking past these two houses. The tree was not cut down, but it might as well have been for what was left of it. There is a sign in the window of the injured party saying that the tree was worth $60,000 dollars (Spruce Christmas trees are sold for $50), it was theirs and the people who cut it down MURDERED it and didn't apologize. Every time I have walked past this house (the other one isn't finished yet), I get this dark uncomfortable feeling. Today, I decided it was hate. This feeling of hate is radiating off of this house. Can the people inside it be happy? Will they be able to get along with the people who move into the house beside them? Do they feel happy when they step into their front porch and take off their boots - right beside those signs that advertise to the community that they hate their neighbors? How long will they hold onto these angry feelings? And over so small a thing? To me, a tree is utterly insignificant compared to the things some people have been able to forgive.

I think it was when they used to word 'murdered' that my feelings got damaged. I have grown trees to adulthood. You plant the seeds, then you water them. You water them often to help them grow. You might put a stick beside it and tie the tree to it to help it grow. Once it gets big enough you don't have to water it anymore (not here anyway) and then you only have to trim it in the spring - or not depending on how the tree is shaped.

But I've also had a baby. Comparing the trouble of having a baby to growing a tree is absolutely insulting. I had morning sickness where I threw up 1 - 9 times a day, every day for 90 days. Felt sick every moment of that and came up with a list a mile long of things I would never eat again, things I would never listen to again, and things I would never look again again because they all remind me of how awful I felt. I felt uncomfortable and miserable for the other 6 months of the term, endured 10 hours of hard transition labour, and to top it all off tore. Then the care and attention a baby takes makes (not to mention the financial burden) growing a tree equivalent to a finger snap.

As my final thought - people have forgiven people for killing their children. Bearing a grudge over a tree is ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS! Let's get some perspective.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Vampire Knight

Yeah, so I was really disappointed with 'Eclipse' by Stephenie Meyer, so I was sitting around trying to think of why, besides all the reasons that I already listed in another post. And once again, it's not because I hated her books or anything - I really liked the first two - but I was trying to figure out why I wasn't fond of the third one. AND I FIGURED IT OUT! One of the most important aspects of the vampire lover is that he be dangerous and once Edward got over his blood lust regarding Bella, he ceased to be appealing. So, to remain appealing his blood lust should have gotten more intense rather than waning.

That's when I started brainstorming stories that have the male vampire in a relationship thirst more for the blood of his female friend than less. The first one that came to mind was 'Vampire Knight', which I didn't think was incredibly intelligent when I first started reading it. I think that was partly due to the fact that I didn't get to read the beginning. I didn't start my subscription to 'Shojo Beat' until it had already started running. I admit that I was only thinking of the story as a take on high school love with vampires, but as I started to think about it more carefully and comparing it 'Eclipse' I got more and more excited by the story.

You see Yuki has been giving her blood to Zero on the side because he's going to go insane for blood lust and she believes that if he has a little on the side, he won't go insane. So, in one chapter, he's been acting up. She takes him aside and gently lifts up her hair to expose her bare throat and says something like, "Do what you have to do." He looks horrified at her offering, but then he slams her against the door and sinks his teeth into her flesh, because he just can't stop himself. Then she whispers, "What does my blood taste like?" Zero pulls away like she's slapped him. He has her blood dripping out of the side of his mouth and he asks, "Why do you want to know?" It was gorgeous!

Not only that, but the love triangle in 'Vampire Knight' is not between two completely different types (who wants a werewolf anyway?), but against a young vampire who's on the verge of losing control and an old vampire who is elegant, beautiful, and calculating. His name is Kurane and he's the pic I've got today.

Maybe it's not so easy to write an appealing vampire story. However, I have some good news. An anime version of 'Vampire Knight' will be airing in Japan this April. The anime might be really good. I'm gonna watch it.

Friday, February 01, 2008

Review Dang it!

Occasionally, I get an incredibly flattering review or email from one of my readers. One of the first things they say is that they don't usually review, but they've been reading my stuff and they love it so much that they can't keep silent any longer. I like getting these letters, but more than that I wish that they would review from the start.

I don't read online very often, but if I read something (a chapter) to the end, I always drop the author a line and say what I think of it. I've read a few things online that really impress me, and for them I write long love letters saying what I liked about their work. For everyone else, I take the time to write something - even if it isn't fantastic. Usually, it's just a note to say that I read their chapter to the end and I at least found it interesting enough not to quit. Personally, I think that's quite a lot because of how little I read and the narrow range of things I'm interested in. I've also sent comments like, "There's nothing wrong with this, but if I were a publisher, I wouldn't publish it, because somehow it just isn't enough. Not enough spice, not enough human interest - I'm not sure.' Other times, I write and tell them they need to review a certain rule because they make the same mistake over and over again.

The point is, if you don't say what you think when you read - the poor sap devoting their time to writing it will just go on making the same mistakes over and over again.

However, there is something to say for numbers. Back when I was writing 'Slayers' fanfiction, I knew that there weren't a lot of people who liked my writing, because I didn't get that many reviews. When I write 'Escaflowne' fanfiction I do much better, but my writing is a lot different. I've learned a lot since then.

Anyway, the point is - even if you're thinking something bad - say it anyway. Authors like the number of reviews even if they're not wild about what you say. BUT! I still disagree with fanstory.com paying readers for reviews. I think their reviews are phoney an unknown percent of the time, just because the readers want member dollars. BUT! If you read something on fanfiction.net or mediaminer.org or fictionpress.com or writing.com - at least send a little note that says you read it to the end.

Sheesh!