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Friday, November 18, 2011

TGIF: Ross and Monica Geller from Friends

Siblings.

For quite a few of us, we have them. Some of us may only have one. Others may have more than one. If you're a member of the Duggar family, you're soon to have nineteen brothers and sisters.

There's some cases in which siblings would do anything for one another. Conversely, there are cases in which siblings decide to go the Cain and Abel route, where each one plots the demise of the other. Of course, cases like these are quite rare.

Sibling rivalry can be a really big deal though in many families. Particularly with families in which there may only be an age difference of a year or two in between each sibling. My 15-year-old niece and 13-year-old nephew are a perfect example of this, as I can't recall any given time in which both of them made it through an entire day without getting into some sort of silly, petty argument. Of course now that both of them are teenagers, I'm predicting that their rivalry will get worse before it gets better.

I will say that in my own family, there wasn't a whole lot of sibling rivalry. But there was a reason for this.

You see, my family is one where there are huge age gaps in between my siblings and I. I guess in many ways, this could be somewhat hereditary because there happens to be a 23 year age gap between my mother and her youngest sister.

The age gap between me and my siblings isn't quite that wide, but it's wide enough. I don't know whether my parents planned this out or whether it was merely a fluke, but somehow my parents ended up going with the one child per decade parenting plan. They had a child in the 1960s, a child in the 1970s, and a child in the 1980s. Kind of freaky, isn't it? I can actually remember being nine years old in 1990 asking my mom when she was going to have another baby now that we were in the 1990s. She just stared at me, and gave me the dirtiest look.  So alas, after I was born, that was it.

My two older sisters are nine and fifteen years older than I am. I was born when one was finishing up the ninth grade, and the other one was in third grade. By the time I had gotten old enough to attend school for the first time, one sister was in high school, and the other one went off to nursing school. By the time I was eleven years old, both of my sisters were out of the house, essentially making me feel like I was an only child ever since.

Now, as I said before, there wasn't really a whole lot of sibling rivalry. Certainly as their bratty little brother, I caused them great grief by doing some rather annoying things like sneaking into their rooms to play music, or by burying their Barbie dolls in the backyard, or drawing all over their stuff with black permanent marker.

(And yes, I admit to doing each and every one of these things. In fact, I bet if you were to go to my childhood home and dig up the backyard, you'd probably find the decapitated head of a Malibu Barbie buried deep within.)

But because of the wide age gaps between us, it effectively nixed any sibling rivalries between any of us. I mean, I was so much younger than the other two, so really, I was sort of outmatched in regards to trying to win an argument, or prove a point. Being the only boy worked out to my advantage as well.

But there was a downside. Because my sisters were so much older than I was, I didn't feel as though I could relate to them as much as kids who had siblings closer to their age could. And going through the turbulent school years that I had in which I was picked on and bullied frequently, it would have been nice to have had a brother or a sister who were closer to me in age to stand up for me, rather than having to go through it alone. But, that was the birth order we all experienced, and there wasn't anything I could do about it.

Even now as an adult, I know that my older siblings would be there for me when times were tough. Having undergone a health scare a few months earlier, and seeing them rally by my side to help me through did help confirm that. Still, I always wondered what it would have been like to have had a sibling closer to my age. Would we have gotten along great, or would we hate each others guts?  And seeing how my mom's relationships with her youngest siblings are more or less invisible, there is a bit of a worry that one day, my own relationship with my siblings could end up that way.

I don't feel like it could go that way, personally...still, there's always that sliver of doubt. But, I'm not a fortune teller here, so I won't even attempt to tempt the hands of fate with this one.

In keeping with the spirit of this blog post, today's topic will be about a brother and sister team who are a lot closer in age to each other than me and my siblings are. And yes, sometimes they fight, sometimes they compete against each other, and sometimes they give each other bad advice. But for the most part, they love and support each other. And when put in the right situation, they make a great team (you'll want to fast forward to 3:03 for this one...)



As you've probably guessed from the clip up above, today's subject is about one-third of the cast that made up the television show Friends. 



The brother-sister duo of Ross and Monica Geller, played by David Schwimmer and Courteney Cox.



When Friends debuted on NBC in the fall of 1994, it was expected to do very well on the airwaves. It definitely exceeded everyone's expectations, having a ten season run, which ended in May 2004. Part of the reason for the show's success was the brilliant casting of the show, which in addition to Schwimmer and Cox also included Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, and Matt LeBlanc.

And one relationship that I always seemed to be fascinated by was the one between the Geller siblings.



At first glance, the siblings could not be more different from one another. Ross is the elder of the two siblings, and his occupation on the show was that of a paleontologist with a Ph.D. From Columbia University. He has been rather unlucky in love on the show. His first marriage collapsed because his wife ended up coming out as a lesbian (though the union did produce a child, Ben). His second marriage to his English love interest, Emily was doomed from the start when Ross accidentally said the name of his former flame, Rachel Green, during his wedding vows. A dalliance with a Chinese woman named Julie also ended because of his conflicting feelings with Rachel. And as for Ross and Rachel, well, they were the ultimate on-off relationship. He is more into teaching his son about the Jewish faith that he and Monica grew up with, and he is best described by his friends as being geeky and wimpy, with really bad hair. And these are his FRIENDS saying this!



Compare that with Monica. The younger of the two, the career she partakes in is one in the food industry, but she manages to hold down quite a few jobs during the course of the show's run. She worked as a waitress, a sous-chef, a head chef, and at one point tried her hand at a catering business. Monica only managed to have two serious relationships. The first one was with a man named Richard (Tom Selleck), but the relationship ended when he didn't want to have children...a dream that Monica had for as long as she could remember. The second one was with her brother's best friend, Chandler Bing. The second relationship ended up being the charm, as the couple got married in 2001, and remained together until the end of the series. In the end of the series, they end up adopting two children, a boy and a girl. Contrasting from Ross' description, Monica is bossier, stronger, and arguably more competitive than Ross, likely stemming from Monica's belief that her parents favoured Ross over her.

Want an example of this competitive streak in action? Watch this clip from the Season 3 episode “The One With The Football”.



A little extreme, but it illustrates my point.

For all their differences though, Ross and Monica do care and love each other very much, though sometimes it's not quite smooth sailing, and sometimes they make choices that they keep secret from each other because they feel as though they would hurt them if they knew...only for them to find out the secret on their own, and making the situation even worse.

Kind of like the time when Monica started dating Chandler, and everyone else found out EXCEPT Ross?  And how Ross only managed to discover it after moving into the apartment formerly occupied by the Ugly Naked Guy and seeing Monica and Chandler making love through his living room window?

Yeah, that was a little awkward. But, hey, none of them knew how he would react. Monica was just doing what she felt was right, and luckily for her, it worked out well. Of course, if she had let Ross in from the moment it happened, none of this would have happened, but then again, it would make for a boring episode of Friends.

Their early childhood and adult experiences also let us in on a little bit of the background in how the Geller siblings grew up.

Beginning with Ross, it's interesting to note that before his first marriage busted up, Monica revealed that Ross was never the jealous type. That said, Monica also revealed that on most of Ross' dates, it was pretty obvious that his dates were cheating on him with other people. Well, obvious to everyone except Ross, that is. This could explain why his relationships have more or less crashed and burned on the show. Despite this, Ross could always count on Monica being there for him. And for some reason, Ross is quite concerned with his physical appearance, and in both cases where he tried to improve on his looks (by using spray-tans and teeth bleaching), he failed miserably. He ended up with only half a spray-tan, and teeth that glowed in the dark. Still, Monica was there for him, even though she probably got a chuckle from his misfortune.

And Monica herself went through a lot as well. When we first met her on Friends, she was a beautiful, buxom brunette. What we initially didn't know was that Monica was half the woman she used to be. When she was in high school, she was a lot chunkier, revealing that she peaked at a weight of 255 pounds when she was a teenager. Although she had a friendship with the very popular Rachel Green, Monica didn't really date much. The motivation behind Monica dropping all the weight was after meeting Ross' college roommate, Chandler, who called her fat. When Monica, Ross, Rachel, and Chandler got together for Thanksgiving 1988, Monica planned to get revenge on Chandler by seducing him, but it ended badly when Monica accidentally cut off Chandler's toe.

Kind of ironic that Chandler and Monica would later end up a couple.

Despite Monica's struggle with her looks and her appearance back then, Ross was a supportive older brother to her. In fact, it is to Ross' credit that Monica probably ended up developing her inner strength. After all, when Monica was at her lowest, it was through the love and support of her best friend Rachel and her brother, Ross.

Monica proved to be there for Ross in return. When Ross broke up with Emily, Monica was the first one to offer up her support for her brother, and one could argue that Monica was one of the key people who helped Ross get back on his feet again.

And really, I think that's what siblings should do for one another. You don't always have to get along, and you don't even have to like each other some days.  But when times get tough, and when the situation becomes dire, if we're lucky enough to have our siblings stand by us through it all, I have to believe we can get through anything.

Kind of like my siblings did for me when I was sick.

In fact, I'm going to suggest an activity here. You don't have to participate if you don't want to, of course, depending on how fractured your relationship with your brothers and sisters is. But if you haven't talked to a sibling of yours in a long time, regardless of what the reason behind the drop in communication was, reestablish it in some form. Whether it's through an e-mail, a Facebook message, or just a simple phone call saying Hello, just do it. You might be surprised at the outcome, and you may end up reestablishing a relationship. But again, it's up to you to make that move. If you feel that there is no way to rebuild that bridge that was burned long ago, that's fine. There may be reasons behind it. But if it's simply a loss in communication that neither of you know how it became that way...isn't it worth it to try?


Thursday, November 17, 2011

Thursday Night At The Arcade - Edu-Ma-Cational Games!

Anyone who has had game consoles in their childhoods, as I have had with mine has probably heard all the flak that they get from parents and other adult figures.

They'll cause you to be violent, they say.
They'll make you a couch potato, they say.
They'll rot your brain, they say.

In the case of my own family, they said a lot of things to that extent. And yes, back then I completely tuned them out because I had deemed their opinions false and wrong.

Yes, there are violent video games out there in the world, but my personal preference is usually not towards these types of games. I hold the belief that playing violent video games does not make one violent themselves. Though, I also hold the belief that video game playing time should be monitored by parents if the child is at an impressionable age. I know it sounds contradictory on my part, but it's true. If parents can supervise their children, and make responsible choices for them, then there's a good chance that their child won't end up starring in their own live-action version of Grand Theft Auto.

There's also the argument that video games make kids sluggish, gain weight, and stay on the couch all hours of the day. And yes, with some of the retro gaming systems out there, I can see how this may have been the case back then. Not so much now though. With such games as Wii Fit, XBOX Kinect Adventures, and Dance Dance Revolution, people haven't had as much fun exercising! There's even video games based on the television show 'The Biggest Loser', a show designed to help people lose weight! So, that argument, especially over the last five years, is a moot point.

And then there's the whole idea of video games rotting the brain away. How video games couldn't possibly be educational. How they were just electronic devices destined to make kids turn into mindless zombies.

I say poppycock and balderdash. Everyone knows that the real things that are turning everyone into zombies is text messaging.

But, all kidding aside, the idea of video games being uneducational is a common misconception held by parents throughout the years.

And the reason why I describe it as a misconception is because there were dozens of educational video games available. Some were fantastic and well-done. Others weren't worth the microchips used to make them.



But when you take into account that some of the most popular toys going this holiday season are Leapsters, Leapfrogs, and other toys with the word 'Leap' in the title, there certainly is a market for educational video games.

So, for this blog entry, I've compiled a list of video and computer games that I have played over the last few years, and my goal is to hopefully convince you that video games can be both fun AND educational.

Let's start off with one of my favourites from my childhood.



PICK-A-DILLY PAIR (1983)

On the surface, it may seem like a standard matching game. Well, that's because it is. You have a whole bunch of numbered cards and you have to flip them over to make a match. It's especially fun when you play the Jokers & Villains mode, where the game is made more challenging. We used to have one of these computers in my second grade classroom, and this was probably one of the more popular games in the class. Come to think of it, if memory serves me, I held an 'undefeated' title in my second grade classroom for Pick-A-Dilly Pair. Every kid who dared to go up against me in the game did their best, but not one of them could defeat me. Hey, you take your victories wherever you can get them.

But I'm sure you're wondering how this game is educational, and I am getting to that right now. The game helped improve my already terrible short-term memory. By trying to memorize where the cards were placed, it became easier to make matches. The more matches I made, the better my memory became. I would think that to be true for any memory improving game.

The next game on the list was another popular game that kids played in second grade.



NUMBER MUNCHERS (1981)

Our classroom just had the Number Munchers game, but the company that manufactured the game (Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium) also made several other games with the same theme, including Word Munchers, Math Munchers, Fraction Munchers, and Knowledge Munchers Deluxe. The game allowed you to control a little green man known as a Muncher through a grid of squares. At the top of the screen would be a criteria, such as 'Multiples of Five', or 'Equations that equal the total of 9'. And your job would be to eat all of those numbers that met that criteria. But be careful. If you eat the wrong number, or get caught by the evil beings known as the Troggles, well, it's your funeral buddy.

Hmmm...so why am I getting a Square One flashback here?



Okay, admittedly that's not QUITE how the game was played, but you get the idea.



THE UNISYS ICON COMPUTER SYSTEM (1980s)

There's so many games to talk about for this educational system that we used in Canadian elementary schools. I first used one in the fourth grade, and one of the first games that I played for this system was a game known as Type Away. You would be taught a lesson, with each one corresponding with a pair of letters. The first few lessons taught you where the keys were on the middle row. The first lesson was the letters F and J, and the second was D and K, and so on, and so forth. Wow, I can't believe that I remembered that...funny how some things get burned into your memory, isn't it?

Anyway, at the end of each lesson, if the computer feels you've grasped it, you get a chance to practice your skills, and the letters typed would form a picture.  It could be a snail, a sailboat, even a Canadian flag!

There were other educational games too. Some dealt with morality issues and decision making, such as 'New Kid In Town' or 'A Week In The Life Of...', and some taught you how to do mathematics (Mathville). But it was a neat little computer that taught the user a whole bunch of skills.



READER RABBIT (1986)

Think of the Electric Company had it been turned into a video game. The star of the game was Reader Rabbit, and he helped teach children in between grades three and six not only how to read better, but how to sound out words, how to spell words, and even taught some basic math skills over the years. It was a very popular franchise back in the day, and rumour has it that for the game's 25th anniversary for 2011, the Nintendo Wii was working on developing a Reader Rabbit game for its console. It was a very cool game for children to learn from, but I have to say that for me personally, it bored me to tears. Still, the staying power of this franchise is nothing short of remarkable.



MARIO IS MISSING (1992)

Okay, now let's get into actual consoles here, and what better way to do this than with Nintendo's flagship character, Super Mario? I am not going to talk about the regular NES version of this game, because let's face it...8-bit graphics could only do so much. But the SNES version was a bit better. You got to play as Luigi in this game, and the object was to save Mario from Bowser's castle in Antarctica, after Mario was kidnapped in their quest to retrieve 45 stolen objects stolen from all over the world by Bowser and his children. You would have to go to various places all over the world such as Australia, Brazil, Japan, and Greece, trying to find the artifacts, bring them back to where they belonged, and take a snapshot of the landmark once you returned it. By completing each stage, you got one step closer to saving Mario.



Oh, but you also had to study the pamphlets collected about the landmarks. For the information clerks will ask you questions about each landmark in order for you to successfully return them. Oh, one more thing. If you can figure out where in the world you are, you can summon Yoshi to the very place you think you are.  If successful, Yoshi will join you, and you can make the speed of the game go a lot quicker.



Mario Is Missing dealt with the subject of geography, but a 1993 sequel called Mario's Time Machine was released, which had Mario going back in time to bring back historical artifacts that Bowser had stolen, adding a little bit of American and World history to the mix. And both games were a fun distraction for kids who grew up during that time period. But I admit that one game that also dealt with the subject of geography did it better.



WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CARMEN SANDIEGO? (1985)

This was a game that absolutely fun to play, and later inspired a television quiz show for children that aired between 1991-1996.



You played a detective from the ACME Detective Agency, trying to find a criminal named Carmen Sandiego. She and her henchmen have caused trouble all over the world, and it is your job to travel to various places all over the world to apprehend her henchmen (and ultimately, Carmen herself). People on the street will give clues as to what the henchmen look like, as well as the location where they were travelling. You had to keep track of both very closely, because if one were to make the wrong guess, you could end up on a wild goose chase. To make it even more complicated, you had a deadline to solve the case. If you didn't make the deadline, Carmen and her goons got away. You really had to know your world geography to get through this game, but you also had to keep track of the clues so that you could get an arrest warrant for the right suspect.

I hope that these examples that I have provided for you will illustrate my point that video games can be educational and fun at the same time, putting an end to the argument that video games are mindless entertainment.

Of course, they can also be unintentionally creepy as hell.




Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Across The Pond And Beyond - Sailor Moon

Is it just me, or do female superheroes get overshadowed by their male counterparts?

It seems that for every female superhero there is about twenty-five male superheroes, waging the war against crime, putting evil-doers to justice, and saving the world from total destruction over and over again.

Or, so I hear, as I never really got into the whole superhero craze where I had to own every Batman comic book, or watch every Superman movie, or collect every DVD of every cartoon that featured a superhero.

Well, unless you count the 1960s Spiderman cartoon. 1960S Spiderman rocked.

But I can't really recall there being a lot of female superheroes that girls could look up to. I mean, yeah, girls had Wonder Woman, and back in the day when she was popular, I imagine that lots of girls dressed up as her for Halloween. Some of the X-Men characters (both heroines and antagonists) were female. Heck, one could argue that Disney's Kim Possible, and the pink and yellow Power Rangers represented female empowerment as well.

Other than that, in North America, you may struggle to come up with a definitive list of female superheroes.

(In fact, I'm going to offer this up as a challenge. How many female superheroes can you name? Maybe there's more out there than I even thought!)

But that's in North America. You take a trip across the Pacific Ocean to the country of Japan, and you'll find dozens upon dozens of anime cartoons which feature female protagonists.

As it so happens, today's blog post is all about one of these anime cartoons. It's about a teenage girl who discovers that she has special powers that she is supposed to use to save the world and the universe from being taken over by the forces of evil. The whole series details the growth of this young woman from naïve, ditzy, scatterbrained teenager to being a more mature version who is determined to use her powers for good.



Today's blog subject is the Japanese anime series, Sailor Moon.



Now, this is a topic that I really had to do my research on thoroughly, as I don't even remember watching the show when it first arrived in North America. I may have maybe seen one episode at the most. But because I strive to make this blog suitable for both genders (and who knows, maybe some guys are huge Sailor Moon fans too), I figure I'd give it a whirl for this week's Across The Pond and Beyond topic.



All right, so Sailor Moon debuted in Japan on March 7, 1992. The original name of the series, loosely translated into English from Japanese was “Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon”. Over the years, the show would be known under four other titles and incarnations, but just for the sake of argument, we'll just focus on the first season of the series.

Though the series began in 1992, it wasn't until years later that the show would develop a following in the United States and Canada. And on September 11, 1995, the first English dubbed episode of Sailor Moon was broadcast.



In Canada, the show ran well into the year 2000, and was a mainstay on the television network YTV for many years. In the United States, it aired on the Cartoon Network, and on some NBC affiliates.

But what's interesting is that when the show was dubbed into English from Japanese, some scenes were left on the cutting room floor. In fact, a total of five episodes were eliminated from the show's Japanese line-up, and two episodes were actually spliced together into one episode.

But why was this the case? Inappropriate conduct.

You see...the original Japanese version was a lot more...shall we say...adult in nature? Take a look at this clip from one of the later Japanese shows to illustrate what I mean. Don't worry...there's subtitles.



And since Sailor Moon was designed to air in markets that catered to children't programming, it was decided it was best to just leave those scenes out, and just work around the episodes they could use. Minor editing was done to street signs in the cartoon to change them to English, and some scenes where people were slapped or spit on were edited out. At the end of each English show was a segment called Sailor Says, which taught a life lesson and moral based on the theme of the episode. Here's an example of this below.



Now, many anime purists hated the edits and changes, and made no secret about broadcasting their disdain, but when you have a culture that has a different set of broadcasting standards as another country, there's not a whole lot one can do...unless of course you learn Japanese and import the Japanese episodes...

Anyway, getting back to the show, the main character of the show is a 14-year-old girl named Usagi Tsukino (who was called Serena in the English translation). She's a typical teenage girl who loves music, loves the arts, loves hanging around the video arcade so she can throw herself at the boys who play the video games at said arcade. And she has a super humongous sweet tooth! Seriously. In any episodes that I watched to research today's entry, Serena's almost always gobbling down some sort of sweet.

It's a wonder that she still has all her teeth!



Anyway, the show kicks off with Serena coming across a black cat named Luna. In a lot of cases, some people believe that a black cat crossing your path is doomed to bring one bad luck. But not so here.

Turns out that Luna and Serena had a bit of a connection that was literally out of this world.

Thousands of years ago, a magical kingdom existed. The official name of the kingdom was the Silver Millennium, but in the English dub, it was more or less referred to as the Moon Kingdom. The inhabitants of the Silver Millennium enjoyed a long lifespan, and each inhabitant only had two duties. One was to protect the Silver Crystal, which was a powerful stone. The crystal had the power to revive an entire world that was in ruin...at the cost of the user's life. Basically, it's a crystal that if it ever fell into the wrong hands, it could be very, very costly. The second duty for the people within the kingdom was to watch over the evolution of Earth and protect it from any negative influence.

Oh, did I mention that during this time, there was a prohibition on any sort of romantic relationships between an Earth person and a Moon person?

Try telling that to the crown prince of Earth at the time, one Endymion and his four guardians (Jadeite, Zoisite, Nephrite, and Kunzite). Like a classic Romeo and Juliet style romance, Endymion fell in love with Princess Serenity of the Moon, and despite the fact that it was unacceptable, it seemed as though nothing could break the two up.

That is, until a peasant woman named Beryl let her jealousy overcome her, and became evil. Under the influence of the evil Queen Metalia, Beryl riled up the citizens of Earth to do battle with those of the Moon. Long story short, both the Earth and Moon kingdoms were completely destroyed, and the evolution of life had to start all over again.

Flash forward to the 1990s, in modern-day Tokyo. As a result of the warfare, everyone in the kingdoms was doomed to death. The Queen of the Silver Millennium knew that she was about to die, and she wanted to make sure that her daughter, Princess Serenity, could be reborn again when the need arose. With the last of her power, the queen sent Serenity, Endymion, and a group of young soldiers known as the Sailor Senshi (or Sailor Scouts in the English translation) to Earth so that they may be reborn during the 20th century.

The Sailor Scouts are reborn as four typical girls. Endymion is reborn as Mamoru Chiba (otherwise known as Darien Shields in the English version), and Princess Serenity becomes Serena Tsukino.

Wow...Serenity becomes Serena. Who would have ever guessed?

So that's the basic plot of the Sailor Moon series. Serena comes to terms with the fact that she has special powers that she can use to save the world. Of course, when she first hears of this destiny from Luna, she doesn't quite believe it. As a side effect of being resurrected, her previous memory of who she was a thousand years ago was wiped clean. She eventually gets it back over time though.

But Serena didn't want the responsibility. She just wanted to be a normal kid. This proved to be a source of much conflict and much comedy as Serena tried to balance her personal life with her quest to protect the Earth from Queen Beryl and her servants (who ended up being the former guardians of Endymion, who ended up turning to the forces of evil). But over time, Serena managed to find her inner courage, and proved to be a formidable fighter, whether it be retrieving the seven rainbow coloured crystals that formed the legendary Silver Crystal, or stopping monsters from draining the life energy out of the citizens of Earth, Serena embraced her Sailor Moon persona and did her best to be the bravest one possible in some rather tight jams.



Of course, Serena isn't completely alone in this fight. Her cat Luna proves to be a valuable mentor to her, even if Serena can be a bit stubborn and refuses to listen to her. And she has a love-hate relationship with Darien (who unbeknownst to either of them were love interests many moons ago). They make up, break up, she insults him, he calls her Meatball Head...yeah. Stuff like that.

But the relationship between Serena and Darien is definitely one of the recurring themes of the show, and Darien actually has an alter-ego who goes by the name of Tuxedo Mask. Appropriately enough, in many battles that Sailor Moon has, the enemy is ultimately defeated when Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon join forces.

Imagine that.

And then there are the Sailor Scouts. In the first series of the show, we meet four of them, but there are reportedly a total of ten, with each one named after a part of the solar system. Serena has her own relationship with each of them, both in regular kid and in Sailor Scout form, and each one has their own set of powers.



Sailor Mercury, for instance, is the first Sailor Scout introduced in the series. Her human form is that of 14-year-old school brainiac Ami Mizuno. Ami is very intelligent, with a reported IQ in the 300s (which may or may not be a possibility...don't ask me...mine isn't THAT high), and is very quiet and studious. Basically the anti-Serena. Though she and Serena are very close, and in many ways, Ami is probably Serena's closest ally out of all the Sailor Scouts. She's the most practical of the group, and she wants to become a doctor like her mother. But she also has a secret love of pop culture and romance novels, which embarrasses her greatly if this fact were pointed out. In battle, Sailor Mercury uses the magical power of water and ice to freeze her enemies cold. Her colour is blue.



There's Sailor Mars, the next one to join the group. Her human identity is that of 14-year-old, Rei Hino. She is a shrine maiden of a temple that her grandfather is the head priest of. Like Ami, Rei is very serious minded, though not with her schoolwork. Rei has a very short-fuse, and she is very passionate about what she believes in. She also seems to have a very short fuse with Serena, and more often than not, Serena and Rei end up at each other's throats at least once per episode. Deep down inside though, Rei cares a lot for Serena, and whenever Serena is indecisive about something, Rei will often make the decision for her, for Serena's best interests. With Sailor Mars mastering any magic involving fire, the enemies of the Sailor Scouts are sure to get burned. Her colour is red.



Sailor Jupiter is the next featured scout. Her human name is Makoto Kino, but on the English version, she goes by the name Lita. Lita is kind of like the Peppermint Patty of the group. Very tomboyish, very tall, very loud and boisterous. At fourteen, Lita's had a rough go in life. Her parents were killed in a plane crash years earlier, and she now struggles to take care of herself. For being just a teenager, Lita's resourcefulness shows clear through, and she probably has the most inner strength of all of the scouts. She's close to all the Sailor Scouts, and when she has to go into battle as Sailor Jupiter, she uses the power of lightning. I wonder how well she got along with Sailor Mercury. Her colour is green.



Last, but certainly not least, we have Minako “Mina” Aino...otherwise known as Sailor Venus. She's a different sort of character. At the age of fourteen, Mina had a career as an actress, playing the role of the beloved 'Sailor V' for various television programs and films. Like Serena, she has a pet cat named Artemis, who happens to share a connection with Luna, surprisingly enough. On the show, she has a dream of being a famous singer, as she feels that she would be loved and respected if she were. She's kind of similar to Serena, as she gets a bit dopey at times, especially when a man is involved. However, as Sailor Venus, she has a huge role. She's the leader of Sailor Moon's four inner guardians, and she uses the power of love and beauty to make the enemies very unpretty indeed. Her colour is orange.



Together, they make up the Sailor Scouts, and together, they fight to rid the world of Beryl and the dark kingdom.

And really, that's all I have to say in regards to Sailor Moon. But, I will say that there are some rather emotional scenes in the cartoon series, and I can maybe see why some people got really into it back in the day. I'll leave you with one of these scenes.




Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Taking The Tiaras Away From The Toddlers - A Rant

Anyone who has checked into this blog at least a few times since I began writing it knows that for the most part, the entries are mostly positive in nature. That's not to say that all of them are lighthearted and goofy in nature. In fact, there are probably some that have had some very serious topics of discussion, and some that have had a darker tone than other entries. And, there's a few entries that I have done on subjects that I have either A) never seen before, or B) am not the biggest fan of, and yet, I've found that I can still find at least one positive to bring out of it.

So it is here that I offer this disclaimer. I doubt that this will be one of those pieces that will have a whole lot of positivity within it. In fact, I reckon that I will likely find myself getting quite angry within certain parts of this entry today. I'll still mind my P's and Q's though, as I really dislike profanity, and only really use it when I end up injuring myself. But, if you're looking for a light and fluffy piece with sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows, this isn't the place to find it. Maybe when I choose Lesley Gore as the subject, it will have all those things, but not today.

In fact, the more and more I think about today's subject, the more and more disgusted I feel.

Today's blog topic is about a particular television show that currently airs on the TLC network. At one point, TLC was once a reputable channel, where TLC stood for 'The Learning Channel', but lately, I find myself asking what the heck that channel is supposed to be teaching us these days.

Seriously. Most of those shows are horrible. Take a look at the show 18, 19, 20, whatever number of child the Duggar family happens to be producing now. I mean, really? There was once a show that aired years ago called Eight Is Enough, and I can't help but wonder if they ever watched that show. Heck, as far as I'm concerned, even eight is too much!

You hearing me, Kate Gosselin? Eight is too much!

Even shows that actually do teach you something on that channel can be filled with some questionable moments. I mean, yeah, Stacy and Clinton have been teaching women all across America what not to wear for the better part of a decade, but I caught a couple of episodes where they were trashing their old wardrobes, and let's just say that some of their comments were just mean-spirited and unnecessary. They could have been a lot more diplomatic towards them with their comments, but I suppose that even they have to be mean for the cameras to get the ratings.

But that's not even scratching the surface of this once proud network.

There is one show that the network airs that is currently in its fourth season. A show that has been the subject of much criticism, verbal backlash, and is accused of exploiting its very subjects.

And, I proudly admit to being one of those people who have and will criticize the show for however long it airs.



The subject for today's blog is the TLC reality show program 'Toddlers & Tiaras', a program that I make no secret in openly despising with all of my heart and soul. But why that is the case, well...that's coming up later.

Toddlers & Tiaras debuted on TLC in January 2009, and the show is basically a behind the scenes look at child beauty pageants. I have my own opinions about child beauty pageants, and for the most part, I really don't like them all that much. Maybe it was the tragic 1996 unsolved murder of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey that may have shaped my view of them that did it. Or, maybe it's the fact that I'm not typically a fan of beauty pageants to begin with, as I think there's more to a person than whether they have a perfect complexion, perfect smile, or perfect anything else that is semi-important at best.

But you know, child beauty pageants, whether I like them or not, are here to stay. And, I digress that there are circumstances in which I guess they could be a good thing. Some prizes that are offered are savings bonds and college scholarships, which given the economy can be worth their weight in gold. And I suppose if the people participating in the pageants really want to do them, and find great joy in it, then that's fine.

But I take a lot of issue with this program. A lot.

I think I've probably only seen about two and a half episodes of the program in total, and that was likely two episodes too many. Because the little that I have seen of the show was enough to completely sicken me from it forever, and never watch it again.

And yet, I have to show video clips to prove my point. Oh, the quandary!!!



The biggest problem that I have with this show is the fact that some of these pageant moms are willing to do whatever it takes to help their little darlings win prize after prize.

Whatever it takes.

Regardless of whether it hurts their child or not.

Ah, look...here's a perfect example right here.



Okay, let's dissect this, shall we? This mother has decided to give her child an edge by putting a swimsuit on her, shoving her into a spray-tan booth and colour her a shade of brown that's similar to that of Snooki from Jersey Shore, all the while she's crying because she doesn't like having this spray-tan done.

And, I mean, how old is this girl anyway? She can't be much older than five or six! When I was five, I didn't even know what spray tanning was! I don't even know if spray tanning existed back in 1987! But, that's not the point. The point is that when you're artificially tanning your child, and she's obviously uncomfortable with it to the point where she is crying and not liking it very much, isn't that the cue for you to STOP IT?

Oh, and she makes her child wear fake teeth. Not because she has a terrible smile...heck, the mom goes on and on about how beautiful her teeth is. She just wants to make her child's smile a little MORE beautiful. And, hey, if it helps the child win more pageants, it has to be good, right?

Yeah, perfect example to show your kid...that one has to change how they look about themselves to be declared beautiful by a bunch of people who they probably don't even know. Yeah, great life lesson there, Mom.

Oh, but this next mother doesn't even need fake teeth to impress the pageant crowd. No way! Because according to her, fake teeth is the equivalent of altering what God gave them. So, why use fake teeth when you can just bleach the ones that the girl already has! They love it! The mom says they do, so it has to be true, right?

Judge for yourself.



Now, you ask me...do YOU think that Alaska liked the process of bleaching her teeth as white as...well...Alaskan snow? All signs point to probably not. Even Dad was shocked at the admission that Mom coats her children's teeth with some teeth whitening solution, but by the end of the clip was magically okay with it.

Which leads me to wonder whether the teeth were the only body parts that sustained bleaching.

Sometimes I wonder if maybe the thrill of competing in these pageants causes some parents to become addicted to them, as the case of this mother below.



Okay...first off...she spent fifteen to twenty THOUSAND dollars on pageants? Seriously? I mean, yeah, there's the chance that you could win cash prizes by winning a pageant, but what if she came in second, or third, or eighty-fourth? Wouldn't that $20,000 be better used for something else instead? And going to pageants every weekend? Did you see those sashes on that girl's wall? Does she even have a life outside of school and pageants? Do I even want to know the answer? Probably not, because it could make me even angrier than I am now.

And what happens when the child doesn't end up winning? I would think that in a lot of events (whether it be sporting events, getting the lead in a play, or yes, even pageantry), the parents would be very supportive, and would end up doing their best to tell their child that they still did a great job, and that they are still proud of them regardless of whether they win a trophy or not, right? Well, watch this.



Hmmm...okay, so let's look at this. This kid was expecting to be named the best of the show, and her parents were counting on her winning a high title. Despite the fact that she had won the title of Queen and several other smaller prizes, the girl still isn't happy, and actually kind of acts bratty by not wanting to wear the crown she received. Kind of makes one wonder where she got that attitude from, doesn't it?

The show's recently caused a lot of controversy in recent weeks. Does everyone remember the 1990 movie Pretty Woman? The movie starring Julia Roberts? The movie where Julia Roberts plays a prostitute wearing a rather revealing outfit in the first few minutes?



Whatever would possess this mom to even THINK of dressing her child in an outfit like that? Like, seriously...just what the hell was she thinking? Did she not even watch the movie? Did she just act on impulse not realizing that she was dressing her toddler like a fictional prostitute? I mean, HELLO?!?

And you wonder why I'm reacting like this to a television show.  But, then again, with gossipy shows like Entertainment Tonight (another show on my do not watch list) reporting about the controversy as if it was the most important event going on in the world, is it any wonder why the program is one of TLC's most watched?  Not by me, but by others.

My honest assessment of the show is such that I find it absolutely deplorable to put these children through all that just to win a stupid trophy and a crown bedazzled with fake gems.

I don't know about any of you, but when I was six or seven, the girls who went to my school were NOT involved in pageants at all. I think the only pageants that were available for children to enter was the one that was held at our summer festival in town, and not even those participants were THAT glammed up...or, so I've heard, as I never bothered with them much.

Back in those days, girls looked like girls. In fact, I think most of the girls at my school were kind of the tomboy type during grade school. They liked playing sports, or running around the schoolyard, and other things like that. The only time they ever really dressed up was for school picture day. I don't think most girls really started caring about fashion and makeup until the middle school years, which to me was quite common.

So, to see these parents basically turning their children into toddler size Barbie dolls...I don't know. Am I wrong in feeling that this is making children grow up way too fast? Am I wrong in being disgusted by parents who force their children to do things that most adults don't even need to do to look beautiful? Am I wrong for feeling the way I feel about Toddlers & Tiaras?

Hell no. And I bet a lot of you reading this note will agree with me. There's some of you who won't, and that's fine.

Why are these moms and dads so intent on making their children into little junior sized adults?

Why does a toddler need a tiara to feel special when all they really need is the chance to be a regular kid?

Okay, now that my rant about Toddlers & Tiaras is over, I can breathe again, and I get to retreat into my cocoon of tranquility once more. And I can finally stop watching clips of this dreadful show for research purposes, as the process really made me want to vomit. But sometimes you just have to talk about something you hate to prove a point, and in this case, this was one of those times.

In fact, let's see what else happens to be on television...maybe I can get a show that DOESN'T have shrieking harpy mothers whining about what they feel is best for their child when they really don't have a clue.

Oh, here's an interesting show called Dance Moms...

...hey...waitaminute...

Monday, November 14, 2011

Monday Matinee - Double Jeopardy

Have you ever heard of the phrase 'Double Jeopardy'?



I imagine for most of you, the Jeopardy theme song is playing through your heads right now as you think about the answer to this question.

Of course, one of the possible answers to this question is that it is the second round in a standard episode of the long-running game show, Jeopardy. But, no, the quiz show Jeopardy is not the subject for today's blog.

Now, if one was on Jeopardy, which is a show where you're given the answer, and have to come up with the accompanying question to go with the answer to win money, this term might end up appearing in the law category.

If one were to select Law for, say, $400, the answer would be this.

A procedural defense that forbids a defendant from being tried again on the same or similar charges following a legitimate acquittal or conviction.

That's the basic definition of the phrase 'double jeopardy' in law terms.

If the claim of double jeopardy is raised in court, evidence will be provided for the judge to consider, and if this is proven to be a fact, the trial will cease. In many countries, the guarantee against 'double jeopardy' is a constitutional right, and some of the countries that take this as a constitutional right include the United States, Mexico, and India. Other countries, such as Australia, Canada, and Germany have their own policies regarding double jeopardy, but are tweaked a bit depending on the laws of the country.

So, here's the question for all of you. Given that you now know what the phrase 'double jeopardy' is, I pose this question. If you were accused of doing a crime, and were either found guilty or non-guilty, would you tempt the double jeopardy gods and commit a second crime, or commit the crime that you were accused of doing with the knowledge that you could not be tried for the same offense?

Well, okay, according to some law professors, this isn't truly double jeopardy. A law professor from Harvard University named Alan Dershowitz believes that the above situation that I described is a bit of a misrepresentation of the phrase double jeopardy. It would be committing two separate incidents. He says that someone who was wrongly convicted of a crime and went to jail for it could end up suing the courts, or getting some sort of compensation for it. But if they plan to commit an entirely different crime the second time around, which would lead to getting charged for the very thing that they were convicted for, it would be two separate crimes, and according to Dershowitz, there would be no justification for playing the double jeopardy card.

And that was one of the main criticisms for a movie that was released about this very subject.

Now, let's go back to our pretend Jeopardy game, and decide to choose '90s Movies for $600. And it is appropriately enough a Daily Double. And you wager it all and get this answer.

A 1999 movie starring Ashley Judd, who decides to kill her husband after going to jail for his supposed murder six years ago, with a law term that is sure to 'double' the stakes.



If you guessed that the answer was 'Double Jeopardy', you've successfully doubled your score!



Yes, Double Jeopardy was raked over the coals by critics everywhere, and currently only holds about a 25% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website. Dershowitz claimed the movie to be an inaccurate representation of 'double jeopardy', and one clear sign of a movie not doing critically well is the fact that it is played about seven times a month on cable television every few months or so.

(Seriously, I think I've seen this movie like 25 times on cable television.)

It's actually kind of a shame that the movie didn't perform better. The movie's director was Bruce Beresford, who directed the Academy Award winning film 'Driving Miss Daisy', and the cast was made up of Judd, Tommy Lee Jones, Annabeth Gish, and Bruce Greenwood. It was a talented cast, with great direction. It really should have done much better.

But the film did make a little more than double the film's budget, so I suppose it couldn't have been all that bad.



The film begins at Whidbey Island. A wealthy couple, Nick and Elizabeth Parsons (Greenwood and Judd) decide to go on a boating excursion, borrowing a friend's yacht, and going on a weekend excursion. Elizabeth (who prefers to go by the name Libby) has never been happier. With a loving husband, a best friend named Angela (Gish), and a fantastic life filled with anything and everything money could buy, it seemed like nothing would knock her down.

The weekend on a yacht with the love of her life was supposed to have been one of those perfect days for Libby...but it didn't end up that way.

After waking up the next morning after having a passionate night with Nick, she finds Nick completely vanished without a trace. Even more disturbingly, she finds herself, as well as the floor of the boat stained with blood. Libby, in absolute shock, searches the yacht, trying to make sense of what has happened. She happens to pick up a bloody knife lying on a deck nearby...where she is conveniently discovered by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Whoops.

Long story short, Libby is arrested, completely torn apart in the media, tried, convicted of murdering her husband, and sent to prison.

Now, if that were the end of the movie, admittedly, it would be one of the most depressing movies of all time. But, there's more to this story.

Such as the fact that Libby's beloved husband isn't really dead...and isn't really the nice, charming guy Libby fell in love with.



Turns out that she finds the truth after a phone conversation with her friend, Angela, who ultimately was never really a friend to her in the first place. The reason Libby was speaking with Angela was to check up on her son, Matty, as the prison sentence Libby was given would have prevented her from looking after him. Angela promised to look after Matty in Libby's absence. Angela lets Matty talk to Libby on the phone, and Libby is overjoyed to hear his voice. But then Libby hears a door opening in the background, and is absolutely stunned to hear Matty react to the noise by screaming the word “Daddy!”

So, you know how it goes. Libby was framed for murder, leaving the path clear for Nick to make his son the sole beneficiary of his life insurance policy (as people who are convicted for murder cannot make a claim on insurance policies). From there, Nick could start up an affair with Angela, and then Nick and Angela would start a new life together with Matty, leaving Libby rotting away in prison.

That bastard.

So, now that Libby realizes that she is being set up, and that her loving husband isn't so loving after all, she wants revenge. Problem is, she's stuck in prison until her parole hearing, and behind bars, there wasn't much one could do.

All Libby can do is serve her time, act on her best behaviour, and do whatever chores she was assigned in hopes of getting an early release. But something else fuels her desire to get out of prison. One of the other inmates in the prison she is in tells her about the double jeopardy clause, and that if she does happen to get paroled for good behaviour, she could then go out, kill her husband for real, and not have to get convicted a second time. The wheels in Libby's brain start to turn, and she is realizing that if she ever wanted a chance to get her son (and her life for that matter) back, the double jeopardy clause could be her ticket.



Approximately six years pass (or approximately 35 minutes in movie time) before Libby gets paroled, and she immediately begins searching for Nick and Matty. Of course, she finds that road to be difficult, as part of her parole conditions states that she has to live in a halfway house where she is supervised by her parole officer Travis Lehman (Jones). So, needless to say, Libby really has to plan her moves very carefully, as she is under a forced curfew, and is under Travis' strict supervision.

One night, Libby comes to the conclusion that since her ex-best friend Angela was shacking up with Nick, she should try to find out where Angela was located.  Having known that Angela was a schoolteacher at a school on Whidbey Island, Libby decides to break into the school in order to check her personal records for a possible address. She is caught breaking in, and security is immediately beefed up as Travis literally handcuffs himself to Libby so that she doesn't try escaping again.

But, she does.



That's only a portion of the clip, because clips for this movie are surprisingly enough quite hard to find. But basically, she ends up breaking free from her handcuffs by driving the car containing both her and Travis into the water, and during the struggle out of the sinking car, Libby separates from Travis, and is able to continue her search. Of course, Travis still manages to follow her closely, because you can bet that he won't let her get away so easily.



At any rate, Libby soon discovers that Angela was killed in a car accident in the state of Colorado, so the theory of Angela being able to lead her to Nick and Matty was a dead end. Literally. But, she also discovers a piece of art in a photo taken for a newspaper article as one that Nick had owned while they were still married. After tracing the piece of artwork through a art dealer database on a computer, she discovers that it belongs to an art dealer named Jonathan Devereaux, based out of New Orleans, Louisiana. But, Jonathan Devereaux was a fake name.

His real name? Nicholas Parsons.

And that was all the evidence Libby needed to head down to New Orleans in order to get her child back. She manages to find him at a bachelor auction where all the proceeds raised went for charity, and she manages to bid ten thousand dollars for a date with him as an excuse to confront her estranged husband once and for all. Libby only had one thing on her mind. She wanted her son, and she told Nick that she would keep quiet about his real identity if he relinquished his parental rights to Matty. Nick, realizing that his back was up against the wall, agreed to bring Matty down to a cemetery where the reunion between mother and child would take place.

But Libby really should have known better than to actually trust her husband again. For when she arrived at the cemetery, Nick had hired an eleven-year-old decoy to play their son, paid him off, and when Libby got close, he attacks her, knocks her out cold, and traps her inside a casket in an out of the way mausoleum.

So, we have our climax. At this point, Travis is starting to believe that Libby may be telling the truth about not killing her husband, and after doing some research of his own, he now wants to find Libby and team up with her to stop Nick's reign of terror once and for all. But with Libby trapped inside a casket where the air quality is poor, will Travis make it in time?

Well, all I can do is tell you to watch the movie's ending to find out for yourself. Just be warned, the movie has a few plot holes, and some parts of the film are somewhat on the unbelievable side. Still, it's an okay movie, and despite the inaccuracies and the wild plot, it's worth checking out at least once.

And given that it airs on cable dozens of times a year, you probably have and may not know it!