T Swift vs. The World

I want to comment on something I just read today. It was a Mary Sue article -

Taylor Swift Is a Silence Breaker…When It Comes to Sexual Assault by Princess Weekes | 12:00 pm, Dec 11th 2017

  - about Taylor Swift and how she's a silence breaker on sexual assault and not much else.

So apparently there's some neo Nazi thing going on and quite a lot of them are fans of Taylor?
I mean, I knew something of neo Nazi's but I guess I didn't figure them for Swifties?
Wait, is that racist? Hmm.

Anyway, not being American, this is the first I've heard of it but in this article about how awesome and empowering she was there's a little nagging voice saying yes, but she should really be defeating Nazi's like Captain America/Wonder Woman if she wanted to be taken seriously.

Which to me is one step away from being a wee bit victim blamey. Like yeah Taylor Swift, great job showing that pervert who's boss but let's face it, you aren't calling these Nazi's out are you? Maybe if you'd thrown your shield/tiara at them you wouldn't have been grabbed inappropriately?

Yes - Nazi's are not a good thing. Can we not let her get past this incident first? Maybe after being sexually assaulted and made fun of by the internet as a whole and bullied/further harassed by Kartrashian-Wests maybe she doesn't want to be the poster child for anything else right this second.

Unlike what the OP above thinks, that Taylor should be crusading against the Nazi's and denouncing Trump and juggling fire sticks while balancing on her head and stopping world hunger - I think she should be given a chance to take a friggin' breath.

Now, as someone who has enjoyed T-Swift’s music, but finds everything else ranging from grating to obnoxious, I think the one thing we should all rally behind her for is her court case. That asshole DJ had the raw-ass audacity to sue Swift for lost wages after the artists told his boss that he grabbed her ass. She countersued for $1 and called out that asshole for putting her and her family through this mess of a trial for his own ego. This dingleberry of a human still hasn’t paid Swift the dollar. Her interview with Time is powerful and important: her rage and aggression is perfect. Regardless of how you feel about her, according to RAINN there was a 35% increase on their crisis hotline during and after Swift’s trial. That is important and that alone is reason alone for her to be included in this article, which is about tributing women who spoke out about sexual assault.

However, that does not mean a discussion shouldn’t be had about her lack of political awareness in other areas.

While I understand how important it is to be vocal about important matters and that celebrity voices often have more weight than your average Joe, Taylor Swift is.. a music personality. She's not a politician or an outright activist - we shouldn't be looking to her alone to solve serious political and racial issues.

Adventures in Dreamtime II: The Fever Dreams

So apparently this is mostly going to be a blog about my outlandish, freaky dreams.
I do remember most of my dreams. I know some folk don't, so I consider myself lucky.
Considering what I remember.... twisted, yes, but also lucky.

Dreams are great, they can be like movies but like movies they often suffer from poor characterisation, plot holes and they suck. Or they're nightmares - the worst kind are the ones that aren't full blown nightmares but still kind of dreams, that you can't wake from.

I still like the fact that I can remember most of my dreams. Yes, it makes me feel special, but also I get to wonder what's up with my subconscious that I think up these messed up scenarios.

I've always liked cars. I grew up wanting a magenta Jaguar because I liked cats and my Barbie had some sweet wheels. All my life I have wanted to literally own a monster truck. Yet, I'm happy with my small car. Fuel is (relatively) cheap, parking is a breeze, it's surprisingly roomy and zippier than people like to admit. Also, I don't have to help people move houses or watch my roof when I go into car parks.

That said, my husband recently upped his sedan for a 4wd ute and I love it. It's probably as close as I'll ever get to being a monster truck driver and it's got fun new features that my car (obviously) doesn't have. I don't know if it's because it's so big or so new, or not "really" my car but if we were going somewhere like the city or a shopping centre, I prefer to take my car.

I feel like my car is literally an extension of my body, much like an exquisite weapon of some kind and also part of my soul, like being an Evangelion pilot but with slightly less insane emotional angst and existential crisis's. ....just slightly less.

Adventures in Dreamtime

So I had a weird night last night followed by what appeared to be a delirium induced dream.

I hadn't gotten much sleep the previous night, and neither had our friends (due to their young son vehemently refusing bedtime) so the only one of us who was well rested was my husband I think.

Anyway, we had a good night and were able to settle their son at a more reasonable hour and then got on to drinking, chatting and watching Jackass #2.

stage one

The Mr's got pretty blotto but not unmanageable (although after we got home I got tired of waiting for him to come to bed so I turned the light off and was rewarded with a stirring rendition of 'hello darkness my old friend....' with the irony being that we actually lost the sound of silence that night. 

stage two

So I had a lot of things on my mind and drifted uneasily to sleep where I apparently had a pretty intense dream that was pretty convincingly real.

I was working in a call centre where all the calls are recorded, one of my co-workers was in on a murder scheme with me and my manager managed to pick up on that (I don't know how exactly.. in real life she's a bit of a thick headed, vapid idiot)

It all culminated at a strange mint themed mother's day party at my relative's house... which began with about ten of us having a pet race (the pets were pretty stupid too... or they may have been confused) then my co-murderer and I went downstairs (a flight or two) that suddenly became more like ten and several celebrities and co-workers were draped across it along with their crap, entourages and also their pets.

Australia's heatwave increases rate of spiders commuting on public transport

On Feb 10th, a huntsman spider took over several seats - reported to be about six in total - on a busy train in Melbourne, VIC.

This is actually pretty impressive, given that Melbourne is pretty much the stabbing and road rage capital of Australia, plus everything there is so expensive that everyone is generally in an angry mood.

There have been times where I have gone to catch a peak hour commute and there are people fighting over half a chair. Yet here, no one even shoos the spidler away?

I just can't get over how blatantly Australian this headline is!

• FEBRUARY 10 2017 The Age - Craig butt

Nervous commuters decided it was better to stand in the aisle rather than risk the wrath of the spider. 

One commuter, who wished to remain anonymous, bravely took a photo of the scene and sent it to The Age.

The spider is understood to be on the seat by the window in the above photo and therefore cannot be seen, but the photographer did not want to venture any closer. 

Return of Kings? Return of Douche-bags!

I saw this pop up in my news feed and yeah, I didn't realise it was real. It had to be a hoax, right? No one, not even the most crazed male rights activist could be stupid enough to join these things.. right?

Well, apparently they are. It might have been the cool Lord of the Rings style ultra manly name. Maybe they're right, and our world is just too PC now and these poor guys are suffering!
Or... they could just be dick wads.

That's probably the most accurate. So there's a hate group from America that just wants 'men to be masculine and women to be feminine' - but because they want to legalise rape performed in a private setting - like one's house for example - they're just really wanting to get the right to act like stereotypes themselves - super entitled white dick heads who act like the worst movie villains from cavemen times. Really? You're all kings? How's that working out for you?

I mean, seriously? Did people look at this guy and V Douche or whatever and think, By Jove! He's on to something! and actually mean it? Saying that this will end America's rape epidemic? Because I'm sure these guys wouldn't be above drugging or kidnapping someone to get them on their own turf and then be all "oh no officer, they came to my house to do this, it's sooo legal!"
How about, we reintroduce harsher sentencing for rapists, and teach from a young age that no one gets to do that to other people. No one, not even King Douch Bag. That would go a long way into helping stop this rape crisis.

What's next for them? Black people are too entitled, let's legalise lynch mobs again! Disability access ramps intrude on my right to walk, let's legalise discrimination against the differently abled! We don't need to pay social security to elderly people, let's legalise euthanasia on private property! I don't believe in religion, no one else should, let's legalise burning down churches/mosques/etc.

Does that sound out of place? Not really because it is what it is - a freaking hate group wanting to commit hate crimes and get 'Daddy Government' to legalise it.
They value beauty and fertility in women only, but it's a group lead by one of the ugliest son of a bitch I ever done seen.

Still, does that mean that the leader will get raped himself if he ventures onto someone else's home turf? Probably not because who the hell knows what kind of sick shit he's got going on up in him. There is simply not enough Glen20 in the world to cleanse him. It would be pretty ironic though - if someone raped him I think his little mind would just deteriorate due to the imbalance of power occurring. Or, if a homosexual did it - they're not allowed at these little parties, you know.

The world's tough, that's for sure - but guys - we have more urgent matters to deal with than your inability to coexist with others without trying to abuse them. Would you still advocate for legalised rape if it impacted someone you care about? I don't think you'd mind either way, and that just shows you irresponsible, ridiculous, jerk brain.

Grow up.

 Oh and, if you do somehow make it to Australia?
Well, it's a pretty dangerous country, and that's just the animals here.

Back Seat Film, Reviewers

So last night my new husband and I went out to a movie. Actually two. We randomly went out, ended up at the Cineplex. The movie we wanted to see wasn't on so we saw another one on account of driving out all that way.

Enjoyed the first movie, naturally was very early for second flick so went in, got a good seat.... 

A bunch of old people sat behind us! Like, right behind us even though the cinema was empty. They seemed nice. They then proceeded to talk in an uncool middle aged fashion through out everything... The adverts, the trailers, the film! 

'My name is Max.' Proclaims a scrubby man in a desert wasteland war zone. 

'Ah, this is Mad Max.' Says one of the old men smugly. Like, no shit, dude. 

Their partners arrive. 

'Oooh, this must be a blokes film!' One of them advises during a trailer for Fast and Furious 7.

'This is definitely a chick's flick!' The other says during Age of Adeline.

'Yeah, it's a new genre.... Chick sci-fi!' Guffaws one of the blokes.

Or, you know it could just be an interesting film about a woman but I was just thinking there weren't enough gender stereotypes flying around here. 

Bullying

I've seen a lot of this image being circulated on Facebook and can I say that it really bugs me that kids have to resort to social media because bullies/parents/teachers/schools/whatever just don't want to listen or step in?

I mean, this is 2014. We really should have evolved beyond bulling, sexism, racism, homophobia... all these hateful things. Then I think, this is the generation that is going to be so technologically integrated that they won't know what to do with a pencil and here they are growing up in a world where trolls seemingly have so much power.

Going back to my days at primary school - I got teased. I'd just moved here from England and admittedly, I had a pretty squeaky voice that was hard to understand with my thick accent. So I learnt to be quiet unless spoken to.

Literally, I can't... Literally you shouldn't!

I thought I'd check the news today and one headline jumped out at me...

"The women just went crazy!"

Of course I clicked on it! Then, the page couldn't be found which only deepened my suspicions. What the hell happened today?! I googled that headline and found a couple of hits.
Turns out it was just Red Foo and a bunch of idiots being Red Foo and a bunch of idiots.

Basically, they'd released a song and were subsequently butt hurt because they felt that they were unjustly attacked by those wicked, wicked feminists, female bloggers, well, basically females in general. Why do these women have so many agendas? Why are they out to hurt poor Red Foo?
Let's have a look..

Sandy Scrush

Today I am going to complain about Candy Crush. It's the game everyone loves to hate!

So what am I so cranky about?

The way it slyly pushes you towards a certain kind of switch hoping you'll overlook a better one?
The way it suggests a booster to help you with a level, only that booster wouldn't help at all?
(Seriously, I've had the chocolate eating teeth suggested to me for a level that had no chocolate.)
The way the app gave me a gold bonus that immediately vanished when I tried to use it?
The way the game glitches like when a candy doesn't fall into a slot leaving it blank and redundant?
The way it's always trying to get you to spend money in order to progress?
The way I get annoying ads every ten seconds for another of their stupid games?
The way the level tells you three times that you didn't win. (three!)
The characters and their stupid issues!

Half of this rage is definitely because I've started playing Doctor Who: Legacy - a brilliant game that rewards fans and has excellent game play. Kind of like how I went from Tetris Attack! on the SNES back to regular Tetris and was like... why can't I move things at will!? Where are my divine powers?!
But seriously, Candy Crush is a money grubbing jerk and I'm surprised that I came back to it after a loooong hiatus.

For the Greater Good

So the other night my partner and I went to bed fairly early for us, which of course meant that I had severely misjudged my fluid intake and subsequently had to get up to use the amenities around 1am.
I know, I know, this isn't the blog you signed up to read but bear with me!

Now, I'm a nice enough person that I tip-toe around the bed to my side, and try to sneak into the bed without waking my partner up. This usually involves some sort of vertical ninja slide into the blankets while balancing carefully on my bedside table. Hey, plenty of people have their own way of life and I'm not judging you! I thought you had my back, man!

I am also a lucky person that has several little rituals before sleepy time like lip balming, eye dropping, moisturiser or hand lotion depending on the weather and making sure my hair ties/hair itself isn't going to murder me in my sleep. I also methodically bury any treasure that I find during my adventures, but I'm sure you don't want to hear those luxurious details.

In other news, Katy Perry does something else stupid...

It's no secret that I have no love for Katy Perry. Her willingness to sue someone because they used their real name (her stage name), the sickening sugar pop that keeps spewing out over the airwaves, her overused expressions and stupid outfits..

Another thing. Her lyrics. She is insanely popular, but her songs could be written by fourth graders. The raps by her guest artists are surprisingly worse. I mean, raps! You expect hardcore content and you get Snoopy the Lion or whatever he is now rambling incoherently about marshmallows or something. Maybe Katy had them or something similar shooting out from her boob-cannons again.

My main complaint today is from her new album Prism. Roar is catchy enough, but I can't get it out of my head that someone was listening to the Rocky soundtrack and got mysteriously inspired.. maybe by Robin Thicke's selective hearing muse? Unconditionally is so boring and lame.. it's like she realised that while she's hit every demographic from stereotypical California girls to vibrating aliens, cheating heterosexual lesbian lovers to temperature challenged folks.. she's never yet hit the wedding demographic.

Dark Horse.... I LOVE THE MUSIC. I CAN'T STAND ANYTHING ELSE.

The price of one person and miscarriage of justice

So I was doing my usual scan of the news when this came up - One woman's worth (Rose Warne - ABC)

It's about why the media goes insane over one specific person's death and seems to make sure that no one cares about anyone else who may have died in a similar circumstance. In this case, it's Jill Meagher (Wikipedia) versus Tracy Connelly. (Claire Jansen - Lipmag)

It's a common theme around great tragedies - baying for blood when a white young female is kidnapped/assaulted/murdered but remaining silent when a young woman of colour/different sexuality/nationality suffers the same. Many men are outraged that no one seems to care as much either when a bloke is killed in awful circumstances.

Hard truth is - there are way too many murders for everyone to share the spotlight equally. No, it's not right but it would be impossible to do no matter how good your intentions are. You'd spend more time speaking about death than being able to do anything about it.

So back to the article - it asks us why Jill had so much media exposure while Tracy did not. It asks why Tracy was labelled with 'prostitute' and 'sex worker' before mentioning afterwards what happened. The headline tells us all we could ever want to know about her. She's not a full fleshed out person, she's a warning for other girls to stay off the streets, a sordid mark on Melbourne's streets.

Lucky Tiger vs Halloween art

So, while I am getting better at the stuff... I am no social butterfly. I'm more like the anti social moth who waits in the shadows before stealing the butterfly's pretty little wings.

Flying away with them somehow, presumably cackling maniacally and heading towards some sort of flame. I am nothing if not predictable.

My point is, while I cherish certain people around me I still find it hard to actually tell them so without utilising a sketch of them.

To others it probably does look like I'm showing off for attention but I'm not, although the attention is way flattering I always come out with a snooty comment or else hover in the background nervously giggling.

This time I drew my Co workers as Halloween characters in a graveyard which eerily resembles our workplace. It went down really well, except some people just can't recognise themselves in cartoon form.

I know I should be nicer about it, it's probably not as obvious to everyone else as it is to me. And they haven't spent a week nose to sketchbook. But same as my Easter themed sketch, I put everyone in their separate sections and tried to add as much personal characteristics as possible.

The hardest part for these folks is finding who I am apparently. Not sure if that's a testimony to my fantastic moth-assassin-in-shadows bit or if everyone just forgets me at times.

It's probably a bit of both. When I first hung it on the door, I was asked if I was every other girl character on the page before my actual character. I was like - how did this happen?! Do I look like a blonde devil? Does my hair transform into a red perm when I'm not looking?

Haha. Oh, one day they will learn. I shall bombard them with themed and un themed sketches until they can't stands it no more!

It's all good though. I designed the concept in about five minutes, decided who the characters would be in about one, and then took about five sketches before realising that this team isn't going to fit on an A4 anymore.

Next time I will use my computers to make them pretty, I just got lazy hehe. I've really missed drawing. :)

Ame-comi Harley Quinn v2

When the Ame-comi series first came out, I missed my chance to pay a few hundred and grab the Harley Quinn one. Now you can't find them for less. Unless of course, you buy the mini version (which I did) for about $20AU.

Crazy things come in small packages!

This time around, I did the smart thing and pre-ordered v2 off of the almighty eBay machine.
So basically I paid less, got it fast and don't have to hunt for bargains that seem wonderful until you find that the jerks only ship inside America or only to Mars or some other jerk thing to do. Jerks.

Lucky Tiger vs Suicide Squad 12

To be honest, I’m not really sure why I’m bothering to review this one. The stories are going seriously downhill and I’m not sure why these writers think I should care who the mole on the team is exactly. So I’ve missed a few issues in this series, and I’m not going to go back for them. Deal with it.

                                                    THE TRAITOR UNMASKED –
                                               YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHO IT IS!

Yes, well, we’ll see. Imitation Waller looks surprised, but that’s probably because a) her cleavage isn’t showing and b) she’s just seen how much screen time she’s getting this issue.

If you bothered to read the last issue you would know that the Suicide Squad landed in a poorly written episode of Scooby Doo and now cannibals are going to eat them for some reason.

Honestly, they wouldn’t be my first choice. I’m sure pickings are slim in ancient-Mexico comic world but I would like to credit these guys some brains. Would you eat a shark man, a pasty wannabe clown, a dude who likens himself to a spider (eww) or the other guy who’s like, on fire half of the time? Then again, shark is a delicacy and they can save on the costs because the other guy’s a BBQ, mate!

Lucky Tiger vs the bogans

This week has been a little rough, we’ve been short one person and the other one had this last weekend off so I was all by myself. That’s fine, it’s just that there’s no one else that can pinch hit for me so no lunch or tea breaks for me those days. We were also fairly busy so I didn’t want to sneak out when it got quiet in case it flared up in those split seconds I was gone.
As it happened, they were great days with exception of one customer on each of those days.

So I was a bit stressed, a bit starved, a bit sleepless and dealing with the public at large. Naturally, I have come down with a cold. My workplace has a strict cold/flu policy, which I think is great. It also means I couldn’t work today. So I moseyed down to the quacks for some tissues and other supplies.

It’s a lovely day today, and because of the hours I work, I don’t get to see the sunlight as much as I’d like so I figured, why not walk? It’s only going to be a ten minute walk at most and let’s face it, the fresh air will probably do me some good.

Lucky Tiger Vs the King Hit

I have had trouble understanding the term ‘King-hit’. I know what it means, that some jerk has punched you in the back of the head and knocked you to the ground. It’s just the name is hard to get around, similar to the so called ‘honour killings’.

Violently murdering or otherwise abusing a female family member for living her life, being raped, not wanting to marry the jerk you’re trying to force her to marry or even saying ‘hi’ to a male grocery store clerk is definitely an honour killing. Only, it’s not bringing you ‘back’ any honour, you’re just squeezing the life out of any honour your family may have held at one stage.

So in a way, it’s like a twisted play on words. With ‘king hit’ I’ve always found it distasteful to even consider punching someone in a fairly cowardly way ‘king like’. This morning in the shower, I had a ponder and now I think that this is another wicked word play.

After all, most kings are jerks, right? All with the being rich while the nation starves, chopping and changing of wives, dungeons, creating your own religion because you can, etc etc. It would be just like one of those douchebag kings to have their many lackeys hold someone back so Mr Royalty could ‘win’ the fight.

Lucky Tiger vs The Fatality of Injustice

Another DC game, another Harley Quinn outfit.. Yes, it's INJUSTICE: GODS AMONG US

The working title was Injustice: Battle of the Backsides

Anyway, it's pretty much DC vs Mortal Kombat again but apparently more bad ass. I read somewhere that that's why all the character's outfits were skewiffy again, so it's not the 'official' Batman kicking the shit out of 'official' Superman or something like that.

I don't think 'official' Batman would mind. It would only add to his street cred and he does so love kicking the shit out of things.

Suicide Squad Seven - The Alliterating Issue

Yes, it’s that time of the month again, so dig out your hot pants, get ready to storm Gotham PD and grab that skinned off Joker face because it’s the SUICIDE SQUAD #7 REVIEW!

Assuming I read like a normal person, let’s start with the cover. When I first saw this cover, I didn’t like it. Now I can see it full size it’s kind of growing on me, like Joker flesh on Deadshot’s face.(Tee hee) The new Harley Quinn logo surprised me, as last time they just stole her old one. You know, the one from the ‘original’ DC universe pre-reboot, post-pre-infinite... ehh... you know what I mean. The one that doesn’t exist anymore, or kind of does in some ways, but only in ways DC can make money off it.. Ehhh, you know what I mean.

When we last left off in Suicide Squad, Harley was being taken in by the police force in Gotham after surrendering in the street – the idea being that it would be easier to get to her target that way. This totally cock blocked the rest of the squad from getting to her, and boy, were they pissed. So, when page one opened on some random plan about distracting the cops with some holographic imprint on King Shark I was kinda like... What?

I mean, this is GOTHAM. Batman Gotham. Something attacks them, and before you know it, good old commish is on the horn to every damn bat in the city. To be honest, there are a lot of bats in Gotham city. How could they be sure that this wouldn’t attract Batman?

Lucky Tiger VS the Giant Spider

Alright, so I'm not one for bugs. I hate the way they just invade your territory, getting their dirty little bug feet all over your stuff. trying to eat your delicious food, attempting to get all up in your face or eyeballs and sometimes they even mooch off your cable and hot water.

The hell?! In real life, we call these guys squatters.. and we get them the hell out.

So last week, I arose plenty early as I always do. Not as early as my partner (bugger that, hey!) but still about two hours or more before I have to even prepare to go to work. This is pretty funny because work is now less than ten minutes away from my den. Anyway, I felt the need to hunt down some breakfast, so I ventured out from the bedroom... and then I felt it.