An Open Letter To Philip DeFranco

Philip DeFranco, 

I've never done anything like this. I had intended to just send an e-mail, but I couldn't find the address and it seems fairly easy to reach you on social media anyways. You seem in tune with your fans; that much I can say. I've been a fan of yours, not since the beginning, but since around 2009 or so. Recently, I've found myself watching less and less. You may or may not remember me from this tweet:

I admit, that was poorly worded and didn't quite capture the sentiment I was going for. I admire you and every other YouTuber that makes a living off of YouTube and related pursuits. It gives me hope that I can one day have a job that makes me and others happy.  I try to support the YouTube community as much as I can with subscriptions, likes, turning off AdBlock, etc. So what's my issue? You can probably guess: women. I touched on it in my rushed tweet, and you've definitely noticed and brought it up in multiple videos. You say that the women of the Nation are angry, and some are. I don’t like that word. I don’t get angry often. Better descriptors would be annoyed, or sad.

Now, I don’t mind a lot of things that other women of The Nation seem to. I don’t question what Lindsey would think. I understand that you two are in an adult relationship and that there’s nothing inherently sexual about photography. You just enjoy photographing people. I don’t even have a problem with the fact that they wear minimal amounts of clothes. Once again, that’s both their choice and yours. The human body is beautiful and should be photographed. What I find troublesome is what comes across about women from your words and actions.  You feature “sexy time galleries” on your videos often. Rarely, if ever, do I see men featured. I understand if you’d rather take pictures of women and look at pictures of women, but pictures of men can be just as stunning. I think that the Greeks would agree with me.

Another source of conflict for me is the models. I understand that most professional models have fantastic bodies. The standard is unattainable for the average female. I think I would just like to see more average women. It’s your hobby, it’s your art, and it’s up to you; whether other people like it or not. However, I think that you could use your huge fan-base to really do something exciting. You’re a celebrity in your own right. Many YouTubers arguably have more power than traditional celebrities. And remember what Uncle Ben said! “With great power comes great responsibility.”* You could break from the type of traditional photography that we all see in magazines anyways: Perfect models with little clothing. These are the things women have grown up seeing. More and more, women are seeing past the bullshit. They don’t need this message of perfection reinforced more than it already is. That probably isn't what you’re trying to do (I hope) but that’s how it comes across. And I think that unless you prove otherwise in some way, your female fan-base will stay, as you put it, angry.

I hope that I've represented the women of The Nation well. We may have varying opinions, but I believe that the core sentiment remains the same. I hope that you don’t dismiss this if you see it because I think it’s really important that you see (if you haven’t already) just why this I important for both your fans, and society. I wish the best for you, Lindsey, and your soon-to-be-born baby. Keep pursuing what you love.

Sincerely,

Lorna Ziehm

*I know that this quote can't be originally credited to Uncle Ben or Marvel. There's a lot of muddled debate about it actually, but the sentiment still stands. 

Thoughts on Love Songs

I just want some original love songs. Is that too much to ask for? Instead all I seem to hear is the same re-hashed stuff. What I really want to know, is what do they do? That seems like a pretty dumb question. What does any music do? It's just that I think we're meant to relate to these love songs. We're supposed to be in awe of love and life and how the artist seems to know what we're feeling better than we do. That's where I think the whole thing's gone just a little wrong. Artists try to make their songs as general as possible so they sell. They rely on the fact that young women and girls are insecure. They say, "You may not love you, but I love you." I have a few big problems with all of this.

1. I DO love me. I think that playing on insecurities is a little low. I know that a lot of women are insecure, probably a majority of them. So are men though. Insecurity is just a part of being human sometimes. Making the assumption of insecurity just serves to reinforce it. It sends the message that "It's OK to hate yourself, as long as you have a man who doesn't. He'll complete you."

2. Would you really do all of those things for your significant other? *coughs* I'm looking at you Bruno Mars. I'm not sure. Maybe I'm being overly cynical here. I'm just not given to hyperbole when talking about relationships. I wouldn't "catch a grenade for you". Not on that knowledge alone. How long have we been together? What's our relationship like? Is is a real grenade? Are you annoying? Anyways, it's all just a little too Romeo and Juliet for my liking. I wouldn't expect those things of my significant other and I'd hope he wouldn't expect the same of me.

3. Repetition. Do you ever find yourself listening to the radio and having to shut it off because nothing has happened since the first chorus? That's an accurate representation of most of my radio listening. This is really more of a pop music complaint, but it's usually very obvious in love songs also. Then again, I feel like it's worse with love songs because they all blur together. Which brings me to the next point...

4. I'm tired of hearing about smiles and hair and eyes. What about some personality? What about having interesting things to say or a thought in her head?

5. Is a guy supposed to woo me with these songs? No thanks. I don't want a guy to tell me he'd die for me, can't live without me, or that he'll love me for a thousand years. I want someone to tell me the truth.

I have to admit that I got inspiration for this blog from two videos in particular. This first one is a song by Hank Green entitled Adult Female: A Song. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfBwb4I8wWk) I love this song on many levels. The other is Repeat Stuff by Bo Burnham. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCVGpvzcHko). If you have the time, I highly recommend both. They summarize my thoughts on a whole new level and they're catchy.

Speech

I got distracted for a few day, but I'm back! The spring semester of college started this week, which means that I'll be graduating with my Associate's Degree in May. There are great things in store. Of course, my graduation depends on my ability to not have a heart attack before the semester ends. That might sound very dramatic or hyperbolic...it is. But at the same time, I've never been more stressed about a semester. I've had huge papers, deadlines, and presentations before. That's just how college goes. I've also never thought of myself as being afraid of public speaking. Granted, I've never been amazing at it, but inadequacy doesn't equate to fear. So I took a Speech class this semester to improve my speaking and build confidence.

Boy, was I in for a surprise. A speech class is, in fact, very different than giving a presentation one time in a class. On top of that, most professors I had in the past graciously scheduled the speeches for the end of the semester. You get no such luxury in a speech class. Unless you're lucky, you don't get time to get to know your classmates before you have to speak. I wouldn't describe myself as shy. I was the kid all through school that always got yelled at for talking and distracting people. My friends will tell you that it can be difficult to shut me up sometimes. I do, however, take a while to feel comfortable in new social situations. I won't talk often unless I feel comfortable.

Luckily, I know all of this about myself so I know what I can do. It's a small miracle that a decent portion of the class dropped it.* I need to feel comfortable. I don't dread speaking at all...until I stand up and start speaking. Then things get a little awkward and it falls apart. So if I get to know more people and convince myself that I can tolerate them, I should be on the right track.

To any of you in speech classes: I feel your pain. Don't let it get you too stressed!

*I suspect that it has to do with the professor. I had him in a previous class and he's (I mean this in the most respectful way possible) kind of an asshole. I don't think he is, that's just what I've been told. So if he is, I guess he's my favorite sort of asshole.

Every Day by David Levithan

I decided to give David Levithan a try thanks to John Green. I've read the book they wrote together, Will Grayson, Will Grayson, and I love it. So I picked one of Levithan's books at random and gave it a whirl. The book, Every Day, is shown below. (What a beautiful cover).

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I'm fairly certain that the cover has more spoilers than this review, but if you want to read the book and go in totally blind, don't continue on. Really, now's your chance...

Every Day took me less than a day to read. I hadn't actually planned on reading it as soon as I did. I have maybe two sizable stacks of books I want to read, but the cover kept drawing my attention. I have a bit of a thing for covers. 

The book has an interesting premise. The narrator, A, wakes up every day in a new body. A is neither male or female and wakes up in the bodies of both. To respect A's genderless nature, I'll use the pronoun "ze" in place of "he or her". A navigates the life of the person ze's in the best ze can, then moves on by the next day. The body's owners don't usually notice. Some of the situations A woke up into were completely ordinary, others were sad, and still others were just bizarre. I loved seeing what sort of life ze would come across next. I also appreciate the amount of empathy and thinking it must have taken Levithan to come up with that many unique lives. 

I also loved the honesty that seemed to emanate from the book. Levithan was able to relate to the struggles of the characters very well. I found myself stopping to reread lines like this one:

When I finished, one thought lingered. I suppose it's actually Walt Whitman's thought -"I am large, I contain multitudes". That's how Every Day made me feel. It made me feel more connected to everyone, and it made me even more curious about everyone's personal story. I'd definitely recommend this book and I think it's earned about 9.4/10 stars. 

Resolutions

It's a little more than a week into 2014. It's the wondrous time of year when all anyone will talk about is the weather and their New Year's Resolutions. Cooking shows pander to those with weight loss resolutions by offering low fat and low calorie recipes. People flood social media sites with talk of both breaking their resolutions and progress. You've probably gathered by now that my view of New Year's Resolutions is less than stunningly positive. I don't have any sort of real problem with them. They genuinely help some people to live happier, healthier lives. I just think that it also sets others up for disappointment. Let's take weight loss as a handy example, as it is one of the most common resolutions.

You can lose weight at any time of the year. If you really want to be healthy and/or lose weight you probably can! However, there are still the people who take the New Year part of the resolution a bit too seriously. They take it as a license to eat as much or as poorly as they want right before the year ends, then scramble to drastically change habits on the first. The year is an arbitrary human construction anyhow. Yes, the Earth makes a full revolution, but the new year could be any year. If you started counting right now, in a year it would be a "new year"- but I digress.  Maybe drastic change works for other people (though I've not heard that) but it definitely doesn't work for me. Gradual change and awareness goes farther in the long term. 

I think another cause of resolution failure is expectation. People expect too much too soon. Weight is not put on in a few days, so it's unrealistic to expect it to be gone in a few days. They don't see the results they want right away, get discouraged, break their resolutions, and eventually give up. Notice that you don't generally hear people talking about their resolutions in, say, July. My assumption is that most of the drastic resolution makers give up, and the more gradual ones have assimilated to their healthier lifestyles by then. 

So did I have a New Year's Resolution? In a way, yes. It's not new and it's more of a reminder than a resolution. It was to be happy. It's harder than it sounds sometimes but I don't need drastic change to do it. All I need to do is listen to myself and hopefully the rest will follow. I do hope that everyone else can stick with their resolutions and also be happy. I can feel that it's going to be a good year. 

Writer's Block

I had planned to spend this winter break writing. I had a month off of school and I quit my job, so I really didn't have an excuse. Then writer's block hit. Not the kind of writer's block where you can't think your way out of a plot hole, or come up with the next line of dialogue. I had the type of writer's block where you can't think of a single story or thing to say. The kind of writer's block that tells you "Who'd care about that story anyways?" Even these blog posts ON MY NEW BLOG were sporadic. 

Whenever a discussion of writer's block appears, there is eventually the obligatory statement that goes something like this: "Writer's block is a mental block.". I could have profoundly messed that up, that's just how I remember it. Anyhow, it's completely true in my case. Everyone has different mental blocks and ways to smash the blocks apart. I admittedly get weird around this time of year. By weird I mean sad and unambitious*. Honestly, I just had to stop whining and kick my ass into gear.

 I didn't do that by writing though. Instead I immersed myself in other people's worlds. I read several books. Then came The Book Thief. This book truly moved me. It was so beautiful and raw and honest. It reminded me of To Kill a Mockingbird (one of my favorites) in a few ways. Even though The Book Thief is not narrated by a child, it is focused on one. Both talk about enormous events while seemingly focusing on small ones. Both of these books will stay with me for a very long time.  Both of them inspire me. The Book Thief was just so beautiful that I couldn't make excuses anymore. 

So I'd say that to overcome writer's block, or any mental block, you need to re-inspire yourself. Read a heartbreakingly beautiful book, listen to a hypnotizing song, go find the most breathtaking scenery around and sit. Just don't give up. Because even if the world already has a million stories, pieces of art, songs, etc, they don't have yours. Don't rob the world of what you have to offer. 

*Yes, I mean sad and unambitious. No, I don't mean depressed. I've experienced that in the past, and to call my winter blues depression feels like a huge slap in the face to those that are actually depressed. 

The Higgs Boson and Our Universe

Hello again everyone! I hope that everyone's staying warm wherever they are. It looks about like THIS:

where I live today. (I stole the picture from a local news site, it's not mine.) Going out wasn't really an option for me. Much thanks to my hatred of cold, bad roads, and a certain snow blower piling snow onto my car. What do I do when I'm snowed in? Drink lots of tea, read, watch movies, and learn me some stuff on Youtube. I eventually came across this video from one of my favorite Youtubers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUnDsNL_5nk

I strongly urge you to watch it before reading on. It's fascinating. And if you haven't heard of or seen anything from John and Hank Green, AKA the vlogbrothers, you really should.

Anyways, I got to thinking. I know the whole Higgs Boson thing is old news by now, and to be completely honest, I'm mostly concerned with what this means for stories. I'm one of those people who prizes scientific accuracy (as far as is possible) in writing of any kind. One statement in particular piqued my attention. At about 3:30 Hank says "The idea is that the Higgs field, which is the field that gives things mass, exists throughout the entire universe." Does that mean that OUTSIDE the universe it doesn't exist? If not, does mass just behave differently,or is it not there at all? How crazy would it be to leave the universe and suddenly have no mass? Would a human even survive a change in mass? Is a human without mass a human?

I looked into it more. Evidently it would take hundreds of years to even leave the solar system. The universe would take...millions of years? Billions? The answers weren't all completely clear and I don't need an exact number. Because one way or another, that's a really long time. It has pretty good story potential in my mind. It also excites me for future space exploration. I'm reasonably certain I won't be alive if and when exploration beyond this universe begins. If time travel ever exists - and occurs before outer-universe travel- I'd pay every dollar and cent I own to find out what else is out there and what happens to mass outside of our universe.

If you have any further insight that might clear up some of my questions, please post it in the comments! I know that I might be pretty..off..on certain points and I'd like to be set straight if I am.

Introductions Are In Order!

 Hey there! My name is Lorna. I am the dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen. Okay, I take that back. I can't really dance. I am seventeen (I know, I know. Just give it a shot). The other parts I guess you'll have to decide for yourself. I live in what I imagine to be one of the dreariest landscapes around: Northwest Ohio. Right now, I'm a high school student. I attend a local community college full time through post-secondary education. I love the post-secondary option because I get more freedom, less classroom hours, and I'll be graduating from college before I graduate from high school. That's only because the high school has their graduation ceremony two weeks later, but let me have this! It's fun to say.

 So I have to admit I don't know a whole lot about blogging. I have a Tumblr, but I use that mostly for entertainment purposes. I figured the best way to learn about blogging was to just jump right in and start blogging! I have a lot of plans for what I want out of this. I'll be posting anywhere from once a day to once a week; maybe more, definitely not less. I'll review books, movies, tv shows, music, and talk about pop culture events. I'll also try to talk about writing every once in a while. Writing means a lot to me and I hope to BE a published writer one day. I hope this will be a fun ride for everyone involved. Thanks for visiting my new corner of the internet!


P.S. Yes, I know that the internet isn't concrete in the same way as, say, a book and therefore does not have corners. It now strikes me as a strange metaphor.