Prezzies!

Ketan:  I got you a present.
Me:  What, a present?  An actual present?
Ketan:  Yes, it's at the house.
Me:  I LOVE PRESENTS.
Ketan:  Do you want to know what it is?
Me:  NO.  No, I like to be surprised.
Anju:  I know what it is.
Me:  Don't you dare tell me.  I want to open it.
Ketan:  You have to play it at your house.
Me:  Hm.  Okay.  Don't tell me anything more.

At the house, he handed me a wrapped rectangle on which was written "To: Ms. Trish Fr: Ketan Happy Random Present Day!"  I ripped it open, and there was a PS2 game (we've talked a lot about how lame it is that I only have a PS2 and how few games there are for me to play), a HARRY POTTER game. 

Me:  I LOVE IT!
Ketan:  Yeah?
Me:  Yes, it's perfect!  Where did you get it.
Ketan:  Toys R Us.  They had a bunch of games on sale for $10, and I thought you would like this one.
Me:  I do!  Thank you!

He was so pleased.  It was adorable.

Stars

Yikes, I missed two days.  So much for blog-every-day-in-June.  In my defense I was in Peoria visiting the people I love, and also blogging on my iPad is annoying.

When I flew out of Dallas, the sun was setting and lights were popping on 35,000 feet below me.  I thought a little about light pollution, and how in college my friends and I got up at 3 a.m. to drive into the country to watch a meteor shower.  I wondered how many more stars we might see if we didn't have so many lights burning all the time everywhere.

But then I thought, this is beautiful.  The scattered dots of white and yellow, like Christmas or hope or salvation.  And I thought, maybe the stars look down on us and say, "Used to be there were only a few lights visible, but now look!  There are so many!  Isn't it wonderful?"

And from the star's perspective, I thought humanity was doing a pretty good job.

Race in Sci-Fi

I read a lot of social justice media blogs, because, relevant to my interests.  And whenever something sci-fi comes out, inevitably people rush to point out the sheer whiteness of the cast.  Especially when it's an adaptation of a book or something, and character of color in the book are cast as white actors.  Anyway, I've read complaints about white-washing so often that when I watched After Earth, I was SHOCKED by how right they did it.  I mean, first of all, the two main characters were black.  But the supporting cast, and the crew and the soldiers and everyone--was very well represented.  Black, brown, white, every shade in between.  It was actually as if the human population, with its minority of white people and majority of people of color, had moved to space and gotten jumbled up.

It was so lovely.  I hope people are talking about it!  I hope it is a thing that continues! 

Other than that, though, the movie wasn't much to write home about.  Interesting father/son dynamics, but I scoffed at the idea of being devoid of fear while facing terrifying creatures.  I stand firmly in the "courage means doing something even though you are a afraid" camp, and I don't want no fearlessness advocates messing with my jam.

But race?  They win gold stars.

Words of Wisdom

The key to looking like an awesome dancer is to dance with your elbows.

Romance stories are rubbish unless the will-be partners act like idiots together.

Animals are necessary accessories for the fashionable introvert.

Ordering contact lenses is harder than getting into graduate school.

It's impossible to avoid being a douchebag when you say, "Because I'm an adult."

Three cups of coffee in the morning is too much, but if it's free, you should drink them.

A book's betrayal is the hardest to get over.

Running on a store's display ellipticals is a financially responsible way to exercise.

Don't listen to the advice of someone who begins their list describing the best way to dance.

Learning How to be a Teacher

A couple weeks ago, I returned 21 Jump Street to the library (which was HILARIOUS, turns out I love guy-humor), and Anju and Ketan asked about it.  I told them it was great but too inappropriate for them.  There was a lot of cussing, I said.  That's okay, Ketan told me.  Well, I said, adults can watch that stuff because they have learned when it is appropriate to use those words and when not to.  Kids tend to get very excited about those words and use them at the wrongs times or in the wrong ways.  Ketan looked at me and said, How are we supposed to learn?

Today Ketan read to me the origin story of the Joker from one of his comics.  During a particularly dramatic moment, the characters said, Oh God!  Jesus, what are you doing? etc.  I turned off the sink and paused him.  Hey, I said, personal preference here: I only like to hear God or Jesus when someone is actually talking about God or Jesus.  Could you please change those words to something else?  He looked up at me for a moment, then shrugged.  Sure, he said, and he did.

Words of Wisdom

Yikes, I almost forgot that I'm blogging every day this month. 

Hmmm.  What to talk about?

So I have this tendency when, after giving some piece of advice and then feeling weirdly heavy-handed, I cock my head, finger-gun my conversational partner, and say, "Words of wisdom from me to you!"  I don't do this with adults very often, because they don't care about my advice.  But apparently I do this frequently with Anju and Ketan.

Last Wednesday I must have said that, because Anju observed, "You have a lot of words of wisdom."

When I agreed, she said, "Maybe every Wednesday you could give us some more of your words of wisdom!"

On Thursday, something else happened that required me to say, "Words of wisdom from me to you," and Anju protested, "It's not Wednesday yet!!"

The Twelfth Doctor

Should I talk about how I skipped church again today or how Matt Smith is resigning as the Doctor?  I was feeling serious earlier, but I don't feel like being introspective anymore, so Doctor Who discussions ahead!

The thing is, I don't care.  I'd read several months ago that Matt Smith was probably on his way out, so the news that this year's Christmas Special will be his last episode wasn't a surprise.  Also, I just...never connected with Eleven the way I did with Nine and especially Ten.  I never got a hold of whatever he was.

Nine was angry, and during his season, he got less angry by loving a human and re-learning how fun and exciting it is to travel around and have adventures.

Ten was a happy puppy dog who had everything he wanted, until he lost Rose.  And then Martha.  And then Donna.  He became progressively angsty and every-once-in-a-while-terrifying until he remembered his love for humanity and died in place of a "nobody."

Eleven was...a manchild.  He flailed and twirled and acted surprised that his married friends liked to kiss each other, but then he frequently got sexy with people and occasionally threatened genocide.  I could rarely trace what was actually happening with his character development, maybe because his three seasons stretched over 200 years of the Doctor's life and one of the most important people in his narrative popped in and out, sometimes from his future, sometimes from his past.  Eleven seemed to change depending on what plot he was in the middle of, and the fact that I've taken a full paragraph to explain his character when Nine and Ten took only a few lines says a lot, I think.

So goodbye Eleven. 

Who will be Twelve?  I'm hoping for someone who isn't a young handsome white guy.  I mean, I'll be honest, I like young handsome white guys.  But we've done that several times now, and it just leads to more of the same--namely, romantic subplots.  I want someone older, like Ian McKellan.  Or, be still my heart, Dame Judi Dench.  She has just the right amount of sass to be the Doctor.  I'm very intrigued by the idea of the Doctor regenerating as a woman (we know it's possible because of the Master, I think?), but I don't want a young hot woman, because I don't trust Moffat to write a young hot woman without turning her into another Amy/River/Clara. 

I would also be down with a person of color, because that could be interesting (we know it's possible from when River was Melanie).  I've heard Idris Elba thrown around, but I want him to be the next Bond, and I think he's too ripped to be the Doctor.

I guess really I just want someone old.  Please, Sir Ian McKellan or Dame Judi Dench!  YOU WOULD BE SO GREAT.