Day Nine: Something you’re proud of in the past few days

Yesterday, I got all the way through Blade Runner. I am proud of myself.

Oh, and graduating, too. I almost forgot about that.

Day Seven: A picture of someone that has had the biggest impact on you

My parents. They're awesome.

Day Six: Who is your favorite superhero? Why?

Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon. That's always been the difference between us, Daniel. ~Rorschach. Watchmen.

For those of you who haven’t read Watchmen or seen its fairly accurate movie version, you really should. It has violence like you wouldn't believe, but it is insanely good.

Watchmen gives its audience a view of an alternate reality where superheroes exist, and it is not a very nice place. It’s an alternate history story, where Earth is on the edge of nuclear war. The plot itself is very complicated and would take a long time to explain, so I shall not do that. All you need to know is that its protagonists consist of a group of semi-retired superheroes.

My favorite of these is a man named Rorschach. He is a vigilante who dresses in a pin-striped suit, a trench coat, a fedora, and a white mask with moving inkblots. He also has a voice reminiscent of Batman. His mother was an emotionally abusive prostitute, and he was tormented by his peers all through his childhood. As a superhero, he has no powers. Out of all of the superheroes in this story, there is only one with any special abilities; all the others are just highly proficient in hand-to-hand combat. Rorschach is wanted by the police, and by criminals he has sent to prison. He is considered by the general public to be a mass murderer, but in his mind, he is a crusader.

Rorschach’s intentions are laudable, but his actions are indefensible. All he wants is for there to be justice in the world, but his black-and-white view of everything coupled with his ridiculously high moral code means he oftentimes takes his anger at humanity out on people who do not necessarily deserve it. His way of dispatching wrongdoers is unnecessarily violent – he has enough skill in hand-to-hand combat to defeat his enemies without doing too much damage, yet he still makes use of meat cleavers, cooking oil and toilets to get the job done.

Obviously, he isn’t my favorite superhero because of how good of a person he is. I like Rorschach because he is interesting. He isn’t limited by the bonds of the classic superhero archetype; he is not committed to justice in a way that traps him in the life of a good and pure person. His commitment to justice is so strong that, while to some degree he’s aware that his actions are wrong, he doesn’t care what he has to do to achieve said justice. Rorschach has many obvious, defining flaws, and he wears them on his sleeve. He isn’t written in such a way that the audience is expected to overlook these flaws. His faults are as much a part of him as his good qualities; seeing his actions in the story, the audience is forced to see him as a whole person.

I think I’m the type of person who enjoys anti-heroes more than classic heroes. Anti-heroes tend to be multi-faceted, and bring a slice of reality into an otherwise unrealistic situation. They catch your attention and then make you think about them. They aren’t likable in spite of their flaws; they’re likable because of them. 

Day Five: A picture of somewhere to which you have been

The ancient library in the background? Hot. The girl in the foreground? Not.
It's the backpack straps. They're messing up her posture.

Two years ago, I went to Greece with one of my teachers and a few members of the Latin club. I was one of the younger students there; and I had obviously spent a lot of time with my classmates in the club meetings, but I didn’t really get to know them until I spent time with them on this trip. We all had a really good time. Unfortunately, most of my fellow travelers had graduated that year, so I haven’t seen them since.

This particular picture was actually from the day we stopped in Turkey to visit the ruins of Ephesus. The building behind me used to be this huge, comprehensive library.

We mostly toured the ancient ruins, such as the Parthenon and the Oracle of Delphi. The rest of our time was spent walking around Athens. It was nice because except for the tours of the various sites, and the fact that we had to be back in our hotel rooms by curfew, we were mostly unsupervised. The only rule was that there had to be at least one male in our group. Our teacher told us that in heavily patriarchal countries, unescorted females are assumed to be prostitutes. I am not sure whether the perception there is actually that severe, but none of the girls really wanted to take that chance.

We were allowed to consume alcohol there. The drinking age is lower in Greece, so as long as our parents signed the alcoholic consent waiver, we were permitted to have a glass of wine with dinner. Some of my classmates took a lot of liberties with this, and I found their obsession with obtaining alcohol odd. On the last day of our tour, I had my first glass of wine. To say it was a disappointing experience would be inaccurate, as that would imply that I was expecting it to be a positive event in the first place. The wine tasted like a mixture of cough syrup and liquefied potato bread.

We also went on a four-day cruise around the islands. Everything was beautiful: the bright, whitewashed buildings; the calm, deep-blue water; the clear sky; the sunsets; and we were shown to sights that we would never have seen back home.

Rhodes is a walled city on an island of the same name in the Mediterranean Sea. While on the island, I swam in the sea (which was salty enough to make swimming quite easy), I went to a nude beach, and I went shopping in the city. At least, I think it was a nude beach. I saw a lot of topless women, but I don’t know if that was the lax rules of the beach, or if that’s just how they roll in the area. I wouldn’t put it past them. All the major cities we went to sold pornography in the newsstand right out in the open between the soda and the postcards.

Anyway, my point is that the city was much more interesting than the nude beach. This is a vague memory, but my teacher told me that it was established by northern Europeans during the medieval times. This is evidenced by its architecture (it’s structured like a typical medieval castle. That city was really the only place in the islands that wasn’t painted white), and the fact that there were suits of armor standing on practically every corner.

And on top of walls.

Members of our group could go on an optional excursion to see the monastery of Saint John on the island of Patmos. Anyone not going there could have free time on the beach. There were about 17 students in our group. Six of us went on the excursion.

I know it’s free time on the beach, but come on, it’s both a monastery and a castle. It had been partially converted into a museum for ancient religious artifacts, but it was actually still a working monastery. In fact, we saw a monk talking on a cellular phone. Now, I know that monks are people just like you and me, but this guy was wearing long black robes, had a long white beard, and was wearing a hat that can only be described as incredibly pious. Also, he was standing in the entrance to a building that was both a castle and a monastery.

It's a castle. And a monastery.

I apologize if I’m a little hung up on that detail. We don’t have castles where I come from.

My main memory from Santorini was not the donkeys, nor was it the ridiculously long set of stairs we had to descend to get back to the boat. No, my strongest memory was the gelato. This gelato did not taste like a combination of liquefied bread and cough syrup. It was perfection. It was heavenly. Some angels work in children’s hospitals, some in rehabilitation centers, some on the freeways, and some work in bars, and then some worked in this gelato shop. I don’t actually remember the people who worked there, mind you, but I do remember their gelato.

This picture does not convey how sexy this gelato was.

Also: Kittens!

There were quite a lot of cats, actually. I have many more pictures in the folder.

And a super-cute dog, too.

Day Four: A habit you wish you did not have

I have bitten my nails ever since I can remember. It’s probably a nervous habit. You might not know it by interacting with me now, but I’m painfully shy, and am not a very confident person.

It’s strange, though. I bite my nails in situations that do not really warrant such behavior. I’ll be watching television, relaxed as can be, and I’ll be biting my nails. Most of the time, I don’t even realize I’m doing it. In fact, I don’t even notice that anything is wrong with my nails until I brush a bit of my hair out of my face and end up scratching it (my face, not my hair. I would not notice if I scratched my hair. Hair does not feel pain) because of how jagged my nails are.

Over the years, I have made attempts to stop myself, but none have worked. My most successful attempts have been painting my nails (something I do not do often) an obnoxious color. While the nail polish is on, I don’t bite my nails. I worry more about consuming the chemicals in the nail polish than I do the germs on my fingers; however, once the polish starts to flake, I’m back at square one. I have found it impossible to develop the anti-habit.

Day Three: A picture of you and your friends

Natalie, Scott, April, Chelsea, Hillary, Myself

Top: Riley, Noel, Legolas, Andrya, Gandalf the Gray, Kendra, Samwise Gamgee, Myself
Bottom: Frodo Baggins

The above picture was drawn by my friend Noel.

Day One: A Picture of Yourself and 15 Interesting Facts

1. I ship chocolate and peanut butter.
2. I enjoy the Fantasy and Sci-Fi genres
3. Winter is my favorite season
4. I took Latin for four years
5. My favorite color is dark or forest green, but my favorite color to wear and apply to objects is medium to dark blue.
6. I don't sleep very well.
7. I enjoy watching the rain; sometimes I even like being out in the rain. I am ambivalent about the sun.
8. I dislike extreme temperatures.
9. I only had access to one television channel until I was around ten years of age, so I have never seen Scooby Doo, Bugs Bunny or Kim Possible.
10. I am addicted to fanfiction.
11. This week, I defeated high school.
12. I enjoy nature from afar.
13. I live in a place that recycles.
14. I've played the piano since I was six.
15. I played on the tennis team for all four years of high school.