Relaxation Monday.

So today I am just going to put some jazz music up , gifs and pictures of cute , funny and pretty things.  This is what i'm calling relaxation monday  because it's just a time to take a break and enjoy a few things before the week ahead. So without further ado.

Song of the Day: Nica's Dream - Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers

Listen to the rain with it.

 

 

 

 

 

Vine Compilation 

 

That's all for now. Have a Blessed Day,

Happy Easter!

Song of the Day : Happy - Pharrell Williams.


I want to wish everyone a Happy Easter. I hope you are all with your families . ( Sadly I am not because I'm at college and wasn't able to go home for .)

Still I hope everyone is celebrating this day.  For my non-Christan readers. I hope you are haing a great day. Enjoy some easter chocolate. Spend time with your family. Enjoy the day!

To my Christan readers .I hope enjoy this day and remember as always what this day means. This is the day signifies when our savor was resurrected  after paying the penalty for our crimes and that is always something to be celebrated.  So remember Christ today and love your familes.

 

That's all for now. Have a Blessed Day,

Lydia

Let's talk about Clark Kent

 Song of the Day:Superman March- John Williams

This next post is a bit of  a change of pace for me. Normally I would be talking about something in my life that was affecting  me but today ,I don't want to talk about me, or about real life.  No its time to dip into that wonderful place I like to call fiction land .

On that note, it would be amiss of me with a blog that has Superman in the name to not have a least one post dedicated to the man of tomorrow.

So let's talk about Clark Kent.

Clark Kent aka Superman .Many people say they have that one  fictional character that they would defend  and celebrate till there dying breath. For me that character is Clark Kent. I would go into his origins story again but you honestly  it would take to much time. Here is a refresher .

Let me know when your ready. No rush.

Now you'll  notice that I keep calling him Clark  Kent  instead of Superman. That's because at the end of the day he is Clark Kent. He was raised as Clark Kent. He lives as Clark Kent. Superman  is just the way he shares his gifts with the world.  This seems obvious but it seems like the big problem with people's understanding of the character is that they seem to forget that fact.

Clark Kent is Superman.

With that burned into your brain I  want to talk about the character Clark Kent,why he is my favorite character and what I think people misunderstand about him.


The most important thing to remember about Clark Kent is that despite biologically  being an alien. He is  human. He acts like a human, thinks likes a human and most importantly doesn't think of himself as more than a human. That is the key fact about him. He doesn't think of himself as a being better than humans. In fact he would much rather be seen like any other human. As  something Batman once said about Clark.

It is a remarkable dichotomy. In many ways, Clark is the most human of us all. Then...he shoots fire from the skies, and it is difficult not to think of him as a god. And how fortunate we all are that it does not occur to him.

If even Batman would admit it then  you know its true.  I have to admit that this is the most  interesting characteristic  of  Clark. He  could easily view himself as more than human but he doesn't. He love being on Earth ,loves people, and does everything he can to protect and believe in them. Even when its not very easy to do. Lord knows what normal people would do with his power. It says  a lot about his him as a person that he doesn't.
So not only is he humble. like truly humble but at the end of the day he is just a genuinely a nice guy. He is honest, kind and determined to help. He inspires people to try better because its hard not to want to with someone like that around.

One of the best examples  of Clark's personality and ability to inspire people to change is the comic All Star Superman. It is the best representation of the character  I have ever read. One page gets me because it is a shining example of him.

The reason I chose this panel because in this panel  we see Clark doing the best kind of save he can. He may have saved millions of people with his powers but the fact that he can save this kid by just giving her a shoulder to cry on is  not only one of the greatest examples of Clark as a man but the kind of example he sets to others. A normal person can do what he is doing there and after seeing Superman do it. I am more inclined to think more humans will. Both fictional and real. Including myself.

This  leads me to the comments that annoy me the most that people who hate the character say.


"He's too old fashioned. His morals don't fit with our modern world."


"He's too perfect, he's boring"

It's really good I don't have Clark's powers. You all would be dead.

First,

"He's too old fashioned. His morals don't fit with our modern world"

Take a look right now at the top box office and see what movie is currently #1 at the Box office. It's Captain America 2.  It also has 89% on Rotten Tomatoes which means it was a critical hit as well. At least as superhero movies go. If a movie about one of the most moral character's in comic book history who literally comes strait from the 40's to our time can be a box office hit and critical hit, Then there is no reason a character like Clark Kent with his morals as they are written   (i'm talking to you man of steel, that wasn't Clark dammit) to not fit with our world. In fact I argue we need more characters  like Clark Kent and Steve Rogers.

Second,

"He's too perfect, he's boring"

This is the worst argument to me. I get it that some people will just not like the character. That is fine. There is however a fine line between not liking the character and not understanding the character and  this comment provides a misunderstanding of the character.

 The thing about Clark is despite as good as he is he is not perfect. He fails. He can get petty and angry and let those emotions make  him angry at people sometimes. He never kills anyone but he has hurt people badly on occasion.


For example. One interesting of example of Clark being petty comes from the  show Lois and Clark : The New Adventures of Superman.   In  this scene we see Clark get back at Lois for  being so  focused on the story  of superman that she trampled all over people. Including him.

This shows a side of the character not a whole lot of people realize he has. It's him playing a prank  mostly out of annoyance at Lois. It's a good way to remind the audience in a fun way that he is still very human and  flawed. Admittedly  its not as dark as hurting someone but other media has shown he get angry enough to do that.

This next scene is from Justice League Animated. From an episode called For The Man Who Has Everything, an adaptation of a comic with the same name. In this story Mongul took over Clark's mind and made him have the image of his perfect dream which was to be on Krypton with his parents. When Clark woke up from that mind control and realized that Mongul had played with his head. He was very obviously pissed. This scene followed.

The only reason that Clark didn't kill Mongol at that moment was the statue of his birth parents reminding him of who he is. This shows that Superman can be pushed and has  done things completely out of anger.He is not perfect  and not meant to be. He is however a cut above the rest of humanity and he has to fight everyday to keep control. To keep his morals. To save people no matter what. If that is boring to you I  think you need to re-evaluate you life.

 

This I believe is what people miss the most. Again Clark Kent is not  perfect. Neather were the beings from the planet he came or  us humans who raised him. However he was raised well and from good people. That along with the type of person he is makes him that great a character and why I will defend him to the death. 

So dear readers. Do you have a character you would defend to your death. If so who it?

That's all for now. Have a Blessed Day,

Lydia

Beauty Everywhere

Song:  Beauty - Starship- Team Starkid


Have you taken a  look outside your window lately? Just gone over and taken a good look. What did you see? If you haven't done this yet  you should put the computer down for  just a minute and look out your window.

Here is the view from my window. I think its fabulous

.

I bet some of you probably didn't think that my window view was all that fabulous.  I understand. I mean looking at  my window view it doesn't seem all that great. It certainly doesn't comapare to something like this

Someday I will see this window view. Count on it.

So why then would I still keep such a high opinion of  my window view? It  seems so inferior compared to that view from San Francisco.  Why should I even care about my dinky little window view?

The answer is simple.

Because it is MY window.

  I get to see that window everyday and you know what I am blessed that I do. I think people tend to underestimate the value of their surroundings.Society had given the idea that where you are is just mundane. There is nothing special about it.  Society would probably ask me why I think  my window  view is special. It's true that there is some merit in the idea that you should go explore  things that are outside of your normal views. I think its a great idea.  Hell I can't wait  till I get the chance to see new exciting things I haven't got to yet. 

I would love to see all of this at some point in my life.

However. It's not realistic too just hope that someday you get to see a view that is better than the one you have. You need to do something else. 

Your cute. But not what I meant. Get out of here.

 No, a person needs to look outside THEIR window. Or  go for a walk in THEIR neighborhood. Maybe take a camera with them. Then a person should start to take a good look at  the places they go everyday. They may not seem that spectacular to the  world. Hell some people might even mock  them for being bland and boring. But there is surprises to be found everywhere Trust me. I know cause I had to take a walk myself.

 A few years ago. I had to take that walk. My home town was boring to me. Their seemed to be very little  things that I would call pretty. I was miserable there. But then one day I decided to just 

 Well, This.

I was so surprised by the things I  found

 

 Each of these are from my hometown. I took them at different times for different reasons but each time I looked upon them I began to realize the thing I had been missing. My hometown  is in a area that is considered to be pretty bare because of the climate. Most people thing it is pretty bland and up until I took a closer look I did to. I found that even in my bland town there was something amazing to be seen.  I didn't need to travel to far away places to see amazing views.I just needed to take a closer look at the things around me. I found beauty where I didn't expect it because I decided to open my eyes to it.  Now I spend my time looking for moments of beauty in my everyday life and take pictures if I can. Here are a few I have found in my college home.

 So  dear readers my question for you is this. Have you taken a walk  around your neighborhood lately. Have you looked closely?  If you haven't I suggest you get a camera and take a walk . Any thing you find  pretty or amazing take a picture. You'd be surprised at all that you find. Even in the most mundane places.

That's all for now. Have a Blessed Day,

Speaking of beautiful things. Look at that smile. *melts*

LYDIA

Idiot Stress

Song Of the Day: Under Pressure  - The Used/My Chemical Romance (originally by Queen)


Stress. Probably on the top ten list of most used and least liked words of every  human  on the planet. There are many types of stress we  humans go through. Emotional, Physical , Social etc.... All have different effects on us but today I  want to focus on one type of stress. The stress that I seem to let myself get into over and over again despite it being obvious after the first time to never let my life get this kind of stress again.

I call it the bite- off - more- than- you -can-chew-stress or (I'm a) idiot stress for short.

So the idiot stress starts like this. I put myself into too many classes or groups (or work) then as crunch time happens  I wish I was dead. I have done this multiple times in my life and will probably do it again . The reason I  am trying to understand is why? The answer to that is  complicated but I feel that many people get themselves into this type of stress. So I do believe that there is something universal  about the  idea that we allow idiot stress into our lives.

I saw the opportunity and took it. Wouldn't You?

 I believe there are three  possible actions we take that led to the idiot stress. ( mind you sometimes you only need one , two , or all three of these things to expreince the idiot stress)

1. We overestimate our abilities when getting into new projects.( or class-loads if in school )

2. We underestimate our work load

3. We probably could have handled the workload but we didn't manage our time well and now everything is due at once.

So  number one. Now I think everyone in the world  has had a moment where they though, sure, I can do that and they were totally wrong. There are whole websites devoted to these kind of choices.

For Example.

So it makes sense that if say you went into a  semester  of college with 15 hours of advance classwork,  a team sport, different groups, and some semblance of a social life that it was within your capabilities to have all of those things. Because why not? Your smart after all. Then you go in and you find that you  can't manage half of that and you have to cut out some of that or you'll go ax crazy.

Then there is number two  in which you didn't think of yourself as more but you underestimate how hard something was going to be for you.

How was I suppose to know an advance class in an language I barely know was going to be hard?

Then finally number 3. You could have handled it fine if you  had managed you time better aka no procrastination . This one here is my hang up. I like to do writing last minute because of the adrenaline boost it gives me. That can usually work for me as long as it is not to close to a deadline ( and by too close I mean  the class is more than three hours away) but  there are just some things you cannot wait till the last minute for or be late on. 

What do you mean no extensions? 

Whatever caused that idiot stress. It has now come in with full force.So what to do about it. There are many things. Meditate. Exercise. Watch Netflix.Lay in bed in a fetal position and cry. Everyone has different ways of coping with stress. One of my favorite ways is to sing this little tune.

    WARNING * This contains strong language*

After you have lasted through the idiot stress and gotten through what was causing it. I think it is a great idea to look over what caused it and try to not make those mistakes again.I don't know how  effective this has been for me but  in some cases it has helped.

So dear readers, how about you. Have you experienced the idiot stress. How many times have you experienced the idiot stress? Are your currently experiencing the idiot stress? Finally, in what was do you coupe with the stress? Let me know in the comments below.

That's all for now. Have a Blessed Day,

Go get some food. It is a great stress reliever.

Lydia

Even Our Dreams

Song of the Day:Bravado -Lorde
To hear it , click here

So a quote from Spiderman II had been stuck in my head for a while.

"Sometimes we have to be steady and give up the thing we want the most... even our dreams"

Its one those obviously inspiration quotes  but  as of late in my life it has held a special meaning.

I have mentioned before that I am in colorguard . It has a faction of it called winterguard. (for more info on that click here) There are many winterguard groups of many sizes that compete in many different places but in the winterguard world nothing is bigger than Winter Guard International. Or spefically the Winterguard International  World Championships held in April every year.

If colorguard was a religion, this would be our mecca.

Now I have done winterguard before  but I have never been able to be in a WGI competing winterguard. I have dreamed of doing it ever since I learned what it was.

This is what I look like when I think about going to WGI championships.

Right now I am of  the age ,experience and talent to not only go to WGI but be in a big group that everybody would watch. Even one that might win. However every year that I try to do it something gets in the way. My most recent try at being in a group that performs at this event was a group called Brenham Independent. They were good. Really good and I got through the audition fine but then reality reminded me of two things.

 

I had neither the time nor the money to pursue this dream. It killed me inside to tell them no. I still regret that heavily especially as that guard went  on to beat 80 or so groups to get second place. I knew that I had missed out on something amazing. However if you asked me if I could go back and change that decision you know what I would do.

Nothing

I would do nothing.

I wouldn't  go back and say yes to that because I know that with the workload and lack of money I had this semester I would have even less money and  I would probably be failing college because I didn't have the time to work on the classwork I needed to . As much as I regret that I couldn't have performed with that group I knew that was the best choice.

This bring me back to the quote I have been thinking about.It  says you have to be steady and possible give up  a dream or two or least put them on hold to  ensure your future. I now understand that and I know that my dream can still come true. I just have to be steady and ensure that  trying to get it when I am not ready won't kill my future in the process.

So I ask you this dear readers.  Have you ever had to put a dream on hold or give it up entirely to make sure that your future was secure. If  so do you still regret not reaching that dream or having to wait for it longer? Please tell me in the comments.

That's all for now. Have a Blessed Day,

I could think of no better send off then this. Seriously. Just feel that kiss.

Lydia