Frustrations of the Twilight...Thing (Part 2)

As with all things that are titled part 1 there are more to follow, and this certainly holds true with my frustrations that they indeed span at least two different entries, if not more.  But for now I will get back to the story and a major problem with the series as a whole.

Now the target audience for this "saga" are teenage girls between the ages of 13 and 18.  Now I know the series has clearly hit more than that but the initial release of the novels, it was for this age group.  The perfect protagonist for this age group is a 17 year old girl who doesn't quite know what she wants from life.  Her parents are separated and she has learned to become slightly independent.  If you read my earlier entry you will see that slightly is the best word to use next to independent.  So a lot of girls in the 13-18 age bracket can look up to Bella and who she has become.  But here comes the problem that lies within the book, what is the message that Meyer is trying to send?  Being a mormon, link, she more than likely has some pretty strong views on sexuality and marriage.  (This is me using a stereotype, if it doesn't fit for her, please correct me)  So what is Bella's and Edward's relationship represent?  Bella is constantly urging Edward to just change her already, usually during the most physically charged scenes.  It is not much of a stretch to switch "change" into "sex."  Like sex once you are changed you can't go back, if you get bit you are a vampire forever, if you have sex you are no longer a virgin, except in Madonna's case, but that is a different matter.

So Meyer is showing the protagonist throw herself at her boyfriend over and over again.  Fittingly Edward says no every time, until the Cullen's hold a vote and everyone would change her, except Rosalie...strange image there on this topic.  Anyway, is this what Meyer wants teenage girls to do?  Constantly throw themselves at boys and hope that they say no?  Kind of a strange thought when thinking of her background and her target audience.

Now the arguments will be, "But they are in Loves," or "But it isn't sex, it's turning her into a vampire."  My rebuttal is simply this, put this situation in real life where there are no vampires.  We know how sexually charged teenagers can get, put them in a situation where they are on a girl/boy's bed, what else are they going to ask each other? How many boys out there are going to say no? Fewer than we would like to think.

Damn, that was longer than I was hoping, there will probably be one more entry if you can stand to read this, and I promise it won't be so negative next time.

tl;dr Bella : teenage girl | Vampire Change : sex           Great image Stephanie Meyer

Frustrations of the Twilight...Thing (Part 1)

I have problems with Twilight.  Anyone who has talked to me the past few years knows this and knows my reasoning.  But it has built up too much to just let it simmer, I have to let it out.  I do have some concessions I have to make about the whole thing.  First off I give Stephanie Meyer great credit in striking a chord with the general public in creating such a successful franchise.  The money she has pulled in is unreal and I can't deny it.  I also have to say that a bit of me is jealous that she has been so successful, like any disgruntled guy out there.  But now onto the fun part, the dissecting of the whole series. (I have read/listened to every book more than once and seen both movies)

First off, how did Meyer pull off a series in which the main character can create such large amounts of disgust.  Bella is your normal teenage girl.  She is insecure, undecided, and distant from everyone in her life.  But this isn't the biggest problem I have with the character.  My biggest problem is her reactions towards Edward.  She instantly becomes obsessed with him.  From the first encounter, when he hasn't "fed," don't get me started on their "vegetarianism," when he was completely rude to her, she still wanted to know what he was about.  Who he was, how pretty he was, how mysterious he was, etc...  When they started dating however it becomes even worse.  She cannot be away from him.  If Edward so much as thinks about leaving she latches on as if she is a vampire not allowing him to leave.  And that isn't the worst part.  Her descriptions of him are excruciatingly painful.  To Bella, Edward is perfect.  To how his skin is like polished marble, or his lips are rock hard but soft, or how his eyes are so beautiful when amber, or how his hair is perfectly tossed around, sorry go the movie involved.  Anyway, you get the picture and boy is it disgustingly pathetic.

Now with Bella complete I have to talk about the vampires as a whole in this universe.  Now I have no problems with taking some liberties with vampire rules.  Ok so they can go out into the sun but they are severely weakened, Bram Stoker's Dracula, sure they can drink animal blood and still survive, there is a ruling order among vampires, werewolves and vampires don't get along, all things I can deal with.  But SPARKLES!?!?!?  The worst cop-out to allow vampires to goto school or be seen in public.  Recently there has been a trend to glorify vampires, Underworld and Kate Beckinsale :) or Blade, or Brad Pitt in Interview with the Vampire, but to give them something has silly as sparkles.  Sparkles should only be on High School homemade banners and Dance Recital faces, not vampires.  Completely discredits any type of bad-assery that a vampire can have.  I mean how can you fight something you couldn't stop laughing at?

Since this one is already lengthy I am going to leave it as is and write Part 2 later this or next week.  Maybe I'll even get some quotes in there, but I don't want to dig through the books so probably not.

Winter blues

You would think that living in Nebraska, where Winter consisted of 20 MPH winds and scooping snow out of cattle troughs, and Minnesota, same but about 10 degress colder, I would have been prepared for the Winter here.  I was greatly mistaken when I found out how cold it can be when you are walking a dog for an hour in freezing temperatures.

Say what you will, but we are very pampered when it comes to cold in the States.  Here the morning consists of getting up, eating breakfast, and then walking Whit and Miki to work, and then back again.  That whole process takes about an hour and a half.  Back in the states, I would wake up, eat breakfast, start my car, wait 10 minutes, hop in with my seat warmers on, drive to work, walk from the car to the office building (taking 1 minute tops), and then complain about how cold it is.  You would think that you would be accustomed to the cold, but you just realize that your body forgets how to deal with the cold.  So no matter what the temp is, it will just seem cold.

One good thing though is that it finally snowed here, and the snow stuck for more than a day.  So hopefully later today and or this week I will be able to get some photos up to show how beautiful this country is.  That is to say that it won't be too foggy/cloudy to actually see anything.

Back to the US

It has been a while since I updated this page, almost a whole month.  But not entirely my fault, but just a little partially.  First off Miki had drooled on my Eee PC making it difficult to actually post things.  I like to use my main PC for gaming, and that is about it, so it was hard for me to sit down and type of things.  But now I have a working keyboard on my little netbook and I will be a little more consistent.  But that was not the only roadblock to updating, Whit and I have also been in the states the past two weeks.

It was great to see family and friends again but I could do without the distance between them.  The 20 hours it takes just to get from Baar to MSP isn't too bad.  Inflight movies help and it is just something that you can prepare yourself for.  The problem is the driving once you get there.  It takes 6 hours to drive between the Cities and Nebraska.  Then another 10 from Northeast Nebraska down to Tulsa.  Then another 10-11 hours between Tulsa and the Cities.  Only being able to come home once a year has its disadvantages, and that is certainly one of them.

Luckily that was the only negative on the trip.  Whit and I were both treated to some great back home parties, she was up till 4 on the first Friday and I went to a Karaoke bar.  Plus I was able to play DJ Hero, which is great by the way, and I was able to see the house that my friend Ben was in the process of buying when I left.

Nebraska was the same as always, a relaxing, do-nothing for a couple days trip.  Although when you are chasing around a soon-to-be 1 year old and 3 year old, it doesn't seem like you are doing nothing.  Another thing that we did was have an early Christmas, and when I say Christmas I mean we.  We had our traditional Spaghetti Dinner with our Grandparents, then we opened gifts in my parents decorated living room.  My mom went all out in making it feel like Christmas, all the decorations were up, the Christmas tree, table settings, the deck had strings of lights, the bushes had lights on them, it was great.  We also had a night with my brother and sister-in-law Nia to ourselves, no kids, and that was great because we could actually sit down and enjoy dinner and talk.

After all that is was on to Tulsa to celebrate Whit's great grandma's 100th birthday.  That is not a typo, 100th birthday. And she is looking great too.  She looks and sounds great for being 100 years old and has a lot of life left in her.  We also were able to see Whit's sister Haley that lives in Portland and is moving to London next year.  Whit and I are happy for that, but sadly it still isn't any closer than when we lived in MN and her in Portland.  Another thing is that teenagers grow up super fast too, I know I'm sad that we are going to miss Lea going through high school, never had a little sister.

That is all for now. and until later

Auf Wiedersehen

Wow

That is all I can really say about this country right now.  But this is a good wow, not a wow in disbelief, the Yankees won their 27th World Series, but more an awe inspiring wow.  Yes I have seen mountains before, and yes I have seen a beautiful fall, Ames was surprisingly pretty when the colors were changing, but it doesn't compare to this.

First thing you notice are the mountains in the background wherever you are.  They are quite the sight to behold. The jagged peaks that are covered in snow on a crisp sky blue background will make anyone drop their jaw.  Add that to the occasional cloud that floats in between the arching peaks tops it off.

Another quality of the country are the amounts of trees and shrubbery that are around.  Living in the Cities and on the plains and then living here, you realize that there are hardly any amounts of either.  Our walking paths are surrounded by trees that hold onto their bright yellow leaves.  What leaves are not still on the trees, coat the pathways like a blanket, but not a soggy, mucky blanket, but one that deadens your steps and makes you feel like you are actually away in the wilderness.

Here are some pictures that should showcase what I am attempting to, but will always, fail at.

Sorry but the mountain ones didn't turn out, I'll try and post other ones at a later date.

Right Time and Right Place For a Walk

Just for people who don't know, moving across an ocean is quite difficult.  The whole distance thing you can get over, I mean that is what college is for.  The biggest adjustment is to try and find something to do.  Back home, no matter really where you live, there was a few things that you could do almost anywhere, go to a movie, go out to a restaurant with some friends, maybe go to a bar, golf, you get the idea.  Here you have to not only find new things to do, you have to dig really hard to find stuff that you can do in the U.S. too.  Sure the bars are easy enough to find, but movie theater, talk about a 30 minute adventure for me and Whit, a restaurant, easy enough but find one that is affordable, golf, have to have a handicap card, plus take and pay for a test to make sure you are GOOD ENOUGH to even step foot on the course.  So I guess the first step is to just start off slow, and do something I always do, take Miki on a walk.

A walk may not seem like much, but it certainly did help.  It also helps when you get to walk in a countryside that is straight out of a movie.  In the small town Blickinsdorf there is a hill with a few walking paths strewn about.  I needed to take Miki out more and that is definitely a good exercise for both.  But it should make living here that much easier.  Before it was a bit depressing because I would only get out to pick up Whitney and go to the grocery store, not the kind of life I'm used to.  So with some help from Whit I was able to get out during the afternoon and do something as simple as walking, and it felt great.

Now I just need to continue this trend of getting out more everyday.  So that I have to schedule time to fit Miki's walk in, and not the other way around.  It may take some time but this first part will definitely be the hardest.

I also plan on taking the camera up with me the next couple days to grab some pics so everyone can see what this hill is all about. It will definitely turn into a place where I take people when they come to visit.

Miki can be a little terror

Titles have a way of being misleading sometimes.  You can look at a newspaper article and expect to read that the President wins a Nobel Peace Prize and when you actually read the article....wait he did win one? Anyway you know what I mean, well this title is in every word not misleading.

Miki, our dog, is an Alaskan Malamute.  He was bred to be a sled puller in the Iditarod.  If you look at a sledding team, his breed will be at the back of the group doing all the hard work.  Getting the sled initially moving and then keeping it flying over the snow.  In this capacity Miki would be the best sled dog ever, he has amazing strength at 16 months and he is quite fast.  Too bad we are not training him to be a sled dog, we want him to be a house dog.  Unfortunately either Miki hasn't figured that out yet, or he just never will.

On our walks Miki is constantly trying to go in one direction or the other pulling us along for the ride.  If he wants to walk on the left hand side of the side walk, he will pull us over to that side, even if it is just for a minute and then we go through the same process on the other side of the walk.  The worst part of it is when he takes off in a sprint after catching the scent of something.  I swear my arm has been pulled out of its shoulder socket many times while trying to rein him in.  He goes from his sniffing position to top speed in one stride, no joke.  It is quite hard to figure out what he is going to do.

At 16 months Miki is still counted as a puppy, but he is a puppy in a grown ups body.  That means that he begs, he whines, he nips, he jumps up on you; anything that you can think a puppy doing he does.  With his frame and weight it makes it almost impossible to keep that in perspective.  I don't know how many times I've lost my cool with him because he is just acting as any puppy would, its just with his size and strength, sometimes his antics physically hurt.

Now don't get me wrong, I love Miki.  Sure there are some times where I wish we would have never bought him, but those are few and far between the times in which I couldn't imagine life without him.  Between his puppy moments are the times where he does just lay there doing nothing, mostly sleeping.  Or when he is playing with his toy and he falls over because the floor is too slick, or he is just whining for us to goto bed so he can goto sleep.  You have to have some bad with the good, it's just that like anything else, you wish the bad was never there.

Primetime that Isn't so Primetime

People who know me would say that I like sports.  It doesn't matter which sport, except for NASCAR and is that really a sport, I will sit down to watch it.  I have even been able to muster up a liking for Soccer thanks to CNN, one of the two channels that are in English. I have been watching, Manchester City, who I took to the Champion's League Championship in Fifa 06, is sitting pretty in 2nd place at the moment in the Premier League and looking like they have a great shot at winning the whole thing.  But enough of that, I still hold Football as my favorite sport, although it is quite tough to actually watch the game.

Now I do not have a problem finding the games to watch.  Thanks to sites like justin.tv and myp2p.eu I have been able to find almost any game that I want to watch.  I also have to give thanks to the people who actually stream the games as well, not just the places that give the links needed to watch the games.  My problem lies within the time frame of the games I want to watch.

In Switzerland we are 7 hours ahead of CST.  So when it is 7 PM here, it is 12 PM in the Twin Cities.  That means that any early game I can watch without having to lose any sleep.  The 3 o'clock games (10 PM here) garner some trouble just because they seem to take longer then the early games and can last longer pushing between 1 and 2 AM here.  Games like this are not terrible but when you have to get up and let a dog out at 6:30 in the morning, you are feeling it.  7 PM games are utterly disastrous to try and watch.  I am a Steeler fan and when they played on opening night, I stayed up until 2 AM just to catch the beginning of it, and then went to bed at halftime which ended up being 4 AM here.  It hurt, physically hurt to stay up that late.

I bring this up because this next week is going to be disastrous for me.  It begins on Saturday when the Cyclones take on the Wildcats in the afternoon time slot.  Not bad easy to stay up for.  But then the Steelers play the Chargers in the Sunday night game.  The Vikings play the Packers, as if you didn't know, Monday night, and the Huskers play the Tigers Thursday night...AHHHHHHHH!!! People might confuse me for a zombie Friday at German class.

As you can see, Primetime television doesn't work for me.  It turns me into an insomniac that will have to start drinking more and more coffee, instant coffee that is.

Transportation Headache

Before I get started on telling you some troubles about Switzerland I should probably give you a little background on myself, although most of you already know it.  I come from Nebraska but went to college at Iowa State University.  I graduated in 2008 and then moved, with my wife Whitney, to Minnesota.  She had a job lined up out of ISU in the Twin Cities so we decided that I could find a job easy enough when we were there, and I did.  She was then offered the chance to move to Switzerland and work for her company there.  And as you can now see, that is where we stand.

So what can I say about Switzerland so far? It may not seem different when you first get here, but as the weeks move on it is clear to see that it is a stark difference between living in the US.  First off is the whole non-car issue.  We didn't bring either of our cars over, long story maybe another time.  We decided that we could foot around the town of Baar for all of our needs, and hop on the public transport if we need to travel any long distances.  For now it is working. The grocery store, train station, and bus station, are a ten minute walk for us, plus there is a bus stop right down the street from where we live.  But we are starting to see the faults in our plan as well.  Despite the walk only being 10 minutes to the store, things get heavy quickly while walking.  Try carrying a few days of groceries down the street and back and you will see what I mean.

Another problem arises with the dependence of public transport for long travels, you are stuck to THEIR schedule.  So if you miss the train, you are stuck waiting for another hour.  Now that is fine if we miss our train back from Zurich, there is plenty of stuff to do around the main station, but if we miss the train from Baar, talk about a boring hour.  And the buses would take longer so we wouldn't even try to navigate that scenario.

That concludes it for today, but keep an eye for more troubles and adventures from Switzerland.

p.s. Just don't expect any Indiana Jones type adventures...ok?