Stories & Gamers

I sit a lot next to a Gamer and watch these different worlds that he gets into...different worlds.  The kind of worlds that I like to get into inside my head when I write, or attend, personally, at Renaissance Festivals.

My Gamer's current obsession is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

As I sit and get involved in my posts and forums and the other internet social activities, my Gamer is running around with a flaming, magic sword (a conjured Bound Sword) in one hand and flowing, sparkling magicka of fire in another, killing off a Frost Troll.

I peek up from time-to-time from my typing, and look at this incredible world of graphics where even looking up at the night sky, the clouds slowly flow along gradually revealing stars to peek through before continuing on.

It's a real world!  And it's incredibly BEAUTIFUL!

My Gamer doesn't seem to notice all the little things like the stars, the fleece of snow, the stone steps (each individually designed with its own cracks) and the way the water flows in the rivers. But, I see how beautiful this world is designed and created.

What I also noticed too, are books, yes books, that sit on the shelves of these cabins and castles and huts of homes. You can open these books and read entire stories about this Skyrim world: an adventurer's travels, seeking and killing evil magical creatures; how to travel and where to explore; a short ghost story of a weeping woman that lives near an abandoned cabin. My Gamer doesn't bother to read these novels on the shelves. He's too busy on quests and opening and shutting books just to gain points to level up his character. But it amazes me that there were writers, yes, authors, who took the time to put together and weave entire communities and towns and relationships and religions and politics and...and EVERYTHING inputted into creating this world!

This world is so very close to the Renaissance Festivals that people go to where they can pretend to be whatever they want to be in a live world of Make-Believe. But unlike the "live" fantasy world, where you are constantly reminded that you're still in the "real world" when you have to take out your wallet to buy a funnel cake, or use the porta potty, this Skyrim world is constant...just like a book.

I like the fact that reading novels is an option in this game, and stories are entwined and belief systems are in magical order. I can look at this world and learn a thing or two to incorporate into my own world of story-telling, just like when I absorb information from fantastic films filled also with computer animation.

The imagination takes place in all sorts of places and things.

And it's all such an incredible world!

How Can I Be Attractive?

I use to watch Popeye cartoons when I was younger and I always wondered, "What the heck made Olive Oyl so attractive?" She had no curves, what-so-ever (zip, nothing, nada, none!), she was way thin, and her singing was horrible. Yet she had two muscled men running, drooling after her and constantly trying to win her affections with all kinds of gifts and outtings. Maybe it was the way she clapsed her hands together near her ear and tiled her head in an adoring manner and said, "Ohhhh, Popeye!" It definitely wasn't what she wore!

It was the kind of thing that makes you wonder, "Why is That beautiful person with That ugly person!" I don't really like to use "ugly" in my conversations (I stick with the word "unattractive"), but you get what I'm saying.

As I got older, I began to see how "what is considered beautiful" can change. It moves on that path from negative to positive; and makes beauty to be in the eye of the beholder in two different ways: 1) Society defines what beauty is, and 2) Personality states what beauty is.

SOCIETY

Growing up in the 1970s and 80s, I was still in the age where dark skinned people (really dark skinned people) were considered ugly, and the lighter you were, the prettier you were. I was born in the generation, after the generation, who held a paper grocery bag up near a person's face in order to consider them for a spot in a faternity or sorority. I was consider "prettier" than my sister since I was much lighter and she was "tar color".

What was defined as beautiful back then, slowly change.

The model industry began to focus images on really, dark skinned models and were saying they were beautiful. For some, it was hard to adjust, but after a while, they began to see it that way: "Yes, s/he is beautiful!"

When I went to my 20-year High School Reunion, a man that my sister and I grew up with told my sister, "You know, you were always beautiful."

And her response was: "What?! Why didn't you tell me that in Elementary School!"

He simply smiled and walked away.



PERSONALITY

But back to Olive Oyl.

As an adult, I can see the appeal Popeye and Bluto had for Olive Oyl. It was her personality...and maybe her eyelashes too.  Though her singing was horrible, she sung with all her heart. She was strong-willed and she had confidence in herself--and a lot of it! Maybe they also liked how, uh, flexible, she was? Heh. Heh.

In her own way, Olive Oyl was pretty darn cute.

I saw Whoopie Goldberg in Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986), and in that film, I could see the romance, a wonderful appealing one, that came from the screen telling a story of love between two people during the early Instant Messaging stages. But a few years before that, she acted in The Color Purple (1985) where she was considered "ugly". It was her personality that changed her to be viewed as attractive (and in her personal life, she was also hooked up with my Vampire Crush Frank Langella at one time).  And with that personality, you can see, with eyes now changed and open, how cute her smile is with her rosy cheeks.

There's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009), Swedish version, where there's this girl played by Noomi Rapace, who isn't very attractive at all. She's almost like an Olive Oyl type--no curves, what-so-ever. But there's just something about her....

Confidence. Smart.

She portrays a female that draws men to want her (I'm talking about the positive ones in her life). And I'm hoping the U.S. can see how beautiful she is in the Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) film. I haven't seen it yet, but I hope she did good.

I think confidence and personality can make anyone attractive.

So, when you take a double-look and wonder, "How did she get HIM!" That's the reason why--confidence.

ANSWER

That question: How can I be attrative?  The answer is One of Two ways. 1) You could either wait the decades for society to change, and some actor or model breaks through that resembles you, and now society says it so, and you have that stamp of approval: BAM! You are now attractive! OR... 2) you can be yourself with confidence and wit and declare to the world that you already are.

I kinda like the latter.

It's what I like to write about. It's what I like to dream about. The underdog, the Cinderella, the novice, the overlooked, finally prevailing to be seen by EVERYONE!!

Keep improving through the darkness into the light.

Until Next time!

My Vampire Crush

There's nothing like your first crush...for a vampire.

Yeah. Sigh. I know my first crush well. It was in the movie theatre, you know, the "big screen" back in the early 1980s. His name was Dracula, and it aired several years before I actually saw it because it came out when I was only seven years old, 1979. I must have been around 10 years old when I saw him.

Before HIM, Dracula was just a scary monster like the rest of them. There was nothing appealing at all...he was just scary. But then, he came unto the scene, Frank Langella, filling up the screen and my heart.

That's what started me into the realm of fangs. Heh. Heh.

There were other vampires since Frank Langella, but they just didn't do it for me like he did. I mean, Angel and Buffy.... I liked their romantic relationship, but I just wasn't glued to the fangs, you know? The film Dracula (1992) came out, and though the sizzling in the scenes were there, Gary Oldman just wasn't for me. I must say, though, that there was a biting scene in Blade (1998) that was THE BEST account of "sizzling teeth on neck" that I've EVER seen. The way Blade bit into that doctor's neck...Ooo la la! SMOKIN'!!!!

Yet, Blade wasn't the stuff that I wanted in romance with a Vampire. You know? And the TV series Vampire Diaries (2009 -now)...just not for me.

I had been kind of bummed that I couldn't find that crush feeling again. Frank Langella just had me, and even at age 70, when he was in the film The Box (2009), even with half his face gone and burned up, his poise just makes me salivate, and I remember that Vampire I love.

Over and over, I see these vampires come and go, and still, no spark. I started watching TV Series True Blood, and, again, though I loved the relationship between Sookie and Bill, there just wasn't a vampire there for me.

Until... Season 2 (2009), and a vampire started coming strong into the scene --- Eric Northman!!!!

OH YEAH!!  

The harps started playing in the sky! The earth started rockin' and rollin'! Sparks and fire popped in the air!

There's my FANGS!!! There HE is!!!

And all was well again in the world!

LOL!!

So...the only thing now is to wait for my sizzling werewolf. :)

Until Next time!