oanja

I paid the money for the student union and now I'm a student again for one more year. The fee's gone up I think, it was 108€ and I think it was about 90 some years ago. Still can't complain too much as it's the only money I have to pay for a full year at a university. I don't know how American's do it... Well, yes I do, they either get into a lot of dept or their parents pay for them or both. I have student loans now too, I think it's about 3000€ right now and even that freaks me out quite a bit.

I still think it would be cool to work abroad for a few years after I finally manage to graduate (in a few years hopefully) and I've been thinking about Canada lately. I think it would be an interesting place to live in, but that the culture shock wouldn't be a big deal. I went to look at a webpage meant for foreigners thinking about moving to Canada and it seems there are jobs for social workers over there. :) Not that it's a big surprise I think there's a need for them all over.

Anyway... I've now read two of the Dragon Age books and they are sooooo interesting! I love how much new info they give into the world and also how much of it is then used in the games. :D It seems like the new game will take place soon after Asunder. I can't wait to play it!!! Still one year to go though. *pout*

While arilyn9 was visiting I got the third season of Fringe and then watched it in the past few days. I keep thinking about how Olivia is treated in the show as a female character, because now I can't not, especially with the new Star Trek movie being so bad when it comes to female characters. I do think that Olivia is super awesome! She is definitely one of my favourite female characters, but they have done some questionable shit to her and her body over the course of the show. I keep thinking though that would I even care if it had happened to a male character and I think the answer is no. So does that make it better or worse? Also the red haired Olivia is confusing to me, she seems to be all over the place when it comes to her actions and motives. I don't know... Also, I've heard that the fourth season is a mess and I wish I hadn't read that somewhere, because now I'm worried about what they are going to do to this show I like so much. ;___;

I also bought both seasons of Rome, because I only had season 2 for years and now there is no way to just get season one anywhere!! The blu-ray was only 24€ so it's not that bad with 12€ per season... It's been years and years since I watched season one and I'm kind of nervous about watching it again, in case it's not as good as I remember it being. It's not going to ruin it for me, I know that, so I should just watch it. 

My dog is an adorable moron. I'm still here at mom's and I had to bring the rats (of course) but they are hidden away at this alcove thing I have in my room, because Luna is way too interested in my rodent friends and would most likely terrify them to death if they saw her... but anyway, she can still hear them rustling in their cage and it's kind of driving her bonkers. She just keeps watch in front of the doors most of the time (if she's not distracted away) poor animals. ^_^;

Then for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to read this insanely epic length Glee fic where Quinn and Finn swap bodies and Quinn falls for Rachel because she needs to pretend to be her boyfriend and Finn is just adorable as a girl and and... It's a wip and already almost 300,000 words. I'm clearly insane, because I don't even like Glee.

Mom is going shopping tomorrow for sales and promised to buy me new socks. My life, so exciting. (although I do really need new socks quite badly)

I'm reading an interesting book called 'The Will to Change - men, masculinity, and love' where the author talks about partiarchy and how that has shaped men and how they are allowed to feel or express their feeling. (or to put it in other words; how they aren't allowed to do any of that) I think I will write more about this once I finish reading it but she quoted another book and I really wanted to write it down.
And now that I'm sort of talking about sex I might as well mention something else that has been bothering me. I was thinking about the Harry Potter books and how they are meant to be read by kids. Not necessarily very young kids but kids none the less. In the HP books a lot of people die in pretty horrible ways, people get injured because someone wanted to hurt them physically, people are tortured. Violence is not presented as something entirely bad though, in some cases it is the right thing to do (as in when fighting evil) Nobody curses in HP books and nobody has sex in them either ("on screen") Why is it okay to have murder and torture in a kids book but not sex or even cursing?
- Kids might imitate the way the characters speak and start cursing. Eh? But they don't start torturing and killing people when they read about it.
- Kids might start having sex. Um... Like they wont do that in any case. Shouldn't there be examples in books for teenagers to see what a loving relationship is like sex included. I think it would give them a much better example than watching porn online, or hearing sex clinically explained in sex ed.

Why is sex such a taboo in books and on TV/movies? Why don't we even blink when we see a character get killed on screen but if there is a sex scene it can cause an outrage, (especially if children might see). How does that work? Even showing a character naked is a big deal. Sex is supposed to be a natural part of being human, it's even considered a good thing in general and yet we aren't allowed to see it. I get that it's supposed to be personal and private but at the same time I want to ask 'why is it so private?' Isn't torturing and murdering people sort of personal and private too? What makes it okay to see one but not the other?

(Then again, sex scenes make me personally uncomfortable if I see one in a movie etc. However, I have watched porn, where seeing people have sex is the whole point and that didn't bother me. Have I just been socialized to see sex in the media as a bad thing? Also this aversion I have only extends to seeing heterosexual couples having sex. I watched the L word and the sex scenes didn't bother me and neither have the ones I've seen in gay movies or shows like Queer as Folk. This makes me think it's just something personal in my own case. And this whole paragraph isn't really making any sense so I'll just stop now...)

I generally think there is too much sex on tv/movies and I don't like how they usually depict women. So does that make me a hypocrite? Especially when I don't feel that way about violence in the same context. I don't like horror movies or scenes where someone is tortured (particularly if they do something to the persons hands or teeth) but in shows like CSI or other crime shows I pretty much like watching people get killed/murdered. And how messed up is that when you actually write it down... Some of my favourite characters in movies and TV are murderers/torturers or they have at least assaulted someone. If they were real I'd never want to get closer than a hundred meters of them. Double standars much...

Waah~ I can't express myself the way I want to! *flails* But if any of this made any kind of sense to you or if you wanna tell me how you feel about the topic(s) I'd love to hear it! \0/

P.s. Livejournal spell check doesn't think patriarchy is a word. Are we being oppressed? Or am I writing the word wrong? There are always more questions than there are answers. *nod nod*

~*~

Also completely off topic but I had a nose bleed today... So weird. O_o
And! I'm going to see Sherlock Holmes tomorrow! woot!
edit: lol someone posted a secret on fandomsecrets  that was about the same thing as my last post, (the whole objectifying men thing. =D)