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Got a question? Don't be shy! Ask me!
Got a question? Don't be shy! Ask me!
During most of the past 14 years, I have been lost - searching, if you will - for myself. I have not only tried to conform and fit in a certain category, I have brought myself to like something I abhor and to dislike and deny something I was, and still am, deeply passionate about. I have done all of this just to blend in. Because I was something that I never wanted to be - I stood out.
To categorize myself as a non-conformist would be the most hypocritical and ironic thing in the world. To admit to ones self and to others that you are a non-conformist would be to conform on being a non-conformist.
To those of you searching, you all know. Insecurity and Instability is one of the main causes of conforming. Image is everything to some, to some it is the least important thing. But what really in non-conformity?
Non-conformists are actually those people who don't care about how they look. Think nerds (sorry for stereotyping) with big dorky (again, sorry) glasses, and braces, and suspenders with denims that only go to their ankle so you can see their leather shoes and white socks. They're the ones who're truly the non-conformists. Non-conformity is being happy and secured and stable with ones self; Being able to express opinions but at the same time also have respect.
Take this from a person who's tried to stereotype herself under "Rebellious Rocker", "Tortured Artist", "Humanitarian Boho", and a lot more monikers. You can never ever perfectly fit into one category - or at least I’ve found out that I can't. I am somewhat in between everything. So I'm a cheerleader, that doesn't make me a perky person. Some people find it hard too see me as a cheerleader because I like rock, rainy days, and dark art. So what? That doesn't make me a morose person. In fact, a lot of people ask me why I play music that makes them want to "shoot up and die" - but it's the opposite, really. Because I like my music, I find comfort in my music. You know people hate rainy days they say it's dark and somber and they can't take walks outside or go out. But, to tell you the truth, I just love a rainy day. It's just an excuse to stay inside and read a book. I don’t want to take a walk outside anyways.
It just sometimes kills me, you know? To see a person becoming something that they don't want to be just so they can become inconspicuous! I hate being recognized, but I've learned that the actual key to being comfortable in your own skin is to be happy. Just stop torturing yourself.
Okay, so here are some things we need in our improvement list:
1.) Don't try to be something - or someone, rather - you're not – find who you are and you'll be surprised at how much happiness it will give you.
2.) Never loose hope on other people
3.) Don't hold grudges
4.) Stop cursing
Follow these, and you'll find no dirty laundry. And it feels good to know that there are no skeletons in your closet. Here we go with stability; for one thing, you have to learn to be happy single. And when you finally have stability within yourself, you'll find stability in another person. They say, a key to a good relationship is appreciation. So when you find your significant other, remember to let them know how thankful you are for even the smallest things.
Oh and I forgot to mention, LOVE YOUR SIBLINGS. Please, everyone do so. Because seriously, in the long run, you're all each other have. I mean it's okay to fight because it's normal. It’s okay to dislike (I suppose) because that, too, is normal. But love your family. I don't really have a healthy relationship with 3 of my siblings. We fight all the time! We bicker and we snap at each other. WE GNAW EACH OTHER TO DEATH. But I love them, because the're my siblings. I want to kill them most of the time, but I'd kill for them anytime. I'd do it in a heartbeat.
My sisters think that I have a problem with my attitude. I balance and contrast they're perkiness to my dark emotional self. I'm not saying that they're unaffectionate, it's just they're tact is a little off hand. Since I grew up in a family of 4 girls, all of which cheerleaders, I was expected to conform to what my sisters had conformed in. Now this brings us full-circle to non-conformity. Wow, funny how that is, eh? Anyways, I always was a very opinionated person. And my powers of persuasion came in handy to whenever I debated against something I did not believe in. This sometimes comes off as an annoyance to people about me. The fact that I deliver with such conviction and eloquence just irritates them. And I know that! That's why I try so hard to let go. I mean, you can't please everyone.
Yes, such a cliche`. But it's the truth. There are so many cliche`s yet we choose not to follow them. Such a pity, that is, because they are the one's that are applicable to life. I know at times I sound so high and mighty, so condescending, but I do not mean to speak that way. I just naturally do. And I am a completely random person. See how I jumped topics? Tallying back, I think that the only way to become a better person is to find out what you lack and work real hard for it. You have to fight for it. Most people would say they try to be God-like or Jesus-like. But how can they? No one knows how the all mighty acts. No one knows how he IS. So, I think that he sends sacraments. You know, like to me, for me, my sister is a sacrament of Jesus Christ. She is how I should be. Like, I'm not forced to be like her, I just want to. You can call her a role model, but I don't believe in those. I just believe in sharing a common opinion with another person, and it just so happens that we share opinions. I mean, her wisdom leaves me speechless. It's so compelling.
In myself, I have found that I am comfortable with my own. I need not praises nor insults. I am who I am because this was how I was born. Now I am here to listen to those in need of any support. I was given that and it had helped me grow as a person. I would like to share the same experience with others. I am here to listen for everyone has a story.
I also have removed my comment box. This is because I think that whatever comment you make will affect me as a writer. If you give me praise, I'm afraid my modesty and humility will dry up; if you give me criticism, I'm afraid it will become psychological and it will affect the way I write. So please, please, respect my decisions. (:
Because for every true friend, comes forth a 100 enemies.
DESIDERATA
by: Max Ehrman
Go placidly amid the noise and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others; even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism
Be yourself. Espacially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy
Tis the season to be jolly, falalalala lalalala!
Let me enlight you with some christmas stories and urban legends. I will be posting a story or poem or anything related to Christmas everyday for 6 days. (:
**
Claim: Two of Santa's reindeer were originally named 'Dunder' and 'Blixem,' not 'Donner' and 'Blitzen.'
Status: True.
Origins: Can you recite the names of Santa's eight reindeer? If so, you probably do it by recalling the first few lines of the 1949 song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer":
You know Dasher and Dancer,
and Prancer and Vixen;
Comet and Cupid,
and Donner and Blitzen...
The source that added eight individually-named reindeer to the then-nascent Santa Claus legend was the poem "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" (now more commonly known as "The Night Before Christmas"), first published in 1823. A portion of the poem read as follows:
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of midday to objects below;
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer.
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be Saint Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name.
"Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on Dunder and Blixem!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now, dash away! dash away! dash away all!
Who are those last two reindeer? 'Dunder and Blixem'? Aren't they supposed to be 'Donner and Blitzen'?
The story of how two reindeer named 'Dunder' and 'Blixem' became 'Donner' and 'Blitzen' is a complicated and confusing one, in part because a good deal of mystery remains about the origins of the poem that named them, "A Visit from Saint Nicholas." We'll do our best here to trace the history of how the poem — and the names of two reindeer — changed over time.
"A Visit from Saint Nicholas" made its first print appearance in New York's Troy Sentinel newspaper on 23 December 1823. The poem had been submitted anonymously, and over the next thirteen years it was reprinted without attribution in various newspapers, magazines, and almanacs. Eventually word spread that the poem had been penned by Clement Clarke Moore, a Bible professor at New York's General Theological Seminary; an 1836 reprint of "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" finally credited Moore, and the notion of Moore as the true author of "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" was cemented when he included in a volume of his own poetry published in 1844. However, rumors have long persisted that "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" was written not by Moore, but by a different New Yorker of Dutch descent named Henry Livingston — a claim which regained prominence at the end of 2000 when scholar and textual analyst Donald W. Foster published a defense of Livingston as the true author.
Whether Moore or Livingston wrote "A Visit from Saint Nicholas," one of them melded elements of Scandinavian mythology with the emerging Dutch-American version of Santa Claus as a jolly, pipe-smoking fellow and produced a vision of a sleigh pulled by eight flying reindeer. He assigned names to all the reindeer, and he took two of them from a common Dutch exclamation of the time, "Dunder and Blixem!" (the Dutch words for "thunder" and "lightning," as rendered in English orthography). These are the names that appeared in the original 1823 publication of "A Visit from Saint Nicholas":
"Now! Dasher, now! Dancer, now!
Prancer, and Vixen,
On! Comet, on! Cupid, on!
Dunder and Blixem;
In 1837, publisher Charles Fenno Hoffman printed a version of "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" that included several alterations from earlier versions, including the changing of 'Blixem' to 'Blixen' (to make it rhyme with 'Vixen') and 'Dunder' to 'Donder' (perhaps to bring the spelling more in line with English pronunciation). When Clement Clarke Moore prepared "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" for publication in his own 1844 book of verse, he rechristened one of the reindeer 'Blitzen' and retained (or coincidentally reiterated) Hoffman's change of 'Dunder' to 'Donder.' Moore's 1844 version of the poem is the one that became the standard and established 'Donder' and 'Blitzen' as the names of two of Santa' reindeer in the memories of generations of children.
Literary sleuths (such as Donald Foster) who believe Moore is not the true author of a "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" have theorized that the original reindeer names of 'Dunder' and 'Blixem' sounded odd to Moore because he knew German but not Dutch, and he therefore changed them to 'Donder' and 'Blitzen' (or failed to notice when someone else changed them). This makes sense in the latter case (as 'blitzen' is the German word for 'lightning'), but the explanation is oddly inconsistent in the former case — 'donner' is the German word for 'thunder,' so if Moore were familiar with German, why would he have retained the spelling of Blitzen's partner's name as 'Dunder' or 'Donder' rather than altering it to the more appropriate 'Donner'?
How and when 'Donder' made the transition to 'Donner' remains a mystery. In 1949 Johnny Marks turned the popular story of Rudolph, a misfit red-nosed reindeer (created by his brother-in-law, Robert L. May, for a 1939 Montgomery Ward promotional giveaway booklet) into a song, and Gene Autry's recording of the tune became a smash hit that Christmas season. Although Marks certainly helped popularize the 'Donner' usage by including it in the "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" lyrics, he was far from the first to refer to one of Santa's reindeer by that name. We found seven different mentions of 'Donner' in the pages of The New York Times prior to the 1949 Christmas season, the earliest occurring in that newspaper's 1906 publication of Moore's poem. In fact, a 1926 New York Times article on the origins of Santa Claus stated that "two of the original reindeer were originally given Dutch names, 'Donder and Blixen' (Blicksem), meaning thunder and lightning" and "it is only modern publishers who have rechristened them with the German 'Donner and Blitzen.'"
But that's as far as the trail leads us. We know 'Blixem' was changed to 'Blixen' and then 'Blitzen' between 1837 and 1844, and we can make some reasonable guesses about why those changes were made, but we're still mostly in the dark about why 'Dunder' became 'Donder,' and the details of when and why 'Donder' finally became 'Donner' remain elusive. We can say for sure, though, that the names of two of Santa's reindeer, as originally published about 170 years ago, were 'Dunder' and 'Blixem,' not 'Donner' and 'Blitzen.'
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
Just Like Heaven
