okay boys and girls, i’m about shut this sucker down…so if i don’t hear from you, your account will be gone. otherwise, i will leave it active for you as per whatever the TRU  regulations might be.

First off, is very sad when you hear of anyone who passes away from such a tragic accident. We wish his family and everyone close to him all the best in this tough time.

What I would like to say is that his death has no significant impact to the many facebookers or twitter followers out there. I may be doing the same thing here, by gratuitously speaking on his death nearly a week past, but I digress.

The point is that people have no tie to Paul Walker at all, yet feel the need to post and repost to share the news, which is actually devastating and personal to the select few in his family. Why do we as a society when we have the opportunity to say something, feel like we need to share other peoples loss only to get Retweets and Facebook likes.

Maybe this is just the standard today and we have to accept it, like we discussed before maybe privacy is dead. There are people learning things about people close to them secondhand, and the personal touch of face-to-face is long gone. Would you appreciate learning your brother had died from a retweet from your friends, co-workers, sister’s twitter account? I guess privacy is dead and I don’t see it coming back …..R.I.P.

It always amazed me in the comic Archie and friends how much the stereotypes were played up.  From the dumb jock,  the nerd,  to the rich snob, the comic really played on the stereotypical forms of their characters. One of the biggest issues I saw in this was the sexism. Archie was a normal guy, and he was continuously being fought over by Betty and Veronica, as well as countless other girls. The women were seen as a nothing more then sex objects and prizes that could be won between Archie and Reggie. I agree that maybe some of the attitudes in the comic were more in sync with the times where the comic was written, but Archie comics kept that idea going for quite a while.

I am not too familiar with comic books, and have actually learned a great deal from class about the content that was published from the early comic book days. I think the sentiments in Archie may have been quite tame compared to some of the other ideas that were put out there, but for such a mainstream comic that has been read for so long, they do have some controversial comics.

However with saying this, Archie did come under fire recently for including a gay kiss, and even a gay marriage.

From the sexism to the homosexuality, is it all just an overreaction? Do comic books even have that much influence in today’s pop culture?

     I know that I no longer need to create new posts, but it seemed like this is the perfect place to post my current thoughts. I’ll admit that many of these recent thoughts are my own personal reflections on life, and as such, I find that I tend to read different messages into various media forms that I am seeing, hearing, or reading. In this particular case, my thoughts are currently dwelling on trying to not live in the past or the future, but learning how to live in the moment. As I was reviewing material for my upcoming exam, I was re-reading Horizon. It is a pretty amazing story that, for me, centers around the theme of learning to think less and live in the moment. In the beginning of the story, Alisanne, is feeling emotions that reflect feelings associated with depression and anxiety, because she is living with thoughts about past events which torment her, or fear of the future in which past events keep repeating themselves. Her feelings revolve around frustration, hopelessness, feelings of being alone, trapped, life’s a mess…barely holding on. Towards the end of part one, Ali starts to live in the moment, and new feelings of hope come as she starts to gain control of her life.

As I am writing these words, “Let Me Go” by Avril Lavigne & Chad Kroeger is playing in the background. The words in the main chorus are:

“I’m breaking free from these memories
Gotta let it go, just let it go
I’ve said goodbye, set it all on fire
Gotta let it go, just let it go”

The song transitions near the end to the lyrics:

I’ve broken free from those memories
I’ve let it go, I’ve let it go
And two goodbyes led to this new life
Don’t let me go, don’t let me go”

The lyrics in this song is basically talking about Avril & Chad letting go of their past relationships (i.e. the past)…and moving towards their new life together (the present). I’m not usually an Avril fan or a Chad Kroeger fan, but this song is really good with lyrics that are actually meaningful.

The point of this post is not really to discuss either Horizon or this song, it is however, an opening for discussion on why it is so difficult to let go of the past and future, and live in the moment. Is it hard because we have no control over the present moment? Lao Tsu, (the father of Taoism) stated “If you’re depressed, you’re living in the past. If you’re anxious, you’re living in the future. If you’re at peace, you’re living in the present.” I think Wildman illustrated this concept extremely well in Horizon, where as readers we can visibly see Alisanne experiencing feelings of peace towards the end of part one. If the secret to hope and happiness lies in embracing the present moment and letting go of the past and the future, why is it so difficult to live life according to this concept?

*I’ve included a link to “Let Me Go” if anyone is interested. Happy listening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqajUg85Ax4

Did you like the Governor standing on top of the tank at the fence? Did it remind you of the comicbook issue when he did that? Seems like years ago…and it was cool…I would have liked to have seen a bigger force attacking and I thought the use of the tank was pretty ‘meh’ but a good episode…thoughtful, sad, and full of endings…like when you leave home for the second time…where do you go now? what do you do? will life ever be the same? will you see your friends and family again…and will it be like before? scary stuff…life, that is.