Body Image

I don't know why, but I've been hearing ALOT of people complaining about their looks lately. Mostly women, but men as well. And it's just breaking my heart and simultaniously pissing me off.

I think Savannah Brown did a great job with her Slam Poem about body image, self love, self acceptance and the way media/society has made every human belittle themselves. We're never enough, never smart enough, never pretty enough. But that's a whole lot of bullcrap! We are all beautiful, interesting people, no matter what size, shape or form we're in, no matter gender, skin tone or sexuality, we are all humans.
I'm just tired of seeing these wonderful people, that I love, hate on their own looks. I mean come on, you are frickin' stunning, can't you see that? I truly wish they could see themselves through my eyes. Then they wouldn't want to change a thing.
Happiness, feeling good about yourself, has nothing to do with your looks, really. I mean if you feel like crap, and you only change how you look, that won't fix your problems, it won't make that crappy feeling go away. It will just change how your outsides look. Sure, that might make you a bit more confident, for a while, who knows, but it won't make all of your problems flutter away. You are worthy of love, happiness and all the joy life can bring, just the way you are, right now. Try your best, but remember to be kind to yourself, Love yourself. It doesn't matter what anyone else think about you. What You think about You, is what's important.
And what you give, you'll recieve. Do you want more compliments, give compliments. Do you want people to be honest with you, be honest with others. Do you want people to treat you nicely, treat others nicely. But most of all, be kind to yourself, give yourself compliments. Do what you love and are passionate about.
I want you, yeah, You, to know that you are such an amazing and Awesome person. You are loved and just utterly wonderful. Thank you for existing!
And remember: "You're a goddamn treasure, whether you believe it or not."
Much Love. //Lisa.

Fullmoon madness

I think it's a full moon out tonight. And damn, I've been emotional today/tonight. Woke up, couldn't get out of bed for an hour and a half. Felt sort of depressed the entire day. Wanted to cry for no apparent reason. One of my sisters gave me a snarky comment when I forgot to tell her I wouldn't join her for dinner, and that made me feel really bad. It just totally slipped my mind that I should have said that before it was time for dinner. so when my other sister came to eat dinner at my place, she barely had time to say hello before I started crying. So yeah, that happened. (I don't usually cry much, especially not infront of people.)
I'm having a cold, and my apartment is freezing, so that's not really helping the entire 'I-feel-shitty'-experience. and I'm stressed out about my work training place, because I can't work there, my body is in more pain than usual and I just don't see how this will work. I love the place, and the people I work with there, but my health has gotten worse since I started, and I can't have that. All I want right now is to go back to my previous work training place, with a new handler and continue my work training in that stressfree environment, where my health is thriving and I just feel at home there. I know I will end up there when I start my own company.(Holistic healthcare company) and that will be awesome. But both my health and my job experience would benefit from being at my old work training place. Because I could really use the practical practice of my holistic education that I would probably get there too. But for some reason the job center is only giving me reasons why I can't be there, and it's lame ass excuses and it's pissig me off!
And all of this just makes me feel like shit right now, and I'm just tired. Please, the Universe, or God, or Gods or Goddesses or whoever run the show, will you please make everything fall into place for me? that would be neat, thanks.
It sucks hitting these low, dark, destructive points, when you've been so much higher and lighter in spirit before. I don't want to go back to how I was feeling when I first started to get sick, and it's sort of those feelings I've been having lately and I think it scares me a bit. I don't want to be that person anymore. I want to be joyous, optimistic Lisa, who's not tied down by her illness, but who is ready to live life to the fullest. This is probably just a fluke, and I'll probably feel better when things have cleared up a bit. I just have to try and take care of myself, make myself relax and slow down. Breathe. It'll be allright. I know it will.
But I wouldn't mind a hug or two, right now, anyways.~

Arrival of Point Pleasant books

Here you can see they joy of having your favorite book arrive!
I got a pretty neat quote from the author, Jen Archer Wood: "Bitter as hell and twice as hot", it's from the book and it made me smile to read it!
This is what I wrote in my tumblr post, about all of this, a few moments ago:
"algn akjrgkjsnf! <3 I’ve been waiting for my books to arrive ever since I saw Jen had sent them out, checking my mailbox like a crazyperson every day. and today, they finally arrived! :D I can’t even explain how happy I am right now! it feels great to have the actual book in my hands. So yes, I will definatly reread the novel as soon as I’ve finished some other books I’m currently reading. (Kurt Vonnegut’s “Breakfast of Champions” and “Good Omens” by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett)
And I’ve got to say the color companion was awesome! I LOVE it! I really like the notes about all of the different moths illustrated in the book. And the character study pictures where great to see, and they had such amazing detail. I’ve allready gushed about how much I love Svetlanas artwork, but I’ll say it again: I Love her style. <3
So Jen and Svetlana, I love you guys, you are crazy talented and just awesome people! Keep up the good work! :)"
//Lisa.

Who is your role model?

So I'm on tumblr, added this askbox-game thingy to my blog:
Buffy the vampire slayer Askbox game:
Put a character in my inbox!

• Buffy: Who is your role model?
• Willow: If you could cast any spell what would it be?
• Xander: What is your favourite joke?
• Giles: What is your favourite book?
• Angel: Do you have a secret side to your personality?
• Spike: What is your guilty tv pleasure?
• Dawn: Name one thing you would defend with your life
• Anya: If you had one wish what would it be?
• Tara: Do you believe in love at first sight?
• Faith: 3 Turn ons and 3 Turn offs
• Cordelia: Appearance or personality? (or both?)
• Oz: Favourite band/singer?

And I got the question: Buffy: Who is your role model? by an anonymous person and this was my answer:
"Oh, anon, you ask me the hardest questions.
I don’t really have a role model, per se, but I do admire Misha Collins for being such an incredible human being. He’s caring, I mean Random Acts and all the charity work that involves, for one thing. Also that he is very much himself. And I think that is so very important to be comfortable enough to really be yourself around others. And he has a great sense of humour. And all of those traits are important to me.
Also I admire Jennifer Lawrence, for alot of the same reasons as Misha, the being yourself, even though you’re a celebrity-part. But she has also said some pretty amazing things about body image. "You look how you look, you have to be comfortable. What are you going to do? Be hungry every single day to make other people happy? That’s just dumb." And I wholeheartedly share her view on that.
Joss Whedon is also a person I admire alot. His great skill of writing, creating characters that are believable and that you resonate with so strongly. Creating shows and characters that are so important to the world. I mean he’s awesome at writing strong female characters, and male characters that are okay with female strength. And his contribution to Equality Now, his speeches there has been quite amazing. (X) (X) (Yes, I know that in his shows he has worked with a crazy amount of awesome writers, directors and songwriters, and so on, so all the credit shouldn’t go to him alone. And I adore each and every one of the people involved in making Joss’s shows so great. But he does deserve some of the credit too. He was the creator of Buffy, the man with the vision, so I thank him for that, for starters.)
But I mean there are So many awesome people out there, not only celebrities. My family, my friends all have qualities that I love and admire. And there are so many people, known and unknown, who has said some really smart stuff that resonates with me, so yeah. Pretty much Everyone is my role model, in one way or another! We can all learn from each other, but also from ourselves!
"To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself." - Thich Nhat Hanh."

I just wanted to share this here on my blog as well. Just to get some of my views and thoughts and feelings out about things.~
//Lisa.

Midnight thoughts - weekend, ideals and being happy.

Right now I'm at my parents house. In Sweden we celebrate Fathers Day this Sunday, so I decided to go visit my family for the weekend.
I just wanted to share a picture of myself and my cat Tula. (She's my family's cat, so she lives with my parents.) But isn't she just the cutest thing you've ever seen? <3 She was a bit cranky today, though. Kept wagging her tail, even though she clearly wanted me to pet her. Sending me quite mixed signals. I think she's just upset that my sister brought her dogs with her here.

We watched Swedish Idol tonight, and that got me thinking a bit. There's one judge who keeps telling this one girl that she's not an Idol, that she's more of a broadway star or something. That she/he (the judge) is looking for an artist, the whole package. But the thing is, this girl that she/he's complaining about is awesome. She sings beautifully and she's stunning. And tonight she really brought it, great stage presence. And still the judge could only tell her she did 'ok' and that she still isn't Idol material. And it's pissing me off, because the only thing this judge is seeing as a problem with this girl, is her weight.
And that's the issue here, weight. Why do we, in this society, focus so much on how much we weight? On how we look. Isn't it more important that we feel good, that we are healthy and happy? (Yes, you can be happy, healthy and feel good, no matter how big or small your body is.) I mean beauty is such a weird concept. We get this image from the media, an ideal, that is pretty close to impossible to achieve,(hello, everyone's photoshopped) and that one way of looking is the only way to look beautiful, according to magazines and television. Which just makes everyone feel like shit about their appearance. And it's total bullcrap! There are so many ways of being beautiful. And the most beautiful people are the ones who are happy, who are kind. Who are themselves, who are comfortable with themselves.
I know so many people who just never are content with how they look, and it's making me so sad. Because I find these people so beautiful and I just wished they could see how pretty they are. I mean, I've been fighting alot with self-confidence, and all that jazz, my entire life. It's not really until this year that I've honestly started to appreciate how I look. Ever since I stopped trying to figure out what everyone else finds beautiful and try to be that, when I started taking care of myself. Stopped focusing on how I looked. Trying to make myself feel better. Focusing on what I want, and what I like. Everything just falls into place. Don't do things because other people tell you you should. Do things because it's what You want.
And you gotta stop thinking that everyone is judging you. Because most people are too busy judging themselves to have time to even give you a second thought. And just try to have a positive way of thinking. Like attracts like, after all. And stop judging yourself, give yourself a frickin' break. Give yourself a pepptalk instead. Focus on what you like about yourself. Your smile, your eyes, your cooking skills, etc. Give yourself compliments. The only person you need to impress, who's love for you is most important, is yourself. You have the power and skill to change your life however you want it. Do you want to be happy? Great, decide to be happy, and be happy.
And also, what you want in your life, you gotta give. Do you wish that people would hug you more? Well, start giving hugs to people, they'll start hugging you back. Do you want compliments on how you look? Give compliments to others and it'll come back to you sooner or later. You want people to tell you how they feel about you? Start telling them how you feel about them. You see where I'm going with this? yeah, great, try it sometime.

Good night! //Lisa.

Point Pleasant by Jen Archer Wood

First I'll just copy+paste my review from Goodreads:
'The short version: I loved it! :D
Point Pleasant is about a man, Ben Wisehart, a writer who decides to return home, to visit his father and to get to the bottom of the Mothman myth he grew up with. Ben and his best friend Nicholas Nolan saw the beast when they where just kids, so he knows the story to be true. And now there has been alot of reports of sightings of the Mothman. So Ben tries to figure out how to stop this monster and how to save the town from death and destruction. (And I really liked the twist and personal flavor Jen Archer Wood put on the actual Mothman myth.)
It is a horror story, but it's so much more than that. A story about love, rejection, friendship, family, loss and belonging. The portrayal of the characters are amazing, relateable and with alot of depth.
I really enjoyed how Jen handled the love story of the novel. That the relationship had it's ups and downs, felt very real, and was not used as a price at the end of the book. That the story had a great flow, the horror and the romance was mixed togheter nicely and kept my interest piqued at all times.
I'm also really greatful that Jen chose to write about a bisexual protagonist, there are way too few out there at this point. And also that she didn't make a big deal out of it, treated it just like any other protagonist, no matter what sexual orientation.
I definatly see a bright future for Jen Archer Wood, and I'm looking forward to her coming books! Also, a shout out to Svetlana for the amazing artwork, I'm speechless, the pictures she made for the book really captured the essence of the story.
As soon as I finished the book I immediately wanted to return to the Point Pleasant universe. So, Thank you, Jen for creating this beautiful place for us to visit.
"We're Mighty Pleased to Have You."'

I was one of the lucky ones who had the opportunity to read the book before it was published and I really adored that Jen gave us that chance! It's a great read! And I've finaly ordered a signed copy of the book, so I'll probably do a post when I have the actual book in my hands, too. I also ordered the color companion book, which is full of Svetlana's artwork for the story, so I'm really excited about that as well!
Both Jen and Svetlana are such nice people! and they even did a livestream for us Point Pleasant fans. Even though it was like 3 o'clock in the morning, for me, when it started I sat and listened through it all, it was real fun to hear them answer questions from the readers/fans. Even though they had some technical difficulties. They are both real easy to talk to. I mean I've written quite a few emails to Jen just expressing how much I love the story and the characters and she's answered and told her point of view. Like why she decided to remake Ben's sibling as a sister and how important she is, even though you don't get to meet her in the book until the end of the story. I've told her time and again how happy I am with the female representation, they are all very much human, with depth and interesting personalities. (just like the male characters, all characters are equally thought through and well made.) No damsels in distress here, they react to things as any person would do. And I love the sister, Kate Wisehart, being able to call her brother out on his bullshit, when it's needed. Although he is a great guy. But I mean, even in the nicest people some sexist crap can exist. But he is quick to listen and is definatly one of the least sexist character you'll ever encounter, both in real life and fiction.
So to summarize; read the book, it's awesome!
//Lisa.

Dylan Dog: Dead of Night (2010)

Dylan Dog: Dead of Night: (2010)
This movie is about Dylan (Brandon Routh), a retired supernatural private eye, but he get's back into it while investigating the murder of Elizabeth's (Anita Briem) father, which is caused by some supernatural creature. Dylan's bestfriend and go-to-guy is Marcus. (Sam Huntington)
It's based on an Italian horror comic. Where it's set in London, while the movie adaptation is set in New Orleans. I have not read the comic, so I can not compare the two, unfortunatly.
I really liked this movie. Yeah, sure it was kinda comicbook-cheesy in a way, like the acting and just the over all feel of the movie, but that was also the thing that made it what it is. It was funny and interesting.
Marcus was definatly my favorite character, the typical 'sidekick'/comicrelief-guy, but with an interesting storyline. He had some stuff to deal with, which he dealt with in a pretty believable way.
Dylan was quite the broody-superhero-type character. But I liked him, just because he was the hero of the movie, but still was the character with least hope and he was pretty badass and sassy/witty.
But dudes, what about the ladies in this movie? Elizabeth's character was horrible, at first I was sure she was just supposed to be there in the beginning, not having anything to do with the story really, her presence didn't really make sense, I was proven wrong since she had alot to do with the main plot after all. So I suppose that was good of them to 'surprise' you with that. But to get back to my point, she was just bland and you didn't get to know anything about her. But then there was this fight scene in the house, and she seemed to know what the hell she was doing, so that made me happy. (female characters that can take care of themselves, yes, please!) But then a few minutes later she was the damsel in distress saying things like "Dylan, do something!". Lady, he was driving the frickin' car, maybe you could have done something to get the creature off the windshield? However, if I look away from the non-personality and the uncontinuality about the little of her personality we did get to know, she was kinda kickass. And I also hated the part that made her think 'yeah, I'll try to makeout with Dylan every chance possible, especially after he's been talking about his dead ex.' *facepalm* -sigh-. I mean the relationship between Dylan and Marcus would have been more believable as a romance than the 'thing' that happened between Dylan and Elizabeth. But allright, props to Elizabeth to getting to sleep with the very handsome Dylan, can't blame her for that. So good that she knew what she wanted and went for it. But it just felt forced and it did absolutly Nothing to the plot. Marcus reaction to walking in on them, the morning after, could be interpreted like he had more feelings for Dylan than you'd think, non-platonic feelings that is, but that might just be my opinion/wishful thinking.
But back to the horrible representation of women in this movie, the other female character mentioned was Dylans dead ex, and that just pissed me off, everyone kept remembering her but all they remembered her by was her looks. "oh, 'whatever-her-name-was' she was so beautiful". There was absolutly nothing about her personality.
Something I did like was the take on zombies, the community of the undead in the city. It was fun and interesting to get to know about that.
Like I said it was a fun and interesting movie but the feminist in me was upset. But I mean there's alot of movies that are even worse with female representation than this, so considering that, they did quite a good job with Elizabeth, since she actually could kick ass. but nah. But if you take off the feminist goggles while watching this movie, you'll really enjoy it. It was a nice surprise to see both Peter Stormare and Taye Diggs in the movie too! so that's a plus.
Oh, and is it just me, or does Brandon Routh kinda remind you of Ben Barnes? It's probably the chiseled chin and dark eyes, right.? They look like they could be handsome brothers. I would watch that movie, yes! haha.
//Lisa.