Fantasy, Fun for all

One very under-appreciated form of entertainment comes in the form of fantasy and sci-fi shows.  Many of them are written off as for "geeks," while other people scoff at the low-budget special effects.  But I, in turn, scorn at those who are anti-sci-fi.  We get some of the best characters in all of fiction from the fantasy world.  Harry Potter, Buffy Summers, and Frodo Baggins have shaped my upbringing; so to write off fantasy television shows seems silly to me.

I guess I'll start first with the example of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  First of all, Buffy totally kicks butt and has super funny catch phrases.  The plot is extremely engaging as well.  I relished the seven seasons until the last episode.  One of the biggest criticisms of Buffy is that the special effects are horrible.  Okay, this is completely true, but keep in mind this was in the late '90s to early 2000s, and technology for this kind of thing was not that advanced.  Also, Joss Whedon, the AMAZING producer of this show had a pretty small budget to work with (especially compared to his most recent film, The Avengers).  Buffy may have lame special effects, but that's part of what makes it so great.  When a vampire comes out looking like a disformed, yellow-eyed freak, you can't help but giggle a little bit.  Having really funny- looking monsters adds a comedic element that would be lost if they were actually fearsome.  My personal favorites are the werewolves that look something like evil clowns in gorilla costumes.  My favorite episode of Buffy is when a monster comes to town that makes everyone sing and dance their feelings.  The downside to this is when you get too into the music, you spontaneously combust.  Buffy is really funny but also in the fantasy genre, so it takes on some serious topics.  It has a great balance of drama and comedy and is one of my favorite shows.

One of my other favorite shows is a rather new one called Once Upon A Time.  It is made by the same people who made Lost.  If you've never heard of Lost, you probably live in a hole because I'd guess that it's one of the three most popular fantasy TV shows, the others being Star Trek and The X Files.  If you've ever seen Lost, you know that there are a lot of twists and turns, and the exact same is true with Once Upon A Time.  The premise of the show is that all of the characters used to live in one world where they were all characters from our fairytales.  Everyone existed from Snow White and her Prince Charming to Jiminy Cricket and Pinocchio.  One day, an evil queen cast a spell that sent everyone in the fairytale world to our world.  Now everyone there is stuck in a town called Storybrooke, Maine.  Only one little boy who is adopted knows the truth.  He finds his birth mother and tries to convince her and everyone else in the town that they are really under the queen's spell.  To many, this may seem a bit childish, but I find how the past and the present, the real and the unreal are weaved together to be fascinating.  Again because it has a TV budget, the special effects aren't very good, but I really don't think you need them.

I absolutely love sci-fi and fantasy television shows.  I acknowledge that I'm a bit of an oddball, but there's something about them that keeps drawing me back.

Delighting in Dogs

This week I choose to talk about a much simpler form of pleasure.  This would be the pleasure of pets, or more specifically, puppies.

I've always liked dogs, but my love of them has developed more recently in the past couple of years.  At the beginning of my sophomore year, my older brother, David, who lives in town took in a stray dog to see if he could become responsible enough to take care of it.  I'm not even kidding, he wanted to prove to himself that he could take care of a dog.  Keep in mind this boy has a pretty severe ADD, so he can either be extremely set on something or become very easily distracted.  Thankfully for his new dog, he took the task of training her very seriously.  Tommy (it was the name she responded to, so it stuck) quickly became one of the best behaved dogs I had ever met.

Soon, my mom and I fell in love.  Tommy was just such a GOOD dog.  She didn't need a leash to stay by your side when you walked her and she loved a good belly rub.  We looked forward to the times when my brother would have to leave her at our house for the weekend.  We got to pretend we had a dog for a couple of days.  We felt spoiled.

When my brother decided to pack up and move him and Tommy to Portland the following August (about a year after getting Tommy) we were obviously very sad.  I had never really lived without my brother, so it was a hard adjustment.  But I'm not going to lie, it was a lot harder to get used to the fact that I didn't have a dog any more.  It was a luxury that I wasn't done enjoying.

So a little over a year ago, I convinced my mom to adopt a dog from the humane society.  We ended up getting a really cute puppy of unknown origins.  Although she does have an unfortunate preference for eating mail, our new dog, whom we named Rosie, was just what I needed.  She's a great snuggler and she loves to play.  She's really cute and always wants to be with me.  She's the perfect size (a modest thirty pounds).  Her ears are too big for her head and flop around when she walks.  She's wonderful.

So what could make me happier than my new puppy?

The answer to this question is two puppies.  Okay, not puppies exactly, but my brother decided to move back to C-U in April of that same year and he brought Tommy back with him.  Now, every so often I get the pleasure of having both dogs with me at once.  I have two dogs to play with and two dogs to snuggle with.  I honestly couldn't imagine anything better.

I don't know what I would do without the unconditional love of my dogs.  They make me feel awesome!  Plus their really cute.  I hope that one day, all of you will have a similar experience.

Here are a couple of pictures so you can appreciate the cuteness: