You can’t let opportunities pass you by. I know it seems cliché, but it’s true. When a great opportunity comes, you can’t just say, ‘oh, I’m too busy, maybe next time.’ Because ‘next time’ may not happen! There may not be a next time!
You gotta grab life by the metaphorical balls, and not waste it. You don’t want the world to leave you behind. For instance, if you see a chance to do what you love on a large-scale, for money, why in the hell would you pass it up?
Maybe you don’t think you’re ready. Get ready!
Maybe you don’t have the money. Sell some shit!
Maybe you don’t have the time. Quit your day job!
Life doesn’t give you second chances. You were lucky enough to get the opportunity the first time, why in the hell would you throw that away!?
And that’s sums up a recent episode of Littlest Pet Shop, where Blythe refuses to let the International Pet Fashion Expo pass her by! Wait, how is that a thing!? Continue reading →
Often times, determining why this is can be difficult. And sadly, during the past four months, it wasn’t covered in my Intro to Psychology class. There was never a week during which we did a psychological analysis on an asshole. Which makes me feel a bit disappointed.
The best explanation I can come up with utilizes Maslow’s Hierarchy of Motivation. It starts with basic physiological needs (water, food, sex); then moves onto the need for a safe environment; before social needs; then personal self-worth; and finally, ‘self-actualization,’ which basically means being Buddha or something.
Basically, these needs fuel a given individual’s actions, and are ranked according to priority. You need to have food and water, before you’ll start worrying about personal safety; and you need to have personal safety, before you concern yourself with human companionship.
And since being an asshole does not generally have a positive impact on one’s social life, the only possible reasoning I can think of to explain assholish behavior is out of physical necessity, or outright fear. Fear that they’ll lose, fear that they’ll get hurt, possibly even fear that people will find out how fearful they really are.
Not that this excuses them. They’re still jerks. But it does help you do one thing: combat them. With a bit of knowledge, it can be quite easy to take these asshats down a few pegs.
Which brings us to a recent episode of Littlest Pet Shop, featuring two different breeds of the same kind of asshole. The arrogant bully, and the scared bully. See if you can figure out which is which. Continue reading →
I find that a bit bizarre. These shows are directed toward children. Can’t we just have one light-hearted episode that was just a pointless adventure where the characters get lost in a museum or something?
I’m starting to get mixed feelings about Littlest Pet Shop. On one hand, we have recent episodes about skepticism, and social commentary. On the other, these same episodes can be summed up by saying: “People are shit.” Which isn’t a very positive message.
I kinda wish they didn’t need to give this message, but they kinda do. Kids grow up with this idea that everything in the world is sunshine and rainbows, and that just isn’t true. The world is very much imperfect, and there are a lot of assholes out there. But the good news is, they are in the minority. Most people are good people, with intelligence, and integrity. But it’s too easy to focus on the negative. On the con artists, the idiots, and the straight-up liars. But it’s important to know these people exist, so you can avoid them, and combat them.
Which is why I’m glad they recently covered another type of asshole on Littlest Pet Shop: The thieves and the fraudsters. Continue reading →
The thing about the internet is that it’s stupid. The stupid things get popular, and the really interesting or fantastic things don’t.
What do you think is most likely to go viral? A video of a science lecture on the origins of the universe? A news story about a man saving a child from a burning building? Or a picture of a cat with a misspelled caption on it?
I got news for you, it won’t be the first two. And that makes me sad.
But it’s the nature of humanity, we find the dumbest things funny, so we keep coming back to them. So what do you do? Well, you exploit it of course.
That’s how most websites operate. They exploit some lowest common denominator, and earn millions off it. Whether it be funny top ten lists, videos of idiots talking about bullshit to no one or stories about people being stupid. And the fact is, they’re all pointless. They’re just wastes of time that produce no economic, political, or artistic value. Except for the Business Cat thing, that’s just adorable.
Heehee! He thinks he’s people!
Which brings me to the concept of memes, which is from the Greek meaning ‘joke overused to the point of meaninglessness.’
Memes are nice in small doses, but I find all too often they get thrown into internet conversations while missing the original context. So it’s just shitty pencil drawing someone threw in for no reason. Which is why I hate memes. They’re not funny, they’re just annoying.
But when a new one pops up, it can be halfway amusing for a few minutes. Then the point comes crashing down. It’s the 15 minutes of fame scenario. Unfortunately, for some people, those 15 minutes can be the scariest 15 minutes of their lives.
Which brings me to a recent episode of Littlest Pet Shop. See how everything ties together? Continue reading →
It’s kinda interesting how television works. We have a cast of characters we stick with, and can follow over time, as they develop and evolve in a slow and methodical manner.
Very few other mediums do this. Films are quite stand alone, we follow our characters for two hours, then never see them again. Or we get to see them for another two hours, and then maybe another two hours after that.
Books often times act like films in the same capacity, featuring standalone adventures, and a second one if they’re lucky. Of course there is the exception of proper series which could last for dozens of books, and often act like TV shows in that sense.
So I find that an interesting aspect of television. Where we meet the characters, learn about them, and sorta get used to them. So, if the show decides to dramatically change the setting for a single episode; like, say, 100 years into the past for a series of flashbacks; it can be a bit jarring, since we’re introduced to a whole new set of characters we’ve never seen before.
So, because of this, the writers often create duplicates. They keep characters we’re familiar with, and just transplant them into this new setting.
There’s even one film series that couldn’t avoid it: Back to the Future! You see, in Parts II and III we meet characters in 2015 and 1885 who are played by the same actors who played 1955 characters in the original film. Now they are, obviously, completely different characters, but they fit similar archetypes, and have similar roles in the plot. For instance, Thomas F. Wilson plays Biff, Griff and Buford Tannen, and all three characters are major antagonists at different points in history. During the films Marty also gets the chance to meet his son, daughter, and one of his ancestors, all played by him. That’s right, I did say ‘daughter.’
It’s a lot less jarring to see faces we’re somewhat familiar with, rather than a completely new cast. And it’s easy to get a sense of what their roles are when their faces are so familiar.
Sliders also did this. The show took place in a new universe every week, but it wasn’t uncommon to see the background cast and guest stars to be composed of familiar faces. Duplicates of characters we’ve seen before, or even duplicates of the main cast. But it’s used with a slightly different purpose, either using a case of mistaken identity for dramatic effect, or throwing us for a loop by having the duplicate of one of our heroes be the episode’s primary antagonist.
I kinda like this trope, it’s interesting seeing the characters we love in a different setting. See how a different environment would change them, even if they’re not technically the same characters.
Which brings me to a recent episode of Littlest Pet Shop, involving a treasure hunt, and flashbacks to the American frontier. This is gonna be fun! Continue reading →
There’s no such thing as psychics. If I really needed to tell you that, you’re an idiot.
I’m sorry, there’s no other way to put it. No one has psychic powers. No one! If they did, we’d have evidence of it.
If psychics did exist, and weren’t just liars and con artists, it would be extremely easy for them to prove it.
Take Harry Houdini for example, a magician and escape artist who spent his later years debunking psychics. Before he died, he gave his wife a secret password. And after he died, she went to dozens of psychics who supposedly contacted the late Mr. Houdini. None of them provided the password.
No one has been able to get past the first round of testing.
Now, some may argue that the psychics don’t have to prove anything. And that is true. But why wouldn’t they? They don’t want the attention? Well considering several of them have million dollar book deals or national television contracts, I highly doubt that.
Besides, I have a very good reason why they should. Actually, I have several. Pick any major disaster in the past decade. How many lives could we have saved if we were warned in advance?
Now some would argue that they would have warned us, but we wouldn’t have believed them. All the more reason to prove you have powers to begin with, isn’t it? You prove you have powers, then, when you warn us a tsunami’s about to hit Japan, we actually take you seriously!
So either they’re lying, or they are willing to let people die. Neither of which is good!
This is why I think those who claim to be psychics are the worst people in the world. Either because they have powers and won’t use them to save lives, or don’t and are pulling shit like this:
That’s terrible. And it should anger everyone. Especially real psychics!
Oh, right, that was a joke, but I kind of like that idea. Because if a real psychic did exist, they could probably use their powers to debunk the fakes. Even if they never proved that they had powers, and kept them secret, they could use their powers to prove others didn’t have powers.
Take for instance, a fake pet psychic going up against fashion-designer and female Doctor Dolittle, Blythe Baxter.
That’s right, it’s another Littlest Pet Shop! Are you surprised!? Continue reading →
One of the biggest concerns I had when I started watching Littlest Pet Shop involved the character of Sunil.
Sunil, for those who forget, is a mongoose. And mongooses, specifically the Indian gray mongoose, which might come in a blue variety, are well-known for their ability to kill snakes, particularly cobras. This is because of their immunity to most snake venoms, their agility, and their thick coats.
However, in the wild, they don’t generally go after cobras. Snakes are a part of their diet, but not specifically cobras. It is a common misconception however, so the fact that Sunil hates cobras is fine by me in that respect.
That being said, this plot point always bothered me because it kinda feels a bit racist in this context. In a world where all animals are sentient, having one animal hate an entire species is problematic. Would they ever portray this on-screen?
Would they ever feature an episode where a friendly cobra ends up in the day camp, and everyone likes him, but Sunil is a racist jackass?
Well this week, they did have the opportunity to bring it up, but danced around it a bit, and seemed to have avoided this issue without anyone acknowledging it as an issue. Continue reading →
No Prestige 