Of Community Days and Midsummer

In a few days, it will be Midsummer, also known as the Summer Solstice.  I've already celebrated it within a community of people recently on the 16th.  The 16th was also the Community Day of a local town of which I am a member of their EMS organization.  My hometown also recently had their Community Day.  There is something about summer that makes us celebrate in happiness.  Is it that now we have come to a time of the year in which we can openly celebrate outside without worry of the cold?  Maybe all this sunlight banishes all the cabin fever some of us are likely to experience.  I know a lot of school kids celebrate with almost religious fever one thing this time of year.  School is out for the summer.

When I was younger, I used to hate the summer.  I prefered the winter, being myself a winter child.  I never felt cheated having my birthday in winter either.  I just saw it as getting presents two days in rapid succession, the 13th of December on my birthday and the 25th on Christmas (and yes, I am quite aware that my birthday is technically in the fall, but I always felt more associated with winter).  I also got to see my friends, whom, during the summer, were to busy with vacations and hanging out with kids who were, let's face it, much cooler than I.  Summer was also the time of year that my archnemesis came out, the bees and wasps!  Yes, I am a apiphobic or a melissophobic, depending on what term you are more familiar with, since they are basically the same.

However, as I grew older, and I embraced my connections with the natural world, I grew more appreciative of the summer.  I also noticed that embracing the summer also lead me to embrace a more open and friendly me.  I was always friendly, mind you, but I was always closed off, philosophical, and withdrawn in my thoughts to fully know others unless they broke through my defenses.  So, much like embracing the summertime, I embraced my "shadow of light" who was a more outgoing version of myself. 

Although I am still scared shitless of bees and wasps... oh well... one thing at a time I guess.  At least after a small life-changing experience, I don't run in fear anymore, just a brisk walk in the opposite direction lol :P

Snow White and the Huntsman, and living in the Boonies

I am basically doing nothing but sit down and watch nothing but Kitchen Nightmares and Doctor Who later, and a Wal-Mart trip, ooooooooooooooooooooh so exciting.  But this what happens when one lives kind of in the boonies.  Most of my friends don't live near me, so I make do with the internet, Facebook being a major help, when it's not giving me grief on logging in with my Android.  I mean, what business does some random bloke in Illinois want with hacking my profile?

So yesterday, I hung out with my friend Kellie and we decided to watch Snow White and the Huntsman.  I feel a bit odd going into this, having already watch both Brad Jones and Noah Antwiler (The Cinema Snob and Spoony respectively) give their takes on the movie.  She wanted to see it for a while, and I just wanted to see Chris Hemsworth, my new favorite Australian actor.  I didn't think it was too bad a movie, at least I now have evidence that Kristen Stewart actually can act, well sort of.  My chief complaint is that it feels like we're watching a movie with ADHD, going from location to event on a whim it seems.  I make the comparison to other Fantasy/Adventure movies like Lord of the Rings.  In LOTR, they do go to many locales, but each locale had a purpose and a personality and history to it.  You could feel attachment to Rivendell and to Minas Tirath, and revile places like Mordor, and celebrate Helm's Deep, and feel loss with Moria.  Here in Snow White Land, not so much.  I mean, there's the Dark Forest, and then suddenly a Fairy Forest, and then just regular every day forest, and forest in winter.  I made the riff that they were just walking in circles in the same forest when Snow White makes mention about being somewhere before.  What can I say that those two luminaries of reviewing and comedy gold haven't said, besides making 101 Dream Lord jokes about the one dwarf, since he played the Dream Lord on the Doctor Who episode Amy's Choice.

To Whom this may Concern:

Welcome to my place where I shall post my musings, thoughts, commentaries, poems, etc.  Before I begin the obligatory first post, I am going to admit that I am going to break the first cardinal rule of blogging, which is post on a regular schedule.  This I will not do.  I will post when I freaking feel like it!  However, I promise at least a post a week or something.

Anyway, let me introduce myself.  I am Kyle.  I live in the New Jersey side of the Lehigh Valley (which is basically only Warren County).  I love to travel, especially to interesting locales and such.  I am a Zelda Fanatic and a total Whovian.  I always like to write, and I haven't in a while, and I'm hoping this will get me back into writing.  I have four cats, and I'm a cat guy, I just find them adorable.  I would say I'm a Spiritual guy, but I tend not to make a big deal out of it.  I tend to a pretty closed book when it comes to my emotions.  Sometimes that and my shyness are my biggest detriments.  I do gaming videos on my youtube channel (GrapeFruitAwen).  It's named as such because Grapefruit was a nickname I had once, and Awen is a Celtic term for poetic inspiration.  I'm also going to start posting videos there as well, since there are currently none.  I love decorating things, and if I took the time to clean a bit in my room, I would have more things decorated.  A meeting point of home decorating and traveling means that I have quite a few maps.  I have a pretty nice globe, a globe of the moon, a reproduction of a world map dating back to the 1600's, a more modern map, and a map of the first world of Dragon Warrior III (because it is basically our world, and it's also one of my favorite video games).

That's me in a nutshell...