Any posts prior to 01/01/2021 now have the incorrect URL for my Instagram. This account was disabled and is now inaccessible to me. I'm looking for a way to try and take it down entirely, but for now, please don't follow it. Instead, follow my new account:
Just a young turtle, hatching out of her shell.
Friday, March 5, 2021
Thursday, March 4, 2021
Movie Review: Float
A 7-min animated short, Float was released on November 12, 2019. It has been available on Disney+ since its launch on the very same day and is listed as a Pixar Sparkshort. But it was released to Pixar's Youtube on February 26, 2021, making it available to the general public. It was directed and written by Bobby Rubio with the music composed by Barney Jones. The description reads, "A father discovers that his son is different from other kids in the most unusual way. To keep them both safe from judgment, Dad covers him and keeps him out of sight." Rubio based it heavily off of the interactions between him and his own autistic son and the short is said to be a metaphor for this.
Float introduces us to our father/son pairing, a loving duo innocently playing in their yard. All of a sudden, the son starts floating. The higher he goes, the happier he gets, but the more worried his father is. A few people see this, and immediately run and back away. The father realizes his son isn't normal and quickly grows scared of how other people would react.
Like any loving parent would, he tries to protect his son from possible criticisms. But as time goes on, it becomes clearer that his son's abnormality isn't just a way he expresses himself, it's a critical part of him. With it impossible to hide, the father winds up hiding his son away from the world, driving himself insane with other's opinions.
Skip forward a few years and they've both grown quite a bit. You can now see the stress of the situation embedded into the father's gritty appearance. The two go out, with the son on a leash and rocks in his backpack. The father's anxiety levels spike up at the smallest things. But for a moment, he looks off at the other kids in the playground longingly. While he was wishing he could take his kid inside, the son runs off.
What follows is a series of chaotic events when the father hunts down his floating kid. While he drags him out, the kid is screaming. All he wants is to play and have fun freely. He doesn't see the situation the way dad does and instead feels restricted. The father snaps and yells at him, "Why can't you just be normal?"
This is where I started crying. The young boy relents and puts on his hood. He gives up any happiness to be "normal." The father realizes what he'd done, and almost immediately tries to push the boy to embrace himself. His smile returns and all is well.
Like I said at the start, this is a metaphor for autism. Autistic kids are too often held to the standards of neurotypical kids when that simply isn't right. You don't take a paralytic and then call them weak because they can't play sports like an able-bodied person. The paralytic is strong in their own way, a way that we might miss if we're too busy making them feel bad for something they cannot control. The same applies to kids with autism. They could wield some of the most intelligent, most creative, most critical thinking minds in the world--but because they process things differently, adults will spend years trying to rewire them.
This is my second post talking about autism, but I myself am not actually autistic and I urge you to find the channels and pages of autistic people such as Paige Layle and Chloe Hayden/Princess Aspien for more personal accounts and go to organizations such as the National Autism Association for more information.
Inspiration: Float
Wednesday, March 3, 2021
Poem Prompt: Giants
Giants sleeping underneath.
Henna's voice tells you to retreat.
Keep it hush-hush, watch your feet.
Tread carefully around the kings.
Their synapses fie and twinkle,
bursting sky brinks and they sprinkle.
La grendeza, the brightest stars--
si los enfadas, no los puedes parar.
Moving so fast, shattering time.
Scoffin' at you and your damaged spine.
Queen of rings in the limelight
spins upon your cursed night.
Going brr, looks deep in your eye,
'Kali warns you of her battle tribe:
멈추진 않아 if you've tried it.
날카로운 날로 뭐든 베어, this is final.
Each tail spirals, damage reclines.
They've finessed life, fight on an incline.
Homie, fear the struggle of rewind.
They're rounding right back,
don't ever try to size up their pack.
They're living up, bigger than average.
While Yasuo's stunting, one man is damage.
Sleeping on giants is a punishment pact.
~~~
Inspiration: Giants
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
Butterfly Effect
The butterfly effect. As per request on Twitter(yes, I am taking any responses). It has been a hot minute since I've heard this phrase. For anyone who needs the reminder, as per Google's definition, "the phenomenon whereby a minute localized change in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere." In shorter terms, everything matters equally. You may think that you're just dropping a can in a lake. But then an animal mistakes it for food and eats it, this throws off the lake's ecosystem, and eventually, everything there dies. While you didn't directly cause the death of the lake, you aided in the series of events that did. It makes you think about everything really, you wind up weighing all of your actions with equal opportunities to cause damage. And I feel like applying that concept to human nature can be eye-opening.
Creation is a funny thing, in that nothing just happens. Everything has a reason. Everything that happens has its own place in the timespan of everything with a series of events that lead up to it. Acknowledging that even the most minuscule actions could have such a large effect on how a living being turns out could really help our world. Especially humans. Sometimes, yes, it is a birth disorder that's affecting how they view the world. But way too often, it's because someone refused to think their actions could have any lasting consequences. This goes for both positive and negative outcomes. A random smile or compliment really can have a greater effect than you could even comprehend. Cleaning up a bit, focusing on yourself a little, offering a few words of encouragement. You can do so much for the world around you in just a few minutes. Will you notice immediately? Most of the time, no.
Also, science has been using this concept to cure and help people. As we learn about the human body and mind, we learn more about what causes things. Preventing these causes help prevent diseases, ailment, etc. We're discovering more about the mind and what causes mental illness. We can help to stop people from driving others to these conditions and also help to therapy someone back to health. When we know what is hurting a person, we can target it to help them.
This science extends to criminals. For decades, we've been studying what goes on in a violent criminal's mind. The goal is to see if we can find what triggers this to possibly prevent and/or remedy it. We'll see if we can set up a branch of mental care for them or if they need to be monitored from childhood. Maybe something happened in their lives that cause them to snap. Or maybe it's just something that people are born with.
Placing so much emphasis on the cause is important because it gives you a place to start. You have a target for treatment and a target for prevention. And targets, especially when improving the world, make the efforts a million times better. And, eventually, could make the world a million times better.
~~~
I'm experimenting with a new format a little bit. I liked how eye-catching the posts for Black History Month were, so I'll try to add more color to all of my posts. If you like follow me on any of my active social media, follow, and share it around!
Monday, March 1, 2021
Black History Month - Ending Statement 3/1/21
This Black History Month truly has been my best one yet. Personally and in my environment. I've spent so much time looking up people I had never heard of before, learning bits and pieces of history never spoken on before--I feel enlightened a bit. Also, this was my first time being relatively active on social media during this time. It was so nice seeing all the posts, links, stories, just random "reminder that you're a black queen!" posts. It was really great.
Now, Black History Month 2021 is over. My month-long blog showcase is now over.
While I won't be posting any more black heroes for a while, that doesn't mean they become any less important. Just because I don't post about them doesn't mean they aren't important. I'll do another post eventually with more black heroes.
To any readers out there, I want you to stay learning about and supporting minorities everywhere in their fight for equal rights, equal representation--equal everything. The goal is equality.
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