Music | My most-listened-to-songs as of right now

I thought I would indulge everyone by introducing you to some of the tracks I'm  listening to, usually when I'm busy with uni work, applying for volunteer work or when I'm having a jogging sesh on the running machine.... 

 Sia - Elastic Heart feat. Shia LaBeouf & Maddie Ziegler (Official Video) SiaVEVO

In spite of the strange music video starring actor Shia Labeouf and quirky interpretive child-dancer Maddie Ziegler, I really do love this song. 

I often find that I've listened to it on repeat for maybe, err, two hours? Much to the annoyance of anyone within my vicinity...

The powerful vocals often soar to dizzying heights and overall I think it a great modern power ballad that oozes gusto and bounce! 

Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair Avi Kaplan & Peter Hollens AviKaplan

You may recognize Avi Kaplin as the basso profondo singer from the prolific group Pentatonix. Well, in this rendition of an old folk song, you'll be happy to know that his voice reaches an all time low... in a good way! The low bass vocals gave me chills 

I am a huge fan of folks song being revised and adapted using technology and new vocal techniques, and this one gets a thumbs up from me. 

         Jess Glynne - Hold My Hand [Official Video]

I really loved Clean Bandit's catchy tune "Rather be" (in which Jess Glynne was a featured artist.) Now, the young brit has reached number one with the her first solo hit!

The redheaded siren's soulful, honest voice is the perfect polish for this pop number! Here's hoping we here much more from this lass in the future!

Personal/Serious | The Choice to be Childfree

Google images: Parenthood to me is just another version of keeping up with the Jones' and I can't buy into it.

Throughout a large chunk of history, a woman's main civic duty was to

A.) give birth and 
B.) raise a family

Even today, 20-something's are often viewed skeptically if they have the pluck to say; 

"I'm not sure if I even want kids, like, ever." 

As a young woman myself, I have experienced my fair share of odd glances for stating my preference to remain child-free. 
I've been told by men and women that my "biological clock will start ticking" or that "I'll change my mind" at some point. 

I really wish I had consulted the all-seeing knowledge of these people sooner. They clearly have such easy access to my inner thoughts, they may as well be fortune-tellers. I wish I could predict a person's future with such accuracy...

I digress. Seriously, I've met pretty much complete strangers who have inquired about whether I was going to give birth any time soon. 

Hmm. So from personal experience, I'd say that women are still expected to want babies while they are "young." 

More often than not though, having children inevitably means sacrificing autonomy, carefree independence and a massive amount of money...speaking of which. 
Despite going to university and accumulating student debt, my parents have also casual mentioned the idea of starting a family recently. 
Despite, you know, being a penniless student. It's probably an innocent enough question, but still. 

Anyhow. 
Thanks to the intervention of that pesky feminist movement a couple 'o' decades back, freedom of choice is a thing that a lot of women now greatly appreciate. 

Granting women access to the vote, the public workplace and higher education was a tremendous step in the right direction, to be sure. 
But for some reason, people as a whole can't seem to shake off the idea that all women are "potential mothers," first and foremost. 

Just so that there are no hurt feelings, I'll type the following out in caps.

>>THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH WOMEN WANTING TO HAVE CHILDREN. IF THAT IS WHAT SAID WOMAN AND SAID WOMAN'S PARTNER WANTS, THEN THAT IS FINE.<< 

However, I am definitely under the impression that lots of girls may end up having children simply because they feel that "its just what a women is supposed to do." Or they are unsure about what they want, so they end up having children and regretting it later. 
It's not a crime for a woman to say, "I know I f*cked up. I love my kids, but deep down I know that I'm really not built to be a mother."

Look, I actually don't mind kids myself. Really. Children can make me laugh. They can be endearing, funny, loving and surprisingly insightful ... Sometimes.

They can also be loud, rude, spiteful, bickering little toe-rags that drink up your life essence like mini Count Dracula's. (FYI, I've traveled on public transport enough to know what I'm talking about folks).

I wholeheartedly believe that the so-called "best parents in the world" will go through the tedious experience of dragging their bawling child wildly through the middle of a super market at least once. 

And I haven't even mentioned the teenage years yet. I won't go there, I swear I'll start having PTSD flashbacks. 


So I guess if I could say anything it would be this. Ladies, you have a choice. You don't need to have children to be a happy, fulfilled and well-rounded person. We live in a overpopulated world that really, lets face it guys, doesn't require any more people anyway. So it's no big deal. 

Video games | Five Nights at Freddy's, the movie?

Google Images: Will it work? Probably not. 

I just found out about this. Personally, I think the film will just be a series of jump scares every five minutes. 
I'm skeptical as to how this would work as a movie. Lots of people are saying that FNAF didn't focus specifically on mechanics, instead focusing on claustrophobic atmosphere, looming tension and jump scares, things which they argue can easily be adapted to a movie.There are loooads of fan theories floating around about the games "hidden" story, which is uncovered subtly and gradually over the course of the three games. Hopefully the film could expand upon these theories and cement the lore into already interested fans whilst simultaneously piquing the interest of newbies. 

Speaking for myself, I think that the story in these games is so cryptic and simplistic that it doesn't at all lend itself to being a full length movie. From what I've seen online, the joy and the payoff of the video game is mostly in the endless internet theorizing. If 

FNAF were told to you in a linear fashion, it risks sucking the fun right out of the game.

People do love to play it on Youtube and I guess watching people jump is more entertaining than the games are themselves.

But one thing is for sure. The large, cultish fanbase invests a LOT of time in producing fanfiction, artwork and narratives about the animatronics, even going so far as to "ship" the critters. 
So this film will be a big deal, regardless of whether the film is good or not. 
Hopefully, Roy Lee, Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg will produce an adaptation worthy of note.

LGBT | Gays and Lesbians in video games (bit of a rant!)

Google Images: The world would implode! Or not. 

Looking through this massive list of LGBT characters represented in video games makes me happy to say the least. It's great that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are getting their screen-time, especially on a medium as popular as video gaming.

However, I still find that I have a bone to pick when it comes to the representation of these groups.

LGBT characters first began appearing in the 1980's. Ever heard of Birdo? 
He was arguably one of the first (it was certainly Nintendo's first) trangender creation, though there has been a lot of confusion surround the character's gender identity.

Of course, Birdo is bright pink in color with fabulously long eyelashes, wearing a cute red bow on his head. The shocker was Birdo was biologically male. 
He just looked and dressed like a "female." 
But why was Birdo made to look like this exactly? 
Obviously, not all girls like pink and those who do identify as feminine do NOT necessarily have to be super pretty-looking, wearing bows in their hair and possessing massive eyelashes. I assume this representation was popular because back in the 80's, people probably viewed gender as binary, strictly male (strong, male, blue etc) and female (dainty, female, pink etc). Since Birdo behaved and dressed up like a stereotypical female, he was depicted as a "girl" in the gaudiest sense of the word, maybe to avoid confusing the audience too much..?

But as I'm sure you know, sex and gender expression are two very different things. 

Sex is your assigned biological genetic trait, either you have testes or ovaries. But gender expression is a much more complicated issue than biological sex. Gender expression is often molded by the multitude of social and cultural pressures surrounding gender roles, therefore gender expression runs along a spectrum. For example, a gay man can be a muscular, strong gym-bunny and he could also be completely obsessed with his pet cats and floral knitwear designs. A lesbian doesn't necessarily have to be "butch"; she can still wear dresses and make-up whenever she pleases. All these traits don't have to be fixed. Gender expression can certainly fluctuate. People may not identify as any gender at all!

Yet people still often conflate gender and sex. Traditionally, if you were born with a penis, you are masculine, like girls and therefore wear blue trousers and like football. If you were born with a vagina, you are feminine, like boys, wear pink, flowery dresses and play with tea sets. End of discussion.

Birdo (called Ostro in the first edition manual of Super Mario Bros 2, presumably by mistake) is allegedly a biological male, yet since he'd rather be a girl, he has this wholly "hyper girly" appearance. Though this was a bold statement at the time and a (very) wobbly step in the right direction, this depiction also continued to strengthen the idea that stereotypically feminine identities are strictly pink, pretty, dainty and cutesy. The trangender character Poison from Final Fight and Street Fighter also has bright pink hair, purple accessories and a hyper feminine appearance too.

Birdo and Poison's depiction ultimately entrenches the idea that a male to female transgenders will switch into a highly stereotypical example of a "female", an oversimplification of gender expressionism that leads to the more nuanced subtleties of gender formation getting brushed aside, or ignored entirely. And I haven't even got started on the more problematic stuff.

But what I find most problematic about these types of characters is that, instead of being revolutionary, this gender confusion was used solely to comic effect. 
You know, har de har, that man thinks he's a women LOL LMAO ROFL. 

Stock photo: Mass Effect 3 where things got steamy...

Admittedly, there has been some change over the years. Games such a Fallout 2, Elder Scrolls: Skyrim and Mass Effect 3 give players the opportunity to choose either a male or female character, with which they can pursue an LGTB relationship over the course of the story. This is certainly a good thing, since the inclusion of previously ignored minorities opens the gaming doorway to real communities of people. 

I am a huge LGTB supporter myself and I find that being gay, lesbian, trans or bi has been the central, defining trait of LGTB characters for too long, rather than just a single part of their persona.

The first characters that spring to my mind when I think of very well-rounded LGTB characters are Ellie and Riley from Naughty Dog's The Last of Us.

Stock Photo: Riley and Ellie are young, but their emotions are portrayed as genuine; a real step forward.

The unique portrayal of their LGTB status was quite honestly, outstanding. Ellie's relationship with her best friend Riley is particularly touching, as demonstrated in the DLC content The Last of Us: Left Behind.
The constant camaraderie, with the dancing scene followed by the quick, awkward, passionate teenage kiss, forms a solid platform which other gaming developers can spring from.  
They are by far my favorite depictions of LGTB characters to date. 
Ellie and Riley are not portrayed as simple stereotypes or silly cameos and their identities are not left vague or confusing to the viewer. 
They have stand-out personalities that jump out of the screen and strike you as real. 

But there are still problems the gaming world faces today. 
In the real world, deviating from the heterosexual norm can sometimes be nothing less than social suicide, even in 2015. LGTB individuals (or more accurately, people who have defied their cultural gender norms) have historically been depicted as "weird, unnatural" misfits. 
Stigma is very hard to shake off, which is probably why a homosexual, transsexual or gender deviant character hasn't quite stood out in the gaming spotlight as a protagonist. 

As well as the actual games themselves, the very people playing them can cause huge problems for LGTB people.

For example, Call of Duty players have a bad rep for being blatantly homophobic online, with words like "faggot" getting thrown around very, VERY often. But the truth is, most online players use "gay" and other derogatory words associated with homosexuality to insult each other, even if it is meant to be playful. It is becoming a part of the regular lexicon. 
Harassment is sadly commonplace, especially if a gamer admits to being homosexual. Women and girls experience negativity too. 
"Get back in the kitchen, c*nt" is an expression heard too often by female gamers. I should know. 

Hopefully the gaming community will only continue to challenge gender roles and stereotypes, developing LGBT characters that will be believable, relateable, well written and lovable, just as any straight character is made to be.