The Dark Knight

Last evening I witnessed possibly the greatest movie ever made to this date: The Dark Knight.

For those of you who do not know the story of Batman, here is a short and quick refresher. The Batman Saga begins, of course, with a young boy, Bruce Wayne, who becomes deathly afraid of bats after falling into the entrance of a bat cave as a small child. After asking his parents to leave in the middle of an opera performance one night, Bruce feels guilty, as his parents were both shot and killed outside the theater on their way home.
As he grows older, Bruce begins to deal with the pain and suffering by studying to become a ninja in the League of Shadows. Finding out later that this would not suit his needs, Bruce returns to his city of Gotham to try to save it from its terrible destiny. Boy, was he in over his head...

This second movie, The Dark Knight, which continues the story, focuses on the joined forces of Batman, James Gordon, and Harvey Dent, as they try to stop the psychotic bank robber, The Joker (Played by Heath Ledger).
Now this character, The Joker, is the one I'd like to comment about. First, Heath Ledger, congratulations. That was possibly the best acting I've ever seen. All I can say, though, Heath, is wow. Seriously, I will need to see this movie many more times before I can comment more, because as of now, I am just in shock.
Second, I felt myself strangely drawn to The Joker. Although he was psychotic and out there to kill, many of his beliefs I found to be true. For example, when The Joker comments about government and order.

Introduce a little anarchy... Upset the established order... Well then everyone loses their minds!

Finally, The Joker is the most clever villain I have ever heard of. His extremely wreckless ways drive the viewer almost into insanity as they watch The Joker come up with one incredible scheme after another.

Well, I think I will just need to explain sometime my favorite villains, and why. Heath Ledger, and The Joker are consuming me slightly right now. And my thoughts are unclear.

But remember kids...

You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

housewife

I don't understand why women complain about being housewives.

In our modern society, no woman is forced to become what was once viewed as the typical wife. Women are not expected to put on an apron and just serve her whole life as before. But some women, as myself, find this idea of a housewife intriguing. However old fashioned it may be, this idea of becoming a housewife seems rewarding to me, for I am one who wants to give and give and give. But many women, on the opposite side of the debate, find that 'housewife' is just a degrading cultural mistake that should ultimately be forgotten.

According to this study at National Statistics Online1, most women enjoy what they do at home, and most men enjoy their jobs as well. So whats the problem? Why does everything have to be about 'fairness?' These tasks which are assigned to each of the genders are gender fitting. For example, it makes sense that since men are bigger and stronger that they should work on physical tasks, such as yardwork. And women, who are taught from a young age to be care givers and detail oriented should take on tasks such as childcare and cooking.

Household tasks differ by gender. Men contribute most to yard work and home maintenace, while women carry 75% of the burden for grocery shopping, cooking, laundry, and dishwashing. The difference is that men's tasks can be delayed, while women's tasks are constant.2

But is it really fair for men to expect so much of women at home when the number of women in the workplace keeps growing and growing? Now do women not only have the responsibility of a job away from home, but they have the daily tasks that come along with having a household and children.

Women do more housework than men. On average, women ages 18-65 spend about 30 hours per week in paid employment and 22 hours doing housework (see also Arlie Hochschild's, The Second Shift, 1989). Men average about ten hours per week doing housework, a figure which changes little when their wives work and they have young children in the household.2

But then we must ask ourselves, as women, can we really place the blame on men? After all, it is ourselves trying to break the barriers and expand into the world as a fighting army of women in the workplace. We take on too much. I strongly believe that with the man as the provider for the family and with the woman as the primary caregiver and houseworker, a family can function happily and successfully. That is not to say that this 'system' of family is foolproof and the best way to live, but it seems to be the most practical, at least for my life.


1. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=288
2. http://asweb.artsci.uc.edu/sociology/kunzctr/stats.htm#housework%20and%20child%20care

the good citizen

I guess you could say that there is so much that society requires from us. At any age really. From the day we are born, we are little students to become the next great ones of the world. All of us have a purpose in society, whether good or bad. Both equally important in my opinion.

I have now reached the point in my life where society needs me to become like all of the others. I need to become one of the workforce. The monotonous life. 9-5 workdays. Well, not entirely like that. I have just recently gotten a job at Fiddleheads, a small family owned coffee house in Thiensville, WI. Not the typical teenage job, that is to say, but still a small step into conformity. I wonder often if this would make me happy. Conforming into all that society, my parents and family included, expects of me. I'm a free spirited type. And so the answer is an obvious, no.

I think of all that is required of each adult in this wonderful, free, country that I live in:
To be a good law abiding citizen, To be a good citizen in general (which usually involves becoming one of the religious people), To pay taxes, To hold a job, To support a family, To become a senior citizen and steal the money from the young who actually need it, To follow trends (whatever these may be), To support the horrible decisions of our government, etc. This list could go on forever and as it may seem like most of these are common sense and okay things to do, the people who carry out these actions are the problem.

I don't want to become the typical adult in America. Especially not like my parents. I love them and respect them, but their expectations in life for me are to become somewhat of clones of them. And I will tell you that there is no way in hell that I will let my life revolve around the 3 things that theirs do... 1) god 2) money 3)putting on the 'fake face' that comes along with being a 'good citizen'

So my question, and dilemma, is not really about conformity, its just about what I really want to do with my life. Maybe I could be happy getting a regular job and becoming a regular joe. But the probability of that is slim to nothing. Therefore, I will have to come up with something much more spectacular. (I've always had a thing for a little bit of spunk). Maybe I'll just marry my Norwegian man and then live in the forest and become one with nature. That wouldn't really be changing the world in the way I'd hoped, but It'd be doing something I love with the one I love. Well thats the thing about regular jobs too, are they bearable because people who have them either have nobody to come home to at all so they fill their empty lives with this nothingness they call 'productive achievements,' or do they have someone they love to come home to? Well I prefer, of course, the latter. And if I do get stuck as one in the workforce, I will be sure that I am always coming home to the one I love. (If I become a housewife then I'll always be there... I'll write about my dream of being one some other time...)

But, yes, I have begun my dreadful journey into adulthood. Conformity. Working. Well, if can't be all that bad... can it?

Back

Ive forgotten to write, of course, but I suppose I will begin again, for the reason of I one day have a dream to become a writer, and now Im back in the US where things have become once again a monotonous cycle inside this self indulged society.

I will begin to write soon again. Of this I swear.