You can't save those that don't want to be saved

"That's when she said, 'I don't hate you boy, I just want to save you while there's still something left to save...'"

Taken from my current favorite song, I once again heard it - "Savior" by Rise Against - on the radio tonight and it got me thinking about that line.

Why is it that so many seem to think they can save others from their destructive behavior?

I mean we see and hear about it all the time - if we haven't been there ourselves, we know someone who has.

They get in a relationship with a person who honestly shouldn't be in a relationship for one reason or another (coming off a bad break up, depression, they have some serious issues, alcoholism, abusive, etc), but despite all the warning signs, they seem to think they can "save" the other and turn them into someone better. While it does occasionally happen, it's very very rare - unless the person that needs the "saving" really wants to change and be "saved" from whatever, it won't ever happen - no matter how much blood, sweat, tears, heart soul, time and energy the other person puts in.

I've been there.

Just take a look at the guy I dated in college. When we first started dating, well, he really shouldn't have been getting in a serious relationship. He had just come off a bad break up with his girlfriend of several years (who I learned treated him like crap) after having caught her cheating on him and he spent most of the next semester in bed, depressed. The guy was a mess when I first met him, but he hid it pretty well, acting like he was over it. He had severe trust issues and no matter how much I tried to support him, show him I cared, and be understanding of what he had been through and was still going through... it didn't seem to matter, as evidenced by the fact that when he checked into group therapy for a few weeks back home and didn't bother telling me about it until after he had left, I asked him why he didn't tell me and the response I got was "well I didn't think you would care... my ex never cared about me." Honestly, until he had his issues with his ex and depression/chemical imbalance figured out, he really shouldn't have been getting involved in a serious relationship.

I endured though and stayed with him, thinking that with enough care, love and support he'd get better. Looking back, I can see how lazy and unmotivated he was, despite claiming to have an aspiration to get a teaching degree and his constant talks of eventually getting a job (his parents were paying for everything - tuition, rent, utilities, car insurance, cell phone and they even paid off over $1000 in credit card debt he managed to rack up during his depression phase - despite the fact they were struggling to pay their own bills back home and yet he was pretty much at the computer playing WoW or watching anime 24/7, rarely going to class and obviously pocketing the money that was supposed to go towards the electric bill). I bought into everything he said and still supported and encouraged him. But you know what, until he got off the computer chair and actually went to class or went out to get a job, everything I did to try to help him along did nothing. He heard it, but it's like it went in one ear and out the other. He knew how I felt, I expressed it to him, and despite everything he told me, he never bothered to do anything about it until it was too late. And you know why? He was quite content in his ways and being lazy.

While my situation wasn't as "severe" as some others, we see people get stuck in similar relationships all the time. There's some major flaw with one partner and they're set in their ways, yet the other person seems to think they can "save" them from their troubles, help them to overcome it. But like I said, unless the person that needs changing genuinely really wants it, it's never going to happen no matter how much you try to help them.

Alcoholics and addicts are a prime example of this - you can do the intervention, they can hit rock bottom and while it's painful to watch, unless they realize for themselves there's a problem and WANT to change that, you can't help them. You can't help someone who refuses to help themself. It just doesn't work. I'm not saying to give up on them (especially when it comes to alcohol and addicts as they need all the love, care and support of family and friends when they finally decide to get help), but don't think you can "save" them because you can't.

While it is often the girl is that one that wants to "save" the guy, you can't really say it's like that all the time. There's plenty of the girls out in the world that are total trainwrecks, but unless they acknowledge it and genuinely want to change for the better, you're pretty much out of luck.

I don't know if any of you watch the reality show Tool Academy on VH1 (the premise is, the hurting partners of "tools" sign em up for the academy to do counseling and exercises to help fix their broken relationship and the "tools" go alone at first, thinking they're on a competition to be the next Party Ambassador, revealing to us their tooliest behavior and often admitting to infidelity), but this most recent season, for the first time they introduced 2 female "tools," one of whom was a girl named Jennavecia who constantly took her boyfriend Kyle for granted (who seemed like a really sweet guy and deserves soooo much better than her!) and had a horrible habit of cheating on him and flirting and coming onto other guys. Being that her mom runs a brothel in Vegas, she really didn't seem to think what she was doing was a big deal and her and her family (on the family episode) all stated that Kyle knew what he was getting into when he started dating her, as that's just how she is. As much as we all felt for Kyle, as no one deserves to get treated by their partner the way he was, her family did have a point - he knew how she was when he first started dating her, yet he made the choice to get involved, mostly likely thinking he could "save" her.

So it's not always just guys that need "saving" or that the girls are the only ones who think they can "save" their partner.

So as a message, save yourself the time, energy, tears and heartbreak and just realize this:

• you can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved
• you can't help someone who won't help themself
• you can't change someone who's set in their ways and doesn't want to change
• they'll make empty promises that they'll change to make sure you won't leave, but if there's no action to go along with it, they obviously don't want to change - they just don't want you to leave. They still want you, but they don't want to change (ie: they want to have the cake and eat it too)
• if they don't care enough about themselves, why would they care about you?
• if they have no respect for themselves, why would they have any respect for you? 

If you get in a relationship with someone and learn they have some major flaws that could causes problems down the road, feel free to point it out and bring it to their attention - maybe they really aren't aware - but unless they bother to make an effort to change it - and just saying they'll change or whatever doesn't count, remember, actions speak louder than words! - get out before it gets anymore serious and you end up wasting your time on a relationship you're likely to regret.

Music Shuffle Monday (04.12.10)

1. "Four-Fifty-One" by Five Iron Frenzy
The first time I heard this late 90s Christian ska band was the Cornerstone music Festival in the summer of '99 (summer between my freshman and sophomore years of high school). Cornerstone is a huge music festival that takes place every year in Bushnell, IL with mostly Christian bands or bands that are on Christian founded record labels (ie: Tooth & Nail, Solidstate, etc). At the time I went, I was huge fan of ska music - I was that girl "skanking" down front with everyone else at the ska shows and I had the whole "skater punk chick" look going on too. These guys really did put on an AWESOME show though and turns out they were recording their live album that night as well (the show was at midnight) and you could write down your name at the merch table to have it included in the liner notes (yep, mine is in there!). I bought one of their CDs that weekend and then got the Live album when it came out a few months later (I *had* to - my name was in it, afterall!). While they don't shy away from the fact they're Christians at their live shows, they majority of their songs are just good, clean innocent fun - not every song of theirs is all praise God, etc - one is about the singer's longing for a blue comb he had as a kid that his sister tossed out the car window, another is about the tv show Different Strokes, another about a character called Combat Chuck... you get the idea. In the name of all things ska, check out this band if you like ska and haven't heard of them!

2. "American Idiot" by Green Day
Green Day popped up on here a few weeks ago, so I won't say too much, however I like a handful of their songs but I'm not too thrilled how they've gone all political this last decade - I listen to music to fill the silence and take my mind off things, not to have a political agenda shoved down my ears.

3. "Bleeders" by The Wallflowers
Ah Jakob Dylan, the musical son of legend Bob Dylan, with your piercing baby blue eyes... he was another musician I definitely had a crush on in 8th grade during the late 90s! I didn't run out and buy this album right away though as I wasn't really a fan of their first single "6th Ave Heartache," but that all changed when they released the next single, "One Headlight" which also became a hit. I bought the album and then saw them live at my hometown's annual Labor Day Weekend festival, On the Waterfront (and after the show that year, my friend and I ran across the festival to catch the end of the Sevendust/Kittie/PM5K/Staind show - I swear, I will only ever see Sevendust live, one song at a time!). Honestly, this was a pretty good one, and even though I don't recall this song, "Bleeders," being a single, it was still another really good song on the album.

4. "Just Like a Pill" by Pink
When Pink first busted out onto the music in my early high school days, I wasn't much of a fan - her single "There You Go" was catchy with R&B undertones but it just wasn't my type of music. Then apparently after her debut she decided to record what she wanted and released a more pop-rock album. While I liked it better than her debut, it wouldn't say it's my favorites. I did like how she was the "anti-popstar" and seemed to be a real person and not fake. Her 2nd album had a few good, more serious and edgy songs on it, this being one of them. The video was also pretty interesting and artsy too, if I recall. While not quite my style, I do tend to find myself liking some of Pink's songs from to time and after seeing her Behind the Music special, I can definitely respect her as an artist/musician.

5. "Duality" by Slipknot
I've never been a huge Slipknot fan, but they're one of those bands that sometimes has singles you kinda like so you get just the singles you like. This is one of them. I was first introduced to this band by the guy I dated in high school, as he was into rock and metal and Slipknot was kind of metal... so yeah... "Wait and Bleed" was their big single when I was in high school. I didn't mind that song. And here we are now.

Movies of the 80s

Before I begin part 2 of "Movies of the 80s" for this week's Flashback Friday, I would like to point out that I am aware that it is currently Saturday - sorry! I was out of town for the day yesturday and didn't have any chance yesturday or during the week before to sit down and write up this post, so my bad! But here it is - a day late - this week's installation of Flashback Friday!

In the 1980s, 3D films, especially at amusement parks, were not uncommon. I remember going to Disney World in 1988 at the age of 4 and while Epcot pretty much bored me, the whole area with Figment the purple dragon and his imagination land, as well as this 3D (4D?) film - Captain EO - starring Michael Jackson! As mentioned in previous Flashback Fridays, I used to play my Thriller cassette non-stop so much that my parents too it off me as they thought I was getting obsessed with it, lol... but anyways. Captain EO was one of the first 3D films I had ever seen and I LOVED it. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola with Executive Producer George Lucas, Captain EO tells the story of EO and his ragtag spaceship crew on a mission to deliver a gift to the Supreme Leader (Angelica Houston). After crash landing on her planet though, they are brought in front of her as prisoners. Using MJ's trademark song and dance, they are able to defeat the Leader's guards and transform her and her lair into something beautiful. While a bit on the corny side, this is one Space Musical everyone should get to view as the songs and dancing are great to watch (if you ever enjoyed Michael Jackson's performances that is).

You can view part 1 (of 2, which is linked to this one) here on YouTube, for those that either never got to see at Disney or just haven't seen it in a long time (since the death of MJ though, Disney did finally give in to fans and brought it back as a tribute at Disneyland's Tomorrowland area).

Another classic from the 80s is E.T. While it came out in 1982, I remember seeing it for the first time in the late 80s. I remember thinking Elliot was cute and I loved little Gertie (Drew Barrymore). I also started eating Reese Pieces too. While parts of the movie were confusing to my young self (I didn't understand why Elliot had no father, as this was a foreign concept to me), I was able to get the basic gist of this movie - boy finds lost alien, boy brings lost alien home but has to hide it from him mom, government finds out and takes alien away, boy and friends rescue alien and take him to his spaceship just in time for it to leave earth. I also had the E.T. Atari video game, and to be honest, that's probably one of the worst, most impossible games I think I have ever played (and not surprisingly, it's on a bunch of the worst video games ever made lists too, lol...). I also remember going to Universal Studios Orlando in 1992 and getting to ride the E.T. ride, where you basically sit in a car that resembles Elliot's bike with the basket and you ride through different scenes from the movie. Sounds kind of lame now, but as a little kid, I thought it was neat!

1988's The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking was one of those movies that my best friend and I would watch over and over and over again, yet neither of us actually owned it - we just rented it from the video store a lot. This was a new version of Pippi Longstocking though, as there were a handful of other Pippi movies made prior, but none were of the same quality or as much fun as this one! In this version, Pippi is a girl who sails the seas with her father who is a ship captain and his crew, as well as her animal friends Mr. Nielson (a monkey) and Alfonso, her horse. During a strong storm though, Pippi is thrown overboard and unable to be rescued. Her animal friends jump in to go with her, as her father yells to her to swim towards Villa Villa Koola, an old house that belongs to their family which has been abandoned for years, where he will come to get her when he can. Soon after taking residence at the house, Pippi is visited by neighboring children Tommy and Annika, who thought the house was haunted, after suddenly seeing things going on inside after being abandoned for so long. Pippi befriends the sibilings and the trio have a lot of fun adventures, however the local townspeople don't think it's right for a girl like Pippi to be living alone and not going to school and telling such wild "stories" about her adventures on the sea, so Miss Banister approaches Pippi and eventually talks her into going to a school for girls. Pippi is miserable at the school though, as she's used to independence and no one there seems to get her. There are also a set of thieves who are after Pippi's hidden stash of gold too and keeping plotting (and getting thwarted by her) throughout the whole movie. Eventually her father does show up though and all is well. For anyone who hasn't seen this movie, I highly recommend checking it out, as it's one of those awesome movies of the 80s - the acting is pretty good, the plot and story were fun and entertaining, and the music was pretty good. Also, the actress who played Annika (Cory Crow) is from my hometown and my sister does community theater with one of her relatives.

In 1988, Disney found huge success with their groundbreaking hit Who Framed Roger Rabbit? The movie takes place during the Golden Era of cartoons and in it, cartoons are just average hard-working actors in Hollywood. After the death of one of the owner of Toontown - Marvin Acme - Roger Rabbit is framed and suspected of being the killer (he had been shown photos of his sexy lounging singing wife Jessica playing "patty cake" with Acme just hours before he was killed). Determined to find out who the real killer is and save his own hide, Roger begs cartoon detective Eddie Valliant (Bob Hoskins) to help him out. Eddie has a chip on his shoulder though - his brother and partner was killed recently by a toon with a high pitched squeaky voice and evil laugh and therefore, refuses to help toons anymore. Can Eddie help Roger and solve the mystery before Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) gets to Roger first? And where is Acme's will that states that ownership of Toontown goes to the toons themselves when he dies? This film was groundbreaking for a number of reasons. First, it was one of the first full-length movies to make use of real actors interacting with cartoon characters seemingly side-by-side. It is also one of the few projects where both Disney, Warner Bros, and other film companies allowed their classic characters to appear on screen together thanks to the persuasion of producer Steven Spielberg, despite the movie being a Disney film - that's something that is rarely ever seen! Despite complains from the current Disney head Michael Eisner that parts of the film were too risque, director Rob Zemeckis had final say on the film and refused to make the changes - it didn't really matter though, as it provided something for the adults, while going over the heads of young kids like me who just liked seeing all our favorite animated characters together. This is a must see for anyone who likes animation.

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids was another live-action visual effects family movie Disney put out in 1989. Starring Rick Moranis as Wayne Szalinski, a bumbling scientist and inventor, he who is trying to create a machine in his attic that can shrink things. While goofing around one day with the neighbor kids Amy and Nick, Wayne's kids Ron and Russ hit a baseball through the attic's window, which hits the shrink-ray on the machine. When the kids go to retrieve the ball, they get shrunk by it's beam, making them small enough to ride ants! Accidentally getting swept up and taken out with the trash, the kids decide to journey across the yard and in hopes of getting Wayne's attention and that he can reverse the process! I remember seeing this one in the theater and thought it was a lot of fun, despite the scary scene where the kids get attacked by some mean bugs and an ant comes to their rescue but gets killed in the fight. While this one was pretty neat and was the basis for a playground like area at Disney's MGM Studios (everything was built huge so you felt like you were tiny and they even had an ant sculpture you could pretend to ride like they do in the movie), it spawned several less than sequels in the 90s, such as 1992's Honey, I Blew Up the Baby (where the Szalinski's toddler is turned into the size of a skyscraper and goes rampant in Vegas) and 1997's Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves. There was also the Disney 3D/4D attraction Honey, I Shrunk the Audience which replaced the Captain EO 3D/4D adventure in the late 90s (it wasn't as good as Captain EO, in my opinion!)

*****

Now aside from family-friendly movies in the 80s, there were also a handful that while they were geared towards adults (and rated as such) most of the language and "bad" stuff went over our heads and we kids still saw them and thought they were awesome!

1986's Maximum Overdrive, starring Emilo Estevez, was one of those. In this adaption of a Stephen King short story (and his first and only directorial effort), strange things start happening just outside Willmington, NC - electronic appliances and vehicles begin running on their own without batteries and plugs and start killing people! A small group of survivors are holed up inside a truck stop called The Dixie Boy, however a "gang" of semi-trucks show up, led by a Happy Toyz Co. semi-truck with Spiderman's Green Goblin painted on it, and begin making demands that the people pump gas into them. Realizing that eventually they'll be enslaved to the machines, the survivors decide to try and escape to a nearby island. Will they make it? And why are the machines suddenly acting like this? While this one was quite violent (originally getting an X rating, the uncut version was so bloody and violent it almost made zombie filmmaker George A. Romero vomit when it was shown to him!), they did clean it up on TV, which is where most of us kids saw it. I'll admit, I was bit iffy around household appliances that night after seeing this movie, but having seen it again on TV in high school, this is probably one of the funniest horror movies ever, as the plot is just so stupid and there's soooo many cliches in the film. There's a reason this film is a cult classic!

In 1980, we were given The Blues Brothers, based off a set of characters from an SNL skit, starring a skinny Dan Aykroyd and a late John Belushi with a whole slew of celebrity cameos! Just of jail, Jake Blues and his brother Elwood visit their childhood home, a Catholic orphanage, and learn that the home will be closed unless $5000 in property taxes are paid by a certain date. Deciding they are on "a mission from God," the brothers decide to get their old blues band back together to raise the money for the orphanage. This involves several amusing interactions with former bandmates, who have since gotten actual jobs and need some persuasion to leave, as well as several hilarious gigs they play before The Big One. In addition to Jake's crazy ex-fiance (Carrie Fisher) who is trying to kill them as revenge for being stood up at their wedding, the brothers also have the cops on their tail, the entire time as they get the money and race through the streets of Chicago to get the tax paid on time and upset a group of "Illinois Nazi's" who want them to pay. One of the things I personally love about this movie, is that it was mostly shot on location in and around Chicago and yes, the Daley Center lobby - I remember walking around Chicago with my parents after the first time seeing this movie (which was in the late 80s, as I wasn't around at the time of its original release) and just being in awe at how we were walking on some of the same streets where that infamous car chase scene took place. As a kid, I remember renting this one and watching it with my dad, and I loved it and enjoyed the music and chases, however it wasn't until years later that I noticed just how bad some of the language was for a kid to be hearing! Like most kids though, it went over our heads at that age and our parents knew that, which is why they let us watch it, as language aside, it's actually a pretty good movie, especially considering it's based on an SNL skit!

What happens when 2 clueless men find a baby named Mary left on their doorstep, with a letter stating that their out of town third roommate is the father? Well, we found out in 1987's Three Men and a Baby (directed by Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy), starring Tom Selleck, Steven Guttenberg, Ted Danson and Nancy Travis, the men have plenty in common with Full House's Joey and Uncle Jesse when it comes to a baby! While getting used to surrogate fatherhood, our trio of bumbling dads also have a mix up with several drug dealers who kidnap Mary. Near the end though, Mary's mother returns, deciding she'll keep her baby after all and return to her home in England, but will she end up going or will she stick around and have the guys continue to help her raise her daughter? While this film was cute and funny, I personally enjoyed it's 1990 sequel, Three Men and a Little Lady, much better (which takes place several years after the first one, with the men now used to having Mary and her mother as part of their lives).

1988's Twins starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito was another of those movies where a lot of the sexual content and language went right over the heads of young kids like myself. In the movie, Julius and Vincent are fraternal twins separated at birth. Julius is sent to live with a professor off in the South Pacific who teaches him a lot and he becomes very intelligent, but not very street smart about the world. Vincent on the other hand is sent to an orphanage and grows up to become a lowlife jerk in LA. Learning he has a twin, Julius sets off to LA to find him. I remember it was funny how clueless Julius was about the world around him, while Julius despised his brother for getting all the good looks and smarts genetics. The interactions between the 2 were quite amusing for a young kid, and it helped that DeVito was so short compared to Arnold.

While there had been several Indy movies in the 80s before this one, 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was the first one I saw and I enjoyed this adventure and eventually went back and saw Raiders of the Lost Ark (although I had to close my eyes during the final scene, just like in this one, as my parents thought seeing people lose their skin and turn into skeletons and then dust was just too scary for me. I also never got to see Temple of Doom due to the cannibal scene in that one). In this one, Indy learns that his father Henry has gone missing while searching for the Holy Grail and after receiving his dad's diary which contains all his research on The Grail, Indy realizes Dad must really be in trouble and sets off to Venice to rescue him. Once getting Dad, Indy learns that his female companion is in fact a Nazi spy, who was ordered to recover Henry's notes on The Grail for the Nazi regime. Eventually escaping, Indy and his father (played brilliantly by Sean Connery), set out to avoid getting captured and killed by the Nazi's after them, while retrieving Dad's diary. Their journey also reunites them with characters from the previous Indy films - Marcus and Sallah - and to the place where the Holy Grail is kept. This is still, by far, my favorite Indiana Jones movie - the pairing of Ford and Connery was just too perfect for the roles of Indy and his father and their interactions were often hilarious! Despite a few "scary" moments this was a fun adventure film that most won't mind their kids seeing with them, as some of the sexual content will mostly likely go over the heads of little kids (it did with me!).

What films from the 80s do you remember watching as a kid?

The First

Where to begin...

Ever since I was a little girl I knew I wanted to be a mommy someday. I would play house with my dollies and even take care of a few special ones that would often go most places with me.

The entire I was growing up, mom didn't work an actual job. She was a stay at home mom - a homemaker. She took care of me while taking care of the house, the laundry, the bills, the groceries, various errands that had to be done and other "womanly-tasks" while my dad was away on business providing for us most weekdays. Deep down, I always wanted to grow up and did what she did - be a stay at home mom.

I was in 3rd grade when my sister was born and I would often help my mom out when it came to taking care of her. As I got into Jr. High I started babysitting not just my sister but various other kids in on our street and several families at church. When I was in high school my cousin was born, and again, I helped out a lot when it came taking care of her too - to this day I still babysit her from time to time. I don't mind it - I like working with kids.

Over the course of the years, I kept changing what I wanted to be when I grew up, however the first thing I declared I wanted to be was a kindergarten teacher. While my dream job changed many times over the years, deep down, I would still love to get a teaching certificate and work with kids. In junior high and high school I used to help out one Sunday a month in the different nursery departments at our church (usually with whatever age group my sister fell into). Sure, some of the kids were a bit hard to handle, but I didn't mind it. I also volunteered a few weeks in the summer and helped out with our church's summer day camp program, which runs for a total of 6 weeks in the summer. I've always enjoyed working with kids and being able to teach them things.

So basically, I've always wanted to have kids of my own someday.

My husband and I had a plan - we would get married, then within a year or so he would be getting promoted to full-time at UPS, as he was finishing up his outside requirements for the position that fall, then we would get a house and start a family.

Well... God's plan for us isn't always the same as the plan we make for ourselves.

• We got married, yes, but the recession hit, and it affected his job. No, he didn't lose his job, but they cut back a lot and there honestly has not been any open full-time positions available! I also got my hours at my job cut in half too, which in turn meant my pay was getting cut in half, so that affected us too as we had to dip into savings.
  
• We had about given up on our hopes of starting the house hunt when my parents learned about the first-time homebuyers tax credit and offered to loan us money for a down payment, so we looked up some houses online, got in contact with a realtor we knew from church and took a look. Unfortunately though, we got held up on the pre-approval process for the loan, as we learned my husband's credit was not so good and we needed to clear a few things up. We cleared as much as we could up and went back in soon after the new year, however his score was still not up to the 620 the bank needed it to be, so we've been working on clearing up his credit this spring and plan on going back to the bank in July.

When we first moved into our apartment here we weren't expecting to still be here 2 years later!

I've had baby fever for awhile now - so many people I knew from high school and graduated with have either just had babies or are having them soon. My best friend from high school just had her 2nd child a few months ago, and we recently learned that my husband's older brother and his wife are expecting their 2nd in October, as is my husband's 2nd cousin and his wife are expecting their first and they're a lot younger than us and just got married last summer.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm happy for everyone I know, it's just I've had that yearning for awhile now like my biological clock is ticking and every time I hear someone else we know is pregnant, I get a bit jealous inside. Why not us?

Granted, I'm only 25, but I would like to have at least 2 kids by the time I'm 30. Not to mention it'd be nice for our kids to be close in age to our friend's and relative's kids so that when we're together they have someone to play with. I'll admit, even though I've been on the pill, there were a few times where I had pregnant-like symptoms and thought I might be, only to get a visit from Aunt Flo a little late, and was a bit sad and disappointed.

Even though I've been feeling like this for awhile now, I stopped bringing it up around my husband because I knew he felt we weren't ready yet, as he's a bit anal about budgeting and finances and we weren't where we wanted to be yet with our plan. He knew jealous I got though every time we'd hear someone else was pregnant.

Which was why I was a bit relieved the day I got a text message from him while he was working the cell phone kiosk out at the mall right before Easter, saying that all the little kids running around out there were making him want one.

We didn't really continue the conversation until yesturday, when he started texting me again on the job, saying that some parent had this leash/harness bear backpack thing their kid was wearing and how when we have kids we MUST get one of those. He then proceeded say that he felt like his biological clock was kicking it. It was pretty cute to hear him finally talk about wanting a kid.

We spoke later at home that night, as I'm just finishing up my last pill pack today and was curious if he wanted to me pick up the next one or not. We decided not to, thinking that it might take a few months to get my cycle back to normal (I had been on the pills for the last 14 months straight) and that even if I did get pregnant our first cycle trying, I wouldn't be due until soon after the new year and by then we should have a house and be settled in.

So here goes our journey, as we try to conceive our first kid!

Songs in other languages

Today I decided to hook up the iPod while driving home from work. "Dota" by Basshunter popped up, and despite this song being in Swedish, well, I can pretty much sing along with it just fine as if I knew Swedish! (I don't). Thinking how it's funny that we can memorize an entire song in a different language and sing along with it, I started thinking about what other songs I can sing along to in foreign languages. Rammstein is a German metal band that I can pretty much sing along with their songs that I actually listen to. Same with a few songs in French (but okay, I took French for a few years, but still...). I also know the first couple Bleach intros as well, which are all in Japanese!

Do I actually know what I'm saying?

The Basshunter ones, yes - because the Youtube videos have subtitles.
Rammstein - only 2 songs
French - yes, but only cuz I took a class where the teacher gave us lyrics to them and we could translate
The Bleach themes - some but again, they have subtitles on (if I have a choice, I watch anime subbed, not dubbed).

Here's a few I thought I'd share:

Swedish


Now this is the original version of the song, put out about 5 years ago. Basshunter became huge in the gaming culture due to this song and his other big hit, Boten Anna, as Dota is referring to sitting in the Ventrilo voicechat program and play the Dota map on Warcraft 3. Boten Anna is about a chat bot named Anna. Since the release of Basshunter's debut album though, he was popular in Europe, and found a following with these songs over here in the US. By the time he started work on his 2nd album he had a lot of US fans and thought it would be nice to make "Americanized" versions of both Dota and Boten Anna, turning them into cheesy dance love songs (Dota is now "All I Ever Wanted" and Boten Anna is now "Now You're Gone"). While both are nice, I much prefer the originals, in their intended Swedish!

German


I thought about posting the Lego versions of Rammstein's videos, but you'd probably be laughing too hard to actually hear the song.

French



This one is hilarious - it's the story of the incredible duel between an onion and a tissue!

Japanese

The first Bleach intro - "Asterisk" by Orange Range. Sorry for the lack of subtitles on this one - it was the better quality version of the song I could find. If you like animes though, I definitely recommend checking out Bleach. I got through the Bounto arc (which was filler, as none of it was in the original manga) which is around episode 100, but haven't really watched since then, as my ex and I used to watch it together and it just felt kinda weird. It's been long enough, maybe I'll get back in the habit.

Are there any foreign songs you often find yourself sing along with, despite not really knowing the lyrics or normally being able to speak the language?

South Park meets WoW

Keeping with the Warcraft Wednesday theme, I decided to post this Emmy-winning gem of a South Park episode - "Make Love, Not Warcraft" - South Park episode #147, which was the 2nd half 10th season premiere in October 2006.

I remember being a raid, however no one was paying attention, as we all had our TV's on Comedy Central, watching the episode and commenting on and quoting it on Ventrilo and in raid and guild chats.


South Park - Make Love, Not Warcraft

DARK RIDER | MySpace Video
(this is a version I found to embed via Myspace videos - if for whatever reason it does not work, feel free to watch the full episode here at SouthParkStudios.com)

In the episode, the boys (Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny) are new to World of Warcraft and starting out in Elwynn Forest. However, they are soon harassed by a gamer who has figured out a way to hack the game and kill all the other players (while PVP is a feature in WoW, you can't actually kill players of the same faction) and won't stop killing everyone else's characters so no one can actually play the game and level. Frustrated, the boys hatch a plan to gather all their friends and try and gang up on the guy to put a stop to him. However they are too low level. They devise another plan, where they will kill the ingame boars to get enough experience to level up and then try once again to take on the griefer. The Blizzard Entertainment execs (the company that makes WoW) are also worried, as they're afraid the griefer has no life and cannot be stopped ("how do you kill that which has no life?") and his behavior will frustrate new players and cause them not to play anymore. Determined to help the boys slay the evil griefer, the execs decide to give the boys the Sword of a Thousand Truths, a weapon so powerful that it was removed from the game and stored on a 1 GB USB flash drive.

The episode makes use of the infamous Leroy Jenkins name, areas in WoW and the infamous WoW soundtrack. WoW has since incorporated "The Sword of 1000 Truths" which mentions a character from the episode on the item, as well as a weapon "Slayer of the Lifeless." Blizzard also added in a "Make Love, Not Warcraft" PVP achievement. Also, in the upcoming WoW expansion, humans can be hunters (which Kenny's character is in this episode).

This episode was brought to us by both the creators of South Park - Trey Parker and Matt Stone - as well as Blizzard Entertainment, as they helped Park and Stone create the Machinima to make a better emulation of the game. It was definitely one of the more memorable episodes and us WoW players LOVED it!