Goodbye to my spacey ramblings

I think I'm going to take a break from writing for a little while. That means big project put on hold indefinitely too. I need some time to figure out what my next step will be. So thanks for reading my blog, it's been... Well it's been something.

Every little girl wants to be a princess... I wonder why?

Jane Austen wrote a total of six novels, each revolving around the life of a poor yet resourceful heroine. Yet there is only one ending. The young protagonist finds true love and marries the man of her dreams. And we assume that, just like every Disney princess, Austen's heroine lives happily ever after.

So I'm not quite sure what I'm trying to get at... But it makes me wonder. After all these years of mind-numbing propoganda that one day my very own Prince Charming will come to sweep me off of my feet... Is it time to let go of those childhood ideals? Or is it okay to keep on beliving in fairytales and that one day I'll meet the man of my dreams and have my own happily ever after?

Who knows. This is what comes of watching too much tv. Northanger Abbey comes on and then I start thinking about other Austen novels. Then I see patterns. And of course it always leads back to conversations of love and relationships. I could do Carrie just fine.

C'est what?

So after studying languages for some time, I've begun to rethink the English language. I believe that language, from intonation to word choice to history, can tell you a lot about a person or a people. For example, it completely irks my friend when someone says "wiki it" or "google it" which I'm sure almost everyone in my generation would understand. To him, however, it is a sign of our growing (and completely unnatural) over-dependence on technology.

I always thought it was funny how other people expressed themselves in other languages. I was one of those nation/culture-centric people that believed that the way my people did things was the normal way and that everyone else was weird. But now I wonder if it's us that's weird and that everyone else has got it right.

Another example: terms of endearment. Here (North America here) we throw around words like hun, babe, sweetie. Nice casual phrases. Nothing too deep. However in Spanish (sorry I am a little one sided in my languages) it's mi amor, mi vida, mi corazon (my love, my life, my heart) said in the same casual manner. In Arabic it's habibi also meaning my love. I guess I kind of feel like North Americans aren't as passionate about life as other cultures. I mean we live for drama and gossip, but we never let ourselves feel freely. We would never say to our significant other, " My life, can you please pass the salt?" No instead we would refer to him/her as a shortned form of a substance produced by insects, hun.

Anyway... I hope you get what I mean. I don't seem to have the words to explain myself properly. Oh the irony. By the way... Speaking of terms endearment, what does it say about the French who I've heard quite a lot let slip "mon chou" (my cabbage)?

The Big Project

So. I am writing a novel. I guess the first step would be to admit it. Kind of forces me to produce results, eh? I will write about my synopsis later, since I am still working on it. But that is what's what. I'll keep you updated.

More things that amuse me...

In Spanish there is a saying, vale la pena, literally meaning it is worth the pain. I guess you could say the same thing in English, but normally we say it's worth IT. That ambiguous IT. I've always wondered why the Spanish felt the need be morbid and tack on "la pena" (the pain). But now I wonder why the English have been so ambiguous as to use "IT".

What does "it was worth it" mean? We usually use the phrase after some amazing experience that began with some form of struggle. Thus we can conclude "it" refers to the struggle. It sounds nicer. We forget about the pain it took to get to that amazing spot. It's all in the results, the outcome. But in doing so, are we not trivializing all it took to get there?

Yes. There was pain. Lots of pain. But the pain was worth it. I like the fact that the Spanish acknowledge the struggle. That it (whatever it might be) wasn't all peachy. But it was so amazing that you are willing to trade off some pain for it. And to be quite honest, when looking at it in that sense, not much vale la pena. For what would you suffer again and again and again because what you received was worth the pain?

Those scarce few things are the important things in life. Valió la pena, ahuvi.