Looking back, this summer would have been a miserable time to move. I was working through a lot of things, as well as dealing with a fair amount of familial drama, and even if I’d had the cash to move, it would have felt like some sort of escapism.

Basically, without going into detail, it feels good to be moving to a new place for the right reasons.

I’ll post pictures as soon I’ve had time to use my mad (read: cheap) decorating skills.

For those who don’t know, Operation Beautiful is a movement which encourages women to leave post it notes in bathrooms to help other people’s self esteem.

I began Operation Beautiful by leaving positive messages on the mirrors of public restrooms — at work, at the gym, at the grocery store. I scribble down whatever comes to mind — “You are beautiful!” or “You are amazing just the way you are!” My personal goal is to leave as many Operation Beautiful notes as I can. Maybe some people read them and just smile, but I bet some people are truly touched by the effort of a random stranger.

(x)

First off, I don’t see why this is effective. I don’t doubt the sincerity of what is trying to be accomplished here, but some random stranger who probably has never seen me and with whom I will never interact leaving a note telling me I am beautiful is never going to do anything for me. Essentially, by this logic, I am beautiful because I am female and use the same restroom as you. Kind of the same way I totally expect my fortune cookie to always be an accurate predictor of my future.

I understand, yes, beauty is subjective, and yes, the majority of people will be beautiful to at least one or two people. But at the same time, I reject the idea that beauty is an ideal that people should consider the be-all and end-all to their self worth. In the same way that, as a fat person, I don’t want notes on bathroom mirrors telling me “You are skinny!” Sure, it may make a few people who are feeling slightly down about their weight feel better, but it just masks the problem. Beauty, when most people talk about it, has little to do what is inside. So what?

(Tangent: I hate that phrase, “beauty is on the inside.” It just feels like a cop-out for people who aren’t willing to call someone ugly or average. And what is wrong with being average? Most people are. And what’s wrong with being ugly? Absolutely nothing. Be who you are, and don’t let anyone tell you that you need makeup, or a diet, or a certain kind of clothing to be the perfect you.)

Why is being pretty such a big deal? It’s just another thing that people are. Personally, I am a lot of things, and I don’t count being pretty among them. And you know what? I find that to be quite excellent. When I tell someone they’re pretty, I am saying it because I mean it, not because I feel like I have to or they’re going to feel bad. I wouldn’t tell Stephenie Meyer I think she’s a good writer just because it would be the polite thing to do. I wouldn’t tell Gerard Way his voice has the same amazing tonality as Tom Waits’s. People are different. Beauty is just one of those things, like being able to pick up music easily, or to write well, or be able to do the moonwalk.

When I gave up feeling like I had to be beautiful, it freed me up to appreciate my face and body in a way I’d never been able to before. My face may not match up to anyone’s definition of beautiful, but it is interesting enough to appease me, and I’m not embarrassed to be in photos anymore. My body may not be society’s definition of attractive, but I like it well enough.

My point is: being beautiful is not the ideal. Rocking whatever skills you have available to you is.

So, if you end up going to a bathroom and see a note along the lines of: “You may be pretty, you may not be. Be who you are and own it”, you’ll know I was there.

Not unrelatedly: this.

But that’s not the point of this blog post. The point of this post is that for years I pretended to like coffee. I’m not 100% sure why, but I think it’s because I’ve always been really picky about food, and it was really embarrassing to have yet another thing that I didn’t like. It might be dumb and dorky, but drinking coffee is almost a social norm. I mean, you don’t ask a date to go get a cola with you. (Well, theoretically. I actually might.) To combat this, I devised some methods of making it seem like I drank coffee without ever having to touch the stuff.

Get a coffee cup, preferably a reusable one with a lid. You can put whatever the heck you want in there. I used to come to work all the time with a mug filled with orange juice or some sort of tea. Just make sure you close the lid when you’re not drinking, and badaboom. Instant coffee cred.

Put soda/grape juice in a coffee mug. Actually any dark colored beverage will work. This one’s great after there’s been a party and there’s still three bottles of Coke in the fridge (did this happen at anyone else’s work?). No one, unless they’re some sort of psycho coffee-poser detective, is going to run around sniffing your drink to make sure it’s actually real coffee. And, once the foam goes away, cola does look an awful lot like coffee.

Order hot chocolate, just so you can come to work/class/wherever with a coffee cup from the local starbucks/gas station/laundromat that serves coffee.

Order a latte. This one’s more for people who are going out for coffee with someone. I know it involves coffee, but the taste is nowhere near as strong as straight coffee, and you can sip at it while you talk.

Never ever own up to disliking coffee. If you’re going out for coffee, order hot chocolate or tea and just say “I don’t really feel like coffee today.”

Granted, there’s really no reason other than minuscule (and occasional) social stigma to ever fake drinking coffee. But, that’s never stopped me from trying to be cool. (Yes. Coolness is relational to coffee consumption.)

That’s not to say that I have tons of bad things I’m holding back. If I did, I probably wouldn’t mention work at all (and go rant in my own personal Livejournal). My job’s not particularly exciting, but it’s better suited to me than anything else I’ve ever done (except at the RP, which I don’t really think counts considering it was a college job and won’t really cover any bills). It might be slightly boring and monotonous, but let’s face it. So am I.

I’m an editorial assistant for two scientific journals. My job is mostly formatting and copy editing scientific papers in preparation for publication. I also do some receptionist-type work (answering phones, mailing out complimentary copies, etc.). The editing can be a bit mind numbing at times, but all in all, it’s more than I expected from a entry-level job.

The best thing about this job is not the minimal amount of drama I’ve been subjected too, the fact that it offers insurance, or even that I’ve got my own (windowless) office. The best thing is that once I know what I’m supposed to do, I’m allowed to go off and work on it until it’s done. The deadlines are generally spelled out far in advance (at least for major things), and if formatting seems more fun than editing at a given moment, I can do that. I also can listen to music and podcasts while I work. I remember thinking to myself a long time ago: “All I want from a post-graduation job is the ability to wear headphones.” I was totally right.

Speaking of music, I’ll leave you with the song that’s been stuck in my head all day:

(You can get it for free at blackcardsmusic.com. Oh oh oh yippee oh oh ay.)

I do want to make a post about my name change, though. Although I’m changing my name, I don’t think I’ll be changing my domain for a while.

My name has bothered me for quite a long time. For most of my life, I thought I couldn’t do much to change it, other than go by nicknames. The idea to change my name has been with me for quite a while, and I’ve decided to go with it.

I chose Alexis because it’s a name I have liked for years. Literally. When I was a kid, any boy doll/animal/what have you was named Jonathan and all the girls were named Alexis/Alexandria. I’d often said I’d name my kid Renee Alexis to keep the whole “Name your daughter your middle name” alive, until I discovered how much my middle name does not fit me either. And I know most of the people who know me now will continue to call me Lee/LeAnne, but I would like to be able to introduce myself as Alex. And I appreciate everyone who’s being cool with this, and trying to accept it.

I would definitely choose my computer, because I can watch most of the shows I normally watch over the internet as well as DVDs, as well as all the other things you can do with a computer. I mean, without a computer, I couldn’t check my email, blog, update my netflix or any other number of things I do on a regular basis.

Ask me anything

For the most part, I was pleasantly surprised. The graphics are amazing and the plot, while a bit confusing and helter-skelter at parts, held my interest for the whole film.

The film adds to the story of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass” with the story of a fully-grown Alice (Mia Wasikowska). When pressured to marry someone who doesn’t really like her, she instead chases after a rabbit in a waistcoat and finds herself tumbling to “Underland” once again.

This movie was much darker than I expected, although I should have known better. The original story may be creepy in its own right, but Burton’s touch amplifies it.

One of the most disturbing moments I’ve ever seen in an ostensibly children’s film has a miniature Alice working her way across the moat to the Red Queen’s castle by jumping from one bodyless head to another.

Although I’ve grown up with the phrase “off with their head!” ground into my brain, I still was not expecting to see the gory aftermath.

I found Depp’s Mad Hatter to be problematic. I felt like he, like much of the rest of the movie, was trying too hard to make everything confusing. Although, to be honest, I had a hard time concentrating on what he was saying because his enormous green eyes kept distracting me.

His split personality between a happy hatter and an intense revolutionary with a Scottish accent jolted me out of the story instead of drawing me into it.

The supporting characters were masterfully done, especially Helena Bonham Carter’s Red Queen and Anne Hathaway’s White Queen. Chessur (Stephen Fry) and Absolem the Caterpillar (Alan Rickman) both are interestingly animated and voiced.

Like most of Burton’s films, it’s hard to talk about this one without mentioning the scenery and costumes. The art, like most of his other films, is simply stunning.

Although the movie did have some excellent parts (including a sword vs. sewing supplies fight), the ending was weak.

Burton created an interesting movie, with a unique plot and memorable characters, and ended it with just another story of a female protagonist rebelling against Victorian gender roles.*

Written for the Royal Purple.

*I’d like to clarify this, which I didn’t have enough time to in the original article. I feel as though far too many films force modern ideals on a historical time. Feminism is an example of this. While I know that there were many women who were ahead of their time socially, I get tired of so many historical films focusing on them. Just because we think a certain way now does not in any way mean that this was always the opinion. I think it’s lazy of filmmakers to always have the protagonist with modern sensibilities instead of taking the time to show us why they might have a different outlook.

Twilight? Yes. But it’s also the plot to Persuasion by Jane Austen.

I had to read this book for a class, and I ended up telling my professor I thought it was like Twilight for the Romantic era. To me, it’s just another bland romance that is focused on the relationship between the two most boring people in the entire story. I wish the book had been about Admiral and Mrs. Croft’s adventures on the high seas, or maybe focused more on why Charles and Mary got together.

Instead the entire book is Anne wangsting about her lost love without doing anything to actively pursue it. She’s willing to give up without even trying. The only reason she gets together with him is because he writes her a letter explaining how he feels.

I understand. This book is supposed to represent the social mores females had to traverse during that time period. But that doesn’t make it a great piece of literature. It just makes it relevant to the time. And also, really really boring.