Everyone's Got An Opinion On Love

Valentine's Day.

How many different opinions, feelings or emotions come out of so many different people when those two words are mentioned?

It's no secret that Valentine's Day is a divisive holiday. There are those in the camp that support it as a day to express your love to your partner, and to shower them with gifts and flowers and chocolates and all sorts of goodies, not to mention extravagant dates, weddings and proposals. On the flip side, there are plenty of people of the opinion that Valentine's is an overly commercial excuse for a holiday, promoted by Hallmark and similar companies with the intent to scam as much money out of our gullible nature towards love as possible.

But who says you can't realise that Valentine's has been commercialised and celebrate it anyway? Why argue against a day on which we should show more love to people? Are people not aware that love goes beyond the relationship between a loving couple? Don't friends love each other platonically? Is there anything that stops us from performing an act of love to someone you don't even know, i.e. putting money into a vending machine for the next person to use it?

I've been on every side of this holiday over the past few years, from the 'hating single person' to the 'cutesy couple person', and I guarantee you that everyone on this planet is searching for love - not necessarily from a partner but from anyone.

If you're in a relationship, then who cares if it's Hallmark Day? Instead of buying flowers, pick one and give it to your boyfriend/girlfriend. Instead of giving them a store-bought gift, make them something. Instead of chocolate, cook them dinner. Why not celebrate love? If you're not, spend some time with your friends! Go out for drinks or play cards or just show each other you love each other by doing anything! I can't stand how some people are so afraid of love. Yeah, it hurts, but when you know you're loved, it's the best feeling in the world.

Just because it's Valentine's and I don't have much to offer, I thought I'd give a few of my favourite examples of love from movies and tv and music and whatnot:

Music: 'With or Without You' by U2 is always a favourite. Love can be great, but it also really hurts sometimes. I've always interpreted this song as exploring that idea. At the right moment, it's an incredible powerful song.



Music/TV: I love the final scenes of the last episode of Scrubs. J.D.'s expression as the scenes of his future play out in front of him is great, and (for anyone who's watched the series) J.D. loves with everything he has when he does love. He's very aware he's not perfect but he gives everything he has anyway.



TV: The Friends finale is a great moment after so much messing around. Not much needs to be said.



TV: There's no clip, but the end scenes of the first episode of How I Met Your Mother have resonated with me, and Ted's honesty in what he says to Robyn after telling her he loves her on the first date. Here's his speech below:

"You know what? I'm done being single, I'm not good at it. Look, obviously you can't tell a woman you just met that you love her, but it sucks that you can't. I'll tell you something though, if a woman, not you, just some hypothetical woman, were to bear with me through all this, I think I'd make a damn good husband, because that's the stuff I'd be good at. Stuff like making her laugh and being a good father and walking her five hypothetical dogs. Being a good kisser..."

Movie: Love Actually and Valentine's Day explore the same kind of scenes - I'm not a hater of the movie Valentine's Day and Ashton Kutcher's performance, particularly at the airport, is one of my favourite movie scenes.

I'll be the first to admit that love hurts like all hell sometimes. But it's so worth it for the moments after the pain.

I'm single this Valentine's Day, but it won't stop me from using it as an excuse to love people just that extra bit for 24 hours.

A New Adventure

Hey all. Adam checking in again and once again without a video.

It's rather hard to record the same things over and over again - the 365 photo challenge, for example, is harder for me to do because I feel like it's pretty stupid taking photos of possessions, what I'm eating, or where I'm working more than once or twice. I've postponed a few photos because I'm going to England for a holiday in a week and this way I'll have a lot of photos to take. Admittedly it's not a fair representation of how interesting my year was but I figure I'd rather remember the good stuff than 100 days of 'I worked today' or 100 things I know I own.

Anyone heard of Geocaching?



I figure maybe this will put a little spark in me if I ever get bored. Who knows, it may become an interesting hobby, or at least a way to get me out of the house.

Still no major progress on any of the goals - my motorcycle license is still in the works and I'm still taking lessons, and once I get back from my holiday (which will have plenty of footage, I assure you), I'll be able to really get full swing into uni, the project, and having fun with it.

Wish me luck!

-Adam

What's In A Name

Is anyone else a huge fan of just naming stuff? If my job could be 'official street namer' or name of anything I'd totally do it.

And because I'm not really any closer to achieving any of my goals due to the aforementioned 'workworkwork' that is my life, here are a bunch of fun things to do with my name or names I've come up with for things.

MY NAME IF I WAS A...

Pirate: Keel-Haulin' Palgrave Smythe
Gangsta: Chewy tha Canadian
Mexican Wrestler: El Griego en los Pantalones
Taxi Driver: Smóggindakrak Smith
Ninja: Katekarin Rikukano
Fairy: Spider Demonembers
Dog: Ixub (wtf?)
Roman: Caecilius Aemilius Valensus
Anime Character: Camui "Hairspray" Yamada
Prince: Prince Nicolas Daniel Octavian di Petrodale
Superhero: Corporal Rusty
Supervillain: Escar Black

I WOULD NAME MY...

Pub: The Splendrous Ocelot
Band: The Superior Siberian Economy

If I think of more I'll add them later.

On a quick note, if anyone reading this has been to England, have you noticed how many times the same names show up for pubs? I usually visit Hebden Bridge/Burnley area in Lancashire and I swear I've seen no less than three 'White Lion' pubs. When I go over this time I'm going to keep score of how many times I see each name and will post the results. For great justice.

-Adam