I finally finished the wand stand, late last night. I think it is what I want, and it does look good with the wand in it. In final, it took about 10 coats of oil to get it to the look I wanted, so here are the pictures.
I had my guitar lesson tonight. It was the first time in three weeks. I had to call out the last two weeks because of the stupid cold thing that I had. Yes, I still have the cough, but not anywhere near as bad, and it is more of an irritation in my throat that is causing it now. I think it just has to heal up, and it will be fine. My guitar teacher watched the TPR special and praised me on the work that went into it. He said it was as good as anything on TV. I think that is going a bit overboard, but I'll take it. I put a lot of time into it, so I do enjoy hearing good things about it.
My favorite part of walking around Universal yesterday, was all the people that called out, "Hello Hufflepuff". It's a thing. I was wearing my Hufflepuff shirt and hat, so I was a bit of a spectacle, but here is the thing. I have noticed, that when this does happen, it only happens to Hufflepuffs. I don't know if it is some hidden joke amongst the staff at Universal, or if it is just Huffle Love, either way, it is still fun. I have never heard anyone call out to another house of Hogwarts. You don't hear anyone going "What's up Ravenclaw.", it just doesn't happen. The oddest part was when I was leaving I got hit with it twice. Once was outside of King's Cross, and the girl yelled out, "Hello Hufflepuff, I love your yellow swagger.". Very odd, but I liked it. The other was just before walking out the gate. All the park photographers were lined up waiting for people to get pictures of, and a young woman, just screamed out, "Hufflepuff" and started dancing around. That's when I did something completely out of character and raised my hand in the air and proclaimed, "Hufflepuff in da house.". Yeah, I know, pretty tragic right. She got a kick out of it, and began sayin that over and over as I walked by. It was a fun day, and I did get a story idea.
It wasn't the one I had set out to get, but one did arise. I was sitting, waiting on my favorite show. The Horror Make Up Show, when I young woman walked into the waiting area. She was unique with a style I am attracted to, so I immediate noticed her. Don't get any ideas, she was far too young, but It created a story in my head. She was dressed in gothic attire, but what stood out was her eye make up. It was the only make up she had on, but it told a story. To me anyway. I pulled out my phone and opened up notes, and began writing the first sentence that popped into my head. This is how a lot of these things happen. A sentence comes to me, it is either the first sentence, or the last sentence. In this case, it was the first sentence, and no, I'm not going to share it with you. I thought about it this morning while I was lying in bed, and an entire first page and a half came to me. I wrote the entire thing in my head, and it has the potential to be something pretty good, I just have to sort out all the details, and to write that first page down.
This is a lesson I learned a while ago. If a story is worth telling, then it is worth remembering. That is why I haven't written what I came up with down yet. I still have that first sentence, so I can come up with something new, if I have to, but I still see those pages in my head right now, so they aren't going anywhere either. This story is sticking with me, which is a good thing. I held onto The Patchwork Knight for years before I wrote anything down, and it changed from time to time, but the core of the entire thing is still there, and that is what I'm working off of right now. Which reminds, me, I need to write a few more chapters soon. I'm falling behind. Behind being 4 chapters ahead instead of 5 or 8. I'm blaming it on the cold, but this week that excuse doesn't hold weight.
One last thing before story time. I posted the new video yesterday, and I have only gotten 1 vote on what I should do, so I'm going to post it on here, because I need more people voting or that one vote makes the decision. Here is the video, so please watch it and make your choice be known.
Finally, it's story time. There has been a lot in the news about sexual assault, gang rape, and parties, lately. I have a tale of high school and why possibly, someone would not report being sexually assaulted, and still going to other parties.
My school was not unlike any others at that time. You have the cliques that moved about the school and threw their designated parties. I wasn't a member of any clique, so I didn't go to parties. I did go to two separate ones, in my time in high school, and both were something I spent maybe an hour at and then left. It just wasn't my scene, and to this day, I'm not a fan of big gatherings. Anyway, whether you went to these parties or not, you heard about what happened at them. There were always stories that would come out of each and every party. A few that I remember quite well, where about certain girls at the school. They were part of the elite clique. You know the ones. The star athletes, the cheerleaders, the coolest kids at the school. The ones that everyone knew, and wanted to be. I grew up with most of those kids, and even though I wasn't in the clique, I was friendly with them, so they would tell me all the stories. You would hear this story a lot. One particular girl, and she would be different each time, would hold "court" in a bedroom, taking guy after guy for sex. When one would finish, she would send him out and have him send the next one in. I was always appalled at these stories. It wasn't until this past week that I began thinking about those stories again, and looking at them in a different way.
The girl that was the star of the story would always seem a little different in school the following week. She would deny the story happening, but guys would go up to them and say rude things, or touch them in aggressive ways, as if the stories were true, and they couldn't wait until the next party, so they could have their turn. The girl would always lower their head and walk off in a hurry. I took the stories at face value. I knew these kids, they weren't bad people, none of them. The guys were the every guys guy. They would be nice to everyone, and not cause trouble. The girls were all the prettiest in the school, and would always have a smile and a hello for you. I had no reason to think anything else. Now though. I look at it for what it was. The stories were the cover to protect the guys, so that they could make believe that they weren't doing anything wrong, and they were only participating on what the girl wanted. The girls wouldn't say anything, because they didn't want to be out of the clique. Being popular and cool, is alluring, and it is incomprehensible of how much it hurt if you weren't. They had to weigh the option of whether they wanted to remain in the clique and get the prestige that came along with it, or be an outcast and a pariah in the face of their peers. I saw it happen to one girl. One girl stood up to what was happening, and they completely destroyed her character. She attempted suicide and that was a laughing stock of some students because she failed. She was the sweetest of girls you would ever meet, and because she didn't play the game, it nearly cost her her life. She was never part of the clique again. I could see all of this from a far and not even realize what was going on right in front of me.
These parties were crazy, and anyone who was anyone was there. They weren't just keggers either, there was hard liquor and drugs there. One party, and there is proof of this happening. The principal of the school showed up. There was a picture in our yearbook of him with two girls and a beer in his hand. There is more to that story as well. There are two versions of this story. The first is that he had sex with one of the girls in the picture. She supposedly seduced him. The other story is a little more dark. The seduction part is is there, but she plied him with booze telling him all along that he was going to get some, until he passed out. Then with a couple of guys, they carried him to a bedroom and had her undress and take pictures with him so that they could blackmail him. That is the more likely story, because I knew one of the guys, and whenever he would pass by the principal in the halls, he would alway hold his hands up like he was taking a picture, and the principal would turn in another direction. Once again, these were the good guys. In reality, there weren't all that good, but they would have you believe that they could do no wrong.
That is the culture that was grown then, and it is still growing strong now. I saw it and over looked it. I stopped overlooking it as I grew older, but by then it was too late. Could I have stopped any of this back then. More than likely not, but if I had opened my eyes, and really saw what was going on, I could have made an effort to try.
I said this before, and I'm going to say it again. We need to change the way we raise our young boys. We always teach our young girls what they need to do to avoid being a victim of rape or assault, but we never teach our boys not to do it. Being a girls shouldn't mean that the one thing you have to learn in life, is not how to not get sexually assaulted, and boys shouldn't be admonished as "boys will be boys". That is a chickenshit way out of things. It's an excuse for bad behavior. I don't have the answers, but I know where to start, and that is they way we talk to our young boys and girls. Change the dialogue, just a bit. It shouldn't be, "in order to get a girl pregnant, the boy puts his penis in the girl." It should be, "in order to make a child the girl allows the boy to put his penis inside of her." Just that small little change in dialogue changes the entire dynamic of that sentence. It is no longer the male conquers. It is the female allows a joining.
I hope I made a point tonight. Peace in and goodnight.
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