Children's songs

Rock-a-bye baby, in the treetop,

When the wind blows, the cradle will rock,

When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,

And down will come baby,

Cradle and all.

Is anyone else bothered by this little song? Babies falling from trees? What kind of mother lets her baby rock in a tree in the first place? This song is just so messed up. Are all children's songs so screwed?

Playing "Ring Around the Rosy"

Ring around the rosy,

Pocket full of posy,

Ashes, ashes,

We all fall down.

Dude, this song is about the plague! A 'ring around the rosy' refers to the marks that infected people had on their bodies. 'Pocket full of posy' is from the belief that eating posies would make a person better. They burned the bodies, thus 'ashes, ashes', and can you guess the last one? Imagine a woman singing this in the town where her children have died. Not a children's song!

It's raining,

It's pouring,

The old man is snoring.

He went to bed,

And bumped his head,

And couldn't wake up in the morning.

An old man just died or at least got seriously hurt. Need I really say more? I suggest this little song instead:

Rain, rain, go away.

Come again some other day.

All God's children want to play.

Rain, rain, go away.

Solomon Grundy,

Born on Monday,

Christened on Tuesday,

Married on Wednesday,

Took ill on Thursday,

Grew worse on Friday,

Died on Saturday,

Buried on Sunday.

This is the end of Solomon Grundy.

*sigh.* Another song of death. I am not afraid of death because it is just a part of life, and it is not truly the end. All the same, I don't believe that children should sing about it.

One little, two little, three little Indians,

Four little, five little, six little Indians,

Seven little, eight little, nine little Indians,

Ten little Indian boys.

You may have heard this song, but do you know where it comes from?

Ten little Injuns standin' in a line,

One toddled home and then there were nine;

Nine little Injuns swingin' on a gate,

One tumbled off and then there were eight.

One little, two little, three little, four little, five little Injun boys,

Six little, seven little, eight little, nine little, ten little Injun boys.

Eight little Injuns gayest under heav'n.

One went to sleep and then there were seven;

Seven little Injuns cuttin' up their tricks,

One broke his neck and then there were six.

Six little Injuns all alive,

One kicked the bucket and then there were five;

Five little Injuns on a cellar door,

One tumbled in and then there were four.

Four little Injuns up on a spree,

One got fuddled and then there were three;

Three little Injuns out on a canoe,

One tumbled overboard and then there were two.

Two little Injuns foolin' with a gun,

One shot t'other and then there was one;

One little Injun livin' all alone,

He got married and then there were none.

Personally, I don't want my children singing these songs. They're not very nice when you actually think about them. I know there are more, but these are the ones that I could remember (of course, I had to look up some lyrics). Why don't we sing Jesus Loves Me or Teddy Bear Pincnic (so long as you don't sing the Angel version)? I like those songs.

Once Upon a Marigold...

There are many beautiful love stories in the world. From The Princess Bride to Ted Dekker's Immanuel's Veins to Dean Koontz's The Husband. Each one is a tale of fighting for your true love. They are all wonderful, but there is one that outshines them all. It is Jean Ferris's Once Upon a Marigold.

I always wanted to see the blue room of Ed's crystal cave.

This story begins with the finding of a small boy lost in the woods. The man who finds him is a troll named Edric, who has a tendency to use expressions wrong ("What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the eager beaver") and two dogs named Beelzebub and Hecate (Don't let the names scare you off; they're sweethearts). The boy, whose name is Christian, tells Ed that he ran away from home because there were too many rules. He says that he wants to be an inventor, so he has to be messy, and his parents didn't allow that. Though Ed wants to take him home, he doesn't know where that is and ends up adopting Christian as his unofficial son.

Christian grows up into an intelligent, brave young man. He learns from reading books, experimenting with things in the forest, and listening to Edric's teachings. A telescope is his only connection with the outside world, and he uses it to watch the castle past the forest and across the river. King Swithbert's castle. Looking through this telescope his entire life as he is growing up, Christian comes to know the royal family of that kingdom, even if they don't know him. He watches the beautiful triplets and their younger sister grow up, watches the older girls' joint wedding. They are his only friends besides Ed, Cate, Bub, and Hayes Centaur, King Swithbert's hunter. It isn't until Christian is a teenager that he decides to make contact by sending a carrier pigeon across the river to the youngest princess, who is reading while sitting on the wall around her castle. His first message simply says, What are you reading?

Princess Marigold is a lonely girl with a curse. If she touches anyone while she is upset, she will know what they are thinking. This has caused everyone in the world to grow distant, avoiding her touch, with the exception of her sweet old father, who has something like Alzheimer's. Other than the king, her only friends are Topsy, Mopsy, and Flopsy, her dogs. When she gets the message from across the river, she is thrilled and scared, but she sends one back. Greek Myths - Marigold.

With this, their correspondence begins. He signs every message with -C and tells her that he is nervous about giving his name. She doesn't really mind, though she is a little put off at first. Over time, they become each other's "bulwarks", as they say. Best friends.

Then comes the day that Christian decides to leave home and go out into the world. Where does he go? King Swithbert's castle to work as a servant. The princess doesn't know his name, and he is too nervous to approach her, worried that she will be appalled to find that her best friend is a servant boy. Still, they do meet, and he listens to her talk, something that no one ever does. Soon, she discovers who he really is, and he discovers something darker. A plot formed by the queen to marry off her daughter or kill her.

As Marigold is pressured to choose between an airhead and a dolt for marriage, her sisters and their husbands return home for the wedding, Christian is arrested as an enemy of the kingdom, and Edric (and the dogs!) is brought from his cave to the dungeons of the castle. The brave young man will have to rescue his princess from a forced marriage (or death), save her father from being poisoned, and build a contraption to do it all with. Between the dogs, the princesses, and the trolls, there is a deep and beautiful love story centered around the truth that marriage is a joining of best friends forever.

(I found this online. Pretty cool, huh?)

Topher Brink - Last one, I promise.

I swear, this blog will not be all about Topher Brink. I happen to obsess over things for a short while, go all out, and then move on to something else. So, in other words, bear with me because it will be over soon. If you're a guy, and you don't want to read about how much I love this one right now, you can just come back later when there's something better on.

Look, I know he's an evil scientist and all, but how do you hold a gun against a face like that? He is seriously handsome. 

At this point, the big boss of the Dollhouse has walked in, and Echo is pointing the gun at her. The chair is turned on, ready to imprint on Topher. And kill him. He explained already that if you imprint on a "fully-functional brain; it'll implode." He's terrified.

This is fan-made; I found it online. Cute, huh?

This is one of my favorite songs set to Topher and River Tam (yeah, her name is Bennett, but I refuse to call her that)! They didn't make a good couple, but it's a good video.

Okay, well, that's all for now. The next post will be about something else, really. I got it all out, and next I will review a book or something.

Dollhouse - Topher Brink

As all my friends know, I am a huge Joss Whedon fan. I have seen every episode of Angel, Firefly, and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, some of them several times. Dollhouse will soon be on that list. Joss has a way of creating characters that stick with you. There are no 'bad guys' and 'good guys'. There are people who make bad choices and good choices, and there is always chance for redemption. Look at Angel's Wesley, Dollhouse's Topher, Firefly's Jayne... I am amazed by those shows.

Dollhouse characters

Recently, I have come to love Dollhouse. I have seen all of season 1 and started on the next, but I don't want to watch them all at once because I don't want to run out too soon. I love how the characters work like all Joss works: it starts off with two main characters (Paul and Echo), who are rounded by still a little flat. Then, it expands to take in all the characters, making them all round and dynamic. There is not a single static character, not even the 'Dolls'. One character in particular attracts me, as he is the very type that I like to write about. I call that type the 'wayward son'. This is Topher Brink.

Topher is a scientist. He is nerdy, funny, and likes to drink from juice boxes. In season 1, he is shown as an uncaring young man who works with the Dollhouse because he loves science. He never seems to consider that he is hurting people. Enter Alpha. Topher's greatest failure, his worst disappointment. He created a monster with his innocent little chair, a mass murderer and psychopath. Though it is not at first obvious, Topher is greatly distressed by this (though it seems that he is mostly terrified of becoming the next victim). He also expresses guilt over Whiskey's pain, and he made her a 'better person' than he is to repay her. Still, nothing here shows any kind of real emotion that can't be explained by self-love.

Echo and Topher "Needs"

Season 1, Episode 8: Needs. In this episode, Echo is given all her original personality with no memories of her past. What does she do? She finds Topher and threatens him with a gun, questioning him about where she is and what's going on. At one point, she asks him if it hurts when he wipes their memories with the chair. Topher's response: "Pain is just nerves talking to your brain." This was the first time I realized that he cared, not because of the words but because of the way he says them. It is obvious that this is a reassurance that he has given himself several times over the years, probably every time he hurts one of the Actives with the chair. "Pain is just nerves talking to your brain." He does not want to admit to himself that he hurt another human being and that it does mean something.

Sierra and Topher "Belonging"

There is only one more episode that I can consider because, as I said, I have not finished the show. This is season 2, episode 4: Belonging. It was such a shocking episode, in which Topher is heartbroken to discover that he did not save Sierra as he thought; he helped destroy her. He does what he thinks is right and sets her free, only to discover that she kills a man in anger. (Did he deserve it or not? That's a Joss thing, making you question). Somehow, Sierra contacts Topher, and he comes to rescue her. Boyd follows him and helps dispose of the body and keep the secret. As Topher is sitting there, covered in the dead man's blood, he's shivering and saying "I was just trying to help her. Now she's ruined." to which Boyd replies, "You had a moral dilemma. Your first. And it didn't go well." This shows how Topher is evolving, changing. He may make more terrible choices in the future, but this is a turning point for him.

One more thing about Topher: he is my type. When I am writing my own stories, I like the broken hero, and he strikes me as one of those. In real life, however, I see a very handsome, nerdy, funny guy with shaggy hair. This happens to be exactly what I am attracted too. I'm not going to go any further with this because I don't want to scare off any potential readers, but I love Topher as a character and a person (if he was real).

Topher quotes:

Topher: What's the word on this repeat client Sierra has been seeing?

Boyd: Why?

Topher: Something's bothering me about it. I have a hunch something's wrong. (off Boyd's smile) That's funny? That I have a hunch?

Boyd: That it's bothering you. - Belonging

Topher: How can you expect me to do this?

Adelle: You'll do it because you must. The cold reality is that everyone here was chosen because their morals have been compromised in some way. Everyone... except you. You, Topher, were chosen because you have no morals. You have always thought of people as playthings. This not a judgment. You always take very good care of your toys. But you're simply going to have to let this one go. - Belonging

Sierra: This secret we have... can you keep it?

Topher: I can keep it, but I don't know if I can live with it.

Sierra: I know I can't. But I don't have to. - Belonging

Claire Saunders: If you start playing with their meds, it could backfire or damage them...

Topher: Or solve the problem. I know what I'm doing, Doc.

Claire Saunders: So do I. But I also *care* what you're doing... to our pets. - Needs

Boyd: They're not bison, Topher.

Topher: They're a little bit bison! - Gray Hour (season 1, episode 4)

My first post

I think I should go on record saying that this blog will not say anything. I won't cover the latest critical issues or television shows; I won't be telling you all about my daily life. Mostly, this blog is for whatever pops into my head that no one else in the real world wants to hear. The latest show I'm into tends to be something made a few years to decades back and a genre that my family does not enjoy. No one wants to know how much I adore Joss Whedon, no one in my world.
So here will go my thoughts. Whether I decide to rant about my anger at the state of the world, tell you all about the show Dollhouse, or give you a review of my newest favorite book (which is currently The Priest's Graveyard), it will be 100% me and 0% boring. I can be interesting, and you will learn about my thoughts and life by reading this, so stick around and check in from time to time. All right, now, time to work on my real first post!