Word World

Hey everybody! I'm having a good day, are you having a good day? Good. Cause I'm here to ruin another completely benign children's show for you.

I'm actually pretty okay with Word World. It doesn't annoy me and it's fairly effectively educational. Basically the idea is that it is a world where everything in it is made up of letters that are pressed together and then spontaneously form into whatever the word is spelling out. This includes the living beings.

The place seems to be populated only by animals, which I guess makes sense, cause seriously, trying to imagine a human made entirely out of letters is just super creepy.

The whole idea with the letters is that anything in the world can be produced at any given time provided that the characters have the right free standing letters to spell it with. All the characters here seem pretty benevolent, so we're not going to worry too much about the implications of the power they have at their hands. I doubt anybody's going to be getting the idea to put together a flamethrower anytime soon. What does worry me a little is the fact that everything is made out of the same material. Sure, get all science on me and tell me that we're all made of different arrangements of the same molecular substances or whatever, but really, those aren't big enough for us to see with our naked eye, and can't usually be arranged by us at will to be whatever we want them to be. I'm just thinking that, if I lived in this world, I'd feel a little bit uncomfortable living in or interacting with objects that were made of the exact same material as my body. I'm not going to say it's like living in a house made of body parts... but that's kind of what it's like...

Not only that, but all the characters seem to have boxes full of single letters sitting around their houses for whenever they need to make something. I'm really not saying that this is like keeping a box of arms in your closet... but really, it's a little bit like that.

The part that bothers me the most though, is that the dog (appropriately named "Dog" ) has, in his house, the Word World equivalent of a ball pit. Which in this case is a pit full entirely of free letters.

I wish I could find a better picture, but these goings on have been curiously under-documented.

Now I'm not saying that this is like diving into a pit full of various limbs and organs... but really that's kind of totally what it's like. 

So in the end I just can't get totally comfortable with Word World. Just for that. Make of it what you will. 

I was totally going to draw a house made of body parts to demonstrate, but then I realized that I've already done that, so I'll just refer you back to my Donald Duck and Goofy clubhouses from my Mickey Mouse Clubhouse post and leave it there.

Not to say I can't still be peer pressured though. That's up to you weirdos. 

Mother's Day Musing

My blog has very little place for anything that isn't dripping with the greatest amount of sarcasm that I can muster, you are all aware of this. However, since it's my blog and I can do whatever the heck I want with it, I'm going to write a completely straight bit because I feel like it.

I've posted about my mom here and there on this blog before, usually poking a bit of fun at her, cause she's a fun lady and can take it. Tonight my mom sent me a text message. It wasn't anything particularly special or significant. It was just asking where I was. I wasn't sure why she had asked, so I asked her about it and she replied that she just worries about me from time to time and wants to make sure I'm doing alright and not working myself too hard and the like. This shouldn't have been very significant, and it would have been very easy for me to smile and roll my eyes and say "I'm just fine, mom," especially since she just saw me earlier today and we live next door to one another, but something about it just struck me. My mom, with a million other things to think and worry about, still has time to worry about her grown daughter enough to send a text, even when she knows I'm fine. And, as it just so happened, I hadn't been having the best evening, and that one text was enough to remind me that there are a lot more things to feel good about than the stupid little things I was feeling down about.

I see a lot of kids out there taking their moms entirely for granted. It's usually some variation of "Ugh, my mom just doesn't understand." Sure, maybe that really is the case with some mothers, but I really don't think it's as widespread as any teenager or other free thinking youth I encounter makes it out to be.  Maybe your mom understands a whole lot more than you think she does. See, everybody emerges into puberty with their own set of complex problems that they immediately think nobody could ever possibly understand. This translates to the vast majority of adolescents and often young adults feeling like their parents "just don't get it" and are probably too old fashioned to understand anyway. But I'd be willing to put money on the bet that most of the people reading this have a mom who does get it. She may not go about responding to everything in the way that you think she should, because she's a different person than you and processes things in a different way, but in all likelihood, she really does get it.

At any rate, I just wanted to tell my readers how thankful I am for my mom, Wendy, for getting it, and for being one of the strongest and wisest women I know. And, if you like my blog, you should be thanking her too, because without her nudging me, I wouldn't have nearly enough push to even update as consistently as I do. And since I know she's going to read this: I love you momma! Thanks for worrying about me; I'll try not to give you too much to worry about. Though this is me we're talking about, so don't get your hopes up. But I think you're pretty swell, and if everybody could have you for a mom, I think the world would be in great shape.

In light of Mother's Day coming up this Sunday, I figured it was a good time to post this and to challenge my readers that, if you have the privilege of being able to, to call your mom and let her know you appreciate her, regardless of whatever differences you and she may have. Chances are, she's spent at least some time today thinking and worrying about you and would really appreciate the effort. I mean, really. She's worth it.