A Thing About Beauty // Facetune (and Why I Dislike It)

            Recently I stumbled across an app in the Google Play Store called Facetune. This $3 app is basically designed as a selfie editor, allowing users to tweak their face in app to look “beautiful”. Now, I use quotations here because the app defines beauty in the same way that mass media does: flawless and altered. It not only advertises the ability to smooth skin and remove blemishes, but it also boasts the ability to reshape one’s face. This warped sense of beauty has permeated western culture, and many people (myself included) find it to be a horrible and sickening thing.

            I’m a long-time sufferer of acne, myself, so it’s not like I don’t understand where they’re coming from. Back in middle school and early high school I used to alter my photos before posting them, especially back when I used webpages like the now-dead Dailybooth. I had bought into the warped sense of beauty that the media was perpetuating. However, sometime in high school I came to the realization that I didn’t need to alter how I looked. The truth is, true beauty is far from this warped sense of beauty.

            You see, here’s a thing about acne that even I didn’t fully understand until late in my high school career: a person’s level of acne is never their fault. Acne is incredibly difficult to get and keep under control. At least, it is for those of us with extremely oily skin. In high school, I’d look around and see people with really clear skin and wonder what product they were using to wash their faces, because it must work, right? If they could keep their acne under control, why couldn’t I? What I didn’t understand was that people’s skin has a wide range of oiliness. Mine just happened to be in the higher section of that range, which necessitated that I get stronger face wash.

            Generalizations of these concepts can be applied to many other things that the warped western sense of beauty considers “ugly”, be it a person’s weight, facial structure, breast size, nose shape, or any other feature.

            Things like weight can be put with acne in the category of “extremely hard to control”. There are a variety of factors that affect a person’s weight aside from simply their diet and exercise routines. Genetics, for example, plays a large role in a person’s ability to gain or lose weight. So while some people may find it relatively easy to stay in shape, there are people who struggle every day to maintain a healthy weight (be it because they are too heavy or too light).

            The other group of features, including facial structure, breast size, etc., compose the category of “virtually impossible to control”. Sure, there are things such as surgery that can alter these things, but those surgeries are popularized under the concept that there is a certain “ideal aesthetic” that everyone should strive for. What used to be a corrective procedure has become desirable, and it’s sickening.

            I’ll stop myself before I ramble much longer. I just wanted to get it out there that I greatly dislike things like Facetune that perpetuate and feed off of this warped sense of beauty that has be created. Here’s the truth: you are handsome; you are beautiful; you are looking really good today, and every day. So go out into your day and your life knowing that you look fantastic.

Wishing you a happy week, and telling you your hair looks nice today,

I’m Michael, and this is my life.

Fears and Phobias // Horror and Thriller Video Games

            Spiders are scary. At least that’s what my brain tells me. I don’t really know when it started, but sometime when I was younger I developed a phobia of spiders (arachnophobia). The most interesting thing about phobias, in my opinion, is that almost all of them are by definition irrational. I’ve never had a bad experience with a spider. There exists no rational explanation for my fear of spiders. What’s worse is that this fear extends to other arachnids (e.g. ticks, scorpions) and even other bugs by way of my brain registering them as “spider-esque”, though spiders are the only thing that I’m truly afraid of.

             By far one of the strangest afflictions that results from my phobia is that my brain catalogues dark spots, marks, etc. that are on walls. Whenever I enter a room, I unconsciously look around and register the marks on the walls. My brain then filters out the ones that are most likely not spiders. If any remain, they’re brought to my conscious mind and I examine them. If they’re a spider, I get terrified and have someone kill it. The spots that are either filtered out or discovered to be non-spiders are then added to my unconscious brain catalogue of non-spider wall things. This means that when I re-enter a room, I don’t have to re-catalogue all of those spots. When a new spot appears, however, I go through the same process for that spot, determining its danger and reacting accordingly.

             This process is utterly fascinating to me, because it’s such an unconscious process that I’m almost never aware that I’m doing it. It’s strange how this irrational fear of spiders has programmed my brain to constantly and unconsciously catalogue wall markings. I’m sure other phobias have similar unconscious afflictions, such as a phobia of clowns causing one to catalogue split-second clips of the beginnings of McDonald’s commercials.

            This type of fear cataloguing helps make living with fears and phobias easier. It helps with horror films and television, as well. The one medium that I can think of that has managed to create consistently scary content is the video game. Horror and thriller genre video games have begun to take into account this fear catalogue. Games like Remedy’s story-intensive thriller Alan Wake—a game I would highly recommend for it’s incredible use of narrative—have worked in a minor random event mechanic to create certain unpredictable encounters to keep you on the edge of your seat, but must still have certain events be set in order to advance the story. Other games like Valve’s Left 4 Dead or Parsec Productions’ Slender: The Eight Pages have created engines that randomize the fear-inducing enemy location(s) so that players never know when they might be attacked. Whatever method the developers choose, they do their best to make it so that the players cannot catalogue the events of their game. It’s for this reason that these video games can be replayed and are consistently frightening to the player, no matter how many times one plays them, and why many of them, especially of the horror genre, become so viral.

            I’d encourage all of you to play these video games if you get a chance to. Don’t let your fear keep you from enjoying them (unless the consequential fear would be more harmful). More generally, don’t ever let your fears prevent you from enjoying life. While my phobia of spiders merely keeps me on my toes and keeps my walls clean, other fears can cause people to avoid opportunities that they could find to be incredibly enjoyable. Go out and live your life, and don’t let fear get in your way. (Although, pro tip: a healthy dose of fear can keep you safe.)

Wishing you all an enjoyable, chances-taken day,

I’m Michael, and this is my life.

A Notice of Delay

Due to the crazy busy week that I've had this week, this week's blog post will be postponed to next Friday. Apologies.

What's Your Purpose? // The Wind Waker

            When we delve into fantastical stories of fiction, be it through movies or books or video games, we accept that there is probably going to be some sort of plot. The story has a beginning an end, and the events between are a means of guiding the protagonist to said end. One of the most rewarding experiences when enjoying a complex, well-constructed work of fiction is going back, re-experiencing the story, and noticing all of the little details that guided the protagonist to the end. For example, let’s take a look at The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, my personal favorite Zelda game, mostly for sentimental reasons. (The following may contain spoilers.) Toward the beginning of the game, the sister of the protagonist, Link, is kidnapped from their home island. Driven by a desire to save her, Link joins up with some pirates, the leader of whom is known as Tetra, as a means to get to the island where she’s being held. On said island, it’s revealed that Ganondorf, the evil antagonist of the series, has returned to make yet another attempt at ruling the world. Yadda yadda yadda, fast forward a few hours, Link defeats Ganondorf, the world is saved. In the plot of the game, it’s clear that Link’s sister’s kidnapping served the purpose of getting Link off of his home island, discovering Ganondorf, and ultimately defeating him and saving the world. As such, the Link at the end of the game can look back to the beginning of the narrative and feel content, with his sister now safe, that her kidnapping ultimately served a good purpose. (End of spoilers.) Retrospective logic stating “I’m glad [event] happened, because it brought me to where I am today” becomes a problem, however, when people try to apply it at the outset of their problems. Be it breakups, bad grades, job losses, or countless other unfortunate situations, people like to look at their misfortune at the time when they occur and tell themselves, “It’s okay, everything happens for a reason.”

            This phrase is as pervasive as they come. It’s an attempt to apply some undefined purpose to events so as to rationalize why such an event would occur in the first place. It’s used to comfort, telling those in dark times to keep their head up and keep pushing forward, and while I admire the sentiment of the phrase, I cannot help but be bothered by it.

            No occurrence in the universe has an innate purpose. Additionally, the universe is (most likely) not the brainchild of some cosmic life author who constructs a plot for all of us to follow. The wind does not blow in a certain direction with the purpose of propelling a ship, the sun does not fuse hydrogen into helium with the purpose of producing light and heat for us living beings on earth, and a former significant other did not break up with their former partner with the purpose of guiding them to their soulmate (a concept I also despise, but that’s for another time). None of these actions happened for a reason; they simply happened because that’s how events played out. Any and all perceived purpose of any event in life is retroactively fitted to that experience.

            Many people are bothered by the notion that their lives and the events that occur therein have no innate purpose, but here’s the thing: it’s okay. It’s okay for two reasons. First, being purposeless is not the same as being meaningless. Second, having no innate purpose is not that same as being without purpose altogether. It’s true that the events of your life may not have purposefully lead you to where you are today, but that doesn’t mean those events were unimportant. Your life is a spectacular coincidence in this vast and irrational universe, but the minute blip in time that is your life can be deeply influential to those around you.

            The truth is, virtually nothing happens for a reason. You didn’t even happen for a reason, but here’s the good news: having no innate purpose means that your life’s purpose is whatever you want it to be. If you want your life’s purpose to be helping starving children worldwide, so be it! If you want your life’s purpose to be creating one of the most groundbreaking and medium-defining films in history, then make is so! If you want your life’s purpose to be making the world a better place for everyone you encounter, that’s a wonderful purpose! You are the creator of your life’s purpose, so promise me one thing: make it a good one.

The Don't Be a Dick Rule // Ultimate (Frisbee)

            I’ve been playing ultimate (commonly known as ultimate Frisbee) for about four years now. I started in my sophomore year of high school, but we didn’t play competitively until my junior year. I’ve also been on a summer league through a local ultimate organization. It’s a fantastic sport that’s highly under-appreciated.

            Perhaps the most interesting aspect of ultimate is that each game is largely self-governed, unless you’re playing at a highly competitive level where referees are needed. What this means is that if a foul occurs, the person fouled against must call the foul. The person who supposedly committed the foul must then choose whether they contest the call or not. (There are a variety of rules defining what happens for each call.) This level of self-governing might seem to some as a bad idea, as anyone could theoretically call a foul when none occurred. However, this is also included in the rules as a overarching rule entitled the “Spirit of the Game”, which my friends and myself jokingly refer to as the “Don’t Be a Dick Rule”:

“Ultimate relies upon a spirit of sportsmanship that places the responsibility for fair play on the player. Highly competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of mutual respect among competitors, adherence to the agreed upon rules, or the basic joy of play. Protection of these vital elements serves to eliminate unsportsmanlike conduct from the Ultimate field. Such actions as taunting opposing players, dangerous aggression, belligerent intimidation, intentional infractions, or other ‘win-at-all-costs’ behavior are contrary to the spirit of the game and must be avoided by all players.”

-11th Edition Rules, USA Ultimate

(tl;dr: every player must be a good sportsman)

            I find this rule to be one of the most interesting and unique aspects of ultimate, and also one of the most applicable to daily life. In most things, we as humans are self-governed. True, there are laws, politicians, police officers, etc. to govern us as citizens, but on a smaller scale, outside of this, we are self-governed. Every day we decide how we’re going to treat others. We decide what we’re going to say, if we’re going to smile at others, and how we’re going to act. So many people seem to forget that other people are just that: people. We are all people with goals, desires, beliefs, and opinions. There is no excuse for making the world a sucky place for others to live, so don’t do it; don’t be a dick.

Hoping for a kinder world,
I'm Michael, and this is my life.

(P.S. Today is my first post officially back, but it is also coincidentally the one-year anniversary of my first post ever on this blog. Hopefully this attempt will go better than the last.)