Cartoons in new light

Easy, free time is good for the mind. It's simply bliss but 3 months of it can lead to a rusty attitude and a lazy body! yawn!! ;)

Unlike most people I have just discovered youtube thanks to my better bandwidth. So i'm spending my days watching old episodes of Popeye, Little lulu and all looney tunes and it's good fun.

The one thing that struck me over and over again is how sexuality is promoted through these cartoons. A simple case in point with say, droopy&dripple, a voluptuous woman walks by with a skimpy dress and a bare leg, has a husky voice and smoky eyes and the father-son duo gets their brain rattled and eyes popping! How often have we seen this scene repeated in various cartoons and over the ages? As a kid i'd laugh over it and absorb it as a typical male reaction to a stereotypical female mould! Good lord!
it's very disturbing now that i see such stuff and realise the potential harm it can do. as with Johnny Bravo...the guy was a labelled lecher! i miss the innocence in those cartoons and i also realise that it was innocence in me not to have realised such perspectives to lust earlier. i grew up and my perception of the actions of those characters changed!
Each animation i see, i note the details, i always have. I used to marvel at how grown people could so very easily understand a child's mind and make them laugh, learn and connect to objects that do not exist. But now i see how it works. It is an adult mind at work in a child's playroom...we all remember what we liked. it's just that if i now want my chair to dance with me, it wouldn't be on a "here we go round the mulberry bush" but maybe a "jamaican farewell". so if i were to make a kid imagine, i'll change the music! and we still dance...i, in my big grown up world of deadlines, projects and loud people and the little kid in her world of stars, cars and bliss!

creation in my kitchen

cooking is parallel to creating. it provides an outlet to desires, energies and the euphoria of having created. whenever i have the urge to eat something exotic and the time to wait and devote in its creation, i prefer making it. the Internet is a veritable guide in my pursuits...multiple recipes of the same dish, regional variations of the same dish and the conscience balming variant of low fat!
to celebrate my birthday, i decided I'd have enough of cakes so I'll make ice cream. the newspaper yesterday was in sync...it gave me a super easy recipe of "low fat" banana Popsicles! since my maid, who has a wild mind of her own, decided to clean the kitchen while i was cooking, she promptly treated my paper cutting as trash and threw it out in the garbage before i realised it was missing. this post is my way of saving that recipe, before i forget, and putting up my happiness at its success.
ingredients
1/2, 1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
a pinch of salt
2 cups milk
2 tablespoons vanilla essence
2 diced, big bananas
method
1. in a saucepan mix the the sugar, starch and salt
2. pour in the milk and while continually stirring, bring to a boil
3. simmer, add vanilla and stir. remove from stove
4. in a blender put the bananas and pour half the pudding
5. blend well
6. pour the banana mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining pudding and stir to get a uniform consistency
7. pour into Popsicle mould and place a stick in the middle(couldn't find a stick, i used toothpicks)
8. freeze till set(i left it overnight...my freezer's a wimp)

and voila! homemade Popsicles ready! now even though m not much of a banana fan, less of banana flavoured ice cream, i still enjoyed it. i now plan to try this out with all the fruit variations as and when they come in...strawberry for sure, raspberry for the heck of it, litchis for the taste and maybe even black currants! hahaha...i tried making a pomegranate smoothies once at home, and though it was worse than my papaya smoothie, it looked far better. so if anyone tries out any new dish, try not to go by it's looks!
bon apetit!

struggling at 11

sitting in front of a monitor
looking for the right words
i sit and type and erase what i type
and never know what i really mean.
i want it so much that i hold on too tight
and slipping out of my fingers i see
words have never failed as much as today
while complete sentences i struggle to write.
if i wouldn't know what my life has been
how would anyone else help
but structure i hunt at the 11th hour
and illogical broken dreams is all i find.
the sand clock mocks me with its grains
also with the curves i never gained
trembling fingers and nervous hearts
5essays and an important deadline.

Does the shoe fit?

Happy day, sad day, a day of revelations

Open minds, closed hearts, no place for aberrations.

A wispy hi, a hearty hug, some beaming adoration

A covert glance, an innuendo, a pretty irritation.

Of lefts and rights and divided loyalties

Of dreams and illusions and crashing realities.

Standing there in the pool, splashing all around

Coming back, waist high, just as before I pound.