Chivalry: Justice

Justice is the second of Scott Farrell's seven knightly virtues; it's also extremely important in regards to the social systems of today. I imagine that the laws of yesteryear were perhaps more greatly defined than those of today, as the rise of free-speech has blurred the line between what is right and what is opinion, but a strong sense of justice can be extremely attractive in a potential mate.

She Doesn't Know I Exist

I didn't have a lot of mojo in high school, which I know must come as a shock to all of my readers, but there were certainly a lot of girls that I wish would have noticed me. While I had strong friendships with a lot of my crushes, there was one girl in particular that I never had the courage to speak to, and I'm pretty sure that, if she had passed me on the street in high school, she wouldn't have recognized me as one of her peers.

The All-Nighter

In high school, the summertime was a wealth of parties for my friends to go to. Actually, any time was a good time for a party, but there were more of them in the summer. What made the summer parties better than any of the others is that it would always be so warm outside that we could pretty much crash anywhere, whether it was the middle of our friend's kitchen floor, or the middle of an empty field. This particular party was great for a different reason.

Rule 02: Don't Get Sleezy

'De Amore,' a 12th-century French novella written by Andreas Capellanus lists twelve rules to follow in love. The second rule, 'Thou shalt keep thyself chaste for the sake of her whom thou lovest,' basically means that you should keep from getting so freaky in the bedroom that you alienate your partner. Also, don't whore yourself out around town behind her back, because that's pretty douchey and a betrayal of trust. Actually, at the time it might have meant to stay a virgin until you'd found the woman you love, and while that's still good advice today, I don't expect anyone to listen to it.

I Destroy Happiness

Sometimes I let myself get talked into things that I'm really not interested in doing, but never by a man. I guess it's possible that I just don't have any guy-friends that want to spend time with me, or, even less likely, that I'm just such hot-stuff that all the ladies want to get some face-time, but...women can just manipulate me any way they please. And then there are times that I'm actually able to say no to a woman that's asking me for something. This is one of the times that I said no, and then changed my mind to suit, not a matter of the heart, but a game of spite.

Snowed Out

In my grade eleven year, there was a surprise snow storm in the middle of February, and not one of us was prepared for it. The morning had started out cold, and it looked as though it were about to rain, but there was no sign of snow. By the time our classes started that morning, the snow had started, and it didn't let up until later that night. Naturally, the school bus drivers spent the day preparing themselves to get to the schools in the afternoon to drive the students home...all of the drivers except for ours.

Unsolicited Advice 2

Trolling through the dating section of Yahoo!Answers, I've compiled a few questions in need of attention that I think I might try my hand at answering. Granted, my advice is likely to be horrible, but I think it's unlikely that the authors of these questions will read this blog anyway. And if they do, and happen to take my advice...they are more than welcome to pen a guest entry to let me know just how horribly I screwed them over.

More Opportunities Missed

I like the feeling of being pursued. It makes me feel pretty. It doesn't happen very often...almost never, in fact, so when it does, it's aces for my self-confidence. Betsy was pretty good at making me feel wanted in someone's life, unfortunately, our paths often failed to cross and instead veered only narrowly close to collision. That is to say, every time either of us tried to see one another, it was doomed to scheduling failure.

Monkey-Business

Way back when I had first started university (community college) I was in a bit of a funk. I didn't have too many friends, there weren't too many people going to my school that I knew, and I knew pretty much no one in my actual classes. So when I finally managed to win the attention of one of the women in my class, it was an...exciting moment. What made it even better is that there was no effort required on my part to catch her eye, a feat yet to be repeated.

Valentine's Day

_*½

Valentine's Day in Los Angeles as told through a series of intertwining vignettes featuring a star-studded cast far beyond the director's ability to handle. The viewer will witness a series of break-ups and make-ups involving a slew of characters that, due to their sheer volume, will never get any sort of meaningful development.

Celebrating VD

Every year my friend Rachel would set up some sort of gathering so that we would all come together and celebrate Valentine's Day. I think that it started out as an anti-Valentine's dinner, for those of us that were single, but, as the years drew on, everyone started coupling up, and the 'anti' was dropped from the title. As the couples grew ever-more gropey, I decided that it would be best to shorten the title to VD, as it seemed apt. And then those damn scientists went and changed the D to an I, so it doesn't make sense anymore, but, at the time, there was still VD. This has gone off on a tangent, hasn't it?

The Walkabout

As I've proven time and time again, I have great difficulty in disengaging from various unpleasant situations. It doesn't matter if it's with someone that I know well or an acquaintance that I've just made, there will always come a time that I need to get out of a conversation for my own sanity, and simply find myself unable for a myriad of reasons. I think that, what makes this phenomenon even worse, is when you can see the awkwardness coming at you in the form of someone that you dislike, and you know that you're going to have to get away as quickly as possible, but still manage to let yourself get caught in your enemy's sights.

Chivalry: Mercy

Of the seven knightly virtues, according to Scott Farrell, mercy is the third, though I'm not sure that they're written in any particular order. Farrell took the common themes found in descriptions of knightly virtues to come up with the concept of what chivalry would have meant back in the day of knights in shining armour and how it could be applied to the modern man of today.

Bumbly-Wumbly

Growing up, my family always had pets, whether they were cats, of which we had seven that I can remember, dogs, of which we had two, or fish, all of which I apparently killed. But there was a period of years, between our first dog and our second, during which my father was quite insistent that we not have a dog. This didn't sit well with my sister, because having a dog was basically the only thing that she wanted out of childhood.

Still Doing it Wrong

The last time that Ophelia tried to set up a double-dating situation with dreams of she and I falling for one another, it didn't really pan out in my favour. This was a few years after the fact, and, this time, it was me that was setting things up between us. But, considering who I am...it should have been obvious that the past would somehow repeat itself.

Rule 01: Don't Get Greedy

According to Andreas Capellanus, the 12th-century French author of 'De Amore,' there are twelve chief rules to courtly love. The somewhat cynical tone to Capellanus's work suggests that his work be taken with a grain of salt, but there is also a good deal of valid information to be gained from reading his ideas. The first chief rule of courtly love is as follows: thou shalt avoid avarice like the deadly pestilence and shalt embrace its opposite. In layman's terms: it's better to give than to receive.

Oblivious as Ever

I've never been good at recognizing when someone is interested in me, and even when they're openly flirting, and everyone else can tell that I'm being hit on, I remain as oblivious as ever. When there's already a foundation of friendship to the relationship, it becomes even more difficult for me notice that anyone's interested in me, because we'll generally have a fairly flirty way of conducting ourselves around each other anyway, so...these chicks really need to just come out and say it already.

The Woman of Legend

I am likely never to forget the elderly woman who tried to hug-rape me. It remains still a very vivid memory, but, at the time, I held out hope that it would fade into the back of my mind and eventually just fizzle away into nothing. It wasn't long after the initial incident that I realized that forgetting Amelia just...wasn't in the cards for me. Or for anyone else who's path she would cross.

Guest: It was Complicated

I entered into an open relationship when I was fourteen, and it was pretty much doomed from the beginning. In all honestly, I think it would be a terribly difficult thing to do even for some well-seasoned adults, let alone, tweens entering their first relationships ever. I was never privy to the exact workings of how the concept was formulated, I only recall being informed that there it was.