Mae Dreams

Hello whoever might be out there,  I have been miraculously inspired to rewatch The Simpsons, not that that would come as a surprise to anyone. The best place to start? Season one - arguably. And with over 700 episodes, a rewatch doesn't necessarily have to be every single one. So I skip straight to episode six: Moaning Lisa. For being one of the first episodes in the show, it is quite bluntly beautiful. Lisa Simpson is a character I feel deeply connected to, hence why she is my blog profile picture. She is an eight-year-old girl with the weight of the world on her shoulders. She is Lisa Simpson. She meets Bleeding Gums Murphy. She plays some music. She learns she can be sad but happy at the same time. Simple but effective. This episode inspired the song from the "Simpsons sing the blues" album, and also the title of this post. Incredibly obvious as the song she sings with Bleeding Gums Murphy is the first verse of this song.  https://youtu.be/MieasttRrkw?si=K6F3tBzgVbplA...

Hello whoever might be out there,  GCSEs. Mock exams. Every day feels like banging my head against a brick wall but not even making a dent. Running circles only to reach the same conclusion. When I am sitting in that exam hall, air-conditioning ticking and hands freezing, picking up a pen feels like bearing a hundred tonne load. Typing a sentence is sending my fingers on a marathon - yet nobody can run ten marathons in a row. So why is the bare minimum for me to slave away in this way? My English Language story is about a girl trying so hard yet failing all of her GCSEs, yet she is a refugee. She doesn't speak the language. She never stood a chance. Yet I do have a chance, as if I am performing my one person rendition of Hamilton, "I am not throwing away my shot." But that shot has pretty much already left my hands and is hurtling down into depths where I can not obtain it. I have to keep saying that it doesn't matter and that I don't care; that is the only feasib...

Hello whoever might be out there, I love charity shops, because you can find some absolute gold in there; such as today where I found a Lego Friends DVD that I had honestly forgotten about when writing my previous posts regarding the franchise. That is the Girlz 4 Life movie. This film was released in 2016 and captures everything that I believe to be wrong with the 2012 version of Lego Friends. Don't get me wrong, it was a good film and is the standard for what every film for a younger audience should be; short, entertaining, and annoyingly unrealistic. I mean, how do you just conveniently manage to get into a press conference for supposedly the biggest in universe celebrity? I made a few notes while watching. Nerdy? Yes. But I knew I would want to talk about this on here so I kept receipts, and I am so glad I did. And in case you haven't already caught on, there will be spoilers. There was one specific moment that made me literally pause the film to pull out my phone. There is...

Hello whoever might be out there,  I had to finally cave in and announce the existence of my blog to my friends like a town crier. Spending three hours on a ramble about Lego Friends is apparently what it takes for me to cave in, and that's fair enough really as I didn't want to let my hard work and effort go to waste, not that they are the type of people to care about Lego Friends at our ripe old age anyway. It got me thinking about what actually changes now I know for definite that there are people other than me reading this. I have always felt as if I behave completely differently depending on who I am around, and I am now tasked with the skills of performing to all the audiences at once. It's an odd feeling. But I like it. I can try and claim that I am nonchalant about who is reading this, but in reality I would love it if hundreds of people were reading and commenting on here. Attention seeking? Maybe. I work hard rambling to my heart's content, some reciprocation ...

Hello whoever might be out there, Today I watched Season 2 Episode 11 of Lego Friends - The Next Chapter. The reunion episode. Long awaited. I briefly outlined, and yes that was brief for me, my opinions on Lego Friends and their redesigns in my last post. TLDR; I love them. One thing I love in particular is the attention to detail across what is technically totally different shows. I love Girls on a Mission. Definitely one of my comfort shows. Something about the 2018 girls taking on challenges bigger than themselves and winning is charming to me. Almost like I am mourning this fictional life I should be living. I admire the girls and everything they do, and I think this reunion episode does the 2018 girls justice, but I am not sure if I can say the same for the 2023 gang. The episode starts with Nova and Autumn sat in the diner discussing how it feels to be ditched by their friends - the biggest downside for having such a big friend group. Cue lazy excuse for not having all eight inv...

Hello whoever might be out there, I love Lego Friends. It is a interest that has stuck with me ever since I was six years old, so much so that it influenced my choice in name change (no, Mae is not my real name). I was there for the OG five with their OG designs. Mia, Emma, Olivia, Stephanie, and Andrea. I have seen the drama over the 2018 redesign. I have seen even more drama over the 2023 overhaul. Nova, Autumn, Liann, Leo, Olly, Zac, Paisley, and Aliya. I love it. To (not so) briefly outline, the original designs of the five girls were extremely non-diverse and stereotypical. Four out of the five girls were white, and even then Andrea was simply the token "slightly darker skinned" girl. From left to right: Mia was ginger and liked animals but notably, unlike the other girls, wears trousers!; Emma was black-haired and liked art and karate. Andrea was, as I previously stated, the token non-white girl with brown curly hair, and she liked singing; Stephanie was blonde and like...

Hello whoever might be out there, I really hate the recent Amazon advert. In case you haven't seen it, it is about a mother and son who move from the city, where the son has a strong passion for skateboarding, to the isolated coast where there is nowhere and nobody for him to skateboard with. So she buys him a surfboard. And I hate it. It is the equivalent of giving a plaster for a broken leg. But you broke their leg in the first place. And you feel good for giving them a plaster. I know moving house can sometimes be unavoidable, but as a parent, surely your top priority should be ensuring your child can still do what they love? Why force them to have a passion they don't want to have purely because it is convenient for you? You won't work hard for something you don't like. A pathetic attempt to fix a wound you caused. That is what it is. Skateboarding an surfing have very little similarity other than the fact they are both boards. It's a meek gesture lacking real t...