Raven is back

I am Raven. A few years ago I used to patrol Fairbanks, AK with Winter Knight, but then I needed a little personal time. You might have seen me on Zetaman's tv show. I now live in Portland, OR and am looking to patrol as soon as I can.

I have two BA's, one in 2D Animation and one in History. In case you're curious, five of my favorite historical figures are: Nikola Tesla, Vlad Dracula, Theodore Roosevelt, Elvis, and the Count St. Germain.

I have training in kickboxing, (some) karate, fencing, weightlifting, yoga, pilates, and bellydancing. I like to go hiking and do outdoorsy things like fishing and camping. I am fairly good with fielding health/workout/eating right sort of questions.


That's an old picture of me that Winter Knight took for me. I'll have to get a new picture soon.

Welcome to the Heroes Network.

ONE OF US!

welcome Raven to the forum and back to the commuity glad to have you here.

Raven,

Welcome to the Heroes Network. One of us!


I hope you find the forum to be fun and useful and all those cool things.

Welcome back. Good to have you with us.

2D animation you say? So you're the one to team up with when we feel like creating some RLSH computer game. :-)

Welcome back Raven.


DarkShadow Rising...

Welcome back to the community Raven

It's times like this that I wish I weren't just a 1D person... I want to be 2D like everybody else!



Welcome to the network!

Here's my origin story...in case you want to know

Just made a new facebook page as Raven. If you guys would give it a LIKE that would be awesome!

Raven's Facebook Page

That was a good video! No trailers at the beggining, but still a great story.

RLSH videos are good.

Good RLSH videos are great!

I always encourage all RLSH to spend time on creating good videos that shows what they do. The better it looks, the better it will be for the reputation of the entire community.

C,

While I think in the past I'd be more inclined to disagree with you about that - primarily in the sense of how I don't think that one person represents all - even if a lot of people disagree with it - it's just a message I'd wanted to be known to the world - due to the diversity we have - however the unpredictability that comes from that can hurt or help.

BUT, the part I am agreeing with you about, it that the videos do help. Not only externally in the sense of showing the world what we are and that we're real. But also in the sense of how it helps internally also. They can help increase morale. Which can also encourage others to do the same, and those more videos would do the same also.

One person does represent all. That's how it's always been with everything. One foreigner steals => All foreigners are thieves.
The media makes sure everyone thinks so anyway. And we can't change that, so we might as well use it.

If one RLSH does something stupid => All RLSH are stupid.

That is why it's important to me (as a supporter) that the RLSH spends time on the videos they make, and present all the good sides.
I have in fact just today made an example. ShadowStar and NightShade has made a small video they've put on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcvY4unuvZY

They already have one of the vital factors in place: Cool outfits. (Being female and good looks doesn't hurt either). But they have the cool looks, and that's important in order to catch the attention of the public.
Now all they need is to
1) Make their videos look more professional.
2) Make intelligent wise decisions on them.
3) Say intelligent wise things on them.

Here's a demonstration of how the above video has come to look more professional simply by processing it with a stabilizer, cropping it a bit and adding a technicolor filter.
http://www.sectortools.com/shadowshade.mp4

A pro looking video also has so much more credibility when it comes to e.g. fundraising.

I will never accept that. Especially in a community as diverse as this one, I see a lot of people who believe things that I don't believe - at all. And I don't want people thinking that I do believe those things.

We can change that. If my voice is to matter at all - it isn't to represent the ideals of others - it isn't to preach to the choir of those who believe what is wrong. I'm a philosopher. I think deep thoughts and I want to be heard. Many times in my life I've felt as if my voice didn't matter and would never be heard. But I'm not accepting that. I will make sure my message is heard. And if there are things that you disagree with me about, you too can be heard (as this forum - including this section - is visible to the public).

One message that I want heard has to do with what I personally consider a superhero or not. Not to enforce any belief, but simply to share my own outlook that others can use as a reference. People can often more easily agree on "what" a superhero is and isn't more than they can agree on "who" is a superhero and who is not. It's easier to appreciate the good traits and condemn for the traits we don't like.

People who condemn me for something another superhero does sounds like they already had it in their mind to hate us to begin with. A curious and interested mind - which is good - will often look further than the obvious and simple factors. However, admittedly one factor that can contribute to your logic is a fear and mistrust some would have. But then looking back from my angle on this again, let's say people know me and they like me and trust me, the good I do isn't something I would necessarily want them to automatically like and trust someone else who does this who I don't necessarily like nor trust. So if I were to talk to people, I'd say to not see all superheroes the same way - be it good OR bad - and to really look at the individual and get to know them themselves. Because of how I believe that all superheroes are as diverse as there are diverse people in the world.

I'll admit that there are some factors which both help and hurt both mine and your's logic here. I'll admit that there are people who do see things the way you see it. Some. Possibly even a lot. Not necessarily all. However, for those who do see things that way, I just want people to look to individuals. Setting a high expectation too quickly can lead to disappointment, but setting a low expectation too quickly could hold them back from really getting to know people that they could grow to appreciate.

You can refuse to accept it all you want. It will not change facts.
But keep in mind I'm talking about how the PUBLIC views certain groups, and I am of course also speaking generally. The public generally always generalize a certain group of people, based on what the media tells them. Just look at terrorism. Everyone knows that a terrorist could never ever be a white christian guy. All terrorists comes from the evil religion of islam, and so forth.
OF course there will always be a part of the public intelligent enough to know that's not true, but let's face it: Intelligence is low on supply on this planet.

Please do not misunderstand me. I don't believe those things myself, and I definitely do not consider all RLSH to be stupid just because I've met a few stupid ones.

And obviously any single person within a certain group of people (like you), will of course NOT view the whole group that way either. Because, being part of the group, he knows that's it's a very diverse group of people.

But the media is powerful. Their word counts.

By making your own videos, you can become the media yourself. But if you want the public to acknowledge your videos, they will simply have to look good.

As for the first part, me not accepting something often does have to do with me being vocal about it and not so much changing what is true - but rather only revealing the actual truth that is hidden under layers of bias, deception, opinion, ignorance, etc.

You are right that I can't make everyone understand. And how there isn't a lot of people in the world who have common sense. It's frustrating but true. However the only thing I can use is the Starfish Theory, and also even knowing that if there's a room full of 100 people who believe something that I consider both/either factually untrue and/or morally wrong, there's the deontological ideals I have that would suggest that I have to reveal the truth to them regardless of if the consequence would include them learning from what I say or not. But if I believe that telling them is something that is the right thing for me to do, then it would be something I would do.

And in this part I drift toward further proving your point, how it is good if we speak up about what matters to us. Because through what we say and what we show, we can educate the world on the things that matter to us. And perhaps hopefully in showing videos, we can show the vast diversity in styles, methods, goals, ideals, etc.

And I do agree that making videos can help this community both internally and externally. Whether it was the actual patrolling stuff or even just the fun stuff.

Looks to me like we're expressing the same points of view, only from different angles. :-)

C & Tothian - This could be a topic all on its own.

C,
I think so.

Raven,
That is true. Although I think we both did make the points we were trying to make. On the Heroes Network, things don't always stay on topic. Kind of like on the phone, conversations do tend to lead other places. But then on the forum randomly get brought back to the original topic.

Hey, it is nice to meet you.

Yo, Raven how's it going? Welcome