Everyone has definitive lists of cartoons they grew up with.  The big ones that ‘changed their lives’ or something to that effect.  Honestly, sometimes you get a bit tired of hearing about the exact same cartoons that you, yes, grew up with, but were not the only in a long bundle of growing experiences. This isn’t to say that Gummi Bears and Gargoyles and Darkwing Duck weren’t amazing shows.  They still reign, in my mind, as some of the best cartoons of my generation, but there are also some underrated – and often overlooked – cartoon shows that I used to get excited to see on and were sometimes short-lived. They’re a bit obscure at times, though some are well known just not as known as others, but all of them offered something to me that made me excited to watch them.  Obscure cartoons that I think every kid should experience for one reason or another…

 

 

Beetlejuice

While far removed from the movie it took its name from, somehow the Beetlejuice Cartoon remained the kind of quirky, out of the box thing you’d expect from Burton.  It was equal parts disgusting and fantastic on its best day, and the relationship between Beetlejuice and Lydia was something amazing (unlike the somewhat creepy, older-man rapist vibe you get from the movie.)

It had a decent run, given the content and timing, but ultimately I feel like people don’t remember the cartoon near as much as they do others from the same time period.  It’s amazing, it’s wonderful, and I think it has something to offer just as much as the other shows that we grew up with.

As an adult, I can probably appreciate the humour even more, given that some of the jokes are a bit quirky and dark, but in the end, it belongs on a list of ‘must-see’ stuff.

Maple Town

Another one that I watched far more than I probably should have was Maple Town – it had these kind of animations that I was absolutely head over heels in love with, and was likely my first true experience with ‘anime’.  Yes, it’s a Japanese produced show that was ported over and given a new theme song and general feel for American Children – yet somehow I feel like it was lost in a sea of other cartoons of that age.

Thinking back on it now, I’m not sure how I wasn’t terrified at the prospect of another world with bunnies and the like doing every day tasks and teaching each other lessons – and yes, I realise that Beetlejuice should terrify me in the same way, but his existence wouldn’t have made any sense to me, while bunnies and such do exist.

Honestly, I’m not sure what drew me to Maple Town so much, but I remember a few years ago, without even thinking about it, I started singing the theme song to myself and smiled.  Straight nostalgia to the brain and catchy as hell.

 

The Wuzzles

While not offering much in the way of lasting education or anything of the sort, just your general run of the mill do unto others type of daily stories, The Wuzzles was a show that was creative in my mind, even if short lived.  The idea of inter-species relationships led me to thoughts that I’m not sure I should have had at that age.  But… y’know, something very interesting about the idea of a Bumblebee/Lion combination, especially when he’s flirting with a Butterfly/Bear combination.

It also came to light that there was a toy line in which they had a Kitten/Penguin combination, not featured in the show, but a toy, and now I want it because that’s my perfect combination of the two animals that represent me the best.  Wenkmew.

The Raccoons

Okay, I cannot begin to explain the love I have for this Canadian show. (I didn’t know it was Canadian when I was little, but still.)  The Raccoons has the absolute best soundtrack for a cartoon of its age and theme.  I’m not sure why I was so in love with it, but the combination of music and story-telling had me gaga over it from a young age, and it still kind of resonates with me today.

I also have to admit that I had a bit of a crush on Burt Raccoon.  I’m not ashamed!

 

Count Duckula

As far as obscure, off the wall shit goes – especially from my childhood - Count Duckula has to be one of the craziest.  Nanny being bigger than a breadbox, and the ritual of bringing him back to life being screwed by some Ketchup – which makes him a Ketchup vampire – is just so freaking crazy.  It’s such an 80s cartoon, given the music and the theme of everything.  I seriously cannot believe how much fun it was to watch this.

The voice acting was key for being both terrible and great all at the same time.  Good lord, I loved this cartoon.

Conclusion?

Not all shows are created equal, no, and while a few of these might be outstripped by their competitors of the time, they still are capable of standing on their own as testaments to my childhood.

The unfortunate thing is I remember, as a child, watching a variety show on some channel that had a lot of little segments in it – like fairy tales and the like – but also this one cartoon about a duck who liked eating worms and always got into trouble, like getting dirty? I cannot find it anywhere, but I seem to recall the phrase Lunchbox, and it’s IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND, I AM NOT EVEN KIDDING.

Honorable mentions would only be for all the popular shows I watched, that while they may not have been as popular as some, were still pretty up there as far as nostalgia goes.  I even remember for my seventh birthday getting a Tummy Gummi plush with some strawberry candies.  It was fantastic.  I still have it, he’s just… lost his hat.

Anyways.  Seriously. Go enjoy some nostalgia.

I know it won’t be useful to a lot of people, or even interesting to many, but a list of ways I unwind seems a good place to start, especially with how often Alice (Ezrik’s baby sister) has been screaming her lungs out – meaning when she just wants attention, pooping, or just asleep and doesn’t realise it and just screams until you can’t hear anything else – I have had to find new ways to make myself focus… to help get my mind off the screaming baby or the amount of stress building up on me.

With my ulcers seeming to increase in frequency, or at least the reflux that leads to them, I feel the need to document these so I can remind myself in desperate times of need, such as tonight when she has started and been going for the last half an hour and there is absolutely no way to console her.  (I feel the worst for my cat because can you imagine how that feels to ears that are as sensitive as a cat’s and what have? Or a dog? Christ.)

This is in no way the only ways I calm down, but it is by far the best way I’ve found, at least for the top five.

 

5. Writing

People tell me I’m a good writer, and I’ve learned to take it as a compliment and move on, because I have very little self-confidence in myself, but one of the reasons I started a blog in the first place was to have a place to write – that and I enjoy creating websites and have no other real concrete ideas – and it’s a great way to unwind and escape from whatever stresses I’m feeling at the moment.

Whether there’s someone around to experience them or not, it’s a way to get stories out, ideas on paper – or the internet as is the case most of the time – and a way to express myself in something that people tell me I’m good at.  I’m not good at a lot of things, and being able to write a new piece and have someone I love read it and tell me what’s good about it, and what needs work, makes me feel a bit more connected to the good things in my life, and a little more distanced from my stressing.

This ties in really well with the next one, except in the next one it’s more connected to someone else.

 

4. Role-playing

Okay, so I’ve been doing this kind of thing for more than half of my life, and it really shouldn’t be so far down on the list considering how often I do it and how wonderful it is to escape, but the people I enjoy RPing with are not wholly capable of doing it with me every time I need, and honestly I don’t like pinning people down with my requests to do it.

As I grow older, I want it more, and I realise how odd that is considering most people have gotten over their want to role-play with other people and have moved straight on to writing stories instead of playing them out with other people, but there are very few things in the world that help me unwind as much as slipping into another skin for a while and playing out a life for them.  It falls into the same niche as the next one on the list, yet is much more easy to manipulate as you often set the exact parameters of what is going on.

 

3. Gaming

Probably my first ever real escape was watching my brother play games and knowing that some day I’d be perfectly capable of doing the same myself.  It’s a way to slip into another world and be another person for a while, to enjoy something that isn’t my reality and create a new life based around parameters given to me.

This all got much more extreme once I discovered MMORPGs, but even in the beginning when it was just console games and mostly JRPGs, I was so absolutely in love with gaming as a way to explore different worlds that draw me out of time and offer me a new place to explore myself and the things I love.  These worlds were my inspiration and why I got so into the idea of writing and being a part of new worlds.

Gaming shall forever reign as one of my favourite ways to escape, even as I grow in years (sheesh, I’m almost 30) I will never find a more loving way of escaping, I think.  Well, except for maybe…

 

2. Reading

I don’t actually know the first time I read a book – I know my brother’s age was really low when he first started reading and he moved onto complicated medical texts before he left elementary school, the damn genius – but for me? I don’t know when I started, but I know that fiction works of fantasy origin were always my favourite.  I think it was a mix of the gaming I did, or maybe the reading was the reason I enjoyed RPGs so much, but I know that reading is still one of the best ways to calm me down.

I find it harder lately to find time to curl up and read a book, with how impossible it has become to detach myself from my online pursuits, I still feel it’s one of the best ways to unwind, because if you find a really good book, nothing in the world can draw you out of that trance you get when things are wonderful and you’re falling in love with a new character.

 

1. Music

People often talk about their love of music as if it’s something they cannot do without, but they only mean that they really like music.  It’s something they can easily do without and something they can take or leave, but do really, really quite like it.

With me it’s not so cut and dry.  Music is one of the things that my friends associate with me as much as my writing or anything else, and it’s not as if I make the music myself.  I’m the one that introduces them to new music, or the one that shows them a song that fits them (or a character they’ve made) somewhat beautifully.  I don’t feel bad saying that, I don’t feel I’m tooting my own horn without reason, it’s something I’m good at and it involves my favourite way to unwind.

Turning up music and closing my eyes, letting the climax of a song hit me in the chest and feeling those chills will always be the best way to calm me down.  They’re called eargasms for a reason, as they release the same sort of chemicals to your brain that is released during sex.  It doesn’t work for everyone, but music is… an amazing and safe escape.

I’d rather have no limbs than not be able to hear.  It’s a terrifying thing to say, that I’d rather lose both arms and both legs than lose my ability to hear music, but I’d be much more useful to people without my brain being mush and my body being ravaged by stress than I would be with all my limbs.

Music is my favourite way to unwind because it’s the easiest to do by myself, and by far the easiest one to fulfill in times when I need it. It involves no real planning, just a song, and my eyes closing, and I’m gone… I’m better.  Everything is better.

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As far as lists go, I realise this one isn’t all that insightful for most people, but it does give you a bit of peek into the mind of a girl who has more mental health (and regular health for that matter) issues than most people even realise exist and is never medicated but hasn’t put a gun to her head, a knife to her wrist, or a bottle of pills to her lips in the many years she’s been dealing with them.

It’s hard, but it’s possible to be adjusted without medication.  Yes, it would be much easier WITH these things, but really? I’m fine.  We’re all fine, we just need our escapes.

How do you unwind?

 

 

While it has been said that it is much easier for me to choose females I am attracted to than males, as far as famous people go, I still found it difficult for this list for a completely different reason.  Whittling things down to ten females was harder than it was in finding ten males to do the same thing.  A lot of people could have easily made this list but I have a sort of type that I like and I tended to gravitate towards those who make me bite my lip and react fondly – whether because of their personality, acting, appearance, or all of the above.

This one is going to be interesting, so without further ado, again in ascending order from 10-1, least to most…

 

Rosario Dawson is one of those flawless beauties that you often don’t even understand how beautiful they are until you see them in action.  I can’t remember when exactly I first fell in love with her, but she was one of my favourite parts of Sin City, even if it was a relatively small part, and I cannot help but adore her in Clerks 2, being that she made a good portion of that film much more bearable than it would have been otherwise (not to denigrate the film itself, just saying.)

There’s something about the smoothness of her skin, silkiness of her hair, and the general shape of her that just kind of does it for me.  She has these full lips and this way of smiling and speaking that makes her more attractive than she would seem at first glance.

This isn’t to say that she doesn’t have an immediate beauty when you see her, but she seriously seems like the type of woman I’d hang out with, be friends with, and generally shoot the shit with, which is kind of an awesome quality.  Right?

While Kat Dennings easily fits into what I’d consider my preferred body type (though it has been pointed out that it is not ALWAYS my preferred body type) there is something else about her that makes her so utterly appealing.  She has this awkward – but not too awkward – grace about her.  Like she’d trip over her own feet and laugh about it, and maybe even blush, but be able to handle that kind of joke being made the next day, or the next week, or for the rest of her life.

She seems the type of woman who would be amazing to sit around with and make pointless jokes about stupid things for as long as we possibly could.

While she may not be the world’s best actress, when she’s in a movie it feels a lot better than it should be (The House Bunny having her, Emma Stone, and Anna Faris kind of makes that movie alone rewatchable for me) and I find her crazy appealing in most of her roles.

Yes, her bust is a point of topic in its size and awesomeness, but really, even if she didn’t have that, I kind of dig her large eyes and full lips.  She’s appealing.

With Scarlett Johansson, it feels a bit like she’s slipping out of my grasp as far as a hot commodity goes.  It’s not that I dislike her now, but she’s been in less roles that I feel utterly compelled to like her in – her acting is fine, I just… don’t tend to gravitate towards what she does now.  Black Widow being an exception, as the Avengers was an amazing film on its own, I feel like I haven’t truly adored her in something since Ghost World, even though there was the Nanny Diaries movie that was somewhat acceptable.

She is, however, insanely attractive, between blonde and redhead I still find her delectable in that sense.  She has a shape that I like, a face that I kind of adore, and her singing voice is much better than one would expect.  Like I said, I don’t dislike her, I just find she’s slipping down the list in lieu of girls who’ve made their way further into my heart and mind.

My love for Emmy Rossum should have began when she was Christine in The Phantom of the Opera, but honestly it didn’t really cement itself until she became Fiona Gallagher in Shameless.

Her voice is a huge thing to me, the fact that she was Christine really should have been a driving force, as voices tend to help equate to hotness for me, but Christine as a character is a meh point to me, so it took her being the hard-done-by girl who had to raise her whole family and give up her own life to make sure they stayed afloat that started making me really pay attention to her.

The character of Fiona is probably the main reason I love Emmy, but her voice really is out of this world, she can sing beautifully and ended up being a face claim to one of my favourite characters in the fact that her role in Shameless was perfectly outfitted and her voice was what I wanted for this dancer/singer I had.

She seems like she’d be one of the nicest people to hang around and I could honestly see myself being friends with a woman much like Emmy, so really, it was no contest.

One of the first things I ever said about Emilia Clarke was… that I didn’t find her attractive without the white hair of Daenerys, her role in the Game of Thrones television series.  It’s a bit funny since I find myself biting my tongue at being so attached to the character that I couldn’t see how truly beautiful this woman is.

Seriously! She’s statuesque and graceful, but just drops by friends’ houses even now that she’s famous to hang out and take pictures and just generally being a good person.  I even found it baffling that she was dating Seth MacFarlane.  I don’t find him horribly unattractive, but it makes me think that she really does appreciate people in her life who don’t take themselves too seriously and those who can make her laugh.  Which is an amazing quality.

She will forever be my Mother of Dragons, but now I can see past the white wig and into the beauty of a woman who is truly just… amazing.

If there is anyone in this list who ages amazingly well – which there are probably several – I think Eliza Dushku would likely be at the top of that one.  Though yes, she has aged somewhat, she still doesn’t look too far from what she looked like in her role as Faith in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is just… ridiculous to me.  To be that beautiful for that long really should be illegal, and retaining a down-to-earth attitude to boot? Just crazy.

She’s one of those celebrities who I started following on twitter – at least when I gave a poop about twitter – and watching her respond to her friends and fans was just heart-melting, to know that a woman can care that much about the people around her knowing what she has to offer is just really spiffy to me.

I remember first seeing her in That Night, and thinking that, since we were somewhat similar in age, she was rather cute and I wished I could be like her.  It took a while for her to grow up, and me as well, but she did it far better than I did and definitely became a force to be reckoned with.  Being one of Joss Whedon’s favourites, can it?

Nah, I didn’t think so.

I don’t know when most people started loving Lauren Cohan, but I do know that it’s kind of a thing now, especially since her debut in The Walking Dead and the way she owns that role.  However, I know that mine started when she was playing Rose in The Vampire Diaries and was absolutely my favourite character in that series, and still is.  She was so short-lived it was almost ludicrous, but she remains to this day the top reason I kept watching that show in hopes that she’d show up in flashbacks or what have you.

She’s a dork, she’s a geek, she’s something that people find appealing in this day and age, and she’s absolutely gorgeous to boot.  Her features aren’t perfect, or ideal as some might say, but they are definitely perfect for who she is and how she carries herself.  I find her to be the true epitome of the nerd goddess – fuck off, Felicia Day, I’m kind of tired of your constant pandering to the lowest common denominator in your nerdiness… also your attitude – in that she seems fully capable of not taking herself too seriously and remaining with her feet on the ground even with the amount of attention things have gotten her.

She may not constantly talk about all her nerdy pursuits and throw out the term of being a nerd or geek or dork at anyone (which also brings me to being over the adorkable Zooey Deschanel) but she seems that way to me, and I shall forever find her lovely for it.

Ah, Emma Stone, a woman after my own heart.  As with most of the women in this list, she stars in roles that I absolutely adore her for, being able to go from playing the love-interest of some pretty important people to believably playing an awkward sorority sister, all the way to playing the emotional role in a film that was touted for it’s absolutely beautiful story.

It’s hard to think of a reason to dislike this woman, especially with her having been quoted as saying:

I think the number one thing that I find important is the importance of honesty with your friends and your parents, if you can be. But I think that telling people how you really feel, being who you truly are, being safe and taking care of yourself is the most important thing. (source)

I mean really, she’s honest to who she is, she’s beautiful, she’s funny, and she’s fully aware of the impact she has and takes it to heart when she’s presenting herself to the public.  Who wouldn’t love that?

Jennifer Lawrence is many things: beautiful, my spirit animal, intelligent, a bit lazy yet hard-working, lovely, funny, and fully capable of not taking herself too seriously.  I seriously fell in love with her, not because of her role in any certain movie, but of who she was outside of that.  Yes, I saw her in the Hunger Games and her acting was superb, but Katniss didn’t make me love Jennifer – Jennifer did.

After I learned a bit more about her, and truly sat down to look at the beauty of her, I found out that she really was someone to watch, and I think so far my favourite film that I’ve seen her in was the Poker House, which is a mix of heartbreaking and awe-inspiring on her part and the way she handles that role so beautifully.

My best friend has this thing where whenever a gif of her shows up, he has to show it to me and equate it to how he pictures me – not that he thinks I’m as beautiful as she is, though he might say something like that because he loves me even if it isn’t true – but because of the fact that she is so incredibly weird and quirky and gets quoted saying the most random things and then seeming both flustered and proud of these things at the same time.

It’s hard not to love someone who someone sees as very much like you, and I know that sounds a bit self-loving, but really, she is so much more than I could ever be, even as a down home girl from Kentucky, one of the many things we share.

I cannot get enough of her and don’t expect to any time soon.

When it comes to focusing on Christina Hendricks, most places go right for the breasts – which, to be fair, are kind of AMAZING, but I digress.  She is beautiful because of her face, because of her hair, because of her voice, because of the way she carries herself, because she drinks scotch, because she has poise, because of her grace… seriously, I could go on for days.

It’s one of the reasons I chose the pic I did, so the focus wouldn’t be on the beautiful expanse of her… heaving bosom, but instead on the lines of her face, the colour of her eyes, the way she wears her hair,a dn honestly the fact that she looks amazing in a turtleneck (I’m a sucker for high-collars.)

There are many attributes to adore about this woman, including being the ever loved and hated YoSaffBridge in Firefly, and the both lusted after and eyed with envy Joan from Mad Men, but honestly it just takes a few seconds of listening to interviews she’s done, looking at the people she surrounds herself with, and understanding how she feels about herself to realise that she is more than just a nice pair of breasts and a cute smile.

Most people have criticised her for disliking being called full-figured, and being a fat girl from the middle of nowhere, I can understand a bit of that… but I can also see her side of it.  Full figured was a term made up by women to describe themselves, it was made up by someone else to describe fat women in a way that makes them want to buy these shiny clothes that’ll make them feel oh so curvy instead of as chubby as they might really feel.  It’s a label as much as any other – if she wants her weight to not be focused on at all and instead focus on the weight of her character, more power to her.

Yes, I realise there will be points made about ‘maybe she shouldn’t show off her boobs as much if she doesn’t want her weight focused on’ and all I have to say to that is go bonk yourself merrily in the bum.  It’s like saying she can’t be proud of her body without making it a point of scrutiny for everyone to pick at.

Really, I just love her for feeling she can speak her mind but not managing to denigrate anyone else in the process.  Being proud of her curves without denouncing the beauty of fit women as well.  She finds her body beautiful for her, and bless her, so do I.

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Okay, I believe I got way more long-winded over my females than I did over my men, but this really concludes this list.  As much as I’d love to make honourable mentions, it would fill an entire page and then I’d start rethinking the order and women I have now, and I feel quite satisfied with the list as it is.

I hope it was a somewhat enjoyable read for those of you who do read it, and I know a lot of these women are a change from what I had before, but I think my tastes are slowly slipping into different ways as I age.  This’ll be the hottest of 2013, unless I feel the need to revise it later this year.

Adieu.

This is going to be happening in order from ten to one, and instead of including numbers I trust everyone is able to count.

I’ve already said just how difficult it was for me to be able to think of ten men that actually did it for me.  I mean these all do, but as I committed to one, I’d think about another and frown, trying to decide if it worked right.  Then I’d spend twenty minutes at a time going through images to find one that made me bite my lip so I could honestly say ‘this is the one, this is the one’.  It made this entire process a lot more difficult than I thought it’d be.

But, without further ado because I’m not sure how long this is going to get, I present the list.  Enjoy.

With Joe Manganiello it’s a bit of a weird thing. I cannot stop myself from panty-dropping when he’s this scruffy, sometimes partially silver foxed beast of a man who is fit as hell, but when he’s clean-shaven there’s barely even a pip from down there.  So naturally, I prefer him as Alcide in True Blood than I have in most of the other roles I’ve seen him in, and that might make me a fair-weather lady-bonerer, but…

I mean seriously, I understand how incredibly weird that is, especially since as far as fit men go I don’t usually like them quite so fit, but somehow he manages to keep his body proportionate to his height and never looks overly bulky, which I like.

My best friend and I were talking about it and we think the scruff changes the shape of his face to better fit his body, and that might be the actual reason I like him so much better when he’s bearded.

 

Though Joel McHale is a relatively new addition to my list, I don’t understand why I never noticed him before.  It’s hard to say that he always does it for me, much in the same vein as Joe above, but there’s something about an intelligent, funny, somewhat fit man that just makes me want to bite his shoulder.

I don’t understand why he almost always plays the dick boss in many movies, but in Community I find him to be the right amount of asshole and nice guy to fit what I need.  I know that sounds odd, but honestly, there’s just something far too appealing about a man who can make me laugh, be a bit stand-offish, is intelligent, and is still true to who he is deep down.

Unfs up.

Norman Reedus, you glorious bastard.  How long have I been in love with you? Probably not as long as some people, since it all started with the Boondock Saints, but honestly I remember finding you attractive and not knowing where to find you in much other stuff.  Then you crept into my heart in The Walking Dead in a way that I’ll always remember – I hated your racism and close-mindedness, but adored your intelligence in the art of hunting zombies and keeping everyone safe.

It really got much better once his dick brother left, and then he really became an object of my affection in that role – but the man himself has something about him that is so approachable.  His lack of fear in playing with gender roles and throwing things on their head to make an impact on the media makes me so utterly proud of him, and he seems like he’d be the nicest guy to hang out with, and sometimes that’s what we really want in a hot boy – someone we can chat with for hours on end who won’t bore the hell out of us with talk about how great he is.

Hats off, you beautiful beast.

I’m sorry, but is there anyone who doesn’t in some way find Nathan Fillion ridiculously attractive? He is the quintessential nerd-boy to me, in that he’s been at it much longer than the new generation.  To go from so many projects involving the geek-god, Joss Whedon, including our beloved Captain Malcolm Reynolds, and then onto Castle where he stars as my biggest goal in being a successful writer who also wishes to provide his… services in a way that can also be helpful to his community? I know it’s not exactly like that, but let’s be honest… if he never wrote again he’d be happy to be her partner and help her solve murders, just… yeah.

It’s not just his passion for his former projects – he has more than once stated he’d give just about anything to be doing Firefly again with Joss and the rest of the crew if it were at all feasible – but it is literally the fact that the man is, while not perfect, quite deliciously built in his own way.  He’s not muscular like Joe, or lithe like Joel, but he is very nicely shaped, and has a clean jawline that makes me absolutely want to nuzzle it.  He’s one of the ones on the list where there was no question that he belonged – he was going to be there in some form or way whether I liked it or not.

Oh Captain, my Captain.

A new addition – and in some ways a quite inexplicable one – Jeremy Allen White has certain aspects that do it for me physically, but I really found my love for him in his role as Lip in Shameless.  It wasn’t that he was this bad boy with a genius IQ who managed to find his way into trouble and out quicker than I can even blink… and it wasn’t the fact that when he took his shirt off I seriously had a moment where I squeaked out loud.  It was all of these things and more that kind of drew him in there and put him here.

Why is he so much higher than people I’ve loved for years? Because I really cannot explain why looking at him and listening to him makes me want to climb on him and claim him for all eternity.  It’s something inexplicable and beautiful to me that a man that I can definitely tell is not perfect physically seems to hold so many of the facets I would want in a potential bonk-buddy.  I can’t explain it any further than that, really.

It is what it is.

Some boys creep up on you much later than they ought to have – and I will admit that Jensen Ackles‘ fame and exposure through Supernatural very much helped my noticing of him – but I remember him as Eric Brady in Days of Our Lives, and that’s who I associated him with first when I saw him in the brother-hunter show of so much fame.  It wasn’t “Gosh this boy is hot, I wonder who he is,” it was more like “Oh my fuck, that is Eric Brady, what the hell!”

I used to watch the soap opera with my mother and I believe (I was quite young at the time so it’s hard to remember) that I had my first big crush on that show with Jensen, and then he just kind of slipped out of the show and out of the limelight for quite a while.  I mean I’m sure he was working, but until he powered onto the scene as Dean Winchester, he didn’t explore nearly as much biteability to people as he did afterwards.

It’s no wonder I can look at him and get girly tingles with that lithely built body and that 5 o’clock shadow always hugging his beautiful jaw.  Honestly…

He can hunt me any day.

Oh Chris Hemsworth, being Thor helped you work your way into my heart, but really I don’t think there’s a time where I didn’t see you and find you at least somewhat attractive since I first heard your name.  Seriously though, being the God of Thunder did really help with all that as I have a ridiculous love for Thor and everything about him – from comics to true mythology – and I think he kind of killed that role in a way that no one else will ever be able to do.

I kind of just noticed that his eyes are kind of a cornflower blue in this picture, which is another thing… sucker for blue eyes lately.  Didn’t used to be that way, but his are the perfect example of why these are such good eyes to have.  That and the fact that he has sexy ass forearms, which is kind of a thing with me (I mean seriously, I subscribe to the forearmporn subreddit.)

His accent helps round him out as well, hearing him talk in his normal voice tickles me deep down in that good way that girls often like to get from boys.  Honestly, I don’t think there was ever any doubt he’d show up somewhere on this list.

Totally thunderstruck.

Yes, of course Ryan Reynolds is still on the list, though fallen as he has a bit, it might startle some.  It’s not that I no longer find the man attractive, I still very much do, it’s just that not having seen him in many projects lately and wondering just how much he’s changed has led me to look at him a bit more objectively.

He’s still the hot boy with the great sense of humour that I’ve always liked, I believe, but there are people who have crept up this list in the last few years, and ones I really should have had in here the first time but for some reason didn’t.  My tastes have changed somewhat in certain ways, but I still love a man who can make me laugh and fills out a suit as nicely as he does.

Adorkable is a term I really quite hate in most ways it’s used (seriously over Zooey Deschanel and the ‘geek goddess’ Felicia Day for these kinds of reasons), but it does fit Ryan in some ways to me.  He still strikes me as a very attractive man, just not as attractive as some others.  That explains his fall, you all already know why he’s on here to begin with from the first post about hot actors.

I’ve always had an inexplicable love for Robert Downey Jr., but it wasn’t until the last few years that I’ve felt that it was warranted.

He has had a lot of troubles through his life, and has fallen down the ladder, off the wagon, and into a ditch more times than even he can remember, but he’s managed to pick himself back up and be successful in a way that allows him to stay himself and still be able to provide a good example.

It helps that he’s Iron Man, I’m sure… and I don’t mean that he plays him, I mean I seriously think this man personifies Tony Stark in almost every way.  If there were a way to make him a suit like Iron Man, he could easily become the hero that we all need.  He’s managed to take that role and make it so perfect that I don’t think it could ever be questioned that he is the best man for the role.

He’s highly attractive and functional, and for a slightly older man, he is perfectly delectable.  I find it hard to believe that anyone could look at him and not go “That is an attractive man.”  I just… I can’t believe it’ll happen, but I’m sure it does.

Good lord, unf.

Ryan Gosling has become a kind of institute as far as hot actors go.  He and another few actors always creep up in these lists somewhere, and loathe as I am to be another one of the masses, he has a sort of appeal that I cannot deny.

The first time I can actually remember a performance of his was in Murder by Numbers, and that one was so ridiculously creepy to me and in some ways a perfect role for him, that I couldn’t get him out of my head at that point.  Then I’d keep seeing him crop up in roles here and there and go “why is he so attractive?” but refused to admit to myself that he was, because honestly I was still disturbed by his role in the aforementioned movie… it’s a stupid reason, but honestly, it was off-putting.

That being said, it didn’t take long for me to see him pasted all over the web and kind of crawling into my brain to set up shop.  The scene in Crazy, Stupid, Love with the lack of shirt and Emma Stone getting kind of gushy over him helped a lot, but it had started long before that… I still have never seen the Notebook, but I swear people will rant for hours about him in that film alone and tell me why they love him.

But for me… it’s the body, the face, the hair, and most importantly… the smile.  He has this amazingly cute smile that just kind of turns me to jelly and makes me forget that I’m even doing anything else, and I don’t even know the guy… that’s some power right there, you know?

So even though he’ll never read, and no one will really care, congratulations on your well earned top spot on my list, Mr. Gosling.

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This really kind of concludes this list.  Though there’s room for honourable mentions, I had a hard enough time throwing this list together as far as the males go that I don’t think I’m going to be able to manage quite so well as I’d hoped.  The females might still get some honourable mentions, but really, the lists are what they are.

Hopefully it was a somewhat enjoyable read for some people, or at least they found the pictures quite tasty in some regards, but this is the list of bated-breath.net’s 2013 Top 10 Hottest Actors.  Early 2013, at least… maybe I’ll do another one later if things change enough to warrant it.

Mwah.