I don't know what that title says to you, but to me it says, "I, Casey Rafler, went with two very awesome people, Teresa Tapia and Joseph Campagna, to 91X's WreX the Halls." It was an awesome concert on so many levels. A few things could have been better though; and so I write this latest blog entry as my review of the night. We'll start with Pre-Show, First Band: A Day to Remember, then Anberlin, Switchfoot, Jimmy Eat World, Bad Religion, My Chemical Romance (MCR), Smashing Pumpkins, and finally end with the Post-Show. Let's get to it!
So Joseph and I have met up at Teresa's to get a ride from there. He and I talk about video games and respectully wait for Madam Tapia to get ready. We headed off! Once at the SDSU Aztec Arena, we wait in a huge line, which was one of many apparently. Here a young fellow asked me where the line for the floor was, we all almost got mustaches but I was too lazy to get out of line, and people kept walking between us. Once in we saw a spot to get free mohawks; mohawks and mustaches, sounds like my great aunt Beth. Joseph and I tell Teresa that we'd get mohawks if she got one, but then she totally chickened out. In no way whatsoever did Joseph and I chicken out before asking her, because we're men, we make fire, and wheel. So then we get our seats, pretty good seats too for $48. Then the first band performs.
A Day to Remember was, at best, a band to forget. They seemed to copy a lot of the sounds the other bands played that night. Nothing more to say here really, except that there's a reason they're an opening band. That's 3 insults in one paragraph, damn I'm on a role. Moving on!
Anberlin, "Was this over before?!!!!" Before I started to really enjoy they're music? Yes. I love Anberlin, great band, but the second band that plays never gets to play much. They did play my favorite songs by them, so that was cool. They were also the band that got a mini-mosh pit to form somehow. So then Switchfoot played.
For some reason I keep spelling Switchfoot, Swtichfoot. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed this band until I heard some songs I like by them. I also didn't realize that the Beastie Boys have one good hit for me and that I actually like the Switchfoot cover of said hit. This band is great in concet, lot of energy, the lead singer jumped into the audience and actually hugged people. Too bad he didn't jump into our side of the audience. He also jumped around a lot on stage. This was the first band J-Dizzle, T-Fizzle, and myself (C-Grizzle) actually stood for.
Surprise side-note paragraph! The people sitting next to us only stood for Smashing Pumpkins, they were more of a buzz kill the entire night than Buzz Killington. Also, sometime during the evening I showed Teresa and Joseph a real life XD face, I'll totally do it for you if you ask. Doubly also, I got burned by a lighter... thanks Joseph. Now, back to your regularly broadcast review.
Jimmy Eat World, was by far, my favorite band there. No surprise seeing as they're one of my top 3 favorite bands. Also, I recognized every song they played, that was a plus. Rush out, out from the center, because it takes my pain away, realizing that of all the things I think I'll miss, there's staying up with you, coffee and cigarettes. Damn, I really didn't think I could fit three different lyrics into one coherent sentence, if you call that coherent. So now we get to the last three bands.
First up, Bad Religion, more lilke Bad Band! ZING! Oh, my humor's starting to run dry. Assuming I had any in the first place. Seriously, though, horrible band. It looked like they had a great mosh pit. The mosh pit grew huge when they played and ended up being more entertaining to watch than the band. Unfortunately, since they were part of the final 3 bands, they had a lot of songs to play. Damn they sucked, but they made the following band more worth it.
MCR!!!! OMG, OMG, I'ma pass out and if Joseph and Casey don't pass out as well I'ma remain conscious long enough to knock them out. That was Teresa's reaction to MCR. For good reason too. You have every right to look silly if you're a die-hard-fan of the band. But she didn't look to silly, because Joseph and I jumped up right after she did. They were the most theatrical and entertaining of the bands. Lot of fist pumping and jumping around and moving to the music going on from over half the audience including myself, Joseph, and Teresa. MCR, rock on!
Smashing Pumpkins. Facepalm. Okay, first, the guy who announced them, did it 10 minutes too soon. He also mentioned that Billy (the lead singer) thought the audience he played for last was "luke-warm." Then, when they come out on stage all they do is play, they don't engage their audience or say what they're playing, they just play, no moshing, nothing. Also, half the audience had already left after MCR. The people sitting next to us left half way through, this was after standing for the band. Also, they had a lot of guitar solo's and one badass drum solo. My point here is: they wonder why they have a luke-warm audience, when all of this happens. Their energy was in their guitars, drums, and lights; so at least that was good. I still love Smashing Pumpkin songs, though, just not the band in concert.
Finally, the post-show. We ended up leave during the final long note Smashing Pumpkin's played. Outside, we regretted not getting mohawks and mustaches, I may have spotted a friend or two that I knew, and Joseph and I saw a girl who goes to Grossmont that looks like Gerard Way (lead singer for MCR). Some struggling to sit on a wall occured and other such awesomeness ensued. Overall, it was a really fun night and good times were had all around. I'm definitely making Wrex the Halls a regular event. Maybe one day I'll be able to afford floor and join an awesome mosh pit. That will be the day.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Friday, November 5, 2010
Story: Number One
Working title. I stopped writing movie reviews for some reason and went back into writing pointless crap that attempts to be deep an meaningful. This post I assure you, has meaning. It's my first attempt at story telling. Also, I promise to catch up on my reviews and whatnot later. For now, enjoy my first short story.
The Poncho
A Short Story Written by Casey Rafler
Large, green, and always wet. These were the reasons why young Christopher always hated his rain poncho. Granted, green was his favorite color. He did also appreciate not getting himself wet because of the full body coverage of his forest green poncho. But something about it just seemed to make him angry.
But what? And why? After all, his grandmother bought the poncho for him and young Christopher oh so loved his grandmama. So why then would Chritopher have such negative feelings for something that had so much value? Perhaps it was because of a boy named Chase.
Huge, sickly, and always slimy. This is how young Chase would always describe his friend's rain poncho. Blue was a much better color in Chase's mind and let's face it, he had a point. Also, Chase could never understand why Christopher couldn't be like normal kids and use an umbrella. These are the reasons why Chase convinced Christopher to destroy the poncho.
Chistopher was having such a bad day. As it so happened, Chase was having a similar day as well. As the two young gentlemen walked along in the rain towards Christopher's grandmother's house they began to chat. "I hate the rain," Christopher said.
"You should have an umbrella with you," Chase suggested.
"But I've got this poncho," Christopher added, "and I accidentally tore a hole in it earlier." Grabbing his poncho, Christopher adjusted it to show Chase the hole that just so happened to be over the right shoulder of the poncho.
"Umbrellas don't get holes," Chase told Christopher. Of course umbrellas can get torn up, but Chase wasn't about the reveal this to his pal.
"You're right," Christopher said. Hook, line, and sinker; Chase found his way under Christopher's skin unnoticed.
"You know what you should do," Chase told Christopher, "you should tear that poncho to shreds."
"You know what Chase," Christopher told his pal, "I think you're right."
The two had finally reached Christopher's grandmother's house giving the boys a perfect opportunity to stop. In this moment of rest, rage grew within Christopher. Not being able to contain it, he seized his poncho and tore it apart. The poncho began as one piece, then became two, then three, then four, and so on until it was nothing more than a bunch of tiny peices of it's former self. But just as the last torn piece of the poncho was about to hit the ground, the door to the house swung open and in the doorway stood Christopher's grandma with a look of shock in her face.
"Christopher, what have you done?" his grandmama asked.
"Got rid of this huge, sickly, slimy, stupid poncho!" Christopher yelled.
For a moment grandma didn't respond, a look of bewilderment worn on her face. But just as all grandmothers do, she responded with kindess, "Come here Christopher, before you catch a cold," she beckoned him. Christopher rushed towards his grandmother and hugged her. "You should head on home Chase," she told Christopher's friend.
In this last moment Christopher turned toward Chase with an expression of discontent. Tears my have been dripping from from Christopher's eyes, but Chase couldn't tell, after all, it was raining. But just before grandma closed the door she too glanced at Chase. But her look was woefully different. It was the look of disappointment that only grandmothers can give. What had Chase done?
A grandmother, disappointed with her grandchild's friend. A boy without a poncho. A friend who realized he had done wrong. But I felt sorriest for the poncho, it didn't deserve the fate it got.
Well, there you have it. My first attempt at a short story. A piece of crap? Literary genius? Something entirely different? You decide. I do want to write more of these so feedback would be most appreciated. Thanks!
The Poncho
A Short Story Written by Casey Rafler
Large, green, and always wet. These were the reasons why young Christopher always hated his rain poncho. Granted, green was his favorite color. He did also appreciate not getting himself wet because of the full body coverage of his forest green poncho. But something about it just seemed to make him angry.
But what? And why? After all, his grandmother bought the poncho for him and young Christopher oh so loved his grandmama. So why then would Chritopher have such negative feelings for something that had so much value? Perhaps it was because of a boy named Chase.
Huge, sickly, and always slimy. This is how young Chase would always describe his friend's rain poncho. Blue was a much better color in Chase's mind and let's face it, he had a point. Also, Chase could never understand why Christopher couldn't be like normal kids and use an umbrella. These are the reasons why Chase convinced Christopher to destroy the poncho.
Chistopher was having such a bad day. As it so happened, Chase was having a similar day as well. As the two young gentlemen walked along in the rain towards Christopher's grandmother's house they began to chat. "I hate the rain," Christopher said.
"You should have an umbrella with you," Chase suggested.
"But I've got this poncho," Christopher added, "and I accidentally tore a hole in it earlier." Grabbing his poncho, Christopher adjusted it to show Chase the hole that just so happened to be over the right shoulder of the poncho.
"Umbrellas don't get holes," Chase told Christopher. Of course umbrellas can get torn up, but Chase wasn't about the reveal this to his pal.
"You're right," Christopher said. Hook, line, and sinker; Chase found his way under Christopher's skin unnoticed.
"You know what you should do," Chase told Christopher, "you should tear that poncho to shreds."
"You know what Chase," Christopher told his pal, "I think you're right."
The two had finally reached Christopher's grandmother's house giving the boys a perfect opportunity to stop. In this moment of rest, rage grew within Christopher. Not being able to contain it, he seized his poncho and tore it apart. The poncho began as one piece, then became two, then three, then four, and so on until it was nothing more than a bunch of tiny peices of it's former self. But just as the last torn piece of the poncho was about to hit the ground, the door to the house swung open and in the doorway stood Christopher's grandma with a look of shock in her face.
"Christopher, what have you done?" his grandmama asked.
"Got rid of this huge, sickly, slimy, stupid poncho!" Christopher yelled.
For a moment grandma didn't respond, a look of bewilderment worn on her face. But just as all grandmothers do, she responded with kindess, "Come here Christopher, before you catch a cold," she beckoned him. Christopher rushed towards his grandmother and hugged her. "You should head on home Chase," she told Christopher's friend.
In this last moment Christopher turned toward Chase with an expression of discontent. Tears my have been dripping from from Christopher's eyes, but Chase couldn't tell, after all, it was raining. But just before grandma closed the door she too glanced at Chase. But her look was woefully different. It was the look of disappointment that only grandmothers can give. What had Chase done?
A grandmother, disappointed with her grandchild's friend. A boy without a poncho. A friend who realized he had done wrong. But I felt sorriest for the poncho, it didn't deserve the fate it got.
Well, there you have it. My first attempt at a short story. A piece of crap? Literary genius? Something entirely different? You decide. I do want to write more of these so feedback would be most appreciated. Thanks!
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Movie Review: Easy A
Okay, so Easy A is about a girl who pretends to be a whore. Sound bad? Well, it's not as bad as you think. You've got to see the movie. You'll understand. Movie, cast, director, audience, then grade and final note, you know the drill.
So I pretty much just explained the essential plot. If I said anything else, it would ruin the film. Watch the trailer for it if you want more (apparently one of my friends didn't even know the film existed, he clearly hadn't seen the trailer). One thing I will say about it, the subtext in the film is absolutely brilliant. On the surface, the film has a bunch of satire, comedy, and bullshit. Underneath it all, amazing insight into society. Great stuff on the surface and deep within.
Emma Stone, caught my interest in Superbad, developed as an actress in Zombieland, now has the lead role, she's become quite the good actress. Penn Badgley, a CW star, don't know much about him, didn't learn much about him from the film, but he's cool. Amanda Bynes, had her own TV show once, as far as movies go, she gets supporting roles that are very important to the film it seems, this one's no exception. Thomas Haden Church, I've seen him in a lot of obscure movies I've watched (including Spider-Man 3, ZING!), I like him as an actor. Patricia Clarkson, don't know much about her, worth the mention though. Stanley Tucci, read the previous sentence. Cam Gigandet, apparently James from Twilight, he clearly has a better role in Easy A. Aly Michalka, worth the mention. Lisa Kudrow, haven't seen her since Friends, loved her role in this film. Malcolm McDowell, A Clockwork Orange himself, also had a role on Heroes, my mind nearly exploded with amazement when I saw him appear on screen. Finally, if you see the film, you'll recognize the pastor character, he's worth the mention too, not saying who it is, though.
Will Gluck, the director. He directed and co-wrote Fired Up as well. Loved that film. This guy knows how to make me laugh. He hasn't done much else worth mentioning yet, though.
Audience. Okay, so, this is a date movie. No denying that. You'll see a bunch of couples their. Yes I did go with a lady friend myself. Key word in that last sentence: friend. But I digress. A big group of young High School or College students were in the audience as well, but they remained quiet, I was pleased.
Final note. I almost wrote another Scott Pilgrim blog, but it turns out, this movie's ending was in fact different than Scott Pilgrim's ending. I would get into why, but I don't need to and you probably don't want to read it, I sure wouldn't. Easy A has plenty of awesome subtext, a good ending believe it or not (for what it wanted to accomplish), and a really amazing message. It was nicely put together and was different than most of the crap Hollywood dishes out. Overall, I give Easy A an A, "for awesome," it's a must see.
So I pretty much just explained the essential plot. If I said anything else, it would ruin the film. Watch the trailer for it if you want more (apparently one of my friends didn't even know the film existed, he clearly hadn't seen the trailer). One thing I will say about it, the subtext in the film is absolutely brilliant. On the surface, the film has a bunch of satire, comedy, and bullshit. Underneath it all, amazing insight into society. Great stuff on the surface and deep within.
Emma Stone, caught my interest in Superbad, developed as an actress in Zombieland, now has the lead role, she's become quite the good actress. Penn Badgley, a CW star, don't know much about him, didn't learn much about him from the film, but he's cool. Amanda Bynes, had her own TV show once, as far as movies go, she gets supporting roles that are very important to the film it seems, this one's no exception. Thomas Haden Church, I've seen him in a lot of obscure movies I've watched (including Spider-Man 3, ZING!), I like him as an actor. Patricia Clarkson, don't know much about her, worth the mention though. Stanley Tucci, read the previous sentence. Cam Gigandet, apparently James from Twilight, he clearly has a better role in Easy A. Aly Michalka, worth the mention. Lisa Kudrow, haven't seen her since Friends, loved her role in this film. Malcolm McDowell, A Clockwork Orange himself, also had a role on Heroes, my mind nearly exploded with amazement when I saw him appear on screen. Finally, if you see the film, you'll recognize the pastor character, he's worth the mention too, not saying who it is, though.
Will Gluck, the director. He directed and co-wrote Fired Up as well. Loved that film. This guy knows how to make me laugh. He hasn't done much else worth mentioning yet, though.
Audience. Okay, so, this is a date movie. No denying that. You'll see a bunch of couples their. Yes I did go with a lady friend myself. Key word in that last sentence: friend. But I digress. A big group of young High School or College students were in the audience as well, but they remained quiet, I was pleased.
Final note. I almost wrote another Scott Pilgrim blog, but it turns out, this movie's ending was in fact different than Scott Pilgrim's ending. I would get into why, but I don't need to and you probably don't want to read it, I sure wouldn't. Easy A has plenty of awesome subtext, a good ending believe it or not (for what it wanted to accomplish), and a really amazing message. It was nicely put together and was different than most of the crap Hollywood dishes out. Overall, I give Easy A an A, "for awesome," it's a must see.
Movie Review: Lottery Ticket
So I saw Lottery Ticket a while ago, the 6th to be exact. I should start off by saying that I liked the film. Yes, you read that correctly, I liked Lottery Ticket. Okay, so, same formula as usual. First, the movie. Then the cast. Followed by the audience (I'm not doing director because he's not that important for this one, I'm not doing producer because it's Ice Cube). Finally, I'll end with a grade and final note. Let's get this party started!
When Lottery Ticket hit theaters I kept hearing review after review saying it was the "Friday" for our generation. For those of you who aren't aware, Friday, Next Friday, and Friday After Next are apart of the Friday Trilogy, movies about Ice Cube living in "the hood." Let me just say, Lottery Ticket really is the Friday for our generation. It's essentially about Bow Wow living in "the hood". Both the Trilogy and Lottery Ticket also have that laid back feel to it. What I mean by this is that in the Friday Trilogy, most of the movie is spent walking (literally walking) the character to each important plot progressing destination. The first 15min of Lottery Ticket is spent getting Bow Wow's character to work. Here's the thing, for most people, that sounds like a terrible film. Granted, for most Lottery Ticket will be a terrible film. However, I'm a fan of "Black People Comedy" (not trying to be racist, so don't get me wrong.) I liked all of the Friday movies. I even liked BarberShop and I own Barber Shop 2. So, I liked Lottery Ticket, 'nuff said.
Let's break the cast down now, shall we. Bow Wow, the last film I saw him in was Like Mike (which I liked), he doesn't do much as an actor, which I guess is a good thing, not saying he's bad, just saying I like him more as a rapper. Brandon T. Jackson, this guy was the funniest character in the film, not surprising, he had the best role in The Lightning Thief and a pretty good role in Tropic Thunder, this guy needs to be in more movies. Naturi Naughton, (who?), exactly. Loretta DeVine, I think she played the mother, if it was her, she was good. Ice Cube, well, he played an old guy, he's only 41, I guess it worked, so, yeah, make your own judgements. Keith David, loved him in the Riddick movies, he does a lot of voice acting but has a familiar face (he's the voice of the freaken Arbiter in the Halo series), he did well in his role. Terry Crews, this guy is hilarious in all the stuff I've seen him in. Charlie Murphy, when did he get more famous than his really famous brother? Probably when Eddie was caught with that transvestite prostitute, but I digress. The rest of the cast didn't seem all that important.
The audience. I want to say I was 1 of 6 people again (or was it 8? I'm too lazy to check). I want to say more people saw this than Vampires Suck. The audience wasn't that annoying from what I remember, but you always risk the fat black lady who likes to comment on the film (don't call me racist, she exists, first hand experiences).
Because this review has gone on too long for a movie I saw almost a moth ago I'll finish it quick. No big final note, you'll get what you want to expect from the film, whatever that is. I give it a C, make it a rental, most people will want to.
When Lottery Ticket hit theaters I kept hearing review after review saying it was the "Friday" for our generation. For those of you who aren't aware, Friday, Next Friday, and Friday After Next are apart of the Friday Trilogy, movies about Ice Cube living in "the hood." Let me just say, Lottery Ticket really is the Friday for our generation. It's essentially about Bow Wow living in "the hood". Both the Trilogy and Lottery Ticket also have that laid back feel to it. What I mean by this is that in the Friday Trilogy, most of the movie is spent walking (literally walking) the character to each important plot progressing destination. The first 15min of Lottery Ticket is spent getting Bow Wow's character to work. Here's the thing, for most people, that sounds like a terrible film. Granted, for most Lottery Ticket will be a terrible film. However, I'm a fan of "Black People Comedy" (not trying to be racist, so don't get me wrong.) I liked all of the Friday movies. I even liked BarberShop and I own Barber Shop 2. So, I liked Lottery Ticket, 'nuff said.
Let's break the cast down now, shall we. Bow Wow, the last film I saw him in was Like Mike (which I liked), he doesn't do much as an actor, which I guess is a good thing, not saying he's bad, just saying I like him more as a rapper. Brandon T. Jackson, this guy was the funniest character in the film, not surprising, he had the best role in The Lightning Thief and a pretty good role in Tropic Thunder, this guy needs to be in more movies. Naturi Naughton, (who?), exactly. Loretta DeVine, I think she played the mother, if it was her, she was good. Ice Cube, well, he played an old guy, he's only 41, I guess it worked, so, yeah, make your own judgements. Keith David, loved him in the Riddick movies, he does a lot of voice acting but has a familiar face (he's the voice of the freaken Arbiter in the Halo series), he did well in his role. Terry Crews, this guy is hilarious in all the stuff I've seen him in. Charlie Murphy, when did he get more famous than his really famous brother? Probably when Eddie was caught with that transvestite prostitute, but I digress. The rest of the cast didn't seem all that important.
The audience. I want to say I was 1 of 6 people again (or was it 8? I'm too lazy to check). I want to say more people saw this than Vampires Suck. The audience wasn't that annoying from what I remember, but you always risk the fat black lady who likes to comment on the film (don't call me racist, she exists, first hand experiences).
Because this review has gone on too long for a movie I saw almost a moth ago I'll finish it quick. No big final note, you'll get what you want to expect from the film, whatever that is. I give it a C, make it a rental, most people will want to.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
I learned something today...
Yes, I quoted South Park for my title. I've come to the realization that I haven't posted a blog in a very long time. I've left my readers in the dark. I've also come to another realization, hence the title. I still don't know who all reads these. I can think of 4 maybe 5 people. I'd like to start off by thanking the people who read these. This post is for you.
I've had a pretty relaxing day today. It feels like it's been my first day off in a long while. I know, I have a three day weekend every week. But I usually do so much on those days. Today, I could actually relax.
One of my friends came over and we worked out. Yes, I have a weight set. Yes, I use it. Yes, my arms look pretty kickin. You want ticket's to the gun show now, don't you. Usually I feel pretty tired and worn... before I workout. Sometimes I even get annoyed with the idea of working out. Today, however, I felt inexplicably energized. The workout also rejuvenated me. That was the beginning of my day.
I did have to drive this friend home when I didn't want to. But it was cool. When I got back home, the temperature was a little warm. That was, ironically, cool. Get it? Anyways, I watched Forrest Gump. That's when the first realization hit. This will sound corny as shit, but life really is like a box of chocolates. Gump's character goes through a lot, never knowing what's around the next corner. I realized, he's the average Joe's hero. I don't know what the future holds, but I realized, that's not a bad thing. If it's good, great! If it's bad, well, Forrest got through it, so can I. I also had another realization in relation to the Jenny/Gump thing, but I won't mention that here, you'll have to ask me in person.
Afterward, a really dear and close friend of mine texted me. No, I'm not being sarcastic, they're honestly a really good friend. They suggested that I should take a nap. I'm not one to usually take naps, I'll rest my head for a few minutes, but never nap. I took this friends advice. It was a power nap, only an hour maybe two of actual sleep, but it was worth it. That nap was one of the most relaxing things I've done in a long while. After that, I thought for a very long time. That's why this post is here.
What did I think about? Well, that's a secret. But it did make me happy with the world. It was a happy that I haven't had in a very long time. Don't get me wrong, I am a happy person I suppose. It's just, take a look back on a lot of the stuff I've posted on this blog and facebook. Some of the time, things get a little sad and depressing. I've been told this. But that's okay, I don't feel hurt by that. So don't get me wrong. It's just. I feel like everything's 100% okay now. That's a good thing. Sure, I'll still bitch and complain on facebook about things. Sure, I'll still write incredibly long blog posts. But just know. Casey's cool. Because he is. Not just patting myself on the back there.
Well, thank you all for reading. I'll try to post more stuff in the future. If you'd like to leave a comment on my facebook link to this, that would be much appreaciated. I really love the feedback.
I've had a pretty relaxing day today. It feels like it's been my first day off in a long while. I know, I have a three day weekend every week. But I usually do so much on those days. Today, I could actually relax.
One of my friends came over and we worked out. Yes, I have a weight set. Yes, I use it. Yes, my arms look pretty kickin. You want ticket's to the gun show now, don't you. Usually I feel pretty tired and worn... before I workout. Sometimes I even get annoyed with the idea of working out. Today, however, I felt inexplicably energized. The workout also rejuvenated me. That was the beginning of my day.
I did have to drive this friend home when I didn't want to. But it was cool. When I got back home, the temperature was a little warm. That was, ironically, cool. Get it? Anyways, I watched Forrest Gump. That's when the first realization hit. This will sound corny as shit, but life really is like a box of chocolates. Gump's character goes through a lot, never knowing what's around the next corner. I realized, he's the average Joe's hero. I don't know what the future holds, but I realized, that's not a bad thing. If it's good, great! If it's bad, well, Forrest got through it, so can I. I also had another realization in relation to the Jenny/Gump thing, but I won't mention that here, you'll have to ask me in person.
Afterward, a really dear and close friend of mine texted me. No, I'm not being sarcastic, they're honestly a really good friend. They suggested that I should take a nap. I'm not one to usually take naps, I'll rest my head for a few minutes, but never nap. I took this friends advice. It was a power nap, only an hour maybe two of actual sleep, but it was worth it. That nap was one of the most relaxing things I've done in a long while. After that, I thought for a very long time. That's why this post is here.
What did I think about? Well, that's a secret. But it did make me happy with the world. It was a happy that I haven't had in a very long time. Don't get me wrong, I am a happy person I suppose. It's just, take a look back on a lot of the stuff I've posted on this blog and facebook. Some of the time, things get a little sad and depressing. I've been told this. But that's okay, I don't feel hurt by that. So don't get me wrong. It's just. I feel like everything's 100% okay now. That's a good thing. Sure, I'll still bitch and complain on facebook about things. Sure, I'll still write incredibly long blog posts. But just know. Casey's cool. Because he is. Not just patting myself on the back there.
Well, thank you all for reading. I'll try to post more stuff in the future. If you'd like to leave a comment on my facebook link to this, that would be much appreaciated. I really love the feedback.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Nasty Repercussions
Okay, so this is my blog post about a certain movie called The Truman Show. For those of you who don't know what movie I'm talking about, let me spoil it for you (after all, the movie is literally over a decade old). Jim Carrey plays a guy who's life is filmed 24/7, the problem is, his character is unaware of this. The show runs for years and gains fans worldwide, becoming the most popular show ever in the "Trumanverse" as it were. Things in Truman's televised reality show get a little out of whack when Truman begins to realize his entire life has pretty much been a charade. Eventually things get so out of hand, Truman decides to up and leave. Assuming you've seen the movie (decade old), it ends with him up and leaving. This is were I have a problem, go figure that I'd have a problem with a film ending. In the next few paragraphs I plan to knock out the reasons why "up and leaving" may not have been the best choice for Truman to make at the end of the film. Let's get to is, shall we!
1) It would piss a lot of people off. I don't just mean Producers, Actors, the Dome Maintenance Crew, people who invested into building what would be a very expensive "set", the director guy, and his video crew. I mostly mean the fans. Security Guards neglected their work to watch the show, one guy wouldn't even get out of the bath so long as the show was on. People placed bets on every thing Truman did on the show. When he leaves, what's to stop one of his crazy fans from deciding to assassinate him because Truman doesn't want to do the show anymore? What about the more high-stakes gamblers, who lost a lot when the show ended, they may actually have to power to stop Truman dead (if you get what I'm saying). Anyways, that's that point.
2) He doesn't know where the hell he's going once he's left. I understand that Truman does have the picture of the girl and that she's his goal once he leaves. I also understand that she'll try to find him. But how the hell is this going to happen? He'll leave, but how does he know how to leave the dome. He walks into darkness at the end, the domes walls have to be pretty thick do house all the equipment it did. Walking through it would be like walking through a maze. Once he leaves it, where then? He doesn't know where the girl actually lives and with the giant rush of fans that will follow Truman's every move, it'll be hard for her to get near him. I'm just saying.
3) He has to completely adjust to a new and different life. His entire life to the point of leaving the show was essentially normal. But once he leaves, he'll gain the life of the most famous star in the entire world in seconds. That's the equivalent of me just walking outside one day to see thousand's (possibly million's) of people ready to greet me. Sure, that would be awesome for someone who wants fame, but Truman clearly didn't want that, so it wouldn't be awesome for him. Second point to this is, although his life has been normal, everything he's "worked" for has essentially been planned out. If he didn't get a job when he was younger and a first time applicant, that was preplanned. When he did get the job he had on the show, that was preplanned? Ever aspect of his life was essentially preplanned, he essentially didn't work for anything. How does he expect to get a job in the real world? He'll be that one guy from the T.V. show that everyone talks about. Worst case scenario, he can't get a job and ends up like George Reeve's (may he rest in peace). Best case scenario, he ends up getting a dead-end job while his entire life is scrutinized and most likely filmed for a crappy reality television series on Fox. He'll end up like almost every sing Child Star that ever lived (cocaine addictions and all). Come to think of it, the second scenario may be the worst case.
Now I know the whole point of the film was to show why living a life of uncertainty holds more freedom than a life preplanned, but that doesn't mean Truman had to just leave right away. I mean, once he became fully aware of everything and expressed interest in leaving, the producers and whatnot would have no choice but to let him leave. But at least if Truman had waited, he would be able to leave safely and not face the three problems mentioned above. That's just my opinion, though. If you've read this and have seen the movie, let me know your opinion via any medium you see fit, facebook message, chat, in person, etc.
1) It would piss a lot of people off. I don't just mean Producers, Actors, the Dome Maintenance Crew, people who invested into building what would be a very expensive "set", the director guy, and his video crew. I mostly mean the fans. Security Guards neglected their work to watch the show, one guy wouldn't even get out of the bath so long as the show was on. People placed bets on every thing Truman did on the show. When he leaves, what's to stop one of his crazy fans from deciding to assassinate him because Truman doesn't want to do the show anymore? What about the more high-stakes gamblers, who lost a lot when the show ended, they may actually have to power to stop Truman dead (if you get what I'm saying). Anyways, that's that point.
2) He doesn't know where the hell he's going once he's left. I understand that Truman does have the picture of the girl and that she's his goal once he leaves. I also understand that she'll try to find him. But how the hell is this going to happen? He'll leave, but how does he know how to leave the dome. He walks into darkness at the end, the domes walls have to be pretty thick do house all the equipment it did. Walking through it would be like walking through a maze. Once he leaves it, where then? He doesn't know where the girl actually lives and with the giant rush of fans that will follow Truman's every move, it'll be hard for her to get near him. I'm just saying.
3) He has to completely adjust to a new and different life. His entire life to the point of leaving the show was essentially normal. But once he leaves, he'll gain the life of the most famous star in the entire world in seconds. That's the equivalent of me just walking outside one day to see thousand's (possibly million's) of people ready to greet me. Sure, that would be awesome for someone who wants fame, but Truman clearly didn't want that, so it wouldn't be awesome for him. Second point to this is, although his life has been normal, everything he's "worked" for has essentially been planned out. If he didn't get a job when he was younger and a first time applicant, that was preplanned. When he did get the job he had on the show, that was preplanned? Ever aspect of his life was essentially preplanned, he essentially didn't work for anything. How does he expect to get a job in the real world? He'll be that one guy from the T.V. show that everyone talks about. Worst case scenario, he can't get a job and ends up like George Reeve's (may he rest in peace). Best case scenario, he ends up getting a dead-end job while his entire life is scrutinized and most likely filmed for a crappy reality television series on Fox. He'll end up like almost every sing Child Star that ever lived (cocaine addictions and all). Come to think of it, the second scenario may be the worst case.
Now I know the whole point of the film was to show why living a life of uncertainty holds more freedom than a life preplanned, but that doesn't mean Truman had to just leave right away. I mean, once he became fully aware of everything and expressed interest in leaving, the producers and whatnot would have no choice but to let him leave. But at least if Truman had waited, he would be able to leave safely and not face the three problems mentioned above. That's just my opinion, though. If you've read this and have seen the movie, let me know your opinion via any medium you see fit, facebook message, chat, in person, etc.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Movie Review: Vampires Suck
Yup, I'm reviewing this one. It ain't gonna be pretty. Movie first, then cast, then director, the audience, and finally the grade and final note.
Okay, so the one good thing about the movie I can say, is that it was better than I thought it would be. The type of movie it is usually sucks. It fits the cheap-spoof-movie-that-recycles-jokes genre. The evil, retarded brother of good spoof movies like: Airplane, Scary Movie 1 & 2, Shaun of the Dead, and Hot Fuzz (a genre spoof on that one). But it was the best of the type of movie it was. Mostly because it stuck with one movie this time, technically two, instead of a bunch. A lot of movie's being spoofed makes things messy. One thing that bothers me about these movies, and Vampires Suck is no exception, most of their funny stuff is at the beginning. The humor tends to be random, so you laugh a lot at the beginning because everything seems silly, but as the movie progresses, things become dull and over used. That's what I have to say on that.
The cast was filled with a bunch of unrecognizable people or people I didn't care for or people from MADtv (may that show rest in peace; Fox is the Devil's Network!). So I only have two things to say on this. The actors did a really good job imitating and humorously portraying the cast of the Twilight movies. Which also means they're better actors than the cast of the Twilight movies.
Two people made this film: Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. They are two of the writers who worked on the original Scary Movie, clearly the Wayans Brother's held the true genius behind those films. These guys are also known for: Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans, and Disaster Movie (Read: crap, crap, crap, and crap). Naturally with Vampires Suck, they recycled a few jokes, some of which they pulled straight from Scary Movie. But they didn't do it as often as they have with the other movies, so for that I say, "you guys are getting better."
The audience. I was 1 out of 8 people in the theater. Very quiet. This is a prime example of why Hollywood and the Theater industry is going to hell. No movie should be so damn bad that only 8 people buy tickets for one showtime.
Finally, I get to give a movie my first C! Make it a rental, folks! Better nobody sees it in theaters, to send Hollywood a message, than 8 people. Also, the movie is way better than those Twilight films. My final note, if Christopher Nolan made Vampires Suck, it would have been the most beautiful Vampire film ever made. But this is reality, unfortunately Christopher Nolan can't make every film. But Hollywood should definitely take a cue from the guy and start making good movies.
Okay, so the one good thing about the movie I can say, is that it was better than I thought it would be. The type of movie it is usually sucks. It fits the cheap-spoof-movie-that-recycles-jokes genre. The evil, retarded brother of good spoof movies like: Airplane, Scary Movie 1 & 2, Shaun of the Dead, and Hot Fuzz (a genre spoof on that one). But it was the best of the type of movie it was. Mostly because it stuck with one movie this time, technically two, instead of a bunch. A lot of movie's being spoofed makes things messy. One thing that bothers me about these movies, and Vampires Suck is no exception, most of their funny stuff is at the beginning. The humor tends to be random, so you laugh a lot at the beginning because everything seems silly, but as the movie progresses, things become dull and over used. That's what I have to say on that.
The cast was filled with a bunch of unrecognizable people or people I didn't care for or people from MADtv (may that show rest in peace; Fox is the Devil's Network!). So I only have two things to say on this. The actors did a really good job imitating and humorously portraying the cast of the Twilight movies. Which also means they're better actors than the cast of the Twilight movies.
Two people made this film: Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. They are two of the writers who worked on the original Scary Movie, clearly the Wayans Brother's held the true genius behind those films. These guys are also known for: Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans, and Disaster Movie (Read: crap, crap, crap, and crap). Naturally with Vampires Suck, they recycled a few jokes, some of which they pulled straight from Scary Movie. But they didn't do it as often as they have with the other movies, so for that I say, "you guys are getting better."
The audience. I was 1 out of 8 people in the theater. Very quiet. This is a prime example of why Hollywood and the Theater industry is going to hell. No movie should be so damn bad that only 8 people buy tickets for one showtime.
Finally, I get to give a movie my first C! Make it a rental, folks! Better nobody sees it in theaters, to send Hollywood a message, than 8 people. Also, the movie is way better than those Twilight films. My final note, if Christopher Nolan made Vampires Suck, it would have been the most beautiful Vampire film ever made. But this is reality, unfortunately Christopher Nolan can't make every film. But Hollywood should definitely take a cue from the guy and start making good movies.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Casey Rafler vs the World
Alright, a couple of things up front, MAJOR MOVIE SPOILERS are in this, so don't read unless you've seen the movie or read the comic. Also, this post will be INCREDIBLY LONG, read at your own pace. I've given fair warning. This movie bothered me on a few levels, despite how awesome it was and how much I liked it. I've never had a movie influence me in this way, so I felt like I needed to get some stuff off my chest. Some of you may have read my post relating to my life and T.V. shows/movies. That's one reason why I'm writing this. I tried knocking around a few titles for this blog post, such as Casey Rafler vs Scott Pilgrim vs the World or Casey Rafler vs Scott Pilgrim. But I remembered that this article is aimed at making comparisons, not contrasting things. Therefore, the title must be Casey Rafler vs the World, a story about how my life mirrors Scott Pilgrim. Also, I will not use names of people in my life, for their sake, but I'm sure they'll recognize what role they played. Let us begin, shall we.
Naturally there are a few differences between the character Scott Pilgrim and myself, but even those have a hint of similarity to them. Scott Pilgrim's Canadian, I'm from Kansas. He play's bass guitar for a band, I played drums for a band and technically still do. He's in his twenties I'm 19. All of these things are so closely related, yet different. Now we'll break things down in the similarities part, warning, this will take a while.
Let's start with Knives Chau. The young-enough-to-cause-a-clear-social-barrier Asian girl who's totally into Scott, despite the fact that he's not really interested in her. Since this is a blog post on why I'm so similar to Scott, I am inclined to say, "been there, done that." Yes the girl was Asian, yes she was younger than me, yes she was more interested in me than I was in her, yes she wasn't approved of by some of my friends, and yes she was the girl following a bad relationship or two in my past. Now I'm not sure if she ever stalked me, but then again, Scott Pilgrim wasn't aware that Knives was stalking him. In the end, things are cool between them, Casey realizes he was kind of a dick during the break up, but she's cool with it, and Knives moves on. This next part will up the creepy similarity factor ten fold. The next girl I dated after my Knives girl, became my Romona Flowers!
Okay, so some time goes by, but time was apparently going by in the film as well. I meet the girl who dyes her hair, I'm not shitting you with this, she dyes her hair and everything. Her and I click despite a few social differences. Romona and the girl are very "cool" people if you will, by that I mean, they both have a take no crap attitude and tend to go with the flow and are spontaneous on occasion. They both wear black with vibrant block colors and of course, the hair dye thing. Scott and I are clearly socially awkward, we don't know how to talk to the pretty girl and constantly analyze whether or not we're screwing things up. Despite all of this, Romona and I click and get together, following the Knives thing no less! Thus beginning the social commentary on the guy fighting for the girl.
Now let me be clear. I didn't have to fight Seven Evil Exes to be with my Romona Flowers. But the point of the Exes in the movie, was to provide something Scott must fight against to win Romona Flowers heart. Every guy has to fight some type of battle to be with the girl of his dreams. Oh, that's another point, I dreamed about my Romona Flowers as well. Anyways, the Exes became a physical manifestation of Scott having to deal with Romona's issues to be with her. He even had to fight some of his own issues, such as Nega Scott. I feel like I was fighting Nega Casey more than Seven Evil Exes. Although, since my Romona Flowers is still in contact with her exes, I did have to deal with them being in the picture.
To my knowledge, none of her exes began a league of evil exes, although one of them threw the idea around. None of them became famous movie star skateboarders. One of them may have been vegan, the guy was totally into himself and acted like Todd, so, yeah. Not sure if she ever dated a girl, but funny story there, however, I will not get into that for my Romona's sake. Don't think she dated twins. But she has dated a few bad apples. Like every girl, she had the very young relationship, similar to Romona and Matthew Patel. I think everyone has had that young non-lasting relationship.
Scott's such a nice guy and try's his damnedest to fight for Romona. This earns him an extra life, which somewhere down the road earns him a second shot. So back to the story at hand. Casey and his Romona break up. Why? No real reason, except later revealed issues with Romona's past.
So inevitably, despite the break up, Scott still fights for Ramona. He professes his love, which earns him power, but that power breaks and shatters. He looses a life, but still has one more and gains a second shot. This time he resolves his issues with people from his past, with himself, and with her, this gains him Self-Respect. That's what "wins" her back. He fights for her and then himself. I spent so much time fighting for my Romona, we go out, we break up, I still fight, I learn things about myself and her. Romona tells Casey to be with another girl, perhaps not a specific girl like she told Scott, but it's still a similarity. Casey ends up following Romona Flowers, like he always wanted, she let's him back into her heart, the two start anew with this second chance as they run off together to live happily ever after. Except that's the way the movie/comic tells the story. Scott Pilgrim vs the World, has a "sequel" it's called Scott Pilgrim vs Reality. This is why the ending bothered me so much and why I felt this post was necessary. Let's break it down in the next paragraph.
Romona has issues with her past, with the type of girl she is, those issues probably run deeper than relationship issues. Although, relationship issues are both a cause and effect of her problems, simultaneously. Whatever issues Romona has, probably influence her relationships, clearly her problem with Gideon influenced her and Scott. But now her relationship issues have grown out of proportion and become just as big as other problems she has. Here's the thing, she doesn't know how to deal with these issues. The whole reason she was in Canada with Scott was because she ran away from her past. She runs from her issues, doesn't confront them. That's clearly not going to work. It didn't work when she came from New York to Canada, hell, she managed to put her issues on Scott. Now Scott being one of the nicest guys she's known, decides to run away with her and not care about those past issues. Or at the very least, run away with her so that the two can deal with the issues together.
Of course running away physically is a metaphor for running away emotionally and mentally. So in my version of the story, no actually running is done. Casey and Romona try for the second shot, Casey is willing to let everything go, her issues, he has confronted his own (which is healthier than running, even Scott Pilgrim practically pointed that out, with the swords and leveling up and whatnot, yet still had the ending it did.) But here's what will happen. Romona will still be cool Romona and Scott, he'll still be awkward Scott. Romona's going to eventually realize she can't run from her issues, she must confront them. Here's the kicker, these issues involve relationships, which means she's probably not going to want her own boyfriend Scott to be involved with them.
She won't want to handle a relationship with anyone while she deals with her issues. Hell, she'll even most likely do a few bad things and not be quite sure why she did them. But I'm betting she's not at fault for the bad, or if she is, she only did them as part of running away from the problem. Intentionally making things worse so she has an actual physical reason to break up with Scott again, when in reality, she still has no real reason. She'll call him amazing and wonderful, but believe that this love just can't be. Inevitable she won't want to trust her own boyfriend with her issues at all. She'll then proceed to making an irrationally rash decision, such as breaking up yet again. She'll rationalize this decision with her own issues and that one event even she's not quite sure about. Part of her, deep down, does want to be with Scott, she'll even consider staying with him, but only briefly, until the flood waters of her issues and that event come pouring in.
They break up, neither one will be happy with this. Scott will be extremely disappointed that she up and broke his heart again when he offered everything to be with her. Romona will feel bad, partly because she now has to confront her issues alone, partly because she does truly like the guy somewhere deep down but ignores this, and partly because of reasons she's not even sure of but most likely relate to the second part. So, with this in mind, I take on the persona of Scott writing a letter to Ramona. This is the "true ending" to all of this, assuming things have to be "left open" like the end of the film:
Dear Ramona,
Sorry things had to be this way. I fought for you always, and will always fight for you. You don't have to run away from your issues, I was willing to help you confront them, if only to offer a comforting shoulder and a 1-Up life boost. Once you deal with your issues, if you realize I'm still the guy, despite how bad a third shot would look, perhaps the game can Restart. Until then, if that day will even come, I move on. I continue the game of love as I hope you will one day too. If the game doesn't work for us unless we play two-player, then we'll know Scott and Romona are meant to be. If by chance we win the game separately, I wish you all the best, and I know you'll wish me the best. Just remember, no matter what, even when I've fully moved on, if I must do that, you'll always hold a High-Score in my heart. Thanks for everything.
Love, Scott.
Now that's a hell of an ending. You all see now why Scott Pilgrim vs the World bothered me, I could relate. But I could relate a little too well and, based on experience, things didn't go so well. I want to ask my Ramona for the Hollywood movie ending, but that wouldn't be fair, to myself or to the girl who (granted) may be the actual right one for me, assuming my Ramona is not. I don't know what the future holds, if Ramona and Scott truly do stay together, I'm happy with that. If not, I'll move on and be happy with a different path. On that note, I end an incredibly long chapter in my life, a chapter that can span a year and a half as well as 6 comic books and a 2 hour long movie. Whatever my sequel holds, I can't wait, if you're in the sequel Ramona, welcome back, if not, hello new love interest, I can't wait to get to know you.
Naturally there are a few differences between the character Scott Pilgrim and myself, but even those have a hint of similarity to them. Scott Pilgrim's Canadian, I'm from Kansas. He play's bass guitar for a band, I played drums for a band and technically still do. He's in his twenties I'm 19. All of these things are so closely related, yet different. Now we'll break things down in the similarities part, warning, this will take a while.
Let's start with Knives Chau. The young-enough-to-cause-a-clear-social-barrier Asian girl who's totally into Scott, despite the fact that he's not really interested in her. Since this is a blog post on why I'm so similar to Scott, I am inclined to say, "been there, done that." Yes the girl was Asian, yes she was younger than me, yes she was more interested in me than I was in her, yes she wasn't approved of by some of my friends, and yes she was the girl following a bad relationship or two in my past. Now I'm not sure if she ever stalked me, but then again, Scott Pilgrim wasn't aware that Knives was stalking him. In the end, things are cool between them, Casey realizes he was kind of a dick during the break up, but she's cool with it, and Knives moves on. This next part will up the creepy similarity factor ten fold. The next girl I dated after my Knives girl, became my Romona Flowers!
Okay, so some time goes by, but time was apparently going by in the film as well. I meet the girl who dyes her hair, I'm not shitting you with this, she dyes her hair and everything. Her and I click despite a few social differences. Romona and the girl are very "cool" people if you will, by that I mean, they both have a take no crap attitude and tend to go with the flow and are spontaneous on occasion. They both wear black with vibrant block colors and of course, the hair dye thing. Scott and I are clearly socially awkward, we don't know how to talk to the pretty girl and constantly analyze whether or not we're screwing things up. Despite all of this, Romona and I click and get together, following the Knives thing no less! Thus beginning the social commentary on the guy fighting for the girl.
Now let me be clear. I didn't have to fight Seven Evil Exes to be with my Romona Flowers. But the point of the Exes in the movie, was to provide something Scott must fight against to win Romona Flowers heart. Every guy has to fight some type of battle to be with the girl of his dreams. Oh, that's another point, I dreamed about my Romona Flowers as well. Anyways, the Exes became a physical manifestation of Scott having to deal with Romona's issues to be with her. He even had to fight some of his own issues, such as Nega Scott. I feel like I was fighting Nega Casey more than Seven Evil Exes. Although, since my Romona Flowers is still in contact with her exes, I did have to deal with them being in the picture.
To my knowledge, none of her exes began a league of evil exes, although one of them threw the idea around. None of them became famous movie star skateboarders. One of them may have been vegan, the guy was totally into himself and acted like Todd, so, yeah. Not sure if she ever dated a girl, but funny story there, however, I will not get into that for my Romona's sake. Don't think she dated twins. But she has dated a few bad apples. Like every girl, she had the very young relationship, similar to Romona and Matthew Patel. I think everyone has had that young non-lasting relationship.
Scott's such a nice guy and try's his damnedest to fight for Romona. This earns him an extra life, which somewhere down the road earns him a second shot. So back to the story at hand. Casey and his Romona break up. Why? No real reason, except later revealed issues with Romona's past.
So inevitably, despite the break up, Scott still fights for Ramona. He professes his love, which earns him power, but that power breaks and shatters. He looses a life, but still has one more and gains a second shot. This time he resolves his issues with people from his past, with himself, and with her, this gains him Self-Respect. That's what "wins" her back. He fights for her and then himself. I spent so much time fighting for my Romona, we go out, we break up, I still fight, I learn things about myself and her. Romona tells Casey to be with another girl, perhaps not a specific girl like she told Scott, but it's still a similarity. Casey ends up following Romona Flowers, like he always wanted, she let's him back into her heart, the two start anew with this second chance as they run off together to live happily ever after. Except that's the way the movie/comic tells the story. Scott Pilgrim vs the World, has a "sequel" it's called Scott Pilgrim vs Reality. This is why the ending bothered me so much and why I felt this post was necessary. Let's break it down in the next paragraph.
Romona has issues with her past, with the type of girl she is, those issues probably run deeper than relationship issues. Although, relationship issues are both a cause and effect of her problems, simultaneously. Whatever issues Romona has, probably influence her relationships, clearly her problem with Gideon influenced her and Scott. But now her relationship issues have grown out of proportion and become just as big as other problems she has. Here's the thing, she doesn't know how to deal with these issues. The whole reason she was in Canada with Scott was because she ran away from her past. She runs from her issues, doesn't confront them. That's clearly not going to work. It didn't work when she came from New York to Canada, hell, she managed to put her issues on Scott. Now Scott being one of the nicest guys she's known, decides to run away with her and not care about those past issues. Or at the very least, run away with her so that the two can deal with the issues together.
Of course running away physically is a metaphor for running away emotionally and mentally. So in my version of the story, no actually running is done. Casey and Romona try for the second shot, Casey is willing to let everything go, her issues, he has confronted his own (which is healthier than running, even Scott Pilgrim practically pointed that out, with the swords and leveling up and whatnot, yet still had the ending it did.) But here's what will happen. Romona will still be cool Romona and Scott, he'll still be awkward Scott. Romona's going to eventually realize she can't run from her issues, she must confront them. Here's the kicker, these issues involve relationships, which means she's probably not going to want her own boyfriend Scott to be involved with them.
She won't want to handle a relationship with anyone while she deals with her issues. Hell, she'll even most likely do a few bad things and not be quite sure why she did them. But I'm betting she's not at fault for the bad, or if she is, she only did them as part of running away from the problem. Intentionally making things worse so she has an actual physical reason to break up with Scott again, when in reality, she still has no real reason. She'll call him amazing and wonderful, but believe that this love just can't be. Inevitable she won't want to trust her own boyfriend with her issues at all. She'll then proceed to making an irrationally rash decision, such as breaking up yet again. She'll rationalize this decision with her own issues and that one event even she's not quite sure about. Part of her, deep down, does want to be with Scott, she'll even consider staying with him, but only briefly, until the flood waters of her issues and that event come pouring in.
They break up, neither one will be happy with this. Scott will be extremely disappointed that she up and broke his heart again when he offered everything to be with her. Romona will feel bad, partly because she now has to confront her issues alone, partly because she does truly like the guy somewhere deep down but ignores this, and partly because of reasons she's not even sure of but most likely relate to the second part. So, with this in mind, I take on the persona of Scott writing a letter to Ramona. This is the "true ending" to all of this, assuming things have to be "left open" like the end of the film:
Dear Ramona,
Sorry things had to be this way. I fought for you always, and will always fight for you. You don't have to run away from your issues, I was willing to help you confront them, if only to offer a comforting shoulder and a 1-Up life boost. Once you deal with your issues, if you realize I'm still the guy, despite how bad a third shot would look, perhaps the game can Restart. Until then, if that day will even come, I move on. I continue the game of love as I hope you will one day too. If the game doesn't work for us unless we play two-player, then we'll know Scott and Romona are meant to be. If by chance we win the game separately, I wish you all the best, and I know you'll wish me the best. Just remember, no matter what, even when I've fully moved on, if I must do that, you'll always hold a High-Score in my heart. Thanks for everything.
Love, Scott.
Now that's a hell of an ending. You all see now why Scott Pilgrim vs the World bothered me, I could relate. But I could relate a little too well and, based on experience, things didn't go so well. I want to ask my Ramona for the Hollywood movie ending, but that wouldn't be fair, to myself or to the girl who (granted) may be the actual right one for me, assuming my Ramona is not. I don't know what the future holds, if Ramona and Scott truly do stay together, I'm happy with that. If not, I'll move on and be happy with a different path. On that note, I end an incredibly long chapter in my life, a chapter that can span a year and a half as well as 6 comic books and a 2 hour long movie. Whatever my sequel holds, I can't wait, if you're in the sequel Ramona, welcome back, if not, hello new love interest, I can't wait to get to know you.
Movie Review: Scott Pilgrim vs The World
Okay, so this movie actually made me think. I'm going to try to make this short. I plan on writing an incredibly loooooooong rant about the more troubling parts of the film in a later blog post. For now. Film, cast, comic, director, audience, and grade with final note.
Okay, pretty fun special effects. Loved the visuals of the film. Kept me entertained. Enough said.
Michael Cera, spitting freaken image of myself, I related to the character, I like the actor. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, pulled off a good Romona Flowers I must say. Ellen Wong, spot on performance as well, for what they wanted to capture. Kieran Culin, apparently a much better actor than his more famous brother, I keep seeing Kieran in more stuff. Chris Evans, he's going to get type cast for superhero stuff, I'm telling you: Fantastic 4, Captain America, The Losers, Scott Pilgrim. Brandon Routh, didn't seemed type cast, only because it seemed more of a nod to superhero films with his role. Jason Schwartzman, seen him in one other thing, but I always recognize his name in stuff. The rest of the cast I don't really care to mention... all pretty cool I guess. Oh, the Twilight chick was cool too (that's who the sister was Jose).
Never read the comic. Hear the film stays true to it very well. This would explain why the movie seemed so long, had to fit so much into it.
Edgar Wright, the director. Hott Fuzz, hilarious. Hitchhiker's Guide entertaining. Shaun of the Dead, good stuff. I think I'm beginning to like this director.
The audience. Very annoying. People murmured and whispered all around me. Is it too hard to ask for people to shut the hell up during a film, honestly?!
Grade: A, only because I promised Jose, and I hope you all find the movie as intriguing as I did, hope we get into discussions about it! I'll post something longer on what I thought about the film in a different post, warning, it will have spoilers!
Okay, pretty fun special effects. Loved the visuals of the film. Kept me entertained. Enough said.
Michael Cera, spitting freaken image of myself, I related to the character, I like the actor. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, pulled off a good Romona Flowers I must say. Ellen Wong, spot on performance as well, for what they wanted to capture. Kieran Culin, apparently a much better actor than his more famous brother, I keep seeing Kieran in more stuff. Chris Evans, he's going to get type cast for superhero stuff, I'm telling you: Fantastic 4, Captain America, The Losers, Scott Pilgrim. Brandon Routh, didn't seemed type cast, only because it seemed more of a nod to superhero films with his role. Jason Schwartzman, seen him in one other thing, but I always recognize his name in stuff. The rest of the cast I don't really care to mention... all pretty cool I guess. Oh, the Twilight chick was cool too (that's who the sister was Jose).
Never read the comic. Hear the film stays true to it very well. This would explain why the movie seemed so long, had to fit so much into it.
Edgar Wright, the director. Hott Fuzz, hilarious. Hitchhiker's Guide entertaining. Shaun of the Dead, good stuff. I think I'm beginning to like this director.
The audience. Very annoying. People murmured and whispered all around me. Is it too hard to ask for people to shut the hell up during a film, honestly?!
Grade: A, only because I promised Jose, and I hope you all find the movie as intriguing as I did, hope we get into discussions about it! I'll post something longer on what I thought about the film in a different post, warning, it will have spoilers!
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Movie Review: The Expendables
So I recently got stuck in Malibu/ Santa Monica recently. Long story short or perhaps, long story cut by a lot, I saw The Expendables. Here's my review. Let's break it down shall we. First we talk about the movie. Then the cast. Then Stallone. The audience. Finally, the grade I give it and final note.
If you go into this film thinking it will be some action flick with explosions, babes, guns, and car chases. Well let me tell you something, it delivers! Full on! You have to see it to believe it, but it takes all the best elements of all the best action movies, and puts it all together in one single film! Okay, well, that's what I have to say on that. If you're into action films, and don't care about plot, The Expendables is good for you. I'm not saying the plot's bad or anything, but some things seemed very unnecessary, to the point that the film could be cut down to only its action sequences at some parts.
The wonderful cast of actors. I only have to use last names, because you'll recognize them. Stallone, still has a bit of Rambo and Rocky in him. Statham, works well with Li, awesome with the action. Li, couldn't understand him half the time, but love to see him fight. Lundgren, clearly in the film because of Stallone, but he's still cool. Couture, hated his role, don't see why he was necessary, but I guess he worked. Austin, one Stone Cold guy throughout the film, pun intended. Crews, love this black guy in all of his work. Rourke, needed a bigger part, the guy is a lot better an actor than most of the cast. Willis, well, he's in the film, take it or leave it. Governator, hey, he's in it too, awesome scene as well. Nice to see Heroes didn't ruin Eric Roberts career. Also good to see Charisma Carpenter working again.
Sylvester Stallone. This guy is famous for Rocky and Rambo, naturally, so he gets credit there. Apparently, the dude, directs, writes, and stars in a lot of his films, not just this one. On a different note, the guy has been known for his mumbling voice, but when you hear him in person, or in interviews, its not that bad. I'll say this, when he gets behind a movie camera, the mumble comes back for some reason. The directing of the film seemed... classic, as if to say he was capturing something from way-back-when. On a related note, I could scream fake on some of the special effects, it would seem. As far as writing, he was able to fit all of these famous people in one movie, but sometimes (SPOILER) you don't see some of them for long periods of time, without explanation as to why. (END SPOILER) So that's that.
The audience. We saw it opening night, so the theater was packed. The audience was fine, naturally though, it was filled with 20 something drunk people trying to have a fun night. A lot of giggling girls for some reason, so watch out for that. The guy who sat in front of me looked like David Bowie and smelled like pot. So expect that. Otherwise, the audience is fine.
My final grade for this film, a solid B. See it if you can, it's pretty worth it. I'll say it was better than The A-Team, and I liked The A-Team. The movie definitely fits well as an action movie. So it's a must see, if you're into those movies. Enough said.
If you go into this film thinking it will be some action flick with explosions, babes, guns, and car chases. Well let me tell you something, it delivers! Full on! You have to see it to believe it, but it takes all the best elements of all the best action movies, and puts it all together in one single film! Okay, well, that's what I have to say on that. If you're into action films, and don't care about plot, The Expendables is good for you. I'm not saying the plot's bad or anything, but some things seemed very unnecessary, to the point that the film could be cut down to only its action sequences at some parts.
The wonderful cast of actors. I only have to use last names, because you'll recognize them. Stallone, still has a bit of Rambo and Rocky in him. Statham, works well with Li, awesome with the action. Li, couldn't understand him half the time, but love to see him fight. Lundgren, clearly in the film because of Stallone, but he's still cool. Couture, hated his role, don't see why he was necessary, but I guess he worked. Austin, one Stone Cold guy throughout the film, pun intended. Crews, love this black guy in all of his work. Rourke, needed a bigger part, the guy is a lot better an actor than most of the cast. Willis, well, he's in the film, take it or leave it. Governator, hey, he's in it too, awesome scene as well. Nice to see Heroes didn't ruin Eric Roberts career. Also good to see Charisma Carpenter working again.
Sylvester Stallone. This guy is famous for Rocky and Rambo, naturally, so he gets credit there. Apparently, the dude, directs, writes, and stars in a lot of his films, not just this one. On a different note, the guy has been known for his mumbling voice, but when you hear him in person, or in interviews, its not that bad. I'll say this, when he gets behind a movie camera, the mumble comes back for some reason. The directing of the film seemed... classic, as if to say he was capturing something from way-back-when. On a related note, I could scream fake on some of the special effects, it would seem. As far as writing, he was able to fit all of these famous people in one movie, but sometimes (SPOILER) you don't see some of them for long periods of time, without explanation as to why. (END SPOILER) So that's that.
The audience. We saw it opening night, so the theater was packed. The audience was fine, naturally though, it was filled with 20 something drunk people trying to have a fun night. A lot of giggling girls for some reason, so watch out for that. The guy who sat in front of me looked like David Bowie and smelled like pot. So expect that. Otherwise, the audience is fine.
My final grade for this film, a solid B. See it if you can, it's pretty worth it. I'll say it was better than The A-Team, and I liked The A-Team. The movie definitely fits well as an action movie. So it's a must see, if you're into those movies. Enough said.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
A Sad Attempt to Rap
(NOTE: Read my comment before reading this post please. Thank you.)
I didn't know what to write about and the last time I just went random with my thoughts things may have gotten a little boring and sad. So I figured I'd make a little rhyme or rap if you put a beat to it, it's technically going to be a freestyle, but not really. Some of it will be completely relevant to certain matters, some of it will just be a bunch of filler lines. To make it more fun, I'll provide a non-rap commentary in parenthesis. Read without the commentary then with. Here goes nothing, or something:
Welcome, welcome, come on in,
close the door and let's begin,
40 day's a 40 nights, (that's a movie I think)
don't let time give you the frights,
I know what I know,
and I'll try not to lie,
it'll get the tears out of your eye.
The second part, it's after the start,
these next words won't seem so tart,
I can be bitter, I can be sad,
I got what I want and I have what I had, (Dr. Seuss moment)
so please don't feel weird when I say this,
it's like I get a tetris every time we kiss.
Let's drink on three and let it all go,
sit back, relax, and go with the flow,
this is not the answer and I've learned that now,
I give it all to God, and that is how, (don't worry, not a Jesus Freak)
what he sees fit to give to me,
I'll love with my heart and all will see. (anything, don't even know what)
The fourth is when the rap must end,
emotions rip, twist, and bend, (never permanently, though)
but don't completely worry,
because we're not in a hurry,
things must be considered, evaluated and measured,
for the world to work right, and for all to be bettered. (last part got really into the rap.)
I didn't know what to write about and the last time I just went random with my thoughts things may have gotten a little boring and sad. So I figured I'd make a little rhyme or rap if you put a beat to it, it's technically going to be a freestyle, but not really. Some of it will be completely relevant to certain matters, some of it will just be a bunch of filler lines. To make it more fun, I'll provide a non-rap commentary in parenthesis. Read without the commentary then with. Here goes nothing, or something:
Welcome, welcome, come on in,
close the door and let's begin,
40 day's a 40 nights, (that's a movie I think)
don't let time give you the frights,
I know what I know,
and I'll try not to lie,
it'll get the tears out of your eye.
The second part, it's after the start,
these next words won't seem so tart,
I can be bitter, I can be sad,
I got what I want and I have what I had, (Dr. Seuss moment)
so please don't feel weird when I say this,
it's like I get a tetris every time we kiss.
Let's drink on three and let it all go,
sit back, relax, and go with the flow,
this is not the answer and I've learned that now,
I give it all to God, and that is how, (don't worry, not a Jesus Freak)
what he sees fit to give to me,
I'll love with my heart and all will see. (anything, don't even know what)
The fourth is when the rap must end,
emotions rip, twist, and bend, (never permanently, though)
but don't completely worry,
because we're not in a hurry,
things must be considered, evaluated and measured,
for the world to work right, and for all to be bettered. (last part got really into the rap.)
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Movie Review: Despicable Me
So this 3D gem has been receiving a lot of buzz. Last I heard it was second in the box office to the greatest movie of the year, Inception (watch Inception). Anyways, I had the pleasure of viewing this Despicable Me with two friends recently. Like always, I'm going to tackle this review in a few different ways, each movie makes me want to do things differently. First, my general thoughts on the film. Second, Universal Studios vs Pixar vs DreamWorks. Third, the cast. Fourth, the audience. Finally, fifth, my grade and final note.
Okay, so Despicable Me in general was a cute movie. Naturally it is designed to be a family film. The best part about this, though, is that it doesn't dive too far into the waters of "Kids Films." One thing I like about "family" films, is how much adult humor seems to get by in them. Now I'm not saying these movies are way too adult. I am saying that a few jokes in the film seemed to go over kids heads, but their parents laughed. To put this in perspective, Planet 51, that was a kids film. Despicable Me was fun for the whole family, it deserved 2nd in the Box Office.
Second, I thought I should mention the CGI animation. When I watched the film, I was a bit surprised to see that it wasn't a Pixar or DreamWorks. From what I've researched, Universal Studios is pretty new at this CGI animated family film stuff. 9 and The Tale of Despereaux seem to be the only other 3D movies made by them. I think Universal did well with the CGI. They seemed to do so much with it. CGI companies like Pixar seem to do cute stuff with the animation such as Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, WALL-E, and all of the animated shorts. Despicable Me ranks up in the realm of the less-cute-more-well-done stuff like The Incredibles and I suppose Up, although I've never seen Up. Now DreamWorks, that seems to be the direction Universal is going with CGI films. With movies like Antz, Shrek, and How to Train Your Dragon, DreamWorks tends to not do "cute" movies and decides to create popular CGI films. So my note to Universal, keep up the good work, you're doing well this early in the game, and take a hint from DreamWorks not Pixar.
The cast! Despicable Me had a surprisingly famous cast. I say it was surprising because I was really only aware of Steve Carell, couldn't recognize the voice of anyone else. Hell, Jacob couldn't recognize Steve Carell as the voice of Gru, I only knew because I follow Carell's work. Russell Brand voiced the old Dr. Nefario, and the British accent finally made sense to me after the film when I saw Brand's name in the credits. SNL's Will Arnett and Kristen Wiig contributed voices to the film, apparently as Mr. Perkins and Miss Hattie. Miranda Cosgrove herself was the voice of the eldest daughter Margo, I found that surprising. My main note here is that all of these actors and actresses can do really good voice acting apparently.
As always, the audience. Okay, so plenty of annoying kids. One kid had the most incredibly obnoxious laugh I've ever heard. His dad was one of those types of guys who grunt for no reason, that was annoying, but I digress. Chris Harper got up twice during the film. But over all, the audience was nice, even with the one crying baby. What else did I expect?
Finally, with it's nice animation, great voice acting, and an actual segment for 3D (forgot to mention), I give this movie a healthy A. See it in theaters, it's worth it I suppose. As for the note, I'll speak on the topic of 3D. This 3D phenomenon is getting to be quite pretentious in my opinion. Most movies featured in 3D don't do ANYTHING for 3D's sake, they just do it because it apparently "looks cool." Yeah, it looks cool if you want to watch the same thing as the 2D film but with headaches and dizziness. Thank goodness Despicable Me did stuff for 3D, I was getting tired of this pointlessly 3D crap. Unfortunately, however, I did not see Despicable Me in 3D, the one time I would have enjoyed it!
Okay, so Despicable Me in general was a cute movie. Naturally it is designed to be a family film. The best part about this, though, is that it doesn't dive too far into the waters of "Kids Films." One thing I like about "family" films, is how much adult humor seems to get by in them. Now I'm not saying these movies are way too adult. I am saying that a few jokes in the film seemed to go over kids heads, but their parents laughed. To put this in perspective, Planet 51, that was a kids film. Despicable Me was fun for the whole family, it deserved 2nd in the Box Office.
Second, I thought I should mention the CGI animation. When I watched the film, I was a bit surprised to see that it wasn't a Pixar or DreamWorks. From what I've researched, Universal Studios is pretty new at this CGI animated family film stuff. 9 and The Tale of Despereaux seem to be the only other 3D movies made by them. I think Universal did well with the CGI. They seemed to do so much with it. CGI companies like Pixar seem to do cute stuff with the animation such as Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, WALL-E, and all of the animated shorts. Despicable Me ranks up in the realm of the less-cute-more-well-done stuff like The Incredibles and I suppose Up, although I've never seen Up. Now DreamWorks, that seems to be the direction Universal is going with CGI films. With movies like Antz, Shrek, and How to Train Your Dragon, DreamWorks tends to not do "cute" movies and decides to create popular CGI films. So my note to Universal, keep up the good work, you're doing well this early in the game, and take a hint from DreamWorks not Pixar.
The cast! Despicable Me had a surprisingly famous cast. I say it was surprising because I was really only aware of Steve Carell, couldn't recognize the voice of anyone else. Hell, Jacob couldn't recognize Steve Carell as the voice of Gru, I only knew because I follow Carell's work. Russell Brand voiced the old Dr. Nefario, and the British accent finally made sense to me after the film when I saw Brand's name in the credits. SNL's Will Arnett and Kristen Wiig contributed voices to the film, apparently as Mr. Perkins and Miss Hattie. Miranda Cosgrove herself was the voice of the eldest daughter Margo, I found that surprising. My main note here is that all of these actors and actresses can do really good voice acting apparently.
As always, the audience. Okay, so plenty of annoying kids. One kid had the most incredibly obnoxious laugh I've ever heard. His dad was one of those types of guys who grunt for no reason, that was annoying, but I digress. Chris Harper got up twice during the film. But over all, the audience was nice, even with the one crying baby. What else did I expect?
Finally, with it's nice animation, great voice acting, and an actual segment for 3D (forgot to mention), I give this movie a healthy A. See it in theaters, it's worth it I suppose. As for the note, I'll speak on the topic of 3D. This 3D phenomenon is getting to be quite pretentious in my opinion. Most movies featured in 3D don't do ANYTHING for 3D's sake, they just do it because it apparently "looks cool." Yeah, it looks cool if you want to watch the same thing as the 2D film but with headaches and dizziness. Thank goodness Despicable Me did stuff for 3D, I was getting tired of this pointlessly 3D crap. Unfortunately, however, I did not see Despicable Me in 3D, the one time I would have enjoyed it!
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Something Inspired by Divinity
That title was a lie. I typed it because I thought it would send divine inspiration down on me so that I may type something epic in this current blog post. I don't even know what I'm about to say, I'm just winging this one. On the off chance that this post speaks to you in someway, well, perhaps I was inspired after all.
I'm just going to start with how I'm feeling, work from there. Perhaps this topic will lead somewhere. (Side Note: Perhaps I should make a Vlog, for the really special stuff I want to say.) Anyways, I've been feeling just a tad bit off recently. I'm not sure what it is, but a lot of things keep throwing me off balance. I receive either a feeling of anger from this or a complete sense of alienation. But it's not the type of alienation found in ignorance. I'm not trying to purposely remove myself from things that will otherwise make me angry. I feel as if I've stumbled across something, I know what it is, and I also know that I wouldn't actually feel angry if I didn't feel so alienated from it.
Now don't get me wrong, I don't get this "off" feeling all the time. It's more or less recent and it may or may not be caused from lack of sleep. I can tell you, my reader, that this feeling is manageable. I've been exercising it off, which will hopefully jump start the goal I'm trying to reach by either Halloween or next years Comic Con (read my facebook).
Moving on, I feel I should note my lack of sleep in this post. I have found that this topic may in fact extend back to my early childhood. I have come to the realization that I don't fall asleep as fast as others. In fact, I don't fall asleep as fast as pretty much everyone I know. Remember that kid at a sleep-over or camp that would always whisper to you, "are you awake?" and you would suddenly wake up from your in between sleep and wake trance to find that the kid who asked was wide awake. I was that kid and this type of thing has happened on more than one occasion. I've accepted that while some can hit a pillow and be completely knocked out, I cannot. This leads into Fall 2009.
Fall is when school starts, naturally. But I was beginning the college life. No longer did I have to function by the schedules of others, I made my own schedules. But once you realize that you're in college, suddenly you realize that you don't actually have to wake up early anymore. The second realization was what got me. I set all my classes to sometime around noon. This made it so that I could stay up until 1 and sometimes 2 in the morning without consequence. I functioned this way for an entire year. Then school ended, but my weird schedule did not. Now I went to bed late only to wake up late with nothing to do. That's what really set this bad sleeping pattern over the edge, waking up and realizing, "I don't have to get out of bed for anything," or perhaps even, "why do I need to get out of bed," or for the people feeling a little down sometimes, "what's the point in getting up in the morning?"
I'll admit that I had a brief run-in with that last one for about a week, but otherwise I suffer from the first one. I have nothing to do during the day, or at least, nothing to do until later. So moderately switching gears here, I went to my diabetic doctor a month ago (yes we get our own doctor on top of the normal one), I do this every three months. She tells me (yes the doctor is a female) that she wants me to start testing my blood sugar more often, then asks what my schedules like. She does this so she could set an alarm reminder on my blood sugar tester (very high tech), to remind me when I should test my blood sugar. At the time, I went to bed early at 11 and late at 1. She set one of my reminders to 12am. So much for earliest at 11, now the earliest I went to bed was 12. By some stroke of messed up luck and logic, the latest I went to bed became 2. Suddenly I began to wake up later and later, this adjusted what time I went to bed as well. I have been going to bed later and later each night/morning, waking up later and later each day. I have decided to set my own alarm, one for waking up. I'll set it earlier and earlier each day until I get back into a normal swing. So what if I feel tired all day? I have nothing to do, which means I won't feel tired during some test, or while working, etc. Perhaps by the time I do get something to do, my sleep will be back on track and I will thank myself for setting my own alarms.
Well, that about covers it. I wonder if anyone got anything from any of this. I just got a quick fix for my boredom. But more importantly, I was able to express myself, not only in my actions but my feelings as well. That's what a blog is for, in my opinion, expression. Take from it what you will, I only know of 4 people who read these anyways, so perhaps it helped you with something.
I'm just going to start with how I'm feeling, work from there. Perhaps this topic will lead somewhere. (Side Note: Perhaps I should make a Vlog, for the really special stuff I want to say.) Anyways, I've been feeling just a tad bit off recently. I'm not sure what it is, but a lot of things keep throwing me off balance. I receive either a feeling of anger from this or a complete sense of alienation. But it's not the type of alienation found in ignorance. I'm not trying to purposely remove myself from things that will otherwise make me angry. I feel as if I've stumbled across something, I know what it is, and I also know that I wouldn't actually feel angry if I didn't feel so alienated from it.
Now don't get me wrong, I don't get this "off" feeling all the time. It's more or less recent and it may or may not be caused from lack of sleep. I can tell you, my reader, that this feeling is manageable. I've been exercising it off, which will hopefully jump start the goal I'm trying to reach by either Halloween or next years Comic Con (read my facebook).
Moving on, I feel I should note my lack of sleep in this post. I have found that this topic may in fact extend back to my early childhood. I have come to the realization that I don't fall asleep as fast as others. In fact, I don't fall asleep as fast as pretty much everyone I know. Remember that kid at a sleep-over or camp that would always whisper to you, "are you awake?" and you would suddenly wake up from your in between sleep and wake trance to find that the kid who asked was wide awake. I was that kid and this type of thing has happened on more than one occasion. I've accepted that while some can hit a pillow and be completely knocked out, I cannot. This leads into Fall 2009.
Fall is when school starts, naturally. But I was beginning the college life. No longer did I have to function by the schedules of others, I made my own schedules. But once you realize that you're in college, suddenly you realize that you don't actually have to wake up early anymore. The second realization was what got me. I set all my classes to sometime around noon. This made it so that I could stay up until 1 and sometimes 2 in the morning without consequence. I functioned this way for an entire year. Then school ended, but my weird schedule did not. Now I went to bed late only to wake up late with nothing to do. That's what really set this bad sleeping pattern over the edge, waking up and realizing, "I don't have to get out of bed for anything," or perhaps even, "why do I need to get out of bed," or for the people feeling a little down sometimes, "what's the point in getting up in the morning?"
I'll admit that I had a brief run-in with that last one for about a week, but otherwise I suffer from the first one. I have nothing to do during the day, or at least, nothing to do until later. So moderately switching gears here, I went to my diabetic doctor a month ago (yes we get our own doctor on top of the normal one), I do this every three months. She tells me (yes the doctor is a female) that she wants me to start testing my blood sugar more often, then asks what my schedules like. She does this so she could set an alarm reminder on my blood sugar tester (very high tech), to remind me when I should test my blood sugar. At the time, I went to bed early at 11 and late at 1. She set one of my reminders to 12am. So much for earliest at 11, now the earliest I went to bed was 12. By some stroke of messed up luck and logic, the latest I went to bed became 2. Suddenly I began to wake up later and later, this adjusted what time I went to bed as well. I have been going to bed later and later each night/morning, waking up later and later each day. I have decided to set my own alarm, one for waking up. I'll set it earlier and earlier each day until I get back into a normal swing. So what if I feel tired all day? I have nothing to do, which means I won't feel tired during some test, or while working, etc. Perhaps by the time I do get something to do, my sleep will be back on track and I will thank myself for setting my own alarms.
Well, that about covers it. I wonder if anyone got anything from any of this. I just got a quick fix for my boredom. But more importantly, I was able to express myself, not only in my actions but my feelings as well. That's what a blog is for, in my opinion, expression. Take from it what you will, I only know of 4 people who read these anyways, so perhaps it helped you with something.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Movie Review: Inception
I barely know how to begin this review. Part of me wants to just keep typing the word awesome continuously. I'm going to try to make this movie review as coherent as possible, hope you can follow along. I'll begin with the movie itself of course, then cast, then director, then audience, then the grade I give, then the final note.
Okay, so without risking any spoilers, here it goes. The movie is hands down the best movie all year, when magazines say "Best Movie of the Year," they're actually talking about this film. It has so many good things going for it, original plot, great idea, and of course awesome graphics. The entire weightless stuff you see in the commercial... wait to you see it in the film in its entirety. It's just, mind blowing: all the stuff they pull off in the film. The best part is, you can't really scream "Fake!" with any of the effects, because it partly takes place in a dream world, just chock it up to that. They also filmed on location and, in one case, partly on location for pretty much every scene in the film. Also, they constructed an entire set for one of the best effects in the film, the weightlessness. So CGI was only used when absolutely necessary. That being said, the movie was awesome.
The cast was filled with a wide range of actors, a few of which Christopher Nolan has worked with before, such as: Michael Caine and Cillian Murphy. Leonardo Di Caprio is an all around well respected and great actor, he did amazing. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, from 3rd Rock to the big screen, he's growing as an actor and I totally want to see him in more movies. Ellen Page, goodness I hated Juno, but she did wonderful in Inception, which is the only other movie I've seen her in. Tom Hardy, unknown to me, but did well in the role he played. Marion Cotillard, apparently she was in my favorite movie Big Fish, this means she knows how to get roles in good movies. Cillian Murphy, loved him as the Scarecrow, I want to see him in more of Nolan's films because of this movie. Ken Watanabe, had a very dynamic role, I didn't know what to think of his character at first, but in the end, I liked him. Oh, and, Michael Caine was cool too.
Christopher Nolan. This guy practically invented Batman. Goodness this guy can make a film. Batman Begins was cool and of course The Dark Knight blew everyone's mind. Inception takes the mind blowing a lot further. All of his previous films have received incredible reviews. I need to watch this guy's work. It's going to be a damn shame if Nolan ever looses his groove. A damn shame. I don't want to see him end up like M. Night.
Okay, so the movie goers. The people behind me kept making some weird type of noise, I hate a noisy audience. The audience seemed riveted, a few whispers here and there, but that was because pretty much everyone was just immersed into the film and didn't know quite how to express themselves. Audience was good is what I'm trying to say.
I told myself that when I created the letter grading for movies I wouldn't give +'s or -'s, I'm breaking my rule for this one. I'm doing this because the movie is that awesome, I give it an A+!
Final note. Let me just say, this movie gives Hollywood the finger. For years now, Hollywood has been unoriginal and has dished out a lot of fake, and not to mention, crappy films. Pulse, 28 Weeks Later, anything beyond X-Men 3 in that franchise, all of that is crap. Movies these day's are either sequels that begin to suck, based off of books and are therefore unoriginal, remakes, or "remakes" with a "different" plot of earlier films. Inception makes up for all the horrible crap Hollywood's presented, at least within the past decade I'd say. Inception has a great cast, intriguing ideas, and an original and gripping plot. This movie deserves more academy awards than the Lord of the Rings trilogy got. But winning these awards would be an insult to Nolan, because it would be Hollywood giving out their annual "Unoriginal Movie of the Year" awards to a film that was actually original and very well done. If the Academy had any sense, they'd abolish the awards ceremony and crown Christopher Nolan "King of all things movie", then Nolan will hence forth decide what movies deserve what awards. Inception was that good in my opinion. Go see it.
Okay, so without risking any spoilers, here it goes. The movie is hands down the best movie all year, when magazines say "Best Movie of the Year," they're actually talking about this film. It has so many good things going for it, original plot, great idea, and of course awesome graphics. The entire weightless stuff you see in the commercial... wait to you see it in the film in its entirety. It's just, mind blowing: all the stuff they pull off in the film. The best part is, you can't really scream "Fake!" with any of the effects, because it partly takes place in a dream world, just chock it up to that. They also filmed on location and, in one case, partly on location for pretty much every scene in the film. Also, they constructed an entire set for one of the best effects in the film, the weightlessness. So CGI was only used when absolutely necessary. That being said, the movie was awesome.
The cast was filled with a wide range of actors, a few of which Christopher Nolan has worked with before, such as: Michael Caine and Cillian Murphy. Leonardo Di Caprio is an all around well respected and great actor, he did amazing. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, from 3rd Rock to the big screen, he's growing as an actor and I totally want to see him in more movies. Ellen Page, goodness I hated Juno, but she did wonderful in Inception, which is the only other movie I've seen her in. Tom Hardy, unknown to me, but did well in the role he played. Marion Cotillard, apparently she was in my favorite movie Big Fish, this means she knows how to get roles in good movies. Cillian Murphy, loved him as the Scarecrow, I want to see him in more of Nolan's films because of this movie. Ken Watanabe, had a very dynamic role, I didn't know what to think of his character at first, but in the end, I liked him. Oh, and, Michael Caine was cool too.
Christopher Nolan. This guy practically invented Batman. Goodness this guy can make a film. Batman Begins was cool and of course The Dark Knight blew everyone's mind. Inception takes the mind blowing a lot further. All of his previous films have received incredible reviews. I need to watch this guy's work. It's going to be a damn shame if Nolan ever looses his groove. A damn shame. I don't want to see him end up like M. Night.
Okay, so the movie goers. The people behind me kept making some weird type of noise, I hate a noisy audience. The audience seemed riveted, a few whispers here and there, but that was because pretty much everyone was just immersed into the film and didn't know quite how to express themselves. Audience was good is what I'm trying to say.
I told myself that when I created the letter grading for movies I wouldn't give +'s or -'s, I'm breaking my rule for this one. I'm doing this because the movie is that awesome, I give it an A+!
Final note. Let me just say, this movie gives Hollywood the finger. For years now, Hollywood has been unoriginal and has dished out a lot of fake, and not to mention, crappy films. Pulse, 28 Weeks Later, anything beyond X-Men 3 in that franchise, all of that is crap. Movies these day's are either sequels that begin to suck, based off of books and are therefore unoriginal, remakes, or "remakes" with a "different" plot of earlier films. Inception makes up for all the horrible crap Hollywood's presented, at least within the past decade I'd say. Inception has a great cast, intriguing ideas, and an original and gripping plot. This movie deserves more academy awards than the Lord of the Rings trilogy got. But winning these awards would be an insult to Nolan, because it would be Hollywood giving out their annual "Unoriginal Movie of the Year" awards to a film that was actually original and very well done. If the Academy had any sense, they'd abolish the awards ceremony and crown Christopher Nolan "King of all things movie", then Nolan will hence forth decide what movies deserve what awards. Inception was that good in my opinion. Go see it.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
The Ladder
Okay, so like always, I'll give a reason to write this. One reason, I'm bored. Second, I'm not sure this will help me or others in any way, but it's worth a shot. Heck, I'm not even sure if the people it can help read this blog. Anyways, I'm going to try to use a funny analogy when explaining the ladder so hopefully you can follow along. Remember this is an analogy, but the ladder does exist, just not in the way I'm using it.
Everybody likes cupcakes, if you don't you're a Communist. Everyone bakes their own cupcake and it is as unique as the person baking it. Naturally your cupcake is good, after all, you baked it. Your cupcake is so good in fact, that you'd like to share it with someone. Not just anyone though, can't be letting some anti-cupcake Communist have a taste. Here's the good part of the deal, if you share your cupcake with someone, they'll share their own with you, after all, both of you have some really good cupcakes.
Now the ladder comes into play. Like I said earlier, I'm using an analogy for all of this, the ladder is also an analogy, but a more strict one. Remember, the ladder exist no matter what analogy you use for the cupcakes. Here's how it works. You want to share your cupcake with someone, they want to share their own with someone else, that someone else has yet another person they want to share it with. See the ladder yet. A=Person, B= Another Person, C= Other Person, D= Yet Another. A wants to share with B, B wants to share with C, C wants to share with D.
Here's the kicker, I'm only using four rungs on this ladder, it's entirely possible that this ladder is bigger than that. The point is, the ladder exists and it seems everyone on it is climbing in one direction.
I can only see a few possible decisions being made on this ladder. Either you manage to climb up the ladder, which would prevent the person above you from climbing, or you decide to climb down the ladder, which would make the person below you happy but at the obvious cost of you never climbing up. Or you can just jump off the ladder, forget about it, and who knows, you may just land on a shorter ladder with a person from the previous one.
Let's go back to cupcakes now, just to clarify this. We'll use B as the first example, since they are covered on two sides by A and C. B has a choice, share their cupcake with either A or C. At one point in time, B wanted to share their cupcake with A, but A wanted to share their own with another, the ladder was reversed at the time as you can see. At one point, A and B almost did share cupcakes, obviously they both wanted to share them with each other. But now, somehow, B wants to share with C. C is great in many ways I'm sure, probably bakes a really good cupcake. But remember, C wants to share that cupcake with D. A doesn't understand why B won't just pick them, after all, it's a really good cupcake and the two can totally share, and both A and B know this. B is determined to get C, I'm sure for a number of reasons, B could be happy if they shared with A, really could be, but for whatever reason, B feels like sharing with C (hopefully for the right reasons and not the wrong, because when the ladder was reversed, A had decided to climb and that ended up being the wrong choice because it was based on the wrong reasons.) Now, I'm not quite sure how C is in relation to B, perhaps C is willing to share with B, yet really wants to share with D. D doesn't want to share with C at all. I think that clarified.
Hopefully you followed along with all of that. That was the ladder and if you haven't figured it out yet, the cupcake is your heart. If you find yourself on this ladder, the best bet and advice I can give at the moment is to talk with the rungs of the ladder you are aware of. Seriously, everyone just gets into a group discussion. Not only would that be incredibly fun if you let it, it will help a lot and might go better than you think.
Everybody likes cupcakes, if you don't you're a Communist. Everyone bakes their own cupcake and it is as unique as the person baking it. Naturally your cupcake is good, after all, you baked it. Your cupcake is so good in fact, that you'd like to share it with someone. Not just anyone though, can't be letting some anti-cupcake Communist have a taste. Here's the good part of the deal, if you share your cupcake with someone, they'll share their own with you, after all, both of you have some really good cupcakes.
Now the ladder comes into play. Like I said earlier, I'm using an analogy for all of this, the ladder is also an analogy, but a more strict one. Remember, the ladder exist no matter what analogy you use for the cupcakes. Here's how it works. You want to share your cupcake with someone, they want to share their own with someone else, that someone else has yet another person they want to share it with. See the ladder yet. A=Person, B= Another Person, C= Other Person, D= Yet Another. A wants to share with B, B wants to share with C, C wants to share with D.
Here's the kicker, I'm only using four rungs on this ladder, it's entirely possible that this ladder is bigger than that. The point is, the ladder exists and it seems everyone on it is climbing in one direction.
I can only see a few possible decisions being made on this ladder. Either you manage to climb up the ladder, which would prevent the person above you from climbing, or you decide to climb down the ladder, which would make the person below you happy but at the obvious cost of you never climbing up. Or you can just jump off the ladder, forget about it, and who knows, you may just land on a shorter ladder with a person from the previous one.
Let's go back to cupcakes now, just to clarify this. We'll use B as the first example, since they are covered on two sides by A and C. B has a choice, share their cupcake with either A or C. At one point in time, B wanted to share their cupcake with A, but A wanted to share their own with another, the ladder was reversed at the time as you can see. At one point, A and B almost did share cupcakes, obviously they both wanted to share them with each other. But now, somehow, B wants to share with C. C is great in many ways I'm sure, probably bakes a really good cupcake. But remember, C wants to share that cupcake with D. A doesn't understand why B won't just pick them, after all, it's a really good cupcake and the two can totally share, and both A and B know this. B is determined to get C, I'm sure for a number of reasons, B could be happy if they shared with A, really could be, but for whatever reason, B feels like sharing with C (hopefully for the right reasons and not the wrong, because when the ladder was reversed, A had decided to climb and that ended up being the wrong choice because it was based on the wrong reasons.) Now, I'm not quite sure how C is in relation to B, perhaps C is willing to share with B, yet really wants to share with D. D doesn't want to share with C at all. I think that clarified.
Hopefully you followed along with all of that. That was the ladder and if you haven't figured it out yet, the cupcake is your heart. If you find yourself on this ladder, the best bet and advice I can give at the moment is to talk with the rungs of the ladder you are aware of. Seriously, everyone just gets into a group discussion. Not only would that be incredibly fun if you let it, it will help a lot and might go better than you think.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
My Life as a T.V. Show
If you're connected to my facebook by any chance, which you probably are, you may have read the wall post in which I mention the stereotype I fit in Hollywood. I'm going to expand on that here.
I'll begin by listing the T.V. show's you can find characters like me on: Chuck, That 70's Show, Scrubs, Eureka, SGU. All popular at one point, some still popular. Let's look at the formula for these shows. Normal yet somehow awkward white guy gets involved in a life that's bigger than him, he knows a cast of unique characters and that special someone he can't seem to get until later in the series, gets along with all of them, ends up on normal yet somehow wacky misadventures. People laugh, they cry, and it always seems like it won't work out for our guy, but it does.
Chuck/Eric/J.D./Carter/Eli get involved in Spy Work/the 70's/Medical Work/Eureka/Space Ship, he knows Morgan&Casey&Dr. Awesome/Fez&Kelso&Hyde/Turk&Janitor&Carla/Jo&Fargo&Henry/Rush&Scott&Young, and Sarah/Donna/Elliot/Allison/Chloe, gets along with all of them, ends up on etc, etc, etc, you get the point.
Thus far my summer has been filled, hell, my life has been filled with something fun and interesting every week, just like a T.V. show. Life is naturally bigger than these characters and myself because we know so many other cast of characters and people.
I would name the certain characters of my life, but if you watch any of these shows and know me, you know who you are. I don't have to name off any of the stereotypes others fit in, they would know who they are. I just find it funny when I look at the best friend character, or "the new guy" addition to a show, and go, "I know someone like that." So perhaps it isn't a stereotype, perhaps it's just life. If that is the case, then I guess I'm the main character 4 out of 5 times, or at least the character the camera seems to follow.
I'm going to link this blog to my facebook again. If anyone who reads this wants to leave a comment here or on my facebook or message me, feel free. I'll even tell you the character in those T.V. shows I peg you as.
I'll begin by listing the T.V. show's you can find characters like me on: Chuck, That 70's Show, Scrubs, Eureka, SGU. All popular at one point, some still popular. Let's look at the formula for these shows. Normal yet somehow awkward white guy gets involved in a life that's bigger than him, he knows a cast of unique characters and that special someone he can't seem to get until later in the series, gets along with all of them, ends up on normal yet somehow wacky misadventures. People laugh, they cry, and it always seems like it won't work out for our guy, but it does.
Chuck/Eric/J.D./Carter/Eli get involved in Spy Work/the 70's/Medical Work/Eureka/Space Ship, he knows Morgan&Casey&Dr. Awesome/Fez&Kelso&Hyde/Turk&Janitor&Carla/Jo&Fargo&Henry/Rush&Scott&Young, and Sarah/Donna/Elliot/Allison/Chloe, gets along with all of them, ends up on etc, etc, etc, you get the point.
Thus far my summer has been filled, hell, my life has been filled with something fun and interesting every week, just like a T.V. show. Life is naturally bigger than these characters and myself because we know so many other cast of characters and people.
I would name the certain characters of my life, but if you watch any of these shows and know me, you know who you are. I don't have to name off any of the stereotypes others fit in, they would know who they are. I just find it funny when I look at the best friend character, or "the new guy" addition to a show, and go, "I know someone like that." So perhaps it isn't a stereotype, perhaps it's just life. If that is the case, then I guess I'm the main character 4 out of 5 times, or at least the character the camera seems to follow.
I'm going to link this blog to my facebook again. If anyone who reads this wants to leave a comment here or on my facebook or message me, feel free. I'll even tell you the character in those T.V. shows I peg you as.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Movie Review: Predators
Obviously someone saw Predators last night. Give you a hint... it was me. I've always wanted to write a review on movies, but never actually have. This blog gives me the opportunity to write one! So I'm going to break this down into a few parts. Part one, how the movie stands alone. Part two, how it stands as a Predator movie. Part three, cast. Part four, producer. Part five, audience. Part six, the grade I give the film.
Okay, so let us go on to part one. As far as normal everyday movies go, Predators ranks on my list as a very action packed awesome movie. It's totally a "guy" film, it's got at least one lady, weapons, and explosions, all it was missing was a car chase. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the film from start to finish.
Part two, stacking it up against its predecessors. Okay, so I may not be the right guy for this part. After all I've only seen the first Predator film. I saw part of the second and I'm aware that it involves a city and Danny Glover. I have seen AvP and AvP:R, so that helps. From what I have seen, I can tell you it is hands down a thousand times better than that crap AvP: Requiem. I even liked it better than AvP. (Spoiler) The whole film pretty much ignores the events of those two films, but does make references to the first Predator. (End Spoiler) The movie is a sequel to the Predator series and it delivers as a Predator film.
Casting call! Adrien Brody, ex-military guy, not buff like Arnold was but pretty damn ripped, he did well, although I kept thinking he was going to have sex with a Predator at some point in the film, thanks Splice! Alice Braga, token female Black Ops, I liked her role a lot and she did a great job, but I kept wanting her to be Michelle Rodriquez. Topher Grace, medic, despite one of the commercials showing his face, seeing him in the film took me completely off guard, he acts like Eric Foreman most of the way through, but then his role gets pretty good near the end. Danny Trejo, typecast, this guy is awesome, in real life the dude is a criminal turned movie star, he fit his role as a Mexican drug dealer. Mah Ali, death squad officer, I shortened this guys name, I knew I remembered him from a series called The 4400, but only after I watched the film, he brought some awesome realism to the character. Oleg Taktarov, Russian soldier, accent and all, what more do I need to say. Walton Goggins, criminal, I like this guy in movies and television, I liked his role in this film. Laurence Fishburne, not going to spoil this one, but he did well. The Predators, pretty cool motion acting.
The Producer! Robert Rodriguez. The only stuff I've seen come out of this guy are the Spy Kids films and Sharkboy and Lavagirl. So going from that to Predators, with movies like From Dusk Till Dawn and Once Upon a Time in Mexico under his belt, he did a good job delivering an awesome film.
But what about the audience. I have to judge who sees these movies, just to warn you. A lot of people kept getting up and walking in and out of the theater. A fat guy and stopping skinny sprinter guy kept getting up off and on throughout the entire film. Most of the audience was filled with all sorts of different types of "cool guy movie buffs" who like to talk about what they think of the film as it happens. So naturally, I hated the audience.
Finally, my overall grade. A is for awesome and a must see. B is for, see it if you get the chance. C is for make it a rental. D is for, don't see unless someone forces you. F is for, never watch under any circumstances. If you're a Predator fan, then I give the movie an A. For the rest of you, it's a B.
Okay, so let us go on to part one. As far as normal everyday movies go, Predators ranks on my list as a very action packed awesome movie. It's totally a "guy" film, it's got at least one lady, weapons, and explosions, all it was missing was a car chase. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the film from start to finish.
Part two, stacking it up against its predecessors. Okay, so I may not be the right guy for this part. After all I've only seen the first Predator film. I saw part of the second and I'm aware that it involves a city and Danny Glover. I have seen AvP and AvP:R, so that helps. From what I have seen, I can tell you it is hands down a thousand times better than that crap AvP: Requiem. I even liked it better than AvP. (Spoiler) The whole film pretty much ignores the events of those two films, but does make references to the first Predator. (End Spoiler) The movie is a sequel to the Predator series and it delivers as a Predator film.
Casting call! Adrien Brody, ex-military guy, not buff like Arnold was but pretty damn ripped, he did well, although I kept thinking he was going to have sex with a Predator at some point in the film, thanks Splice! Alice Braga, token female Black Ops, I liked her role a lot and she did a great job, but I kept wanting her to be Michelle Rodriquez. Topher Grace, medic, despite one of the commercials showing his face, seeing him in the film took me completely off guard, he acts like Eric Foreman most of the way through, but then his role gets pretty good near the end. Danny Trejo, typecast, this guy is awesome, in real life the dude is a criminal turned movie star, he fit his role as a Mexican drug dealer. Mah Ali, death squad officer, I shortened this guys name, I knew I remembered him from a series called The 4400, but only after I watched the film, he brought some awesome realism to the character. Oleg Taktarov, Russian soldier, accent and all, what more do I need to say. Walton Goggins, criminal, I like this guy in movies and television, I liked his role in this film. Laurence Fishburne, not going to spoil this one, but he did well. The Predators, pretty cool motion acting.
The Producer! Robert Rodriguez. The only stuff I've seen come out of this guy are the Spy Kids films and Sharkboy and Lavagirl. So going from that to Predators, with movies like From Dusk Till Dawn and Once Upon a Time in Mexico under his belt, he did a good job delivering an awesome film.
But what about the audience. I have to judge who sees these movies, just to warn you. A lot of people kept getting up and walking in and out of the theater. A fat guy and stopping skinny sprinter guy kept getting up off and on throughout the entire film. Most of the audience was filled with all sorts of different types of "cool guy movie buffs" who like to talk about what they think of the film as it happens. So naturally, I hated the audience.
Finally, my overall grade. A is for awesome and a must see. B is for, see it if you get the chance. C is for make it a rental. D is for, don't see unless someone forces you. F is for, never watch under any circumstances. If you're a Predator fan, then I give the movie an A. For the rest of you, it's a B.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Fear vs Curiosity
When you are looking for answers and you are afraid of what you will find, the only question to ask is: which will have greater rule over you, your fear or your curiosity?
This motto or anthem or whatever you want to call it has gotten me through a lot of tough spots. For anyone who thinks like me, you probably understand the question already. For those who don't, I'll explain.
For the longest time I feared a lot of things. My top fears: spiders, heights, and being closed in small spaces. Arachnophobia, Acrophobia, and Claustrophobia for anyone who cares. Each of these fears had a rational explanation. I didn't want to get bit by a poisonous spider. I didn't want to fall off a tall ledge. I didn't want to suffocate in a small room or pass out as I hyperventilated. But of course, phobias become irrational as well. Suddenly all spiders are poisonous, the wind itself will find a way to knock me off a ledge, and the room is somehow shrinking.
Something changed. I got to a point, one that made me not giving a crap about a lot of things. Not giving a crap about certain things can be quite healthy I must say, if you're careful. Hell, I started wearing shorts and a t-shirt instead of pants and two shirts because I didn't give a crap. But what about my fears? Did I give a crap about them? Part of me said no, another part still held on to those fears. Then I read a quote similar to the sentence I open this post with.
Needless to say, things changed again. Suddenly I realized, it wasn't about not giving a crap, it was about giving a crap a different way. I used to give the type of crap that fed into fear. I gave a crap never to pick up a spider, climb a tall ladder, or go into really small spaces. But then I transferred all of that to curiosity. The spider's not dangerous, why not pick him up and put him in a healthier environment? So many people climb this ladder, what's the worst that can happen? Air still flows into this small room, so what do I have to fear?
You have to evaluate things in an educational manner. If you live in America, no spider can really harm you, just call 911 if it's incredibly deadly and you get bit. No height can harm you, gravity is a law, it will keep you up on that high ledge so long as you don't jump off. Small spaces aren't closing in on you. Fear of needles, they poke you and hurt no more than a small pinch for all of a few seconds, they don't even leave scars. Fear of rejection, ask the crush out, if they don't reject you, congratulations, if they do, you can move on and stop worrying about it. Fear of public speaking, so you make a fool of yourself in front of people you'll never see again, big deal, that or you're a politician who's most likely taken a class or two on public speaking.
I apply curiosity to most things now. I stopped caring about my fears long enough to make them into something else, something to be curious about. I urge my readers to try something similar, you don't have to jump in just yet. All I ask is that you try to be curious about the things you fear. Because honestly, what's the worst that can happen?
This motto or anthem or whatever you want to call it has gotten me through a lot of tough spots. For anyone who thinks like me, you probably understand the question already. For those who don't, I'll explain.
For the longest time I feared a lot of things. My top fears: spiders, heights, and being closed in small spaces. Arachnophobia, Acrophobia, and Claustrophobia for anyone who cares. Each of these fears had a rational explanation. I didn't want to get bit by a poisonous spider. I didn't want to fall off a tall ledge. I didn't want to suffocate in a small room or pass out as I hyperventilated. But of course, phobias become irrational as well. Suddenly all spiders are poisonous, the wind itself will find a way to knock me off a ledge, and the room is somehow shrinking.
Something changed. I got to a point, one that made me not giving a crap about a lot of things. Not giving a crap about certain things can be quite healthy I must say, if you're careful. Hell, I started wearing shorts and a t-shirt instead of pants and two shirts because I didn't give a crap. But what about my fears? Did I give a crap about them? Part of me said no, another part still held on to those fears. Then I read a quote similar to the sentence I open this post with.
Needless to say, things changed again. Suddenly I realized, it wasn't about not giving a crap, it was about giving a crap a different way. I used to give the type of crap that fed into fear. I gave a crap never to pick up a spider, climb a tall ladder, or go into really small spaces. But then I transferred all of that to curiosity. The spider's not dangerous, why not pick him up and put him in a healthier environment? So many people climb this ladder, what's the worst that can happen? Air still flows into this small room, so what do I have to fear?
You have to evaluate things in an educational manner. If you live in America, no spider can really harm you, just call 911 if it's incredibly deadly and you get bit. No height can harm you, gravity is a law, it will keep you up on that high ledge so long as you don't jump off. Small spaces aren't closing in on you. Fear of needles, they poke you and hurt no more than a small pinch for all of a few seconds, they don't even leave scars. Fear of rejection, ask the crush out, if they don't reject you, congratulations, if they do, you can move on and stop worrying about it. Fear of public speaking, so you make a fool of yourself in front of people you'll never see again, big deal, that or you're a politician who's most likely taken a class or two on public speaking.
I apply curiosity to most things now. I stopped caring about my fears long enough to make them into something else, something to be curious about. I urge my readers to try something similar, you don't have to jump in just yet. All I ask is that you try to be curious about the things you fear. Because honestly, what's the worst that can happen?
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