Thursday, July 29, 2010

Unlearning Generality

This isn't really in the same vein of what I've been writing so far, but it's a blog, who cares?
On and off I've been reading this book called 48 Days to the Work you Love, and it's always been able to lift me up when I wasn't in the best mood; especially when I was pissed because I couldn't find a job. Reading this book has helped me define some of my more obscure desires and abilities, and I'm glad for that-though I could say that it was the hand that pushed me off the cliff of vague ambitions and into the realm of clarified desire and caused me to want no other job than one that will actually help me in the future.

Though, when I landed at the bottom of this realm, all I found was a bunch of broken or useless shit. So I got pissed. I damn near hated everything and wanted only what I couldn't reach because of my experience or broken links (literally). The whole time I thought, "There ain't shit here that I want, how is this defined in any way?" Though what I said was actually heavily saturated in obscenities and vulgarities, that was what I was trying to say.

The funny thing about all of this was that I was actually in a place to specifically identify what I could and could not do, what I was and was not willing to learn to do, and what I didn't want to do. Before, I lived in a land of generalities that only allowed me to think in terms of a wide ranging occupation or careers without ever investigating the details, now I'm posting in the land o being. Meaning, I want to be a novelist, a video game script writer, and a damn good martial artist. All in my lifetime. Who says we should limit ourselves to one thing? That person should be shot. Repeatedly. Revived. Then shot again. Because he's just wasting his life and other's as well by spouting that bullshit.

So yeah, all that's to say, don't limit yourself.

Monday, July 19, 2010

The Plight of the Sojourning Hero

I saw Predators the Saturday of its release at 2:40p.m. Given the time of day, it wasn't particularly packed, and I suspect that people were still finding out that The Last Airbender was a terrible movie undeserving of even the smallest praise. To say that I was surprised that the movie attempted to make steps towards the strengths of the first Predator would be a lie, but I enjoyed that aspect of the movie possibly more than any other. The strongest showings of the film would have to be the characters. They showed such a strong diversity even as they discovered that the only thing they really had in common was that they were all "monsters", people who reveled in humanity's more violent tendencies, and survival.

Still, the movie didn't reach the realm of great summer blockbusters, I think that its return to a more balanced and structured form was a good move. It created a world that allowed for other creatures to exist with little explanation as to what they were or where they were from, and I was cool with that. What I wasn't cool with, and what seems to be a trend that spreads across every movie I have ever seen where a group of people are trying to survive, is what I'm calling the Sojourning Hero.

The Sojourning Hero is by far the most experienced and longest lasting character any movie, whether it's through intelligence, tactics, physical skill or training, or just plain common sense in overdrive, they've survived situations more dangerous and bowel loosening than anything the protagonists have seen so far. There's no way they'll be killed anytime soon, right?

Wrong.
*Spoiler Alert: If you haven't seen the movie and don't want to know certain details then don't read on*
Time and time again these are the people who for some reason or another are used as fodder for the protagonists. Predators is no exception. Nolan, an insane remnant from a previous hunt 10 years ago, 10 years, suddenly gets his noodle blown off by a predator when he tries to suffocate the people he's saved so he can scavenge their supplies. I get why he's killed off. He tried to kill our heroes, who at this point we've begun to feel some connection to--even the prison inmate who wants to get back to "rapin' bitches" as soon as he gets back to earth--so he should be punished. The problem is, now it's expected. We know now that if you've survived this long without being found or killed, you can kiss your hero rescuing ass goodbye cause you're as good as dead.

Think about it, Nolan wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but he was a survivor, he had to know that the predators would have heard the explosion. You don't survive 10 years and kill 2-3 predators without learning that much. You would think he would have booby trapped the place at some point. He should have known that they'd find him. He should have been ready. But he wasn't.
When I said that Nolan wasn't the sharpest, I meant it. He himself said that he never thought to try and steal the pred's ship and fly back home, and based off of his actions leading to his death, he must have thought he was safe, even when he had been compromised. His lack of imagination was his undoing. So like I said, I get why he was killed.

Fuck imagination. Nolan's lived 10 years without being found by a predator, and he's killed at least 3 (he doesn't remember, because he's too busy being a badass). I wanted to see why. I wanted him to run into a predator and after 10 years of fighting these "ugly motherfuckers" show us why he's the shit. Instead of owning a pred like he'd just run into a kid with a rocket launcher pointed in the wrong direction, he gets his head blown off. I call bullshit.

Monday, July 12, 2010

The Boondocks on Prison

I'm a huge fan of The Boondocks. It tends to appeal to my more intelligent impulses while entertaining the fun zone of my brain, which may or may not have a majority vote in what I do. I'm not sure. A few weeks ago, there was an episode called "A Date with the Booty Warrior" and it obviously had me dying with laughter and even after I watched some scenes on YouTube until I saw something curious. There was a man named Fleece Johnson that it also claimed was the Booty Warrior.

So I click on it. To my sincere joy and horror, I find out that Fleece Johnson is the actual Booty Warrior. This was the man that the Booty Warrior in the show was modeled after. What's more, he's a direct representation. The line, "I'm gonna tell you what. I like ya, and I want ya. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. The choice is yours." is straight out of his mouth verbatim.

Interestingly enough, this inspired a conversation between a friend and I about the reasoning behind homosexuality in prison. From her perspective, because it doesn't occur as an act of love or affection between two men, it's not real. In this instance, I'm agreeing with the Booty Warrior (I can't believe I just said that). You get a bunch of men that have sexual desires and no women and eventually someone will get it in their mind to go to another man to satisfy that desire. Usually without their consent. Do I agree that you should rape a man in prison? Hell no. The words "man" and "rape" should never come up in a conversation. Neither should "women" and "rape". But I digress. I understand how it can come to pass. Homosexuality in prisons is largely a situational behavior. If they had the option, I'm pretty sure they would not be looking to each other for sexual satisfaction.

Which brings me to another point. Prisons sometimes called Correctional Facilities, don't really appear to be facilitating any correction. If anything, they seem to create circumstances in which bad things can happen, or even worse, where nothing happens. We all know that prisons are over capacity, and it would make some sense to rehabilitate some of these convicts while it's a possibility before they become institutionalized and unable to be reabsorbed into society. Also, there's the added benefit of having room for people that need to be in there. I know there's a lot of them. I know that from the perspective of a victim, the last person you want to see doing better is the one that wronged you, but at some point, the idea that convicts should suffer forever has to be done away with, and they have to be able to live as law abiding citizens in order for prisons to function.

Comment.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Between Twitter and Facebook, we'll all be fired at some point

I'm all about maintaining a professional stance in the workplace, especially if you work in customer service, that mess can get out of hand so quick you won't even know it happened. But there's should be limit to how often and for how long one should uphold the views of the companies and organizations we work for, especially when the line is getting thin between our personal and professional lives.

Firing someone because of what's on their facebook or twitter account is getting insanely close to that line. That said, where does a situation like this one fall? I'm of the opinion that unless you happen to be complaining about your job or revealing undesired information about it, employers shouldn't have a leg to stand on. But if you happen to have the power to sway public opinion, you should probably be really careful about what you say, especially when you work for a news station. So that adds occupational relevancy to the list of things that can get you in trouble on a social networking site. Though I'm still going to be of the opinion that employers should just man up, people aren't always representing the places they work for; I'm pretty sure they have their own identities.

Comments?

Friday, July 9, 2010

College Spending

Being a college student (still, unfortunately), I wonder about what it is that I pay for entirely. It can't all be just to learn, there are so many groups and events and societies that some of it has to go to them. Supposedly though, according to this article in the New York Times, colleges spend more money on recreation than education. For some reason, I'm not surprised. I've seen more groups and events and activities in the past couple years. I'm tired of hearing about homecoming and electing the new president of SGB, but I never thought about why that is, and now it dawns on me that they have the money to keep getting on my nerves.

With that thought, it's not so great that colleges are spending more money on recreation, but it's also a part of the college experience, maybe more than actually learning in some instances (it's all about networking nowadays). I'm a part of at least 2 groups that are benefiting from this kind of spending and I really wouldn't have it any other way, they enhance my college experience.

I don't know if it's a good thing or not, but I wonder if I would be smarter with more recreation, or more education? Who knows.

Comments, comments

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Newness, Newness

Ok, so I looked at this blog and it's really boring. And it's strange because I'm amazing (well at least in person) so I'm gonna switch things up real quick, and by real quick I mean tomorrow, so anticipate something a little more interesting. And if it's not, don't hate me, I'm trying to get the hang of it here.