The Niblog

Sam Worthington's Eyes

2010-10-03T00:01:00.000-04:00

I recently wrote a paper on Christopher Nolan's The Prestige using some concepts of semiotics, a field I have recently been exposed to and absolutely love. If you are interested, check out the book Mythologies, by Roland Barthes. I could go on about semiotics, but that's not the point of this post, and I don't have much time these days, so maybe I'll write about it another day. So, what do I want to write about, you may be wondering? Well, I shall tell you. It's The Prestige. And the new Clash of the Titans. And Christian Bale. And Sam Worthington. I don't think this post will contain any spoilers, but if it does, I will certainly warn you.

NOTE: For the abridged version of this entry, please scroll down.

Those of you who know me likely know that I am a HUGE fan of Christian Bale. No, not just because he's Batman. I don't even think those films have his best performances. Don't get me wrong, they're amazing performances. The crazy thing is there are lots of other movies where he's even better. I know, hard to believe. Moving on. So in order to write my paper on The Prestige, I had to watch it several times. Every time I watched it, I enjoyed it even more. Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman give us amazing performances. Now a word about Clash of the Titans.

So while I was working on my paper, I took a break to watch the new Clash of the Titans. What a disappointment. I couldn't believe how bad the film was. I think if I were to describe it in one word, it would be: odd. The acting was odd, the lighting was odd, the characters were odd, the cgi was odd, the gods were odd, the action was odd, even their hairstyles were odd! The only good thing in there was Mads Mikkelsen. He's what kept me going. Also, the trailer for the film was pretty cool.

So, what do these thoughts on these films have to do with each other? The principal actors: Christian Bale and Sam Worthington. The more I thought about the reasons why I think Bale is such a great actor, the more I realized why I think Worthington is not. Or at least hasn't shown me that he is yet.

First, my thoughts on Worthington, or Sammy W, as I like to call him. I want to like him, I really do. I think he's got a great face and an undeniable presence. He's a cool-looking dude. The problem, I think, is in his lack of emotive abilities. More specifically, I don't see anything in his eyes. The music, lighting, and dialogue of a particular scene might tell me that his character is upset, overjoyed, or in love, but I don't buy it in his eyes. They're just blank. Full disclosure, I've seen three of his films: Terminator Salvation, Avatar, and Clash of the Titans. Of those, I think Avatar probably has his best acting. But even then, there was something missing in his eyes. Know what I mean? That's where I think not only Christian Bale, but a lot of actors that I think are great really shine. Hugh Jackman, Clive Owen, Eric Bana, Tom Cruise, Matthew Fox, Leonardo DiCaprio, etc. They emote with their eyes to such a degree that if they're happy, I can't help but find myself smiling along with them. The same goes for all their other emotions. When that tear swells up in their eyes because they're either scared, terrified, frustrated, or furious, it blows me away.

Like I said before, I like Sam Worthington. I want to like him as an actor. I remember around the time Avatar was coming out, there were some articles comparing him to Russel Crowe, another actor who can go up on that list of emotive actors. I think it was mainly because of the action roles Worthington had lining up and his Australian roots as opposed to his acting abilities. Part of the problem may also be attributable to the directors he has so far worked with. Compared to those other actors on the list above, Worthington has not really been involved with directors known for their films' acting strengths. Maybe that is why I feel Avatar was his best role, because James Cameron has a lot more experience as a director than Terminator's McG or Clash's Louis Leterrier. Perhaps Worthington's methods require more of an interaction with a director willing to work with him or to his strengths?

I think this hypothesis holds some weight when we look at the other actors around Worthington in Terminator and Clash of the Titans. I think Terminator probably has one of Christian Bale's weakest performances. Helena Bonham Carter and Bryce Dallas Howard also gave us some odd bits of acting. Even Linda Hamilton's re-recorded voice sounds strange and bizarre compared to the identical lines she speaks in Cameron's original Terminator. Now let's look at some of the actors in Clash of the Titans: Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes! World-class actors who gave some of the strangest and most awkward performances I've ever seen. Gemma Arterton, who I'm not too familiar with, was also the focus of some seriously bad acting. And was that Danny Huston who played one of the gods for a single line of dialogue? What??

This is not meant to be a bashing of Sam Worthington. It would be more accurate to call this the response of a disappointed but hopeful fan who sees a lot of potential in an up-and-coming actor whose films have mainly been action spectacles that have failed to show his dramatic range. The next few films he has lined up definitely look promising. The Debt, where he plays an Israeli Mossad agent is being directed by John Madden, who among other things directed Shakespeare in Love. He also directed Proof. A really good film, based on a play, that was all about the acting and the drama. While The Debt definitely has action in it, it looks to have a lot of drama as well. The screenplay was written by Matthew Vaughn and others. Worthington will also be in the remake of that old Schwarzenegger film Commando, to be written and directed by David Ayer. Ayer wrote Training Day and wrote/directed Harsh Times, which starred Christian Bale in a particularly explosive role. Here's hoping he can get the same intensity of performance out of Worthington.

ABRIDGED VERSION: Sam Worthington, get your act (and eyes) together!

...time to nut up or shut up

Return of the Niblog

2010-08-22T23:44:00.001-04:00

Hello dear readers,

Munib Rezaie here, coincidentally coming to you exactly one year since my last post. As you can see, I have redesigned and revamped this blog and will likely be making more tweaks in the coming weeks. It's been a long time since I have regularly updated this thing, but I'm hoping that will change soon. I'm beginning my doctoral studies at Georgia State University this week in Moving Image Studies. My area of focus is in Chinese and Hong Kong film. My hope is that I will use this space as an outlet for my studies as well as a means to keep myself writing regularly. We'll see how this goes.

Thank you all for your support and enthusiasm in reading my blog and wanting its return. I hope you enjoy where this blog takes me. I'm certainly anxious to see where it goes.

...Wing Chun, Ip Man

Jon & Kate Plus Backbiting

2009-08-22T15:02:00.008-04:00

Man. It's been a long time since I've updated this thing. Well, I'll get right to it...

NOTE: For the abridged version of this entry, please scroll down.

A few weeks ago, a dear friend of mine asked me the following question:

"How do you feel about the current situation with one of your favorite TV shows Jon & Kate [Plus 8], plus the intense media scrutiny that followed all of the dramatic events?"

So I answered his question with quite a lengthy reply that I decided I would use as the basis for this post...which will be longer. The topic is one which I have considered on several occasions to write about in my blog. It's something I feel pretty strongly about. I suppose I just needed a push. So thank you, dear friend of mine. I'm not keeping his identity a secret for any reason. It was Louis. Louis O'Neal.

Several years ago, I came to the sudden and now seemingly obvious realization that the tabloids, celebrity gossip, and talking about celebrities' personal lives and attitudes with my friends is considered backbiting. Before I go any further, I should perhaps elaborate a bit on my own personal understanding of backbiting, a topic which I find to be infinitely fascinating.

In the Bahá’í Writings, there are an incredible number of quotations on the subject of backbiting. I would like to share a handful of them to help frame my discussion of media scrutiny.

Abdu'l-Bahá states:

“The worst human quality and the most great sin is backbiting, more especially when it emanates from the tongues of the believers of God.”
(Quoted in Star of West, Vol. IV. p. 192)

The worst human quality! Most great sin! That’s crazy!

Bahá'u'lláh goes on to say:

“Backbiting quencheth the light of the heart, and extinguisheth the life of the soul.”
(Bahá’u’lláh: The Kitáb-i-Íqán, p. 193)

“O Son of Being! How couldst thou forget thine own faults and busy thyself with the faults of others? Whoso doeth this is accursed of Me.”

Extinguishes the life of the soul?! Accursed of God?! That’s intense! And you may be thinking to yourself, “I’m ok, I don’t backbite.” But if you are a passive listener to other people’s backbiting, you are also doing yourself a disservice. Abdu'l-Bahá expands on how the hearer is affected:

“If any individual should speak ill of one who is absent, it is incumbent on his hearers, in a spiritual and friendly manner, to stop him, and say in effect: would this detraction serve any useful purpose? Would it…be of any possible benefit to any soul? No, never! On the contrary, it would make the dust to settle so thickly on the heart that the ears would hear no more, and the eyes would no longer behold the light of truth.”
(Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 230)

Wow.

So those are just a few examples of how seriously I take backbiting. So as I was saying, one day I realized that celebrities were people too. They have souls just like the rest of us. They are also innately spiritual beings, just like the rest of humanity. I wouldn’t like to talk crap about a friend, or judge the decision of a friend’s friend that I never even met, so why would I want to discuss the private lives of a celebrity? Once I truly took this to heart, it became a lot harder for me make any kind of serious or extreme commentary about a celebrity. It created a certain amount of moderation in the way I spoke about movies and actors and actresses and the like.

I’ll give an example. After the original The Fast and the Furious came out to much success, there was obviously talk of a sequel being made. By this time, Vin Diesel had made several other films and gained quite a reputation. I read somewhere that he was asking for $30 million to sign on for it, and that’s why he was not in the sequel. I believed it, and even changed my view about Vin Diesel, who I had liked up to that point. However, now he was too cocky and greedy and I didn’t like that. What a terrible thing to think about a person after reading just a few sentences about them. Didn’t even bother looking for the source or anything. Just believed it. Fail.

Now I stay away from celebrity news of all sorts. I still read about films and film development news, but I try to stay away from the articles that have to do with their personal lives or what store someone was seen shopping at, or who made out with who, or who beat up who. It doesn’t matter. Additionally, don’t actors’ acting just seem better when you DON’T know much about their personal lives? I don’t think that it’s just a coincidence that some of my favorite actors also tend to keep their private lives private. Robert DeNiro, Kevin Spacey, Christian Bale, Matt Damon, George Clooney, Clive Owen, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, and Johnny Depp, just to name a few.

And if I do catch something, which I inevitably do, seeing as how the backbiting industry is literally EVERYWHERE, I try to keep whatever I read or saw away from what I think of the actor. So I don’t get the people who all of a sudden turned against Tom Cruise after he had a few awkward interviews and decided they didn’t like his movies either. Or just cause he’s a Scientologist. What? How does that make sense? He’s still the same awesome actor. Or that whole Christian Bale rant against the cinematographer thing. Seriously? You’ve never cursed out or yelled at anyone in your life? Then the media gets and runs with it and everyone who reads about it or sees it on TV in shows devoted to this stuff like Access Hollywood, Inside Edition, Entertainment Tonight, Extra, just about anything on E! or VH1 these days, and even CNN (why is it even on CNN to begin with?) forms an opinion and judgment of you. That’s just rude, dude.

Which finally brings us to Jon & Kate Plus 8. A relatively new kind of celebrity; ones from a reality show. They’re even more ordinary than the ordinary celebrities that get their faces splattered on magazines everyday. So how do I feel about that, you ask? I feel sad. The same sadness I feel when there’s news of any couple who, whether I know them or not, gets a divorce. Divorces are always sad. Especially when there are kids involved. So my thoughts, when I see their faces all over the magazines stacked at every check-out aisle in every store I go to is: “What do those 8 kids feel like right now?” How does it feel to go into a grocery store and see your mom and/or dad’s face on a magazine with words and quotations attributed to them that are probably made up, saying that they hate each other, or that their dad is having an affair? Most recently I saw “Jon’s a dirtbag” in huge letters over his picture. That’s heavy stuff. I wouldn’t wish that on anybody, and most definitely not on anybody’s kids.

If you agree with what I say, here are a few things to keep in mind when reading or watching news related to celebrities:

1) All or at least part of what you are reading is false, an exaggeration, or a misinterpretation of what actually happened
2) There is absolutely no way that anyone can know exactly what happened, except for those were there when it happened, even then, you don’t know what those involved were thinking when it happened
3) There’s no reason why anyone else should want to know what happened because these are human beings we’re talking about here, involved in their human lives just like everyone else

ABRIDGED VERSION: Backbiting sucks! Celebrities have souls too!

Whew, all this talk about backbiting is getting me down, so I’ll end with a quote about how amazing it would be if we didn’t backbite:

“If, however, a person setteth about speaking well of another, opening his lips to praise another, he will touch an answering chord in his hearers and they will be stirred up by the breathings of God. Their hearts and souls will rejoice to know that, God be thanked, here is a soul in the Faith who is a focus of human perfections, a very embodiment of the bounties of the Lord, one whose tongue is eloquent, and whose face shineth, in whatever gathering he may be, one who hath victory upon his brow, and who is a being sustained by the sweet savours of God.”
(Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 230)

That’s good stuff.

…keep moving forward

The Dangers of Trailers

2007-06-08T17:46:00.000-04:00

Hey. It’s been a while. I might be a little rusty at this writing thing, so give me a break.

NOTE: For the abridged version of this entry, please scroll down.

How many people here like to see movie previews? I remember days of old when that was one of the best parts of going to the theater, and the reason you always made sure to get there on time. But where does this fascination over watching previews come from? If I were to guess, I’d have to say that a big part of it is simply for the bragging rights. Just having the knowledge of what was shown in a preview has always been a legitimate source for a conversation. Heck, I remember being filled with pure excitement over the purchase of a new Disney animated feature on VHS, cause they always had a sneak peek at their next big cartoon. Then I’d go off and tell all my friends about it who hadn’t gotten the film yet.

But times they are a-changing. Used to be that theaters were the only place you could go to get a taste of the movies coming to a theater near you, and every now and then on the telly. Nowadays, with the ridiculous reach of the internet and all kinds of cross-media advertising and promotions, I feel that trailers have lost a lot of their importance and excitement, and unfortunately have started going the other way and become damaging.

The internet has essentially placed the world at everyone’s fingertips. Information is distributed endlessly and consumed at superhuman speeds. Instead of satiating people’s hunger and making them stop, it seems to have given them an even bigger appetite that cannot be satisfied…ever. People just want to know. They want to know more and more, and fast. Which results in a decreased level of patience. Anything that takes longer than what their bandwidth allows is an eternity. Therefore, one single trailer in the theater for a movie that will come out in a year is unacceptable. Everyone will forget.

So what’s the logical answer? Release more and more trailers. With each one that follows revealing more and more of the story. You’ll basically see the whole movie before it’s even out. Or at least the best parts. And then they show it on TV over and over and over again. And then you get these ones that are like over 3 minutes long that reveal waaaaay too much of the story. There’s no mystery anymore. Doesn’t anybody like to be surprised by what they see?

I’d like to hear other people’s thoughts on this matter. It’s something I’m kind of passionate about. I honestly don’t get it. Now it’s become a bragging right to know spoilers that others don’t know about; or even having seen the movie online somehow before it’s even released in theaters. It doesn’t make any sense. Help me understand!

ABRIDGED VERSION: Trailers suck.

...i'm sorry my sister turned your parents into pigs

The Red Sun Rises...

2006-11-15T23:53:00.000-05:00

Blood has been spilled this night.

So, as I have said in last post, the Wii is the only way to go. Sony is just not looking good. As if the uselessness of having the Blu-Ray format wasn’t enough, there have been recent developments that I found out about at IMDb that will only harm Sony.

And I quote:

“In the latest embarrassment to strike Sony Corp., the company acknowledged today (Wednesday) that many games designed for the original PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles are not compatible with PlayStation 3. News of the problem follows the rash of bad publicity over production delays involving the device, consumer hesitancy over the company's Blu-ray high-definition DVD devices, and especially a recall of laptop batteries that the company had manufactured. Sony had been hoping that the hugely hyped Casino Royale, due out this weekend, would produce revenue to offset the earlier ordeals. Sony managers were in London Tuesday to demonstrate how they planned to integrate the marketing of their products with the new film. Later in the day they attended the premiere of the movie at the Odeon Leicester Square theater -- along with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.”

Then there’s the price. They’re releasing two different versions:

1) $599 for 60 GB hard drive; built in Wi-Fi; flash card reader; and a chrome trim
2) $499 for 20 GB hard drive; no Wi-Fi; no flash card reader; and no chrome trim

Pretty friggin lame, if you ask me. And if you don’t, well, that’s what I would say if you did.

…I’m a soldier of the apocalypse, man!

Wii Will, Wii Will Rock You

2006-11-07T00:13:00.000-05:00

Something wicked this way comes. Something big is going to happen in the videogame industry in the coming months and few years. Something big involving the 3 major players in the industry: Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. We’re at a cliffhanger that J. J. Abrams would be proud of.

NOTE: For the abridged version of this entry, please scroll down.

But first, a brief history:

I am sure that many of you out there have heard the terms “next-gen” or “next generation” when referring to videogame consoles. A generation for videogames usually lasts about three to four years or so. History has shown that every generation improves on the previous one, and every other generation brings along with it a huge innovation. Allow me to illustrate further. Let’s look back to the late 80s. Nintendo had the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Sega had the Master System, both of which were 8-bit systems. Their big thing was 2D games that were quite advanced for the time.

The next generation of consoles brought Nintendo’s Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and Sega’s Genesis (Mega Drive in Europe and South America). Both of these systems were 16-bit and basically improved on the graphics and technology of 2D games.

Remember how we said huge innovations come along? The next era was the 32-bit era where the people were introduced to real 3D gaming. Sega came out with a very poorly marketed yet amazing system called the Sega Saturn while Sony released its now infamous PlayStation. The games were also played on CDs. The Sega Saturn was quickly forgotten by the masses while the PlayStation continued to grow in popularity with an older crowd as its target audience.

Since we are now in the 3D world, what do you suppose the following generation of consoles did? 128-bit systems were on the loose. Sega released its awesome yet once again poorly marketed and ill-fated Dreamcast, Sony had PlayStation 2, and Microsoft joined in a bit late in the game with its Xbox. The three systems simply made 3D graphics smoother and more realistic while also introducing the world to online console gaming; an innovation that few remember was originated by the Dreamcast.

Which brings us to the generation we find ourselves in at this very moment. However, unlike the past, this generation seems to bring no innovation by its apparent major players. The Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 will only make games look more realistic than before. Unfortunately, not every company has the available budget to make games that take full advantage of the power of these systems. And seeing how many delays the PS3 has gone through, as well as its seemingly wasteful use of the Blu-Ray technology, I believe it will be out of the console wars by the end of this generation. The Xbox 360 will suffer too, but might not fall off completely.

Which finally brings us to the saving grace of this generation: The Nintendo Wii. You might have noticed that Nintendo was not mentioned in some of the above paragraphs. While Sony and Microsoft, and even Sega were doing their battles trying to outdo the other, Nintendo was always off to the side doing their own thing. Their target audience was usually much younger and always appealed to the whole family. The Nintendo 64 had some amazing titles. The GameCube, as well. They have also always been the undisputed leader in handheld portable gaming. And nobody can deny that their games are just plain fun.

But I get distracted, I am here to talk about the Wii. The Wii is the way of the future. The Wii is what will save the videogame industry. The Wii will get every single person in the household playing video games. It is the only console of this generation that is actually trying something new and innovative. The controllers are…well, just see for yourselves. By making it accessible to virtually everyone, Nintendo is going to beat out its competitors who offer the same of the old for about twice the price. That’s right, the Wii will be sold for only $250, and that includes a sports games pack.

Yessir, the Wii is the only way to go. Forget the PS3 and the Xbox 360. They’re not doing anything new. Sure the games look stunning, but we’ve seen it all before. Put your money on the Wii, I know I will…or should I say, I know I Wiill.

ABRIDGED VERSION: The Nintendo Wii will kill the PS3 and the Xbox 360.

…are you watching closely?

The Da Vinci Code?

2006-05-28T19:41:00.000-04:00

More like…The Crapinci Code. Ha!

NOTE: For the abridged version of this entry, please scroll down.

So I saw the movie the other day and I didn’t really like it. Here are some of the reasons why:

Sophie Neveu: what was her function? Except for having gotten Langdon safely away from that cop, she didn’t really do much. We’re told she was being unknowingly trained by her “grandfather” her whole life so that she could take over his duties. Then Teabing busts out with that thing about the songs her grandfather probably sang to her that he also knows. Here’s where we’re shown a flashback of a little girl dancing to her grandfather’s singing. The fact that she’s supposed to have been trained her whole life is brought up a bunch of times, and yet is never one put into action. She doesn’t solve any of the puzzles and basically serves as the audience – us – to whom Langdon can explain every little bit of information to so that we won’t get lost. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

The flashbacks: what the hell was the point of them? They mostly showed me what they already told me. Or they happened the other way around. They told me something, then later they showed a flashback of it. What the crap?

For example:
Robert Langdon: When I was a boy I fell in a well and thought I was going to die.
Sophie: ::blank stare of uselessness::
CUT TO: flashback of a boy in a well.
BACK TO: some other random scene.

Unless the flashbacks have something important to show me, I don’t think they’re very necessary. Specially Sophie’s flashbacks, as mentioned above.

The French Cop Guy: that cop guy played by Jean Reno, whose name I can’t remember. So I’m supposed to believe that this guy who has such strong belief in that priest – so much so that he clearly went against all police procedures – this guy will just turn and let him take the fall at the end? With no hesitation? Merely a “you used me”? I dunno, that seemed kinda weird to me.

Before you people who are fans of the book start going crazy; NO, I have NOT read the book. It doesn’t matter if the book was amazing. Film is a different media. Things obviously have to change. This was an adaptation of a novel. As such, I do not believe it was adapted very well. It felt like to truly understand what was going on, I needed to have read the book. Sure, that will help in any movie based on a book, but it shouldn’t be essential. Also, there are certain expectations when you hear “A film by Ron Howard, starring Tom Hanks”; expectations that I do not believe were met.

ABRIDGED VERSION: The Da Vinci Code was a 2 ½ hour introduction to the last 5 minutes of the movie...and it sucked.

Challenge me...Please. Specially those of you who have read the books and seen the movie.

...the perfect blossom is a rare thing

Studio Church

2006-05-16T00:41:00.000-04:00

Greetings and salutations to all.

I would like to direct everyone's attention to a new link i have added to my links section: "Studio Chuch - Sculptures by James Church". Anyone and everyone who considers themselves to be an appreciator of the arts simply must check it out. I've always had a fascination with sculptures, but mainly those really classical ones by Michelangelo, Bernini, Rodin, and the like. I never got into any of the more contemporary peoples. But let me tell you, I just looooove his stuff. Oh man, especially the suspended ones. And i'm not just saying that cause he's my cousin. No siree. They're so beautiful that i can't even think of adequate words to accurately represent my feelings with. This doesn't happen very often. I don't know what it is. The figures seem to just carry sooooo much feeling and emotion with them that it boggles my mind. So check it out, enjoy, and let me know what you think.

...if he'd just pay me what he's paying them to stop me robbing him, I'd stop robbing him

Easternlight Films acquires Dayyan Eng's Waiting Alone

2006-05-04T13:57:00.000-04:00

*****************************
Easternlight Films has acquired world rights to WAITING ALONE (Du zi deng dai), the first feature by Chinese-American helmer Dayyan Eng (aka Wu Shixian), whose BUS 44 was the first Chinese short to win at Venice and Sundance fests.

This urban comedy sports an ensemble cast of upcoming Chinese talent and a cameo by Hong Kong superstar Chow Yun-fat.

The tale focuses on an aspiring author who goes to absurd lengths to make a woman fall for him. Pic was voted best local film of the year by more than 50 Chinese newspapers.

The Australian-U.S. sales outfit negotiated the deal with Wu's Beijing-based production shingle while en route to Hong Kong Filmart. Pic will be presented through Arclight's recently established Asian label, Easternlight, headed by Ying Ye and Arclight co-founder, Gary Hamilton.

Taiwanese-born Wu is an American citizen who is part Chinese, part Scottish and part Persian.

He was the first foreign national to receive a best picture award at the Chinese Academy Awards last year and claims to be the only foreign helmer in the Film Directors Guild of China.
*****************************
You can find that article here

How freakin awesome is that? That's my cousin, by the way, for those who don't know. So congratulations to him! Check out the site for Colordance Pictures for more info on this amazing movie.

...I'm being toyed with by a bunch of depraved children

Searching...

2006-05-01T22:02:00.000-04:00

I haven’t done one of these updates in a while, so I thought I’d do so before a real posting. Also, this time around, I must say it’s some of the best entries ever. For those of you new to The Niblog, the following is a list of search entries that led people to this very blog.

They are:

- people v lucas
- chef munib
- antonia banderas clothes
- tyler durden pictures
- top 50 chick flicks
- recent good chick flicks
- 50 top chick flicks 2005
- ayyami-ha song
- chick fliks
- most popular chick flicks
- recent chick flicks
- divine secrets of the yah yah sisterhood
- niblog movie
- the best chick flicks

Yes, that says Antonia Banderas. NOT Antonio.

What I love the most about this list is that people are coming here looking for info about “chick flicks”. My sincerest hope is that these hapless souls leave my site enlightened with new knowledge and information about the ridiculousness of the term. Sheesh. Some people.

And divine secrets of the yah yah sisterhood. That just rocks.

Again, if you are not familiar with my loathing of the term "chick flick" feel free to direct your attention here and here. Go ahead. You deserve to know the truth.

...good swords are kept in their sheaths

This Should Be Interesting

2006-04-17T22:50:00.000-04:00

I want to try this here and as my title says...it should be interesting.

Leave a comment. I'll:

1. Respond with something random I like about you.
2. Tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. Name something we should do together.
4. Say something that only makes sense to you and me (or just me).
5. Tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. Leave you a quote that is somehow appropriate to you.
7. Ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal so you can do the same for other people. You MUST! (unless, of course, you just really don't care)

...I've seen your picture in the paper and wondered what you looked like

V for Vendetta...and Viewing Movies

2006-03-19T21:47:00.000-05:00

NOTE: For the abridged version of this entry, please scroll down.

Recently I have noticed something different in the way I see movies. One thing I have always known is that I have more patience and optimism for a movie than the average moviegoer. By this I mean that I have generally been willing to sit through a slow-moving film in order to see if it will be paid off in the end or not. But that’s besides the point I’m trying to make here. Lately my whole frame of mind for watching movies has changed. This all came to me as quite an epiphany as I watched V for Vendetta on Friday. As I sat there, I found myself automatically drawing up parallels between the movie before me and the great cinematic mastery of Kurosawa. As I sat there, I found myself far more interested in the cinematography and lighting of the film than almost anything else. The experience was both exciting and somewhat annoying at the same time. As I sat there, I felt like Neo in the end of The Matrix after he gets up from being shot by Agent Smith. He looks around and sees the world around him in a new and clearer way. Neo rocks.

So yeah, the difference in my viewing became most clear when it ended and we all met up outside to discuss what we thought of it. It seemed to be the general consensus that the movie was “freakin awesome!”, but all I could say was “it was pretty visual…beautifully shot.” So here’s my review of the film, if I may. It was visually stunning. You could definitely see how well it was adapted from the visual media of comic books. In terms of the plot and such, I gotta say it didn’t really do much for me. The movie gave me very conflicted feelings. In some parts, it seemed like they tried to compress a lot of information within a short time, but at the same time, the movie as a whole felt pretty empty. A lot of things were left unanswered and the characters were kinda static, now that I think about it. Also, if you’re expecting non-stop action, just know that you’ve pretty much seen it all in the previews. I think the film’s been getting a lot of attention and hype for several reasons:

It’s being sold as the first movie from the makers of The Matrix since The Matrix, even though all they really did was write the screenplay. They had nothing to do with the directing. You won’t hear that in the previews because everyone knows who the Wachowski Brothers are, but no one cares about first-time director James McTeigue.
People seem to have this tendency of relating the issues in the film with current world events and calling it “controversial” for doing so. As everyone knows, anything that’s called “controversial” will sell like Oreos.

So go out there and see it for yourself and choose to agree or disagree with me and/or the critics out there. If you’re a long time reader here, you should know my feeling towards critics. If you are not, then please do so. Personally, I am now intrigued to read the graphic novel. I’m curious to see how much they left out and how much they added into the film.

ABRIDGED VERSION: V for Vendetta was alright. I see movies differently now.

If you have seen the movie, please share your views by leaving me a comment or two.

...mankind united with infinitely greater purpose in pursuit of war than he ever did in pursuit of peace

Picture Perfect

2006-02-05T21:51:00.000-05:00

Before I begin this post, I’d like to discuss something that’s been brought to my attention several times. I’ve been getting some complaints about the length of my posts. Actually, quite a few complaints, so I’ve decided to try something new this time. And if it works out, I’ll stick with it. I don’t really plan out the lengths of my posts, but if it’s something I get excited about, they tend to go for quite a while. So this is what I’ll do. If I see that the entry is pretty ridiculous in length, I’ll add a brief summary of it at the end. So in the beginning of the post I’ll have a disclaimer saying something like: “For abridged version, scroll down.” and then at the end of the post i'll have an "ABRIDGED VERSION" sign or something like that. Let me know how you like it.

NOTE: For the abridged version of this entry, scroll down.

So. The topic of choice today is the often overlooked phenomenon of photography. A picture. Does anyone actually take the time to think about the genius behind it all? It boggles my mind every time I do. Let’s take a very brief and completely incomplete history of the camera. With its roots in the camera obscura: essentially a room with a hole in the wall that projected whatever was on the outside to the wall across it upside down. Then of course the camera became much more accessible. Then jump over to Eadweard Muybridge who was the first to take a series of consecutive pictures and essentially discovered what we still call motion pictures. Now it’s almost mandatory to have a camera in any electronic device and no one thinks twice about the awesome power they have in their hands. The power to take a picture. To treasure forever less than a second of our reality. A perfect reproduction of an exact moment in your life on a piece of paper. A piece of paper that immediately transports you to that instant no matter how many eons ago it took place. How? No matter how many times I read about the science behind it, I am still marveled by its workings.

As you may already know, it’s kind of impossible to talk about the impact of pictures without talking about movies. And like I mentioned above, they are in fact called the motion pictures. As in, moving pictures. As in, pictures that move. But they don’t really move. Pictures are pictures. Which brings me to yet another phenomenon. And you can’t say it’s not a phenomenon because it’s actually called the phi phenomenon. This is what makes us think that pictures move. You’ve seen it at work all the time in traffic signals when they have those lights in the shape of arrows that turn on and off in a specific order to make it look like the lights are moving. Are they actually moving? NO. But the illusion is created, and the brain is fooled. Isn’t that freakin amazing?! Or am I just completely alone in this? But that’s not even the best part. No no no no no. The best of all is the persistence of vision. That’s the real trickster in movies. A lot of people seem to not realize that when they watch a movie in the theater, they’re actually watching a series of pictures rolling in front of them in succession. These are called frames. Generally, they go by at 24 frames per second. In between each one of these frames, there is a black, empty space. So really if you think about it, every second, you look at 24 pictures, along with 24 black spaces. You may be asking why you can’t see these black spaces. Well, it’s thanks to the persistence of vision. When the brain sees one frame, it briefly holds on to it long enough so that it’s overlapped by the next frame, interpreting it as continuous and completely overlooking the black space in between. If anyone doesn’t find that amazing, leave a comment. And if you do find it amazing…also leave a comment.

ABRIDGED VERSION: Pictures are cool. Movies are cool too.

...she was like the water that freezes inside a rock and breaks it apart

Congratulations Mr. Jordan Streiff & Co.

2006-02-04T19:55:00.000-05:00

So I would just like to take this opportunity to congratulate my good friend Jordan Streiff on winning the Best Comedy award for his short film A Meditation on the Speed Limit. This congratulating also extends to Amanda Hunter who worked with Jordan on this project. She is also amazing. I'm pretty sure there were other people who helped them out, but uhh...they're the only ones I know...so yeah.

But anyway, without further delay, I strongly suggest everyone go download their film. You will not be disappointed. Unless of course, you DON'T check it out. So that's all for now. Expect a more thorough update soon.

...uncommon beauty is commonly overlooked

A Request

2006-01-17T00:37:00.000-05:00

So I realize it’s been a ridiculously long time since I’ve updated this here blog. I think it’s probably because I’ve been kept so busy during the break that I didn’t have much time to be bothered enough by anything to write about it. As such I will ask you all to wait just a bit longer for a truly real post. School is starting back up tomorrow so I’m sure I’ll plenty to write about again.

Anyway, till then I would like everyone to leave a comment telling me of a time when someone was incredibly annoying or rude to you. No names need to be given about who did what. Even if you want to leave a comment anonymously, feel free to. But please think about some time that you got really pissed at someone for something they did, no matter how miniscule it was. Even if that person was me. Just say what the situation was and all that jazz. You’d be helping me a lot by doing this. Thank you.

...all the ladies are wanting to get carnal with me because of my premium dance moves

Death of a Legend

2005-12-11T01:29:00.000-05:00

Rest in peace Richard Pryor (1940-2005), you are already missed.

Chick-Flicks With a Vengeance

2005-12-04T23:36:00.000-05:00

Recently, a friend left a comment on this here blog in regards to my entry on “chick-flicks”. This comment, along with a recent happening at Best Buy, has inspired me to once again post on the topic. This friend, who shall remain nameless for the sake of making him sound more mysterious, attempted to define what a “chick-flick” is. And I quote:

“The best definition i can think of is a movie that inherently appeals to, and is marketed to a female audience. An addendum to that definition would be a film that is too girly for me to enjoy.”

Now I ask you, oh mystery friend, how does a company decide how to market to a female audience? What is it that has classified a movie “too girly” for you? What ideas and attitudes have led you to these conclusions? My answer would have to be the decades of brainwashing by the media from the moment you are born! Every aspect of commercialism and advertising has been given specific gender roles and characteristics. Things like having baby boys wear blue and baby girls wear pink. Or how about the mass industry of baby fashion? Where the clothes for boys are pretty much the same as for adult men but miniaturized as if to say “my baby is a little man”, while girls are dressed to look like little fragile princesses. What, I ask, is “too girly”? I guess the answer to that pretty much depends on the person, but that’s not even the point I’m trying to make here. My point, and what bothers me the most about the casual use of “chick flick” is that it is being used as a genre. It is NOT a genre. The genre of what most people call “chick flicks” is in fact a romantic comedy. “So what about those movies where all the lead characters are female?”, you might be inclined to ask. Well I’ll tell you. They’re a rare case of Hollywood stepping out of its sexist shell and believing that a group of leading ladies can carry a film.

Allow me to pose a scenario. Under what genre would you categorize a movie with the following plot:

Two disparate siblings who have lost a parent go on a journey of discovery as they come into conflict with each other in almost every scene until ultimately they see just how much they truly love each other and establish a bond like no other.

Would you say drama? Or would you say chick flick? Think about this one for a second, and then consider the following: when released under the title of Rain Man, the above movie went on to become one of the most powerful dramas ever put on screen. But, when this story came out as In Her Shoes, it was regarded as one of the most unsuccessful “chick flicks” to ever hit the movie world. It became the “what was Cameron Diaz thinking?” movie. The problem, all the “experts” said, was that it was too much of a girly movie. There is something seriously wrong with that.

So this is what happened at Best Buy. After I wrote about How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days here, they showed the movie on tv like 10 times in a week and I realized how much I really enjoy the movie. So I go to Best Buy to get that movie and anything else that might catch my attention. I ended up coming out with the classic King Kong Collection and How to Lose a Guy. This is how it all went down at the register:

Cashier Lady: [picking up How to Lose a Guy] Is this for you?
Me: Yes.
Cashier Lady: haha and you said yes! Are you serious?
Me: Yeah…it’s a great movie.
Cashier Lady: It’s a chick flick.
Me: Don’t get me started, I can’t stand that term. It’s a great rom-com.
Cashier Lady: [calling over the greeter] hey, what would you call this?
Greeter Guy: A chick flick.
Me: [to greeter guy] Chick flick is not a genre. A good movie is a good movie.
Greeter Guy: hey man, there’s no shame in it.
Me: hell yeah there’s no shame. I’m proud of buying this great movie.

True story.

You know what really bothers me? The fact that I just wrote this 700+ word post in about 10 minutes and it took me about 38 hours to come up with 480 words of my 1250-word essay due Wednesday.

...hold my watch, because if it breaks I'll kill everyone on this train

X-Men 3: Holy Crap

2005-11-30T00:44:00.000-05:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my glorious pleasure to present to you some storyboards of the new X-Men movie tentatively titled: X3. As you may or may not know, Brett Ratner is directing this sequel. You may know him from Rush Hour 1 and 2, or Red Dragon. If you don't, then you're dumb. Normally, I tend to stay away from knowing too much about a movie I'm anticipating too much in advance. X3 would fall under the category of such a movie. However, when I found out about these storyboards, I just had to see them. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that if I really wanted to, I could find out about the plot in detail, but that is something i will most definitely NOT do. But, as these storyboards show, some pretty exciting things are in store.

The first trio are from a scene where Magneto is releasing a bunch of prisoners from their cells:

Man he rocks. Just look at him. Bursts through that hallway and just keeps on walkin.

The following pair of storyboards I'd have to guess also involve Magneto, though I can't actually see him in the picture. Can you guess what's happening in these pictures?

If you guessed that the above storyboards were depicting the destruction of the Golden Gate Bridge followed by its redirection to Alcatraz, then you were right! Good job. I don't know about you peoples out there, but that is going to be one crazy scene. The movie's not supposed to be released until May 26, 2006, so for all we know this scene may very well be cut by then. But if it's not, you can say you heard it here first...unless you didn't.

...drunk and tone-deaf, never a good combination

Search Entries Update

2005-11-28T14:48:00.000-05:00

So here are all the search entries that have brought people to my blog since the last time i made such an update. I excluded "niblog" because it was coming up a lot, and upon further investigation, i discovered that it was my sister's doing. So here it goes:

- she makes a pez dispenser out of him
- curl http_referrer spoof
- over the river and through the woods music
- mahtab good charlotte
- www. the effect of first impressions
- band queen origin of name
- get paid to watch movie previews
- soundbytes from revenge of the sith
- over the river through the woods broadway
- muniba
- tyler goes to the bathroom
- what happened to chivalry
- clerks campaign slogan
- batman begins soundbytes
- antonia banderas

Tyler goes to the bathroom. That's just weird.

...he killed his whole family one weekend and then the next day killed five people that looked like his family

The Brink of War

2005-11-25T00:02:00.000-05:00

That’s where we’re at right now and the masses don’t even know it. Allegiances have already been established. The two camps are ready for battle. In a few months time, businesses will be destroyed, companies will strike each other with poisoned tongues, people will pick sides against their own brothers and sisters, and the destruction will not end until one side succeeds in obliterating the competition. I speak of none other than the format war with the next generation of DVDs: the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.

If you’re one of the losers who hasn’t been following all the breaking developments, then you’ve come to the right place. For I, too, am a loser and I’d like to welcome you. You’ve been missed. So Sony and Phillips began developing the Blu-Ray while Toshiba and Hitachi have been working on the HD-DVD. Both formats, by the way, have plenty of support from major companies…but more on that later. When you get down to brass tacks, the Blu-Ray can hold almost twice as much data, which obviously makes it a lot more expensive to produce. There have been plenty of unsuccessful negotiations between the two parties to try and reach a compromise. There were even talks of a Summit being held with all the major players. It’s pretty much gotten to the point of no return though, with each assemblage of companies gearing up for this inevitable all-out brawl. Ultimately, you will be the deciding judge in a battle the likes of which have never been seen. Not even Aragorn and his army of the dead can help us now. .

From all that I’ve read so far, my bet would be on the Blu-Ray. However, I am strictly against gambling…so if anyone who is reading this isn’t, just put down some money on the Blu for me. Thanks. Here are some of the reasons for my prediction:

1. Sony, its developer, will be releasing their PlayStation 3 in a few months. This piece of hardware will be the first machine to make use of the Blu-Ray. And if the PS3 can do everything they’ve been bragging about, well then…it won’t be pretty for Toshiba. Microsoft has said that it will eventually develop an HD-DVD-compatible version of the Xbox 360.

2. Blu-Ray has the backing of Dell and Hewlett-Packard, who together control something like 30% of the computer industry. Oh, they’ve also got Apple on their side.

3. It can hold more. Somehow they’ll find a way to stuff over 40GB-worth of information on them and sell them by the buttload because that’s just what we like. There’s no such thing as “too much” in the technological and/or entertainment industry. Sad sad world.

Honestly though, I don’t see how the image quality can get any better for movies. How much more detail do we need to see? At what point does sharpness become ludicrous? It seems like a change in the ways movies are actually shot would also have to come about. Having to take into account the fact that audiences will be able to see the most tiniest of pimples on the super sexy female in a resolution of 1080 really changes things.

Right now, it would make more sense to me if it was just strictly a video game format. Especially since the Blu-Ray can hold such a ridiculous amount of data. Now that I think about it, it may very well end up that way. Maybe the HD-DVD will win in home theater and the Blu-Ray in video game entertainment. Only time will tell.

I don’t know man. It’s gonna be ugly. Money will be the only deciding factor in this war. Godspeed. May the best coalition win.

...do you think the average storm-trooper knows how to install a toilet main

Chick-Flicks

2005-11-19T01:19:00.000-05:00

So I really had no idea how long it had been since I last updated this baby until my sister left me a kindly reminder comment saying, and I quote: “Post something new! It's about time, no?” So I’m posting something new. I can’t think of much to say since I really haven’t had any reason for complaints lately. Not to say that I should ever have any reasons for complaints because I mean we should all be thankful and all that jazz, but yeah.

So as I said, I really don’t know what to say, so I’m going to step back a moment and mentally brainstorm some topics for a bit. If you’ll excuse me….
…Alright got one. At least a general idea: movies. Something that has always bothered me is the term chick-flick For some reason I’m thinking I might have mentioned this before here, cause I know it’s something I’ve been meaning to write about. But anywho. Chick-flick. Who the hell came up with such a horrible term? I have problems with this phrase on two levels. First off, I cannot stand the use of chick as a substitute for any of the following: girl, woman, female, she, her, gal, lady, miss, doll, missy, man’s opposite sex, man’s better half, wife, fiancée, girlfriend, and any other words I might have missed that are better than chick. For me personally, chicks have always been and will always remain to be the offspring of a hen and a rooster. Thusly, the only time you will ever hear me speak of chicks is when I recount to you the very sad tale of how my 3 pet chicks died in China. sigh.

Then there’s the compounded term in its entirety. Allow me to illustrate how it might be used in an overly generalized day-to-day scene:

Secure Man: Hey man, you ever see that movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days?
Stereotyped Man: What? Hells no. that’s a stupid chick flick! I wanna see bombs and #@!% blowing up!

But there are problems with that statement. Chick-flick is not a genre. No matter how much people want it to be, it’s not. It is simply an overused label which I believe was first given by irrationally insecure males who feared the ridicule their fellow hunter/gatherers could possibly attack them with for the enjoyment of a story regretfully believed to be only accessible to womankind. This is then further promoted by the monster known as the media; expanding its use to immeasurable degrees. Such is the sad sad state of the world we live in. Where people who claim to love all movies shut down and refuse movies simply upon hearing that it is a “chick-flick”. Like that’s a bad thing. A good movie is a good movie. That’s the motto I live my life by. There’s nothing else to it. Unfortunately, society has reached a point where it is a most heinous crime for a male of our species to externalize any emotion not directly related to anger, arrogance, or violence.

I had stepped away from what I was writing for several hours. I have no idea where I was going with all this, so I’m just gonna call it a night and post this as it is. Love is all you need.

...I take no pleasure in taking life if it's from a person who doesn't care about it

Batmania

2005-10-31T00:28:00.000-05:00

So I’ve watched Batman Begins a few more times now that I have it on DVD. The movie just does not cease to amaze me. If you are one of the unfortunate souls who have not seen it yet, you really have to. Your life depends on it. I know I’ve mentioned this work of art before on my blog but I really don’t remember what I said. So if I repeat myself…then I’ll be repeating myself.

Batman. Batman, Batman, Batman. What mere words could I attempt to transcribe that could possibly do the legend justice? Like I was telling a friend earlier today, if I was getting a doctorate in psychology, I would write my thesis on Bruce Wayne and his alter ego, Batman. Of course, that would mean I’d know what a thesis paper consists of, which I absolutely do not. In speaking about the movie, I would like to present to you a numbered list of the things that the movie got right, ranked in order of importance. Knowing full well that this entry would be completely one-sided without the opposing view, I will also include a list of the things it got wrong.

Things it got right:

1. Everything.

Things it got wrong:

1. Nothing.

Apparently, people think that if you don’t talk about a subject very often, it automatically means that you do not like it. Contrariwise, if you speak of something regularly, it seems to be the consensus that it is the only thing you love. Such is the case of my affinity for both Spider-Man and Batman. They have both been at the top of my list pretty much at the same level. I allow this to happen because in the DC universe, I favor Batman. Meanwhile, in the Marvel Universe, Spidey is my character of choice. So now, I’m telling people how much I like Batman, and they shudder in horror as if there has been a mandate requiring all the peoples of the world to only pledge allegiance to one (super)hero.

One thing I will gladly admit is that Batman seems to have repeatedly gotten the most gifted writers in the business who have treated the character with the utmost respect that it so rightfully deserves. And it deserves nothing but the best. There’s so much I could say about Batman that right now I’m having a really hard time deciding where to start. You just have to read the comics and graphic novels to understand the glee I am engrossed in every time I open up a new story.

Like in The Dark Knight Returns and The Dark Knight Strikes Again, where Bruce Wayne is really old and pretty much single-handedly gets the world back in order. Oh, and along the way manages to beat the crap out of Superman. Or in No Man’s Land, where Gotham City is nearly obliterated by an earthquake and officially severed from the rest of the country. Meanwhile, the place is overrun by territorial gang warfare led by the Arkham Asylum inmates. And of course, Batman is nowhere to be found. Or how about Bruce Wayne – Murderer? and Bruce Wayne – Fugitive; where Bruce is framed for murder and sent to prison where he essentially kills off Bruce Wayne and becomes only Batman, all the while ignoring his circle of friends. And let’s not forget Knightfall, where Bane frees all of the inmates at Arkham to test the limits of the Bat with the sole purpose of breaking him in order to take over Gotham…which he does. That is, until the mantle of the Bat is passed on to Azrael who goes completely crazy and starts killing everyone. The beauty of it all just never ends.

If anyone is interested in reading any incredible Batman stories I strongly suggest the following as great starters:

By: Frank Miller
Batman: Year One
The Dark Knight Returns
The Dark Knight Strikes Again

By: Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale
The Long Halloween
Haunted Knight
Dark Victory

Those are just a handful of the plethora of insanely well-written and drawn story arcs in the Batman saga. If anyone out there wants more recommendations, just ask, cause there are plenty more.

...half a million dollars will always be missed

Tyler Durden as President

2005-10-20T19:11:00.000-04:00

Tyler Durden is a modern genius.
Ranking him among the top 5 most influential thinkers,
he would fall half a notch below Aristotle.
Right above St. Augustine.
His campaign slogan let people know
that the first rule of voting is:
You do NOT talk about voting.
Oddly enough, that's the second rule too.
So now he's the President.
The new laws have impacted everyone.
If you want your license you must pass a test
which requires you to let go of the steering wheel.
You do not pass until you crash
into a ditch.
The Near-Life-Experience Exam is what he calls it.
His Fight Congress makes all decisions
depending on the outcome of fights.
So when the Gentleman from California
and the Gentleman from Arkansas
split the room into two ideas
a bare-knuckle fight is commenced to solve the problem
peacefully.
All they have to remember is their 6th Amendment:
no shirts, no shoes.
President Durden hope to rule the nation
for several more decades.
He needs the time to make the world he sees a reality.
Where the advertising of crass materialism is dead
and we can return to the bare essentials of life.
In the world he sees, we are stalking elk around the ruins
of Rockefeller Center.
In the world he sees, we are free to do anything
only after we have lost everything

...this little monkey could be the damn dirty ape responsible for the fall of the human race

Quick Update

2005-10-18T15:42:00.000-04:00

I realize i have not updated this blog for quite some time. For now, I give you the search entries that have led people to my blog since the last time i posted such a list:

- lady death full story comic
- what happened to male chivalry
- chatting abbreviation
- waiting in line to see ellen degeneres
- batman begins in china
- what happened to male chivalry
- smell-o-vision, tv chef
- smell-o-vision chef
- tv chef smell-o-vision
- tv chef that would like smell-o-vision
- sean connery soundbytes

update coming soon.

...nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't

Get Lost

2005-10-04T22:04:00.000-04:00

No, seriously. Go get it right now. Why are you still reading this? GO! Stop reading what I’m writing here, just do yourself a favor and purchase Season 1 of Lost on DVD. Your life depends on it. Trust me. It’s simply the single greatest show on television. J. J. Abrams is a creative genius. I can’t even contain myself. It’s impossible to stop watching this show. As a matter of fact, the only reason I’m posting right now is to kill time as I await my father to come out of the shower so we may resume the admiration of this modern work of art. Watching just one episode got him hooked on the show too. I don’t know what else to say about it. It’s not very often that I get this excited about TV shows. And forget actually purchasing it on DVD. I mean I tend to make it a point of buying movies. The only previous exception was Da Ali G Show…which was a gift. Yeah I got Season 2 after that myself, but still.

Allow me to try and put it in perspective. Perhaps those who know me are aware of how much I enjoy Stargate: SG-1 and always talk about it. Let it be known that I have never felt 100% sure of buying its seasons on DVD. But Lost…man, I just walked by the box set and I’d hear it calling me. I was able to fight the temptation for a week. Next time I went in there, it was too strong. It’s mine now. All mine. My…precioussssss…

So basically what I’m saying here is if you haven’t watched the show yet, start. And if you haven’t seen any of the first season...also...start. It truly is the one show to rule them all.

By the way if you checked this post yesterday it might be a little different now as i removed the star wars quiz thing...it was way too clunky. Basically all it said was that i'm Darth Vader. So what I really wanted to do was to reveal the answers to that poem i posted. Here they are:

Anchorman
Bill & Ted
Citizen Kane
Die Hard
Ed Wood
Finding Nemo
Godfather, The
Hellboy
Incredibles, The
Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back
Kill Bill
Lord of the Rings, The
Matrix, The
Notebook, The
Office Space
Pulp Fiction
Romeo & Juliet
Sixth Sense, The
Tommy Boy
Usual Suspects, The
Village, The
What's Eating Gilbert Grape
X2
Young Frankenstein
Zatoichi

Lost update: i finally finished the season last night and good lord was it great. For the first time in my life I almost missed class because of television. If it had happened, it would have been totally worth it.

...two people only hurt each other if they doubt the love they have for one another

Thirty and Seven

2005-09-30T01:10:00.000-04:00

Kevin Smith is a genius. I can’t recall if I’ve ever really written about him here or just how much I dote on him. If you have no idea who he is, allow me to offer up a quick enlightenment session. Kevin Smith is the brilliant writer/director behind the following amazing films in chronological order: Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, and Jersey Girl. He also had a big part in getting Good Will Hunting made, albeit only as a producer. If you haven’t seen any of those movies, you haven’t lived. Or maybe you just haven’t lived long enough…cause seriously, if you’re under 17 you shouldn’t be watching them. I take no responsibility if you do. Anywho, what I love most about his movies is the dialogue. If I can develop my writing to become even half of what he can do with words, I will be a content soul. Sure, he tends to write about inappropriate subject matter, but he does so in the most luminous way. There’s no other way that I could describe the movies, you just have to see them for yourself.

Going along the same lines, one question I tend to get by reader of this blog is “hey, what’s with 37?” If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please direct your attention to the line of text directly under “The Niblog” at the tope of this page. See it? Good. It is an homage to Kevin Smith. Besides having the same characters appear in all of his movies – excluding Jersey Girl – he also has a consistently reappearing number: 37. I’m not aware of the history behind it for him, but I have made it my own lucky number. Sometimes I feel a little guilty and think about using 39 instead since it lies in between 37 and 41, which was the number assigned to Charlton Heston in Ben-Hur when he becomes a slave.

But back to my story. The other day, 37 kept showing up everywhere I went. This is how it all went down. Tuesday morning I wake up and go online to check my grade on a test. Turns out I got 37 out of 40. Way better than I expected, and a great number. Then after I was done with my classes, I go see my advisor to discuss what I should take in upcoming semesters. She tells me to go and apply to get into the School of Communications which is in room 2037. I chuckle to myself and head on over there and fill everything out. Soon after, I get picked up by my mother and head on over to Best Buy, but make a stop at Burger King first. The drive thru line is too long so I go inside and order my food. “Thank You, you’re order #137”. I couldn’t believe it, I look down at the receipt and there it was. 137. So then finally we head to Best Buy, where I purchased the movie that was just released that day: Mallrats: 10th Anniversary Edition.

Final thoughts: movies are fun. So fun in fact, that I made it the object of my second poem for my creative writing class. The criteria: write a detail/list poem.

From A-Z…Minus Q
By: Munib Rezaie

An anchor in the 70s who is in his prime
And two guys in a phone booth traveling through time
Are just some of the things you will find in this rhyme
A man whispers “Rosebud” with his last dying breath
While a cop from New York drops Hans down to his death
A cross-dressing filmmaker pursues his life’s dream
Until Dory finds Nemo in the final scene
So they make him an offer he cannot refuse
Not knowing Big Red was in the evening news
Where he monologued his way to his own demise
Before Justice could clear up all of her lies
Meanwhile O-Ren is sliced up by the Bride
After Frodo and Sam have climbed up Mt. Doom’s side
They are just in time to meet the Architect
Which brings us to the middle of the alphabet
A man reads from a notebook, a story for her
Though the guy in the cubicle just wants his stapler
So he has a taste of her 5-dollar shake
While the ill-fated lovers leave death in their wake
‘Till they meet a young boy who sees dead people afloat
And laughs at the fat guy in a little coat
But it turned out that Verbal was the mastermind
Who hid the elders’ big secret, except from the blind
So they burn down their house with their mother indoors
While the fate of the world’s left to homo-superiors
Unable to escape his last name’s destiny
Or the blind samurai named Zatoichi

The person who is able to name all of the movies therein will win absolutely nothing. Instead, you will simply satisfy my curiosity in wanting to know who can get them all. Show me what you got.

...in our business, you're bound to rub out someone you know

Aspiring Writitude

2005-09-22T19:52:00.000-04:00

So one of the books I had to read for my creative writing was Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. She gives a lot of what I consider to be very good writing tips and exercises. One such exercise is simply writing. The steps are as follows:

1) Create a designated notebook for timed writing.
2) Allocate a specific time frame.
3) Write.

The only rules in this activity are that you cannot lift your pen from the paper until that time is up. Ignore punctuations and don’t cross anything out. What you’re trying to do here is get what she calls “first thoughts” out on the paper. Since the brain has an automatic censoring system, you’re trying to bypass that completely and just write the very first thing that comes to mind. Not what we pretend are the first things due to the whole censure thing. Obviously this takes longer to achieve for some than for others. I just did this exercise today for the third or fourth time and it automatically sorta came out in the form of a blog entry. So I thought I’d just post it. I gave myself 20 minutes. It’s kinda long…592 words according to MSWord. So feel free to skip the italicized part of this post if you just wanna read something about Guy Ritchie’s new movie Revolver.

It’s amazing how life changes so fast. No matter how much I talk about it or write about it, it n ever ceases to amaze me. Seeing an old friend today after a year of absence was great. We kept in touch mostly through text messages and AIM over the years. Actually that’s the only way we talked along with the occasional email. Finally we decided it was time to actually see each other and everything just picked up like nothing ever happened. No time in between where we didn’t see each other. Still talking about events that took place almost 2 years ago like they just happened 2 days ago. Then on the other side of the coin you got those people who you’ve talked to a lot on the phone and no matter how many times you see them, it’s just not a comfortable situation. Actually I think most people I know are like that. Specifically from my high school days I mean. This one person is one of the few of the former. You know who you are and I am eternally grateful for your friendship no matter how many times you have threatened to end my life. What a world we live in. So I’m thinking about writing a book. Humorously enough, people have been telling me that for several years and I just sorta went along in a joking manner. But now that I’m actually pursuing writing as a source of income, I am taking that proposition seriously. But then, where would I begin? That’s always been my biggest problem. Beginning. Where to start? How the crap am I supposed to know where to start? So usually by the time I discover a way to begin whatever it is that I wanna write, I already have most of the body of the composition figured out in one form or another. So we’ll see how that goes. I’m not even exactly sure what to write about. I have so many random anecdotes floating around in my head that to find a starting point seems impossible. Would I write about my travels and sojourns in different countries? About the people I believe influenced me the most? About the Baha’i Faith, which has undoubtedly been the single consistent strand in my life that has held it all together? About the women in my life? Ha. Or maybe about the insanities of high school drama? Got plenty of experience in that department. Or how about just movies or something? That might be fun. But it wouldn’t have anything to do with me. Oh well. We’ll see how that goes. If anyone could give me some suggestions would be fantacular. This writing exercise is pretty fun. Hopefully I’ll accomplish the goal of filling up at least one notebook each month. But then what? I’d just have a pile of dated notebooks. Notebooks which will be impossible to read, even by myself. My handwriting sucks and I have failed tests because of this problem. Not being able to read your own notes most definitely sucks. On a scale of ‘good’ to ‘bad’, this situation would fall under ‘most heinous’. And now my time is almost up. Three minutes to get to 20 minutes. Maybe next time I shouldn’t look at the time because then I’ll start writing about it. Like now. But this is not so bad. One sheet covered front and back in 20 minutes. 99 sheets to go and one notebook will be out of the way.

Hi again. Yeah so that’s that. If you skipped that, here’s the summary in the form of an equation:

friends = good
writing = good
however, friends ≠ writing.

So if anyone has any suggestions as to how a book can be written, please leave comments. Don’t let that word verification thing intimidate you. I was getting way too much spam.

And, as promised, a word on Revolver. I don’t know. I love Guy Ritchie and all. Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch are two of my favorite movies. I haven’t seen Swept Away yet. But I did see the trailer for Revolver and I can see his signature in the images and all. At the same though, it looks totally different. It feels a lot darker and more serious. From what I’ve heard, those dumb critics at the Toronto Film Festival have all been bashing it. If you’re a loyal reader, you know that I really don’t care about what they say. It just worries me since it’s what the majority of moviegoers will base their judgments on before even watching the movie. Knowing full well that humans tend to latch on to movies’ faults, you begin to see where the problem lies. Fools. It’s supposed to be his return to his “roots”, but I have a feeling that it’s going to be a lot different than what people are expecting. By “roots”, I mean bankable movies. And by “people”, I mean his fans...the rest of you are just animals.

...what you call discovery, i call the rape of the natural world

An Exercise in Detachment

2005-09-15T19:17:00.000-04:00

As some people know, one of the classes I’m taking this semester is Intro to Creative Writing. It’s a class that meets just once a week, but it is terrific. So anyway, one of the assignments is that each week we must write a poem according to certain specifications. Then we make copies for everyone in the class, read them out loud, and share what we like about each other’s works. You’re actually very free to do whatever you like, the only thing that changes is the style of the poem. For example, the first week it was supposed to be about an obsession you have. Then the next week we had to write a list poem; which is exactly what it sounds like. One example we were shown was this poem where this guy just goes alphabetically naming different kinds of seashells…and that was it.

Anywho, one of the biggest problems I’ve always had whenever I write poems is that I have a very hard time reading it to people. Sooo, I thought I could try posting them here, and this suggestion has been met with encouragement. This way, everyone has the opportunity to see it at the same time and I am detaching myself from my work simultaneously. Good times all around. We’ve only done two poems so far in class so I guess I’ll post the first one here and now. Then I’ll put the second one on my next post just so I have something to write about later. Keep in mind that the rhyming scheme sounds right in my head when I read it with a certain rhythm, so if it doesn’t sound quite right when you read it…you’re just dumb.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Peace Market
By: Munib Rezaie

Open up your eyes and look side to side
At our brothers and sisters keeping their minds closed out of pride
Prejudice will be accepted as society’s norm
Until one soul speaks up against majority’s swarm
And tries to get the people to see with the eyes of love
Instead of taking aim and shooting down the great white dove
When will the people see all the pain that they have caused?
While stepping on the souls of those whose path their lives have crossed
Now is the time to act, why does the wait get longer?
Mankind is one, and so is God, peace is not up for barter.
There is one race, the human race, the rest is only colors
As soon as we come to see this, there will be no more martyrs

-------------------------------------------------------------------

So yeah. Feel free to leave feedback. Actually I highly encourage you to leave honest and brutal feedback. Think of it as helping out an aspiring artist; cause that’s exactly what you’d be doing.

...it is the sworn duty of all officers to try to escape

Logically Speaking

2005-09-09T22:04:00.000-04:00

So. As I write, I have no idea when my last update was, but it feels like it’s been an eternity. Ever since Katrina came over and tussled us about, our internet connection has never been the same. She messed up the wireless network that took me several days to figure out how to set up a few months ago. And as of right now, I have absolutely no idea how I even accomplished that. Point being: only one computer may be online at a time. But if someone needs the fax, like right now, internet access is denied to all inhabitants of my home. Improvisation. Adapt to the environment. That’s the key. As such, I now sit by my laptop typing up this entry in MSWord while I await the long overdue fax that is to come through within the next few hours. All the while, might I add, entirely unsure of what the topic of this entry will be. So I think I’ll just sit here and ponder for a bit.

For some reason that song by Audioslave just popped into my head, I think it’s called Doesn’t Remind Me. If you haven’t heard it yet, the whole song is basically this guy listing all kinds of stuff that he likes merely because it doesn’t remind him of anything. Stuff like gospel music and driving backwards in the fog. It’s a great song and it always reminds me of things. Bit I think his little list of things that don’t remind him of anything is questionable. So I tried to come up with a list of my own…and failed miserably. I mean it seems like a futile attempt to even undertake. All of the little things that he lists surely reminded him of something. Even if that something is nothing, it still is something: nothing. But that seems highly unlikely. Maybe the actual act of driving backwards in the fog doesn’t remind me of that night when I drove backwards in the fog, but it links up to other stuff. To stay with that same example: I like to drive backwards fast, I find it enjoyable. When people drive backwards fast and well, I find it very impressive. One such person who impressed me with his backwards-driving skills was my cousin James. I witnessed this event while I was visiting him and his family in Minnesota. Therefore, using the process of logic as set forth by the great ancient philosophers, one can surmise that driving backwards in the fog reminds me of my family in Minnesota and the great time I spent with them. It seems implausible to find something that doesn’t remind you of anything. The human brain innately tries to form connections between objects and memories it already has in storage. Isn’t that the whole basis of metaphors and analogies? I can point over there and say “What a pig!” and your mind will probably associate what I’m mentally pointing at with a disheveled and possibly malodorous person. But you’d be wrong, because I’m actually pointing at a large farm animal.

So for the past month or two I’ve been monitoring all of the search entries that have led people to my blog and I have to admit it’s quite humorous. What follows is a comprehensive list of all the entries submitted from the recent past:

- weather is depressing
- sweet irony mean
- things to do while waiting in line
- alex trebek is a vegetarian
- niblog
- waiting in line to see revenge of the sith
- sin city soundbytes
- coat over puddle
- Olde goode
- moonib blog
- chatting abbreviation
- nibster blog
- gun pointing toilet scene
- chatting acronyms
- free screen name kid give people screen names
- brazil chicken eating spider
- maryam rezaie
- what diet did brad pitt use for fight club

Quite the source of laughter if you ask me.

Also I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who have been giving me words of encouragement in the recent journey I’ve embarked on towards becoming a writer. You know who you are. And though my immediate replies to your compliments might seem passive, please know that your words truly mean a lot. Something as simple as being told “that’s so you” is enjoyable beyond words.

... if it can be told, where did you take on this fine bundle of lettuce?

...And in the Red Corner: Mother Earth

2005-09-01T18:42:00.000-04:00

So the news of the hurricane has been all over the news as of late. I myself wasn't sure how bad it was until i saw the images on TV earlier today. Having gotten hit with the storm when it was still just a category 1 hurricane, it didn't do quite nearly as much damage as what it's done so far in other parts of the country. But TV was one of the things it did take away, so I never saw the whole effect of the storm until recently. It really caught everyone by surprise down here in Miami though. The Thursday that it hit, I was on my way to meet up with a friend after convincing ourselves that "it's like a catagory 0.5, it's nothing". Then on my way it started to rain. First lightly. Then harder. And harder. So finally I called him up and said it's better to call it off. Then I get home and a few hours later electricity is gone, as are our cell phones' reception for some reason. We were one of the lucky ones since the lights came back on about a day and a half later. But as I type this, there are still many friends who have no electricity. The whole mess just goes to show how much you really cannot predict what our sweet sweet Mother Earth is planning to do. Dear Gaia has her own ways and no meteorologist will ever be able to predict her movements, no matter how much schooling he has completed.

Anywho, I was sitting around trying to come up with something to say about the whole thing and as I distracted myself, I came across what my cousin Jeff from Minnesota had to say about it in his blog. When I read it, I immediately acknowledged the fact that I could never say it better myself. Instead of trying to top it, I'm just going to copy and paste it over here:

--------------------------------------------

Usually this blog is a place of laughter. But my heart goes to my brothers and sisters (and their families around the world) suffering in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast. I truly pray for their protection. Here is a passage relevant to this tragedy:

"Furthermore, these events have deeper reasons. Their object and purpose is to teach man certain lessons...The purpose is that the people of the world may turn to God, the One Protector; that human souls may rely upon His preservation and know that He is the real safety. These events happen in order that man's faith may be increased and strengthened. Therefore, although we feel sad and disheartened, we must supplicate God to turn our hearts to the Kingdom and pray...with faith in His infinite mercy. "

--------------------------------------------

Jeff Anderson, I salute you.

...i almost did succumb, but then i turbaned up, and i feel a lot better

The Great Puzzle

2005-08-22T19:35:00.000-04:00

Man, feels like I haven’t updated this thing in eons. It’s funny how things turn out in life. When I first started this blog, I told myself that I’d only stick to commentaries on our society and movies instead of anything personal. But as always, Agent Smith was right, it truly is inevitable. If 10 years ago, no forget that, if even 10 months ago, some guy popped up outta nowhere and said:

“Hey you, no not you! Yeah you with the face, heed my warning! In 10 months time you will already have been diagnosed with a chronic illness, missed a major summer service project, returned home, started a blog, reconnected with your paternal cousins, and changed your major”

I would have no choice but to reply with a solemn:

“Where the crap did you come from?!”

Alas, that magical man was indeed correct. And it was exactly how things panned out. Pretty amazing, if you ask me. Years later they’ll tell me that man was in fact completely imaginary. Who cares though? It got my point across.

Anyway, I haven’t really felt inspired as of late to write about anything specifically. Especially since the change major took place, a lot of thoughts have been running through my head. Imagine if you will: a puzzle. A gargantuan puzzle, to be exact. Now imagine this puzzle missing that one crucial piece. That piece which, once in its rightful place, would make the puzzle in its entirety have a meaning. Now imagine finding that piece after 20 years. At first the excitement for this discovery is so grand that you’d probably be almost hesitant to attach it. You’ve been so used to seeing that puzzle without that piece that you’re a little scared of what might become of it with the Holy Grail which you hold in your hand. So you put it aside for a bit. Denying the fact that the piece you have found could possibly be the right one. Perhaps believing you are not ready for the social and cultural implications of a completed puzzle. The thought of it consumes every fiber of your being day in and day out as you try to decide what to do with the breakthrough find.

Sleepless nights go by until finally you get sick. So sick in fact that you’re sent away. Obviously, you know there has to be some Divine wisdom behind this move, so you meditate on it, hoping it will come to you. All the while, the chasm in the puzzle gets bigger and bigger as the little hope left for its completion seems to dwindle away. You try to ignore everything for a while hoping you’ll forget it in time. But then you come across it again…And then you see it. The epiphany strikes you like lightning aimed straight to the heart. You’re ready to finish the puzzle. It’s been so long since you worked at it that you have to pick up some of the pieces that fell off in your absence since all the little edges on it got a bit worn out. So you pick up the final piece, so triumphantly and proud, lifting it up high and hovering it over its destined spot. And so it comes down to this. The moment of truth. Do or die. All or nothing. Fight or flight. Paper of plastic. And so finally, you put it in place. Shoving it in with all your might since the attaching pieces around it have been worn off. And with this one quick motion, it is done. The masterpiece is complete. The picture makes sense.

So much of your time has been spent on this one thing in your life that you’re not really sure how to proceed. You cannot believe you did it by yourself – with a little guidance from friends of course – after all these years. But you have done so. And everything in it makes sense now, as do all the other pictures surrounding it. So you can’t help but just take a step back and appreciate how everything just came together for the first time.

If you can imagine that, you can imagine what I’ve sorta been feeling lately. And on a much happier note, I’d just like to congratulate some great friends of mine on their recent marriage. Congratulations Shirin and Vahid Smith. You guys are amazing…as was your wedding. Good times.

...i draws what i like, and i likes what i drew

On the Subject of Normalcy

2005-08-11T23:09:00.000-04:00

What is it about being “normal” that everyone seems to crave? I for one have always been proud of being called “weird” and “strange” and usually reply with a solemn “thank you”. The way I’ve always understood it, the word “normal” just means the average. Am I wrong on this? In fact, I am going to double check with the good people at dictionary.com right now. Ah yes, here we go:

nor·mal (nôrml)
adj.

Conforming with, adhering to, or constituting a norm, standard, pattern, level, or type; typical.

How lame is that? Is that really what people want to be? Conformists? Followers of the crowd? Complacent zombies of the perceived norm? Isn’t that what the Nazis were? And I certainly don’t want to become a Nazi. But that’s just me. We should be embracing the little quirks that make each one of us unique in that special way Barney might talk about. Instead, they are seen as emblems of embarrassment and shame, forever molded into the foreheads of the oppressed. Rather than shaking hands at these differences, we are shaking fists. Using them as pedestals to rise above our brethren. My heart fills with sadness when I see kids being shut out and ignored by their peers because they are considered weird and/or strange. Cruelty, thy name is child!

This brings to mind a writing by Baha’u’llah that holds some sentimental value for me. And I quote:

“Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other. Ponder at all times in your hearts how ye were created. Since We have created you all from one same substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest.”

Man, that’s some incomprehensibly powerful stuff.

But yeah. Not everything that’s “normal” is necessarily good. And ultimately, the implications of being normal are pretty fleeting. What is normal today was not the norm 50 years ago. And in the same manner, will not be normal 50 years from now. Likewise, what may be the norm, might not necessarily be the most morally sound thing in the world. Some examples that immediately come to mind: drugs, pre-marital sex…I think that’s all I gots. But you get the point.

...you know, for kids

The Art of Sharing

2005-07-29T01:57:00.000-04:00

So I’m finally back home after almost a month of constant travels between different cities and states visiting different family members and friends. Of all the trips though, I think I was able to grow the most from my sojourn in Minnesota. Not only was I able to reconnect with all my paternal cousins and get to know them better, but most surprising of all was how much I was able to learn about myself in the process. I managed to give myself a lot of time where I could just be alone in my thoughts with notebook and pen in hand. The whole trip was an incredibly satisfying experience, and I can only hope to have more of the same in the not so distant future.

One thing that seems to come up very often with me is the fact that I don’t and sometimes won’t talk about things unless specifically asked. Even if it’s something I’m totally ecstatic about. For example, right now there’s some news that I’m very happy about, but I absolutely do not feel the need to type it in this blog. But if you just ask me, I’ll gladly tell you anything. Well…just about anything. I always figured that if someone really wanted to know something, they’d just ask. I mean why wouldn’t they? That’s what questions are for. Well apparently most people don’t. For serious though, if I end up in a hospital am I really expected to call up everyone I know and just be all “oh by the way, I’m in the hospital, I guess I’ll talk to ya later, bye”? I’m not even being rhetorical here, I really want someone to answer that. There were so many people that got upset with me for not telling them I was in the hospital. I mean I appreciate the care, but I just think it would annoy them more. But that’s not even what I was first talking about. What I meant were deeper more personal things that constantly bite at your very being until you can’t take it anymore and explode, or in my case, end up in a hospital bed.

So I’ve been to a couple of doctors and they’ve all said I need to learn to verbalize what I feel more. Sounds easy enough. You think you know? You have no idea. Finally I decided to do this whole “sharing” thing more and more but it seems to be just as fruitless as keeping it inside. I mean yeah I’ve had some great conversations with some people, but most of the time, it just seems to make it worse and more uncomfortable. Should I try to vocalize all that I’ve said here right now, I know that I would fail miserably. Thusly, I truly believe there is an art in being able to confidently, tactfully, and eloquently verbalize what you are feeling inside. It is an art that escaped me long ago; which is why I have to resort to writing: the one medium which allowed me to find a voice more confident than any other I might attempt.

I’d like to know what any readers of this blog have to say about this subject. I mean is sharing only meant to be done with a select few? Is there any way to truly give it a universal definitin? Or is it just completely to one’s own discretion?

... I would've never guessed that true romance and Detroit would ever go together

Alex Trebek Is a Vegetarian

2005-07-24T02:50:00.000-04:00

according to Statcounter, someone got to my blog by entering that phrase in yahoo's search engine. i felt like i had to share this because it is absolutely hilarious to me. That is all i have to say for now. Current trip and recent contemplations have left me in an almost never-ending state of pensive-ness. Expect a more thorough update soon.

Good Day.

...chewing gum is really gross; chewing gum I hate the most

Hi, My Name Is...

2005-07-19T14:40:00.000-04:00

So I’ve been in Minnesota for about 5 days now and I must say it is something that I really needed. Taking a break from the monotonous days in Miami, having to feel absolutely no expectations from anybody, and not having anyone I know besides my extended family around is quite a great feeling. And of course getting to hang out with all me cousins who I don’t get to see as often as I’d like is always a blast. And then there’s Arman: the genius baby of my cousins James and Mahtab. With this new feature on the blogspot of uploading photos, I think I will be doing it more often. Sort of like a “picture of the day” sorta thing. We’ll see how that goes. I’m using my uncle’s computer right now so I’m probably gonna have to take one of his pictures. Ha, what an awesome kid. I mean just look at him.

Anywho, besides the frequent discussions on the mysteries of life and the lessons learned therein, my cousin brought up the subject of nicknames given me in the past. I think I overwhelmed him with the myriad of names I’ve been given throughout the 20 years of my life. So we both decided it should be posted on my blog for all to see. So go ahead and choose whichever one you prefer…cause I answer to all of them depending on who uses which. So here goes, numbered for ease of reading and in no particular order:

1. Mo
2. Mo-Mo
3. Moo
4. Moo-Moo
5. Moo-Man
6. Mooney
7. Moonibaby
8. Cow-Face
9. Mooooo…nib
10. Muniba
11. Moonbeam
12. Meat-Head
13. String bean
14. Bob
15. Twino
16. Mr. T
17. Nib
18. Nibs
19. Nib-Nib
20. Niblet
21. Nibbles
22. Nibbles and Bits
23. Nip-Nip
24. Binum
25. Momar
26. Spider-Man
27. Parker
28. Voozh Head
29. Little Drummer Boy
30. Mun to the ib
31. Mu to the nib
32. Munibian
33. Munibi
34. Munibo
35. Money
36. Monet
37. Muad-Ib (not sure how it’s spelled…that guy from Dune)
38. Monkey Boy
39. Moonster
40. Nibster
41. Munizzle

That’s all I can think of right now. Wow, I didn’t even realize there were so many. If anyone can think of any new ones, or any that I might have left out, feel free to leave comments. I’m always interested to hear of new nicknames. As soon as I feel like nobody can come up with something I haven’t heard before, I get something new. And the ones above are from people who can pronounce my name correctly. I’d have a whole other list of ways my name has been pronounced incorrectly. But I don’t think that would be as fun.

...who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men

Origin of a Screen Name

2005-07-13T16:37:00.000-04:00

Anyone ever have those times when over the span of a few days you seem to get the same question asked by several different people? I actually seem to get it a lot. And this weeks subject has been the origin of my AIM screen name: AnHonestFool. Some people thought it was from Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, cause there’s this one part where Gandalf calls Pippin an honest fool. But I actually got it several months before that even came out.

So I figured I’d share where it came from right here and now because it’s from an awesome song that I have felt compelled to listen to repeatedly once again. It is by the very great band Live and the name of the song is "Like I Do" from the album Birds of Pray. Their lyrics are always amazing and so is his voice. So here are the lyrics to said song with some of the more repetitive parts taken out.

Live – Like I Do
Darling, I feel like a god when I am next to you
Something sacred, someone straight and true
Tell me, do you feel the same way too?

Darling, your face is radiant with the light of love
The kind that’s sent straight down from up above
And now you’re all I’m thinking of
Thinking of

Don’t you give me loving like a revelation
Don’t you make me burn and make me feel the danger
Salutations to the maker of my finest hour
Goddess, queen, mother, sister, lover
Don’t you ever leave

Darling, I feel like a god when I am next to you
Something worth the worship of this honest fool
Tell me do you feel the same way too?
Like I do?

Don’t you give me loving like a revelation
Don’t you make me burn and make me feel the danger
Salutations to the maker of my finest hour
Goddess, queen, mother, sister, lover
Don’t you ever
Don’t you give me loving like a revelation
Don’t you give me love
Don’t you feel the same way like I do?
Like I do
Like I do
Like I do

Man, I told you it was a great song.

...now that we know who you are, I know who I am. I'm not a mistake.

The Book of Munib: Chapter XXXVII - Revelations

2005-07-11T17:39:00.000-04:00

So a friend of mine had this on her online journal and I don’t think I’ve ever actually completed one of these all the way. And since I really haven’t felt inspired enough to write anything original recently, I figured one of these things would work great even though it's painfully long. Plus, I’m bored.

SECTION 1 ABOUT YOURSELF
+ Known as: Spider-Man
+ Lives in: a state of confusion
+ School: University of Miami
+ Hair color: black
+ Eye color: black
+ Style: whatever’s comfortable that fits
+ Fears: giving in to temptation.

SECTION 2 HAVE YOU EVER...
+ Cheated on someone? nope...and i don't intend to.
+ Been Cheated on? no
+ Fallen off the bed? Many times. Once on a hardwood floor without even waking up
+ Broken someones heart? Maybe completely unintentionally, yes.
+ Had your heart broken? Yes.
+ Had a dream come true? I once dreamt I was Spider-Man. Then I woke up with Mary Jane by my side and ended up saving a buncha people that day with my web. All in a day's work.
+ Done something you regret? Plenty. But what's done is done.
+ Cheated on a test? I’d rather plead the fifth on this one.

SECTION 3 CURRENTLY...
+ Wearing? Clothes.
+ Listening to? Disturbed
+ Located? on a couch.
+ Chatting with? Tatiana Marie Alba-Machado
+ Watching? The Mummy Returns

SECTION 4 DO YOU...
+ Brush your teeth? I try my best to remember to do so.
+ Like anybody? I like everyone.
+ Have any piercings? Nope.
+ Drive? Total lifetime driving time equals about 3 hours. And I’m being very generous.
+ Drink? Never have and plan to keep it that way.
+ Smoke? Same as above.
+ Got a pager? Used to have one shared with my sisters back in 1994 or 95.

SECTION 5 FRiENDS...
+ Who is your best? I’m still trying to figure out the definition of that one.
+ Who do you hate? I really don’t like that word. But I can think of only one person who deserves that description. And he is most definitely not my friend.
+ Who is the shyest? I think me.
+ Who is the most talkative? Everyone.
+ Who laughs the most? I’m guessing anyone who gets hit with the Joker’s gas. ha.
+ Who have you known the longest? Natalia S.
+ Who have you known the shortest? The people I just met yesterday. Don’t even remember all of their names. I suck.
+ Who do you go to with personal problems? The one from whom I stole this survey.
+ Do you hang out with the opposite sex? yes.
+ Can you keep a secret? Yes. Keeping hundreds as I type.

SECTION 6 THE LAST PERSON YOU...
+ Hugged? Melanie M.
+ Kissed? My dog after I returned from a two-week trip.
+ IMed? No one today. Haven’t gone on messenger in a while.
+ Talked on the phone? Vahid S.
+ Yelled at? Can’t remember.

SECTION 7 PERSONAL...
+ What do you want to be when you grow up? Ophthalmologist…or maybe a writer and/or filmmaker.
+ What comes first in your life? I try my best to make it the Baha’i Faith.
+ Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend/crush? Yes. I’ll let you try to guess which one.
+ What do you usually think about before you go to bed? What time I need to wake up the next morning.
+ Love your family? Hells yes.
+ Love your friends? Same as above.

SECTION 8 FAVORITE...
+ Movie: Too many. Check out my DVD collection for a few of them. But if I was forced to choose, I’d have to say Hero.
+ Song: too many. None of which include stuff by Linkin Park.
+ Group: Metallica.
+ Store: Best Buy.
+ Relative: I haven’t even met him yet, but I already love Arman to death.
+ Ice Cream Flavor: crunched oreos and vanilla ice cream on a waffle cone.
+ Fruit: Freddie Mercury.
+ Candy: do oreos count as candy? Cause I love ‘em.
+ Holiday: Ayyami-Ha
+ Day of the Week: depends on what is being done on that day.
+ Time of day: pizza time.
+ Color: red and black.
+ Name for a Girl: I think Zaynab is a good name. with a great history too.
+ Name for a Boy: I really like Vahid. Or maybe Jack.

SECTION 9 DO YOU...
+ Like to give hugs? Yes. But only if the receiving end feels the same.
+ Like to give kisses? Same as above.
+ Like to walk in the rain? Yes. But I prefer singin and dancing in it.
+ Prefer black or blue pens? Black.
+ Like to travel? YES.
+ Sleep on your side? Yes.
+ Have a goldfish? Nope.
+ Ever have the falling dream? Yes. But ironically never when actually falling off the bed.
+ Ever flown in your dream? Nope. But I’ve swung on webs that were shot out of my web cartridges.

SECTION 10 WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT...
+ Abortion: I don’t like the idea.
+ Eating Disorders: sad.
+ Suicide: even sadder.
+ Summer: lack of school. Always great.
+ Tattoos: looks good on some people in moderation. But I wouldn’t get one.
+ Piercings: they’re alright also in moderation. Only one I’ve ever considered was on me eyebrow. But then I turned 15.

SECTION 11 THIS OR THAT...
+ Pierced nose or tongue? Neither.
+ Single or taken? Currently? Single.
+ MTV or BET? MTV’s become crap. Don’t really watch BET so I don’t know.
+ 7th Heaven or Dawson's Creek? Can’t stand either of them.
+ Sugar or salt? SAAAAALLLTTT.
+ Silver or gold? I’d rather spend the money on DVDs.
+ Chocolate or flowers? Flowers. Unless the chocolate is from Brazil.
+ Color or Black-and-white photos? Depends on the subject.
+ Stay up late or sleep in? stay up late, for I am a creature of the night.
+ Hot or cold? Cold.
+ Sun or moon? Moon.
+ Left or Right? Hah, that reminds me of the Big Friendly Giant by Roald Dahl.
+ 10 Acquaintances or one best friend? Can’t I just have a buncha friends?
+ Mustard or ketchup? Salt.
+ Spring or Fall? Which one’s colder?
+ Happy or sad? Happy. That was a hard one.
+ Wonder or amazement? Wonder seems more mysterious. Which means you get to dig for the truth…which is always fun.
+ McDonald's or Burger King? Burger king.
+ Mexican or Italian food? italian.
+ Lights on or off? Off. Maybe some natural light.
+ Candy or soda? Can’t really have either right now. But 8 months ago I’d say soda without another thought.
+ Pepsi or Coke? Coke…but same as above.

EL FIN!

...we men are wretched things

Ye Olde Goode Timese

2005-06-28T22:05:00.000-04:00

So I’m back in the beautiful city of Seattle, Washington after it suffered my absence for more than seven years. Though it may not be for the most pleasant of reasons, it’s still just great to see the extended family again. I have nothing but great and fun memories of this place shared with lots of cousins.It has really allowed me to appreciate more things in life. Whether I’m just walking and talking with my very awesomely talented actress of a cousin: Beibi or playing movie games with my very awesomely talented art prodigy of a cousin: Dhabih, one point becomes inevitably clear: Seattle weather still rules.

I mean seriously. In the off chance that I might actually decide to live in the US, I think I’ll be moving to Seattle. The other day I just went outside and started running for about an hour just because the weather was nice. So maybe the fact that there is no television where I’m staying had something to do with it too. But I like to think it was mainly for the weather. Now if we were to place the events of that day in relation to the rest of my life in a mathematical equation where:

x = the hour and a few minutes walked today
and
y = the sum total number of hours walked in the past 20 years of my life

we would get the following: x > y.

If the groundbreaking mathematical proof above does not convince you of the beauty that lies in the northwest, then I fear there is little hope for your retarded self.

...i won't kill you, but i don't have to save you

Comic Appeal

2005-06-17T14:41:00.000-04:00

Recently, a fool that shall go unnamed has stated that comics are retarded and that he or she does not understand why it’s such a big deal. He or she even dared to say that comics are – and I quote – “lame as magazines”, saying that the limited appeal is the same. And the most amusing remark I’ve heard quite a few people use to put down comic books is that it’s just a dumb form of entertainment. How very wrong you all are. What IS a comic book really? And why the crap has it had such a bad rep for such a long time? Also, why are there so many freakin movies based on comic books recently? These are the questions I will try my best to answer and hope that my fellow comic enthusiasts from the Cornwell household can leave some feedback covering anything I might and will probably miss.

Comics, comics, comics. What is there to say about them? They’re awesome. That’s basically all there is to it. But seriously. What is a comic book? It’s pretty simple actually. A comic book is simply a medium used to tell a story. Same as novels, movies, songs, plays, and poems. That’s all they are. When a writer of any kind comes up with a story idea, the first thing that must be done is to decide what medium will take full advantage of the story. It just so happens that comic books and graphic novels are the best ones for stories that need to express a lot of imagery, symbolism, or graphical contrasts; which is what all of these stories are loaded with. And all of these mediums are entertainment, which is why that lame insult mentioned above is pointless. And what is entertainment? Nothing more than an escape from our reality into someone else’s, with hopes that you’ll come out of it having learned something new.

So why is it that comic books have had this stupid reputation of being just for kids and geeks and nerds? I honestly don’t know. Only reason I can think of is because people assume that comics only have to do with superheroes, and superheroes are just for kids. It’s pretty dumb actually. If you actually take the time, you’ll quickly find that stories in comics and graphic novels are as good, if not better than a lot of the novels that are on the bestseller list. There have actually been several of these comics that have been turned into full length prose novels. Batman’s No Man’s Land and Wolverine’s Weapon X are just 2 such stories. But then it makes me wonder. If the story of Harry Potter was kept EXACTLY the same, but released in the form of comics, would it have been as successful? Probably not, cause for some reason it’s seen as some lower art form. It would just be seen as some other comic book story Hollywood is trying to make money out of. But times they are a-changing, and the recent Hollywood explosion of comics has increased their readership, which is never a bad thing.

So why is it that there have been so many movies based on comic books as of late? And surprisingly a lot of them are very well done. Well there’s the obvious fact that it’s almost a guaranteed money-maker. And the fact that special effects are so accessible today really makes them a lot easier to make nowadays. But what I like to think is the biggest reason for this explosion is that the people who are making these movies today are the same people who actually grew up reading these comics. Which leads to these movies being made with the respect they deserve. Case in point: Sam Raimi, director of Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2. For his 6^th birthday, his parents got this artist to come into his arm and paint a picture of Spider-Man over his bed. He grew up, became a director, and eventually got to make Spider-Man, a character and universe he knew inside and out from having read all the comics as a kid. True, there’s been a couple of movies here and there that don’t quite live up to expectations, but even then, to me, it was just great to see them on the big screen.

...i'll tell you in another life, when we are both cats

Batman Truly Begins

2005-06-15T16:11:00.000-04:00

So I was fortunate enough to attend the midnight screening of Batman Begins last night, and man what a truly awesome movie it is. If you like Batman, then you will like, if not LOVE this movie. And if you’re really cool, you might even catch the villain they show and say nothing about. But, if you don’t like Batman, then don’t ever speak to me again, cause obviously you suck and our friendship has no basis. I could not stop smiling as I watched before me the Batman I always imagined when I read the comics…especially his voice. That alone was worth the admission price for me. And MAN, helluva way to leave things open for a sequel. Everything about it was great, so it must be watched again and again and again. And then purchased on DVD. Although, I think a more adequate title would have been Batman Kicks Your Ass. Because that’s exactly what it does.

Anyway, what’s with some people’s constant need to cuss? When I was sitting in the theater waiting for the movie to start, that’s all I could hear around me. It really bothers me. And I don’t get it. Sure, I just said “ass” up there, but that’s not the kind of cussing I’m talking about. I’m basically talking about the f and s words. Words that, to me, are completely unnecessary in our language. I’ll admit that in movies, sometimes cussing can be very funny, like in Snatch for example. But seriously, is cussing really that crucial to communicating with each other? It seems like it’s more and more just a reason to fill in the blanks of a lacking vocabulary. Pretty freakin sad if you ask me. I think that’s all I have to say for now. Good day to all; and I hope you do yourselves a favor and go watch Batman Begins.

...if you were any thinner, you wouldn't exist

Whatever Happened to Chivalry

2005-06-04T14:14:00.000-04:00

Rumor has it he’s already dead. But, last I heard he had to check himself into a clinic for the terminally ill. He is on the verge of death and trying hard to hold on to what little life he still has left. Maybe he’s just in a temporary coma.

By chivalry, I’m not just talking about the male’s role in it or the whole placing your coat over a puddle of mud for the lady to cross thing – though that would be very cool – no, I’m also speaking of people’s manners in general. It’s not easy to deny the fact that it has steadily worsened over the years amongst a large majority. Please understand I’m not saying I’ve got the perfectest manners or anything crazy like that. Alls I’m saying is that there has been more than one occasion where I do something that I consider to be common sense, only to cause a stir among my peers who seem to have a hard time believing my actions. This ranges from something as simple as holding the door for a stranger to my very strong and often contested belief against the imbibing of alcohol. And that saddens me greatly.

I remember this one time I was sitting in the cafeteria with several of my friends when I saw what looked like a receipt in the middle of the table. So I picked it up, perused it, tore it up, and threw it in the trash. Then when I returned they were all “What the hell?” And I was all “There was some guy’s credit card number on there.” And they were all “So why did you throw it away?” and I was all “why wouldn’t I throw it away?” Then I ripped out their hearts and weighed each one against a feather. Turns out they’re all going to hell.

...as long as i'm around you're only second best

Oh Sweet Irony

2005-05-27T11:19:00.000-04:00

A great Canadian songwriter once said: “it’s like rain on your wedding day. A free ride when you’ve already paid. It’s the good advice, that you just didn’t take. ‘Who would’ve thought, it figures.” Keep in mind she is also god in the View Askewniverse, so her words hold a lot of weight.

At this specific time in my life, I find myself surrounded by ironies wherever I look. Ironies in things people say, ironies in people’s actions, and the biggest irony of them all: the things I must now do to remain healthy and medically stable.

I think humans are in their very nature ironic beings. Rarely ever truly saying what we mean and at the same time expecting everybody to understand what we are trying to say. What really bothers me is when I hear people get really bent out of shape over things that truly do not matter for no other reasons then to take the opportunity to make a point; that is also usually meaningless. A very basic and generalized example of what I’m trying to say would be the following: let’s say someone goes to the bathroom and forgets to flush the toilet. Then the next person goes in, sees the scene, flushes, does their thing, and comes out. Then they go to the poor bastard who forgot to flush the toilet and incessantly insist on wanting to know “why” they forgot to flush the toilet. I deem this to be something that really does not matter, and a friendly reminder to flush next time would suffice. And I believe the solution is simple: Tyler Durden. Everyone should be more like Tyler Durden, except for the whole thing about being a criminal mastermind using Fight Club as a cover for a violent vandalistic gang. He did not let the unimportant get to him the way most people do. Like that scene where he scared that guy to death by pointing a gun at him and demanding information from him. He knew the gun wasn’t loaded, but that didn’t matter, cause nobody else did. And that is why Tyler Durden is my role model. Also, I wouldn't mind looking like Brad Pitt...and neither would the ladies. ha.

Which finally brings me to, well…me. Having been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease would be the cause of the 180 I have taken in just about every aspect of my daily life. For starters, one of the most enjoyable things in my life – eating – has been given a major makeover. A diet that up until 6 months ago consisted mainly of bread, beef, salt, coke, and more beef, is now one that includes no bread, no beef, very little salt, and no coke. Instead I have been eating chicken, chicken, carrots, chicken, peas, water, and more chicken. All of which is bought at this organic foods store called Wild Oats; a place which until 6 months ago would be considered hell for me. A forsaken place for the few isolated crazies that actually enjoy the consumption of healthy foods. Actually that’s still how I see the place, but I don’t really have much of a choice.

But seriously, it truly is amazing what life has in store for each and every one of us. No matter how prepared you think you are, there will always be something that’ll catch you completely off guard and force you to change your ways. If you go through the whole ordeal at hand in a positive state of mind, I believe it is almost guaranteed that you will grow from it and truly be a better person because of it. I mean God won’t put you through anything that you can’t handle. Even if things turn out differently than you expected, it’s most likely the best way for things to go. I believe I’ve come out of most of the things thrown my way a better and more mature person…at least that’s what I like to think.

...she doesn't quite chop his head off; she makes a pez dispenser out of him

Waiting in Line

2005-05-19T15:00:00.000-04:00

Humans are silly beings. Just watch any person and/or group of people close enough and it’s amazing how much is going on simultaneously. If we ever did get invaded by aliens, I think they’d just fail to comprehend human nature and our reactions and just leave frustrated.

Today I watched Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (awesome movie, by the way). It was to begin at 10:45 AM. My sister and I got there at about 9:00AM and were the first ones there. I got my sister to stand in front of the door to begin a line while I went a little off to the side where the guy said the actual line might start. By about 10:00AM there were already around 50 people lined up behind my sister; which I must admit I found a little amusing. I mean there were 3 other sets of doors to the theater, but everyone just automatically lined up behind my sister, who was standing in front of one of the many doors. But back to my story. So after I’m convinced there won’t be a line where I’m standing, I decide to join my sister. By now there are easily 60-70 people lined up in front of the door behind us. Then this guy comes up with his hair tied back, wearing these sleek sunglasses and this smooth jacket thinking he’s coolness incarnate along with his little posse. And he’s all “excuse me” as he goes in front of me to check on the doors of the theater to see if they’re locked. When he left, my sister and I, along with the couple behind us just started cracking up. It’s as if 70 people would be standing outside in the incredibly hot and humid weather by choice. Cause apparently he thinks none of us have checked the doors. sigh.

The worst part is that even though I’m making fun of this guy, I would probably do the same thing if I were in that situation. It reminded me of this comedy routine that I think Ellen DeGeneres had where she talks about people feeling the need to repeatedly push the elevator button as if it would speed things up. Everyone knows it won’t. Yet everybody does it anyway. Why is that? I guess it just keeps you busy while you wait. I do it all the time. But it’s just more enjoyable watching other people do it so I can make fun of them.

...my need to engage in homicidal behavior on a massive scale cannot be corrected

Something a Little Different

2005-05-12T01:41:00.000-04:00

so i'm gonna try something a little different with this post. And all credit goes to my friend Adeeb, from whom i completely stole this idea. He had a pretty good response on his site so i thought i'd give it a try here, verbatim:

If you read this, even if i don't speak to you often, you must post a memory of me. It can be anything you want, it can be good or bad, just so long as it happened.

Go wild.

...lieutenant dan got me invested in some kind of fruit company

The People v. George Lucas

2005-05-08T11:03:00.000-04:00

As I’m sure everybody knows by now, George Lucas has been getting a lot of crap from his so-called “fans” for the creation of Episodes I and II. I’m a big fan of the Star Wars franchise, and though I’ll say they weren’t exactly the best movies, I’ll still support Mr. Lucas because he’s had this clear vision of what he wants out of his hexology for like…40 years now I think. But the fans didn’t stop there…

A few months ago, Lucas released a special edition set of DVDs of the original trilogy with certain modifications in the film itself. For example, in that last scene of Return of the Jedi, they see the Force ghosts of Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Anakin. In the original cut, Anakin’s spirit was played by Sebastian Shaw, who was in fact the guy under Darth Vader’s mask in the same movie. However, with the new edition of the DVD, George Lucas replaces Shaw with the young Hayden Christensen, who has been playing Anakin in Episodes II and III. Here are some of the changes in the new DVDs with side-by-side comparisons. The one I’m speaking of is the very last one on that page.

Anyway, the point I’m trying to make here is that there have been A LOT of people who have been complaining about these changes claiming crazy things like George Lucas ruined their movie. Or just take the much easier way out and proclaim to the world the level of George Lucas’s stupidity. I think that’s all a load of crap. Star Wars is Lucas’s brain child, his baby. He’s a filmmaker, it’s his art. Just as a painter will keep making changes to his work until he is satisfied with the finished product, George Lucas will continue to do the same until he feels that he has accomplished what he set out to complete 30 years ago. The man had this specific idea for the entire saga since the beginning. He knew he wouldn’t be able to make Episodes I, II, and III the way he wanted to back in the 70s, so he did the other three first and waited for the right time when technology could handle his vision to complete the first three. And now that he has the capability to go back and change even the original trilogy, he’s jumped right on that opportunity to complete them the way he always intended to. So the only complaint that I guess is somewhat reasonable would be those people who watched the original in the theaters in the 70s and want to watch the movie they remember seeing back in the day when life was simpler. But even then, it’s not like he made some insane change to the story. But I do believe he should make that version available for purchase so people can have the option. If anything, I think that makes him a genius; both as a filmmaker for being able to practice such extreme forethought, and as a businessman since there are now endless versions of DVDs that he can release which the public would consume like animals, myself included.

The defense rests, your honor.

...hell hath no fury like a woman scorned for SEGA

Exercising Bragging Rights and Eating Cookies

2005-05-05T23:03:00.000-04:00

I’d like to take this time and thank my cousin Dayyan Eng for the bragging rights his career has given me, of which I shall fully exercise in the beginning of this post. He is a filmmaker in China whose amazing short film, Bus 44 (which can be admired here) has won awards at Sundance, Cannes, and the Venice Film Festival just to name a few. His first feature length film, Waiting Alone, just got distribution for a China release around August I believe. So if and when it comes over to the US, make sure to stop by your local theater and watch it. You won’t be disappointed. Specially since I make a special guest appearance. Ha.

But seriously…

Has everyone heard of that ridiculous new thing Sesame Street is doing to Cookie Monster? Basically, denying his one source power and his entire reason to live. It would be like telling Linkin Park to come up with something original, they would all just go “does not compute” and spontaneously combust. I mean how could they take away cookies from the COOKIE Monster. Man, I was watching Sesame Street a few months ago and his addiction to cookies still gave me the biggest laughs.

Alas, such is the way of the ever-changing world. Parents’ increasing over-protectivity of their children today is seriously sickening. I was watching the ever-informative Daily Show the other day and their guest was discussing this very topic. She was saying how there are elementary schools where they have virtually done away with kids playing tag during recess and instead substituted it with something called the “friends circle” – or something ridiculous to that effect – where kids get to take turns sharing their feelings. Unbelievable. And then there’s all these other people who don’t even let their kids roll around in the dirt like kids tend to naturally do for what to me really is no good excuse at all. They seem to forget that exposing them to all these things at a young age will actually develop the immunities necessary to fight them at a later time when it becomes necessary. Sigh, I just don’t get people sometimes. As Harvey Pekar so eloquently put it “life is pretty complex stuff”. I know imma be throwing my kids out of the house and into the sandbox and make sure they’re well exposed and comfortable with nature and all the beauty it has to offer. And when they get old enough, they can stay home all day with their dad watching HVGs; that’s Holographic Video Goggles for those who are time travel impaired.

...how am i supposed to heal, if i can't feel time

“I’ll Take ‘The State of Humanity’ for 500, Alex”

2005-04-30T00:04:00.000-04:00

Alex Trebek: “The answer is: the institution lowering expectations for humanity”
Sean Connery: “What is Your Mother”
Alex: “no that is incorrect”
Me: “what is the ratings-hungry media”
Alex: “correct response for 500, back to you”

sigh.

It’s so sad to see how much sensationalism is accepted and even promoted in the media today. For quite some time now I just refuse to watch the local news, much less the 24 hour news networks like CNN. What truly saddens me is the fact that all they seem to televise are human beings at their worst. When was the last time you heard of a breakthrough in science. Or stories of the crazy amounts of selfless service being done all across the world. Chances are incredibly slim those will ever make headlines or Top Stories because they don’t sell. Not like drugs, sex, rape, crimes, murders, or diets do. And it just keeps getting worse and worse as time goes by. They try to feed you with heavy loads of information. Like those crazy tickers that scroll by on the bottom of the screen giving you all this other news while the people on the bigger square talk forever about something else. And all they really have is like 20 minutes of news that they keep looping over and over again. It’s like we’re sinking further and further into the Rabbit hole…of DOOM. But seriously, i don't even watch the news anymore. All the information about the world that i obtain come from the genius minds of Jon Stewart, Conan O'Brien, and the people at SNL who tell it like it really is.

There's another insane craze I just can’t grasp: diets. More specifically, people’s unhealthy obsession with them and all the different packaging they come in. You got Atkin’s, low carb, high carb, all-liquid, no liquid, south beach, all juice, low residue, high residue, vegetarian, protein, seafood, and let’s not forget all those magic pills that supposedly allow you to fit completely into one of your pant legs within 2 weeks. And of course, all the celebrity endorsements that go along with each and every one of those. What the general public can’t seem to understand is the importance of exercise that MUST go along with any diet you choose to go on. It’s always in the extremely fine print of every diet ad. Maybe that’s why. It really saddens me to see people who are not happy or comfortable with how they look. The saddest part is that most of these people look just fine and healthy. BUT, obviously health comes second to “beauty” to many people. What IS “beauty” anyway? It truly is in the eye of the beholder. And I think the only beholder whose opinion anyone should care about is God…and I don’t think He cares much for things of the physical world. Do what you will with that. Those are my two cents.

...i think we should skip the whole courtship thing and just get married

Ab. Fab. - Abbreviation Fabrication

2005-04-21T21:44:00.000-04:00

Has anyone else noticed an influx in abbreviations and acronyms making their rounds? Specially within the world of internet chatting. As if instant messaging wasn’t instant enough, people seem to feel the need to abbreviate everything they say and create new acronyms out of the blue at their leisure. What’s the rush people?! Aside from the fact that it’s completely unnecessary in daily conversations, it’s destroying people’s skills in English grammar and semantics.

The other day I had someone use “IMO” while we were chatting. It was a strange sight I had never seen before. Upon further inquiry, I discovered it stands for “in my opinion”. To which I replied, “IMOITIPAHYKUATIHTAYTSOA”. In case you’re not abbreviation savvy, that stands for “In My Opinion I Think It’s Pretty Annoying How You Keep Using Acronyms That I’ll Have To Ask You To Spell Out Anyway.” sigh. I take a certain amount of pride in the fact that I have never once used “lol” whilst chatting. The only abbreviation I do use is “brb” and that’s only because I tend to use it for bathroom breaks, and when I really gotta go, there’s no time to lose.

I think it all comes back to something I briefly touched upon on a past post. Society is like the White Rabbit: always in a rush to get somewhere, yet never quite able to get there. And it’s not just the abbreviations. Something else that I’ve always just laughed at are people at the front of red lights who keep inching closer and closer, as if by gaining 3 inches on everyone behind them, they’ll be able to get to their destination that much faster. The way I see it is if you’re late, then you’re late. Deal with it, cause if you get there 3 inches sooner, you’re still late…minus 3 inches. Life is short people, make the best of it. All of which bring to mind something The Merovingian once said: “if we never make time, how can we ever have time?”

...before my time is done, i will look down on your corpse and smile

Marketing Campaigns

2005-04-18T20:13:00.000-04:00

Marketing campaigns are fascinating. Doesn’t matter what the product is. It’s incredible how effective or ineffective they can be. I’d love to sit in on one of those meetings where some huge company just came up with some brand new product it thinks no other company will ever be able to copy like a bread slicer as they try to come up with ways to package it for their presumably unsuspecting and complacent consumer. I bet it would go something like this:

- So we’ve got a bread slicer.
- Yessir, a bread slicer is what we have.
- What kind of adjectives can we place in front of it to make it sound unique?
- How about, “The Amazing Bread Slicer”
- Hmm…that’s a start, but something’s missing.
- I’ve got it! Let’s just say it’s new and improved.
- Improved from what? This is our first one.
- Well…improved from the original prototype.
- …I’m sold. But I still want more.
- I know! “The New and Improved Amazing Bread Slicer Deluxe”
- Eureka! Remind me to give you a raise. Now get a celebrity to add their name to the product and we’re guaranteed to make millions! Millions!!!!!

End scene.
It’s ridiculous. But I’ll admit I fall for celebrity endorsements too. Most recent of which was the Antonio Banderas Cologne. I’m really not picky about colognes. But Antonio Banderas is awesome. Therefore, so must be his cologne. And I gotta say, it DOES smell pretty fargin good.

But what really can be fun to follow are the way movies are packaged and sold to the audience. The marketing campaign they decide to go with can have a HUGE impact on how well the movie does. One great example is the 1994 Danny DeVito movie Renaissance Man. After failing to bring in audiences as a comedy under the original title "Renaissance Man", the movie was re-released a couple months later marketed as a drama with the alternate title "By the Book", and made much less money the second time around. Isn’t that crazy? I submit that it is.

Anyway, I got to thinking about all this the other day after watching Spanglish. It really turned out to be a completely different movie than what I was expecting from the way they had the previews put together. I mean it was still a great movie, just not exactly what I expected to see when I sat down to watch it. Anybody else feel that way about the movie?

...you are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world

Soundbytes

2005-04-12T20:02:00.000-04:00

What is sound? According to the folks at dictionary.com sound is defined as:

“vibrations transmitted through an elastic solid or a liquid or gas, with frequencies in the approximate range of 20 to 20,000 hertz, capable of being detected by human organs of hearing”

I don’t think anyone could have put it so succinctly.

I speak now of sounds because…well, because they’re amazing really. Just the whole concept of it and all the things that affect it like acoustics and reverb and all that jazz. Especially if you start thinking in that whole “we’re in the Matrix” point of view; which I gotta say, is really fun to do every now and then. I mean there are some things that sound so beautiful to me and are just so priceless. They don’t even last very long. I’m talking about things like the sound of the cue stick at the instant it strikes the cue ball with a perfectly executed bottom spin. sigh. I can see it now; and it is beautiful. Or the sound of an ice-cold glass bottle of Coca-Cola. But just for those very short seconds when you pop open the lid and hear the cool steam flow out of its bottley lair. Or the melting and boiling of butter in a pan as you toss a slab of beef on it and hear that sizzle and bubbly sound that makes your mouth water just as much as the smell itself. Mmmmm…beeeeeef.

By the same token, there are some sounds that feel like a knife being jammed straight through your heart. Alright, so that may be a hyperbole, but it gets the point across. And to keep with the pool hall example: there are very few sounds more painful than the crackle of a miscue. There is almost a millisecond before it happens where you know it’s gonna happen before it does. And when it does…it sucks. Or that constant high pitched sound that TVs emit when they’re on but on mute. That is a killer, especially when you’re in the middle of a test and no one around you seems to be able to hear it. And then you ask the teacher if you can turn the TV off and she denies that it’s even on until you convince her to allow you to get up and turn it off, at which point you do. And then proudly return to your seat to complete the examination at hand.

I like sounds. Don’t you?

...Silly Caucasian girl likes to play with Samurai swords

Marla's Revenge

2005-04-10T19:05:00.000-04:00

So Marla decided to engage another sneak attack just as everything was going fine, sending me to the hospital for yet another week. Which just so happened to be the week my cousins came to town. So that kinda sucked, but we still managed to have fun in the hospital. Besides, I think they had a good time here, so that most definitely rocks. Hopefully once things settle down here again, I’ll be able to go visit them, along with all you other peoples up in MN whose visit is waaaaaaaaay overdue…for like a month!

Anyway, before I got sent back to the hospital, I was going to talk some more about Sin City. So here goes. Sin City was incredible. Today I talked to a friend who asked me what I thought of the movie. I said it was amazing. She said I’m the only person she’s talked to who liked it, cause every single person she knows who’s seen it, hated it. I could see why people might not like it. Actually, I can understand if people hated most it. It’s not exactly your conventional movie. All the voice overs tend to turn people off. And if you aren’t aware of the genius of its original form, you really won’t be able to appreciate it as much. But even if you don’t like the incredible stories, the awesome actors, or the spectacular dialogue, you gotta admit the technology behind it is just bar none. I don’t like it when people completely bash a movie and don’t even want to give any aspect of it a chance. I like to look at everything in there. Case in point: I can say that Queen of the Damned was a bad movie. In fact, the words you’re likely to hear me say are “Queen of the Damned was the worst movie I have ever seen”. However, at the same time, I will acknowledge the fact that Stuart Townsend did a better job with certain aspects of Lestat’s character than Tom Cruise. And that the music was amazing. Basically my point is this: if you watch Sin City and then tell me that you hated everything about it, I will call you a liar. And if you swear upon everything on this earth and in the heavens that you really did hate everything about it…well then…you’re just an idiot…and a liar.

By the way, I enjoy comments. I really do. In fact I encourage it…just not anonymous ones. So please leave your name. Or at least a pseudonym I’d know. Thanks.

...she smells like angels ought to smell

Movie Review: Sin City

2005-04-01T17:44:00.000-05:00

wow.

...hell of a way to end a partnership

Vegetables Are Boring

2005-03-31T21:30:00.000-05:00

How can there be so many people out there who love them so much? Up until a few months ago, a general rule of thumb I lived by was that if it’s green, it’s not comin in. I’m actually very surprised I was able to pull this off for as long as I did. I always figured it would culminate in this ridiculously premature heart attack at the age of 23 that would knock some sense into me to finally start eating right. So this alternate path things have been taking so far is not bad at all.

But back to my point. The other day I went to a restaurant and ordered the grilled chicken with steamed vegetables. You have to understand, just writing that sentence has caused me to pause and re-read it in disbelief: Chicken. Vegetables. I ordered. Anyway, the plate arrives and I honestly have no idea how I’m supposed to eat these green foodstuffs that are just laying there next to my chicken. Do I need to cut them? Is there a special fork? Which part do I eat? Is the leaf edible? I don’t even know what they’re called. So after getting a crash course on the proper vegetable consumption technique, I ask the papa what the heck is that I’m eating. He says that I just ate spinach. Naturally, Popeye comes to mind for one very nostalgic moment. And then there was this other thing. I’m still not sure what it’s called. I wanna say broccoli…or maybe cauliflower? It was green…and bushy. And really pretty friggin mundane. How do vegetarians survive?! And vegans!! It boggles my mind! I mean once the whole New World Order thing is established and everyone eats vegetables like we’re supposed to, then I’ll be all for it. But until then, cows will continue to be my favorite source of food.

...you got the cadillac of minivans

Mutiny on the Booty

2005-03-30T00:15:00.000-05:00

Hah. Get it?

So my intestines finally decided to act on the attack they had apparently been planning for over a month. Their leader is my ileum, whom I have decided to call Marla. If you get that movie reference, go bake yourself a cookie. So anyway, Marla managed to get together with her pals “DD” the Duodenum and “JJ” the Jejunum to attack me once again. After a week in the hospital, I have finally managed to get DD and JJ back on my side of the fence. A task that required a series of confrontations involving naso-gastral vacuums, and more than one enema. We were hopeful that these very same procedures would return Marla completely to our side; but in this, we were not completely successful. We simply managed to keep her dormant…almost like in a Neo-stuck-in-the-train-station sorta way. And if all goes well, unlike Neo, she’ll never get out of Mobil Ave.

And so I’d like to give my thanks all the peoples who kept me company both by phone, and in person. And of course to all of youse who kept me in your prayers. Thank you.

Final thought of the day: it’s amazing how much you can appreciate and enjoy swallowing your own saliva with no pain after having had a tube stuck up your nose and down into your stomach for over 60 hours. Life…gotta love it. I know I do.

...you are not a beautiful and unique snowflake

First Impressions

2005-03-21T11:52:00.000-05:00

I think it’s incredible how much of an effect first impressions can have on the way you see things in the future. No matter how different the situation is at a later time, that first impression will always be gnawing at you in the back of your mind. As of right now, my first impression of New York is not so hot. And I really don’t see myself ever staying there for an extended period of time. Except maybe for the very awesome independent film scene they got going there with all the theaters and stuff. I mean the place was exactly like Hong Kong, except more spread out and a lot more frustrating to get around. Sigh. Now New Jersey, that’s a different story. Like I predicted, the place looked pretty cool. And I think I’d move to Red Bank just for the Secret Stash and the Kevin Smith landmarks that surround it. But on to more pressing matters…

I have to comment some more on music because of the rebuttal left by my beloved cousin Mahtab. I will admit, you made some good points about how great Linkin Park’s members are and how they have stable marriages and donate to tsunami relief and all that jazz. All of which are very important, but that doesn’t necessarily mean their music is any good. And when speaking of Linkin Park, it is positively clear that a stable life and marriage does not make them good musicians. But I’ll lay off of Linkin Park…for now.

...there is no spoon

Over the river and through the woods...

2005-03-18T15:13:00.000-05:00

...to New York City we go. so in about 2 hours, i'll be heading off to the airport to go to New York for the weekend. I've never been there before, except for the airport itself once or twice maybe. i'm not really much of a "go out and do stuff" kinda person. if given a choice of activities, i will almost always choose to stay home if going to a pool hall is not one of said choices.

but now i'm off to New York City. i keep being asked what i wanna do there, and i just really don't know. what is there to do in New York City that i'd actually WANT to do but can't do right here in Miami? well except for Broadway and all the Off Broadway shows that i'd love to just spend day after day watching...but i believe that requires a steady flow of cash. of which i currently have none. i don't even have a leak of cash. the only thing i really want to do there that i can't do here is go to Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash; which isn't even in New York. it's in Jersey.

i think i'd like New Jersey. Kevin Smith made some great movies there. Garden State was great too. and movies never lie.

...let all under heaven guide your decision

Music Just Ain't What It Used to Be

2005-03-16T21:57:00.000-05:00

I love music. But lately, it’s let me down. And by lately, I mean in the past few years. Music just seems to be getting crappier and crappier as time goes by. This is one area in the entertainment industry where technology seems to be doing more harm than improvements. What I mean is simply that it has become way too easy for people to make their voices sound better than it really is by putting them through all kinds of processors. The saddest part is that it’ll actually sell millions if the people have the right marketing guys behind them.

But the point is, the quality of musicians that are getting famous has been steadily declining. And it’s really annoying. Especially since most of these guys don’t even write their own music. I wish I was around during the Great Jazz Age and been there to see Louis Armstrong pick up his trumpet and completely awe the audience for the first time. Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Dave Brubeck, Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Tholonius Monk, Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald, Scott Joplin, The Rat Pack – the list is endless – THEY were real musicians. People who would get in a recording studio and get everything down perfectly on the first take. Time was kept accurately with no synthesized cow bells to keep the tempo for them. They’d improvise the most amazing solos that would be so musically logical that it would just boggle the minds of the craptacular bands of today like Linkin Park and Good Charlotte who have no idea what they’re doing.

I hope I’ll be able to find more musicians like the time of old. I’m sure there’s already a lot of them out there, but unfortunately they’re probably not “mainstream” enough to be able to sell over a million copies for a record company. Everything is so fast paced nowadays, like everyone’s in a rush to get to somewhere else, so they don’t have enough time to come up with more than 2 ½ minutes worth of music...if you can even call it that. And then you’ve got artists releasing like 2 albums in the same year, or a remix of their first album while they make a second album just cause fame comes and goes so fast that they’re trying to hold on to their little fan base for juuuuust a little while longer. I believe the real test of fame comes with longevity. And I also believe, that in 5-10 years (or less) no one will remember who Linkin Park was. But, they’re making money, so good for them.

Most of the above applies to actors too…so expect some more on that soon.

...i cannot believe you're not retarded!

Rant: Movie Critics

2005-03-15T13:37:00.000-05:00

You know what I can’t stand? Movie critics. I guess you can say everyone’s a critic, but I’m talking about the guys like Ebert and Roeper who have their own tv shows or magazine articles and get paid to talk about, and frequently spoil, movies. It’s not even the talking about movies bit that I have a problem with. If I was paid to go on TV and talk about movies, I’d jump right on that opportunity. What I DO get frustrated with is the fact that so many people place so much weight and importance on what these critics have to say. I mean I guess it’s more understandable if you can find that ONE critic who happens to consistently have the same opinions as you do about movies; but how likely is that? It’s like people don’t get the fact that the marketing folks will always use whoever gives their movie the best reviews. Which is why every preview for every movie that you see is called “the best ::insert genre of movie:: of the year”. There is ALWAYS going to be someone who really enjoys it. Speaking of previews, I always have to laugh when I see them just take fragments of reviews from different people and put them together with quotation marks and ellipses to separate their sources. It would go something like this:

“John Travolta is…” “…at his best…” “…in this…” “…movie!”

Personally, I don’t like to read reviews. When I do, it’s of movies I’ve already seen or of ones I know I’m not going to see. When I’m talking to someone about a movie, and I go “Oh, I really wanna see that”, I almost always get a “oh, I heard it was really dumb” or a “oh the critics hated it”, or a “everyone said it was a stupid ending, so I’m not gonna bother with it”, or the response that’s always guaranteed: “Munib, you’re hot”. And on the other hand, if I say that I don’t want to see a movie, I always get a “why not? Everyone said it’s really good”, or “what? I loved it! go watch it now or you just suck!” or again: “Munib, you’re still hot”. What people don’t seem to understand is that I’ve already made up my mind on what movies I will and will not see usually months before they’re even released based on what I’ve read about them, the people behind it, and many other factors. And so far, I’ve been pretty freakin accurate, so this system will stay with me until proven ineffective more than thrice.

One classic example that I just have to share because of a certain reader of this blog (Mahtab) is Queen of the Damned. I was so excited about this movie because it was based on one of my favorite books. As I followed the news and updates on the shooting and status of the movie, things went from bad to worse.

First sign of impending crappyness: delay in release

Second sign of impending crappyness: possible straight-to-video release instead of theatrical. That pretty much killed it for me. Knowing that it was a possibility meant that even the people that were making it knew that they didn’t have much. But I still had hope, because it was based on an Anne Rice novel.

Third, and final, sign of impending crappyness: pictures of the cast, in costume.

The only hope it had was the fact that Jonathan Davis of Korn was in charge of the music…which turned out to be the only reason why I did not walk out of the theater. That and the fact that my uncle treated me to it and it would just be rude if I did.

...it's true, you are a good woman. then again you may be the antichrist

AFTER-THE-FACT-UPDATE: Happy Birthday Mahtab! i went by your blog after I updated. So I apologize if the above offended you in any way. But only for today.

Rave: Robert Rodriguez

2005-03-14T12:52:00.000-05:00

Robert Rodriguez is a genius. For those who don't know who he is, he is the mastermind responsible for films like El Mariachi, Desperado, Spy Kids, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, one of the segments in Four Rooms, and the soon-to-be-released Sin City. i say mastermind because this guy does EVERYTHING in his movies. He writes them, directs them, produces them, edits them, shoots them, composes the score, and even does the special effects for them in his own garage! He also convinced his good friend Quentin Tarantino to let him write original music for Kill Bill: Vol 2 for only a dollar. In return, Tarantino is directing a scene in Sin City for the same price.

speaking of Sin City...if you haven't seen the trailer for this movie, do yourself a favor and go watch it. There is no way that this movie going to suck. EVERYBODY's in it! It's pretty much the first movie that's a literal panel-by-panel recreation of the comics. it's got this awesome artistic style where it's all black and white except for spurts of bright colors here and there. if you watch the trailer you'll see what i mean. It's based on a series of graphic novels by Frank Miller, who is also co-directing. Which is where one more example of how genius Rodriguez is comes in. As a member of the Director's Guild of America, you're not allowed to have more than one credited director in a movie. He had this other movie, The Princess of Mars, that he was gonna make over at Paramount after Sin City, but they said he couldn't if he was sharing the director's credit with someone on Sin City, cause it would go against the DGA. BUT the guy chose to just leave the DGA and not make that movie rather than not give credit to Frank Miller, whom he definitely wanted on as a director, since it was in fact, HIS work that was being adapted.

and THAT, my friends, is why Robert Rodriguez is amazing. even if you don't like his movies, you just gotta admire his many talents.

...i killed a man with a trident

Rant: The Academy Awards

2005-03-13T15:23:00.000-05:00

I feel like ranting a bit about the academy awards and how stupid they've been lately. it really bothered me that Johnny Depp got nominated last year for Pirates of the Carribbean. i mean, the movie was PRETTY good, but i really didn't think it was as amazing as everyone said it was. he did an awesome job in it, but i just dont think it should have been the movie he got his first nomination with. i mean the guy is one of the few actors who actually stayed away from mainstream hollywood blockbusters for the longest time doing all these awesome movies with the performancec of a lifetime in each and everyone of them and gets no nods. BUT then he goes and makes his first summer blockbuster and gets a nomination. what the crap? had they not seen Ed Wood? or What's Eating Gilbert Grape? or Edward Scissorhands? Nick of Time? Blow? sigh. either way, it's great that he's finally getting the recognition and respect he deserves from the masses and i hope he wins an oscar sometime soon.

speaking of people not getting oscars? where's martin scorcese's? the guy's probably gonna end up getting an honorary oscar for lifetime achievement in filmmaking before he even gets his own oscar for directing. except for gangs of new york, he has an insanely awesome resume of movies. classic cinematic features that have shaped movies and pop culture as a whole. Taxi Driver and Goodfellas are the two obvious one that come to mind. anywho, i think thats all the ranting for now.

...save your breath for cooling your porridge

First Post

2005-03-13T00:53:00.000-05:00

so this is my first post on a blog. i have noticed many people got blogs, so i figured, why not join the crowd and be a completely complacent follower? and so here i am. i'm not really sure what will be discussed but the following list is pretty much guaranteed, in no particular order:

Movies
Comics
Music
Games

i think that's it. i mean those things pretty much sum up my daily life so you'll be hearing a lot about it. and so i sign off my first blog. adieu.

...you know what they call a quarter pounder with cheese in paris?