So, uh, I was going to watch Black Panther, but the Olympics were on. Major fan that I am, I watched the Olympics instead. I will watch Black Panther next weekend instead, even though my review will be pretty late compared to everyone else's. And by everyone else, I mean everyone else. The opening numbers are at Avengers-level. Also, my car ended up totaled due to slippery roads, and I'm facing some family drama, and I have college homework, and I'm working on an art project that's incredi
Iowa's governor, Terry Branstad, is the longest serving governor in American history, with twenty-three years of experience. I don't have particularly strong feelings on him as a governor, but I did like that an Iowan held that record. Personally, I wanted to see him stay in for another couple of terms so that he could put some distance between his and the old record. Like, a nice solid thirty-two years as governor would have been nice. However, that won't happen, because Donald Trump just
This year's nominees are, in the order in which I am the most impressed: The Jungle Book Kubo and the Two Strings Deepwater Horizon Rogue One Doctor Strange As it happens, I've seen every single movie in this category, so I'm capable of having a fully informed opinion on this one. The most likely winner this year will be The Jungle Book. It was simply so amazing, and it was a pretty epic film. At first I thought that it would be absolutely ridiculous if any other movie stood a c
So a month ago I got to spend time with my family and they were all finally in the mood for watching Flash Gordon. I saw it when I was about five, and found it to be the most amazing camp movie of all time, perhaps even more amazing than the Adam West Batman. It's hard to pick between those two. Anyway, our favorite line was instantly this one from Dr. Hans Zarkov, which happens to fit thematically quite well with a certain event from this week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewMMVPDX2NQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5CB2thgsVc Buzzfeed normally puts out some pretty dumb stuff. But this made me a little emotional. When I was a kid, I couldn't relate to the early morning stuff, but I tried taking it up again as an adult, and now I fully relate to every one of these beats. This is a beautiful piece of art. I have to try not to cry. 24601
Now, I don't have pictures, and I only have a few minutes to write this. However, I thought I'd inform you on the sets of Berix and Zesk and what my initial and most dominant thoughts were. Berix is tall and has the best color scheme of any blue set since Gahlok in 2002. She is the second-best Agori. I also really like her yellow head and her helmet. I have no objection to the colo gold in the set, although perhaps the shield it is part of could have been a better shape. Zesk is beyond d
The Oscars have come and gone, and though it's been over a month, I thought I'd come back and make this entry to share my thoughts in the ceremony's highlights and moments that I personally found interesting. To start off, let's give a hand to James T. Kirk. He had never been nominated for anything and probably never will, since he's not that kind of actor. However, it seems that the Academy still has a sense of how to represent every aspect of the cinematic culture (outside of the vulgar, o
I was visiting the graduation party of a friend called Kitty. I stuck around for a while to enjoy the place, because of the oreo cookie creme and stuff like that, but there was something that struck a major philosophical idea in my head. As selected senior pictures to keep of Kitty, I grabbed one of her on the gold course, and I suddenly realized that golf was a sport. I've always opted to go out for track instead, since it was more athletic, so I never thought much of golf until, for some r
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh! Gonna make the Batman dance Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh! Gonna make the Batman dance Ha ha hahaha! Haha hahaha! Go-tham muhaha! Gonna make Batman dance Ha ha hahaha! Haha hahaha! Go-tham muhaha! Gonna make Batman dance I'm laughing smugly, I'm laughing a wheeze I'm laughing as I bring Gotham to its knees I'm laughing of (of-of-of a little shove) Your childhood trauma burned you like a brand You're not like them, your rage is just canned
A lot of people were shipping Rey and Finn. And to be honest, while they're both outsiders, I never thought that they had enough in common. She was a determined, heroic person and a believer in ideals (and the return of her parents). Finn was a coward and too pathetic. It's way too imbalanced to work out. Rey and Poe makes a little more sense, since they have many more personality traits in common. If Rey is in fact a Skywalker, it would fit with family tradition to marry the best fighter
Most times that I review a movie, I leave the review-ee a generally positive impression of the film. Am I too easy on movies? Am I a suck-up? Actually, no. I'm fairly tough on films, all things considered. The reason why most of my reviews are positive is that I'm good at figuring out which films are worth watching. It's called selective viewership, and we all practice it. Here's an experiment: just watch the poorly put together trailer for
and be honest with yourself. If your reaction was "U
When the first Avengers came out in 2012, many people remarked that they had seen it without watching any of the movies building up to it, and they could still follow along with everything. It still felt like a complete film, and every character made sense. I cannot say the same for Infinity War. The size of the cast has finally caught up with these movies, and I do think that you should see the films leading up to this in order to understand this universe. Someone in the group of friends t
The moment arrived to sit on the curb To become one with the frail autumn leaves Alone, away from all the rest, to rest Never to let them see what could disturb A man who walks with his back to the breeze Away, away, to hold communion here With the dried remains of the Earth's substance With the still October air, with an air Of Death, which in earnest speaks in my ear How the door I seek is not an entrance Avant! Alas! The grimmer days I've found! The wind
First, I will post a "Chapter 2" as soon as possible, though it might not be for another couple of weeks. Coincidentally, by then I might have watched Prometheus, which may or may not have a very similar plot. If it does, I might have a problem, but this story was based on a dream that I had back in 5th or 6th grade. I always wanted to write a story based on it and now I'm finally doing it, so wish me luck. Second, I mentioned a Kitilik as if you're supposed to know what they look like. Th
Move here, to my state. I watched this reality TV show about thousands of Chinese millionaires who moved to Vancouver, and I thought, "Why Vancouver? It's rainy. It's a stuck-up coastal city, just like all of the other stuck-up coastal cities. They should come over to my state, specifically my town! If they're rich, they can start businesses that will make Valjeanville more interesting. Right now, the only cool business that we have that makes our town an interesting place to live in is ou
I'd like to thank Dokuma for the idea and for not putting a copyright on it. For this week's theme, there's really no choice, given the current events stirring at the hearts of the community. This is to be dedicated to BIONICLE. Your Honor, Emperor Kraggh
A friend of mine recently showed me a bunch of Korean action movies. They weren't Kung Fu movies, but still, they had a lot of good fighting. And I daresay, the fighting that they did have was good. They even made gun-fights complex and dynamic. It was entertaining to watch and consistently engaging. Did it still have some cliches? Yeah. I noticed that there were times when two people would throw aside their guns and go at each other hand-to-hand, which I didn't think was the most realist
Yesterday, while at my public library, I took along a notebook, and decided to write what I felt. All that day I had been slightly depressed, partially because I had come home at one o'cloick in the morning, but also because of something that had been on my mind once I was finished going on BZPower for the day. It the literary atmosphere (and coincidentally right next to one of the cutest girls I know *slaps himself*), I was in the mood to write my feelings. Since it kind of qualifies as a jo
The funniest thing happened. I was in a play. It showed twice. And the thing is, I still haven't seen the whole thing. Nearly a week ago, the play Arsenic and Old Lace played in my school. My part was Mr. Witherspoon, the guy who comes in at the end to take Teddy away, and then dies (presumably). I have fun improvising that part when both nights there was a technicality on set where things weren't quite the way they were supposed to. Anyways, I refrained from doing it, I really did, but
Argo earned the respect of my difficult to please uncle and for that I wasn't surprised to hear that it won an Academy Award. Now that I've seen it, I don't understand it. The movie didn't stand out to me and didn't draw me in, nor did I get invested at all in what was happening. It felt small and trivial, and the end didn't have me cheering. The Academy Award it won for film editing seems completely wrong, since there's nothing special about it whatsoever. In fact, I didn't like the editin
This may seem cruel of me, but I always root for Argentina to get silver. That's why one day I hope that the Argentinians face off against Team USA in the final round instead of the semi-final round in basketball. Anyway, I hope they beat Spain and at least get bronze.
Unfortunately, I had a long series of posts on the old archives that I had used to keep track of some of my writing ideas. I didn't have MS Word at the time (and still don't), so the old "Writer's Topic" was where I found an excuse to write down notes, and I had never bothered to save them. That is truly unfortunate, since I don't remember most of the things I had written down and I had a wealth of story outline. It's truly worse than having lost the first draft to a 100k word long story.
Well, I watched it a couple of days ago. So here we go: This is one of the only movies I've ever immediately bought a ticket to rewatch it after leaving the theatre. It really excited me. At various points, it reminded me in the best possible way of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Avatar: James Cameron Edition, the Sam Raimi Spider-Man, Mad Max: Fury Road, TRON: Legacy, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Godzilla, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Finding Nemo, Jules Vern, old pulp serials about pirates, th
Okay, think of things this way. Harry Potter was raised by a cruel and uncaring family. They abused him by making him doubt his self-worth and making it every bit as apparent as Michael Jackson's death that he was not truly accepted into their family. So, you take him from that and suddenly introduce him to Hagrid. You'd figure that once he reaches the Wizarding world, he would be defensive, anti-social, and insecure, right? After living with the Dursleys, he shouldn't see a whole lot of go
