So you are a very young child with no father and a mother that doesn't seem to care that you hang out with a crazy old scientist. One day you think to yourself "I'm going to start a journey across the country on foot." You have no idea where you are going or what the world has in store for you. Just as you take your first step on this misguided journey said crazy old scientist pulls you from the clutches of being mauled to death by pidgys and rattata. He makes you follow him to his laboratory and gives you first pick of a powerful creature with elemental powers that is probably super dangerous if given to the wrong person. After more talking and one trip to town later you are on your own to roam freely and catch whatever other monsters that inhabit the land.
When you are a kid you don't really think about how out of control this games story is. I mean just think about what would happen if you gave a baby fire breathing dragon to an eleven year old child? He would burn his school and everything else in sight to the ground. The hero you play in the game goes around the world collecting more and more powerful Pokemon to fight for him. Then he battles people far more advanced than him and wins every time. He even brings down a countrywide Pokemon mob ring. How the hell are we supposed to be ok with this?! Would you just sit there and watch your child prodigy waste his strategic battle planning mind on freaking Pokemon battles? I know I wouldn't....
What was the point of this blog post....nothing. I am running low on ideas and was thinking about Pokemon and how awesome the world would be if it were real. Also I would give my left testicle to get a Pokemon MMO.
I'm sitting here on a Sunday night with a plate full of collate chip cookies and I was like I should watch a movie. I have been waiting on watching The Purge because I knew it was kind of dark and who wants to be in that mindset on a day when you have other things to do. So why not a Sunday night?
Well I knew the premise going in and I have thought about it a lot since the first trailer arrived. I was wondering if this type of thing could really happen. For those of you who don't know the premise, here it is. The year is 2022 and at some point between now and then the American people voted to allow for 12 hours a year where all crime is legal, even murder. It is said all crime and poverty dropped to 1% and the economy had never been so strong. The movie is set up like a social commentary on the way that the rich see the poor. There are news reports that flash during the first half hour of the movie that states that during the purge nights only the sick and poor die because they can't defend themselves.
When this is said I was thinking that I know a lot of rich people kind of feel this way. Not that they want them to die or anything but they do feel that the working poor and other types of poor are a drain on society and the economy and it would be better if we could just take them off of things like welfare and food-stamps and affordable health care. In feeling that way you are basically saying that you want them to not be able to survive. Sure I agree that some of those systems are broken and dole out too much "free" money to people who just abuse it more and more but it also helps a lot of people who are responsible. Working single parents can't always do it on their own and government assistance is needed and it is good that we do have a government that cares but it shouldn't be about money. It should always be about the people the money is helping. We are in debt for a lot of reasons but one of those reasons is our military. Do you think the average person would rather have troops in other countries fighting a ware we have nothing to do with instead of using the money to help sick and poor in our own country? I think that is an easy question to answer. If after reading that you say that I am anti-America because I don't love the military I assure you I like what they are there for but it is also a group of people who volunteer to be part of. We waste so much resources on building better guns and bombs instead of finding cures and making them affordable.
I'm going to get back to my cookies and movie about violence now but I am go
I have not always had an appreciation for books as I do today. I read when I was required to but not really for my own pleasure. Sure I was addicted to the thought of Goosebump books as a child but they were just fluff to fill the time between when my mother was yelling at me about something. I read the classics in high school and liked them but nothing really found a place in my heart until the Harry Potter books dropped into my life. My cousin had this crazy hatred for them and I loved her and didn't want her to get mad at me so I avoided them. She was way into Lord of the Rings and I am going to put it here in writing. I don't care much for those books. The Hobbit is fun and full of adventure and good storytelling but The Rings is just so boring and they never stop fucking singing and walking. When the parties split the books get even more boring. I could sit for days and let my dad tell me about those books but after reading them twice each I can sit and say that I could go forever not reading them again.
Ok, with that said back to Harry. So one day I was really sick and my girlfriend at the time was reading the just released 5th Harry Potter book next to me in bed and she asked if I had ever read them or seen the at the time two released movies. I said no and that I didn't really have a want to see them. She looked at me with a crazy stern face and just got up and left. She returned about an hour later with the second movie because it had just been released on DVD and she hadn't seen it and since I said it didn't matter I started with the second story. She popped it in from basically scene one I was hooked. I was there 110% with Harry and his friends in their magical world.
As soon as that movie ended I wanted more, no I needed more. My sick rattled brain needed something to cure it and at the time I thought only more magical wizard kids could do it. I convinced her to go and get me the first movie and the third book. She didn't have the first movie and the video stores were closed but she did come back with the third book. I read it in one sitting. I just couldn't put it down. I had never had this feeling from a book before and especially from what is labeled as children's book. I loved everything about that book and still to this day it's my favorite, mostly because it's the only book that doesn't have Voldemort in it.
Soon after I got to watch the first movie and loved it so freaking much. I got the books at a used bookstore and tore threw them as fast as I could. I think I read the first 5 book at least 6 times each before the 6th book hit bookshelves. I was lucky to fall in love with the books close to the end of the series but I still had to wait on those last two painful books like everyone else did. I went to midnight releases for the movies and books and I have fallen asleep countless times with a Harry Potter book in my hand.
Harry is one of the biggest reasons I write. I owe a lot to J.K for how amazingly she could build a world that everyone would love to belong to. I can't really imagine what it would have been like reading these books before I was 11 and just hoping I would get my letter in the mail. I hope to one day have that kind of connection with my readers. I hope that my now completed novel makes people cry and laugh along with my characters. I hope they care enough to be mad at the deaths and feel the joy right along with my creations.
I could write for days on this topic but I just wanted to do a short one today and maybe another one later. Just in case you were wondering why I had the Slytherin flag flying high it's because I am one. I was sorted into the emerald and grey house on Pottermore and I coudl
#5: Batman Face the Face. I recently read this story and fell in love with it. It's not one of the best known runs but it was really good. It takes place a year after the events of Geoff John's Infinite Crisis series. Face the Face was written by James Robinson and was drawn by a bunch of different guys that were really good. Batman and Robin have not been in Gotham for about a year while trying to deal with the events of the crisis, while they were away Batman left a newly reformed Harvey Dent in control of the city. Harvey had his face restored back and with it his broken psyche seemed to be healed as well. The reason I liked this story so much was the way Harvey really took up the mantel of Gotham's protector in Batmans absence. The main arch of the story is based on the idea that someone is framing Two Face for murder and when Batman returns he loses his faith in Harvey's innocence and drives him to return to being Two Face once again. There are a few wacky old school Batman villains that help push the story along and it will make you turn to Wikipedia for help. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves Batman and is looking for something to fill the void between any other Bat title.
#4: Batman year 100 written and drawn by Paul Pope. I have seen this around for many years but never really had the urge to read it. Recently I had the chance and I took it and man was I made at myself for passing it up. The art is a little rough for people who are really into the "pretty" art styles because it is very sketchy in look but it really fits the writing. This is a future story where Batman is just a myth and people have not seen him in years. They refer to him as just as myth to stop dope dealers and gun runners. This book does an amazing job of pulling in long time Bat-fans by giving us just bits and pieces of the Batman we know and love. There is a Robin, an oracle, and even a Commissioner Gordon. They are not exactly as they used to be but they are there. It doesn't flow like a regular Batman story and it almost feels like it's just the first and last part of a long running Batman narrative that we have all been apart of since 1939. If you love Batman you should read this, don't be like me give it a try!
#3: Batman Year One by Frank Miller. If you ever felt like you wanted Commissioner Gordon to be more bad ass you should read this story. Not only is it an amazing origin story for Batman it is an even better origin for Gordon. The art is just perfect for the story and if you are a true Batman fan you know that Frank Miller knows Batman better than any other writer of the title. Since you probably think you know how it all began I beg you to read this so you can have better understanding of why people will always push Frank Miller Batman on you.
#2: Batman Court of Owls/City of Owls by Scott Snyder. I know this is the newest Batman title to date but that doesn't mean it's not one of the best. If you have been worried about getting back into comics after a long wait you should start up again with this book. You should go out right now and pick up. I'll wait....OK now that you have read it lets slobber all over it. Greg Capullo's art is so good it almost jumps off the page and pulls you into the story. Scott Snyder does an amazing job of switching gears and proving how good a writer he is. Just before getting the chance to reinvent the current Batman after the DC universe reboot he got the chance to write Dick Grayson as Batman. His work with that is also one of the best stories I have ever read. He just has a way of adding new things to the Batman Mythos that just make sense and he makes it look easy for a world that has been around for so long. The creation of the Court of Owls is something that will live forever and has sparked so much readership and a whole new fan base for comics. I could sit here all day and tell you how awesome Scott Snyder is and don't get me wrong I want to but I have to get to the number one on my list. Please if you like comics at all read this book.
#1: Batman The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. On almost every list out there you will find this at the top. I almost wanted to leave it off the list because it just IS the best Batman story ever written but I wanted to weigh in on why I feel it is. First off Frank Miller has inspired me so much and I owe my love of comics and of Batman solely to him. The main reason I love this book so much is that Miller writes Batman the way we all know and love now. He was the first to do the major inner monolog type writing style for Batman. There are many scenes of Batman sitting on rooftops thinking about all the things that hurt on his body after 50 years of being Batman. The things he says and does in this book are so far away from what Batman was at the time and it shaped what Batman is today. This book also hits on all things we love about Batman. We get a Two Face story about not being able to change who we are, a Robin story introducing a girl in the role of a sidekick, we get to see Batman and Joker go head to head with a shocking conclusion, and best of all we get to finally see who would win in a fight Batman or Superman. There is nothing at all wrong with this book. Some have said that it is too thick and there so much writing that it is hard to get through and to them I say, Fuck Off. This is what a true graphic novel is all about, if you have ever read older titles like Watchmen you know how dense a book can get. When the day is done I see these funny pages as real novels. They carry just as much or even more than authors such as Dickens and I am glad that people still think there is a stigma against comics. I get to share it with my friends and know how great and stunning these books really are.
Well that's my top five but I have to do some honorable mentions: Batman Incorporated The Black Mirror by Scott Snyder, Batman The long Halloween by, Jeph Loeb, Batman RIP by Grant Morrison, and Batman The Killing Joke by Alan Moore.
I was reading an article the other day that stated that Oreos are more addictive than Cocaine. How did they test this outrageous claim you ask? Oh the only way we know how; people working for the Christian Science Monitor at Connecticut College tested rats by giving one a plain rice cake and the other a delicious Oreo cookie. Then they watched to see which one was cause more of an addictive trait in the rats. They did this same test with cocaine and the rats spent just as much time with the cocaine as they did with the Oreo. They studied the rats brains to and noticed that the cookie sent more neurons spikes than the cocaine did so they can state that Oreos are more addictive than cocaine.
Ok I have a few problems with this test. One: No living thing is ever going to choose a rice cake over an Oreo! A rice cake tastes like nothing at all most living things would eat their own appendages than eat rice cakes for the rest of their lives so that part of the test is null and void. Two: When I eat an Oreo it doesn't make me high. It might make me feel better for a short amount of time but it will never rise me to the level that an opiate could take me. Addicts chase the high. They don't smoke more crack for the taste or wash it down with a giant glass of milk. Yes I could see the point that the cookie could give you something near the joy felt when you achieve the high of an opiate but not to the point that would cause you to go into a detox stage when you can't have it. I have know addicts and it's not really about the thing they are doing its the feeling of security they find within said substance. A cookie can never fill the same mental need that a drug does. If that were in fact true they would just give heroine addicts a sleeve of Oreos instead of clean needles.
One other thing that irks me is that I understand that rats are the closest thing to us to test things on but I don't think a rat understands why an Oreo or cocaine would be desirable. They only know eating, pooping, and staying alive. They have no need for a high. That is something that humans alone share. I know you are going to spout things off like how elephants have been know to make alcoholic like beverages in their trunks but to what end? We assume that it is to get drunk but we have no idea what the elephant is thinking he is going to do with that brew when it's ready. Maybe he uses it to spray on their cracked and bleeding skin to clean it? We don't really know and testing our own fears of being addicted to something like a freaking cookie on a rat does what exactly? Make us feel worse for eating a sugar wrapped in sugar? We know it's "bad" for us and we have been doing it for hundreds of years. Does that make it ok? No, I'm not saying it is, all I am saying is that I find it weird that we spend money on these kinds of tests that have no real application to life.
I'm sorry but I had to rant about how preposterous this study was to me.
Today I draw a blank for the first time in 23 days. I just don't have anything that I really want to talk about. I did a lot of serious talking today with a friend and it made me feel good and bad all at the same time. Good to know that I have a friend that will talk to me about such serious things but sad because sometimes serious is just too serious...but I guess I will stay in the serious vein and just see what happens.
I'm not what you call a traveling man. I mean I like vacations and seeing new things but I grow tired of the traveling part super fast. I have always wanted to go to Japan but I would be so scared to be so far out of my element in country that doesn't really speak my language. I am so terrified that I would get lost and never be able to find my way back to the hotel. I really want to see the old temples and the country side more than I want to see the big city. Don't get me wrong I would love to see Tokyo all lit up and sparkly, but I am really interested in the history of Japan. I hate that I have a stereotypical nerd love for Japan because I feel like I may not love it for the right reasons.
What go me to fall in love with Japan in the first place was Anime. I still love reading Manga and watching those amazingly hand drawn cartoons and when I worked at the Anime store back in Port Angeles, my dream job by the way, I tried as hard as possible to learn all I could about where Anime came from. I learned how the second world war sparked so much creativity in Japan and most of the well known and best anime are because of it. If anyone has seen Grave of the Fireflies you know what I am talking about. I wanted to learn Japanese but I could never find a place to fit it into my learning schedule. I have been meaning to find one of those Rosetta stone apps online and do it that way but I am so afraid that I won't be able to do and it will crush me.
When I started going to college I wanted to take some classes that had to do with Japan but the only ones were about religion. I took them anyway and I found out that I loved the far east more than I thought I possibly could. I fell in love with Confucius and all the wisdom he bestowed onto China that then carried over to Japan. I loved learning about Shinto and all the gods and spirits that went along with it. I learned that a lot of the anime that I did watch pulled their stories from years and years of history. Since then I have just been waiting to get a good job so I can save up enough money to plan a trip. I really want to have enough money to be and stay comfortable there. I am graduating this year and I hope to get pretty good job so I can actually start putting money away.
Well here's hoping that I find a good job and eventually get to see the amazing country of Japan.
Halloween is right around the corner and for the first time in many years I have been invited to a costume party. I had many ideas of what to do. I thought I could just pull out my 11th Doctor costume but that was the last thing I dressed up as so I didn't want to just do that. I also have a pair of all purple pants that I think would make really good Joker pants but I would have to go get the green vest and dress shirt and see if I could pull of the Dark Knight Joker make up and I thought that would be way more expensive then I really wanted to do. I also want to expand my costume collection to include some kind of comic book style costume but I didn't really know what to do.
I have always wanted to be one of those people who had closets full of custom gear so they would be ready for whatever comes up. I remember being a kid and going to my Grandparents house and going through their dress up box. They had a freaking dress up box! Full of old hats, eye patches, feather boas, and pretty cool western stuff. I felt like I could turn into anyone with the stuff inside that magical box. I want my kids to have a magical box that they can dig in and find masks and cool superhero stuff that they can then wear and pretend to save people from burning cars! I think I need to start collecting costumes but where do I start?
I have been reading tons of the new Batman comics lately and the writer, my new favorite writer Scott Snyder, created a new villain group called the court of owls. They are an ancient group of people secretly running Gotham for years from behind the shadows. They also have created and recruited people and turned them into an unkillable fighting machine called The Talon who looks pretty bad ass if I must say so myself. I wish I could pull together a Talon costume but I know it would be to hard and also expensive. So I opted to be part of the Court of Owls. It's pretty easy and it will be a big hit at comic con this year. I ordered the mask online and it should be here just in time for me to pull the rest of the outfit together.
With the sudden illness of my girlfriend it has got me thinking about all the times I have been really ill. I mean to say that over the years I have faked ill more times than I would like to admit but when I think really hard I have a pretty good immune system.
When I first moved to Bellingham I got hit hard by an illness that is genetic so I can't really count that one but I will explain anyway. My mother has advanced rheumatoid arthritis and she, so nicely, passed it on to me. I was working at Target at the time and hurt myself on accident and it sent toxins into my bloodstream that triggered an attack of the arthritis. I awoke the next day not able to move my knees because it hurt so bad. I hate doctors and I really didn't want to go but I bit the bullet and went anyway and can you guess what happened? They gave me pain killers and sent me packing. I was prescribed an noninflammatory that took the swelling down in my knees and I was able to hobble around. The doctor called me about two and a half weeks later and told me about the arthritis and told me I would basically have flare ups like this throughout my life and I should just expect them. I haven't had one since but my hip does scream at me all the time. This just reinforced my hatred for the medical system. They did tell me what was wrong but did nothing to really help me with it and just told me deal with it in the future.
So the next time I got sick I stayed away from the doctor when I probably shouldn't have. I can remember being at theater and getting off early on a Saturday night. I was super excited because we were going to go do a scavenger hunt. I was at home for maybe an hour when the fever hit me. I went from a regular temp to 101 in a blink of an eye. I stayed at 101-102.5 for about three days. I should have gone to the hospital but I just kept saying I would be better tomorrow. I had that fever for 7 days. On the night of the 7th day it broke but I went again to the clinic and they took some blood and told me to rest and all that stuff; things you don't need to be told. They once again called me two weeks later when I was 100% better and told me I had H1N1. I had the swine flu and kicked it myself....
Those were the two big sicknesses I have had in my adult life. I mean I have thrown up from eating the wrong things and I get a stress flu almost every year around my birthday and Halloween but I stay pretty healthy. I mean I eat terribly and exercise every once in a awhile and I would say that I stay way healthier than my peers. I guess I can just thank my DNA for being able to fight most things off.
The main reason I wrote this is to say that over the years of hating doctors and the medical field this weekend showed me once again how they really suck. Rachel spent 5 hours in the ER and they just threw antibiotics at her and sent her on her way. They told her they would send her info to a clinic and she should go there on Monday for more tests. She shows up and the hospital sent nothing and the office told her that she could get an appointment in three weeks. THREE WEEKS?!?! Are you freaking kidding me? If her illness was really serious she would be dead by then! I mean she figured it out and got an app at a different clinic but still, should a hospital really drop the ball like that? It just adds another thing to the list of why I hate the medical field. I just know that if I ever need something taken out of me surgically they will end up doing something to kill me. I am not afraid of a lot of things but that is one. Let's just hope that my immune system can keep on keeping on until I'm ready to let go of this life.
Do you remember when movies were cool and magical? I do. Some of my favorite movies as a kid were ones that had amazing puppets and practical effects that made you want to jump into the screen and be part of that world. Movies where the hero's were killing monsters and just being bad ass just for the sake of it.
When I watch movies today coming out to theaters you see very little of this. When I saw the second Hellboy movie a few years back I was blown away by how amazing the makeup and costuming was, and how they managed to blend the CGI so well that it didn't pull away from anything. I just watched M. Night's After Earth the other night and was blown away once again but this time by how terrible this movie was. The special effects were tight but they just left you not caring about anything. The giant alien was not believable and all of the other CGI animals were much the same. You could tell that they were acting against nothing and it really takes you out of the movie. I saw Jurassic Park again this year in 3D and it was phenomenal. The T-Rex still looked real and scary, the movie still took you to their world and you wanted to be part of it. Nothing about After Earth made me feel anything but anger and disdain.
One of my favorite movies is Predator. This movie is a little dated but still rocks. I know the movie buff in me says I should like Alien more because of how it changed the face of cinema and blah blah blah but it doesn't have a line like "If it bleeds we can kill it". There is just something about a group of huge dudes with guns getting picked off one by one that really keeps you interested. You don't really care why the alien is doing what he is doing and watching Arnold kick ass in his prime is always entertaining. I had the displeasure of watching the latest Die Hard movie. I was so bummed because I really liked the 4th one. It was PG-13 but still had a car flying through the air and smash into a helicopter without having to say the F-Word every few seconds. The 5th installment was so trashy and awful and tried so hard to pull a younger demographic into the mix by sexing it up with a younger male lead. Come on there is only one Bruce Willis and he makes Die Hard what it is. I am just getting tired of the movie industry telling me what they think I need to see and how I should see it.
I guess I am just ranting out of frustration about the state of the movie industry but it will never take away my classics.