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New Years Stuff

Ben — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:18:43 +0000

I considered a few things I could do for a New Years blog post. One involved the song Prophets by A.C. Newman in the style of the end of a How I Met Your Mother season with a meaningful soliloquy about how great the next year will be . Y’know, minus angry goats and imploding buildings.

But I figure I’d just make a few resolutions.

1. I’m going to make a list of movies to watch. Some oldies, some newer ones. I never got to see Avatar, for example. Mainly because I don’t care much for 3D but now that it’s on DVD and it’s been forever, I need to see it I think. I

2. I think I’d like to learn some skills in computer languages. Computer languages may not come easy to me but I do have a great interest in technology and computers. It’s why I like webcomics such as Not Invented Here and PC Weenies so much.

3. Save up for a new laptop. I am basically after a laptop from this decade that doesn’t take 5 minutes to start and won’t die any minute. I figured I’d want a Mac, but there is no realistic way I could afford one at this point.

4. Comic books I would like to catch up on. Astonishing X-men, Buffy(which I really need to catch up on as I hear they are on a new season), The Walking Dead(Which I have recently started watching the TV show, which inspired me to catch up on the comic book series)(and also a few other Kirkman Comic Book series’ such as Science Dog or Super Dinosaur), I started reading the Red Hulk story in The Hulk and want to read more of that. Next on my list is Ultimate X-men. Kitty Pryde played an important role in Ultimate Spider-man which I just finished catching up on and I would like to read Ultimate X for more X adventures.

Social Networking

Ben — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 09:40:19 +0000

I have seen two movies recently(Zombieland and Easy A) that have a bit that make comments about social networking. In Easy A a teacher says “I don’t know what your generation’s fascination is with documenting your every thought…but I can assure you, they’re not all diamonds. “Roman is having an OK day, and bought a Coke Zero at the gas station. Raise the roof.” Who gives a rat’s ass?”. In Zombieland, Jesse’s character(ironically) says “the best thing about Zombieland… no Facebook status updates you know, Rob Curtis is gearing up for friday… who cares?”

I think there is some part of us that needs to document what we do. Generations before us had diaries, journals and letters. We just so happen to have a bit more of a public arena for letting these things out. If you think about it, saying on Facebook or Twitter “Had a chicken burger today…so good. Gearing up for a solid weekend” is just like putting your thoughts or feelings about things in a book or a journal or some other form of primitive writing.

If you look over the years of Facebook and Twitter posts you can piece together most of the things that happened to me in my high school years. You could probably do the same thing with the journal from someone of the previous generation. Just because we had different mediums. This is all probably very obvious. One thing I like to do as a tech enthusiast is predict where the future of technology may take us. I mean we can now buy things without going into the supermarket. Siri was invented to talk into our telephones. Maybe someday we will be going all Star Trek and making a ‘Captain’s Log’ at the end of the day. Just talk to some peice of technology built into our room or phone that takes note of what we are doing and how it makes us feel and just tells anyone we want.

I can see it now: ‘Captain’s Log HighSchool-Date 9522.6…Had great lunch with Dylan. Great guy, that Dylan. Tomorrow we are going to that new movie cinema in the big shopping center round the block. It’s their opening day. I can tell you, we will be going where no man has gone before…”

’til next time.

Benny Bob.

Zombieland

Ben — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 07:45:52 +0000

With all my free time I have been catching up on some things. Movies, TY shows, Video Games, comic books. I’ll get more into what I have been watching/listening to/reading etc later. But for now, I am watching the movie Zombieland.

It’s a great movie. It’s got two of my favorite actors. Jesse Eisenberg from The Social Network and Emma Stone from a number of movies of the last few years(The Help, Easy A, The Amazing Spiderman, Crazy, Stupid Love). The only other zombie movie I have seen is Shaun of the dead. That was a good movie but for some reason I seem to like Zombieland better. I really like the writing in Zombieland. It’s funny and the actors deliver some ‘Classic lines’ really well. Lines like “First time I let a girl into my life and she tries to eat me.” or when Little Rock says “Who is Bill Murray” to which Tallahassee replies “Now, I’ve never hit a kid…”.

One of my favorite moments is when they crash Bill Murray’s house for shelter next to the moment when the man shows up in the movie and they recreate the “Don’t cross the streams” line of Ghostbusters. I also like the scene where Jesse Eisenberg says “Best thing about Zombieland, no Facebook status updates…Seriously. Who cares”. I like those actor…whatever you call it moments.

So with about 20 minutes left on the movie, I like it. It’s a fun movie with some great actors and some great lines.

The Beach

Ben — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 07:48:18 +0000

I’ve been becoming a little more cynical as I age. Just a part of life. South park did an episode about it. Not as extreme as that but still. Just seeing some things as lame or just having a sour way about something.

For the better part of my high school years, I saw the beach as this life annoyance that you get dragged to. Family, school, friends, some people just ended up dragging me to the beach. Sure I love summer, seafood, the sun, cold drinks and I especially plan on having a pool when I am older. I really relate to that Nat King Cole song, ‘Those Lazy, Crazy Days of Summer’. But the beach always got to me. The Sand that gets everywhere, Even a week after the trip finding the stuff in your bedroom. Salt water that gets in your face and tasted like no fun at all.

Now this week I have been on a trip to Queensland, visiting relatives. It’s the state of Australia full of sun and fun and great oceans. So far it’s been fun. I love the people I have seen so far, everyone has made sure I have the best time on the trip. I’ve been playing Pool(Billiards, Snooker, etc), watching scrubs and having a great time enjoying the food and the sun.

I just took a trip to the beach. Where I am staying there is a beach a sweet 60-second walk away. So I went down, I mean I’m here, I figured why not. The beach has gotten a lot of hype lately from my friends, why not try it again. I did. And it was amazing. It was refreshing. The water was so good, I didn’t care about the salt, in a bad way at least, I found the water refreshing even being salt water. The sand was good, I actually enjoyed the sand. Something in me reinstated a great love for the beach.

This isn’t the first time this has happened this year either. I thought I was done with Harry Potter. I thought it was annoying dribble for kids who like magic. I went to the cinemas to see the last movie and lo and behold. I loved it. I thought it was amazing. Even saw it a second time. I still need to see numbers 6&7 though. Side note, going to see a HP Exhibition near us sometime soon. Although I hear you can’t take pictures(lame) I am so keen for that.

Point is, what else don’t I like, or do I think I don’t like, which could end up being an amazing experience for me? Actually excited to live life and answer that question for myself now.

Til next time…

Sitcoms and Stories

Ben — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:13:26 +0000

Most of the TV shows I watch are comedies. Sitcoms follow generally the same formula in terms of characters, stories, jokes etc. For example, alot of sitcoms involve stories to do with the relationship of at least two people. In terms of The Office however, it’s almost the entire cast.

I saw a tweet today about how a recent Rules of Engagement epis0de involved a story about poison Ivy and how that story has been done to death. Yep. You can bet that anytime a set of characters go into the wilderness, someone will even mention poison ivy.

There are a couple of shows I think are done well and original. Modern Family shows the happeneings of three different but related families of various different types. The stories are original and I seem to be able to relate to some of them too.

Community is also a great and original show. The various different types of episodes from the Wild West style paintball to the zombie themed episode to the episode done in 6 different alternate universes. Community even had a whole story happen in the back ground of an episode with one of the main characters.

These two shows are examples of new, fun and definitely creative and well done shows.

Most sitcoms have the same rehashed characters and storylines, for example, take How I Met Your Mother and any Chuck Lorre show and its just about the various mostly sexual relationships of the characters. Or to back in time abit, Newsradio and Just Shoot Me, alongside other shows of that time, follow the same workplace formula. The couple everyone knows will get together, the useless boss who the employee’s have various problems with, the guy everyone makes fun of etc.

It’s good to have shows that do not follow this same basic formula and are new, fun and creative such as Modern Family or Community and still funny. Keep at it sitcom creators and try not to use the same rehashed stuff used in most sitcoms.