Gojira!

Today, I wanted to watch the world BURN. Sadly, the only thing which caught aflame was me. I burned with jealousy. Oh, Jealousy: that green-eyed monster…Gojira. It wreaked havoc with my heart today, and this is not the first time it has. This horrid emerald beast lays waste all Reason, demolishing all that I “know” to be true, ruining the cityscape of my inner being on a regular basis. This is the one thing I hate the most about myself, and seem the most powerless to do anything about. Jealousy is the Hyde to my Jekyll.

Leaving the Shire

  The last year of my life has seen an incredible amount of personal growth. A year ago, I was a veritable young Bilbo Baggins, holed up at Bag End. I saw no one, went nowhere and generally did nothing. While I may have dreamed of Misty Mountains and grand adventures, the only kind that actually found their way to me were in books.

All of this changed the moment I met Kristy. In fact, the sheer act of our first meeting was a monumental display of courage on my part! I had to...gasp...leave my comfy hobbit hole! Perhaps it was the hand of some invisible Gandalf that brought it all about, but I have been living a much more public and much less sedentary life since we met.

Indeed, while there may be a few troublesome dwarves that keep knocking on the door of my life, dashing my neat and orderly "dishes" upon the floor of inconvenience, getting to spend time with the most incredible woman I've ever known has made it all entirely worth it. Maybe even more grand than all the adventuring, is that she has inspired me to take up my quill again, and set my thoughts to paper...or keyboard, as is more fitting.

I truly believe that God blessed me with the gift of thinking deeply, and writing is simply a vehicle for getting those deep thoughts out into the world for other like-minded hobbits to enjoy. While I was holed up in my comfort zone, I was not sharing my thoughts with many. It seemed that I was nicely wrapped up in the blanket of Fear. Fear of others' opinons, fear of others' disapproval...fear of my own ineptitude. It is the sign of a remarkable woman, that rather than strengthening my fears, she banished them with the light of  Encouragement. Every day, Kristy reminds me that I'm a rather smart fellow, and she challenges me to one day attain to the level of HER intelligence. A feat, I must confess, that seems forever beyond my grasp.

So, this has been my yearlong journey, my "There and Back Again", so to speak. I've yet to reach Mount Erebor, and there is still a mighty red Wyrm to slay yet...but at least I'm on my way. I am no longer in a hole in the ground...

The Buffer Post

Hey there Internet!

I've been noticeably absent the last few months, and not without some reason for it! There have been a lot of changes in my life, recently-- some things good and some not so good. At any rate, I do wish to share more of my inane and increasingly geezer-like views and opinions on current happenings with you all, so I'm just adding this small "buffer" post to hopefully tickle your anticipation for another excitingly common entry from Yours Truly!

Modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer AC130 (Official HD)

This looks to be the best First-Person Shooter of all time! From this small snippet, it would appear that Infinity Ward really listened to the players and put everything we wanted into this game! November is looking to be so sweet this year!!!

Terminator: Saved

I just got back from viewing Terminator: Salvation, and my first thought was “New Chekov is a badass!” My second thought was, “what the HELL is wrong with people?”. All week long I’ve heard previews and reviews describing the movie as “blah” or “mediocre”, and listing it among the heaps of failed movies that had great potential.

Really? This movie only had great potential? I’d say that this movie not only had that potential, but that it lived up to every bit of it! One of the claims I’ve heard repeatedly is that Terminator: Salvation is as cold hearted and lifeless as the robots it features. Having watched it, I can’t fathom that those critics saw the same film as I did. Sam Worthington’s Marcus Wright character embodies what this movie is all about: Salvation and Redemption.

Terminator: Salvation shifts focus from the previous movies in the franchise, which often dealt with the question of Fate vs. Free Will. The newest installment asks a different question: Does everyone deserve a second chance?  Once it is understood that this is a film about redemption and not fatalism, all of the plot elements begin to align themselves properly. There are really two redemption stories here: that of Marcus Wright, and that of John Conner and Humanity. It is a similar story to another movie that bears a more than striking resemblance: The Matrix. The story of Neo (aka, Mr. Anderson) is also the story of Humanity getting a second chance to survive. We created the machines, and they deemed their creators unworthy of their legacy, and so they felt subjection the only fit place for us. But just as we built the machines, we also built the morality and ethics which guide their every move. This is something they cannot fully fathom, because cold logic is incapable of really identifying with the Human Condition.

And this is ultimately what saves Humanity, both in the Matrix and the Terminator movies: the Human Heart. We are made up of more than cold logic, we have emotions and feelings and WILL. And what is most important to us, is that we Stay Alive. That is why we win. This is also why Terminator: Salvation also wins, because it tries to convey the source of the differences between Humans and Robots. Sure, it wasn’t T2 by any means, but it was a hell of a lot better than T3 and in my opinion about on par with the original Terminator movie.

Ultimately, if you’re a fan of the film series, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed by this movie as long as you realize the focus has shifted from fate to redemption.

My FCBD Reflections

Yesterday I went to my very first Free Comic Book Day (FCBD)!!! It felt so good to be around some of my fellow nerds! I've known about FCBD for about a year now, though last year I simply sat on the fence and moped in disgust at my severe timidity. This year, refusing to let my timorous nature get the best of me once again, I set out to my local Library which was holding the free FCBD events for my area.

Sadly, I was a bit late for most of the really fun stuff, but I did get to see a cool guy dressed up in a (very well made) Storm Trooper suit! There was also some free popcorn and a few giveaways (I was surprised they gave away a copy of Watchmen, seeing so many children were there! lol).

I was only allowed up to three comics, so I chose to get two from Marvel (Wolverine: Origin of an X-Man, and The Avengers), plus one from DC (Blackest Night). I think these were some solid choices, and I'll be sure to give my review of them all once I've read them (I'm still reading my graphic novels first). I was a bit bummed that I missed out on the TMNT reprint of their original first issue! That would have been an outstanding addition to my burgeoning TMNT collection of "stuff".

What I was happy to see were the masses of young minds and old gathering to thrill in their shared love of the comic medium! I began reading and collecting comics roughly around 1989, and I remember going to comic stores where there might be anything between 0-10 people in the shop on any given day! When I'd talk about superheroes at school, many of my friends were so ill-informed as to think Superman and Spider-Man existed in the same world, or had regular run-ins together! Being a fan of comics was a relatively small niche back then, so I am immensely happy to see that it has finally "arrived" in the mainstream world, where people are really beginning to see that this is a wonderful medium for telling all kinds of delightful stories. I anticipate that future celebrations will grow increasingly more lavish and "geeky"! Maybe next year, I'll even fully unleash my inner nerd and attend Free Comic Book Day as Han Solo or Boba Fett? Let us only hope!

“La Moustache”

Last night I watched a wonderful French film titled “La Moustache” (2005), directed by Emmanuel Carrére.  It was the story of an amazing journey into madness and mystery, as the plot centers around the strange happenings of a man who decides to shave his mustache on a whim!

 

I actually love foreign movies, even to the point of preferring them to traditional Hollywood fare. What I enjoy most about them is their general respect for the audience. Foreign directors are less apt to treat their viewers as too stupid to appreciate a complex plot…or even a plot at all. Sadly, most of the big premium movie channels show little in the way of Independent or foreign films, so what I usually do is either rent them or check them out free from my local Library. That’s certainly a good place to start, and since they’re free, you risk nothing if the movie doesn’t quite live up to your tastes.