Things and Stuff

So life has been pretty tumultuous for yours truly as of late.

Here's the ketchup:

2004:
June: My beloved Southampton College announces it is closing it's doors, beginning my slow downward spiral.
July: I get laid off from my design job after training three news designers because the company is, and I quote, "overstaffed."
Aug: My mother loses her last tenuous grip on what's right and wrong.
Oct: My grandfather dies.
Oct: Best friend's bro gets into motorcycle accident from which he has yet to fully recover.

2005:
May: My last game as a softball coach, the best job I have ever had.
Aug: Southampton College closes, ending my association with the College and the athletic department after 12 long and wonderful years.
Aug: I become unemployed for the second time in two years.
Oct: The Chicago White Sox win the World Series!

2006:
Feb: The Steelers win the Super Bowl!
Apr: I begin working for Nike.
July: I very quickly stop working for Nike.
July: I begin working for the bank.
Sept: My softball team DangerZone wins it's fifth and final league championship.
Oct: My father dies.
Nov: I am diagnosed with a disease generally found in canines.
Dec: I go out on medical disability due to stress and exhaustion.
Dec: Three days after I return, my brother's car is flipped by a brainless truck driver who missed his exit.
Dec: THREE DAYS AFTER THAT, a truck runs a red light trying to get into WalMart, gets hit by a car, and then smashes into my car. It is an accident the effects of which I feel to this day. My brother was in that car, too.

2007:
Jan: I officially begin my physical therapy. I will end up missing four months of work, and it will be another 8 months in the tenth ring of Hell- er, the Riverhead branch of the bank- before I can work full time again.
Mar: An old crush from school reconnects via mail and email.
June: She comes to visit. We begin dating four days after she arrives. The catch? She is from Denmark.
July: She leaves after almost two months, overstaying her original plan by a full month.
Nov: A steroid/cortisone injection brings me the first true pain relief I have known since 2006.
Dec: Christmas brings my Danish girlfriend back to the states for another three wonderful weeks.
Dec: I begin to work full time at the Blue Point branch of the bank.

2008:
Mar: The bank changes ownership, name, and sanity. The company that acquired us treats us like one of Lenny's pets in Grapes of Wrath, not knowing what to do with us and hurting us in it's attempts to figure out how to run a bank.
Apr: My cousin Randy passes away, the first of 22 cousins on my father's side to die.
May: I take my first international journey to the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany.
July: I have LASIK surgery, eliminating my 24 year dependence on corrective lenses.
July: The pain begins to resurface in my back.
July: My girlfriend, having applied to enter our country legally, is denied. Millions of rotten illegal bastards have far better luck.
Aug: Her spirit crushed, my girlfriend decides to abandon her dream of coming to America, and our relationship ends as a result.
Sep: I meet another wonderful beautiful girl online, and we begin dating shortly afterwards.
Oct: My new girlfriend reveals she is very likely moving back to California after this school year.
Nov: One year to the day after my first injection, I receive another, giving me temporary relief from my pain again.
Nov: My new girlfriend and I break up.
Dec: Christmas is not fun.

2009:
Feb: The Steelers in the Super Bowl! Again!
Apr: My ex-girlfriend and I get back together.
May: I take my first cruise, which is actually the first extended vacation my siblings and I have taken together in our adult lives.
July: My ex-ex-girlfriend and I break up again.
Sep: My lawyer reveals that the original offer from the guiltiest party in my lawsuit was never committed to on paper, and they fired the lawyer that made the offer.
Oct: My siblings and I have the first real falling out in our adult lives, over a video posted on Facebook and it's effects on those in our friends lists. It's a miserable time to be me.

OK, so now you can see what's gone on. And now you can see why I am desperately in need of a win. I've done a pretty decent job (in my own estimation) of helping people and trying to make the lives of others better in whatever way I could. Now, it's time for Karma to roll up and give me a nice big kiss.

I'm waiting.

Be Aware...

Change is coming...

The Next Big Thing...

You need to watch this. Some good stuff coming out of Scurlbomb Enterprises.

Who Watches The Watchmen?

I was in sixth grade when Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' masterpiece began hitting the shelves, but I didn't read the entire series until it was fully collected in trade paperback form a year later. Since that first moment when I saw Rorschach fighting for survival in prison, I have been waiting for this movie. 22 years later, I have been rewarded for my patience.

I am grateful that all previous iterations failed to get made, because I feel that they would have fallen far short of what this movie needed to be. The movie landscape needed movies like X2 and Batman Begins to ready the movie going public for the exploits of the Watchmen (a team name never actually used in the comic).

Hailed as a groundbreaking social deconstruction of the comic book super hero, the four color iteration of the Watchmen was revolutionary and one of the most relevant and important comics ever released. A simple murder mystery that transforms into a globally impactful suspense thriller, Watchmen showed that comic books were indeed not just for kids anymore. Those looking for that type of impact from the movie will be disappointed.

The average movie goer with no knowledge of the comic book roots might find this movie a little confusing and very long. Flashbacks in a movie can be confusing enough, but when the flashbacks are history changing events, like America winning Vietnam and Nixon being elected for a third (and eventually fourth) term, it can leave viewers feeling like they are missing the joke. But they should still be entertained by the mix of mystery, action, violence, drama, and intelligence that the story conveys.

Rabid fanboys will be screaming over the altered ending, but rabid fanboys scream about every movie that doesn't follow their favorite comics panel for panel. These are the same people that complained because Hugh Jackman is far taller than 5'1, as if Wolverine's HEIGHT is what defined him. The ending actually wraps things a little tighter, keeps the story a little more self-contained, and is, in my opinion, an alteration worthy of comparison to writer Alan Moore's own brilliant conclusion.

The character interaction is stupendous. From the aloof detachment of Billy Crudup's Dr. Manhattan to the maniacal determination of Jackie Earle Haley's Rorschach, most of the actors captured the true essence of the characters they were portraying. Only Matthew Goode's Ozymandius fell short, seeming more like a cunning business man overdosed on Prozac rather than the charismatic pinnacle of human intelligence and physical development that Adrian Veidt should have been.

Of particular interest was Patrick Wilson's portrayal of gadget based hero Nite Owl, who transforms from a scared retired crimebuster into the confident man of action he once was.

The nostalgic soundtrack combines with the impressive original score to perfectly accentuate the breath-taking visuals, crafting a world that matches the tone of Moore's dystopian landscape.

For the true comic book fan who knows that not every panel can make it to the big screen and that even the best stories can be enhanced without destroying them, this movie is 22 years of anticipation made worth while. Who watches the Watchmen? I do, and proudly.

Oh my God, they killed Twitter!

You Bastards!

But seriously, folks, what form of electronic communication is still functioning at 100% today? With everyone in the Northern Western Hemisphere in a country with drinkable water and no Prime Ministers was trying to tune into the inauguration today, and this reporter was no exception. (Yeah, I called myself a reporter, deal with it.)

But even Twitter cannot handle the overload a full 5 and a half hours later AFTER the actual inauguration. I guess everyone in America is trying to post their thoughts, attempting to be the one voice of history.

History will remember none of us. But we will remember it.

I felt a real sense of optimism and pride wash over me today, pride that we've seemingly overcome one of the stupidest, most petty boundaries in the history of the world. Optimism that this guy can actually deliver on half of what he has promised. And I like the fact that he didn't say everything is rosy. He knows what we all know: the US is in the shitter right now, and it's gonna take some hefty plunging to unstop the drain and get things flowing again. Roll up your sleeves, America. We only have four years to make sure this looks like it was the best idea we've ever had.