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I never could remember when the hell Easter was. Last year I went to work on Easter Sunday not knowing it was Easter Sunday. Ker-whoops.
 DravenAngel · Tue Apr 19, 2011 @ 07:40am · 0 Comments |
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I've been meaning to do this for about a week. I've been in another transitional phase. More the beliefs I hold and how I think. I'd like to think its me growing and not being a lemming that's paraded around by the nose but time will tell I suppose. I read Michael Chriton's book State of Fear not too long ago, and I have to say I think it's one of the few things on this planet that takes a methodical, logical stab at why we shouldn't fall pray to Al Gore's Inconvenient truth and all the stories, hype, and blather about "Global Climate Change". I finished the book and questioned what I had so readily accepted about global climate change. I felt downright gullible to tell the truth. How could I be so blind. I've checked a few of the links and facts that are sited in the book. It's a lot of work to check them ALL, but I feel confident that I was definetly being herded around. I don't ever like to feel gullible, or like one of the "ignorant masses" as I call them. I like to think I'm a fairly intelligent and discerning young woman. I like to think of myself as able to sort trash from truth and to unspin bias and get to the heart of a matter. Obviously this wasn't the case and I was taken for a ride. It really makes me question what else I think and what else I believe.
I do believe humans pollute way more than we should. We have the technology and available resources if only we'd employ people with imagination and determination to front the next generation of inventions. Face is, we can accomplish anything should we work long and hard enough at it, have someone with the money that thinks its a worthwhile investment and have several young minds (or minds that are creative) working towards a goal. We got to space didn't we? We've walked on our moon, we've launched probes to the outer reaches of the galaxy, we've figured out how to engineer a sun even if we don't physically have the means of generating and sustaining one.
I believe that people live in fear. We fear everything. We fear terrorism, we fear war, we fear our government, we fear our planet and we fear change. All of these fears are stupid, especially the last. Things continually change whether in small or large scale but nothing is EVER stationary. From one breath to the next the world around you has changed, you need only open your eyes and realize it.
Humanity from what I can tell and view of it is very complacent. This may not extend outside of America, but I believe we've entered a time where people don't want to be aware of their surroundings. It's the antithesis of the 60's and 70's. Instead of rebelling and rioting and taking to the streets we shut down, hide in our homes and hope no one sees us. I'm not sure we do this out of fear but it seems like that's part of the cause. I feel like we should be telling our government to piss off because a good deal of what it's doing just doesn't sit right with me. Even I'm complacent to a point though. More aptly I don't want to be bogged neck deep in government bullshit to try and make changes that I think would benefit us. I want our government to stop feeding us lines that terrorists are going to come after us while we sleep and that the government playing big brother is for our own good. I want the left to get their s**t together and stand united. I want the right to stop trying to stop everything they fear, like progress and change and eco friendly solutions that seem really freaking radical. I want the left and the right to stop fighting each other over the same tired old points. I want the church to be seperated from the state again and I want the zealots of this nation to shut up about Gay rights, abortion, and women's rights issues.
You know what I'd love? I'd love to feel like I have a place in this society but I don't. I feel completely ostracized. I feel like 5 years in college and a 2 year degree don't mean s**t in my society. I feel like I'm no good for anything other than saying "Hi, welcome to Starbucks, how can I help you today?" I don't get paid enough to make my bills, I can't find another job, old people tell me to go back to school but they don't realize I can't pay for school and I'm burned out. They also don't seem to realize that universities really aren't worth s**t today. In all honesty I think community colleges do a better job educating young minds today. Universities you have to please too many people and it's a financial circle jerk. I really feel I wasted my time in university, not just time but money. I may eventually go back and finish a 4 year degree but I'm gonna make sure I'm the one holding the reigns next time considering I'm paying them to educate me, not treat me like some insignificant little insect.
Random things that spark conversation in me as of late:
Science Channel's Eco Tech, their brain specials, anything having to do with the galaxies, planets or universe.
Metaphysics, right and wrong, sense of reality and truth
Gaian economy and the whole 2% tax issue
Do we really live in a State of Fear such as Michael Chriton suggests
Anything to do with travel and Europe. (I think this comes from me feeling trapped and wanting to get outside of the U.S. for some fresh perspective and something different)
Ancient History
Yeah that about winds it up for this journalistic session. I know no one except Jojo reads this but should someone other than he trip across this I'd love some feedback.
DravenAngel · Tue Aug 28, 2007 @ 04:49am · 0 Comments |
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The Good Shepard- 9/10 Bonesmen
Make sure you wash it down with a good comedy afterwords.
Stranger than Fiction- 10/10 Watches
I really have to say that this movie is more about morbid humor than "haha" funny but it's a fantastic film and Will Farell is actually a decent actor in it, though he had a lot of help from a terrific supporting cast.
Dream Girls- 7/10 Platinum Records
It starts off unbelievably fantastic but somewhere in the middle when Effie becomes disgruntled with her career path it tries to turn into a musical a la' Rent. It's really a put off if you're not expecting it, and trust me you aren't because the rest of the film isn't set up that way. It's almost like two different directors went at the film. A good rent, but I wouldn't own it.
Night at the Museum- 10/10 T-rex ribs
This movie is superb. I honestly don't know why it was given any poor reviews. The cast is multi-generational meaning your grandparents can watch it and enjoy d**k Van Dyck and Mickey Roonie calling people "lunchbox" and "snackshack", the parents can enjoy Robin Williams as Theodore Roosevelt, and the kids can enjoy a T-rex trying to live its bony life as a little lap dog that loves to play fetch. The movie is wonderful, the acting is hella decent, the story doesn't lurch or unravel at anypart of the film, I honestly can't say enough good things about the film. Buy it.
Children of Men- 9/10 Pregnant women
The movie is really provocative and thoughtful. I love that it's not like your typical American film though a good deal of American viewers probably won't like the end as it offers no closure of any sort just leaves you to your imagination and thoughts. The pacing does kind of hiccup here and there but overall it's a fantastic film and not a bad add to your movie collection.
Howl's Moving Castle- 10/10 Fire Demons
What can I say, I love Studio Ghibli works, I love Hayao Miyazaki, and I love the film. I can even watch it dubbed and not flinch and whine the entire movie it's got a great dubbing cast. This is a definite must see and a highly reccomended film to add to your collection. Then again I want most anything Studio Ghibli has ever put out, especially if Hayao is attached to the film.
DravenAngel · Sun May 13, 2007 @ 08:35pm · 0 Comments |
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Global Climate Change and the View into the Abyss |
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Most Recent Reports
Recently I've been feeling like there's something big on the horizon. Something that bears down with such immense pressure you can't ignore it, I didn't know what it was but I think I might know now. Back in 2001 I had a similar feeling, some sort of pressure that couldn't be described in any real way, but it wasn't nearly so strong. Every now and then you just get a feeling that the world you live in, the things you take for granted won't be there one morning. It's like riding up to a hill and knowing on the way up that whatever is behind that hill is not what lies behind you. You expect different but it still doesn't prepare you. I happen to think that Global climate change is going to send us careening into a new age that will be chaotic and rife with death. Something that will break what we know and force us to adapt or die. I don't think there will be a lot of gray area because we'll be too busy trying to just survive to do much else. I think governments will topple or be rendered ineffective and there for show more than anything else. I don't think we'll save ourselves as a species before the worst comes, and I think as we fall over the hill to whatever comes next we'll belittle and war with each other over who's fault it is. For the first time in my life I don't think I'll have to worry about the population spiking up to 10billion people. Famine, Pestilence, War, and Death will reign over the land and not in any biblical way, but because when something fails we war. When crops fail and the climate denies us water famine and pestilence shall take hold and death will reap it all. Now more then ever when our government struts and lies we should rise up from our complacent comfortable lives and scream for change, but we won't we're too comfortable and lazy to move from the path we're on. Over the centuries there have been stories, fables, legends of post apocalyptic scenarios where the world as we know it just ceases to exist and only the garbage from before is left to give clues. For the second time in mankind's history I think that may happen. The Dark Ages will seem a peaceful enriched time compared to this era that is burgeoning upon us. I wish I had more faith in mankind and governments to suck up, set aside the petty grievences and bullshit and dig their heels in and make some change, but they won't. Honestly I don't know where else I can go with this. I'd seem a mad raving prophet should I take my feelings and guesses at the future to the public, and the stodgy old politicians are too full of themselves and the s**t they spew to hear anything else. Maybe I should come up with my own plan for salvation for me and mine. I don't think any land will be safe though.
DravenAngel · Sun Apr 08, 2007 @ 12:35am · 0 Comments |
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Art by Chax heart
I was in his Auction thread playing the c**t game and I bumped and spammed enough to win me a free headshot. I totally love this and as soon as I can nail someone down I'm getting it resized, cleaned up and thrown into my sig!
THANK YOU CHAX!
DravenAngel · Wed Apr 04, 2007 @ 04:40pm · 1 Comments |
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Grab a bucket of Popcorn Kiddies |
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WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD.
Okay so I've seen a few movies latley and I guess I'll dump my thoughts and comments on them in the journal. For the very few of you that read this, enjoy.
The Departed: First off I've got to say I love Scorsese and his wonderful casts. He's truly a unique director. But...he won an oscar for this?! It doesn't even read like a Scorsese film, his touch is at best detached and at worst non-existant! It's not really his fault it's a redone movie. I haven't seen the original so I can't make comparisons but my experience is that rehashes are very rarely ever as good or better than the original. That being said onwards to the movie itself. You have the good cop/bad cop scenario with a twist both cops are pretending to be who they aren't. One is a hotshot with all the luck (Daemon) and a little help from his mob boss friend (Nicholson). He's the stellar new cop on the block who goes straight to plain clothes fresh from the academy. The other is a guy (DeCaprio) who goes through the academy, flies the straight and narrow and as is reavealed early on from a family of crooks, low ranking mobsters, and convicts. He is offered a job as an undercover agent to infiltrate a local mob. He accepts and the movie gets rolling. It's a surprisingly fast paced game of cat and mouse. Unwittingly DeCaprio and Daemon are trying to outfox and outwit each other to catch "the mole". The whole thing is very engrossing and well done. There's an allstar cast and at no point does the movie really falter, that is until Nicholson's character dies. You think the movie is at an end, and indeed it has that feel to it even though certain questions are left unanswered. It continues on almost futilely to tie off loose ends. Nicholson was a paid FBI informant and sells off his henchmen to the FBI every few years to keep from ending up in jail. Both Dameon and DeCaprio find this out and pursue each other to basically stop that bit of information from getting to someone important (either the Boston Cops or SIU). Daemon catches on that DeCaprio is the undercover that was in the mob and was feeding some rather devastating information back to the undercover unit. This leads to a series of deaths that leave the viewer feeling rather cheated out of an ending. DeCaprio and Daemon meet up where the head of the undercover invastigative unit was thrown off a roof after DeCaprio nearly got his cover blown. DeCaprio captures Daemon and is bringing him back in when he gets shot in the head. Three people end up dying. Funerals to honor the departed are held and Daemon's cover is blown to his fiance'. Daemon comes home to find that the undercover unit's second in command who resigned at some point in the movie after the main got thrown off a roof is standing in Daemon's flat prepared to kill (gloves, medical shoe coverings and a skully as well as a silencer on the pistol) so he dies to (again shot to the head) and the movie closes. As previously stated this movie ends rather surpisingly but in a way that makes you feel cheated. It's not bad just...no closure.
4/5 dead bodies
Marie Antoinette: This is Sophia Coppola's cinematic version of a book by a similar name. In all honesty it's kind of a mishmash of sound and visuals. It's like a very tasty very rich dessert brought before you, it's good for the first few bites but fills you up rather quickly and turns you off for the rest of it. It's visually stunning and the music is neat even if somewhat out of place. The story is very placid and runs at an akward pace. The acting is marginal to fair. I'd say it's a decent rent for the visuals alone but you wouldn't really want to own it. It's a fun romp through the grounds of Versailles but the political environment and even the personal stories are glazed over or completley omitted making for a rather "wtf" feel.
2/5 bon bons
Babel: I have to say I really enjoyed Babel. Babel is really well paced, it starts off with a slight build but gets into the meat of the story quickly. Divided into three seperate stories that really don't seem connected at first you're led down a path that's disjointed and it's up to you to connect the pieces. 2 of the stories connect pretty quickly but the third remains an aloof mystery that has you guessing. The third is a story within a story that doesn't really join the bulk of the movie until the last minutes of the film. The writing is superb, the cast is very believable and well placed within their roles. The whole setting of a story within a story makes for a well made puzzle and keeps the viewer thinking. I enjoy films that I'm invited to participate in. One of the better films I've seen in awhile.
5/5 Rosetta Stones
300: Okay this one is pretty controversial. You're either going to love this movie or despise it. It's a testosterone driven epic that doesn't let up or shy away from the enormity of the history it's based off of. Lets just say that this is the story of the battle at Thermopolaye if it were to be told orally; each moment becoming more embellished until all of the main characters are in effect gods not just mere mortals. It's visually orgasmic, it's stark contrasts help embellish the events between the Spartans and Xerxes Persian army/navy. The music is very well done and gives the movie that little boost from awesome to epic. The writing is somewhat simplistic but the acting makes it seem phenomenal. Most of the main characters are known for doing films similar to this genre of epic histories and legends and play their roles well. It does get a bit silly at points but overall is a fantastic adrenaline rush that will have you wanting to run off and be a Spartan too.
5/5 Spartans
DravenAngel · Mon Mar 26, 2007 @ 11:45pm · 0 Comments |
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An Inconvenient Truth Indeed |
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Well it's the new semester. I've seen a documentary marking the past 30 years of science and pseudo science on the issue of Global Warming (now coined as Global Climate Change), I've had an explosive fight with my sister, I've come to peace with another demon and laid to rest some old issues I've had, I've furthered my relationship with Angel, and work is starting to be less soap opreraish and more like work even if I am getting out late everyday. Class is okay, I accidentally slipped up and forgot to do the assignments for last class. Yay for short attention spans. xp I think it's helping me with my writing though and should I ever feel the need to stop procrastinating and write a book or two I think I could do it.
The weather down here in FL has been ******** weird to say the least, it's all cold and high pressure systems. Its sunny now but the last time I saw the sun before today was Thurs for a few hours before one cloud system moved in after another and before that it must have been a week. This is normal weather for the states a little further north around SC and on up but this is truly strange weather for FL. We've had 3 killer tornados that hit the central plains up towards Daytona and one was classified as an F4 I believe. Also akward timing. Guess the Harbinger that is Gore's documentary is starting to rear its head in ways we didn't account for. The entire world is experiencing strange weather in fits and starts, but you only need to look at the jet streams to know why. So while the rest of the world is waking up to the fact that our actions on the globe do have long term consequences, what is Exxon/Mobile doing? Why they're paying scientists $10k a pop if they'll join the Exxon think tank and state evidence that says Global Climate Change is all a bunch of hooey. Sounds to me like their money would be better spent on trying to adapt to their environment considering they saw record profits this past year $395 billion in sales I believe was the figure turned in. Whatever floats your boat guys. Just don't pull another Exxon Valdese.
So I'm kinda hating the fact that I'm all alone in my little 800 sq/ft cube of flat. I feel somewhat like a pet hamster but I'm lacking a giant waterbottle with metal ball. I'm also lacking an excersise wheel. I want to work out, I need to work out, I can feel myself atropheing but I don't want to drive to the gym all by myself. I don't want to work out by myself and I don't want to come home to an empty flat with nothing but silence to welcome me. I don't know what I'm going to do but I need a solution. I actually have time for me this semester so I think that's why I feel lonley. Even when you think you're getting cake it's actually lemons in disguise.
I got a book titled Getting Out and it's about how to leave America and go elsewhere around the world. It's not just for expatriating yourself or going overseas as a tourist either. It runs the gambit and it's pretty useful as far as books go. This along with CIA Factbook have become two staples of interest for me in my day to day routine. I got to thinking about how long I've been wanting to leave America and I think I can easily say that I've wanted to get away from America and her bullshit for the past 2 years. It's not really the political environment that bothers me though that is a factor. More it's the socio-economic environment that the nation is currently going through that disgusts me. More and More it's becoming about the paycheck and being rich and having materialistic wealth in order to be happy and I don't like that. I want to work to live not live to work. I want enough money to not have to worry about food, shelter, and clothing and maybe have a little extra to have a few luxuries on the side (take in a movie, get a book, a box of chocolates every now and then). No one here seems to share the sentiment though. Talking with Angel he wants to leave the country too. He wants to be a citizen of Spain, he's not an American citizen so he's pretty much got his choice. I'm not sure I'm to the point where expatriating is a need of mine or that I'd want to do it but if we could make a break for Spain I'd be willing to go for an indefinite amount of time. I'd have to learn the language, but I need to do that eventually just so I have the ability to smack Angel when he thinks he's pulling one over on me using Spanish. Anyhoo to further my commitment to the idea and not just categorize it as a dream I've started saving a little bit a week on the side and putting it away for a trip. In 3 years I'll have a substantial enough amount I could go over to live for a few months or more and that's if I don't put the money in an account. So if anyone from Spain reads this, speaks English and wouldn't mind one more American in their country tell me where you think the hot spots are. cool
DravenAngel · Tue Feb 06, 2007 @ 10:13pm · 0 Comments |
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