Being selective

Again on the topic of the online dating website. My general rule for messaging people is that if they're too old, too boring, too ugly or any combination of the three I won't message them or won't respond to them if they messaged me first. Sadly (or maybe just indifferently) this rules out a large majority of people on the website. But whatever. I think I can afford to be selective. It's not like I'm deathly desperate to find someone to date. And anyways, I don't want the theoretical person that I end up dating to be ugly, or boring, or like 35. Also, I have the feeling that a prospective date might be put off by the fact that I'm quite taken with eyelashes guy's eyelashes and really let's say face in general as well. "If she's so interested in that guy's eyelashes then how can she be interested in me??" is my assumption of a possible thought that might go through a person's head. In any case, like I said before, there is a very large amount of people on the website that I am decidedly NOT interested in. Also, ideally I would date someone who is/looks like they could be a model (and is additionally not boring and not too old). Which does not comprise a lot of people on the online dating website. There, I'm done being shallow (at least in this post). 
Also, I don't know if I would enjoy dating someone who is a computer programmer or a physicist. I think I might not like having the idea that the person is smarter than me and that kind of thing. Even if perhaps that's not true, I think I would have the perception that it is. I think I would enjoy dating someone whose profession is one of the humanities or something. At least that's my guess. Since that is what I tend to prefer. I think it could be interesting to date a sociologist or something like that. Or a linguist. Just a thought. It would be interesting to know (even if not in a dating type of relationship) someone who is like Goren as I think he's a very interesting character. I wonder if I'll ever meet someone like that. 

Suspension of disbelief

Suspension of disbelief is a concept that applies to works of fiction (books, movies, tv shows, short stories). Wikipedia says that it can be defined "a willingness to suspend one's critical faculties and believe the unbelievable; sacrifice of realism and logic for the sake of enjoyment." For me, I can suspend my disbelief to enjoy shows like Law and Order, or movies like James Bond (which I think is somewhat higher on the scale of unrealisticness), although I draw the line when it comes to superhero stuff that has been pervading tv and movies in the last few years. It's part of the reason why I won't watch that Netflix show that Vincent D'Onofrio sort of recently was in as the main villain. The other part of the reason is that in the show he is fat and bald and it's unsightly and he looked better 15 years ago. 15 years ago (or even earlier, minus in Full Metal Jacket) he looked rather nice in fact. In any case, I can't suspend my disbelief enough to be able to enjoy fantasy books/movies or superhero things. I think it's kind of part of the reason why Harry Potter never interested me as a kid and to this day I still haven't read the books or seen the movies and honestly have no plans to (can you believe it??). 

I think the premise of detectives trying to solve crimes is much more believable than superheroes doing similar things. Plus, with the whole superhero thing there also is probably the issue of making sure the public thinks there's nothing amiss despite the impossible things that happen regarding the superhero and whatever other fantastical elements are present in the story. In addition, superheroes come with the concept of this supernatural being that's magically able to fix things/solve crimes/etc. And that simply isn't how things work in the real world. There are no superhero beings who are going to come and fix things/prevent terrorism/etc/what have you. On the other hand, detectives/police officers do exist. 

I was however able to enjoy the Twilight series back in middle school or whenever so that seems to contradict some of the things here, but I guess it wasn't too unrealistic or at least it wasn't for me back then. I'm not sure if I'd enjoy the books were I to read them again now, but at the time I did. Plus the cover design is pretty nice and they look good all in a line on my bookshelf. To some degree, scifi/dystopian books can be good but not all of them are. The more classic ones (1984, Fahrenheit 451) I've read I've enjoyed but I wouldn't touch a book like say, the Divergent series. I did read the Hunger Games series (a little before it was cool! And yes I know I'm being snobby here by mentioning that) and enjoyed them but then the deluge of similar books that the success of that series unleashed I have not read any books from. It was a few years ago that I read that series so it's possible that my tastes have changed perhaps in that time. I still never have been a fan of fantasy books/etc and I don't think I'll be one in the future either.  

The thing that compelled me to write this post is that lately my mother has started watching the show called The Flash, which is about a superhero named that who... does superhero stuff basically I guess which is what I've garnered from semi-paying attention to 2 episodes (1.18 and 1.19). From what I gather it's a run of the mill superhero thing and does not interest me for reasons mentioned above. Plus, I don't get how the guy is supposed to hear with that silly looking suit that covers his ears (why do so many superhero suits look so silly and ridiculous? That might be part of why I don't like superhero stuff as well). Also, from what I have seen the writing comes off as not particularly good (read: bad) and the show seems to me to be rather cheesy, which is at least in part because of the bad writing. Some of the dialogue I heard makes me want to cringe. Plus, the format is more cheesy serial drama about a superhero and I'm at least sort of partial to the procedural format or at the very least, a serial drama minus the cheesy superhero stuff. I think maybe I could enjoy the show The Wire (which is supposedly very good) and I did enjoy what I watched of the Scandinavian serial crime drama The Bridge. 

To close, even though I am not super familiar with the nature of the content of The Flash, it seems kind of hypocritical that my mother would enjoy that show when some of the same ideas (bad guys doing bad stuff) are present in Law and Order which she decidedly does not like (on the reasoning that it has violence and crime). But violence and crime (perhaps to a lesser degree; I'm not completely sure about it since I've only just semi-watched about 2 episodes) are also at least sort of involved in the plot of The Flash. I don't really want to watch more of it to determine the exact nature/severity of the violence and crime and therefore the extent of my mother's hypocrisy, but I think the point still stands. 

Song review: Point Blank

I saw a little bit of the lyrics of this song and I was kind of intrigued so I decided to listen to it and look at the full lyrics to it. It is a song by Bruce Springsteen called Point Blank. You can read the lyrics here. Personally, I didn't really like this song. The lyrics aren't particularly bad in and of themselves, but I'm just not really a fan of the way this song sounds - Springsteen's voice isn't my favorite. I don't really know any of the other songs that he's written/sung so there's a possibility that I might like some of his other work better, but this song I just didn't really like all that much. I know he's famous and well regarded but this song was just not my thing. I've heard a couple of his other songs but I don't know them because I never have particularly paid attention to his music. In terms of singers whose voices I do like, I would say that (in no particular order) Matt Bellamy of Muse, Gerard Way (formerly) of My Chemical Romance and Dan of Augustana would be my favorites. Matt has a very interesting voice - pretty much any Muse song will demonstrate this (Hysteria or Citizen Erased, for example). Gerard also has an interesting voice - listen to, for example, MCR's Famous Last Words or Demolition Lovers. I can't choose an Augustana song to recommend because I pretty much like all of them. 

So, sorry to Bruce Springsteen and people who laud his singing ability, I just don't really like it at least based on this one song that I listened to. Although the lyrics aren't bad, so based on this song he's not a bad songwriter, at least. My interpretation of the lyrics is that it's a song about drug addiction, but maybe that's just because I watched Requiem for a Dream the other day and the topic of drug addiction is on my mind. I wonder what other people think that song is about. I also wonder what the song Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen is supposed to mean like I mentioned in a previous post. I did some reading about that which was kind of interesting and gave me at least a little bit of insight into that song but not completely. 

From Wikipedia (looks like I was right!!) : "In its 1978 incarnation, the lyrics dealt with the singer's girlfriend's drug addiction." Apparently the later version of the song had some lyrical changes, but even then I still could see it being about drug addiction. Interestingly enough, as I write this post, I'm listening to another song that also had a previous version which was more explicitly about drugs. 

On morbid subject matters

Maybe the upside (if you could even say there is one) of becoming a drug addict is that there's a small possibility that later you could be on Intervention not as the addict who is getting an intervention, but as the interventionist who is helping people to treat their drug addiction. I realize this is a strange thought. Also, I have been occasionally pondering about the possibility of one day me seeing someone that I know of on that show because they became a drug addict and now their friends and family want them to get help. I think about that. I wonder if that would ever happen. I wonder what it's like to be a drug addict. I guess I'd better watch more episodes of Intervention then. 

On this subject, Intervention is a show of the kind that's morbidly fascinating. Its subject matter is the unfortunate one of drug addiction, which some people do not find appealing to watch about, but I for one, do. In addition I find the various Law and Order shows which are about crimes such as murder and rape to be enjoyable to watch. I think in part it's because the shows are focused on the detectives who are trying to solve the crime and the DAs who are seeking justice and that's a good thing - these people are working to solve crimes and make their (fictional) world a better place. By this theory, shows that have the protagonist as a criminal of some kind should not be appealing but there are a few decently well known shows that are like this - Hannibal, for example, which is about a serial killer who also happens to be a cannibal. Dexter, Breaking Bad, etc. So it begs the question why people enjoy a show like that, because it seems antithetical that you would be rooting for, in a way, a criminal of some kind. I think most would consider cannibalism to be a depraved act. (I also like the word depraved. There's one episode of Law and Order where Goren uses that word when he's talking to a serial killer.) So why would people (I include myself in this, at least a little, because even though I didn't watch a lot of Hannibal, I did watch a small amount of it and thought it was at least somewhat interesting) find a show about something like that to be a show that they'd want to watch? I think it's possible that other people have written about that kind of thing and perhaps even made some theories about it but I'll have to look it up.

My final thought on this subject is that perhaps exposing myself to this kind of content makes me more prepared (as in, less likely to become particularly unnerved, or something like that - to deal with things better, is maybe a better way to put it??) for when unfortunate things happen in the real world. Maybe. It's just a theory that might not be correct. Perhaps others would call it "desensitization." I know there are articles about what playing violent videogames and watching violent tv shows purportedly does to oneself. 

(and boy, I am really pumping out the blog posts today!)

Columbo and Goren

This ties into my previous post, "Among other things, Goren" or alternatively titled "A love letter of sorts about Goren and mechanical pencils". 

When I was looking at the website about the current selection on Netflix and what's coming and going, I noticed that Saving Private Ryan was going at the end of the year which is in mere days. So that's why I had to watch it this morning because I wouldn't be able to for much longer. I think I also saw something that mentioned the series Columbo, which is a 70s crime/mystery show in the vein of Law and Order CI, or rather, perhaps Law and Order is in the vein of Columbo because Law and Order only came around in 2001. I remember reading in the past that my favorite character of Goren was at least somewhat based on the eponymous (Lieutenant) Columbo, among other things. I also see bits of Sherlock (one of my first impressions was doctor House, but nicer - House was also based on Sherlock). In any case, I can see how Goren is similar (but in my opinion, superior) to Columbo. In the first episode (which was I believe about an hour and a half, so longer than your typical current day drama at ~45 minutes) the character is established and he is perceptive and picks up on little things like Goren does and even sniffs a clue (literally - with his nose) of a champagne cork. I'm not sure if the smell test is what let him know it was a champagne cork or if he recognized it by sight and just wanted to make sure. In one Law and Order episode, Goren is unable to decipher what a smell is and Eames says "A smell even you can't identify" somewhat incredulously. In another, he carefully examines ink stains "to see which ones are fresh" and she says "They must love you in the produce section." This is one of the things that Columbo lacks - a partner. He works alone, which I find to be a detriment to the feel of the show probably just because I'm used to the Law and Order shows style where the detectives always have partners and they work closely together. Another contrast is that Columbo seems to be a man of no more than average height, in a strong contrast to Vincent D'Onofrio's Goren who frequently towered over other people at 6'4" including his petite partner (who most always was wearing heeled boots probably in an effort to slightly reduce the height difference). I was quite used to seeing a more vertically imposing figure - Elliot of SVU is over 6 feet tall as well although not quite as tall as Goren. Another thing was the voice - Columbo's voice is very different than Goren's. It's deeper and less soft like Goren's voice is. I don't mean soft as in quiet, but just... soft. Not rough. I wish Vincent would read an audiobook or something. So everything Columbo says very noticeably sounds different than what I'm used to hearing from a similar character. In addition to just the sound of the voice, the delivery of the lines is different - Goren has interesting speech patterns ([in linguistics it's called an idiolect, the way a particular person speaks/uses language] I kind of wonder if it's something that Vincent specifically consciously did for that character or if it's just a natural Vincent thing like the way Mark Ruffalo's voice sounds like his tongue is laying limply in his mouth).  He often has little pauses here and there or slight (intentional??) stutters and he speaks differently depending on the intended effect - maybe he's coaxing someone to confess and getting at them psychologically and he'll speak softly and deliberately, or perhaps he's trying to ruffle someone's feathers and he'll speak more severely with maybe even a bit of a mocking tone. And so on. (you can tell I've watched a lot of him) In the one episode of Columbo his voice pretty much sounded the same in all the times he was talking to people with no particularly noticeable variations. It's possible that in other episodes he'll be in different situations that cause him to speak differently, but from that one episode I did not notice it. In terms of situations he was in, the entire episode consisted of him talking to the suspect and a witness. There were no scenes in a police station at all, and also no interrogation. It was kind of like Criminal Minds in that the episode ended with the suspect's arrest and went no further. I would also call it the Law part of Law and Order with a Criminal Intent flavoring, minus all the police procedure parts (interrogations, working with other people, paperwork, etc). So in that aspect perhaps it's like BBC Sherlock in a way. I haven't watched that in a long time so I might not be remembering the nature of it completely accurately. 
Another thing that I noticed in this first episode is that Columbo (purposefully/intentionally, presumably) seemed to come across as not quite as sharp, which I'm not sure if I liked because it seemed like he did it too convincingly and came across as truly clueless, rather than it being intentional in order to play a suspect into his hands which is what we see Goren doing on multiple occasions. Maybe it's just because that was the first episode and I don't have an acute sense of what the character is supposed to be like the way I do with Goren since I have watched so much of him. 

Among other things, Goren

"Among other things, Goren" or "A love letter of sorts about Goren and Pentel mechanical pencils" (perhaps "ode" would be a better word than "love letter"? But I already used "ode" recently and I wanted to have a different word choice.)

After a long drought, I finally got to watch an old episode of Law and Order. It was lovely. The second (or third, or fourth, etc) time around you can focus on the little details more. And those can be the best part. Goren's left handedness, that one blue mechanical pencil, his nice hands and gestures, all of it. That was just what I needed after the morning's experience of watching Saving Private Ryan. It was a good movie but not in the happy fun kind of way. 

I rewatched the very first episode of the first season. In it, one of the characters (a guest star) looked a lot like one of the characters in Requiem for a Dream but I checked and it wasn't the same actress. I thought it might have been though. In this episode, Goren wears a watch (on his right wrist, since he's left handed [that's what I do as well, otherwise it interferes when you write]) which he doesn't really do past the first few episodes I think. There's also a part when he's interrogating (ah) someone and his sleeves are rolled up, which is unusual for him but a characteristic of Elliot in SVU. Perhaps they were trying to allude to that. I will always wonder (like about the legs) about the props person who procured that blue mechanical pencil (which is a model that I procured for myself as well, just to have the same kind of pencil as Goren used - throughout the entire series)... I wonder if it was a preference of Vincent's because he thought ink pens would smear, being left handed or was it just something that the props department picked up without a second thought - as long as it writes, it works kind of mentality? Regardless, I admire the consistency of him using that same mechanical pencil throughout the series. It's not my personal favorite model, but I do like the side-advance style which is a feature on my personal favorite mechanical pencil, which also happens to be the Pentel brand which is the brand that Goren's blue mechanical pencil is. If you would like to buy either my favorite kind of mechanical pencil (my specific pencil is green and blue and .7 mm lead thickness, sans the removable eraser because I use a larger rectangular eraser) or the one that Goren uses (I wonder what lead thickness he preferred)*, I've linked to the Pentel website. I have also used the same kind of mechanical pencil for at least 3 years (maybe even before that) which is not as long as Goren did but still a decent amount of time and the one that I have used for so long definitely has sentimental value and I would be rather unhappy if I somehow happened to lose it. Thankfully that has not happened yet. This is an inferior poor man's version of Pentel's side advance mechanical pencils. Don't settle for a pencil like that one. 
[While poking around on the Pentel website for the links there, I thought about my favorite writing utensil brands - Pentel for mechanical pencils, Staedtler (it's German) and Sharpie for markers, and if I used colorful gel pens more often, Gelly Roll. I do use writing utensils of other brands but I don't have a particular affinity for them.] 
*according to Pentel's website, they only make the pencil in blue for the .5 mm and .7 mm models, not the .9 mm one. Assuming this is the way it was in the early 2000s, we can deduce that Goren used .5 mm or .7 mm lead because his pencil was blue. Also, according to the website, that is the very first model of side advance mechanical pencil that they made, and a customer review mentions that they used that same pencil way back in 1981. Also, from reading other reviews, it seems like other people too have the same sentimental feelings towards their preferred mechanical pencils.  

It was a pleasant enjoyable experience to watch Goren again and think about all those little things that I like about that character. I think a few nights ago I had a dream which I don't remember a ton about, but I think I was in a parking garage with someone/some people (police officers, I think they might have been? And I was with them) and I was telling them how Goren is my favorite character, and I think perhaps he was even there too, in the garage but at a bit of a distance. I wonder if I'll ever encounter someone similar to that - an intelligent, perceptive, worldly NYPD detective like him. I do wonder. Does someone like that indeed exist in the real world? 

In any case, that's enough fawning for now and I think the proper course of action now is to watch something with James D'Arcy in it so I can fawn over him too. 
I also think I might be good at being a set decorator because I have great attention to detail. 
Also, I have gotten an idea - if in any other tv show or movie I happen to notice that a specific writing utensil is used, I'll try to make note of it. Maybe I will even apply this to other people that I encounter - a record of all the writing utensils I encounter over the course of some amount of time... that actually sounds interesting. 

Movie review: Saving Private Ryan

That movie was INTENSE. I think at the end of it I will admit I was kind of shaking a little bit. Although that might be in part because I watched it before eating breakfast and you can get shaky if you haven't eaten recently. [edit: by the end of writing this post I'm not really shaking and I still haven't eaten anything so I guess we can ascribe the shaking to the intensity of the movie] In any case, whoa. It was quite something. It was... good, I suppose.. Not as in a feel-good movie though. I was clutching my metaphorical pearls towards the end of it (which literally was a blanket as I watched it in bed)

The beginning of the movie comprises a scene where soldiers are landing on a beach in France (presumably Normandy or something) during World War II. This part seems to last a long time which probably was on purpose to convey the fact that it also probably felt like an eternity to the soldiers who were there. There was also shaky camerawork here which was effective at conveying the certain sense of chaos that pervaded that occasion. The same shaky camerawork occurs in other action packed parts of the movie as well. There was a lot of carnage in this movie, definitely. Lots of people getting blown up and pieces of people getting blown off and blood spurting, etc. I wonder what goes into filming a war movie like this one to portray extreme violence and bloodshed without actually injuring or killing anyone. It must have been quite an undertaking. I was put off a bit definitely by all the carnage that filled this film and it made me realize that I like my death and destruction on an up close and personal level, rather than indiscriminate carnage - ie, Requiem for a Dream focuses on a few central characters about the topic of drug addiction.
Since the movie took place during WWII in France, there was a part where the captain, played by Tom Hanks (who looked rather young in this movie, but I guess that makes sense because it was made in the 90s.) was looking for a soldier who could translate between French, German and English for the titular mission of saving Private Ryan. It made me worry somewhat that some day I will be in a war and have to do that, although given the growing diversity of the US (which Trump would like to put a stop to) by the time I am theoretically in a war perhaps there will be native speakers available. At the moment, the only language I can be useful in is Spanish so if we ever have a war with Mexico or Spain or another Latin American country, then I'll worry about having to be a military translator. At the moment, the majority of wars have occurred in the Middle East and I don't know any Middle Eastern langauges like Arabic or Farsi or Urdu, so at present I would not be of use in any current military operations that are going on. But the theoretical possibility remains and it was not something that I had thought about until watching this movie, Which brings us to the subject of the soldier who happens to know French and German (with a slight Bavarian accent, according to him) and gets taken along with the captain on the search for the eponymous (I like that word) Private Ryan. His name was Upham and he was sort of naive and clumsy but to me it was endearing and the character was totally a Ben Whishaw type of character. I definitely could see Ben Whishaw as being in that role. Colin Morgan would work too; they both have the British and delicate woodland creature-esque appearance (as in, pale-ish skin tone, light eyes, slender figures, delicate facial appearance) that fits that role quite well. I wished for that character particularly not to get killed because he was endearing and reminded me of a role that Ben Whishaw might play. I wonder what actor that was - I'll have to look it up. I feel like his character, fragile as he was. definitely ended up with some kind of PTSD (which they probably did not know how to treat very well back then and even today the military is not really dealing with that in the most effective way so back then it must have been even worse) and was thrust into the hell of that after the war in addition to having to endure the horror(s - "The horror! The horror!") of war (assuming he didn't get killed later in the war), the poor dear.

This movie had some elements that reminded me of Full Metal Jacket. And some that reminded me of Apocalypse Now. I feel like maybe Full Metal Jacket has grown on me - at the very least it definitely has stuck with me. These three movies have different premises but they're all war movies. If I had to rank them, Apocalypse Now would be last and Saving Private Ryan would sort of edge out Full Metal Jacket. The element that reminded me of Apocalypse Now is the searching element - in Apocalypse Now they are going down a river in Vietnam in search of the man who later says "The horror! The horror!" and in Saving Private Ryan, the title pretty much says it all. The various scenes where soldiers in the group searching for Private Ryan got killed reminded me of scenes in Full Metal Jacket when soldiers got killed. Also there was the omnipresent rattling noises that war movies have - it's all the equipment that the soldiers are carrying around rattling as they move. I can't be the only person to have noticed that. If I had to be in a war, I think I would wish to be a sniper. I think the precision aspect of it is what appeals to me. There was a sniper in this movie who sort of reminded me (appearance-wise) of the German football player (or rather, Fußballspieler) Bastian Schweinsteiger who played for Bayern München. This movie also made me wish that I knew/were able to continue learning more German, even though WWII was against the Nazis and they were German, Today, the vast majority of Germans are not Nazis so as a country they have moved on from that. I wonder what it would be like to live in socialist (compared to the US) Europe, possibly in Germany or even Sweden. [that was a tangent]

From the first minutes of this movie (which was a frame story! Like The Catcher in the Rye and that's the only other example that comes to mind right now) which were rife with carnage, the message seemed to be that war is bad. (Requiem for a Dream - drugs are bad. Just think about how that movie ended up) Taken as a whole, there possibly is some other message present in Saving Private Ryan, perhaps something about brotherhood in the military but I don't know. I haven't given a deeper analysis of it much more thought. Matt Damon (as Private Ryan) had a facial cut in this movie, just one which surprised me a little bit because it being during a war I would have thought his face might have gotten a little more roughed up. In any case, the facial cut was about one inch long, not particularly severe, horizontal and slightly off center on his forehead. Not the most typical location for facial cuts, as evidenced in my last post. (I won't lie - I have been toying with the idea of self inflicting some strategically placed facial cuts on myself just to see how they would look. I feel like that would be easier and much more realistic than trying to make it look like I have facial cuts with makeup. The only thing holding me back is that it would probably be a little painful at least and also I would not like to have permanent facial scars from when I did an experiment with self inflicting facial cuts for aesthetic reasons. Although, in that one episode (1.12 "Seizure" if I'm correct) of Law and Order, Goren sliced open his hand with the pocket knife that he carries to prove a point about a suspect. Presumably they did not actually have Vincent cut open his hand (in the scene, the palm of his hand that he cuts is facing away from the camera as he slices it) but the concept still stands. And since I love detail, they were good about continuity with that because later in the episode he has a band-aid on his palm where he sliced it open. (who ever imagined that someone would feel compelled to write that much about one little minor thing that happens in an episode of Law and Order? The answer is, I would. I would feel compelled to write that.)

This movie made me wonder (this kind of goes along with the plot of Born on the 4th of July) if people who willingly enlisted in the military and then saw combat thought that their experience in the military was a positive one or a negative one. Or rather, were they (mentally) scarred by the horror(s) of war? Did it change their view on war in general and being in the military? I don't know anyone who has done this so I can't ask but it would be interesting to know. Because Saving Private Ryan was quite effective at depicting the horrors of war (Full Metal Jacket did this pretty well too, Apocalypse Now less so even though that kind of was supposed to be the point of it, hence the famous lines that I actually happened to write down on my English folder in addition to some other choice literary quotes and such). In Born on the 4th of July, Tom Cruise's character is quite eager to enlist and fight in Vietnam but what he witnesses/what happens there causes him to become an anti war activist. (he gets his back blown open and is left paralyzed) I guess it could depend on the particular nature of the experience, but I wonder about it. Certainly it's possible that some people in combat see less violence than others. How do they deal with it? (I'm sure there's stuff online about that kind of thing but I'm just thinking out loud here) Also, I think that being a police captain is a much more cushy job than being a military captain in WWII. The fictional Law and Order police captains (the ones I'm thinking about are Cragen [SVU] and Deakins [CI] who were good leaders and got along with the detectives under their command, unlike a later captain who was in CI) didn't get shot at on the regular. Even the detectives didn't, which is kind of interesting to think about. I think that it says that I like violence (that sounds kinda weird but bear with me) but only to a certain degree - the potential of violence (which is sometimes realized but not to a fatal extent, at least not to the main characters [them being the detectives in Law and Order]) but not severe indiscriminate carnage like in the movie, like I said earlier. I also wonder if the movie was based on a true story - I'll have to look that up too. It kind of reminded me of the book All Quiet on the Western Front, which was a good book that I read in the 10th grade for English. It was a powerful anti-war statement. The central theme of that book was that the characters featured in it were just dragged into the war (and were senselessly killed) and it was out of their control; they were fighting not because of any personal strong sense of patriotism, but because they had to. This idea does not necessarily transpose into the modern day American military because the military now is completely comprised of volunteers, but it was still a powerful message. I wonder if we'll ever have a draft again, in which case the message in AQOTWF could apply more aptly. If we do, all men between the ages of 18 and 25 must sign up or otherwise they may be fined (I don't remember the amount) or I think maybe even imprisoned. There are flyers that say this in the local post office and probably in your local post office too. Go see for yourself! If we do for whatever reason have a draft again, I would be sad if probably the only reader of this blog because I impose it on him got drafted and possibly killed in a war. If that happened, I would become an anti war protester like the hippies were for the Vietnam War. Thinking about the various war related things I've consumed, the conclusion that can be drawn from all of them is that war is bad, folks. In addition to the possibility of having a draft again, I wonder if world peace is really possible (certainly it would be ideal, but is it ever going to happen?). Which in turn is making me think of hippie anti-war music from the 60s like John Lennon's song Imagine and other songs like Blowing in the Wind and such. Ooh. Which in turn is making me think of more modern anti war music, like the song Soldier's Poem by Muse. It's a nice little song and not what you might expect (music wise) from Muse. And perhaps to some extent American Idiot can be put into this category as well, and Violet Hill by Coldplay. Ah. And the German 80s song 99 (neunundneunzig) Luftballons - which I know the words to in German which is a fact that I'm proud of that I can enjoy foreign music which some people (like my mother) cannot enjoy because they complain that they don't know what it means because it's in German (or some other language) and therefore don't like it.

Somewhat ironically this movie has kind of whetted my appetite to watch a series that James D'Arcy was in back in 2003. In that series, he played a British soldier (a pilot, maybe? I don't really remember) who was captured during WWII and was in a German POW camp and then escaped. I think there were 6 episodes or so, and I never watched the last two because it was a very suspenseful show and I just couldn't take it. But now I kind of want to watch it again all the way through. It was good, from what I remember, and also (shallowness alert) James D'Arcy looked good in it. Ah. He looked good. Very much so. James D'Arcy, everyone. My favorite actor. Still looks good after all these years. /shallowness

If I were to recast this movie with other (primarily British/European) actors, I would cast Daniel Craig in Tom Hanks' role and Ben Whishaw as the translator (or Colin Morgan, either one would work). For Private Ryan... James D'Arcy perhaps. I wanted to put him in there somewhere. Interestingly enough, around the same time that Saving Private Ryan was made. these three actors were in a war movie of their own, along with Cillian Murphy (pronounced with a hard c, like catastrophe, not like cereal). It was called The Trench and I watched it a couple years ago because it had these actors in it (sound familiar??). I barely remember anything at all that happened in it. It was set during WWI and mostly took place in the eponymous trench - they were all soldiers and Daniel Craig was superior to the other soldiers. The only thing I remember about the plot is there was one scene where Daniel Craig's character is sitting down and contemplating a jar of jam, which presumably his wife sent him. That's the only thing I remember of the plot. And also the end where they all emerge from the trench and charge towards the other trench and presumably all get killed.

A look at heart rate data from fitbit tells me that my heart rate went up (no surprises there) during the last 20 minutes or so of the film to 70 bpm and above, up to 82 at the highest. My usual resting heart rate is under 65, so there is hard evidence that this movie had an effect on me. [I started watching the movie around quarter past 7 in the morning and finished just a little before 10 am]

So, in conclusion, this is another war movie under my belt and I'm not sure if there are any others in the genre that I'd like to watch, Perhaps one that's set in a more recent war, but even then, I don't really think war movies are my thing. Again, I like my death and destruction up close and personal. Also, I was reading about forensic linguistics yesterday and I realized that with this post which I've spent over an hour writing, I'm giving the forensic linguists a lot of material to work with should they ever need to ascertain authorship of a writing to yours truly.
Also, regarding war movies and how I said I probably wasn't going to watch any more after seeing Apocalypse Now, but that I'd give this one a chance because it's said to be very good, I don't regret having watched it. It certainly was better than Apocalypse Now.

Facial cuts analysis

I do use apostrophes.

I read this article on Slate a couple months ago and thought it was interesting. It is about how in many of his movies, Tom Cruise has the same set of facial cuts located across the bridge of his nose and over his cheekbone. The presumable reason for this is that the location of the facial cuts positively emphasizes his bone structure and he also still needs to look appealing and not injured to the point where it's unsightly, but enough to show that he has gotten roughed up a little bit (thank you, commenter who mentioned that). Another commenter wondered if the same facial cuts were present in other movies with other actors and not just specific to Tom Cruise. So, I have decided to test this theory. The first movie that came to mind that would be likely for facial cuts to occur in was Casino Royale with the character of James Bond. So, I looked that up in google images and found this: Note the location of the facial cuts. We have similar locations - across the nose and on both cheekbones as well as some additional ones on the chin, lip and temples. 

Here is Brad Pitt (about whom I don't have particular strong or negative feelings) in the movie Se7en, which could have been better but aside from that, let's take a look at his (somewhat patched up) facial cuts. There is one across the nose and one over the eyebrow although not on a cheekbone. 

Here is James D'Arcy (ooh) in I'm not sure what (not Dot the i though), but he's got a facial cut. I couldn't think of anything right off the top of my head that he's been in where he would likely have facial cuts, but this came up when I searched his name. This time there is only one facial cut and it's right above the left eyebrow at the temple. (Also, in browsing through images of him, some of which are from 15 years ago or so and some of which are from more recently, he still looks good unlike some other actors. James has aged quite well. #shallow)

Here is Chris Meloni (I'm not sure if this is from SVU; it may be from Oz seeing he seems to be behind some bars ["In fact, he’d been terrified of the very notion of prison since, as a young boy, he accidentally watched HBO’s Oz, mistaking it for the classic Judy Garland musical." -Arrested Development]

There is a facial cut over his eyebrow and there seems to be another one on one of his collarbones. 

Here is another one (which is from SVU) where he has a cut over his eyebrow as well as some blood trickling down his arm. 

Here is Vincent D'Onofrio (this is not from Law and Order) looking rather weathered with a single facial cut across the cheekbone. Looks kind of painful. Perhaps that effect is also because of his somewhat morose expression. 

I was looking for an example using Leonardo DiCaprio, and haven't yet found one, but this does feature Leo albeit not with any facial cuts. Matt Damon however has some facial injuries although they aren't cuts and are more along the lines of a bloody nose. 

Here is Colin Morgan, a foreign actor who I have not watched very much of (I think only the film that this image is from) although I would not mind watching more of him. Here, he has a facial cut on the side of his face near his cheekbone and another one on the bottom lip, and it's hard to tell from this angle, but it seems like he might have one on the other cheekbone as well. He has an interesting face definitely and is sort of similar in appearance to Ben Whishaw. 

Here is male model Adrien Sahores (he is French and successful) walking in the SS13 Yohji Yamamoto show where the makeup theme was facial injuries. You can see that there is a crescent shaped cut right over his cheekbone.

Finally! I found one of Leonardo DiCaprio. I just remembered that in Romeo and Juliet (a cool movie) there was a part where his face was a bit bloody. So here it is, and there are two somewhat symmetrical cuts going vertically down his cheeks. 

I forgot that Mads Mikkelsen displayed some facial cuts in the Danish movie The Hunt (or in Danish, Jagten). Here they are - across the nose and one on the corner of his bottom lip.

Here is another one featuring Mads from Hannibal. The majority of the cuts are located on his lower cheek, one higher up on the cheekbone and one on his lower lip/chin.

Here is Australian actor Jesse Spencer in the show Chicago Fire (not House MD because I couldn't think of any times off the top of my head where his character would have gotten beaten about the face in that show, even if they might exist. I enjoyed him on House MD when I watched that because he had a nice Australian accent and nice eyeballs and hair. In Chicago Fire he plays an American firefighter with less hair and no Australian accent. [also, firefighter is intrinsically more macho than diagnostician] In this show his character's name is Casey which I think might be a last name (as was Chase in House MD) but either way I mostly think of the female [first name] Casey from SVU who was a district attorney.) Here the facial cuts are located on one side of his face and there are some on his temple, over his cheekbone and then lower on his cheek. There is also a small cut on the bridge of his nose. 

Here is Patrick Dempsey as Derek in the glamorized soap opera Grey's Anatomy. This is after his character was in a car accident. Most of one side of his face is covered in blood, but on the other side we can do some facial cut analysis. There is one over the bridge of his nose, then some around his eyeball on his orbital bone (I'm not even a doctor!) and then one on his cheek.

With that, I think we have enough examples for now although I do wish I had been able to find one of Vincent when he was younger and had facial cuts. He didn't get roughed up so much as his Law and Order character like Chris Meloni's character did. Anyways, here is a summary of findings! On the following diagram, I have added in MS Paint the locations of the facial cuts from all of these pictures. The more red there is, the more frequent there were facial cuts in that spot. Large bloody areas such as the one in the Patrick Dempsey picture are not included. It seems that from this sample, facial cuts are more commonly located on the left (viewer's perspective) side of the face. The cheekbones/cheeks are the most common locations for facial cuts as well as across the nose and around the temples. Now, the only question left is, if I acquire some strategically placed facial cuts, will it make me look more fetching?? 

All in all, this post was pretty enjoyable to put together because I got to gaze at some good looking actors in the process of it. I put a decent amount of effort into making this post, particularly the searching for example pictures. I hope the images load properly. 

Movie review: Requiem for a Dream

I finally got around to/was able to watch this movie which I've been wanting to watch for... at least a year. I noticed it was on Netflix so I watched it just earlier. It was not particularly long at only an hour and 41 minutes. 

It was different and I'm not sure what I was expecting other than the fact that I knew it was a movie about drug addicts. I thought it was a good movie and not a waste of time so at least it was better than Apocalypse Now. It had Jared Leto in it as one of the main characters and he looked rather young and pale and sallow. I always thought this movie had an interesting title - the word 'requiem' is cool and unusual and then coupled with the word 'dream' gives the title an air of... dreaminess. I also liked the title of the movie Dream with the Fishes. 
I liked the color in it - the colors and the cinematography were nice; the overall visual style/appearance of it I thought was pleasing. It was kind of bright in some scenes, and I can't really say there's a certain color palette for this movie like there is with the American version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but nevertheless the colors and appearance of this movie were nice. 
In terms of content, we hit on all the various morbid topics that apparently fascinate me most. Drug addicts/addiction! Also a little bit of electroshock therapy in one scene and various other similar things... there was also an orgy in one scene which I don't find as fascinating as drug addiction, among other things. 
I thought the ending was sort of anticlimactic in a way, although on the other hand, it was fitting and perhaps the movie didn't exactly have the most linear, straightforward plot but it was still good and some movies are like that, to varying degrees of success. 
I'm glad that I finally got to see this movie because again, it had been one that I had wanted to see for quite a while. It was a little bit trippy in some ways but not overly so and overall a good movie. I wrote all this before reading what other people have said about the movie so the above is just my untainted thoughts. And now I will go on to read some stuff about the movie and see if I missed anything or if other people have any insights about it to offer.

I found something that claims it is #9 of the most disturbing movies. Personally, I'm not sure I'd say it was disturbing, but it was interesting. Also, after having watched it, I understand why there's an eyeball on the movie poster (no eye gouging in this movie, though) 
The definition of 'requiem' is: (especially in the Roman Catholic Church) a Mass for the repose of the souls of the dead.

• a musical composition setting parts of a requiem Mass, or of a similar character.
• an act or token of remembrance. (I assume this is the meaning used for the title of the movie)

I want to end this post with my quote: "Nobody plans on becoming a drug addict."
and: here is a page with some trivia about the movie
edit: I found an article in the Guardian where the author of the original book explains how he got inspired to write it. I like things like that. It's why I make the effort to explain (over explain?) the things I come up with on this blog rather than just leaving people to wonder since I wouldn't want to be left wondering. I also liked the note at the end of it: "Hubert Selby Jr does not use apostrophes." (he doesnt. Maybe one day I should try that.) 

If

If I happened to encounter eyelashes guy in public (it could theoretically possibly happen although it is unlikely but not completely impossible) here is a selection of things I think I would feel compelled to say to him. I'm aware that these would probably be weird things to say to him to at least some degree but regardless:
"I see you on tv, on CNN, and your eyelashes are magnificent. Wow, really, they're so long and luscious. You should get an award for best eyelashes. I noticed you on tv only because of your eyelashes but then that intrigued me so I decided to look more into your political opinion journalism and came to realize that you're intelligent and have things to say that are worth considering even though I'm not a conservative. I just really like your eyelashes. They're just great and spectacular. (Ad infinitum.)"
Again, like with previous posts on this subject, I really hope the topic of this post never comes across it or any of the previous ones. I would be aghast if he happened to read these things which I do realize are... out there. But imagine if theoretically he did somehow find my posts and read them and kept up with my blog to see if I'd written more about him. Yikes. That possibility is not something I want to become reality.

Someday perhaps I will find a new thing or person to frequently occupy my thoughts  but currently that person is eyelashes guy, hence all these endless ridiculous posts about him. I realize how... it's kind of a weird thing to be so... concerned with a political commentator who happens to have really nice eyelashes. But alas. That's how it is. In any case, the positive side of this is that I have become at least somewhat more open minded and have willfully exposed myself to differing opinions than my own, which I admittedly did not really do in the past.

The mysterious mansions

Outside my neighborhood, across the road that goes by it, there is a series of mansions. This is kind of odd, seeing as the neighborhood consists of regular sized single family homes and townhouses and some condos. And then, right outside the neighborhood are some mansions. From the road, you can see about 3 of them but I looked on Google maps satellite images and apparently there are 6 more that are father back from the road and therefore can't really be seen. I didn't know there were that many until I looked at Google maps. In any case, I was curious about how much these mansions costed. Apparently, the one that's closest to the road and therefore the easiest to see sold for a little over one million dollars 10 years ago. I assume the other mansions also went for a similar price. In any case, I'm very curious about the people who live in the mansions. I've never seen them, but there are cars parked outside so people do in fact live there. Also their large expanse of lawn grass is always mowed in a pattern like they do for baseball fields or golf courses. Presumably they pay someone to do that. If they were more immediate neighbors maybe I'd have seen them but they aren't so I have never seen these mysterious people. I kind of wish I had an excuse to go knock on their door and ask about what they're like since I'm very curious. People who live in mansions are a bit of a mystery to me intrinsically. I wonder what kinds of jobs they have in order to be able to afford a mansion. Although, they're probably less rich than some because if they were richer they'd have bought a mansion in the rich people neighborhood farther south. There, there are loads and loads of mansions, not just a few stuck across the road from a regular neighborhood. I feel like maybe the people who live in the mansions are kind of lonely and isolated because the majority of other houses within the vicinity are regular ones and therefore maybe the mansion owners feel like they can't relate too well to their not so immediate neighbors. They're too rich to have a regular house, but too poor to live in the rich people neighborhood where there would only be other mansions for miles and miles.
So I wonder about these people, because as it stands I have never ever seen them and know nothing about them. I assume it's a husband and wife who live there and maybe have children, but who knows. Maybe it's a husband and husband who own many cats. I have no idea.

Song review, sort of

So, because of the time of year, my mother has decided that we should listen to a country music radio station (... just realized I typed country. I meant Christmas.) in the car. Eh. I guess there are worse options. And apocalyptic music isn't exactly in the spirit of the holidays. In any case, the other day a song came on that I recognized but was sort of baffled as to why it was considered a Christmas song and therefore on the Christmas music radio station. The song was some version (not sure which one specifically) of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah.' It's oddly catchy for a song that's so overtly about religious stuff, or at least seems to be. Some religious songs are rather pleasing to my ears even though I'm an atheist, which is... I don't know. Maybe it's like a devout Mormon/other denomination of Christianity but I just wanted to name drop Mormonism enjoying a kind of music that's considered subversive/unholy/I can't think of the adjective but I think there is one. So like death metal or something like that. Maybe that isn't the best example but whatever.
In any case, I had heard the song before, most recently when the lady on SNL had performed it after the election, at which time I realized it was a familiar song and that I had heard the song even before that, presumably/probably on Pandora back in the day when I used to listen to Pandora more often. It wouldn't be super surprising that such a song would have showed up; my stations mostly consisted of things based around Coldplay/The Fray/that type of mellow and usually on the depressing side of things music. 

In any case, despite the rather seemingly religious things/themes in the song, I feel like maybe it could be interpreted in a non religious way, or at the very list, a semi religious and also semi non religious way, even though it seems at the beginning to be rather cut and dry that it's a religious song. I haven't given it a ton of thought at the moment but perhaps in the future I'll develop that idea a little more. According to Wikipedia, it was used on House MD which I don't specifically remember but it would make sense; House MD always had interesting music over some of the scenes. One song that particularly stuck with me was "I Still Care For You" in... I don't remember the episode name, alas. It actually is kind of similar. Also, in the episode (which was one of the first that I watched, I think) Both Sides Now, over the last few scenes there is a cover of the song As Tears Go By which also stuck with me in that it was an interesting and nice song. 

Also, while writing this post I was listening to the song and now I think it's going to be stuck in my head. Alas. I'm not sure if it's better or worse than having Last Christmas stuck in my head, which I also heard on this Christmas music radio station. Which, incidentally, I did not know until I looked it up that the guy who sang/wrote that song is the singer George Michael, which is relevant because I have been watching Arrested Development in which the main character's son is named George Michael (Bluth).  

Online dating

At the moment, I just took a sip of orange soda and I FELT it falling down my throat and inside my innards. It was kind of weird; I felt it more acutely than I think I usually feel things when I drink. In any case, that is not the main topic of this post.

The main topic is the online dating website. My pattern of usage has seemed to fall into a cycle of abandoning it for a month or so, then something piques my interest and I use it again for maybe a week or two, and then I abandon it again. And so on. I think, at this point, it's more of a source of entertainment/boredom busting for me rather than an actual way for me to find someone who I would be interested in dating. Basically, it's kind of a slightly more enhanced (in that you can read people's profiles and such rather than just observing a person out in public) online form of people watching with occasional conversations. Which is... not bad, but not the site's intended purpose. But alas, the vast majority of people on there are too ugly and/or boring for me to consider dating. Yes, I understand that makes me shallow. Oh well. At this point, I feel like the chances of me finding someone who is a) not ugly and b) interesting to talk to and someone who I would actually want to spend time with is rather low and is about the same chance that I have of seducing a certain not ugly person who I know of but have basically never spoken to with my knowledge of serial killers, which I will admit is probably zero. Alas. Such is life. At this rate, I think would have better luck jetting off to Europe and learning rudimentary French so that I can attempt to seduce models during fashion week. At least they wouldn't be ugly. 

I wonder if the message "Wow, there are not a lot of people on this website who are as good looking as you are" would be a good one in the occasion that I do find someone who is not ugly and also at least decently interesting. I feel like it might stroke the person's ego too much in a bad way, even if it might happen to be true.

Music and guess who

So, as I write this, I'm in the process of working on a school thing and it's an ungodly hour of the morning and I decided I should put on some music to liven up the process. I listened to an assortment of mellowish and depressing songs such as the Fray's "Don't Let Me Go" and OneRepublic's "All We Are" and My Chemical Romance's "Cancer." Then, a song I hadn't listened to in awhile came on and I decided to let it play and then decided to just listen to the rest of the album that the song was on. Said album is from one of, or rather, my most favorite, band Augustana. The album is All the Stars and Boulevards. I listened to some of the songs from it that I hadn't heard in awhile and was reminded of the lovely lyrics of them. One particular lyric that I had kind of forgotten about is "eyes like rainy Tuesdays." Incidentally, today (or rather, yesterday but until I go to sleep it's still technically today to me) happens to be tuesday and it also happened to be rainy. And I was watching eyelashes guy on CNN earlier in the night and admiring his eyeballs and eyelashes. His eyelashes are long and wonderful but his eyeballs are a nice lovely hue as well. And the lyric happens to describe them pretty well. It's just an interesting little thing (to me) that came to mind. 

an ode to eyelashes guy

I am currently right now watching eyelashes guy on CNN! He is commentating on how a white supremecist nazi is going to speak at a university. his eyelsehs are so eyelashy and heis eyes are s watery and gray and lumonnous really the tiel of this post is what is should have titled the last one in retrsopect. he says the nazi supremicist should be allowed to speak to that ther can be a debate about his "horrible bad " unpopular reprhensible speech in the name of free speec. i think i guess ia gree with eyhelasehd buy although on the other had, as he mentoined, we of course need to remmebr that the white supremacists speech is very bad and offensive and all that. so yeah. i type this as i am looking at yeelashed guiy on ccnn on my hpne that i'm spreaming it on that so that's hwy this is quite incomprehensible i hthink ueah oit probably is eyelasehed guy says the white spremiacist is"charming" handsome and doesnt wear a kkk suit so i gues the implication is that he's les... kkk ish or something, more approcahble or mnormal seeming something lik ethat. eyelashes guuy says that the naizis goal is not to intimidate other races byut to make white people be "race conscious" what's that??? i don't really get it i don't really see what he's trying to say there. apparently the naxi guy calls the group "euorpeans" instead of "white peopel". his eyeballs wow so nice so lovelt and the yeelashes too theyr're very nice they grame his eyelasehs so nicely eyeballs wow wo wo@@@ i am really badly obsessed or whatever with eyehalsehe guy's eyelasehs it's ridiculous and i know it i tupe as i stare at hi on cnn ah im pathetic i know. i hjppe eueashes gu nevr read my posts about him that would be really weird and hed be freaked out that's the end of the segment alas no more eyelashed guy to gaze at... 
- - - - -
^^^ that is my unedited stream of consciousness that I slammed out on the keyboard as I looked at eyelashes guy commentating on CNN. What follows will be an edited version of it to correct the multiple typographical errors and such, so that hopefully my thoughts will be a little more understandable. 

I am currently right now watching eyelashes guy on CNN! He is commentating on how a white supremacist nazi guy is going to speak at a university. his eyelashes are so eyelashy and his eyes are so watery [not as in, he's crying, but as in, the color of them is reminiscent of water] and gray and luminous really the title of this post is what I should have titled the last one in retrospect. he says the nazi supremacist should be allowed to speak so that there can be a debate about his "horrible" and "bad" and "unpopular" and "reprehensible" speech in the name of free speech. I think I guess I agree with eyelashes guy although on the other hand, as he mentioned, we of course need to remember that the white supremacist's speech is very bad and offensive and all that. so yeah. i type this as i am looking at eyelashes guy on cnn on my phone that i'm streaming it on that so that's why this is quite incomprehensible i think yeah it probably is. eyelashes guy says the white supremacist is"charming" and "handsome" and doesn't wear a kkk suit so i guess the implication is that he's less... kkk ish or something, more approachable or normal seeming, something like that. eyelashes guy says that the nazi's goal is not to intimidate other races but to make white people be "race conscious." what's that??? i don't really get it i don't really see what he's trying to say there. apparently the nazi guy calls the group "europeans" instead of "white people". his eyeballs wow so nice so lovely and the eyelashes too they're very nice they frame his eyeballs so nicely eyeballs wow wowo@@@ i am really badly obsessed or whatever with eyelashes guy's eyelashes it's ridiculous and i know it i type as i stare at him on cnn ah i'm pathetic i know. i hope eyelashes guy never reads my posts about him that would be really weird and he'd be freaked out [because it would just be plain weird to discover some random person who has a blog that barely anybody reads and is strangely obsessed with your eyelashes. It would be weird, trust me.]. that's the end of the segment alas no more eyelashes guy to gaze at... 

A very short blog post

Eyelashes guy looks so good on tv. You can really see his eyelashes. The lighting is good and the HD gives a great view of his eyelashes, like when they flutter when he blinks. I wish I saw him on tv more often. His eyelashes are just spectacular. And tonight he said things that I didn't disagree with, so that was nice. I assume they put some makeup on him, to even out his skin tone or something, but the eyelashes are probably all natural since it isn't common for men to wear mascara and I don't think mascara is part of the standard tv makeup routine for men on the news.

Thoughts on The Apprentice

In a... I can't think of a good adjective to put here turn of events, I decided to watch the first episode of Donald Trump's reality game show The Apprentice. I think it was in hopes that it might offer some kind of insights of some sort into how he operates. The first episode was... decent, not horrible, with all the trappings of a reality competition show. The only other show of that type that I'm sort of familiar with would be America's Next Top Model hosted by Tyra Banks. I guess they are kind of similar except ANTM is about modeling and The Apprentice is about business. However, both Tyra and Donald are rather prominent in their industries, at least at the peak of their shows I'd say. 

I can't say I have a ton of insights just after one episode, but I think I may watch more in the future. However, knowing a bit about how reality competition shows work allows me see the inner workings of them a bit - for example, on one season (or rather, cycle) of ANTM there was a particular contestant who was quite obnoxious but in being so, made for 'good television' or in other words, caused (intendedly entertaining) drama with the other contestants. So, it was unlikely that this contestant would be kicked off early in the show because their personality made the show more 'entertaining.' And the same went for this first episode of The Apprentice - I could tell that one person was unlikely to be fired because there had been a bit of a focus on the things they said which happened to be... 'entertaining.' I'm not a huge (or rather, yuge?) fan of reality competition shows, so obviously this is not exactly a show I'd usually watch, but I'm watching it anyways. 

In somewhat related matters, I have come up with yet another idea for a story. One of my longer ones involved Donald Trump getting arrested by the (fictional) detectives from some of the Law and Order shows. This newest idea involves the show The Apprentice, except one of the contestants is Michael Bluth of the show Arrested Development. I think that would be interesting and it would actually kind of fit for him to be a theoretical fictional contestant. I'm not sure if I'll write such a story, but the idea is there. 

Teeth

Here is a quick little post about... teeth, as is mentioned in the title. While we await the publication of my upcoming newest short story, there is this.

Teeth. I was pondering about the band Green Day and thinking how their album American Idiot is a concept album (apparently; I haven't listened to it in full to see what exactly the concept is for myself) like how the My Chemical Romance album The Black Parade is also a concept album (about death). That album, although I haven't listened to it in full, I've heard enough songs off of it to get the general idea that the concept of it is death. Which may seem rather macabre but the songs I know from that album are pretty good. I think it's interesting that they're about death, like how it's interesting that a number of Muse songs are about apocalyptic stuff or dystopian-ish stuff. In any case. Green Day and their concept album led me to think about MCR and their concept album which then made me consider the topic of Green Day vs MCR and which one I think is better/like more. I have considered that in the past but I was considering it again just now and I decided that I like MCR better. At least partly because Gerard (the lead singer, or rather, the former lead singer since they disbanded a few years ago) seems to be a nicer person than Billie Joe. And then I remembered, Gerard has cute little tiny teeth. Which is another reason to like MCR better. Maybe Billie Joe also has laudable teeth, but I haven't paid any particular attention to his teeth so I wouldn't know.

Of course, while talking about teeth, I have to mention that one time I complimented Dan on his teeth. I said "You have nice teeth" right out of the blue. It was after a show, which gives it a little more context because he had been singing which means his mouth was open and his teeth were on full view for a good amount of time, especially for those right in front of the stage like I was. So I happened to be looking at his teeth for a good part of that evening. And they were quite impressive. Very nice and straight and even. So naturally I ended up complimenting him on them.

Also, some more teeth trivia about various other people...
Apparently, Brandon Flowers' current teeth are all fake because they rotted away when he was a kid. So he had to get tooth replacements or something I guess. I read that somewhere within the past couple of years.
Vincent D'Onofrio (ah, here he pops up again) used to have ever so slightly crooked teeth (not really noticeable unless you look carefully) but then got them fixed sometime in 2001 or so. In some of the very first episodes of Law and Order, you can notice his ever so slightly crooked teeth but by the later half of season 1 they had been fixed. Interestingly enough, in one episode before his teeth got fixed, his character mentions getting his teeth fixed while talking to someone he's trying to get information out of. I wonder whose idea that line was and if it was at all influenced by Vincent's own ever so slightly crooked teeth.

Now, onto a particularly loathsome person's teeth. Donald Trump. His teeth are weird. Especially when he talks. You mostly see his bottom teeth. And between sentences, his mouth hangs open and his bottom teeth are just jutting out. It looks so weird. I don't know if it's the shape of his teeth or his mouth or a combination of both. If I leave my mouth open in a natural way, my top teeth show.

And finally, let's finish this with my teeth, in detail. I think they are small. I feel like maybe they should be longer/more rectangular instead of square, particularly the top teeth. They're not abnormally small I guess, but I feel like they're a little small. Also they're kind of crooked but not horribly crooked. It's mostly the bottom ones that are crooked. I should get them fixed. And also get tooth extensions or something. If that's even a thing you can get.

Clearly, I think about teeth a little too much perhaps. Don't even get me started on you know who's eyelashes.

Dreams (and eyelashes guy!)

This post is about a dream I had last night. It was a strange dream. A very strange dream. It involved, somewhat surprisingly although on the other hand, also somewhat unsurprisingly, eyelashes guy. He was in fact the main character. I wonder how weird it is that I dreamed about eyelashes guy. I wonder if other people have ever dreamed about him, other people in the sense that they watched him on CNN and for whatever reason (maybe that reason is that they noticed his spectacular eyelashes) began to pay more attention to him and think about him and read the (sometimes stupid) stuff that he writes columns about or posts on twitter. That is the case for me. Although I mostly just like him because of his eyelashes. But I will say that I think he's intelligent even if I don't agree with all of his political opinions. Anyways, now that that is out of the way even though it is kind of just a repeat of sentiments I've expressed previously. On to what happened in the dream.

Eyelashes guy was in a car accident. The accident caused him injuries and he became paralyzed. So, sometime after the injury, after he gets out of the hospital presumably, he goes to an event of a fake doctor who claims that he can heal people. I'm not exactly sure how he gets himself to this event seeing as he had become paralyzed, but somehow he's there. It takes place somewhere where there is a stage and the event is broadcast live on CNN. The fake doctor lifts eyelashes guy up into a standing position and does the "healing" even though he is just a fake doctor and can't actually heal anyone. So when he lets go of eyelashes guy, eyelashes guy falls to the floor and shouts "help me!!" because he is still paralyzed.
Sometime after this, his wife divorces him because the stress of dealing with his paralysis is too much for her. So, at the end, eyelashes guy is left sad and lonely and on top of that, still paralyzed.

This was a strange dream, no doubt about it. It seems to have taken some inspiration from the Tom Cruise movie Born on the 4th of July where Tom Cruise's character gets shot in the Vietnam War and becomes paralyzed. The other part of the inspiration is watching CNN and paying particular attention to eyelashes guy. On one hand, it would be kind of interesting to tell eyelashes guy about this dream that I had, but on the other hand I think it would also be very weird for eyelashes guy to have knowledge that some random person (to him) has been dreaming about him and in particular, had this dream about him.

Vampires (and Tom Cruise!)

The movie Interview with the Vampire happens to be on tv at the moment. I had already seen it a couple years ago but now that it's on again I'm thinking about it. Stephanie Meyer obviously took a bit of inspiration for her Twilight series from the book this movie was based on. Which makes me wonder, what if Tom Cruise had starred in the Twilight movies as Edward Cullen? Imagine that! It could have been interesting. He was interesting playing a vampire in this movie 22 years ago, which, when you think about it, is quite a bit of time. He was pale and had longish blonde hair in this movie. It took place back in the olden days (1800s?) so he wore outfits with billowy white shirts. Incidentally, the whole combination was kind of hot in a weird way. Brad Pitt was in this movie too, but I didn't find his appearance to be kind of hot in a weird way.
Also, I wonder what it would have been like if he ever guest starred in an episode of one of the Law and Order shows.

Blargh

In other words, even more political stuff. For whatever reason, I get the urge to respond here on this blog to the stupid (or more nicely, things I disagree with) things that eyelashes guy says. In this post election period, such things have grown in quantity. I don't want to say exponentially, because it might not truly be exponentially even though it is a nice word to use for dramatic effect.
Today's stupid thing that eyelashes guy said is that he disagreed with the ideas put forth in a Slate article entitled "There's no such thing as a good Trump voter." I think I read this piece within the last week although I did not go back and refresh my memory of it before writing this post. In any case, for me personally, suppose I discovered that someone I knew/was decently acquainted with at the least, had voted for Trump. This would cause me to reconsider/reevaluate my relationship with said person. Like I think I said in a previous post, voting for Trump indicates that a person condones (or at the very least, doesn't consider to be too abhorrent) the various offensive things he's said about numerous groups of people. This, for me, is a mark of (negative) character, which goes back to the title of the Slate article. I understand eyelashes guy's position, I suppose, seeing as (like I mentioned last post) his mother who I assume he holds dear voted for Trump. So it makes sense that it would give eyelashes guy some *cognitive dissonance* (there's that term again!) to be faced with the idea that all Trump voters are bad people. But like I said earlier, a vote for Trump, in my opinion, is an implicit endorsement of the (unacceptable) ideals that he has hawked throughout his campaign. Which brings me to another point - eyelashes guy thinks we all should give Trump a blank slate and a chance to be successful. I covered this topic in my previous post.
Another topic that I plan to write a bit about at a future date is the idea of liberal bias in the media. That's it for now, but as long as eyelashes guy says stupid things, these posts will continue!
How are you liking my political opinion pieces? I fancy myself a real (liberal, obviously) political commentator now.

As a parting thought, it seems that eyelashes guy has gotten me to think/consider a bit more deeply the whole politics thing. Particularly eyelashes guy is a conservative voice/perspective that in the past, I will admit, I never (would have) paid attention to. My little ideological bubble has... somewhat popped. The only reason I pay attention to eyelashes guy though is because of his eyelashes. I do think he's intelligent even if I don't agree with his political position.

More political stuff

Yay. 
This post again is related to eyelashes guy a bit although not so much about his eyelashes. As mentioned in the past, he is a conservative political journalist/commentator who I only began paying attention to due to his eyelashes; they are very long and noticeable.
In any case, today he put out an episode of his podcast in which he interviewed a family member of his that had voted for Trump. This family member lives in central PA, apparently. (For the record, I never liked PA anyways. Awful bumpy roads and nothing to see. Philadelphia was kind of a disappointment as well, even. I'll take DC or NYC any time over that. To people reading this who may happen to live in PA, I apologize for my negative opinion of your state.) So, this person said that they voted for Trump in spite of the offensive comments he made about groping women. They described those comments as an example something that people say that they're not proud of, but the comments still did not dissuade this person from voting for Trump. The comments are more than just things Trump said that he's not proud of. They are an indication, along with other things he's said and done over the years, that he does not respect women. This, for me, is one of the many things that disqualify him from being a suitable president of this country. 
Towards the end of the interview (it was about 15 minutes long) the family member of eyelashes guy mentioned some things that would seem like they could have come out of the mouth of Donald Trump himself, one of which was the phrase "make America great again," among other things. During the interview, eyelashes guy asked his family member about their opinions regarding immigrants relating to Trump's comments/positions about immigration. They mentioned that they had encountered (Latino) immigrants in public where they live and had amiable interactions with them, yet they still voted for Trump. They claimed that Trump's comments about Mexicans being rapists only applied to a certain group of Mexicans. This family member of eyelashes guy does various charitable works in their community, which seems to have been mentioned to prove that this person isn't an entirely horrible person. I crocheted angrily while listening to this podcast because a) podcasts bore me if I'm not knitting or crocheting while listening and b) the things said in the podcast angered me. 
That is about all that I have to say for now with regards to things related to eyelashes guy, but stay posted because undoubtedly I'm sure there'll be something in the future that he says that I'll feel compelled to write a blog post responding to, probably because I disagree. As usual, eyelashes guy will remain unnamed because I think it would be weird if he happened to stumble upon my blog posts about him. 
The end. (for now)

Killed by Drones

(Title inspired by the Muse song Reapers which has that as a line in it)

I write satirical stories because they're cathartic for me. 

Obama paced around the Oval Office worriedly. The prospect of Trump as president struck fear into his heart, although he put on a face of feigned amicability and cooperation for his first meeting with the president elect. He had to come up with a contingency plan. Various ideas came to his mind, but none of them he thought were good enough. Until finally, it dawned on him. Drones. 

Donald Trump and Co. were out celebrating his election as the next president with a round of golf at one of Trump's own golf courses. Even though it was November, the grass was as green as ever due to the use of industrial strength fertilizer as well as green spray paint in the places the fertilizer wasn't enough. The runoff from the golf course had badly polluted the nearby waterways, but Trump didn't care, as long as his golf course grass was as green as a freshly picked leaf of kale. Trump prepared to hit his golf ball, which soared into the air yet was wildly off course and landed in a sand pit. His next attempt was no better; this time the golf ball was nearly lost in the leaves of a tree. Finally, Trump managed to get the golf ball into the hole. It took him 5 strokes from the green to get the golf ball where it was supposed to be. Donald Trump and his entourage were nearly ready to play the 18th hole when a noise from the sky was heard. A swooping aircraft rushed overhead. Something dropped out of the sky. It was a bomb. It landed directly in the middle of Donald Trump and his political cronies, including but not limited to, Mike Pence, Chris Christie, Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, etc. They were wiped out immediately. Obama was updated on the success of his drone strike against Donald Trump and Co. He smiled and ordered his staff to put out a press release that blamed the Russians from the drone strike. Indeed, it was a coverup, but who could blame him? Sometimes the end justifies the means. 

Acknowledgements: To my first satirical story, where a golf game was a minor plot point. Also to one of my former teachers, Mr. Elgin (not related to the Elgin clocks people), who is a big fan of golf and has good fashion sense regarding ties and golf pants. I thought of him because of the golf aspect of this story. I am pretty sure that he is honest when he plays golf and doesn't cheat like Donald Trump has been said to do. 

It seems that my satirical stories have the tendency to end in some kind of murder. Maybe that's from all the murder shows I watch.