The Knight We Didn’t Expect

Last night I was bummed that I was too tired to venture out to a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises. Today I woke up and I could not of been happier that I didn’t go. I agree with millions of others that the theatre massacre was a tragedy but honestly I’m amazed that someone crazy enough to do this didn’t travel to Pittsburgh, the backdrop of the film, to live out his twisted act.

No matter where this act took place the only good to come from this is that the shooter was caught. So often these types will end their own lives after taking the lives of so many others. I’m sure that this matters very little to some of the family members of those shot and killed. I have no issues with the death penalty but will that be what he deserves for all this suffering? Why can’t torture be allowed for certain criminals who are this far gone and worthless to society?

I just hope for a few things. I hope that we don’t hear that video game violence or violent films were a trigger for this guy. I’m sure this level of instability can be triggered by something as tiny as a cat sneeze. I’ve always said that even after seeing violent films a little younger than I should I’ve turned out pretty well. Sure I saw The Silence of the Lambs as a kid and it didn’t turn me into a cannibal. It turned me into a bit of a pussy because for YEARS after first seeing that film I had to cover my eyes at certain scenes. And the video game debate can shove off as well. I shoot and kill things in video game as a way to de-stress enough that I don’t get angry and hurt the real people around me.

I also hope that this trial goes as fast and the Cruise and Holmes divorce. They have tons of people who saw this guy. They caught him in all the gear we wore during the shooting. I hope that the witness list contains every person that made it out of the theatre alive.

It’s truly sad that this takes place the very same month that my wife and I have been able to start taking our son to the movies. It’s no secret that my love of movies runs extremely deep and it is certainly something I want to pass along to Xander. Some of the best movie memories I have as from midnight showing where fans showed up in costumes. I’m not sure if midnight screenings will be altered because of this event but AMC has already banned costumes from all of their locations. I

I don’t fear change or progress but I should start because nothing seems to change for the better and progress is slow if not nonexistent. We test people for diseases like Cancer and AIDS but mental illness is something that people turn their back on or just never spot until it is too late. I can only hope that we start to study these people who commit these crimes so we can get a better understanding of why people do these things and find a way to identify unstable individuals a bit better. If the death penalty is too good for this guy let him be a guinea pig for the rest of this life. Let all these deranged folks get probed and tested for the rest of their lives in order to curb these mass killings.

While You Look Ahead…

I’m not hating on anyone but I think it’s nuts to think 2012 will be a drastic change from the previous year.  Minor change? Sure.  Gradual change?  Absolutely.  I’m going to try things that are new but since I feel people for the most part are resistant to change I’ll have a few things I try work and a could will fail.  Real change moves very slowly and can only be noticed when looking back way down the road.

I’d rather be the person who looks back at how things have changed over the years.  The other day I was thinking about all those bullshit awards/titles they give out in yearbooks for the most likely to succeed and that kind of shit.  Who even votes for that shit?  Do they even waste time on that stuff these days?  I just think it is crazy to try and label someone in high school because most of the people there are in for a reality check when tossed out in the real world.  I know a few kids in school who worked at a real job or had a taste of life outside the school’s walls.  Even WITH a taste of the outside world some of those students still weren’t able to hit the ground running after graduation. 

While my class was smart enough to not try and predict the future they still took a female and male student and labeled them with a trait that made them stand out while in school.   Most of these aren’t traits….they are survival skills.  This was how you acted to survive school and get out alive.  I’m not friends with many people I went to school with because I no longer feel the need to fake it and please people.  Thanks to Facebook I have a handful of people that I honestly like keeping in touch with.  It’s shocking how the lives of those few people have changed over the years. I don’t mean just getting married or having kids but total 180 degree turns in personality and characteristics.  I’d hate to call them out and have them think I was mocking them in any way.  The truth of the matter is they are more honest with themselves now and they were just trying to find there way in school.  I’m not going to call anybody out but I was tempted to simply because I’m proud that they found themselves and burst out of the cocoon after school was over.

The scary thing is the people that didn’t change.  I’m more worried about that people that WERE all grown up in school.  I understand being bitter and a little angry about school and life as a teen but you gotta let that shit go once you aren’t forced to go back.  Wipe the slate clean and try starting over.  If I had wasted less time with someone so bitter and nasty maybe I would be better real friends with my high school Facebook friends. 

The Day Drug Testing Became Necessary

I’ve smoked weed.  I’ll admit it.  But it was a long time ago and since then something awful has happened to the people who enjoy weed.  What happened you may ask?  Well they forgot that weed is best taken when you have nothing or maybe very little to do.  It’s a way to relax a little more, enjoy a movie in a different way or alter the interaction between you and a few of your stoner friends.  I’ve got no issue with the way things USED to be. 

Nowadays these kids think they can come to work high and nobody will notice.  We notice.  The problem is you have a shitty job that nobody else wants to do and while maybe getting high helps you cope with that it only serves to slllllooooooooowwwwwww down your work speed.  Thanks to that it takes you way longer to accomplish any/all tasks.  I don’t even want to think about how many of these kids think getting high before and during school is a way just to cruise through the day.  News flash you fucking retards…if you don’t learn anything you won’t get anywhere.  At least have the decency to stash the joint away for after school and try to pay attention during class.  You might learn something, get a decent job and maybe you’ll be able to afford better recreational, as in not when you have something better to do, weed. 

I obviously won’t be able to type something here that will “cure” a pothead but I beg you guys to spark up a brain cell more often than you spark up a joint and you’ll see what I’m getting at here.  There are a few productive stoners, Kevin Smith and Seth Rogan come to mind, but are you really aspiring to be either one of those fat clowns?  I sure hope not or weed is the LEAST of your problems after all. 

But I’m Not A Star Wars Nerd

I have bought every major home video release of Star Wars, but I’m not a Star Wars nerd. I’ve bought, put together and displayed a number of Star Wars jigsaw puzzle, but I’m not a Star Wars nerd. I waited in line for Episode 1 tickets for over 24 hours, but I’m not a Star Wars nerd.  I bought the full line of Episode 1 figures, but I’m not a Star Wars nerd. I have a Star Wars shirt that I wore to the Episode 1 premiere and then never put on again, but I’m not a Star Wars nerd.  I’ve played numerous games based on the Star Wars franchise even the ones VERY loosely based in the universe, but I’m not a Star Wars nerd.

With all said I am going to let the blu-ray release of the movies just pass by.  Will I get them down the road so Xander and I can watch them?  Most likely.  I just don’t see a need to go out and spend such a large amount of money on release day for a set of movies that are so vastly different than the ones I’ve enjoyed as I grew up.  I’m not a Star Wars nerd but rather a movie lover and Star Wars is/was a beloved movie.  I put was in there because I really think the backlash gets bigger and bigger each time the saga is changed or “improved”.  Each time a number of fans turn their back on the saga and choose to remember it the way it was and not the way it is now.  I’d be all for a director’s cut if they also would have the decency to put the original version on the discs as well.  I love some of the improved scenery and alterations as long as the existed along side the original saga.  I know it is often small changes but previously it was the Han Shot First debate that raged on.  With the blu-ray release it has become about Vader screaming Nooooooo during the end of Episode IV.  As a Star Wars FAN it is upsetting but as a movie FAN I have to just shrug and let it go since I can’t change it. 

Will I go see the movies when they come out in 3D down the road?  I guess that is left up to George Lucas and his obsession with revisionist history and CGI. 

Just A Quick Note

Now and then I will think of a topic to blog about that will stop me in my tracks and have me write the stroke of genius down before it slips away.  This was not one of those those thoughts but instead a variation that was something I never thought of before today and I knew I wouldn’t forget to post it. 

After getting a message delivered to vocally today that should have been delivered by text message I got to thinking that kids today have it so easy with the fancy phones they carry.  In an “old man” moment I thought back to way back when we had to pass notes around in school.  We bitch about slow response times to messages today but anyone who dated someone they didn’t have a lot of classes with in high school should nodding in agreeance.  Instead of having a brief conversation with someone you’d spend most of your day ignoring your classes, teachers and work to write down inane bullshit for your loved one to read.  Then if you couldn’t hand it directly to that person you had a network of friends that acted as postal workers for you to get the message to where it was going. (I had that wonderful job for friends as times and that was often a thankless endeavor) After your message was passed along like a relay baton you had to play the waiting game and hope that the process would start again in reverse for you. 

As if this ordeal wasn’t distracting enough from real learning I often had to spend additional time apologizing either by yet another letter or in person because a previous letter had been either too short or had poorly communicated something that upset a girlfriend.  I trusted the “couriers” that helped me during high school but you never wanted to be too dirty or too expressive in these letter for fear of snooping.  You also had to take into account that if you upset your girlfriend in one of these correspondences you had just made enemies with every courier that she had “working” for her.  It was a real hassle but it was par for the course and had to be done if you wanted a girlfriend….and some action now and then.

I left high school with boxes of letters that I kept from numerous girlfriends.  I had them up for years even after I had got married.  I didn’t read them or get nostalgic about them.  I really just had them because all during high school these scraps of paper helped to get me through grueling days at a place I would of done anything to escape from.  I didn’t take many pictures during high school because back then we had to use film and film, as well as developing, cost money I didn’t have.  For the big occasions I took pictures but for the daily grind these notes were the only way I had to hold onto some of the better times I encountered during those years.

In What Will Inevitably Be An Ignored Blog Post….

Dear Sony,

I’ve enjoyed your video game systems since about 1997.  I haven’t been exactly loyal and I’ve dabbled here and there with other consoles but you won me over with the original PlayStation so I was more than ready to purchase a PS2 when the time came. Then I was compelled to buy a PSP for no reason other than brand loyalty.  I should of quit while I was ahead because the PS3, while not only costly during the initial purchase, would eventually become very expensive to maintain.

Some time ago I had to send my console back in due to a video issue I was having during movie playback.  I called, finalized and accepted that to watch my expanding collection of Blu-rays I was going to have to accept the 99.00 service fee.* 

My system and money were shipped away and in return I got what has unfortunately become the accepted solution in the industry….a refurbished unit.  My “new” system seemed to be ok but I didn’t get to use it much given that I had a fairly newborn child running around and I turned to using NetFlix more to satisfy his need for entertainment. 

Once I was able to use my system a bit more I realized the fan had become very loud and the unit was very hot.  Maybe I should of called right then and there for service/another refurb but my wife was on medical leave for an injury and my PS3 time took a backseat to watching and caring for my son while my wife was unable to walk for nearly 3 months. 

She watched a number of movies during the time she was off and my system not only ran very hot and loud but another video issue popped up that might be related to the extreme heat the system now produces.  I wanted it fixed but when we lost my wife’s income for months at a time I wasn’t about to call if I thought I would be paying nearly 100.00 to get the system that someone else had an issue with.  I was forced to move my PS3 to a room adjacent to my home theater and the HDMI cable to my setup because of the ridiculous fan noise I was encountering. 

Once a second income started coming in again I called and got the answer I was expecting but still wasn’t prepared for.  I would once again have to pay a service fee to fix a system that in a way wasn’t even mine.  I could of taken the money to fix it but it wasn’t worth it when my family was already struggling to pay medical bills and climb back out of the hole.  It felt like an issue that would never be solved no matter how much money I threw at it. 

I’m not looking for a handout, pity or hateful backlash that the internet is famous for.  I just thought Sony should know how they product and replacement plans are flawed.  As I said at the start of this I have had other consoles and I’m no stranger to the RROD from my XBOX 360.  With that being said I’ve sent my 360 in two times for the RROD issue and while I once again got a refurbished unit back one of those times I have yet to pay any extra on top of the purchase price I paid on November 22, 2005.  As much as I want to enjoy the wide selection of exclusive PS3 and PSN games I have to wonder if the 99.00 repair fee would be better spent on a standalone Blu-ray player in place of my “fixed” PS3.

Sincerely,

Thomas Stark

TAStark77@comcast.net

 

I just want to add that when I called and mentioned to the CS agent that I heard repairs cost 100.00 and he corrected me saying they were only 99.00…..I should of realized this wasn’t going to be a happy ending.

I Don’t Wand It To Be Over

I said I was going to post my feelings on the latest, and last, Harry Potter film last night.  I was slightly off with my time frame but here it is.

Honesty the best part of the movie was the audience.  This isn’t a knock on the movie but rather a compliment to the entire series.  I was in a theater that was filled with people that were invested in the films/books and you could tell it over and over again.  I normally hate the movie going experience these days because of the mass amount assholes who share the 2 hours or so with me.  They’ve spent a few dollars to escape reality but they are still so damn concerned with stuff on their cell phones or chatting with the person next to them.  On the other hand I’ve been to movies like the first X-Files film or Episode 1 where even the die hard fans just can’t contain their excitement or their voices.  I guess having a good number of Potter fans be quiet bookworms really paid off during this film.

Now the amazing thing about the crowd was that the movie was soooo quiet at times that even a slightly loose lipped patron could of stood out.  I’ve NEVER been to a movie where so much of the film seemed to be devoid of dialog, sound effects and even music.  It certainly added to the eerie nature of the film.  It was unsettling and really worked for the film.  I almost wish there would have been more music or it would have been louder because I think the scores from these films are always underrated.  Also while we talk about the film being unconventional I thought that had they opted to exclude the WB logo at the start of the film it would have been the best opening sequence I’ve witnessed in a long time. 

Now on to the movie….

What started as a simple whimsical journey really did turn out darker than I expected it to.  I wish it could of stayed a little more innocent but where is the fun in that.  I want to know more about these characters and I want to read all those scenes that Potter fans complained were omitted from the films.  Best movie series ever?  Not in my eyes but as a 33 year old male it is amazing that these films have me wanting to read the books so damn bad.  It also has me spending money here soon to go to The Wizarding World.  I already enjoy the films but I think when I can share them with Xander down the road it’ll entertain me more as I watch him grow up with the films. 

Emotionally the film did get to me.  When the series about a little orphanded wizard began I wasn’t a parent.  By the end of the series when so many people cared for this boy and protected him I had my own child and could understand that on a whole other level.  It was a very touching and emotional film and even if it didn’t make money, which we all know isn’t the case, it would still be a hit when it came to making you care for and about characters who were once just words on a page.