Saturday, May 7, 2011
Thursday, December 30, 2010
In Sickness
Watching: 21 Jump Street season 2
Reading: Vampire Hunter D Volume 6: Pilgrimage of the Sacred and the Profane
Listening to: Nada this time around.
Blargh.
I have a cold. I usually get them once or twice a year, Buffalo weather being what it is. It just seems way more vicious than usual.
Honestly, I used to be sick a lot when I was a kid. I got several colds/flues during the winter every year. Now that I'm grown, I get sick a lot less (though I do tend to pick up the more serious sicknesses that missed me when I was younger, like strep.) Yay for developing antibodies! But I do still live in Buffalo, and that means the weather sucks balls. So all that lovely 2 hr commuting I do in the freezing air and harsh wind can not be good for me. Granted, it's great exercise. A lot of times, the buses don't run in coordinating times, so I end up making a 20 minute walk to the train station. That's mostly uphill, in the snow (adds resistance) with layers of clothing on (hoodie, coat, hat, gloves, scarf...) Good exercise, but you do sweat a little and sweating in the cold is a good way to open your body up to germs.
Also, I now work in a food industry. Which means I'm now washing my hands A LOT more than I was previously used to. Now, granted, I am not a scumbag. But I don't believe in washing your hands several hundred times a day. It's bad for you. It kills off too much bacteria and lets all the super-bacteria flourish and get you sick. (MRSA is not an accident, and shouldn't exist outside of hospitals. Stop being so godblessed germophobic and clean!) But because I work with food, I wash my hands way more often than before and I bet that has a little to do with me getting sick as well.
It's not like I'm on death's door kind of sick either. I have a cold. My head is stuffed, my nose is alternately running and stuffy, I can't breathe through it and I sneeze about a million times an hour. I can feel the crap in my sinuses moving through in my plugged up ears (which is weird, btw) my throat is a tad sore (I've had worse) and I'm coughing up post-nasal drip that's also making me nauseous and have almost zero appetite.
But no fever, no body aches, no chills. As far as sicknesses go, I'm doing alright. But that does mean it's time to bust out my cold-fighting homemade tea remedy.
See, I hate taking pills. I loathe it with the passion of a thousand suns. And it has nothing to do with being against traditional medicine or anything like that. It has more to do with the fact that once you've popped up to 15+ pills a day and experienced all their side-effects, you just don't want to take any more pills. And I wasn't popping pills to get high. I had to take a set of AZT pills when I was 15 because I was accidentally exposed to HIV without my knowledge or permission.
So I try everything under the sun to get rid of a sickness before I have to take any actual medicine for it. The only pills I will ever take now are my birth control, which do double duty of hormone regulation and not getting me pregnant.
Now, this recipe is taken from an old Japanese cold cure. I present to you: Shoga-yu
Drink and enjoy!
Reading: Vampire Hunter D Volume 6: Pilgrimage of the Sacred and the Profane
Listening to: Nada this time around.
Blargh.
I have a cold. I usually get them once or twice a year, Buffalo weather being what it is. It just seems way more vicious than usual.
Honestly, I used to be sick a lot when I was a kid. I got several colds/flues during the winter every year. Now that I'm grown, I get sick a lot less (though I do tend to pick up the more serious sicknesses that missed me when I was younger, like strep.) Yay for developing antibodies! But I do still live in Buffalo, and that means the weather sucks balls. So all that lovely 2 hr commuting I do in the freezing air and harsh wind can not be good for me. Granted, it's great exercise. A lot of times, the buses don't run in coordinating times, so I end up making a 20 minute walk to the train station. That's mostly uphill, in the snow (adds resistance) with layers of clothing on (hoodie, coat, hat, gloves, scarf...) Good exercise, but you do sweat a little and sweating in the cold is a good way to open your body up to germs.
Also, I now work in a food industry. Which means I'm now washing my hands A LOT more than I was previously used to. Now, granted, I am not a scumbag. But I don't believe in washing your hands several hundred times a day. It's bad for you. It kills off too much bacteria and lets all the super-bacteria flourish and get you sick. (MRSA is not an accident, and shouldn't exist outside of hospitals. Stop being so godblessed germophobic and clean!) But because I work with food, I wash my hands way more often than before and I bet that has a little to do with me getting sick as well.
It's not like I'm on death's door kind of sick either. I have a cold. My head is stuffed, my nose is alternately running and stuffy, I can't breathe through it and I sneeze about a million times an hour. I can feel the crap in my sinuses moving through in my plugged up ears (which is weird, btw) my throat is a tad sore (I've had worse) and I'm coughing up post-nasal drip that's also making me nauseous and have almost zero appetite.
But no fever, no body aches, no chills. As far as sicknesses go, I'm doing alright. But that does mean it's time to bust out my cold-fighting homemade tea remedy.
See, I hate taking pills. I loathe it with the passion of a thousand suns. And it has nothing to do with being against traditional medicine or anything like that. It has more to do with the fact that once you've popped up to 15+ pills a day and experienced all their side-effects, you just don't want to take any more pills. And I wasn't popping pills to get high. I had to take a set of AZT pills when I was 15 because I was accidentally exposed to HIV without my knowledge or permission.
So I try everything under the sun to get rid of a sickness before I have to take any actual medicine for it. The only pills I will ever take now are my birth control, which do double duty of hormone regulation and not getting me pregnant.
Now, this recipe is taken from an old Japanese cold cure. I present to you: Shoga-yu
Shoga-Yu (Japanese cold-fighter)
Ingredients
Boiling water
Fresh Ginger
Lemons
Honey
Directions
Bring water to a boil. While water is boiling, peel and slice up the ginger. Put about 3 slices into a mug and cover with the boiling water. Let ginger steep for about 3 minutes. When drink has cooled a little, add the juice from about 1/4 a lemon and about a teaspoon of honey.
Drink and enjoy!
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Don't Ask, Don't Tell
Cross-posted to Wordpress blog "The Angry Redhead."
Anger.
You all know what happens when I get angry (and no, not turning into the She-Hulk here.)
Four words: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
Outdated policy? Sure. It’s been, what? At least ten years since we implemented this? Times have changed.
Sure homophobes still exist. So do racists and sexists and religious nutbags. Hell, every sect, no matter what it is for (race, religion, gender, a political standpoint of ANY kind) should come with the warning label "May contain nuts."
This country has freedoms. Protected freedoms. Specifically the freedom to be who and what you want to be. You can’t be discriminated against by the government for being of a different race, whatever that race may be. You can’t be discriminated by the government for your gender. You can’t be discriminated against by the government for your religion either, despite the fact that there’s a prevailing anti-Muslim sentiment in this country. And the same goes for your sexual orientation.
I’ve already discussed how I think this comes about, so that’s not my point.
Point being: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
For some reason, our military is allowed to get away with WAY too much discriminatory bullshit. It took forever for the military to not only accept those of a different race (mainly blacks) but to stop using them as freaking human shields. For a while the military only let in blacks to be shields for the better equipped white units. They basically ran suicide missions.
It was the same way when women wanted to serve. There was a claim that women couldn’t do all the stuff men can, when they have proven time and time again that the line of thinking was wrong. During WWII, women took over factory jobs men said they could never do. And they did it well. And yet it still took another 30 years for women to even start getting some more basic treatment. Still the military holds with it’s backwards ways.
Religion has never seemed to be much of an issue, but I’ll get to that point later.
Sexual orientation should have been the smallest on that list. Of all the things that someone can complain about, letting a homosexual in the military should be the stupidest reason. And yeah, it is the stupidest reason. It’s really the most illogical one. As if someone stops being a strong and courageous person because the like to take a dick (or munch a carpet. Forgive my crudeness.) As if being homosexual automatically makes you a wimp (or a bulldyke. We all know the men don’t want a woman showing them up.)
Why would you worry about that?
Okay DADT was instilled in the 90’s. This is right after we found out about AIDS and how it pretty much kept (back then) to junkies and the gay community. And everyone was scared because no one understood the disease and no one really understood homosexuality either. Because years back someone somewhere decided it was wrong and stuck it in a religion and everyone took that as doctrine. DADT made it illegal to ask about sexual orientation on a recruitment form but it made known knowledge of sexual orientation a dismissible offense.
But times change, and with the advent of technology, times change rather quickly. This policy is now outdated.
Think about it. We are in a war and have been for a while. Almost 10 years now by my count, despite the fact that “active combat” ended shortly after it began. Made the people at home feel better, but think about the soldiers out there and the rather active combat that they face every freaking day. To me, this is stupidity on a grandiose scale. They fight for someone else’s politics, for reasons kept mostly secret and mostly driven by greed. If you can’t tell, I am firmly in the position of “love the soldier, hate the war.” I don’t believe this war is right. I do not, however, blame the troops and support them with all my heart. I thank them for having the courage to do something I can not.
Not the point. We are at war. We have been for a while. A long, long while. And we need volunteers. Most of us know that a draft would end as badly as it did in Vietnam. Those that don’t want to go will find some way to not go. We need as many volunteers as we can. Think of the problems the military is having as well.
Many people are going back and doing more tours than they thought they would. They’re staying longer and longer and visits home are getting to be few and far between. Those that are coming home, physically injured or not, are mentally traumatized and the military is doing nothing about it. We know that suicides among troops are growing. This shit is serious. We’ve already had one person snap and start taking everyone with him. Fort Hood, remember?
So we need people to replace those that can’t fight anymore. DADT prevented a lot of that. If the military found out about your sexuality, however they did it, you were simply dismissed. We lost over 13,000 soldiers since that law was put in place because of that. 13,000 isn’t a small number. That number equals about 4,000 troops a year due to dismissals. That doesn’t count the number of recruits you’re loosing out on.
And still the military tried to fight it. Claiming left and right just how bad it would be. But then they started polling some of the soldiers. The study showed it all. Over 70% that it would be okay, that it would make know difference to them knowing that the soldier they were serving with was homosexual.
This ^
Oh and this is a good one. My one friend is a Marine and said to me that those stats were only surveys that 99% of the soldiers guessed on because they just wanted to go home. Uh huh. Let me give you the facts. 1) The study was a year-long global study of active-duty reserve troops and their families. Respondents answers were classified into 4 categories: 1) I don’t care, 2) It’s not a big deal, but if I’m uncomfortable with something, I’ll address the source directly, 3) I’m uncomfortable, I’m going to raise the issue with my chain of command and 4) Hi, I’m a member of Westboro Baptist Church. The most prevalent answer to questions like “What if your commanding officer was gay?” and “What if a gay coupled lived next to the base?” was…wait for it…
I DON’T CARE.
That is a HUGE step. Especially in a survey of actual troops commisioned by the Pentagon of all places. The second most common answer was “It doesn’t bother me, but if I have an issue I’ll address the person directly.” This is good! It shows the military is full of actual, rationally-thinking people! When it came to troops who have worked directly with a fellow service member they knew to be openly gay, fully 92% said that their unit’s ability to work together was either “very good, good, or neither good nor poor.
Must remember, however, that he is a Marine and out of all the branches, they were the only ones who were stuck so solidly in the past. Mostly because, for some reason, the military has it’s own law that prevents most women from engaging in as much combat as the Marine has. As a result it’s very much still the “man’s army” segment with all it’s macho bs-ing. I love my Marine friends, but you don’t see many female Marines even in this era where we know women can do just as much as men can.
He claims repelling the law will cause too much friction. I say, you won’t even know the law has been repelled. To you, it will be just a piece of paper. Another policy from the government just like the Health Bill that you don’t think about much.
Think about it. The repel of DADT, which has just passed, does not force anyone to come out of the closet if they don’t want to. What it does do is guarantee that you won’t be forced to leave because of it. He claims that someone will get killed by a teammate just because they know his or her sexuality. Granted, there may be isolated cases of that. But say you’ve been fighting alongside this guy for a year or so now. And you come to find out, by complete chance, that this guy that you’ve been very close with happens to prefer other guys to girls. My guess is that, while it may freak you out, you are still going to remember how that guy fights. How courageous he is. How he may have helped you out during a combat situation. You know you can trust this guy. The majority of soldiers are going to let his actions speak over his sexuality. And if someone starts shit, you can bet your ass there may be a whole unit of people ready to help defend the guy from the bigot.
By the way: if the repel of the law makes you start wondering who is leering at you in the shower, you should come to a few realizations. 1) You’ve probably wondered that the whole time and the law makes no difference. 2) You are borderline homophobic. 3) You are not that much of a stud. Just because you have the parts does not automatically mean they will be on you like vultures on a carcass. With all due respect, please pull your head out of your sphincter. (BTW one of the questions on that lovely little survey was “Would you take a shower?”)
And remember how I mentioned religion is protected? Those who already have a problem with sexuality are going to have a problem with religion too, I bet. Better start polling the military to see what religion you are. We all know of the anti-Muslim sediment in the US, which is probably hugely prevalent in the military. Ever thought that some of those Muslims might be fighting alongside you? Or would that scare you too?
And all this started over a simple Facebook status. I quoted our great president as saying:
It’s true. Just because you’re homosexual (or bisexual or whatever-sexual) does not mean you are any less of a soldier and there’s NO reason why you should feel that way. NONE. The repel of this law gives homosexuals more freedom to show that. They can sign up without fear and without discrimination.
To the rest of you: suck it the fuck up.
PS: I really hate people claiming our president, 2 scant years into his term, is the “worst president in history.” Please, before you open your mouth, go and research some shit.
Worst was probably Franklin Pierce who signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which pretty much allowed the expansion of slavery. He even continued to recognize it when it was found to have been elected upon illegally.
Obama is the janitor called in to clean up the rather shit covered house that is our country right now. Blaming our problems on him is to forget who came before him and we know that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. (Have I mentioned I think this war is like another Vietnam?)
Anger.
You all know what happens when I get angry (and no, not turning into the She-Hulk here.)
Four words: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
Outdated policy? Sure. It’s been, what? At least ten years since we implemented this? Times have changed.
Sure homophobes still exist. So do racists and sexists and religious nutbags. Hell, every sect, no matter what it is for (race, religion, gender, a political standpoint of ANY kind) should come with the warning label "May contain nuts."
This country has freedoms. Protected freedoms. Specifically the freedom to be who and what you want to be. You can’t be discriminated against by the government for being of a different race, whatever that race may be. You can’t be discriminated by the government for your gender. You can’t be discriminated against by the government for your religion either, despite the fact that there’s a prevailing anti-Muslim sentiment in this country. And the same goes for your sexual orientation.
I’ve already discussed how I think this comes about, so that’s not my point.
Point being: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
For some reason, our military is allowed to get away with WAY too much discriminatory bullshit. It took forever for the military to not only accept those of a different race (mainly blacks) but to stop using them as freaking human shields. For a while the military only let in blacks to be shields for the better equipped white units. They basically ran suicide missions.
It was the same way when women wanted to serve. There was a claim that women couldn’t do all the stuff men can, when they have proven time and time again that the line of thinking was wrong. During WWII, women took over factory jobs men said they could never do. And they did it well. And yet it still took another 30 years for women to even start getting some more basic treatment. Still the military holds with it’s backwards ways.
Religion has never seemed to be much of an issue, but I’ll get to that point later.
Sexual orientation should have been the smallest on that list. Of all the things that someone can complain about, letting a homosexual in the military should be the stupidest reason. And yeah, it is the stupidest reason. It’s really the most illogical one. As if someone stops being a strong and courageous person because the like to take a dick (or munch a carpet. Forgive my crudeness.) As if being homosexual automatically makes you a wimp (or a bulldyke. We all know the men don’t want a woman showing them up.)
Why would you worry about that?
Okay DADT was instilled in the 90’s. This is right after we found out about AIDS and how it pretty much kept (back then) to junkies and the gay community. And everyone was scared because no one understood the disease and no one really understood homosexuality either. Because years back someone somewhere decided it was wrong and stuck it in a religion and everyone took that as doctrine. DADT made it illegal to ask about sexual orientation on a recruitment form but it made known knowledge of sexual orientation a dismissible offense.
But times change, and with the advent of technology, times change rather quickly. This policy is now outdated.
Think about it. We are in a war and have been for a while. Almost 10 years now by my count, despite the fact that “active combat” ended shortly after it began. Made the people at home feel better, but think about the soldiers out there and the rather active combat that they face every freaking day. To me, this is stupidity on a grandiose scale. They fight for someone else’s politics, for reasons kept mostly secret and mostly driven by greed. If you can’t tell, I am firmly in the position of “love the soldier, hate the war.” I don’t believe this war is right. I do not, however, blame the troops and support them with all my heart. I thank them for having the courage to do something I can not.
Not the point. We are at war. We have been for a while. A long, long while. And we need volunteers. Most of us know that a draft would end as badly as it did in Vietnam. Those that don’t want to go will find some way to not go. We need as many volunteers as we can. Think of the problems the military is having as well.
Many people are going back and doing more tours than they thought they would. They’re staying longer and longer and visits home are getting to be few and far between. Those that are coming home, physically injured or not, are mentally traumatized and the military is doing nothing about it. We know that suicides among troops are growing. This shit is serious. We’ve already had one person snap and start taking everyone with him. Fort Hood, remember?
So we need people to replace those that can’t fight anymore. DADT prevented a lot of that. If the military found out about your sexuality, however they did it, you were simply dismissed. We lost over 13,000 soldiers since that law was put in place because of that. 13,000 isn’t a small number. That number equals about 4,000 troops a year due to dismissals. That doesn’t count the number of recruits you’re loosing out on.
And still the military tried to fight it. Claiming left and right just how bad it would be. But then they started polling some of the soldiers. The study showed it all. Over 70% that it would be okay, that it would make know difference to them knowing that the soldier they were serving with was homosexual.
No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens. (Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff)
This ^
Oh and this is a good one. My one friend is a Marine and said to me that those stats were only surveys that 99% of the soldiers guessed on because they just wanted to go home. Uh huh. Let me give you the facts. 1) The study was a year-long global study of active-duty reserve troops and their families. Respondents answers were classified into 4 categories: 1) I don’t care, 2) It’s not a big deal, but if I’m uncomfortable with something, I’ll address the source directly, 3) I’m uncomfortable, I’m going to raise the issue with my chain of command and 4) Hi, I’m a member of Westboro Baptist Church. The most prevalent answer to questions like “What if your commanding officer was gay?” and “What if a gay coupled lived next to the base?” was…wait for it…
I DON’T CARE.
That is a HUGE step. Especially in a survey of actual troops commisioned by the Pentagon of all places. The second most common answer was “It doesn’t bother me, but if I have an issue I’ll address the person directly.” This is good! It shows the military is full of actual, rationally-thinking people! When it came to troops who have worked directly with a fellow service member they knew to be openly gay, fully 92% said that their unit’s ability to work together was either “very good, good, or neither good nor poor.
Must remember, however, that he is a Marine and out of all the branches, they were the only ones who were stuck so solidly in the past. Mostly because, for some reason, the military has it’s own law that prevents most women from engaging in as much combat as the Marine has. As a result it’s very much still the “man’s army” segment with all it’s macho bs-ing. I love my Marine friends, but you don’t see many female Marines even in this era where we know women can do just as much as men can.
He claims repelling the law will cause too much friction. I say, you won’t even know the law has been repelled. To you, it will be just a piece of paper. Another policy from the government just like the Health Bill that you don’t think about much.
Think about it. The repel of DADT, which has just passed, does not force anyone to come out of the closet if they don’t want to. What it does do is guarantee that you won’t be forced to leave because of it. He claims that someone will get killed by a teammate just because they know his or her sexuality. Granted, there may be isolated cases of that. But say you’ve been fighting alongside this guy for a year or so now. And you come to find out, by complete chance, that this guy that you’ve been very close with happens to prefer other guys to girls. My guess is that, while it may freak you out, you are still going to remember how that guy fights. How courageous he is. How he may have helped you out during a combat situation. You know you can trust this guy. The majority of soldiers are going to let his actions speak over his sexuality. And if someone starts shit, you can bet your ass there may be a whole unit of people ready to help defend the guy from the bigot.
Many activists hope that integrating openly gay troops within the military will lead to greater acceptance in the civilian world, as it did for blacks after President Harry Truman’s 1948 executive order on equal treatment regardless of race in the military. (From The Buffalo News)
The military remains the great equalizer. Just like we did after President Truman desegregated the military, we’ll someday look back and wonder what took Washington so long to fix it. (Sen. John Kerry)
If you don’t know, it won’t cause any friction at all. My guess is, you still won’t know who is and who isn’t and it’s about as much of a crapshoot that someone is as it’s always been. Get all that? You still won’t know who is and who isn’t. It will still be a whole guessing game. Just like before the repel of the law.
By the way: if the repel of the law makes you start wondering who is leering at you in the shower, you should come to a few realizations. 1) You’ve probably wondered that the whole time and the law makes no difference. 2) You are borderline homophobic. 3) You are not that much of a stud. Just because you have the parts does not automatically mean they will be on you like vultures on a carcass. With all due respect, please pull your head out of your sphincter. (BTW one of the questions on that lovely little survey was “Would you take a shower?”)
And remember how I mentioned religion is protected? Those who already have a problem with sexuality are going to have a problem with religion too, I bet. Better start polling the military to see what religion you are. We all know of the anti-Muslim sediment in the US, which is probably hugely prevalent in the military. Ever thought that some of those Muslims might be fighting alongside you? Or would that scare you too?
And all this started over a simple Facebook status. I quoted our great president as saying:
“It is time to close this chapter in our history. It is time to recognize that sacrifice, valor and integrity are no more defined by sexual orientation than they are by race or gender, religion or creed.”
It’s true. Just because you’re homosexual (or bisexual or whatever-sexual) does not mean you are any less of a soldier and there’s NO reason why you should feel that way. NONE. The repel of this law gives homosexuals more freedom to show that. They can sign up without fear and without discrimination.
To the rest of you: suck it the fuck up.
PS: I really hate people claiming our president, 2 scant years into his term, is the “worst president in history.” Please, before you open your mouth, go and research some shit.
Worst was probably Franklin Pierce who signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which pretty much allowed the expansion of slavery. He even continued to recognize it when it was found to have been elected upon illegally.
Obama is the janitor called in to clean up the rather shit covered house that is our country right now. Blaming our problems on him is to forget who came before him and we know that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. (Have I mentioned I think this war is like another Vietnam?)
Saturday, December 18, 2010
#27 The Matrix
(For the reasons behind my numbering the movie reviews I do, go look at my LiveJournal. It's in there somewhere, in one of the movie reviews.)
Cross-posted to LiveJournal.
WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Don’t like? Watch the movie first.
Everybody’s heard of The Matrix right?
So what can I say about this movie?
The plot premise was rather ingenious. Thomas Anderson, played by Keanu Reeves, is a nondescript, normal businessman by day and the hacker Neo by night. Through his hacking he hopes to uncover the answer to the question “What is the Matrix?” His quest leads him to an encounter with several different sinister entities called Agents, as well as to an underground hacking group led by a man named Morpheus. Morpheus tells Neo that he can reveal to him the secret of the Matrix and several members of Morpheus’ group, including a famous female hacker named Trinity, take him to a meeting with Morpheus where he is given a choice:
The famous red pill or blue pill.
Neo, of course chooses the red pill and learns that the world he knew is a computer program called the Matrix, run by the machines of the real world. Humans are used as batteries and those that are “woken” from the Matrix can escape their life of being a battery for the machines and can now attempt to fight them. He is told by Morpheus that he is “The One” who can lead them all into a new era of human rule.
The plot is way too big to be summarized in a couple of sentences. This is a trilogy, and since this is only the first movie, the vast majority of the plot is concerned with finding Neo, waking him up, learning about the Matrix and him becoming The One.
It’s a little convoluted and hard to follow sometimes but they shy away from doing too much that would interrupt the ability to actually watch the movie. They also pad the movie heavily with special effects. There is a lot of slow-motion, pause-y fighting. Then again, this is the movie that made that in vogue. Lots and lots of computer generation to get them to do things that are pretty impossible and of course, lots of wire work. These effects do a good job of entertaining you even if you lose bits of the plot. Granted, this one does not get as convoluted as it could but it does have just enough bits to keep you wondering. Especially that whole “is he or isn’t he The One” question.
I found it very original making our world into a computer game, essentially. It allowed for a liberal bending of certain rules. Having our world be nothing more than a computer gave a new definition to déjà vu, made killing people moral because they didn’t actually exist and allowed for all sorts of imaginative fight scenes. Like people running up walls, fighting while flying, moving faster than light, bending in ways nature never intended and stopping bullets with a thought. All of these things make the Matrix at the very least wicked entertaining to watch.
The characters, or the ones that matter, are rather nicely thought out as well.
First, the villain. I usually have some issues with the villain not being evil enough or not being given the right motivations. There are none of these issues in this movie. There are two main villains: the Matrix itself and the Agents acting for it, and Cypher.
Cypher is being puppeted by the Agents to deliver Neo to them. They tell him they can re-insert him back into the Matrix and make his life inside happy and wealthy. Not the greatest motivation, sure, but look at the world he lives in. He knows that everything tasty, warm and good is all an illusion and that life of struggling to get by is the real one. Being reinserted into the dream sounds pretty damn good.
The Agents are mostly run by an Agent Smith (played by Hugo Weaving) and while he follows the rules of the program, he is given the most leeway to bend them. The thing I liked about his character was that it wasn’t just a computer program. He seemed to have a glitch that made him a bit more of a free thinker. Now he still thought along the lines of destroying those that oppose the Matrix but he had a little more spunk to him that made him hate mankind more than the other programs did. It was nice to see.
The three main heroes are of course Morpheus, Trinity and Neo.
Now Trinity was cool but not too much of a major player. We know she’s a super-cool hacker chick. We also know she can kick ass and hold her own against the programs she fights. But then again, they all can. The same training has been uploaded to all their brains. She plays the love interest of Neo. In fact going so far as to say that the Oracle predicted that they’d be together and that’s how she knows he’s The One. But for all the problems being the romantic love interest can be, she never compromises on her beliefs. She’s still smart, and stubborn and willing to fight for her friends and what she believes in (like freeing the human race) despite what Neo or even Morpheus will tell her. Which makes her better in a lot of ways than some of the other romantic leads movies have given us.
Morpheus is there to play the mystical father figure. He takes Neo under his wing, guides him, teaches him. Has faith in him when no one else does. Morpheus is like the leader of some religious cult. He so firmly believes that Neo is The One that regardless of what anyone says, he can’t be talked out of it and will die for the cause. One could equate him to a suicide bomber in that regard because at one point he literally hands himself over to the Agents so that Neo can get away. Because the Agents are pretty much unbeatable, it’s pretty much committing suicide. Still, he has some good things to say and his faith in something is what keeps the group going no matter what, and that proves to be a useful thing.
Neo is the one everybody cares about. But part of his character flaws can be contributed to Keanu Reeves’ acting. For instance, anyone who has seen Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure can see a bit of that acting in here. For the first half of the movie, he remains in a constant state of confusion about what’s going on around him. The second half of the movie he remains in this doubtful, angsty place because he doesn’t believe he’s The One, he’s been told that he’s not and still people expect him to be. On the upside, he does man up after a while and go after his friend and comrade and attempts to find out if he is indeed The One.
It’s a little annoying when the ending hits because of the way he becomes The One, but I’m not going to completely give that away.
Final Thoughts: When everything’s said and done, even if you can’t follow the plot you can still be entertained by the movie. It’s got great effects, and they put a lot of work into making it look good and seem like a real world all on its own. The characters are likeable and like most movies, the good wins in the end. It definitely gets a 5 star rating all around from me.
Cross-posted to LiveJournal.
WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Don’t like? Watch the movie first.
Everybody’s heard of The Matrix right?
So what can I say about this movie?
The plot premise was rather ingenious. Thomas Anderson, played by Keanu Reeves, is a nondescript, normal businessman by day and the hacker Neo by night. Through his hacking he hopes to uncover the answer to the question “What is the Matrix?” His quest leads him to an encounter with several different sinister entities called Agents, as well as to an underground hacking group led by a man named Morpheus. Morpheus tells Neo that he can reveal to him the secret of the Matrix and several members of Morpheus’ group, including a famous female hacker named Trinity, take him to a meeting with Morpheus where he is given a choice:
The famous red pill or blue pill.
Neo, of course chooses the red pill and learns that the world he knew is a computer program called the Matrix, run by the machines of the real world. Humans are used as batteries and those that are “woken” from the Matrix can escape their life of being a battery for the machines and can now attempt to fight them. He is told by Morpheus that he is “The One” who can lead them all into a new era of human rule.
The plot is way too big to be summarized in a couple of sentences. This is a trilogy, and since this is only the first movie, the vast majority of the plot is concerned with finding Neo, waking him up, learning about the Matrix and him becoming The One.
It’s a little convoluted and hard to follow sometimes but they shy away from doing too much that would interrupt the ability to actually watch the movie. They also pad the movie heavily with special effects. There is a lot of slow-motion, pause-y fighting. Then again, this is the movie that made that in vogue. Lots and lots of computer generation to get them to do things that are pretty impossible and of course, lots of wire work. These effects do a good job of entertaining you even if you lose bits of the plot. Granted, this one does not get as convoluted as it could but it does have just enough bits to keep you wondering. Especially that whole “is he or isn’t he The One” question.
I found it very original making our world into a computer game, essentially. It allowed for a liberal bending of certain rules. Having our world be nothing more than a computer gave a new definition to déjà vu, made killing people moral because they didn’t actually exist and allowed for all sorts of imaginative fight scenes. Like people running up walls, fighting while flying, moving faster than light, bending in ways nature never intended and stopping bullets with a thought. All of these things make the Matrix at the very least wicked entertaining to watch.
The characters, or the ones that matter, are rather nicely thought out as well.
First, the villain. I usually have some issues with the villain not being evil enough or not being given the right motivations. There are none of these issues in this movie. There are two main villains: the Matrix itself and the Agents acting for it, and Cypher.
Cypher is being puppeted by the Agents to deliver Neo to them. They tell him they can re-insert him back into the Matrix and make his life inside happy and wealthy. Not the greatest motivation, sure, but look at the world he lives in. He knows that everything tasty, warm and good is all an illusion and that life of struggling to get by is the real one. Being reinserted into the dream sounds pretty damn good.
The Agents are mostly run by an Agent Smith (played by Hugo Weaving) and while he follows the rules of the program, he is given the most leeway to bend them. The thing I liked about his character was that it wasn’t just a computer program. He seemed to have a glitch that made him a bit more of a free thinker. Now he still thought along the lines of destroying those that oppose the Matrix but he had a little more spunk to him that made him hate mankind more than the other programs did. It was nice to see.
The three main heroes are of course Morpheus, Trinity and Neo.
Now Trinity was cool but not too much of a major player. We know she’s a super-cool hacker chick. We also know she can kick ass and hold her own against the programs she fights. But then again, they all can. The same training has been uploaded to all their brains. She plays the love interest of Neo. In fact going so far as to say that the Oracle predicted that they’d be together and that’s how she knows he’s The One. But for all the problems being the romantic love interest can be, she never compromises on her beliefs. She’s still smart, and stubborn and willing to fight for her friends and what she believes in (like freeing the human race) despite what Neo or even Morpheus will tell her. Which makes her better in a lot of ways than some of the other romantic leads movies have given us.
Morpheus is there to play the mystical father figure. He takes Neo under his wing, guides him, teaches him. Has faith in him when no one else does. Morpheus is like the leader of some religious cult. He so firmly believes that Neo is The One that regardless of what anyone says, he can’t be talked out of it and will die for the cause. One could equate him to a suicide bomber in that regard because at one point he literally hands himself over to the Agents so that Neo can get away. Because the Agents are pretty much unbeatable, it’s pretty much committing suicide. Still, he has some good things to say and his faith in something is what keeps the group going no matter what, and that proves to be a useful thing.
Neo is the one everybody cares about. But part of his character flaws can be contributed to Keanu Reeves’ acting. For instance, anyone who has seen Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure can see a bit of that acting in here. For the first half of the movie, he remains in a constant state of confusion about what’s going on around him. The second half of the movie he remains in this doubtful, angsty place because he doesn’t believe he’s The One, he’s been told that he’s not and still people expect him to be. On the upside, he does man up after a while and go after his friend and comrade and attempts to find out if he is indeed The One.
It’s a little annoying when the ending hits because of the way he becomes The One, but I’m not going to completely give that away.
Final Thoughts: When everything’s said and done, even if you can’t follow the plot you can still be entertained by the movie. It’s got great effects, and they put a lot of work into making it look good and seem like a real world all on its own. The characters are likeable and like most movies, the good wins in the end. It definitely gets a 5 star rating all around from me.
Tattoos
Watching: 21 Jump Street season 1
Reading: Vampire Hunter D Volume 4: Tale of the Dead Town
Listening to: The Key of Awesome Megamix by Mike Realm.
What do you guys think of tattoos?
I tend to see it on the side of body modification, somewhere in the middle of the scale. I happen to love them. I think that the love and thought that goes into someone's tattoo (for the most part) is reflected back in the art that is now a part of them. Each one can tell a story and a very good artist makes that story worth looking at every time.
I currently only have one tattoo (and one piercing) on my right wrist. It's my zodiac symbol and I got it because my 3 best friends and I decided that we would all get that as our first tattoos once we turned 18 to symbolize not only our becoming adults but our friendship with each other. I look at it and I not only see a piece of my personality that I can't change staring at me, but also (in essence) my sisters and how we are linked together by that decision to put ink on our skin.
For the most part I don't think tattoos are ugly and I don't feel that people should be discriminated against for having them. They do not affect someone's work ethic nor does having one somehow make you a bad person. Tattoo technology has evolved to the point now where you can get UV tattoos. In essence, it's a tattoo done with ink that only shows up under a UV blacklight. My one roommate has an entire hand tattoo done in this ink. Essentially an invisible tattoo. I want to do the same thing on my fingers. (The plan is to get some foreign characters (don't know which ones yet) on my first or second knuckles on my left hand that says, from pointer to pinky: friend, lover, wife, mother. Bonus points if you know where I got the idea from.)
I started thinking about it when my friend Dani got her 8th tattoo. Each one looks beautiful and has some meaning behind it. They are a part of her that is on display for the world to see. I love that kind of strength and courage. It takes a brave person to put parts of themselves on display like that. Whether it's an aspect of your personality, a favorite hobby, family, an emotion or a piece of your heart. It takes strength and courage to show the world that part of yourself, no matter how mundane it may seem.
I plan on getting quite a few more tattoos in my time, though nothing like the sleeves and huge murals that some people have on their bodies. What about you? Do you plan on getting tattoos? What do you want to get and why? Do you have any currently? If so, what are they? Why did you get them?
I should shut up now.
Reading: Vampire Hunter D Volume 4: Tale of the Dead Town
Listening to: The Key of Awesome Megamix by Mike Realm.
What do you guys think of tattoos?
I tend to see it on the side of body modification, somewhere in the middle of the scale. I happen to love them. I think that the love and thought that goes into someone's tattoo (for the most part) is reflected back in the art that is now a part of them. Each one can tell a story and a very good artist makes that story worth looking at every time.
I currently only have one tattoo (and one piercing) on my right wrist. It's my zodiac symbol and I got it because my 3 best friends and I decided that we would all get that as our first tattoos once we turned 18 to symbolize not only our becoming adults but our friendship with each other. I look at it and I not only see a piece of my personality that I can't change staring at me, but also (in essence) my sisters and how we are linked together by that decision to put ink on our skin.
For the most part I don't think tattoos are ugly and I don't feel that people should be discriminated against for having them. They do not affect someone's work ethic nor does having one somehow make you a bad person. Tattoo technology has evolved to the point now where you can get UV tattoos. In essence, it's a tattoo done with ink that only shows up under a UV blacklight. My one roommate has an entire hand tattoo done in this ink. Essentially an invisible tattoo. I want to do the same thing on my fingers. (The plan is to get some foreign characters (don't know which ones yet) on my first or second knuckles on my left hand that says, from pointer to pinky: friend, lover, wife, mother. Bonus points if you know where I got the idea from.)
I started thinking about it when my friend Dani got her 8th tattoo. Each one looks beautiful and has some meaning behind it. They are a part of her that is on display for the world to see. I love that kind of strength and courage. It takes a brave person to put parts of themselves on display like that. Whether it's an aspect of your personality, a favorite hobby, family, an emotion or a piece of your heart. It takes strength and courage to show the world that part of yourself, no matter how mundane it may seem.
I plan on getting quite a few more tattoos in my time, though nothing like the sleeves and huge murals that some people have on their bodies. What about you? Do you plan on getting tattoos? What do you want to get and why? Do you have any currently? If so, what are they? Why did you get them?
I should shut up now.
Dancing
Watching: Moulin Rouge!
Reading: Vampire Hunter D Volume 4: Tale of the Dead Town
Listening to: Kimagure Princess by Morning Musume
One of the things I love doing with my time is dancing. Now, I'm not a good dancer. I can do what most people do in the clubs and that's about it. Just moving. No fancy footwork, no made-up choreography, none of that.
But I have found a sect of people on YouTube (of which I am an active member) that do dance covers. In other words, they learn the dances for Japanese songs and perform them on YouTube. Now, one of the reasons how/why they can do this is because the Japanese groups that do these videos usually put out two kinds: the original music video, and the dance shot version. In other words, they specifically want you to learn the dance. And thanks to the wonders of YouTube, you don't have to see these videos only in Japan.
There are several kinds of dances too. Mostly, people learn the really cute and simple shojo dances from the female idol groups. But there's also Para Para, which is a style of dance concerned primarily with arm movements while the feet are only a sidestep back and forth.
I've been learning them myself, especially the para para stuff because I find it fun. But what I really want to do is get some video of it and put it up on YouTube. I'd feel better knowing I could do these if the world that's into that knew it too. So many of the dancers are not only amazing to watch, but enhance their videos with some effects and subtitles and choose pretty locations and outfits to enhance the viewer experience. I wanna do it too!
Le sigh. Gotta find myself a good, cheap webcam.
Reading: Vampire Hunter D Volume 4: Tale of the Dead Town
Listening to: Kimagure Princess by Morning Musume
One of the things I love doing with my time is dancing. Now, I'm not a good dancer. I can do what most people do in the clubs and that's about it. Just moving. No fancy footwork, no made-up choreography, none of that.
But I have found a sect of people on YouTube (of which I am an active member) that do dance covers. In other words, they learn the dances for Japanese songs and perform them on YouTube. Now, one of the reasons how/why they can do this is because the Japanese groups that do these videos usually put out two kinds: the original music video, and the dance shot version. In other words, they specifically want you to learn the dance. And thanks to the wonders of YouTube, you don't have to see these videos only in Japan.
There are several kinds of dances too. Mostly, people learn the really cute and simple shojo dances from the female idol groups. But there's also Para Para, which is a style of dance concerned primarily with arm movements while the feet are only a sidestep back and forth.
I've been learning them myself, especially the para para stuff because I find it fun. But what I really want to do is get some video of it and put it up on YouTube. I'd feel better knowing I could do these if the world that's into that knew it too. So many of the dancers are not only amazing to watch, but enhance their videos with some effects and subtitles and choose pretty locations and outfits to enhance the viewer experience. I wanna do it too!
Le sigh. Gotta find myself a good, cheap webcam.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Nail Art
Watching now: 21 Jump Street season 1
Reading now: Vampire Hunter D Volume 4: Tale of the Dead Town
Listening to: Keep It In Your Pants by Taryn Southern
So I'm sitting here putting the final touches on my nails.
I really hate going to salons and getting my nails done. It's too much money and besides, the acrylic ruins your nails. So I do them at home myself. About once a week I take off the old polish, file and buff them up all pretty, oil up my cuticles and repaint my nails a new color. I will never wear the same color two weeks in a row, but that's about my only rule on colors.
I happen to be painting my nails a vibrant shade of purple this time around, and I'm doing it a few days earlier than usual too because I got some new nail polish, and new nail polish colors always go on first.
No, the color isn't new, but the top part is. It's a glow-in-the-dark glitter. And boy does it glow! Sucker lights some shit up that's for sure. But just putting it on by itself you need a good 3 or 4 coats for the effect and it bubbles up and peels right off, even with a base and top coat (that could also just be my nails.) So I'm putting it over the color to see how well it works.
Is there anything cooler than nail polish that glows in the dark?
Reading now: Vampire Hunter D Volume 4: Tale of the Dead Town
Listening to: Keep It In Your Pants by Taryn Southern
So I'm sitting here putting the final touches on my nails.
I really hate going to salons and getting my nails done. It's too much money and besides, the acrylic ruins your nails. So I do them at home myself. About once a week I take off the old polish, file and buff them up all pretty, oil up my cuticles and repaint my nails a new color. I will never wear the same color two weeks in a row, but that's about my only rule on colors.
I happen to be painting my nails a vibrant shade of purple this time around, and I'm doing it a few days earlier than usual too because I got some new nail polish, and new nail polish colors always go on first.
No, the color isn't new, but the top part is. It's a glow-in-the-dark glitter. And boy does it glow! Sucker lights some shit up that's for sure. But just putting it on by itself you need a good 3 or 4 coats for the effect and it bubbles up and peels right off, even with a base and top coat (that could also just be my nails.) So I'm putting it over the color to see how well it works.
Is there anything cooler than nail polish that glows in the dark?
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