It has been a little over a year since my last "serious" blog about moving onto the next chapter of my life. I believe it was one of my last that I posted before I left Xanga. In that post I talked about the excitement, anxiety and thankfulness of moving to SF, working at Yahoo! and just generally embarking on a new leg of the journey.
The past year has been 365+ days of constant blessings. The cynical side of me lives everyday worrying that I've reached the tipping point; that I would be on the downslope once again. The (new) positive side of me thanks God every chance I get for the amazing year I've had.
I've had some great travels for both work and fun this year: A bunch of trips to LA, couple trips to Michigan for reunions, bdays and just cuz, Costa Rica with the GSB crew, Vegas, Chitown and of course holiday with the fams back in New York. On top of those travels, I've had the great luck of having awesome visitors and friends moving to SF. All these events helped my transition into the new city smoother than it could've been. I remember being in total shock and regret my first weeks here thinking: "WTF did I just do...."
Since then more than a little has changed. The biggest and most impactful change is that I quit smoking. This in turn led to a series of changes that makes me who I am today. No smoking meant a boost in general health, loss of excess weight and the ability and desire to run. The last few months I've found a new "addiction" to running. I'm not one of those crazies buckling at the end of a marathon...yet.. I ran the 5K portion of the SF Marathon yesterday and had decent timing. 25:41 - could be better, but definitely not my worst. The 3.1 mile run seemed too short of an event though so I decided to train for the 1/2 Marathon in San Jose in Oct 2nd.
If I were reading this blog a year ago, I would not recognize myself. Every year since I graduated has been drastically different from each other. With that being said, I always forget that I've only been out of school for 3 years. It sure seems much longer than that.
Year 1: Flushing Days - First year at work, experiencing the city for the first time, being broke as a joke, attending the craziest events, eating at the sickest restaurants, vegging sessions with "24", PIF, Puerto Rico, Thanksgiving Dinner, New Year's Ski Trip
Year 2: Manhattan Days - Second year at work, more established and slightly more financially stable, living in Manhattan, going out like nutjobs, Apt Parties, Concussion while boarding, friends moving, random weird roommate, people being coupled off, Dominican Republic, getting burned out, making the biggest decision of my life
Year 3: Cali Days - New Job/New City/New Friends. Financial Stability, Rediscovering myself without my comforts, living alone for the first time, taking "drunk" to a new level, incredible travels, rediscovering happy herbs, Costa Rica, Vegas, Tahoe Ski Trip, quit smoking, started running, hosting visitors, healthy-more positive lifestyle
I try to look back and chronicle my life because it lets me track the gradation of changes in myself that I take for granted. So what's in store for Year 4? I've been thinking about this a lot lately and the last 3 years have been crazy and amazing, but just sort of happened. There were no goals or benchmarks to meet. I've just been living everyday as it was, "Carpe Diem-ing" and realized that almost 1,100 days have gone by like that. 1,100 Days! That's too many seizing of days I think, and now that I'm turning 26, it's time to live with more purpose, guidelines and goals. It starts with writing down long term goals and then posting pictures of them on a cork board as a physical representation. This seems silly and trite but otherwise I'll just fall back into my laissez-faire style and next thing you know I've lived 5 years that "just happened i guess". In nor particular order:
My Own Little Restaurant
Ski Chalet
A Large Family
Christ Centered Life
A Home in neighborhood w/trees
World Travels
My goals are simple.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
JUMPER - A Cinematic Autopsy
::SPOILER WARNING::
Some friends and I watched JUMPER over the holiday weekend. I give it an extremely gratuitous 3/5.
I hate movie bashing, but I'm going to take a cathartic second. There is a lot wrong with this film- beginning with its poor adaptation of the Steven Gould novel. It almost feels like this screenplay was written by some lame movie exec in the advent of the writer's strike. Unfortunately, based on the timing of its release and teaser marketing during post-production, such was not the case. The discontinuity of the plot proliferated by the lack of story and character development made it impossible to take the film seriously.
Three main storyline points were ignored:
The friction between the Paladins and Jumpers was also minimized to the point of irrelevance. It almost seemed like Samuel L Jackson’s character and his goons were attacking these kids just for shits and giggles. Opening the movie with a fight scene in ancient Egypt with ancestral Jumpers and Paladins would have lent more to the story than attempting to fabricate a deep root of romance between a young Hayden and Rachel.
I have my reservations about Hayden Christensen since he played the critical role of Anakan Skywalker. I can go for days harping about the monumental failure of a proverbial close-the-loop attempt on a global generation's cinematic affair - but I won't. I can't seem to come to terms with what the director (Doug Liman of Bourne Ultimatum) was thinking accepting this type of performance from an actor. It is absolutely painful to watch his performance... in the dark.. for 90 minutes. I almost wish the actor who played the young David Rice (Max Theriot) continued to play the role. I guess saying that, I can’t really expect to see the main character’s internal struggle reflected on the silver screen.
The shortcomings of this movie basically boils down to the classic conflict of art vs money; and in this case, money won (as it often does). Big studio budget means executive producers having final say on things such as quality of storyline, actors and directors. In this case, it was obvious that the lesser known Uhls (Fight Club) was overshadowed by genre fat cats Goyer and Kinberg (Ghost Rider and X-Men III respectively). High profile actor + CGI engineers + location budgets + Sold out Hollywood writers = opening weekend of $32MM.
While acknowledging the above mentioned pain points, I admit that the movie succeeds in delivering high octane action sequences and summer blockbuster-esque crescendo towards the end - which is fail proof formula for "feel good-iness". The cinematography is also a saving grace in this film. I’m sure it is tricky to include, in a relevant way, the locations as a tertiary character in the shoots; so kudos is definitely in order. I also obviously enjoyed the fact that Michigan (UofM - not the state) was a significant inorganic character as well. There was a split second shot of campus on State St. looking south. You’ll miss it if you blink. I say watch it if you are a Wolverine, enjoy travel and get distracted by shiny things.
Some friends and I watched JUMPER over the holiday weekend. I give it an extremely gratuitous 3/5.
- 1 point for the story being grounded in Michigan (Ann Arbor)
- 1 point for actual on-location shoots (emphasis on Rome)
- ½ point for cinematography
- ½ point for “blockbusterness”.
I hate movie bashing, but I'm going to take a cathartic second. There is a lot wrong with this film- beginning with its poor adaptation of the Steven Gould novel. It almost feels like this screenplay was written by some lame movie exec in the advent of the writer's strike. Unfortunately, based on the timing of its release and teaser marketing during post-production, such was not the case. The discontinuity of the plot proliferated by the lack of story and character development made it impossible to take the film seriously.
Three main storyline points were ignored:
- The relationship between the main character (David) and his parents
- The historical and current struggle of Jumpers vs Paladins
- The main character’s struggle with his ability and morality
The friction between the Paladins and Jumpers was also minimized to the point of irrelevance. It almost seemed like Samuel L Jackson’s character and his goons were attacking these kids just for shits and giggles. Opening the movie with a fight scene in ancient Egypt with ancestral Jumpers and Paladins would have lent more to the story than attempting to fabricate a deep root of romance between a young Hayden and Rachel.
I have my reservations about Hayden Christensen since he played the critical role of Anakan Skywalker. I can go for days harping about the monumental failure of a proverbial close-the-loop attempt on a global generation's cinematic affair - but I won't. I can't seem to come to terms with what the director (Doug Liman of Bourne Ultimatum) was thinking accepting this type of performance from an actor. It is absolutely painful to watch his performance... in the dark.. for 90 minutes. I almost wish the actor who played the young David Rice (Max Theriot) continued to play the role. I guess saying that, I can’t really expect to see the main character’s internal struggle reflected on the silver screen.
The shortcomings of this movie basically boils down to the classic conflict of art vs money; and in this case, money won (as it often does). Big studio budget means executive producers having final say on things such as quality of storyline, actors and directors. In this case, it was obvious that the lesser known Uhls (Fight Club) was overshadowed by genre fat cats Goyer and Kinberg (Ghost Rider and X-Men III respectively). High profile actor + CGI engineers + location budgets + Sold out Hollywood writers = opening weekend of $32MM.
While acknowledging the above mentioned pain points, I admit that the movie succeeds in delivering high octane action sequences and summer blockbuster-esque crescendo towards the end - which is fail proof formula for "feel good-iness". The cinematography is also a saving grace in this film. I’m sure it is tricky to include, in a relevant way, the locations as a tertiary character in the shoots; so kudos is definitely in order. I also obviously enjoyed the fact that Michigan (UofM - not the state) was a significant inorganic character as well. There was a split second shot of campus on State St. looking south. You’ll miss it if you blink. I say watch it if you are a Wolverine, enjoy travel and get distracted by shiny things.
26 and Stupefied
Lately I've been realizing how dumb I've become since I graduated college. It's actually an exponential curve with a severely negative slope. The most recent and ubiquitous example is my written communication skill, or lack thereof. I realize that I never read or write anymore. I mean of course I read and write, but nothing substantial or stimulating enough to encourage any sense of style in prose, or daresay, poetry.
I'm saddened by the fact that my writing has been whittled down to brief emails at work and succinct notes on Facebook or a stagnant blogspot. As for reading - forget about it. I live in a time where reading full newspaper/blog articles are a complete waste of time. RSS feeds - in massive quantities - in real time. Give me the blurb, the rest is packaging. How much more should I expect when we live in a world where attempting to explain our emotions has become extenuated :(
All this was emblazoned when I was clearing out the digital cobwebs in "My Documents" and found a short stack of papers and "Final Projects" that I apparently thought was worth saving 3 years ago. I was right. The 23 year old me somehow knew my 26 year old self would come to this point of mental staleness and would need a swift kick in the ass.
I read through some of my MKT and PSYCH papers and was left both dazed and confused. Not only was the shock of my internal voice resounding, I couldn't understand one thing I was reading. I'm sure there was a lot of bull cleverly layered into the papers, but back then, I really did understand what I was talking about. I know I did. But now, it all sounds like Russian. This weekend I plan to read through these now antiquated documents and reclaim what I used to know - or at least claimed to.
I'm saddened by the fact that my writing has been whittled down to brief emails at work and succinct notes on Facebook or a stagnant blogspot. As for reading - forget about it. I live in a time where reading full newspaper/blog articles are a complete waste of time. RSS feeds - in massive quantities - in real time. Give me the blurb, the rest is packaging. How much more should I expect when we live in a world where attempting to explain our emotions has become extenuated :(
All this was emblazoned when I was clearing out the digital cobwebs in "My Documents" and found a short stack of papers and "Final Projects" that I apparently thought was worth saving 3 years ago. I was right. The 23 year old me somehow knew my 26 year old self would come to this point of mental staleness and would need a swift kick in the ass.
I read through some of my MKT and PSYCH papers and was left both dazed and confused. Not only was the shock of my internal voice resounding, I couldn't understand one thing I was reading. I'm sure there was a lot of bull cleverly layered into the papers, but back then, I really did understand what I was talking about. I know I did. But now, it all sounds like Russian. This weekend I plan to read through these now antiquated documents and reclaim what I used to know - or at least claimed to.
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