Wop Rock

For years I've loved old 50's rock and doo wop. This music was the birth of rock and roll, and it has evolved into what we have today. I also love modern day rock in all of its forms and genres. I can listen to both 50's "rock" and modern day rock all day every day and not get tired of it. This is why I thought about inventing a whole new genre of music called "Wop Rock" (or "Doo Rock", I haven't decided on the name yet). This genre was going to be composed of the doo wop singing elements and harmonic 50's sounds mixed with modern day heavy guitar riffs and "nu-metal" even. As it turns out, I was listening to Spotify last night and there's a band that already does music like this. They don't sound exactly like what I had in mind but they're very very close. I now know that this type of music is possible and I definitely plan on "experimenting" in this genre and seeing what I can come up with. This music would be "The Beach Boys" meet "Korn" (not as extreme as Korn, but with Korn-like elements). I don't know if my music would be that popular, but I know that I'd like it, so there has to be someone else who would enjoy listening to it as well.  

The Letdown

Before I start sharing my innermost feelings I want to clarify that I'm not some doom and gloom, emotional type because I know I have talked about my romantic life (more like romantic failings) quite often, I just have to come up with some more blog posts and this is the first topic that came to mind. There's this girl that I met this past April at my Senior year prom who I had a short "fling" with. I really didn't even plan on going to prom because I hadn't asked anybody and I had already been the year before, and I thought if you've been there once then there's no point in doing the same thing again. Of course, I decided to go at the last possible minute and ended up having a blast like I always do at those type things, dancing the night away (badly I might add). When dancing with one of my friends and her other friends I met this girl Alex. I thought she was so much like me because she started "dance battling" me. I would do a dance move, and she would repeat it or make it better. This went on all night and I really liked this girl (as lame as all of that sounds). She was pretty, she had a sense of humor (which is a very important character trait to me). So naturally her and me started seeing each  other, and I found out we were both very similar yet very different from each other. We got in so many arguments, not necessarily out of anger, but just disagreement on every single thing. We were off and on for several months and recently I just ended it for good. She probably didn't believe this, but I told her that it wasn't that I didn't want a relationship with her, it was just that I couldn't necessarily see one working out in the long term. I meant every word of it.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

What can I say, I've always loved Christmas. All kids love Christmas and all the flashiness that goes with it, but not everyone continues to love it this much even when they're older. I could listen to Christmas music all year long, over and over again, and I'd never get tired of it. When it comes to Christmas music, I always say, "the older the better". Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, all of those Christmas songs from the 50's are the best in my opinion. Oh yea and "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer". One of my favorite things to do when I was a kid was get under the Christmas tree and look up inside it, where you could see all of the bright lights and the patterns of the green branches (in our case it has always been plastic branches or whatever they make fake Christmas trees out of). I can still remember my grandfather and me going downstairs almost every Christmas morning before everyone else got up, and we'd take a peek at my presents. Sometimes this was impossible because my parents tended to put wrapping paper over the openings to our den. This was always fun, because it made the tension and excitement of seeing our presents build even more that it already had. My sister and I would then run through the paper, our faces lighting up on the other side.

Calloused

Just the other day (I don't remember how or why it came up) I was thinking about how evil our world can be sometimes. This "evil" is not always in the Hitler-like, murderous sense of the word, in fact more often than not it is a lot more subtle than this, because that's how Satan gets us. Now most people probably wouldn't agree with me, saying that I'm just being a religious fanatic, but I'm not trying to come off that way. When I say this is how "Satan gets us", I'm referring to myself more than anyone else because I've noticed it in my own life. When I was a kid, my parents made what was right and what was wrong very evident to me. They weren't extremely strict, but I knew what was "good" and what was "bad". My dad would used to make me cover my ears in movies when there was cursing, or cover my eyes when something remotely sexual came on the screen. This was so ingrained in me, that he really didn't even have to tell me to do so, if I saw something "bad" on the screen I would guard my eyes and ears myself without being told. As I've gotten older, I've noticed that I have become more calloused to these things. I don't cover my ears anymore, and I don't always turn away from sinful things in the way that I should, the way that I used to. I'm not saying that I need to go back to the innocent, childlike state that I used to be in (when I was a kid), but sin is sin and it sells. Big time. No matter what age I am or how "mature" I am I should always turn away from these evil things, and that's something that I fail at miserably on a normal basis.

Movies That Don't Get Old

There are 3 movies that I love so much that they never get old, I could watch them over and over again. These are "The Dark Knight", "Shaun of the Dead", and "The Punisher". There are many other movies that I could watch over and over, but these are the ones that I HAVE watched over and over. Why I love "The Dark Knight" goes without saying because everyone has seen this movie. Sure Christian Bale is great in it, but I don't like it because of Christian Bell. It is obviously because of Heath Ledger's (may he R.I.P.) unforgettable portrayal of "The Joker". His character is pretty much my favorite character ever, I know everyone says that but I really mean it. Tom Hardy did a phenomenal job as Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises", but "The Joker" is still my favorite character out of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, also making "The Dark Knight" my favorite movie out of the trilogy. Second is "Shaun of the Dead". When it comes to horror comedies and zombie movies, "Shaun of the Dead" is king. If you haven't seen this movie you really should. Besides the fact that it's gut-bustingly (no pun intended) hilarious, it's also actually very well made, special effects wise (visually), and it even has a couple of good scares. Last, but certainly not least, is "The Punisher". This is probably one of my dad and mine's favorite movie. Essentially, the protagonist's family is massacred and him being a soldier (what type I can't remember) he exacts his vengeance on everyone remotely involved with his family's death. This guy is such a "bad at sign double dollar sign" (if you know what I mean), brutally killing all the bad guys.

Newton's Words of Wisdom

Women are like candy in a candy store. You see all these different kinds of candy, different colors, shapes and sizes, and you want all of them, because they all look great in their own unique way. You like these different kinds of candies for different reasons. Some are bitter a lot of the time, but right after this they are sweet, it happens so fast that you don't really understand what just happened. Some are sweet all of the time, these types are generally the ones that I personally like, what you see is what you get, I respect that. Other "candy" will be appealing at first, but as time goes by you understand that it's not really your "type". However when you try to move on and forget about the taste (not trying to be perverted, I'm just sticking with the candy analogy), it sticks with you and becomes bland and revolting, and no matter how hard you try you can't get rid of it. Some candy might look good, but in the long run you know you'll regret choosing it and you'd just be better off without it. At the end of the day your mom makes you pick just one candy, and you pick the one that's best for you. This is the candy that you'll stick with for the rest of your life, and it will always be your favorite.

So Screwed

Yes, I am indeed "so screwed". You could say that I'm just whining and complaining and not looking at the positive aspects of it all, and you'd be right. Nonetheless, it has come to the end of the semester, and I predict that I'm only going to pass 3 of my 5 classes. I kind of "breezed by" this semester, just feeling lazy and unmotivated most of the time. As a result, I have not done well on a lot of my tests, and will probably have to retake a couple of my classes. I know it isn't the end of the world, but it feels like it. It's funny because in my last blog post I just finished talking about how pessimistic I am most of the time, and here I am complaining about the very things that I said I always complain about (I just confused myself on that last part). My point in all of this is that I have to start getting more serious about my future. I think everyone (especially me) wishes that "life was just fun and games", but sadly as we all know, this isn't the case. I have a lot to do tonight. I have a paper that I have to turn it tonight, and I'm no where near getting it done. Professors always seem to shove all the important things towards the last couple of weeks of the semester making my stress level way above normal (though my stress level is usually very high because I am an "on edge" kind of person).

What I'm Thankful For

I really take my life for granted. I am such a pessimist, living by the adage, "Life sucks, then you die". However, I know that this isn't really the case, because God's blessed me with so much in my life. Thanksgiving is an annual reminder of all of this. I live in a country where I have freedom of religion, and though I don't know how much longer this will last, I am free to worship God, and am not persecuted for my religious beliefs. I am constantly complaining about my grades and my workload, when this is all my fault, me just being lazy and lacking motivation. I have been given a family that, even though we fuss and fight some of the time, loves me and cares about me. These things that seem so menial and "normal" I constantly take for granted, when I should be thanking God for them each and every day. I might think and say sometimes that life is hard, and that I struggle so much, but this isn't the case, not at all. I have it so stinking easy, and each and every day I am constantly reminded of how easy I really have it.

Everything and Nothing

Everything I'm faced with, everyone I live with, every time I do anything, most of the time it seems like nothing. "Nothing" to me is really everything to Him. I'm always complaining about the "nothing" that I'm doing, but it's just because I take everything for granted.

Life's Too Short

The other day, a family in my church suffered a terrible loss in their family. I am not really close to the family myself, but my sister is best friends with one of their daughters. The girl's father passed away on Saturday due to a freak four-wheeler accident that happened that morning. What was so horrible (I can't imagine how it was for them) was that he was perfectly healthy up to that morning, but in the blink of an eye he was in the hospital, and several hours later (that very day) he passed. This made me think about how short life is and how we are never promised a "full life". It's hard to say that "it's all in God hands", (even though I know it is) and I know it'd be especially hard if I was in their situation. Even in this hard time, my sister's friend (the daughter of the man who passed) was telling the rest of her family that "it is in God's hands". I really respected her in saying this, this girl is several years younger than me and she was wiser than most grown men and women in that type situation. Needless to say, it makes you grateful for what you have every day. We constantly overlook (and take for granted) what we have been blessed with, so we need to live each day as if it was our last.

Music These Days...

Like anybody else, I love music, but the new music these days just sucks. Now, this is a sweeping generalization because not ALL new music sucks, but for the most part it does. I'm tired of all this new indie crap that comes on the "rock" stations these days. I'm a fan of actual "rock", with shredding guitars and dudes who actually sounded like dudes and not like pre-pubescent girls. However, when it comes to music of the past couple of years, there is one uprising genre that I do like. Dubstep. Dubstep is awesome, especially the dubstep with heavy "drops". I never liked "techno", and some people would say that "techno" is the same as dubstep, but if they actually listened to both of them seperately they would see that they're really different. The only thing that I have against music like dubstep is that I'm afraid that my kids will never know what musical instruments are because they're replacing instruments with computer generated sounds. Guitars, drums, and all other instruments are going to be completely obsolete because everyone is going to make music on their computers.

Turkey Day Food

I love Thanksgiving and all the food that I get to eat on that day, and of course I love Turkey too, but Turkey isn't my favorite food. The best possible combination of food on any day of the year is a combination that I usually only eat on Thanksgiving, that would be ham and sweet potato casserole. For those of you who don't know what sweet potato casserole is, it's basically candy. This casserole is made out of sweet potatoes (duh), with brown sugar on it, and melted marshmallows. This casserole is so sweet that it might as well be a dessert, it's awesome. Warm ham with this makes it even better. Ever since I was a little kid I loved ham. I could eat that stuff all day (and on Thanksgiving I make sure that I do just that). For a week after Thanksgiving, there is usually a lot of food left over, so I end up eating ham and sweet potato casserole like twice a day. I don't mind at all, it's as if it is Thanksgiving every day for that next week.

Left Turns

Everyone has heard the quote, "Where would you end up if you kept making left turns?" This is referring to driving, and ever since I started driving the desire to do this has been in the back of my mind. Now obviously, if you keep making left turns you're probably eventually going to end up where you started, but the concept is still intriguing. I definitely want to do a lot of travelling when I'm older, whether it's taking a trip comprised of nothing but left turns, or seeing the seven wonders of the world. I want to do it all. I don't know how I'm going to do this, or even if I'll be able to pay for all of the fuel that my gas guzzling F-150 devours, but somehow, some way I'm going to do it. I definitely don't want to go at it alone though. I'm either going to have to become best friends with someone who likes to travel, or marry a girl who wants to travel the world like I do, most likely (and preferably) the latter.

Why I Love Thursdays

My Thursdays are usually always good, but this Thursday (today) is going to be especially great. My agenda for today is to leave AUM at 2, thankfully I don't have work today so I have the rest of the day off. Then I have to go to the CVS by my house because I'm out of Dr. Peppers and my mini-fridge is calling out their name. Then I'm going to go home and watch some T.V. T.V. on Thursdays is great because 2 of my favorite shows come on on Thursday night, "The Big Bang Theory" and "The Office", I flippin' love both of these shows. On top of this, I got Halo 4 on Tuesday, so I'll be playing that crap into the wee morning hours. I can do this because I don't have work tomorrow either (actually now that I think about it I might have work after all, I'll have to double check), so I'll just sleep until noon because I'll be so tired from staying up and playing Halo. I don't have class on Fridays (obviously) which adds to the wonders of Thursday night. I know to most people this seems like a lame, sad, and boring way to spend a Thursday afternoon, but in the words of the great Woody Harrelson, in the oscar worthy "Zombieland", "You gotta enjoy the little things."

Crimson Sunrise

The movie "Red Dawn" is coming out in theaters in a couple of weeks, and I began to see how realistic that type of situation is and what a fitting time it is for it to come out. Our new President was elected this past Tuesday and needless to day he wasn't the one I voted for. I'm not going hate on President Obama, I think he's very intelligent in many ways, but I really do not want to see a repeat of the past four years, and I have no idea why anyone else would want to see it repeated (but obviously there are many who do). Of course, I don't put all of the blame of our nation's current struggles/problems on our President, we are obviously on an Economic decline, much of which could not have been fixed in four years' time. I know it would be hard to lead this country in such a time as this. Never the less, I don't see any of this ending well. I jokingly said on facebook that I was beginning to believe all of the fanatics who said that the world was coming to an end at the end of this 2012 year. A "Red Dawn" scenario seems frighteningly possible now considering how hated we are by many other countries, and how financially in debt we are to other countries. I am no skeptic or fanatic of sorts, and I am definitely not saying that I see this happening, but I'm not sure that my children will grow up in the same America that I was blessed to grow up in.

My Best (Then Worst) Holiday Memory

I say this was my best and worst holiday memory because at the time it seemed great, but later on the memory was best left forgotten. It was Christmas of either 2001 or 2002 and we had all just finished opening up our gifts...or so I thought. The details are a little fuzzy, but I think my parents told me and my sister to pick up all the wrapping paper and throw it in this big cardboard box. So I was obedient and did as they said, however I didn't look in the box before I started filling it with crumpled, torn wrapping paper. My parents started laughing and told us to look in the box. I looked at the box and was surprised to see that all the wrapping paper was moving, so I dug through it all and found a black puppy at the bottom. Both my sister and I were so happy. I honestly don't remember what breed it was (at the time I didn't really care about what type of dog it was), the fact that it was a dog was good enough. We named her "Lucky", the most ironic name that she could have been given. We soon learned that we weren't so "lucky" because that dog was the spawn of Satan. She wasn't really mean to me, but she bit my dad three or four times and she bit several other men as well. So needless to say we got rid of her several months after that Christmas, making this a bittersweet memory.

My Most Diffficult Decision (continued)

Over the years she became old and brittle and she began to get arthritis in her legs (mostly due to the white trash next door who hit her with his car when she was 2 or 3), so her dying was inevitable. But Lassie hung in there for nine years, and this past summer her leg got run over. When we took her to the vet they put a cast on her leg and said that she probably wouldn't ever heal. If she had been younger she would have healed in no time, but since she was so old and arthritic, she couldn't get up and walk around on the leg. My parents said that we needed to put her out of her misery, and I argued with them vehemently because I didn't want to lose her, even though I knew it would probably be better for her if we got her put down. After about 2 days of struggling with the idea, we took her to the vet to put her down. If anyone (humans and animals alike) deserved to keep living it was Lassie, and I will never forget her.

My Most Difficult Decision

If I had to choose, I think my most difficult decision in my entire life would be putting down my last dog "Lassie" which happened this past summer. We had Lassie since she was a couple of months old, she was already a fairly big dog, but definitely still a puppy. At first, we were going to get Lassie for my grandparents, but the dog that we had at the time was a hound from hell, so we said we would keep Lassie if we ended up giving the evil one away. Of course, we ended up putting the other dog in the pound, so Lassie came home with us. I am so glad that she came home with us that day because she was the best dog that I have had and probably will ever have. We had Lassie for about 9 years, and during those 9 years she was the sweetest, smartest, most loving dog that has ever existed on the face of this earth. My dad would say that if God's creations (in this case he was referring to humans and animals alike) went to heaven based on their sin nature alone, then Lassie would be in heaven because she never did anything wrong. She would have given her life if it meant saving the life of anyone in my family. She was a great guard dog.

Politickin

Last week I registered to vote, so today I plan on going down to the YMCA by my house and casting my ballot. This election, the first time I'll ever vote for president, I am not completely satisfied with our candidates. I even thought about voting for Morgan Freeman because of, "the grandpa-like vibe that he gives off and let's face it, he could talk anyone into doing anything with his calm, wise voice." However, Mr. Freeman is not a very realistic choice as our nation's upcoming leader. Nonetheless, I believe this election comes down to picking "the lesser of two evils". Now don't get me wrong, I think neither Obama nor Romney are "evil", I just want the least amount of damage done to our country as humanly possible. This is one of the many reasons that I'm voting for Mitt Romney. My decision, when broken down, comes down to the personal beliefs and convictions of the individual candidates. For instance, I'm not saying Obama is a "baby killer", but I vehemently oppose Abortion, so that would be one reason that I wouldn't vote for Obama.

Trick Nor Treat: The Final Chapter

Now in retrospect I probably should have screamed or something before the garage door closed, almost guaranteeing that he would have jumped out of his shoes from fright. However, I was so into the dark-foreboding, Michael Myers-esque character that I just watched him close the door without making a single sound. Next, we tried scaring Tanner (the brother who originally was supposed to scare me) and I was certain this attempt would prove much more successful. First, I hid down stairs in the dark, but Tanner was taking a shower that was longer than most peoples' showers in a whole week. So then we decided that I would hide in his room behind the door, waiting for him to come in. I told them to turn off the lights but they didn't, saying that it would look more suspicious, however now I was very exposed, the bedroom door being my only hiding place. Tanner walked in, and I creeped behind him, waiting for him to turn around. He turned around and his only reply was "Oh hey". It was an utter failure to say the least.

Trick Nor Treat: Part 2

When I get there Hunter tells me to come inside and scare them, which of course is harder because all their lights are on and there wasn't many places that I could hide. After planning for like 20 minutes outside like a couple of idiots, Hunter tells me to come hide in front of his garage to scare one of his brothers. He gets Taylor (one of the brothers) to come outside and get something from the garage. Now I was going with the Michael Myers approach, which basically is hide in the shadows and don't make a sound, instead let them turn around and see you. The problem with this was that there garage is on a timer, so the light wouldn't turn off long enough for me to find a good place to hide. So instead I stood outside the front of the garage in the shadows, thinking that he would surely see me standing there, holding the axe that Hunter game me (strictly for dramatic effect of course). To my disappointment, Taylor walks out in the garage and the first thing that he does is close the garage door.

Trick Nor Treat

Last night, Halloween, I attempted to scare some of my friends. The guys that I was trying to scare are all brothers, and one of the brothers, Hunter, and I had been hatching a plan for a couple of weeks. He overheard one of his brothers saying that they he was going to sneak into my house and scare me when I least expected it. Supposedly he had told my sister about his plan, so that she could let him in the house if need be. So our plan (the brother that was on my side and me) was for me to come over and sneak in their house while he was trying to come over to my house, so when he got there I would be gone. So after all of this planning, I put a costume together. I got a burlap sack and cut eye holes in it. I got a tan raincoat and covered it in fake blood. I even got an old chainsaw that doesn't work any more and put some fake blood on that too. I looked legit, if I might say so myself. So the time comes, and I'm ready to go, but Hunter calls me and says that he doesn't think that his brother is going to come to my house after all. We decide to do it anyways though. My plan was just to drive to their house, parking several houses away so that they couldn't see my truck, and stand out in their front yard for a couple of minutes all creepy-like.

Motivation

Ever since I graduated from High School, I have been in "summer mode". I guess somehow I think that I'm done with "school" because I just graduated, when in reality I have another 4 years (at least). I have found it very hard to focus and be motivated, partly due to the fact that I really have no idea what I want to do with my life. As of right now I am planning on majoring in Business Management, but as the semester has flown by, I'm starting to rethink my future career. Throughout my life I've gone from doctor to basketball player to shoe salesman to actor to rockstar to movie director (most of these were spur of the moment decisions when I was a kid, so I have no desire to carry out those dreams now). My biggest issue right now, whatever I end up doing with my life, is just being motivated enough to study and take the initiative to pay attention in my classes so that I can hopefully past them and learn something while I'm at it. This is my primary goal right now, before I focus on the more important, life-altering decisions.

Library Research

I think that I slightly misunderstood the purpose of this project and what we were supposed to research in the library, but when I heard that we could write on our discourse community (at least I thought this was an option) the first thing that naturally came to mind was directing horror movies. Going on this basis, I found two or three books in the library that might help me with this project. The first book that I looked at was "The Historical Dictionary of Horror Cinema" by Peter Hutchings. This book was published by The Scarecrow Press, Inc. in 2008. From what I saw, this "dictionary" went from A to Z on every possible aspect of horror movies (directors, movies, characters, and so on). Next I found "The A-Z of Horror Films" by Howard Maxford. This book was published in 1997 by the Indiana University Press in Bloomington and Indianapolis. This book was basically the same as the last one, giving an in depth coverage of horror's history. The last one I found actually turned out to be absolutely no help at all. I cannot remember the name of it, but it essentially was a book full of old scary poems throughout history. As cool as this book was, it provided no support for me and my future career endeavors.

The Walking Dead

Every Sunday at 8:00 I sit down and watch my favorite show on TV, "The Walking Dead". Ever since Episode 1 of Season 1 I have been a die-hard, dedicated follower of this show. To those who have never seen the show, it is a pointlessly violent, gory, zombie-slaying massacre, however the show is about so much more than that. "The Walking Dead" is a gripping drama that will draw you in week by week and leave you wanting more ever time. Sure the show is gory, probably the goriest show on television, but behind all the blood and guts relationships are formed. Individuals who would generally never get along are forced to work together when faced with a herd of walking, ravenous corpses. No matter what the tragedy, fictional and non-fictional alike, human interaction doesn't change. Sometimes, when faced with difficult situations a person will become someone completely different from who they were previously. Difficult times change people and they way that they see the world, the way that they see others, and the way that they communicate with others. "The Walking Dead" uses zombies to touch on the center of a human being at their most troubling and vulnerable times.