Osama Bin Laden is dead

Yesterday, May 1st, 2011 will be a date that will go down in World History as a turning point.
Osama Bin Laden, the terrorist leader of Al qaeda was killed in a suburb of Islamabad named Abbotobad in Pakistan. The craziest thing is that it was a sizable compound near a military base. Well, the war on terror is far from over. I got more in depth with my thoughts on my Tumblr. Check it out.

http://iamrnb.tumblr.com/

Canucks finally win vs Chicago

The Vancouver Canucks finally avenged being eliminated by the Chicago Blackhawks (reigning Stanley Cup champs) for the last 2 years in the playoffs yesterday. Alexander Burrows got both of Vancouver's goals. One was in the first and the other was in OT. Johnathan Toews got a tie up goal for Chicago to send the game into OT. This rivalry got extremely ugly this year. I'm so glad that they wrapped up this series. It did go all the way to game 7; the Canucks also went into a slump in the the 3 games before game 7 after having won games 1-3 of the series. Nontheless, they got it done. I believe the Nashville Predators are next. They've had a fairly evenly matched season series vs. the Canucks. The Predators play a very defensive game that has frustrated the Canucks' highly offensive playing style. I'm sure we'll adapt. We're on our way. Can't wait until next round, then the Western Conference finals, then the Stanley Cup finals :-)

Blogger and Tumblr

I started a Tumblr

 I'm slowly warming up to the A.D.H.D. nature of Tumblr in comparison to the more thought out approach on Blogger. I have put some longer posts on Tumblr but it seems so much more suited to throwing out a quick image, thought, or quote rather than something heavily thought out.

I know they're all just different blogging platforms but it's clear that they both advocate different methods of blogging in my mind.

I'm not sold on the term microblogging. Blogging is blogging is blogging

later

Exam's week

It's that time of the semester again. 

Finals

I'm generally relieved after final paper writing is over

Got 2 finals this semester

One is on Thursday next week

The other is on the Monday of the week after

Either way, I'm gonna get the new Blu-rays of The Incredibles (a debut) and Cars (a reissue)

SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I'm a FILM enthusiast. Can you blame me. I do think that music is important but not as much as the written word and film. I'm totally biased. That being said, I generally love most movie musicals. It doesn't make
sense. Does anybody really have to?
 

Japanese Tsunami & Earthquake

The Japanese Earthquake & Tsunami has been on everyone's mind lately. Including mine. It was a record setting 8.9 earthquake for Japan, with aftershocks in the 7.0+ range. A 7.0 is already a major earthquake itself. The news coverage of it was surreal. It looked like Dean Devlin & Roland Emmerich disaster movies (they did Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, 2012) do. People, vehicles, and buildings were swept up in waves like they were toys. The region of Japan affected looked like the imagery of Japan at the end of World War II. The unstable nuclear plants are the worst part. The government has people in areas with the unstable plants taking Potassium Iodide or something and warn people to stay at home as much as possible. It's understandable why people are suddenly trying to flee towards the southern regions of the country. Aside from the government of Japan denying the actions of Japan in World War II in textbooks (politics), Japan is a country with wonderfully kind people. They don't deserve to suffer like they are right now. Luckily, all of my friends that are from Japan live in areas that were either unaffected or minimally affected. However, the third largest economy in the world is suffering right now and everyone will eventually feel the effects if not enough is done to help them.

The upheaval in the Middle East has also been an important story in the world recently. It's unfortunate that many of the dictators in the region used media attention shifting to Japan to punish their people violently for their desire to have freedoms that they should have had anyways.

We need to "Heal the World", like Michael Jackson said, in so many ways. I'm at least glad to know that people are finally starting to wake up and realize the responsibilities of having a deeply interconnected world.

YO!!! It's a mostly movie watching rant

I haven't written anything here since January. A lot and/or not much has happened since then.
I've become a Blu-ray & PS3 game consuming fiend. I've been trying to get as many Blu-ray versions of favorite films as fast as I can. I've also been picking up copies of catalogue titles that I really wanted to have that I hadn't seen yet. I've sadly also been unable to find a Blu-ray copy of David Fincher's Zodiac. The Fincher fiend in me is dying. I've been able to get a lot of film series sets that I wanted. I've got the X-men films & the Alien films as well. Amassing Disney & Pixar films has been a preoccupation as well. I did get one Dreamworks animation film. It was How To Train Your Dragon. It's spectacularly exciting and the character building sections are really done well also. All around, their best film since Kung-Fu Panda. I'm glad to have quickly got copies of Disney's Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Bambi, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, and The Princess and the Frog. All great films. I've only got one Pixar. That being Ratatouille. I actually really love Ratatouille. It's about living your passion & inspiration through cooking. I love that message. It heavily reminds me of the painting metaphor in Kiki's Delivery Service that inspires the protagonist of the movie to become a better broom flyer. I got Forrest Gump. I've actually loved this movie since it came out. I watch it every time it's on TV yet the Blu-ray is the very first time I've owned a copy of it. It's also the first time I've owned a copy of David Fincher's Se7en. Oddly, I haven't seen it & I love Fincher's films. It didn't disappoint. I knew what the ending of the movie was because it has been discussed countless times over in media, amongst friends & family, classmates, etc. Nonetheless, the ending is entirely appropriate. The whole cast is incredible in it as well. There's other movies that I've got since then but I haven't been able to watch them. I'm fine with that. When I'm not so busy, I'll watch those films & delve into their special features like I usually do.

There are a few of the Academy Award winning movies this year that I want to see. However, I want to see The King's Speech even less now than before. I didn't really wanna see it at all before. I just really enjoyed movies like The Social Network, Inception, Toy Story 3. Every other nominee that was up for best picture look intriguing as well. The King's Speech looks like formulaic British history based costume drama. Nothing more, nothing less. A whole film about somebody being treated for a speech impediment sounds overly dull to me. I've seen clips. Still not interested. However, Geoffrey Rush is great in everything he's in. I'm torn.

later

HAPPY NEW YEAR and the Catcher in the Rye

This past New Year's Eve I was in Victoria, B.C.
It's the capital of the province of Canada I live in.
I was going to help my Dad move some stuff out
of his place there because he finally got a job in the
Vancouver area again.

I started reading the Catcher in the Rye during
the ferry ride over to Vancouver Island. I g0t it
because it's one of those "classic" written works that
I'd not been able to read yet. When I bought my copy
I was surprised by its relative brevity of 214 pages.
I probably could of finished it within a day if left alone
without any interruptions. Nonetheless, I read it in bits
& pieces in a fairly quick span of 2-3 days.

It really made me think of the nature of human social
interactions. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist, spends so
much time being disinterested in the intricacies of human
socialization yet he can't be the way he is without those
social protocols existing. In a way, his constant references
to various people as "phonys" is an excuse to not become
too invested in anything or anyone. He's intelligent but
generally unmotivated. He's always trying to look for
the "phony" in everyone. It becomes an obsession.
I think one of the reasons that this book was so interesting
to me is that Holden seemingly strives for disconnection from
people, society, and the world at large. However, he's always
remembering good and bad times that he's had in New York
City and the New England area. He also wants to dispense
with the formalities of social introductions as soon as
possible. I can appreciate that. There's nothing more awkward
than initial meetings. I can appreciate that. Finding common
ground is difficult. Arbitrariness is in everything. Holden really
takes this to heart. He wants to escape his personal version of
the mundane. He is always thinking for better or worse. He
generally sees the worst in people before the positives. He doesn't
want to admit that he needs personal attachments. This is made
even more interesting by showing his increased sensitivity to
many norms and social interactions. One of my favorite aspects
about the narrative is how Holden deviates from telling the 'present day'
storyline by recounting anecdotes of the 'past'. It really enriches the whole
novel. Another aspect I really liked is simple. Holden's narrative voice sometimes
acknowledges the reader in 'breaking the wall' fashion. The novel
is written in a manner that makes the reader feel the way that
NYC & the New England area feels to the character Holden Caulfield.
This was kind of a revelation for me while reading it. I love when
books really describe the hell out of their locations with a lot of personality.
We're left to experience those locations through Holden. Holden is also
delightfully biased. I love characters written with their biases on their sleeves.
They're more interesting that way. He's highly intelligent but he's also highly
suspect because of his inability or indifference to personally connecting with people.
The one relationship in the novel that was most interesting to me was between
Holden and his little sister. His kid sister sees right through his protective
facade of calling nearly everyone a phony yet she loves him. She calls him
out regularly on his faults yet Holden doesn't dislike her for it. In my opinion,
It's the heart of the novel. It's a bit of a shame that J.D. Salinger didn't publish
more works post-Catcher in the Rye.

Finally, If only to acknowledge it. I was reading this novel in basically the same
time of year that the novel takes place in. Christmas & New Year's in New York
City can be beautiful but the New York City of Catcher in the Rye is like a wonder
and a monstrosity of the past rolled into one package. Holden Caulfield greatly
dislikes other Upper Class people like himself yet he can't get away from them
if he tried. He's a rich kid that doesn't want anything to do with riches, wealth, status
and the means to achieve those things. He's an oddity yet I found myself identifying
with him quite a bit. Apparently, Ronald Reagan's would be assassin John Hinckley Jr.
quite identified with this book too. Should I be worried for myself? hah hah

later. Here's to reading even more good reads, old and newly published works, throughout 2011.
Yeah, I'm continuing on with the resolution I made in the middle of last year to read much more than I had in the past. It's a good practice. I've noticed that people who read less aren't necessarily dumber but their vocabularies suffer. I wouldn't want that to happen. Reading makes
you knowledgeable about things. I like being knowledgeable.

Have a great 2011