I’m thankful for…

• my family that love and support me.
• my friends that make me happy.
• my best friend who I enjoy talking and listening to almost everyday.
• my independence for the last 2 years.
• my job that I absolutely love and enjoy doing.
• my apartment that I have slowly but steadily furnished.
• the CTA for providing me with transportation everyday.
• my laptop for without it, I’d be lost!
• CSS3, jQuery, Ubuntu, Chrome, VLC, and Eclipse (to satisfy my inner computer nerd).
• Tumblr for providing me with hours and hours of enjoyment and distractions.
• Netflix and its instant streaming for providing me with hours of television to watch.
• Joss Whedon for Buffy, Firefly, Dr. Horrible, and Dollhouse.
• my newfound love for free movie screenings.
• J.K. Rowling for HARRY FREAKIN’ POTTER.
• the finale of Lost.
• Schubas and Lincoln Hall for having lots of awesome shows.
• Chicago Comics for being my local comic book shop.
• Fables and The Walking Dead for being consistently entertaining comics.
• relationships; even though they can be turbulent, they still provide lots of good memories.
• the city of Chicago for being a wonderful place and giving me a home.

What are you thankful for?

Sorry about that.

You know the usual excuses: work, life, laziness, etc… I’ve been more dedicated to microblogging; posting on my tumblr and twitter. Also, my readership has increased by like 2… and they’re from work. And that makes me a bit more wary about the personal stuff I post online, even though they’re pretty cool about most things.

So updates: work has been awesome, joined a softball team in the spring, had a fun summer, had an AWESOME birthday, and most recently been starting to go to movie screenings. I also met a girl… but I don’t think it’d be appropriate to blog about that right now.

I decided to finally update the site theme as well as make this post. I’ve been really lazy about updating this site, and my friend really berates me for it. So here you go: one new blog entry!

I have some draft posts actually with only one or two really interesting ones. I’ll try to post and write more, especially with what’s going on in my life. Until then, thanks for sticking around!

So I’ve been looking up upcoming shows and added them to my calendar. I am determined to go to as many of these as I possibly can.

• 01/24 – Timbaland at House of Blues
• 01/27 – Everclear at House of Blues
• 02/02 – Utada Hikaru at House of Blues
• 02/22 – Jack’s Mannequin at House of Blues
• 03/05 – New Found Glory w/ Saves the Day at House of Blues

So yeah, all those are at the House of Blues. I’ve been there to see Gavin Rossdale, the place is good for concerts. I like to see other smaller, unknown bands and artists as well, but these are the bigger ticket ones I want to keep an eye on and buy tickets before they’re sold out.

If anyone else knows any other cool bands I should check out, let me know!

02/04 Edit: Also gotta see Switchfoot at the House of Blues on 02/16!

Glee
Wednesdays at 9/8c on Fox
I never knew that I wanted a musical comedy-drama in my life… until now. I actually saw Glee’s pilot episode a couple months ago and have been eagerly awaiting for the start of the series. Glee centers around a high school show choir, also know as the glee club, and the faculty that work there. The characters are already both deeply complicated, yet lovable. Some are annoyingly self-centered, but the actors and actresses pull it off so well that I want to see more of them! At first I sensed a little bit of the O.C. or perhaps even Gossip Girl, but this is set in Ohio, not exactly the setting for glam, money, and fame. But the dramatic elements are there to keep things intriguing. It is also sprinkled with moments of comedy, providing a balance to the cut-throat world of high school. But what really makes this show are its song and dance numbers. As a guy who now appreciates musicals thanks to Dr. Horrible’s Sign-Along Blog, this show totally brings it to the forefront. The song selections work really well with the stories and don’t feel awkward or mistimed at all. There’s something to be said when I get a good feeling in my heart when I see a high school football team do a dance number on the field to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies.” I really recommend this show, so be sure to catch up on it on hulu!

House
Mondays at 8/7c on Fox
An awesome, awesome show. The medical Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Gregory House, and company return for a sixth season to bring us more episodes of medical mysteries and drama. Every episode from past seasons usually seem to follow a strict formula: a patient checks into the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital with a undiagnosable symptoms, House and his team attempt to find out what’s wrong while trying not to bicker too much, try out some treatments, almost kill the patient as he/she gets worse and worse, House has an epiphany, and the patient is cured. All the while, House pops some pills, causes sexual tension between himself and the super sexy Dr. Lisa Cuddy, annoys his friend Dr. Wilson, and is a jerk to everyone around him. Nothing wrong with repetition, mind you, because there was hardly an episode that I didn’t like. Now at the end of last season, House looked like he was at the end of his rope and needed to kick his drug addiction habit or suffer from constant hallucinations. I caught the last half of the season premier, where House had checked into a psychiatric hospital. It was all Dr. House and none of rest of the cast made an appearance, so this was a big change in the show’s format. I’m not sure if I liked that nor not. But House looked to be maturing and changing as a character, so I guess it’s a step in the right direction in an evolving story. If the last 5 seasons have proved anything, I’m ready for what season 6 will bring to the table.

How I Met Your Mother
Mondays at 8/7c on CBS
A show that I just got into a few months ago. I can’t believe I’ve been missing it. This and the Office are the only two sitcoms that I absolutely love right now. It’s actually a story being told by a father, Ted Mosby, to his children about his life and events that lead him to meet their mother. The show follows Ted and his group of tight-knit friends in New York City as they live their young adult lives. I find this show very appealing for a number of reasons. One is that they’re right around my age group: mid 20′s-30′s, out of college and living independent, adult lives. I find myself in awe as they all live their lives, going out, having fun, dealing with issues that I think will pertain to me in the near future. Another reason are the characters/actors. With a cast that has Jason Segel (from Freaks and Geeks and Forgetting Sarah Marshall), Alyson Hannigan (from Buffy and American Pie), and mother-fucking awesome Neil Patrick Harris (wtf if you don’t know NPH, I refuse to acknowledge your existence) I truly feel their connection and bonds as friends. One other reason I love this show is Ted’s quest for love. He’s done the partying life (thanks the legendary best friend, NPH’s Barney Stinson), and now he’s ready to love the woman who will love him back. I’m a bit of a romantic myself, so I identify with Ted’s plight. It’s a great heart felt story that I don’t think much other shows have been sympathetic to. Please give this show a chance if you haven’t yet.

There are a couple of other shows that I’ll be keeping an eye on: Mad Men, Gossip Girl, Dexter, and Breaking Bad to name a few. I just haven’t caught up on all the episodes yet, so I can’t watch the new seasons until then. I might have to spurge and get some new DVD sets soon…

What shows are you excited to see this new season?

I kept telling myself to write this review, because I didn’t want others to miss out on it. I’ve been putting it off, mostly because of the new job, but now’s a good time as any to give my impressions of Moon.

I had no idea of the film’s existence until I saw a quick preview of it on Current TV’s Rotten Tomatoes show (awesome cable station, BTW). Set in the future, the film thrusts you right into the life of Sam Bell, played by Sam Rockwell, an employee of Lunar industries at the end of his 3 year contract to mine helium-3 from the moon, an energy source that powers much of planet Earth. He is the sole worker on the station, his only companion being the computer robot Gerty (voiced by, that’s right, Kevin Spacey).

So, I’m thinking, this guy must be on the brink of a psychotic breakdown due to the prolonged isolation and tedious repetition of his duties. He has a wife and daughter back home whom he communicates with via recorded messages—the live feed satellite has been broken down apparently and isn’t on the company’s priority list of things to repair. At first he seems to be managing well on his own… until he is visited by a strange hallucination of a woman sitting in his chair in the rec room. He burns his hand from hot water from the apparent vision, but he quickly dismisses the vision, choosing not to tell Gerty about it. Sam sees the girl again on a routine excursion outside to the harvesting machine, only to crash his rover and blacks out.

This is where things start to get a bit crazy. The next scene we see is Sam waking up in the infirmary, hindered by slight memory loss about what happened. He soon recovers, but is locked inside the base by Lunar headquarters for his “own safety.” Not happy being cooped-up like a child, Sam concocts a way to trick Gerty into letting him out. When he ventures outside, he comes across the wreckage. Looking inside, he discovers… HIMSELF. It’s the same one that was in the crash. He wasn’t rescued. Yeah, that’s right, there are TWO SAM BELLS.

The rest of the movie is Sam and Sam interacting and trying to puzzle out what the hell is going on. Has Sam finally lost it? Is Sam a clone? Did Sam desperately imagine himself rescuing himself? Apparently, the second Sam (that woke up in the infirmary) is the younger version, thinking that he is just beginning his 3 year contract. He’s more immature, brash, and easy to upset. The older Sam is more calm and collected. I think Rockwell does an excellent job interacting with himself. They are two very different characters, and I hardly noticed the split screen effect to put himself in to places (like what Michael Fox did in Back to the Future II).

Oh yeah, SPOILER AHEAD. You will want to dismiss the theory that Gerty is an evil computer a la Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey. You’ll learn soon enough that Gerty only has good intentions and just wants to help Sam(s). And it’s kind of cute how he expresses himself through simple emoticons.

I don’t want to give away the ending, because this is a film I highly suggest you check out. It’s been lost among all the summer blockbusters, not getting much press. I think that works to its advantage though. This is a great word-of-mouth, possible cult-classic. It is an awesome science fiction film… if not a rare one that doesn’t rely on aliens, time travel, and outrageous space battles. Almost reminds me of Sunshine at some points. Actually, I like to compare that Sunshine is energetic and action packed like the sun, while Moon is a bit more mellow and thought provoking… like the moon!

I’d rate it 9/10. I saw it twice! Catch it while you can, if it’s playing in your area! If anything, check out the trailer!

Self Duplication. The ability to create multiple copies of myself in an instant.

Okay, this pick was totally inspired by one of my favorite comic book superheroes:

Jamie Madrox, The Multiple Man

Why this power? Why create another copy of myself? Heck, why not ten? A thousand? Eh, I think if I had this power, I need to limit myself. I could easily take over the world with billions of myself making up the military. Let’s go into my powers into more detail. And yes, I have thought about this seriously.

My ability is very similar to Jamie’s, minus the need for kinetic energy. I can just think it and a copy will form. When I create a duplicate, it’s just as instantaneous; more like cell-duplication with my copy forming off a part of myself rather than out of thin air. This video does a pretty sweet rendition of it. How many at a time? Not sure. I think that with each copy I make, I need an amount of concentration that exponentially grows with each duplication. Two of myself would be as easy as breathing while making a hundred would probably take so much energy and concentration, it would be best left for emergencies.

A way to work around this though would be to just spread out the rate of duplication. Meaning, I would create maybe five every hour or so. Duplicates exist indefinitely until I absorb them, which would be by contact. There is no time limit to them. I could create a duplicate and send it off to live off his own life and never hear from him again.

A copy is independent from me, meaning I can’t directly control him. He is free to make his own decisions. However, since they are pretty much a direct copy of me, they would pretty much be thinking the same way I am, and through mutual self interest, he would most likely act the way I would and do what I made him for. However: They may be the exact copy as me with the same background, history, and experiences… but we can still turn out to be different people. For example, if I send him to another country to learn the culture, I can’t say for sure that when—and if—he came back, he would turn out the exact same way I would if I stayed home. It’s like we’re the same thread, but at the moment of duplicating, we’re split and can go in different directions. We both may look the same at the two new ends, but if one is burnt or cut or soaked it would definitely not be similar to the other.

When I absorb a duplicate, I will also absorb all the experience, skills, and knowledge he may have picked up. This can be very useful. I can send one to learn all the martial arts in the world. I can have a duplicate master mathematics and physics. I can be a cook, a spy, an actor, a taxi cab driver, an athlete… all these things will take time of course, but I can focus on all of them at one time.

I can duplicate matter as well. I mean, if I couldn’t each duplicate would be naked as day, right? So, each duplicate would be an exact copy of myself with all the clothing I’m wearing and whatever objects I’m holding. It would need to be in contact with my skin, however. Anything in my pockets or backpack would not be duplicated. I can’t duplicate living matter though, otherwise if I was touching another person and duplicated, I’d have created a copy of that person… I think that would get way too complicated.

A death of a duplicate should generally be a bad thing. I think I, as the orignal, and all copies would experience some remote trauma or pain. Not exactly the same, but if I or a copy should feel some very extreme emotions or pain, the rest of us would feel a bit of it. But I don’t think it’d be a good thing to just send hundreds of myself to fight a war and die; I think I would go insane with the constant pain and deaths.

Soooo, as you can plainly see, I have given this plenty of thought. Self-duplication. It’s the power for me!

Oh, yeah. With that power I can totally freak the ladies out like Dr. Manhattan (minus the blue penis). Unless they’re into that kind of thing.

What super power would you have?

I finally got around to seeing Sunshine. I loved it. Based in the future, the film follows a crew of eight that is sent on a mission to re-ignite our dying sun after the first craft to attempt to had seemingly disappeared. And sure enough, shit hits the fan, things go wrong, and the fate of everyone on earth is in jeopardy. Yeah, we’d all love a space movie where the mission isn’t compromised and everyone makes it back safe and sound, but where’s the fun in that?

I think what made Sunshine really compelling for me (at least for the most of it) was that when things went wrong, there wasn’t any clear “bad guy” to blame. It was just a miscalculation, or a loose grip, or a suicide. There wasn’t really a chance for justice or a way to right the wrongs. Conflict creates some great tension and drama, but to see it happen without any evil character to focus my anger and frustrations at was a nice change of pace for me. Of course, the antagonist comes into play eventually.

And that was my only gripe with it. It suddenly turned into a “slasher” flick. I can understand how one can mentally break down in the absolute vastness of space combined with the immense pressure of the mission, but “nekkid-skin-burned-religious-crazy-guy” was a bit over the top. I didn’t need a psycho stalker killing people one by one. I want them battling the actual difficulties of the mission itself. It’s more compelling to see them deal with the consequences of their own actions and decisions.

I absolutely loved the visuals and original score. Beautiful and breathtaking. Most of the acting was great, not spectacular, but enough to make it work.

Rating: 8/10. Story was solid, with no melodramatics like any other doomsday films. I loved the science fiction aspects of it. The visual direction and futuristic scores are probably what won me over the most. I’m getting the soundtrack as soon as I can.

And director Danny Boyle… you are talented! I am intrigued and surprised by the different types of films you create. Trainspotting. 28 Days Later. Sunshine. Slumdog Millionaire (which I saw and also thought was really awesome). All very different genres, but great movies nonetheless. What do you have next?

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Oh 2008, I knew thee well. Lots of hardships, lots of blessings.

In the past year I…

was broke.
was unemployed.
fell in love.
was heartbroken.
got over it.
fell in love again.
realized how not in love I really was.
became sad and lonely.
decided to not take things so seriously and personally.
became really happy and positive.
got back into banking.
got a steady paycheck once again.
rebuilt my savings.
got addicted to WoW.
made some new friends.
got a new digital camera.
said goodbye to Lola.
experienced some of the greatest disappointments one can in the span of one night out.
experienced some of the greatest successes one can in the same night.
was able to quit WoW cold turkey.
went on some horrible dates.
went on some awesome dates.
learned that 2+2=5.
paid off some credit cards.
made the decision to take control of my life.

And it wouldn’t be New Years without some resolutions though, right?

• Get a new job (A must.)
• Get my own place.
• Keep in touch with my friends.
• Update the blog more consistently.
• Here’s a typical one: Go to the gym and get back in shape.
• Stop bullshitting around and be more honest and straightforward.
• Continue to make new friends.
• Re-read the A Song of Ice and Fire books.
• Learn at least one of these things.
• Watch Gossip Girl already.

As the last post had noted, I already put my two weeks notice in at work. I’m leaving. I’m moving on. I’m ready to start something new and see what I can accomplish on my own. It’s looking to be an exciting year.