There and back again...

I never thought I would make it to this point in my life...but I have. Within the next few weeks, I will be receiving my mission call. This is no light matter, I will be leaving home at the age of 19, for two years. Going to a place I've never been, I might have to learn a new language for it, preaching a truth that others won't understand.

Being born a mormon, I've grown up wanting to do this...I never knew how much preparation would be required to do this. In the last year I've been challenged mentally, emotionally, and spiritually on a level I've never even imagined. It has been extremely hard...but also so rewarding. I'm a better person because of it.

But that doesn't mean I'm still not terrified of what I'm about to do. I mean, I'm leaving home, by myself, to live with strangers for two years. The only thing familiar with me will be the scriptures I've studied my whole life. I will only be able to email my family once a week, and I'm only able to call home on Christmas, and mother's day.

And yet...I'm ready. I've spent my whole life preparing for this moment. But I know, that even though I've spent my whole life preparing...I'm still going to come off short. Every returned missionary I've talked to has said that it was the best times of their lives...but also the hardest, and most depressing, but if given the chance, they would do it all over again.

I'll go where I'm asked to go, I'll teach what I'm asked to teach, and I'm ready for what is thrown at me. A lot of people don't like missionaries, and I know I'm going to have a hard time with that.

And so I'm going there and back again, my own little adventure. I hope to help a lot of people in their lives, whether through service, or by teaching them the gospel. And I know that, while I still feel like a child, I'm going to be coming back a man.

M. Night Shyamalon = Underrated Director

Ah...M. Night Shyamalon. I'm pretty sure I understand this guy. Being a writer myself, I can see why he feels the need to get away from the "norm" of Hollywood. At least this guy is doing something to steer away from the same adventure/thriller/slasher/borer movie that comes out every week in theaters.

Its recently come to my attention that even though Shyamalon is one of my favorite directors/writers...not a lot of people like him. They think his movies are too weird, his premises do nothing for them, and a lot of people think he has a big ego for killing off a movie critic in Lady in the Water.

I can't vouch for the last thing, but his movies are supposed to be weird, and his premises are supposed to be weird as well. Let me explain.

In every single one of his movies, Shyamalon takes a seemingly ordinary character, with ordinary problems, and he puts them into an almost ordinary story. Except for one thing...he puts at least one extraordinary event, or problem, into this ordinary story, and takes the character through these events. The premise is awesome. Too often do we see our Superman's and Transformer's blow up buildings and go through the same plot lines and events in every movie. But at least Shyamalon is shaking things up. I'm going to go through each of his movies and tell why its awesome.

The Sixth Sense - Probably most everybody's favorite Shyamalon movie, it was new, it came out of nowhere and it scared the crap out of people. Plus it had a fun twist at the end that you can tell your coworkers who haven't seen it yet to piss them off. But this movie was about an ordinary man, his extraordinary problem, and some extraordinary events to move along the plot and develop the characters.

The great thing about this, is that he is trying to help a child who can see dead people, and help him to stop being so scared of seeing them. The crazy full circle wrap-around of this movie is great, I mean, Bruce Willis is killed by a previous person he gave therapy to, and then he helps a kid who has the same symptoms as the person who killed him. But he is already dead, while doing this...trust me, the movie makes more sense than I'm making it.

Signs - My personal favorite of his movies. And also a perfect example for the argument I'm making about Shyamalon's movie premises.
Ordinary man - Former Priest
Ordinary Problem - Lost his faith after the death of his wife. He is losing his chilren's respect, and his younger brother is worried about him.
Extraordinary event/problem - Aliens come and attack the Earth.

Now this movie is awesome because it isn't like Independence Day, we don't drive the aliens away, with crappy special effects and witty one-liners. But, like in every scary movie, we hardly even see what it is we are so scared of. Through these events of the character's farm being attacked, the main character gains his faith back.

Unbreakable - My second favorite of his movies, this movie shows how great of a director he is. The cinematography is amazing, and the editing is perfect.

Ordinary Man - Kinda...he's actually a superhero, he doesn't know it though.
Ordinary Problem - He is getting a divorce, his son doesn't respect him, and his life has turned into a routine. Nothing is new, and he feels sad when he wakes up in the morning...as if he feels like something is missing in his life.
Extraordinary event/problem - A crazy guy who has brittle bones keeps bugging him because he thinks he is a superhero.

This movie, has a great score, is my favorite concerning art direction. And the Superhero premise is awesome. He isn't swinging off of rooftops or flying. Because like Mr. Glass says in the movie, "It's alright to be afraid, David, because this part won't be like a comic book. Real life doesn't fit into little boxes that were drawn for it."

The Village - Probably my least favorite, but I enjoy it a lot still.

Ordinary Man - Well not one man...its about a group of people living a primitive life.
Ordinary Problem - A bunch of rich people who try to escape the horrors of life such as murder and thievery by creating a community of simplicity to raise their children in.
Extraordinary event/problem - Monsters haunt the forest around them...sorta.

Okay, so the twist at the end was disappointing. But this movie I found was really about the love the blind girl "Ivy" had for the silent "Lucius," throughout the horrors that they thought lived in the forest, and Noah trying to kill Lucius. In this movie, we find that though they tried to escape murder and such. It still happened within their own simple community. But because of this, and in spite of the monsters in the forest, a young blind girl finds the courage to trek an impossible journey to save the man she loved. I found this movie to be very good, and probably would have been better if a few changes were made. This also had a breathtaking movie score.

Lady in The Water - The most misunderstood out of his movies, but one of my favorite movies ever. I love well developed, deep, and emotionally moving characters. This movie is full of interesting and fun characters, but it has one of my all time favorite characters well acted by Paul Giamatti (I didn't think it was possible either).

Ordinary Man - Apartment Superintendent, formerly a doctor
Ordinary Problem - Wife and kids were killed while he was away from his house.
Extraordinary event/problem - A creature out of a fairy tale changes his life.

This movie is so full of symbolism and depth its amazing. Its also bizarre, and its supposed to be. Its a fairy tale, no I'm not talking about the fairy tales Disney comes out with, I'm talking about the creepy ones that Disney made kid friendly. Read some of the original stuff before disney changed it and you will know what I'm talking about.

But this movie isn't about water nymphs, or eatlons, or weird tree monkeys. This is a movie about a man who has lost everything, to an evil man. He should be angry, and yet, when asked if man deserved to be saved, Cleveland Heep replies without doubt..."yes."

This movie is supposed to be weird, but its also about Cleveland Heep, the man who lost everything, and because of extraordinary events, gained a new meaning into his life, and closure for the one he left behind. This sums up Shyamalon's style, he takes the ordinary man, and puts him through extraordinary events.

And that is why Shyamalon is great, because his movies are different, they have great characters, have amazing scores, great cinematrography, and emotionally charged stories. I emplore you to rewatch any of the movies of his over again. But instead of watching it expecting to watch a ghost movie, or an alien movie, or a superhero movie...watch it expecting to enjoy his characters, and his unique story ideas. Just remember, the aliens, ghosts, and villains are designed to move along the plot, not be the entire premise of the movie. That just isn't Shyamalon's style.

So yeah, I'm extremely excited for his new movie, The Happening. It should be amazing.

Why Darth Vader was almost the greatest Villain of all time

Any writer will tell you that the greatest villains, are the ones that can come back. By that I mean, that the villain is confronted with a moral issue, and chooses to do the right thing. This adds complexity and a realism to the character.

Sure some people think it is cool to have a villain that kills for no reason, and is just explicitly evil. Of course this can work, if the villain is written correctly. But often stories fail to achieve resonence with a villain that is not seen, or has no character arc. Villains are evil for a reason!

Now what was great about Darth Vader, was he was this entity that was unlike anybody else. In Star Wars Episode IV, or the first movie whichever you like...You see Darth Vader as a ruthless person extremelly powerful person, he even strikes fear in those that are in the Empire with him.

Obi-Wan and Yoda always told us how evil he was, Obi-Wan told us that he even killed Luke's Dad! (from a certain point of view) And by watching the movies we can see that. He is ruthless, evil, heartless, "more machine, than man, twisted and evil."

But then in Empire Strikes Back, we find out that Darth Vader, may very well be Luke's Dad. This was huge, I remember sitting in the movie theater watching this movie for the first time and after the famous line, "No Luke, I, am your father," I felt like my head exploded, I did not see this coming. It was that revelation that made me love Star Wars more than anything as a kid. After this moment despite what anybody said, Luke was sure that there was good in him, which made Darth Vader a good villain. He wasn't all bad, supposedly.

And then in Return of the Jedi, as we all know, the Emporer gave Darth Vader a moral dilemma, to watch as he kills his son, the last of the Jedi, the only link he has to a family he lost when his wife died as a result of him going to the dark side? He felt the love of a father from a son, and ultimately did what he was supposed to do. Destroy the sith and bring balance to the force. At the end of the Classic Trilogy, Darth Vader was the single coolest villain, ever.

And so, from a writers point of view, I will tell you about why Darth Vader, who was the coolest villain, almost became even cooler, but because of bad writing, is not as cool as he once was.

This is how Anakin Skywalker's character should have been. Being a slave should have hardened him as a child. None of this "Yippee, I have a child like innocence that will soon be ravaged by my dark thoughts about a woman years older than me and out of my league!" On a side note, the Anakin depicted in episode 1, would never have become the Anakin in episode III. But that is beside the point.

Anyways, when Anakin was brought to be a Jedi, they should have shown how powerful he really was, none of this podracing crap. Maybe show him finding friends in danger, and then accidentally using the force to make...I don't know, 100 Tusken Raider's heads explode. But they should have really shown how powerful he was compared to all the other Jedi. They never really show that, even the lightsaber fight where he uses two light sabers was so short lived (if they kept that going, it could have rivaled any fight we had seen thus far).

Second thing George should have done, is make Anakin a really compassionate, almost self righteous Jedi, sometimes questioning the methods of the other Jedi for their brutality, or impatience. He should have been, this posterboy for the Jedi, loved by all, a great hero. Not a whiny boy who thinks he is in love with a girl he can't stand to be with.

But his vice, should be this inner anger he hides from everybody. Sometimes you can see it when he is fighting or when he doesn't agree with someone, it is there, but he is always pleasant, trying hard to keep it in check. But after the death of his Mother, he should be kind of...over protective if you will.

After having a dream that Padme will die, he will become so worried and distraught, he will make mistakes, he won't be the perfect Jedi anymore. He will fail at things, and then the Jedi Council will question his abilities because he gets so distracted from these vivid dreams of his wife dying. He will become so frustrated, and so desperate to resolve this that he will resort to learning about, darker ways of the force.

With all of these changes in his character, it will make it all the more tragic when he makes the choice to go to the dark side in hopes of saving Padme. Even after he has made that choice, he will still, not fully be willing to be the apprentice of the Emperor, he keeps questioning him, when are we going to save Padme? And the Emperor will give him ultimatums, well if you go and take care of these seperatists, then we will figure it out. But I'm too busy to figure it out with you, when the galaxy is at war...That sort of thing.

After Anakin kills Mace Windu, and the Seperatists, and tries to kill Obi-Wan when he thinks that Obi-Wan is trying to stop him from saving Padme, he is already in too deep. The emperor will have brain washed him against the Jedi (which he already had doubts about because of his self righteous views). The emperor will then tell him of the death of his wife. And that is when, Darth Vader will become the most tragic villain ever. Hearing Darth Vader yell, "Nooooooo!" at the end of episode III, will no longer be kind of funny, but heartwrenching. These changes will make it all the more believable when he kills the emperor to save his son, to kill and redeem himself to a family he thought he lost, and will add an air of mystery, and dispair to his ruthlessness shown in the first movie of the classic trilogy.


Wow, that was long, for those who have stuck with me long enough to read that, congratulations, you have succeeded in life. I don't know if people will agree with me or not, but I think that if George Lucas had written Anakin's character like what I think it should be, it would have been so much better for Darth Vader as a character, instead of burdening him with the supposed past of a whiny teenage boy. And it would have helped with continuity, everybody talked in the original trilogy about how Anakin was a great man, and a great friend and a very powerful Jedi and how they never understood why he went to the dark side. Instead of that, all I see is a whiny little kid who doesn't even rival the lowliest of Jedi.

So that is my opinion. I didn't mean to be so long winded, and hopefully this is easy enough to understand.

The gray area between High School and the rest of your life

So I graduated from High School last year. I liked school, I wasn't particularly good at it, as I'm just a person of average intelligence, and I don't like being told what to do. I just like the social element of it, I love hanging out with my social peers and making fun of them, and myself, in my head.

Remember when you were a little kid? Looking back thinking about all the stuff you did, sometimes you think, "dang that was stupid, I can't believe I did that, or said that." Well, I often see that in what I am doing at the time in the present. I often think, hmm I'm going to look back at this day and think, why in the heck did I give all that gum to my english class and land us all in detention. It was fun at the time, even though I knew it was stupid.

But I miss High School. I'm LDS, so I'm going to be going on a mission in a few months. So instead of signing up for college after I graduated, I got a full time job at a video production place and started saving for my mission. Everybody else in my graduation class signed up for college. Here's the thing, almost all of my friends signed for out of state colleges.

Do you know how boring my life has become since I graduated? My entire days consists of waking up, going to work, and hanging out on the Rifftrax forums. Well, not entirely, lately I have gotten a new obsession with a Zelda game that is 20 years old. It is by far the hardest game I have ever played.

But anyway, I can't wait until I leave on my mission and start hanging out with a bunch of guys my age, doing stuff we all set out to do. Preach the LDS gospel. We are there for a common goal, sort of like High School in trying to learn. So I'm excited to finally get out of this rut of video games and overall lethargy.

Blog Introduction

I am Male, Middle-Class, and White. A dangerous mix, sure my ancestors set the stage for this modern world, but we screwed everybody else while we did it. Slavery, anyone? And so now all of the Male, Upper-Class, White guys feel guilty, even though it was their father's sin, not theirs.

Because of their guilt, I'm screwed. Public Education is stacked against me, I can't get scholarships unless I have skills (I don't), and they won't hire me at places run by the government.

But I don't complain, I'm an American, I have had a great life, my parents aren't divorced, and I have a great relationship with all 7 of my siblings.

On this blog, I will post my thoughts about the current state of the world, this country, and even small things (like what I thought about a movie). This blog isn't for anyone in particular, I'm mainly writing it to just get my thoughts down in print.

So for anyone that stumbles across this blog, enjoy it, disagree with me, or just skip it and forget about me forever.

Thanks.