Something to share with the world.

One of the most beautiful things...

Life is all about sharing with other people, and getting people to understand and see the things you do. Sadly, this is something that I fail at. Rather miserably. I get made fun of all the time for watching cartoons rather than normal TV shows. I hate reality TV. There's just no point in seeing a bunch of people, who I'd probably run over in my car if I met them, play a game and try and get money. While there are so many beautiful and moving other shows on TV. This brings me to my love of the TV show Naruto...

Unfortunately, I have a lot of people who write this off as a mere cartoon and not give it any thought. The story is basically one that I relate to quite a bit. It's a story of isolation and growing up alone. Many of the stories, except the filler episodes, are quite moving a soulful. To understand Naruto, you have to get the basic back story. Naruto takes place in a fictional location. There are many countries and principalities, in one is the Fire Country. In the Fire Country resides the Hidden Leaf Village, filled with ninjas. The leader of these ninjas is called the Hokage.
Many years ago the village was attacked, and almost destroyed, by the Nine Tail Fox (A supernatural spirit beast quite common in many Asian cultures). The 4th Hokage, in an act of desperation, could not beat the beast and had to seal the spirit in a newly born baby, Naruto. Fast forward a few years later. Naruto, the village trouble maker, is trying to graduate from the ninja academy.
The story progresses from there, you learn that most of the villagers regard Naruto as a nuisance, and you find out that Naruto (who has no parents) grew up all alone.

The plots and story arcs contain many life lessons and perceptions, some of which a person may or may not agree with. There are many strong characters in the series, and each one comes to life with their own nuances. You've got Sasuke, the cool guy in school, who is remarkably distant. Sakura, the devoted girl with a crush on Sasuke. Shikamaru (one of my favorite characters in any show) who is a genius, but lacks drive and doesn't want to be bothered with many things. There are many, many more...
The other reason why I like it, is hard to explain. It's kind of metaphysical. In the story, Naruto struggles with the spirit of the Nine Tail Fox (Kyuubi) within himself. He eventually has to use it's power to over come enemies and to try and reach his goal of becoming the next Hokage. However, there are moments where they personify this internal struggle in a couple of scenes. Naruto is in a vast labyrinth. He comes upon a large gate, with a seal over the lock. (Depicted Below) It is metaphoric of many struggles we all face. I mean, we all fight the urges and tendencies of the natural man.

However, it's something a little bit more for me. That I relate to. You see, I have two very distinct and different sides of my personality. It's much like I'm fighting the demon inside me. That scene depicts what I experience every moment of every day. Watching Naruto has even helped me to certain extent, to remind myself what I have to fight, and what I have to watch for. Which is the most powerful thing in Naruto, for me. Still the story overall is one redemption, searching, and human interactivity.
There are several moments in the series, where I'll admit it, I cry like a little school girl. The emotions conveighed are that powerful. The series deals with many adult subjects, but is still something young people can enjoy. I wouldn't have a 7 or 8 year old watching it, because I think it's important to grasp what the series is saying, which is one of the most poignant lessons this world needs to learn, but you'll have to watch it to find it out...

Dead sexy in the morning!

Dead Sexy in the morning...

As most people know by now, I'm a people watcher. I love just watching an analysing body language, and trying to determine a story just by someone's look. Which is why I love my random Flickr moments. I sometimes will look at just random pictures on Flickr, like these...

What is up with this? First of all, isn't the whole "stomach touching" pose only allowed when someone is pregnant, or trying to be sexy? Second of all, isn't it only allowed to touch another person's stomach when they are pregnant? This picture has so much that one can infer, or that they're lesbians. I haven't figured out which...

This photo is either your standard, "I'm Irish and I'm proud" moment or the "I'm drunk and proud" moments. You know those moments. It's like the time your buddy passes out and you take a picture of yourself farting in his face, bare assed. I'll never understand why people take the "I'll take my picture pointing to sign moment".

One of the best photo's take these days, is the obligatory "I can't believe you're playing Rock Band" photo's. You can tell just by looking at it, that this dude probably doesn't sound like Aaron Neville belting out the Star Spangled Banner.

I've never understood the "I'll take a picture of my cat sleeping" picture. Cats are never cute while sleeping. I like cats, but they sleep like 12 to 18 hours a day. So, whenever they are sleeping I always throw something at them to wake them up.

God bless the Asians of the world. They always take pictures, and their women are super hot. This, right here, this is the yellow fever! I'm in love with this girl, and I don't even know her name. That's people watching right there.

Lastly, Are these girls lesbians? Because, if they are, they are of the rare hot variety. Are they sisters? Because, one has an entirely different skin tone than the other. I'd like to know the story behind it. Also, how is the person taking the photo NOT sexually aroused while doing so!

Random Flickr moments. One of the hilarious slices of life moments that are entirely enjoyable. Just like seeing a fat guy in a small car, or midget wrestling.

Trouble with the world, now....

Trouble with the world, now...

I hate to break it to everyone, but it looks like the time for summer movies is over. Take the example of the movies just barely released this last weekend.

Death Race

Or as I like to call it, Transporter 2.9. This file will prove the point that Jason Statham can NOT hold a movie down with him as the main role. Feel free and look at the metacritic review here. I honestly don't think it takes that much brain power to be Hollywood exec. This movie is remake of a 1970's movie, that stared Sly Stallone. Yes, you heard me right. Sylvester Stallone. The original was one of the funniest campy movies I've ever seen. The Plot: In prison, they hold an annual race called Death Race. Convicts race cars and the winner gains his freedom, but wait there's more. Statham plays a Nascar driver who kills his wife, and the actual murder is in the big house, and he was set up just to get him the death race. Conclusion: Can we please stop re-hashing old movies and ideas.

The House Bunny

I'll call this one, the "if we could could make Adam Sandler 20 years younger, and a woman we'd put him in this movie". It stars, my love, Anna Ferris. However, that's the only saving grace that I'd see this movie. Again, this plot is pretty much the recycled garbage that you see every year. The Plot: Ferris is a Playboy Bunnie, who's been released from the mansion and needs a place to live. She finds herself being the Sorority mother of the worst greek women's group on campus. She, in turn, makes them over so that they look better, and more popular (all by spending money) of course. Conclusion: In the end, the girls find out that spending money and making themselves popular is not the way to live your life. After that, I puke. Go home and put a gun to my head for having this movie point drilled in my brain for the 50th time. The saving grace is that Emma Stone is also in this movie. She's one of the up and coming new hotties in the Hollywood scene. She's got this attainable beauty about her. Looks like the girl next door, kind of like Winona Rider, back in the day.

The Longshots

I'll call this one, The Bad News Bears goes black. It stars Ice Cube, yes Ice Cube, as a High School Teacher. He might have been trying to channel his inner Samuel Jackson ala Coach Carter here or something. The Plot: A poor Illinois town gets behind the local pop football team, with it's starting quarterback a girl. Conclusion: The inspirational sports movie has to stop. There's enough inspiration stories in just watching sports. We don't need movies about them. If the Tampa Bay Rays win the world series, how long will it be till we see a movie about them? Plus, again this idea has been done to death. Now, I loved the Bad News Bears remake a few years ago with Billy Bob Thornton, but I don't need to see a movie with more street cred, with Ice Cube.

The Rocker

I'll call this one the, "We love The Office, so we stuck Rainn Wilson in his own flick, oh and by the way, he's a nerd" kind of movie. The movie itself is way contrived and seems to have had some problems in post production. It seems the studio didn't even know if they wanted to release it wide. It's always the sign that when the release the movie at the same time, as when one of their main actors is in another movie release at the same time. The Plot: An old time hair band drummer, wants to re-live his youth by getting with his nephew's new band. Generational and old jokes, GO! The Conclusion: This is your typical TV character/movie cross over. Woody Harrelson went through the same thing in the 80's.

Overall, it's a sad state of affairs for the movie scene. The only thing I have to look forward too is Quantum of Solace in November. So, I doubt I'll really be seeing any movies till then. I might catch that Don Cheadle spy movie that's going to get released soon, but even then it'll just be a matinee. Till then, it'll be crappy movie rentals on DVD, like Prom Night, which was hilarious! That's the best, when you can Red Box a crappy movie and it only costs you a buck to see it. The laughs were free flowing. That's when film is the best.

The funniest thing I have heard...today.

Okay, the funniest quote I've heard, last week...
Co-worker 1: "Bill Engval tickets are going on sale yesterday."
Co-worker 2: "Oh, really!? That guy is pretty funny!"

Now, where can I start with this. First, Bill Engvall had his day, 10 years ago. Second, the grammar is attrocious. Is Co-worker 1 going to magically go back in time to a time when they are not on sale to pick them up?
This is just one of the funny crap that my co-workers say on a continual basis.

Discussions for utopia.

This posting, has nothing to do with Brett Favre, or the troubles in Green Bay. It's not going to have to do with Fantasy Football, or probably anything funny. It's about this one simple point. I still think absolutely no one understands me at all.
We were getting into a discussion last night. It had to do with an activity that an FHE group had planned. Basically, it was pointing out that there can be comedy that is clean and non-offensive. You have to see how most discussions go with my friends, it usually consists of me talking about a topic or concept, usually analytically and dispassionately, then about 3 to 4 people having a differing view point and convinced that they are right and emotionally charged.
So, during this activity, they had people bring in stand up and things they termed non-offensive. This idea is good in theory. In reality, it's one of the stupidest things I've heard. It's like "cleanliness petitions". One time, in church, we had an older woman come into a meeting. She stated that she was starting a petition and wanted people to sign. The petition was to show clothing manufactures and clothing stores that there were women in the world who wanted to be modest in what they wear. I'll say it once, and I'll say it again, this is the stupidest notion I've heard. A store is going to carry what is popular and not cater to the minority. The only way that you can change things, is change the popular view of those things.
I did some amature stand up at one point in my life, so this is a topic that I hold in some regard. There are a few rules of comedy and doing stand up. That is, that a comic is the guy that is on stage and saying the things that wish we could say. This goes back to the roasting comics in the 50's and 60's. This evolved into the typical, conversational comic in the 80's and 90's doing observational humor. There is one thing that all these comics had, they pushed the envelope.
When you take an observation, and push it to the extreme, that's good comedy. It traditionally always got laughs.
Most of the conversation went towards the notion of, "Well, this is a religious activity. They were pointing out how we can watch clean comedy in this world." My whole point is that the whole concept, I have a problem with. Yes, it would be great if wishes were fishes, and that we could just will the world to be better. I wasn't able to voice it properly last night, but the overall my point is this, religion without real world application is useless.
Let me walk you down a path. In the Christian world, if we try to just will the world to a different standard, or abstain from a world where things that we don't do are easily accepted, this creates a rift between us and the person who doesn't hold the same beliefs. This creates religious piety. Most people can circumvent these social or philosophic differences by having one to two things in common. However, if we are good Christians and try to bring people to Christ, how can one teach if you have nothing in common with the target audience?
It's the same principal in comedy, the more you can relate (especially with observational humor) the better the laughs. The same can be said for missionary work. By keeping everything at a distance, this makes you different to where Everyday Joe, can't relate to you socially. In my mind, this is all counter productive. However, as it's been pointed out... "Terence just thinks differently and too abstract, so that no one will understand." Which I guess is all that needs to be said...

Destined for Greatness!

Admittedly, I have never been a huge baseball fan. In fact, I think it all stems from my time in little league. You see, I was a scrawny blonde kid in my youth, till my mother started jamming Pasta dishes and Nestle Quik in me. I always sucked at baseball. I always rode the pine or played left field. It wasn't until this year when I stumbled onto one of the most inspirational stories of the year, that I started liking Baseball...The season of the Tampa Bay Rays.

When the season began, you could tell there was something different about this team. You see the Rays are in the same division as the New York Yankees (The most overrated team in Baseball) and the much beloved by fans, Boston Red Sox. Only one of these teams will make it to the playoffs. Each the Yankees and the Rays have a payroll upwards of 200 million. The Rays however, all have young players with payroll that is about 40 + mil.
You could tell these Rays weren't gonna lie down. Early in the pre-season, they played the Yankees and there was a dust up. Words were exchanged and the Rays never backed down. Then, came the regular season, and against the Red Sox came a bench clearing brawl. Early on you could tell, these Rays were young, and filled with Piss and Vinegar. The were hungry, they had a lot of heart, and they were trying to tell the world "Don't count us out!".
Thanks to the Rays and a couple of friends of mine, I've been getting into Baseball, and it's helped me in the middle of a sports drought I used to feel between Basketball and Football seasons. I ended up watching Rays games as much as I could. Now, with the season winding down, they are now 6 1/2 games ahead of the Yankees, and 3 games ahead of the Red Sox. The analysts will tell you that the Rays have had success because of solid pitching and good defense. I would attribute it all to heart and their desire to not be a laughing stock anymore.
Ladies, we know that sometimes you don't get men and why they love sports so much, and stories like this season of the Tampa Bay Rays are the reasons why we love it. It's about overcoming insurmountable odds, and becoming a champion. I'm looking forward to watching Pena', Upton, Shields, Navarro, and Percival see if they can pull off the impossible.

One of my favorite Comedians...

Alright, while watching several hours of stand up, I have one of my favorite comedians. He's not big time. He has had his own Comedy Central Presents special, but other than that he's not extremely well known. I'm talking about Chad Daniels...
Everything about his sense of humor, I like. I like his pace, tone, and timing. He also is kind of telling the truth. I've got 2 clips. Now, both may have some embarrassing words for some people, like the word vagina or cursing, so you are warned...





Chad Daniels... Utterly hilarious. You can catch the rest of his clips at Chad Daniels