Tits and Giggles: Whales, and why they rock.

For the scientific:
Trillions (probably) of years ago, whale ancestors made their way out of the water and onto dry land, adopting legs and vital systems. A couple millions (probably) of years later, the whale land mammal made its way back into the water, thus losing its legs and vital systems and becoming more like the whale we know today.

For the not so scientific:
Whales got out of the water, chilled on land a little, didn’t like it, went back in the water.

A totally realistic and scientifically accurate conversation between two whales:

Hey so uh, I’ve been thinking. Want to go down to the whale gym and work off some of this blubber?

Eh, not really. Let’s just grow some legs and move onto land. We can burn calories that way (he starts to gather his things).

Isn’t that like, a whole lot more effort than just going down to the whale gym? I mean can we even grow legs?

Hm? Oh sorry I wasn’t paying attention; I was too busy gathering all my whale furniture.

You’re sure this will work?

Trust me. Besides, it’s not like we’ll get bored and want to come back into the water, get real.

Hm, (he pauses to think things over) do they have whale gyms?

I think they’re just called gyms up there. I heard they have Jamba Juice.

What’s that? Is it like Whale Jamba Juice?

Kind of, just with less krill.

The End

Whales rule.

Martin.

Life: The actions of humans and reaching contention.

WARNING THIS IS A LONG ASS POST:
Ahem, this is going to be a different kind of post. No rantings on *sigh* Soulja Boy here. This post will be examining why human beings do the things we do and whether or not all our actions are to simply be happy in a moment or long term scheme. I urge you to take a read because I believe these questions are ones to seriously be discussed. Now most of this will be hypothetical situations and looking into my own life, and the ones around me, and trying to figure out why people act the way they do.

Basically this post is to look at different everyday choices and more important decisions that every single person makes and to see if these are simply to make us, as people, "happy".

Now I think it depends on the severity of the action. For instance, obviously if I were hungry, I would eat. Thus making me content and satisfied. Now this situation can be applied to more grander situations as well. Think about it, apply that hunger situation to the bigger challenges in your life. The hunger, can be like the hunger for happiness and its pursuit.

Also, I believe it depends on the type of person. There are many people in the world and the ones I have come across are morally complex even if they are shallow and manipulating to other human beings. They often are shallow and manipulating to please or better themselves in order for them to be happy.

We are all so caught up in other people's lives and what they think of us, and we try to better ourselves, to be the best version of ourselves, to please and impress others. Now I will deal with the whole "what people think of us" in a different post but it applies to these questions because we want to care and think about what people think of us to be the "better version" which makes us happy. If people like us, we like ourselves.
Now there are others who don't give a damn what people think and who, tend to be more happy. These are two types of people who seek contention in different ways however dealing with social interaction as a way to be "happy".
I put happy in quotations for I don't really think many people know what pure happiness is. That, or that we have different meanings of the word. This brings me to how different people subconciously reach contention out of providing and pleasing others as well as people who do certain actions out of necessity or responsibility.

I truly believe that there are three forms of action. Acting out of personal contention, subconscious contention, and acting out of obligation. I dealt with personal contention but what I mean by subconscious contention is the act of selflessly pleasing other people.
We find this in parents, in good Samaritans, in friends, and love. Fathers and mothers provide for their offspring whatever way they can. Good Samaritans do random acts of kindness to strangers who enter their lives and quickly exit just as fast. Friends act in kindness to other friends who do the same to them. We talk about love as a selfless act of feeling towards another human being. I'm not talking about love for a child or love for a friend, I've covered that, I'm talking about the euphoric love for another person. We say it's a selfless act and often we do actions to help a loved one or let them go thus paining us. However we also love to be loved. Or we do the important things to our loved ones to be at rest and do the right thing thus assuring ourselves we did the right thing thus giving us contention. Which essentially, is what I'm saying about parenting, acts of kindness, and friendship. We do these things often subconsciously to feel better about ourselves and put us at ease. Ease is content.

Some of our actions are truly selfless and are out of obligation. Such as loving responsibility I already mentioned. There's a difference between parental subconscious happiness and parental responsibility. Parents are responsible for their children, we are animals after all. And when a parent abandons their child they are doing so in order to lighten their burden and lead an easier life, that or they are not prepared to handle it. Of course I'm sure there are other reasons. Anyway, there are different actions that people perform out of obligation.
Relating back to Confucianism and the 5 relationships:
-subject to ruler
-father to son
-friend to friend
-husband to wife
-sibling to sibling

This shows the duty of different relationships and shows how your actions are first to satisfy responsibility.

So, in the end, I firmly believe there are three types of action. And sometimes people don't always know how to be people and thus don't know about responsibility or happiness (will be discussed in another post).
This has been an extremely long post, but I needed to vent and explain this.

These are deeply philosophical questions but are ones that need to discussed and thought about in order for us to become a better race.

This needs to end.

Die.

Now.

Bye.

Martin.

Important Thing: What you should be watching, movie edition!

This is a follow up post to the music post I posted a little while back. This one, will be dealing with film recommendations on different films you might have missed, or just some of my favorites.
Disclaimer: This list is not for everyone, these films are of my personal taste and what I consider "good". I will try to go across different genres to appeal to different tastes.

-Children Of Men: A film disgustingly unappreciated at the 2005 Oscars, Children Of Men shows Alfonso Cuaron's gritty, beautiful, dark, detailed, and grim look of the future when women infertile. This movie is very intense and not for the faint of heart but definitely worth a look. It is on my top five films ever made. Ever.

-The Darjeeling Limited: Wes Anderson is one of my favorite directors and here, his cinematography, dialogue, and the way he captures family relations really shine. A quirky, touching, funny, poignant, and overall well executed film simply about three brothers on a train in India.

-Before Sunrise/Before Sunset: A film and it's sequel both directed by Richard Linklater focus on the simple relationship between Jesse and Celine as they are captivated by one night in Vienna and reconnect seven years later in the sequel. These films are for the more romantic and dialogue-driven audience and are not for everyone.

-Moon: Playing in select cities and some other venues, Moon is a building, character driven science fiction/drama featuring Sam Rockwell in a practically one man show as he harvests an energy source alone on the moon for 3 years, and at two weeks before his term is over, he kind of loses his shit.

-BladeRunner: A slow, noir through back, science fiction, detective story, which is one of, or possibly my favorite film. Very loosely based on the short story Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (hint hint hint stop asking me about my blog title).

-Special: An independent film about a man, after being a guinea pig for medication, believes he has superpowers. A superbly acted, funny, sad, exciting film showing the fragility of the human mind, body, and soul.

-Adaptation: A Charlie Kaufman written, Spike Jonze directed, Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep starring, movie which is part adaptation of a Susan Orlean book, part auto-biographical writing process of Charlie Kaufman adapting the Susan Orlean book into a movie entitled Adaptation, and part Hollywood satire on today's cinema. Lost? Just watch the movie.

There shall be further posts such as these in the future and I do hope you check out at least some of the movies on this list.

Thanks for reading.

Martin.

Important Thing: St00pid interwebzz.

Unfortunately my internet crashed for a few days do to a faulty router which resulted in the following: anger, frustration, cursing, more anger, more cursing, artichokes, and calls to India.
However now it is up and running and expect more posts to start flowing.

And until next time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9o5_W6hn9k

Martin.

Movie Review: Wendy and Lucy.

This film is not for everyone. I'm saying that right off the bat. It's a simple, quiet, and heartfelt movie watching experience which is not found often in today's mainstream big budget films.
Wendy is a morose twenty something, played by the wonderful Michelle Williams, journeying to Alaska. Lucy, is her dog.

When her car breaks down in Oregon, Wendy, like her car, also breaks down. Lucy goes missing, she has hardly any money, no place to stay, nor any contact besides an old, lonely, parking lot security guard.

We see little hints to what Wendy's life is like outside of her car and dog. Little hints of a broken past filled with wrong decisions. And even though there aren't any big events or violence, the film arrests your emotions, and makes you feel for Wendy and her ongoing struggle to get out of Oregon.
Most people would say this film is slow or boring, which is why I say this film is not for everyone. I'm not trying to generalize the public but this film is a quiet independent. And quiet independents are often shunned by the mainstream audience.

It has a wonderful, simple script and it is shot in an understated beauty which does not overwhelm the emotion of this film, but rather take it to a new level.

Now I will say the film WOULD be slow and boring if it weren't for the delicately captivating Michelle Williams, who plays the part of Wendy with a subtle, earnest outlook and a hushed emotional power. You see behind her eyes the back-story of Wendy even though we don't know what it is. I wish that Ms. Williams would become a household name and start getting more widley acknowledged roles. Although, maybe it's for the better for her to stay in the independent circuit, for that's where she truly shines.

If you're in the mood for a short, heartfelt, and somber look at a relationship between human and dog, check this one out. And also don't forget to check out Film Shack, on iTunes, my weekly podcast on film. God I'm a press whore.

Dogs rule.

Martin

Tits and Giggles: A quick thing.

So whenever I click, new post, and start writing, down at the bottom it says, "Labels for this post". You know to tag it. Say if I were writing a blog about beach balls I would put in, Beach Balls.
But right under where it says "Labels for this post" it says, "e.g. scooters". So it's saying, "Tag this post, ya know, like scooters." So. Friends. This means, that there are enough blogs about scooters to have Blogger.com imprint scooters as a "for example" selection.

The only time a Scooter is interesting is when a dad buys one and waits in the drive way for it to "warm up" and hes just sitting on it with his helmet on and his two sons are watching him through a window and yelling "GO! GET OUT OF THE DRIVEWAY!" in effort to get him away before one of the son's girlfriend turns the corner and enters the driveway and sees the father in helmet and scooter swagger and has the memory forever imprinted in her memory.
That's totally never happened.


Martin.

Geekdom: Geek vs Nerd.

I've been called many things in my day. I accept the occasional: geek, dork, or clown. However, what I will not stand for, and what I am not, is a nerd.

Confused? Well be confused no more!

The originating name Geek, was one who bit the heads off of chickens in the circus. I do not enjoy biting the heads off of any poultry of any kind, what I do enjoy are things. Geeks get the insane privileged of being able to be really enthusiastic about things. Things such as: the newest harry potter movie/book, Star Wars, comic books, or Spiderman (the vocabulary dictionary did not have Spiderman and I cried a little). So if one calls me a geek, that's just saying, "You like things!". I have been known to jump up and down and be TOO excited about explaining Star Wars mythology. Very Geeky. We care more about science fiction than we do conforming to society.

Now, Nerds get the same privilege. However the difference lies in the things. Nerds are commonly associated with things like: computers, math, and pocket protectors. Now, I do not have a passion for computers, math, or pocket protectors so I cannot call myself a Nerd. They are also more school smart, where as Geeks are just awesome smart.

People often think these titles are interchangeable, when they are quite different. Nerds tend to be less social, confined to their basement. I do not have any problems with Nerds, nor am I trying to offend them, I'm simply stating the difference.

I am Geek, hear me roar.

Martin.

PS: http://www.filmshaft.com/images/2009/06/olivia-munn.jpg
This is Olivia Munn. She's a Geek. Jealous?