Intro to Me

I was hoping to make this my first post but was unable to because of assignments, but regardless I thought that I would post an About Me section to better explain how I look at things so that when it comes to discussion people don't think that I'm crazy. (Well more than usual)
You may wonder why I titled my blog "The Difference of Opinion" (or you may not but I'm going to tell you anyway). Well I have noticed that a large problem in today's world is that we don't allow others to have opinions. As soon as someone says something that they believe, or what they think, we automatically shoot it down if it doesn't match what we think. Just look at this political war we have going on. Instead of actual discussion and asking intelligent questions to discover why someone believes or thinks what they do we instead ridicule them and make hate commercials about them. Well I'm a firm believer in intelligent discussion. I don't just say things to say them. But unfortunately too many people will just blow me off and say that I don't know what I'm talking about. Like if I mention that I liked Batman Begins better than the Dark Knight.

Yes it is true. I bet you stopped reading this because of that. I might as well mention that I am also a Christian. Yes, a Christian. I firmly believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. But does that make me less intelligent and unable to have opinions because the rest of the world hates me? No! I do not mind what other people believe in that respect and I am not going to thrust my views on God onto you and force you to believe. That is dumb and never works. It is pointless. But if someone were genuinely interested in talking to me about it then I would gladly share.
Anyway all of that to say just don't blow someone off when they say something different! Ask questions! Share your thoughts! Engage in conversation! Who knows, you might like it.

So basically all of that rant was to lead to the fact that I look at things differently. I hate bandwagons and will be more likely to NOT go see something that everyone else is telling me to go see. I don't know why I just do. I love story but will also love a movie purely for effects or fighting (martial arts, swords, etc). I love witty, intelligent humour. I can't stand stupid humour. If all you can do is curse, or hurt yourself, or act retarded, or talk about sex in order to get people to laugh then I'm sorry but you aren't funny, you're just an idiot (Jim Carrey is the only exception and that is because he is witty too). There is no such thing as too witty. Examples include: Ryan Reynolds, Robert Downey Jr., James Roday from Psych, Big Bang Theory, Phineas and Ferb, Benedict Cumberbatch from Sherlock, Richard Dean Anderson in Stargate SG-1 etc.
 If I like one thing about a movie and that one thing is throughout the movie then more than likely I will like the movie a lot. Ex: Effects and Shia Labeouf in Transformers, the aesthetics in Snow White and the Huntsman, etc..
I am also an avid reader and that's where my love for story comes from. If a movie is fairly close to the actual storyline of say, a comic then I will like it better. Ex: Batman Begins, X-men Origins etc.. (Yes not completely close, but closer than everything else) BUT if a movie completely changes the story or adds things that weren't there then I will hate it with a burning passion reserved only for the last rings of hell. Ex: Eragon (ugh), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (blowing up the Weasley house and not having an epic fight scene at the end, totally not even in the book, unacceptable). And lastly I really do not care that much about who directed what or things like that. It's hard to explain but basically it's what all the SCAD film students talk about or Filmites as I call them, the ones that are too focused on composition or whatever than actually watching the movie. I know that I need to pay attention to these things so I'm working on it, but my imagination comes first.

Well that is me and my views. Please do ask me questions I do love to discuss and such. But that's the difference of opinion.....

Games, Games, Games...

"Are you sure you wanna leave? The band's awful."

^ One of many quirky comments made throughout the film Adventureland by Jesse Eisenberg's character James Brennan. Adventureland was a quirky and somewhat humorous, slightly Indie film directed by Greg Mottola, which also featured the talents of Kristen Stewart, (ok, ok I use the word talent loosely) Ryan Reynolds, Bill Hader, and Kristen Wiig, among many others. Overall I would say that the movie was okay. Maybe not something that I would watch over and over again but I certainly didn't hate it. A large problem for me was that Eisenberg practically muttered through the whole thing and it was very hard for me to understand him much less get whatever awkward joke or phrase he was trying to say. I'm not really a fan of awkwardness mostly because I tend to feel it for the actor on screen and I'd rather watch the movie than hide my face so that I don't have to deal with how awkward or embarassing the scene is. All in all it was basically a cult film that I just couldn't get into. It had a similar feel to the movie Waiting (also with Reynolds) but I enjoyed Waiting more. Idk why though I could probably guess it had a large part to do with Reynolds being one of my favourite actors...

So basically the plot of the film is that Brennan (Eisenberg) just graduated from college in 1987 and is preparing to go to Europe for his Grad present and his parents tell him that his father has been transferred and is no longer making the money he used to (though based on the dad's drinking throughout the film my assumption was that he was let go and the parents were hiding it, also because that was a large theme in the movie) and therefore unable to pay for the trip, or even his Ivy League Grad School. And so Brennan is left with finding a job, and the only place hiring is Adventureland, Pittsburgh's run down carnival/amusement park. Upon being hired Brennan is put on Games. There are two options, Games or Rides. Basically think about Games as the nerds, geeks, and untouchables of high school, whereas Rides were the attractive, fit jocks and cheerleaders. And so the rest of the movie is based on the rest of his summer, meeting the girl of his dreams and falling in love, falling into a life of alcohol and drug abuse (well more so than before), finding out that the girl of his dreams (Stewart) has been screwing the maintenance guy (Reynolds) who happens to be married, and ends up effing up his whole life. But in the end he realizes that the world sucks and as long as he has Emily (Stewart) then it's gonna be fine.

 The style of the film was very much so an Indie yet lots of big-ish names in it type of movie. Plus the movie was set in 1987 so the music and cars definitely gave you that feel even more. Throughout the movie there were lots of establishing shots. Whether it was the park opening or closing, snippets of the guests at the park things like that. I liked it and I thought that it helped sell the movie well. Unfortunately when I watch a movie I tend to focus on one aspect of it, basically whatever catches my attention and so I wasn't able to really notice the techniques yet. Still working on it.

If cult movies are your thing then definitely go see it. It's not for everyone but you wont know until you watch !

But that's the difference of opinion..

Media Use This Week

So this week we had to take a log of our media uses throughout the week. Usually I would have used a lot more but I have been staying over at my girlfriends apartment that hasn't had Internet or Cable so my hours are way down from normal.

Saturday 8/18- 2 hours of TV

Sunday 8/19- 2 hours of internet use, 2 hours TV

Monday 8/20- 3 hour movie, 1 hour Internet

Tuesday 8/21- 3 hours Internet

Wednesday 8/22- 2 hours TV

Thursday 8/23- 3 hours Internet

Now throughout that time I have driven at least 4 hours this week so add 4 hours of music and billboards and such. Plus adding prob around 3 hours of random iPod game playing. For a grand total of 25 hours of log-able media use and influence. I do work at a sports bar type restaurant that has many TV's but it's so hard to know how much if any I watched.

My media use suggest that I love the Internet. That is very true, I don't even really watch actual TV anymore it's all on my computer. In fact most of the TV usage listed above was watched on my computer. I love my computer. Which brings me to the next question. I trust the Internet. Even though most of the Internet is bogus, I am very confident in my discretion and I can usually find the correct answer fairly quickly, so it's more like I trust myself with the Internet. Even though I love my computer I do enjoy my PS3 the most. There's just something about getting extremely lost in a story that you actually control that just is incredibly intoxicating and fun to me. I would love to broaden my horizons in media, after all I do want to eventually be in media so the more experience the better. :)

Oh and I am almost constantly listening to music.