It is kind of strange to "celebrate" New Years, I was playing Modern Warfare 2 and when midnight hit told Whit Happy New Years...then went to bed, and then two weeks later have a birthday. Still can't be as bad as being a Christmas baby, or anything within a week of any major holiday. But I am going to take this time to write about some things I want to either close up on and/or start anew. First off, my closing comments about the Twilight "Saga."
In the past I have bashed this series, my wife and anyone who reads this blog knows this. But I do have a couple things that make me interested in the whole thing. First off the Eclipse has the potential for me to actually like it. With the first two movies I didn't like them, but then again I didn't hate them, so I am pretty neutral. But the third one has some intrigue, we actually get to see werewolves and vampires fight. I mean how often do you get to see that? Part of the main draw of the Underworld series was this and man those were some awesome fights. I understand that the gore level will have to be toned down a bit from those scenes but the still can make for some interesting movie making. Next up I am extremely interested in the character Jasper. To me he has the most interesting back story for all the characters, well Carlisle has a good one too but we are talking about Jasper here. He was created to be part of a vampire army, a frickin army of super strong vampires. In the Twilight canon newborns are stronger than almost any other vampire they come up against, and they have a severe bloodlust, i still have problems with Bella not having to deal with it. He was then turned into a general of sorts in this army and turned many of his "troops." Just imagine how awesome it would be to either read about or watch anything that has to deal with that time period with Jasper. Blood would be everywhere and then it would close with him meeting Alice and she helps him walk away from all the destruction...hmmm I'm getting too excited about this, subject change.
As everyone knows I am a huger gamer. I play a little thing called World of Warcraft. I have even gone so far as to buying an authenticator for it to make sure my account doesn't get hacked, Whit uses one to check on the bank account. At first I wasn't interested in the Warcraft movie coming up because there wasn't a director their wasn't a writer, I was afraid it was going to go by the way of the Halo movie. But recent developments have me super excited. Sam Raimi is the director, when given the reins to a movie he does very well, Robert Rodat is the writer, he was a writer on Saving Private Ryan and The Patriot, and now neither of them have anything to do right now. Spider Man 4 has been canned and Sam said that he would move on from Spider Man to Warcraft. So I have deduced that Sam should be moving directly to the Warcraft project and things can start to move, casting, scripts, storyboards, all that good stuff. Here's hoping it DOESN'T end up like the Halo project.
And my lol moment of the week, a 42 year old mother of 4 from Texas, met up with a 16 year old boy, sorry neither a guy nor a man yet, in Canada for a rendezvous. They met through Wow, but can we please not blame Wow in this. Yes Wow was the medium in which they met, but it did not tell them, "It is a good idea for us to do this. You should leave your family behind to go meet some teenager." /facepalm
And last but not least, I'm gonna miss EVZ. Even though last week I went by myself, Whit was sick, tired, physically and mentally, I still loved the game. Everyone is into it, the "student sections" are amazing, the game is a pleasure to watch, and where else can you get a brat in one hand and a dinner roll in the other? Also it could be I just like hockey and not being able to go every week is going to be a little bit of a downer. It is a different game here than in the US. It is really tough to explain though. They don't drag on for 4 hours but that is due to the lack of TV breaks. But then that is offset by the amount of adverts on the ice and on the players themselves. The purists would say that all the ads destroy the integrity of the game, but how does stopping for 5 minutes every 5 minutes of game time not destroy the integrity of the game? Anyway they also don't hit as much, which is a bit disappointing but keeps the puck moving and stops the trap game that teams in the NHL use. They also seem to be more stick happy because of it, they whack on players, try little hooks, more poke checks, it just keeps the play moving. Plus the rinks are wider but shorter, so it is harder to try and trap the puck when the walls aren't so close together. Anyway I love it, can't wait for Friday.
That is it for now, I am sure something else will grab my attention within the week and expect me to write about it, good or bad.
3.1.10
When do things change?
Recently Whitney has started watching Sex and the City. And when I say watching, I mean going through seasons 1-6 straight through. I was a little surprised that I actually started liking the show, but then again it has its charms and very strong characters, something that has been missing lately. Watching one of the episodes something popped into my head, when do guys need to stop being guys and be men?
Oh no something deep, is what you are thinking. But seriously how are we supposed to know when to flip that switch? And how do we know when we are ready to flip that switch? Of course with becoming married there is a part of me that is already there. I was ready to make a commitment to stay with Whit forever. We bought a house, we have talked about kids, that we aren't having one for a while so calm down Nia. But I made the decision to marry Whit while I was still a guy. I didn't know what that exactly meant. I wasn't worried about 401(k)s, car insurance, house depreciation, or career paths. I was more worried about where the TV was gonna go and that I was moving further away from Nebraska. But now I feel like I am stuck between who I am and who I'm going/need to be.
I still like, OK love, playing video games. I still like to sit around and watch sports. I still like reading swords and sorcery fantasy novels. I want to eat a Jack's frozen pizza with some extra cheese on top. When does that change? I know I will probably never stop playing video games or watching sports, to Whit's displeasure. But when do I stop craving frozen pizza and want...I dunno something else? When do I start reading something else? Or are those things that I don't need to worry about changing?
But how do you turn a guy into a man? Is it taking away his frozen pizza and video games? Or are the little things that need to change? Like my inability to actually make a strong decision. As in what to do on the weekend here. We have lived in Europe for 6 months and haven't left Switzerland. To get up and get a new door on the front door until some other man had to do it. So when do things change? When does the switch flip? Or are these one of those 1.1 Gigawatt power switches that need two keys to turn? Or is a switch the wrong metaphor? I am starting to think that this is not something that can be instantly turned on and off.
Typing this out I realize that it isn't something that is instantaneous. So it has to start somewhere and maybe it is seeing that things really need to change. So I have to start here, in a country where I don't understand the locals and they don't understand me. But like I said I have to start somewhere so it might as well be now.
Oh no something deep, is what you are thinking. But seriously how are we supposed to know when to flip that switch? And how do we know when we are ready to flip that switch? Of course with becoming married there is a part of me that is already there. I was ready to make a commitment to stay with Whit forever. We bought a house, we have talked about kids, that we aren't having one for a while so calm down Nia. But I made the decision to marry Whit while I was still a guy. I didn't know what that exactly meant. I wasn't worried about 401(k)s, car insurance, house depreciation, or career paths. I was more worried about where the TV was gonna go and that I was moving further away from Nebraska. But now I feel like I am stuck between who I am and who I'm going/need to be.
I still like, OK love, playing video games. I still like to sit around and watch sports. I still like reading swords and sorcery fantasy novels. I want to eat a Jack's frozen pizza with some extra cheese on top. When does that change? I know I will probably never stop playing video games or watching sports, to Whit's displeasure. But when do I stop craving frozen pizza and want...I dunno something else? When do I start reading something else? Or are those things that I don't need to worry about changing?
But how do you turn a guy into a man? Is it taking away his frozen pizza and video games? Or are the little things that need to change? Like my inability to actually make a strong decision. As in what to do on the weekend here. We have lived in Europe for 6 months and haven't left Switzerland. To get up and get a new door on the front door until some other man had to do it. So when do things change? When does the switch flip? Or are these one of those 1.1 Gigawatt power switches that need two keys to turn? Or is a switch the wrong metaphor? I am starting to think that this is not something that can be instantly turned on and off.
Typing this out I realize that it isn't something that is instantaneous. So it has to start somewhere and maybe it is seeing that things really need to change. So I have to start here, in a country where I don't understand the locals and they don't understand me. But like I said I have to start somewhere so it might as well be now.
29.12.09
Frustrations of the Twilight...Thing (Part 2)
As with all things that are titled part 1 there are more to follow, and this certainly holds true with my frustrations that they indeed span at least two different entries, if not more. But for now I will get back to the story and a major problem with the series as a whole.
Now the target audience for this "saga" are teenage girls between the ages of 13 and 18. Now I know the series has clearly hit more than that but the initial release of the novels, it was for this age group. The perfect protagonist for this age group is a 17 year old girl who doesn't quite know what she wants from life. Her parents are separated and she has learned to become slightly independent. If you read my earlier entry you will see that slightly is the best word to use next to independent. So a lot of girls in the 13-18 age bracket can look up to Bella and who she has become. But here comes the problem that lies within the book, what is the message that Meyer is trying to send? Being a mormon, link, she more than likely has some pretty strong views on sexuality and marriage. (This is me using a stereotype, if it doesn't fit for her, please correct me) So what is Bella's and Edward's relationship represent? Bella is constantly urging Edward to just change her already, usually during the most physically charged scenes. It is not much of a stretch to switch "change" into "sex." Like sex once you are changed you can't go back, if you get bit you are a vampire forever, if you have sex you are no longer a virgin, except in Madonna's case, but that is a different matter.
So Meyer is showing the protagonist throw herself at her boyfriend over and over again. Fittingly Edward says no every time, until the Cullen's hold a vote and everyone would change her, except Rosalie...strange image there on this topic. Anyway, is this what Meyer wants teenage girls to do? Constantly throw themselves at boys and hope that they say no? Kind of a strange thought when thinking of her background and her target audience.
Now the arguments will be, "But they are in Loves," or "But it isn't sex, it's turning her into a vampire." My rebuttal is simply this, put this situation in real life where there are no vampires. We know how sexually charged teenagers can get, put them in a situation where they are on a girl/boy's bed, what else are they going to ask each other? How many boys out there are going to say no? Fewer than we would like to think.
Damn, that was longer than I was hoping, there will probably be one more entry if you can stand to read this, and I promise it won't be so negative next time.
tl;dr Bella : teenage girl | Vampire Change : sex Great image Stephanie Meyer
Now the target audience for this "saga" are teenage girls between the ages of 13 and 18. Now I know the series has clearly hit more than that but the initial release of the novels, it was for this age group. The perfect protagonist for this age group is a 17 year old girl who doesn't quite know what she wants from life. Her parents are separated and she has learned to become slightly independent. If you read my earlier entry you will see that slightly is the best word to use next to independent. So a lot of girls in the 13-18 age bracket can look up to Bella and who she has become. But here comes the problem that lies within the book, what is the message that Meyer is trying to send? Being a mormon, link, she more than likely has some pretty strong views on sexuality and marriage. (This is me using a stereotype, if it doesn't fit for her, please correct me) So what is Bella's and Edward's relationship represent? Bella is constantly urging Edward to just change her already, usually during the most physically charged scenes. It is not much of a stretch to switch "change" into "sex." Like sex once you are changed you can't go back, if you get bit you are a vampire forever, if you have sex you are no longer a virgin, except in Madonna's case, but that is a different matter.
So Meyer is showing the protagonist throw herself at her boyfriend over and over again. Fittingly Edward says no every time, until the Cullen's hold a vote and everyone would change her, except Rosalie...strange image there on this topic. Anyway, is this what Meyer wants teenage girls to do? Constantly throw themselves at boys and hope that they say no? Kind of a strange thought when thinking of her background and her target audience.
Now the arguments will be, "But they are in Loves," or "But it isn't sex, it's turning her into a vampire." My rebuttal is simply this, put this situation in real life where there are no vampires. We know how sexually charged teenagers can get, put them in a situation where they are on a girl/boy's bed, what else are they going to ask each other? How many boys out there are going to say no? Fewer than we would like to think.
Damn, that was longer than I was hoping, there will probably be one more entry if you can stand to read this, and I promise it won't be so negative next time.
tl;dr Bella : teenage girl | Vampire Change : sex Great image Stephanie Meyer
23.12.09
Frustrations of the Twilight...Thing (Part 1)
I have problems with Twilight. Anyone who has talked to me the past few years knows this and knows my reasoning. But it has built up too much to just let it simmer, I have to let it out. I do have some concessions I have to make about the whole thing. First off I give Stephanie Meyer great credit in striking a chord with the general public in creating such a successful franchise. The money she has pulled in is unreal and I can't deny it. I also have to say that a bit of me is jealous that she has been so successful, like any disgruntled guy out there. But now onto the fun part, the dissecting of the whole series. (I have read/listened to every book more than once and seen both movies)
First off, how did Meyer pull off a series in which the main character can create such large amounts of disgust. Bella is your normal teenage girl. She is insecure, undecided, and distant from everyone in her life. But this isn't the biggest problem I have with the character. My biggest problem is her reactions towards Edward. She instantly becomes obsessed with him. From the first encounter, when he hasn't "fed," don't get me started on their "vegetarianism," when he was completely rude to her, she still wanted to know what he was about. Who he was, how pretty he was, how mysterious he was, etc... When they started dating however it becomes even worse. She cannot be away from him. If Edward so much as thinks about leaving she latches on as if she is a vampire not allowing him to leave. And that isn't the worst part. Her descriptions of him are excruciatingly painful. To Bella, Edward is perfect. To how his skin is like polished marble, or his lips are rock hard but soft, or how his eyes are so beautiful when amber, or how his hair is perfectly tossed around, sorry go the movie involved. Anyway, you get the picture and boy is it disgustingly pathetic.
Now with Bella complete I have to talk about the vampires as a whole in this universe. Now I have no problems with taking some liberties with vampire rules. Ok so they can go out into the sun but they are severely weakened, Bram Stoker's Dracula, sure they can drink animal blood and still survive, there is a ruling order among vampires, werewolves and vampires don't get along, all things I can deal with. But SPARKLES!?!?!? The worst cop-out to allow vampires to goto school or be seen in public. Recently there has been a trend to glorify vampires, Underworld and Kate Beckinsale :) or Blade, or Brad Pitt in Interview with the Vampire, but to give them something has silly as sparkles. Sparkles should only be on High School homemade banners and Dance Recital faces, not vampires. Completely discredits any type of bad-assery that a vampire can have. I mean how can you fight something you couldn't stop laughing at?
Since this one is already lengthy I am going to leave it as is and write Part 2 later this or next week. Maybe I'll even get some quotes in there, but I don't want to dig through the books so probably not.
First off, how did Meyer pull off a series in which the main character can create such large amounts of disgust. Bella is your normal teenage girl. She is insecure, undecided, and distant from everyone in her life. But this isn't the biggest problem I have with the character. My biggest problem is her reactions towards Edward. She instantly becomes obsessed with him. From the first encounter, when he hasn't "fed," don't get me started on their "vegetarianism," when he was completely rude to her, she still wanted to know what he was about. Who he was, how pretty he was, how mysterious he was, etc... When they started dating however it becomes even worse. She cannot be away from him. If Edward so much as thinks about leaving she latches on as if she is a vampire not allowing him to leave. And that isn't the worst part. Her descriptions of him are excruciatingly painful. To Bella, Edward is perfect. To how his skin is like polished marble, or his lips are rock hard but soft, or how his eyes are so beautiful when amber, or how his hair is perfectly tossed around, sorry go the movie involved. Anyway, you get the picture and boy is it disgustingly pathetic.
Now with Bella complete I have to talk about the vampires as a whole in this universe. Now I have no problems with taking some liberties with vampire rules. Ok so they can go out into the sun but they are severely weakened, Bram Stoker's Dracula, sure they can drink animal blood and still survive, there is a ruling order among vampires, werewolves and vampires don't get along, all things I can deal with. But SPARKLES!?!?!? The worst cop-out to allow vampires to goto school or be seen in public. Recently there has been a trend to glorify vampires, Underworld and Kate Beckinsale :) or Blade, or Brad Pitt in Interview with the Vampire, but to give them something has silly as sparkles. Sparkles should only be on High School homemade banners and Dance Recital faces, not vampires. Completely discredits any type of bad-assery that a vampire can have. I mean how can you fight something you couldn't stop laughing at?
Since this one is already lengthy I am going to leave it as is and write Part 2 later this or next week. Maybe I'll even get some quotes in there, but I don't want to dig through the books so probably not.
20.12.09
Winter blues
You would think that living in Nebraska, where Winter consisted of 20 MPH winds and scooping snow out of cattle troughs, and Minnesota, same but about 10 degress colder, I would have been prepared for the Winter here. I was greatly mistaken when I found out how cold it can be when you are walking a dog for an hour in freezing temperatures.
Say what you will, but we are very pampered when it comes to cold in the States. Here the morning consists of getting up, eating breakfast, and then walking Whit and Miki to work, and then back again. That whole process takes about an hour and a half. Back in the states, I would wake up, eat breakfast, start my car, wait 10 minutes, hop in with my seat warmers on, drive to work, walk from the car to the office building (taking 1 minute tops), and then complain about how cold it is. You would think that you would be accustomed to the cold, but you just realize that your body forgets how to deal with the cold. So no matter what the temp is, it will just seem cold.
One good thing though is that it finally snowed here, and the snow stuck for more than a day. So hopefully later today and or this week I will be able to get some photos up to show how beautiful this country is. That is to say that it won't be too foggy/cloudy to actually see anything.
30.11.09
Back to the US
It has been a while since I updated this page, almost a whole month. But not entirely my fault, but just a little partially. First off Miki had drooled on my Eee PC making it difficult to actually post things. I like to use my main PC for gaming, and that is about it, so it was hard for me to sit down and type of things. But now I have a working keyboard on my little netbook and I will be a little more consistent. But that was not the only roadblock to updating, Whit and I have also been in the states the past two weeks.
It was great to see family and friends again but I could do without the distance between them. The 20 hours it takes just to get from Baar to MSP isn't too bad. Inflight movies help and it is just something that you can prepare yourself for. The problem is the driving once you get there. It takes 6 hours to drive between the Cities and Nebraska. Then another 10 from Northeast Nebraska down to Tulsa. Then another 10-11 hours between Tulsa and the Cities. Only being able to come home once a year has its disadvantages, and that is certainly one of them.
Luckily that was the only negative on the trip. Whit and I were both treated to some great back home parties, she was up till 4 on the first Friday and I went to a Karaoke bar. Plus I was able to play DJ Hero, which is great by the way, and I was able to see the house that my friend Ben was in the process of buying when I left.
Nebraska was the same as always, a relaxing, do-nothing for a couple days trip. Although when you are chasing around a soon-to-be 1 year old and 3 year old, it doesn't seem like you are doing nothing. Another thing that we did was have an early Christmas, and when I say Christmas I mean we. We had our traditional Spaghetti Dinner with our Grandparents, then we opened gifts in my parents decorated living room. My mom went all out in making it feel like Christmas, all the decorations were up, the Christmas tree, table settings, the deck had strings of lights, the bushes had lights on them, it was great. We also had a night with my brother and sister-in-law Nia to ourselves, no kids, and that was great because we could actually sit down and enjoy dinner and talk.
After all that is was on to Tulsa to celebrate Whit's great grandma's 100th birthday. That is not a typo, 100th birthday. And she is looking great too. She looks and sounds great for being 100 years old and has a lot of life left in her. We also were able to see Whit's sister Haley that lives in Portland and is moving to London next year. Whit and I are happy for that, but sadly it still isn't any closer than when we lived in MN and her in Portland. Another thing is that teenagers grow up super fast too, I know I'm sad that we are going to miss Lea going through high school, never had a little sister.
That is all for now. and until later
Auf Wiedersehen
It was great to see family and friends again but I could do without the distance between them. The 20 hours it takes just to get from Baar to MSP isn't too bad. Inflight movies help and it is just something that you can prepare yourself for. The problem is the driving once you get there. It takes 6 hours to drive between the Cities and Nebraska. Then another 10 from Northeast Nebraska down to Tulsa. Then another 10-11 hours between Tulsa and the Cities. Only being able to come home once a year has its disadvantages, and that is certainly one of them.
Luckily that was the only negative on the trip. Whit and I were both treated to some great back home parties, she was up till 4 on the first Friday and I went to a Karaoke bar. Plus I was able to play DJ Hero, which is great by the way, and I was able to see the house that my friend Ben was in the process of buying when I left.
Nebraska was the same as always, a relaxing, do-nothing for a couple days trip. Although when you are chasing around a soon-to-be 1 year old and 3 year old, it doesn't seem like you are doing nothing. Another thing that we did was have an early Christmas, and when I say Christmas I mean we. We had our traditional Spaghetti Dinner with our Grandparents, then we opened gifts in my parents decorated living room. My mom went all out in making it feel like Christmas, all the decorations were up, the Christmas tree, table settings, the deck had strings of lights, the bushes had lights on them, it was great. We also had a night with my brother and sister-in-law Nia to ourselves, no kids, and that was great because we could actually sit down and enjoy dinner and talk.
After all that is was on to Tulsa to celebrate Whit's great grandma's 100th birthday. That is not a typo, 100th birthday. And she is looking great too. She looks and sounds great for being 100 years old and has a lot of life left in her. We also were able to see Whit's sister Haley that lives in Portland and is moving to London next year. Whit and I are happy for that, but sadly it still isn't any closer than when we lived in MN and her in Portland. Another thing is that teenagers grow up super fast too, I know I'm sad that we are going to miss Lea going through high school, never had a little sister.
That is all for now. and until later
Auf Wiedersehen
5.11.09
Wow
That is all I can really say about this country right now. But this is a good wow, not a wow in disbelief, the Yankees won their 27th World Series, but more an awe inspiring wow. Yes I have seen mountains before, and yes I have seen a beautiful fall, Ames was surprisingly pretty when the colors were changing, but it doesn't compare to this.
First thing you notice are the mountains in the background wherever you are. They are quite the sight to behold. The jagged peaks that are covered in snow on a crisp sky blue background will make anyone drop their jaw. Add that to the occasional cloud that floats in between the arching peaks tops it off.
Another quality of the country are the amounts of trees and shrubbery that are around. Living in the Cities and on the plains and then living here, you realize that there are hardly any amounts of either. Our walking paths are surrounded by trees that hold onto their bright yellow leaves. What leaves are not still on the trees, coat the pathways like a blanket, but not a soggy, mucky blanket, but one that deadens your steps and makes you feel like you are actually away in the wilderness.
Here are some pictures that should showcase what I am attempting to, but will always, fail at.
Sorry but the mountain ones didn't turn out, I'll try and post other ones at a later date.
First thing you notice are the mountains in the background wherever you are. They are quite the sight to behold. The jagged peaks that are covered in snow on a crisp sky blue background will make anyone drop their jaw. Add that to the occasional cloud that floats in between the arching peaks tops it off.
Another quality of the country are the amounts of trees and shrubbery that are around. Living in the Cities and on the plains and then living here, you realize that there are hardly any amounts of either. Our walking paths are surrounded by trees that hold onto their bright yellow leaves. What leaves are not still on the trees, coat the pathways like a blanket, but not a soggy, mucky blanket, but one that deadens your steps and makes you feel like you are actually away in the wilderness.
Here are some pictures that should showcase what I am attempting to, but will always, fail at.
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