Annapolis + Yes Man + Seven Pounds = a new direction in life

I feel like I just attended a full Tony Robbins seminar, or read a self-help book cover to cover, or something to that general effect. I watched the movie, Annapolis, awhile ago, but the message still resonates quite strongly within me, and having just finished watching Yes Man and Seven Pounds (in a row, during a 4 hour movie marathon), I can confidently say that I am, at present, in the process of reevaluating my life on a grand scale. I will say that I am someone who (thanks Dad) has an emotional disposition to feel very emotional during movies, even when the scenes playing out don't have a clear emotional focal point. That being said, I think that anyone, callous or compassionate, would be hard put to watch the three movies I have mentioned and not to feel some twinge of empathy, sympathy, or humanity coming out of them. I will chalk some part of this up to good directing, screenplay, and/or writing, but I think that the message each of the three aforementioned films combine to send is one that any real person cannot ignore. Is our world perfect? Absolutely not - far from it, in fact. But the next question the proverbial 'philosophe' would ask is this: are we doing all we can, as individuals, to push the world in the right direction? I will be the first to point out that, pertaining to Annapolis, our government (at least under the careful watch of George, Jr.) has left many people and peoples unsatisfied - despondent even - looking for some light within what has become of the glory and hope of our Constitutional ideals. However, reading into the ideals themselves, no one can ignore or remain ignorant of the fact that there is a sincere hope somewhere, buried underneath all the words, their discrepancies included. Annapolis, for all its poor acting and picayune plot-line, does send a positive message to the judicious and inquisitive viewer: this life isn't all about you, or what you want to accomplish - it's about something much bigger. Each one of us is a spoke in one giant wheel (says I - the optimist for humanity) towards progress, and once we realize that and leave our selfish natures behind, we can contribute something meaningful to humanity as a whole.
Seven Pounds, similarly, is not a movie about individual accomplishment. True, it is a wildly fantastic case study of what momentous change can occur in a small bubble in the world when one determined, resourceful, and competent person puts every ounce of themselves into an exceptional undertaking. However, the message by the end is clear - while our own lives may be important in themselves, mostly to us savoring the pleasures of living a life we enjoy, the effect that we can generate and project onto the world around us - changing other peoples' lives - is what gives each individual worth. That is precisely what makes a life worthy of being lived. We learn it in kindergarten for a reason: sharing is good. Sharing is what makes communities function, what keeps families together and nations indivisible.
Finally, on to Yes Man, which may seem to some not really of equal emotional/educational caliber of the previous two (okay, maybe just Seven Pounds). The movie centers around themes of self-help, personal improvement, and general psychology ideas as we get a typical performance from Jim Carey - hilarious and vulnerable at just the right moments (and somehow always managing to leave a smile on our faces even when we feel like grabbing the tissue box). Saying no may seem the easiest thing to do sometimes, and to be fair saying yes all of the time is not always the best, as the movie makes sure to illustrate. But the general thesis I came up with was this - and I ask for no credit pertaining to originality or even intelligence in formulating this thesis - you lose in life when you take no risks. It's rather simple. I'll refer back to a cliche poker saying, which is that you can't win what you don't put on the table. For those unfamiliar with the game of poker, this basically means that if you don't play your hands, regardless of what cards you may be holding, good or bad, it is impossible to win. Sometimes in life, you get thrown lemons, and you make lemonade, as the saying goes. But when life doesn't give you lemons, sometimes you just have to strap on your boots and go out into the world to go and get those lemons, so you can enjoy yourself some sweet lemonade! It's cliche yes, and it's also quite unoriginal I'm sure, but I've learned that sometimes the most obvious things are the things we miss. It's so easy to get caught up in the fast pace of today, with the constant stream of information coming at us in the media wherever we look, that we don't stop to think about what we're doing living our lives - it's almost like we stop living and start floating, coasting, drifting through life aimlessly and without purpose. It's been quite a long time since my last post because that is exactly what happened to me (plus I've been kinda busy, but excuses only bring more excuses, so that's neither here nor there). Anyone patient enough to read this entire post, I thank you kindly and hope you enjoyed it and maybe even got something out of it.

Until next time - call me em.

YouTube - rey mysterio

YouTube - rey mysterio
So I was searching online for clothing, specifically more edgy brands (a la Ed Hardy, etc.), and when I was looking for a brand called "The Rock" (which I SWEAR I saw while I was in California in March) and having zero success, I stumbled onto the WWE shop. This came as no big surprise, given the prominence of The Rock in the history of "professional wrestling" history, but I also came across a shirt of Rey Mysterio in the process. I remember sometime a few years ago having an argument with one of my friends from middle school about who the best WWE/WWF wrestler was back in our days of fanship, but I couldn't remember the name of the guy who always did crazy acrobatics in his fights. Rey Mysterio sounded familiar to me when I saw the shirt, and when I YouTube'd his name I realized that he was the wrestler I had so vehemently argued in favor of to my friend those years ago. I've been playing sports all my life, but I've never been the biggest, strongest, or had the most raw skill at the sports I played. However, I did find myself as one of the best players on whatever team I was playing for, in any sport, because of my speed, agility, and competitive intelligence viz. anticipating opponents' or teammates' moves or decisions. This is why I loved to watch and root for Rey Mysterio, because he reminded me of myself. Against the stronger wrestlers, in a "sport" that was dominated by the bigger, stronger men, he got by and defeated strength with agility and fantastic acrobatic displays, jumping off the ropes, spinning himself around in the air, countering moves with his pure athleticism. What I remember him doing for wrestling, for me, was making it less "fake competition" and more "athletic display," which salvaged the scripted, false showmanship of the "sport" for longer than it would have lasted in my mind without him.

In another WTF were they thinking installment...roping deer turns out not to be a good idea after all:

I laughed pretty much all the way through this story of a guy in the great state of West Virginia who decided to catch a deer by more humane means - using a rope (a la cattle), but was met by a formidable foe in his target deer.

WTF were these people thinking? [read: Bill Cosby - kids say the darndest things]

Stumbling a little while ago, I found a site that reminded me of this one Family Guy episode I was watching the other day - the episode where Stewie tries to bring his mind-control helmet to the masses by appearing on the Bill Cosby show, Kids Say the Darndest Things! except that that was a cartoon, and these are allegedly real responses given on driver education exams in California (must be something in the smog). Check it out.

most amazing beirut skills I have ever seen...

Please watch this video, if for no other reason than to appreciate the ability of these kids to spend countless hours, undoubtedly, tossing ping pong balls all over the place with the goal of making them into Solo cups (and one shot class). After watching the video, you might not believe the authenticity of the actual shots themselves, but these kids are pretty meticulous in their attention to video-edit detail nonetheless.


Masterful Beer Pong Skill Shots - Watch more Funny Videos

just some more helpful hints about blogspot template CSS...

In my late night insomnia, I went OCD trying to make this blog page look as aesthetically pleasing as possible, which involved a lot of tweaking and surfing other blogs for help editing the HTML code behind the template I'm currently using. This particular one is a simple, 2-column template, but it's a new one that I couldn't find a readily available tweak code for (as far as adding columns, etc.) so I tried to work with examples from the older tweak blogs. The one I used was the one I linked to about "adding a third column" to the sidebar, which did in fact prove quite helpful for the basic execution of the idea. However, for some reason I couldn't manage to move the main content (post) column away from the newly created left sidebar, and I tried in vain for a few hours before I finally gave up for awhile. Then I got an idea, which was to simply add another column beside the new left sidebar, make its background and border transparent, and see if that would finally move the content column "away" from the left side. After some minor HTML editing, I did finally achieve the effect of having two sidebars and a main content column with equal separation between, even though in reality, there is an invisible "middle-sidebar" in between the left and main columns (shh-don't tell!). So, if anyone else out there has been futile in their attempts to add sidebars to a new custom template, try this trick and let me know if it works for you, too. Enjoy!

OK, so here is my first post: a DIY book clip

I guess I'll start off this blog with something helpful for anyone who reads...which I suppose would by definition be anyone reading this post. I'm currently writing a long research paper, and I've got about nine books open in front of me piled everywhere I can fit them on my desk. While reading, I need to copy down important quotations and the relevant citation info from whatever book I'm using, but typing that out while trying to read out the quote is pretty time consuming if I have to struggle to keep the books from flopping closed. I remembered seeing an infomercial about a "book-clip" that keeps the book open while you read, have a drink, or do whatever else you'd like to be doing while you read with either of your hands. This gave me the idea (since I didn't have said Book-clip handy) to try and make my own DIY book-clip. So, here's a tip for anyone who likes to read without their hands holding the book open at all times: get a fairly stiff strip of metal (i.e. about as thick as a school cafeteria spoon handle) and a ruler (or something similar in shape/stiffness). The next step involves bending the strip of metal back over itself. Make sure not to make it so bent that it either breaks or is essentially a paperclip - you should be able to fit your finger in between without cutting off your circulation. That's pretty much all the manual labor involved in this little project. The last part is just using the bent metal as a clip to secure the ruler at the top of the book page, keeping its pages open without the need for your hands at all. Enjoy - read and do whatever else you want!

(I finally got around to uploading the photos - take a look right here...)