Feelin' Good!

I'm Giddy. Seriously.

I haven't been this giddy in a while. Not since Alisha picked me up to go to the private Incubus show at Bimbo's last fall. I was so excited to look out my window, and see her pull up to the curb knowing I was about to see Incubus live for the first time in about two and a half years. What's more, I was completely unaware how fuckin bad ass that show would turn out. Which of course, is just what happened. I have now been to five Incubus shows, and that private show has become my favorite Incubus concert.

Which leads me to the here and the last few days. The A's just took two games outta three from the Angels in Anaheim. The A's pitched well, and they hit well, too. Despite coming up short in the third game where they had a chance at sweeping the Angels, the A's played well. It gives me hope for the rest of the season. Coming into this morning (July 26th, 2007), the A's are still in third place behind the Angels and Mariners, and 10.5 games behind first place. But in order to win the AL WEST, the guys just gotta start playing well before getting back into the race. It's the whole walk before you run idea, I guess. But if the A's can just play well, then that's all we can all hope for at this point.

Speaking of baseball; I went to a San Francisco Giants game against the Braves. *shudder*sigh*gag*

It was me, Pat, Bella, Kayla, and Mike that went. Pat bought tickets to the game last week after Bonds hit those two home runs in Chicago in the hopes that we would be witnesses to history. Well, history my arse. Bonds didn't even play last night (the third game of a four game series). Boo! And when I say "Boo," I mean "Boo!"

Not "Boo-urns!"

I can't believe it cost $30 to park in the lot over there, and needless to say, we didn't park in the lot. And where we were sitting in the third deck in that loft in left field, we couldn't even see the left fielder, the jumbo-tron, the giant glove, or the giant Coke bottle!! The two best things that I experienced last night was eating that hot dog I ate, and wearing my A's gear to the game. Obviously, if you're a fan of one team, and going into your rival team's home park will make feel a bit lost, what with being in foreign territory and all, but I must say that I felt very full of pride walking around that park dressed in A's colors. A friend of mine who is a Giants fan took a girl out on a date to an A's game last year, and they wore A's gear to the game. I realized then how much I really do bleed green and gold, but what's more is that I was puzzled as to why he or anyone else would do such a thing. There is but one exception why I would wear Giants colors, and that would be to wear Justin's #7 jersey, and that's about it. There was one heckler who tried to get a rise out of us as we were leaving (after the 7th inning ended), but his heckling was pretty weak. Too weak to mention here.

Another thing that has me as excited as I am is the fact that I'm ready to really focus on writing again. I've taken a bit longer than I thought I would. In fact, I thought that after graduating in May, it would be best that I just keep up the momentum, and finish the CAoC script. Yet, as the last two months have shown, I've only added about 10-15 pages, and that was in the first two weeks after graduation. But I've been writing a few other things within the last couple of weeks that have gotten me back into the swing of things, and I feel like I'm ready to tackle CAoC all over again. I'd say I have another twenty to thrity more pages for CAoC before it's done, and being as rejuvenated as I am now coupled with a being able to stay focused, I can totally hit this script outta the park.

Comic-Con is finally back again, but alas, I'm not in San Diego for good ol' NerdProm '07. Oh well, I'll still get to Nerd Out at the midnight screening of the Simpsons Movie that I'm attending tonight! I was originally going to go to Livermore to watch it with Jamie and some other friends after Jamie does his prsentation over there. But it would cost me too much cash to go there seeing as I'd have to go to SF from San Jose via Caltrain and BART. It sucks for sure, but I figure we'll watch the Simpsons Movie together at another time since we're all huge Simpsons fans. My bad, James. I'll nerd out in future screenings just as I'll nerd out this weekened. Especially, if I get to see The Dark Knight teaser trailer that's supposedly attatched to be seen before the Simpsons Movie. WooooHoooo!!

And before I go, I said in an earlier post that Batgirl/Barbara Gordon would soon be MINE, and now, she is!! [insert badly dubbed maniacal laugh]

The difference between a reason and an excuse.

I just read a pair of reviews of Transformers from Aint it Cool.

Harry's review

Vern's review

Here's the thing folks. The movies that have been released so far this summer (beginning with the week Spider-Man 3 came out), have done fairly alright. Knocked Up in sofar is my favorite of the summer. And what I mean by favorite, I mean to say the best all-around film (and that begins with I believe to be the singular most important aspect in film: the story)

Other's will say Transformers, others may tell you Live Free or Die Hard, Ratatouille, and so on, and so forth.

Walking out of the theater with my friends after watching Transformers, the general consensus was that it was a pretty good film. Except for one friend, Kimo, who thought that there was "a little too much humor." I wasn't exactly ready to embrace the film, or tear it shreds that night, but I have since thought about it.

Bumblee. Isn't he supossed to be an actual Volkswagen Bumblebee? Isn't that part of who he is? The reasoning that I have heard as to why Bumblebee is a Camaro is that VW Bumblebee's surely aren't as fast as Camaros are (ie chase sequences). Well no shit! But that's where being creative actually comes in, and if you're Michael Bay (director), or any one of the writers or producers (that includes you, Steven Spielberg), you get creative, and don't put up a front about the fact that Camaros are faster than VW Bumblebees. Not all car chases have to reach 90 mph.

Jean Luc Godard said that all you need in order to make a movie is a gun and a girl. Well, we got a girl in Megan Fox, but what about a gun? What about the fact that Megatron turns into a jet, and not a gun. That's bunk that they turn him into a jet. So the fuck what if it's silly to have the leader of the Decepticons turns into a stupid giant gun. Wouldn't you say a walking talking robot Camaro pissing on an NSA agent is silly? Because it is. And most certainly if Megatron were to transform into a gun, that would warrant the inclusion on Soundwave.

I have no real qualms about the plot considering most of the times, because if I remember right, the cartoon centered on the search of the cube(s) anyway, but still things with the military and the hackers were... well, they tried to fit so much. Just focus on the one human-robot relationship that should actually mean anything: a boy and his new car which just so happens to actually be a robot from another world. Focus on that, and cultivate it, and see where other human interaction fits in. Until then keep the story on the robots. And also, why do we see Optimus Prime's lips? He's supossed to have his mouth shield covering his mouth at all times. If it's to show his humanity, then that's just stupid, because he just looks out and out ridiculous with those tiny ass lips.

So here's the bottom line: I thought it was decent, but like Harry said in his review, I believe this movie could have been so much more.

People look at most studio films, and especially at the action films released during the summer months, like Transformers and look at them as being "blockbusters movies," or "popcorn movies," and say they're supossed to be corny with stupid jokes, and big explosions, and a bunch of "Ooooo-ing" and "Awe-ing."

My reply to that is so what? Is that a reason? Or is that an excuse?

At the end of Traffic, Catherine Zeta Jone's husband in the film tells Dennis Quaid's character that he doesn't see any difference from an excuse and a reason. And I must say that in either case, it's time to stop putting up with this shit, and just make a good action movie. Screw the excuses/reasons. Summer action movies don't and shouldn't have to use corny moments, and stupid jokes to qualify it as a successes. That's just being lazy, and uncreative.

Is it so wrong to have higher standards out of the modern summer blockbuster action movie?

LOL

Hey, I was just chatting with a friend online, and there came a time that I wanted to type in "LOL." I genuinely thought something was particularly funny, and typed in "LOL," then I thought about other times when I felt like I had to actually laugh out loud so if to justify the acronym... Has anyone else ever laughed out loud (even just a snark) to justify an "LOL?"... Or is this just me not having anything to eat in the last 5 hours? =P

Catch-Up

Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. So much to talk about. So much to touch on...

***Went to the Kwik-E-Mart in Mountain View this past Friday, and again just today (err, Sunday).



Me and my buddy Ralph.


I took this one when I went on Friday with my friends, Mark, and when I went back there with my friends Jory and Melissa, they took pictures with Comic Book Guy that, well, if I owned the copyright to the pose, I could very possible sue them for violating said copyright. teeheheee


Aahh, Jasper. This one was a nice surprise to catch... just too bad the glare kinda makes it that you can barely see him...


***Played Texas Hold-'em with the guys on July 4th. It came down to me, Anthony, and Kimo. After Kimo got knocked out, I lost the tourney to Anthony. At least I got my five bucks back. The few hours we played, and hanging out with the guys just kinda reminded me of when I first learned to play at Justin's house. I rememeber Justin telling me that he enjoyed having people over and just hanging out more than anything else. Of course, he was pretty good at poker... Hrrmm, now that I think about it, I think he'd enjoy a Squishee. Maybe I'll visit him this week with a Buzz cola flavored Squishee.

***I didn't finish the CAoC screenplay like I had hoped I would. Or at least not by my end of June deadline. I swear I will get it done. I've resolved to spend this afternoon holed up in the library and get back on track with writing in general. This week, I wanna hammer out the 2nd Caballero Writing Workshop assignment before I turn my sights back on CAoC.

***Saw Ratatouille, Live Free or Die Hard, and Transformers in the last few weeks, and each one kicks arse in their own way. Ratatouille was simply great. It was fun, told a great story, and a lot of heart. Die Hard 4 was bad-effin-f*ckin-ass. John McLane is one of the greatest, strongest, and most relatable character in the history of modern cinema. And I dare say cinema's entire history. While Transformers was, well, it was all that I could hope it could've been. I had fun watching it. That is undeniable, but there are few things that I just can't get over. But to generalize all of my criticism is to simply say that the Autobots were well, weak... The Decepticons are inheritently stronger because they just don't give a fuck. Thus, they are some ruthless and evil sons of biotches. But to cut down on my rambling, I just think that the Autobots were handicapped to such a degree that they were made to appear that much more weaker than they really are.

***The trip to New York that Joseph and I were planning have pretty much fallen through. Which is sad really, because the planning stages fell through before we even had the chance to start with it. But I do want to do some sort of summer trip, somewhere.

***I gotta be out of the apartment by the end of the month. *sigh* It's gonna be pretty sad as the next couple weeks pass by.

***The last two A's games I've went to I got to the game early enough to catch the opponents' batting practice. And at batting practice before the A's-Reds game, I got a ball, but could have gotten two more easily. Oye...better one than none, I suppose. The recent game I went to was against the Mariners... I actually didn't realize I had tickets to the A's-Mariners game until about four hours before first-pitch... talk about absent-minded, eh?

***The Incubus show at the Greek in Berkelely is next Saturday, the 14th. I seriously cannot wait for this one. But I just gotta make sure whether or not I wanna do a P.A. work in the morning and afternoon before the show. Which is kinda more complicated than it should have been seeing as how I already agreed to the P.A. gig.... EEEEEEKK!!... Oh well, I'll work it out.

***I believe that is about it for now. Well, other than the fact that I need to stop being as lazy as I have been, and go find a job, and get caught up on all of my comics... cuz DAYYYYYYYUMMMMM, I need me some money pretty soon, and I don't wanna fall any further behind on what's goin on. A lot of good stuff is being released right now.

****SIGH* I just realized that this little baby was just released last week. I toally forgot about it, and it suddenly crept up on me... I must have this statue. I will have this statue, and it will be mine!!... Oh, it will be mine. [insert maniacal laugh here]