Entries from December 2007 ↓

Today I went out to see Sweeney Todd at the local suburban Minnesota theater — a Carmike Cinemas theater. The showing was at 4:05pm, so I arrived at 4:00 on the dot, moments before they began seating. I chose a seat, sat down, and waited. The fat cunts behind me talked obnoxiously-loudly about a friend of theirs getting suspended from school. They appeared to be at the movie with their illegitimate father, or perhaps the high school janitor that they exchange favors with for tickets to an R-rated movie on Christmas eve.

Anyhow, one of the trailers caught my attention. A band named “Three Doors Down” apparently shot a music video for a song of theirs, “Citizen Soldier” for the National Guard. It was three minutes of doom-and-gloom, with hilarious comparisons of National Guardsmen in Iraq with Minutemen fighting the British during the American Revolution. I am sorry, but being led into war with our President’s father’s old buddy is not the same as earning our nation’s independence from the British. How fucking tasteless and, frankly, pathetic. Is scouring high schools around the US for drop-outs no longer sufficient?

Thankfully, there was justice-poetic, as one of the next trailers was one for Stop Loss. I imagine that the rest of the theater, including the twitching jackasses behind me, didn’t appreciate the irony. Their loss.

So, 31 minutes later, at 4:36, the movie FINALLY started. I had lost count of how many trailers I’d seen — only the one for Stop Loss looked any good. Over all, it is a pretty gruesome flick. There is a lot of throat slitting, and it’s all very.. gushy. I’ve seen reviewers recommend that those who enjoy the SAW movies go see Sweeney Todd, but I disagree. I don’t think that they would be able to sit through the introductory song, much less all the ones that follow, and the plot would escape the average SAW-enthusiast. If you don’t mind a musical, like Johnny Depp, enjoy a good revenge movie and can stomach a bit of gore, I highly recommend that you go see it. I give Sweeney Todd 4.5 out of 5 buckets of mystery-meat.

Well, on Thursday I flew out to MN for Christmas, and am there currently. The flight went well — my first first-class flight, ever — and aside from a little ear-pain was fairly uneventful. After the flight, however, I stood in line behind six old people at the baggage claim as they flipped, patted, rubbed, or otherwise abused EVERY fucking suitcase that came on the carousel, trying to determine if it was theirs or not. Being too polite, I stood there and waited for 10 minutes for them to finally prod the correct suitcases and get out of my way. This led me to be nearly-late for my bus from the burbs to downtown Minneapolis to meet Andrew. I left my luggage with my dad, grabbed Andrew’s present, and made it just in time to meet him at Pizza Lucé downtown.

I was a little worried that Andrew and I would have nothing to talk about, as though we speak nearly every day on AIM, we haven’t seen each other irl for several years. It was surprising how much we had to talk about, and it was tough to cut the conversation short at 2 hours so I could make the bus back to the burbs. It was delightful, and hopefully it doesn’t take another 3-5 years to see him again.

Saturday, I met up with Ryan and Marty downtown for brunch and some last-minute Christmas shopping. I had a lovely time hanging out with them. It was great seeing them again, and perhaps next time it will be in S-town.

A friend of mine — we’ll call him “Patrick” — has been angsty lately due to coming to the realization that our existence is pointless in the universe-level context. Well, duh. We are infinitesimally small and insignificant compared to the physical universe and “the universe” in quotes. Whether we live or die as a species means nothing to the billions of billions of billions of billions of stars, planets, solar systems, galaxies, perhaps even universes that reality consists of. Whether we do anything as individuals means even less..

..and that’s fine.

The relative pointlessness of our existence is a reality. We cannot alter reality. Instead, in order to live fulfilling lives — for the relative fraction of a nanosecond we do exist — we must learn what it is that makes us happy as individuals and strive towards that end. Barring physiological limitations, each person has something which makes them happy and for which they wake up in the morning.

An easy answer for many is family and friends. While that could be considered noble, to place your self-worth entirely in the hands of others is potentially dangerous. Not everything we aspire to must be easily accomplished, so don’t take a shortcut in an attempt to reach enlightenment (sotospeak) at the risk of being torn down (intentionally or not) by the others you rely so heavily upon.

Reality is important, but our perception of reality is upon which we base our existences. To turn the power of perception over to others (cough, religion, cough) we surrender our wills, and our lives to those others. That is not noble. It is stupid, lazy, (at best) misguided.