A few other students here at Drake and I are working to start a Knights of Colombus council here at Drake. Knights of Colombus is a nationally recognized brotherhood of Catholic gentlemen dedicated to the service of their communities and founded upon the principles of Charity, Unity, Patriotism, and Fraternity. It was originally started by the Venerable Father Michael J. McGivney for the purpose of establishing a life insurance policy for Irish widows. It has been consistently been ranked among the top insurance providers in North America, which is really a great selling point I guess for young, healthy, unmarried, college students but there you have it. The Order is an excellant organization and does alot of good for their communities. If you would be interested or know any Catholic gentlemen who would, please let me. You can email me at jmh054@drake.edu.
Now I'm sure alot of people going to look at this and think, 'why is Quint still watching cartoons.' You know what don't worry about it, forget you man. Cartoons are awesome, or at least they used to be. Maybe this is just the complaint of a little boy, but they have seriously changed. When I was a little kid cartoons were crude and delighted in the gross and unclean. Nickelodeon's logo was splattern of some kind of slime. It had a running theme of random gush of slime and the "sliming" of people. We had cartoons like Ren and Stimpy with intensely grotesque closeups, Rocko's Modern Life where Hefer would vomit up an internal organ, Aww Real Monster with Krum holding his eyeballs in his hands and an embrace of poor personal hygene. Now everything has become so clean and filtered with error. It is condescending to the children. The cartoons of my youth trusted us to be exposed to world of deviant behavior and socially unacceptable practices. Cartoon writers were like older boys who exposed us to that secret underground world of boyhood that would be inappropriate for our parents to have taught us about. This indecency was depicted in a way that did not leave you feeling unnerved. It actually comforted you to see this comical revelry in the filth and unpretentious. It was a relaxed yet imaginative attitude without requirement and a freedom of expression and ideas. They actually have show now about a bunch of d-bag teenagers in mall and all their whiny insignificant problems.
This new pattern is true for both the content of the cartoons as well as the quality of their artwork. With the advance of technology we have lost the artist's hand. Those imperfection and fluidity are what give the work a humanity, an existence. Now it's all computer animation and that 3D crap. You lose the unique quality and style of the artist. This is what makes cartoons special and individually significant.
The last cartoon I have seen that captures the aspects of the past and strongly recommend is an Adult Swim show, Robot Jail. It is somewhat crudely drawn and extraordinally imaginative. Every episode ends with a epic blood bath battle of some of the most insanely bizarre deaths.
All right, I'm not going to try an act like Kansas is this year-round beautiful spectacular because frankly (and specifically in the West) it can be quite dull especially in the winter when the sky is white and the ground is white and except for the occasional crack of black from some lone, barren tree some parts (again mostly the in the West) are just these desolate blanks.
But Kansas in Fall is absolutely perfect. I mean this is stuff they make oil paintings of; this is what they put on the cover of chalk pastel box to show just how beautiful a masterpiece you too can create with the company's product.
Every color radiates and yet none of them are entirely pure. Instead what you have are areas of orange in all of its tones and inflections in a beautiful medly enriching its quality and the same is true for the greens and the reds and the purples and the complex autumn browns. Each one brilliantly standing forth.
We're you to drive through the area you would see these far outstreching hills not too high so as to obstruct and limit your view but with just the appropriate incline to allow for you that the vast richness of the land should be laid out in its most before your eyes. Open spaces of either green grassy fields blurred slightly with small compliments of yellow or harvested fields now warmed and darkened into an unexplainable orange-brown with hints of purple like the copper of a penny are divided by thick tree lines where the leaves have turned for the most part to a vibrant yellow-gold brushing against the pure blue of the sky alive in its color with layers of small yet morphing white clouds.
I don't have any pictures of this and it really sucks. I had lost my last camera over the same and we've gotten a new one but it did not come with a memory card and that is something I keep forgeting to go out and get. But really the pictures wouldn't matter. This is something you have to go and see even if you just driving through.
Now I'm sure a lot of you have already seen this clip the other but I just really think it is important. Now I'm not taking sides as to Democrat or Republican, but will take the side of good logic and decent morality. This is just disgusting. A girl was raped and these senators are going to stand in opposition to actions that would provide her justice. The party line is not the end all to be all. When I hear them speak listing their reasons for opposition, I am appalled by their total disregard and lack of humanity. Politics needs to be more to these people than just a game with two teams childishly competing. The decisions of these men and women have an actually affect on the lives of millions of individuals, and they need to keep that in mind.
I have been putting off writing about this one partially because of midterms but also just because I'm just not sure how I feel about this one. I am fully behind the guy and what he is doing. You know he took on a situation with a good number of bad problems. We got two extremely unpopular wars with depleted military resources, intense economic devastation, dramatically rising health care costs, environmental issues and global warming. And he is guy who is actually looking for a solution to these problems and willing to consult with the top people in those fields. But he hasn't actually done anything yet. I mean yeah he's working on it yeah but hasn't quite accomplished any of those things. It's hard work and going to take some time; I'm not taking it for granted. He just hasn't done anything yet. The whole thing seems premature.
And well I guess some of the people on the Nobel Prize Committee are with me. According to an article in the Times today 5 of the committee members were noted as express some doubt in the election of Obama. Inger-Marie Ytterhorn expressed a concern that with 9 months into the presidency it was a little too early to award Obama. Agot Vale was quoted as saying that the decision would create "a debate, especially concerning the war in Afghanistan which she herself found problematic."
You know normally I highlight these movies before they come out, and I didn't do that for this one because I thought it looked kind of cheesy and a one joke premise. I'm sorry to say I once again grossly underestimated Ricky Gervais.
This movie is excellant. Not only is it funny it also takes alot deep look at the ethicacy of twisting the truth. It is not only that the hypothetical society doesn't lie; they must also tell the absolute truth. That means everything. Reality is forced upon everyone in its full force with no filtering. It is shockingly blunt. And it's not like you can call a guy an asshole or dick for what he said because he's just telling the truth which is just what everyone does. It is not malicious or anything.
Which kind of comes to the driving question of the film: is the factual reality really the best. Now of course the truth is often held a moral supreme. I am outraged and deeply hurt when I am lyed to. A lie often leaves people confused, unsure of what to rely upon, and ultimately deeply cynical. Realty is considered dependable and comprehensive.
Then there are also so many aspects of life that almost require, well I won't say lying, but a twisting of the truth. So much of the beauty of life is based on perception and pursuit of possibility. I mean, if accept the world at its surface reality, there is just so much we lose. We lose any kind of tactful conversation. We lose imagination and creative vision. We lose hope. This is one of main themes. Should man accept the circumstance of his life as given to him, or should he make ever effort in striving for a greater existence. If we accept the world as it is in its truth we lose sight of all of its fantastic potential.
I'm not trying to just to lying as a whole nor is the film. Certainly those lies told with full comprehension that are false and have no hope of becoming true are cruel and deeply immoral. But there are those times that reality is to some degree pushed aside to allow of realization of possibility and potential. It is this hope that supercede any injury caused from straying from the truth.
One final thought on the movie and this is just a stupid film nerd thing, but, if anyone is familiar with Laura Mulvey's feminist theory of male gaze, this is a prime example. The roles (not necessarially their characters) of the leading male and female roles are textbook. Ricky Gervais is the one who take action and control of the world while Jennifer Garner is the object of contest and is predominately concerned with preserving and maintaining her beauty. I mean if the genders were reversed with a short, stub-nosed woman after a beautiful man the movie would have never been made. Again just dumb film theory.
They're coming out with a sequel. Part of me is really pumped! Boondock Saints was such an excellant film, but that is also part of the problem. Boondock Saints is a cult classic. Can you really make a sequel to a cult classic. I mean what if they made a Big Lebowski II. That would be an awful idea. I don't know I'm really mixed on this one. Troy Duffy is still the writer and director, and from what I understand the reason for the time gap has to litagation issues. Also it looks like Norman Reedus finally managed to pull off an Irish accent in this movie.
A good majority of time is spent moving heavy objects transporting them from A to B. In that time you begin to think about the motivation behind this seemingly pointless activity. It is an interesting mentality. You have two of the great human themes: man vs. machine and man vs. self. There is also got to be something a little off with us though.
Now there are of course the blantantly obvious pyschological issues associated with weightlifting: the sadomasicisitic thrill of intentionally inflicting that level of pain on one's self; the clear obsession with size both of the lifter and of the lifted weight and the accompanying napleon complex; and the issue lifters have of never being satisfied or happy with themselves because they are often in actuality trying to compensate for issues with who they are as a person.
But there are also some less obvious ones that I have begun to notice. First off there is the constant preoocupation with "getting it up". Nearly every if not all weight exercises involve getting an object up. I often find myself on a obnoxious day of fatigue lay on the bench doing a press thinking to myself, 'I just can't get it up today." And of course I begin laughing which only makes it harder to lift. Even if your doing a cable pressdown or a lateral pulldown through a series of cables and pulleys you are still working to lift a weight up.
Then there is psychologic effect of the actual motion of the exercise. Lifters are constantly pushing working to push things away from themselves only to have them return. The things they pull towards them quickly retreat. The things in a lifter's life that he longs to escape only come to him with out relief. That which he strains to bring close to him, he can never trust to stay.
