I'm the only person I know of that seems excited by this upcoming movie, and I really can't figure out why. So, in order to try to garner some more exposure that it so richly deserves, I thought I'd talk for a minute (and link copiously) about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
This movie has been way too long in coming, but I assure you that after you watch this you'll be right back on the bandwagon and ready for more Indy:
movies.yahoo.com/feature/indianajones.html?showVideo=1
(Apologies that it's Yahoo; I'm too lazy to dig up another source and the quality isn't that terrible.)
Seems silly at first, but all it takes is John Williams' rousing adventure march to get you stoked. I will admit that I while I have been excited about a new Indiana Jones movie throughout, I wasn't sure what to make of this "crystal skull" business. While the trailer certainly doesn't help explicitly, it offers a few more clues and makes it look pretty interesting. This shot by shot breakdown of what they think is in the trailer offers some insights and theories:
www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1581573/story.jhtml
It's a little Internet-cynical, but what do you expect from MTV? They catch a few things that I wouldn't have the patience to go through and find so it was interesting to read.
This is also a fascinating article from Vanity Fair that talks with Lucas and Spielberg on the new film. It posits a little more of the "movie magic" that we've all lost being children of the Internet:
www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/02/indianajones200802?currentPage=1
Not directly mind you, but being it came from a print magazine the implication is there. Back when we were just excited about new movies instead of tearing them apart with ones and zeroes across the inter webs before they were even released. I even have a vague memory of seeing the preview for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in theaters when I was eight or nine years old; the trailer for this new one brought all that back, and the more I hear about this new movie the more excited I get.
It's kind of lame, but for as much legit and spoiler-free Indy goodness as you can get you can't go wrong with www.indianajones.com. It hides the good stuff so you have to dig around, but there's some worthwhile fun in there.
Me, my attitude here can be summed up by some anonymous poster on a Canadian website: "This is exactly the point of the trailer I believe. In this era of pseudo-intellectualism and cavalier cynicism, the cheesier the better I say."
Amen.
Blog on!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
The Jiffy Lube of Life
Something occurred to me the other day when I was changing my daughter's diaper. I'll spare you the details of course, but when I was done my wife says to me "You changed her? That was like the Jiffy Lube of diaper changes." I mused on this statement and started to see it manifest itself in other facets of my life. Maybe it was when my daughter was born, or maybe I've been doing it for a long time. But what occurred to me is that I think I go as fast through things as I can, most of the time when they might be unpleasant activities, but even stuff that I might "stop to smell the flowers" with. I changed my daughter's diaper like I might change a tire: quick, efficient, with little mess. When it comes to baby feces this is probably the best course of action and in everyone's best interest. However, do I rush through life? Is everything a means to an end for me?
This was exemplified the other day when I actually did change a tire. My mom was visiting and she casually mentions to me "I thought it felt a little flat [the tire]" and asks me to take a look. Well, when Sunday's temperature hovered around 25 degrees all day this only sped the deflating process that a loose screw had started. So, it was time to dig in, get dirty and change a real tire. The process didn't go without help, as when I started to loosen the bolts the whole disc turned a little and I got paranoid (note: changing a tire on an all-wheel/four-wheel drive vehicle is no different than any other). With a little of my neighbor's guidance we got the tire off, changed, and I was off to add a little air to the quartet of rubber. (Pro tip: the reason the disc moved was because I had raised the tire up off the ground. Instead, raise it enough so that the tire is still just touching ground and then loosen the bolts a bit. Continue jacking up so the tire clears the ground and make your change. Reverse the process to tighten the bolts back on.) While changing a tire isn't the most difficult thing out there to do, it really hit me that I performed this act with the same cool efficiency as I would some other activity.
I'm not really sure this is about taking it slow to enjoy life as it passes you by. However, it's hard not to make that allusion at times. Not to make light of taking care of a baby (or changing a tire; there's a fair bit of responsibility there) but another recent example of this came when I borrowed a Metroid game from a friend. Metroid games are notorious for their "gaming hooks" where you run around for a while, destroy some alien baddie and gain some ability that lets you explore new areas or find new abilities. This repeats ad nauseam until you are a super-powered beast capable of amazing feats that make the beginning of the game seem quaint. I played this game for a few weeks and felt irritated that I wasn't getting through it fast enough; part of this came I'm sure from the fact that I know the drill here. "Gimme my power bomb so I can blow a hole in that wall and get moving." I had played this game years ago as well, so I certainly wasn't experiencing it for the first time. However, I get to the final boss, it kills me dead many times in a row and I get a little tired, so I put the game down for a while and thought to come back to it. Well, coming back later the cartridge decided to blow away all the save data so I had to start over. Playing it now suddenly I'm more into the strategies, taking my time, etc. It sure seems a lot neater the second time around when I'm not trying to go Rambo through everything and move on to the next part quickerfasterbetter.
I have a short attention span. This is not in debate. At what point though am I rushing through life? It's not like I look behind me and think "Gee, when did my kid grow that much?" I haven't gotten to that point and in all honesty don't think I ever will. Everybody loses focus for a little bit; the mistake is not recognizing that fact and bringing your focus back to where it belongs. I'm sure much of my musings here are reflecting my last few months: I'm helping my wife raise an ever-changing baby (milestones and diapers), trying to study for two certification exams for work, taking on more and more responsibility and projects at work as it is, learning a long and complex form in kung fu, and so on. Things aren't exactly "slow" right now, although that comes off as an excuse to me. When one takes their point of perspective and shifts it just a tad, doesn't that change your view of what is happening around you? I go back to the tire changing: when it compares to a baby diaper it's time for me to shift my perspective a little. Bring my focus back to where it needs to be.
No need to rush. Life goes by no matter if you're blazing through it or not. Might as well enjoy the ride.
Blog on.
This was exemplified the other day when I actually did change a tire. My mom was visiting and she casually mentions to me "I thought it felt a little flat [the tire]" and asks me to take a look. Well, when Sunday's temperature hovered around 25 degrees all day this only sped the deflating process that a loose screw had started. So, it was time to dig in, get dirty and change a real tire. The process didn't go without help, as when I started to loosen the bolts the whole disc turned a little and I got paranoid (note: changing a tire on an all-wheel/four-wheel drive vehicle is no different than any other). With a little of my neighbor's guidance we got the tire off, changed, and I was off to add a little air to the quartet of rubber. (Pro tip: the reason the disc moved was because I had raised the tire up off the ground. Instead, raise it enough so that the tire is still just touching ground and then loosen the bolts a bit. Continue jacking up so the tire clears the ground and make your change. Reverse the process to tighten the bolts back on.) While changing a tire isn't the most difficult thing out there to do, it really hit me that I performed this act with the same cool efficiency as I would some other activity.
I'm not really sure this is about taking it slow to enjoy life as it passes you by. However, it's hard not to make that allusion at times. Not to make light of taking care of a baby (or changing a tire; there's a fair bit of responsibility there) but another recent example of this came when I borrowed a Metroid game from a friend. Metroid games are notorious for their "gaming hooks" where you run around for a while, destroy some alien baddie and gain some ability that lets you explore new areas or find new abilities. This repeats ad nauseam until you are a super-powered beast capable of amazing feats that make the beginning of the game seem quaint. I played this game for a few weeks and felt irritated that I wasn't getting through it fast enough; part of this came I'm sure from the fact that I know the drill here. "Gimme my power bomb so I can blow a hole in that wall and get moving." I had played this game years ago as well, so I certainly wasn't experiencing it for the first time. However, I get to the final boss, it kills me dead many times in a row and I get a little tired, so I put the game down for a while and thought to come back to it. Well, coming back later the cartridge decided to blow away all the save data so I had to start over. Playing it now suddenly I'm more into the strategies, taking my time, etc. It sure seems a lot neater the second time around when I'm not trying to go Rambo through everything and move on to the next part quickerfasterbetter.
I have a short attention span. This is not in debate. At what point though am I rushing through life? It's not like I look behind me and think "Gee, when did my kid grow that much?" I haven't gotten to that point and in all honesty don't think I ever will. Everybody loses focus for a little bit; the mistake is not recognizing that fact and bringing your focus back to where it belongs. I'm sure much of my musings here are reflecting my last few months: I'm helping my wife raise an ever-changing baby (milestones and diapers), trying to study for two certification exams for work, taking on more and more responsibility and projects at work as it is, learning a long and complex form in kung fu, and so on. Things aren't exactly "slow" right now, although that comes off as an excuse to me. When one takes their point of perspective and shifts it just a tad, doesn't that change your view of what is happening around you? I go back to the tire changing: when it compares to a baby diaper it's time for me to shift my perspective a little. Bring my focus back to where it needs to be.
No need to rush. Life goes by no matter if you're blazing through it or not. Might as well enjoy the ride.
Blog on.
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