Doctor Who

      My new interest has sort of hit me like when you accidentally run into a wall. I watched the first season of Doctor Who on Netflix somewhere around a year ago but it interested me enough to watch all of the Torchwood episodes. At the time, I really liked Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and I couldn't really picture David Tennant as the same character so I didn't watch much of the second season or beyond. I don't remember how exactly but somehow I heard about the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who was coming up and BBC America was going to be running an entire week of Doctor Who to prepare for it. I loved the first season so I said what the heck. I started getting up super early in the morning the first day the marathon was on and I watched a couple episodes of David as the Doctor and I kinda liked him so the next day I returned and Matt Smith was the Doctor. I watched a couple of his episodes before I went to work that day and then sometime during the day I decided I would go back to Netflix (using a different email so I could do a free trial) and watch all of the episodes from season two on. Of course after I decided to do this I ended up having to work a second job all the way up to the day of the 50th anniversary. I got home from work at about 10 that night and I stayed up until 1 am just to see the anniversary episode. Of course after watching that I was hooked.
      I have now spent every night watching at least one episode no matter how tired I am because I am determined to finish season 6 before the Christmas episode which is only three days away (season 7 isn't on Netflix). I want to get used to Matt Smith being the Doctor so that I can have the proper reaction when he regenerates. I know I will learn to like him because after continuing past season 1, I have fallen in love with David Tennant. The episode where he regenerates was a spoiler for me because I watched it on BBC America before I went through the entire couple of seasons with him as the Doctor so now I don't want that to happen with Matt Smith.

      As usual though, my nerdyness has taken over me and gotten out of control. In the past couple of weeks since the 50th anniversary episode aired, I have bought two Doctor Who books, two single comics, a full comic book, and a 7 pack set of Doctor Who themed socks. I am also trying to save up $300 so that I can buy the dvd set online. I can't wait until XCON 2014 (Myrtle Beach's comic book convention) because this past year they had a Dalek, a Tardis, and sooo many Doctors; now I can fully appreciate the experience.
      Now you know my latest addiction, I will leave you with this: Watch Doctor Who. You can start from the first season in 2005 so that the special effects are better than the original series and watch until you get to "Are you my Mommy?" because I think that is the episode that accelerates your love for the show. After you have caught up, go back and watch the original series (this is my plan) because I think the plot lines, characters, and overall story will make more sense.

Instead of a movie of the day I have a clip of the day. This is a clip in between season 1 and 2 of Doctor Who where the Doctor has regenerated with Rose in the Tardis:

Song of the day: Say Something by A Great Big World feat. Christina Aguilera

Photography and Where's George as a Hobby

Hobby: Something to take our minds off real life.

      Over my twenty five years of life I have picked up many hobbies. When I was in grade school, I collected rocks and minerals. I then moved to collecting comic books, dvds, and coins. When I was a kid I loved to ride my bicycle and this has continued into adulthood but now I've made a hobby out of adding upgrades and attachments to my bike. My most recent hobby has become photography and more specifically light painting photography.
      I know photography is a common hobby among the young and old but I never realized how many elderly people were really into it until I moved to a coastal community where many people came to retire. I am enrolled in a photography class at the local community college and the majority of the class is above the age of 50. I am the only person under the age of 30 in the class and this surprised me until I saw a picture in the local newspaper about a photography club that meets in town. There were about a dozen people in the picture showing off their award winning photographs and all of the people had white hair (ie they were definitely retirement age). I noticed that all of the older people did either landscape photography or wildlife photography. In my class now, the older people want to do landscape photography and the "middle-aged" people want to do portrait photography. As a youngster in this group, I am completely beside myself. I want to do something different that other people haven't thought of or really seen that much of.
      I came across light painting when I first got my camera and I was looking up all that it could do. I was watching Youtube videos (which is how I learn to do most things anymore) when I came across a man named Wes Whaley who was in a video doing a pregnancy portrait using light painting to do something different than the usual 'pregnant woman posing' picture. I fell in love. This is what I wanted to do. I found some more graffiti looking pictures taken using the light painting technique and I've used those to help get me started. I bought a couple different flashlights at Walmart and Home Depot and most nights I go outside after dark simply to mess around to see what kind of effect I can get out of each flashlight and each mixture of different flashlights together. This is what I've come up with so far:

 

 

      Now I work as a waitress at a Waffle House and we work off of tips. My next new hobby came from a one dollar bill I received as a tip. I had a stamp on it that said "Track me to see where I've been www.wheresgeorge.com" I was curious about the stamp so I checked out the website (hoping my virus software would protect my computer from any unwanted viruses or hackers). I was fascinated by the ability to track a piece of money all over the world. I tracked my bill to Ohio and California. I was hooked. I looked up some videos on Youtube (of course) about Where's George and found that thousands of people track these bills and there are actually a lot of people who stamp every bill they receive and register it on the website so that the bill can be tracked later. My curiosity grew until I marked a few bills of my own, registered them, and sent them out into the world. My intention is to forget about it for a while until I receive an email that a bill has been tracked or I receive another bill with a stamp on it because I think it is in the excitement of not knowing when you will find one or when someone will track a bill you sent out that really catches peoples attention as well as seeing how far away a bill has traveled that now sits in your wallet. My challenge to you is to go to the website next time you find a bill stamped www.wheresgeorge.com and I promise the site is not a plethora of viruses.

Movie Reviews: Star Trek Into Darkness

      Today I went to the theater to see Star Trek Into Darkness. I was lucky enough to be able to watch it a day earlier than the national release in the US. I've seen most of the other movies in the Star Trek series and I think the other movies allowed me to appreciate this movie even more so if you haven't watch Star Trek The Wrath of Khan, I would advise you to do that before going to see this movie because there are many similarities and even a reference to it. I think JJ Abrams did a really good job with this movie, he took the Wrath of Khan and updated it to flow with the newest movie. All of the acting was very well done and the plot/storyline was really well written. Most of the best jokes were given to Scotty and they are mostly one-liners. I loved the switch that occurred from the Wrath of Khan to Into Darkness with respect to a Spock/Kirk scene that really shows how much changed since Nero changed history. All in all, the movie was really good, I laughed, I cried, I waited to see who would live and who would die. There were a couple parts of the movie where I had to remind myself that JJ Abrams was directing instead of Joss Whedon. Not only were some of the camera directions similar but JJ started pulling a Joss stunt where he likes to kill main characters - not to spoil anything but you will have to watch the movie to see what I mean. Overall, I highly recommend this movie for your summer entertainment (although I did prefer Iron Man 3). This movie should not disappoint the Trek fans.

Cue trailer:

 

Happy Mothers Day! and Preview Agents of SHIELD

      I hope everyone is enjoying their Mothers Day with a mom, wife, daughter, sister, etc. I didn't have much money to buy my mom anything so my genius plan was to bake her a cake. First let me mention I have never baked a cake before. Now that being said, the baking part was no problem. My problems came when I first started to decorate the cake with frosting. The frosting was a little cup of Pillsbury frosting that I got at Walmart and it said to give it some flavor, you could mix it with Cool-Aid. I tried a little frosting mixture first to see how it tasted. It was horrible. It was okay for the first couple of seconds but the sour hit you like a sideswipe with a bus. I didn't want to waste the frosting though so I put it towards the center of the cake and used the un-sour frosting to cover the rest of the cake. This way my mom will enjoy the cake when she starts at the edges and then when she gets to the center it will be a BAM moment.
      This weekend was also the start of Bike Week in Myrtle Beach, SC. My parents went and when they tried to get me to go with them I gave the excuse that there wasn't anyone there that was even remotely close to my age. When they got back, the let me know that it was a lot of fun and I should've went down with them. After a short inquiry, I learned they had spent the day bar hopping and riding on the motorcycle with 11 other people. That all sounded fine until I learned that they were one of the youngest people in the group. I had the sound of brakes squealing inside my head. They really wanted me to spend my weekend hanging out with geriatrics? If they were the youngest, I would look like an infant. Absolutely not. I've spent the remainder of my weekend desperate to find people my age in my area to see what they do on the weekends.

      In other news, SHIELD has a new promotion video out on Youtube. You can view it here:

      I am really excited about this show. I loved Agent Coulson and to have him back is simply awesome but to have him back in a television show instead of a movie, I think, is spectacular because we will get more of him than just a two hour storyline. I really liked the Avengers movie and I am a huge fan of Joss Whedon (I grew up on Buffy) so I can honestly say I have never been so excited for a show that hasn't even aired yet.

 

Happy Mothers Day Everyone!!

Movie Reviews: Iron Man 3

      I went to a special 9pm screening of Iron Man 3 on Thursday May 2nd and I got to see it in 3D. I loved the movie. I was a little worried about what direction the movie would take in a post-Avengers world but I think the writers did a very good job making a story realistic after the revelation of god-like aliens and an alien invasion. I think they did a really good job giving Tony Stark PTSD after everything he went through in New York and it helped the storyline make sense with him not simply calling his Avenger friends for help. I loved watching Tony Stark deal with PTSD because he is such a narcissist, this was an interesting way to delve more into the character. I really liked the interaction between Tony and Harley, a kid who shows up with sarcasm of his own to help Tony when he needs it. Usually kid sidekicks are annoying and wine a lot but Harley was a fun annoying because he annoyed Tony and Tony would say things to the kid that most adults wouldn't. The interaction was fun for me as a viewer. I found the movie had equal parts of humor, action, and romance but the Shane Black, the director made it feel more like a Bruce Willis  is Tony Stark Die Hard Iron Man movie. I think Jon Favreau did a better job directing the first Iron Man. One part of the movie that will inevitably be a hot topic among hard core Iron Man comic fans is the portrayal of Mandarin. I really loved Ben Kingsley's Mandarin but I hadn't seen him in comic form. I do know that the movie version of the character needed to be more realistic and that is why he was changed but he has become one of my favorite movie villains.
      The scene at the end of the credits is also worth mentioning. I enjoyed it and found it comedic even though it wasn't a preview of the next movie in the series coming out. I don't want to give any spoilers but another Marvel character joins Tony Stark and the two have worked together in The Avengers movie.

      I hope you all watch Iron Man 3 in theaters and enjoy.
 

Movie Themed Bedroom

      There are very few good things about a housefire but the one thing I have enjoyed is decorating my new bedroom. To honor the filmmaking industry of North Carolina, I came up with the idea of doing a movie theme with the colors red and a "gunmetal" grey on the walls. I got most of my decorations from Cracker Barrel and one from Hobby Lobby. I found a Love Actually poster at a flea market and a Repo! The Genetic Opera poster at the local comic shop. The poster Done The Impossible is from Amazon because it was less than $2. I even have a pair of Harry Potter 3D glasses from the last movie and a little Joss Whedon next to my tv.
      I love movies so I thought a movie themed room would fit perfectly. I collect movies the way nerds collect comic books and jocks collect trophies. I used to have a bookshelf that I emptied off to put all my dvds on and I did have close to 300 dvds. One of the things I am most passionate about is movies because like books, they allow you to escape reality if only for an hour and a half. They have the ability to teach kids about right and wrong, good and bad, and that life can suck sometimes but you have to bounce back. I don't have a favorite genre because I love almost everything from Harry Potter and Star Wars to Taken and The A-Team to Dear John and PS I Love You to The Incredibles and Finding Nemo to It's a Wonderful Life and Singing in the Rain. I have found that the more a movie includes a good family dynamic (whether blood relatives or not) I will usually enjoy it. My most favorite movies involve a strong father daughter relationship which might say something about my own. Moving on, my movie theme - here it is:

 

Movie of the Day: This is 40

Song of the Day: The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows by Brand New

 

Teen Television Shows: Then and Now

      I've been skipping through the channels lately around 8pm looking for a good teenage drama tv show that would remind me of my teenage years. I was disgusted at almost everything that is aimed at teen viewers. Other than Switched at Birth, I really couldn't find anything good that I would want to watch if I was a teenager. I remember growing up on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, 7th Heaven, Dawson's Creek, Charmed, and One Tree Hill. There was a short lived show called Life Unexpected that reminded me what good television could be but it was cancelled after its second season. Pretty Little Liars, Greek, The Lying Game, and The Secret Life of the American Teenager are all teen shows but as an adult (and showing my age) I wouldn't want my teen watching a tv show that makes it look okay and easy to be a pregnant teen. I don't really like the idea of any teen tv show that has lying and liars in the title - I think teens have enough problems with lying without tv shows telling them that it is okay. As for Greek, I didn't really like sororities or fraternities in college so that kind of skews my view of the show.
      I remember how excited fans of Buffy and Angel got over the characters, the actors who portrayed them, and the creator Joss Whedon. Now Joss Whedon is a commonplace name after The Avengers but he was already well known and well respected by fans of Buffy, Angel, Firefly, and Dollhouse. The shows that are aimed toward teenagers these days don't give them the same passion to follow the stars or the creators and the characters don't grab your heart from the first show. Anymore, the looks of the character is more important than how the actor portrays the character. It seems like the shows are trying to pick no name actors and actresses with no experience making the show a stepping stone to bigger and better jobs. The only problem is the actors they are picking to portray the characters are not good. Buffy casted people who had been on soap operas where filming was almost every day all week all year. Actors these days don't have the opportunity to come out on a soap and gain experience. They gain experience by being awful in a position that should've been a good story.
      I miss caring about characters like they were family. I started watching NCIS, Castle, and Grey's Anatomy after high school (when all the good shows ended) and they appealed to my adult side but they still had characters that captured my attention and my heart from the very first episode. Very few new shows capture my attention these days but I've found Revolution, Arrow, and 1600 Penn to begin filling the gap between good character driven television and mind numbing cliche television (although even that is better than reality tv shows with the exception of The Biggest Loser which actually helps people). Even when I was a teen, the most influential show I watched was The West Wing. I think teenagers these days need a show like that that gets them engaged with current issues and makes them care about something other than themselves. In most of the teen shows on the CW or ABC Family, the characters all seem winy and they complain about every single thing bad that happens to them. We need more characters like Buffy who instead of bitching and moaning, actually do something productive.

As a side note: Joss Whedon is a part of making the new show SHIELD so I guess there is still hope for the human race.

Movie of the Day: Abduction (yes it's the Werewolf from Twilight but shut up cuz it's a good movie)

Song of the Day: Before My Time by J. Ralph feat. Scarlett Johansson and Joshua Bell

 

The Hollow Oak

      I have finally gotten settled in the new place and by that I mean I actually have furniture. I am still missing my books, movies, and cds but I can live without those for a while. This past week I got a job working as crew for an independent film called The Hollow Oak. It is a horror movie about a girl who goes to a family campground with her mother, makes a bunch of new friends, and is then terrorized by a ghost. I spent the entire week living out of a camper with the cast and crew and working 16 hour days. This was my first opportunity to work on a film set and I really enjoyed my time. I learned a lot about how a film is made and all of the jobs associated with making a movie.
      The film has taken on a curse of its own though. The main character has already been recast five times and is in the process of being recast again. Almost the entire cast and crew were replaced and everything had to be refilmed. On my last day working, the lead and her character's boyfriend both quit so now they have to be recast and everything has to be refilmed yet again. The director was in tears and the film is supposed to be finished by the end of May. Honestly, I don't see the film being finished in time. I enjoyed my time on set but I am weary of working with the people again.

      On to a happier note, my brother, his fiance, and my niece visited over St. Patrick's Day weekend. My parents and I were trying to convince my soon-to-be sister in law to move down to North Carolina. We took them to Margarittaville and Ocean Isle Beach. They found some really nice sea shells and they really enjoyed the nice weather. We took them to a fun center where we all played mini golf, pool, and arcade games. I think we finally convinced her but now we just have to wait for my brother to gain some experience in his job so that he can move without any economic problems.
      In my last post I crapped on the Canon T3i/600d because mine froze and wouldn't turn on at all. I have no idea what the problem was but after three days of sitting and doing nothing it simply turned on without a problem. I'm still cautious about using Magic Lantern on it now but it has been running fine since it's reincarnation.


Movie of the Day: Atlas Shrugged

Song of the Day: I Don't Wanna Be by Gavin DeGraw

 

Canon T3i 600d Review

      Well my beloved T3i has 'shit the bed' so to speak. It was only two months old, I got it for Christmas and I can't believe it stopped working. So here is what happened:
      I was filming a Youtube video but I wanted more space on my memory card so I took the sd card out of the camera to put in my computer. I emptied everything off of the card and placed it back in the camera. I tried to turn the camera back on and I got nothing. Even the LED light doesn't come on even when I take the battery out. I've recharged the battery, tried another sd card, cleaned the battery connectors, removed the battery pack, downloaded Canon's origional firmware onto the sd card, downloaded a led blinking test which didn't work, I downloaded a startup logger that didn't work, and checked the card slot to make sure none of the pins were bent or broke.
      I've been checking online and the camera not turning on is a common problem. I wish now that I had done more research and went with my initial choice of a Panasonic Lumix GH2 but I chose the Canon T3i because it was cheaper and more easily accessible (even Walmart sells it) where the GH2 I would've had to buy exclusively online. I've had a Canon camcorder for almost two years and I love the little thing so I figured Canon would be a good brand to buy. I couldn't have been more wrong. Now I have a very expensive paper weight.
      My overall view: good camera if you can afford $700 every two months otherwise choose a different brand of cameras.

 

Movie Review: Mama and Warm Bodies Preview

      I am finally moved in, well, with the exception of furniture and clothes. Okay so I have a bag of clothes, a tv, an Xbox, a stereo, and a sleeping bag so I am set. Since my parents are letting me live with them, I have been helping them fix up the house they bought. The house they paid cash for was a repo so naturally it needed a lot of work. I ripped out all of the carpeting except for my bedroom, I painted four rooms, and I helped lay laminate wood flooring in two rooms. Needless to say I've been pretty busy. I just came up to visit my brother and get some more clothes a couple of days ago. The climate difference is astonishing. In the middle of January in North Carolina is around 65-70 degrees and it is cold if it drops into the 50s. I come back up to New York and anything over 45 degrees is a heatwave. The good thing has been the snow. I've been able to take quite a few steel wool pictures. If you don't know what they are, they look like this:

     One of the first things I like to do in a new town is go to the local movie theater to see a movie. I like to see how theaters differ based on location. The first movie I went to see in my new town was Mama. It is a horror film about two orphans who are raised by a ghost. When they are found in a cabin, they are sent to live with their uncle and his rockstar-wannabe wife. The basic 'BOO' scenes are included with more family drama than a usual horror film but that might be the result of it being rated PG-13. I thought the movie was okay but it was not terrorizing. I don't think I would take a thirteen year old to go see it because there are a few scenes that make you jump. This movie is the product of a drunk one night stand between The Messangers and The Grudge. Aside from the creepy 'mama' I found the children to be fairly creepy. As they say, "pound for pound, Ghost children are the creepiest." Of course these children were not ghosts but when they are first found in the cabin, it is difficult to tell what they are exactly. The movie starts out really spectacularly but I won't spoil anything for you. The ending I thought was pretty good for the movie's pace and storyline. Overall I would say if you are in the mood for a horror movie that isn't going to give you nightmares for the next year then this is the movie for you.
      A movie I really want to go see is Warm Bodies. It is a new take on zombie movies (and in my opinion, it kinda sounds like a better love story than Twilight). It is supposed to be about a zombie kid who falls in love with a human girl and loving her starts to turn him back human. I think this is an ingenious idea but I never would've thought it could work. Just the previews have made me change my mind. I love the new take on an old idea.

Movie of the day: Warm Bodies

Song of the day: Comes and Goes (In Waves) by Greg Laswell

 

Do you like to travel? I used to.

Happy New Year everyone!

     What happens when you live with your parents and their house burns down? You end up spending three months bouncing between friends and family residences and hotels. I used to love to travel and spend the night in a hotel. Now I am so sick of spending almost every moment with other people. I miss my sanctuary of a bedroom. I have been looking for an apartment but with all of my college loans, I really don't have enough money to pay for an apartment too. My parents have been looking at houses in North Carolina and are about two weeks away from having a house just North of Myrtle Beach. My mom is almost begging me to stay with her while my father makes me feel like it would be better if I lived in my car. I know I would enjoy the change in scenery and living that close to the ocean I think would motivate me to exercise more. I can knowingly tell you that eating out is not good for you no matter where you eat. I may not have a scale but I can feel the extra weight.
      One of my many Christmas presents this year was a Canon T3i. I mention this because I found that it is a good source for exercising. When I visited the beaches in North Carolina, I was running around like a crazy person taking pictures. Just from walking on the beach for a little while, I can feel my breathing increasing. I love it. I know when I exercise I feel better afterwards and I always have a better nights sleep after exercising.

      Everyone makes New Year's resolutions and only 8% of people succeed in their resolutions. Aside from making a resolution to being one of the people who succeed in their resolutions, my resolution is to eat healthier. My thought process goes that if I eat healthier, I will have more energy to exercise and if I exercise more, I will be able to lose weight. This being said, I will check back in at the end of the year to see how I've done.

For now I will say Zai Jien which I believe is Mandarin for 'see you soon.'



Movie of the day: Les Miserables

Song of the day: Better Dig Two by The Band Perry