Ramblings of a Constipated Mind

I just saw The Exorcist.

I think I nearly wet myself at some parts.

All I can say right now is this: It's not demonic or satanic. Though I would hesitate to call it a really great spiritual, Christian movie, I'd say that overall the positive elements overshadow the negative, and I'd recommend to anyone, even Christians. It's just...a movie. And a really good, freaky one at that. I don't see what all the controversy was about.

Quote of Da Moment:
"Keep away. The sow is mine."
--The Exorcist

Happy day of spooks and monsters and zombies and witches and oh-now-I've-got-the-willies!

Yesterday was an okay first day of vacations. I slept until noon. Relaxed until 2:05, when I went to see The Village with my family. It was pretty good, though definitely the worst of M. Night "I-Bet-You-Can't-Guess-The-Ending" Shyamalan's four films. The whole old-fashioned way of speaking got on my nerves, and the ending needed a little more oomph, you know what I mean? It felt kind of anti-climactic to me. There needed to be either another twist entirely, or everything leading up to the one he used should have played out better. Overall, not bad.

Then I came home and watched The Godfather for the second time (I bought it over the summer), just because I want to watch the second one this week and I needed to be reminded of everything that happened in the first. Awesome. Movie. I don't agree with people that it's the greatest movie of all time (that's definitely overdoing it), but it definitely is excellent. And it has that cool Italian music. And lots of mafia shoot-em-up action. Yessiree, it's a good one. Supposedly the sequel is actually better (both the first and second won the Academy Award for Best Picture), so I'll see if I agree with that later this week.

Today I went to church. Came home. Took a practice SAT II test for the Math 2C section. Holy Vietnamese Salmon, it was hard compared to the SAT I math section! I made 630, which I guess isn't bad...considering I didn't finish, left tons of questions blank, and only got 50% right. I hope I can bring that up by Saturday.

Since it's Halloween, tonight we'll be watching a scary movie. Now, let's think about this. Halloween + Sunday = scary religious movie. What better movie to watch than...The Exorcist? I can't believe my brother and I actually convinced our parents to let us see it. This is the movie that was banned in England (and probably by the Catholic church, as well). This is the movie that if you mention around many Christians, their eyes go wide and they gasp in surprise. As in, the one that's about the little girl who gets possessed by a demon and she throws up pea soup and her head turns around 360 degrees and whoatheresdefinitelysomethingsupernaturalgoingon. As in, the one that many Christians refuse to see because it's "demonic" and "Satanic" and "evil".

Hm. On the other hand, I've heard some people say it's one of the most spiritual, religious movies ever made. I'll post my thoughts soon.

Quote of Da Moment:
"The world moves for love. It kneels before it in awe."
--The Village

My party got 3rd place of 5 in the elections. Oh well. I just hope I get a good grade. Our final presentation was pretty good (could have been better though), and I think I did a good job. Afterwards, people told me that they thought I should have been President of the party, which was cool.

Hm. Went out to eat with Souwa and other friends...and at 7 I'm off to a party to celebrating the birthday of Carlos. His birthday is Nov. 5, like mine, but he's celebrating it a week earlier. Maybe next week I'll invite friends over and we'll just hang out or something. I don't want a huge celebration. Yay, I'll be 18. Woohoo.

Thank God we finally have a break. I'm going to sleep for 10 days. Souwa's leaving for Florida tomorrow and staying until Wednesday: have fun Souwa!

Hm. In other news: here is the real Star Wars: Episode III teaser poster that was just released. I posted a link to a fake one a few weeks ago. Honestly, I think I liked the fake one better. Maybe if you mixed the moods of both of them, you'd have the perfect poster. But oh well. That's George Lucas for ya.


Ooohhh helmet in the cape...that's kinda cool.

Oh, and don't get me started on how they screwed up the lightsaber glow. I'll just go into geek mode.

Quote of Da Moment:
"You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it."
--Robin Williams

The TOK debate went ok I guess. I went up, said some stuff about health, that was it. People said I did the best out of everyone in my party who answered, but I doubt it. Afterwards, all I could think was: "No! I forgot to mention THAT and THAT and THAT!" Tomorrow we give a final presentation - there's a meeting at 8 o'clock tonight to figure out the details of what we're going to do.

Hm. I'll be showing the video in class after the vacations. Which is ok, I guess. It means I'll get to fix the subtitles and make them easier to read...add another clip or two that I forgot to put in...and play around with the audio some more, maybe add some music in the background of the entire thing instead of just during the beginning and end credits.

My dad gets back from Costa Rica any minute now. Hopefully then I'll be going to an event at school to hang out with friends before going to the TOK meeting.

And after tomorrow...I'm free.

Quote of Da Moment:
"We are now the Knights Who Say 'Ecky-ecky-ecky-ecky-pikang-zoop-boing-goodemzooowlizhiv'."
--Monty Python and the Holy Grail

It is finished.

*collapses from exhaustion*

Last night, I finished adding subtitles to my history video around 11. Then, I realized that it was about 30 seconds to a minute too long, so had to work on cutting that down. At about 1 or 1:30, it was time to begin compressing this file that was over a gigabyte in size down to something much much much much more manageable.

I had no idea how to do this.

I had heard people online talk about using Quicktime and the Sorenson 3 "codec" to compress it into a Quicktime file. But I had no idea how to get that to happen. So I started researching, playing around with Premiere, etc. At about 2:00, I realized what had to be done - the answer had been in front of me the entire time. So I started compressing it into a Quicktime file.

Twenty minutes later, when it had finished, I was about to collapse, and I thought I was done. Wrong. The Quicktime file it produced was about 65 megabytes (too big for a 7-minute film, I'd say)and the quality was terrible. As in, so bad it was impossible to read the subtitles and know what was going on. So I started compressing it into something else - a Windows Media Viewer file. Of course, I had heard that Quicktime is much better, and I agree, but when it's 2:30 in the morning a guy's got to do what a guy's got to do.

It worked.

I now have a 14 megabyte wmv file on my hard drive. And the quality is good (though of course, not as perfect as the 2 gb file). I have done it. I have sacrificed time and sleep and blood and sweat over the past five days, and it's now over. Right now, I don't care if people hate the end result. Because I did it. And no one can take that away from me.

*end inspirational speech*

So, I went to bed around 3:30. Woke up at 5:30. Now I know what it must be like to have a hangover. It really sucks. It was like my brain kept shutting off and on. I'd take a step and then I'd wake up and I'd have taken quite a few. I was supposed to present a PowerPoint presentation and the video with Patty today in History class...but now I had a new problem. The video was 4 megabytes too big in order to send as an attachment. Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail all only accept attachments of 10 megabytes max. So my mom and I tried to burn it onto a CD, and rushed out the door.

I got to school. I went to History class. Patty and I gave our presentation. We made a 92%. Mr. Johnson said that the video wouldn't count as part of the grade because it was "*british accent* just a bit of fun". But it didn't matter, because the video wasn't burned correctly anyway.

Due to the complicated History schedule this week, I probably won't be able to show it to the class until after next week's vacation.

Wonderful. I just spent probably at least 20 hours working on something that I could have had another week to work on. But it doesn't matter. I did it I did it I did it. I have completed a short film. Though I'll hesitate from calling it a "real" short film, because it wasn't an original idea or have much of a plot. Maybe I'll shoot some of that over the vacation. Though I'm definitely going to take my time editing that one. This one is just something I did for school. It's supposed to be an example of the type of propaganda Mussolini used in Italy - though of course, I tried to add my own humorous twists. The title is Mussolini: Savior of Italy. Maybe I'll be able to find someone to host it on the Internet for me for a while, so it can be downloaded and viewed by everyone.

Until then, if you want to see it, I guess I can always send it to you through MSN Messenger.

I left after third period today. I came home and immediately collapsed. Eight hours later, I woke up and had dinner and watched some television. In about an hour and a half, I'm going to sleep some more. It's time to get my biological clock back to normal.

I can't wait for the vacations, even though I'll probably have work to do. A week without school = pure bliss.

Oh, and the TOK elections are this week. Basic info: the 12th grade has formed various "political" parties. We have to campaign and debate against each other, and then on Friday the school votes for which party they like the best. Hm. The name of my party is Kraft (German for "strength"). No, not the cheese. We're Fascist. Like Hitler and Mussolini, Bwahahahaha! Though not quite as totalitarian. Yesterday we had the first debate, and I think things went pretty well. There was a lot of really messed up stuff going on with our party over the weekend, but I don't want to discuss that right now. I'm the Minister of Health. The final debate is tomorrow. I hope we win.

Quote of Da Moment:
"Blood alone moves the wheels of history."
--Benito Mussolini

Must. Finish. Editing. By. Tuesday. Night.

The video part is done. It's a bit too long, but at this point I'm not going to bother cutting out any more clips. If at times it moves a little slow, tough.

I can't figure out how to put subtitles. Ugh. I know it's possible, but I can't make the freakin' title slide transparent. So I end up with subtitles and audio, but just solid black where the video is supposed to be. I posted a question about it on a filmmaking forum, so I'm praying people will tell me how to fix it by tomorrow.

I've got to finish most, if not all, of the subtitles by tomorrow. Then on Tuesday, I can play around with the audio and try to figure out how to add music. Then I've got to compress it (something tells me a 2 gigabyte file just won't do) and on Wednesday or Thursday I present it.

That's going to take time. I need to convince Mr. Johnson to let me e-mail him my history coursework over next week's vacation. There's no way I can finish that this week.

I'm stressed. But I'm still happy. I just hope I can stay that way.

Quote of Da Moment:
"Aaaaaaagggggggghhhhh!"
--every horror movie ever

I have finally finished transferring all (for now) of the clips I will use in my History video onto my hard drive. There are 26 in total so far (right now, that uses up about 1.5 gigabytes of hard drive space!), but I may record a few more tomorrow. I also need to sit down and outline the order of every single shot that will be in the video...it might take a while to do, but it will help me put things in the right order faster.

I fixed the problem I was having. I am awesome. And Il Duce as well.

It's almost 3 in the morning. Time to collapse.

Quote of Da Moment:
"A real friend is someone who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."
--Anonymous

History is stressing me out. I have to finish part of this big paper by next Friday. Plus, do the video. Uuuggh.

Film Society went well, though only three people came. One guy hadn't seen the first half - but he saw the second part of The Usual Suspects and loved it! Another guy saw all of it, and loved it. And the last guy saw all of it and thought it was a really pointless movie. That's the thing with cult films. You either love them or you hate them. Afterwards I went and got coffee with Souwa. And we talked. Coffee coffee coffee yay yay yay! Then as we were driving around afterwards, not really headed anywhere in particular, she got a really bad cramp and we had to pull over. We sat there for about 20 minutes, just talking. And it was really really good. Yay. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

I just got back from Friday's Night. It was awesome. During the "rompehielo", we were divided into three groups. Each group had to perform a skit based on a certain topic, and the other groups would guess what it was. My group's topic was "A normal day on a bus." I got to be the marero (gang member) thief. It was so cool. I went up to the girls in my group and stole their purse. Then when I tried to run they all tackled me and I was trying to crawl away. Hehe. There will probably be pictures on the website soon. But anyways...

God. Is. Incredible.

Today has been great - filled with laughter, fun, confusion, freedom, insights, etc. Here are some things I've learned in the past few weeks, though they don't do God or the situation they apply to justice. God, I love you so much! Thanks for everything!

1. God is in control. No matter what's going on in your life, God can handle it if you let Him. And the results, whether good or bad, will be the best things that can happen.

2. Take risks. Don't think that you can sit back and let God do all the work. You have to do your part. Then He can take over. It's like jumping off a high-dive. The longer you stand on the edge without leaping off, the scarier and more confusing things can be. You have to learn to take a leap of faith and become totally dependent on God. Then you can rest assured knowing that things are going to be okay.

3. Try not to be afraid. Be confident that no matter what happens, some things won't change. God will still be God. He'll still love you. He'll still hold the world in the palm of His hand and make sure everything is running smoothly. The sun will keep rising and setting. At times, it's hard not to be afraid of the future, but do your best to put all your worry in Christ.

4. If you're thinking about "what ifs", you're thinking too far ahead. When you're in a situation that needs fixing, focus on the present. The farther you think ahead, the more complicated the situation becomes - you keep thinking "what if this happens" and "what if that happens". That's just going to result in more confusion. And chances are, you're wrong. Seriously. You probably couldn't guess in a million years what God has planned. Focus on one thing at a time. Focus on the now. As Christ put it, "Don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself." He was right. Sometimes it's good to think ahead, but if you think too far ahead you won't help solve anything.

5. To God, your problems are teeny weeny. This was one of the big points Kenneth spoke about tonight. The example was David and Goliath. The Devil makes our problems look freakin' huge. Invincible. In tons of armor. And with a huge sword. Our problems taunt us, saying that we can't beat them and that they'll conquer us.

Meanwhile, God doesn't wake up and go, "Oh crap! My children are in trouble! I'll go rescue them! Or no...I'll get Rambo or Ahnold to save them! Some super spiritual warriors!" Not at all. He probably sits up in heaven, watches some football, relaxes, and in the back of his mind hears this little squeaky voice taunting his followers: "You'll never beat me! Bwahahahaha!"

It's like an ant to Him. He doesn't pay attention. Until finally, when the time is right, He sends the most unlikely help possible. In Goliath's case, it was just a teenager with a rock. In the case of Jehoshaphat (or however you spell that), it was just the people praising God that stopped them from being wiped out by foreign invaders. You don't need armor, or huge weapons, or be some big huge spiritual guru in order to overcome your problems. If you leave things up to God, He can use you to take care of everything.

6. God likes to come through for us. I read that in a book once, and now I realize it's true. God likes to wait until the situation appears hopeless, and then use the most unlikely means to save the day. That way He gets the glory. And He's the hero! Not us. Not David. Him. God likes to be the hero. The trick is giving yourself completely up to Him, and making yourself vulnerable long enough for Him to come to the rescue.

I've got some incredible footage from Seguidores to put in my History video. I'm going to go work on it now. I leave you with some inspiring Biblical passages. Emphasis added, of course.

Quote of Da Moment:
"David said to the Philistine, 'You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands.'"
--1 Samuel 17:45-47

"He said: 'Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the LORD says to you: 'Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God's.'"
--2 Chronicles 20:15

I finished my personal statement yesterday, the one for the NC State application. I did a few re-writes...tomorrow I should receive that and my essays back from a few English teachers who are going to give me suggestions.

Today, after school, I filmed a video with a classmate for History. It's basically a propaganda video that promotes Mussolini. I played the part of Mussolini. In the video, I did my best to speak Italian...hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to edit in subtitles before our presentation next week. I tried to get the clips onto my computer tonight, but I couldn't remember how I did it. I'll try to figure it out tomorrow afternoon. After that, I just need to learn how to add subtitles, insert some title sequences and/or credits, and music. The actual cutting and pasting and transferring of clips into the proper order shouldn't be that hard.

But I really need to get that video on my computer by tomorrow night. Friday afternoon I'll be filming something for James' class...and then that night I'll hopefully be filming some people at Seguidores for my History presentation...

I'm filming so much this week, I'm basically going to be taking a crash-course in editing over the weekend. I should try to look on the bright side: at least I'll figure out a lot more about what the software can do and how to do it...

Filmmaking is fun. But complicated.

Quote of Da Moment:
"I have a love in my life. It makes me stronger than anything you can imagine."
--Barry, Punch-Drunk Love

I got home from school and found out that my transcript, application, and fee is all due at NC State by November 1. Wonderful. I thought it was just the application. It's gonna be close...

I spent hours writing 3 stupid essays for the application. The maximum length they can be is 500. No, not words. Characters. Including spaces. And I only have one thing to say...

WHO THE HECK CAN WRITE A DECENT ANSWER TO A QUESTION IN 500 FREAKIN' CHARACTERS?!

I'm usually pretty concise when I write stuff for school. But there's a difference in writing boring facts and showing your personality through what you write. I can do one without writing a lot. But the other takes up more (and usually bigger) words. For the first question I was supposed to name some hardships I've gone through and how I've conquered them. Do they really think I'll be able to do that for more than one event in my life and explain it well? I'm not even happy with my current answer, and that's just for one! For the second question: Explain why I want to choose English as my major. Sheesh. English isn't the only thing I want to study a lot, I just chose it from the list! I have a lot of other things I want to study too. And how can I explain why I want to concentrate on what will end up playing a major role in the rest of my life in 500 characters?! The third question was easier: Explain whether or not you think diversity is important for education. I live in Central America. I'm surrounded by diversity, and it helps. A little hard to say everything in 500 characters, but easier than the other two questions.

Tomorrow I have to work on my "personal statement" about myself that's got to be 3/4 a page long. Wonderful. I had a hard enough time writing 1500 characters. I'm starting to really hate this whole college application thing. At least the part where I have to actually write something.

Punch-Drunk Love was a really good movie. Adam Sandler pulled a Jim Carrey and showed he can act in a drama and be really good. The photography and editing and directing was awesome. Music was cool too. I also just saw Stand By Me, which was excellent as well. The song "Stand By Me" sounds cool when played slowly with strings. Although the main actors were kids, they did a surprisingly good job.

*sigh*

CAS and more application stuff tomorrow. I can't wait. And now it's time to end the week of Woody Allen quotes.

Quotes of Da Moment:
"What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet."
--Woody Allen

"What if nothing exists and we're all in somebody's dream? Or what's worse, what if only that fat guy in the third row exists?"
--Woody Allen

"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once."
--Woody Allen

"When we played softball, I'd steal second base, feel guilty and go back."
--Woody Allen

Today was a nice, relaxing Saturday. Kind of boring though. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get out of the house for a while.

Hm. I'm gonna go watch Punch-Drunk Love now. Hopefully this movie is as good as everyone says it is, and Adam Sandler actually acts. The music was written by the guy who wrote the music for Eternal Sunshine. It has a link with my favorite movie of the year...so I'm hoping that it will also be pretty good.

I leave you now with a glimpse at a truly terrifying creature.


I can't think of anything else to say.

Quote of Da Moment:
"The chief problem about death, incidentally, is the fear that there may be no afterlife-a depressing thought, particularly for those who have bothered to shave. Also, there is the fear that there is an afterlife but no one will know where it's being held."
--Woody Allen

"There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?"
--Woody Allen

"To you I'm an atheist; to God, I'm the Loyal Opposition."
--Woody Allen

I'm gonna try to keep this relatively short.

Today was cool. After school I had "team" with Souwa, Karen, Kawing, Miguel, and Jessica until around 5. Then we all went to Galerias to eat and hang out. Fun fun fun.

This sequel to The Ring looks like it has potential to be awesome. We'll see what happens. What a coincidence Souwa...the day we talk briefly about The Ring is the day I see the new trailer...

Also, this Asian film shown at Cannes called Old Boy is supposedly one of the best - if not the best - movies of the year. I just saw the trailer and all I have to say is "Wow". I have to see this movie. It's going to be awesome.

You can see it here. With both of those trailers, right-click and Save Target As...please. It saves bandwidth and plus you don't have to sit with an Explorer window open while it downloads.

Also: my Firewire finally works. I played around with the software for about 15 minutes - long enough to realize that I have no idea what I'm doing. This is complicated. Hopefully I'll be able to sit down every once in a while and figure out the basics.

Quote of Da Moment:
"Some guy hit my fender, and I told him, 'Be fruitful and multiply,' but not in those words."
--Woody Allen

Last night I saw Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. What an increadible war movie. The beginning and end were just "Wow". The middle was fair. It has so much profanity...but it's used so creatively! My props to the writer. And the scene near the end where they're trying to get past the sniper...are you sure this came out in the 1980s? The lighting was perfect; it reminded me of Saving Private Ryan.

I couldn't find Good Will Hunting or The Shawshank Redemption to show in Film Society tomorrow. So it looks like we'll be watching The Usual Suspects. It should be good for a discussion of cult movies, heist movies, and what makes an awesome twist ending.

Oh, and I've been playing God some more - I finally found a loophole to get Hello to work. I have combined a classmate with the only celebrity I'll admit is hot. The result: Souwa Knightley. This is the girl of my dreams. I'm going to carry her picture around in my wallet and kiss it for good luck before exams...that is until I make someone even more gorgeous.

A brief description of Souwa Knightley: Not only is she beautiful, but the shape of her nose and eyes indicate that she's extremely intelligent. She is usually quiet and shy, but every once in a while she'll unleash her "Grrrrr I'm crazy" side and go nuts. She enjoys watching movies (though not as much as moi), is good at English and Computers, and plans on starting her own software company and making billions of dollars. In her spare time she models and acts, usually in minor roles. The shape of her forehead indicates to me that she is a person of integrity, generally optimistic, but sometimes has poor short-term memory.

I should be a physiognomist. [/plug for good book]


Two beauties are combined effortlessly into one


Behold: Souwa Knightley, elegant goddess of beauty and loveliness

If I ever see a girl who looks similar to this in real life, I will quickly pull that picture out of my wallet, show it to her and exclaim, "You're the girl of my dreams! We are meant to be together. Marry me now!"

Until then...her picture is all I need...*blows kiss*

[/slighty insane and sexually confused way of thinking]

Quotes of Da Moment:
"Most of the time I don't have much fun. The rest of the time I don't have any fun at all."
--Woody Allen

"My one regret in life is that I am not someone else."
--Woody Allen

"On the plus side, death is one of the few things that can be done as easily lying down."
--Woody Allen

Well, I got an email today saying that the company who invented Hello (the program that allows people to upload pictures to their blogs) is analyzing my problem. I sent them a "logfile" of what my computer does when I try to run it. Until they fix it, I've discovered that the program does work on my dad's computer, so right now I'm going to use it and see if it does what it's supposed to.

I downloaded a program that lets you morph pictures together. Today I used it to morph myself with Tom Cruise. The result: Andrew Cruise, either the ugliest or sexiest being ever created...or genetically engineered...or software engineered...whatever.

See for yourself. Aren't I beautiful?


One sexy guy + another sexy guy = super sexy guy


Close-up of my masterpiece: I think I look good with a five-o'clock shadow...


Darn...I had an animated gif of me transforming into Tom Cruise, but it just lets me publish jpegs. Stupid thing.

Quote of Da Moment:
"I'd never join a club that would allow a person like me to become a member."
--Woody Allen

I know that title caught your attention.

It has come to my attention that a sequel for Bubba-Hotep is being considered. That movie is awesome. Plus, the working title for the sequel is one of the wackiest titles I've ever heard. Are you ready for this?

Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She Vampires

It just has "instant horror/comedy classic" written all over it. If this movie is made: please don't screw it up. Bruce Campbell wants to come back for the sequel, but right now I'm wondering how that would work out.

Also: nothing particularly interesting happened today except Biology class. One of the girls, after debating about whether or not to actually do it (she was embarassed), asked a question (on behalf of a friend). It was something to the affect of: "How come sometimes sex is 'good sex' and other times it's 'bad sex'? What has to be done to make both people feel pleasure?"

What followed was a lengthy response from Dr. Jenner -- amidst other follow-up questions -- about orgasms, the age of the participants (younger people are less experienced), masturbation and what it's designed to simulate, and clitoris sensitivity, among other things. I have come to the following conclusions:

horny teenagers with questions + British teacher = an answer you'll never forget

And to think that we're still discussing the respiratory and circulatory systems. Imagine what will happen when we move on to human reproduction...

Oh, and ignore the information on the left side of my profile. I passed 100 posts a while ago, but the counter seems to be frozen.

Quotes of Da Moment:
"I believe there is something out there watching us. Unfortunately, it's the government."
--Woody Allen

"I don't have to 'freedom-kiss' my wife when what I really want to do is French-kiss her."
--Woody Allen

"I had a terrible education. I attended a school for emotionally disturbed teachers."
--Woody Allen

"I want to tell you a terrific story about oral contraception. I asked this girl to sleep with me and she said 'No.'"
--Woody Allen

Last night I saw Cold Mountain. Awesome movie. Though they didn't film it in North Carolina...actually it was South Carolina, Virginia, and Romania. Close enough though. Go NC!

I just finished watching Super Size Me. Now I know what I have to do in order to gain weight - eat nothing but McDonalds for 30 days. Of course, I might die from heart disease or liver failure...but it'll be worth the risk, right?

Anyone who sees this movie and continues to eat fast food more than once or twice a week: You. Are. Stupid. Period.

Honestly, I think the most convincing thing for most people will be the guy's girlfriend's description of how it affected his sex life. She made it sound so tragic. I'm a virgin, and it was like, "Whoa. Fast food can affect that too?" See, that's the problem with being a teenage guy. Everything that says something negative about sex is scary. Like today in biology, when we were discussing HIV and AIDS...and how it's often transmitted through microscopic abrasions or cuts on...um...a certain body part...I'm going to have nightmares.

*winces at the thought*

It's moments like those when one understands why people choose to become monks, nuns, or priests.

No wonder McDonalds got rid of its Super Size option. Scary stuff! The doctors hadn't predicted how bad it would be. No wonder 60% of gringos are overweight. And stupid.

Oh, and the kids and youth of tomorrow are being brainwashed! STOP THE MADNESS!

Eat healthy and exercise. After seeing that movie, I'm definitely going to keep that in mind.

"I've got a McStomachache...and I've got some McGas..." --Morgan Spurlock

Quote of Da Moment:
"Bisexuality immediately doubles your chances for a date on Saturday night."
--Woody Allen (actually, that's an interesting point)

Christopher Reeve is dead. He went into cardiac arrest and then slipped into a coma. Ugh.

Did you hear me?! The guy who played Superman is dead! And he wasn't even that old. The irony is too morbid to think about. More information can be found here.

We're gonna miss ya, Chris. Supposedly they're making a new Superman movie. But you'll always be known as the original Man of Steel.

I bet someone poisoned his IVs.

Yikes, that was mean. I apologize.

In other news: I just recorded an oral commentary on a poem for English class. Ugh. I can't do orals. I'll have everything worked out in my head, and I'll tell myself exactly what to say so I sound like an academic expert (big words are key for a good grade), but then when the time comes to physically say it, I just can't. My mind goes blank. I'm gonna get a bad grade, I can feel it. Ugh. If only there was a machine that could transfer thoughts into words. I'd have won a Pulitzer by now. Hehe pajas.

Also, I'm in a Woody Allen mood, so this week will contain nothing but quotes by this genius of insightful comedy! Three cheers for Woody!

Quote of Da Moment:
"I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia."
--Woody Allen

This is cool.

Too bad it's not real.

Quote of Da Moment:
"I can't be funny if my feet don't feel right."
--Billy Crystal

SAT = so-so. Verbal was hard. Math wasn't so bad.

For those of you who don't know, Willy Maldonado (if that's how you spell it) is the host of a weekend game show/talk show here in El Salvador, and he goes to my church. This Saturday they were taping a special 3-hour episode and episodes for next week. He invited all of Seguidores to go be in the audience. So at 1:00, I did.

I stayed until around 7:30. It was so much fun! Everyone was going crazy! We were jumping up and down, cheering for our contestants, dancing to the special guests' music, etc. It was wild. The first "game" I saw, was the "montura". Basically, Willy chooses 5 people from the audience and they have to sit on this saddle which is on top of a long tube. They have to use a rope to pull themselves to the other side of the tube without falling off into the soft confetti stuff that's on the sides. If they make it to the middle, they win $50. If they make it all the way...$300! Anyways, nobody made it all the way, but this guy I know named Josecito made it to the center, so he won some moolah.

The other game I saw was called "Diga la Palabra" (Say the Word). This camera guy named Boris would pan over the entire audience, and focus on the person who was the most enthusiastic. Then that person would get to play the game. Basically, Willy would give them a "clue word", and they'd have to guess the "secret word". If they didn't guess it, someone else would be chosen later in the show to try. They'd get another clue, but the prize money would decrease by $50 (it started at $300 and went to $100). The first time, a guy guessed it after only one clue and won the three hundred! It was the first time to happen in the history of the show, and it's been on for more than a decade! It was so cool. The second time we played that game (for next week's episode), nobody guessed it. Bummer.

Also, throughout the show, people get to go up and spin this wheel (it's a direct rip-off of The Price is Right), either for winning a game or being the most enthusiastic audience member, etc. In the show for next week, this guy from Seguidores spun a 95. Then this girl who doesn't go to Seguidores tied. And at the veeeery end of the show, he spun and got 100! And this was the same guy who had won the $300 for Diga La Palabra. In total, he got $900!

I really wanted to participate. I was jumping up and down and screaming and dancing for 7 hours. But alas, they're racist or something and didn't choose me. But I show up in the audience a lot...I really stand out, considering I'm this lonely gringo jumping up and down in the middle of everyone else. This one guy really close to me got chosen, and you can see my arms waving in front of him in the shot. Hehe. At least I (sorta) got my 15 minutes of fame.

The whole point of this was so the church could gain money to pay to put air conditioning in the kids' room that was just added to the back of the church. The AC will cost $1400. The participants who went on Fin de Semana were not going to give 10% of their winnings to the church, and keep 90% of themselves. They were going to do it vice versa! 90% of the winnings (and some people gave all of it) went to Seguidores! Yay! That's so cool. The grand total the church received was around $2800!

On to the other big event of yesterday: the party. It was ok. We had to dress up, so I put baby powder in my hair and went as Vincent from Collateral. It turned out pretty good. But Souwa and Patty and Carlos didn't go! After a while, it kinda got boring. Once the whole "wow your costume is cool" and "let's talk for a while" factor wore off, there wasn't much to do. My feet hurt from jumping up and down so much already, so I didn't dance much.

Interesting detail: the guys drank. The girls smoked. I don't think I saw any of the opposite. I was expecting there to be drinking, but seeing the girls smoke was surprising. Listen, girls, that's unattractive and a major turn-off. Don't whine about not having a boyfriend if you've got smoke and harmful chemicals coming out of your mouth when you're not in school.

*sigh* I can't upload pictures of things. There's a program that will let people do it, but it's not working for me! Why not?! Every time I try to post a picture to my blog I get this message that says there's an "embedded error". Weird. I hate my computer. First the Firewire and now this.

Now it's Sunday and I'm not doing anything. All I have to work on is an oral presentation for Tuesday that I have to record, and I don't have a tape to record it on. So I wrote a plan, and I'll do it tomorrow. For now, it's time to just chill.

Quote of Da Moment:
"Basically my wife was immature. I'd be in my bath and she'd come in and sink my boats."
--Woody Allen

I woke up early, and went to take the SAT.

I came home, ate lunch, and went to a 6-hour taping of Fin de Semana (a local show...the host goes to my church). Yes, I was on tv. And I'll be on again next Saturday; they taped more than one episode.

Then it was back home again to take a shower and get dressed for the party. And I just got back after "partying" for around 3 hours.

I'm exhausted, and I'm really not in the mood to get up early again for church tomorrow. I'm going to be a total zombie. More details about today will be revealed tomorrow, I hope.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Quote of Da Moment:
"I am Jack's raging bile duct."
--Fight Club

Today was a good day. Now my hair is cut...really short. I kept telling him, "It needs to be shorter", because of the party tomorrow, but I think I told him one too many times. Oh well.

The Presidential debate is on. Best line so far:

(After Kerry claims Bush makes money off of the timber company he owns - paraphrased)
"I didn't know I owned a timber company. Uh...hm....*doesn't know what to say*...want some wood?"

So far it's been more of the same. "He did this wrong, so you should vote for me." And John Kerry can't seem to stop saying, "I have a health care plan. Vote for me. I have a health care plan. Vote for me." Tonight I'm siding with Bush. At this point in time, I think the perfect presidential team would be: Bush/Edwards. Bush to get the job done, and Edwards for charisma. Kerry and Cheney are boring.

Quote of Da Moment:
"Guess what! I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cow bell!"
--Saturday Night Live

I'm in my free period right now, and I don't have anything to do...so...it's blogging time!

God has a sense of humor. It's amazing. Sometimes I think He just sits up in heaven, looks down at us, and laughs at how stupid we can be sometimes. And how blind we are. And how we focus so much on how messed up our lives are when He's blessed them so much!

It's true what they say. History repeats itself. It really does. The question is: once you realize it's repeating itself, what are you gonna do about it? That's the million dollar question. Are you gonna wait and see if things turn out differently? Or are you gonna do everything you can to make sure they turn out differently? Or are you just gonna sit back, relax, forget about how confusing and weird life can be, and just enjoy it? Right now I'm leaning towards the third option. But who knows...things change.

A wise person once told me, "Give it time" - you know who you are! And she was right. The world needs to calm down and breathe a little. These days it's always work work work time time time I've gotta do this before I die I've gotta do it! Relax. Be patient. The best things in life arrive after:

1) Taking risks.
2) You learn to enjoy life without them.

If you can't survive without a new car, or a boyfriend/girlfriend, or a best friend, or a good grade...what makes you think you'll survive with one? The odds are you won't. It's too easy to think that if we could just have that one thing, life would be better. Newsflash: Life isn't about vague ideas. Life is about living. Life is about action. Life is about being content even during the bad times, because they make us who we are. Life is about acceptance. Life is about Christ (the one thing that will always make things better). Life is about learning to accept yourself. Until you learn to live with yourself, what makes you think you'll be able to enjoy the pleasure of other things and other people? The world needs to wake up and realize that the only place they'll find happiness is when they find Christ, and when they learn to love themselves! And I'm not talking about selfishness. I'm talking about self-confidence. Self-esteem. Accepting all your faults. Then you can make the step to move on to others. Then you can truly live.

As one character in Eternal Sunshine put it: "I'm not a concept. Too many guys think I'm a concept or I complete them or I'm going to make them alive, but I'm just a fucked up girl who is looking for my own peace of mind. Don't assign me yours."

Stop focusing so much on ideas and concepts and in the end what are small things, and focus on life! People wander around so confused and lost, and the answer's right there in front of their faces. God is so much smarter than you, what makes you think that what you want is right? What makes you think you've got things figured out? What makes you think what you want is going to happen? Odds are, it's not! Once you learn to live with that, you can start focusing on what does happen. And you can enjoy it, no matter what it is.

Until then, maybe God sits back with popcorn and enjoys the comedy...when will we ever learn?

Quote of Da Moment:
"We got no food, no jobs...our PET'S HEADS ARE FALLING OFF!"
--Dumb and Dumber

Miraaaaa gente estúpida!

Just because my blog has been boring for the past few days doesn't mean that something's wrong in my life! I am fine! I am happy! I am hyper!

A boring blog just reflects a boring life. Right now my life is boring. Get over it. Sheesh.

On another note: I saw part of the Vice-Presidential debate. I now hate both candidates more than ever. Cheney was on major smirk alert (he didn't stop smirking for at least 60 seconds) and Edwards was in typical hick-accent mode. It got really tiring to keep hearing:

"John Kerry is inconsistent and not committed."
"That's not true! George W. Bush screwed up the situation in Iraq."
"That's not true! John Kerry is inconsistent and not committed, and so are you Mr. Edwards!"
"That's not true! George W. Bush screwed up the situation in Iraq, and you did all these deals with countries like Iran so your company could make millions of dollars, Mr. Cheney!"
"That's not true!..."

At the moment though, I'm feeling more like a Democrat, so I'll root for Edwards. Besides, he wasn't nearly as tense and serious as Cheney. Maybe Cheney reminds me too much of Mr. Morgan, and that's why he didn't appeal to me as much.

I have an idea: we should take the DNA of George Dubbya and John Kerry and mix it together to make George Kerry. Then we'd have the right mix of domestic policy (Bush) and foreign policy (Kerry). See? Aren't I a genius? What are we waiting for?! Somebody go prick their fingers now!

I'm going to a party on Saturday. And dressing up. Yay.

Quote of Da Moment:
"What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step."
--C.S. Lewis

I went to school. I did work.

I went to CAS. I did work.

I came home. I did work.

I just finished working.

I've got more work due Thursday and Friday.

Not to mention exams.






I think the IB just kicked in.

Quote of Da Moment:
"Ni!"
--Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Blegh. Life's boring. Just a normal school week so far. Nothing interesting.

Except I'm happy happy happy! Or, as a friend of mine would say, "happy dappy". There's nothing quite as refreshing as the clear mind that results from realizing, "99.9% of my plans suck and aren't what God wants, so I'll just leave things to Him and focus on living." It makes a lot easier. After all, some people tell me I'm a smart guy, but my brainpower is nothing compared to being freakin' omniscient.

So yeah, life is boring, but good. Still haven't had time to reinstall my Firewire card. I need to do it right this time! Maybe my dad and I put it into a slot that isn't working.

Ah well. Maybe tomorrow will be more interesting.

Quote of Da Moment:
"Why should I be made to feel I have to apologize for my existence?"
--Adaptation

I filmed about 30 seconds of random junk in order to figure out how to import stuff onto my PC and use the editing software. I've installed the Firewire, which is supposed to be able to let me transport footage from the camcorder onto the computer. But the stupid machine isn't recognizing that it's there! Agh!

On another note: Mel Brooks is writing a script for Spaceballs 2. It's supposed to be released a week before Episode 3 at the earliest (he'd better hurry!) or a year after it at the latest. That's the best news I've heard in quite some time.

Quote of Da Moment:
"So, Lone Star, now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb."
--Lord Helmet, Spaceballs

It's a new month! Woohoo!

Hm. What's new? Let's see...I did bad on a Math exam, but I expected that. The class average was 60%...and the teacher says that's good. See how hard the IB program is now, people? Anyways, I scored about 10% higher than on my last math quiz, so I guess I should be optimistic about it. I'm improving!

I talked to Mr. Lehmann some more about my Extended Essay. Over the weekend I'll probably write out an outline or general plan. Then he can help me think of a title and a good structure. I want to have most of the first draft finished by the end of November...but that's going to be hard to achieve with everything else going on. I did the calculations. If I started today, and wrote 130 words per day, I could make it. Unfortunately, I don't plan on starting today. Some time next week maybe, at the earliest.

Wednesday night I saw Mystic River. It was good. The acting was some of the best I've seen. Sean Penn definitely deserved his Oscar. For an example of how profanity can be necessary in a film, and add more depth and emotion to a character, see the scene at the beginning when he finds out his daughter has been murdered. Wow. Unfortunately, I was kind of disappointed at the "message" the film presents. I couldn't decide: was Clint Eastwood promoting the ideas of these characters, or was the audience expected to view them as flawed people, and therefore flawed ideals. I'm not sure, and that's not a good thing. If we are not supposed to agree with the characters, he should have made that clearer. As it is, I felt like I completely disagreed with what the characters were saying, especially the last few scenes.

Last night, I saw the Ingmar Bergman 1950s black-and-white Italian classic (whoa, that's a lot of adjectives) The Seventh Seal. The title is taken from the book of Revelations, describing the angels opening the seven seals to unleash the Apocalypse. I understood why it's seen as a classic. It was really good. It's set in the 14th century and follows a knight, Antonius Block, who has just returned from fighting in the Crusades. He comes in contact with Death...literally. Hoping to gain a little more time to live, in order to discover the meaning of life and whether or not God exists, he challenges Death to a game of chess. If he wins, Death will not claim him. If he loses, he'll die. However, he and Death will take turns making moves at various times during his journey home. During this time, he'll be allowed to live.

There's so much stuff about God and religion and death and life and love crammed into 90 minutes, it's amazing. It's definitely a movie one should view more than once. Bergman very strongly attacks the church - priests steal and lie, monks wander the streets whipping each other and claiming the world is coming to an end, the Apocalypse is at hand, and due to the Black Plague everyone will die. The idea is that if they suffer enough, maybe God will be merciful. However, I'm not sure if Bergman is attacking religion, or faith. It would depend on your interpretation of how events unfold. Especially the ending.

So Block travels home, searching for answers. His companion, Jons, strongly advocates that there is no God or afterlife, it's all a bunch of drivel. They were sent to die for religion in the Crusades...and it's all meaningless. Block, though, keeps asking questions. He wants to know what awaits him after Death. The ending could be interpreted in a variety of ways: has he found faith at last? Or is everything really meaningless? There's so much going on, it's hard to find out what Bergman is really trying to say. But it's really good. Plus, it inspired the games with Death in Bill and Ted's Bogus Adventure! Oh yeah! Hehe.

Also, it stars a very young Max von Sydow. I knew I had heard that name before. I always get this guy confused with Herman Munster and the judge in My Cousin Vinny. But nooo. Max von Sydow is the guy who would later be in movies like Conan the Barbarian, The Exorcist, and Minority Report. I haven't seen those first two, but I know I've seen him in other things as well. I didn't realize he was Italian.

Anyways, I'd definitely recommend it to anyone, but some people will probably hate it. After all, it's an old black-and-white movie from Italy. So the style is very different from filmmaking styles nowadays. It seemed very Shakespearean to me (the "play within a play" reminded me of A Midsummer Night's Dream), though thankfully the language wasn't quite that old-fashioned.

Today we saw the first part of Donnie Darko in Film Society. Woohoo! I love this movie! As you people already know. After that, I had a really good "fellowship" meeting with friends that meets every week, where we basically discuss spiritual matters. Then we went out to eat...I went out and got coffee with Souwa and had a good conversation...things are good. I like life. Every once in a while, it's good to just roll in the grass and do a cartwheel. Today is the Día del Niño after all(Day of the Child). So unleash your inner child! Be happy! Woohoo!

I wish I didn't have so much homework this weekend. I really need to just film something random (like a wall or a room or something) and figure out how to import it to my computer. Then I can play around with Adobe Premiere until I figure out how to edit things properly. After that, I plan on shooting an actual short film. I've got my idea ready, but first I need to know how to use everything! Agh! I'm impatient.

Hm. Anyways, happy October. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the day Frank the Bunny first visits Donnie Darko. What a coincidence.

Quotes of Da Moment:
"...I grant no reprieves."
Death, The Seventh Seal

"Faith is a torment. It is like loving someone who is out there in the darkness but never appears, no matter how loudly you call."
--Antonius Block, The Seventh Seal

"Love is the blackest of all plagues. If one could die of it, there would be some pleasure in love. But you don't even die of it...Love is as contagious as a cold. It eats away at your strength, morale...If everything is imperfect in this world, love is perfect in its imperfection."
--Jons, The Seventh Seal