Musings of a Hapa-Haole

5 ways I would write the return of Chris Jericho

2011-04-27T20:02:00.001-07:00

Last night, Chris Jericho was eliminated from "Dancing with the Stars." No surprise there; he'd been in the middle of the pack through the majority of the season, and it was his time in the pecking order to go. I mean, it's not like this is a respectable competition, considering Kirstie Alley fucking fell and still got higher scores than he did. Anyhoo... he has been teasing that he is willing to come back to WWE sooner rather than later, especially with the untimely retirement of Edge. But he's not just some guy - he is without a doubt one of the best performers in the history of the business, and his return should not be some run-of-the-mill rehire. If I were writing for WWE, here are 5 suggestions I would make for the way to best utilize Jericho when he returns to WWE:

Have him become the new RAW GM. I am so over the GM angle. It is long past possible for it to be one person, and I don't think anyone even cares who it is anymore. It's a trigger the writers should have pulled MONTHS ago, and the fact that they didn't is a missed opportunity. Therefore, rather than continue the anonymous GM angle or even reveal that Jericho was the mystery GM all along (which isn't possible, but no one is), make it an off-camera negotiation between Jericho and the mystery GM that the GM handed RAW over to Jericho. This way it kills the mystery angle altogether and puts a face on the position again. Not to mention, Michael Cole is ridiculously out of control on that show, and he needs someone who can shut him down when he needs to be. If that person is Jericho, then he can fight when he needs to, such as when Cole sends Swagger (or another future recruit) to do his dirty work for him.

Have him come to Smackdown as a heel and pair him with Wade Barrett again. Barrett went from being the awesome alpha male leader of the Nexus on RAW to a lukewarm member of the Corre on Smackdown. If he is going to get back to being the future of the WWE, he needs a little help at this point. Cue Jericho. Jericho was his mentor on NXT, and both superstars have praised each other as a mentor/student. If they were to get back together, Jericho could win the heavyweight championship, and Barrett could continue running with the intercontinental championship. The two of them together would make the dominant heel team on the brand. In that time, Barrett's ego continues to grow and get out of control, to the point of wanting to take the heavyweight championship away from Jericho. Eventually he does, returning Jericho to the face spot and having Barrett become the all-out heel he should be. This is the kind of program you could run for a year, into Wrestlemania 28. Barrett beating Jericho at Wrestlemania will make that difference in him pulling that last heel trigger.

Have him come to Smackdown as a face to feud with Wade Barrett. Again, Barrett needs a strong feud to be a formidable heel. Going back to the NXT mentoring angle, Jericho tries to aid Barrett in his singles run. Barrett doesn't want it. He got rid of Nexus, got rid of the Corre, and doesn't think anyone should continue to hold him back, which is how he sees Jericho holding him down. Barrett loses the IC title, blames Jericho, and stars a non-title feud with him. This could work because both are good talkers, both could pull off a good story without having to have a title in the mix, and both could come out elevated from it. Not as much Jericho, but certainly Barrett. Clearly I think Barrett needs Jericho at this point to resuscitate his character. And if this is Jericho's last run in the ring, he can bring Barrett up, then enter one more title feud with whomever has the titles at that time.

Have him come to RAW as a face to feud with the Miz. If Cena moves on to a feud with Del Rio or Swagger, then what faces does Miz feud with? The logical answer should be Mysterio, but I think Mysterio should be used to elevate Evan Bourne or even John Morrison to future main event status, especially since Mysterio does not have a lot of matches left in him. Miz and Jericho are so well matched on the mic, and in the ring they can probably have some great chemistry. He would be a good choice for the Miz, even if Miz gets himself another lackey, like maybe Curt Hawkins, a recent RAW draft pick. It doesn't seem like there is much for Jericho at this point than to have him elevate the next future star or two, and maybe get another title run in with it.

Have him come to RAW as a heel and feud with Zack Ryder. Again, he's being used to elevate someone, but whatev. Zack Ryder is becoming WWE's biggest internet star with his youtube show, and deservedly so. That dude is damn funny, and will only get funnier. One of the problems right now is that TV time is so limited, and either the writers can't possibly come up with something to do for him, or they don't consider him a priority. It's probably a bit of both, which is unfortunate when the viewers would love to watch him. If Jericho comes back, have him come back to the same repressed character as before. This time, have Ryder try to cheer him up, or just get too close to Jericho while singing the latest boy band hit. With enough of this, Jericho will want to beat the business out of Ryder, and the fans will be all over Ryder when he wants to get his revenge. It's such an easy story line to go with, but it gets some great pops on RAW when the fans get Ryder on TV the way they want to. And it's not like they'd want Ryder on TV but Jericho off TV, because the fans have learned by now that Jericho equals great TV, no matter what.

Reflecting on my vacation, part 3

2010-11-18T10:48:00.000-08:00

The absolute highlight of my weekend was the Jungle Cruise Skipper Reunion on Saturday night. It was great to reconnect with people I hadn't seen in forever - some of them in at least 13 years. It was a small group but a fun group. It allowed us to catch up on what we had been up to, where we still wanted to go, and all the fun stuff in between. The night was kicked off the right way when Josh Troesh sat down with us, looked at Chad, and asked the one question about Chad's infamous spiel: "What were you thinking?" From there, all we could do is look back and laugh.

For those who don't know, let's skip down memory lane together. (BTW, this is based on my recollection, so others will have different versions of this story.) The summer of 1997 was my first at Disneyland. I split my time between the Jungle Cruise and guest control for "Light Magic." Being so low on the seniority list, I worked closing shifts. This is where I first met the one and only CHAD GORDON. He had been a CT (seasonal) for many years because he was going through law school at the time. He had been there before the Jungle Cruise had been rethemed to the 1930's style in order to marry it with Indiana Jones. He had been there since before the "approved jokes" had been put into place. I was trained with the approved jokes, so I didn't know anything else. He had taken the scenes in the ride and had made his own jokes for them. They were not nasty or inappropriate, but they were topical, ironic, and downright hilarious. I mean, calling the elephant bathing pool the "Republican National Convention?" That's damn funny! (A little birdie named Wikipedia tells me the Republican Party was formed in 1854 and first used the elephant symbol in 1874, but hey, apparently that doesn't work in the 1930s.) Chad was not the only one to use such unique jokes; in fact, many skippers had a set of jokes that were their own. With the exception of Grad Nite jokes, they were off the script but were not inappropriate.

However, there was a man named Bruce Kimbrell to consider. Bruce was the head of the Narrations department, which was the group of attractions that had spiels, such as Jungle Cruise and Storybook. Bruce had a very "my way or the highway" method of running things. He was not so fond of deviations from the script or any form of SOP. He wanted to rule the Jungle Cruise with an iron fist and had certain skippers in place that could keep him informed of the things that were going on when he wasn't there. Unfortunately, Chad is not a skipper who is up for being anyone's puppet. Chad knew he had nothing to lose because he was a skipper for the fun of it and was not afraid of management at all. Most of us who were still teenagers didn't have the same mindset, so it was easier for Bruce to instill some fear in us.

Bruce and Chad were oil and water. There was nothing Bruce could do to control Chad, and that drove him nuts. He had other managers telling Chad that guests were complaining, but everyone knew that was BS. Chad was one of the most complimented skippers on the crew. People waited for his boat. It wasn't that Chad was defiant for the purpose of being a pain in the ass; he just knew the difference between being coached and being bullied by someone on a power trip, and he knew it was all about the latter.

The biggest card Bruce had to play was Chad's status. As a CT, Chad had no seniority and no union protection. As an at-will employee with no union support, Chad really had no leg to stand on. Bruce finally played that card and fired Chad. Chad did not go down lightly and went to the media. Before I came to work that day I knew Chad was fired. This was before we had cell phones, text messages, and Facebook, so word had to travel quickly for me to know before my shift. This was one of the most shocking bits of news I had ever heard because it made me realize that Bruce was not a manager, he was a bully. He wanted to chop the head off the dragon, and he did it. I knew I would never be able to trust him if he was willing to let go of his best skipper because it bruised his own ego.

Unfortunately, it didn't end there. We all met at TGI Friday's over the next few nights, as we usually did after closing. The first night a letter started to circulate from an anonymous source named "Trader Sam" (the nickname for the figure at the end of the ride before approaching the dock) that spelled out everything that was going wrong at the Jungle Cruise. It chronicled Bruce's antics, including sending another manager to hide out in the jungle and spy on skippers giving their spiels. (Too bad that idiot wore a bright pink shirt while he was hiding.) Bruce found out about "Trader Sam" and started harrassing the CT skippers about his identity. Unfortunately, no one was talking. Even if people knew for a fact what was going on, the damage had been done because we could not trust Bruce. Eventually, someone did squeal, and shock of shocks, became a trainer and lead shortly after that. As the next few days bore on and we continued to hang at Friday's, we watched the massacre continue. Anyone who was a CT and was friends with Chad (AKA ALL CT's) were also fired. I remember calling my friend Sarah to confirm something, and she told me she was fired that day too. Her then-boyfriend walked away after that. I think the next day or the day after, I ran into scheduling and asked them to put me on Light Magic Guest Control for the rest of the summer. I was afraid to stay there. Even though I was CR (regular yearly) and subject to union protection, I was only 19 at the time, and if he had fired me I would have taken it. In fact, a couple of months later, someone told Bruce I had shared the story of the summer, and he looked me dead in the eyes and said, "If you were a CT, I would have fired you too." I stayed at Disneyland until 2005 and ran into Bruce periodically, and he never really could look me in the eyes after that. I don't know where Bruce is today (and really don't care), but I don't think he ever got over the threat to his ego that Chad was. He actually thought it was all of us against him, and it wasn't until he made it that way.

Looking back on the different memories of that summer, and from sharing stories, I see that that experience has bonded us for life. When we got together, it was like nothing had changed. Chad still stays in touch with some of them and has now reconnected with more. We can look back on it now and laugh, but that summer helped to shape my understanding of the very bright line that can exist between management and front line employees. And you know what? Fire us, write us up, do whatever you want to us. We are family forever now, and I am so greatful for it.

The reunion not only made me realize that we will be friends forever, but it also made me realize much of how I view myself is in my head. I knew I was an immature brat when I was working there, but I felt like everyone else thought the same thing too. Some did, I'm sure, but others didn't really remember me for that. Debi, one of my favorite people from that time, said, "Amy, I remember your smile." That helped me to relax. If I was young and immature, then we were all young and immature. I always feel like people remember each other from the last time we saw them, but in reality, we remember people the way we want to. If Debi remembers me for my smile, then chances are, others remember me the same way too. Thank you, Debi! You seriously made my day with that one comment.

The reunion was a blast. We all realized we need to do it more often, maybe once a year if possible. Time will only stand in our way if we allow it to. Too many people weren't there that should have been. High schools and fraternities/sororities have reunions; we can too.

Reflecting on my vacation, part 2

2010-11-17T11:49:00.001-08:00

I went to Disneyland twice this weekend - Friday and Sunday. Saturday night was dedicated to spending time with old friends, which will be covered in another post. That night was too much fun and didn't lead to me getting to sleep until very late - again, see that post when it comes.

Sunday morning we had made breakfast reservations at 8am for Carnation Cafe. It was to be my three cousins, my friend, and my cousin's boyfriend. By the morning of, it we lost the boyfriend and the friend, so it ended up being the four cousins. I made it to the gate by 7:45 am, as I said I would. I had all the tickets, so with the exception of the one cousin who had a pass, the other cousins had to pick up their tickets from me. Leading up to the reservation time of 8, I got texts saying they're on their way, the structure was crowded, the trams were slow, etc. They showed up to the gate at 8:25 am - 40 minutes later than we had agreed on. What's more is that not one of them apologized for being late. I had already made my way to the Cafe to let them know the rest of my party was running late and we ended up making our (not at all tasty) breakfast. I made the decision to not let the tardiness bother me and still tried to make the rest of the day enjoyable.

Here's where it ended up bothering me upon reflection. I had way too much to drink the night before and was mildly hung over with only 3 hours of sleep, but I was there on time. In fact, I was a little early. What was their excuse? They know to allow time for trams, and the parking lot, and anything that can delay them. If I had told them they were being signed in at 7:30, they would have been on time because I have always made it clear that they better be on time or they don't get in. Why, then, do I not get the same consideration? Why did they think it was okay to be late, and then to not apologize for it? What that makes clear is that their time is valuable and mine is not. It is perfectly acceptable for anyone, especially family, to wait on them. The reason I think this is because they did not apologize once. Had they apologized, I may think differently.

I know they will read this, so understand this: from now on, my time is valuable. I can have a blast in the park by myself. I do not need to wait for you. This is not just at Disneyland, this is everywhere. If I can be on time feeling as shitty as I do, so can you. I will not wait anymore. I am sick and tired of waiting on people who do not consider anyone else's time valuable. I hope you remember this. And the next time you are late, I hope you apologize and don't do it again. Not just to me, but to anyone else you keep waiting.

Reflecting on my vacation, part 1

2010-11-17T10:43:00.000-08:00

This weekend I went to Disneyland with a friend and her children, ages 13, 10, and 7. For the two older ones, they had been enough times to have experienced the big rides and to remember what they liked. Also, they were old enough to know about Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and the other mythical creatures who completed our childhood. The 7-year old hasn't made it that far yet. This was the first trip to Disneyland since he was 2 and I was able to sign them in. Essentially, this was his first trip. Understandably, he was trepedatious about certain rides. I suggested starting him on Big Thunder Mountain instead of Space Mountain because at least he could see what was coming; his mother disagreed. Instead, she insisted on taking him on Indiana Jones, Tower of Terror, and all of the other big rides that are not as easy to introduce to smaller children. He did not ride California Screamin', but he did love Soarin' Over California, as we all did. I am not suggesting that I know more about her child than she does, but I have seen enough children over the years to know that forcing them to go on a ride they're not ready for even once can be enough to sour them for the rest of the day. Parents think their kids are ready for a ride because they see other children younger or smaller who can handle it just fine; or, they think they should be able to handle it because the video games they play are mature enough for this ride to not matter. I know the importance of baby steps when it comes to something that can genuinely freak a child out, and in a place like Disneyland, when the park is as slammed as it was, do you really want to add one extra level of stress to a day that is already going to be tough to make it through?

Sadly, this was not the part of the day that bothered me when it came to mom and her 7-year-old. It bothered me much more that she was telling him how everything worked before he had a chance to see it. She was telling him not to worry about the snowman on Matterhorn because it was just a pair of lights. She told him he wouldn't like the Haunted Mansion because he wouldn't like the movie "The Nightmare Before Christmas," even though he hadn't seen it and doesn't know what to compare the mansion overlay to. She told him about the people inside the character costumes, and how "Tinkerbell flies" from the Matterhorn and crashes into someone in back, and everything that could ruin the experience for him. While I can see how a child of that age is able to clue in to what is really going on around him, is it really necessary for his mother to be the one to spoil it all for him? Why is it she cannot support the magic that Disneyland has worked hard to create so that he can be as fulfilled by the experience as possible? There are tactics parents can use to make their children understand how things work without giving it away. For example, when we were leaving, the 7-year-old asked how the Wicked Queen in "Fantasmic!" changed into the Evil Witch. We told him it was magic, just like Harry Potter. He said Harry Potter wasn't magic, it was special effects. I laughed at that because to me, that's about as much as a 7-year-old should believe at that point. Unfortunately, I'm sure after I left that mom told him about the ol' switcheroo that takes place when the smoke is at its thickest.

Why was it necessary to be so blatant about how these things happen? Why was it necessary for mom to destroy any hopes of magic and not give her the son to be fully immersed in the experience? Is it because she has lost the ability to relate to the innocense and nostalgia of childhood? Is it because she herself has become jaded and feels that she is lying to her children by giving them an illusion to believe is truth? If she had daughters instead of sons (something she said she's grateful to not have), would she prevent them from coming to the parks in their princess dresses because she thinks it's stupid to believe in such a thing? Sadly, I think so.

It really wasn't fun in the overall experience to be in the park with her and her children, and that's a sad thing to say about someone I have been friends with for so long. The park had about 60,000 people, if not more, and she insisted on seeing every major ride and Fantasmic! in one day. She was genuinely annoyed by the people and the wait times. She was genuinely annoyed with me when I took the single rider option on Indiana Jones and waited 20 minutes, while they waited the full hour and a half. She didn't give me the opportunity to tell them that if I had seen them in line on my way up, I would have joined them instead of taking the single ride. All of these elements are what can cause someone with a Type-A personality to explode, as she did. I found the best parts of the day were when I took her older children onto Screamin', and when I met up with other friends to ride Toy Story Midway Mania, one of the most fun rides I had been on in years. She made the experience more about her than her children or even me. When it came time for dinner, she was annoyed that she had to schlep her children all over the park because they were such picky eaters that they couldn't all agree on one location, and it would have cost her $60 to feed them. Of course, if she had bought a full-size cheese pizza for $22, that would have been easier. (BTW, parents, if your children are picky eaters to the point where you have to prepare different meals for each of them and it's not because of allergies, that's your fault. You allowed it to happen. They eat what's being served or they don't eat. When they learn that the pickiness disappears.)

At the end of the day, I broke away from them because it was the only way I would not go off on her for being so damned high-stress. I didn't need people around me who would act like that all day. I didn't need people who would bitch about what they couldn't control rather than go with the flow and work with the things they could control. Disneyland is stressful enough. I love her - she's my oldest friend and we'll always be friends, but I am not likely to spend the day at Disneyland with her again any time soon.

I've got personality!

2010-09-11T23:46:00.000-07:00

There are so many different personality tests on the web. They vary in validity, accuracy, and as I noticed, cost. Some tests are meant to market their product to a large group and happen to have a free version online to sample. Others are meant exclusively for fun. I remember a site years ago, which does not seem to be up anymore, that had personality tests aimed at determining when you would die, how strong your mafia connections were, or how promiscuous you were. The questions were so absurd that they could only be for entertainment (apparently my penmanship was too nice to qualify me for strong mafia ties), but they still said something about your personality at the end. On this site, the end result may have been how much you missed the point by, as the “IQ test” was only based on how many times you answered the same questions over and over again before you finally quit. For the purpose of this activity, I settled on two tests that came up on Google under a search for “personality tests.” They were both modified versions of the original and were entertaining.

The first test I chose to take is a modified version of the Meyers-Briggs Personality Test, which was listed as the Jung Typology test (http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes3.asp). I remember taking this test for the first time back in 1995, and at that time, I was rated an ENFP, which was extroverted/intuitive/feeling/perceiving. I felt at the time that this assessment was correct, and still feel as though I am today. However, in taking this shorter version today (68 questions), my results changed from extroverted to introverted. Therefore, I am now INFP. I figured I would reach this result, as many of the questions dealing with wanting to find quiet time and finding solace in my personal space were answered affirmatively. In the 15 years since I first took the Meyers-Briggs, I have become more withdrawn and quiet, valuing my personal space and down time. I don’t consider this to be a bad thing; rather, I find it to be a sign of maturity. When I first took the test, I was fresh out of high school, in my first semester in a community college, and was still bouncing off the walls. I was working at Disneyland, where the social scene is just as big a part of the job as the job assignment itself. I often socialized with my coworkers after work, and some of them are still my best friends today. I am no longer in such a social job, so I don’t have as many opportunities to go out and enjoy time with my co-workers. Even if I did, I think the scene would be different because we are all older. We do not have the same goals that we did when we were in our twenties. We now have families and responsibilities. Considering all of this, it makes sense that my rating of extroversion changed to introversion. However, when it comes time to go out and have a good time, I am still very much the extrovert.

The second test I took was the Kiersey Temperament Sorter, found at http://www.kiersey.com. This site bills their test as the “world’s leading assessment for individuals, teams, and organizations.” This is the kind of test, in its complete form, would be given to companies for employee evaluations. I again took a modified version of the test and got some results for free, but would have received more complete results if I purchased them, which I chose not to do. According to the Kiersey test, my personality type is the Idealist, meaning I am passionately committed to personal growth and development. I enjoy working with others, helping them find and fulfill their potential. I dream of a world of harmony, and have a gift for helping people solve their problems through friendly means, avoiding conflict whenever possible. I am an incurable romantic, but I see things more as they are than as I want them to be. I am an ethical person and hold myself to a strict standard of integrity. I seek and take comfort in warm, sensitive relationships and find “soul mates” rather than just acquaintances. In the workplace (this is a test for employees, after all), I am comfortable taking on a leadership role and seek opportunities to turn “what is” into “what can be.”

I find this personality assessment to be much more in line with my personality, but I also feel it does not cover as much of my personality. Instead, it focuses on the emotional part of me rather than the intellectual. (I might know more if I paid for a set of results.) I do constantly look for the good in others and try to turn “what is” into “what might be.” I am a very selfless person, looking for ways to make others happy without expecting something in return other than gratitude. I usually don’t enjoy celebrating myself, and have found discomfort in others celebrating me. I also agree with the work assessment, especially in my most recent job. I was left to fend for myself without much management oversight for most of my time there, and I relished in the opportunities to improve on the place and to make my team happy. Unfortunately, lack of oversight meant lack of appreciation for just how much I did there, and I was let go after a year and a half. This is one of those times where taking some notice in me would have been appreciated, though I don’t dwell on it.

One thing I did find particularly funny is that this personality assessment happens to perfectly describe a character I am writing in my current novel. My main character is a hopeless romantic who is practical and realistic to a fault. She wants to take a leap of faith but does not want to take it at the expense of those around her. I think this personality assessment will help me to continue to develop her as well.

Between these two tests, I thought the Kiersey test made me feel like it “got me” more than the Meyers-Briggs test did. Because this test is meant for employees, I would feel good about a test like this going to a prospective employer or boss. I think this test speaks to my desires to grow a successful team, to make things happen, and to make sure the team is as harmonious as can be. I am a leader, and being a leader does not mean forgetting about the people you choose to lead. I think that is a very important quality I have worked hard to understand. The Meyers-Briggs seems to be formulated to understand different dimensions of your personality, and for that, I appreciate its accuracy. However, I think it can backfire if is taken out of context. The opposite of Perceiving in that test is Judging, and a judgmental quality can be looked at as something to avoid. If I am considered introverted, will I not fit in to a hectic workplace where things are constantly moving and people need to keep up with the vivid personalities?

Ultimately, I don’t believe any personality test will ever truly “get” me, but I think the various tests will do well to understand certain parts of me. According to Funder, One Big Theory (OBT) is likely to be wrong because it attempts to include everything and therefore does not work to understand one single aspect well enough. The same can be said for personality tests. The Kiersey test was aimed at determining what kind of employee I would be. The Meyers-Briggs is aimed at looking at personality as a whole. The Meyers-Briggs may be one of the closest to truly knowing as much of one person as possible in a test.

Cinema Rediscovered: Ferris Bueller's Day Off

2010-06-20T23:45:00.000-07:00

This is a series I have wanted to do for a while. I have seen several movies more than a dozen times, and when it gets to that level, I can usually let them play in the background like music. But every now and then, I'll sit back and actually watch the movie and take in things I never really thought about or noticed before. I hope to cover some of my favorites or most watched here, and maybe my observations will mirror yours.

And thus, I start the series with the movie that made parents wise up to the tricks my generation tried to pull to skip school, or why the shower head makes an ideal practice mic: Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Ferris's establishing scene has him pulling some odd sick trick on his parents, and like the idiots they are, they buy it. My mother would have told me to suck it up and go to school anyway. She said something similar when I broke my tailbone when I was 14. In this same establishing scene, we meet Jeannie, his eternally menstrual older sister. It's not so much that Jeannie is jealous of Ferris as much as she's just the average teenager, blaming her parents for everything wrong in th world. Looking back, Jeannie needed her own spinoff series. Maybe Daria could have been her best friend...

Once everyone goes to school and work (notice both Ben Stein and Kristy Swanson in early roles), Ferris decides to recruit his BFF, Cameron, for his day of truancy. He already knows Cameron will be home because he knows Cameron's neuroses makes him sick. And unlike his own parents, who are just easily fooled, Cameron's parents probably just don't give a shit. Incidentally, as a direct result of Cameron's establishing scene, I actually did think coal made diamonds for many years. Forgive me.

When we meet the principal, Mr. Rooney, we see a man who takes his job and his battle with one individual student way too seriously. Remind you of another John Hughes high school principal? It's the battle between Ferris and Mr. Rooney that would be the surface plot, the cat and mouse game that drives the plot of the story. Unlike Principal Vernon in the Breakfast Club, Mr. Rooney isn't as concerned with impressing his students as he is winning his battle with the most popular boy in school. He claims he wants to set the example to all the kids who look up to Ferris, but even if the other kids didn't care, he'd still fight Ferris. What is he trying to prove, other than his significance in the school heirarchy? He isn't trying to convince anyone other than Ferris that he can win their individual battle. It's a theme that John Hughes carries through many of his stories. The adults are often threatened by the emergence of the Gen-Xers, who, as Vernon puts it, will be taking care of them in the very near future, and that thought is scary.

Before Ferris and Cameron can successfully pick up Sloan, possibly the hottest high school girlfriend EVER, we see why Ferris is so damn cool. How many of us tried to find or make software with bodily functions to fool parents? How many of us thought we could break into the school's computer from our homes? How many of us have tried to call the school with a fake voice to get our friends out of class? (No, I didn't do that last one. How dare.)

When the three of them finally make their break from the school, hilarity truly ensues. They take their classic Ferrari to downtown Chicago and park it in a public garage. If us future drivers learned anything from this scene, it's to never trust a guy who practically ejaculates at the sight of your car to watch over it, even if your car is a faded brown 1986 Dodge Colt hatchback. Ahem... Their first stop, a fancy lunch at Chez Qui. Ferris manages to convince the snooty host that he's Abe Frohman, the Sausage King of Chicago. Wouldn't you think Ferris could have thought a little more quickly on his feet and claimed to be his son? That's probably what I would have done, considering the host and/or manager would have sat Mr. Frohman several times and would have known who he was. I also would have thought the host would have enforced the jacket and tie rule at the restaurant, which every other customer seems to abide by. Then again, I bet the little mix-up resulted in complimentary lunch for the three of them, since I bet that lunch cost them at least $40 per plate, and none of them had that kind of money on them.

One thing I took from this scene was Ferris's declaration that if he was going to get in trouble, it would not be by a guy like that host. I carry that sentiment with me to this day. At times when I have felt like I was about to lose it and have my day be ruined, I thought about whether I was willing to lose an entire day to that particular person. When I realize I am not about to let a particular person ruin all of it for me, I carry on. Thanks, Ferris!

Next, on to the ball park for the Cubs game. Wouldn't it just happen to be that most of us go to games faithfully every season and never catch a fly ball, despite being in both fly and foul zones, yet this punk catches one on the day he ditches class? Incidentally, Saved by the Bell would rip this scene off years later when Zack pretends to be Jewish to skip school (Belding was an idiot), catches a foul at the Dodgers game, and gets blackmailed by Jessie's new brother to get a date with Lisa. Don't ask how I know this.

There are also really nice moments which can be like a picture postcard for Chicago. They visit the museum, the Sears tower, the stock exchange, and Michigan Avenue. I've never been to Chicago, and when this movie came out I was living in Hawaii, so I thought this was the coolest thing ever. Of course, I didn't know the difference between New York City and Chicago as far as big cities went, so I am equally obsessed with visiting both cities to this day.

During this time, Mr. Rooney decides the safety and well-being of every other student in the school is less important than breaking and entering into Ferris's house. Unfortunately, Jeannie is home, not caring less what she's missing in school. She meets an intruder (not realizing it's Rooney), delivers a swift kick to the nose, then calls the police. She knows he's still in the house and warns him she has herpes. Unfortunately shit continues to rain on Jeannie, and she gets arrested for filing a false police report.

Then we get to the scene which, for me, turns the movie from entertaining to silly, and that's the parade. I thought it would be fun and exciting to join in a parade, but not in my own concert scene as though it were planned for me. Even when I had this movie on VHS, I would fast forward through this scene. Even today, I don't care for "Twist and Shout," especially since it reminds me of this lame scene.

When Ferris and the gang pick up the car, life as Cameron knows it is over. He has is nervous breakdown for a few minutes, but seeing Sloan's boobies gets him out of that rut. But it's when the miles are not coming off the car that Cameron finally decides that his life isn't working for him anymore, and in his symbolic rebirth, he destroys the car, the one thing his father loves more than his own son. It's catastrophic and frightening when the car goes over the edge, but it's the understanding that nothing can be done about it, the day is finished, that really brings everything home. Cameron just had the best day of his life, and crashing that beautiful car, which should have been devastating, is poetic for him.

As all great days must come to an end, Ferris and the gang have to head home in time to get back to bed before the parents find him. Jeannie gets picked up from her mother at the police station and literally run into Ferris trying to make it home. The race is on, and Jeannie further pisses off her mother by speeding through the neighborhood to get home. And when she does, she finds Rooney's wallet on the kitchen floor. This is when she realizes Rooney was the man who broke into her house. All of a sudden, she has something far more exciting to look forward to than busting her brother, and that's screwing the principal over. Seriously, what could Rooney do to her for the rest of her high school career that she couldn't pull the breaking-and-entering card on? To top it off, she feeds the wallet and Rooney himself to their Rotweiler. Ahh, sweet justice. Of course, she realizes she could never have that satisfaction if Ferris hadn't ditched school in the first place, and she forgives him.

This movie is about living in the moment, and the theme applies to everyone. Though Ferris is the main character, this movie is really Cameron's story as told from Ferris's point of view. Ferris as a person is not that interesting of a character. Where is his conflict? He has his parents wrapped around his finger, every kid in school likes him, he has a very hot girlfriend, and he really doesn't care what Rooney thinks. Even Sloan, who we never really get to know in depth, is just an accessory character.

The real story lies in Cameron. I heard it summed up perfectly once: Cameron is going through his mid-life crisis prematurely. He is the oldest teenager on the planet (sorry, Dick Clark). He's destroyed by the thought of rubbing his parents the wrong way even once. He is miserable, and would probably have gone through the rest of his life miserable. Ferris is his alter-ego. Ferris is the person who does everything Cameron has ever wanted to do but has been shut down by his parents before getting the chance to. In the art museum, Cameron sees himself in the Georges Seurat painting, and he sees himself as a kid in the exact same way - nothing but paint and pixels, not a real kid. Destroying the car was the last step to shaking Cameron out of his misery. He probably would have gone to college, never making any new friends or girlfriends, and lived a short, miserable life. If Cameron were among the students in detention in "The Breakfast Club," what do you think he would have done to get there? Would it have been more severe than bringing a gun to school (albeit a flare gun)? Would a romp in the hay with the weirdo have cured him? It's an interesting thought...

"Ferris Bueller's Day Off" will always be one of the best high school movies ever, and one of the best movies of my generation. But it's watching the movie as an adult that makes me appreciate it even more. If Cameron did exist, I hope he got everything he wanted in the end.

Would you do it again?

2010-04-19T15:43:00.000-07:00

"Success is not the key to happiness,

happiness is the key to success.

If you love what you are doing,

you will be successful."

- Buddha

One of the worst things about growing up and growing old is the knowledge that some of the best days of your life are behind you and cannot be repeated. Even if you could go back to a certain time, you are not the same person, and chances are, that environment is not the same, either. It would not be the same experience. I think about the times that I miss the most, but I think about them from the perspective of the person I am today, not the person I was back then. I also tend to picture those days as they were then, not as they are now.

Let me be more clear. I think a lot about my time working at Disneyland. I did it twice - '96-'00, then '01-'05. The first run was in Attractions, the second in Entertainment. Both times I left rather disenchanted with my experience. Both times I wished I had done a million things differently. However, I never regretted either experience. They were the experiences - good, bad, and ugly - that made me into the person I am today. I know that when I look back, and when my friends recall the days, they remember me being miserable there. And I was. In Attractions, I was immature, a know-it-all, and had a bad habit of sticking my foot in my mouth at all the wrong times. In Entertainment, I followed the wrong examples, and before I could see what was going on, I was on one side of the fence, and my leaders and co-workers were on the other. I did the jobs themselves very well, but once people had made their minds up about me, it didn't matter how good I was at the job itself. It's like Survivor - so much of the game is social, and the actual technical part of the game is not as important.

Those experiences taught me so much about what it's like to work for a big corporation, what it means to be a part of a team, whose examples should be followed and whose should merely be observed, and most importantly, how to be the best possible member of a team without trying to swim upstream too much. I think, especially in Entertainment, that I was so desperate to shine that I forgot the importance of being a supporting player. Imagine "Ferris Bueller" without Cameron. If you take a closer look, Cameron is the most interesting character in the whole story, and perhaps the movie is Cameron's story, told from Ferris's point of view. Cameron as a supporting player absolutely shines, and he is not trying to be the star.

Naturally, all of this is hindsight. If I had been the person then that I am now, I bet I would have done a lot of things better the first time around. However, as I said above, that would be to assume the world that I was a part of then is the exact same world now. We all know this is not the case. I left the park five years ago. So much has changed. It's foolish to think that I am a different person now, but everything else is the same.

I can see now that one of the turning points was when working in the park became about the money and not about the joy of being there. Now I know about the difference between working for joy and working for love. Once it became about the money, I became more obsessed with things like seniority, training, shifts, locations, and all of the things that were completely out of my control. Oddly enough, when it became about the money, I would ER every day, and my paychecks would be virtually nil.

Here's the thing that gets to me. While I know I was an unhappy person, and I know there were so many things about the jobs that I hated, I still feel joy when I think back on my experiences. I really love knowing I was once a Cast Member. I loved those little things that only CM's get to experience, like being in the park when it's empty or dead silent, or running up and down the mountain, through the jungle, through the temple, and through those areas that you have to be special to see. I felt excited knowing how rides worked or where the random exit doors were. I thought it was exciting seeing men and women transforming into characters, or even more so, seeing characters carrying their own heads around. It doesn't seem like much, but knowing the majority of the world doesn't get to see these things, it excites me to know I got to be part of the elite few who did.

How many events did I get to see that I never would have been a part of otherwise? I was there for the last night of the Main Street Electrical Parade, and I didn't have to park it on the curb all day. I was there when the Angels won the World Series and celebrated with a day of park events. I saw the premiere of the first "Pirates of the Carribbean" movie. I saw all of the special events people doing all kinds of things that I had never thought of. I saw what it takes to make it all so incredible. I am so blessed to have been able to experience it, even as an observer.

The most difficult question is whether I would do it again. For the longest time, I said that my time at Disneyland was among the happiest of my life, but I don't think I could work there again. Now, I want to re-evaluate that statement and say that yes, I would do it all over again. I would go back and be the person I wanted to be the first time around. I would take my 32-year-old, educated self, and re-live the feeling I had when it wasn't about the money. And that's the catch right there - it can't be about the money. It couldn't be my main source of income again. I would have to be a CR at most, working only weekends and summer nights. I would have to have my primary source of income elsewhere. I would want to remember the excitement of arriving, picking up my costume, and going out to have fun. Now I am better at not letting the little things get to me, and at keeping my head up and my smile on. Those were things I missed the first time around, and I would love to rewrite my own history.

If you could do it again, would you? Would you go back to the last thing that made you happy and do it all over again, before things like life got in the way?

Whatever happened to great TV theme songs?

2010-03-03T10:07:00.000-08:00

I found a CD at the library last weekend that was the 100 greatest TV theme songs. They weren't ranked or anything, but it was favorite TV themes from the 50s until the 90s. This collection was released around 2005, but the most recent theme song was from 2001 for "Six Feet Under." The 90s tunes included "Friends," "Frasier," "Seinfeld," the original "90210" and Melrose Place," and "Sex and the City." After that, it drops off into favorites from the 80s that rolled into the 90s before they went off the air, like "Growing Pains." But there was nothing after 2001.

That got me to thinking, whatever happened to great TV theme songs? I think about some of my favorite shows or most memorable shows of the last decade, and they either had theme songs that were previously popular (CSI uses The Who, Freaks and Geeks used Joan Jett), or they skipped the theme song altogether in order to squeeze three more minutes of story time into the program. There are so many programs that I associated with their theme songs, that I would remember the show the opening title segment of the show in order to remember its name. We all remember the slide-boxes of "The Brady Bunch" or the jukebox and the Fonz in "Happy Days." It later evolved into the actors turning to the camera after a mini-montage of their scenes. But I will remember the silouette of "Charlie's Angels" or the life preserver of "Love Boat" before I will ever remember the cast standing together. But I can't think of that without thinking of the theme song.

I also started to think about the various websites that have lists of gone-too-soon TV shows, and how they would have fared if they had great theme songs. While Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation" was a good choice for "Freaks and Geeks," would it have fared better with a different, catchier song? After all, that song had already been around for 20 years before it was used as the show's theme, so "Freaks and Geeks" would not be the first thing we thought of when we heard that song. What about "Firefly," or "Pushing Daisies?" This isn't to suggest that these shows would have had guaranteed success with a great original theme song - "Beverly Hills, 90210" almost didn't get picked up beyond the second season, but they changed their theme song from a kitschy, "Dynasty" club mix to an edgier, 90s-style tune, and it helped. But if Kristin Chenoweth, whom I love, had recorded a theme song for "Pushing Daisies," the show might have reached a broader audience. The shows that don't even make it to 5 episodes - did they have theme songs? Did they have stock music? Did they even try anything ironic, like "Married, With Children" did by using Sinatra's "Love and Marriage?" Sometimes the previously released song works well - I love the use of Jace Everett's "Bad Things" as the theme song for "True Blood."

I wonder if we will ever have great TV theme songs again. I wonder what the first thing we think of will be when we think of what it takes to rule the world ("Diff'rent Strokes). I wonder if my favorite four bars of music will always be followed by two snaps ("The Addams Family"). Will any song give ample background as to how our characters ended up where they are today ("Gilligan's Island"), without having to drag a series on with endless montages that inevitably lead the show to an early retirement? I actually won a trivia contest once by naming all of the Jetsons because I remembered the song. I can't name all of the characters on "Lost," but I can absolutely tell you what happens when you take the good, you take the bad, you take them all and there you have....you know.

Sorry...

2010-02-18T11:36:00.001-08:00

I have been too busy lately with school to check out my much anticipated movie marathon. I might be moving across town, so there's more of a delay. I swear, I will have something soon so that both of you will have something to read! Love ya!

2010 Rediscovery: Movie Marathons

2010-01-02T20:50:00.000-08:00

While talking to a friend of mine the other day, we both decided on some things we wanted to do in the new year. We both decided we wanted to set a goal of 10% savings right off the top no matter what, continuing our progress of gym and weight loss, and one classic book a month. I decided as well to go through one movie marathon a month. I wanted to either force myself to watch films I had never seen before, or rediscover movies I had not seen in a while and hopefully see them in a new light. So I decided on 12 different themes. I don't know exactly which month which theme will occur, but these movies are going to be interesting, different, and hopefully well worth my time. And, of course, I will do a monthly recap here as I finish each marathon.

Directed By Woody Allen (Annie Hall, Manhattan, Scoop, Vicky Christina Barcelona) This one actually will be my first marathon out of coincidence. A couple of nights ago, I noticed both Annie Hall and Manhattan were on TV so I recorded them on my DVR. I chose Scoop because it was up next on my Netflix queue, and I own Vicky Christina Barcelona, and figured Woody's most recent outing would be a good way to wrap up the marathon. Plus, I like the idea of comparing Woody's muses - Diane Keaton and Scarlett Johansson. The only film I have not seen here is Scoop, but it has been a long time since I have seen the others listed here.

The Oscars Present: Gene Hackman (French Connection, Unforgiven, Bonnie and Clyde) Gene Hackman is an actor everyone knows, but is past his days as one of the most in-demand actors around. So I decided that in the months surrounding the Oscars, I would tip my hat to one of the finest actors of his generation. I think these three movies show him in great supporting roles, which makes sense because he was nominated for all of these films. The only one of these films I have not seen yet is French Connection, but I will enjoy revisiting Bonnie and Clyde and Unforgiven.

Pillow Talk Movies (Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back, Send Me No Flowers, If a Man Answers) I don't know if anyone else calls these Pillow Talk movies. These are the Rock Hudson/Doris Day, or Sandra Dee/Bobby Darin romantic comedies of the sixties. This is the era of romantic comedies that fell between the screwball comedies (Bringing Up Baby, It Happened One Night) and the more independent woman-themed romantic comedies that we see today. I think I own all of these movies except for Pillow Talk - I bought them at Costco when they were $12 a pair - but I have only watched Lover Come Back. This will be an all-new marathon for me.

Katharine Hepburn: She Rules (Woman of the Year, The Lion in Winter, Adam’s Rib, the African Queen) It's only fair to feature a marathon with the greatest actress of all time (next to Meryl, that is). I tried to select some of her most well-known movies, while not necessarily her best movies. Believe it or not, I have never seen any of these. Geez, what kind of a movie lover am I? Wait, that's the point of these marathons!

Paul Newman: Dead or Alive, I’d Do Him (The Long Hot Summer, Hud, Harper, Road to Perdition) I fell in love with him the first time I saw "The Hustler." I loved how cool and suave he is, even when he was tortured and miserable, like in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." We all know what a wonderful man he was in real life, so let's take the time to enjoy some of his cinematic greats.

Fred and Ginger (Top Hat, The Gay Divorcee, Follow the Fleet, Swing Time) I wanted to do movie musicals, but that would have meant mostly Gene Kelly films, and I have seen so many of those that it would not have been the rediscovery I was hoping for. There are so many I could have chosen from, but I thought it would only be fitting to feature the king and queen of the movie musical: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. I've seen Top Hat and Swing Time before, so The Gay Divorcee and Follow the Fleet will be the new ones for me.

Bond: James Bond – 1 film from each Bond Actor (Connery: Dr. No; Lazenby: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service; Moore: Octopussy; Dalton: The Living Daylights; Brosnan: GoldenEye; Craig: Casino Royale) I have never been much of a Bond fan, so this will almost be completely new for me. In order to do a proper Bond-a-thon, I thought it would be most fitting to compare all of the Bonds to each other. I didn't necessarily go with the ones that were arguably the best; I chose the ones I thought would be the most interesting. I may be wrong on some of them, like Octopussy, but I don't know. The only obvious choices here were Dr. No because it was the first, Secret Service because it was Lazenby's only Bond outing, and Casino Royale because I didn't like Solace that much. I am looking forward to covering this one, probably over the summer when school is not going because it's the longest.

The Boys of Summer: The Best Baseball Films Ever Made (Bull Durham, The Natural, Field of Dreams, Pride of the Yankees, A League of Their Own, Eight Men Out) This is the only movie marathon where I have already seen every one of these films. As baseball is the ultimate summer sport, I decided to revisit each of these baseball movies and decide, once and for all, which is my favorite of all time. And I would not be surprised if the ladies take this one. This is another long marathon, but since the topic is worthy and I am already familiar with these movies, I will definitely enjoy this one.

The Art of War (Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now, All Quiet on the Western Front) This will probably be the most difficult marathon for me to get through because I am not big into war movies. I wanted to make sure I only included classics in this marathon because I wanted to appreciate war movies from the time the biggest world wars were going on. If I wanted to add in one more from a modern era, I would have included The Hurt Locker, a movie from last year that I heard excellent things about. Maybe for 2011's marathon schedule.

Would I Want This Man As My President? (The American President, Mars Attacks!, Independence Day, Dave) I almost did a marathon of presidential biopics, but the thought of sitting through JFK or Frost/Nixon again didn't thrill me. I think this one is pretty self-explanatory. The president had to be a major character in the movie, and he had to be fictitious. He had to act in a presidential manner, too - not escaping from a hijacked plane or being guarded by the secret service (Air Force One and In the Line of Fire are two of my all-time faves, by the way). I have never seen Mars Attacks! or Dave. Forgive me.

Directed By Stephen Spielberg (Schindler’s List, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws, ET) Not wanting Woody Allen to be the only director on this list, I chose Spielberg because picking from the elite would mean an enjoyable marathon, no matter what. If it wasn't him, it would have been Ron Howard, but I've seen almost all of his films. The only film here I have not seen is Close Encounters - I think I tried once and kept falling asleep. These are four different themes and styles, and I chose them to compare.

Russell Crowe: Do I Like Him Now? (LA Confidential, Gladiator, Master and Commander, The Insider) I've never really understood Russell Crowe. To me, he's a big, oafy dude who keeps landing not totally oafy roles. However, he's gotten praise for all of these roles, so I decided to watch all of them and decide, once and for all, if I like him as an actor. It has been a long time since I have seen all of these movies, so this will be a fresh comparison for me. However, I love LA Confidential. I will have fun watching that one again.

Oh-kay, that's what my year in movie marathons is shaping up to be. They may change, I don't know. I have a busy school schedule still and hopefully a better job or second job in the near future. With that in mind, I will do my best to fulfill my cinematic goals in 2010. If you play along too, let me know. It will be great to compare notes.

2009 wrap-up

2009-12-28T10:27:00.000-08:00

I have been living in Portland for a year now. It's not one of the cities I ever imagined myself living in, but I dig it. I am not so connected to the city that I have to live here forever, but I am happy to be here. There's a lot going on and is all accessible by good public transportation - a must for me since I have never been able to afford to replace Gladys. While 2009 has not been one of the best years of my life, there were a lot of things that I am proud of myself for this year. Here they are, in no particular order:

I stuck by my job. I had a hard time getting a job when I first got here because I came when the recession was at its worst and competition for jobs was high. I ended up getting a job as an apartment complex manager. I admit, I took the first one I could get my hands on. It's not the job of my dreams. I am college-educated and make a dollar above poverty - and my rent comes out of my salary (contrary to popular belief, the apartment is not free). There is a lot of down time, and when I first took over the property, I had a lot to deal with in terms of cleaning up the messes that the previous managers made or did not clean up themselves. But, I stuck with it. I made the best of this property and acted on the potential. I evicted the worst tenants, recruited some great new ones, cleaned up the grounds, repainted the entire parking lot myself (by hand with a brush and painting tape to make the lines). My property started making money again. I used my creative skills to market and appeal to the current tenants to make sure they wanted to stick around. In other words, I did not want to let the fact that I am way out on the corner of Portland in a less-than-gorgeous place determine the kind of work I did. My boss loves the work I do, and I am setting myself up for future promotion. That is a big success for me because a couple of years ago, I let my unhappiness with my work affect the way I did it. Growth is a great thing!

I joined a gym again. There is a small gym half a block from where I live, and it's only $45 a month. I decided enough is enough with how shitty I felt all the time, so I decided to go again. And I decided to stick to it! I didn't focus on any long-term goals anymore; well, I did set long-term goals, but I didn't fixate on them to the point where I looked past all of the immediate successes. It became a simple thing: I liked how I felt when I did go, and didn't like how I felt when I did not go. I loved that I looked forward to going, and loved how refreshed I felt. I would feel a lot better about my successes if I ate better, but that's a new success to be reached. I feared it for a while and hurt when I used muscles I forgot I had. But all of that fear lives in my head, and it's easy to overcome. The bottom line is, no one is paying any attention to me there, and I don't need to look good or show off for anyone. I am there to be me, to have fun, and I do just that. This is one of the best things I have done this year, for sure.

I learned to appreciate being thrifty. I don't necessarily look down my nose at places like Goodwill, but I don't necessarily enjoy them. I can't stand the way they smell. That's because people donate stuff that isn't clean, and the store doesn't clean them before they put it out. However, my mother has always said places like Savers and Goodwill have gotten her through a lot of the times where she had very little to make a life with. I finally learned to appreciate that from her. I used to get everything from Target and considered Old Navy being thrifty. This year, I got almost everything second-hand from thrift stores. Not all of it is shit, either. A lot of it is fantastic stuff that I was lucky to stumble across. I got my espresso machine for $7.50 and I use it daily. My coffee machine was $10, my dinette set was $60, my dresser $30 (before paint and new handles). My sofa is borrowed from my mother, my tables were all donated, and my bed is brand new (can't compromise on a comfortable bed). I love the way it all works for me, too! I spent maybe 25% of what the stuff is worth brand new, which allowed me to get other things brand new without having to feel like I am going broke making a comfortable home. Now when I am looking for something, I check out thrift stores before I go anywhere else. I can luck out and get a crock pot for $6 and a brand-new mountain bike for $25. I still can't stand how they smell and can't bring myself to wear second-hand shoes, but when I can have a 27" TV for $30 and a Food Saver for $10, I can hold my nose!

I went somewhere new! Cosmo once said that all women should go somewhere once a year that they have never been to before. For all the advice they recycle over and over again, this one I liked the most, and have tried to follow. This year, my broke ass still had the chance to venture somewhere new - Seattle. It's 3 1/2 hours by train from Portland, and I went because my friend Jeff was there and had tickets to the Brandi Carlisle concert. (Great show, btw.) Seattle was awesome! I was only there for one day and therefore only explored the waterfront area, but I instantly decided this was a great place to be and somewhere I could see myself relocating to. I want to go back for a longer trip, especially if I still might be leaving Portland next year. But if the Pacific Northwest remains my permanent location, I would not mind venturing up to Seattle. It also got me excited to want to continue trekking north to Canada, somewhere I have never been. Cosmo was right in that exploring somewhere new doesn't always mean exotic, faraway lands. Seattle is so close that I could go often, and there's a lot to do. Yay me!

I went back to school. It's not like this is a big revelation for me, since I just finished the work for my BA in history. But it wasn't until my last year of school that I decided I really wanted to pursue law and go to law school. When I looked at LSAT exams, I didn't feel ready. I decided to tack another year of school on and go for a second bachelor's, this time a BS in criminal justice. I know it's not required for law school, but at least I can become more familiar with terminology, theory, and application. I am a visual person, and the ability to picture something makes it easier for me to follow it down the path. And if for some reason law school just doesn't come my way, a CJ degree can lead me to a lot of social work careers, or other things. But I am not going for all of this just to settle. Law school is still something I want to do and I am prepping myself for success. In the past I would have just considered the opportunity passed, and let it go. I am proud of myself for jumping on the train, even as it pulled out of the station.

So those are my five best things I did for myself in 2009. I hope you can all look at what you did for yourselves and find more success than setbacks.

My 5 Favorite Christmas Moves of All Time

2009-12-22T10:47:00.000-08:00

I am a sucker for Christmas. I don't wait for December, either. I have been known to start itching for Christmas music in July. I like to make it look like Christmas threw up in my home. I am devastated when I cannot have a tree. I love the cold, love the festivities, love the decor. I hate the shopping, but I don't fret on it because I shop all year long. Why wait if the right gift comes up in the spring?

However, I am very picky about my Christmas movies. There are certain movies that I can only watch at the holidays. I don't like all Christmas movies - some were any old story that they happened to set at Christmas, some were bad versions of good movies. While I have a mile-long list of favorite Christmas movies, I have narrowed them down to my top five. There are many classics that should have made the list, and if I went for top 10 probably would be on, but these made the top five because I have to watch them every year. Are my picks similar to yours?

5. The Ref (1994). Many holiday movies center around family - more specifically, the disfunction of family gatherings. It's easy to see why. So many people see themselves in these movies. They love their families, but don't look forward to spending time with the aunts and uncles who ask when they're getting married, or how they're too fat/skinny, or when they're finally going to do something with their lives, etc. Some families border on having full-blown arguments and fights at Christmas. Really, who wants to be around that?

What if you have no choice? This is the dilemma Denis Leary finds himself in in "The Ref." Leary plays a burglar who breaks into a mansion in a small upscale Connecticut town. The police are after him, and he takes a couple hostage (Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis) in order to hide out in their home. The problem is, this couple cannot stop fighting. They pick fights with each other and argue about the most mundane things because they are so unhappy with each other. Lucky for the audience, their mud-slinging is absolutely hilarious! Leary has no choice but to hide out with them, and he cannot stand it! It gets even worse when the rest of the family arrives, and they are no better. The mother of the family (Glynis Johns) holds her sons' nads in a jar, and reminds them every day that they owe their lives to her. In the case of Spacey and Davis, it's literally, because she owns the home they live in, and she charges them 18% interest on the loan she gave them. Spacey's brother is bullied by the wife who cannot appreciate anything and snaps at everyone, including her kids. The kids, of course, cannot wait to get to Uncle Lloyd and Aunt Carolyn's house because they love watching them fight. And Leary is the only reasonable character in the entire story. He cannot understand how a family can treat each other this way. He looks at his own life - mid 30s, no home, no family, no stable grounds - and cannot for the life of him understand how people who have it all could be so miserable with each other. Ultimately, he gets Lloyd and Carolyn to finally get it all out and see that their problems had one main underlying source - Lloyd's mother. In housing Leary and eventually helping him evade police, Lloyd and Carolyn finally come to understand and see each other, and forgive each other.

I don't just love this movie for its hilarity, I love it for its message. Sometimes people need to shut the eff up and listen to each other, especially at Christmas. Family cannot trample on each other.

4. Elf (2003). I am at the point now where I am indifferent to Will Ferrell. He is undoubtedly one of the greatest comic actors of the decade, and he was on a major hotstreak with his movies. In looking back, I found myself over him when I saw "Blades of Glory." (Please forgive me for admitting I saw it.) I realized there that I was seeing the same Will Ferrell over and over again. However, I look back at some of his better movies - namely "Talladega Nights" and "Anchorman" - and see that he is best when he is among an ensemble cast and does not have to carry the entire film by himself. In fact, in "Anchorman," Paul Rudd and Steve Carrell completely steal the show. But that allows Ferrell to be the man-child he is so effectively, because it doesn't have to be forced down your throat in order to make the movie work.

Will Ferrell was the perfect actor for Buddy the Elf. After all, why not have a man-child play, well, a man-child? Ferrell plays an orphaned baby who snuck into Santa's sack and ended up at the North Pole. He grew up among the elves and found out when he was an adult that he actually is a human, not an elf. He decides to return to the US to find his father, who he learns is on the naughty list and living in New York City. Fish-out-of-water is not exactly the right term for Buddy. More like alien invasion, because in theory, he has never seen a world like Manhattan. Despite the warnings by Santa, he eats the gum off the railings and runs in front of the yellow cabs. Buddy meets Jovie (jovial? Santa? get it?), a pretty girl with no Christmas spirit, who becomes his only friend in the city. Then he finally meets his father (James Caan), who doesn't really exhibit naughty list-worthy behavior as much as he exhibits overworked publisher working for a crappy company behavior. Buddy goes home with him, introduces his family to his four major food groups (candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup; if you were a chick you wouldn't be wearing yellow tights!), and encourages them to start enjoying life together again.

This movie is not without flaws, but it is damn funny, and Will Ferrell is perfect in it. Personally, I prefer the FAO Schwartz toy scene in "Big" to the Gimple's scenes in "Elf." What makes this movie so refreshing for me is Will Ferrell being a grown-up who is fully invested in the magic of Christmas. He believes in it with every fiber of his being, including calling out a Santa impostor at Gimple's. ("You sit on a throne of lies!") He gets weird looks from everyone, but doesn't understand that he's the unusual one. All he knows is that the people around him are in need of Christmas spirit, and he's happy to be the one to bring it to them. Certainly the comedic performance makes this movie a must-see, but so does the overall message - Christmas spirit is ageless.

3. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989). This year, one of my favorite podcasts, "Filmspotting," did a top 5 list of their favorite screen fathers. Matty Robinson chose as his favorite father, Clark Griswold." I could not agree more. Here is a father who will do absolutely anything to make sure his family has the best time ever. In this movie, he wants to produce the best Christmas for his family, while at the same time, dealing with disfunctional relatives. Among these relatives are his cousin and her husband, who are disasterous human beings with disasterous children. Clark's production of a family Christmas includes covering his house with so many lights it blinds the neighbors and causes the local power company to switch to nuclear mode. His present to his family is to put a swimming pool in the backyard of their home, but this gift is dependent on a Christmas bonus he anticipates, and unfortunately does not receive, from his job. This causes Clark to go absolutely haywire, and naturally, hilarity ensues.

The Griswold family adventures are timeless classics, simply because Clark will not rest until his family has a good time. For Christmas, these adventures add the element of the crazy family. Again, crazy family holiday movie. But like "The Ref" and "Elf," it just works. Clark will always be the most over-the-top father in the world, but that's an admirable quality to have, especially at Christmastime. Adults will live vicariously through Clark because they would only imagine doing the things Clark does, and kids will laugh because Clark is that father that they want, practically killing himself to make his family happy.

2. Love Actually (2003). It's interesting how my second favorite Christmas movie of all time is among my top 5 favorite movies of all time, but none of the rest of these are. The criteria there is simple - this is a movie I can watch anytime, day or night, all year long, and love. This British gem is a fairly complicated movie to pull off because there are so many different characters and stories that are somehow intertwined with each other. It's like a six-degrees type of movie. They all experience the same theme, though, which is love at Christmas time.

The movie counts down from five weeks before Christmas, all the way down to Christmas Eve. Prime Minister David (Hugh Grant) is single, newly elected, and instantly develops a crush on Natalie, his assistant with the mouth of a sailor. She lives next door to Mia, who has a crush on her boss (Alan Rickman, one of my favorite actors in the world). He indulges that crush just a little too far at one moment, upsetting his wife, Karen (Emma Thompson), who happens to be the prime minister's sister. Another one of his employees, Sarah (Laura Linney, another eternal favorite of mine), has a crush on Karl (Rodrigo Santoro), who she doesn't realize likes her too. When they finally get the chance to go for it, she is interrupted by needing to care for her schizophrenic brother, and learns she will never have the love she wants as long as she has her brother's care, but she has resolved to accept it. Karen's friend Daniel (Liam Neeson), is a recent widower and caretaker of her son, Sam, who has fallen in love for the first time with a girl at his school. Sarah's friends, Peter and Juliette (Keira Knightley), are newlyweds, to the heartbreak of Peter's friend Mark, who silently holds a torch for the stunning bride of his best friend. At their wedding reception, the catering company's employee, Colin, decides English girls are way too stuck up for him, and he decides to go to America ("to a fabulous place called Wisconsin!"), much to the disgust of his friend Tony, who tells him he needs to accept that he is "a lonely, ugly asshole." Tony's day job is as an assistant director on a high-end Italian erotic film, and he is directing stand-ins (John and Just Judy), who find they are hitting it off while naked and in rather compromising positions. Another friend of Peter and Juliette is Jamie (Colin Firth), who learns after coming home from their wedding, that his girlfriend is sleeping with his brother. He leaves her and heads to the country to work on his novel, where he falls in love with his housekeeper, Aurelia. And all of this takes place while Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) is staging his comeback and trying to top the biggest pop group in Britain for the spot of Christmas number one, with his cover of "Love is All Around."

Wow, I cannot believe I got through all of that! Just shows how many times I have seen this movie. It is wonderfully acted, wonderfully written, and wonderfully directed. No one character holds more than 20 minutes of total screen time, but it is maximized. No time is wasted in this movie. Every story has its beginning, middle, and end, and may not end happily, but ends with more emotion because it happens at Christmas. Again, a movie I will watch forever, but ranks #2 on my Christmas movies list because it's about love at Christmas, and about how love is full of imperfections, even when you don't want them to be.

Drumroll, please...

1. Home Alone (1990). When this movie first came out, it was one of the most successful box office movies of all time. As of today, hollywood.com listed it as the 38th most successful film of all time with a domestic take of almost $286 million. (Titanic still sits at the top with $600 million domestically.) The cute kid from Uncle Buck gets a starring role as a smart-aleck kid who gets accidentally left behind by his family, who takes off for France for the holiday. While they are gone, said kid starts by enjoying doing everything he's normally not allowed to do (eating junk food, staying up late, watching bad movies, going through his brother's personal stash) before reality kicks in and he has to get a few essentials to survive until his family comes home, like milk and laundry detergent. In these outings, he comes face to face with a couple of would-be robbers who, the night before his family left, posed as police officers to check out the house. In the developing story, he realizes he misses his family, that he was sorry for being such a pill, and he wants his family to come home for Christmas. This realization is also aided by his elderly neighbor, who the kids in the neighborhood fear, but ends up being in a similar situation - on the outs with his own family and lonely at Christmas. Kevin is not free from the burglars, though, and he rigs his entire house to keep the burglars from successfully taking anything in the house. They almost catch him when he tries to escape, but with the neighbor's help, survives. And after all that, Kevin's Christmas wish comes true when his family comes home Christmas day.

Again, not the most perfect movie on the planet, but so fun. Macaulay Culkin did quite a few roles after this one, but none as charismatic and endearing as playing Kevin. Not to mention, this was a 10-year-old kid who carried a movie by himself. That's not easy to do. This movie resonated with kids because every kid has imagined having their families disappear, and they loved watching Kevin go nuts. The measures Kevin went to in order to protect the house were so innovative for a kid his age, and we as kids ate it all up. The more the burglars got hurt, the funnier it was. And when Kevin put a spider on Marv's face and Marv screamed like a little girl, I died laughing. I still do. That is still my single favorite moment in the movie.

It's so weird to watch it today. Now when I watch it, I watch it as an adult. I think of the things critics like to say about this movie because they cannot put themselves in a kid's shoes. They cannot suspend disbelief, which you have to because you know what Kevin goes through is not plausible. How did he manage to set all of that up in an hour? Where did he get the time to clean it all up so spotlessly? How did he not burn the house down? Why did the mother never mention to the police when she called from France that her son is not only home alone, but is EIGHT YEARS OLD? Why didn't anyone else, like the old man, call the police to say the 8-year-old next door is alone? It's all of those things that only adults cannot get around. That's why this movie is not necessarily for adults, unless you saw it through a child's eyes first. It's seeing it as an adult but through a child's eyes that makes me appreciate so many things I never noticed as a child, either. The opening segment of the family going nuts the night before they left for France showed a family basically being rude to Kevin. They called him hopeless, a disease, a little jerk. As an adult, I think that Kevin is not being so bad that he deserves that kind of treatment. But remember, this is a movie from Kevin's point of view. He pereceives his family treating him like dirt. He doesn't think he's being that bad, and when he gets pushed to his breaking point, he thinks he's being treated unfairly. Also, director Chris Columbus (of the first two Harry Potter films as well) did a very good job of shooting everything from down low, which is Kevin's viewpoint. All of the adults are shot from Kevin's point of view looking up. I never noticed that as a kid. Just something I can appreciate today. By the way, Spielberg did it in E.T. as well, so it's just good style influencing good style.

This movie is my number one because I can only watch it at Christmas. It makes me laugh because it's so silly. And I love the message, which is that you may want to get rid of your family, and you may actually succeed sometimes, like the old man did, but you can't really get everything you want without your family. You are lonely, and that's not a good feeling. Like them or not, they're your family. Brat or not, Kevin still deserves a good family, and Katherine (his mother) uses that guilt and determination to not rest until she gets home to her son. It's not a serious story, but it's one that is right for its target audience, which is kids and family.

Yes, those are my top five. I know there are some of your favorites missing, like "It's a Wonderful Life," "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," "A Christmas Story," "White Christmas," or "Miracle on 34th Street." Those don't register on this list because I don't necessarily make a point to catch those every year. Nor are they automatically the first movies I think of when I think of Christmas must-see movies. Since some of these movies are fairly recent, they may be replaced by better Christmas movies someday. I hope so. Christmas movies, when done well, are so wonderful. I hope to write a good one someday. In the meantime, I like my favorites, so I will keep them for a while. I hope my favorites are some of yours, too.

Touched by an Angel

2009-12-14T18:53:00.000-08:00

About 10 years ago, I learned the most wonderful lesson about how much a Christmas present can really mean to someone. I took a speech class with a teacher named Kat Carroll at Orange Coast College. She was wonderful on so many levels and I regret not taking more classes that she offered. I remember my friend Tim did, and still speaks highly of her. Anyway, the Languages building at OCC had an Angel Tree at Christmastime in the lobby. I had never heard of an Angel Tree and had probably passed this tree several times in my transition between classes. Kat grabbed several tags off the Angel Tree and brought them to class. She asked us what we had wanted for Christmas that year. I remember wanting a new stereo. I think there was a guy who wanted snowboarding gear, or rims for his truck, or something to that effect. Then Kat took a moment to read what some of the tags were on the Angel Tree. One person wanted a new pair of socks. Another wanted postage stamps. Another wanted a ladies' XL t-shirt. Another an electric razor.

I remember being humbled and moved when she was reading the tags. I didn't really feel like a selfish child when I heard the requests, but I did remember making the comparison in my head. I wanted a stereo, and I was probably going to get the stereo, but I didn't think a wonderful new stereo would make me feel half as fulfilled as a new pair of socks. I thought about how simple some people choose to live, how happy they were without major material items. I thought about the woman who wanted postage stamps. She probably lived away from her family and wanted to keep in touch. I thought about the woman who wanted a t-shirt. Maybe she wanted something more feminine and usually had to resort to mens' shirts. Maybe she had not had a new shirt in so long that just one would make her whole year. There was a man who wanted a western novel. Maybe in his youth he idolized John Wayne, and as the end of his life drew near, he wanted to reflect on the best days of his life.

This was the first real lesson I had about how you don't have to have a lot of money to be able to give to someone else. A t-shirt or a pair of socks would cost less than $5. An electric razor would be more costly, but good ones could be found for around $30. I could not come up with one reason to not participate in Angel Tree giving. I didn't have to limit myself to just one item, either. For a budget of $25, I could cover 3-4 tags from the tree. Even then, I did not think that was enough. I could not wait to tell my mother about the Angel Tree. She too loved the idea that so much could be accomplished for so little. Together, we covered eight tags that year. We also thought about how to maximize the requests, so we went to Costco. The man who wanted socks got a 10-pack. The woman who wanted an XL t-shirt got a 6-pack in varying colors and prints. We got 2 books of stamps. A woman who wanted new hair brushes got a kit with brushes, combs, clips, and a new mirror. We felt good knowing we had gone above and beyond, and that it meant the world to someone. It was okay for us knowing we would never meet the recipients of these gifts. It wasn't about the recognition. It was about true Christmas spirit.

I didn't want to forget the feeling of giving. I made a decision that for the rest of my life, as long as I could give, I would. With the exception of last Christmas when I was unemployed and moving to Oregon, I have made charitable donations every year for the holidays. I have progressed to also giving presents to Toys for Tots, local toy or clothing drives, and food bank drives. I have not always waited for Christmas either, nor have I only donated at places that offer incentives for donations. This year, I have not found a nearby Angel Tree (I didn't see one at Macy's and have not looked for local churches), but I have made sure to give to Toys for Tots, and I am continuing to donate to food drives. Since I buy a lot of my staples at Costco, I can certainly part with two or three cans out of an 8-pack.

I hope you have the priviledge of knowing what it means to give. You really don't have to have a lot to give a lot. Nor do you have to wait for the holidays. Take advantage of when goods go on clearance throughout the year. Can you budget $10 per month to pick something out of the Target endcaps? What about taking one can out of each Costco pack you buy, and setting it aside for the fall food drives? It is so simple, and it means everything. Please find the nearest opportunity to give. It is amazing how something seemingly small in your world means everything to someone else.

By the way, I did get my stereo that year, and it lasted several years. But the knowledge I gained from the Angel Tree continues to be the greatest gift I have ever received.

5 Reasons I still love "Beverly Hills, 90210"

2009-12-09T20:37:00.000-08:00

I love "Beverly Hills, 90210." The show first aired in 1989 and ran until 2000, and I was with it almost the entire way. I didn't watch the last two or three seasons because by then, the show had become a parody of itself. I am not surprised, since many shows that run that long do end up becoming so dreb. Still, the first five to six years of the show were what I was all about when I was young. I owe my life to Soap Network for running reruns of this show for the last six years. I even know how to time it by now - a series takes about four months to run by showing two episodes per weekday, so I can usually figure out when the end comes and they start running the first season again. And yes, the DVR gets set.

Personally, I love how I can remember certain episodes and where I was when those episodes first aired. I was in Hawaii on vacation when Steve left on Christmas to find his birth mother. I was laughing in French class in high school with my friend Kim, delerious from not enough sleep, chanting "Donna Martin graduates!" I watched the prom episode when I was still a sophomore, hoping my prom in two years would be so beautiful. (Real story for another day.) I was the right demographic for this series, and it mattered to me. I did not have the lifestyle to keep up with the Kellys or Brendas, but I enjoyed living vicariously through them.

I still enjoy the reruns on Soapnet, though today much of the show is so dated. Understandable, since Brian Austin Green would never be able to keep up with today's musicians. Here are 5 reasons I still consider 90210 one of my favorite guilty pleasures.

1. The show was always relevant. The show was hailed for doing what no other show was doing at the time, which was representing real teens with real teen issues. Brenda was dealing with her first love, losing her virginity, thinking she was pregnant, and having her best friend and her first love fall for each other. Brandon was constantly trying to live up to his father's high expectations. Kelly was fighting a reputation and an absentee father. Donna had dyslexia. David's mother was schizophrenic. Andrea had to live a lie to be able to attend the best school around. There were episodes about condoms, gang violence, teacher/student intimate relationships, parents dictating who you can date, steroids, drugs and alcoholism, shoplifting, running away from home, and on and on. If it mattered to teenagers, 90210 covered it. And it gave it its due, instead of just glossing over it and tying it up with a nice little bow by the end of the show.

2. Steve's adoption was never forgotten. TV is notorious for having a character nearly killed one week, then acting as if nothing happened the next week. Donna was attacked in her apartment from behind by a would-be rapist. Most women would not be able to take people sneaking up on her from behind ever again. A character's history often gets forgotten as a show progresses. Steve's adoption, the very core of who he was, was around for the entire series. He first revealed it at the spring dance, then went to look for his mother later that year. His conflict with his father came to a head when he found out his adopted father really was his birth father. Then when he and Janet had their baby, he vowed to the baby never to make her feel like she would not know her father. It was his most vulnerable character trait, and the show kept it going the entire time. Nicely done.

3. Senior year. This was one of the best seasons of the show. Many felt as though the show should have ended after this season to avoid the many inevitable shark jumps, and I would have been fine with it. So many episodes this season dealt with the end of life as they knew it, and the understanding they would soon face with the world that would either embrace them, or chew them up and spit them out. Andrea developed another crush on a teacher, this time Gil Meyers (the first was with her summer drama teacher, played by Michael St. Gerard, who was Link Larkin in the original movie "Hairspray"). Steve tried to break into the school to change his grades when he realized his slacker grades would get him nowhere near his dream college. Brenda and Dylan broke up when they came to terms with the fact that their infidelity over the summer while Brenda was in Paris meant they had grown apart. Brenda and Brandon had to fight for the only out-of-state tuition their parents could afford. Brandon got a new girlfriend, Nikki, a cute girl who still could not hold a candle to Emily Valentine. The school board snuck legislation past the students that pissed them off - no drinking or being caught drunk at prom, or no graduation. If only Donna had taken them seriously. Looking back, the writing in this season was pretty good.

4. Senior activities. This could be lumped with the previous category, but the final five episodes of the season were why I loved the show so much. Starting with the prom, the beautiful moments where they learned to love the ones they were with, since they weren't all with the ones they loved. Donna got bombed on champagne and nearly puked all over her stunning gown. She got busted, nearly didn't graduate, and heralded one of my favorite chants to come from TV. As anything pertaining to Aaron Spelling's child would be, Donna escaped unscathed, leading to senior breakfast, the wills, and the skit show. The retrospective flashbacks were fun to see, if just for the evolution of Brandon's hair. Then graduation day arrived, a day I defy you to not cry in. To top it off, they all attempt breaking and entering protected land, and deface the Hollywood sign as their legacy. Come on, that's what they did! But I loved it, so I can forgive them. These last couple of weeks were the right way to wrap a season that spoke more than others about the excitement of completing high school, an event that can only happen once, and it should be special.

5. The first year of college. I know I am going through a streak, but this is where I thought the writing on the show was at its peak. A year later, it would start to spiral. In real life, this was the time when Shannen Doherty's personal antics were casting a dark cloud over the production. There were a lot of audience members who graduated at the same time as the cast, and some who would not graduate for another couple of years. This season was inspiring for those who may not have been sure what to do post high school. It showed how exciting college can be - huge new campus, tons of parties, activities, people, social events, Greek life, classes, and opportunities. Most of them dove right in to college life by attending parties, pledging fraternities and sororities, or trying for a spot on the school's paper. It was true to college in one major respect: you are a tiny fish in a huge ocean, and no one cares about you or your success. David learned this the hard way when he almost lost his first semester of college from getting hooked on speed. While those of us who have gone through college can now poke holes in the 90210 version of college freshman year, it was a good way to get kids excited about college.

Clearly, I do not have too many opinions beyond the high school and early college episodes. As I said above, the writing took a tumble. Donna became a holier-than-thou whore who wore belly shirts to convents and got her ass beaten by Ray. Valerie tried to fill Brenda's void and did well, but how do you manage to get through life with these people when they clearly cannot stand being around you, and vice versa? Andrea's growth in life was major by having a baby in real life and on the show, but her judgmental nature finally got the best of me, and I found myself looking forward to the day she would leave the show. Another new character, Claire, was just as judgmental and a bitch to Steve, and I often wondered what about her I am supposed to be interested in. I was so sad when Dylan's wife died (or, was killed by a hit issued by her mobster father, meant for Dylan, who supposedly killed his father too). Kelly became a New York model, despite being too short and stout, then got caught in a fire with a lesbian who was in love with her. Then she joined a cult. See the absurdity start to sink in? It starts to look like they are trying to find anything they haven't really done yet and try to jam it into episodes as two-fers. Eventually Dylan left, and by then I did too. Then when I heard Brandon left, and they still did two or three more seasons, I wondered why. Three original cast members were still there, and they were hanging on by whatever fibers of rope were left. The show ran its course before the end came, and it was not relevant, serious, or interesting anymore.

In the meantime, I have the prime of the series to remind me of why this show was once enjoyable. It has been sixteen long years since the gang graduated from high school, and I have lived those sixteen years with a lot of reflection and education. Maybe it's the hindsight that makes the series seem as good now as it was then, but the place it takes me to makes it worth my DVR space when it airs.

The Lost Art of the Thank You

2009-12-02T20:12:00.000-08:00

I don't have kids of my own yet, so I like to play aunty to the 30-something kids living in this complex. I am the coolest aunty around, too. Every day when the school bus drops them off, they stop by my office to get a piece of candy. This month, there is a daily scavenger hunt, where kids can find a hidden object somewhere in the complex. The first kid who finds it and brings it to the office wins a prize. I have cool prizes too, in that I didn't stretch beyond $5 for any prize but found cool things. In essence, I get to spoil my kids and still send them home at the end of the day.

What I noticed this year is that the kids have no problem coming in, taking candy and prizes, then just being on their way. The words "thank you" never seem to make their way from their vocal chords to their tongues and out of their mouths. I know it is not my job to teach someone else's children their manners, but at the age of seven, you should know that requests are accompanied by 'please,' and fulfillments are accompanied by 'thank you.' I am surprised I am not hearing this from these kids. I did bring it up to them once. I was having a particularly foul day and decided I would take the candy away if the kids weren't going to show me any appreciation for what I am giving them. When I asked them why they never thanked me for the candy, they all said, "I say thank you!" Of course I know who typically does and who does not. Maybe they did not realize they weren't saying it, or they were being kids and did not think anything of it until it was brought to their attention. Today, some kids say it daily, while others are too distracted by being home from school to spare the milli-second to say thank you.

Perhaps thanking people for giving them things is also lacking because kids are developing a sense of entitlement instead of gratitude. It is not uncommon for me to be out of my office when the kids come home, and they miss their candy for the day. I cannot tell you how many kids have told me they think they deserve two pieces of candy that day because they did not get any candy the day before. That's right, DESERVE. What, pray tell, did these kids do to deserve even one piece? At what point was the candy a payment for gracing me with their presence, rather than a token of my appreciation to them? Why am I a bad guy because my job took priority over their candy? Is that shafted feeling why they will not thank me for the gift of candy?

Again, I am not responsible for teaching them manners. However, I learned young that "please" and "thank you" are three of the most important words I will ever use in my life. These words have been the difference between good and bad service, good and bad impressions, and receiving versus losing things. I understand that I am not entitled to anything, and I need to be appreciative of the things I receive. Of course, there were moments in my life when my gratitude was lacking, but I always feel like I am being rude if I don't say "please" or "thank you." I hope that feeling comes to fruition to these kids sooner rather than later. If I am bothered this much by gratitude over candy, I can only imagine how others feel when they are not appreciated for giving much more.

Are books ruining movies?

2009-12-01T20:40:00.001-08:00

By now, everyone and their mothers has seen the new Twilight film, "New Moon." I've seen it. In fact, I joke that I am a hater, therefore I saw it twice. I have also read the books, as have millions of people who are not quite sure what good writing is anymore. If you know me, then you know my take on the books: slow, bad and choppy writing, and in the case of "Breaking Dawn," hours of my life I will never get back. Yes, I think "Breaking Dawn" was one of the WORST books I have ever read. But I digress...

One thing that always happens when books are made into movies is the inevitable comparison between the film and the movie. Most people are die-hards for the book version of a story. They want a certain scene to be featured, or a certain character to get more screen time. Often times, the scene in the film differs so greatly from the scene they imagined while reading the book that they cannot bring themselves to accept the director's vision. Sometimes audiences give the benefit of the doubt to the movie's director, knowing a novel of more than 150 pages will probably not have every aspect of the book shown in the film. Others are not so forgiving. They simply cannot accept that the film did not include enough of what they wanted from the book.

The problem I have is with the latter group. In "New Moon," so many people were walking out of the theater, thinking, "(insert movie scene here) was not in the book!" or "I can't believe they didn't talk about (insert book moment here)." It was impossible for them to watch a movie without comparing it to the book. From where I sat (and I have sat in this seat in many film adaptations), these people were not going to be satisfied with the final film result anyway. Don't get me wrong - the screaming in the theater when the teenage boy and the skinny Brit took the screen were distracting enough. But that's not the story they're throwing panties at the screen for; it's the actors. As for the story, they are already thinking of what was in the book that was not in the film. In this movie, that includes the omission of the introduction of imprinting and Carlisle's backstory not as flushed out, and the inclusion of the fight between Edward and Felix, a fight people complain was not in the book in the first place. Before the next scene of the film has begun, book die-hards are already casting judgments in their minds as to how true to the book the previous scene was.

As far as I am concerned, those who are so die-hard for the books have already decided on some subconscious level that they are not going to enjoy the movie, even if they do on the surface. They just cannot get fully absorbed into the movie if they are thinking about the book. However much they enjoyed the book, the movie has been ruined for them. They cannot respect the director's vision or the actors' interpretation.

The bottom line is that no matter what any book says, the film has to be an interpretation of the material in the book, not a literal translation. Unless the writer of the book becomes the writer of the script and the director of the film, the writer's imagination will not be fully realized, no matter what. The film has to be its own story. It has to take the book's story, theme, characters, and biggest moments and re-create them for the screen. Naturally, that means not everything will be included. Not all of the most memorable or touching moments from a book are right for a film. Not all of a character's backstory or internal thoughts can be told in a movie; not only is it time-consuming, it's boring to film audiences. A director has to make the decision to either enhance or omit a scene if it makes for a better film. A book can take umpteen pages to tell a story, whereas a film has 120 pages, give or take, to tell a story. A book can tell, but a film has to show.

For those who want to remain loyal to the books, that's fine. There are several books that I have enjoyed so much more than the film version, mostly because I felt as if the film didn't get the heart and soul of the book. Other times, I have fallen in love with a film adaptation so much that the book only makes me want to watch the movie again. Regardless, I should never have to read a book before going to see a movie. I should not have to do my homework on what the character's are supposed to be feeling or where they came from, or what a scene was supposed to be like. I am only concerned with the story the director chose to tell. If it's not on the screen, I don't care. If the director chose to include, enhance, or omit a piece of information, I am only concerned with how that makes me feel in the context of the film. I don't want to know who my characters are and where they came from before the previews end. I want the director to give that information to me. I want to feel what they feel in the moment without already knowing where it will go next.

As long as popular books are being made into films, the books will ruin the movies for the fans. Fans will still go to the theaters, have their 2-hour visceral experiences, and head to the nearest bar or Starbucks to talk about how "they can't believe that scene wasn't in the movie!" And when someone tells them they didn't like the movie or didn't understand something, they will simply say, "well, if you had read the book, you would know." Books are wonderful, but they are ruining movies.