For All The Unheard

Ocean Man

I once listened to an interview with Loren Bouchard, creator of “Bob’s Burgers” and like half a dozen other cartoons that feature H. Jon Benjamin. Loren told a story about working with Jon and how he’ll hold the writers to a high standard. Jon will question and argue with the writers if he feels there is a line the character wouldn’t say. If he felt it didn’t fit the character or if the line was just completely unnecessary to the scene. Even going so far as adding, “Why would I say that,” to the recording if he was still forced to record a line he didn’t fully agree with. I bring this up because I found myself using the phrase, “Why would I say that,” often while watching the new DCEU movie “Aquaman.” Continue reading “Ocean Man”

Kids and Heroes

I was once asked by a friend of mine who is a semi-professional question asker, especially when it comes to one’s chosen career, why I have opted to go the route of special education rather than general education. Because I’m awkward and bad at answering questions, even more so when it’s a non-wrestling query while we were watching wrestling, I fumbled through some vague answer ultimately resulting in, “I’m not sure.”

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All The Small Things

Today is the official national day of thanks. What a great day. Spend time with loved ones, eat a bunch of great food, and take time to appreciate all we are lucky enough to have. Being grateful is one of the best feelings I experience. But you probably picked up on that.

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This Is Not The End

Ninety three. That’s the number of good things I experienced over the past month. Actually I experienced more, that’s just how many I made a lasting note of. I hadn’t really considered the number until I sat down to write this. It feels like a high number. It makes me feel really good. Taking note of three good things each day has been a wonderful thing to do and a great way to end my day. Continue reading “This Is Not The End”

The Essentials: Streetcore

In “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World” with impending doom, Keira Knightly’s character grabs several records before fleeing her home with the hopes of listening to them one last time. The Essentials is an ongoing series about the ten, in no particular order, albums I would grab in such a similar situation.

The first night I heard “Streetcore” from Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros is one of my favorite nights. I was crawling through a festival way out west. No, wait, that wasn’t it. It was college. I was with some of my most favorite people. We were drinking mainly whiskey. We had just poorly sung along with Reel Big Fish’s cover of “Take On Me,” a rendition that set the neighborhood dogs into a barking frenzy. Falsetto is hard. It was time to let the night wind down and give the dogs a break. We traded the wacky ska antics of the RBF and put on the calming mellow sounds of Joe Strummer and Mecaleros. The warm night, the chilled whiskey, the good friends, and awesome tunes can always make for a wonderful night.

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Seek Advice Elsewhere

I had a day off of school so they could do some testing on the students. So I obviously took full advantage and used my extra day in the best way possible, by watching reruns of Home Improvement. I really didn’t mean to. Tim Allen reminds me of my dad, so I turned it on for background noise and next thing I know I’m five episodes deep in grunts and mild destruction.

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That’s Life

“Life is weird.” I’ve been hearing this quite a bit lately, mostly in my own head, but from a few other places too. But is life weird, really? Continue reading “That’s Life”

Teenage Dirtbag

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There’s a new, I guess we’ll call it a game, going around on Facebook where you list 10 albums from your teenage years. Because I can’t just make a list about music that is important to me without yammering on, I have brought it here to add more information about my experience with each album. For most of the years before becoming a teenager, my music was influenced by what my older cousin told me I should listen to. Which was a bunch of gansta rap then heavy metal. But during the teen years I saw him less and discovered punk rock. So this list is comprised almost entirely of punk rock, but there is one ska album and of albums, just to cover all the bases. I’ve also decided to put these in kind of a chronological order.

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Too Close To See

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I talked earlier this year about some mental health problems I was having. I want to let you know I am doing better. Things aren’t perfect, but mostly I wanted to take charge of my own life. I’m in a good place at the moment, mostly. 2016 is a pretty jacked up year, so I’m doing the best I can. Part of what’s keeping me in the good place is remembering and making notes of my blessings, and since it’s Thanksgiving, I want to talk about a few of these, and some of the little things I do that make huge impacts on my life and well-being.

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Happy Friday: Dying Degree

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The new Ben Affleck Batman movie reveled its title this week and people of the internet are not happy. But what else is new? I’m really starting to believe people just want to complain about every move the DCEU makes. There’s nothing wrong with the name The Batman. There was a Batman cartoon that ran for 5 seasons with that title. I prefer the shorter, more succinct titles. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a mouthful of unnecessary nonsense. Batman and The Dark Knight are the best titles you could have used, so everything else is a step down anyway. I’m also a fan of not using sub-titles, the exceptions being rhymes or whatever you call that thing that Die Harder did. The name’s fine, and I look forward to The Batman. Now on with The Happy Friday.

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