Welcome to the never-ending stream of movies

January 1st, 2008 • chatter

Almost two weeks ago I was staring at my overfilled DVD rack and began to realize I have way too many movies. I’ve got too many movies that are still in their original plastic. The capacity was definitely strained by the 28 or so movies that my girlfriend got me for Yule, I really had to rearrange quite a few things to get them all to fit. Realizing that I have about 10 movies and a few TV series I’ve never watched, I decided that I was going to watch every DVD I own in 2008. When tonight rolled around, I realized my own folly: indecision.

I started scanning the rack a few days ago and tried to devise the best way to watch all these movies and TV shows in a year, I just decided to start at the upper left and watch hopefully watch everything. Then I started seeing that I’d blow through all my regular box office movies in a month or so, horror movies would take nearly 3 months, TV shows will probably take a good 4 months and I didn’t even try to figure out how long the foreign movies and anime would take to watch given their extreme length. How the hell did I think I’d fit this all into a single year and still have time to do other things?

Then, again, it’s down to choice. I could watch all my cheesy horror movies and enjoy them, or watch the anime I’ve been meaning to finish for years like Berserk or Macross Saga. Tonight’s choice of movie took almost 20 minutes and I wasn’t even picking, I left Jess do that. After back and forth while I’m mulling over delicious steaks, I just pick out American Psycho. It’s a great choice for eating a big bleeding steak. Much like eating a steak during Cannibal Holocaust was a great choice. Both are great movies for very different and similar reasons.

Jess enjoyed American Psycho and thoroughly enjoyed the dark satire of yuppie culture, I relished in the dementia of the first Christian Bale role I ever really enjoyed, which he definitely enhanced in The Machinist after he played Batman. If tonight’s movie took 20 minutes to find, how the hell am I going to do this for the next 11 months and 30 days?

A supreme exercise in futility

January 1st, 2008 • chatter

So the new year is here and many heads hung low today, no doubt due to capacious celebrating the flip of the calendar. My celebration included much of the same but in less copious amounts and with my dearest of friends. I was interviewed by a friend on what my jobs in the IT/Computer Science field have taught me and the value of staying in academia. Our ever quiet mutual friend LogosX too lent his bountiful knowledge to a 45 minute interview of why most careers suck and how enriching being a college professor can be. The only problem is none of us are professors, yet, although the interviewer is a teacher at Kaplan and does tend to lecture at FAU. When the interview and ensuing discussion is up, I shall link.

We spent the night doing what most people around the world were doing: drinking various alcohols, singing absurd songs, and reveling in the conversations. We saw fireworks, drank champagne, and I watched the Auburn-Clemson bowl game off and on through the night while trying to call people and send text messages. But one thing none of us did was make any New Year’s resolutions. Why not? Most of us had the same answer that we never hold to them and think it’s a silly past time. While I agree wholeheartedly, and haven’t made a resolution in nearly a decade, I can see why people make them. It’s a first hand experience in futility, for the most part. People want to feel self-empowered, like they can declare their entire year will be different and stick to their guns, all the while pounding down beers or emptying expensive flutes of bubbly. Resolutions make people feel like they have self control even though they’re indulging in excess, self control be damned. Self-empowerment feels good, it gives you gestalt, makes you feel like you know what the hell you’re doing. That 9th beer you had makes you feel like a superhero too but it’s not empowering at all. And this is why it’s a futile exercise. Most people know that their resolutions are just something to say to fit in; fitting in can make one feel empowered and in control.

I’m not against making resolutions but I don’t know why people do it year after year of failing to fulfill the last ones. How many times have you heard your friend(s) say they’re going to drop those extra pounds and get in shape only to gain a few extra pounds and have that shape turn into round? Or they’re going to get their finances in order and make a ton of money or win the lottery? It’s as if the majority of people like to fail so they can resolve to fix themselves, only to inevitably fail again. Why set yourself up for disappointment or failure? Just seems to painful to me. Granted there’s a percentage of the population who can make reasonable resolutions and stick to them but I’ve yet to see them as the majority. We’re all a bunch of sadists who just have to forever fix ourselves.

Resolutions bring to mind a great quote I heard years ago, I can’t even remember the source but I swear it was Van Wilder

Worrying is like a rocking chair. It’s something fun to do for a while but it doesn’t get you anywhere.

So why should a stick-to-your-guns-change-myself-forever resolution be any different if you keep making them and fail?