2013: A Lookback (or "Top 10 Things That Happened To Me This Year")

Well, it's getting to be that time of year again…no, not the holiday season, but rather the time of season that we look back at everything that happened in the past year. Be is major news events to everyday life occurrences, everyone tries to relive and reflect on 2013 right before it becomes 2014.

Yes, there's still quite a few days left and that for many people and how Christmas will turn out will dramatically change their view of the year, still, its gives me a weird giddy kind of feeling to see all the lists and big events through-out the past year, be it top 10 movie lists, top 10 songs list, a list of everybody famous who've died. Lists are fun, and December brings you more lists than any month. They're like early Christmas gifts in and of themselves.

So I thought since we've only got so many days left of 2013, everyone else is doing it, and I'll be on vacation at the end of the year(which means I probably will be doing something "fun" instead of typing lists for an internet blog), I decided to make my Top 10 "Things That Happened To Me List". 

2013 was a solid year for me. It was definitely a big improvement over 2012. It wasn't perfect, there were some disappointments, and not everything I wanted to do I did in 2013. An outsider would probably think my year was a big nothing; they'd probably be right, but that's fine by me as I'm not too fond of a life that's too busy anyway. 2014 definitely will be a huge change from what I'm sensing. I don't want to go into details now, but I expect the "Top 10 Things That Happened To Me in 2014" will be bigger and more exciting. But that's then, this is now.

10. We said goodbye to a lot of people who died this year. Everyone from Hollywood icons like Annette Funicello and Peter O'Toole to world leaders like Margaret Thatcher and Nelson Mandela. Only two deaths really made a big impact on me personally though: Roger Ebert, whom I considered a huge influence, and inspired me to see a lot of movies I might otherwise never had checked out as well as just communicate my ideas in general. I can remember seeing him on tv along with Gene Siskel as a kid years ago. Of course, I continued to watch him on tv all the way up to his last moments with Richard Roeper. Thanks to the internet, I not only got to check out his written reviews and watch/rewatch episodes of the tv show  I even got to connect with Ebert directly a couple times. Still getting used to the fact his reviews of all the new movies aren't here and will never come. The other death that really impacted me was Ray Manzerick. The Doors were really my introduction to "music" that wasn't just from the movies or awful pop-junk of the time that everyone else was listening to. To this day, The Doors are my favorite band. There are rumors Robby Krieger and John Densmore will team up for a tribute concert, unfortunately, it won't be the same without Ray. The Doors may have lost its face when it lost Morrison, but it lost its heart with Manzarek.

Also want to give a shout-out to Jonathan Winters and Huell Howser, both of whom I gained a newfound appreciation looking back at their lives.

9. Increased my autograph collection, by adding Don Rickles, Dick Van Dyke, June Foray, Bill Farmer, Margaret Kerry and Tom Wilson(more on those last three later).

8. Left my shitty job once and for all. Of course, that just left me unemployed, but I'm working on a couple things that will hopefully fix that. 

7. Visited Las Vegas: Very fun. Got to stay at the Wynn, which to date is the nicest hotel I've ever stayed at(how many times can you claim you've been to a bathroom that comes with its own television?). I even got to win a little bit of money! Didn't get to see any shows unfortunately, but that could easily happen next trip.

6. Played DuckTales: Remastered. Great game. Never got to play the original NES game, but this was a great trip back to childhood regardless. In fact, it temporally got me back into playing video-games as it inspired me to enter the Grand Theft Auto fad(which really is just ok at best). Fitting I would go back to playing video-games right when all the companies are releasing the next generation of systems.

5. Rediscovered my love for Back to the Future: Ok, I didn't really ever "lose" my love for it, I just saw the movies, especially the first one, too many times and grew tired of them. But from finally getting the movies on Blu-Ray, seeing Tom Wilson(Biff Tanen) do stand-up, getting the Delorean lego set, seeing the props from the movie in person and seeing the first film on the big scream, the only way I see 2015 topping this year is if they finally release those damn hooverboards. 

4. Started A Blog: Hey, it's something I was always intrigued in doing, and now I finally got around to doing it. You wouldn't be reading this list without it(of course, chances are you're just me rereading your pathetic ramblings).

3. Watched The Finale Season of Breaking Bad. A bit sad to say goodbye to the greatest television show of all time, but it ended well. It's seriously impossible to overrate this show. While I didn't see it right when it first aired, I'm grateful I got to see it while it was new. It's the closest equivalent I'll ever get to seeing Twin Peaks of The Twilight Zone on their original airing date. Eager for Better Call Saul to come out next year.

2. I finally got to complete my internship. It was basically for my local tv station where I worked hard to bring Colorado television programs no one living in the state will bother to rewatch and remember, let alone people across the world. Still, I put it at #2 only because it could potential lead to something that is exciting and worthwhile in life.

1. I finally achieved one of my biggest dreams: went to the D23 Expo. Well, it was sort of linked with "going to Comic Con" which I still haven't done, but I did finally get a big trip and see what it truly means to be a "fan" of something. Among the highlights were that I got to meet heros like Marty Sklar, Dave Smith, Bill Farmer and Margaret Kerry(and get photos/autographs), hear some of my other heros like Bob Gurr, Alice Davis and Xavier Antencio speak, see Richard Sherman and Alan Menken play the music of my childhood, watch John Goodman, Bill Crystal, Tony Baxter and Glenn Keane accept Disney Legends awards as well as to see them posthumously include Ed Wynn, Dick Clark, Collin Campbell and Steve Jobs(John Lasseter accepted on Jobs' behalf and gave a particularly emotional speech), saw clips of several movies before they come out and of course bought a lot of Disney merchandise. Even got to meet podcasters I've been listening to for a while. There were rumors that this would be the last expo, but Bob Iger confirmed at the expo that there would one be in 2015, which I might attend again. Maybe then I'll get to spend even more time chatting and hanging out with fellow fans.

Review: Frozen

Even with the internet helping me become an expert on just about everyone and everything, I know very little about Hans Christen Anderson. I just never bothered to look much information on him or seek out any of his classic works. So I have no real knowledge of "The Snow Queen", his classic story that has become that basis for Disney 53rd and most recent "Animated Classic" Frozen. This is actually a story Disney considered adapting back when Walt Disney was still alive, but along with several other projects got shelved. Amazing its taken 2013 to finally see it come to the big screen, not just from Disney, but from any US studio.

 Seeing how Disney introduced me(and I'm sure a large majority of young generations) to The Little Mermaid and The Ugly Duckling, it's fitting they would be the ones to introduce me to The Snow Queen(I was read "The Little Match Girl" when I was young, so I can't claim Disney introduced me to that Anderson story).I don't have to look it up to tell you it's not faithful; this is the same company in which its founder adapted The Jungle Book by advising his crew to avoid reading the Rudyard Kipling story, so its pretty safe to judge Frozen like an original story.

If you follow this movie at all, you probably know the film synopsis, so I won't repeat it here. You also probably have heard the rave reviews this has been receiving. It currently has an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, with those positive reviews being pretty enthusiastic. The one critic's quote Disney has been repeating a lot in the ads it "The Best Disney Animated Film Since The Lion King". Following Tangled, Winnie The Pooh and Wreck-It-Ralph, Disney's Animation Department seems to have officially recovered from the uneven 2000s, and recovered their long-held spot as the greatest and most powerful animation studio(we'll ignore Pixar for now which is owned by Disney anyway).

I try to keep expectations reasonable regardless of the movie, but for the past few days I couldn't help but be eager to check out Frozen. I'm always intrigued at the latest animated Disney movie and the glowing reviews from critics and fans alike meant I had to see it in theaters, especially since 2013 has been pretty lackluster one for cinema. 

While the film has it moments, it felt lacking, especially following the excellent Wreck-It-Ralph. One reason could be its getting tiring to see Disney push the princess angle. Disney has had to battle with the stigma of being "just for kids" for a while now, but in recent years they've gotten a reputation of being for girls, which is odd when looking at their entire film library, the vast majority of them are either about talking animals or male-centered stories like Pinocchio or Peter Pan. We have Disney's marketing and the billions of crappy Princess merchandise likely to thank for that. Disney's hopes to appeal to young males was likely the huge motivational factor of the purchasing of Marvel and Lucasfilm(now the Disney stores can have a variety of boy toys). Disney also changed its marketing to appeal to young boys. Instead of "Snow Queen" this film is now "Frozen"; they did the same with changing "Rapunzel" to "Tangled" 3 years prior. 

Frozen of course is a very "modern" Disney movie, heck it's probably better labeled a "post-modern" Disney as even LIttle Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast seem of the past in comparison. Gone are the days of a princess falling in love at first sight or having a relationship with a man be the end all be all of a woman's life. However, I felt Tangled approached this a lot better than Frozen, largely because Rapunzel got a lot more focus whereas Frozen is split between being about Elsa(The Snow Queen) and her little sister Anna. Elsa is the more interesting character because she's restraint from everyone, even herself, thus a romance is never even considered for her, but most of the movie follows Anna, and Kristoff, who predictably becomes a love-interest. I couldn't help but  feel the sister relationship should've been explored even more, as without giving film away, something happens in the film that one isn't sure is particularly earned. 

Another problem is the music. I agree with Greg of "The Last Disney Blog Ever" who claims this film's best moments are when the characters don't break into song. Another thing the trailers didn't promote was that this was a full-fledge musical, similar to the Menken films, most recent Disney films only tipped the fine-line between "musical" and "non-musical". I have no problems with musicals as long as the music is good. Frozen is a bit of a mixed-bag. "Let It Go" is a great song that feels destined to be a classic(it's already a hit at Disney's World Of Color), "In Summer" is also a delightful song, feeling similar to songs like "Under the Sea" or "Hakuna Matata", making Olaf my favorite character of the film. The others? "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" is memorable because that line is repeated over and over again, but the song doesn't stick out as something particularly special. The other songs I couldn't even hum you the melody or quote any lyrics. Of course it can be tricky to know which songs will be memorable or not unless you hear them 3 or 4 times, so maybe I need to give them time. I sort of felt something similar about Tangled, only to have the soundtrack more or less grow on me on repeat listens. But in this case, I felt a couple of songs could've been cut out(does anyone out there like the troll song?) which doesn't really speak much of them in general.

The problem I feel is Robert Lopez and Kristen Lopez were the songwriters. Disney clearly hopes these two can follow the line of great Disney songwriters of the Sherman Brothers and Alan Menken/Howard Ashman. While there's no denying Lopez is a big talent(he did Avenue Q/Book Of Mormon), I feel when he's not writing satire he's rather slight. Now slight worked perfectly for Winnie The Pooh, but for Frozen, seeing the wide amount of emotions expressed through-out, the songs felt lacking. I'd be surprised if a melody from this movie played at the entrance of Disneyland that I(or the majority) would be able to distinguish it.

I guess my overall feeling of the movie is simply the sum of its parts worked more than the whole did. It felt largely uneven, and the parts that did work felt too similar to the films of the past. That's why I'm reluctant to claim that it's Disney's "return to form" or make bold statements like "Best since The Lion King"  as unlike The Lion King or Aladdin or even Nightmare Before Christmas, I feel this film doesn't add anything truly new or significant to the Disney brand. Albert  Gutierrez of FromScreenToTheme.com points out that Frozen is a tribute to all things Disney and coincidently came out during the 90th anniversary of the Walt Disney Studios. Hopefully when we get to the 100th Anniversary, Disney releases something truly extraordinary and special.

On a side-note, its pains me to write the Disney's Get a Hose is an even bigger disappointment. It starts off great, being retro of the classic black-and-white Mickey cartoons of the 1920s-1930s, but then the films 'cheats', probably out of fear that young generations are too ignorant enough to respond to a 7-minute black-and-white cartoon. A missed opportunity for something charmingly old-fashioned. I'm sure now that I know what to expect I'll like it better on repeat viewings, unfortunately, without giving the twist away, this short really only works on the big-screen as if you were to see this on your home tv or, god-forbid, your phone, the "effect" is lost. I'm sure it'll look amazing in 3D, but unsure that I really want to pay extra to rewatch Frozen in 3D just for the short.

Breaking Mediums...

With The Lone Ranger being one of this year's biggest flops and R.I.P.D having experienced the same sort of disappointment this weekend, it just proves something that myself and many others out there have known for a while: that the sense of excitement there used to be for the movies isn't there anymore and that high quality entertainment has simply moved to the form of television. Lone Ranger and R.I.P.D. were two of the more exciting looking summer blockbusters as they were two of the only mainstream movies this year that weren't sequels or superhero movies(the latter has truly gone to the point of being tedious), the fact neither succeeded to make anywhere near their big budget proves there's no hope for mainstream cinema of going back to the 1980s when new and exciting stories were  made into big hits like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Ghostbusters, Back To The Future or Who Framed Roger Rabbit as a start. Heck, even Pacific Rim, Guillermo Del Toro's latest, which received favorable reviews, looks destined to fail earning it's $190 million budget.

Yes, when you look to independent cinema there are some gems to be found, and there will be some better films when winter comes, but when I look this past year and the titles expected to come out, the one movie I have been anticipating the entire year more than anything else isn't even a movie at all, but the final season of Breaking Bad. 

Going through an entire season of Breaking Bad is the equivalent of attending a top-notch film festival, every episode is exciting and unpredictable(during the beginning of most episodes, you wonder if you've got the right show or at least the right episode). Its different in the best possible way. There's never a dull or unoriginal moment.

Visually speaking, an episode of Breaking Bad is as beautiful as any movie that's been released in the past 13 years. The New Mexico settings make the very lush cinematography that stands out. The camera angles, composition, color, lighting, reflections, editing are all topnotch, feeling more like either big-budget or avant-garde filmmaking than television. Another thing to notice(which you only will if you're in filmmaking) is the hardest thing to accomplish in filmmaking is to create a memorable or iconic shot where there isn't any people in the shot. Only the truly gifted auteurs are capable of pulling it off. Breaking Bad accomplishes this several times. And I haven't even gotten around to talking about it's story and characters!

If film is the art-form of the 20th century, than tv is without question the art-form of the 21st century if these first 13 years are indication. Yes, television had a well felt presence in the 20th century, but through-out most of it television was largely being wasted on formulaic sitcoms about middle-American families. Most shows were like Three's Company, in which after some giggles, you completed disposed of it a year after you had seen it, with the show having no real lasting impact on you. That changed in 1990, when David Lynch created Twin Peaks. For the first time, television showed potential as an art-form to be taken seriously. When The Sopranos came in 1999, it showed the world that with cable and the lack of restrictions of broadcast tv, the possibilities were endless.

Now, 13 years later, even cinephiles are admitting to anticipating episodes of a new show than they are any new movie. That's certainly my case. Rarely does a day go by where I don't think about a certain moment from Breaking Bad, even feeling like I'm one of the characters living one of the episodes(usually I'm relating to Mike). Few movies nowadays are capable of receiving that level of enthusiasm from me. Who cares what Tony Stark is up too when I have to find out what the fate is for our favorite methcook, Walter White. I have at least 3 or 4 theories about what will happen in these last 8 episodes, but I'm not confident any of them will pan out accordingly. I seriously have no idea how it'll turn out, something you can't claim for most movies these days.

Aug 11th, the season premiere now, less than a month away, and its seriously tied with my trip to CA as the anticipated event of the year for me. If you're one who still hasn't seen a single episode of Breaking Bad, you owe it to yourself to at least check out the pilot while there's new episodes left to air. As hard as it is for the David Lynch fan in me to admit, but it has passed Twin Peaks as television's finest hour. It's certainly deserves to be on any serious list of the top 5 greatest television programs in existence. Walter White will be sure to go down with television characters as Hamlet has with stage characters, Phil Marlowe has with literature characters, Michael Corleone has with film characters etc. 

Instead of "seeing you in the movies" I'll be seeing you on the internet having just watched the latest episode.

Monsters University

Earlier today I saw Monster's University. I went in reluctantly, expecting a lower tier Pixar movie, largely because of the mixed reviews. To my surprise,  I really enjoyed it.

I put it just a notch below Monster's Inc. but honestly, it was closer to the quality of the original that I had anticipated. Yeah, there weren't as many laugh-out-loud moments as the original, but there were still a lot of clever and witty moments that had me smiling. I smiled through-out the majority of this movie in fact, to the point I really left the theater in a really good mood, which is the feeling Pixar often manages to enforce. I agree with Aaron Wallace that its better than the Cars movies and Brave, but I actually enjoyed it more than a lot of the Pixar films that many claim are Pixar's best such as Finding Nemo, Wall-E and Up. In fact, the only real flaw I could find was its predictability, but since children are a big target, its not like they'll notice the similarities to Animal House.

I don't know if it'll hold up as well on repeat viewings as Monster's Inc. But for a prequel(which I was grateful for it being rather than a sequel so Boo's fate can be left ambiguous) it worked better than most. There really isn't anything about Monster's Inc. that feels diminished or fallible with this movie's existence, unless you count the original teaser from 2000.

Speaking of the original, I'm still trying to make my brain accept the fact that its been 12 years since the original Monster's Inc. instead of 5. I could accept Toy Story 3 having been released 11 years since Toy Story 2, but Monster's University being released 12 years since Monster's Inc. is just surreal.

I can still remember seeing the original Monster's Inc. in theaters on November 2nd, 2001. It was at the AMC theaters at the Woodland Hills mall in CA. My Mom used discount tickets we had from Ralphs. The screening was upstairs and when we went into the screening, the trailer for Return to Neverland was playing. Toy Story was still just about my favorite movie of all time, so I of course was ecstatic for this movie, and it did not disappoint. Afterwards, we went to the Disney store which had just opened from remodeling. I got a free Mike and Sully tattoo that lasted 4 days, as well as mouse-shaped lollipops. Monster's Inc. was pretty much all I thought about for a week (Even during the Harry Potter craze, Pixar managed to release a hilarious MI trailer before the first Potter movie so as to prevent the box office from dropping too low during the 2nd week) It still remains one of the most pleasant movie-going experiences in my life.

AFI Lifetime Achievement Award To Mel Brooks...

On Feburary 26, 1973, the American Film Institute(AFI, a non-profit organization created in 1967) established the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award. The first recipient was auteur John Ford. The gala dinner was televised on March 31st, 1971 on CBS. Stars from John Wayne to Jimmy Stewart attended. The award was even presented none other by the President of the United States, Richard Nixon. Due to Ford's age, he was helped to the stage by movie star and AFI president Charlton Heston.

The primary agenda of the televised ceremony was to fundraise money for the AFI. They even took time during the ceremony to solicit for donations. But looking beyond that, it was very easy to see the appeal for audiences. For one, aside from the Academy Awards, it was only way to see so many celebrities in one place. Secondly, the ceremony in and of itself was a great way to educate the masses. The presenters would list and discuss all of the movies the recipient was a part of, which would allow clips of the various movies to be shown. Keep in mind, this was before the days of not only internet streaming, Blu-Rays and DVDs, but even VHSs and cable television, so this was a great way to introduce and encourage people to check out titles people may never have heard of at their local theaters or to look out for a certain film to come on television.

Nowadays, thanks to DVDs, Blu-Rays and internet-streaming, there's a good chance most people have seen the majority of films the recipients have been apart of, let alone heard of all of them, so the event really isn't all that special as it used to be(as can be demonstrated by the fact that ceremonies now broadcast on cable instead of network television like they used to) and the honor itself isn't seen by many people as anything other than another Hall Of Fame for celebrities of the film world to win. Still, the ceremony is an annual event that keeps on going largely because its a fun way to indulge in photo ops as well as a fun way to showcase interviews, montages and video-clips to audiences across the world. Not to mention allows for some unexpected surprises, such as William Shatner's toast/roast of George Lucas and Star Wars. For the record, the previous recipients have been:

1973: John Ford                    2002: Tom Hanks
1974: James Cagney             2003 Robert Deniro 
1975: Orson Welles              2004: Meryl Streep
1976: William Wyler            2005: George Lucas
1977: Bette Davies               2006: Sean Connery 
1978: Henry Fonda              2007: Al Pacino     
1979: Alfred Hitchcock       2008: Warren Beatty
1980: James Stewart            2009: Michael Douglas 
1981: Fred Astaire              2010: Mike Nichols
1982: Frank Capra             2011: Morgan Freeman       
1983: John Huston            2012: Shirley MacLaine   
1984: Lillian Gish              
1985: Gene Kelly                
1986: Billy Wilder            
1987: Barbara Stanwyck    
1988: Jack Lemmon          
1989: Gregory Peck      
1990: David Lean        
1991: Kirk Douglas      
1992: Sidney Poitier    
1993:  Elizabeth Taylor
1994: Jack Nicholson
1995: Steven Spielberg
1996: Clint Eastwood
1997: Martin Scorsese
1998: Robert Wise
1999: Dustin Hoffman
2000: Harrison Ford
2001: Barbra Streisand

This year's recipient was the king of spoofs, Mel Brooks. Definitely a deserving recipient(more than any in 5 years I'd say). The ceremony itself was fine, the only problem is this: Mel Brooks is 86(87 later this month) which means that unfortunately, many of his actors, such as Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, Kenneth Mars, Peter Boyle, Dom DeLuise among several others have since passed. It just isn't the same to hear Conan O'Brien or Jimmy Kimmel explaining Brook's influence on them than to see casts reunite to share stories and memories. Even Robert DeNiro got up and made fun of the fact he was there despite having no real connection to Brooks.

Brooks' contemporaries weren't completely absent however. Carl Reiner, Brook's 2000 Year Old Man partner and BFF, talked a bit about their time as writers on the Sid Caesar Show, as well deliver and one of the shows funnier one-liners. Cloris Leachman toasted Mel exclaiming that they have to face the the fact "we're old now, though not quite up there to Carl", even Gene Wilder made a rare post-retirement appearance(though only through a recorded message, strange he couldn't manage showing up while his Young Frankenstein co-star Teri Garr could in-spite of having multiple sclerosis) to give a more sentimental speech.

Some other highlights included interviews with Brooks himself describing his childhood from his short mother to his early memories of watching the films of Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, interviews with Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas discussing Brooks' ability to satirize different genres, Woody Allen's take on Mel Brooks, even David Lynch got to appear on stage to thank Brooks for letting him direct The Elephant Man which Brooks produced, as well as David showing Brooks the suit that Lynch wore everyday while shooting The Elephant Man. The mere fact that Brooks was the one that pushed Lynch's career to continue after Eraserhead is reason alone Brooks deserves this honor. In fact its probably his greatest achievement.

Brooks accepted the award from Martin Scorsese. While accepting, he noted its a tradition for recipients of this award to come to next year's ceremony to introduce that year's recipient, so Brooks hilariously introduced the recipient right there and then noted he didn't "have to bother coming back next year with this tuxedo and tie". It was very easy to see Mel is as sharp and lively as he's ever been. It made you wish Brooks would continue to make at least one more film, but those days seem to be behind him now, even though Spaceballs 2: The Search For More Money would be more timely now as ever.

While the tribute overall brought back many great memories, it made you a bit depressed that there really is no modern-day Mel Brooks. While there are some people capable of Brook's fearlessness, such as Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Brook's over-the-top wit seems to be a lost art. Heck, no one seems capable of making a funny spoof anymore. Even the once mighty Zucker-Abrahms-Zucker have fallen dramatically since their heyday of Airplane and Naked Gun(Scary Movie 5 was released earlier this year with zero fanfare).

The good news in all of this, however, is that we always have Mel Brook's films preserved to rewatch and relive.

King Of The Wild Firetier..

My 2nd blogpost and I'm already back to the subject of Colorado sucking. I was hopeful my 2nd entry would instead be a movie review or dedicated to the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award to Mel Brooks, which will air this Saturday on TNT, but alas...

In case you haven't heard the news, Black Forest of Colorado Springs is having wildfires. 92 houses are gone, many more trees have burned, even the Royal Gorge has caught fire.

My parents' house is near the edge of Black Forest. You can see smoke from a distance in the back-yard, but its not like you can breathe in the smoke, or that its raining ashes or that our house has been evacuated, either voluntary or mandatory.

We talked to a source who confirmed the fire coming close enough for all of us to be evacuated is extremely doubtful. Nevertheless, we have a box of our birth certificates, social security cards, bonds, other important papers as well as photos in case an emergency happened.

Its been only one year since our last forest fire, up in Waldo Canyon. My mom's friend who lived in that area stayed at our house until the fire cleared. When being to told to evacuate, she jam-packed her car with clothes, school supplies(she worked as a teacher) family photos, books, plants, food, basically if she could fit it in her car she took it.

It neve occurred to me watching her unload her stuff that I would be at risk at being in the same position just a year late, let alone wonder what bare essentials I would take.

So what exactly would I take if worse came to worse? I would take my Walt Disney Classic Collection, Callie(my movie star), my ever-growing autograph collection, my family videos, my computer, my iPad...and to my surprise that's really it. Sure, I'd hate to see my big DVD/Blu-Ray collection go, but aside from the home movies, all of them are replaceable(unfortunately, some would argue physical home-video is on its way toward extinction thanks to streaming sites like Netflix). I have plenty of stuffed animals, but I really only need a couple of them. My books are pretty replaceable, my comics would be a big loss financially, there are only so many boxes I can take and there's too much junk like my various toys, games and junk in general for me to sort our in a pile and decide what I view valuable and what I could live without. I guess the fact this isn't a huger scare for me is the part of me that has grown-up.

While my stuff appears to be safe for the foreseeable future, research has made me realize other aren't so lucky. I found out on Twitter today that a teacher I had for high-school lost his house. Other friends have since evacuated and are waiting to see the fate of their home. My heart really goes out to them.

Frankly, I've always thought living in the forest was a horrible idea. There are no cities nearby, no big buildings, too many trees and wildlife, an is in complete isolation. (CO really seems to attract more isolationists than in any other state, CO is the place that inspired The Shining after-all). The fact its more prone to wildfires is just another reason in a very long list why no one should be living in Colorado.

Time will tell is the fire is the result of climate change or kids playing with matches. Still, I can't help but dread the fact how it rains literally every single day during the summer in Colorado, except for that one week wildfires appear.

A Proper Introduction...

This year: 2013, marks the 10th anniversary that I discovered the vast and ever-growing universe known as the "internet". I was using it through the family computer, which then was the iMac G4 or the "Sunflower"(remember those?) Having discovered it through school and using it mostly at home during my spare time, I became addicted. Sure I "used it to research school projects" but I primarily used it to research the topics I was interested in, which in those days consisted primarily of Hollywood projects and theme parks(my interests have expanded since, though only slightly) as well as playing the occasional game. I knew I was addicted to it then, though I couldn't tell you the extent of my addiction a decade later.

Today I use the social network sites Facebook and Twitter daily, have two email accounts, have an Amazon account(which I use) an eBay account(which I don't) and a YouTube account(which I use seldomly) use iTunes, Netflix and have left literally thousands of posts on various message boards(under different names) oh yeah and visit many internet pages and watch several live-streamed shows(I once watched two streamed shows at once while watching tv, living the Back To The Future Part II fantasy). The one thing on the internet that I've pretty much left to do(beside start a podcast) is start a blog.  I've thought about it many times, but decided against it lamenting my own insignificance. It wasn't until on of my very few Twitter followers, BumpyGrumpy, encouraged me with a tweet stating "Do it anyway. Even just to amuse yourself".

Let the amusement begin!

My blog's title, "The Rambling Rock" comes from my disdain for my current location, Colorado, the nation's centennial state. I exclaim in public how Colorado is so pathetic, the highest rated tourist attractions is literally a pile of rocks! So in a way, this blog will give me the chance beyond Facebook and Twitter for me to rant about...stuff.

But not just that. I hope to share my thoughts on the news, current events, history and certain things going in my life. Hopefully some of it will be optimistic. I'm determined to make you laugh, cry and be completely confused. If I do a good enough job, some of you will be filled with contempt and disgust, as those are the readers who always insist on returning. For now, I bid you adieu, but I shall return!