I believe that the journey is just as important as the destination, as is reflected in one of my favorite quotes by author J.R.R. Tolkein. Sit back and enjoy as I wander through life, keeping in mind that Not All Who Wander Are Lost!

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

All for one and one for all - or not.

Indecision is a real killer - and it's a truly horrible problem in this day and age, with thirteen million versions or options of each and every thing you try to buy, use, or sign up for.

Take blogging, for example. I finally took the plunge, signed up for one, and started writing on here... but then I follow one link to another link and end up on LiveJournal - another Blog site. And then I go, "oh, yeah!" Meaning, I remember how cool that site is and remind myself that I was going to sign up for it once upon a sugar plum fairy...

But I already signed up for Blogger aka Blogspot, right?

So, what to do? All I wanted was a simple blog where I could post a few thoughts... and I ended up sitting here searching for a brick wall to bang my head into... What if it's a cooler site? What if more people read it, or it will have more to offer?

Do I switch? Do I stay put? Do I think about switching sometime in the future?

Isn't this the case with everything nowadays? Let's say you finally decide you want a super-fancy "I do everything except make toast" type cell phone - something like the new Blackberry's, the iPhone (wa-hoot!), or any of the hundreds of other phone-type-gadgets that check your email, go online, and possibly even give you a back massage. Wouldn't it be nice if you could walk into the PHONE STORE and say "I want one of those phone-type gadgets that does all that stuff" and voila!, you're done...

But, noooo... You've got to consider the different carriers: Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, TMobile and on and on. Then you've got to choose a phone, a model of that phone, a service plan, memory size - the list literally goes on and on

I'm not advocating Communism here - I'm not thinking that we should have one government operate phone company with no Capitalist market. I'm just wondering if we're driving ourselves insane here.

Maybe I'm just in a grumpy mood today, but everything sure seems darn complicated in this day and age.

So, in leiu of my blog's little theme there, Cinematic Living, I can just see a perfect scene... Airhead ditz girl decides she wants something - be it to write a blog, to buy a cell phone, or even to go and get a soda from a local cafe. But said ditz is not blessed by the ease of saying "I'd like a cell phone please" - no, she has to deal with which brand, what features, how much, service plans, and on and on.

And so, is there a moral to this story, erm... rant? Why yes, I think there is. Last night, my mom and I went to see a presentation of The Long Way Down, a film of a motorcycle trip taken by actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman (I'll probably blog on this again soon). In it, they traveled from John O'Groats Scotland (the tip top) to Cape Town South Africa (the very bottom). Especially in Africa, they met many sweet, kind people who had almost nothing... but time and time again, they found that these people were willing to share everything. These are people who deal with what food they'll find for dinner, not what type of cell phone to buy.

So why is our society so stuck on dealing with this affluenza type Consumerism? Why can't we realize what's more important in life?

That's a question I just don't have an answer to. On that *happy* note, adieu.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Here we go...


Well, I did it. I clicked "sign up here"; I filled out a form; I hit submit. 

I now have a blog.

Yes, woot! I stared at my computer for an hour trying to decide on a name - it's like naming a child... no small feat... and finally came up with something.

My life revolves around movies - anyone who knows me can probably tell you that. I always know what trailers were just released, what the box office is doing, the names of current celebrities, DVDs that are being released - all that. And I watch 'em... Lots of them. 

I hope to go into that business, but for now, I can safely say it's part of my life, and that probably won't change. 

So, here we go... Here's my blog, Cinematic Living - a small look into a high-schooler's life and into a life led by that insane world of Hollywood. Please enjoy!

We are living in a technological world...

It's something of a statement of the way our lives revolve around computers today that I come back to face over 100 emails, around 100 RSS Feed items, thousands of Skype posts, personal messages from various web programs.... after being gone for less than a week.

It took me a fraction of the time to unpack my real suitcase than the hours I'm spending settling back in at my computer. 

Now, don't get me wrong... I'm not complaining here. As my very first blog, I don't want to just kvetch about the technological world. After all, I love technology not only as much as the next guy, but probably much much more. Who else feels their heart racing when they notice that the passenger on the bus next to them has an iPhone? Who feels insanely excited when they see an Apple store, even if they've been to those stores a hundred times? Who else physically misses their computer on vacation? I do!

Now, I know my new Blog's theme is Cinematic Living - and I'll get to that in my next post, hopefully, but I had to take a moment and marvel at the way that computers and general technology have literally taken over our lives - or at least, has definitely taken over mine. 

So here's where the cinematic part comes in... You know all those movies where machines take over the world? I'm thinking I Robot, The Matrix movies (squee!) or even Wall-E, here... Well, maybe that's not so much in the realm of "impossible" as much as it's part of that whole "yikes - that'd be horrible - but it might actually happen." 

Many of us are chained - blissfully, nerd-ily to our computers, our cell phones, our iPods, our blackberries, I suppose, and now our iPhones... but what if those chains become real some day, not just metaphorical?

I know, I know... that's my wonderfully happy thought of the day. 

See you later for thoughts on Batman!