As is customary on Sunday nights, I went to the theatre tonight to catch a show with some of my friends. The flick de jour was John Q. Now, although I did have some serious reservations with it, overall, I think the movie was well-written, -directed and -acted; especially Denzel Washington’s character’all around well-done. It was refreshing to see a modern-day hero so eloquently created, reinforced and drawn to the edge of sanity and life without reason. It seems to have become a rarity to see a hero portrayed as one who has no selfish motives and only demonstrates integrity, compassion and resolve, especially in the face of tragedy.

My reservations with the movie were few’maybe only singular’but heavy. There was a strong undercurrent of a socialist political agenda that I really couldn’t stand. My beef was not necessarily with the agenda itself’I'm not saying whether I agree with the tenants of their particular agenda or not’it was with the fact that I paid my students’ fee of $5.25 to see a good movie’which I did’and, for no extra fee, got this ideal rammed down my throat for two hours. My note to Hollywood: I can respect the fact that there are actually people in Hollywood who are intelligent enough to have their own political ideologies and beliefs, but share your beliefs with a willing audience on your own dime’not mine.

In short, I would recommend the movie as an excellent drama, but to all who intend to see it, I caution that they should be prepared for an assault on their intelligence in the form of overt political propaganda, which permeates the film.

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Today’s exam wasn’t all that bad. I’m not sure if that was due to my level of preparation, or if the test was easy. That’ll all be in the numbers: average grade, standard deviation and whatnot. I’m thinking I did pretty well, which is unusual. Generally, after I’ve finished an exam in my typical Electrical Engineering (EE) courses, I feel like I bombed it and I’m hoping that there’s a chance I got the average score or so.

I had a guitar lesson this morning and it was a bit different: my instructor gave me a “work tape”, which is basically a tape with 90 minutes of stuff crammed onto it that I’m supposed to work on for the next two weeks. I don’t know if I’m becoming a better guitarist, or a smarter guitarist, or if there’s even a difference, but I’m definately getting a much deeper understanding of the intrument. Only time will tell if I’m able to work my newfound knowledge into some sort of musical manifestation.

Nap time…

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If I weren’t experiencing it right this moment, this idea would seem trivial. It is incredibly frustrating to me that, when it comes to imitating others on the guitar, I can do a fair job. But, when I decide I’ve had enough of playing other peoples’ stuff and I want to write my own, all I can do is dawdle with this slow, melancholy, droning musical template that I seem to use. My chord progressions and strumming are always similar’maybe the whole sequence is shifted up the neck, or maybe I syncopate this chord transition, but the overall mechanics of everything I write are generally consistent. My melodies are monotonous and disappointing’it seems like I always fall into a straight-eighth-note rhythm with little variation in the pitch or tonal-quality of each ‘new’ note. I would think that writing an inspired piece of music would feel like catching an awesome wave on a surfboard; but instead, it feels like I’m paddling out forever. Maybe I’m in Hawaii or at Jax Beach, but I’m still just paddling out. If there is any creativity in my cobweb encrusted right-brain, how might I uncover it? I would so love to be able to create beautiful music, but I am instead constantly tantalized by only being able to play others’ music.

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I don’t know how accurate the time-stamp on these blogs is, but I’m afraid it may betray me this morning. That’s right, this morning! I couldn’t believe it myself (probably because I’m so disoriented when I first wake up, regardless of when), but I actually woke up at a decent hour today without an alarm clock. Next thing I know, Elvis is going to be doing free shows on the Union lawn. Unfortunately, my “early-rising” left me with a whole new dilemma: What do I do with this extra hour (assuming I don’t skip my first class–that would make it an extra two hours)? I settled on updating my blog. I keep telling myself this is productive and maybe I’m right; or maybe I’ll stop caring about blogging in a week and I’ll drop off the face of the electronic earth.

So, I realized that I never wrote anything about my feelings on The Mothman Prophecies. That’s probably because I really didn’t have any. It was a decent movie with some minor twists and a bit of suspense, but that’s about all I can say for it. For the most part, the movie’s suspense was derived from well-placed, aggravating sounds (ie a sudden hiss, or an unexpected screech or a demonic voice). Unfortunately, all those sounds did was aggravate me–they didn’t make the movie any better, in my opinion. I think, in all fairness, I can at least give Richard some props for playing a pretty good confused rich-guy. I mean, don’t get me wrong, he’s certainly not Oscar-bound or anything, but he played the role well. (Aside: The Oscar is headed to Sean Penn, this time around, for his work in I Am Sam. That is, unless Russel Crowe manages to land a role in another great movie, where he can do some overacting and fool everyone into thinking he deserves the little metal man: Aside over)

Well, this weekend may yield some much sought after free time for a change. I lucked out: only two homework assignments due on Monday and nothing due on Tuesday. It’s nice to know that, this week, only two of my prof’s think I have nothing better to do than their stupid homework assignments. Actually, I take that back, probably only one of my prof’s thinks I dig doing homework on the weekends; the other one probably doesn’t even know he assigned anything. He’s one of the professors who thinks that Teaching Assistant means “One who does everything for the course except the lectures. The TA’s responsibilities include: assigning homework, grading homework, making up his own rules for grading homework, answering any questions the student might have, avoiding telling students their grades, etc.” That definition was taken right out of the Computer Science department’s Department Dictionary of Terms We Redefined to Meet Our Needs. I would kick myself for this dual-degree idea if I could kick myself anywhere other than the shin and calves–that just gets old after a while.

I’m ripping this next part of my entry directly from Jason Killingsworth’s blog (along with pretty much every other aspect of my blog):

Currently reading: Knowing God by J. I. Packer and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

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Unbelievable. I spent 5 hours today, waiting in line to see the Kentucky vs. UF game. That is really out of character for me–I usually wouldn’t be able to justify spending 5 hours sitting around waiting to watch a basketball game–but, I thought, “What the heck. I’ll give it a shot. We have to win anyway, because we’ve lost the last two and we’re one of the best teams in the country.” Turns out we lost by 2 lousy points. So, I spent about 8 hours today, waiting to see our guys lose by 2. Ouch.

Anyway, I just finished watching Pretty Woman for the first time. It’ll probably be the last. Honestly, I don’t get it; everyone always says, “You haven’t seen Pretty Woman?! Man, you gotta’ see that movie.” I just don’t see what all the hype is about. Julia is a good actress and Richard did a good job in the movie, but I never really caught what was so special about this particular prostitute that she changed his life. She seemed like a nice enough girl, but when it comes down to it, I just don’t see what set her apart from the rest. Yeah, she knew a little about cars and she was kind of feisty, but there are lots of feisty, car-knowledgeable women that aren’t prostitutes. Why didn’t he just go find one of those?

I better get some sleep. I have a dilemma tomorrow in that I have 4 consecutive classes, but the third one is cancelled. So, I’m wondering if I should go to the first 2, then leave and skip the last one, or if I should stick around and kill an hour before attending my last one. Why does life have to be full of so many tough decisions? Ah, the life of a college student…

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