Movie Time

To get the requirement out of the way, I did see something new: I'm about a quarter of the way through Season 3 of Dexter. I really like that show. It's one of the few I go, "Ooh! What's gonna happen next!? Gotta see the next episode!"

To add some meat to this post, I'll add in some of my favorite scenes from my favorite movies (in no particular order).

John Carpenter's The Thing Blood Test scene


I love horror movies. And I don't go looking for the crappy movies that are made pretty much just to show people getting killed in various ways. I LOATHE the slasher flicks. Same formula, different killer. They all have some schtick, but they all love to kill stupid teens. In theory, it sounds hilarious and entertaining. But in practice, it gets old quick. Why? Because it's obvious the writer/director didn't have any new ideas to contribute to the genre, other than how someone can be killed using a paper mache doll.

You just don't see tension in horror movies nowadays that you do in this scene here. In this scene, Kurt Russel's character Mac has discovered that the alien not only disguises itself as other beings, but it can separate yet act as a singular being. This prompts his forced blood test.


Coraline - Clip Bug Room
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I couldn't find any of my favorite scenes from Coraline (one of my favorite movies in recent years), but this clip at least represents the color and style of the movie very well. Word of warning: it's not really a kid's film. It looks innocent at first, but there were scenes that freaked me out. And I watched The Exorcist unfazed.



Again, wasn't able to find any of my favorite scenes from this gem, but nobody doesn't like Die Hard. Even my wife, who usually just rolls her eyes over steroid-pumped heroes mowing down badguys with their giant guns, loves this movie. All the characters are involved in the plot instead of just being there to make a joke or look good. The whole Die Hard series is great, but the first one shot Bruce Willis from rom/coms into action hero stardom.

Movie Videos & Movie Scenes at MOVIECLIPS.com

This was my favorite movie in middle school. It's not my favorite anymore, but it has great action scenes. It also has one of the best rallying speeches in film history- and that's saying something. I would vote for Bill Pullman as President.



Another great frightening scene with tension. Unfortunately, the added music drowns out some of the sound, but you can gather that Jake Gyllenhaal's character does NOT want to be there. He's invited to the man's basement RIGHT after discovering that his #1 suspect for the Zodiac killer is this guy. While inside, he hears movement upstairs, previously thinking they were alone.

Dinosaurs and scary movies

Dinosaur Puppets

When I was young, my parents were pretty strict on what I could watch. I wasn't allowed to see the evening news until I started grade school. So it was a very long time (at least when compared to most kids) before I saw any kind of movie that was remotely violent.

My friend Phillip had gotten the movie Jurassic Park on tape and, probably knowing the scariest movie I had seen was Ernest Scared Stupid, put it in the VCR, saying something along the lines that it was an awesome movie.

Now don't get me wrong. Jurassic Park is an awesome movie.

I don't know how I got through the first scene, but I do remember the part where the T-Rex tries to eat the kids in the jeep. Phillip's mom spots me trying to claw my way backwards inside her armchair, eyes wide open, and decides that the movie was too much for me.

Phillip protested and said that I didn't mind. Did I?

No words came out. Just a slow shake of the head. "No? What? I don't care. Oh my God. That dinosaur was going to eat those kids. They were screaming. I will never curse dinosaurs again."

Now, of course, I'm the one watching the movies with the jump scenes and my wife is repeatedly asking me, through a wad of fingers, when the next scary part was going to come up. And my sister blows through scary movies like nothing. It took me years to build up an immunity. But while I was watching "The Mummy" for the first time in our living room at age 13, she was six.

CAVES

Man, I love caves. Not that I want to do the hardcore spelunking. I'm a bit claustrophobic. Heck, when my wife and I went with a friend to the Atlanta Aquarium, there was a section in the penguin area where you could crawl in and stand up in this glass tube in the middle of the exhibit. You could be in the midst of penguins! Well, the tunnel happened to be full of loud kids and their loud parents speaking over their kids, so it ended up being this hot, dark, enclosed space full of writhing tiny bodies and screaming. There was also a line inside the tunnel (which was about 3' tall) to get to the glass tube. Needless to say, the penguins weren't worth it.

And I'm terrified of the cave exploring that requires you squeezing your body between rocks and spending a few days in an area with no sunlight and sudden drops into the abyss. I'm perfectly okay with the guided tours in caves with the nicknames for all the stalactites and such.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1310129/British-explorers-map-cave-network-underneath-Borneo-jungle.html

Deer Cave in Borneo has been shown on one of my favorite documentaries, Planet Earth. In fact, the whole cave episode is my favorite. You have a cave full of bat dung and covered with cockroaches, one full of a river of sulfuric acid, and another that has giant gypsum crystals you can walk on.

When we visited my in-laws in Alabama, it was suggested we go see the DeSoto Caverns. I was excited about it, as it also had some fun activities you could do - like panning for minerals! I hadn't done that since I was 10! Not only that, but the caverns had a laser light show! Neato!

When we got there, we found out the laser light show was about how the creation of the cave was made. I was a little disappointed it wasn't going to be a recreation of the Tron story or something, but I wanted to check it out anyway. We get inside, and they turn off the lights. Pitch black. I start getting excited. I'm expecting the narrator to start talking about rivers of molten lava barreling through crust, and iron and oxygen mixing and blowing up or some sort of epic science like that. Instead, it was a direct reading from Genesis chapter 1. The narrator would say, "And God said, 'Let the land and waters teem with life, and give the sky the birds in the air," and behind me would be this squawking speaker that would etch out animal noises.
"Let the land -"
"CRAW! CRAW! CRAW!"
"with life and-"
"RRRROOOOOOAAAARRR!"
"water-"
"MOOOOOOOO!"

They also had toilet racers.

Yes, this is real.


It's as exciting as it looks.

"Dangerous" USA

I don't want to get too political on a blog where potential employers can check out, but I just finished reading World's Most Dangerous Places. It's a little outdated now (published in 2003 -- a surprising amount of things have happened in seven years that just doesn't reach the news), but gives a pretty honest look at the going-ons of the world without getting too political or preachy. It's mostly, "Well, there's a lot of this going on there and this awful crap going on here; but, you know, what can you do?"

It has the USA on there, and statistically (at least when compared to some western European countries) the streets of your typical average US city sound like a haven for bad things waiting to prey on unsuspecting visitors. But, of course, when living in the nation itself, you know better. It's probably not smart to dress very fancy and walk around by yourself at night in isolated areas of Detroit or New Orleans. Heck, I'd advise against traveling by yourself after sundown anywhere close to downtown Savannah. Lord knows I was just asking to get mugged, being a stupid freshman with all my "HEY! I'M NEW IN TOWN!" gear and checking out the city park at 2AM.

For the most part, however, almost anywhere in America can provide a good time or a good story. Stay aware and use common sense, but be adventurous too. I've just started to like Hilton Head after a year of living here, and that's because I've started to explore the island on my own and avoid the usual places that draw crowds in.

Anyway, I didn't really have a point to this post. I just wanted to fill my quota for today. But I'm glad you all are stopping in (my statcounter has been climbing up quick since I started this post-every-day challenge to myself). Thanks again, and I'll be back tomorrow.

Quick comic because nothing happened today

Past 11 PM, my art skills become depreciated, and everything with a poop joke is humorous to me. This is a fact.

Hugs from a fan

Yesterday, I got an unusual request at the restaurant. One of the servers told me a girl at her table wanted to get a picture with me. Flattered, I crossed over to the dining room where I discovered a seven-year-old girl who looked at me like I was a superstar. I never seen her before, but apparently she was infatuated with me. Not only did she want a picture with me (which her mother took), but before she left she hugged me.

It was quite a nice day.

Weird Science

Create solid ball water
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This is the kind of science I wish we did in school. I loved science as a kid, but my science classes pretty much took any kind of interesting aspects of it, hid it from view, and the only thing I remember from science class is that chlorine in gas form is not something that you want to inhale. Chemistry was probably my least favorite class in grade school, and unfortunately it was due to the teacher, not the subject material. Other chemistry teachers were having fun experiments in their classes (in one, they somehow turned a gas into a pillar of carbon). So while I didn't have the greatest experience in science, I haven't given up on it yet. I hope that when I have a kid, I can teach them some elementary physics and/or chemicals in an interesting way. I really can't wait for one of them to participate in a science fair.