Review: Nontraditional Sci-Fi

Arrival

I’ve seen this film before, but for some reason I remember nothing about it except that I liked it. It’s possible that I was — ahem — a little lit up.

Anyway, this movie is incredible. Here’s a quick recap, alien spaceships come to various spots on Earth and nobody knows why or how to contact them. Without giving anything away, what should our characters do?

Amy Adams crushes this movie. But she doesn’t play the stereotypical science fiction hot chick that wears a metallic bikini while chopping mutant monsters apart with a giant sword. She’s just smart and — well — smart.

If you’re expecting “Independence Day” or “Men In Black,” this isn’t it. This is much more like “Contact” or something smarter. It’s also very moving. I’d give it a solid A+.

Did I Ever Ruin Anybody?

Before I get started — Yes, I did.

But, what the hell am I talking about?

Yet again, I’m looking for jobs. I don’t like my current city, my current school or the current complete lack of social life in this area. Literally, I do not speak to anybody ever. I fear I’m becoming that annoying coworker that pops into offices to start conversations because I literally do not talk to people. Loneliness and depression brutalized me.

After interviewing for new gigs, I’ve already been passed up by two.

Why? I don’t know? Maybe it’s because I have tattoos? Some Koreans and Asians don’t like skin art.

Or perhaps I did something more serious. Could it be that when I attended grad school I worked as a bouncer? Or could it be that I wrote fart jokes for a humor column? Or my beloved English-as-a-Second-Language textbooks with dick jokes for titles?

(“Office Talk” was my first book, my third book was “Master Debate…”

Since I spend a lot of time talking to myself now, I wondered if I ever ruined anybody else’s life. I don’t think I ever have permanently, but maybe temporarily I ruined a few here and there.

Here goes:

1. Once, a while ago when they allowed drinking in bars, I bounced on a Saint Paddy’s Night. I needed to kick this girl out. Now, during my career I kicked only a few women out, mostly because (don’t call me too sexist) because I didn’t like dealing with blackout drunk women. They can be ten times as violent as a man and I will not hit a woman. Somehow, I suckered this woman out of the bar.

The next day, my newspaper editor complained that his babysitter seemed out of sorts. I told him we could use this new invention called Facebook to look her up. Lo and Behold! I recognized her! “Dude! I kicked your babysitter out of the bar last night!” And…she got fired because of me.

2. As a professor, I’ve given out a few Fs. Could those grades mean my students need to join the military service? Quit school and become Burger King chefs? Ruin their scholarships?

3. Will any of my ex-girlfriends forgive their future or current partners if they are American, enjoy science fiction or prefer pizza to most other foods.

Hopefully, I’ve never permanently ruined anything for anybody. And hopefully I find a new job as soon as possible.

More Reviews! Ell-Dub-Dub and “The Hunt”

I zipped through a short movie and a shorter book over the past couple days.

The Hunt — Yet another movie I’d only heard of, but didn’t know anything about. This can either be a great way to see a film or complete waste of time. “The Hunt” more or less entertained and I thought the main characters and plot were interesting. I’m still trying to figure out who Emma Roberts was supposed to be. “The Hunt” had the potential to be huger, but just fell on some dumb luck due to coronavirus. However, I also thought “Hostel” and “Cabin Fever” were a lot of fun too, so what the hell do I know?

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis — Grade: A-

This isn’t the original copy that my Grandma Dorothy bought me when I was sick or had teeth pulled about three decades ago, but “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” is probably the book that made me fall in love with reading, writing and books. I zipped right through reading this book this time around in a couple days, granted it’s written for children not geniuses like myself…

The funny thing is that I don’t really remember anything about this book at all. However, I remember a girlfriend and me getting into an argument over Ron Weasley from the “Harry Potter” books eating and loving Turkish Delight, but now I realize it was Edward from this book, not Ron. I remembered the lion, but not much else.

This set was in our library, but put in the publishing order not necessarily the reading order. I guess there are plenty of people to fight over that. I’m also missing one book, “The Silver Chair.” Why? I don’t know. Who cares?

I had fun reading this. This took some imagination and I enjoyed the book. That’s all I ask for.

COOL QUOTES: “Is he–quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.” “But such people! Ogres with monstrous teeth…and other creatures whom I won’t describe because if I did the grown-ups would probably not let you read this book — Cruels and Hags and Incubuses…”

Reviewing: Anti-Conservative Stuff

Paranoid Science: The Christian Right’s War on Realty by Antony William Alumkal — Grade: B-

Honestly, I don’t know why I decided to read this book. I do know it’s from the NYU Press, so that could be a huge reason. I think this could have basically been summed up by reading the back of it.

Read this if you’re wondering how the Christian Right tries brainwashing its followers to be anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-euthanasia, anti-climate change and anti-evolution.

However, I’d like this book more if there were bigger and better explanations on why all this stuff is such a big deal to the American Christian Right. Now, that’s not what the book was supposed to be about — I get it, but this book gets really dull incredibly fast. So, that’s just a solid warning for you.

Again, I know this wasn’t that type of book, but I kind of wish you could have snuck a cheat sheet into their stupid bible verses or just some ridiculous hypocrisies. Either or, I agreed with the book, but I didn’t need to read the really long book to agree with it.

COOL QUOTES: “But contemporary peddlers of paranoia constantly manufacture facts. Lies that are repeated often enough are accepted as facts, at least by a segment of the population.” “Ultimately, no movement can succeed at being accepted as science and religion at the same time. The best that movement leaders can do is convince themselves and their core followers, even if they fail in brother society.” “If the Christian Right really is concerned about big money corrupting morality, why focus only on the biotech industry? What about Big Oil, Big Banking, Big Agra, Big Telecom , and so on? The fact is that Christian Right leaders, like most other American conservatives, strongly support free market capitalism.” “As the title of the campaign indicates, environmentalism is to be identified with Satan. It’s a religion that worships the Earth and competes with Christianity….Here we see the Manichean worldview associated with the paranoid style, as well as an example of the false choice fallacy.”

Bombshell — This movies showed how big of dickheads some of the big bosses were to women at Fox News. I don’t know why I wanted to watch this. Probably something just made me want to hate that news corporation more. And this didn’t really do it. I would certainly not consider myself an expert on Fox — or any 24-hour cable news. I didn’t like this movie or any of the characters except for the lady that plays Hillary on SNL. Well, I guess I liked the ending and the makeup. I definitely have sympathy for anybody who becomes sexually assaulted, but what a disaster of a movie.

On No Smartphone: Part 2

It’s been nearly two weeks since I’ve had a smartphone, and it looks like I’ve got another two more. I mean, I have a smartphone, I just don’t have the password to my Apple ID. This is a huge PAIN IN THE ASS!!! I think if I don’t sign up with the old Apple ID that I’ll lose all my old photos or something.

I can still use my phone for stuff like the internet and — um — calling as well as texting. That’s pretty much it. And taking photos. But sending a photo needs to done like something as if we’re transferring classified FBI documents.

The first few days of no smartphone were fun. It sucks now. I’d like to have my messaging apps and everything. The Korean messaging apps won’t work on my computer and nobody here wants to text you.

Also, nobody seems to see the point in emailing any longer.

Luckily and more luckily, I decided to take a month off of social media, so I am not going to crazy.

But I would like to use some apps and figure out the history of this movie right away!

New Movie Reviews…But No Books!

I’ve been reading a lot, even though I haven’t finished a book in a bit. Why? Well, good question.

I decided to read the complete collection of H.P. Lovecraft and that’s about 900 pages. Lovecraft is about as dull as can be, so I’ve been reading him in shifts.

In between his stories, I read a few fairy tales from “Grimm’s,” which are all stupid. I can’t imagine ever enjoying that. Maybe if I was back in the middle ages when any talking animals entertained compared to contracting small pox.

Then, I’m reading another book, but I’ll finish reviewing that.

However, I do also have four other movies and can review them well.

During my film class, we covered a comedy unit. We learned about dark comedy, raunchy and slapstick. The 1980s classic “Airplane!” was the movie I chose for an example of slapstick, but I didn’t really preview “Airplane!” beforehand. Geez! This is hilarious, but a lot jokes about about sex, race, sexism, religion, pedophilia, drugs, alcohol, etc. I don’t think the kids understood a lot of the jokes and luckily we only watched about 30 minutes. The beauty of this movie is they attack everybody. I think the kids enjoyed it, but I’m glad I didn’t need to explain about oral sex or anything else. At home with myself, I had a blast with this flick. Very classic.

Jim Gaffigan just cracks me up and is always a winner. No matter what he does, he’s always funny. I am glad I watched this. I got a few great laughs out of him. His jokes about being manly, except for eating steaks were the funniest to me. It’s crazy that there was a point in time that I didn’t listen to this guy just because of some stupid reason. Maybe I didn’t think he was manly enough?

Ages ago I thought I was too smart for Spike Lee, but this looked cool. “BlackKklansman” locked me in right away with the interesting concept, humor, characters and dialogue. And…clothes. Most of all, I enjoyed the clothes. I really wish I could own some of those big-collared jackets. I thought the message was great. I think it was perfect for our time. I like how the ending talked about how racism is still going on today. “The Secret Ending” is disgusting, but I’m glad that Lee put it in there. I think so much of this was done perfectly.

Comedian — I understand…this wasn’t supposed to be funny but about the trials and tribulations of somebody who is a performer or artist. Are you unsure of yourself? Positive of something, only to learn that it sucks? Excited for a night that gets a few wrenches tossed into it at the last moment? Yeah, that’s happened to me during every few careers I’ve worked or mini-lives I’ve lived. But this movie is dull as can be. The characters aren’t that funny. I don’t even know why the other guy is even there. He’s just annoying. Being a stand up comedian is hard. I know that. But I want to see the end result, not the boring behind-the-scenes stuff.

Uncle KC!

After a really rough few days, my sister-in-law Yvonne and brother Brian finally had their first baby, Charlotte Kihn Freeman! They went in to be induced on Tuesday, but Little Charlie didn’t come out until Friday.

It’s been a rough few days, and they need to stay inside the hospital for a few more days because of coronavirus.

I spoke with Brian earlier this morning and he was shirtless. I thought he was at some nudist colony or something. I didn’t realize one needed to be skin-to-skin with a newborn baby, but that shows what I know. Yeah, nothing.

I’m glad everything is okay. I hope mom and dad, and now my parents — Grandma and Grandpa are all relaxed and happy. I’m sure everybody is exhausted.

People congratulate me, which is flattering, but I didn’t do anything. I just congratulated them and gave a best man speech at the wedding seven years ago.

My Major Good Deeds of the Days

Every day I try to do a good deed of the day, whether it’s pick up a piece of trash or say something nice to somebody.

Sometimes they’re big and sometimes they’re small. You don’t have to be a genius to know that sometimes some small bit of kindness can help out somebody having a tough day.

#1.
So, I walk the same day to work every day. A Vietnamese student wrote something in his/her language probably translating to “JOHN LOVES JANE” in the dirty on a filthy window. It’s been like that for the entire semester. Korean messages also decorate the same window and others.

But, a few days ago I walked by and somebody wrote, “GO HOME VIET FUCKERS!” under the cute love message. I thought I should do something about that.

Even though I filled my water bottle earlier with the freshest and cleanest and coldest water, I splashed it onto that window and wiped the dirt off, which was a lot grosser than I expected.

Granted, I didn’t do much, I felt happy about it. I feel like if I walked by some place that said, “Go home white American fucker!” there’d be news crews and people crying and praying. Hopefully, none of the Vietnamese kids saw this.

2.
This is a lot shorter story. I received a US tax stimulus thing for coronavirus. But, since I’m doing fine and my brother and sister-in-law just had a baby literally yesterday, I just gave my check to them for college or diapers or whatever babies need.

Imagine how nice the world would be if everybody did a nice deed of the day!

On: Not Having a Phone

Photo by Moose Photos on Pexels.com

I decided to do it. I grew so sick of misspelling words and the clunkyness of my Galaxy smartphone, so I decided to trade my Galaxy and my iPhone 7 to a guy who (allegedly) will send me a refurbished iPhone 11.

So, I’ve been phoneless for nearly a week.

It’s been a huge pain in the balls because my I forgot my AppleID. I am not really supposed to get the phone until I got the password, but because of Apple’s strict policies I couldn’t get the password until I got the phone. So I was in a bit of a catch-22.

Grr.

Luckily, I don’t really have any friends trying to contact me right now. Plus, we’re still kind of under quarantine. On top of all that, I’m still going sober.

Mostly, I miss having an alarm clock. Granted, I could spend five bucks and get another clock, but that’s just not the same. I like opening my phone and seeing all the news. But, that’s kind of a clusterfuck because I’d look at the news for ten or 15 minutes and be nearly late for work.

Next, I miss just being able to look stuff up on Google whenever I want. I am trying to play a video game on my laptop and I need to use my Kindle to do stuff like look at which level to go to.

Not having a camera sucks, but I don’t really take that many photos. Especially since I’m not drinking or hanging out with people.

On top of sobriety, I’m not using social media, which makes not having a phone great.

Honestly, I’m only a few days into it and I’m already kind of used to not having a phone. I never play phone games. I don’t use Tinder. I am stuck in my boring city for a few more weeks, so I’m kind of not missing much.

I wonder if I am missing anything.

Or if anybody is missing me?

Girl Robot + “90 Day Fiance” Review

I binged the first season of “90 Day Fiance” and honestly thought it was fantastic. Unfortunately, I downloaded the show so the original editing was still there, therefore showing all the previews and reviews and stupid ads for other shows. That was annoying.

The show did a great at portraying a lot of Americans as what they are: morons. There were so many Americans not willing to understand that there are people different than them. Some people plainly just don’t like bacon or football. Other cultures find salsa dancing important and organized religion stupid. We shouldn’t hate them for that.

One of the girls looked like she should have been a model. Another should have just joined up with a porn site because she was that hot. The couple girls seemed about as interesting as my parents.

A lot of the guys were giant dorks, but if you find love in another part of the world, that’s where you find it. I found love twice on the opposite side of “my” country.

(I have no idea where this drawing came from, but I didn’t make it.)

I don’t know how offensive or whatever this would be, but I thought it would be cool to have a robot girlfriend. Of course, I think anything would be cooler if it was robotic.

Maybe my Cyber-GF could use a machine-gun arm, fly, fix stuff, do taxes, understand computers and help me clean. When she annoyed me, I could just shut her off.

Then, maybe she could me get my worthless life online and we’d do stuff. I don’t know how romantic robot-girlfriends want to be. I’d probably do my best to do my best.

There’s the deal with kids. I wouldn’t want them. I’d rather be more like her and become more machine than man. Unless, this shit hurts like the titanium in my neck. That hurts all day. Maybe GirlfriendBot could know when to give me a shot of painkillers or booze.

Of course, when the Rise of the Machines Happens, she’d know exactly how and who to show her trust to. Would she shoot me first or protect me? Well, that’s her decision.