Saturday, January 29, 2011

Regretfulness is a real word

One thing I've been doing a lot lately is dwelling on the past. And just in case you didn't know, this can be quite a depressing activity if done without expert supervision.

Don't get me wrong; while we all experience life's curveballs (or hospital passes if you will), I am actually happy to be where I am now in life. Maybe I'm not over-the-moon with certain current hardships, but if I'm being totally honest, I'm pretty happy to know the people I do, and to be related to the people I am, and to have been saved by the God that saved me. Not to mention Manchester United are still unbeaten this season right.

However, when people say that line, "Don't regret anything in your past, because it has made you who you are", well, I disagree. I think people who say this are missing the point of life. I used to think like that. I used to think that it's okay to not regret anything bad that may have happened to me (or because of me), because all my experiences have led me to be the man I am today right. Sounds good doesn't it?

But what about all the times God prompted me to share the gospel to a stranger and I didn't? I'm not gonna lie, I regret those times a lot. Maybe one of times, that person died the next day, and I was the last chance that person had to hear the Word. I have no doubt that when I die and leave this Earth, I will realize the true magnitude of my inaction.

What about all the people I've hurt? Sure, I'm the man I am today because of my past actions, but what about everyone else? Am I to be so selfish that I think my past is all okay because it made ME turn out okay, while totally disregarding the fact that maybe I've put people in much worse-off situations than they would have been if they'd never met me?

I dunno. There's no real message with this post, it's just me thinking out loud. Or, should I say, me thinking on monitor.

I just think it's selfish to say that I shouldn't regret certain actions just because "it has made me who I am". What if life's actually not just about me? What if the same thing that has "made me who I am" has also "made someone else doubt the love of Christ because some guy who was supposed to have the love of Christ broke their heart". Who am I to let myself off the hook so easily?

At least I know what Matt Thiessen thinks of this subject:

Cause I could spend my life just trying to sift through
What I could've done better but what good do what ifs do

I'd rather forget and not slow down
Than gather regret for the things I can't change now
If I become what I can't accept
Then resurrect the saint from within the wretch

Pour over me and wash my hands of it


It's the last 3 lines of these particular lyrics that I choose to focus on most. Then it is to be followed swiftly by doing everything to try and not make those mistakes again.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Laters on the menjay TDKR buzz

My worst fears have been confirmed. Well, not really, because my worst fear would probably be a lot worse than what I'm blogging about today.

But one fear has been confirmed, which was the thought that the next villain in the Nolan Batman film would be a female. I've been meaning to blog about this for a few days but I keep getting sidetracked. It has been confirmed that Anne Hathaway will play Catwoman, while Tom Hardy will portray the villain Bane.

Everytime I've said that I don't want a girl villain in movies with male protagonists, people call me a sexist or whatever that long word starting with 'm' is, which for the life of me I can't remember right now. But I have reasons for wanting a guy villain. Well, just one really, but for me it's an important one.

You see, I liked that in Batman Begins, Batman was fighting against a guy who was trying to blow up the city. Bad guy tries to blow up Gotham, good guy tries to stop him. Easy. It's also the same in The Dark Knight; bad guy tries to kill people in Gotham, good guy has to find him and stop him. It's really simple. Sure, there are underlying themes, different context and various subplots, but it was still fun to watch because you just wanted Batman to emerge victorious.

However, the last thing I wanna see is sexual tension between the hero and villain. It never intruiges me, and I always always get annoyed at that line of storytelling. I don't care if it's realistic or not that a guy would like a girl because she's hot; I want Batman to focus on kicking his enemies' asses, not trying to battle confusing emotional feelings he has about them. Seriously. And plus, Batman is never gonna smash a chick villain. Even if they are murderous and evil. He'll probably end up taking her to jail without hurting her. Say what you want, but when I watch superhero flicks, I love me some hero-loses-control-and-whoops-badguys-ass scenes. There goes that.

I've been hoping and hoping that Tom Hardy was going to play a cool villain like The Riddler or Dr. Hugo Strange or something. Not to mention how awesome The Penguin could have been through the eyes of Nolan. But with the reveal that Bane was his character, I was let down. I'm not sure how well a really musclular yet highly intelligent villain will translate on screen. Heck, I'd been keen as for Cillian Murphy's Scarecrow to return and take villainy center stage again over that. And when there were rumours of Hathaway being cast, I'd hoped it was for a Rachel Dawes-type role, not the main villain. None of this is hating on her of course, because she's a decent actress for sure.

Now all there is to do is look at this picture and think about what could have been, considering the choices:



Sigh. I'll probably get over this soon as, and I'm still definately gonna watch it at the cinemas; it's the Nolan-Bale-Caine combo after all, which brought us two great Batman flicks and The Prestige. Still, the waiting buzz has taken a strong hit. I'm definately less excited about it now right. Which is just as well; maybe less hype* and lower expectations is exactly what I need, in the event that Nolan only makes a great film and not an incredible one.

* - I mean less hype personally. In terms of actual media hype, this is definately gonna get a lot of press. They'll be talking on E! about it, between stories about Heidi's face and bringing up Heath Ledger again for no reason other than the fact that he was in the last one and now he's dead. No disrespect (I can't speak for E! of course).

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Grit or glamour?

As a lot of you might already know, I'm a Springboks supporter. For those who don't know, they are the South African national rugby team. Something else you might also know is that in the English Premier League, I am a strong Manchester United supporter.

Well, something occured to me today. It's a well known fact that the Boks are content with playing "ugly rugby" to get results. It's a term I disagree with, but you guys get what I mean. If the situation calls for ten man rugby, then they'll gladly oblige. The backline don't come to life as much as the All Black or Wallabies blackline, and they're okay with that.

Recently though, Manchester United have been accused of playing "ugly football". With the loss of Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez over the past couple of years, the flair has diminished from the famed club; rather, it tends to grind out wins on pure determinaton and a steelish nerve. In a similar vein to the Springboks, it isn't as attractive to neutral viewers as watching Arsenal or Barcelona weave in and out of their opponents (I cannot WAIT to watch the Arsenal vs Barcelona matches this year), but it is also similar in that it gets the right results. You want proof? Manchester United is the only unbeaten team in the league (so far) this season.

But which is more important? People don't like it for some reason when teams are deemed unexciting, but if you think about it, isn't the first priority always winning the game? Sure, if you got the players with that certain spark, it's never a bad thing to play a more visually exciting game. But surely not at the expense of the all important victory right?

Don't get me wrong; I don't purely support these teams because of their style of play. It's just that I support them and they happen to play this way. I also support the Roosters and Storm in the NRL, who definately could not be accused of lacking flair, so that should put those thoughts to rest.

I just think that if you support a team, you should appreciate that they are doing their best to get results. If you don't like how they get it, well, I'm sure you'll find a team that can play more to your liking. For me personally, I don't care. If Manchester United continue to play like this and win, well, I'd be a more happy fan than you are, simply beause of this:


Monday, January 17, 2011

Few thoughts 15

Sorry about the week-long delay in posts, but I was at Tairua with some friends, had a good week at beaches and waterholes there. Met some cool people, jumped off some rocks into water, watched a movie called August Rush, and made jokes with Dan that no one will else will ever find funny. Also, a special mention to Amy who provided me with a towel for a week because mine mysteriously dissappeared. Thanks baby!

That's my quota for being social sorted for the year.
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Hanging out with Trey and Russell this week really brought my passion for music back, especially the writing side. Gotta get together with my main man Joel again and spark some jam sessions. There's nothing quite like singing a song to God that you fully mean, with every fibre of your being.
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When the new Facebook profile page first came out, I didn't get why there was so much hate directed towards it. There was pretty much no difference between it and the previous layout. Like, asides from more pictures and... yeah, that's about it. And now, everyone has gotten over it so quickly. Fickle fickle people.
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Now that I'm back on my football buzz (what most people refer to as "soccer"), I find myself up late a lot more, as most Premier League games start at 3am or 5am. I can't wait for Super 15 and NRL to start up again, and see if all of my 4 teams can win their respective competitions in one season: Super 15 (Bulls), NRL (Roosters), Rugby World Cup (Springboks), EPL & Champions League & FA Cup (Manchester United).

I'm not sure if I'll ever get into NFL aye. I tried watching a few matches but it just didn't grab me. Maybe I should watch it with fans of the game, I'm sure that'll get me into it. Or maybe I should get me some Madden on.
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If there's one thing I want to do more these days, it's to read more. Not just to read more of The Word (which I really should), but just reading in general. Novels, newspapers, etc. Any suggestions?

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Thiiis negro

Some people say that white people can't say the word "nigga", but black people are allowed. Actually, let us be specific: black people say that white people can't say the word "nigga", but black people are allowed.

That's stupid.

First of all, if it's offensive, don't say it at all. Offensive is offensive regardless of who said it. Are you saying that white people can't offend you, but you can offend yourself? Why should you get angry if they do what you're doing? Words don't have birth rights attached to them.

Secondly, how do you know they're being racist? You're the one being racist if you assume that the caucasian is being derogatory towards you because of your respective skin colours. Most white people I know have a ton of dark friends anyway, and I know I don't care when my white mates call me coconut or whatever. Then again, I call my white friends cracker and honky, so I might be somewhat of an exception. Hmmm.

Besides, I have an easy way to fix the problem: Just pronounce it right, and I'm sure it'll seem a lot less racist. I believe that black people don't get mad at the word 'nigga'; it's the word 'nigger' that gets them going. Just make sure not to pronounce the 'r' sound at the end. There's a big difference. See, try it:

Nigga: a brother, probably also a rapper
Nigger: an inferior dark person

Fixed.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

11 people just don't like it

Something I find very annoying is when I watch YouTube videos, and the most liked comments are usually comments like "12 people only listen to Justin Bieber" or "9 people accidentally hit the dislike button".

What the ass man.

The first time I saw a comment like that, I actually smiled because it was clever. At least, the first 5000 times it was. But now it annoys the heck out of me. I don't even scroll down to read ANY comments anymore, it's gotten that bad.

I mean, first of all, Justin Bieber's music isn't even that terrible. I personally don't really like any of his songs (although there are worse things that could get stuck in my head than "Baby"), but some people act like it's the worst music they have ever heard. They take every opportunity to diss the guy and his music. When really, chances are, if it were another artist who sang it exactly the same, they would probabaly think those songs are awesome.

Second of all... yeah, there's no second of all. This issue probably isn't the true source of my annoyance anyway. The true source is probably how people tend to think that whatever they are into is better than what other people are into.

I've just realized this post is going to way shorter than I thought. It turns out that I don't have that many thoughts on the subject after all. To make up for short length, I'll leave you with this awesome looking trailer:

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Musical venting

Back in the days, I used to know what my music taste was. If anyone asked what kind of music I listened to, I could give a simple answer what would paint the picture of what I liked. For example, I know that I used to like pop punk. Simple. Then I was just into heaps of hip-hop songs (sup James Cook High School). For a while, I was an indie guy (well, not really, but I had my semi-poser phase), where I pretty much only liked artists because no one knew who the ass they were. I had my emo phase too, somewhere in there.

Now though? Now, I don't know. I don't know what "music I'm into". I'm starting to believe that I don't have a certain taste in music. I thought I did. However, it seems these days that there are always different artists who sound very very similar to each other, but I'd like just one artist and completely dislike the others who pretty much sound the same as the one I like. That's why there's no real pattern in the stuff I like.

If you look at my iTunes library for whatever genre I prefer, small patterns start to emerge; for example, there are similarities between Tegan & Sara, White Stripes, The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, We Are Scientists, and Franz Ferdinand. So then you could say that I'm into that pop garage rock revival stuff from UK. Right?

But then all of a sudden, you hit the more "slightly eccentric but generally accepted by main stream type of rock": Muse, Radiohead, mewithoutYou, Hard-Fi, Gorillaz, etc.

Further inspection reveals a bit of "hip-hop for the white man": Kanye West, B.o.B, Lupe Fiasco, Beastie Boys, etc.

Understandably, there are the 90's "alternative rock" jams from my childhood: Goo Goo Dolls, Matchbox Twenty, 3 Doors Down, Vertical Horizon, etc

Surprisingly to some, there is some "adult top 40" stuff here too: Norah Jones, KT Tunstall, Lifehouse, etc.

Of course, there are just the plain old "these guys are classic, you gotta have them": Michael Jackson, The Beatles, ABBA, U2, Bob Dylan, etc.

And then there's Ke$ha. (Don't judge)

I list all this to point out that even though it seems as though I like all these genres, there are so many artists in these very genres that I don't like. Artists that sound a lot like the ones I've listed, the difference being that I don't actually like them. And I don't know why. I could try and list slightly differences to try and justify myself, but really, there should be no reason why I don't like these other artists.

For example:

- Most people say that because of some of the music that I like, it's strange that I detest Queen. But I do. And apparently I'm not allowed to like Muse unless I like Queen. Pfft.

- Also, I like Usher, but I pretty much dislike anyone else who sounds even remotely like him.

- I love me some generic top 40 rock usually (sup The Fray), but I can't stand Lady Antebellum.

- "Hip-hop that white people like" would seem like my forte but for the fact that I don't get what the big deal is with Kid Cudi. His songs are... boring. To me.

- I rock some classics, but there are other legends that I really can't get into: Elvis, Rolling Stones, and Madonna come to mind.

So, I can't even say "I like everything". Because I clearly don't. I can't say "I like 50% of everything" because, well, that makes no sense at all. I can't say "I'm into anything as long it isn't manufactored and meaningless pop garbage" because, well, I listen to Ke$ha.

I thought that by the time I reached this part of the post that I would have come up with a way to describe my music taste. You know, like how in some situations, writing about something just clears your thoughts and brings clarity. Well, in this case, it didn't happen. I still don't know how to explain it.

Ah well.

....

Bye.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Resolution foundation

This is the time of year where everybody reflects on the year that has just finished, and one big part of that is also looking towards future goals. You know what I'm talking about; that's right, new years resolutions. Gotta love those resolutions that almost never get done. Every year we bust out our new vows to make our lives better, but by February they are a distant memory. Actually, they're not even a memory; it's like you never even made them at all.

However, being the onto it guy that I am, I have devised a slow-burning long-term plan that should help me to achieve these goals. You see, I believe most people fail because they're just too eager. There's no need to shoot for the moon right. Like we say in the hood: "Kick back brah." A baby can't walk without learning how to crawl first. And you can't learn how to swim before simply learning how to float.

Well, I'm applying that same fail-safe principle to my new years resolutions. With 2011, I'm gonna take it easy and start with some smaller goals. I plan to knock em outta the park, then sass up 2012 with some bigger resolutions. This should be considerably easier with the confidence I would have gained from completing my previous annual to-do list. It's all about building blocks right. While this year's list may seem little, don't be fooled. It will snowball into a monster avalance resolutions list in a few years.

So, without further ado, here are my new years resolutions for the next 12 months:

- Post at least 3 blog posts.

- Have a total of 12 showers.

- Watch a whole episode of this mysterious show on TV people refer to as "The News".

- Top up my phone at least once.

- Stop getting into fist-fights to the death with drug dealers I owe money to.

- Take 4 sexy photos.

- Go to one Uni lecture for every time I lie to a Mormon about my address.

- Have one friend on Facebook that I didn't have in 2010.

- Correctly predict the culprit in a Scooby Doo episode. Or Law & Order. One or the other, I'm not overly fussed.