New "series" on the ponderings:Sequels vs Remakes or Reboots

Near the tail end of May beginning of June I was trying to write a blog on my phone about Sequels, Remakes and Reboots as I was looking forwarding into the "Summer Movies Season". As we had a new "The Fast and the Furious" movie out (Fast Five), a new Xmen movie coming (X-men:First Class), another Transformers sequel(Dark of the Moon), and another Captain America reboot(Captain America:First Avenger) lightning struck in my mind. Why not talk about said differences between the types of movies as well as give my opinions on each, as well as whether I like said previous installment, attempt or incarnation. This of course was an immense undertaking filled with phone crashes(and thus lots of key strokes being lost), work stoppages due to my actual 9 to whenever, and the same basic malaise that has cause my reviews of X-men and Green Lantern to STILL be delayed(yes I know I should be Fonged).

I should be ashamed

I who read either ""Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix(870 pages) or ""Harry Potter and the half blood Prince(672 pages) in one night, a perfectly happy passenger in J.K. Rowlings latest installment of what was to be her 7 part epic(obviously it is over now, the final movie coming out within the next 30 days) took the better part of a week to finish The Elements of Style (95 pages including all introductions, forwards, prologues and acknowledgements).  Now some might say I deserve a little forgiveness because of course Elements is more of a text book than it is some sort of fanciful tale geared to grab my imagination, I say that is cold comfort. I selected the book, I checked it out, I read a few pages realizing it was more grammatically intense than it was comical lecture or humorous chiding and I still picked it up.


It was a case of not being able to get the book I wanted so I took a book it had recommended,  29 Common Writing Mistakes, I went into the library with hopes of borrowing the title so that I might finish it and do some of the exercises. Within the first 34 pages two titles stuck out at me the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (which my brother still owned a copy of from high school and it was readily available) and the previously mentioned Elements of style. As I would like to become a better writer I decided hey the first step in ANY journey is always the most important, if you would like to write better read about writing(granted writing at all would also help but I will chastise myself about that later). Anyone who knows me personally (especially my tumultuous time from 4th to 12th grade, my my my how many times was I stuck at the front of the class) knows how much I LOATHE HOMEWORK, to say I think it evil is somewhat overstated, I think it's unnecessary. I tend to learn things quickly or not at all so if in my initial reading of the textbook I didn't get everything I needed, I wasn't going to get anything. And as my test scores would often show, I tend to retain a lot I just can't stand repetitively doing it over and over and over, practice may make perfect but if you continuously stir the bowl you will either beat out all texture or else create so much gluten as to make it a chewy inedible mess. So for me to be basically signing up for *groan* homework would probably make some check the temperature in hell, hold on there bessy I'm not sitting here doing exercises I'm reading something I actually like to do.

Upon first blush it seems me and Elements are going to be at odds, it is a book built upon the foundation of BREVITY and me be brief, do I not extole on how I will say what I want for as long as I want and to the extent that I want? I warn people at least a few times a year about the fact that I will ramble on, randomisity train isn't this what I call my fine friend here. So to ask me to be brief, why I should put it down immediately shouldn't I and yet I was intrigued by the challenge. And to make matters worse why this book suggest I don't add words to the English language, THE UNMITIGATED NERVE. How dare some dusty tome from a bygone age tell me NOT to amend the English language as I see fit, though to be fair I don't do it as often as I would claim so honestly that one isn't that hard to go along with, brevity though yeah thats gonna stick in my craw. It also suggested breaking long sentences up into shorter ones and abstaining from heavy handed prose, now see that last bit I do need to work on. It suggested making sentences stronger by removing unnecessary qualifiers for example:why say something is LIKE a thing, if you feel it's a thing take a stand and call it a thing(you may have noticed that if I did a cloud of this blog over the last week or so the word LIKE is showing up a lot less). See I may be stubborn, bullheaded, and set in my ways but I don't mind a good well intentioned debate or discussion on a topic or technique. And like I said I always want to get better, being less timid in my language is actually something that I want to do, the fact that I have banned "Colorful Metaphors" from this blog means at times I have rambled on to say something that a quick two word sentence might have been employed for on wordpress or multiply.

Now of course this would not be a book on grammar or writing if punctuation did not rear it's vile head, what can I say I BARELY put my commas in the right place, and if I really wanted to be better I would let a more grammatically gifted friend edit me before I posted. That is what I wanted though: ideas, suggestions and directions upon which to better improve the quality of my writing and thus the presentation of my blog. And the Elements of Style while stern in its call for less digital diarrhea isn't so cruel as to say it's his way or the highway, just that when you look at a few well chosen examples isn't less more? Isn't being direct and forthright with your imagery and thoughts a better usage of your time and page space. I say yes, so while I will still write long and lengthy blogs they will be long not because I wasted 10 words to figure out how to say 5 but because I found the right  5 words to get my point across and expounded upon that thought in a more connected nature.






































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I'm thinking of doing a dump

Yes all of these posts that I have sitting in draft collecting dust, I'm thinking of either posting them all or else thinking of going back to edit them into something that while it encapsulates the original post it allows it to be more relevant to the present. I mean the post I did on black ops, as of now I haven't played black ops in a few weeks(ever since the debacle with the internet after the storm and then Playstation network went down), the review for Tron:Legacy, thats been languishing since December, hell it's about to hit cable if it hasn't already. I actually did a post about being halfway done with a few movie reviews that somehow got flushed. Wait I remember now that was when I found out that the blogger app was saving the posts to my blog but no longer allowing me to edit them, yeah it was weird but it happens.

The downside of course to just posting random items with no future editing or work is that if they were a mess(which anything I have yet to post usually is since, while I will never claim to be king editor, I felt it obviously needed more work or changes before I posted it.) and I prefer to post blogs that people actually like to read. Yes I know some of my posts may be a little long in the tooth for some, but hey my blog and I will be as detailed or as flighty as I like. I do appreciate all who have slogged through my posts in the past, and for those who felt compelled to comment thank you, your input has been greatly appreciated. The more thought I give this dump I probably will go with the latter, find a way to rewrite them so that while it's still say a review of Tron:legacy or me talking about my further endeavors in Black Ops it not only brings forth my original thoughts but also shows how my feelings about said items has grown or waned with the passage of time.

The Trailers for Green Lantern

Cowboys & Aliens

Jon Favreau's wild west tale about a dusty stranger, who is dropped from the sky with a strange device on his arm. He has no memory of who he is, how he got there or why he is wearing the strange device. It seems though that whoever he was, not too many people like him after a dust up in the dessert outside of town he is arrested. Seems a local rancher knows who he is, and he wants to give him some High Plains Justice while the rancher attempts to demand the drifters body for his "justice" the sky darkens, and out of no where come beam firing apparitions in the night.  The strange device on the drifters arm starts glowing and changes shape and he knocks one of the creatures from the sky. The towns folk have no clue who their tormentors but they now know they can hurt em, so the drifter and a posse head off to get the kidnapped townsfolk back and to find his lost memories.

Harry Potter And the Deathly Hallows pt.2

This is it, the boy who lived come to die. The 7th and final book(to date) in the Harry Potter series, this is the final half he has seen mentors, family, friends and rivals die he has learned every lesson that Albus Dumbledore could teach. He has bested Sphinxes, Basilisks, Death Eaters, deluded members of the ministry of magic, Quiddich, dragons, and Slytherins. With all those happy tidings though Dumbledore is still dead, so is Rufus Scurmugeon, Mad Eye Moody, and Dobby the house elf Mr. Potter's circle of happiness has long since been broken. He must face off against Valdemort and only one shall live, who else shall die on the path to the final showdown between good and evil. Who else of his long term friends and companions will he see lost to all time at the end of the wand of a Death Eater. Can the Boy who lived once again beat He Who Shall Not Be Named.

*Pssst* Hey this ain sports whats with all the drafts

Argh, I'm doing it again I'm becoming a draft machine. I start posts but get busy so I can't finish them and than they LANGUISH in the ether just waiting for me to come back, my brand new puppy sitting at the door, looking forlorn, waiting for me to walk in and play with him. This is of course not on purpose, long work days and unfocused nights. I mean it's almost the end of June and I don't even have half a months worth of posts done. I should be ashamed, how could I neglect two blogs like this(won't even talk about multiply, though to be fair most of my connects seem to be gone from there anyway) and there is no satisfactory answer. These introspective pieces, while they technically count as blogging, are just me tapping on the keys as a mental place holder, me saying "see I did write something today" but not really putting in the mental effort to actually follow a topic to its finale.

I went to the library yesterday, now while this isn't some "OMG you went to a library" moment I did something I haven't done going on a good 15 years, hell maybe 20, I signed up for a library card and actually checked out a few books. I had been a bookstore whore for a while running in to buy the latest Harry Potter, Jason Bourne, Percy Jackson, Star Wars, et al release but then times got hard and my personal life got crazy. Yes I will still buy a book here or there but not like I used too, it used to be an almost every pay period addiction, I don't even buy comic books like I used to my momentary escapes from reality so I can set my mind free. I forgot my old friend the library those well worn and tattered tomes for those of us with active imaginations and bigger literary appetites that we had money in our pockets or space for on our shelves. Now my trip to the library wasn't perfect, the main book I was looking for wasn't there, "29 writing mistakes", it was something I found on a trip to the library a few weeks ago.

Ding dong the random Element is dead

Look at my blog my dear bloggers notice anythig missing. Come on look closely now, hmm don't know where to look? How about under the blog name? Still no

That phantom non working, non registering "Search Box" that has been up there for months has finally been axed, at first I was afraid to do anything to it, I mean what if I screwed up, what if I went to cut it out and destroyed the wrong code. That was really my fear, trying to snip out that useless search box that only returned error messages and killing something I actually wanted on the page. But I've taken the plunge, snipped a little code here and there a viola, search box gone. Now I just have to go through and complete some more blogs for this month(this one not included, this is fluff nada). I hope all those fathers involved in their children's lives had a great fathers day, I am not amongst your numbers but I appreciate the hard work many of you do and the backlash you take due to the ones who could care less. As usual you can't complain to the one who doesn't show up so you take it out on the one who does.

At the movies

Okay I made it, took me a little longer than usual(I think but I haven't made this walk in a while) but I'm here and what do you know the Malco 12 is still open. So I can for the forseeable future still walk to the movies and watch these summer blockbusters. Almost film time, so this will be a quick shot and I hope everyone is having a good night.

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A moment of Zen

At the moment I have the incense burning, sitting behind the fan to send the soothing aromas around the room quicker. I want to get some writing done tonight

Can I get out of this "Funk"

Being a HUGE Parliament fan, I have no Problem with FUNK. Personally I need the FUNK, I am always down for the FUNK, but it is the 18th day of June and I only have 10 entries added to the total so far(over 100 for the year though) and I've only gone to see one movie, that ain pimpin. To make matters worse I haven't exercised in weeks, I am starting to resemble something a certain green muppet is known to rest on, possibly sitting in a pond, with moss growing on me. Why I'm off kilter like this is anybody's guess am I not used to the environs of my new room yet possibly, as the saying goes heat rises(save it seems in the playoffs but hey first year together you made it all the way to the finals and a Game 6 with a young coach and a team EVERYBODY not in the city of Miami hated, not bad) and this room is often quite warm but I've blogged in the heat before so meh probably not a good enough reason. While I have been tweeting, tumbling and everything else a little bit I have been somewhat absent from those worlds at times too, yes I am having the same technical difficulties with my Vaio that I complained about previously so that is part of it, hell while originally beginning this post my damn Firefox crashed for no apparent reason.

Into every life a little rain must fall

That was the view from the shed the earlier this week. It started out as a normal morning, sun was shining mildly cloudy and then out of no wear *BOOM*, sky got dark, rain came down, and almost as if this is now a running Memphis theme:The power went out. Yup that's right we had no power again, it was only for like 10 hours(7 at the first clip then 2 shorter stints of about an hour or so each) which to some might be a lot but after being without power for days(and knowing folks who went weeks) a few hours was barely an annoyance.

The vaio

You've heard me speak on it before, usually with praise but a few complaints here and there. Simply put its the machine you usually interact with me on, way back in '05 me and my wife spent a pretty penny on it and basically it has come through for the most part with flying colors. Now yes I have mentioned as of late that it needs a reload, which is true but needing a reload does not diminish your past good works.

Top and bottom faceplates gone

Dual DvD drives(the top one a no longer functioning burner I should have replaced long ago), a 3.2 Ghz P4 H/T processor, 250 GB Sata HD(yes Sony was ahead of the curve with that), and I think came with either 1 gb or 1.5 gb of ram to start. I've edited movie clips, played games and done damn near everything on this puter. So I'm kinda sorry to see it need to be sideline for a while, unlike my first Vaio it won't be given away most likely either it or the refurbished one will become the home of the Ponderings database. Once I fully back up my data, I'm going to load Windows 7 on it. It can easily handle it and basically if nothing else I should have upgraded it years ago(just didn't have the space).

The first time we ever met

I must admit, they got me of all the people I originally expected her to be I never expected River Song(Alex Kingston) the Precocious Archaeologist who died back while David Tennant was the Doctor to end up being a Human Time Lord. River Song or Melody Pond as her parents had named her the BBC's Time Traveler's Wife(or is she his Mistress since technically the Tardis is his wife). Now that I know more of her story it's like wow she really is awesome,unlike the Doctor she loves guns. She knows it all, but is still impressed by him at every turn.

The first time we met RiverSong(or River Song I've seen it listed as both) was in 2008 during the "Silence in the Library" episode, she pulls the Doctor off to the side and produces a tattered  blue diary.She begins asking him about various adventures none of which the Doctor seems to know anything about.this is the introduction to a running theme in their interactions, every time the Doctor meets River Song from this day forth both will produce Diaries(technically the same diary but watch the episodes to see what I'm talking about). Now thanks to the last episode before the summer break of 2011 this episode will never sit right with me again. The part of the next episode "Forest of the Dead" that kind of sticks out is the Doctors Name(you don't find out til later it's his name that she tells him but the look on his face tells it all)

Dead week

Well not completely a dead week. I haven't tried to post from my phone since wednesday when my phone ate a blog (I swear). Anyway I have some PC's to reload I have the X-men post to write (or at least start), then its off for probably the 4pm showing of Super 8. I think, I didn't even check to see if they had super 8.

Hmmmmm that's weird I don't see any showtimes listed for today at all. Oh well that means I have to walk down there and check with no clue as to if im wasting my time. Hopefully not but if so meh I've needed to get off my but anyway. I was doing a Post about River Song last night, fell asleep didn't finiah it. If you're a fellow Doctor who fan I'm sure your like OMG talk about a good build up. I mean all the, *tires screeching* let me not co-opt this one too. Anyway so I have that post to finish as well.

Technical difficulties

The Vaio is acting up, I know its a software issue, I know I need to do a system repair unfortunately I have no clue where my original XP disk is. That means to this either A) wipe and reload the whole shebang(which ain happening too much data and stuff on here) or else find a new PC at a decent price and slowly work on the vaio later. And by slowly I mean just that, do the HD upgrades I was planning to do, do the memory upgrades and possibly throw windows 7 on there.

Just because I held the door

Just because I held the door doesn't mean I'm expecting panties off and legs spread. That's silly, not only if I expected that but for you to think that. You could have asked me why instead of giving me attitude, was I trying to be charming and a gentleman yup. Because maybe me doing one, small, insignificant, inconsequential thing for you could send a little sunshine my way. A smile, a "thank you" something simple for something simple. Maybe me catching a door for you means my wife, mother, sister, aunt, cousins or friends could catch some good karma in return and have somebody do something nice for them.

I mean am I worth so little? Because you turned around and said "Thank you" or returned my "have a nice day" that now you can have my penis anytime. Did you ever think that it wasn't your attractiveness that got me to hold that door but possibly my fathers example, or my mothers love? I've often gotten into online philosophical confrontations over whether or not anyone(male or female) is owed a thank you for doing something nice. The answer is yes, a simple thank you would suffice and a smile with that thank you would be awesome.

The trailers for X-men:First class

I caught the 10:10 Showing of X-me:First Class last night, theater was packed even for that late showing, granted I was at the Paradiso it tends to get a lot of traffic anyway. So here's what popped up when the lights went down

Spy Kids All the time in the World

Jessica Alba as a retired spy who is trying to live her new life as the worlds best Step mom, until an old villain from her past pops up after a gift that she gives to her young daughter. Lost of over the top hijinks and stunts as well as a talking cybernetic pooch what more could you want in a kids movie.

MAY be I will

Wow looks like May was the second most productive month to date here on the ponderings, 50 posts wow I wasn't really keeping count I like it though. Its X day, whether with my brothers or solo I'm going to see X-men:First Class today. Now being a comic book movie of course X-men has a built in fan base AND the highest knowledgeable critic base possible. You want to know why The Last Airbender was panned so quickly, EVERYBODY knew how the story was supposed to go save M. Night Shamalan.

Now sometimes you can get a MINI pass if you can touch a part of a comics/Cartoons fan base that has seen an older or DIFFERENT version of the story before(yes I'm talking about Schumacher's Batman Forever), but even that will only get you so much rope(thus Batman & Robin being so hated). I understand its Hollywood, and that Hollywood Conventional Wisdom is different than everyone elses but hey Dragonball Evolution don't you think if you take a property with a 20+ year American fan base that you should at least WATCH THE SHOW. I mean I know there is no idea like a well worn proven idea(*cough* Transformers we think we have sucked the life out of every animation style and possible story reboot possible*cough*) mmmm scuse me ah ah ah (*achoo GI we don't know how its possible but we took a cartoon about a high tech military special forces group and made the new cartoons suck oo* *sniff*), wow excuse me my allergies must be acting up.

Due to the extremely raunchy nature

I've decided to cut myself a break and do the Hangover 2 blog on wordpress so I can do the movie justice. It was funny as hell but come on, how in the hell do you expect me to do it justice when half of the best lines are illegal by the guidelines of this blog can't do it. It was one of those movies where ya laughed but never spoke of it again.

The hangover 2 felt that Doctor Manhattan wasn't enough in the movies, we need mutliple full frontal shots because we're a comedy. And they never stopped. So I'll link this post to the appropriate wordpress post later once I'm finished, I hope everyone has a great day

A complaint to or about me is not the same as stabbing me in the back

Can I get yall to gather a little closer for me, yeah don't violate anybody else's personal space but make sure you can hear me on this one. This is the land of free speech, if there is something on your mind get it off. Say what you have to say, be honest and open about your concerns it doesn't mean I(or the person you are talking to at the time if you ain speaking to me) will agree with you but at least there will be no hard feelings because I possible stepped on your toes or because something you said got back to me when we were standing right next to each other. See there is this "common wisdom" right now that if you complain to or about someone, that you are betraying them. Not at all, if there is a problem that I don't see but you do guess what? If you don't tell me it won't get fixed, or if it can't get fixed you won't know that unless you tell me so I can explain to you what this issue is with said item. Now understand, if it is a personal quirk of mine that you have an issue with it may not get fixed but at least I will know "okay this is something you don't want to ride with, I won't pick you up for this adventure", and guess what because you let me know up front NO HARD FEELINGS.

Now if all you do is talk bad about me behind my back, constantly sharpening knives and only getting ya tiger on when I turn my back as not to see who's throat I should be grabbing, THAT is stabbing me in the back, if you are sure about what you have to say then possibly give me you preliminary concerns and say "but let me get back to you because I may have been mistaken", I won't be mad something bothered you yet before you make to big a deal about it you wanna get more info, I completely respect that. I see you constantly talking until I walk into the room and then you get all busy and act like your eyes and my direction are the same magnetic charge and never the two shall meet, I understand you want drama, and this ain the daytime soaps. It seems to have become a habit of late that detraction is the cuisine dujuor. Why do the hard work of figuring out what is actually going on when you can resort to sensationalism, innuendo, loose association and inference to drum up "traffic".