200th Blogger and Some Dreams

            This is not only my 200th blog on here, but it is also the 1,000 day this blog has existed.  Which means I have produced a short bit of writing roughly every 5 days for nearly 3 years.  And I think that is pretty good considering how much else I write that ends up going nowhere.  It is strange to write this really, because I know it is not the trumpeting of an angel calling the heavens to war, it will never change anything, it is just my random thoughts and fantasies.

            This all on here isn't important really, but I know that I am a richer person for having written it.  Having exercised it from my brain and throw it out on to the internet for other people to read and care about.  Maybe think about.  I know that my review of "The Dark Knight Rises" or "Prometheus" will not change anyone, but I know my mind changed via writing them.

            Regardless I do feel a love for the stuff I have put out there it is in many ways me in various dosages and flavors, lot of them half finished or left behind on another hosting site.  I have no idea why I thought Facebook would be the ideal place for a blog considering its stellar work with keeping something as simple as notes clean and accessible.

            For this occasion I am going to write up a number of dreams I have had.  As I have done this sort of thing before it's not really new ground, but I have these and it makes sense that to encapsulate all of the rambling stream of consciousness complaining I have done on this blog, that a big round number should have... Rambling nonsense pulled straight from my subconscious.

First Dream:

            I was taking a summer class, and it was the week before finals.  After class the Professor asks to stay so we can talk.  This Prof was tossing me out of the class (this Professor does not exist and is an invention of my mind). I had a class the previous semester with this Professor and at no point had I missed a class, arrived late, and had always participated, so I tell the Professor how I am a good student and should not be cut from the course.

            After telling the Professor that, he dismisses me.  Saying, "I never cared for how you conducted yourself, Josh."  I ask why he had never given me a warning or previous talking to.  His response, "I don't really like confrontation, so I avoid it as long as possible. You should leave now."

            I told him that finishing this class was all I needed for my Masters degree.  He didn't care. I then left and looked out across a vast campus which was mostly empty space with towers on it.  The towers were stacks of real life buildings from the FSU campus, like they had been snapped onto each other, as if they were giant Lego blocks.

            I set off walking across the campus, looking for a way to get a degree with the credits I already had.

Second Dream:

            I am walking in an underground cavern and come to a massive stone door with a lock in the center of it.  The lock is surrounded by 3 crystals/gems.  They are arrange one at the 11 o'clock, one at the 9 o'clock, and the last at the seven o'clock.  The gems are green-blue and sparkling.

            I am with a few other people and we are looking for something, an underground city that is possibly behind this giant stone door.  So we examine the lock.  The gems vanish and the door opens.

            We enter into an underground jungle, lit from the stone ceiling by a massive fissure that lets in a torrent of sunshine.  We see in the distance a steppe pyramid.  While walking there I stop along with a woman in my travel party, we are inspecting a flower/seed-pod that has a weird goo coming out of it that looks and tastes like marmalade.

Third Dream:

            My last and longest dream involved a very anime like plot.  It involves three siblings (two guys and a girl), myself, a friend of mine from my trip to Turkey (Jon P.), a tough girl, someone who I think was Bryan Cranston, an older tough woman, and a psychogenic super being (the words "psychogenic super being" were in my mind when I woke up, this is not me looking up some sort of term, that is what he was referred to in my dream, which I guess just means telekinetic).  All of us become freedom fighters in a world gone wrong.

            Most of the dream takes place on trains (awful trains, mostly just engines pulling flat beds with uncovered benches for passengers to sit on).  The world is dystopian as all the stops we go to on the way are incredibly run down and unkempt motels on the rail with very empty rooms, no staff, and no carpeting.  At one point we stop in an abandoned motel and sleep on old bare mattresses, weeds growing out of the floor, and no electric light for miles.

            An oppressive military regime in gold and red power armor (sort of like Iron Man, but more mecha like with wings) runs everything and is after the group, but each part of the group for different reasons.

            Initially the dream doesn't start with me but with the three siblings, who are running through the wilderness, trying to keep moving because they are being chased (more like they are wanted for some sort of crime, its not like there are dogs on them at that moment).  This is when they come to meet me, I am in the middle of nowhere also hiding from the government of this dream world.

            The three of us all continue running and eventually fin the railway and follow it down avoiding the regime and eventually meet the rest of the group.

            It is then that the group goes on a crime spree/freedom rebellion. 

            Ultimately we are caught and attacked by one of the winged gold power armor thugs and the psychogenic super being kills him by throwing it into the sky, filling the air with hot air balloons and confetti and ultimately flying up and kicking him around like some insane version of Superman would.  The rest of us just look on in amazement unable to help at all.

            Then we all flee down rail.

Movie Series that Need More Entries, #1 "The Mask"

            I would like film studios to make more movies about "The Mask".  Each movie would star a different protagonist who encounters the mask and goes on an adventure.

            The beginning of each movie would show each character's personal plight, they are angry, put upon, down on their luck, repressed, or just somewhat cruel.  The mask then enters their life and causes their deep seated desires to rise to the surface, warping reality and making them act as murderers, heroes, sex maniacs, or whatever.

            At the end of the movie they either grow as a person, which causes the mask to pass to the next owner, having allowed the owner to have grown and changed for the experience, or the possessor dies a victim of the internal evils that the mask brought to the surface.  Sort of like "Silent Hill" but mobile, personal, and interacting with the real world rather than just the town itself.

            This would actually make it closer to the original comic in execution which was about the mask passing from owner to owner turning most into violent cartoonish monsters.

            Either way it would save a great deal on casting, would allow for varying levels of horror and comedy (like "Nightmare on Elm Street"), and grant the sort of creative freedom with limits that encourages good story telling.

Very Different Tones could be played.

10 Haiku

In the House of Sin

Just off of Ohio Street

We were all quite safe

Not origami

The product of my hard work

Just crumpled paper

I want to go home

But I want to stay away

Take it day by day

The images swim

I close my eyes, white and black

ghosts of dreams unborn

I grew up I guess

She begged me to let her down

I did, but not hard

Between the Tree Rows

You can see the Horizon

Whether dark or day

How long will it last

Till April, May, June, or August

Today if lucky

I had just arrived

A world that just did not care

I was not surprised

Went through completely

Like a bullet, not a ghost

The hole she left hurt

You know what he is

Who?  You know who, Amsada

The Man in the Suit

My Thoughts on "The Final Countdown"

            A while back I watched a movie from 1980, "The Final Countdown" (not the song).  It starred Martin Sheen and Kirk Douglas, so I thought it would be pretty good.  It is a high concept science fiction movie with the premise, "What if a modern 1980's aircraft carrier had been magically transported back in time to the waters outside of Pearl Harbor, the day before the Japanese attacked bringing the United States into World War II?"

Nothing in this entire movie approaches the awesome-ness of this single bit of concept art.

            Now a good chunk of the movie does two things very well, it shows the inner workings of a then modern aircraft carrier and it has people talking about implications of things.  The movie has a premise.  And it discusses that premise.  Forever.

            To just spoil the 33 year old movie, the crew is fully prepared to defend with all its firepower Pearl Harbor from attack and then report to FDR for further instruction.  The firepower on board is capable of totally leveling the Japanese fleet and more or less winning the war in a day.  But that doesn't happen.  What happens instead is that the magical storm that originally transported them to 1941 shows up again and transports them back to 1980 before they can actually attack Japan's fleet and change history.

            The entire plot and question of the movie goes entirely unanswered and amounts to nothing.  I cannot express how big a waste of time the movie is when that is the conclusion.

            If this movie had been made today it would have ended with the attack, and the battle would have been huge, pulled out all the stops and definitively shown that history as it had been was no more.  The movie would have ended and the sequels (and there would have been many, MANY sequels) would deal with the fall out of this.  It would have had to put forth a lot of questions, would we assassinate the numerous despots we knew were to come in the crib, or in the field hospitals (for instance Ho Chi Minh had been treated by American doctors years before leading North Vietnam).  How many social injustices would be confronted?  Like the black officers and crewmen on the ship, would they be able to talk to the oppressed black society of the time as to the relatively brighter tomorrow that awaited them?

            None of this is answered.  The movie is a toothless gumming of the audience's expectations.  So I had to ask myself, "Why does this movie exist?  And who is it for?"

            I believe that the movie exists to teach the audience how the "modern" 80's navy functions, and somewhat in contrast to the 40's.  Think about this.  Things like wikipedia, youtube, and the navy's own website could not just provide this information to people who might like to learn about it just to satisfy their curiosity.  A veteran of World War II who at the time of the movie could be 60 years old would like to learn what is changed since he left to become a farmer or a fireman.

            Movies like this exist to show the audience something they were curious about and illustrate it with a story that they might find entertaining or familiar.  They want to take you on a journey, lots of old movies are like this, tours or vacation spots turned into movies.  I am half certain all the exotic locals in James Bond movies are about showing people fantastic yachts and beach resorts, grand casinos and tropical islands because people couldn't see that stuff for real or on the internet.

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