Big Mike's Coffee: 12:32 AM

I cannot stay focused on MUMH for more than 20 minutes at a time. I'm like, "has anyone posted anything to facebook at 12:30?" no moron, and even if they had, it's probably something that is. . . I lost my train of thought. Hank the Cowdog once did a train of thought tangent. It was hilarious. Anybody ever listen to Hank the Cowdog audiobooks? Those were the best. One of the most influential series of my childhood, next to Redwall and Star Wars. I've been drifting from coffee shop to coffee shop, it's like that scene from Futurama where Bender has that montage where he's drifting from educational and sobering place to educational and sobering place after Fry kicked him out of their apartment. I'm sure that scene was a parody of some movie that I have yet to see. Maybe Leaving Las Vegas, but probably not. It reminded me of this throwback movie starring Jeff Daniels reminiscent of the movies of the 40s and 50s, but they were drifting around hollywood or Vegas in any case it was somewhere with lots of flashy signs, I'm pretty sure they did it in front of a rear projection screen ala you know car scenes from any time before 1980 and Pulp Fiction where Bruce Willis is in the cab with some woman Villa Lobos who's curious about how it feels to kill someone. "I don't feel the least bit bad about it" said Butch. Good movie OOOOOOHHHHHH!!! I've gotta get back to MUMH. It's a really interesting class. Music of the 20th Century. I've drunk three cups of coffee today, three and a half but I tried not to count the half because it was so bad (JuHo did me wrong) but I just bought another at 12:10 and DANG IT! Ima be up for a while which is okay because I took like a 3 hour nap from 7 to 9:45. 2 hours and 45 minutes. Close enough. My roommate was watching HGTV. A show about how people fix up other people's apartments or properties so that those people can rent it out at a greater price to yet other people. Apparently Extreme Makeover Home Edition wasn't good enough. I guess this is on a much smaller scale than EMHE, therefore more lucrative provided anyone watches it, which he was but he may have been the only one except for that I KNOW that he wasn't. How can I know that? Because the show would have been cancelled if only one person was watching it. They would have shut it down mid-episode. THOUSANDS of people must have been watching it. At least he wasn't watching reality tv. That's the most lucrative type of show. Cheap to produce, but lots of people watch it. Why do they do this, you ask? I've come to the conclusion that most people are stupid or just enjoy watching other people make fools of themselves which is not stupid but cruel. I don't mean to offend nobody, except for that I kinda do, in hopes that you will get a hold of yourself and STOP SUPPORTING THE MORONS ON JERSEY SHORE. THEY MAKE MONEY BY BEING MORONS RATHER THAN DO ANYTHING RESPONSIBLE. But hey, who am I? Am I responsible? Hardly. Here I've typed away 20 minutes of late night ramblings instead of study for my quiz tomorrow. It'll be fine, everything will be alright unless it won't. I just wish that they had done a better job with The Walking Dead. I bought every episode, though in hopes that just one episode would live up to the pilot. Darabont: If you're reading this, I want you to know that Days Gone Bye was probably the best dramatic television I've ever seen. Direct more episodes. And keep those suckas from doing the crouch and counsel. It's like Lost's heavy breathing.

Good Lord

So I'm sitting in my earth science class and it's boring. And easy. The only thing this class has going for it is a british professor. It has been an interesting February. The most interesting February I think I've ever experienced in my short life. And I just don't know where everything goes from here. The future just seems so much more uncertain than it ever has before. Maybe I'm just blowing this all out of proportion. Maybe life has always been as uncertain and unpredictable as I see it now. In fact, I know it has. We have no idea what's coming our way. My life could be over in 5 seconds, 5 months, 5 years, 50 years. The ceiling caves in, I have an aneurism, I'm in a car/bike wreck, I choke on a chicken bone, I'm stuck under a boulder and I don't have the guts to cut off my own arm (or I just don't have a knife, (shiver) trying to gnaw my arm off), I die peacefully in my sleep, I get an atomic bomb dropped on me. I know I'm going to die. I just don't know when or how. I don't want to stand before God and have nothing to show for the life on earth that he gave me. I was too scared, for whatever reason. I wasted my time watching movies, listening to music, buying stuff, FACEBOOK, filling my head with useless knowledge and trying to get people to like me. I'M SO SELFISH. And I hate that. It's the American Way, human nature. Jesus called us out of that. He called us to a life of community, of sacrifice, of service, putting God above all and those around us before ourselves. He calls us to spread the gospel truth in word and the way we live of Christ's death for our sins to those who do not believe. But what do I do. I know what I should do. I know that I should have no fear. But I don't do what I should. I remain fearful. I sit here and I type out a letter expressing my discontentment with the typical for all the internet to read. I'M SUCH A COWARD. Let's be good to each other. Not so that other people will think better of us, not so that they will return the favor. Let's just be good to one another because it is what we should do. And dadgummit, Sin is what's wrong with the world today and Jesus is the answer.


So my academy award predictions were a little off, so what?!

My Predictions/Hopes for Oscar Nominees

Best Picture Nominees (descending in order of likelihood of nomination and subsequent win)

1. The Social Network
Forget your apprehensions over seeing a movie about facebook, it's not about facebook. It's truly very good, well written, well acted. It's gonna win.

2. The King's Speech
haven't seen it, heard it was really good.

3. 127 Hours
SOOOOO good

4. The Fighter
very good family drama, the fighting kinda takes a back seat to the family, though and it was kinda anticlimactic in my opinion. Great performances, ensemble cast.

5. Black Swan
Great performance by Portman, AWESOME cinematography, very moody, very discomforting, very well-done

6. Inception
Brilliant. So original and so well done. Yeah, it has the feel of summer blockbuster, less focus on character, more focus on blowing your mind. Hey. It still blew your mind. Give it a chance. If The Social Network wasn't so good, I would be lobbying hard for this one.

7. Toy Story 3
The token animation slot filler. It WAS good, and I loved revisiting the Toys that I grew up with. I wasn't as blown away by this one as everyone else was, but it'll get nominated.

8. Winter's Bone
Independent. Apparently it had a great lead performance and a genre mashing white trash noir thing going for it. Haven't seen it, but a lot of critics liked it.

9. True Grit
The Coens deliver again. They'll get nominated again. Great performances, great western feel, look, dialogue. Hailee Steinfeld, I'm considering your future with great interest. You might not know it, but these guys are among the best of the best.

10. The Kid's Are All Right
Independent film, VERY west coast liberal if you know what I'm saying. Quirky story, good performances.



Best Director Nominees

1. David Fincher (he's been around for a long time, has made several great movies, his time has come)

2. Darren Aronofsky (He's got a talent for making you very uncomfortable)

3. Christopher Nolan (My personal favorite. He's a genius and though he lacks in comparison to these
other guys in what he can draw from or how he focuses on character, technically, he's brilliant. His time will come)

4. Danny Boyle (127 Hours largely takes place in an enclosed space with one character and it's awesome. Respect)

5. Coen Bros., Tom Hooper or Some Indie sonofagun (The Coens have won 4 Oscars and have more nominations than Meryl Streep, Hooper directed The King's Speech which was apparently really good but as I haven't seen it, can't really make that call. It's unlikely, but both of them may get overlooked in favor of some younger blood, most likely David O. Russell of the Fighter)



Best Actor Nominees

1. Colin Firth in the King's Speech (He got snubbed last year, it won't happen again this year.)

2. James Franco in 127 Hours (If Firth were to get snubbed, I would love to see Franco win. 127 Hours was SOOOO good.)

3. Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network (maybe not the greatest performance, but no doubt a solid one and the face of the best picture front-runner)

4. Ryan Gosling in Blue Valentine (He's getting a lot of buzz and he's a great actor, but I haven't seen the movie)

5. Javier Bardem in Biutiful (He's getting a lot of buzz and he's a great actor, but I haven't seen the movie)
OR Robert Duvall in Get Low (Vintage Duvall, crotchety old man living with a haunting secret that he's gotta get off his chest. He's good, says "yeah. . . yeah" a lot but it's a great performance.)



Best Actress Nominees

1. Natalie Portman in Black Swan (She goes crazy and it's scary-awesome)

2. Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right (good performance, she may overtake Portman because of her age and because she hasn't been recognized yet. This category is one to watch)

3. Julianne Moore in The Kids Are All Right (good performance, deserving of a nomination at least.)

4.  Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone (apparently she was pretty good, and she's young so that's two things going for her nomination)

5. Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine (Apparently she was really good. The trailer for this movie nearly made me cry)


Best Supporting Actor

1. Christian Bale in the Fighter (major weight loss, bald patch, surprisingly funny. plus Christian Bale just goes to town as the coked out boxer brother of Marky Mark in the Fighter. He'll win and he deserves it.)

2. Andrew Garfield in The Social Network (He does a great job, there's no denying.)

3. Geoffrey Rush in The King's Speech (He's won his Oscar, he's been nominated numerous times. He'll get the nomination this time, but I wouldn't expect him to win it.)

4. Matt Damon in True Grit (Damon is just great. He got robbed last year by not getting nominated for the Informant. One of these days, he's gonna blow us all away big time and I can't wait)

5. Vincent Cassel in Black Swan OR Mark Ruffalo in The Kids Are All Right OR Bill Murray in Get Low or Armie Hammer in The Social Network (they all do great, Ruffalo almost broke my heart in The Kids, Cassel hurt my feelings in Black Swan, Hammer is brilliant as the twins in Network and Murray made me laugh in Get Low)


Best Supporting Actress

1. Amy Adams in The Fighter

2. Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit

3. Melissa Leo in The Fighter

4. Helena Bonham Carter in The King's Speech

5. Somebody in Something

(Everybody except Steinfeld is about due for an award so your guess is as good as mine. I can vouch for Adams and Leo, they're both fantastic. I'd bet on Leo, she's the oldest and least celebrated of the 4. That Steinfeld was moved to the Supporting Actress category really makes me mad considering she is the focal point of True Grit. But at least this way she'll definitely get the nomination. I like her a lot.)


And now for some of my favorite minor award guesses.

Best Original Screenplay
Oh boy, it better be Inception. If not, it'll prolly get snubbed by The King's Speech or the Kids Are All Right. Toy Story 3.

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Social Network has got this one in the bag. Deserving contenders include 127 Hours and True Grit. Maybe even Scott Pilgrim.

Best Original Score
The Social Network. I forgot that it even had a score until I watched it yesterday. Reznor. Man, it's really good, I can't believe I forgot about it. Very tech-y and that opening titles theme is great. 127 Hours maybe, Inception maybe, The King's Speech maybe, Toy Story 3 maybe.

Best Cinematography
I really really like the cinematography in Black Swan. the camera dances with the dancers and it's really cool. Likely contenders will be Inception, The Social Network, The King's Speech and True Grit. True Grit was pretty. Maybe Scott Pilgrim. Get Low was really pretty, too. It was directed by a cinematographer.

Best Visual Effects
Scott Pilgrim, Iron Man 2, or Inception. I don't know if the spinning hallway would fall under visual effects considering this category is usually dominated by cgi heavy contenders, but that spinning hallway gives me goosebumps every time I watch Inception.

Best Editing
The Social Network, Inception, Scott Pilgrim (I hope)

My favorite movie this year that probably won't win anything

Okay. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was awesome. Great music, great visuals, great editing (sound effects and titles ala comic books, seamless transitions from scene to scene, snappy snappy snappy), and this is the only movie that I've kinda liked Michael Cera in. Then there's the ensemble cast. It's a generational movie, which I like. It's in my top 5 for the year.