The 10th Circle of Hell is Writer's Block

And then there was one.

jarashooudtodd — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 21:02:54 +0000

I am moving this blog yet again. I am moving to Blogspot, as it is just easier to keep track of everything on there. It will also be easier to keep in contact with a few certain people that do not have a WordPress. I will delete this blog, but probably not for a while. I WILL be deleting my oldest blog though.

I will be moving to:

The Blank Hour

Thank you for watching (whoever you may be) and I’ll see you on the other side.

“Inception” Review

jarashooudtodd — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 10:05:06 +0000

Inception was the best movie I have seen this year. Toy Story 3 is a close second, but Inception takes the cake. I have never seen a movie so thought provoking and stunningly provokative since the Matrix. This movie is better than The Matrix though. It goes into more depth, it has more heart, it has better acting (*cough*Keanu Reeves is a robot*cough*), and it has a better all around story. Let’s get right to it.

Inception is the story of Dom Cobb (played by Leonardo Dicaprio), a man who specializes in dreams. His job is to take ideas from the subconcious and sell them to other companies. At the beginning of the movie, Saito (played by Ken Watanabe) hires Cobb to do something different. Instead of taking or “extracting” an idea from the mind of someone, Saito wants Cobb to plant or to perform “inception” on the son of a rival CEO (played by Clillian Murphy). Saito entices Cobb by telling him that he would be able to see his children again because apparently Cobb will be arrested if he enters the USA (because of as-of-yet unnamed crime that he didn’t do). Cobb’s friend and partner (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) doesn’t think it’s possible, but Cobb knows it can be done and takes the job. So, as in any heist film, Cobb assembles a team. There’s the “Architect” (played by Ellen Page), who serves as Cobb’s psychiatrist. The Architect is in charge of creating the world of the dream for the incepted’s mind to populate with it’s subconcious. There is the “Forger” (played by Tom Hardy) who can shift identities inside dreams, who isn’t given much exposition unfortunately. Finally, there is Yusuf (played by Dileep Rao) who supplies the sedative heavy enough to support a dream within a dream within a dream (yes, the movie goes there). The characters are the only fault of this movie. Yet it isn’t really a flaw also. The problem is that there is not enough character development to really flesh out these characters. It also isn’t a problem in that if the movie did flesh out characters, it would make a 2 hour 45 minute movie undoubtably 3 hours and 15 minutes.

The script/writing is supurbly done. The whole movie is a tight-rope walk because so many things are going on that are so important to the story that if anything is out of place or wrong within the context of the movie’s logic, everything becomes undone. The dialouge between these characters range from witty banter to intellegent discussions to wise teachings to deep, heartfelt moments. There were some cheesy moments, but it all but dragged it down. Christopher Nolan (writer, producer, AND director) also does a fantastic job directing. He puts everything together so magestically I start to feel like I’m watching a circus act. He juggles everything very well.

The acting was very well done. Leonardo Dicaprio showed a very vulnerable yet intelligent and experienced character. Every supporting character does very good too, but one really stuck out for me. Mal, Cobb’s “ex-wife” (played by Marion Cotillard) which should get Cotillard an Oscar. Her portrayal of such a haunting character is genius in my eyes.

As in any Hollywood movie, there are some explosions and effects. From what I’ve heard though, some of the dream effects were not done with CG which amazes me because there is one scene, which I will not spoil, where one character ends up in zero gravity. It was quite entertaining and very relalistic (or as realistic as zero gravity in my mind is).

All in all, probably one of my favorite movies now. As nearing perfection as few movies can, this will become a classic as The Matrix did and will (hopefully) stay that way.

Final Verdict:

Go See It

Two Thumbs Up

5/5 Stars

Update number dos!

jarashooudtodd — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:27:48 +0000

Hey there! I’m doing 2 things over this month and the next. This month I am doing the March Gamers Challenge, where I try to beat some games I have that I have not beaten. The second thing is Script Frenzy next month which is where I try to write a 100 page script in one month. Like NaNoWriMo, but with scripts.

Anyway, I’ve been watching LOST. I’ve seen some actual answers (*cough* Smoke monster *cough*)! Hooray!

School is okay, just boring stuff. I’ve signed up for next year. Three AP classes and one Honors class. I also saw The Wizard of Oz at my old school and Cats at my dad’s old school. I’m going to go see James and the Giant Peach at Kingsbury in a couple days too.

That’s all.

Graywhale rox!

jarashooudtodd — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 22:53:07 +0000

My favorite all around awesome electronics store has become even more awesome! Graywhale Entertainment is a store in Utah that sells and buys used and new electronics. There are quite a few in Utah now, but I mostly go to two, the Bountiful and Salt Lake City one. I’ve bought and sold so much stuff there. It’s become my favorite place to sell my used video games and DVDs. Anyway, about a week ago, I went to the University Graywhale (SLC Graywhale) with the hopes of finding something cool. I went through and found Sealab 2021 Season 1, 3, and 4 there. Sealab 2021 is one of the greatest shows of all time that came from Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. I had to order Season 2, but that was okay by me. All in all, I bought all 4 seasons for about $50! All 4 Season’s of Sealab 2021 usually cost $80 so I saved $30! I actually didn’t have to even spend any money, just selling some stuff I didn’t want anymore. It was quite a deal.

But, I have to go get back to homework now so, see ya!

Update!

jarashooudtodd — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:50:16 +0000

Hi! I have now started a Let’s Play on Youtube of Earthbound if anyone wants to see it. The link is in the links thing at the bottom of the page. It’s a fun little project for me. Earthbound is one of my favorite games of all time.

I am currently only really watching 3 shows. I’ll watch other shows on Hulu but I only watch 3 on TV. First is Chuck, which is spy/comedy/drama/action TV show made of awesome. The second one is LOST, which comes back on tomorrow for the last season. It’s sad. But it should be an interesting season at the very least. The third and final one is Fringe which is my new X-Files. I still love X-Files more than Fringe, but I haven’t seen the 8th and 9th seasons yet. I’ve heard those are really bad so we’ll see how that goes. I’m watching 2 other shows but they are on hiatus at the moment. The first one is Glee which is actually pretty funny. The second one is Flashforward which is basically the next LOST. It’s different yes but it is meant to replace LOST. It is good though. Maybe better than LOST? We’ll see, we’ll see.

Also, I’m going to go see Avenue Q on Wednesday. It looks awesome!

Update: I have a guilty pleasure TV show too. It’s Heroes. Yes, I know the plotlines don’t make sense, the characters are one-dimensional, and it’s all around stupid. Well, I kind of like it still. Not as much as Season 1 though.

My childhood is being maimed.

jarashooudtodd — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 02:00:22 +0000

I just saw a comercial for Little Ceasers which uses A Christmas Carol as it’s front. I died a little inside when I saw that. Yet, my childhood dies a little bit everyday as executives don’t care at all about me and my sanity. Selfishness also runs amuck in my mind as I wish that I could have lots of viewers on my YouTube channel or something (even though I only have 1 video on there). Some Christmas carolers also just made my day.

Life is RAWR!

jarashooudtodd — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:50:47 +0000

Life is dumb right now. I might not be able to audition for James and the Giant Peach, which pisses me off. *sigh* Anyway, I don’t want to do my homework so I’m procrastinating. Procrastination! I’m also just waiting for something to come on NBC that’s not the news. Since Heroes isn’t coming back on until January, I’m curious what will come on. Probably some rerun or something like that. Maybe a Christmas special? I hope so. I need some Christmas cheer. Or writing. Either one works.

WriYe

jarashooudtodd — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 05:00:51 +0000

I have decided to do WriYe. Basically, it stands for Writing Year. You can set any word count goal with a minimum of 50k. Some one on the website is trying to get 2kk words! That’s insane! I’m only aiming for 200k, which is about 900 words a day. Not that hard I think since I did 900 words per day on average during NaNoWriMo. Also, unfortunately, I might have to finish my NaNo novel during WriYe 2010. I know it’s sad, but it’s most likely going to happen. I have to catch up with my homework and life. It’s not all bad though! The writing I do to finish it can be added to my word goal! So anyway, my life is good. I’m going to audition for James and the Giant Peach next month. Yeah…

Update 12/7: Turns out I will not be even auditioning for James and the Giant Peach. I probably will go see it though.

NaNoWriMo, NaNoFiMo, my novel, and life.

jarashooudtodd — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:35:53 +0000

NaNoWriMo was a blast! I had so much fun writing that much in one month. Of course, school, friends, family, Thanksgiving, and life in general prevented me from finishing. Thankfully someone came up with a lovely website entitled NaNoFiMo, which is short for National Novel Finishing Month. I don’t feel too bad I didn’t win NaNoWriMo for 2 reasons: 1. Lot’s of other people lost too (the website told me out 300,000, only 30,000 will win) and 2. I wrote more in that book than I have in any other. It’s the farthest I’ve ever gotten in writing and it has brought me back from a long writing drought.

Anyway, my novel is at about 22k words as I type. Probably at 30k I’ll be halfway through my whole book.

Anyway (again), my life is going down the pooper right now because of NaNoWriMo. Writing is both a gift and a curse. An achievement and a sacrifice.

But that’s about it. For no at least. XD

Midnight adventures

jarashooudtodd — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 05:57:33 +0000

School starts tomorrow. Blarg. High school, really really don’t want to go. Still awake at midnight. Can’t fall asleep. Must fall asleep. Get milk. Got milk? Must sleep. Can’t sleep. Lay down. Get up. Use the bathroom. Lay down. Try to sleep. We’ll see.