Short Movie Filler Day - The Boy Wonder Has Grown Up

Grayson

Posted Jul 23, 2004

Former Boy Wonder, Dick Grayson, emerges from the shadows of retirement to avenge the murder of his legendary mentor.

For my review of this short film, please refer to this link.

A Reflection on Solitude

Solitude is, by itself, a skill to master. People all around the world keep saying that only some people are "born" with or "wired" with the ability to find joy in isolation. But the truth is, everyone, even extroverts, need to master the art of solitude, no matter how elusive it may be for them.

Solitude is given all matters of stigma throughout our modern day, "hustle and bustle" society. It tends to imply that, when one is alone, that individual's a pariah for not engaging with society or tending to social events simply for the sake of it. But just as King Solomon once said that there is a time and place for everything--there is always a time and place for being alone.

One of the many disciplines involved in solitude is the art of reflection and tapping into a contentment that can only be gained by tapping into the inward.

In man's never-ending search for outward distraction and amusement, one can easily fall victim to callusing themselves to all forms of excitement, simply by over-use and repetition. But one who has mastered the art of solitude can be able to sit still in one place, alone, and still discover contentment. And, from that moment of being alone, they are renewed and rejuvenated, not only for themselves, but also in their interaction with others, their loved ones, and the rest of the world when they stop being alone. The secret lies in balance (for lack of a better term) and sadly people tend to go to either extreme.

This, by itself, is another aspect of mastering solitude--knowing when one needs it and knowing when it's too much.

Quick Update

This is just going to be a quick update on what's going on in the blog.

About a day ago, I placed an order for a web cam using some gift cards that I got from Christmas (piece of advice--once you get gift cards, be sure to use to them immediately!). According to a recent notification, the web cam has already been shipped so, hopefully, in the next day or two, I could start including video blog entries onto "The Mad Hermit".

In the long run, I think that this could be a good improvement to the blog, since it would put a more "human" face to it. Well, let's hope this works!

Learning to Survive the Everyday

While I was running a few errands today, I stopped by a gas station to fuel up my car. Pulling behind the car up in front of me, at the front pump, I was suddenly honked by a van a little bit off to the side of the gas station. Apparently, he was waiting in line before I came onto the scene. The only problem was, he wasn't even in line at all.

In fact, not only was his van several yards away from the pump that I pulled into, but the guy was talking on his cell phone the entire time and didn't even bother to pull up behind the car in front him. So the problem was basically this--if he was waiting in line then he should have BEEN in line, so people won't make the mistake (like I did) that he wasn't on line.

Overall, it was a simple misunderstanding and one of my knee jerk reactions was getting all angry about it. But you know what? I decided not to and that's what got me thinking.

Being that it was still the holiday season and given that I live in one of the most over crowded states in the world (NJ), it's not a big surprise to see the roads crowded with tons of people looking for post-Christmas deals and cutting people of here and there. At times all this rush can drive anyone nuts. But the thing is, all of us are driven nuts by simple things only when we allow them to drive us nuts. So how do we not allow these things to drive us nuts? Well, it's quite intuitive actually.

First of all, we could learn not to put ourselves in situations that are prone to bring annoyances upon us. That could include waking up early, being organized, and not waiting until the last minute.

And second of all, we could actually choose to not allow mishaps to ruin our day. Yes, sometimes situations can get so bad that feeling miserable is unavoidable. But when it comes to just dealing with simple problems, we just have to keep in mind that those simple things that annoy us are exactly that--SIMPLE things. Though they will and do make us upset for the moment, but it's really up to us to decide if we allow them to get to us or not.

Personally, I always had trouble with keeping the right attitude even during simple situations. I mean, it's only human to not be perfect. But for today, I think I'll decide to be happy. Yeah, that's a good idea.

Merry Christmas (Eve)!!!

Well, here's something a little off-beat to warm up the holidays. About 2 years ago, Carlton Draught released this ad and apparently it was huge smash on the net and it even won some awards for itself. Whether or not it actually helped the company sell more beer is a question up in the air, but something tells me that it did. How do I know this? Let's just say that the ad was very...BIG. Enjoy!

Interesting Writing Site

I recently ran into this writing during one of my blog research "excursions". I found it to be was quite witty and bluntly truthful at the same time.

The title of the blog basically speaks for itself, "101 Reasons to Stop Writing". I really enjoyed reading through it, however, I believe that the site's definition of "writing" is a little narrow given that it seems only geared towards novel and fictional writing rather than, say, technical writing or article writing. Well, then again, maybe my definition of a writer is a little broad to begin with.

(See: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/110080/what_does_it_mean_to_be_a_writer.html)

Anywho, the blog's address is http://101reasonstostopwriting.com/ and a quick link to it can be found in the link list on the right hand-bottom corner of my blog.

Random Meditations

For some reason I feel restless tonight. It's like a strange feeling of having the desire to write or to be productive, but at the same time not feeling like doing anything at all, especially during times of writer's block. This isn't the first time I felt like this. And obviously it wouldn't be the last.

For some reason this reminds me of a unique psychological condition known as "hypergraphia". A person with this condition essentially suffers from the continuous "compulsion" to constantly write. Supposedly Van Gough, the artist, suffered from this disorder and, according to some biblical scholars, the prophet Ezekial somewhat suffered from this condition as well (supposedly).

Personally, whenever I'm at a creative dead end, I have the tendency to envy those who have this condition. But at the same time I realize that the envy that I feel is narrow-minded, since what I'm wishing for is a life-debalitating condition that causes suffering to whoever has it.

It's quite strange how we tend to envy people for certain things, only to choke on the very things we envy once we received them. The problem that we have, as humans, is the tendency to idealize or repeat to ourselve "if only" continuosly without even thinking. This habit is almost intuitive to the human condition. I feel that this is because we know, deep down, that there must be something better than THIS--a world where everything that's suppose to be IS.

In a way, it's as though humanity has been imprinted within them the instict of Eden--the instinct that we are all exiles from a place that was perfect, but no longer is and that we must come back; that we must return home.

Sluggy Freelance

This is going to be a fairly quick update, so in case I don't include much detail, bear with me. What kind of comic out there talks about two guys, two girls, and their wacky adventures with a sociopathic bunny and an overly hyper ferret? What kinda plot combines horror, conspiracy, adventure, and sci-fi into an elegant mash of hilarious results? That comic is Sluggy Freelance, one of the longest running web comics in the world!

And not only that, the maker of this comic, Pete Abrams, is a fellow New Jerseyan who makes his home at Denville, NJ--only 40 minutes away from where I live. Ain't it cool!

I became a fan of this comic a few years back and I was almost immediately hooked. It might be a little hard to get into the story, since it developed, branched out, and ever-so evolved over the several years it's been online, but that's what its online archives are for, isn't it?

For those interested, the link is www.sluggy.com. Again, a quick access to it can be found in the links section!