I just spent the past thirty minutes trying to figure out how to set up an Adsense account, but realized that I would need to give my social security number and tax information in order to do so.
Well, fuck that.
Instead, I've implemented that handy little donation button. Even though this blog doesn't even have more than 5 followers and only 179 page hits to date, maybe, just maybe, one day it will have a large amount of viewers, some of which will donate.
Or not. One can dream though. Right?
Seriously though, if you read/are going to read stuff on here, consider donating.
Thanks
Saturday, August 25, 2012
New Theme
Alright, so I just changed the template and background of the blog (anyone reading this has probably already noticed that) to reflect what kind of blog this is a little bit better. I mean I like looking at trees and grass as much as the next guy but I think it's pretty irrelevant to what I'll be talking about.
Dropped Projects
I can't tell you how many times I've started something, feeling that it would work and I would never abandon it, and then abandoned it within a week. I went through this stage where I would get a great idea for a novel, start writing, reach about 10 pages, read it and decided it was absolute crap, and then trashed it. Also happens with blogs. This blog in particular, used to be called "The Loser: Movie Reviews", as if making fun of myself would help me get more views (it can in some cases: most of Ray William Johnson's jokes are him making fun of his height). I wrote about 20 reviews (give or take) and then just stopped because I decided it was pointless.
However, when I was in the 4th grade, me and a friend started a blog called "The Frog Blog", named after my love of frogs at the time. It actually has about 27,000 views to date, and we had a lot of fun working on it. I don't want to say that this is a re-creation of that, but I realized how fun making a blog can be.
I'm really going to make an effort to not drop this project like so many others.
However, when I was in the 4th grade, me and a friend started a blog called "The Frog Blog", named after my love of frogs at the time. It actually has about 27,000 views to date, and we had a lot of fun working on it. I don't want to say that this is a re-creation of that, but I realized how fun making a blog can be.
I'm really going to make an effort to not drop this project like so many others.
Why is Facebook so addicting?
Well, speaking in scientific terms, it's because you literally become addicted to it. You know when you log on after a while and see you have 8 notifications, then you check them and its things like "John Smith liked your photo", and you get that "good" feeling. Yeah. That's your brain releasing dopamine, the "reward" chemical. It's the same chemical that gets released when you listen to a good song, do well on a test, or snort cocaine.
I personally don't know why I use Facebook. I'd much rather talk to people in real life, and it's full of so many stupid people. Jesus Christ, just look at some of the pictures being shared. Really makes you doubt the future of this generation. Speaking of Jesus, I don't know what it is but a really popular fad on Facebook seems to be these wife-beater wearing guido high school dropouts sharing photos saying how great god is and shit. Then all the stupid people on Facebook like and share that crap, just giving them exactly what they want: more likes. Now some people may ask "What's wrong with that?". Well there's nothing wrong with liking a picture but when thousands of people are all sharing some stupid picture like "Share for Jesus" "Ignore for Devil", and they actually believe that they are somehow getting one step closer to heaven by doing that, it's a pretty depressing indicator of how low their intelligence is.
My time on Facebook consists of me scrolling down and just observing the kind of stuff people post and write. It used to be kinda fun, but now it's just stupid picture after stupid picture.
One other thing: inside joke wall posts. I'm guilty of this as well, but it really is only done for attention. I mean think about how much easier it would be just to message the person. A wall post is a way of showing people "I have an inside joke which means I have good friends and I am likable". While that's kind of extreme, and the person wallposting probably isn't actively thinking that, it;s the psychology behind it.
Well, speaking in scientific terms, it's because you literally become addicted to it. You know when you log on after a while and see you have 8 notifications, then you check them and its things like "John Smith liked your photo", and you get that "good" feeling. Yeah. That's your brain releasing dopamine, the "reward" chemical. It's the same chemical that gets released when you listen to a good song, do well on a test, or snort cocaine.
I personally don't know why I use Facebook. I'd much rather talk to people in real life, and it's full of so many stupid people. Jesus Christ, just look at some of the pictures being shared. Really makes you doubt the future of this generation. Speaking of Jesus, I don't know what it is but a really popular fad on Facebook seems to be these wife-beater wearing guido high school dropouts sharing photos saying how great god is and shit. Then all the stupid people on Facebook like and share that crap, just giving them exactly what they want: more likes. Now some people may ask "What's wrong with that?". Well there's nothing wrong with liking a picture but when thousands of people are all sharing some stupid picture like "Share for Jesus" "Ignore for Devil", and they actually believe that they are somehow getting one step closer to heaven by doing that, it's a pretty depressing indicator of how low their intelligence is.
My time on Facebook consists of me scrolling down and just observing the kind of stuff people post and write. It used to be kinda fun, but now it's just stupid picture after stupid picture.
One other thing: inside joke wall posts. I'm guilty of this as well, but it really is only done for attention. I mean think about how much easier it would be just to message the person. A wall post is a way of showing people "I have an inside joke which means I have good friends and I am likable". While that's kind of extreme, and the person wallposting probably isn't actively thinking that, it;s the psychology behind it.
Censorship of Ideas
When it comes to writing, one of the most helpful pieces of advice I ever received was to not censor the thoughts in your head. Couldn't be more true. In all my old blogs I would try to give my blog some sort of personality by writing using a specific style, when in reality that just made it seem like I was trying to hard. I want this blog to be pure unadulterated thought-vomit, hopefully the kind of thought-vomit that people are interested in.
I have renamed this blog "Free Time" because anyone who is reading this blog or writing on it has exactly that: "Free Time".
I have renamed this blog "Free Time" because anyone who is reading this blog or writing on it has exactly that: "Free Time".
What makes a film boring?
I guess what I consider to make a film 'boring' is bad writing. Ever see one of those crappy action movies that comes out in the middle of the year and you only see it because there's nothing else to do? The kind of movies that take themselves way too seriously. Yeah, those usually end up being pretty bad. Like that movie Safe House. Who the fuck is going to remember that in thirty years? I mean the movie wasn't terrible by any means but it suffered from what I like to call taking-your-movie-too-seriously. No one is going to find your movie interesting when its filled with suits talking in unintelligible CIA jargon. People connect with a movie when there's a character they can relate to. Anyways, I recently saw The Bourne Legacy with a few friends, and none of them had any idea what the story was about. I only had a vague idea of the story because I had read the Wikipedia synopsis of the first few Robert Ludlum novels, and new about Treadstone and whatnot. It also helped that I saw the previous movies. (Off topic: Pillars by Sunny Day Real Estate is a great song.) The movie had some pretty good action scenes I guess, but the chase scene at the end had some pretty shitty camerawork. Back to the main point of this post, what made The Bourne Legacy boring in some parts was the fact that a lot of the time you didn't know what the hell they were talking about. When the viewer is lost in the conversation, they react how they would in a real life situation. If you were with a group of people and they started talking about something you have no interest in, naturally you are going to either leave that group, or become distracted by something else because you don't care about the conversation at hand. The film equivalent of that is that the audience stops paying attention: they look at their watch, think about what they're going to do after the movie, or leave to get a snack.
If I ever write films when I'm older, one of the things I would focus on is making sure the audience can connect to the script.
If I ever write films when I'm older, one of the things I would focus on is making sure the audience can connect to the script.
Update to This Blog
When I first made this blog, I made it as a strictly movie-review only blog. I've decided that there's a lot more stuff I want to do then just review movies on this blog, so this is going to become a more traditional blog. I'll just talk about stuff I care about and hopefully someone else finds it interesting.
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