I love soundtracks

I don't really know why, but I just do. Even some movies that I have never seen (i.e. James Bond, Mission Impossible, Titanic), I have the soundtracks, thanks to Itunes. For the movies I have seen, the soundtracks relive the moments.

I have the stuff you would expect; Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Carribean. But I also try to find some other stuff; Batman, Chronicles of Narnia, Prince of Egypt, and National Treasure. I probably listen to soundtracks more than anything else. Some people will think that strange, but I simply enjoy listening to a good soundtrack much more than pounding rock tunes, not that I don't listen to a few of those once in a while.

Lately, I have been looking at some different composers and their works. John Williams is most famous for Star Wars. Some of you may know that he also wrote some of the Indiana Jones music. But do you remember Jaws, Superman Returns, and Saving Private Ryan? Another big name is Hans Zimmer from Pirates of the Carribean. He also composed scores for Black Hawk Down and Gladiator.

The next time you watch a movie, try to keep track of the score. A good film score will pull you along with the emotion of the movie. Soundtracks can really add to a movie, as many of the recent films have shown. Try some, and you'll enjoy reliving your favorite movie without having to take your eyes from what you're doing.

Too much BIG PICTURE, so lets write about smoke

When I looked at my blog the other day, I noticed that every post had some big, enormous point to it. And so, I felt the need to create one with something a little less deep. So, I'll talk about my experiences cooking so far.

Living on my own, I've pretty much come to the conclusion that cooking is dangerous and therefore should be left to either a female or a professional chef. I believe that sometime in the future my perceptions will change, but for now, I am firmly grounded in the idea that anything that has something to do with the stove in my apartment involves more risk of bodily injury than I care to take.

After a rocky start for the first few months (pizzas, pot pies, and ramen noodles), which taught me to take the cardboard from underneath the pizza, I decided to make tacos and purchased to neccessary items from the store and drove home. When I unloaded and set everything out, I realized that I had forgotten the lettuce. Undeterred, I put the beef on the stove and put taco shells (for a salad) into the oven. I was very careful to check on the beef and shells periodically until the phone rang.

It was my dad, and I kept stirring the beef as we talked for about ten minutes or so. That's when I realized that I had forgotten all about the taco shells. I said goodbye and cracked open the oven door. I then closed the door, disarmed to smoke alarm, and THEN opened the oven door. The ensuing smoke cloud forced me to open the windows and take in the insulating plastic off to get the place aired out.

I finished with that and turned around to see that the beef was black as night. In my haste to clear the room, I had left the beef untended and burned it to a crisp. I salvaged what I could from the shells and dumped loads of sour cream, salsa,and cheese onto the blackened beef and ate it anyway.

And to add the final crescendo to the evening, I found then that I left the bag of cheese on the burner that I had used to flame the beef. The bag had a circular indentation of melted plastic and cheese.

Melted plastic, melted cheese, black beef, burnt taco shells, no lettuce, and a ton of smoke.

This is why I consider cooking to be an extreme sport, and one far too risky for me. I'll leave it to the professionals.

"I support ________ because ________________......

One thing that has always bothered me about presidential election years is the endorsements. Now, some endorsements I can understand are important; justice departments, judges, high ranking politicians, etc. But why in the world does anyone care about who Bruce Springsteen (or whatever his name is) endorses. Who cares about what ex-politican, what celebrity, or even what sports figure supports Hillary or Obama for presidency. Not only are they not really all that connected with America, their positions in the world, when you get down to it, are not all that important.

I love is ex-politicians. Now, they do have some expertise and knowledge in the world of politics, but they are supposed to be somewhat private citizens now. One extreme example is former president Carter. I have trouble caring about what ex-presidents think in terms of current politics, because I think their thoughts should now have the same weight as every other citizen because they don't hold public office anymore. And with Carter, I have an bigger problem because of his repeated attempts at diplomacy with the STATED ENEMIES of our country and allies. In addition, he has NO diplomatic power behind his 'negotiations'. Why should I care who he endorses for president especially given his ideas right now? An ex-politician is just that, an ex-politician and a private citizen, just like you and me.

Singers. What do they do for a living? They sing, make music videos, etc. What does any of that have to do with the presidency, much less any political subject.

Now granted, they have a perfect right to their opinions, but their opinions matter precisely as much as yours or mine. And do you have reporters hanging out on your doorstep wondering who you're going to endorse?

The presidency is an extremely important position, and we need to vote for who we think will do the job the best. Do we really need Oprah to tell us who we should support? In the end, their votes count just the same as ours do----1.

Interpetations and Horoscopes

During a recent class assignment we were required to do a physc evaluation on a classmate that we had never talked to based off of a drawing by the said classmate.

Her evaluation of me was rather perceptive in many different ways. She mentioned that I was a person who was detail-oriented and driven to acheive. At first thought, that was extremely accurate. I actually tend to get bogged down in the details in the projects that I work on, and I always want to be the best I can be.

Then I noticed that everyone in the class pretty much agreed that their partner had completely nailed their personalities. And I thought about that. Every single person in the class of 16 people had their personalities by the other person--are we really that perceptive?

So I thought about that. And I came up with this-we can apply any mental statement to almost anything. I stated that my partner was a perfectionist, she might be a perfectionist in some areas and really laid back in another. So my statement was true if we thought about it long enough. She stated that I was driven to achieve. I am driven to do well in school and always have been. But I am have a hard time driving myself in my job and cleaning my apartment. Again, the interpetation was both true and false, it simply depended on how I thought about it.

Open up any local newpaper and look up the horoscope page. Read your own horoscope and think about how it is true-and also how it is false. Now pick another sign, way different from your own. Read it. Again, think on how it is both true and false.

Notice anything. If you think about it, any one of those predictions in the local paper could be true. I especially like the ones that read: "If today is your birthday..." In addition to the vagueness of the predictions, those paragraphs have an entire year to occur in some way, shape or form-either real or imagined.

Am I reading too deep into an English assignment? Perhaps. But when you listen to almost any prediction, reading, or other such statement, notice how it could be true and false at the same time. When you think about it you'll probably notice just how vague anything can be.