theotter's blog

Tl;dr version is: I'm happy.




I'm working three fn' jobs right now and that's fine. I got hired to do some voice over work on a Halo thing for Machinima. I'm only posting this here because I'm keeping this relatively a secret, most people think I only do two jobs but I also do voice acting when I can and I finally landed something so I just decided screw it, I'll dump my feelings here.

I don't sleep much these days, but it's worth it. I feel like I've found a balance in my life where I can do what I enjoy and still be productive.

Now just wait a week and I'll probably be *squee!*ing again, but hey, I'll enjoy this wave of satisfaction until it comes crashing down on the shore I guess.

"When you’re ‘controversial’, you have two options: you can get on your knees and bow to the whims of people who probably never understood what you were trying to accomplish in the first place, or you can accept that to make something that a few people will love and cherish for all of their lives through, you will have to make something that, at the same time, will cause a lot of people to mistake the power and fury and passion and fervor behind it as something to be shunned and hated”​

-Randy “Batz”, Purple Sky

Warning, this might be my most useless "random thoughts" blog ever, which says a pantload.

Just saw "This Is The End" with my high school friends, and wow, Danny McBride is a total badass and I want to be his friend IRL. I mean, I know he's just acting, but still. Wolf Boss, anarchist leader of the apocolypse, I just want to play paintball with this guy and then hang out and talk about life and stuff.

That is all. It's called random thoughts for a reason.

If this post confuses you, refer to my last blog post for the full story about the train I and a bunch of people I know take frequently crashing...



Thank God, as it turns out, while seven people died, no one that I know was on that train.



*breathes small sigh of relief.

Still, I'm kinda' upset.


Warning, rant below.


You were warned.



That said, the train was going TWICE the speed limit, so if that engineer does not get fired I just might go coco for coco puffs. I mean, they're saying "Oh, maybe a bird hit the train". EVEN If a bird hit the tracks or whatever and caused the train to derail, any knee-licking, selfish, brain cell deprived moron that goes twice, TWICE the speed limit around a sharp turn needs his ass fired.

Now he's dodging questions and hiring lawyers, like his own rich ******* is worth more than the victims he is responsible for killing.

Really people, grow some balls and don't let this chuckle-***** get away with what he did.

If you follow any sort of news, you may have seen this story of a train crash.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/...mtrak-train-crash-pennsylvania_n_7270804.html

This is the exact train that I have taken from college to home multiple times. I just got home a couple days ago, and I was considering taking the train.






I mean, I know some joker is gonna' comment that we all die in the end anyway and that death is inevitable and all that, but still, it's weird to think not only that I could have been on that train, but that someone from my school might have been on that train. I mean, it's unlikely, but still, I swear to God I hope not.

Send prayers if you're the prayin' type.

Top Five Songs that get me pumped up to write or work out or whatever. Subjective and selfish and unimportant in the grand scheme of the universe but screw it man I felt like making a list...


Angel Hayes- 6'7
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II4w_UChycs

Childish Gambino- That Power
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgVH9vd06Xo

Dropkick Murphys- Shipping up to Boston
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-64CaD8GX

The Doors- This is the End (I know, not exactly pump up music but somehow it works)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSUIQgEVDM4
Edvard Grieg- In the Hall of the Mountain King
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLp_Hh6DKWc

God I ain't feel like doing this man

First year of college over. Here's how it went down:
First semester: was in a few clubs, had a girlfriend, tons of parties/social event, wrote my first novel. Sounds good, right? Well, my grades were only meh.

Second semester: really involved in a lot of clubs, no girlfriend, few parties, all As in all of my classes, really cool internship, barely got to write at all.

I don't know which path to follow. I feel like certain people who shall not be named put too much pressure on me to get good grades and be traditonally succesful that detracts from me actually enjoying college life, but at he same time I care enough about grades that I don't want to go back to them being eh. I'm torn. I know peeps have much worse problems, that why I put this shiz in my personal blog. Anypony else feel like this in college?

Was listening to "0-100" by Drake and started dancing and I looked like a stupid white boy, so I thought I would make a vine.

Halfway through filming I realized vines are selfish and absurd and I looked stupid and there are people dying in Nepal from an earthquake.
Self-awareness training in under a minute, pretty quick I might say.

Then again, I do have this blog, which is arguably just as self-absorbed and meaningless.

I guess I'm pretty shallow and selfish.
*Shrugs

It's weird to think, though. The posters in my dorm. The stickers on my laptop. The likes on my Facebook. It's weird to realize just how selfish all of it is.

Whatever. Just more random thoughts of the otter.

From the website "iwastesomuchtime.com"
The caption said "he otter get out of there".
Too perfect not to post

ReadingThe Catcher in the Rye made me think; people rarely speak in a way that directly communicates their needs. Knowing that could drive you crazy. Someone saying "I really liked your article!" could really mean "I think you're attractive and I'm hitting on you".
"Dude, I wanna' hang out or something" could really mean "I'm still not over that break up and I need to be with someone right now".
At the same time, it could literally just mean "I wanna' friggin' hang out". You never know. Hell, the people talking might not even know. When I ask people for stuff, I am probably asking for something else entirely unconsciously, like how Holden Caulfield wasn't really asking the taxi driver about the ducks but about himself.

But whatever. It's just the random thoughts before my brain shuts down. Goodnight.

Here's my random thought of the night.
People are wrong when they say "it gets better".
Nothing ever gets better, you just get stronger.





And on that note, goodnight!

I recently entered a submission for writing contest for Everfree Northwest 2015! I would make this post to ask for support in getting the win for the "Community Choice" story, but that would make me a total shallow parasite.

http://www.axeaboutme.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Holden-Caulfield-Button.jpg

So here's the dealio: my story is in a link provided below: read my story if you want to, and if it doesn't suck more than a black hole, vote for and support me! If it does suck, then send me dead flowers in the mail or whatever the kids do these days.

Link to my submission:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/255532/1/out-with-the-new/out-with-the-new-oneshot



The voting doesn't start until about 2 or 4 weeks, and the poll for voting should appear on "Equestria Daily" at some point around that time, but I thought I'd get a jump on this junk. I guess that still kinda' makes me a shallow parasite after all. Eh, I can live with that.

Steven Universe is an amazing show (and, to boot, one of the most progressive shows to come out, cartoon or no, in years) and the recent finale was the bae...




That's literally all I wanted to say right now.
You may now carry on with your lives as per-usual.

Addendum: For all negative five of you who watch my blog carefully, take note that this is not at all how I usually write, nor is it what I usually write about. This is done in the style of a more "formal" article. This is not to say that the article is anything close to resembling formality or professionalism (notice the quotation marks), but nevertheless it's pretty wordy and mostly consists of film discussion and conjecture.

In a recent interview with “variety”, actor Jake Gyllenhaal described the character he played in a recent movie to be “hard to shake”, a character that “stay[ed] with him” even after the filming for the movie ended. The interviewer went on to say that she found the movie, after having seen an early showing, to be “creepy” from start to finish. So, what in the world kind of movie where they talking about? Furthermore, who in the world would want to watch such a movie? Perhaps to get an appetite for the chills fulfilled. Often in fiction, characters are meant to represent a dark shade of society. Case in point, the Joker is a twisted version of a terrorist. Roger Ebert praised the film-makes of “The Dark Knight” in his 2008 review, saying that “They realize, as some comic-book readers instinctively do, that these stories touch on deep fears, traumas, fantasies and hopes”. Certain types of movies can be creepy and tough to sit through, but if care and love for art is added into the mix, then something creepy doesn’t just have to be dark and disturbing for its own sake, it can be complex, captivating, and above all else, revealing.

All of this has been already studied and analyzed thoroughly, however. This begs the question, how dark can a film get with its symbolism? How does one lower the bar of depravity below the decency of terrorists? According to “Nightcrawler” the new film directed by Dan Gilroy and distributed in the U.S. by “Open Road Films”, to keep up with the times, you have to take the bar and not just lower it, but plunge the poor stick into Hell.

The film, according to the interviews, trailers and plot synopses, is about a poor, homeless man desperate for a job. He hunts for eye-catching night terrors like car crashes and armed robberies, sends off the film clips to the nightly news, and makes a name for himself. Now, this, at first glance, may seem fairly simplistic of a metaphor for society; in a society with a competitive job market, a man is pushed to doing horrific things to earn the buck. Not so deep sounding, is it? An unemployed guy as a symbol for unemployment. That’s until you realize the unemployment guy is named “Lou” in a film called “Nightcrawler” starring a charming, manipulative but immoral character. I think you know what I’m getting at.
This is not to come to the conclusion that “Lou” in the film is definitely positively undeniably unquestionably a symbol for the Christian idea of “Satan”. I mean sure, the signs are all there (his name is literally Lou), but what I am really getting at is something a bit more subdued.
In 2007 a film came out known as “No Country For Old Men”. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. The film features a slow walking, unstoppable terminator of a man named Anton Chekov. The purposely exaggerated style of the film, depiction of Anton as relentless, reactions of reverent terror from the other characters, and just all around mystery of the character lead many to believe that Anton Chekov was meant to be a “supernatural” character; that he was not fully human. There have been debates back and forth about how one is to interpret the screen adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s original work, and you can watch a pretty good analysis of the issue here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfhE9nnxrkA
but the idea that there is no definite answer one way or another is what makes Anton so great.
This is why I am hyped as Hell for Nightcrawler, it taps into that unsettling idea of a character being hinted at being more than meets the eyes, but it’s subtle enough to still be mysterious, and mystery is often more compelling than giving all of the answers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1uP_8VJkDQ
Watch this trailer for the film, and notice there seem to be two sides to the character, the human side, and, well, the other side. You see him trying to get a job. Note the subtly of Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance. How he asks so eagerly. How his eyebrows jot up during his little speech, displaying that this has all been thought out well beforehand, like he has rehearsed what he would say and how he would say it right down to his eyebrow movement. How he tries to hide his disappointment to mask his pride when he’s told no.
This is what we will refer to as “Lou the Human”. Everyone say hi to “Lou the Human”. Oh come on, don’t be shy, he doesn’t bite (that’s his other side, “Lou the ‘cifer’, but we’ll get to him in a minute). There are a couple times that this version of Lou shows up in the trailer, times where the character is acting relatable and perhaps even innocent. When he trips and falls trying to take a picture. When he nervously shifts his position in his chair as he’s accused of murder. When he first walks into the television news studio, wide-eyed and ready. Put him in coach, he’s ready to play!
Then notice how he slowly starts to become, well, a bit creepier. You first see this when he watches the evening news truck speed off without him, the way he looks with both pure contempt at the man driving off, rejecting him once more, and with a sinister curiosity at the prospect of a Devilish new job possibility. How he manipulates another poor man to be his lacky, promising him immediate gratification, in job security, that no one else would have been able to provide for him. How he points and laughs as he gets praised for “inspiring all of us to reach a little higher”. Listen to that laugh. Does that sound like the laugh of someone who is even remotely sane? How about when he starts to talk in chillingly convincing speeches about his philosophies. He tells his lacky, “I would never make you do anything that I wouldn’t do myself”. He says this while taking a close-up of a dead body. Would you work for a man who talked and acted like this? Well, according to this film, society has given you no other choice; you have three options, get lucky (something Lou is openly repulsed by, saying in a different trailer “the people at the top didn’t just fall there), get homeless, or get to signing your soul to the devil. Well, metaphorically speaking.
Think of the story of Lucifer. How he “fell from grace” due to “pride”. How he tempted others through manipulation and a clever tongue. How he has been known to appear in fiction in human form. How Lou drives a bright red car through the shallow streets of Los Angeles at night, and how the camera reveals the car in a tracking shot as if t emphasize the image.
ISometimes, it’s hard to tell whether Lou is merely acting as a symbol for Satan, or merely playing the part and conforming to the archetype under some evil-force that is like Satan. Again, the mystery makes it all the juicier. My favorite scene is the the interrogation. At first, we see “Lucifer”, as he gets accused of with-holding information from the police, he quips with confident grandeur “that would be very unprofessional of me”. When the detective responds with “it would be murder”, he becomes nervous, unconfident “Human Lou” again. I love how Gyllenhaal effortlessly swings between his two personalities.
Of course, all of this just be a big pile of garbage on my part. Maybe Lou isn’t supposed to be implied to be a Satanic archetype, maybe it’s not even supposed to be implied that he’s a stand-in for society at large. Maybe it’s just a simple crime thriller that is literally about a man who works for night-time television news and gets caught up in the underbelly of the city. Or maybe films like this deserve careful analysis. Let me put it this way, all of the analysis I have conjured up, all of the evidence I have used to support my points, has been based on two trailers. TWO TRAILERS! If the film is this thought-provoking based-on the trailers, imagine what the movie is like. The little hints and indications whispered throughout the cinematography and editing. The muted shadows that speak of temptation and horror and downfall that stand behind Lou where-ever he goes. The clues and cues here and there that add up to something skin-crawling, that go un-noticed on first viewing until they creep up on you in your thoughts and create a flash of realization, like Lou standing over you in the dark about to snap a photo.


P.S. I created a fan-made trailer of “Nightcrawler” which you can see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vfzBCDCKGc
which depicts Lou as almost completely supernatural, implying that he sees in black and white and emphasizing his less admirable traits. If you want to be a total nerd, you can watch my trailer, watch the “official” trailer, and see for yourself how much the actual film implies Lou to be a supernatural character when compared with an exaggeratedly supernatural portrayal of him.