Life Overview
Heaven 1
Believe it or not I am constantly working on this story. If I’m not feverishly writing backstory I am thinking about it and discussing plot points with a few privileged individuals. It is easier to write backstory than to write a chapter that you expect other people to read. I am about half way through chapter two which is tentatively called A Conversation with a God . So, stay tuned.
Oh, how I wish I could post about where this story is going. But I can’t. You’ll just have to be patient. Heaven 1 is the playground of my imagination that I am trying to solidify. It is the realization of my epic childhood sagas. I feel that this story will keep me busy for years to come. My apologies for the slow going, though. It takes a lot of energy. But I can’t tell you how fulfilling it is to know that I’ve suspended even just a few people in wonder at what will happen next. It makes me smile. I am selfish. What can I say.
School
Well, Fall Semester started today. That means I passed three classes this Summer. Believe it or not, that is a major life win. School is still something that I do with gritted teeth and despite the cells of my body urging me to surrender. It is a war that I have determined to win. Even that said, every time I walk into a new class I am filled with excitement with what I will learn, albeit stressful, often.
After Fall semester I’ll be done with my Generals and my Global Intercultural Requirement, but I’ll be flat broke with the bulk of my Physics Core before me. I’m thinking about just focusing on an associates for the time being. It’s something a little more attainable.
The obligation I feel to school is one that is best described in metaphor. The light of the moon caresses the dark valleys and blesses them with a unique tone, one that will forever stand poetic and resonant with the soul. But it’s beauty remains differentiated from the brilliant light of the sun at midday. It shines bright as an afterthought. My character, my mind, and my soul benefit from this experience. They do. But school is still dark, and the areas that have yet to be lit hide from my view and cause my tread to be driven forward by nothing but faith, and hope that I can feel like this will all be worth it in the end. I know it will. But it is the challenge of my lifetime. I know those areas are there. They are there waiting to be found like the pretty shells washing up upon Newtons shore. What more reason is there to pursue school?
The ground that I need to make up, however, seems insurmountable. I feel inadequate. I feel lost. I feel incapable. I feel like it is an unrealistic goal that detracts from other more important things. And I sigh. The smallest things offer the most significant motivation to continue forward.
Books
My collection grows faster than what I can read. I’ve had to seriously dial back my Amazon purchase recently so I can focus on what I already have. My bedroom floor is covered in books. I pick one up every night and read what I can before I go to sleep. Book marks consist of math homework, Finding Faith in Christ pass along cards, Smith’s receipts, and other things that I find on my floor.
I’m almost done with The Alchemist. It is a nice book. I appreciate the spirit it has. I’ve been trying to get through Steven Pinker’s The Stuff of Thought, but it is the most difficult book I have undertaken. It deals mostly with how children learn the semantics and nuances of spoken language giving example after example of how children tend to speak contrasted with how adults typically speak. It addresses the question of tabula rasa, that is the blank slate as opposed to innate ideas and how either one of those possibilities translates into verbal communication. It is like grinding a brick on my forehead.
I’ve got the Smithsonian’s Timeline of Science always near. I peruse it almost nightly. There is The Death of the Heart, which I have just started, mainly because I wanted to see what people think is good writing. Well, that’s all for books.
TV
Okay. Awkward eighties kids, government conspiracies, synth music, monsters, and Winona Ryder. I have something new I can love in Netflix’s Stranger Things. I haven’t had to bum Netflix from someone since Prison Break. The only problem now is that it’s already over. Ugh.
I want to say a few things about this show. Firstly, I love it. It makes me happy. I watched the first season and I had only three complaints. But after some further investigating I now only have two.
Ok, surely you’re familiar with Stranger Things by now. But all the same. SPOILERS.
Let me explain. One of the coolest scenes is when Eleven kills all of those agents toward the end of the show with her powers. The paralyzed agents with blood oozing out of their eyes right before they drop over dead all in unison reveals just what El is capable of. But. And it’s a big but. It could have been SO much better if, up until that time, we had only a sparse showing of her powers that hinted as to what she could actually do. My biggest complaint is that her powers were overused. She already killed two agents in the first episode, she makes the kid pee his pants, she breaks the glass doors, she flips a van over her head, she saves Mike from falling to his death, she breaks that kids arm, she force pushes Lucas into the air, she creates the portal to The Upside Down, among many other instances. All of these things preceded the awesome but totally predictable scene where she kills all those agents at the end. Her powers are radical without a doubt (yes, I just intentionally used the word “radical” to mean “cool” and there is nothing you can do about it.) But it needed to be toned down, if only to make that agent scene so much more impactful. That said, Millie Bobby Brown is perfect. All the actors are great, but she knocks it out of the park.
My second complaint was purely aesthetic. The monster looks stupid. That is about all it sums up to. And their early description of it made me think of slender man, which made me roll my eyes. Hard. A tall human with no face. I don’t have anything else to say about it.
Finally, the most frustrating thing to me was something I thought after an initial viewing of the show. I was upset that both the main villains were killed off at the end, Dr. Martin Brenner, and Agent Connie Frazier. Despite their dark roles they were both good characters, and to kill both of them off was a little perturbing. However, I watched the scene when the monster jumps on Brenner a few more times and it doesn’t necessarily mean he is dead. It doesn’t explicitly show him die. But, you’re saying, most likely it does, right? Well, I looked a little harder. And this might be a SPOILER even to those who’ve watched the show already. Near the end of the final episode, right after the scene where Nancy gives Johnathan a new camera it cuts to a scene at the police station where Hop and his crew are celebrating Christmas. The scene transitions onto a newspaper clipping pinned up on a cork board talking about “THE BOY WHO CAME BACK TO LIFE” and, I took the time to read the article. It has some really interesting things in it, but, perhaps the most interesting is the last sentence. It reads “Under legal [advice] Brenner has issued no comment on…” So, Brenner is alive. That is that. And it’s good to know.
Last thing. I wanted to say something about Nancy ending up with Steve after it was all over. Most everyone I know didn’t like it. But, I did, actually. Not only did Steve redeem himself, but he is an overall likable character despite his shortcomings. I feel like it would have been playing too far into cliche if Nancy ended up with Johnathan at the end. It was more realistic the way it happened, and it was a nice change to see that the underdog didn’t necessarily have to end up with the girl. Johnathan is still a badass who whooped Steve! In its own right, the ending elicits an unspoken affection between Nancy and Johnathan, which is character expanding and deeply moving.
All of that said. Season two is in the works. And who knows what will come of their relationship. Obviously Eleven isn’t dead, too, Hop is privy to otherwise unknown secret government information because he struck a deal with the devil, or something like that. And, oh yeah. Barb. She’s totally dead. Maybe this is a fourth complaint. We are never given so much as a glimpse of her mourning parents. Other than a couple distraught looks from Nancy Barb dying was completely glossed over at the end. But I guess they didn’t want to detract too much from the primary purpose of the show, that of saving Will. But, I guess, you know, it’s whatever…
Well. That’s all I want to write about. What does it say that half of this post is about Stranger Things? Looking forward to season 2. And looking forward to being excited about a TV show. That is all.
P.S. Are Netflix originals considered TV? Is there a word for those shows? I was just assuming they are but I have no idea.