Summer Trip

For most of this semester I have been working two jobs. One at a pizza restaurant, where I deliver pizzas. Also, one at a campus carwash, where I wash campus buses and vehicles. I've been working very hard, sometimes the weeks are exhausting and drag on. However, I've been able to put most of the money aside and save it for a trip. My sister graduates on May 9th, after this I plan on leaving for L.A. the next day. I haven't finalized anything yet, but I'm almost positive I'm going to book a flight. My friend, "Smalls," moved to L.A. in January and rents an apartment in Orange County. I plan on flying to LAX, where he will pick me up. Ideally, I will spend four, as Smalls said, "stoned to the bone" days here. Afterwards, I will head off to NYC. Last year I was enrolled at Indiana University. It was here that I became good friends with Sam Behymer. He lives in Hartford, CT, which is only about 30 minutes from NYC. I've talked to him recently, and he offered me the opportunity to stay with him. I'm probably going to spend three nights there, and then it's back to the Midwest. The most exciting part for me will be visiting my high school buddy in California. Ever since I was a little boy, I have lusted over California. The pictures that filled my brain when I thought of Cali, were the most majestic and beautiful sights. Anyways, after this trip it's back to reality. Afterwards, I will be spending the rest of my summer working at Byerly Tent Rentals. This is where I worked last summer. I make really good money, around $1,500 a month, but I work long, exhausting hours. Last year we were setting tents up for a racetrack in New Castle. The day started at 8:00am and ended at 1:30am the next day. Then the next morning we had to be back at work at 7:00am. Just a day in the life haha.

Spring Break

With spring break in full swing, many students are out and about in the sun. However, I prefer to roam around my house looking for new places to take a nap. On average I have been waking up around 1 o'clock everyday, eating, and then taking a nap by 3. Usually I don't wake up from that until around 5, then it's off to work. After work I will usually go out with friends and do a bit of boozin'. This leaves me out until about 3 in the morning. From there I take a ride on the sleepy train and set it's engine on snooze control. Spring break is sweet.

The Boondock Saints: Movie Review

The Boondock Saints follows fraternal twins in Boston through a transformation from local blue-collar boys to defenders of justice. Being Irish,of course it starts one drunken St. Patty's night as the boys get into an altercation with a couple of enforcers for the Russian Mafia. This leads to retaliation by said enforcers but the boys subdue them. In a possible case of destiny becoming manifest, the pair decides that they shouldn't just stop at taking out two lowly mob guys but rid the entire world of evil. Maybe they don't decide something so grand right on the spot but it begins there and for the rest of the movie we follow in their exploits. As well as those of an F.B.I. agent hot on their trails, towards their seemingly pre-ordained life of executioners of the evil.

The movie is full of religious themes. They're not particularly subtle either as it takes to smashing you over the head with them by using language, and even a prayer, that can be described as ceremonial in nature. That's why it works though. It is an action-packed, funny, sort-of in your face social commentary that doesn't forget it is also meant to entertain.

A lot of the enjoyment from this movie comes from its actors. Everyone, from the main characters to the comedic bartender, are filled in enough as characters that the actors seem to lose themselves in their parts. No one seems superfluous, no matter how cartoony they might seem.

The Boondock Saints also benefits from a good director. Besides using some interesting angles and choosing, score and soundtrack, Troy Duffy employs an interesting technique in the use of flashbacks to the "crimes" that Willem Dafoe's Agent Smecker is investigating. He intersperses flashbacks through Smecker's examinations of the crime scenes bringing the length of time he spends in each time frame to smaller and smaller intervals as Smecker's and the Twins' paths converge until there are no more flashbacks and Smecker and the Twins are in the same place at the same time. It a true case of editing as part of the story.

It may be a cult classic now and have a much greater following than when first released but by definition not everyone has seen it. If you, or your friends, are one of those few that haven't I recommend doing so as soon as possible. Like the movie says, indifference, in this case of the good movie-watching public, is a true evil that needs to be fought.