The Future Freaks Me Out

Well as the semester begins to wind down to a close, my mind begins to surge with thoughts. Thoughts wondering if I have progressed since the beginning of the semester. Thoughts of what all has happened since the summer. But Mostly, my mind ponders the future. Am I any closer to the goals I hope to achieve?

While I'm still not positive about what I want to do for a career, I still have tons of ambition. Maybe too much.

For instance, I want to write a novel. I guess one would classify it as "Sci-Fi" because of the setting but I want it to be as realistic as possible. I want it to deal with human issues. This means a lot to me but I'm not sure if I will ever really have time to pull it off. I understand it can take a long time to write a novel, especially one as "epic" as I'm trying to create. Hopefully I can get it done.

Another thing I want to do is record music. I have ideas that are amazing in my eyes, but i don't really have much equipment for it. I'm so buckled for money I don't know if I ever will, which would be awful because music is extremely important in my life.

These two are just a fraction of everything I would like to do, but I'm not sure I will ever even be able to do them, which tears at me. I suppose I have to keep my head up and if an opportunity arises, I have to take advantage.

Well it has been great sharing with and getting to know you all. I will probably update this blog, but it probably won't be regularly. Best wishes to everyone and hopefully you all are soaring straight to all of your ambitions.

To The Future,
Joshua Moore

Big Man With A Gun

So as I'm sure everyone has heard, There was a shooting on the Fort Hood military base November 5. There were 13 fatalities(one of whom was 3 months pregnant) and 30 more who were wounded. The big twist? The shooter was one of our own soldiers. He was U.S. Army Psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hassan was the one who carried out the shootings. I'm not going to get into motives because there could be numerous possibilities. Instead, I''m going to ask whether we should allow Muslims--which Nadal Malik Hassan would say to students "I'm a Muslim first, and an American second."--into our army (quote from here)

Now, I feel I should state I have no problems with Muslims or any other group for that matter. I'm just not sure how secure I feel when people who are supposed to be protecting me and my rights have conflicting interests with our army. The article above states several times how many of Nadal Malik Hassan's fellow soldiers doubted his loyalty to the military and the country. That's not someone I would want fighting for me. I know not all Muslims have the same extremist views as Hassan but I wish there was a way we could make sure and then decline them based on that extremist belief. That won't ever happen though because we have to be tolerant of every little thing and if we say "No" to anybody for any small reason it is considered "discrimination."

Paranormal Activity

[If you haven't seen Paranormal Activity but intend to, you might not want to read this because it contains some spoilers.]

Paranormal Activity is a movie I went to theaters to see a week or two ago, and ever since then, I can't get it out of my mind. This review says that this movie is almost as funny as it is scary. I have to agree. While the movie is very tense and it scares you even by presenting insignificant moments--such as a door opening and closing, or a shadow on the door, or foot prints by the bed--it is also pretty funny, with the stupidity of the male character. He constantly eggs on the apparition while his girlfriend practically begs him to quit.

The small scares and tense atmosphere is what makes this movie so great. The is not much plot to the film and the story they do give is in very brief segments. The only things you see are what the couple are filming. The viewer only sees a small portion of the couples everyday life, but it is a portion that effects them, especially the girl, greatly.

Something I noticed about the film is an underlying love story. The girl seems to be stuck in a bizarre love triangle between her, her boyfriend, and the "demon." The reason I believe this is because the hauntings didn't get bad until her boyfriend started trying to get rid of the demon. Then he breaks the frame of the couple right over where the boyfriends face is. There's more but if you saw then you know.

Overall I would say this is one of the scariest movies I have ever seen and I don't normally get scared by movies. If you like movies like this or perhaps want a Halloween scare, you should go see Paranormal Activity.

A Boy's Best Friend

I remember the day we choose you.  Out of all your many brothers and sisters, we picked you--the tiniest and laziest.  Oh, you were anything but though.  The day we took you home with us, you were so little. I could hold you in my palm. 

You were the cutest thing I ever saw.  We had moved in recently and we wanted you to make our house a home.  You were my only friend for a little while.  I watched over you like you were my son.  I would stay up late with you, play with you, take you outside when you had to dispose of waste.  I would hold you if you were scared or cold.  Somehow, you always knew when I was upset.  You would come paw me and lay down in my lap.  Your instincts were amazing.

You were so silly, too.  You made raking leaves fun.  You would run as fast as your little legs would take you--ears flopping--and dive bomb into the huge pile of leaves I raked not ten seconds earlier.  You were so playful.  You would walk up to me--rope-in-mouth--and taunt me to play tug-of-war. Or you would have a ball and try to get me to throw it so you could run after.  You were so jolly.

You were so loyal.  Even when we got another dog, you still loved me.  Even though you had every right to hate us.  We weren't trying to make you feel unwanted.  We wanted you to have company.  Either way, you didn't hate us for it and I love you for that. 

I came home for lunch today and you weren't here.  Why? Where did you go?

On my way back to work, I saw you--laying in the middle of a busy road, tongue out and all.  I don't know if I'm sad or if I'm mad at you.  You knew better.  I suppose you were pretty old and I know you were beginning to lose your hearing.  I hope it was painless.  I just wish you would have given me some closure.  I was the first to say "hello" to you; I wanted to be able to tell you goodbye. 

I'll miss you Blaze.

"Puppy" blaze


"Child" Blaze


"Teenage" Blaze


"Adult" Blaze


"Old" Blaze (one month ago)

You're Not Alone

So out of the two movies I have watched today, both dealt with the theme of isolation and loneliness.  The movies? I Am Legend and Where The Wild Things Are. Both are books that were adapted to fit the silver screen.  Both, in my opinion, are very good films.

My opinion on I Am Legend is conditional depending on which version is shown.  The theatrical release contains an ending that doesn't fit the story but instead choose to be more "appealing" to the audience.  Only question is which audience were they aiming for?  It certainly didn't appeal to me.  The director's cut contains the original ending, before the studio instructed the director to alter, which stays true to the novel and fits better with the story in the film. That aside this film is great but very painful to watch Dr. Neville (Will Smith) steadily lose his mind because of the lack of human contact

Where The Wild Things Are, which I'm sure most know, is based on a children's book.  I wasn't sure how Hollywood would make a movie based on a book, which I love, that's mostly pictures and only 12 lines.  The end result turned out amazing.  While it isn't a page for page rip of the book, for obvious reasons, it does keep the same emotion and story intact and makes it even more powerful.  Seeing the pages of this book come to life years after I read the story for the first time was extremely moving.  Spike Jonze (the director) thrusts the viewer into Max's bunny suit and makes you feel his pain and loneliness.

I would recommend these two films to anyone.  The theme of loneliness is one I feel the movie industry hasn't explored enough, even after they have proven they know how to convey the feeling through these pieces of art.

A Man. A Plan. A Canal. Panama.

Teddy Roosevelt.  Now HE was a good president.  He was the youngest president taking office at the age of 42.  His domestic "square deal" policy and his "speak softly and carry a big stick" policy for foreign affairs helped him to become on of the greatest U.S. presidents ever.  Roosevelt was behind the creation of the Panama Canal, showed the United States' power with the Great White Fleet, and was a big part of the negotiations to end the Russo-Japan War.  The latter led to him getting the Nobel Peace Prize, which leads me to my main point.  Barack Obama receiving this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

I have no doubt he will be a great president but only two other U.S. presidents have received the honor while serving--Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson--and one after his presidency--Jimmy Carter.  As stated earlier, Roosevelt received his after helping negotiate the Russ-Japan War.  Woodrow Wilson received his for the creation of the League of Nations and Jimmy Carter "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."  Obama received his more for pledges to do things, rather than actually doing them.  How can they hand someone the prestigious award before he actually does anything to deserve it? 

Again this isn't a knock on Obama.  I'm just why the Nobel committee did this so early in Obama Presidency.  If anything, I believe it knocks the Nobel committee's credibility down a few notches.

Out With The Old, In With The (Fairly) New

Today, I finally got rid of my old piece-of-junk truck and got a new car.  It took all day--much longer than I would have liked.

I woke up at 10:30 this morning to the sound of my dad knocking on my door.  I open it and he tells me to shower so we can go look for cars. 

My truck was a piece of junk but i have been riding with my mom to work and have been riding with a friend to get to school.  This wasn't an ideal situation but I could adjust if i needed to, which I was planning on it for longer. 

So I shower and we go to the auto-mall. We went to all but two dealerships--Mercedes and jaguar because there's no way I could afford those--and searched diligently for a cheap used car.  There were several that I liked, but weren't in my price range.  Finally, at Mike Morgan GM we saw a little Pontiac that I had my eye on.  It was a tad more than I thought I could afford, but I still really wanted it.  We decided to go check out the other dealerships. At Yokem Toyota, there was a Sebring that looked good enough and was pretty cheap, but I didn't like it as much as the other car.  We decided to go Bossier to see if they had anything.

A Dodge Stratus was the only car we could find in my price range with decent mileage on it, so we decided to drive it.  I was a very smooth ride, but we realized that the Dodge Stratus is basically the exact same car as the Chrysler Sebring so why spend more money on a car that has more miles on it.

We went back to GM to drive the Pontiac G5.  It was definitely my favorite out of the three but in the end the dealers were asking too much money for it and they wouldn't budge. 

We had to go get my truck, which not only smokes but puts out a ridiculous amount of it.  The people at Toyota said they would give me $1000 for the trade in and knock the sticker price down to $8000 and change.  That was good enough for me so after and great deal of paperwork I drive off the lot with a (fairly) new 2004 Chrysler Sebring.  I can't say that I got the car that I wanted but a car is a car and as long as it gets me where I need to go safely, I can't be too picky.