The Hill and Humanistic Values

My wife and I watched The Hill the other day. It was such an inspirational movie about Rickey Hill, the son of a traveling pastor who overcomes physical obstacles to pursue his dream of playing baseball in the major leagues. These types of inspirational sports stories are quite common, but I still cannot get enough of them. The movie displayed the height of human perseverance and overcoming while displaying the values of family and community. It was definitely a more wholesome movie and something of a throwback to when movies were not heavy on a particular message.

I have said this before, but I want to create stories that are not reinventing the wheel. The Mustard Prince series leans closer to wholesome content with a lot of action though. I do have some stories in the docket that are darker or more adult-themed, but they still contain those humanistic values. I think that a lot of media these days focuses on the negative of mankind, but movies like The Hill bring forth a more positive outlook of man, and what they are capable of.

These days, we are just seeing so much of the negative, especially in our news or other forms of media. Watching something like The Hill with its older values, religion, and underdog story was a nice change of pace. It would not surprise me if we go back to this type of storytelling in the near future.

Jurassic Park and Writing Fantasy

My wife and I watched the original Jurassic Park in the theaters in 3D. It is amazing that it has been thirty years since it came out. The subject matter and the questions that the movie asks are still relevant today, and there was a real moral component to the movie that was immaterial. It did not have a particular ideological message like we see with many movies today but a more universal message that questions science, technology and morality.

I am hesitant writing anything involving hard science simply because I like to write about things that are not totally grounded in reality. Fantasy is fun that way because what I imagine can be put into paper without the burden of the real world. That is not to say that I will not be logical, as a human character, for example, will still have the strengths and weaknesses of humans. Something like magic does not always have to be explained, but just a product of that world without much explanation.

I think that in the future, I can branch out a bit more. Science fiction does sound interesting to me, especially since good science fiction contains social commentary. A humanistic drama could be something to look into as well. For now though, I will still to what I like, which is fantasy and hope that others will like it too.

Blue Beetle and Superhero Movies

My wife and I watched DC’s Blue Beetle, and I thought that it was fun. My wife liked it a lot. There was a big theme of family that was well done, but it did have some subtle and not-so-subtle messaging that I noticed. The theater did not have that many people watching the movie, which is not a good sign for this movie being profitable or having any sequels. DC has not been doing very well lately in the box office, and some level of superhero fatigue is kicking in.

Some genres get in vogue and really popular, but too much of it can be a bad thing. With comic book movies, there is pre-Avengers Endgame and post-Avengers Endgame. Before Endgame, the Marvel Cinematic Universe could do no wrong. Now, the superhero genre has Marvel, DC, and Sony doing their own things, and then, there are the television shows as well. It has been an exercise of quantity over quality which has diminishing returns.

I, of course, hope to create quality stories with more substance over style. My stories are not meant to reinvent the wheel but go back to the basics, which is something that modern entertainment may need to do.

Employment and Shortcomings

My wife finally got a full-time job, and we could not be happier. We have been looking for a while, and for it to finally happen has been something of a godsend. We were applying to jobs every day, and preparation precedes success. This opens the door for many things that we were not able to do like vacations and going to places that we could not go to before due to the need to save money. Also, we can really save but also buy things that we have always wanted but could not afford.

We saw the movie, Shortcomings, the other day. It was about a young Japanese American man who has relationship issues. Als, he has an Asian female friend who is attracted to women but is hiding it from her parents. There was a lot that I liked with this movie, especially the main friendship, but it did come across as if the messaging got in the way of the story a lot of times. It left me confused in some scenes and created undeserved outcomes for certain characters. I think that there are nuanced ways to get certain messages across, but what I have been noticing in modern media is a very explicit way to get a message across.

I just want good storytelling and hope to write good stories. Right now, I am keeping things simple with my stories. I think that many creators have gone so far away from the basics of storytelling that they are getting lost, or they simply do not have the experience or knowledge to tell good stories. I can only learn from others and hope to do better myself.

Birthday 2023 and The Realities of Writing

My birthday just happened, and it felt like it came so quickly. Getting older, some things are apparent such as needing to nap during the day and eating a lot less than when I was in my twenties or early thirties. I do feel wiser but still have a lot to learn. There are still goals that I want to achieve such as having children, owning a house, and of course, becoming a successful author. Even after those goals are reached, I will most likely have more goals after that.

I am once again at the editing stage of one of my works, The Land of the Wooden Statues. I was told the it was originally too short, which I agreed with once I re-read it. I added some chapters, and it went from 50,000 words to 72,000 words. The editing process is very tedious, and not exactly the glamourous ideal of being an author. It is not getting this muse and being strongly inspired to write, but grinding through, being disciplined, and writing when I do not want to.

On top of everything, I write even though I have a full-time job. I do stop and wonder what it would be like just to write novels as a career. Right now, there are no deadlines, and I admittedly have not written for hours on end, so it would be an even more disciplined and high-pressure situation. Nonetheless, I still want to get to that point.

Future Goals and Mentorship

I have made it no secret that one of my goals is to be a successful author. It is still very much something that I am striving towards. I have been doing it myself, and I know “what” I am trying to achieve. However, in retrospect, it would have been much better had I known “how” to get there. There is definitely a big learning process doing things myself, and a lot of trial and error along with just grinding through things. It has not always been easy, and progress is tough to gage as there really are few indicators of improvement.

This motivates e to achieve this goal though, as it has created another goal. If I “make it,” then I can tell others how to get there without having to go through so much trial and error. This happened when I was breakdancing as well. My friends and I were self-taught, just seeing videos or people breakdancing and trying to emulate them. We had no basics or any real base to work off of. However, when I improved and learned things, then I taught some people that were interested in breakdancing. They were doing moves within months of their breakdancing that I learned years into my breakdancing. I instilled the basics to them, and they got better quickly.

Besides creating my own works, I would also like to mentor other creators as well. I think that it is a way of paying it forward if I become successful. It also fills in this gap of understanding where one wants to eventually go, but explains how to get there.

Oppenheimer and a Lack of Momentum

My wife and I watched Oppenheimer, and I liked the movie. It was a little long, and while I understand why the third act was there, I felt that the peak of the movie was at the end of the second act. Considering that the movie was mainly conversations, it was cut and edited in a way to make the scenes move quickly. It was definitely an interesting just from a historical perspective, and the man himself had many layers to him, which the movie delved into. It went against Barbie: The Movie, which my wife watched with friends, but I did not. I think that a movie like Oppenheimer would be more my speed.

I have been getting a lot of ideas of projects to work on, but I am no getting any momentum to really be incentivized to work on them. Creative endeavors are very difficult because of this, and as an aspiring author, it is more pronounced that progression is slow and uncertain. I would like to write opinion articles, for example, and writing them is not the problem, but just finding someone to accept them is a tough task. Of course, I can just do everything myself, but it has proven difficult as well. I have a website and social media, but getting viewers and followers has been slow. It is not enough to create content, but getting one’s name out there as well.

I suppose that networking and partnering with others will help with this. Also, just putting more time and resources into advertising would help. Thankfully, my wife is assisting me with a lot, so that is a good start. Hopefully, this is just a phase that I have to go through, and that I will come around on the other end of this.

Sound of Freedom and Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One

My wife and I watched “Sound of Freedom” and “Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One” on consecutive days. We enjoyed both movies. “Sound of Freedom” was the much heavier of the two movies, dealing with sensitive subject matter. The theater was full, which is an amazing feat as this movie was distributed through an independent studio. The movie itself was well-done, not getting too violent or disturbing, but still always carrying a sense of dread. I am glad that it is doing as well as it is, and it goes to show that movies do not always need a one hundred million plus production budget to be good.

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One was a lot of fun. Tom Cruise still got it, and his trademark intense running was in full display in the movie. The movie never felt too long and kept our attention throughout. The comedy and action, for the most part, worked, and having real-life stunts instead of a green screen was quite noticeable. This movie also had more memorable characters from the good guys to the villains, getting creative with having an entity be a villain.

There are some things to learn watching these movies. For my stories, “The Land of the Wooden Statues” is a much more serious work, while “The Mustard Prince” is more comical with lots of action. There are lessons from these movies on how to balance things, but also when to push the proverbial gas pedal. Hopefully, I can find that right balance with my own stories.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Modern Storytelling

My wife and I watched “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” and quite honestly, I thought that it was okay at best. It was too long with certain scenes that could have been cut out like one of the car chase scenes. Also, Helena Shaw, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, was simply unlikeable, not having any particularly platonic chemistry with Indiana Jones, and being a femme fatale, a geeky bookworm, a thief, a friend, but never having a defined character. Indiana Jones himself was an ornery, unenthusiastic drunk pretty much through the whole movie. I can honestly see why it has done below projections in the box office, and it looks to be struggling to make a profit.

I think that this speaks to a larger problem with modern storytelling in mainstream entertainment. For one thing, studios are coming out with remakes, reboots, and sequels that no one really asked for. When original material comes out and flop, then they claim that audiences today are asking for known intellectual properties. However, there is no reflection as to the faults of the original material such as bad writing, a lack of real progression with the characters, messaging overtaking good storytelling or something else.

As someone who writes stories, it is understandably very difficult, and at times, tedious. I do think that some of the storytelling that we have been seeing as of late has shown a regression in the process. We are being told things instead of being shown, for example, and the absence of a hero’s journey with certain protagonists has created characters who are not relatable nor particularly likeable. I can only hope that this changes in the future.

Bachelor Life and Sudden Ideas

My wife has been sick, and she has been quarantined in a different room so as not to spread her sickness. I have been living a sort of bachelor lifestyle again, and I have been watching more anime than usual. However, it is quite honestly a bit boring after a few days of this. Even living the bachelor lifestyle, while I was having fun, there was a ceiling to my overall happiness and satisfaction. Having watched movies, anime, television shows, and just going out with my wife, it is just a better overall experience than doing things while single.

Writing has been good lately. I write a little bit of “The Land of the Wooden Statues” and “The Mustard Prince in the Beverage Kingdom” daily. I went on a jog, and I thought up the end of the whole Mustard Prince series while jogging. I already had an idea in mind, but the execution for it was still up in the air. Now, I have a much better idea of how to go about it, but granted, that will not be for a few years down the road, so things can change.

It is funny writing a story because it is thoughts in your head being put into paper. However, the characters change over time in ways that I do not expect, almost as if they are alive. By the end of it all, even I am curious how everyone’s outcomes will turn out.

No Hard Feelings and Modern Entertainment

I watched “No Hard Feelings” with my wife, and I liked the movie. I am always wary of movies these days looking out for any sort of messaging that interferes with the storytelling. This movie actually made fun of the younger generation, which was relatable but showed my age. There definitely is a mentality now of it being better when I was growing up and things from back then being smarter and more creative. I see modern art and entertainment generally with more hesitance, as I see a lot more shock, style and sensationalism overriding a need for good storytelling.

I try to just make a fun, cohesive, and simple story with The Mustard Prince. The Land of the Wooden Statues has a revenge storyline and is much darker, but with all my stories, I try to focus on character over plot. I try not to make a “Mary Sue” female character or the male version of that. I like my characters being vulnerable and relatable instead of having no weaknesses. What I see in modern entertainment is a lack of a hero’s journey and an immediate progression for many characters, especially protagonists.

It would be easy to fall into these modern-day storytelling pitfalls. It is a grind to write about a character starting at point A and ending in point E. However, laziness and comfort do not make for good stories or good storytelling.

The Flash and Playing It Safe

My wife and I saw The Flash movie, and it was entertaining. This was the third comic book movie that had a multiverse used, which definitely feels played out considering the MCU and the Miles Morales Spider-Man movies are utilizing it. The movie also suffered from having far too much of the same tone and humor as a Marvel film. Nonetheless, it was fun and really played off nostalgia while having some heartwarming moments. It is difficult to recommend comic book movies these days as there are just so many of them, but if it is ever on streaming, it would not be the worst two plus hours spent.

One thing about comic book movies, and movies in general these days, is that they play it far too safe. They use specific tropes, nostalgia acts, reboots, remakes and whatnot to capture audiences. In Brazilians Jiu Jitsu, I realized that I was playing it quite safe myself, stopping my progress. It is fine to go into a vulnerable situation and find positions of safety, but it is a matter of putting oneself in those positions. This extends to writing as well, and it is still an idea that I am tackling.

It is a matter of exiting one’s comfort zone in order to progress, and it applies to martial arts, writing, movies, and pretty much everything. I think that as I continue this writing journey that I will play around and experiment more with plot, execution and characters.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and Action Scenes

My wife and I watched Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and it was surprisingly good. I was used to the Michael Bay directed Transformers movie where there was nothing but action, and more action with a hint of plot in there. I liked the first and second one, but the ones after that, save for Bumblebee, contained far too many action set pieces one after another. This one was more spaced out, and the main human character actually had some depth to him. Add in a pleasant surprise in the ending, and this movie definitely brought a little more interest in the franchise for me.

As much as I just criticized Transformers for having too much action, I started out doing the exact same thing, especially with The Mustard Prince. I still struggle with letting the story breathe and have the characters not just fight all the time. Having practiced kicking and Brazilian jiu jitsu, and trying to be a real student of the game, I have an affinity towards writing action scenes. However, I am slowly learning that building towards those scenes is an important aspect of the story.

I am still learning. For me, action scenes were something of a shortcut to hide an inability to write anything else. I have learned from breakdancing and Brazilian jiu jitsu to just slow down and let things breathe, and the same goes for writing.

Coyotes and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

My wife and I were walking our small dog at night this week around our complex, and a pretty big coyote lurked towards us. It was the first time that I saw one in our complex in the two years that I lived here, and it was close to us. Thankfully, we got away from it. The next morning, my wife walked our dog, and another coyote approached. This time, she came prepared with a weapon and managed to get away from it. However, one coyote encounter was already uncommon, but two on consecutive days is unheard of. We are just more cautious during certain times of the day walking our dog now.

We also watched Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse in theaters this past week, and I thought that it was very good. It is a sequel to the 2018 movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The different comic book style animation was a nice touch, and the focus on the personal worked. It was different from the MCU superhero offerings as it did not have that trademark MCU humor, it had darker themes, and it felt closer to a comic book. It was a bit long, and the way that it ends left a lot to be desired. Overall, I would recommend it.

Watching Spider-Man in the theaters, it made me think about how iconic and original characters are created. There is the origin story, rogue’s gallery, and whatnot, but also, the little things matter as well. With my own characters, that’s something that I’m still working on. I started out having characters being blank slates, but that made my characters quite bland. Having learned, I am trying to make my characters deeper and have more substance, which has helped my writing especially in figuring ways in which characters will react to certain situations.

Memorial Day Weekend 2023 and Discipline

Memorial Day weekend was good spending time with family and relatives. I went to a high school graduation party with my parents and my wife. Things are different being married and having to introduce my wife to these new people. Thankfully, my relatives were very excited to meet my wife, and it is nice not going to these family gatherings and whatnot still single. It is different being middle aged and seeing someone young achieve a milestone like graduating high school, and it is just so distant to me. I have not been in school for years now, and I would be a better student now than I was back then.

Somehow, I became much more disciplined about getting stuff done, including writing. The movies, anime, television shows, video games or something else can wait, which is not something that registered with me when I was younger. Not just that, but I am trying to create my own form of entertainment through my stories. It feels like a next logical step, in a sense, consuming different forms of media and entertainment and now wanting to create it.

Life experience, passion, motivation, learning and a want to create have made me want to become an author. It was not enough to just be a viewer or audience member but a creator.

Fast X and Humanizing Characters

I admit that I am a big fan of the Fast and the Furious franchise. On the week leading to the premiere of Fast X, I had my wife watch a few of the previous Fast movies to get her up to speed. Fast X itself, in my opinion, still had a lot of over-the-top and unbelievable stunts that we have come to expect with this franchise, but not one of the stronger offerings. Jason Momoa though really played a good antagonist, but the abrupt ending along with some of the ensemble cast just kind of meandering about did not really help the movie. If one likes the franchise, then by all means, watch this one. However, I would not have someone start the franchise with this offering.

I have been listening to critiques of movies and other media, and one thing that stands out and makes something good, most of the time, is when the characters are humanized. As someone who writes primarily fantasy, that is actually difficult for me to do. I am already working on a premise that is not based in the real world that has things like magic and special abilities. Some of the characters can defeat multiple opponents at once, so it does make it difficult to humanize characters when they are stronger and more able than average. I suppose that they can still face the same problems that everyone else faces, making them much more relatable.

If the Fast and the Furious franchise taught me anything, it is that no one knows what will just click with audiences. I would hope that the Mustard Prince series could click with a large audience, but you just never know. However, I have to put it out there sooner rather than later to find out.

Mother’s Day 2023 and Growth

It was an interesting Mother’s Day this year. Before any festivities, my wife and I went on a walk to a local sports park nearby. It turned out that there was a hiking trail there that I did not know about even though I have lived here for about two years. That night, our family had dinner. It was nice not being the only single family member amongst my married siblings who also have children. These days, less people are getting married and having children, so it is times like this that give good reason to get married have children, and see them grow to the point where they have children themselves.

My writing journey was one of growth as well. I did not think that my love of fantasy would start by playing the video game, Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest), on the NES. Subsequent video games, movies, books, and a lot of anime would eventually nurture my fascination with the fantasy genre. It would eventually get to the point where as an adult, I would literally create my own fantasy adventures with my own characters, worlds and stories. I suppose that it just was not enough for me to partake, but create.

I can only hope that audiences will have the same experience from my stories as I did with all the other stories that I indulged in. Who will be the readers, who will want more of what I wrote, and how will they enjoy my stories? These are all questions that I am curious to find out.

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 and Movies

My wife and I watched Guardians of the Galaxy volume 3 in theaters in 4DX, and it was a different experience. Besides water and air being shot at us, the seats moved similar to certain rides in a theme park. The movie itself was fun but a bit long, and while there are always things to criticize, it was overall an enjoyable movie that did not have any particular messaging. The Guardians of the Galaxy has carried with it a lot of goodwill with its audience for years, so we know the characters and the tropes that James Gunn likes to use for this franchise. It worked, for the most part with an audience just looking for a fun time, and it ended well.

When the first Guardians of the Galaxy came out, the MCU could do no wrong at that time. It was not a particularly well-known intellectual property of Marvel, but they somehow made it one of the better franchises in the MCU. I can only hope to come out of obscurity with my own works, starting with The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom. It is now a patience gaming waiting for the final touches, and I really do want to see it out there.

With summer approaching, there will have a lot of movies coming out. Thankfully, my wife and I have a Regal Unlimited Pass to watch whatever we want. These are stories not to just enjoy, but get ideas and inspiration from.

A Traffic Incident and Suzume

My wife and I witnessed a pretty grizzly scene on the road. Right when we were turning into our condo complex, a driver turning right and hit a teen on a bike. Somehow, the bike and the teen got stuck under the front bumper. The driver went forward a little, then he reversed a bit, dragging the teen as he was screaming. The driver called the police, and we went home to park our car. When we came back, police cruisers, a fire truck and an ambulance were on the scene. Somehow, the worst thing that happened to the teen was that he was limping, but otherwise, seemed okay. We gave the police a statement and went our way.

While that was the craziest thing that happened to us this week, we finally got to see the anime movie, Suzume, by Makoto Shinkai. It was a great movie, and my wife displayed various emotions throughout the movie. It had great animation, music and was something of a travelogue without being too upfront about it. The story contained romance, drama, comedy, action and pretty much everything else. Shinkai definitely has a particular style that he works, and audiences can see it in his other works such as Weathering With You or Your Name. As an author, I am still trying to find my own unique style, but even I have been noticing certain elements to my stories that seem consistent throughout my works.

I am still waiting for a few things before publishing. Quite honestly, I am champing at the bit to get The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom out there. Patience is what is necessary right now, but it will get there.

Disneyland and The Mustard Prince

I went to Disneyland and California Adventure with my wife. It was her first time there, and it has been fifteen years since I last visited. It truly is a magical place, and once we walked onto Main Street inside of Disneyland, we can really feel that this was pretty much its own world. Every attraction and performance were great, and it was a treat that so many attractions were interactive. I could not pilot a Star Wars ship to save my life, but I appreciate that so many rides really involve the park guests in some way.

We watched the fireworks show at night, and it truly was beautiful. They played movie clips on Sleeping Beauty Castle with some voice clips and fireworks at the same time. It was both a show and a performance. A lot of families were there with strollers everywhere, and while the adults can enjoy the park, it really is special for the kids. It is this reason that I am not fond of some of the more socio-political moves that the Disney corporation has made, as Disneyland itself is a wholesome, apolitical, family-friendly place. I would personally like it if it just stayed that way.

Nevertheless, it was all quite enjoyable. The thought of one of my works being animated did cross my mind, especially The Mustard Prince. I think that would be extremely satisfying, and I could only wonder how I would react to see my own characters come to life in that way.