Killers of the Flower Moon and Snow White

My wife and I watched Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and it was good, tragic but long. There was deception, betrayal, twisted family dynamics, greed, discrimination, blatant murder, immortality and other things to this movie. DiCaprio and DeNiro played their roles well as more or less the villains who acted like the good guys. At three and a half hours, it starts out slowly but really picks up as it goes along. With Scorsese being eighty-years-old, it is quite a feat that he could still make a movie of this high of quality, showing why he is such a highly regarded director.

As far as entertainment goes, it is interesting to see that another company, the Daily Wire, is going to make their own version of Snow White. There have had many gripes with Disney as of late regarding their constant remakes and reboots, their messaging, and the quality of their entertainment products. While they have had some hits, between Marvel, Pixar, LucasFilms, and Disney proper, they seemingly have been losing money with a lot of their offerings. It looks like this new Snow White is in response to the one that Disney is currently making, and I am curious to see how the final outcomes will be for both versions.

I am all for seeing the creativity and storytelling that both will put into their versions of Snow White. If one is good, and one is bad, then it is what it is. However, if both are good, then we the audience benefits.

Family Time and Date Nights

Lately, my wife and I have been spending time with family from both our sides of the family. My wife does have family within driving distance near where we live, and I have my own family nearby. For me, growing up, I was more about hanging out with friends than family, especially around high school and past that. It is understandable as the world of high school and college was about going out, exploring the world, trying to fit in and whatnot. As an adult when I was still living a bachelor lifestyle, that was still prevalent. Recently though, that has changed. I still hang out with friends, but not as much as I used to, now that I am married, and some of my friends have moved away. Our parents are now grandparents, our brothers and sisters are married with children, we are now aunts and uncles, and family takes on a different meaning.

Besides family time, date nights have been fun. We recently went to watch a classic movie, The Mummy, at The Frida Cinema, an art house theater. It was nice because it felt more like a communal event than just a bunch of strangers watching a movie in a theater. The Mummy is just a fun movie that was not trying to be anything else but entertaining. Brendan Fraser was a fun protagonist with lots of attitude and fighting ability. It was a bit campy at parts, and the movie asks its audience to suspend their disbelief, but it was great being able to watch it on the big screen.

Around the theater were a lot of places to eat and visit. Despite living in Orange County my whole life, there are still many places that I do not know about. It will be fun for the two of us to find and explore these places.

Double Dating and Overspending

Being married, my wife and I have been double dating with married family members, married friends, and non-married couples who are friends. It is a different mechanic from just hanging out with friends from what we talk about to what we are doing. There is a lot of catching up, vacation talk, future plans and other things that get discussed. We are not sitting at home watching UFC fights, but going to a comedy club, eating brunch, lunch or dinner, watching a ball game or something else.

We are now feeling the consequences of splurging the last month or so. We are not having to go back to when we first started, hardly eating out, not going to events and being very frugal, but we do have to watch our spending moving forward. It was fun having more freedom to spend without having to worry about the next credit card bill. Now that the bill has come, and we got a lot of the want to spend out of our system, it is now time to make a better financial plan. There will still have things that we will want to buy, yet we will have to watch out for what we “need” and what we “want.”

There are many differences in interactions, dating and financials when it comes to marriage. There is a lot more planning involved and carefulness with budget. However, I can see how marriage makes a person grow, from having to think of someone else and not just living for yourself.

Expendables 4 and Financial Liberation

I watched the Expendables 4 the other day, and it quite honestly was not very good. It came out a decade after the last Expendables, and there looked to be a lack of effort overall in making the film. The actors and actresses seemed to be phoning it in, and there was an abundance of CGI that just looked clunky. The plot was terrible with very predicable twists. The action sequences were good but nothing that we have not seen before in other action movies. This was disappointing as a am admittedly a fan of the Expendables franchise. It was the type of movie where you turn your mind off and just watch actors of the past. There was over-the-top action, and it was generally fun. This latest installment was a bit boring, and I doubt that they make another one anytime soon.

Otherwise, things have been good with me and my wife. Now that she has a full-time job, our financial situation has been much better. When it was just me working, we had to be really frugal with our money. We had to eat at home most of the time and not go out to eat even if it were donuts for breakfast or just hamburgers and fries. Now, we do not have to worry about that. There is definitely something liberating about being able to go out or buy things without this worry about finances. However, that is not to say that we do not have to be smart about our spending. We eventually want to buy a townhome or house, and we will have to save a lot and consistently in order to reach that goal. However, we have been so restrained with our money, and with my wife getting her first paycheck, we just had to splurge. We will definitely reign it in though in the near future.

So far, the future is looking bright. We pretty much have something to do every week and especially on weekends. There are events, shows and vacations planned, and it has been a positive to be able to do such things.

Les Misérables and Steve Trevino

My wife and I had a really busy weekend full of various forms of entertainment. We watched “Les Misérables” the musical at the Segerstrom in Costa Mesa, California. It was absolutely beautiful and breathtaking. This was live performance art and music done at the highest level. The sets were so intricately designed, and I still cannot fathom how they put in and removed some of the set pieces from the stage as it was so seamless. There really was not a dull moment, and the time went by quickly. To say that we were impressed would be an understatement, and a word higher than “amazed” would be more fitting.

The next day, we went to see the comedian, Steve Trevino, at the Irvine Improv. His opening act was just okay, but Trevino was a comedian who put many hours into the road and at shows. He talked about his life, a lot about his wife, his family and just things that people in his generation and married couples could relate to, and it was hilarious. He was definitely of a different generation closer to mine and made that a part of his act.

All of this was great entertainment showing the fruits of professions at the highest level. It is all art and creativity, but on a much different scale. Everyone is trying to tell a story and get certain emotions from the audience in various ways. They make it look easy being on stage, but that is only because of much practice and preparation. Thankfully, we the audience get to see that practice and preparation in its full form.

Classic Anime and Helping Seniors

I watch a lot of anime, but I also make sure to have an anime to watch on YouTube that is “easy.” It’s something to watch that can play in the background that I do not have to pay too much attention to like on a lunch break or some other time where I’m waiting. Right now, I am watching Robin Hood no Daibouken. When I mentioned to my wife that I am almost done with the series, she mentioned watching old anime that she saw as a child like Cedie, My Daddy Long Legs or A Little Princess Sara. Even with Robin Hood, some of the content from classic anime is rather dark or had heavier themes. I suppose that creators back then felt that kids could understand what is going on and not be turned off or offended.

Before I got married, I hardly did any type of volunteering or community service except in a few occasions involving my Church. Being married, my wife has pushed me in that direction, so we are now assisting a senior citizen who has difficulty moving around. We are walking her dog for her, which has been rewarding in its own way. It does exacerbate something about American culture. In American culture, once children become adults, generally speaking, they pretty much leave their senior parents to fend for themselves with just occasional visits here and there. Besides this woman who we walk her dog for, we have a senior neighbor who lives on her own. We do wonder where their children are and why they do not seem to be helping. Going out on your own though to try and make it has historically been the way we do things here though.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 and Simplicity

The other day, my wife watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3. My wife loved it, and I thought that it was fun enough. It was the third in the series, so there was definitely diminishing returns. They still played off the Greek family and culture aspect of it all, which is still a strong suit of the Greek Wedding movies. Everything else was entertaining enough with relatively small stakes, making it an “easy” movie. It was definitely for an older audience looking for something fun and simple.

I also want to create something simple with The Mustard Prince series. I am not trying to reinvent the wheel but just write a fun, simple story focused on fun, memorable characters. Entertainment these days have seemingly lost the plot trying to get away from simple, effective storytelling in order to spread some sort of messaging. There is also a laziness to a lot of writing, opting to do away with character progression and making characters having already achieved greatness early.

I have to be careful not to fall into that trap though. There is struggle that characters should overcome that is not easy in order to become stronger.

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.