Fare Thee Well

     Alas, the beloved engineer who has kept the U.S.S. Enterprise intact and running smooth for over 50 years passed away this week. James Doohan, affectionately known as engineer Montgomery Scott, died at age 85 in his home out in Washington.


     Scotty was one of my favorite characters. His Scottish brogue and "miracle worker" persona brought a great sense of charm to the series. We were talking about him in class yesterday. One of my favorite episodes from the Original Series, "The Doomsday Machine," features Scotty repairing a damaged starship enough to get it running, plus a little more. He came through in a pinch, right when they needed him most. I wonder if I will be able to do that as an engineer someday.
     Farewell, Scotty. You will be missed.

It's Back!

Praise the Lord! I got my car back this week! My uncle dropped it off at my house the other night. Now I have a way to get to school!
     If you're wondering what happened to my car in the first place, allow me to clear that up for you: No, it was not impounded. There are no legal problems with my car. Instead, the problems were mechanical. I needed to repair my car.
     Thankfully, I was blessed with an uncle who owns a junkyard. For my whopping one week off for the Summer (that's what Summers are like at Drexel), I worked with him down on the yard to take care of the engine. He showed me how to take everything apart to rip the engine out. I am very thankful for him doing that for me, because he actually sacrificed a week's worth of work to do it. My engine had a bad head gasket and was burning antifreeze too quickly. There was an exhaust leak, which made the car sound more or less like a monster truck. It also had some problems with oil blow-by, but that usually happens with cars whose engines have over 120,000 miles! As you can see there's a lot of problems with my car. My uncle was the one who gave it to me, and he told me it was going to need some work. I began calling the car my "Millenium Falcon" because certain things would decide to quit on me right when I needed them! There goes that hyperdrive!
     Despite all the problems, I have not minded doing the work on my car. Sure it can be annoying when it won't start, but I am learning why it won't start. I am learing how to work on my car, which will help me to take better care of it in the long run. Let's not forget now, that Luke Skywalker thought the Millenium Falcon was a piece of junk when he first saw it. What happened there? That ship ended up being the most kick butt thing in the galaxy!
     So, back to the junkyard:  I thought we were going to rebuild the engine, but thankfully, my uncle already had an engine waiting to go back in its place. That made things a lot easier. What a week that was. I don't think hell itself could be any hotter. It's one thing to work in the heat, but it's another to work in the heat with your hands covered in grease. There is no easy way to wipe the sweat from your brow without getting smudged.
     After that week's worth of labor, the car still wasn't ready. I began to get worried, because I was starting my next term of school and I needed it! I took the train for a week, then came back to work with my uncle on the weekend. Strike two, it still wasn't ready. Another week of taking the train. The following weekend, I could only afford to come down on Saturday. This was going to be it; I probably wouldn't be able to come down for another weekend until late July. We actually ended up staying up the whole night to get the car running! No-one made us do that, it just sorta happened. We just kept working and didn't care to notice what time it was. The kicker of it all is that even after doing that, it still wasn't ready! We got the engine to start up, but the timing needed adjustment. I took it for a quick test drive and couldn't get it to behave. I had my foot pressed to the floor and the car only moved at about 10 mph.
     I was exhausted, frustrated, and almost ready to cry. I could take the train another week, but it was going to be very difficult without my car. Instead of screaming profanities or smashing something, I prayed for God to help the sitaution and left it in His hands. I was at my wit's end. Deep down I knew He would take care of me, but it was so hard to see how. I didn't know when I would have time to come back to finish my car. I was upset, and angry, but I resisted the temptation to despair. I put my trust in Him.
     How is it that God always knows how to surprise you at the time you need it most? God opened up some free time for my uncle to adjust the engine. I got my car back this week, right at a time that I was stressing out over studying for a Mid-term. I've been having trouble in school this year and the transportation issue just makes it that much better. You see, I can get to school on the train with very little problem, but leaving school is the hard part. Because of the scheduled nature of the train, it's harder to leave school when I want to leave. When I need to talk to one of my teachers or get some help with homework, it gives great peace of mind to know that I don't need to leave early to catch the train. I can just sit there and work. This term I'm going to need all the help I can get. Seeing how the Lord provided for me this week is helping me to trust Him more each day. I feel more confident about this term already.

Fantastic!

I'm sure you can tell what I saw over the weekend! Don't let the reviews throw you off, this was actually a good movie. You know you can always discredit a "bad" review when it comes from someone you don't like. So what about everyone else who is giving the film bad reviews? Most of the reviews I read completely missed the point. Did they even bother to watch the film?! They all sounded like they were out on a mission to ignore the good things about the film and only amplify the bad.
First off, I don't care what anyone says--they got The Thing (a.k.a. Ben Grimm), down to a T. Check out the photo! Everything about him was dead on. His costume, his voice, his persona, his famous catchphrase, "It's clobberin' time!" ...it was all there! I was so glad that they didn't resort to CGI with him. I heard that Micheal Chiklis, the actor who played The Thing, had a big hand in that. Many thanks, Micheal. I tip my hat to you, sir.
     The actor playing Victor VonDoom (oh come on, you can't hide it... you're Dr. Doom!), wasn't bad. He played his character with just enough sneer that you just loved to hate him. The actor who played Reed Richards was good as well. Ioan Gruffudd is actually one of my favorite actors. He plays his characters very well, not to mention that he looks just like Reed Richards! I first saw him on the A&E series "Horatio Hornblower," which is an excellent series indeed. I was glad to hear that they had casted him for this movie. It was cool to see Horatio in a radically different role. The actor who played Johnny Storm did pretty well too. I think he acted much better in this movie than his previous role in "Cellular." Some of his scenes were hilarious.
     Now the one person I wasn't sure about was the actress they chose for Sue Storm. You know who she is, Jessica Alba. From the minute I heard she was cast, I immediately thought she was only there for the 15-year old boys. Well, I was right. There were a few scenes which were obviously written to give audiences a view of her figure. Nearly all the guys in the theater I went to were whoopin' and hollerin'. I have to be honest, I can't say I blame them. The good news is that she still did a nice job in spite of all that. I think all of the actors did a great job. The problem with this movie was definitely not the acting.
     Some of the reviews called the movie an "action-less actionfest," but I say they're mistaken. Okay, the Fantastic Four did not have as much action as say, Spider-Man or X-Men, but that's okay! It was actually part of the story. Think of the context, people! Before they gained their powers, the Four were a group of ordinary people. Dr. Doom was just a selfish businessman with a subtle grudge against Reed Richards. After they got their powers, they were still a group of ordinary people, at heart. With the exception of Johnny, they were more concerned with returning themselves to normal than embracing their new abilities. That being said, how can you expect them to become butt-kicking crimefighters in only a few days? None of them really wanted to fight crime to begin with. What about Dr. Doom? How can you expect him to become supremely evil when he only has two days to build up his vendetta? Doesn't anyone find that unrealistic?
     In X-Men, it made sense for Wolverine to be able to fight after only spending a few days with the rest of the team. Where was he were we first introduced to him? He was pit fighting in a cage match! Plus, he supposedly had a background in the military! None of the members of the Fantastic Four had anything like that. I thought their abilities were portrayed acurately for the situation. They were able to deal some damage when it counted. I wonder what these reviewers would say if their fighting abilities were exagerated. They would probably jeer the film even more! What a bunch of losers.
     The only problem I could find with this film is the similarity between Doom's origin and the Green Goblin's origin in Spider-Man. To the uninitiated, it might seem like a cop-out. It is true that Dr. Doom's origin was different in the comics; his origin for the movie still serves it's purpose. Let's not forget that in the movies, Dr. Doom's reason for turning evil was not the same as the Goblin's. Dr. Doom did not go insane from a mind-altering substance. Dr. Doom became evil because he let the power go to his head. As for his menace, that is something that builds with time. This movie takes place in the course of only a few days! Again, I thought his portrayal was accurate. Dr. Doom was on edge in the movie, though not completely psychotic. I'm sure he will be much different in future films, especially now that he has a reason to be.

     Overall, this was a good film. I suggest you check it out. They managed to capture the tone of the Fantastic Four without losing the humanity. The drama between the characters, which is a huge part of the stories, is nicely done. Do yourself a favor and ignore these Hollywood reviewers who are paid to bad mouth decent movies. They trashed this movie, but said that Batman Begins was excellent. Don't even get me started. They can take their two thumbs and stick them up their noses for all I care. Go enjoy a nice comic book adaption for a change. I am definitely going to see it again, and I suggest you do as well.

Time for Renewal

It's been a long time since my thoughts have graced this page. A long time.

I'm not entirely sure that anyone cares, or if anyone will care that I am going to get things started again. This time it will not take months between posts.

If anyone actually reads my website, I'm glad. Thanks for hanging in there. If anyone is just beginning to read it now, stick around. Soon there will be good things to come.

Later.