The Rambler's rambles

I'd first like to apologize for taking so long to post another post. I've been pretty busy over the weekend with the tournaments. Anyways, I've just decided to revisit a show that I loved in middle school. At that point, "The Powerpuff Girls" was already done with its six seasons. So my sisters bought the DVD set for Christmas so they could watch it again but I eventually watched the show again. And I loved it. The writing, the animation, and the characters were spot on. So let's go right in. But I'd like to have a bit of background. This show has had such an impact that almost everyone heard of it as a kid. So this started off from a concept from the great Craig McKracken who made three cartoon girls as a gift to his brother. His brother encouraged McKracken to pursue making a television show and eventually "Whoopass Stew" was created. At first, this show was gritty and dark with disgusting imagery. The test audience didn't like this...

One of the biggest questions that gets raised throughout our scientific era is whether or not the human race will become extinct. The sun will burn us all off in a few hundred million years and we need to build our light-speed technology to visit a habitable planet quickly. However, our current record is laughable since we can barely get to Mars. But a lot can change in a few million years and it can be possible that we survive by colonizing distant planets. So is that possible? Will we live long enough that we can actually build technology great enough to surpass even light speed? Well, maybe. It depends on our research into space exploration which already has a very low budget. And the human race can be exterminated in a plethora of ways. We could unleash nuclear armageddon. We can die because of natural causes due to mother earth bucking us once and for all. We can have our technology surpass us which ultimately kills us. We can have global climate change create a mass extinctio...

Two songs I had stuck in my head throughout this movie were "Ice Ice, Baby" and "True Love." Yeah, none of the songs that I just heard were in my head, just those stupid songs. Yet they fit pretty well. Well, here we have Disney pull out another animated film after their huge flop with "Planes" this year. And what do you know, John Lasseter was executive producer which means that this was kind of a collaboration between the Disney and Pixar staff. This is seen from the short flick before the film where it has the Mickey Mouse cartoon that has a recent update and toys with the fourth wall. But how does the main film hold up? This movie is like a conglomeration of Tangled, Beauty and the Beast, and Wicked. You've first got this film trying to emulate Tangled with Anna looking like Rapunzel and the whole theme of freedom along with true love. Then Beauty and the Beast is seen with the whole idea of prejudice against this film's equivalent of th...

I have a dream. As soon as Martin Luther King, Jr. started his speech everyone knew it was something to be remembered. The hundreds of thousands of people at the crowded Lincoln memorial had gathered for the civil rights movement. Almost everyone in America knows how important King was to this country. So why am I talking about it? Because today is a day of remembrance and we owe it to the legacy King created. Today we remember all of King's accomplishments and we remember the civil rights movement. Indubitably, the world would've never been the same if it weren't for this man. King was an ordinary person. But then, he became remembered forever in history for his legacy and the trail he blazed. He was one of the most important leaders in the civil rights movement and the equality we value today comes from this man. He became the most important person involved in the civil rights movement and was remembered along with Dizzy Gillepsie and Rosa Parks for being so influen...

The book "Earth" by Jon Stewart had a joke in it saying that twenty minutes after the theatrical release of "The Diary of Anne Frank" there was already a knockoff called "The Diarrhea of Anne Frank." Comedy and tragedy seem like opposing forces yet they frequently intertwine despite the major difference between the two. They are two sides of a coin and when people are sad, they watch a comedy. This was seen in the Vietnam War and World War II where people wished to escape the horrors of their time by going to the theaters and seeing something to take their minds off of the current issues. However, nowadays we have multiple dramas that delve deeply into the human psychology. Movies like "The Hurt Locker" or "Argo" kinda tell us what to realize is happening in our current society. People want the truth and the censorship issues of today only make people want to find out more about the human condition. So people like comedies and tragedies...

One thing we have come to enjoy over the years are the Academy awards. Here, a bunch of old, white guys get to decide which film was the best in the lineup of the year. It's always intriguing to see which film will get which award and it allows a moment of retrospective to truly see which film portrayed its art and message in it purest form. Visual media has always been appreciated yet finding the right amount of dialogue and images to capture the film's intent has always been a challenge. Not everyone will love a certain film which is why it is so rare to get above an 8 on imdb. Therefore, every film is directed to a certain audience, broad or narrow, so the people outside of that target audience usually don't feel inclined to regard the film favorably. The film industry is an art form and the Oscars try to pick the best of the bunch... ...And they fail miserably. You know how I said that the Academy members were old, white guys? Well, that means they all fit in one ta...

As a medium, television has had a great impact on our society. TV shows seem thought-provoking at times and can provide entertainment to audiences. TV is valued highly in our current society and almost everyone has been addicted to one show or another in their lives. TV is one of the go-to things when in times of leisure. But TV is pretty much garbage now. You've got reality shows that do nothing to stimulate the mind but just serve to be amusing. You've got a plethora of shows that only serve a bland and dull purpose just to fit in commercials. TV has so many popular shows that are not thought-provoking in any way. Entertainment has come a long way and this is the new low. That's not fair since there are many shows that are great as well. Some shows question morality and dive into human psychology. Other shows feature education presented in a basic form. But all of these shows are watered down versions to attract the audience's attention. What happens is that the...

One thing that present-day civilization seems to lack is simple generosity. It's rare to see a simple hello or smile from a random passerby, much less an Act of Random Kindn ess ™. What happens is that we carry on, reluctant to enter a complete stranger's life by doing a simple task. This social mold of ours that we carve for ourselves dictates how we will act around others. We pretty much state how we will act around others based on how most people act and thus have this cold indifference to other people unless interaction has already been initiated where we keep judgments to ourselves while maintaining a pleasant facade to create this friendly illusion. Sure, many people do  genuinely  make attempts to creating a friendly face for a stranger just because it's part of their personality, but most people merely act kind for the time they have to. Generosity is defined as the quality of being kind, understanding, and not selfish. This goes against our innate human nature ...

One thing we value above all else in America is our individuality. Individuality speaks to us above all else because we want the feeling of being distinct. We want to feel as though we are a separate entity that has its own purpose in life. We can feel this detachment from the rest of society by placing our personality as something that divides the regular people from us. There is an air of superiority that comes about this since we feel as though we are better than others because of some certain aspect of our personality that we identify ourselves as. Individuality is something that is exclusive to western culture. America is especially noted for this idea because of the idea of "rugged individualism" in this "land of opportunity." The idea of becoming who we want to be based on our skills and the determination to strive for certain skills makes us feel as though we are unique. Eastern culture doesn't have this idea since the emphasis is more on community a...

For many centuries now, the idea of gay marriage has been a touchy subject. The middle ages started this belief with gay people and the sodomy they represent. Christianity incites this idea as God apparently doesn't seem to be too fond of gay people. Because of this, Christians believe that gay people are inherently inferior to heterosexuals. Gays have been met throughout history with hostility and executions. But most of the cases with gays are vague and convictions can't occur since the sexuality of the person is left ambiguous. Europe especially has this track record of hating gay people and the traditional view is that heterosexuality is the best possible sexuality and is deemed normal. Well, yeah, heterosexuality is normal and homosexuality is technically a deviant. But homosexuality is also natural. Nature has its own course and having these different sexualities serves to diversify us even more. Let's look at the supposed cons of homosexuality. The only argumen...

There seems to be a huge debate concerning modern music. On the one hand, people love modern music with its genres like electronic and dubstep. Music today is more about the vocals for some reason and most of the songs today that are popular feature vocals. There is less focus on the traditional instruments in lieu of synthesizers and digitalized songs that feature discordant song. There is also is a huge focus on the beat with a lot of the music meant to be played in the club. The bass in the background pumps out the beat and the idea of deviating from the 4-4 meter is almost heretical. Music today is simplistic since it always features the bass, the snare, synthesized instruments, and vocals that can be easily auto-tuned. Many people, including me, believe modern music is mostly garbage. They believe that old bands and artists were better. Something about traditional instruments seem better to them. Personally, I like to dig further past the contemporary music since orchestral suit...

After waiting about a year from the release of Black and White 2, we get another game that has a weirder title. According to the developer of this game, he imagined it as a coordinate plane that signified a path or destiny and how both the X- and Y-axis intersect at one point. It's a nice explanation but I'd rather imagine it as sex chromosomes but I just prefer that to make fun of girls who get Y. Anyways, these games added a lot of features that excited Pokemon fans and they are generally favored by everybody. Let's begin by looking at the new stuff. The biggest changes were the fairy type and the mega-evolutions. The fairy type was created to counter dragons and are generally the new over-powered type that everyone seems to use. Mega-evolutions are evolutions within a battle to a pokemon. Mega-evolutions always mystified me since I felt that they should've just went balls to the walls and created the elusive fourth evolution but Nintendo evidently loves its r...

Now almost everyone was disappointed with the first chapter of the Hobbit. An Unexpected Journey  started off slowly and it didn't have the same Lord of the Rings vibe that the trilogy had. Many people left the theater disappointed and hoping that Peter Jackson could astound us with the second and third installments. Seeing as how The Hobbit is a children's book, it makes sense that it isn't as astounding as the Lord of the Rings trilogy but separating a small book into three movies was an astonishing decision. And so we're left tagging along for the ride as Tolkien fans like me will indubitably attack the film for deviating from source material or implementing stupid scenes. Well this movie was much better than the first movie. While not living up to the revolutionary status of the original Jackson trilogy, it still entertains and allows for good fun. The middle chapter was paced exceptionally well and the locales of this movie were amazing to look at. If Peter J...

So apparently the crew behind Despicable Me made the atrocities we know as Hop and The Lorax . And they've decided to make a sequel to their original hit. What is with these companies that try to be as good as Pixar was? Dreamworks, Disney, and this company among countless others seem to vie for dominating the animation industry. Let's not waste any time and plunge right into this new movie that they made. But first, let me address the stupid love thing that they decided to add that was every bit as cliched and tasteless as the one in The Lorax . I was somewhat okay with how they handled the one between Groo and Lucy but then the eldest daughter had to go and fall in love with El Macho's son. I see a growing trend in our media today about how we focus primarily on appearances when judging love. Is this necessarily a bad thing? No, because it is true despite best intentions. But when you have this cliched cliche that just feels so cliched in young love, I just tear out my ...

Here's a weird idea. What if everything we know to be true is false? What if our brilliant scientific discoveries never even came close to the truth? What if we are really pawns in the grand scheme of things that can be easily manipulated? For that matter, what if our universe is just one giant chess game or puppet show? Will the truth ever be revealed to us? Being as agnostic as I am, I tend to be cynical about many proven facts. Science is a fickle thing that is variable and constantly changing. With all these laws and theories being thrown around, it feels as though we've made great progress into discovering more about our universe. We've come a long way since the Scientific Revolution and the amount of new discoveries is mind-boggling as every new invention allows us to know much more. The agnostic view is diminishing as new discoveries prove even knowledgeable scientists wrong. The Higgs-Boson particle is a great example as many scientists like Stephen Hawking beli...

As many people have noticed, there seems to be a negative connotation for capitalism. The idea of having active competition seems to result in exploitation and other devious methods in order to maximize profits. Many ideologies like socialism and communism have sprouted from the opposition to capitalism. The working class especially has a bone to pick with capitalism since they feel that they are being robbed of their money by huge companies. Capitalism seems to be a flawed system that does not deserve to exist. So why does it exist then? Every single society in the history of mankind has had social classes that divided certain people based on status, wealth, or other deciding factors. The disparity in our civilization has been up for debate as people believe that social equality is the best possible option. Socialism and communism pleads to the lower classes's emotions by stating how the upper classes have most of the wealth by just owning a corporation or inheritance while th...

Frequently, we tend to blur the lines between the reality and fiction. We employ lies to cover up what we don't want others to know. We tell ourselves that lies are for our own benefit yet sometimes telling a lie that feels as though it should be good feels so wrong. A hollow feeling creeps through you and you worry that someone will find out. Lies construe a facade for people by portraying one in a different light. People will think that that person has a different personality which makes it all the more traumatizing when the lies are found out. Lies are manipulative, creative, and powerful while staying with the truth seems like a narrow path filled with consequences. The only true way for someone else to believe a lie is to believe in the lie yourself. Relinquish the truth and accept the lie as the only possible situation that happened. Obviously, this is a very hard thing to do yet juggling the two scenarios makes it too easy to telegraph how you've twisted the truth. T...

After marijuana was legalized in Colorado, there seemed to be an imposing question looming for all of the states: Should they follow suit? The marijuana business in Colorado has officially been started as anyone can use marijuana as a recreational drug. This understandably created a huge debate on whether or not marijuana should be a drug anyone could use. This debate has been going on for decades now as states are wondering whether their original marijuana bans are still legitimate. Let's look at the facts first. It is true that marijuana is better for you than cigarettes. Studies have shown that marijuana can actually improve lung capacity and airflow rates albeit by a minute amount that is hardly noticeable.  Stefan Kertesz, M.D., a senior author of the study and associate professor in the UAB Division of Preventive Medicine found marijuana does not cause long-term lung problems that cigarettes do though there are temporary irritations of the throat and the lungs. In general, ...

As many people have already noted, Pixar seems to be declining. Ever since Cars 2 , the quality of each movie seemed slightly inferior compared to what we were used to. Cars 2 was the biggest flop they've ever had which left us wondering whether or not Pixar would rebound. Sure enough, they came back with Brave  and Monsters University but these movies weren't quite up to par with Pixar's masterpieces that adults and children both adore. I myself am a die-hard Pixar fanboy who loves the "glory days" in which each movie they produced was a work of art in its own right. The artistic and metaphorical meaning behind each film was something to be dissected which made each hit like a high quality sugar high that gets better and better. Each movie grows on you and you notice details after each viewing. Sure even then the quality did vary but each film was still distinctive and crafty in its own respect. Let's start in Pixar's timeline. Toy Story was released a...

I hear many complaining about how many franchises tend to use the same system every time throughout the years. Critics criticize the same mechanics that are used for Zelda or other franchises that have used the same ideas over and over. People tend to disregard the simplicity found in a typical Mario game that uses the same formula as its 80's counterpart. They wish for something new out of the series that is innovative and intuitive. Nintendo franchises are most frequently blamed for this affliction despite new editions displaying new mechanics. The thing is, it's this repetitiveness that attracts the nostalgic gamers. The head behind these old franchises realize that they have money rolling in for giving fans what they want. They make each game distinctive to attract a broad audience to satisfy many gamer's experience as well. Today, games are marketed for casual gamers so franchises must find a balance between the devote fans and the casual fans so as to attract the m...

The second law of thermodynamics states that energy goes downhill and leads to entropy. Let's start with the basics. In the beginning we have Walter White, a chemistry teacher who has the diagnosis of lung cancer. Facing imminent death, Walter takes up cooking methamphetamine with Jesse Pinkman while keeping this a secret to his family. Throughout the seasons his notoriety grows exponentially as his alias of "Heisenberg" is often used. Cut to the ending and you have Walt dead in a meth lab. Skyler is addicted to cigarettes, Walt Jr. or Flynn has moved out and will inherit the vast sum of money, and the meth business in the southwest is exterminated. This sounds like what Walt desired, doesn't it? Well, that was achieved through hundreds of deaths. Walt never meant for any of this to happen. In "Ozymandias," Walt's legacy is tarnished. His brother-in-law is dead, the neo-nazis took away his money, and his wife and child hate him. Walt runs away ...