Walt Disneyworld of Marvel?

I woke up this morning and found out that Disney bought Marvel comics for a whopping 4 billion dollars.

In my opinion, 4 billion dollars seems a little small for acquiring the ownership rights of icons like X-Men, Fantastic 4, Iron Man, etc. But I'm not an investor so I don't know a lot about it, but I seriously doubt either of these two companies will be losing money any time soon.

However, I'm still not sure what to think of this. I hope the Disney CEOs are smart enough to realize what they have done and how much of a fan base they have just picked up along with the fact that said fan base can easily turn on them if any Marvel characters are ruined.

Some people are saying that the comics will now become "Disney-fied" I guess meaning that they'll lose a bit of their edge in order to be more family friendly, but I doubt that will happen.

My only worry is that if I so much as smell the Jonas Brothers or Miley Cyrus making an appearance in a Marvel movie or in any comics for that matter, I'll be gravely disappointed in Marvel.



wildwombat

Space Travel

I found this photo in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to take it seriously or not, but then I did some research and found various articles talking about Space Tourism, private companies making space shuttles and things like that.

Space.com

The advertisement reminded me of all these posters from the 50s about space travel and things like that.





Are we really that close to casually traveling to space? Granted the definitions of "Going to space" vary greatly. It could be a 5 second ride into the upper reaches of the atmosphere before falling back to earth or it could legitimately be leaving the atmosphere and docking with a Space Hotel or something. To which those guys at the International Space Station would be like "Wait, I spent years in college and training to become an astronaut and these rich suits just casually came up here too?! Careful, these doors aren't big enough to fit your wallets through!"

I'm not too sure how I feel about space travel. I think it'd be cool, but it would be incredibly expensive, unless it becomes popular enough to be a regular thing like airplane travel. Although, I can't even stand sitting in a plane for a 16 hour flight to Australia, how am I supposed to handle a 3+ month ride to Mars? Easy solution: Hypersleep!!

Anyway, I think space tourism is in the beginning of beginning stages, but it would be awesome to see a major breakthrough in my lifetime.

We could easily be going from life like this:


To life like this:



wildwombat

When you fell through the clouds, you found me

I like this video a lot for a lot of reasons. The song. The color. The setting. The animals.






wildwombat

And that's why...

Well, after being extremely tired from Warped Tour, I was invited to go jetskiing out at Mission Bay the morning after. I'm not sure if it was against my better judgment to go, but I'm glad I did...after I got there.

My body was still tired from Warped Tour and being thrashed around on a jetski and tube didn't seem like the best way to help it.

Nevertheless, I was told that I would first have to ride the tube before getting on the jetski, did I say told? I think the words forced against my will and peer pressured are more appropriate. Anyhow, riding the tube isn't as bad as it sounds. I'm not really sure if you put your life more in the hands of the person driving the jetski or in Sir Isaac Newton, but it's still fun. I mean your butt becomes jelly after basically being slapped over and over again, plus there the chance of being thrown off and landing badly, but it didn't happen. Damn good thing the water was warm.

However, the subject of this is a lesson about a tube, the engine running and a rope around my arm. Do not ever mix those. I was wrapping the rope around my arm to pull the tube in after my friend had been throw off. Yeah didn't really process that the engine was still running until my sister accelerated and the rope tensed pulling me into the water and wrapping my arm in it. It was pretty bad because it was stuck on my thumb as well, pulling it away from the rest of my fingers. So many things could've gone wrong. I could've broken my thumb or wrist, the rope could've cut into my arm badly, things like that.

Broken thumb probably would've been the worst, I mean how am I supposed to play Halo or write with a broken thumb? (yes in that order).

But instead I just ended up with this:





Basically massive rope burn. I guess I've been good about drinking my milk because I seriously thought my thumb would be pointing towards my body after that whole thing.

I think that experience was as close to being constricted by a giant snake as I'll ever get...unless I actually get constricted by a giant snake.

So lesson learned, jetskiing is still badass, I loved it. We went off some huge wakes and got the entire thing out of the water, hence the badassness of it all. My entire body is sore today, mostly in the thighs, glutes and lower back, but it was totally worth it.





wildwombat

Vans Warped Tour 2009

I went to the Vans Warped Tour for the first time yesterday. It was awesome minus the heat and driving there. Who would've thought that it would take over an hour just to get from El Cajon to Chula Vista? Well, it shouldn't for those who are unfamiliar how close those places are. Plus it was about 87 degrees on the way there so it was hotter in the car.

But we got there nonetheless, missed Less Than Jake and Underoath, but it was alright because the bands we mainly came to see weren't playing until later.

We started by seeing Thrice who are pretty good live considering I only have one song by them on my iPod.

Then we looked at the schedule and realized Saosin was having a signing soon and they were the band I came to see the most. Didn't have to wait very long in line to get the entire band to sign my program. Win!

Most of the day was spend just walking around seeing the march and trying to survive the heat, but 6PM rolled around and the sun wasn't too bad.

NOFX live is great. They're extremely entertaining, but I think they did more talking and joking than they did singing because their songs are so short. Probably the biggest crowd I've ever been in the middle of.

Then 3OH!3 came on. You might ask, how NOFX had a bigger crowd than 3OH!3 and I'll say that I wasn't in the middle of the 3OH!3 crowd because they were playing around the same time as Saosin. I stood pretty far from the crowd and I was glad I did because they have a HUGE fan base. They're pretty entertaining for 2 dudes jumping around the stage with crazy electronica music going.

Saosin was awesome as usual. Guess they have a new record coming out in September that I got a copy of just by buying a shirt. Sweet! Best part though was getting a picture with Cove, the lead singer. Completely unexpected, just walked around to the side of the stage and he was standing out there talking to people. Pretty cool, he seems pretty chill.

Warped Tour was awesome, I'd go again for sure.



wildwombat

Flickr

Happy 101st post!

Gosh you guys keep me writing, can't thank you enough. I guess I better enjoy it if I'm to try and make a career out of it.

Anyhow, I successfully made a Flickr account.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wesasaurusrex/ in case the link doesn't work.

I'm going to put more of my "artsy" photos on there, mostly because I think Flickr has somewhat of a copyright policy so no one can make money of my pictures...not that I really think anyone is right now, but whatever.

I'm not really a fan of the MB limit per month, but that's why this Flickr is going to be completely devoted to my better photos.




wildwombat

District 9

I'm currently writing this review about 20 minutes after I saw this movie and I'm going to say this over and over again to anyone who asks me.

Go. See. This. Movie.

For the life of me, I can't run out of good things to say about District 9. For a budget of only 30 million dollars (compared to movies like Transformers and Harry Potter that have budgets of 100+ million) this movie blew me away.

The documentary style camera angles completely immersed me in this movie. I rarely find myself experiencing different emotions during a movie, but this one made me feel a lot.

I won't say much about the story because I think the publicity of this movie kept a lot of people from really knowing what it was all about, just know this is NOT a typical alien movie. No invasions or Tom Cruise saving the day, this is completely different and original.

That's probably the best way to describe this movie is completely 100% original. And it knows it, and it doesn't hold back.

Some articles were saying that this was Peter Jackson's saving grace after the death of the Halo movie (which may or may not be back on after Spielberg announced his interest in producing it) But I would have to agree with that speculation. The gun battles are awesome especially with having cameras attached to the side of the gun so it feels kind of like a first person shooter game. There's also lots of futuristic guns made by the aliens and a few rifles that look suspiciously similar to the Halo Battle Rifle.

I hope this movie gets some kind of nomination for cinematography, achievement in special effects or something.

Bottom line, this movie is on a whole different level from Transformers, Harry Potter, GI Joe or any other mindless summer blockbuster. This movie is great, I loved every moment of it.

You should see it now.


wildwombat

Time can be your best friend or your worst enemy

I've been thinking a lot about time and age lately because I recently visited my Grandmother who is around her late eighties, but also I've been visiting my cousin who is around 5 years old.

To one, their world is coming to a close, but to the other, their world is just opening.

I began to think what if we suddenly found a way to make humans live significantly longer. What if people weren't considered elderly until they were 500 years old? And they were at the peak of their age around 250? How would the world react if we suddenly began living past 100 or 200 years after expecting to kick the bucket around 80 or 90? How long would it take for our mentality to readjust to having so much more time?

I feel like it could go either way.

We could really appreciate it knowing that we have so much time. People always talk about doing things before they die, what if you could do all those things now...twice? Most people say at least once in their lives, "I wish I could spend one more day..." While it doesn't always refer to the someone's death, it could, but in this pseudo-world where people suddenly began living longer, what if you could?

Or

People could get lazy knowing they would suddenly start getting older slowly. They would have hundreds of years to do things so why start now?
Population would probably sky rocket because there are simply not enough people dying (as morbid as that sounds).

It seems like we're always looking forward...sometimes too far forward. How are we supposed to live every day like its our last...if we know tomorrow is a brand new day with brand new challenges?

If I wanted to live every day like it was my last, I wouldn't be sitting here blogging, I'd be out surfing in Tahiti or sky diving or something crazy.

But if I know tomorrow is a brand new day, I might as well wait to see what the challenge is that tomorrow is bringing and face it because it could be my last day on Earth.

Dang that's confusing.

I think the only middle ground is realizing that while every day might be my last, I'm still trying to do things every day that make me happy that way in case I meet an abrupt end, I'm happy I guess AND if I don't, I still have a plan of what to do next, provided nothing crazy is thrown my way.

Dang that's just as confusing!

I don't know, I'm just finding it a little hard to "Live in the Moment" when everyone around me is talking about careers, grad school and stuff. It just feels like I'm trying too hard to get ahead of my normal life progression so that way if something bad is going to happen, I can still retreat and change something to make it better.



wildwombat

I guess that's an improvement?

I've been talking with my mom lately. First she wasn't happy about my grades of course, I saw that coming because I wasn't happy either. I think she realized I knew I wasn't doing well, but she just had to say something. So she decided to mention how I wouldn't get into Grad School with an average GPA like that. Grad School...that shouldn't happen for another 3 years. Granted it's not a lot of time in college time, but still. How about once I declare a major I'll be taking classes I'm actually interested in and good at thus equaling better grades?

Yeah so I told her that grad school was far away and I need to declare a major first that opened up that wound again. Fuck, but she's gradually realizing I'm not going to be come a pharmacist or doctor and instead decided to preach about going into Public Health. So I guess I'd be studying the spreading of diseases and such which isn't too bad, I guess. Anyhow, I'm not going to change my major or school affiliation because I want to go into journalism way too much. My plan is to take the Intro to Lit Journalism and fall in love with it then minor in Public Health. Because if I were to try and major in Public Health I'd have to take Chem, Bio and Math series that people in my year have already finished so it's not logical, at least not to me.

Plus Journalism is a little more artsy so I guess minoring in Public Health is more science oriented so I can look a bit more well rounded?

Who knows, I just keep stressing myself over things like this. It just seems like so many people know the direction they're heading down to the very last detail and I'm sitting here going, "Um...can I just take pictures for Surfer Magazine or something?"

Whatever, in better news, I found out some classes I need for my school requirements are offered at a place called, University of London?! Yessssss Study abroad Summer 2011! AND UCI career center posted an internship at Surfing Magazine so I think if I work hard and get that internship, my mom will feel a little more at ease with my major. But there are a lot of variables and "IFs" that must be dealt with when the time comes.

For right now, I'm going to continue surfing and enjoying summer.


Wildwombat

Money, Camera Discrimination and Updates

Well Friends, I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, but I guess my only excuse is trying to get the most out of summer so far and I think I have for the most part.

Things have been going well up until like right now. I owe my mom loads of money for the camera. I didn't get as much as I was expecting for my birthday so that wasn't fun, but I had a feeling so it's alright it made me save some more. Plus she's been asking for my transcript for the AAA Good Student discount on car insurance, which happens to require being full time enrolled with at least 12 units AND a current or cumulative GPA for 3.0 and guess which one I have. I have the 12 units part down solid. I've taken over 12 units every quarter, but I don't have the GPA to back it up. Spring quarter I had a 2.985, so close, but my average GPA is still lower. Granted I'm not in danger of being on academic probation or anything, I'm still disappointed in myself which means my mom will be more disappointed. And it makes it even harder because this summer she's let me have a lot of freedom I.E. STAYING AT HOME FOR 2 WEEKS WHILE SHE WAS IN CHINA!!!! and just hanging out with my friends a lot.

This happens to me a lot when I spend a lot of money on something. I think when I got Darcy (my surfboard) I was right in the middle of applying for colleges and was arguing with my mom about her not having faith in me getting into UCSD and stuff. And now that I have the Canon, my grades are shit and I owe her money. It's not a particularly happy situation. Especially now that Warped Tour AND Blink 182 is coming up.

But I'll have to reason with her hopefully like a mature adult. Discuss I mean, not reason or argue. Maybe she and I can have a beer summit ala Obama.

Alas, onto happier things!
I went to see No Doubt, Panic at the Disco and The Sounds last night. Last minute invite from a friend and I'm glad I took it. I remember seeing Panic back when they were relatively unknown and thought they sounded a lot like The Killers because I didn't know who Fall Out Boy was yet. They were still very good live. No Doubt was fuckin legit. Like I said Gwen Stefani, who I just found out is ALMOST 40 YEARS OLD!!, has killer abs and a killer body for that matter. They were awesome live. She interacts a lot with the crowd which is always a plus. And I think their stage was set up by apple because everything was super shiny white.

Pretty funny, I watched my friend spike a beach volleyball super hard and get Boo'd by almost the entire section. Gwen Stefani made all the guys scream "I'm just a girl." Twice.

And I was cougar-ed on the way to the bathroom. Yes Cougar-ed as in blatantly checked out by a woman who was over 40 years old dressing like she was 20. Felt like I needed a shower afterward. And yeah you know it's always good to be checked out by people outside of your age group while I get nothing from people IN my age group.

Yes and Emo and obesity do not mix. Because Emos were skin tight clothes, but when obesity is added to the equation, fat rolls are accented. Seriously these girls that tried to sit in front of us, (First don't think of me as shallow and don't accuse me of checking them out, I was trying to see around them and they just got in the way) seriously 3 sets of breasts going down the front. Ew.

BUT the worst part was I was a victim of camera discrimination. Apparently my camera was "too professional" to be let inside. Meanwhile people were getting in with point and shoot cameras. Now my camera can't record video, the lens I had on it cannot zoom very far compared to the point and shoot ones, that CAN record video, can zoom farther and sometimes have more mega pixels. (kind of makes you question why should people invest in d-SLRs over point and shoots) STILL, what's the difference? What could I possibly do with a "professional" grade camera? THE SAME THING EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING WITH THEIR POINT AND SHOOT CAMERAS!! Taking pictures of a fun time in my life to remember it for a long time!! But in really good quality!! Give me a break, Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre. Seriously. Now you have forced me to either fake my way into getting a press/photo pass OR just hide it better.

Game on.



wildwombat

Funny People

Saw the movie Funny People last night, the latest Judd Apatow movie who is best known for directing Knocked Up and 40 Year Old Virgin.
What I enjoy about Judd Apatow movies aside from the consistent cast members (makes it almost seem like a TV show more than movies) is that he can take really serious issues, make them funny, but then makes the characters experience the reality of the situation.

This one wasn't really that different because it dealt with Adam Sandler's character, who is a very famous actor who has everything, but nothing at the same time, having a life threatening strain of Leukemia. Then there's Seth Rogen's character who is a struggling stand up comedian who has to settle for doing free shows at the LA Improv, who is asked by Adam Sandler to write jokes for him. And at the same time Adam Sandler keeps talking to this girl played by Leslie Mann that he fell in love with along time ago. She left him when he cheated and he wanted to patch things up.

Confused yet? I felt like this movie couldn't decide what the story line was and what was going to be resolved because in the end...nothing was resolved...seriously. At least it didn't feel like it.

I thought the movie did a very good job at showing the effects of the disease on Adam Sandler's character very well, it's especially hard when you really have no one who genuinely cares about you.

In conclusion, before going to see this movie know that it's not like the other Judd Apatow movies, it's more dramatic than it is a comedy even though the trailer makes it look pretty funny, but this movie is very unfocused and doesn't seem to have a good direction. Also this movie is EXTREMELY long for a Judd Apatow movie, try 2.5 hours long as in the same length as Harry Potter...but without the magic and special effects! I liked the stand up comedy parts and jokes. I liked the interactions between Seth Rogen and his group of friends. I just don't quite think this movie was as good as Knocked Up or 40 Year Old Virgin. You'll probably hear people quote it a couple times, but not nearly as much as his previous movies.




wildwombat