"Crazy people think they're getting saner."

To quote a line from LOST to kick off a blog is always a good move. And who better to say it than everyone's favorite John Locke.

Well it's about 12:30 in the morning right now (disregard the time at the bottom -- it's wrong) and I'm not planning on sleeping tonight. In about an hour and a half I'm going to be packing my car with my two oversized duffel bags and driving with my dad to the Indianapolis greyhound bus station. Sleep at this point is irrelevant. And at 3:45 I'll be on my way to Branson, Missouri for camp -- a 10 hour bus ride that I'm dreading at the moment.

I'm a long list of things right now:

• Anxious
  
• Nervous
• Sleepy
• Jittery
• Annoyed
• Insane? Nope, joking on that one.

This is very much a "idk" moment for me. But such instances aren't totally uncommon with me -- in fact, they're quite frequent. Regardless, this next month will be very hard on me. My summer job is counseling at a sports camp where I'll be required to provide a group of kids with the best Christian example I can display. I just feel....reluctant right now. Is that bad? Can I do this? I guess this would be a great opportunity to ask any readers our there, whoever you may be, to pray for me this coming month. Part of me is afraid to put myself in a position that I know may in fact change my view of the world. What is this? I thought you were doing a counseling job? Yeah, I am. But this is more than simply a sports camp for wealthy kids. It's "a big deal" so to speak. And I've been given a huge responsibility by the owners and directors of the camp to follow protocol and show these kids love that mirrors that of Christ. That...THAT scares me. A lot, in fact.

Oh well, enough ranting and moaning. It's late, like I mentioned, and I tend to say/write things during these times that may sound completely stretched and over-the-top when I'm in a more rested mood. I'm hoping that's the case. It's like a newly sober person asking "I did WHAT last night?" Yes, no one likes a morning revelation such as that.

It's safe to say that this is my last blog post until mid-August. To all my readers (if any), take care and God bless.

"A lethal overdose of epic"

Like most avid movie goers, I went into the summer with several “must see” titles of my list. Along with about nine million other Americans, I saw “Wall-E” opening weekend. And along with a lesser numerical statistic I saw “Get Smart” a couple weeks ago – which surprisingly turned out to be very good. Looking beyond these humorous and family-oriented titles, I have to take a moment and pay some attention to a movie that I – until a week ago – had no knowledge of its existence. That’s right – I’m talking about “Wanted”. With a hasty spur-of-the-moment decision, my cousin and I were whisked away to a nearby movie theatre last Saturday night to see this amazingly bizarre and over-the-top movie. Two hours later…we exited the building breathing rather heavily and with slightly sweaty underarms.

Where does one begin when reviewing a movie such as this? To put it into an easy-to-understand visual metaphor, watching “Wanted” is like loading a shotgun with the first “Matrix” movie and using it to skeet shoot airborne Molotov cocktails filled with a deadly concoction of gasoline and Quentin Tarantino movies. The end result: pure insanity that is borderline genius. Part of me is hesitant to openly admit I thought “Wanted” was an amazing summer movie because such a statement is bound to raise a few skeptical eyebrows. Yes, this movie wholly deserves the R rating: language, violence, blood and gore, sexuality, language again, and some more violence just to top it off. There really isn’t anything in this movie that “Plugged-In” can say provides wholesome movie material to the viewer – and by “wholesome” I mean worthy of a non-secular audience. I think the producers of “Wanted” purposefully wanted to release the movie the same week as “Wall-E” so that overly masculine fathers could slip away while the rest of the family went on a cosmic journey with an adorable little robot (Waaaaaaall-E).

Regardless of that, “Wanted” just about breaks every traditional boundary of the standard action flick. While slowing down flying bullets to produce that sweet “He’s the One…” experience is still eye-catching today, the reality of the matter is Neo and Morpheus have been around for a while. There’s really no move they can pull that we haven’t already gawked at before. However, “Wanted” decides to up the ante: you get an overhaul of “bullet-time” with several interesting “newer” camera angles – not to mention a few reversed sequences that allow you to see the bullet’s trajectory after the unfortunate character has been shot (as if we need another example of “Wanted” absurdness). The insanity continues until a climactic finale in which the main protagonist, Wesley, racks up a killcount that nears the population of Rhode Island. All the while, my cousin and I were struggling to not yell out our favorite FPS Doug one-liners (linkage at the bottom; view with caution?).

OK -- time to wrap this up. "Wanted" gets a fairly awesome score in my book. I think giving it 3/4 stars is generous while not being too stingy. If there's one thing "Wanted" fails at doing well it would have to be the plot. There's that clichéd "You killed my father, prepare to die!" motif sprinkled throughout which doesn't do much for me. To make matters worse, there's a twist at the end that seems very rushed and can be slightly confusing for those who have been spending too much time staring at Angelina Jolie and not enough time piecing together the story. Notice how I've waited until the end of the article to mention Ms. Jolie -- that's because, while she is in fact the movie's box office cover girl, she plays a very secondary role to Morgan Freeman and this "Wesley" character that I'm too lazy to search for on IMDb to find his real name.

Bottom line: "Wanted" deserves your attention if you're a fan of outlandish violence and crude humor. If you're into novelty movies from Tarantino and Rodriquez, you'll most likely walk away satisfied. Otherwise, stay clear from "Wanted" unless you want a lethal overdose of epic.

Non-relevant references:

FPS Doug:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9qXbgrx9rg

IMDb:
http://www.imdb.com/

Plugged-In Online:
http://www.pluggedinonline.com/

"Why so serious?"

Seriously. Why are you so serious right now? Oh don't worry -- I'm only "joking" (te-he! get it?).

Wow...that was a very poorly executed verbal pun.

Apparently, Heath Ledger is in the running for this year's "Best Actor" award for his role as the Joker in the movie "The Dark Knight". This gets me thinking. Either someone at the academy is feeling sorry for Ledger -- or the Joker is in fact a badass character worthy of the award. Personally, I hope it's the second choice. I've heard lots of great things so far about the movie and I'm sure It won't disappoint.

I'm predicting some crazy box office statistics after opening weekend.

"I would so rather be in prison."

My feelings exactly.

I guess I need to explain the title before you get scared off by an unexplained "Office" quote. The truth is I have a Dunder Mifflin, Inc motivational quotes calendar above my desk that echoes this blog's title. The speaker is none other than Kevin, the initiative sales representative. His facial expression looking down upon me makes me feel uneasy; however my summer thus far echoes his quote, "I would so rather be in prison".

Hi, my name is Brent and I'm a 20 year old college student living in the United States. This fall I'll be entering my sophomore year -- no longer an inexperienced freshman. Woot. Anyways, I decided to make a blog separate from my Facebook account and MySpace page for the sole reason of getting away from the teen-scene and all the distractions that come with it. I love to write, and that sadly is something no one appears to appreciate on most online social networks.

Let's move a step back -- just for kicks and giggles. Like I alluded to, my summer has been very ho-hum so far. The most significant achievements I've made as of today have all involved my humble clan of warriors in Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (a video game for the Nintendo DS system). That sadly explains a lot about me -- I'm a part-time gamer. I've been a faithful Nintendo loyalist since age 8; however that's a (lengthy) topic for another day. Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and Donkey Kong -- names by which I live by.

I seem to be having a hard time staying on task with my first blog....where was I? Oh yes -- my totally boring summer.

When summer rolls around I'm practically bound to my house 24/7. My 12 year old sister has more social activities on her agenda in a single week than I have in a whole summer. Sleep-overs, movies, pool parties, theme parks -- you name it, the girl's done it. However, while she prances around our suburban playground, I'm here at home uploading videos on Youtube and trying to persuade subscribers in order to give me a short-lived feeling of accomplishment. But be assumed, this isn't the place where I will try to promote my channel over there on the 'Tubes. But you can probably expect to find the URL link somewhere on this page...

I'm calling this blog the Post-it Note Post because I use post-it notes for just about everything -- mainly for ideas that pop into my head. Besides, the name sounds original.

Well, that's all I got. Like many of you, I got places to go and places to see.