I went to go see 300 tonight. It isn’t getting great reviews but I was… well… I was blown away.

The story is about a king who leads 300 of his best soldiers into a battle against tens of thousands of enemies, and takes the lives of thousands all by themselves. You can view more info about the story at the wikipedia entry for the film.

Lets start out with the obvious: There is a lot of blood and gore in this film. A LOT. I mean, there is blood flying everywhere, you see countless spears going through bear-chested soldiers (which is pretty cool considering how hard that has to be to setup) and blood flying from one side of the screen to the other. It isn’t as crazy super thin fake blood like in Kill Bill, this is straight up realistic movie blood.

The fight scenes are choreographed so perfectly it is chilling. Some of it is slow-motion, some of it is sped up, but nevertheless it is one long ride. Over and over again.

They filmed the entire movie on green/blue-screen and put all the backgrounds in later in CGI. You would think that such a thing would be distracting, but it really isn’t. There is really never a “blue” sky, it is always… brownish. It brings a warm tone to everything. The colors just seem to be hand picked by the director, down to the skin tone, that it is really stunning artistically.

The acting is pretty good. Nothing that is going to win any awards, but it good.

Almost all the dialog is in a raised voice (yelling, lots of yelling.) You would think this would be annoying, especially in a big movie theater, but it really wasn’t that bad. With so much fighting, there really isn’t all that much dialog anyways.

I went and saw it at a theater with quite a large screen. They are showing it at IMAX theaters, so if that is available I recommend you see it there.

Recently a post was made on Facebook that dealt with homosexual marriage, and how we are somewhat arrogant in our reasoning against it. Let me re-post it and below each fact I will give my response (I love bringing out my Libertarian side)

1. Homosexuality is not natural, much like eyeglasses, polyester, and birth control are not natural.

True, but those things are fabricated by society to serve a specific purpose. I could argue that marriage in general is fabricated.

2. Heterosexual marriages are valid because they produce children. Infertile couples and old people cannot get legally married because the world needs more children.

Heterosexual unions are intended for reproduction, as is the act of sexual intercourse. Marriage has historically been used to ensure the survival of the human species. Any other use is auxiliary and in the general sense of things less important.

3. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children because straight parents only raise straight children.

Gay parents are more likely to have openly gay children because of the increased sense of acceptance of homosexual feelings. And yes, there is some social basis for homosexuality, or at least how it is practiced in today’s society.

4. Straight marriage will be less meaningful, since Britney Spears’s 55-hour just-for-fun marriage was meaningful.

I know when I am looking for arguments supporting gay marriage the first place I look is a singer whose top song is “Oops I did it again…”

5. Heterosexual marriage has been around for a long time, and it hasn’t changed at all: women are property, Blacks can’t marry Whites, and divorce is illegal.

Yes, because marriage is the logical next step… Says who?

6. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of the official state religion are always imposed on the entire.

No, but the values of religion are part of the state.

7. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people makes you tall.

It may encourage more gay people to “come out.”

8. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage license.

It will. Some people already do. If two men can marry, who is to say a man and a dog cannot? Why do you have the right to make it just two human couples?

9. Children can never succeed without both male and female role models at home. That’s why single parents are forbidden to raise children.

Single Parent != Two “Parents” of same sex

10. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society. Heterosexual marriage has been around for a long time, and we could never adapt to new social norms because we haven’t adapted to cars or longer lifespans.

Cars and longer lifespans have been applied to all of society. Homosexuals take up what, 8% of the population?

11. Civil unions, providing most of the same benefits as marriage with a different name are better, because a “separate but equal” institution is always constitutional. Separate schools for African-Americans worked just as well as separate marriages for gays & lesbians.

Yes, because the name marriage is so fucking important… It took a lot of work for African-Americans to even get to the point of “separate but equal.” It is going to take a long time for gays to get to “marriage.” This shit doesn’t happen overnight.

Here is my opinion:
I don’t give a fuck what you call two people legally doing whatever. Let two people be on whatever documents that currently married couples otherwise get and let the social people duke it out on who gets to call what marriage. I don’t even want to see the word marriage on government documents, nor “partner,” or “civil union.” Hell, if I have a roommate and I want to file taxes with him because it saves me cash and I get his health care, I’m not declaring myself gay or in a civil union. I just want the fucking tax break.

This Monday (the 5th) is my 20th birthday. Sounds like a ton of fun, but it isn’t anything to write home about. Well, I am home, so I guess writing home would be somewhat pointless. My sister goes “You are halfway up the hill”. Thanks.

I’m in my basement thinking, where am I at 20. I don’t know when I will graduate college (I have given up figuring out how many credits I will take and what will happen if I take time off to work on a campaign) and I have no idea how much it is going to cost me (or how I am going to pay for it.) Thus far I am approximately $30k in the hole in mostly high-interest “alternative” loans that I (thankfully) don’t have to worry about paying off until after I graduate (or 2012, whichever comes first.)

And I don’t know WHERE I will graduate from. I am looking to transfer away from UWM or Loyola for next year. Going to either just doesn’t seem like all that great of an idea for me. After a lot of self-reflection I decided that there are a lot of benefits of saying in Wisconsin for school, but at the same time I want to be out in the world and make my own path. So I am going to be applying to Marquette here in Milwaukee and Depaul in Chicago. I’m not too nuts about either, mostly because it appears both will be more expensive than Loyola is (Marquette doesn’t give need-based aid, I get great financial aid from Loyola) and I am still stuck in Milwaukee.

The other problem is my grades suck. I am on my way up, but it I didn’t think I would have to worry about grades once I came into Loyola. All I had to do was keep a C or above and I would graduate like everyone else. I didn’t realize that I would need to apply and be accepted somewhere else, and thus would need to actually work to get better grades. So I figure right now if you take my grades from UWM and Loyola and add them together I have about a 2.4, or somewhere around there.

My ultimate goal would be to go to UW-Madison, but I would need at least a 3.0 to go there, which is something I can not dream to have right now. If I could get in there I would go in a heartbeat. I guess I could apply, but there is no chance that I would get in.

Oh well, another day where I’m not sure what I am going to be doing with the rest of my life. Only this time I won’t be a teenager any more.

Sometimes I like to think that Ann Coulter is just an attention whore. Or she is a satirist. Or just a crazy bitch.

Probably all three.

Here is what she said at a recent gathering of conservatives: “I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot–so….’” (video)

Jesus christ! Salon’s Glenn Greenwald writes that she has become the darling of the right youth movement. That she may seem crazy, but there are a lot of people who hang on her every word. Even if she does just write it off as a “joke.”

Then again, we have a president that thinks that every person who is not born-again is going to hell anyways. So I guess we are all fucked as it is.

I had no intention of the title of this post to rhyme. Just a PSA.

From the way Zach Braff talks in his blog he may sign on for a seventh and final season of Scrubs.

Having seen all of the episodes of Scrubs (in order, I might add) I really have to say: Kill this show now, before it is too late. This last week’s episode was a clip show and it reminded me that a lot of the same gags have been done over and over again and I just don’t see it getting any better than it currently is. I don’t even really like this season.