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Cheese_Headed_Bean_Boy
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Name: Josh
Birthday: 9/22/1991
Gender: Male
Interests: Writing, Mythology, Dark-Age/Medieval Cultures, Movie Making, Reading, The Art of Storytelling, all things Celtic, Welsh and Viking, Music, Film Scores, World-View, Human Nature, Architecture, Folklore, Extraterrestrial Life/Alien Abductions, Paintballing, Comedy, and above all, Divine Truth.
Expertise: I dunno. You see this girl hit my head with a hammer and now... what are we talking about?
Occupation: Student and landscaper.
Industry: Landscaping and Fiction Writin
Message: message me
Member Since:
12/6/2005
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| We now have a director for The Hobbit.
Guillermo del Toro, the critically acclaimed horror/action movie maker.
Apparently it will also have a sequel, currently called The Hobbit 2 (but I'm sure that will change), centering on the time between Bilbo finding The Ring and the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring. If that means they are going to cut the first film short right after Bilbo escapes from The Misty Mountains, I aint too happy. If, however, they were to make another movie drawing entirely from events in Tolkien's notes and other lesser known works of literature, I think I'd be cool with that even if it's 75% made up.
A story about Balin's quest to retake Moria would be awesome. A look into Gandalf's battle against The Necromancer (aka Sauron in The Lord of the Rings) with the elves of Mirkwood would be cool too.
Whatever the case nothing is set in stone. Mr. Toro doesn't even have a script yet. He said he intends to bring back as many of the actors from The Lord of the Rings movies as possible, which is a great move.
My take on all this: I think it will work out. I do have stipulations however. In terms of tone, I'm sure it will be much darker than the book, which has a light and casual narration. The only film of Guillermo del Toro's that I've seen is Pan's Labyrinth, which was not what I expected. It was supposedly about the young stepdaughter of a sadistic officer in fascist Spain in 1944 who takes solace from the horrors around her when she enters a strange but beautiful alternate mythic world. What it was really about was a young stepdaughter of a sadistic officer in fascist Spain in 1944 who enters a strange and equally horrific alternate mythic world, and is given the tasks of killing certain evils that inhabit this mythic world so she can prove herself worthy of being the realm's princess.
There was very little balance between purity and evil in Pan's Labyrinth; even the "nice" fairies had an unnatural, almost unwholesome appearance. It was all in all pagan, with certain things that smacked of witchcraft and spiritual deception. It lacked the redeemed essence of mythic fantasy that Tolkien and C. S. Lewis fathered.
All that being said, I still think Guillermo del Toro can do a good job with The Hobbit. Pan's Labyrinth did have a truly artistic feel (and wonderful music - check it out sometime. I actually saw the film because I heard the music first) and did make a believable fairy-tale, just a very dark one at that. As long as Guillermo del Toro knows when to let in a few rays of sunshine and doesn't inject the elves' character with a Wiccan vibe, I think I'm really gonna like it. Considering Peter Jackson made the Lord of the Rings a wholesome experience despite his past cheaply done films about zombies and lesbians, I have every hope that Mr. Toro will manage to do so as well. In fact Mr. Toro's resume is much more impressive than Peter Jackson's was.
By the way Peter Jackson is still involved in The Hobbit as executive producer. I wanted him to be the one to direct The Hobbit, and I am a little disappointed but at least they didn't choose Sam Raimi (director of the Spider-Man movies), who was being seriously considered. Guillermo del Toro is much better suited.
I think I've jabbered enough about The Hobbit now. 
* * * I had another "thought". Like the one with the abducted fish... Yeah. That kind of thought.  I recently went to a Creation Science conference, where all sorts of
evidence against evolution and evidence for intelligent design was
shown. And I started thinking...You know how every teenager at some point in their life thinks their parents are idiots? Well if evolution were true, then I wonder how the first Neanderthal felt? I could just imagine him sitting at the table with his ape family, sullenly thinking: "NOBODY UNDERSTAND ME." Likewise the apes, in their own primitive fashion, all say to eachother: "Ugg is SUCH a PUNK." | | |
| I just paid taxes for the first time in my life. Luckily I was
prepared, and had been saving for the glorious occasion. So I didn't
have to go begging to the White House dressed in rags and tell them the story
of my ill wife and 12 starving children...
I was in Port Aransas for the past two days, showing my research to the professionals at the 2008 Bays and Estuaries Meeting. I was one of the only high-school students there... I got a beer ticket in my lunch with all the other college guys too. 
The men liked my project. And I found out that my research might actually be applicable to some things currently going on. Basically, a river is being diverted from a bay directly into the ocean, and my data says that won't be good for the bay. It could hurt it pretty bad, and all the fishing industries relying on it as well. So I'm going to mail my data to the water authorities soon and hopefully save the world.  We'll see how that works out.
I know some of you wanted to know more about my project a while back, and I'm sorry I didn't communicate so I'll post the abstract I sent in to the meeting's registration at the end of this post.
I also went fishing in Port Aransas... I didn't catch anything but I had a thought.
Let's say there was once a fish named Fred. Fred is just a normal fish, not too bright and not too dumb. But anyway it starts out as a normal day for him, and he's minding his own business and eating a worm, when suddenly he finds a hook in his mouth! He's pulled to the surface, grabbed by huge hands, and has the hook pulled from his mouth. He sees other fish laying around the ship, some cut open with their insides being displayed. His little mind reels in shock, and he flops about until he escapes from the grasp of the evil fisherman and falls back into the ocean.
He rushes to the other fish; he tells them of his macabre experience. "I was abducted!" he cries "And there were other fish who had been abducted too!" The other fish just stare and gape, their expressions duller than usual.
"It's true!" Fred says. "And the aliens were performing some kind of sick experiment on them! I swear I swear I swear!"
Fred winds up in a fish psych ward, bound tight in a seaweed strait jacket.
The End.
So yeah, anyway... Moving on to other things...
My abstract.
Abstract for The Regulation of East Matagorda Bay
Salinity by Joshua D. Habegger
The goal of this project was to
create an equation that can be used to regulate the salinity of East Matagorda Bay by control of its inflow.
Understanding the necessity of the
saltwater/freshwater balance of an estuary is a great component in keeping this
brackish ecosystem productive; upset the balance, and the fish will leave or
die.
Scientists have found that up to
97% of variability in estuarine salinity can be attributed to gauged inflow
into Texas
estuaries (Shormann, 1992). However, nothing is known regarding the extent to
which East Matagorda Bay’s health relies on
local rivers for freshwater input (Cifuentes and Kaldy, 2006).
Making five trips to East Matagorda Bay throughout 2007 and 2008, I appraised
its water for salt content and graphed these results with the flow rates of
three of its freshwater inflow sources. Polynomial regressions were derived
from these results, and the equations with the highest R squared chosen. The
equation with the highest R squared of 0.99 is: Y = 520.06X^2 -26760X + 388241.
According to this equation, inserting the desired level of salinity into the X
variables will give the amount of freshwater inflow required to allow into East
Matagorda Bay from the San Bernard River
for 90 days to achieve this salinity.
There you have it.
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| So I recently displayed my project at the Science and Engineering Fair of Houston. Basically, it was an equation that could be used to regulate the salinity of East Matagorda Bay by controling its river inflow.
It went well. I didn't win any awards or scholarships but I think I came pretty dang close to. When the judges begin asking you what college you want to go to and if your project is related to your future career, that means you are in luck. What dumped my luck though was probably my answer that I didn't know if I was even going to college at all, and if I did it would be to study filmmaking, and I want to be a writer.
I was kind of depressed about it at first but I got over it pretty quick after going to a dance. I don't blame the judges for not wanting to throw a $1000 at some guy who isn't going to support their cause later on. And besides I got a peek at one of their scoring boards and apparently I wasn't getting anything lower than 7s and I got at least one 9. So I'm happy enough.  See? I just put a happy face right there. Which means I must be happy. Why on earth would I put a happy face there if I wasn't happy? I'm happy. Happy, happy, happy.
Okay maybe I'm not happy. Maybe I'm just impassive. And numb. Like this: 
... but my sister did just bake me a cake... so I guess I feel a little better... so now I'm probably a little more like this:
I got cake. And you didn't get ANY. Wow now I feel REALLY better.
I'm kidding. Actually I feel really bad that you didn't get any cake. 
In fact, I probably should have called you all and invited y'all to eat the cake with me. I was selfish. So now I feel like this: 
I am ashamed. Ashamed of my selfishness. So, so, so ashamed. Shame, shame, shame.
Wow this shame is unbearable.
Next time, I PROMISE to invite you over whenever I have cake.
But it will be $3 a slice. And $7 parking. And you'll have to wear a tie. And overalls. With polka-dots.
You're welcome.
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| Yeah. It's mine.
Every Calvin & Hobbes ever written. Three volumes of unfathomable genius. Sweet.
Movies
A recent film I watched... The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (trailer)
Long name, long movie. 160 minutes, almost as long as the Lord of the Rings. If you want my opinion on it, I'd say it had its moments. Incredible, poetic, amazing moments. However, the artistic snippets contrast so sharply with the more "realistic" moments that you feel sucked in and out of it a hundred times. So as a whole the film isn't completely satisfying. It would have been perfect if the director knew when to "trim the fat" and eliminate the scenes that felt somewhat redundent or droll by nature. Then the movie would be amazing through and through.
But as it is, the whole 160 minutes was worth it for the part when Jesse James gets shot. My heart was hammering. 8.5 stars out of 10.
Here are a few other movies I'm looking forward to...
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (trailer).
Prince Caspian (trailer) - looks even better than the first one.
Defiance (trailer) - directed by the guy who did Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai, and Glory, so it should be good.
The Dark Knight (trailer).
WALL E (trailer) - I have no doubt Pixar will triumph again.
And then there is... The Happening. M. Night Shyamalan's newest movie. Check the trailer out.
All of Night's movies before this have been wholesome, so I'm sure he'll try to give this film the same meaningful ending and spiritual message as usual. He's always started with the premise of a hopeless character or situation and turned the entire thing around to say something good. And this looks like his darkest situation of all. But I think it will be worth it.
Toodle doo.
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| 2008.
Wow.
Things I am determined to do this year:
1) Write my book! My head is fit to bust with all the ideas I have crammed in there. I will begin as soon as my science project is finished and off my mind. Then I will give myself over to it, heart mind and soul. And I will finish it if it's the last thing I do.
2) Learn to drive. I still don't have my licence. I'm in a busy family with only one car so things haven't worked out yet, but I'll find a way to make it happen.
3) Get in shape!! I did nothing this year but sit around doing school, reading and watching movies. Aside from the occasional lawn to mow I've pretty much been on my bum. A guy knows something isn't right when he thinks he's dislocated his shoulder after pumping up a stupid BB gun...
4) Revive my talent in artwork. I've always had a good handle on drawing but neglect has allowed the skills I had to deteriorate. I will use this year to get them back and make them even better than before.
5) I am determined to live this year like it is my last. Everything I do every moment of the day will be for a purpose. I am determined to take full advantage of every minute God gives me, to live 2008 to the absolute utmost. I am determined to make this year into the best year it can possibly be. Boredom is not an option.
There you have it. My 2008 resolutions.
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