Other than the really boring speech, I had another problem. Our graduation is not well-organized. The university is supposed to mail every student a card with their name on it that the student presents to a speaker before they get their diploma. The speaker reads the student’s name, the student walks across the stage, shakes hands with some old guy, and takes his or her diploma. Well, I didn’t get my card. No big deal. Our university website told us to let someone know if we didn’t get one on graduation day. I let someone know. They directed me to someone else. Then I was directed to someone else. That person told me to take a seat and someone would come around in 10 or 15 minutes to take care of all students with this problem. No one came.

As I sat through the ceremony, during my waking states, I was near freaking out. What do I do when I get on stage? Do I now whisper my name to the guy? If I do that, would the mic pick up my voice? Oh my God! Oh my God! Since I’m a fairly smart guy, I figured I’d just hand him my student ID, and let the speaker read from that. Problem solved. Though I shouldn’t have had that much anxiety on graduation day.

What I have I been doing for the last week or so? After getting all of my company out of the house last weekend (I had people over from Wednesday through Saturday), I decided I needed a week’s vacation. I must note that a week’s vacation for me, since I don’t have much money, means staying at home and being lazy. This works well for me.

I’ve made it through seasons one and two of Stargate SG-1, a few movies I’ve seen countless times, and now I’ve started watching Battlestar Galactica again. I’ve got to get some new stuff.

I have been educating myself though. Reading books. Keeping my mind sharp. I finished reading The God Delusion, which I wrote a review of. Interesting book. I’ve since read I Robot, Running With Scissors, and Pledged. I read the firt book of The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy and four pages of Einstein’s Relativity (too heavy for me to read right now).

I’ve decided to finally get on the Harry Potter bandwagon and read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which is the second book of the series. I figured I might try to catch up before the final book is released. I’ve been on a four-year hiatus since the first book. And to think I run Books In Bed.

What’s on the agenda from here on out? Next week I have to see about getting some kind of employment that doesn’t involve burgers and fries. Review all the books I’ve read. Continue building this website and Books In Bed. Maybe have a little fun. Live life.

I honestly don’t know what’s next, but I’m kind of looking forward to it. I finally feel at peace with the thought of something different, and I think that’s the point I needed to get to. This doesn’t mean I’m not scared to death about what’s coming. I’m just oddly ready because I don’t have to know what to expect, just know to be expecting something.

I will say that going home was fun, and I did get lots of neat stuff. And since I’m not going to tell about every detail of every thing that I got, I will list the books and movies. Especially since these are the things that will shape my life.

Books

• The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century – Thomas L. Friedman
• If You Want to Write: A Book About Art, Independence, and Spirit – Brenda Ueland
• Before Writing: Rethinking the Paths to Literacy – Gunther Kress
• All the King’s Men – Robert Penn Warren
• Relentless – Robin Parrish
• Nobody’s Fool – Richard Russo
• The American Dream and the Public Schools – Jennifer Hochschild, Nathan Scovronick
• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft – Stephen King
• Off Magazine Street – Ronald Everett Capps
• Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies—and What It Means to be Human – Joel Garreau
• The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter – Carson McCullers
• The Complete Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton
• The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness – Dave Ramsey

DVDs

• Rome: Season 1
• King of the Hill: Season 4
• King of the Hill: Season 5
• 24: Season 1
• Seinfeld: Season 7
• Grey’s Anatomy: Season 1
• Alias: Season 5
• Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
• Invincible
• The Devil Wears Prada
• Miami Vice

With that said, it was a good movie. Maybe the hype I’ve been hearing since before the movie hit theaters had built it up too much.

Superman/Clark Kent (Brandon Routh) returns after a five-year search for his home planet. He comes home to find Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) with a kid and a boyfriend living with the two. Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) is out of prison and hatching another diabolical plan that would endanger billions of lives. And the man of steel must reintegrate himself into the life of a superhero and a reporter.

I like the direction that Bryan Singer took the movie in though. He modernized it in a way that fits in better with my generation. However, he lost me on the Justice angle. There wasn’t much of one, unless it was supposed to be implied. The few bits from Jor-El helped it a little. But not enough.

He focused most of the film on the Superman/Lois story, which is what many of us wanted to see anyway. Singer portrayed it well, and didn’t fall into a Hollywood-love-story-cliché.

Routh’s performance was on. He was the embodiment of Superman. But, Spacey was better. Mostly, because I was never fond of Gene Hackman’s performance as Lex in the previous films. Bosworth played Lois’ character well enough. And I feel a bit sorry for James Marsdon, who played Lois’ boyfriend. Singer keeps putting him in these roles where he can’t keep his woman.

It is another great story in the Superman saga. Not as great as Christopher Reeve’s Superman I & II, but a story worth seeing.

But, is there something more? I would go as far as saying there is. While, for the most part, this is another rehash of the onslaught of college movies that we’ve seen for the past five years, this movie does offer something a little different. You can be creative outside of conventional standards.

There’s something to be said about freedom from the traditional academic rigors of college and the same ol’ boring lectures. Where this movie really shines is its theme that centers on creativity.

Uncle Ben (Lewis Black), who lands a job at South Harmon Institute of Technology (SHIT), sums up what college is precisely,

Look, we throw a lot of fancy words in front of these kids in order to attract them to going to school in the belief that they’re gonna have a better life, and we know that all we’re doing is breeding a whole new generation of buyers and sellers, BUYERS AND SELLERS! Pimps and whores, PIMPS AND WHORES! and indoctrinating them into a life long hell of debt and indecision!

At least, that’s one way to put it.

Bartelby Gaines (Justin Long) is rejected by every college that he applied to. Not to dissapoint his parents he creates a fake website and acceptance letter from South Harmon with the help of his friend who got into the elite Ohio university Harmon, Sherman Schrader (Jonah Hill). Without realizing it, his one-click acceptance on the South Harmon website lands him a few hundred students at orientation. So, he did what he had to do. He accepted their first semester’s tuition and began a nontraditional college.

What ensues is plenty of laughs and academic nonconformism where fun and creativity are celebrated.

I don’t mean to hype up the movie too much because it is full of the usual run-of-the-mill college movie stunts to keep your attention. But, there is a message here that is worth hearing, even if it’s only for a one-night rental.

Usually, when someone recommends a film to me and say it is a perfect depiction of the South, I cringe. This time it was different. The voices were southern, and not the Hollywood version of southern voices either. Yes, that’s the first thing southern people notice when watching a movie about the South, the voices. We can’t help it; it’s the part that always gets messed up the most.

Madeleine, an art gallery owner from Chicago, and her husband, George, get a chance to go back to his home town as she tries to woo a potential client. From that point on, the family tension grows. Johnny, George’s brother and Ashley’s (Amy Adams) husband, has a history with his brother that has never been resolved and a love for his wife that he can’t seem to show. Ashley clings to every moment with Madeleine and fills the screen with a kind of southern warmth that is rare in film.

The plot never fully explodes. But it’s not expected to. And suprisingly, the film is lacking in the usual southern vs. northern clichés. Morrison presents an original piece of work here.

The most important theme of the movie is family. You do things because they’re your family. No matter where you go in life, your roots will still be a part of who you are. We get these thematic details through Madeleine’s eyes as she finds out more about her husband’s roots. She finds out that he eats mayonnaise. That he sings hymns. That he has a family unlike anything she has known, a family that cares first and foremost about family.

Whether this is a perfect depiction of the southern family is not important. What is important is that it’s the closest thing you’re going to get.

Fred Schepisi does a wonderful job putting the pieces together in the small New England town of Empire Falls. Almost every actor was dead-on portraying the characters from the book. Although, Francince Whiting didn’t seem quite as evil in the film adaptation. I was especially in awe of Paul Newman’s performance of Max Roby. He was by far the funniest (and the saddest when he needed to be) character in the film.

There seems to be something missing from the adaptation though. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it’s there. I guess that’s what you get from any film in which you’ve already read the book. It’s lacking some of the little details that one can only explain in words.

Nevertheless, the film was wonderful. A young movie and book buff like myself can only hope for more film adaptations like this one in the future. By far, one of the best adaptations you can get your hands on.

So far, I’ve managed to pick up seven sets:

1. Desperate Housewives: Season 2
2. Lost: Season 2
3. Nip/Tuck: Season 2 (still catching up)
4. Supernatural: Season 1
5. Veronica Mars: Season 2
6. VIP: Season 1
7. Weeds: Season 1

I’ve been in TV on DVD watching frenzy. When I’m not at school, at work, doing homework, or here on the Net, I’m busy flying through a season of television. It’s hard to keep up with all the new sets popping up every week. Aside from football, this is why the late summer/early fall is my favorite time of the year.

And I still have a good number of sets left to get as the TV on DVD season continues.

1. Alias: Season 5 – November 21
2. Carnivàle: Season 2 – Released
3. Charmed: Season 6 – October 17
4. Joan of Arcadia: Season 2 – November 28
5. Nip/Tuck: Season 3 – Released
6. O.C., The: Season 3 – October 24
7. One Tree Hill: Season 3 – September 26
8. Scrubs: Season 4 – October 10
9. Smallville: Season 5 – Released

Not only do I have these titles to get, but I still have to catch up on King of the Hill and The Sopranos. I’m definitely looking forward to picking up Season 5 of Smallville this weekend. The only reason I don’t have it yet is because I’m still watching Supernatural.

But, enough about what I’m watching. I’m just excited about the next few months. Now, if only I could have this kind of enthusiasm about school…

Glory: Funny. ‘Cause I look around at this world you’re so eager to be a part of… and all I see is six billion lunatics looking for the fastest ride out. Who’s not crazy? Look around. Everyone’s drinking, smoking, shooting up… shooting each other, or just plain screwing their brains out ’cause they don’t want ‘em anymore. *I’m* crazy? Honey, I’m the original one-eyed chicklet in the kingdom of the blind. ‘Cause at least I admit the world makes me nuts.

Even though Glory was one crazy…This was a powerful quote. “I’m the original one-eyed chicklet in the kingdom of the blind.” Powerful. Joss Whedon and his team of writers are…I don’t even have the words. No one word, no one sentence, no one paragraph, can sum up how wonderful, not only the writers, but also the cast, they were. What they done for television. I could sit here at my desk and analyze every quote I copied into a text file, but that would take a while. Plus, I would just say the same thing over and over and over.

Okay, that’s what I got for tonight. I don’t want to bore anyone with my the mundane details of my life, so I’ll just leave you with that powerful (I need a new word for powerful, I know, but that’s what I feel when I read over it) quote from the series. If you do anything after reading this post, read that quote again and give yourself a few minutes to think it over.

I started this collection in 2001. My father bought me my first DVD player (priced at $130 and lacking most of the functions of the current $40 Wal-Mart special) for Christmas that year. That was a great Christmas. I jumped on the DVD bandwagon before most of my family and friends even knew what a DVD player was. Since I only had about five titles on VHS, it was a good investment. I could start my collection with the newest technology, and it should last me at least twenty years. Yes, VHS cassettes had been around that long. I was safe and secure to get aboard at that point.

My Granny and Papa had movies on VHS dating back into the 1980s. One day about ten years ago, my sister and I were allowed to alphabetize her (I say her because we always refer to things as belonging to Granny in my grandparent’s home) collection. After a few hours of fussing over where titles beginning with “A” and “The” should be in relation to the other titles and how to fit the tapes themselves in the cabinet, we managed to count over 300 movies. Over 100 belonged to the Western genre, my Papa’s favorite. We used to joke that he owned every Western ever made.

My Granny always had a movie to watch. There was never any excuse for boredom at her house. That is granted that Papa wasn’t watching a Western on TV, probably one of the movies he already had in the collection. Last year, I gave them my $130 DVD player because I had upgraded to a better player. They are now on the DVD bandwagon along with me. However, they did hop on a little late in the DVD’s life. Now, their VHS collection is hardly worth the space it takes up. They still have a VCR to play them on, but most of their movie watching is done on DVD.

I have now moved on to an up-conversion DVD player, which allows me to watch my DVDs in as close to true high-definition as they can get on my 30” Philips HDTV. I am actually quite satisfied with the picture quality of it. However, it is not enough. Some day soon, I will want the cool, new technology in order to make full use of my high-definition television. That is where Blu-ray and HD DVD come in. That new technology is just around the corner. Of course, there is a problem when I say Blu-ray and HD DVD. They are two different formats of the next-generation DVD. I want high-definition discs, but I don’t want to purchase the wrong format only to find it obsolete in a year. The major differences in the two formats are how much information each can hold and the type of laser that reads the discs. HD DVD is read by a red laser and is much like the DVD, but it holds less information. A blue laser reads the Blu-ray disc, which holds much more information. However, it is a lot different from the DVD, so Blu-ray manufacturers will have to rebuild their factories, which will inevitably drive costs up.

Some DVD player manufacturers have already stated they are at work on a player that will play both formats. The problem is that some of the major companies don’t want to give permission to the manufacturers to produce them. If these players could release early enough in the format war, we could avoid a war altogether. Yet, I know that’s not entirely true. Let’s look at this from another perspective. Coke and Pepsi have coexisted for years. They are the software of the soft drink world. Coke and Pepsi machines are the hardware of that world. The companies that produce these machines make them compatible with both types of soft drinks. They are not biased toward any one soft drink. Now let’s put the next-generation DVDs in the same situation. First, there is Blu-ray and HD DVD (software). Then there is a need for a player (hardware) that simply reads them both. The technology is available, manufacturers have said as much. Why not let the consumers taste a little Sony one day, then Universal the next, the same as they can with Coke and Pepsi?

At least I can wait out the format war. DVDs won’t be obsolete for some time. In addition, with the new players’ backwards-compatibility, I’ll get to keep my current collection without upgrading more than 200 titles to the victorious format. My problem lies deeper than the current format war. I had expected to get a 20-year life span out of my DVD collection. Instead, it is only in its fifth year. It’s still a child compared to the VHS. Yes, it will last as long as the new formats do, but after that, I’m not sure what will happen. At the rate that technology is advancing, I predict Blu-ray or HD DVD’s successor will arrive within the next five to seven years. I’m not sure what will become of my DVD collection then. Surely, those players will not be backwards-backwards-compatible, playing DVDs, the winner of the Blu-ray and HD DVD battle, plus the new type of disc, if it is even a disc at that point. Companies have hardly tried to keep VHS collections alive. I doubt the new players will have a VCR drive to allow those collections to live on.

I can see the future now. I am a 50-year-old man with a DVD player and a largely outdated DVD collection. I am comparable to the old fool of today with a turntable and massive collection of records. The younger generations make fun of me for not moving along with the times. All I have to offer the world is fifty years of useless knowledge and talk about the “good ol’ days.” I tell youngsters about how DVDs are just as good, if not better, than the ability to download all their movies off the internet onto a single hard drive. Nevertheless, they just laugh at me, and ask what a DVD is. Then later they talk with their friends about how stupid it is to waste all that wall space for numerous DVD racks. I won’t care that much because I’ll have the classics, and something to show for it. They will only have memory saved on a hard drive, whereas I’ll have a case with a disc inside.

Turntables are a technology of the past. However, I see more and more homes boasting a more advanced turntable with a CD player and radio in a beautiful wood cabinet. To place the needle to vinyl has some kind of alluring quality, as if the person knows a thing or two about music. Records may not be jumping their way past CDs on sales charts, but there is something aesthetically pleasing in seeing a turntable in a living room. It has a somewhat “high-class” look. A CD player or computer hard drive doesn’t create that same effect. The turntable is a throwback to the old days. Whereas, newer technology doesn’t have the same aesthetic qualities as the turntable. The only good that could come from a throwback look is hopes that in 30 years I can reassign my DVD player to the living room.

I’m proud of my Granny and Papa for not upgrading their VHS collection to DVD (which will cost too much money to actually do). Those films were meant to be watched on VHS. I know that I will never upgrade my DVD collection. I will, however, move along with the times and get the cool, new technology, just as soon as the format war dies down, and there is a clear victor. Of course, I’m not sure when that will happen. If the one-terabyte HVD (holographic video disc) being produced by Japanese companies hits American soil in 2007 I might have a longer wait, and eventually decide that I will forego all future technology (including the high-def cell phone and the flying car) and stay with my current DVD player. I will be the old geezer with the largest living collection of DVDs in 30 years.

Anyways, it’s well past my bedtime, so I’m off to sleep for the next 14 hours or so.