They killed the cat!

I know I said I don’t often watch movies. But a friend suggested I watch “The Boondock Saints.”  So I did. 

I very vaguely knew what the movie was about, thanks to that friend’s raving about the movie. I knew it involved Irish men shooting guns and killing people. But other than that, I was in the dark. 

The movie started off in a Catholic church. Odd way to start a movie about killing. But I suppose it was a way to humanize and define the characters. We see the main characters, Connor and Murphy MacManus, two Irish brothers, praying and leaving the church. That’s when the fun begins. 

We see our first fight within the first few minutes. 

However, these brothers kill with a higher motive. They act as self-directed vigilantes, killing men they deem bad.  Then their friend from the Italian mafia joins in, both helping and hindering their pursuits.

The characters are fabulous. The force you to form an opinion of them, which helps to connect with them better.

The brothers charm you from the start. Clever quips, funny retorts, they both amuse and make you admire them. Then their “virtue” makes you respect them while their shooter-hero side makes you wish you were as cool as them. The MacManus brothers were easily my favorite characters.

Their Italian friend, Rocco, on the other hand, was a little harder to like. Toward the beginning, he was just the clumsy henchman of the mafia. As he decides to think more independently, though he becomes a stronger character, he kind of becomes more of a jerk. But while he wasn’t a favorite character, you could fell the brothers’ love for him. They viewed him as a brother and deeply cared for him. He and the brothers made him memorable.

We also meet Paul Smecker, an FBI agent sent to investigate the organized crime deaths. He turns out to be a surprisingly likeable character. Despite being the antagonist, he is amusing and adds light to the movie. He makes you laugh, yet shows the other side, the side where the MacManus’ are the bad guys. He doesn’t, however, make you join his side of the story. You can like him and see him as the bad guy. 

I do have one complaint though. I really think they could’ve used the “f-word” a little more.

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. -Aristotle

For the longest time, I’ve been in love with quotes. I remember that it probably started in seventh grade, in my engineering technology class. For some reason, we had to make a poster with a quote on it. I really had no idea what to put at that point in life, so I probably Googled “quotes.” The one I found is still my favorite. It’s from Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Hope is the Thing with Feathers.” 

“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all...”

It’s only the first line of the poem, but I’m sure I will never forget it. When I found it, I suppose that in my little seventh grade mind, it was just some pretty words. And they are beautiful words. But they also have astounding meaning. I don’t think I can explain my thinking very clearly on why I find it so lovely. This quote in particular is simply poetic, musical; it is light. 

While this is a quote from a poem, I even more love quotes of what people have said. It’s like a snapshot of what someone was thinking at one time. Quotes tend to be deep and to just imagine what was going through someone’s head when they said it is simply fascinating. What made them say that? What situation prompted them think that way? It’s a little window into someone’s mind, letting you get a glimpse of their inner workings. 

Of course, it calls for a specific type of quote. There’s a huge difference between “I mowed the grass today,” and “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” (Eleanor Roosevelt) The quote has to have meaning, the speaker must be trying to get a point across, and they must be trying to teach you something. 

So if you ever want a quick snippet of wisdom, try looking for some quotes. You may never know how much one sentence can change your way of thinking.

There ain't no rest for the wicked

We’re now finishing up the third week of school. Labor Day has passed, summer has unofficially ended, and we’re starting to get into the swing of things. Teachers are getting back in their game and students are getting back into the habit of late to bed, early to rise. 

This is one thing that has always frustrated me about school. Modern science recommends that teenagers get around nine hours of sleep. And during the summer, most teens get that much sleep, despite staying up until one in the morning. However, once school starts, things change. Even if a teen was fully dedicated to getting that much sleep, doing so and succeeding in school would be near impossible.

At school, students are encouraged to get involved in sports, clubs, extracurricular activities, and challenging classes. However, if a student was to do all this, they would for sure be lacking in sleep. 

I’ll first start with sports. School sponsored sports, and non-school sponsored sports, will often have practices daily, lasting at least one hour. Then add on the likelihood of having at least one game or competition a week and we see the availability of the student to participate in other things decreasing. 

 Clubs will also have the same effects as sports, although not usually quite the impact. But depending on how involved in said club a student wants to be can change how much time is needed to devote to it.

Now for extracurricular activities. Be it show choir, band, orchestra, drama, or some other activity, each takes up a large chunk of a student’s time after regular school hours end. Practices after school, performances, individual practices; all consume a lot of time. 

Lastly, I would like to point out the emphasis on taking challenging classes, be they advanced or Advanced Placement. These classes often require much time to be devoted to either studying the material or completing homework assignments. Often times, teachers will say that they assign about an hour of homework each night. Considering most students take six classes, that could mean up to six hours of homework.

Now, let’s say a student is in one sport, one extracurricular, and is taking three AP classes. That student would likely have a two hour of practice after school. It is now five o’clock. That student may go home to eat dinner, but will most likely have to return to school for the practice for the extracurricular activity, which could last as long as three hours. That student would likely get home around nine. If said student went to bed immediately when he or she got home, in order to get the suggested nine hours of sleep, that student would have to get up at six. 

However, our student is in three AP classes. That means it is around eleven o’clock when he or she is able to go to bed. Now, to get the full nine hours, the student would have to sleep until eight. Funny, that’s when school starts. 

I didn’t even go into working, but it would take no less than a miracle to allow a student to work as well as be involved in school and get the advised amount of sleep. 

Our schools demand involvement and then berate students when they don’t get enough sleep, causing their performance level to drop. It’s a vicious cycle that repeats itself until you graduate. That is of course, unless you’re attending college. Then you get four more years of sleep deprivation.

School's out for summer

In the United States, most public schools run on the traditional schedule with three-ish months off for summer break and the rest devoted to schooling, minus holiday breaks and weekends. However, as of recently, many have been questioning the effectiveness of this system. 

The traditional schooling system began to allow children to help on the farm during the summer months, when crops were being grown, and during some of the harvest season. This was beneficial to both the families, who needed more workers, and the children, who would likely grow up to work on their own farms.

Many are arguing that since most children no longer are needed to work on the farms, it would be best to switch to a year-round schooling system, as many other countries already have. Most students forget some of the previous year’s schooling and a period of review is often needed before new material can be taught. 

Those people who argue for year-round schooling fail to see that even though the circumstances have changed, the three months away from school are still beneficial to students. 

Firstly, the summer months are often when many students, mainly high school students, find jobs and work. This not only supplies them with an income that they can use to begin taking care of themselves (such as buying their own clothing,) but it also provides them with experience on what a working environment might be like in the future. Students learn many valuable lessons through having a job, including responsibility, time management, money management, and perseverance (if they don’t like the job much.) 

Summer also gives students the chance to relax. Many older people remember school as easy. However, at the time, I can assure you that they thought it tedious as well. Especially nowadays, classes are difficult. Even over breaks, students are guaranteed to have some piece of homework due the day that they come back. This can be extremely stressful, due partially to our tendency to procrastinate, as us kids always do. Over all, students need time to relax. Our work follows us home, unlike many professions or jobs that adults have. 

Lastly, summer is an important time for families. Many plan numerous summer vacations, to either distant locations or to visit family who do not live nearby. While this is not a necessity, many families would be unhappy with the inconvenience and it would be more difficult to arrange trips.

I do think that year-round school would have benefits. However, I believe that the traditional school system we currently use is well sufficient enough. Long summers will always be beneficial to students and adults.

To see the other side of the argument, visit http://finleysawesomeblog.blogspot.com/.

An offer he can't refuse

This evening, a friend and I decided to break out the VCR and watch an old movie. And since she had just finished reading The Godfather, why not watch the movie? 

After struggling for a while, we got it set up (with “professional” help of course.) Popped that movie in and settled in for the three some hours it was going to be. 

I had zero expectations going in to it. I’ve never read the book and as far as I knew, the movie was about some Italian mobsters who wanted to save the world or end world hunger. I didn’t really know what the plot was. And I was pleasantly surprised. Kind of. 

I don’t often watch movies, and thus have high expectations for movies. Even if there are minor plot holes, a lack of reasonable decision making, or annoying characters, I probably won’t like the movie very much. But The Godfather was incredible. I’m sure there were plot holes, and from what my friend told me, they skipped a lot from the book, but I was just so sucked into what was happening that I didn’t notice. 

I suppose I also didn’t know that the movie wasn’t focused totally around the Godfather. Toward the beginning of the movie, it seemed as if he would be the main character. But he wasn’t. I’m not sure if I would have liked it as much if he had been the focus of the movie. With more characters highlighted, the dynamics stood out more in comparison to the characters who changed very little. I feel as if you got to meet all of the characters and that each was memorable in his or her own way.  

My favorite character from the movie would have to be Mikey Corleone, the son of the Godfather. He was the most dynamic character and I liked him throughout the whole movie. When he was the good guy making an honest living for himself, he was likeable. When he sacrificed/put himself in danger in order to avenge what was done to his father, he was admirable. Toward the end of the movie, I began to respect Mikey due to the role he took on. Other characters, like Sonny, I didn’t like in the beginning but grew to respect. Mikey, however, was a favorite all the way through. 

 It did take a while to get used to the accents, I’ll be honest. It’s not every day that you hear thick (questionably real) Italian accents. But I eventually started to actually understand what they were saying. 

My one complaint about the movie was the effects. When people would get shot (as they often did,) they would flop around for around five seconds. It was amusing, at the least. 

Overall, if I was a movie critic, I would give The Godfather an eight-point-five out of ten. Despite being about three hours long, it kept my attention and didn’t bore me with pointless scenes and boring sub-plots. It was a decent use of time, especially on this rare long weekend.

Timing is everything

I’m sure we’ve all heard the saying. There are numerous like it, emphasizing the importance of the correct time, place, and circumstances. 

A friend and I were once driving to a rest stop at three o’clock in the morning to get a road map for some sort of craft project. On the way there, our conversation got deep, as it normally does in the wee hours of the morning after not sleeping. We began talking about people falling in love and such. She said something that was both profound and astoundingly simple. 

“What if *insert name here* fell in love with you? And you just never loved him back? There would just be nothing either of you could do. You can’t force yourself to love him.”

That stirred up some thoughts in my own head. Nowadays, people get married, we congratulate them, and then move on with our lives. But we sometimes forget how amazing it actually can be. Out of all the people in the world, that husband or wife found someone who they think will complete their life, someone who is their other half. 

But think about this: what if that couple had never met? Summer from the movie “500 Days of Summer” illustrates this when speaking of her husband. “So, what if I'd gone to the movies? What if I had gone somewhere else for lunch? What if I'd gotten there 10 minutes later? It was - it was meant to be.” Since she decided to go to a specific place for lunch at a specific time, she met the man whom she would one day marry. Timing is everything.

The importance of timing can also be examined in a less pleasant way. Many times in stories, movies, and even in real life, people may blame themselves for something due to timing. The might think, “Maybe if I had left two minutes earlier, I wouldn’t have gotten in that accident,” or “If only I hadn’t decided to go to the mall that day, this (whatever that may be) wouldn’t be happening.” This is a much darker side. 

We stress so often the importance of time, be it arriving on time to events or not taking long to complete tasks. We forget that time is really not that important. We’ve simply made it seem important. We worry about doing things at the right time and in the right situation, that sometimes, we don’t see what really matters: actually doing what you are going to do or saying what you are going to say. 

So I suppose my point is this: timing is everything, but it doesn’t really matter.