Author: Youseph

Cohost of the TransMissions Podcast. Writer, Blogger, Musician.

Do The Things You Own, End Up Owning You?

Hannah often asks me, “What are you thinking?” The answer to that question is never the same. Sometimes I have these complex, epiphany like thoughts that I just don’t know how to explain. Other times my brain is just void of thought like ref at a baseball game.

Out of know where last week I thought of a quote from the movie Fight Club: The Things you own, end up owning you.

I can’t help but think “Is this a true statement anymore?”

In this day an age where you can download movies and music with a mouse click. Where cell phones and laptop computers are considered disposable devices. Where files and documents are being backed up in multiple locations. Do we really worry about losing anything? It’s really a complex thought that can be looked at on so many levels.

Lets say my apartment catches on fire. I lose my computer and with it all my saved worked and documents for anything personal. I keep my birth certificate in a fireproof safe since their is a 3 year waiting list on safety deposit boxes at the bank. I lose all my DVD’s, Cell phones, Video game, game consoles, and cloths.

It’s fair to say that in this theoretical fire, that the only thing I lost of any real personal value would have been my computer with all my personal documents, pictures, bank statements, work related files, etc. That is irreplaceable data would be devastating to me. In that sense I understand the whole “The things you own end up owning you” quote. But the reality for me is that I keep an off-site backup that is never more then a month old of all my computer files. So should a fire ravage through my apartment, I would go out and get a replacement computer and be alright. DVD’s are replaceable. Video games are replaceable. Pretty much everything that would get burned is replaceable. I say that easily because I do have renters insurance that protects me against possible fires or theft.

So I guess my point is; If you live life like me, with the safe guards I have setup, do you really feel like your positions are owning you any more? I can’t help but say “No”. I don’t feel like I have a threat of losing anything permanently that I own. I don’t cling to things like I will never be lucky enough to own them again.

That’s just must my 1AM thought for the day.

A Sunny Memorial Day Weekend

This Memorial Day weekend has been nothing but fantastic. The weather for those of us living in Juneau is just amazing. Hannah and I have been getting out and enjoying as much sun as we can get. The temperatures has been climbing to the 70’s. It’s the type of weather that I wish our family and friends from back home could visit us with. We have taken a some pictures this weekend and I thought I would take a minute and share some of them with you. I hope everyone is getting out and enjoying this really nice weekend.

Commuting

Back when I lived in Seattle, my roommates and I put together a little video called “Commuting”. Which is nothing less then the story about the bullshit we have to put up with everyday on our commute to work. Granted, it might be a little exaggerated but that was how we felt. The idea was that we would make several of these little funny short films and share them on the internet.

Well, not long after the first commuting video was made we slowly one-by-one got different jobs and moved away. We have never made any followup’s to the original commuting video but we still talk about doing it. I would not be surprised if end up making one again here soon. Until then please feel free to enjoy the original.

Movie Comparison

Transformers means a lot to me. I can’t help but feel the need to point this out. Below is the original Mach 5 car from the Speed Racer cartoon.

And here is the Mach5 From the live action Speed Racer movie that just came out.

There is almost no difference between the two.

Now please look at this. Below is an image of Optimus Prime from the Transformers cartoon show.

And here is Optimus Prime from the live action Transformers movie.

Now, what the hell happened? How can one movie try so hard to preserve the original aesthetics of what made the show so great, and another movie go out of its way to visually rape their fans of what they have known and loved for so many years. What the hell went through the mind of director Micheal Bay when he was mangling the characters of Transformers?

To quote Kevin Smith.

In Hollywood you just fail upwards