Millennials and "Laziness"

In defense of millennials

• If people really didn't want their kids to be lazy, they should have raised them better. People always complain about how lazy this generation is, but, hey, you were the ones who made it that way so you have nobody to blame but yourself. Not a lot of people know this, but parents can basically shape who their children will be just by how they raise them.
• Each generation has it easier than the last. This is technically normal if you look at the grand scheme of things. Technology is advancing to make life easier, too. Everything is advancing and progressing.
• The laziness of this generation clearly hasn't kept them from actually doing stuff. One of my older sisters has been credited as being the laziest in the family, yet, she has become the most successful. She's a nurse at a Milwaukee hospital and lives in a nice, big house with her husband and pets. Many millennials are very smart and polite. They don't particularly work hard physically, but they do work hard to achieve their dreams and they succeed.
• They are so much more kind and helpful than previous generations, mostly because of the rise of liberalism. Physically, yes, they are worse, but mentally and emotionally, they are better. 

In defense of Generation X

• A good work ethic is something good to have. It doesn't really help you in life, but it's nice to have if you need it.
• The change of tone between generations was very dramatic and should have been stretched between many generations instead of just one.

I just thought that this would be something interesting to talk about. Heh-heh.

God Bless America: A Rant in Verse

We live in a country where hatred breeds like flies.
We live in a country that is run by hateful men
        who we must love and honor anyways

We live in a country where helping others is "controversial"
We live in a country where making your own choices is selfish
        just because it's a hard decision doesn't mean it's a man's to make

We live in a country where you either bully or be bullied
We live in a country with religious freedom
        yet certain religious beliefs are banned from public office

We live in a country where you must conform to meet the stereotype
We live in a country where you must marry who the government says
        and where love itself is described as hateful

We live in a country with more division than a math textbook
We live in a country where the only way to get a point across
        is to start a war because of it

We live in a country where your salary depends on your gender
We live in a country that is so Christian
        that it is equal to Hell itself

We live in a country where helping others is corrupt
We live in a country that claims to be the land of the free
        but we won't let anyone else in to be free, too

We live in a country whose leader will destroy it
We live in a country where if you hate racism
        you will still be treated as if you are

If a god would be dumb enough to bless this country
        it is not one I would want to worship.

Written by Stephen

Trump.

I do not like Trump. That's a given. The majority of people would rather have Hillary for president than him, but that's not how our country runs. Trump is now our president.

My thoughts?

Well, I'm sad that Obama is gone. A lot of people loved him, myself included. His presidency was so scandal-free that Republicans had to make up a bunch of stuff (for example, "he's a terrorist!", "He wasn't even born in the US!") so that it would make him sound bad. He created over eleven million jobs, lowered the deficit by two-thirds, he signed the Affordable Care Act which insured thirty-two million Americans, ended the war in Iraq, terminated bin Laden, legalized marriage equality, et cetera. Here is a link to many, many more good things that he has done. He is truly one of the best presidents in recent years, whether you're Republican or Democrat. He's a far cry from Bush's reign. He was a good man, had a good family, and lived a good life. And, yes, he's black. Trump, on the other hand, is the exact opposite of Obama. He has no redeemable qualities, where at least the other GOP candidates had a few here and there. He is also a racist, a sexist, ect. You know the drill. A lot of Republicans will say that "he will fix Washington." Any president could do that. Many Republicans voted for him because he hated Latinos, blacks and women. As Obi-Wan Kenobi said in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope: "Who's the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?" In his case, his followers are more foolish. He is just one person, but he normalized sexual abuse, bullying, taunting, and hatred, and his fans followed his example and carried out horrible acts. Many Hillary supporters weren't really voting for her; we were voting against Trump. That's how I would vote, if I was of legal age.

I am not at all looking forward to the next four years, and I hope that he doesn't have a second term. He's barely been president a week, and he's already ruining our country. I hope you Republicans are happy. :(

Social Justice Warriors

I consider myself a fighter for social justice, but I don't call myself a "social justice warrior." If I called myself a warrior, I'd sound so stuck-up and arrogant, which a lot of SJWs are. That's another reason why I don't call myself an SJW: I don't want to be associated with all of the feminazis and people with blue hair. They turn into the exact same thing that they are fighting to get rid of: sexists and racists.

So, what do I fight for?

I want equality in all things. I want women to be respected by women and men to be respected by women. Black people should be respected, as does every race. Nobody is any better than anyone else in terms of humanity, anyways. I am not the kind of person who is so liberal and so feminist that they hate Straight White Men. No. I don't hate them, but I just won't support anyone or anything that try to push Straight White Men higher up on the social ladder, like conservatives and the GOP. I want people to one day look at someone and not think of them as a certain race, sex, gender, or sexuality, but rather as a human being. I would support minorities any day just to try to push them up on the social ladder and make them equal to everyone else. It's not that I hate majorities. I don't hate anyone. I just want to try to make them equal.

Even though I'm not a social justice warrior, I think you should, at the very least, respect them. If you hate them, you're just egging them on and making them feel even more victimized and it will trigger them to keep on going because people don't accept them as who they are. Many of them are just attention hogs, but there's many people who actually do care about what they're talking about. People purposely insult them just to make them mad, and then they'll insult them further when they get mad. A lot of the issues that they talk about are real issues, but they just blow them way out of proportion. Yes, there is a wage gap between genders, but after watching a bunch of feminist videos on YouTube, you'd think men would be millionaires and women are all homeless and impoverished! Yes, there is racism in the world, but after a few minutes of watching SJWs, you'd think that all whites are genocidal maniacs!

All in all, I want equality. I am not a social justice warrior. You probably are not one, but you still should respect them. If you call them whiny bitches, you're just proving them right; that people don't like them. I don't like how they exaggerate all the time about very real topics and problems and how selfish and arrogant a lot of them are, among many other things about them, but either you respect them or ignore them. With me, it's kind of half-and-half. There are some that you can tell are just attention hoarders, but there are some that are legit.

So, I got $40 dollars from my godparents, and I gave it to my mom and she bought the complete Star Wars blu-ray set (1-7)on eBay for $47, free shipping, and I paid for the extra seven dollars, but that isn't important. It made me want to write more stuff about one of the most iconic film sagas in the history of mankind, created by a man who's both a genius and an idiot.

As I had written, I had watched all seven films online, and I loved almost all of them. I love this series to death, and nobody knew that I had ever watched them. I have the OT novelizations in a bind-up, and I read them, so my family knows that I know the story of Episodes 4-6, and some elements from the others because of YouTube videos, articles, and pop culture. I love the music, and can play a lot of it on the piano, too. John Williams is the best composer of recent decades, without a doubt. Nobody in my entire family (and most of my extended family, too) had never watched any of the Star Wars films, and the movies are commonly called movies that "everyone on Earth has seen at least once" (along with other movies that we have never watched like Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park {I actually watched it online}, Bambi, The Terminator, and many, many more).

One of the reasons why I decided to get the Star Wars movies was to introduce my family to the wonderful world of Star Wars, and to let my younger siblings in on pop culture and actually understand the constant references and relieve the confusion I had as a kid. I am extremely excited to get the package in the mail, and my siblings are, too. One of my sisters in particular, who tried reading the novelizations but stopped because she was preoccupied, is really pumped to watch them. She has told me how "deprived" she's felt because of all of this hype and everything, and we're "too poor" to buy it brand new on Amazon or Walmart. I was so proud to have found such a deal on eBay!

So, I'm going to do a bit of Q&A about my thoughts on the series!

What was your favorite/least favorite one?

My favorite is Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Easily. My least favorite is Star Wars Episode II: Attack of The Clones. Easily.

What are your thoughts on the prequel trilogy?

I mean, they're okay. I felt that Revenge of the Sith was actually an extremely entertaining movie, being one of my favorites, but there's also Attack of The Clones, so you can't call all of the trilogy good or bad. It's basically all up to the individual movies themselves and not the trilogy as a whole. The CGI could have been a little toned down and/or improved. Jar Jar Binks was more useless and immature than he was annoying. The acting wasn't the result of bad acting, merely great actors giving the best performances they could give with terrible writing and directing. They definitely contributed to the entire saga and introduced us to more iconic characters. They made the world of the OT feel less claustrophobic and more expansive and majestic. They made Star Wars as a whole feel larger, more complex. It has politics, thousands of planets and different landscapes and millions of different creatures (even if they're just CGI mudpies). At least (most of the time) they were entertaining. That's what movies are supposed to do anyways, right?

What about the "special" editions?

Some of the changes are justified. There were some things that needed changes. But that doesn't mean that you can literally fill up the screen with pure CGI dullness as shown on the left or torture millions of Star Wars fans with the sound of Jedi Rocks. Some changes, like remastering and continuity changes, were desperately needed, but, as I said, there's a lot of useless shit in there, too. The original versions should be available as an option of buyers, and I honestly don't know why George Lucas wouldn't do it. He would make tons of money from people replacing their "special" editions for the real thing. There was a despecialized version made in recent years, and I have seen screenshots and little clips from it on YouTube, and it looks really good and very professionally done!

What order would you recommend?

The Machete Order. I actually like it. The Machete Order is where you go: 4,5,2,3,6,7, etc. But, I figure that if someone wants to watch all of them, I'd still put Episode 1 in there. I would recommend just doing it in release order, but a lot of people were confused at the end of The Return of The Jedi because of the special edition change with young Anakin Skywalker's ghost, plus, I think that the reveal that Leia is Luke's sister is more surprising in Episode III than VI.

What do you think of George Lucas?

I think that he was a good man who turned to the dark side. He was a good filmmaker in the original trilogy. You could tell in Episode VI that he was beginning his transition. There were ewoks that were put in the movie just for toys, the effects went downhill, and the characters were dulled down greatly.

Then the "Special" Editions and prequels came about and showed that he had completed his transition to the dark side of filmmaking: commercialism. He wanted so badly to change his masterpieces to fit the commercialism of the prequels that he basically destroyed the world's most precious films, like he was trying to hide his greatest cinematic achievement. It was embarrassing to say the least.

I will continue to add to this post now and then with more Q&As.

Why BuzzFeed is not racist/sexist

White men always talk about how racist BuzzFeed is. How??? All it does is bring up the fact that white men are racist/sexist, and suddenly *gasp* white men must hate on blacks and women and if you take away that "right," *double gasp* the world will collapse and will be corrupted because of love and acceptance! Honestly, when you say that BuzzFeed is racist/sexist because they discuss the fact that the black community and women are being discriminated, you're just proving how right they are!

They do not discriminate any race or any gender. They are as diverse as it gets. Many people will bring up the fact that if they claim to treat everyone equally, why do they "hate" white men? The fact is, they don't. They just bring up the fact that white men are typically racist/sexist (especially if they're conservative or Christian), and use facts and statistics to show that. They don't "hate" white men. They just discuss how racism and sexism affect everyone. But, the minute that white men see that, they go to the comment section and rant about how they aren't getting enough attention and how they are better than everyone else. As I said before, when white men get so triggered about anti-racism/anti-sexism videos, they are just proving the video's point.

Stanley Kubrick's cinematography

I love Stanley Kubrick and his movies. They are the closest to perfection that any director's movies ever have. I especially love his style of framing and using the camera.

My favorite style of his is a shot like this:

It's a shot in which walls, objects, people, or basically anything you can put in the frame point towards the thing that your should be looking at, called a "one-point perspective" shot. There's hundreds of shots that Stanley Kubrick uses in his films that use this. He always wants you to look at certain things. It's usually done as a tracking shot, with the camera following someone, but it can also be done stationary or with a zoom. Either way, it's a beautiful shot and if I were a cinematographer, I'd use this shot over and over again. I love it. It puts depth and perspective into the movie, and also adds symmetry and style into the frame. It points your eyes to something that all of the things are pointing to, and I think that that's what Kubrick was trying to do: to let the audience be subconsciously manipulated to look at certain things in the frame or to think certain things with subliminal messages. He was truly a genius.

Another shot that I like are his tracking shots. I love tracking shots, by the way. He puts the person in the center of the frame and follows them along from all angles, again utilizing the one-point perspective shot.

Yet another common shot in a Kubrick film is a shot where he focuses on someone's head at a slight angle with a little bit of a zoom, giving it a flat feeling, like the still that I have here>>>>>>  He utilizes the actor's facial expression to give the shot a very human, yet inhuman look, especially when using the infamous Kubrick Glare, with the head tipped down and the eyes looking up, usually trying to signal that the person is insane and/or evil. I think that there isn't a single person on this planet who hasn't done this creepy glare once or twice.

He typically likes to point your eyes in a particular spot of the frame, by using the methods above. He'll also use framing and lights to make your eyes subconsciously look at them, like when something is directly in the center of the frame, or when something is lit brighter or darker than the rest of the frame. That's literally what he does in almost every shot: he wants you to look at certain things so you get a certain feeling in your mind. He also uses music and audio to support the feelings. Kubrick loved psychology, and he knew how the human mind worked and how people perceive certain things in context with everything else. He used subliminal messages, tiny details, symbolism, religion, politics, and philosophy to mold your mind, and to create an unforgettable film by an unforgettable artist.