Two years later, very little

Two years later, very little has changed.

B.S. is such an appropriate title for a college degree

I keep hearing people say that your college degree rarely has anything to do with your actual career. If this is the case, then why do we need college degrees? It’s starting to seem like college is a waste of time and money that you could be using on other things. I’m not being totally dismissive of college as there are fields that definitely require advanced study, such as the medical professions, research positions, the sciences, teaching, and others, but in general the college degree is ultimately worthless. What good does a degree in history do for someone who is working as a financial manager? What good is a degree in Journalism for someone who works in advertising? What good is a degree in Music for someone who works in a library? This is probably just me starting to become really jaded with life in general as I feel I’ve wasted the last 7 and a half years of my life away pursuing what seems like the ever elusive college degree. And it’s just becoming even more elusive.

I think a break is necessary. My parents don’t understand that, but that doesn’t really matter anymore. It’s because of them I’m in this position, and I think that I need to stop doing what they want me to do if I am to correct the situation. They’re fooling themselves and insulting me by insisting that it’s so important for me to go to a university. I mean really. I took college prep and honors classes all throughout high school in order to increase my chances of getting into college. Then when college application time came, they said I couldn’t go to a university, that I had to go to a community college so that they could save money. If my going to college was so important to them, then they would have been saving money so that I could go to college. All those college prep and honors classes in high school were a waste. Then when I said I wanted to go to a certain community college over another one, they adamantly opposed it before finally giving in. Not only do they kill my college aspirations, but then they want me to go to the community college of their choosing? They didn’t actually understand what it meant to go to community college and transfer from there. If it was so important, they would have learned as much as they could have about the process so they could help me figure things out. But they didn’t. It was all up to me. And rather than help me explore my interests as a growing kid so that I might have some idea of what I’d like to go into, they didn’t want me doing anything except homework. And when I wouldn’t live up to their expectations, rather than helping me improve, they would punish me. Don’t get wrong. In the end, after I’ve accomplished this goal, I think I’ll be a better person for it, but I can’t continue to let my parents dictate what they want me to do, or how to do what I want to do. They didn’t provide the right kind of aid and encouragement leading up to this, and they still aren’t. To continue to follow what they want from me would be a disservice to myself. Life isn’t about doing what your parents want you to do. The cultures that don’t progress with the times are the ones who have children who blindly follow what their parents want for them. And I know they mean well, but parents truly do not know what is best for their kids. The only person who knows what is best for you is you, unless you’re a total moron like some people I know.

I put aside what I really wanted to pursue because I was always told that I would have time to pursue them once I finished college. And now I’m starting to realize that I was lied to. I’m 25 and I haven’t finished college and I’m not even close to the point where I can go after what I really want. The only way to do so would be to put aside college for now and start chasing after what I really want, which is to get into the arts, film and writing specifically, maybe even a little multimedia design. I don’t understand why I didn’t just do this in the beginning. Yes I do. Because I wasn’t encouraged to explore my interests, and all I knew was the world of traditional academics: science, math, and literature. Of the three, my main interest was literature and I liked science as well, and felt that would lead me to the stable career.

Fuck this. I need to stop talking and start acting.

Finally downloaded the Blogger widget, which lets me upload posts from the Mac OS X Dashboard without having to open up my browser. Perhaps this will make posts more frequent. 

Hobbies

I’m starting to realize that the way to develop your hobbies is to work on them in your spare time. I’m not going to get anywhere by wasting my time surfing the internet in all my spare moments. My cousin Tony, he works his ass off all week as the manager of two different T-Mobile locations. He said that he sometimes works 15 hour days. Today is his day off and he’s putting in like half the day to work on his new mustang, as his hobby is working on cars. It’s inspiring to see that, mainly because the majority of people I know don’t have any hobbies that they work on in their spare time. I call these people up on their spare time, and they’re never doing anything. So seeing Tony putting time in on his car is very inspiring to see. There will always be time to watch movies, check e-mail and play video games. But those novellas and screenplays aren’t going to get written while I’m sitting on Myspace. That first film isn’t going to be made while chatting on AIM and watching Old School for the 162nd time. OOR.

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day

I haven’t posted anything in a month, mostly due to laziness. I’m not quite sure the switch to Blogger was all that beneficial, as MacJournal no longer supports posting entries to Blogger. The reason I would post so frequently on LiveJournal was because of the XJournal software. Although when I finally update my laptop to Tiger, I’ll be able to download the Blogger Dashboard widget. Well, anyway here’s my what’s currently going on in my head.

Indian film and television is horribly bad. It’s painfully obvious from watching either one. The serials suffer from very bad acting, cinematography and storytelling. I don’t see how people can sit and watch them for more than 5 minutes, let alone become addicted to them. The films lack any sense of originality and suffer from the same exaggerated acting and bad storytelling. Cinematography is somewhat better in the films than in the television programming. I was at my cousin’s house here in LA and I saw a DVD case sitting on their computer for a movie called Zinda. From looking at the cover, I had a sneaking suspicion that the movie was a blatant copy of the Korean film, Oldboy. There was a picture of Sanjay Dutt looking very weathered with an afro, and there were 14 notches tattooed into a hand. When I read the summary on the back, it became clear that it was indeed a copy of Oldboy, with a few minor changes. The 15 year imprisonment had been altered to 14 years, and I’m pretty sure that the surprise ending had been changed as the one in the Korean original is not something that a Bollywood audience would be able to handle. This is, in a word, ridiculous. It is one thing to be influenced by different directors and incorporating similar styles into your own original film, but copying 75% of another director’s film making a few minor changes is no different that plaigiarism. This is from the same director who copied Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and injected it with elements from Heat. That’s completely unacceptable. I don’t see how the creators can sit by and let these offenses go unpunished. I think I read somewhere that the Korean producers of Oldboy are bringing suit against this man for copyright infringement. I hope the guy learns his lesson, even though he’s adamant about not being a copycat. I’m sorry Sanjay Gutpa, but repeating a lie doesn’t make it true. If it doesn’t work for George W. Bush, then why would it work for you?

I’m completely caught up with The Sopranos. I finished watching Seasons 1-5 on DVD and watched the premiere of Season 6. All I can really say is that this is one of the most engaging series I’ve ever watched in my 23 years of television viewing. The actors play their roles so well that it’s hard to separate the characters from the actors. I frequently find myself truly caring about what happens to the characters. I share in their sorrows, their joys, their frustrations, their anger. I am offended when their selfish actions negatively affect other characters. I don’t remember myself ever being this emotionally involved with a TV show. That is the mark of an amazing program.

I’ve recently discovered a new option for school: film school at UC Santa Cruz for Winter 2007. I would apply this July. I need to seriously think through all my options and make a decision. This isn’t going be to an easy decision that can be made quickly, which is why I need a longer break than I originally thought. What I need to do right now is get out of here and move back up to the Bay Area, get a job and focus on saving money for a car and my first film. That’s all. I need to explore my interests and let my mind work things out naturally. That’s the only way I’m going to be able to make this decision. I want to take up Kung Fu again this year and start learning Japanese. I want to read and write and not worry about studying for exams. I want to experience life outside of a classroom. I could die tomorrow and all I’ll have ever known is the inside of a classroom. That life just isn’t for me. I have to embrace my creative side. This science shit is just stifling all that. There are ideas inside my head that I need to get out. If I don’t and take the path of least resistance by getting the safe degree and taking some stable corporate job, then I’m always going to wonder what would have happened if I had gone for it. It’ll be another regret that will make me hate myself for a long time. So I just have to go for it. To quote Apple’s “Think Different” campaign:

Here’s to the crazy ones.

The misfits.

The rebels.

The troublemakers.

The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently.

They’re not fond of rules

And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,

disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing that you can’t do is ignore them.

Because they change things.

They invent. They imagine. They heal.

They explore. They create. They inspire.

They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?

Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?

Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.

While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.

Because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can

change the world, are the ones who do.