Keith Olbermann brings it

Video at the link. I took embed out- the page took too long to load. Still worth watching, though!

Writing an Adventure Story

I was listening to NPR the other day (as most days I do), and they had a bit about the overlooked movies for the year.
Here's his list:

• Zodiac
• The Hoax
• The Namesake
• Once

Zodiac and The Hoax sounded really boring, The Namesake was poorly describe, but viewing the trailer moved it to my priority watch list. Once, however, stole my attention like Jean Valjean and candlesticks.

Once, an indie flick/musical out of Ireland (yeah, surprised me, too), is set in Dublin, and revolves around two broken-hearted musicians who meet and grow a romance over the course of one week. I certainly recommend the movie. There's a bit of language (rated R), but it's mostly brogue and you can't understand it. But this post isn't about selling a movie on you.

Once made me realize that I need to leave- need to travel- and without purpose. Not on its own, mind you. I had a discussion with a fellow vagabond soul the night I watched the film, and she (the vagabond) made the statement that I really need to travel. I didn't hear it in the sense "hey, it would be cool if you did this," but instead as a reminder of who I am; "you are x kind of person, and x kind of people do y, therefore, you should y." Follow? butterfly remembering to fly, yeah?

As the movie wrapped up I realized that I need to leave. Not permanently, and not in any profound, "vision quest," sense, but to be who I am I need to leave. I need to discover life that isn't mine, isn't familiar. I need to trek through the material plane.

I don't know where I'll be going, or if I'll be able to go at all, but I know the need to go is present.

Family is a huge anchor, though. I keep thinking of "On the Waterfront," and these fellows working the docks to pull in money for their families. I feel obligated to my family in the same way; Atlas holding up the sky, right?

I'm really thankful that some of my friends aren't bound in this way. Their families, for all their suffering, are pretty secure- no one is sick in a long suffering, draining kind of way. Their parents aren't old, and soon needing to be cared for.

I don't want to be like Kant and never venture further than 30 miles from my home in all my life. I'm not one of those people who wants to "see the world," and puff up about being here and there and twelve other countries.

I just know that very soon I need to leave.

there is something to discover.

Requisite Ron Paul video

I don't normally advance strictly emotional arguments, but this is a really well done video visually depicting what our foreign policy has earned the US and the world. If it weren't apropos, it would be cheesy.