Tag: lowered expectations

When a movie is treated like more than a movie

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I don’t really planning on going out and seeing Wonder Woman.  Not because I’m a sexist pig that refuses to support a film with a strong leading woman, but because I’m just not really that interested.  One, it’s a DC Comics film, and I know there’s a fallacy of predicting the future based on the past, but if the last few stinkers were any indication, it’s probably not going to be that great.  And two, the monumental amount of attention and press that this film has received, regardless of it was actually about the film or not, has put this movie on a plateau of expectations that I just don’t think can realistically be reached.

Had Wonder Woman just been released like any other comic book movie, I might’ve had more interest in seeing it.  I mean, this variant of Wonder Woman was introduced in such an epic manner, giving a modicum of life and interest to the steamer known as Batman v. Superman, that it really shouldn’t have been too difficult to expect that a stand-alone Wonder Woman should be just fine.

Now I know that as a man, it’s not really my place to speak on behalf of women, but I still have a lot of opinions on how the buildup and arrival of this movie has basically taken on a life greater than the film itself, and I think that it’s kind of unfair to the film and those who worked on it, that it’s being treated as anything other than a feature film that people will pay money to hope to be entertained by, and little else.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Gal Gadot is awesome.  If anything at all, I feel like I’ve been a fan of hers longer than most sudden Wonder Woman fans are, because I’ve enjoyed her throughout the later Fast & Furious films, where she plays Gisele, who isn’t just eye candy, but another strong female protagonist not defined by her role in the lives of men.  I know she served in the Israeli army, which explains why she’s so rock hard and convincingly tough, because she actually is, and nobody needs to give me an elaborate dossier for me to know that I appreciate her.

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Xbox achievements are lame now

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Back in the ancient days of the Xbox 360, I really enjoyed Xbox achievements. I spent way more time than I care to admit trying to lock down every single achievement in Left 4 Dead.

I used exploits to assist in beating Expert, I changed the difficulty to Easy to farm massive numbers of zombies to kill, and all sorts of tactics to nail down all available 1,000 gamer points.

There was once a night where I managed to wrangle together seven other people, and we played a patsy of a 4v4 game, where we all took turns trying to farm down achievements, such as the one that involved puking on all four survivors simultaneously, one special infected incapacitating all four survivors, and so forth.

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Out of sight, out of mind

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

So, what I had feared might have happened, did happen; with my site down for the indeterminate amount of time it’s been down, I’ve simply stopped writing.  Not only have I really stopped writing, I haven’t even given much thought about writing until I really sat down and started writing this.  As this post is entitled, out of sight, out of mind.

I do not want to get used to this.

However, I can’t necessarily say it’s a terrible thing that such has happened, as since the brog’s temporary offline status has taken effect, I’ve actually been pretty busy in my daily everyday life’s affairs, likely to the point of where anything that I would’ve posted, probably wouldn’t have been of much quality that appeases my personal standards in the first place.  I won’t really get into everything that’s happened since the period of time in which the brog was operational, but I will say that most all of it has been positive.

More than a lot of people that know me might expect.

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San Francisco is my new Philadelphia

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

For whatever reason, I always have a city/state that I really dislike at any given time. Sometimes, it’s because the place is a dirty cesspool (New Jersey), sometimes it’s because I have bad associations with it (Baltimore), sometimes I find that it’s a horrible place in almost all aspects (Miami), and sometimes it has things to do with sports mostly (Philadelphia).

I was watching MLB Network this morning, and it brought me an inordinate amount of satisfaction watching the Giants lose to the lowly Marlins. The defending World Series champions losing to one of the most historically bad teams ever drew a sadistic joy to me somewhere in my head. It dawned on me that it wasn’t just this game, but in just about every instance where I see highlights with the Giants coming out on the losing side, it kind of makes me happy.

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Lowered expectations

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

The impetus: State of Georgia’s HOPE scholarship AKA the free in-state school tuition available to children with a B average, has lowered the grant qualifications from a 3.0 B average to a 2.0 C average.

You know what I had coming to me when I brought home C’s?  An ass-whoopin.

Okay, maybe not a real ass-whoopin, but I certainly would have preferred an ass-whoopin if it meant I didn’t have to deal with the mind-fucking my mom would give me with her disappointed behavior and passive-aggressive self-loathing at raising such a mediocre child.  When your own mother doesn’t really want to talk to you because you brought home a C, it makes you feel a little bit like shit, and develop a complex for getting C’s, let alone anything worse.  C’s may as well have been F’s, because it really didn’t change the way my mom acted.

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A periodical reminder to myself

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

It’s not that like I really want to keep a mentality that I think I’m better than everyone else around me, but I certainly do believe that in order for me to not lose my mind or get overly stressed out, I simply need to have lower expectations for well, pretty much everyone.  On a daily basis, I feel a sense of disappointment, aggravation and/or dumbfounded-ness by the actions and behavior of  random people of the world.

I think that if I take the metaphoric bar, and significantly drop it about fifty feet, I won’t so often put myself in a situation where I should feel so down on the world, because that’s simply what should be expected.

Everyone is to be assumed stupid until proven otherwise.  It’s more like a mantra than a self-reminder, I guess.

Owned at the ballpark

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I thought about putting this up on my sports brog, but then I thought fuck it, this isn’t really something for BS,W.  When I first saw these two storm out of the section, I said “hehe, they’re going to go break up,” not really thinking much of it.  But then minutes later, I turned around and noticed the two of them hanging out on the railing, appearing to be having some intense conversation, based on the tepid body language.  “Holy shit, I think they are breaking up!”

Instead of watching Brave after Brave helplessly flail against Tim Lincecum, I found myself voyeuristically watching this young couple appearing to be headed down Splitsville.  My usher friend and I sadistically watched with enjoyment as with each pleading arm wave from him, and the dismissive hand through the hair from her, the negotiation appeared to be going nowhere but downhill.

And then came this moment of truth, that I managed to capture on camera, completely coincidentally – the wiping of the tears.

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