Prepare Yourself - The Hobbit is Coming

Hello!

                So today, I’m sitting here at approximately 2 o’clock in the afternoon, typing this in my AP Language and Composition class. In a little under ten hours I’m going to be taking my seat at something I’ve waited for all year, and then some. “The Hobbit” is coming out tonight! Aw yeah! Sorry for nerding out a little there. Very similar to hulking out, but I actually lose 30 pounds, develop bad eyesight, talk in a squeaky voice, and start loving Captain Picard of “Star Trek.”

                My love for the Lord of the Rings series probably developed when I was just a wee lad. I vividly remember when I was sick at some point when I was in kindergarten, and my mother read to me from “The Hobbit.” This got the ball rolling for not just the Lord of the Rings series, but epic fantasy in general. I’ve been a fan of that particular genre for as long as I can remember, and have probably read too many books in that genre. It’s okay, though, if America ever falls back into the dark ages I’m prepared.

                The first time I watched the Lord of the Rings movies was with my brother, and it was the most epic nerdapalooza I’ve ever taken part in. Watching from start to finish, all three movies, with not only the director’s cut, but the EXTENDED director’s cut, takes approximately 13 hours. It’s honestly one of the best times I can remember having with my brother. So much pizza was eaten, and so much Mountain Dew was drunk on that day. There was so much sword fighting and other such epicness that my eyes hurt from pure awesomeness (Or maybe that was the thirteen hours of staring at a TV screen).

                So, in short, I’m explaining my hopes for the night. I’ve had high hopes for this movie for a while, and hope that it works out for the best. Even if it is the worst, most awful, epitome-of-terrible movie in the world, though, there will still be some sense of camaraderie, I’m sure. I have to give a shout-out to all of the other nerds out there, some whose level of geekiness far surpasses my own. Yes, I’m talking about those people who are camped outside of the movie theaters right now, so they can get the /PERFECT/ spot to watch the movie tonight. In any case, it’ll be fun. I hope. I’ll probably get back to y’all at some point. (Most likely Sunday night when I write the rest of my blogs, scrambling to find a topic.)

Thanks for reading,

Matt Finley

12/21/12

Hello!

               So for the past few days one of the big things that I hear people talking about is December 21^st, 2012. Apparently some calendar designed by a bunch of dead people is going to end on this day, and that means that everyone’s freaking out. Honestly, the guy making this calendar many hundreds of years ago either died or thought, “Hey, maybe since I made this calender last so long, someone will continue it later.” They were probably not thinking at the time “Er Mer Gerd end of the world!” They were probably more concerned with everyday things, like getting food. But also, Nostradamus predicted a thousand “golden years of peace” right about this time, and I figure that the best chance we’ve got is if everyone is dead. So maybe the world will end, we won’t really know until the 21^st, eh?

               So my advice for you this apocalypse season is to do exactly what you’d normally do. Don’t go do stupid crap because some very dead guy didn’t finish his stupid calender. In the event that the apocalypse actually happens, though, feel free to do whatever the heck you want, whenever the heck you want to. I’ll see you in the looting. I will have a gun though, so don’t mess with me. You might want to have the three most important necessities of life close at hand – A shotgun, goldfish crackers, and a full set of plate mail. There is nothing that you can’t do if you’ve got those things. Plus, I mean who wouldn’t love to run around in a full suit of armor just for the hell of it? Definitely not me. But yeah, have fun, I’m rambling now. Don’t die, that would suck. If the apocalypse happens, though, I suppose this blog doesn’t really matter, so I’m going to stop now. Buh bye.

Thanks for reading,

Matt Finley          

OM NOM NOM

Hello!

               So as the year goes on, I can definitely tell it’s starting to be winter. The days are getting shorter, the air is getting colder, and this morning we had a few minutes of slushy crap that I suppose could be called snow. Although it has a lot of downsides – I really, really, REALLY hate shoveling snow, for example – one of my favorite parts of the holiday seasons is the food. I’m not a chef of any caliber, but my mother cooks the best stuff I’ve ever had. Fudge is a holiday staple at my house. I swear, my mom makes at least 20 different kind. Chocolate Orange, Plain Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, Peppermint – You name a flavor of fudge and I’ve probably had it made for me.  Another piece of kitchen witchery that she creates is little round pretzel things, with a Hershey’s Kiss melted on top, and then an M&M  pressed into that, then allowed to cool. They taste wonderful, and I could eat them all day. Another of my favorite things around the holidays is the food for Christmas itself. My family doesn’t have any relatives that live anywhere near Iowa, but we cook a big meal all the same. So I hope this sounded pretty good, ‘cause here’s some recipes, yo.

               Chocolate-Covered Pretzel Things:

Ingredients

-Pretzel Sticks

-Chocolate for melting

-Sprinkles

Directions

               Take your pretzel sticks. Dip them in the melted chocolate. Roll them in sprinkles. Eat them. Victory.

               Chocolate M&M Pretzel Things

Ingredients

               -Circular Pretzels

               -Hershey’s Kisses or Rolos or whatever chocolate you want

               -M&Ms

Directions

               Put a ton of pretzel circles down on a piece of wax paper that’s on a cookie sheet. Then place the Hershey’s Kisses down on top of these, facing up. Pop them in the oven for three or four minutes, just until the chocolate gets soft. Then take it out and carefully press an M&M down onto the top of each of these things. Pop the whole mess into the fridge, or in this weather just put them outside until they cool down. Then eat. Enjoy. Win.

              

Chocolate Fudge:

Ain’t nobody got time fo’ that!

               But really. Go ham this holiday season, pun intended. Food’s awesome. Your friends/parents/significant others will appreciate it very much. And even if they’re Grinches and hate food, which is an odd combination, at least it’ll give you something to do this holiday season.

Thanks for reading,

Matt Finley

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Program . . .

               I’m throwing off my weekly blogging schedule quite a bit here by adding a fourth post to my usual 3-post, 1200 word count schedule. This breaking news report is brought to you because my wonderfully quiet friend Kendall has done something that few people can actually do – left me speechless. Her response to my post “Extroverts Will Inherit the Earth” was so successful at shutting down my original post that I don’t even know what to respond with. So, in short, she wins. Go visit her blog, Everything Counts Eventually. (everythingcountseventually.blogspot.com) If you know her, go give her a high five. She deserves it.

Extroverts Will Inherit the Earth

Hello!

                So recently I’ve found myself interacting with a group of people infected with a common disability, and I’m afraid it might be contagious. In the words of a high school socialite, “lol jk.” In actuality, I’ve found myself hanging out with my introverted friends more and more in the last few weeks, and I just don’t get it. Why would you choose to be an introvert? And don’t think that it’s not a matter of choice, because it totally is. One would have to put more effort into not socializing than they would have to if they did socialize. Personally I don’t see too many positives to being one of those people that stares at their feet through every conversation they’ve ever had with another person, ever. There are a lot of disadvantages, though.

                For starters, you miss out on a lot if you don’t socialize with your peers. You don’t get as much out of the time you spend in school, for sure. School would just not be the same without the group of close friends that I have, because we take part in some pretty crazy shenanigans. Although we do a lot of stupid stuff that we probably shouldn’t do, it makes it a lot more fun and a lot more memorable. If you’re too quiet to make friends very well, you definitely won’t have as much of a fun time.

                Kennedy is a wonderful place filled with all kinds of people. Everyone could find at least one person they “connect” to. ‘Nd usually, high school is a pretty decent place to start seriously dating. Not many people are going to make fun of you, etc, etc. Downsides to being a shy, introverted person continue here. At some point in the future an introvert might decide that they’ve finally found “the one” and want to start dating him/her. Love will have to wait, though, because Mr(s). Introvert doesn’t have any idea what they’re getting into. Lots of laughing will probably occur when the aforementioned introvert messes up and ends up falling straight on their metaphorical face.

                Another reason why being introverted would suck is because it’s nice to be loud. If you’re confident in yourself enough to go through the halls screaming about your love for turtles with a pink sequined cowboy hat on and the breeze blowing through your knees in your nice new kilt, I can vouch for your obvious manliness, and give you props as well.  At this point there are not many things that you can’t do. Besides gaining back the respect lost from your friends. But who’s counting?

Thanks for reading,

Matt Finley

Morgan Freeman!

Hello!

               So yesterday I had some friends over to my place, where we screwed around for a bit. As it got a bit later we decided to pop a movie into the DVD player, and “Shawshank Redemption” got picked. As a fan of Morgan Freeman, I’ve seen the movie before, but not for a long time. So watching it for the second time, I really paid close attention to the smaller details, and found it to be really good. There were a lot of jokes that I understood this time around that made the movie that much more enjoyable.

               Firstly, though, is Morgan Freeman. It was really interesting seeing Morgan Freeman as a younger actor playing an older person, instead of what you usually see now – Morgan Freeman as an older actor playing an older person. It was cool seeing how his acting style has changed over the years. But hands down, he’s the best actor in the movie. I really enjoy Morgan Freeman’s acting in any movie, and he didn’t disappoint in this one. He both plays a character as well as narrates, which is a bonus. I’d listen to Morgan Freeman narrate paint dry, if such a thing was sold.

               On to the actual movie, though. The main character is a banker who’s falsely accused of murdering his wife and is thrown into Shawshank prison, where he meets a variety of people who are both helpful and hurtful to him. He meets “Red,” who’s played by Morgan Freeman (Aw Yeah!), who helps him learn the ropes of the prison, and can get him anything from a rock hammer to a poster of Marilyn Monroe.  To counteract the wonderful voice of Morgan Freeman, though, is the Warden. He runs the prison, and helps and hurts our main character depending on what mood he’s in. I love this character because if you think about it, you can probably relate the Warden to someone you know. Makes the movie that much more enjoyable. I also really thought that the plot twist that happens at the end was pretty good, and I didn’t see it coming. This movie was really nice overall because it doesn’t conform to the standard mold of most movies, which we’ve all seen. You know, “boy meets girl, boy falls in love, etc.” I’ve seen that kind of thing too many times to get any enjoyment out of it. So this movie was a refreshing breath of air, as it were.

Thanks for reading,

Matt Finley

Finals Anxiety

Hello!

               All of us at some point have taken a final. And around finals time, if you’re anything like me, you get a little bit stressed. I mean, who wouldn’t? Finals will usually “make or break” your grade in high school, and most definitely will in college. So yeah, we’ve all got a right to be stressed, because our society drills into our head that we need a good grades to get into a good college, and need to get into college to get a good job, and need a good job to have a good life, etc, etc.

               There are a few other things that add to the stress of taking these end-of-term exams, as well. For example, some teachers, towards the end of the term, will continue with the curriculum but also start adding review, which doubles the workload of the students. On the other side, some teachers won’t review at all, and leave all of it up to you. This leaves you scrambling for information and equally as stressed. One final thing that I see around finals time that’s stressful is when teachers wait until weeks after all the other teachers to grade your final. This shows laziness on their part, and increases the time from when students take the test to when they get to see their final grades for a class. That just irritates everyone.

               There are some ways to relieve this stress, though! When I’m studying for finals, I try to study with a friend when I can. That way you can bounce ideas and whatnot off of another person, plus it’s not one hundred percent work, one hundred percent of the time. I find that a little screwing around every now and again helps me to do better work when I have to. Another thing that I find works is when I take breaks from studying for finals. Study for an hour or so, then take a break and check your twitter, or facebook, or whatever it is that needs checking. If it doesn’t work for you, that’s too bad, because it allows me to get my studying done and have a little fun at the same time. Madness, right?

               So next time finals come around, maybe you could find your own things that relieve stress, instead of just giving your teacher the ol’ one-two and slug ‘em in the gut.

Thanks for reading,

Matt Finley