About a Dream I Had

I had a dream the other night. I was in an arena. It was an extremely large area with trees and people and a river that went all around it. Though I never saw it, I knew there was a edge to this world. I'd liken it to a real life non-violent Runescape. Anyway, I don't remember much except that I lost my phone in the river and I went looking for it. When I found it I jumped into the water to grab it. The river was wide and deep. The current was swift and powerful. As I fished around for my phone, I happened to grab two phones; one mine the other was an older flip phone. When I had them I noticed that above me was what looked like a Bridge that had been put up to to let a ship through. It was ether that or a crane. It was massive.


I then noticed that I was coming to a waterfall. Steadily, the river narrowed and shallowed. By the time I got to the edge I was able to stand and reach the bank of each side with my arms. Along with the current, uneven stones under my feet made it very difficult to stop. I don't believe I ever truly stopped, but at one point I was almost completely motionless. As I reached to brink of the fall, I was able to look over the rushing water to see the bottom of the drop. Giant boulders lay in strangely shallow water. They had to have been four feet tall by six feet in diameter; some piled on others, some laying solo, all jagged and uninviting.

I fought and fought to keep myself alive. The water rushed between my legs and buckled my knees. Then, in a moment of irregularly clear thought, I decided I wouldn't be able to get out. I let go of the banks and let the water take me. Normally, at this point I would fall into darkness and wake up suddenly, but this time was different. The fall was far, so I had about three seconds to think about what a stupid idea that was. I was closing in fast and my eyes latched onto the rock that I was heading strait for. I knew if I hit it I'd die. In the short moment it took me to fall to the bottom I has the most wonderful sensation. It was a steady crescendo of absoluteness. It was like 100% of my brain was concentrating on the self. I was so fully aware of me that it was like I separated from the world I was in. It felt like a beam of light was welling up in my chest. I accepted my fate. It was a long three seconds.

The closer I got, the more I realized I was falling to the left of the big rock. I landed in the water a yard away from death. The water was ridiculously shallow. I should have died anyway, but I was able to stand and survey the scene. I was in a circular pool, not feeding anywhere and not getting deeper. It had to have been at least twenty feet in diameter. The water at the bottom of the fall was still. It had a glassy sheen and looked like the cleanest spring water I'd ever seen. I left the pool, and looked around the huge playing field. It was grassy with a few people and trees in the distance. I was alone and it was silent.


I then became conscious and my dream was no longer under subconscious control. It was pretty cool.


Dream on,
Dan Hatton

About South Park

Chef is Isaac Hayes!?

About Yahoo News Articles

The titles of the News articles on Yahoo's main page are beginning to sound a lot like the adds you see on the sides of the screen. I'm begging to loose faith in them. Which sucks because I once thought of them as the only place I could go where Truth was mass-produced. Now it seems like, in their shinning moment, they are being pulled down into the depths of hell by their own will. What is it? What could it be that is so suductive... so gripping... that it could pull a queen like Yahoo News from her glory? Will we ever know?I don't think so. But if I disappear after this note is released, at least we'll know we've struck a nerve.

Love and all glorious John Malkovich,
Dan Hatton

About ADHD

I recently entered in some raffle/survey for people with ADHD. Except that it wasn't really a raffle... or Survey. They called it a Screening Test. Anyway they ask us to write a bit about how we live with ADHD And I wrote this...

I've had ADHD all my life. I don't remember a day I haven't fought it. It was worst when I was in grade school because not only was I dealing with pressures from school and ADHD itself, but medication at the time was causing me intense physical and psychological pain. I remember switching to a new drug every other prescription. Some made me dizzy others burned in my stomach and throat. I recently heard that at least one of the drugs I used to use was made illegal. By the time I was in 6th grade, I had had enough. I decided to drop the drugs all together.
There is something you have to understand about me. As far as I was concerned, ADHD was just an excuse to do whatever you wanted. I remember teacher giving me the benefit of the doubt just because of ADHD. That made me mad because I didn't want to be treated differently and I didn't want people thinking I had a handicap. After all, always having something to say is not a mental disorder.
To be honest, I haven't thought about ADHD for a while. Because of my grudge with it, I tried to forget I ever had it. In class I would get in trouble for being a clown, not paying attention, etc. Despite this, I hid my ADHD from the teachers. I just didn't want teachers or anyone else treating me differently.
It's hard to say where I stand now. I'd like to say it's bogus and that I'm just a hyper kid, but that's not true. I still have a hard time sitting down or keeping my mouth shut or smiling at funerals, but I also use it as a creative outlet. I can make a story out of anything.

So, What do you think about ADHD? Legit or excuse?


Think about it,
Dan Hatton

About Police

You know there is this strange think called Common sense. It tells us that if we don't want to go to Jail or get hit with tear gas, then don't go to a protest. Whether you broke the law or not, you've got to be willing to spend some time in jail or get pepper sprayed. You're fooling yourself to think it won't happen.

I'm not alone when I say I'm sick of these protesters. Why would they get mad at cops? At lease they have a job. At least they took a shower today. I mean they're just doing what they were told. Getting mad at a cop because he's working the protest is like getting mad a Walgreens Clerk because they sell Cigarettes. I'm not pretending like all Policemen are angles, but at one point in there life they all made a commitment to serve and protect. I believe there are still a lot of them out there who want to do that.

About Star Wars Episode Six

Spoiler Alert:

If you haven't seen this movie, don't read this, ya Dingus!

Also, if you haven't seen this movie, Get on that.

This movie is easily my favorite Star Wars movie (tied with the other two) which is why I was so surprised by how many things I noticed that I didn't like. I almost stopped for fear of what I might find, but for the sake of my huge Fan base, I continued. This is, after all, the final Star Wars film. It would be too ironic not to finnish. As for my problems, I got a list, here's the order of my list that it's in:

1. Probably the most annoying thing about this movie is that I don't have any clue what the time span is between this and the previous film. It can't be that long, because Chewbacca and Lando are on Tattoine the whole time. Apparently Luke has time to get a lot better, but not enough time to go back to visit Yoda. They obviously didn't have a lot of time to plan out the escape, but that's next. Luke tells Yoda that he has improved greatly, so he must have had a little while to train on his own (not that he's shown any improvement).

2. The plan to rescue Han must have taken about one minute to come up with.

"Here's what we're gonna do. We'll slowly infiltrate Jabba's palace one by one then, Luke, you come in last and shoot Jabba... That aught'a work. Any suggestions?"

"Yeah, let's have Leia bring Chewy in as a bounty hunter. That way He can be in the jail cell when we're all making our escape."

"It's a Trap!"

3. R2-D2 sounds different in this movie. He seems to be louder and more animated. It's like they updated his speech capacity with the hyper-child mod.

4. Luke... is so stupid at the beginning of this movie. He thinks that he's got these super awesome powers, but it's obvious that he's got some work to do. It's funny how he struts into Jabba's Palace even though he's probably not a whole lot better than he was at the end of "Empire." So this whole rescue mission is in the midst of Luke's experimental phase. He's like a kid who just learned a new word. He's so exited to show off only to realize that everybody already knows that word. All of this is the most evident when Luke visits Yoda. Even though he tells Jabba that he's a full fledged Jedi, when he talks to Yoda it's apparent that he's not at all certain.

5. I've made this visual to aid your understanding of my stance...

6. Now that we're on the same page, there is this edit that doesn't look good to me, but I won't bore you with that... It happens at 24:58.

7. Jabba's Palace setup is an oxymoron. He's got this primitive civilization thing going on, but he also has electric lights, automatic doors, and those flashing, beeping buttons with no use. 

8. The last encounter that Han has with Lando was not so nice. Why is he so willing to save Lando's life from the Sarlacc?

9. How convenient is it that the breaker box for the whole ship is right by Jabba for Leia to smash.

10. When Luke learns about his sister, he takes it pretty well. But in the last second before the cut to a different scene Luke's face makes a very subtle transition from, "Ok, Leia is my sister." to "Wait, I kissed her!"

11. Durring the Ewok scene, there is a whole group of Rebel troops hiding in the woods waiting for Han and Luke to find Leia. I wonder what they were thinking.

12. I just think it's great that the Ewok are willing to help the rebellion. Think about it. The Empire has never done any substantial harm to them and if they continued to rule, the Ewok probably wouldn't every see The Empire when they finished the Death Star. They help because it's the right thing to do, not because they  are in danger or stand to make a profit.

13. Yet another great comparison between The Force and religion. The Sith believe in Destiny and the Jedi believe in Free Will. In the same way, Christians disagree about Predestination and Free Will.

14. How could Luke possibly be surprised the trap? He's obviously proof that the rebel alliance is on the offensive. He even says, "I shouldn't have come. I'm endangering the mission." 

LUKE! You're slippin' up!

15. I swear to God! These God forsaken Stormtroopers are the worst solders...

OF ALL TIME!

I mean I've always known they were bad, but really? When a couple of Ewok can beat you to death with some twigs, you got a problem. I mean, how do you NOT SHOOT Han and Leia when they're totally cornered? I swear their bones are made of tissue paper. It's weird because their pilots are ridiculously good.

That's as much as I can say against this movie without throwing up. So now it's you're turn. Can you bare to mention something else wrong with this movie, or can you ease the pain with something good?

OR

Can you eat a whole bag of Doritos and honestly tell me that you're content with your lifestyle?

I don't think you can,

Dan Hatton

About MIB III

So there is this Facebook page called The Men in Black Suites are Real. Apparently what they are trying to say by this title is that "The Men in Black Suits" are real. As in the Men themselves are real. But, what I thought they meant was that the "Men in Black" suits are real. As in the suits worn by the Men in Black are real. So, I clicked on it because I was thinking for some stupid reason that the aliens in the new MIB movie would be actual people in costumes instead of digitally animated aliens. I was exited to see if they could pull it off and I would have been really exited if they did. But, they didn't. Apparently, they just wanted to confirm for us what we already know: Will Smith and T. Lee Jones are real.


Bummer.

About Allusion

Assuming that most everyone that is reading this post has taken a basic high school english class, I think it's safe to assume we all know what a literary allusion is. Assuming even further that we've all had the unique experience of reading Fahrenheit 451 or That other one about "Big Brother", I think we can all agree that it's a common technic even in the most intellectual literature. So, why is it that when we see a movie with cinematic allusions we condemn it as Lacking Creativity or even Stealing? The most prevalent example that comes to my mind is the similarities between the curious Twin Peeks and gritty The Killing.

This example only comes to mind because I watched the first season of The Killing yesterday and now I'm watching Twin Peeks. The myriad of comparisons lends itself to the simple fact that they are both TV murder mysteries (e.g. the victim is a girl who is first thought missing then found near/in a body of water). But, here and there you'll find indisputable allusions to the Older of the two. The most famous is the scenes where the mother and father find out their child is dead. They are almost exactly the same, and I don't mind telling you that I think The Killing did it better.

But, that's beside the point. I want to know why people can't respect the decision to make such allusions. After all, it has to take some amount of creativity to recognize the similarity in the first place and be able to work it into your script.

The great thing about an allusion is that it can be anything; a Location like Pizza Planet which is in just about every Pixar movie; a Character like Psych's very own Detective Carlton Lassiter who is almost certainly an allusion to Twin Peek's Special Agent Dale Cooper; whole cinematic sequences have been copped from films like the Battleship Potemkin.

It seems to me that one would have to be a bit pretentious to dismiss these types of allusions. First, as far as I can tell, they usually go completely unscathed before someone points them out to the world. Second, there are many other forms of allusions that we would never think to label as Stealing like hip hop sampling or memes. 

The attack on cinematic allusion is ridiculous and needs to stop. It's like the people making these attacks  haven't even considered that is might have been an allusion at all. But, that's not possible because no one is that stupid......

That being said, what do you think about filmmakers copying from other movies? Is it cheating, stealing, or laziness? OR, is it an attempt to bring people's attention to the classics, an opportunity to thank those who have inspired us to make films in the first place?

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to find out who killed Rosie Larson.... I mean Paula Merral... I mean Laura Palmer! Sheesh.

Think about it,

Dan Hatton

About Time and Space

Paradox?

If an object is traveling back and forth in space (Assume that Gravitational pull and Inertia are not affecting the object) in a perfectly strait line at a consistent speed (fast or slow), does it stop at each end? Of course, the quick answer is yes, but consider this. If there is an exact point at each end where the object is not moving (forwards or backwards) it could also be said that at any exact point on the line the object is not moving. Therefor the object is not moving at all.

So, let's conclude that the object continues moving even as it changes direction. In order to come to this conclusion, you have to first define "Movement." If Movement is the state an object is in when, within the next exact moment, the object is in a different point in space, then it could be said that the object never stops when it changes direction. The exact moment that it stops going one direction it starts going the other.

The problem is exactness. Is there is such thing as an "Exact moment" in time or "Exact point" in Space? The closer you get, the more decimals you get. If I were to say "One second it was going left, and the next it was going right." the object could have stopped at any point within that one second. In other words, the same thing could be said for any amount of time.


But, there is one undeniable truth. The Object changes direction at a moment in time. The question is that if we "Zoom in" far enough on the timeline will we find a span of time where the Object is in Purgatory, not moving left or right.


Not that it really matters, But I don't think it stops.


What do you think? What's your take on the whole situation? Am I right or wrong? Or, am I just completely off factually and the whole scenario is bullshit?


What are you gonna do,
Dan Hatton

About the Military and Nationalism

Why should I be proud of the troops? This so called "Support" is just fueling wars. Wars that we've been somehow successful in being disassociated with the solders who fought in them. Don't tell me you support the troops and not the conflict. That's a damn joke.


The horror of it all is that any jamoke on the street can say they support the military and they'll win the favor of everyone and I'll be lambasted for what I say even though I'm just trying to be honest. What that shmuck doesn't realize is that not only is he perpetuating a stereotype, (The solder is this obscure deity that should be respected no matter what) he's also diluting the efforts of people who actually feed, talk to, and heal veterans in any way they can.


I want to know why even though I'm aloud to believe anything I want, I'm being overwhelmingly pressured into choosing to support the troops and the conflict or just the troops? Why can't I be ashamed of both? I'll tell you right now that I am.

I am not proud of America, I'm Embarrassed

Furthermore, I'm Ashamed of the Army

Did you know that suicide surpasses combat fatality as a cause of mortality in the military? Should I be proud of that?


Did you know that The Army blames Spousal problems, Money problems, and Substance abuse? Should I be proud of that? By the way, do I need a scientific study to prove that is bullshit?


Try killing men, women, and children. Try loosing a limb or a friend. Try not know why your doing any of it.

Go ahead. Tell me I should be proud of that.

I dare you.

I hurts us all to think of the American Solder as the monster we've created out of Apathy. They are kids who wanted to be men. They are poor people who wanted a better future. But, America is a nation of war and that's Everybody's fault even the solders. After all, they're also America's like you and me. 

We've allowed the Military to make itself sexy. Commercials showcase advanced technology and sensationalize with concepts like Pride, Success, Leadership. Guys don't join to kill people who may or may not be terrorist, they join because the military is sexy and perceived as a way out of social/finacial problems.

Support the troops? How about ending the war? Has that occurred to anyone yet?

This has to have pissed someone off. Please. I'm begging you to prove me wrong. I'm at the point where being wrong would actually be better.

Now accepting Hate Mail,

Dan Hatton

About Star Wars Episode Five

I would like to preface this by saying that I don't know why I'm starting with this one. This is a movie I have loved all my life. I take a lot of it for granted because I've been watching it for so long. A lot of the things I found really surprised me. I think you might be surprised too. This is probably obvious, but if you haven't seen the movie yet, this will probably not be that exiting and it will ruin the whole movie for you. And, here we go!

1. Until this movie, Darth Vader has been a lackey; an attack dog for the Empire. It isn't until Gov. Tarkin dies and even until Darth admits he is a Father that he becomes a leading figure in the Imperial Army. I don't know how I missed it , but it's one of the most important transformations in the series.

2. I wonder how they make the Ton-Tons run...

3. What's the point of those Glass boards with circles on them?

4. I think the fight with the Snow Monster in longer than it used to be.

5. The back-and-fourth banter between characters is perfect for the opening of the second Star Wars (or any sequel). The Characters are already well established from the previous film and it's nice to see that they are up to their old antics.

6. I'd bet Anything that the "Hey Ben" video by Balloonshop was a take off the scene where Luke sees Ben in the snow storm.

7. Luke getting his lightsaber is the first time the Force is used for something other than choking someone.

8. The first transport ship is shaped like a fish and the captain of the Imperial ship it's headed for calls it his "First catch of the day."

9. One of the rebel troops accidentally dodges a laser shot him when he trips at 33:12.

10. As a subtle joke, Darth Vader walks through a metal detecter when he arrives on Hoth. I knew about this, but it just occurred to me that it's probably more funny now than it was originally because of TSA.

11. When the Falcon has trouble starting Leia says, "Would it help if I got out and pushed?" a reference to cars, which don't exist...

12. There's no getting around it. Han is a total douchbag in this movie.

13. That whole conversation between Han and Leia right before they kiss is so cool, but it's so hard to hear.

14. Something I've noticed in all the Star Wars movies is that they are treated as second class citizens. It makes sense too; it there was a large population of robots living on the earth, they would be treated the same way especially if they were as smart as C-3PO.

15. Obiwan comes back in the Fifth movie. This is yet another subtle reference to the Religious nature of the Force. In the same way a God Fearing Christian, Faithful Jedi also experience Life after Death.


16. Han gets really mad when Lando tells about the trap for Luke. So mad that, even in his extreme pain, he punches Lando in the face and is beaten down. This shows that, despite his apathetic Charades, he is totally invested in the rebellion.

17. The Empire must have been prepared to handcuff Chewbacca. In the last movie the handcuffs wouldn't fit around his wrists, but in this movie they do.

18. This really is Han's movie. He makes most of the important decisions. Not that Luke is unimportant, but let's be honest, he's on the most remote planet ever for half the movie.

That's all I got...

Now it's your turn! Tell me what revelations you've had about this movie. Tell me what you think I got wrong. Tell your Mom that you love her. 

Thanks for reading,

Dan Hatton

Introduction

Someone told me that I should have a blog, but I never saw the need for one. I never thought I had enough to fill up a monthly blog. Then I had an Idea. There are a lot of things in my life that I've taken for granted. What if i tried to find out what they were? Would I have a newer, wiser view of the world, or would I get an aneurism from the overload? There is only one way to find out.


Let's find out what Things I've Never Noticed.


As I watch old movies, ride the CTA, listen to music, and more I'll be writing about things I see that I've never seen before. So, without further ado...


Things I've Never Noticed,
By Dan Hatton