Lets Do Some Movie Reviews! Alien: Covenant

Hey everyone!

So for those of you who don’t know, Tiffany and I go to the movies almost every Monday and watch something new, and then when we’re driving home I spend about 15 minutes just ranting about my thoughts concerning whatever movie we watched. Every single week (for literally the past year) I always consider posting my rants and calling them reviews, mostly for my own benefit when I am trying to remember which movies I liked!

So here goes nothing!

 

This week we went and saw Alien: Covenant, obviously there’s gonna be spoilers ahead so if you care at all, stop reading now!

 

3/5 – I’d put this in my “meh” list of movies. Not unwatchable, but nothing memorable.

 

So as a precursor, I’ve only seen Alien and Alien 2 thus far in the Alien Anthology. I recognize that I’m potentially missing some context, so take my opinions with a grain of salt.

 

Opening Sequences: In the first scene the film makes it absolutely, unquestioningly obvious that David is the villain of the film. Maybe I’m just really good at sleuthing these things, but it seemed painfully stupidly obvious that this was going to follow the classic “creation recognizes that it’s superior to creator and devises plan to destroy it’s creator” (I like to refer to this as the Killing God story line)

I think this is a perfectly fine scene to open the film with, but only if you cut out the last bits of dialogue and paste them somewhere later in the film. By including the dialogue in which David makes it painfully clear that he doesn’t understand why he is serving an inferior master, you reveal the entire plot of the film.

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Into The Main Story: Really Alien? Couldn’t come up with a reason to get the Covenant to land on the mysterious planet so we had to rip-off Passengers? Am I really supposed to believe that a ship designed to travel for 7+ years through space, with a repeated need to open fragile sails for recharging doesn’t have some kind of autonomous defense against the destruction of those sails?

And why exactly do the sleeping pods spontaneously combust internally if they aren’t opened fast enough? That seems like a significant flaw in the design of a device that’s supposed to house humans for a decade. Other than putting Pastor Uncertain in charge and establishing Girl who is simultaneously hysteric, but very strong as the main character – why does James Franco’s character exist? Why do we need to roast a character in the opening moments of the film? Other than placing characters where we need them, and giving some reason as to why they’d prefer not to go back in the pods, this seems like a waste of valuable time.

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Note: is there really no protocol for if the Captain dies on an 7+ year long trip? The second in command is an ill-prepared buffoon with no faith in himself, who does nothing more than stutter, repeat phrases that seemingly have religious connotation, and repeat to his wife how ill-prepared he is for the position.

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The plot thickens: Tennessee receives a transmission from the mysterious planet from 3 weeks worth of space travel away, but later in the film the Covenant can’t maintain contact from within orbit of that planet… That’s awfully convenient. And in what universe does a 7+ year long mission that has been meticulously planned and calculated just decide to alter that plan and do something else? That’s like me planning a trip to Hawaii, but when I am in Atlanta for my connecting flight, I decide to get on a plane to Toronto instead. There’s just no sense behind it. (which the strong female lead is quick to tell the buffoon captain, but he doesn’t listen of course)

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The rising action begins: We’re on the planet. Badstuffs happen. The crew panics, abandons protocol, and gets thinned down because of it. This is a crew of people that seemingly was supposed to be leading a colony of 2000+ people to a new world. and at first distress they lose their cool and abandon whatever training they may have had. Also for those counting: We are now at 2 fiery burning deaths, 2 violent alien hatchings, 1 alien mauling, and 1 friendly fire headshot. This scene is also used to establish that Walter (the newer less evil model of David) is protective of our strong/hysterical female lead.

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Enter David: Aliens, not afraid of bullets or exploding spaceships, totally spooked by flare guns. The humans return to the city of many dead people, this does not seem to concern them. David announces that the aliens, and the dead people are a result of he and a human cohort “accidentally” releasing a toxin designed to eradicate all biological life forms. The crew doesn’t seem to question why David and his cohort had a toxin designed to eradicate all biological life forms in the first place. David is generally creepy and off-putting, but again, no one really seems to mind.

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The Aliens return: Random female crew member gets eaten/disemboweled by Alien, David responds by blowing on its face and becoming its friend. Captain Pastor Uncertain elects to shoot the alien to death, David is angry that he does this. Captain Pastor Uncertain agrees to follow David into his room filled with dissected aliens, and then further into his basement filled with Alien eggs. Captain Pastor Uncertain is comfortable touching the egg after David (who he just saw befriending an Alien) tells him it’s safe. When the egg opens, he also feels comfortable sticking his face directly over it (Also because David says it’s okay). RIP Captain Pastor Uncertain. David raises his arms, the new baby alien raises its arms: They are clearly allies. Walter now confronts David, David awkwardly kisses Walter (additionally awkward because both Walter and David are played by Michael Fassbender) and then rips something out of his throat, causing Walter to collapse to the ground, seemingly broken beyond repair.

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Almost to the climax: Now Strong female lead goes looking for Captain Pastor Uncertain, who had left to go looking for random female crew member. She finds neither of them, and instead happens upon David’s library where he has very detailed images of aliens bursting out of his Human cohort cited earlier. When David arrives, he tosses her around a little and then tries to rape her? This bit was uncertain to me. Luckily, Walter arrives just in the nick of time to bash David away. Strong female lead runs away and the robot battle is on.

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Robot Battle: The robots battle, Walter seemingly has a slight upperhand, but only slight. Meanwhile Random male crew member 1 and 2 find the dead Captain Pastor Uncertain. One is attacked by the face attaching alien, the other quickly learns the “these things bleed acid that cuts through rock” lesson. Member 1 ends up with a severely burned face due to acid blood, Member 2 gets immediately destroyed by the full sized Alien previously born inside Captain Pastor Uncertain. Member 1 runs away and finds strong female lead. They run outside to meet up with Southern Pilot guy, who is driving a cargo ship to pick them up.  Back to the robot battle, Walter has David pinned down. David says something cryptic that causes Walter to pause, while this is happening we see David reach for a knife. The scene cuts away there

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Race back to Space: Crew Member 1 and Strong Female lead race to get on Southern Pilot’s cargo ship, Walter is close on their heels and joins them on the ship. When asked about David, he says he has been “decommissioned” or something along those lines. But wait! The Alien is on the ship. Strong female lead runs back outside to fight it off, after some screwing around she manages to use the ship’s onboard crane to crush it. All is well and they escape back to their big ship out in Orbit.

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One more Alien: The survivors are back on the Covenant, and all seems to be well! But wait! Crew Member 1 is now dead, and there’s an Alien somewhere on the ship. Covenant Pilot people are having sex in the shower so they don’t hear the warning and are easily picked off by the Alien. Strong Female Lead and Southern Pilot are the last men standing (with Walter at the helm of the ship) They get to “her turf” where they manage to purge the Alien from the ship. How nice.

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M. Night Shamalamadingdong: All is back as it should be, Southern Pilot and Strong Female Lead are going back into cryo-sleep. But wait! As Strong female lead is back in her pod, she realizes that it’s not Walter! It’s David! But now she’s asleep. He coughs up 2 alien fetuses, and then the movie ends.

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This whole movie is stupidly predictable, with absolutely no original content.

The strength of the original Alien comes from how well we connect with Ripley. When she’s scared, we’re scared. When she’s relaxed, we feel relaxed. When she kicks the alien’s ass, we feel triumphant.

I connected with absolutely no one in this film, I didn’t care who lived or died. In all honesty, it was obvious from halfway through that they were all going to die. David was a completely flat villain because his intent was clear from the first scene of the film. The main characters never developed or had any meaningful growth.

 

I think there are some simple tweaks that would have really improved the film for me. First and foremost, the opening scene needs split. I’m okay with introducing David in the opening scene, but I don’t feel I should know his intents until he’s revealed as the villain. I think if you’re going to have a strong female lead, she needs to be strong throughout. It’s nonsensical that someone can go from hysterical and non functional to being calm and composed in a matter of moments with no real catalyst for the change in persona. I don’t understand why we brought religion into Captain Pastor Uncertain’s character, it never really played any role at all.

 

TLDR:

So yea, this movie has some entertaining moments and some interesting (albeit recycled) story arcs, but overall it was predictable, and therefore extremely boring.

 

This was super long, apologies for the ramblings and rantings. I guess I just had a lot to say. Until next Monday!

~H

Summer!

Hey Everybody!

It’s been like, an age since I last posted a blog. The last time I posted a blog was toward the end of December, and even then I didn’t really address any of the events prior to that point, and I certainly didn’t discuss anything that’s happened since then. So for those of you who feel like they have no idea what’s going on in my life, let me see if i can help!

So toward the end of October/beginning of November, I was elected President of my fraternity. I know that doesn’t sound like that big a deal, but to be honest this position has consumed my life for the past 6 months. Between moronic guests, paying the bills, and maintaining an 80 year old house during a -12 degree winter (among other things), this has easily been the most stressful and endlessly involved job I have ever had to do. Perhaps at another time, I’ll go into a bit more detail, but that’s not my real focus for this blog.

The biggest and most important thing going on in my life right now is Miss Tiffany Amber Jackson. I know for many of you who heard bits and pieces of our story, they may come off as confusing or complicated. While some of you may be a bit skeptical of our relationship, I assure you that Tiff is everything I could ever ask for and more, and that after almost a year of instability and complications, the two of us managed to figure things out.

According to Facebook, we officially started “being in a relationship” on March 4th, 2015. When they write the history books, they’ll have a hard time really pinning a date, and to be honest when people ask us when we started dating we tend to kind of look at each other and then make up an answer.

This past semester has been an absolute blur… through all the insane things that have happened (bursting pipes, hospital trips, leaky ceilings, visiting alumni, freelance opportunities, academic stresses, etc.) Tiff has been right there standing behind me and supporting me… I honestly don’t believe I could have made it through this semester with my sanity if I didn’t have her to lean on.

I’ll be completely honest, there are days when she wants to strangle me… and there are definitely days where I wouldn’t mind a pair of sound canceling ear muffs, but I challenge you to find a couple that doesn’t share that sentiment.

Tiff continuously challenges me to be better at everything I do. She has pushed me to try new things that are outside of my comfort zone, and surprise surprise, I actually enjoyed some of them. Turns out I love New York City (I always assumed I’d hate it). Chicago wasn’t my favorite, but we were only in the city for a few hours, and it was rainy… but the pizza was good! She’s taking me home to Las Vegas in the end of June, and to be honest I’m a little nervous; but I’m excited to meet her family and get to see exactly where she came from.

Tiffany decided to stay in New Wilmington this summer (which is a nice alternative to going home to Las Vegas). It’s been absolutely wonderful to have her around (and it’s also been incredibly beneficial to my eating habits).

Since summer started I’ve applied for 4 or 5 jobs, and up until yesterday I hadn’t heard back from any of them. I have an interview this morning for the job that I’d like the most (I’ll go into more detail later if I get the job). My second favorite option called yesterday and I’m hoping they can find a place for me on their team as well. Mostly I just feel confused why so many businesses/internships don’t even contact their applicants at all. A few of the places I applied didn’t even give me a confirmation that I applied… I understand that hiring is competitive and that time is money, but I think it’s kind of disrespectful to just blow off applicants, and if I ever am in a position I will make sure to call every last one regardless of whether or not they’ve been accepted… anyway I’ve gone on a tangent.

Outside of those jobs, I’ve also become a bit of a freelance media producer. In the past month or so I’ve worked with Tiffany on a few projects, and I’ve also done a few of my own. I shot and edited some video for the crane company Dad works for, I shot some high school track video for the PA Milesplit website, and I’ve got a few more gigs lined up for the summer. Tiffany and I are actually planning on making our own production studio (Jack and the Giant Productions) and seeing how far we can take it.

I know I’ve said this before, but I’m really going to try to post more on the blog… So far I’ve got nothing else to do this summer.

Keep it classy internet!

~h

The Liebster

Hello Friends! I’ve been nominated by Megan for the Liebster award which is given to bloggers by other bloggers in order to connect blogs and create more of a community feel!

The rules are simple:

1. Link back to the blogger who nominated you.

2. Answer the 11 questions given to you by the blogger who nominated you.

3. Nominate other bloggers with less than 200 followers

4. Go to the blogs you nominated and notify them of your nomination

5. Give your nominees 11 questions to answer

Here are the questions that Megan gave me:

1. What book has left a lasting impression on you? It’s not an individual book, but the Harry Potter series was kind of the basis of my youth. There was a good portion of time where my life revolved around all things Harry Potter.
2. Share a goal you have for yourself for the next year. I’d like to fulfill the expectations of all the leadership positions I have recently entered. There’s a whole lot on my plate, and I want to manage all of it efficiently and effectively 
3. Without any limitations, if you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go? Norway. It’s a beautiful country. I think I could find my peace there.
4. What is your favorite quote to live by? “We need never be hopeless because we can never be irreparably broken.”
   
5. Share your top song of 2014. Well, my most listened to song on Spotify was Car Radio by Twenty One Pilots. 
6. When did you start blogging and why? I think I started this particular blog about a year ago, I’ve had a couple blogs throughout the years, most of which have gone quiet, but this one has been fun. 
7. What do you always carry with you? Phone, Keys, Wallet… that’s pretty much it.
8. If you could change the ending to any fictional work (movie, show, book, etc.) what would you change? I think I would change Serenity’s ending. *SPOILERS* Keep Wash alive, keep flying.
9. Who’s your biggest influence? Probably my mother. The Becky Greene has spent about 100x more time with me than anyone else on earth, so she’s really had a good chance to shape my person.
10. What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in yourself in the past year? In the last year I’ve become more confident, and I have stepped up to be a stronger leader.
11. Share your favorite holiday tradition. 4th of July at PAG’s is always the best. Nothing says America like Dixie Band music and Fireworks by the river.

Now I’m gonna nominate Tiffany and Darian and try to continue boosting the Liebster network

You both can have the same questions that I did!

Also: I promise I’ll have a real blog for all you lovely people within the next week, there’s a whole lot of things that have happened since July 7th, and I’m excited to share them with you!

Summer Update

Hey people. It’s been a solid 2 months since I’ve posted anything, mostly because my life hasn’t had any major happenings, but I figure I may as well give you the rundown on what I’ve been up to all summer.

So most of you have probably figured this out by now, but I am living in my fraternity house in New Wilmington. I work full time in my college radio station (WWNW 88.9FM) doing a bunch of different things.

My three main responsibilities are News, Being on Air, and Keeping the music library updated. For the most part, none of those tasks are time consuming, difficult, or interesting, but it’s better then working at some yucky fast food place.

Like I said, I live in my fraternity house. There are 5 of us living in the house over the summer, we don’t see too much of each other because we’re all on different schedules, but it’s nice to at least feel the presence of other humans in the same house.

The major project of the summer (outside of working full time) has been cleaning up my room (which from now on I’ll refer to as “The Cave”). As I’m sure most of you can imagine, cleaning a room in a fraternity house isn’t exactly an easy task… the last 40 years of smelly boy have definitely worked their way into the walls, but I’ve already made a ton of progress! So far all I’ve done is clean up trash, move some furniture around, and vacuum… you know, your typical tidy up kinda deal. The plan is to eventually (probably this weekend) paint all the walls, and tear up the carpet. When I’m done, I’ll post some pictures.

I have control of Jarvis now, so I drive home pretty much every weekend. It’s worth a few free meals, some family time, and the occasional fire with home friends, which is nice. There’s a small part of me that misses being in Franklin for the summer, but I’m definitely a lot more comfortable living in New Wilmington.

 

That’s really the only stuff worth talking about at this point… Really kind of a buzzkill in comparison to Paige’s wild European adventure, but then I’ve always been the boring child.

If anything exciting happens when I’m sitting in my 65 degree office, I’ll be sure to post it here first.

 

I’m Thankful For: Tiffany Jackson

I’ve wanted to make this post for about a month, but I’ve struggled to find the right words to say.

 

For those of you who don’t know Tiff, she has been my rock for the past 3 months, and I can’t even begin to tell you how large a role she has taken in my life. In January, we were hardly even friends. We had worked together for awhile, but had never really had any interaction outside of the Broadcast department, but as this semester has gone on, our relationship has gone on a journey that I don’t think either of us ever expected.

To describe our progression would be incredibly complicated, for those of you who know me, I typically don’t really do complications, but for Tiff things were different.

I have never been more excited to talk about a girl. I just want everyone to know how incredibly awesome she is, and I know that this blog will never really do her justice, but it’s a start.

Just as a quick Bio for those back home: Tiffany Amber Jackson is a 19 year old Broadcast Major from Las Vegas, Nevada. She is a sister of ZTA, plays Volleyball, and spends most of her free time watching videos of weddings, babies, and bulldog puppies.

Now I’m sure I’ll get teased plenty by my family/brothers/everyone, but I don’t really care, some people are worth being teased for.

Tiff is absolutely nothing like the girl I expected to be with. In my head I was supposed to be with some quiet band nerd who was shy but angsty. Tiff is a badass jock with enough guts to always speak her mind.

When we first started talking, I worried that she wouldn’t be able to fit in with my friend group (namely my brothers), but lo and behold, not only did she fit in, she has flourished, and is more in tune with some of my brothers than I am. In 3 months she has gone from being at Theta Chi once in her life to spending Easter Break there.

So far, there hasn’t really been a good opportunity to introduce her to the family, but I have no doubt that she (like all other intelligent forms of life on earth) will find it very easy to fall in love with the awesomeness that is the Greene/Sharp clan, and I can’t imagine that they will have a hard time falling in love with her.

Before Tiff, I was content with life. There was nothing wrong with anything, but I was fairly apathetic about it… I felt like I was just going through the motions. Now, I’m happy. I’ve started singing in the shower again (sorry Ben, Zack, and Alex), I look forward to the day when I wake up in the morning, and I have the motivation to try and be the best version of me that I can produce.

She has been incredibly supportive of me in everything that I do, from throwing idea after idea at me in the Broadcast department, to skipping tennis to come to my flop of a philanthropy event, to staying up all night on the radio, she’s always willing to be there for me, even when I don’t necessarily deserve it.

So this post is to say thanks for all the cracked thumbs, uncontrollable laughter, and late nights in the radio station that we’ve had so far, and I have no doubt in my mind that there will be a lot more blogs talking about this girl in the future.

Why I Went Greek

Alright, so even though I don’t feel like I should have to justify my decision to join a fraternity, I figured this was a perfect time to talk about why I chose to pick up, the effects Theta Chi has had on me, and give a plug to anyone on the fence about Greek Life.

(For those of you who aren’t aware, I become a member of the Zeta Lambda Chapter of Theta Chi Fraternity on February 4th, 2013. I went through a 2 month pledging process and was initiated on April 10th.)

Why I Went Greek 

Reason #1

All though High School, I was always a member of some kind of brotherhood. It started in middle school with Cross Country (a group known to some as “TYA” which stands for Tough Young Athletes if you were an adult, and something much more vulgar and tasteless if you were a member). That lasted 6 years. In that time I also joined the band, the choir, and Stage Crew, which were all equally as bonded. In the last few months of my senior year, and the summer directly afterward, “The Brotherhood” was formed. It was a group of my closest male friends that spent virtually every night of that summer hanging out in some fashion or another. 

Reason #2

I had spent the 2 years before college watching my sister pick up and become a member of the Delta Delta Chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha Fraternity (a social srat). In that time I watched her grow up a fair bit (and speaking as someone who has had a very close relationship with Paige for 20 years, that means a whole lot). She was taking on new, exciting responsibilities and though it often stressed her out in ways that caused her to spew expletives, it was obvious that it was worth the stress.

 

So that’s the gist of it. I came into school wanting to find a new brotherhood, and with the knowledge that Greek Life had the power to change your life.

 

As for why Theta Chi, it’s pretty simple. Of the 5 fraternities on campus at that time, Theta Chi was my best fit. It was an incredibly easy decision for me to make. (not to say that the other organizations aren’t just as awesome)

 

The Effects of Theta Chi on Me

Coming in to college, I was scared. For those of you who are aware of my academic situation in high school, you know that I was not the best student. Coming to a expensive private school was incredibly stressful. Would I be able to get decent grades? Would I be able to keep up with my studies? Would I be able to continue participating in extracurricular activities? It was all very intimidating to me.

So first semester arrived, and I got around a 3.3 GPA, which I was incredibly happy with. Compared to the 2.7 I was playing with in High School, a 3.3 seemed like an incredible leap forward. The issue that I quickly discovered was that I hadn’t developed a better work ethic, and that I wasn’t a better student. I was simply in entry level classes for a major that I enjoyed a whole lot, and things were coming easy to me again (just like in elementary school). I was still the same 2.7 slacker, I was just catching an academic break. 

Cue 2nd semester. My classes are much more difficult, and aren’t as enjoyable. I struggled. I picked up Theta Chi in February, and I struggled to keep up with the things I was required to do for that. Struggled really isn’t the right word… I slacked. It wasn’t that anything I had to do was particularly difficult or time consuming, it was just stuff that needed to get done in a timely manner, and I was not doing that effectively.  

I was given some very stern (but heartfelt) talks from a few of the brothers about my lack of responsibility, and about the issues that had plagued me since middle school. While those talks didn’t necessarily hit me all at once, some of the things that were said to me found their way into the back of my head and have eaten at me ever since. 

Since then I have worked tirelessly to abandon my old ways. I started actively pursuing more responsibility, I started seeking more leadership roles, and most importantly I started completing my obligations in a timely manner at a higher degree of quality. The results of my new outlook have been rapid and numerous.

Last semester my GPA was something like a 3.6 and I was on the Dean’s List. I was made the Crew Chief of the Titan Sports Remote Crew. I became the new poster child for my department. I was given Production and Directorial responsibilities on the majority of Westminster Cable broadcasts. I was elected Parliamentarian of Theta Chi. I was finally starting to step up and fulfill some of my potential, and it was surprising to me how quickly people noticed and were willing to give me their faith.

Now I’m continuing to excel academically, and am being given more new responsibilities on what feels like a weekly basis. I have replaced my Brother Joe Ligo as the Program Director of Titan Radio, I have taken up the mantle of Philanthropy Chair in Theta Chi, and I’ve started applying for more positions (Holcad, Argo, Associate Board of Trustees, etc.) and while I may not be given the chance to get accepted into all of those positions, I’m still putting in the time and the effort, which is something fairly new for me. 

 

I guess to sum all of it up, Theta Chi has inspired me to (and excuse my cliche) be the best me that I could be. I recognize that sounds lame, but it’s the truth and there’s no other way for me to say it.

 

Why YOU should go Greek

This is really for my Independent friends, and for the people that haven’t entered their college years yet. If you’ve already finished your college years or are already greek, you don’t really need to read this section, but I’d still recommend that you do!

Obviously, the general idea of the last section was that Greek Life will change your life for the better. It won’t be easy, and at times it won’t be fun, but that’s kind of how the real world works. It will cost you a bit of money, but it will repay you with a lifetime of networking opportunities, the best friends you’ll ever have, in some cases a place to live, and so much more. If I ever hear anyone pull the whole “paying for friends” garbage, I will instantly ignore anything else you have to say about Greek Life because you will have proven yourself to be entirely ignorant of how valuable the experience is.

So if you’re at/going to college, take some time to meet the people with the funny looking letters on their chests. See if you can fit in with a few individuals, and then see if you can fit in with the group. Take a leap of faith. The worst thing that can happen is you discover that no group fits you, and you will have lost nothing. 

Now, I don’t know what college you go/will go to. I don’t know what kind of people are in Greek organizations there. Maybe they’re a bunch douche bags and frat-mattresses, if that’s the case, find some independent friends that aren’t douchey, and look into the process of forming a colony and subsequently a chapter. It’s a lot of work, and it takes a long time, and you may never get to participate in the final result of your efforts, but you will have gained all the benefits of Greek Life in the process, possibly even more than the average Greek, and you’ll be actually doing something to show that you don’t respect the douches, without falling into the trap of believing that all greeks are douches.

 

If you’ve made it this far, I thank you. If you have any questions regarding Greek Life, I invite you to ask them! I’m willing to answer anything you can cook up. 

 

Happy Greek Week 2014

Cheese IS the best

 

Happiness Is…

I had a request (from someone who isn’t Liz) to write a blog about my Happiness. I can’t just use the term Happiness Is… without giving a plug to my best friend Liz’s charity though. The Smile Project is awesome, and everyone should love/support it.

Anyway, after my incredibly dark and unhappy post from the other day, it only seems right that I brighten things up a little bit before I head home from Florida tomorrow morning. Rather than type out big long boring paragraphs i’m going to stick with statements.

(note: I’m sacrificing my manliness for a few of these, no judgement)

Happiness is hugs. Not like a wimpy side arm squeeze, i’m talking running, jumping, knock the wind out of you hugs. If you need a visual reference, just watch the next time Jenny Jones or Liz Buechele gives me a hug.

Happiness is family. This is a two part one because of course, my family is awesome. Whether it’s being in a condo in Florida for a week, eating lunch with my entire maternal family on Christmas, or celebrating Greene Christmas on some randomly chosen date in December or January with my paternal family, my family is the best… and no one will convince me differently

the second part is my WC family. Zack, Ben, Abby, Liz, and Maggie are by far the greatest friends I could have asked for coming into college. and we’ve been through a whole lot at this point (remember the time Maggie broke up with the family?) (or the time with the pants?) We’re always there for each other, and we always will be (I hope)

Happiness is someone playing with your hair. I haven’t experienced this one much in the past few years, but it’s not a feeling you soon forget.

Happiness is the moment directly after a knot releases in your back. There’s that feeling of energy making it’s way back into whatever spot was blocked and it just feels… happy!

Happiness is a fluffy puppy. Especially my fluffy puppy. Shakespeare is the bomb.com

Happiness is trying to intimidate boys that like my sister. I’m not very good at this one, but I’ve been known to do some fairly passive aggressive things on the internet!

Happiness is the way the first day of Spring smells.

Happiness is going out to get dessert with your friends every night.

Happiness is chugging a box of nerds.

Happiness is a snickerdoodle straight out of the oven

Happiness is cookies and milk

Happiness is brotherhood. Whether it be my cross country years, “The Brotherhood”, or Theta Chi, I’ve always had a strong support group of friends, and they have carried me through all the rough times.

Happiness is choosing to go to Westminster over Clarion. I’m sure I would have had just as good times at Clarion, but I can’t imagine not meeting all of the incredible people in my life from WC.

Happiness is not sucking at school anymore. It’s nice to not get questioned every time I see my parents.

Happiness is late night twitter binges

Happiness is making a sad person smile.

Happiness is old friends who act like no time has passed

Happiness is finding new music

Happiness is driving with the top down.

Happiness is riding a firetruck on the 4th of July

(the next few are music nerdy)

Happiness is the opening and closing phrases of the Chaccone in Holst’s First Suite in E-flat

Happiness is the fanfare in “Olympic Fanfare and Theme”

Happiness is playing higher than the pompous lead trumpet player.

Happiness is when the French Horns get to play realllllllly loud.

There’s a ton more… I might post more in the future (or maybe just steal Liz’s daily post [though probs not])

Love you all, thanks for reading and stuff…

-H

Living Stress Free (Read: Being an emotional time bomb)

So anyone who has spent any time with me knows that I give off a vibe of being constantly stress free. I stay calm in typically tense situations, I don’t freak out about the little things, and I’m generally pretty easy going about every single thing on earth.

Here’s my secret:

 

I’M FREAKING OUT

 

There it is folks, the secret is to save every ounce of fear, stress, loathing, pain, sadness, and every other negative emotion you can think of in a box in the back of your brain. You’d be surprised how much you can fit in that box. I can go several years without having to think about the box, it just fills and fills and fills and fills.

but here’s the issue, once in a blue moon that box DOES get full, and when it does all of those negative emotions just come spilling out in the form of pure frustration, anger, and pessimism.

Even when the dam breaks, most people never really get to see the flood of hatred that I have for life, but for the lucky few that are ALWAYS on the other end of my vent sessions, I say a hearty thank you. You guys (you all know who you are) have put up with my whiny rants every time without criticism or judgement, and I can’t express how much that means to me.

I brought this up in my blog today because I’m currently going through one of the most explosively stressful times in my life, and I wanted everyone to be aware that the melodramatic tweets/statuses are nothing to worry about, I’m perfectly fine and happy. I’m just getting through some stuff through means of being a whiny teenager on the internet.

 

In other news, I’m currently sitting in a beautiful condo overlooking the ocean in Florida, so lets take a moment and remember that all things aside, I’m an incredibly lucky, privileged young man who has incredible parents that have given me opportunities that have made my life incredibly easy, and incredibly comfortable.

Stay tuned for some more positive/fun posts containing pictures of warm places

 

“I’m smaller than a poppy seed inside a great big bowl”

So today I got to venture up the many many steps that lead to Westminster’s Bell Tower. It’s one of the coolest experiences I’ve had on campus (despite the fact that it was like, 10 degrees with 30 mile per hour wind). But while we were up there, my wonderful friend Manders snapped a picture of me next to the spiral staircase, and I couldn’t help but think of the Kimya Dawson song “I Like Giants”

I’m not gonna quote every lyric, but the general gist is that no matter how big or important you get, you’re still just this tiny part of the universe. 

 

 

 

Holcad Article and Life Update

So apparently my blog was interesting (not quite sure how) to merit me being interviewed for the Holcad. (Westminster’s Newspaper)

Now granted, the interviewer was a friend of mine (Marissa Krall) so maybe it was more because of me then my blog, but I still feel like that the article might produce some traffic to my page, so I figure I should probably post something. So how about a life update.

 

I’m currently in my second semester of my sophomore year at Westminster College. I’m not typically one to rub my grades in people’s faces, but I’m incredibly proud to say that after 8 years of being a disappointing slacker and having a 2.7 GPA, I was named to the Dean’s list last semester (which means I was above 3.6). Like I said, I’m not one to brag, but this has been a long journey for me that has required a lot of soul searching and bold decisions. Being academically inept the past several years has been an incredibly large source of stress in my life, and finally coming over the hump has put my mind at great ease.

 

That being said, this semester is gearing up to be the most difficult one of my college career. I’ve just inherited 2 major leadership positions in the Broadcast department, I am now the go to student when it comes to do with anything in the radio station or remote broadcast truck, and while it’s an honor to have received these positions, often times the responsibility of them leaves me a little nervous.

My classes are no breeze, the most difficult of which is a 3 hour night class every Monday from 6:30-9:30… it’s a Practical Logic class, and while it’s actually pretty interesting, 3 hours is too long for anything, and it’s not an easy concept or class.

I have a Mass Comm course that isn’t very difficult, but can tend to be on the dull side and is at 9:20AM on MWF… Not my favorite time of day.

I’m now in my “cluster” course. Basically Westminster requires student to take one dual course that uses two classes to teach towards one goal. My cluster contains a  Digital Photography and a Digital Movie Making class. It’s not particularly hard per say, but it almost always sends me home with some kind of homework, and with the general desire to play with my $900 new camera.

Outside of that my schedule loosens up a bit. I’m in my final required semester of Broadcast Practicum. Basically the BC department’s hands on requirement. The professors refer to it as a mock internship, and that’s basically what it is if you were interning at a company that wanted you to do every broadcast field. Again, nothing about this is particularly difficult, but it fills my schedule. Noon-2 on Monday’s and 4-6 on Tuesday’s I have to assume my role as The Greene Giant on Titan Radio. Wednesday afternoon and Friday evenings I have to spend two hours producing 2 minute newscasts to go on the air. On Tuesdays I have a 30 minute meeting that discusses the group of 3 TV shows that alternate filming on most Wednesdays in the afternoon. I also Technical Direct a TV show on Thursday’s from 1-1:30. So if you take all that, plus the 10-15 hours I’ll spend working some kind of Truck Remote, and whatever extra stuff I have to do for any of those things I’m basically working a 30 hour week on top of my classes. None of it’s very difficult, but it’s remarkably time consuming.

The only other class I have is Symphonic Band. That’s been a new experience this semester. Despite the fact that I’ve played Trumpet for almost 10 years, I am no playing baritone. So far the change hasn’t challenged me too much, though it’s still certainly not my primary instrument.

I also participate in SGA and my fraternity, which both tend to take a significant amount of my time away.

(did I mention I’m on my fraternity’s meal plan, which means I have to walk half a mile for all my meals)

So after adding it all up, the general statement I’m making here is that when this semester ends, I’m going to be one tired panda bear, but I’m sure it’ll all be worth it. It’s times like these that make me feel a little bit more grown up, and I like that feeling.

 

Hope you all made it to the end of that, quite a lot to read through… Some of it may have looked like whining, but it really wasn’t, I just wanted to show some of the folks back home what a day in the life looks like for Harry Greene

Thanks for reading! Probably going to try and post more often in the coming weeks