Prestige Weekend

I spent my Christmas weekend watching Oscar bait. They're the kind of movies that debut at film festivals so that they can intercut the trailers with superlative quotes. You'd think that every one of these films were the greatest thing since Citizen Kane.

I crossed quite a few off my list. They included Brooklyn, Carol, Spotlight, Room, Trumbo, Joy, Beasts of No Nation, The Danish Girl, Concussion, and among others,

The common thread between all these are Golden Globe nominations. It'll be interesting to see how the Oscars will shake out. The Golden Globes are my current road map to what's good. I've yet to see The Revenant, The Big Short, and The Hateful Eight.

I want to be able to make an informed prediction, and that's only possible by seeing everything. I'm still juggling judgement in my head, but so far, my front runners for best picture are Spotlight and Room. There were many fine films this year, but those two in particular are on another level.  

Star Wars Weekend

I did things backwards and watched the entire Star Wars saga after seeing The Force Awakens. It's easy to see why this series became such a phenomenon. I liked A New Hope the best. The Empire Strikes Back is overrated. It suffers from "middle of the pack" syndrome where nothing of substance actually happens. The only good part is the battle of Hoth. Everything else is middling.

The reception to The Force Awakens has been interesting. Thanks to Rey, the wider world has now been exposed to a term that fanfiction writers like myself have already grappled with for years -- Mary Sue.

For the record, I don't think Rey is a Mary Sue and I don't mind that she's good at everything, because she lives in a fictional universe where there's a ready-made explanation for every possible plot contrivance imaginable -- it's called "the force."

So I'm all in on Star Wars now and I don't know how long it'll be until I get myself out. Probably until I finish the Clone Wars series.

Getting Ready

Vegas was a prototype for my trip to Japan. You never know how something will happen until it happens. Aside from the usual concerns like where we're gonna stay or how we're gonna feed ourselves, Vegas was a test of endurance. Our plan was to stay up all night. We failed.

If we couldn't do it in Vegas, I doubt we could do it in Japan. Unlike America, night clubs live up to their name. The action starts at midnight and real dancers don't go home until the morning sun rises. I could barely keep my eyes open and all we did was lounge around bars. If I'd been dancing, I'd be dead on my feet.

I've been working on my stamina. You can call it light training. I've been running a couple miles a week and doing long walks along the riverbank. I'm trying to get a good mix of jogging and extended walking. It'll still be another couple months before the trip, but I should be in great shape by then.

It's been difficult to get back into the regimen since Vegas screwed up my sleep schedule. The lingering aftereffects are still being felt. To make things worse, the Uncharted 4 beta kept me up all night in the following weekend. I haven't had a chance to recover at all.

In that respect, the trip wasn't a waste. I've got a better handle on future trips now. At least I got one great memory out of it. Taking off from McCarran and seeing the Strip awash in morning light with the Mighty Rio Grande playing on my headphones was a transcendent moment that bordered on divine. First time seeing Vegas from above.

You don't get moments like those everyday.

Back in Vegas

This needs to be a good one.

My last few visits have been lackluster. I'm starting to think that Vegas is good for only one night. Any more and I get worn down. I'm obligated to stay an extra day because of the arduous journey. Driving over 300 miles ain't no joke.

With my upcoming trip, however, I get to skip that headache entirely. I'll be flying in for two nights and one day of action.

The most important part of a successful trip is the preparation. Knowing everything that can happen beforehand is paramount. I don't do spontaneity because that means unchecked losses. Bring an amount I'm comfortable with losing and cap it at that.

One weekend later...

Having come back from Vegas, I gotta say... I should've waited longer to return. I don't have much love for a place where everything is out to rip me off. Fortunately, I was able to exercise total cost control -- to a degree. Damage was limited at best. 

I also discovered something new: I hate gambling. I don't care if everyone around me is winning big time because I won't do it. It's blind luck. Sure, they might win big and leave me in the dust, but they're developing a pattern of behavior that has proven over the long run to be detrimental to all but the luckiest. 

There's no such thing as free money. I've spent my entire life budgeting and saving. Who do you think comes out positive at the end? The spendthrift or the gambler?

Maybe it's just sour grapes because the trip didn't start out on the right foot. My phone froze and I had to get a paper ticket. I spent ten minutes panicking because my touchscreen wouldn't respond. I had to manually go into the boot menu, which is tricky for my phone.

I got stopped at TSA because of oversized liquid containers and was forced to check my bag, and because of that checked bag, I couldn't relax in the Centurion lounge because my brain devised all manner of scenarios where my luggage would go missing inexplicably. 

This threw the whole schedule out of whack. Our ride to a certain club never materialized and we walked all over the Strip for overpriced drinks. We underestimated our stamina. There was no way we could stay up all night. We paid to check in early to get what little sleep we could. I only got a couple minutes because I had to go down and place bets on the morning games.  

Then my brother asks me to do a fourth parlay, eating into my bet on the Broncos, and basically robbed me of $10 extra dollars. Then my friend had to miss halftime bets that would gotten me an extra $30. Then, I wasn't able to get in my bet on the Saints at halftime because of the Chiefs, and that's another $10 I would've gotten, or perhaps $20. 

Basically, I went to Vegas and got teased with unrealized gains that amounted to $50. Of course, that's not money I lost. It's just money I didn't win. But the gambler's mentality says that money was meant for me. That's why I'd rather stay at home and not get pissed over not winning $50 when I spent so much more just going there in the first place! By not going, I would've been positive.

Sure, I could bet bigger and get everything back since the bets were good, but it only takes one loss to screw me over, and I'm not willing to lose big for fool's gold. 

If there's any lesson I learned from Vegas, it's that I need to be savvier at home, work harder, and find a new job that will cover any potential windfalls from gambling, because I don't need this uncertainty in my life. 

That said, if I'm going to be gambling, I'll only do parlays from now on. Low risk, big reward, and helluva lot less stressful.

Gonna Fly Now

Gonna Fly Now has been stuck in my head since Creed -- great movie. I love underdog stories and Creed executes the formula beautifully.

I like Creed so much that I went back to rewatch the first Rocky. Two minutes in and I realize that I've never actually seen it before. That's a testament to its enduring popularity. Its so deeply embedded in American culture that I had mistakenly believed that I'd seen it.

That's the thing about watching the trailblazers, its originality has been eroded by decades of imitation. The once innovative elements are well worn these days, but if there's one thing I can't deny, it's that Rocky got heart, man.

And that's what Creed does so well: preserve the core that made the series so memorable.

If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna fly now.