Mary Jane is No Longer the Cool, Witty Girl

Believe it or not, there was a time in the nineties when Pauly Shore saying "hey buuuuddy" or "chilling with the wease" was actually funny. This was until everyone finally got sick of it and it lost its magic. There was also a time when Wayne's World and their mullets had taken the box office by storm until people had seen every angle to the humor and it too...lost it's magic. When people are ready to revisit these movies in twenty years, we will maybe have a few laughs once again. This is the way of the world, nothing last forever. If humor and interest didn't have an ebb and flow, Jerry Lewis movies would have their own 24 hour channel and our taste would never evolve. So my question is...when is the newness, hipness, or repetitive humor of smoking weed ever going to finally take a rest? When will it not be a mandatory scene in every film to have the main characters smoke weed with rap playing in the background (that makes it ironic) while talking about who the best Batman was or who was the hottest out of Betty and Wilma on the Flintstones?

Apatow - I'm afraid you have the most pull so it's got to start with you. I know that this is not an actor playing certain characters like an Austin Powers where you can just stop making Austin Powers movies when you see that people have had their fill. It's just scenes in otherwise mostly decent films, but many filmmakers are now making entire movies out of this subject with no heart or humor involved. They figure if they put someone smoking weed on the DVD cover with some reference to weed in the title that they'll have an instant hit. Sad thing is, the groupthink actually has taken hold enough for these films to do pretty well no matter how bad they are. Some filmmakers will continue to make movies about smoking weed and going for the cheap laughs, but maybe if the big names in the industry stop, then the Benson's of the world will eventually stop and then the "serious" docs will finally give it a rest for a while. I thought the scene from Transformers 2 (mom with pot brownies) would finally put an end to the madness but I guess some people still think it's hilarious.

I don't have enough interest in the subject of marijuana to watch any documentaries on the subject. I have no stance on whether it should be completely legal or not because I think that the verdict is still out on a lot of the issues that surround smoking pot in general. I do lean more toward the libertarian side of not caring what someone does in their own home as long as it's not hurting anyone else. Stoners, ALL that I'm asking is PLEASE stop flooding my Netflix Watch Instantly queue with movies about Marijuana. New Releases - Recently Added - Comedies - TV Shows - Documentaries - even Romance. There are documentaries and TV shows that try to take a serious look at its legalization (it seems like they are going to make a documentary for each state as they legalize it) and there is literally a ton of wasted time and money on stoner comedies. Growing up, we had Cheech and Chong - those movies had some humor but they weren't comedy gold that need to be imitated for generations.

People are so brainwashed into relating smoking pot with being hip and funny that all you have to do to have a mediocre stand up show in Anytown, California is stand there with your eyes half closed, a mike in your hand, and slowly say, "I smoke pot." You will get cheers and applause that will carry you through the rest of your lame show where you continue to beat on this same freaking drum until the next "cool" comedian comes on stage and talks about how much pot he smokes. You know, being that most people have enough on their plate besides caring if stoners will be able to smoke legally or not I don't see why this subject hasn't been dropped already. "Ebola, Isis and another story today from Denver about the rise in homelessness and its possible links with the growing use in marijuana." Here we go, more tax money to more people who can't hold down a job. Great, thanks mass media for making something so lame seem soooo hip.

I'm just done with it. Some marijuana users act like it's something that's actually healthy for them - because it's of the earth? Every drug is of the earth! Cocaine from the Cocoa plant, heroin from the poppy seed, nicotine from tobacco. Smoking marijuana is still bad for you no matter what kind of spin you put on it and there are side effects in all it's forms that effect different people in different ways - so saying it's completely safe is ridiculous. Maybe, and I'm not sure about this because it sure does seem to be abused, there isn't so much of an addictive quality to THC as there is with alchohol, tobacco , and other drugs. I'm no expert, but I'm sure the more people use the more we will find out , and I'm betting it won't be all sunshine and uncontrollable laughter while you still somehow manage to hold down your 6 figure job like they do in the movies.

What's the last Seth Rogen movie made where he wasn't smoking weed? And people still laugh every time! I stopped laughing when Wile E Coyote fell of that cliff, uuuh...probably the 5th time I saw it, and I was ten! What is going on? I can see some humor in it every now and then but it is NOT as COOL or FUNNY as these people think it is. Do it all you want but please stop using it for a cheap laugh because yeah, the 15 year olds in the theater might giggle but the rest of us (who aren't laughing loudly to be cool) have seen it all before and the charm has worn off. And if you're doing it so the stoners in the audience will laugh, they are already too busy laughing about the way their straw sounds in their cup so why even try?

True Detective's 10 Keys to Being Weird and Cool at the Same Time

I don't know much about the writer and creator of 'True Detective' Nic Pizzolatto but his writing has some hidden gems that show us a unique version of what a truly free thinker is made of. Rust Cohle claims to be a pessimist at the start of the series but there is a virtuous (almost stoic) streak that we see develop as time goes on. These aren't rules to live by, but it's a character that has captured the hearts and minds of many. Even though we can clearly see his flaws we still root for him. He's a man who's been to hell and back but has learned to cope in a way that makes 'Cool Hand Luke' look like Barney.

1. Stay calm and don't escalate the petty stuff. Sometimes the best reaction is no reaction. The agitated will feel dumb about it later.

2. Sleeping with someone just because you can is thoughtless and weak. When you go against the natural inclination of man to have sex without reservation, it causes a respect and mysteriousness that you wouldn't attain otherwise.

3. When it comes to protecting the weak, you don't always have to play by the "rules". 

4. Don't show your hand until you're done playing the game. 

5. Let bygones be bygones.

6. Surprise a bully.

7. Don't be afraid of having deep conversations. These are the only conversations people remember.

8. Know who you are. Accept your oddness.

9. Know when it's time to move on.

10. Accept the fact that you don't have it all figured out.

Dont be a Charlie X

For some reason I've been watching a lot of Star Trek lately. I've never been a Star Trek fan so I don't know why I'm getting into it now. Maybe it's because I've run out of stuff to watch on Netflix, being that a lot of it is crap. The shows I watch (House of Cards, The Fall) -  I can catch up on in a weekend and then there are shows like Arrow and Wilfred where I have to wait months for Netflix to add the new episodes. Well, all of the Star Trek series are finished so there is no catching up to do there, just watch at my own pace. I've even thought of checking out what the draw to Doctor Who is, but it looks like watching the Star Trek series by themselves could take years. 

I recently watched an episode of the original 1966 Star Trek called Charlie X. I have never in my life thought of William Shatner as cool until I watched this episode. If you have Netflix, just check out this one episode if you're at all curious. Those early episodes are like a science fiction version of Mad Men. 

In this episode, some transport ship dumps off this teenager named Charlie onto Captain Kirk and his crew on the Enterprise. They see that the Enterprise is going in the direction of some planet that apparently this Charlie kid's colony resides. They quickly leave the ship like they are afraid of the kid. Being older, corny sci-fi, you immediately know that the kid has something wrong with him and that he is going to be a threat to the crew in some way. It's really not a mystery, but more of a character study on teens, or what they thought of teens in the 1960's. 

I'm no Trekkie, so I'm not going to try to remember every detail and name, but the Doctor checks out this Charlie kid and everything seems good physically, even though they'd found him alone on this abandoned ship with only computers to talk to since he was three. There was some explanation of how he ate and learned to speak on the abandoned ship and then it immediately goes into Charlie seeing a woman for the first time. Like I said, it's sci-fi Mad Men. 

Charlie sees crew member Janice Rand and ask Captain Kirk, "Is this a girl?" So, he's never seen a woman and this sets up this odd sexual tension between Rand and Charlie for the rest of the episode. At one point Charlie slaps her on the butt and doesn't understand why she gets so upset. She tells him he needs to speak with the Captain and maybe he can explain it. Later, she tries to introduce him to a teenage girl his own age who he's rude to because she's not Rand, later turning the teenage girl into a lizard with his telekinetic power. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that not only is Charlie an angst filled teen with what seems like Aspergers, but he also has these telekinetic powers that can melt objects, turn people into animals or inanimate objects, or just plain wipe them from existence. 

Captain Kirk, in all his manliness, wants to teach this freak some lessons on being a human, man, boy (all of the above) but of course he's very fatherly and nice about it (at least at first). He takes him to some part of the Enterprise where they teach fighting. It's some kind of 60's judo that doesn't look too effective, but Charlie doesn't get the gist of it on the first try, so he throws a little temper tantrum and says he doesn't want to do it anymore. Kirk talks him into trying a few times and then throws Charlie to the ground. One of the trainers, sitting in the corner watching, starts to laugh. Well, Charlie doesn't understand this and yells "Don't laugh at me!" while he rolls his eyes up into his head. Anytime he does this eye thing, it's apparently the cue that something is about to go down, because all that's left of the trainer is his towel after that. Kirk takes it all in stride and walks over to this huge intercom on the wall and calls for security. He promises Charlie that they won't hurt him but when they get there Charlie freaks out again and makes their ray guns disappear. Later you learn he can also break legs with this strange power. Why he doesn't just come out and tell Captain Kirk that he didn't need to learn Hippy Judo in the first place is beyond me.

So, after Kirk sees the real Charlie and what he is capable of, it just goes downhill from there for the poor kid. Rand, the woman that he has this huge crush on, continues to tell him that he is too young, Spock beats him at some kind of 3D chess (which makes no sense) and after Spock leaves the room he melts the pieces with his mind. Charlie just becomes a spoiled brat tyrant. He can't take anymore rejection from Rand so he makes her disappear. He's walking down the hall and some people are laughing in a room off to the side, not at him, but I guess he thinks so, so he yells, "Stop laughing!" and one of the females comes around the corner wihout a face (just skin - no eyes, mouth, or nose). Where once the crew thought he was just a teenager dealing with typical teenage problems, their pity quickly changes to anger.

They try to restrain him, but they can't. He even takes over the helm and controls the Enterprise with his mind, which really pisses Captain Kirk off. This is when the Captain comes up with this ingenious plan that Charlie's mind can only control so much. So they turn on everything in the ship, Commodore 64's, Atari 2600 looking monitors, lava lamps - the whole works. Charlie can't take much more when this strange green cloud of justice comes and takes him away and makes everything on the Enterprise right again. I know there is a better synopses of this out there, but I really want to get to the psychology of Charlie. How would any teen act with these kind of telekinetic powers? It probably wouldn't be pretty. 

There are those of us (on this planet) that are so overly sensitive that we can kind of be like Charlie X. We immediately think that every snicker or polite denial by a female is this huge catastrophe that must be avenged. Of course, there are also some asses out there that could use a little more sensitivity but I'm not talking about them. Those are the kind of people that think they have it all figured out anyway and would never read some blog like this. 

Charlie doesn't like to learn new things. We see this early on when he's in Mad Men Judo class with Shatner. He gives up after not getting his fall right the very first time. It isn't because he didn't want to be there in the first place. He likes to try new things, but he wants to skip the learning part. It's because he thought, with his powers, he'd immediately be an expert. Well, none of us are immediately an expert at anything (especially in the real world). In fact, most things, even those things that we have some natural abilities in, take years to master. It would be nice to learn Kung Fu within minutes like Neo in The Matrix, but we're not there yet. Charlie had no patience for this. Being told that he didn't do something right the first time, and Captain Kirk throwing him to the ground in practice hurt his ego. Your ego is always tested when you get involved with something new. It's exciting to try new things, but most of us realize there is a learning curve. There will also be the teacher or mentor that has to take us down a notch, every now and then, to keep our ego in check. Sometimes it's for our own good. Charlie didn't understand the process so he gave up immediately and became mad at the Captain. The anger was a result of his fragile ego. The bigger your ego the more fragile it actually is. 

Charlie wants everyone to like him. Throughout the episode, Charlie ask crew members if they like him. Doctor McCoy tells him that this is typical of being a teenager early on, but he still seeks approval from everyone on the ship and becomes angry whenever he feels rejected. To be liked was a big deal for Charlie because he'd spent most of his life alone and (perhaps) wanted to fit in so that he wouldn't go back to feeling alone. The problem is, the harder we try, the more we tend to push others away. It's good to be liked, but it's good to be liked for being who you are without having to force it. When it comes natural, you usually draw the right people into your life. When you force it, you can draw people into your life that take advantage of your need for their approval, which they will hang over your head at every opportunity. 

Charlie is too eager with women. He doesn't know the Brad Pitt rule. He will keep approaching the wrong woman over and over, no matter how many times he's turned down, instead of moving on. He doesn't yet realize that even if he gets a date with the woman he thinks he wants the most, he will wind up miserable because she doesn't have the same feelings for him. He confuses attraction with love. You can't love someone that you don't really know. You can feel physically attracted to them, but until you know them and they want to let you in, it's just a one-sided crush. It's best to take your cue and exit. Wait for the right one - the woman that you're attracted to and want to get to know better who also has some of those same feelings towards you. Until then, your just chasing your tail.

Charlie doesn't like to be laughed at. Sometimes it's real, most of the time it's just joking with him, and sometimes it's laughter from afar that has nothing to do with him, but Charlie assumes the world revolves around him, so all laughter must be aimed at him. We all have these bad days when it seems like it's us against the world. When we have these days, a simple jest we would normally just blow off with a return quip of our own turns into us thinking that this evil person is just after us. We might even assume they don't like us and they're having fun at our expense. Most of the time this isn't the case. The people that go after others this way usually make sure you aren't around before doing this. Charlie assumes that everyone is laughing at him. Everything is a shot to his ego. His whole being seems to depend on what other people say or do. 

Charlie doesn't know how to control his emotions, especially anger. Someone that has telekinetic powers on top of being short-tempered is obviously a bad mix. Thank goodness that none of us have these powers, because we would probably use them. Maybe not as often and to the extremes that Charlie does, but I can see a lot of people ruining someone's day with a flat tire or some other mundane annoyance. Being that he had never experienced human contact before and didn't know any of the normal societal boundaries, Charlie loses in a sparring match - makes a guy disappear. Charlie loses at chess - melts the chess pieces. Charlie is introduced to a girl his age - turns her into a lizard because he's more interested in the woman that introduced her. People noticed that he was quick to anger and Spock, being the ultimate stoic, left the room after his chess match with Charlie quite puzzled at the over-the-top reaction. When people see that you don't have emotional stability, they have different reactions but none are good. Some have pity on you, some return the anger to give you a taste of your own medicine, and some simply keep away from you - not needing the drama in their lives. In this day and age, it's usually avoidance you'll see. Why invite the guy to lunch that's just going to give the waitress hell, or take everything that is said personally? 

So, in this one Star Trek episode from 1966 you can learn a lot about what not to do in a society but I think a good summary of everything that effected both Charlie and the crew of the Enterprise has to do with his sense of pride and an hypersensitivity. This sensitivity caused the majority of Charlie's problems. We've all been there. There are times when we become touchy about everything said or done that can even remotely pertain to us. There are days when we are just not in the mood for our boss to tell us what we are doing wrong. 

If you'll notice when you have these moments, you are usually down on yourself. Your inner thoughts will usually be out of whack, even thinking about times that you were put down in the past, where you let it slide, "but dammit, I'm not going to let it slide this time!" When we have these negative thoughts about the past or we're feeling worthless, we can be more sensitive to the things that are said by others. We may think that everyone is laughing at us - that we are a joke to certain people. And, sometimes we may be, but these are the ones we don't need in our lives anyway.  It takes pride to think that everything revolves around us. So, no matter how down on yourself and worthless you may be feeling, there is still some pride there. If there wasn't, then the opinions of others (good or bad) wouldn't effect you. If you are only feeling good when being praised by others and feeling bad at the smallest slight, then you're way too concerned with the opinions of people who probably think about you for 3 seconds a week. 

Charlie wasn't shy. Charlie was overly confident, thought that he deserved whatever his mind could conjure up, and quick to anger when his ego was threatened. When you start to feel like a Charlie, it's time to go inward and think about the real cause of the hurt. Contemplate what's going on in your head that's making everything a big deal. Then, if you need to address it outwardly in the physical world you can do so with a clear head and rationally.  

Riding out the Storm

Louis C.K. has hit upon something here that I think about from time to time, especially as I get older and technology gets more and more advanced. Here's a typical day for me - go to work, then go home and anesthetize myself with TV, food, beer, or video games. Sometimes it's all of the above.

It's so much easier to lay on the couch, watch True Detective and listen to Rust Cohle get existential about the problems of the world and fight with his personal demons than it is for me to do so. It's so much easier to immediately numb that knot in my stomach about some issue or generalized anxiety with a plate of nachos or a bowl of ice cream even though I've already eaten supper. It's so much easier to grab a beer when someone is coming over than it is to be present and social without liquid courage. It's so much easier to upload Kelly Slater's face on Madden 25 as the quarterback of the Jacksonville Jaguars and pretend I'm not me for a while. For a few hours I'm a quarterback fresh out of college who has to bring a team out of despair to the heights of a new football dynasty. Even imagining as I play the game what this fictional quarterback (who's had many names) will be saying in a press conference after the game - "Yeah, we are making advances, one game at a time. This might surprise you but I think we will be in the playoffs." Of course, I've got it set to where I can easily make it to the playoffs. I don't trust myself with a game like WOW. I've heard so much about people losing themselves in this game that I won't even try it.

What does happen on the rare occasion when I don't use something outside of myself for comfort, some idol? Do I lose my mind and have to be committed? No. I make it through and from past experience the next evening it's a little easier, and then the next night a little easier. The mind adapts somehow. It fights the negative thoughts and worries off with more positive ones. Instead of laying in bed at night watching another episode of The Killing I will break out the Kindle and read some Marcus Aurelius or Tim Keller and fall asleep a little quicker. I wake up and start my day just like I would have if I had numbed myself with food, drink, and entertainment the evening before. I'm going to wake up with a little anxiety anyway so why get fat and boring to control something that cannot be controlled unless it's faced. Do I really want my wife and kids to remember the dad who had a Coors Light beside him while he played video games or the dad that was talking with them about the latest book they read?

Like the video, these uncomfortable feelings don't last forever. They go away just like everything else. None of us live forever but we act like it when we waste our time with things that have no benefit to our intellect or soul. As I get more into the philosophers I find that talking about our mortality isn't such a morbid subject but one that motivates us to live in the present, good or bad. There is a lesson to be learned somewhere in those uncomfortable feelings. Something that isn't quite right that must be sorted out, but we can't sort it out until we face it. Deep down we all know these truths but sometimes we have to be reminded before we create an addiction or problem that is much greater than the feelings we were trying to avoid. Tonight I will pay close attention to those urges to numb myself and see if I can ride out this small storm for a change. No storm last forever, the sun always comes back out.