Movie: Soda Punch

Well, here's the film I've been working on since returning from my trip to PR. Don't know when I might get to film again, so I took my sweet time with this one.

Your Own Advice

For some strange reason, many of my friends have come to me for relationship advice. And it always confused me why they kept coming back to me for it, especially since I was still a novice when it came to relationships. And yet, the advice I always gave them seemed to work much to all of our amazement. So for years, I would give out relationship advice to all those who asked. Everyone felt like somehow, I was a love guru. Well, not quite.

During the fall of 2010, I was trying to recover from a nasty breakup. I had taken the whole burden for myself and didn't know how to get out of it. And that's when Ace noticed my problem. I had given out good advice for years, but ironically was unable to listen to my own advice. It's a bit ironic, really. And yet, he knew just how to get that advice to me.

He stopped me during a conversation and then gave me the same advice I had given him during his last breakup, and in the same exact words no less. I swear, sometimes you don't realize your knuckle headed friends are actually listening to you until they throw your own words right back at you.

This time around, it was Ace's turn to snap me out of it.

Bad Habits You Don't Notice

During my final semester of college, Ace came up to me regarding a particular observation he and Freddy (mutual friend of ours) did regarding one of my bad habits. However, he refused to tell me what the bad habit was. According to them, they would only tell me what it was once I figured it out. So of course, it drove me to a pit of self-analysis. And let me tell you, it wasn't the best one.

I quickly looked inside to try and find every quirky thing I did that others might consider odd (because of course, I'm a bit strange at times). I quickly went into my strange ticks or actions, from the itchy noses during allergy season, to the excessive blinking during constant stress.

And yet, Ace kept denying any of my guesses were right. I basically had to beg him to tell me what my bad habit was. He told me that I take something funny and just ram it to the ground due to my constant repetition of the joke.

I was, but too much of a good thing turned it sour.

And that's when I realized, I'm one of those guys! You know the one. The person who keeps using the same joke over and over until it basically outlives it's usefulness in about a week's time. You know those comedians that use the same joke in every act and then bore you? I was that guy, but when I saw something that made us laugh.

Suddenly, I wanted to try and forget every joke I still found funny. Take them to the toilet and flush them like that goldfish you forgot to feed when you were seven. So I had to dig deep to suddenly not become a joke killer. It actually hit me hard. Who knew I was butchering good jokes like that? At this pace, I could have opened up a store to sell the meat of the fresh jokes I had slaughtered (get it? Because it's meat...oh, never mind).

That's how my jokes were processed.

And after all that, I still find myself doing it from time to time. But this time, I know when to stop. That's right, I went through Humor Rehab. All the jokes, none of the excessive dosage.

Bathroom Shenanigans

Ever notice how suddenly, bathrooms just got a whole lot weirder? It suddenly turned into a photo studio for people trying to take their own pictures and a bunch of other random things. So I got thinking, why not show a little example?

Lucky for me, a small scene from my upcoming movie shows just how random it may be.

And here's a little picture of the movie's progress.

Procrastinating For My Procrastination

I don't know why, but I've been feeling a bit lazy since getting back (yet again). Perhaps it might be since I'm juggling the once again job search with the editing of my new movie (which should have been done by now).

Then again, it's only been a few days since I last posted something. I feel like I might be going one level deeper to my procrastination. I'm now procrastinating at procrastination itself! While trying to decide what to do, I've derailed and dozed off while trying to doze off about the very thing I was trying to do in the first place.

My brain just got dizzy trying to process two levels of procrastination!

It kinda feels like the movie Inception, but involving a lot more laziness and less sleep than one would think.

But I think that for now, I'm going to dig deep into my memory and find something my dysfunctional friends have done to maybe turn it into a story. Can't be too hard, considering most of my friends are total goofballs (but not as much as I am).

The Spanish Invasion VS The Island Underdogs

Yesterday was quite the day to be a football (soccer) fan, at least for me and my fellow puerto ricans. Why? Well, for those who don't know, the Spanish football team (I will eventually have to say soccer because someone is bound to get confused) was coming over to the island for an international friendly game. For them, it was just another game. For us, it was a David vs Goliath kind of confrontation. The reigning World and Euro champions were coming to our yard, and it was quite the big deal.

Let's invade again, but with soccer! Come now!

Last week, I got to see all the hype upon my travels back to the island. Clearly, this was an event I knew I was gonna miss because of my own lack of foresight. But no matter what, I was still determined to watch it somehow.

So flash forward to less than 12 hours ago, and I'm finally watching the game. I was excited to see the game, especially since it was my first time seeing our own national soccer team in action. Of course, we were going to be overwhelmed by the Spanish team. They are, after all, the world champions. It's like watching Space Jam all over again, but a lot less animated and with a different sport. That, and the fact that we lost anyways. But it was a 2-1 loss, so it wasn't so bad.

We still fought bravely!

And the fact that we scored a goal against them seemed to piss off a lot of Spaniards. It's like going to a fancy event and suddenly knocking over the ice sculpture that kinda looks like a swan. It's going to make a lot of people gasp, but some are going to think it was pretty cool. That's what our goal was like. We were all celebrating how cool it was, but a whole different crowd was gasping at the indecency.

Sure, this whole debacle has spiraled out of control. I mean, how else does news about a soccer game turn into two countries talking smack to each other for all the wrong reasons? I guess we managed to ruffle some feathers with today's game.

After The Trip

I don't know why, but something always just takes my energy levels down after coming back from a trip (without counting the obvious day flight). A day may have passed, but I'm still drained.

Sometimes we go on vacation to unwind, but sometimes we go just to discover something inside us. For me, I guess it was a bit of both. Well, and the obvious opportunity to film with some friends.

I will actually be putting out a new short here soon (instead of just reposting older films) after a long while of not filming. Feels good to be back in the editing seat.

So before I go, I might as well leave you all a picture from the editing process...you know, just to get that curiosity going.

Wake Up, It's Time For Motivation!

Going out for a few days, so I'm leaving this post ready beforehand.

Everyone's got that one friend who means well, but somehow does things in a strange way. No, I'm not the strange one in this story, but rather my buddy Pickle Jar (let's just stick with PJ). In the past, PJ has come to me and La Barba offering his wisdom when it came to meeting women. It's as if he was some sort of love guru. He just knew.

Pickle Jar was a love guru, and we didn't know how.

Thanks to his advice, I was able to get the guts to ask Linda out. But that's a funny story for another day. This time, the story was a bit different. In the midst of my slumber, I hear my phone starting to ring. I notice it's PJ calling for some reason. And right there, my first thought was "is he stoned again?"

Yeah, I forgot to note PJ has called me stoned before. However, he isn't a stoner. It's a bit strange, but he's not one of those guys who constantly smells like weed or anything. He just does it from time to time. And once he did call me, stoned off his mind, wondering if I could buy a ticket home so I could film a movie idea he had.

To this day, I had no clue what the movie was about nor did I ever hear about it again.

Back to the story. I pick up the phone instantly (very light sleeper) and realize he's not stoned. He's in full control of the conversation, and not just because I'm asleep. This time, he calls me to ask if I had "woken up" and found my path in life. My first thought, "why the *bleep* would you ask me at 4 in the morning if I've decided my life's path?" However, all I could say was...well, I don't remember. I wonder why. Oh yes, I was freaking asleep!

I almost did this before realizing it was a call.

Suddenly, he calls me a few hours later (once the sun has risen and the rooster has played his banjo) wondering if I had indeed "woken up." And so we somehow engaged in a conversation that somehow turned into a motivational speech. And once again, the self-help guru had stuck.

I don't know how he senses it, but he somehow knew I was down. However, why did his senses kick in at 4am? I'm still not sure about that. And no matter what, PJ continues to amaze me. It's like he's an unorthodox wizard with incredible knowledge. He just knows.

Welcome To Gotham City!

Ever since I moved to the Pittsburgh area (about 30 minutes away from the city), I knew things were going to be interesting. However, it wasn't until a friend reminded me that Pittsburgh was one of the cities they used to inspire Gotham that I realized how awesome it might be. And once I saw the latest Batman movie, I had realized that I definitely live near Gotham.

I began to spot different places I recognized as the movie went on, slowly anticipating other known places. And then it really hit. For a brief moment, the university I had selected to do my Master's Degree appeared for a brief moment (even though it was covered up by explosions and such). So many places I had previously been at, suddenly all getting blown up or wrecked.

This is actually the first time since Pirates of the Caribbean where I can tell they are in our backyard.

However, if I ever did live in New York, I would freak out from time to time given the constant destruction it faces in works of fiction. Then again, I would get to film Spider-Man doing his thing. Not so bad, I guess.

But for now, I guess I'm going to see how my experiences in Gotham City go about. I keep wondering if one day I will be sitting in class, only to look out the window and find Batman looking down on the city.

Dumpster Buddies

Somewhere between 1995 and 1996, a specific chain of events took place that wouldn't have a full reaction until later in 2008. This is one of those things I vaguely remember, but thanks to recent events, it's all become a bit clearer.

So what kind of events did start back in the 90's? Well, it's obvious that as a kid, I was bullied for basically being a strange kid. It's just the way of the playground, nothing unusual there. But in one particular day, I got tossed into the trash by some bulles. And it was at that moment, that my life was about to change.

"They got you too?" said another kid in my same situation.

"Yeah," I replied. "I hate these bullies."

"Then come with me. I know a place where they won't find us."

"Where?"

"The library"

It was a moment of pure genius. I had never thought of hiding in the library, and suddenly this kid comes into my dumpster (or did I stumble into his?) and finally offers a sanctuary. How could I pass it up? And so, I took the kid's offer and joined him at the library. And every day since then, we would just sit down and read comics during our recess. Not just that, we also had a third student seeking shelter, so we all became friends in a way.

Flash forward to 97, I had to change schools. While my best friend JC and I did indeed stay in touch, I did lose contact with my library companions. It was very unfortunate, because I would later block out most of the 90's from my memory.

2008 comes around and I've joined a new group of misfits. However, something felt a bit familiar about two of these friends. And once I hear the name of the school one of them came from, I started connecting the dots. The next day, we brought photos of our classes from 1996 to see if we could find each other. I quickly found them both, not even realizing that those kids I had picked out from the picture were standing right in front of me. And then it was their turn, I was found on the spot.

And just like that, I had reconnected with old friends. And what makes the chain of events epic, is that the kid in the dumpster turned out to be Ace, one of my best friends ever. So if it weren't for those bullies who shoved us in the same dumpster, chances are we wouldn't have had such a history.

It's also funny to tell others the story of how we met. Ace just puts it as simple as possible. "Easy," he says, "we both got shoved into a dumpster and found each other."

If that's not a precursor to a good bromance, then I don't know what is.

Somehow, I know I can relate.