A Night to Remember

   This year's Oscars, despite serious technical issues with sound quality, I must say were truly moving. I'm excited to see so many prominent actors and directors and producers using their time to make important statements. Graham Moore (Imitation Game) especially hit home for me. "Stay weird, stay different." Excellent advice.
   One of the greatest surprises, however, was Lady Gaga's tribute to Julie Andrews and The Sound of Music. It's easy to forget what a marvelous voice that woman actually has, as it tends to get buried under layers upon layers of autotune, and I must say that it's a damn shame. She is a truly incredible talented and marvelous woman and I wish she would do more things similar to what she did tonight.
   I would also like to extend my most sincere congratulations to Eddie Redmayne for his absolutely incredible performance in The Theory of Everything which earned him Best Actor. It was well deserved. Truly a marvelous movie, and if you have yet to see it, then I cannot recommend it enough. A truly marvelous performance in a truly excellent film. I went out and bought it just a few days after it became available for purchase. First movie I've physically purchased in years, and worth every penny. Also congratulations to Julianne Moore for her winning Best Actress (unfortunately I did not get to see Wild so I have significantly less to say about it).
   Another highlight of the show was Neil Patrick Harris' Oscar Predictions, which he made a big show of at the start and revealed just before the Best Picture award. Surprisingly, they were quite accurate, including John Travolta's excessive touching of Idina Menzel. An all around entertaining bit, well worth the setup.
   Birdman had the honor of taking home Best Picture, certainly a well deserved award.Well done to the cast, and congratulations to all of you.
   All in all, a night of music, incredible speeches, and amazing cinema. I never get tired of the Oscars. Always a pleasure to stay up to watch.

Winds of Change

   Anymore I find myself wondering just how much life will change in college. I suppose I don't so much mean life as I do the relationships I've made these past twelve years. 

   Time was, you went off to college, saw your college buddies on breaks, and sort of drifted apart from pretty much all of them with few exceptions. But now, with Facebook, Skype, and the gaming community in general, I can't help but wonder what it will be like. I like to think I'll still, if not see them, interact with them fairly frequently. Everyone involved in Nerds Under Fire I'll have to, so there's that.

   And then there's relationships. The big one. This is the one that scares me. Going off to a college where you won't see your SO for days, weeks. It makes me wonder how people hold up with that kind of thing. The old trope is that long distance doesn't work, but like I said, times are a-changing. But how much? Is long distance viable, or are we just lying to ourselves? Time will tell, I suppose. Tropes won't stop me from trying.

   Wow, this kind of bummed me out. But I guess you get days like that. All well. On the bright side, my grades are up, the new 3DS is out, and I'm back to playing the violin all the time. I even got voted Most Musical by my graduating class along with a close friend of mine, so that's pretty cool. 

   I'm looking forward to a relaxing week off. I'll definitely try to get out as much as I can, though. Lately I can't stand staying home and doing nothing. I get antsy. It's actually a nice feeling, I feel like I'm becoming a little less reclusive, especially since I started building up this blog and NuF. I've been meeting new people, both on and offline, and I can almost hold a conversation with someone! Haha.

   Well, anyway. I think that about does it for me. See you all later.

~Joe

Learning

   So over the past couple of months I've learned a few things.
   First, I've learned that if you do something that you love, getting material things out of it really doesn't matter.
   Second, I've learned that hard work pays off. Similarly, slacking does the opposite. The longer you slack, the harder you'll have to work just to catch up.
   And finally, I've learned something about this blog. Schedules don't work. My life barely even works around a schedule. How can I expect the way in which I record it to work around that schedule?
   So I'm coming back. This blog is a really nice way for me to record my thoughts. I like having a place to sit down, unwind, and write a little bit. It's a bit like a journal, but with the sensation that someone out there is watching.
   Now, I'm not saying that it's all about page hits, far from it. What I'm saying is that the idea that someone out there could even visit this page once and just glance over a post is...therapeutic.
   Oh, damn. I got distracted and accidentally started Ancient Aliens on Netflix. What a dumb show. Now my suggestions are going to be 50 shades of dicked up.
   That's right, I'm still using that phrase, and if you're going to read this blog, you better damn well get used to it.
   Anyway, this has been nice, but I've got stuff to do. It's crazy to think Nerds Under Fire launched just over a year ago and it's already starting to take off in a really cool way. Just a little thought dump. I'll be back later. Buh-bye.

Joe F.