Draper VS Kent

Versus




Monday was Valentines Day, and while many got struck by Cupid's arrow, those of us who are first year students in CreComm got struck with the reality of having to choose a major by Friday at high noon.

For some, it was a no brainer. They just knew. Perhaps they knew the first day they walked in to the college, but for me and some others it was a little more complicated.

 I have never thought of myself as an indecisive person, when I see something or someone I want in my life, I go full hearted and headstrong, despite the obstacles.

In this case, all the obstacles were like seats in a game of musical chairs.
All seats look inviting but where was I going to run to, when the music stopped.

I felt like I had the world on my shoulders all week, as I treked uphill on Wishy Washy Road.

Thursday night I had it narrowed down to two..............

Should my career path emulate Donald Draper or Clark Kent?? 

Draper is hard hitting in a board room and longs for hard alcohol and easy women.

Kent is hard hitting in the world and longs for the girl he finds intoxicating; who he finds hard to get.


They both have identity crisis's.

 Draper is the agency hero and complex and Kent is complicated and has a hero complex.

I would have rather been wrestling with Hemingway than all the thoughts that punched against the walls of my mind this past week.

The music stopped.

With four chairs to run to, I remembered a quote I had heard two nights before:

"Good Journalism makes things happen"

It was at that moment, I felt like Atlas; the moment he shrugged.

 It allowed myself enough room to slip on my cape;  I have always been more the Clark Kent type anyway

  

Chasing after "THE" girl and trying to make the world a better place through example.

I headed for the journalism stool where I will sit perched in hopes to change the world or at least the way people see it.

I am a warrior and my pen will be mightier than my sword. (Well, my laptop actually)



With my nice guy personality and my hero complex, I am aiming to be a super man and hoping to be a good journalist.

And who knows.... maybe my Lois will one day, come around.

The first rule of Fight Blog is you must comment on Fight Blog.

If you are the all singing, all dancing crap of the world....What is your song?

You are the heart, you put into life.
You are the character you write for yourself.

You are not the course of your major, but the course in which you take yourself. 

Write Blog

I have always been hit hard by words, the way they can be manipulated and punch you in the soul as if the meaning behind them comes in the form of brass knuckles.

I love stories, life is a story, and like Shakespeare said the world is a stage, but maybe instead, it is a giant manuscript and rather than players on a stage, we are all characters in this great unwriiten novel as we try to scribe it as we go along.

Each of us a protagonist in our own story as we overcome our own adversity and strive for success and to find love and acceptance; which could be equivalent to our publication.

I myself, would love to be a great author as I throw down words that move people, gashing them open as they bleed emotional response. With a pen that is mightier than my fist
I'd like to create characters that someone can relate to and see themselves in.

This would be my world title belt, sitting in my own personal ring, in which consists of an eight foot fold out table, a stack of my creation, with a cup of good coffee and a line of people wanting me to sign their copy.

"Dude, you really spoke to me," he throws out.
"Where do you draw all that heartache from," asks she, as she slaps me with her earnest intensity.

This all sounds like a dream, well, one of many for me anyway... but how does one make the trek from pen to paper to publisher (fingertips to keyboard realistically althought it doesn't have that romanticized ring to it).

What if you don't have anyone in your corner, in your fight to become a published writer.

Well, no need to throw in the towel because you can always self promote.

There are different ways one can do this..... one of the perks, of living in this modern world.

One can incorporate it into an ongoing blog as in Seen Reading where Julie Wilson combines fact and fiction and has developed quite a following doing it.

I'm an old fashioned guy myself; I want to be shelved.

There are ways you can self publish, there are companies such as Trafford Publishing to name the first one that comes to mind, where you can pay them a set fee, and they walk you through the steps to self publish.

Social media can greatly be used to your advantage to bring awareness to the story you want to share with the world. Twitter and Blogging can help with creating the fanbase of the manuscript you have poured your soul into or like Wilson, your creativity doesn't have to come in book form.

We live in a digital world of blogging and ebooks and as much as I try to ignore it a lot of the more romantacized mediums may be dying.

Although that may be, if you have a dream to write or let your creativity shine, don't let that die, and don't go down swinging.

I am a man who dares and dreams....and in the midst of many, lies being published.

The writing world is much like the dating world, full of rejection and having doors slammed in your face, however, at least in the writing world, self publication is the rock waiting to be thrown through a window.


The first rule of Write Blog is you must comment on Write Blog.

One must first have a good dream to make a great reality!

You are not the rejection you recieve!

Packers Vs Steelers

You are not your Football team!

That is why football fans of Winnipeg will be happy and not Blue tomorrow as they root for the team that can either Pack a punch or Steel a hit.

Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers will be duking it out in the 2011 Superbowl.

With the Steelers having won six out of the seven Superbowls they have played in, fans are expecting a TKO by the end of the game.

Even if it is a slow moving fight for the win, I guarantee black eyes by half-time.

The Black Eyed Peas take the stage along with R&B high note Hitter Usher and infamous axeman Slash.

The arena this Fight will take place in is the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the first Superbowl to be held in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Lucky for fans that the Superbowl will be held indoors as many might not be tough enough to fight off the cold temperatures Dallas is currently experiencing.

Plus I'd hate to see Slash's leather pants crack while he gets frost bitten nipples.

As per usual you can also expect Advertisers not to pull any punches as they hit us with their best shot while slapping us with their top products.

I am not as much of a die hard football fan as many of my friends, and although I won't be Knocking back beers at a Superbowl party like many I'll be at work rooting for the Southpaw Underdogs.

While our hometown Blue usually ends up looking like Chumps in the final round....I predict  good ol Green will be looking like champs like in Superbowl 31 and have their moment in the sun (metaphorically of course, since it is an inside game) and have their arms raised in triumph.

I like both teams, but the romantic in me says root for the underdog so that's what I will do and hope that Green Bay will send Pittsburgh packing.

You are not your coach's plays!
You are not the ring you fight in!

You are not the game that beats you!

You are the heart of the game, that beats!

Ricky Gervais Vs The Golden Globes

When the Golden Globes aired this past Sunday Ricky Gervais came out swinging.

As much as people in Hollywood love to put out hits, it would appear that many of them can't take a punch, a punchline that is.
Gervais held nothing back as he threw out his best shots starting with a dig at Charlie Sheen right off the hop about his excessive drinking and the whole fiasco with the porn star. I mean really, Sheen's behaviour pretty much screams to get ribbed.
He continued on with shots at Ashton Kutcher's dad aka Bruce Willis who looked like he wanted to throw Gervais off the Nakatomi Plaza, Hans Gruber style when he came up to plug his movie Red.
Yippie Ki-yay British Joker!


I personally thought Gervais was right on point and for an out of shape British man I thought he did  a great job on taking on all the elephants in the room.

A lot of the crowd looked awkward and some really seemed to take the roast personally. I mean what were you expecting? I peronally am in Ricky's corner and don't think he did anything wrong.

Learn to take a joke Hollywood, even funny, former bad boy Robert Downey Jr seemed to have some thin skin at least in the defense of others. Next time he may have to wear his iron suit and be less sensitive.

All jokes aside there was some great triumphs that were even Fight Blog esque.

Christian Bale won for his best supporting role in The Fighter.

Robert Deniro was honored for his myriad of unforgettable roles....such as Jake Lamotta

And all good actors would get lost with out proper direction.
And the Golden Globe for best Director goes to......
David Fincher

Never take yourself too seriously!
You are not the elephant in the room!

Crimefighters go Green in 2011

Did Superman go to CreComm? Did he have a Professor V (Vogelsang)?
I mean he must have, in order to get Clark Kent's gig.
Vogelsang ( who although I think may be indebted to Peter Parker)  says we are all Supermen and women in training; thanks to CreComm, Superman can throw trucks and train cars at least 40 metres and apparently make some pretty tough deadlines to still keep his job while he juggles saving the world and wooing the girl.

While we are all getting great at being Super, no one did it quite as well as Christopher Reeve as  the convincing nice guy and force not to be reckoned with, as he stepped out on to the screen in 1978.

Over a span of 9 years audiences saw Superman become  more humanized through Reeve's portrayal.

This was the beginning of the growing trend in Comic book movies.

After Reeves donned the red cape for the last time in 1987, things went dark as we got to see things through the eyes of a bat in 1989.

After being played by three different  Hollywood leading men and going from black to whack.... a new letter donned the new millenium.

X became the new S!

 

 In 2000 a Mutant-ny began and since then we've seen a slew of webslingers

 A

Daredevil

War experiments gone bad....

Technology gone good....

So with this becoming one of the latest trends in movies these days every year we wait to see what next hero will emerge, and in 2011 Crimefighters go green....

 

Not quite...

Canadian boy Seth Rogan goes from fighting off the munchies in Pineapple Express to fighting off bad guys in the Green Hornet which is in theatres today. This movie got a half star review out of 4. Although I will still want to be the judge for myself,  I can expect that it is mostly gags and gadgets that make it mildly entertaining. This not-so dynamic duo has some big shoes to fill especially for Jay Chou who takes the role that once belonged to martial art legend  Bruce Lee.

Six months from now we can anticipate yet another Canadian Boy to bring green cheese to the screen.

Ryan Reynolds a boy from Van brings Wilder to his imagination as he wears the power ring and suits up as the Green Lantern.

                                                            

  Hornet                               Versus         Lantern 

                    

The Hornet has Kato with fists and feet of fury but Lantern has crime fighting skills wrapped around his finger.

After seeing both funny Canadian boys out of their comfort zone and literally in action I will do up a follow review as to what Canadian sell-out kicked more ass.

That's right sell out....two Maple Leaf Men playing American Heroes.....

What about this guy, eh?

I want you to tell me who is your hero???

One of the rules of Fight Blog is you must comment on Fight Blog

Putting on a mask and cape does not give you Super Powers.

You are not your fruity tights.

My Fights of the Week

Monday: Chadd VS Reality

Ding!  The bell rang on  December 10 th  as I fought to relax but like many I found myself on a working holiday. I danced around the ring as I fought to relax and avoid the uppercuts of responsibility. As I was just beginning to let down my guard and put up my feet. Reality sucker punched me to bring me back to it.
The next day would bring... ....

Tuesday: Out of our comfort zones and thrown into the rocky unfamilar, and new surroundings, you can yelp and howl about change all you want but it is best not to try and fight it.
Change is Chuck Norris!

It will knock you off your feet unless you stand your ground and embrace it.


Students Vs Bladder Control

Just as many of us thought we were fairing well in the fight against change, Bladder Control reared it's ugly head after a water main break at the school. 
Ding!
A win for for the Water Main and the students as school was called at a half day. The ones that needed a little more conditioning before embracing  change were relieved, while some were off to relieve themselves.

 Later that night.... the Under 17 World Hockey Championships Team Ontario fought the USA for a win.  




Whistles were blown sticks were raised, their were tears of pain and joy as Canada raised their cup in triumph!                                  





Wednesday: Fighting to get back into routine and.....

In term one messes were made that I need to clean up as I fight off anxiety and concern for what is on the horizon for term two. Holding myself back not to hit the panic button.

 Thursday:
Chadd Vs Bus driver
As the week began, I was about as sharp as a butter knife, not paying attention to all the small details, I thought I would get a jump on buying a bus pass on the Monday and went to Shoppers Drug Mart to do so. I showed my student card and and asked for one, little did I know that they sold me one for high school, perhaps it could be argued that my boyish charm might have made the cashier make such a mistake if one was not privy to the fact they do not sell them there, as I was not being primarily a self driven man, vehicular and otherwise.
I had to fight with the driver to let me stay on the after he called me on it. 

Chadd Vs The General Manager at SDM
Ding!
She threw the first punch. No refunds!
I jabbed back a few times with my wit and reasoning.
She threw in the towel, but I paid the price of an adult fare that is....

 I guess it's a better alternative than being out 

 PLUS.

 Friday:
Me Vs I Vs Myself

Like many I beat myself up more than any other as I fight through what challenges lie ahead I want to make sure that I'm not only dancing in the ring giving everything my best shot, but that me, myself is in my corner, being my own biggest fan.


We all must take pride and believe in ourselves while enjoying our up to date accomplishments.

 
You are not your anxieties!
You are not your past mediocrities!
 
 
 

Fighting Off Neverland

          


                                                                                

 From my movie collection, I just finished watching Finding Neverland the true story of how J.M. Barrie created the boy wouldn't grow up. It occurred to me how while Barrie once upon a time was finding it; since then, most of us fight it off.


For a minute take a moment and remember the days of pillow forts and tree houses and imaginary friends and by imaginary I mean imagination, the best friend of all.


We all had imagination as our best friend at some point no matter how brief. There was a time where we believed that the world had magic in it and that anything was possible. Then there is that point in life where we get our first kick, then another and another before you know it we are jaded.

Time may make us age where  eventually our tick-tock parts begin to sag and we grow weary.

But there is no need for it to make us grow up!
Age is just a number and what ever it may be it should not number out the spirit of hope, adventure and imagination in us.

It is sad as you look around and see that so many people have misplaced it but it is a tragedy when you see that kids have lost it.

In a world of innocence lost too soon, broken homes, dead beat parents in some cases technology or just the grim reaper of temptation knocking on the door of preteens, kids grow up too soon.

12 years is too soon to lose that and so is 62 we all need to hold on to our inner Pan. Develop the syndrome whether your a man or a woman and when life pulls you down, let your happy thoughts lift you up.

Many of us who strive for careers in the creative fields keep it alive more than others. The children authors, the writers, painters, poets, filmmakers who create those worlds to escape to.

J.M. Barrie is a perfect example of an adult who was able to revive his life and putting the spark back in by looking at the world through the eyes of children and in some cases inspiring children to look through those eyes as well.


He created and fought for Neverland.  He was the man in Pan.

When he first befriended the Davies boys; people spoke of how that it was inappropriate and wondered if there was something more perverse behind it.

He replied: "That is outrageous. How could anyone think such an evil thing, they are just innocent children".
 
In a world that has had so many terrible things happen over time, peoples views get skewed and jaded.

Those are the biggest fighters against Neverland that the aged can't still be kids at heart.

Which makes me think of  Michael Jackson a man very much like J.M Barrie who has had  interactions with children that also inspired his creative.

Michael Jackson never quite grew up and had his Neverland within reach. I think he is more than a Pan but more like the creator.

Interestingly enough...  J. M. / M.J.

Barrie the last name of the man who created a world where kids don't have to grow up too fast....

Barry the first name of  Barry Gordy; a man who signed the Jackson 5 and put M.J. on a fast tract to success and in some ways growing up too fast.

Don't fight off Neverland, fight for it, no matter what happens in your life that kicks you down, or scars you, don't let it jade you. Believe in fairies and that good things are possible, have hope and dreams and silliness.

Life goes by too quick to grow up so fast.

You are not your age!
                                                        
You are not your eaten time!







A rule of Fight Blog is; You must comment on Fight Blog.  

Tygra Vs Panthro

Versus

A fight between Tygra and Panthro was  a request from one of my fellow Chaddketeers who appreciates the Thundercats.

It also seems appropriate as first term in CreComm at Red River is coming to an end and posters of the Thundercats line the hallway advertising an End of the Term Party.
Although it  is a time to celebrate a break of the mind, and a time to relax and enjoy friends and family.
It is also a time and break from good connections made for many of us, as things get shaken up in the new year and term ahead.
Although I may seem like the kind of guy who loves change as I never keep one style for too long, this is a change I fear I am not sure I am ready to embrace.

It is true that there is strength in numbers as I have found my own strength through the number 3. I can only hope with the loss of such great supporting strength ahead, it will not showcase too much of my own weakness.

Like the the Thundercats lived and fought their fight on Third Earth, I have been fighting my good fight and living in "Three World" Section 3, that is, of the Creative Communications program at Red River. It has been hands down one of the greatest experiences of my life and I have the many talented people that have shared my journey with me to thank.

I am leaving my "Three World" and embarking on a new path. The one I will now journey through is that of "Two" For my friends who won't be fighting by my side next term I will surely miss, but now on to the "Mane" attraction  

A staunch, level-headed warrior, based on a tiger, Tygra is known as the ThunderCat architect and scientist. He is the one Lion-O often turns to as second-in-command and for counsel. He is responsible for the design of all of the ThunderCat structures on Third Earth — the Cat’s Lair and the Tower of Omens. He is also gifted with "mind-power" — the ability to create life-like illusions in other people's minds; He is armed with a large bolo whip. that he can use to make himself invisible.
Tygra is the strong silent type, he has integrity and is an old soul and a romantic at heart as he harbors romantic feelings for Cheetara.
His weakness is that he can not swim and he hangs on to what he went through as boy.
 ( I am very much like Tygra)

This physically strong and cunning warrior is based on a panther. Panthro is known as the Thundercat mechanic/engineer and pilot. he is the second most noble and helps to build all the Thundercat vehicles. He arms himself with his martial art skills and nunchucks and the spikes on his chest can be used as projectile weapons or rappeling lines.
Panthro is a jovial soul but is also quick to lose his temper. His greatest weakness is his fear of bats and dislike of spiders.

So while my fight is soon ending with some of the most talented, coolest cats I've had the pleasure to know.......

Section

You tell me................... who would win a fight between these two cats?

(Assuming they stay away from bat caves and swimming pools......)

One of the rules of Fight Blog is you must comment on Fight Blog

There is more to change than the coins in your pocket;
You are not your fears and weaknesses: