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Monday, June 06, 2011

Monday Matinee: Finding Nemo


Hello, my blog friends!

It's Monday, and you know what that means.  It's time to take a look at another detailed analysis on a random movie, and in that analysis, I hope to learn more about myself in the process.

I am definitely no Gene Siskel or Roger Ebert here, but I do have experience in reviewing movies.  When I wrote for my college newspaper ten years ago, I had to go to several movies and give a detailed review on them.  Many of them were forgettable, but there were a couple that I really enjoyed, and maybe you'll see some of them in a future featured blog entry.

For now though, I think that it's time that we take a trip back to the year 2003.

It was a year in which a lot happened.  America went to war, the SARS outbreak caused worldwide panic, and one of the largest blackouts was recorded in North America.

(I should know...I survived the great blackout of '03.)

But that was the bad news.  There was plenty of good news.

Remember the movie Finding Nemo?  It was released on May 30, 2003, and raked in over seventy million dollars its first opening weekend, setting a record until it was beaten by Shrek 2 one year later.  I'd say that's a pretty impressive feat.

It also happens to be one of my all-time favourite animated feature films of all time.

Well, okay...computer-animated film if you want to get really technical.

The movie was absolutely fantastic, and it teaches a great lesson at the end.

If you've seen the movie, the gist of the story is that Nemo is a clownfish who happens to be the only son of Marlin.  Early in the story, Marlin's wife and most of his children were eaten by a barracuda, and Nemo was the only surviving fish.  During the attack, Nemo's egg case was slightly damaged, and it left Nemo with one fin being smaller than the other one.  As a result, Marlin was incredibly overprotective of his son to the point where it almost became smothering.

On Nemo's first day of school, he is told by Marlin not to venture away from the reef, but when he is dared by his classmates to touch the bottom of a boat (or butt as they pronounce it), Nemo is abducted by a scuba diver, much to Marlin's horror.


While Nemo ends up in an aquarium in a dentist's office in Sydney, Australia, Marlin tries desperately to look for him.  Along the way, he literally crashes into Dory, who while very nice could be a bit loopy.  Part of that could be because she had a horrible short-term memory.  Nevertheless, Marlin knew he needed Dory's help to find Nemo, so he recruited her for assistance. 

The little picture above shows the first sea creature that Marlin and Dory encountered.  A shark!  A vegetarian shark, mind you, but a shark nonetheless. 



It's funny how fate can work, isn't it?  Had Marlin and Dory not met the sharks, Marlin wouldn't have seen a vital clue that would help him get to his son.  As it turned out, the clue was a scuba mask that had the address of the dentist's office that Nemo was being kept in, and once Dory remembered that she knew how to read, they had some idea of where to go.  The road was not an easy one, as they had gotten into a fight with an anglerfish, almost died in a sea of jellyfish, and hitching a ride on a sea turtle named crush in the East Australian Current.  It all culminated by Marlin and Dory accidentally getting swallowed by a whale.  Luckily, Dory remembered that she could speak whale, and ended up getting out as a result of it.

Before I continue on with the plot, I'm going to interrupt this for a second.

Right off the bat, I can definitely see myself in this movie.  It's so obviously clear to me.

Nemo's life as a child?  Yeah.  I lived it.

Granted, I am not an only child, nor did most of my family get eaten by a barracuda (though it would definitely make for an entertaining story if they did), but I wasn't really given as much...freedom...as I felt that I should.  My mother is someone who I really do love, but she could be smothering at times, just like Marlin was with Nemo.  I'm not exactly sure why that was.  Maybe it was because I was the baby of the family.  My siblings were nine and fifteen years old when I was born, so after age eleven, I was pretty much the only kid left in the house.  Maybe it was because I was picked on a lot as a kid, and she saw it as her duty to protect me from them at all costs, even though sometimes she went a little overboard.

Even at age 30, I sometimes feel that I'm not taken seriously.  Sometimes I feel like my loved ones still see me as a timid little kid, even though I'm over six feet tall.  It frustrates me to no end some days, but I've learned how to grin and bear it over the years.

What surprises me is how much I happen to be a lot like Dory.

It does makes sense to me though.  Dory is the type of fish that can always see the best in a situation, even if she does look at things in a childlike manner.  Here's a few examples of Dory's zest for life.


Dory also had a problem with having short-term memory loss.  That's also a problem that I have.

Oh, that's right.  Dory also had a problem with short-term memory loss.

(Yeah, you kinda knew where I was going with that, didn't you?)

It's the truth.  I have no problem recollecting events from five, ten, even twenty years ago.  Most people don't even remember what they were doing on May 24, 1995, but I remember being in Toronto on my eighth grade graduation trip.  Kind of freaky, no?

Now, you hand me the remote control for a television set and I'll put it somewhere, and then ten minutes later, I forget what I did with it.  Recently, I ended up losing my cell phone and it took me six hours before I even remembered where I could find it.



Word of warning to all.  Whenever I lose something, it's not pretty.  If you take the chart that shows the level of terror in the world, I can range anywhere from blue to orange when I am searching for it.  I'm trying to get it down to around a yellow though, so I am doing a bit of improvement in that regard.  Such as it is.

That's just a minor foible though.  Sure, my short-term memory is more or less useless in most cases, but it doesn't define me as a person.  It certainly didn't define Dory as a fish.  Once Dory remembered that she had skills that were useful in helping her and Marlin find Nemo, it turned out that Dory was the perfect ally to have.  She could read.  She could speak whale.  She was always in a positive mood.  She was Dory.  And, everyone seemed to love her.  The sharks, the sea turtle, even Marlin grew to like having her around.

That's what mattered.

Back to the movie now.


While Marlin and Dory were trying to head to Sydney, Australia to rescue Nemo, Nemo was befriending the sea creatures that happened to be in the aquarium with him.  They dubbed themselves the 'Tank Gang'.  There was Bloat the pufferfish and Deb (and her sister Flo which was really Deb's reflection) the damselfish.  There was Bubbles the Yellow Tang and Gurgle the Royal Gamma.  There was Peach the starfish and Jacques the shrimp.

The boss of the gang was one Gill.  A black and white moorish idol who had a really tough personality, Nemo was at first intimidated by his gruffness and his scarred face, but eventually Gill admires Nemo's bravery when he tries to stop the filter of the tank so they could escape.  It is later revealled that Nemo was caught by the dentist to give to his niece...a girl known for unintentionally killing every pet fish she has ever owned, and the 'Tank Gang' did everything they could to save Nemo from that fate.

I thought it was awesome that they went out of their way to help Nemo out even though Nemo himself was a little uneasy of the group.  Peach and Deb/Flo were very kind towards Nemo, and Gill, Bloat, Bubbles, and the others held a ceremony where they rechristened Nemo as 'Sharkbait'.



I still love that scene.  Firstly, even though it's been eight years, it's still fun to watch.  But, secondly, it just goes to show that Nemo could make friends and be a part of a group in no time.  And he did it without being under the watchful eye of his overprotective father. 

See?  Nemo CAN do things on his own.

Was he afraid to go through that ceremony?  At first, he was.  But as you've seen, it wasn't nearly as bad as he thought it was.  Had Marlin been there, you know that he wouldn't have even gotten past the part of the maze where Peach was!  Nemo showed lots of inner strength and courage though, and because he did, he ended up having a new group of friends.

It's also to the credit of the 'Tank Gang' to bring Nemo into their inner circle.  For most of them, having a new fish around, they sort of felt a little insecure.  What if they didn't like them?  What if they didn't like him?  Once they all got to know him, they thought Nemo  Sharkbait was cool enough for him to become one of them.  It really was great to see.

I guess I sort of identify with this whole aquarium plotline because I know what it's like to be in a new place with new people.  When I was a rez student, I felt the same way as Nemo did.  Having a tumultuous school existence, I was worried that I would have a rough go of it.  My roommate was a great guy though, and I had a core group of friends there who really had my back.

I only wish I hadn't lost contact with them all, because I would love to catch up with them.  In fact...

If any of you were at Carleton University in the year 2000/2001, and you lived on the fourth floor of Stormont House, come find me.  I lived in room 457!

That's really all I have to say about Finding Nemo.  I don't want to spoil the ending for anyone who hasn't seen the movie, but all you need to know is that it was made by Disney/Pixar.  And, I don't remember any Disney movie where everyone dies at the end, so that should give you an idea of what the ending is.

The point that I think the movie is trying to make is this.  DON'T GIVE UP!

Marlin never gave up looking for his son, and ended up having an adventure along the way.  Nemo never gave up on wanting more freedom, and ended up making a slew of new friends.  Dory never gave up her positive attitude, and it ended up benefitting the search...even if her memory wasn't all that great.

I think Dory said it best in a few simple words.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming...


"I shall call him Squishy, and he shall be mine, and he shall be my Squishy!"

Sunday, June 05, 2011

Sunday Morning Funnies - U.S. Acres

Okay, okay...now you all must think that I have lost my marbles by making this rather unusual choice.

Matthew, you say.  Today is Sunday!  This is the day that you are supposed to feature a character from a comic strip, or a comic strip itself, or a comic book.

Yes.  Yes, today is Sunday.  And, yes, I am featuring a comic strip in this edition.

But Matthew, I hear you call out.  U.S. Acres is a cartoon that aired on Saturday mornings!  We forgave you for talking about Saved By The Bell on Saturday, but where is the logic behind featuring U.S. Acres as the featured Sunday blog entry? 

Yes.  I'll admit it.  All of that is entirely true.


It's true that U.S. Acres (or Orson's Farm as it was known outside of the United States) did air as a cartoon.  It was a part of the successful Saturday morning cartoon series "Garfield And Friends", which ran from 1988 to 1995.  In fact, U.S. Acres was sandwiched in between two Garfield cartoons, like the white sugary cream found in the middle of an Oreo cookie.

But (and this is where it will all make sense), did you also know that U.S. Acres started off as a comic strip back in the mid-1980's?

Here's the proof.



Mind you, the characters in this comic strip were slightly more crudely drawn than they were in the Garfield and Friends cartoon series.  It was still a comic strip.

Jim Davis had created Garfield back in 1978, and had a lot of success with it.  Hoping that lightning would strike twice, he created the serial "U.S. Acres" in the spring of 1986.  It took place on a farm, and had a whole bunch of different farm animals as guests.  In fact, just because some of you might not remember U.S. Acres at all, here's a little introductory clip from the Garfield and Friends show.



Hopefully that clip might have jogged your memory a little bit.  Then again, it might not.  Either way, there is a method to my madness.



The bottom line is that U.S. Acres trudged along, and was successful enough to have comic book collections and plush animals associated with the comic.  Unfortunately, it didn't prove to have the same winning formula that the Garfield strip had, and the comic was pulled in May of 1989.  The cartoon series still ran though, and as recently as 2010, some websites have begun re-posting the old U.S. Acres comic strips so that a new generation of people can enjoy them.

That's your history lesson for today.

Now that I have the confusion cleared up and proved to all of you that U.S. Acres was a Sunday comic strip, I suppose the next question you have for me is 'Matthew, why did you choose to base your blog on a comic strip that was cancelled 22 years ago that hardly anyone even remembers?'

That's one reason right off the bat.  I want people to remember it.  A lot of kids who watched Garfield and Friends only watched the Garfield cartoons and skipped the U.S. Acres ones, but not me.  I liked it. 

And do you want to know why I liked it so much?

Because I can find a quality in each of the characters that I possess.

U.S. Acres is basically all of my character traits split up into several different farm animals. 

Let's start off with Sheldon, for instance.

Sheldon is supposed to be a newly-hatched chick.  As you can see, he didn't quite make it all the way.  But does that bother him at all?  Not in the slightest.  See, Sheldon was perfectly content to stay in his shell.  He liked it in there.  Astonishingly enough, the comic strip made it out that Sheldon's shell was almost the equivalent of a spacious New York City penthouse, where he could put anything he wanted inside there, which physically speaking was an impossibility.  Nevertheless, Sheldon was in no rush to hatch.  The one occurance in which he did hatch, it was revealled that there was another shell underneath the outer shell!

Still, Sheldon's shell never really got in the way of him living his life.  He got along well with his brother, Booker, and the other animals on the farm.  He was comfortable in his own shell, and he wanted to be the one to make his own mind up as to when he wanted to come out of it.

I'll admit it.  It took me a really long time for me to come out of my shell, so to speak.  Like Sheldon, it took me a while to break out of it.  But in the end, only I was the one who could make that decision.  Of course, unlike Sheldon, I didn't have a back-up shell!

 Or, how about Sheldon's brother, Booker?  Booker was pretty much the opposite of Sheldon.  Whereas Sheldon preferred to hang back in his cozy shell, Booker was more than ready to bust out into the world.  Booker was more of an adventurous type, and his impulsiveness often lead him into trouble.  He'd be so excited about catching worms that he'd accidentally set off his own trap!

I'll admit it.  When I was really young, I was a bit adventurous as well.  I still remember the one time that I was exploring the garden at my grandmother's house and I wasn't really being careful where I was walking because I was so determined to scope out every leaf and flower in that garden.  Ended up kicking over a beehive and nearly getting stung by a whole bunch of bees.  That was definitely a Booker-type mistake.

Roy the rooster was probably the character that I liked the least.  He was incredibly self-centered and got off playing practical jokes on the other animals.  If there were people in this world that I don't really get along with, it would be people like Roy.  I'm not saying that I don't like practical jokes.  I just don't like the mean-spiritedness Roy seems to exhibit.

I do have to admit that the one character trait I exhibit from Roy is his boisterous loud voice.  As a rooster, he has to wake up all the other animals on the farm, so being loud is a quality that would definitely be an asset.  I have been told by lots of people that my voice can be loud and that it carries well.  If ever I decide to take on a career as a motivational speaker, I'd be perfect!

  Then there's Wade, one of Roy's favourite targets.  Wade was a duck that hated water (hence the little floatie he's wearing which eerily has the same facial expression as he does).  He honestly hated everything.  He was afraid of almost everything out there in the world.  His irrational fears often caused a lot of havoc on the farm, and naturally, Roy used Wade's fears to cruelly taunt him.

I'll admit this right here.  Like Wade, I suffered from irrational fears as well.  One of them happened to be loud noises.  I couldn't stand fireworks, firecrackers, even a balloon popping freaked me out.  And, naturally, the meaner kids in my school brought balloons to school to terrorize me during recess.

(Yeah, I went to a school that was FILLED with Roy Roosters.)

For the record, I'm a lot better at dealing with this irrational fear.  I can watch fireworks displays, but I can't bring myself to pop a balloon.  It's about 50/50 in that regard.

Perhaps if I had someone like Lanolin by my side, I would have fared better.  Lanolin was the type of gal who was incredibly outspoken.  She was so loud that she could even take Roy Rooster down a peg or two.  She was also an incredibly hard-worker.

It wasn't really until I hit adulthood that I became to access my inner-Lanolin.  No, I never put a bright blue bow in my hair.  I do have some rather strong opinions that I am not afraid to defend though.  Like Lanolin, I take work very seriously.

Lanolin's twin brother Bo is the polar opposite.  Whereas Lanolin is a hard-worker, Bo is somewhat on the nonchalant side.  Where Lanolin can come across as a shrieking ewe, Bo is as cool as a cucumber.  Lanolin is often the brains of the operation in some aspects, whereas Bo...isn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

However, Bo's one trait that I can say that I am as well is the fact that he has shown himself to be a dependable person.  People would rather talk to Bo about their problems than Lanolin because Bo will actually listen.  He may not have the best solution for how to fix it, but at least he would listen.

I may not know how to fix a problem myself, but I will promise to at least listen.

It's now that we finally come to the main character of this crew.

Orson the pig is more of the bookish type.  He likes to read a lot, and this trait has made him the de facto leader in U.S. Acres.  I learned how to read at an early age and would walk to the public library and check out lots of books every week.  It's actually a practice that I should take up again, as I now realize that it has been nine years since I last used my library card.

He's also the type of personality that hates conflict.  I'm the type of personality who hates conflict.

Orson was the runt of the litter in his family.  I'll admit that sometimes in my family, I feel as though my opinions are not heard.  Of course, the plus is that my family never abandoned me, so that's a plus.

How about that?  I managed to take seven distinct personalities and managed to find something about them all that match up with me.  In six of the seven, I even managed to find positive qualities about myself.  The only one that I struggled with in that regard was with Wade, and that's only because I have a hard time breaking out of my comfort zone at times because of my fear.

Kind of like Sheldon!

Wow...I'm better at this than I thought.  :D

Saturday, June 04, 2011

Saturday Morning: Mr. Belding from Saved By The Bell


I know what you're saying.  I know that the theme for Saturdays are supposed to be dedicated towards Saturday morning cartoons, and Saved By The Bell isn't exactly a cartoon. 

Don't worry...I have lots of cartoon characters that I have to choose from yet.  I only started this blog about ten days ago, so believe me, I haven't reached writer's block yet.  I'll likely feature a cartoon next week.

There's actually a couple of reasons why I wanted to devote this blog entry to a character from Saved By The Bell. 

Firstly, although it doesn't quite fit the whole idea of being a cartoon, per se, it did air on Saturday mornings.  Several Saturday mornings to be precise.  The original series ran on NBC from 1989-1993.  On September 11, 1993, a new version called Saved By The Bell: The New Class premiered and ran until the year 2000.  So, for a little under twelve years, Saved By The Bell had a home on Saturday mornings (and that's not counting the Good Morning Miss Bliss and College Years episodes).  Therefore, I think it's earned its spot here for today's entry.

And secondly, the character I've chosen is one who has seen it all.  He is the only cast member to appear in every season of both the original Saved By The Bell and the New Class versions.  He's also a character that was much loved in both versions, and in all honesty, I kind of wish I was more like him.

No...I am not talking about Screech.


I'm talking about Bayside High principal, Mr. Richard Belding.

If one were to describe Mr. Belding in one word, what do you suppose your answers would be?  Some might say lame.  Others may describe him as flightly.  Possibly even stupid.

When I first started watching Saved By The Bell, I admit that my opinion of Mr. Belding was very different than the opinion that I have of him today.  Back then, I admit to being one of those guys who wondered how someone like Mr. Belding could have EVER become a principal of a high school.

Growing up in small-town Canada, and just trying to compare Mr. Belding with some of the principals and authority figures that I dealt with in school, there really is no comparison.  Any of the school principals that I remember having really never had much of a sense of humour.  In fact, the only time I as a student ever really saw a principal was maybe if they were walking through the hallways of the school in between classes.  To me they were these grey suit (seriously, almost every principal I ever had wore grey suits) wearing, stern-looking men that rarely spoke unless they called you to the office.  They rarely smiled, they rarely cracked a joke...I don't think I even remember hearing one so much as laugh.

Mr. Belding on the other hand had his own...unique laugh.



Am I right in thinking that you probably got annoyed after the first twenty seconds of all that laughter that you shut the video off after a while?  It's okay if you want to admit it.  I did the same thing the first time I watched this video too.

Anybody who has watched the show knows that Mr. Belding's laugh is one-of-a-kind, and definitely noticeable.  Anyone who has watched the show also knows that three-quarters of the time when he does laugh, it's at something that really isn't funny at all.

A lot of the times, he laughs as he tells a funny story about his family, or when he tells a joke that most people would see as unfunny.  At least he tried to open up to his students, no matter how lame his jokes might have been.  Do you know how much I would have loved to have a school principal walk down the hallway and tell funny (or unfunny) jokes like Mr. Belding did?

I wasn't the kind of kid who used to be afraid of the principal.  Never really needed to, as I wasn't the kind of kid who caused the kind of trouble to have to be sent to the office in the first place.  Granted, I was reprimanded for talking in class, and was sent out into the hallway for bad behaviour a couple of times, but that's really as far as it went.  Truth be told, that's just one of the many reasons why I would have loved to have a Mr. Belding in my school.

Of course, that's not to say that Mr. Belding was in a jovial mood all the time.  In fact, sometimes, his excellent mood could be spoiled faster than milk left out on a kitchen counter overnight.  More often than not, it was caused by the students.  Certainly Screech and Slater caused Mr. Belding his fair share of grey hairs.  On the New Class, Scott, Ryan, Maria, and others had Mr. Belding constantly watching over them.  There was one student though that made Mr. Belding's blood pressure rise above normal.  That made his stress levels skyrocket.  That made him absolutely convinced that whenever he was around, trouble would always follow.


Enter Zack Morris.  The bane of Mr. Belding's existence at Bayside High.

Whenever Zack had a zany scheme, it always made Mr. Belding mad.  And Zack did some rather crazy things in his four years at Bayside.  He set up a teen line with Lisa and Screech and gave bad advice so he could get more money.  He hired an actor to impersonate his father when Mr. Belding wanted to discuss Zack's conduct in school.  When Mr. Belding forced him to date his niece in exchange for getting a suspension from school, he forced Screech to pose as him so he could be Kelly's date for her birthday party.

No wonder Mr. Belding seemed to have a love/hate relationship with Zack.

Ah, but therein lies the conflict of feelings.  Notice how I said that the relationship between Mr. Belding and Zack was love/hate.  That's because when Zack wasn't scheming to get out of trouble with Mr. Belding, he was scheming to try and help Mr. Belding out.

Remember the episode where an earthquake hit, and trapped Zack in the elevator with Mrs. Belding and Tori, his 'flavour of the month'?  In that episode, Mrs. Belding was heavily pregnant and the earthquake caused her to go into premature labour.  Zack and Tori were forced to deliver the baby inside the elevator while Mr. Belding and the rest of the gang were outside hoping that everything was okay.  Zack had to calm Tori down, but he stayed cool and helped deliver Mr. and Mrs. Belding's baby boy.  A boy that Mr. Belding named after Zack Morris.

So clearly there's some feelings of respect between Zack and Mr. Belding.

Would you also believe that the opposite was true as well? 

When the Bayside High hangout The Max was threatened with being torn down by the school board, Zack tried to get Mr. Belding to help them save it, but when Mr. Belding refused to help them, Zack did a little digging up and, well...this scene below took place. (3:04)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qX98jT76Rs&feature=related

I think what I liked best about the Zack and Mr. Belding relationship was the fact that they brought out the best in each other, and both of them really developed a firm friendship in the process by the time they graduated.

I'm not exactly saying that I wanted a relationship like that with my school principal, but it would have been nice to know that I could go to my principal whenever I had a problem.  Here's just a few examples of what he did for his students over the years.



He helped Slater grieve the loss of a pet.
He helped Kelly cheer up when students took advantage of her during teacher/student swap week
He took on Screech as his administrative assistant.
On the New Class, he helped Rachel assist a student suffering from a learning disability.
He helped Liz cope with losing an important swim meet.
He educated Tony on the dangers of cigar smoking.

Those are just a few examples of how he has succeeded in his role of principal.  Still not convinced that he has a purpose yet?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciKDfaTjVV0

The backstory...Mr. Belding's much younger and much hipper brother Rod took over a science class.  Mr. Belding was planning a class trip for Zack's class touring national parks, but Rod convinced the class to go on a rafting trip instead.  The class was so impressed by the idea that they wanted Rod to take them on the trip instead of the less cool Mr. Belding.  The above scene showed that Rod didn't nearly have as much charisma as he claimed, and that Mr. Belding was willing to fight for the students rights, because as principal, that was what he believed was right.  In fact, Mr. Belding said that he would be glad to take the class on the trip, which earned Zack's respect even more.

Ultimately, having a principal that would stand by his students is what we all want.  I know that as I grow older and if the cards allow me to become a father, or oversee a workplace someday, I'd want to be seen as a role model.

I would also hope that if I were to be compared to someone in authority, it would be exactly like Mr. Belding.  I'd rather have a guy who would stand up for you and be a caring principal instead of someone who runs a school like a dictatorship. 

Besides, as we show this one last video clip, it helps if you do have some sort of respectful relationship with your former students.  Because if there ever comes a time when the school you have been a principal of is doomed for demolition, it's nice to have friends around who will go to bat for you and the school.


We salute you, Principal Richard Belding for everything that you have done.  It is my hope that people will one day not see you as the bumbling, buffoonish cartoon character that sometimes you were portrayed to be.  Instead, I hope people see you as the kind-hearted, caring, always there when you need him role model that you should be seen as.

I sure hope that I have HALF the qualities Mr. Belding has.

Friday, June 03, 2011

TGIF: Perfect Strangers


Perfect Strangers was one of those mid-season replacement shows that ended up becoming a huge hit.  When it premiered in the spring of '86, only six episodes were filmed.  Typically, most mid-season shows don't do very well in the ratings, and it's rare that one gets picked up for a full season.  Perfect Strangers defied those odds, and ran for an additional seven years.  That's pretty impressive.

My personal opinion is that the show seemed to do well because of the fantastic chemistry between the two lead actors.  You had Mark Linn-Baker as the conservative, yet overly neurotic Larry Appleton.  And you also had Bronson Pinchot, who played Larry's cousin, the eccentric sheep-loving Myposian, Balki Bartokomous.

This blog entry is mostly about Balki.  I do mention 'Cousin Larry' in this entry as well, but truth is, I didn't find him as interesting as Balki.  So, I guess in one sense, I find one stranger more perfect than the other.  They both have their flaws though.


I'm going to tackle this blog entry a little bit differently.  If you've been keeping track of this blog at all, you'll know that I usually go on and on about who the person (or subject) is, why I chose them, and what lessons I've learned from them, or what similarities I have to them, yada yada yada...

I'm just going to come right out and tell you what Balki Bartokomous and Larry Appleton taught me.  Right here, right now.

Balki taught me to appreciate the little things in life.  He also taught me never to take anything for granted.

And Larry taught me that anyone can have compassion for someone if the right time comes up.

I guess I should explain this in more detail.  It'd be pretty pointless to come up with a conclusion right off the bat without providing evidence of it. 

I present Exhibit A...or exhibit Balki...



You may have watched the opening credits of 'Perfect Strangers' that I posted at the very beginning of this section.  If you have, you'll probably have come across this scene.  I mentioned earlier that Balki was an eccentric, sheep-loving Myposian.  In case you haven't figured it out yet, Balki is not native to America.

Balki was born and raised in the island nation of Mypos.  He lived life as a shepherd on Mypos, and he later moved to Chicago in the mid-1980's after finding out that he had a distant cousin in the area.  When Balki was reunited with Larry, Larry was wary of the idea of letting Balki move in with him, as he was just getting adjusted to having his own apartment for the first time.  However, Larry decides to give him a chance, and with Larry's help, gets Balki his first American job working at a retail store run by their landlord, Mr. Twinkacetti.  Larry's hope is that by having Balki live with him, he can teach Balki all about American culture, and hopefully make him feel more at home.

Surprisingly enough though, Balki seemed to take to America quite well.  He almost understood America better than Larry (who was born and raised there) had. 

And I think part of that reason was Balki's overall enthusiasm for everything American.  He saw joy and appreciation for things that most people take for granted.  Cable television, rock music, sugarless chewing gum, traffic jams, elevators.  He genuinely seemed to enjoy it all, and be fascinated by the simple things.  In many ways, he was a lot like a five year old child, eager to explore the wide world, yet having an innocent, almost childlike way of seeing things.  It truly was refreshing to see.  Just check out some of these examples.




Ultimately, I want to be the same way too.  I think that Balki's way of life and his view on the world is one that not a lot of people seem to have, and I think that they are really missing out on quite a lot.

I know at times, I've lost sight of what is really important in my life, and wish I could stop and smell the flowers like Balki has.  It would certainly make life a lot more enjoyable and a lot less stressful. 

Somehow, Balki always seems to handle himself with grace and dignity.



Well...maybe not in THAT instance.

Balki has had his moments of greatness though.  Much of that comes from his upbringing.  Although he is very excited to live in America, he never really forgot where he came from.  Just as Larry had tried to teach Balki all about American culture, Balki was just as eager to get Larry to understand the place where he came from.  In one such episode, Balki decided to show off his culinary talents by making a Myposian delicacy called the bibbi-babka.  It turned out to be a huge hit, and Larry thought that they could make a fortune with Balki's recipe. 



Balki's recipe had every ingredient needed for huge success.  It was a recipe that had been in Balki's family for generations, so he knew exactly what was needed for the perfect bibbi-babka.  If only Larry hadn't tried to alter the plan like he did in the above clip, maybe this wouldn't have happened.


I think the bibbi-babka episode perfectly expresses the point that I was trying to make regarding Balki, and why I want to try to be more like him.  Balki has the self-confidence and the common sense to know what is best for the situation, and what simply won't work.  Balki probably made his first bibbi-babka as a young child, and for years afterwards.  I would think that Balki would have enough experience to not only make a perfect bibbi-babka, but how to make one flawlessly and without stress.

Cousin Larry wanted none of that.  He thought that making them really quickly, he would be able to make even more of a profit.  He thought that by doing things the so-called American way, they'd earn better and quicker results.

Scoreboard:  Mypos 1, America 0.

I don't know about you, but I think that Larry could have taken a few pages from Balki's book.  Balki made his bibbi-babkas with love and patience, and they turned out to be a success.  Larry rushed through the process and it blew up, quite literally in his face.

Now, I ask you...which would you want to be like more?

There is a downside to Balki's childlike innocence though.  A downside that has gotten Balki into some rather bad situations. 

And, this is where my point about Larry comes into play.

Towards the end of the series, (in a plotline that even I found kinda farfetched), Balki is discovered by a music producer, and he records a song as 'Fresh Young Balki B'.  It's an effort that he is incredibly proud of, and he put everything he had into recording the song because he wanted everyone to see his success.  He wanted his mother, his girlfriend Mary Anne, Cousin Larry, and Larry's fiancee Jennifer to watch the video on MTV.

Unfortunately for Balki, the record company dubbed in another man's voice in place of Balki's.  The record company Milli Vanilli-fied Balki, and Balki was left hurt, confused, and disappointed by the whole thing instead of feeling proud of doing something that he thought people would enjoy.

And Larry couldn't stand to see Balki so hurt.  As painful as this may be to watch, you gotta admire Larry's courage and not being afraid to embarrass himself to try and seek some sort of vindication for Balki (@ 5:14).


On the surface, Larry Appleton may come across as the type of person who only cares about himself, and how he acts arrogant at times...but when prompted, or when he sees injustice, he is the first one to step in and defend you against it.

He also seems to have just the right things to say at exactly the right moment, and is very empathetic towards people who are feeling pain.  (I've also been told by a couple of friends of mine that I have those qualities as well, but don't tell them I told you, okay?  LOL)

But I'm sure you want one more example of this.  Before Balki ended up with Mary Anne, he was trying to find love with a woman named Carol, who basically used Balki.  Larry tried to help him get through the heartbreak below.


I'd probably do the same thing Larry did.  Because that's how good of a friend Larry was to Balki. 

In fact, I think that's why Larry and Balki got along so well.  They helped each other out as best they could.  Balki showed Larry the virtue of patience, and through some wacky Myposian customs, helped Larry become a better man for himself, and a better boyfriend/husband to Jennifer.  Larry repaid Balki by helping him cope with life's disappointments and standing by him when times got rough.

Really, if there's anything that anyone can learn from watching Perfect Strangers, it's the value of true friendship.  Larry Appleton and Balki Bartokomous had that true friendship.

It's a friendship that many people wish they could find.

How about you guys?  Do you have a Larry or a Balki in your life that through thick and thin will always be there for you?  I'd love to hear from any of you on the subject!

Thursday, June 02, 2011

Thursday Night at the Arcade: Terra from Final Fantasy VI



Before I start off with this blog entry, I'll start by telling you a small, but true story about a man with a dream, and how he almost gave up on his dream due to a lack of success.

Hironobu Sakaguchi was born in Japan. He had gone to school for a degree in electrical engineering, but dropped out before he got his certification. In the mid-1980's, he was hired at a newly formed branch of an electric company as a part-time worker.

That branch was known as Square.

In 1986, Square became an independent company, focusing on computer and video game development. When the company broke off on its own, Sakaguchi was promoted to the position of Director of Planning and Development. That meant that he was in charge of coming up with original ideas for future games. Although at first, his success was fleeting. He had little success with designing games, and he was beginning to second guess his choice to leave university.

In 1987, he had sketched out some details for a role-playing game that he had felt was his last shot at making a name for himself in the video game industry. If this idea flopped, then he would leave behind the video game industry and go back to school. He even created a title for the game based on that whole idea alone.

The video game was first released in Japan one week before Christmas 1987 for the Famicon system (which in North America is better known as the Nintendo Entertainment System). The game had great success in Japan, and when it was later imported to the shores of North America on July 12, 1990, the sales continued to skyrocket. The following year, Sakaguchi was promoted to Vice-President of Square, and four years after that, he became the President of the company. All because of the idea that he came up with that he was sure would have been his swan song.

The game? Final Fantasy.

Over the years, Final Fantasy has become anything but. In 2010, the game series released both its thirteenth and fourteenth versions of the game, and that's not counting all the prequels and sequels for the main games at that. The seventh edition has more spin-offs than the Mary Tyler Moore show!

I must say that I myself have been immersed in the worlds of Final Fantasy. All the games are different in their own way. Sure, there's some common enemies and themes and magic spells, but the storylines and character development is so uniquely different from game to game.

As a result of this, whenever Arcade Thursday comes around, you may end up expecting a lot of Final Fantasy references, because some of the characters are so deep with development that I can find myself comparing myself to a whole bunch of them. So, be warned.



The character that I've chosen to feature in this blog entry happens to be from Final Fantasy VI, which was released in North America in October 1994...or was it III?



You see, that was part of the confusion. Final Fantasy VI was actually released as Final Fantasy III. The reason being that not all the Japanese versions made it to North American shores. The first game was known as Final Fantasy all over the world. The second and third games released in Japan were not released in North America at the time of their creation. Final Fantasy IV did get released in North America, but it was called Final Fantasy II here. The fifth game was skipped over, but the sixth one was released as the North American version of Final Fantasy III.

Confused? So am I, come to think of it. My apologies.

Eventually, all the Japanese games made it over here through use of game emulators and future video game consoles like the PlayStation and Nintendo DS. For now, let's just go by the Japanese number, since it's far less confusing.

So as I was saying, Final Fantasy VI was released in 1994, and the basic gist of the game is that there's this madman Kefka who is insistent on destroying the world, and you have to stop him. Naturally, there are lots of battles along the way, including a potentially apocalyptic event that happens midway through the game by Kefka, and the ultimate mission is to slay him and try to rebuild the world he has destroyed. Oh, and you help people along the way, and learn some things about your characters in the process.

The one thing I loved about this game was the character development. The plot was good, though it could get tedious at times, and the battle system was pretty decent too. The characters were well-thought out, and in the end, you couldn't help but find something to like about them, or even feel sympathy towards. I'll admit that I even felt a little bad for Kefka, even though he was the main antagonist in the story. But, I'll save that entry for another day.

No, instead of the antagonist, I'll feature on the protagonist.



Meet Terra Branford. At just 18 years old, she is a formidable fighter who slayed fifty soldiers in just minutes. She's tough, yet damaged. Beautiful, but tortured. Soft-spoken, yet emotionally scarred.

And apparently, she loves to dye her hair the same colour as the inside of an Andes chocolate mint. Go figure.

Right off the bat, when we're first introduced to Terra, she's invading the town of Narshe, looking for a frozen Esper (a monster-like creature that leaves behind Magicite when they die, of which humans can learn how to use magic spells from).

Yeah, the game is very much fantasy based, in case you couldn't already tell.

Terra and a couple of soldiers come across the Esper, but before they can take it away, the Esper kills the soldiers and knocks Terra unconscious. She wakes up in a house outside of Narshe, and it is revealled that she was wearing some sort of crown that caused her to lose control of her own mind. Kefka and Emperor Gestahl of the Imperial Empire used the crown to do their bidding. The real plan was to gather as much Magicite as possible so they could use it to make their army invincible, and having Terra on their side was a huge advantage.

Without the crown, Terra was free of the clutches of the Imperial army, but at the cost of losing her own memory. There was no time to reflect on it though. She had to escape Narshe before the army caught her again. With help from Locke, a thief/treasure hunter and Edgar, the king of nearby Figaro, she began her escape, and joined the opposition army of the Empire, known as the Returners. She was well on her way to total freedom from the Empire when an attack on Narshe by the Empire prompted the team to head back there to protect the frozen Esper from Kefka.

It is here that you see this scene immediately afterwards.  (It starts at around 1:29)



Yep...you saw that right. Terra went from chocolate mint headed woman to fuzzy pink Muppet, flying across mountains and crash landing in a city called Zozo. Naturally, the gang wanted to find out what had happened to Terra, so after leaving Narshe, they arrived at Zozo where they found Terra in her monster form, as well as a strange old man named Ramuh, who shed some light on what had happened with Terra. Turns out that she had some of the same characteristics as the Esper that was found in the Narshe mines because she could use magic and because of her monster-like appearance. Turns out that Ramuh was also an Esper. There was an island over by an Imperial base that was rumoured to be the homeland of the Espers, but they blocked off the entrance to keep outsiders away after unwanted visitors infiltrated the Esper world eighteen years earlier.



How timely!  Terra happens to be eighteen years old too! This couldn't be a coincidence, could it?

After infiltrating the Magitek Factory on the southern continent and stealing the Magicite supply that the Empire had previously taken from the Esper world eighteen years earlier, they head back to Zozo. Something strange happens when they visit Terra the second time around. One of the Magicite shards, the one that came from an Esper named Maduin started glowing and then Terra started glowing, and everyone was freaked out. But, there was a reason.



I'll summarize the video. A young lady named Madonna (and no, it's not the same Madonna that asserted herself to be a material girl while simultaneously acting like a virgin), accidentally ended up in the Esper world where she met Maduin. They fell in love, and they had a daughter together. Terra.

NOTE:  I actually have no idea where the name Madonna came from, since in the Japanese version, her name is Madeline.  There's your geek factoid for today all.

So therefore, Terra is half-human, half-Esper.

Shortly after her birth was the invasion of the Esper World from the Empire. Madonna was killed, and Maduin and Terra were taken back to the Magitek factory. Maduin's strength was drained to the point where he was near-death, and Terra was raised to be an Imperial Knight, sent to terrorize the global population in the Empire's quest for power.

Whew. Quite the backstory, eh?

Now comes the fun part. How to tie Terra's personality into mine somehow. I don't like fighting, so that's out. I'm not female, so that's out. I certainly don't have green hair, so that's not quite it.

I think in order to find out what Terra and I have in common, you need to watch this scene (which begins appropriately enough at 2:14). It takes place after Terra, Locke, and the ninja warrior Shadow board a ferry from the town of Albrook to Crescent Island with General Leo Cristophe of the Imperial army.



So Terra's Esper background made her feel somewhat insecure of herself. She always saw herself as not being like everyone else. When she first met King Edgar, she noticed the crowds of women swooning over him, and remarked to herself that a “normal girl would have found him dashing”. Right there, you get the impression that she saw herself as not like everyone else. She was ashamed of her behaviour as a soldier, and tried to deny it even though she knew she couldn't. On top of that, she had the ability to turn into her Esper form, which most of the people in the world did not know.

Therefore, I can only come to the conclusion that she must have had a rather lonely childhood. And that probably affected her feelings, or lack there of.

See, because of all those factors, Terra didn't know what the concept of love was. She had never really had any experience with it. Sure, Maduin and Madonna loved her with all their hearts, but they only had her for a short time before Gestahl and Kefka abducted them. From that moment, Terra was seen as little more than a marionette with the Empire controlling her strings. She never had a normal childhood, and she was brainwashed into thinking that everyone was the enemy, so how could she know what love was?

And while my life was pretty much not as...um...sadistic as Terra's was, I do know exactly what she might have been going through.

I realize that I'm probably going to take a big step here by telling all of you this, but at this point, I'm too old to be keeping any skeletons in my closet. Especially since in the Final Fantasy world, they can come back to life and try to attack you.

Like Terra, I have a difficult time with the whole concept of love. Like Terra, I've never really been in any position to fall in love with anybody. Until recently, like Terra, I thought the problem was with me, and not anything else.

Having to work through years of low self-esteem and emotional abuse, it makes it difficult to love someone else when you can't even love yourself first. Really, that should be the most important thing. If you feel good about yourself, you tend to find ways to make other people feel just as good as you are...maybe even better.

It wasn't until a couple of years ago that I started to heal from all of that, and began to work on my physical and emotional reconstruction. Truth be told, I was tired of living that way, and should have done it earlier, but the right opportunity hadn't come by until recently. I'll maybe talk about it in a future entry if you don't let me forget it. All you need to know is for the first time in years, I'm actually starting to enjoy the person that I have become.

Terra Branford struggled as well. When she first appeared in the game of Final Fantasy VI, she was so completely confused as to who she was. It was cruelly taken away from her by those who had imprisoned her inside the Imperial Empire. By the time she reached adulthood, she was left without any sort of identity whatsoever. It wasn't until she was rescued by Locke that she began to find herself...and more importantly find love.

In a wickedly ironic twist in the game, Kefka ends up taking over the world after the Returners fail at their mission to protect the Esper world, and using some sort of weapon called the 'Light of Judgment' to destroy cities, towns, lakes, forests, and mountains. The Returners were all separated during the events of the world crumbling, and Terra happened to find herself outside the town of Mobliz, destroyed by Kefka.

When Terra entered the ruins of the town, she was horrified to learn that everybody over the age of eighteen had died in the destruction of Mobliz. They had died trying to protect their children from the disaster. Immediately, Terra lost her will to fight. All she wanted to do was stay with the children. With help from the oldest of the children, Duane and Katarin, Terra took care of all the children. The children grew to adore Terra, even calling her 'Mama' as a sign of affection. When some members of the Returners were reunited with Terra, they asked her to join them so they could take care of Kefka once and for all, but Terra refused. All she wanted to do was be there for the children. Nothing more.

Of course, Kefka wasn't the only danger to the remaining residents of Mobliz. There was a monster named Phunbaba that was trying to terrorize the town, and Terra was simply too weak to even throw a punch at it. But eventually, you'll witness this lovely scene (which technically starts around the five minute mark, but if you want to see her fight, you can click before this).



See, the kids didn't care that Terra was in her Esper form. They could tell that she was their 'Mama'. Their love for Terra was strong enough that they would accept her in any form. And, that love finally cleared up Terra's feelings about love. Terra loved the children of Mobliz, and she would do anything to see that they had a future in a world that was dying. She had finally found what it had meant to love someone, and that was her motivation for rejoining the Returners.

So you see...the lesson that I learned from Terra Branford is this. Sometimes it's hard to find yourself in this world. Sometimes you're faced with choices that you feel are a Catch-22 situation no matter what choice you pick. Sometimes you don't even get a choice at all. When faced with odds like that, it's no wonder some people struggle with finding out who they really are.

The thing that Terra taught me is that nothing is impossible. Terra had such a terrible upbringing that she was convinced that she couldn't understand a basic emotion of love. While it may have taken the tragic destruction of Mobliz to awaken those feelings inside of her, she eventually discovered that yes, she was capable of loving someone, and having someone love her.

I'm certain that one day, it will happen for me too. And without having a town burn down!

You just can't give up. You can't let your past dictate your future. As you can tell from my blog entries, I'm still having some issues with it, but at least by sharing those issues, it shows everyone that I'm not afraid to share my feelings. I haven't let those negative experiences harden me to the point where I'm bitter about what happened. It's coming along, but there's still some work that I need to do.

But hey...I love a challenge.

I guess if I go back to the beginning of this note, I'm kind of like Mr. Sakaguchi. He took a chance at designing a video game while having a back-up plan on the side, and it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to him.

My Final Fantasy moment is coming people. This I'm certain of.

My Terra Branford moment will be arriving as well.

I just hope the trains don't collide midway...that would just be messy. :D



Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Across the Pond and Beyond: Mr. Bean


I know what you all must be thinking.  You all know by now that this blog is all about analyzing pop culture happenings from the past and present, and trying to find a way to come up with lessons learned from characters, or how I'm like the character, show, movie, etc.

Mr. Bean seems to break the mould, doesn't he?


I mean, let's face it.  I'm certainly not the type of man who would take an electric shaver to my tongue inside my bathroom where my tighty-whities are on full display on an indoor clothesline.  No, you have to be a pretty unique individual to do something like that.

Mr. Bean is your quintessential six-year-old boy trapped inside the body of a 40-year-old man (or whatever age Mr. Bean is supposed to be).  Even Rowan Atkinson admitted to this in an interview a few years ago.  He's self-centered, he gets pouty when he doesn't get what he wants, and as far as treating others with kindness and charity, well...he fails miserably at it every time.

I have to admit that when I first started to write this blog a week ago, I knew that I had wanted to feature Mr. Bean as an entry.  Today just happens to be Across the Pond and Beyond Wednesday.  As you know, it's a day that I have devoted to celebrating culture that is not native to North America.  Certainly, Mr. Bean being British certainly qualifies.

I had no idea that when I sat down to write this entry that it would be so difficult to find some similarities between Mr. Bean and Mr. Turcotte.  Almost impossible, really.  I enjoy a challenge however, and Mr. Bean has always been a favourite of mine for years, so I really wanted to do a tribute to him while at the same time finding some sort of link between himself and myself.

On the surface, I didn't come up with anything.

Last year, I bought the Whole Bean DVD compilation.  All thirteen episodes of Mr. Bean, plus an unseen bonus episode were in a three-disc set.  Whereas most television series run in seasons that usually run between twenty-one and twenty-six episodes per year, Mr. Bean's run was more sporadic in nature.  Instead, they were broadcast as television specials that ran between 1989 and 1996.  Bean: The Movie (1997) and Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007) followed afterwards. 

I have watched every episode of Mr. Bean, as well as the two movies, hoping that I could come up with examples to use in this blog.

As I said, I enjoy a challenge.

Mr. Bean is the type of person that puts himself first and nobody else.  I'm not exactly like that.  My idea of self-indulgence is walking over to Bulk Barn and buying a bag of sour jujubes.  Mr. Bean, on the other hand, seems to think that the world should revolve around him.  When it doesn't work out that way, he gets frustrated, and pouts.

I'll admit to being that way.  When I was twelve. 

Mr. Bean also seems to be incredibly shy.  Well, okay, maybe not shy to the point where he runs and hides from people whenever they approach.  He doesn't exactly make an effort to speak to people near him though.  In fact, in the average episode of Mr. Bean, you'd be lucky if you ended up hearing a complete sentence out of him.

In a few episodes, Mr. Bean seems to exhibit a sort of a mean streak at times.  He sometimes plays pranks on people or hurts people's feelings to get what he wants.  Yeah, that's definitely not personality traits that I want associated with me.  At least, I hope nobody has that opinion about me.

I was ready to give up hope of ever finding something that would forever link me to Mr. Bean, and right at the tail end of the last Mr. Bean episode I watched, it hit me.  That's the character trait that Mr. Bean and I share.  That's what sets both of us apart from everyone else.

First, here's the episode that inspired me to have the thought in the first place.  Watch the clip, and I'll tell you what it is.  Don't worry.  I won't forget.


Yep.  You figured it out.  I use a stuffed animal to paint my walls, and when that doesn't work, I wrap everything in newspaper and blow up a paint can with a firecracker.

You're not buying it, eh?

All right.  Here's the real reason.

Sure, Mr. Bean's method of painting his house isn't exactly the method that I would partake in...but it seemed to work for him.  He was resourceful enough to come up with a quicker solution that many wouldn't care to think of in a million years, but worked out for him.

And, that my friends is where we are similar.

We both do things that work for us that won't work for most other people.

Now, since I shared an example of Mr. Bean's unusual way of looking at things, I'll share an example of my own.

A few years back, when I was in high school, I was assigned to do a class project.  It was in senior year English class, if memory serves me.  We had to do an independent study that was assigned to us back in February.  We had until June to work on it.  Our teacher fully expected us to work on the project the whole semester in addition to our daily homework.  We were supposed to read three books that had a common theme to them, and from there we would have to do an oral and written presentation of the books in the form of a book report and a dramatic portion.

I'll just speed ahead to what most of the other kids in the class did.  Most of them did a standard basic book report on three books in those standard report covers, and their oral presentations for the most part were little fifteen minute speeches that were more or less along the lines of "this is what I read, this is why it links, blah, blah, blah..."

I suppose that way was the safe approach, and certainly speaking, as long as they were accurate in their portrayals of the books and the theme, it would have gotten a good mark.

But I wasn't really content to go that route with my project at all.  I wanted to take a risk.  I wanted to be as unconventional with my project as I could possibly be.

Even if it completely tanked.

For starters, while everyone else had chosen three books to read, I was taking a chance right off the bat by only choosing two.  I talked it over with my teacher before I got too far with my planning to see if I could do my study with only two books, and she agreed.  I think part of the reason why she agreed to it was because of the choice of topic as well as the choice of authors.  My topic was Irish authors and their portrayal of life in Ireland through the eyes of a person who lived there.  Fair topic.  One of the books I had chosen was "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt.  Good book, by the way.  That book was approved by the teacher, no problem. 

It was my second book that raised a few eyebrows.  I initially wanted to read the book "Ulysses" by James Joyce, and immediately my teacher tried to talk me out of it.  She said that James Joyce was an author whose work was incredibly tough to read.  And anyone who has read Ulysses knows that it's one of the biggest books ever written.  At a whopping 265,000 words, is it any wonder why I wanted to only stick with two books?

My teacher did suggest that I could keep the two books I was going to do, and she said that she had no problem with me choosing James Joyce as an author...but that I'd probably be better off reading a smaller book of his.

I disagreed.  I would have welcomed the challenge to read Ulysses and do a book report on it along with Angela's Ashes.

As it turned out though, I did come across another book of Joyce's.  "A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man".  I happened to like that book much better than Ulysses, which I gave up on after a month.  Guess the teacher was right after all. 

I told her my new book idea, and it was approved.  So, I read both books, and wrote a really detailed written essay on the topic I had chosen.  That part was easy.  I was the type of person who could write a history essay in four hours and still get a ninety per cent on it.  Writing essays and book reports were not a challenge at all.

The oral report was different.  Not because I had stage fright talking in front of my classmates.  I had no problem with that whatsoever.  It was trying to come up with a creative oral presentation that people would remember.

It then dawned on me...why don't I take details from both books and mish-mash them together into a sort of role-playing exercise?

That's exactly what I did.  I turned the classroom into an Irish classroom, similar to what was portrayed in the books, and went from there.

Angela's Ashes, for example, talked about how they used to snack on lemonade and toffees.  I ended up bringing in lemonade and Werther's Originals for the kids to snack on while I presented my oral report.  In the James Joyce book, the main character gets punished by the teacher for misbehaving during a test.  I simulated that part.  The lesson plan as well as the fake test I prepared was all about Irish culture, bringing up key plot points from both books into the lesson plan, so the teacher knew that I did in fact read the books.

The kids loved it.  The teacher loved it.  More importantly, I loved it.

I was given an assignment and right off the bat, I made some rather unconventional moves in planning it.  Choosing unfamiliar authors, designing a way-out there oral presentation.  Lots of things could have gone wrong in the whole plan, but I was determined to make it work with my resourcefulness and my creativity no matter how little sense it made to anyone else.

Turns out, it worked out fine.  I didn't even have a single Mr. Bean sized mishap.

The same can be said for Mr. Bean as well.  He may do some of the craziest things in the world, and some of his actions could be considered unconventional, nonsensical, and even dangerous.  Somehow though, it all turned out right for Mr. Bean.  Whether he tries to make it to the dentist on time...


...takes up a career in babysitting...



...makes himself a sandwich...




...or tries to hook up his new television...


...in the end, it always seems to work out for him...just like it'll work out for me when I find unconventional solutions to my own problems.

Though, in that last clip, Mr. Bean could have avoided that problem by living in a flat without a coin-operated fusebox.  Just sayin'.