I've avoided talking about politics online for awhile now. I felt that there were other people who would say or write what I felt, and could do it better than I would. But, I don't give fuck about that anymore. At least right now I don't. The events of this past weekend have made one thing abundantly clear: Now is not the time to be silent.

There is no such thing as "Alt-Right".

They are Nazis.
They are White Supremacists.
They are Racists.
They are Xenophobes.
They are Facists.

There is no such thing as "Alt-Right". There is only hate.

Some friends and I have banded together and started making a podcast. We're also making some other cool things that will be coming out soon, so head over to Team Blue Post to stay up to date with all the stuff we're making.

So we looked at my predictions for the plot yesterday, now let’s see how I did with the numbers:

1. "I expect The Force Awakens to have an opening weekend gross of $215 Million. The crazy thing? This estimate is conservative." Conservative was an understatement. I was short by almost $33 Million.
2. "I also expect The Force Awakens to beat Avatar’s domestic box office gross of $760.5 Million, and to come in closer to $800 Million." On Wednesday, The Force Awakens passed Avatar’s domestic gross, coming in at $764 Million. What once was decried as a fanboy fantasy, $1 Billion domestic now falls into the realm of plausibility. This will all depend on how long its legs are.
3. "I don’t think that The Force Awakens will beat Avatar’s worldwide gross numbers ($2.8 Billion), but I do think it has a good shot of taking number two away from Titanic ($2.2 Billion)." I think this one will end up holding true. While The Force Awakens is redefining ‘box office juggernaut’ in North America and Europe, it isn’t finding the same success everywhere worldwide. As of right now, the worldwide gross is split 49/51 domestic/foreign. Other films that grossed over $1 Billion worldwide would see something closer to a 40/60 domestic/foreign split. The real question is China. It opens in Chinese theaters this weekend, but it looks like The Force Awakens will receive the same tepid response the Original Trilogy received when Disney released the films in China last year. If The Force Awakens flops hard in China, Titanic has a good chance of retaining the #2 position. If it only does okay in China, I think we’ll be reading headlines about The Force Awakens becoming #2 worldwide by the end of February.

As of right now, I’m 0 for 2, and have a shot of getting 1 out 3 right. The Force Awakens has been fascinating to track, and we probably aren’t even at the halfway point of its run.

It’s been a few weeks since The Force Awakens came out, and yesterday I was finally able to go see it for a second time, so I it’s time to check the scorecard!

Again: There Be Spoilers Below!

1. The Empire and New Republic Co-Exist. The film is never really clear on what the political situation is like in the universe, and I find it to be the film's biggest flaw. I think I was right about the Resistance, but wrong about the First Order and the Empire. I’ll give myself a half point.
2. Both sides are trying to find Luke. Nailed it. +1
3. Kylo Ren is the apprentice. Nailed it. +1
4. Rey is a Skywalker. Jury is still out on this one, and it'll be Episode 8 or Episode 9 before we know for sure.
5. Starkiller Base is a planet transformed into a doomsday weapon, or is a doomsday weapon that was terraformed. Nailed it. +1
6. Han dies. NAILED IT! +1

For a grand total of 4.5 out of 6. And the one I missed is a plot point that won’t be resolved until later films. Not bad.

As for the film itself, it’s rare that I am able to sit back and watch a film without turning on ‘film student mode’ and critiquing everyhting. It's even rarer if I can do that on a second viewing. Both times I've seen The Force Awakens, I just sat back and enjoyed the film. I think John Siracusa summed it up best on The Incomparable Podcast: “The Force Awakens is a good movie with many small problems, none of which overwhelm it's essential goodness.”

I’ve been up since 2am. I’m writing this at 4pm. This post will go live at 7pm. My screening is at 9pm.

This is what I’m expecting from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Warning: There Be Spoilers Below!! Maybe

First, business.

I expect The Force Awakens to have an opening weekend gross of $215 Million. The crazy thing? This estimate is conservative. I also expect The Force Awakens to beat Avatar’s domestic box office gross of $760.5 Million, and to come in closer to $800 Million. While it’s been fun watching The Force Awakens become a box office juggernaut in the United States, as international gross becomes more important to Hollywood, how it performs worldwide is going to be key (As of writing, Disney has revealed that The Force Awakens brought in $14.1 Million in it’s first day in foreign markets). I don’t think that The Force Awakens will beat Avatar’s worldwide gross numbers ($2.8 Billion), but I do think it has a good shot of taking number two away from Titanic ($2.2 Billion).

Finally, pleasure. Or: What I expect to happen in the film.

The Empire and New Republic Co-Exist. The truce is an uneasy one, but it’s there. I think “The Resistance” is made up of former members of the Rebel Alliance who never stopped fighting the Empire. The “First Order” is an Imperial faction attempting to take over the Empire. Their goal is to reestablish the Empire as the sole galactic power. And for the sake of drama, they've all but succeeded by the start of the film.

Both sides are trying to find Luke. I think it's the secret mission that Leia sends Poe Dameron on. Also, the line Kylo Ren utters while staring at Darth Vader's helmet —"I will finish what you've started"— is a reference to Vader hunting down the few Jedi who survived Order 66. Who's the sole living Jedi? Luke.

Kylo Ren is the apprentice. Always two there are… We haven’t seen Andy Serkis’s character yet, but we did hear him speak in the voiceover for the first trailer. I think he’s the master.

Rey is a Skywalker. Kinda a gimme.

Starkiller Base is a planet transformed into a doomsday weapon, or is a doomsday weapon that was terraformed. I base this purely on the fact that everyone has been calling the spherical object in the posters a “new Death Star”, but I think the blue around the edges looks suspiciously like an atmosphere. “That’s no moon. It’s a Space Station Moon!”

Han dies. If The Force Awakens stays true to form, a mentor figure will die during the film. If the trailers have given us any hints, it’s that Harrison Ford plays that figure in this film. I don’t think they would’ve held off revealing Luke in any of the trailers or advertising, if they were going to kill him off in this film. Plus, it was probably easier to convince Harrison Ford to return if he would only have to come back for one.

Other than these few things, I really have no idea what to expect. Maybe I’m right, maybe I’m wrong. Either way, I can’t wait for 9pm.

My landlady passed a few days ago. She was crossing the street and was hit by a car. I'm sure many would find it odd that the death of my landlord is actually a serious emotional blow, but this was a relationship that went beyond simply paying rent every month.

My roommate and I each wrote a note that we passed along to her family. This is what I wrote, and even then I don't think it truly does her justice.

"Every time I would talk to Mary, she would apologize profusely as if our conversation was robbing me of precious time. She never needed to. I enjoyed our chats. The five minute ones about how my career was progressing; twenty minute chats about nothing; the two hours she spent visiting with me and my family during my first Christmas in LA.

She just wanted to stop by, give us a bottle of wine, and wish us a Merry Christmas. But my Dad, being my Dad, had her sit down and try his homemade potato pancakes. Next thing we knew, two hours had passed. She excused herself, not wanting to intrude any longer. She could've stayed another two hours, and we wouldn't have minded. Afterwards, my parents commented that I was lucky to rent from someone like Mary.

Mary was that little bit of hope when we thought our grand LA adventure would end before we'd even been in town for a week. We were looking for an apartment, and thanks to Mary, I have a place I can call home."

Goodbye Mary Sepikas. You will be missed.

While everyone else was watching the Oscars last Sunday, I continued my tradition of doing something else. This year it was inviting friends over to binge watch Firefly and play Lord of the Rings Online. But since we’re Millennials, we still followed all the action on social media. Hell, even I tweeted about the Oscars that night.

But with all the general commentary that always comes after awards night —"American Sniper was shafted!" "I can't believe that the only award that Boyhood won was Best Supporting Actress!", et cetera, et cetera...—, I just want everyone to keep this in mind: It's only the Oscars.

Yes, I had a favorite: Birdman. And I was happy it won. I care enough to keep informed and to try and see as many of the nominated films as I can —working part-time at movie theater does have it's perks— but I stopped investing too much emotional weight into the awards. Because of Battlestar Galactica.

Battlestar Galactica, a show I loved. A show that many, not just sci-fi fans, consider one of the best ever made —a show that won a Peabody and received recognition from the United Nations for how it depicted terrorism and human conflict— only won Emmys for Sound Editing and Visual Effects. It deserved more.

And here is the lesson I learned: The Oscars—and many of the awards—are like Prom. The Oscars are part recognition of your peers, and part popularity contest. It's the recognition by your peers in the industry that make the awards special. If I ever work on a film that's nominated, am remotely connected to a film that is nominated, or know someone who is nominated, I have no doubt that I will get caught up in the Oscar hoopla. And anyone who says they haven’t imagined what it would be like to win is probably a liar. But an Oscar win is just like being royalty at Prom, and Best Picture is like the Prom Queen. In five years, no one gives a shit if you were Prom Queen.

Remember only one Hitchcock film ever won best picture: Rebecca. Most people haven't fucking seen Rebecca, but they've all heard of Alfred Hitchcock.

When I was 16, I swore to myself that I would never be like my dad. Not because my dad isn't an amazing person—amazing being a gross understatement—, but after seeing him come home exhausted after putting in 8-10 hours for crummy bosses—with an hour commute on top of it—I swore that I would never do that. I would only work that hard if it was for something that I loved.

During the past few months, I have been dealing with a temp job in an office, a part-time job at a movie theater, and the occasional PA gig on top of both. It was a regular occurrence for me to work two weeks with only one day off, and it was not unheard of for me to work twenty days straight before that day off would come. About a week or two back, while driving home at 2 AM after an eight-hour shift at the theater, exhausted from having worked eleven days straight—with two more to go before I got that solitary day off—, I realized that I had put my nose to the grindstone I had always sought to avoid. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mind working hard, or putting in 60+ hours a week, but I feel like I've been chasing dollar signs instead of what I had moved to LA hoping to accomplish.

I am in love with creation. I love coming up with new universes, characters to explore them with, and watching as people experience the world I created. All I have to show for the past year is a third draft of a TV pilot, scripts for a few shorts, and a growing number of script breakdowns and outlines. While some might consider this acceptable, I consider it an abysmal level of output. I miss the days of film school where I would often have a script, a short film, and an essay all due in the same week. It was hard work, but I loved it. All the crazy hours of work and all the videogames played can't hide the fact that right now I'm intellectually starved and creatively stifled. Things need to change.

I can't say for certain what this blog will end up becoming. I will probably talk about film, television, politics, technology—really whatever thoughts I have that I can write a few hundred words about. I can't promise any regularity; I'm still figuring out the finer details. Right now, this blog serves a singular purpose: Get me to write more.