Becoming Creative

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I’ve done some thinking lately regarding my poker knowledge and how far I’ve gone with it over these years.  I really feel like I’ve reach a point where it’s all about creativity.  When you first learn anything: martial arts, poker, physics, math, or biology; there will always be a higher level thinking in each of these subjects.  The goal as a “student” of any of these subjects, is to be able to obtain the ability to become creative in that field.  In order to obtain that, you have to have a good understanding of the weaknesses and strengths of the subject.  In other words, you really have to know what others know.  I was thinking about discussing “the standards” in these subjects but I decided not to go in that direction because ultimately; I feel like that is just not enough.  If a player only knows the standards in a poker game, that player will still most likely not able to understand the creativity behind the game unless he evolves his thinking.

I don’t want to be cocky, but honestly I am confident that I’ve reached this level which I recently found to be both good and bad.  It’s good in that I have progress so far as a player but bad in that I have now realized that there is just a ton more to this game.  Which basically tells me that I have a ton more work to do related to poker.  I am now aware that if I want to be a part of that creative community, I’m going to have to spend many hours studying and organizing my game.  I feel like I know what I need to do in order to get to the next level. The process of it all can be quite intimidating.  The irony behind all this is that I’m pretty sure many amateur poker players are trying to obtain this level of thinking but they are unaware of it.  And i find that it is impossible to reach any goal if you are not “planning” for it.

You’ve got to know your objective  

Retirement

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I’ve been living the life that I’ve been yearning for since I was 20 years old.  A time period in which I don’t have serious “bumps” in my life.  I appreciate life so much more waking up and not having to worry about anything except my daily routine.  I live in luxurious apartment with the freewill to do or accomplish what ever I want.  And I am seriously thankful for that opportunity. However, this point of my life has also given me the opportunity to do some “more” reflection on life.  Now that my mind is clear from the past, I am now able to think more clearly about human existence, politics, and even science.  I’ve never been one to be fascinated by these subjects except for possibly human existence but lately, I’ve been finding myself on the internet constantly reading about the world.

I recently thought about what retirement would be like if I were 55+ years old.  I realized that I may find myself resorting to my old young life doing all the things I loved doing when I had a ton of free time.   Perhaps watch all of my favorite shows and movies again.  I’m not sure to be honest.  This thought in my head made me realize the importance of “now” as opposed to the future.  Surely, we are taught to plan our life and manage our time but most of us are pretty bad at accomplishing that.  I guess what I’m trying to say is that the “free” time is really what we’re living for.  We work really hard in order to have that free time to ourselves with the limited amount of years that we live.  The more educated people who “work really hard” to earn that free time are smart enough to think of ways to find a job that they love doing.  They do this by planning and managing their time in their life.

You can  work really hard to earn your free time.

or

you can work really hard because you love what you do and eventually earn your free time.

I find myself reflecting on this idea a lot along with many other subjects that I have been reading on.

“Life sure does tickle me as it tries to teach me a lesson” - A line that I have been saying for so many years

Lost My Dog Teddy

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This morning I received a phone call from my brother telling me that my dog teddy passed this morning.  I love that dog so much.  He was diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of this year and was really close to dying.  I took him to the vet and gave him chemotherapy every 3 weeks which extended his life as long as possible without any pain of course.  I can tell he lived very happily for the last 6 months.  It was as if his life was over but God decided to let him stay with us just little longer – Thank you God.

This dog holds a special place in my heart.  I went through some troubles last year and it seems like he was always there with me.  I’d be watching tv on the couch and he’d lay next to my feet.  When I go to bed, he’d jump up and lay next to me.  I remember being outside in my backyard with my friends surrounding the firepit and teddy would be out there with all of us even though we know he hated being outside.  In the end, it was obvious that my dogs just wanted to be where we were.

The personality of a dog is what gets me the most.  I grew up with a ton of dogs and I saw how each and every one of them grew up.  They went through their immature stage where they’d just run around and cause trouble.  They’d rebel against us like teenagers when we’d get mad at them for making a mess.  But over the years, I can see how they eventually started to appreciate and understand us.  As they become older, they become wiser and eventually become your true best friend.  It feels like they know they are getting older and that they know they are not going to live much longer, so they spend every single moment they have with you.  I moved to my new apartment just recently and that is what I saw in my dog teddy.  He’d be sleeping under the table while I’m playing poker and when I’d go outside to the living room to watch T.V. he’d wake up and follow me.  I remember him being so tired and weak walking out to the living room but he still pushed himself.  What a great dog.  I hope to have more dogs like him in the near future.

Currently I still have another one with me, Cinderella – the princess.  She’s teddy and junior’s sister and is last dog from the same litter.  She has a sister name Curly and she’s currenlty living with my sister.  She’s very old as she was born a year before all the other dogs.  The first litter had her and another dog name Shakespeare but he ran away.  A year later came out Teddy, Junior, Cinderella, Smurf, and Bao.  Smurf ran away just last year from my sister’s house and Bao passed away at an early age.  The parents were Lucky (Dachshund) and Mimi (Pomeranian).  Amazingly Mimi is still alive.  We recently put Lucky to sleep about a two months ago and that was not easy for all of us.  He was there from the very beginning.

I have one left..

I will treasure every moment with this one just as I did with the others.  The sad realization I have now is that she will be the last one from my childhood years.

Terminator 4

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May 5th, 2008 is the first shooting date for Terminator 4: Salvation. The movie is going to star Christian Bale as John Connor and it will obviously be set in the future. The story is kept under wraps pretty well but some sources says that it’ll be set in 2019. There “may” be a cameo appearance with Arnold, but I don’t know how they will even pull that off especially when the man is currently governing California. Anyway, I think I have already expressed my real feelings on T3 when they made it without James Cameron. Long story short for those who haven’t read my previous posts, I was completely heart broken and wanted to kill somebody.

I’m a student of action movies, therefore, I can be pretty obsessive when Hollywood goes on to revive/ruin certain movies just because of a huge fan base ($$ made itself). I really believe that if they truly want to revive something incredible, they have to come up with something beyond belief. It has to be as close to, or equal to, or even better than T2. If the script doesn’t look like it’s going to be anywhere near that, I’d say they should drop the idea or freaking fire someone.

As a huge fan of T2 (before the release of T3), I have always tried hard to think of a way for them to make a sequel beyond T2 that may be somewhat respectable to the fans. Since they have already made a T3 and are currently in production with T4, I will tell you my version of how I would’ve liked T3 to be made. Keep in mind, that this is probably just what “I” want, but I personally feel that this “concept” that I have in mind is somewhat twisted yet it stays true to the formula of the original first two Terminator films. But, before we go into that, I first would like to lay out the requirements for sequels. Maybe Hollywood might learn a thing or two from this.

Some of these are obvious but if any of them are not in consideration, I’d say you ditch the sequel.

1) Bring the “favorite characters” back,if you can, revive the villain – that always always turns the fans on. Final Fantasy 7 sequels succeeded with this when they brought the best villain of all time, Sephiroth, in both FF7: Advent Children and FF7: Crisis Core. This is so key in my opinion. If T3 can’t bring Linda Hamilton back, I don’t think having Arnold back is enough and having a different actor for the role of John Connor does not help either. Arnold is NOT enough! I guess this is why prequels have had a great deal of success the past because the fans gets to see all their favorite characters in a very convincing storyline.

2) Stay true to the formula of the original sequels but make it original. I know that sounds difficult but I will tell you how it can be done for the Terminator series.3) Storyline and a ton of references to the originals

4) The sequel has to fulfill the entire series. Perhaps make the film almost as if it was made the same time as the other films. Perhaps that is why Lord of the Rings was successful. All three films flowed so well with together.The Concept

All I have is the concept, but I think that’s pretty much the entire pie as you can write the screenplay around it. My version of T3 will obviously be set in the future where machines have already taken over (post judgement day).

Here are my list of actors that can be in my version of T3:

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Robert Patrick

Edward Furlong (or maybe someone else to play John Connor, Christian Bale is def not bad along side with Arnold and Robert)

An older Arnold:

Okay. So I’m sure you all have a ton of questions on how this can be done since my casting list is quite strange seeing both Arnold and Robert (T1000) in the future. Also, we have a problem with age as both Schwarzenegger and Patrick are both pretty old now. Make up will probably not work too much longer, but I will not underestimate Hollywood. Anyway, my point is, we don’t need to make them look young.

The Marketing Strategy:

In the first Terminator, the audience was first introduced to Schwarzenegger as the villain and Michael Biehn as the good guy. The surprise in T2 happens when the audience finds out that the T101 (Schwarzenegger) is actually a good guy. This is where that famous mall gun fight scene in T2 takes place when the T101 aims his shotgun at John Connor. Instead of shooting, the T101 says “Get Down!”, and from that moment, we all now know that Schwarzenegger is now the good guy in T2. I really love this concept and I believe that is one of the reasons why T2 was so successful. I think this is something that needs to be repeated in part 3.

In my version of T3, I envisioned a teaser trailer featuring an older gray haired Arnold Schwarzenegger staring out in the desert overlooking a land full of human flesh and machine body parts mixed together. The metal parts look like they’re sprayed with red blood all over and the human body parts can be mistaken with the machine body parts. We see some blood and sweat on Schwarzenegger’s face as his eyes can barely comprehend what just happened. Schwarzenegger looks over to his right and sees and older gray haired Robert Patrick standing next to him. He’s beaten up and dirty but alive. They are both breathing heavily as they stare at each other. End Scene fade to black.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Robert Patrick

Edward Furlong

Terminator 3

Fade to Black – End of Teaser

And that is it :) That’s my trailer. Now, with this kind of marketing scheme, it is very similar to the T2 marketing scheme when the audience sees Arnold Schwarzenegger in the trailer unaware that he is actually the good guy. So the question remains, why is the older Robert Patrick and the older Arnold Schwarzenegger in the trailer? This here is what will bring the audience into the theaters in my opinion. The fans of the first two Terminator films will want to know what the hell is going on.

T3 the concept:

Here’s where the surprise ends. In my version of T3, Schwarzenegger and Patrick are both humans fighting against the machines. Arnold can be a survivor from another country (hence the accent), and Robert Patrick can also be a survivor of Judgement day. They later mentor/join forces with John Connor. John Connor may run the human resistance from the U.S. while Patrick and Schwarzenegger are leading another group of humans in another area.

With this idea in mind, we can play with many different references. Imagine what John Connor’s expression will be like when he first meets human version of Arnold T101 and T1000 .

My whole idea about this concept is that the machines used basic psychological military tactics to affect the emotions of the human soldiers as they are forced to fight against machines that “resembles” the image of Schwarzenegger and Patrick. Imagine being truly honorable to your general and later find out that you have to fight a lookalike of your general. It can be somewhat devastating to the soldier and of course John Connor. This idea is pretty much giving birth to how the image of the T101 and T1000 came into existence. Obviously, the figure of a man probably had to have come from somewhere right? Why not let it be an actual human version of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Robert Patrick, one of the top generals

Foreshadowing:It is obvious that this is somewhat like a prequel to the Terminator series. It’s pretty much a story of how the image of T101 and T1000 came to existence. Just like Darth Vader in episode 3, we will see a tragic story as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Robert Patrick will die at the end of the movie or end of the “trilogy” (if this concept does in fact stretch out into 3 movies). I’m just imagining the ending where John Connor loses a good friend (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and then seeing a machine in the image of the Schwarzenegger’s character come forth shooting at him. It’s as if he knew this day will come but could not stop it because it was “inevitable”, just like judgement day. I think this is just a sick idea that can surprise the world and the fans of the Terminator series. Hollywood did not realize that there is an idea out there that brings back the favorite characters on screen.

Another thing I want to add is the friendship that can be developed between both Schwarzenegger and Patrick’s character. If they are very “good friends” in this film, it will be pretty interesting to go back to T2 and watch old best friends fight it out. One is a protector, and the other is the assassin.
I really wish these kinds of concepts are used more in sequels. It is much better than “There is a new terminator, more advanced than the advanced one in part 2, The T-X!) A total laugh out loud comedy marketing in my opinion. WTF were they thinking? I have no clue.

Last Update March 15!?

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Oh man. I am such a lazy person! Okay, well not that lazy. I have been a bit busy lately and will be for the next month as I am now moving out of my place! I haven’t had much time to think about updating this blog lately, and for that I apologize for those who spend their time coming to this site. Thanks cheerdad! :)

Changes

I’ve come to a realization that life is all about coping with changes. All you wiser and older people are probably laughing at me for just realizing that. Yeah so what, my life was a lot smaller a just a few years ago :) . I have lived at this house pretty much my entire childhood and now, I am about to leave it all behind me. I have been living on my own ever since I was 20-21 years old, but I have always felt like a kid behind these walls. I feel like no matter what I do in life, if I still live here, I will always be a kid. I guess I become a little sad when I walk down my hallway at night and find myself reminiscing the days when I had 10 dogs running through my house. I then go into a trance and start to think about the days when I was running around the house with all my childhood friends. I don’t know how to really explain what I am feeling right now but I guess it’s a combination of strangeness, happiness, and sadness all put together. I’m happy that I get to move on and get out here, but I am sad that everything that I have ever done in this house will be nothing more but a distant memory.

Memories

Memories are becoming more like dreams as I grow older. When you think back at something that you have done in the past, the visual of it looks exactly like a dream. When I tell a story about my past experiences to someone, I honestly feel like I’m telling them my dream. I guess that’s what makes me even sadder. As I grow older, I feel like everything that has meant a lot to me in the past is now slowly fading away from my memory. When you “enjoy” a moment in your life, you usually try to remember every single moment of it, but as time starts to fly by, you find yourself only remember bits and pieces of that memory. Eventually, that memory starts to get mixed in with your dreams because dreams are told in bits and pieces.

Humiliation

Imagine a time when you were embarrassed in front of everybody. I remember studering my lines when I was doing a school play front of a class full of fine women. At the time, that was probably the worse day of my life (laughs). I think back at these moments quite often and I find myself chuckling about it always. Now that I am an adult, I can “logically” think about these moments, and eventually realize that NOBODY IN THE WORLD knows about it except for me. So in the end, the humiliating feeling that I have inside of myself is only there because I created it. It is being triggered by a memory or … was it…a dream?

Perspectives

As an adult, I try to think in many different perspectives. A good example of this is trying to imagine what life will be like 5 years down the line. I want to try to imagine how I would just “reminisce” the days of when I was living at my childhood house (which is this house I am in right now). In fact, I can picture myself imagining this very moment right now writing in this blog. I can imagine my future self remembering bits and pieces of it and later come to realize that what I am thinking about will soon be nothing but a distant memory.

I went apartment shopping with my roommate and he was talking about how he’ll miss his last two years living here. He said that the next place he lives in is going to be like a “new chapter” in his life. In many ways, I agree with him and I definitely feel the same way except I think about it as if it was the next “season” T.V. show. The only problem for me though is that I feel like I’m at the very end of a long T.V. show that is about to be canceled if that makes any sense. If anything new happens beyond this, it definitely has to be a spin off of some sort and not a new “chapter” or any sort of sequel lol. Now I’m rambling….

Poker Update

I’m taking some shots at the high stakes NL1k games now. I hope and pray that that will be my new home and my new “job”. I have spent a ton of time at NL400, so I guess I have a slight emotional attachment to that level and will miss it. That level has kept me alive the past two years of my dramatic experiences. While I wish I could be like the other young players who just moves up in limits at an amazing speed; I still have to consider the fact that everyone’s life cards are dealt differently. I learned that even though my life went through some speed bumps, I have to still be very fortunate and thankful for being where I’m at right now. Life has it’s downswings, and you’ve just got to deal with it like how you deal with poker. I just hope that I don’t run into another “life” downswing anytime soon or ever hehe.