Justin Cecil's Blog

This is the second part of a series of blog articles. The first in the series can be read here. * * *             I took a variety of electives in high school. During my freshman year I took another art class. The following year I took a keyboarding class. During my junior and senior years I took a mix of acting, photography, and sculpture. I also participated in multiple clubs after the school day was done, my favorite being Asian Club. Outside of class I fell in love with movies and the idea of filmmaking, renting both classic and foreign films from the local Blockbuster, developing my taste in them. I also dreamed of international travel, and began looking deeply into the possibility of backpacking through Europe.             By the time I graduated from high school I was debating between two main careers. I was considering going into filmmaking, maybe even becoming a director like Steven Spielberg or Akira Kurosawa. On the other end of the spectrum, I was thinking about beco

            I was born in Corpus Christi, Texas back in 1987. My Dad was in sales while my Mom was a former flight attendant (a job she would later return to). I had grandparents that had been in the military, and later on worked in hotels and grocery stores. Now I am currently living in China, teaching little kids English.             Did any of my parents or grandparents imagine that I would be here, doing what I’m doing now?             How did I get here? * * *             When I was a child, I had a plan already charted out for me. I first dreamed of being an astronaut at eight, and by the age of ten, I thought that I had the whole thing, practically my entire life, planned out perfectly. I would get a Bachelor’s degree (if not higher) in either engineering or one of the sciences, and become an aerospace engineer (or perhaps an astrophysicist). If I weren’t working directly for NASA, then I’d be either at Boeing or Lockheed Martin (or perhaps even design rides for Disney

            I came across a news article on my Facebook feed , and was reading some of the comments on it. The article and the comments were in response to the latest Christopher Nolan movie “Tenet” being pushed back until a later date. At least one of the commenters was saying that maybe it’s time movie theaters go extinct, like the way video rental stores are virtually non-existent. They reasoned that with the advancements in home media technology, and with the addition of this pandemic, that it was time to be done with movie theaters for good.               Personally I think movie theaters still have a place in our society, and should continue to exist.             Granted, at this point in time I think it’s beyond wise for movie theaters to withhold putting their films into theaters, thanks to this pandemic. And there have been a few movies that have had straight-to-video and streaming releases thanks to this worldwide situation. For example, movies made primarily for childre

            Natalie Portman is an amazing actress to say the least. She’s been an amazing actress ever since her first role as Mathilda in “Leon: The Professional,” when she was just twelve! Portman played probably one of the more interesting characters in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, portrayed Jackie Kennedy with absolute perfection, and has done a ton of other amazing roles. As if that wasn’t enough, Natalie Portman also graduated from Harvard and speaks several languages .             Okay, now here’s where I get into my possibly controversial opinion. I was not really a fan of the movie “Black Swan” or Natalie Portman’s role in it. As you probably know, “Black Swan” is a 2010 movie about a ballet dancer who goes insane and is trying to be a perfect ballerina. It was a critical and commercial success, and Portman won the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in it (she also meet her husband, the French dancer Benjamin Millepied, while working on the movie too

            There are a lot of things I like to do with computers. I enjoy listening to music, watching movies and TV, simply browsing social media and the Internet as a whole, uploading and editing photos, and writing (which of course includes writing for this blog of mine). But I wouldn’t consider myself the most tech savvy or even the most tech loving person in the world. For example, at one point I attempted to get into coding and turn it into a career (which didn’t turn out well and is a story for another day).             One thing that I do enjoy doing “the old way” as opposed to doing with a computer is drawing and painting. In the past I have experimented with drawing software, and even with a tablet, but for some reason I greatly prefer to draw and paint with actual pencils and paints rather than a computer program. Perhaps this has something to do with the way my brain is wired, or maybe my hands just like the way paintbrushes feel rather than a digital pen.            

            There’s an episode of “Seinfeld” in which an associate of the gang is going through the AA program. This man has been struggling with alcoholism and dealing with the loss of his job, among other things. George, typical of him, doesn’t take this into account. Instead he looks forward to getting an apology from him since one of the AA steps is to apologize for everything one has ever done wrong. To put things into perspective, George wants an apology for this man not lending him a cashmere sweater years beforehand. When this man fails to give an apology, George goes to extreme measures to get one, even confronting this man’s sponsor.             Overall apologizes can be a good thing. They can help make a person acknowledge their mistakes, make the one they’re apologizing feel better, and help both move on. Hopefully the one making the apology will also make a sincere effort to do better in the future. But it seems to me that the ones we most desire to hear a sincere a

            I’m not really a fan of L. Ron Hubbard. I’ve never been a believer in either Dianetics or Scientology; I could perhaps go on about why I’m against it, but several people who have actually been in the religion could probably do a better job (including Leah Remini ). In addition I’ve read a little of his non-religious writing, and it’s very ehhh . I tried to read “Battlefield Earth” once but didn’t get into it, and have read some of his short stories. But I’m not really here to talk about L. Ron Hubbard’s writing or the religion he founded. No, instead I want to talk about one particular quote of his that I have come across, and why I disagree with it.             In some of his books on Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard has this quote of his included. “When reading a book, be very certain that you never go past a word you do not fully understand. The only reason a person gives up a study or becomes confused or unable to learn is because he or she has gone past a word that w