Justin Cecil's Blog

There's a quote that comes to mind from the inventor and entrepreneur Thomas Edison. "Restlessness is discontent and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure." Now don't get me wrong, it can be really good to be thankful for what you have in life, whether it's your job, your home, or simply for the basics like food and oxygen. However, there is a huge difference between being thankful and being satisfied. I vividly remember reading the school newspaper once, either in middle or high school. One of the student reporters had written an article about the horrors of human trafficking and modern day slavery. Understandably I was saddened and horrified while reading this article, and hoped that at the end of said article there would be information about what to do to hopefully combat human trafficking. I was thinking that there would be information about signing petitions, writing to politici...

Early in the comedy film "Office Space," we see several characters talking about the drudgery of working in a jungle of cubicles. One of the older employees, who has been working in these types of companies for far longer than the protagonists that are in their twenties and thirties states, "You know there are people in this world that don't have to put up with all this shit?" He then goes on to state that the best way to escape working a 9-to-5 job would be to come up with a product and make a ton of money off of it. His perfect example of such a product is, of all things, the pet rock. One of the younger employees then says skeptically, "You think the pet rock was a really great idea?" And the veteran employee then says, "Sure it was. The guy made a million dollars." This scene made me think about, "What makes an idea great?" I suppose an idea which generates a lot of money for the inventor and investors could be co...

A few days ago I took an online survey and made a little extra money. This particular survey was all about pizza brands, in particular Pizza Hut. I figured that this would be a good survey for me to take, being the foodie (and pizza lover) that I am; the organization that made this survey obviously could have used my help. While I was in the middle of taking the survey, one question in particular stood out. "Do you take pride in eating at or ordering from Pizza Hut?" I rolled my eyes when I read that question. Now, there wasn't a comments section for that question, but instead there was a yes or no scale. But if there was a comments section, my answer would have been along the lines of... "No, I do not take pride in eating at or ordering from Pizza Hut. I greatly  enjoy  Pizza Hut, and will more than likely continue to eat their food and order from them in the future, but I do not take pride  in ordering from a particular pizza chain. I don't necessaril...

I've been stuck inside my current place of residence for four days in a row now! I am currently living in the state of Washington in a lovely town called Bellevue, which is now completely covered in snow. Since I've been stuck inside I have tried to keep busy by looking for new jobs and places to live (someplace warm!), writing, watching Netflix and youtube, getting creative with the food in the kitchen, and setting up a deviantart account for my artwork ( https://www.deviantart.com/justincecil , go check it out!). While I have been keeping busy, I really want to be able to get out of the house! Anyway, in addition to going stir crazy, I am able to get a lot of thinking done while I am stuck inside with the snow. And I remembered several years ago, having a conversation about "Saturday Night Live" with a friend of mine. I remember talking about the sketches that we liked, and he said that he didn't like the political sketches they were doing (this was when Obam...

When I was in college I saw a little movie called "Eraserhead," which is the directorial debut of David Lynch. David Lynch is known for movies that are often regarded as strange by other people, and "Eraserhead" honestly makes the rest of his filmography seem normal by comparison. I doubted that I would ever come across a film that was stranger. But recently I came across a little gem directed by Tyler Perry called "Acrimony." I rented it, and yes, this may be stranger and more memorable than anything David Lynch, or any other filmmaker whose work I've witnessed, has directed. This movie left me speechless! In order to fully explain why this movie was memorable, I'm probably going to have to give a recap of the entire plot. So yes, spoilers ahead. This film begins with our main character, Melinda (played by Taraji P. Henson, whom I must say did an excellent job, at least given the material she had) being ordered by a judge to stop ha...

I seldom ever discuss politics on my blog, and quite frankly I don't even think I'm really discussing politics in this particular post. I'm really just discussing common sense, decency, and respect. As you may be aware, earlier this month, Clemson University football players were invited to the White House after becoming national champions. Now, one would think that the President of the United States would gather together the best chefs in all the nations and have them make a feast worthy of gods and champions. President Donald Trump, in the same room in which a portrait of Abraham Lincoln is looking down upon him, presented a feast of fast food, consisting of McDonald's, Wendy's, Domino's pizza, and the like. He looked extremely proud of himself, talking about how he paid for the meal (a meal which even the most broke college student could probably afford every now and then) out of his own pocket during the government shutdown. And the college players, in the...

When I first started this blog I had originally planned on writing at least one post per week. Unfortunately it's been over a month since I last wrote a post, although I plan on writing more as 2019 goes on. I have been busy throughout the past several weeks, between celebrating the holiday season (shopping and the like), celebrating my 31st birthday (celebrated with meatloaf and Key Lime pie!), transitioning between jobs, organizing and tidying up my stuff (donating a fair amount to Goodwill and selling things at Half-Price Books), looking for a new apartment, and my multitude of projects. Almost a week ago I had my final day as a sales associate at Bergman Luggage. Soon I will begin training at my new job at Horizon Airlines. Recently saw both "Aquaman" and "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" in the theater; I saw them both on Tuesday since I had the day off and since tickets on Tuesday are often cheaper. Both really fun, emotional and exciting films. ...