Justin Cecil's Blog

The 2006 film "Eight Below" is a story based very loosely on real events, about a team of scientists living in Antarctica who, in an emergency, end up having to leave their dogs behind, and come back to rescue them. Overall it's a pretty good movie, filled with good characters, great cinematography, and moments that are oftentimes either thrilling or heartfelt (and of course there are the dogs, which let's be honest, is the main draw of the film). However, there is one thing that I'm baffled by every time I've seen this movie. Before the main characters end up having to leave their dogs behind in the cold, unforgiving wilderness of the South Pole, a scientist named Dr. Davis McClaren shows up in order to study a meteorite that has landed nearby. While settling into bed for the night at the Arctic base, one of the characters states that he's a cartographer. The intelligent scientist who has just travelled to the bottom of the world to study a meteorit...

I've been reading a lot of articles in the news lately about the gap between the rich, poor, and middle class. One thing I've noticed and thought about is the fact that if you're a multimillionaire or a billionaire, you can do stuff that, if you were poor or even homeless, would make you look insane; people will instead refer to you as eccentric. People will celebrate so-called eccentric behavior that a billionaire might do, that they would look down upon if a homeless person did it. Here's an example. The late Steve Jobs, despite his contributions to our modern world (although from my understanding Steve Wozniak was more of the actual computing genius while Jobs was much better at the business aspect, but I digress) an extremely eccentric person. He was not only a vegetarian, but ate strictly only certain types of fruits, which would make the average vegetarian do a double take. At least during his early years Jobs went about barefoot in the Apple offices (and at Ata...

I had the day off from my day job the other day, and decided to use my MoviePass to go see a film. One of the choices on my app was the new DisneyNature documentary "Penguins," so I decided to go see it (it also coincidentally turned out to be National Penguin Day, April 25th). Before going to see the movie in downtown Bellevue I had some time and was hungry; rather than wait and get popcorn I stopped by the local Jack in the Box, one of my favorite fast food chains (this ended up actually costing me less than purchasing popcorn in a theater). That was when the incident happened.  There were two people in front of me in line. The man at the very front tried to order something, but apparently they had run out of that item. The man sighed, and asked if he could at least have a cup for water (the weather is getting warmer). So the cashier hands him a small clear cup for water, and he heads to the soda machine. Now, I suppose maybe (and this is a big maybe) som...

"A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of life." - Muhammad Ali, boxer Sometimes people are afraid to change their opinions. Not only that but people are oftentimes afraid to change course in life, or at least in some aspect of their lives, whether it be career, relationships, or otherwise. But one of the best examples of changing an opinion that I can think of comes from the infamous late film critic Roger Ebert. Early in his film criticism career, back in 1967, Roger Ebert praised the movie "The Graduate." He gave it four stars out of four, and the world seemed to agree with him. To this day it remains a classic coming-of-age story filled with comedy and taboo acts. In 1997 "The Graduate" was rereleased for its thirtieth anniversary, and Ebert reviewed it again. This time he was more critical of the movie, giving it three stars out of four. Not bad at all, but not nearly as good as it wa...

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...