Thoughts on Why I Identify With and Am A Huge Fan Of Kevin Smith

So throughout my years of maturing and growing up I have really been influenced on the works of Kevin Smith and I fully realized this tonight while watching his third filmed Q&A that I got on Netflix this weekend.

Seeing how he interacts with fans and meeting him despite the fact he is a millionaire and successful filmmaker, he has an everyday man personality that everyone can relate to on way or another. Hearing him speak on certain topics and situations he has been in, he is reacting very similarly to how I would imagine I would react. For example, the whole getting kicked off the plane situation a few months back. He wasn't really bothered at the fact that he was sort of attacked it was about another heavy-set person was treated in a similar way on the same flight, thats when he got mad and took it personally. I definitely identify with that, because I've been through a sort of similar situation. Last fall, a person, lets call them Marty, made a close friend of mine cry in a public place, and I was more mad at Marty than the friend who was made to cry. My close friend understood why I took it so persnally and eventually I ended the grudge I had with Marty but it was a good 7 months where I wasn't talking to this person because we were friends at one point but we had a falling out before this event but this made me furious.

Basically my point is people can do whatever they so choose to me in terms of ridicule and how they act toward me, because I've been through hellish situations and have just conditioned my mind and heart to go through whatever is thrown at it. But the moment someone crosses a good friend of mine in a negative manner, I become what most would consider overprotective, but I just become irate and furious with the person, I don't really express it to them, but if it comes up in conversation, then my frustrations come out, so lesson is don't mess with my friends.

Where was I...oh yea Kevin Smith

I also relate to Kevin by way of humor, which is a huge part of my life. In fact growing up as a teen, his films helped form parts of my sense of humor, which helps in my great personality that, I feel, people seem to like and gravitate towards when meeting them. His films are hilarious because they are about regular people in not too farfetched of plots, excpet Zac and Miri and Dogma, stuff in his movies is totally possible. His movies seem to be about the human spirit and how people deal with each other. I like that for some reason.

Lastly, out of all the celebrities I follow and keep tabs on, Kevin Smith seems to really care about his fans, his Q&A's are absolutely a blast to be at, they are always classified as stand up shows, but all they are a 5-10 minute opening and then Kevin fielding questions from the audience for 2-6 hours, depending on the venue's allowance of time. I've been to two of them, one in 2006 at St. Cloud State, where I got to meet him and go on stage and explain my bracelets to him and 3,000 people in the arena. It was a surreal experience.

How the story goes is I got in line early and asked a question that he went on for 20 minutes on, which made me glad that my question provided him the opportunity to tell such a long story. Before I asked my question, I gave him props for wearing for also wearing shorts in such a harsh Minnesota winter. Mind you it was -40 outside, one of the coldest nights I've ever been out in Minnesota, and his response was, “you're wearing them too? Yea we're both fucking retarded.” This was one of two moments that made my night because Kevin Smith, one of my favorite famous people, put him and myself in the same category, not the most glorious of categories, but for that brief moment I was the same class as him. I asked my question which was about his involvement with the Green Hornet film and that was that.

Then my new friend Rebecca, who I met on the message boards on Kevin's website, sounds normal now but back in 2006, it was out of the ordinary for me. She asked one of the last questions and after getting an answer asked for me and her to get a photo with him, which he totally obliged.

After that he made a comment to the audience about my bracelets and I was walking away and turned my head back and he was looking at me, and I asked him if he wanted me to explain them to him, and he said yea. After doing, 2 years of journalistic work, I don't get starstruck anymore, but back then I so totally did. Holding up my hands and telling Kevin and the audience what each of my bracelets meant, made my hands shake, it was crazy. I will always remember this moment, partially because I have an audio recording of it, but also because he was the biggest celebrity I had ever met, before then I had met Dan Marino, but Kevin Smith in my mind, is a bigger deal. I just remember sitting down with Rebecca after explaining my bracelets, and just being on cloud 9. So awesome of an experience.

As I was walking off stage and sitting back in my chair, he made a remark that when he was growing up, guys would collect braclets for every BJ they got from a girl, and asked from a distance as I was in my sweet, is that what their also for? I yelled and shook my head no.

I saw him again live in 2009, and didn't plan on seeing him because I was unemployed and had little money to spend on tickets. But the Minnesota Daily had a giveaway for some tickets, and I won a pair so me and my friend Jessica went and had a blast.

For a movie director to interact with his fans, whether it be QandAs or how he used to do it which is on his websites message boards, and nowadays Twitter. Even after all these years he still respects his fans and loves interacting with them. I feel it keeps him straight and helps him enjoy the life he has, because being able to keep in touch with his fans as he does, helps him know where he comes from.

So I guess thats my thoughts on Kevin Smith and why I am a fan of him.

My Bike Accident and the Events That Followed After

So I've told a lot of people this story but I wanted to make sure I had all the details down in on place to refer back to when I keep telling this story time after time.

On, June 12, 2010, I was riding down 4^th ST into NE Minneapolis on a light rainy Saturday to a baby shower when upon crossing Central and 4^th I pass an alley and before I realize to stop a car comes out of this alley quickly and T-bones my bike sending me off of it. At this point I should note I wasn't wearing a helmet and blacked out upon impact of the ground I'm assuming. I wake up to the woman driving the car in tears, on her knees, at my side, and apologizing for hitting me. I get the sense people are rushing over to see the accident and seeing if they can help, someone calls 911 and I try to get up but can't because my right arm is in pain, very soon the ambulance arrives and I am a little more with it but still not completely out of the daze I was in.

A cop arrives first, I remember and asks me for my name and if he wants to call anyone, and I thought to call Adam, whose wife's baby shower I was on my way to, but thought not yet, I can wait til I'm in the ambulance for that. They ask me where I live and what hospital I want to be taken to, I tell them fairview because it is closest to my house, but they thought HCMC would be a better choice. The EMT, whose name escapes me, I asked for it but have forgotten it, she was really nice though, she helps me up into the ambulance and I am told to lay down on the stretcher, she hooks an IV into me and knows that my arm is in pain and tells me not to move it. I pull out my phone and ask her if she could call my friend Adam and tell him whats going on. She does and that alarmed some people at the party, I felt bad because I was bringing my Sega Genesis over so the guys had something to do while the women did what women usually do at baby showers. After she gets done talking to Adam on the phone she says he said tell me, to give him a call when I am done in the hospital and he would pick me up.

I then realize the cost of an ambulance ride is a lot and I let out a slight groan and the EMT asks whats wrong, and I say I just realized all this is going to cost me a lot because I don't have health insurance, and she assures me the lady who hit me, her car insurance should cover most of it. That calms me down a lot, and it was now or slightly before, the EMT asks me my info and what day it is, to make sure I don't have amnesia. And soon enough we arrive at Hennepin County Medical Center, or HCMC for short. I had never rode in an ambulance or been moved on a stretcher before, so all this was kind of cool because it was a new to me.

They set me in a room and moved me from stetcher to hospital bed, my room wasn't a real hospital room, it was one with a curtain so I could hear my “neighbors” and they had going on. So I had a doctor come in and assess the situation and see what was going on, then he sent in a male nurse and later another nurse came in and I think this where they gave me a liquid pain killer for what was no known that it was my elbow that was in pain. Then a girl named Sarah came in and took a survey that was taken to help with the hospital judging the relationship between pain paitients experience and quality of care given. She was nice to see and chat with because she was my age and I could relate to her and she came in every half hour to do this survey. I later found out she was a student at Mcallister College and the survery thing was her summer job and she was majoring in public health, but career wise was thinking of becoming a mid-wife.

So 30 minutes pass and nobody comes to check up on me and I know I am supposed to get an x-ray on my arm but must be a busy day. With all this time to myself I pull out my phone and try to find a way to watch the world cup match between the USA and England. I tried a few broadcasts on the Ustream android app but none of them worked right. So I searched for an Espn Radio stream that was broadcasting the game. Sarah comes in again and asks a few more questions and asks about the score of the World Cup game and it was 1-1 at halftime. She leaves then a kid doing the same job as Sarah, heard the broadcast from my phone and had to ask for the score. I thought it was great 10 minutes of listening to the match and two hospital workers had already asked me for the score.

So more time passes but a nurse checks in with me and I am taken to get an x-ray, I get it done and it was so weird being told by the radiologist to hold still and my very tender elbow is being put in positions that are kind of painful to be in, and I'm trying to hold it still but its in pain no matter what the position so it has the slight shakes and I guess I did ok because later I didn't hear anything about taking bad x-rays.

So after x-rays I go back and wait what seems too long for the x-rays to turn up and the doctors get a look at them and say everything is good, but they wanted to get the final say from the radiologist. And until we heard back from the radiologist I couldn't get a glass of water because x-rays are better done on empty stomachs, mind you I hadn't had anything to eat, maybe some water before I left my house initially which was 2 hours ago at this point. I was really thirsty but I guess I had to wait. So after another visit from Sarah, who was asking my satisfaction of the care and pain level. Also it was about this time a male nurse who wasn't working on me and was in his late 40s-early 50s, but did hear about what happened, stopped by to tell about his bad experience as a biker in the cities and how he got hit once and the driver drove away. It was sad to hear and made me feel better, that the driver was really caring in my situation.

Little later on, they heard from the radiologist and said everything was ok, which I wasn't surprised because almost every single x-ray I have ever had, has been negative, I guess all that milk and orange juice my mom made me drink paid off by having strong bones. So at this point, one of the doctors, who tells me I should go to a clinic in a week for a check up on my elbow, and she could see me because she works at that clinic, and that they are going to prescribe me vicodin, and everyone who comes in after that, warns me about it, I've heard it from friends. But that doctor got some antiseptic spray and cleaned up my wounds with a sponge.

Then Kathy came in, I remember her name because she made the whole experience really fun, she was an older woman, possibly in her 50s, maybe 60s. She brought this computer to register me, and it she finds out the hospital messed up in how they registered me as Michael Wells, and not Adam Wells, Michael is middle name, now you all know. So she had to go through get all my info, gave me some info on getting qualified for financial aid for medical bills for people who are unemployed, and other forms. But she was just honest about her job and how she felt, and she felt some people don't like her there and that some of the docs are out to get her, but at this time Adam called and she said it was okay to take the call but she still asked for my info to enter into the computer and it was hard balancing both conversations, and she overheard me and Adam talking about going to the police station to pick up my bike because he had access to car with a bike rack, and the way Kathy heard it, she thought I was going to ride my bike home that day. After the phone call I explained no, no, no, and I told what was actually going to happen. I can't convey the enjoyment she gave me seeing someone honest about how they felt about their job, actually at their job, it was hilarious to me.

I was given a sling and my prescription and sent on my way, and Adam arrived just as I was about to sit down in the lobby to wait for him. Then we went and got my bike from the police station. And hung out with Adam and his wife, Kara, and friends for the rest of the day and night.

So I get home and have to figure out really fast how to do things with my left hand. The most difficult I found was sleeping. I usually sleep on my right side, and it was definitely not happening with this injured elbow, and I had a very sleepless night trying on my back and on my left side, my body just had to get used to it and I hope it will in the next few days. But I did find while trying to sleep, Icy Hot is so far the best relief for the pain on my elbow, feels oh so good on it.

So besides going to church and going through a morning routine and getting used to limited access to my right arm, the weirdest thing was taking two Vicodin tablets and just gettting really drowsy and falling asleep during the Australia vs Germany World Cup match. I woke up, my elbow didnt hurt...until I tried to move it.

So thats the tale of my bike accident and some of the events that followed it. Leave a comment if you have any further questions about it.

Until next...stay safe, because I certainly will try to.

Pre-Tourney Thoughts on the World Cup

So I've noticed I haven't written about sports since starting this blog back in January, yea I know I dont post regularly, so what? But sports are huge passion and my first sports blog is about the World Cup which is soccer which is my least favorite sport ironically enough. So I have a few thoughts on the World right before it starts in 8 hours from when I started writing this.

So from what I have heard and briefly read America actually has a shot at the field of 16 this year. Which is a bold statement since America has England in their pool but with injuries and not being as good as they were in past years, England isn't looking to all that hot this year. Also I was reminded of the fact that USA fell just short of winning the gold medal in hockey at this years winter olympics (which I watched with my then girlfriend at the time who fell asleep watching the game, we broke up a month later, I wonder why) they couldn't get the miracle done maybe America can pull of a World Cup victory and make the whole rest of the world mad because mens soccer is the last frontier America has yet to conquer, and in all honesty they probably won't, but I would make for an amazing story to unravel through the next month of soccer.

In past years I have cared so less for the World Cup because I really didn't like soccer but I think honesty since friending a soccer player back in college, soccer became more noticeable and apparent to me. Mind I won't go out of my way to watch it, well maybe with the world cup because nothing else is on until the Tour de France starts July 3^rd and unless my story book tale comes true America will be long gone out of the tournament by then and I won't be watching, maybe I'll root for Ireland aka The Motherland in my book (YAY Irish roots) are they any good in the World Cup? Maybe if they have some Irish coffee to start the day off.

Other than that I don't care too much for the World Cup, I know I should because it brings a sort of unity among each country and the world as we all tune into this one athletic event. I just bored by soccer, anytime I watch it, I just feel Eh? Change the channel. I honestly feel if America had better announcers for soccer, it would have more attention, but can you name one famous American Soccer broadcaster? No you can't, your first thought is probably the Spanish guy who screams GOOOOOAAAALLLL!!! And then you realize you've never sat through an entire soccer match on television, why? Because of no good announcers. If they let Gus Johnson, who probably doesnt know much about soccer, announce, I guarantee you ratings for soccer in America would double, because the announcer makes the boring parts of a game just as interesting as the intense parts.

Wow I start of with World Cup and end on Gus Johnson, if you don't who Gus Johnson is, first off shame on you, secondly google some videos of his play by play its A-MAZING.

My last thought is basically me saying how one music video on the YouTube is the only reason I feel I am excited at all for the World Cup. Its pretty amazing and the song accompaning the video is just as awesome, watch the video leave a comment on this blog and tell me your thoughts on the World Cup, or even if you care to watch the World Cup.

Until next time...stay safe

Why Do People Give Up On Their Dreams?

So today I ran into an old friend, and she was graduated from college and working as a waitress at a local estabilishment. It made me start to wonder and even after 9 miles of biking after seeing her I was still thinking about it. Most people who go to college have dreams and aspirations. But after we toss the caps in the air we either go after those dreams full force or just fall into a system in the regular normal working world. What exactly happens to those who give up on those dreams? Why do they give up on those dreams?

I can give some insight as its been a year since I graduated and I'm certainly in a similar boat but after losing my data entry I am focusing on what career I want to pursue, which is in radio, and after a rough first year out of college I have some thoughts to write about on this topic.

Life goals that come are pursued by a lot of us but through the way life goes, I feel some of us find something we value more than what we aspired to be. Whether it be a special someone, another calling, or a group of friends you want to stick with more than getting that illustrious career. With that in mind, I have to say I really do enjoy the friends I have that have put up with me through tough times and still find me enjoyable after all the time I've known them. But if this year of being much more anti-social has taught me anything, its that I can find new friends I did this year and am very happy hanging out with them. But I know I can find just as much joy with new people if I have to move for a new job. I guess its the independent only child rearing its head in my voice because though I know I need good people in my life I know I can find more wherever I go.

People who blame the system or economy for not being in the career they wanted have a little more explaining to do. From what I've noticed, because I've even fell victim to this, is people like the independence they have achieved and like the place they live in that they get too comfortable and aren't willing. This past year I really have figured out that I should have moved back home after graduation, especially after my plans to do missions work in Miami, Florida fell through. It was stupid to think I would be able to find a steady job in a metro area in some audio or video production field, I didn't I ended up finding a data entry job that at the end wasn't the best but was fun to do for awhile. But moving back home though it seems horrible and torturous because I know I can only stand my mother for so long without going totally insane, in the end its worth it, what is a little non-comfortable living now, to be able to live very comfortably in the long run and be completely happy in what I do in the long run, thats how I look at it, and how I will live it once my lease is up in August. If I haven't found a full time job by then, I am moving back to Michigan to continue my career search from Muskegon.

I am starting to get distracted now and need to end this blog, let me end on an uplifting note. If you have let go of your dreams and fell into a place of job complacement, ask yourself if you really enjoy, not just your job, but life in general, and can you see yoursef enjoying more in another way. If you think its too late to change your life and pursue old aspirations, its not go for it full force, if you think your really good at what you want to do and know, not think, know you can be successful at it, go for it and enjoy life at the same time. Life is a journey, make sure yours is fun and filled with twists and turns, because one day you may have to tell the story of your journey, don't you want your story to be enjoyable to hear as well as tell?

Until next time...stay safe.