Hope your Christmas doesn’t bite.

Merry Christmas, folks. It’s often said that show business works on a system of one for them, one for me. And while it can be said that this whole blog isn’t for anyone else; this post is well and truly one for me.

Hey Arnold is a show that holds a special place in my heart. As one of the first shows on Nickelodeon, Hey Arnold was as grounded and real as any 90s cartoon could be. The show featured Arnold living in the big city in an apartment building owned by his grandparents. Arnold was often joined by his best friend Gerald and a diverse cast of kids and adults to solve problems for people around the city.

Arnold’s first Christmas episode hit the air on December 11, 1996. And now on December 25th, 2023, we will reflect on greed, “the true meaning of Christmas” and war.

The first thing to note is that this episode comes in at 23 minutes long. Most of Arnold and company’s adventures were separated into two 11-ish minute segments. Look no further than the absolute banger Arnold’s Hat/The Stoop Kid. Despite this, the episode is still separated into two stories. Story 1 focuses on Arnold and Gerald trying to reunite a family for Christmas. Story 2 is about Helga trying to find the perfect Christmas present for Arnold.

The setup for story 1 is simple: Arnold draws the name of Mr. Hyunh, a quiet Asian man who lives alone in the building, for the apartment secret Santa. Arnold doesn’t know much about Mr. Hyunh and so decides to pay him a visit.

Talking in the apartment, Arnold realizes that his initial ideas for presents don’t seem to be going over very well. Mr. Huynh tells Arnold that the Christmas season is often a sad time of year for him. What comes next is something that can’t be described in a blog post. I’ll do my best.

Mr. Huynh explains that a long time ago he lived in “another country, far away” and had a little girl named Mai. However, there was “trouble in my country, a war in the north and every day the fighting was coming closer and closer.” Mr. Huynh tells us that as the situation got worse he worried about his ability to provide for his daughter and knew that the only way was to get out. We see Mr. Huynh, holding his daughter, break through a barricade and make it to the top of a building with a helicopter waiting to take off. He pleads with the soldier to let him and his daughter get on but there is only room for one. Mr. Huynh holds out Mai and the soldier takes her. The helicopter takes off and Mr. Huynh stands alone.

Now that your heart is officially broken because you tuned into Nickelodeon at the wrong time, Mr. Huynh tells Arnold that it took him 20 years to get out of the country and that he has never stopped looking for Mai.

One of the hallmarks of Hey Arnold is that Arnold is the greatest goddamn kid who has ever lived. As a result of that, he decides that he will reunite Mr. Huynh and his daughter for Christmas. Gerald, rightfully so, tells Arnold that he is crazy.

Despite this, Arnold and Gerald roll up to their local government information office. There they find that there is one person left working on Christmas Eve. Mr. Bailey, who is just the slimiest man, tells them that he can’t help. Arnold tries to reason with him but Bailey is not swayed. However, after Mr. Bailey speaks to his wife, he agrees to help Arnold if he and Gerald do his last-minute Christmas shopping for him. Armed with a shopping list and cash from Mr. Bailey the two best friends set out on a shopping montage for the ages.

The final item for Arnold to get is an official pair of Nancy Spumoni snow boots. The two boys are turned away and even laughed at by every shoe salesman in town. Defeated, they return to Mr. Bailey who tells them that without the snow boots, they have no deal.

Story 2, featuring Helga, is more straightforward. Helga who pretends to hate Arnold but also secretly loves him plans to buy him the perfect Christmas gift. Helga begins the episode by telling us that she loves Christmas because of the presents and that it’s all about getting yours before the other guy gets his. I wonder if she will have a change of heart by the end of the episode.

After shopping around for a little while she realizes that every present she can think of is no good for one reason or another. After talking with the other school kids, she runs into Arnold and Gerald on their shopping trip. She talks with them and follows them attempting to figure out what to buy Arnold. Eventually, Helga overhears the boys’ conversation about their failure to get the snow boots. Helga goes home defeated to find her parents and older sister celebrating Christmas.

Helga’s mom (or as Helga calls her, Meriam) sees that Helga is depressed and lets her open one of her presents on Christmas Eve. This is a good time to mention that Helga is often portrayed as having a fraught relationship with her parents. Helga often feels like she is ignored in favor of her older sister and many episodes of the series focus on this. However, this is a very nice moment between Helga and her mother as Meriam tells us she waited for hours to buy Helga this present.

What is this present you ask? An official pair of Nancy Spumoni snow boots. As Helga runs outside with the boots she has “another moral dilemma.” She can either keep the boots which are “really boss” (this is the 90s in case you were wondering) or she can give them to Mr. Bailey and look for Mai.

Since this is a Christmas special, Helga runs to the government office to give Mr. Bailey the boots. However, Mr. Bailey is having none of it and tells Helga that he is going home. Helga pleads with him to stay and help her. As Mr. Bailey is about to get into a cab, Helga asks him to perform a Christmas miracle.

Back at the apartment building, Arnold sits defeated as the secret Santa gifts are handed out. Realizing that Mr. Huynh has yet to get a present Grandpa hears a knock at the front door. Thinking that this is a “yuletide prankster” he goes to answer. Arnold begins to try to explain what happened to Mr. Huynh but before we know it, Mai is standing in the doorway and the two reunite. Arnold and Gerald chalk it up to a Christmas miracle.

Outside, Helga stands with a tear in her eye and says, “Merry Christmas, Arnold.” Roll credits.

I think there are two main things to analyze here, Helga’s emotional journey and the depiction of the Vietnam War.

Despite the fact that this episode is titled Arnold’s Christmas, I would argue that this Christmas belongs to Helga. Her story is the main arc of the episode. There is nothing new about a greedy person who learns the spirit of giving during the holiday season. It’s only slightly less common than Christmas in peril.

However, in Hey Arnold, we get to see Helga in a much different light than we normally do. She is portrayed as having a healthy relationship with her mother and putting Arnold’s needs in front of her own. In many episodes, Helga is the antagonist or the anti-hero. In Arnold’s Christmas, Helga gets to be the true hero and I think that’s a fun twist.

Speaking of twists, a slightly less fun one is the depiction of war in a fun holiday special for kids. You may notice while watching this episode that the country of Vietnam is never named. The Nickelodeon bosses thought this episode was too dark and wanted to cut it. However, after one Nickelodeon executive showed it to her 9-year-old son, and he responded positively, the episode was approved.

For many, Hey Arnold was the first time that the Vietnam War was portrayed from the perspective of someone who lived in Vietnam. Baoan Coleman, the voice actor for Mr. Hyunh and a real-life Vietnamese refugee, was heavily involved in the reproduction of this episode.

Obviously, I can’t say what the reaction to this episode would have been for an Asian-American family watching for the first time in the ’90s would have been. The app formerly known as Twitter didn’t exist back then. I can only imagine that people would have been saying what a triumph this episode is.

The existence of social media nowadays makes the story of this episode feel a bit quaint (just look her up on Facebook, Mr. Hyunh.) We can continue to poke holes in the plot of the episode. Why is a government building open on Christmas Eve? Why didn’t Mr. Hyunh go to the information office himself? Wouldn’t Mai also be looking for her father? Did Mr. Bailey really take the snow boots from a girl who just learned the true meaning of Christmas? These types of questions are valid but hey, this a vibes episode of Hey Arnold. And the vibes are good.

I would highly recommend a viewing of Arnold’s Christmas to anyone who hasn’t seen it. And I would recommend adding this one to your Holiday season rotation. I did some research for this one, so you can read the articles that I did here and here.

You will laugh and you will cry but most importantly you will be amazed at the writing and characterization in Hey Arnold. In the past few decades, the influence of Hey Arnold has waned. Arnold has been overshadowed by the likes of Aang, Timmy, Jimmy, and even Spongebob. Now, Arnold hangs out with Zim and Ginger in the world of cult-classic animated protagonists. I think this is both a shame and very fitting. Arnold is a quiet character meant to teach you a lesson about yourself. Not one to be constantly quoted or remembered. Arnold is just fine taking his turn in the spotlight.

Rating: A+

Greta’s best comment: “Go Spumon!” (You had to be there)

Next thing: I don’t know, something probably

Fancy running into you here. Since we last spoke, four years ago, I graduated college, a pandemic happened, I worked for a convenience store, got fired, and became a real professional newsboy. And in the best twist of fate, those things happened in that order.

So here we are, in the Year of Our Lord 2023. A new Studio Ghibli film has come out, I live in St. Joesph and the Chiefs have won the Super Bowl twice. What a time to be alive.

Anyway, I had the absolute pleasure of watching The Boy and The Heron in the theatre the other day. This is the latest release from Studio Ghibli and the *checks notes* “last” film from the 2nd greatest Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki. My use of punctuation marks in the previous sentence should convey the idea that Miyazaki has had more retirements than Brett Favre.

Now to be clear, I am a nerd. However, I am not enough of a nerd to watch this movie in Japanese. I debated watching the subtitled version or the English dub. I went with the dubbed version. Earlier this year, G and I went to see a presentation of Howl’s Moving Castle in COMO in Japanese with subs. I really enjoyed watching the film this way but I know Howl’s like the back of my hand.

Since I am seeing the film for the first time I figured that seeing it in English would help me better understand and follow what was going on. Also, the dubbed version was at 4:10 pm and I wanted to go when I thought there would be fewer people.

*Spoiler Alert*

After sitting through 25 minutes of ads and trailers (no joke) I saw Totoro and the movie began. We open with Mahita (the titular Boy) being woken up as the city is bombed around him. As he looks out on the city, the local hospital is on fire. His mom is still in the hospital.

Mahita runs through the fire (and the flames) but to no avail. His mother is dead. A few years pass and we see Mahito and his father moving to the countryside to meet Mahito’s new stepmom.

The next bit of the movie is pretty slow with one exception. Mahito sees a grey heron (the titular Heron) acting suspiciously and talking. He follows the heron and runs across a dilapidated tower. He attempts to enter the tower but is promptly stopped by the old housekeepers who run his stepmom’s house. His stepmom tells him to stay away from the tower.

The next day his dad takes him to school. Mahito gets into a fight with another student during recess. Mahito then picks up a rock and bashes himself in the head. An inordinate amount of blood comes dripping down.

Let me say that this scene is as visceral as anything I have ever seen in an animated film. This moment of self-harm will hit you like a ton of bricks. The panic attack scene in Puss In Boots: The Last Wish doesn’t hold a candle to this and that’s saying something. This is not a kid’s movie.

Following his self-inflicted wound, Mahito spends some time on bed rest. He farts around for a little while until Natsgo is very ill with “morning sickness.” Soon he sees Natsgo wandering off into the woods by herself. A search party forms and Mahito looks for Natsgo in the tower and one of the housekeepers attempts to prevent him from going in.

Turns out that the tower was built by Mahito’s great-granduncle. Only members of his bloodline can hear his calls to the tower. The Heron has “requested his presence” and he, along with the housekeeper, enters the tower with the promise that his mother is still alive.

In the tower, he is met by the Heron who shows him a recreation of his mother. Upon touching her she turns into water. Mahito is enraged and shoots the Heron with an arrow, hitting him in the beak. This reveals that the Heron is actually a man who has stuffed himself into some kind of heron costume. Additionally, we meet the Granduncle.

This is a perfect time to mention the voice acting in the English dub. The stand-out performance is Robert Pattinson as the Heron. His voice is menacing and fearful as the Heron but is contrasted by his cowardly and timid voice as the man in the costume. Pattinson, surprisingly enough, has never had a voice-acting role before. I didn’t recognize his voice, not that his voice is that recognizable in the first place, but I assumed that the Heron was voiced by Mark Hamill who is also in the film. Hamill, however, voices the granduncle. If I were Pattinson, I would feel pretty good about my voice acting being on par with Mark Hamill.

The granduncle sends Mahito, along with the Heron and the housekeeper, into a magical sea world beneath the floor. Mahito meets a woman sailing in a small craft who explains that this is a world where spirits wait to be born as people. After seeing some small figurines of the other housekeepers Mahito deduces that this woman is the housekeeper who came to the tower with him, named Kiriko. She forces Mahito and the Heron to work together to save Natsgo. The two work together and meet a girl named Lady Himi. Himi takes him to Natsgo’s delivery room but is sent away.

There is some additional plot here that I’m going to skip over. Eventually, Mahito meets the Granduncle. This fantasy world is kept in order by the Granduncle, but he needs a successor. He asks Mahito to stay and ensure this realm stays a beautiful and harmonious place. Shockingly, Mahtio refuses on the basis that he wants to live in the real world with his friends. Before returning to his proper place and time Lady Miki reveals to Mahito that she is is mother and must return to the past with the young version of Kiriko. In a very emotional scene, she tells Mahito that she is happy to have him as a son.

With that, the characters return to their proper place and all is well.

So, what is our boy Miyazaki trying to say? Mahito’s rejection of the fantasy world is Miyazaki telling us to live in the real world. And it is also the sobering realization that we are adults now. The days of renting Kiki’s Delivery Service (Service Station) from Blockbuster are over. Now you must go to work every day and pay your personal property tax, Miyazaki tells us. However, we can visit the fantasy world at our leisure. We are but one Max subscription away from flying with Porco Rosso, growing trees with Totoro, delivering packages with Kiki and giving stink spirits a bath with Chihiro.

In many ways, this is an autobiographical film. The Japanese title of the film is “How Do You Live?” after a 1937 novel of the same name. This book is left for Mahito by his mother in the film and is a noted inspiration of Miyazaki. Additionally, Miyazaki, who was born in 1941, has stated that some of his earliest memories of living in bombed-out cities in Japan. However, Mahito is not the only self-insert for Miyazaki.

The character of Granduncle is about as obvious of a self-insert since Shyamalan in The Lady in the Water. He talks about the fantasy world he has created and the great peace and harmony he has brought to his worlds. He laments his lack of a suitable successor. Miyazaki is 82 years old. Studio Ghibli is now a subsidiary of Nippon Television. Takahata died in 2018. Goro Miyazaki’s films have been less than stellar. This may be the last time we are invited to visit the whimsical worlds of Ghibli. There are a limited number of experiences to be had in the world. Miyazaki takes a bow in the final act of this film. There are many callbacks to previous Ghibli films in this movie, especially in the final act.

Miyazaki has hinted that this may not be his last film. Take that for what it is. I think these previous points lead to the biggest point. This film is lying to you. Mahito is being lied to. His mother is dead. The Heron is a man in a costume. He can’t save the world except to give up his own life.

You are no longer a child. This movie is not as good as Spirited Away. This might be the last Ghibli film. You cannot live in a fantasy world. You cannot resurrect your dead mother.

The time you have is precious. You cannot recreate your favorite movie. You only have so many days to spend with your mother. There are only so many Ghibli films you can watch.

Miyazaki invites us to make the most of our time. He asks us to live our lives to the best of our ability. In a way, he asks us “How Do You Live?”

That was sad.

Let’s brighten the mood. This film is great and the animation is great. It’s everything you could want despite the fact that there are no little aircraft. We should be glad that we get to have this experience so long after we had thought Studio Ghibli had left our lives.

I thought Ghibli had left when I stopped posting here started this blog. But here it is. If people go to the theatre then who knows? The Boy and The Heron was the #1 film at the US box office this weekend. It beat Beyonce in her second weekend. People love Ghibli and despite my pessimistic prognostications, I think this brand is strong.

I hope we get more Ghibli.

Rating: 4/5

Tim’s best comment: “Dang, and Miyazaki is directing it.”

Next Ghibli: I promised Only Yesterday in 2019. I’ll give it a look next week.

Hey guys, I’m back from Ireland. It was a pretty good time, the last day of traveling back was a bit hectic but overall, I’m glad I did it. I gained something intangible on the trip and I think that is the most important thing.

I saw Endgame for a second time. My sister and I went right before I left for Ireland. Greta and I have seen all the Avengers movies together. It’s a thing we do. I wanted to talk about this movie on my blog but since I hadn’t seen it for several weeks I thought it would be better if the movie was fresh in my mind. Before I dive into it let me just say, spoilers, spoilers yo. I can’t imagine that anyone who really wants to see it hasn’t at this point but still, spoilers.

So, sitting in the theatre with Greta in Columbia all the preshow stuff ended and the movie opened on an arrow. There hadn’t been any trailers though. We both thought that this was just a trailer, but then Jeremy Renner was on screen. Greta thought that it was just a trailer for another movie with Jeremy Renner, but it was Endgame. There were no trailers…weird. I don’t know if the theatre just messed up or if this was intentional. From moment one of the film, I was shook.

I’m not a fan of trailers. Just give me a movie, please. All movie trailers are online and get put on the trending page of Youtube. No one cares about seeing trailers in the theatre. This isn’t like when people bought tickets to see Meet Joe Black so they could see the trailer for The Phantom Menace and then leave.

Anyway, I won’t go blow by blow since this is a three-hour film. I’ll paint some broad strokes. There’s a scene early on where the camera holds on Tony Stark’s face for like 10 seconds. I leaned over to Greta and was like, “This is why the movie is three hours long.” I understand that it’s only 10 seconds but that kind of thing adds up in a long movie.

My expectations were subverted early on after they go to defeat Thanos only 15 minutes into the movie. However, I knew the whole time that the entire scene was bullshit. However, I did not expect that Thanos’ head would be cut off this early in the film. Rocket asks Thor what he just did and I leaned over to Greta and said, “I went for the head.” Then Thor said the line that I predicted he would say. Aren’t I a smart movie watcher?

Then the film cuts to five years later. I think my favorite part of the movie was Ant-Man was walking around the streets of San Fransico after exiting the quantum realm. He frantically searches for his daughter name on a monument built for those who vanished only to find his own. Upon returning home he meets his daughter, five years older. Paul Rudd’s acting is great during this sequence and overall, this is the stuff that I really liked in this movie. There are a number of character resolutions that the film offers, I’ll get more into this later.

Despite my love for this scene, it is my biggest problem with the movie. It’s almost post-apocalyptic. Everything is dirty, none of the trash has been picked up and it’s just very dark and grim. Just because half of the people on Earth die doesn’t mean that society and industry stops. Especially after five years, I’m sure that the trash picking up industry would still be a thing.

Moreover, these two films (Endgame and Infinity War) are both excellent films but once you apply some critical thinking to them they begin to break down. Just because you kill half the people on a planet doesn’t mean that people who previously poor and hungry will suddenly have access to resources. Some people will never have access to resources and that’s just the way it is. Just because half the people die doesn’t mean we’ll suddenly stop polluting. Maybe the film is just being optimistic that humans would learn their lesson. I find that doubtful.

All the heroes kind of wallow in misery for a little while which is fun, I enjoyed seeing superheroes crying and being sad. The best example of this is fat Thor. Basically, Thor is sad and does nothing but play Fortnite and drink beer all day and gets fat. There’s some great interaction with Thor, Hulk, Rocket, and Korg. Hemsworth is a very talented comedian and I guess they just now figured that out. I would a Big Lebowski remake starring Chris Hemsworth, please.

Sidenote: 3 of the 4 actors in this scene are CGI characters. I would love to see a scene like this starring Mark Ruffalo, Bradley Cooper, Taika Waititi and Chris Hemsworth as themselves and not wearing grey pajamas with ping-pong balls.

Eventually, they decide that they are going to use the quantum realm to travel through time, get the stones, snap their fingers and bring everyone back. They poo-poo any idea of affecting the present by changing the past. It gets a little confusing during this sequence. I’m fine with some amount of not caring about not affecting timelines, but when characters are killing their past selves I start asking questions.

Anyway, Thanos from the past comes back into the movie and this is probably the weakest aspect of the film. This Thanos hasn’t dealt with anyone in the movie yet which lowers the dramatic stakes. I think it would be a lot better if Thanos hadn’t been in the movie after he had been killed initially. It’s ironic since Thanos was the best part of Infinity War. This whole plot thread could have been cut and it would have been fine.

Then Tony Stark dies, whatever. Of course, he does. RDJ is obviously done with this series. I’m kind of done with Iron Man. Captain America lives out his life with Peggy Carter in the past. Ditto for Chris Evans. Black Widow dies too. All these characters had good send-offs, not just with their deaths but with the conclusions their character arcs had. Tony Stark talked to his dad, Black Widow makes a noble sacrifice for Hawkeye, Captain America lives the life he should have. All this stuff is the heart of this movie. I enjoyed seeing these characters getting their proper conclusions than giant GCI battles.

The movie was long but I really didn’t start to feel its length until after Iron Man’s funeral. For about the last 15 minutes I was like, “Let’s get this show off the road.” I don’t really give a shit about any future Marvel movies. Really super-hero movies, in general, I’m just kind of done with. I’ve seen enough from the genre for now. I’m not really sure how to end this blog post, more just a bunch of thoughts than anything else. I know that Marvel is re-releasing the film next weekend because they want to show that they can make more money than James Cameron. I think they need about another 30 or 40 million to become the highest grossing film of all time. Personally, I’d rather Endgame be the highest grossing film than Pocahontas in Space.

Anyway, bye, that’s all. The movie’s over go home. Which is what I did because ya boy ain’t sticking around to hear a noise at the end of the credits when he’s been in that theatre for 3 hours.

Rating: 4.5/5

Greta and Sam’s best moment: Rolling our eyes harder than we’ve ever rolled them at the shot of all the female superheroes ‘assembling’.

The last few days in Ireland have been somewhat hectic and I’ve been needing to chill out a little bit. We’ve been doing a lot of activities, going out to eat and being social. These activities are very tiresome for me. I needed to do something a bit relaxing today. I was thinking about playing golf but that seemed like more trouble than its worth considering I would have to take a taxi there and I wasn’t confident in the weather. So, I decided I would go see a movie at the theatre about a 25-minute walk away.

Instead of seeing Endgame again, which I debated, I  decided to see something I hadn’t seen before. Except for the fact that I have seen it before because it’s Aladdin. Let me say, I am a big fan of the original Aladdin. As a kid I watched it but my appreciation for it wasn’t fully realized until I saw it when I was a little older. It’s a really funny and clever movie, perfectly showing what made the Disney renaissance of the 90s great. Go watch Aladdin (1992) if you haven’t seen it in a while and I bet you’ll be surprised.

This version of Aladdin stars Will Smith. If you haven’t been living on Earth that may be news to you. Anyway, the film opens on Will Smith and he starts telling a story to his two children and singing a song to them. This is a really lame opening. In fact, most of the opening about 30 minutes of the film is quite, quite lame. Most of the scenes are poorly executed and contain bad acting from Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott. The scene in front of the cave with Jafar and Iago does not contain this line. Need I say more? That is the second Disney live-action remake to not contain my favorite line from the original.

I was further offended by the butchering of the One Jump Ahead song. It was truly awful and that is my favorite song from the movie. Anyway, Aladdin and Jasmine do their thing and he seduces her by stealing her stuff, which I think is bad relationship advice. Aladdin gets captured by Jafar and goes into the cave, meets the magic carpet, gets the lamp and gets trapped in the cave. You’ve seen it.

This was the part of the film I was most dreading after the horrible One Jump Ahead song. In spite of this, Friend Like Me was very well done by Will Smith. In fact, the entire role was very well done by Mr. Smith. Considering that James Earl Jones is Reprising his role in the upcoming Lion King remake it is likely that Robin Williams would have been asked to return to the role of the Genie for this film. However, RIP Robin Williams. Will Smith is a movie star in every sense. He has charm and charisma and he brings it to this role in a big way. Yes, he looks really odd when he is blue, but lets image what Robin Williams would look like if he were painted blue with his shirt off. I’m sorry I had to put that image in your brain.

They changed how Aladdin gets out of the cave in this film. In the original Aladdin goads the genie into letting him out of the cave to show his power. In this movie, they establish that you have to be touching the lamp for the wish to count and Aladdin tricks the genie into thinking that he was touching the lamp. They didn’t need to change this, it’s more confusing than it needs to be. Many of the changes made to this film are very minute and don’t make much difference. One of my main problems with the Beauty and the Beast remake but my main one was that it was about half verbatim from the original and half new stuff. This created a solid line down the middle of the film. However, since there are lots of little changes in this movie it’s not so jarring.

The film continues, it’s Aladdin, you know what happens. Prince Ali and A Whole New World are both pretty good. There’s a beautifully awkward scene with Will Smith and Aladdin about jams. Jafar gets his hands on the genie and starts taking over. Jasmine sings a female empowerment song, you’ve seen it before.

Wait a second, Jasmine doesn’t sing a female empowerment song in the original. It’s an ok song, a little to show-tunes-y for me. Stop it with this crap Disney, I know what you’re trying to do and it’s not genuine. Also, the Sultan giving up his throne to Jasmine at the end doesn’t make me believe it either. It’s as bad as the shot of all the women in Endgame. Stop.

The resolution of dealing with Jafar is pretty dumb too. Jasmine doesn’t seduce him and say that his mustache is twisted because it’s 2019 I guess, by the way, I think that this would be better feminism, let me know if I’m wrong. Jafar is dealt with, Aladdin frees the Genie, Jasmine becomes sultan and Jasmine and Aladdin kiss as the camera circles them.

Some end credits roll over a reprisal of Friend like me and then the real credits roll and there is a Will Smith/DJ Khaled rap. Needless to say, I did not stick around for this. For what it was it was a decent movie. I would recommend watching this one at home or on an airplane if you are a fan of the original. You probably won’t get much out of it otherwise.

Rating: 3/5

My Best Comment: What is this?

Hey folks, it’s ya boy, Sam. Yes, I’m still in Ireland and yes, it’s pretty great. Today we went on a political tour of Ireland with a former member of the IRA. This was pretty interesting. As someone who knows very little about this period of history, it was pretty cool to hear from someone who knows so much about it.

At one point we were standing on the grounds of one of the jails where he was formerly a prisoner. How surreal must it be to be in a place where you were formerly imprisoned and to stand, years later, with tourists next to a gift shop? Wild stuff.

Anyway, that was neat. The day before we went to Giant’s Causeway. Along the way, we stopped at a rope bridge that connected two islands off the coast of Ireland. This made me think of the Bridge of Death from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

That was awesome and beautiful. The scenery was like nothing I’ve seen before. Anyway, just down the road, we stopped at Giant’s Causeway. This is a rock formation next to the sea that has a bunch of hexagonal shaped rocks. This is some real Ancient Aliens shit?

History channel, listen up, I’ve got the script for the Gaint’s Causeway episode of Ancient Aliens:

“Ancient astronaut theorists believe that this geological formation in Northern Ireland was made as the result of extraterrestrial technology. If so, this could mean that we are not alone in the universe.”

That was fun. While there I hiked up the mountain and it the scenery from up there was again, like nothing I’ve ever seen. The hike was a bit tough at first but I got there and then got to walk along the cliff. It was worth it.

I was completely exhausted after both days. I hope to catch up on some rest tonight.

Sports, perhaps even more so than at Truman, are very important on the campus of Trinity College. With over 50 sports played by both men and women, athletic competition is a huge part of life at Trinity College. Many of these sports look very similar to those at Truman while others are relatively unknown to American audiences. Among the more familiar of these are American Football, Basketball, and Golf. Others are sports that most would recognize to some extent, but are not played at a competitive level like squash, and table tennis. Some would nearly be completely unknown such as Gaelic football and cricket. Regardless, the overall culture on Trinity campus is one that is very pro-athletics to a degree that is somewhat surprising given the overall reputation of the school as being more stuffy academic than sporty jock.

This sentiment is echoed by the students themselves. “I have a lot of passion for cricket,” Trinity cricket player Tim Walsh said. “It’s good stress relief and a good social club. I’ve made friends with all my teammates. Keeps me fit, keeps me busy and I just love the game.” Tim, while not a part of any official Trinity athletics, is an outfielder for a recreational cricket team that plays during the summer months. When asked if he thought his experience is representative of most students at the university, he gave a fairly confident yes. Trinity sports whether official or unofficial, are widely recognized as an important aspect of all aspects of student health including social and emotional. We then asked him for a brief summary of how cricket is played, and his answers matched fairly closely with the web descriptions we have found that show it to be a very unique yet familiar sport.

The first thing to note is that cricket has a massive following both at Trinity and worldwide. It is said to be the second most popular sport behind soccer. It is very similar to baseball with similar terms such as runs, innings and similar rules. Two teams of 11 players each take the field. The batting teams sends two players up to bat on opposite ends of the playing area. The fielding team sends one player to pitch or ‘bowl’ to the batter. The batter attempts to hit the ball and switch places with the player on the other side of the playing area. If they are successful they will score a run. The number of innings and outs needed to complete a game can vary depending on the type of play. Unlike baseball, cricket matches feature hundreds of runs and can last days. Understanding this game is practically synonymous with understanding athletics at Trinity.

Similar to Truman, Trinity College offers a range of athletic scholarships, according to Tritinty Athletics website. However, these are reserved for just a handful of the best athletes. The majority of scholarships are held by members of the men’s and women’s rugby and cricket teams but are available to those in any sport. Indeed there are scholarship holders for basketball, association football and one for Paralympic swimming. This reflects an interesting difference between the Irish and American approaches to athletics. While there are of course some small disparities in the number and amounts of scholarships given to student-athletes in America, at least at Trinity, the scholarships are far more connected to the overall popularity of the specific sport.

In addition to the club sports, Trinity also features a number of intramural clubs. This includes classes as well as instruction on how to play certain games such as Gaelic football, rugby, and quidditch. These classes are offered to any student, male or female, for a small fee. Outside of typical sports games, Trinity has a number of Olympic competitions that feature at their school. These include martial arts such as Aikido, Karate, and Judo. They also have equestrian, trampoline and many other athletic competitions that are less focused on the competition aspect and more on the social bonding function of sport, according to Tritinty Athletics website.

After graduation, Trinity athletes have created a rich tradition of sending athletes to the Olympic games. As far back as the 1908 Olympics in London, Trinity has consistently sent a number of athletes to the Olympic games. Most recently, Trinity had two Olympic field hockey players go to Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 games. Their most successful Olympian is David Wilkins who competed in sailing in five Olympic games between 1972 and 1992. He competed in sailing and won a silver medal in 1980. Overall hockey and sailing have been the most competed in events by Trinity athletes despite not being the most popular on campus, according to Tritinty Athletics website.

While different in many ways sports still play a large role on campuses in Ireland. Although the games are different and sometimes unfamiliar, the spirit of athletics is always felt by those who call their Alma Mater home. The view of sport as a means of socialization and maintenance of one’s health is admirable, and one that American campuses including Truman could potentially learn from.

Today we had a pretty chill day in Dublin. We had a seminar from an HR consultant about interviewing for jobs and doing resumes and whatnot. This was pretty good information for the future.

Yesterday was a pretty chill day as well; had some class, took a nap, and pretty much just hung out. This trip has been pedal to the metal so far and while I’m feeling a lot of pressure to be constantly doing things, it’s also nice to chill out and get some rest every now and again.

Monday was a pretty good day as we took a tour of Malahide castle. It was really awesome to see something so ornate and old. Add to that the fact that it has been lived in up until the 1970s. It was difficult to imagine someone living in a castle so late into the 20th century. It was a very nice day and we were able to tour the grounds of the castle and have a fun time.

I think the trip is going to heat up a little bit in the next few days as far as class is concerned. We have a reporting assignment to do as well as a paper to write. Add to that some photography assignment. I keep thinking that I’m on vacation and then realizes that I have work to do. This should all be fine though.

Aside for that I don’t have a whole lot to write about. As I’ve said it’s been some pretty chill days recently. Talk to me after this photography seminar we have tomorrow.

Yesterday and today were a lot of fun. We went to the National Gallery of Ireland yesterday and that was pretty cool. They had a lot of really cool art and paintings. The coolest room was this room with a bunch of stained glass. That was really awesome. That evening we went to a pub in Dublin called O’Reilley’s, which is apt. For some reason, the cheapest beer they have here is Foster’s (because apparently, we’re in Australia). Anyway, they had some really good pizza and after that, we went to an ice cream place in the Temple Bar area. As I’ve said, this trip isn’t a health cleanse.

Today we went on a cliff walk from Greystones to Bray. It was maybe the most beautiful thing I’ve experienced. As most of you know, this was a very difficult semester for me. And, while I don’t want to make more of a short hike than what actually happened, it felt very cleansing. To get out there and experience a whole new type of countryside was exactly what I needed. Sometimes I feel like nothing is going to work out in this world but every once in a while something makes me feel like it can. Anyway, that’s enough of that.

After finishing the walk, we ended up pretty much running through Bray to catch the last train to Dublin. This was very stressful especially when one of us had to go to the bathroom. However, this is the fault of Ireland since the last train was at 3:00. Everything closes so early here in Ireland. Upon arrival in Dublin, I went to McDonald’s. It was very swanky, however, it was in the middle of Dublin so I imagine that all McDonald’s don’t look like this. After that, I took a nap for much longer than intended. All in all, a good two days.

Today was the first day of actually doing class while in Ireland. That being said, we attended a 1-hour seminar with the head of some Irish PR thing. It was ok. That’s about all I have to say about it.

Anyway, the fun part of the day of visiting Kilmainham Gaol, which is an old prison in Ireland. This was pretty neat. We showed up and hour early to the tour and spent 15 minutes figuring out that it was across the street the whole time. After that, we went into the museum area of the prison. I thought the whole thing was going to be a museum but it was actually much larger than I thought.

The tour began with a man who can be described only as Irish. Some people from the UK were standing next to me and said, “I really have to concentrate to understand him.” Obviously, this did not bode well for me. The jail was very, very cold. It is most famous for the incarceration and execution of 14 political prisoners from the 1916 Irish Uprising which led to the 1922 civil war. The guide kept mentioning the term ‘civil war’ and my mind would imagine the 1860s. However, he was not talking about our civil war.

It was a really cool place. And when I say cool I mean both literally and figuratively. Most of the hallways and cell areas were actually quite cold. I guess this was intentional but I felt on several occasions that I needed my winter coat.

So, after this, we went back to the rooms and Sam took a well-deserved nap. For dinner, I had a prepackaged sandwich and a bowl of cereal followed by some bourbon creams.