New Idea

How would you all feel about this blog becoming a Facebook group instead of using Blogger? I've been pondering about it with a friend for the last twenty minutes and I've come up with these conclusions:

Pros:
Much easier communication
Ability to directly invite other people (without having to make a useless account)

Cons:
Less of a custom design (practically none)
Less of a chance of "outside" people becoming involved.

To me, it sounds like a great idea now that I think about it more. If I were to make the group 'Secret', it would ensure that we have a positive community by only inviting people that would positively contribute to it. The blog would still function in the same way. Admins posting and members commenting. This could work out. If you all do agree, please comment. If nothing too against this idea is brought up, I will very likely create this group tomorrow evening.

Dreams

About two weeks ago, I went through one of the scariest moments in my life. I had just arrived at my house after a long day of school and immediately walked to my room and fell asleep. I believe I was more tired than I've ever been because I fell asleep in under a minute, maybe even under thirty seconds. Anyways, I began to have a very unusual dream. In my dream, I had a viewpoint of body. In a way, I could see myself sleeping, but from a first person vantage point. Because of this oddity, I started to try and wake myself up. I succeeded in waking myself up and I heard my parents talking downstairs so I went down to greet them. Once I walk into their room, I teleport back to my bed and I'm in the same vantage point as before. I was still dreaming. This incredibly scared me and I did not know what to do. So, I woke myself up again and went through the entire process once more and the same thing happened. I would always 'poof' back to my bed once I reached my parent's room. This routine happened consecutively about four times. I began to become terrified that I was stuck in a kind of limbo and I literally began to lose a grasp on what was reality and what wasn't. It was horrible. After about four times of the same routine, I finally woke myself up by screaming my name in my dream. I looked around my room and actually questioned if it was reality or not for a second. I felt like I was going mad. It was the craziest dream I've ever had in my lifetime. Have any of you ever had an experience like this dream? Or any experience for that matter, where you lose faith in what's real or not?

Interests

Tonight, because I'm a bit unprepared and preoccupied, I am asking you all what your interests are and what you would like to see Daniel and I post about. So, please comment everything that interests you. From Moses to futurist poetry. Aladdin to JFK. Merlin to the Teletubbies. Everything that comes to mind, please. Thank you.

SOPA

I am watching the Southern Republican Presidential Debate right now. One of the recently asked questions was; "What is your take on SOPA, and how does it affect Americans?" Please state your views on the SOPA and PIPA bills and whether they should be discarded or not. As for myself, I am against SOPA and PIPA. Although I should probably research the actual bills a bit more than I actually have, the general impression that I received was that these bills would attempt to rid the Internet of all forms of online piracy and censor sites that are unconstitutional in ways. I have feared Internet censorship ever since I first heard of the idea in early 2011. I despise the idea of researching for something and not being able to view it because of a censorship law. I think passing these bills would be an incredible disregard of American freedom.

At the Republican Debate, all four of them opposed the bills. This was to be expected because support for the bills would be incredibly unpopular among the population, especially because of the recent protests from multiple websites such as Wikipedia, Google, and Reddit. However, Rick Santorum made a statement that was different from the other three candidates. He states that he supports the elimination of the bills, but also explains that he is not supportive of illicit material that is being downloaded for free on the Internet when it should be bought, which is understandable. What I found funny about his answer was his statement; "The Internet is not a free zone where anyone can do whatever they want to do and trample the rights of other people." If I asked someone what the Internet was and they gave me an answer that was the opposite of that statement, I would deem it an acceptable answer. Just something extra I wanted to share.

Also, my sincere apologies for posting so late, or early, I suppose. Today was a busy day.

Creativity

As of yesterday, January 17 2012, I have started a creative writing course at school. For those of you that don't know, art, in any form, is a passion of mine. I love to seek out the depths of creativity that the human mind can reach. Back to my main point, writing has always been a really fun hobby of mine so when I heard about the class I jumped at the opportunity. So far I really love the class and I hope to be able to strengthen my writing skills even more by the end. Just out of curiosity I would like to know what your views on art, literature, and creativity are. Also I would like to occasionally post some short stories or poems that I write and in return would gladly accept your critiques and advise. Thanks for reading and as always, dream like Daniel.

Some call me The Dreamer

Some call me The Dreamer. But everyone calls me Daniel Saenz. This is where I'll be collaborating and diving into some deep discussions with y'all about every topic imaginable, and then some. My mind is full of junk but eventually you'll find an entire section worthy of discussion. It would be my pleasure to slowly, or quickly, unlock all my knowledge just for your pleasure so feel free to stimulate any discussion to the max. I know I will be. Additionally, I will be most sincere about everything we discuss unless the situation calls for humor, in which case I will be much obliged. All in all this should be a fun and very interesting experience for the both of us. Well now that you know what I'm about, Lets begin!

Great actors and good actors

Right now, I am watching the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards. After seeing Owen Wilson on stage calling out the nominees for an award I can't recall, I reminisced all of the movies I've seen that he's starred in. I began to realize that, although Wilson is in numerous movies (mostly comedies) that I've enjoyed and found hilarious, he really isn't that great of an actor at all. I started to segregate great actors from good actors. Take Owen Wilson and think of all the movies you've seen with him as a main role. I began to consider Wilson as a good actor because he seems to have the same personality in all of his movies, even though he has a different role.

An example for a great actor, on the other hand, would be Morgan Freeman. I just watched his acceptance speech for the Cecil B. Demille award and the short film composed of clips from all of his movies reminded me of how much of an influential, powerful, and great actor he is. If you review all of Freeman's films, it's not hard to determine that he's a professional at what he does. He changes his whole personality to fit the character he is assigned. Compare his role as Hoke Colburn in Driving Miss Daisy to his role as Sloan in Wanted or Nelson Mandela in Invictus. He has very different personalities in all of these movies and does an exquisite job in each.

Now compare Owen Wilson to movies he's starred in. His roles in Wedding Crashers, You Me and Dupree, and Starsky and Hutch. To me, it seems like Wilson acts very much the same in each of these. Perhaps it's because he's a movie star that usually involved in comedies and he isn't really acting, he's just a naturally funny fellow. Then again, you have his role in Marley and Me, which was partially a comedy but also a drama. His personality in this movie also seems to be similar to his roles in all of his other movies. Anyways, this was a thought I had today and I decided to spontaneously post it. I have sort of reached the un-researched conclusion that some actors truly grasp the art of their profession and that some merely have an appealing personality that are perfect for roles in some movies. If this hypothesis of mine is true, I wonder if some actors can even be considered actors.