My Must See Movie List

My father does not enjoy sad movies. My sister does not enjoy scary movies. My brother only likes documentaries and highly acclaimed movies. But I love most genres of movies and so I usually watch all kinds of movies with my mom. Together we somehow find a creative movie that we haven't seen to watch, and if we can't find one we haven't seen, we watch an old one we have seen.

I have seen a lot of a lot of movies. Here's the ones that I suggest (these are just one from each genre):

Romance/Romantic Comedy: About Time
I love this movie. I first saw it with my mom and sister. We had randomly selected it from our television. It wasn't a very popular movie and I have yet to meet someone who has seen it. But it really moved me. It's the story of a young man, Tim Lake, who discovers that the men in his family can travel back in time. No, it's actually not cheesy. Tim who is extremely quirky, decides to use this new advantage to fall in love. In turn, he meets Mary played by Rachael McAdams, and learns from his mistakes to live life to the fullest. This funny and romantic movie is perfect for anyone who wants to laugh, smile, and have a good time watching a movie.

Trailer: About Time

Action/Adventure: Bourne Identity
I have yet to read the books in this action-packed series, but the first movie is one of my favorite movies. The Bourne Identity is about Jason Bourne, a trained assassin who suffers from total amnesia in an accident. He soon sets off to find out his identity and discover the truth of who he was before. If you like this movie, they are in the making of a new one and bringing back Matt Damon (finally!). Other great action films include The Revenant, Taken, and American Sniper.

Trailer: Bourne Identity

Horror: Pet Sematary

Courtesy of tumblr.com 

It's an old film, but if you want to see a classic scary movie, watch Stephen King's, Pet Sematary.
It's the story of Louis Creed and his family.  When the family cat is accidently killed, Louis takes it to the haunted pet cemetery that he heard would bring it back to life. A few days after burying the cat, it reappears, once again alive. But it's personality is changed. The cat is now vicious and hisses at Louis. Then his son of only a few years old is hit but a truck, he takes him too, to the cemetery. His son comes back from the dead evil and thirsty for blood. He has to fight and run from his own son, scared for his life. While it's not the scariest movie I've ever seen, this film with most definitely give you nightmares.

Trailer: Pet Sematary

Comedy: Ace Ventura, Talledega Nights, and Hot Rod
I not a huge traditional comedy movie watcher. I've seen Step-Brothers and other slapstick movies alike it but I don't find them all that interesting. The only ones are prefer to watch are Ace Ventura, Talledega Nights, and Hot Rod.

Young Adult: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
I must admit, when I heard of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, I was completely uninterested. The movie is about a high school student named Greg, who believe being invisible is the best way to live his life. He spends most of his time making parodies of classic movies with his co-worker Earl. When he meets Rachael, a classmate diagnosed with lukemia (no, they don't fall in love) his life is sent on a new course. This funny and sad adaption of the book is about friendship and self-discovery. It's a must see for anyone who likes sarcasm. Boyhood and The Perks of Being a Wallflower are also great young-adult films.

Trailer: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Sci-Fi: The Martian

Courtesy of en.wikipedia.com

Most of you have probably already seen The Martian, but if you haven't, you need to. I will say that this is one of the best Sci-Fi movies I have seen, hands down. The Martian is extremely well animated, filmed, and created. This film keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time while making you smile. In the movie, a man is pushed to his limits when he is left behind on the uninhabited planet of Mars.

Trailer: The Martian

Other movies that I suggest:

• The Help
• The Revenant
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
• American Sniper
• Eat, Pray, Love
• Boyhood
• Perks of Being a Wallflower
• Heart of the Sea
• We Bought A Zoo
• Blackfish

Blackfish

Courtesy of www.imbd.com

Recently, I watched the 2013 documentary called Blackfish. Blackfish is about Tilikum, a captive killer whale that has taken the lives of several people, addresses problems within the sea-park industry, and man's relationship to nature. I’ve learned a lot about SeaWorld, and my opinion about them has grown even stronger. Tilikum, also known as Tilly, is a bull orca currently living at Sea-World in Orlando, Florida. He has killed three people. 

The first person he killed was a 21-year old girl named, Keltie Byrne. Keltie was a marine biology student and competitive swimmer. On February 20, 1991, Keltie slipped into a pool containing Tilikum and two other orcas, while working as a part-time trainer. The three orcas quickly took her under water and dragged her around the pool. With an audience watching in horror, she surfaced three times screaming before she drowned. 

Daniel P. Dukes, a 27 year-old man, was the second person to be killed by Tilikum. The day before he was killed, Daniel visited the park, stayed after, and evaded security. The next day he was found dead over Tilikum’s back. The autopsy found several wounds, contusions, and abrasions all over his body. They concluded that Daniel had been drowned. They found no drugs in his system, but he entered the tank anyway.

The third person killed, Dawn Brancheau, created the most controversy. Dawn was a 40 year-old trainer, who had known what she was she was doing. After a show, she was petting Tilikum  when the whale grabbed her by her left arm and pulled her into the water. The other trainers threw food and nets into the water to distract him, but nothing could stop him. Dawn was eventually released from Tilikum’s grasp, dead. Afterward, SeaWorld stated that the trainer was pulled into the water by her ponytail. However, witnesses stated that the trainer was pulled into the water by her arm. Seaworld lied and blamed it on Dawn. Saying that it was an accident, and that no SeaWorld trainer should have their hair in a long ponytail. The autopsy showed that she had died by drowning and blunt force trauma. Along with those injuries, her spine was severed and she had fractures in her jawbone, ribs, and a vertebra. Her scalp was completely torn off from her head and her left arm had been severed below the shoulder. 

Dawn and Tilikum. Courtesy of  www.cbsnews.com

Finally, after all of these terrible events, SeaWorld was sued 75,000 dollars. They use pressure hoses to calm the orcas down and the platforms have guardrails. But Tillikum is still allowed to perform. Even after his aggressive behaviors, Tilikum is still allowed to perform. Not to mention, that his sperm has been used to create more than half of the orcas at SeaWorld. Possibly, making their genes just as aggressive. 

I think that SeaWorld deserved worse than what they got. They keep orcas in concrete pools away from their real homes. And in the past they have kept them in twenty foot deep pools, two small for them to swim in, and too dark to see anything. Causing these whales to become aggressive. SeaWorld should have been shut down, what they have done, is devastating. They are holding these creatures hostage, and saying that they like what they do. But, there has never been any reported injuries to humans caused by killer whales, in the wild. They are generally gentle, friendly creatures until we take them out of their homes, so that we can have one hour of enjoyment. I believe that it wasn’t Tilikum’s fault, it was SeaWorld’s.

Welcome To My Blog & Things Doug Chewed Today

Welcome to my blog reader, I'm Kirsten and I will be mostly writing about my new puppy Doug. Why the name Doug you may ask? Well, opposite to my families insisting that they picked the name Doug, I chose the name Doug after re-watching up. Yes, Up is one of my favorite movies. It may be a children's movie about an old man flying his house with balloons to a waterfall, but that movie has some really great scenes. So I soon added the name Doug to our list of names which included, Tater Tot, Dylan, Pickle, Theo, Bugsy, Cujo, Kevin, Buzz, Barney, Taco, and my favorite Princess Diana. After nearly a week of trying to pick a name, I just began to call the puppy Doug. And the name caught on. Before that, we had found Doug for sale online. But the woman selling him lived four hours away. Being the extremely spontaneous family that we are,  and my sister begging for a dog of her own, convinced my mom to drive halfway to pick up the dog. So they drove two hours to the middle of Wyoming. At the creepiest gas station ever, they met a random stranger, exchanged 800$ cash for a puppy, and drove away. When he got home he was a sweet little angel and he slept for like three hours. A couple weeks later he is a night terror. Kinda like something out of gremlins.

So for my first post I'm going to tell you about some things the little gremlin chewed today:

-My socks: Just a great pair of socks, with holes in them.

-My chalk bag: Chalk seems like it would taste awful...apparently it's not.

-A vet bill: No explanation needed.

-His treat Bag: I mean he's gonna eat the treats, might as well eat the bag.

My carpet: After pooping on my carpet he enjoys eating it.

(Doug looking very guilty)My toothbrush: Perhaps the most frustrating of all is when Doug eats vomit smelling dried meat (dog food) and then decides to steal and then profusely chew on my toothbrush. Yum....

Me: After attacking all those things, it's my turn to be chewed on. 

But when he's not nuisance, chewing up my things (and me), he's a little sweet heart who could brighten up anyones day. And for size reference, he's about half the size of a gallon of milk.

Although, I love writing about Doug and my blog is called the Life of Doug, I won't always be writing about Doug. Doug is also a bit of metaphor. Because Doug is seeing everything for the first time everyday (I mean yesterday he learned how to walk down the stairs) and he's so excited about it. And I believe that we should live like Doug, because no matter how many times you're stepped on my the other dogs you'll always get back up. So sometimes I won't just write about Doug but other things about life. Like photography, books, movies, travel, and even stories from my life. Ex.

An Extraordinary Story from Last Year

Last year, Me and my friend decided to audition for a christmas play. A Charlie Brown Christmas. For a week I studied Jingle Bell Rock and tried to perform it in front of my friend's deaf dog while she made cream of mushroom soup mix and forgot to add water. I thought that I had nailed it and that I actually wasn't as bad at singing as I thought. But was I wrong. So we drove down to this theatre that we thought was going to be a beautiful popular theatre, we even expected not to get a part. But when we got there the theatre was a dump in a creepy town with creepy people walking their creepy dogs at nine at night and sitting on fire hydrants. Inside there was a sign up sheet with only one name on it. So despite our gut feelings we decided to audition. Upstairs in front of a plastic table we took turns singing. I ended up getting the part of Snoopy. But the funny thing about Snoopy is that he never makes any noise. Or speaks. Or sings. I wonder why I happened to get that part. Despite both of us getting parts we ended up emailing them that we couldn't make the commute. And thank god we did. And that's the story of how I learned I can't sing for my life.

The End.