RR: "Dark Knight Rises" Reaction, FUBU, and Home

Hello, and welcome to another exciting edition of Random Ramblings! (Or RR as I like to call them) Now that I think about it, maybe this post isn't 'exciting' or maybe not even an 'edition.' (Not sure if a blog post classifys as an edition, but whatever.) Anyway, Here we go!

'Dark Knight Rises' Reaction

It's been just over a month since I saw "The Dark Knight Rises" at midnight in the theater in my hometown, where I work. (There will be a post about my job some day readers. For those of you who have worked with me at the theater, you've been warned.) My heart goes out to all the families who lost someone in the Colorado Theater shootings. What that guy did is just sick, and he deserves to get his ass kicked by...BANE! (haha, you thought I was gonna say Batman :P)
As for the actual movie: Bane was awesome, it was long, and didn't live up to the hype of it's predecessor. I know, I'll probably make some enemies with this statement, but it is NOT the best movie I've seen this year. That title still goes to The Avengers. All in all, if you haven't seen "The Dark Knight Rises," Go out and see it at least once.
Notice how I didn't leave any spoilers for you?

F. U. FUBU

In early July, I was in need of a pair of tennis shoes, so I went to Wal-Mart, where an awesome pair of shoes caught my eye. The photo above is said shoe.
I have come to the conclusion that this shoe is the cheapest made shoe in the history of footwear. It's sad when said shoes is coming unstitched after only two weeks of wearing them.
That is why I warn you all: Do NOT buy shoes with the word FUBU on them. They are a waste of your hard-earned dollars (or welfare, if you don't have a job.)

Home
In conclusion for this R.R., I'd like to give a big shout out to all the High School Graduates who are now leaving for college. I know a lot of you have been counting down the days. I've heard it many times: "I can't wait to get out of this town!" I heard this line myself in my senior year, from the guidance counselor of all people. (When I said I had no plans for college, she responded with "Don't you want to get out of this town?")
At the time, I didn't think Elkader was really all that. Five years later, I've decided that Elkader is, and will always be, my home. I was born here, and chances are I will die here,and I'm OK with that. Elkader is my home.
So I say to all of you seniors that are leaving now, so glad that you're gone, you'll all want to come back. Someday when you're at your job in some big city, you'll decide to move back out here. Back where you came from.

Until Next Time...:)
W.

Buried in the Books

For those of you who don't know me that well, There's something you need to know. I have this really bad habit. They say the best way to deal with a problem is to talk about it, and admit you have a problem. So, here it goes:...

I read way to much, and when I get my paycheck, I tend to go and buy a book. Seriously, whenever I'm in Wal-Mart, you'll most likely find me in the book section. (Or Movies/Music, but that's a very different story.

I know, reading is supposed to be good for you, but I only have so much space for books in my current living space. The stack of books in my closet is getting taller, and more unsturdy, with each purchase.

And don't even get me started on the Library. I check out too many books from their too. According to the receipt that prints out when I check out a book from the library, I've saved $561 so far this year.

And the year isn't over yet, folks.

Now, I'm sure I could blame different people, but passing blame doesn't work. (At least, it never has for me.) And if I was going to blame people, where would I start? Do I blame the numerous English teachers I had throughout my years in school? Or do I blame the authors of some of my favorite books for keeping me too interested?

But I think the one thing that really need the blame is this. My enabler:

Borders Stores.

Whenever I went to Dubuque, this used to be my paradise. I'd tell my family I'd only be a few minutes, and an hour later, I'd still be wandering amongst the shelves, with a stack of paperbacks under my arm.

When all of the Borders stores across the country closed about a year ago, I felt like I'd lost a friend. Where was I going to get my fix? Where, oh where?

Well, for those of you who know Dubuque, a Books-a-Million store took Border's place. This is not helpful to me, however. Maybe I'm just picky on the books I like, but when you go into a bookstore with a list of twenty different books, wouldn't you hope to find more than just one of them?

This morning, I finally broke down, and found a new dealer. They have what I want, the only problem is, I have to wait for the delivery by mail. Hurry up, Amazon! I'm counting on you to deliver!!!

For those of you who are interested, here's a link to my GoodReads profile. Think of it as Facebook for book lovers:


http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/8381844-matthew-wilke


Until Next Time...:)
W.

The Most Personal Blog Post I'll Most Likely Ever Write

Last weekend was our county fair. What I'm sure is often a fun time for a lot of the young people around here has been more of a downer for me the last couple of years. I never see anybody I know, and when I do, they usually don't want to talk to me.

And then, there's her...

I'm not going to tell you all who "she" is, because I know it would embarass her. She may even be reading this right now for all I know. Some of you know who "she" is, and you know that we were really close at one time.

So, when I was contemplating what my next post should be about, I decided it was time to delve into my own life, and share a story that was personal. Maybe too personal, but I'll let you all be the judge of that.

I first met "her" when she was dating a friend of mine. They broke up not too long after we got to know each other, and we didn't really talk to eachother much after that...for a while.

One night, I was at work when she came in. Work was pretty quiet, so we talked for a while. An hour and a half later, we were still talking! We quickly realized after that that we could easily be friends, and over the months that followed, we became very good friends.

About a week before the 2011 county fair, she got a boyfriend, which didn't bother me because we were just friends, but when I saw her with him at the fair, something just didn't feel right.

Sleep began to elude me. She filled my thoughts every day, and I knew then, that I had fallen. Hard. I'd had crushes, but had never felt like that before.
Not too long after the fair's end, she broke up with her boyfriend. I swore to myself that I would tell her exactly how I felt. I waited about a month before I finally came clean about it.

We were driving just for the heck of it when I told her I had to talk to her about something, and I shared my feelings with her. My speech was met with silence, and shock if I had to label an emotion to her face. But she took it all in stride, said that I was one of two guys interested in dating her at that time.

I was still miserable for a while after that. Especially when she chose the other guy, but I tried not to let her see how much it bothered me. How depressed I really was.

All of a sudden, the other guy was out of the picture. I was in, and we became an "Impromptu couple." In other words, we weren't publically official, but kind've, if that makes any sense.

For those next couple months, life was great. We hung out nearly every weekend, either taking a drive or seeing a movie. Sometimes both. We began sharing all of our secrets. We were closer than ever before.

They say that all good things must end, and this unfortunately did too. To this day, I'm not quite sure what happened. We were on one of our usual drives when she said we should slow things down. I asked her if there was another guy. She said there wasn't.

Two days later, Facebook said she was in a relationship. No other guy, huh? I have to say, that one hurt a lot. It bugged me for weeks. It still does every now and again.

Since then, our conversations have grown less and less frequent. The message we'd been sending back and forth on facebook for a year stopped. She purposely avoided me whenever possible. At the fair this last weekend, I made four attempts to talk to her, and never even recieved an acknowledgement of my presence. Supposedly, we're still friends, but she won't even respond to a text message half the time, even if all I say is "Hi, How are you?"

I'm sure most of you, if you're still reading this, are thinking "Grow up and move on." I know, I'm a hopeless romantic, and I should have known that it wouldn't have worked out. I know. I get it.

The thing is though, even after all of that. After the really long summer where our conversations have been few and short. After all the tears I've cried and the pain I've felt. After all the blame I've cast, I still can't move on. I still think of her every day. She still is always on my mind, and she will probably never leave. Part of her will be with me forever.

Until Next Time...:/
W.

The Power of the Song

Last night, I was sitting at the Restless Heart concert at the county fair, singing along with almost all of the songs they sang. I became a huge fan of the band years ago, and have played the Greatest Hits CD I own to near non-working order.

It's funny how a lot of these songs strike me in different ways. Theres the slow love songs that describe my own feelings for a special someone (more on that some other time), the songs of love lost that also pertain to me, and the upbeat songs that always put a smile on my face no matter what kind of mood I'm in.
And that's just one CD by one band. I have a lot of favorite songs that describe various feelings or, as they say, they have a good beat and you can dance to it. (Not that I can dance, but you know what I mean.)
I usually know if I'm going to like a song after I've heard it for the first time. If I start singing along with the refrain halfway through, or if my feet are tapping alon with the beat, chances are that I'll soon be playing the crap out of the song on my computer. If a song doesn't agree with me, chances are I'll be running from the room every time the song comes on the radio. (Trust me, this has happened before.)
Chances are, your taste in music is nothing like mine. I used to be a stright-up, country hick(and not afraid to admit it.) Now, my taste covers numerous genres, but country is still at the center of it all.
Working in the movie theater has actually helped broaden my horizons when it comes to music. Sweeping up after the numerous movies I've worked, I've heard almost every type of music possible. And theres been times, that it has been almost impossible to sweep during the credits. Take this tune from "Sherlock Holmes" for example:



Catchy, no? That whole week I had to wait until the credits were done before I could sweep, because the song was just to catchy.
Now it's stuck in my head. I'll have to go and sing it through now and try to get it out. ;)

Until Next Time...:)
W.