shawnbakken.net

Wildfire: The Remix

Shawn — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:25:10 +0000

I know, I know—I have a few weeks worth of journal entries to finish and this post will be sitting at the top of the screen for a while, but it just can’t wait. Some of you may remember waaaaay back in December ‘08 when I wrote a movie review (or rather, comments made between Jeremy Gustafson and myself while watching it) about “Wildfire: The Arabian Heart”. The movie sucked. A lot. But don’t take my word for it—read some of these other reviews I found online:

imdb.com

blockbuster.com

The Dove Foundation

(Michael Vincent, the writer/director/actor/editor/musician/producer—yes, he did all of these—is extremely proud of Wildfire receiving “The Dove Award”. The award is given solely because the movie is family friendly and not objectionable, but it’s an award, dammit!)

You may have noticed that one of the above sites is blockbuster.com. That’s right, the movie has somehow become available for public consumption. You can buy it from a couple stores and websites, so that’s what Jeremy Gustafson did. He decided to relive the pain and suffering by inviting a bunch of friends over to his place and had a viewing party for “The Worst Movie You’ll Ever See”. (That might be a stretch, but not by much.)

But it wasn’t the same worst movie. If you go to amazon.com and buy episodes of Beauty and the Geek, you can see that they’re edited differently than when it was aired on television. Similarly, Wildfire changed various scenes and plot twists, but why? What was Michael Vincent’s motivation? Honestly, I think he may have read my blog entry and made some changes because of it. He didn’t fix all the holes in the plot and inadvertently created some new ones, but you can’t blame the man for trying. … Actually, you can. I sure do. (more…)

Open your history books, please!

Shawn — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 21:42:49 +0000

While Mom and Dad did a lot of research back when we were in Minnesota, there’s nothing like getting information from the horse’s mouth. Or a Norwegian’s mouth, for that matter. It was time to talk to Bertha and dip our toes into some family history of Norway from just a couple hundred years ago. I’m sure you’ve all done it before, but it’s a first for me. Today, we got to see what kind of info Mom and I could dig up. (more…)

Road trip! … Again!

Shawn — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 03:38:46 +0000

Thankfully, we’re running out of long drives. Pretty soon, a “road trip” might last three hours, meaning we’ll have to waste some time during the day. When the continental breakfast at one hotel ends at 10:00 and check-in at the next is at 3:00… you can only spend so much time lingering over lunch, you know? So we’ll see how things work out, but before that happens, we have to navigate our way through the big maps. (more…)

Vikings sell refreshments in their villages?

Shawn — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 03:37:42 +0000

Off for a relaxing trip out of Bergen. All we had to do was maneuver through the tourists and tour buses and we could make our grand escape. Well, we made it a little less grand by backtracking and taking the highway instead of driving through the city streets (and potentially getting turned in circles again), but we escaped nonetheless. (more…)

Help, help, I’m in a nutshell!

Shawn — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:09:29 +0000

Today was the day we were waiting for: Sognefjord in a Nutshell. A day-long trip that involves trains, planes and automobiles. Wait… no, just the trains. And after we finish with the trains, we get to hop onto a boat and head out onto a Norwegian fjord for a couple hours. Time to admire Slartibartfast’s handiwork first-hand! (more…)

Heeeeeere fishie, fishie, fishie…

Shawn — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:34:48 +0000

Moving from Oslo to Bergen meant moving from the inner city to the coast. So many new things floating through the air: sea salt, gas fumes from boats, sea gulls, sea gull poop and the smell of fish. Lots and lots of fish. (more…)

No sleep for the weary

Shawn — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:14:11 +0000

Especially when the weary is driving. That was pretty much the story of the day: leave Oslo, drive through the mountains halfway across the country (technically, from the middle to the western coast), then arrive in Bergen. No plans beyond that. You might think that would be extremely easy to stay awake for, but you would be wrong. Thankfully, we survived the experience and got to sleep in our beds that night. Yay for beds! (more…)

AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!! SUGAR SHOCK!!!

Shawn — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:05:11 +0000

Sorry, too much Fanta and not enough water. I suppose I have the option of drinking out of the toilet (or get water out of the sink if I’m really desperate, but whatever the source, I better try to drink something that’ll cleanse my system instead of making me vibrate. But that certainly wasn’t the biggest story during the third day of our trip in Norway. (more…)

Day… 3? I’ve already lost track.

Shawn — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 22:07:30 +0000

With the flight going overnight, lack of sleep and time zone changes, I think this is the third day of our trip, but I’m not sure how well I’d do on a polygraph test if you asked me that question. Regardless of the day, I’ve tried to squeeze everything into these journal entries that I’ve been writing for the sake of our trip, but who knows? Maybe posterity will get something out of my posting this stuff on the Internet. Or maybe it’ll just save me time and effort to fill my friends in on the details of my trip. (more…)

The journey has just begun

Shawn — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 23:44:48 +0000

We’ve been sitting in the airport for 45 minutes and I’m already going stir-crazy! Well, maybe not, but I’m ready to get on the plane. There’s not much going on here on the ground, whereas once we’re on the plane, I can fall asleep before anyone demonstrates how to use my seatbelt. (You think I’m joking.)

Anyway, things have started off without much of a hitch. I say “much” because there’s been one small problem: they gave us the wrong seats flying to Reykjavik. We made reservations in January to get seats 5C and 5D for every flight—one row, both sides of the aisle. When they pulled up our tickets, they gave us 6D and 6A. A window seat. And that’s a problem.

Why, you might ask? It’s because Mom gets claustrophobic when she gets crammed against the side of a plane with people between her and the aisle. For me, I need the extra leg room that comes with sticking my leg out into the aisle It’s especially important right now because after knee surgery, my knee will sometimes start aching to the point where it feels like something might rupture if I don’t straighten my leg. Consequently, being curled up in a seat where it’s impossible to get any extra room to stretch out is asking for trouble.

Thankfully, the guy at the desk changed our seats so they’re both on the aisle, but they’re on the right side of the aisle. Since surgery was on my right knee, that’s the leg I may need to stretch out, so… hopefully, I’ll find a kind and gentle soul on the other side of the aisle who will switch seats with me.

In the meantime, we’ve got just under two hours to burn before they start boarding the plane, so going stir crazy may be inevitable. Maybe if I get someone to tell me that the nearest exit may be behind me, I might be able to fall asleep.