Random Thoughts with Will

     When people ask me the ice-breaker "what's your favorite movie," I always find myself stumped and unable to give a good answer. My default answer tends to be a trilogy-turned-tetralogy: Toy Story . As a fan of Pixar films, the entire Toy Story trilogy has held a special place in my heart. It's also been one of the rare properties in Hollywood to repeatedly turn out sequels that have lived up to the hype. A few weeks ago, I watched Toy Story 4  and enjoyed it (for the sake of today's post, I will tread lightly with spoilers). After having more time to process the movie and discuss it with a fellow Toy Story fan, I found it only fitting to do my own unofficial ranking of the 4 films.      Now, as I rank the films, one thing to keep in mind is that the "worst" one of the 4 is still a darn good movie as far as I'm concerned. There's also not that much separation in between the rankings, either. And as always, these are my own opinions, some of...

     Tradition has a way of first occurring without any real explanation, but something manages to "click" along the way and make that tradition. One newfound "tradition" that I've found myself in is listening to a certain song at the end of every work day: Miley Cyrus' "The Climb". It probably would make more sense to listen to a song like "Closing Time" instead, but I think I've unexpectedly settled on song by the artist formerly known as Hannah Montana. In all the times I've found myself blogging on here, I never thought I'd find myself referencing  Hannah Montana , but I digress.       Cyrus' "The Climb" focuses on being on the path to one's dreams and ultimately realizing the goal is not as much one's dreams and goals but more the "climb" and journey on the way to them. The chorus talks about facing "mountains" and the uphill battle that comes with them. The next line of the ch...

     When it comes to popularity,  Spongebob Squarepants has been the undisputed king of Nickelodeon cartoons for quite some time, an impressive feat considering the show is celebrating its 20th anniversary in a few weeks. That said, there was one cartoon during the 2000s that was pretty popular and quite funny its own right: The Fairly Oddparents . Starring Timmy Turner, an average kid that no one understands, and Cosmo & Wanda, his two magical fairies that grant his every wish, the show had a unique sense of humor and comedy that provided its unique voice on Nickelodeon. Speaking of which..      In one particular episode of The Fairly Oddparents , Timmy Turner wishes to switch voices with Chip Skylark, a popular singer (that was also voiced by Chris Kirkpatrick of NSYNC). Naturally, this causes Skylark's singing career to tank and Timmy to star in the school musical -- and potentially a lucrative singing career. When Timmy realizes what's at s...

     When I was in high school, I had the joy of running cross country (or XC) all 4 years. XC provided a lot of wonderful times, memories, and of course exercise, but it wasn't always as fun as carbo-loading at team dinners the night before races. In fact, sometimes the races and courses presented their own challenges.       As far as races go, the most memorable "challenge" was freshman year when people saran wrapped two trees in the woods on the course as a prank. The weather had its way of presenting new challenges week in and week out, be it heat, rain, or freezing temps. For me, the most consistent challenge that I had week in and week out wasn't weather, saran wrap, or mud: it was the second mile. High school XC races are 5 kilometers, or just over 3 miles. If I were to go back and look at all my splits from running 5Ks, my guess is my slowest mile would be the 2nd one.The first mile was when I had the most energy and excitement, the last mi...

     This past Thursday marked the 6-year anniversary of graduating high school me. Time has a way of flying by as you get older. It's crazy for me to think that it's been 6 years since high school and 10 years since middle school. A rare photo of me and my "twin" as graduates      Over the course of my high school time, one of my favorite classes was Creative Writing, a class that I took my senior year -- and even inspired me to take 2 creative writing classes in college. For today's post, in homage to graduation and creative writing, I wanted to share my favorite piece from that class: an impressionistic prose piece about an eggplant. One of the beauties of creative writing was making the ordinary extraordinary, and by far the most fun I had of doing that was with...an eggplant. Happy Reading! Eggplant       The customers are in full swing. The shopping carts are all over the place, stacked to the brim with all sorts of grocer...

     This past Memorial Day weekend, I went and saw Disney's live-action remake of Aladdin . For the most part, Disney kept it true to form to the original 1992 animated film, adding in a few wrinkles along the way. Over the course of watching the movie, there was one theme throughout that resonated with me, one that I had never noticed when watching the original movie: Aladdin and Jafar have a lot in common - they're both caught up in a case of missing (or misplaced) identity. And that's something that I think a lot of people can relate with.      In Aladdin's situation, he grew up as a "street rat" and never had much. After Aladdin meets Princess Jasmine and falls for her,he realizes that the only way he could ever be with her is if he became a prince. With the help of the genie, Aladdin "becomes" a prince and even wins over the affection of Jasmine and the approval of her father, the sultan. However, that's where Aladdin starts to find himse...

     At the end of March Madness, CBS (and now TBS) sign off coverage with "One Shining Moment," a song originally written by David Barrett and sung by Luther Vandross, featuring a montage of moments and highlights from the tournament. The song (and montage) culminate with highlights from the championship game and celebration afterwards. The song describes the varying emotions that come from the tournament -- the hard work put in, the obstacles along the way, the highs of victory, the lows of defeat, and so on. When coupled with the montage showing the highlights and emotions from the tournament, it's a terrific way to close out the tournament and the college basketball season. Well, unless you're the runner-up in the national championship, but I digress (sorry, Texas Tech).      One thing that "One Shining Moment" captures so well is that a lot of our experiences only last for...a moment. In the past, I've talked about how we all go through different ...