We live in interesting times.
Things that people have taken for granted for who-knows-how-long are up in the air;
Catholicism is under fire as never before in the U.S.; and on top of all that, technology seems to be changing… everything.
The Josh Greesonbach Show attempts to make sense of it all. Well, a lot of it, anyway.
Enjoy, and let me know what you think!
-Josh
Jurassic World was fantastic, right? I thought it was going to be great, and it turned out to be even better. If you’re like me, you enjoyed the movie so much that you don’t want the dino-fun to end. So… now what?
Here are 5 ways that you can keep the Jurassic-excitement going.
Read the Books
If your knowledge of Jurassic-stuff only goes so far as the movies, you should read the books.
In several ways, the books go along with the first two movies. After that, the movie peeps were on their own, because there were only two books, Jurassic Park (1990) and The Lost World (1995)
Without giving anything away, let me advertise for the books by saying that they get into more of the philosophical and scientific elements of the movies (which are some of the coolest parts anyway, if you ask me), and they let you experience the parks in a more direct way than you do when you watch the movies.
Go to the Park (Kinda)
As previous discussed on this blog in an article titled 5 Reasons Jurassic Park is probably the Best Movie Ever, there is a neat area of Universal Studios in Orlando called Camp Jurassic in their Islands of Adventure area. This is an area where you can explore a Jurassic themed area on your own.
There’s a dark, dubious cave, a net area to climb around (pictured on the right), a place to have a water fight, and other fun areas to explore.
When I was there, this area was surprisingly empty, and I get the sense that not many people know about it – probably because it’s overshadowed by the nearby Jurassic Park visitor’s center and main ride.
So if you’re in the area, check this out for the dinosaur-fun, and because it’s simply one of the best parts of this theme park.
Play the Game
The game LEGO Jurassic World was released on June 12th, and contains major events from all of the movies. Versions of the game are available on Xbox One and Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and 4, Windows PC, Wii U, Playstation Vita, and Nintendo 3DS. 
Leave a Comment
What did you think about Jurassic World? Once you’ve read the books, tell me: what did you think about them? Did you like the ways that they were different from the movies? Did you think the movies should have stayed truer to the books?
Watch a Similar Movie
Did you know that Michael Crichton was a movie director? And did you know that he made a movie with a very similar concept to Jurassic Park 20 years before Jurassic Park was released in theaters? I was surprised, too! The movie is called Westworld.
The overall idea of Westworld is that you have visitors visiting a theme park that has three areas (Westworld with a western theme, Romanworld with a Roman theme, Medievalworld with a, you guessed it, Medieval theme).
The worlds are populated mostly by robots. Visitors are free to do whatever they want in these areas, and that everything is safe and that nothing can actually harm them. But the robots go crazy and start attacking the guests (sound familiar), and it’s up to the movie’s star to make it out alive.
The film is from the 70’s, so you might be able to find it in a thrift store. If not, it’s available for rent and purchase from outlets such as iTunes and Amazon.
Whether you decide to spend some time reading, exploring, gaming, commenting, or checking out a similar movie, you now have some ways that you can keep the fun from the theatre going long beyond the end of the credits.
The email for this week comes from Mackenzie, who writes:
Hey Confuse-cius! Why is the electric guitar so awesome?
You’re kinda my favorite!
– Mackenzie
Thanks, Mackenzie – you’re kinda great, too!
Electric guitars are awesome, aren’t they? But why?! It’s actually quite simple.
Electric guitars are like regular guitars… except they are from the moon.
When Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins of the Apollo 11 mission returned, those brave guys and their spaceship weren’t the only things to enter earth’s atmosphere – along with them came an electric guitar.
Some say Neil simply stumbled across one when he was crossing the lunar surface.
He rocked out on it for a while, finding it hard to believe how awesome it was. Then he went and played golf with Buzz for a while.
When he made it back to earth, Neil was happy to talk with the press – and anyone who would ask – about the surface of the moon, but he felt most inspired to tell everyone about the amazing electric guitar he had found; that got overshadowed in the media, though.
Until Neil ran into a young guitar named Jimi Hendrix. Jimi was interested in the moon, but wanted to hear more about Neil’s electric guitar.
The rest is history.
Until next time, keep it factual out there!
When we’re young and someone asks us what we want to be when we grow up, it’s common for us to say things like astronaut, police officer, or firefighter. But as the years get on, our intentions change as we do.
Those responses are replaced by dreams as we enter Dream-land.
In Dream-land, we typically strive to become like the people we see – either in real life, or more frequently (for better or worse) on TV and in movies.
Television is discussed seriously in the article Mesmerized by TVs in Restaurants?, the Podcast episode Television, and light-heartedly in the article Confuse-cius’ Wisdom – Becky.
Soon, we all want to be rockstars, movie stars, and professional athletes – for better or worse.
And so we set off, either chasing those dreams, or simply assuming that they’ll become reality… just because it’s meant to be.
After a few years, some people start to realize that being a rockstar might not be all that much fun.
Essentially, don’t rockstars spend the majority of their time riding around in a tour bus or flying around the country, spending years trying to please fans and critics who, eventually, will toss them away, or at the very least say that they aren’t as good as they used to be?
And don’t most movie stars, especially the super-successful ones, lead increasingly isolated lives, surrounded by nice stuff, but leading sad lives as divorce follows divorce and the movie roles dry up.
Oh, and what about professional athletes?
Most of them only get to play for a few years, then get kicked off the team, injured, or retire to go broke shortly thereafter.
Still, some of us decide that those dreams are worth the almost-certain disappointments.
For everyone else, we move on.
And where do we go? We go to Goal-land.
In Goal-land, we work towards an awesome future. A future filled with things that we work, plan, and sacrifice for.
For many people, we strive for jobs. For others, we want to run a 5k, pray the Rosary regularly, or hike a new trail every month.
But what happens when someone stays somewhere between Dream-land and Goal-land? Is that okay?
Well, it depends.
On one hand, it can be good to hold on to our dreams. They may add a great deal to our hope.
On the other hand, they may keep us from fully allowing us to pursue new dreams and goals – ones that might fulfill us more than the dreams that we had when we were younger ever could.
But how do we know when it’s time to let some dreams and goals go so that we can focus on new ones?
Let’s pretend that we know that tomorrow will be our last day living this life. Which dreams or goals would you regret not working on?
If one of our dreams doesn’t come to mind, then it’s probably time to let it go.
If there are things that do come to mind, even if we hadn’t considered them important to us, then it’s time that we give them a place of importance in our stuff-to-think-about list.
What are some goals that you have that would surprise a younger version of you?
