WALL-E Fiction or Future?

If you watched WALL-E you know the story of the dump-truck like robot, in a world no longer harvesting the ingredients to support life. Disney did a great job, but one must wonder if the
majority of our younger viewers understood the message behind WALL-E?


In the movie, even WALL-E is a robot of the past, long outdated
and forgotten. Abandoned.
His only companion, and who would have thought of that, a cockroach!


It struck me when he discovers the plant, the only natural green that recovered in the closed environment of a safe.
The world described in the movie is much like the world we live in today. "Yeah right," you're gonna mumble between your teeth now, aren't you?





You saw the red clothed people in the movie, leaned back on their hovering creepers, with legs not developed to walk? Sipping extra large sodas, chatting on monitors mounted to their hovering recliners? Then you must have noticed the holograph billboard and its suggestion to try "blue" then they all pushed a button and their clothes turned blue?


When was the last time you walked, or rode a bike to the store? Did you know your Super-charged V8 pick-up, or SUV you feel so safe in, burns twice as much gas when you fire it up just to go down to the store, half a mile away, to pick up a gallon of milk?
Most wear and tear to its internally moving engine parts, takes place when the engine is not fully warmed up to its designated operating temperature, every time you run it. I bet you didn't know that either?

I see a ton of similarities in the world we live in today and the world WALL-E lives in. Look at my last photograph, then click here to read more about abuse and destruction, committed to our planet.




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Visiting Glen Ellyn

So I got on a plane last Thursday to visit my fellow author and dear friend Ophelia, and to join her for Printers Row in downtown Chicago.
This may not be my most exciting trip of my life, but I chose to talk about Glen Ellyn because I’m actually still here.

Glen Ellyn is a strange little town, buried deep in the suburbs, south of Chicago with a community of mere 27,000 residents. Let me tell you, the grass is much greener in Glen Ellyn. Although, and this might make you chuckle a bit, Glen Ellyn is so small I think they fold up the sidewalk at night.

I’ve learned one lesson on my first day here. Don’t take any directions for granted the locals give you. In fact, when they tell you to turn right somewhere, turn left instead and you’ll find your destination. No joke!

So I found myself walking down a sidewalk somewhere in Glen Ellyn, Illinois this morning and I got to thinking of what Ophelia had told me about Glen Ellyn.
“Lucas” was filmed here in the late 80’s and Ryan Kelley grew up here.

The city is sort of different and I got mixed emotions about it. When I leave here Monday I’m going to miss running over that piece of chrome molding on North Road. I think about every time leaving downtown, but I never see until the tires throw it up in the air behind me. I’m going to miss driving in the downtown area for a walk just before bedtime in the last three nights.

It’s alright though, I’m coming back in June of 2010 for a book event in Glen Ellyn I was invited to. Oops it’s time for my walk.

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Interview with a Prom-pire

The room is chilled, fifty-two degrees tops. I’m zipping up my jacket and rubbing my hands for warmth.
Intimidating he sits across the table from me, t-shirt and shorts, a hideous grim on his face like he is mocking me. His teeth flash in silence, compromising my normally healthy self-esteem.

Logan, a nineteen-year-old high school graduate and volunteer prom-oholic, came slightly early to share his wicked, ill-twisted prom adventure in an interview with me today. I don’t know anything about prom, but the word alone gives me chills. Bugging me for years I ventured out into the unknown. I had to find out, what is a “Prom” all about!

Martin:
Logan, say, what can you tell me about Prom?

Logan:
There are four main aspects of prom- 1. The look, 2. The dinner, 3. The Dance, and finally 4. The After Prom (Party). The look- As for me, I wore a nice black tuxedo (rented), which I thought looked perfect. I made sure my hair was cut and correctly not in my eyes so that pictures were nice and so that I didn’t look like a hoodlum.

Martin:
And tell me about your prom-date and what she looked like.

Logan:
As for my prom date, she was stunning… a blind man would have even thought she was a vision. She wore a beautiful light pink dress with her hair in a pony tail and curled from the tail down. She was definitely breath taking, and will always be one of the most beautiful sights I’ve seen in my lifetime.





Martin:
You’ve mentioned dinner. What is the significance of the dinner and where did this take place?

Logan:
The dinner is important, it is supposed to be both elegant and classy. We went to a nice Italian restaurant called the Brio Tuscan Grill. It was a great place to eat dinner and we ate with three other couples that were in our “prom group” (basically the group you are going to prom with). It was a great dinner and I definitely felt like I was high class and more fancy than I had ever been. It was just great to be together as a group sharing a nice dinner and just sharing the overall event with each other.

Martin:
So after dinner you took your mistress to a dance on a full stomach, how did that go and where?

Logan:
The dance was extraordinary. Everything was perfect. Our prom’s theme was ‘A night in Venice’. It was captured by many references to beauty in structure and by the redone gymnasium and mess hall. The gymnasium was all covered in a beautiful velvet/blue cloth that was accented by a bridge and a dim lighting like what you would expect Venice to be like at night. The mess hall had a great fountain right in the center… but not water… chocolate. It was an amazing sight, and all around the fountain there were many sweets. I’d say the most memorable part in all was the dancing in general. The fact that you feel alone on the floor with your date, you believe that it is one night to remember on vacation or just a honeymoon that has taken your breath away.

Martin:
And I take it after the dance you both got a little tipsy and wild. You know where I’m going with this?

Logan:
You would expect drinking and sex right? No… my after prom party was thrown by my high school. The high school each year throws an after prom party at the local YMCA where they have a casino room where you can play different poker games, along with a game room, a room with food, and a common area where people and just hang out. Each event you do you get a ticket for, and the tickets you got could get you prizes if they were drawn from the prize box at the end of the night, 5AM. It was a very safe time for a lot of my senior class and there were over 500 people there which means that there were 500 people who did not drink and drive that night of prom. It is very safe and probably the most memorable part of prom itself because it could very well be the last time you ever share together with your classmates besides graduation.

Martin:
Ok I hear we’re running out of time. Looking back, what would you like to share, in one final sentence, with our audience reflecting back on your prom?

Logan:
Prom overall was one of the greatest events of my life.


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The other side of Fashion

For those who don’t know me yet, my name is Martin Bartloff, the newest member of Team Quake. This is my very first blog on Teen-Seen and I like you to know, I’m very excited to entertain you every other Sunday from now on. Let me say this up front, before I forget. I’m honored to be here and entertain the masses!

When I think “fashion” I think of clothes and the everyday hassle to dress appropriately for different tasks. While fashion is not only about the clothes you wear, you’re often measured and judge by what you wear.

This is a sore subject for the younger generations, so I whine little about my earlier days. I’ve always had a hard time keeping up with fashion, when it wasn’t for the money it was my taste, but let’s not go there.

Just a few days ago, I stumbled upon some old school pictures of mine and I got to thinking. Three long days I dreaded writing this blog about fashion, much like I dreaded being called out in 7^th grade by the teacher to solve a math problem on the chalkboard in front of the entire class. There I was lost and exposed, a total Geekwad. Stained jeans, much too short and worn tennis shoe where the sole slapped the floor well before my foot did. Every year for Christmas my wealthy aunt dropped off two large sacks of used clothes, previously worn by her slightly younger and smaller children. My brother and I spent hours sifting through the clothes, often fighting over what fit neither of us in the end. The hand-me-down clothes I wore to school were often subject for bullies. For that alone I hated going to school just as much as I hated not being wealthy like my aunt.

Back then I stood in front of twenty classmates while some students snickered and others whispered. Do not move, I froze staring, embarrassed back and forth between teacher and chalkboard waiting for a clue, a tip, the help you expect from a teacher, right? I wanted to punch those kids who made fun of me. I sucked so bad at math and I hated school. Fashion had a lot, if not all to do with it. Fashionable clothes are not cool if they don’t fit you. I often pretended to be sick and stayed home. My mom wrote excuses and when I returned to school I was even more behind and taunted. The teacher once told me, and I will never forget the look on his face, “I’m surprised you’re still alive as many times as you have been sick this year.” I assure you, he meant it!

By 8^th grade I finally figured it all out, skipping school was making things much worse. By that time I had an equal, not so-fashionable friend who happened to be the tallest, most feared individual in the school. Needless to say I was never messed with again and I improved to be the 3^rd best student in my class. While bullies dropped out early, I decided to pull the, then optional year to graduate with a high school diploma. I miss going to school and I’d do it all over again if I could.

Let’s get back to fashion. While writing “Torn from Normal” I made sure to dress Andy Riley, my main character, appropriately so he wouldn’t have the same problems I did. Although bullied, neither fashion nor raggedy clothes are among the reasons. I’d tell you, but I’d rather have you read “Torn from Normal” and find out for yourself as my debut novel will take you very deep into the emotional depth of seventeen-year-old Andy Riley.

“Torn from Normal” is scheduled for release in June this year, but I prepared an excerpt on my blog for those that can’t wait to meet Andy Riley.

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