Looking For Shell Beach

Ok, so I’ve basically told you in my blog that I have
never really had much motivation to do much more than
eat, sleep and play video games, and that’s about it.
When I got older, I discovered beer and my motivation for
for striving for a little more from life lessened as the haze
of a alcohol buzz warmed me daily. Life is bliss if you
don’t know anything else.

It’s not that I don’t or didn’t have dreams, It’s just that I have
always found it hard to find the energy to do something about it.
Needless to say, I did not do very well in school. Living in the latest cool
video game, comic book or Sci fi movie wasn’t my goal, it was just
a lot easier than doing the work. I know, it’s pathetic, but at least
Its honest.

I was the geek that they picked on, that sat at
the front of the bus, and who said very little to anyone. For anybody
Who knows Charlestown MA, those are some long bus trips. The
other geeks were my friends.

Anyway, back to my point.

Ever since I can remember, I loved science fiction movies.
When I was a little kid, they used to show a double feature
on Saturday afternoons of all the science fiction and monster
movies from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. I just sat and ate them up.
I didn’t care that it was the middle of summer and all of my friends were out playing
sports and running around. I actually didn’t have a lot of friends growing up and
I always felt that I was different from most kids anyway. And most kids made
me feel odd as I wanted to be whisked away to the next planet
to do battle with the fiendish alien or monster and protect the damsel
In distress. Maybe, this week, the earth was under attack, and it was up to
a lone scientist to figure out a way to save our planet. Or, how about that swamp creature
that came out of the muck and terrorized the locals in town. There was always a girl to
save, and she was always hot. And in my world, I was always the hero.

Between movies, my prized comic books and later, video games, there was little else that
mattered as the “real world” was unpleasant. And as I got older, with puberty assaulting my very core, I fell back further out of touch and retreated back into my world. I was more interested in
girls for “other” reasons, but “real” girls scared me, while the women in comic books and movies were “OK.“ You can only imagine how happy I was when Tomb Raider came out.
My world was safe now, as I controlled and protected my bubble and who I let in. Mel
McCarthy, my friend since junior high and fellow geek member was one of the few I
Allowed in. We shared all of the same interests and we know what to expect from each other.
We even work at the same electronic retailer on the North Shore. I do kind of have an on again off again relationship with a girl named Trish from My work. At first it was fun because she was kind of a geek like Mel and me, but as time goes on it seems she is getting a little tired of me and my
Life in my bubble.

I know I have a purpose, I’m just not sure what it is.

What about Shell Beach?

Dark City is one of the greatest Sci Fi movies ever made. I was eighteen years old when Mel and I saw it and it changed the way that I viewed my silly little life. I’m not kidding.
For those of you who have not had the pleasure of this great movie, let me explain the
basic premise:
A man wakes up naked in a bath tub and has no memory of who he is and how he got there.
He is in a city that is always dark and for some mysterious reason, every night at the stroke of
Midnight, everybody in the city falls asleep, except for him. To make matters worse, he is
apparently the prime suspect in a series of murders. There are also these very odd looking dudes called “The Strangers” who can fly around the city and are the reason that people all fall asleep. They are of course doing something that is not very good. One of the key elements of the
story is that the main character needs to get to Shell Beach to find answers about who he is
and what has happened to him. The really strange thing about Shell Beach is, everyone he asks
has heard of it, but no one seems to remember how to get there. The character is convinced that
If he could just get there, then all his questions would be answered and all would be well.

I know I have a purpose…I just need to find my Shell Beach.