the dark corner of my happy mind

Red Tails

2012-01-24T15:44:00.003-05:00

This last weekend Allison and I went to see a great movie, Red Tails. I'm not sure how many people have heard of this film, but it is amazing. Red Tails is a historical fiction story of the Tuskegee Airmen. The opening scene alone is worth the price of admissions. This film has all the special effects of Star Wars, but done realistically with planes of WW2. It should have all the SFX of Star Wars since George Lucas produced this film. Don't let that get to you though. This is a classic Lucas film, not a prequel. This movie also has heart. Red Tails looks at a part of American History that has never been given it's right due. The Tuskegee Airman fought for our country during WW2 and did it well. This movie shows how they went from being an experiment to the best bomber escorts in the war.

This story isn't just about fighting, it's about people. The characters in this movie are wonderful. You slowly fall in love with this characters. Every time they go up you hope that they make it back to their families and loved ones. Not every flight ends with everyone coming home. There could be a second film like the classic The Great Escape if they really wanted too. You'll fall in love with Raygun and Lighting so quickly that you forget you're not there with them. You may even like Coffee, he sure loves his planes.

I could go on about how amazing the movie is, but I won't. I loved this film and think everyone should go see it. If you're on the fence, get off. It's time to spend your money. Movies like this do not get made enough. Hollywood doesn't believe in many things. If you don't have a famous actor as your lead you're screwed. If you're in untested waters you're screwed. If you don't have enough white actors you're screwed. If anything we need to send Hollywood a message and see good films. Films that are fun and not the same sequel we've seen a hundred times already. Trust me, if you see this movie you'll be happy.

failed vacation

2012-01-13T09:50:00.003-05:00

I had this week off for my first paid vacation in years, since 2001. I did not know that this was also the first week of classes for Allison. When we went to Boise State, school never started till the week of Martin Luther King Jr day. It would start on the Tuesday of that week. Well, Indiana University starts a week before that. How unfair is that. Luckily Allison was able to work around somethings and make it so that we could go out of town on Wednesday afternoon for the week.

Our adventure started off well. I decide to take interstate 65 to Chattanooga because it was the easiest route to follow. Once in Columbus you only had to turn once in Nashville to get to on the right interstate to Chattanooga. The trip was going very smoothly. No problems. We had a little rain, but other than that it was all good, until we hit Kentucky. Oh, Kentucky is the bane of my life. It makes life difficult at ever corner. Crossing into Louisville was difficult. Apparently a different bridge was close than the one we were using. So twice the traffic on our bridge. The thing that happened was Dixie Highway was closed which is near I-264, which is what you would use to get around. We didn't know why it was closed at the time, but it was because of a police chase and crash. That wasn't bad. I figured it was normal or a little heavy traffic for getting into Louisville. We passed through Louisville with no problems, other than I need to use the rest room and we were in downtown Louisville. Outside of Louisville we found a bathroom and lunch.

Getting back on the road was the problem. It was a little after one in the afternoon. We didn't know what was waiting for us. After entering into Bullitt County we hit traffic like no other. It almost came to a complete stop, actually it did for about two hours. In those two hours I was able to move my car two miles and get off at a rest stop. The VW wasn't doing so great by this time. Idling for two hours had put a toll on the little car. We stopped at the rest stop for another two hours. We watched as the cars slowly moved on. Sometimes not moving at all. It was bad. I called up 511 and found out that all the lanes were closed ahead and there was a multi-car crash ahead, about 10 to 13 miles away. Later checking the reports I found out that a semi had leaked diesel fuel on the road making it very hazardous. Then lots of cars and semis had an accident. The reports also said the lanes would be all closed till late afternoon. Considering I didn't get back on the road till after five and traffic was still not moving very fast this seems hardly likely.

During are stay at the rest stop I felt the desire not to go on. Allison felt the same way. It meant giving up the vacation I had been looking forwards to for a very long time, but we could deny what we were feeling. So when we got on the interstate again we drove the one mile the next exit and turned around and came home. We were home by eight. This is amazing because we wouldn't have been to Chattanooga till after midnight with all the delays. There were more accidents on I-65 after the one we were trying to get through. If nothing had gone wrong we would have made it to Chattanooga by seven. I guess some thing this trip was not suppose to happen. I don't know if something horrible would have happened to us if we did make it or not. I figure the spirit was telling us to turn around. I don't know what was bound to happen to us, but I can only guess it was going to be bad. That the thing, when you follow the spirit you can only assume that bad things were going to happen. You'll never truly know though.

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-11T08:21:00.001-05:00

Quarter Bin - Ghost Rider 1 vol. 3

2012-01-09T11:58:00.005-05:00

This comic I read on my ipod touch. I find reading comics on the ipod is best when you are on the go or somewhere that you don't want to take your comics. The second good thing about this comic was it was a free download on the Marvel app. I love the free comics. I truly don't know of a better thing than free comics. Okay there probably is better things, but not when your board and only have an ipod with you.

So this comic rocked. I never read the 90's Dan Ketch Ghost Rider. I've never really been a big Ghost Rider fan at all. I just read the Ghost Rider Jason Aaron Omnibus a few months ago and it was nothing like this comic. They both are awesome in their own respects. I just love 90's comics. This comic was the best too. It was a double size issue. Twice as much story. I wrote a long explanation of the book earlier, but lost it. I hate computers sometimes. So this review is going to be much shorter and sweet.

Danny goes to Houdini's grave with his sister, Barbara. They run into a gang on the way there and Danny totally chickens out and has Barb save him. That's the start of the trouble. Then as they make it into the graveyard they over see two rival crime groups fighting. One is Deathwatch and his crew and the other is the Kingpin's crew. This comic is so tied into the marvel universe. The two groups see Danny and Barb. Barb get's shot with a arrow into the chest. Danny hides her in the junkyard next door. He finds a motorcycle in the junkyard. He's magically transformed into the Ghost Rider. He goes and fights the crime families. The local gang steals what the two crime families want. The cops show and see Ghost Rider and assume he's the bad guy. Which why wouldn't they he's got a flaming head in leather. Sounds evil to me. Ghost escapes and get's Barb to the hospital. We meet Danny's parents. He's dad is a cop and thinks Ghost Rider hurt his daughter. Tons more story happens with the local gang and crime families.

All and all I really liked this comic. I've never been a big Ghost Rider fan and haven't read much by him. The story wasn't all fighting and big muscles like most 90's comic. It was interesting. Danny wasn't sure about himself, but when the Ghost Rider took over things worked out. I felt like Danny could be a real person. He wasn't two dimensional. He had a little depth and I hope they build on that. One thing I wish was that I had a physical copy of the comic. I love the feel of paper between my hands vs the ipod. I see full pages instead of individual panels. I think I'll even start looking for these comics in quarter bins when I'm in comic shops. I would love to have this comic and maybe even the full run in my collection.

I give this comic 4 out of 5. It was a lot of fun to read.

goals for 2011 are done

2012-01-03T10:00:00.001-05:00

I don't make many new year's resolutions. I never have. I kind of always thought they were stupid. When I was a kid I thought if I made new year's resolution I could do them, but I would fail after a month or two. Never in my life have I ever completed a single new year's resolution. That was until last year. Last year I set out with the most ambitious resolution I have ever tried. I decide to draw something everyday. Kind of like a daily comic because I love comics. After 365 days I can say I did it! I kind of thought I would fail. I fail at a lot of things so I kind of figured I'd give this up after a month or two. I thought about giving up, put I didn't. I now have three full and one half filled sketch books for 2011 drawings. Now I'm not going to lie, I did miss a few days here and there, but I always went back and did them, I have 365 drawings all done in 2011. I never said they had to be done by end of day, just that I had a comic day and I have a drawing for each day. I loved doing them too. Summer was favorite time to draw them. I was really inspired by the baseball season. I drew a few baseball players from past and present. I really tried to capture their movement in my drawings. I was able to do this with some of the comics but not all of them. Another great thing that came out of my comics was my presidential or political comics. My father encouraged me to draw all the presidents after I put up a funny little comic on President's Day on my comic blog. I drew these comic with fever till October. Then in October I decide to dedicate the month to monsters. That was a really fun month of comics. Then I picked them back up in November but didn't finish. Instead I drew lost of other comics leaving the Barack Obama comic still to do. I'm glad to say I finished his comic yesterday. I still have a few more politicians to draw, but seeing as it is now a weekly comic on my comic blog I'll be looking for even more politicians here soon.

Drawing wasn't my only goal. On Goodreads they put up a challenge on their site to read books. You could enter how many books you think you could read in a year. I put down a hundred, but that's including comic books. I planned on reading fifteen regular books with eighty-five comics. I was able to succeed in this goal too. I read twenty regular books. I haven't been reading this many books since I got out of high school. I felt good about this number. I read a lot of different type of books. Allison has had that effect on me. She's got me reading tons of cool things.

All and all I think 2011 was a good year. I did the things I set out to do. Drawing a comic a day was really hard, but rewarding. It took a lot for me to come up with enough ideas to fill a full year. I don't know when I'll that again, but hopefully next year. This year I'm taking a break and going to work on more personal stories. I'm bring back my Lost Guns series. I loved drawing those comics in college and I want to get back to telling stories about my life. I plan on drawing at least one a week. Plus I got my goodreads goal for this year. Plus you can see my 365 at flickr.

Here's for another great year.

The New Year in Indy

2012-01-02T09:40:00.002-05:00

On December 30 we decide to go up to Indianapolis for some fun. There's always tons to do up in Indy. It's one of my favorite cities to go too. This time we did somethings I've never done in Indy before! After living only an hour away for more than 15 years there is still things I've never done. We went to Momument Circle while it was actually open. I've been done to Momument a lot of times growing up, but never when it was open. For the longest time I didn't think you can enter it. I was wrong. When Allison and I were driving downtown we saw that it was open and decide it was time to go in. Once in and finding out you can go to the top we had to do it. I know, Michael going up a tower, bad idea. He's got acrophobia. Well, we decide to go up anyway. It was two dollars to use the elevator or free to climb the 300 plus steps. We did the steps. We made it all the way to the top without me freaking out. We had to take a couple breaks in the middle, but we made it to the top, and It's pretty cool up top. You can see all of downtown Indy. A fun time no doubt.

Sherlock Christmas

2011-12-31T11:56:00.004-05:00

Time has been flying out here in Indiana. I can't believe tomorrow will 2012. I wanted to write this post last week, but I was to busy playing Star Wars Lego III. That game is awesome! Best Christmas present I got this year, but it's not a Star Wars Christmas this year, it was a Sherlock Holmes Christmas!

It started the week before Allison left for Idaho. She was done with school, but had to still be in town because of her job. We decide to rent this great BBC show, Sherlock. This series was three movies long. It was set in modern London which made it a lot of fun. The first movie/episode was call A Study in Pink. Which was an awesome retelling of the first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet. A bit different than the original story as there was no Mormons in Pink. Which was a good idea since Sir Arther Conan Doyle didn't get a lot of facts right about the Mormons for his story. I think in England at the time it was still considered a cult. So we watch those three awesome movies and loved it. I think this Sherlock series might be my favorite. Even more than Robert Downey Jr. version. I love that version of Sherlock Holmes too.

Than came Christmas. In my stocking was a Lego mini-figure. If you know anything about the mini-figures they come packaged randomly so you never know what you're getting. When I opened mine up, Sherlock Holmes' head rolled out and was looking at me. I was like no way! This is to awesome. Allison was did you get one you needed. I said yeah I got Sherlock Holmes!!! Allison was like that's so cool. You love Sherlock Holmes. So yeah that was really awesome. Allison couldn't actually pick out Sherlock but was luckily enough to get me the mini-figure I really wanted from that Lego series. I was really happy and figured that might be all the Sherlock I was getting for Christmas, which is more than I ever thought I would get. Then when I was opening presents I got a book. From the size in the wrapping paper I though it might be a comic, but it wasn't. After ripping through the green paper with white snow flakes on it the present reveled to be a Sherlock Holmes novel! I haven't read very many of them yet. Just the first two. Allison had gotten me The Hound of the Baskervilles. How exciting! This is one of Doyle's most famous Sherlock works. I haven't read it yet, but it's next on my reading list after I finish my current book I'm reading.

It was a pretty awesome Christmas. Than to finish it off we went and saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie the day after Christmas. That was a lot of fun. I really liked it. Who would have though 2011 would be the Christmas of Sherlock Holmes? I sure didn't, but what a great turn of events,

wordless wednesday

2011-12-21T13:45:00.002-05:00

The Quarter Bin – Wolverine 170 – 172

2011-12-20T17:28:00.003-05:00

2002 was an exciting year. X-Men the movie had just come out the summer before. Wolverine was a hot property. Plus the yellow spandex was ditched for the black leather jacket. This three story issue arch was called Stay Alive. This story was not the best Wolverine story ever, but I’ve never heard of the writer, Frank Tieri. That doesn’t mean much in the comic world. Writers come and go in the comic industry. This story is a nice little adventure in Canada. Wolverine is looking for a bad guy who messed him up in previously. Instead he stops in a diner and sees some crazy guy eat all these people on a live reality show. The guy turns out to be Mauvais, an immortal French wizard who happens to be a cannibal too. Mauvais is going all crazy to unleash a Wendigo. Wolverine has to fight Mauvais and the Wendigo in issue 171. He’s beat pretty good and then in issue 172 Alpha Flight shows up. Nothing like Canada’s premier superhero team showing up.

So let’s get into what makes this story arch good.

The Good: Wolverine in black leather. I love this era. Grant Morrison run on New X-Men was one of my favorite. I love the old look now. I liked that the X-Men were all out of spandex and into leather jackets. They seemed cooler and who’s the coolest X-Men, Wolverine. The second issue in the arch is a “Nuff Said” issue. It was a challenge Marvel did with its comics for one month in 2002. No words were used in the comic, just pictures to tell the story. In issue 172 Sasquatch preforms a fast ball special. I don’t know about you, but I love seeing Wolverine doing a fastball special anytime I can get it. Also Tieri is setting up future stories with Sabertooth watching Omega Red and Lady Deathstrike. You see both of these characters for a second, but no explanation of what is going on with them. I like Omega Red and wish he was the main villain in the story. Also Wolverine has to fight some Polar Bears.

The Bad: Wolverine seems a little depowered in this arch. Mauvais seems like lame villain. He’s a French wizard. Not really that cool in my book. Wolverine has to fight and kill some polar bears. Doesn’t he know they are already in trouble with global warming? Come on Wolverine. Also the story plot from the first issue is just dropped. What ever happened to the guy who wanted to show everyone dying on TV. The TV producer never gets mentioned after he decides to air his reality show as his contestants are being eaten.

Stay Alive was an okay arch, not the best. I liked a lot of things about it, but it was lacking a real villain. French wizards just seem silly to me. Plus the fact that I spent $1.50 for it I would say it was worth it. I had fun seeing Wolverine in his leather jacket. Plus there was a fast ball special in it!

3.5 stars out of 5

dork driving to work

2011-12-05T10:28:00.004-05:00

I feel like a real dork when I drive to and from work. It's starting to get pretty cold in the morning, but my job blasts the heat and I work right next to the heater. Because of this I have to wear shorts just not to over heat. If I was any where else in the warehouse I would be okay in pants. When I drive to work I wear the dorkiest outfit. I have my winter hat and biking gloves on. An old thin hoodie and shorts. Plus high socks so the fabric on my boots don't give my ankles a rash. It's kind of cold the first five minutes in the car ride, but after that it's okay. I still feel like a dork. Luckily no one ever sees me. I drive to work at like two am.

Sore Day

2011-12-02T12:20:00.005-05:00

The first full week of peak is done at work. We started every day at three am, except Wednesday which started at two-thirty am. I thought I was ready for this peak season. I worked last year peak and a whole year since than. I figured my body would was ready for this year. I guess thinking is not my best suit. My body after just one week is a total wreck. Today at work I could barely move. I was so sore. I can't believe how sore I am. It feels like I've been hit by a freight train, well probably not that bad. If I was hit by a freight train I would be more than sore. So it's more like falling off a deck and hitting a grass patch, not concrete. That's how sore I am. To help with my soreness I took along bath today. It was a nice long bath were I watched some funny TV. My body feels a lot better, but the soreness is still there. So one week is done, lets hope I can make it through another three weeks.

peak

2011-11-21T13:20:00.004-05:00

The return of peak is at UPS. This morning we started our early morning start time. We showed up at three am instead of four am. This might sound bad, but its not horrible. Some people call this month hell month. I can understand why. On top of working early they encourage us to sign up for a second program, the Driver Helper program. This program is what I was originally hired to do last November. the driver helper program is also called jumping, but they discourage people calling it that. The main reason for that is they don't want people jumping in and out of the trucks. This leads to injuries and UPS hates injuries. Injuries hurt profits and they don't like that.

This jumper season I decided to sit it out. Last year I last about three weeks before I hurt myself to the point that I couldn't walk. My knees are already sore right now from working for the past year. I figure working five to six hours every morning will be enough work for me. If you don't hear from me for awhile I just want you to know I'm either laying in bed trying to get some sleep or laying in the tub trying to soak my sore muscles. Which I'll need both. I hope everyone has a great peak season! I know I'll be trying to make the most of mine.

one year

2011-11-11T10:05:00.003-05:00

I hit my one year mark at UPS on 11-11-11. I know. Who would have thought I would make it a whole year. I sure didn't. I thought I would die or something, but I didn't. I work hard and I got reward with more work. Here's what I learned from work at UPS for one year.

1. The harder you work the more work you get.

2. Just because you have more work than everyone else, doesn't mean you'll get help.

3. Time move slower when you know what time it is.

4. Country music stations in Bloomington play the national Anthem at 6 am.

5. The better you do your job the more work you'll get so you mess up.

6. If you mess up it's no one else fault, because you should be able to handle more work than the two people next to you combined.

7. Your bosses don't care unless you're going to involve your union rep.

8. If you walk out on your shift in the middle of the day you can use the union to get your job back.

9. It's always hot in the warehouse.

10. No one really cares about your feelings.

Working at UPS has been awesome. I can't wait to get two years under my belt, oh wait yes I can.

new Mormon art

2011-11-01T14:12:00.007-04:00

I was watching the new I'm a Mormon videos online today. They had some very interesting people on the site that were famous. People I'd actually heard of that were Mormon. When these ads first started I didn't pay them much attention. I figured they would be boring like most LDS ads have been for years. During my views I found two new artist that I liked. The first was Rose Datoc Dall. Her blog is http://rosedatocdall.blogspot.com/ and http://www.rosedatocdallfineart.com/.

After watching her video I had to go look at her paintings. These are probably the first Religious themed paintings I've liked in a really long time. Rose's style is beautiful. My favorite painting that I've seen so far of her's, is Eve's Creation. This painting is beautiful. The way the shadows and lights play with each other. I just think the style that Rose paints in is amazing. This is the kind of art I want the church to get behind. It's new and different than what the church has been pimping for the last decade. I think it's time for a change.

The second artist I found was Cassandra Barney. You can find her blog at http://churningsandburnings.blogspot.com/ and her art can be found at http://www.cassandrabarney.com. Her style is different and just as amazing. I can't give justice to the art work she does. You need to go and look at it yourself.

These artist are amazing. The very different styles they bring to world is important. Looking at the I'm a Mormon ads in a different light now. These ads are not just to introduce people to the Mormon faith, but to help the Mormon community. We are such a large community that it's hard to find each other sometimes. These ads can help spotlight different individuals and show Mormons a different way of viewing the world in our own little corner of it. I plan to continue to watch these different ads and learn more about my people and hopefully find some more great artist.

wordless wednesday - two years

2011-10-26T15:03:00.002-04:00

growing up

2011-10-25T13:41:00.004-04:00

It seems that all my life my teachers and counselors have told me to follow my dreams. That I need to find what I love and do that. I know what I love, comics. I really love the X-Men. I remember being about ten years old when I discovered the X-Men. Fox had a great cartoon for them. A cartoon I based all my X-Men knowledge on for years and got a lot of things right about the X-Men cannon. Then my first comic book ever was the X-Men Volume 2 Issue 5. I got it as a present. It was a sweet comic. Wolverine fought Omega Red. Since that time I've been a big X-Men fan. I might not always collect the comics, there are like ten to twenty a month to buy, but I keep track of what's going on.

Here's my problem. Since I was about ten I've wanted to be an X-Man. That has been one of my big problems. I figured I'd eventually get mutant powers. Something really cool like I could stop time and live between the moments of time. Maybe I could travel in time or fly. I also could end up with a lame power like talking to fish or being able to jump twenty feet in the air. I just figured by now I'd have power. The problem is I'm now 29 and don't have a mutant power. According to X-Men lore the power manifest themselves at puberty which I had quite awhile ago.

I feel like I should give up on my dream. I'm getting a bit old now. I'm married. I have a family I need to look out for. The X-Men don't seem to worry to much about having families. Most of the kids end up being sent to the future to be raised. I just hate to think that I could never be an X-Man. I don't really want to grow up. I love being a kid and just doing kid things. Sure I finished college. I work a regular job, but that doesn't mean I have to give up the dream, or does it?

Mormon:Facts (Monster Edition)

2011-10-20T11:41:00.004-04:00

wordless wednesday

2011-10-19T15:27:00.002-04:00

ten reasons

2011-10-13T09:25:00.004-04:00

10. Her desire for adventure
9. The way she cheers me up all the time
8. Being determined
7. Looking at the bright side of life
6. The way she kisses me
5. Letting me be my weird self
4. The way she always wants to hold my hand
3. Her love of books
2. Making me a better man
1. Loving me enough to marrying me

These are the top ten reasons I love Allison!

the lost car wash

2011-10-08T11:34:00.004-04:00

One of the perks of buying our new Jetta at the dealership we bought it at was that we get a free car wash every Saturday morning. Luckily the dealership is right in front of our house! Mind you we went all over town before we went to that dealership to look at cars. Today was the first time we decide to use the free car wash. I wasn't sure exactly how it was going to work, but it did. We got our car washed. The wash was really nice too. They did it by hand and detailed the outside of the car. They even shined the tires! So nice. The one problem with that is the fact that it takes a little longer than the five minute auto wash at the gas station. When we took it in they said about an hour to an hour and a half. We decide to go grocery shopping in that time frame. Everything is like a two minute walk from our apartment. Life is good. So good. When I went back I wasn't sure what I was suppose to do. I saw that they were still washing a Jetta. Not thinking about the fact I was at Volkswagen Dealership and there are lots of Jetta there, I thought it was mine. It was an older Jetta too. So I just waited outside while they finished up the wheels. When they pulled it out they were like here you go. I got a good look at it and realized it wasn't mine. I was like my bad, not my Jetta. I looked around for a second and couldn't even see my car in the back lot where they kept the car they were washing and working on. I finally asked someone what was up and they were like oh, go check with the cashier to get your keys. Not knowing where that was I ended up going to a couple different people before finding the cashier. As I got my keys I asked her where they might have put my car. She said to check along the side and back. Having already checked there I was thanks. Walking out the side doors to check if it was over there I noticed a nice looking Jetta parked out front of the dealership. Oh yes, my car was looking so fine they put it out front to attract customers. It's nice to have a good looking car that runs really good.

the new 52 - Static Shock

2011-10-07T15:48:00.005-04:00

The new 52 has finished it first month. That would the total relaunch of DC comics line of comics. They rebooted their entire line in September. I stopped reading DC comics at this time too. It felt like it would be a good jumping off point since all the stories were wrapping up. I was only reading two Batman books at the time so not a big loss for me. Then this week was the first rounds of issue two for some of the comics. I also only had one comic I as picking up at the comic shop so I figured I might give one comic a shot. I was thinking about Men at War and Action Comics. I heard some good things about both. Who doesn't like a good Grant Morrison Superman story or a war comic? Well in the end I went a totally different direction. I went with Static Shock! I picked up the first two issues of this book mainly because of 00's cartoon. I didn't watch the cartoon regularly but I did like it.

After reading the first two issues, I have to give Static Shock a passing grade. It was a lot of fun to read. He held onto some of his Milestone roots. Milestone was the company that first published Static Shock comics. They have Hardware being Static mentor in superheroing, since he's still a teen. Hardware stayed back in Dakota while sending Static to New York City to investigate some crime. In the first two issues we start to see a criminal organization that Static will be fighting. He crosses their path by accident at first by stopping someone from stealing a powersuit for S.T.A.R. labs. This leads the organization to want to stop Static. They don't want any Superheroes in New York City. They are using a teenage gang of techheads to pull of most of their crimes, the Slate Gang. The organization puts a hit out on Static and all hell breaks loose, very entertaining. They use great cliff hangers at the end of each comic.

All and all Scott McDaniels does an excellent job writing Static Shock. I've always enjoyed his writing since I can remember. He did a lot of great comics in the 90's and 00's. He wrote my favorite run of Nightwing comics. I hope that he continues with his awesomeness and keep Static Shock in my read list. That's it for the new 52 for me. I plan to read more of it, but probably in trade from the public library. When I get my hands on that I'll let you know if the other new 52 is worth reading.

Mormon Culture: Music Festivals

2011-10-04T15:21:00.005-04:00

When I was a junior in High School I had a friend that dad was a Baptist Preacher. Luckily the kid wasn’t all about making a Baptist or even hating on my Mormon beliefs. He kind of got me confused with Amish people and was always asking me if I had electricity in my house. One thing he convinced me to do one Saturday was go to a music festival. This music festival wasn’t a normal one though, it was Christian music festival. I wasn’t really sure what I was going to be hearing when I agreed to go. If it was anything like the religious music I had been hearing in my youth, it was going to suck. To my surprise it was nothing like bad contemporary Mormon music. They had rock bands, rap groups, singer song writers. It was really amazing. Since then I’ve always wondered why Mormons can’t make good music. Sure there are some famous rock stars that are Mormon, but are they really?

Music has always been an important part in Mormon culture. During the pioneer treks Brigham Young would have people break out their fiddles and play upbeat music to dance too. At the time this would be considered the latest music styles. Young was all about the pop music of his time. Lately it seems that the church is against rock music or just popular music, which is fine. I don’t think I would want Weezer approved by my church leaders. The thing is why aren’t Mormons making their own rock music? Why are there not Mormon music festivals? When I hear about, Mormon music it takes place in the church chapel. Why can’t there be some good punk bands that are Mormon. There are a few good Christian punk bands, MxPx, Owl City, and Reliant K. They don’t sing about Christ and how they saved them. They just sing music and are very open about their religious views. How awesome would it be if we had some Mormon bands like that? I know Aquabats might be considered our Mormon band, but the lineup has changed and I don’t know if they are Mormon anymore. I’m not saying I need big bands, but some rock bands. I remember listening to Sweet Haven, whatever happened to them. They would be the perfect band to get behind and build an awesome rock community behind.

Here’s what I want to see:
1. More Mormon rock bands
2. A Mormon Rock band festival that happens once a year
3. No more crap music by the other Michael McLean

I don’t think that is asking for too much. Okay maybe it is. I mean, Mormons hate rock music. That’s what I learned from my church leaders. Of course they’re the same people that say listening to anything other than Mormon Tabernacle Choir will send me to hell. So I never really listen to them. Yeah, I might be a little bad, or more.

my nightmares are weird

2011-10-01T15:33:00.001-04:00

I had nightmare last night. They happen every once and awhile. I usually don’t talk about them because they’re really boring nightmares, like I have to work for hours and hours at UPS. That is a nightmare I have regularly. Last night I had a really weird dream. I was living in Cedar Rapids again. In the brown house I grew up in. I was upstairs in the big bedroom; it was big when I was five. I was there with Allison just hanging out. I heard some noise from the window. When I went to look out it there were some large gazelles; I’m not sure how big they get but they were bigger than mule deer. It was night time too. The sky was a weird navy blue; kind of like in the movies when they are saying it night. There was a light fog covering the ground. I couldn’t see the hooves of the gazelles. Scanning the backyard a little more I saw a lion too. It was a normal size lion, but not a normal lion. The lion wasn’t hunting the gazelles. He was just lying there on the ground. He turned its head up towards the window. That was when I noticed it wasn’t a normal lion. It had a pug face, like those cute little dogs. It had a burned yellow pug face with gold locks of a mane. It was beautiful and ugly all at the same time. I told Allison I needed the camera. I need to get proof of this crazy beast. I couldn’t get any good shoots from the window I was at. Luckily the pug lion was down by our sliding door in our backyard. I figured I would be safe if I went downstairs to take the picture. As I got downstairs I noticed something was wrong. Someone had left the glass sliding door ajar. There was no way I was safe anywhere in the house if pug lion could get into the house. I crept up slow to the door trying not to be heard by the beast. As I got right up to the door the pug lion swung his head right towards me. His eyes flared up. He wanted me. I tried to close the door but his huge paw with his pearl colored claws caught the door before it closed. He started to pull the door open. I ran back upstairs to Allison and slammed the door shut. Hoping the pug lion wouldn’t get to us. No luck for that. He smelt the fear on me. He started to bang on the door. I tried to hold it shut with my body. I yelled to Allison for help. The pug lion started to pry open the door. I could see those deadly paws again. Then I sort of woke up and was like I’ll get the X-Men to help me. I asked Nightcrawler to teleport out there and teleport the lion out of my house. He was like no way. He wasn’t going to fight a lion. Then I woke up all the way. It was one of those weird dreams.

songs you can listen too

2011-09-30T16:48:00.003-04:00

Finding good music can be a hard task. I know some people don’t even try to find new music anymore. They’ll listen to the radio and that’s it. That’s not bad, but I’ve always been one to seek new music. I’ve been this way since I discovered music. I was a little older when I did. I was fifteen when I bought my first cd, Sugar Ray’s Floored. I have to say I’ve come a long way since then. One problem I know a lot of Mormons have is finding good music without curse words. I for one don’t care very much about this. I like a good curse word here and there. Okay if you ask my wife she’d say I curse worse than a sailor at times. It’s true. I’ve tried to cut it out. I did okay on my mission. I was able to cut it out in front of people.

I degrees, I do that a lot in my blogs. I was talking about music. I have many different ideas for music, but I want to talk about one person right now, Vanessa Carlton. I’m not sure if people know her. I know she has been on the radio and on MTV when they use to play music videos. I just picked up her new album from my local library and it is beautiful. Rabbits on the Run is just a wonderful album. Vanessa plays the piano and sings. She has a gift that is amazing. If you are looking for a pop star with a beautiful voice and great skills Vanessa Carlton has it all. She is an artist that I would say any Mormon could listen too. I wouldn’t even turn her music off if my parents came into my house. Trust me I have a lot of music I wouldn’t listen to with my parents, but isn’t that true about each generation? You listen to music your parents wouldn’t listen too.

Here are some of my favorite songs by Vanessa, White Houses. If you listen to the lyrics it’s not very innocent, but the piano piece is amazing. She talks about some very mature subjects in a very upbeat way.

A Thousand Miles was Vanessa first I knew by her. It’s a sweet little song. If you were listening to music in 2000 you should know this song. It was everywhere. It reminded me a lot of the Proclaimers 500 Miles. The music video on this song is very cool too. I like the idea of traveling the world on a piano keyboard. Plus she’s wearing armbands.

Vanessa’s new song Carousel is also good. It has that upbeat feeling. I hope to get to listen to this song for years to come.

wordless wednesday - beauty

2011-09-28T09:25:00.003-04:00

who i am - blink 182

2011-09-27T13:02:00.003-04:00

Blink 182's new album Neighborhoods came out today. As many people know I'm a huge Blink 182 fan. A little over a year ago I wrote an essay about how they affect my life. This essay is very much about me and what I think of Blink 182. I hope you enjoy.

It’s a balmy eighty degrees on a late Sunday night in September. The air is stale with a hint of body odor whiffing through the room. The television is blaring as four newly married couples start to play Guitar Hero. I hold the mic close to my dry pinkish slightly chapped lips. The sweat is starting to bead up on my forehead as I wait for the song start to play. Allison’s guitar riff starts firsts on the television. Red, green, green red, yellow. I jump up a foot in the air my legs bending a little in true punk rock fashion as I yell in to the mic, “Take your pants off!” a classic rebel cry for Mark Hoppis and Tom Delong. These are not the words to the song that just started on the television. I don’t care the lyrics haven’t started yet I’m primed to rock out as if this was my last night on earth. I’m just buzzing hearing that opening riff on the guitar played on my television. I’m no longer a twenty-eight year-old unemployed loser playing Guitar Hero in his living room to escape reality, but a dorky fifteen year-old.

There are very few things and moments in a person’s life that they can point to and say this has changed my life forever. I no longer want to be my old self, but a new person. This one song, this one band helped form my personality, the essence of who I have become over the last fourteen years. I can name a few different things that have done this in my life, but there is one thing that is so defining that it changed the course of my life: Blink 182. No other band had more influence on me as a teen. One song changed my life from dork to punk. Not the 70’s Clash punk or the 2000’s emo, but a true 90’s short-haired pop punk band. The only kind of punk I have ever wanted to be. To this day I would say I’m still a 90’s pop punker just waiting for the next Blink 182 album, which is coming.

When I was fifteen I wasn’t actively searching for anything to change me. I was happy listening to Sugar Ray’s album Floored. I was happy with my crappy hair cut with the part on the side when I put a pound of gel in it. I was happy sitting in my house being just what my parents wanted me to be. But I wasn’t happy; I just didn’t know it yet. How can you know you’re not happy when you’ve never experienced anything? How can you know you’re happy when you’ve never really had great joy? My home just got cable television a few months earlier. Before that we only had PBS in the house. I was experiencing MTV for the first time; it still played a couple music videos at this time. Not all the time, but at least enough to find new music. Music I would have never been exposed to without it. I remember hearing “Dammit” for the first time on MTV.

It’s alright to tell me what you think about me, I won’t try to argue or hold it against you. I know that you’re leaving you must have your reasons. The season is calling, your pictures are falling down.

Those first words sung by Mark Hoppis with three cords played by Tom Delong was a spiritual awaking for me. No longer did I have to listen to Top 40 crap on the radio. No longer did I have to be nice and pretend I liked everyone. No longer did I have to have a lame 50’s-style haircut that never worked with my hair. No longer did I have to try and discover who I was. No longer did I have to wonder if the Spice Girls were the best girl group on the earth, a debate that never mattered in the first place. I was a punk. This song was about girls and how they screw up your life, which I knew nothing about, but Mark and Tom were going to be my teachers for the rest of my life. I need some teachers, because the rest of pop music told me to find a girl that likes Breakfast at Tiffany’s and that was enough. I had no clue what that meant, but why would pop music lie? I just needed to find this amazing restaurant and I would have women. Oh Top 40, how you lie to me. There is no restaurant at Tiffany’s; it’s just an overhyped movie from the 60’s that girls love.

The transformation wasn’t overnight, no transformation can be that fast. I had to go down to the record store and find this new band, Blink 182. I only saw this music video once before I searched it out. This was before youtube, before bands were on the world wide web. Searching took time and effort; it was like you were Indiana Jones looking for the Holy Grail. You could ask the guy at the record store, but there was never a guarantee that he knew the band you wanted. They usually only cared about the obscure Indie Rock that was coming out. I had to go old school and search Karma for the CD. I found it. I was able to remember enough to actually find it in a large CD store. This new discovery was amazing, not just for me but anyone who would know me post-“Dammit.” Over time I grew out my sideburns, the classic 90’s sideburns that everyone was sporting. You can tell which guys lived through the 90’s as a teen because most of them still sport the sideburns. I decided to cut my hair short on the sides and a little longer on top. Then my hair went straight up a year later. I’m no early adopter, but I was one of the very first kids in my school to sport that look. All of a sudden people started to notice me in the halls. I wasn’t a nobody anymore, I was a cool kid. Okay I wasn’t a cool kid, but people stopped making fun of me. My pants got huge, and I learned the white guy dance from The Offspring’s Pretty “Fly for a White Guy” music video.

Discovering yourself shouldn’t be as easy as finding a silly Blink 182 song on MTV. Everyone knows who Blink 182 is now. They sing that song “All the Small Things.” When I discovered “Dammit,” I was alone in a crazy world. It would be about a year before any of my friends were listening to “All the Small Things.” Bands have weaved in and out of my life. Blink 182 has not left me. The only time I stopped buying Blink 182’s CDs was when they decided to stop making new music.

At one point in my fourteen year love of Blink 182 people started to think they were lame, in fact at many times of my life I run across this. For some reason people think Indie Rock is where is should be. They don’t care about pop punk. They don’t want to listen to happy upbeat tunes about boys losing girls and trying to figure out how to get them. Yet that is what life is all about. You are either trying to get a girl or trying to figure out how to get over them. My teachers Mark and Tom taught me this. It doesn’t matter if you’re married either. You are still just trying to win your wife over every night, at least I am. Why do you think so many marriages go south? It’s because they don’t listen to Mark and Tom about love. If you take it for granted you lose it. Now that’s a true punk belief.

To this day if I hear “Dammit” or any Blink 182 song I have to stop for a second and punk out. If it’s the car I just nod my head. If I’m walking when it come on my ipod, then maybe a little dance move right there on the street. The best is when I can rock out to the entire song. I can scream at the top of my lungs for the entire song. I can jump up and down and be a maniac, because I know I’m a punk. I’m no longer that dork with lame tight jeans and a bad haircut.

It’s happened once again, I’ll turn to a friend someone that understands, she screwed the master plan. But everybody is gone and I’ve been here for too long to face this on my own. Well I guess this is growing up.

Well I guess this is growing up.

For two minutes and forty-five seconds I was a legend of punk rock. I let the eighty degree weather shove it. I didn’t care if I was dehydrated. I belted out “Dammit” for the whole world to hear. I turned away from the television, not needing to see the lyrics, and serenaded my wife as she played the fake guitar. I jumped up and down. If this is growing up, I don’t want to stop. I want to keep going. I want to listen to “Dammit” a hundred thousand more times and remember I can change and be something amazing if I need to. We all can.

national comic book day

2011-09-25T12:42:00.007-04:00

It's National Comic Book Day! I've never heard of this holiday, but I do love comics. I would have thought this day was the first Saturday in May which is Free Comic Book Day. I love that day too. Comics are the best and yes, you should be reading them if you are not.

I wanted to talk about five comics I love reading right now. I have a bunch that I love to read. Since I am one for the spandex muscle comics I'll be talking about them. I know that's not every ones cup of tea, but it's mine. I'll try and throw in some other good books too.

1. Invincible by Robert Kirkman. This is the best monthly comic book out there. Invincible follows Mark Grayson on his adventures. The twist and turns of Invincible will totally keep you reading the comic. Mark grows from a high school kid with no powers to one of the most powerful superheroes on Earth. He deals with every day situations and with the morale decisions he has to make as a superhero. Should he kill villains? Should he work for the government, even if they're a little corrupt? His decisions will effect society he lives in. I love the personal drama Mark goes through with his family life. Everything is being thrown left and right as Mark grows up.

2. The Amazing Spider-Man by Dan Slott. I'm a huge Spider-Man fan. I've loved Spider-Man for so many years, I can't count them. The most current story going on in the Amazing Spider-Man in Spider-Island. Normal people are getting spider powers. They can webswing and stick to walls. Mayor Jameson doesn't like this. The world see this as a epidemic. Can Spider-Man protect New York when he's now just like everyone else? Slott has been plotting Spider-Man for about a year now. There has been a lot of changes in the last few years and this Spider-Man is ready for action. For once most things are coming up good for Peter Parker.

3. American Vampire by Scott Snyder and Steven King. This is a new comic I've been reading from Vertigo Comics. I for one thought vampires were played out. Twilight made me feel that way. This comic has no superheroes. I'm not even sure if there's a hero in the book. The vampires in this book are evil. They suck blood and murder humans for fun. They're not about finding love and sparkling. They are about killing. One of the interesting things going on in this book is that each line of vampires has different powers and weakness. The old European vampires are the classics, the ones we all know. The American vampires are new, the story starts with following the first one, Skinner. He is a bad cowboy for the 1800's. Snyder and King both write different sections of the stories and weave the magically evilness of them. If you like good vampire stories this is an excellent one.

4. Gladstone's School for World Conquerors by Mark Andrew Smith. It's the Hogwarts for super villains. That alone should say enough. If you're a super villain you send your kids to this school to learn to use their evil powers and fight superheroes. Or do they? There's an evil mystery behind the school and the super community. What is that secret? This all ages book is amazing. It will grab your attention and make you want more and more.

5. 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente by Wilfred Santiago. If you like baseball this is a great comic. It tell the true story of Roberto Clemente. How he was from Puerto Rico and made it all the way to the majors. It's a great story and I think everyone should read it.

Okay there's five comics I love right now. Now you all need to get up and go find a comic you'll like to read. You can check them out from your local library if you want too. It'll make your life better. Trust me.

car quest

2011-09-23T14:09:00.001-04:00

This past week has been a rollercoaster of a week. Our car died last Saturday. It’s still in the shop, waiting for a part to come in. Since our car has been giving us to much trouble lately we’ve decide to start seriously looking for a new car. Unfortunately our budget for a new car is small, but we should hopefully find one. We’ve already had some funny experience this week car shopping.

While looking on the internet we found this sea green ‘04 Honda Civic that looked like a good deal. It had a few miles on it, but you have to except that in our price range. Well over the course of a few days I went over and checked out the car. It looked good, I talked to the guy and it seemed like an okay car. The carfax looked okay on it. There was nothing major on it. So I took Allison a couple of days later to look at (with our schedule it’s hard to get to car dealers at the same time). She looked at it and thought it looked good. The car was her favorite color for a car. We decide to take it for a test drive. After getting the keys we sat down in the Civic. It felt good. There was a little fabric damage, but not much. I went to put my seatbelt on and as I locked it in, it flew back up at me. The driver side seatbelt did not work. Who tries to sell a car that is illegal to drive? Yes, in Indiana they will pull you over and ticket you for not having a seatbelt on. First thing we didn’t like about it. We decided to still see how it ran though. As I pulled out and touched on the brakes, I heard a bit of crunching. Of course, the civic would need brake work. The civic was turning more and into a bad buy. This was making us sad. We both love Honda so much, and to find a relatively new one for a good price was a dream. We thought maybe the Lord was guiding us to our first car purchase together, but no it wasn’t. Oh way does buying such an expensive purchases have to be so hard. So the quest for a new car continues.

Talk like Pirate Day

2011-09-19T10:11:00.004-04:00

It’s International Talk like a Pirate Day! This is an important day in our lives. If we don’t go out and talk like pirates then who will? I know I can’t let the boring people win. Rrrrr. If you want to take it one up, you can dress like a pirate too. Shiver my timber that sounds better than Long John’s treasure. My real question is should I be talking like a modern day pirate from Africa or an old school one. My best guess is neither. I should be talking like a movie pirate. Rrrr, matie. Go have some fun on this Monday. I know it might cure my Monday blues. Hi, ho. Hi, ho. It’s a pirates life for me.

Mormon:Facts - 2

2011-09-14T11:53:00.001-04:00

Primary, what else is there?

2011-09-13T10:11:00.001-04:00

This past Sunday Allison and I took primary off. The primary presidency gave put these cards at the beginning of the year that let you take one Sunday off to go to your regular meetings and they would cover you. It’s one of the nice things they do for you. It was the first time I’ve been to Elder’s quorum and Sunday school since last December. I forgot how nice it was to go. It’s not very often I just get to sit back and listen to intelligent adults talk. I almost never hear a deep discussion on anything, if it’s not between Allison and me. I don’t get out much and work gives me nothing. We don’t hang out with our friends that often, so yeah, this was the first time in a very long time I actually heard the gospel in a class setting.

When I was younger, I hated Sunday school. The teachers were boring and they really never discussed things I didn’t already know. Now, it’s a little different. It’s a hundred times better than being with five-year-olds. It’s still a little boring. Most of the topics are that deep and amazing, but adults have opinions. Opinions that are their own. Opinions that they can clearly state and are passionate about. This is something I’ve been missing. I never voice my opinions in church; I don’t like talking in large groups, so Sunday school will never know what I know.

What I’m getting at here is that I love grown up interaction. I even got to talk to people between classes! I haven’t had time to do that forever. I got to sit next to one of my friends other than my wife. I was able to listen to engaging ideas of the gospel that might challenge me to do some more studying to see if people’s ideas are correct. (Yeah I never take anything at face value at church, doesn’t matter who says.) It was so nice. I miss being out of primary. I miss the little social interaction I use to get at church. Church has lost most of its meaning since they put me in primary. I feel like I’m there to babysit some people’s kids. I feel like I get nothing out of church, especially after seeing what I’ve been missing this past year. I don’t have the social aspect of it or the religious part. It’s a three hour waste of time for me. They need to change how the primary teachers work.

They need to make it possible that each teacher gets one Sunday a month or every two months where they go to their meetings. That’s not too much to ask. If any other primary teacher feels like I do, I’m sorry. It’s not right how the primary program works. I feel like I’m not really part of the ward when I’m in primary. They need to make it possible for people like me able to go to Elders quorum sometimes. It would be nice to meet some people in my quorum.

Mono for a Year

2011-09-10T17:56:00.002-04:00

"I once thought I had mono for an entire year. It turned out I was just really bored." - Wayne Campbell

I'm a little bored with my life right now. It's my own fault. I can't motivate myself to do anything really awesome right now. Last year at this time I was drawing comic and working on paintings. I was doing both of these things until a few months ago and then I just stopped. I don't have any great ideas for new comics. Well that's not true. I've got a couple ideas for ED the Business Warrior, but I want to do more than just ED. One thing I want to do is draw a Mormon comic. I've been feeling like this is something I should do for awhile. I've been dabbling with it in my daily sketches. I've done a few Mormon:Facts, but I want to do a story. Then the question is what do I write/draw about? I do not want to do a pioneer story. I think there's to much of that in church literature already, plus I want to appeal to more than just Utah Mormons. I would like to do a story with Mormon characters more than a story about the Mormon faith. That still leaves a huge hole of what do I want to do. I have to really be passionate about it too. If I'm not, I won't finish it. That happens to all my comics I start that are longer than five or six pages. The only comic that has had any story lines over that many pages is ED. It's strange to say this, but ED is my most accomplished comic I've ever drawn. Although I believe my Political Fridays comic is my most viewed comic I've ever done. Being able to see stats are awesome. I just need to find something that will motivate me. Once I'm motivated I should be out of my funk. If it's drawing a Mormon comic that would be cool. If it something else that would be good too.

i'm a goner

2011-09-07T13:00:00.002-04:00

the British want my Mind

2011-09-06T12:26:00.008-04:00

The British have invaded my life. This is not a new thing to me; I’ve always liked British things. Some of my favorite bands are English, like Art Brut, The Streets, and The Specials. It has been getting worse and worse since I moved to Bloomington. This past week Allison decided she needed to see the new Doctor Who. Her friends have been talking about the Doctor none stop or something. She’s never seen any Doctor Who before. I watched the new series on and off when it was on SciFi channel. The problem was I just couldn’t get into the show. I’d come in to the show in the middle and be like what is this? I’d watch half an episode and be like this was lame. I warned Allison it might not be good. I know I didn’t really enjoy it that much seeing it that much. Luckily I was wrong. That first season of Doctor Who was awesome. Sure some of the special effects were BBC standard, which wasn’t really good until recently. Now I’m addicted to the Doctor and I need to see season two of the second series.

One show isn’t really enough to say the British have invaded my mind, but it more than that. We started watching Misfits on Hulu. Oh my goodness that show is off the hook. It follows these delinquent youth in community service that accidently get super powers. Do they become super heroes? Some of their powers are totally horrible for saving people. We’ve watched half of the first season and need to finish it still. Then on top of that we started watching The Book Club. That show is really dry and uncomfortable. I enjoy it so much.

For Labor Day we went to the movies. A movie I’ve wanted to see for about four months finally made it to America, Attack the Block. This movie was insane. Not just a little insane, it was full off insane. You had these crazy aliens attacking a small neighborhood in South London. A small street crew has to man up and take them on. The aliens were really well done and the movie was the best alien movie I’ve seen in years. The main reason I wanted to see it was Nick Frost had a small part in the film. He was okay, but the hoodlums made the movie awesome.

That might not seem like a lot of British television and movie, but there more. Tons more that I love. Someday I’ll talk about them too. Yes, I’m talking about The IT Crowd and more.

Dreaming in Nauvoo

2011-09-03T11:13:00.001-04:00

Every morning on the way home from work (I come home at 8am) my wife wants to tell me all about her dreams. She has many strange and odd dreams about everything. Many times I have no clue what she’s talking about, but she is talking about her dreams. I don’t remember my dreams very often. I’m not sure why this is. Allison says that men just don’t remember dreams. It has something to do with my biology. I can accept this. The question is if I do remember a dream is it important? Is it really a repressed memory? I don’t know. A while ago I had a dream. I still remember it days later, which makes me wonder if it was real.

My dream takes place when I was a teen, probably around 14 or 15. I was out on a scouting trip; a scouting trip with my Father. We were going canoeing or kayaking. Here’s the weird part we were doing it in Nauvoo. When I think of Nauvoo, I’m not talking about the church part, but the real city part. With buildings and houses people live in. It was really weird, because Nauvoo is on the Mississippi and you don’t go canoeing on the Mississippi. I think I might have been dreaming about the New River in West Virginia and the city of Nauvoo. Both places I’ve been as a Boy Scout.

During the rafting part of the trip my canoe flipped over and I was hurt. My arm might have been broken, but I never found out. My Dad got me out of the river and drove us into Nauvoo. Once we got there he refused to take me to the hospital. Instead he drove me to an Appliance store. I kept asking to go to the hospital, but my Dad said he knew a guy here that would fix me right up. I thought this was weird, considering I don’t think my father would ever deny me medical attention if I was hurt. I sat on a washing machine as I waited for this guy my dad knew.

My dream took an odd turn here. I found some old school Human Torch comics while waiting. I’m talking 1940’s Human Torch comics. This is the android Human Torch from Timely Comics (which later became Marvel Comics). While looking at them I realized they were about me. I was this android and these were stories about me in the 40’s.

The guy finally showed up to look at my arm during this part. He was wearing jean overalls and hat. He looked like a mechanic more than a doctor. He looked at my arm and was like the kid will be fine. Then the dream ended.

So weird and odd. I don’t think I’m the Human Torch or that my Dad refused to take me to the hospital, but what could this dream mean. I’ve been thinking about it for over a week and I have no clue. Maybe it means nothing and I just remember it because it had my Dad in it. I don’t know if I’ll ever really know.

Mormon:Facts? - one

2011-08-31T14:14:00.003-04:00

Extreme Mormon's in Primary

2011-08-29T12:16:00.002-04:00

Sitting through Primary every week can be a difficult task. As many people know I'm not a big fan of kids. I like my nieces and nephews, but past that I don't really like kids. So, every Sunday I try to help teach primary with Allison (I try, but I don't do a great job at it). One thing I've noticed is that some people in the Primary are a little to extreme when it comes to their beliefs about church and what we should be teaching the primary children. Then there are some people that I feel understand that we are not their main source for gospel teachings and shouldn't force their own opinions on these kids.

I don't know how to deal with the extreme Mormon views. In my opinion they take the commandments to a whole other level. I feel it's important to teach kids right versus wrong, but I feel the need to give them the tools to make correct choices, not tell them one thing is better than another.

A few weeks ago we had a lesson on the Word of Wisdom in Sharing Time. If you know me, you know I really have a hard time with this one. I feel most people don't interpret it correctly and focus on the wrong parts. I was really worried when this lesson started. It could have been a down out slug-fest of misinformation if done by certain people in the Primary. To my surprise it was done really well. They talked about not drinking alcohol and eating good foods. I was amazed how they didn't bring up caffeine. Especially since most Mormons eat tons of it but refuse to drink it. It's my personal opinion if you have a problem with caffeine you shouldn't eat chocolate ever. Some chocolates have as much caffeine as Coke. The lesson was well done that week.

A couple of weeks ago we had a lesson on our bodies. This lesson mas done amazingly. They talked about how we need to dress modestly, but didn't tell kids what type of close were modest. Instead they handed out pictures to color of little boys and girls. They told them to talk them home and discuss with their parent what they felt modest clothing was. They emphasis that this was a topic for them and their parents to decide on. Then they talked a little about what the Strenght of the Youth said, but always making sure the children knew to ask their parents what was correct.

Then this week we had a lesson on keeping our mind clean. This one should have been easier than the last too. Most of the kids in our sharing time don't have to worry about this. The oldest kids are six. Yet, the extreme view point came out. This lesson was done by a different person the the other lessons. She talked about how her kids couldn't watch some kids show because they dressed to immodestly. I asked Allison what that meant to her later and she thought the person was talking about nudity. I was like, I don't think so, because she refereed to kids shows on kid networks. To say the least I can, this person said a few other things that were way beyond the mark. If my children came home and said my primary teacher said this, I'd would tell them that they were wrong and full of crap. I just wanted to walk out of that sharing time and take my class because I really felt she was filling their heads with mis-truths and half-lies. I doubt anyone would feel the same way as me. They probably think that her lesson was fine, even though she was using scare tactics to get the kids to not think bad thoughts, which is impossible, because our minds will think bad thoughts no matter what. It's more of what do we do when they enter our mind versus we're unclean if we have a bad thought.

This post has gone on a little longer than I wanted. What I'm trying to say is if you have kids be careful. Primary might be filling their heads with half truths and opinions as doctrine. I'm not saying all Primary teacher's are bad, I think most are really good. They are doing this for free which I think is amazing. It's the extreme Mormons you have to worry about. The ones that homeschool their kids because they don't want them around non-lds influences (kids). (Not all homeschooling is bad either.)

Summer is Coming to an End

2011-08-27T10:05:00.003-04:00

I hate and love when summer is over here in Bloomington. One thing that is nice about summer being over it the temperature and humidity goes down. The leaves start to change color (that's still about two months away). The sun goes down earlier and earlier, which is nice for me since I go to bed early. Yes, autumn is coming and I can't wait.

The problem with fall in Bloomington, the return of the students. This has always been a double edge sword for me. Without the students I would have never lived in Bloomington period. When I was a kid my Dad taught at the University. Now my wife is one of those many students. There are many ways to tell that the students have moved back. Traffic is doubled through town. You can't walk through Target anymore. There are tons of extra boxes and people inside. It worst than Christmas.

Although the main way I know the students have returned is my habit of almost hitting them on the way to work. During the summer I have no trouble getting to work at four am. Hardly anyone is up and I don't have to worry about people dressed all in black darting out in front of my car as I drive to work. This week I almost hit four or five different people on their way home from the bars. You would think they wouldn't jump out in front of the only car on the road to cross the street. I am always the only car on the street, but they still feel the need to cross the street before I pass. I do not understand this, is waiting ten or twenty seconds really going to affect their time getting home?

As much as I love the end of summer in Bloomington, it's a bitter sweet. I love the crisp weather. I love the changing of colors. I don't like the crazy students jumping in front of my car at four am.

wordless wednesday - baseball fever

2011-08-24T11:42:00.002-04:00

Mormons at our BBQ

2011-08-23T13:30:00.006-04:00

Guess what was at my public library in Indiana? Baptist at our Barbecue! Who would have thought that movie would be in a city so far east of the Great Salt Lake? This little Mormon flick is one of the many I think might be doing it right. It won five different Best Pictures awards in small festivals. It also one Best Film of the Decade at Hope & Dreams Film Festival. I tried to look this festival up, but it's webpage no longer exists. That was sad.

Baptist at our Barbecue was an interesting little film. It was a love story about Tartan a single 29 year-old Mormon. This alone doesn't sound like a very big deal, but if you understand Mormon Culture, you know that being 29 and single is like the having the plague. Tartan lives in Provo, where there are tons of single Mormons. He feels he just doesn't fit in there so he moves to Montana. To a city that is split in half. Half are Mormons and half are Baptist. Thus the religious rivalry begins. Through this all Tartan meets a beautiful single Mormon girl from Utah trying to escape her old life, Charity. Mind you she is the only female in this film that looks like a movie star. The rest look like country folk. Not like the hot farmer's daughter type though. The I've worked on the farm my entire life kind.

The film was okay for a Mormon film. There were a lot of inside Mormon jokes. There were also a lot of weird comedy moments, like when things would be stolen that shouldn't be able too. I enjoyed the movie, but I wouldn't rate it as great. It was nice to be outside of Utah, but you were still in a heavily Mormon community. Anytime you have a town that is half-Mormon, it's a large population. I feel like this film could have been more than it was. It had a good message of communities need to come together and live with their differences. I still want to see a Mormon movie that doesn't have a high Mormon population situation. I know all those Missionary movies out there, but they don't count. A missionary is a sub-culture all in itself. They don't interact with the general population like normal people. I would like to see a movie about Mormon set in the east. Where the character has LDS friends, but their best friends are not LDS. That's how I grew up. I had my Church friends and I had my school friends. Sure a couple of them were in both groups, but not my best friends in high school.

In closing I want to say this movie was good for a Mormon film, but only okay for a regular independent film. I still want to see more films based outside of the Mormon bubble. Plus I want a film I could show people who don't know a lot about the Mormon culture.

my type of classical music

2011-08-20T12:06:00.003-04:00

From some odd reason I've really been into The Postal Service lately. It might not be odd, but it is to me. For someone who loves to listen to punk and hip-hop it's a strange departure. Sure the Postal Service has nice beats and smooths vocals, but that's not what I always go for. I like raspy male voice. Someone who has drunk their life away. That's why I like bands like Rancid, Bad Religion, and Say Hi so much. They aren't smooth, they feel like they have some life to tell. I know, Say Hi, isn't punk or Hip-Hop, but his voice is so amazing. I've been turning to The Postal Service more and more when I want something light to listen too. It's almost like I consider them my classical music. I don't know why, but I do. I just feel like who they arrange their synthesizer is how Mozart would do it if he was alive today. I personally don't think Mozart would be make classical music if he was alive today. Mozart would be more like a Hipster and be make grand rock and hip-hop operas. It would be smooth and amazing. I could see him teaming up with Trent Reznor and making sweet noise.

So what I'm saying is I've been listening to an album made in 2003 a lot lately. I've even though about buying on vinyl cause I like it so much. I use it to lift my mode out of the blues. I hope you can like it too. Maybe if you haven't heard of this little project by Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and Jimmy Tamborello you can check it out. I like it a hundred percent more than Death Cab, but who doesn't? Probably Death Cab fans. Also I decide to give you a peak at Say Hi. I love this band. Saw them live and they do not disappoint.

Madison County, I went there!

2011-08-17T09:56:00.002-04:00

Mormons in Films

2011-08-15T11:51:00.006-04:00

One thing I feel the Mormon culture has embarrassed well is film. Mormons have been a part of movies since the silent era. Notably not always shown in the best of light by others, but we have been a standoffish culture for many generations. Over the generations we have slowly developed our own sub-genre for film. As Mormons we love movies and we like to make them. That is ever apparent if you go to Deseret Books. There are movies upon movies made by Mormons for Mormons. It's amazing how many movies have been made now. I remember only ten years ago I'd never even heard of a Mormon movie. No one I knew owned one east of the great Mississippi for sure.

The first Mormon film I saw was Singles Ward. I was 19 at the time and had never seen anything like it. A movie that portrayed Mormons as they really were. Not some uptight religious freaks, but real people. It made me laugh. I could actually identify with some of the characters. The only movies I'd seen before that were produced by the church. They were boring and kind of put me off.

After seeing Singles Ward I saw another Mormon film, God's Army. That film was more down to earth. It was a serious drama about missionaries. I feel like this film is one of the best versions of what it's like to be a Mormon missionary. It's hard and sometimes you have to let of steam. This movie is even in my public library, which is amazing, considering we have such a small Mormon community in my city.

Then came the big Mormon movie. So big, it was released by Disney and had screenings across the entire United States. No other Mormon film has done this yet. What movie am I talking about, The Other Side of Heaven. I'm not sure if this counts as a Mormon film. I don't know who made it and I'm not sure if the actors are Mormon. One thing I do know is it's about Elder John H. Groberg missionary experience. It was a good film.

What is the state of Mormon films now? The last decade has seen some amazing things happen for the Mormon film industry. Will we continue to see new films? I'm sure we will, but what about major releases? That I'm not so sure about. I haven't heard of any new films, but I'm not surprised by that either. It cost hundreds of thousands to make a major release. I'm sure there will be another one someday. What I'd like to see is more Sun dance style films. Independent films that go to the many different film festivals to make some big splashes for Mormon films. Look at Sun dance Film Festival, it's in Park City, Utah. It's in the heart of Mormon country, we need to get on top of that.

We should start our own Film Festival, but no restrictions on it. It should not have to have a message about Christ or Mormons. It should just be films by Mormons. A Film Festival to celebrate Mormon's in film. It would have to start out simple, but it could grow over time. If anyone actually knows if there is a small film festival let me know. I'll promote it and make sure people know they can see original Mormon films there.

Another thing I would like to see is more broader movies. It seems that not most Mormon films are very exclusive. If you're not a Mormon you don't get a lot of the jokes. If you're not a Mormon you don't understand what going on in some of these films. We need films about Mormon outside of Utah. Films that still feature Mormons, but not exclusively in Utah. The best film I can think of for this is Napoleon Dynamite. Not my favorite movie, but it's done by Mormons and it features a lot of Eastern Idaho lifestyle, but doesn't force the whole Mormon jokes. People love this film that are not Mormon.

Okay so here what I think:

1. Mormon's have been doing good with films for the past decade.

2. We cannot rest on our laurels, we need to push ourselves as a culture to make better films than before.

3. We need to make some Mormon films that are assailable to the general public, e.i. not so many Fast Sunday jokes.

4. Let's make a film festival to celebrate Mormon's in film.

i heart baseball

2011-08-12T10:03:00.005-04:00

I have a secret love, but it's okay my wife knows. It's baseball. I like going to the games. I like watching a game in the middle of the afternoon and falling asleep in the fifth inning. I like the overpriced hot dogs and popcorn. I like the silly little entertainment show they put on between innings. I like to watch the score board and see the stats. I like watching movies about baseball, like Field of Dreams and Eight Man Out. I like watching batters hit home runs and pitchers striking players out. I like the excitement of it all. After all, this is America's favorite pass time. It should be loved by everyone. Baseball isn't my life, but it's a fun distraction.

wordless wednesday @ the park

2011-08-10T10:43:00.001-04:00

Mormon Culture: the art

2011-08-08T11:55:00.003-04:00

A couple weeks ago my family had a reunion. It was in Iowa, which is about an eight hour drive for my wife and me. We left very early, because that's the best time to drive somewhere. In the wee hours of the morning many discussions were had, ideas were formulated. One thing we both came to realize is that Mormon Culture suck. Growing up Mormon and still practicing I think I'm allowed to voice my opinion on this matter. I think as a culture the Mormon church is failing. Maybe if you live in Utah you don't feel this way, but I've been to Utah and lived in Idaho, guess what? Their is no culture where in Utah and Idaho.

Today I want to talk about art in Mormon culture. When I think about the art I see hanging in many Mormon houses and churches I feel sorry for those people who view it. Greg Olson, Simon Dewey, and Liz Lemon should not be allowed to sell their art at the high volumes that they do. They are the Thomas Kinkades of the Mormon community. If you like Thomas Kinkade than you do not like art in my opinion. That is how I feel about Greg Olson and company. They are purely out to make money, they has no soul. Their art is death. When I look around at the churches and homes of Mormons, I feel death seeping from them. It's like maple syrup slowly oozing out of maple trees.

Here is one problem, I do not know of any real Mormon artist. That's not completely true. I know this good sculpture in my ward. The pieces I've seen of his are good. Next to Simon Dewey and company they are breath taking. I think people like him should be promoted more in our culture. They should be getting requested for their works.

Here's another problem, every few years (it might be yearly) the LDS church puts on am International Art Competition. I've been to one of these competitions. People from all over the world submit art work based on a theme. It's usually a religious theme, which is fine since the church is sponsoring it. In these competition you actually see real art about the Mormon faith. Some of it is really good and some of it makes me feel dead inside (like Kinkade and Olson). The problem with this is that the show is in Salt Lake City in the Conference Center and that's it. Why? They could go around the world to large cities and have art showings. A huge PR move they are missing. Plus I want to learn about new Mormon artist. I want to be able to purchase prints of their works so I can have good Mormon art in my house. The church buys the winning pieces of every contest. Where are they? From the website info, I'd say they are still in Salt Lake at the Church History Museum.

Why a history museum? Why not start art museums and search out other great Mormon artist. Bring our culture to life. I would want this museum to collect more than just religious art works though. It should be a celebration of us as a people. Mormons are diverse. Do we need a million paintings of pioneers crossing the plains? I don't think so. My pioneer heritage is my parents being baptized in California and moving east in a U haul. Why is there no great art work of modern day pioneers? Why not celebrate all of our pioneer heritage in art instead of just the select few who traveled to Utah in covered wagons and handcarts? Where my parents sacrifice not good enough?

I have rambled on for awhile now. Here's what I want you to get out of this blog.

1. Don't accept the status quo for Mormon art.

2. Greg Olson and company's art should be questioned. Is it really art or commercial packaging?

3. Promote your local Mormon Artist, let your friends and family know about them.

If you do these three things, you will be a better Mormon art consumer and help our culture grow in a good way. Remember Mormon culture does not have to be defined by a select few, you can help redefine it. I know I try everyday. Plus if you know of any good Mormon artist let me know, post it in the comments. I'm sure everyone will be happy to discover new artist.

my work hates people

2011-07-12T13:17:00.002-04:00

Work at UPS has been getting on my nerves lately. About a month ago we had a meeting (which happens like once a month now) and we talked about how were doing good, but were still making little mistakes here and there. Our boss mentioned even if we do 95% right the next level of management will only look at the 5% were doing wrong. That means we have to step our game up and be 100% on everything. That's fine, it won't happen, but that's a good goal. UPS, doesn't believe in it though. I know I might get in trouble for saying all this, but UPS is full of BS.

I had a spot review this week. In this spot review they check to see how I load my packages. To check to make sure I'm not doing anything that might put myself in danger. These are good spot checks, they don't want people lifting with their backs, twisting, or doing something that isn't safe. I was talking to one of my supervisors about it. He told me that he would have given me a perfect score, because I did everything right, but management tells them to never give anyone a perfect score. It doesn't matter if I loaded 100% accurate. It doesn't matter if I work twice as hard as other people. It doesn't matter if I know the 8 keys to lifting and 5 Keys that LEADS to preventing slips & falls. I can do everything right and know all the correct answers and I still won't be 100%. I can go beyond my duty, which I do everyday and still not get 100%. UPS says one thing, but they don't do it. They want 100%, but they refuse to give it. I'm sick of how they act like they care, but they don't. They see their employees as cogs. They want to make sure they are well oiled, but they don't care about anything else. Today, I was working in 80 degree weather, but no fans were blowing to cool us off. Did they care that their employees could have had a heat stroke? Not until one of them does.

What I am saying is I'm not happy with my work conditions. They try to make us work hard, but they forget were humans. Their idea of a good employee is a fast employee. The faster the better. Who cares if they burn out? I should know, that what they are doing to me. If you do a good job they just give you more work and work you harder. If you do a poor job they make your work load easier. The system is messed up. I want to slack off and make my loads easier, but I can't do that to my drivers. They're good guys and don't deserve to have to load their own trucks, but one of them is. Why? Cause I have to much work to finish his truck before he leaves.

Remember, even if you give 100% UPS will count it as 90% or less. You can never be good enough, so be prepared to be a failure. That is all UPS has for me.

allison picture

2011-07-09T16:12:00.001-04:00

don't you wish you were hardcore?

2011-07-07T14:08:00.006-04:00

Hanging out with the in-laws may seem not hardcore, but when you eat at a pizza place with graffiti on it, it's hardcore. Plus you go to the art museum and what do you see? Edward Hopper! Now that's hardcore at it's best.

Just when you think you can't get any crazier. Who shows up? Why Frank Lloyd Wright. He's pimping his stain glass windows up in the art museum. Yeah, its that crazy where I live.

Plus, my wife is super awesome. She rolls harder than any girl I know. She rocks cool Batman shirts. Does your wife rock a killer Batman shirt? I don't think so. Your wife isn't as cool as my wife.

So, that's my July 4th weekend. What did you do that was awesome?

125 Questions you never wanted to know about me

2011-07-01T09:41:00.001-04:00

1) Are you really ready for 125 questions?
No, so let's go.

2) Was your last real relationship a mistake?
No, I got a wife out of it.

3) Do you believe in God?
I do.

4) Who did you last say “I love you” to?
Allison

5) Do you regret it?
Never, she's my wife.

6) Have you ever been depressed?
Not really, but I do have my off days.

7) Have a best friend?
Just Allison.

8) Are you a boy or girl?
I'm a boy, but I'm trying to become a man.

9) What is your relationship status?
Married to a beautiful woman.

10) How do you want to die?
In a odd way. Like crossing the street and being hit by a spaceship.

11) What did you last eat?
Pop tarts and a mountain dew.

12) Played any sports?
Not really my thing.

13) Do you bite your nails?
All the time. It drives Allison crazy.

14) When was your last physical fight?
Never really had one.

15) Do you have an attitude?
You have to in my line of work.

16) Ever been arrested?
Nope.

17) What is your real name?
Michael

18) Do you have a lot of friends?
Not really.

19) Are you gonna get drunk later?
I really need to, but no.

20) Do you hate anyone at the moment?
Not really, hates to powerful a word.

21) Do you miss someone?
Just my family.

22) Twirl or cut your spaghetti?
Twirl.

23) Do you tan a lot?
Never.

24) Have any pets?
No, I'm not a pets kind of guy.

25) How exactly are you feeling?
Worn out from working all morning.

26) Ever eaten food in a car while someone or yourself is driving?
All the time. Doesn't everybody?

27) Ever made out in the bathroom?
Public, no.

28) Would you take any of your exes back?
Never, I've got the best wife ever.

29) Are you scared of spiders?
Yes, but not Spider-man.

30) Would you go back in time if you were given the chance?
In a heart beat.

31) Do you regret anything from your past?
Doesn't everyone. No one is perfect.

32) What are your plans for this weekend?
Way to much stuff going on with the in-laws.

33) Do you want to have kids?
Someday.

34) Ever kissed somebody whose name starts with an M?
Yes

35) Do you type fast?
No, I'm a picker.

36) Do you have piercings? How many?
none.

37) Want any more?
no.

38) Can you spell well?
Not really.

39) Do you miss anyone from your past?
Sure.

40) What are you craving right now?
A soft pretzel with nacho cheese.

41) Ever been to a bonfire party?
Yes, they have them all the time in Boise.

42) When is the last time you went shopping?
Yesterday.

43) Have you ever been on a horse?
Once, and that is enough for me.

44) Kissed someone in a pick up truck?
No I haven't, I'll need to work on that.

45) Have you ever broken someone’s heart?
Yes.

46) Have you ever been cheated on?
Maybe.

47) Have you made a boyfriend/girlfriend cry?
Yes I have.

48) Did you speak to your father today?
Not today. It's still to early to call Vegas.

49) Would you live with someone without marrying them?
I'm married, so point it mute.

50) What should you be doing?
Helping Allison clean the house.

51) What’s irritating you right now?
Hunger and my job.

52) Have you ever liked someone so much that it hurts?
Yes.

53) Does somebody love you?
I really hope Allison does.

54) What is your favorite color?
I would say right now Red is coming in strong, but maybe green too.

55) Have you ever changed clothes in a vehicle?
Yes.

56) Do you have a phone?
Yes.

57) Do you have trust issues?
Not really, which is a problem. I trust way to many people.

58) Are you gonna get high later?
No, I don't do that.

59) Have you ever shaved in the kitchen sink?
Nope.

60) Do you have a good relationship with your parents?
I think so, but what do I know.

63) Who was the last person you cried in front of?
Allison.

64) Do you give out second chances too easily?
To many.

65) Is it easier to forgive or forget?
Forgive.

66) Is this year the best year of your life?
Not even close.

67) What was your childhood nickname?
Mike, I know it's so original.

68) Have you ever walked outside completely naked?
No.

69) Do you think you’re a good person?
Not really.

70) Do you believe everything happens for a reason?
No, stuff just happens.

71) What is the last thing you did before you went to bed last night?
Read The House of the Scorpion.

72) Is there anyone you wish was still in your life? Who?
Just some old friends I don't see anymore.

73) What is bothering you?
I already did this question.

74) Have you ever been out of town?
I'm not sure what this question means, I lived so many places, so does that count.

75) Do you play the Wii?
Don’t have one.

76) Are you listening to music right now? What song?
I am now. The grains of wraith by Bad Religion

77) Do you like Chinese food?
Not much, rice isn't my favorite.

78) Do you know your fathers b-day?
Yes.

79) Are you afraid of the dark?
I use to be.

80) Is cheating ever okay?
Never.

81) Are you mean?
I totally need to be meaner.

82) Can you keep white shoes clean?
No, so I don't own any.

83) Have you noticed this survey stopped getting personal?
Not really.

84) Do you believe in true love?
I believe love is amazing and that is true.

85) Are you proud of the person you’ve become?
Sure.

86) Have you ever been out of state?
I've lived in three different states and seen both oceans, so maybe.

88) Do you like the outside?
It's okay.

89) Are you currently bored?
No.

90) Do you wanna get married?
I am.

91) Is it cute when a boy/girl calls you baby?
I guess.

92) Are you hungry?
yes.

93) Do you have a bank account?
You would want to know.

94) What makes you happy?
Allison and comics.

95) Would you change your name?
No, I like it.

96) Ever been to Alaska?
No.

97) The best memory you’ve had in a library?
I purposed to Allison in a library. I would say that's the best memory ever.

98) Do you watch the news?
Sometimes.

99) What’ s your zodiac sign?
Aries

100) Do you like Subway?
Their breakfast is amazing.

102) Your best friend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do?
My best friend is my wife, think about it.

103) Do you talk like your friends?
I'm not sure what you're getting at here.

104) Do you like to talk to your friends?
I guess.

105) Have you ever seen someone you knew & purposely avoided them?
Tons, to many to count.

106) Do you have a friend of the opposite sex who you can act your complete self around?
My wife.

107) Who is the last guy you talked to?
Jamie at work is the last guy I talked to.

108) Does it matter if your boyfriend/girlfriend smokes?
No smoking, it's sick.

109) Do you go to church?
Every Sunday.

110) What’s going on between you and your best friends?
Not much, she's cleaning, I'm doing this quiz.

111)Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with?
Allison

112) Have you ever regretted letting someone go?
Sure, but it was worth it in the end.

113) Do you enjoy piercings & tattoos?
I do, but I don't have any.

114) What do you wear more: jeans, sweats, pants, or shorts?
Shorts, it's summer.

115) You’re a Sharpie marker, what color are you?
Black, the original, and like my soul.

116) Where do you go if you are butt naked and locked out of your house?
I have no clue, the bushes.

117) Do you prefer to shower at night or in the morning?
Morning, twice. Once to wake up and a second after work to get clean.

118) Have you ever said you’d never love again?
Yes, but that didn't work out.

119) Do you want to please everyone?
No.

120) Have you heard a song that reminds you of someone today?
Not really.

121) Has someone ever made you a promise & broken it?
Of course that happens all the time.

122) Are you alone?
No, Allison is here.

123) Do you have any older siblings?
5 sisters 1 brother/

124) Fave film you’ve seen lately?
I Love You Man, in the theaters, X-Men First Class

125) How many months until your birthday?
9

not me

2011-06-26T12:25:00.005-04:00

I did the unthinkable today at church. As Allison and I were leaving we hit a crowded hallway. Everyone else had the same thing on their mind, Lunch! Everyone was heading in different directions, okay there was only two directions, but still different. Allison was behind me, but I stopped for a second for her to catch up. Then a girl with short brown hair and a white top jump right in front of me. I was like where is Allison going? I reached out and with the tips of my fingers touched her, trying to get her attention. It wasn't Allison! How could this be? Allison wasn't even wearing a white top today. It was a high school girl from our ward! Allison was still behind me. My face went three shades of red. I was like, "Oh sorry, your not my wife." I got out of that building as quick as possible. I can't believe how embarrassed I was.

All I can think now is I touched some random girl and she going to think I'm into her or something. I've always heard silly stories about people who have mistaken other people for their wives or husband, but not me. I never thought I would be one of those people. I know my wife. She has short brown hair from the back. Now I just need to get ride of every other girl in this city that has short brown hair from the back and I'll be safe again.

wordless wednesday

2011-06-15T09:56:00.000-04:00

early mornings

2011-06-14T11:51:00.004-04:00

There are a lot of things I do not enjoy about my job. The list could go on for awhile, but there are some good things about my job. My favorite thing about working early in the morning is getting to see the sunrise almost every day. Growing up you could never get me up to watch a sunrise. Now, the best part of my work day is watching the sun come up. The day starts out pitch black for me. Then suddenly at six I hear the National Anthem on the radio. I look outside and it's still dark, but the sun is starting to rise. I can see the bright reds fade into the blacks of night. I can't believe how much of a change can happen in those minutes between night and morning.

I am one of the few luck people at work. Most people don't get to see the sunrise. Most people have bay doors that face north and souths. There are two small bay doors that face east at the end of the two convener belts everyone works on. I'm "lucky" and get to work at the end of one. I have a trailer blocking most of bay door, but if you go up to it you look around it and above it to see the sunrise. So every morning I take a couple seconds during my insane work load comes down to watch the colors dance across the sky. It's one of the few amazing things about my job. If they moved me to a different part of the belt I wouldn't get to see it. So I'm going to enjoy the little joy I have for awhile.

picture perfect hot dog wednesday

2011-06-08T09:27:00.003-04:00

summer colds

2011-06-07T12:54:00.005-04:00

I don't understand summer colds. You get colds in the winter because you stay inside with a bunch of people. In the summer you don't stay in as much so you're not suppose to get colds, yet every summer I get a cold. Sometimes they're quick and easy, other times they lay me out for days on end. This cold I've got this year I have been fighting for about a week or two. I'll get a little sick and then I'll get better. Some sneezing a little runny noise. I've been getting these symptoms at work, no big deal. I thought they might just be allergies. If they're allergies no biggie, I can live with a little sneezing and running noise at four am.

Today I woke up with a full blown cold though. I could feel my being all stuffy and my head was pounding, but I must go into work. I'm not very bright sometimes; I think that I need to go into work everyday. It doesn't matter if I feel like crap or not, at four am I always feel like crap. I did my job today, but I felt miserable the whole time. When I finally got home I took the last of our left over cold medicine. I don't think it's working. My noise is still going and I still have pressure in my head. A little later I took an allergy pill just to be on the safe side. No effect either. This is not looking good for me.

Why do we get summer colds? Is it because we go from such hot weather outside to freezing weather inside buildings? That might be the case, but my work is not air conditioned. We open all the bay doors and hope for a good breeze in the summer. My house isn't that cool. We keep the air at 76 degrees. Most days we leave the windows open till the house is in the 80's. My body is just weird. I get sick at the weirdest times, for example I get the flu usually in March or April after everyone else I know has had it in the early winter. I might just be stubborn. My body must be infected but battles much longer than it should so I get my sicknesses much later than everyone else. That's a reasonable answer.

grab that arch

2011-06-04T10:12:00.003-04:00

Allison and I went to St. Louis a couple months ago. It was a lot of fun. The arch was pretty awesome. The only bad part was at the top. I got a little sea sick after I realized how much it was wobbling at the top. Even with my fear of heights the thing that did me in was the swaying. It was a ton of fun.

I also love this picture. Me grabbing the gate way to the west. I still miss the west at times. It holds my entire family. No one left east of the Mississippi but me and Allison. A little crazy to think that. I love it here in the Midwest or east of the Mississippi. Plus Allison and I have so many great adventures together. Everything was so far away in Boise. Salt Lake was six hours and that was the closest big city to us. Here Indianapolis is an hour away. Cincinnati is a little over two hours away. St. Louis and Chicago are about five hours away. Louisville is two hours. So many different place to go and see. We're so lucky.

spring mill

2011-06-01T10:45:00.002-04:00

ragdoll

2011-05-27T17:40:00.000-04:00

Once in a blue moon I give some crazy comic a chance and will read/buy it. Okay I'll read almost any comic I can get my hands, but buy that's a different story. I like to stick to characters that I know and love like Spider-man, Wolverine, Invincible, Batman, and other cool characters like that. Back when I had a bit of more income flow I would would dabble in collecting comics in a big way, but now it's very small. I can count on two hands all the comics I buy. So, I decide to give a comic I've heard very little about a chance about four months ago, Lil' Depressed Boy. This comic doesn't have superheroes. This comic doesn't have tights. This comic doesn't have demons or supernatural events. The character is not detective or PI. He's a ragdoll named Lil' Depressed Boy or LDB for short. In all cases he could easy have been a normal boy, but for a gimmick they made him a ragdoll instead. I think this was a clever idea. The whole world around him is normal and they treat him like he's a normal person. I think this perfect. I think we all have a little ragdoll in us. I know I relate to LDB alot. He's shy, really like music, and plays video games. Plus he's not so great with women, until he meets this cute girl at the laundry mat. Thus starts the great boy meets girl, boy likes girl. Hi-jinx occur. The first four issues of the comic are out now. I'm not totally in love with the book, mainly because I feel like I could have been LDB before I got married. The story hit really close to home. Going to parties with her but not fitting in with her friends. Trying to be cool, but feeling like a fool the entire time. The story has so much love and depth in it. This isn't a comic that someone made up. This is someone's heart and soul. I'm not sure if the author meant to do that or if he's telling the story from his own experiences, because it feel like it. I think this is one of the best personal stories out there for comics. If you ever want to read comics, but not superheros or large space battles, but a personal story this is an amazing story for that. Plus I drew a little comic for it. Check it out!

cincinnati wordless wednesday

2011-05-25T09:27:00.001-04:00

pawnee, in

2011-05-22T14:00:00.000-04:00

Having returned to the almost a year ago I have missed many things. Fast food like White Castle and Steak n Shake. Humidity and all the wonderful thunderstorms. Moving home to Bloomington was an amazing idea. Yet I feel like there is another place in Indiana that I would rather live. Where is this place you ask? Pawnee, IN. What is Pawnee, IN you might ask. Well it's the most magical place in all of Indiana. Where libraries are hated (okay Allison might not want to live there) and the parks department is loved. Yes it's a fictional town, but it's my favorite fictional town in Indiana.

If you watch Parks and Rec on NBC you probably know all about this awesome city. At first I thought it was going to be a small city like Martinsville or Kokomo, but after more review it's probably as big as Bloomington or Terre Haute if not bigger. Plus the city has a television station which means it's not small. Since I want to work in TV this is already a plus to Bloomington which only has PBS and won't hire anyone outside of IU.

Why is Pawnee so great? They have a zoo, where two male penguins were married. They had to move the penguins because people were not open to this marriage, which I can't blame them. They also have the best breakfast restaurant in all of Indiana, JJ's. They're waffles are like crack. At least that how they're portrayed on the show. Pawnee has a whiffle ball league. How awesome is that? It's whiffle ball. You couldn't it a home run with one of those balls if you tried. The best part of Pawnee is the fact that they have the greatest Indiana band of all time, Mouse Rat (formally known as Scarecrow Boat).

Sure you might say but Michael why would you want to live in a fictional city? I say why wouldn't I? It's just an awesome place. Plus Parks and Rec makes the city look awesome. I need a little more awesome in my life. Don't we all need a little more awesome?

the loss

2011-05-21T10:23:00.004-04:00

My weight loss from working at UPS has come to a slow stop. I won't lose mush more till summer and the summer heat hasn't come in full force here in Indiana yet. One area I didn't think about weight loss in was my hand. I didn't think my hands were chubby, but I guess they were. The last couple of weeks I've noticed my hands more specifically my fingers are skinnier. This is not something I would normally notice, but I have a ring I wear everyday for the past year and a half. It was just perfect when I bought it in the fall of 2009. Then It got a little tight over last summer. I thought it was because the heat expanded my hands or something. I know my hands shirk a little in the winter. Trying to save heat and everything. Back to a couple weeks ago, I noticed I was having a hard time keeping my ring on. One time I was in the bathroom washing my hands. I went to dry my hand on a towel, as I was drying my hands my ring just went flying off. Luckily it was at home and I found the ring really quick. Another time I was at work. At work I wear gloves to protect my hands from all the boxes. As I was moving boxes I actually felt my ring slip past my knuckle. My hand was in a gripping position, the ring should not have slipped past my knuckle. It also felt weird to have my ring on the front half of my finger. I did have my gloves on so I just pushed it back on.

My job has been a crazy adventure. Most of them are lame and stupid but I'm still surprised that I'm having them. I hope I didn't bore everyone to death. Only a couple more hours till the "rapture!" I can't wait to start looting. Yes, I don't think I'm going to make it up in the rapture. I'll miss Allison most of all, but I'll see her in five months when the world ends. If it doesn't happen today, well I guess I'll just go to work on Monday like normal.

dirt bike

2011-05-17T11:10:00.001-04:00

A little video of when I took my bike on a dirt bike course in Boise.

woke up

2011-05-16T12:02:00.004-04:00

I had a a feeling this morning that at 2:30 that today was going to be a really good day. By eight am it turned into one of my worst mornings ever. On the plus side there only one way to go, up. So today I post a memorial to my stolen bike. Yes, it was stolen today. I got home from a horrible day at work to find it missing from the bike rack. I guess my lock wasn't good enough.

Here's a comic of me riding my bike to school and work. I use to ride it all the time in Boise. It was my main mode of transit for awhile. I would ride it on the green belt just to get away from all my problems. I did not have the chance to ride my bike this year. All the rain made me not want to go out and now I'll never ride my bike again. Click on the comic to read it.

R.I.P. - the Kord (yes my bike had a name and it was Kord.)

free comic book day!

2011-05-07T18:11:00.003-04:00

Today is a great day, it's the first weekend in May. This weekend may be marked by Mother's Day, but I like to think of it as the beginning of the comic season. Yes the comic season. This is the weekend that a new comic book movie comes out. This year's comic movie was Thor. Another big this about this weekend is it's Free Comic Book Day today. This has been happening since 2002. It coincided with the release of the first Spider-Man film. There has only been two years without a comic film to help with free comic book day.

I have not actually celebrated every free comic book day, but I have been trying to the last few years. This year was a really fun one. I brought Allison along with me for the ride. First year the both of us went out for it. Bloomington only has one comic shop so we decide to hit up Indianapolis for free comic book day. I scouted out seven different locations in Indy to visit. Oh it was a going to be an amazing day. We headed up and I decide at the last minute to change the route and visit the west side stores first and loop back down.

We visited Downtown Comics West first and then we went to Comic Carnival West. They were good. We got some basic comics like Captain America and Thor, Spider-man, to Mouse Guard. Finding a lot of cool comics, but not the main one I was looking for, Super Dinosaur. The new Robert Kirkman and Jason Howard comic. After one more shop we decide to stop for lunch in Greenwood. We were a little pooped by that time. We got some hot dogs for lunch. A perfect lunch for today. Allison got a Indy Dog and I got a Chicago Dog. So awesome. So good. We were about to just head home when I was like there one more comic shop that wasn't one of the Indy chains. I had never been there and it was in a part of town I didn't visit often. After getting a little lost we finally found Comic Book University. This was the best stop. They had more free comic than all the other stores combined. I also found Super Dinosaur! It was awesome.

That was my adventure for free comic book day. One of my many Cassette Tape t-shirt with my red converses were worn on this amazing comic adventure. I hope everyone else had an exciting free comic book day too. I know mine was awesome. Driving all over Indy for a bunch of free comics and a few I bought that I couldn't find in Bloomington. Nice.

wordless wednesday

2011-05-04T10:53:00.001-04:00

the AM @ St. Louis Art Museum 3, a photo by MichaelMcLean on Flickr.

work story

2011-04-29T16:31:00.002-04:00

So the other day while I was on break at work my co-worker T came over to talk to me. He saw that the work area right next to me was supermessy like it is normally. T was all like what's going on? I was like you know, the person there can't handle her work area. It's like this all the time. Plus she had been yelling a lot that. She does that all the time, but today more than normal, it makes my area a very unpleasant work area.

T was all like she needs to take some of those pills supervisor M takes. I said, "What pills?"

T, "They're happy pills."

Me, "Like Zoloft?"

T, "No, she told me that she takes these pills for her migraines and the side effort is she gets happy."

Me, "Really that sounds awesome, I need some of those pills."

T, "Yeah, she told me that and then pulled out a six to ten inch knife and flipped it open. I was like wow. That's as big as her. Plus she had them crazy eyes going on." (M is a very small person, like 4'7" or maybe a little taller, so the knife looks big in M hands.)

This story got me laughing pretty good. Not much happens at work that makes me smile or laugh, so I thought I would share it. It's probably not as funny as I thought it was at six in the morning.

Space Shuttle

2011-04-27T09:50:00.001-04:00

birthday 3, a photo by MichaelMcLean on Flickr.

I finally got my space shuttle! No more earth time for me! If you need me I'll be in space suckers!

new licence plate

2011-04-26T17:26:00.001-04:00

new licence plate , a photo by MichaelMcLean on Flickr.

I'm an Indiana citizen again! Who thought that would ever happen?

leave me alone

2011-04-20T11:33:00.001-04:00

leave me alone, a photo by MichaelMcLean on Flickr.

This is how I feel most of the time.

wordless wednesday

2011-03-23T12:37:00.000-04:00

new paintings

2011-03-22T12:21:00.003-04:00

I painted some new water color paintings. The black is acrylic paint. They're small 5x7 paintings, but they were practice for blending water colors together. The red painting is the John Hancock building in Chicago and the blue green painting is the sears tower.

a few adventures from march

2011-03-17T13:01:00.005-04:00

This Andy Warhol print is cool, but we got in some trouble taking this picture. The IU Art museum was all like don't take pictures of Andy's art. They don't have the copyright to it. The funny thing is Andy stole this picture from a different artist. He got sued over it. Andy never had the copyright to it either.

The Indy Zoo has a shark petting pool. It was so awesome. The sharks were a little leathery, but wet leather. It was so cool. If you come to Indiana you got to go pet a shark.

Here were a few adventures of March, more to adventures are on the way still. I would say this has been the most exciting month we've had in Indiana so far.

wordless wednesday - in a library

2011-03-09T02:59:00.002-05:00

wordless wednesday

2011-03-02T13:10:00.001-05:00

iron fists in an elevator

2011-02-26T14:55:00.003-05:00

As many of you know I am drawing a picture/comic every day this year. Not an easy feat to do. At least in my head it shouldn't be. I know tons of artist do it every year, but I've never done it. It is something I've always wanted to do. Here is today's picture I drew. It's from The Immortal Iron Fist comic issue five. I like the old Iron Fist working with the young Iron Fist. The old one is really cool to me. He carries guns!

no longer i

2011-02-24T17:19:00.004-05:00

A few years ago there was a great episode of How I Met Your Mother where Ted and Marshall's favorite pizza parlor in Chicago was going out of business. So they decide to road trip to it like they did back when they were in college. The only problem was that Marshall was no longer Marshall. Marshall and Lilly were one, they morphed them together very beautiful in the episode. Pretty mush it sums up to the fact that Marshall and Lilly always have to be together. They do everything together. This is not the first time they've talked about this melding in the show. Seems silly, but I totally understand Marshall and Lilly's take on this. They are no longer "I's," they are "We's."

Over the bast year that Allison and I have been married we have slowly slipped out of "I's" too. I no longer think in I anymore. I think in We. I'm always like we are in school, but we're not in school, Allison is in school. Since we've been in Indiana it's gotten much worse too. I never want to go out without her. I'll sit at home and watch Hulu all day till she comes home. She comes home around one most days, so not to late.

When we first started dating I made jokes about us being the A.M. Like the morning, but now I feel like our name should be the am. We're not really to separate people anymore. We are one. We do everything together, well almost. She doesn't get up at two and go to work with me, but you know what I mean. I don't feel bad about it. I think it's just really funny. I never thought we would get so close as we have gotten in the last year. It's just really awesome.

wordless iron fist wednesday

2011-02-23T12:58:00.002-05:00

monday cookies

2011-02-01T15:37:00.003-05:00

I made cookies yesterday. They are huge. I put an oreo in the middle of the cookies. They are amazing. One cookie might kill you though. They are so rich and big. The oreo in the middle is soft like if you dunked it in milk. So good. I can barely eat a whole cookie.

early to bed

2011-01-10T18:21:00.003-05:00

This early to bed and early to rise stuff is not all it's cracked up to be. I've been a night owl for as long as I can remember. Even in high school with early morning seminary I would stay up till midnight or later. When I was in college eleven was the earliest I would go to bed. I did all my homework after ten. I just functioned better later at night. I can actually form words and thoughts. Now, I go to bed at seven and get up at two something, just depends on when the start time is at work. I go in and move like a zombie for four to five hours. It's like Shawn of the Dead at my work. The end scene where they put the living dead to work. Everyone kind of just grunts and moans but really never says anything to each other. It's so boring and the entire time you are trying to figure out why you are there. By the time you finally figure out what you're doing it's quiting time. All the packages are in the cars and you get to go home. That is the one plus side. You go home and it's breakfast time. I love breakfast so that's a plus. You also have the whole day to just goof off, which is awesome. Like today I just sat around, watched Hulu and drew comics. It was a pretty awesome day after work. I just hate going to bed before prime time television. If I can I love to watch TV live and the only show I see live anymore is the local morning news program, which is hilarious. They are always doing something zany on that channel, either by accident or on purpose. The best is when they accidentally mess up. It just makes me laugh. So yeah, early morning sort of okay, but I miss prime time television and staying up late.

Here's my comic for today too:

another comic

2011-01-08T11:50:00.003-05:00

This year I've decide to draw one a comic/picture for everyday of the year. You can see them all on Flickr, but here are my favorite two from the first week of 2011. I love monsters and so a monster comic made into this weeks drawing and a series of comics I love called Longneck. Longneck is a series I drew of comics for Allison's birthday last year. I've continued them with short strips. I hope you enjoy the new comics.

wordless wednesday - over a year later

2011-01-05T03:04:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year

2011-01-03T09:57:00.004-05:00

Some pictures from Allison and mine New Years Eve adventure. I hope you enjoy.

Happy Holidays

2010-12-26T07:22:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas, here are some holiday pictures from Indiana:

snow is snow

2010-12-16T10:45:00.003-05:00

It snowed quite well last night and this morning. I went to work into this morning at two thirty. It was all good until I decide to drive into work. On the way to work I ran into freezing rain. As was driving my windshield froze over. It took about thirty seconds to freeze over my windshield. It was if I hadn't just cleared off my windshield at all. They say the storm was a blizzard. I hope they get the roads cleared up soon. Otherwise it's a day in for Allison and I.

a working man

2010-11-20T16:53:00.008-05:00

I started work this week for UPS. I got my uniform on Wednesday and then they asked me to start work on the preload on Thursday. The preload is not the job I was hired to do, but it is work and if they decide to keep me after the holiday season then that is the job I'll be doing. It's an interesting job, I have to be there early in the morning, around three. The job is simple, you load the trucks. The packages come with the truck names and then a number so you know where to put the package in the truck.

On Friday I started my Driver Helper job. On this job I wear my uniform and get to help deliver packages.

This job was a lot of fun. I ran around downtown Bloomington for about six hours. Most of the places I went were business, but we did drop off a couple packages to residential. I would have had more fun if I had slept the night before. My body is still trying to adjust my new morning routine. I've been use to the getting up at about nine and watching Let's Make a Deal at ten.

Then going to Barnes and Noble or the library to use the internet. So I didn't get any sleep on Thursday night and I worked the two jobs for UPS that day. I wasn't really tired till the end of the shift. Then I came home and slept for over twelve hours. I don't think I've ever slept that long in my life, but after twenty-eight hours of being awake I needed it. I'm a working man again and it feel good. Okay my feet and legs are sore, but a good sore.

fifteen random facts

2010-11-16T16:37:00.001-05:00

15. I have been married for over a year now to the most beautiful woman ever.

14. I love eating hamburger well actually cheeseburgers.

13. Allison thinks I can cook because I have been making dinner lately. I really can't cook.

12. My hair is way to long, even after my hair cut yesterday. The top is super long and the sides are super short.

11. I spend way to much time thinking about doing thing than actually doing things.

10. I grew up drinking pepsi but prefer coke now, mainly because they give out coke points. This reminds me of when I was a kid and you could get Kool-aid point and get cool prizes. So I drink coke for the prizes now.

09. Allison doesn't like socks, but I prefer to wear them all the time; even in the summer.

08. Allison's and my favorite show to watch together is How I met Your Mother, but we almost never watch it live.

07. I hate being out of work, but I can't remember what it's like going to work every morning either.

06. Allison's favorite color is Green, I enjoy that color too.

05. My biggest dream is be captain of a spaceship someday.

04. I did not try KFC till I was 18 years old. Still won't try their Double Down Sandwich.

03. I like flash based games way to much.

02. I like it when Allison is at work, because that means I can watch TV and not feel bad that I'm wasting our time watching TV. Although I don't think watching TV is a waste of time.

01. I can't whistle and neither can Allison, our children are doomed.

the building of the SEARS TOWER

2010-11-16T11:27:00.005-05:00

wordless wednesday

2010-11-10T08:14:00.002-05:00

many days have past

2010-11-05T21:01:00.004-04:00

I haven't blogged in months. The main reason was I had no internet at home and I didn't feel like writing blogs at the library or Barnes and Nobles. I feel like both of these reasons are just poor excuses. I'm here at a library on a Friday night writing a blog, sure it's the library Allison works at, but it is still a library. The main reason I haven't written in so long is I have had no good news in such a long time. I didn't want to write about not having a job or my job search. These things both just took so much out of me.

Well the job hunt is on hold for a couple of months. I just got a job at UPS! I'm going to be a seasonal driver helper. I don't get to drive the truck, but I help the drivers on their routes. It's an on call kind of job, so I only work if they call me and need me. This means I don't have a lot of work this month, but a lot more after Thanksgiving. If I'm lucky after Christmas they might hire me as a full part-time employee. I would have set hours and after a year I could get benefits. I'm hoping that comes through, because I don't know if I could find another job in January.

On the home front Allison and I are doing well. I've taken a more domestic role. I make dinner more often and try to clean the house. I still do all the laundry just no little rugrats to hang out with when I do it. I miss that a lot. I loved seeing my nieces and nephews when I did my laundry. It made doing laundry an event to look forwards to every week or two.

Well life keeps moving fast. Soon I'll be eating turkey in Iowa, I hope to have more thoughts by then written in my blog. Maybe I'll have my short story I'm working on done by then. Hope all is well with everyone.

a long time

2010-09-13T13:37:00.004-04:00

I've been away from the internet for a long time. At least I have been only using it to update my ED comic and search for jobs. The job search has not been moving forward very quickly. I've been applying for tons of jobs with not a lot of call backs. I know these things take time and in Bloomington it can take even longer. Allison and I are loving it here. Bloomington is a lot of fun. I feels like a vacation for me. I can't wait to find work so that our home feels like home and not a vacation spot. Every morning I still feel like I'm going to wake up in Boise and I'll be able to go see my family and go to work, but it's not a dream. I hope all is well. I'm going back to work. As in job hunting.

wordless wednesday

2010-08-18T11:11:00.003-04:00

bring in the office

2010-08-09T20:39:00.004-04:00

I assume most people know that I an odd person. I love offices. I've always thought they were a fascinating place. I wonder what it happening in all these different offices. This intrigue is almost as large as my love of spaceships. I've always enjoyed offices, but in recent years I've found new ways to love them. The first would be the show The Office. I love this show. I love watching crazy people working in an office. Yet, I feel this show is more real than any other TV show. The main reason is the fact that it all takes place in an office. You really never have time to hang out with your friends like in all the other shows on TV. Like Friends, they just meet in the middle of the day to hang out all the time. That's so not real. Okay the office is not real either, but it builds on stereotypes that you would find in an office environment.

The second fetish I have with offices is my comic, Ed the business Warrior. I love that comic. I've been working on it for five years now. It hasn't been a straight everyday or even every months in the past. Ed is a character I keep coming back too. He's a big guy smashing computers. I know it's very Office Space with how they destroy the printer, but I've developed it so much further than that. I've started to build new characters for Ed to interact with. The comic is growing to be more than just Ed smashing things to a developed character.

The last thing that I'm embracing for my office nerd is the game Office Hero on my ipod touch. It's so fun. You just go around doing boring tasks to build up your character so they can do awesomer tasks. It's easily one of my new favorite games. It's just like every other flash game, but this one is awesome because it's in an office.

I'm an office nerd. I'm so an office nerd that I'm even trying to get a job in an office as an administrative assistant. Than I can answer phones and file papers all day. It'll be like I've got a real job, well it will be. I might even wear a tie to work everyday! I know my tie collection finally going to good use. I can't wait.

wordless wednesday

2010-08-04T21:32:00.000-04:00

lame things

2010-08-03T22:28:00.004-04:00

I've talked before about how I'm addicted to lame TV shows and I just can't stop watching them because they suck me in so well. That's not where the lameness ends. I am also addicted to horrible flash games. Games that bring nothing but wasted time. Wasted time that I could be spend on drawing comics, watching crap TV, or even reading a comic or book. These games are so horrible too. One of my favorites is Tap Fish, the whole game is you look at these aquarium you have and feed your fish. You can also sell your fish to make money and buy new fish. So everyday for at least thirty minutes to an hour I'm cleaning fish tanks and selling fish. Why do I keep playing this game? I don't really know. I just get addicted to things that are not that much fun and play them till they are dead to me. Well more like my soul is dead to these games.

A new game I just started to play is Office Hero. It's like Farmville I'm told, but in an office. I go around and tap on different machines like computers, phones, filing cabinets to do jobs. This is a sick habit! I spend eight hours at work doing this everyday, why do I want to do it at home too? Even while I'm doing this blog I'm tapping away at my virtual office trying to make money and rep points. I'm so addicted I can't even stop for five minutes to write this blog.

The real person I should blame for this is Allison. She gave me my ipod touch, the majority of these time wasting games I play are on the ipod touch. It's all Allison's fault for giving me an awesome time waster gift. She may be the best wife ever, but she the reason I'm addicted to flash games that have no reward and tons of time wasting on them. Oh yes Allison is to blame.

wordless wednesday

2010-07-28T18:36:00.001-04:00

nyc 2000 story

2010-07-24T19:28:00.008-04:00

In the winter of 2000, after Christmas to exact, but before 2001 I was in New York City visiting my sister Sally. I'm not sure how many days into the trip I was in, but it wasn't my first couple day there. I had decide to go up to Midtown by myself so Sally could get something done. I had been there already, but I wanted to go again. So I took the subway from Queens where Sally lived into the city. Everything was going okay, then I ventured off the main tourist section of midtown. Now I didn't go to the nice side off midtown where Broadway is, no I went the other way. I end up in the porn district. Mind you while I was in midtown I was actually looking for the coolest comic shop in all the land, Midtown Comics.

In the dirty district as I'll be calling it now I ended up at a street corner with this African American. Actually he probably was born in Africa because he had a crazy accent I can't even try to explain. The guy looked at me and must have thought I was sixteen. He started to talk to me and asked, "Hey you like to smoke?" I was like no I'm good.
He than responded with, "You need a fake ID to buy smokes man."
I said, No I'm good, I'm old enough to buy smoke.
He then sized me up some more and said, "You like women? You need ID to get into these nude shows."
I responded with, "No I'm good I've got a girlfriend at home." We banter a while about naked women and how I really don't need a fake ID that won't work to see naked women. He doesn't like my answers, and starts to yell at me. He was yelling, "This man gay! This man is so gay he no like women!" He kept yelling this at the top of his lungs. My face went red from being embarrassed by the this guy calling me gay at the top of his lungs in the middle of the street. I couldn't wait to run away across the street. When the light finally turned I walk very fast across the street and didn't look back. It was very scary to be yelled at in the middle of the street for not wanting to buy fake IDs.

That was the story I told in the story story night story slam. I didn't when first place with the story, but I thought it was good enough. People were laughing pretty hard when they heard this story.

wordless wednesday

2010-07-21T17:18:00.003-04:00

story story night july 2010

2010-07-20T00:29:00.003-04:00

Tonight after a long day at work Allison and I went to Story Story Night at the Linen Building. The story theme for this month was Stories on the Road, stories about travel. We listen to three stories by featured artist and then the program breaks for about twenty minutes for an intermission. During the intermission you can put your name into a drawing to go up on stage for the second half of story story night. It's totally random and no one knows who is going to go up. I put my name in without telling Allison tonight. I figured it's the last one we can go to before we leave and I have an okay story to tell. The intermission ends and the host gets up on stage. My stomach is up in my throat almost waiting to see if I get to go. They pull out the first name. The host looks at it for awhile. To me it felt like two minutes, but it was probably only a few seconds. Then she goes on to talk about what the story slam is. It's a five minute story that you can tell without any notes. It's you and a microphone in front of a packed building. A little scary. They're were at least 150 people there. There was standing room only for a lot of people. After she tells the rules She looks at the paper for a little longer. My heart is racing. There's no way they're going to call me. A ton of people put their names in the hat. Then she say, "Michael McLean." Allison looks at me like what? You put your name in and didn't tell me. I get on stage and stumble through the first minute of my story, but I did it. I got up in front of room of strangers and told my story. It might not have been the best story, but it wasn't the worse. Allison said people were laughing all the way through, but my heart is all I could hear. It was loud as I stood in front of those people. As you might know I am not a public speaker. I get flustered easy and leave out tons of details. It was amazing to actually do it though. The story I told was my New York story about the crazy guy trying to sell me a fake ID. It was good, just not my best telling of it.

runners paradise

2010-07-14T23:34:00.004-04:00

As I've talked about before Allison and I have started running. We are on week four of our running. We haven't been so great with week two and three thought. We ran three times in those two weeks. That's half of what we're suppose to run. So we only completed two weeks in our couch to 5k program. Today we started back on our regular schedule for week three. We only missed one week, not to bad.

The run was awesome. We were actually doing it. I was feeling really good about myself and what I was doing. I really never have been a runner despite my father telling me the McLean's have running in their DNA. Okay he never said it like that, but he did say we were runners. Most of my siblings were in track in high school, I just never seemed to care about running. I rather be flipping burgers and making money during high school. So I'm feeling really awesome about myself and then during our finally 3 minute jog rep I tripped. I took a great fall like Humpty Dumpty. I had run just over two minutes in the last rep and was looking for a completion of the todays workout. So I didn't finish the run. My left hand is really tore up. I had to cut skin away and wash it out. It looked nasty. My left knee was tore up a little, but not as bad. That cleaned up really easy. So let's check out my battle wounds preclean up.

P.S. On a awesome side note someone at Hastings screwed up. When I went into the store today to pick up Mystery Society, one of the best new comics out there I found Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour on the self for sale. Not a big deal except it doesn't come out for another week. Someone accidentally put it on the self when they were not suppose too. I was so happy, now I've read the entire series and go see the movie in August without trouble. Thank you Hasting Employees for being stupidly awesome. Sincerely, Michael.

wordless wednesday

2010-07-14T09:04:00.003-04:00