starship troopers done wrong again

My sister asked me to go see a movie with her and her husband tonight. They decide to go see the must see movie of the Christmas holiday, no not Sherlock Holmes. That would have been amazing. If you haven’t gone and seen Sherlock Holmes you are an idiot. I mean that in the meanest way possible, because it’s that good of a movie, plus I do have a little man crush on Robert Downey Jr. It’s totally cool, so don’t bring it up. Well I’ve gone off topic. Sherlock Holmes is the best, just go see it. I totally get it if you can’t. Back to the subject, I was talking about the movie I saw this tonight. The movie people are raving over, Avatar.

What can I say about Avatar, that hasn’t already been said? It’s EPIC! Did you see how I capitalized all the letters in epic? That’s how epic it was. On the plus side it wasn’t so EPIC I fell asleep in it. No sir, it’s no Lord of the Rings boring. I fell asleep in all three movies, the first two at the theater and the last one at home. I can’t say I’ve seen all three movie all the way through. Mind you I did go in the middle of the day to see them so I wouldn’t be tired. I’m off topic again. Let’s talk Avatar. The special effect blew my mind away! The world they created was so awesome. The creatures were amazing. I loved the creatures they flew on. Awesome. I actually would have preferred if the movie was all about those flying animals and their riders, but then it wouldn’t have been EPIC and everyone would be sad. We need EPIC! It’s like in King Kong, the Jack Black one, where Kong fights three t-rexes. That was an awesome scene, but the rest of the movie I could do without. In fact they should make an hour and a half movie about Kong fighting t-rexes and that’s it. I would see that movie at least ten times in the theaters. I’m way off topic again.

Avatar was a good movie. I could feel the almost three hours on my butt though. It hurt by the end of the film. I felt the film need to end at about two hours, maybe a little before that, but then you would miss all the awesomeness that the build of the EPIC movie had coming or they could have milked a second film out of it and made a ton more of money. Although they might not have had the same impact if they left a huge cliff hanger like that at the end of the film. Sure it worked for the Empire Strikes Back, but that was back in the day. I digress. I enjoyed watching Avatar. It had amazing special FX that I’ve never seen before. I was amazed at how real everything looked. The story was well written if you haven’t seen Fern Gully. I’m not joking; it’s a live action Fern Gully. So pretty much they just made a live action EPIC version of Fern Gully in space. I hope this doesn’t make you look down on me or the film, because I love Fern Gully. It’s the best complement I could give the film. Now they do depart from it a lot and make Avatar its own thing. It’s a great action film when the action happens too. It’s no Die Hard, but we can’t hold every movie to that standard. So if you’re only going to see one holiday movie this year go see Sherlock Holmes. I think it’s better than Avatar any day of the week.

that's future michael's problem

Life is full of curve balls and I’m not very good at taking them. I’m sitting in my apartment listening to the new Vampire Weekend album, Contra. It’s really good and a great distraction from all the problems I have in my life. I would have to Giving up the Gun is my favorite track on the new album. I really enjoy the sound and lyrics. It’s just good fun. So I was planning on writing this blog since Sunday, but it took a whole new turn after yesterday. I thought I finally had an idea of what I might be doing for a living for awhile on Sunday. I had received a new calling at church as the Finical Clerk. I currently work for an armored car company as a cash teller. I figured that it was a sign that I was supposed to work in banking of some sort. It wasn’t something I loved, but it was something I was good at. I had worked in the budget office at BSU for two years and money was something I was use to working with. I am good with money and counting it. It’s not the most exciting job in the world, but it’s a good job.

Then yesterday I got a call from my boss. He called to let me know a competitor was moving into the Boise market and taking our largest account. The company had to scale back because of this, 40% of people were losing their jobs. We had till the end of February when the other company would take over the operation. I’m not just out of a job. I at least have a month and a half to find a new one. He said that they would give me a good recommendation if I wanted to work for the competitor. I haven’t decided if I want to work in banking anymore. Most people at my job have known for a week now, I learned yesterday on the phone. I don’t know if I’ll want to continue on in banking or actually do something fun. Plus I doubt they’ll treat me as good as my last job. As boring as my job is they treat me better than any other job I’ve ever had. Even with being laid off I only have good things to say about them. They want to make sure their employees are taken care of even if it is giving them away. I have a lot of things to think about, but I do have a job till March. So I’ll let future Michael worry about, it his problem not mine. (I’m kidding; the job search is so on.)

jolly roger

My home is no longer a safe harbor for people. We are sailing the Jolly Roger! Well not sailing it as much as having it as a doormat. It’s the cow’s meow. I guess it’s still safe to come to our house, but we are pirates now, so be warned. I looked up the Jolly Roger on wiki and found out ours is not the most common one out there. It wasn’t flown Black Beard. Our Jolly Roger was flown by Richard Worley. He was one of the first to fly the skull and cross bones. Now the McLeans are walking on his flag to clean our feet. This could turn out bad if you believe in ghost. No one wants a pirate to come back and haunt them. Insert scary noise like thunder. I guess that’s a risk Allison and I will have to take.

magical forest mustaches

The honeymoon has ended. We are no longer in the wild lush woods of California. The memories are fading of the massive trees that dot the dark blue sea side. There are few things you can take with you as you leave a land of warmth and beauty. The crisp warm air had a most feel to it. You could smell the salt from the sea miles away. Walking on the docks, you could smell the distinct odor of fresh fish being brought in. The magic of a honeymoon it lingers on in my mind. Highway one to 17 mile, filed with trees. Trees so tall they dwarfed anything we had in our desert home. Windy roads that made Allison scared in the dark. Turning left and right with the trees looming over as to hide any sign of civilization. How I missed my home driving through the dark back roads. The honeymoon crying out to never end; to seek out a land where the grass is lush and green. To look back on older memories of when I lived in a forest before. A magical honeymoon that could only bring our love closer. Watching the sea otters eat their breakfast and wondering if you had enough to eat before your long journey. Seeing how the beauties of jelly fish swim up close and from a distance. Wondering if when you hold your love close to your body that you could look as amazing as jelly fish swimming in the open water. The multicolor patterns of the jellyfish illuminating my mind. Making me try even harder to remember every breath I take as I see my own beauty walk across the hotel room. A honeymoon that will never be forgotten, ending too soon. You can only take home your memories and a mustache.

don't call me ralph

Three days into my honeymoon. What a great time. Allison and I have traveled all the way from freezing Idaho to the warm coast of California. What a beautiful change. My wife already asked me if we should go technology free. I was like what? I can’t live without my tech. I love my wife, but I’m addicted to my facebook and cell phone. I’ve been posting so many updates on facebook, that I can’t help myself. I never have anything to say, but this weekend I’m going to so many magical places with my wife. Why not let everyone else in. I’m no perfect husband, but I’m not Ralph. I would never threaten to punch my wife to the moon.

The trip took a two day driving trip. I know I’m weak compared to most McLeans. They would have made the 13 hours trip in one day, but I didn’t want to cross the Sierras at night. Having never driven the route before I felt it would be safer to travel all during daylight hours. I didn’t want to kill my beautiful bride two months into our marriage. That would be the worst.

The first night we stopped in the lovely city of Reno. We stayed at the Silver Legacy Casino. It was a large tower with a globe in front of it. Reno is a dirty little city. I don’t care what people think, it is. Luckily we only stayed one night.





Then yesterday we crossed the great state of California to make it to Monterey. We got here around five. We walked down to the bay right after that, which took about a half an hour. It was beautiful. I totally recommend coming here. The area is amazing. So that’s the honeymoon so far. An adventure that is worthy of the honeymoon.





Well were off to see some more ocean.

crap

Have you ever woken up and realized you can’t help yourself anymore. You are addicted to what someone might consider the worst thing ever. Every morning, okay maybe every day at some point in the day I realize I’m addicted to crap. Not like good crap, but crap TV. I have been watching crap TV for years, because I can’t help myself. Once I start I can’t stop watching. I want to know what happens; I want to know the whole story. I need to know what is going on. My main point would be Scrubs. I didn’t watch all of last season, because I didn’t have a good internet connection. Well now I do have a good connection. I’ve watched all the episodes of Scrubs season nine or Med School as they call it. The first episode was horrible. Everything that was good about the first season of Scrubs is gone. Now it’s just this really dumb comedy. The two main characters have been written down to stupid stereotypes. They don’t have any depth, yet here I am watching it. Five episodes in and there have been only ten minutes of good show in about 100 minutes of show. Yet I can’t stop watching. I love this crap; I even told my wife that this stuff is crap. I know its crap, but I need it. I need to know what happens to these crazy stereotype characters are going to do, but if you give me an outline of the show, I can tell you what will happen. Why? Why, does crap have to be so powerful on me? I’m just a sucker. Another good example is Stargate Universe. That show has been only decent at best, till the very last episode they had. I wasn’t going to watch this show after the 1st episode, but I just keep watching because I need some spaceship action in my life. So Stargate Universe is my show now. Then the cliff hanger at the end of the season break was unforeseen by me. I didn’t see it happening and now I can’t wait till it comes back. Sure it wasn’t crap but it wasn’t great either and now I have to watch it ever chance I get. I’m almost sure the show won’t be any more amazing after the break, but I hope it does. As long as television makes crap I’ll be there to love it. I need my crap, I’m addicted.

a new carol

The presents are unwrapped. The stockings are opened. The Christmas goose is finished, that if you eat goose for Christmas, I personally don’t. During this time of year we think of the many different Christmas stories that are out there. A classic that I’ve always enjoyed a little is the Christmas Carol. If you’re lucky you didn’t go see Jim Carry’s new version of that movie. I know I didn’t want to sully my memory of it. My Scrooge will always be Uncle Scrooge McDuck from Disney. That’s my Christmas Carol, has been since I was a kid. Yet, I feel a little bit like my life has taken a Christmas Carol turn this year. As many people know I work as processor for an armored car company. I get to count money all day long, and it’s not even my money. Every day I go in and count this money, so would Christmas Eve be any different? Of course not. That would be stupid. You need to work on Christmas Eve and count money. As I finished with all the different banks I had to count at around nine that night I thought to myself, what is going on? I felt like Mickey Mouse or Bob Cratchit. I was counting money on Christmas Eve when all I really wanted to do was be with my wife. On the plus side I didn’t have to work on Christmas Day. Thank goodness. One other thing that made me feel like Mickey was the fact that they gave me a Christmas Ham. I did opt to take it at thanksgiving so my family would have ham all of December to eat, but still the same principles applied to the Christmas Carol and my job. I’m pretty lucky to have this job though. They treat me way better than Scrooge ever treated Cratchit. Yet I can’t help but feel a little weird counting money on Christmas Eve