A brief twitter discussion with @randamusprime made me realize exactly what I was saying when I responded to her.

She said that she's against gun control and I said that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. That's what makes this country (supposedly) so great.

Don't get me wrong. There are a lot of things I love about living in America. I love the fact that I can disagree with the government and not get thrown in jail or shot. I love that I can have any religious beliefs (or lack there of) that I choose. There are a great many things that I do love about this country.

And given the fact that the supposed gun control that's in place clearly doesn't work I can understand why someone might be against it, even though I am for it.

I realized that what I was saying had nothing to do with the country itself but the people living in said country. There are a lot of people that live here in America that are of the mindset "everyone is entitled to their own opinion as long as it's the same as mine."

America was founded on a difference of opinion, essentially. We are supposed to be a nation of free thinkers. We're supposed to be able to say what we want, when we want (to an extent) without fear of persecution. This is supposed to be a place where you can say "I don't agree with you" and it's perfectly okay. You can have open and honest discussions and the only consequence should be a broadening of one's horizons.

That is not the case, however. Rather than embracing differing opinions, we belittle and demean those who don't agree with us. We tell people who don't have the same faith that they are wrong and going to hell because they don't believe what we do. We bash those who dare stand out in a crowd. If you're different than there must be something wrong with you.

I don't think like that. Of course, if I believe that I am right I will fight you tooth and nail if you tell me I'm wrong. That is, unless you show me proof that I am wrong. Then I apologize and accept that I made a mistake. There are a lot of people in this country that will continue to fight you even if you can definitively prove that they are wrong beyond a shadow of a doubt. That is the kind of idiocy that made me add that (supposedly) in there.

I love having discussions with people that don't necessarily believe the same way I do. I like it even more when people can support their opinions. There are too many people in this country that the only answer to "Well, why do you think that?" is because their parents thought that. Or their grandparents thought that. They're afraid to be different because it's hard. There was a man that I knew that was once asked "Why are you a Democrat?" and his response was "Because my Daddy was a Democrat." "Well, why was he a Democrat?" "Because his Daddy was a Democrat." And that was his only answer.

We need to stop the nonsense. We need to embrace open and honest discussion of ideas. We need to accept that not everyone believes the same way we do. When I was in high school, I thought at the time that I was a Christian. I had some Christian friends, but there was one girl that I used to eat lunch with that was raised on the Native American beliefs. One day, I asked her about them and sat there, listening intently as she told me them. It was very fascinating. I don't remember most of it, to be honest, but that was 15+ years ago. After lunch, one of my "Christian" friends pulled me aside and asked me why I listened to this girl about her non Christian beliefs. He then basically told me that I was going to go to hell because I didn't try to convert her to Christianity. That I was wrong in actually listening to her about her religion. I asked him "Which is more effective, telling her about my beliefs and listening to her about hers, or simply telling her about my beliefs and refusing to discuss anything else?" He didn't have an answer for that.

I have always been of the mind to tell someone what I think and say "If you have any questions, you know where to find me" and leave it at that. If they want to talk about what they believe, even if I don't agree with them, I am willing to listen, as long as they were willing to listen to me. It's a fair trade off. You listen to me, I listen to you and we talk.

There are too many people that only want to talk, they don't want to listen. They're so afraid that they might actually be talked into changing their mind that they're not willing to discuss anything other than what they believe. There are people that would call @randamusprime an idiot and actually stop following her simply because of her thoughts. They would tell her she's wrong and leave it at that. There would be no discussion of why she feels the way she does. No sharing of "this is why I believe in it" or anything like that. Just a simple "you're stupid" and "unfollow" and no more listening.



I don't usually go on and on about stuff like this, especially here, but I just felt the need to clarify myself. I do believe that America is a great nation for many reasons, but I believe that there are a lot of people in this country that seem to have forgotten a lot about why this country even exists. Freedom of Speech doesn't just apply to people who have the same thoughts and opinions you do. It applies to everyone. Freedom of Religion doesn't just talk about Christianity. It means EVERY religion. Whether you agree with their beliefs or not.

And that is the end of this rant. Now that I've gotten it all out, maybe my brain will let me go to sleep.

Bourne Legacy: SPOILER ALERT

Now, I have to admit that I went into this movie with absolutely no knowledge about the Bourne storyline other than what can be found in trailers for the first three Bourne movies. That being said, I will continue on with my review.

Pretty much the first thing you see in this movie is a shirtless Jeremy Renner which automatically makes it awesome. I would really like to sit here and take the movie apart minute by minute but there's so much going on that I just can't do that so this is really just going to be an overview. I put the spoiler alert up there just in case there's something I mention that could be considered a spoiler.

Edward Norton continues to be seriously awesome. His character in this movie is cold and precise and knows exactly what needs to be done regardless of the moral issues involved and he will not let anything stand in the way of getting it done. He delivers his lines beautifully, as always, and he manages to keep a pretty straight face throughout everything. I think my favorite moment though was "It's up and running, consider yourself notified." That was a great moment and only Edward could really handle that, in my personal opinion.

There are so many actors in this movie that I have loved for a long time. David Strathairn being one of them. Of course I have loved him since Sneakers all those years ago, and he continues to make me love him more. Especially in Alphas on SyFy but that's not what I'm talking about right now. He has a minor appearance in this movie but he did very well.

Stacy Keach is a nice addition to this movie as well. He did a wonderful job and he's very good at the irritation and righteous indignation required for this movie.

My brain is kind of frazzled when I try to describe it, in all honesty. The action was really cool and the movie was done very well. Although I find it very amusing that on a motorcycle weaving in and out of traffic wasn't too dangerous to be actually Jeremy and Rachel, but riding said motorcycle up a flight of stairs was. I guess that's part of why I'm not involved in the movie business. Only a small part, of course.

The ending of the movie makes it very obvious that there is going to be another one. I could have done without the corny, James Bond type spy song at the end, but I guess Hollywood decided it was necessary.

Onto the fangirling. I think this is the most time shirtless that I have seen Jeremy Renner. It makes me all kinds of happy. Especially because of those gorgeous arms of his. They're just.......afkjvbaufhg;ahv. That's all I can say.

Now the fangirling is over. Based on my limited knowledge of the franchise, I can't really do the storyline justice, but this was done well. Although there are a couple of the stunts that I would really like for Mythbusters to tackle.

So, over all, go see the movie. Even if you haven't seen the others, you will definitely like it. That's all I can say. :-)

Droid RAZR Maxx

Let me tell you about the awesomness that is this phone. Yesterday I exchanged 90 emails with on friend, 30 text messages with another, 15 texts with my mom, and 20 with my daughter. I took 2 short phone calls and all of that only used up half the battery. That is without charging it at all. Today I have done the same number of emails and texts as well as several sessions of playing Temple Run and only used about 65% of the battery. This phone lives up to the battery hype for sure. I've only had the phone since Wed (8/8) so I still have a lot of features to try put but so far I love it. Although I am finding this phone does not like this website. I'm having issues with cursor placement. I am more willing to believe that's a problem with the site and not the phone. More to come later buy I doubt it will be bad.

Kitten in need of a home

An update on Mewsie. Our inability to find her a home and further inability to care for her, led to us having to take her to the local animal shelter.

MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS!

MAJOR SPOILER ALERT AHEAD!!!!!


Okay, I just have to say first off that this movie is FREAKING AWESOME! From beginning to end the movie just rocks hard core. There's no other way to describe it. Joss Whedon continues to show that he is a genius, plain and simple.


First of all, everybody knew that Samuel L Jackson was going to be awesome as Nick Fury. There was never any doubt in my mind at all. I was VERY glad to see that there was a lot more of Nick in this movie, which makes for part of the awesomeness.


Cobie Smulders did such a wonderful job as Maria Hill. She's not the hard core bitch I remember from the comics, but that's because Miss Smulders made Maria Hill her own and I am looking forward to much more of her in the future. Especially if they get to the part of the storyline where Tony is director of SHIELD and she has to answer to him. I think that will be amazing.


Clark Gregg is the next shining star in this flick. He had some of the funniest lines even if they didn't come across as funny. The vintage Captain America trading card collection was priceless. He totally had a man crush on Cap and it was completely adorable. Now I know I warned about spoilers but there is one spoiler I am NOT going to give simply because I like to pretend it didn't happen. Agent Coulson and Pepper seeming to be friends was pretty amazing and adorable. Especially when Tony gets a little bit jealous.


Tom Hiddleston as Loki was perfectly brilliant. He's just the right amount of evil genius but he also is smart enough to know when he's defeated. Favorite scene ever, though, is the confrontation between Loki and Tony. That whole conversation is amazing but when Loki tries to control him and only ends up hitting the reactor....that was hilarious. And let's not forget Loki getting thrown around like a rag doll by Hulk. So perfect.


I really never thought I'd be able to say this at any point but I now, officially, actually like Chris Evans. I used to hate him. Then Captain America: The First Avenger made me not hate him anymore. Now, I like him. That's as far as I'll go. I like him. I really can't picture anybody else playing Steve Rogers. My brain just won't allow it. He has embodied the character that much. And this movie just showed off his acting skills even more. He took charge when necessary and beat the living shit out of people when needed. It was just an over all fantastic performance. And it was so freaking adorable when Cap finally understood one of the pop culture references that was made. Too cute for words.


There really aren't enough words in my vocabulary to describe this movie so I might end up using the same ones over and over again because it was just that damn good.


Okay, so where was I.


Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner. I was a little skeptical at first, to be quite honest, based solely on pretty much everything else I've seen Mark Ruffalo in. Now, my knowledge of his work is nowhere near the full body of his work. I've only seen a smattering of the projects Ruffalo has done and at least one of those have actually involved Robert Downey Jr, so I can just add this one to the list. Anyway. Mark Ruffalo did a wonderful job as Bruce Banner. He had some of the good lines too. And when he said "That's my secret, I'm always angry." That just made my life right there. And Cap's order for Hulk to smash was just too perfect. Now, I know that the Hulk stuff wasn't really Ruffalo but still, I am going to give him credit. I did love him pulling up on the little motorcycle when everybody is standing down town and looking at the mess. He did a very wonderful job playing Bruce. He really did.


ALEXIS DENISOF IS IN THIS MOVIE AND I AM NOT GOING TO TELL YOU WHERE!!!!!!! If you don't know who Alexis Denisof is then you didn't go see this movie for Joss Whedon's involvement. Just saying. When I reminded my daughter of who Alexis is in other projects her response was "So Robin had to work with Sandy again." and that made me giggle


I am slightly disappointed in Mr. Whedon that there was no random Nathan Fillion casting. Nathan is to Joss as Bruce Campbell is to the Raimi brothers. WHY IS THERE NO NATHAN MR. WHEDON?! HUH?!?!?! You know, I bet this is all Castle's fault. But again I digress.


And now we come to the other Chris. Mr. Hemsworth. I was not even remotely surprised or disappointed when I found out that Chris Hemsworth was cast as Thor. I thought "He's absolutely freaking perfect!" and he really is. No one could play the Norse god of Thunder any better than he does, and he looks the part as well. He's just the right amount of funny while maintaining that godlike attitude. He will help the humans to protect Earth at any cost and it's so amazing that he is like that. Thor's arrival in the movie is grandiose and perfect for a god. Loki being nervous by the thunder and saying "I'm not particularly fond of what follows it" was just wonderful. And the fight between Thor and Iron Man was beautifully done. And, let me just say, Mjolnir + Vibranium = BIG BOOM!


Yet another person that I was not that fond of before taking on a comic book character would be the lovely Miss Scarlet Johansson. When I first heard she was cast I was a little upset. I figure, who better to play a red headed Russian than a red headed Russian. (If you don't know who I'm talking about you are not a true geek.) But she has truly shone as the Black Widow and done a wonderful job. She was very good in Iron Man 2 but she was exquisite in The Avengers. "A very specific skill set" indeed. Is there something between Barton and Romanoff? I don't know. I think that they have the kind of relationship that is built on the battle field. The kind of thing that soldiers who have fought together have with each other. Is it romance? I'll let the story figure that one out. I do know that they have seen and done things together that make them closer than any two people could ever think to be.


And speaking of Clint Barton, gotta love Jeremy Renner. I loved his work in The Hurt Locker and I was so excited when he was cast as Hawkeye. His performance in this movie actually has my daughter wanting to take archery lessons. And let's talk about that archery, shall we? That quiver was FREAKING AWESOME!!! (wanted to use another F word but trying to keep it clean.) And the arrows with the interchangeable heads were so cool, Let's not forget that bow that all he has to do is shake it a bit to get it to engage. So awesome. There are no words to describe his archery skills. Being able to shoot behind him without even looking. But that's Hawkeye more than it is Jeremy Renner. He was very good, though. He did the role justice.


I'm not going to say very much about Stellan Skarsgård because there's not much more to say other than he did a great job. Unfortunately they didn't give him much in the way of screen time, but what he did get was wonderfully done. And even though he was controlled by Loki, he still managed to help beat the bad guy so all is good there. Just great job over all.


And I was saving the best (in my mind) for last. Mr. Robert Downey Jr. I can't lie. I am so in love with this man. I envy Susan Downey like you wouldn't believe. But that's where I am ending that bit of gushing. Okay. TONY HAD THE BEST LINES IN THE WHOLE DAMN MOVIE! And the best references ever. Calling Thor Pointe Break was funny but calling Hawkeye "Legolas" was geektastic. I have always know that Tony Stark was a geek to his core. Deep down inside that swaggering hunk of sexy arrogant man is a little kid with glasses and braces sitting in his parents' basement in a Star Trek uniform playing Dungeons and Dragons. It can NOT be denied. And Tony is swagger and sexy and arrogant, there's no denying that either. Now, the whole Tony/Pepper relationship thing is adorable. Especially the look on his face when she's whispering in his ear. Priceless. Again, I gotta go to the confrontation between Tony and Loki. If JARVIS had a testosterone detector it would have been going off like crazy. That was one hell of a pissing contest. And the Mark 7 armor. OMG! This is just the precursor to EXTREMIS. I'm telling you. I think one of my favorite moments is toward the end when Tony gets done saving the world and then he's going on and on about this shawarma place and how he wants to find out what it is. It's like, you just nearly died and you're going on about shawarma? What the hell, man? But that's Tony for you. Completely insane. And when he comes to the realization that Loki is going after Stark Tower, the way he delivered that "son of a bitch" was too good for words, really. But one of the very best scenes was the scene between Cap and Tony that was talking about the thing I would like to pretend didn't happen. The level of emotion coming from both of them. Tony actually teary eyed.....it was beautiful, it really was. And the "Please tell me nobody kissed me." was absolutely freaking hilarious. And I am so thankful every day that somebody decided to give Robert Downey Jr. A chance as Tony Stark all those years ago because there is no one on this planet better suited to play him. NO ONE! And if Kevin Feige thinks he can recast Tony if Robert decides to quit, he's got another thing coming. Robert isn't the only one that doesn't want to see Iron Man played by someone else. Now, does anybody get the reference on why Tony wearing a Black Sabbath t-shirt is hilarious? If you don't, I'm not explaining it to you. There was an interview with Robert in which he admitted that he'd stolen one of the Black Sabbath t-shirts and then lost it. $20 says Indio has it. Just a thought.


Now, the first after credits scene that reveals who will be the villain in the next movie, priceless and I will not spoil that one for you. I will, however, say that there is a SECOND after the credits sequence that has them all sitting in he damaged shawarma place quietly eating their food. Thor and Banner seem to be the only ones enjoying it but everybody is eating. In the background you see one of the employees sweeping up glass. It's hilarious, really. Especially because there is no dialogue, there's just them sitting there. Absolutely wonderful and a great addition.


Over all, I say GO SEE THIS MOVIE! It deserves as many awards as anybody can give it. I am most definitely going to go see it again sometime this weekend. There is no avoiding that at all. Even if you don't know anything about the comic books, go see it. You will NOT regret it, believe me.


And go buy the sound track. Right now you can get it from amazon.com for $5 as a digital download and that's for this month only. DO IT! Live to Rise by Soundgarden is a kick ass song and the rest of the album is just as good. Especially A New Way to Bleed by Evanescence. It's great. This is my longest review to date. After a little bit of editing it’s at 2063 words and I might need to edit more later.

Gale Harold Movies

If you like Gale Harold and are interested in his movies Particles of Truth, The Unseen, and Wake but haven't had a chance to see them, or would like to own them, now is your chance.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270958309444

I am selling my copies. They're in good condition and are only missing the cases, so if you want them, feel free to bid.

My next blog post will be a review of The Avengers and very possibly reviewing the movies leading up to The Avengers. Starting on April 29th my daughter and I will be watching one Marvel movie a night, beginning with Iron Man and watching them in story arch order.

What is the story arch order you ask?
Iron Man Iron Man 2 Thor The Incredible Hulk Captain America The Avengers

Now, if you want to watch them in release date order it goes like this.
Iron Man The Incredible Hulk Iron Man 2 Thor Captain America The Avengers

Watching them in story arch order is so much better, though. If you don't want the movies but know someone who does, let them know. I'd really like to get them out of my collection as I haven't watched any of them since I bought them many years ago. And by that I mean that I think the most recent one is 7 years old.

Papa John's killed my imagination

I used to be very prolific, in the literary sense. I used to write and write and write. I had an imagination that could create the most wonderful of situations. I wrote so much fan fiction it's not even funny. Star Wars and Queer as Folk mostly. I created cross over fics combining two completely different series into one great story. I wrote pages and pages and pages. I actually complete three different Star Wars novels. None of what I wrote could ever get published, but I wrote it anyway. My fingers would itch if I went more than a day or so without writing something. My imagination would drive me insane if I came up with an idea and didn't write it down, or type it out. Before computers became so widely available and inexpensive, I used to hand write everything. I used to have a callous on my right middle finger from holding the pen as much as I did. I never got a cramp in my hand from writing too much because as far as my fingers were concerned there was no such thing as writing too much. And computers only made it a million times easier to write. I could store my stories and even post them on the Internet when the time came available. I did so much writing and kept my imagination muscle flexed on an almost regular basis. (Yes I know there's no actual imagination muscle.)

Then I started working at Papa John's. I was working almost all the time. I would go in at 9am and end up working until 9pm. I had a set list of things I had to do each day and there was very little room for imagination in those tasks. I was always so tired when I get home from work that I rarely had the time to write. I still kept trying, though. I wrote and wrote and wrote as much as I could. Now, I really only blame Papa John's for starting the death of my imagination. That was the beginning. I was working on a screen play when I was working for Papa John's and I was very excited about it. I worked on it non stop for so long and got a lot of it done. I started to turn it into a novel when I first joined NaNoWriMo. I was so determined that everything was going to be great with this idea.

Then I met the man that inspired the story in the first place. I'm not going to name him because meeting him was one of the worst celebrity experiences I've had and I don't want my personal experience with this man to taint the way others might feel about him, or the good experiences some have had. I've been told that just because he was a douche when I met him doesn't make him a douche all the time and I do understand that. But this experience with him totally killed my love of this man and my desire to continue to be a fan of his work. I started to see him objectively and realized that when it comes down to it, he's not really all that great an actor and I was really just drawn to his pretty face and beautiful body. And that killed my desire to continue that one particular story.

The problem was, it didn't just end with that one story. I stopped being able to write anything involving anything he'd done. All of my fan fiction just petered out and slowly went away. I have actually lost a lot of the stories I was working on because they were works in progress and nobody wanted to be stuck with a story that was never going to have an end. So only my completed stories live on in Internet land. I've actually lost all of my Star Wars fiction because I deleted my website. I haven't written anything in the realm of fiction in a while. Well, that's not entirely true. I've tried starting stuff. But I rarely come up with my own ideas anymore. I usually end up leaching onto the ideas of my friends and helping them move them along. I tell them ways that I personally think their idea would be better and more sellable. I haven't worked on anything that was really mine in a while.

I haven't come up with an original idea except for the one that has died a slow and horrible death. Everything I've written has been fan fiction, though there has been a lot of it. I used other people's characters and put them in my own situations. You'd think I'd be able to come up with my own characters for those situations but it's always hard. And I usually end up giving them completely ridiculous names and stuff like that. I found it easier to use other peoples' characters with existing backgrounds than trying to come up with my own. So my imagination was great with the situations, but lazy with the characters. Guess that means it wasn't all that great after all. I don't know. I just know that this is the most I've written in a long time and this is not even remotely fiction. This is just me sitting here letting my brain say whatever it has the need to say right now. My fingers were yelling at me for not letting them really do some lengthy typing and I decided to let them shut up.

So you see, the need to write is still there. The itchy fingers and the frustrated mind and all of that. My body is physically in need of me to be able to write something. But my imagination is dead and buried and has been for a long time. So how do I go about feeding my writing addiction when my dealer no longer exists? I certainly have no idea.