The last dragon

Hey everyone, Just wanted to let you guys know I made it to my buddies house at about 3:00. The roads were pretty bad and I saw: one dead moose, one flipped truck, one truck with horse trailer attached, backwards in the ditch. So yeah, God saw me through a potential dangerous adventure just fine.

I'm gonna get up early go take my test tomorrow, probably hang out in anchorage a bit and then go get some dinner and watch a hockey game that Jer's wife is gonna get us free tickets for.

Ok we need to start on dinner so I'm gonna say l8er.

Also, I appreciate everyone praying for me, I've never been let down by God before and I don't suspect he'll start tomorrow.

Double Feature

Firstly I'd like to publicly apologise for putting such an inapropriate picure on my blog, as a 25 year old MAN I should know better.

Secondly today was a kindof a big first for me.

I've always hated team sports, in high school I liked Swiming and weight training, in fact I did more PE credits than I had to but I NEVER did any team sports.  Once I accidently got signed up for a class called (if you can belive it) "Team Sports" I guess a buddy of mine heard them call my name on the roll and when I told him it was a mistake he was leik "dude drop the other class, basket ball is fun"...   

I'd rather run though the school in short shorts and a pink headband with the song "maniac" blareing than do somthing as offensive as play with all the dorks who think their "B-balls" skills are gonna be worth somthing some day.

Any way that all changed tonight when I enganged in my first ever pseudo-game of hockey.   I just started learning to skate this winter and have gone maybe 6-8 times but I'm starting to feel fairly comfortable moving forward with a puck and shooting.  As far as that crazed backward or hard stoping stuff (you know that stuff that is really cool looking and looks really fun?) Yeah I can't do that.  But you know what I can do?!   SCORE!!!  

Ok this is how it was.  Caleb passed my the puck and like 900 miles an hour and I was skating at probably 225 mph or like 235, (it gets hard to tell when you move that fast)  and I santched the puck off the melting Ice (that's annoying when you're so fast you ju

st leave melted Ice behind you, I think the pros' have to use refrigerated skates so the other player's don't get wet)

So I was blitzing up toward the net the only thing between me and it was the puck and all of a sudden, this uh... tozier girl named after a lake I think (like the lake of melted ice I was leaveing behind me "lol" <== (I HATE it when the ATB does that; and I know you all read my blog, I'm just dissapointed you always check tobi's world first )) She had this look on her face liek "Oh its Just Aaron, he's really cool and smart and funny, but I'll be able to stop his puck for sure."  But guess what sports fans I Deked left the deked right then started the crosby spin like the erroneous tornado wearing really classy clothes and BOOM (that was a sonic boom btw) the puck come flying out she tried to swat it out of the air with her wiley girl moves but she was too slow, the net came flying a part and was singed and smoldering slightly around a blowing ball sized hole behind which was only the shattered plexi-glass of said Toziers hopes and dreams.  

And now the rest of the story:

Yeah we played a little game, it was pretty fun, jordan and I were headed towards the boards together one time and he screeched at me like a banchee and scared me, that was annoying.  Its funny how normaly he's just a goof ball who doesn't scare me a bit but on the ice it's like he has wings and I'm just a fat kid with a broken leg.  

There was another time when the puck got passed up between me and lisa toward her goal, we both shot after it (she skates about as good as I do, probably better) everyone was yelling "Go lisa he's all yours" we both shot after the puck and I almost had her but (wanna know what an excuse looks like kids, pay attention here) the ice was so messed up my skates kept getting pulled weird angles and I just couldn't get going so she grabed it a pulled it away.  I've never had so much fun with her as tonight.

My goal against kluane was more like, she's standing in front of the goal, I pull up really slowly and just fire it off in some random direction and I accedetly went though.  If she'd turned her skates side ways it probably wouldn't have gone in.

Manliness

True and False Manliness

By: James Freeman Clarke, 1886

MANLINESS means perfect manhood, as womanliness implies perfect womanhood. Manliness is the character of a man as he ought to be, as he was meant to be. It expresses the qualities which go to make a perfect man, — truth, courage, conscience, freedom, energy, self-possession, self-control. But it does not exclude gentleness, tenderness, compassion, modesty. A man is not less manly, but more so, because he is gentle. In fact, our word ” gentleman ” shows that a typical man must also be a gentle man.

By manly qualities the world is carried forward. The manly spirit shows itself in enterprise, the love of meeting difficulties and overcoming them, — the resolution which will not yield, which patiently perseveres, and does not admit the possibility of defeat. It enjoys hard toil, rejoices in stern labor, is ready to make sacrifices, to suffer and bear disaster patiently. It is generous, giving itself to a good cause not its own ; it is public-spirited, devoting itself to the general good with no expectation of reward. It is ready to defend unpopular truth, to stand by those who are wronged, to uphold the weak. Having resolved, it does not go back, but holds on, through good report and evil, sure that the right must win at last. And so it causes truth to prevail, and keeps up the standard of a noble purpose in the world.

But as most good things have their counterfeits, so there is false manliness which imitates these great qualities, though at heart it is without them. Instead of strength of will, it is only willful; in place of courage, it has audacity. True manliness does what it believes right; false manliness, does what it chooses to do. Freedom, to one, means following God given convictions of truth; to the other it means thinking as he pleases, and doing as he likes. The one is reverent, the other rude; one is courteous, the other overbearing ; one is brave, the other foolhardy; one is modest, the other self-asserting. False manliness is cynical, contemptuous, and tyrannical to inferiors. The true man has respect for all men, is tender to the sufferer, is modest and kind. The good type uses its strength to maintain good customs, to improve the social condition, to defend order. The other imagines it to be manly to defy law, to be independent of the opinions of the wise, to sneer at moral obligation, to consider itself superior to the established principles of mankind.

A false notion of manliness leads boys astray.

All boys wish to be manly; but they often try to become so by copying the vices of men rather than their virtues. They see men drinking, smoking, swearing; so these poor little fellows sedulously imitate such bad habits, thinking they are making themselves more like men. They mistake rudeness for strength, disrespect to parents for independence. They read wretched stories about boy brigands and boy detectives, and fancy themselves heroes when they break the laws, and become troublesome and mischievous. Out of such false influences the criminal classes are recruited. Many a little boy who only wishes to be manly, becomes corrupted and debased by the bad examples around him and the bad literature which he reads. The cure for this is to give him good books that show him truly noble examples from life and history, and make him understand how infinitely above this mock-manliness is the true courage which ennobles human nature.

In a recent awful disaster, amid the blackness and darkness and tempest, the implacable sea and the pitiless storm, — when men’s hearts were failing them from terror, and women and children had no support but faith in a Divine Providence and a coming immortality, — the dreadful scene was illuminated by the courage and manly devotion of those who risked their own lives to save the lives of others. Such heroism is like a sunbeam breaking through the tempest. It shows us the real worth there is in man.

No matter how selfish mankind may seem, whenever hours like these come, which try men’s souls, they show that the age of chivalry has not gone; that though

” The knights are dust, and their good swords rust,”

there are as high-hearted heroes now as ever. Firemen rush into a flaming house to save women and children. Sailors take their lives in their hands to rescue their fellow-men from a wreck. They save them at this great risk, not because they are friends or relatives, but because they are fellow-men.

Courage is an element of manliness. It is more than readiness to encounter danger and death, for we are not often called to meet such perils. It is every-day courage which is most needed,—that which shrinks from no duty because it is difficult; which makes one ready to say what he believes, when his opinions are unpopular; which does not allow him to postpone a duty, but makes him ready to encounter it at once; a courage which is not afraid of ridicule when one believes himself right; which is not the slave of custom, the fool of fashion. Such courage as this, in man or woman or child, is true manliness. It is infinitely becoming in all persons. It does not seek display, it is often the courage of silence no less than speech; it is modest courage, unpretending though resolute. It holds fast to its convictions and principles, whether men hear or whether they forbear.

Truthfulness is another element of true manliness.

Lies usually come from cowardice, because men are afraid of standing by their flag, because they shrink from opposition, or because they are conscious of something wrong which they cannot defend, and so conceal. Secret faults, secret purposes, habits of conduct of which we are ashamed, lead to falsehood, and falsehood is cowardice. And thus the sinner is almost necessarily a coward. He shrinks from the light; he hides himself in darkness. Therefore if we wish to be manly, we must not do anything of which we are ashamed. He who lives by firm principles of truth and right, who deceives no one, injures no one, who therefore has nothing to hide, he alone is manly. The bad man may be audacious, but he has no true courage. His manliness is only a pretence, an empty shell, a bold demeanor, with no real firmness behind it.

True manliness is humane. It says, “We who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak.” Its work is to protect those who cannot defend themselves; to stand between the tyrant and the slave, the oppressor and his victim. It is identical in all times with the spirit of chivalry which led the good knights to wander in search of robbers, giants, and tyrannical lords, those who oppressed the poor and robbed helpless women and orphans of their rights. There are no tyrant barons now, but the spirit of tyranny and cruelty is still to be found. The good knight to-day is he who provides help for the blind, the deaf and dumb,the insane; who defends animals from being cruelly treated, rescues little children from bad usage, and seeks to give working men and women their rights. He protects all these sufferers from that false manliness which is brutal and tyrannical to the weak, abusing its power over women and children and domestic animals. The true knights to-day are those who organize and carry on the societies to prevent cruelty, or to enforce the laws against those who for a little gain make men drunkards. The giants and dragons to-day are those cruelties and brutalities which use their power to ill-treat those who are at their mercy. Knights today are those who bring the light of the Gospel of truth into a dark world which hates it.

True manliness is tender and loving; false manliness, cold and hard, cynical and contemptuous. The bravest and most heroic souls are usually the most loving. Garibaldi, Kossuth, Mazzini, the heroes of our times; Luther, who never feared the face of man; Gustavus -Adolphus and William of Orange; Lafayette, and our own Washington are examples of this union of courage and tenderness. Bold as lions in the defense of the right, such men in their homes and their private life have a womanly gentleness. False manliness is unfeeling, with no kindly sympathies, rude and rough and overbearing. True manliness is temperate; it is moderate, it exercises self-control, it is capable of self-denial and renunciation. False manliness is self-willed and self-indulgent…….

True manliness differs also from the false in its attitude to woman. Its knightly feeling makes it wish to defend her rights, to maintain her claims, to be her protector and advocate. False manliness wishes to show its superiority by treating women as inferiors. It flatters them, but it does not respect them. It fears their competition on equal levels, and wishes to keep them confined, not within walls, as in the Islamic regions, but behind the more subtle barriers of opinion, prejudice, and supposed feminine aptitudes. True manliness holds out the hand to woman, and says, ” Do whatever you are able to do; whatever God meant you to do. Neither you nor I can tell what that is till all artificial barriers are removed, and you have full opportunity to try.” Manly strength respects womanly purity, sympathy, and grace of heart. And this is the real chivalry of the present hour.

Bubalicious!

So Caleb got all this pent up energy working on house loan stuff today so some of the boys and I went scating and when we got back Jordan and I decided to crossfit.

The workout of the day was

21-15-9 of
Push ups
Kettle bell swings
Jumping air squats
(so thats 21 of each, 15 of each, then 9 of each)


I started off at a blistering 5:38
Jordan, curse of the tall guys, got a 7:03. Push ups are killer for him.

Caleb was sitting around trying to look small working on more silly bank stuff. So I told him if he just did it I'd leave him alone about it. So he did.

after a brief explanation of the different movements he showed us what a freak of nature he really is. The fact is that if you're short you don't need to move as far to complete each movement so the formula for power
(Force X Distance)/Time = Power
He has less distance and therefore more power. To make a short story... uh over. Untrained and post skating, with solid push ups, sloppy squats, and slow transition he pulled a 5:02 out of the air.

Jordan and I recovered pretty quickly, owing to our experience. Caleb, an old workin' guy, however is moping around flopping on couches and groaning like he's been horse whipped.

I'm hoping this little taste has wet his appetite enough to keep going, never to return to the ancient pathetic body building/cardio style that has plagued the fitness/health community like a cancer for the last 50 years. I'd really like to see what he can do. I'm sure he's got a lot more potential than either Jord or I.

I guess tonight just goes further to prove that Lisa sure can pick 'em.

Good job sister!

Flowers?!

So this new template I"m using was tagged with: lotus, red, white, flowers, brown, abstract, girly. GIRLY?!?! is there something girly about flowers?

Once when I was working in the garden over the summer it was all rainy and I was working on the irrigation system and all the girls were planting flowers. When it was lunch time we all headed in together and they asked me what I was up to. With out thinking I said "oh just super fun manly stuff like irrigation lines." I didn't think a thing about it but later one of my man bosses came up and said "You know i don't consider planting flowers to be women's work, i've been planting flowers for 25 years and..." Anyway, i guess that's what I get for opening my big mouth on the liberal center of the Alaskan interior.

Ok, so...

My flowers are very manly, just ask them they'll tell you.

A day that will live in infamy

Today one of the Humphrey's got pregnant.

The family name has been shamed and dragged though the mud by a certain very naughty beagle. I'll just post to let the world know but there was a blue heeler dog that had been hanging around the house for a few days and when Tobi and Travis got home tonight, Travis came inside and allegedly said "there's some love making happening out in the yard"

There's very mixed feelings about this among the family. I for one am excited, puppies are great. Tobi feels like she's shamed the good Humphrey name, and is acting like hes having her thrown out. I went down stairs after I heard and Tobi, Krista, Aimee and Jock were in Tobi's room. Tobi was sitting down with his hands folded looking like a disapproving father, molly looked pathetic, she came up to me like "I've been a naughty beagle, my dogged passions have carried me farther than I wanted to go" you can check out Aimee's blog to get an idea (an ideal idea) of what their puppies might look like.


In other news...

Joanna cut my hair tonight and mannaged to gouge a big swath in it. I've got the big job interview here soon so that should be interesting. I've got two weeks to let in grow out so I think it'll be ok.

Sam the desert SEAL, (no flippers)

So most of you know about my buddy Sam who is a Navy Seal. He funished up 'Buds' (Basic Underwater Demolions, Seal) about a year ago, got assigned to team three (no that doesn't really mean anything anymore) and went to Iraq for the end of his teams deployment. His job was to hand around a certain spot and just wait to get shot at basicly. I guess another part of his team was in another area and the the 25 killed over 200 Insurgents.

"They deserved it" he said.

Whats kind of funny is that he is still pretty liberal, he just always wanted to be the best. His Mom was 'shocked and awed' When he finished paramedic school in Colorado and joined the Navy. Jordan Sanders and I were expecting it.

He was droped from buds twice, once during hell week for getting SIPE (swimming induced pulmonary edema) and again from the next class when he fell off the his mountain bike, off duty, and smashed his wrists up.

I guess he made the mistake of telling the instructors he could draw, so they made him draw a cartoon on the board everyday before class. "And it has to be funny"



This is him on the right. I guess they have to blur out their faces, and they don't wear name tags or rank in the field, not sure why, thats just how special forces roll I guess. You can see they make the young guys use the SAW (the big machine gun he has)





I have no idea what that thing they're driving is, I think the wreckage is a russian MIG we shot down though.

Interview and Car news

(101st post yay!)

So I found out today that the interviews for the job at the hospital I want are gonna be on the 28th. Hopefully I'll be a real boy soon.

Also I got my car back today, my blunder and Caleb's blunder are both fixed, new oil, new tires, new alignment. I was going to wait on the tires till after I got a job but they were so chewed up I could see the steel banding inside them and I didn't want to drive to anchorage on anymore faith than absolutely required. 375 miles though an Alaskan winter can be challenging enough.


Oh and while were on the subject, Check out this car. Its supposed to be the fastest steet leagal car in the world. Called the Mclaren F1 they only made 100 of them back in the early 90's. the thing looks like a fighter plane. Notice anything unusual about the drivers seat?

Jack LaLanne

This guy was Mr. Fitness for about 34 years on TV, way back in the 50's till about 1984. He's kind of a strange guy but I though his message was way ahead of its time.

anyway this video I thought was pretty funny.





He's still alive at 94 years old so he knew something.

Feats of strength:

# 1954 (age 40): Jack swam the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, underwater, with 140 pounds of equipment, including two air tanks. A world record.
# 1955 (age 41): Jack swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco while handcuffed. When interviewed afterwards he was quoted as saying that the worst thing about the ordeal was being handcuffed, which reduced his chance to star jump significantly.
# 1956 (age 42): Jack set a world record of 1,033 push-ups in 23 minutes on You Asked For It, a television program with Art Baker.
# 1957 (age 43): Jack swam the Golden Gate channel while towing a 2,500-pound cabin cruiser. The swift ocean currents turned this one-mile swim into a swimming distance of 6.5 miles.
# 1958 (age 44): Jack maneuvered a paddleboard nonstop from Farallon Islands to the San Francisco shore. The 30-mile trip took 9.5 hours.
# 1959 (age 45): Jack did 1,000 star jumps and 1,000 chin-ups in 1 hour, 22 minutes. His well-known white German shepherd, Happy, was born this year, the same year The Jack LaLanne Show went nationwide.
# 1974 (age 60): For the second time, Jack swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf. Again, he was handcuffed, but this time he was also shackled and towed a 1,000-pound boat.
# 1975 (age 61): Repeating his performance of 21 years earlier, Jack again swam the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge, underwater and handcuffed, but this time he was shackled and towed a 1,000-pound boat.
# 1976 (age 62): To commemorate the "Spirit of '76", United States Bicentennial, Jack swam one mile in Long Beach Harbor. He was handcuffed and shackled, and he towed 13 boats (representing the 13 original colonies) containing 76 people.
# 1979 (age 65): Jack towed 65 boats in Lake Ashinoko, near Tokyo, Japan. He was handcuffed and shackled, and the boats were filled with 6,500 pounds of Louisiana Pacific wood pulp.
# 1980 (age 66): Jack towed 10 boats in North Miami, Florida. The boats carried 77 people, and he towed them for over one mile in less than one hour.
# 1984 (age 70): Once again handcuffed and shackled, Jack fought strong winds and currents as he swam 1.5 miles while towing 70 boats with 70 people from the Queen's Way Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary.

I figured it out!

If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life
Never make a pretty woman your wife
So from my personal point of view
Get an ugly girl to marry you


A pretty woman makes her husband look small
And very often causes his downfall
As soon as he marries her, then she starts
Doin' the things that will break his heart


But if you make an ugly woman your wife
You'll be happy for the rest of your life
An ugly woman cooks your meals on time
An she'll always give you peace of mind


Don't let your friends say you have no taste
Go ahead and marry anyway
Though her face is ugly and her eyes don't match
Take it from me, she's a better catch





See its not really their fault, I'm just glad they've made the mistakes so I can learn from them.

Combat "Nurses" in Afganistan

My SEAL buddy Sam told me about the school these guys go to in order to be special forces medics. They're pretty cool. I did some research about them and found out they do all kinds of stuff from Surgery to dentistry to veterinary medicine. I guess they do so much on people without anesthetic that their motto, according to Sam, is "the operator feels no pain" it takes more than a year to finish the school and they send SEAL's to it as well as Green Berets (for those who don't know they are the special forces for the Navy and the Army respectively)

This is a clip for a Nat Geo presentation they did on a group of GB's who work in Afghanistan fighting the taliban, they do a lot of "hearts and minds" operations in order to help the local people trust their government and resist the taliban.

Being in the medical field I think this guy, obviously Jewish by birth, is really cool. If I could snap my fingers and have any job it'd probably be this one. I really have a heart for the afgani people and how miss treated they are by the taliban, it really is terrorism at its worst. These people are putting their lives at risk just accepting aid from Americans.

I put this video together just to show the kind of things they do and deal with. This is a clip form a medical clinic in a village where there had been a lot of gun fighting with the taliban in previous weeks. In addition to medical supplies they brought rice, flour, and hand crank radio's tuned to the pro-government radio stations.

Enjoy.






(Oh BTW, your prayers are working wonders. I did really good on a practice exam for the NCLEX-RN and my RN friend tells me their are 6 openings on the floor I want to work on at the hospital. Keep it up, thanks!)

4th picture

I didn't even have to get tag to think this one was gonna be cool.

My dad went to cabo in mexico and went sport fishing, I've got his pictures cause they're so cool. this is a fish he caught i think its called a mahi-mahi. they're delicious.

The late great Bob Ross

Ok, I really like Bob Ross. He taught us about happy mistakes and how even trees need friends, he was as sweet as Molly (not the beagle). At any rate, this video made me laugh so hard I just couldn't keep it to myself.
Be advised this is boy humor so I won't be surprised if certain girls with rose tinted glasses don't find it amusing.

Enjoy

A little leven

I went back and looked at some of the other video's done by the guy who did the Osteen video and I found some interesting stuff.


Rick Warren is the anti Christ?



terrible...



this one is so disturbing you might want to skip it.



Why do such great opportunities go to people who waste them?!




On another note here's a really cool song, reminds me of Jordan for some reason, see if you can't figure it out.




Here's one about WW1, I need to get back and finish that series. If neither of these makes you at least "fog up" a bit you're pretty cold...

NCLEX-RN

Its time to slay the last dragon, take the last big yikky test, and that time is

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 / Start Time: 8:00 AM

nothing like a definite point in real time to motivate a guy to get some studying done.

Thanks for all your prays (hint hint)

LEAKED!!!

I may or may not have a certain amount of sway within higher browed circles of people, but I have been able to get my hands on one line of what ever "TLD" is. What I’ve seen so far is impressive I’ll share just a taste:

(drum roll please)

“After the short (hand)shake, I withdrew mine as soon as I could. I had no use for girls; they’re worse then friends.”

HA!!! Solid Gold, where does this guy come up with this stuff? He's just so dark and gritty I can't get enough.

Why girls need brothers

Part one,

The Humphreys have always made it a point to indoctrinate me in their favorite movies. The movies are lame and I hate them... ( to those of my readers who actually listen to my words and believe them I like about 75% of the movies and the other 25% is was just nice to have some one to hang out with so it's not so bad any way. H's tend to decide what I mean before I say it... hence the explanation) so yeah like I said every movie they show me is terrible and such a labor.

One Genre of movies that has presented a unique challenge to me is the Girly movie. (you know the ones that always seem to have a smarmy brunette the classic ---"word and otherword"--- titles?) They're pretty good really lots of interesting characters some cool some super irritating (like the classic nosey mom character)... But it is SO annoying watching movies with people who've seen them a million times.

You know how the first time you watch a movie a lot happens that you don’t really pay attention to, it’s just little stuff that wouldn’t really mean anything in real life so you just let it go? Well then after you know the “punch line/big happening” of a movie it turns out that all those little events were really just foreshadowing and character preparation, right? Well every time this happens they look at me like “did you get that?” I’m like “uh no! never seen this movie before… get what?” then they give me this line like “You’re not paying attention, you have A.D.D.!!! You hate us and our movies!!!” Man if that doesn’t make a guy want to walk out on a movie I don’t know what does.

A movie to me it a time to relax and just watch stuff happen to other people, it not a little competitive game where you search for detail like a beagle searching the floor on popcorn night…

I really should know better than to post this stuff by now. I don’t know why I can’t just write clever stuff like my P&P review that everyone thought was so funny, (cause it was)

I think its just cause Its so much easier to get everyone all riled up and create a bunch of drama instead of…


Part two,

Ok the first part of the move really was pretty boring. (just realized I haven’t said what movie yet… Ok I’ll come clean it was “Wives and Daughters”)

But the second half is where all the “Action” was. The main character Molly was about the sweetest girl any lonely female author ever dreamed up. She was a friend to people who didn’t deserve it was polite to a step mother who needed to have her face cross stitched real good, and didn’t flirt with a guy who she liked.

There is one thing that the movie lacked that would have greatly eased the troubles of the heroine, and that thing is brothers. I told Bek I’d title this post “why girls need brothers” and this movie is a prime example. See Molly was just to polite to “just get it done” and even though fate conspired to help her out it would have been immensely satisfying to see a cultured polite yet deeply masculine brother apply his strength and influence to sparing his beloved sister the trouble, heartache and defamation of character.

If you watch this movie just imagine a brother repaying Mr. Preston this 20 pounds plus 5%. Imagine him dealing with the super fun stepmom, in fact if he’d been cool enough then he probably wouldn’t have allowed his Dad to marry such a weird woman. All his dad would have had to say when the little “milk moustache” med student started sending letters to Molly would be “Keep an eye on her” and it’d be a done deal.

I decided that this was the one I liked the best of the 3 I’ve seen so far. Though the other two did have better male leads. The guy in North and South was really cool, and Mr. Darcy is so cool is kinda “lego-lasy” (don’t even think the “J” work little stinker we all know that just the only card left). There is one thing that always weirds me out about these “upper crust post colonial” romance movies is the fear that French peasants are going to invade the set and guillotine everyone because of their pompous excess. I just hate not seeing any poor people in these movies it’s like their too yucky to let in the city. That’s how you anger them, by being pompous and silly.

There is another thing I don’t like about these movies. The fact that they’re such a silly soap opera (wow Aaron those chick flicks are soap operas) Ok they’re not that bad they really do have some cool characters and interesting story lines. (did I just say “cool and interesting?!” Where has my vocabulary gone?!) I hate the idea that the most interesting part of our life is the romance shortly before we marry and that after that you just settle into a dull drudgery of
A) if you’re a man some study in art science or business.
B) if you’re a woman the marrying off of your children.

I just feel like they paint a disproportionate picture of ones life. There should be more to a woman’s life than her children’s romance and more to a mans that a dull continuous life reclused in a library or office.

I think the root of the problem is too much romance before marriage makes the big day the end rather than the beginning.

You know who you are…

Maybe Obama isn't the antichrist...

I'd like to appologise in advance.

Sorry I'm posting so much (the blog world is just so revived these days) anyway while I was looking through Jordan's pictures I found these. Just a couple cool jackets doing what they do best. (Making Jordan look like an idiot and me look all broad shouldered.)

Faramir's Charge

I love the visual metaphor in this clip. How the king's eating and rending his food apart mirrors what he's asked his son to do and what happens to him.

Aaron's baby

My Mom just sent this to me.  

Not Impressed...

So as all of my readers know, cause you were there, we watched some LOtR yesterday. As a whole I think it is the best adventure story ever created by humanity. It is with out a doubt the story by which all other are judged and upon which all others are based, and yet is still unique detailed and intricate... quintessential.

The things I don't like about it or am not impressed with are few but nagging. Ok, elves... elves elves elves... I have to admit that this viewing was the first time that I really got the scene in the elf city. I was able to appreciate it this time and it really was cool and surreal.

Here's what I'm -not impressed- with. Legolas's specticles of awsomeness are not impressive for the reason that it doesn't take any more effort for a writer to say "the pudgy dwarf couldn't jump high enough to see over the rampart" than it does for him to say "the perfect elegant elf grabed the horse reigns and flung himself 30 feet in the air and landed gracefully on his back." see? I could write a story about a guy who can swim the atlantic in ten mintues. Its just not that impressive cause its not real and it doesn't require any writing prowess to come up with it.

What is hard, what really proves an author, is to make a guy like Aragorn believable and compelling.  To make you want to know what happens to him, to get to the point that you feel like you have to keep reading to ensure the survival and victory of the character.  Is it hard to write that the elf boy could walk along the surface of the snow while the others had to trudge through it?  NO! 

In modern works sometimes authors will make a character over the top just to be annoying, I know elves are supposed to all super magical but the way it is expressed is just silly.  Its just too easy to like them... so I don't...  

I also don't like how the dwarf is just comic relief, there's the drinking scene and the dwarf is all passed out talking about little hairy women and the elf is just starting to get a tingle...  ugh.  He's so boring!  Where are his flaws?!  Where is his character development?  The only redeeming thing he does is make friends with Gimli.

Its almost like hanging out with Noah "Oh shocker, Doh won again was I on his team?  nope forgot to join the winning team before hand." 

What would have made it cool is if the dwarf had made fun of him the whole time, like when he calls him a "pointy eared elf princeling"

Is the elf cool?  Yes, but thats the problem.

Am I just jealous? You knew that the minute you figured out I was talking about elflings.

Either way, I'm not impressed.