Simple Randomness

National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets Review

So last night my wife and I watched National Treasure 2 - Book of Secrets for the first time. I’ve been interested in seeing this one for awhile, so here’s my take on it.

I thought that overall it was what I expected: just a fun, family friendly, history filled movie. Nothing too spectacular, and in my opinion it fit pretty well what I expected. It was fun, a little cheesy at times. I don’t think it’s a movie that I would watch over and over again, but I enjoyed it.

I also have to mention here that I think the first National Treasure movie was much better than this one. I know sometimes that happens because the with the first one you really don’t know what to expect. But it seems like in so many situations the first one of a series really is just a better movie. This isn’t always the case (for example, I think Return of the Jedi was way better than A New Hope, and it was the 3rd movie to come out!), but seems to be all too often. I’m hoping that The Dark Knight, the new Batman movie that comes out soon, won’t follow this trend, but I guess we’ll just have to see.

The Joys of Not Watching TV!

So when my wife and I moved into our new place back in August, we quickly found out that the company that was supposed to connect us with cable was in no rush to actually do it.  We even followed up with them a couple of times but were never able to get a hold of someone.  So instead of complaining, we decided to just not worry about it and try life without TV.

And you know what, it’s actually been great!  So I haven’t really watched TV for several months now and I have to admit that I don’t really miss it.  We’ll keep up on some of the shows that we like either by renting the season on DVD or watching it online.  For example, I love the show Lost, and we’ve kept up on it by watching it online.

If you’ve never tried going without TV, you should give it a try.  Honestly, whenever I watch TV now I’m amazed at the kind of stuff they can show on TV.  I was probably just desensitized to it before…

Art of the American West

I’m blogging about this because I was actually born in Texas, so I thought this was pretty cool. Now, I can’t fully claim myself as a Texan because I moved when I was 6 and have only been back once (which was to leave on a cruise out of Galveston…so it probably doesn’t count), but I still think this is cool.

In the city of Orange, Texas they have a really cool museum called the Stark Museum of Art. If you’re into art and museums at all, this looks like one that you’ll definitely want to check out. I know for example that my Dad loves museums…maybe I’ll recommend this one to him as well!

Personally I think that museums that have a specific theme can be pretty cool. Some of the themes that are in this particular museum include: Western Art, American Indian Art, Decorative Arts, and Rare Books and Manuscripts. They have a huge selection of different types of artwork as well. So whether you like paintings, sculptures, or anything else they have it.

I was looking over the history of this museum and it’s actually quite interesting. Apparently the founder of the museum, Lutcher Stark, began building his collection of western themed art as an undergraduate at the University of Texas, when he started purchasing works from Texas artists. Then in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he began collecting American Indian objects from New Mexico. So really this collection has been building for quite awhile.

So hey, if you’re looking to make a trip down to Texas anytime soon, this might be a place you want to check out. Orange, Texas is a ways East of Houston, so if you’re down in that area you could take a drive out to Orange and see the Stark Museum of Art and other things in the area as well. Check out their website for more information!

Crazy Vacations Make for Fun Vacations

Ok, with summer approaching I’m getting the feeling that I need to go on vacation! So I was thinking this morning about different vacations that I’ve been on that have been a little more wild.

I still think that one of the crazier vacations I’ve been on was a band tour in high school to San Francisco. Think about it, a bunch of high school band kids crammed on a bus driving from Utah to San Francisco. It was interesting to say the least! Once we got there we found plenty of things to do in San Francisco like going to the Hard Rock Cafe, visiting Alcatraz, and playing card games with like 20+ people in on the same game. Crazy stuff…and honestly looking back I think I would much rather visited San Francisco with a different group of people!

My wife had a crazy trip to Boston once. But this was to see her friend get married. They still found plenty of things to do in Boston, but the sad thing about that trip for her was that a bunch of her CDs got stolen! Not cool, but despite all that she still wants to take me back there sometime because she liked it so much.

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The Ultimate Gift Movie Review

Over the weekend my wife and I saw the movie The Ultimate Gift.  I thought it was a really good show and would recommend it to anyone!

Granted, although I might recommend it to everyone I know that not everyone is going to like it.  It’s one of those movies that actually makes you think about what you’re doing with your life and after watching it I felt motivated to make some changes.  Good thing is I’ve been motivated to make changes already and so it mainly just confirmed what I’ve already been thinking.

I really don’t want to give away the plot or anything, but the basic idea is that this wealthy man dies and his family comes to the law firm handling his will to learn about their inheritance.  They are all a bunch of rich snobs/jerks that don’t even care that he died, they just want their money.  And, they are all upset with what he left them.  Then the one lone, most punk looking person there is told that he will be given a special gift.  So the movie goes through what he has to go through to get his ‘gift.’

Anyway, great movie, if you haven’t seen it you should!

The Regret of Selling a CD

I used to have a pretty good collection of CDs. I was a member of BMG and would buy a CD every couple of weeks. Then I started to realize that I had a bunch of CDs but only listened to my favorites, while a bunch of others just sat there un-played. So what did I do? Well, I sold a bunch of them. Sure seemed like a great idea at the time, and I think I needed the money anyway.

So here’s what always happens when I do this: maybe a few months or a few years will go by and then I’ll hear a song that was on one of those CDs that I sold. Then I’ll think to myself, “Man, that’s a good song! I wish I still had it! DOH!”

I swear this has happened to me more times than I can count. It’s funny how when you have something you don’t give it much attention, but then once you’ve gotten rid of it you wish you hadn’t! It’s also funny how this applies to so many other things in life…but I’m not going to go all philosophical today about that.

Watching Lost Season 1 Again

After getting caught up to Season 4 (the current season) of Lost, my wife and I decided to go back and start watching it from the beginning again. Granted, we’ve only been through a few episodes, but knowing what I know now it’s been pretty interesting watching it from the beginning again. Here is a list of things that I’ve realized so far:

• I’m glad they killed off Shannon. She was just annoying!
• I still don’t like Michael, even from the beginning I didn’t like him, and watching it over again I still don’t like him!
• I wish they’d finally answer what the smoke monster is. That’s one of the mysteries that I’m really interested to find out the truth about.
• Locke is really interesting even from the very beginning. I still like his character.
• What about the ’sickness’ that they talk about in the first couple of seasons? Was that just a left over from the gas that the Others used to wipe out Dharma? Or is it a road they decided to just let die in the story?
• Who were the two dead people they find in the caves?

Needless to say, I really like this show. I’m excited to see where they take it from here with all the flash forwards and things! Do you have any other questions you want answered?

WALL-E: Another Great Pixar Movie?

I don’t know if you’ve seen the trailer for this, but I think it looks like it’s going to be another great Pixar movie!  Rather than explaining what the story is about, I’ll say just watch the trailer.  But it looks like a fun robot love story / adventure.

One thing I think is great about Pixar is that they seriously make some of the most creative movies.  Think about the idea behind stories like Monsters Inc., the super heroes being sued in The Incredibles, a fish adventure like Finding Nemo… all very original, very great ideas!  And now they’re doing a robot love story…  I’m excited to see it.

So check out the trailer and let me know what you think!

Iron Man - Looks to be Pretty Cool!

I don’t know if you’ve seen the previews for one of the up and coming Marvel movies, Iron Man, but it’s looking to be pretty cool! I’ve never followed Iron Man (I used to watch the cartoons for X-Men, Spider-Man, and Batman, but never was introduced to Iron Man), but after seeing the previews and reading up on him a little bit I think it could be a pretty cool movie.

I’m just really glad that these superhero movies are getting better. There have been some real duds, but in the last couple of years I would say they have been improving significantly. I think the best so far has been Batman Begins (my favorite movie right now), followed by Spider-Man 1 & 2. I don’t think that Spider-Man 3 was half as good as the other 2, so we’ll see what happens there.

As for duds, did anyone really like Dare Devil? I thought it was pretty lame personally. Elektra followed suit in the lame category. The Fantastic Four movies have been ok, but nothing special.

So I guess in the end my hope is that this new Iron Man film turns out to be really good. The previews look interesting enough, so I’m excited to see how it really turns out!

Movie Review: Enchanted

Ok, I know that I’m a little behind the times on this one, but I saw the movie Enchanted for the first time last night. And I must say, that was a pretty funny movie. Granted, I think that the cheesiness of it got a little out of hand at some points, but I think it’s great that Disney made fun of their own musical fairy tale movies!

Here’s what I thought were some great quotes from the movie:

Robert: Don’t sing. It’s OK, you know. Let’s just walk. Can we walk?

Prince Edward: [threatening Robert with his sword] Have you any last words before I dispatch you?
Robert: You have got to be kidding me!
Prince Edward: Strange words!

Well, those are a few highlights. Overall this was a pretty funny movie. Especially Prince Edward. They also took scenes from a bunch of the Disney movies and put them in scattered places, so make sure to watch for that if you see this movie. I give it a thumbs up!