The joys of Flea Markets

We went to the Chesnee Trade lot. It is basically a flea market. I have never seen anyone trading anything. Everyone seems to just want money. We bought more than I expected.

$18 Red Wagon (American Flyer made in America)
$10 2D Maglite (find people in the dark and beat them down)
$1 5 childrens books (you can never have enough books)
$4 for tomatoes and okra (a large amount)
$4 for a white rabbit (Alice should have gone to the Chesnee Trade Lot)
$10 Item that will be a gift for someone

Flea Markets are almost as much fun as a yard sale.

Hammer Time

He claims this is just a workout he does. I believe he is prepping for the release of the Thor movie.



Thor training video

Trip to the zoo!

We all went to Riverbanks zoo on Friday. My family, my parents and my brother's family all went to the zoo. It was fun. The first thing we saw when we got there was this.




Quite a show huh. Never seen this at the zoo before. Usually the bears are hiding out in the shade. These guys were having some sort of territorial dispute.

Review of Dark Knight

WARNING SPOILERS BELOW

I have seen all the Batman movies. I have seen many of the animated shows. The first Batman with Micheal Keaton was good. However the second was not so good. Then with three and four we really had some problems. They started shoving in every villain they could find in that hope that one would work. Well they did not.

Dark Knight is the best Batman movie to date. It had a great villain. This time the villain really made the movie. Heath Ledger did a great job as the Joker. He captured what and who the Joker is. He was funny, creepy, and terrifying all rolled into one. The de-evolution of Harvey Dent into Two-Face was real. You could understand how a guy would be broken under those circumstances. Then to see him turn evil, just sends shivers up my spine.

What really makes this movie great is the roles the characters play. Batman is our classic protagonist. He is the focus of the movie. Then we have the Joker who plays the contagonist. We see this in his attempts to pull the other characters down by putting them in impossible situations. The antagonist of the movie is Batman's doubt that society needs him. We see him struggle to keep fighting as copy cats become violent imitations of him. When the Joker starts killing to get Batman to reveal himself, he finally decides to call it quits and let Harvey be the cities new defender. Harvey is the emotion character. He sees is emotional about everything in his life. It is part of the reason we like him. He is so passionate about stopping crime. Unfortunately the Joker twists him and turns him into a killer. Gordon would have to be Logic. He does what he has to do to stop the Joker and protect his family. Faking his own death shows that he can do what he has too without emotion getting in the way. The role of the Guardian is played by more than one character. Lucius Fox and Alfred both acts as guides to Bruce Wayne leading him along his path.

This was a great movie.

10 out of 10 talons

Snake time

I saw a snake in my shed today. I was going out there to clean up my shed and as I walked out a snake poked its head out. I shouted in surprise and it ducked back into my shed. I looked online and I think it was this snake.

I went back out to the shed to take a picture of it to better identify it, and to remove it. It was gone. I did not do a really through search, but I did not hear it moving or see it and I made a ruckus. That makes two snakes in my yard in the last month. This is the first time I have seen any snakes in my yard in years. I saw one by the burn pile, and bessy killed a baby snake once. They have never been this close to my house.

I may have to install come countermeasures...

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I really want to just love it. I wanted it to be the pinnacle of a terrific collection of movies, but for me it was not. I enjoyed it nearly every step of the way even after I realized that the crystal skull was definitely alien in origin. I was going to be okay with that. I really enjoyed the scene where Mutt and Indiana are fighting the two guys guarding the tomb of the Spanish explorer, and Indiana blows a dart in the crazy tunnel guy's throat. When Mutt asks, "You're a teacher?" the way Harrison Ford shrugs and says, "Part time." it was a great scene and just what I expect from an Indiana Jones movie.

Now to the parts that hurt the movie. The scene where Mutt is swinging through the jungle with a group of monkeys just broke my suspension of disbelief. There comes a point where I just cannot believe it. For me it was another example of Lucas putting a scene into his movie just to show off his special effects. The scene did not add anything to the movie for me. Then the sacrifice of the guys who has been out for himself the entire time was weird for me. I just could not buy it that the guy would give himself up like that. Then the spaceship flies off into the sky. The lesson about the pursuit of power was a good one, and there were some elements that I enjoyed, but it was not the final movie I hoped it would be.

7 talons out of 10

Rating Previews Part II

There are many previews out there to watch. The main point of a preview is to grab your attention and make you want to watch the movie is it giving you a hint about. For example when I first saw the preview for the movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull I was excited. I really like the Indiana Jones movies and thought they would be over. The first preview played into that. It began by showing clips from the previous movies and giving one liners about what happened in those movies. It was really rousing. Then it began giving clips from the movie to come. It had everything it was supposed to. It even played into Indiana Jones being older by having the characters comment on how much harder it was to do what they were doing. Then we see Dr. Jones miss swinging into the back of a truck, haha good times. When I see a metal container with the words Area 51 on it I begin to think this might not be good . That scene was a warning sign.

Indiana Jones is not Science Fiction. I has always had a spiritual feel to it from the beginning. Two of the movies dealt with artifacts from the Bible. Area 51 should never have been in the movie. It really does not belong. When I see or hear area 51 it is like a joke. Nearly every sci fi show out there references it when they have run out of original ideas. I cannot take it seriously.

Overall I was excited to see how the movie played out. Was it going to be a sci fi movie with Indiana Jones in it, or another continent hopping Indiana Jones adventure. I would have to go see it to know.

Rating Previews

I like to watch movies. A really good movie can be hard to find. I can usually tell how good a movie is going to be from the preview. There are many things to consider when evaluating the preview. First I consider the plot that the preview is trying to get across. It is the same old action plot where the hero fights by himself against an army of European guys, or does the plot seem different original. Sometimes it is even okay if the plot is an old one if it is told in a new way or has a twist.

More to come with examples.

Vacation

I have been on overdrive for the last four weeks. After school let out I had a week which I spent making bamboo wind chime kits. Then we went to the beach. When I came back from the beach we started VBS the next day. We had VBS til Wednesday of that week. That Thursday and Friday was spent preparing for Clara's birthday party.
She had a water party so I had to clean the yard rake etc.
Then a thirty foot branch fell in the yard.

I left it. It was going to take too much time cutting it and clearing it out. Time I did not have. It was far from where the festivities were. We left for Dollywood the next day.
We got back July 3rd and had to prepare for the cook off. Congrats to Andrew for winning this year. Wow the summer is just flying by.