Pages

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Indiana Jones update

It's official. I watched Temple of Doom last night with my brother in law and I decided that I do like the Crystal Skull better than Temple of Doom. I like the general story of Temple of Doom better but that woman just drives me absolutely insane. It was a hard decision to make whether her crazy annoying character and her voice that grates on my soul was worse than aliens. As of right now, it is.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Indiana Jones *spoiler alert*

I need to vent about Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. One small defect and one very large one. First of all though, let me tell you what I liked about it. It was funny, intense, and a pretty good Indiana Jones film (despite the one large defect discussed below). I think liked it better than Temple of Doom (haven't seen that one in forever) but not nearly as much as Raiders or Last Crusade. Had it not been for this one huge defect I would have liked it way better.
Small defect - the massive amounts of overdone graphics. George Lucas had his hand in this WAY too much and (as he always does the last decade or so) has ruined a good thing. Lucas needs to either retire forever or die. He just goes way overboard with the CGI and blue/green screens and whatever else they use. In one scene especially it was really distracting. I was reminded of The Mummy and that is NEVER a good thing in any way shape or form. So my advice to Lucas: back off and let Steven Spielberg work his magic without you.
Very large defect - aliens? Seriously? Aliens!? First of all, what kind of cop out is that? Did the writers just get lazy and decide to take the easy (and crappy) way out? Second, how is that Indiana Jones? Yes, the crystal skull was kind of religious so it did tie in to the other three films but come on! There is a HUGE difference between mystical and science fiction. First three were mystical, this one was science fiction. Indiana Jones is NOT science fiction. I really want to know who's idea it was so I can shoot them in the knee cap and ask them why they had to go and do that. And what's with the other dimension? It's not space, it's another dimension. Seriously? The space between spaces? What the crap does that mean? And I honestly think I would have been more ok with aliens had it not been for the spaceship flying and disappearing to the other dimension at the end. That part was totally corny. As was Cate Blanchett getting her eyes burned out by the... was it an information overload or something? And it wasn't good Indiana Jones cheese. It was crappy cheese. Man... I still can't believe they used aliens to explain the plot.
So yeah. Those are my two main beefs with this film. Obviously though I'll own it and watch it and enjoy it because it is Indiana Jones but... not as much. I need to watch Temple of Doom again though. It's been a crazy long time but from what I can remember it was the ridiculous amounts of corn that I didn't like. I don't remember any massive plot deformities. I need to decide which is better.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Future Plans as of Now

So up until the end of this last semester-ish I've been pretty adamant about working for a nongovernmental organization of some kind doing development work. To do this I was planning on studying economic development or international economics or something along those lines. Now however, my ambitions have changed somewhat. Call me a sell-out (cause I kind of have) but I think I want to work for a multinational corporation in corporate social responsibility. To do that I'm thinking about getting an MBA that is specific in CSR. So far I've only found a few programs like this since it's such a new field but I found what looks like a pretty sweet program at Nottingham University in England. By the by, how cool would it be to live in England for a while? But it's just weird to me because I used to hear a dirty word when someone said 'multinational corporation.' With some specific corporations I still hear a dirty word but in general I now more think of the endless possibilities for sustainability, human rights, education, and economic development. And honestly, how awesome would it be to work with huge amounts of funds that MNCs have as opposed to being made to deal with the funding of a fickle Congress. So yeah. This should prove to be interesting. But fun. I've been thinking about this for a little while and I am just crazy excited about it.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Moving Home and the Stork(s)

Living in Orem again is quite the experience. It's been about 2 years since I've lived here and things are pretty different from the summer of 2006. Summer '06 was an absolute blast. I had an amazing job that was super flexible with a fantastic boss, I had good friends no more than half an hour away, I'd take random trips to Wyoming and San Diego, and hanging out with my sister and her then boyfriend (now husband) and their friends was always a blast.
Not that this summer won't be fun... it's just different. I'm still looking for a job and whatever it turns out to be will be working on the phones and probably not so flexible. I have friends from high school in the area but we don't hang out all that often anymore and all my college friends are either dispersed throughout the state for the summer, working in Kemmerer, Wyoming, or serving missions for the LDS church. Thus, I may take one trip to Wyoming for July 4th but otherwise it's Utah Valley. My sister and her husband are living in my parent's basement apartment and I'm liking that part a lot. I really foresee them keeping me sane this summer. So, I'm thinking this summer will be more like 2005 when I wanted to shoot myself in the knee cap every day while working at Convergys rather than 2006 which was easily the best summer of my life.
Moving on. Today is my big brother's birthday! He's finally 30 and I could not be more weirded out. Yes, he's always been 9 years older than me but it's still weird. He and his wife Leith are expecting their first baby, Tamsine Jane (?) Christensen, next month and I'm crazy excited. It also totally weirds me out that he's going to be a dad.
Speaking of expecting, my sister Sara and her husband Jacob are also getting ready for a baby in November. They don't know if it's a boy or a girl yet but either way it will be named after a male singer/songwriter. Elliott after Elliott Smith if it's a boy and Dylan after Bob Dylan if it's a girl. My other sister Cecily is pretty baby hungry as well but her husband Mike is a bit more hesitant. I say they should totally get pregnant now that they probably aren't moving to China. Not only did all three of my siblings get married within a year of each other, but they're all pretty close together age wise so it makes sense that the three of them should pop kids out one right after the other. But we'll just have to see I suppose. I feel sorry for my kids - there's going to be a bit of a generational gap between them and their cousins. Maybe if we're lucky my oldest kids will be the same ages as my siblings' youngest kids.