Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

This weekend I went with my boyfriend and the girls to see Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.



We went to the theater that for some reason I just really DO not enjoy. I like going to the other theater, but this one was closer so we decided to give it a shot. Every time I we go to that theater it is a bitch. But, everyone deserves a 2…3…4…5th chance. HA, I guess I should have stopped with 4th right. Traffic was evil. They have the lights around it set up so that is impossible to get in and out of, and of course the ignorant drivers really don’t help the matter.

Anyway, we get our tickets and head inside. I am glad we didn’t go to see G-Force, because the line for that was VERY long and they ALWAYS oversell tickets and as I have mentioned in the past were you sit in a theater can make or break a movie. To be honest, I don’t even know why they put those seats up so close to the screen. NO one likes to sit in the first 4/5 rows. So it just seems pointless to put them there (except that the movie theater makes a little extra money giving people neck pain and a horrible movie experience).

So back to the movie, I loved Night at the Museum, the idea of a Museum coming to life just made me…well excited. I love museums, and if I could, I would love to go to every museum in the world. My friend Dave always says that going with me to museums is like having your own personal tour guide. I just love history and art. I like be prepared and know what I am going to see at a museum. When Dave and I went to a number of museums in Italy and Holland, I was like a tour guide, giving dates and artiest etc. But I fade from my point; museums coming to life, how awesome is that!!!! The first movie was great, it was humorous for all ages and it was original, so when I heard about a sequel, I was excited. Now I am not an idiot, I know sequels are never as good as the original, but I really hoped that this one would be almost as good.

So Larry (played by Ben Stiller) had left the museum and created a successful job as an inventor of some very peculiar items, such as a glow in the dark flash light….funny….different. Larry goes back to the museum to visit when he discovers that all of the old exhibits were being boxed up and shipped to the Smithsonian in Washington DC. Larry tries to stop it when he realizes that a few of the exhibits and the magical tablet were being left behind so all of his old friends were no longer going to be able to come back to life every night. However a twist occurs and the monkey actually steals the tablet on his last night, so their first night in the Smithsonian they all come back to life, however it is not just them it is all of the exhibits in and under the Smithsonian. Now if anyone has ever gone to Washington DC (and the movie also explains this) the Smithsonian is not just one museum, it is actually a collection of all the museums between the capital and the Lincoln memorial. And the archives are located underground running the whole way. It is a huge museum, so just image how many exhibits came to life. Well Jedediah Smith (played by Owen Wilson) calls Larry when Kahmunrah (played by Hank Azaria) comes back from the dead and tries to reacquire the tablet to bring his army of death back and take over the world. Larry leaves NY and goes to Washington DC to rescue his friends. Kahmunrah is actually Ahkmenrah’s (still played by Rami Malek) big brother and has some major issues about the parents favoring the little brother. Kahmunrah enlists the help of Al Capone (played by Jon Bernthal), Nepoleon Bonaparte (played by Alain Chabat) and Ivan the Terrible (played by Christopher Guest) to retrieve the tablet and keep Larry in line. Kahmunrah get the table but realizes that he doesn’t have the code so he puts Jedediah into a sand time glass and sends Larry off to solve it giving him exactly 1 hr. Larry enlists the help of Amelia Earhart in his endeavors.

That is all I am going to say about this movie, because I don't want to give away the ending :o)



The movie is cute, you get to see a lot of new characters and even learn a little bit about history in the process. I think one of my favorite parts was when Octavius (played by Steve Coogan) meets a squirrel. Hehe. But to be honest, I do not think the girls enjoyed it as much as if we would have taken them to see UP or G-Force. I guess we should have taken them to one of those instead but they were going to be packed and we were both thinking we would have passed out if we would have gone to one of those, and we figured the girls would like this one just as much. Now I am thinking, it would have been better for the kids at either of the other ones. There were definitely a number of jokes that where targeted at adults and NOT the kids, but it was ok, because they didn’t get them anyway. I was a little frustrated by the was Kahmunrah spoke during the movie, he had this annoying lisp going on or something, grrr, and he was an idiot, but an idiot that managed to speak a minimum of 3 languages (doesn’t sound too much like an idiot to me, but I guess the bad guy always has to be an idiot). Even president Lincoln from the Lincoln memorial comes to life (and he definitely does not like pigeons, but can you blame him, there are tons of pigeons around that area because of all the tourist and they are always all over him. Haha). There are a number of twists and turns in the movie but do not for ONE second think that it is as good as the first. There is an overload of characters in this, because there are millions of exhibits that come to life.

Now during the movie, I got extremely pissed off at this little kid behind me. Now, don’t get me wrong, I understand how kids are during movies; I have been to enough kid’s movies on my own and a number of movies with the girls to get it so it takes quite a lot to frustrate me during a kid’s movie. During a PG13 or R movie, now that is a different matter. But this kid behind me was driving me up a wall. He was about 6-7, so old enough to listen to his father (if his father had even attempted to keep his kid in line). The kid proceeded to not talk but yell and scream throughout the entire movie, not like oh a scream, but a SCREAM!!!! Like kids do at a playground OUTSIDE!!! The kid also stood up in the theater and put his hands on the back of my chair and jumped up and down, which made my chair bounce up and down with me and Esa in it. When he wasn’t standing up and jumping on the back of my chair he was kicking it. He also thought it would be fun to throw all of his half eaten candy at Nat and I, so about every 2 min a piece of candy would fly into my lap, she got hit with a half eaten sour patch kid. By the end of the movie I was about to snap. The father decided to say something ONCE! Then not again, the kid talked and yelled about random things. What really pushed me over the edge, the kid kept touching me. Not nice touching me but WTF touching me! He kept pulling on the back collar of my shirt almost chocking me (wasn’t quite strong enough, but you get the idea) and he kept touching my ear and pulling my hair, and then he would smack the top of my head not once but like 5-6 times in a row over and over again. OMG I wanted to reach around and strangle that mans child to death! I get that kids can be a handful, but this man needed to tell his kid to stop. You DO NOT let your children TOUCH another person for over an HOUR!! And it is not like he didn’t know what his kid was doing, because I kept turning around and looking at the father who looked at me, the first few times I got an “I’m so sorry smile” but after that the father wouldn’t even make eye contact, he would start and then turn away. WTF take your annoying undisciplined child out of the damn movie theater you FREAKING WORTHLESS FATHER. There where tons of other children their and all of them put together were not making ¼ of the trouble that your ONE child was. I know, what a horrible thing to say right, but if NEVER have the girls every been even 1/10 that bad in a theater I have never deal with a child a 1/5 that bad in an amusement park, plane or theater. This was just insane. But I was nice and didn’t yell, snap or attempt to kill! GO ME I am growing up :o)

But besides the child from hell behind me, I would say, don’t waste your money going to see this movie in the theaters unless your kids REALLY want to go and with UP and G-Force out, I am sure they will be ok waiting until you can rent in at theaters.

The trailer of Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian definitely makes the movie look better then it is.

I give this movie 5.5 out of 10 (MAYBE a 6 if you really push it) not worth the $60 you spend taking everyone to the theater!

Star Trek: The Movie

My boyfriend and I went to see Star Trek this weekend (I have been meaning to post a blog for a few day, I have just been super busy). We had to pick between Terminator and Star Trek, and I must admit, I think we made the right choice. We, of course, decided to go on Memorial Day. I guess that is the day that everyone decides to go the theater because the lines were LONG and the theater ended up being packed. We got there a little early so managed to get good seats



Now I don’t care who you are, there are good seats and bad seats in a theater and they can really make or break the movie!

Now I was not the biggest Star Trek fan growing up, I was more into Marvel, but I use to watch Star Trek when it was on, and it has been on for years, so I have seen a number of shows. I personally loved the movie. My boyfriend also really liked it (and I bet he is glad he didn’t watch it on his computer like he had threatened to do). The fact that we both really liked it was kinda different. Usually one of us likes a movie more then another. There have been only a few movies that we BOTH really enjoyed!

One thing I have to say is that the CGI in Star Trek was amazing! They did a really great job with it. I am amazed how far that stuff has come over the years. In Wolverine even, at times the claws just looked to fake and blah, but with Star Trek, it was like they put their heart into creating some of this stuff! I was amazed and just sat back and admired their work

I also loved the characters they picked to play in the movie:
They picked this unknown guy to play James Kirk. Some guy named Chris Pine. I had never heard of him or seen him before. He had done a few TV episodes and what not, but nothing big. Well talk about a break out movie. I think he did a good job. Maybe in real life he is like the character he played (cocky, confident and kind of a dog), but if not, he did a good job. I guess I would like to see him in some more things before I call him a good actor.

Zachary Quinto played Spock. Now I sat during the WHOLE movie looking at him going “Where the heck do I know him from?” I kept asking my boyfriend, who I am sure eventually got frustrated with me. It was driving me crazy, I couldn't figure it out. When we left the theater I broke down and looked him up on IMDB (Love that site). He plays Syler on Heroes. I love that show. I was upset with myself for not recognizing him. It had to have been the hair and pointy ears. (just a side note. I have ALWAYS wanted elf ears, don’t know why. I just love the idea of pointy ears. NOT over the top ones, just cute little ones :o)…) I think Zachary did a very good job playing Spock, considering he plays an INSANE serial killer in Heroes, it was a change for him.

I love that Leonard Nimoy also played Spock, old Spock, you kinda have to see the movie to get how the heck there are two Spocks, but it makes since and stuff so it is all good.

Karl Urban played Bones the doctor. I am starting to recognize him in a bunch of movies. He has been in Doom (which has grown on me over the years), Lord of the Rings, and The Chronicles of Riddick. He is growing on me and he did a great job in this movie. He played the part well!


AND of course my VERY favorite. Simon Pegg. You may know this amazing actors from such movies as (my personal favorite) Shaun of the Dead (he plays Shaun), Hot Fuzz, and Run Fat Boy Run!! All of them very funny movies. Simon plays Montgomery Scotty and he does a very good job. He is funny and well he has the British accent and a thick one so that is just awesome!!! If you have yet to see Shaun of the Dead, I recommend it. I love Zombie movies and this is like really the BEST of all time!!

The last actor I want to talk about is John Cho. He plays Sulu in the movie. Now I know him from Harold & Kumar. He is the one always holding his computer scared of everything. Well in the movie they ask, “who knows hand to hand combat” and he says “I do sir” Well that is just funny to me, because all is see is the shy, innocent boy from Harold & Kumar!! He did kick some major ass in the movie though

Anywho, this movie takes place in the beginning of Kirk’s life (when he is like 14 in Iowa), you get to see him and Spock as a child, and what Spock had to deal with being half human half Vulcan. Spock excels in his young life and goes off to joins the Starfleet Academy instead of accepting his entry into the Vulcan Science Academy. This is unheard of among the Vulcan. You see Kirk older (in his 20’s in Iowa) get into a bar fight with some of the Starfleet students. Captain Pike comes and talks to him, and suggests he join the Fleet. He mentions what had happened to Kirk’s father and Kirk takes him up on it, mostly out of pride. This is also where you meet Bones. So throughout the movie you follow Kirk and Spock, and how even though they are so different they grow to become talented men, different, but yet working together towards victory. The villain of this movie is Nero, who has come from the future looking for Spock. Nero is also the reason that Kirk never meet his father, it was he who tricked and then killed him 25 years earlier (or so I think). Kirk meets up with Scotty about 2/3 through the movie. I was waiting for him the whole time. Scotty saves Kirks ass and gets him back aboard the USS Enterprise. The movie has a bunch of twists and turns, and it is really a great one to see. I don’t want to say any more about the movie, because I don’t want to give it away, but this may truly be the best movie of the year (so far). I really don’t know if they can top it! So for my stars….I would say at least a 9 out of 10! (It would have gotten all 10 if just one zombie would have popped out for lets say 2 seconds and then gone away, but it didn't so poop)

Now I don’t know how the hard core Trekkie fans felt about the movie, but everyone that I know loved it. I would be interested in knowing how the Trekkie fans felt about the movie, because I KNOW how picky I can be about marvel movie even if they are really good, so yah, I would like to know if they liked it or not.

Also Terminator had better be pretty good to keep up with this kick ass movie, I am expecting good things from them!! That is the next one on my list.

Moving Day

I moved this past weekend. And I think every time I move, within a few days or a week or so I forget all of the pain and hassle I went through. Which is really messed up considering I have lived in 7 states and moved 19 times in 26 years!!?? Yes 19 times….am I counting that right?? Yup 19 times. I had to recount. So for someone who has moved that many times, you would think that I would remember what a bitch it was, but for some reason I guess I forgot, YET again. I guess I didn’t realize just how much stuff I have. Ok, actually I don’t have a lot of stuff, I have a lot of books and for anyone who has ever moved, you know how freaking heavy books can be. They are BAD! And I had quite a few. So it was actually just me and my boyfriend doing all of the moving, I owe him so much for helping me because it was not easy. First off I went through a living hell to actually get the apartment. It was truly one of the most stressful things I have dealt with in a long time. Which it shouldn’t have been and that made it even more stressful. So anyway, I finally get the apartment, and the stupid old apartment (the one I was moving out of) makes you

A. Put down a deposit while you move out in case you scratch their elevator or something and it is not a small deposit, it is a BIG one like $750 one. You get it back if you stay within the time frame they give you and do not damage anything (not to mention they already had a move in deposit of one month rent that they could take any damages from)

B. You only have so many hours to get your stuff moved out. I work (full time) so when I was told I had to move out between 1-4 on a Friday, well um that was like a ½ that I had to take right off the bat. I asked if I could move out after 5. It would cost $100 an hour, so I decided against that.

C. So I only have 3 hours to move out….They have to set an elevator aside for you and a security guard has to be with you while you move out first doing a walkthrough of the hall way in case there are any dents or whatever already there. Well I had to wait 30 min on the security guard which cut into my time and then he kept vanishing with the elevator and we had to wait for him to show back up. So he took like an hour of our time!!

So I leave work early and go to pick up the moving truck. Which, of course since I have no idea about sizes and whatnot, I get the 14’ truck instead of the 17’ truck, so we have to call around and find another U-Haul that has the right size truck :o( Very depressing! So we bust our asses moving everything out of the apartment, we went over on the time a little but I would have thrown a fit if they tried to charge because we seriously spent a good 3 or 4 times standing by the elevator waiting for the front desk to call the security guard from somewhere in the building so he could bring the elevator down. And yes I know they have a button you push but since we had reserved the elevator it was not running like a regular elevator.

So we load up the truck, we drive like 15 min down the road to my new apartment, which is quite and nice and we begin to unload. I have so many book and I have packed them a little…well over packed them (to many in one box) that by this time my legs are shacking and my arms are about to give out. We go to move the couches up the stairs and I go down of course. BTW I moved to the freaking 3rd floor and there was no elevator. POOP. But luckily this little like 16 or 17 year old boy was walking down the stairs (he in fact ended up being my next door neighbor) and he offered to help. If it had not been for him, We would not have managed to get the chase and the couch upstairs. He rescued us! I was so grateful. But we finally got everything moved in and then by this time we were both exhausted so we just went to the movies and relaxed. We were both too tired to even eat, and because of that I ended up accidently going about 2 ½ days without anything to eat. Just too much to do, because on Saturday instead of eating, I unpacked and drove over to the other apartment to clean and scrub it for a few hours, because I wanted my freaking deposit back. Finally I am moved in. My legs are still a little sore, heck I couldn’t walk and I actually hobbled for a few day instead. :o( But I am feeling better, my new apartment is going really well and well as you can read in the other blog I got cable and internet yesterday (after a fiasco of its own)

PLUS I am so happy to be out of my old apartment building, yah it looked nice, but I had to deal with way to much crap!!

Comcast Cable Installation Fiasco

So not only do they give me a 4 hour window of when they MAY show up but when I do finally get home from work they are there (2 of them!!! This was a first for me, but whatever) Dirk was there, hooking up my computer so they could run the internet to it. So anyway, all seems to be going well. The one thing that did really throw me off was that one of the installers, instead of having a uniform on, had a shirt COVERED in pot leafs. OK, I am not an idiot, I know what those leafs represent, so I don’t know if this person works for Comcast or if it is just the girls boyfriend or something helping her to install the cable?! Don’t they have uniforms. The girl had a uniform on and even if they don’t have uniforms…really a shirt covered with an illegal substance does NOT make me feel safe. Anyway, my real complaint is that (as you know) I have a TiVo. They tried to tell me my TiVo wouldn’t work with a cable box, um DUH…YES it will or else WHO would get the TiVo, TiVo has been around longer then the DVR’s that they now offer and I had it hooked up to Cable in the Burg, so yes, I KNOW for a FACT that it works with a cable box. Why wouldn’t it work with the stupid box, seriously, that would have been a huge error on TiVo’s end knowing how many people have cable boxes and satellite. No one would have ever invested in that product and it would have fallen flat. HECK it even says ON the TiVo box that it works with box, cable and satellite!!! So after disagreeing with me for a few minutes and me telling them HOW it had to be hooked up to work, they finally “Said” they did it. When I asked if it was hooked up correctly they were like YUP your TiVo is working and so is the internet. I said ok, well let me check and they were already standing by the door with it open asking me to sign the paper. The guy with the shirt was already out the door and the girl was standing there looking at me holding the stuff out. So I asked if they were sure, they were like yup everything is working if you have any problems call this number, I figure ok, at least I have a number to call right. So I signed, thinking ok, why would they lie. HA I should know better, I went to refresh on my internet and Boom it was out!! I tried to use my TiVo…No deal! Not working! I spent 2 hrs on the phone with Belkin (my router people) and TiVo trying to get everything working again. Yes I could have called Comcast again, but really:

A. It seemed like they would just tell me the same thing “TiVo doesn’t work with a cable box and
B. They would have had to send someone out to fix my internet,
C. Belkin handled it REALLY in like 20 min (15 min helping me secure it and set up a password and stuff to access it)
D. TiVo walked me through UNHOOKING what Comcast had done and Redoing the entire thing then they walked me through the ENTIRE set up process.

Why couldn’t Comcast set it up right the first time. I TOLD them how it had to be set up!!!! It was a very frustrating experience. Hopefully the rest of my time with Comcast is not as frustrating. And thankfully TiVo was great and really helped me. They were patient and helpful and just nice.

Empire: A Zombie Novel by David Dunwoody

I am a huge Zombie Novel fan, currently I am reading a HUGE amount of Zombie books, which is a little crazy considering I am suppose to be reading like to Marketing books for work. But heck, by the time I am done with 10-11 hrs of work a day, I really do not want to go home and read another book about Marketing for a few more hours. I would be able to read them quicker, but I treat them like a text book and I highlight, make notes…etc. Plus, it is so much easier to read on my Kindle (I LOVE my Kindle). HAHA. Anyway, I just finished Empire: A Zombie Novel, and I don’t know. It wasn’t not like many of the other zombie books that I have read. This book was based in the future after the Zombie virus had spread across the world. Kinda like Resident Evil Apocalypse. There are little cities of around the world that have managed to keep the Zombies at bay, but for the most part the world is made up of Dead Lands, area that is overrun with Zombies. The main setting of this book takes place in Jefferson Harbor, Louisiana. A city left with only a few residents. Most of the people have left once the military forces pulled out on command of the president. This story follows a few of the survivors around as they first try to survive and last save a little girl. The author creates a very creative land of the dead. It is in fact a very realistic view of what the world would be like if zombies. The government is still not telling the people the whole truth and still are trying to give off this “false hope” when we all know that it is over. There are the twisted people who are sick and you know….SICK! There are the heros who want to save the world. There are those who are still seeking love, and have faith/or shale we call it hope and those who have given up on everything. If Zombies did attack and rise up, they would destroy and take over everything. It is a very scary thought of having to survive the attack of a dead race that will chase you down. All it takes to turn you into one of the walking dead is a drop of blood getting into your system or a scratch from their nails on your skin or a bit. Imagine the worse, being eaten ALIVE.

A few things about this book really bothered me:

The main 1 was that DEATH yes Death, the Grim Reaper comes up and walks amongst the living and Zombies. He is confused as to why some of the candles of life are not going out, and he finds a way to kill them. The reaper uses the Zombies bones and turns it into his Scythe. Really, do you think none of the humans would have started to carve the Zombies bones into weapons? Hell, death is everywhere, weapons are limited, and bullets are running low. Humans are innovative and creative; they would have tried to use anything possible to turn into weapons. Death also becomes somewhat obsessed or compassionate towards this girl.

2. I am not a big fan about the whole Zombies not dying when they get shot in the head. Every demon of the night has a weakness. Vampires have (depending on the myth) silver, stake to the heart, garlic, crosses, churches, and light. Werewolves again silver and the full moon, or I guess the not full moon. Yet these Zombies have NO weaknesses? No, I don’t think so, everything EVERYTHING has a weakness and with Zombies it has always been destroying the brain. Not so much a shot in the head, but strait up destroying the brain! So with these Zombies having no real weakness unless you consider the ONE that death found and chose not to share.

3. I didn’t like the story of the Doctor, the one who took in all of the children of Jefferson Harbor and then used this “dark power” from the swamp to turn the dead into to quazi-zombies. Able to think and do tasks (somewhat like what the zombies are like at the end of Shaun of the Dead). All of these zombies live in a house run by this twisted little boy who has some kind of sick obsession with the dead and the power that he gets from the swamp. He killed the Doctor and turned him into a zombie and fixes a skull of a dog over his face. I don’t get his whole dark power creating an alternate zombie race. ODD.

4. The back story really wasn’t that good. It didn’t really add up. Yes I got that this was a world of the undead, but it didn’t seem to answer all of my questions. I felt like I was missing important details that would have helped me to understand everything better. I feel like I should have been given more. I didn’t quite understand how thing got to the point that they were at. I needed more.

5. This book was religious. I am not bothered by religion, and actual when I look at myself, I find myself, not so much religious, but very spiritual. I know what I believed but I DO NOT judge other for their beliefs and I NEVER try to force my views on anyone. I am always willing to debate, listen and contemplate others views and I am willing to change mine if it no longer makes since. But this book at some points I felt like it was forcing a God view onto me. I don’t want to have religion forced down my throat (or into my eyes) while I am reading a good, especially while reading a book about zombies. If I pick up a book about Buddhism, Christianity, Muslim or Religion in general then YES I expect to have views pushed towards me. But I read a zombie book for a reason, to escape certain things and to not have to contemplate HUGE questions like faith. I just want to relax.

I did enjoy this zombie book but I guess ever since reading World War Z by Max Brooks, nothing seems to quite match up! So if anyone has any good zombie books, please recommend away, I am always looking for a new good book to read. Heck, I am even willing to go back to Vampires at this point. I needed a break from Vampires after reading Laurell K. Hamilton for so long. She started off so good, but after about 15 books, her story line really started to dry up and I had to put those books down. There is only so many times a hero can defeat the Mother of ALL Vampires, ya know.

But for anyone who enjoys zombie books, this is not one that is a must, but it is a good book. I enjoyed it and if you like zombies as much as I do then I say read it. I love to read, I love zombies and I would pick this book up again. It is a good book and worth reading. I wouldn’t say go and buy it, I would just say rent it from the library or borrow it from a friend. Don’t buy it. I got it for my kindle, it was not very expensive, so I don’t feel like I got ripped off, but I would not read it again. I would lend it to a friend if they were out of books and looking for something to read on a flight.

So out of 10 stars….I would give this book 6!

As I mentioned. I am still looking for a new book to read, so if anyone has any good zombie books to read, please feel free to recommend.

The Legal Binder Blunder

So I had to go to Office Depot yesterday to pick up a legal size binder. It is a longer binder then normal ones and it has 4 rings inside of it instead of 3, like your standard binders. Well Office Depot carries them. They have a lot of stuff, and I have always loved getting lost in the office supplies. HOWEVER they do not carry the hole punch for the 4 ring binder. UMM odd one may say. And it is odd. Why would you carry a 4 ring binder, if you do not carry a single way to punch holes for the 4 rings to go into? Heck, I don’t know and it turned into a VERY frustrating situation. I then looked at Staples and Wal-Mart and NEITHER one seemed to carry the 4 ring hole punch. BUT ironically, they ALL carried the stupid legal sized 4 ring binder. SO I am obviously not the only one that uses/needs these larger binders. Well I called Kinko’s FedEx up and I said, Hi, I have a legal binder; do you have any way to punch 4 holes into some papers for us? They said, yes sure come on over, it will cost 4 cents a page. So I am stocked. Thinking WHOOHOO I don’t’ have to do this myself!!! Well I get to the closet Kinko’s and I go inside, stand in line for what felt like EVER and when I finally get to the counter, I am told NO! They can only drill in 3 holes. I was like; well I called up and asked before I came up here. They said we don’t do it but try calling the 24 hour Kinko’s down on Hollywood. I’m unduly grateful for their direction. I get the number and call them. A lady answers the phone and tells me “Yes we can drill your holes” I said “Are you sure, I need 4 holes per page NOT 3” she said yes, it will just cost you 4 cents per page not 3. So I drive ALL the way down there…IN rush hour traffic to again stand in line (much shorter line this time) when I get to the counter they again tell me “No, we can’t do that” I am getting a little frustrated by now. “Well I called up here before driving 45 minutes here and the lady on the phone said it was possible” They gave me this odd look like I was crazy and said, “who did you talk to?” Ok by now I am getting frustrated, because I wasn’t focused on the woman’s name, heck I don’t think she even said it and I sure as hell didn’t ask. So I replied “I don’t know, but I can tell you what time I called!!” They said “What time did you call?” I pulled out my phone pissed off at this point because these binders needed to go out FEDEX overnight express that NIGHT! “4:42 pm” I responded and read them the number because they looked as if I was lying. Well they offer me no solution and I ended up having to ghetto rig a 3 hole punch and doing it myself, which took forever. SO yes I was very frustrated and tired when I finally got home at 7:30 that night, considering I started off on this adventure at 4:30!!



And I find out that the only place it seems to get a stupid 4 hole punch is online at a legal supplies site. WTF, I am sorry but if all of these places are carrying the 4 ring binders, then maybe just one of them should carry a stupid hole punch to make lives a little easier.

So grr. I was frustrated and well yes VERY FRUSTRATED

Angels & Demons (The Movie)

I went to go see Angels & Demons this past weekend with my boyfriend. I actually gave him the book first to read, which he did, and loved! I was very excited when I heard about Angels & Demons being turned into a movie, but I was also very skeptical. I had also read The Di Vinci Code before I had gone to see that movie, and I don’t know if I have ever been so disappointed! They really destroyed one of the books that I had truly enjoyed. Since I liked Angels & Demons more than The Di Vinci Code, I was worried, but then again, HOW can you not go see the movie. I think the only book to movie that was actually worse than The Di Vinci Code was I am Legend with Will Smith. That was one of the worst movie I have ever seen, when the book was just SO good. In that movie, well they just destroyed the ending and removed like the ONLY other main character (ok, in the book there were 3, and one was not a little boy). But enough about the horrors of that movie and back to Angels & Demons.
Well, first off, they did keep Tom Hanks playing the main character of Robert Langdon and Ayelet Zurer played Vittoria Vetra and Ewan McGregor plays Camerlengo. I think overall they did a fairly good selection of the characters. I had no complaints about that.



So, in the movie Robert and Vittoria work together to stop the Illuminati, which is a 400 year old secret society of scientists who have sworn revenge on the Catholic Church for torturing them for their beliefs years ago. The Illuminati (as Robert and many professionals think) are believed to have at one time become very powerful even working their way into the Mason organization, government and every place of power, but to have died out about 100 years ago. But once Robert sees Illuminati written on the paper, he begins to become a skeptic. A canister of very volatile antimatter has been stolen from CERN and Vittoria has to find it and replace the battery before it goes out in an explosion destroying blocks of Vatican City. The Main part of the story takes place in Roma, where the Pope has just died and all of the Cardinals from around the world are in Conclave selecting the next Pope. Robert and Vittoria follow the Path of Illumination in an attempt to stop the assassin as he takes out the four preferratti (the Cardinals that are the most likely candidates for becoming the next Pope), branding them each with one of the four elements (earth, fire, wind, water) every hour on the hour until Midnight. The assassin (who was also the one who stole the anti matter from CERN) has hidden the canister within the Vatican and at midnight when the battery dies on the canister protecting the antimatter; it will implode and destroy a HUGE area!! SO that is the jest of the story. I don’t want to say anymore

I was very upset however that you didn’t get to see a lot of CERN. I mean, heck the first 100+ pages of the book take place in this really cool science lab, and you never get to really see it. Yah, you get a few seconds in the beginning of the movie, where they are actually creating the antimatter, but umm…that part isn’t even in the book. ALSO, they completely negated the fact that Father Silvano and Vittoria where the ONLY two that actually knew about the antimatter. There was NO team of 20+ scientists working on this experiment. It was just them. ALSO they also completely neglected to point out the fact that Father Silvano was Vittoria’s adopted father (or maybe I just happened to miss that part) and that he actually meet her in an orphanages when he was a priest there. And another thing, the only real clue you had to the fact that Silvano was a priest was a quick shot of him at the beginning of the movie and he had a black shirt on with the priest white collar in it. It was something that you could have easily overlooked and not realized until MUCH later in the movie, and of course, like so many of us that guessed the ending…that kinda played a key role!

So in the movie, Vittoria is the one who finds her “Father” dead, although in the movie it is just her Partner. NO! The relationship between them was SO much more than that and it went so much deeper than JUST PARTNERS! As many of us know, in the book, it is the head of CERN (Max Kohler) (who I would have loved to see with his cool ass wheel chair and cold domineer); he then harasses Langdon in the middle of the night and faxes him the image of the DEAD scientist with ILLUMINATI branded in to his chest. THAT is what gets Langdon to go to CERN. ALSO I would have loved to see the really cool plane that flies like SUPER FAST!! It was not the Vatican that went and got Langdon…so no it was not “you call me” as Langdon so clearly quotes in the movie. Also Vittoria is out of the country when her Father is discovered; she comes back and tells Max Kohler that she and her father have secretly been working on the antimatter.

I want to vent about the ending so badly, but for those of you who have not seen it I won’t :o)

OK, I guess I am done venting about the off spots of the movie. I don’t want to give much more of it away for those of you who have not both read the book or seen the movie. But I do recommend that you READ THE BOOK (at least first).

But I do recommend going and seeing this movie, but PLEASE read the book first. Books are amazing things and we should all enjoy them. I have just finished my latest book. Zombie Empire, I will have to blog about that as well.

Sadly, I do not have internet connection at home yet since I just moved and I have not been able to blog, so I have about 4 that I need to post!! WTF!

Sundays at Tiffany’s By James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet

So I just finished Sundays at Tiffany’s and I really liked it. I have read a number of James Patterson books (the Max Ride series, the Alex Cross series), so I figured why not give this one a chance. I was definitely not expecting what I read, because it was by James Patterson, but it was different.

So the story is about this woman Jane and her life and love. It starts off with little Jane, sitting eating a Sunday with her imaginary friend Michael. Michael is Jane’s best friend; he is smart, fun and handsome. They would play the “Michael and Jane game” every Sunday while her mother sat in a table away from Jane and talked to her friends (just picture a little girl sitting at a table, by herself while her mother sits across the restaurant at another table). Her mother, Vivian, is this aloof woman who is very distant. Vivian is a big time Broadway producer and head of a huge company so she has very little time for Jane. On Jane’s 8th birthday, Michael tells Jane that he has to leave, but it will be ok, because once he is gone, she will not even remember him. Well boy is he wrong.

About 20+ years later Jane is alone, unhappy, and still very much so remembers Michael. She is dating this loser actor who is using her and thinks he is better, more attractive and just…well yah better than her. And of course her aloof mother is still trying to control her. Jane has produced a play that is being turned into a movie, about a little girl and her imaginary friend Michael.

Well one day she runs into Michael again, yes her Imaginary friend Michael, but he is not longer imaginary. He is on a vacation between “assignments” and he is back in NYC. At first she thinks she is either going crazy or something, but wouldn’t you think the same thing if you suddenly see your imaginary friend from when you were a child sitting across a restaurant from you. But she realizes that it is the same sweet, loving Michael from her childhood and they have been re-united.

During this book, I laughed out loud a few times. Jane is just a character. She is very easy to relate to because many women have to deal with a number of the issues that she has to, she has to deal with being raised by a single parent, and not just that, but a single parent that seems to put her at the end of things. She has to deal with relationships, and ignorant men, she deals with weigh issues and of course a being a woman in a working world. All women have had that crap relationship and gone through the motions. Every woman has looked into the mirror and felt insecure. Ever woman wishes for that perfect man that will listen to them, understand them and truly love them. And Michael is that man! There are a number of twists and turns in this book that keep you guessing until the end, what the ending will actually be.
I think one of my favorite parts of the book was when Jane talked about a ring for the right hand instead of the left, and she goes out and buys herself something like a 62k dollar diamond ring. Yah, the right hand for women’s power, the right shows you are strong and blah blah blah type things. But it was a moving part, before and after, and I definitely laughed!

It is a short good book and worth reading if you have the time, and like girly books with happy endings.

Hidden Empire: The Saga of the Seven Suns by Kevin J Anderson

So it took me a little while to get into this book, the Saga of the Seven Suns, but once I did, I actually really enjoyed it. Like I said, I will read just about anything and give anything a try as long as it is good. This is not my usual type of book, but hey, I do enjoy reading so.

It is the first in like 10 or something. I am not really sure on that. But now I have the urge to read all of them, because of course right when this one ended, it started getting REALLY GOOD!

It is about a future where Earth (for a time was no longer able to maintain human life, and everyone piled into ships and left. That part of the story remained me a lot of WALL-E, you know the Disney/Pixar movie. In WALL-E they all have to leave Earth. However in the Saga of the Seven Suns, they do not roam around in space forever until coming back to a regenerating Earth. In the Saga of the Seven Suns, humans are sent off in ships to find other planets that are habitable, and they travel the starts and space for YEARS. Eventually the humans are picked up by an intelligent alien race called, the Illdrians on the Spiral Arm. The Illdrians help the humans to find other planets to live on, as well as fix the problems with Earth. The Illdrian also show the humans how to build super fast space ships so they can travel at a faster pace. For 200, or something, years the Humans and the Illdrians live in peace.

The human race has become divided into 3 groups, the League, the Therons and the Roamers.

Most of the humans are controlled by a powerful League known as the Hanseatic League. They do have a king, but he is only a puppet to the Leagues wishes.

The Therons are telepathic green (literally green) priests who can communicate through the great forest that the humans have spread across all of the planets they inhabit with just a touch.

The Roamers are kinda like the outcasts, they are rebels who don’t have a home and actual mine the gas planets for the fuel that is needed for all space travel. They do not follow the League or any other race; they are independent, and stronger and larger than most believe.

Well the story starts with the humans creating another sun! Louis and Margaret Colicos are actually the ones that discovered how to utilize the extinct Klikiss alien technology. All that is left of the Klikiss race is some 500,000 odd insect like robots and ruins. So they use this like laser technology to ignite one of the giant gas planets into a sun, and this starts everything off. Because unbeknownst the humans or the Illdrian the gas planet they convert into a sun, is home to the Hydrogues, another alien life form, who live inside the gas planets.
The Hydrogues start destroying the Roamers mining ships and demand that the humans and illdrians leave the gas planets alone. They take the converting of the original gas planet into a sun a sign of war.

I don’t want to give too much of the book away, but let’s just say that I do have to go pick up the next one, because a war is fixen to break into full swing. But their are a number of different stories, that all give different side, you have the Roamers story (2 -3 roamers tell their story), the Leagues story (2-3 League members tell their story) the illdrians story (1-2 illdrians tell their story), Margaret & Louis story, and the Therons (2-3 tell their story) story. It is full of twists and turns.

I will read the rest of them after I finish the other 3-4 books I am currently reading.

The Origin of Wolverine - The Movie

This past weekend I went to see Wolverine with my boyfriend. I felt a little bad for dragging him along, but honestly, he knew I wanted to see Wolverine, he knows I am a big Marvel buff. But my boyfriend, of course was one of the people who watched the early version that came out on the internet. Although the CGI wasn’t completely finished (or so I heard), he still watched it. So I made him go see a movie he had already seen, thus he fell asleep. Not because he didn’t like the movie, he did, but because he had already seen it. I felt bad because, I have picked the last few movies we went to. It really is his turn to pick.

Heck, I started collecting the Marvel cards and comics when I was 6 or 7 (it was so long ago) and didn’t really stop until I hit 13 or 14 (I finally became a little more of a girly-girl). Not to say that girls over the age of 15 have to stop collecting comic cards, I personally just did. I wanted to go on dates and go shopping, although I never lost my love of comic books and super heroes, I guess I just put them on the back burner. But I still catch myself reading a new comic book every now and then. And I still have all my comic cards dating back to 1989 or 1990!

When Marvel movies started coming out a few years ago, I was siked. I could not wait to see which ones they did, how they did them, the whole 9 yards. Yah there has been Batman and Superman movies forever, but this was going to be the Blade (yes Blade is a Marvel character for those of you who didn’t know), X-man and Spiderman, Iron Man, The Hulk (and soon the Avengers!). So I loved the first and second Spiderman, and I loved the first X-Man, the second I was ok with, the 3rd. Well that one just pissed me off, both Spiderman and the X-Man. For all of you that read the comic books and collected the cards growing up, I am sure you know why!!! So when I heard they were making the “Origin of Wolverine”, I was a little curious as to what they were going to do. Maybe I quite reading the comic books before his origin was reviled be last I knew, and this was back in the 90’s, Wolverine didn’t know his full origin. It was a mystery for the most part, but maybe it was revealed later after I quite being an avid collector.

Quick overview of Characters:
Hugh Jackman played Wolverine
Live Schreiber played Sabertooth
Danny Huston played Stryker
Ryan Reynolds played Deadpool
Daniel Henney played Agent Zero
Kevin Duran played the Blob
Dominic Monaghan played Bolt
Taylor Kitsch played Gambit
Scott Adkins played Weapon XI

So the movie starts when Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) kills his abusive father and he and his brother Sabertooth (Live Schreiber) run away from home, they are both very young boys at this time, like 9-10ish. It shows the two boys growing up together and going through hell together (lots of wars and always having each other’s back, No MATTER what). Until they meet up with Stryker (Danny Huston) who is working on a special government hush hush project. The entire unit is made up of mutants. Logan/Wolverine eventual sees how evil and twisted Stryker is and how Stryker doesn’t care about human life and after years, Wolverine quits. He turns his back on his brother (who has been there for Logan since the beginning) and goes off to become a…what you call it…lumberjack out in the country. He hooks up with the girl and it looks like he may just live happily ever after.

However, we all know this is not the case, or else what kinda movie would this be.

Time passes and Stryker suddenly appears back in Logan’s life asking him to be a part of a new project, WEAPONS X PROJECT. At first Wolverine is like screw you, but then he finds his chica murdered and realized it was Sabertooth, so he accepts Strykers offer so he can get revenge for what happened to his girl. Amazing what a little murder will cause. So Wolverine goes with Stryker, who pumps Wolverine full of adamantium, and as you all know it combines to his bones and claws making him virtually indestructible. Well the process works and Stryker, the little weasel that he is, is all like whoohoo, it worked lets wipe his mind and kill his. Well Wolverine, being all Wolf like and all hears the dirt bag and freaking breaks out in a rush of cinematography fences and starts taking people out. He escapes, but Stryker is not going to let him escape that easily and sends Agent Zero after him, well the chase is full of action and explosions. VERY NICE. And of course, good guy one-bad guy zero (haha, I amuse myself sometimes).

Wolverine goes on the hunt to find Sabertooth. He discovers that Sabertooth is working alongside dirt bag (Stryker) on this island somewhere, an island that they are taking mutants to and doing experiments on to build this Super Mutant that of course Stryker can control (a lot like Resident Evil mutant Nemesis that the Umbrella Corp created to take out Alice…I love that movie to and totally have a thing for Zombies). The only person who knows where the island is Gambit, a fast talking, boyish looking guy (I think they should have found a better Gambit, I knew who he was when I saw him, but it was not because he looks like how I remember, but cuz he was holding cards and had that New Orleans accent) who, as we all know has some pretty kick ass powers. Gambit agrees to work with Wolverine after some convincing…also a nice scene, and wolverine and Gambit go to the island.

I don’t want to tell you anymore, I guess that is about 2/3 of the way into the movie, but I left out a lot of details, because I think you should all go to see this movie if you want to know what happens. AND it is good, unexpected but good.

I think overall this was a great movie I would have to give it at least 8 out of 10 stars.
I don’t like the stupid out of 5, just not enough stars. HAHA.

I would recommend this movie to anyone. The fight scenes were kick ass and the CGI was amazing, it was action packed and I have to admit that I love they kept Hugh Jackman for Wolverine, he does play a good one. Go see the movie, but realize that at least for me, this was not the story of Wolverine that I (personally) grew up with. Just remember that they always change this....ALWAYS.

Maggots found in Nestle Goobers

OK, let me just start off by saying this was a really sick article when I read it. To read the full article go to http://www.wtsp.com/news/mostpop/story.aspx?storyid=104468&provider=top.


So I am reading my morning emails and this article pops out at me and I am serious, I lost my appetite right then and there.

This woman goes to Walgreens and sees that one of her favorite candies are on sale. Nestle Goobers, so she buys a few boxes. Gets home eats one box with her family that night. Everything is all good. She goes the next day to eat the next box and a fly flutters out of the box when she opens it. So she looks inside only to find wiggling, squirming white eyeless maggots and flies inside and living in the candy. I think right then and there I would have lost it, screamed, tossed the box and had to shower in scolding hot water and maybe some bleach just to be sure. But I overreact sometimes.

Anywho, the lady calls Nestle, as you or I or any sane person would do, thinking these freaks sold me a box of candy filled with BUGS! And Nestle told her, "Oh the box is 4 months expired" and they told her to read to code and the expiration date is in the code.

The code read: 8070574823 9A

Ok, do any of you see an expiration date, Something that say May 4, 09 or 5 4 09 or something easy to understand. Does the 8 in the beginning mean 2008, or the 23 at the end symbolizing the 23rd of some unknown month? Where in that code do you see the date? Well I didn’t see it. If you did, then good for you and you are a hell of a lot smarter than us or you know the trick. Well my friends and I did not figure this out, and neither did the lady who almost ate some scrumptious feces eating flies. I sent this to a number of people, just curious if they could tell me the expiration date?

Do you know what Nestle does, they say if you have any questions about the code: call xxx-xxx-xxxx.

We all decided that seriously, if this code was meant for the average customer that buys Nestle’s candy, then there has been a huge error on Nestle’s part. I don’t want to sound arrogant or anything, but I am not an idiot. Heck I am a college graduate, working on my Masters right now. And I felt like an idiot try to figure out that date. Who makes codes that confusing and then tells the people to call if they have any questions. I feel that expiration dates are there so the customer knows that the product they are buying is good and safe to eat. It should be easy to find, read and understand! A little kid should be able to figure this out, kids buy candy! This is not something to mess around with. If I walked in and saw my kid eating squirming maggot filled candy, man would there have been problems.

Instead Nestle uses a cryptic code and expects anyone who may decide to buy their candy to decode it.

And just to point out, what about shelf life of a product. When we buy something we don’t go home and eat it right away. And even so, what if she bought it before the expiration date, goes home, the candy sits on the shelf for 2 weeks before she decides to enjoy all of it. After consumers buy a product, it sits at home! For Halloween and Christmas, a lot of people buy candy early and a lot buy it on clearance after the holidays. That is 3 months on the shelf right there!!!!
And just another minor fact! UMM how did the maggots get into the box, isn’t that suppose to be sealed in a factory somewhere.

The whole situation really grosses me out and I must admit that I will not be eating any Nestle products again for a very long time, as many of my friends agree, because that is just horrific.

I feel that Nestle should have more to say on this topic of Maggots in their candy. I think they should make their expiration dates A LOT easier to decode and they should really apologize for letting something like this happen. You could say it was the retailers fault, but they didn’t make the code cryptic, they didn’t seal maggot babies into the box. They are slightly to blame, for missing the box, but missing one box should not result in maggots and flies squirming inside.

Oh and just to clarify the expiration date was Jan 2009