I really enjoyed this movie! Heath Ledger really made the perfect Joker. I thought it was over three times but by the end of the movie you realize it’s a good thing it wasn’t over any of those times because it would have been way too simple. Did anyone else that saw it catch on with the other “recycled” Batman villain right away? I don’t want to spoil it for anyone reading this that hasn’t seen it (and please don’t comment this blog giving it away for those people) but as soon as it showed a close up of his little “prop” he uses I knew who he was going to become right away. I didn’t, however, expect it to happen in this movie. I thought it was going to leave room for another film. After all Batman is the new Star Wars. They can get away with having 6+ movies without people thinking they’re going too far…. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case with Pirates of theCaribbean, a story I would LOVE to see more of.

Anyway, I think the Joker’s character makes the perfect villain. He has nothing to lose, no weakness, he gets a kick out of you beating the hell out of him just because he enjoys the fact that he was able to push you to the point of violence, and he can’t be reasoned with. Just like Alfred says, “Some men aren’t looking for anything logical. He can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.” His psychotic but humorous personality just makes him the perfect villain. Heath Ledger is one of those actors that just really gets into character and becomes that person. Like Johnny Depp going from Roux (in “Chocolat”), Jack Sparrow to Willy Wonka to Sweeney Todd to Mort Rainey (in Secret Window). He really brings the character to life and gives that character a real personality of their own.

I think they did an amazing job on this movie. It’s very unfortunate what happened to Heath Ledger. He was an extremely talented actor. I never really saw many of his movies before I heard about his death and his movies that I did see I didn’t really pay attention to the cast. I did, however, really enjoy the movie Casanova and that’s mainly how I knew who he was. I also would have loved the possibility of him bringing the Joker back again.

I think my two favorite scenes with the Joker where his little magic trick with the pencil in the beginning (totally unexpected and just plain crazy) and when he’s dressed up as a nurse and just the way he says, “Do I really look like a guy with a plan? You know what I am? I’m like a dog chasing cars; I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it, y’know? I just DO things. I don’t have a plan.” You can hear in his voice and see in the way he walks and moves around just how messed up and psychotic his character is.

If you haven’t seen this movie yet I highly recommend it. I would love to see it in theaters on the big screen at least once more before I buy it when it finally comes out on DVD.

So since the new iPhone 3G has come out I’ve been hearing a lot of review from sources I trust very well. Quite a few of these have been from other people just like me, who are currently with Helio just like me, and (just like me) spend some time on the forums at HelioCity.net discussing Helio-related things. Over the past couple months the discussions have been focused on a couple of different topics. First everyone was talking about all the rumors about Helio’s release of the Ocean 2 or OZ2 as everyone is calling it. There has never been any official word from Helio but some videos have gotten leaked showing Helio employees playing around with them testing them out. Then the conversations shifted over to Helio going out of business…. which eventually just turned into a marge Virgin Mobile to save money. During that time everyone was discussing back-up plans in case they go to turn their phone on one day and have to find a new carrier. Now people are talking about the iPhone.

Some people were so tempted they canceled their Helio contract and camped out in from of an Apple store to get their iPhone. A lot of bashing was going on with the first iPhone so I found it interesting that a lot of the people who were bashing the first iPhone…. were now waiting in line for the 3G.

So far it seems that everyone loves the thing. For me to two deal breakers (now that they finally have 3G and GPS) are the lack of MMS (picture messaging) and no numeric keypad with T9 texting. However, there are apps and simple methods around the MMS thing that allow you to still send and receive picture messages, but in the form of an email. Simply by texting the picture to an email address that that persons carrier then forwards as an MMS message.

If you’ve never looked at the new App Store you should really check it out! Just upgrade to the newest version of iTunes and go to the iTunes Store tab. Over on the left there’s a link to the App Store. This has really impressed me! MOST of the apps on there are available FREE of charge because the developer (who can be anybody) decides not to charge for it. I don’t even own an iPhone or iPod Touch but I’ve already downloaded almost 20 apps…. just in case they decide to charge for it by the time I get my iPhone (which I still plan on doing one day).

Looking at the amazing apps that are available has really attracted me to the iPhone even more. I always liked the thing but it’s lack of certain features kept me from ever considering buying one. Now the two missing features that were “deal breakers” don’t seem as important anymore. First, there are apps that provide ways around the iPhone’s lack of MMS. Secondly, there are probably ways of creating a numeric keypad since there is a way to change your QWERTY keyboard to a Dvorak keyboard. Even if there isn’t, I’ve seen YouTube videos with people typing on the QWERTY keyboard while holding it with one hand with no problem. Any phone takes some getting used to. I remember how hard it was to use the bottom row of keys on my Ocean’s numeric keypad when I first got it. I just had to learn how to hold it properly coming from a phone who’s numeric keypad wasn’t so close to the bottom. Now it’s no problem for me at all.

Basically, the App Store totally wins you over and provides hope for any features the iPhone lacks out of the box. There is an awesome MySpace app that looks much better than the one on my Ocean. There is an app that gets your current GPS location and shows you movie times based on theaters closest to you AND you can buy tickets right from there. There’s even an app to help you locate the nearest Starbucks…. which I find a bit unnecessary since they’re on almost every corner…. shouldn’t be too hard to find them.

There’s just one other problem I have…. their plans. I don’t like the way AT&T’s plans are. Plans like theirs are a major reason I went to Helio. I really hate all those plans were you have to keep adding packages and plans and you end up spending over $100 a month for the things you need. I’m paying about $70 a month for everything I need. I have only 500 minutes but everything else is unlimited no matter what. It’s everything else that I use. I very rarely talk on the phone so I could even get less minutes. With AT&T’s retarded plans I’d have to spend about $120 a month to get exactly the same thing I have with Helio for only $70 a month, then I trust Sprint’s network more than AT&T’s.

It looks like the plan I would get for the iPhone would have to be the 450 minutes for $70 then I’d have to add an Unlimited Text plan for an addition $20 a month…. coming out to $90 a month for the damn thing.

We’ll see. If one day I can afford to spend that much a month I’d gladly get an iPhone. Until then I’m perfectly happy with a company who has a COMMON SENSE plan.

….but that App Store really wins you over.

Well I kinda just forgot about writing anything about my vacation time as it was going on. I’ve been back to work for two days now and just remembered.

Not much went on the rest of the time. Here’s a brief idea on the rest of my paid vacation time (that I can remember):

Saturday (Day 3)
I don’t think much of anything went on this day at all. I think I spend most of the time just relaxing and not going anywhere. In the evening Dani and I went out to dinner with her brother Mitch and his girlfriend Chelsi. We went to Kona Grill. They’re pretty good. All I really get there is their California rolls. I wasn’t that hungry but they sounded good. I also went to the store real quick to pick up a few things for the BBQ Dani and I were having at our house next day with a few friends.

Sunday (Day 4)
This was BBQ day. We cleaned up the house a bit and headed out to the store to pick up some food. I got beers and Captain Morgan’s Private Stock the night before so they had longer to get cold. We had our friends Chelsea and Robert over, then invited Ryan to come over. He was having a bad day and we wanted to have him over to help make him feel better. After we ate the girls went to get stuff to make smores while Robert, Ryan and I talked a bit. Then it was SMORE TIME!! After the smores we finished the night off with Rock Band that Dani and I randomly decided to go get for our Wii earlier that day. Dani was playing Guitar Hero on her Playstation and was like, “We should Rock Band for the Wii.” I had a pretty decent amount back on my credit card so we went over to Best Buy. We also got a second guitar so almost everyone could play at the same time (Mic, Drums, Guitar/Bass, Guitar/Bass). We all had a really good time.

Monday (Day 5)
Monday was Dani’s last day off and was only the second time I had Monday off with her. I don’t think we did much of anything that day. We played Rock Band some more and just kind of layed around doing nothing. We cleaned a little. Showered. Chillaxed.

Tuesday (Day 6) (The End)
Tuesday was my last vacation day. It was a sad day because I knew I had to get up early the next morning. The air conditioner in my car went out the Wednesday before on my way home from my last day of work before my vacation. Today was my last chance to have Dani’s brother Mitch look at it and see if he can fix it before I go back to work. I headed over to Auto Zone and got some refrigerant. Then went to Quizno’s to get him some lunch because he was going to be looking at my car during his lunch break. So he tried emptying what was in there and putting in the new stuff…. but it wasn’t going in because my air compressor wasn’t kicking on. So this Saturday he’s going to look at the two switches that control the compressor and if they’re both fine…. I’ll need a new compressor. Which is a few hundred dollars. Somewhere between $300 to $600 (maybe). So until it gets fixed I’m driving around in 115 degree weather with no air…. and I hate the heat more than anyone else I know. I’m literally dripping with sweat and a soaked t-shirt by the time I get home. Not fun. So hopefully that will be fixed very soon. I can’t take this heat much longer.

So that was the rest of my vacation time. Now it’s back to hell…. I mean “work” and back to the same boring lame schedule.

Well today is the 4th of July. I’ve never liked fireworks. We went over to my moms house and had a big BBQ. It was nice being able to wake up at 11am on a Friday instead of at 6:45am or 7am. Dani and I just laid around for a few hours then headed over to the BBQ. My brothers two friends (who are twins) were there. They’ve all been friends almost their whole lives. I remember them being around since before I even started going to school and I haven’t seen them since I was probably in middle school or elementary. They felt pretty weird  realizing I have graduated high school, have a job, have my own clothing company and have my own house with my girlfriend. It must be pretty wierd to see someone so grown up when all your memories of that person are of them being a small child.

When people were starting to set off fireworks Dani and I had to head home. We have two little Yorkies who aren’t very familiar with fireworks and we didn’t want them to be home alone freaking out.

Today is the first day of my paid week off of work. I have two weeks paid vacation time and since the year is half way over and I haven’t used any I figured I would. It’s been slow at work and I haven’t had much of anything to do. So I decided to take Thursday and Friday off this week and Monday and Tuesday off next week. Giving me Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to just enjoy not going to work. I always have Saturday and Sunday off anyway, but I wanted to use those two days to make my vacation time longer…. while using less days. Instead of using 6 days, I’m only using 4.

Today my brother and I went out in the desert shooting. He goes out there every once and a while but it’s probably been about 4 or 5 years since I’ve gone with him. I think. I’m pretty sure we haven’t gone since his daughter was born and she’s going on this year. We took out a stand he made with holes at the top to hold beer bottles upside down. Five at a time. We took his 9mm, his AK, and this little 9mm (I think) he got for his girlfriend on mothers day. ….yes she actually wanted one. She came with us because she hasn’t gotten a chance to shoot it since she got it. It’s small…. but it has a LOT of kick. It’s clips only hold 6 rounds but after those 6 rounds your hand is all tingley. After about 5 or 6 clips full your hand is sore. My brother and I stuck with his 9mm Ruger (picture) and his AK (picture). It was hot as hell (actually probably hotter) but it was fun despite the 106 temperature. It’s pretty hard aiming with the AK without feeling like it’s going to kick back and hit you in the face, so we just held it down and just fired it off one after another pointing it in the general direction of the targets and beer bottles. The Ruger is very easy to aim. For the most part I was able to get every bottle one after another. When we got to the end of our bullets for his girlfriends gun (we got down to four bullets for him and four for me) we tried to finish off the bottles faster. I should probably mention at some point that all these beer bottles were already emptied. They were bottles my brother saves in boxes for this specific purpose. So don’t think we were drinking and shooting guns around. Anyway, we decided to line them up like usual but try to get them from the side to get them all with one bullet. I tried a few times and somehow got the first, second, third and fifth…. somehow the bullet missed the fourth bottle but got the fifth one. My brother tried it a few times too and on his last attempt (when we only had the four bullets in each of our clips) he fired once and missed, second and missed, then the third took out all the bottles at one time…. so he just shot the fourth to get rid of it.

It was a pretty awesome day. But I’m still a sword person.