Inspirational.

I found this online... I liked it. :D

Politics, the way it was.

"What General Lee's feelings were I do not know. As he was a man of much dignity, with an impassible face... His feelings...were entirely concealed from my observation; but my own feelings...were sad and depressed. I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which people ever fought...

"General Lee was dressed in a full uniform which was entirely new, and was wearing a sword of considerable value...In my rough traveling suit...I must have contrasted very strangely with a man so handsomely dressed, six feet high and of faultless form...

"We soon fell into a conversation about old army times...Our conversation grew so pleasant that I almost forgot the object of our meeting."

-General Ulysses S. Grant, remembering the surrender at Appomattox Court House.

After watching debates, politicians blaming everyone and anyone on financial crises, and the overall distaste for taking blame for anything in our country, I wonder...Where are the people like General Grant, Abraham Lincoln, and the other eloquent, kind, caring, leaders of our past. Having never seen or met a politician like them, it's hard to understand, but I miss them.

First day of school.

You know that smell of fresh pencils? The intoxicating scent of dry erase markers? The squeaky clean waxed floors? It's a beautiful thing for kids on their first day of school. But as today was my first day of school it was an amazing thing for me as well. It was very strange entering into the public school system after having been in a private school for the past two years. It's hard to believe all the stuff you have to do as a public school teacher. Papers to sign, papers to pass out for parents to sign, papers to pass out for kids to sign, papers to take from kids signed by parents to file away, papers that have to be in the office before a certain time, papers, papers, papers! And lest we forget all the wonderful tests and assessments we must perform and track with the kids. Oh, and I have a formal evaluation this year with several important people in the school system. Apparently it's not enough that you graduated college, they still need to test you. But you know what? Even with all of that looming over me and making me nervous, the smell of freshly sharpened pencils, dry erase markers, and waxed floors calmed all my nerves today.

The students were excited to be there and I was excited to be teaching them. We did little more today than get to know each other, and get them acclimated with the rules and procedures. There is so much for them that we'll be doing it all week. Most of it will be new until tomorrow and then we'll be reinforcing it throughout the week. But hopefully by doing that it will become second nature to them. Now I have to get onto "Tech Paths", which is how we plan out our units -- because we don't use textbooks -- and decide what we're going to do this month. It's sure to be an exciting year, and I hope you'll enjoy hearing about it here. Thanks so much to Kara and Big Nate who is envious of my sweet job (um, hello? You have a sweet job too, travel the world, save the planet? Ring any bells big guy? And with only 73 days left to go at the time of this writing hopefully you'll have an even better job, maybe somewhere tropical this time!? :D), thanks to mom and dad who are so very proud of me and pushed me and cheered me on time and time again. Thanks to Beth Ann and her family, people who keep me in smiles and stitches (the good kind, the ones that come from laughing at silly lines from Superman movies and Young Frankenstein quotes, and for the eye rolls that say, how do you two know that many ridiculous movie quotes ((That's Grant I'm referring too)), and the chubby cheeks that I love to kiss ((BRADY!!!!!)). Love you sis).And thanks most of all for my wonderful wife Sarah whom helps me believe in myself and helps make me a better person daily (it's our anniversary in less than a week so I'm really laying it on thick). I love you all. Until next time, I remain yours,

Jonathan.

P.s. Why does it sound like I just won some sort of an award? Well I guess CSLA is my reward for patience in finding a job. :D

Jamaican Honeymoon! Courtesy of animoto

Not the Batman blog I promised, but something to tide you over.

Batman: AND BEYOND!!!

The fandango system sold out like 90% of their tickets for all shows of the Batman sequel yesterday! I can't find the article now, but google for it, I'm sure you'll see it. Sarah and I are going to go watch it on Monday at the IMAX with some friends of ours. They say that experience is going to be unique. Quite a few scenes were shot with IMAX cameras so, we'll see if it's worth it. Unfortunately for BIGNATE he won't get to see it in all the glory and splendor. :( Oh well, I'll be excited for ya bro! Ok, gotta go, we're going to Mum and Dad's for the weekend. See some of you Sunday.

Photos! I hope.

Ok, here goes nothing. Hopefully this works. Click the picture below for the Jamaica photos. It took me an hour to upload all these, so give me some time and I'll add some descriptions to them. :) Tonight at the latests. I swear!

Jamaica

Computers, heroic, or evil?

My computer sucks right now... >.< It's very frustrating. All of my internet browsers have suddenly and inexplicably (at least to me) stopped working. When I boot them up they immediately stop and say they have to close due to an error. How am I typing this you might ask? Well I booted Firefox up in "safe mode". I don't know why it's safe, but it's working...Sort of. You see I'm having some problems getting things like pictures to upload. I just figured out how to get this blog to update (there are certain tweaks you can make to safe mode apparently). So hopefully that will also allow me to upload our Jamaica photos. We'll see. That's what I'm attempting next. So stay tuned for that.

The main point of this post I guess is to ask if anyone has any ideas. First of all I have no idea how this happened. Neither Sarah nor I have downloaded anything from any sites we deem untrustworthy, and I've run extensive virus scans a-la Norton Antivirus, and neither that nor Spybot S&D have found any problems. I then proceeded to uninstall both programs and then reinstall them both. That didn't work. Then I uninstalled one but not the other, tried it, didn't work. Uninstalled the other and reinstalled the first, didn't work. Then uninstalled both again installed one, restarted, tried it, didn't work, installed the last and reset, and then tried it. Nothing. I am at my wits end. If I have to I guess I can reinstall Windows, but I really, Really, REALLY don't want to do that. So, after that long winded explanation; Does anyone have any answers or suggestions?

Check back after this for pictures... I hope.

Jamaica: Sunburn Report!

Sarah got it. Not me. :( We went snorkeling yesterday and came back and she was as red as can be. Sad thing was that we rubbed her down so good with spf 45! That was about 45 minutes before we left, then we were in the shade the whole day until we got in the water for about 30 minutes to snorkel and bam! We got out and she was bright red. That Norwegian blood must not do so well with the sun. We're going to make the best of it though and do some of the classes that they offer and games they have out of the sun. As for now I'm going to go get some breakfast for her. Day 2 was awesome, more on that later tonight.

Jamaica: Day 1

Getting to Jamaica was actually very cool for me. Flying over water for the majority of the time was a new experience. And it was very awesome to see the little islands that dotted the ocean. And they were mostly just little strips of green with white sand outlines. I don't know what country they belonged to, but they were cool to see. Landing in the airport in Montego Bay was a new experience for me as well. I'm not sure how much damage the hurricane last year did here, but you could definitely tell a difference in our airports and Jamaica's. It's pretty much a third world country here, or at least a second world country (note to self, look up what third world country even means). It wasn't that it was scary or anything, it was just not... Not much, I guess I'd say. It's hard to explain without being here, but just walk into somewhere like JFK or ATL's airports, and then think about your church, without any decoration on the walls. That's what I was reminded of. And the line through immigration and customs was LOOOONG, which may be normal, but I was new to it, so it was interesting to me.

Once we got out of the airport we had to take a shuttle to Negril which is about a 90 minute ride out of Montego bay. It was very interesting. I've never been anywhere that rides on the opposite side of the road before. That was the scariest part. They drive like maniacs here. I'll never get mad at people who drive bad in Virginia again. They honk for the right of way here, they drive right through stop signs, and they only leave inches of room when they are passing. It was an experience. We also got to see plenty of the poverty stricken towns around here. One that I remember was Lucea (pronounced Lucy). It's not that they are all poverty stricken really, but it just seems that way. I guess because there are so many people on such a small island. Hotels are big business around here and beyond that it's only markets and crafts. They had an underwear shop here last year, but they closed it. I guess folks don't need to wear much underwear here. Anyway, it was quite a show, and not what I was expecting, but I guess we're just blessed to live in America where we don't have as much of that.

Once we pulled in to Couples Resort it was paradise. We don't have to lift a finger. I was going to carry my baggage (cause Sarah said if you don't you have to pay like five bucks to people who carry it ten feet) but the guy was like, "You're on Vacation Mon! No problem!" So that's absolutely nice, and you're not allowed to tip here on the resort so that makes it even nicer! The lobby here overlooks the pool, which looks out on the beach. Because we didn't bring the camera cord I can't show you a picture of the beach, but just imagine a desserted island with beach chairs and you'll get a good idea. It was weird for us yesterday time wise. We got up so early and were travelling all day. When we got here we lost an hour, they are Eastern but don't have daylight savings time, but we were exhausted by time we got here. Like I said in the last post we slept on the beach for a while after dipping in the water. Then we ate, then we went to bed! At like 9:45! So we're ready for a full day today.

Sorry if this post is stream-of-conciousness, but we're about to go eat breakfast. I want to get as much of my thoughts down as I can each day. Then I'll refine them into a longer post when we get back!

It's actually not all that busy here so there aren't a ton of people on the beach. The water is warm and the hammocks are so relaxing afterwards. The white sand is unbelievable soft, and the food has been great so far. Well Sarah's here, so off we go. See you all soon, but I hope not too soon. :)

Love,

The Johnsons

Negril....Wow.

Ok, so, we're here. For all my family and friends who are wondering... And it is A-mazing! We were here for four hours when I glanced at Sarah next to me in the hammock and said, "I'm totally relaxed right now, how about you?" And she looked at me, and sighed, and smiled, and then we fell asleep on the hammock. It is just so fantastic. And they have internet here. So check back each day for a quick itenerary and maybe some pictures. But those might have to wait until we get back. We love you all! And remember, it's NO PROBLEM MON!

Hey! You got your Star Wars in my Indiana Jones!

(If you don't care about movie reviews (mom.) feel free to scroll down as there is some personal stuff for you down there) So, here is my non-spoiler review of Star Wars... I mean Indiana Jones. And actually there will be spoilers in this episode. But they will be discreet. If you see this tag.

*SPOILER*

Hooray! You did it. You might have seen my test post and already seen all of this. If you did, happy easter egging!

Then you know you should drag your mouse over the portion directly underneath the spoiler tag. Go ahead and try that now.

Good, now that you've got that down lets get down to business. I'm going to start in on the characters first.

*Characters*

Indian Jones:
You know, Indiana was in this movie, I just had to go through a lot of his other characters to see him. Some people may disagree with me on this, but I'm telling you I saw Dr. Richard Kimble in the first scene. A mixture of Jack Ryan and President James Marshall for other mixed areas throughout other scenes in the movie. And the most frustrating of them all I saw Han Solo at the end... And that's when I went "Ugh." Anyone reading this that knows me will probably be surprised that I went ugh at Han Solo, but it just didn't work, because he was supposed to be Indiana Jones! None of those other guys. Granted people say cut him some slack because it has been 20 years or so, he's doing the best he can. And I guess that's true. But it's one of the reasons I didn't like this movie.

Shia Labeouf:
I'm actually quite ok with this character. I can't tell you much about him, and I won't even say why, or what his name is. If you really wanna know just look here *SPOILER* His name is Mutt...Big clue there. As far as his acting goes, I really enjoyed it. I almost wish they'd given him more to do in this movie. The scenes he was in I enjoyed thoroughly *SPOILER* Except for that ridiculous scene with the monkeys. I mean come on! Anyway, I really did enjoy his part, but that's not saying much because I have loved all his movies so far. Yes, Even Stevens The Movie included.

Karen Allen:
Oops, I've been calling her Carrie Allen since this movie came out. I'm sure folks think I am an idiot. Anyway, Karen's character is back, Marion Ravenwood, and she does a fine job for the role she played, but it was even less of a role than Shia's. But what she did play she played perfectly. She's not the same Ms. Ravenwood we saw last time. Time has passed and changed her... And yet she's still the same old Marion. And that's the problem with all the other women in Indiana Jones, none of them were Marion. I think you'll enjoy the part she played.

All the other characters:
Um, yeah... All the other characters in this movie you can just throw away. The Soviets, they just didn't inspire me with fear. The KGB agents weren't even as scary as the arab guys after Indy and Marion in Ark. After Nazis it's hard to get a bad guy, you know? Cate Blanchett's character was extremely shallow and worthless in my mind. *SPOILER* She plays a psychic Russian Doctor, but her psychic-ness is almost shown, then not shown, then completely forgotten for the rest of the movie. I'd like to have seen that explored a bit more, and I think I'd have liked her character more if they'd showed more of that. As it was, I really didn't care if she lived or died. As a matter of fact I couldn't have cared less if she'd been in the movie. As far as Mac goes... Well, Mac who? They could have taken his character completely out of this movie and still accomplished the same thing. His character was absolutely pointless in my simple opinion. That's all I'm gonna say about him. *SPOILER* I'd also like to talk about the Indians in the ruins... What the heck. Where'd they come from? Are they just always hanging out in the crevices of the ruins waiting for folks to walk by? That was ridiculous. I would have rather they just walked out of the woods than the way they did it. And as someone else pointed out to me, what happens when the next group of archaeologists comes in? Now those Indian guys have nowhere to hide!

CGI
Before we move on I'd like to talk real quick about George Lucas and his descent into madness. I have no idea where I read it, but somewhere on the wonderful wild web I read that he wanted to make all his movies without real actors at some point. We saw some of that in his new Star Wars episodes with entire armies as CGI, and characters like Jar-Jar and Yoda as CGI. Well this movie felt like George was trying to put as much CGI in it as was allowable. *SPOILER* You'll see what I mean when you watch it, but what was with all the ground hogs. The first appearance was funny, but after that it was annoying. And the monkeys!? Again, what the heck was that about!? Some of the action scenes were very poorly done. I remember back in the day when Nathan and I would complain about the blue screen effect. Well now it seems the phenomenon has returned with a vengeance. Only now it's CGI effect.

PLOT
I'm not even going to say much here. Because I don't want to spoil it. Feel free to talk about it in the comments. AND CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED, DON'T CHECK THE COMMENTS IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS! This movie's plot was fine. And as a matter of fact I enjoyed it. As an action movie, but as an Indiana Jones movie I thought it was only mediocre. Most folks say that they rank this movie as number two in the Jones saga... Or heavens to betsy some guy said he liked it the best!? Wow, crazy. I personally put it at the bottom. Ark, Crusade, Doom, and now Skull. I think my main problem was the treasure that Jones is searching for. Usually it has some touch of reality to it. This movie not so much. Now I know Jones is not the pinnacle of reality, but it always has some basis there. This movie does not. At least not for me. This movie seemed more like a Star Wars flick to me... That's all I'll say about it here. If you'd like to get more in depth on why you hated or loved this movie, please feel free to put your comments in the comments section. I'd love to know what you think.

So over all here's what I give the movie as far as a score. As an action movie I definitely give this three stars. But as a Jones movie I'm sorry, but I gotta sadly say, only two sad fedoras.

Ok, now that that's over. Just to let everyone know. Sarah and I are going to be moving back down to Tennessee In the coming months. And yes we're very excited about it. While I am excited about it I'm also sad and a little stressed. Sad because I won't get to do things like my indoor camping trips or our field fun day coming up on Friday. But it's also a little stressful because of looking for new jobs and places to live. So hopefully you'll all be praying for that. Tomorrow is my birthday. Yes I'll be the big 3-0. Does that bother me? Am I feeling older? Am I sad? No to the first two, and yes to the second one. But I'm sad because I won't be with my wife on that day. That's right, she is off on another globe spanning adventure (well not really, but it sounds cooler like that). We probably won't see each other again for a week. So that's sad. But as far as the old thing, I don't even really think about it. So that's what's going on. Wish I had some cool pictures for you. We went to Harper's Ferry last weekend and I'm know we got some cool pics but I don't have them yet. So look for them early next week. Until then, I remain your

JediJohnson

A movie review:

(I'm not even going to pretend to give an explanation to my lateness on posts. It's been too long to give any sort of excuse. I'm just lazy. Leave it at that.)

Sarah and I went to see Prince Caspian this past weekend and I wanted to share a review of it with you guys. It's especially for Nathan since he has a lot to do over in Afghanistan and I'm sure he's looking for anything remotely movie related. So in that spirit this review and other reviews will be completely spoiler free.

Now, if you've read the book Prince Caspian, which I hope you have, then this movie will come as no surprise to you. As in the original the writers/producers/directors follow very closely to the original story. Granted some things were changed around a little to make it flow a little better in the movie. In the book some flashbacks happen about halfway through the movie, then some flashbacks happen within those flashbacks, and then finally a flashback is told at the same time while something else is being talked about in a completely different area. In a movie that could get very confusing. So I think they were justified with how they handled this. To be honest with you I think I preferred it this way anyway. If they had tried to do it like it was in the book I don't think it would have worked as well. A really interesting thing to note about the beginning of the movie; if I didn't know it was Prince Caspian I never would have guessed that's what it was. It's all very Lord of the Rings/Gladiator-ish. Which is a good thing I think. Since the world is 1000 years older and appears different for the Pevensie children, it should be very different for us as well. (One of the funniest lines in the movie comes when Edmund makes a comment to the girls about this apparent time travel)

So anyhow, as far as the story went they followed all the rest of the plot fabulously. I thought that they would leave out some of the more important things (faith, lack of faith, renewing of faith) that Mr. Lewis had put into this book, but they didn't. As a matter of fact I'd say they did an excellent job of showing all of those thing. I also didn't think they'd be able to get a scene with Aslan that was as emotional as the scene with Edmund in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (heretofore known as TLtWtW) but they did. In fact I actually shed a tear or two in the scene where Lucy talks to Aslan. It was simply amazing, moving, and a wonderful reminder of how patient Jesus is with all our foolishness.

The only part that was more hyped up in the movie than in the book was Susan's crush on Caspian. It's really overplayed in the movie. Not to the point where it's unbearable, it's not even that big of a deal. But it is there, and I thought, how very Hollywood of them. This may have something to do with why Aslan confronts her with a secret at the end of the movie (I won't spoil it, but in the book it says it happens because she becomes too involved in worldly things, like boys and make-up!).

Out of the four kids that returned this time I have to tell you Edmund is my absolute favorite. His demeanor, the way he speaks (pride without being arrogant) the things he does, and the way he does them, all of these things make me enjoy his character more than anything else. Lucy was great too, and don't get me wrong, there is a lot of great acting in this move, but Edmund's character made me smile with almost every line, or every action.

So in saying all of that I give this movie 4 Roaring Lions out of Five.


Anyway, I know this isn't a terribly revealing review, but I wanted to make it something Nate could read and not feel "spoilerfied". Next week I'll give you my spoiler free Indy IV review. Here's hoping it's better than I'm hearing from my Carmike Contacts. Life's going great by the way in case you were interested. I'm great, Sarah's great, we both can't wait to be done with school and back in Tennessee. Virginia is a great place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live here much longer. Ok, well, have a great one, see you next week.

P.s. Please comment what you thought of this movie. And check back because I'll comment on your comments. :) Oh and make sure you vote in the upper right hand corner.

Not what you were expecting, eh?

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