Cerebrate Good Times

In high school I had three best friends who meant everything to me. I was one of those teenagers who never wanted to be with my family, but spent every moment possible with this adopted family of mine. And because they were good people, it worked out well. I think we had a mostly positive influence on each other, and we made it through those awkward years largely by supporting each other. Predictably, things changed after high school. Two of them went to school in southern Utah, I went to BYU in Provo, and one stayed in Salt Lake. Three of us served missions, and then came the rest of the details of life, with two of my friends settling outside the state (and then eventually me too). After I met Katie she struggled with me wanting to spend time with other friends anyway, and as kids came along I never really had time for a social life. This summer is our 20th anniversary of high school graduation, and there is a Facebook page dedicated to the event. People were posting photos o...

Last weekend we took all the kids to see Incredibles 2. And I have a few thoughts. This was the first time the whole family has seen a movie together. As far as we can recall, Katie was pregnant with James the last time we all went to the movies. Clara and James struggled a little bit at the end, but we made it through. The Incredibles came out the year Katie and I got married, and as this one picks up right at the end of the first film, Katie and I are now at about the same point in our lives as the Parrs. It's funny to think about. They put a few swears in the movie. I struggle with this because the first one had none, and I had expectations that this would be the same. Had those words not been in the movie I don't think it would have diminished the film in any way. We're officially at the point where we have to start screening Disney/Pixar films the same as any other movie, which I knew would happen sometime anyway. I took Sam and Allison and went early to get ou...

I've posted too much serious stuff lately, and that must stop now. I just came across a movie trailer for Bumblebee, which is about the Transformers character. But it's not actually a Transformers movie. I guess after Star Wars and X-Men, Hollywood is now doing standalone films of every character from every franchise. Let's think of some characters who could be getting their own film soon. Here are a few I'm interested in. A lot of these are from 80s/90s movies, because those seem the most fun to me. The Xenomorph from Alien . It starts with the Alien chasing the crew of the ship. Then  there's a record scratch and freeze frame, and a voiceover. “You’re probably wondering how I ended up here." Just kidding about this one. Edna Mode from The Incredibles . You know she has an amazing backstory. I want to see her working at the height of superhero popularity, dispensing sass to all those proud people. Louis Tully from Ghostbusters . He seems like a boring ac...