The Fruits of My Labor...

Well people, here it is:

My very first tomato! I decided that this year I would try my hand at gardening, so I planted six tomato plants and two zucchini plants. My stepdad has a HUGE garden, so after a little advice, and a few "secrets", I was off and running.

When you start a garden for the first time, you have to dig up and till the soil. No big deal, right? A little sweat on the brow, but that's good for you. Anyway, I bought a hand tiller at the Depot, and prepared to dig in. This is where the problems started.

I decided that the garden should be by the back corner of the house, because that area gets a good amount of sunlight, with no real obstructions. What I didn't know, however, is that when the houses were built around here, they poured about a million rocks around the perimeter, about four feet out from the foundation. There was a layer of sod, and then more rocks than I've ever seen in my life! No dirt, just rocks, rocks, and more dang rocks!

So, what we ended up having to do was fill up several wheelbarrows full of rocks and then dump a ton of topsoil in to mix with what little actual dirt there was in the yard. After preparing and planting, I've got to tell you that I wasn't very confident. There were still tons of rocks in the soil, and alot of the time, gardens take a couple of years to really produce.

My wife and I diligently watered our little guys everyday, weeded the garden, and fought off all of the beetles and other SOB's who wanted a piece of the action. And it worked! I feel good, and it may sound pretentious, but it feels good to actually grow some of your own food. It's like it connects you back to the earth, back to the times when you had to work to get your food. It kind of fills you with a little bit of pride.

And I bet it's going to taste GREAT with a little bacon and lettuce!

The Dark Knight

I have to admit that I was a little apprehensive about seeing The Dark Knight. Try as I might, I couldn't avoid the reviews pouring in from people that said it didn't live up to the hype. So, trying to keep an open mind, I went with my wife, brother and wife's best friend to check it out.


After we prepared my wife's purse for the movies (that is we roasted up some hotdogs in the toaster oven, wrapped them in foil and stowed them away, along with some candy), we ventured out to our trifling local movie theater. My wife and I moved about a year ago, and we were definitley spoiled with the 24 theater mega-plexes. This theater has 9 screens and was last updated in any way, shape, or form about 15 years ago. Beggars can't be choosers, so since we didn't feel like driving half an hour to see a movie, off to the ol' moving picture house we went. We were all excited to see the movie, and once we stopped in at the concession catastrophe to get some popcorn and sodas, we were ready to get down.


I guess the easiest way I could sum up the movie is...WOW!


Now granted, I'm a geek for superhero type movies (I even was stoked for Superman Returns), but this movie was awesome for what it was: a blockbuster summer popcorn movie. It wasn't "The Greatest Movie of All-Time" like I've seen some people say. It also wasn't a "letdown" or "overhyped" either. It was basically awesome.



I don't want to spoil for anyone who still hasn't seen this movie (although, I can't believe that there is anybody left), so I won't get into plot points or specifics. The only thing you need to know is that Heath Ledger's Joker is probably one of the funniest, creepiest, and all-around best performances that I've seen, possibly ever. The kid created a character that just stays with you. It's THAT good.


Besides feeling bad about Ledger's death, I REALLY feel bad for the rest of the people associated with the Batman franchise. Christian Bale was good (although the way he talks as Batman made my wife laugh out loud a couple of times), and Aaron Eckhart did a great job as Harvey Dent. Gary Oldman was solid as Lt. Gordon, and Michael Caine was his usual English self as Alfred. But the Joker was so good that I didn't care one bit about anybody else...I couldn't wait until he came back on screen! This movie would've rocked you just took the Joker out of the story and replaced him with a random supervillain. Then maybe you would appreciate all of the awesome FX stuff, and the fight scenes and Gotham City goodness. For me at least, I was just so riveted by the Joker, that everything else was just filler. Really, really good filler, but filler nonetheless.


When we left the theater I felt bad that we wouldn't get to see the Joker's story continue (to me, it felt like there would've been more to follow if not for the tragedy), and I wondered to myself "What can they possibly do for the next one?"

I guess we'll have to see if it's possible to reinvent a reinvention of a franchise....

Welcome!

Well, hello there. Thanks for stopping by. What's that you say? Who the hell is this? What's all this about? Let me explain.

My name is John, aka OlNumba7, aka PD, aka JM....well you get the point. I've been inspired by other blogs that I read to start one of my own. The main reason is just to make witty comments on pop culture and other such stuff, and to keep the creative juices flowing. Hopefully, I'll entertain a couple of people along the way, but if not, oh well. It could be worse, right?

Anyway, if you're reading this, thank you, and I appreciate any feedback or comments you leave. If you just want to lurk, that's cool too...take it from a pro. And if nobody is reading this, well then I hope that I entertain myself...otherwise, Houston, we've got a problem!