6 weeks back, Mom and I were at a garden store and I saw a sign advertising ladybugs, nymphs, and mantids for sale. I thought they would be fully grown already and I just wanted to see a bunch of praying mantises in a glass jar... we ended up buying two little mudballs that, after six weeks, would release over a hundred baby mantids. I had the privilege to see over a hundred little baby mantids crawl all over a tree in my backyard.
Check these little guys out.
No, the mantids did not eat that leaf. That would be a caterpillar's work. After a while, if any of the mantids survive, they will be eating caterpillars all the time!
" Move over, Bro!!"
That would be the mudball covered in dead and live baby mantids.
As you all know, the mantids weren't only birthday we were celebrating, Jonny turned 18 yesterday, and we partied accordingly :-)
Jonny with his German Apple Cake. There's only one candle because the cake was so warm that the bottoms of all the candles melted when we put 'em in!
Just us guys. (Dad really wants a slice of that cake baaaad)
Jonny with all of his birthday loot. The Coral Island by Ballantyne, Fredrick the Great by Henty, a Knight of the white cross also by Henty (MP3 disk), the sixth and last season of Hogan's Heroes, and lastly, a Benchmade knife that Jonny ordered on the Internet but that didn't make here in time for his actual birthday.
It's finally here, the film you've all been waiting for... and yes, it is actually here this time :-)
SPY (2008)
Directed by: Graydon and Jonathan L
Written by: N/A
Starring Cast: Jonathan L(the Spy)
Supporting Cast: N/A
What's it Rated?: Not Rated (I give it PG for action violence and thematic elements)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
Synopsis: A Spy sneaks into an unkown house and does some damage.
My Take: Considering the fact that I (for the most part) directed the film, I definetly have a diferent take on the film itself than anyone else would. I'm going to try to tell you a few things about SPY from the director's standpoint, mixed in with a little behind the scenes "gosip" :-)
believe it or not, Jonny and I came up with the idea for SPY when we were doing what we do best (lazing around) and I looked up at the entrance to our school room (the same hight as a regular doorway, but about twice as wide) and said "we should make a spy movie and incoperate that entryway in it". Of course, I'm paraphrasing that quote, but that's exactly what we did. First we tried a few new film techniuqes (none of which ended up in the final cut of the film) and finaly just started filming. (In case you're wondering, we didn't end up using the entryway either)
The story just unfolded before us as we went along, we knew we wanted some fight sequences and a couple "gun fights", so we pieced that together with an assasination and a break-in and just let the camera role as our imaginations played the roles.
One of the many mistakes that we made in the filming was starting the film outdoors. whenever we wanted to film the camera couldn't see the actors and the sky was too light! we ended up having to back the car up partway into the street and flip on the lights jsut to get enough light on the set without comprimizing the dark sky in the background. One of the things I will never do in any film I make in future is film outside at night.
Anyway, I wasn't overjoyed at the final cut of the film. but it was our first "serious" short film that we'de ever made and of course, we were bound to make mistakes. I may not have been happy with the film itself, but the experience was definetly worth it.
Story: 5 out of 10
Humor: N/A
Action/Suspense: 6 out of 10
Overall: 5 out of 10
Yet another big "Thank You" goes out to Sam Y for reducing SPY's file size so I could put it on blogger.
One last thing! In the scene where the SPY has just killed the guard that tried to sneak up on him, another guard (which the spy will later shoot) comes out of a door and yells something. If anyone can guess what his exlamation means, that person wins eternal bragging rights as
"The person who figured out what that one guy said"
LOOK OVER THE DESCRIPTIONS OF THE FOLLOWING TWO HOUSES AND SEE IF YOU CAN TELL WHICH BELONGS TO AN ENVIRONMENTALIST.
HOUSE # 1:
A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not in a northern or Midwestern "snow belt," either. It's in the South.
HOUSE # 2:
Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every "green" feature current home construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.
HOUSE # 1 (20 room energy guzzling mansion) is outside of Nashville, Tennessee. It is the abode of that renowned environmentalist (and filmmaker) Al Gore.
HOUSE # 2 (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas. Also known as "the Texas White House," it is the private residence of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.
So whose house is gentler on the environment? Yet another story you WON'T hear on CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC or read about in the New York Times or the Washington Post. Indeed, for Mr. Gore, it's truly "an inconvenient truth."
This article found on Snopes.com
I'm a Calvinistic Baptist, a die-hard outspoken Constitutional libertarian, a mid 1800s historical reenactor, an avid reader, an amateur computer game programmer, a hot chocolate connoisseur, I love country music, I don't like coffee, I'm currently planning on pursuing business related studies in the near future.
"A gentle smile often breeds a kick in the pants..."
- Fred Astair as Ted Hanover in Holiday Inn (1942)
"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidise it."
- Ronald Reagan
"It's a scientific fact. For every year a person lives in Hollywood, they lose two points of their IQ."
- Truman Capote
"Nothing pains some people more than having to think"
" Move over, Bro!!"
That would be the mudball covered in dead and live baby mantids.
