Blog of the Day award

Holy hell. I got an email announcing that I've been chosen as the Blog of the Day on Fuel My Blog. Quite the honor, especially considering I post like, what, once every month? (I think Sam's jealous. Which makes sense considering she posts all kinds of great pictures and content on a near daily basis.)

It must've been that excellent review of Batman I wrote yesterday.

Anyways, we haven't heard back from the Northwest Tea Festival about the 500 shirts they wanted. Kendra says to be positive. I like being positive, so I guess I'll give that a shot. I didn't even think about how we haven't heard back until she asked how business was going. Samantha and I have the whole deal figured out, we just need the go-ahead to get started. Hand dyeing 500 shirts in tea happens to be on my bucket list. Yes I have a bucket list, I'm all of 21 now. I'm just getting a head start.

The other thing on my bucket list is to get back into making new shirts. The giant Roloflex shirt is awesome. I forgot how fun it is making new shirts.

We're still looking for some designs of an architectural nature for the lady who runs the Antique store where PearMcGee sells her handmade purses and handbags. I'm thinking some large pillars, kind of like the huge camera print. Those prints that are so gigantic you think they're never going to work are the most fun to make.

There's nothing quite like impressing myself.

The Dark Knight: a Bright light for movie making

Samantha and I went with Tyler to see The Dark Knight last night. I'm not sure what I expected, but it was above and beyond what I thought it would be. Batman Begins was a good movie, but this was a great movie. I've heard people say that Heath Ledger "lost himself" in the role of The Joker. I 'm not exactly sure what they mean, but his performance is spot on. Creepy to the point of making you feel exceedingly uncomfortable when he's on screen, even if Batman is there to bust some heads.

They continued with the development of Batman, mostly illustrated through a few short mentions of upgrading the Bat suit, which was nice. Usually the sequel just begins with the super hero we all know and we're supposed to just believe that they figured out exactly how to use their powers, or in this case perfected their tools. Although I was worried in the beginning, because the Bat suit looked kind of stupid. Later on, though, Wayne sets out for another tweak to the suit, and it looks pretty cool for the rest of the movie. I think in the next one they'll have yet another update, because the suit wasn't perfect... yet.

There's also a lot of other characters. It isn't just shots of Batman terrorizing thugs on the streets and lounging in his penthouse like past Batman movies. Gordon, the Mayor and even other police officers play major roles, not to mention regular citizens who, in the chaos of The Joker's game, end up with one of the most important decisions in their hands.

Technically, the movie was great. They pulled back about 3 feet while filming the fighting scenes, which was a vast improvement over the (I now admit) confusing and somewhat frustrating fight scenes from Begins. The choreography was spot on. Coupled with the intense pounding sounds of Batman's fists, it'll make you cringe at how real the fights look. Those thugs really take a beating. The camera work was interesting, but not overtly flashy to the point of distraction.

All in all, it's one that anyone should see. If you're a Batman fan, I can't imagine you won't enjoy it. If you're not a Batman fan, I bet you really are and you just don't know it yet.

And now for something completely different

Dear Mark,

Today you felt like a college student. Which is strange. Or maybe not strange, seeing as you are a college student (you're half way through at this point), but at least out of the ordinary. There were times when you've felt like this before. They usually come during the summer. They're always accompanied by friends.

Let's face it: you don't have a whole lot of friends. I'm not being mean, just saying. But that has to do with the whole quantity versus quality argument. Tyler came over, Dave followed a little later. Of course Samantha was there. We all watched X-Files episodes, Batman Begins and then sat outside about 20 yards from a failed bonfire. (You wanted to have a bonfire and no one else was interested. Also, for some reason, sticks don't burn that well around here).

Tyler, Dave and you played cards out on the back patio while Sam cleaned around the house. She didn't want to play cards.

It seems odd how a perfectly lazy, simple day can feel good. There's plenty of shit to worry about but we ignored it today. We sat outside and played cards, sweating and cursing over Death Cab for Cutie.

There might be something profound hidden somewhere in the details of today. Let's not worry about it too much. I just thought you'd like to remember today.

We should do this again some time.

-Mark

Forever 21

I turned 21 on the 8th. It's been really hard work staying alive this long, but it's totally worth it.

I haven't done anything with this blog in a long, long time. Which is normally what I do with stuff like this.

We're headed up to Defiance with baby Jane, Velda and the girls this weekend. I think this is Jane's first trip. It's going to be Babypalooza up there. Jane, Brody and Riddick. Luckily babies aren't like dogs, so we won't have to keep them separated while they eat. There are few things worse than a baby fight. That'll ruin your weekend.

A few days ago we were contacted by a guy who's interested in ordering 500 of our hand tea-dyed shirts. Yeah, 500. When I read the email the first time I was terrified and said there was no way we could do it. But then I thought about it, Sam and I sat down and talked about some details and we think it is more than do-able. If we go about it the right way we should be fine. Plus, it's not like either of us have jobs, so we can spend 8 hours a day dyeing t-shirts. No prob.

I called him today and talked numbers. He isn't the decision maker, so he's passing along our info to the committee, who should be getting back to us within the next week. Sam's making up a few samples to send their way. It's pretty exciting stuff. This would be our biggest deal ever. I think it might actually be fun to fill an order so gigantic. Plus, the shirts are for the First Annual Northwest Tea Festival which sounds like a great time. I wish we lived in Seattle so we could check it out.

That's all for today. Don't want to over do it...