Netflix, and a Bad Movie Review

I'm not so happy with Netflix these days. Netflix is my favorite, however, they took away one of my favorite applications. That application was my "friends." See, here is the thing with Netflix, they had this feature where you could have friends, and I had a lot. When you were friends with your "friends" you could see their Queue (pronounced by just saying the letter "Q" - unlike me who likes to pronounce it "Q-E"- not correct. Also your Queue is where you list your movies that you want to rent, and the order you would like to receive them). For the past two weeks I have been devastated over the fact that I can't see what all my "friends" are watching and rating. It really has put a damper on my life. Oh the life I live. So, because I just have SOOOOO much time on my hands I called Netflix to ask them if this "friends" application had moved, or got removed. Much to my disappointment they have REMOVED it permanently from the website, and don't plan on ever bringing it back. What a shame. I was in a bad mood the rest of the day. Okay, not really, but I was sad about it. I guarantee my Mother Dearest is not sad that they removed this feature, because she hated the fact that I could see her Queue and all the horror/weird movies that she rents. Hi Mommy, I know you are rolling your eyes at that comment. (Does that mean most likely you are going to call me and tell me to take that last comment off, right?)

Now, let me get down to business. As being "friends" you could also write reviews on movies - you can still do that, but none of my "friends" will ever see my review. So, to utilize my blog I am going to write a review on here - not that I have never done that before, because I have.

Movie: The Canyon

My Rating: 1 Star out of 5 Stars

Rating: R, for brief disturbing content - according to Netflix

Genre: Thriller - I never once got scared, bored, but never scared!

Time: 97 minutes I WILL NEVER GET BACK!

***Spoiler Alert*** (I am going to tell you the ending. But, I can guarantee you won't want to waste your time on this movie)

Two honeymooners, Nick and Lori elope to Las Vegas and then spend their honeymoon at the Grand Canyon. The two love birds want to do a "back country excursion" on donkeys to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The two newlyweds can't seem to get a permit at the snap of their fingers, when one night at the bar this old Mountain Man tells them that he can get a permit and take them down. Blah, blah, blah! On the first day of trekking their rustic Mountain Man Guide gets bit by a rattle snake and dies. The two love birds are left to try to survive and make it back to the top.

A bunch of boring survival stuff happens throughout the majority of the movie. They get tracked by wolves the entire time, and I kept thinking that the ending would be the love birds getting ate by these wolves. Not so. Having said that, I did my homework on this fact about wolves in the Grand Canyon, thus, the Grand Canyon does have an endangered wolf known as the Mexican Wolf which is approximately 5 feet long from end to end. These wolves in the movie were big, meat hungry wolves, that are not found in the Grand Canyon. Another thing that bothered me to no end was the fact that the girl, Lori, kept trying to get cell phone service - PALEASE! Really, come on? Everyone knows that you can't get cell phone service in the bottom of the Grand Canyon. So, to ruin the movie for you. Her newlywed hubby gets his leg stuck in a rock and the wife has to cut it out. Which brings me to my favorite line from the movie, Lori: "Here, you have to bite on this." As she places a piece of wood in his mouth to help with the pain she is going to cause by cutting his leg off. He say's, "I love it when you talk dirty." Gag! They did some great writing in this movie. She does cut his leg off and she gets him to hobble for some distance when the wolves attack again...where I'm still thinking this may be how the movie ends. Oh no, she ends up killing him by cutting off his air - plugs his nose and covers his mouth. Just moments after she cuts off his air a helicopter lands to save them. Yup, I just wasted 97 minutes of my life - kind of. I never waste anytime when watching a movie because I always make sure I am doing something, i.e. dishes, laundry, crocheting, SOMETHING. So, technically I did accomplish a lot why I watched this terrible movie.

Lastly, I am still trying to figure out why this movie was rated "R" because there was no sex, no violence, no disturbing images, and only one use of the "F" word. I have seen PG-13 movies dirtier than this one.

Take my word - don't waste your time on this movie.

Texting at Church!!!!

Here comes another "soap box" moment from me. It's a lot of reading...so if you can't stay focused then don't read it, and don't comment telling me it "was a lot of reading!!!"

Oh how I hate texting at church! A couple of years ago in one of my many single wards, one Sunday over the pulpit the member of the Bishopric read a statement from "higher authority" about leaving your cell phones at home, or in the car for the 3 hour block. I will admit that I had occasionally taken my iPod to church to play games...and used the excuse that my scriptures are on my iPod. However, at church, because it can be boring at times, I would get distracted and end up playing one of my totally fun games. I would feel bad because people would see me, and I'm sure they thought, "look at that girl on her cell phone texting." Well peep's I wasn't texting, but I wasn't reading my scriptures either. Since this statement about leaving your cell phones at home I took it to heart, and did just what that "higher authority" said. Now listen, I'm not saying I'm perfect by any means. You can think that I am, but I am FAR FROM IT! However, I am trying to work towards perfection, and feel that this is a start by leaving my cell phone in my car. It's 3 hours people - 3 hours!!!

I go off on my soap box because of what happened today in my institute class. I am trying to graduate from institute - gag, I know. To graduate I need to take a full year of the Book of Mormon. In all my college/institute years I have never taken a full year of the Book of Mormon. Crazy, I know? I have taken a full year of "Dating and Courtship" and well, you can all see where that has gotten me. 30 and single...or am I??? Ahhhh - let's stay on track here! So, in my institute class today my teacher read us an article straight from the SUU Journal (SUU's Newspaper) about texting in Church. I was blown away! As he was reading this I was looking around to my fellow (church going) classmates when guess what they were doing, playing on their cell phones. Come on people!!! Well, hopefully it touched someone in class today, besides me.

So, after class I went on to SUU's website and searched the archives for this awesome article. I want all to read this article, and to strive to leave your cell phone at home when attending church. I say these things...AMEN YO's!

Do you want to see more of my rants??? Apparently I have a few...

Are College Students Really That Stupid???

I just Can't Seem to Let it Go

Learn From These People

Reasons Why I Shouldn't Bartend

Dating Stinks...I'll Leave it at That???

If you have young children DO NOT TAKE THEM TO THE MOVIE THEATER!!!

I Deserve an A+ and by Damn I'm getting an A-

Doing Homework Among Others

Sunday-worshipper finds texting in church distracting

By Asher Swan

Monday, September 6, 2010

“Keep the sabbath day holy.” What does that mean nowadays? Does it mean you don’t go shopping and buy your necessities? Or could it mean don’t go watch that borderline-not-okay movie at the theatre with your friends?

From my understanding, Sunday is a day we, as members of a religion, spend supposedly resting and appreciating the blessings from which we are given.

Now don’t get me wrong — there are a multitude of activities and gatherings besides Sunday that offer a time to reflect and pray with loved ones and friends, but because Sunday is the “all -important day,” I would think people would treat it as such.

Now let me get this straight. I am a Latter-day Saint myself — I’m not the most practicing Latter-day Saint, but I do have a strong belief in the religion.

I went to church for the first time in a long time a few weeks ago and I was enjoying a talk by one of the many missionaries in the ward and his belief in the Lord.

The man was crying and bearing his testimony and to my amazement, I looked down my pew to see six or seven people in this singles ward, all of them in some kind of computer-screen daze, having a conversation with someone outside the walls of this haven we call church. The same thing was happening to a lot of other people in other pews.

They were texting incessantly; some were even playing games. It was shocking because I, as an inactive member, assume the people who go to church adamantly follow its teachings.

They could surely step away from their phones for a minute and listen to this missionary tell his story and relate his love for the gospel, but in return all he got were the tops of members heads and mediocre smiles as he sat down and wiped his tears from his heartfelt moment.

Is that fair? Is that right? I thought when we go to church we are there for a reason.

Maybe we are in need of some uplifting — I was — and so I went somewhere I thought I could receive that but in all actuality it was very much a downer.

I began to ask people if they keep the sabbath day holy and if so, how and why?

I felt the answer I was receiving was slightly varied. Some people agreed with me — being in church is more important than contact with friends. Others admitted they took their phone to chat when “it gets boring.”

This thinking let my mind wander to the thought, “are you here in this building because you want to be, or because you feel obligated due to community pressures and the way you were raised?” To stop going could mean other people’s judgements and opinions would be thrown around. Rather than deal with those opinions, I wondered if people go to save face.

For all members of a church and faith, not just Latter-day Saints, churches are free to the public and sometimes the person next to you might be there for reasons you don’t know.

So put the phone down, be in the moment and “keep the sabbath day holy.”

The people around you aren’t the only ones watching. Look up.

Asher Swan is the art editor for the University Journal. He can be reached at aswan@suunews.com.

If you would like to leave the author of this article a comment go here!

First and Last BBQ of the Summer

My brother Cash has now become a "follower" on Blogger - look out! Therefore, he gets after me for not updating my blog almost everyday (and he comments to me quite frequently about everyone else who doesn't update their blog everyday). So Cash, here you go, I updated my blog!

How odd is this that my family only did one BBQ this summer? SO ODD! Well, to end off a much fun summer, my Mother Dearest put together a BBQ at my brother Cash's house. I have retired from planning and putting together BBQ's. That may be one reason there was only one BBQ this summer??? However, we had a great turnout and lot's of good food, but we ALWAYS have lots of good food.

Me and my beautiful little baby girl, Peyton.

(We know she's not mine...but I'll take her any day!)

Cute as can be cousins playing so well together. Joren, Terek, and Trace - such a cute pose!

Big Tanner!

Me and my girls! Summer, myself, Jessie, and Anisa.

I just wanted to share one little tid bit from the BBQ, and that is my brother Cash, impersonating an old "flame" of mine...some of you, well, a lot of you might have got to meet this "real winner" of a boyfriend of mine - The Chad. What on earth was I thinking??? For some odd reason Cash loves to make fun of him, (along with EVERYONE ELSE IN MY FAMILY) and I'm okay with it. Basically, I'm just glad as can be that I didn't end up with him. Woosh! Here is the very short video snippet of Cash impersonating The Chad. Enjoy!