"Mockingjay" is in two parts? And anyone else hear about the shoot out!?

Okay, so this is all getting a
tinsy bit ridiculous and it needs to stop.
Remember when it was “cool” that books were being split up into two
parts for the movie, yeah, well not anymore.
It’s been done twice already and the second half of that craze comes out
this November, but of course another big book-movie franchise just had to go
and do it as well…here’s the problem: THERE ISNT ENOUGH TO MAKE A SECOND MOVIE!
I’m pretty sure you know what
I’m talking about. It’s not that hard to
guess. I’m talking about Mockingjay, the final installment of The Hunger Games Trilogy. You see, November 23rd is when
Katniss and Peeta enter the ring once again to battle for the title of victor
with a bunch of other crazy and lovable characters that come along for the ride
in Catching Fire. And forgive me if you didn’t know they go
back in, I did say spoiler alert. But
come on, who hasn’t read the books by now trying to get a jist of what will be
on the big screen? I know I read them
all in one week a couple of months before The
Hunger Games came out so yeah, it can be done.
But let’s talk about Mockingjay; the final, and to me, almost
as anticlimactic as Breaking Dawn,
novel is of course being adapted into a movie.
It wouldn’t make sense to do books one and two but then go, “Nah, let’s
not do the third one.” Anyway, what’s
shocking is the fact that this movie will also be broke up into two parts. Here’s my problem with this, it’s just a scam
to make more money. See, if you’re a Twilight fan, which I am—don’t judge me,
or if you’re a Harry Potter fan,
which I’m not—again don’t judge me, you know that the final installments of
those book series were LARGE enough to break up into
two different movies. Hell, let’s face it;
HP as big as all those novels were
could have had fourteen movies. Even I
know that, and I’ve never even read a single book. Breaking
Dawn same deal. It had enough info
to set it up for two movies, and a story line that had three parts to it. But it had the perfect ending point for a
movie, Bella waking up finally a vampire.
Everything else that takes place after is cool until the battle that
should but doesn’t happen. And if they
ever decide to REBOOT and DO RIGHT The Inheritance Cycle, all those books could be two movies
especially Eldest and Inheritance. Shoot, The
Hobbit is being broken up into two parts and to me that makes perfect sense. Even though they were able to put all of the
other three in one movie, they’re splitting up the prologue because now it’s “cool”
to do that but it’s a book that has the ability to be split up into two parts
so it also makes sense.
The idea of two movies was
cool. The Twilight people came up with it first, and then Harry Potter rushed to try and have it
done as well and succeeded with both parts to the point part 2 is now a record
breaker. Breaking Dawn; Part 2 may also break some records…actually now that
I think about it, it comes out the same month as Catching Fire…this should be interesting. But Mockingjay? Come on!
There is sooooooo not enough in that book to make two movies. The stupid war happens, nothing really
important besides her killing that one resistant chick, who I disliked so much
I can’t remember, and don’t feel the need to go and look up, her name, and then
they just send her home like nothing happened, she has two kids and depresses
the moment that she actually had kids.
Oh, and Peeta and Katniss have sex, for those of you who were naïve like
my little sister and totally didn’t catch that scene once they were back home
in the final chapter. Honestly, how do
you think the kids got there?
Truly, there isn’t really
anywhere they can cut this story off and make everyone wait, there isn’t much
that happens, and so I’m trying to understand why November 21st 2014
is Mockingjay; Part 1, and Novemeber
20th 2015 is Mockingjay; Part
2. Not only are they making us wait,
but they’re doing it for a whole year.
Why can’t they just be like New
Moon and Eclipse—we only waited
six months. It’s just a ploy to make
more money and it’s sad. Not to mention
Jennifer Lawrence is young Mystique for First
Class, and I so do not want to be waiting until 2016 for the second First Class to come out, because, yes,
as far as I know, Fox is willing to wait for her to finish The Hunger Games Trilogy first before she does the movie. They already were waiting for her to finish Catching Fire but if she’s going to be
going straight through with these movies then we’re waiting a while to see the
genius that is First Class end up
back on the big screen and I’d rather see that any day then an extra Hunger Games movie for a book I really
didn’t even like.
(Sigh). Honestly I’m still holding on for Breaking Dawn; Part 2 because they might
just let the fight happen. Meyer doesn’t
seem to have too much control over what happens and that was apparent when
Felix and Edward duked it out in New Moon
which didn’t happen in the book. But it
made Bella crying out “No, don’t, take me instead” (and I paraphrased that FYI)
a little more realistic and more emotional—if Stewart can even being emotional. Oh well, tell me what you guys think. But until next time, According to Michael
III, this is completely stupid and no I’m not all giddy about seeing both
parts.
—Michael III

P.S. And on a sad side note, to all my friends and family that weren't in Colorado at the time, I praise God you weren't. My prayers do go out to the families of the "Dark Knight Rises" shooting in Colorado. And I hope the bastard that did it fries. I just heard about it as I was pasting this up here and I had to say something about it. I'm over here crying because I can't see the movie this weekend, and the most tragic incident since VT happened last night at the midnight premiere in Colorado. I may not be seeing the movie but there are hundreds of families who now have something else to worry about. God be with you all.

Living Up to her Name. Review of Jamie Grace's first studio album "One Song At A Time"

Living up to her name.
Jamie Grace—a new Christian
artist young and ready to take on the world with her guitar, her fresh dance
beats, alto voice and the Lord by her side.
Jamie Grace is living up to her name as she comes out with her debut
studio album One Song At A Time which
is filled with upbeat positive songs about loving God and enjoying life. Jamie is different than what I’ve heard so
far but it makes sense that TobyMac was the one to discover her. The former DC Talk member has his own different
“changing up the music” unique style and unlike Justin Bieber, Jamie was
discovered through her YouTube page and will actually mean something to the
world.
With my new job at His Word: A
Parable Christian Book Store I get to be around a lot of music I’m not use
to. This is nice because I’ve been
looking for new Christian music that still has a pop feel to it. She was up there in the top 20 selling artist
and she was like number four or five on the list. Curious I picked up the CD and saw she did a
song with TobyMac, who is one of my favorite artists because of his different
style of music. So I scanned it and
started playing the song “Hold Me” feat TobyMac and instantly realized I had
heard the song before, on KLove. Which
is surprising, for those of you who are also Christian and listen to KLove, you
know they hardly ever play anything different, but they like Toby so it makes
sense they take an interest into his new project. KLove plays a lot, and I do mean A LOT of
praise and worship music that’s slower and chill. Honestly, if I didn’t want to die this young,
I could fall asleep while driving in my car with KLove playing, which is why,
honestly, I only turn it on when I’m really bored and I’m tired of listening to
what I do own. Just to try to see if there
is something new on…with KLove; generally, not really. Not to bash on this great radio station, but
Praise and Worship isn’t all that there is out there. There motto is “Positive, encouraging music,
KLove.” It can be a little more upbeat
musically wise as well.
Sorry, long explanation short,
Jamie is fantastic. I have her music
playing right now and its 2:31 AM and I should be in bed, but the little one
isn’t allowing that, and neither is my wife’s negligence in washing our bed
sheets from the babies throw up before I went to work. Anyway, Jamie shows the magnitude of God’s
grace throughout all her songs as she sings about being in love with God and
Him always being on her mind. She strums
that guitar as the beats play behind her that give a carefree look to the world
with messages that says, “You’re making the sun shine today, yeah, I may be
going through something, but you’re right there keeping me moving on and I
thank you for that.”
Her song with TobyMac just has a
few vocals in the back as Toby sings over and over “I love, I love, I love, I
love the way you hold me.” She talks
about at the end of a long day just relaxing and focusing on God and thanking
him for what He’s done for you is like being held in his arms and He has arms
big enough for everyone. Jamie uses her
music to cleverly help you focus on the good even when the storm is going on
with songs such as “Show Jesus” which is one of my favorites which is a song in
which Jamie talks about someone who is so positive and living for God that he
just walks in the room and he can show Jesus and radiate positivity—an example
for how we should be.
The album opens up with “Ready
to Fly” which is a simple folk-like song as if being played on a record, that
to me, since it is a prelude to the whole album, is Jamie saying, “I’m ready
for the Lord to take me to new heights” and her first album is definitely the
start in my opinion. As you listen you
can’t help but smile and want to sing along as you dance. Then like any good
album the music does wind down all the way until she finishes with “Not Alone”
a simple song played on the piano and shows the depth of Jamie as she simply
tells everyone no matter what we’re going through, His arms are big enough and
we’re never alone. A ballad that sends
chills down your spine and helps you realize you aren’t because those chills is
that Spirit reaching out. She lives up
to her last name which is grace and she shows her love for the copious amounts
He has shed on her by using her talents to give Him the glory.
I’m excited to see where this is
going to go next and I hope it comes soon, but until then, “Show Jesus” and
“Not Alone” will be bumping on my iPod.
Check out the video for “Hold Me” below and see how she just lays back
driving around with TobyMac as they sing to the Lord. Until next time, According to Michael III,
Jamie Grace One Song At A Time is
fantastic, one song at a time.
—Michael III

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISgr8SgCYbY
“Hold Me” Jamie Grace feat. TobyMac Video

NaNoWriMo helped me get published...by accident

This is all by accident! You’ll find that funny once I tell you what’s
going on.
So I’m getting published, well
actually it’s self-published, but finally! a novel of mine will be on the
shelves or at least available online. So
here’s what happened. Have you ever
heard of NaNoWriMo? Yeah, well unless
you’re a serious writer it’s probably something you haven’t, actually, I can’t
even say that. I didn’t hear about
NaNoWriMo until about two years after I started writing, making it one year
after I had gotten serious about making it my career.
So here’s the deal with NaNo;
it’s created by authors who realize the first step in getting published is
actually finishing the book! I know
right!? Shocker! So the creators of this site—who I have no
idea who they are because I’m still new to them and I can’t really find out the
history of how NaNo truly started—began a quest in 2001, as far as I can tell,
that would help authors, young and old, finish a book and take their first step
out on a journey that would hopefully be fulfilling. It started off small but has grown to
millions of participants every year and continues to grow exponentially and has
sparked a camp and a month dedicated to Scripts. Alright, I’m all over the place, I know, so
let me tell you exactly what it is.
NaNoWriMo is “literary abandon”
as they say. It started off by having a
contest every single November which is the National Novel Writing Month. The contest comes down during the 1st
of November until the 30th at Midnight. Contestants are to write an entire novel,
50,000 words or more. That’s a lot
right? Well here’s how they make it
simple. You can write it, you can type
it, you can do both, however you decide to do it you can do it as long as it is
50,000 words. They have a site in which
you create a completely free profile, because they earn their money
through donations, and keep track of the words.
So basically, in my opinion, typing would be easier because then it
would be easier to keep track of how many words you’ve typed. NaNo is very lax on their rules. They feel that the true reward of the contest
is actually completing the novel itself and so if you screw around and post 50,000
words of crap, or copy it from somewhere else, you can still win the
contest. Trust me; nothing is better
than feeling the success of actually writing and finishing that novel, if
you’re a true writer. Or, and that’s the
other thing, you don’t actually have to finish the novel. The moment you reach 50,000 is the moment you
win that contest. This number is
apparently the standard novel count.
Standard doesn’t mean there aren’t smaller novels out there. But it’s to help you sit down and write that
novel you’ve been planning to write, have started to write, or have already
written maybe down on paper but you’ve been procrastinating on typing or
whatever. It’s to help get those
creative ideas flowing and get that novel started.
Since 2001 the numbers have
climbed and now NaNo has been able to do different things such as NaNoWriMo
Camp—“Based on November’s National Novel
Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), Camp NaNoWriMo provides the online support, tracking
tools, and hard deadline to help you write the rough draft of your novel in a
month… other than November!”—and Script Frenzy which is in April and has
rules set up for writing a script by the ending of April. There are many other things that NaNo does
including fundraising, a store, a fundraising/writing night; it’s all dedicated
to writing and getting that first draft down.
When I first heard about
NaNoWriMo they had a janky website.
There site wasn’t yet equipped to handle the thousands to possibly
millions of writers that were competing for the ability to say, “Yeah, I wrote
that.” And so when I first tried to get
on my computer’s browser kept crashing.
Well I was able to do one thing, which was sign up and so a couple of
years later they sent me an email about how their site was new and
improved. So I checked it out, and by
this time it was the last week of October last year. It was a lot better and I learned a lot more
about what NaNoWriMo was. I found out
that winning the contest was actually noticed by a few publishers because it’s
a contest of commitment. At this
point I had and have a literary agent through the Pikkante Media Network and he
wanted me to make sure I focused on getting my name out there by doing as many
contest as I possibly could. So I
entered NaNoWriMo. I used one of my
novels that I had already written out but hadn’t typed. It was the last one I’ve finished in a while
and I felt it was my best writing. I
didn’t want to just use the novel I’m trying to get published on so I went
ahead and typed up this latest story.
Well I won the contest, but only
because at the time I had a sample of a story that I hadn’t finished and I
originally planned on connecting the two together so putting in the first few
chapters of that as an excerpt helped me make the count and I won. I was surprised to find out one of the prizes
this year was the ability to get five free copies of you book in actual
published form for me to do whatever I pleased through a website known as
Createspace.com. I thought that was cool
but I wanted to edit the story so I went ahead and started working on that and
I eventually took out the excerpt because when I started Book 2 of my novel I
couldn’t make that excerpt fit without making the story completely ridiculous. So the book is now 5,000 words short give or
take a few hundred words. Not bad, and
like I said, there are shorter novels.
Anyway once I start going
through the process on Createspace.com, I realize once they start telling me to
set a price and my distribution channels that I actually will be making this available
for sale. At that point it just blew my
mind, a self-publishing website that was free basically, and one of the
available channels is Amazon.com…this could actually be how I could get my
start. So now I’m going through and
trying to fine tune this book as best as I possibly can so I can get this out
there. I just wanted to let you all know
a little of what’s happening, as I get closer to setting it all up you will
know more. I’m excited and you should be
too and I’m hoping to get this book mainstream as soon as possible. Also if I can get enough money from my sales
I can transfer it into a Kindle E-book as well so those of you with fancy
devices can read as well. Anyway, that’s
all I wanted to say, but until next time According to Michael III, sometimes
accidents can work out in your favor. If
you want to check out NaNoWriMo then here is the link to their website, http://www.nanowrimo.org/.
—Michael III

The "Justice League" movie and the work that needs to be done

Okay, let's talk about the work that needs to be done.

With The Dark Knight Rises coming out next week and Man of Steel hitting theaters next year battling the going to be brilliant and exceptional Iron Man 3 after the success of The Avengers this year we need to look at the work that needs to be done for the Justice League movie. And boy is there work to be done.

According to Moviepilot.com "the Justice League movie has finally been given the green light." The article continues to talk about how Marvel used the heroes separate movies to do little hints to The Avengers so they're hoping DC will do the same and we'll see maybe a glimpse or a hint at Superman in The Dark Knight Rises. Which would be cool, but at this point I don't care because that's not the important stuff. The important stuff is the work that needs to be done for the JL movie.

First thing is first, Dark knight. They're going to have to have Christopher Nolan to help with the script. If they're going to use Bale as Batman and use the Batman from The Dark Knight Trilogy then they need to have Christopher's genius on the script. Maybe not the whole script but he needs to be there to make sure his Batman doesn't get screwed up. Or else they'd have to reboot the entire series and they so don't want to do that. Batman is a hit or miss and Christopher not only hit but he also hit it out of the park so they'd piss off a lot of fans trying to redo what he's already accomplished.

Superman, same deal—it's a hit or miss. I haven't followed the Man of Steel that much because of the fact I still believe Tom Welling would have been perfect for the movie since Smallville was ending, but nooooo! I didn't have the blog then so my voice didn't matter much I guess. But seriously, ten years as Superman is enough to prove he can do it. But it all comes down to the movie next year, if it's a success, then it will be the real start to making a JL, they will have two heroes done and accounted for, and if they already know what they want to do for the JL movie they can start putting in their hints with Man of Steel. But that's only the beginning; there is still A LOT of work to be done. Shall I continue?

As far as I know, to make a JL movie you need to have your main heroes who lead the teams; two are down with Superman and Batman. Next, in my opinion, you need Wonder Woman, GL, Green Arrow, Flash, and maybe Hawk Man and Hawk Girl; the other heroes, i.e. every other DC hero, falls into place. See here's how I see it: The Avengers, as awesome as it was, was EASY! When you compare it to JL you know I'm right. The Avengers is a small group of heroes who do intermingle with Spider-Man and the X-Men and The Fantastic Four, as far as I know—remember not a huge Avengers fan—and that's simple. The JL is the ENTIRE DC Universe of heroes coming together to defeat problems too big even for a small group. The JL were the team to stop the evil plots that would actually succeed in taking over or destroying the world. You only really need to do the movies for the main leaders of the team and the other heroes can fall into place and maybe if the fans like them they'll get their own movie. Honestly, if DC was smart they would use this to their advantage and every time they want to do a JL movie still have the main plot introduced in the movies, but do it by using new movies with heroes who had small parts in the last JL movie. That way it's new and fresh always. That's what I would do, and then DC would get a lot more of their heroes recognition instead of them being only mentioned in lame shows like Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Long explanation short, you need the main leaders to do the first movie, here's the problem with that even though Batman and Superman are done.

Green Lantern: I liked the movie but everyone else didn't. And that's because DC and Marvel need to realize that while they're are comic book fans, a majority of their fans are coming from the audience that watches the TV shows that generation. My generation grew up with a Black Green Lantern named John Stewart. That was literally the question I always heard, "I thought the Green Lantern was black?" Not everyone knows who Hal Jordan is. And in retrospect while Ryan Reynolds did good with what they gave him, whoever wrote the script and did the storyboard didn't make GL the beast his is. He has a ring that can create anything and frankly everyone's constructs were weak. Oh! And also, not everyone knows that Sinestro was a GL first before he went evil. They have to reboot GL for the JL movie, that's a given. But if they want to get more fans I’m thinking Will Smith as John Stewart, that's the start. Maybe even Denzel but he'd have to beef up for it.

Wonder Woman: Well they need to have a woman come on board and do the movie, no men, this is Amazonian territory. They were going to do a TV show that was cancelled before it started because they tried to make Wonder Woman something she's not, a pansy. They got this skinny little twig to play her when WW is a freaking Amazon! She's supposed to be big—muscularly, pretty as well but big…Laila Ali status! And they also messed with the costume, and it just went downhill from there. To make JL survive we need a WW movie written and directed by a woman who knows the comics, plain and simple and will stay true to the truth.

Green Arrow: The problem with him is he has a TV show coming out his fall. Doing a movie opens up a lot of what do we do? Do we use the TV show as a background? Do we use the same actors, is it completely separate? Is this going to mess with the show? What do the fans want? Can the TV actor pull it on the big screen? And etc. enough said on Green Arrow.

Flash: They need some really good graphics, because unlike Superman, Flash uses the Super Speed all the time, and they would have to get a good looking skinny guy with a funny personality. But once again they would have to have the character from TV from this generation, because I know there are like two, I believe, plus Kid Flash

Hawk Man and Hawk Girl: I take them off the list as "leaders" of the JL and add—

Black Canary: She's the on and off fling of Green Arrow and she's got the fighting skills of Batman along with the awesome power to scream at pitches that can knock someone off their feet. She's a leader in my book at least according to the JL TV show and Young Justice. Again—TV show fans are most likely more prominent than Comic fans.

As of right now, I'm pretty sure there is a lot more...J’ONN! The Martian Manhunter! He needs a movie too and I have no idea what his origin story is but it would be best for him to come after Superman because Superman opens up the possibility of Earth accepting aliens. Denzel would actually be perfect for John. Weird two major black superheroes named John…loosely, and don't trip. We both know John in the TV shows had a black man’s voice. But a lot of work needs to be done.

These movies seriously have to be on point every single one! Because the minuet one of the heroes isn't what people want to see then that's when the fans won't want them on the big screen ever again and so a reboot must happen and we can't wait forever on this movie. Now a maybe smarter route would be to have Batman's attention in The Dark Knight Rises point at Superman and he says something about looking into it, like some government agency wants him to check out SM to make sure he's legit and not dangerous and then in Man of Steel have Bale make a cameo as Bruce Wayne in Metropolis and hint at maybe a Batman/Superman movie first and use that as a setup for JL.

Like the two of them talk about recruiting heroes for the team for a bigger threat that’s mention in the SM&BM movie and the first half of the JL movie is finding the other leaders of the team and getting them ready. Once they defeat the big baddie something else threatens the world and they realize that they're not enough so that's when they start making the team bigger. No matter what they do, JL is going to be a complicated feat but I have no doubt they will pull it off and I can't wait until they do. But you see that this isn't going to be easy and I'm pretty sure you've thought of something I've already missed, especially if you're a comic book fan. But you know I go with what I know.

Anyway, until next time, According to Michael III, it's going to be sweet to see how they pull this going to be HUGE—and I can't stress that enough—movie together. It's going to be one wild ride, but we'll probably get two more Avengers during that time especially since after Man of Steel we won’t see a DC movie again until 2016…so we'll be good while we wait!

—Michael III

"Legend of Korra"--Finale to Air let me down, but something big is happening to the show!

So who has been watching the special they're running on Nickelodeon? You know the one about Korra? Don't worry if you haven't, I'm not watching it either and that's because the Avatar series finally let me down.

Don't get all upset, hear me out first. If you're a true fan then you know from the season finale of “Book one: Water,” all the way to "Sozin's Comet; Parts 1-4;" which was nominated and one a few Emmys (Wikiepedia.com), then you know that Avatar has continually shocked us with each season and how “Skeletons in the Closet” and “Endgame” didn’t really compete. Let me break it down for you by finales:

1. "Siege of the North; Parts 1&2":

· Iroh shows a good side to him.

· Aang combines with the Ocean spirit to do some serious damage.

· Katara got an upgrade and got degraded in that fight with Zuko.

· Sokka fell in love and got his heart broken.

· Moon spirit died and came back thanks to Princess Yue.

· And above all we get to see our first glimpse of psychotic, mommy issues, Firebending prodigy Azula.

2. "The Guru" and "Crossroads of Destiny" (I'll sum this one up in two sentences:)

· Aang tries to take control of the Avatar state which gets us to view the emotional turmoil of his character more and who doesn't love the Big AS?

· Azula KILLS Aang and Katara brings him back with the spirit oasis water (thank God she didn't use it on Zuko) but the Avatar state is now lost forever...

3. Or is it? "Sozin's Comet;" Part 1: "The Phoenix King," Part 2: "The Old Masters," Part 3: "Into the Inferno," and Part 4: "Avatar Aang" (This one will be longer folks):

· Azula becomes a whack out fire lord.

· The series takes its first step to becoming darker with the Fire Lord's plan for the arrival of Sozin's Comet.

· Aang gets to talk to two previous Avatars we've never seen before and meets a lion turtle.

· The Agni Kai—gosh that scene is so beautiful and if you have a sibling you love dearly try imagining you and them finally fighting basically to the death...I don't know about you but I couldn't imagine taking my little sister down like that, even if by that point she was completely insane.

· The fight with Ozai in which he accidently reactivated the Avatar State—and in case you didn't notice ,basically allowed us to have a Legend of Korra in the first place.
Aang tries to show mercy and still does but opens up the possibility of Energybending—again another Legend of Korra birth mother.

· Zuko is Fire Lord and Aang is a fully realized Avatar and the 100 years of peace are about to begin.

· And the kiss that will eventually lead to creating Tenzin.

All fantastic endings, but the Finale to “Air” left me wanting a lot more and not in the I can't wait for season two fashion. I can't wait, but the finale was weak in my opinion.
When it came down to it, it was obvious Korra would somehow learn to replace the bending taken away. If it can be taken away it can be given back. The fight with Amon had a lot to be desired, it was just too quick. Also it was a little cheesy with the whole oh now she can Airbend, or the "I love you's" between her and Mako. The only cool or exciting part was the fact that Aang was somehow able to give Korra her bending back even though he's dead, and that Amon was Tarrlok’s brother which totally replaces my earlier comment in a post back in the day that says that episode with Tarrlok and Yakone was pointless, until we got deeper into the storyline. Oh! And let's face it, the real exciting part of the whole finale was when Tarrlok killed him and his brother trying to rid the world of the evil their father had created. That was the only thing that had me feel like I didn't waste my hour.

Avatar has had higher standards when it came to their finales and I don't blame the people who work on the show, I blame nickelodeon. They gave them a rinky-dink time slot and not very much time to make the season all come together. I know this show is totally different from The Last Airbender, but Nick put restraints on them and so everything is rushed. Now they have two extra episodes for next season so we'll see how that goes. But it's still rushed. I'm not saying it’s not a good show, it's a great show but the finale disappointed me. Well what do you think? Let me know in the comments below. And if you can check out the specials starting at 9:00pm on Nick and see what's going on behind the scenes. Anyway until next time, According to Michael III, The Legend of Korra first season was good, but we've seen better.

—Michael III

P.S…

SEASON ONE IS NOT OVER!

That’s right folks. I was doing a little more research after I typed this up and now Legend of Korra has been expanded to two seasons of 52 episodes total. The first season is set to have the last 14 which we originally supposed to be season 2 join together with season one making season one 26 episodes long with two books (Wikipedia.com). Season two will break down the same way with two books and 26 more episodes. Trust me when I say this, a season three will be ordered, and you can bet your ass on that one. But to me it’s still too rushed. In The Last Airbender each season was one book entirely so rushing the books still seems like it’s a little hectic. But look at it this way; we will now have three more books with a FULLY REALIZED Avatar. No more training except probably in the spiritual sense for Korra, but she’s fully realized now, all elements and Avatar state and all. So we’ll actually get to see an Avatar traveling the world doing their Avatar duties so that should be cool. I wonder who the next villain will be now that Amon is dead. Let’s face it, there is no way Amon lived through that explosion and if he did that will be stretching it a little too much for Avatar. Even though he was surrounded by water he had no idea what Tarrlok was about to do, and when Zuko blew up, he was a Firebender so that made sense he was able to survive.

While I still feel like they’re rushing the show, hopefully now given more episodes, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko will be able to focus on getting the story across and won’t feel so rushed. Also another question; for those of you that remembered last time when I asked what would the last book be called, well think about it now. With three extra books on our way and “Air” has been used, what will the last three books be called? Start debating with other fans and get ready for a long wait. They just finished writing the last 14 in June and are storyboarding and getting the animation rolling; Book 2 is set to air next year…I know, really long time to keep watching the same twelve episodes over and over again. But we’ll see. I feel that this show is really about to start rolling thanks to Nick making a somewhat smarter call. And as long as they keep making money they will probably order a season 3, so keep spreading the word. GAH! I’m all excited now! Anyway, until next time, According to Michael III, research is aweeeesooooooommme!

—Michael III

Hope

Hope.

Whether you believe I'm right or wrong, with my beliefs, life is meaningless without hope. And even if we don't all believe in the same thing going through life believing this is all there is, is a sense of hopelessness. We all have different faiths and beliefs but without some sense of Hope life is empty.

The bible says, "Tomorrow is not promised..." but we are given something else to hope for even if it's not a tomorrow.

So my question to you is what's hope for you? What keeps you going each day when the alarm or the sun wakes you for another day?

For me, it's knowing God loves me so much he couldn't spend eternity without me so He sent His son to pay the price for me. My hope is that this isn't the end and after all of this is something greater; something so magnificent that trying to wrap my head around it all is impossible, but I will understand it one day. Life shouldn't be empty. And no matter what I believe or what you believe too many times we try to fill it with stuff that won't fill that hole: drugs, sex, TV, cars, girl/boyfriends, game consoles, sports, etc. So what really makes you want to live your life so that way when you look back you can say that you lived a damn good life?

I can't tell you what to do, we all figure out our own ways to cope with what we call the world, but a sense of hope for something is powerful and life is a gift. As cheesy as that sounds it is and we shouldn't waste it. Do me a favor, don't be like Brian. Don't have a backup plan that involves taking yourself out of this world; I've seen the devastation of suicide, there is always someone even if you don't think so. Forget a backup, a friend of mine once said, "Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem." That’s right and it’s not right that it is.

I don’t know, Family Guy when I was watching it with my sister on Adult Swim the other night, got all deep on me and for me I believe Brian felt hopeless because he doesn't have the faith I do—for anyone who watches the show they know Brian is an atheist. But even those who don't believe in what I do have some pretty damn good source of hope. Look, what I'm trying to say is for those that are reading I'm hoping you love your life and are living it. Whether I know you or not I hate to think one of you has a safety deposit box with a gun and some wine just waiting to end it all when it becomes too much. Find something and my inbox if you want to know what I have to say about Christ it is always open if you want to talk.

Sorry for the change in pace, but what is the media if it doesn't drop some serious knowledge on you every now and then like its intention was in the first place. Writing was to teach and I'm teaching you something that we should all know about but don't. We need something that anchors us when this world becomes too much. What are you holding onto? That's all I want to know. Until next time, According to Michael III, thank you Family Guy for being serious for once. It gave me a chance to write this.

—Michael III

"John Carter" is fantastic! But the reviews and critics killed it!

I honestly have never been able to stand Critics, they are seriously annoying.
So this past week, my wife and I were sitting with one of my millions of sisters in law trying to figure out what to watch. I obviously wanted to watch a movie, mainly The Two Towers because my parents were out of town and when I told them we were watching it when my wife was living with her dad still while we were just engaged we decided to make our kid...so I’m trying to watch that with her when they're not home so they don't ask any questions. And because of The Hobbit this winter. Anyway, long, probably too much information, explanation aside; I got up to go grab it when I saw the unopened recently bought family copy of Disney's John Carter. My reaction was instantly, "Ooooh! Cool!" so I grabbed it and opened it and popped it into the Blue Ray.

Before I tell you my reaction let me just say this: It's very rare when a movie that is based off the book doesn't follow the book and still is a good movie. My mother is a very avid reader and wanting to see the movie she went and bought the first three books of the eleven book three decades long series. She always loves comparing books to the movie and sadly, as well all know, the movie can let us down. It's very rare when a movie follows the book to the T and only changes maybe one thing but still is an enjoyable experience. Honestly, it baffles me that us avid readers still hope the movie will be good, I don't know why, we really should give up that notion and just be surprised if it’s right.

Anyway, my mother had already told me the movie didn't really follow the book but it was still fantastic. My father went to go see it with her and loved it too. I was surprised my mom had said what she said. Even rarer is the fact when we like the movie because it was all on its own. But I had heard the mix reviews from critics and it didn't do well in the box office, but I loved it.

The movie constantly had me wondering what's going to happen next from the minuet Daryl Sarbara began to read—to the trippy and happy ending that had me waiting for more. Seeing the novel that apparently birth sci-fi on the big screen, meaning my flat screen, was awesome. The fact that Edgar Rice Burroughs thought of this fantastic world away from our world back in the early 1990's is amazing. Just in my short 20 years technology has advanced from tapes to MP3's and he was imagining stuff in the early part of the 1900's that's still thousands possibly millions of years out of our reach. The movie was eye candy with the graphics; it had a great classic super hero rising to the cause storyline with not only Carter but with his nephew who plays Edgar. In case you don't know the series is written by Edgar Rice Burroughs who is “the nephew of Carter”...trippy right? It had the tragic romance with a happy ending—as Disney does, and it had the action and comedy. But not only that, it blended it all well together and like I said it keeps you on the edge of your seat. So why did it do so bad?

Probably bad advertising. Everybody kept talking about how people should go see it because it's what birth their favorite Sci-Fi’s like Star Wars, Avatar, Star Gate SG1, Atlantis, and Universe, Battlestar Galactica, Aliens, and etc. And in my opinion, stating how old the story was really doesn't make people want to go see it. America does not care about history, we act like we do, but we don't. So because of that people were put off from a movie that is based off the original, but was a new as the little girl I had a month ago! So what the heck!?

I'm going to leave with this, if you haven't seen John Carter you need to see it! It was awesome and they do want to do the sequel but because of the fact they only made 32,788,100 more than they spent, which was 250 mil, they have put the untitled sequel based off of John Carter: The Gods of Mars on hold. Which, by the title, if you’ve seen the movie, will help us figure out why the Therns were evil when they were supposed to be servants of the goddess. And I don't have time to read it right now, I'm reading Ted Dekker's The Circle series so that's almost 1000 and a half pages I'm already starting. So spread the word about me and Carter! Anyway, until next time, According to Michael III, John Carter was legit...I think I'm going to watch it again!

—Michael III

3 Movie Reviews! Just some movies I watched with my family and here is my quick recaps on them!

Alright guys, I’m back! Starting a new job today that will allow me to focus more on my writing career because it’s in a book store. I have some sweet hours which will not be all hectic like my last job so expect me to be posting every morning except maybe Saturday morning because I’ll be at work by 10. But Saturday evenings you will still get a post. And you guys already know that I don’t normally post on Sunday. But who knows, every now and then I’ll surprise you. But I’m back, and this is all about to get the month of May status if you know what I mean! So keep spreading the word! And I have some big news that I will be debuting later this week so stay tuned for that as well! Anyway, let’s get to this!

So between the 21^st and the 22^nd of June I watched three movies I hadn't seen yet: Easy A, Coraline, and Puss in Boots. Here's my assessment on all three:

Easy A: wasn't as great as everyone made it out to be. I laughed out loud maybe five times that whole movie. Emma Stone’s character Olive brought all of that crap on herself by just, for one example, having a stupid friend and then liking the attention. Alyson Michalka has had better acting parts, and Amanda Bynes has too, but I'm glad everyone said she did a good job so she came out of retirement and now can hopefully do some real acting again. The movie was campy with a bad message and good message at the same time, rumors suck and so does high school and trying to do everything to "blend in" generally ends up in disaster. Plus, as a Christian it upset me to see that group of so called "Christians" in that movie; they might have as well just called those completely ignorant and wrong losers the Westboro Baptist Church because all of them were idiots just like them. Not like it matters what grade I give this movie but it gets a C-. Good but not as good as everyone made it out to be; much like Rise of the Fallen.

Coraline: I can go into a lot of detail about this movie but before that I'll sum it up into one sentence and you can continue to read or move on to what I think about Puss. Coraline: It was like Eragon; the book was a thousand times better and the movie was a complete let down! Now while it was in Tim Burton's hands and the cinematography gave me the chills more than the book itself did—seriously Burton, what's wrong with you—it didn't really follow the book. Her parents were made out a lot worse than they were, I can't even remember if the boy was a part of the novel but he seemed pointless until the Other version risked his life for her. And yeah, I waited three years to see this movie and it was a letdown. I need to go read the book again to get the bad taste out of my imagination. But luckily, like I said Burton gave me the chills so that bumps this grade from a D- to a D+. Maybe next time Tim, haven’t seen Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter yet but everyone else isn’t like that movie either; i.e., my procrastination.

Puss In Boots: Dreamworks is the new Disney, but with a lot more adult humor. So far in their animation department they have spat out soon to be classic after classic except for, from what I've heard, Shrek the Third. But Puss in Boots put Dreamworks on the map for me once again and I loved it! Antonio Banderas just has a sexy voice period and combine that with the cat who has a Zorro like personality it's great. But the storyline as always with the Shrek line of movies was unexpected. They twisted classical fairy tales everyone knows about and either adores, hates, or has no opinion of them, and made the silly characters we heard in nursery rhymes or the stories during that time they called story time but the dumb kids in the back fell asleep on, and made them humorous, darker, manipulative and more heroic than before. I don't want to give it away because you could be like I was and still haven't seen the movie—I still haven't seen Shrek the 3rd or the fourth one and my sister is lacking on How to Train Your Dragon—but let’s say the story line kept me on my feet. Plus, unlike Easy A I laughed a hellavua lot more and I literally watched the movies back to back starting with Easy A first and continuing down the order my short reviews have come in. It’s a fantastic family movie...for people with ten year old kids. Seriously, the movie starts off with Puss leaving a one night stand and he talks constantly about how great a lover of women he is. Not for the kiddies, hint why it's PG, and honestly I don't know how Easy A got at PG-13, it probably should have leaned on an R given all the language and the storyline. But Puss gets two thumbs up, an approving nod, and an A+. Come on Dreamworks bring on Rise of the Guardians—which I'll be reading so don't screw them up!—and Captain Underpants—which I'll be re-reading! So don't screw up my childhood!

But even with all that bashing on Easy A, I will say I love Emma Stone. She is becoming an actress who can fit any role and still stay her! Didn’t like the movie, but her acting was on point; and kudos for being an awesome Gwen Stacy as well. I’ve loved Stacey since I found out she existed, and Emma just made me love her even more. And contrary to your popular belief, I knew about Stacy at least a couple of years before they did the reboot thanks to the TV show The Spectacular Spider-Man. After I was like, “Who is she?” Wikipedia filled in the blanks. Yea Wikipedia! But now you know what I’ve watched recently, and give it a while, I’m letting AMS get some time before I review it because of the fact I haven’t seen it in 3D yet…yeah, I know, you’ll hear more about that later. Anyways, until next time, According to Michael III, don’t just believe what people say, including me; go see stuff for yourself and make your own opinion.

—Michael III