Christmas Letter

I know it's late, but I finally found a way to share our Christmas letter on the blog-o-sphere, for those of you who didn't get it via e-mail. Happy reading!

One Year Ago Today

One year ago today...

...I was nervous all day.
...I went to BYU to have a nice chat with the father of my girlfriend, Kristen Southerland.
...I had a sore throat.
...I drove to various locations in Provo/Orem and dropped off little items.
...I went to the Old Spaghetti Factory on a double date, then we (the guys) "ditched" our dates at the end of the meal.
...I knelt down in the snow at a playground, and asked my best friend to marry me.

...I was the happiest I'd ever been.

My beautiful bride: Kristen Marie Southerland Buchanan

Red Box

Kristen and I enjoy using the Red Box. We've typically had success in finding movies we enjoy. But every so often, we'll see a movie on there with actors we know, but that we've never heard of. We read the description, and think, "That sounds interesting. Let's get it." This, my friends, is what we call a mistake. Do NOT do this.

Horrible movies we've sat through, that you should never EVER rent:

Battle for Terra - This was an 84-minute, animated waste of time. This seemed to be a Ferngully meets Dances With Wolves meets Avatar, but without any of the clever dialogue or interesting plot lines. The animation also left something to be desired.

Year One - The trailer looked funny, but trust me - all the funny parts were in that two-minute montage. This is a raunchy, distasteful, completely unfunny movie, and I still don't know why we didn't turn it off after the first 10 minutes or so.

Babylon A.D. - The plot was so convoluted, with so many loose ends, that I still don't know what happened. Hadn't heard of it, but it was a cool-looking action movie with Vin Diesel. Don't let those kinds of things distract you from the fact that you've NEVER HEARD OF IT (most likely for good reason).

Passengers - This movie wanted to be The Sixth Sense, but failed miserably. We got it because it had Anne Hathaway in it - she's usually pretty decent. And to be fair, this was the least horrible of the movies, but it still wasn't that good.

But we haven't failed miserably. We've also done the smart thing, and rented movies we wanted to see again (that we saw in the theater), or movies that either one or both of us missed when they were in the theater.

17 Again - I really liked this movie. It's not winning any Oscars, but it was an enjoyable film to watch.

G.I. Joe - I grew up on this show, and the movie didn't disappoint. It was great in the theater, it was great on the T.V.

The Proposal - Not an amazing movie, but still quite enjoyable. Sandra Bullock is always funny, and is in really good shape for a 45-year-old. No, I take that back - she's in really good shape for a 25-year-old.

Star Trek - Awesome. Just, awesome. Saw it in theaters, had to watch it again. Come to think of it, did I see it in the dollar theater too? I'm waiting for a sale at Best Buy to get it on Blu-ray.

Julie & Julia - This was a fondue movie. That is, you don't have to pay incredibly close attention to it in order to follow what's going on. We made fondue while watching this one, and had quite a good time doing it.

Seminary

I recently read an article about the Canyons School District in Utah, which is considering offering more advanced high school diplomas. The idea behind this is that they are behind in preparing students for college and the real world. The issue they're facing in the LDS community is that requiring extra credits for these new diplomas could cut into the time allowed for released-time seminary, which has some people worried.

Personally, I don't see what the problem is - I applaud the steps the school district is taking to increase the education level in Utah. Utah schools are among the lowest in the country for required core course load (18 core credits; Arizona requires 22, New Mexico 24, and Texas 26). The new advanced diploma would require 22 credits, allowing for only one elective. I took four years of early-morning seminary and a full load of classes in high school. My freshman year, Spanish counted as an elective, and so did band. Because I was taking an extra elective, I had to take the after-school P.E. class. This was in addition to early-morning seminary.

Would it hurt Utah LDS students to sacrifice a little more to attend seminary, rather than taking time off from their high school studies to go? Maybe more of the kids who attended would have a positive experience, and I know that fewer would take it for granted.

What are your thoughts? I know many of you attended released-time seminary. Do you think you would have benefited more (or less) from early-morning seminary? I want to hear your opinions.

Giving Thanks

Throughout the month of November, my co-worker's wife posted a series of posts titled "Operation: Gratitude," in which she detailed her gratitude for many of her blessings. I was inspired by what she wrote, so I wanted to write a brief post of my own.

I am grateful for where I am in life - I am so richly blessed. Two years ago, I had no job, was completely broke, and as a college graduate, ended up working as a waiter in a restaurant. There's nothing wrong with serving - it's hard, honest work - but it wasn't where I wanted to be in my life. Now I have a good career job that provides for me and my wife. We just moved into a nice new apartment on the first floor of a house at the base of the North Orem foothills, and are making it into a home. We are able to put some money in savings and live comfortably within our means.

I have a beautiful wife and am happily married. That's not to say we haven't had our fair share of disagreements and tears. We of course don't publicize them, but marriage is hard work. You don't really believe that before you're married. You don't truly understand what people mean when they say the first year is the hardest. But I'm grateful for our trials. They've made us stronger as a couple. And we're getting ready to celebrate our first Christmas as a married couple. How wonderful is that? :)

For the most part, we're healthy. We wish Kristen would get fewer migraines, and that we were both skinnier, but other than that, we're good. :) We've begun to learn how to take the things that life throws at us and either dodge them, or catch them and throw them back. Life is about overcoming struggles, and I love every moment I'm alive. Even those times that are hard, or that hurt. I am grateful for everything that's made me who I am, so that I could be with the love of my life: my Kristen.

And I wouldn't change a thing.
I'd walk right back through the rain.
Back to every broken heart
On the day that it was breaking.
And I'd relive all the years,
And be grateful for the tears
I cried with every stumble, step
That led to you, and got me here.

A Different Life

Right now, my wife and are having a Lord of the Rings (extended edition) marathon together. Just the two of us. And it's made me reflect once again that I really did choose the right girl. :) Our personalities are so perfectly matched, it's wonderful. We like a lot of the same things, but have just enough differences to make things interesting. I mean, how many guys can say their wives enjoy having a Lord of the Rings or Star Wars marathon with them? And I doubt there are very many people who have ever seen a wedding cake topper with HomestarRunner and Marzipan on top. Kristen made one for our cake.

But I was looking at some old pictures on Facebook, and wondering what my life would have been like if I'd made different decisions. About three years ago, a lot of new things began happening in my life. The two biggest things I did: I got into acting, and started dating again (after being in a committed relationship for about a year).

In the next two years, I was in 14 different theater shows - I made so many friends and gained so many great experiences. I also started dating a girl, and although we dated off and on for the next two years, my preoccupation with her made it impossible to really want to date anyone else during the "off" times. That's not to say there weren't opportunities. That there weren't other beautiful girls I met in whom I was interested. As I said, I was in many theater productions throughout that time, and drama people are well-known for being big flirts. :) But I just couldn't move on.

During those two years, I also graduated and got a job here in Utah. I now wonder whether if I hadn't still been preoccupied with that same girl, would I have even looked for a job here? After all, I never wanted or planned to remain in Utah after graduation. To be honest, I'd still rather be outside it and living somewhere green.

Anyway, eventually that relationship ended for good, and despite my belief that I'd never love again, I found the girl I never thought existed. The girl who makes me happier than I ever could have known. Guess where she's from: Utah. And how did we meet? Because her best friend/roommate and I were in a play together. :)

So what if I hadn't decided to keep performing (or never even started in the first place)? What if I had decided the on again-off again relationship was a dead-end earlier than I did, and moved out of state? Would I have found my Kristen? I hope so. But luckily, I don't have to find out. She's mine forever.

New Moon

I read the books, it's true. I even enjoyed them. You can even read some of my previous blogs for my feelings on that. However, I thought the first movie was one of the worst films I've ever seen (and I've seen some lame movies). The ONLY reason this movie did well at the box office is because of the Twilight book readers. If this had been a stand-alone movie, it would have tanked.

Now, my major issue with this movie was the casting. First of all, the vampires are supposed to be incredibly attractive to their prey, right? Remember when all the Twilighters freaked out when Robert Pattinson was cast? They didn't think he was attractive enough to be Edward (which is true - and what's with that hair??). But then when the movie came out, they somehow all reversed their positions? And Nikki Clark (Rosalie) is very pretty, but she's supposed to be playing an incredibly beautiful, blonde vampire. She should be the most beautiful person in the film. But she's a brunette, and the blonde hair doesn't work for her. They should have cast someone with an already pale complexion and light-colored hair. And don't get me started on how Jasper always looks like he's constipated. (I did like Alice, Emmett, and Carlisle, though.)

But worse than those casting decisions, let's talk about Edward and Bella. The two main characters - the ones to whom we should feel the closest connection - suck. Pattinson is an okay actor - for example, I'm sure he could find success on the Disney Channel...maybe. But Kristen Stewart? She's quite possibly the worst actress I've ever seen. Seriously. She has no facial expression, she's not interesting to watch, she's not very attractive, and she can't deliver a line. She's just plain obnoxious, and being forced to watch her makes me want to have Laurent or Victoria eat her.

Well, with the next installation of the Twilight series coming out, critics are giving their reviews. A few of my favorites from Rotten Tomatoes (28% so far - I can't say I'm surprised) are below:

"If you fixate on funny things like plot and character -- in movies, anyway -- too bad." -Leslie Gornstein, E! Online

"Extreme moping by hollow actors makes the film feel like it stars robots stuck on their 'Emo' setting." -Matt Pais, Metromix.com

"Never has a man's shirtlessness been so essential to a character's development." -Jordan Hoffman, UGO

"The irony in this movie about vampires is that the only thing doing any sucking is the movie itself." Walter Chaw, Film Freak Channel

"The most surprising thing about New Moon, the second film in the Twilight series, is how much worse it is than the first." -Devin Faraci, CHUD

"Never have vampires and werewolves had so much estrogen." -Fiore Mastracci, Outtakes with Fiore

"I can't comment on the acting because I didn't catch Pattinson, Stewart and Lautner doing any. They basically primp and pose through the same humdrum motions they did before." -Peter Travers, Rolling Stone