READ A SAMPLE OF "My Name Is Hammerfist!"

It's been a minute! A minute and half, I would almost say!

I wanted to make a post because I wanted to tell you guys about this new project I've been working on! It's a superhero story called "My Name Is Hammerfist."

It's not a very serious superhero story. We already have plenty of those plastering the big screens every year. Don't get me wrong, I love me a good superhero movie, but I wanted to take a stab at something a little more fun.

The story is about a college kid named Herman Fitzgerald the third who gets into a car accident on the way home for a weekend. He crashes into a semi truck carrying hazardous liquid, a bunch of fake science happens, and bada-boom-bada-bing he's got superpowers!

Pretty original, eh?

Anyway, in the accident he gets his right hand amputated. Yup. He later visits with an eccentric prosthetist (a doctor that makes prosthetic limbs) that gives him a special hand. But that's not the good part. Not long after, the doctor calls him back to his office and tells him he should fight crime because of his special abilities! To help with that, he gives him a prosthetic hammer to put on his right arm. Thus the name, Hammerfist.

Yeah, it's hokey. But I freaking love it. This project has been so much fun to write and I'm excited to share it with you guys! It just released on Amazon Kindle TODAY for $0.99, and I plan to make a new episode every month.

As for now, I'd like to share a sample of the first episode with you guys! I really hope you enjoy it and I'm looking forward to getting your feedback! Have an awesome weekend!

-Aaron

* * * * *

            I know it’s lame, but this whole story started because of donuts. Freaking donuts. Of all things.

            If you had tasted these donuts, though, you would probably know where I’m coming from. Zeke’s Grub has the best snack food hands-down in the town where I’m from—which is called Gladview, by the way. It’s funny that they call it Gladview because you can barely see anything and it made me anything but glad. It’s a tumor of a town that’s bunched together in the middle of forest, so I spent a lot of my childhood fighting off ticks and angry squirrels when I was out playing in the trees. But that’s beside the point.

            I wanted to drive home for the weekend so I could get some of those killer donuts at Zeke’s Grub.  I was just into my first semester at Carus Community College in Citytown, so I was feeling just a little homesick anyway. I graduated from high school with an astoundingly bland GPA not long before, but luckily Carus had open enrollment and it wasn’t too far away from home. That made my decision to move there easy.  Besides, I had no idea what I wanted to study and it seemed like a good idea to go there and get my general eds knocked out of the way.

            But again, I’m getting sidetracked. Oh jeez! I didn’t even tell you my name!

            I’m Herman Fitzgerald the third. Not exactly the most intimidating name, but I’m not exactly the most intimidating person—the last guy you’d expect to replace his prosthetic hand with a hammer and go beat bad guys in the middle of the night. I like cheese crackers, action movies, most of my jeans are ripped in the knees and I wear a size medium t-shirt. I also have plenty of acne scars, messy black hair and crappy brown eyes. Yeah. Kind of an average guy, but I’m cool with that.  Aren’t good stories about average people who deal with crazy circumstances anyway?

            So let’s get back to how this all began.

            “We can pay you for gas once you get home!” My mom lovingly said on the other end of the phone.

            “That would actually be awesome,” I replied thankfully.

            “I know you’re driving late, so just be careful,” she continued. “There are a lot of deer that like to hop into the middle of the road when it’s dark.”

            “I know, mom.”

            I was leaning with my back against my car, my eyes scanning the buildings around me. I was living in some off-campus apartments just a few minutes away from Carus. The skyscrapers of downtown Citytown weren’t too far away, but in the immediate area, I was surrounded by red brick apartment buildings that had to have been built in the sixties. Cars sped through the traffic light at the corner and occasionally honked at each other.  Across the street in another parking lot, a couple was making out against the side of a truck, some guys in tank tops were walking together laughing, and some overly-giggly girls were staring at them not far away. I exhaled and rolled my eyes, my thoughts completely occupied with savory, scrumptious donuts.

            “Have you had dinner yet?” my mom asked. She worries about me all the time.

            “I had a sandwich,” I told her. “And I’m going to stop by Zeke’s on the way home.”

            “Oh, that will be so nice!” she said. “Could you pick me up a Mega Choco-Blast while you’re there?”

            “Sure, mom.”

            “Okay! Love you! Your father is excited to see you, too! See you in a few hours!”

            I clicked the hang-up icon on my phone and pocketed it. My apartment was locked and I had just a few things packed in my car to make for a comfortable weekend stay with my parents.  I hung around outside my car for just a minute longer, looking around and soaking up my surroundings.

A lot of people from the boonies can’t stand the city. I’m the opposite. I love Citytown. Sure, people here are a little busy and can be kind of rude sometimes, but there’s always something happening. There’s more opportunity. There’s more of, well… everything. It’s dirty and loud and crowded, but I love it.

I took a deep, smoggy breath, pulled open my car door and slipped inside. My beat-up sedan from the nineties belched and churned as I turned the key and managed to back out of its parking space without a problem.  The last thing I did was check my tires and fill up at a nearby gas station before I hopped on the interstate heading out of Citytown.

            Billboards for restaurants, movie theaters and casinos crawled passed me as my car cruised along the freeway, joined with dozens of other cars like fast-moving ants along pavement. I turned on the radio, but didn’t listen for long after they played a crappy electro-pop song that kept saying “pump up the jams tonight baby.”  When I changed the station, the same song was playing. I changed the station again, and again it was playing the same song. When I changed the station another time, it was in the middle of a commercial… then that same song came on again. Click. Silence. Thank you.

            After several minutes, the urban landscape of Citytown evaporated to smaller towns, which then evaporated to even smaller towns. Trees became more plentiful to the point where the freeway started to cut through a forest. I started seeing more churches than I did warehouses and more quaint markets than superstores, which was a sure sign that home was getting close. The sun had dipped over the horizon and now the red glow of rear car lights were like angry ghost eyes glaring at me down the road.  I signaled and took an exit that turned into the road heading to Gladview.

            I’m not going to lie, the drive to Gladview is pretty scenic during the day when you get off the freeway.  It’s a narrow two-lane road that winds through a forest, and occasionally the view will break out into clearings or ponds. On any weekend, you could drive down this road and see Citytown photographers park their cars to get out to snap some shots. On a road trip when I was younger, I lit a firecracker and threw it out the window at one of these photographers. It missed the photographer by a longshot, but instead landed by a squirrel who was scavenging for some nuts. I swear I saw that squirrel crap itself and tear off when that firecracker exploded.  Freaking squirrel. I hate squirrels.

            At night, though, the drive to Gladview isn’t as scenic. It’s actually pretty creepy. If you’ve ever driven through a foggy forest at night before, you know what it feels like. You almost expect some crazy chainsaw guy to jump out at you from the trees. I was ready if he did. He was going to end up on my windshield. But I don’t think I need to tell you that it didn’t actually happen.

            Here’s what did happen.

MOVIE REVIEW: Jurassic World vs. Inside Out

Oh snap.  My first movie review is a double feature.  Both of these movies made a splash in the month of June so I want to take the time to point out what I think are the pros and cons of each one.  So here we go!!

JURASSIC WORLD

Jurassic World is set two decades after the original Jurassic Park.  The theme park is in deep financial doo-doo, evidenced by the embarrassing amount of product placement within the park that the movie itself pokes fun at.  Anyway, they need more money, so they concoct the biggest, baddest dinosaur ever so more people will start coming to the park to see it.  And guess what?  It escapes and starts eating people.  I'm sure you're shocked.  But don't worry, the heroic Chris Pratt and his overwhelming attractive lady friend Bryce Dallas Howard are off to save the day.  Yaaay!

Ooohh my gosh... I can hear the dump trucks full of cash rolling up to Universal Studios.  I've heard this movie has already hit the billion mark worldwide?  Not surprising, I guess.  Jurassic Park is one of the biggest blockbusters in movie history.  The visuals were also killer.  Like, wow.  You can watch Jurassic Park even today and it looks real.  Really fantastic work from Steven Spielberg and Stan Winston (you might want to look up that guy).

Although it wasn't a remake, I like how Jurassic World paid so much homage to the original Jurassic Park.  The original theme was in there a couple of times (thank goodness), and I love how you saw the original headquarters and Jeeps of Jurassic Park deep in the jungle, and the final battle at the end was pretty awesome.  Don't worry, I won't spoil it for you. ;)

With that being said... I feel like I paid five bucks just to watch people get eaten by dinosaurs for two hours.  Granted, that's kind of what the original Jurassic Park was, but the original had better acting, better tension, a bigger sense of awe, and better visual effects.

YES. Better visual effects.  I said it.

Why?  Because Jurassic World had so much CGI (computer-generated images).  The reason the original Jurassic Park still looks good is because they used as many practical in-camera effects as possible, such as puppets and animatrons.  So what you see on screen is real.  It wasn't concocted on a computer screen after principal shooting wrapped up.  Yes, the original used CGI, but very sparingly--a last resort.  I only noticed one use of practical dinosaur effects in Jurassic World, so it was kind of disappointing.  I know it's not going to look near as good twenty years from now.  I wish a bigger emphasis would have been placed on it.

Overall, I thought it was a good movie.  I'm glad I went on "Five Dollar Tuesdays" because if I spent the full nine bucks on my ticket, I would have been even more disappointed.  I guess a smorgasbord of prehistoric creatures devouring my own species just doesn't sit with me as entertainment, especially when the visual effects the movie leans on so heavily are all fake.  Whatever.

I'll give Jurassic World a 6/10.


INSIDE OUT

Inside Out follows a girl named Riley who, with her parents, moves halfway across the country for her dad's job.  More importantly, the movie is about the emotions inside her head: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust... each personified in a brilliantly vibrant way.  As we watch Riley live day by day with this new change, we watch how the emotions work their different roles to eventually help her cope with it.  And does it make you feel super warm and fuzzy at the end?  Yes.  Yes it does.

I had seen trailers for the new Pixar movie before it got released, but didn't know when it was hitting theaters until the day before.  I read soaring reviews, and I consider myself a Pixar fan, so I went the next Tuesday so I could save a few bucks on a ticket.

First off, the opening short film, Lava, is one of the most adorable things I've ever seen.  I won't spoil it for you, just go YouTube it or something.  The whole things was in song!  Ukelele!  About a volcano falling in love!  Like... what?  Go watch.  You're welcome.

To be honest, I was ever-so-slightly-just-barely disappointed by Inside Out too, but that's only because other critics made me think this film was going to be a phenomenon.  Was it?  I don't think so.  But is it one of Pixar's best?  I think it's definitely up there with Toy Story 3 and Up.  Yes, it was a fantastic film.

In a box office that's so commonly dominated by remakes, sequels and CGI-infested action films--sometimes fitting more than one those descriptions... thanks, Jurassic World--it was nice to have something that was such a colorful, vibrant, clever and ingenious breath of fresh air.  Inside Out presented me with a creative vision of how brain functions work, giving your emotions each a personality of its own that try to work together... and sometimes don't.  It was a totally original idea, which is what Pixar is really good at.  Thank you, Pixar, thank you!

The characters were fantastic.  I will never, ever forget Bing Bong the imaginary friend--those of you who have already seen the film feel where I'm coming from.  But this movie does everything a film should do--it entertains you, gives you something to think about, and helps you feel a broad spectrum of emotions like excitement, amusement, sadness and relief.  Did I cry?  No, but I got really close.

Pixar has something really special on their hands with Inside Out.  Go watch it!  Stop telling yourself that it's a kids movie and go watch it for crying out loud!  It's by far the best movie I've seen so far this year.

I'm giving Inside Out an 8/10.


So yeah!  That's the verdict.  If you were forced to pick one or the other, I would tell you this... if you're more fascinated by watching people get eaten by massive dinosaurs, Jurassic World is right up your alley.  If you want to watch a film that makes you feel enriched and entertained, turn to Inside Out instead.

Just saying.


-Aaron

The "why" of Mormons and gay marriage

Rainbows.  Rainbows everywhere.

That was my Facebook feed yesterday after SCOTUS' ruling on the subject of gay marriage.  Tons of my friends changed their profile pictures to accompany tints of the rainbow gay pride flag and I can't tell you how many times I saw #lovewins.  I think to say a lot of people are stoked about this is an understatement.

Then the Christian backlash--everything from mild irritation to the claim that Obama is shooting for an American holocaust.  According to my knowledge, Christians who have nailed down the whole acting-like-a-true-Christian thing are typically very tolerant and caring toward everyone, but not necessarily permissive.  They still feel bound to what the Lord has taught in the Bible and have a desire to obey, regardless of if they fully understand the reason.

Among all these things, I feel it's important to ask why.  Why is gay marriage opposed in the Bible?  Because it is.  Yeah, it may only be a handful of verses, but the Ten Commandments are only a handful of verses, too.  The point is, it's still in there.  Anyway, I don't know how "mainstream" Christians would answer that question, but as for me and my Mormon self, let me explain.  I've seriously done some pondering and scripture study toward this topic and I think I might be able to enlighten some people who might be confused.  So don't take what I'm about to say as full-blown Mormon doctrine, but just one dude's opinion.

First and foremost, we lived with God before we were born.  We lived as spirits in His presence and we learned from Him and prepared ourselves for the time that we would be born on earth.  After all, that's why He created the earth--for us.  We have this thing called "eternal progression," meaning that we're constantly learning and growing throughout eternity.  Yup.  Forever.

I think we were all anxious to be born into mortality.  There are things that we can only experience with a body of flesh and bones that we, of course, as spirits, wouldn't have otherwise.  If you didn't have a body, how could you feel hot or cold, pleasure or pain, excitement or exhaustion, or the taste of an expertly-crafted club sandwich??  I'm particularly a fan of that last one.

These things we could only experience with a body includes the sacred power to create children and express love through sexual intimacy.  Isn't it nuts that we have that power within us?  To create a human being through two people that unite themselves in love and unity.  We're basically inviting one of those spirits waiting for the blessed experience of mortality to come hang out with us on earth as part of a loving family.  Definitely not something to be treated lightly.  That's why sexual sin of any kind--not just homosexual sex--is condemned in scripture.

And I think that's why.  Do I think that two women or two men can be happy in a marriage relationship?  Yeah, I do.  But the children part is kind of a big deal to God.  He created the earth so spirits could be born here and have the experience of mortality.  When two men or two women get married... they can't do that.  They don't have that power.  It halts the plan that God has made for children to be born within the bonds of marriage as part of that loving family.  Essentially, tons of our spirit friends are still waiting to be born, but they can't, so their eternal progression is halted.  Gay or lesbian couples can adopt, which I think is a noble thing, but they don't have the procreative power in a marriage relationship that a man and a woman would have.  They're simply raising a child that two other people had to create.

But anyway, that's just me.  Maybe I'm just another Christian bigot that's stuck in non-progressive traditional values.  That's fine.  I'm happy with where I'm at and what I believe, and I'd like to be your friend anyway.  People are always going to disagree with people.  Folks are always going to get their feelings hurt or feel belittled.  I think a lot of people on both sides have been feeling that way.

But amidst all of it, can't we still be friends?  I sure hope we can.

Just saying.


-Aaron

Service is Kind of Awesome.

In my church, we have a children's song that goes something like, "When we're helping we're happy and we sing as we go."  It's a cute/dumb little song, but I think it teaches a great message, and how great is it that we're knocking that into little kid's heads before they grow into selfish, always-too-busy adults?

I'll be honest, I was never exactly singing as I went when I got roped into service activities throughout my teen years.  Some teenagers are notorious for beings self-centered know-it-alls and I definitely was no exception.  It always seemed inconvenient to me to take time out of my important schedule of video games and guitar playing for the sake of chopping wood or pulling weeds for someone else.  Why couldn't they get someone else to do it?  After all, I lead a busy life.  There's got to be someone out there with nothing to do that would be willing to devote their time to helping someone else.

I didn't realize until later that service actually enriches the life of the person doing the serving.

I served a two-year LDS mission in Boston Massachusetts and the surrounding area.  I was about to go home in the winter of 2012, and in October, Superstorm Sandy crashed into the east coast.  During the time, I was in New Haven, Connecticut, which wasn't too far from some areas like Fairfield Beach that saw a lot of destruction.

As a mission--which was over 200 Mormon missionaries, mind you--we coordinated a massive service effort to storm the neighborhoods of coastal Connecticut and offer our cleanup services for absolutely free.  We did it over the course of a weekend.  And guess what I found out?

Service is awesome.

It was incredible to see the happy faces of people who would typically be so irritated with our message of Jesus Christ.  We didn't preach to them unless they wanted to hear it.  Our mission for the weekend was simply to serve, whether it meant demolition, cleaning out water-damaged materials from homes, shoveling out basements and driveways, or whatever.

Cute little palm tree salt shaker, right?  I don't even remember the lady's name that gave it to me.  We were hauling out a bunch of water damaged materials from her house and putting them on the street.  I think I just said in passing that I liked that salt shaker... so she gave it to me!  Totally insisted on it--a small token of her thanks.  I keep it where I can see it every day as a reminder of how good I felt that day.  Sunup to sundown we just helped people.  Seriously.  I don't think I've ever felt more tired or more satisfied on a single day of my life.

You can totally feel that too, so go help someone!  It doesn't have to be big, just go do something nice for someone else!  Especially if you're struggling with life.  Yes, you. The best remedy for a weary soul is some spirited service, in my humble opinion.  After all, the world could always use some more good, and a little bit on our part can go a long way for someone else.

Just saying.


-Aaron

The Unrecognized Good: Akon and Caitlyn Jenner

Oh my gosh... can you say "controversy?"  It seems like everybody on the internet is sharing their favorite blog post or posting their opinion about Bruce Jenner's transition to Caitlyn Jenner.  I don't know too much about her because I've never seen an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians,  but I guess she has a lot of money and won some Olympic medals once upon a time.  And in terms of controversy, that photo shoot for Vanity Fair has been the hottest topic of the year, bar none.

With all this attention focused on Caitlyn, it seems a lot of contention is breaking out online and in the media.  On my own Facebook, I've seen friends mention that they had deleted other friends based on the posts that they've made about Caitlyn.  But why is our attention focused on her?  I don't know about you, but she has no impact on my personal life.  Like I said, I've never seen an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, and I surely don't know her personally.  So why do we take such a personal interest in her story?

Okay.  Switching gears.  Another monumental thing has happened recently in the world of celebrities.

Akon.  The singer.  Another guy that doesn't influence me hardly at all--I'm not particularly into his style of music.  Just the mention of his name brings back the memories of hearing "Smack That" on the radio all the time when I was in middle school.  But I want to point out something that Akon has recently done.  According to Paste Magazine, Akon has plans to launch a new "Solar Academy" in Africa that will harness solar power and convert it into electricity to be used by approximately 600 million Africans.

SIX. HUNDRED. MILLION.

Does anyone else realize that's nearly double the population of the United States??  Akon is using his power, wealth and influence to bring life-changing advantages to the equivalent of two major countries.  That's phenomenal!  Stupendous!  Fantastic!  Really, I don't care about what kind of music Akon is putting out because I'm not terribly into it, but Akon is doing excellent things in the world right now.  The tragedy is that we're so focused on another rich celebrity changing her gender, and so consumed in the controversy of it all, that this wonderful effort on Akon's part getting pushed onto the back burner.

How is this manifest in our own personal lives?  Are we so easily distracted by the hot button topics and the debates and the stress that we neglect the good that's happening around us?  There are quiet heroes in all of our lives that go completely unnoticed because we're too focused on other things.  Maybe it's time we take a look around and thank those heroes that go unthanked each and every day.  And while we're at it, why don't we each try to be that kind of hero in some small way?  It's really not that hard, it can be as simple as a smile.  But to someone, a simple smile may be everything.

Just saying.


-Aaron

Hello world!

Well, isn't this exciting?  I've teased the idea of starting a blog for a long time now, but kind of discarded the thought because I'd be thrust into the ranks of hundreds of other college bloggers across the nation.  Everybody seems to have something to say, and some say things more vehemently than others.  I don't consider myself one of those to lividly thrust my opinion onto the world wide web, but hey, I've got two cents and I'm happy to donate occasionally.

Anyway, this will be a fun little experiment for me.  I like to think that I'm a fairly well-rounded individual.  For the past two and a half years, I studied motion picture production at Dixie State University, and freaking loved it.  Filmmakers are an interesting bunch of homo sapiens.  I've never met a species of nerd that is so extroverted, opinionated and flat-out fun.  I learned a lot from each of them, and I'm grateful for the knowledge of filmmaking I absorbed from all of them.  Will I post things like movie reviews here as time goes on?  You better believe it, bucko.

Photography kind of goes along with filmmaking, but I definitely consider myself an amateur, so I'll probably just post takes from the occasional shoot.  However, once I get more proficient, I'll post things like tips and cool locations to shoot at.  It'll be a hoot.

I've also written a novel!  Kinda crazy for a twenty-three year old, right? It's called Foreordained, and it got published in February of last year.  It's about a kid named Jason who finds out that he's been foreordained by a dragon diety to serve as the next king of a kingdom that's fallen to discord.  It follows the point in his life when he's being tested for the throne and he's trying to decided whether or not he has the courage to rise up to his sacred responsibility.  I'll be honest, if I didn't write the book, I would think it's pretty freakin' awesome.  Heck, I still do!  It's got an average rating of 4.7 stars, and if you're interested in a copy, I sell exclusively through Amazon.  Just click that thing.  The word Amazon.  There ya go.

I also like style.  Good style, and cheap style.  I'm actually sponsored by a Utah-based tie company called Tie One On, so expect to see some posts of cool ties about once a week.  I won't endorse a company I don't like, and I find Tie One On's ties to be fresh and affordable.  I really do mean that.  Pay them a visit if they've got a location nearby you.

Aside from all of that, I'm your typical Mormon Utah college student.  I love M&Ms, In-n-Out Burger, Chick-fil-A, cool hats, Star Wars, Harry Potter, laughing with friends, Mario Kart, clearance racks, sunny weather, strawberry lemonade, good times, and Emma Watson.

Stay posted!  Good stuff to come. :)

-Aaron