TV Review: The Flash

TV Review: The Flash

 Season 1: Episode 2   Fastest Man Alive

Quick Recap:
Barry Allen wants to make a difference in the world so he is saving regular people while they wait for another meta-human to show.  This leads to lectures and fights between Barry and Det. Joe West.  Barry wants to help, but Joe just wants him safe.  Barry and the team at STAR labs do not know very much about his ability or the side effects.  After having headaches, dizziness, and a fainting spell, they test Barry to figure out what is going on.  Simply enough, he isn't eating enough for his body to handle to the super speed.  

Barry is juggling his day job as a crime scene investigator with his desire to use his ability for good.  He has a hard time managing normal relationships with his radical new self which is why he often finds himself on the receiving end of Iris's "You forgot to do this with me" speeches. 

We meet Simon Stagg, who works in cellular cloning and organ transplants.  Stagg has an ex-employee, Danton Black, trying to kill him.  Black has the ability to clone to himself.  Super Barry's first encounter with Black does not go well.  He gets his butt kicked.  This leads to crisis of confidence where Barry Allen believes he isn't capable of rescuing anyone.  Dr. Wells helps Joe see how much potential Barry actually has, but he has to have people who support him and believe in him and his ability in order for him to succeed.  Super Barry is able to defeat Danton Black a.k.a. Multiplex.  Joe and Barry are able to mend their relationship, and Joe tells Barry he will help him find the person who murdered his mother. 

The episode ends with Dr. Wells going to Stagg's office.  Wells and Stagg have an interesting conversation on the evolution of mankind before Wells tells him the man in the red mask will one day be the Flash.  Wells then stands up from his wheelchair and stabs Stagg with a knife.


Analysis:
I really love Barry Allen's character.  I really enjoyed him when he was on the one episode of Arrow.  He is the perfect combination of smart, gentleman, and nerdy cool.  He is such a likable guy that you just connect with him so easily.  You want him to be awesome, but you can totally understand his struggles.  

 I am not completely sold on the potential Iris love connection.  Granted, I do not read the comics so I can't say where this relationship historically goes, but I just don't see it becoming anything.  Sure Barry is in love with her, but she is clueless about it and clearly thinks of him as her brother. 

I love the relationship with Det. Joe West and Barry.  This episode is so rich in the development of that relationship.  Joe has raised Barry like his son, but Barry doesn't recognize Joe's role in the same way.  Joe protects him like a father.  He wants what is best for him.  He supports him.  Barry appreciates that Joe has cared for him, but for him he still has his father who is locked up in prison.  Joe is more than a friend, but still not his father.  I love that you get to see Barry finally recognize the sacrifice and amount of love a complete stranger was willing to put into a boy who lost his family.

As for Dr. Wells...HOLY COW HE STABBED A MAN!  Yeah apparently he is faking his wheelchair boundness, but he seriously just stabbed a man.  Jury is still out on bad guy/good guy.  It could go both ways.  It seems he is protecting Flash, but he could easily just be an evil mastermind.

Favorite Line:
Definitely Cisco's remark that Barry should be eating 850 tacos a day for his metabolism at super speed.  That's every woman's dream.  Eat whatever you want and have this super awesome metabolism that almost magically burns it all away.  Yes!  Extra cheesecake folks!

Best Perfomance:
Grant Gustin as Barry Allen.  It's early in the series, but he does such a fantastic job of making Barry Allen a real, likable guy.  He has this optimism that just lifts everyone else up.

Rating (1-5):
4

Pinterest & Windshield Wipers

Let's just face facts up front.  Pinterest is awesome!  It will also take away entire hours of your life because you get sucked into this vortex of endless photos you "need" to see.  Every now and then, I believe you find that one pin that just gets you.  It's life changing.  So probably not, but it makes you feel validated that you are not alone in the universe.  As I was stalking browsing Pinterest this morning, I came across the anxiety cat memes.

Holy. Crap.  I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS THOUGHT THAT?!

Flashback to my teenage years:
My first car was a 1989 Toyota Corolla.  It didn't have the fancy speed adjustment wipers.  It had slow, medium, and fast.  There was no way to set it so the wipers would just come on every now and again.  If it was raining, those bad boys were wiping away.  I have driving issues (we can talk about that some other time).  I am extremely cautious.  I like my windows to be rain free.  I don't like to much water collecting on my windshield.  In my little blue shoebox car, I usually drove with my wipers on the medium speed.  Unless I met a car.  At that point, my brain would betray me.  

"Oh crap there is a car.  They don't have their wipers going as fast as mine.  They are probably thinking I am crazy.  I can hear it now 'Oh look at those wipers.  It's not raining that hard.  Why does she have her wipers going as fast as an Olympic runner? Who does that?  FREAK!'  Well I can't stand not having good visibility when I drive...but their wipers are so much slower than mine!  I'll just turn mine down until they pass."

I know it's irrational.  I know it's not normal.  Do I care?  Yes.  Can I change it? No.  My teenage years were difficult and awkward.  It wasn't until I went to college that I finally found out what was wrong with me.  I have social anxiety disorder.  It made a lot of life make way more sense.

Anxiety Cat.  I get you.  I can relate to almost every single thing you say.  People....they scare me to death.

Chore Chart: Part 2

My previous post covered how to make a chore chart and what chores we have for my 5 year old.  This post is all about the money!  The entire point of the chore chart was the money.  I wanted Lane to learn two things from his chores.  The number one most important thing is that if you don't work you don't get paid.  Laziness is NOT acceptible.  Number two is how to use money wisely.  I want him to be able to handle the sometimes difficult balance of saving and spending.

My hope is that when he grows up, he will be a productive and responsible member of society.  I want him to be independent and hard working.  What I came up with is a mixture of allowance and a Dave Ramsey influenced plan. 

This isn't a typical allowance.  I call it allowance only because I have allotted up to $5.00 a week, but he has to work for it.  Here is how it is broken down:

10% (50 cents) Church
25% ($1.13) Savings
65% ($3.37) Spend

Add it all up and it's a grand total of a possible $5.00 a week!

Here is where it gets more complex.  The church and savings money is paid each week to the appropriate jar.  The spend money is where the chore chart goes to work.  For each incomplete chore, 8 cents is deducted.  So for example, last week he was having a lazy Sunday and the only thing he did was feed the dog.  Four other days, he didn't pick up his toys.  That left a total of 8 chores without flags at the end of the week.  64 cents deducted from the possible $3.37 left him with $2.73 for the spend jar.

Techincally, I do understand that in the real world he wouldn't be paid the money for tithe or savings because it is given out regardless of the amount of work he does.  He is 5 and doesn't know that yet so I'm getting by with it.  I want him to learn that tithe and savings are extremely important and MUST be done.  He is very excited and proud to put his 50 cents in the offering plate every week!

Feeding the dog and online preschool lessons are mandatory.  They are done around the same time every day or Monday-Friday for preschool.  The rest is different.  I remind him once a day that he has certain things he needs to do in order to get his flag, but I don't nag him.  If he chooses not to do something, then he won't get money for it.  Before we started this system, I did make it clear that quitting wasn't an option.  If he continually doesn't complete the entire chart there will be consquences. 

We didn't do anything fancy for a piggy bank.  I spend $2.00 on a roll of ribbon to go with 2 rolls I already had.  I found 3 mason jars around the house, 2 small ones and 1 large.  I let Lane pick what color ribbon went with the church, savings, and spend jar.  Just tie one ribbon of each color onto the jar so you can tell the difference.  Instant piggy bank!  Orange is church.  Red is savings.  Blue is spend.  You can pick whatever size jar you want.  They could all be big or little or various like ours.  Savings won't be spent so that's why it gets the big jar!  Here is the finished product (once again forgive my cell phone quality photo!):

 

 

 

Lane's piggy bank jars stay on top of the fridge mainly because I have a toddler running around who gets into EVERYTHING, but they're also very conveniently located right above the chore chart.  I hope this helps give you some ideas.

Chore Chart: Part 1

My oldest son is 5 years old.  When he turned 3, I started toying with idea of creating a chore chart.  I tried different things, but I wasn't ever really happy.  The one he used for a few months was broken down into morning and night time chores, 4 for each time of day.  The thing I hadn't considered when I made it was there were things on his list he couldn't do by himself.  I either ended up doing it for him or he wasn't able to help enough that I felt he really earned credit for that chore.  Finally one night about 10:30, I decided that I was going to make something that actually functioned for him and me.  This time I did think about things he should be required to do every single day, but that he can do completely by himself or with very little help.  My husband and I agreed on 6 things for every day.  Feed the dog, make bed, get dressed, do preschool lesson, pick up toys, and put dirty clothes away.  Feeding the dog is the only thing he needs a little help with and then he only needs some one to carry the full water bowl to the dog.  I do his preschool with him, but he doesn't usually need any help with his online lessons, and I only require it 5 days a week just like regular school.  For reference, we having been using ABCmouse.com for about a year now.  Making the chart is really easy!

Supplies:
1 piece 11 in. x 14 in. White Poster Board
Glue or Tape
Pencil or Pen
Ruler or some type of straight edge

I googled clip art to match the various chores on my list.  I just copied and pasted the clip art on a Microsoft Word document and wrote the chore name underneath each picture.  That way my son can figure out the chore by the picture until he learns to read or anyone who is babysitting can read the label instead of being left to translate the hieroglyphics that I come up with.  I typed up the days of the week and a title. 

1.  Print and cut out each picture, day of the week, and the title.
2.  Glue or tape the chore pictures on the left side.
3.  Glue or tape the days of the week across the top.
4.  Glue or tape the title at the top.
5.  Use a ruler or straight edge to draw lines across the rows and down to make columns.

That's it!  I didn't have to buy any supplies for this which it even better.  You can decide on what you want to use to fill in the boxes.  We are using Post-it Flags currently.  My clip art icons ended up being large enough that the columns/rows are the right size to fit the flags.  Honestly, the reason we use those is because I had them left over from college so free seemed great!  The flags are sticky enough you can reuse them.  We just stick them on the refrigerator when we clear the chart.  You could even cover the entire chart with contact paper so that stickers would come off easily or possibly even create a dry erase type surface.

Here is the finished product.  (Please forgive my cell phone quality photos.  My camera was broken a while back and I just haven't gotten around to replacing it.)

 

 



Like Mommy, Like Son

I love to read.  Both of my children are taking after me (to some extent their father) in that aspect of life.  Jacob "reads" to himself.  Lane is my true literature buddy.  I started reading to him the day he came home from the hospital.  I continued reading to him every night for almost 2 years.  Then life just got busy, and we no longer had our nightly book to share.  By the time I got back into the swing of it, I was forced to realize that my little baby was a growing boy who was in need of big boy books.  Chapter books!  Since I hated to read as a kid, I was totally in the dark into what choices would be best.  I wasn't even sure if he would sit long enough to finish an entire chapter.  Turns out he can sit through entire chapter.  As a matter of fact, he will sit and listen for an hour straight or longer. 

I came across a pin on Pinterest (love that place) that helped give me direction.  After that, I did what any clueless, Amazon loving woman would do.  I picked out a couple of books with a title I thought my 5 year old son would be interested in and read the reviews.  In the end, the reviews didn't matter much because the second I said the word dragon Lane had chosen his book.  We have purchased a couple more since then.  The entire point is teach your children to enjoy reading.  Start when they are tiny!  It's one love that will never leave them.  Here is our review of what we have enjoyed.

1.  Three Tales of My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett  [includes: My Father's Dragon, Elmer and the Dragon, The Dragons of Blueland] 
This set includes all three books.  Your child will want hear the entire tale so just go ahead and get all the books at once to save yourself some money.  The first book is about a boy named Elmer Elevator who travels to a far away island to rescue a baby dragon and everything that happens on the journey.  Book two is about Elmer and the dragon traveling back to Elmer's home.  Book three is about Elmer helping the baby dragon save his family.  It's adventure and fantasy.  Lane enjoyed it so much we have read the entire set twice already.

2.  The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey
George and Harold are the school clowns.  They cause many troubles, but have fun in the process.  I picked this one out myself while at Barnes and Noble.  I only picked it up because it sounded like the perfect goofy book for a superhero loving boy.  It's a completely silly book.  I do have to say that a good bit of the funny lines were just above what Lane could really understand at his age.  It's a lot like watching a Disney movie.  The over all funny he gets, but he doesn't laugh at the punch lines because he just doesn't get it yet.  He is ready to read more, but he does drive me a little nuts running around the house shouting "Tra-La-Laaaaa!!".

3.  Winnie-The-Pooh by A.A. Milne
Assuming you don't live under a rock this one is speaks for itself.  We are on chapter 5, but he seems to be ok with it.  I can't say he is super excited about it like other titles we have read, but he listens and takes parts in.  He did enjoy finding Eeyore's tail in one of the pictures.  The drawings aren't fancy and the story isn't fast paced, but it's a wonderful way to give him a foundation that will help him later on.  Some day he will be reading Beowulf and Shakespeare and while Captain Underpants is hilarious, he needs a good portion of the traditonal stuff to give him understanding and patience. 

It doesn't matter what you pick, just read to your child.  Turn off the tv, slow down the pace, and spend some time with your child. 

My (very limited) Real Estate Advice

After purchasing a house, I thought it might be useful to do a post that gives advice to average people about real estate from an average non-real estate person.  Disclaimer: I don't sell, list, or purchase real estate for a living.  I have bought one house that my family is going to live in.  This is just a guide that might make it a little easier on your mind.  It's not set in stone and is by no means the gospel truth.

1.  Be Realistic
This is probably one of the hardest things about trying to find a house.  Let's be honest for a minute.  We all want the dream house.  Whether we mean to or not, the dream house will make an impact on our house hunting.  Sometimes you just have to give yourself that reality check that maybe you aren't ready for the dream house...that you should be focused on finding the right house for the situtation and time in your life.  That means 2 things.  First, you will have to compromise on what the house HAS to have.  There will be a couple of things that are absolute deal breakers.  That's fine.  Just try not make that list huge or else you will be looking for a tiny needle in a huge haystack.  Second, you probably cannot afford the DREAM house.  That's why it's called a dream.  If you can afford it, this post isn't for you.  Almost everyone wants a big beautiful home that carries the big price tag, but that probably isn't realistic.  I once read that you shouldn't spend more than 2.5 times what you make in a year.  Using this example if you make $30,000 a year than you can spend up to $75,000 on a house.  I have also read that your payments should be at or below 25% of your monthly take home pay.  Either way, the point is you have to be able to afford to make the payments every month.  What is the point of owning a home that is making your financial world so difficult you can't even really afford to buy toliet paper?

2.  Know Your Local Market
Do research before you go actively looking.  What is the average asking price of real estate in your area?  Does this market offer anything affordable that I would be willing to live in?  When I was a real estate junkie, I knew every listing in my price range by every local agency.  I had looked for so long that I could just drive by a new listing and tell you the price.  This was slightly annoying for the person who was riding in the car, but ended up helping me so much.  I could recognize when a place was over priced and avoid it.  Some people might be willing to wrestle it out in a pricing war, but I prefered to make it as simple as possible for myself.  I probably missed out on a couple of houses, but I am ok with that.  After purchasing our house, I found out that one of the houses I really liked that I had ruled out because it was over our budget sold for $30,000 less than the asking price.  I had to pick my jaw up off the floor when I found that one out.  I don't think that's very typical.  You won't know if a house is worth the price if you have no clue what housing is selling for.  Of course you can have an appraisal done, but that costs money and time which you can't do for every house you look at.

3.  Choose Your Realtor
I should say that you do not have to have a realtor.  You can purchase a house without one, which means no middle man & less money coming out of your pocket to pay someone else.  If you decide to use a realtor, here are a few things to consider.  I read that you shouldn't use the same real estate agency that the property is listed with.  It makes sense.  Their job is to get the best possible price for the seller.  Therefore you, the buyer, might not end up with the best deal.  Choose an agent that you like and are comfortable with.  You can ask family and friends for recommendations, but in the end you have decide the one you like most.  My husband and I talked about 3 different agents from 3 different agencies.  One we had shown us a home several months before, one was recommended by a friend who had bought a home from this agent and was currently listing the same home through that agent, and the last one was an older cousin who had gotten into selling real estate after their retirement from the power company.  We decided that what we wanted most was someone who wasn't a good salesman, but who was a good, honest, blunt person.  Family won that requirement.  Not because it was family, but because if you ever met them you would understand.  I'm not saying that the first 2 weren't honest people.  I don't know them well enough to say one way or the other.  I just didn't figure they would say things like "It's a piece of junk.  Don't buy it." and family would.  I was right.  Our family did work for the same agency that was listing the house we wanted to purchase.  It turned out fine for us.  We paid less than the asking price and had sellers assist on closing.

4.  Be Patient
This is the hardest one.  Unfortunately it takes time.  The entire process is slow and filled up with endless paperwork and waiting for so-and-so to hear from so-and-so, etc.  I have been told experiences by a friend who tried for 3 houses before finally being able to close on one.  That sucks.  We waited 3 months before all the i's were dotted and t's were crossed.  It felt like forever.  We lost faith, got frustrated, gave up, and starting looking for a new house every other week.  We stuck with it though.  It's hard when you have to wait on other people to do whatever they have to do to get it done.  It's worth the wait.

I only have one piece of advice left.  If you have little children in house (we have a 5 year old and a 1 year old), hire someone to pack your stuff up.  It won't take nearly as long.  They don't have to stop packing every 5 minutes when one says "I'm hungry" or the other one has to have a dirty diaper changed.  Lucky movers.

OMG We bought a house!

My husband and I have been renting the same tiny house since we got married in 2006.  We were extremely lucky to have found something so affordable with an older couple as the land lords.  In August 2007, our oldest son was born.  After bringing him home from the hospital, it only took a few days to realize that babies come with a LOT of stuff.  I remember days when I felt like we didn't rent a home...we rented a storage locker for baby products that we just happen to sleep at also.  After living there for around 3 years, I told my husband we needed a bigger house.  We were the typical American family who dreamed endlessly of home ownership.  I was a real estate junkie.  I looked weekly at every local real estate website finding an endless parade of "perfect little houses".  Due to layoffs and shut downs, employment has not always been on our side so our American dream was always put off until some other time.  Fast forward to April 2011 when our second son was born.  At this time, space was gone.  We were a family of 4 (with the parade of baby products yet again) living in a 647 sq ft 2 bedroom rental house.  My husband was finally convinced that we needed to move, even if that meant we would have to pay more in rent.  The search began.

The first thing we learned is that even though the ecomony is bad, rent is out-friggin-ragous!  If I wanted to sell one of kids and a kidney on the black market I might have a chance of paying that much.  Although my kids drive me a little crazy at times, I don't want to sell them....or my kidney.  It seemed like every place we called was way out of our range.  I finally told my husband that for what these people wanted in rent we could buy a house.  We talked it over and decided to apply.  The worst that could happen was that we would be turned down.  It took us a couple of trys to find the right place, but we were approved!  I did the happy dance in the living room of my tiny rental.  Thank goodness you missed it.  My real estate habit payed off nicely at this point.  We narrowed our search to 3 potiental houses.

I must say that out of the 3 my husband and I each had different favorites before we ever walked inside of them.  I had one that I just knew from driving by looking at the outside and viewing the photos online it was my house.  He had chosen the one with the most property.  While we both promised to keep an open mind and view all properties equally, on the inside I was totally bias.  We were both completely wrong.  My perfect house turned out to be much better in my dream world than it was in reality.  I mean it was alright, but it wasn't MY house.  The one with the most property was the one with the most work.  There wasn't a surface in that house that would have made it through the remodel.  I left seeing money signs floating straight out the front door.  No way!  Not to get all cheesey, but the 3rd house was such an easy find.  I had my scientific list of must haves, size requirements, room placements, yard maintainence, etc.  The way we chose our house was very simple.  We walked in and we just knew.  THIS was OUR home.  It wasn't just a house that someone put on the market.  It was the home that was meant for us.  I know it doesn't work out that way for everyone.  Some of you may find a home that 8 other people want and have to duke it out.  I know we had family and friends praying for us to find something.  I believe God answered those prayers.  He lead us to that house.

We moved in 3 days ago.  I love this house.  My family loves this house.  Life is good.