I’m trying to cut back on caffeine a bit. After the years of Mt Dew, tons of coffee, and now Red Bull, I’m worried that it doesn’t even affect me anymore. Today I had a Red Bull, and I’m still on my first cup of coffee. I even mixed the coffee – it’s about half decaf and half regular. I’ll probably have a Dt Coke when I get home. That’s pretty decent for me considering I usually have a Dt Coke on the way to work, then about 5 or 6 big cups though the day, Mt Dew at lunch, and a ton more Dt Coke when I get home. I’ve been doing this all week, and so far no shakes or headaches or anything too drastic. Speaking of coffee, I watched Coffee and Cigarettes a few days ago. Coffee and cigarettes used to be a couple of my favorite things. Many years ago, me and a few of my friends would go out causing trouble; we’d inevitably end up at a 24-hour restaurant. We’d sit for hours drinking pots and pots of coffee and smoking packs and pack of cigarettes. Into the wee hours of the morning, discussing all sorts of odd things… sometimes I think we’d discovered the meaning of life during one of those binges, but after all the nicotine and caffeine wore off we had forgotten everything. It seemed every night was different – some nights were filled with brain puzzles, others turned philosophical, others had me in pain from laughing so hard. So anyway… the movie sucked. It was stupid. It was an endless string of cameos. Ok, so Bill Murray and a few guys from the Wo-Tang clan – that was funny. The rest was just painful to watch. Ok, so Steve Buscemi was funny. The bit with Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan was entertaining too.

In other movie news, Shrek 2 was hilarious. There’s so many references to other movies and hidden jokes… I loved it. Stuck on You was stupid. It had a few laughs, but for the most part it was just stupid. Don’t waste your time on this one. Ring – Finally! A good creepy movie! Not scary like “boo!” or scary like blood and guts all over… this is like The Exorcist scary. Creepy = good.

Have I mentioned how much I like Blockbuster lately? The in-store coupons I get are good for games now too, and they just gave me 2 ‘bonus’ ones. Spiffy. And they’re opening 10 more ‘shipping centers’, and buying more movies. Another cool thing – when the post office scans in the movie you’re returning, Blockbuster sends out the next one – they don’t actually wait for it to get back to them. Sweet… more movies for me. I think I’m suffering from Buffet Syndrome though… I feel like I need to watch the movies and send them back as quick as possible so I can get more. Oh well… winter is here, what else am I gonna do? mmm…. Grand Theft Auto!

I was instructed to update this, so the first thing you saw wasn’t a pumpkin killing itself. I have to say, it’s better than a life-sized bear statue with painted-on pajamas.

I don’t have a whole lot to say though… I am thrilled the election is over – I don’t even care who wins/won. Living in a ‘battleground state’ has been hell. I hate democracy.

So I went to vote yesterday… stood in line for over an hour, in the rain, just to perform my duty…..
Yes, that’s the line. It wasn’t much fun. They guy in front of me had 3 younger kids. I’m guessing ages 8-10. I thought “Great, antsy kids in line for an hour… this’ll be fun” But then I decided to put my dislike for small beings on hold, because it was actually kind of neat of the dad to bring his kids along to show them how the whole thing works. I overheard him talking to another parent that was walking out with their child – I guess there was supposed to be a place in there for the kids to ‘pretend vote’ but it wasn’t setup yet. The kids were bummed. One said “That’s ok, last time I voted for Al Gore but everyone else voted for George Bush.” (ok, maybe he’s 12 or so if he ‘voted’ 4 years ago) To which the girl quickly responded with “Actually, most people did vote for Gore, but Bush won because of the electoral college.” I really wanted to hug her and say “Do you realize how many adults don’t even know how this process works?!?” Maybe there is hope for the future.
Then some idiot soccer mom brought her 2 year old in slippers (with a 1 year old on her shoulder) and thought it was hilarious that he was running around screaming at the top of his lungs. It’s 7:30am lady! I haven’t had coffee yet! I hate people.

The Big Bounce – Boring. Tried to be plot-twisting, but failed. Was just an over-the-top “who’s conning the con?” movie. Rent Matchstick Men instead.

The Rundown Why did I watch this? I don’t know. He can’t act his way out of a wet paper bag, but I like The Rock. Seann William Scott is hysterical, but comes off as slightly annoying in this movie. It is almost worth the rental to see the Australian (?) bush pilot. ‘Ol Dwayne and Seann just didn’t have a lot going on… stuff blows up, funny stuff happens, everyone lives (or is in parts) happily ever after.

Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas may be the greatest game (for the PS/2) ever. The map is probably 4 or 5 times the size of Vice City, you can ride bicycles now, there’s twice as many vehicles, the planes actually fly realistically now, and you can finally swim! Yes, no more stupid deaths because you launch a car into the ocean. There’s even 2 player missions.. that should be cool. Oh, and did I mention the skydiving/BASE jumping? How cool is that. And they put thought into it – when you turn (while falling) he actually dips a shoulder to turn. And he tracks – sweeps his arms back and everything. Now if it would just let me do a 270 and swoop the downhill streets 🙂 But seriously, this game is way cool. All the games in the game are even fun – you can play pool, do off track betting, there’s video games… just all sorts of neato stuff. Oh, and there’s ‘turf wars’ now. Remember how annoying it was in Vice City – you could own the entire town, but if you crossed into gang territory they jumped you. Not anymore… take over their turf and you don’t have to worry about it. Cool stuff.

Anyone want to give me a job? I’m tired of this one.

Happy Halloween!

No, I didn’t make that – I’m not that creative. I wish I could remember where I got that picture from… the guy had a ton of very creative stuff.

EDIT: Found it! And fixed the archives. I was right, I did use that picture last year. I’m so predictable. Extreme Pumpkins

That’s odd… I thought it was in my archives maybe, from last year (that’s why I actually write stuff here, my memory stinks) but I get redirected… odd… I’ll look into that.

In the mean time:
Touching the Void – Heard people talk about it, decided to watch it. True story of two mountain climbers who get in a little trouble, and the one ends up cutting the other one loose. Don’t worry, it’s a happy ending (and no, I didn’t give anything away that you won’t figure out in the first 5 minutes of the movie)

Bad Boys II – Not as good as the first. Started dragging after awhile – 2.5 hours of Will and Martin is a little too much) Still decent I guess… worth renting if you’re a fan of the first.

Eurotrip – From the makers of Road Trip. Road Trip, I thought, was one of the funniest movies I’d seen in a long time. Eurotrip does ok, but just isn’t as funny. I watched the unrated version (I could have done without the nude beach scene… honestly) so there was a lot of gratuitous nudity, but the laughs just weren’t there. I guess I was hoping for another Road Trip, but was let down. If you’re in the mood for some cheap jokes and boobs, pick it up.

Played Star Wars: Battlefront on the PS2 too. Kinda fun, but I’m glad I didn’t buy it. It’s basically just UT but with Star Wars characters.
I am going to go buy the new GTA:San Andreas tonight though. I haven’t even played it, but don’t care. I’m going to trust Rockstar’s legacy of putting out kick-ass games and just buy it. That has burnt me in the past though (Westwood – c’mon, WTF was Tiberian Sun?! And Syndicate Wars?? Uhg… way to take a great name and slam dunk it into the toliet)

Yay! My car doesn’t make that rubbing/grinding noise anymore! It was the wheel hub assembly, and I was going to do it myself, but the weather was crappy and I was lazy… so I paid to have it done. Oh well.

I don’t really have crap else for you to read… sorry. My life isn’t all that exciting. I do have a new flat screen at home, so that’s fun. Oh, and Blockbuster cut the online rental thing down to $17.49/month AND made the coupons good for game rentals as well. Why? Because Netflix dropped theirs to $17.99. The Motley Fool thinks “Netflix and Blockbuster are both morons for engaging in this price-cutting suicide pact.” While that might be true, I’m not complaining – I’m not a shareholder. My only complaint is that only about 1/4 of the movies in my queue are “Available Now” … c’mon guys, buy some more movies! And why do sometimes it takes 2 days to get here, and sometimes it takes a week?

Spider Man 2 – Caught it at the cheap movies. Everyone said how great of a movie it was… I wasn’t terribly impressed. I mean, it was ok and all, but not anything earth-shattering.

Blow Based on the true story of George Jung. George basically started the American cocaine market in the 70s. After seeing the movie, I’d love to find the ‘real’ story and see how much of it was real and how much was made for entertainment. I guess if you’re in the mood for a ‘serious’ movie, this might work for ya. I can’t give it a ‘strong’ rating, but a ‘watch if you’re bored’ rating.

Soul Plane – Didn’t really like it. It had it’s funny parts, but not enough. “Barber Shop” meets “Airplane”. C’mon, when was the last time you saw a good movie with Tom Arnold in it??

8 Mile – I hate to say this, but I thought it was a pretty good movie. I mean, Eminem as an actor?! He actually does a decent job though. I was expecting either something completely cheesey or self-gratifying – it wasn’t either. It’s not exactly based on his life, but I think a lot of events and people from his life were put into it, so that probably helped make his role a little more believable.

That’s it for now I guess… have you seen anything good lately? Let me know… I’m running out of ideas 😀

Wow… I’m posting again! This time, just for movies. I saw Team America last night (sneak preview) Here’s my thoughts on that: If you liked South Park the movie, you’ll like this one. Trey and Matt are at it again with another parody of world politics and action films. If you’re easily offended, stay away. I’m still not sure what their fascination is with durkas.

It’s the usual fart and vomit jokes, but with puppets. They do a great job mocking almost everyone (c’mon, it takes balls to take a shot at Sam Jackson) I guess Sean Penn actually took the time to write them to say “Fuck off”… so… they must have hit a good nerve! “I was in Iraq ya know!”

I’ll warn you now, if you’re an Alec Baldwin fan, you’ll hate this movie. If you hate Alec Baldwin, stay through the credits.

The ‘love scene’ is freakin’ hilarious – I guess they actually ‘toned it down’ to get the “R” rating. So is the song about how much Pearl Harbor sucked (and Ben Affleck) There’s a few bad puns that’ll make you groan, and a couple of Star Wars references (changed just enough to not get sued) and I think a line or to from other movies (I caught one from Armageddon)

I’m not sure I’d pay $9 to see it. It had some good laughs, I’d catch it on video or at the cheap movies. If you’re a big fan though, go see it. Otherwise, you’ll probably get tired of the same gags over and over.

I rented Big Lebowski too. I’ve seen it before, but it was worth a repeat. It’s just a great movie. I might go as the dude for Halloween.

Drum Line was actually pretty decent too. Worth renting it just for the performances, but the story is pretty decent too. One of those good clean family movies.

Dirty Pretty Things I picked this one up because it kept popping up on Blockbusters’ recommendations. And I like Audrey Tautou. Nothing fantastic, but just a good quality, no-frills movie. Might work well as a ‘date movie’ – depending on who your date is. A little love story, a little action, a little drama, a little vengeance, with a few moral struggles thrown in.

The Punisher – Could have been subtitled “Way Better than Hellboy.” A typical action flick – stuff blowing up, revenge, blood & guts, gun play. I never got into the comics, but still liked the movie. Just good mindless entertainment. I like John Travolta as a bad guy too. It takes too long in the beginning – it just moves too slow. I hate it when they take 1/2 the movie to tell 1/4 of the story. Of course, I’m pretty sure they’re setting us up for a sequel.

Basic – It seems like it’d be an action flick, but it’s more of a suspense film with some action scenes. One of the few movies that actually kept me guessing. I’d actually watch it again, now that I know ‘who dunnit’ to catch some things I might have missed. Good choice if you’re in the mood to be confused!

21 Grams – Jury is still out. It was ok I guess. It tried to be great I think, and failed. It was weird for the sake of being weird. I’m not giving anything away here, but it’s non-linear. You’re confused the entire time, up until the last 25 minutes, then you’re thinking “Ok, I know what’s going on, just show me how it ends” but they drag on for another 20 minutes beating you over the head with the full story. Played start to finish, it wouldn’t have been that good of a movie. The fact that they scrambled it up for no apparent reason other than to keep you guessing… just doesn’t quite make up for the story. Don’t get me wrong, I like having to think while watching a movie (seen Memento?) but at least give me a good story or something rewarding behind it.

I don’t think I ever posted this. It’s a way lucky shot – I was driving up I-65 awhile back, and just pointed my phone out the passenger window and hit the button when I saw flashing out of the corner of my eye. Not bad for a camera phone, eh?

So here’s a ton of pictures (my weekend was way too busy to actually write everyting down)

Ok, so this weekend I ended up wandering around on the bike, stumbled across something basically in my own back yard: Picture doesn’t do it justice… it’s a really nice area. And the leaves turning make it even better.

On the way home I actually stopped to take this picture:

The mudde show!!

A parade!

Pirates!

And men on horseback jousting and swordfighting!

I even got to see a smile I haven’t seen before…

I’m not exactly sure why, but I’m just in a great mood today. It’s a bit of everything I guess. Work still kinda sucks and I don’t like my living situation… but everything else finally seems to not be so bad. And there’s a lot of little things that are going right – my mom is in town visiting, so that’s nice I get to see her. A friend of mine started jumping again this past weekend after being out injured for 10 months. Another friend of mine finally got an awesome job after making some life-changing decisions and being out of work for a couple of months (well, actually close to a year of ‘real’ work)

The weather is nice, chilly but sunny. I finally have a handle on some things I’ve been wrestling with as well. So that’s good. I’ve got some definite plans for the future and some tentative plans for the future – all good things to look forward to. All in all, life isn’t bad. It still isn’t great, but I’m much more optimistic than I’ve been in a long time.

BTW – Bob Zany is freakin’ hilarious. So is “Jackass: The Movie”.

Heh… Blogger’s spell check’s suggestion for “freakin” is “foreskin”… Bob Zany is foreskin hilarious!

Amazon.com really freaks me out sometimes. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was just released on DVD and I was thinking of buying it (excellent movie, worthy of buying) After I put it in my cart, it shows the “People who bought this also bought…” It listed Lost In Translation (loved it, bought it) Kill Bill 1 & 2 (loved 1, disappointed in 2, bought neither) Big Fish (loved it, might buy it) Mystic River (liked it, not gonna buy it) and 21 Grams (on its way here from Blockbuster) Granted, I see a lot of movies, but that’s just odd. Anyway, what really freaks me out is they keep track of everything I’ve bought from them (I actually forgot I bought a Stephen King book, seeing it in the list reminded me that I have it and have never finished it) and try to make suggestions. Well, they fail. I’ve even tried to remove some of the items so it doesn’t use them. It still fails, terribly.

For those of you that just love me to death and want to buy me something, here’s my Wish List I wonder if it automatically removes things from your wish list if you buy it or someone else buys it for you. Hmmm… something to try! Although, I just spent $200 on speakers for my house and I’m thinking of taking a trip at the end of November, so toys will have to wait…

Value menu movie reviews:
K-Pax – Slightly above average movie. I like Kevin Spacey, and he does a pretty good job here. From 1-10 I give it a 7.
Man Apart – blech. Someone told it was good (they were wrong) I figured it was going to be stupid because Vin Diesel was in it (sorry Mindy) but I tried it anyway. From 1-10 it gets a 4. And it’s only that high because of all the gun play and gratuitous boob shoots.

The only downside to my spiffy 18″ Dell (NEC) LCD display is that there’s not enough surface area between the screen and the edge of the case to get a post-it note to stick. It happens, I’ll adjust.

The Borg have finally adapted. People at work finally figured out that when I ricockulously busy I don’t answer my phone. So now they take their time to walk to my office, poke their head in the door and start talking. That’d be fine if I was sitting around with my thumb up my backside, or wasting time blogging or something. Bah. I have 5 new voice mails too… once they finally figure out I check my voice mail about once a week, those people will start walking to my office too. Just doing my part to increase the collective cardiovascular system of the company. I’m such a good person…

Online movie rentals I can understand – I’ve even raved about how great it is/lazy I am here before. Online rental of books on CD is also a pretty cool idea, but I really don’t underand Online handbag renting

BTW – help me get a free iPod – it actually works, it’s not a scam. Netflix and Blockbuster are almost always on there, if you’re going to sign up for one of those anyway. Some of the other offers are stupid. If you can get the infone one, do that – it won’t ever cost you anything and you get $10 to amazon.com! I will suggest you setup another email account to register with though, you will get spammed after you sign up on that site.

Superfastmoviereview:
Hellboy – Eh. Couldn’t get into it, wasn’t that impressed.
Man on Fire – Great movie! If you’re in the mood for an action flick, check it out.