Tag Archives: movies

Hollywood, Uncategorized

Back to the Movies

1 Comment

I like to tease Michelle about how she doesn’t like movies.  Let me clear one thing up, with the straightest face possible, dead-seriously, no kidding:  Michelle likes movies.  She has seen her fair share.  Generally, we just don’t enjoy the same sorts of movies.

I’ve showed her some that I think she would not have otherwise considered watching (Garden State immediately comes to mind) and gotten positive feedback.  Others, she would not have otherwise watched and now probably regrets the time spent on them (Goodfellas is the best example I can think of here).

One that I was recently surprised to find out she missed when we were kids is Back to the Future.  I can remember seeing it for the first time at Grandma & Grandpa’s house during the summer  (probably the same summer that we convinced Grandma to rent us Ferris Bueller’s Day Off— which she was not impressed with).  It seemed like a picture that is right up Michelle’s alley; it’s got some of her favorite things:

  • the 50’s
  • a dog
  • a happy ending
  • “hooking up”

I quickly predicted that this movie would rocket into her Top Five All-Time list.  When the movie was over, I found out Michelle has not actually compiled such a list.  But, she did enjoy it.  I don’t think she’d like the sequels as much, so they’re not going to be “required viewing.”  I noted that BTTF is probably my mom’s #1 or #2 movie all-time– it’s probably neck-and-neck with Blast from the Past.

Do we see a theme here?

General, Uncategorized

Weekends? Goood.

Leave a comment

Had a nice weekend with Michelle. On Friday evening, we went to the Petit to go skating for a while. Michelle had to borrow skates, because she had forgotten hers. I realized that, after 5 years or so, I should really get mine sharpened. Granted, I only put them on 3 or 4 times a season (at most), but they’re really worn down at this point. It’s fun to skate over there, but it’s a little expensive to do really often (7 bucks apiece!). The ice at Red Arrow Park will probably be ready soon, and that’s free.

On Saturday, Michelle worked in the morning, and I did some cleaning and general loafing around the house. It was 11:30 or so before I even really looked outside, and by then, the snow had started. Michelle had planned on driving up to Oshkosh to get her hair cut, but that plan was quickly nixed. We were also going to look for a Christmas tree, but I thought it best to stay in from the weather. Good news is that, as a result, my house is presentable enough to have people over for the holiday season.

Saturday night, we did go out to a birthday party over on lake drive. We were invited to this shindig hosted by a friend of a friend who we’ve only met a few times. Semi-formal attire was specifically requested on the invitation, which made Michelle really excited about it, and made me uncertain of what to expect. Once we got there (we rolled in around 10, I think), we met a bunch of people and had a really good time. I told Michelle to be sure to invite John (the birthday guy) to New Year’s, too.

Got in really late on Saturday night, so Sunday got off to a late start. By the time we were ready to head out and “do stuff,” it was too late to be thinking of a Christmas tree hunt. We DEFINITELY need to take care of it by next weekend. We did have a nice meal, though (a roasted salmon fillet with wild rice and carrots). We were too stuffed and tired to make cookies after that, so we watched Knocked Up. We both enjoyed it quite a bit; it’s got something for everybody (dick/fart jokes, partial nudity, AND “hooking up”).

Important things to accomplish this week:
– Writing
– Christmas tree
– start Christmas shopping

General, Hollywood, Uncategorized

I Assure You We're Open

Leave a comment

It always amazes me that there’s a large sector of students who believe the campus is only operational when classes are in session. A common exchange this time of year:

TRANSFER STUDENT: I’m really concerned that I haven’t heard anything about my spring aid yet.
ME: Well, there’s still plenty of time. It’s pretty common to be at this stage right now…
STDT: But aren’t you like, off all through January?
ME: (laughing) No, we’ll be here.
STDT: Oh, I thought the whole place was closed…

I think this perception just speaks to the general ignorance of the administrative side of the university for the students. I think it’s more common for them to think of “college” as their classes and homework, maybe with a little res hall sprinkled in. It wouldn’t surprise me if a student thought that their professors were more involved in the actual operation of the university. But I do not care to digress today.

If anyone out there is concerned about the WGA’s strike throwing a wrench in the consumption of your stories, please see the following:
1. Cable
2. You-Tube
3. already-available DVDs
4. (going out on a limb here) READ A BOOK!

I (and I think most sensible people agree with me) am vastly more concerned about the potential screeching halt of the entire economy of southern California. It will be interesting to see how this plays out– for the time being, my best regards to everyone I know who works in The Industry.

Speaking of writers on strike, you may be wondering where the hell I’ve been. Had some psyche-shaking events transpire in recent weeks that lent themselves to extended periods of introspection (that and the 4-day hiatus to the web-challenged Northwoods). I think things are better now, so maybe I’ll get off my dead ass and be more productive.

Maybe I could start writing for TV.

General, Uncategorized

Drowsiness?

Leave a comment

The last couple nights I’ve had trouble getting right to sleep really early, so that I can get ‘plenty of rest.’ On Sunday night, I didn’t go to sleep until shortly after midnight, and last night I sat awake in bed until about 12:30. Last night I was going to archive some old emails over to the server, but I wound up reading them instead. I’ve said it before, but I’m repeating because it’s true: I was funnier in 2003. I started to lose it in 2004, and by 05, I was the dense, festering lump of flesh you see before you today. Not sure what happened there.

But I digress.

Point was that in spite of not getting what one could call a desirable amount of sleep, I was up before the alarm both days, ready to get moving at about 5:40. Yesterday, I didn’t even hit a wall later in the day or whatever.

But, I did notice this morning that I was a little groggy when I got off the bus, and I think it’s because I was reading. I don’t know about you, but any time it’s late and I can’t fall asleep, I just open a book, and unless it’s remarkably compelling, I will be out in under 10 pages. I’m pretty sure I was dealing with the same effect here.

So, no more reading on the bus on the way into work. Unless it’s just the paper (i.e., Internet). That’s still OK. Newspapers are short, relatively speaking.

Also, listening to Streaming soundtracks this morning, and the main title from E.T. is waaaaaaay too long.

I really don’t like that movie.

General, Hollywood, Uncategorized

40 Damn Dollars

Leave a comment

I know I’m not the first person to see this threshold go by, but I just gassed up my ride and spent $40.90 doing it.

Holy balls.

I did at least have a restful night’s sleep yesterday. I woke up this morning feeling a lot less tired than I have been all week. I have a list of things to get done around here today, so not tons of time to write. Yesterday I got a haircut, I watched a movie that I had much higher expectations of (for whatever reason), and I packed up a box of stuff that I’ll be taking in to work tomorrow morning.

If you try to call me, sorry that you won’t be able to get through– I forgot my phone charger @ Jen & Joe’s yesterday, so I have to call people over the internets if I wanna talk to them.

I’ve got a list of things I should be able to do while sitting down, so I’m gonna go watch another of last year’s Oscar nominees.

Hollywood, lists, Uncategorized

3 Stars

Leave a comment

I was looking through my Netflix queue yesterday, filling in “rating” holes for movies that I watched but never made a call on (I know– really stressful, exciting stuff). But I noticed that a large number of these movies got 3 out of 5 stars from me. In the Netflix vernacular, this means “I liked it,” as opposed to 2 stars (“I didn’t like it”) or 4 stars (“I really liked it”).

I dunno, this is surely a case where my anal retentiveness and desire to over-quantify something as unimportant as a list of movies, is tripping me up, but I really wish there were half-star marks you could make on this thing. There are movies that I gave a 3 just because I couldn’t say “I didn’t like it,” and others that got a 3 just because I didn’t “really” like it. I mean those are 5’s and 7’s out of 10, respectively. There’s a net difference of a full star there, but the system doesn’t let me account for it.

Well, really, though, who gives a shit? On the Netflix scale, I would give this post 1 star (“I hated it”).