My favorite things

So I might be away from my blog for a little while so please don't all you followers go and leave me!  (All 2 of you.  :( )  I've got to find a way to grow my followers!  Anyway, since I'm going to be away I thought I'd post a few of the things I'm into right now.

1. Family Guy, I can't live without my Griffins!
2. Biggest Loser - one of the few shows Melissa and I agree 100% agree on watching.  And the only show that we HAVE to watch together.
3. Chelsea Lately - love her!  And another show Melissa and I can 100% agree on.  Fun fact, Melissa's dad also watches Chelsea!
4. I'm always game to watch Dumb and Dumber, Shawshank redemption, Joe Dirt, Forrest Gump, Step Brothers, Dew Cox or Talladega Nights.
5. I really enjoy reading, I'm a boring reader though, mainly WWII books, or a biography.  I just started Dan Brown's  "The Lost Symbol" this weekend.  After that who knows what I'll pick up, I got some good ones for Christmas so it might be an Any mini miney moe type deal.
6. I'm a HUGE fan of Charles Schultz and Peanuts. 
7. I'm a fan of Kelley Clarkson and Taylor Swift.  (Seems that they are the only people getting air time right now so they're the only artist I know)
8. I've just gotten into blogging, and no it wasn't just to piss Melissa off.
9. I think I'm the only male that blogs?  Can someone confirm this for me?
10. I <3 lamp, and Mac.

Sweet Epiphany Batman

Due to a trip to Birmingham this weekend I don’t have a movie to give a review on today.  But I think what I do have is just as good.  This weekend we were invited to an Epiphany party.  Epiphany is the celebration of the Wise Men arriving after their long journey at the side of 6 lb 4 oz little baby Jesus.  This party is hosted by a long time family friend of Melissa’s parents.  The Host is 90 years old and has been throwing this party for the last 31 years.  If you’re doing the math in your head that would mean that this party has been hosted by her since before I was born.  The same group of party goers attend this event every year, so that means everyone is at least twice as old as me, except for the hired help who was only 27 years older than me.  Melissa and I were seated at a small table with a cute little couple in their 70’s.  They had some fun stories to tell and made for great conversation, so no complaints there.  The food was wonderful, pork roast, stuffed squash, Manhattan Shrimp sauce over long grain rice, green bean Almondean and fresh homemade bread.  We were worried going in that we would be bored out of our minds since the age difference was so great, but once we sat down to eat it was an enjoyable time.  I now think I want to find me an old person to adopt.  Someone to go over to their house, help out with chores and listen to stories of the “good old days”.  If said old person is wealthy with no remaining family that would be a huge bonus.  ;)  Seriously though, I think as young adults we should be spending more time with our elderly and taking better care of them.  I know for some of them it has be pretty lonely at times.  I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions this year, but maybe I should put this on my list.  BTW, old people will surprise you, the lady at my table had an iPhone and her 74 year old husband was excited about getting his as soon as his contract ran out.  So “Do  Work” old people!

Try this new fad called jogging or yogging

I have come to realize that I am in very sad shape.  I need to do get up, get out and get something, so I decided that I would start running.  My problem is there is no where fun to go run around here.  I'll probably end up running around the school parking lot in the evenings.  I don't know how well I'm going to do at this "running" thing.  I'd like to have a goal, maybe run a 5k or something, but am I motivated enough to get out there and run and not quit when I get tired?  I used to be in great shape, but I used to run with a purpose, basketball.  I always hated the first two weeks of practice though, hell weeks, because when we pretty much didn't even get to see a basketball.  It was all endurance drills.  Also, I don't have a treadmill, so I'm going to have to be out in the elements jogging, or yogging, not sure if the "J" is silent.  Heck who knows if this will ever even happen.  I've been dreaming since the last season of Biggest Loser ended and the remaining contestants had to run a marathon.  Seeing them finish that race and the looks on their faces made me miss that sense of accomplishment that sports used to give me.  Now that I'm an old fart I don't have those moments anymore.  So what I'm looking for is for any pointers from you runners out there on how I can get started running, maybe some tips for beginners, goals that I should be setting to run a 5k, shoes to wear and so on.  ANY help would be appreciated. 

Wednesday Rub Down

Welcome to the first edition of Wednesday Rub Down, a weekly run down of the events on NBC’s hit show The Biggest Loser.  Last night kicked off Season 9 of the Biggest Loser so we were first introduced to our losers.  As seems to be the theme in BL here lately, this season has the biggest and most unhealthiest participants ever.  To keep the show fresh they come up with new curveballs for the contestants, this season had three right out of the  gate, first curveball was that the contestants had to weight in front of all their friends, family and community, second curveball was as soon as they got to the ranch and walked into the gym all the equipment was missing except for Trek bikes on which they had to ride 26.2 miles.  Third curveball, the last two teams to finish the 26.2 miles were sent home.  (We found out after they put the teams back into their limos to go home that they were coming back to the ranch in 30 days to weigh in and the team with the highest percentage of weight loss would get to stay on the ranch.  So in a few weeks we’ll have these teams back.)  Now that all the curveballs are out of the way, it was time for Bob and Jillian to start kicking butt.  At this point NBC queue’s up the puking montage.  Doesn’t everyone love to see people puking back to back to back?  Since this was the first show I don’t know the contestants well enough to start talking about them or calling them by name so we’ll keep this first post a broad overview of the episode.


At the weigh in the team of twins fell below the yellow line and so the other teams had to choose which twin to send home to continue the journey at home.  They voted to send James home.  James has a horrific knee injury that he suffered playing high school football so his brother was worried about how he’d be able to manage at home by himself.  Well turns out he’s done quite alright.  He’s lost 100 pounds in 2 months.  Congrats James on your success, keep up the hard work.

I can't be your Hero baby

Well everyone I was hoping to start a Tuesday post for Monday nights Hero's review, but due to a headache last night I missed Hero's so I can not give a report of what happened.  What I would like to happen is for everyone to comment on the post and give your thoughts and insights into what you saw and what you think is going to happen next!  Hopefully I'll be able to watch it off of the DVR tonight and give a report tomorrow.  I also plan on giving a run down of the Office and maybe some other TV shows that I watch during the week.  Family Guy, How I Met Your Mother, and Chuck.  So stay posted to the same Bat channel, at the same Bat time.

Movie review Monday

Welcome back everyone to Cas’s Crazy Thoughts.  Today we’re going to be reviewing three movies that I partook in over the Holidays.  “Up in the Air”, “The Hangover” and “Julie and Julia” We’ll start the review with “Up in the Air”.

    Up in the Air is a refreshing break from special effects loaded movies.  You’re reintroduced to missing art of witty dialogue.  George Clooney plays a great leading man, but most of my attention was drawn to Anna Kendrick, who I was just introduced to since I haven’t seen any of the Twilight movies.  Her role symbolizes the young fresh face that brings about the evitable life changes.  George is the old timer that has a tried and true method of doing things and is fearful of change.   Let me inform everyone that this is not the movie to go see if you want to leave the theater feeling good, because if nothing else, this movie will leave you “Up in the Air.”

    The Hangover, billed as the funniest movie of all time, was a very enjoyable movie.  The problem that I had with the movie is that if you waited as long as I did to see this movie it has a hard time living up to the hype.  Now don’t misunderstand me, The Hangover is a hilarious movie packed with laughs from beginning to end, but after the buildup I was given I don’t think it’s possible to match the hype.  I wanted to give it a fair review so I thought I’d watch the movie again, plus I wanted to make sure that when I thought I saw Heather Graham’s nipple, I was really seeing Heather Graham’s nipple.  Sorry, that really has nothing to do with this review, but if you haven’t seen this movie, you get to see Heather Graham’s nipple in here.    Now, what was I talking about?  Oh yeah, during my second viewing of the Hangover I started to get the feeling that it was nothing more than “Dude, Where’s my Groom?”, but without all the stoner jokes.  Still a funny movie and I will be watching it again, but it’s no Dumb and Dumber. 

       Julie and Julia was a nice movie that moved along at a nice pace with a well blended past and present transition.  My thirst for history kept me following the Julia side a little bit more than the Julie side.  Amy Adams plays a great lovable leading lady that you really start to cheer for during the movie.  Julie and Julia was exactly what I expected so I was not disappointed.  This is a movie that is perfectly suited for a slow rainy day spent with your special lady friend.

Rebirth of the nerd

So this year I think it’s time for me to get my nerd on, again. It’s been a long time since I’ve been driven to get the latest and greatest tech device, or learn something new in the field. This is going to be the year that I get back into the game. I’m going to freshen up my HTML skills, hone my PERL knowledge base, and finally upgrade to Snow Leopard. If all things go right I might even buy a new iMac, or Macbook by the end of the year. (here’s hoping anyway)

I’d really like to thank LG of iGriza for jump starting me on this. Through Melissa emailing her back and forth it really brought to light how far behind I am on my nerd status. I realized that I never use my Mac Mini anymore. So Mac Mini I apologize for neglecting you, you’ve always been there for me when I needed something Googled, when a PERL script needed to be tested, and when I needed something funny spoken in a computer voice. This year I will make all of that up to you. I’ve freed up your hard drive by buying you a 1 Terabyte friend, today you will be upgraded to Snow Leopard and the new iLife suite. Next I think I’ll move your iTunes library to your external friend so you can shed those few pounds everyone resolves to do this time of year. Then my good friend it will be, “PEANUTBUTTER JELLY TIME! PEANUT BUTTER WITH A BASEBALL BAT!” Maybe we can even get the guitar out and record some riffs with Garage Band. Mac Mini, I love you…