Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Juno, Junot and Juneau

Mainstream movies have generally gotten so bad, or at least not suitable enough to my taste, that movies aren't really as much a part of my life as they used to be. One thing I try to do, though, for which I have no good explanation, is see the Academy Award Best-Picture nominees before the Oscars are announced. That gets a little harder every year, but I keep doing it. So when the Best Picture nominations were announced a couple weeks ago, I was a little dismayed that I had seen none of the five, which means I have to see all five by February 24th... Plus the event might be really a letdown if no stars show for the award show because of the current writers' strike. Oh well!

So Jerry I went to the see the first of the five the other night -- Juno, which turned out to be a wonderfully funny and well-written little movie.. I say "little", meaning no stars, very little budget, so no chance of winning the big prize... But see it! You'll like it! The other films to see before the 24th: No Country for Old Men, Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood, and Atonement. Stayed tuned!

Meanwhile, when not working or going to the movies, I've started reading a very good 2007 novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. I've found very few goods novels the last couple years, so this one is a good find (although, actually, I'm only on page 60 so far).

and I hate to do something so stereotypically Minnesotan as mention the weather again, but this morning after walking (somehow surviving) to work this morning, I checked the temperature and it was -13 with a -32 windchill. At that same moment, it was 9 degrees in Juneau, Alaska, with a -6 windchill. Sounds like a vacation spot to me!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

nightmares do end eventually

one year from today, bush becomes an ex-president (if he doesn't get impeached before then), and then the debate will start: whether he was the worst President ever -- or merely the worst President of the United States ever.

the bad-hair days of January

My sister Joan, who has an all-Phillies blog, casually accused me of having an "all-Vikings" blog... I looked back through my entries to date and found that my Vikings comments comprised maybe ten percent of my ramblings. That's not bad. And now no more Vikings til late summer.

My son Jon, who has no blogsite at all, gave me a book for Christmas called No One Cares What You Had For Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog. And you can't believe some of these suggestions. Let's see how desperate I get for ideas.

And, being in Minnesota, with no Vikings in the playoffs, the number one conversation-piece is usually the weather, which for conversation purposes has been very cooperative lately. Temperatures (not including wind-chill) when I got up yesterday morning: -14 degrees. Today -11 degrees. The kind of cold where your heart stops when you walk outdoors. Even walking to my office, which is only two blocks from home, can be a killer. This week has been so cold that I've actually had to wear gloves and a stocking-cap, the latter of which I resist doing because it means wrecked-hair for the rest of the day. One day it was so icy on that two-block walk that I slipped and landed flat on my back and cracked my head against the cobblestones. Luckily, I come from a family of very hard heads.

And, speaking of family, it was good to get back to New Jersey last weekend (where the temps actually were in the low-60s for part of the time) for my brother's wedding. It's always good to see family that I don't get to see nearly often enough, even though we had some mishaps with us almost becoming car-jackers and my brother-in-law buying A Roll. Besides the wedding stuff, we got to do the usual Jersey things I like doing -- going to Jim's Lunch in Millville for breakfast, visiting Ocean City and Atlantic City, eating cheesesteaks (which Minnesota sorely lacks) for lunch.

I know, I know... No one cares what I had for lunch.