Archive for March, 2008

Goal# 75-Listen to all the songs that are on my i-pod (Day I)

I decided that today will be the first day of trying to listen to all 1542 songs that are currently on my i-pod and currently I am on song 38 (oh man this is going to take a looooong time).

So far I have listened to
Aerosmith – Just Push Play
Akon – Convicted
Alanis Morissette – Jagged Little Pill

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Goal# 86 – Try 5 new restaurants (2/5)

SRR and I have been seeing the Coming Soon sign for Dimassi’s Mediterranean Buffet for a while. Finally on Friday March 28th SRR announced that it had opened. So we gave it a try and I must say it was pretty good. The restaurant it self is very bland and there are no servers (which was a little weird even for a buffet place). For about $12 pp you get a HUGE selection of prett good food and dessert. SRR wasn’t all that impressed with the food, but I give it a 4 out of 5.

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Goal #30 – Get back on my dirt bike

SRR got his new love last weekend and it had been in the shop all week. We woke on saturday with dreams of going to the track after almost a year of not riding. We loaded up the truck and were waiting on Georgetown Honda to call us back about the bike. They finally called around 11:15 AM and we were on cloud nine. We headed to pick up the new beauty and drove the hour long drive to Cross Creek passing a bunch of other riders on our way there. After finding a nice shady spot, it was time to get the bikes warmed out and ready to go. I think we were both pretty nervous/excited. But it was just like riding a bicycle, it all comes back to you (ok ok I was a little rought to start off with). After riding around the track for a while and taking breaks about 10 to 15 minutes I started eyeing the kiddy track (hey baby steps right?) and asked SRR if he would escort me to the track. After dogging a few kids I got the hang of the track and was ready to kick the little one’s off. But I was nice and waited until they all left and had the track to my self and can I say WOW!!! It was sooo much cooler then just riding on flat dirt. After going around and around about 20 or so times, I started feeling my body ache and it was time to pack up and go home and I think SRR was ready as well. So we made the 1 hour drive back home and cannot wait to go back out next weekend!!!

Without further ado…I give you, The Man, The Myth, The Legend.

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Goal# 95 – Completed

After doing a little math, I figured out that I saved anywhere from 35-50 hours last week by not watching TV. I know, I know I was in total shock my self!

Well, new rule;
I will not watch TV before 8:00 PM during the week (subject to change at anytime without notification)…

I think I might actually be able to accomplish things I have on my to do list and I highly recommend this to all other Reality TV junkies out there. You really can live without the drama of reality TV for a week, I promise!

Whew one more down and plenty more to go. Thank you for watching and stay tuned.

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Goal# 95 – No TV for a week

Today is Day 3 and Rob has joined me in my journey of no TV for week. This is something we have been wanting to do for a while, but it being on my list has really motivated us. I will update again on Day 7…

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B-A-N-A-N-A-Z

I think it is safe to say that this movie blowed BIG time…
BANANAZ takes you behind the scenes on one of the great creative partnerships of our time. For the first time the virtual walls ‘OF GORILLAZ’ come down and the audience sees the true brain child of Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn; the work that went into the drawings, the animation, the music and the voices. As one radio interviewer puts it, “It’s a parallel universe – these guys aren’t in the band but they know the animated characters who are”. Friend and film maker Ceri Levy decided to document the process and started following these two unlikely pioneers, over a six year period, with his camera.Bananaz is the funny, riotous and compelling film which gives a never seen before account of the working relationship of Albarn and Hewlett.An inspiring, unsanitised, free-wheeling comment on what can be done when creative minds meet in the spirit of collaboration from Ibrahim Ferrer to Dennis Hopper…
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Depressing & Mind-blowing

I am crazy tired today… but it was worth staying up to see One Minute to Nine last night.

Married at 16 years old in the small community of Grant Pass, Oregon, Wendy Maldonado looked forward to a long life of wedded bliss with her husband. Instead, the days and years after their wedding turned into an endless cycle of fear, neglect and violence that left Wendy terrified for both her own welfare and that of her children. After eighteen years of marriage and abuse, Wendy Maldonado finally summoned the courage to deal with her husband in the only way she knew possible. From award-winning Texan filmmaker Tommy Davis comes ONE MINUTE TO NINE, a moving and shocking documentary that uses extensive home footage to chronicle Wendy’s story

and today after work Rob, Anj and I went to see;

Shot in Bombay – Mind Blowing!!!
In the summer of 2006, an ambitious but unproven Bollywood director started filming Shootout at Lokhandwala, a movie based on an encounter between police and gangsters in Bombay in 1991. With a star-studded cast and a true-life story, the films release was highly anticipated. In the lead role, playing a famous vigilante cop, was superstar Sanjay Dutt. Unfortunately, Dutt was also involved in a massive terrorist trial that had been going on since 1993, and the case came to a head just as filming began. SHOT IN BOMBAY joins the filmmaking team on the last leg of shooting in January 2007, as they try to finish the film before their lead actor is sentenced.
This fast-paced, often surreal documentary weaves together three stories about Indias most complicated city: behind the scenes on the set of a star-studded gangster film helmed by director Apoorva Lakhia; a lesson in crime and punishment narrated by retired cop A. A. Khan (Bombays Dirty Harry); and a profile of one of Indias most beloved and troubled stars, heartthrob Sanjay Dutt. Lakhia needs a hit, as his last two films flopped. Khan needs to clear his name from accusations that the whole shootout was a setup masterminded by wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim. And Sanjay Dutt desperately wants his courtroom saga to be over and his name to be cleared. Its not an easy ride for any of them, and the film is a rollercoaster ride along the thin line that separates fact from fiction.
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SXSW Film Festival

Well it all started with SRR mentioning Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay and of course I wanted to see it. So we decided to go ahead and buy a pass instead paying for each individual movie on it’s own.

We managed to squeeze in 5 movies this weekend (March 8th & 9th).

Goliath

It’s not the nasty divorce or the demotion at his job that sends a man over the edge, but his missing cat. The events of GOLIATH unfold without mercy or relief for a man who clings to his search for ‘the sweetest most wonderful cat in the whole world.’ It’s not what happened to the cat that lends intrigue, but wondering what the man will do when he finds out.GOLIATH interlaces humor and poignancy with a deft hand, never letting you up for air until it’s time. Comedic touches complement the most difficult moments of the film without undercutting the effects of either. The Zellner Brothers’ straightforward production makes keen and sympathetic observations about everyday struggles through a man searching for the seemingly minor satisfaction of a pet when faced with never-ending obstacles and indignities.

Half Life
The time required for one unstable element to decay and transform into another.In Diablo Valley, California, a complacent community struggles to adapt to a changing world where looming global chaos threatens to alter life as they know it.Nineteen-year-old Pam Wu remembers her father with longing, since he flew from their lives forever. She and nine-year-old Timothy remain with their mother, Saura, who buries the shame of her husband`s desertion by losing herself in the lustful attentions of her younger boyfriend Wendell. Still, Saura can`t conceal a bitter nostalgia for her youth, when she had love and purpose to motivate her.Pam`s only friend Scott Parker, a restless Korean adoptee, battles to jar his fundamentalist parents out of their denial of his sexuality, inadvertently entangling his closeted boyfriend Jonah with inescapable repercussions.Wendell`s powerful presence threatens to tear apart the Wu family, even as Scott`s machinations backfire, jeopardizing things for himself, his parents, and Jonah. As cataclysm looms, lines are crossed, secrets long repressed begin to emerge, and all are left to face their own selfishness and intolerance… until Timothy discovers a way to alter everyone`s reality.
Then She Found Me
Adapted from Elinor Lipman’s novel of the same name, Helen Hunt makes her feature directing debut with THEN SHE FOUND ME, a touching story of schoolteacher April Epner (Hunt) and her very unlikely path towards personal fulfillment. Following the separation from her husband (Matthew Broderick) and the death of her adopted mother, April is contacted by her apparent birth month (Bette Midler), who turns out to be a local talk show host Bernice Graves. As Bernice tries to become the mother to April that she was never able to be, April seems to find solace in the arms of the parent of one of her students (Colin Firth), only to find that the mystery to life’s questions cannot be solved by a simple revelation.
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
HAROLD AND KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY marks the triumphant return of these two hilarious, slacker anti-heroes. The movie stars John Cho (AMERICAN PIE I & II, AMERICAN DREAMZ) as Harold and Kal Penn (VAN WILDER 2: THE RISE OF TAJ, EPIC MOVIE) as Kumar, two stoners who can’t seem to get a break. Their last adventure found them traveling across country to find a White Castle hamburger in order to satisfy a weed-induced case of ‘the munchies.’ This time, the boys get themselves in trouble trying to sneak a bong onboard a flight to Amsterdam. Now, being suspected of terrorism, they are forced to run from the law and try to find a way to prove their innocence. What follows is an irreverent and epic journey of deep thoughts, deeper inhaling and a wild trip around the world that is as ‘un-PC’ as it gets.
Super High Me

Featuring comedian and former Stoner of the Year Doug Benson, “Super High Me” explores the current debate over medical marijuana. As part of the journey, Benson ingests and inhales medical marijuana for 30 consecutive days in order to get “super high.” But first, Benson must go 30 days without any marijuana and undertake a series of medical exams. Along the way Benson performs across the country and hangs with fellow comics Sarah Silverman, Bob Odenkirk and Patton Oswalt. The comedy routines and on-the-road hijinks create an amusing look at a controversial subject. Benson’s journey covers the two extremes of detox and addiction, an experience that has brought him a certain infamy among the counterculture of Los Angeles.

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Goal #87 – Take a Cake Decorating Class

On Monday March 3rd Becca and I took the first of 4 classes to complete Cake Decorating Course 1 and will be taking our second class this evening. We made a HUGE batch of royal icing for icing and decorating the cake (I will make sure to take pictures).
To be contuined…

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