A look into the life and mind of Peter Weck. It will cover a lot of topics. Please feel free to comment any time you would like, feedback is always welcome. Its part psychology, part philosophy. I will use this blog as an actual journal, and I will get very personal in it. Please be respectful, and enjoy.
I have come to the conclusion that my personality is a bit of a shapeshifter. Its not the same all the time, and it is also different in different situations. Sometimes I am bubbly and outgoing, while other times I am quiet and withdrawn. I can't even control what my personality is like all the time. It does seem like my personality is a bit bipolar.
I also think my anxiety can play into this. I hate being in large groups of strangers in social situations, like parties. I don't like walking around introducing to myself to strangers. Talking to strangers without any actual reason scares the hell out of me. So instead, I will just stand with a group of my friends, or avoid the situation all together. If I have to go meet with someone its really easy to overcome the anxiety. I guess I wish I had resolved more of this stuff when I was younger, but alas I did not.
At work when I am in my element, people have no idea that I suffer from depression. I might come off as a jerk, a lovable jerk, but a jerk nonetheless. I am comfortable, and outgoing, and I like talking to my co-workers. For the most part. I just need to help get myself more comfortable in more situations to really overcome a lot of my anxiety.
I actually enjoy working at the Chippewa Valley Women's Business Conference today. We brought 3 people to the conference to work the booth instead of the normal 2. Having Karen, the only woman who works for the SBDC, at the conference seemed to give us a bit more credibility with the women.
I was tweeting random things during the conference, it got boring when the breakout sessions were going on. I think many of the things I tweeted during the conference would have been offensive, at least it amused me, what else can I ask for? I spent some quality time talking to the girls at the Clear Channel table.
So the blurry picture below is what I have to deal with when I sit on the couch. My roommate's cat Cubbie cuddling with my leg. He gets really warm sometimes.
So I have had the idea before to do something creative for people to enjoy, I just don't know what to do or how to do it. Earlier this week I had someone suggest that I make a podcast, that is very possible. I would need to get some equipment for recording, and I would also need to find someone who would want to co-host it with me. Last week when I was on the news, one of my friends suggested I be a tv personality, which I thought was kind of laughable. I guess it all comes full circle to the topic of my personality. If I were on tv, sometimes I would be laughing and having a good time, and other times I would be quieter. I don't know.
I think it will take some time for this to actually develop. Would you listen to a podcast even if you don't know me in person? What topics could I cover? A comedy cooking podcast? Is that even possible? Is this enough questions?
I must say that I have been throroughly enjoying watching Castle. Nathan Fillion is awesome as usual. In a wonderful moment, he dresses up as his own character from Firefly for Halloween which was something I laughed so hard about, even though it had already been spoiled for me. I am only a a disc and a half into the second season, but I am loving it. I would really advise you to check it out, if you are looking for a new show to watch.
Well this is a relatively short entry by my standards. And this entry has been written on and off over the last 2 days!
Yesterday when I got to work at the office, I went to sit down in my chair and I split my pants. Now these were not a new pair of pants, they had been worn down by my thunder thighs, I knew their structure had been weakened, but didn't think they would rip then. I had not ripped a pair of pants in a similar fashion(overuse) in quite a while. I guess its just time for the changing of the guard. Old Pants, I salute you!
I have started a new blog dedicated just to sports, It still needs to be refined, and I will probably adjust the layout, but its located here: http://weckpdsports.blogspot.com/
I will be writing there about as regularly as I do here, if not more regularly. The posts will probably be shorter, and will contain mostly just my thoughts on whats been going on in the world of sports. I am probably going to be explaining some of the advanced metrics that are used in baseball, that some people might not understand. I would love to have some back and forth discussing but that will take some time I am sure.
I have been a bigger guy for as long as I can remember, but now is the time for me to slim down some. I don't think I will ever be skinny, but I would love to just lose some weight. I have ordered a new diet book that I heard about on one of the many podcasts that I listen to. The book is called the 4 Hour Body. I have only heard some discussion about it. I think a lot of it will be based on eating healthier things at home. It has also been refer ed to as the slow carb diet. Not no carbs, but slow. I look forward to receiving it from Amazon sometime in the near future. A lot of the diet involves around having lots of filling lean protein, such as beans. It also encourages eating lots of vegetables.
I think at times this diet will be hard, but one of my biggest food problems is that I am just so addicted to sweets. I have a mouth full of sweet teeth. I need to find a way to not eat sweets, or at least give them a great reduction in my diet.
While waiting for the book, I have decided to start making some foods that are different, but will be very filling and healthy:
For Breakfast today I made black beans, sweet corn, spinach, onion, garlic, seasoning, and some scrambled eggs, it could have used a big more seasoning, maybe some taco seasoning even. I really feel very satisfied right now.
Tomorrow I am planning on making a lentil and vegetable soup. It will be lentils, onion, garlic, carrots, kale, leeks, jalapeno for a little heat, and celery. I will probably add some curry powder as well. I am kind of combining 3 different recipes as has been my MO(Modus Operandi), I just don't like following a single recipe. I like making things my own.
My ankle has been bothering me a lot lately, ever since I played tennis with my brother. I think it just gets painful when I stand on it for too long, but that isn't good because one of my jobs is me standing up all day! Oh well I have found ways to deal with it.
I have found myself reading more lately, than I had in the past. I think its something I always enjoyed doing, but would choose other things over it. Now that I have some time on my hands I am not just using it to watch TV as had been the case in the past. I have a few new books that I would like to read, with 2 more on the way, but I am currently reading a book from the library. I needed a change
Zombie. Spaceship. Wasteland. By Patton Oswalt- The first of the books that I bought myself for my birthday. Patton is one of my favorite comedians, he covers many great topics, and is just so intelligent. I liked the book, but I didn't love it. Its a bunch of unrelated essays that he wrote. Some of them were great, and others just didn't hit with me. If you are a fan of him I would recommend that you check it out, but otherwise its up to you.
Sleepwalk With Me. By Mike Birbiglia--I loved this book. Mike Birbiglia is one of my favorite comedians as well and I can just hear him saying the words as written in the book. You learn a lot about his life. There are so many good laughs in this book, and he even mentions doing a show at UW-Eau Claire, which I thought was cool. I would recommend that everyone check this book out. I stayed up way past my bed time reading it on a few occasions.
Ice Cream Recommendation: Maple Blondie, Hanah Teter's flavor from Ben and Jerry's. I love the maple flavors in this ice cream, the blondies inside are not that great, but maple ice cream and the maple carmel are both awesome. The blondies are not bad, just aren't as chewy as I had hoped. I needed to try something new.
Well I am going to wrap this up, I have been writing it on and off all day.
So I am not sure how much I am planning to write tonight, but I feel like writing something. I was thinking about Scream 4 for some reason, or Scre4m as they have shown it to be titled. The original Scream was the meta horror movie, being self aware of all the rules of other slasher films that had been made. Now Scream 4 is being self aware of the previous scream movies. It just seems like too over thought for me. It also seems like every character in the movie other than David Arquette is a slender girl, and other than Courtney Cox(Arquette) they are all in their low 20s. I guess sex sells when it comes to slasher movies. I have never had much of an interest in them. I used to watch the scream movies whenever they were on tv, until I had seen them all. The first was an original idea, then I think the other two were not really needed.
I am still my same old self, unsure of what it is that I want to do. Both professionally, and relationship-wise. I think I know what it is I was right now relationship-wise, but I am not 100% sure, but am I ever 100% sure?
I was looking through job postings earlier, and I realized that I still don't know what I want to do. I just need to find something else I am ok with doing, and something that will pay me some decent money. I don't need a ton of money, but I would like to pay down my student loans faster than they are required to be paid off. I just don't like having debt of any kind. I would love to be able to pay double what my required payment is every month, but right now that isn't feasible. I should feel lucky that I had a college fund set up for me so I didn't have that much in student loans, but I would still like to pay it off early.
Baseball season has been kind of a downer, the Twins offense has been non-existent which has not really been an issue in years. It really just seems that some of the players are still working off the rust. Cuddyer missed a lot of time in spring training getting a huge wart removed from his foot. Mauer missed time after surgery. Morneau missed time still recovering from his concussion, but looks so close to hitting so many home runs. I think the offense will be fine, and if the pitching stays like this, we will start getting things to go our way. I actually have a lot of confidence in our bullpen too. I wish Kevin Slowey was not injured because he had been pitching well too.
The Twins just have this issue with not being able to hit left handed pitchers at all, especially when Cuddyer and Young are not hitting well. They need to be able to pick up the offense on those days, or get them knocked out of the game early to face some bullpen righties. I think this is just my amateur analysis of the Twins first week and a half of games, and there are still a ton of games to play.
I have enjoyed being able to watch baseball though. Its always a fun time of year. And its something great to do while reading. Or while cooking. Just having it on in the background.
If the Indians can keep up their quality pitching, with a potentially healthy Grady Sizemore coming back, and Shin Soo Choo will eventually do something offensively for them, they could be spoilers. I think the same for the Royals. They have some good hitters up now, and will probably get another one of two of their very talented prospects coming up before the end of the year. They could really do some damage. I think the Central division is going to be a very weak division this year. Any of the 3 front runners could take it.
Movie: Cedar Rapids-- I really enjoyed this movie. I only say it last night, but even only having a day to reflect on it. I think it was really well made. I thought the cast did a great job, especially Ed Helms. He has not been the feature in anything he has done, but I think he really held his own. The movie was funny, but also showed some good character development. Ed Helms definitely when from the bright eyed and bushy tailed newbie, to something more imposing. Spoiler alter there is some man butt in the movie. I think the movie had some good jokes about things relevant to some of the actors. Isiah Whitlock Jr. made some references to The Wire, and he was in The Wire. I may be reading too much into it, but Anne Heche was once upon a time Ellen's girlfriend. In the movie she and others crash a lesbian wedding. I think its worth seeing if you have similar tastes to myself. Its also a way of showing some support for independent movies. I realize this is not a really small budget movie, but it was independently financed and produced. It was only bought by Fox Searchlight after it was shown as Sundance.
Tv Show: The Killing--I watched the first 2 episodes late at night on either Friday or Saturday. I really liked the slow and deliberate setup of the show. Its not like Law and Order where they are showing the body right after the credits. It took a long time to find it. Along they way they did a great job of introducing a bunch of characters/suspects. Many of the characters seem one way originally but we get shown another side later on. I like that the show does not move too fast. It is well paced so you have a chance to really think about everything as it is developing. I think the show so far has always left me wanting more, which is a good thing for a show to do, even if it is frustrating at times.
Well that is all I have for tonight, but I still hope to do this a bit more often. Right now I just write when I am inspired to do so.
Comments are always welcome, and if you don't already please follow my nonsense on Twitter @weckpd
I will leave you with Hipster Jake Peavy. Via @KeithLaw on Twitter.
Things I did during this entry:
Looked up Isiah Whitlock Jr. on IMDB
Was sitting in the back of the Entrepreneur Training Program that I run
Watched the Twins game on MLB gamecast.
Was frustrated that I couldn't even get a link directly to the Weau video of me. Silly Eau Claire News.
The title line is taken from the following video. Every time I think of Opening Day I think of this video. I am going to start including more videos in my posts, I would love to provide people with some classic moments that I have enjoyed in the past.
My favorite line in the video is, "I"m Bill Mcneal......on crack.......I like boys."
News Radio is such a classic show that my brothers and I loved watching. I still enjoy watching the reruns on Reelz channel I believe. The classic battles between Phil Hartman's Bill Mcneal and Dave Foley's Dave Nelson are always enjoyable. Worth checking out if you want some with a great 90's sense of humor. Lots of people who are much more well known now got big breaks in this show.
This brings me to my excitement about baseball.
I really need to force myself to take a lot of time off of girls. I think I have been hurt so much by putting myself out there in the past, that subconsciously I am unable to really develop feelings anymore. I am just like pure brain now, and no heart. I guess I am a real life Tin Man. It was the Tin Man who lacked a heart right? (Yes I looked it up after writing that)
I need to find a way to correct myself. Maybe doing some self help reading is the solution. Maybe some healing will happen with time, and maybe I need to stop trying to force myself to have feelings for people. I think I need to suspend all of my online dating profiles on the different sites, although I guess I ccan only think of 2 different sites. That will take away the temptation of trying to contact someone online. Maybe I need to actually learn to start something offline hahahaha. I think there are a great deal of things that I need to work on. I have had some flair ups of anxiety, specifically when I was thinking about starting a job search. Of course I am still thinking about that, but it makes me a bit nervous. Maybe I actually am in need of some courage. I will have to remember that for the next time I visit the Wizard. This actually makes me think of something that I will address later in the post.
Wow that is somewhat of a decent transition to discussing looking for a job, I have kind of been putting it off, but I guess it wouldnt hurt to start as soon as possible. I still really wish I knew what I wanted to do, but maybe what i want to do is something I can do on the side, such as writing. I would just need a job with hopefully a regular schedule that I could work around and actually set up a normal routine with! I can't imagine how nice that would be. I think I would be able to get more exercise that way. I really need to set some goals for a job hunt and my personal life. I think that is what I will work on for my next post.
Where the hell has creativity gone in Hollywood? I know everyone has heard this all before, but I needed to write about it myself. I referenced this somewhat earlier about visiting the Wizard, but I believe there are 2 or 3 movies in the making that are in some way related to the Wizard of Oz. I believe there is a straight up remake coming, as well as a prequel. What is up with that? Have all the original stories been done or something? Lets make a prequel to a movie from 1939 that totally makes sense.
There are so many prequels, sequels, and remakes coming out in the next few years. I can understand wanting to make a sequel to Tron, now that the technology has advanced that you can actually make it seem so real. There are just so many movies coming out that are unoriginal. There are some re-imaginings that I have enjoyed, specifically Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, plus I am guessing I will enjoy The Dark Knight Rises, as long as it does not go Spiderman 3 on us. And of course they are re-booting Spiderman back to his high school days. Spiderman and X-men really got this comic book movie trend started and now they are both being rebooted, less than 10 years later. I really liked Spiderman 1 and 2 as well as X-men 1 and 2, and even the Last Stand to a lesser degree.
The industry is of course driven by money. Make sequels to movies taht made a ton of money. Even if the writing is not as good, just throw in tons of flashy effects to cover that up (Transformers 2, no one will ever be able to convince me that movie was even decent. Everyone who was involved with it admitted it was bad, but I still come across people who tell me it was amazing. I have never been so bored in a movie with so much action. Plus I think it killed Michael Jackson). They are remade Red Dawn, which was not that great of a movie to begin with. I think the movie has been finished for 2 years, but they are trying to cut it in a way that won't be offensive to Russians or Chinese people
Do we really need another Pirates of the Caribbean movie? And as good as The Hangover was the first time around, do you really think they can replicate that with a second movie? Or will it become a movie revered by the Jersey Shore loving crowd? I don't even think The Hangover is all that great after watching it a 2nd time. It just is not that rewatchable.
I will give Transformers 3 a chance because I enjoyed the first one enough. There are just so many of these sequels and prequels that I have little not no interest in at all. I want to like as many movies as possible, but some movies just make it way too hard for me to do that.
This topic of course brings me to Arthur. I had not until this point seen this movie, but at the same time I can't imagine Russel Brand doing the character justice. There is just something about him that rubs me the wrong way, which is weird because I usually love british humor. He was good in a small dose in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but Get Him to the Greek was just too much of him for my taste. It was also lacking in other areas.
The extent of exposure I previously had with Arthur is the references that were made to it on the show The Critic, one of my favorite forgotten shows, and also the trailer of the new remake of Arthur. The same guy who played Jerry's dad on Seinfeld plays Liza Minelli's dad in Arthur, weird. I think I actually understand this Arthur character more than I should. I might not be a womanizing alcoholic, but i tend to laugh way too often. I sometimes think of myself as a failure, but in the end for the most part keep myself in good spirits. In the end he chose love and a working life, over a fortune
I am looking forward to the upcoming movie Your Highness. I think the cast should be fun, and its an idea that has not been beaten to death. A romantic medieval epic comedy? Other than Princess Bride I can not think of any others. Of course its 2am and I am starting to get tired, so I might be missing something.
Write about: Monsters- This is such an awesome movie. There are really 2 whole characters in the movie. Its quite a simplistic movie. Trying to get across a potential wasteland where some monsters are being held. There are some beautiful shots of wilderness, as well as not having all of the information about what is going on creates this uneasiness, at least it did in me. I really enjoyed the action and the mystery that was created by the situation, as well as just finding it intriguing. It has a bit of the feel of Cloverfield because of the monsters and the mystery involved. Monsters is available on Netflix Instant if you feel like giving it a try.
Garden State-This may be my favorite movie to watch when I am a bit depressed. I love, and really connect with the feelings of melancholy involved in it. I think this may still be the best soundtrack for any movie I have seen. It does such a good job of getting the feeling of the movie across to the viewer. I think many of my readers will have already seen Garden State, but if not its definitely worth viewing.
I almost forgot to write about my birthday! Its becoming less and less of an event each year. I might actually try to do something bigger next year, I think that it would help to think about doing something more than a day in advanced. I think I didn't really care this time around because well I hate being the center of attention for things, even on my birthday of all days, silly me.
Well I think I have spent more than enough time writing this, and maybe I will start to write more. I am really looking forward to it warming up so I can go on late night jogs/walks without getting too cold. I can do half of my route, but the whole route is too long and I still slip on the sidewalks due to some remaining ice. I hope by next week this will be greatly reduced.
Well as always, I would love feedback, comments, suggestions or anything anyone has to share.
Things I did while writing this:
Watched Futurama, laughed at the name Noticeably F.A.T.
Looked up how to spell Bill Mcneal
Started watching the original Arthur with Dudley Moore on Netflix Instant
Looked up the year The Wizard of Oz came out.
Worked on actually linking movies I mentioned!!!
I guess technically I slept while writing this post, had to take a 7 hours break from it
Started Watching Season 3 disc 2 of Mad Men and recognized Carla Gallo from Undeclared in an episode
