My Disdain for Politics

I am writing this on election night, but before having seen any kind of information about the results. I also am going to try  to keep my personal political beliefs out of this. If you know me, you likely can guess which direction I lean. If you want to discuss politics, I am up for that, but this is not the forum I would like to do that in.

I guess the title is a little bit misleading, my disdain is not completely for politics, but also for the business that has been created around politics. There are billions of dollar spent on politics, that could go towards many better causes. I just don't like that people who have more money than others have more say than others. Everyone should have the same impact. I know this has never been the case, but I guess I am just dreaming of a better world, politically.

I really hate the mailings and the pamphlets left on doors, and all of those other scraps of paper that are sent out during the campaign. We definitely got a piece or two of political mail every day. I don't know about other people, but I didn't even bother to read the pieces we received, other than to notice that opposing candidates pretty much using the exact same attacks on each other. I can only imagine how many tons of paper are sent out for elections, and I would imagine lots of that ends up as litter, or with people just throwing them in the garbage, because what we really need is more litter and trash in the world.

Nothing drives me crazier during this time than the attack ads that are everywhere. Nothing is really more discouraging about politics than the negativity. I want to know why you are better than the other candidate(s) not why they are the worst thing ever. You have to take the negativity you see in politics in general with a grain of salt. If you really believe every word you hear from politicians you really need a reality check. I am not saying either side is worse than the other, but can we act like adults about this stuff? After all politics is something that kids aren't allowed to participate in.

This kind of leads in to yet another thing, cherry picking of facts, or even just stating things that are not true. This was especially something that really bothered me during the debates, which I watched. There really needs to be some way to verify the information during the actual debates, and there also needs to be some accountability, getting votes for flat out lying about things during the debates seems like one of the most unsavory things of all.

I will be honest, I am very sick of being pigeonholed into a 2 party system. There need to be more option, that are actually serious options. I would prefer to have the options that are available in Europe, there is room for more than just the 2 parties. I guess I save my stand on that soapbox for another time.

I just hope that everyone went out and voted.

I will see you all on the other side.

Pete Holmes

I have been wanting to write a post about my love for standup comedy for a long time, but I really have not gotten around to it, maybe some other day. I have been to a few standup shows in the last year, prior to that my knowledge of standup had been from tv and from comedy albums, not live. This is really a post about the most recent visit to a comedy club.

The headlining comedian of the night was Pete Holmes. When he had first announced that he would be coming to Appleton, probably about 4 months beforehand, I told my girlfriend that we had to go! I would normally have preferred to go to a Friday or Saturday show, but we had items conflicting with both of those days, so we went to the Thursday show with some friends. I really wasn't sure what the club would be like on a Thursday night.

The club was not completely full, but was mostly full. We got there pretty early and got seated at the front, something you normally have to pay extra for. I think the crowd was really into the show, which always helps, and I was very excited for the show. I had only seen a few of Pete Holmes' bits, but really love his podcast, You Made it Weird, which you can find on iTunes.

I really enjoyed all of the comedians that were on that night. I had seen the host/emcee do his act a few times before, but I could tell that he had been working on his bits, and his act had become more polished. The comedians did a great job of getting the crowd going, when Pete came out, I think he could tell that the crowd was into it.

Now for those of your who may not know me in person, I really love to laugh. I think it is really easy to make me laugh, and my sense of humor encompasses just about all aspect of humor. I am a bit of a laugh slut, I give up my laughs pretty easily, what can I say? I just love to laugh.

As I knew from listening to Pete's podcast, he and I really have similar senses of humor, even when he is riffing he makes me laugh a lot. His set was no different, I was with him from the first joke, laughing very very hard, and enjoying every moment of his set. He noticed how hard I was laughing, asked me my name during the set, and went on a riff out of that, he called my King Peter, and made some other nice comments about how I am just living life and enjoying it. When he was starting into a bit he asked for my help in guiding the people with my laughs. In the end it was my favorite set of comedy that I have seen in person. My expectations were pretty high, but he just blew them out of the water.

When he got of stage he had to go behind me, he tapped me on the shoulder, stuck out his had for me to shake it, and said thank you. A comedian who made me laugh harder than I can ever remember laughing, thanked me personally after his set. How awesome of a guy is he? Well it gets better!

Went to talk to him for a few minutes in the lobby after the show, he actually didn't recognize me right away, I would guess the lights are pretty bright on stage. Once I identified myself, he got really excited, called me King Peter again, I got my picture taken with him, and the best part of all was that he said anytime he was in town he would put me on his guest list and I could get in for free!!! How awesome could this guy be?

It was my first real interaction with someone that I am a fan of, and boy did Pete Holmes not let me down. I really was, and still am, blown away. I would gladly pay to see him do his set anytime he is in the area. I honestly don't know what else I can really say other than how amazing of a guy he is?

After the show I was really on a laugh high, it took me quite a while to come down from it, also something I have never really had to deal with before.

I will say that I know he is recording an hour long special for Comedy Central in a little over a week, I hope him the best with that, I will definitely be watching it when it comes on. He also made a pilot for a show that would follow Conan, which I think would be awesome to see. I really hope it gets picked up, Pete Holmes deserves to get more notoriety.

I guess the point of this post is really to say how awesome it can be when you have high expectations, and when those expectations are exceeded. I will always appreciate when someone is so nice and well just all around awesome. He was able to turn a big fan into an even bigger fan.

Pitch Perfect

Well for those of you who know me, you wouldn't think that this would be the kind of movie that I would enjoy, I was interested in seeing seeing it because of Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson. I went in with modest expectations and was impressed with the overall movie.

There were several big laughs throughout the movie. I was impressed by how funny the movie was overall. Kendrick and Wilson both had some great laughs. I thought the cast overall was was good in the movie. Adam Devine, who is on Comedy Central's show Workaholics, is kind of the villain in the movie and does a good job being unlikable in the movie as well.

The movie kept me interested, while also not really breaking new ground. The story is fairly predictable, but the characters are very interesting, and the songs are fun. It would have really taken me out of it if the singing was used for plot points, or to tell the story, but thankfully it isn't.

This was a cute movie, there really weren't any parts that I didn't enjoy. It was a good date movie, which is what my girlfriend and I used it for. You don't have to think too much about it, but still get some laughs and a sweet story.

I will say this as a disclaimer, there are a few gross out scenes in the movie, didn't bother me, but might bother some people.

If you have any interest in this movie, I would definitely recommend seeing it. It really left me satisfied, even if the story was not all that complicated.

I will add that I had never seen an episode of Glee before seeing this movie, but I passively listened to one after the movie, and the movie is quite a bit different. The singing plot points that I saw in Glee definitely annoyed me, but my girlfriend enjoys Glee and liked Pitch Perfect as well.

First Thoughts on The Dark Knight Rises

This is not my full post on The Dark Knight Rises, just some comments right after having seen it. I might need to see it again before posting my full thoughts.

Not sure if this is a common issue that people are having in the theaters, but the sound was really messed up with the showing I saw. Either the sound mixing and editing was the worst I have ever heard on a movie, or the audio was being played on the wrong setting. I missed quite a bit of the dialogue because it was inaudible over the backing music. I am willing to see it again, but I have never been this angry over the audio for a movie. I am trying to not let it alter my opinion of the movie, but I have to agree with my girlfriend that it is truly impossible to really know how I feel about the movie without having heard the dialogue completely.

I will say that I enjoyed the movie as a whole. It was actually quite close to what I imagined it would be, now I don't mean that as something negative. I read a lot up on the comic books, and I did a lot of thinking about what would happen in the movie, and I liked what they included in the movie. I did think that some of the performances left something to be desired, but can anyone live up to Heath Ledger's performance in The Dark Knight?

The Avengers

I literally just got home from watching the movie, I still have thoughts swirling in my head about the movie. I don't think I could have dreamed up a way of doing that movie better. I guess there is a reason i am not a screen writer huh? Although I think Joss Whedon is above the game in that respect as well. He has written what are my 2 favorite movies so far this year, The Cabin in the Woods is the other.

There is so much to say about this movie. I really do not think there is not a moment in the movie that is dull. There is action, there is tension, there is laughter to break the tension, and there is great dialogue. All of those things put together in one movie is why I really want to give credit to Joss Whedon and Zak Penn.

Beyond the good writing, I also think just about everyone had a good performance in this movie. I did not notice any poor performances. I still think Tom Hiddleston does a great job as Loki, with such an evil smile. I think there was good chemistry between all of the stars, and some great tension in the movie between the Avengers as well.

The movie does an amazing job of painting each of the characters in their own lights, with their own strengths and imperfections. The movie is so balanced and, with its ensemble cast, does an amazing job of keeping balance. No one character shines above the others, it is a true team effort. The team of course is even larger now with the addition of The Black Widow and Hawkeye. Jeremy Renner is in everything these days!

I really think what makes the movie a cut above the rest is how it combines all of these things together. There are several large laughs which are not what you would normally expect out of action movies. I definitely tend to enjoy action movies that can include a decent amount of humor, it might have actually been my biggest issue with Transformers 2, there was not much humor, and it is not hard at all to make me laugh, run on sentence much?

I think it is awesome what they were able to do with a movie like this, every single person knows how this movie will end going in, yet it is very compelling the whole way through. The movie takes a wonderful course to its conclusion.

In all honesty, I highly doubt my words are going to get anyone to see the movie. If you saw and liked the other Marvel movies of recent times, then definitely go see this. If that is not your cup of tea, then I highly doubt you have read this far. There is of course another scene after the credits that, for me, was worth a big laugh. There is also a reference to the villain who will be in the next movie, but I am uncertain who that character is at this time.

I really was hoping for some sort of reference to Ant Man or the Wasp, but alas there was none. I hope Edgar Wright is still signed up to write that movie, which would make it a must see movie for me personally.

I wanted to post an updated ranking of the recent generation of marvel movies:

The Avengers
X-Men First Class
Iron Man
Captain America
The Incredible Hulk
Thor
Iron Man 2
X-Men Origins: Wolverine

The Hunger Games

I recently started reading the books of this series, I am currently a bit over half done with the 2nd. I really enjoyed what I have read, and I enjoyed the movie, but I didn't think it was that great of an adaptation of the book. There were so many details that were either changed, or left out completely. A few of the huge laughs the movie could have had were cut out completely. The character of Haymitch definitely does not have his shit together, at least not in the first half or so of the book.

I understand that not every item can be included in the book, but there is just so much more going on. I wish there would have been a way to include some of the inner monologue that is in the book, it is easy to overdo it, but so much of the information that adds to the story was completely left out from the movie. I think the movie could have done an even better job of getting people to like Katniss if it had included even more of her perspective.

I thought Jennifer Lawrence did a great job of playing Katniss, can't fault her for doing a good job, even if I thought the structure of the movie could have been a little bit different. You couldn't even tell that Elizabeth Banks was the person who plays Effie, which is a good thing she was definitely good at embodying the character. I was worried that Lenny Kravitz wouldn't do that good of a job, because when has he ever acted in anything? I actually liked what he did as Cinna.

Well the following could be spoilers, but the following are items I would have liked to see in the movie:
They barely even showed Haymitch drunk, He didn't take his tumble off the stage, nor did he slip in his own mess on the train.
Without the inner Monologue, you don't know that decorating Rue's body was an act of rebellion by Katniss.
They left out District 11 sending bread to Katniss as thanks for helping Rue.
They left out lots of other gifts.
They left out Katniss almost dying of dehydration early on.
The dog creatures were supposed to be wolf creatures with resemblances to each of the dead tributes.
The Mocking Jay pin was a gift from Madge in the book, which gains even more meaning in the 2nd book.

I am sure there are many other things that could have been better as well, but I will stop here for now.
I would give the movie a B overall. I would give it a C- for the adaptation of the actual book though.
The guy who plays Gale totally looks like Joe Mauer.

Disappointment and Sports

Watching sports, and being a fan of sports can be such an exhilarating thing, but that is not what this post is about, quite the opposite actually. This is about the heart wrenching disappointments that also come with being a sports fan. I guess this is inspired by the disappointing loss by the Packers today, but it is something I have been thinking about writing for quite a while.

I would have to say that the Vikings have probably led to the most disappointment in my sports fandom life. 1998 was the first year where I truly got into football, and everyone remembers what happened at the end of that season. 15-1, losing in the NFC Championship, not even in the Super Bowl, but just the conference championship game. I have enough disappointment from the fact that the Vikings haven't even had the decency to lose in the Super Bowl, just love crushing my spirit in the conference championship.

We can move on to 2000 where I had gotten into football even more, And the Vikings once again make the conference championship only to be utterly destroyed by the Giants 41-0, and I watched every bit of that game.

And then of course there was 2009, the team that took the Vikings' style of crushing playoff defeats and added a whole new twist to it. That game was just rough, so many disappointments in one game. It is still rough to even think about that game.

The Vikings are just so great at getting your hopes up and then completely ripping your heart out. It is really hard to do the feeling justice through writing. Every time, you know it is going to happen, but through morbid curiosity you have to keep watching until they give you what you know is coming.

Now I can't say the Twins have been as disappointing as the Vikings, but you get excited year after year, and get knocked out by the Yankees or someone else, year after year, usually getting swept in the first round. Getting your hopes up that maybe, just maybe, this will be the year they do something in the post season, but of course they don't.

Disappointment is the risk you take by truly investing in a sports team, you feel the joy of victory, but also the agony of defeat. Risking that is what make sports so enjoyable, knowing you could get that rush from a victory, or feel like your heart has been ripped out by a defeat.

In the end it isn't about whether they win or lose, but that they play the game.

Year End Wrap-up

This is just a wrap up of my year, a year in review for my life. I guess this post is quite self indulgent, but I feel like writing it anyway, oh well.

My year started the way the previous 2 had been, working 2 jobs, not really making that much money, but just trudging along anyway. I liked my jobs, but they were not things I would be doing forever, for one reason or another. both had been great for me in different ways, but I was growing restless with them.

It has been a year of change for me, but that change didn't really begin until I finally found a diet plan to stick with  I started my diet at the end of June of this year, following an adjusted version of the slow carb diet found in The 4 Hour body by Tim Ferriss, the main difference is that I am not paying $100+ for supplements each month, I am ok with slower weight loss, I didn't think it would be a quick thing at all. The longer it takes me, the more it will help me in my mind, well to a certain extent. As of the writing of this entry I have lost 76.6 lbs in total, which is 18.11% of my previous total weight. I am approximately 4/5 the man I once was, my goal is to lose a little over 40% of my previous body weight, which would be my biggest accomplishment of my life. I am 44% of the way to my overall weight loss goal, and it has only been about 6 months in doing so. I have not had a single week where I gained weight, there have been weeks where i was disappointed how little I had lost, but no relapses to discourage me. I look forward to continuing this trend in 2012.

My life has also changed a bit in that I have a full time job, and that I am living in a new city. I decided I did not want to live the rest of my life working 2 part time jobs, not making all that much money. I was not exactly happy with how everything was going there either. I began job searching in late July, but really didn't find much other than sales and other solicitation type jobs. I am much more comfortable in a customer service position, as it is pretty much all I have done with my working life.

I asked if my friends new of any jobs that I would be good at, and a friend of mine, Matt Lemon, told me there were openings in the area he used to be in. I applied, and the rest, as they say, is history. I am now working as a customer service representative for HumanaOne insurance. I enjoy the job, I genuinely enjoy helping people, and I actually make nearly double what I had been making previously.

I have already been making friends in the Green Bay area, and am genuinely happy with my life I have there. I look forward to see what 2012 will bring in my life.

Happy Holidays to all!

Ranking the Movies I Saw This Year

This is my ranking list of the new movies that I saw this year, as well as a few that I did not get a chance to see yet. I really did not see that many movies this year looking over the list, but I thought I would include all of them. Quite a bit of debate went into writing this, I kept changing the order of the movies until I decided it was good enough.

11. Cowboys and Aliens: This was by far the worst movie I saw this year. I thought it was a creative idea with a really cool cast, but the execution was not there at all. There were definitely parts that I enjoyed, but others that really didn't work at all. It definitely fell far below the other movies that I saw this year, probably around the 4.0 out of 10.

10. Thor: This is my least favorite of the new generation of Marvel movies. It does not help the movie's case that I saw it in 3D and the 3D did not really do anything for me. I don't think it was needed at all, maybe my eyes just don't handle 3D well, but that is beside the point. This movie was of a character that just was not all that interesting, I was a bit underwhelmed by it. Probably about 6 out of 10.

9. Captain America: The First Avenger: I really liked the style of this movie, and it did a good job of setting up the last movie before The Avengers. Chris Evans did a great job of being Captain America, there was just a bit lacking in the story itself, it was good, but not great, 7 out of 10.

8. Rise of the Planet of the Apes: I will admit I have only seen the original Planet of the Apes movie, so I cannot claim to be the biggest fan of the series, I would watch the others if given the opportunity. I thought the movie was pretty good, really thought Andy Serkis did an amazing job with the motion capture acting as he has been known to do.  I would give it about a 7.5 out of 10.

7.X-Men First Class: I think this movie really approached the X-Men in a much different light than the first series had. Of course this was looking back at the origins, where the other movies did not get into that. This is a somewhat more dramatic and darker look at the X-Men, I look forward to a potential sequel. 7.9 out of 10.

6. Super 8: This movie was really just an ode from JJ Abrams to Steven Spielberg, I would get self conscious if the person I would making a tribute to, was actually producing the movie, but I thought it was well executed. The kids do a great job with their roles in the movie, and Kyle Chandler does a good job in his role. The movie is a different look at its style and genre. 8.5 out of 10.

5. The Muppets: This movie was just amazing!!! I realize it is hard for a Muppet movie to have that much of a cohesive plot, but the movie was just all around enjoyable. I can't claim to be the biggest fan of the Muppets, but there are some Muppet movies that I really like. I really liked the writing, the songs, the emotions, the performances, and just about everything. The only reason it is not higher is that it is a Muppet movie, it is just hard to take is seriously against other good movies, but don't let that count against the movie overall. 8.8 out of 10.

4. Bridesmaids: I really liked this movie, when I saw it in the theater and also the times I have seen it since. I think some of the performances have the chance to really be breakouts for the actors, both Kristen Wiig, and Melissa Mccarthy gained a lot of awareness for what they did in the movie. I thought the jokes and the story were great, I guess there were some gross-out moments, but I didn't really mind them personally. I thought it was a heartwarming journey that was quite unique in recent years. 9 out of 10

3. Attack The Block: I think this was a good all around movie. There was comedy, there was horror, there were interesting characters, there was British slang, what's not to like? It is not gory horror, but more of a thriller horror movie. I liked the creativity of the movie, and how it is different from other horror movies. It was a shame that the movie didn't get wider distribution in the US. 9.2 out of 10.

2. Moneyball: I am a huge fan of the book, and find the subject matter very interesting, and to be honest the movie really did not get into the most interesting things in the book. Looking at the movie as an independent piece from the book, as I need to do in this case, was very entertaining. It is a lighthearted look at an improbably season with a franchise that had to find new ways of evaluating talent, and there is a happy ending, the Twins win! 9.5 out of 10

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: I would just like to refer to this movie as HP 7.2, much shorter and I think the message still gets across. The weird thing about this movie, is that I actually liked part 1 better, but they were released in different years, so I did not have to truly compare the 2 on here. I think the intensity of this movie is great, for the climax of such a long lasting series I would have expected nothing else. It really was a great way to wrap up a series that has been around for a large portion of my life! I think movie was able to wrap up the series very well. I think the performances by the now grown up actors were great. I think this is a movie that will live on in my collection for years ( I got all 8 harry potter movies on Blu-Ray for $59 bucks total). I would give it a full 10 out of 10 because it was the best movie I saw this year.

I should note that I had finished writing this before I saw Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, which I really enjoyed a lot.

I did not get around to seeing every movie that I wanted to this year, in fact there are some fairly recently released movies that I would really like to see. Here is a list of the movies from 2011 I would like to see:
50/50--I like the main actors, and it seems like it could be a very touching story.
Warrior--Heard great things about Tom Hardy's performance.
Horrible Bosses--Heard the movie was just completely hilarious.
Crazy. Stupid. Love.--Love the cast, didn't really have a date when it came out, though.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy--Getting great reviews, on a great topic.
Young Adult--Love the director, the writer, and Patton Oswalt.
Midnight in Paris--Seems like it is the first good Woody Allen movie in too long.
Tucker ad Dale Vs. Evil--A great twist on the horror genre, sitting at 85% on Rotten Tomatoes.

I wanted to do this last year, but never really had the follow through to finish it, I hope to make this a tradition, I might even remember to keep movies ranked as the year goes on, we will see how committed I get.