Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Tonight Matt and I are going to see the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. We saw a preview for this movie when we went to see Be Cool. We were both really excited about this movie. I just think it looks really funny and cool, but Matt has read this series of books. It'll be interesting to have two completely different perspectives going into this movie. I haven't really looked forward to seeing a movie on its opening night for a long time. I'll let you know how the movie is tomorrow. :)

The past few nights I have gone to bed at "normal people time" and woken up the same time that Matt does (6am) every morning. It feels very strange to be up during the morning. School is going well, this term is more challenging than the last, which I like. The instructors are much more critical and challenge me a bit, although it is still too easy for me to be lazy and not really need to put much effort into my work. Oh well, maybe next term will get even tougher, because I am going to be taking three classes at once instead of two.

Mr. Teflon??

How in the world does Scott keep surviving on American Idol? It's obvious by his reactions each week that he thinks that he is the one deserving to go, and the judges think the same. He must have a cult following with super fast dialing fingers or something. I think Constantine sucked last week and was going to end up going in the next week or two anyway, but I think Anthony and Scott should have gone before him.

Paula's reaction while he was singing his last song was really funny to me. She was consoling his mom like he had just died or something. Anyway, at least Bo and Vonzell are still in the competition. Vocally, I think Vonzell is the best, but Bo is still my favorite.

Weird sport broadcasts

Yesterday morning I was flipping through the hundreds of channels we have on TV and noticed that there was nothing on. I was bored, though, so I ended up watching juggling competitions on ESPN2. ESPN2 has the best weird sports you could hope to find on TV. Pool is a regular, dog shows, equestrian (ugh), frisbee golf, and other weird stuff are not uncommon.

Along the TV watching lines, I ordered Ducktales and the Wonder Years on DVD recently. I received the entire series of both for under $70. They are from a bootleg web site, but I've got to say that this guy does professional work. The quality is great and he did a great job organizing the data on the DVDs. I know it might not be morally right to buy bootleg stuff, but if the studio that originally made them isn't producing them on DVD, of course I'm going to go and get what I want elsewhere.

Two new music reviews

If I were the type of person that bought CDs, I would definitely buy two new CDs that have recently come out. This is big for me, because new music rarely appeals to me, and I rarely ever have the urge to buy a CD. Of course, I just get everything and anything music related online, but the thought is there.

The first that I would recommend is Greenday's new CD, American Idiot. At first, I hated a couple of songs from this CD because the Madison radio stations over played them way too much. I hate it when radio stations wreck perfectly good songs like that. Anyway, the rest of the CD seems to be somewhat politically charged, and Greenday seems to be trying to make some kind of a statement with the title track. Otherwise, the music is a good mix of popish punk and ballads. One of my favorite tracks of the album thus far is "Give Me Novacaine."

On a totally different genre is Tim McGraw's newest CD, Live Like You Were Dying. Even if you are not a fan of country, this CD has something for you. He seems to attempt to cross over into a popish realm with some of his strong lyrics. The title track makes you think, and most of the rest of the album does the same. There are some hidden gems that will probably never hit the radio, such as Angry All the Time and Kill Myself.

Anyway, check them out, I enjoyed them. :)

Back strengthening

I have determined that most of the problem with my back is that it is weak and I baby it. I have also noticed, with Matt's help, that my posture is horrible. So, I have begun to take steps to try and strenghten my back. I am starting slow. Each day, for a set amount of time, I consciously sit up as straight as I can. I started at an hour, and I'm up to 1.5 hours at a time now. It BURNS. The rest of my body aches all the time now - my neck, upper back, hips, thighs, calves, even my arms. But I know in the long run, I am making my lower back stronger, which will let me start to whip myself back into shape physically.

I have also taken some other steps in regards to my diet. Matt and I were both eating out far too much, so on our whiteboard on the fridge, we have two sets of checkboxes - one for eating out and the other for going out for ice cream. We are allowed to do each twice a month. We've already hit our quota for going out to eat. I have also made a new rule for myself at dinner. I eat one helping, then wait 20 minutes. If I'm still hungry after that, I will allow myself another helping. I heard somewhere that it takes your stomach 20 minutes to relay to your brain when you are full. So far, it's working. I rarely ever eat two helpings now.

They might be small steps, but I've got to start somewhere!

Crappy theme weeks

Whoever is picking these theme weeks on American Idol needs to be fired. There have been a few shows that I have fast forwarded through the majority of, and this week was another one of them. I know that some people out there probably like 70s dance music, but not I. When I heard the theme for this week, I thought that Bo was doomed, but he was ironically one of the best of the evening. I bet he had to search long and hard through that song book, though, to find one song that fit his style. It seems like the past few weeks have been geared against some of the more popular singers like Bo, Constantine, and Carrie.

I thought that Anwar finally came out with a performance that we should expect to see from him, and Vonzell is becoming the one to beat in my opinion. She keeps coming out with stronger performances, although I do still like Bo better. Scott continues to be (surprisingly) consistent.

My guesses for the bottom three this week are Anthony, Constantine and Scott. Who knows, though. :)

Good old Brewers

As I sit here in my Milwaukee Brewers fisherman's hat, I am not surprised to see that Brewers are beginning to look like their usual selves this season. I must admit that I was a bit excited by the way that they started the season, but this seems to happen to me every year - I get all excited, then they suck through most of the season, then they have a good streak at the end of the year, but it's too late.

We got some potentially bad news yesterday. Matt learned that his boat is being deployed two months earlier than scheduled, September 15th. He heard a rumor that he is scheduled to be out for half of the deployment, three months. That would suck big time. He hasn't confirmed this yet, and he thinks he might be able to talk his way out of it. We'll see how this turns out.

Getting older (and stupider?)

When I was just out of high school, I thought I knew it all. My head was full of facts that I was sure would give me the edge I needed to succeed in the world. As each year goes by, I know less and less of what once seemed like critical information to know. I can't graph a linear equation anymore, I am slowly forgetting all the capitals of the world, I even make spelling mistakes every now and then. There are times I even feel stupid, like last night when I was trying to do my homework.

Do we actually get stupider as we age, or do we just begin to realize that there is so much information that we don't know? I might feel stupider sometimes, but I am much much wiser than I was when I was seventeen. I might not be able to graph a quadradic equation or be able to tell you what the capital of Turkmenistan is, but I know how to work with people, and I know what it means to be a good leader. I know how to balance my finances, and how to balance today with tomorrow. I can't tell you the value of pi to ten decimal places, but I can tell you the value of family and a select few friends. :)

Astonishing?!?

I thought last night's American Idol was a very good one, and didn't really think that anyone sucked at all. However, Simon commented that Constantine was "astonishing." I really thought he was going to give it to him, but instead all we got was "astonishing." I'm thinking that maybe he meant it in a bad way instead of a good way.

At this point of the competition, I think it's based on week to week performance, and that being said, I feel that Nadia should be on her way out. Anwar was as boring as ever, and I think he might be in the bottom three as well. I really like Vonzell's performance. It was fun and a song that we know. I think Scott must have some sort of weird huge fan base or something, because I'm not sure how he's still in the competition. I think that having Hall & Oates in the audience will play to his benefit this week.

Writer's block

Since I've been home, I've been finding it more difficult to find things to post about here. I'm thinking it has something to do with the fact that I'm not sleeping well at all. I'm sure it's just a passing thing, as it usually seems to be. So in the spirit of TV sitcoms, I thought that I'd put together a menagerie of my previous posts. You know, like on sitcoms when the writers are too lazy to write an actual show so instead they show you clips from previous episodes.

So that sounded like a good idea, but too much work for my taste. But at least I posted something!! :P

New school term

This was my first week of my third block of online classes. My biggest complaint thus far has been that the instructors have been far too lenient and were allowing me to be lazy. This block is definitely not that way. My instructors are very critical and things have to be absolutely perfect to get a perfect score. Makes sense, doesn't it? Anyway, this is the way I like it, because it pushes me a little and forces me to do some actual work. The two classes are Cultural Diversity and Business Communication, and both seem to be fairly interesting, although both involve a lot of paper writing again. I am getting sick of writing papers :P

Odd side effect

Since the day that I started taking my medication, I have noticed one very odd side effect - I clench and grind my teeth. When I asked my doctor about it, he said that this is a normal complaint and to chew on licorice or something. What in this medication could possibly cause such an odd side effect?

Today we had what is becoming known by me as a "Matt-ism." Matt left for work as usual this morning, and I was still really jet lagged and worn out from the day before, so I didn't even hear him leave. I woke up at 3:00 in the afternoon, went to the kitchen to grab a Mountain Dew, and found a note on the floor from Matt. It said that he had forgotten his keys inside the apartment and the door had automatically locked and to please open the door. I had forgotten to turn my phone back on and didn't hear him pounding on the door. So, he had to sit outside the apartment door for about 7 hours while I slept. He said he did walk down to the mall to get some lunch and found out that the building manager did not have a spare key. I found this all extremely funny. :P

I'm safely back home

I have safely arrived back in the beautiful state of Hawaii. There were no hitches during this trip, and I was very tired by the time my 8 hour flight from Minneapolis to Honolulu rolled around, and I managed to get about 4 hours of sleep on the plane.

I found that this time was much harder to leave Wisconsin than the last time I had to leave. I had a lot of time on the plane to contemplate why this might be, and I determined that last time I was very preoccupied with the cats coming home, and Hawaii and Matt and I were still fairly new. That newness has since worn a bit, and now my family and friends back home are becoming that "new factor" again. I am not saying that I enjoy seeing Matt any less, just that it was certainly harder to leave. I cried for a bit when we finally arrived home, partially out of exhaustion but also because I miss you all back home a lot more than you realize.

Driving

The one thing that I've missed while in Hawaii is being able to drive for longer than an hour at a time. It's not something that I'd want to do every day, but when you're alone it gives you a lot of quality time to think. Tonight while I was driving away from my parents' house, I had time to think about the time that I had spent with my family while visiting this time around. I really enjoyed myself, and I realized how much I miss them while I'm in Hawaii. Mom was crying when I left, and it was really hard for me not to do the same. I'm glad I forgot my glasses, because it gave me a chance to give you another hug and tell you that I love you. :)