I probably really look like I don’t have my act together with a Thanksgiving-themed post in my journal still the most recent writing as of January 7th. Sorry about that, December totally flew by and I was running around in circles all month. It was a great success, though. A good solid holiday, made it up North to visit with family over Christmas and relaxed at home over New Years.

We got our first snowfall here just a couple of days before Christmas, and it wasn’t a substantial snowfall. Just a week or so ago we got hit by a few serious inches, but it’s mostly melted over this weekend. Without the snow it really didn’t seem like the holidays as much, and it just doesn’t feel like winter in Minnesota yet. I’m not complaining really, except that it’s been so dry that I’ve been drinking water like crazy and my eyes have been burning constantly. I’m going into the eye doctor this week and the plan is to switch back to glasses primarily, I just can’t do contacts anymore. Between the dryness in the winter here and staring at computer screens all day, contacts are just a real hassle for me.

Not much else has been going on around here. Just busy as usual with work. I’ve been watching a little TV lately, and I’ve picked up on BBC’s reincarnation of the sci-fi series “Doctor Who.” I’ve been a little nostalgic watching it, I remember the show being on late at night when I was very young. I only remember seeing the show out on my family’s farm which the family no longer has, and that’s quite a few years for my lifetime. I don’t remember much from that long ago, but for some reason that blue police box from the show always stuck in my memory.

I’ve recorded about four episodes of the first new season so far and I’m watching the fourth tonight, and I’m already absolutely hooked on the show. Christopher Eccleston is great in the lead role as The Doctor, I’ve seen him in a few movies and have always enjoyed his characters. Billy Piper really brings the show together as Rose, the sidekick. This new incarnation is full of humor and tongue in cheek appeal, and it’s already bringing back all kinds of memories I didn’t even know I had of the old series that I saw in the late 80s. It’s playing late nights on BBC America so I’m sure not everyone is going to be able to see it. I don’t believe it will ever be as popular in the States as it is in the UK (Sci-Fi just hasn’t been much of a mainstream attraction in the U.S. recently), but I hope it’s around for a while as I’m really enjoying it. It’s good to have a new show to watch since HBO made the absurd decision to cancel “Deadwood,” which resulted in my cancellation of HBO.

Well I’d better be off to bed, I’ll try not to be so neglectful with the writing this month.

I kept telling everyone that I would only go see Pixar’s new animated movie “Cars” if I were armed with a bucket of tomatoes to throw at the screen for every time Larry the Cable Guy blurted out his annoying catchphrase “Get-R-Done!” I found it ironic and amusing when I went to the movie and found that his character’s name was Tow Mater. It’s also interesting that after watching this film, I don’t despise Larry the Cable Guy anymore, he actually did a terrific job and I don’t think anyone else could have pulled his part off. And even though I didn’t come armed with Tomatoes, he only said the phrase once and it wasn’t such a bad thing.

I think everyone involved did a great job on “Cars.” Pixar really steps up the bar on every movie they come out with. What I really love about these movies is that the writers are all heart, the stories are not just humorous and entertaining like we expect from animation/cartoons but they are really inspiring.

Any NASCAR fan may have picked up on a few of the subtle nods to actual NASCAR story lines from the past. I could certainly be wrong about this, but I sort of picked up on the possibility that Lighting’s character was based on Jeff Gordon and Chick Hicks’s character was loosely based on Dale Earnhardt. It all seemed to make sense, Jeff Gordon was the hot new rookie in the last year of The King’s career (which was definitely the story in this film,) and Dale Earnhardt was his big intimidating rival (which was definitely Chick’s part in this movie). In the movie, Lightning sticks with Rust-eze as his sponsor because they gave him his big break. Gordon has stuck with the team and sponsor who gave him his big break since the very beginning also. I won’t go on with any of the other subtle hints to actual NASCAR stories in case you haven’t seen the film yourself.

I really enjoyed the fact that they used the “Fabulous Hudson Hornet” in the movie. I think it will be great for a lot of non-racing fans to learn a little bit about this early legendary icon in American motorsports. It was all very fitting.

You don’t have to be a racing fan to enjoy this movie, it’s definitely entertaining for anyone to see. Not to mention the visual effects are above and beyond the best seen from a computer animated film yet. Keep ‘em coming, Pixar. You cease to amaze.

Spring has definitely sprung around here, the grass is green and the shrubs have leaves. The trees are still hesitant to wake up from hibernation, but they’re getting there. It’s nice to have the warm weather back, even after the mild winter we had.

The car is finally running, with a few minor quirks to work out before I can say it’s totally fixed. I thought I was having serious transmission problems, but was assured by a shop that it’s just my traction control acting up. I’ll have to take it to a GM dealer to figure out what’s actually wrong with that, but for the time being when it rains I’ll just have to be sure to turn the traction control system off.

The air bag light also remains illuminated while I drive. I’m told that it’s warning me that if I were to get in accident, my air bag may not work. The shop reset the code for me, but after driving it a couple miles, it turned back on. Hopefully it’s coming on for the same reason my traction control is acting weird in the rain, because something got messed up in the computer when it got wet. I don’t know how serious of an issue that actually is, but as long as the car is going to run I’m not too worried about it for now.

So what’s up with there being no good movies in the theaters for the last few months? Usually there is at least something worth going to see on a monthly basis. Even when I wanted to go to the movies for the sake of going to movies, not caring if the movie wasn’t going to be that great or not, I couldn’t find anything I wanted to see. And it’s not just theaters, my Netflix list hasn’t had many new releases on it lately either.

The most recent new release movie I rented from Netflix was Fun With Dick and Jane. As a fan of Jim Carrey since his In Living Color days, I’d say it wasn’t nearly one of his best movies. But it was worth watching. The movie wouldn’t have been any good without Carrey, that’s for sure, because I usually can’t stand Tea Leone. Fun With Dick and Jane was pretty funny, but not in that gut-busting way. It’s definitely a smart, satirical, politically-biting movie. There is some interesting social commentary on materialism, standards of living and corporate greed, but there is also some good old slapstick. Jim Carrey’s better suited to the latter.

I also recently rented Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe. I was surprised by how good it actually was. It started out feeling like it was going to be a cheesy children’s movie, but really caught my interest in the last half with the CGI creatures and the fighting scenes. The graphics were amazing, they really make me feel sorry for all my old classmates who were majoring in computer animation back at college. They really have their work cut out for them. Having read the book years ago, things were forgotten but came back quickly as the movie progressed. The scenes of the room with the wardrobe, and the snowy landscape with the lamp post were almost identical to what I had imagined the first time I read it.

This summer won’t be too bad for movies. A few I’m looking forward to are: Clerks II, Cars, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, The Break-Up, X-Men: The Last Stand, Superman Returns, and The Da Vinci Code. Not a bad summer for movies.

Well I’d better go catch the end of the F1 race and then I’m making dinner tonight. Which of course means we’re having something simple: Spaghetti. See-ya later!

Fox 9 News is one of the news stations in Minneapolis that is always out taking a stand, investigating all that is wrong with the world and making sure we know about it. While I was watching Family Guy and American Dad last night, Fox 9 kept promoting their big news story which they claimed would uncover “another Minnesota sports team scandal.” They are of course playing off the recent Minnesota Vikings charter boat sex scandal that left Minnesotans outraged.

So what team is in trouble now, I wondered. Yeah, I took their bait and had to watch to find out. I wondered, could it be the Timberwolves, the Twins, the Wild? No, apparently Fox 9 News has been following around the University of Minnesota Hockey team with hidden cameras to bars and drinking parties. Oh no, college kids drink! Who would have thought!?! They had hidden camera footage of 19 & 20 year old players drinking at parties and in bars.

Seriously, Fox 9. They drink? No kidding. Going after a bunch of college kids for drinking is rediculous. This stupid news station sees that Minnesota cares about off the field/court/rink/what-have-you sports scandals, and so to boost their ratings they go after some barely under-21 college kids for something as piddly as drinking, consequently probably ruining these kids’ sports/college careers. Most college kids drink, big deal. If they were shooting up heroin or snorting cocaine, that’d be different. But going out and having a few drinks really makes no difference to me. Are they going after the bars that are letting them in? That would seem like a good scandal for a news station to go after. No, they didn’t hold the bars accountable at all. That’s not the story, after all.

I get so sick of these Minneapolis news stations, always trying to sensationalize everything they can. It’s pathetic. They screw up people’s lives in the process, even young college kids who are just doing what college kids do. Perhaps my view about college drinking is immature or irresponsible. Yeah, I know it’s illegal to be under 21 and drink. I understand it’s probably against University rules for an athlete to drink underage. I see the issues they are raising, I just don’t think it’s something serious enough to be ruining young lives over for the sake of boosting news ratings. If it were about punishing bars who let underage drinkers in, fine. If it were about reducing college drinking in general, fine. There was no solution to the problem offered in this story. This was just about ruining young lives for ratings, and it’s despicable.

Greetings, this is a message from your television set. I’m writing to protest the unwarranted abuse that I have endured while serving you these past few years.

I agree, Ryan Newman should have done better in that race at Kansas Speedway, Room Raiders insults your intelligence, and the acting on Fox’s “The War At Home” is an abomination. I do not dispute any of your points, but I take serious issue with the actions you have taken to express them.

For example, the burrito you launched at me while watching Meet The Fockers last night. That wasn’t fair at all. It isn’t my fault that you rented that awful film. If anything, you should have taken out your dissatisfaction on the DVD player. He is more to blame than I am.

Perhaps you ought to bellow at that digital cable receiver of yours. It is he the one who gathers all this awful programming. Don’t take it out on the messenger! In fact, why yell at all? It does you no good at all.

Sir, I realize that you are yelling at the images, but having spent my entire lifetime as your television, I have begun to lose my patience. I was created as a positive diversion, as a ready means to entertain, inform, and even educate. When your face twists into a purplish knot of fury, I feel something no factory-installed feature of mine can overcome: I feel that I have failed you.

Might I make a suggestion? On those days when there is “nothing on,” why don’t you just turn me off and do something constructive with your time? You don’t have to watch all of those programs that irk you. You see, unlike me you have the freedom to get up and walk away.

I’m willing to give our relationship a second chance, only if you promise that when you get angry you will stop, take a deep breath, get up and step away from me for a few hours and do something constructive. Go for a walk, work out, read a good book—may I recommend the works of Evan S. Connell? Not that I’ve read any of them, but I saw him on C-SPAN’s Book TV and he seemed very intelligent. Or calm your nerves with a nice up of hot tea. Just don’t fling it at me in anger, okay?

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