klepto love story

You know those days that aren’t exactly bad but they just suck for some reason? Today was one of those days. Work has been pissing me off. It’s not really worth talking about really but it has made me think about some things.

When I got home today I decided to not just sit down and play Xbox like I normally would. I went straight out to the garage and cleaned the litter box. I put on some laundry. I decided to mow my overgrown front yard. I looked through my cameras for the ones that still had film in them. I started dinner (spaghetti with meat sauce). I did some things and it felt pretty good. Now I’m kicking back with a Red Stripe and watching Lost. Life is good.

Oscar picks!  (including should win / will win):

Best Picture
Should Win: Inglourious Basterds
Will Win: The Hurt Locker (upsetting all the Ava-tards)

Best Director
Should Win: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Will Win: Kathryn Bigelow

Best Actor
Should Win: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Hurt
Will Win: The Dude.

Best Actress
Should Win: No idea.
Will Win: I’m going with Sandra Bullock squeeking past Meryl Streep (the phony baloney).

Best Actor / Supporting Role
Should Win: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Will Win: The Jew Hunter by a landslide.

Best Actress / Supporting Role
Should Win: Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air. I just liked her role.
Will Win: Mo’Nique, Precious. Also deserving, I just didn’t like the movie.

Original Screenplay
Should Win: Inglourious Basterds, QT. I love this movie.
Will Win: Up probably, but I will officially say IB.

Adapted Screenplay
Should Win: Up in the Air, Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner
Will Win: Up in the Air.

Animated Feature
Should Win: I liked Fantastic Mr Fox the most of the three nominees I saw.
Will Win: …but Up will definitely win.

Foreign Language Film
Should Win: I haven’t seen any of these.
Will Win: Un Prophete. I’ve heard ads for it and it sounds like a movie I’d like to see.

Original Score
Should Win: Up?
Will Win: Up, Michael Giacchino

Original Song
Should Win: Crazy Heart, The Weary Kind by Ryan Bingham and T-Bone Burnett.
Will Win. The Weary Kind.

Art Direction
Should Win: Sherlock Holmes. I thought the sets and the over all look of the movie were awesome.
Will Win: Avatar. This is a category I’m ok with it winning. Pandora was pretty cool.

Cinematography
Should Win: Inglourious Bastards.
Will Win: Avatar. I just have issues giving cinematography credit on computer generated movies. I know the 3D was mind blowing but it’s not cinematography in my opinion.

Costume Design
Should Win: I haven’t seen any of the nominees.
Will Win: I’m going to guess Coco Before Chanel. I wouldn’t be surprised if The Young Victoria won though since it’s a period piece.

Makeup
Should Win: Star Trek. Aliens man. Plus it’s the only one of the three I’ve seen.
Will Win: The Young Victoria. Period piece!

Film Editing
Should Win: The Hurt Locker. That movie had me on the edge of my seat.
Will Win: The Hurt Locker.

Documentary Feature
Should Win: No idea.
Will Win: Food Inc. I only pick Food Inc. because I’ve heard of it.

Documentary / Short Subject
Should Win: No Idea
Will Win: The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant. Topical. Sounds like something the voters would vote for. Although China’s Unnatural Disaster could win. Voters like to think they are opening the eyes of American’s to suffering elsewhere too. I’m going with The Last Truck.

Animated Short Film
Should Win: Logorama. It’s the only one I’ve seen.
Will Win: A Matter of Loaf and Death. It’s a Wallace & Grommit movie. Nick Park has won four Oscars. No brainer.

Live Action Short
Should Win: There should be better distribution deals for these so people could actually watch them prior to the Oscars.
Will Win: The Door. It’s about kids and Chernobyl.

Sound Editing
Should Win: The Hurt Locker. Lots of explosions and interesting uses of sound.
Will Win: Hurt Locker.

Sound Mixing
Should Win: The Hurt Locker.
Will Win: Avatar.

Visual Effects
Should Win: Avatar. I hate to say it should win something but this is definitely in it’s wheelhouse.
Will Win: Avatar, landslide.

This week I finally saw all ten of the Best Picture nominees. My thoughts, in 10 words or less, on each:

• Avatar: More like Ava-turd.
• The Blind Side: Feel good story that feels selfish. The book was better.
• District 9: Better story than Ava-turd. More exciting too.
• An Education: What did I learn? Make sure you check the glovebox.
• The Hurt Locker: Edge of your seat adrenaline overdose.
• Inglourious Basterds: The killin’ Nazi business is boomin’ cousin.
• Precious: Things are bad. Things are good. Things are terrible.
• A Serious Man: Average man plus Coens equals great movie.
• Up: First 15 minutes was great. Lost interest after that.
• Up in the Air: Clooney as Clooney works just fine.

My pick? Gotta go with QT. I definitely enjoyed it the most of all the nominees. I don’t think it’s going to win, however. I think that honor will go to “The Hurt Locker.”

Man. I wish I had that United States Men’s Downhill coach at my house. If he yelled at me “RIP IT UP JOSH HEAD! LET’S GO! YOU GOT THIS! SHRED IT! RIP IT UP!” every time I walked out the door I think I would, in fact, rip every day up.

Oh yes, it’s S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT and I am living it up  at work! Woo yeah! Let’s get right to the Awesome/Not Awesome for the week.

Awesome: This was from a couple of weeks ago, but the This American Life episode House on Loon Lake (itself almost nine years old) was amazing. It involved abandoned houses, seemingly discarded lives, and mystery. Just a perfect story.

Not Awesome: Some guy crashed a small plane into a building in North Austin. Joseph Stack, the aforementioned asshole, wrote up a suicide note/manifesto, posted it online, burned down his house, stole a plane, and crashed it into a building killing a couple of people in the process. Look, I don’t like paying taxes either. I feel like I’m getting screwed six ways to Sunday every year by the IRS. However, I’m not going to steal a plane and try to take out as many people as I can with me. Some Austinites are viewing this as their own personal 9/11. People are gawking at the crash site, talking about how they want their kids to be able to see it. How can we ever feel safe again in this post-2/17 world? I’m sure a memorial will be up within the year.

Not Awesome: Colds. I hate having a cold. I hate it even more when I have to be at work with one. I think the worst part of a cold is the fact that you aren’t quite sick enough to stay in bed but not quite well enough to really do anything. It’s the limbo of sickness.

Awesome: Mid to late 90’s music. I spent tonight listening to Lauryn Hill, the Fugees, Fiona Apple, Chemical Brothers, Gorillaz (even though their first album came out in 2001 it feels like mid to late ’90s music). I think I need to make a mix of my college years.

Thing that is neither Awesome nor Not Awesome: I miss taking photos. I haven’t done it in awhile. Call it lack of inspiration or whatever. I think it’s time to start it back up again.

In tribute to my new favorite podcast / imaginary radio program, TBTL, I’m stealing one of their segments for blog purposes. It’s called Awesome / Not Awesome (insert sound clips here). It’s a segment in which they discuss things in the news that are either Awesome or Not Awesome. Pretty self explanatory eh? Let’s jump to it.

Awesome: The Winter Olympics have arrived! I’m an unrepentant lover of the Olympics. I’ll even watch the “boring stuff” like cross country skiing and biathlon. I love the stories, the cheese, the winners, the losers…everything. If I had to choose, I’d say I like the Winter Olympics more than the Summer. Awesome.

Not Awesome: The death of the Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili. The luge track at Whistler is one of the fastest ever designed. In the World Championships a luger hit 95 mph at the finish line. When Nodar crashed into an unpadded steel pole near the track he was going about 90 mph. Track officials have taken a stance that Nodar was to blame for his own death by not compensating for a bad line he took on the track. Definitely not awesome.

Awesome: I’m a little late to the game on this. I’m going to put Indian food in the awesome column. Last week I made mulligatawny soup from scratch. Saturday night I had curry. I’m down with it man. A very solid awesome.

Not Awesome: This morning I woke up. I went to the bathroom to start the shower. As I turned the knob, I heard a distinct cracking sound and then the knob just spun. No water came out. This is not the first time it has happened. The other bathroom in our bedroom had the same thing happen…twice. Since I didn’t fix the bedroom shower last time, there was no backup plan. I had to go to the garage, break out the toolbox and use pliers to turn on the shower. After I got out I remembered Kristin had a lady doctor appointment today and would probably want to use the shower. I drove down to Home Depot, bought replacement knobs, then came home and installed them. I was only 45 minutes late to work. Definitely not a good way to start a work week. Definitely not awesome.

Awesome: Too Beautiful to Live, or TBTL. TBTL is a podcast that started out as a radio show on KIRO in Seattle. It’s hosted by Luke Burbank out of his home in Seattle. Appearing are Jen “Flash” Andrews and “Japan’s #1 mixer”, Sean DeTore. These guys, they are my kind of guys. If you are interested you can find them at TBTL.net or in the iTunes store. Huge awesome.

When I heard about the Underground Railroad as a kid I thought it was an actual underground railroad. I thought to myself, “How could they not know about this? A big train underground? That’s got to be noisy. Plus the tracks and stuff. It doesn’t make any sense!”

To this day whenever I hear underground railroad, I flash on a coal driven steam train chugging along in tunnels all over the South.

The Good:

• Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart. He won the Golden Globe this past Sunday for his performance (well deserved I might add). I definitely think it’s Oscar worthy. We shall see.
• Man City 2 – ManUre 1. City took a 2-1 lead in the first leg of the Carling Cup semi-finals. Tevez scored both goals. Hopefully this lead will hold up next week after a trip to Old Trafford. Come on City!
• The new Spoon album. I really like what I’ve heard so far. I’ve only listened at work which is near impossible (I have to pause every 4 or 5 minutes to answer the phone). I think I’ll listen to it on my drive home today.

The Bad:

• Leg soreness. On Sunday we had our last soccer game of this season. We didn’t have enough subs to rotate everyone so I ended up playing about 25 of the 40 minutes. I’ve never played that much. Monday wasn’t so bad but on Tuesday I woke up with my lower legs on fire. It hurt to step, but only on the inside of my leg. I called my uncle who said it was probably the gastroc that was strained. After a lot of stretches, Advil, and complaining I’m back to about 85%. The new soccer season starts on Sunday so I hope to be back to 100% by then.

The Ugly:

Totally.

The Good:

• I’m back on the day shift. It’s nice to be moving around in the daylight again. I’m still trying to get used to waking up at 6:30am but it’s a lot better than going to work at midnight.
• The new Vampire Weekend album. I listened to it today at work so it didn’t get a good listen but I liked what I heard. Thanks to Sharlee for pointing out that it was on sale at Amazon yesterday for $3.99.
• I don’t have to replace my laptop. I dropped my laptop from about 2 feet off the ground onto my tile floor. It wouldn’t boot up. I took it to the Apple Store and found out it was the hard drive. They wanted to charge me $280 to replace it but after figuring out how easy it was to do, I bought my own (500 GB, double the size) and did it myself. Way to save $200 Josh! However this leads to…

The Bad:

• I lost (almost) all my data. Years of music, recent photos, lists, programs…all gone. Kristin had about half the music I had before but since it was on her laptop there is no Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, Mos Def, Dr Dre, or the last 6 months of anything I downloaded. It’s tough but I learned a valuable lesson. Back your stuff up! Seriously.
• University of Texas lost to Alabama in the National Championship. I knew it was over the minute Colt McCoy got hurt. Garrett Gilbert came in and tried his best but it took too long for him to calm down and get in any kind of rhythm. Can’t win them all.

The Ugly:

• The New York Post reported Artie Lange from the Howard Stern show attempted suicide by stabbing himself nine times. It’s a terrible thing and I hope Artie recovers quickly and finds some sense of peace.
• The Togo soccer team were attacked by gunman in Angola on their way to an African Cup of Nations game. One player, two staff members, and the bus driver were killed. Emanuel Adebayor, captain of the team and Manchester City player, said the team wanted to play on for their fallen comrades but the team was pulled from the competition. What a disgusting and despicable act by these gunmen. Adebayor was told to take as much time as necessary to recover before returning to Manchester. All the best Ade.

One last good thing so I don’t end on such a down note. Manchester City is 4-0 since Roberto Mancini took over the team. They’ve looked really good so far and this next half month stretch is brutal and definitely key. They find themselves in the 4th place spot of the table and are quite capable of challenging for the top spot. Go City! CTID!

Today at work we were discussing the upcoming National Championship between Texas and Alabama. I asked a guy who is an LSU fan who he wanted to win. “Alabama. Gotta support the SEC man.”

Now. He is supporting a team that is coached by Nick Saban who abandoned LSU after the 2004 season to coach in the NFL. He had stated that he wasn’t going to leave. He did, leaving the team and recruits in a lurch. I mentioned this to him and he said, “I have to support the SEC.”

I don’t understand this attitude. As a fan of a team I want my rivals to lose. I want them to lose every game. I want their program in shambles. I don’t support a conference, I support a team. I want my team to crush their enemies beneath their boot heels and burn down their stadium. I guess I just look at being a fan differently.

Hook ‘em Horns!