this is the greatest and best post in the world.

alright, no it's not, i just wanted to reference tenacious d.

it suddenly dawned on me lately that the movies (as in y'know, the theater) are starting to actually kinda seem old-fashioned, if that's possible. without really realizing it, i don't seem to even follow movies that are coming to the theater soon that much anymore. now and then i'll check apple's trailers page when i can remember, but that's about it. i don't watch that much stuff live anymore, so i don't see a lot of 30-second TV spots too often, maybe during sports.

alayna and i soak up TV shows all the time, but we really don't hit up movies all that much anymore. nothing really comes out that intrigues either of us all that much. now and then something will come out that one of us kinda wants to see but usually we don't give a shit if we see it 4 months later at home. i still keep movie stubs... i've seen 3 movies in the last 6 months. that's pretty terrible.

i can't really point to a particular reason i guess. sort of a combination of factors. for one, less and less movies seem to appeal to us in general. another part of it is just having better things to do at home, whether it's computer stuff, vidgames, TV, socializing, etc. she usually has trouble staying awake in the theater and it almost always causes a temporary rift between us for a few hours. but i think for the most part, it's just an overall lack of desire to actually bother going to pay higher & higher prices to spend 2 hours with the coolest 14-yr olds in plano.

that's a good part of it, going to the movies has just turned into this annoying hassle. i don't wanna sound like too much of an adult, but by 24 here the allure of being "out" at the movies kinda fades. the teenagers that fill the area theaters we go to don't have anything better to do, i don't blame them for using every possible chance to get away from their parents and socialize in the limited environment they have access to without a driver's license and the ability to drink.

i'm not part of some social network of friends that just raves about movies constantly. most of the time i think it's word-of-mouth that will push us to go to the theater, but i'm not consistently subjected to an inner circle of contacts pushing their movie picks & pans on me. i don't come into work on mondays with people making me feel like a loser for not seeing the latest junk that grossed $23 million over the weekend. i have the luxury of getting around to seeing a movie months (although in my case, more often 1-2 years) after everybody else with little consequence. so why not stay at home and watch what i want?

--j

oh shit y'all, time for the pointless update!

this is about that time where we remember why the olympics (in this case, winter) are only every 4 years, heh. as fun as they can be, they get old kinda quick. tonight was supposed to be the big ladies' figure skating night, thus the night of the olympics, but i had trouble caring. i was watching it, sorta not caring, then i came to check a website quickly and my homepage, google news popped up to show me the results of figure skating. bam, giant spoiler. i clicked on the story, read the results, and promptly forgot about even watching any further.

go read the news studies and nielsen ratings, that's why not as many people are watching the olympics and yet more people than ever go to the official website. it's just too easy to go read results online instead of bothering to watch 3-4 hours of olympic coverage every night. with video results (after putting up with some acceptable ads) easily available online you can even get an equivalent of what you might see on tv anyway.

i enjoyed the crap out of the first season of hbo's entourage. only 8 episodes, but damn, my kinda humor. alayna kept wanting to ask "where's the plot?" but i told her not to worry about such things. i only gave it a shot after i came across a season 1 dvdrip of it (or if you're hbo and you're reading this, i mean i went out and bought the first season dvd...). season 2 was last year so i'll prolly watch that as well sometime. it's funny, there's a line from the show called "let's hug it out, bitch" that's spawned hbo's lhiob.com.

--j

i just want to illustrate how fucked up this season has been. how do you have highs near 80 and 3 days later a light wintry mix? i think that translates to "iron some short-sleeve shirts for work and then promptly parka up for the weekend." lovely.

--j

hey, honestly, i've had nothing to post about lately, really. figured it was pointless to put up the same ol' shit, heh. it's a festive time, valentine's day, my birthday in a week, engagement celebrations... i can only offer you random thoughts.

the winter olympics have been somewhat entertaining, which is about what i expect out of them. so far the coverage has been pretty nice, plenty of high-tech camera tricks to bring an occasional 'wow' out of me. kinda glad it doesn't last more than 2 weeks though, certainly niche sports that you only really care about every 4 years. unfortunately i don't think the olympics really generate a lot of water cooler buzz anymore, i haven't heard anybody outside my own apartment speak of it at all. i especially love how when i asked jeff about it today he replied that he'd have to see what channel those olympics are on. wow, american pride.

lately i've kinda had the desire to start more seriously playing sports again. i've maintained 3 times a week in the gym for the last 3 and a half years now, but i kinda miss the whole spirit of competition. the leading candidates for me would be racquetball and roller hockey. my racquetball partner jason moved away to boston, so i'm kinda left without anybody to play with. so far i haven't had much luck seeing any organizations to play in within a 10 mile radius. i'm miles away from being in any condition to join a hockey league, but i did suddenly realize today that we've got a few pick-up outdoor rinks real close to us, i'd be interested in throwing together some equipment and practicing a bit, that'd just feel great to get back out there.

lately my music tastes have been really all over the map. i don't really feel like throwing down a slew of links here today, but i can do a bit of name-dropping. i've listened to a lot less drum'n'bass in the last 6 months, instead a lot more indie rock that you don't really hear on the radio all that much. through sources like newfound friends, facebook and last.fm, i've had a huge influx of all kinds of stuff i never would have known about were it not for a bit of word of mouth. lately i've spent a lot of time listening to lesser-known bands (at least to me) like sleater-kinney, lcd soundsystem, some old queens of the stone age from 1998, stereolab, the decemberists, etc.

i think by maintaining a pretty up-to-date and all-inclusive iTunes database i really listen to a LOT more music than i ever did even in college. back in college i had mp3's, cd's, and minidiscs to choose from. i was always in a state of clearing space so i'd burn everything to cd and then promptly never play it. over the last couple weeks i've bought 27 used cd's from half.com to sort of buy my favorite albums for real since i listen to them a lot. might seem kinda silly, but part of me thinks if i love the album so much i really should own it. i only spent $85 for that many cd's including shipping, that's pretty amazing if you ask me...

i'll try to up the post-count a bit, despite most of my friends lately completely bailing on their blogs. it's contagious.

--j