Stranger than Fiction

There are very few movies that I go crazy for, but let me tell you... This was an EXCELLENT movie. Jeanette and I saw it Sunday afternoon, and while we went in expecting another post-modern reminder that life is depressing and man is depraved, we left feeling good and loving the characters.

I won't spoil the plot any more than the previews give away but the idea is that Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) finds that someone is writing a story about his life and his impending death and he can hear the narration. Will Ferrell plays a quiet predictable IRS Agent who falls in love with one of the people he audits played by Maggie Gyllenhaal. Emma Thompson plays Kay Eiffel a writer who always kills the heroes in her stories and Queen Latifah plays her undesired assistant Penny Escher who, interestingly enough could have been played by anyone. The role wasn't a largely necessary one, other than it gave Emma Thompson someone to talk to, so I found it interesting that she would take such a small part, but she did a great job none the less. Dustin Hoffman plays Professor Jules Hilbert, a literature expert, who helps Crick figure out the type of story that he's in.

That's all I can give you without explaining too much, but it was a breath of fresh air to see BIG Names in Hollywood (Hoffman, Thompson, Ferrell) make an actual feel good movie that not only is funny, but has some great themes and morals to it.

I give this movie 2 Thumbs WAY up and like 4 stars or whatever it is they rate movies with.

Tags: Stranger than Fiction, Ferrell, Thompson, Hoffman, movies, review

Not Dead Just Sucky

So after spending some time with Jeff this weekend, I kinda got a inadvertant kick in the pants about my blog suckiness. Honestly it's not that I don't want to post, its more that if I DO post I don't have anything to talk to Jeanette about when I get home because I've already got it off my chest before I see her. As a man I have very little to talk about as it is. I've considered quitting the blog all together, because I may have a total of 4 people who ever check my site including my mom, but I'd like to instead be reborn as something legit. I'm currently trying to decide what "legit" means for Welshmnky, whether it will be a life blog, a topical blog, some type of random blog or maybe something different entirely.

Change or die, but I can't stay the same.

Tags: blog, future

Another shot

Double rainbow at nd this morning!

The Horse Joke

Kyle 3 years ago in 2003 Telling the greatest joke ever

Hair

Ok, like... I'm not gonna blame this on Jeanette, but it's TOTALLY her fault.
Probably.

Ever since I've started to get to know her, which was almost 2 years ago, I've started getting hair in and on my ears. I never had any problems with ear hair, or nose hair or anything like that until "Jeanette" came along and now all of a sudden. BAM I have to like trim ear hair. What the HECK is that all about? It's weird man.
Now sure, I'd expect this if I were one of those guys covered in body hair (The Sleeveless Sweater) sure I could understand having to deal with it, but believe me... I aint one of those guys!

I don't know what she's putting in the food but... Is it worth it?
(above photo is not a recent photo of me, I stole it from the internet somewhere...)

Computer Illiterate

Today for the 926th time someone came in our office and claimed to be "Computer Illiterate." I find it amusing that so many of these "Computer Illiterate" people know the term "Computer Illiterate." How in the world did they get a hold of this term, EXCEPT from the Internet? I watch a lot of TV, and I am yet to find a show that calls people computer illiterate (in fact you usually find good examples of people being able to use the computer to do all kinds of stuff on TV... Even things that aren't necessarily possible... But any way) I suppose that it could be word of mouth, but how would a term like that propagate itself so quickly? I dunno... Moving on.

I was talking to a coworker about it and we've decided it's just an excuse for sustaining your ignorance. "I can be dumb as long as I know how to label myself."

You'll never hear a mentally retarded person say, "Oh, I'm sorry I can't do that because I'm retarded as you can probably tell. Do it for me okay?" Of course not!! They try extremely hard to learn and to adjust and to get better. These people however are simply comfortable knowing nothing and don't want to learn when you try to teach them something as simple as creating a password.

No, I'm not exaggerating.

We had to explain to a 45yr old man how to create a password. This is not an ignorant man, it's a man who doesn't want to learn to do things for himself.

Some people just want you to give them the fish and then claim your fishing lessons are too technical. Even when the first step is pointing at the water and saying "The fish are in there."

Chicken Rub

I am known for a lot of things, but one thing that most people don't know about me is that I LOVE to grill. Today at lunch I branced out for the first time into rubs. A rub is either a paste or just a mixture of spices that you (believe it or not) "rub" into the meat. Allow me to share with you the great recipe that I used today.

Herb Rub
combine 2 teaspoons dried rosemary, 2 teaspoons dried thyme, 2 teaspoons dried minced onion, 2 teaspoons FRESH minced garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, 3/4 teaspoon black pepper.
Enough for 5 lbs. of meat Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

Rub that a couple chicken breasts, then grill them on medium heat, about 10min on the first side and 5 on the other side. When the juice runs white, take them off the grill and serve them with buttered corn on the cob and lemonade.

D.E.A. Licious.

Took a little while to get the rub all mixed together, but MAN was it worth it! That was the best smelling food I've ever taken off my grill!

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Me and tayla

The mind of an artist...

    Nothing great that is ever created by man comes out perfect on the first try. An artist knows this and is undaunted. Hours are spent fine tuning, honing skill. Patiently, persistently pressing on they spend hours and hours at their craft, forsaking all other pursuits, their art becomes their world. They don't go out when their friends want them to, they don't always catch this week's episode of "Popular Reality Show" They somehow missed it and don't seem to care too very much. Their art is their baby, and they'll tell you about it if you really want to know about it, sometimes they brag about it, but usually it comes with a second half where they point out how they failed in this and this and this, but they made it work here here and here. Artists are fighters, their enemy often times is their own skill, or the very media they work with; but with every failure comes pending success... and with every success, comes learning, and a new step is made, the art becomes clearer, it becomes better. Failure is never failure, it's a chance to improve the skill. An artist never approaches their media and tries to be the greatest at what they do. An artist pours himself out on the media and shows what they truly are.

My parents are artists, though they might not admit it themselves.

My dad is a gardener, and every year his garden is something new, something bigger, something cooler. This year he's found a way to almost completely eliminate weeds from the entire garden. The next year, he's designed a watering system that runs on a timer and he builds it himself. The year after that he's created a climbing tomato "tree" that's 20 feet tall that the tomatoes will climb, and pole beans will climb the 4 suspension wires. His strawberries are in a tiered area of the garden that he designed to minimize weeds, and help to hold water better. Will they give many strawberries this year? No, but next year... we'll be eating strawberries every night!

My mom will be surprised to read this, but she's an artist too ("Oh, I'm not an artist, I just follow a pattern!"). My mom makes quilts. My mom makes GORGEOUS quilts. for our wedding she made us this blue and yellow quilt that we proudly show off to everyone who visits our apartment. She spent months cutting tiny pieces of fabric that she had spent weeks picking out from different fabric stores, then she began the even more tedious job of piecing it all together. She could probably look at this quilt and see every mistake she made, but we see only beauty. This is something we'll be proud of for the next 50 years. My son will probably spill grape juice on it climbing in to bed with us. And even with a giant purple stain, we'll still put it on our bed and be proud of it. It's that great of a quilt.

I'm an artist in my own way I guess. I act and write some, but not as well as my parents do their things. But I'm still young and developing my skills. I hope to be as great as they are when I'm their age.

Tags: artist, gardening, quilting, pensive

Tuesday or wednesday or whatever...

A representative from Microsoft just came to ND to show us all the wonders of Windows Vista. An hour and a half later i walked out with a free copy of Vista Beta 2 Ultimate and I'll get Release Canidate 1 when it comes out later this month. I'm trying to upgrade my work machine to Vista now to give it a real shot. It's taking forever to do which is kinda weird, but whatever I guess, I've got nowhere to go for 3 more hours.

Amazing Race Bachelor Party this weekend for 2 of my good friends, Derek is getting married next weekend, and Levi next month; both to beautiful women that I have a lot of respect for. It's really cool to see everybody gettin hooked up.


Oom Bop.

And then there were Two

Ladies, gentlemen... Children of all your ages....

I'm married.

A month ago yesterday we tied the ole proverbial knot and began our life together. Allow me to share some G Rated observations of the past month

• Sharing a bed with a girl is harder than you think. They are TOTAL blanket hogs!!
• The aforementioned blanket hogs will accuse you of snoring if you say anything about them taking all the blanket.
• Coming home to a wife who's missed you all day is sooo much better than a house full of guys or even a dog.
• Laying with her head on my chest is the most peaceful place in the world.
  
• Getting up in the morning is easier because i have someone to push me out of bed, but at the same time, she's really cute and snuggly and I don't want to get out of bed.
• She is smarter than me in a lot of ways.
• I can still beat her at Mario Party 7 though.

Bein married is seriously the coolest thing I've ever done. Words can't express the complete change in thinking I've been undergoing over the past 31ish days. It's like I now exist as 2 humans... I have two mouths to feed, two people to clean up after, people to protect, to provide for, to encourage, to take care of in every way I used to have to take care of myself. But the best part is, I don't have to do it all! She takes care of 2 people now two! It's so weird, but it's so perfect.

I'm no expert at marriage or nothin yet, so I won't try to impart wisdom to all of you married people out there, because... well, I'm new, but to those of you who aren't married yet... Be Careful. Get the right girl. Don't just marry someone who makes you feel good. Find a good person.
oh and talk.
Talk about everything.

No really, talk about everything. (Best marriage advice I've been given yet. From my friend Dustin Sahlhoff)

Caviezel

'nuff said

Processing...

*paces*
What do I stand for? Do I stand for morals and ethics all the time? Or can they be cast aside for the sake of a great storyline? Can my integrity be bought for so cheap a price? Do I stand for "Art for Art's sake?" Willing to stare into the darkness that is Man's soul because I am an artist/actor and I get something from seeing the depths to which a man's soul can fall? Why do movies like this appeal to me? Why do they appeal to guys in general? Sleven, Fight Club, Rounders... the list goes on. Twist-stories that go back years and years to the days of Hitchcock and others who twist their readers/watchers around on themselves and see not just a person who could do something like this, but the potential in your own soul. I loved these movies, not because they stood for what I want to stand for but because in a sick small way I related to them. I know my sin, I know how quickly a person can go from sane to insane at the suggestion of a glance. I watch people, I learn them, and these movies give me a deeper view into people's lives who are depraved and open, like a carcass with it's ribs split in front of me. I can't look away because I'm fascinated. I want to know what's in there, regardless of what it's surrounded by or how it's presented in front of me.

*stops and stares into camera*
But at what cost.
Fight Club had a blurred sex scene, Sleven had 3 that were far from blurred. the movie had 3 freakin porn scenes! We looked away 3 times instead of walking out, because the storyline was THAT good. When sex scenes go from two people under a sheet staring at eachother, to a pair of naked people in front of you doing things that I can't even say in front of my fiancee... we've gone too far. I almost went and saw this with her and her parents on opening night! Watching a movie like that myself is bad, watching it with the woman i love, worse, but going with your father and mother inlaw? HOLY CRAP.
Naw, I can't do this anymore.

Look, I know hollywood isn't reading my blog, no one does for the most part, and I'm fine with that, but I'm not gonna see movies like this anymore. I don't want that stuff in my head. That might sell movies to some people, but not to me. Not anymore. I'm trying to be different. I mean that sentence both ways. I'm done with darkness. I'm done. If I have to watch kids movies and romantic comedies for the rest of my life so be it.
*walks out and shuts the door*

Pause...

*door creaks back open, sticks his head in*
hollywood, if you ARE there - make good movies again. Sleven will be a flash in the pan, it's just like 98% of the other crap out there. Napoleon Dynamite gained insane following, not because of sex(none) profanity(none) crude jokes/innuendos(none) murders(none) but because it had endearing characters people related to, great dialogue, catchphrases people STILL (annoyingly admittedly) won't stop saying, and a terrificly simple story.
Bring me back in hollywood. bring me back in.
Come back to excellence again.
Please

*shuts door*

The Neighbors

Jeanette and I have very... "interesting" neighbors.
First we'll start with my neighbors, because they're not as cool as hers.
Across the hall there is the "Frog Lady" and her husband, Mr. Frog Lady. Don't ask why we call her that, we just have for a long time. They're pretty loud all the time, and they leave their trash in the hall which stinks up the hall like old beer and stinky cheese. The frog lady is also in some unseen way handicapped. She has requested 2 "reserved parking" spots in front of our building for her 1 car. I think she works at Martins. Every morning when I go out to my jeep they sit in their car in the reserved spot and stare at me... just kinda watchin me.
Above me there's the young couple. I never noticed them until one night when i went to bed late and they were above me... umm, being a young couple. They have a baby that cries EVERY night. Last night the baby was crying and the guy was in the bedroom watching TV and as the baby cried he turned the TV up. Classy. Ignore your baby. I think the TV is a new addition to the bedroom, since I've never noticed it before.
As I walk into my building the first door just down the stairs ALWAYS has the TV on. I can come home at 3pm or 3am and any time in between... the TV is ALWAYS on.

Jeanettes lives in a building on the other side of our apartment complex, and things are even MORE interesting. Walking into her building 7 out of 10 days it smells like marijuana.
Downstairs and across the hall lives a guy who was in my dorm my senior year who was a missing person because he just left one day and never came back to school or the dorm, for like 3 months.
Across the hall from Jeanette she gets someone new every 6 months, she's had druggies (who she made friends with) an army chick (who she actually was in a Masters class with) and now a relatively normal couple.
In her building is also a creepy old guy who she says smells like pot and who has asked her out on dates on multiple occasions.
There's an African guy who comes around occasionally who wants Jeanette to meet his brother or something. VERY scary.
Above Jeanette and across is a new young couple. We first noticed them about a week or two ago on a friday night. We were in the middle of a semi-serious discussion when we heard the pounding. This was then followed by other sounds. We stopped talking and listened for a few minutes... and yeah... yeah, they were doin it. We giggled a little and went back about our convesation. The Sunday morning after that... yup, again. It's not really annoying, just kinda loud. and frequent.
And THEN directly above her apartment ANOTHER young couple who apparently will not be outdone. We've taken to turning the stereo on when they're being... noisy. We've found it's important to have a station with lots of bass.

People are weird. I'm glad I'm not one of em.


Technorati Tags: apartments, neighbors

Technorati Tags: apartments, neighbors

A Man

a man comes into Walgreens to pickup his 17 prescriptions. He's about 55 or 60. 17 prescriptions is a LOT of medication.

"That's about 2200 dollars worth of medication there. A small price for life" "Wow. That is a lot."
"I just had a heart transplant, I drive up here to see my doctor, and then i have to drive back to Fort Wayne."
"That's a long drive."
"Yup." (he smiles)
"That'll be $50 for your prescriptions"
"Here ya go."
"Have a good day."

"They all are." (he smiles and walks away)

Technorati Tags: inspiration, Walgreens