Peoria Trip

Since this is a long weekend, with Monday being Labor day, I decided to
take Friday off and head down to Peoria for a quick visit. For some
reason, flying was not an option, so I saddled the Schnitzelwagen for a
400mile run to Illinois.
I wanted to make the drive as painless as possible, so I decided to leave
Novi EARLY in the morning. Said and done. I went to bed early last night,
caught a coupe of hours of sleep and set the alarm for 3AM.
I actually woke up alright, through my stuff in the car and was on
the road by 3:30AM. After about 5miles I noticed that I left my cell phone
on the kitchen counter. So, I turned around, got the damn phone and
started the journey with a small delay.
The drive was pretty uneventful and works pretty well. After driving
the first couple of hours in the dark, the sun came up when I hit I-80
and gave me a nice boost. I stopped for gas in Pontiac and decided to have
a nice breakfast at Panera Bread in Bloomington.
I arrived in P-town and I am having a nice cup of
coffee to wake me up again. The weather looks promising and
I can't wait to meet with some friends and play a round of golf.

Exceptional games?

Well, I guess the Olympics are over. The IOC president called them
"... truly exceptional games". Personally, I found the games rather
uninspiring. Besides watching a couple competitions here and there,
I never caught the Olympic fever. Of course, the games were perfectly
organized and the world records were broken, like there is no tomorrow.
But, everything seem just a touch too perfect and with most of these records,
there is always the linger of doping. Maybe it was the NBC coverage, that
focused on a couple athletes and teams only and that was typical
hyped-up and patriotic. I mean, come on, the US basketball team's Olympic
experience was dubbed 'Road to Redemption'. Wow.
I found myself watching mostly CBC, because they actually showed
some sports you usually don't see on TV. I will however, give kudos to the
NBC Internet site. They had most of the sports on video, often live,
and without commentators. Truly enjoyable.
Well, time to focus on the upcoming football season.
One of the few hyped-up sports I like watching. :)

Into the Wild

A couple of weeks ago I downloaded the soundtrack of
'Into the wild'. More curiosity than anything, since I didn't
watched the movie, but I like Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder wrote
the songs for the score. In case you don't know. The movie is based
on a book by Jon Krakauer, who writes about Chris McCandless from Virginia,
who died at age 24 in a wilderness area of the state of Alaska.
After graduating in 1990 from Emory University, McCandless ceased
communicating with his family, began traveling, later went to Alaska.
There McCandless headed down the snow-covered trail to begin an odyssey
with only ten pounds of rice, a .22 caliber rifle, a camera, several
boxes of rifle rounds, some camping gear. He took no compass or map.
He died sometime in August, and his decomposed body was found in early
September by moose hunters.
Personally, I felt the book was a let down. After reading Krakauer's
"Into thin air", which was one of the best books I had read in years,
I just couldn't connect with 'Into the wild'. So, I didn't watch the
movie, but I heard good things of the soundtrack so I gave it a try.

The CD has been in my car ever since and I still like to listen to it. The songs
are very simple, mostly acoustic guitar, but have great melodies and
lyrics. I am usually not a big fan of folk style music, but for some reason,
these songs just keep me captivated. Maybe, because some of them are
protest songs, actually having a political message. Hard to find these days,
where it seems the biggest thing to protest against,
is the age of Chinese gymnasts in the Olympics.
Overall, a great piece of music.

Rotten Luck

This was suppose to be a great weekend. Last week I got a call from
Thomas, a good friend from Germany. I know Thomas since college and
I usually visit him and his family when I am in Germany.
Thomas was on a business trip throughout the Americas and had a
weekend stop in Chicago. So, we decided to meet on Saturday
and explore the windy city. I used some frequent flyer miles for the
first flight out of Detroit and I was set to meet with
Thomas for breakfast. Since my plane would leave Detroit Saturday
morning around 7am, I would have to leave home about 5:30 to make it.
Good plan!
Friday night I woke up around 1am, because it seemed like some of my
dinner from last dinner launched a full scale attack on my immune system.
I spent the rest of the night pacing between my bedroom and bathroom and
at 5:30am, the time for departure, I rested curled in my bed with a
cold sweet and frequent stops at the porcelain phone. At this point
I knew, i wouldn't make it to Chicago, so I reluctantly called the
airline to cancel the flight. Rotten Luck.
I spend the rest of the miserable Saturday sipping tea and nibbling
pretzels to past the time. Great!!
Of course, today I am fine. Besides a sore ribcage and a big headache,
there is nothing left of the big fight.

Election JIBJAB Satire

You can tell the election is coming closer when the guys
from JIBJAB posted their latest election satire.
It is not as funny as the original 'This land is your land',
but it still has some funny moments. Enjoy:

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

The Dark Knight

Ok,ok, I gave in the Batman hype and watched the latest installation of
Batman series last night. With all the talk about the movie, especially
Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker, I was concerned the movie
couldn't live up to the expectations like so many before. I was proven
wrong. The movie was excellent. I really like 'Batman Begins' but I
thought The Dark Knight was even better. Great story with haunting
characters, especially Heath Ledger as the Joker. I don't want to give
anything of the story away, so I'll stop right here.
For me, it was a (5/5) movie.

Wanted

I saw 'Wanted' today. The story is about Wesley, a guy with a boring life
until he meets Fox who tells him that his father died yesterday on the rooftop
of the Metropolitan Building and that he will be next. Wesley is recruited
into the "Fraternity," a secret society of assassins that his father was a member.
The Fraternity's leader, Sloan, also teaches Wesley the ways of the group,
and Wesley soon becomes an assassin just like his father.
The movie is really a high paced film with a lot of action in it.
The CGI is cool and the music keeps pace with the action itself.
It kinda reminded me of the first 'Matrix' movie.
I will give this movie a 4 out of 5, but I realize that this is one of these movies that people either love or hate. So, here is my advice: If you are looking for a movie with a plausible plot where morals and the laws of physics are upheld, 'Wanted' is not for you. But, if you are looking for 2 hours of action packed entertainment, I'd recommend it.