On Your Mark. Get Set. Hope!

I want to be more, I want to be better and I want to succeed.  Isn't that how we all approach our lives?  How can we maximize the opportunities confronting our potential?  How do we create opportunities to better ourselves?  I feel as though many of us struggle with these questions that can seem unanswerable at times.

I think one thing to remember when facing these questions is to find perspective.  It is hard to keep a positive or hopeful outlook when you face these questions, but you must sustain that mentality.  Keeping a positive perspective can create a disposition that can afford you attention and marketability you did not plan for.  People are attracted to positivity and will reward it.

It is also important to keep an open mind.  What some might see as a burden, someone else could perceive as opportunity... and possibly even greater success.  One thing I have learned is that disregarding something as "beneath yourself" or "not worth the trouble" can emerge later as a glaringly naive decision.

I have found myself to be in one such state.  Where actuality hasn't met expectation. Where I'm constantly reminded that I want more and how it's not just going to find me. So it continues, my pursuit of success and my uphill quest to find out what that is.  My only hope is that when I get there I am able to have some perspective and realize it.

Just A Man and His Thought: I Float Down the River

I've been lucky enough to have to opportunity to get on the water for the weekend on the Wabash River.  It's not the biggest or fastest river but boy is it a lazy one.  A man could answer all the questions this complicated planet poses to him.  Life becomes so much less trivial when drifting along the water with your thought not too far behind.

As I floated on ward, big blue cranes there to guide us a head, I realized that I've been neglecting yet another thing in my life.  Something that seemed to be missing and hadn't really grasped it until this moment.  Man's insatiable appetite for nature and earth's unmasking beauty.  I am an animal.  I should be outdoors. I forget that too often. 

My Friend So Long

Well it's been a long time coming, but I never thought I would see the day that one of the closest friends would leave me.  We became exceptionally close over the past 4 years or so, and even though I didn't share our relationship with everyone else, he still managed to pop his angry little head around whenever he felt necessary.

Of course, if you are not aware of who I am referring, I am talking about Rudolph or what he's normal known as, the ugly cyst on my neck.  We had some good times together, but honestly it was time for a change.

Rudolph was a funny character really.  He had an "abnormal" sense of humor however.  He wasn't too attractive but he loved the attention he got.  He was great at occasionally scaring people and acting gross, but I knew better, he couldn't help it. It was just his nature.

Anyway, we didn't have a big fight or falling out (more of a pouring out honestly) but it was just time for us to separate. I really am going to miss Rudolph.  He and I had been through a lot and it was funny using him for the irreverent shock value he created. He was great at that.  Yet, I'm somewhat relieved his time had come.

It feels wrong turning to my right and not feeling his warm embrace.  It almost feels like I'm cheating on him with my new found swivel-headed freedom.  I will have to work through it I'm certain.  I will have to move on.

Just Another Disappointment

I've got to get it together people! I say I want to write and blog and express my thoughts, yet I can't remember to do so.  It's not a particularly hard  thing to do and I keep forgetting to do it.  I'm not saying I will continue to regain what little composure I once had, but I am going to rededicate myself to this.

I know some of you out there didn't even notice my lengthy departure but I'm back and better than ever (or revitalized in a way that seems somewhat invigorating).

I hope I can earn your reading interest once again and hope I can keep up with it again.

My Top 10 Favorite Christmas Movies : You're Opinion Doesn't Matter

I was up last night watching some Christmas movies and decorating a tree and I felt as festive as ever.  Standing there drinking my delicious merlot (well 20% cab, 80% merlot, but you get the point), untangling God only knows how many beaded decorations for the tree and trying to enjoy a newer favorite christmas movie all at once.  It got me thinking, and I'm pretty sure I have never done a top 10 favorite Christmas movies.  So here it is:

10. It's a Wonderful Life - I like this movie a lot.  More than anything, it's nostalgic enough to remind me of Christmas and the feeling of Christmas when I watch it.  It's a great movie for perspective.  I'm not delving in too deep here, but it's a great movie and will always make my list. Even if I have it so low.

9. Scrooged - Inevitably, Bill Murray is going to make any list I make. This is one of my favorite movies of his.  His character is so awful and self-centered that for a moment I let myself believe that's really how Bill Murray is.  I laugh every time I see this movie and Bobcat Goldthwait still makes me nervous with a shot gun.

8. Love Actually - A few years ago this would have been much higher on my list.  I used to adore this movie.  I love all the actors in it, like most of the actresses in it ( I still hate you Keira and the music is great throughout, but it's slowly slipping out of my grip.  I love this movie.  I truly do, but it's just starting to get on my nerves a bit.  It's on the list, but it better be careful.

7. The Holiday - Unlike Love Actually, this movie is growing on me quite a bit.  I never would have thought I could like a somewhat subdued Jack Black character so much, but I did.  I feel in love with Jude Law in this movie (damn English charm) and KW was adorable.  I still think Cam D. could never have been casted for this movie but what movie don't I feel that way about that she's in?  Charming story, awesome coats and clothes, and some ridiculously cute British girl accents... how could I not have this on here?

6. White Christmas -  I feel like most everyone reading this might be surprised to see this so much higher on the list than It's a Wonderful Life. Here's the thing, I don't care.  It's a better movie to me.  I love the music.  I think it's one of the prettiest musicals/music filled movies of all time.  Danny Kaye's character Phil is one of my favorites ever.  Crosby kills as per-usual and the theatrics of it are just outstanding.

5. Serendipity - It's got Nick Drake - Northern Sky in it! That's all I have to say! Not true, but that's good enough for me.  John and Kate, gotta love that. The story is fun and playful.  Jeremy Pivaen playing his normal roll, and me still loving it.  And if you don't love Lars Hammond you are stupid. Great movie, just wish John would have a different haircut in the entire movie.

4. Home Alone - You are on drugs if you thought this wasn't going to be on here.  This was one of my favorite movies growing up, no matter what the season.  It's every kid's worst nightmare mixed with every kid's dream situation. I love watching Daniel Stern act like an idiot because it's so believable.  The stuff Kevin gets away with in this movie is awesome and I wish I would have thought of it myself.

3. Elf - So from here out 3 and 2 mine as well be the same for me.  I was a freshman in college when this came out.  I went to go see it with my friends Mike, Evan and Amanda.  All of hume of 6'2 and enormous.  We went in hearing it was hilarious and great and all that jazz but we were all skeptical.  We were also in terrible moods and almost didn't go.  Thanks Evan.  Anyway we went in and laughed like little school girls throughout the whole movie.  We actually left singing christmas songs while skipping and holding hands.  It obviously made the list.

2. Christmas Vacation - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9t_AIygiG8  That link says it all folks.  One of the funniest most awkward scenes ever.  I love you Chevy Chase, I love you.

1. A Christmas Story -  This is kind of unfair really.  I have this as my favorite on a few accounts.  1. I can't get past the fact that this is a movie that's an annual staple for the Camp boys.  We have our "A Christmas Story Marathon Contest" every year, it's legendary people!  It has grown to become a part of me.  2. I quote this movie on a daily basis, daily! Not one day goes by with out a quote. 3. It's with out a doubt the greatest narrated movie of all time, beating the likes of Apocalypse Now, American Beauty and any Winnie the Pooh movie! And lastly, it's just the best Christmas movie ever.  It's cute, it's funny and in someway we have all had this experience in our lives.

Enjoy and/or destroy if you must.

Snow Bunny

Man a live it is cold out there!  I just walked to the store and I can't believe how frigid it feels.  I love it.  Winter just stares you in the eye, begging for you to try and bundle up as much as possible, and ruins you.  I love that feeling.  The first really really really cold moment of winter.  The one that after an hour of preparation and thought still takes your breath away.

I managed to get over my hysterically dramatic pause outside my house and continued walking, but it only made it worse (better).  I had a snotcicles(icicle of snot) and beardcicles all over my face.  My eyes were as glossy as a newly polished vase, and my lips looks like I had eaten a basket of blueberries.  It was that freakin' cold people!

The best part is that I did all of this for a few item : Doritos, Milk, Bread, Cheez-Its and Rice.

In retrospect I could have probably waited to do that until I had a reason to be outside in this frozen tundra, but I'm glad I got it out of my system.  I am prepared to be a snow bunny from this point on. Take that Winter... or at least consider it and be kind please.

Beauty and the Beast

I don't think Belle was that upset when she came to the realization that she was being courted (stalked and obsessed over) by two guys.  I'm sure it was flattering and exhilarating to know that a tremendously talented and successful gentleman was attracted to her, and in some fantasy-fulfilling bestiality she also found it intriguing to be pursed by a wild beast.

I'm not here to judge her or condemn her for her positions on animal/human relations.  I hear of people enjoying there livestock, household pets and dead mice all too often.  I truly can't think of a time in which I had considered having an intimate relationship with my dog Verlie, or looked at my family cat Holly and thought to myself, "I feel the tension and I have to show you how I feel."  But to each their own right?

Let me be the first to congratulate Disney on their foresight and forward thinking.  I don't think anyone was really willing to take the plunge and make a movie about this topic.  With so much attention being made to gay marriage, people have somehow forgotten about our fuzzy little friends and their fuzzy little friends.

The craziest thing (most shocking) is that at the end of the day, the beast wins out.  She picked the family dog (who's wicked rich mind you.... another topic all together) over the real dude.  This brings to attention the question of, is it better with animals than humans?  Belle's choice has brought me to a state that I don't know if I can handle.  Should I just go through with it and see if Charlie (my roommates dog) and I have something we can share.  Can his fuzzy little body really be better than a human?

I might not ever know the answer to this question, but I have seen that you can be happy slow dancing with large animals. I have seen that when you dress them up they are pretty freak'n cute.  But as a lover, can I trust my dog to still shake my hand when I tell him too, without expecting a little more than a "treat" in return?