Saturday, December 31, 2005

End of the Year Post

I haven't posted in what seems like forever.

So I had an awesome Christmas. My wife, who rules all, got me a beautiful black ipod nano. I am having so much fun with it, especially since I lost my ipod shuffle about 2 months ago.

It is so stinking small.

Our parents went way above and beyond what we ever thought. We got enough money so that we can tile our kitchen (can't wait for that) and I got 2 pairs of shoes. And I love me some shoes. My parents got me some custom Nikes (or gave me money to do so) and my brother gave me some retro sneaks. I also got Season 1 & 2 of Scrubs...can't wait to watch. Awesome show.

And now, our friends are here for the new year...good times. I have made a decision this year (similar to last year's new year's resolution) that I am going to read 2 books a month + 1 this year. This will go from Christmas to Christmas. I have the list and I've actually already read my first book, A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby. I've been waiting to read this for a while and I liked it a lot. More than How to be Good at least.

Next on the list is How to Lose Friends and Alienate People by Toby Young, a memior about the rise and fall of a British journalist on the New York and Hollywood social scene while he worked as a contributing editor to Vanity Fair. I'm about 1/3 of the way through it and it is pretty funny. I'll be blogging all my books so stay tuned.

Happy New Year and all that. Good times.

Sunday, December 18, 2005

King Kong: Kong-tastic

What a great movie.

Peter Jackson is so hot right now. So hot. Kong is awesome. Jack Black...best acting since High Fidelity (though he was hardly acting in that). Naomi Watts was great. Adrien Brody was...whatever.

A great 3 hours and 15 minutes of moviemaking. Good times.

Friday, December 16, 2005

The Apprentice Finale

I don't know if it's that I'm enamored with Donald Trump's hair or that I just like a reality show that focuses on talent, rather than drama, but ever since the first season, I've been a loyal watcher of The Apprentice.

The 2-hour (semi) live season finale was last night and pitted Randal against Rebecca in a competition of charity events. I really enjoyed the finale a lot until the end of it (but we'll get to that a little later). Randal and Rebecca both had to overcome enormous obstacles on their final tasks...Randal's charity softball game was rained out and Rebecca's celebrity emcee, Joe Piscopo, backed out at the last minute.

Both made the proper adjustments and held extremely successful events. It started to become very clear as they made it to the board room that both candidates were very successful and it was possible that Trump might hire both of them.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Let's be honest. Randal was the odds-on favorite to win. Undefeated record. Impeccable education. Respect from his teammates. Yadda yadda yadda. NO CLASS.

First, I felt it was unnecessary for him to ask his fellow candidates who supported him and who didn't. Who cares what they thought? All of them were FIRED. And Alla was completely classless, showing her true colors, acting like nobody's opinion was more important than her own.

I thought that Rebecca showed incredible poise in the final boardroom and, in my opinion, should have won. Toward the end, Randal got a little cocky and a little complacent. He allowed his team to do most of the work while he sat back and got all the glory (I hate hate hate people like that). Rebecca came into the boardroom with fire, but she refused to make the boardroom about the weaknesses of Randal. Even when she was asked what his biggest weakness was, she turned it into a compliment, stating that Randal just tends to overthink things.

Randal, on the other hand, turned into Alla and started fabricating stuff about Rebecca that, frankly, wasn't very accurate. Not only that, but he had been extremely complimentary of her up to that point. When cornered, he lashed out. Now I understand the need to defend yourself, but I really don't think he had to do it negatively.

So Randal was hired.

And there was much celebration from the crowd.

Then, Trump calls Randal back to the table and asks him if he should hire Rebecca, and Randal, who has gained the respect of millions of people, promptly loses it by refusing to share the title.

Unbelievable.

What is worse is that I think that if Trump would have hired Rebecca first that she would have shared with Randal. But Randal wanted all the glory for himself, which really disappointed me. And now, even on the news site of the network that puts out the show, MSNBC, there are negative stories about Randal and his selfishness.

Overall, Trump really couldn't have gone wrong firing both of them, but then he takes the advice of his brand new APPRENTICE on who he should hire. It's no wonder so many of his companies go bankrupt.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

It was cold, but it was worth it...

I got to go to the Chiefs game on Sunday.

The later start meant that the game would end in the dark and with a forecast of...well...COLD, I bundled up, excited for the game.

And what a game. It started off badly, with Denver scoring on its second play from scrimmage. However, the Chiefs battled all game and Jake "the Snake" Plummer turned into his old self and managed to hook up with two different Chiefs for interceptions at key times during the game, one particularly in the endzone to Patrick Surtain.

During the game, I looked up to the jumbotron and read the words:
"Arrowhead is not what it once was. It has lost its mystique."
-Steve Young, NFL Countdown, December 4, 2005
PROVE HIM WRONG!

I've been to plenty of Chiefs games in my life to know that something like that is plenty to motivate the fans to bring the thunder. And that's what it felt like. It was so loud, everyone was yelling. And I lost my voice by the second quarter.

Young, you need to shut up. You haven't been back to Arrowhead since you got rocked there the last time. How about the Arrowhead mystique on Denver's 4th-and-2 play where the Chiefs needed replay to have the refs get it right (everyone in the stadium could tell he was short).

Sadly, however, I lost my cell phone in the parking lot and I think it got run over, so if you try to call me, you'll get a weird message...hopefully, I can fix that today.

Monday, December 05, 2005

Joey's Pizza?

No, not a Friends reference.

It's a reference to another one of my favorite shows, which is unfortunately getting cancelled after the end of this season. Since my friend Sarah introduced us to Alias midway through Season 2, we haven't missed an episode of this show.

Season 4 SPOILERS AHEAD

With the onset of the season, it was obvious that Alias had lost some of its sheen...Sydney was pregnant, Vaughn's gone, Irina is nowhere to be found and we now have 2 new agents doing all the work (who aren't bad, it's just different).

Why couldn't they bring back WILL?

Oh yeah, that's because he had his own show to get cancelled before it even got a chance. I'll be totally honest, I'm a big fan of Bradley Cooper (particularly after his hilarious turn in Wedding Crashers this summer), so I really wanted this show to succeed. Fox didn't really give it a great chance, especially since it was off the schedule forever because of the stupid World Series.

TV is getting better. Less reality shows is always good. And there are some great new shows this season. Lost continues to be awesome. The Office is SO FUNNY. Scrubs is coming back. How I Met Your Mother is a hilarious new show. So we have that going for us.

But still. I will miss Alias. And I hope that the rumors aren't true. I hope that Fox can find room on its schedule for Kitchen Confidential.