Embracing my inner nerd, and spreading it round.

For my birthday (or was it Christmas), my wonderful wife got me this fantastic Tee Turtle T-shirt that states, "I'm a Nerd....get over it!" and I believe it whole heartedly.  And more interestingly I'm spreading it around to my family too.  My wife has her own nerdiness, but I'm introducing my children to all the nerdy, dorky and goofy things that I love with hopes that they enjoy and embrace them too.

Beyond my ensatiable love of movies, I'm teaching them to love various books, introduced them to comic books and geeky television shows.

Recently my wife and I took my children (and wife too) to the Wizard World Comic Con here in Columbus.  It was all our first time to a Comic Con (I can believe I had not attended one yet), we all had an extremely wonderful time and found some wonderful treasures that we brought home (some Pop Vinyl figure and some comic books), met some cool artists and saw some really cool things.  I think it's safe to say that we will plan on returning next year.

In the meantime, I'm really enjoying letting my nerdiness shine through with my family, and I'm glad they are envolved too.  Going to be a very interesting coming months and years, that's for sure.  

Challenge Complete....but successful?

So the Movie a Day May challenge has been over from some time now (since it's almost the end of June), but I'm still getting my recap in.  Though I gave it my all, sadly I failed in my attempt to watch 31 movies in 31 days in May.  Here is the recap for what was able to watch:

1st -  A Series of Unfortunate Events...Lemony Snicket

2nd - The Princess Bride

3rd - The Replacements

4th - South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut

5th - The Holiday

6th - Cuban Fury

*7th - Man Up

*8th - Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade

*9th - Big Ass Spider

10th - Deadpool!!!!!!

11th - For a Good Time Call...

12th - Cool Runnings

*13th - Kull the Conqueror

*14th - Hector and the Search for Happiness

15th - 10 Things I Hate About You

16th - 

*17th - Kick Ass 2

18th - 

19th - 

20th -

21st - Monty Python & The Holy Grail

22nd - Bicentennial Man

23rd - History of the World, Part 1

*24th - Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

*25th - Pan

26th - Avengers: Age of Ultron

27th - Ant-Man

*28th - Grease: Live

29th - The Phantom of the Opera (2004)

*30th - Captain America: Civil War

31st - 

Movies I've Seen Before = 16

Newly Seen Movies = 10

Days Missed = 5

I'm a little disappointed in myself, but hey.....life sometimes just gets in the way.  I'm still impressed with what I did get to watch.  I watch 10 new movies I haven't seen before and cleaned up my Netflix cue a little bit.  I'm even going to end up buying a few of them eventually (see future Moose Movie Minute post).

All in all though I did not complete the task and failed the challenge, I feel that it was a successful journey and I'm going to attempt it again next year.  But, maybe this time around I'll do a little pre-planning, like having all the movies I want to see listed in advance (and include some alternates).  Who knows...I've got over 10 months to get ready this time.

Anyway, off to the next challenge and more of life's adventures.

Plans for when the movie is over...

With the "Movie a Day May" challenge just about over (and going very well by the way), I was beginning to think about what type of challenge I would give myself next.

I've decided on going with the complete opposite of sitting around and watching movies and trying from something a little bit more active.  I've motivated myself again to attempt to run in a 5K marathon.  

Previously I attempted to run a Zombie 5K challenge.  Running with obstacles and hopefully away from the zombie participants.  Sadly the events I registered for were cancelled/rescheduled (twice) and that put me in a foul mood that detered me from registering for any more events for a while.

That being said, there are many other 5K events to participate in.  I've registered for a June event as well as one in November (and plan on many in between).  Training is tough but worth it.  I'm hoping the results of the first 5K are not disasterous.

I'm looking forward to the new challenge.

Blogging just in time...

Ok, so it's now the end of March and I'll admit, I almost forgot to come up with something to post.  Would have been sad to mess things up after only 2 blogs in.  But here I am just getting it in under the wire.

Anyway, Spring is here which means that summer is around the corner (though spring showers can sometimes last longer around here).  For me that results in the golf clubs coming out and being tossed into the car, as sometimes one never knows when he'll trudge out and hit the links.  It's always a pleasant surprise when heading out onto the course.

In 2015, I was fortunate to play 11 times (Yes!! *fist pumps a little*), which might not seem like a lot to an average golfer, but considering that prior to that year I'd played significantly less.  when I started working for a new company, I had only increased playing one round a year.  In 2008 I played once, in 2009 I played twice, and so forth leading to 6 times in 2014, and I was ecstatic about that!  So the 11 rounds of golf broke the escalating mold and I was glad for it.  I love playing golf, but never got a chance to play as much as I would have liked (that whole thing called life getting in the way).

So, come 2016, the goal is to break that mold even more.  With 5 rounds currently scheduled on the calendar (1 round in each May, June, July, August, and September) and another 9 rounds being planned (project for this next weekend), that puts me already at 14 rounds.  With the certainty that there will be a few additional rounds popping up (even if they are a quick 9 holes), I'm looking forward to a fair weather 2016 golfing season.

And who knows, I might do some other athletic activities as well...(*hint hint*)

Preparing for a May movie event

So...many years ago (in an employment far far away), I spend a few enjoyable years working for Hollywood Video.   As a nut about movies, there were few places where visual happiness could be found (now there is the Internet where Netflix and other such sites are available).  When working there, it would not have been unheard of me to watch 4-5 new movies in a single day.  Now a days, I'm lucky to watch 4-5 new movies in a month.  And those typically are children/family films.  I probably do watch more then that but it doesn't feel like it.

Anyway, as a challenge and a treat for me, I am going to attempt to watch a movie a day in the month of May (I know that rhymes, how annoying right).  I'm going to select a different movie from the 1st to the 31st.  Hopefully they will all be new movies I have not seen (I have several in my Netflix queue), but I know that there will be a few repeats in there (like "The Princess Bride" or "Deadpool" which I could watch over and over again).  On 3 days (our family movie nights as they are planned), I will be at the mercy of my wife and kids as they will get to pick what we watch.

Overall, I think this is a very doable challenge and I look forward to the task of picking the movies.  Any and all suggestions are welcomed (my friend Amy recommended ""This Is Where I Leave You") and I'll try to mix them in with a few I already have planned.

This is going to be fun!!

June's post will recap the movies watched and maybe through in a few quick reviews.

May Movie Madness Potential Movies:

     Man Up

     Pee Wee's Big Holiday

     Stuck In Love

     The Ridiculous 6

     Chef

     Inglourious Basterds

     Hector and the Search for Happiness

     IP Man & IP Man 2

     Rubber

     The November Man

     Sharknado

     Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

     

Step 2 - The Continued Blog Process

As I continue along my plan of 12 posts in 2016, let me present to you post #2 (or otherwise titled: Horrible Blogger Sighting #2).

The world has not changed that much...actually that's wrong.  The world itself has probably changed significantly since my last post.  Let me rephrase...my small part in this world has not changed that much since my last post.

I've seen a few movies, I've read a few books and my overall life, just continued to be work, sleep and spending time with the family (my favorite part).

Movie:

When it comes to the month of February 2016, the only movie that everyone is really talking about is of course, Zoolander 2...haha..just fooling (though oddly I want to see that one).  Nope, I'm talking about DEADPOOL!!!!  It's awesome!  I've already seen it twice in less then a week (which for me is a lot).  I highly recommend it to anyone over the age of 16 (no children please, unless you truly believe they can handle the violence, nudity and language...it a rated R movie folks).  It hilarious, action packed, and very much worth time the masses waited for it.

Books:

In 2016, I've sent myself a reading goal of 36 books (between actual reading and audio).  In 2015, set a goal of 24 books and ended with close to 75 at the end.  Not to go crazy, I just settles for 36 this year.  Though already I've read 10 books and the month isn't over yet.  At this rate, I'll hit over 60....but we'll see.

I did finish "The Lunar Chronicles" by Marissa Meyer and they were awesome!  A series of 4 books (Cinder, Scarlet, Cress & Winter), it's a futuristic take on some old fashioned tales.  Though a young adult series (the lead characters are in their late teens), it's good for adults too.  I gave all 4 books, 5 stars on Goodreads (I think that means something on the Internet...but I don't know).

Life:

First - took the wonderful wife to see the funny and magical, Justin Willman (he's a comedian and magician folks, don't think to weirdly).  He was as enjoyable as I would have hope and the wife and I had a blast.  If you get a chance to see him live, do so, otherwise get you keister on YouTube and check him out.

Second - I have been toying again with the idea of participating in a full (or maybe 1/2) marathon.  Years ago, I had the idea (with help from the wife) to run in a Zombie 5K event.  I started running in the morning (to early to be awake) and "trained" for the event.  It got cancelled.  Moved to another event in close proximity.  That got cancelled too.  After 2 cancelations, interest got lost.  Now the interest is peaking again.  A coworker (actually a few of them) will be participating in the 2016 Nationwide Children's Hospital Columbus Marathon, and I think I may try and join them.  It will be some work, but I think I'm up for the challenge.  It's definitely a bucket list item to check off!

Anyway, I've got some thoughts to mill over, but that's my brain droppings for now.

Horrible Blogger Found, Lost Again, But Maybe Found Again Soon

Back in June of 2014 (yes, that's 1 1/2 years ago), I posted "Warning: Horrible Blogger Found", and then proceeded to not post a single thing until this installment (again 1 1/2 years later).  I had determined that I was a horrible blogger and then proceeded to prove my point by disappearing from the net.

My plan (because sometimes goals fail and plans can be rescheduled) for 2016 is to start off slow.  I'm going to attempt to post something here once a month (this post will be considered the January post).  If I hit that plan, then I'll adjust for next year with something more ambitious (maybe twice a month).  

So in 2016, here is to posting as often as I can, with entries the consist of anything with substance.  Like I mentioned before I'll even try to post about random and unimportant but interesting stuff.

Now I'm off to tell myself to post more, actually I'm off to sleep, but maybe I'll dream about posting more (that would be a lame dream).  I'm going to tell myself to be more diligent about what and when to post.  So fingers are crossed and some toes as well (and even an eye or two), and keep your eyes open for future droppings to (finally) be posted again.