Pitch Perfect (2012)

Posted on February 24, 2013 by Joel

Saturday night, after Num’s surprise birthday party, after my sister and family went home, and after the kids went to bed, we watched Pitch Perfect (2012), a film about college kids and a cappella singing competitions. If you have seen NBC’s short-lives reality singing competition The Sing Off, that’s what this film was more or less about. It’s not my preferred film genre, but it was my wife’s birthday, and she has been wanting to see it for awhile.

The film stars Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air), Brittany Snow (American Dreams), Anna Camp (The Good Wife), Rebel Wilson (Bridesmaids), and obviously many others, but they are not as well known.

We watched it on Vudu, and it both looked and sounded excellent. I didn’t know all of these people could sing. In these movies, do the actors and actresses really sing, or is it dubbed in post-production?

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Pitch Perfect (2012)

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Despicable Me (2010)

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Joel

One of the films that the kids got for Christmas this year was the 2010 Universal Pictures summer hit Despicable Me. The animated film stars Steve Carrell as Gru, a super-villain who adopts three orphaned girls as part of his evil plan to steal the moon. Jason Segel voices Vector, Gru’s nemesis and villainous competition. Russell Brand, Julie Andrews, Will Arnett, Kristen Wiig, and Jack McBrayer are also featured in the film. I’m not going to go into the major plot here, as it’s a kid’s movie, and I’d honestly like to get some sleep tonight. Let me summarize: Villain meets three cute little girls, they change him, and he becomes a hero of sorts. Boom, there’s your movie.

This is certainly a film that I’d recommend watching on blu-ray. It’s a gorgeous 1080p film. The colors are bright and pop off the screen, the art direction is interesting, and the animation is top notch. The film looks fantastic from beginning to end. While the film only boasts DTS-HD 5.1 MA audio, it sounds great. Booming bass, and lots of activity in the surround speakers. Pharrell Williams’ music is distinctive and catchy.

Despicable Me (2010)

Despicable Me (2010)

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Was this the busiest Presidents Day weekend ever?

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Joel

I need to look back through my February posts, because I think this had to be the busiest Presidents Day weekend that I have ever experienced. It started Fri night, and I wouldn’t say that the events that comprised the weekend were bad. It’s just somehow we’ve been running nonstop since Fri night. Lemme ‘splain it to you, Lucy Ricardo.

Friday

Friday was a busy day for everyone, as we had to finish off a lot of work before the three day weekend. I had to work a little later than planned, but caught the train and headed home. The kids were going to be watched by the daycare center we use, while Namita and I would have a nice romantic dinner for two at a local Italian restaurant. Best part? Gift certificate! We just had to bring pajamas for the kids (and payment.) Also, as I was proctoring an exam for my wife early Saturday morning, we had to stop by the office to get some extra test materials. I’ve noticed that there’s a lot of work involved before we can ever just have dinner for the two of us.

Dinner was nice, albeit a little stretched out, as our food took an inordinate amount of time to come out. After dinner, we came home, fell asleep for a little while (!), then I woke up and rushed over to pick the kids up. Man, we were tired after this long week.

Saturday

I was up early to proctor that practice exam at a heavy school. While I monitored the students, I also sat and got in some quality 3+ hours of CISSP studying. I’ve finished one chapter this month (Legal, Forensics, etc) and started Operational Security.

Another of my friends is also studying for the exam, and we’re now considering taking the August exam together. I want to pass the exam, but I want to get the results back, and have it count towards my 2013 achievements at work. The pressure is on.

The afternoon flew by, then we had to get ready, and drive up to the Clifton/Patterson area for dinner with friends at Toros Turkish & Mediterranean to celebrate recent February birthdays. Lots of food, lots of chatting, lots of red velvet cake and icing mysteriously on our clothes afterwards.

Sunday

After church on Sunday, we had Josh’s Blue and Gold Cub Scout Ceremony where they move the kids up to the next level (Bobcats become Wolves, Weblos become Boy Scouts, etc.), followed by dinner.

Monday

On Monday, most of the family had dental appointments, and then we met up with my parents for lunch in Edison at Penang. After lunch, we rushed home, dealt with a squirrel in the attic, and then I drove up to Wayne, NJ, to see A Good Day to Die Hard with a friend of mine. Followed by some late-night shopping at a the Wayne Target store, 90 mins in the car, and I was home.

One seriously long weekend.

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A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Joel

Well, that was an interesting movie.

As per tradition, when my buddy Doug and I get together to see a film, we pick the most interesting of the dumb action films currently in release with big, nonsensical explosions. Why? It’s not quite by choice. When Doug and I want to go out, we like to go see a good action film for guys. I’d like to watch a good film with great action and the occasional explosion. Unfortunately, the Hollywood film industry doesn’t produce those very often. It produces action films with terrible plots and large explosions every other month or so. I’ve given up waiting for the right film to come along — otherwise, we’d never get around to hanging out together. This time, we picked A Good Day to Die Hard, Bruce Willis in his latest outing as John McClane.

Here’s the plot summary that I pulled from IMDB.com:

John McClane travels to Russia to help out his seemingly wayward son, Jack, only to discover that Jack is a CIA operative working to prevent a nuclear-weapons heist, causing the father and son to team up against underworld forces.

Makes sense, right? John McClane travels to Russia, gets caught up in some huge plot, overcomes the odds stacked against him, and he’s paired up with his son. So, that’s twice the number of heroes to root for. Let me tell you what I could not get over. Bruce Willis, and by extension, John McClane, is 57 or something years old. The original Die Hard came out 25 years ago in 1988. If John McClane was anywhere between 30-35 years old in that film, he would be between 55-60 years old.  Yet in this film, he jumping through (or getting thrown through) windows, jumping out of buildings, falling through scaffolding, getting hit by cars, etc, etc. Yet the man is still getting up and kicking ass. Um, no. And that bugged me throughout the entire film. The nonstop action was more videogame than reality. It was so videogame-like that I started to get annoyed at how unrealistic videogames themselves are, and I love 1st-person shooter and 3rd-person shooters. So imagine how annoyed I was getting.

The story is a little confusing, because there isn’t one villain, but a few different ones, and I got confused with the names. The action was over the top, and John’s re-introduction to his son Jack during the first big car chase was less “I have to protect my son”, and more “Wah, how dare you talk to your father this way? I’m going to chase you down, even though I’m not going to acknowledge the fact that I know guys with guns are chasing you on the highway.”

We wanted to see a big, explosion-filled, action film, even if it would be dumb. We got what we expected, so I can’t complain.

A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)

A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)

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I’m back to using MyFitnessPal

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Joel

Apart from continuing the momentum to maintain a consistent workout schedule, my dietary habits have always been my undoing. For years. I spent most of my life maintaining an unbalanced diet. Large portions. A lack of vegetables and fruits. I spent a lifetime overeating, and it could take the rest of my remaining lifetime to undo it.

In 2011, I had a lot of success in getting healthier by exercising and monitoring my diet. 2012 rolls around, and I waste my gym membership dollars, and I overheat. Last week, I resumed monitoring my diet and exercise through the MyFitnessPal app on my phone.

It’s probably annoying my wife to watch me measure my food, but I gotta keep honest. It’s been an exactly a week, not too painful.

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Bad sign – I’m daydreaming about cycling

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Joel

It’s about that time of the year again. It happens almost every winter. I’ve started getting itchy to hold the handlebars of my bike in my hands, and climb some hills. It’s only February and it won’t be warm enough for me to ride until late March or early April.

I’m still daydreaming on the train about it. I would also love a new, higher quality road bike, like a new Cervelo or Specialized bike. I saw two (pictures below) that I think are gorgeous, but as they’re in the $3-6K price range, it’s a conversation nonstarter in my house. A man can dream.

Speaking of cycling, I need to register for the May 2013 MS bike ride. I’ve joined the “Squirrel Commando Squad” led by my friend Sheri, for a change of pace. I need to start thinking endurance training at the gym this month.

Specialized Roubaix SL4, $8,000
Cervelo S4 vWD, $7,500
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Finally decorating/personalizing my little office

Posted on February 10, 2013 by Joel

It’s taken a year, and I decided that I should personalize my cubicle. Yeah, a year. I’ve been living in “someone else’s cubicle” all this time. It’s time I got comfortable.

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Riddle me this, Batman

Posted on February 9, 2013 by Joel

I made chicken tenders for the kids Saturday for lunch, and I found this funky question-mark-shaped piece. I cooked it, added an additional small round tender, and voila!

Sadly, this is the extent of my artistry these days.

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An update on my “13 in 13” fitness plan

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Joel

Here’s an update on my fitness plan for the year. I’m officially calling “13 in 13” — lose 13 lbs in 2013. I’m trying to lose all 13 lbs by my birthday in late April, but it’s been a slow process. I’ve been attempting to be at the gym daily around 5 am, but that’s been few and far between. Often times, I wake up a little after 5 or 6 am, and way too late to go and still make it to the office on time. I’m making it in the mornings infrequently, but I’ve been regular on the weekends.

I have been much better on the diet portion, and am down 2 lbs to 185.3 lbs, so that’s good news.

On a slightly related note, I’m now seriously considering the MS Ride in May, but forming a new team with a friend of mine. Unfortunately, it’s called the “Squirrel Commando Squad.” As I have had an unfortunate recent history with squirrels, I’m a little disheartened, but I’ll take one for the team.

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My niece’s 5th birthday party

Posted on February 3, 2013 by Joel

On Saturday, Josh and I drove up to Rockland county to see my folks, rebuild my Dad’s home PC, and attend my niece’s 5th birthday party. I had hoped to finish rebuilding the PC before the party, but the rebuild took much longer than I anticipated. We had to take a break while Windows was reinstalling to head over to the party. After the party, we drove back, and spent another 2 hours reinstalling applications and copying the personal data back. We finally hit the road around 11:30 pm, and got home sometime after 1 am. Long day, my friends.  One long day.

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