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| The actual source of all rainbows |
"WORLD WAR Z" IS REALLY GOOD
It's no secret that zombies have become the flavor of the week when it comes to monsters being used in movies and television productions. There's some kind of rotation that Hollywood uses which we mere mortals aren't privy to, I'm sure of it - how else can you explain that there are years where a bunch of alien invasion movies get made then the next a slew of vampire-centric films are rolled out? They tap popular trends (striking while the iron is hot, as it were) and at this point zombies are about as popular as they ever have been.
A piece of literature that was on the forefront of the current zombie movement is Max Brooks' (yes, as in Mel Brooks' son) "World War Z", which is currently being adapted into a movie (which, allegedly, isn't going to be that close to its source material - shocker) starring Brad Pitt. Originally released in 2006, WWZ is a very unique book in that it makes use of anecdotal stories gathered from first-hand interviews to chronicle the struggles of humanity attempting to overcome a world-wide plague of the undead.
Let me say first that it took some doing for me to get into this book. I started reading it earlier this year and was challenged immediately by how it is written. I think most avid readers are accustomed to stories being presented in a narrative format, which makes them relatively easy to navigate and absorb. WWZ is different in that the story is pieced together through individual and seemingly scattered elements, making the scope of it incredibly vast. It wasn't until after I'd forced myself to dedicate time to reading it that I began to appreciate how these pieces come to form an intricate tale ripe with details. I enjoy using my imagination to assemble mental images of scenes and characters from books I'm reading as I'm reading them; if you share this trait, I can confirm that WWZ presents many opportunities to stretch your grey matter. From epic battles with legions of zombies staged on familiar sites (Yonkers, New York for example was the site of the first large-scale encounter between the US military and the living dead) to harrowing survival stories involving perilous situations at every turn, the scenery in WWZ is truly epic. I highly recommend this book for fans of horror, suspense, or science fiction - and documentaries, for that matter.
I'VE LOST WEIGHT
My wife and I have been members of our local YMCA for about 18 months now and she's been actively participating in Weight Watchers since February of this year. Jill (who updates her blog a whole lot more frequently than I do - check her out at The Truesdale Times) has lost just shy of 75 pounds while on the Weight Watchers program and I could not be more proud of her! She's done a tremendous job of subscribing to their guidelines and the proof is in the fact that she's in arguably the best shape of her life - I always thought she was beautiful but when I refer to her as my hot, young trophy wife now people actually get a sense of what I've been talking about.
Her efforts have rubbed off on me a bit because I've seen the fruits of her labor. By watching her and paying attention to how she's been able to have such great success with the program, I've developed an understanding that the great thing about Weight Watchers is how it promotes effective decision making when it comes to choosing what to eat. You can eat what you want while keeping in mind the consequences of your decisions (good or bad) instead of being forced into a diet where you're eating foods that will sustain you but will also make your taste buds want to rip themselves free of your tongue. (What's more, I think I'd go crazy if I had to switch out meals with shakes or some kind of beverage.) I feel like that's what most people use as an excuse to not maintain a diet, the fact that they can't have the foods they enjoy. So instead of a regimen they can endure they wind up suffering through what's more akin to a form of penance than anything and can't help but hate the experience. Weight Watchers is the exact opposite of that.
If you want a double-bacon cheeseburger, go ahead - but you have to realize that because you had the cheeseburger you shouldn't have other similar items that aren't exactly good choices. On top of that, exercise helps! No one is going to confuse me for an Olympic athlete, but I have to say that the changes I've been able to make by way of regular exercise are noticeable. I have more endurance, greater strength, and more energy. It used to be that I had to push myself just to keep up with Jill while we were walking (I'm still convinced she was trying to lose me while we were on the strip in Las Vegas), but that isn't the case anymore! Little things like that (as well as the fact that I'm down a shirt size) start to add up in your mind and give you a sense of confidence to keep going.
The point is to say that I've been made aware of things I was eating previously and now realize the impact they can have in an overall sense of well being. I know I've lost at least 20 pounds since some point this summer as that was when we purchased a scale and have been regularly tracking our weight. Not to sound too cocky but I've thought of the idea of re-taking our wedding pictures because of the fact that we both look better now than we did then!
WE'RE (going to be) ON A BOAT!
When my then soon-to-be wife and I were going over options for our honeymoon more than a year ago, my ideas were Disney World or Hawaii. Hawaii was out of the running fairly quickly, mainly because I didn't want to have to take out a personal loan just to finance the trip. Disney is a personal favorite of mine as I've always loved the theme parks. My family and I used to go there almost every year when I was growing up, so it goes without saying that I have plenty of fond memories of those experiences.
Jill's idea, on the other hand, was to take a cruise. I'd never been on one (whereas she'd already been on several) and, truth be told, I wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea initially. I was concerned about being sick the whole time, if we'd be comfortable living out of a cramped cabin for several days, and most of all whether or not it would be worth the money. I only plan on getting married once, so of course I wanted the experience to be as memorable as possible (and of course I have to live up to my promise to Jill that our life together will be an adventure). I eventually agreed to the cruise and so we booked a trip to the Bahamas aboard the Carnival Sensation.
To put my thoughts on the cruise quite succinctly, I loved every moment of it! I have recommended the cruising experience to literally everyone who so much as mentions the possibility of being slightly interested in the chance they might take one at some point in their life. I'm not necessarily a travel expert, but be that as it may I do not think that you can get a vacation with such great value by any other means. Between the food, the shows, the picturesque ports of call, and everything else in between, it was a phenomenal trip and we were almost immediately looking forward to our next outing.
We're now within two weeks of being on the water again as we'll be setting sail to the western Caribbean for a 7 day voyage on board the Carnival Dream. Saying "I CAN'T WAIT!" would be a slight understatement at this point as it feels like we've been looking forward to this trip for more than a year (which isn't far from the truth; we booked far in advance to get a lesser rate). I wanted to take a longer trip on a bigger boat, and that's exactly what this itinerary allows for as the Dream is one of the largest vessels in Carnival's fleet. We'll be making stops in Cozumel, Belize, Costa Maya, and Isla Roatan - on top of that we've booked several shore excursions, which we didn't try at all on our honeymoon. This is one more example of an activity that as little as a few years ago I never thought I'd ever do, but I am and I'm sure we'll enjoy this trek just as much (or hopefully more so) as we did our previous adventure.
I ORDERED MY IPOD CLASSIC (Related Topic: Amazon.com is effing-incredible)
For several months now I've been agonizing over the decision as to whether or not I wanted to purchase a new iPod. I have a significant amount of music in my collection and my older iPod Nano wasn't cutting it anymore. The Nano I have only carries around 2 gigabytes of memory, which is a terribly small amount of storage space when you consider I have upwards of 60 gigs of music. It's a pain for me to have to constantly unload and load music as my tastes change or as I acquire new tunes. I wanted a device that would allow me to sync it up with my library every so often and carry all my music with me, not only for ease of maintenance but also because I now have a head unit in my truck that can interface with a USB device. Suffice it to say that it's a whole lot more convenient to have my media contained on a box the size of a deck of cards instead of a huge case of CDs.
My problem, being the epic tight-wad that I am when it comes to spending money, was that I didn't want to incur the expense of upgrading. I kid you not when I say that I agonized for what seemed like several months over making the purchase. I knew what I wanted but I wasn't sure how to pay for it. "Do I use my credit card or try to save up the cash?", I repeatedly asked myself. Apparently I suffered a moment of weakness at some point within the past week because I ordered a 160 gigabyte iPod Classic with an accessory bundle from Amazon and the lovely thing was delivered to me early this morning!
Now I get to look forward to spending time setting it up - I sincerely hope there's never a stage of my life where I don't anticipate playtime with a new gadget with the kind of glee typically reserved for a 9 year old boy on Christmas morning.
RING OF HONOR RETURNS TO THE CAROLINAS
When it comes to professional wrestling in the United States, there really are only two major companies in existence right now (even though a whole bunch of small indy promotions would have you believe they're the closest equivalent), those being World Wrestling Entertainment and iMPACT (aka, TNA) Wrestling. Most observers, myself included, feel that the gap between WWE and TNA is ever widening with WWE having a huge advantage both in popularity and (more importantly) profitability. They're the largest sports entertainment company in the world and their domination of the global market grows every year. That's all well and good (especially if you're a little boy or a woman who delights in the fact that John Cena is the second coming of Hulk Hogan, that being a wrestler who's physique and charisma are unrivaled but who also happens to be an iffy at best when it comes to his grappling ability) except for the fact that the lack of any legitimate competition seems to make the creative forces behind the scenes feel like they don't necessarily have to work as hard as they would otherwise. Point being, on some level WWE has realized that they're now at the top of the food chain and that the nearest threat is still wet behind the ears which has caused their product to become quite stale as of late.
There was a moment in the history of professional wrestling where there were three companies - WWE, World Championship Wrestling, and Extreme Championship Wrestling - competing in the United States. ECW was always third in the pecking order, although to some felt they (despite being a much smaller company with nowhere near the financial backing of WWE) were better than WCW and even WWE. Interestingly enough, nowadays there is once again a third company attempting to climb the mountain, as it were, in an attempt to open the eyes of fans to an alternative to the norm. Enter Ring of Honor.
ROH has been around for nearly a decade and has enjoyed a significant amount of critical success as their unique brand of action takes a cue from what's referred to as strong-style wrestling more frequently seen in Japan. Strong-style involves much more legitimate strikes and kicks than what's typically a part of wrestling matches, thereby heightening the audience's perception of genuine violence taking place. This has been a great selling point for their brand as they're capable of reaching fans of both professional wrestling and mixed martial arts fighting without alienating either sub-culture.
I've been a fan of theirs for several years but, unfortunately for me, the only way I could ever see ROH material was by way of DVDs or ultra-low quality video of matches on YouTube or some other streaming site. ROH is based in the northeast, Philadelphia specifically, and a majority of their live events take place in that region. However, as my luck would have it they've now begun touring more extensively and have added several cities in the Carolinas to their list of regular haunts. They've already held a handful of events in Charlotte, North Carolina and in December they'll be making two stops in the Carolinas: December 3 - Spartanburg, SC, and December 4 - Greensboro, NC. With any luck, I'll be able to make it to at least one of these events (more than likely won't get to both but that would be fantastic).
I'd strongly encourage any wrestling fans in the area to check them out as theirs are some of the best shows I've been to in quite some time. Take a chance on something new by seeing what else exists in the world of professional wrestling!
When it comes to professional wrestling in the United States, there really are only two major companies in existence right now (even though a whole bunch of small indy promotions would have you believe they're the closest equivalent), those being World Wrestling Entertainment and iMPACT (aka, TNA) Wrestling. Most observers, myself included, feel that the gap between WWE and TNA is ever widening with WWE having a huge advantage both in popularity and (more importantly) profitability. They're the largest sports entertainment company in the world and their domination of the global market grows every year. That's all well and good (especially if you're a little boy or a woman who delights in the fact that John Cena is the second coming of Hulk Hogan, that being a wrestler who's physique and charisma are unrivaled but who also happens to be an iffy at best when it comes to his grappling ability) except for the fact that the lack of any legitimate competition seems to make the creative forces behind the scenes feel like they don't necessarily have to work as hard as they would otherwise. Point being, on some level WWE has realized that they're now at the top of the food chain and that the nearest threat is still wet behind the ears which has caused their product to become quite stale as of late.
There was a moment in the history of professional wrestling where there were three companies - WWE, World Championship Wrestling, and Extreme Championship Wrestling - competing in the United States. ECW was always third in the pecking order, although to some felt they (despite being a much smaller company with nowhere near the financial backing of WWE) were better than WCW and even WWE. Interestingly enough, nowadays there is once again a third company attempting to climb the mountain, as it were, in an attempt to open the eyes of fans to an alternative to the norm. Enter Ring of Honor.
ROH has been around for nearly a decade and has enjoyed a significant amount of critical success as their unique brand of action takes a cue from what's referred to as strong-style wrestling more frequently seen in Japan. Strong-style involves much more legitimate strikes and kicks than what's typically a part of wrestling matches, thereby heightening the audience's perception of genuine violence taking place. This has been a great selling point for their brand as they're capable of reaching fans of both professional wrestling and mixed martial arts fighting without alienating either sub-culture.
I've been a fan of theirs for several years but, unfortunately for me, the only way I could ever see ROH material was by way of DVDs or ultra-low quality video of matches on YouTube or some other streaming site. ROH is based in the northeast, Philadelphia specifically, and a majority of their live events take place in that region. However, as my luck would have it they've now begun touring more extensively and have added several cities in the Carolinas to their list of regular haunts. They've already held a handful of events in Charlotte, North Carolina and in December they'll be making two stops in the Carolinas: December 3 - Spartanburg, SC, and December 4 - Greensboro, NC. With any luck, I'll be able to make it to at least one of these events (more than likely won't get to both but that would be fantastic).
I'd strongly encourage any wrestling fans in the area to check them out as theirs are some of the best shows I've been to in quite some time. Take a chance on something new by seeing what else exists in the world of professional wrestling!
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