Michael & Liz are Bloggable

Last week wasn't so hot for me. There were a ton of games though that could have gone either way. For example, San Francisco had NO right losing to Carolina, St. Louis had NO right losing to Tampa Bay, and how did Houston beat Kansas City? Three last minute victories that I thought I had in the bag. That was a CRAZY football weekend.

There are some really really tough picks this week. A lot of games that are just toss ups in my opinion.

Expert Picks: ESPN Analysts

Last Week: 8-6

Buffalo @ Kansas City:	Kansas City
Carolina @ St. Louis:	St. Louis
Denver @ San Francisco:	San Francisco
Washington @ Detroit:	Washington
Green Bay @ NY Jets:	NY Jets
Miami @ Cincinnati:	Cincinnati
Jacksonville @ Dallas:	Dallas
Tennessee @ San Diego:	San Diego
Tampa Bay @ Arizona:	Arizona
Minnesota @ New England:	New England
Seattle @ Oakland:	Oakland
Pittsburgh @ New Orleans:	Pittsburgh
Houston @ Indianapolis:	Indianapolis

Overall Record: 64-40

Quick Thoughts on the Games: 
Buffalo might have a really good shot at 0-16. The relatively easier teams on their schedule (Detroit, Cleveland) are playing better every week.

St. Louis has played really well at home, so I'll go with them.

Denver would be the easy pick if it weren't for the Oakland game, now I have no idea. The 49ers are so much better than 1-6. 4 of their losses were by 3 points or less. So I'm guessing this game will be close?

The Redskins are borderline playoffs right now, and you can't lose to Detroit in that position.

Why are the Jets good??! Running and stopping the run? Cuz they are awful at everything else. There's the formula.

This is the last time I pick Cincinnati if they lose, and I think they will. I just can't bring myself to do it.

Jon Kitna is one of those backups where you say "Oh man, thank goodness we have Kitna". He's not great enough to lead a team every week (see Detroit & Cincinnati), but he's a legitimate temporary fill-in. Interesting, I just found this article, I'm surprised Kitna's not mentioned. It's funny that article (from June) says the 5th worst is Michael Vick. That's obviously proved to be very wrong. Kitna threw 2 TD's in the 4th quarter to make the game close against the Giants. This game will show just how bad Dallas is though.

Tennessee will have to fight for this one, it will be close. Even New England had a tough time in San Diego last week.

Tampa Bay & Arizona, does anyone REALLY think these teams are worth anything? How are they a combined 7-5. Football doesn't make sense.

New England beat Baltimore at home, they better beat Minnesota too

The question for Oakland/Seattle is, which teams will show up? Both have been see-sawing from good to terrible. Is Oakland's 59 a fluke? Seattle has the 2nd best rush defense in the league so Oakland won't have it so easy this week.

If Cleveland comes to New Orleans and wins, you better believe Pittsburgh will too.

Indianapolis gets revenge on Houston. Houston, on the season, is about 3 minutes away from being 2-4. I just don't get the feeling they are that great.

We mentioned over the Summer that we got rid of DirecTV and installed an antenna on the roof and digital converter boxes in 2 places in the house. Lately we have been having trouble with the signal being blippy or choppy. It doesn't happen a lot but enough that it's annoying. Today I worked from home and had the Country Music Network on for a while to listen to music and after a while I just had to turn it off because the choppiness was OBNOXIOUS.

One thing we have given absolutely no care for is the direction we aim our antenna. Right now it's pointed due West because I figured if there are any channels we don't get, it's the ones coming in from Greensboro. But even the closer channels with a tower located 25 miles Southeast of here are choppy, so I think it's about time to run an experiment.

The experiment is to write down our current signal strengths, change the antenna to point directly to our local station's tower, and then check the signal strengths again.

This post may not appear to be interesting to other people, but it's something I've wanted to do for a while now. I may be ignorant about antennas and these channels are coming from the exact same transmitter and a signal for one is the same signal for them all, but it seems like some channels are always better than others.

So I just watched the signal strength for a 30 second period to see what the range was, then went out and changed the antenna from aiming West to aiming Southeast, and then checked the signal strengths after. I only checked the important channels because we really only watch those.

Here are the results:

Station	Before	After
CBS 5	81 - 90	93 - 96
ABC 11	83 - 85	93 - 95
NBC 17	78 - 85	96 - 98
CW 22-01	73 - 85	95 - 96
Country Music 22-02	76 - 88	93 - 95
Fox 50	81 - 88	93 - 95

So I would say this experiment was a huge success. I didn't think that'd make that big of a difference, but clearly it does! I can already tell the picture is smoother and after about a half hour of having the TV on, there hasn't been any evidence of choppiness. Only time will tell though.

Back in Janaury, I blogged about a book called "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years". It's a phenomenal read on how to construct your life into a story. Don't lose 20 pounds, run a marathon, that kind of thing.Well Don Miller, wrote another book that was just as awesome named Blue Like Jazz. He's making it into a movie and needs some help. While they have reached their initial fund raising amount, they are still making the movie on a shoestring budget. Plus, if you donate $1, Don Miller will call you personally to thank you. Pretty sweet right? Here's more information on it:

Here's a link to donate.

Do you ever go to get your car checked out or fixed and just feel on edge from the second you walk in?

Today I am getting my car checked out with a laundry list of issues:

• Oil Change
• The brakes they installed squeak like crazy
• Check Engine Light is on. 

The first two I'm fairly confident can be resolved easily, smoothly, and cheaply. The 3rd one though is the issue I am concerned about. It could be anything. I don't really have any knowledge of what is going on with it, so they could make up something. They could come out and say that your gasket is broken and it's $3000 to fix. I couldn't pick a "gasket" out of a line-up but it sounds technical and it sounds like what is usually found on a car.

And what leverage do you have? "No, that piston is not broken, you are wrong". What I'd really love is for them to bring the part out to me and show me the blatant crack right through the middle of it. You win, you're right, that's broken. They don't usually do that though.

The reason I come to this place is that I can see them working on my car and they are pretty consistent with what they say. Liz is here with her car and this is the second time they've told her that her "belt" is cracking. The first time we just said "no, we don't want to replace it". This time however we gave in to their few offers of fixes and are going to fork out some benjamins to do it.

Here is one conversation that made me want to call him out:
Car Guy: "Is your car a turbo?"
Me: "Like a Mazda Speed3?"
Car Guy: "Yeah."

What I wanted to say: "The 2006 Speed3's are only in hatchback form. My car is a 4-door, how could you not know that?!?! Should I take my car somewhere else?!?! What else are you going to lie about!!"

What I ended up saying: "No, it's not a turbo."


So whenever I walk in to get my car fixed, I'm always wearing my skeptical hat. Anything they say to me I am analyzing like a bug in my salad. I am watching every word and ready to pounce on a lie or falsehood that might be uttered. I just want them to know that I don't want them pulling that stuff on me! Although they probably do anyway, I'm too easy.

*update*: we got reamed with $960 in repairs between the 2 of us... Amen emergency fund!

A couple years ago I started building birdhouses so that we could place one in the backyard. I figured we'd probably get a few birds that use it and enjoy seeing them come and go. It turned out to be awesome. 2 years in a row we have gotten 2 broods of 4 babies each to roost in the house. That's 2 years times 2 broods times 4 babies each which comes to 16 baby bluebirds we have successfully fledged. We'll have 1 roost from early April until June and then another from late-June to August.

I thought the enjoyment would stop there. I enjoyed building the houses and also enjoyed seeing the birds roost, but little did I know that there would be a third benefit. The birds are actually coming home.

A few weeks ago we were sitting in the Sweet Room and noticed there were roughly 6 bluebirds peacefully chillin' on the deck railing. We got up and just watched them. Each one was doing it's own thing. A couple were playing and would fly around each other. Another one was very clearly hunting and looking in the grass for food. A few were not doing much of anything which makes me think they were sunbathing.

This hasn't just occurred once either, it has happened many many times. I'll notice this situation maybe once a week at least, where we have an overwhelming number of bluebirds on the deck.

I have read that bluebirds have a tendency to come back to the location where they were born and I think that's exactly what's happening. I realize the deck railing is awesome, but that's far too much of a coincidence for these little babies not to be ours. We got so much enjoyment out of seeing them sitting there, like we had really made a difference. I realize they are just silly old birds, but it made a difference to them.

I've also read a lot about how good bluebirds are for the local environment and how they are succumbing to predators and lack proper nesting grounds in the area. I'm so glad our backyard has become their safe haven.

I am battling with Chris Mortensen for the best pick 'em record and am staying just barely ahead of Mark Schlereth. I am SHOCKED that Kansas City lost to Houston last week. Houston just seems to pull games out by the smallest hair on their chinny chin chin. See Kansas City and Washington.

Expert Picks: ESPN Analysts

Last Week: 10-4

Washington @ Chicago:	Washington
Cleveland @ New Orleans:	New Orleans
Buffalo @ Baltimore:	Baltimore
St. Louis @ Tampa Bay:	St. Louis
Philadelphia @ Tennessee:	Tennessee
San Francisco @ Carolina:	San Francisco
Jacksonville @ Kansas City:	Kansas City
Pittsburgh @ Miami:	Pittsburgh
Cincinnati @ Atlanta:	Cincinnati
Arizona @ Seattle:	Seattle
Oakland @ Denver:	Denver
New England @ San Diego:	New England
Minnesota @ Green Bay:	Minnesota
NY Giants @ Dallas:	NY Giants

Overall Record: 56-34

Quick Thoughts on the Games: 
I can't believe Chicago let Seattle come in and beat them. Washington is playing really well against good teams right now, and Matt is going to the game. I'm going with Washington.

I don't think McCoy did too awful. But they aren't there yet, and it's New Orleans.

Which is better? A Bye week or playing Buffalo? It's like a Bye week with practice.

Come on St. Louis, can we get some consistency?!? You can't destroy Seattle and then get destroyed by Detroit. I just don't understand the West divisions.

Philly & Tennessee, the battle of the beat up quarterbacks. I'll go with the better defense.

San Francisco is so much better than 1-5 and Carolina is awful.

It's so hard to care about a game Jacksonville is in. I think their players feel the same way. Kansas City gets it done for real this week. Like for real real.

I think Miami fell backwards into 3-2 and Pittsburgh is starting to roll.

Atlanta really doesn't deserve a 4-2 record. They're decent, but the only legit team they beat was New Orleans and even they have been inconsistent. I think Cincinnati can do this!

Why is Arizona 3-2?!?! Football doesn't make sense.

I hope Orton throws for 700 yards against Oakland. I need him to in fantasy football.

New England and San Diego should normally be an epic battle, but it might turn into an epic beat down. I won't pick against New England.

Have you ever seen Brett Favre step it up in big games? Going back to Green Bay has got to be motivation. I think he lights it up.

Dallas' record indicates they are in shambles, but when you look at the scores, they really are close in every game. They'll be close in this one too.

I think one thing I have learned in my 5 years of work out of college is that everyone has the exact same amount of time to devote to what they do. Everyone only has 2 arms, 2 legs and a brain that they are working with. No one is pulling out super human traits that magically gets them to accomplish something that other people cannot. This sounds so ridiculous, as the beginning of most of my blog posts do, but stick with me.

Liz and I have been to some pretty awesome events over the last month hosted by some very well known people. We went to the Biggest Loser 5K in Myrtle Beach, hosted by Bob Harper, and tonight we went to the Dave Ramsey Live Event at the RBC Center, hosted by Dave Ramsey of course. These two people are nationally known and are seen almost everywhere.

Seeing them in the flesh though really brought them down to size. You look at what Bob has accomplished. He's inspired millions across the country. He is the face of a franchise that has branched off into something like 20 other countries. The finales just don't lie. He has a way of getting 400 pound people down to 200 pounds. But watching the television show makes you think of him as something other than a human being. I never saw him as a magical fairy sprinkling dust on contestants to get them to lose weight. The concept of an actual person who sleeps 8 hours, and eats 3 meals a day just doesn't occur to you. The same goes for Dave Ramsey. The guy is amazing, but he's just a guy!

So what separates us Joes from these Unicorn-like-men? Passion? Motivation? They use their time to the fullest?  I may not be as educated or I may not be as strong or or or... There's a lot of things they are better at than I am, but there's also plenty of things that I am better at than them. Like them, I have two arms, two legs, and a brain. I have it in me to be just as productive as them.

Tomorrow, I am going to get up and run 20 miles. I may not have inspired millions with my stride and I may not have caused 4 million dollars to be paid off on a Friday by chugging some Gu Energy Gel, but it's that kind of effort that is required to be just as productive with my time. 3 straight hours of plugging away on the trail.

It doesn't have to be running though! Spending 3 hours teaching your child how to do long division or spending 3 hours editing pictures to create the highest quality photos is just as awesome. The point is, we all have it in us to be awesome just like Dave and Bob. 

Have you ever watched the show "Undercover Boss" on Sunday evenings. Liz and I leave the TV on while we fall asleep and the clips I've seen from the shows are hilarious. You can't help but notice how incredibly inept these CEO's are when put in positions that require them to organize inventory, make pots of coffee, or clean port-a-potties. You think of CEO's as these incredibly talented and skilled mythical men who are CEO for a reason. They must be amazing. They must have in-human abilities. They must be so talented, they can't get any higher in their field. Their inabilities in new roles on the show and difficulty accomplishing tasks outside their comfort zones highlight my point. They are human, not deities. They get their job done with the same amount of time and physical skill set as the rest of us. 

There are mornings when I'm sitting at work thinking, what can I get done today? I bet Dave has had a few of those same mornings. From that point on, it's all about effort and what skills you have learned that you can bring to that effort. The point is, we all have it in us. We can all take their same passionate motivation to accomplish more than what we may see as feasible. It's a choice we get to make every day, just like Dave and Bob.

"Five years from now you’ll be the same person you are today except for the books you read and the people you meet." -John Wooden

Can we talk about the fact that out of the 10 pickers on the ESPN Analysts page, only Chris Mortensen has a better record than I do? I started slow, but man have I picked it up!! I'm psyched about that.I feel really confident with my picks this week. I'm sad the Bengals aren't playing but it just means I won't get one wrong. It's inevitable that I pick them to win every game, and it's inevitable that they continue to lose.

Expert Picks: ESPN Analysts

Last Week: 9-5

Atlanta @ Philadelphia:	Philadelphia
Cleveland @ Pittsburgh:	Pittsburgh
Seattle @ Chicago:	Chicago
Miami @ Green Bay:	Green Bay
Detroit @ NY Giants:	NY Giants
New Orleans @ Tampa Bay:	New Orleans
San Diego @ St. Louis:	San Diego
Kansas City @ Houston:	Kansas City
Baltimore @ New England:	New England
Oakland @ San Francisco:	San Francisco
NY Jets @ Denver:	NY Jets
Dallas @ Minnesota:	Minnesota
Indianapolis @ Washington:	Inidanapolis
Tennessee @ Jacksonville:	Tennessee

Overall Record: 46-30

Quick Thoughts on the Games: 
Although Atlanta is 4-1, they are just barely winning. With a QB that plays decent, Philadelphia is too good for them.

Nothing would make me happier than to see Colt McCoy absolutely obliterate the Steeler defense. I hate the Steelers and their stupid black and gold. Not gonna happen. 

Seattle has won every game at home, and lost every game on the road. I will continue with that thinking.

Is a RB really the only problem Green Bay is having? I can't get a read on Miami though, so home team wins.

Detroits clobbering of St. Louis was impressive, I couldn't decide if that would continue against the Giants. Probably not.

Last year was a fluke for New Orleans, but Tampa Bay isn't THAT good. (yes, I know they beat Cincinnati, we aren't that good either).

It's about time for San Diego to wake up, do some stretching, down a red bull, and be the team they are supposed to be.

100% of the Analysts picked Houston, but WHY?!?! They basically only beat Indianapolis and Oakland. The Redskins lost that game against them, I give Houston no credit. So their only other two games they got shellacked by Dallas and the Giants. I think Kansas City wins this one by at least 10.

I will never pick against New England again, but picking Baltimore was tempting.

San Francisco gets off the schneid. They are not bad enough to lose to Oakland.

Denver is hugely average, (my friend in high school used to ream me for grammatically incorrect statements like that). I'm picking the Jets. What I can't figure out is the reason why the Jets are good? Their defense is good but from what I can tell, their offense should be terrible. Old RB, Sophomore QB, and average WR's. They are defying the odds though because they are lighting up every team.. I just don't see it lasting. But the Jets can get the job done in Denver.

All Minnesota needs is offense. Their first two losses, they held the other teams to just 14.

The question is, which Indianapolis and Washington teams show up? Washington hasn't won a game when the other team scores more than 17 points. Indianapolis has the offense to beat 17. I'm picking Indy.

Tennessee is better than Jacksonville. They win.

Not really famous but as close as I'll ever get. At my work's gym, they have this thing called the "Stall Street Journal". It is a one page newsletter that is posted all around the fitness center on the walls, in the locker room, and yes, in the stalls for everyone to read. The coordinator for the fitness center found out about my Me vs. Machine challenge from August and asked if he could highlight it in the Stall Street Journal for the September issue. I said absolutely and sent him all the stats I had compiled.

So for the whole month of September I was quasi-famous to the 300 or so people that go to the gym. While I do have the whole newsletter online, I don't want to post it on the blog for the sake of... privacy? Just don't feel like it's right to post my work gym's stuff on the blog. BUT, here is the clip from the newsletter for everyone to read.

A couple weekends ago we went to the Bengals vs. Panthers game. Thank goodness the Bengals won because a 3 hour drive back after a loss in the rain would have been depressing. Instead it was a happy cold. It poured before the game and drizzled throughout the 1st quarter.

Honestly, the Bengals played awful. Carson threw 4 balls right to the hands of the Panthers defensive players and they somehow dropped all of them.Liz was probably getting annoyed at how often I said "OH YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!! THAT WAS HORRIBLE!!" I think had the defense caught two of them, it would have been a different game. Bengals pulled it out though, 20-7. Here are some pictures from the game experience.

Getting ready for the game. A Browns fan actually took this picture. I told him I hope the picture comes out, because if I was taking a picture of a Browns or Steelers fan, I would make sure it was fuzzy. 

Here is Keith Rivers and Carson Palmer talking after the game. I imagine the conversation probably went like this:
Keith: "I did awesome today."
Carson: "Yeah you did, you really saved our butts in this game."
Keith: "For real, what was up with you? If I played for Carolina, I would have had 12 points the other way."
Carson: "Yeah, even my brother could have done better than that... man my hair is messy."


Big thanks again to Jon and Julie for the tickets!! We had an awesome time! When the Bengals play there again in 6 years, I think we'll be sure to get tickets again and maybe stay a night. Charlotte is an awesome city to visit.

So I have a dilemma regarding last weeks picks. In the top section where I write my picks, I wrote Miami but I fully intended on voting for New England. Then in the comments at the bottom I wrote "I will never pick against New England again." So what do I do? Take what I meant to pick or take what I accidentally picked. I took what I meant to pick, because I did not think Miami would win.

Check out the experts at the link below. There are only 2 experts out of 10 that have gotten more picks right than I have. w00t!!

Expert Picks: ESPN Analysts

Last Week: 10-4

Chicago @ Carolina:	Chicago
Tampa Bay @ Cincinnati:	Cincinnati
St. Louis @ Detroit:	St. Louis
NY Giants @ Houston:	Giants
Denver @ Baltimore:	Baltimore
Atlanta @ Cleveland:	Atlanta
Kansas City @ Indianapolis:	Indianapolis
Jacksonville @ Buffalo:	Jacksonville
Green Bay @ Washington:	Washington
New Orleans @ Arizona:	New Orleans
Tennessee @ Dallas:	Dallas
San Diego @ Oakland:	San Diego
Philadelphia @ San Francisco:	Philadelphia
Minnesota @ NY Jets:	NY Jets

Overall Record: 37-25

Quick Thoughts on the Games: 
With Cutler out, who knows what Chicago team will show up, but I know which Carolina team will show up. The bad one.

OK, so I thought last week was disappointing, but that word will lose all meaning if Cincinnati falls this week. Disappointing times infinity. They BETTER NOT lose this one.

St. Louis and Detroit is gonna be a close one. Both are improving, but the Rams have Bradford. Liz wants some recognition. I asked her who would win and she also chose St. Louis. Unless they lose, then we shall completely forget this conversation ever happened.

Houston got clobbered at home last time and seem to get in shootouts, I think the Giants will edge them out.

Just to spite Scott, I flipped a coin on the Denver game :). Baltimore's tough to beat, especially at home.


By picking Atlanta, by the transitive property, I am granting that Atlanta is better than Cincinnati. Not sure if I believe that though.

Kansas City is NOT that good. If they beat Indianapolis, all logic goes out the window. Also, I am really tired of typing Indianapolis.

I did not realize Buffalo was that bad or that Jacksonville was decent enough to hang with the Colts.

Washington is full of surprises, I think they are a better team than people give them credit for. Just like McNabb in Philly, he can beat any team on any night.

Who else can New Orleans barely beat by 2-5 points? It'll be Arizona this week.

I can't get a read on Tennessee, so I took Dallas as the home team.

Same goes for San Diego, I just don't know how they'll play. But Oakland is beatable.

Something inside me says to pick San Francisco. I just don't like Kolb, he reminds me of any QB that plays in Buffalo or Seattle.

The Jets are 2 points away from being undefeated.

Lots of 3 and 4 star movies this month.I thought our movie watching would slow down with the new shows starting but 15 or 16 movies is not too shabby. 

1. Idiocracy (2006) - 2 stars - This had a couple funny parts and really made a lot of backhand slaps to the intelligence of our current society. But the silly plot made me give it 2 stars.
2. Lucky Number Slevin (2006) - 3 stars - I have mixed feelings about this movie. It was a good story line but I think it ended up being slower than I expected.
3. Fast and Furious (2009) - 3 stars - This was just as good as the first Fast and Furious movie. Versions 2 and 3 were awful, so I enjoyed them getting back to the Vin Diesel/Paul Walker combo.
4. Freedom Writers (2007) - 4 stars - Just an updated Dangerous Minds movie but I think this one was better. A few parts were silly just to add drama, but I really enjoyed it. 
5. Couples Retreat (2009) - 4 stars - I love Vince Vaughn and his fast-talking mumbling he does. I saw this movie when donating platelets but Liz hadn't seen it yet. It was funny enough to see multiple times. A classic date night movie.
6. Leap Year (2009) - 3 stars - I haven't seen a movie with Amy Adams that I didn't enjoy. I think it's because the first time I saw her was in the movie "Enchanted". I was expecting a silly/stupid kids movie, but Enchanted is actually HILARIOUS. If you haven't seen it, you must. They really make fun of the Disney/Cinderella type movies. 
7. The Tenth Circle (2008) - 3 stars - Liz watched this without me, can't remember what her comments were. 
8. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)  - 4 stars - Just like the Fast and Furious movies. This is the 4th X-Men movie and they finally got back to the standards of the first one. The 2nd and 3rd movies in this series were horrible, but this 4th one was good. What was interesting is that you're following the plot of Wolverine, and then all of a sudden someone busts out crazy mutant skills. Since it feels like such a normal plot type movie, it catches you by surprise.
9. Kelly's Heroes (1970) - 2 stars - Am I the only person that feels like the older the movie is, the more likely it is to be boring. I could probably write a post on this topic, but there are VERY FEW older (pre-1985) movies that I enjoy. They, understandably, rely more on dialogue and less on action and graphics. Good movies with good dialogue is common, but to incorporate technology creates a FANTASTIC movie (see Avatar or Saving Private Ryan). Kelly's Heroes was boring enough that I stopped it half way through. I gave it 2 stars because I give it the benefit of the doubt. It was probably better relative to good movies 40 years ago.
10. The Spirit (2008) - 1 star - I hate these artistic movies. Similar to this is the movie "Sin City". Not only are the crazy black and white graphics annoying, the plot was awful and slightly incomprehensible. Another movie I stopped halfway through, and I REALLY don't do that very often.
11. King Corn (2007) - 4 stars - Another movie that makes you ill in regards to our country's food practices.I've seen my share of food documentaries and this managed to be different, original, and equally gross.
12. Pandorum (2009) - 2 stars - Nothing to comment on here, just an average Sci-Fi movie. They did do a good job of creating some terrifying aliens.
13. Race To With Mountain (2009) - 2 stars - This movie was super lame. Here's a hint, when making a movie called "Race to Witch Mountain", don't introduce "Witch Mountain" into the plot an hour into a 98 minute movie. I can't recall ever hearing the words "Witch Mountain", but I have to admit, it was hard to pay attention because I was disinterested in the plot. And it wasn't much of a "race". This movie should be renamed to "We'll Eventually Make Our Way to a Mountain That Shall Not be Named."
14. The Young Victoria (2009) - 3 stars - Liz watched this without me, I think she said it was OK.
15. I.Q. (1994) - 2 stars - Another movie Liz watched without me. She said it was stupid and corny. 
16. Firefly (Full Series) - 5 stars - This show was fantastic. It makes me sad that it didn't last past 14 episodes. I wish we could see more and find out the secrets we'll never know.

Back in 2008 I ran in the Marine Corp Marathon. During the expo I got the sweetest, brightest, orange-blinging running shirt I could find. It actually found me it was so bright. I love bright orange, not sure why. It says "Marine Corp 26.2" on the front. It really is one of my favorite shirts.

I don't wear it very often outside of running trails though, maybe 3 times this year? It's kind of tight, it's clearly meant for running, and people bark at me. To an untrained ear it literally sounds like someone barked or at the very least got punched in the stomach. They see "Marine Corp" on the front and bark "hoo-AH!" when they see it. I realize this is a Marine Corp thing and it's a sign of camaraderie amongst marines. But it's honestly embarrassing to be barked at and then give a retort of "oh, haha, yeah"... I might as well reply "oh, yeah, I'm going to be awkward now."

I'm not a marine so I don't feel like I have the privilege to bark back. Every part of me wants to though just to get out of the situation. It got me thinking, the barking should be a goodbye, not a hello. A simple "Oh Hey! I was a marine" to start the conversation would be a perfect hello, complimented by a we're-the-same-so-say-it-with-me "hoo-AH" goodbye.

I can see how they could be confused. Sometimes when I see a fellow Bengals fan I would say/yell "WHO DEY!" and they would respond the same. Somehow I feel like it's different, maybe it's because "hoo-AH!" startles me every time and it takes me a second to process grunts.

Anyway, I tallied 2 barks today, creating awkward situations one "hoo-AH!" at a time.