ThePresentTense.net

If you haven’t yet, go see Avatar in 3D now.

I honestly wasn’t all that interested in seeing it when it first came out, but my brother and a good friend, among others, did enough recommending that Cris and I decided to go see it last night.  It didn’t take long to realize that Avatar is going to end up being more of a phenomenon than a movie.

Continue reading Avatar in 3D

Some time in the middle of last year my interest in politics and government checked out.  I think I just got annoyed to the point where I just raised my white flag and gave up.  I just couldn’t take any more of the impressive combination of hollow blathering, hypocritical yapping, and fear-mongering that has become the staple of Washington discourse.

Continue reading David Rivkin is a Tool

Since I’m spending the day on the couch watching college football, I’ve decided to share in the experience.  Instead of doing a “weekend review” post, I’m going to continually update this post through the day with observations and thoughts on the games I’m watching.

11:40 – Last update.  This Sugar Bowl turned out to be completely anti- Continue reading Pseudo Running Commentary on New Years Day College Football

I fail at blogging.  I wrote this post like three weeks ago and thought I published it.  Apparently not.  Here it is anyway.

The biggest difference between this and previous PJ records is that its…happy?  My first reaction when I started listening was, “huh? what happened to the dark and brooding PJ I know and love?”  After I got past how different it was from their previous albums, I quickly realized how good of a straightforward rock album it is.  It easily takes its place as one of my favorite PJ albums.

Continue reading Audio Addiction: Pearl Jam’s Backspacer

Merry Christmas all.  Just a couple of quick thoughts for the holiday weekend.

Thanks American Airlines for not charging for luggage on our flight out.  We really do appreciate it and wish you a Merry Christmas as well.

First, truly white Christmas this year was pretty cool.  We didn’t get a ton of snow here in Missouri, but it was enough to satisfy me.

Christmases that start at 6:30 AM are Christmases that start a little too early.  And I’m still trying to get used to Christmases with big families.  I’m still used to smaller, more low key Christmases myself, but this was still really fun nonetheless.

Kids go along way towards reminding you of the mystery and wonder of Christmas even if their not yours and your watching them open gifts that you didn’t give them.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas and ate way more than they should like I did.

Usually, talk about snowstorms happening in the cities I live in are full of hyperbole and sensationalism.  Huge storms often turn into nothing, but this time the predictions were pretty much right on.  I think the final accumulation count came to right around 20 inches.

What I do know is that uncovering two cars from 20 inches of snow takes forever and is tiring as hell.  I also realized that it brings the grumpy old man in me out.  Half of the time I was shoveling snow I kept thinking that I was going to do all this work, and as soon as I moved my car some lazy jackass that didn’t shovel their car out was going to park in my space.  Then when I got back I was going to be stuck with a crappy space that I can’t get in and out of.  Sort of makes the whole exercise feel futile.  I realize that I can’t do anything about it, but it doesn’t make me any less annoyed about it.

In a positive karmic twist, the gods are blessing me with an unexpected day off from work.  Apparently, all that snow I was shoveling was enough to lock down the area enough for them to cancel work here.  I’ll take another day off from work for losing my good parking space.

You’re living under a rock if you don’t know about the big snowstorm we’re having along the mid-Atlantic coast and north. Cris and I have had a pretty nice day of lazying about, but we did for a brief walk earlier to soak it in. The cool thing for me is that this is by far the most snow I’ve ever had in a place I’ve lived and I particularly like that it came so close to Christmas. Here are some pics we took out walking around our neighborhood.

Continue reading Pictures from Snowpocalypse ‘09

I really don’t think I’m overstating it when I say that The Blind Side is one of the best movies that I’ve in quite some time.  I’ve always been a big fan of inspirational sports movies, and this one makes it towards the top of the list.

Continue reading Go See the Blind Side

What a way to finish the season.  Last weekend was the final weekend of the regular season, including conference championships, and there were some pretty incredible games.

Pitt-WV was tight until the end with points flying left and right.

The ACC championship was the same.  The game actually went the way I wanted.  I was rooting for the higher ranked Continue reading Final Weekend of College Football

So the coaching carousel has started turning in a big way last week.  A number of lower profile coaches lost their jobs last week, but there were a couple of others who were the subject of much debate due to the nature of the coach or the nature of the program they headed.

Continue reading Charlie Weis and Bobby Bowden