Who Will Win Best Picture at the Oscars?

The Oscars are nearly here.

Ever since I started working at the movie theater in my town, I've followed the Oscars almost religously. This year, nine movies are nominated for the coveted best picture award. They are:

"Amour" "Argo" Beasts of the Southern Wild" Django Unchained" "Les Miserables" Life of Pi" "Lincoln" "Silver Linings Playbook" and "Zero Dark Thirty"

As I sat at work tonight, I went to work on an annual thing: predicting the Oscar winners. Last year, I succesfully predicted about 50% of the winners, and am hoping to do better this year.

The problem is picking my best picture winner.

There are a lot of good movies here. It'll be hard to pick just one, but I'm going to try it anyway, by eliminating them as I go.

First of all, I've only seen seven of these nine. So "Amour" and "Beasts of the Southern Wild," I'm sorry, but you are not worthy in my mind.

Same can be said for "Zero Dark Thirty." While it was well acted, and had some interesting moments, the movie seemed to drag in the middle. Maybe that's just me, but with the others listed here, it didn't really have a chance of getting to far.

This is where it started getting tricky, and I had to eliminate some that, in a weaker year, would be sure things. So, I eliminated "Django Unchained," "Les Miserables," and "Lincoln." Don't get me wrong, all three of these are great movies, and deserve viewing. They just aren't the best I've seen this year.

That left me with three movies left: "Argo," "Life of Pi," and "Silver Linings Playbook." I finally chose "Argo" as my choice for Best Picture, but it was a hard decision to come to, especially when you consider how much I loved "Life of Pi" and "Silver Linings Playbook." (By the way, "Silver Linings Playbook" will be showing at my place of work starting March 1st. I hope to see you there! :) )

I guess I'll find out tomorrow night if my prediction is correct, and I will see if I do better with all my predictions this year.

Until Next Time...:)

W.

Poetry Paradox Redux

Still not sure if these talents
are a gift or a curse,
But it's time again for a post
wrote completely in verse...

Or not.

This statement above could be considered a paradox. As dictionary.com defines:

A paradox is a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.

In other words, I could probably write a post completely in verse, but why would I?

I have no life.
I'm super bored.
So why not rhyme and see
if my readers will be floored.

Yes, the above poem is pointless, but like I said I have no life.

So, to continue this pointless poetic post, I will now complain on the weather. So far in 2013, Mother Nature has proven herself a notorious B*tch. For example, it rained almost all day today. It's going to get cold tonight, and yes: everything will become icy.

It rained all day
with no end in sight.
That night it got cold.
Yeah, oit froze overnight.
The very next morning
everything was glazed.
The ice had covered
everything in our gaze.
The roads are all slick.
There'll be no driving today.
At least, not until
the ice melts away.

So, to sum up my new year so far: The weather sucks, and I have found the only way to entertain myself so far is attempting to rehash old blog posts. Ugh, I need a life.

Until Next Time...:/

W.

My Goals for 2013

First off, before we start today, I want to give you all a big shout out! Thanks to you, my readers, my last post has become my most read blog post ever!! I want to thank all of you for this amazing milestone. You are all awesome!! :)

So, some of you may have made New Year Resolutions. These are the goals we always set for ourselves in the new year. Typically, I don't make any because I have yet to succesfully keep them. Pretty lame excuse, huh?

This year, however, I came up with a few goals I'd like to keep: Finish my novel being top on my list!

I've gotten away from writing lately. I really hope to get back at my finished novel, and finish all of the edits, and hopefully pursue getting it published.

Also in this year, I hope to get started on a new novel. I have a whole ton of ideas floating around inside my head, so all it takes is to put to pen to paper and get started.

Some of my other goals are more pointless, really. Last year, I failed to meet my goal to read 100 books within the year, ending up with only 98. (So close...)

So, I extended the goal to 105 anyway, and really hope to hit it this year, but only time will tell if we can reach that milestone.

Also, I saved $800 on books last year by getting them from the library rather than buying them. So, I figured we could save just a little more this year. Let's try for $1000. I've already, just this month so far, saved $74, so this goal seems probable.

Finally, with an Epic Quest coming up in April, I hope to get to know some of the people I call Facebook friends a little better by inviting them on this adventure. I haven't really decided on anybody yet, except I will obviously be there, as well as Bob, because it's just not an Epic Quest without him. :p

So, good luck with any resolutions you may have made this year! We'll see how I do.

Until Next Time...:)
W.

15 Movies to See in 2013!!

Happy New Year everyone! Today, I am sharing with you my list of movies I'm most looking forward to in this new year!!! I used to share this list on Facebook, but decided this was the best place to put it now.

First of all, I often try to leave sequels off my main list, and this year is no different. Sequel-wise, I usually pick five and place them under 'Honorable Mention,' in other words, I don't need to explain what they are, because you know them from the title.

So, to start off, here are the Honorable Mentions, listed in the order they hit theaters:

* Iron Man 3
* Star Trek: Into Darkness
* Despicable Me 2
* Thor: The Dark World
* The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Yes, there's a lot of big-budget stuff listed there, and some of you probably are wondering what in the heck I can come up with to fill 15 more slots. Well, let's not stall any longer. Here we go!

1. Gangster Squad-(Warner Brothers)- You may recall that Gangster Squad made my list last year, but it's shove back to January makes it elligible for the list yet again. I've been waiting a long time for this movie and will finally(!) be seeing it next week!

2. Side Effects-(Open Road Films)- How many of you die-hard Channing tatum fans have heard of this one? Coming in February, 'Side Effects' is the story of a miracle drug that has a somewhat bizarre side effect on a young woman (Rooney Mara). It comes from the director of 'Contagion,' so it should be pretty intense.

3. OZ: The Great and Powerful-(Disney)- March is super strong this year, and the strongest release is most likely this Wizard of Oz prequel that stars James Franco, Mila Kunis, and Rachel Weisz.

4. Oblivion-(Universal)-April is also overly strong this year, with this big-budget Science Fiction extravaganza being released mid way through the month. It stars Tom Cruise, and is from 'Tron: Legacy' director Joseph Kosinski, so you know it's going to look epic on the big screen.

5. Pain and Gain-(Paramount)-April ends with this action/comedy about two bodybuilders who go on a crime spree. I have a friend who is extremely excited for this film, and it does indeed look pretty awesome. It stars mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson.

6. Man of Steel-(Warner Brothers)-While May holds a ton of sequels, June and July have a lot of original fare, and true this Superman reboot isn't exactly an original idea, but with Christopher Nolan involved, and a fairly secretive script, I'm very excited to see how this turns out.

7. Now You See Me-(Lionsgate Summit)-The same day as 'Man of Steel,' we also see the release of thriller 'Now You See Me,' meaning I really have to decide which one I'd rather see that day. 'This movie is about a group of magicians that rob banks during their shows, and then give the money to their audience. It has a great cast, which includes: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Mark Ruffalo, Morgan Freeman, and others.

8. This is The End-(Sony)-This R-rated comedy features a bunch of actors playing themselves as the world ends. It stars Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride, Jay Baruchel, Craig Robinson, and many others. This cast alon assures me that it will be THE Comedy Event of the summer.

9. The Lone Ranger-(Disney)-From the director of Pirates of the Carribean, comes this action-packed western based on the old show. It stars Johnny Depp as the indian Tonto...and he wears a crow on his head, so that should be interesting. :p

10. Turbo-(Fox/Dreamworks)-The new animated movie from Dreamworks is the story of a snail who wants to be a racer. So he gets a jet pack. o_0 I freaking love this concept!

11. Pacific Rim-(Warner Brothers)-Think Godzilla meets Transformers. When giant sea monsters wreck havoc, mankind develops gigantic robots to fight back.

12. R.I.P.D.-(Universal)- Zombies as cops? Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds as said cops? I'm on board.

13. Elysium-(Sony)- Direct Neill Blomkamp's follow-up to 'District 9.' I loved Distrcit 9, and am really looking forward to another Sci-Fi film from this very talented director.

14. Rush-(Universal)-'Thor's' Chris Hemsworth stars as a race car driver in this action-thriller. Should be a good film to see in September.

15. Monuments Men-(Sony)-I don't really know too much about this movie, but I always try to mention one that I believe will get Oscar buzz. With a cast that includes George Clooney, Daniel Craig, and Cate Blanchett, look for this one to win awards.

So, there's my list. Leave me comments below on what you think, or if there is any movies I may have missed.

Until Next Time...:)
W.

2012 Year in Review Part 3: The Best (and Worst) of 2012!!!!

Happy last day of the year. While all of you are out partying and living it up on this last day of 2012, i am sitting at home, finishing up this blog post. I'm sharing my opinions on the Best (and the Worst) of 2012! There are three Super catergories: Books, Movies, and Music. These three will be split into smaller catergories. So, here we go!

P.S. This is going to be a long post.

Best Book I Read This Year: The Night Circus-Erin Morgenstern (Fantasy)
Best Book I Read This Year That Was Older Than I Am: Stranger in a Strange Land-Robert A. Heinlein (Science Fiction)
Best Book I Read That Was Published This Year: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore-Robin Sloan (Fantasy, Mystery)
Best Series I Started This Year: Sandman Slim series-Richard Kadrey (Urban Fantasy)
Book I Didn't Think I'd Like, and Ended Up Loving: City of Thieves-David Benioff (Historical/Humor)
Book I Thought I'd Like, but Ended Up Hating: The Law of Nines-Terry Goodkind (Fantasy/Thriller)
Worst Book I Read This Year: The Dark Tower Book 1: The Gunslinger-Stephen King

Not going to go in much detail here, because most of my readers may or may not have read any of these books. If you want more details about a certain title, contact me and I'll do my best.

Best Movie: The Avengers. No contest.
Best 3D Movie I saw this Year: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
Movie that Most Disappointed Me: Flight.
Best Movie I Watched on DVD This Year: The Muppets. :p
Movie I Most Underestimated: Pitch Perfect.
Best Original Movie: Looper.
Best True Story Based Movie: Argo.
Worst Movie: Gone.

So, All I need to say here is that everyone should see Argo, The Avengers, Looper, Pitch Perfect, and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Flight will not be what you expect, so you may be diappointed like I was. As for Gone...If you see it on the shelf, just walk away.

Best Country Albumn I Heard: Eric Church-Chief.
Best Soundtrack: (tie) Pitch Perfect. The Hunger Games.
Best Country Song: Springsteen-Eric Church.
Best Country Song From a New Artist: Cruise-Florida Georgia Line
Best Non-Country Song: (tie) Payphone-Maroon 5. Some Nights-fun.

So music is a little harder for me, as is made apparent by the ties. I have nothing to really say here, as this is all somewhat self explanatory.

Happy New Year to you all! Check back in a couple days as I list off 15 Movies to See in 2013!!

Until Next Time...:p
W.

2012 Year in Review Part 2: This Was the Year I...

Welcome to Part 2 of my 2012 Year in Review! With this post, I'm going to highlight some of the big things that happened to me this year.

2012 was the year I... Got a Cellphone and a New Car.
Before this year, I was still not quite connected to the world. And so, I finally decided that the time had come to buy a cellphone.
So that's what I did. :)
Also, I had finally had enough of my old car continually clunking around, and so I purchased a new car that is much better! :)

2012 was the year I... Saw 'The Avengers.'
I saw it six times in a theater, even road-tripping all the way to Sumner with Bob to watch it. Do I regret seeing it so many times? No. And if you still haven't seen it, well you're only punishing yourself. :p

2012 was the year I... Unfortunately Learned I Really Can't Trust Anybody.
I used to be a naive person, and believed almost everything anybody would tell me. This year, however, I caught more people in lies than I ever had before. The saddest part was that most of these people I counted as friends, so I guess I can't even trust my friends. How sad is that?

2012 was the year I... Really Started Listening to More Music!
As some of you know, I used to be a straight-up, country music fan all the way. Over the past few years, I've broadened my horizons a little bit, and started listening to more pop and such. The most amazing thing was, that i recently read through all the song titles on a NOW CD, and I actually knew ALL of the songs on it just by the title. For me, that's pretty freaking awesome!!
Oh, and favorite song for the year, you ask. Check back, next post! :p

2012 was the year I...Decided to Read 100 Novels I had Never Read.
That may seem like a pretty miserable goal, but it's one that I thought seemed realistic for me. I don't have as much time to read as I would like, but I still find plenty of time for it.
As for whether I reached my goal: The year isn't over yet. I currently haev completed 94 books, so my goal is still possible, but getting more and more unlikely as the days pass.

2012 was the year I...Returned to Cedar Rapids.
This probably isn't a big deal to most of you, but before this past October, it had been nearly ten years since I had last been in the city of Cedar Rapids! My Co-Assistant Manager was kind enough to let me hitch a ride with them to go to Cedar Rapids, where I promptly bought...books. A ton of them. :p Half Price Books is by far one of my favorite stores ever!
And I ate at Arby's for the first time, so that was cool.

2012 was the year I...Revived this Blog! :)
This blog that your currently reading, was first published in January of 2011, and I promptly forgot about it.
Back in May, I came across it again, and started to write posts for it again, eventually posting on Facebook and Twitter when I updated it. Thanks to doing this, and the increasing number of Facebook friends using Blogger, my blog has continued to increase in pageviews, and I want to thank you all again for making it possible! I hope you keep on checking in throughout the new year! :)

Until Next Time...;)
W.

SNOWpocalypse

Uh Oh
Here we go
Look outside and
see the snow
Blow
All around
Burying everything
in this old town.
Watch as the temperature dips
Brace yourself-it's a SNOWPOCALYPSE

That pretty well sums up the weather around here over the last day. Lots of snow, lots of wind, and one super huge mess.

After last winter, which was a very tame winter, I guess I got out of practice on shoveling snow, because after today I am freaking exhausted. I'm really hoping that we don't get any more huge snowstorms this winter, because I'm not sure I could handle it.

And with tomorrow being the ned of the world (not going to happen) maybe our demise will be by snow. Isn't that just peachy?

Well, anyway, short blog post I know, but I'll be getting back to my 2012 Year in Review next week. I hope you check back for that! :)

Until Next Time...:)

W.

Thoughts and Prayers to Connecticut

This is a sad day people.

I was sitting down for dinner today, when the local news showed footage of a shooting at a school in Newtown, Connecticut. An elementary school.

Immediately, after hearing the news that at least 18 kids were killed by a crazy guys with two handguns, I thought I was going to be sick. That someone could do this to a bunch of little kids just blows my mind. It's unfathomable.

And so close to Christmas too. It's heartwrenching, and I can't imagine what the families of these young children are going through. No one should EVER have to go through something like this.

My thoughts and prayers are with the families of all the victims of this horrible event. I urge you to join in with your prayers.

And to the shooter, as you rot in hell, I hope you are proud of yourself. In taking all these innocent lives with you, you are now easily one of the most hated men to ever walk this Earth.

#PrayforNewtown

Until Next Time...:'(

W.