2009 Checklist

• Learn how to drive with a stick shift
• Make schnitzel & spaetzle (mmm...)
• Go camping
  
• Finish paying off student loans
• Go to a baseball game
  
• Wear a suit
• Pull an all-nighter
• Learn basic piano chords & scales
• Go out on a date
• Get all my music files in one place, back 'em up, and ditch the physical media
  
• Ring someone's doorbell and run away
• Do a freelance project
• High-five a stranger
• Get off the grid for a solid week
• Ask a stupid question
• Host a poker night
• Cancel cable
• Kill a bee
• Spend a whole day at the movies
• Make a mix cd for someone
• Sell my car & buy a new vehicle
  
• Leave the country
• Invest in a green company
• Ride my bike to work
• Drink absinthe
• Read Infinite Jest
• Run a 10k
• Get a a new laptop
• Be a vegetarian for a week
• Make oatmeal cookies with butterscotch chips
• Build something useful with F#
• Close Wolski's
• Save $X (I know what X is, but I don't want the world to know)
• Make a presentation
• Take a tour of Miller Park
• Go downhill skiing
• Go to American Science & Surplus
• Add to this list

:-)

Staggering Resolutions: Constitution

(I've decided to resurrect the monthly resolution scheme I tried back in 2007.)

I have a feeling that there's little that will improve my quality of life more than getting back in shape. To that end, since I'm not really in jogging shape at this point, I'm starting small and setting a goal for January of 90 miles walked.

That's a 3-mile walk, 30 times. Roughly daily. Seems like a good baseline.

I plan to run in February.

2008 - Albums

This was done with some haste. I intend to revisit the question in a few months, when I've spent some more time with these and a few other records.

Top Ten Albums of 2008

1. Frightened Rabbit: The Midnight Organ Fight

2. Horse Feathers: House With No Home

3. Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago

4. Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes

5. A.A. Bondy: American Hearts

6. Girl Talk: Feed The Animals

7. Ryan Adams & The Cardinals: Cardinology

8. Okkervil River: The Stand-ins

9. TV on the Radio: Dear Science

10. The Cool Kids: The Bake Sale

Honorable Mention:

Death Cab For Cutie: Narrow Stairs

Fleet Foxes: Sun Giant EP

Drive-by Truckers: Brighter Than Creation's Dark

Mates of State: Re-Arrange Us

The Weepies: Hideaway

R.E.M.: Accelerate

My Morning Jacket: Evil Urges

She & Him: Volume One

Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend

The Magnetic Fields: Distortion

The Mountain Goats: Heretic Pride

Coldplay: Viva La Vida

Eef Barzelay: Lose Big

Jenny Lewis: Acid Tongue

Big Disappointment: Kanye West: 808's and Heartbreak

Mission: Impossible 3

• J.J. Abrams appears to have taken the sliding-toward-then-off-of-a-cliff thing, which I believe he used twice in M:I3, and recycled it for the trailer for his new Star Trek movie. Luckily, I saw the Star Trek trailer first. I thought it was cool there.
• While Philip Seymour Hoffman showed here that he makes a pretty bad-ass action movie villian, I thought he was underused. I vaguely recall a teaser trailer in which Hoffman is talking to a captive Cruise, telling him all the terrible things he's going to do to him. That seemed really promising, and the film kinda failed to deliver.
• Reflecting on the previous two bullet points, it occurs to me that maybe J.J. Abrams should stick to making trailers.

The China Syndrome

Movies from the 70's always seem to have to work harder for my attention, but The China Syndrome won me over. Jane Fonda was terrific, showing admirable restraint in a role that would be overacted to death by anyone I could imagine playing it today. And Jack Lemmon, of course, was great.

One problem I had with it: Horrible, horrible title.

The Pelican Brief

Watched The Pelican Brief this afternoon. Maybe it's because I've watched a number of mid-nineties thrillers lately, but I found it really dry and unrewarding. The only thought I have to share is this: Julie Roberts was way cuter in 1993. (One might attribute this to the oversized t-shirts. Hawt.)

Road House

Road House is a widely used example of a shitty movie. I decided to watch it, hoping to be amused, banking on the ridicule factor. There really wasn't much of that. It's terrible, with, unfortunately, not a bang, but a whimper.