Monday Mumbles

I might actually be mumbling this afternoon - I’m tired but I think it’s because of my inactivity over the weekend.

1. LAZY!!!

2. Yes, I was very lazy this weekend. Too lazy!

3. I left the house on 2 occasions on Saturday - each for about an hour for work. Then on Sunday evening for work.

4. I don’t recall leaving the house at any other time during the weekend.

5. I laid and sat around playing some video games and watching movies.

6. I decided to take an adventure to Middle Earth and watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I own the extended versions of the final 2 movies, which are between 3-4 hours each - broken into 2 DVDs.

7. I love the feel good story behind the LOTR, despite all of the evil that happens - and there is a lot of that in the epic journey.
“What are we holding onto Sam?” Frodo asked.
“That there’s some good in this world and it’s worth fighting for.” Samwise replied.

8. Sadly, I have a really good friend who can’t make it past the first 30 minutes of the first one. Of course, that just lays out the past and doesn’t get out of the Shire. If she would just make it halfway through the movie, she’d begin to like it and watch them all. There’s great story lines that all twist together and some epic battle scenes. Might be time to tie her to a chair and force her to watch the movies. It’s like saying you haven’t seen Star Wars!!!

9. I’m waiting for the weather to warm up today - upper 60s my "#?@!" stupid weather people. It’s 50 and cloudy. I have a track meet to go to for work later and I want some sun!

10. My wonderful, sweet, beautiful, awesome, ornery (ok maybe sucking up, but all true) girlfriend graduates college in 4 days! She’s been done for months, but her ceremony is Friday. I can’t believe it’s already here!! I’m making the 4.5 hour drive up to see her, her family and some of my family. Should be a great weekend.

Squirrels and golf, oh my!

Here are a few random photos I took while covering a golf meet on Tuesday. 

There were a few crazy squirrels running around this tree. I shot a quick photo and it happened to look cool with the golfer in the background. 

Same crazy squirrels in the tree! 

An opposing golfer had a shot in a bunker and I wanted a pic of a sand shot. She was playing in the foursome that included South Tama's best 2 girls so I was with this group for a couple holes. It wasn't a great sand shot but it was my first :0

Wackiness Wednesday - OJ style

This week's Wackiness Wednesday goes out to my nephew. 

He turned 4 exactly 2 weeks ago. 

Here are a couple pics from his birthday party.

His party was at a gymnastics training center that you can rent for parties. The kids play on trampolines, a huge slide and this big foam block pit. The adults play a lil, too :) 

Using all of his hot air for good use - blowing out the candles! 

Do any kids eat the cake? Or just enjoy the frosting?

Top 5 Tuesday: Slammer Cinema

I decided to go a little unconventional today with my 2nd Top 5 list. I debated between epic war movies or baseball movies or something else, but I wanted a movie list after having music last week. However, I went against those ideas, saving them for later. So, here without further adieu, I give you my Top 5 Prison Movies (these are only based upon movies I’ve seen).

Honorable mention: Blues Brothers (most of the movie isn’t in prison, except beginning an end; still a classic) and The Hurricane (can’t go wrong with Denzel and he did a great job portraying Reuben Hurricane Carter).

5. The Great Escape - One of the true classic WWII movies in American cinema. A group of imprisoned American soldiers in a German Nazi camp plan an escape through 3 tunnels - Tom, Dick and Harry. Steve McQueen and others attempt the escape. Wanna see how it ends, go check it out. Great movie!

4. Escape from Alcatraz - Another classic piece of cinema art. Whether or not Frank actually escaped from the notorious prison is unknown, but finding out how they attempted it is great. Clint Eastwood is great in this movie as Morris. There’s just something about movies with ingenious prison escapes.

3. The Green Mile - Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan are great in this drama of a prison movie. Based on a Stephen King novel, Duncan’s character has a mysterious gift which he uses after being accused and sentenced to child murder. Spoiler alert: Tears will be shed in this movie. I have trouble watching the last 30 minutes if it’s on TV - I know I will cry.

2. Cool Hand Luke - This Paul Newman classic could easily be #1 on this list. Those who haven’t seen it would argue that #1 is clearly better. However, those people need to see this. Paul Newman’s character deliberately disobeys the rules of prison and attempts to eat 50 eggs. The famous quote “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate” comes from this movie. A must watch with the late, great Paul Newman.

1. The Shawshank Redemption - Not a huge shocker here! Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman deliver some of the best acting in cinematic history. Watching Robbins slyfully weasel his way into the warden’s assistant and then get the best of him is incredible. This movie was on TV every night over a month ago, I watched bits and pieces every night, if not the whole movie. Remember “Hope is a great thing” and “Get busy living or get busy dying.”

Monday Mumbles

It’s not morning mumbles, but I prefer to mumble in the afternoon, or at least I work more in the afternoon.

1. One of our papers is done, so I have time to do this. We finish the paper at or around noon, so it’s hard to do this on Monday mornings. Hence, I’m an afternoon or evening blogger.

2. The sun is shining :) I wasn’t sure Iowa had sunshine for the first few weeks. Now it needs to get temps into the 70s, please!!!!

3. I haven’t had cable for a month now.

4. It’s been kind of nice to watch less TV, but I miss it at night. It’s easier to flip thru the channels than put in South Park dvd.

5. My solution: have internet installed in the apartment and use netflix thru the xbox 360. Then I can at least choose shows to watch. But I may need cable again sometime soon. First I need internet.

6. My 7 year old nephew called me yesterday asking how to start the game of Risk. That’s complicated to explain over the phone. ESPECIALLY to a 7 year old. Now he is very smart and I think he understood but still very hard to grasp. I’ll teach him in person next time I see him. Gotta love a kid who loves sports, video games and Risk like he does!!!

7. Still awaiting a visitor or visitors. Friends or family in Kansas - its a short drive up I-35 and there are things to do.

8. There’s a nice big park for throwing a frisbee/football or playing on the playground or playing the frisbee golf course.

9. My girlfriend Rachel graduates college in 11 days :) She has been finished since December, but no winter graduation at her school. She’s been working 1 and sometimes 2 jobs since then. I’m soooooo proud of her. She’ll be the first in her family (maybe extended family too) to graduate college. It should be a fun weekend with her family and some of mine.

10. I have an itch to play golf or tennis. Anyone want to join?

Wackiness Wednesday

Niece Evie and Nephew Tman on their trampoline. Silly faces run in the family :)

Evie making a high-pitched bird noise. No idea why. She's just goofy!

Nephew OJ loves to ham it up - plus he's good at jumping on the trampoline

All 3 together being silly. What a trio of goofballs :)

Top 5 Tuesday: Beatlemania

Here’s the start to another new segment on my blog. I will choose a topic (most likely movies, music or sports - 3 popular topics) and write a top 5 list from that certain topic.

This is entirely my opinion. I know others will disagree, so please feel free to comment or disagree, but you should also say what your top 5 might be for that topic. I like feedback and hearing other people's opinions, so let me hear it folks. I can take criticism :)

I’m going to jump right into the fire and take heat (no pun intended) for this first topic. My Top Five Beatles songs:

Honorable mention - “I want to hold your hand”, “A day in the life”, “While my guitar gently weeps”, “Get back” and "I am the walrus”.

5. “Yellow Submarine” - Although it’s not one of the most popular or even greatest songs, it’s still a fun one. Everybody can sing along too! It was hard to choose my #5 and this is one I can listen to and have fun.

4. “Yesterday” - It’s the most covered song in history and it’s a pretty song. It’s simple but great. I mean, who doesn’t love this song?

3. “Come Together” - Despite having no idea of the actual lyrics (I think I know quite a few) or what they are singing about, I love this song. It’s the rhythm of the song and the rock aspect of it that appeals to me. Plus 1 and 1 and 1 make 3 - they teach you math!

2. “Hey Jude” - Is there anything bettah, bettah, bettah than singing "na na na na na na na na na na na" for 3 1/2 to 4 minutes? You can belt it out alone or with friends! I mean it’s a classic song and the first half of the song is great too.

1. “Let it Be” - I read a few online lists and this song didn’t crack the top 5 of those. Are you kidding me? This is one of the greatest songs ever! It’s beautiful and it was practically their last big hit together. I always crank this one up and sing loud. How can anyone not love this song?

Well, that’s my list. It was tough to choose just 5 but I did it. What’s your top Beatles song? Top 5? Share your thoughts.

Monday Mumbles (borrowed name)

I know it’s late, but here is my first Monday Mumbles post. I “borrowed” this idea from my sister’s blog. Since I’m late today, I’ll just do 5 things on my mind this Monday afternoon.

1.  I had a great trip back home this weekend. I hung out with my 2 nephews and 1 niece a lot on Saturday. I took some cool pics of them on their trampoline (those  might make the blog later this week). I helped 1 nephew celebrate his 4th birthday by buying him an Angry Birds pillow. His response when opening it, “This is what I’m talking about.”

2. On Saturday night, while storms were sort of coming, sort of not doing anything in Lawrence, I went to a bar for karaoke with 2 friends. I sang “Human” by The Killers. Then I rocked out “Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson. My sister would have been proud. The crowd was clapping and singing - just getting into it. I got a lil standing “O” from about 10 people after it was over. VERY COOL :)

3. On Sunday night, I met up with 4 friends for our Kansas trivia finals. We played together (well 3-4 of us) for 3 months before I moved away. I was able to come back and play the finals. We didn’t finish high b/c of the last question (where we wagered big, but lost). Before the last question, we were tied for 3rd out of about 40 teams. We only missed 2 of 30 regular questions so I’d say we did well. I’ll miss trivia every Wednesday :(

4. I just made my first official post to our newspaper’s Facebook page. I have been trying to get the email and password for about a week. I got it an hour ago and posted a link to a story. So go “like” the Tama/Toledo News FB page!

5. Got my first paycheck on Friday. Woot! I will still be conservative in spending, but I will be having internet installed this week or next. It will be nice at home :)

Take care and have a great rest of the week! Don’t forget to check back here as the week goes on. Tomorrow will be the debut of “Top 5 Tuesdays” where I post my Top 5 of something. Tomorrow might be Top 5 Beatles songs? Better check back and see tomorrow!

Wackiness Wednesday

This is the start of a new segment, where I will feature silly pictures of me, most likely with family or friends or gf. I've taken many over the years so here are a few to enjoy to start.

Me and my nephews doing what we do best - being silly and goofing around :)

Rachel and I at Christmas. I'm enjoying my new shirt from her.

Angry bird & Angry Jimmy!!!

New apartment pics

Here is the other living room or whatever you want to call it. It's used as storage or can be used as a room for guests to sleep.

A view from the other side of the living area - looking toward my front door (on left) and main living room.

Kitchen :)

I'm baaaack....with changes to my life

Welcome back to my blog everyone! *yay! hoozah! woooot!* I can hear the cheers now or maybe that’s the looming sound of silence (love that song). Whether anyone reads this or not, I’m back and I’m sure I’ll have a few followers.

I started this blog 2 or 3 years ago and updated it once in a while with random stuff. I’m on facebook and twitter and have a couple email accounts so I stay in touch with people pretty well. However, some big life changes have happened since the start of the new year and I thought I would bring this back as another way to keep in touch with my life and what’s happening around me.

As many of you know I was laid off in January b/c of some stupid budget cuts in the company. I won’t get too much into that b/c they got rid of me and kept a moron guy who has butchered the paper I previously worked for. Yep, I’m a journalist (if you couldn’t figure that out from the name of the blog).

Despite the setback, I stayed fairly positive and after 2 months, I landed a sports editor position at another paper. Just one big thing - it’s in Iowa.

Yep, I’m living in Iowa now. It’s a town called Tama. It’s twin city is Toledo and I work for both papers - same office and staff. I am an hour from Des Moines and about 50-60 minutes from Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. So not a bad location for a small town. It’s even smaller than Baldwin but Marshalltown is 20 minutes away and it has the essentials for a slightly larger city - Applebees, movie theater, other restaurant chains and yes of course Wal-Mart - my FAVORITE PLACE EVER!!!! (no sarcasm, ok well maybe a weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee bit).

I’ve been up there 2 full weeks now and life is good. It’s kind of nice to be out on my own and finally being responsible for pretty much everything. It’s a lil scary too but I’m doing fine. I go to work everyday, then come home, play xbox 360, watch tv episodes or a movie and eat dinner. I don’t have cable yet or internet, so my life is boring but good.

I am going to try and go through photos I’ve taken and decide which to print to have hard copies. I need something to keep myself from being too bored and this will be a good productive way.

I’ll take suggestions for ways to be productive or do something. Somebody will suggest read a book so stop right there! Maybe one day I will but highly unlikely. I might start running and getting in shape again, maybe.

Well that’s about it right now. I’m trying to think of creative topics or blogs to have each week. Like repeat blogs, such as Wacky Wednesdays might be silly pictures of me and/or family or girlfriend. My loving gf is one thing that hasn’t changed :) Maybe a Mindless Monday top 10 list of thoughts on my mind (thanks my sister’s blog of Monday Mumbles).

Anyway, peace out and check back to see what’s here. I’m going to go play in the corn haha :)