Some classic South Park episodes…  

• Facebook & Tron
• Wrestling
• Jersey
• Mormons
• World of Warcraft
• Sad Panda
• Men’s Secret
• The Economy
• Shake Weight: for real official TV ad, the SNL skit, and South Park’s Crème Fraiche

What others should be on the list?  And remember, South Park is crasp, uncouth, and highly offensive, don’t watch if offended.

Just watched the The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey, wow.  Honestly, I was impressed.  It surpassed my expectations.  In fact I liked it more than the trilogy!

Pros

• The pace was steady.  Not too fast, not too slow, better pacing than the originals in my humble opinion.
• It didn’t feel ‘over the top’ like the trilogy, which felt like it was trying to be the ‘ultimate middle earth story’ with so many wars and things ending and people dying.  Whereas The Hobbit felt like just a good story admits the backdrop of Middle Earth.  Of course this is due to the writing and books, but the movie reflects that well.
• I liked the extra bits of story.  I think they really added to the depth, trilogy tie-in, and was just extra middle earth goodness.  Brought some depth, character, and fill to the overall story.  
• Instead of removing content as in the trilogy (like Tom Bombadil), they were able to add more, which was fun, like Radagast and the council at Rivendale.
• The 48 fames-per-second format was fantastic!!  Made the movie feel more ‘real’.  And the extreme detail was gorgeous.  (if you didn’t see it in 48 fps, only 450 theaters out of the >4000 the Hobbit is playing at, you’ve got a reason to go see it again, here are the 48 fps theaters)
• The depth of the locations was felt more as many of them were actually really built out this time.  For example Bags End looked and felt more real, with depth and character, not just like a partially built set (because it really was fully built out for this movie).  This really came across to me, made me feel a real Hobbit’s life. (I can see why they were Tolkien’s favorite, such a comfortable life!)
• There was a great deal amount of actual dialog straight from the book.  That was fun to identify.  Some of the better writing.  :)   Still, this screenwriting was better than the trilogy.
• I had expected part 1 to end at Bilbo finding the ring, but it kept going!  Which leads to a con…

Cons

• There was a lot in this first part.  Most of the actual Hobbit book was covered.  Makes me wonder what they’ll cover in a part 2 or 3.  It’ll have to be either a lot of new content or really drawing out the last part.  Hope it’s the former.
• I didn’t like some of the script changes.  I understand the writers were trying to build character and interplay, but the troll interaction was all wrong.  There was no fight, the dwarves didn’t give up for Bilbo, it was Gandolf that threw his voice around to confuse the trolls, not Bilbo talking to them for 3 min till dawn.  Oh well, there wasn’t too much of this re-writing.

p.s. Oh yes, of course Ian McKellen and Martin Freeman were fantastic.

Okay, that’s my take for what it’s worth.  :)  -cheers

When cleaning a pile or messy area of the house, the first 80% of stuff takes about 20% of the time.  I’m talking drawers, cabinets, stacks of papers, toys, gizmos, any of that  stuff we have to manage in our lives.  The last 20% is the hardest to triage (trash, put away, make decisions about, etc), and can take like 80% of the total cleaning time.  So I say, just clean the 80%, take that last 20% and put it back or stick it in a box to sort later.  Move on to another area to clean.  Sure it won’t be 100%, but more often than not, next time you clean that area that 20% will be far easier to deal with since it either (1) won’t matter anymore or (2) your mind has thought about it in the background and now knows what to do with it.

Quick visual on how little a vote in some states (like Texas) really matter.  Of course every vote is important, but people’s votes in some states make a much larger difference in the outcome.

This really touched me when I saw it on TV a few months back.  Just came to mind again today and took the opportunity to create accounts and write my kids.  :)

Handcrafted Ceramic Tea Mug with Organic Loose Leaf Teas Gift Set by The Tea Spot, this is a single-serving tea mug that is awesome.  It has three parts, the mug itself, a peculator that goes into the mug to hold the loose leaf tea, and a cover which also serves as a holding spot for the peculator when removed.  My wife and I both have these and use them several times a day.  We can brew just the tea we want w/out extra dishes to clean (like a tea pot or french press).  This set also comes with some truly excellent teas.

TeaSpot Bolder Breakfast Loose Leaf Tea, this is by far my favorite hot tea, it has a deep mix of teas including pu’erh w chocolate notes that gives it a robust, sensual, and complex flavor and aroma.  So good I drink it w/out cream or sugar.  Goes great with a good tea cake.

2-Quart Electric Iced Tea Maker, we use this many times a day, just add a single large Lipton Iced Tea bag, ice, water, and push the one button and 5 min later you’ve got perfectly brewed Iced Tea