I have a friend who has dedicated an entire Facebook album to getting older and I’m in it.

I see kids driving cars and wonder if they are really old enough to be driving.

I ice my knees after my non-impact speed walk. But my calves still look HOT.

I scheme how best to pack liquor in my luggage post 9/11 (didn’t start drinking till I was 21 so I’m a little late on this one).

I turn 30 in a little over six months. But I’m okay with that, I think.

Six months ago, I was preparing for the biggest professional endeavor of my career. 1 personal office move, 7 departmental move phases (moving over 800 employees) and 3 open houses later, and my project is almost complete. And “almost” is pretty good. The economy pushed off a few of the phases, but those will come a bit easier now that we are in the swing of things here. Not that I’m going to take it any less seriously, I just feel more confident in the planning process and have already been able to use what I’ve learned to prepare for the upcoming months. Its a really great feeling. Just thought I’d share.

This weekend I went to see the new X-men movie (officially “X-men Origins: Wolverine”) with my good friend Lyndi, who I haven’t seen in way too long. We saw an early matinee which turned out to be a great idea, since the theater was mostly empty and not full of whispering fans or bright cellphone screens.

I’d heard mixed reviews of the movie, but IMHO the negative ones really only came from hardcore X-men comic book readers who didn’t like the 2nd or 3rd X-men movies either. Really, those people are just asking to be disappointed, or really want a reason to critique and complain about how “unrealistic” it is. Gimme a break.

Anyway, I would say I left the theater feeling satisfied that the movie met my expectations and gave me a little more. There was a solid amount of sci-fi technology stuff, plenty of action and explosions, and Hugh Jackman naked. Really, the latter is pretty much enough in normal circumstances, but here it was definitely an added bonus.

As far as the story-line goes, and me not being much of a “pre-X-men Wolverine expert”, I thought they made a convincing story out of the bits and pieces Logan’s hinted at in the “later” movies. The whole Xavier-showing-up-in-the-field-at-the-end-of-the-escape-route was a little far-fetched (haha, I just did the “unrealistic” thing), but I guess if he was telepathically communicating with one of the kids, it is possible.

So yeah, I liked it. As much as I liked the 2nd and 3rd X-men movies. And I’m excited to see which character they profile next!

Thanks to the few who pointed out that my blog and website were not working (not that I’ve updated it in forever!). Turns out my Wordpress index had been hacked and they were using my domain to send out spam. Those clever hackers!

Well, I’ve upgraded versions and I’m told that’s what I needed to do, so here’s to Wordpress 2.7!

Ugh, I hate it when I’ve been eating at a place that served seemingly healthy foods and then find out that they are anything but. The only food vendor in my building is a bagel shop new to middle Tennessee. The bagels themselves are fine, unless you get the one covered in cheese, but that’s to be expected. But “reduced-fat” cream cheese is 5 grams of fat for 1 serving. You might as well splurge for the “full-fat” cream cheese at 7 grams of fat.

But what really kills me are the sandwiches and salads. Just a basic egg sandwich has 20 grams of fat. Add turkey sausage and it’s 24 grams of fat. I would expect the sausage to have more fat than the eggs…..what the hell are they putting in them!?!?

And then the salads…omg. The “healthiest” salad has 38 grams of fat and 330 calories. And that salad doesn’t even have meat on it. Add chicken to it for another 100 calories and 4 grams of fat. The dressing must be the culprit.

Anyway, I guess I won’t be eating on site as much as I’d hoped. The Black Bean Burger from Cheeseburger Charlie’s is sounding better and better with only 1.5 grams of fat. Then I won’t feel bad for adding a slice of cheese!

The two other movies I saw over break were slightly less conversation provoking: Doubt and Valkyrie. I shall explain:

3. “Doubt” – It’s cast is probably the most remarkable aspect of the movie, starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams. The story evolves as a pseudo witch hunt, where the target is the priest of a Catholic school, his supposed victim being the only black student in the school. Without any evidence, Sister Aloysius Beauvier launches an undercover attack on the priest, recruiting Sister James, a young, innocent, willing-to-please, newcomer to act as her cohort. Still unable to prove anything beyond doubt, Sister Beauvier manages to convince Father Flynn that he must leave or she will expose his “secret”. My suspicion that nothing questionable ever happened was validated, in my opinion, by the last line of the movie. My mom left the theater thinking he did something wrong, so my review is really just my interpretation anyway, but I won’t spoil it for you by spelling out the ending.

4. “Valkyrie” – Let me start off by saying that its difficult to take Tom Cruise seriously when he’s wearing an eye patch. This wasn’t his best performance. However, the story was very educational and some of the cinematography was quite breathtaking. If you don’t know the Valkyrie assassination plot, its worth it to learn about the last attempt on Hitler’s life before he took his own, but its easily a DVD rental.

Book reviews to come soon!

Tonight rounds up a nice 10 days at home in California with my mom and brother. We had a great Christmas and enjoyed the company of Brett’s boss, renowned New York Choreographer Shen Wei. I learned a few things while he was here. Among them are:

1. I learned how to play real Chinese Mahjong. Not the kind you play online where you match pairs of symbols. Its actually a lot like Gin Rummy, at least the version we played. My mom has an old authentic set of real ivory and bamboo pieces that made the game very entertaining.

2. I am not a Monkey. All the placemats in Chinese restaurants told me I was a Monkey growing up, because I was born in 1980. However, they don’t bother to get into the details of the Chinese New Year and the fact that it is actually in February. So, in fact, I am a sheep. We read stories behind all the signs and I think the Sheep actually fits me a little better. At first I was a little irritated because I thought the sheep would be the herd animal or the “follower”, but I guess that’s a very European interpretation.

3. Our humble Christmas morning ritual is really a special tradition. Shen Wei had never spent a Christmas morning with an American family before and was really very gracious and grateful to be included. It was a bit inspiring to have someone with us who’d never experienced a Christmas morning like that before and gave me a renewed sense of appreciation for my family and our intimate gathering.

This holiday I also got to see 4 movies and I guess I could do a little review of each. Spoilers are guaranteed.
1. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” – I had my doubts about this one, just due to the obscure plot about a baby born as an old man who ages backwards and gets younger as everyone around him gets old. However, it does star Brad Pitt and that’s usually enough to get me and my mom into a theater. As my mom observed as we exited the theater, the movie had a distinct “Titanic” feeling, since the entire movie is told from the perspective of a old, dying woman. The story unfolds from a diary of Benjamin Button as his life is recounted for us. It plays out exactly as you might suspect, so I guess you could call it predictable. Benjamin is born old, grows younger and younger until he dies of young age as an infant in his lover’s arms. The acting, I will say, was quite good. Cate Blanchett ages well and carries off all stages of her character’s life. Of course, Brad Pitt reverse-ages VERY well. It was a bit difficult to buy into the fact he was a child caught in an old person’s body when he was young, though. The curiousness and youthfulness of a teenager was not visible in his eyes or expressions, but it may have been completely abstracted by the hours worth of makeup he had to don. All in all, it was a slightly above average holiday flick, but nothing I’d demand you go and see before it comes out on DVD.

2. “Slumdog Millionaire” – Unlike the previous movie, this one I demand you go and see. Now. As soon as possible. “Slumdog Millionaire” is also told as a visual flashback but with much more substance and creativity. Jamal Malik is a young Indian man who is about to win 20 million rupees on the Hindi version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”, but who gets arrested after the end of the first episode (which ends right before his last question), being accused of cheating since he comes from the slums of India. He recounts his brutal childhood and teenage years which led him to know the answers to each question as they are presented to him. It is a story of ultimate poverty, liberation , and, ultimately, victory. It is a story everyone should see.

More to come….

Every once in a while I see someone with a Facebook or MySpace status that says “So-and-so is is…” and I always wonder what they mean. In the truest sense, I would interpret it to mean that they don’t really know what else to put or that they just feel like the only thing that described their current state was “is”.

Last night, I almost used “is is…” and now I see a different way it can be used. This posting of status to the open world is freeing, most of the time, makes us feel connected to those we cannot spend time with or those we know only through the web. But sometimes I imagine folks are feeling something or doing something they still cannot broadcast to the world without guilt or shame, or a feeling of too much vulnerability. I have to admit I was a little mopey last night, but I didn’t want to put “is depressed” or “is a little nuts” because no few snippets of words could’ve described everything I was feeling or not feeling. If I was going to put anything about my mood, all I would’ve been able to put was “is is”.

As I was getting off the shuttle the other day I noticed a large Frosty-the-Snowman in the middle of a large bronze statue of children running in a circle. My first thought was, “Aww, that’s cute”. Then I thought “I wonder if they’ve ever put a Christmas tree there”. Then it clicked. Of course not! That’s too “Christmasy” and definitely not generic enough to represent all holidays celebrated this time of year.

But then I thought, is a snowman an less Christmasy than a tree?? I mean, do other religious celebrations include snowmen? Sure, I know anyone can build a snowman, but this was obviously Frosty and that means Christmas, right?

It seems that my recent obsession with Facebook and Twitter have diminished my need/interest in blogging. If people can see what I’m doing while I’m doing it, why do I need to blog about it later?! Sure, there are moments that don’t make it into Tweets, but those are the ones that probably don’t need to be blogged about in the first place.