I just got back from seeing a late showing of "Cloverfield."  It was AWESOME.  Don't watch it if the cinematography of the Blair Witch Project made you sick.  Otherwise, it's a thrilling and scary monster movie for our generation. 

But this blog isn't really about the main feature.  What was even better than the film itself was the TEASER TRAILER FOR STAR TREK.  They just gave us a small taste of what it might be like, but I'm thoroughly hooked already!! I think I already know what my number one movie for 2008 will be. hahaha.

 this question is too easy...

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When I was little my parents used to take me to one of the local high schools where a Japanese couple used to rent the auditorium to show Japanese movies.  The most popular films were samurai movies and comedies.  Once in a while they also used to show movies with nudity.  My mother used to quickly cover my eyes until the offending scene was over.  I think she used to do it at home too if something risque appeared on screen. I, of course, used to try to see between her fingers.

My father, on the other hand, didn't give a crap.  He took me to see Eddie Murphy's "48 Hours" when it first came out (if you haven't seen it, the movie has a lot of swearing and some nudity).  Is it only adolescent males who are the victims of their mothers' hands?  In other words, to parents do that to their daughters too?  For some reason I have the impression that parents think boys are more easily corrupted by nudity than girls.  For those of you have daughters, did/do you censor their viewing content too?

These kids have more coolness than I'll have in my lifetime.

I sold out.  I recently bought my first set of golf clubs and will start taking beginner's lessons next week.  I say I "sold out" because in my mind golf was a game for stuffy middle-aged men who talk about boring business stuff on the weekends.  What happened is my wife started golfing with her friends and suggested it might be a fun thing to do together. 

I went out on the practice course one time and almost burst a vein in aggravation.  It looks so easy on TV but its not.  I thought to myself: "this is supposed to be fun?!"  Now all I have to do is buy an outlandish golf outfit with clown pants and a late 1980's alligator shirt.

For the first time in a long time, I'm not in a "transition" period.  I have no impending graduations, geographical moves, or job changes this year.  It feels a little weird because for the past four years there's always been some sort of change awaiting me.  If all goes well, at this time next year, everything will be the same although hopefully I'll have more knowldge and experience at work. I wonder if I'm finally entering a period in my life where things are relatively predictable and all I have to do is concentrate on the task at hand.  Not that I'm a slave to predictablilty, but it's nice not having to wonder where I'll be living and where I'll be working. Of course, there will be unforseen events that occur this year, but I'm not going to dwell on those things...

Yesterday we were invited to a friend's house for a slightly late New Year's party.   After dinner we played a traditional Korean game which I had no clue how to play, at first.  It looked to me like the object of the game was to throw four sticks around and yell.  But I quickly learned that the sticks function as something like dice, and you move your pieces on the game board according to the way the sticks land.  Click Here for a description of the game.  After the game we played the traditonal American New Year's game of Uno. Of course, our friends' second-grade daughter won. hahaha.

I can't remember the last time I actually played a game not involving the killing of computer opponents or managing an imaginary Madden football team, much less a game with other people.    Hanging out with our friends last night made me want to go out and buy all the board games I used to play but have forgotten.    Do you ever hang out with friends and play board games just for the heck of it?

So it looks like Obama and Huckabee won in Iowa.  It remains to be seen if they can ride this victory all the way to the nominations of their respective parties.  Unfortunately, I didn't do that well in Iowa.  I blame the media for ignoring fifth-tier candidates like myself.  But I'm not going to throw in the towel yet.  There's still hope for me in New Hampshire. 

One of the things my wife gave me for Christmas is a booklet of movie theater gift certificates.  In addition to the actual movie passes, there are coupons for popcorn tubs and drinks.  I want to see all the movies I can before the Academy Awards so I can blog the next day about how I disagree with the decisions.  This weekend I'm going to try and see "Juno."  I hear it's pretty good.  I also hear that "There Will Be Blood," "No Country For Old Men,"  and "Atonement" are best-ten type movies.  Of course, the geek in me is looking forward to "Cloverfield" and "The Happening."  Speaking of "The Happening," M. Night Shyamalan's movies get bad reviews for some reason but I've liked all of his movies so far.  But the thing I'm most anticipating, short of the actual movie, is the first trailer for "Star Trek," which will run in front of "Cloverfield."  Ooh.       

My wife and I are thinking of starting a joint blog -- not a blog about marajuana cigarettes, but a blog where both of us would post entires.  The primary purpose is to make it easier for far away friends and family to stay in touch.  We have contacts all over the world in Korea, China, Japan, the mainland USA, and Europe so we're thinking it would be easier for people to simply log on to our blog instead of emailing all the time. I'm not sure which platform we're going to use.  I'm wary about Xanga because it makes it easier for her to stumble onto this blog, which she doesn't know about (as far as I know).  But Xanga is easy to use so we'll see.