you are wrong. i am right.

everyone is entitled to their opinions and different people's takes on things can often be different or opposing. most people have strong opinions on politics and how we should be running the country and improving aspects of people's lives. i can understand how people from different backgrounds and experiences will have different opinions on how these things should be handled. but that is serious talk left for dan or phil's blogs. being not as smart as them, i will focus on pop culture and entertainment.

the main point of this post was to highlight certain opinions, that while technically subjective, go completely beyond any semblance of reasoning that i can understand.

just to say this up front, i am a documented hater. i tend to get a little elitist and carried away with certain opinions on stuff that is pretty inconsequential. with that said, there are certain examples of opinions that just make no sense to me at all. certain opinions at least have some sort justification. an example would be how my parents like jay leno. they think he is funny. they dislike conan o'brien and think he is just childish and annoying. i say this is justifiable because we are 2 completely different demographics. the generational gap can at least explain how leno's lame and hackey jokes could appeal to an older audience who just want their jokes to be safe and obvious. i still argue with them about it all the time, but i can understand my parents' view on the late night host comparison.
now onto the opinions that seem insane to me.

family guy
oh man do i hate this show. the jokes are formulaic, obvious, lazy and obnoxious. yet many of my friends who have shared similar experiences and also enjoy other similar things seem to love this show. 80's tv reference? hahahahahaha. shut up. repetitive nonsense till everyone laughs? i will end you family guy creator. one time i was having an argument about the show vs futurama (which i love). i decided to take it to the tv critic of the washington post, who was having an online chat. i asked her which show was better. her answer: "family guy. it's more subversive." what the fuck is that shit? more subversive...ugh. when i am strongly on one side of an opinion, i can usually count on the snooty critics to align themselves with my 2 cents. apparently not this time.

radiohead

i am a big fan of radiohead. the way i view their career is basically, put out generic early 90's alt debut album with a few decent songs. the next album was a huge jump creatively. the 2 following albums were amazing masterpieces. the rest that followed took a decidedly electronic turn and were excellent, but maybe not as immediately catching or accessible. i think this opinion is so clear cut and obvious that i just assumed that everyone was on the same page. apparently not dan and chris, think the first album was the best! really? it wasn't awful, but it's so obviously inferior to the rest of their discography that i was sure they were joking when they first revealed this to me. even the band itself admitted that, pablo honey, their first album, was rushed and not very good.

nbc thursday night

i still watch sitcoms. well, pretty much only the ones on nbc thursday night. it's a great lineup consisting of the office, 30 rock, community and parks and recreation. while everyone has varying thoughts on all of these shows, i think it's pretty safe to say that these shows are good and the rest of the offerings are bad (i think paul reiser is serving up another crappy sitcom to replace nbc's last failed sitcom). right? i am personally a gigantic fan of p&r and think it's the funniest show on tv by far. it's smartly written with great characters. amy poehler: great/amazing. aziz ansari: hilarious. nick offerman: should win an oscar. chris platt: always makes me smile. aubrey plaza: top 5 celebrity crush. there is a growing list of small characters inhabiting the town that people are now making comparisons to springfield. anyways, i was enjoying my thursday night stories when jill reveals to me that p&r is her least favorite of the shows. what was her favorite? outsourced. yikes. wtf? that show is all sorts of awful. i was left speechless and have now blown up her spot on my blog.

wow, this was a long and petty post, all about me complaining that my friends have different opinions than i do. i want to reiterate that obviously people should have differing opinions and like/dislikes, but some are so obvious to me that i am left confused and astounded when people similar to me disagree.

clean and press your face

for about the last 3 months i have really focused my lifting to one exercise, the clean and press. this is an intense movement that i believe is still an olympic lift. i have never had a lift take so much out of me like this does, as you are essentially taking a bar off of the ground and working it up to above your head. i have showed some of my friends this lift and they have tried to incorporate it into their routines. eskay saw me do it at the gym once and referred to it as eurotraining.

so when i started back in mid january, i was a little burnt out on spreading myself thin with too many exercises and for once, i would just really focus on one. the clean and press made sense as it is probably the most metabolically challenging exercise and one that generally requires 2-5 minutes of rest between sets of 5. it works then entire body.

when you set up, you step as close to the bar as possible, with feet shoulder width apart. you reach down and grab the bar (both grips overhand), get down low, maintain good lower back posture, chest up, arms taught. this is the same as with a deadlift. from there you explode up, bringing the bar with you. your legs are driving, your back is extending, and you are pulling with your shoulders, arms and upper back. as the bar is on it's way up, you dip your legs, and snap the bar to the top of your chest. stand up straight and press the bar over your head. lock your arms for a second and then, under control, reverse the motion, bringing the bar back to the ground. it's a move that requires some practice, as you are really having to coordinate and teach your body to explode and do it in the correct motor pattern.

here is a guy doing 225, though he is starting from a hang and is not pressing to lockout.

so back in mid january i arbitrarily chose the goal of performing the clean and press at 185 lbs for 5 sets of 5. i guess having a 45lb and 25lb plate on each side seemed aesthetically pleasing to me. i started at 135 and have worked my way up to 180. i increased the weight 5 lbs at a time, generally every couple of weeks, when the current weight would begin to feel more manageable. getting up to 160 wasn't too bad, and my cardio was taxed more than anything. but my elevation up to 180 from 160 has really been a test of my will and focus.

as corny as it sounds i think the progression of the last 20 lbs has set off a light bulb in understanding a little bit more about breaking through barriers in lifting. i didn't even realize this was something until i got there and it's impossible to really explain here, but i have a better idea of what it takes to really get stronger (no, not roids) and i think it will benefit me with my next lifting goals (i'm thinking 300/400/500 bench/squat/deadlift). it's scary to really push myself, especially with this exercise. i tend not to think about it, but there are so many things that can go wrong if i have a lapse in focus or a muscle tears or some other random accident takes place, i could be in a really bad spot. my ankle is wonky and there is no real way for anyone to spot me. but i think for the first time in my lifting i have fully challenged myself and it feels good.

i have been lifting regularly for the last 3 or 4 years now and have made general, vague gains in strength and fitness, but i never really set specific number goals with my lifting. while the rest of my lifts have definitely suffered and i will be starting way back on the ground floor for most of them when i return, there is definitely something different and fulfilling about completing this (hopefully).

i think this is the record holder:

it got me

josie and i went to see a late night (10:30pm) showing of the new movie, insidious. this made for a pretty memorable evening at the theater for many reasons. first off....teens! so many teens. so loud and obnoxious. it really needed a call from the teen hunters to have them sequestered somewhere while i viewed my movie. i guess i should have figured that going to a scary movie on opening night would lead to that kind of setting, but it's still always disappointing.

second, josie snuck in organic fruit gel slices. delicious.

third, i bought movie tickets online for the first time ever. it involved a $1 surcharge per ticket. that's pretty reasonable i think.

i am a big fan of horror movies and will see some pretty bad ones in hopes that they end up being entertaining. my standards are cast much lower for what i will deem viewable for horror over any other genre. so lately i have seen a lot of crap and some decent stuff, but nothing that really stood out to me, or left me thinking about it days after viewing. those good ones are the ones that stay with me and i enjoy watching over and over again. i won't give away any of the plot or specifics.

fourth, this movie scared me multiple times. the scare techniques were very well executed. the scares came often and it was the kind of movie where dread really builds and even though you know the scare is coming, it gets you anyways. they also mixed in random, out of nowhere scares. it was a scare buffet. the crowd was really on edge throughout the entire movie and you could feel the energy in the theater.

fifth, this movie was rated pg-13, just like the new big momma's house movie. i never see horror movies that are pg-13. they seem like a tease. this movie had me tense way more than almost any r rated movie.

i jumped and audibly screamed (like a boy, not a girl) along with everyone else in the theater. josie had to look away most of the time. she squeezed my arm with a boa constrictor-like grip and mashed her face into my shoulder like when jessie gets her lean on. it was definitely the visceral reaction i had been searching for. i probably am whitewashing how i felt a little. as i look back as i was probably more scared to the point where i wasn't actually enjoying it, but maybe took some sort of masochistic pleasure from it.

as a result i feel satisfied that i have discovered a new movie to add to my favorite horror movie list, josie is now a little spooked and feels uneasy because of the movie and i now recommend this to everyone, especially if they can see it in the theater. i think part of this is trying to spread the word on a quality movie that scares without gore or cheap tricks. if i dig a little deeper, part of it is probably me trying to make other people suffer the same way i did in my dread-filled movie experience, that i am now remembering fondly but probably at the time just wanted to end.



go see it. i would probably pay to see it again...just expect a lot of "oh man, watch this part!!!"

kevin where are you getting those colors? are you buying them?

after a solid 15 months or so of being my main pair of shoes, my black and yellow pumas are starting to get worn down. i probably shouldn't be spending the money since i have made some big purchases the last year, but it won't stop me from at least looking for some new kicks.

i signed up for zappos free mvp membership which i think means i get shoes overnighted gratis. have you been to that site? there are way too many to choose from. i think before i would just be like, give me the navy blue ones. no, not the nikes...the other pair. boom. done. walking through laurel mall in style. now when i look on zappos website my brain hurts...not just from the plethora of choices, but also all of the awesome colors shoes now apparently come in.

i think i could pull these off. i would probably be dominating the court in them too.

$177 well spent.

i would probably be able to run real fast in these. flash style.

for when i was feeling patriotic.

what do you think. any winners up there? any suggestions? basically i want sneakers/tennis shoes/athletic shoes...whatever you call them. also, they need to be fly.

apple of my ipad

what's up my dudes? yeah, yeah, been a while. i had written out an extensive love letter to all of my wonderful apple products, but the problem was, it sucked more than my usual posts. so because they just unveiled the awesome new ipad 2 and phil has been pressuring me, here is my very shorthand summation of my apple fanboyness.

i was always a pc guy, but about 5 years ago i purchased an ipod video. then i followed this up with ipod touch, then a macbook, then an ipod 4g and then finally an ipad. it's pretty safe to say that i am all appled up. i am applified. my computer is mactastic. i could go on...

my music is quite touchable. ok that's enough.



my phone runs on android and it kind of sucks. it's cheap and saves me money, but it's inferiority to apple ios is glaring.


i know there are a lot of haters out there and many have voiced their opinions to me, but hey, there's an app for that. also they just announced the garageband app...i think i will have to app that.

so there you go phil, you jerk. i finally finished the entry that i initially wrote 2 months ago. are you appy? i am, so now i can finally move on and maybe post a new stupid blog post.

my new plan

a lot of time has passed between my last post (#199) and this one i am currently scribing (#200!), and those last few were far and few between. i guess this has been an eventful spring/summer/fall in a couple of ways. i am now attempting to get back on track and provide the 3 of you the trashcans in the street that you forgot you loved.

one thing i kept meaning to write about was my decision to completely remove myself from fantasy football. but you were so awesome at it kevin! i know, i know. no really, people called you a fantasy football genius! well maybe that's stretching things a bit. seriously, if people were having a fantasy draft, but were drafting fantasy owners amongst the pool of millions of owners, you would be a lock for top 3 and nobody would argue if someone chose you first. well...thanks. it is good to know my abilities were so highly regarded. well anyways, i am not playing at all this year. i may come back to it next year or sometime down the road, but for now i am out and not missing it at all.

i thought i might regret this decision. phil came up with ways to keep me in the league which were tempting, but i still declined once i knew the league had enough people. just this morning eskay was complaining about having a high scoring team, but continually losing to the top scoring team that week. i recall this specific frustration/anger so clearly now and it only helps justify my decision. the bottom line is, fantasy football is based way too much on randomness and luck for me to really enjoy anymore. this is why i prefer fantasy basketball and am curious to see how fantasy hockey with dave goes. unfortunately none of my friends feel this way and after giving it a try a few years ago, none of them would ever play again. so i am forced to try my luck with strangers where no money is involved and the dropout rates are high. last year went pretty well, but i don't think that league is being carried over into this season.

my interest in just regular football has been equally nonexistent. i've watched a few highlights on espn and maybe a few minutes just flipping through the channels on sunday, but had not sat down and watched a game until yesterday and that was just because my dad was. while watching, i saw that the ravens pulled out a last minute victory. it left me with a let down feeling. i never cared about the ravens before, nor do i care at all about the steelers. i was confused by this, but decided to chase the feeling. i realized a way for me to regain interest in football. i will take up the role of the hater.

like a villain slowly discovering his role in his comic world, i too began to realize my fate as the hater. if you are a fan of a football team, you can guess how i will feel about them. i am curious to see if this sustainable throughout the season. this experiment may be over by this time next week or could be the start of something interesting. i don't really care. i leave this post with the following questions that may answer themselves as the season progresses:

• what happens when 2 teams i am currently hating on face each other?
• will there be levels of hate or is it clear cut hate/don't hate?
• did this grow out of my love for hating or do i just want to ruin other peoples' fun?
• at what point do i feel sorry for chris and his broncos and no longer have the ability to hate on them? are the broncos any good? i just assume they are bad.
• what is the timeline for when i transition to finding this funny to just feeling like a jerk?