Top 10 Movies of 2008

I'm participating in a "Top 10 Movies of 2008" Blogroll that my Bro-in-law organized.

One caveat, I'm not a huge movie watcher, so there are still a few "must watch" movies that I haven't seen yet, therefore are not on the list. I'm sure, there still quite good.

10) Jumper
I know, I know, the plot was pretty weak, it left a lot of questions unanswered. But, still a cool idea for a movie, I enjoyed it.

9) Cloverfield
Definitely a much anticipated movie for me. A bit of a letdown in some ways, but still kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. It did feel really realistic, with the amateur camera shots, no name actors. It all worked well, and didn't feel cheesy.

8) Tropic Thunder
7) Step Brothers
6) Forgetting Sarah Marshall
I'm combining these 3 movies, because they all kind of fit the same category: they won't win any awards, don't have anything intelligent to offer, but really made me laugh my ass off the entire movie. I can't say that about most comedies.

5) Burn After Reading
Also made me laugh a lot. But, this one was definitely a smarter comedy; much drier, but very funny.

4) The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
What can I say...very glad they put the Narnia series into quality feature-length films. C.S. Lewis's stories are timeless and inspiring, but he's not actually that great of a fiction writer. The films are taking his great stories telling them better on screen than in the book. Prince Caspian was no exception.

3) Wanted
While not entirely a unique story line, this Matrix meets Fight Club movie is still well done and exciting, touching upon themes of masculinity and fate. Pretty good review of the movie from Christian point of view.

2) Iron Man
Another great super hero movie with great spiritual themes of repentance and a changed heart. Here's another good review.

1) The Dark Knight
It's nearly unanimous that this was the best film of the year. And this is saying a lot for me, who has never liked any of the Batman movies. Excellent action, excellent acting. Aptly named, it is a dark movie and makes you think while keeping you glued to the action. My church has monthly viewings of popular films followed my discussion. I think I might go to the showing of The Dark Knight they will host on January 23rd.

Other Top Ten Lists:
Cam's at Camknows
Joel's at The Mayward Blog
Carlos' at The Carlos Word
Jason's at The LaFavorites
Charlie's at My Stupid Thoughts
Brian's at The Humphreys Blog

Sorry to interrupt

We are far too polite. We're taught that it's rude to interrupt people and to wait our turn. I'm sure that many of you, like me, are tired of watching debates that are anything but....debates. No matter whom you support in this election, I'm sure you'll agree that no one is consistently answering the questions directly and rarely are directly addressing and countering on a point-by-point basis claims and arguments by their opponent. Isn't that what a "debate" is supposed to be?

I put the blame squarely on the moderator. Too much emphasis is placed upon them asking clever questions (which by the way are always the same easily predictable questions) and barely any emphasis on actually moderating. I want to see them interrupt the candidates and same "no, you may not change the topic...you did not answer the question...please respond to your opponents claims...and beat them over the head until they do so!

I don't need another opportunity to hear them tell me their positions, which we're already acquanited with!

Repatriation - 1 step at a time

I just completed an important step in becoming an American again: I bought a car!

It's interesting, I've only been out of the country for two years. But, it was surprising how much I forgot about the car buying process, logistics of getting insurance and how much, the little things of taking care of a car. These are some of the things that are unique to life in America; or at least life outside of Hong Kong. Life as an expat in Hong Kong can be...too easy in some ways. You don't have a car to take care of, wash on a regular basis. Labor is cheap, so you pay people to wash your clothes, clean your house, drive you from point A to point B. It makes you a bit lazy in many ways. Although, I recognize that there were many unique chores and hardships to that lifestyle as well.

On to the next steps: 1) start my new job as Business Systems Analyst on Monday 2) Find and move into a new apartment! I'm strongly leaning towards West Seattle and have a couple places there I really like.

500 Miles

Thanks to the power of spreadsheets, I know that I have just passed 500 miles run! I started my new life of running at the end of April, last year. I am planning on a long run of 9 miles this Saturday. The weather is supposed to be great, high 60's! I'm progressing well on my plan towards running the North Olympic Discovery 1/2 marathon in early June!

Wish me luck!

In America

Yes, I'm in America now...visiting the family for Christmas. I had special incentive to see my niece, Juliana. She is as cute as her pictures portrayed her...still quite small for her age. She makes the funniest faces when she's falling asleep!

I always wonder what will "be different" when I go back to the US, new trends, new styles I wasn't aware of living overseas. Generally there isn't much I miss, I stay well on top of the news with CNN and MSNBC.COM, even check the local seattletimes.com page for local news....but was unaware of the fact that pomegranate is now all the rage...totally missed that one. It's now got it's own 7-up, saw it as a margarita flavor at Olive Garden and am told that it has worked it's way into other products....crazy americans...

Riddle

What "part of me" did I see yesterday that I haven't see in nearly 2 years? No, it's not my feet...I hadn't gotten that fat. I am down to about 180 now, though, a total of over 35lbs lost. I bought a size 32 jeans today, down from a 34 a month ago, which was down from 36 at my biggest.

Back to the riddle...the answer has to do with where I currently am...or more importantly, where I am not...

8k

My history with running goes back to the 6th grade. For some strange reason, I decided to join the track team. On the team we could choose whatever event we wanted to compete in. I chose the 100 meter dash because it involved the least amount of running. I was, however, not very fast and always came well in last place. I didn't stay on the track team very long and didn't do much running after that point.

Fast forward to Jr. High. As I'm sure most of you can relate, one of the painful transitions from elementary school to Jr. High was gym. From what I can recall, elementary school gym class pretty much consisted of lifting up and running underneath that giant parachute thingy and the occasional kickball. I think we all got more exercise at recess than at gym. Jr. High gym, however, was a different story: Fun runs on Monday and lines on Friday. "Fun Runs" were less than a mile long, but felt like hell. I was hardly ever able to run the entire thing. In the 9th grade, tired of never completing the entire run, non-stop, I decided to get serious about it and try harder. I was eventually able to run the entire thing, and felt great about my accomplishment.

The summer after 9th grade (or maybe 10th... my memory is fuzzy), I decided to take on running as a challenge. I easily worked my way up to 2 miles, then 3, averaging out a typical run at 4 miles. I competed in a 5k and eventually ran a 10k as well. I was truly "into" running. I generally looked forward to my runs, enjoyed a bit of runner's high, subscribed to Runner's World, the works. My Junior year in high school, I joined the Cross Country team. I was, without a doubt, the slowest guy on the team...and probably slower than half the girls. Racing all out on these 2.5 - 3 mile courses through the woods was killer, but I tried my best... probably tried too hard. I easily got shin splints and and at the end of one of my races, I noticed a sharp pain in my lower right leg. I told my coach, who gave me the brilliant advice all coaches give: "walk it off." The next day or two, still in pain I went to the doctor who diagnosed a stress fracture.

The result of over-training, a stress fracture is not a complete break, but a hairline fracture in the bone. I was ordered on crutches for the next several weeks, and of course running was out of the question for quite a while. This was tough because I really did like running, as bad as I was at it. I was out of running for the rest of the cross country season. I was determined to get back on the road, though, as I had already committed myself to running the Seattle Half Marathon in November of that year. I didn't really have the appropriate time to train properly, but I gave it my best. The pain in my leg was somewhat reoccurring. I never really did the leg rehabilitation exercises the doctor gave me to do, so one leg was a little weaker than the other. Come race day, however, I was ready to go. It was tough, but I was able to run the entire 13.1 miles, slower than I planned, but completed it, nevertheless. It still stands out as own of my proudest accomplishments. However, my running pretty much stopped after crossing that finish line.

My first couple of attempts at running again just ended in frustration with pain in my leg. I put away my running shoes for many years, as I got involved in other hobbies. Years passed, the pounds slowly added on and I made several half-assed efforts to get back into running. I was usually not able to get over 20-25 minutes of running and quickly gave up.

The funny thing is, for the past 3 or 4 years, I've been a fairly regular gym-goer, sticking to walking on the treadmill or cross-trainer and doing a few weights...and, of course, seeing no progress in weight loss as I generally continued eating whatever I wanted, with a couple of diets thrown in the mix here and there. I realize it sometimes surprising for people to hear that I'm trying to lose weight. I generally wear my weight well...in clothes at least. With my shirt off, there's no argument that I could stand to lose a few lbs.

Earlier this year, Beth, in her own battle against the bulge, decided to take up running. Whenever I hear about someone taking up running, I instantly become the expert: "I know all about that; I've read the books; I know how it's done; I've run a half marathon!" It's been 10 years since I've done any running to speak of and yet I was still living off of accomplishments I wasn't even close to being able to repeat. With Beth's running efforts I was quickly amazed at how fast she progressed, easily breaking through barriers in distance and speed that had kept my previous come-back attempts at bay. I realized that I needed to get back in the game and not be such a pussy about putting in the necessary effort. It worked. It was tough, but I was able to increase my running time past previous efforts. I was generally conservative about increases in running times, but always pushed through to complete what I had planned for myself.

As this took place mostly over the late spring and summertime...and this is Hong Kong, my runs took place all at the gym on the treadmill. It is quite hot and humid in Hong Kong and generally difficult to find easily accessible running routes. In late July we had a trip to Seattle planned and Beth and I thought it would be a fun idea to run in a local race while there. We set our sights on the Seafair Torchlight 8k run. I focused my training on being able to run that distance...on the treadmill. I didn't quite achieve that, but I came close, figured it wouldn't be too difficult to eek out the extra distance required. I was wrong. Running only on the treadmill poorly prepared me for the realities of running outdoors. I was only able to run about half the distance. And that wasn't even non-stop. I ran about the first 20 minutes and then a couple short runs over the rest of the race. It was a discouraging reflection that perhaps I hadn't made as much progress as I had thought.

I took a couple of weeks off of running when we got back to Hong Kong. I decided to start over with my training. I had previously been running fairly slowing, about 8.3 km/h on treadmill (I'll let you do the math on that). I was determined that I was going to run 10 minute miles. I started over at that speed and slowly worked my mileage up. As the weather was starting to improve, I decided I had to start doing some of my runs outdoors. As mentioned previously, I was recently able to do about 4 miles outdoors. I told myself I was going to run outside every Saturday, with treadmill runs during the week at the gym. Last weekend was a little too busy, so I didn't get out during the daylight, so just did a late night run at the gym. Yesterday, I was determined to get back on track. I decided to run at Bowen Road, Hong Kong's most famous running route. It starts in the mid-levels area and is popular with HK's generally wealthy expats. It's closed to cars and offers great views of the island and is mostly well-shaded by trees. It's 4k each way and has distance markers along the route. Although it was difficult towards the end and I did get slightly turned around at one point, I was able to complete the entire 8k (4.96 miles) in 50 minutes, 13 seconds. I think I'll now be able to handle that Seafair 8k next year if I'm in town! :)

I'm no longer resting on the pride of my previous accomplishments. I'll take that half-marathon and double it to a full marathon, one year from now. (more or less, subject to race availability!)