at the movies

ever since christmas break i've rediscovered the joy of watching films in the theater. ive always enjoyed going to see a movie, but the past month or so ive really been loving it! so much in fact, that ive seen around 10 movies in the last five weeks. ridiculous, huh? its been just a lot of fun, so i keep going back!
ive decided im going to try and see as many oscar nominated movies as i can before the awards are given out, that way i can be genuinely frustrated when they give it to crappy movies ('crash' anyone?). in years past i havent even seen any of the films nominated for best picture, but this year i plan to see all of them. well, accept 'atonement', because that looks like a really stupid movie...
ive already seen and reviewed three of them, i am still looking forward to seeing 'no country for old men', but the rest i wrote about here:
juno
there will be blood
michael clayton
*update* i just saw no country for old menand a bunch of other ones i wrote about here. give em a read, feel free to leave a comment.

youre a nerf herder

tonight i went over to jeffry lees with rex to hang out. we picked up a pizza and brought a movie. we got there and watched 'big trouble' while we ate. rex has always been obsessed with that movie and quotes it often, so we figured we would give it a try and see if rex was right about it being good. yup, he was. its got patrick warburton, so really, how bad can it be?

afterwards we were hanging out and jeff and rex both pulled out their nerf guns. now, they had told me before about these guns and how much fun they were, but i wasnt a believer. until tonight. we had a blast! these crazy nerf guns are actually quite powerful. you fill them up with six little darts that have suction cups on them and you can just shoot at whatever you want. they stick to glass and other surfaces, so we were shooting them at the tv and the slider door, we were setting up targets and seeing who was able to knock them down, and we were shooting each other to see how much it hurt (not very). it sounds really nerdy and lame, but those nerf guns are a blast! you can get six shots off fairly quickly, and they can be modified to shoot faster and farther. rex did the mod on his gun and it would easily shoot all the way across the apartment and still stick to stuff.

very childish, but a whole mess of fun!

back again

i know i just visited the family two weeks ago, but i have a day off this weekend, so i figured id drop by again. whether they like it or not. thankfully, they liked it!

friday i drove up in snowy blustery conditions, but then met up with rex and jeffry lee at the mall. we decided to go and see 'cloverfield' (which i talk about here). when the rest of the gang, aaron, bethany and cooch, got there we headed it. the theater was packed! it actually sold out and the audience was a lot of fun, they were roudy and ready for a good time.

after the show we went over to fridays (big surprise) and talked for a couple hours. we had a good time, we joked around a bit, and actually got a chance to talk through some stuff that had been bugging us. always good to get that off your chest!

saturday i went out for breakfast with ma and papa, then headed over to tim and jills to see the kids. dang, they are always so full of energy! its a good thing they are cute, or i dont know how anyone could put up with it! when i got home mom and i went to the book store and just milled about for a while. quite relaxing. for dinner we ordered out some italian and sat and talked for a couple hours. we talked a lot about computer stuff, which is kind of weird to talk about with your mom, but it was great. i dont get to just sit and talk with her as much as i would like, due to that whole living two hours away thing, so it was really good to be able to just chill and share.

two thousand ate

ah, a new year. it always has that hopeful feeling of new possibilities. but, on the other hand, it also always has that feeling of 'shoot, christmas is over and its still crappy out. whens spring coming?'

i think it would be better to try and focus on that whole 'new possibilities' thing...

movie mix-up

the guys and i went to see 'i am legend' at the theater in rivertown mall. we get the tickets and have a seat in the designated screen. as the movie begins it shows zebras and different animals grazing in a field. i lean over to rex and jokingly ask 'is this even the right movie?' just after i say this the title comes up: 'water horse: legend of the deep'. what?!? everyone in the theater is now confused. many get up and leave, ourselves and others wait because we figure someone will be coming to tell us whats up, but no one comes. after about ten minutes i walk down to find someone. they tell me to sit tight, the movie will be changed over shortly. another twenty minutes rolls on. finally someone comes out in front of the screen and announces that they messed up, and will be giving free tickets to everyone who came to see 'i am legend'. so, we go out to the front booth and they give us a ticket for a free ticket, and ask us if we would still like to see a later showing of 'i am legend', we say yes. they give us the tickets, and the free pass. cool! as i am walking in i see a couple workers walking out of the screen with a platter full of bags of popcorn. i ask 'hey, is that for the people who were in the wrong screen?' the guy didnt know what i was talking about but asks if i had gotten any popcorn earlier. i said no, so he looks around and whispers to me 'go ahead and take one, i wont tell...'. oh, and after the movie they gave out cards for free drinks.so, i got to see a half hour of 'legend of the water horse', all of 'i am legend', a free extra movie, a free bag of popcorn, and a free drink, all for only $7.50. not bad, huh?
(oh, and here is what i thought of the movie)

new years

what to do for new years? well, we had answered that question, but things didnt exactly turn out as planned. aaron decided to throw a little shindig for all of us at his place in holland. i was looking forward to going, but nature had a different plan for us. i went over to jeffry lees place for a while. we figured it was time to head over so we packed up and got in the car. quickly we realized our folly. the snow was coming down in buckets and we felt its effects as soon as we got on the highway. with slippery roads and poor sight distance we figured it would be wisest and safest to call it off. so, we headed back to jeffry lees place and decided to watch a movie instead. we ended up watching the new 'halloween' remake. we stopped it, of course, to watch the ball drop and make the appropriate new years phone calls, but then we finished it up. after that i figured id we would just play a little mario galaxy and then id head back home... which i finally did at 4:30am! i tell ya, that game is seriously addictive!

the cabin

this past weekend six friends and i made our annual pilgrimage up to baldwin, michigan. for five years now we head up to a cabin for a night and just have a blast. its a time of fun and zero responsibility (especially rex). this year we decided to go all out and spent two nights up there!

now, unfortunately due to our very restrictive code, im not allowed to talk about the specifics of what goes on up there. so im going to have to keep it to generalities. we got lost on our walk, we ate at the local tavern sportys, we played games, shot guns, created silly new inside jokes (hand affirmation!), and had our traditional candle light talks. im not really at liberty to divulge much more than that, im sure you understand...

(more pics)