Airplane Reviews

It's been a while since I last posted. This is because I've been extremely busy with work over the past couple of months,and there has been nothing too exciting that has occurred. Having said that, I do have a couple of somewhat random things to mention; but we'll get to that shortly.

First, I would like to offer some airplane reviews. Jenn and I flew American Airlines from Vienna to London to Chicago and then to New Orleans. This was a short visit with the family before heading to Austin after the weekend. I have to be back for work for a few weeks, so it was a good opportunity for Jenn to make her initial visit to the US since we moved to Bratislava. She'll be working in the office this week, which will be interesting because she's become accustomed to working in her pajamas. Before the reviews, I want to give a big shout out to American Airlines for the 1st class upgrade for the two of us from Chicago to New Orleans. Obviously, it would have been better to get upgraded from London to Chicago, but we'll take what we can get; and what we got was warm nuts, cold beer, cookies, spacious seats, and leg room.

We watched two movies, did a little reading, and played a lot of Scrabble on Jenn's Kindle during our 16 hours of travel time. The lunch was cheese tortellini and chicken and rice. Jenn had the chicken and rice, and by had, I mean she ate the roll and didn't touch the chicken and rice. I enjoyed the cheese tortellini. I've said it once and I'll say it again, pasta is always the safe choice on an airplane. The first film we watched was the note quite Oscar nominated documentary, Waiting For Superman. It paints a vivid picture of the extremely poor state of the public school system in the US and sends a powerful message. The filmmaker did not think too favorably of the teacher's unions. It was very interesting. The idea that children's chance at a good education comes down to a lottery draw is disappointing. We need to do something about this. The complacency and laziness of Americans very well could ultimately be the downfall of the US. You heard it here first. That's why we may need to stay in Slovakia.

We were playing game after game of Scrabble on Jenn's Kindle, so for our 2nd film, we wanted something light that we wouldn't need to pay attention to. Of the options available to us, we made the fateful decision to put on Morning Glory. My life will never be the same. On a plane in October, I saw Bounty Hunter, and thought it was one of the worst movies I had ever seen. Morning Glory made it seem like a masterpiece. The movie stars Harrison Ford, Dianne Keaton, and Rachel McAdams and is about the hijinx that occur behind the scenes of a morning television show that no one watches. I envy those people. This movie is not only not funny, but it makes no sense. The acting is bad. The story is bad. The editing is bizarre. It's something I wouldn't normally notice but from scene to scene, conversations would occur that seemed to be based on previous conversations that we, the audience, never heard. Also, relationships both romantically and within the production and on air team form out of the blue with no development or gradual build-up. This movie was horrific and it makes me sad that this is the best Harrison Ford can do for himself these days. He's Indiana Jones, Hans Solo, and Dr. Richard Kimble. He's better than this. I am doing you a huge favor by telling you to never watch this movie. Your life will be worse for doing so. If you get the itch to see a movie about the behind the scenes of a television show, watch Network or Broadcast News, which are both great movies.

And now, just a few things I've been thinking about:
- Jenn and I have all of our music combined, so when on shuffle, my iPod often will play a Madonna or Britney Spears song or something else that would embarrassing for a 31 year old male to be listening to. I will admit some of these songs end up not being too bad, but often I'll switch the song quickly because I fear someone walking up behind me and seeing Britney Spears playing on my iPod screen. My other fear is that I'm going to die suddenly and at my funeral, everyone will think it is hilarious that I was hit by a tram while listening to Britney Spears. I guess the upside is that at least everyone will be having a good time at my funeral.
- We've seen most of the Oscar nominated movies this year, but not all. Black Swan is probably my favorite so far, though Toy Story 3 isn't far behind. I need to watch Social Network again because though I really enjoyed it, I didn't quite catch the brilliance that everyone else seems to be talking about.
- We stayed downtown this week for my conference, so I was able to run around Town Lake a few times. It made me feel at home again. I love Austin.
- I was up working late a couple of weeks ago and happened to catch the 2nd day on Jeopardy where the contestants went against Watson, the IBM supercomputer. I didn't really understand what was going on, but it was riveting television. My question though is what is the computer going to be used for now? It seems like an awful lot of time and money for just one appearance on Jeopardy. It also seems pretty likely at this point that machines are going to take over the world.
- My sister, Judith, had a baby girl, Ella, a few weeks ago. We love our nephews, but we're excited for our first niece.
- I just finished reading Omnivore's Dilemma. With the exception of the last section on mushrooms, which was mind-numbingly boring, I really enjoyed it. I've read Fast Food Nation, seen Food Inc, and have common sense, so none of what he had to say was earth shattering, but it is still a good message. It made me think more about my eating habits. I wish I could eat more organically and locally, but it's harder than you would think in Slovakia. I just need to think more about what I eat.
- On Top Chef the other night, Dale won the Quick Challenge with a cookie with a potato chip and pretzel base and a chocolate ganache top. Sounds like a delicious cookie.
- We just completed the last season of Mad Men. We recorded the entire season and were saving it up for the winter when we figured we would be inside a lot. It was better than ever. I love this show. If Roger Sterling ever really did write a book, I would read it.

Rest in peace, Mrs Blankenship.

Super Bowl Monday

Last year, I was sitting on the 50 yard line in Miami watching the Saints win the Super Bowl. This year, I'm in Bratislava, Slovakia, watching the game through our Slingbox at midnight, local time. Life is funny. Jenn and I debated all day whether or not we would stay up to watch the game as we both recognized that we would be completely useless on Monday. We are recording it in the event we do not make it through the full game, which is undoubtedly what will happen. I'm sure we could go a day without finding the result and watch it Monday night because no one here knows the Super Bowl from garlic soup in a bread bowl, but what fun is that? The game just started and we are going to at least watch for a little while. We're hoping we can at least make it to half time to see the Black Eyed Peas. I'm coming to you live tonight, a Blogislava first. The last time I watched a Super Bowl in Europe, by the way, was when I was studying abroad during grad school in Barcelona. I fell asleep with my head down on the table at the bar I was watching it at with some friends. That was the one where the Steelers beat the Seahawks. From what I've heard, I didn't miss anything in the 2nd half.

Jenn spent the evening working while I cooked dinner. I used a recipe for tomato soup from Michael Chiarello, who we know from Top Chef Masters. It was delicious. I also roasted some eggplant, zucchini, and red peppers that we bought at the new market on Saturday to make veggie sandwiches for lunch this week. To cap off my evening in the kitchen, I made whoopie pies, which came out okay. They were too rich for me, but Jenn made a good point when she asked, "What did you think a whoopie pie was?"

It's amazing we didn't fall asleep already after listening to the reading of the Declaration of Independence.

Christina Aguilera finished belting out the anthem and did hit the over on the word "brave" on the 6 minute over/under prop bet. She's got some pipes. She doesn't look as bad as she did at the Golden Globes, but poor Christina has seen better days.

We passed the time during the first quarter playing a game of Scrabble. Jenn destroyed me, mainly because I lost a challenge on the word "un", which was formed by her laying down another much longer word. When she checked it on the Scrabble dictionary online, it checked out with the definition "one". If we were playing Spanish Scrabble, maybe I'd buy it, but we weren't. Regardless, I lost my turn and she got like 40 points. Game over.

None of the commercials have been too interesting or impressive yet. There seem to be a lot of Doritos commercials. I can't remember the last time I had a Dorito or saw another person eat a Dorito. I don't like their commercials, but there are some smart people doing the advertising for GoDaddy.com. Cowboys and Aliens? Really?

The Packers are up 14-0 and I'm delighted. A blowout would make me feel so much better about going to sleep at halftime.

14-3. Steelers aren't going to be able to keep up with field goals.

There are a whole lot of previews for movies I will never see. I've never seen a Fast and Furious movie and don't plan to start now. Ditto for Transformers. And I don't see a Thor viewing in my future either. Tell me this, Fox. Who are all these people so eager to see "The Chicago Code" that make it TV's most anticipated new show?

They just showed a view of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman and either I'm delirious or they are wearing matching purple ties.

It's 1:40am in Bratislava and I'm fading.

Another preview just came on with stuff blowing up. With Steven Spielberg and JJ Abrams involved, I'd probably see Super 8, even though the preview tells nothing of what the movie is about.

There's another touchdown for the Packers. 21-3. The chances of us going to sleep after the Peas is looking promising.

Do we really need a Captain America movie? Wake me up when they're going to do Plasticman.

I liked that CarMax commercial that started with the kid in the candy store. It was pretty clever. I also liked the Darth Vader Volkswagen one from a few minutes ago.

With Shields and Woodson out for the Packers defense, this game is far from over. 21-10 at halftime.

The Black Eyed Peas and the rest of the cast of Tron just took the stage. They are entertaining, but individually, they all seem really dorky to me. Either the acoustics are terrible or they truly cannot carry a tune. They are a good choice for a Super Bowl halftime show, better at least than the Who, whose members didn't have to travel far from their retirement homes in Boca to perform at the big game last year in Miami. 

It's 21-17 Packers and it's 2:45am in Bratislava. As much as I'd like to see how this one turns out, I have too much to do at work tomorrow to not get any sleep. I'll sleep for a while, and speed through the rest of the game on DVR before heading to the office. Packers seem like they're going to take care of business.

Super Bowls are much more exciting when the Saints are involved. Here's to a Who Dat Super Bowl in 2012.