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.