2011 Movies

I love movies.

Here is a down and dirty list of some of the movies I’m looking forward to in 2011. (Release dates subject to change per Hollywood’s discretion.)

JANUARY
14 – The Green Hornet
14 – The Dilemma
21 – No Strings Attached
21 – The Way Back
28 – The Mechanic

FEBRUARY
4 – Sanctum
11 – Gnomeo and Juliet
11 – The Eagle
11 – Mars Needs Moms
11 – Just Go With It
18 – I Am Number Four
25 – Hall Pass
25 – Drive Angry

MARCH
4 – Rango
11 – Battle: Los Angeles
11 – The Adjustment Bureau
18 – Paul
18 – Red State
18 – Limitless
25 – Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2

APRIL
1 – Source Code
8 – Your Highness
8 – Hanna
15 – Rio
15 – Born To Be Wild
15 – Scream 4
15 – Margin Call
22 – Water For Elephants

MAY
6 – Thor
20 – Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
27 – The Hangover 2
27 – Kung Fu Panda 2
27 – The Tree of Life

JUNE
3 – X-Men: First Class
10 – Super 8
24 – Cars 2

JULY
1 – Transformers 3
1 – Larry Crowne
8 – Zookeeper
17 – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt. 2
17 – Green Lantern
22 – Captain America: The First Avenger
29 – Cowboys & Aliens
29 – Horrible Bosses

AUGUST
5 – The Smurfs
12 – Mr. Popper’s Penguins
19 – Fright Night

SEPTEMBER
16 – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

OCTOBER
7 – Real Steel
21 – Contagion
21 – Paranormal Activity 3

NOVEMBER
4 – Tower Heist
11 – Jack and Jill
18 – Twilight: Breaking Dawn
18 – Happy Feet 2
23 – Arthur Christmas

DECEMBER
9 – The Factory
9 – Hugo Cabret
16 – Mission Impossible 4
16 – Alvin and the Chipmunks 3D
16 – Sherlock Holmes 2
28 – War Horse

What am I missing?

Filed under: Movies

Bayshore Marathon Day 21 – 158 To Go

“Running has taken me in, and continues to comfort, heal and challenge me in all kinds of magical ways. I am not a ‘good runner’ because I am me. I am a good ‘me’ because I am a runner.” —Kristin Armstrong

It’s been a few days since my last run. Honestly, I haven’t felt like running out in the Michigan blizzards. But I know I need to get myself into maintenance shape before the official training kicks off next month. I’m finding that having an accountability running buddy (or posse) was more important to me last winter than I realized. I don’t remember needing much more motivation than knowing someone was waiting there to run with me when I got home.

As for the run, this was the first this season in the snow, and as I found out, ice. I never fell down, but there were a few times that I lost my footing out there. Not too fun, but it was late and I needed to get the run in. Hopefully now that the days start becoming longer I won’t have to run in the dark too much more.

Lyrics of the night:

The conversation lingered on and on,
Before I knew it night had turned to dawn.
We’ll be searching for the truth in all of this
Ha, or are we debating just to win the argument.
Cause none of us wanna hear about where we go wrong.
This song could easily be from me to you or me to John.
Cause I have the potential to be the guiltiest.
My greatest strength is also my strongest weakness.
Nuisance by John Reuben

Day 21 Workout – 3.2 miles (29:26)

Filed under: 26.2, Running

Bayshore Marathon Day 9 – 170 To Go

“The real purpose of running isn’t to win a race; it’s to test the limits of the human heart.” —Bill Bowerman

Just another easy three tonight, although it was a notch warmer (27°). I thought I was running more relaxed but it turns out it was essentially the same pace, just a little more consistent. And I ended up taking 23 seconds off my time from Tuesday.

One of the best things about running is that I get to listen to a lot of great music. Not only that, but the lyrics seem to jump out of the songs when you’re running, and you hear things in songs that you’d missed in your previous 58 listens. For example, that song Billionaire by Travie Mccoy is less offensive than you might think had you only paid attention to the chorus. He actually sings most of the time about how much he wants to bless others with that money.

I’ve been contemplating my Marathon playlist this week, and I’m tossing around the idea of not shuffling the playlist this time. I’m also thinking about putting a couple entire albums in order in the playlist. Maybe a podcast or two. I definitely have a lot of thinking to do on this one.

Speaking of music, tonight I ran across a cool website to download some free training podcasts — PodRunner.com. Can’t wait to try them out.

Lyrics of the night:

God bless us everyone
We’re a broken people living under loaded gun
And it can’t be outfoght
Can’t be outdone
It can’t out matched
It can’t be outrun
The Catalyst by Linkin Park

Day 9 Workout – 3.2 miles (28:22)

Filed under: 26.2, Running

Bayshore Marathon Day 7 – 172 To Go

Thank God for running. It is the ultimate detox for me, whether my poison is bubbles, a foul mood, or a bad attitude. If I combat inertia, get out, and get moving, eventually every kind of toxin works its way out. —Kristin Armstron

Last night I ran three miles for the first time since the Half Marathon in October. It was pretty cold outside (25°), so as I ran I was reminded how inadequate my running gear is. I need to get some proper cold weather and nighttime running gear if I’m going to be training outdoors, in Michigan, for the next few months.

The run was decent. I ran a little faster than I had anticipated, or wanted to. It was a little hard to gage having not been out there in awhile. I actually talked myself into doing the full three miles while I was out there, which is a good sign considering I usually try to talk myself out of miles. I didn’t have enough in the tank to sprint at the end, although had Randy been there and tried to take off on me I probably would have found a little something extra.

All in all it was a good start to getting up to maintenance mode before the official training regiment begins. After some research I’ve decided to follow Hal Higdon’s Novice 1 Training Schedule which kicks in sometime mid-January.

Day 7 Workout – 3.2 miles (28:45)

Filed under: 26.2, Running

Putting Christ back in Christmas

Christmas always brings up so many mixed feelings for me every year.

Growing up it was always a special time of getting up early and realizing that my mom had been lying the whole month by telling me that this year I shouldn’t get my hopes up because times were tough. Regardless of what happened the year before I always believed her and expected to get nothing but a pair of socks on Christmas morning. But every time I’d be amazed at how much I received, while noticing the love in their eyes as we opened our gifts. I remember having that same feeling the year I had my first part-time job and bought Christmas gifts for everyone in my family, and then many years later when I had a son that I could shower with love, and gifts.

But now I’m a few years older (and hopefully a little wiser) and Christmas has taken on a couple black marks. Perhaps they’ve always been there, but for me they’ve been slowly creeping to a boiling point.

First, this whole putting “Christ” back in Christmas is about as mind-numbing an argument as there is out there.

• Like prayer in school, Christ is only out of something you take Him out of. Please don’t rely on schools or department stores for your faith, or proclamation thereof.

• I’m not sure Christ desires to be part of the biggest display of materialism the world has ever known. If you want Christ back in Christmas, stop buying things for people that already have enough stuff and get up at 3:00am on the day after Thanksgiving and spend all day shopping for people that don’t have anything, and can’t buy you something in return. That would do more to put Christ back in Christmas than saying Merry Christmas ever would.

• Speaking of Xmas, did you know that the “X” comes from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of the Greek word Χριστός, translated as “Christ” and has been used as an abbreviation for Christ since the mid-16th century.

• More here from Los

Second, as a parent we’ve been finding ourselves stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one hand we want to bless our son with the same sort of Christmas we’ve always had, with lots of fun things under the Christmas tree. At the same time we know that A) Tanner has more than he’ll ever need already, and B) Tanner needs to shift his thinking to that of giving instead of receiving.

So how do you handle that? It’s been a constant battle for us. He’s still so young that all he would see is that his friends are getting PS3′s and he got a deck of cards. But you have to start somewhere right? Sometimes change hurts, but who wants to hurt their kids?

This year we are going to try something new. We are still going to get him some cool stuff, but in addition we are going to include a sum of money with a note that he has to buy something for someone else that doesn’t have as much as he does. A sort of Pay It Forward if you will. We’re hoping this will put giving into the forefront of his mind, as well as allowing him to see the blessing that comes from giving to others. I’m also imagining the ratio of gifts to giving to switch throughout the years. I’m pretty excited about his actually. I think it’s just the right start to get this ball rolling.

So how do you feel about the “issues” surrounding Christmas? Do you even have issues, or is it just me?

Other thoughts on Chrstmas:
• Death to Commercialized Christmas
• I Killed Santa & I’m Back At Work

Filed under: Christmas

Bayshore Marathon Day 2 – 177 To Go

The obsession with running is really an obsession with the potential for more and more life. —George Sheehan

I originally planned on running yesterday on Day One, but life got in the way a little bit and I had to push it back to Day Two. It could have gone a little better, but it really felt good to get back out there running again.

Since the lights go out around 5:00pm these days, I was running around the cemetery in the pitch dark. Also, my ipod had apparently leaked power since October so I had to do a rushed charge and only had enough battery power to have music playing but not enough to initiate my Nike+ system. Not a huge deal though. I only ran a mile, and it took somewhere around nine and a half minutes.

The first quarter mile I felt like a champ and was happy to think I hadn’t missed a step. Around the half mile mark I started to feel my breathing strain a bit. I didn’t have to grab my knees when I wrapped up the mile, and I could have easily done a couple more if I had slowed the pace a bit, but there was some definite regression in the last month and a half. However, a journey of 26.2 miles begins with a single step, and that my friends has now been accomplished!

Day 2 Workout – 1.1 miles (9:45)

Filed under: 26.2, Running

November Debrief

Talk about a boring month. That was by design I suppose. After training so long for that Grand Rapids Half Marathon, I decided to take November off from running which allowed for a lot of nothingness. Which I enjoyed greatly.

November Notables:
• Conan returned to television
• Daylight Savings Time ended
• Learned how to play Whirly Ball
• Sparky Anderson & Jim Daft passed away
• Thanksgiving is still my favorite holiday
• Finally watched a lot of the Bond films
• Michigan lost to Ohio State, again

Novemeber Running Totals
Nada

Books Read in November:
Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son — Michael Chabon

Movies Watched in November:
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole – 3/5
RED – 5/5
Halloween II – 4/5
Alien vs. Predator – 4/5
Megamind – 4/5
Ghandi – 5/5
A Nightmare on Elm Street – 3/5
The Town – 4/5
Splice – 4/5
Leaves of Grass – 4/5
Goldfinger – 3/5
Jackie Brown – 4/5
Owning Mahowny – 4/5
Winnebago Man – 4/5
Die Another Day – 3/5
The Running Man – 2/5
Skyline – 2/5
Daredevil – 3/5
The Thomas Crown Affair – 5/5*
Grown Ups – 4/5
Dr. No – 4/5
Brooklyn’s Finest – 4/5
Big Trouble – 3/5
You Don’t Know Jack – 3/5
Superman – 5/5*
Aliens vs. Predators 2 – 2/5
Tomorrow Never Dies – 3/5
You Only Live Twice – 4/5
Saving God – 3/5
The Last Airbender – 2/5
Raw Deal – 3/5

Filed under: 2010, Books, Movies, November

Bayshore Marathon Day 1 – 178 To Go

Six months ago I ran in my first Half Marathon.

Today I registered to finish what I started.

I haven’t run a single mile since the Grand Rapids Half Marathon on October 17. I knew that December 1 was the first day you could sign up for the 2011 Traverse City Bayshore Marathon, so I’ve been taking a little running sabbatical. Now that I’m signed up, I’m going to use December to try to inch my way back into running shape and then kick off official Marathon training in January.

Making this ride so much easier is knowing that I won’t be doing this solo. My friends Brandon and Janelle have also signed up, and I expect a couple more to join as well.

As I know this will contain many ups and downs, I’ve decided to make this the first of at least 178 posts between now and then.

The quest for the sticker begins today!

Filed under: Running