Good Day To Watch Alien...

As I predicted yesterday; after a good night sleep I found my motivation to ride, though it would be on my trainer instead of outside in the cold.

I wanted a couple hours of riding so I opted to pop in a movie I'd never seen before. Yes, until today I had never seen the movie Alien.

To be perfectly honest, I was never really interested in seeing it. However, my boss is a big Sci-Fi buff and when the topic came up and he heard I'd never seen it; he brought his copy to the office to lend to me so I could watch it.

For the past three weeks it has been sitting next to my TV and I haven't found the time to watch it... until today.

I warmed up for about twenty minutes and then hit play on the DVD player. For the next hour and a half of riding I enjoyed the movie.

There is one thing that makes watching Sci-Fi movies difficult while riding my bike. There are several scenes where I couldn't hear what was going on. Let me try to explain...

1) This is an older movie and the sound quality on the DVD wasn't crystal clear.
2) The movie builds suspense by having characters talk softly.
3) The constant humming of my rear wheel on the trainer.
4) I'm frigg'n deaf... Not literally, but my hearing sucks.

*This doesn't seem to be isolated to this particular Sci-Fi movie. I've tried watching other Sci-Fi movies while riding and many scenes are very difficult to hear.

In any case, the movie wasn't bad. That said, I won't be asking to borrow the rest of the series. However, if he offers I won't turn him down. The suspense made the minutes on the trainer tick away pretty easy.

As far as the ride; it was good and I'm glad my cold ride yesterday didn't keep me from riding today.

Today's Ride:
Time: 2:00

Week Log:
Time: 6:21

Movie: Da Vinci and the code he lived by

I finally got around to watching a movie that I've let sit around for a while, "Da Vinci and the code he lived by." My first thought was that it was going to have something to do with "The Da Vinci Code," but I was pleasantly surprised when it was documentary about the renaissance icon, Leonardo Da Vinci.

The documentary wasn't the typical documentary that showed a lot of facts and artifacts that support. Instead, it was a movie of reenactment that traced the life of Leonardo from his birth as an illegitimate child through his death.

This movie was entertaining and the information was very interesting. Such as:
1. Leonardo always kept a notebook with him and through his life he documented over 15,000 pages of notes. (Not a single page was ever published during his life)
2. He was a painter by trade, but his passion was in creating weapons of war
3. Da Vinci and Michael Angelo hated each other

One of the greatest point made during the movie was that while there wasn't even a method of keeping time, yet; Leonardo was already thinking about how to walk on the bottom of the ocean and fly with the birds.

Rating: Thumbs Up

A Great Suprise From My Wife

This morning before going to work my wonderful, fun, and sexy wife gave me a great surprise. As I drank my coffee she slid "Scrubs: Season Four" across the table. I was pretty stoked because I love Scrubs! The best part is that my wife enjoys it as much as I do, which means we can always agree on something to watch when there is nothing on TV.

I now have season 1 and season 4. I have no doubt we will eventually collect the whole series. The funny thing is that if you would have asked me several years ago if I would ever buy a TV series on DVD, I would have said "no."

However, I'm now realizing the value of TV shows on DVD.
1. They run without commercials
2. Scrubs has extra footage that isn't seen during prime time
3. Twenty two minutes per episode. Long enough for a good break, but not too long.

Sidenote:
The whole cast is great, but Zach Braff is hillarious. He has great comedic timing. As far as movies, I tried to enjoy Garden State, but it wasn't my bag. I won't hold that against him...

Movie: Lake House

During this past weekend I sat back with a movie called "Lake House." The story follows the lives of a Dr. that lives in the year 2006 and an Architect that lives in the year 2004. Both are tenants of a house that was built on the lake; each living in the same house at different period of time. Aparently, the mailbox that stood in front of the Lake House was a portal between the two times and the two main characters meet by writing each other letters.

The movie is constantly jumping between two moments in time, tracking the Dr. in 2006 and the Architect in 2004. and left me trying to figure out the puzzle as to when/if they will meet.

The movie in total spans from 2004-2006 for the Architect and 2006 - 2008 for the Dr. Trying to figure out who the movie was focusing on, then doing the math to try to figure out when it was, got a bit complicated by the end. I actually had to rewind it to certain points several times to make sure that Hollywood wasn't using some artistic license in their story telling. To my suprise and satisfaction everything fit.

For viewers that that don't mine a lot of jumping around in a movie and are able to keep track you'll enjoy this movie. I appreciated the idea of the story and actually enjoyed the movie... after rewinding it a several times. If I had seen it in a movie theatre; I wouldn't have enjoyed it. For those of you that like movies to be chronological, such as my father-in-law, I would not recommend it.

btw - this is a chic flick and most of my buddies wouldn't enjoy it for that reason, but when I got past that fact and realized I'm not watching it with my buddies, but my wife, I found it to be romantic and enjoyable.

Rating: Thumbs Up

Movie: WalMart - The High Cost of Low Price

I highly recommend this movie for anyone that is curious about the business ethics and practices of WalMart. Granted, this is a one sided movie that gives you about a thousand reasons to hate WalMart, but to be honest it levels out the playing field since WalMart spends millions on showing commercials during prime time about how they "Buy American" and how they are a "Great Place to Work."

This is a documentary that not only shows the impact that WalMart has on Ma & Pa shops in Rural USA, but also gets an inside look at how the "Associates" of WalMart are compensated and treated.

This touches my life a bit closer than others because I have a father that works for WalMart and every time I hear about what he makes and how hard he works, it makes me sick!

I've shopped WalMart and I've done case studies on this company before, during my days in college. For some reason I continued to shop there. However, the more I learn about this company, the more I do not wish to spend my money there!

Movie Website: WalMart - The High Cost of Low Price



Rating: Thumbs Up