Moving...

Again. I've moved over to Tumblr so follow me over there...Sorry Jessica and Sam...and apparently Jason.

JimJamGoesBlogging

Daily Don Cherry: Week 5

Late, as always...but, I always come through with the goods.

Below is a whole lot of ridiculous. I went with a classic look last week and I felt that I needed to spice things up this week. The pattern on this jacket is amazing! He has a full garden on and it all brings out that rosy glow in his face that I'm sure you've all noticed by this point of these posts.

Maybe it's just me, but, as ridiculous as this jacket is, he pulls it off without looking like a total asshole. Don Cherry is a suit wizard, there, I said it.

Weekly Don Cherry: Week 4

Well, I promised a more classic look this week, by classic I mean classic gangster.  Don Cherry is a hockey cartel leader.  Look at that face, total intensity, never mind the gun gesture he's making...

He thinks of everything too, all his accessories pull it all together.  The man is a suit genius.  

Ok, enough for today, enjoy this simple beauty, because next week is back to Don at his best.

Weekly Don Cherry: Week 3

I have a terrible memory, looks like I'm consistent with when I remember that I forgot though.

This week is a doozy!  I think they wrote a song for The Wizard of Oz about this one, "Somewhere over Don Cherry's rainbow suit", but all joking aside, I want this suit.  This is the answer to my question, "what do I wear to Jess and Jesse's wedding?" 

Stay tuned for next weeks, it's a more classic approach by Mr. Cherry, but he still manages to make it look more grandiose than it should.

My 5 books in 2009...

I figured if Jessica can have her list of 52 books for 2009, I should be able to create a goal for myself.  I settled on the number 5, I think it's a fairly safe number.  As of right now, not counting books I started in 2008 that carried over into 2009 (The Road by Cormac McCarthy), I am currently at...1 "Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson.  To say I'm a slow reader is slightly unfair.  I don't read on the train because I occasionally get motion sick when I try, I have a hard time making myself read during the day (for no reason other than I get distracted easily), so that leaves me with reading just before I fall asleep.  So, I'm reading about 30 minutes each time, lame, I know.  I will hit my goal of 5 books, especially now that I have a goal.  I'm more than half way through my current book "Cell" by Stephen King and after that I have 3 books I'm really looking forward to.

In case you missed it, here's a list of the books I've read so far this year:

1. "Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

Weekly Don Cherry: Week 2

Wow, off to a rough start here.  But, I'm only an hour late and hopefully this suit makes up for my tardiness.  

Not many people can pull off pink, but Don Cherry sure as hell tries...as far as I'm concerned he pulls it off and wears it well.  Tell me what you think?

Daily Don Cherry: Day 2/Week 1

So, no comments on suit numero uno, that's understandable as only 2 people read this blog.  It would be better if I had a decent following.  I'm going to switch it from Daily Don Cherry, to weekly Don Cherry.  But, don't fret because below is another glorious suit to hold you over until next week.  Tell all your friends to check out Weekly Don Cherry starting next Monday and every monday...now here's Mr. Cherry in an Art Deco masterpiece:

Daily Don Cherry: Day 1

For those who don't know, Don Cherry is an NHL analyst/former coach/over the top personality and is featured on Hockey Night in Canada on CBC.  Most American's don't know who he is and that's fair enough, the stuff he says is generally only funny to hockey fans, but, what he wears is a completely different story...This guy's suits are things of beauty, works of art! This will be a daily post featuring Don Cherry in one of his finest get ups.  

I had a hard time picking which one would start this feature...the following picture is the offical beginning to what I hope to be a very entertaining daily feature:

This beauty is the start of something special, I hope you're ready for bright colors, big collars, and triple breasted jackets.

Leave some comments and let me know if you think this will keep you entertained, I know I love posting them.

If I could drive 500 miles...

I did just that, with Sam.  We logged over 500 miles of driving this weekend and it was fun.  Pretty much any activity with Sam is fun, she makes for good company, even when she decides it's nap time in the car and I need to entertain myself. 

We drove from the train station in New Haven to Henniker, NH on Friday night.  What's in Henniker you ask? Almost nothing...but, there is a small college, New England College and it really is a beautiful area, the school is integrated into a small New England town full of 19th century white buildings and covered bridges and a town center with one blinking red light to control traffic.  Why were we in Henniker?  My sister was graduating from grad school on Saturday after just graduating as an undergrad a year ago (I just officially finished my schooling this month and I was 3 years ahead of her in school).  It was a nice little ceremony with guest commencement speaker Delfeyo Marsalis, he wasn't bad.  It was a beautiful day to and New Hampshire on a nice spring day is almost unbeatable, I'm glad Sam got to come along to see the area before Amanda(my sister) moved away and I had no reason to go back there.  

We headed back to CT on Saturday and met up with Sam's parents for a nice evening of hanging out and talking about living at home and saving money and the general benefits of having more money (there's a few).  Sunday was a cool gray day, I ended up meeting some friends in Mansfield for some ultimate frisbee and I ran my ass off, as much as it sucks, it feels good to do it.  Sam was at work all day, so after frisbee I hung out with my Dad all evening and we watched JCVD (which was awesome) and Role Models.  It was a good day, my Dad had been feeling like crap lately so it was nice to just sit on the couch and watch some action and comedy and eat chips and salsa.  

All in all a good weekend with the family and Sam.  Looking forward to Memorial day next weekend!

Jobs

I have been on the job search for some time now and it hasn't been all I hoped it to be.  I feel like my resume is still very weak and I have no cover letter, well, because I have no idea what to even put in the damn thing.  I had one interview a couple weeks ago and I know my first impression was one of little promise.  I was nervous and very tired from my day which started at 6 am in CT and lead to a day of work and then the interview...excuses excuses.  

One thing I definitely need is some new clothes, nothing drastic, just something nicer to wear when I do get some interviews and just a few new things to get out of this redundant wardrobe I'm rocking now.  Oh, and a cover letter, definitely need that.

I'm sick of feeling sorry for myself too, I need to get my shit together and do something with my life instead of waiting for things to happen to me.

Wow, what a bummer blog...I'll end with some luck/love thrown at a "cool cat" (he knows who he is), you have sooo many more indoor bocce games to ruin/enhance.

I have a funny/sad post coming tomorrow hopefully...just thought I'd let you know, it's about fat people and work.

I've got a potential new job on the horizon...hopefully it works out, I'm truly sick of where I work. If I do get this job I have a real urge to take a long weekend and go west to California and see Big Mike and maybe visit Jesse for some left coast bocce and fun times.  Easter this past weekend was an alright time, hanging with Sam was awesome (as usual).  We spent Monday raking my yard and it was actually amazing, Sam and I enjoyed the beautiful weather with the dogs running around as we made huge piles of leaves (my Dad paid me more for 3 hrs work than I make in half a week at work).  

On the electronics front, I finally treated myself to Fallout 3...now I just need a chance to get the TV to myself so I can try it out.  I've only heard amazing things about it and it's made by Bethesda games, who created the Elder Scrolls series (check it out if you haven't, mainly "Oblivion").   I just needed a new source of mindless entertainment for when I'm in the apartment.

TV, Bean Bags, Bocce and Tuna?

Wednesday night...Lost was awesome! Ben shows emotion but still retains his badassedness, Locke now pokes fun at Ben and is doing some agitating of his own.  

Sean, Jesse, Tyler and I all played bean bag toss and indoor bocce until about 1:30 am...all in all it was an entertaining night of laughs and nut shots.

Tonight...Both Offices were funny, Parks and Recreation was weak and new 30 Rock was pretty good.  I'm pretty much behind Southland, the new LA based cop show on NBC (which will probably not last because it's good).  The cast is real solid and I really enjoy the fact that they jump right into introducing about 8 pivotal characters.  I'd say give it a chance.

I made myself a tuna fish sandwich tonight with jalapeno hummus and it was delicious...thought about the peanut butter and tuna fish sandwich Michael Scott talked about on the Office this week (maybe tomorrow night)

Too Much...

I said I was going to post a series of blogs which would recap my recent vacation to Disney.  Here's my alternative solution...ask me how it went and I'll fill you in on the details, haha.  Seriously, I have a ton of pictures and we did so much awesome stuff that it would take so much time to try and recall all the awesomeness.  

But, I haven't given up on this here blog as a whole, so you're stuck with me.  

I went to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D Imax on Sunday with Sam and it was about as good as I expected.  Dreamworks has a very generic approach to their plot lines.  The look of the movie was awesome though, the 3D was done in a way so it wasn't just a cheap parlor trick and it really gave the movie depth and it was surprisingly crisp.  It was definitely good mindless entertainment with likable characters voiced by likable actors in a movie that still feels a little flat.  I would give it a 7.5/10.

I'm pretty pumped to see Pixar's new offering "UP" which is also going to be their first venture into the 3D realm and if the trend continues I feel like they will continue to one UP Dreamworks' movies(pun totally intended).  The thing that Pixar does well is they think outside the box more than Dreamworks...I mean come on, a whole movie about a little trash compacting robot with very little as far as dialogue (Wall-E, just in case you live under a rock) was an incredible, award winning movie.

Been doing a little downloading too, but I'm always at a loss when it comes to thinking of new and even old stuff to download.  I need some help, any suggestion is a welcome suggestion.

Disney Recap Day 1

Ok, here we go...

Saturday March 21st:

- Sam and I headed to Bradley International in CT and made our way to Florida.

- We arrived in Orlando and my parents and my sister were there to pick us up.  We all piled into the rental car and we were on our way to the hotel.

Sunday March 22nd (Day 1):

- We decided to make Disney's Animal Kingdom our first stop of the 4 Disney parks.  Here's a look at the Tree of Life, with animals carved all over it.

- We went on all the Kilimanjaro Safari and encountered some awesome animals, they wander freely throughout the ride like a real safari (except for some trouble makers like lions and crocodiles). 

(no zoom on this picture)

- We also went on the newish ride Expedition Everest which is an awesome roller coaster that looks like Mt. Everest and has you racing forwards and backwards through the mountain being chased by an angry Yeti!

(that mountain in the background is the ride)

- Sam and I went off and did a walking safari trail to see some animals up close and we saw this guy being super lazy and super huge.

Ok, this is just day one...this is going to have to happen in parts.  Stay tuned for more Disney fun!!!

My Night with ABC...

So we watched Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune (a routine from childhood I am re-implementing). 

After game show fun it was time for new Scrubs...and I hated it, I love scrubs...a lot.  This episode revolved around the new intern characters (annoyances) and just crawled along with Turk and Elliot whining back and fourth about how hard their jobs are and the dialogue was awful.  No JD, no Carla, no Ted, no Cox, no Kelso, NO JANITOR!  Hopefully they hit their stride in a big way next week because I was sorely disappointed this week.

I wasn't too happy after Scrubs, but the new show "Better Off Ted" follows it on Wednesdays now and it isn't half bad.  A lot of new faces and a couple familiar supporting actors including Portia Di Rossi.  This show isn't anything super but it has some laughs.  It's all about this company Veridian and they are your typical, "let's invent shit we don't really need" company.  You follow the main character Ted, played by Jay Harrington.  Harrington is new to me but after doing a little research apparently he's been making the rounds on the boob tube for the past few years, suffice it to say, he plays Ted very well.  I'd say give this show a shot if you're looking for something new to watch.

Now onto the real reason we all watch TV on Wednesdays...Lost.  It was a solid episode, which has become the norm with the shortened season, it cuts the fat off and you're left with nothing but delicious Lost meat (really? Lost meat?...sorry).  I know we all watched it, so I won't recap the events that occurred.  I like John Lockes closing line to Ben though, "welcome back to the land of the living Ben."  I can't wait to see the coming episodes and I dread the day it comes to an end.

Oh and I would be lying if I said I wasn't kind of pumped to see what happened with the funny looking short haired blonde chick on ANTM who ratted out Tahlia last week (what is my life coming too)...but seriously, what the hell happened?  

I should write this all down on paper before I start typing...Disney post coming in the next couple days.

A Shipwreck In the Sand

So I listened to the new Silverstein CD...and it's pretty solid.  I've never been blown away by these guys and apparently neither has the industry.  They have sort of coasted along at the same level of popularity for the past 4 or 5 years.  This new disc offers a little bit more polish as well as a more gritty scream from front man Shane Told (which reminds me of Underoath at times).  The guitar work is very solid, which has been par for these guys right along, Neil does most of the writing and does it well.  The weakest part of this CD is that they really didn't expand on their sound and sort of played it safe it seems, which is fine (there are a few parts that introduce some new elements for them, but nothing groundbreaking) But I would have liked to see something bigger for these guys...who knows, maybe they have perfected what they wanted to do and this disc could finally break them.  They are great guys and I wish them the best of luck and if any band deserves to make it big, these guys are at the top of the list.

Just uploaded over 200 pictures from last weeks trip to Disney (that's a lot of pics for me).  I will be going through them and putting some on the facebook as well as a little recap on here for anyone interested.

Here's one from Animal Kingdom...That mountain in the background is Expedition Everest, a pretty sweet new roller coaster featuring an angry Yeti!

MJF

Michael J Fox is an amazing man.  I just watched him on Oprah (yes, I was watching Oprah) because I've always been a fan of his work.  Watching him speak and listening to what he has to say about his condition and how he lives his life and his initial reaction to his condition was just very moving and I'm glad I watched it.  

Also, I will be posting more frequently...I know I've said it before, but I really mean this time.  I want something productive to do and I really enjoy writing.  I think I will start with a pretty solid write up about my awesome vacation in Disney with the fam and Sam, complete with pictures and ride ratings and fun stuff. 

Florida please...

I just need to get away...I don't care if I don't have money, I just don't want to work anymore or do anything productive.  This blog is too much work right now...seriously.

Ah reading...

My nemesis and my best friend...

When I decide to sit down and read a book or if I find that book that just hooks me, I can't help but finish it as fast as I can, maybe a week or two (I'm a slow reader).  

I'm currently reading an amazingly suspenseful, well written, smoothly paced book called "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy.  Here's the problem, I feel like I have nothing going on a daily basis but at the same time I feel like I have so much going on, which is causing me to drag out this book for months.  It actually started about a year ago when I first noticed this book in the bookstore and I kept talking myself out of buying it, then I moved to Brooklyn and it followed me and I finally bought it and started reading it back in September...I'm still reading it today and I'm only 160 pages in, it's sad.  I think I need a push to read more often because as soon as I finish this book I need to finish another book I started reading before I moved, then I have about 4 or 5 other books I've yet to read.  

The big problem for me is distractions, if someone is talking while I'm reading I tend to focus on that rather than taking in what I'm reading.  It's the same with ambient noise like music and loud noises from outside, it sucks.  I usually only read before I fall asleep which makes it about 15-30 pages a night if I'm lucky.

Starting Monday this week I'm going to make an effort to knock out this book by the weekend and move on to a new, one...this post was next to pointless as I could have been reading this whole time.

Trainwreck...

I never go...Sam's coming down tonight, so I'm going...bring your cameras, this is like catching Santa exiting the chimney!  

Music

So, my hard drive crashed a couple months ago and I lost all my music and photos and some other minor stuff, but I did have 5400 songs on my computer (most of which I actually purchsed).  Once I got my computer back I started downloading a bunch of music so I could start rebuilding my library and adding some other stuff, it was the official start of me never wanting to spend money on music again.  Then, to really piss me off, I got up to around 2500 songs...and my "new" hard drive crashed! again!  Well, suffice it to say, it's been a few weeks since I got my computer back the second time and I just started downloading music again, it was just so hard to make myself do it.  So, since i've started again, I'd love to have some suggestions for downloading...I have a bunch of stuff in mind, but I like hearing other peoples suggestions.

NHL All-Star Weekend...

It's weekends like this that make me sad we don't have cable.  It's all-star weekend for the NHL and I was checking out the highlights of the skills competition last night, it looked awesome.   Growing up, the skills competition was the one thing I looked forward to at the midway point of the season and I've missed it the past 2 years and I miss the whole spectacle of it.  The breakaway challenge, skill shot competition, fastest skater, hardest shot...it's all awesome and such a simple concept, consider it the home run derby of hockey...but better.  Anyone DVR it? I'd like to watch it in all its glory.  

JimJam Blog part 2: Re-Blog, return of the Blog

So here's my new blog, well, attempt at a new blog.  I am sitting here listening to Justin play the newly downloaded Pulse  full of hits like "Rhythm is a Dancer", "Rhythm of the Night", "This is your Night" as well as 3 or 4 songs with the word "love" in the title.  Justin said it best when he said, "it reminds me of getting a haircut in the 90's."  This cd is automatic fun.  

We are talking about starting an internet radio show or podcast or something awesome like that, so hopefully I can keep updates on that coming.  If this goes down it will take place in our apartment and be hosted by yours truly with the help of Justin and Tyler.  

Oh, I'm also using google reader now and if you read this I want your blogs and whatever else you think I would like to follow and laugh at.  Ok, I'm spent...I need some rest.