8 Years
Today is July 23rd, 2010. That’s me and Janises 5th wedding anniversary, and exactly 8 years since we got together.
You know – like everyone, I make jokes about being married. About how hell it can be bla bla bla – but at the end of the day, I consider myself the luckiest person in the world.
I’ll be 30 in 6 months. A lot of people talk about how they have “stuff to do before they’re 30” and may even have goals lists. Maybe get a drivers license, or go bungee jumping or travel to another country or learn a foreign language.
I don’t have anything on my “things to do before I’m 30” list. I’ve did all that I would want to do by marrying Janise. Someone whose face is the last one I see at night, and the first one I see in the morning. Someone who I want to share everything with, and who I live to make happy. Really that’s all I want to do in my life and is my one main goal – to make my wife of 8 years(officially 5 years) the happiest person in the world.
Because ultimately, I’ve married not my best friend, but my soulmate. And that’s pretty fucking awesome.
Here’s to 8 years, and many, many more.
Books & My Must Read List
Ever since I was a kid, I was a big reader. Always loved reading books, and I am pretty sure I read every possible Enid Blyton book when I was a kid. FYI, The Mystery of _____ books starring the likes of Fatty were my favourite.
Thanks to all that reading I’m a very fast reader, and go through books very fast. I generally always have a book on the go, and usually spend the first half of it reading just whenever I have some downtime, then the second half engrossed in it and ignoring everything else around me.
I usually like to stick to fiction books in the mystery/thriller type genre. My brain is always going at a hundred miles an hour, so it’s nice to lose myself in a good novel every now and again.
I have a “must-read” list which is authors whose books I will buy blindly. That list currently consists of:
- Linwood Barclay
- Lee Child
- Joseph Finder
- Stephen Hunter
- John Katzenbach
- James Patterson (Alex Cross & Womens Murder Club Only)
Those are authors who I will blindly pre-order their books as soon as they are pre-ordered. Barclay is actually a new author on the list – he was recommended to me by my mum, and some of his stuff really is amazing. One of his books may actually be the best book I have ever read – although only repeat readings will tell. Lee Childs Jack Reacher series is still my favourite by far, although Joseph Finder is also fucking phenomenal.
There’s some authors who I really like but aren’t on my “must-buy” list. They are:
- David Baldacci: Wrote some absolutely phenomenal books like The Winner, Absolute Power and Saving Faith. Unfortunately he got into the whole “series” books featuring recurring characters and I’ve found the quality has waned.
- Brad Meltzer: His first few books were fucking awesome, but stuff like the Book of Fate and the Book of Lies really turned me off him.
- John Grisham: His books aren’t that good anymore – they’re mostly just there for him to deliver a political message. I’ll get his books out the library but that’s about it
- Irvine Welsh: Some of his books I love, some I hate. Filth is fucking amazing, but I was really disappointed in the follow-up to it Chrime, and a few more of his are pretty weak.
If you’re interested in trying any of the authors out I can give recommendations in the comments. Also don’t buy any without asking me for affiliate links first so I can make $$$!
Movies I’ve Watched Lately #2
This always seems to get a reaction. My ratings and brief reviews of movies I have watched recently but not blogged about. I rank based on half stars up to five, and my taste usually sucks.
These will be movies I have watched since January 12. And as you will see – I don’t watch a lot of movies.
The Firm – One of my favourite movies. Probably the 7th or 8th time I’ve seen it. I fucking hate Tom Cruise, but there are a few movies where he just is perfect for the role and wins me over – a Few Good Men being another one. Along with Cruise you have a phenomenal supporting cast. Holly Hunter was nominated for an oscar for her performance in this one. Gary F’N Busey is in it, as well as Ed Harris who puts on his usual phenomenal performance and of course Gene Hackman. The story is great too as is the musical score, and even with a running time of over 2 hrs and 30 minutes it never drags, and flows very well. *****
Extreme Movie: I love movies like this, because it takes great fucking talent to have a running time of 1 hrs 30 minutes for a comedy, and not have ONE funny thing in it at all. I mean I’ve seen a lot of bad comedies, but there’s still points during them where I’ve laughed a bit. Not so in Extreme Movie. What’s even better is it is a very very very vulgar movie, and usually vulgarity provides a few cheap laughs. That’s why this movie is so special – they manage to take the vulgarity, add more vulgarity on top of it, yet somehow manage to provide one of the unfunniest movies ever to hit the screens. Seriously Schindlers List probably gets more laughs than this. I have no idea how I managed to last through this whole movie but I did, just to see if they would slip and make me laugh. Yet I managed to sit there stone faced, through such amazing skits as Malcolm from Malcolm in the Middle fucking a chick who dresses up as Hitler, a guy who tells his girlfriend it’s okay to fart in front of him(so she does like a 2 minute long fart), and Michael Cera going out to rape somebody. Seriously recommended viewing, just to see the definition of unfunny.
The Wedding Planner: Ouch. Pretty piss poor movie. Absolutely no comedy to it, and just some crap romance throughout. McConaughey and J-Lo had some chemistry which was the only thing saving this movie from a big fat dud. But the story itself was just horrendous. I hate how romance movies nowadays seem to want to throw in like 60 twists, rather than going with the formula that works. *
Boondock Saints II: Pretty fucking awesome movie. Bit rough around the edges in spots, and Julie Benz(Rita from Dexter) was someone I could not get into, and dragged the movie down a bit. Maybe on repeats I’d like her more. Anyway easy **** and would be higher if not for Benz.
Old School: Still Rocks. ****
Soccer Dog: See this for the most ridiculous, contrived pathetic plot ever. Absolutely amazing stuff. The evil dog catcher. The boy in a new town. The stray dog. The boy that won’t accept his new father. The orphan. The MAFIA GUY THAT FIXES PEE WEE SOCCER GAMES. The Jamaican kid that says MON all the time. Dramatic music. David Hasselhof burns. This has everything. Watch the amazing trailer:
Taking of Pelham 123 – ***1/2. Decent enough, Washington obv made it, Travolta wasn’t too shabby. Really needed some sort of awesome twist to get it a higher rating tho.
The Promotion: When I saw who was in this – Seann William Scott, Jenna Fischer and John C. Reilly, I thought I’d love it. Even when every review I read talk about how shitty it was, I figured they were WRONG and it was gonna be good. Turns out they were right. It is just a horrible movie. Fischer is barely in it, and adds nothing to it. Reilly totally phones it in. He is from Quebec, and he has this alleged Quebec accent that sometimes he appears to drop throughout the movie, other times plays it on really strong. And Seann William Scott – well, he should never be cast in a role where he not only is he not allowed to swear, but he goes the opposite calling a “pussy” a “p word” etc. This is seriously awful stuff. Complete dud.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: I might lasted 40-45 minutes? Up until he goes with a whore. Seriously fucking awful, one of the worst films I’ve ever seen, and on my next meetup I am going to give Hun a severe fucking booting in the balls as he highly recommended this trash to me.
Kick-Ass: Pretty fucking amazing. ****1/2
Orphan: I liked it. I think if you sit back and analyze it then you can see a lot of flaws. Also I found the direction was real bad – didn’t flow well etc. However it was a good enough movie, freaky enough, and the twist was great. ***
Law Abiding Citizen: They should’ve stayed the same way it was portrayed in the trailer, rather than turning everything around 15 minutes in. Also anyone that thinks this movie has “shades of gray” are retarded. Does have one of the best scare moments in recent movie history though. ***
Couples Retreat: Had its moments I guess. Wouldn’t really recommend for anything other than a background movie. **
Hot tub time machine; good but man, with some tlc it could have been brilliant. ***
Toy Story 3: Great movie from start to finish, very well put together, some great callbacks. I’d put it on par with #2 and behind #1. ****1/2
The Invention of Lying: woeful and pretentious. A few laughs stop it from being godly awful. *1/2
The Stepfather – pretty sure someone read writing horror movies for dummies then wrote this. Every cliche in the book in this one including the hot blonde that parades around in underwear and bikinis the whole movie. Still I don’t watch much horror or thriller movies so it hasn’t really worn itself out on me yet although I did let out a few groans during the obvious climax. **
Grown Ups: So much potential wasted. *1/2
American Virgin: never heard of this movie, saw rob schneider was in it and figured it would be good for a few laughs in the background while I play xbox. It wasn’t. It was fucking horrendous. I lasted an hour and that was me done. God so fucking bad I want that hour back.
Funny People: One of the worst things I have ever seen in my whole fucking life. Absolute goddamn dud, and who knew Seth Rogan could get even more unlikeable? Yet he becomes thin and just makes you hate him even more.
Sabbatical
On the days leading up to the World Cup, I decided to take a sabbatical. I wanted to do just the bare minimum in regard to work every day, so I could relax and enjoy the World Cup. I worked like crazy up until the World Cup, and I had some plans of doing content writing during the downtime.
However I really didn’t do anything except relax. I started reading books again, playing video games, watching some TV & movies, doing a lot more with the kids etc. Last week we went to the cottage for the whole week which was fucking awesome, and I did practically nothing at all work wise.
I’m loving it.
My “work” is not the type of work where I need to be chained to my desk for 7 hours per day. Actually with affiliate marketing, you can sit back and do absolutely nothing for a long time, and as long as you’ve put in a lot of hard work prior to that, you should still see your income come in and grow.
That’s what I think I am going to be doing for the rest of 2010.
I made the decision this year not to build any new websites, and I’ve kept that promise – much to the shock of many people reading this 🙂 I’m going one step further now, and am planning on doing basically the bare minimum when it comes to work for the rest of the year. I’m sure the same people that doubted my “no new websites” plan will be doubting this too and I can’t blame them – I’m a workaholic.
But man, as much as I enjoy work, I’m really enjoying relaxing so much more. Like today I took the dog down to the water and we just hung out there until we both felt like going home. Any other time I take Abba to the water we’re on a tight schedule – “okay 20 minutes then I gotta get back and work” or whatever.
I’ve always had something to do work wise – so it’s nice to be done everything basically, and I can just sit back and relax and have fun. I’m going to take up golfing on a regular basis I think, and hopefully some more sports once my ankle heals.
So yeah, sabbatical time. Should be interesting to see if I can keep at it. I’ll be doing the bare minimum every day and that’s it.
Now I’m off to……eh I dunno, maybe watch some My Name is Earl, or play some XBox or just go and relax outside with John Grishams the Street Lawyer.
I’ll just do whatever I want.
