1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

It's the 1 year anniversary of my blog!
Officially, it was yesterday, but due to a debilitating case of the flu, all I was able to do yesterday was sleep, watch The Fugitive, Chasing Amy, and The Manchurian Candidate (1962 version), eat a little soup, and cancel dinner plans with Breanne, Federico, and Jen. I was very excited about going to Pastas. That's the name of new restaurant in Gardiner owned by Fed's parents, Roxanne and Tony. Seeing as how both Fed and Jen have kids under two years old, I figured I shouldn't risk passing on a virus to one of them, so I cancelled (even though it's a pet peeve of mine).
As for the movies, it was a fairly successful batch.
The Fugitive I'd seen before, and it's one of my favorite action movies. I love the part when Tommy Lee Jones says, "Our fugitive has been on the run for ninety minutes. Average foot speed over uneven ground barring injuries is 4 miles-per-hour. That gives us a radius of six miles." Nothing that cool will ever escape my mouth. I watched it for the first time a couple years ago when I went on a Harrison Ford binge while working at the Videostop.
I didn't like Chasing Amy much. I've tried hard to enjoy Kevin Smith movies but they're just not my thing. I don't understand the fixation on sex. Maybe I should have seen it when it came out but the conversations and overall premise just seems trite to me. I really like the Jay character in this movie, and I liked the conversation Ben Affleck has with Jay and Bob in the coffee shop, but all in all the movie had no emotional affect on me.
The Manchurian Candidate was super. One thing that's always bothered me in movies and television shows is how people act when they're being hypnotized. It never seems believable, and only works in a purely comical way. Not the case with Manchurian. The protagonist, Laurence Harvey, truly looked hypnotized, or my brain tells me it's supposed to look like. When Frank Sinatra was having him play solitaire with the stacked deck, Harvey really showed his acting chops. Good movie, great idea for a story, and I'm excited to see the remake. Also, Angela Landsbury is amazing in this movie. I'd never seen her in anything but Murder She Wrote. She played the most evil villain.
I feel like I'm on the rebound right now. I've still got achy joints and a hacking cough, and my head is still soupy and heavy, but my snot isn't quite as green and I had the energy to send out an Olympic email today. That will be the next blog.
In case any one is curious, this is my 149th published post. Sometimes I don't finish an entry then forget to publish it, but even so that's the equivalent of writing one, roughly, every 2.5 days. Not bad considering all the internet-less traveling I did in the last year. I intend to do better in the coming year. Maybe I'll try to average one a day.