This Side of Lost

The iconic boxing movie came in 1976, written by and starring Sylvester Stallone as a down-on-his-luck boxer who gets a shot at the world heavyweight title. John G. Avildsen directs and Talia Shire, Burt Young, Burgess Meredith and Carl Weathers co star.

Yes, we all know Rocky. Duh-duh-duuuuhhh, duh-duh-duuuuuuhhh. Running up and down the stairs. It's Stallone boxing. Big deal, right? Well, I guess it was, or it wouldn't be on the list. We've been able to come up with pretty good reasons why every movie we've seen so far is on the list, and "Archetypical Underdog Sports Movie" fits pretty well.

I had seen it before -- at least I think I did, that Rocky marathon at bible camp was a long time ago and kind of a blur -- so I wasn't exactly jazzed for it. But you know what? It was good. Stallone is great in the role that made him what he is. The story is tough to beat -- Rocky is a true Everyman, just a stupid guy with a really big heart, lots of love for the homely girl next door and the drive to make something incredible out of a once-in-a-lifetime chance. The supporting actors all do well -- Burgess Meredith particularly is great. The movie itself is very well made, considering the budget constraints -- great Philadelphia locations, rousing score, the whole deal.

Bottom line, it's a classic. If you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself.

(See this post if you're confused why I'm reviewing movies.)

New things come with the end of old ones, and an Internet era is coming to an end with the announcement that AOL will be ceasing support for the Netscape browser in February. This is particularly sad for someone who used Netscape pretty exclusively for about six years. I have never liked Internet Explorer, for many reasons that have changed in importance over the years (first it was just a crappy browser, then because of that common geeky dislike for Microsoft, then because of security concerns), and Netscape also had a web page builder and an e-mail client. What's not to like? It did get pretty clunky there at the end, but its importance for the development of the web as a medium is undeniable.

As it stands, Firefox is the current bearer of the mantle Netscape first bore. So let me take a moment to say that if you aren't using Firefox right now, you really should be. For all the reasons mentioned above, as well as many more than will become apparent after you take five minutes to learn about it.

I'm back from my trip to Georgia for the holidays. Here's the highlights, in my own indubitable bullet point fashion:

• The flight there was fine for me, but hellish for Samantha -- flight cancelled, rebooked on another airline, mad dash to another terminal, lost luggage, etc. Nasty. But we made it to Statesboro in one piece and generally on schedule. So no worries.
• The rental car. For some reason I got a free upgrade to a Chrysler Crossfire coupe. Whoa. The dude behind the counter just asked if I was okay with a manual and handed me the key. He didn't tell me it was a 6 speed manual. That was weird, but awesome. And there was very little room for luggage -- probably because it only seats two. Other than that, it was a lot of fun to drive. Wouldn't ever buy one, but I enjoyed having it for a week.
• A low key Christmas with the Humphreys. Got the 20th Anniversary edition of Transformers: The Movie and an awesome library t-shirt among other sundry comestibles and trinkets.
• Played volleyball on Christmas Day. Not something I could have done in Minnesota.
• Day trip to Savannah to see The Golden Compass and Harry O'Donoghue. Enjoyed the latter more than the former.
• Learned and played a Humphrey family card game called Zioncheck (though the rules we played by were a little different from those). Didn't do too horribly.
• Delightful lunch at a Mexican place in Macon with Uncle Will and Aunt Becky.
• An even lower key couple of days at Pete and DJ's home in the mountains. Watched a lot of college football and petted some very fat cats.
• Saw Sweeney Todd with Roy and friends. Good, not amazing.
• Hung out at Roy's house in Atlanta. An excellent dinner and wonderful company. Won a game of Apples to Apples.
• Last and not least: eight days with my wife. My favorite Christmas present.

I like making up words that end in "-ery."

I'm bored with my phone. Luckily, my contract with my chosen cellular phone provider is up. I'm trying to decide if I want to just get one of the free ones they offer or if I want to spend some money and get a nicer one. Is there any advance in cell phone technology that is worth spending more than $0 on a phone? None of the free phones are 3G capable, for example. I've been looking at some of the nicer ones. No, I don't want an iPhone. Anybody have any insight on this decision?

In other news, kale is awesome. I was feeling a little veggie-deprived, so I made a stir-fry recipe that had a ton of fresh veggies in it, including kale. Turns out it's like the superfood as far as nutritional benefits. My mom always said the darker the green, the better it is for you, so I'm not surprised.

41 days until Twins pitchers and catchers report!

First in an occasional series.

It is posited:

• That Facebook is rife with third party applications.
• That these applications are mostly obnoxious and useless, but some may be interesting.
• That many applications, both obnoxious and interesting, carry within them the seeds for their own transmission, in the form of interaction with friends that often require the friend to add said application to their profile.
• That people's opinions about specific applications varies from person to person, so that one person's interesting application is another person's obnoxious application.
• That Facebook has become an uncaring corporate monolith deaf to the pleas of its users.

• That foisting the addition of an application on one's friend(s) merely so one can have another level of interaction with that/those friend(s) is ethically unsound.
• That some friends may have already added applications of their own volition, in which case interacting with them with those applications is ethically sound.
• That ethical Facebook users will not engage in any Facebook activity that requires addition of an application to a friend's profile that the friend(s) in question has/have not already added.
• That ethical Facebook users are not perfect, and thus will occasionally erroneously engage in the unethical behavior previously described.
• That Facebook will do nothing to help you prevent such behavior.

I don't know about you, but I've been having trouble getting up on time lately. I'm not sure what it is -- probably some combination of dark winter mornings and not having my wife sleeping next to me -- but I bet the SnūzNLūz would fix it. This is an extremely powerful idea -- counteracting undesired behavior by appealing to our higher beliefs and convictions? Genius. Just set that sucker to Focus on the Family and I'd be out of bed in no time.

Honestly, though, I'm not sure I want this. First of all, I use the snooze button even when I'm getting up on time. It's bigger than the "alarm off" button and thus easier to aim at with my sleepy clumsy flailing arm. I would hate to be penalized for hitting it and then getting up 2 minutes later. Also, I fear that I would immediately turn the alarm off for fear of the consequences and then fall asleep for another two hours -- nice, but not a good outcome in the long term.

Poll time: what charity would you set this alarm clock to? Post your answer in the comments.

In choral news: January is the new December. I'm having the busiest choir month in a long time, thanks to two concerts two weeks apart. The Oxy Chorale show went very well -- I love Mozart and I think we pulled it off pretty well. This coming weekend is my premiere with the LA Philharmonic! Sort of. It's Britten's War Requiem, which I've never done before, conducted by some hot shot I've never heard of, and there are four shows! I'm pretty sure I've never sung the same concert four times outside of college choir tour. Should be fun.

I spent the holiday weekend watching the entirety of Heroes: Season 1. The show has been recommended to me on occasion, and it was a good pick. Being a comic book fan from way back, it was a lot of fun seeing superheroes be done in a fresh way (a nigh impossible task) with a compelling, multi-layered storyline. It's a cruel show, though -- the cliffhanger at the end of almost every episode had me going "What? No. You can't do that. Dammit, now I have to immediately watch the next one."

I also bought a new phone. Review forthcoming.

That is all for today. Oh, and Oscar nominations were announced. Go Juno!