'Juno' reminds me of 'Knocked Up' and 'Napoleon Dynamite'

Maybe it's just me but I catch that vibe for several reasons (none of which spoil the movie in case you haven't seen it) The movie deals with an unexpected pregnancy to people that aren't prepared for a child. I'm sure there have been plenty of movies that are based on this but Knocked Up is pretty recent so it's the first one that comes to mind. Ok, so it's not too much like Knocked Up beyond that. As far as Napoleon Dynamite, this has a lot of the same features. This movie was made for about 7 or 8 Million so it has the low-budget feel to it. A few of the characters have some eccentricities (not as severe as the ND characters, but still...). There's a lot of unknown music playing throughout. The opening credits (and some writing throughout) have the handwritten block letter look that a lot of movies have been using. I'm horrible at trying to describe how a movie feels so I guess you'll have to watch it yourself. It really is a great movie. After watching it, please comment below so I can be sure that I'm not crazy. www.derekmartin81.com

Face Cake Birthday for me!

I remember what I said years ago when I first saw a photo on a cake. "What kind of dork would want that?" I pretty much left it at that until a few monthes ago when I saw the 'Scrubs' episode that featured a "face cake" that everyone was way too interested in eating. Fast forward to about a month ago when the wife and I were trying to decide what to do for my birthday. I don't like a big deal to be made so we decided to keep it simple. Dinner with friends at Red Robin and cake. She suggested face cake and we both figured out a way to poke fun at the situation. We settled on the following cake:

So, there we were. A total of 15 of us causing quite a scene at Red Robin eating me for dessert. www.derekmartin81.com [digg=http://www.digg.com/comedy/Best_Face_Cake_ever_2]

A Different Kind of Pizza

One of our gifts from 'gift card christmas' was 2 gift certificates to Zpizza. According to the back of the menu, it originated out in California over 20 years ago. We just now got one in a new shopping center nearby. They have all kinds of specialty pizza. The wife got one that has toppings that look (to me) like vomit. I went for a classic pepperoni. It was real good and the price is decent too. The total bill was about $29 for a 10" specialty pizza, 14" pepperoni, snapple and fountain soda. It's not like a typical restaurant with a waiter. We order at the counter and find a table. The food shows up in about 15 minutes. I wish they had a tip jar at the register because I would have dropped a couple dollars in. The place is situated in a strip mall and is laid out like a typical pizza parlor except there is a comfy-looking leather couch to sit on and wait for food. Instead of pictures of Italy the decor is real hip and artsy. There's a lot of yellow, orange, red and green (since these are the colors of their logo). It's not a replacement for Papa Johns or the local "real" pizza places but it is a welcome change of taste. www.derekmartin81.com

Redbox is by far the best way to rent DVDs

Redbox has been around since 2003 but my wife and I just found out about it a month or two ago. Here's what it is in case you never heard of it: You go to a local location that has the Redbox. Our Giant grocery store across the street has it. The Redbox is a giant atm-looking red box. Using a touchscreen and credit card swiper you pick out (and pay for) a movie. A slot spits the title out at you. When finished watching, you return it into the slot. You can return it to any Redbox location (which is great for travelers). Aside from convenience the best part has to be the price. $1 per day. If you have it back by 9pm the following day you just pay $1 (plus tax, of course). If you want to keep it for 3 days you're still paying less than most video stores. A feature that I enjoy is the ability to reserve online. While at work on Tuesday I can check the new releases, reserve one and pay for it. I then stop by the Redbox later on and swipe my credit card. The machine makes some motorized noises and 5 seconds later the movie comes out of the (now magical) slot. No more rushing to Blockbuster in hopes that I beat everyone else in line to get the latest "Baby Geniuses" sequel (joke). www.derekmartin81.com

Steal this Film! (no really, they want you to)

Just watched a nice little documentary entitled 'Steal this Film'. I got it through bittorrent legally. Technically, the film is copyrighted but the creators of it said to steal it. They merely copyrighted it strictly so no one could "legally" acquire it (hence, you have to steal it). Confused? Basically this documentary is about the popularity of The Pirate Bay and the following that it has caused (including The Pirate Party in Sweden). The Pirate Bay is the most popular tracker of bittorrent files in the world. The easiest way to understand them is this: They organize movies, tv shows and software downloads just like Google organizes web search. If you do a Google search on 'creating a bomb' (and it leads you to a site that helps you create a bomb) is Google responsible? Of course not. This analogy translates over to The Pirate Bay to basically say that they aren't doing anything illegal either. Check out stealthisfilm.com to see what it's all about. By the way, I just may get a visit from the Feds for doing a Google search for 'creating a bomb'. Hopefully this won't be my last post. www.derekmartin81.com

'Gift Card Christmas' is a success!

Are you in a position where you have no idea what to ask for when it comes to christmas and your birthday? That's where my wife (jess) and I are. We've lived together for over 4 years. That has allowed us to accrue quite a bit of stuff for our home. This christmas we told family that all we really want is gift cards (or cash). Real simple . . . we just made up a list of restaurants and stores that we like and put it on our website (derekandjess.com). We got mostly gift cards. Some gifts were actually real things that we mentioned on an individual basis (socks, oven mitts). We did also get a Simpsons calendar and Simpsons Jeopardy because I'm a Simpson's nut. All in all we love everything and it will all be put to use. We honestly got gift cards to about 10 different restaurants. We already figured out that we're only going out to eat once a month in order to space it all out. One of the best parts about asking for gift cards is that we don't feel bad to give gift cards. It made our shopping soooooo easy. www.derekmartin81.com

I have always wondered how many 5 year olds I could take in a fight.

While looking around on a bunch of websites I came across this one. http://www.howmanyfiveyearoldscouldyoutakeinafight.com/ By answering a few questions (regarding body type, athletic ability) I was told that I can take on 21 of them. I can't wait until school's back in session. I'm gonna pay them a visit. www.derekmartin81.com

Hulu just may allow me to ditch cable tv

I first heard about hulu.com a few monthes ago on a podcast. I went to the site and put my name in for an invitation. I was invited about a week ago. The site is still in beta testing (hence the invite-only status). It is a great place to find full-length episodes of current and past shows. It's completely on-demand. I just finished watching the newest episode of '30 Rock'. I have only found 2 catches to the site: 1. You have to watch about 2 commercials during the show (both of the ones I saw were only 17 seconds apiece) 2. While it does have full-screen capabilities, the smaller screen version looks a lot sharper. Neither of these "problems" are keeping me from enjoying the site. I will be playing around on the site checking out shows in my free time. I noticed, for example, they have the 1st season of 'The A-Team' (awesome). As long as they have a enough positive feedback and advertising revenue this may become the best way to watch tv. This is a joint venture including NBC and News Corp. among other companies. Meaning: It's completely legal. www.derekmartin81.com

Found a great new podcast today...

OK, a little background first. I'm not into a lot of music. I have a bunch on my ipod (4379 songs right now) but I normally listen to podcasts while I work, clean, relax or drive. At this moment I have "4.4 Days" worth of podcasts on my ipod. That's a lot to listen to. On another post I will talk about the wide range of podcasts that I listen to. I may even have a separate page devoted to them. The one I found today is called "Point of Inquiry". It is put out by the Center for Inquiry and by their description they talk all about: 1. Pseudoscience and the paranormal (Bigfoot, UFOs, Psychics, etc.) 2. Alternative medicine (faith healing, homeopathy, efficacy of prayer, etc.) 3. Religion and secularism (church-state separation, effects and role of religion is society, future of non-belief, etc.) This podcast started at the end of 2005. I'm going to listen to every episode up to current. This is my normal way of approaching new podcasts. I can't just start with the newest and go forward. A lot of podcasts tend to make references to older episodes. Well, I'm off to work on some other stuff and catch up on the newly found podcast. www.derekmartin81.com

We watched the movie 'Accepted' this evening

Tonight, as we were browsing the video store, we came across 'Accepted'. We both recall seeing commercials for this and it seemed like a decent movie. It has it's funny parts but we both quickly realized that it is just like EVERY OTHER COLLEGE MOVIE. Here's how it is set up. . . The protagonists are a group of college rejects. The antagonists are preppy fratboys led by a devious dean. Everything is going well until the fratboys and the dean make public a major problem that was oddly overlooked by everyone else. The rejects get to argue their case in a large room where they are on one side and the fratboys are on the other. A few people make speeches on what college is truly about. It's a heartwarming experience for all in attendance. The rejects win. The dean and head fratboy exchange pissed-off looks. THE END. I hope I haven't ruined the story for you. If you read the last paragraph and said, "I think I saw that". You are correct. We all saw it. Many college movies use this plotline. The wife and I are too old to keep watching these kinds of movies. www.derekmartin81.com