Funny with a twist and effective.

I saw this commerical over a week ago, and it still it sticking with me. I originally shared my thoughts of the commercial on Twitter, but have to say again — well done, Cheerios.

I was watching The Wendy Williams Show on my TiVo while cooking, and I saw this commercial and I couldn’t compute what I just saw. I re-watched the commercial and noticed that the family was interracial, and my jaw dropped. I can’t recall any other commercial with a interracial couple, which is why this stood out.

Of course there some people making horrible things regarding this video — but I am glad that Cheerios hasn’t backed down and keep the video up because I think it is something people to see.

I wanted to share to video in hopes more people will share it.

Satisfying

The first few episodes were slow, but when I finished the last episode, I now see how it had to be slow to build a base for itself. I would like to compare ths show to origami — it show that i very linear but it folds upon itself many times and the end result is something new entirely. However, I don’t find this season as good as seasons 1-3, but it is better than most show on television today.

Yes, it is good to see the all the character you know and love back on TV, but they are not who they once were. This is a good thing. They have evolved into something different, but to say if they are better or worse would be subjective on whom is judging. There are shades of who the characters once were, but with all that is happened to them in the 6 years since we last saw them, there is no way they could say the same.

The show could have relied on the all of the same running jokes it did in seasons 1-3 — some make a reappearance, but in a different form — but I like that the show’s creator/writer Mitchell Hurwitz decided to be a bit left of center with the show than to regurgitate the familiar just to please the masses.

I enjoyed the new season, but I will have to re-watch the entire season to see how I really feel because I am sure I missed some things during the first viewing. I think I didn’t like is that we got way too much Lucille 2 (Liza Minnelli), Rebel Alley (Isla Fisher) and Herbert Love (Terry Crews). I am not sure if there will be another season, I am hoping it will be. Another thing that bugged me is that a show that is typically great technically (camera work, story telling, etc…), there was a minor flub when a scene show a film crew in the background:

We all can’t be perfect.

So, the NBA has it’s first gay active basketball player. He is currently a free agent, and I am not sure how this announcement affect his future, but it is good to have another barrier broken. I am sure he will be all over the gay pride parade circuit this year.

Congrats!

My favorite game of all time. This theme is in my top 10 of video game soundtracks. It is hard to believe that this is done with any real musical instruments.

Great job, Smooth McGroove!

source: youtube

This trailer makes me look forward the second movie in the Hunger Games movie series. This image sealed the deal that movies will be better than the first:

I was/am very disappointed with the first movie, but this trailer makes my very happy and eager to see the film in November. Looks like the movie finally has the budget the first film was lacking — the first movie was so cheaply made so the fashions vividly described in the book was not fully realized.

Francis Lawrence is now directing the series. Since I am a fan of his directing, I think he will bring more style to the films — even more since they upped the budget by 100 million dollars. Still hate the reality show component of the film, but from the trailer, it seems they are going to follow the book a bit more. They really must deliver on the ending of the film because it there is a tone shift between books 2 and 3.

Another wish I have is that the movies focuses more of food (the abundance in some place, and the lack of it in other) because in the image above, they are heading to a party hosted by the President in “The Capital” and the way people treat food there ties into how people get entered into the Hunger Games.

Opens November 22, 2013

The Nebraska football team helped a little boy suffering from brain cancer live his dream.

My watery eyes while watching this video — it is just my allergies causing me to tear up … nothing more.

Ware jumped in the air to block a shot, landed on the ball of his foot, breaking his shin and the bone protruded through his skin.

Gruesome stuff. I am sure you can find those pictures somewhere, but I am will not put them on my site.

source: Deadspin via Guyism

Just spotted this today. A new documentary about the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena. It will it touch upon every aspect of their tennis career, and look like there will be a lot of behind the scenes footage. This documentary would explain why Richard Williams has been taking pictures of the girls since they started playing tennis.

The movie will be available VOD on 4/4/13 and in theaters 5/10/13.

I will be redeeming my unused XBOX points for this.

sources: Magnolia Pictures & Youtube

I am going to take the next few weeks to FINALLY post these things.

Stay tuned!

This past Saturday, I got settled on the couch to work the nearly 3-hour block of Beyoncé on OWN and HBO. I started off watching OWN with Oprah Winfrey interviewing Beyoncé, but I had to stop watching it because I felt it was spoiling the HBO documentary. Luckily, was watching this on my TiVo so I could easily switch programs.

I am not sure how I feel about Beyoncé’s HBO document “Life is But a Dream.” To me, it seems so familiar, and some parts I have need see before from various making-of special she released when her last album “4″ was released. Nothing new was revealed, but I think that I do appreciate he musicality. I just that she was a puppet and was told what to sing and how to sing it, but she seems more involved in the entire process of making music. What I didn’t like were the performance from her concerts in New Jersey interwoven in the documentary. It felt too much like a pull for show, which probably will be out on DVD/Bluray in the coming weeks. She tried to make it like Madonna’s “Truth or Dare” but “Life is But a Dream” has major issue with pacing and with weird shifts in time. I guess the only big reveals were that she had a miscarriage and the face of her daughter Blue Ivy — but the picture of her daughter was leaked a few days prior so there was no real surprises.

The Oprah interview was ALL about Oprah, and how she loved her some Beyoncé. There were no real tough questions, which Beyoncé’s team probably gave Oprah the terms and conditions on what could and could not be talked about. So in the end, the interview was really extraneous considering we are going to watch the HBO doc. However, it interesting to her Oprah mention how nervous Beyoncé gets during interview, but during the HBO doc I found she was the most eloquent she has ever been.

This is my own personal issue with Beyoncé: Why they hell do you use the acute accent on your name but no one ever uses it … not even your mother? The last person I who pronounced Beyoncé’s name properly was Dan Aykryod on the SNL episode where she performed– probably because he is from French-Canadian lineage.

It is like yelling at a submissive puppy who pees on the floor. You are stern with it, and their first instinct is to roll over and bare it’s stomach to show they are non-dominant. You can’t continue the admonishment because they already gave up and pretty are much waving a white flag. It makes you feel bad so you stop, and then puppy pisses on the floor again and you have the same conversation over again.

It is lose/lose situation.

She didn’t say anything, but you know she was thinking:

****** POSSIBLE SPOILERS — YOU’VE BEEN WARNED ******

I am not sure how I liked this movie.

Well, I did like it, but there was something about it that left me feeling empty. I love the Tarantino speeches he gives her characters, because his films are primarily about the dialogue. The thing that bother me the most about the movie was Jamie Foxx as the titular character … and the character of Django.

The role of Django could have been played by any block actor and Jamie Foxx didn’t add anything to the role to make the character exceptional. He was just thing being Jamie Foxx and reading his lines, while every other actor in the film shined and brought something the roles they played. To be fair, I am not sure if it was Jamie Foxx’s acting or just the way the character was written — could be a combination of both.

The depiction of how slaves were treated was a little hard to take during some points. The brutalities done to slaves was real and it wasn’t so long ago that this all happened. I have seen Alex Hayley’s “Roots” when I was a kind, but I feel that this was a far more (and far too) realistic portrayal. The audience I saw movie with primarily white, and there was some (in my opinion) inappropriate laughter during some of the gruesome scenes.

The use of the “N-word” didn’t really bother me that much. I am a black male, do not refer to myself or anyone else as the “N-word” — but I felt at some time it was used a bit too much and it detracted from the story. Spike Lee needs to have a seat and stop making this issue bigger than what it is.

The film is nearly 3 hours long, but I felt it was paced well and the movie didn’t seem that long. The big revenge sequence left me a bit cold and it didn’t seem like a gratifying ending. I won’t spoil it, but the ending felt a bit expect and too easy of an ending.

With all that said, I recommend this movie and suggest you see it in the theater. The performances of Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson were great.

For Christmas, I decided to go to Jacksonville, FL to visit my family. I was under the impression that my mom and my niece would be flying from Syracuse, NY to to join us, but that didn’t happen. I didn’t find out about that until I actually arrived in Jacksonville after driving 16 hours from Dallas. After that news, I started to get a tickle in my back of my throat, and it was the first sign of a cold brewing.

I slept for 12 hours that night, only to wake up not feeling better. That day I went out to Dave and Buster’s with my family and we had a good time playing games, then I treated my family for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. After that, I was done for the rest of my trip. I spent most of my vacation laying in bed and coughing. After about 4 days, the illness morphed into a sinus issue and phlegm being expressed from my lungs. Not just any phlegm, but neon green colored phlegm. I was not able to sleep laying down because all the fluids draining, so I had to sleep in an inclined position which helped relieve some of my coughing spells. I don’t think I got any real sleep after sleeping for 12 hours my first night.

I left at 7am after my 6th day for the drive back to Dallas, and for most of the trip I was doing well. I didn’t buy the extra-strength cough medicine so while driving I was taking it every 4 hours. After driving through New Orleans, LA I started to feel completely awful and started to run a high fever. I knew that I wasn’t going to make it to Dallas so I decided to make a detour to Houston, TX for the night. While stopped for gas at the border of Louisiana and Texas I stared to cough so much that I started to get dry heaves. I was really nervous, but I knew I had to make it to the hotel in Houston.

I got the hotel, and first thing I did was take a hot shower so that the steam could break up some of the phlegm/fluid in my sinus and lungs. I was able to get most of it out of my body but I was still having dry heaves, which I think now was attributed to my high fever. I was freaking out because never cough so much in my life and didn’t know what was happening to me. I called my sister and I told her most of the things that were happening, because I didn’t want to scare her. I manage to control my freak out, find some Advil and go get something to eat at IHOP. While waiting for my food, my fever broke and I was complete drenched in sweat and I had people staring at me. I told the person waiting on me that I had a high fever and it was now breaking, which quelled the look of curiosity they had. I drove back to the hotel, had some of my food, and managed to get some sleep.

I woke up the next morning, and called an urgent care facility that was 2 minutes from my hotel. I drive there and about 20 minutes later I was diagnosed with Bronchitis, and given a prescription for a Z-pack, something I had never heard of before. I have an irrational fear of antibiotics because I think they are over prescribed which does more harm than good. Also, this would have been my second time in 6 months I would have been on antibiotics, and the last dose has some side-effects with lasted for a couple of months. After my appointment, I took my 2 pills for Day 1 of 5 dose, and drove home. The drive home was uneventful and I was out of work until 1/6 because I was still recovering.

It is now 1/12, and I still have lingering effects of my illnesses, but the Z-pack worked great and made me feel better on day 3 of the 5 day dose. 7 of 8 people on my team was sick with the same symptoms and half the office was sick as well. It wasn’t until 1/09 I learned there was a flu epidemic happening, and I am pretty sure I had the Flu, which then cause me to get Bronchitis. My sister a few days after I left Jacksonville told me she was having similar symptoms but she went to the doctor right away, because she doesn’t have a phobia of medicines like I do and she recovered quicker.

Remember that whole H1N1 Flu that had people scared shitless, but never really panned out? This is the real thing, and 21 children has already died of the Flu.

Stay well. Wash your hands often, and if you are up to it, where a surgical mask like to do in Japan.

Today it was announced that Quvenzhané Wallis was nominated for Lead Actress Oscar. At 9 years-old, this makes her the youngest person nominated in Oscar history for Lead Actress. I am very glad Quvenzhané Wallis received the nomination because her performance in The Southern Beasts of the Wild was very moving and she showed skilled well beyond her years. The movie came out in June 2012, so I thought it would be overlooked because it came out so early.

I don’t think she will win, but I am glad her talents were recognized.

I will try to do better in 2013.

I didn’t enter any malls during Black Friday because I just can’t deal with crowds. I have been doing most of my shopping at CVS and Walgreens Trying to replenish my stockpile of body wash, toothpaste, and other personal care products. I think I am good for the next year or so, but I am still trying to get more deal when they become available. My coupons are so unorganized that I really need to find time to get them into a binder for easy retrieval.

Got some $20 CVS eGift cards from Living Social for as low as $2. And I have been combing my shopping with Saving Star can getting Amazon.com gift cards with my shopping trips.

I wish Rite Aid was in the DFW area because they have some really great deals. Maybe sometime in the future.

Kevin Clash has just resigned from the Sesame Workshop today after the first accuser Sheldon Stephens decided not to talk a cash settlement to drop his complaint. Now there is new person, Cecil Singleton, who claims that Clash trolled gay phone chatlines to meet with underage boys. Here is Clash’s statement:

“I am resigning from Sesame Workshop with a very heavy heart. I have loved every day of my 28 years working for this exceptional organization. Personal matters have diverted attention away from the important work Sesame Street is doing and I cannot allow it to go on any longer. I am deeply sorry to be leaving and am looking forward to resolving these personal matters privately.”

I stated last week that it would take about a week before he resigned. I was pretty accurate.

sources: NYT & ONTD