206 (+1,-4)

86K Steps

Wednesday night Jet's strikes again.

Finished season 2 of Orange is the New Black last week, really good stuff. House of Cards and Sherlock were our 2 choices for our next binge watch and I convinced my wife to go with Sherlock. 1.5 episodes in and I love it, Cumberbatch and Freeman make a fantastic modern day Holmes and Watson. My wife's not sold yet, but hopefully she'll come around so I don't have to watch the rest of the series solo.

First of, Go Braves! (We need a turnaround sooner than later)


Also, I just finished season one of OITNB and liked it. At first I questioned my man card validity, but it's an awesome show.

I've also started house of cards, absolutely A+. Kevin Spacey is awesome in that show.

I must admit the amount of time I spend following the Braves has progressively decreased over the last several years, but yes I'm hoping for a quick change of fortune as well.

The wife vetoed Sherlock after episode 2, although I still have an outside hope we'll revisit, watched the 1st episode of House of Cards last night, I'm intrigued, although Kevin Spacey speaking directly to the camera will take some getting used to.

Quick brag, had my 1st ever 5K point Scramble game this weekend, I'm in one of the lowest groups in the 2+2 league so it's a mediocre score compared to many, but I've been playing for a couple years and had never hit that mark, so I'm pretty pumped. Should probably retire now as I don't see any other milestones in my future.

204 (-2,-6)

83K Steps

Back to my low point for the year, want to make a push to get under 200 by Thanksgiving. I'm going to have some new challenges as I'll be traveling for work several times over the next few months, which is something I'm not accustomed to, but I'm attempting to prep myself with the logic that work travel isn't vacation and I need to maintain my normal eating habits despite having to eat out more than usual.

I really enjoy Podcasts, especially during football season, at this point I can hardly imagine driving or exercising without them. Here's a list of my favorites:

- The BS Report - love the weekly line picks with Cousin Sal, delete the majority of other episodes
- Fantasy Football Focus - solid FFB advice and entertaining
- Mad about Movies - they discuss a new movie every week in an "every person" kind of way, unlike several other pretentious film reviewers I've listened to and/or read
- Stuff you should Know - they cover interesting topics in an informative but not boring kind of way, and it's always stuff I don't know
- Stuff you missed in History Class - same company and similar concept as above but with different hosts and subject matter
- Hollywood Prospectus (Grantland w/ Andy Greenwald & Chris Ryan) - I only listen to this during Game of Thrones and Mad Men season, but I really enjoy their takes on both shows
- The Good, the Bad, and the Odd (shout out to Diebitter from 2+2) - DB and his co-host discuss often obscure horror/action/sci-fi, I come away from most episodes with an addition to my Netflix Queue
- Ante Up Pokercast - I haven't listened to this in awhile, but during my poker craze it was my favorite, they discuss the game from an "average player" POV

1/2 of the above list came from recommendations on this forum

you have excellent taste, sir.

Can I recommend trying 'There's No Such Thing as a Fish' too, done by the QI elves.


I know the rest of your list, but not Mad About Movies. Will try.

Hmmm, a British comedy podcast, I subscribed, will try it out sometime.

Let me know what you think about mad about movies, they just did their 100th episode, normally they do the big theatre movie every week but they counted down their top 10 favorite movies this time. It was one of my favorite episodes. I think they're all close in age to me, maybe a little younger (I'm 33), so I related well to the strong 80's/90's influence in their lists.

Check out Film Vault.

Podcast from Carolla sidekick Bryan Bishop and Loveline board engineer Anderson Cowan. They do a recently viewed segment, top 5 list of the week, then gamble on the rotten tomato score of a movie to be released that week.
Entertaining if you get their personalities. If you don't, might be borderline offensive.

I listened to Mad about Movies, the top 10 episode.

Yeah I liked it, now in my wheelhouse.

It made me realise how non standard my own movie watching is, and i think of myself as not really unconventional in terms of movie tastes!

If you like casts of people talking about all sorts as well as movies, try Splattercast. It's meant to be horror movies, but it's really news, sport, movies, TV of all sorts. Pretty good listen.

204 (same,-6)

86K Steps


Listened to an episode yesterday while I was walking, was pleasantly surprised, only 1 episode in, but it reminds me of "the stuff you should know" and "the stuff you missed in history class" podcasts I mentioned, only with more interesting and funny hosts, thanks for the recommendation, will go back and listen to some of the older ones whever I can fit it in.

Going to try this out soon, just realized I've never listened to Carolla's podcast either so I might give it a shot too.

Glad you liked it, of everyone I've read reviews from or discussed movies with I'd venture to say you have the most obscure taste.

I also tried 'What Say You' the other day, it's a podcast with Q and Sal from Impractical Jokers. It was hilarious, definitely adding it to the rotation. That said I'm not sure how I'm going to keep up with this many podcasts during football season, especially now that I have a very short commute (15 minutes) with my new job.

August Movie Grades

Grades based on how much I enjoyed the movie, not the quality of the film.
Rewatches in italics, Netflix Instant titles in red.

A+
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
The Sting (1973)
Ip Man (2008)
Her (2013)

A
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

A-
THX 1138 (1971)
Dirty Harry (1971)
Blue Ruin (2013)
Conan the Barbarian (1982)

B+
The Yards (2000)
The Prey (2011)
The Conspiracy (2012)
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
Out of the Furnace (2013)
Filth (2014)

B
Divergent (2014)

B-
Locke (2014)
Labyrinth (1986)

C+
Ip Man 2 (2010)
300: Rise of an Empire (2014)

C
Blown Away (1994)

D
Homefront (2013)
Black Moon Rising (1986)

Might say something about my priorities that I remembered to post my monthly movie list this morning, but just now realized today marks 4 years sober!

congrats, man. Braves gonna break up this no-hit bid in the 9th? : )

Thanks, guess not, not sure if it's better or worse to get no hit by multiple pitchers instead of just the starter

206 (+2,-4)

60K Steps

We indulged in a few large dinners and desserts over the long weekend, then I worked 12-13 hour days Tuesday-Thursday and let that keep me from exercising, plus my meals those days were more processed and higher in calories than usual.

I'm squeezing in a long walk today/tonight no matter how late I have to work, and this weekend and the coming week should be back to normal, so I expect to be headed in the right direction again.

Loving the start of football season, I have a College Pick'em against the spread league, 2 NFL Survivor Pools, and 2 Fantasy teams to keep me occuppied. I'm not going to let it effect my exercise schedule and regular responsibilities, but my excessive movie watching will probably take a back seat for the next 5 months.

206 (same,-4)

98K Steps

Solid exercise week, but eating didn't go as well. I didn't go crazy with huge meals or anything, just ate 200-500 calories more per day than I should.

Flying to Dallas right now for work this weekend. I have a little free time so I'm planning to check out Dealy Plaza and the 6th Floor Museum.

204 (-2,-6)

86k Steps

Decent exercise week and eating week, I'm a little surprised I weighed in 2 lbs less than last week, but I'm not complaining. My goal is to finally break under 204 next week.

Had a good time in Dallas last weekend, work didn't keep me too tied down. I saw "The Drop" at Alamo Drafthouse Friday night, cool theatre and I was pleasantly surprised with the movie. Saturday late afternoon I checked out the 6th floor museum which was pretty interesting.

We watched "12 Year a Slave" last night, it was the last big movie on my 2013 list, so I'm finally ready to post my 2013 movie rankings. Yeah I know we're 2/3 through 2014 but whatever, I'm going to post the list this afternoon anyway.

Grades for 2013 Movie Releases

A+
Mud
Her
Dallas Buyer's Club

A
12 Years a Slave
Inside Llewyn Davis
Captain Phillips
Dredd
Upstream Color
Prisoners
The Wolf of Wall Street

A-
Enemy
Blue Ruin
The Butler
THe Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Fruitvale Station
Pacific Rim

B+
Lone Survivor
Out of the Furnace
American Hustle
Odd Thomas
World War Z
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

B
Gravity (2D)
Ender's Game
The World's End
Side Effects
Snitch
This is the End
The Call
The Heat
Dead Man Down
Star Trek: Into Darkness

B-
The Internship
The Purge
The Fast and the Furious 6
Now you see me
Percy Jackson: The Sea of Monsters

C+
Dark Skies

C
The Conjuring
The East
Beautiful Creatures
Man of Steel
Elysium
Oblivion
Pain and Gain
Escape Plan
Iron Man 3
Kick Ass 2
Runner Runner
Admission
The Wolverine
Thor: The Dark World
GI Joe: Retaliation
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

C-
Paranoia
Getaway
The Frozen Ground
White House Down

D+
Humans vs Zombies
The Lone Ranger
Olympus has Fallen

D
Homefront
Identity Thief
Broken City
Gangster Squad

D-
2 Guns
Jack the Giant Slayer
The Colony

F
Antiviral
Closed Circuit
After the Dark
Riddick

204 (same,-6) 89k steps

September Movie Grades

Grades based on how much I enjoyed the movie, not the quality of the film.
Rewatches in italics, Netflix Instant titles in red.

A+
The Man who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
V for Vendetta (2005)
North by Northwest (1959)

A
Philomena (2013)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
12 Years a Slave (2013)
Ink (2009)
Children of Men (2006)
The Man who Knew too Much (1956)
The Drop (2014)
Witness to Murder (1954)

A-
Brazil (1985)
The Long Goodbye (1973)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Joe Kidd (1972)

B+
Unknown (2006)
John Dies at the End (2012)
D.O.A. (1950)
The Maze Runner (2014)

B
Dead Man Down (2013)
Seven Samurai (1954)

B-
Killshot (2008)
Let’s be Cops (2014)
Walk Among the Tombstones (2014)

C
Night of the Running Man (1995)
Factotum (2005)

D
The Amazing Spiderman 2 (2014)
The Rover (2014)

206 (+2,-4) 72K Steps

The fluctuation between 204 and 206 continues. I'm still optimistic I'll get to where I want to be long-term. 1st week of the month is always crazy here, by the time I leave today I'll have put in 60-64 hours since Monday. Not that it has to be an excuse to gain weight, but I've let it be.

TV update:

We finished season 2 of American Horror Story a few week ago, enjoyed it much more than I expected. Season 3 comes out on Netflix in a couple days and we're planning to DVR season 4 until we get caught up. We've also plowed through the 1st 10 episodes of Homeland and we're both loving it. I've heard bad stuff about seasons 2 and 3, but I can't imagine we won't continue watching anyway.


As for actual blogging, I do plan to get back to it at some point, but I'm doubtful it'll be in the near future. My only current writing is a weekly recap for my Fantasy Football League, and I can't even say I'm putting close to maximum effort into that. I do really enjoy writing though so I'm definitely not abandoning it altogether.

206 (same,-4) 55k steps

Terrible exercise week, just glad I ate well enough to not gain. About to fly to Chicago for a quick work trip. Not much free time but gonna try Chicago style pizza for the 1st time. Lou Malnati's has been the most recommended from the small group of people I know familiar with Chicago, so im gonna give it a shot tonight.

Just finished reading "Fantasy Life" by Matthew Berry, really good stuff, funny, entertaining, and surprisingly heart warming. Strongly recommend to any fantasy football fan.

205 (-1,-5) 75k steps

206 (+1,-4) 71k steps

I'm realizing how good I had it at my last job, usually only working 40-45 hours a week made it much easier to fit in plenty of exercise and also provided less stress, which I often use as an excuse to eat more. So now I just have to get my head around having to continue to eat reasonably well despite working much longer hours. I like my new position and company much more and I'm glad I have responsibility and feel better about myself because of it, I just have to adjust to the altered lifestyle.

My movie viewing is also way down this month, but I've got Snowpiercer waiting at home for me this weekend and I'm looking forward to it.

We finished season 3 of Homeland, I thought all 3 were solid, although the 1st was definitely the best, now we just have to fight the urge to subscribe to Showtime to avoid waiting a year to see season 4. American Horror Story season 3 is up next and we've been DVRing season 4 so we'll have that to catch up on as well. Good timing with Halloween next week.