Saturday night Ashley, Josh, Mike and I saw Flyboys, which I really enjoyed. I’m not sure I can speak on everyone else’s behalf…but I thought it was great. It was interesting that it was based off a true story and I can say that I don’t really know much about the history of WWI. The basic premise is that a group of young men from mixed backgrounds join the French air force to fly airplanes. At this point in the war, the US hadn’t entered the fight. I thought the cast did a great job, and it was certainly well acted…if not a little too-acted. It was actually a really funny movie, intentionally or not, which I didn’t really pick up on in the previews. Josh’s one complaint was that the French actress who plays the love interest seemed mildly retarded…but I wrote that off to him not understanding romance…or liking the French. The fight scenes and action sequences were all CGI I would assume…as one doesn’t come across WWI fighter pilots of a daily basis anymore, but regardless they were quite captivating. It might not have been the best movie ever, but we haven’t seen a good war movie in a while, and the general opinion of the group was that it was better than Pearl Harbor. I really liked Pearl Harbor too, so perhaps I’m not the best one to ask.

Recently I stopped watching the local morning news program. Since High School, I have woken up every morning, turned to my local NBC affiliate and watched the local morning news program, complete with too cheerful anchor people, bad reporting, and the over pronunciation of foreign words until the Today Show comes on at  7. I love the Today Show. Even Al Roker, despite Josh’s better judgment. However, since I’ve moved to Austin, I’ve had a serious beef with the local NBC channel. The reporting at KXAN is what you might call sub par. At 630 in the morning, I believe there is only so much spunk that should be permissible by law, and Tonya Kerr, Sally Hernandez (over-pronuncer) and Kate Weidaw certainly exceed that quota.   Now I like Tonya Kerr, my mom taught her daughters at MDUMC, and I know first hand that she is very nice, and have liked her since she was on Channel 2 News in Houston. She’s just too good for this channel. Sally Hernandez, I can take her or leave her. She over-pronounces ethnic words well, which might be her only qualification to be a newscaster, as she can’t really read copy or speak intelligently on any subject not presented to her on a teleprompter. Now let’s talk about Kate Weidaw. She’s the poor soul that all local news channels have. It’s her job to drive out to a local place of interest at 5am to report "on the scene".  That’s fine, but at 5am in my part of the world it’s dark. And in fact, it doesn’t really get bright enough to see anything until about 7am, when her job is done. ACL festival was this past weekend, and in order to report "on the scene" poor Kate was standing in the middle of a dark field. That’s right, big patch of grass, no lighting, and we’re supposed to be excited? I think not.

Let me know talk about the weather and traffic jerks. I’m sure they are fine people and probably lead very normal lives, but honestly people get a clue. Shawn Rutherford is our local morning weather guru who, as is common to most weathermen, believes he predicts and accurately delivers the weather each morning. He is amazed in July and August that it can be hot. In central Texas. In the Summer. Surely not! How can it be above 95 degrees for so many days in a row? Mindboggling! Where does he think we live? I’ve been living in Texas my whole life, and never has there been an extended period of 75degrees and breezy in August. He needs to get a clue. I’m sure in January he will be astonished that it will be cold, and will caution us to wear jackets, just in case we are too stupid to realize that on our own. Jerk. Okay, now the final piece of this pathetic puzzle is Terry McKay the traffic report. I’ve never seen his face, so he could be a robot or some sort of mystic invalid allowed to report on traffic, I don’t know, so I can’t be sure about his qualifications. Unlike the rest of the bunch, who I assume when to college of some kind and were actually told they have a talent for newscasting, Terry McKay is a wild card. Can one go to college for reporting on the traffic? How many ways are there to say…a little slow today? Geesh. My main issue with Terry is that traffic in Austin is not that bad.  Not compared to Houston, Dallas, Boston or LA. Austin simply isn’t that big. Yes, there are accidents that can slow things down and alternate routes to take if possible.  Austin can get bogged down on   I-35 and Mopac, but those things are simply a fact of life. There’s really nothing anyone can do about it. You leave for work with plenty of time to spare, and try to not get killed. It’s the best any of us can do.  Terry is just so negative, honestly no one is going to explode if they have to wait a few minutes on the freeway, and sadly, the world will not come to a screeching halt if you are late to work. Grumble.

As an American I have the right to change the channel.  Which you are probably thinking I should have done long ago if I have such strong feelings on this issue. Well change the channel I did…to TBS to watch Saved by the Bell. Not only is Saved by the Bell perhaps the defining TV show for my generation, but it’s great television. Drama, romance, intrigue, the occasionalAC Slater in those oh-so-tight wrestling outfits. So yes, friends, when I wake up at 630 every morning and remove myself from my snuggling nest of a bed, the first thing I do "when I wake up in the morning" is to turn on TBS to Saved by the Bell, to be greeted by Zack, Kelly, Lisa, Screech, Slater and Jessie. This morning it was even that episode where the girls lip-synch to pre-recorded music in exercise gear on trampolines, and Jessie is so stressed she starts to abuse caffeine  pills. Oh the humanity! Well, luckily everything gets resolved quickly, and within 30 minutes. Our girl Jessie will be back on her feet in no time. That’s the way I choose to start my day. I vote for Zach Morris to help me start my day. I might be 24, I might be almost starting to get wrinkle, but Saved by the Bell is my choice for a morning newscast.

Hello Friends, Sorry for the delay, but my computer is still broken an I can only update while at work, and when there’s nothing to do and no clients around.  Things have basically been the same for the last few days, nothing too exciting to report. I’ll be going up to KS for Andgela’s nuptials in October, so the state of Kansas will be, by default, becoming more fabulous and sassy that weekend. I’m looking forward to it, but I wish Josh could go. I don’t like the fact that there are going to be some people there who have never met Josh, and will probably think he is make-believe, but I guess I can’t do anything about that now.  I will be coming to Kansas by way of Minneapolis, which I’m told is still in the USA, but just barely. I purchased my ticket through kayak.com, which is apparently cheap. I usually just buy whatever ticket I want from continental.com, but apparently that is passe. I was a little reluctant at first, thinking that I will be required to fly standby, or arm wrestle a gorilla for an aisle seat, but according to the terms and conditions of the ticket, I will actually have a seat and will be taken to Kansas after only a brief, but chilly, lay over in Minneapolis…aka…Almost Canada.

Work has been good, although it has been slow. I’ve been spending a bit too much time staring off into space and trying to look productive. I generally accomplish this by keeping an excel spreadsheet open and alt-tabbing back and forth between that and reddit or foxnews whenever my spidey-senses tell me someone is walking by. This is a common, yet effective, method of time wasting.

Other than that things have been good. Yoga is good, and all my new equipment I got for my birthday works really well. I’m now in the Black-Mat club, which is an imaginary institution where really good ashtangis go to practice the second series on their expensively thick mats.

No big plans for this weekend, although I think we’re going to see Flyboys. There’s a UT game, and I’d like to convince Josh to go shopping. We’ll see how that goes. Also, I would like to go to Central Market, and perhaps go out to eat…someplace with menus.

I’ll update as I can, hopefully my computer with either be fixed or in the process or being replaced by this weekend.