Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I guess the Holiday Season is coming to an end. And I guess 2006 has come to an end. 2006 was an up and down year for me, but mostly good. And especially because I got into blogging and was lucky enough to make some wonderful blog buddies. Anyway, this is going to be a smorgasbord (I actually spelled it correctly on my first try, hooray) of a post ... that might actually turn into two posts.

Speaking of the end of 2006, I guess I'm a year older. I don't really feel any older but I, usually, feel like an old man anyway. One recent event that has me a bit worried about getting old, is that I watched ANCHORMAN and barely laughed. I mean I chuckled here and there, but for the most part I found it unfunny ... stridently at times. Am I the only one who found this movie decidedly mediocre (at best)? And is it because I'm getting old? Though if finding 80 odor jokes unfunny is a sign of getting old, I'll gladly cop to getting older ... and wiser ... and more sensible. Though I'm not sure how much more sensible since I still want to see TALLADEGA NIGHTS.

I also saw WONDER BOYS which was really, truly funny. In the end I was a bit disappointed with the film but that's mostly because I had very, very high expectations. I felt similarly about last year's LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. Both are stellar, hilarious films but I went into both thinking they would transcend their genre of light dramedy and delve deep into the dynamic of what makes good fiction (WONDER BOYS) and the interpersonal dynamics of a contemporary extended family (SUNSHINE). And while both films touch on their respective subjects, they do so with a delicate, light hand ... never really digging deep enough to uncover the hidden gems, the profound social comments we find in the piercingly honest and introspective films. That being said, these are two exceptional films with amazing casts ... especially SUNSHINE which has more charm than George Clooney's hairpiece. (Okay, okay, that's probably his real hair. Whatever.)

And speaking of good films, two of my favorite film critics have posted their top films of the year. I no longer am as informed on film criticism as I once was (or thought I was) but I still believe one of the top film critics in the world is the Chicago Reader's Jonathan Rosenbaum. Here's a link to his list along with the list of the Reader's junior critic. I'm also a big fan of Slate's Dana Stevens, who became Slate's film critic this year. Here's a link to her Top 10 list. And for any fellow Rosenbaum fans who might pass by, the Chicago Reader has recently unveiled a film blog run by their film critics. Here's the link to the blog.

I thought this post would be about several things but so far its been about films and movies. I think I'll end this post now and save the other things for subsequent posts. One of these things is an update on my fat loss. I stopped exercising for a couple weeks when I had to focus on papers for school. Nevertheless, I really didn't ballon up at all. This is because I continued to watch what I ate, limiting my caloric (and, therefore indirectly, my fat) intake. I in fact lost weight, but most of that was muscle and I could see my stomach had gotten a slight bit flabbier. Anyway I've returned to working out regularly again and hope to make the most of winter break. However I'd like to note that I think the weeks off show just how important watching what you eat is in terms of losing fat. You can exercise all you want, but if you are not simultaneously limiting your calories and fat, you will have an awfully hard time losing any fat. Anyway, I'll have an entire post on this (hopefully short) in the next few days.

I hope 2007 is treating everyone well.