"Physical Challenge!"

Great Odin's raven! It's a hot one! While stuck in traffic on a day like this, one will think of anything to keep from letting Mr. Golden Sun get the best of them. Thoughts like this are what inspired number one on this particular list. I guess this list is pretty self-explanatory. I would obviously have to wear an air-tight body suit for sanitary reasons...

5 Food Items I Would Like to Swim in a Large Vat of, and Gobble Up As I Swim.

1. Iced Chai - Mmmmmm, cool, spicy heaven. You can keep your DQ treats and iced coffee drinks smothered in whipped cream. I've grown heavily addicted to this stuff over the summer, and yes, I've thought about swimming in it one more than one occasion.

2. Cold Chocolate Pudding - Well, I think the initial dive would be fun, but the swimming and eating would grow tiresome pretty quickly.

3. Chinese Lo Mein - A little pork, some pea pods, a splash of soy sauce, there you go.

4. Barbeque Sauce - I think I would need assistance on this one. I would need people throwing chicken tenders at me when needed.

5. Mayo - No, not really. I just wanted to make my brother cringe 'cause he hates the stuff. I used to chase him around the house with the mayo jar and he'd run away scared.


This list is making me want to go on that old game show, "Double Dare". Hey, did anyone know that host of DD, Mark Summers, was actually an obsessive-compulsive cleaner? Once again, add to list if you want. Later everyone!

"Dooon't stop... belieeeeving!"

So I figure I should keep the posts coming since I'm on a little bit of a roll, here. But I'm tired and fussy and don't have much to write about. So, to keep things moving until I get some inspiration, here's a pic of the coolest family in the world. Enjoy.

Journey songs start running through my head when I look at this picture.

The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain.

Words are great. I've always been a much bigger fan of words than I have of numbers. And today I heard one of my favorite words uttered on a television commercial as I was watching "Pop Culture World Series" on VH1 (which is one of the only quiz shows I think I'd be pretty darn good at). Once in a while I'll encounter a word that will have the perfect formula of vowels, consonants, and accents, creating something that is irresistible to say. This following list, mind you, has nothing to do with the actual meaning of each word. But rather it focuses on, quite simply, how much fun it is to say. I'm not going to defend each word with an explanation, like I usually do in these lists. Just speak the word for yourself and see if you agree with me.

5 Favorite Words:

1. Palomino

2. Dollop

3. Luminous

4. Existentialism

5. Diphthong ('ph' is pronouced as an 'f' sound)

Once again, feel free to add your own. And I think ck and c may have to humor the rest of us and add definitions to theirs, knowing those two! Try and keep cool everybody!

Supertracks

Whenever the quality of a movie is under discussion, others usually bring up plot, dialogue, special effects, editing, etc. The first thing I notice in any movie is the music. And I don't think the average movie go-er recognizes the effect music can have over an image or a scene. This is a bad example, but a recent one: I recently went to go see Superman Returns. There's lots of elements I loved, a few I was disappointed in *cough, Lois, cough*, but the very first five seconds is what I enjoyed the most. When that solo trumpet played a perfect fifth to a star sprinkled black screen (otherwise known as the beginning of the Superman Theme), I felt like I was five-years-old again. Held within those simple notes, lives an image of a kind, blue-eyed, indestructible force working to protect the earth. It just brought a big, goofy grin to my face. Who knew five seconds of sound could be packed with so much power? With this in mind, here's my new list:

5 Favorite Movie Soundtracks (not including musicals):


1. Amelie
This amazing score by Yann Tiersen has no equal. The accordian driven instrumental pieces are filled with the romance, urgency, and creative brilliance that IS Amelie. But it doesn't out-shine the story and the stunning visual images, but rather it compliments them. Whenever I stick this CD into my car player, I find myself driving very fast 'cause the tracks are so irresistible!

2. Kill Bill I and II
These soundtracks are so eclectic. From fast-paced mariachi, to gorgeous Japanese vocals, to Johnny Cash; the boundless range of musical genres is comparable to Quentin Tarantino's wide film influences.

3. Magnolia
This soundtrack is what introduced me to the music of Aimee Mann. I believe I read somewhere that Paul Thomas Anderson (director) based this whole movie around her songs.

4. The Shining
Watch this movie with the sound off sometime, it's not half as creepy. Everytime I hear the eery rolling of that timpani I get chills up my spine.

5. Breakfast at Tiffany's
Ok, this MAY be because it's one of my favorite movies of all time. But primarily it's on this list because of "Moon River". I read in an Audrey Hepburn biography that Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer wrote this song not only for the movie, but wrote it with Audrey Hepburn in mind. This makes sense to me because the song has such a graceful melancholy to it, as did Audrey herself. It just puts a lump in my throat and I have no idea why.

Feel free to add your own choices to the comments, and hopefully it won't lead to the discussion of underoos again:)

ALSO, I have one extra song I'd like to add to my "5 Favorite 80's Songs" list. I heard the song, "In a Big Country" by Big Country on the radio a few days ago. I made a mental note that I must add this song to the list 'cause it rocks, that's all there is to it.

MLB thoughts

Tonight I watched the 2006 All Star Baseball Game, and I'm sad to say it was the most boring All Star game I've ever witnessed. Correction: it was the most boring BASEBALL game I've ever seen...altogether. Perhaps it wasn't so boring as it was disappointing. I was disappointed that instead of using the All Star game as an opportunity to feature a wide array of the leagues' greatest players, White Sox head coach Ozzie Guillen used this game as a chance to highlight seven, yes, seven of his own players, (compared to the average 2-3 players from every other team). I also feel he used it to gain the World Series home-field-advantage. The home-field-advantage element completely killed the whole game for me.

When I was a youngin' I used to looove watching baseball. And it seemed to me, in the greenness of my childhood , that players played simply because they loved the game. When the baseball strikes started, it pretty much shattered that illusion and I stopped watching major league baseball for quite a while.

And while I know now as an adult that all professional sports have their flaws, within the last two years I've found a renewed love of the sport. I suspect this newfound appreciation comes simply from the overall integrity of the current Minnesota Twins. It seems to me, relative to teams past and present, that this current group of guys genuinely enjoy the game, eachother, and their fans. I must sound like the biggest girl saying this, but I can't truely root for a sports team unless I respect the players as people. Yep, silly and girlish, but that's me.

The first five innings of tonights All Star game went as follows: Derek Jeter, A-Rod, and about four White Sox players got spanked by some decent National League pitching. Brad Penny pitched about twenty 99 mph fastballs in a row since he didn't have to pace himself, and watching this gentle giant take down a couple of American League big-shots was pretty amusing. (On a side note, Jeter and Rodriguez: does anyone really want these guys around anymore? Find me ten sane people who find these two clowns endearing and I'd die of shock. I do, however, like Ortiz and Suzuki, who also got spanked.) And the fielding was just painful to watch because these players don't play as a team, but rather fielded as individual players... Individual players tripping on their huge heads.

Starting at Nationals 2, American 1; The last half wasn't as bad, we got to see a lot of the younger players who truely appreciated being there. And the last inning got about half-way to entertaining when the American League made a quick comeback to win the game. All in all, not much to see.

At the end of the game, a reporter interviewed the Twin's great Harmon Killebrew. At one point Killebrew stated something along the lines of, "Joe Mauer is an example of how more Major League players should act." And I'd have to say I agree. If anything I can use this game as an opportunity to confirm my respect for my hometeam:)