Movie review: Larry Crowne

I had another sneak peek screening this week; this time, it was Larry Crowne, the Tom Hanks/Julia Roberts movie that came out yesterday. I would call it cute. It was a relatively enjoyable movie with a lot of fun, quirky characters and Tom Hanks as charming as always playing a guy (Larry) who loses his job for not having a college degree and decides to change that by enrolling in community college. He learns a lot, inside and outside the classroom. I kind of feel like there were too many fun, quirky characters, more than necessary. You had Larry's neighbors, Larry's coworkers, Larry's classmates, Larry's scooter gang friends... it's a lot of people to share screen time. Besides the story of Larry kind of hitting rock bottom and then growing into a better version of himself, there is the romance with Julia Roberts' character, which I feel is played up in most of the previews but is really the worst part of the movie. It's a very rushed and forced romance. Julia's character is married but I guess we are supposed to forget that because he's kind of a jerk. She's also very disillusioned and cranky, so much so that it's very hard for me to believe that she puts that all aside due to the ten minutes of alone time she spends with Larry. I do think the movie was cute overall and I definitely didn't leave the theater thinking it was a waste of my time but I kind of wish they had left out the romance and just showed how someone can turn lemons into lemonade.

"All-You-Can-Watch MoviePass Brings Netflix Model to Theaters"

This article talks about MoviePass, a new service that is currently being tested in San Francisco, with plans to expand nationally by the fall. It's a service like NetFlix, where you pay one flat rate fee and can get an unlimited amount of movies each month. In this case, though, instead of DVDs shipped to your home it's movies at the theater that you get for $50.

It's an interesting concept but I don't know many people who go to that many movies each month to make it worthwhile. Of course, the benefit for most companies like this is that people buy something and don't use it enough to make it worth their while but keep the subscription anyway. It's not a bad idea and I'm honestly surprised it's taken so long for something like this to be developed.

The article mentions a cheaper service that is under consideration that costs $30/month for access to four movies and I have to say that might be something I would consider, especially if you can start and stop the service as easily as you can with Netflix. There are definitely months (like in the summer or around the Academy Awards) when there are four movies I would want to see. But not all months. Plus, movies cost over $10 here so really as long as you went at least three times you would be saving some money.

Movie review: Bad Teacher

Bad Teacher opens this weekend and I had the chance to watch it on Wednesday at a free advanced screening. I have to say, I laughed really hard. It seems to be getting only average reviews but it's not often that I laugh so consistently throughout a movie so I recommend it. It's crude and Cameron Diaz plays a really despicable person but she's remarkably good at it and does get her comeuppance a few times. She has a rival teacher that you kind of root for, plus Jason Segel, from How I Met Your Mother, is awesome in that his character sees right through Cameron's character.

Well-Read Cities

I came across this article - Cambridge, Mass. tops Amazon's list of 'well-read' cities - and while that's great and all for Cambridge, I couldn't help but notice that number 10 on the list is Arlington, VA, where I live!

National Dump the Pump Day

Apparently today was National Dump the Pump Day, brought to us by the National Public Transportation Association in an effort to promote the use of public transportation. While I did not take public transportation today, I have dumped the pump recently. Something major is wrong with my car and I've been holding off on getting it fixed for awhile, sort of seeing how long I can make it without a car. It's been about six weeks and it's not been bad. I'm lucky that I can walk to work and be there in about 12 minutes. If worse comes to worst (like there's a major storm or something), I do have the option of taking a bus that leaves about a block from my house and drops me off directly across the street from my work.

Probably the times I miss my car the most is on the weekends. I have to run all my errands on foot or by using public transportation and some days it's harder than others. I have a grocery store about two blocks away and another about 8-10 blocks so I go to both regularly. My other most common errand-running is to the library, which is about 4 blocks away. So those two things are pretty easy, although it does mean that I can't buy too much from the grocery store at one time. Hanging out with friends isn't too tough because a few of my friends don't have cars anyway so we usually meet at spots accessible by public transportation. Going shopping or to Target, one of my favorite stores, is the toughest. I wouldn't call myself a shopaholic but I do like to go shopping every once in awhile. There are a couple malls or shopping centers directly off the Metro and I've also discovered a bus that leaves from by my house and goes directly to Tyson's Corner Center, one of the biggest malls in the area. I tried that out a couple weeks ago and it was super easy. There is a Target on a bus route and I did that in early May but had my car been working, I would've been to Target at least a couple more times since then. The Target I like best is not a quick bus ride away, unfortunately. I guess there are worse things than not visiting Target several times a month.

I've found that I actually enjoy taking the bus. It's nicer than taking the train because you are above ground and can actually look out the window and see sights. It's also cheaper. And, it's kind of a neat way to see a new area. Plus, the NextBus system lets you plug in your stop information and see exactly how many minutes away the next bus is... that enables you to stay at home until the last minute and not have to sit at the bus stop waiting.

In sum, I do plan on getting my car fixed soon but I gave up my parking pass at work, so I have given up the pump in that respect. While I walked often even when I had my parking pass, this means I can't drive at all so it will be a bit of an adjustment.

Movie review: Super 8

I saw an advanced screening of Super 8 over the weekend and I enjoyed it. It's sort of a mix of E.T., Stand by Me and the premiere of Lost. Perhaps Goonies-esque, although I've honestly never seen that. It has a lot of funny moments, plus some thriller, mystery and sci-fi. And it stars Kyle Chandler, who I've had a crush on for years thanks to Friday Night Lights. Well, who am I kidding? It's probably more like since Early Edition. Anyway, I recommend it.

Hulu Plus now on Tivo!

They've only been talking about how Hulu Plus would be available on the Tivo Premiere since it was introduced (at least a year) but it's only just this week that it finally IS available. It was announced on the Hulu blog last Monday and said it would take up to ten days until it was available on all machines. Well, it finally showed up on my machine yesterday! I'm such a huge Hulu fan and even though Hulu Plus has a monthly cost ($7.99), I still thought I might be willing to pay it to get all the Hulu videos played on my TV. Now I'm not sure. Because of this introduction to the Tivo, however, you get a free one-month trial so I'll be sure to try it out for that month, at least. I need to time it correctly for maximum TV-viewing. There are a lot of Hulu shows that are not available on Hulu Plus. Then again, there are a lot of shows available on Hulu Plus not available on Hulu. And if it keeps adding more shows, it's a considerably cheaper option than cable, which I've also been thinking about getting. I'll let you know what happens!

Unaired SNL Clip

This showed up in my Hulu queue as a bit that didn't make it to air Saturday on Saturday Night Live - unfortunately. I thought it was funnier than many of the things that did air. Justin Timberlake plays Mozart and the rest of the cast makes fun of him when he decides that he wants to move from music into acting.

Book Review: Bossypants

Bossypants is the new book by Tina Fey. It's more a collection of essays than it is a straightforward autobiography but I thought it would be perfect to listen to while I drove to Ohio and back a few weeks ago. Also, considering I haven't read a book since the first week of January, I thought it would be a good way to ease back into things. (Does listening to an audio book count as reading?) Anyway, it was a good way to ease back into reading. It was perfect for a road trip with enough funny anecdotes to keep me entertained but stories that weren't too long to make me lose concentration. I love comedians who are not afraid of making themselves look like fools and Tina certainly does this. She even includes some embarrassing photos of herself. I think I found most interesting the parts about Saturday Night Live because it gave a little insight to how the show is done. I highly recommend the book for anyone interested in some easy reading.

Goodbye to Great Characters

I watched the final season of Friday Night Lights on DVD this week, thanks to the library and my friend's portable DVD player (which let me watch it on the train to Philly). It just started airing on NBC yesterday and I might actually watch some episodes again because it was such a great season. I am going to miss those characters so much; I was pretty much crying non-stop through the entire last episode. It took me back to the finale of Lost last year... and makes me wonder how I'm going to feel when One Life to Live goes off the year next year. If I get that worked up about characters I've known 5 or 6 years, how will I handle saying good-bye to characters I've known for nearly 40 years? Crazy.

I Want One: Inflatable Outdoor Color Dot Game

Okay, I don't really want one. It's outrageously overpriced and I don't even have a yard but how fun does this look? It's outdoor Twister. (via)

Cavs game

I went to the Cavs-Wizards game last night here in DC and actually had a really good seat without it even costing too much, thanks to Groupon. I watched the game on TV when I got home and saw myself on TV! It was just a few plays and I knew where I was sitting so I doubt anyone else could see me but I was pretty excited. I am a TV star, ha ha. Anyway, here are some pics from this game (click below for more pics) and the one I went to in December in Cleveland. Both were losses, which I know is shocking considering how many games the Cavs have won all season.

Cavs Games 2010-11 season

Dwight Howard gets it - mostly

Dwight Howard, of the Orlando Magic, was on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon this past week and they talked about his impending free agency... and how another former free agent who is also now playing in Florida handled things.

Mount Vernon

I had a LivingSocial coupon for Mount Vernon, George Washington's house, that expired on March 31 so I headed down there to use it before it expired. I'd never been there but had been planning on going at some point. The coupon enabled me to make that happen for cheaper!

The only problems with going in March is that it was still pretty chilly, none of the crops were in bloom, and some of the features do not operate in the winter. However, overall, it was really nice, with the best part definitely being the property's view. The view is just gorgeous, right on the river; it's no wonder he lived there for like 50 years. There are vegetable gardens, flower gardens, (most of which were not in bloom at all) and livestock.

You go through the mansion on a guided tour so you aren't free to just roam around aimlessly or take pictures. Besides the main mansion, there are a lot of other buildings around, like the greenhouse, the slave quarters, the laundry house, the smokehouse, the garages, the stables, etc... There is also the crypt. George is in the tomb on the right, Martha on the left (that you can barely see).


You also can walk down to the dock and get really close to the water and also see his sixteen-sided barn, which was one many agricultural inventions he apparently had.

I didn't take a lot of pictures but it was pretty cool and wanted to share. It's like a little piece out of the 18th century nestled away outside of 21st century life. Someday I might go again because I didn't really have time to walk through the museum part of it and might take advantage of some of the things that are only available April to October.

Tivo Frustration

I've been a Tivo user for almost two years and have been a huge fan of theirs, praising them to everyone who will listen, but a couple of days ago, my Tivo box died. And since then, I've had a lot of drama involving the company. Like, I've found that their customer service kinda sucks.

Let me start at the beginning. My old box (I have two) started acting crazy on like Tuesday of this week. Quite honestly, it had a couple of little hiccups that led me believe it was aging. But, I had moved it into my bedroom and I don't watch or record things in my bedroom much at all so I wasn't worried. But, on Tuesday, I turned on the TV while I was getting ready for work and the "Welcome" screen was on. The "Welcome" screen comes on when the Tivo is powering up. So, I was confused - had the power gone out? I didn't think much of it until I came home from work and the "Welcome" screen was still on. I unplugged it and then it seemed to boot fine. On Weds. morning, the "Welcome" screen was on again so that day I checked out the Tivo online support site, found a resolution and all seemed fine. By Thursday evening, I had had to "fix" it a few more times and suddenly it wasn't booting up at all. It would go through the actions and then right when it got to the main menu screen, back to the "Welcome" screen it would go. Uh oh.

So, Friday, I called tech support. The guy I talked to, Dennis, was very nice and helpful but told me that it was dead. He suggested I could exchange it for a new machine for $149 or perhaps get it repaired (which I later found out cost $279). I had just a few weeks ago purchased service for it for a year, so I was concerned about getting that money back or getting that service moved to another machine. He said that service could probably be transferred to a new machine of the same type but not a newer model. Otherwise, I would be out the $99 service fee I'd paid. I wasn't happy with any of those options. I don't want to have to fork over any money. But, Dennis gave me time to think about my options.

Saturday, I happened to pull up my online account and saw the words "Eligible for 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee" next to the service details for my broken box. Which, I assumed, meant I could get my money back for this $99 service. Hooray! Well, my account is charged on the 12th of each month so I assumed today was the 30th day of that guarantee (a guarantee that Dennis didn't mention at all). So I called customer support again. I got put through to someone named Steve who very rudely told me that he couldn't do anything for me while their system was down for a few hours. "Call back in a couple of hours," he said. Umm, thanks? How about taking my phone number and calling me when your system comes back up? Wouldn't that be good customer service? Or, god forbid, listening to my problem and seeing if it can be answered without the system? I tried that approach and he basically hung up on me.

So, a couple hours passed and I called back and wouldn't you know I got Steve again. When he asked me how my evening was going, I was so tempted to say "Not so great since you were so rude to me a couple of hours ago," but I refrained. So, Steve is clearly a sales guy and in order to give me that money back, first he's going to go through every other option available to me that involves me keeping my service. He mentioned at least 6 options - none of which were the ones that Dennis had mentioned the day before, by the way. Steve kept going on about how if I didn't want to keep the service, then I should sell my box to a friend or family member. I'm like, "The box doesn't work!!" Then, he suggested I put the box on Craigslist. Again, I had to remind him that the box is broken. He seemed to think the box was still very valuable despite being broken because people pay for the service on the box. Whatever. He was driving me a little crazy. So we get to a point where I ask if he can send me something listing all the options he's laid out for me because there were so many. He gets all defensive and says he most certainly cannot send me the options. He explains to me that their privacy settings prevent him from contacting me - even though he had read off my email address at the beginning of the conversation as a way of proving who I was. When I pointed this out to him, he insisted he wasn't allowed to contact me. Whatever. So I asked him to go through those options again and he only gave me two and then seemed to be in a big hurry to get rid of me. It was really rude, honestly. The only thing he did that was nice was extend my 30-day guarantee so that I would have until April 11 to make a decision. The call was kind of exhausting, truth be told. Steve was kind of a jerk and I still had a broken machine and was out $99.

I hung up, unsure what I was going to do. Sunday, my Tivo box was laying in my living room because I had unplugged it on Friday immediately after Dennis told me it was dead. Somehow, I got the idea to test the box on my living room TV. I guess the thought I had was that the power strip in my bedroom had problems. I hooked it up in the living room and of course it didn't load. But then, a few hours after I had plugged it in, I happened to check it and it was working! I couldn't believe it. It worked the rest of the day. Right before bedtime, I moved it back into my bedroom. And it worked immediately there too. And this morning, it was still working.

So I had all this drama with the customer support for nothing! It's so bizarre. It worries me that the box was acting funny once, so how long before it acts up again? Clearly there is SOMETHING wrong with it. Luckily, I do have until April to figure out what to do. Maybe I should take advantage of one of the options presented to me after all and get a new box? Such a roller coaster ride.

Loving Redbox

I just started using Redbox to rent movies pretty frequently in the last month or two, thanks to free rental coupons and a Groupon I bought that gave me three rentals for $1.00. And it's so easy and cool that I can't believe it took me so long and I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't tried it and wants to rent movies! I won't be giving up Netflix anytime soon but since I downgraded to one movie out at a time, there are definitely times when I want a certain movie NOW and Redbox comes in very handy for that. It probably helps that there is a grocery store 2 blocks away that has two Redbox machines and is open 24 hours a day, so it really can't get much more convenient. But it's nice that you can check the inventory of all boxes easily online so before I head out to the grocery store, I can see if they even have the movie I'm looking for. Or, maybe go somewhere else. And you can reserve online. And, you can return a movie anywhere - it doesn't have to be returned to the box where you got it. I've used all these features.

Charlie Sheen Fired

I don't know why I'm now posting twice in a few days about Charlie Sheen because truth be told, I'm barely following all the drama... but I came across the full text of the document the CBS lawyers sent firing Charlie and it's awesome. It's eleven pages of trying to prove how he's violated his contract and then ten full pages of references to his craziness from articles and interviews about him, most of which he conducted himself. It's a great read seriously. (via)

Charlie Sheen is ruining my favorite baseball player

As is most of America, I'm intrigued/baffled/obsessed/horrified with Charlie Sheen. Not enough to be one of the millions following him on Twitter or to watch his live web broadcast but enough to watch/listen to some of his various interviews. During a lot of the interviews, he can be seen wearing an Indians hat or jersey, which I find awful (doesn't Cleveland have enough sports woes?) but I chalk it up to his appearance in Major League over 20 years ago. However, during last night's Dateline NBC coverage, I discovered that it's not just the fictional Indians he's a fan of, it's the real Indians too! See the video below, in the shot below and then starting at about 1:11 in the video... notice the baseball jersey hanging in the background on the right of the screen. Lofton, #7. It's Kenny Lofton's Indians jersey!! Only my favorite Indians player ever. Ugh. Then I found out, too, that Charlie invited Kenny over to watch Major League with him and other baseball players a few weeks ago. Kenny, get away fast!!!

Oscar documentaries

The last few years, I'd managed to watch one of the Oscar-nominated documentaries before the telecast and it turned out to be the winner. This year, I watched three of them so I won't be surprised if one of the other two is the one that wins. Ha ha. Actually, I've heard Inside Job is the favorite and that isn't one I watched.

The three I watched were: Exit Through the Gift Shop, GasLand, and Restrepo. Of those three, I would award the first. It told an interesting story, plus the director is a secret figure so I am curious to see what would happen if it wins - who would accept the award?

By the way, I came across this article that details what will happen at the Oscars, segment by segment, so when it starts to run over, you can see how far over it is.

I Want One: Cherry Sweater

I know it's got an extra "e" but this sweater is perfect for me! Too bad it's $360. (via)