MixBlog 1-23-11

Lately I have really been kind of in a rut, even more than usual. The weather is not helping. I hate the cold to begin with, but this winter has been borderline ridiculous. My house is drafty, which makes it worse. I've always thought I'd never really consider moving away from Philadelphia but right now I'd love to just ditch this place and move somewhere warm. I don't know how I could possibly make that happen, with my finances being what they are. Tonight's forecast is for the coldest overnight low yet...

  

...and Wednesday may bring us more snow (or possibly rain). But hey, check out the bottom of that screen cap -- at least people with migraines will feel better today.

Just finished watching the end of the Flyers game. In their first meeting since last year's Stanley Cup finals the Flyers beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1. They are so much more consistent this year (despite a loss yesterday to New Jersey, a team that's having the same type of disastrous year that the Flyers did in 2006-07). The win puts the Flyers' record at 32-12-5, and their 69 points leads the entire league. That, of course, means little when it comes to the postseason, but the consistency combined with their depth is a very good sign. Hiring Peter Laviolette as coach was a genius move on the part of GM Paul Holmgren.

Meanwhile, in the strange recesses of my mind, I got to thinking about Taylor Swift earlier. Really.

On The Other Hand...

Unlike James Franco, Jake Gyllenhaal can come out of the closet any time he wants, especially since he broke up with Taylor Swift. I never thought that was real, let alone that it was going to last a while. She strikes me as a perpetually lovestruck 14-year-old even though she's 21. He's 30 now. The age difference isn't the issue. The maturity difference is. She should go back to Taylor Lautner, if you want my opinion. And Jake should come out and declare his eternal love for me, or at least stop by for a night...oh, what the hell, let's run this picture again...

By the way, perhaps because of this picture, somehow my "Love and Other Drugs" review has nearly caught up to my second nearly-naked Pat Burrell post as most-viewed on my blog since Blogger added their new Stats feature.

Speaking of coming out, did you hear that Johnny Weir is gay? Most of the commentary today revolves around the utter lack of surprise at this, since by his actions and attitude he'd done everything but make it official. I had my own joke line about it when I tweeted earlier ("Water wet, fire hot, Weir gay; or: time to sell some books!"). But this story at EW.com gives a more nuanced view of why he wanted to come out on his terms.

P.S. In part this post was a test to see if Blogger solved the problem that was disrupting things last night. It seems like it's back to normal. I have 2 movies, 2 weeks of comics and the NFL playoffs to write about, so I'm glad it's fixed!

An Open Letter To Twitter

Dear Twitter,

Where's this new Twitter everyone's going on about? I still have the old one. Don't you know who I am? I must insist that you provide me with this new Twitter immediately. But only if you've got the bugs worked out of it. I don't want a Twitter that has problems. The current Twitter works reasonably well, when it's not "over capacity." So give me the new Twitter but, to quote the legendary RuPaul, "Don't f--k it up!"

Oh, and one other thing: you want me to follow these people? Oh, hell no!

Sincerely, Joe

Quick Review: Valentine's Day

A movie about a holiday. I can't wait for everyone to get to see the movies "Presidents Day," "Flag Day," "Arbor Day," "National Masturbation Day," and...oh, wait, that last one may have to be rated NC-17...

Anyhoo, "Valentine's Day" didn't annoy me like so many of these romantic comedies do. However, with such a large cast of big-name actors (Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Ashton Kutcher, Julia Roberts, Jamie Foxx, Anne Hathaway, Shirley MacLaine, Hector Elizondo, Jennifer Garner, Patrick Dempsey, Eric Dane, Emma Roberts, Taylor Swift, Taylor Lautner, Queen Latifah, Topher Grace, George Lopez, Kathy Bates) dividing up the screen time with so many storylines and romantic couplings, none of them had a chance to become especially interesting. And it's extremely predictable -- just about every plot twist and relationship change can be figured out immediately. At least they had the good sense to have Eric Dane go shirtless for a bit. (This photo isn't from this movie but you get the general idea.) Without spoiling his storyline, let's just say it depicts something that is often a topic for discussion at Outsports.com. Still, "Valentine's Day" had a few charming moments. Or maybe I'm just going soft...hmmm...that sounds like a plotline for "National Masturbation Day: The Movie." My grade: B-minus