My favorite material items

Ah America, what would you be without the rampant consumerism that has become your trademark? Sadly, I often find myself caught up in this consumerism, and to that end, I wish to present my five favorite material items. Each has, in its own way, brought me more pleasure and satisfaction than the cost of admission. I highly recommend everyone pick up the items on this list. Here they are in no particular order.

XM Satellite Radio.
I find it amazing the number of people who, when told about Satellite Radio, look at you as if you have three heads. "You pay for radio?!??" These, incidentially, are the same people shelling out upwards of $50 per month for cable television. People! Paying a monthly fee for premium content is nothing new. XM's depth, quality, and clarity make it well worth a measly $10/month.

Broadband Internet
Yeah, I'm a dork, and I'd be completely lost without my cable internet connection. I get all my news and information pretty much exclusively from the web, and I couldn't imagine having to wait for it as I go.

My two blankets
Quite simply, the most comfortable pieces of fabric in existance. While not a gadget or a sports car, these guys have the unfair advantage of being in integral part of my life since it began. Laugh if you will at a 6'5 grown man who still sleeps with his baby blankets, but I could care less, a good night's sleep just isn't going to materialize without them.

Tivo
I love our Tivo so much that I think people who don't have one are crazy. I don't care if you never watch TV. I don't care if you are happy with tapes. If you have a TV, you should have some form of this thing. It's that simple. Don't think about it, just get it and you'll never look back.

A Good Stereo System (various)
Like everyone, I enjoy listening to music. However, over the years, I have come to the conclusion that to truely enjoy a great song, you have to be listening to it on a competent sound system. Listening to a great song on a crappy system is like having a copy of the Mona Lisa on your wall, and illuminating it with a 20 watt bulb.

Dodge Viper RT/10
I have loved cars for most of my life, but out of all the exotics, muscle cars, and flashy sports cars that ever were, this was the only one I wanted. Amazingly enough, owning it ended up being just as much fun as I thought it would be. I could go on and on for pages about why I love this car, and in a future blog entry, I probably will.

Honerable mention: Wireless internet, satellite tv, heated car seats

My favorite books of all time

This will be a fairly short and quick entry, as I really don't read much for pleasure. So let's get right to it. Although I owe much of my professional success to various technical books, those aren't the subject of this list.

Brain Droppings
by George Carlin
I connected to this book so well that it was slightly alarming. So many feelings and attitudes I've had for most of my life were all of the sudden materialized in print. A very funny book, but more importantly, a biting social commentary on how most humans (especially Americans) are lacking even the basic qualifications necessary to elevate them above the animal kingdom.

The Andromeda Strain
by Michael Crichton
I've read very few novels in my life, but three of them have been by Michael Crichton, and each was very enjoyable. Jurassic Park was great, as was Sphere, but I can get sucked into re-reading Andromeda Strain at the drop of a hat.

Rich Dad Poor Dad
by Robert Kyosaki
This book purports itself to be a real-life account of the wisdom passed down to the author by a financially astute mentor (his "rich dad"), however, recent evidence points to the entire story being made up. Regardless, the lessons taught by the book are very real, and the points made are eye-openers. The rich are rich because they know how to work the system, whereas the "middle class" are trapped in an endless cycle of perpetually owing just a tad more than they have.

The Simpsons- Complete Guide To America's Favorite Family
by Matt Groenig et al.
An amazingly detailed episode guide to the first eight seasons of one of the best TV shoes ever. Well written, well designed, and incredibly detailed. Reading the book, in many ways, captures the pleasure of watching the episodes themselves.

The Onion- Dispatches From the Tenth Circle
Before this book, I had never even heard of The Onion, a weekly satirical news publication that takes some pretty cruel and irreverent shots at both current events and society. While the book is merely a compendium of the weekly publications, the writing is both witty and iconoclastic, and the headlines are probably funnier than any other publication of its type. Sample headline: "T-ball Stand at Special Olympics Pitches Perfect Game". Classic.

Sinbad's Guide To Life- Casue I Know Everything
by Sinbad
I distinctly remember my vacation with the Young family to Virginia Beach in the summer of 1997. We stopped at a used book store to pick up some reading material for the beach, and I bought this book. Shortly thereafter, I was reduced to hysterics in the back seat at the hands of this book. While I don't find Sinbad's standup to be that special, his writing style made the material ten times funnier, and more than once I had to stop reading to catch my breath. I will never forget how hard this book made me laugh.

My favorite movies of all time

Favorite movies are a hard thing to qualify. Afterall, there are three distinct types of "favorite movies". The first type are the obvious ones--movies that you absolutely are in love with for whatever reason or another. Movies that grab you; have a power over you. Classics. These are the ones that absolutely jump to mind when someone asks you what your favorite movies are.

The second type of favorites are your "casual favorite" movies. These movies, while not holding as much weight as the first category, are equally important becuase they can be popped in without the emotional commitment the prior category requires. Real favorites, afterall, need to be watched with a certain amount of reverence. This second category, on the other hand, is the domain of the comfort movie.

The third group, you don't even realize that they count as your favorites. But sure enough, whenever you're flipping through your two hundred empty goddamn cable channels, you'll admit defeat, park it on one of these movies, then ultimately miss doing something else you had planned. If this movie sat on your video shelf, it would have a layer of dust on it thicker than all the others; its odds of being popped in would regularly hover around zero. But if it's on TV one Sunday afternoon, that channel may as well be the only one you have, cause you ain't changin it.

So, that being said, on to my favorites.

My "category one" favorites are few; they require a certain attention to technical detail and technique (sweet lord, I sound like a movie-snob asshole here) that give them that extra boost above a less artfully made movie. Everything just sort of comes together in a flawlessly executed package. The first example that comes to mind is American Beauty. I enjoy this movie not only for the sharp writing and wonderful performances, but also for the attention given to the composition of each shot; how perfectly the score compliments the story. The lighting that goes into each scene at the dinner table. I could go on, sounding like a pretentious college junior after his first film course, but I'll stop.

Other category one favorites: Clue. The first Matrix. The Princess Bride. The Lord of the Rings movies, although I'll probably never watch them again cause I my attention span just ain't there.

Category two favorites: Some easier choices here. The Naked Gun is a comedy classic that makes me laugh every time I watch it. Pee Wee's Big Adventure, a grown-up movie wrapped in kids-movie clothes, has stood the test of time very nicely. If it's Christmas time, National Lampoon Christmas Vacation fits this category nicely.

As for category three, there are so many of these that I won't get into listing them, but I will say that for me, the quintissential example is A League Of Their Own; a movie that was good but not great, but I will keep on until the Madonna song starts rolling over the closing credits.

"You're gonna looo-se, you're gonna looo-se!"
[Throws baseball glove]
"Ha! I got em!"

Heh, maybe that movie is great afterall.