First you cook, then you chill

A couple of things I did during my recently completed semester break was manage to waste a lot of time. And part of how I did so was by watching movies and reading a book I've been meaning to read.

First, the movie. Another Will Ferrell joint, this time Blades of Glory, also featuring Napoleon Dynamite, aka Jon Heder. This movie looked ridiculous in the previews but the better half and I were in a comedy sort of mood and decided to check it out. Turns out, it was actually pretty good (and ridiculous!). Ferrell plays the sex addict / skating superstar who rumbles with arch enemy and nancy boy Heder, leading to their ban from singles figure skating. But, thanks to a loophole discovered by a stalker 3 years later (I'm not making this up), they find they are eligible to return to doubles skating. Lo and behold, there is no rule forbidding a same sex skating team. As you might guess, hilarity ensues, full of pseudo-homo-risquee scenes and other general nonsense. Of course the team wins the gold and everyone has a happy ending. Glad I didn't drop 10 bucks to see this in the theater but it was a good, fun, throwaway movie.

Secondly, I finally got to a book loaned to me by my boy Q called Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich. No, this is not the basis of the kinda funny Steve Martin / Queen Latifah movie. Rather, it is the basis of the recently released 21, which is based on a true story of a blackjack team that originated at MIT and went on to win millions of dollars from various casinos in Vegas and other places around the world. The story is told from the perspective of one of the team members and details how he was recruited, trained and the exploits of the team as they won all the money and started living the high life, courtesy of the casinos. And the cat and mouse game between the team and the casinos is riveting and suspenseful. Mezrich is definitely an able writer and spins the tale in a way that feels much more like fiction than a real-life account. I'm sure he takes some creative license but overall, this is a really good and quick read. I recommend it to anyone interested in gaming or likes espionage and that sort of thing. I finished the book in about 3 hours so it's not a major time commitment either.

The next several days will be spent immersing myself in the ever-inspiring theories of Piaget, Plato and others as I get caught up on my class reading. I hope to be completely caught up by the end of the weekend. Perhaps that is ambitious, we shall see.

Song lyric of the day "Money/it's a crime/share it fairly/but don't take a slice of my pie" Pink Floyd

Until next time.

Ace