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Ok, when I asked people to critique my site awhile back, some people mentioned that it didn’t have enough “depth.” I can totally see that, but to actually update this thing everyday, it’s hard for me to find time to write original, lengthy posts. I sort of think of my website more as a portal to cool things around the net. And a lot of people actually told me they like the fact that my posts are short and to the point. But, I also see this website as a way of expressing myself and the things I like. So taking into account their feedback, I’ve decided to start Brain Dump Mondays! Every monday I will post commentary, pictures, etc to the things I’ve been doing offline or maybe an opinion piece on some current event. This way, you guys can learn a little bit more about me and my personality and the things I like to do when I’m not surfing the net. You’ll also get to read my opinions on the links that I post about. For the people who enjoy reading the short posts, those will continue Tuesday-Friday. :)

To start off Brain Dump Mondays, I’m going to post a movie review of Cloverfield (with no spoilers) which I saw this past Friday. Chances are, you probably saw it as well since it’s looking to be #1 at the box office with an estimated $41 million for the 3 day weekend. This beats out even the re-release of Star Wars which has until now held the January box office record! Pretty impressive for a movie that only cost $35 million to make.

This picture sums up what I thought of the movie:

hehe jk. Actually, after I got in “the zone”, the shaking didn’t bother me too much but everybody else I went with felt pretty nauseous afterwards. The weird thing is everyone still liked the movie a lot. I REALLY enjoyed it. I thought it was highly entertaining. The “monster” looked cool. The acting wasn’t too cheesy like other movies in that genre, and at times it was even cute and funny. I thought Hud’s character added the perfect amount of humor in spite of the dire situation they were in. Sure, there were some scenes that were a little unbelievable but overall I found the movie quite fun to watch and highly recommend it if you don’t think you will mind the camera shake. (Think Blair Witch Project if you ever saw that).

As I was reading through my RSS Reader, I noticed a lot of bloggers blogging about the movie and the crazy things they found:

Rachel at ThatNight, discovered a ring of Myspace pages of the characters from the movie which have not been logged in since the premiere of the movie. Smart!

Grrl Still Kickin’ has a link to the whisper at the end of Cloverfield (what, you mean you didn’t stay til the end!!). Well now you can hear it online. She also points us to the Cloverfield Clues blog

Over at FilmSchoolRejects, they present us with drawings of the Cloverfield monster drawn by fans

Boyrobot pointed out some interesting facts about Cloverfield to me. Interesting note about a possible sequel.

Also, Kottke points us to people complaining about how similar the Cloverfield imagery is to 9/11. I have to admit that there were scenes from the movie that did remind of 9/11.

For the ones who saw the movie, what did you think? Any interesting clues/fact you noticed or discovered? I’m such a puzzle lover that I love things like this!

PS: I can’t wait for JJ Abrams version of Star Trek!!! There was a short trailer for it before Cloverfield.

I’m such a fan of Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) and his blog that I can’t help but give a shout out to his new book which is based on the best of his old blog posts (which have since been removed from his archives). His new book is called Stick To Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain and he is holding a contest on his website right now. If you’re a fan of Scott Adams, you’ll love the prizes he has:

1 Grand Prize: A framed and signed original Dilbert comic selected by Sponsor in its sole discretion (worth $1500!)

25 Second Prizes: one autographed copy of the book Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain.

All you have to do is submit a humorously over-the-top book blurb in the comments to this blog post.

$16.47 at Amazon.

He’s also holding a book signing on Nov 7th at his restaurant Stacey’s at Waterford. Ahhh, I wish I lived up north so I could go!

I’ve written about Zappos before and how they have really awesome customer service but this blog post just blew me away.

I Heart Zappos

Basically the gist is a women orders 7 pairs of shoes for her mom but then finds out only 2 of them fit. During this time, her mom passes away so she ends up exceeding the maximum number of days allowed to return items (15 days) so Zappos calls wondering where the shoes are. She tells them the situation so that she can have a few extra days to return them. Instead of letting her worry about it, they send UPS to come pick up the shoes for her (normally you have to take it to the post office yourself to mail it back) AND send her a bouquet of flowers.

Talk about above and beyond! I seriously wish more companies cared about their customers like Zappos. They should learn from this…it’s such an easy way to get free publicity as I’m sure more people will be posting about this story on their blogs.

Current song I have on repeat: The Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelson (yes it’s the old navy song!! hehe)

If you were falling, then I would catch you.
You need a light, I’d find a match.

Cuz I love the way you say good morning.
And you take me the way I am.

If you are chilly, here take my sweater.
Your head is aching, I’ll make it better.

Cuz I love the way you call me baby.
And you take me the way I am.

I’d buy you Rogaine when you start losing all your hair.
Sew on patches to all you tear.

Cuz I love you more than I could ever promise.
And you take me the way I am.
You take me the way I am.
You take me the way I am.

I have to talk about this old, but great show. I just recently got into it after a few people kept telling me I would love it. They were right! I can’t believe I missed out on this when it aired in 1999-2000, but that was probably because I was in college then and hardly ever watched tv. This show is pretty much near my top all time tv shows. The first couple of episodes were hard for me to get into but with each episode I started growing more attached to the characters and now I looooove them! I’m almost done with the whole season, I’ve been trying not to watch it too fast because I don’t want it to end. For such an awesome tv show, it was very short lived! (There are only 6 discs)

The show mainly focuses around a brother (Sam) and sister (Lindsay). Sam is a total geek and has two very geeky/quirky sidekick friends who are the best characters ever! Lindsay is your typical honor roll, proper girl but suddenly decides to start hanging out with the school “freaks”. Basically, the show is about them growing up and trying to fit in in a high school setting.

In case you don’t know, the creator of Freaks and Geeks is none other than Judd Apatow whose films include Knocked up, Superbad, etc. Though the show is not as vulgar and immature as his movies (which I loved hehe), there are moments of dialogue that are very reminiscent of his movies. Plus, a lot of the people in his movies appear in the show including Seth Rogan, Jason Segal, and Martin Starr.

I just found out that Martin Starr was in Knocked Up yesterday. I couldn’t believe how much he has changed!!! Check this out, here he is as a geek in Freaks and Geeks:

and here he is now in Knocked Up (the beard guy!)

The show also had a lot of now famous actors in it including James Franco and cameos by Jason Schwartzman among others!

Anyways, I highly recommend this tv show if you at any time ever felt like you didn’t fit in, especially in high school!

PS: I saw that this show made it on Time’s Top 100 TV Shows Of All Time list!