Random movie reviews:
- Head of State: Ehh. It had its funny moments, but wasn't as funny as I was expecting it. Hence, I was a little underwhelmed. It wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't good. I give it 1.82 minutes (roughly one minute and 49 seconds).
- Phone Booth: A decent movie. Good suspense mixed with guilt empathy. I enjoyed it. But it seems that all movies are going for "the big twist at the end" these days. So much so that they're becoming predictable. Although this was a decent movie, it fit into the cookie-cutter Hollywood movie plot line these days. 6.38 minutes.
I went rollerblading today. This is not so unusal in itself -- I go rollerblading not unfrequently. Indeed, it's not unknown to have nothing to not discuss about not going blading never, or at least not very often. Ya know?
A short history of my blading experience:
- I received blades for Christmas back in my college sophmore year. No one bladed on campus except one weird guy that everyone called "Jesus".
- I wore them exactly once -- Easter break, in Chicago, when I visited my Aunt and Uncle. I made the mistake of wearing them while walking their German Shephard along the streets of Chicago. Yeah, that was a good idea.
- When I took them off, the buckle broke. Doh! :-(
- I got a new pair some point later. I don't remember when, but I think it was in Senior year. I started blading more frequently at some point later. I wasn't very good. Gretchen F. taught me the basics.
- I didn't blade very much because I wasn't very good (see prior point). During grad school, Cara L finally taught me how to do the crossover skate, and I finally started blading a lot.
- I ended up blading all the time, frequently blading to and from work. I ended up being a decent 'blader, and I even worked on form periodically. I spent many, many hours blading around campus. Good times!
I still blade not infrequently (see above). As I just mentioned in a recent entry, Tracy got me new wheels and bearings for an anniversary present. Yummy!
Anyway, I was blading through my subdivision and I passed some kid on a bike going the other way. He yelled "pop a wheelie!" right before he passed me. Without thinking -- and, in retrospect, this really was not a good idea without a helmet and a full set of protective pads -- I did. I rocked back on the back wheels and impulsively hung a right and popped up over the curb, catching a little air in the process. My landing was surprisingly good (read: I kept rolling without falling, or even wobbling significantly).
All in all, it rocked. I did a few more stupid moves (mostly working on form, actually, experimenting what I could do and what latent abilities I have picked up over the years without realizing it before it finally dawned on me that I was being extrememly stupid -- the only protective gear I had on was wrist guards. Duh!
So anyway, I cut that out and bladed home. But that was fun as hell; I'll have to go get some real protective gear and experiment some more. Fun!