Happy New Year

Well, it is the last day of 2008. So here is good bye to another year that was and hello to a year that is yet again filled with hope.

We enter 2009 knowing that Bush will be out of office in just weeks and the countries first black president, Barack Obama, will be taking over. While we will not see immediate change, we can all hope there will be change and that it will be for the better. It cannot get any worse than where Bush has left it.

Personally, 2008 had a lot of ups and downs. I will reflect on those in private and not here or any other public forum.

I enter 2009 knowing that I have lots of things that need to be worked on, but at the same time, I am excited about some of the things that I already have planned for the new year.

As far as this blog is concerned, I am hoping to continue it in a more informative manner. Yes, it will still be opinionated, but hopefully I can start some creative discussions and help some people out, including myself.

So here is to a very Happy New Year to everyone.

Hide & Seek… With “Tickles”

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. Mine was great. Didn’t do much. Just spent the day with Michael. It was nice to spend a day with him and not have any plans.

For Christmas, I decided to give Catherine’s rat “Tickles” a little time out of his cage. She is in Tennessee for the holidays. Well, it seems the little guy does not like me very well. After about 5 minutes of holding him, he decided he wanted to play hide and seek. He jumped off my back and onto the floor. He instantly went under a TV stand and refused to come out. So, I tried giving him a treat, he would not go for it. I tried moving the TV stand, he just followed it, staying under it. So, after about 10 minutes of my trying to bribe Tickles and chasing him around, Michael finally came in and was able to get him.

Hope you all have a good warm weekend. We are supposed to get snow here, as you know, I am happy about that.

Christmas Eve & AP’s Person of the Year

Merry Christmas Eve everyone. My roommates and I opened our presents early because one of our roommates will be in Tennessee later today. Talk about lots of candy. I think I did pretty well with what I got. It was a fun night and then we ended up playing a game called “Smart Ass,” which was also fun.

Yesterday, the Associated Press released there person of the year in entertainment. For the first time in a  long time, I agree with there choice, Tina Fey.

The  annual honor chosen by newspaper editors and broadcast producers across the country for the entertainer who had the greatest impact on culture and entertainment in 2008.

Runner-up was Robert Downey Jr., mainly for his comeback with the blockbuster movie “Iron Man,” and the third-place went to  Heath Ledger, who played the Joker in “The Dark Knight” before he died.

I think Fey deserved the award, not only for returning to Satuday Night Live with one of the best impressions of Gov. Sarah Palin ot any polititian for that matter. It was mostly because of her performance that Palin herself eventually went on the show.

In 2008, Fey also starred for the first time on the big screen in “Baby Mama” (which grossed $60 million and one of my favorite movies of the year) and won three Emmys for her her NBC sitcom “30 Rock,” which she created, stars in and writes.

Recently, she was also nominated for a Golden Globe (for best performance by an actress in a TV series, comedy or musical), as well as a SAG Award.

Last year’s AP Entertainer of the Year also went to a comedian whose satire blended in with politics: Stephen Colbert.

Christmas Time

The NFL playoffs have not even started yet and NBC, the network hosting the Super Bowl, is already making news for an advertisement they will air during the game.

The network has given permission for a Los Angeles based advertising agency to purchase a 30-second commercial spot that will feature eight different products.

The agency, Cesario Migliozzi, says it will pay the $3 million going rate. But the commercial they produce will feature eight different products simultaneously, guaranteeing marketers that each of their logos will appear on screen the entire 30 seconds. No word yet on who the clients are or if they have any yet, but it will be interesting to see.

NBC has more than half a dozen 30-second spots left to sell for the Feb. 1 game. I will be keeping an eye on the agency to see how they will pull off the ad.

With Christmas Eve just a day away and that fact that I have to work for most of it I am not going to post a lot. Wish i was going to go home for Christmas, but I am glad that I will spend the Holiday with Michael. And this year, even without a job I am in a much better place than I was at this time last year.

So, Michael and I have been living together for a year. We have made it through some really hard times, but for the most part, the year has been a great one. We were evexted from out apartment, lived at a friends house and a hotel, broke up for about a week and now we are here in a new house with several roommates. But, all the crap we have been through over the year has made us closer.

I am so thankful for the relationship that I have with him. It seems like even after almost a year and a half our relationship continues to grow. Last night we started a list of New years resolutions. Some that we will try and keep for ourselves, but we also mad a list of things we would like to do together.

“Yes Man” Tops The Box Office

This is the start of Christmas week.  So, Merry Christmas. I only have Thursday off this week, but despite the one day off, I am excited for the holidays to still be here. And after a weekend of being in a bad mood, I am feeling much better.

Bad weather put a damper on the box office this weekend, But Jim Carrey’s comedy “Yes Man” topped the box office with just over $18 million. It was followed closely by will Smith’s “Seven Pounds’” with $16 million. Both films were expcted to bring in at last $20 million.

The animated film “The Tale of Despereaux,” came in third with $10.5 million.