July 21, 2005

Last week Jermaine and I rented Million Dollar Baby. We had been wanting to see it since it won a bunch of Oscars, and we still had one more free rental coupon from Blockbuster. My brothers really liked it, and I think Jermaine liked it a lot more than I did. I think that I tend to set my expectations really high for movies like this. Then when I see them, I'm not as impressed as I normally would be. It was a pretty good movie though. There was some very cool use of lighting in the movie too.

Jermaine and I were trying to think of things that we would like to do in Manhattan this summer before we leave since we might not be coming back anytime soon. One of the things we wanted to do was visit Manhattan Hill, which is pretty much just a big hill in the middle of town with the word "Manhattan" written really big on the side. It has a little place to sit and look out over Manhattan. It's not real impressive, but it's a nice spot to sit and hang out.

July 20, 2005

Jermaine came back to Manhattan a couple weeks ago, so I have been spending quite a bit of time with her lately. It's nice to have someone to hang out with again. I don't have very many friends staying in Manhattan this summer.

Last week Jermaine decided that she wanted to go eat at Famous Dave's BBQ. It opened in Manhattan earlier this year, and it was extremely popular for a while. The wait time for dinner was usually around 2 hours. I was happy to see that it had calmed down a bit now. Jermaine and I had no wait time at all. Last time I was there I couldn't find what I normally like to get at a BBQ place, but this time I found it. It was really good stuff.

Last weekend when my mom came to Manhattan to help my sister get ready to move, we decided to go see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Jermaine had been talking about it for quite a while. I loved the original movie, which was a musical, so I was really interested to see what this version would be like. Overall I would say that I wasn't all that impressed with the movie. The chocolate factory didn't seem as cool as it was in the original movie. There were also several parts of the story that were quite a bit different. I would like to read the book sometime to see which movie followed the orignal story more closely. I do have to say that despite it's problems Tim Burton did make a really pretty movie.

July 19, 2005

Wow, it's been quite a while since I last posted, so I should have quite a bit to talk about. I have been somewhat busy lately with my job hunt. Last week I drove to Wichita for an interview. I was just there for the day, so I didn't have much time to do anything fun. I did manage to stop by Best Buy though. I would be so much better if they had a Best Buy built in Manhattan. I heard they are working on one, and it should be here in the next year or so. Too bad I won't be around to see it.

Last time I posted was right before 4th of July, so I guess I should start by talking about how I spent the 4th. I wasn't planning on doing anything to celebrate (I'm usually not a big fan of fireworks), but my friend Chris talked to me and asked me if I wanted to do something. We went out to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, which has very good hamburgers but is a little pricy for what you get.

After dinner we went to watch I, Robot at Chris' place since I no longer have any furniture in my apartment (my roommate moved out and most of the furniture was his). I had watched I, Robot earlier in the summer, but Chris hadn't seen it yet and wanted to watch it.

Once the movie was over, we had just enough time to make it to the park to watch the Manhattan fireworks. The fireworks were much more impressive than I thought they would be for a smaller city like Manhattan, but they still didn't seem all that big compared to how I remember the Wichita fireworks. It was still a good time, and it was much easier to get a good spot to watch in Manhattan than it would have been in Wichita.

I've been watching the first season of The Office recently (the American one). There are only 6 episodes in the first season, so I have pretty much watched them all now. Sometimes the show is really really funny, and sometimes it's just alright. Steve Carell is always hilarious though, and he basically acts like a complete idiot on the show, which is probably why I like it...

July 3, 2005

My dad and brother came into town for the weekend on their way back from my brother's orientation at Missouri (and I somehow totally forgot to take any pictures of my dad and brother this weekend). They were even kind enough to drive my recently purchased car to Manhattan from Jermaine's house in Kansas City for me.

As soon as my dad and brother got to town we went to eat at Chipotle. Chipotle is one of my favorite fast-food restaurants. They don't have a whole lot to choose from on their menu, but what they do have is very good. The Chipotle in Manhattan is the best one that I have ever been to. They are super fast and everything is usually really fresh. The other Chipotles I have visited are no where near as good. I like it enough that I went there again tonight before going to my sister's to do laundry.

While I was in school, I went to Chipotle every Sunday night with a group of guys from my dorm. The few of us staying in Manhattan kept the tradition going at the beginning of the summer, but it's been a while since I've been there with any of those guys.

On Saturday, my dad and brother went with me to do a little grocery shopping, and then we decided to go see War of the Worlds. I thought the movie was pretty good. Not great, but good. I think it could have been total crap if Steven Spielberg hadn't directed it. But it was a somewhat typical "aliens invade the Earth" type movie. I think I would have preferred to see some other movie, such as Star Wars, but my brother goes to quite a few movies and has pretty much seen all the ones I would like to see.

After the movie we stopped to have dinner at Quiznos, one of my favorite fast-food sandwich places. I think it's funny that Subway has copied the toasted sub idea now that there are so many other sandwich places that toast their subs. I don't really like Subway that much anymore.

After dinner we went to my sister's place to watch yet another movie... did I mention that I like to watch movies?... This time we borrowed my roommate's copy of Miller's Crossing, a pretty good Coen brothers movie.

On Sunday I just went to lunch with my dad and brother before they headed back to Wichita. We ate a Gumby's, a local pizza place, where my brother beat me pretty badly at air hockey (I thought I could take him).

Well, that was pretty much my weekend. I did, of course, play a bit of Counter-Strike this weekend as well. I should have several things to post about this next week since Jermaine will be coming to Manhattan, and I will also be going to Kansas City for a job interview.

And finally, as requested, here is a picture of myself... with a bit of a beard... Not the greatest picture ever, but I think it will work for now. You can even see Jermaine standing there off to the side.