Chuck Bucket

Alright, this post is a bit overdue. However, I must (in fairness) comment upon my recent viewing of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Let me first give you the fact pattern:

1. I do not like Johnny Depp
2. Johnny Depp's movies, by and large, suck (see IMDB)
3. I did, however, really like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
4. I didn't see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory until now because of my aforementioned dislike of Johnny Depp

Now, on to the movie (by the way, "Chuck Bucket" is my nickname for Charlie Bucket, the boy in the movie). Okaaaaay, it was good....really good. I didn't *really* like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but I didn't hate it either. I thought it was "just a good little movie". The new one is better. I would, however, like to reserve the right to believe that Johnny Depp had little or nothing to do with how good this movie was (I didn't say I was reserving the right to be correct).

In short, I'm apologize to Laurie (I KNOW you're reading) for not seeing this one sooner. I guess my giving you the free pass on Walk the Line makes up for that though, right?

For the rest of you, if you haven't seen it, do. If you have, feel free to comment.

Bless This Mess

Please pardon the dust, as I am doing a little remodeling on the old Blogger template. It will likely look fairly bad in the meantime, but I will try to keep those sweet sweet words of wisdom flowing throughout the process. Remember, it's the thought(s) that count(s)!

Oh, But the Fire Went Wild!

I would like to start by thanking those who joined me on the pilgrimage to the Johnny Cash mecca this weekend. I've waited to post about Walk the Line until I've gathered my thoughts more fully about the film. I will do a point-by-point analysis:

Oscar Buzz: While I believe that this film is worthy of such buzz, I don't necesarily think it will win any of the big awards. Well, let me rephrase. It probably depends on the level of the competition. I don't think it would win in a powerhouse year, but I haven't followed the cinema enough this year to know how it stacks up. All thoughts are welcome on this topic.

Joaquin Phoenix: I hated Joaquin before this movie. I cannot think of a role that I have liked him in. In fact, a quick glance of his IMDB profile confirms my belief (although I have not seen Hotel Rwanda and do not know what role he played in that film). That said, Phoenix MADE this film. I was extremely impressed by his dedication to the role and have been even more impressed in watching the Making Of show in which he talks about the whole process. I guess you could say that I'm "walking the line" on Phoenix for now, as even this performance couldn't completely make up for what I've seen of him in the past ;)

Reese Witherspoon: I don't think they could have picked a better June Carter. I must qualify that statement by saying that I've always been a "Reese fan", since a former roomate and current friend pledged undying love for her in college (Dave, if you're reading this, I won't tell Lauren...promise). I think Reese did an amazing job capturing both June's youthful charm and her struggle and dedication to Johnny in the difficult years. Not just any actress could have pulled off that dichotomy so well.

SPOILER!!: They hook up (Johnny and June). I am, of course, joking about this being a spoiler, as anyone interested enough to see this movie should know this point already. I only mention this to say that I feel that the entire team (writers, directors, actors, and so on) did an excellent job of selling the story, regardless of the fact that most (if not all) of the audience knew the outcome. I was well pleased.

I welcome all comments/questions/speculations about the film.

College Football Roundup....

I wouldn't say that I'm the world's biggest sports fan. However, I do spend a majority of my fall Saturday's in front of the tube. Today, we accompanied the Young's to Charlottesville to see the annual meeting between the Hoos and the Hokies. Today was not a bright and shining moment for the home team. However, good pizza and conversation were had by all. So we move on to other events of the day.

Team of the Day: Vanderbilt
Game of the Day: Auburn v. Alabama (sorry Leann, Ben, and Katherine)
Pointless Game of the Day: Mormon Bowl '05 (Utah v. BYU)


FINAL UPDATE....

Congrats to Georgia Tech. However, it must suck to know that you're a Virginia and NC State game away from being a top 1-loss team. As an Auburn fan by marriage, it's certainly tough to have lost to these guys at the beginning of the season.

Now on to USC. Would someone please beat them? Anyone. UCLA, Texas, guys with crowbars....SOMEBODY!!!

Times, They are A-Changin'

PROGRAMMING NOTE: Apologies to those who were sent to jdproctor.blogspot.com as that is no longer my blog. Welcome here and sorry for the delay!

Now back to your irregularly scheduled program:

As you can see, it took all of 24 Hours, 4 Minutes for me to change the name of this blog. I like "The Proctor Post" a lot better though. Don't worry, this will still be a place for opining, clapping, booing, and general tom-foolery. In fact, let's get right to that....

First off, my candidate lost the Sri Lankan presidential election by a 1.9% spread. Close, but no cigar. I suppose I'll be alright because, let's face it, it doesn't really matter to my daily life one bit. It just would have been nice to win. I digress.

TODAY IS A BIG DAY! Tonight, I will be joining a merry band of outlaws to see Walk the Line. Yes, there's some other "big" movie coming out today, but I forgot what that was.

Here at The Proctor Post, things are likely to get a bit, shall we say, political. In conjunction with the title of this post, I want to talk about our nation's migration from "Merry Christmas" to "Happy Holidays". On the surface, I actually don't have a gigantic problem with this, because there are a lot of Americans who do not celebrate Christmas. My only problem with this lies in the motivation (by some) for making this migration. You'll find, by reading upcoming posts, that I'm not a huge fan of political correctness. Reason #1: The ACLU loves it. Reason #2: There is no endgame (talk about job security for ACLU lawyers!). Each time we "protect" a group, another group gets violated. Each time we are poltically correct toward Group A, we tell Group B that their practices violate the rights of others. When this comes full-circle, Group B will be the new Group A. I can actually see how, someday, the ACLU could be asked to stand up for Christmas because the "Happy Holidays" policy does not respect or legitimize the views of the Christmas celebrator. At a minimum, I can certainly see how someone without a December holiday could pitch a fit. Only time will tell.

At The Proctor Post, I would like to make one pledge. I will always "try" to provide a solution when I see a problem. Most times, however, that solution will be comical and rarely will it be a practical approach to the problem. This case is no exception. I think that the solution is to implement some sort of Holiday Profiling plan. If I see a Christian (or other Christmas celebrator), I say "Merry Christmas". To the Jewish individual, "Happy Chanukah". I mean, aren't most "Holidays" fairly easy to point out based upon observable personal traits? My plan gets a little more difficult when it comes to the non-holiday individual. For this, I would implement a standard, non-confrontational practice of refusing a holiday greeting, such as "Sir, I do not celebrate Chanukah" or "Thank you, but my family does not practice that belief".

Instead of protesting and causing a ton of crap (and trashing other people's practices), maybe we could just talk to each other about it.

Happy Chanukah
Merry Christmas
Happy Kwanzaa
Happy Winter Solstice
Happy Ramadan
Feliz Navidad
Happy New Year

Two Things....

Two Names You Go By: ProctOR!, Coco

Two Parts of Your Heritage: Middle of Nowhere, The Simple Life (not the show)

Two Things That Scare You: Heights, Depths

Two of Your Everyday Essentials: News8, Checking Email

Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now: Shorts, T-Shirt

Two of Your Favorite Bands or Musical Artists: Dave Matthews Band, Johnny Cash ;)

Two (Three) Things You Want in a Relationship: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (this is where I get told that this is NOT in the Constitution)

Two Truths: Drugs are Bad (Mmmkay), He who stands on toilet is high on pot.

Two Things You Hate (or rather dislike with a passion): Government Welfare, Taxes

Two Physical Things that Appeal to You: Smiles, Laurie

Two of Your Favorite Hobbies: Being a huge nerd, Surfing the Net

Two Things You Want Really Badly: Ranil Wickramasinghe to win the Sri Lankan presidency, a nap

Two Places You Want to go on Vacation: Australia, Barbados

Two Things You Want to Do Before You Die: Own a wildly successful business, Sell previously aforementioned business for a ton of money

Two Ways that you are stereotypically a Chick/Guy: I am messy, a computer geek

Two Things You Normally Wouldn't Admit: I LOVE Alanis Morissette, I will probably vote for a Democrat if John McCain is the GOP nominee for President. (Okay, so probably not, but I won’t vote for McCain.)

Two people I would like to see take this quiz: Laurie, the Pope (face it, it would be cool)

CoCo Hit the Blogosphere

Does anyone remember the "You Know What I Hate" guy from MAD TV? If not, here's a refresher. He would come out, wrapped in a towel, and say "You know what I hate....peanut butter" (or something like that) and people would either clap or boo based upon their personal opinions. The best was when he said, "You know what I hate.....audiences!". Then, when people booed, he said, "No, I mean....child molesters!". Everyone clapped.

So, that's pretty much what I'll be doing here. I'll write about things I like or dislike, and you'll clap or boo accordingly. Does that pretty much make sense? Okay, so sometimes I may just write about life or something, but I'll try to keep that to a minimum.

Hilarity to follow.....