Pet Peeve Parade

Pet peeves appear almost daily, even when you're in the best of spirits. You'll get behind the wheel, start driving somewhere and a car will crawl along on the highway in front. They finally get over and when you get about halfway beside them, they start thinking they're in the Indianapolis 500. If they'd gone a normal speed to begin with, you wouldn't have had a problem. Before you know it, you're peeved.

I thought it might be fun to do a series of blog posts on this subject. We all have one or two that really get under our skin, so let's hear 'em. Let's save the road rages ones for next time. Maybe even future ones about restaurants, theaters and traveling as well. They all deserve their own blog posts.

Here are some general ones that immediately come to mind:

-Holding the door open for someone who not only doesn't say thank you but doesn't even make eye contact.

-Likewise, people who do not return a greeting. I've known several people who would just give me a cold icy glare when I'd say "good morning" or something to that effect. Bad form!

-Line-cutters - this has happened a few times recently. Every time I get irritated about it, I'm reminded of the lines I cut when I was younger. What goes around comes around, I guess.

Those are few to get us started. I'll chime in again when I think of more. Leave yours in comments.

When Stress Creeps In

When I was a teen, I'd sometimes join my youth pastor Gary on whirlwind days where he'd have back-to-back appointments and an event to execute later the same night. In the moments of heavy stress, he'd drive to a public park, pull a basketball out of the trunk of his car and shoot hoops for 20-30 minutes. It seemed a little odd to me at the time, because the appointments and tasks were piling up, but later I saw how smart it was to flush the stress out for a moment and regain some peace and calm.

Now, sometimes faced with the same sorts of days Gary faced, I find myself looking for an oasis of rest in the middle of the storm. Here are some of the ways I've tackled it:

Friends - I've found most often I turn to friends for stress-relievers, calling them up for a random conversation, putting the mountain of tasks in perspective by realizing how much more there is to life. They don't necessarily offer a solution to the problem, but just being there and listening works wonders.

Prayer - When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

Running - When I used to run every day, thirty minutes later, I'd be loose as a goose. I was so laid back some people thought something was wrong with me. But I was just basking in the afterglow of the workout. Sometimes I'd run at night. I lived near a track and I'd look out on the darkness of the track even around midnight and question the run. I realized that if I could make it one lap, I'd be too tired/relaxed to care if Jason Voorhees came running out of the woods with a machete.

Music - The most memorable time of this was my second night alone in the hospital after breaking my neck. During the first night, I woke up and panicked, with all those morbid thoughts running through my head. I called my aunt just to hear a familiar voice. The second night, I asked her to bring me my music. When I woke up, I put the headphones on and worship music helped erase those worries.

What do you do? How do you handle stress?

Going to the Movies in Style: The Plaza Cinema Cafe

LeAnn and I met up with some friends Friday night for some excellent Mexican food at Cantina Laredo followed by a trip to Orlando's brand new Plaza Cinema Cafe in downtown.

I have to say all five of us were blown away by this theater. Outside, someone had brought in old gangster-type cars to go along with the theme of Public Enemies, a film that was premiering. In fact, anyone wearing a gangster or early 20th century Chicago-style outfit got in free. Two spotlights were also setup out front. It was a really cool vibe, more like a premier than the usual night out at the movies.

After making our way through the lobby, we found the inside of the theaters as nice as any I've ever seen (and I'm a movie buff). Brand new recliner-style leather seats with triple-sized armrests and mini-tables for food brought back from the cafe. Yes, food, as in more than snacks. I dreamed of eating buffalo wings there one day before realizing how hard it is to keep popcorn off my shirt. I can only imagine the humiliation of a buffalo-sauce soaked shirt. Along with the chairs, the screens are of course brand new, the projection is crystal-clear digital and the sound is crisp, all adding up to an unforgettable viewing. Instead of a public movie theater, you almost felt like you were at a lager version of some wealthy socialite's home theater. It was functional, classy and comfortable. Admission? $9.50, less than what we've been paying at our local theater (and the Buy Orlando cards offer a 50% discount).

It's really the perfect spot for a movie, surrounded by dozens of eateries and offering a variety of food choices itself. The potential parking problem wound up being much ado about nothing. Tickets are validated for three hours (so I guess you'd have to book it after Transformers 2).

If you're in the Orlando area, I'd definitely recommend checking it out. Here's their Web site and Here is a good review with more pictures.

Happy 4th of July!

At the Beach

I'm not entirely sure if this will update or not but it will be cool if it does (it didn't). LeAnn and I decided we don't visit the beach nearly as often as we'd like so we taking our day off and lounging by the Atlantic Ocean. It's amazing to consider how many other people are on the other side of this sea. You'll see our setup on the right. We really liked our umbrella. Then a family of four came and set up the Taj Mahal of beach shelters beside us. Took us ten minutes. Took them about an hour.

The water is nice and cool and I'm also excited that they've installed showers so the riff raff like us don't have to drive home salty.

If I don't get another chance to tell you before tomorrow, I hope you have a wonderful 4th of July holiday. God Bless America, land that I love.

The Thrill Is Gone: Michael Jackson

It would be inappropriate to miss out on the opportunity to pause for a moment and remember Michael Jackson. After thousands of articles and interviews in my journalistic career, a large chunk of which are music-related, I remember the very first article I did for a publication. In Seventh Grade, I submitted a review for the "Beat It" video to our McCleskey middle school newspaper, which was so well-received the sponsor asked me to follow it with "Thriller." I had become a fan a year earlier when I bought Thriller, my very first album, which I played non-stop on my cassette player/stereo/TV combo I kept beside my bed.

I grew up in the age when MTV played music videos and Michael stood head and shoulders above everyone else. His music earned so much money, he could afford to hire any director, any musician, any celebrity to cameo and his mini-movies became media events. And everyone else worked harder to keep up. He's long been attributed to giving a young MTV the legs it had to stand on.

Long after I'd supposedly grown past his music, when the premiere for "Black and White," his first video in many years was scheduled, I planned my break at the bookstore at Town Center mall so I could walk over to the electronics store and watch it. Using every means at his disposal, including incorporating the new, expensive morphing technology, he had once again created a buzz-worthy clip. And I was a kid again.

Someone asked yesterday that if we didn't lose Michael Jackson a long time ago and I can agree with that. I don't think anything else he could have done would have restored him to the place he once had on the national stage. Ironically, his music will now enjoy the reverence that has otherwise eluded him in recent years. Still, before his personal life overshadowed his music, he was the King of Pop and no one could come close to touching him.

Metal Men: My 'Transformers 2' Review

For $10, you can go to a store and buy a game like Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots; or you can buy a ticket to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, a movie that throws that same fighting robots concept into a blender along with a couple-hundred million dollars and change. What comes out feels like the cinematic equivalent of a monster-truck rally.

Revenge, one of the most buzzed about films of the summer, is the sequel to the 2007 release, which featured (as you might have guessed) "transforming" robots. A guy behind me in the screening, in fact, said, “I'd better see some transforming going on!”

For you newcomers, the robots are divided into two camps: the Autobots and Decepticons. The former are here to save the earth from the latter, who want to take over this world because they’ve drained the life out of theirs.

Each robot has its own personality, the grandest of which is Optimus Prime, the "Superman" of the bunch (look at me trying to merge geek worlds together). Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf), a college-bound teenager, lands right in the middle of the war and must navigate through a series of challenges to find the secret that the Decepticons are after.

At this point, I’ve no doubt devoted too much space to the story, which really is just an excuse to show off some of the most intense, explosive fight scenes of the summer. The sequences are fast and relentless. When I watched it, the only clue I had that the good guys were winning was the spontaneous clapping in the theater.

Read the rest of the review here.