Best Christmas Movies of All Time

I’ll continue the holiday theme and rank the best Christmas movies of all time.  I consulted zero lists to rank my movies and just thought about which movies matter in my life (it’s my blog after all).  So here’s the list and I’ll briefly explain the rankings:

1.       It’s a Wonderful Life

2.       Home Alone

3.       A Christmas Story

4.       Elf

5.       National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

It’s a wonderful life is still a timeless classic and every family should watch it on Christmas Eve.  Money sure does come in handy down here bub, but it’s the family and friends that sustain us.

McCauley Caulkins lives out every kid’s dream in Home Alone.  It’s priceless watching some wimpy kid catch the wed bandits every year on ABC family.

I laugh at the same scenes from A Christmas Story every year.

Will Ferrell in Elf is absolutely hilarious.

Watching Chevy Chase in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is the “gift that keeps on giving, all year round”

Coming Home to the 757 for Break

After a long semester at college, it’s always nice to make the trek home for friends, family and some much needed rest.  There’s always a little nostalgia on the trip back, and you try to take note of the things that have changed, things like which building was torn down, which road got remade, what does my high school look like now (except you just wonder that, because no one dares return to their actual high school).  So here are some of my favorite things about home, to the 757.

The first thing I do for nostalgic purposes on the ride home is turn the radio to 94.9 The Point.  This radio station is famous for me, not because it plays great music, (I guess you’d call it alternative or just mainstream) but because listening to 94.9 is like going into a time capsule.  The songs they play are the exact same songs you heard driving to high school 4 years ago.  If I ever want to remember what songs were popular when I was in high school, I just flip it to 94.9 and sit back.  Here’s some highlights from my last trip, John Mayer-“Waiting on the world to change”, Nickelback-Rockstar, Snow Patrol-Chasing cars, “Stacy’s Mom” – (Who Knows?)  (Side Note: this is even funnier because I dated a Stacy in high school.)

After I eke out 2 minutes of Rockstar, I quickly change it to the party station, Z104.  And after about 1 or 2 top-charting hits, I wait for my favorite Bar Norfolk commercial. 

“Tuesday night is ladies night at BARRR Norfolk, doors open at 9 and girls get in free so come early and dress to impress at BARR Norfolk” 

Growing up I heard Bar Norfolk and Have a Nice Day Café advertised constantly on Z104.  Oh yeah don’t forget about Peabody’s.  (Can anyone actually tell me what goes on at Teen night at Peabody’s? Is that like 8^th grade dance, with games set up, or more like Dare Skating) More funny side notes: It looks like two of these have closed because they don’t sell enough real food.  Looks like they were right the whole time saying they go hard.

The next thing I love about the 757 is driving.  Driving is wonderful and at college, we can’t do it enough and there’s too much traffic.  In the 757, we have to drive, but never have to go very far (cough NOVA) to be where we need to be.  In fact, I used to be able to get everywhere I wanted to go in 7 minutes.  Which brings me to two other things I love about the 757, movie theaters and Yorktown Beach.

The movie theaters in Charlottesville are terrible, I can get better seating and better sound at my apartment, the Shithole S-Class.  Theaters in the 757 are legit, AMC 24 and Regal are awesome, and make Carmike look like a waste of space.

Yorktown Beach is the dinky, crappy beach about 10 minutes from my house, the swimming area is smaller than your local swimming pool and there isn’t enough sand to play beach games, but you can definitely work on your tan there.  The other great part about Yorktown Beach is it’s a prime first date location, especially at night.  You can walk down the beach, see the lights reflecting off the bridge and you might even confuse your date into thinking your romantic, and just hope Chasing Cars comes on in the background.

Tanning in the 757 is completely kosher unlike other areas of Virginia.  I have no problems going to the beach solely to tan, or going to the pool, heck, I’ve gone outside my own house multiple times just to go tanning.  I’ve asked around and it seems like no other area of Virginia has agreed that it’s completely okay for a guy to tan alone.  Tanning is beneficial if done in moderation in multiple ways, it zaps acne, gives you vitamin D, and boosts your self-esteem because you look great, and finally it lets you relax.

And now for my favorite part about the 757 is how awesome we are at football.  Okay, so I had to broaden my definition of “we” to include myself with the beasts of the 757.  Because the historic triangle of Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown is not a hotbed for the football recruiting, but the Peninsula district and Cheasapeake definitely are and they’re from the 757 too, so I’ll group myself in.  Here’s some rational to why we rock.  Phoebus and Hampton dominate division 5 football, and Oscar Smith is a perennial power in Division 6.  So many big names have repped the 757 throughout the years such as Michael Vick, Ronald Curry, Percy Harvin, Tyrod Taylor, Tahj Boyd and Perry Jones.  And Mike London knows as good as anyone, if you’re going to win in Virginia you have to recruit the 757.

There’s nothing like coming home driving around cranking some tunes and talking high school football, and that’s why I love being born and raised in the 757.

The Most Beautiful Word in the English Language

Think about it, what is the most beautiful word in the English language?  What is the word that when we hear it, our ears perk up, and we’re intrigued.  We give the speaker our full attention. How can one word accomplish all that?  When it's your first name.

Think about it.  When we hear it, we respond.  It pleases us when someone knows our name, and calls us by it.  You don’t need to try to be modest, your name is beautiful.  When the sound vibrations echo through air into our inner ear, it’s perfect bliss.  We’re all a little bit selfish inside, but we’ve been trained with selective hearing throughout our lives to think our name is most beautiful word.  Selfish or not, we like when someone is talking about us.

 If you care about someone and want them to care about you, you better know their most beautiful word.  Remember their name and call them by it.  You’ll be so surprised how much it means to them.  They’ll instantly think your closer friends and will care a little bit more about what you’re saying.

I know what you’re thinking, “But I meet so many people, how can I possibly remember their names?”  The answer is you’ll remember what you value, and if you care about them, you should value knowing their names.  Let’s walk through a few strategies.  Everyone introduces themselves with their first name and normally a quick handshake follows (unless you’re in France where you get a courtesy kiss on the cheek).  The first strategy to remember a name is to repeat it instantly, while looking them in the eyes.  Once you hear it, respond back in question form.  “Jessica?” They’ll nod and now you’re mind has connected their face with their name.  If the conversation continues, make sure to use their name during it so you don’t forget.  When they mingle away, call them by their name and say it was nice meeting you.  You’re trying to slowly condition yourself to attach that name to that person.  Other strategies include asking them to spell a complicated name just so you can visual it.  Another is repeat the name to yourself in your head to continue to attach it, even during the conversation.

Here’s a situation that way too many people think is more awkward than reality.  After meeting someone once or more, you feel as if you should know their name.  But for some reason you’ve forgotten it.  Possibly, you haven’t tried any technique to remember it.  Or they are friends of friends and you haven’t been introduced enough to remember it.  So it’s too weird to ask them for their name because you should already know them and instead you never call them by it.  This becomes more and more awkward with each interaction.  The other funny thing is they probably forgot your name too.  Just be honest, and re-ask them.  Really it’s not a big deal to most people.  Then you’ll remember and eliminate the awkwardness of future encounters.

Also, always introduce friends.  Nothing is weirder than never being introduced to someone you’re hanging out with.  If you’re not sure if they’ll met before, introduce them again.  Worst comes to worst they already know each other, and you just cleared up any confusion about each other’s names.  Best case is they haven’t met and are glad they did.  It’s much less awkward to accidently introduce multiple times as opposed to not at all.

So your first name is the most beautiful word in the English language.  Everyone likes being remembered, so remember their name and call them by it.

Intro

I started this blog to be more productive, to get more out of my day, to actually force myself to think and reflect.  Even if I’m not really producing anything worthwhile, hopefully my writing improves, and its probably a better use of my time than watching country music videos for 2 hours a day. 

I’m here to write about what I’ve learned over the years and some of my theories and tips to life.  It’s fairly broad and can basically be described as I’ll write about what I feel passionate about.  I’m not trying to appeal to a large audience and I don’t even think this information is valuable to everyone.  It’s arguable that the only value the reader can get is to flatter me by mentioning the blog.   I’m not trying to belittle others by offering my “wisdom,” I’m just trying to hash out my own thoughts and reflect about what I’ve learned over the years.