Another milestone!

I have reached another fitness goal! I have done several 5k's but have been unable to complete one on the road in under 30 minutes (on the treadmill, no problem) but I did it on Saturday! The race results are posted here and you'll see my name in 78th place with a time of 28:36. Go me!

Next up...10k in April.

And the winner is...

So a lot of people have asked me my opinion of the Oscars. Here's the condensed version:

As far as major categories go, I'm okay with all the winners. I would have liked Inglourious Basterds to have had a shot at Best Picture, Director or Original Screenplay, but seeing as how the race was really between Avatar and The Hurt Locker, I'm satisfied that the better film won out.

Mo'Noqiue and Christoph Waltz...no surprises there, thank goodness. I think there might have been a genuine frying-pan-throwing, Jew-killing riot had these two deserving actors not won.

Ahhh, Jeff Bridges. Since he won...the Dude deserved it. But if Colin Firth had won, I would feel the same way.

I am torn about Sandra Bullock. She is, without question, beautiful, likeable, humble, funny, and even talented in certain respects. Did she give the best performance? I don't think so. (Anyone who saw Helen Mirren in The Last Station or Gabourey Sidibe in Precious should feel a little righteous indignation at their losses). But then again...Sandra is just so darn nice it's hard to begrudge her what is virtually a recognition of a respectably entertaining body of work. No hard feelings, Sandy.

My one bone to pick: I honestly refuse to believe that the majority of voting members of the Academy saw all of the Best Animated Feature nominees. I am more comfortable thinking that they voted for Up simply out of respect for the great films Pixar used to produce, because if I even thought for a second that they saw Fantastic Mr. Fox or even The Princess and the Frog and seriously believed Up was a better movie I would be tempted to lose all my faith in human reason and judgment.

For the record: I saw all but 10 of the nominated feature-length films (this includes all categories). 9 out of those 10 were documentary, foreign, or have not yet been released 'round these parts. I hope to get around to seeing them all some time. The 10th movie I didn't see was Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. I would love for that to be the only Academy Award-nominated film from 2009 I don't see. Ever.