Ryan j Budke

…has already passed, and hopefully you didn’t even notice. Blue Monday is normally the fourth Monday of the year, and has been scientifically proven to be the most depressing day of the year. It’s when the holiday buzz for most people has completely worn off, when you end up getting your first couple of bills from the holiday spending, the weather’s shitty, your new year’s resolutions have fallen to pieces, you don’t see a lot of people and those that you do are going through the exact same hell as you.

While I’ve definitely felt that slump in years past, I’ve found myself in such good habits this year that I didn’t even notice. Work has been going great, and we’re getting ready to unleash some real awesomeness at Propeller. I’ve been sticking to my personal resolutions like glue. I’ve lost a few pounds, am eating much better, going to the gym everyday. I haven’t felt this healthy in years. I gave up a couple of personal vices that I thought were going to be brutal, but haven’t looked back on. I’ve found myself developing habits that I enjoy even though I considered them extremely tedious before.

Hopefully everyone else’s years thus far are holding as much potential.

• Was just working out at the gym for about 10 minutes before I realized I set off the alarm. Can earbuds be TOO good? #
• Funniest Sh!t you’ll see all day: http://tinyurl.com/36tsjn #
• Hopefully I won’t have to become a cat burglar to get into the gym today #
• @karsh, I want to grow down to be like him. Yea, I’m that kind of punny #
• Where’s my Twownceku app already?!? Geez internet, get on the ball, I have leaching to do. #
• What the fuck?!? Heath Ledger died?!? http://tinyurl.com/2elr5e #
• in non-heath-ledger-dying twitter… @zadi EpicFu was awesome today… #
• in non-heath-ledger-dying twitter… @zadi EpicFu was awesome today… #
• @mickipedia horrible, horrifying and hilarious #
• @sweetums http://tinyurl.com/2xnqs4 #

Heath Ledger passed away some time either today or last night. There are still a lot of details coming in, so there’s all kind of discrepancies (anyone from his pharmacist, Mary Kate or Scientology could have led to his death at this point). I wouldn’t go so far as to say he was one of my “favorite actors”, but he was certainly someone I always liked to perform. He was phenomenal in Brokeback Mountain, Lords of Dogtown is worth skipping through for his parts only, and I’ve always had a soft spot for 10 Things I Hate About You (mostly because it led to a hilarious conversation between some of my best friends and an ex of mine with the punchline being “You’d make a horrible lesbian”).

Heath Ledger is also playing the part of the Joker in this summer’s Batman Begins sequel, and he’s been getting tons and tons of early buzz about this role. It’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen before… The best Joker ever… etc. It’s going to be extremely disappointing to have to watch that in retrospect. My thoughts and prayers go out to Heath’s family and friends.

• Come on Packers, get your head in this. #
• @chartier Here here #
• Off to the gym to work off some post-playoff aggression #
• Frustration vented, the Packers should NOT have lost that game… none-the-less I begrudgingly say "F*ck the Patriots. Go Giants!" #
• It’s still alive!! http://cloverfieldmessage.ytmnd.com/ #
• What the hell? Rain? #
• Playing around with Tomato on my Linksys router… #

Not only did JJ Abrams (and crew) create one of my favorite recent movies, and one of my favorite tv shows in Lost, but he also seems to be a generally all around cool guy. Eliot sent me this video of him giving a talk at the TED Conference, and it shows that he’s got a wicked sense of humor and a love for all things magic. For those that didn’t know, he’s also remaking Star Trek which will debut in December, and in doing so gets to almost fulfill one of Randy Pausch’s lifelong wishes.

If you’re asking who Randy Pausch is, I could tell you (a Computer Science Professor at Carnegie Mellon with terminal cancer), but it wouldn’t hold a candle to the man himself. When you can, please watch this video, it’s long, but after it’s over, you’ll realize that it wasn’t really that long.

JJ Abrams saw this video as well, and wrote this to Mr. Pausch:
Hi there — I’m JJ Abrams, director of the new Star Trek movie.

Best,
JJ

Very cool JJ, very very cool.

To read some more details about it, you can check out Mr. Pausch’s blog at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/news/index.html.

• Go Packers #

• Back from the gym, feel awesome, but exhausted #
• @jasoncalacanis Did you have a burger? #
• @frankensite for ComicMix? #
• good point, let’s blame @coneee #
• Joe’s Goals has been down all day.. grrrr… how will i know what i’ve gotten done today? #
• Please note, at 10:04pm AK said he’d "be right back" #
• Ok, what the hell, just turned on the 3:10 to Yuma dvd and there’s an ad for Lord of War… that makes absolutely no f***ing sense #
• If anyone can remember the name of the 80’s tv show that was like Knight Rider but had a big rig instead… I’ll pay you $5 #

• Cloverfield. Wow. #
• @chrisek Come see me in December #
• @logmyweight 205.2 #
• Cloverfield is still amazing #
• Kicked my ass at the gym yesterday, reaped the benefits today. #
• Thinking I owe @digidave lunch! #
• DirecTV remote scheduling is pretty badass. #
• Go Green Bay: http://tinyurl.com/yvtelj #
• @tombiro Handsprings were the bomb. The like 10mb backpack module was HUGE. #
• Cloverfield followup: http://www.1-18-08.com/ #
• Off to the gym. Hopefully I can push myself like yesterday. #

I was going to write this first thing in the morning, but I just couldn’t wait. Cloverfield is unlike anything that you’ve seen before. It’s truly truly awesome. I’m sure it won’t live up to the hype for everyone, and there’s going to be people that hate just because everyone else loves it (I’m sure C.K. will say it jumped the shark), but for me, it’s one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time, probably ever (I need to let it sink in a little bit before I declare that). That’s not to say there aren’t things wrong with it (take a dramamine if you’re susceptible to motion sickness), but they are minuscule.

It’s an immense, intense movie, the scope is massive, but the perspective the story is told from makes everything going on seem that much bigger. That same perspective, however, creates and insanely personal experience. It’s a short movie by any standard (barely an hour and a half) but in that time you become a part of this close knit family. That’s in no small part thanks to the show-stealer, our cameraman Hud. Except for a few brief moments, he’s our eyes, our focus, and our frame of reference. Again, this is a very small story, and during more than a few moments there’s an almost voyeuristic feeling to everything as you watch things that you know were only supposed to be between these people.

I want to say so much more but want everyone else to experience it for themselves and not spoil anything. Go see Cloverfield, you won’t regret it.

• Just bought tickets for the midnight showing of Cloverfield tomorrow… I’m glad I’m on the west coast and furthest from the beast. #
• Why is it that cell phones let you know that your battery is about to die by continually flashing and beeping? #
• So far, Smashlab on Discovery is incredibly lame. Although one of the hosts did have on a creative commons shirt. #
• Big things in the making at Propeller. Laying some good groundwork today. #