Ryan j Budke

Since I’m a lifelong internet guy, there’s no better summary of today’s change than the new official website of the President, WhiteHouse.gov. Besides including all sorts of little technical improvements that many sites today have and that the old WhiteHouse.gov was missing (rss feeds, a blog, galleries), there’s a great emphasis on interaction and transparency. With just one click you can see every single Proclamation, Executive Order and Nomination and Appointment that President Obama has made. I like being able to see the history of the Presidency, Camp David and even Air Force One all on a page that’s not Wikipedia.

PS: Since when is Whitehouse.com no longer porn?

It’s funny that today was supposedly Blue Monday (the most depressing day of the year), because I easily had one of my most productive days ever. I knocked about a dozen things off of my To-Do list, got to check off just about everyone of my Joe’s Goals boxes, ate really healthy, exercised pretty strenuously, even found time to read for both myself and work. So I say “bah” to you depression. Cheer up.

I went to Disneyland today to celebrate my 28th birthday and I had an absolute blast. Lon and I had a lot of fun creating a whole fake tweetup (yes that’s exactly as nerdy as it sounds) and when I got home and read today’s Savage Chicken comic, it was just a bonus.

Despite once upon a time being a television blogger, I’ve always found it hard to write about movies. Don’t get me wrong, I love movies, I love them so much I tend to go on a roll and ramble on and my writing turns to shit. I could talk about, argue and discuss movies until I’m blue in the face, but my writing about them just sucks. On top of that, I’m much too nice, I can critique, but prefer to talk about the stuff I enjoy. If you’re looking for a balanced, well written, actual critic, look no further than Lon Harris.

All that said, 2008 was very possibly my favorite year for movies ever. Iron Man and Dark Knight both showed that comic book movies could be legitimate and amazing, and didn’t it by taking the genre in two totally different directions. Indiana Jones returned and was an awesome blast from the past (yes, I enjoyed the hell out of it). There were great surprises like Tropic Thunder and Slumdog Millionaire, and those that you could have counted on like Burn After Reading and Frost/Nixon.

I normally count the days for movies from Gus van Sant, David Fincher, Danny Boyle, Ron Howard, the Coen brothers, and Darren Aronofsky, and this year we got them within weeks of each other. Films as a whole are very much a group effort, but there have been so many individual standout performances. Again, with standards that you could count on like Clint Eastwood (in front of and behind the camera), actors like Anne Hathaway who you hoped had it in them, and those like Robert Downey Jr. and Mickey Rourke who came roaring back.

I enjoyed 2008’s movies like I remember enjoying movies when I was little. I had fun, and can’t wait to see what 2009 holds… but I’m rambling.

I meant to write something about this a few months ago, but totally forgot about it. As you’ll recall, I’ve had a bit of a (made up, fantasy, non-existant) history with Stacy Keibler. One of my first posts that got ran by AOL when I was at TV Squad was basically me creepily asking her out. Then, just this past summer at ComicCon, I was hanging out with Keith McDuffee and totally pussed out by not even talking to her.

I recently ended a certain sabbatical on New Year’s, and was talking about it tonight with young Mr. Gallagher who said I should try and date Stacy Keibler. Not only is that a stroke of brilliance, but it reminded me that I never posted these pictures. You see, I found myself at an Emmy party just a few weeks after ComicCon and had a rare second shot, and I took it. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves and fill you in on when the wedding will take place.

Just the right kind of weird to start off 2009 with.