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This was a tough audio book for me because I have mixed feelings about it. It’s short and sweet which is nice and the first hour has some really good information in it that will motivate you to walk which I think everyone should hear. However, the second hour, is a different story.

This audio book is narrated by Dr. Andrew Weil and athlete Mark Fenton. Dr Weil provides medical reasons for walking that will make you hate yourself for not doing it sooner. He brings up the issues of walking being thought of as a lesser activity because it’s not very modern, has no fancy equipment, and isn’t very scientific among other things but then goes on to talk about humans as bi-pedal with feet being the perfect design for this excercise and how all these reasons that waking is thought of as a lesser activity is why it’s good, in addition to being free and capable of being performed any where at any time.

Mark Fenton provides some insight on why walking is good as well, and then walks you through a warm-up, a walk at three different paces for 120, 135, and 150 steps per minute. The different paces are designed for different goals. The two crazy things about this part of the audio book is beat in the background and the amount of warm down time Mark prescribes for a walk whether its an hour long walk or just 5 minutes. The substantial amount of beat music in the background of the second part of the audio book is amazing. You’re supposed to time your steps with it. Mark even says, “just listen and if you fast forward, check back in, in about 10 minutes….” it was pretty crazy. Then the warm down just doesn’t end. Mark instructs the listener to do some very basic exercises over a long period of time. I know you can’t argue with the concept of warming up and warming down, but he says it’s great for a five minute walk. Does that mean if I park 7 minutes from the mall entrance that I need to warm up before I make the trek or I’m going to injure myself? It hasn’t happened in 33 years, why would it happen now that I’m taking up a solid walking program?

As previously mentioned, this audio book did have some good information in it from the Dr. In fact, I really liked what he said and am looking forward to getting hold of his other audio book called Healthy Aging. Then Mark’s portion of the book lacked substance and I feel was almost too basic, bordering on offensive, with how simple his information was but then again, maybe I didn’t see label that it was for beginners. All that said, I don’t know if this is worth paying a lot of money for. I’m sure both of these distinquished professionals which are both accomplished authors, have great material out there and I just don’t think this is their best work. It almost seems like the two guys decided to produce this one day over coffee and did so. Check it out if you can get it for free, other than that, look for other resources if you want to know more about walking.

“We don’t know his address, but we know his zip code.” - unnamed intelligence official talking about the Government’s understanding of where Osama Bin Laden was hiding. Source is Senator Bob Graham’s audio book Intelligence Matters.

Man…due I feel sorry for Oliver Stone. Boy is it apparent that he had a serious ax to grind against George W. Bush. It’s so transparent that it should be listed at President Obama’s website for transparency: recovery.gov. I was blown away at this amateur hour presentation of George W. Bush’s presidency, or should I say, college life and beyond, scaled down to just a two hour movie. Think about that, everything George W. Bush did, and his family did, scaled down to just a two hour movie. I don’t think so. Like I say, it was a gross hit piece that his theatres on October 17, 2008, two weeks prior to a presidential election that pitted Democrat Barrack Obama against Republic John McCain after two years of democrat surrogates referring to John McCain’s potential election as Bush’s third term. If this isn’t the textbook example of well executed plan than I don’t know what one is, but that’s not the focus.

The first and foremost thing I hated about this movie was how the characters looked and acted like generic robots. I mean come on. The Karl Rove character looked like a train wreck. Colin Powell’s character was nothing like Colin Powell and Richard Dryfuss for Dick Cheney? How about Rob Corddry as Ari Fleisher? I don’t know what happened there, but for a movie this high profile, I would’ve anticipated a better pool of characters or at least some characters that resembled the real life person they were portraying.

I’m obviously not a Washington insider but I have serious doubts about some of the scenes that were portrayed as “the way” Bush ran his administration. There’s one scene where Bush and Cheney are eating lunch and Cheney makes a comment. When he gets ready to excuse himself, Bush says, “Hey vice, remember, I’m the ultimate decider.” This scene just didn’t sit right with me. In several other scenes, Bush is portrayed as a man inflicting his religion onto his cabinet making them pray together regularly. The one that put me over the top was a scene that had Bush sitting at a table surrounded by his cabinet and the famous, “can’t get fooled no more” line was spoken. We’ve all scene this clip on youtube: Can’t Get Fooled No More, so what is Oliver North doing using it out of context? As much as the president was heckled and ridiculed over that, don’t you think he should have portrayed it correctly since many Americans are familiar with that mess up? If that was taken out of context, how much more was taken out of context? How much of this movie are we supposed to give credence to? The answer that it’s art and not science isn’t the answer I’m looking for to any of these questions.

In summary, this movie is a big piece of shit. It’s up there with the talented Mr. Ripley. I was a big fan of Born On The Fourth of July, The Doors, Any Given Sunday, JFK, Natural Born Killers, Wall Street, Platoon, and several other good films. There’s no doubt he’s a talented director. In this case though, with W., he lost some of his creditability and exposed himself as a democratic operative. The quality of this film and the push to make that date of release two weeks before a presidential election leaves a lot of dots to be connected. Don’t waste your time with this one unless you need a sleep aid.

What can you say about this book that hasn’t already been said about it or about Stephen Colbert. He appeals to everyone, even the conservatives he mocks with his nightly Comedy Central show. Colbert is a comical genius mixing sarcasm and satire in his daily reporting of current events to make audiences think through controversial topics and the actions of today’s elected officials. That wonderfully entertaining, yet informative, formula is brought to you in this audiobook, minus the censorship. Some of it’s a little off brand humor, some of it is offensive, but it’s all hilarious and considering the source, it’s all expected. If you’re a Colbert fan and haven’t taken the plunge then first of all, shame on you for not supporting Colbert’s efforts -you’re not worthy of being in the Nation; and secondly, you need to just do it. Get off your duff and catch hold of the extreme Colbert with this book.

*quick note, I’ve thumbed through this book at Borders and it looks cool and all, but the audio book will probably be more entertaining. It’s narrated by Colbert and very funny the way he emphasizes words and pauses for effect.

Movies for Children have come a long way. I thought Toy Story was cool, but Monsters vs. Aliens takes it to a new level with a very cool 3-D film. The animation is phenomenal, especially the outer space scenes at the beginning, showing rings around the planets. The theater experience was definitely worth the additional price for admission that you don’t get with other movies.

I don’t really have many comments on the plot line because this isn’t that kind of movie. If you want plot line, you need to go see something else. This movie is geared toward children with some comedy for the adults so everyone wins, but it’s obviously not a psychological thriller or anything. It’s a basic movie with a little tragedy on a an important day where the main character comes to her senses that the selfish guy she was about to marry for eternity was only looking out for himself. The main character turns into a freakishly tall human and she learns the value of true friendship, which happen to be her fellow monsters from monster prison, and does a selfless act to save the world after embracing her new mutation and monster name of Gigantica.

It’s a really cool movie and highly recommended. You’re going to love this move with it’s cast of talent including Reese Witherspoon, Kiefer Sutherland, Seth Rogan, Stephen Colbert, and many other familiar voices. I also liked the previews for other 3-D movies coming out soon. It looks like some good one’s are on the horizon including one where hamburger’s fall out of the sky and another when an old man and a kid fly away in a house full of balloons.

* one quick note, the 3-D glasses in the theater may be too big for children. Just something to watch for. If you watch it in the theater without the glasses, the movie will look fuzzy.

Leslie Sansone’s Eat Smart, Walk Strong: The Secrets to Effortless Weight Loss is another inspirational book for people not yet motivated enough to get some exercise and make some positive lifestlyle changes by horrific statistics reported in the media about America’s growing obesity problem. I am already an avid walker. I try to walk 15,000 steps on days that I work and 10,000 steps on days that I don’t. Even though I’m already a walker constantly looking for my next walker’s high, I still like to have the reasons why I should be walking reinforced regularly. That is why I gave this audio book a shot. Every health guru has their own perspective and the more I listen to, if each one reaches me with just one tidbit of advice or health tip that I can believe in, then I’ll be a better person on several levels over time.

Leslie brings several great points to the mind’s forefront in this quick roughly 2.5 hours audio book. She mentions that the body stores calories like a savings account. She says the when Americans have additional income from their paychecks, they have a tendency to want to save and the body does the same thing. Leslie refers to the excess calories as that savings on your thighs which I think is a pretty good mental image for the argument against over eating. Leslie continues by talking about fad diets and says Dr. Atkins didn’t take into account that Americans were already a nation of over-eaters and his diet program that set us free to eat all the bacon, ham, cheese, beef, and other high fat foods programmed us for failure. Leslie, like many other health experts, maintains that basic math and increased excercise is what will set you free and help with weight loss.

Leslie recalls a quote from JFK saying something to the effect that Americans have become watchers instead of doers and that we’re becoming a lazy nation. And this was back in the 60’s where people were more active. Today this is compounded by computer use, video games, high definition TV that makes you want to lounge around, and other technologies that don’t require us to be as physical as people use to be. Leslie then provides great reasons to walk such as reducing the risk for breast cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, arthritis, and several others.

In summary, Leslie Sansone provides a great reinforcement tool for those that need another hammer hit to understand why they need exercise and how they can achieve great results from walking. Leslie provides 4 specific walking techniques along with supporting reasons to practice them along with several other tips on how to improve your lifestyle with almost no significant impact to your joints and skeletal structure. This book is highly recommended. It’s short, sweet, and informative.

I love this movie. I caught it on cable the other day and I had to write something about it. It’s just a great flick. If you’ve never seen it, it’s about three childhood friends that are reflecting on their life on one’s wedding day, where he got drunk and had a second thought. That might not sound like a spectacular plot, but the way the story weaves in and out of present day and their childhood as non-gang banging high-schoolers, is pretty good.

The movie stars Omar Epps, Richard T. Jones, and Taye Diggs as the adult versions of the three main characters while Sean Nelson, Duane Finley and Trent Cameron as the young versions of Mike, Slim, and Rowland, three young guys that grew up in Inglewood, California. Not only is this a fun story about juvenile friendship but there is also a good “first love” story subplot between Mike and Alicia, which you have to see to appreciate. Take my word for it, don’t pass this movie up next time you see its going to be on. It has a lot of good laughs that you’ll be able to relate to.

I wanted to embrace this book and have it teach me the ways of the Six Sigma Black Belt Ninja, but that did not happen. I almost fell asleep driving my car. I’m not saying it’s a bad book based on that, but I am going to be honest and say, I gave the book a shot and I couldn’t get into it. It was a little troubling because my company is headed in this direction and I was looking for a good audiobook that would tell me everything I needed to know about Lean Six Sigma. If there is one out there, this isn’t it.

I’d be interested in hearing other people’s opinion, so please provide some comments and let me know if I should give The Six Sigma Way another shot. I’ve read great reviews elsewhere saying The Six Sigma Way is the best business book of all time. I seriously doubt this, but I have to think there’s some good value to this book if someone was willing to go out on a limb and make that bold of a statement.

I’ll update this post if my opinion changes.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno is a funny movie that every stoner is going to love. It’s another classic from this crew (Jay & Silent Bob, Seth Rogan, etc) with the same old shtick, maybe a little more than used to, that will make you love. It’s 200 times better than Pineapple Express and on the level with Superbad. The interesting thing about this movie, which is a story about two long time friends that are extremely close and down on their financial luck, is what a good love story it is. Zack and Miri know everything about each other and encourage each other to enjoy life and get laid by whoever they want, whenever they can, etc. Well…while sitting in the darkness of their waterless/utility less apartment, they decide to make a porno and sell it to at least 800 alumni members from their high school graduating class they are positive would buy it just to see two members of their graduating class in a porno.

Through out the porno planning phase, which includes scripting and casting, the both Zack and Miri promise over and over again that it’ll just be sex and swear their relationship won’t be affected. This is a little foreshadowing. You will easily see where this movie is going. The plot line, the friends fall in love thing, has been used in multiple movies before this one which is no different from any of the others. I write that not as a spoiler, but as basic commentary. Any of Silent Bob or Seth Rogan’s fans that are seeing this movie are not watching it for the plot line. Fans are watching it for the movie formula common to all Rogan’s movies and the comedy extremes that come with it.

This movie is recommended mostly because of it’s comedy value but also because you will actually see the love between Zack and Miri when it happens and you’ll be reminded of the worse thing you ever did when in the past, you crossed that friendship line with a special friend of the opposite sex and things were never the same again. Both Zack and Miri play the parts well and if you’ve ever experienced this scenario, you will definitely identify.

This is a sad audio book. The author Jorge Ramos wrote this tragic book about the events of May 14, 2003, near Victoria, Texas, where estimates as high as 100 but definitely 73, undocumented immigrants crossed the border in the trailer or a perishable goods semi-truck. The temperature was one degree of of the historical high at 91 degrees. The packed trailer had an aluminum lining and more than 1 inch thick insulation. 19 people died, including a 5 year old boy and his father that both took their finals breaths in each others arms. Jorge Ramos retells the story of this horrific event based on interviews he conducted with 4 survivors and all available police records and court documents. Whether you’re for an open or closed border is irrelevant. This is a brutal story of the poorest of the poor with the least amount of resources paying around $2k a head to be mislead and exploited by coyotes as they risk it all to attain the American dream of opportunity that can’t be achieved by their worthless greedy governments back in their native countries. It’s a tragic but touching story to hear/read how illegal crossings are achieved, to learn about the networks in place that facilitate illegal crossings, and what the illegals are willing to do and risk to get to America. I recommend this book if you can get your hands on it.