Over the last few weeks, one of our new writers, Ryan, gave us his thoughts about the nominees for Best Picture (here and here) as well as his predictions for a total of 10 categories at this year’s Oscars.  The show was last night, all the winners have been announced, how did he do?  Ryan managed to hit 9 out of 10 from his prediction list, and got all the big awards.

While anyone could argue that these were easy calls to make, I disagree. Particularly in the case of Best Picture and Best Actress as Avatar and The Hurt Locker had fairly close odds as did Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep at Point-Spreads, Gambling 911, and Sharp Bettor (I guess people really do bet on these things).  I wouldn’t have been able to get nine right, but that’s why we had Ryan contribute his thoughts on the awards. He didn’t even need to see every movie.

I just don’t know why he didn’t throw out a pick for Best Foreign Language Film. Anyone could see ‘El Secreto de Sus Ojos‘ was a sure thing.  Or is it funnier to say ‘The Young Victoria‘ was a shoe-in for Best Costume Design?

The Hot Tub Time Machine is one of those movies like Snakes on a Plane in which the title of the film explains everything you need to know about the film’s plot. Everyone walking into the theater to see it knows in advance that the movie is stupid. If you think you’re heading to see an intellectual film, then you yourself are stupid.

John Cusack, playing a character named Adam, leads a cast of three middle aged friends who have drifted apart and have realized that none of their lives have turned out the way they hoped. When Adam’s old friend Lou (Rob Corddry) tries to kill himself while rocking out to Motley Crue, Adam and Nick (the American Office’s Craig Robinson) decide to take him away to a ski resort that they had frequented in their youth to give him a chance to relax. This is an oddly dark way to kick off the adveture.

They are joined on the trip by Adam’s nerdy young nephew Jacob, played by Clark Duke, who is detested by Lou.

After a night of crazy partying, one thing leads to another and the four find themselves transported back to 1986 and hijinks ensue.

The most important question about any film like this, of course, is by what time travel rules do they play?

Lost?

Terminator?

Back to the Future?

Bill and Ted?

Apparently, the characters are convinced they must follow the rules of the Butterfly Effect (a movie I skipped) to make sure they don’t ruin their futures. Can these middle aged versions of themselves succeed in replicating their youthful behavior? Will they destroy the world if they fail?

The film continues Chevy Chase’s comeback tour as he shows up as a funny and mysterious hot tub repairman and also features a hysterical running gag featuring former-Back to the Future costar Crispin Glover.

In the end, is the movie funny?

Hell yeah.

Everyone is comparing this flick to the Hangover because that was funny and remarkably successful recently, but I think I enjoyed the pure madness of HTTM more.

I have a love/hate relationship with this show. I’ve watched every season, but I haven’t enjoyed watching every season. After taking a year off due to the Writer’s Guild strike/Kiefer Sutherland’s legal problems, the show came back with a solid season last year. It was decent, but I was beginning to doubt whether I’d stick with it this year.

All doubts have been erased at this point. Actually, I think I knew this a few weeks ago but I had to be sure. I’ve found myself looking forward to the show each week and at this point I’m confident the rest of the season is going to be worth watching. The threats are developing nicely, villains are being taken off the playing field on an almost weekly basis, and the subplots are intriguing. Sure, it’s basically the same show it always is except they’re in New York this time, but it’s being done well.

Jack is still doing the impossible, but that’s really nothing to complain about. Kim Bauer and her family are hopefully completely out of the picture for this season. The addition of Katee Sackhoff doesn’t hurt. I’m genuinely interested in her character as well as her love interest Freddie the Prinze, June. Annie Wersching returning as the completely unstable Reneé Walker is adding the much needed wild card and Chloe O’Brien is still a sourpuss.  What more can you ask for from this show?

This is long overdue.  Pete and I started a 365 blog, and then a few days later some new cookbooks arrived.  I immediately started focussing on my new treasures.  In 2010, I have been trying to cook as often as possible.  Pictures of the food were ending up on the 365 blog, and it had clearly become a huge distraction.  The more I cooked, the more it became clear that I need a better way to organize everything.  No recipe program is going to cut it for me.  I considered building a database….but that is a lot of work and a lot of time.  The biggest problem is that a database is just for me.  Clearly, I wanted to share these kitchen adventures with others.  Pete kept telling me I should do a food post for MLD since that has clearly been a huge distraction for me.  I wanted to, but I wasn’t sure exactly what to post about for the MLD audience.  With how often I have been in the kitchen trying something new, I could completely overtake MLD with food posts.  So…I started a separate blog.  Just for food.  Well, not just for food, it will cover all of my food love….cooking, baking, restaurants, gadgets, and everything in between.  So that explains my lack of posting here.  I have been barefoot in the kitchen.  Check out my food adventures at NotJustTakeOut.com!

As if I wasn’t already addicted to my iPhone (my wife wants to throw it against the wall), ESPN released their Streak for Cash iPhone app late last year and I can’t seem to put it down.

ESPN Streak for Cash is a game that originated on the ESPN website. Each day, they post of series of scenarios in sports ranging anywhere from who will win a certain soccer match to which player will score the most first-half points in an NBA basketball game. I even saw a curling matchup the other day. You choose who will win the scenario and your goal is to put together the longest winning streak possible. There are around 7 scenarios posted each day. You are able to choose as many or as few matchups as you want, but you can only choose one scenario at a time. You are locked into your choice when the game starts and you have to wait until your first game is over before you can choose your next matchup.

Seems fairly easy, but this is probably one of the most difficult sports-related games that I’ve ever played. For the entire month of January, I had a record of 60-42-1 with my longest win streak going 8 matchups. The participant with the longest streak for the month scored $100,000 for a 20 wins in a row. So far this month, I’m 18-28-1 with a 3 win streak. The leader has 21 wins in a row.

No matter what kind of strategy I employ or how much research I do on certain matchups, I can’t seem to find a system that works for me. That’s what is so great about this game. I don’t think that any person, no matter how knowledgeable, has an advantage. It’s a guessing game. You can look up every wacky statistic in the book, but the simple fact is that anything can happen in sports.

I recommend this game for everyone that loves sports. It is so addicting. The iPhone app is extremely buggy and crashes quite often, but I am able to look past that simply because I enjoy playing the game so much. If the app becomes frustrating, take a look at the version on ESPN’s website.