I love it when an actress or actor surprises me. Now Anna Kendrick was great in "Up In the Air", but I recently watched "Pitch Perfect" and absolutely loved her in that movie. When she busted out with Cups by Lulu & The Lampshades I was blown away. "Wow she can sing," was my immediate reaction.

The Riff-Off is one of my favorite scenes from the movie:

Now. Not intending to hate, but I'm not a fan of Glee. The songs are great, but when trying to watch a few shows the sitcom style doesn't really do it for me. But I do admit to secretly being a fan of "Bring It On". And there movies have a very similar themes. Fun takes on school competitions, that wow people more for their artistic feats.

You know how they say the Olympics takes the place of war in some aspects, because we get to have each nation's best athlete battle each other. Well I'd love to see a Performing Arts Olympics at worldwide scale. The games will include:

1. A-Capella battle (in the style of Pitch Perfect)

2. Dance Battle (in the style of LXD)

3. Cheerleader battle (in the style of Bring It On)

4. Rap Battles

5. DJ Battles (in the style of turntable.fm)

6. Battle of the Bands

7. Live Street Graffiti Battle

If they have the X Games for Extreme Sports. I don't see why we can't make the A Games for the Arts? That would be awesome. And I'm sure others can add to this list.

Of course the natural follow-up question to ask is... Will doping scandals rock these competitions ask well? I hear you get really creative when you're high or intoxicated.

I'll try to keep this relatively short. Just wanted to get back in the habit of writing again.

At the end of last week at an after work happy hour a coworker mentioned. "Y'know J you seemed pretty down the last two weeks or so. Are things okay?" This took me by surprise as I didn't realize that my mood is so easily picked up by other people. Or him specifically since we we're friends or anything. "Yeah I'm no longer seeing anyone if that's what you mean."

Such was the habit of mine in the past to not blog enough about my happy times, and then come back to Xanga when those times pass. So here I am to collect my thoughts on how I'm feeling:

The last three months were amazing. This American Life aired a story about a couple who dated each other 13 years then decided to try dating other people for 3 months. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/486/valentines-day-2013. The guy in the story was super honest and open with people, and found it hard not to get emotionally attached to the girls he was dating. I can TOTALLY relate to that guy. I am THAT guy.

Another co-worker who's the mother of two kids told me a story of how she got together with her husband. This was at that the same said happy hour; in fact the event was her going away party. Well they knew each other since college, but her husband purposefully never dated her because he had assessed her as marriage material. So it was only many years later when they were both around 30 or so that they began seeing each other. The dates were more like interviews with each other about whether the wanted children, what kind of family, where each preferred to live, etc.

I agree from her husband's perspective that I (any probably most guys) have a predetermined notion in our heads about which are the girls we want to fool around with and which are the girls we see sharing our lives with. Yukino was a part-of-your-life girl, so she shaped much of my emotional attachment mindset in throughout my 20s. Arietty was a have-some-fun girl, and she gave me a refreshing perspective. And Rose, her red hair and charming scent will leave an impression for some time. A might-have-been that was not to be.

She said "carefree" was what she was looking for. I had interpreted that to mean "worry-free" and "drama-free". Easily done in that regard, and some outstanding moments at that. It occurs to me that "carefree" to her likely meant something else. She just didn't want me to care for her (about her). I don't mean that in a sad way either. That's just the way it was.