Docs about People who are Awesome

Searching for Sugarman

Okay, this Doc is not on Netflix or Hulu yet.. well, I actually have no idea, but it wasn't 1 month ago when we watched it. We rented it on Amazon for $3.99 and I have to say it was well worth it.

So since it is FRIDAY and in order to be RELEVANT I will promote this doc. 

It is awesome- and I know I say that about every doc I watch (because they are all awesome) but this one really IS awesome because it won an OSCAR.... so that means that America also agrees with the level of awesomeness. 

One day, I was sitting around with some friends, you know, talking about things that matter like Blogs and Documentaries.. and this doc was first recommended to me by my friend Allison and I was like mayyyyybe I'll watch it. And then it was recommended to me by my BESTEST friend KIMI (thats right people, 3 different blogs links there)! so I was like okay, I will add this to my "List of Docs I Want to Watch" that I keep on my iphone notepad. Then when I found out it was nominated and then won the Oscar, I was like, alright, this is serious.. I have to watch this now... 

So we did.. and I lured my Meeker into watching it with me by making him dinner and a Jack-n-Diet-Coke and some kale chips (which I actually burned really badly and ruined a baking sheet, but that is besides the point)

We both loved it and you will too. The main premise is about an American Singer Song writer in the 70s who was basically unknown in the US but a huge superstar in South Africa but had no idea.. "Two South Africans set out to discover what happened to their unlikely musical hero, the mysterious 1970s rock 'n' roller, Rodriguez." is how IMBD describes it. 

Def a must see- and hopefully you will cry and get goosebumps just like I did. 

Docs about People who are Awesome

This documentary gets its own post. If someone could only watch 1 documentary for the rest of their life, I would probably recommend this one (side note: please don't ever ask me to make that decision for someone because it will probably lead to my death after I agonize over the decision for 3 months - I blame ENFJ-ness and being a Libra). 

I loved watching this doc. Its about a guy who decides to go a whole month living entirely off Craigslist with these guidelines: 

1. He cannot have contact with anyone he knows (so he gets a new phone # and email that none of his current people know )
2. All he can carry is 1 backpack, laptop, phone and I think that's it. and I think he can only wear the clothes off his back. 

(I think those are the guidelines, I watched it like 2 months ago.)

Anyway. So he has to depend on craigslist for food, shelter, transportation... 

This documentary will restore your faith in humanity and the kindness of strangers. 

It reminds you that a majority of people are caring and kind. 

This documentary made me cry as well, but a nice happy cry. A definite must see if you are feeling down or think that America as a country is going down the crapper. 

Sometimes it is important to be reminded of that (especially if you are are social worker..) Almost like a Care Bear stare moment if you will.

Also, while doing extensive research for this blog (google searching and then clicking on the website) I found a Craigslist Joe blog. which I am now following on google reader. Score. 

ESPN Docs!

Where are the documentary posts you may ask?! Well they are right here!

I love sports and all things sports related and I love to throw myself into a good championship/tournament challenge. I like to cry and get goosebumps and feel depressed all because of the outcome of a game. It's my soap opera.

I was naturally drawn to the ESPN docs. I feel like I have to pace myself with them though so I don't over do it. I know I am going to like all of them. I am listing these in the order of my favorite so far.

1. The Marinovich Project- ESPN Film

 I had never heard of Todd Marinovich before, but apparently every guy knows who he is.. I think it was before my time and I lived in Brazil during his hay-day, but whateves. Todd has the childhood training that every athlete dreams of having, but it actually ended up ruining his life.... ENJOY! 

3. The 2 Escobars- 30 for 30 

I watched this during the last World Cup (2010!) and it was Awesome! It is about how the drug lords funded the National Soccer team during the World Cup 1994 (which was my very first world cup- Go BRAZIL!). Lets just say.. it didn't end well. Warning, a majority of this movie is in Spanish and you will have to read subtitles. 

2. The Band that Wouldn't Die- 30 for 30

This is a must watch for any Marylander- It tells the tragic tale of the Baltimore Colts through the perspective of their Marching Band. Any good Marylander knows the story of the Colts leaving in the middle of the night to move to Indianapolis in 1984. And if you are a really good Marylander you boycott Mayflower moving company, because all that was shown on the news were these big Mayflower moving trucks, taking our beloved team away (okay, I was 3 years old at the time and had no idea what was going on, but that's what my family said happened). This film is the sweet story of how the band was instrumental (see what i did there?) in helping to fight to bring a football team back to Maryland. And thank God they did GO RAVENS!!!!!!! Also if you are homesick for Maryland and need a good "Hey Hon" to warm your heart, this is the movie for you. 

4. Catching Hell- ESPN Films

Okay, I will be honest, I fell asleep during the middle of this film, but it was still AWESOME! It was about a guy who "interfered" with a play in the 2003 World Series and how it ruined his life. He is currently in the witness protection program because people tried to kill him. It is actually really sad. But interesting. 

Food Truck Rodeos....

....are dumb.

Americans, you have been fooled. Food Truck Rodeos/Round ups are not as fun as you think they are. 

Yes they are super "IN" right now, just like themed 5ks*. But they are not fun. 

They are awful. 

Now, I have nothing against food trucks. It's the Food Truck Rodeo event that I don't like. And, lesbi-honest.. you don't like them either. But they are cool right now, so you go anyway.  I'm here to tell you the TRUTH!

Here's why they are No Bueno. 

1. Long waits

The last food truck rodeo I went to, I found the shortest line I could and waited 30 minutes to ORDER. Then I waited another 20 minutes for them to make my food. 

I  basically hung out for an hour with strangers, huddled next to the truck's roaring engine desperately waiting to hear my name called. I cannot imagine going to a popular truck with a long line! It then takes you like 5 minutes to eat what you waited for. 

2. Expensive.

This might just be me, but when I hear "food truck" my mind thinks Cheap! This is false. The last time I went to a rodeo I spent $15 for 2 Korean dumplings, a side of sweet potato fries and a soda. What!? 

3. Not comfortable. 

After waiting for 1 hour to get your expensive food, you try and balance your multiple paper food plates/mini-trays and drink as you sift your way thru hundreds of other people and try to find your group of friends. Once you find them, you sit on DIRT because it is so crowded that is the only place to go. Sure bring your blanket, bring your lawn chair. What are you going to do with them while you are in line? You can have you friends sit in them while you wait in line... then you eat alone because once you get back your friend has to go through what you just did. 

Now throw extreme heat, rain, coldness, snow into the mix, and you might as well be in the hunger games arena

Why is this fun?

Why do people keep going to things. 

Anyway, food trucks are nice if there is just one. and there is no line and a nice picnic table next to it where you can sit.. wait they should make places where you can order food and sit down and eat... we'll call it food houses. It will be a big house with a big kitchen and a ton of tables w chairs. people can hang out with their friends at a nice table and enjoy good convo while they wait for their food. Genius. 

*side note: this themed 5k run actually sounds awesome Glow Run 
(running thru an old psych hospital campus at night wearing glow sticks. holla)

Meal Planning Savior?

So, I signed up for EMEALS. You have to pay for it, but I think it's worth it. And Dave Ramsey made a youtube video about it. I think this solved all of my problems. 

It seems cool, so I thought I would promote it here (if you click on the banner and sign up i get a discount..cough cough). 

You tell them how many ppl you have in your fam, you get to pick what kinda menu you are looking for an BAM- a meal and grocery list. And they can even tailor it to your grocery store and look for sales/deals for you. You have to pay for it, but like I said, Dave Ramsey said it was okay. OKAY?!

I'm going to try the Paleo diet and the Clean Diet. (the have a million options). Enjoy!

Docs about People who make Extreme Life Changes

1. Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.

I heard about this doc through another blog, so I decided to check it out. I tricked Meeker into watching it with me (I just turned it on) and we were hooked. After watching it, Meeker and I decided to buy a juicer and do our own juice fast (and according to twitter, everyone else who watches this movie gets the same inspiration FF: @joethejuicer ).

Meeker and I did not have the same results as this Aussie.

We made a few obvious mistakes which led to our demise, so maybe you can learn from us.

Mistake 1: We planned our juice fast to start on Dec 22.. 3 days before Christmas. We were staying in Raleigh by ourselves for Christmas because I had to work and had no vacation time left after our wedding. We thought it would be the perfect time to juice because no one was around and we could focus.Turns out, we wanted to be around people during Christmas even though we were away from family which means Christmas food temptation to the max .

Mistake 2: We did not detox leading up to our fast. Before you start a juice fast you are supposed to eat raw  so the withdrawal symptoms are less severe. Instead we went to 3 Christmas parties that week including the night before our fast. No Bueno. The preliminary fast is important, not just a "meh" as we once thought.

Mistake 3: We did not experiment with recipes or our juicer before our fast. We blindly followed all the recipes on the reboot website associated with the doc. Mean Green, you are trash, Gazpacho juice- I hate you. :-) We naively thought we would like all the juices and we just didn't. And we bought a really expensive juicer (thanks wedding registry credit!), so our juicer was yielding 2x the amount that the recipe said it would make (go Omega!) so we were probably over-doing it.. We were so disgusted... we made 40 oz of that Gazpacho juice and poured it directly down the drain because it smelled like onion (onions should not be juiced) and looked like vomit.

So, as I mentioned in a previous blog, our juice fast lasted 3 days and ended at  Cheesecake factory.

But, we have learned from our mistakes and found some juices we like so it wasn't a huge waste.

2. No Impact Man
I heard about this movie from my friend Abbi, who had rented it from the Library for free. (Abbi is one of my most frugal friends and she and her husband Joel are pretty cool. They saved up money for a whole year to drive across the country (Ohio to CA) and now live in this community in Baltimore, Reservoir Hill). Anyway, I found it on Netflix and added it to the queue. I watched it while Meeker was on a business trip. It was really interesting. Its about a guy and his family who decide to go a whole year making "no impact" . So they try to create as little waste as possible- no trash, eating local, only using bikes or walking (he lives n NYC). It was actually really interesting and inspiring, and I now cringe every time I use a zip-lock bag or paper towel. Check it out yo!

Docs About People with Weird Hobbies (and The Walking Dead)

Before I begin, I just want to take the time to give a brief apology to The Walking Dead. Meeker asked me to watch you and I said no for 2 months. I talked bad about you. I refused you. I said you would be too gory. I said that zombies were dumb. I was wrong on all accounts and for that I am truly sorry.  (The only way Meeker got me to watch this was by telling me that the main character was one of the characters in Love Actually SWOON! It's so good, and reminds me of LOST)

Anyways... 

If you want to get pumped up for March Madness, these docs are probably not for you. But, if you want to find out what the non-athletes were doing with their time during high school, these docs will not disappoint.

1. Word Play
This was the documentary that started my love for documentaries. I watched this at a theater in downtown Asheville in 2006 and loved it. I own it on DVD if you need to borrow it. This is about the NY Times crossword puzzle and it is fascinating! And, yes, like all weird hobbies, there is an annual competition involved hosted by Will Shortz! It is great and makes you feel smart because you are watching a documentary about crosswords and then dumb because you could never do a crossword puzzle in 2 minutes.. You will also find yourself cheering for people in the finals as they compete head to head on blown up crossword puzzles displayed on dry-erase boards.  I have watched this doc several times and it has yet to disappoint. Note, this is not on Netflix, but you can watch it for free on Hulu.







2. The King of Kong: A Fist Full of Quarters.

During January 2011 we had a snowstorm in Raleigh, and since I was "working from home" , I took the afternoon to work on a puzzle and watch TV (I also think I only had 2 clients at the time, so stop judging me). I had heard about this doc from a guy I had a crush on so I watched it and it was awesome. I kind of can't remember all of it, but it's basically about a guy who had all these things go wrong at once, and in turn, dedicated his life to beating Donkey Kong. The story goes on to a major Kong Competition- riveting.



3.American Harmony 
If you like Glee- you might like this. This doc is about an international barbershop quartet contest. I think my favorite part of this documentary was me watching it. It was entertaining in the sense that you can't believe that it's happening. Its just mind boggling that there is an international competition that is SOLD OUT every year.. like they are selling out stadiums and going on tour.. wow. so there's that. I liked it. Go OC TIMES!

Fun Biography Docs.

Here are some other Random Biography Docs that are bueno!

1. Being Elmo

This Doc fueled our passion for the muppets and made Meeker and I want to drop everything and dedicate our lives to becoming Muppeteers. (We google searched how to become a muppeteer and it is a very long process- we would have to quit our jobs and do a lot of free internships and move to NYC or LA. Kinda like water-skiing,  it's something you have to start when you are young.)

I also loved that he was from BALTIMORE! 

Note: This Doc came out before the whole sex scandal thing, so it was not mentioned.



2. Bill Cunningham New York
Netflix told me I would probably like this movie and give it 4 out of 5 stars. I added it to my queue and it stayed there for months. Then one lazy Sunday afternoon, Meeker and I decided to take a nap, so I put this on to fall asleep to. I mean, it's a doc about a fashion photographer.. things I don't really care about.. but turns out, Netflix was right (o, wise one). 

I fell asleep 20 minutes in, but Meeker was so intrigued, he watched the whole thing start to finish. When I woke up he told me I would really like it so I re-watched the parts I missed. I can't explain why it was so good, he is just an interesting man, has great character, and pretty awesome job. So check it out! 

Senna

One of my Brazilian friends posted a trailer for this movie via YouTube on Facebook a few years ago, and I remember being really excited to go see it. As far as I know it never came out in a theater around me but I was excited to find it on Netflix. Meeker watched this one with me and he loved it. 

Spoiler Alert - I am going to talk about what happens in this documentary.. I don't feel bad because it's a biography.. but thought I would warn you in case you want to watch it blind.  

Senna  is "A documentary on Brazilian Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna, who won the F1 world championship three times before his death at age 34."

Just to be clear, I have no interest in racing. The culture is weird to me, and I don't really get it. However, I was in Brazil in 1994 when Ayrton Senna died and it was an experience I will never forget. 

Ayrton Senna was a Brazilian Hero in the early 90s. Brazil had nothing going for them- a corrupt government, corrupt police system, an out of control economy (the currency changed 3 times during the 5 years I lived there).  Ayrton Senna was a light in a dark place.  

When he died in a tragic racing accident, the country completely lost it. Think Michael Jordan dying in the middle of a basketball game when he was at the peak of his career.

Brazilians do not suffer in silence. People wore all black for the whole week of his death. At my school, the teachers put a Black stripe across all the Brazilian flags on display. The flags were at half mast the whole week.  This wasn't just his family, or Formula 1 fans- it was the whole country. People were openly weeping about it. I remember watching the evening news and the newscaster started sobbing during the live broadcast just mentioning it.. and the camera just stayed on him because everyone else was weeping too. 

The Documentary does a great job telling Ayrton Senna's story and it actually makes Formula 1 driving interesting. Sorry if you didn't know he died. I remember telling Meeker something about him dying while we were watching it and he was like "HE DIES?!" I forgot that most Americans have no idea who he is. 

 (PS- Brazil recovered from its mourning a few months later as they won the World Cup '94!) 

Searching For Bobby Fischer

Warning. This is going to be a long story that doesn't really go anywhere.

Background 

My family lived in Brazil from 1991-1996 and we did most of our banking down there. My parents, being foreigners and not speaking the launguage and all, tried to open a savings account -did it incorrectly and lost some of the money the process (prob only like $200). 3 years later we found out that the money was never "lost" but put into some type of mutual fund and now had $800-ish. So my missionary parents did the only sensible thing that you can do when you get a surprise income. They bought a humongous TV! 

This TV was awesome and had the "SAP" feature (remember, this was in 1995, and we were in Brazil). Brazilian TV was all dubbed in Portuguese, but if you put it in SAP it would turn it to the original language, so we could watch all of the American shows in English! Well for some reason, when we put it on SAP, the shows would be in English, but all of the commercials would be in Spanish, not Portuguese.

One of the commercials on Brazilian cable would be for a movie called "Searching for Bobby Fischer". But the commercial was in Spanish, "En Busca de Bobby Fischer".. and I couldn't  understand what they were saying, so in my 13 year old head, this movie was a mystery movie about a child abduction. Bobby Fischer was a little boy who was kidnapped and his mother and father looked for him every where and couldn't find him and it destroyed their marriage. I was dying to see this movie. Where was Bobby Fischer?! Who took him? Did they ever find him? Maybe they found him when he was an adult, and the story had a happy ending? Who would kidnap a child!?  I probably saw this commercial a million times but the movie was never on when I was watching TV! Or it had already started or something and I wanted to watch the whole thing.. Well, the goal of watching this movie was pushed a side by my desire to be cool and hang out with high-schoolers while I was still 13, so I quickly forgot about this movie, and moved on with my life. 

Flash forward to 2013.

I am searching through Netflix and what do I find?! None other than "Searching for Bobby Fischer" I added into my insta-queue, where it was quickly passed over for bigger and better things. So when Meeker went out of town, I thought it would be the perfect movie to watch on a Saturday afternoon. So, I am watching, and watching... and no one's name is Bobby.. and no one is getting kidnapped.. and they keep playing chess.  and more chess...chess chess CHESS! about half-way through, I realize.. this movie has nothing to do with Kidnapping.. Turns out, Bobby Fischer is a famous chess player, and the movie is about "A prepubescent chess prodigy refuses to harden himself in order to become a champion like the famous but unlikable Bobby Fischer." (thank you IMDB ).. so yah..quite different from my original interpretation of the Spanish trailer.  I was a little disappointed. The actual story line was okay- a little long...I organized my kitchen while it was playing... 

But, Seriously.. how can you have a cover box like this and not be about getting kidnapped... 

Prologue to Netflix Blogs

My hubby and I decided not to pay for cable because we are trying to save some money (thanks Dave Ramsey- we are saving about $400 a year!), so we only have Hulu Plus and Netflix. We also rent from Amazon here and there- it's a bit more then Redbox, but we don't have to do any work - and to be honest, I usually end up paying like $5 for Redbox movies because I forgot to return them, and in most cases, don't watch them.

The second week of our marriage, we turned to Netflix to get us through the huge transition and procrastinate unpacking all of  my crap. As a result we watched 9 seasons of Law and Order in about 2 months (maybe 3). (RIP Lenny). There are still like 10 seasons out there that we have yet to watch, but they aren't on Netflix yet.. probably for the better...

In an attempt to fill our Law and Order void- we tried other things:

-SVU (no thank you..I can tolerate murder crimes but cannot tolerate sex crimes.)
- Freaks and Geeks! (awesome!)
-How I Met your Mother (good for me, but Meeker is not a huge fan)
-Myth-busters (good for Meeker, but I can only take so much)

Well, I started getting bored of TV shows, and decided to work my way thru my Instant Queue and I found the wonderful world of Netflix Documentaries! I can rarely convince Meeker to watch one with me so when he went out of town for a long weekend I watched probably 8... and it was magical!

So, that's how this started and I want other people to know about some cool and not cool things to watch on the Netflix.

Most of the movies/docs fall under these categories: Food, At-Risk Youth/Education, Sports (thank you ESPN films ), Biographies, and the rest are super random. We also found an "Oscar" genre on netflix so we may watch some older movies.

We decided not to watch TV/netflix/hulu etc during the week because as you see by the list above, we were spending wayyyy too much time watching TV and not doing things like budgeting, laundry, sleeping, talking, etc.. So we usually catch up on network shows on the weekends.. but I already have a lot to work with here.

And Another Thing...

Has anyone ever tried to Meal Plan? Because it's impossible. 

Every week since I have been married (5 months last week!) I have thought "next week, I am going to make a meal plan" and then I try and realize how hard it will be because these are the things it needs to have.

1200 calories for me (unless I start working out)
2000 calories for the meeker
dinners that can be turned into work lunches
foods that take less then 1 hour to make
meat (for meeker) that i can cook (so far, chicken and ground turkey)
and low on the dairy products and
nothing processed if possible.
Incorporates Juices and Smoothies...


and after reviewing all that i think "I don't have time to make a meal plan" .


-So I  just Google search "meal plans" and find a ton of really intricate meals that I would have to quit my job and devote my life to cooking and grocery shopping.
-So I Google search "meal plans for busy people" and I either find meals that feed a family of 5, or are full of casseroles, cheese, milk, and overly processed food.
-So I Google search "healthy meal plans" or "whole food meal plans" and run into the same issue as the first Google search.
-So I ordered Jillian Michael's cookbook with a meal plan for busy people, but it had a lot of processed food and or milk/dairy products or meat that I didn't know how to cook.
-So I then I asked a friend and they gave me a meal plan program sample (the basic 5 or something) meal plan for busy families but again, it's portion sizes are for 4 not 2.


So I think I am actually going to have to make one myself.  Which I probably could have done in the amount of time that it took me to Google search. Live and learn.

I actually found the Fit2Fat2Fit to be the best one to meet our needs if I tweak it a bunch and cook everything on Sunday, but may need to add calories to it for the hubby since its really low calorie and my big guy needs a lot more since he does all those boot camp workouts.. we shall see.

Other things I want to Blog about but probably won't get to

I have other things I would love to write about on here.

But who has the time!? Seriously, how do these Bloggers do it?

I feel like if I write the ideas down on the blog its like I am blogging about it. So here it goes.

1. Ode To Kroger - My love for the Kroger grocery store, their gas station, and their reward system.

2. Grocery Store Loyalty Dilemma - Despite my love for Kroger, I am thinking about switching to Trader Joes and Whole Foods and the Farmers Market because I can only shop in 1 aisle at Kroger because everything else is full of the evil ingredients. And Trader Joes is funny (have you seen the way they name things?!) Problem is that Whole Foods and Trader Joes are totally out of the way, the Farmers Market is only on Saturday and Kroger is across the street and open 24/7. (First World Problem Alert).

3. WORK STORIES! - I have the funniest job. People call in with the craziest problems and I want to document them! And Quote them ("I have bipolarism" "I feel smothercated")! And make fun of them! or feel sorry for them. But I can't because I will get fired and probably lose my license because it's in "poor taste" and controlled by "HIPPA" :-)

4. Co-worker stories- Again same problem. But come on, fake weddings, a luau party in Feb, the refrigerator thief, stomach wrap weight loss stories! It's like an episode of the office every day. I would feel horrible if they ever read this though, just like I would feel horrible if I read a blog that was making fun of me. So I will refrain!

5. Caller Email Address- people have the weirdest email addresses, and I write all of the funny ones down. I want to list them on here. The best are from stay-at-home moms that have some form of the word "patootie" in their handle. Again that "HIPPA" thing.. and my whole "license thing" and my "steady income thing"...

6. My Old Dating Stories- Not to brag or anything, but I think I have had some of the worst dates ever. Or weirdest, or creepiest, etc.. but again, I would feel really bad if one of the past dates ever read this.

That's all. I would say most of these would just be making fun of other people, which is cheap humor.. and not very creative (but super enjoyable to read). So I am not sure what that says about my heart. I may need to go examine why I have a desire to make fun of others so much (it's funny!). But I will harness my inner-bully and make my blog a nicey.

it's happening.

I have been wanting to blog lately but I haven't really had anything to write about.. (except transitioning into marriage... but that's so 2012!).


I was going to blog about our Juice Fast (which was inspired by Fat Sick and Nearly Dead) but it only lasted 2 1/2 days and ended with a meal at Cheese Cake Factory--So I didn't think that would be too inspiring.


I also thought about blogging about me trying to learn how to cook but also thought that would be too Julia + Julie movie (what was that called?).. but I know what I am going to write about now:

NETFLIX DOCUMENTARIES!


yah. that's actually the real thing I am going to blog about not a joke. I have watched probably a million (14) in the last month and I want to document them so I don't forget what I learned. And so I can recommend them to other people (Kimi).


So that's whats happening but I'm probably not going to get around to it until Saturday. Get excited.