That is all.

I know the blog has changed a lot over the years. I feel at times that Facebook and Twitter and other things like that have almost made it obsolete as far as this being a place where a bunch of friends can stay in touch. But there's so much history in these pages, so many memories, that I could never let it go. It's just nice knowing it's here. It's also nice having a place where I can still post my thoughts on things that don't quite belong anywhere else.

I want to give huge hugs and props to everyone who's ever posted here at brendoman.com. You guys are all awesome. I also want to give hugs to all the people we've connected with exclusively through this site. You are a constant reminder of why the internet isn't always dumb and evil. I met tons of cool people thanks to this blog and this community. When I think of all the stuff I've learned and ideas I've had that have come directly out of this, it kind of blows my mind. Case in point: Danny taught me some Linux command line basics so I could manage the site better through SSH. That knowledge helped me get the job I have now.

Speaking of Danny, biggest hugs of all to him for being the true keeper of the keys for all these years. We've changed blog software three times. We've changed hosts four times. Without him, I would have thrown in the towel a long, long time ago. I can't even count how many emails I've sent over the years pleading for help and he's always quick to respond. YTMND.

I could go on and on but I feel at this point, the blog speaks for itself. Here's to ten awesome years and many, many more. Hundie Jo!!!

Let's make this clear. The very reason the MPAA assigned "Bully" a R rating - which means children under 17 need to be accompanied by a parent or guardian to watch the movie in a theater (at least a theater that properly enforces the ratings, but that's another issue) - is because kids WHO ARE CLEARLY UNDER 17 say the "F" word too many times. In a documentary. There is no explicit sexuality (or sexuality of any kind really), no graphic violence, no gratuitous language, no complex adult themes or situations that parents may understandably deem unacceptable for mature pre-teens or teens. And for that "Bully" receives the exact same rating as "Saw 3D," "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and "The Hangover Part II." If that's not a sign of a broken or at least nonsensical and unreliable system in need of an overhaul, I'm not sure what more it would take.

I really want to see this movie. As the excerpt points out, it is mind blowing that a movie with f-bombs in this context is considered rated R. While I agree with its PG-13 Rating, it's nuts to me that the Hunger Games has some pretty graphic child on child violence yet movies like this get R ratings for language. It makes no sense. Thoughts?

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To summarize, Like our Facebook page and maybe we can have a second life on Facebook. Who knows.

I was a little surprised to see that this was still around. I was telling my friend Ish today about how we (the brendoman.com crew) would jump from game to game every couple of months and that this was one of our bigger obsessions for a time. I think we should have a brendoman.com Retro Game Night sometime on a weekend and play some Gunbound, Counterstrike, Unreal Tournament, and maybe some Age of Empires 2. We could open a Ventrilo channel or some other voice chat and just party it up. What do you guys think?

Awesome

• Mass Effect 3 demo dropped today!
• Walking Dead is back! Mad Men comes back next month! Game of Thrones comes back in April! So much awesome TV and we have a 70" TV now at our place. It's nuts.
• Phil and I are going to start doing a podcast. This will be in addition to Pop Sickles, so don't worry.
• I finally played Mass Effect 2 since Mass Effect 3 is coming out, and holy crap it is amazing. I already beat it once but I'm playing through the DLC now. Such a great game. Great story, great gameplay.
• I guess my current thing I am digging is video games.
• I was happy to see Bon Iver win best new artist at the Grammy's but puzzled because his first album came out in 2008 and was on many people's (including my) best of lists and stuff. I guess because it was an independent release? Does that mean if you are independent for like 20 years, then release an album on a major label, you can win best new artist? I just did some more research and his second album was released on the same label, so I really don't know what the deal is. Oh wait, it's the Grammys, they don't have to make sense.

Not Awesome

• The only thing not awesome right now is my doctor said I had to give up caffeine forever so I am working on that, I'm down to one diet coke a day. It's kind of making me crazy. Hopefully that will go away soon.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Living in Irvine is cool but I now feel completely detached from north Orange County and like a planet away from L.A.. It is taking some adjustment. I saw Haywire the other night with my roommate Jon and our friend Edgar. It kicked a lot of ass. You should go see it. It is nice living right by a cool Imax theater but it is not nice paying $19 to see said Imax films. Batman will be worth it though.