Left to my own devices

Tonight is the State of the Union, where the President of the United States addresses Congress and the nation about where the county's at, and where it's going. Sometimes I watch, sometimes not. Regardless, I've been fascinated by the office of president for over thirty years. In kindergarten, I had slim volume titled The Book of the Presidents , and it featured lush, color paintings and photographs -- along with bios -- of every president up through Reagan (then the current office holder). I read it for days. In honor of that book, of my long-time interest in the presidency, and of the State of the Union, here are my rankings of the Top 10 presidents of the United States, presented without comment. 1. Abraham Lincoln 2. Franklin D. Roosevelt 3. Thomas Jefferson 4. James Madison 5. Dwight D. Eisenhower 6. Barack Obama 7. George Washington 8. Theodore Roosevelt 9. John F. Kennedy 10. John Adams I almost included LBJ instead of Adams, ...

We live our lives with gratitude and regret. Well, perhaps not everyone does, but I certainly do. So often I will replay events in my mind, thinking how they could have been handled better. Even when there are seemingly positive, successful episodes, it doesn't take long to stop and wonder if there was something I'd missed that could have made them worse than I remember. Perhaps I fall too far on one of the spectrum when it comes to self-doubt, though, if we're being honest, I wish it were more widespread. It feels like, all too often, we go through life without giving enough thought to others around us, and the impact we have upon them. Of course, we are almost always cognizant of when others treat us poorly or well, but how often are we truly self-aware? How often do we stop, reflect, and think, 'I could have handled that situation better?' Taking it a step further, how often do we apologize to someone for something we've done to them? How often do w...

Recently I was talking with a friend who all but apologized for referring to themselves as "busy," when there were other people out there doing more things than they were. I sometimes feel the same way, or, perhaps worse, will find myself judging others who -- in my jaded opinion -- aren't doing as much as they could be. It's a vicious cycle of internalized comparisons that, frankly should probably stop. From an early age we're taught (well, most of us) that it is good to be busy. There's that old saying: The devil finds work for idle hands . You'll hear about some folks doing more in the early morning hours than others -- who aren't even awake yet -- do in an entire day. We nod our heads approvingly, standing back in admiration at the awesome productivity of our fellow humans. We'll look at someone who juggles (the word "juggles" is almost always used) a plethora of different things in their daily life. Busyness, dear reader, is t...

It's time for another edition of our Mashley at the Movies film review podcast! Episode 3 sees us discuss the new horror movie Insidious: The Last Key , with our friend Garret. You can listen to the podcast here . Hope you enjoy.

Our first Pic of the Week for 2018 is UK diver Daniel Goodfellow.

It's a new year, and time for a new medium. Regular readers of this blog will know how much I enjoy watching movies. I am forever ranking films, across all genres and sub-genres, and one of my longtime goals has been to present a more immediate, accessible version of (my) film opinion. Enter the Mashley at the Movies podcast! Ashley & I are trying out this new (for us) format, and time will tell how it does. Our inaugural podcast is a review for the exquisite film Call Me By Your Name , and it can be found here . We've done more, to kick things off, for All the Money In the World . That review can be found here . It is unclear how frequent these podcasts will be. Last year, we saw over fifty movies, so one per week wouldn't -- with that number -- be out of the question. But, every year is different. And, of course, the podcast will need to be somewhat good for us to continue. There will need to be value for the listener. At any rate, please give a list...