And The Winner Is...

In my last blog I talked about my SLINGBOX and how much it's made a difference in passing time out here but I neglected to mention the big setback. I don't have a DVR Player, meaning the six hour time difference between where I'm at, and where the television is, makes for either late hours watching primetime show, or missing them completely.

So given that German primetime is American daytime, and I don't do Soap Operas, I've recently become addicted to GSN, the Gameshow Network. Since graduation, there haven't been many things that have stimulated my brain like a college course (and that was just when I went to class). I attempted to learn German, make weekly trips to the library to "relearn something I forgot from highschool" and pick up a new talent, but that was all too hard to really stick with. If I didn't feel like I get dumber everyday I probably wouldn't be complaining about anything, but remember I was that kid who always put academics before athletics. During college, I had class, basketball, studying and partying…and now I just have basketball, weightlifting, basketball and partying. (Am I really complaining?)

So until I enter that forbidden world of Graduate School I guess these general knowledge gameshows are all I got. My nightly routine consists of two Cash Cab episodes, a Family Feud episode, an episode of The Weakest Link, and one of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire and since I've been watching them, I actually feel a improved knowledge. Did you know the survey says that a restaurant is the worst place to floss your teeth? Or that a colon is the punctuation mark commonly used to introduce a list of items?

Watching all of these gameshows, and sharing my newfound knowledge with anyone that would listen provoked a simple question to which I had to say no. Have you seen Slumdog Millionaire? Come to think of it, I haven't seen a movie in, what seems like, forever. Now seeing as the Academy Awards are coming up, my girlfriend and I had the brilliant idea to try and see all of the movies that were up for nominations. Unfortunately we tried to squeeze them all into one day and found ourselves very unsuccessful. We re-watched The Dark Knight first thing in the morning. Then Holly watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button while I was at "work" (aka practice) and when I returned she wanted to watch Revolutionary Road (but I already saw Titanic so) I decided to watch The Wrestler. Before bed that night we were able to get through Slumdog Millionaire and Milk (no homo) together. What a day huh?

Slumdog Millionaire, which my mom actually was first to tell me about, is my pick to win all the awards this year. Editing, Directing, Cinematography, Score (song) and Best Picture. I actually couldn't care about the first four, but I think it deserves to win the Best Picture. Mickey Rourke is definitely taking home Best Actor for his portrayal of Randy "the Ram" in The Wrestler and Anne Hathaway is going to win Best Actress for Rachel Getting Married (based solely off of watching the trailer on youtube). Everyone knows Heath Ledger is a shoe-in for Best Supporting Actor and that's as far as my Oscar Predictions will go.

What's Playing in Jason's iPod: Kanye West- Robocop

Although this song has nothing to do with the movie, all this movie talk made me think of this song. With all those autotunes and that 808 drum beat, it sounds like it could be the backdrop for a futuristic movie. Kanye also doesn't hesitate to speak about what's on his mind (award show snub, George Bush on Katrina). His music making is as unique as his fashion sense...and for that, he gets a shoutout in my blog.

YouTube Video of the Week: First question wrong on Who Wants to be a Millionaire http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMriTkE3igY

Because people's failures are funnier than their success, and this was one of the biggest failures ever in terms of Gameshows, I thought you guys would get a kick out of this.If this kid didn't know what a surge protector was before this, I guarantee he'll never forget as long as he lives.

German Phrase of the Week: Gewinnen/Verlieren- To Win/To Lose

With all of the competition a gameshow evokes, and all of the big winners and losers on Oscar night, I figured it would be a good idea to teach you guys how to say to win and to lose. When it comes to conjugations, you might as well just keep in the infinitive because that's where it gets difficult. I've mastered them because of the fact that the guy at the Crepe shop outside of the trainstation always asks whether or not we will win our next game when I go see him. Plus when I go to play with Holly's tennis students, they all call me a loser. Win some lose some.