http://mattoneal.com Sun, 24 Aug 2008 04:37:07 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I just finished watching A Family Thing, the first movie of our "Robert Duvall Movie Month." I had seen this in the theater back in 1996 and remembered it being fairly poignant back then. It's still a very good movie with two premiere actors of our day-- Duvall and James ... http://mattoneal.com/2008/movie-review-a-family-thing-1996/ I'm really loving Netflix about now. My wife and I joined a couple of years ago and have probably watched close to a hundred movies. That sounds about right as we probably watch one a week, and some weeks we'll get in two. And occasionally we'll have two Netflix envelopes ... http://mattoneal.com/2008/september-robert-duvall-movie-month/ Okay, so I think we can all guess the top two, and probably guess the correct order. The tricky part of this one is coming up with the next few. I've only read the subject line and haven't looked at the list yet so here are my guesses. Coke and ... http://mattoneal.com/2008/random-top-10-list-top-10-soft-drink-brands-in-the-united-states/ The GeoSafari line of educational toys by Educational Insights is really one of the best lines around. After Tedco Toys' line of Ein-O Science Kits and the SmartLab books and kits, the Geosafari line is probably one of my favorites. I tried out this one a couple of months ago ... http://mattoneal.com/2008/toy-review-geosafari-talking-globe/ Okay, I've got about five minutes to get a post off and I just saw this story on Baseball Tonight. I don't know much about Fielder (other than what I remember about his daddy), but my general impression is that he's a little bit of a diva. How could someone ... http://mattoneal.com/2008/prince-fielder-and-manny-parra-scuffle-in-dugout/ I love the Ein-O science toys and kits. I played with this one recently and was surprised at the number of cool science projects and experiments you can do with it. The experiments are: making a hoverball, creating a sticky beaker, magic jumping beans, building a simple water filtering, twin ... http://mattoneal.com/2008/toy-review-ein-o-test-tube-cool-experiments/ Below are the most popular names of boys from the 1900s (1900-1909) and the 2000s (2000-2008 ytd). Rank 1900s 2000s 1 John Jacob 2 William Michael 3 James Joshua 4 George Matthew 5 Charles Andrew 6 Robert Christopher 7 Joseph Joseph 8 Frank Daniel 9 Edward Nicholas 10 Thomas Ethan Note, Joseph is the only boy's name that ranked in the top 10 for both decades although it was absent from the top 10 from 1940-1979. I would have expected to see more of ... http://mattoneal.com/2008/random-top-10-list-top-10-boys-names-1900s-2000s/ Okay, how many of us have heard of a cat surviving a fall from hundreds of feet? Every once in a while a news story will pop up telling of some skyscraper-dwelling cat that amazingly walked away after some kid threw it over the balcony. (Or maybe it just fell.) ... http://mattoneal.com/2008/a-falling-cats-terminal-velocity/ So here's something cool. I love browsing the bargain books at Barnes & Noble for the occasional great find. Last weekend I came across a book called "Top 10 of Everything 2008." Originally it was about $25 but wow, it was in the bargain rack for $6.98. "What a deal!" ... http://mattoneal.com/2008/random-top-10-list-top-animated-movies-of-all-time/ I have a fictional friend who likes to stop by her local Starbucks on her way to work in the morning. I haven't been to a Starbucks Coffee store in a while so I'm not sure what the going rate for fancy coffee is, but I think she pays about ... http://mattoneal.com/2008/financial-review-personal-cash-advance/