My top 10 movies of 2009 (amended)

Wow, 2009 was not the best year for movies ever. My top 5 is strong, but after reviewing all the movies I've seen in 2009, it was a struggle to pick movies after that. This is list is pretty much Top 5 movies of the year and 5 others that were "just a bit better than ok". Half of the top 10 are genres that I don't usually favor to begin with.
Let's take it from the top...

1. Star Trek

This was the clear cut winner of the year. I'm not a trekie. I'm not much of a sci-fi fan. Interesting that my top 2 are sci-fi movies. Star Trek 2009 version had me and my girlfriend crying from the first sequence. The story was great and easy to get into for someone with a limited Trek knowledge. The effects were great. The Abrams direction was cool too but that weird sparkle light effect that he loves can be annoying. Otherwise, this felt like a perfect film and I'm looking forward to the next one, should it be made.

2. Pontypool

Pontypool was not originally on this list. While reviewing the movies that were released in 2009, Pontypool was not on the list. That was because this film was only released in Canada. And what a shame. One of the biggest disappointments for me is the watering down of the zombie movie. I used to love them but now there is a new one everyday and they're all the same. Pontypool isn't necessarily a zombie movie the same was 28 Days Later wasn't. The victims are not the undead, they're infected with a virus. The amazing thing about it is that the infected are barely in the movie. The entire movie is about a radio host that is getting reports of the infection. We hear what's going on and deal with the fear of not really knowing what's going on. I'll save what the cause of the infection is because it's both confusing and interesting at the same time. I purposefully avoid information on most movies I really want to see because I don't want to know what to expect and I suggest you rent this in the same frame of mind.

3. District 9

I wasn't sure what to expect from District 9. I knew it was an allegory for apartheid using Aliens. But that was about it. The posters and trailers didn't give to much away, which I'm thankful for. The story was mostly well done (a few cliches but nothing distracting). There were some great action/chase/shootout scenes. I thought I would hate the apartheid comparison, but if you didn't think about it too much, it wasn't a big deal. Honestly, District 9 would have tied Trek for first, but I had 2 main gripes with the film. The first was the directing. From the preview, I knew it was going to be docu-style fiction. I looked forward to a film of this nature using this type of gimmick because it seemed well done and interesting and for the first half it is. We see this world through the eyes of a documentary that's being made and then later on through security feeds. Then it turns into a standard style movie. I though this was a terrible change. I'm not exactly sure how the rest of the movie would have worked had they not changed it, but it could have been done. My second point of contention was the effects. I'd say overall, they were great, but I think the movie should have been released after a little more time was spent on the animation of the aliens. At times, especially during scenes with a large group of characters, they had a copy and paste feeling to them. Like when the honey comb bee is added to a commercial. Otherwise, an excellent film overall.

4. Duplicity

Duplicity is a film I probably wouldn't have rented because the previews come off very romantic-comedy-ish. That I've become a huge Clive Owen fan (since his amazing performance in Sin City) is what forced me to watch. I'm glad I did. Great acting job by some high class actors like Paul Giamatti, Tom Wilkinson, et al. Turns out there are some romantic-comedy elements to the story, but it's not the focus. The focus is a con game, much in the vein of an Ocean's Eleven with a twist ending that you don't quiet expect even though you kinda of know what to expect with this kind of movie.

5. Watchmen

Watchmen should have been a trilogy. It's a huge graphic novel, with a lot of story to tell. The movie, went on way too long. My emotions for watchmen came in 3 cycles. The first time I saw it, it was a cut above ok. I liked it a lot, but was expecting something different. Upon second viewing, I liked it a lot more, almost loved it. I paid more attention to the smaller details. By the third viewing, I was bored. In a perfect world, Watchmen would have filmed the entire graphic novel and then cut it up into 3 two hour movies a la The Matrix, Lord Of The Rings, etc.

6. Monsters Vs. Aliens

This was the second genre that I'm not such a fan of. The animated movie. Being a child of the 80's, I like my cartoons flat and with repeating backgrounds. 3-D animation is not my cup of tea, but I gave M Vs. A a shot and I'm glad I did. It's funny flick with some great voice work from Seth Rogan and company.

7. Up

Up was a strange choice for a kids movie. It's really depressing. Within the first 15 mins or so, the main characters wife dies and the husband becomes a crotchety old man. Not usually a recipe for a great kids movie. The death scene is touching and heartwrenching but the rest of the film is pretty funny. It's a sad, heartwarming story but a must miss of you don't want to cry.

8. Rudo Y Cursi

This is likely the film where you're going, "huh"? I'd read some favorable statements about the film when it was making the indy rounds and remembered the name and gave it a shot. Most familiar about this film is Gael García Bernal who is becoming a star for his earlier foreign films and is now making the transition to Hollywood (which is mixed at best with his last American film being the horrid Blindness). The knock I have on this movie is that you totally see it coming. It's well acted and funny and there is a charm to it, but it's been done before. It's the story of two brothers who get chosen for pro soccer teams and form a rivalry. You can tell the second I say that, that this film will be about how each one will go on different paths and eventually lead into a brother vs. brother finale with one making a sacrifice for the other after learning a lesson. Cliche but it's still fun to watch the performances of Bernal and Diego Luna as his brother.

9. Disney's Earth

Disney's Earth is beautiful. It's the type of stuff that makes you go "how did they get that on camera". This was the most expensive documentary ever made, and it shows. If you're like me, you've heard that the Planet Earth series from the BBC was amazing but you just didn't have the patience to go through five discs of it. From what I'm told, this is the same stuff but re-produced in the style that Disney wanted. It's a fantastic piece of moving art. It is, however, like most other nature documentaries, pretty brutal. It's an unflinching look at how these animals live. All animals are part of a food chain and you see this process right before your eyes. Even understanding this, if you're an animal lover, it may become hard to watch.

10. Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity polarized movie audiences. It gained a huge audience and most people fell into the love category, or the hate category. I was one of the few that fell in between. I liked several things about the movie that made it an above average film for me. First of all the horror genre has become diluted to the point of absurdity. I used to love horror movies. Back in the day, even the bad one's were good. Now horror movies are so watered down and cliche that most just wind up sucking. Finally, something new happens with the genre. They pretty much took the mold of the Blair Witch Project (incidentally a film that polarized audiences the same way) and built up a better story. It's something that we haven't seen before. A low budget horror movie, offering something new that doesn't look like your 12 year old could have made it. The two leads were smart and competent despite the lack of acting credit on their resume and the story was actually creepy. I wasn't scared watching Paranormal Activity, but I got the willies. I rather be creeped out than scared. The feeling lasts a lot longer. This is probably a personal preference but I really liked the choice in lead actress a lot. When it comes to women, I tend to be attracted to more unconventionally beautiful women. I think Katie Featherston is very pretty and this enhanced the movie for me because I cared about what happened to her character. Ultimately, it fell flat because there was no real pay-off. The commercials made it seem creepier than it really was and the ending made you jump but also left you unsatisfied. You walked out saying "that's it?". My girlfriend made a perfect comparison. She said, "You know those videos you send to your friends that make you stare at the screen and jump at the end? This was like a movie version of that.".

11. Not Easily Broken*

Another head scratcher. Not Easily Broken is another genre that is not usually on my radar. The spiritual movie. The screenplay is based on a book written by T.D. Jakes. If you know Jakes, you know that he's one of the most well known Pastors out there. Not Easily Broken is the story of a couple that is struggling to stay a float after they get into a car accident that leaves the wife injured. The leads are played by Taraji P. Henson and Morris Chestnut, who are great. Kevin Hart, who plays one of Chestnut's friends, is hysterical. There's not much depth to the story, and is a bit cliche, but still resonates. I think there is something for everyone in a relationship to identify with. While watching I realized that, while T.D. Jakes is a Pastor, his stories aren't overwrought with the spiritual angle. The other novel he's written that was turned into a movie is called Woman Thou Art Loosed, which I also enjoyed. The church and the lord are there, but the film isn't bogged down by it. His stories are more about the flaws that people have and the struggle that we have to overcome them. If people want to think that God helps, who am I to judge?


*Was originally number 10 before I added Pontypool

I'm in the trailer of Silent Library Season (fixed)

Things keep rolling...

It's been almost 2 months since a contest. I miss the roar of the crowd. The last contest was the dumpling eating contest that I choked in. In the meantime, a new job and TV has kept me company.

The National Geographic special Humanly Impossible finally aired. It's currently in re-runs if you search your DV-R or Tivo. I thought the segment was interesting but I was sort of disappointed in it. First of all I was really surprised they only interviewed the doctors and not us. Upon viewing, it was even more surprising that they interviewed people that were in other segments. Perhaps they thought that there was already a lot there to begin with that they didn't need interviews. I guess we'll never know.
The other interesting thing to note was they they hooked us up with electrodes and made a point to show them hooking me up, but then didn't use any of the data. During the filming, the producers gave us some fascinating stuff. They looked at our heart rate. They told me I maintained a consistent heart rate but Pete's (my competitor) shot up. They looked at how we chewed. The data showed that Pete barely chewed and swallowed a lot and that I chewed a lot. I told them about our polarized eating disorders. Pete had anorexia early in his life and I've dealt with a binge eating disorder. None of it was used.
The last surprising thing they didn't show was that early on Pete bit his finger really hard to the point that there was a lot of blood. I was actually really surprised that they told the results. I was able to beat Pete in a 5 minute contest. This was pretty exciting on the day of the shoot, but I also realized that a) the finger bite probably altered his performance and b) since it was shoot and not a sanctioned contest, he might not have put 100% effort into it. I would love to have another 5 minutes with him to see what happens.
The burgers were also rock solid from being under a heat lamp, so I know if they were fresh, our numbers would have been a bit higher.
They also decided somewhere along the line to call me "Willy 'The Champ' Millender". I hate the name Willy to begin with but it's terrible for branding because if people (specifically casting people) search that, they won't find me. Ugh.

Aside from Nat Geo, I also nabbed a role on MTV's Silent Library. Here's an example of what the show is about...



It's a really silly show based of an even sillier Japanese version. I'm not a contestant, I'll be playing a role like the Frenchman in the video, but a much different skit. The shoot itself was a lot of fun. I met a bunch of interesting people including a professional pool player and some actors. They signed me up for 2 episodes (most people only got 1). The first one was great and the producers told me that mine was one of the best but the second episode is going to be bananas. It's an all girl episode and one of the other skits (which I could have chosen but was so ridiculous that I refused) is so heinous and funny that I'm not even mad it was so much better than mine, lol. It was just a great experience and I hope I get to work with those guys again.
Even though I wasn't technically playing anyone, it was my first TV experience where I wasn't being Will. I was "walk-on extra", which in the acting world ain't shit, but I'm looking forward to being able to do more of these types of gigs as they become available.

I also submitted one of my eating videos for another casting call that didn't announce who they were in the listing. I won't say what show it is right now, but it's potentially huge. They were really interested but I won't know anything for a few months.

As for work, I started my new position and things are going great. The job is relatively easy. The environment is really casual and laid back and my co-workers have been great thus far. I love my supervisor to death and look forward to the coming year. It's finally nice to be self sufficient. It's been a long time coming.

ThisIsWhyYourefat.com Eat N Tweet Challenge...

This Is Why You're Fat is a weird little website. It posts pictures of the most ridiculous and most fattening foods. Here's an example...



This monstrosity is the Banana Peanut Butter Cup And Marshmallow Grilled Sandwich. Looks scrumptious.

Well, for the next two weeks, I've got little to do since I'm waiting for the new job to begin. When I saw the Eat N Tweet challenge, I knew I wanted in. In essence, it was a food scavenger hunt with 6 mobile food cart vendors participating. Each vendor cooked up their own TIWYF inspired item. The mission was to keep your eye on twitter, starting at 11AM, every 20 minutes and wait for a location to be announced and the first person to tweet pictures eating each item would win a free party for 25 people catered by the food cart of your choice. I wasn't sure how many people would participate and what mode of transportation would they be using. You could bike, go by car, take a taxi. None of which I had or could afford to do. My method of transportation would be hoofing it on foot and, if needed, using the subway.

I figured the best way to get an edge on the competition was to do some prep before the contest. I test tweeted pictures to make sure I properly imputed the information they needed. I followed each vendor on twitter and went to each website, looking at their schedule. I mapped out each probable location and wrote their phone numbers down if needed. I then had to make the best guess on where to start since I would be starting blind. I tweeted to one of the vendors and asked if they were going to be the start point and they tweeted back and that they would be the second stop. This was a good clue, but still had no idea where to start. When I looked at the list of vendors, they were second on the list so naturally my first instinct was that the first place would be the first vendor, which would be located on 38th St & 5th Ave., so I went there and was going to wait for the start time. I got there at about 10:30 but there was no cart in sight. I looked at their schedule and also called their number and they both said they wouldn't be there til 12PM. I thought that perhaps they would arrive at 11 for the contestants and then open for the public at lunch time. Then I looked at the listing and noticed one was a waffle stand and thought that perhaps they would be the first place since they were the first to open (8AM) and they were a breakfast type food. So I took a chance and walked really fast over to their location at 45th St. & 6th Ave. Turns out I was right. At that point I met the contest organizers Kiwa And Susan. Two lovely young ladies that were meeting us at each point to take pictures and make sure everything went smoothly. But also there was my first indication of a challenger. A man and woman team that were biking.

The vendor at this location was Wafels And Dinges.

http://www.wafelsanddinges.com/



Their item : Double Liege Wafel Ice Cream Sandwich with smashed speculoos cookies & whipped cream.



I figured that the couple had the edge with bikes and I felt the possibility of defeat but I took a bite of the waffle, threw out the rest and trudged on. I figured that I knew the second location already and could try to figure out the next one and stay one step ahead of them.

So I hit the R train to get to Cupcake Stop located on 23rd St. & 5th Ave.

http://www.cupcakestop.com/



Their item : Cinnamon Roll Cupcake - Hands Down, one of the best cupcakes I've ever had.



When I got there, there was a camera crew waiting and doing interviews for a project for Columbia University. Naturally, they loved the competitive eating angle and wanted to interview me. I asked for help from the vendor but they didn't have any ideal of the next location. I also asked them if the bike couple had hit the spot yet. Not only did they already get there, but they said they came an hour ago. which would have meant they were there around 10:30. I was furious. Not only did they already have an edge over me with the bikes, but they were getting it done way in advance?

I looked at my list and the next closest location was right up the block on 17th St. & 5th Ave. I figured that it was right there and if I was right then I scored and if not, it's not like I journeyed far away from the previous spot. It turned out I was right. I asked them if they were next and they said they were but wouldn't serve until 11:40 which was the tweet time, but they cooked it up for me.

Bistro Truck

http://bistrotruck.com/



Their item : Big Mouth Bistro Burger - Fried Onions, Fried Sunny Side Up Egg, Garlic Mushrooms, Fried Mortadell, 2 Cheese Burgers, Lettuce, Tomatoes And Bistro Sauce



This one was my runaway favorite. Which is interesting since I'm more of a sweets guy. The combination of onions, perfectly cooked burger, runny eggs and everything else was overpoweringly good. This was the one I wished I would have finished out of all them but didn't want to consume all the calories. I was actually using this as exercise, so the least I had to eat, the better.
The good news about this location was that I beat the bike couple. The vendor told me they had already tried to get the burger but the truck denied them. The bad news that more competition was starting to come. A kid named Nick stepped into play.

I got my burger first and high tailed it out of there, pondering which location to hit next. It was about to be 12pm, so I took a chance and hopped back on the N train and went back to my starting location. I checked my phone and I was wrong. The next location was tweeted. At this point, I said "screw it". If the bike couple was not only going to start earlier than they were supposed to but also go out of order, so would I.

I hit Treats Truck next on 38th St & 5th Ave

http://www.treatstruck.com/



Their item : Super Duper Dessert Nacho's



This was my least favorite. Which, again, is odd because of my love of sweets. I think at this point I was suffering from flavor overload. The bike couple was just leaving as I got there. 2 other guys were ordering them but were nice enough to let me have their order instead of waiting. I took my bite and walked east toward 53rd St. & Park Ave.
I took the 6 train 1 stop and got to Cravings Truck

http://www.nyccravings.com/



Their item : Deep Fried Dumplings and Pork with White Rice



The line was long. I became crestfallen. I went to the back of the truck and told them I was there for the challenge and asked if I had to wait on line and the guy said yes and I got on line. I waited for about 5 minutes or so and the guy was nice enough to come out the side of the truck and hand me the bag. I took my bite and walked as fast as I possibly could to get to the train station on 49th St. & 7th Ave.

At this point, I figured that I had lost. The bike couple had to have gotten to the last location, my only hope was that the extra staff at the last vendor, Van Leeuwen Artisan , had not arrived yet. This was the wild card. The last vendor had several trucks and the girl at the truck, which was located within very close proximity to the cupcake and bistro trucks, had no clue about the challenge. My only hope was that this threw off bike couple but turned out to be the right place. They also had tweeted previously that they would be at the 23rd St. location even though their website said differently.

I got to the train station and JUST MISSED the R train, which would have taken me back to 23rd St. & 5th Ave. About 5 minutes later, the W train came.

I arrived at the last truck Van Leeuwen Artisan

http://www.vanleeuwenicecream.com/



Their item : Decadent Michel Cluizel Brownie Sundae



I didn't have any of this so I don't know how good it was. A girl that was just starting was nice enough to let me take a picture with hers.

I didn't see bike couple when I got there. What I did see was Nick, sitting on his Vespa and the two organizers. Nick had beaten us all. I had he wouldn't be a factor because I assumed that he was on foot as well. What was most disheartening was that I asked him how long he had been there, he said about 10 minutes. I had just missed out on winning. I inquired about bike couple and no one knew what happened to them.
Nick left and I spoke to Susan and Kiwa for a bit and we left.
If anything, I was happy that if I didn't win, at least bike couple didn't win either. I took second place as a badge of honor that I not only beat people on bikes but came > < this close to beating a someone on a motor scooter.

The bike couple are bitching on twitter that they were robbed and actually telling TIWYF about how they hit everything early, lol. Sorry guys, but you got beat by a fat guy on foot :)

Lastly, here's a nice write up by Kiwa and Susan that made me smile with a few more pictures...

http://suite2046.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/tiwyf-eat-n-tweet-a-sweet-success/

Fierce competition today in the TIWYF Eat N’ Tweet Food Truck Challenge! Nick McGlynn won after coming armed with a Vespa, GPS and of course, Twitter. Another motivated couple were biking their way from truck to truck, not even waiting for the @tiwyf Twitter feed to announce the special or location! But we were probably MOST blown away by competitive eater Will Millender (a.k.a. @bigwillthechamp) who came in SECOND while doing the contest on foot! WOW! Now that’s the competitive spirit. Thanks to everyone who participated in the challenge — and remember, even though the winner has been announced, the TIWYF Specials are available all day long until selling out!

Thanks again to the six incredible food trucks who rocked it today with their heartstoppingly delicious delights! Also, a big shout out to Kayoko of UMAMIMART and Zach of Midtown Lunch for their awesome coverage and support!

Meltdown At Roosevelt Park...

Traditionally, as August rears it's head, the Dragon Boat Festival comes to Queens, as does the Chef One Dumpling Eating Contest, which takes place at the festival. This is the contest, for independent eaters, which starts the winding down of the "season", as competitive eating is more often a summer event. I was informed by Kevin Li, who works at Chef One and helps organize the contest that the it would not be held in August, but instead, moved to October. Also, since it did not coincide with the Dragon Boat Festival, it would be held in Manhattan and they would host their own Dumpling Festival. I was pretty excited to hear that and waited for the sign up date to arrive. And waited...

Last year, as I was completing my first "full season" which included traveling to other states and briefly joining an organization, I entered the Dumpling contest for the first time. I did 55 dumplings in 2 minutes in the first heat, which came awfully close to last years record of 60 Dumplings set by my CE arch nemesis "Gentleman" Joe Manchetti. He took the stage for the second heat, after not expecting me to put up that good of a number, and stepped up his game hitting the 66 dumpling mark. I took second place and the $500 prize which included beating a highly ranked competitor, awesome eater and heck of a nice guy, Ian "The Invader Hickman".

Finally I did a search and found the sign up info for The Dumpling contest which would take place in Sara D. Roosevelt Park. I signed up immediately before it was even announced on eatfeats.com. Coming into this contest, I was confident. Expected to arrive was Manchetti, Furious Pete Czerwinski who was currently the only undefeated competitive eater in sanctioned contests and Dale Boone who has been talked about previously on this blog and was a no show. These guys were my biggest competition.

Also at the contest and whom could have easily been dark horses were Gabe "The Big Jewish Guy" Kassel who won a pickle eating title with All Pro Eating. Phil "The Fury" Fiore who also upset Ian in a 15 minute cheese steak eating contest in Maryland. A guy known only by the name of Sunshine (once again I forgot to ask for his name) who got an upset win over me at the Choo Choo's Hamburger Eating contest (A restaurant which has since been sold and may not hold the contest anymore) and Paul Porkslap Acaria who finally got another win under his belt by nabbing a Taco eating title. A few repeat competitors from previous Dumpling contests showed up including Chris "Infinity" Yee.

The women's division standouts included Floria Lee who was coming to defend her title, Jill Stoller who was 3rd last year and a close friend who had to be convinced to join (because the dumplings were chicken and she is a vegetarian) since they had only 4 contestants at the time and were desperate for women and Elise Rosenberg who placed 2nd in the Coney Island Atomic Wings contest and who I met at the hot dog/pigs in a blanket eating contest at the Village Pourhouse.

There were 2 women's heats. The winner of the first women's heat was a nice woman who really wanted to win. I believe she did 17. The second round heat featured all the aforementioned ladies. Jill took the same spot of 3rd that she did last year. In a stunning upset, Floria Lee took second place with 33 Dumplings while an unknown named Olia, who was competing for her first time ever and killed 40.

There were also 4 men's heats. A large group of men had signed up and so they expanded the division. I was set to be in the final heat, while Furious Pete took the stage for the first heat. Pete recently made a practice run with what he though would be equivalent sized tortellinis. They looked like they were more about the size of between a third and half the size of the contest dumplings. In that run he ate 89 in 1 minute. If they were half the size, then we knew he'd probably be good for at least 40 in the first minute which would have given him 80 for the contest. While we waited, Manchetti told me about a practice run he had using the contest dumplings and was able to eat about 40 in the first minute. Although he microwaved them which meant they were not necessarily going to be contest ready. He said at one point they became tough to eat. This became an omen because Pete came off the stage and while he was the winner of the heat, he only ate 52, which was shocking at that point. Well short of last years numbers. As he and Paul came off the stage, they told us that they were tough to eat this year because they were whole wheat. I tried a bite of one to get a preview for my heat, but to me, they tasted about the same. Manchetti and myself were delighted at Pete's performance thinking that this contest was either for him or me to lose. The next heat's winner turned out to be one of those dark horses in "Sunshine" who ate 49.

The last round was the grudge match. Myself vs. Manchetti. For me, this was going to be redemption for all my loses to Manchetti and pull off another upset by beating Pete in the same contest. Side by side we stood on stage both feeling good about the fight we were about to go through, filled with energy and fortitude. The introductions were done and finally the countdown. The horn went off and away we went. I grabbed my dumplings at a fierce pace while I noticed that Manchetti stumbled and dropped a dumpling out of the gate. Upon seeing the video I was doing about 1 per second. I had 14 dumplings down in 15 seconds. And then it happened. I found out, in the hardest way possible, what Pete and Paul and Manchetti told me about. Since I had eaten all 14 so fast, they waded up in my throat. I couldn't swallow anything because it was like I had a giant ball of paste in my mouth and throat. I had soaked them in water but that didn't matter. I desperately grabbed a bottle of water trying to moisten the glob and help it go down, but it did nothing but float atop the dumpling mass that was now lodged in my throat. I began to not be able to breath and got nervous because I felt the dumpling heading toward the tube that leads to the lungs and I began to hyperventilate. It only took me a moment to realize that I had to get this out and there was no way that I was going to be able to swallow. I accepted my defeat, to the chagrin of the crowd, and released the wad of dumplings from my mouth. I was livid. I could not believe it because the previous year they were so easy to eat, sliding down the throat with little effort. Later I found that several people choked but since there weren't 14 dumplings in their mouths at one time, they were able to fight through, lol.

In the end Manchetti struggled too, at one point turning beet red because of the difficulty of swallowing these things and was only able to pull out just enough to give Pete his first official loss with 53, falling well short of the record. We can all only hope that next year will go back to regular style dumplings and I can only wonder what my number would have been had I not choked.

Afterward, myself, my girlfriend, Pete, Paul and Jill went for drinks and lunch and drowned our sorrows. Hopefully next year, as the economy improves, there will be more contests happening as this year's season was a lot more anemic than previous years.

Speaking of economy, I am glad to announce that as my stint with 3-1-1 ends, I have accepted a full time position and will be employed within the next month. I've got decent pay, good benefits and great perks including no weekend and holiday work and lots of days off throughout the year. I had waited over a month to hear about the job and my patience paid off as this was really the only interview that I had where I REALLY wanted the job. I had a few jobs show interest including another company which offered me a job on the same day, but I was holding out hope that this company would be the one because of how well the interview went, the work environment and people which seems to be exactly what I was looking for in a place of employment.

Additionally, I will be featured on shows on The National Geographic Channel and MTV soon, which I'm really excited about as well. Things are finally going to be ok. Today's loss was disappointing but I settled down quickly because the future is finally becoming everything I hoped it'd be.

Will work for food... (Wait, don't I already do that:?)

First of all, I had a very ironic loss lately. Well about a year ago, I lost my grandfather to cancer. After he passed and my lizard Lohan died, I decided I wanted a hamster. I went to the pet shop with Jessica and picked out a teddy bear hamster and I named him Alan after my grandpa. About two weeks ago, I changed Alan's bedding and gave fresh food and water and nothing seemed to be wrong with him. About a week later I picked him up out of the aquarium that I kept him in and petted him and noticed something weird. A gigantic growth had appeared on the side of his head. It was about the size of a silver dollar but much thicker. Almost the size of it's own head. I felt really horrible because little Alan looked like a mutant. I took him to the vet that night that was in the neighborhood and he said it was either an infection or abscess or it could be cancer. The only way they would know for sure was to do a test. The test cost $200. If it was cancer, the operation for such a thing would be another $400. This was something I could not afford. There was no guarantee that it wouldn't come back even if we went though all that. So I got the anti-botics and tried them because if it was only an infection then the anti-biotics would work. They gave me a needlel-ess syringe and I had to give it to him twice a day. The doctor gave him a shot and I left the office. I gave him the meds the next day and you could tell he hated it. I shot the syringe in his mouth and put him down and he was twitching like when you have an awful taste in your mouth and can't get it out and your head twitches. The vet said if it was going to work, it would be within a couple of days. That was Monday. By Friday I didn't see any change. It looked worse and the poor thing was so uncomfortable he was biting at it and pushing it which was stretching his eye socket because it was partially attached to his eye. I wasn't going to let him stay like that and I couldn't afford the treatment, so we had to put him down (a term I hate, but the alternatives seem wrong too). So the hamster I named after my grandfather who died of cancer now had to be put down because of cancer. :( Jessica went with me to the vet and I handed him off to the girl that works there. Apparently I'm pretty good with accepting death. It made me cry and I was sad but Jessica seemed to take it harder than me because she felt bad for him.

Things have been shitty all around though. Me and Jessica have been arguing a lot over stupid shit, mostly because of the stress that we hate our employment situations at the moment. As most of you know, I had a really great interview with a company called Madison Performance Group. The people that interviewed me, which would have been my supervisors, were really nice and personable. The job itself didn't seem very difficult. The environment was very casual and the pay range and benefits were good for me. Everything went perfect. And then the assessment test happened. They use an online assessment to gain an insight into prospective employees. Which is fine, but it's flawed because you can't change anything once you've made an answer. I didn't realize this at one point. There was an audio portion which you had to listen to the audio, take notes and answer the question. The screen had a part that flashed "please answer the question after you hear the audio" and there was a next button. I guess I didn't pay attention and clicked next. Well the audio was supposed to play on that page and then you were supposed to hit next. I did that twice. There was also a multi-tasking portion in which you were supposed to answer fake emails on one side and trivia style questions on the other. The system said "you probably won't finish all the questions. With about half the time left, the emails stopped coming and I finished all the questions. I figured, well damn, I was so fast that I must have aced it. But then I got an pop-up that stated that I need to be answering both sides. I'm like, "wtf?". So I just finished up the questions and emailed the guy that was supposed to review and told him about my mistake and the possible glitch I encountered and was told "don't worry, we got everything fine, we'll be in touch in a few days". After not hearing anything for a week I emailed again and was told "You're the lead candidate for the position but we've got to interview some people and we'll be in touch in a few days". Three weeks later, nothing, so I've chalked it up to a fail. The shitty part it was the only position I applied to or interviewed for that I was excited about. The job listings since then have also be crappy and I have less than a month to find a new one. And if that doesn't happen, depression city. I'll have to wait til January before I have to make a decision of accepting a job I really don't want and go back to school.

In the competitive eating world, I took a trip to Michigan to enter a hot dog eating contest. The prize was a value of $1000 package of 4 Detroit Pistons tickets with parking and dinner. Joel felt confident that he could sell the package for a decent price so we made this our second trip. Getting there was cool. It seemed to go easier than the NC trip. Less stressful, more efficient, even though it took the same amount of travel time. We went to the contest at Hillers, who were doing their first event, and then checked into our hotel which was within walking distance. To supplement the prize, they also were donating $1000 to a charity of your choice. Second and third were just donations to the charity of your choice in the Michigan area. Joel chose MS of Michigan because of his girlfriend and I chose Covenant House of Michigan which is a homeless teen/runaway organization. When we got there, there only seemed to be one threat, this stocky bald dude with peppers tattooed on his arm. In the end we were right, but I was sort of defeated by the intangibles. First of all there was no loud speaker (I'll get to this in a second). Second of all, the countdown was flawed. For non-CE people, the countdown process is USUALLY a loud countdown to start and end. There wasn't a dedicated MC who was there to pump up the crowd. Thirdly, my headphones worked against me for the first time. Basically what happened was that instead of a countdown, the guy kinda just went "go" out of nowhere. Everyone seemed confused, so I awkwardly hit play on my headphones and went to work. I had a decent pace and saw that the pepper tattoo guy was separating, so I couldn't get a good count on how much he was eating, but I seemed to be ahead by a few HDB's. Then, I was trying to time things out based on song length on my headphones but I had to guess because I couldn't look at the ticker on the MP3 player. Suddenly, the crowd of supporters was cheering loud and people stopped eating and I had to ask someone "was that the end". My pattern is that I go fast, struggle toward the middle and then try to get down as much as possible in the last minute. Between the lack of a loud notice of the time that was left and my headphones being on, I missed the "one minute left" announcement. At the end , I lost by half a hot dog. That one minute notice, as well as no 3,2,1 countdown at the end is what worked against me because I would have had either that last half a piece or even an extra dog for the win.

There's a few contests coming up soon that I can try and make a few bucks and victories.
For now, I wait for a new job and hope things work out...

Speed Demon

Along the way of this Competitive Eating journey I've been on, I've made a friend in Joel "The Canon" Podelsky. Since the last year that I've become more involved in CE, Joel and myself have gotten closer as buddies and often hang at contests since we're in the same area. The same could be said for Paul "Porkslap" Arcaria, however his schedule is not as flexible as ours and so we don't see him as often. Unfortunately, Jill has been MIA due to the whole Jo Rose fiasco.
At any rate, Joel and I decided that we would expand our horizons and go to some of the bigger contests that were outside of our local area. We'd take a road trip, stay the night and do some challenges along the way. We decided that a little contest in North Carolina would be worth our while. It was a Hot Dog contest and the prize was $1000. We found a nice room in at the Charlotte Omni, which would be about half an hour from the contest location for Troutman, NC and we figured out the expenses, that either the winner would cover (assuming it would be one of us) or, in the case of a loss, we would split. Everything seemed to run smoothly.
And then Dale Boone called... Dale Boone has a reputation in competitive eating. It's not one that you'd want to have. I had never met the man until May at the Rocco's Pizza Eating Contest so I had always given him the benefit of the doubt. I know, first hand, that sometimes people are misunderstood. He didn't really do anything at the Rocco's contest to warrant the reputation but I also knew we weren't going to be good buddies or anything. He placed 3rd at Rocco's with 17 slices, knocking me down to 4th by 1 slice. While he's known for his negative personal reputation, he's done pretty well in contests and is not to be underestimated. I was glad that I hung within just a slice if a 3rd place finish even though I was in the middle of a bad CE streak.
Well, Dale called as a little intimidation tactic and it worked. He told Joel that this was a WLOCE contest (his "organization") and that we were going into his "territory". Kinda funny mentioning territories seeing as how the contest I mentioned that I met him at was in New York. At any rate, we decided to pull out of the contest and cancelled the hotel room because, if it was indeed a WLOCE contest, it would be a conflict of interest with All Pro Eating (Joel's organization) and would end up with him getting kicked out of the org. or some other type of retribution.
I emailed the sponsor since I had been in contact with him and tried to get a refund on our entry fee. Turns out that this was not a sanctioned contest and the sponsor was pissed. Chris Gibson, who owns the Ole World Market apologized profusely and told us that if we were still interested he would like us to come down. He said that Dale would still be in the contest because his entry fee was already accepted, but was excited that someone from as far away as New York was interested in being in the contest. So me and Joel talked it over and decided that the best revenge would just be to win. We found a cheaper hotel that was closer to the event and booked it for two nights so that I could attempt a challenge for $500 the next day.
On the way over, we were tempted into trying a challenge at the Clinton Station Diner. The challenges are hamburgers of varying size with a different prize associated with each one. We had been mulling over doing a 12 pound burger for the $500 prize with Paul as our partner, so our temptation got the best of us. If we could do a 5 pound burger, it would be free. The first problem is, the Clinton Station Diner is notorious for not accurately weighing the burgers correctly and we did not bring a scale with us. The other problem us that they were out of the bun for the 5 pound burger. We asked to speak to the manager and was able to negotiate to do two of the 3 pound burgers which, in theory, would add up to 6 pounds. I was pretty confident we could knock it out in the 30 minute time period. I was wrong, but just barely. The first problem was defiantly the case. These were not 3 pound burgers, they had to be at least 5 pounds a piece. We trudged on anyway. These things were huge. The buns, are like 2 loaves of bread. This was the toughest part for me. Not only were they hard to eat, but they packed on the slices of cheese, and it was terrible cheese. I got down to half of the bottom of the bun and had to tap out. I wasn't too full to finish, it was just that the taste of the cheese was so hard to take that another bite would have made me hurl. Joel got to the bottom bun too, but couldn't finish because the allergies hit him pretty hard. Otherwise he would have cleaned up for both of us because he wasn't full either. We will be back to conquer the larger burger with Paul, but with a scale next time.
We continued our trip to NC and got to the contest the next day. Seeing as how Boone attempted to sabotage us, I wanted nothing to do with him and did everything I could to hold back and keep my mouth shut. I wasn't going to cause a scene and be unprofessional. It seemed to me like he was intent on doing that. The contest was split into two rounds and he was in the first heat and won, as was expected, with 2 minutes and 36 seconds. Once I saw that time, I knew it was a wrap. At the pigs in a blanket contest, where we were given 4 hot dogs, I killed them in under a minute. So I expected to do about a minute and a half to two minutes and only hoped Dale wouldn't come close to that and he hadn't. I did 2 minutes and 10 seconds and won the contest.
There were some shenanigans and smack talk after the contest, which I won't even get into because of how ridiculous it all was. The important part was that I won the contest as planned. I celebrated later that night with a few beers and the UFC pay per view at a local bar and chatted it up with a few locals.
The next day I attempted the 32 inch pizza challenge at Paventi's Pizza. I tried to figure out what the best topping would be in advance and thought about how much the topping would weigh and taste. I thought that Olives would be the best way to go because I enjoy them and it seemed like it would be the lightest ingredient. Again, this was a challenge fail. The pizza itself was great but after tasting the same thing repetitively for a half an hour, I started feeling sick. Again, I wasn't really full, but my body just wanted to reject anymore of the taste that was just not stopping. After getting half way through, I again tapped out of a challenge. If it was a partner challenge like Clinton, me and Joel would have killed it in record time. I would definitely like to try both again in the future.
Since the first road trip was a success, we are planning our next one. More on that when it happens.