My first birdie

So my golf career continues to go forward in leaps and bounds as I scored my first birdie last Friday. True it was on par 3 but still it was something. Using a 9 iron, I hit it over water the full 98 yards to the hole and about 15 feet to the right of it. Having rained all morning, I had already found that the greens had been spongy all day, I hit it a little harder than normal and it went straight in.

J-Mac also scored her first ever birdie on the same course earlier but her shot was much more impressive. It was about 120 yards off the top of a small cliff. It was a slightly shorter putt than mine but considering she had to wait to finish off the hole as my shot off the tee went way right over some trees near the next tee. For her to wait for me to finally get on the green and then finally sink it, it was an impressive display.

The American Film Institute has come up with another one of it's Top 100 lists. This time it is the Top 100 Most Inspiring Films. The top three were prime examples of film list cliches. First was It's A Wonderful Life. I do like watching it every Christmas but, as my Mom says, don't you just want to smack Jimmy Stewart's character after a while for being so damned selfless? Though, since it co-stars the lovely Gloria Grahame, I can never complain about it. Number 2 was To Kill A Mockingbird. You knew that had to be there. And #3 was Schindler's List. Again, as could be expected. Obviously, that was the winner of Best Picture at the Academy Award in 1993, though I would have prefered The Remains Of The Day.

Top 5 Least Favourite Recent Best Picture Academy Award Winning Films.

1. The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King

2. Unforgiven

3. The English Patient

4. The Silence Of The Lambs

5. Gladiator

In movie casting news, first the good news. John Cusack looks to have signed on to play Harvey Dent aka Two Face in the next Batman film. Hopefully he will be better than Tommy Lee Jones in that awful Batman sequel from the 90s. I still don't understand how Billy Dee Williams played Harvey Dent (in a small part) in the original Tim Burton film but then when he played a fully developed bad guy in the third Batman film, it all the sudden became Tommy Lee Jones.

Now the bad. Instead of George Clooney and his gang, it looks like Ben Affleck will be playing Thomas Magnum in the upcoming Magnum PI movie. It sounded like George Clooney playing Magnum was going to be a done deal with I imagine, Brad Pitt playing Rick Wright, Don Cheadle playing TC and, possibly, Ricky Gervais from The Office playing John Hillerman.