Brad Marley

Two nights ago I chose convenience over browsability with my foray into the world of downloadable movies.

There are certain luxuries you are forced to give up when you have kids and one of them is driving to the nearest movie store and spending a leisurely 30 minutes picking out a movie.

Luckily, I knew I wanted to see (500) Days of Summer, so the choice was easy.

The movie is about a guy named Tom who falls in love with a woman named Summer who doesn't reciprocate his love, and all similarities to any romantic comedy you've ever seen stop right there.

Theirs is a relationship that she won't let him define, so he is forced to wade in a sea of uncertainty; all-the-time wondering if she will wake up one day and make a decision that will impact his life in one way or another. 

Why does he do it? Because he loves her, of course.

Remember that punched-in-the-gut feeling you got when that certain someone — that someone you knew was the one because you treaded so carefully so as not to crack the fragile veneer that covered whatever it was the two of you were engaged in – ripped out the emotional IV that you had subsisted on since you met them?

This movie captures the essence of that predicament.

If you do watch it, and I suggest you do, be warned: you will walk away less sure in your belief about love and fate and the idea of "The One," but I think that's the point.

Like most of you, I'm sure, I did a lot of reading in 2009.

Whether it was a book, a newspaper article, or "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," 'the complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of deriving meaning and/or constructing meaning' was something I partook in daily. My fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Hill, would be so proud.

So as I bid good riddance to the year that brought us four-hour waits for flu vaccinations, the advent of TMZ.com as a legitimate news source (because they were the only media outlet unscrupulous enough to run a report of Michael Jackson's death before it was confirmed) and teenybopper vampire romance trilogies, I want to take one more look at my favorite blog posts and articles from 2009.

• NHL: Brand Resurrected (MarketingDaily)

• How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live (Time.com)

• How Social Media is Radically Changing the Newsroom (Mashable)

• Could Twitter destroy real journalism? (ESPN.com)

• PR People: Stop Being Bad at Stuff and Read This (Bad Pitch Blog)

• An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All (WIRED)

• How To Be Interesting (Copyblogger)

• Apocalypse Then: a two-part series on the lessons of Y2K. Part 1. Part 2. (Slate.com)

• Anything Jeff Pearlman writes about on his blog.

There you have it. Those are mine.

What captured your fancy in 2009?

A new Mexican restaurant opened up near my house this past weekend.

The building used to be a really good Italian restaurant, then became a sports bar, and is now, like I said, a Mexican restaurant.

Last Sunday, our lack of grocery shopping finally caught up to us, so my wife sent me to the new restaurant to pick up some takeout.

After I placed my order, the man whom I assume to be the owner said he was going to throw in their new taco salad, on the house.

What better way to create raving fans than to give away your signature dish?

It was brilliant.

Too bad the food sucked.

My daughter is obsessed with babies.

If we are at the store and she sees a stroller, she has to go look at the baby. I have approached numerous strangers with a request to allow my daughter to look at their baby.

After two minutes, she gets her fill, and we move on.

But she doesn't know what to think about the new addition to the family.

I imagine it's a bit of a shock to her that the baby in my wife's belly is very real and very loud, and will be sharing her house with us for the foreseeable future.

She met her for the first time this morning, and the only way I can describe the meeting was that it was one of indifference.

Yeah, that's my sister, now can I have some more goldfish?

Who wants to tell her she's not going anywhere?

According to an unofficial poll taken of semi-drunk concertgoers from June 2005 to July of 2009, the Iron City Brewing Company is the most popular brand in America today.

I mean, of all the t-shirts I own, this one elicits the most reactions from complete strangers.

The comments I get usually range from "Iron City? More like Iron Shitty!" to "Yeah! Pittsburgh!", which is usually followed by the person pointing at my chest. My wife loves it.

I suppose it's a combination of the type of crowd at the concerts I attend and the fact that everyone gets lubed up in the parking lot a few hours prior to the gates opening, but the key takeaway is that the brand causes a reaction in people that compels them to express their opinion. 

If I wore a t-shirt with your face on the front, would it do the same?