I’ve started working out… again.  I’ve been here before – staring down the barrel of sweating to the oldies.

P90X, whey protein, Jazzercize – even Hulk Hogans workout with the Demandments (training, saying prayers, eating vitamins, and to believe in yourself). I’ve even bought a home gym that was amazing at holding my laundry.

I’ve been here before and I’m going to move on.

Each day I’ve been updating my Twitter status as I hit the gym with the #stopbeingafatty hash tag.  There’s been some great encouragement from many and I thank you.

Workout culture in america is really fun and by fun, I mean, What’s with the second glances and judgment, people? Let’s pretend it’s The Biggest Loser Pasadena edition.

Ok, that’s it for now – the next few weeks will probably be the roughest.

Here’s some of the more ridiculous workout inventions

Pauley Perrette (Abby Sciuto on the show NCIS) has decided to join Twitter (@PauleyP).  Previously Ms. Perrette has been anti social media – so what changed her mind?  The Answer, Hope Gardens Family Center!

In this video she tells how it all went down.

Hope Gardens and URM are currently raising 2.8 Million Dollars before June 30th or they’ll have to shut down the secondary campus.

Update: They’ve raised 2.2Million so far!

If you’ve never been here before, I should probably warn you, if you poke around a bit there’s some laughs to be found. I hope we can connect. Now on to today’s post -

Last week I got an email from fellow Idea Camp-er Daniel Li, Senior Developer and Web Strategist for International Justice Mission. He gave me the heads up on a campaign that’s starting this summer. So I thought I’d share it with you today…

A slew of riders from around the country and passionate about the issue of modern slavery will be traveling the underground railroad. Under the guidance of Venture Expeditions, the team is starting from Mobile, AL on June 26th and finishing in Buffalo, NY on July 30th. The tour is designed to bring you along with the riders and experience the thrill ride of emotions of 5 weeks on the road. The crew will be stopping in each city to join up with celebrities and musicians, host rally’s and talk with thousands about how they can make their communities safer against human trafficking.

Why does this matter?

In the summer of 2007 I had no idea that modern day slavery was happening and when I got the news – it was like a load of bricks on my chest. At the age of 31, I felt like I had just found out about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny in the same minute. Most likely if you’re reading this you’re already aware of trafficking and it’s prevalence around the world and specifically in the U.S. So here’s my challenge/encouragement to you – Awareness is great, and it’s important. But if you’re aware, take steps to make others aware.. and once you’ve got a group together it’s just the beginning of your journey.

What does that look like?

If you live near one of the cities where the tour is stopping make a plan to attend. Bring your friends and while you’re there you’ll meet others who are like minded. We’re doing it in my community of Pasadena and it’s very encouraging.

Make a donation – all I have to do is start to picture myself in the shoes of one of the 27 Million slaves in the world and I find it very easy to give financially. Get Connected – Sign up for email updates, or text updates. Share it with your friends and community on facebook, twitter and tell your Aunt Lorraine.

The last piece, if you’ve got questions about any of this, shoot me an email or facebook message or tweet at me. I’ll be around today and I love meeting people who are passionate about this issue.

So let’s get Active – Check out the links

IJM’s Vimeo Channel – chock full of videos and rider testimonials

Below is a quick interview I did yesterday with Amy Roth from IJM

Big high fives to powerhouses Grafik and Capital Idea Ventures (CIV) for their work on getting everything ready to go in such short order.

PS. I didn’t get paid for this… because that would be lame.

I wrote this review at Netflix right after I watched the film, The Wolfman

When I think The Wolfman, I’ve got ideas in my head about scary Old School horror. The movie could be a little slow and the effects could be obvious and terrible but that makes sense because it was made in 1941.

Its obvious as it gets started why this film was shelved for as long as it was..

The crazy part? The studio didn’t like the effects so they redid them.. and they’re still terrible. I cant imagine what filming this movie must’ve been like – super disjointed, quality actors working from a bad script that just roars and grunts through 2 hours of your wasted life. This is a classic case where the art of the film overpowered the actual story. The shooting of this film is absolutely beautiful, each shot so carefully color corrected but when cut together on a insipid script full of drivel.. well, its just awful.

PS. I love Emily Blunt but this movie is just bad news bears.

Usually the Friday Morning Meeting is a filmmaker term used for the meetings that take place the Morning that your movie comes out.  It’s important for cast and Crew to have good meeting because it ensures a good showing for their next project regardless of the box office take. This is also the pinnacle of buzz surrounding a movie.

I have a Friday Morning Meeting too.. and it’s one of my favorite things to do in Los Angeles.

Each Friday that a big blockbuster is coming out my good friends and I head to our local cinema and take it in. The group is diverse, from producers to writers and cinematographers to the an enthusiast like myself.  It’s a great time because LA movie theaters open at 10 and we can usually beat the rush and the hype to the box office while making our own opinions about that weeks movie.

There something about getting a cup of coffee and sitting in a mostly empty theater with other enthusiasts taking in the big film of the week.  The movie is usually followed by a conversation over lunch about the movie and it’s a real treat to hear about it from the different perspectives from the true film auteur to the ‘splosions guy.

We kicked off this season of fun this past weekend with Iron Man 2 and it was a great time.  It’s hard to not be a fan of guys like Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. in this movie. A great continuations

Soon we’ll be checking out the highly anticipated lineup of the summer with films like Inception, The A-Team, The Other Guys, Predators, Toy Story 3 and pretty much everything in between. I love the guys I get to experience these films with and it’s usually a lot of laughing.

Do you have any film rituals?