Wednesday, September 09, 2009
umm I dunno
What's been up?
-more ceiling scraping after moving a bunch of stuff around, I will finish scraping tomorrow morning
-new fridge delivered that will have to just sit and be ignored for a while
- worked the last two nights, tonight was pretty busy and crazy with lines for most of my shift (in which I came to work an hour and a 1/2 late cause of school), a couple new ice cream containers that were still frozen solid, hats (that the ice cream goes into) running out, co-workers bored enough to shout "HEY!" over and over which was annoying cause I couldn't even hear some of my customers along with the noise of the Owlz beating the crap out of the Ogden Raptors.
- school
- Food from Rumbi and Taco Bell
- Listening to new The Used album a couple more times, my Coheed and Cambria Essentials Vol. 2 mix CD, and MSTRKRFT's Fist of God album which came out earlier this year
- My weigh in results (which I mentioned last time) is that I lost 6 Pounds in the last 2 weeks which I'm very excited and proud about
Weekend's almost here!! yay
no stuff is due tomorrow at school
no work until Saturday
Thursdays are like my Fridays
That is all
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Yesh!!
homer- achieving something without really trying (from a Simpsons episode obviously)
I took an online multiple choice quiz for one of my classes which only had 5 questions and without any rigorous study or anything I got a 4/5. I will however try to really understand the material in the future, but I'm still relieved that I didn't bomb the thing. so school's still going well at the moment
Anyway
Remodeling progress- I have been doing a lot ceiling scraping at my (parent's) house in the last few days that gives it a totally new look. Some people would refer to what we had as having a "popcorn ceiling". I also pulled out some carpet and the wonderful things underneath it yesterday. It will still be another week or so before any major improvements can be done is what I'm guessing.
Pet Peeve- I hate fast food drive thrus that have stupid little sidewalks to the right side of where your car goes. I was at Carl's Jr. a couple days ago and as I was leaving with my window rolled down I could hear my car going SCRRREECH over some god fosaken sidewalk mostly because there was a car in front of me that had a big or long enough order that they need to move out of the way so people like me can get their smaller and less expensive order. So to avoid hitting the person in front of me and trying to get the hell out I hit the stupid patch of cement. I can also remember a similar thing happening at a Weinerschnitzel a couple years ago. I hate that drive thrus have to be such damn traps. Just one of many ways that they "Fuck you at the Drive Thru"
I was stoked that BYU beat #3 Oklahoma this past Saturday. Yayyy! hopefully they do well this season even though I don't go there.
Weight Update- I haven't done my weigh in due to the holiday but I got on an old bathroom scale this morning and I hope it's not lying to me cause if it's not I may have lost 7-10 pounds in the last 2 weeks, which hasn't happened since March 2008. That will brighten up my days a little more.
Work- Today and tomorrow are the last two regular season home games for the Orem Owlz and by the looks of things they have a playoff game on Saturday so at least I have those days guaranteed to be working.
I'll end on that note
Later
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Welcome to September- New Music Month
Like the title says, 3 of the most long awaited (at least I've been waiting) albums come out this month. The first came out yesterday and it is the latest album by Orem, Utah's own The Used who in a matter of a couple years have gone from a band I barely noticed to one of my favorite bands to listen to. I listened to their latest titled Artwork and I give it an A- which is a VERY good score for a first listen cause I'm usually pretty mean on first listens. Coming up later is the new releases by Monty Are I and Paramore. On a side note all 3 bands will appear on my 50 Favorite Albums of the 2000s list that has been a work in progress for a year now and all three have really high spots on the list with past albums.
Anyway on the remodeling side of things we finally got a dumpster yesterday for all the garbage that had previously been living on the front lawn. Hopefully there will plenty more changes in the next few days in our kitchen. Besides all this i've just been working and doing school stuff this week so far.
Get back to ya later blog readers
Monday, August 31, 2009
Weekend Review
Friday the 28th of August 2009
Day off of school like I've mentioned before. Won a free drink from Walkers that I didn't redeem until Sunday afternoon. I finished the second season of The Mighty Boosh on DVD, highly recommend the show to fans of British comedy and just surreal/creative shows in particular. I then witnessed my parents trying to scrape off the glued vinyl flooring in their kitchen and they just didn't have the time and/or patience to do so. So I got addicted to scraping the floor for about 5 hours or so getting around 70% of the kitchen floor scrapped off. Diet Pepsi never tasted so good after doing such tough work for a while. I got some food from Costa Vida and took a pain pill cause of the soreness/pain in my hands. Watched The Soup and then my DVD copy of The Weird Al Show Complete Series (1997) which I watched all weekend.
Saturday the 29th of August 2009
I went for a morning walk which I was aiming to do for a while. Then back home I finished a project that I have been slowly working on for 7 months, and that is syncing the music on my iPod. In January, a hard drive mishap cause me to lose all my music files and the album artwork that goes along with them. Ever since I've been slowly adding music and artwork back on to the computer and now I'm all caught up . . . .
Meanwhile my brother and a few helpers were destroying a part of the kitchen ceiling and just as it was expected, a crap load of old insulation snowed everywhere. Currently there are about 9 full black garbage bags of insulation just sitting around and huge piles of garbage are on the front lawn as we wait for a big dumpster to arrive. Anyway, later my parents got a shopvac to help clean all the mess. i love that bad boy, it makes me want to vacuum the whole house with its sucking ability. Also, my dad and I got some Chadders in Provo. I just ordered a burger and a drink of course, no fries. It was a little tough to watch my parents eat fries in front of me, not that Chadders fries are anything to write home about anyway but the aroma is powerful.
Sunday the 30th of August 2009
Woke up with not much time to do anything profound before church. Church was slightly boring (I'm an unofficial librarian) cause I forgot to bring any books to read for the 3rd hour where not many people stop by.
I got some homework (reading) done before going to see my girlfriend. It was so nice to see her again and be held by her . . . . we went out for a drive ending up at the movie theater to see G Force. There's was nothing really wrong with the movie but I can admit to being a little too tired to get into it. Then went home where I did some organizing with my mom which is something we both like to do. Before typing this blog I got to work on a school assignment that I've been blowing off all weekend so this is my reward for getting some work done.
Other Note
-I love Coke Zero!!!! Got it in a fountain drink from Maverick on friday night and Chadders the next night.
Later blog readers
Friday, August 28, 2009
No Kitchen
Hey, finally have some time now to type
Today ended the first (short) week of school
it's looking to be an alright semester, some things are looking like very familiar to other classes in the past so I know what I'm in for. So glad I don't have to buy any further books and should be all set. Now just the usual as long as I don't slack off too much I'll be just fine. I got my parking permit today yipeee
Another item, my parents kitchen remodeling started today with the removal of all the cabinets, the sink, and the dishwasher that doesn't get used. Now all the stuff that lived in the kitchen is crowding the space in which I hang out mostly. Slight adjustment when it comes to eating stuff but I'm trying not to eat a bunch anyway.
Random notes
- I ate pizza from three different places for dinner; Little Caesars, 5 Buck, and Pizza Hut. Oh how I love pizza night
-CD currently in my car- a mix CD I made for a friend and it was so good I had to make it for myself
-I played Super Mario 3 for the NES on my Retro Duo not too long ago tonight
-watched some more Mighty Boosh Season 2 Episodes today, hilarious! I'm about to watch the best episode- The Legend of Old Gregg
-I have Fridays off of school, I have at least one class the other 4 days of the week
Well that's it for now
Peace out
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Last Day of Summer
Hey bloggers,
don't wanna take too long, I wanna get as much sleep as possible so I can be alert in the morning to do my hike up to the Y (in Provo, UT) that I've been doing every Wednesday morning for a month now. Tomorrow is my first day of school to start off this last year of classes that will be required for my Bachelor's. My first class is at 2 p.m. so there's no rush to sleep when it comes to that. But yeah school, I've been going to school for 18 years now total and after this one I think I'd wanna take a break before doing anymore, that is if I can stand anymore. I love school but it does get less fun/interesting as every year passes.
Anyway, today I went for a walk near Utah Lake which is like an end of summer tradition. Then I bought a drink at Walkers- didn't win this time -sigh-. Then bought Adventureland on DVD which I just barely finished. Of course I saw it opening day and I enjoyed it enough to buy it.
I finally went and saw 500 Days of Summer which I enjoyed very much. With my experience of falling in love with people, the film was really accurate in how things are and were for me a couple times. I may not have acted like the character of Thomas or got to experience the same things that he does in the film but it really does hit the nail right on the head with guys like me falling for a girl that we fancy. There were some females sitting behind me and I tempted to yell "Yep!" a couple times to make the point clear that that's how things go and blah blah blah
Rest of the day consisted of 20 minutes of recording for the J-Ray album, prescription refill, Gandolfos, and a couple Mighty Boosh season 2 episodes
Well gonna sign off now
Thanks for reading
Monday, August 24, 2009
No Fry Week
This morning before going out to do all that I've mentioned above, I recorded the last portion of the story that makes up the bulk of my next album Terrable. So now the running time is 3 hours for the project. What's left are a couple collaborations with Andre (The Dirty Mexican), an intermission track based on the title, a Messing with Music edition, and numerous background vocals so the album won't be super boring. I want to have the album completed and released by November.
Thanks for reading
Sunday, August 23, 2009
3 1/2 Years Later (What's been goin on)
OK, just want to point out that watching the movie Julie and Julia made me want to get back into my blogging besides my social networking blurbs on MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook which I will still update with more personal posts. This is going to be the more fun blog posts from now on.
To re-introduce myself my name is Justin Shields, I am currently 23 years old and I am a big music and movie buff as I hope to show on future posts. Besides being immersed in those two things, one of my favorite things to do in my spare time is recording real events (or the stories of real events) and comedy tracks which I've done for over 13 years and that's where the J-Ray portion of this blog comes in. To get a better explanation of J-Ray, go over to J-Ray's MySpace (link on the side) or even go to the very first posts of this blog.
Soooo it's been several years since I've really touched this blog and it has been the most interesting years of my adult life especially the last 2 years. Well, I could just say to check the links to my other sites on the side to get a taste of what's been going on in my life and what I've been doing all this time. Here's a listed summary of what my life has been like since February 2006.
-I feel I got out of the social coma I used to be in. I did this by just being myself again by going out and enjoying the world. I made new friends or getting to know past people a lot more, got back in touch with my high school buddies, made a habit of going on long walks which helped me lose some weight, etc. I will admit that I am still shy at times.
-I've been working a little bit. A few months of Custodial work in the spring of 2006 and then concessions jobs for the Orem Owlz Minor League Baseball team where I've been Ice Cream Guy for the last three summers including the current one.
-I've been continually going to school except during the summer. I recieved my Associates of Science Degree in Communications in April 2007 and currently on track to get a Bachelor's of Science in Sociology next spring.
- As for Movies- Hard Candy, Into the Wild, The Dark Knight, Superbad, Lars and the Real Girl, and Brick have been some of my favorite flicks.
-And Music- Panic! At The Disco, Monty Are I, Chromeo, Justice, Mindless Self Indulgence, Paramore, and MSTRKRFT have been notable artists coming to my attention in the last few years. I've also had major music crushes on The Used and Coheed and Cambria by getting all their albums and listening to them over and over and even making mix CDs of their work.
- One of the major topics that comes to mind is becoming more interested in the opposite sex in recent years. I've had some major crushes on women that I couldn't have which gave me two week splats of pure happiness with a couple of them leading to months of lonliness. In December of 2008 I had an offical girlfriend for the first time but the relationship only lasted around 10 days. Then on January 13, 2009 I met the current love of my life who was a friend of the girl I had just broken up with. Seven months later my girlfriend Anna and I are still together and things are going well.
CURRENTLY- I am about to attend my last year of school at Utah Valley University in 3 days. Til then I have time off work to get some more summer fun in while I can.
On the J-Ray side of things, if you don't really care just skip this part:
-I've been putting tracks and videos on Youtube since December 2007 with the help of my cousin Andrew AKA Andre (The Dirty Mexican), including my Walking Diary Series and Car Videos made for my friend Steve.
-I made 6 albums called Balogner (2006), King Size Tube Nuts (2006), Hand Me Down Skits (2006), Don't Bother (2007), Call It What You Want (2008), and Quest For The Unused (2008). The latter two were made but a hard drive mishap in January 2009 caused me to lose the audio files. Some of the tracks from these two still live on YouTube.
-Projects I was planning to do never got done which is normal haha including re-issues of my first six albums
uncut and in stereo.
CURRENTLY- I am recording my long awaited 17th Album titled Terrable which is concept album all about my experience with my first girlfriend.
So there's your recap or wrap up or whatever. Starting tomorrow I will let my blogging juices start flowing again along with my other many juices.
I'm gonna go watch my DVD copy of I Love You, Man, it's my favorite comedy of the year so far.
Later
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Even More Movie Reviews Part 1

Good Songs, Good Music, Dumb Movie. 525,600 Minutes is the first line in the opening song, that's how long the movie felt. I guess I was underestimating the movie. I thought it would end at the 105 minute mark but nope it kept going and going. It was just an uninteresting story with too much focus on each character. I liked the cast alright including Rosario Dawson and Taye Diggs. When it was trying to be sad, I didn't feel anything so I had no connections with it at all. Not even one of the top five musicals I've seen, that is if I have seen that many.
BROKEN FLOWERS
Very quiet, seriously you could fall asleep watching this movie. Bill Murray does alright but he plays such a boring person that it's hard to pay attention. The story is simple enough to understand but there's no clear answers in the movie. So I guess you have to make your own conclusions. I like his next door neighbor in the film played by Jeffrey Wright. I don't know what the movie was trying to be instead of just an artsy fartsy film. Every character has these weird facial expressions that were confusing. It had a few good laughs and a brief scene of nudity but besides that, it is a forgettable film.
NEW YORK DOLL

Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Even More Movie Reviews Part 2
The Matador
A very good dark comedy. But to be honest, it was just average until the last 10 minutes when a couple plot twists makes the movie rewarding if you paid attention. The sexual content sort of ruins the movie because there's like 1,000 innuendos and a few "sex" scenes don't help the movie at all. It was kind of like, "Okay I get it, Pierce Brosnan's character's a sex addict." But the acting is good and the chemistry is pretty good. Beautiful locations and some really good comedic moments.
Brokeback Mountain
A very excellent film. The nature scenery is amazing even though those scenes were shot in Canada. All the performances are awesome. But the reason why Jake Gyllenhall's performance is good because, like most of the other movies he's in, it's really over the top. Over the top to the point of laughter with such lines as "I wish I knew how to quit you." The story is very good, especially at getting you to think about certain choices you have made in your life or will make. The only thing the movie scuked at was making the young actors look older since the movie spans 20 years. All they did were put wigs on the eand mustaches on the men, not really convincing. I read the Rolling Stone review afterwards and they pointed out what is so good about it and I agreed, I can't remember what it said though. It's nominated for Best Picture, which it does deserve. But I'm rooting for the movie Crash myself. If it makes you feel better, there's more gratuitous heterosexual sex than homosexual. Overall, I wasn't disappointed cause I knew it would be good.
This movie, I don't know where to begin. I describe it as a movie you watch with your friends just to waste time. I don't care for the cast except for Ryan Reynolds cause he's good in every movie he's in even though he plays the same character in every one. The rest of the cast sucks. The story is stupid. The gross out humor lost me on this one. It's like a really bad independent movie that has nothing memorable about it cause like I said , it's a time waster. This goes in the book of crappy comedies next to The New Guy and Scary Movie. So I only recommend it for perverted retards who laugh at every thing. The only thing that could of saved it is frontal female nudity, not lower. I rented it for free and I'm still pissed.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Quick Movie Reviews


Just Friends- It was pretty good. Ryan Reynolds never disappoints me and the violent/dark nature of the movie made it worth seeing. I couldn't stand Ana Faris's (who by the way tries to be too funny and it doesn't work) character which was the point because she played a bitch. I can't really relate to anything in it (yet) but the romantic theme in the movie is relatable to anyone who's been in love.
I enjoyed The Legend of Zorro. It's PG, so it doesn't go too far with anything which sucks. It had to earn my attention cause I went into it not really interested.
2 Weeks since a post, I gotta talk about something
Let's see what to talk about?......
LARRY H. MILLER- I DON'T THINK I WANT TO KNOW THIS GUY
Since he's such a homo-phobe maybe he should ban himself from the public, look how fuckin gay he looks in that retro Jazz uniform.
What I'm talking about is the whole Brokeback Mountain controversy in Utah, Larry H Miller stopped the film, about two cowboys fallin in love while herding sheep, from showing at one of the theaters he owns. That's fine because that's his choice. The thing that really pisses me off is that he cancelled the movie minutes before it was supposed to show. It's not like it's a XXX gay porno (I don't really know since I haven't seen it), but it's won the Critic's Choice and Golden Globe awards for Best Picture and it will probably win the Oscar. It was a theater in Salt Lake for crying out loud it's not like it was gonna show in my neck of the woods. A lot of mormons laugh when they say that "ha ha, gay people are boycotting the movie, like that's gonna hurt." All I have to say to that is you never know how many there are in Salt Lake or in my neck of the woods.
Last week was an interesting one for me, I had an infected tooth (or abscess) starting on Wednesday and I just ignored it until the next day it got fuckin worse. I went to the dentist the next day and let's just say he was very happy I called him. The left side of my face was swollen (I didn't take a picture even though I should of. The dentist put the novacaine, which was very fucking painful because of the swollen area. The rest of the "dental surgery" went smoothly. He drilled through one of my teeth and drained out the infection and made an incision (or cut) and drained out some more shit. So I stayed home for the weekend and did nothing, which is what I do anyway. 5 days later and I'm feelin fine.
Thursday, January 05, 2006
1st Movie Review of the Year- Fun With Dick & Jane

Happy Flippin New Year from The Blog of Mr. J-Ray, yeah yeah, I know what you're thinking, 4 Days Late. Well F%^K OFF

Anyway, I have a quick thing to say about today. I had a chance to see the new Queen Latifah movie Last Holiday for FREE. Getting anything free is a very good thing in this time of not having a job. But I decided not to see the movie cause I had a cousin over to visit. Maybe next time and especially if it's a different movie.
Speaking of not working, I'm back in school and the awesome thing is I only go 2 days a week. My mother is pleading since I have this schedule to go get a job. It's just funny to me because I imagine that she is pissed out of her mind while I smile about attending school only 2 days a week.
Before going any further, I'm happy that The University of Texas won the NCAA Football Championship. Not that I'm from Texas or love the state, I'm just glad that USC didn't get there 2nd and a half championship in a row. It was a good freakin game, pretty heart pounding shit all the way to the end.
