Another Blog Challenge Catch Up

Number 12-What you Believe
I have a lot of crazy opinions and beliefs, here's just a few
-I believe that people do not need to be jerks, life's too short for stupid drama
-I believe that if two people love each other no matter what religion, race, or gender they are then they should have the right to do whatever they chose to do in celebrating their love including marriage.
-I believe that a business should be able to make money/profits, however they should not be able to keep all of it if it's a ridiculous amount (millions, billions, etc) of profit. There should be no individual who makes millions and billions of dollars and get to keep all of it at years end.
- I believe that doctors, lawyers, and other highly trained individuals should do what they do because they actually like it and not because of the money they stand to make.

Number 13-Goals
I actually have a list prepared for this that I made for a Positive Psychology class a year ago, here are my basic goals.

2. Keep some kind of job
3. Always keep things organized (avoid hoarding)
4. Love my hair as long as it stays there
11. Donate time, energy, and some money to great causes
13. Speak up when people walk over me
19. Live life until it’s over
24. Always remember what makes her (my girlfriend) special
31. Never go a day without saying “I Love You”
32. At least one sentence of communication with girlfriend a day
53. Walk at least 2 ½ hours a week
61. Travel to New York City, United Kingdom, Australia, and Paris
80. Keep up with TV shows by getting a DVR
83. Bungee Jump/Sky Dive
89. Read more often, even if only comedic books


Number 14- A picture you love
So many pictures to chose from, but I choose this from my 2008 trip to California

Blog Challenge Catching Up

Number 8-A place you've traveled to
One place out of many that I've been to is Charlottesville, Virginia. I traveled there in the fall of 2007 to see one of my friends I met in high school named Britney. She was my guide for a day and a half showing me local shops, a yummy bagel joint, lovely scenery, and great friendly atmosphere.

Number 9-A picture of your friends
I love every chance I get to take pictures with my friends. Some of my friends love to take pics like I do and some can take the torture of taking a quick snapshot. Here are pics of some friends that I have taken.

Number 10-Some things you're afraid of
- I'm afraid I'm going to pass a kidney stone and other medical problems passed down in my family
- I hate being around bees, wasps, etc
- Loss of the things and people I hold dear
- Never finding a well paid and benefited job

Number 11-Favorite TV shows (just to name a few and in no special order)


Animated- Family Guy, Ren and Stimpy, The Simpsons, Beavis and Butthead, The Cleveland Show, Daria,


Drama- 24, Heroes (the first couple seasons), Dexter, True Blood



British- Blackadder Goes Forth, Peep Show, Spaced, Mr. Bean


Comedy- Seinfeld, The Soup, Californication, Saturday Night Live, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Wonder Showzen



Sports/ Talk/Reality- Conan, Pardon the Interruption, Real World/Road Rules Challenge, Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares

DBC #7- (Some of my) Favorite Movies

I could go on and on about movies, but here are some random categories that show what some of my favorite movies are.

Favorite Movie Franchise- Indiana Jones

Favorite Comedy- Ferris Buehler's Day Off

Favorite Drama- Forrest Gump

Favorite Science Fiction- A Clockwork Orange

Favorite Sports Movie- Rocky III

Favorite Historical Movie- JFK, the most un-boring 3 1/2 hour movie I've ever seen.

Favorite Thriller/Horror- Silence of the Lambs

Favorite Disney Movie- The Jungle Book


Favorite Courtroom Drama- A Time To Kill


Favorite Foreign Film- City of God

Favorite Comic Book/Superhero Movie- The Dark Knight 

Favorite Crime/Police Drama- The Departed

Favorite Romantic Comedy- She's Out of My League (I am a guy after all hahaha)


Favorite Mystery- Brick

Favorite Buddy Cop Movie(s)- Rush Hour

DBC #6- Happy Pics

 Traveling/Going To Certain Places That Aren't In Utah Makes Me Happy. Donuts=Happiness haha

Day #6- Picture(s) of Something That Makes Me Happy
Well the obvious point to make is that my pictures make me happy. I've loved to take pictures ever since I was a boy and I've always tried to capture as many things as possible. I'm trying not to sound like a broken record in this whole blog challenge so I'll try to post pictures that aren't just my favorite things or interests like I've mentioned already.

The Beach Obviously Makes Me Happy

Nice and Sunny Canyon Walks Make Me Happy

A View of Utah Valley From High Up Makes Me Happy

Amusement Parks Definitely Make Me Happy

Other Pics I would include are going to be featured in future posts.

Thanks for Stopping By

DBC #4 & 5- Family

I'm gonna cheat a little and take up the fourth and fifth blog challenge in one post to talk about my family since both have to do with the topic. First of all I have really great parents. They've been really patient and calm when I stay out late with my girlfriend, they encourage me to follow what's in my heart, and they have always lead and guide me without being pushy or demanding. I owe them a ton for raising me well and for paying for most of the things that I currently use and I try to do what I can to help what they need to get done.

I have great siblings as well. I have spent my whole life idolizing my brothers for their talents, skills, their love and commitment to their own significant others/families, and their hard work and dedication to put food on their tables each and every day. I have a really awesome older sister too who is very supportive and interested in my endeavors. She has stayed strong (Army strong of course) through some hard times and I admire her determination in everything she does. I am happy being an uncle to my nieces and nephews who are amazing in all that they do.  I strive to be a good influence on them and I plan on smiling as I watch them grow.

30 DBC #3- Love

Day #3- Love
ummmm, not quite sure what to say here. The challenge today is supposed to be about my first love but I don't want to give the title "First Love" to anybody in particular so I'll just briefly summarize my life experiences on liking members of the opposite sex. I guess I could say that there's always been girls I've been smitten with ever since i was a little boy so it really has been a lifelong search.

Being really small there was a girl who used to live across the street, one who lived a block away, and a couple others that I'd see several times. Going to elementary school there were one or two girls I had my eye on, a couple I actually got up the nerve to ask out in 5th grade. Nothing really happened with either of those occurrences, mostly cause I was extremely shy and didn't know how to interact with girls in that more than friendly way. This pretty much scared me away from really trying anything in Junior High and High School even though there were a couple girls I really had the hots for.

It wasn't until 2007 when I started to not worry so much about little things and just be myself around everybody especially women. I actually had the ambition to make more female friends. With that I started to meet girls left and right all of the sudden whether it be mutual friends, co-workers, or people on the internet. In that time I got the experience of fulling falling in love for a couple girls, however they were girls that I couldn't have for one reason or another. Dealing with the frustration was a great lesson to not be so gaga about someone when there's no sign of real romance.

Then in the fall of 2008 I started going out with my first official girlfriend which was exciting but strange cause the world of serious relationships was so new to me. The first serious relationship didn't last very long and shortly after I started going out with my second serious girlfriend (which you could read about on the blog from August 2009-May 2010). This relationship lasted 16 months which I expected but always had a hunch it would never move beyond that.

So for the remainder of 2010 I was really thrown out into the dating world like never before. There were good times and some other times I wish not to remember but overall it was good to gain more experience and realize that not every girl is for me. So that brings me to the current day and my third serious relationship which has felt the most real and right out of all of my silly crushes and other interactions with women. There's not much more I can think to say except that I am excited for my current love to grow.

30 DBC #2 & March 2011 Recap

Day #2- Meaning of Blog Name
There's not a whole lot behind my nickname J-Ray, it's currently my stage name of sorts for my comedy recordings.
J stands for Justin of course but simply "J" has been my nickname with some of my closest friends and family over the years. It spread like a virus at one time, one person would call me that and then before I knew it almost everybody was calling me it probably because it was simple and it helped when hanging with one of my close friends whose name is also Justin.
Ray is my middle name and it's also my dad's middle name. I was born on his birthday 25 years ago so it seems really appropriate. I'm pretty sure he would call me J-Ray some times as a kid so I've kept it that way for almost 8 years now.

Since that didn't take too long here's how my March went.

- The biggest thing to mention is that my relationship with my girlfriend Katie became official. I've had an absolutely great time with her in our first month as a couple. We've seen a couple new movies together.
Rango- Which I thought was good but dragged on a tiny bit. I don't normally see animated movies outside of Pixar but it was a fun, off the wall film.
Paul- a film made for movie nerds especially geeky movies, so it got to me in the right way. I admire the unpredictable turns just when I thought it was going to end in a certain way.
We've also had delicious food, movie/tv marathons, double date at the auto expo, a night of some dancing, a couple small walks here and there, and tons of laughs including a certain family dinner with her family
-I also saw The Green Hornet recently but was pretty disappointed with a lot of it. I didn't think much of The Tourist either.
- Netflix rentals that were interesting include Catfish, Season 1 of United States of Tara, and Season 1 of Big Love,
- Tried the place in Orem called Hot Dog King which I loved and definitely will order a foot long hot dog next time cause it looked absolutely delicious.
- TV show watching included Celebrity Apprentice, The Cleveland Show, and Family Guy as usual.
- I bought the new Panic At The Disco album and I love it a lot with a current rating of 9.1/10 making it the best album of the first quarter of 2011. There's so many more releases to come and I'm excited. 
- Oh yeah, I got a dollar an hour raise from my work, yay!

30 Day Blog Challenge Begins

I have always felt so silly that I don't write in here that often. The excuse could always be that I don't know what to talk about besides what's been going on in my life. I noticed that a lot of people have been doing a 30 day blog/photo challenge where there's a specific topic or idea for each day of a months worth of blog posts. So I shall take on this challenge.
Day 1- 15 Interesting Facts 
(There's also supposed to be an introduction but I'll just fit random stuff in in with these facts)
1. I'm known for a good memory and handwriting. The main thing people know me for is my major interest in music and movies. I own a ton of CDs/DVDs and collect movie/music posters.

You may also know me for my dorkiness for The Simpsons and Family Guy
2. I enjoy Diet sodas more than the regular ones. I have loved soda ever since I was a little one when I would go with my dad on mug runs to gas stations.
3. I like to try every restaurant in the area that makes a Cheeseburger. My other favorite foods include Chicken, Pizza, and Burritos.

4. Favorite color is blue. Although I do like to wear red and black a lot.
5. For school I went to Cascade Elementary, Canyon View Jr. High, Orem High (3.895 Cumulative GPA Yay!), and Utah Valley University (Bachelor’s of Science in Behavioral Science- Sociology Emphasis
and Associate’s of Science in Communications Double Yay!)
6. I walk almost every day for at least an hour. I have wandered around Orem, UT my whole life. I used to walk around looking for friends but as an older person it has been for exploration, enjoyment, and exercise.
7. Collect everything from t-shirts to State Quarters to drink cups to every drawing/painting/photo/artsy thing I've ever done
8. Things with me at all times- a watch (I don't feel like me without one), phone, wallet, keys, and a camera when I'm with others.
9. Youngest child with 3 older siblings. Always wanted a younger sibling but never got one.
10. Besides all over Utah, I've Been to California, Nevada, Texas, Virgina, and Washington DC.

11. Friends have always meant the world to me. Even if I don't see a lot of them anymore, the times with them are the best!
12. Cars that I've driven as my own- 1984 Mercury Marquis and 2002 Mazda 626
13. Lived in the same house my whole life up to this point and almost 15 years being in the same bedroom
14. Dessert wise I'm a cookie and rice crispy treat man
15. Best Job I've Ever Had- Ice Cream Stand for the Orem Owlz, which I hope to do for the 5th time this summer.

Wow that was actually tough
Thanks for reading

January and February 2011 in Review

MUSIC/MOVIES
-  2011 is looking to be one of the best years in music releases, at least with the music that I like and listen to. The first release that has my attention is The King is Dead by The Decemberists which I give right now a 8/10 rating. The big release in February is the second album by Adele titled 21 and for the moment I give it a 8.9/10.
- I actually did not see any January or February releases in theaters, instead I have been catching up with 2010 movies (and many others) thanks to my recent Subscription to Netflix and going to the dollar theater.
- So thanks to Netflix I have now seen the first season of True Blood, the FX show Louie, and the first season of the Skins (The British Version).
- I finally finished my 17th J-Ray comedy album titled Royal Flush after 6 months of work on it.
- I have become a fan and loyal listener of many different podcasts to guide me along my nights at work. I currently listen to Geek Show Podcast, Big Movie Mouth-Off, The Dork Forest, Doug Loves Movies, and the Harland Highway.

PERSONAL LIFE
- On my 25th birthday I went to see the movie True Grit and then got some food at Wing Nutz keeping up my b-day tradition of trying some place new.
- My favorite thing to note is that I hung out with my girlfriend named Katie (from Riverton, UT) and members of her family a couple times in January. I had really good times going to Laughing Stock (Improv Comedy show) in Salt Lake City, a couple The Big Bang Theory marathons at her house, and finally seeing Tron Legacy on New Years Day. In February we went out to celebrate my birthday at Mimi's Cafe and a couple weeks later we went on a double date over to Boondocks and then ate at Joy Luck restaurant in Sandy.

FOOD
- New places I've tried are T's Diner and Mountain West Burrito. Out of the two I definitely suggest the latter.

Besides that, just doing my normal mug runs, walks, sports chats, online videos, and all the other fun stuff that has helped get me through the winter.

2010 Highlights

This is a post to let the reader of this blog know the good parts of 2010 for me cause this has been honestly one of my least favorite years. So this post is also here to help myself remember the good and memorable moments in what I refer to as "The Year of the Black Rainbow" named after Coheed and Cambria's 2010 release.

01/01/10- New Years is always a blast for me. My individual dance party was cool as usual.
01/14/10- One Year Anniversary of going out with my now ex-girlfriend Anna, I made a surprise visit to her house with flowers.
02/01/10- 24th Birthday with tradition of trying a new restaurant (Smash Burger) and a movie (Edge of Darkness)
02/23- 03/25/10- Service Hours for the American Cancer Society's Road to Recovery Program
03/17/10- Last Spring Break Tradition Visit to Nickel City
04/02/10- Black Hats House Party in Provo, the first of a couple house parties I went to
04/16, 21, 22, 28, and 05/05- Hanging out with one of my best friends Steve
04/28- Finals Day for my last semester of school
04/30/10- Graduation Day!!
05/04- Reaching the much anticipated $100 amount in my change jar
05/27- Helping Orem High School move stuff from the old (now demolished) building to the new one giving me a chance to walk through and remember high school one more time
06/02- Job Interview with the Orem Owlz starting another great summer job experience scooping ice cream
06/05- Started going on dates again after breaking up with Anna
07/13- Paul McCartney Concert at Rio Tinto Stadium
08/13-19- California Vacation
08/29- Lunch and Drives with my cousin David and my friend Courtney
09/06- 1st Date with a girl from Saratoga Springs starting off the happiest two and a half weeks of the year
10/23 & 30- Hang outs with a friend from Riverton with non stop laughs and fun times
10/25- Hired by Freedom Academy

OTHER STUFF to Mention
-Great albums by Chromeo, Coheed and Cambria, Uffie, Kate Nash, and several others.
- Awesome movies including Kick-Ass, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Iron Man 2, Toy Story 3, and numerous others
- Last Season of my Favorite Drama of the last decade 24
- Watched Conan leave and then come back to Late Night TV
- Hulu shows I got into were Kitchen Nightmares, Reaper, and Peep Show
- Food, Mug Runs, Walks,  and all the other usual stuff I did

My Favorite Music of 2010

01. Business Casual by Chromeo

-Album of the Year 

-Song/Video of the Year- Don't Turn the Lights On

02. Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans by Uffie

03. Year of the Black Rainbow by Coheed and Cambria

-Best Follow-Up Album

04. The ArchAndroid by Janelle Monae

05. My Best Friend is You by Kate Nash

My 2010 Playlist

ADD SUV by Uffie (Ft. Pharell Williams)
Sex Dreams & Denim Jeans by Uffie
MCs Can Kiss by Uffie
Animal by Neon Trees
Baby I'm Yours by BreakBot (feat. Irfane)
Cannonball by Floater   
Come With Me by ceo
Cynthia by Millionyoung   
Derezzed by Daft Punk
Do-Wah-Doo by Kate Nash
Don't Turn The Lights On by Chromeo
Hot Mess by Chromeo
Giving Up the Gun by Vampire Weekend
Here We Are Juggernaut by Coheed and Cambria
Pearl Of The Stars by Coheed and Cambria
The House You're Building by Audrey Assad
I've Got Tonight by Boss In Drama
I Feel Better by Hot Chip   
Nightcall by Kavinsky   
Oh, Maker by Janelle Monáe

6th Annual Best, Middle, and Worst Movies of 2010

Yep it's that time once again, my Best, Middle, and Worst Movies of the Year List. I changed it a bit this year with different categories- Great, Good, OK, Slightly OK, and Bad. Once again or for those that don't know, these are the movies that I saw in the dollar theater, the bigger named theaters, and of course DVD rentals since January 1. With the dollar theater and DVD rentals, there's a high chance that these were movies that came out theatrically last year but didn't get released on home video (or got to the dollar theater in the first part of the year) until this year. If a movie isn't on here it's probably because I was either lazy, forgot about it, heard some really poor reviews/wasn't interested anyway, or avoided a movie like a horrible disease.

77 Movies @ 3.06/5 Star Average
Thanks to Flixster.com once again for helping me keep track
I hope to see Black Swan, Tron Legacy, and a couple others before the year is over
These movies are in no ranked order but of course get worse as the list goes down.

GREAT

Kick-Ass

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Iron Man 2

Inception

Toy Story 3

Get Him to The Greek

Due Date

Cemetery Junction

She's Out of My League

127 Hours

The Fighter

Capitalism: A Love Story

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Avatar

The Town

The Hurt Locker

Crazy Heart

Up In The Air

Sherlock Holmes

GOOD

The Princess and the Frog

The Fantastic Mr. Fox

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl Who Played With Fire

Invictus

The Expendables

Easy A

Machete

The A-Team

The Losers

The Karate Kid (Biggest Surprise of the Year)

The Messenger

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Precious

MIDDLE/OK

Red

The Kids Are All Right  

Edge of Darkness

An Education

The Blind Side

The Runaways

Daybreakers

A Single Man

A Serious Man

Winter’s Bone

Despicable Me

Law Abiding Citizen

The Men Who Stare At Goats

Greenburg

Just Wright

Dear John

Shutter Island

Charlie St. Cloud

MacGruber

Remember Me

The Road

SLIGHTLY OK

The Twilight Saga- Eclipse

The Other Guys

Everybody's Fine

Dinner For Schmucks

Hot Tub Time Machine

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

2012

Leap Year

Alice in Wonderland

Chloe

BAD

Armored

Grown Ups

The Lovely Bones

When In Rome

Date Night

The Last Song

Clash of the Titans

Knight and Day

The Warrior’s Way

The Ghost Writer

Salt

The Bounty Hunter

Takers

August - Now 2010

jeez I have become super lazy at this
The last three and a half months have been very interesting to say the least
I'll just put up some topics and see what there is to say about them

WORK
-Worked for the Orem Owlz doing my awesome summer job of scooping ice cream until they lost in the first round of the Pioneer League Playoffs in Mid Setpemeber
- Looked for job for almost two months applying for something almost every day ranging from warehouse work to seasonal restaurant jobs.
- Then on October 25, a charter school in Provo named Freedom Academy called me up and offered me a custodial job I had applied and interviewed for in September. Since then I have been working during the week vacuuming all the classrooms in the building as well as several offices.

MUSIC and MOVIES
- Been putting up songs on my Facebook for over two months as a "Song of the Day" type feature and have enjoyed comments from at least one person about them.
- In September, the long awaited third album was released by Chromeo, one of my favorite groups to come out in the last 10 years. Their album Business Casual is very awesome and defines my year in a lot of ways making it a heavy favorite when I pick my favorite album next month.
- Another album that is getting good word of mouth and I enjoy is The ArchAndroid by Janelle Monae- The movies I've seen worth mentioning include Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Cemetery Junction , The Town, and Due Date.
- The pieces of crap movies I definitely don't recommend include Takers, Knight and Day, Grown Ups, and Salt
- Been busy watching The Simpsons Seasons 1-5, a very funny British show named Peep Show, and of course the latest seasons of some favorite shows.

PERSONAL LIFE
- In August I went on a vacation with my parents down to Southern California. While down there I stayed several days with my cousins who live in Hemet, CA just hanging out, eating out at yummy places, and watching movies. I then went down to Anaheim for a three day park hopping experience at Disneyland and California Adventure with my parents, my sister, and her daughter. I also spent a day going to Huntington Beach which was a lovely experience.
- Didn't really meet any new women in August. Then in early September I met a girl from Saratoga Springs, UT through a friend. I had a good time hanging out and sort of dating her for a few weeks and it certainly was the happiest time I've had all year. Then it all collapsed in a big horrible weekend over a hundred miles away from home when I went on a small trip with her and a few cousins of hers to Salina, UT which I refer to "East Jesus Nowhere". It's a long story but I'll just say it was a long weekend of confusion, sadness, and getting treated like total crap.The girl did apologize later about the whole thing but things were definitely not the same after it. Since then I've met and gone out with a couple girls I met online and it's a been pretty fun but not sure if anything with them will become serious.
- I've been very slowly losing weight making a total of 10 pounds in the last few months.
- I dressed up as Dexter Morgan for Halloween this year which was a lot of fun.

Thanks for reading

Recap of June and July 2010

 JUNE
- I finally went back to work scooping ice cream for for the Orem Owlz. I'm back in the cycle of loving my job and actually hating my days off, you know being single and all.
- I got the long awaited debut full length album by one of my favorite females in music named Uffie. I really like her album titled Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans for the songs I've heard for 2 years now and of course all the newer music.
- went on a mini adventure to Nephi one day and ate good food at the One Man Band location down there
- Did the usual traditions associated with Orem Summerfest 
- More food at many different places, more walking/hiking, and soda drinking
- More movies, I think I'm gonna try to beat my record this year which i think is 89.
- Saw several friends I haven't seen in a while, which is ALWAYS good

JULY
-lots of days at work, still going well. 
-watched my parents bathroom get remodeled (not completely finished yet)
- did a bunch of shopping with newly acquired money
- had my sister in town visiting with her two kids and boyfriend-type person.
-Went to the Paul McCartney concert on my mom's birthday July 13th. He put on an excellent show filled with many laughs and tears and of course really beautiful music.
- watching a bunch of movies from the list on imdb250.net which looks to be 250 most heavily liked films by moviegoers or something like it. Whatever it is it's been interesting movie watching experiences.
- been recording again with plans to make a new comedy album named Royal Flush.

thanks to anyone who happened to read this and I apologize for my laziness 

Month of May Recap

I still keep forgetting to post on this, soooo here I go now
My College Graduation on April 30th went pretty well, thanks for those who supported me and noticed.
-May 1st started my post-college life with a mix of happy and bad memories hanging out with Anna and her best friends.After that, this month was pretty much a mix of doing what I wanted to thanks to the brand new free time.
- Watched the final month of the TV season with my shows Celebrity Apprentice, 24, American Idol, NBA Playoffs. I've also been watching the new season of Real World Road Rules Challenge and of course, The Soup on Friday nights.
- Went for walks and hikes in Provo Canyon and Orem. Also went to the new store in Orem called Winco which I've been to before in California.
- Went and saw several movies including Iron Man 2, MacGruber, and Shutter Island. I also bought a bunch of cheap DVDs from a closing Hollywood Video store and watched them.
- Ate plenty of food from Rubio's, Chick-Fil-A, One Man Band, KFC, Smashburger, Carl's Jr., Daylight Donuts, Dairy Queen, Sonic, Iceberg, Bajio, Jimmie Johns, and Wendys. no wonder I'm gaining weight
- Finally reached my goal of loading my coin jar with $100, then spent it on the Complete Series of Daria on DVD, Mystery Team on DVD, Dr. Mario for the NES, and a CD
- Plenty of Mug Runs to Walkers and Maverick.
- I helped my high school, Orem High, move things from the old building that I went to years ago to their brand new school building.

and last, but not least, I broke up with my girlfriend of 16 months on Memorial Day. Our last date was on May 15th and the last time we saw each other as a couple was her birthday on May 19th. There's not much to say about it on here, it just wasn't working out.