Bored on Friday night

Hello
here's what's up

 - I completed my Service hours yesterday for the American Cancer Society, if you didn't know already I've basically been driving cancer patients to their appointments cause they aren't fit to drive or just don't have any rides. I really liked the whole experience except driving on the Freeway between Draper and Murray, Utah several times.
- I saw An Education a few days ago, making it the 9th Best Picture nominee I've seen (Thank you Movies 8 in Provo for bringing these nominated movies and giving them a week run). I wasn't toally wowed by it, the performances were good but it is pretty forgettable.
- Got addicted to the show Kitchen Nightmares, I've been catching up with this season on Hulu.
- Watch American Idol for the Tuesday shows, my favorite is Siobhan (I love how it's spelled)
- Had a nice dinner with my family last night at P.F. Changs, a huge favorite for years now.

- I keep forgetting to mention that I got a new cell phone since my old phone (Razr) died, I like the new phone, a Sony Ericsson Equinox but haven't put any cool pics or music on it yet. 

That's pretty much
thanks as always for reading

Before the month is done, how about a post

Hey peoples
March has been a pretty cool month, I love the sun coming back, times changes, and all the goodness that I feel comes with it.
- Currently watching Dexter Season 3, still a great show but will admit not as interesting as the seasons before.
- Still going strong with the service hours, 6 hours to go.
- Got my graduation stuff, 42 days until the ceremony
- I've seen 8/10 Best Picture Nominees, I was so happy for The Hurt Locker. I finally saw The Blind Side and thought it was good, it had all the elements that one would expect in a family/sports film but will say that the story isn't sad enough to really care and about 15 minutes were pointless.
- Currently on my Spring Break and already did my tradition of going to the NickelCade (which is now Nickel City) where I played my favorites and won some prizes with tickets I got from various games.
- Still awaiting the arrival of good movies and albums to come out, all these movies coming out now look awful.


Can't think of much else
thanks for reading

February, just end already

Hi
been a couple weeks, what's been going on hmmmmm
- Started my volunteer service with the American Cancer Society's Road to Recovery Program, I drove a man to Murray which went well thanks to a practice run I did beforehand so I knew where to go cause i'm not familiar with Salt Lake County. I got about 16 hours worth of driving left to do and hopefully I can take the same man several more times in the next two weeks.
-FINALLY watched Dexter Season 2 and loved every minute and went through it in four days, now to stalk the library's copy of the 3rd season
- Saw The Princess and the Frog and liked it, not so much for the movie Leap Year which was really boring and lame compared to other romantic comedies and other Amy Adams movies. I also saw Percy Jackson and the  . . . . . and it wasn't really my cup of tea and certainly wasn't funny when it tried
- Went to the Diabetes Expo for the 4th or 5th time, not so many freebies this year, bummer. My dad has Type 2 so it's always good to go with him and be aware of what he has to deal with.
- School's going OK and I will feel better once I present this Wednesday for a group Positive Psychology Group Presentation. 2 months until I'm done
- watching American Idol and ready for the Top 12 to start, ugggh I hope the horrible people keep getting voted off, half of these people suck

besides that, just been doing the same stuff mostly
we added another TV in our house, so I got a better one than before
Excited for March, not for any particular reason, just because

Lazy Saturday

Hi

I've been kinda waiting to write a blog when I was feeling good, my head has been so cloudy and foggy with not so nice thoughts about everybody and everything. Anyway today is a lazy saturday cause I have nothing to do, my parents went to a funeral of a relative I didn't really know at all, and everyone is probably out having a great Valentine's Day Wekend.

Lately I've been watching a show on Hulu called The Loop (another show with Bret Harrison [seen above] of Reaper and Grounded For Life umm fame I guess) I watched the first season which was pretty funny and amusing. The second season however is really lame cause they gave a bigger role to some of the dumb characters and got rid of the two female lead characters from the season before.

In movie updates, I saw Avatar in 3D last Saturday with Anna and I thought it was visually amazing and not too bothered with the story so it was a good ol' time. Also I saw Armored at the dollar theater which wasn't that good or exciting, it's a case of seeing how it ends since the trailer gives it all away anyway.
School's going okay, I'll be more excited in a few weeks when some major assignments are out of the way.

Looks like I will start my volunteer hours on the 18th for the American Cancer Society. More on that later

Not much else going on
later

February's Finally Here

Febraury's here! That means I celebrated my birthday yesterday. For the fifth year I did a birthday tradition of going somewhere I've never been to eat lunch and going to see a movie, usually a mindless shoot em up movie of some sort. So this year I went to the latest competitor in the Burger War, Smash Burger which is appearing in the same cities/areas the other competitors (Five Guys and In-n-Out) have been popping up for the last couple years. It is comparable to a place like Fuddruckers, which to me means it's a higher qaulity burger compared to the top names in fast food. It was very delcious and can't wait to go back cause I had the most interesting items on the menu- The Beehive SmashBurger and their Smash Fries and I'd like to just try the avaerage items next time especially since I have the option to choose all the toppings you want. The movie I then saw was the latest Mel Gibson flick Edge of Darkness which was OK and had me leaving the theater quoting and giggling at Gibson's boston accent in the film.

Speaking of movies, as I write this I have seen 5 of this year's Best Picture nominees, I was stoked to see District 9 was one of them.
I've also seen a couple other films recently.
The Fantastic Mr. Fox- Very odd/strange but did have me laughing even when I didn't know why (which is the impression I get from all of Wes Anderson's movies). But I really appreciated the animation and some of the voice acting.
Everybody's Fine- A little better than I thought it would be story wise but was still just OK. I could see people of different ages finding at least one thing relatable to the family portrayed in the movie.

From my recollection, the last week of January was just a dull week, nothing much to say. I went to my little orientation for the Amercian Cancer Society last week which went well, now just have to wait for the background checks to end and then I can start my volunteer work. Besides that I continued to watch Reaper, went out and walked a bunch, got my hair cut, continued to put coins in my little piggy bank, etc.

One last little note, things are starting to look up when it comes to my search for some happiness. Not to say that I've been totally depressed recently or anything. I'm just saying that compared to other points of my life I've just felt kinda down at least in the month of January. It may be the fact that it's winter or cause of my lack of employment. My answer is always along the lines of my friends aren't talking to me as much as I would hope but at the same time I'm not totally putting forth the energy to commincate either. I just try to have a little understanding each day that most of my friends have lives which I always feel is something I don't have. But I really do appreciate my friends who follow this blog (comments would be nice by the way) and the ones who wished me a happy birthday yesterday. What I'm trying to get to in this paragraph is the readings from my Positive Psycholiogy class have really got me thinking about how to find some happiness. An assignment due this week for the class is a list of three good things that have happened for every day in the last week and getting over 20 birthday wishes is defintely on there. Some movies I've watched recently have also got me thinking that beling alive is great and that I should stick to some goals I have come up with (also an assignment for Positive Psychology) such as writing more to my friends. So even for all the busy work there is for the class, I'm really trying to put forth the effort it takes to live happily.

Peace out peoples
Thanks for reading

Blast You Snow!

Let's see what has gone down in the last week
- 24 came back on TV, very nice very good, even though the filler plot lines are kinda dumb and the logic button is still switched to off. Still good to see that Jack is back and will never die. Speaking of TV characters never dying, I am starting to really dislike Heroes which used to be my 2nd favorite drama, I don't know why I'm still watching it but hopefully it ends before getting too bad.
-UPDATE- I found an organization to do my 20 hours of required volunteer service (for a class). I will be working for The American Cancer Society, the training begins this week
-Thanks to Hulu, I'm getting into the show Reaper, it was recommended by the good folks on geekshowpodcast.com
-My diet plan is still working by the looks of things yay
- Saw 2012, it's OK (not good or bad)

So as you can see, not a very eventful week

-Well the most significant event of the past week was ending my friendship with my ex-girlfriend who shall be nameless for the purposes of this blog. It's a long story that could be summed with she screwed up bad last summer and then decided to try to make peace with my girlfriend Anna who doesn't want anything to do with her and she thought that ending our friendship will make me happy and will prevent a fight with Anna. Well honestly I was sad to say goodbye but I was never the type to chase her around and what she did to piss off Anna is a big enough offense that I shoudn't really deal with her ever again. So good riddance, I had some fun and everything but she was nothing but trouble at the same time.

Holy Cow, 12 days since a post now that's ridiculous

- School started up again, after two weeks of classes I can say that I think this semester will go pretty smoothly cause I've been doing this for years. For those wondering, I have Gender Roles, Life Span Development, Positive Psychology, and an Intro to Social Work class. My one big worry for the first two weeks of this semester is trying to find a human service agency to do some volunteer work for. This is such an obstacle to me cause it's like trying to find a job and with that situation I go for the easiest application process as possible. I've contacted one place in Provo but haven't heard back at all. So if I hear nothing by Tuesday I guess I'll have to actually go outside to find something or maybe even have to -sigh- call somebody which I don't really like doing.
- Became a fan of The Cinema Snob who reviews some new movies and the really terrible old movies that are infamous for being VERY BAD film making wise. He's now a featured reviewer on thatguywiththeglasses.com which I love to go to every week.
-Rented a couple movies this week. District 9 which I thought was very cool and The Hurt Locker which is gonna be nominated for several awards in the next few months. I loved the movie even though some of it felt unnecessary. I'm excited for its success. To answer the question if you're wondering, No I haven't seen Avatar yet.
-This week marked the One Year Anniversary of going out with my girlfriend Annalaura. I never doubted for a minute that we would make it this far. I'm excited to be with her and for the many good times to come. Being with her today made me realize just how lucky I am to be with someone so patient, understanding, and most of all so loving. 
- Been walking quite a lot recently and it feels great. As long as the dumb snow doesn't come back with a vengence I will continue to go out walking. It's a good accompaniment to my recent eating habits/rules which I'd be lying if I said that I didn't break from time to time. The readings from my scale at home look nice but I still want to go the scale I trust.
-Excited 24 is back on TV! Speaking of TV I am so thankful that The Cleveland Show is around, I love him and the show for daring to be really crude and random sometimes but still hilarious.
-I have a sort of piggy bank and it makes me so tempted to use the money to buy DVDS of the show Dexter instead of a external hard drive.

Thank ya for reading
peace out and hopefully there won't be so much time between posts

The New Year and The Last Day of Winter Break

Hey everybody

I celebrated the new year in my fashion once again which is pots and pans banging, making noise in the street, Martinelli's, awesome music to groove and dance to, lights shining, and other silly traditions.

I recently saw the movie Sherlock Holmes and enjoyed like I thought I would. I admire Guy Ritchie the director and several of the lead actors in the movie and they didn't disappoint at all.

Today for my last day of winter break (before returning to school for one last semester) I finally went and saw Up In The Air and I really enjoyed the movie. To continue the Clooney, I watched Michael Clayton which I bought recently for a "previously enjoyed" price. Then I drove kinda far to a Walkers to get a drink and a treat which is totally forbidden to my current eating habits (which has helped me lose several pounds so far) but it was a special day. The drive was worth it, I won a free drink for later. From there just did average 2010 stuff like watching PTI on ESPN, played Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook, went for a walk, watched a bowl game, and ate frozen, leftover, or slightly old food (our way of saving money).

I'm kinda both excited and nervous for the Spring 2010 semester
shouldn't be too bad

2009 Highlights

Hey blog readers,
Hope everyone had a good Christmas
instead of doing a weekly recap, I thought I'd close the year noting memorable days and events that went down this year. There's plenty of stuff to say but these are just some highlights

-01/01- Started the year singing Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle" on Rockband 2 right at Midnight
-01/03- Went to my friend David Noble's funeral which was nice to laugh, cry, and celebrate the life of a great person. Later some buds and I had a sushi lunch in his honor
-01/05- Broke up with my first girlfriend, which I only note as a highlight cause I never felt so good being a single man
-01/07- Went sledding with my friend Laura and her now husband Kacey, it's always soo great to see her
-01/13- Well, the singleness didn't last too long as I was introduced to my girlfriend Anna by my ex Terra. This makes the 14th the official start of our relationship followed by our first date on the 15th.
01/20- Watched the Inauguration of President Barack Obama in my class on Race
01/24- Anna and I attended the wedding of her friend Amanda to her husband Cody, I got to walk Anna down the aisle as she was the Maid of Honor, yay
02/01- Turned 23 watching the Super Bowl with Anna
02/14- My first Valentine's Day with someone I love, yay
02/18- Hung out with one of my best friends Neal, who also later came back to visit this past month
03/19- My yearly Spring Break Nickelcade visit (4th year doing it)
03/20- Saw I Love You, Man (love that movie) in theater and had some fun Bowling with Terra and a couple of her friends
03/30- 1st time eating Five Guys in the Orem location
05/01- My other Best Friend Steve got married, I got to sign as being a witness
06/01-10- My Trip to Virgnia/Washington DC
07/21- Family Picture, good opportunity for Anna and I to get nice pics of ourselves
07/22- Y Mountain Hike
07/23- My aunt Linda was in town visiting , hopefully it won't be the last time I see her
08/26- Remodeling process on the main floor of my parents house begins by moving things out of the kitchen
09/16- the last night working for the Owlz ending another fun season of work
09/23- Got a letter congratulating me on earning/receiving a Privately Funded Half Tuition Scholarship
10/03- Out of all the date nights with Anna, this was the most memorable, Dinner (Olive Garden) and a Movie (Whip It)

Like i said there's plenty of other moments, but I keep it at that
Thanks to those of you who have been reading this blog, it means a lot to get comments about it
Hope you all have a Happy New Year

And so ends the first decade of this century, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on my life through these years
- Good times with my great friends, the ones I've had forever and the ones I've only known for a short time, it's the moments with them that mean the most to me out of anything in life
-High School AKA the Four Year Boner lol
-College, Half the time being in my "social coma" and the other half being crazy about girls pretty much, but my grades never got too bad.
-Great Work Experiences for the Orem Owlz
-Music, Movies, TV, Sports, the usual awesome stuff I keep tabs with

Here's a toast (of Martinelli's) to another Decade of being alive

My 60 Favorite Albums of the Decade (Part 1 of 10 of my List)

1. **Discovery by Daft Punk (2001)

2. Wall Of People by Monty Are I (2006)

3. 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane by t.A.T.u. (2002)

4. Pretty. Odd.by Panic At The Disco (2008)

5. **Lies For The Liars by The Used (2007)

6. **Mesmerize by System of A Down (2005)

My 60 Favorite Albums of the decade (Part 2 of 10 of my list)

 **- Favorite album of the year it came out

7. **Evolver by 311 (2003)

8. Fancy Footwork by Chromeo (2007)

9. Cross by Justice (2007)

10. Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume 1: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness by Coheed and Cambria (2005)

11. Toxicity by System of a Down (2001)

12. From Chaos by 311 (2001)

My 60 Favorite Albums of the decade (Part 3 of 10 of my list)

**- Favorite album of the year they came out

13. **Flight of the Conchords by Flight of the Conchords (2008)

14. **A Fever You Can't Sweat Out by Panic! at the Disco (2005, but awarded for the year 2006)

15. You'll Rebel to Anything by Mindless Self Indulgence (2007)

16. Morning View by Incubus (2001)

17. Riot! by Paramore (2007)

18. In Love and Death by The Used (2004)

My 60 Favorite Albums of the decade (Part 4 of 10 of my list)

19. Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World (2001)

20. Ocean Avenue by Yellowcard (2003)

21. Dangerous And Moving by t.A.T.u. (2005)

22. **The Eminem Show by Eminem (2002)

23. Sam Sparro by Sam Sparro (2008)

24. Made of Bricks by Kate Nash (2008)

My 60 Favorite Albums of the decade (Part 5 of 10 of my list)

*- My favorite album of the year it came out

25. **Break Through the Silence by Monty Are I (2009)

26. **Hybrid Theory by Linkin Park (recently decided it should receive the award for 2000)

27. She’s In Control by Chromeo (2004)

28. Don't Tread On Me by 311 (2005)

29. Incredibad by The Lonely Island (2009)

30. Human After All by Daft Punk (2005)

My 60 Favorite Albums of the decade (Part 6 of 10 of my list)

Half Way There!!!!
**- Favorite Album of the year it came out 

31. Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Vol. 2: No World For Tomorrow by Coheed and Cambria (2007)

32. Artwork by The Used (2009)

33. If by Mindless Self Indulgence (2008)

34. **Love Everybody by The Presidents of the United States of America (2004)

35. TruANT by Alien Ant Farm (2003)

36. Infinity On High by Fall Out Boy (2007)