I guess I'll just start babbling...

I guess I'll just start babiling.

I'm at home sick. I'm typing this on my iPhone 3G because my original iPhone decided to stop working. It's been a wonderful month. My best friend on the planet is now my girlfriend. My life seems to revolve around band these days. Marching band, jazz band and orchestra. I've been texting my gf all day while she's at school. She cares a lot about me, it's really sweet. She's really worried when I'm sick. I'm watching The Nightmare Before Christmas on Blu-Ray on my HDTV. I read The Lost Symbol and it was great. I should write a review. The style of this movie and the details are outstanding. Oh mayor. What else... I'm trying to think... I pre ordered the next Ratchet and Clank on Sunday. I've been playing the Uncharted 2 Beta. The Beatles: Rock Band is awesome. I have the Let it Be remasterd CD which is also awesome. He just fell through the Christmas door. This is one of my favorite songs to play on the piano. I'm gunna stop now and watch the movie.

This was sent from a text message on my iPhone.

Bye Summer

School started on Monday and it has been a freakeshly long week. Oh well, tomorrow is Friday and I look forward to the weekend. I still have to do a summer recap post so look for that soon. School has officially taken over my life now, so the whole getting to 100 posts by the end of summer thing isn't going to happen haha.

Ok, thanks for checking here, I'll try and recap this weekend.

Orly?

Life suddenly just got interesting... Let's see what happens... shall we...

Summer Almost Over

-Ask the girl I like right now out. DONE UNSUCCESFULLY
-Complete The List MOSTLY DONE
-Have a few bonfires DONE
-Grill a steak myself DONE DELICIOUSLY
-Finish The 48 Laws of Power AHHHH
-Get back into books KIND OF
-Write a decent story NOT EVEN
-Keep on being me YES

Thats what my list looks like right now, and I think I realized why I don't want to finish The 48 Laws of Power... It is my last remaining Studio 60 thing that I haven't completed. I just don't want that to go away. Oh well. I have about a week left of summer. One final Pancake Monday next week will hopefully go very well. Here's to a pretty good summer.

Post #94

Not sure what else to call this post. Not sure really what to blog about right now, which is weird for me I guess. I always seem to have something to talk about... Hmmm... Well Band Camp is going on right now, I'm in the pit in drumline. I am also in charge of the pit and have to deal with some freshies. I'd like to think that I wasn't that annoying when I was a freshman, but I don't know.

Um... I'm getting mighty close to post 100, that's a big one. Uh... Yeah. The meteorites over these past two nights have been awesome. Two nights spent on a blanket on my lawn, good times indeed.

I guess that's it for now. See ya when I see ya.

Am I the Only One?

Sometimes I feel very alone...



Flickr

Back from Silver Lake

I have RETURNED. Finally, I am home. Yes, the vacation was fun and all but it defitiely had many a downsides. Oh well, that's Silver Lake for ya. Ok, I got back yesterday and I see that Fat Princess came out. I WANTS IT. Ok, I think I'm going to go shower and download it and then play it. Just keep an eye on my Twitter if you're really interested in what I'm doing these days.

Comic-Con

Now I'm not the biggest Comic book fan, but LOST, and Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time are at the convention this year. So I'll be watching different sites like a mad man. So here is another reason to LOVE Google:



To those who are there or are going, have a great time!

Robin Williams

Happy Birthday Robin Williams. He is one of my favorite actors of ALL TIME. He is pure comedic genius.



And I am very happy to report that he has recovered quite well from his heart surgery.

Why I Love Google

Happy 40th Apollo 11

Jesus Stick

I do not know if I ever posted about it here, but since around the beginning of summer, I have had this stick, and of course it was rightly named the Jesus Stick. It became the running joke of the summer. It has traveled around with people, whether it be to Rockford on a mission trip or to Michigan to a friend's cabin. We have been taking pictures of it wherever it goes and at the end of this summer I will be doing a little recap of where it has gone. There have also been a few AudioBoo's with the Jesus Stick, like this one!



Here's one of the many pictures that litter my computer of the Jesus Stick:



It's coming with me to Silver Lake, MI for about a week, so there will be more pictures there. Have a great rest of the summer!

Internetless

I have been internetless for a few days. Just saw Half-Blood Prince, somewhat of a disapointment, I need to see it again before I review it though.

4 Weeks of Bliss

I have had 4 weeks of silence, peace, no fighting, peace, did I mention silence?, there being food and, a plethora of other great things while my sisters were away for a full month. Now my sisters come back tonight and the fun is ending... I am going to my friend's cabin this weekend... Yay! Though I have an ear infection so I wont be swimming at all, just hanging out on a boat. Actually sounds like my kinda weekend.











So not much is going on, I have just been incredible lazy the past couple of days because I have been sick and I can't move too much without my head screaming at me. So, I believe thats it. Oh, my mom got a 3GS, and yes, I am jealous. But hey, I'm an original iPhone user. Stay strong my fellow original iPhone users, stay strong.

Birds of America

I'm not quite sure where to start about this movie. The first time I watched it my first response afterwards was "That was... interesting." And it was very interesting. I then watched it a second time and was like "I love this movie."

I don't just love this movie because it has Matthew Perry in it, and trust me, this acting is about as far away from Matthew Perry as Matthew Perry can get. He is still very funny, but funny in a different way. To sum up the movie, it is a bout a disfunctional family... I think... Then again it could be about something completely different.

This movie was quite entertaining. Plenty of funny moments, acting was great, even the serious stuff was funny. This dramedy does not disappoint.

Ok, this review is quite short because I am not sure what to write about. At the end of Birds of America it was a moment of "What just happened" because at the end you really have to think about what that movie could have meant. I had two, somewhat intelligent explanations: Can't cage a bird, and (spoiler alert) their dad died because he was looking for a bird.

I am not even going to go through different ratings, I am just going to give it...

General Movie Grade: A



If you can find this movie, you should watch it. It is rated R, and rightfully so. So, you young'ins don't watch this. If you're above 17, feel free!

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July, or as our for founders would put it.

Screw you English King!

Yay America!



Note the time of this post. I am up laaaaaate. Watched Birds of America tonight. Interesting movie, review forthcoming.

That's Interesting

I just don't know right now. I had an interesting conversation with one of my friends last night and I just don't know anymore. By the way, talking in the third person is quite entertaining. I think I am stuck in the part of life where life in general is just confusing and frustrating at times. Sometimes I feel like I could punch a hole in a wall. Oh well, everything will play out like it is supposed to.

By the way... It is IMPOSSIBLE to find a job right now, I wish my parents would stop bothering me about it.

Anyways, having a bonfire tonight, some AudioBoos should come out of it. I would call it a belated Canada Day celebration, which was yesterday.



So Happy Belated Canada Day!

That Was

Last month was my biggest month ever blog post wise. Only 3 posts short of being as big as last year combined. The insanity continues this month. What can I say, summer gives me little to do so I like to write a lot.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

So about three and a half hours ago I sat down in a fairly empty theater. The same theater that ruined my Order of the Phoenix midnight premier, but that's a different story. I sat down, surrounded by friends, already talking about whether or not the film would be good or not. Overall the critics haven't been so nice to this sequel, and in my opinion, their reviews have been too negative. From here on out, spoilers.

I am no expert on films, or film making, but I can tell you I have watched a fair amount of movies in my short life and I would like to think I know the good from the bad, and this was certainly not among the bad. It was not top notch either, but it was very good for what it was: an action, comedy, romance, did I mention action? movie. I am not against action movies, but they are not my favorite either. I prefer movies like The Godfather. Now, recently I have probably enjoyed too many action movies for my own good. These past few months have been Transformers, Iron Man, and now Transformers 2.

Ok, let's get down to the review. First of all, good movie overall. I saw problems with: pacing, comedic moments, some lines, and a big change from the tone of the first movie. Pacing, action didn't seem always well spaced out, then again now that I think about it, there was rarely a moment when no one was being chased. Comedic moments, the twins seemed highly unnecessary to me and were clearly only placed for comedic interests, also too much humping (two times with dogs, and one with robot) for a movie's own good. Some of the lines seemed a little phony, and some unnecessary and overall just not good. Probably the biggest problem for me was the fact that with the robots this movie seemed a lot different. In the first one they were a lot more serious, in this one they talked a lot more and were used for comedy.

Ok, on to the good parts. I wont list them out I will just start talking about the film. Storyline, much to some people's thoughts, TOTALLY EXISTS. This movie is based on the past, and people usually don't like that. People want the epilogue first and don't want to know about what happened before what is happening now. You at least can't base a whole movie on that. Flashbacks are ok, but you start traveling to different planets and try to explain for whats happening now, not ok. My point is it exists, and I enjoyed it. I like movies that explain what happened before. Like a prologue to Pirates of the Carribean would be greatly enjoyed. Moving on... the effects and the sound to go along with the effects was all top notch. It was all very crisp and clean, the sound effects had thuds and clings when they needed to an it all fit perfectly. The acting was good as well, the fact that he was going crazy was portrayed very well. The voice acting was also very good as well. All the voices fit the characters well. I especially liked the Black Bird transformer (I don't recall his name, very old Transformer), anyways it was all very good.

I was entertained the whole time, and my friend who was sitting next to me would tell you the same. There were a lot of lines that were timed just right that they cracked me up and some moments were just "That can't be good" moments were just perfect.

This film, as I said as I was walking out of the theater after all the credits were done, deserves a B.

General Movie Grade: B
Cinematography: B
Sounds/Music: A
Writing/Story: C
Acting: B
Entertainment Quality: B
Effects: A

Thanks for reading

~Jake

Boo This!

Here are a bunch of Boos I haven't posted here yet.

Ever Have Those Conversations?

If you've ever seen the show Gilmore Girls, you probably understand what I'm talking about. Those conversations that just go so fast back and forth you have no idea how the heck that just happened. It could be about anything, from thermoses (a flask for a hot beverage) to running out of gas. They are just moments of genius in my opinion. This is probably why I like Gilmore Girls so much. Yes, I'm not afraid to admit it. They have so many awesome conversations and outlandish references that it is pure genius. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was like this as well, and it is sad that both series had to end, in the same year as well. Oh well, at least Gilmore Girls had seven seasons.

Confirming

I hate that people assume the worst. I do it sometimes too. Nothing is confirmed yet world, calm down, Michael Jackson may not be dead, he may just be in a coma still. If I'm wrong, ok, if not ok too.



UPDATE: CNN confirms death with LA coroner. I still don't think it can be confirmed until we hear from the hospital. Meanwhile... R.I.P Farrah Fawcett



UPDATE: Rest in peace Michael Jackson.

Yes, I hate media outlets like TMZ, E! and other purely celebrity news sources. That's why I've been watching CNN this whole time.

Please note the blog post this is much more important, I just wanted to stay relevant.

Religion

As stated yesterday today will cover my travels through the realm of religion, so sit back with a nice glass of lemonade and enjoy.

Let's see, let's see... Where to begin... Ok. So, I'm sure everyone has heard of Martin Luther, and no, not Martin Luther King Jr., Marin Luther, the "founding father" of my religion: Lutheran. Now, I believe I can trace back my religion to at least my Great Grandmother. From her to my Grandma who pounded religion into my mom's head and that leads to my family. My dad isn't an extremely religious guy, and thats understandable from the family he came from... Hold on... I need a Goose Island root beer to do this... Mmmm, thats better. I feel refreshed, ok, where was I? Oh yeah. My dad married my mom (he may have had to go through some class because my mom is Lutheran, I'm not sure) and (24-17) 7 years later they moved to my current house of residence. Lucky them (or my mom) two houses down and across the street there was a convenient Lutheran church.

All is well and fine there as I grow up going to Sunday school every week and attending Vacation Bible School throughout the summers, and of course VeggieTales who doesn't love VeggieTales. I still do as a matter of fact, but that's another story. So, now I'm 12ish, our good friend (and pastor) Pastor Jim is retiring (he's the second pastor I had after Pastor Trench who moved away, who's ex-wife and daughters we're still good friends with) and we aquire a new pastor. His popularity among the congregation was that of Bush's approval rating at the end of his presidency. Harsh, but true. And now it's confirmation time for me! Woo! Where we get to learn all about God and have to accept Christ.



Now, because our old church was pretty much left in shambles we got the pleasure of finding a new church. New church? Awesome pastor. Pastor Dawson I believe. A few months later... He decides to switch churches... Am I cursed? I don't know. All I know is I am missing my old church (especially my youth pastor Jason) and not having the best confirmation experience, not knowing anyone because I was new to the church and not winding up in the best small group. Was I the most mature of the group? From my leader's perspective, yes. He's pretty cool by the way. Guy Shilke (spell his last name right?) he said he was going to call me to go bowling... that didn't happen haha. I digress, again left pastor-less I continue my confirmation stuff not really enjoying it. Then comes along my favorite pastor of all time. Pastor Tom. PT was doing everything right (in my opinion). He was trying to bring modern techniques into the church, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The problem was the old grannies of the church (of course I'm over exaggerating). They did not like this. They didn't want change. Now I could be wrong but I believe this is the reason that PT was asked to leave. After spending Campfirmation with him (and Pastor Dawson, who I beat at Monopoly, and he remembered my name, and meeting a bunch of great people) I just loved the guy. He was doing podcasts (and still does: Wired Jesus Podcast) and really using that Mac well in services (except for the one time he forgot to turn of Skype and his brother called, oops). But he chose (again I think this is what happened) to step down and now he is serving a congregation in Ohio.



We are again pastor-less (as far as I'm concerned) but we do have a youth pastor, who my sister says is cool. I barely met the guy and I am not going to throw myself back in the water to be disappointed again by something. Now I prefer to think what I think about religion.

My favorite ongoing argument with my friend is that there is a lot of stuff in the bible that could in fact be a lie. It is not like God or Jesus actually wrote this so the people who wrote it could actually be telling lies. No one knows for sure except the big man himself. After all these years leaving the church I grew up in, losing awesome pastor after awesome pastor, I'm just not sure what to believe because each pastor has their own view on what that book is about. And not just what is going on in The Bible but also what is going on in the church itself. Pastor Tom probably understands this the best:

"...the time comes when fads pass for something of substance. The thing now is that we are looking at a language/communication shift, not just a fad, and its hard to tell the difference. I’m convinced its a shift of the magnitude of the advent of the printing press, but has the added dimension is that entire generation is already speaking this new language." - Tom Lyberg

So, now, where do I stand? I'm not sure. I recently watched Bill Maher's "Religulous" and found the point that he was making to be a bit off. He was astounded by the fact that people could believe in something that couldn't really be proven and he was wondering why people would gather to worship a could be fairy tale. I think what he failed to look at was the faith of these people. I am going to quote my favorite television show of all time:

"These people have nothing but their faith and that movies me." -Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

The fact that people have faith and do believe should be enough. Bill Maher I think your movie was great but I think that it doesn't matter if it is real or not, it matters that people believe. And no, I'm not talking about being brainwashed into thinking this is good and that is evil, the simple fact that people can believe in something that could be seen as completely ridiculous is what moves me.



So, I guess I stand on, "I don't know". I think it's possible that Jesus Christ was married, I think it's possible that there are lies in The Bible, I think it's possible that there could be a million different reasons why "my religion" could be wrong. I think that anything is possible about anything at this point.

After reading Phil Vischer's book "Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story About God, Dreams, and Talking Vegetables" I am going to take his stance. I believe in God. But I am not going to force it on anybody. I will probably show my kids VeggieTales, because it teaches good lessons (and is funny) not because I want my kids to be the same religion as me. Phil Vischer's current project, which involves Jelly Fish, is a great metaphor for the path I am taking now. I am not letting religion or any giant decisions be forced onto me, I am going where the current takes me. I am letting what God wants me to do lead me along a path. If it feels right I will do it. I am not taking on any big projects or forcing anything to work out, if it works out great, if not, oh well, brush it off my shoulder and move on.



Ok, my root beer is gone so I think thats enough of my rant. I appreciate you if you are reading this and please feel free to leave your comments below either about your own experiences or what you think of mine, or anything else for that matter. I will leave you with three different closings

"I'll see you out there on the road." - Tom Lyberg (Wired Jesus Podcast)

"God made you special, and he loves you very much." - VeggieTales (Phil Vischer)

"I'm gunna make a friend out of you yet." - Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

What I listened to while typing this: The Beatles, Barenaked Ladies, and Douglass Scott. Thanks for reading.

~Jake

Always Comes Back

Today I was reminded of my favorite quote of all time. I am reminded that no matter what I do, this quote will always come back and always have relevance. If you have been keeping an eye on my Twitter you would know that today is the 20th day of summer vacation for me. That means I am already 20 days out of junior year. Where did the time go? Then I am sitting at the computer doing my rounds on my favorite websites and all of a sudden my mom calls and it is 8:30pm. It probably didn't help that I had just watched a two hour movie, but I digress. Then I am listening to my favorite podcast which was a fifteen minute long podcast and it starts and two minutes later I swear its over! Anyways, here is to another 20 awesome days of summer, and to tomorrow's more serious tone of my blogging.

Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. - Groucho Marx

I am planning on covering religion and not in some "RELIGION IS BAD" sort of way, in a "This is my religious views and what I have been through" sort of way. If you are interested in that sort of stuff check out Wired Jesus and listen to the podcast.

Thanks as always for checking in and as always keep an eye on my Twitter for constant updates on my whereabouts and what I am up to (whatabouts?).

Jon and Kate

Now, this topic has probably already been talked about to death, and it is obvious why. These two people who at the beginning seemed to be in love and a great family have now filed for a divorce. In my opinion because the media is handling this the way the media handles all troubles, they have been unable to really sort their issues out.

Neither Jon or Kate can just go out and have a dinner where they discuss their problems because they are constantly swarmed by a mass amount of press and media personnel. This deeply saddens me and it really brings to light the real problems the media can bring about. Newspapers, TV shows, magazines and other media outlets should not be sending people out there to basically stalk a family. I'm going to use an overused phrase, but, think of the children! These eight kids are going through unfortunate circumstances, and the fact that they are constantly surrounded by media makes this harder on all of them.

If the media would just leave them alone, tuck away all the cameras, laptops and notebooks and drive away from where they live and leave them alone for a year, these problems may be able to be solved. But unfortunately the society we all live in does not make this possible. There are Americans that just want to know every last detail and pay for those magazines that fund those cameras that are pointed through fences at a family in turmoil.

Ok, got that out of my system. What are all of your opinions? Comment! and thanks trampoline jumper for commenting on my last post! and yes, you are lucky that yours left the country... and thanks for your condolences, really appreciate it.

So, have a nice day everyone and next time you seem a picture of anyone in a magazine that wasn't a planned picture, just imagine a day at the beach with 20 giant lenses pointing through the bushes at what was supposed to be your alone time.

The Beatles

My head is stuck on an endless loop... Of The Beatles music. It is probably because I want The Beatles Rock Band NOW. Haha, it's what I listened to when I mowed the lawn, and when I woke up this morning and what I listen to before I go to sleep. Yeah, it's kind of insane. I seem to go through all of these music phases. Jon Foreman, musicals, The Beatles, oldies, it just changes time to time. I'm sure none of my family appreciates it haha.



I am blogging nearly every day now. Why? Because for some reason I like typing up things like this. I enjoy websites that are updated a lot so I think I want to update mine a lot. Going out somewhere with friends tonight, keep an eye on my twitter for that insanity. Probably doing a starting AudioBoo then pictures and tweets then a closing AudioBoo. I like doing stuff like that. Thanks for reading... If someone did read this. If you did COMMENT COMMENT COMMENT. Yeah, that wasn't demanding at all.

Looking for a Game

I'm looking for a game I can rent for my Playstation 3. I need a good action game that will keep me occupied and satisfy my need for a new game right now. I am low on money so I can only rent. Any suggestions? I have been playing Burnout and Killzone 2 mostly and need something fresh and fun.

Oh Well, That's Life

Image by DavidHT via Flickr

Got a definite no from my current crush. She said she wasn't looking for anything right now because of her last relationship. I can understand that. The usual "still friends" discussion was had. Third time in a row now. Just a little down, but I am not asking "why" this happened, I just let it play out the way it was supposed to. I hope.

The beat goes on as some people would say.

Hopefully hanging out with some people tomorrow. Tony's Steamers is always a good place for me. I maybe should go to bed, but I also want to play a game on my PS3. Burnout or Killzone 2? I don't know.

If something like this happens to you, try not to be upset about it, just roll with it. After four "no"s I have learned that rolling with it goes a lot smoother than complaining about and and being all down and bothered about it. I now have a full summer ahead of me. I am going to (hopefully) make the best out of it... Now when to grill that steak...

Rainy Day

Image via Wikipedia

Rainy day here in good old Illinois. Cubs won yesterday, my iPhone works again, hanging out with friends is always fun and the crazyest conversations come about. Especially on the trampoline.

Hey, if you're reading this, I would like to know! So leave a comment or something so I could know that I am not just typing this out for myself! Also, if you want me to review a book or movie or game, let me know! There is a library in town and a Blockbuster 5 minutes from here. I could use some new stuff to read, watch or play! So yeah... What else... Oh! I am using this Zemanta thing to make my blog posts fancier. I hope it works out well. I am also going to try looking through layout choices around the web so I can change this up a little too. I change the layout a lot because I am trying to find what fits best.

I think that is all for now. I am listening to The Beatles because I can't wait for The Beatles Rock Band to come out. It is going to be fantastic. So, again if you are reading this, comment so I know you exist. Thanks for reading!

Landscape... Yes... Landscape...

FINALLY. I restored it on a different computer and viola! It works again. I'm putting all my music back onto it now, and ringtones and all my apps are moved over a page, but besides that all is well!

Yay! Check my twitter feed (on the right) for screenshots of the phone I'm going to be uploading as soon as I am done putting stuff back on. It is such a relief to have my phone back again... Music done. And of course I put the one TV show episode that I must always have. The Pilot episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. After that I'll just check my settings and be off to bed to mess around with 3.0.

It could have gone a lot smoother but it'll be worth it once I can text in landscape... all the time. Ok, I have to post this now so I can concentrate on my Original 8GB iPhone with OS 3.0 freshly installed.

iPhone Woes

So today the (hopefully) marvelous iPhone OS 3.0 was released. Yay! Wait... Yay? That doesn't sound right in this situation. Why? Well, if you have been paying attention to my Twitter you will clearly notice that this update is going worse than last years 2.0 woes. I have been trying to update all day. It is stuck in the endless "Verifying software" thing that I have given hours, but I keep restarting the PC or iTunes out of anger.


the above statement was not true for my case

I am trying again... and I will keep trying until I succeed. I mean it, I'm not going to bed until I have 3.0... I will be successful. Not to mention my internet connection is being absolute CRAP. In fact my connection went down right when I was about to hit "Publish Post" gotta love this... (10:55pm) I mean I just wanted to get a picture from Apple.com so this post could look nice and fancy. But noooooo, the internet has to crap out on me... This is a major head desk moment my friends... Oh well I say, oh well! I am extremely privledged to even have an iPhone so I am incredibly thankful. So now I am waiting for my connection to come back so I can get the picture then post this. Hey, connections back... Yay! (11:18pm)

DAY 2: Thats right, today I am phone-less as well hopefully tomorrow morning (after the 3GS's are released) I will meander on over to the Apple store and they will fix my iPhone for me, unless by some miracle I get a remedy tonight! (June 18th, 2009 8:22pm)

Normal

Seems like today has been a normal day for me. Sat around. Played some Burnout Paradise. Spent an hour or two trying to get to Pokemon. Wait, what?

Thats right I pulled out the faithful DS and started chatting on the internet to try and get two Pokemon. Holy crap, childhood flashbacks. My DS has been on almost all day with Pokemon Diamond running. I don't remember the last time I played this much. It's probably because I just lent a friend Pearl to start a new game on. I even sorted through my Pokemon storage thingy and actually sorted my Pokemon in a way that made sense. Now I am trying to raise two Pokemon very fast, and I am trying to decide on a decent team. Yes. I'm crazy, and I used the period a lot in this post so far.



So today, was a lazy, Pokemon filled, Fruity Pebbles, Cosmic Brownie about to have Tositos and Pace salsa kind of day. Gotta love summer. Also, if you have any of the DS Pokemon games and are looking to trade with anyone over WiFi Serebii.net has a great chat room just for us crazy people.

Love Life

I was alone tonight. Parents were at a concert in Chicago (Kenny Chesney and a bunch of other awesome country singers). I was on the computer with the History Channel in the background. My friends show up. An old fellow band member shows up. We hang out for a few hours. Play chess, talk and play Super Smash Bros. Brawl. We laughed our asses off.

Life is awesome. Stop complaining about stupid little things.

~Jake

BTW: I won the Waffle-Off on Friday. It was awesome.

Waffle-Off!!!

This Friday my friend Mindy and I are having a Waffle-Off to decide who's waffles are better. We will have a panel of judges and stuff too so it shall be epic. I am starting the campaign for my waffles already.

Something New

So today I started to scribble. And I decided I liked what I saw. So I've been scribbling all day. Here is a scan of one of the guys I scribbled. You can clearly see other scribbles around it haha.



So maybe I'll scribble more. I like what I have so far.

By the way Happy Birthday to three of my favorite Hollywood stars: Johnny Depp, Michael J. Fox and Aaron Sorkin!

Gotta Love It

Gotta love being kidnapped occasionally

WWDC 2009

Apple's annual World Wide Developer's Conference starts today. With a bang.

Apple is expected to debut a few new products and stuff including a new iPhone. Because I can't watch the conference live (like E3) I'll be keeping an eye on gizmodo.com's live coverage. After its all said and done I'll update my blog with my thoughts on how it went. Apple's press conferences are always enjoyable.

So, nothing too crazy this conference. The iPhone 3GS was announced. Just a faster and more powerful iPhone. Are the features really worth an extra $100? Well, it's 8 more GBs, compass, Nike+ compatible (will the 3G have this?). Some new specs for the MacBook Pro. 3GS may be worth it for the video stuff. Uploading right to YouTube is kinda cool.

Fairly good concert, I wish Steve Jobs came out at some point though.

The Begining of Summer

I was just looking at my old blog posts and saw that I did an end of summer list last year and I thought it would be cool to have a beginning of summer list this year then see what I accomplished at the end of this summer.

-Ask the girl I like right now out. - Just did this - she's busy tonight she said "maybe another time"
-Complete THE LIST
-Have a few bonfires
-Grill a steak myself
-Finish The 48 Laws of Power
-Get back into books
-Write a decent story
-Keep on being me

I'm sure this list will expand and the thing is I want all of these things to happen naturally and not be really pressured into doing any of them.

List Boos

Thursday my friend and I started THE LIST.

Everyone

Every person lives his or her own unique life. From the moment of birth to the moment of death, a unique set of experiences happens only for that one person. And if it were not for that one person a whole other set of events would not occur for another person.

While looking through various pictures today I realized how very different these experiences are for each and every person. From the trip to D.C. for my cousin to, at the exact same time, there is a track meet going on for a friend of mine. These vastly different experiences are occurring at the same moment.

To think that I could be brushing my teeth while someone is climbing a mountain is hard to imagine. So I have an idea that I would like to pursue. If I could get a group of people to all take a picture of what they were doing at the exact same time it would be amazing. To see how different peoples' lives actually are.

I will see what I can do and I would love to have this actually happen and I could compile all the images together and post them here.

Next time you are sitting down to turn on the television to watch your favorite late night program that there is someone who is groggily waking up to a similar alarm clock sound you woke up to 12 hours earlier.

E309

E308 is what made me set up my Twitter account, and nearly 1000 tweets later here we are at E309. And thank goodness the regular E3 is BACK.

Microsoft just had their press conference and I heard about Paul and Ringo and Halo and some body motion capture thing. I still don't want a XBOX360. I love my PS3, I also hate it that Microsoft has Metal Gear now. It is such a great game and should only stay on Playstation systems. Oh well. We still have Ratchet and Clank and a bunch of other really great franchises that Microsoft doesn't have so its all good.

Tomorrow Nintendo and Sony conferences. Looking forward to hopefully some good announcements. I probably wont be able to tweet about them because I will be in school but I'll watch and tweet and maybe audio boo my thoughts after I can watch them.

Boo!apalooza

Had a bonfire tonight, lots of Boos

Up

I just saw "Up" and it was amazing. I will have a full review later but I just want to let everyone that can GO AND SEE IT. And thank goodness the theater I went to was only showing it in 2D. In my opinion 3D ruins movies.

Name Off?

Yesterday was kind of insane. And it kind of all came down to this 5 minute conversation at the end. Plus a little more, haha. Crazy awesome.

Sick

Just posting because I can. I'm sick today, an ear infection developed in my right ear yesterday and I traveled to the doctor's today and got some antibiotics.

I get to finally relax for a day which is awesome, to have the house to myself. Going to finish listening to Giant Bombcast than probably play a game or something. Not quite sure what I should do with myself.

Jazz Night and my school went very well. I got a plethora of compliments for my piano playing and even my piano teacher I have had since I believe fourth grade was there and said I did great.

I really want to play a game that is new to me. I would love to play Fat Princess or a RTS game that is really good. I'm in the mood for an RTS like StarCraft which I have seen videos of. I play World In Conflict but my PC is not the greatest at graphics. I'll probably go looking through PSN to see if anything came out yesterday that is interesting.

So, yeah, thats life right now. One more band concert this year than I am done with school music stuff. Musical was awesome last weekend too. Can you tell I'm sick? I'm totally unorganized and not very good and keeping track of what I'm saying.

Ok, thanks for reading.

Life is Good

Some people just do not realize how good they have it. They get all emotional when they have one argument or something and next thing you know they have gone emo. They say how horrible their life is, and how rough they have it. When in reality they have one of the best lives possible.

I would like to think I am not one who takes things for granted.

Sure I have had a plethora of bad stuff happen to me over the years but that is no reason to get emotional. People should be thankful for all the friends that love and care for you. The ones that will have that crazy name war with you, the lunches and parties that you attend with them.

Life is good. So do not look at it in a bad way. Do not become emo and be a downer. Look around you, there is great stuff happening everywhere. You just have to look for it and participate in it.

Boo!s 10, 11, and 12

Cough! Cough!


After Joseph 1


Name Off!!!

Boo! The Wrestler

Friends

There has been a lot of "drama" in my life recently. And I'm not going to complain about it because that would take away from the quote under the title of this blog. Instead I will let you all know, that even if there is drama in your life, sometimes good things come out of it. Even if some bad stuff happens, always look for the positives.

Plus teenage drama can only last so long and I would suggest NEVER to physically fight over anything. Violence never solved anything. Always talk to close friends or family about your problems because they can really help. And when you seem down and out and you think some of your friends really do not like you right now, you could find out that your true friends have your back.

The Wrestler

I had never heard of the actor named Mickey Rourke until one late night watching Letterman. Now, this is before anyone was really talking about The Wrestler, so I did not even know about his role in this film until after this episode of Letterman. Now I thought this was just going to be a wrestling movie when I first saw the preview, and I did not think much of it. Then I started to hear more about this movie.

People were always saying "Resurrection of Mickey Rourke" and then he was nominated for an Oscar. This, of course, spiked my interested. I was finally able to watch this movie today and this is the first movie, in a very long time, to actually make me have a tear in my eye.

The Wrestler is as good as a movie can get. It does not take the time to introduce you formally to any character, or let you in on any real back story, it focuses on the now. It tells its story fabulously; the one of a man who has spent his whole life in the ring, and he made some true friends through that career. Now, before I continue any farther I will warn you of possible spoilers, so if you have not yet had the pleasure of watching this film, please watch it and do not read any of the following paragraphs. Feel free to see the final grade though.

Randy "The Ram" is a wonderful character. He obviously has made some absolutely horrible decisions in his life, especially pertaining to his daughter. Randy clearly lived a life of glamor as seen by the opening sequence of newspaper clippings and etc. but now he seems to be living a very sad life. He still wrestles but he is clearly no longer in his prime. He is old and he is run down. After the years of drugs, alcohol and women, and the heart attack, he is tired

The characters that he interacts with clearly have seen him his whole life. Whether it be the stripper he is connected to or the many wrestlers with him. He has clearly earned the respect of all his fellow wrestlers, even the young incoming wrestlers of present time.

But now I am just going into themes and plot points that you should all discover for yourself. I am going to spend some time talking about how beautiful this film really is.

Cinematography is going to be my main point. The directors and producers did a beautiful job. The camera work is amazing. I was thinking at first I was going to look for steady camera vs. regular camera, because I usually notice little things like that, but, I quickly was sucked into following Randy around just like actual wrestling shows do. The difference is these behind the head follow throughs happen in the most unexpected places. They followed him walking up to his house, walking through a storage room to his job, and many others, all the while including sound effects to really show how much wrestling is a part of Randy.

Now, I personally cannot remember the last time I cried for a movie; but, when Randy decided to go back to wrestling a tear came to my eye. He was hurt so bad by his daughter (his fault kind of) and the stripper he was interested in (not his fault) that he gave up retirement and living a nice life, to putting his life in danger again. A movie that can make me cry, a teenage guy, is truly amazing.

The movie had a beautiful ending, I almost cried again when it ended. After all that he had been through he was just in the ring again, right back where he started. The movie ended so abruptly that I wanted more, but at the same time I was satisfied with how it ended.

If I wanted I could go on for many more paragraphs about the pure beauty of this film, but I do not think anyone would want to read all of that, so, like I said before, if you have not seen this movie, GO RENT IT. I have a Blu-Ray player and unfortunately was only able to rent it on DVD but that did not matter. No matter what you watch it on, where you watch it, watch it... As long as you are seventeen, it was a tad inappropriate for the younger crowd.

So, I do not feel any need whatsoever to go through the different categories of a movie, but I will anyway.

General Movie Grade: A
Cinematography: A
Sounds/Music: A
Writing/Story: A
Acting: A
Entertainment Quality: A

So please watch this movie. Please.

~Jake

The Wrestler by Bruce Sprinsteen

Have you ever seen a one trick pony in the field so happy and free?
If you've ever seen a one trick pony then you've seen me
Have you ever seen a one-legged dog making its way down the street?
If you've ever seen a one-legged dog then you've seen me

Then you've seen me, I come and stand at every door
Then you've seen me, I always leave with less than I had before
Then you've seen me, bet I can make you smile when the blood, it hits the floor
Tell me, friend, can you ask for anything more?
Tell me can you ask for anything more?

Have you ever seen a scarecrow filled with nothing but dust and wheat?
If you've ever seen that scarecrow then you've seen me
Have you ever seen a one-armed man punching at nothing but the breeze?
If you've ever seen a one-armed man then you've seen me

Then you've seen me, I come and stand at every door
Then you've seen me, I always leave with less than I had before
Then you've seen me, bet I can make you smile when the blood, it hits the floor
Tell me, friend, can you ask for anything more?
Tell me can you ask for anything more?

These things that have comforted me, I drive away
This place that is my home I cannot stay
My only faith's in the broken bones and bruises I display

Have you ever seen a one-legged man trying to dance his way free?
If you've ever seen a one-legged man then you've seen me

Boo! #8 LOST's 100th

AudioBoo Profile



I'm very much looking forward to tonight's episode of LOST, titled "The Variable" obviously to mimic Daniel Faraday's last big episode "The Constant". We should get a lot of answers about Dan tonight, maybe even more about his mother, Eloise Hawking. It should be a pretty good show tonight and congrats to the entire crew of LOST. You writers are amazing and I could only dream about working at a place like where LOST is written. Thanks for a hundred episodes and I look forward to the rest of this season and the final season!

Boo #7 Reception Song

AudioBoo Profile



The Godfather is AWESOME. Just to let you all know. If you haven't seen it, and you are above the age of 17, you should watch it. Seriously. Rent it on Blu-Ray because it is even more awesome. I watched it for the second time this weekend. The first time a few weeks ago, and it was even better.

Bakers Square

AudioBoo Profile

Boo!s 3-5

AudioBoo Profile

Carpet?


Mrs. Nesbit


Hell on a Speedboat

Boo! 2

Profile on AudioBoo

Boo!

Audio Boo

A great little audio blogging app for the iPhone, which I shall now be using to record random conversations I have with my friends and I will link them here so, yeah. Here's Bus Convo 1

Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

Hello everyone this is my "trial review". I will be reviewing Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction for the Playstation 3.

Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction is the fifth in the Ratchet and Clank series, not counting the outsourced (not Insomniac Games made) Playstation Portable games. I have been a fan of the Ratchet and Clank series for quite some time. I was introduced to the series by a teacher of mine, oddly enough, who actually showed me good games for the Playstation 2.

The past Ratchet and Clank games have always been story driven with the usual bad guy vs. good guy story line, nothing special there, but the story was always very entertaining and had its plethora of reoccurring characters which always added to the charm of the story. Tools of Destruction, however, takes it to the next level.

Yes, that sounded kind of corny, but it fits. In this story, Ratchet is faced with learning the truth of his species (Lombax) and actually has some real emotional conflicts in this game, unlike the past games. The games before this have all had a very strong style, except for Ratchet: Deadlocked which did not do so well. This game returns to the colorful worlds and very humorous enemies. That and the insane weapons as usual (like the Groovitron which makes all nearby enemies break into dance) makes for a fantastic single player campaign.

While the past two Ratchet and Clank games have had a very large multiplayer component, this game returns to only having a strong single player campaign (like Ratchet and Clank and Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando) and does a very excellent job and providing a strong story and a variety of game play styles that keep the game going at a good pace. The only problem that I had was some of the load times and camera angles did not seem to make the game experience flow smoothly. Insomniac Games has always made pretty good looking games, but this game turns it up to eleven.

Insomniac Games often said they were trying to make this game look like people were playing a Pixar movie. They accomplish this nearly 100% however, there are the occasional not-so-great looking components. When a player falls into the muck or water they just sink through it, there are no water ripple effects. James the Galactic Defender (an unlock with skill points) does not look the best either, as well with some of the close-up looks at some of the textures. But these are minor set backs to the tremendous look of the levels, enemies and characters in general.

Insomniac Games is know for their "triple A" titles, and this one does not disappoint. To rate various forms of entertainment I will be using the most basic system I can think of to keep things simple and fair. Any form of entertainment can get the following "grades"

A- Best of the best
B- Pretty good, but could use some work
C- It was decent but not the best
D- Not that good at all.
F- Fail

This game receives and A based on the following:

General Game Grade: A
Game play: B
Story: A
Graphics: B
Sound/Music/Voice Acting: A
Replay Value: A
Entertainment in General: A

Well, I hope you enjoyed my first review and look forward to at least once a week on various forms of entertainment, thanks for reading!

~Jake

Reviews?

I was considering starting to write assorted reviews. It may be on music, TV shows, video games, books, movies and anything else I can think of. It may be part of Randomness Squared, which may be dieing I'm sad to say, but what can ya do.

So, I guess keep watching this for reviews if I start doing them.

Follow me on Twitter! Yes, that sounded creepy.
http://www.twitter.com/JakeNeuman

Better Updates

Hello everyone, on the right you will see the newly added Twitter Updates section where you can see my ten most recent tweets. This will keep the blog updated on a more regular basis.

Talk to you all later!

Fwd: Jake's Birthday "Event"

Hello everyone! If you were unaware I am currently doing a Twitted birthday event all week. I will be doing special tweets all week, and my "Song of the Day" series will have songs that have been awesome in my 16th year.

So join me at http://www.twitter.com/JakeNeuman for my transition into 17. My Birthday is March 13th, I was born on a Friday the 13th and it's on a Friday this year, so I'm treating it pretty special.

Twitter

Hello all! As you can see I clearly don't blog as much as I like to,
but if you want to know what's going on with me check out at

http://www.twitter.com/JakeNeuman

I update all the time and will continue to. Every day I even have a
song of the day and each song is significant to the events of that
day. So, please feel free to check it out, and thanks for reading!

~Jake

Oscar Coverage

Oscar Coverage

Check out http://www.twitter.com/JakeNeuman for my Oscar coverage.
Opinions, winners, etc.