Endure

It's Wednesday. Again. Again. It's Wednesday. Again. I feel like it's always Wednesday. Actually, I don't. It just seems like Wednesday happens a lot. I guess. Again.

Life has been crazy. Trying to balance school, a business, any sort of social life, and slacking off has been difficult. There's 24 hours a day, you spend, if you're healthy, about a fourth of that sleeping. Let the balancing begin. I've been sacrificing sleep quite a bit for the sake of being social. "Oh, homework can wait, let's go to In-n-Out" or "Oh, you want to have a fun conversation that will last 45 minutes? Okay, let me put my book down" or "Oh, a client just emailed, it's time to release a video; take a seat, Philosophy." Time's like these are not opportune BUT I am grateful for a full plate. I'm grateful for the school, the business, any sort of social life, and slacking off can sometimes be relaxing. 

Similarly, I quit Facebook this week. Well, sorta. I can't "afford" to "quit." Mawwiage Films fuels off of Facebook, there a number of groups that are important to my well-being, and it's a great social tool. HOWEVER, I often turn to Facebook to slack off, to kill time I don't have. It's highly addictive and highly dangerous, BUT a necessary tool for current events and staying up to date in both my business and personal lives. SO, what did I do? I changed my password to something random, a difficult to memorize code that sits in an annoying, out-of-the-way place, so when I need Facebook, I have to go out of my way to get the password. It's worked fantastically thus far; I'm more productive, efficient, and slacking off has taken a hit. Let's see how long it lasts.

Yesterday was pretty rad. I met a new friend, her name's Endeavor. A good friend of mine, Mr. Preston Richardson, asked me if I would shoot some video of the Shuttle while he shot stills, documenting Javelin Logistics' role in Endeavor's last mission: the transport to the California Science Center. I didn't qualify that as even a question. The answer was an emphatic YES. This was an incredible experience. Being in the same vicinity as not only a space shuttle that may be the last United States craft in space in a long long while, but something that will LITERALLY be there one time EVER was almost overwhelming. It was a fantastic opportunity and it was a great time hangin' with Preston and the gentlemen from Javelin Logistics; a true once in a lifetime experience.

So, I think that's basically it. These weeks have been nuts. Weekends have been nuts. This last weekend was one for the record books. This is how Friday was described via instagram: "Words to describe tonight: #multi-fun #multi-friendz #multi-dimensional #california #class #sass #hopping #popping #town #latelatelate #interestingineverysense #timeforbed"


Friends, take advantage of the life you life. Don't slack off, don't be lazy. Take every opportunity you have and make it something great. Invest in every action. Look forward to even the mundane. Enjoy life, it's a gift we don't deserve. Be thankful.

Ge generous today.

Six Years

This is one of those Wednesday's where words do not come easy. Little inspiration, little activity, little. So because of this, the makeup of this post is lacking. The makeup, like the stuff girls wear (which is a whole nother conversation in itself).

I was talking to Mr. Scott Weir about this yesterday. It's the realization that there is SO SO MUCH TO DO, but because there is SO SO MUCH TO DO, it causes a sense of overwhelmization and there is NOTHING to do, because you can't fathom the intensity of the situation; denial. There are thousands of things to do, but when I sit here and think of something to do RIGHT NOW, I can't think of anything. This concept may make no sense to you, that's okay. It doesn't make sense to me either.

 Last week was nationball, this maddening game of dodgeball that the entire school participates in. The teams are made up of the entire dorms, so it's like a game of 500 vs 400. Pretty wild, pretty wild indeed. This year was FANTASTIC because not only did our team (OCC - Off Campus Community) completely DOMINATE the playing field and win the championship, but the playlist was OFF DA CHAIN. There was dance dance dancing and then some. It took 45 minutes for the refs to get everybody into the stands because everybody was feeling the BEATZ HARD, dance dance dancing on the basketball court. And there was, as someone esle described it, a "sweat cloud" hovering in the gym. It was at least 400 degrees in there, it was like walking into a scorching, 100% humid sauna. It was great, it was fun, it was worth every second. Here's a video that was put together by our school newspaper, The Chimes:

Nationball 2012 (HD) from Chimes Multimedia on Vimeo.

Fantastic. It's simple.


There's not much else going on. The Bakery is staying hot. It was 107-108 in our living room the other day. 98 in the coolest part of the house and it felt "cool." Walked into the living room and it was like an oven, so it HAD to be at least 107. Unreal.

Been in talks with a bunch of projects and it's getting pretty intense. You know the point where you battle between what you want to do and what you need to do? There are not enough hours in a day. But we've been given 24 so there's no need complaining about it.

Here's an aside.

It's come up a number of times in the last week or so, and after something thinking, I have figured out that I have been dressing up on Wednesdays for SIX YEARS going on SEVEN. That's spot-on incredible.

For those who have never heard the story:


I went to Royal High School in Simi Valley, CA. During my sophomore year, 2007, I realized all the dudes at the school looked the same: skinny jeans, classic vans, and a baseball cap. Everyone. So, a group of us started up Collared Shirt Wednesday: every Wednesday we were going to wear collared shirts, throw a little spin on the horribly-monotonousssssssss Royal High School fashion sense. There a was a group of us, then a few of us, then a couple of us, and then just me. And I kept doing it. Collared Shirt Wednesday. I started adding ties. I started color-coordinating. I started getting funky. Alone.

Senior year comes along and this blog is born for a simple reason: to remember senior year. I started taking a picture of myself on the Wednesday to document that week and then I wrote about the week. It was simple. And it caught on. People started reading, people started enjoying. And here we are today. Six years later. Still dressing up, still taking the pictures.

High school pictures: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.34414107753.57636.714162753&type=3

College pictures: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.143439557753.137074.714162753&type=3


And it's funny, because on one hand, it's like "woah, this dude takes a whole lot of pictures of himself and he's full of himself" but on the other hand, it's like "woah, this dude takes a whole lot of pictures of himself but it's documenting life as it hits." I can TOTALLY see how this blog can come across as pretentious and large-headed. I hope it doesn't. One of my favorite aspects of this blog is the documentation, documenting specific events in my life, coded by a picture to give a permanent connection to these events. Returning to these blog posts is an event in itself, SO MANY MEMORIES embedded that I/we would NEVER be able to remember just off the top of our heads.

You're entitled to your own opinion.



So that's the end of this post. Funny. It turned into more than "This is one of those Wednesday's where words do not come easy." I love it when that happens. And I love that when that happens, it's documented with a picture and a story.

365

It's week 3, third week, tres. School is goin goin gone, it's basically finals week.

As you would expect, life's nuts. Always is. We have named our house: THE BAKERY. There's 4 reasons:

1. This place is always the temperature of an oven. The other night, I walked through the hallway, I thought to myself "Wow! It actually feels pretty cool in here!" I looked at the temperature. It was 85 in the hallway. If that feels "cool" I don't want to know how warm it is when it feels "HOT."

2. Bethlehem means "house of bread" because the area was a grain-producing area in Old Testament times. Bethelehem is where Jesus was born. That's pretty cool.

3. Our oven is broken. The irony.

4. "We have the hottest buns in town." My housemates... no explanation.


So that's the name! We're pretty excited about it. There might be a logo or a lil somethin somethin comin out real soon.


SO.

I made a crazy, unbelievable realization this week. I have this bizarre sense of the 365. This has happened a number of times: I do something, think of something, dress a certain way and, upon investigation, I did the same thing, thought the same thing, dressed a certain way almost EXACTLY a year before, 365. I have two examples for you.

This following picture was taken the first Wednesday of last school year. I lived in Trop. Wore a light blue shirt, bolo tie, white shorts, white converse high tops. Take a look.

This year. Taken on the first Wednesday of this school year. I live in a house. Wore a light blue shirt, bolo tie, white shorts, white converse high tops. Take a look.

Basically the same outfit, added some new stylez with the pocket square and the long white left sock. What in the world. 365. Same thought process.


So, now, last night (today because it was after midnight), I randomly remembered this one event that happened last year. It was Ms. Laura Cook's birthday and a big ol' group of us went out to Elephant Bar for a fantastic birthday dinner. It was a great time, I remembered it for really no reason so I went to the facebook to track down the group picture. That picture is right here:

And then I noticed something. TODAY IS MS. LAURA COOK'S BIRTHDAY! So this event happened almost EXACTLY a year ago and I really had NO REASON to remember this event, there were no triggers, I hadn't even thought thought event in months. Super weird. 365.



Here is something fun. Mr. Kyle Spence's house party. It wasn't his birthday. Surprisingly good time.

And here's Mawwiage Films latest Moment! INTRODUCING Matt & Danielle Cull!








And that's the post! Little writing, but a nice amount of visuals. I'm sitting here with Ms. Katie McCusker and her and now my friend Ms. Kelly Last-Name-Never-Said. They wanted to be included in this blog post so I told them I would include them.


Merry Wednesday.


I could really go for a smoothie right now. If you like smoothies, you should make one up for yourself.

MAGIC

So here we are, week 2, and it has been a WILD lil journey. Classes have been... classes, nothing too exciting there. I worked way too hard in basketball class, sweat up a storm, a dripping mess. Excited to get the ball rolling, get a lil exercise rockin'. Today I took my senior pictures. I thought they were free. They weren't. But I figured "hey, you're only a senior once." Like, it was whole cap and gown ordeal, the whole "look at my hand, tilt your head to the left, good good good." We'll see how they turn out, who knows if they'll be any good. The lady helping me was SUPER enthusiastic, she was funny.

But that wasn't the exciting part.

This week has been full of MAGIC. Here's the story. I'm eatin' lunch in the cafeteria on Thursday, finish my grub, and take off towards the mailboxes. Out of nowhere, Ms. Jenette Hatch appears, a friend from Hume Lake who IS NOT a student at Biola. So, naturally, it was surprise to see her! I proceed to ask her what she's doing and she exclaims "I'm going to Disneyland! Do you want to go?" to which I respond "Uhh.... what? I don't have a season pass, I don't have the money to go." Turns out, Ms. Jenette Hatch WORKS at Disneyland so she can get a select few in for FREE! Let's just say I was in shock, I couldn't believe it. I felt like I was on a reality tv show like Punk'd or something. We were going to Disneyland, the happiest place on earth, the LEAST likely place I could have imagined I would end up that day. So we went, picked up Ms. Sierra Falco and Mr. Dan Mitchell and the four of us took to the rides, took to the thrills, took to the jaw-dropping incredibleness of the magical land of Disney. A few incredible things happened. First, we spent a lot of time in California Adventure. I had not been to Cali Adventure in probably 10 years and WOW! this place was like a foreign country. So many new experiences to be had! We rode the rides, experienced the new Cars Land in all it's glory, and screamed on Screamin'. We headed over to Disneyland to ride on Skipper Tim Wiseman's boat through the Jungle Cruise. Let me tell you, this guy HAD JOKES! Easily the best Jungle Cruise skipper I've ever heard, and I'm not just sayin' that because I know him. SO original, SO punny, SO clever. He pulled a Pocahantas joke that had me laughing for the rest of the ride. The dude's a pro. After finding Ms. Sierra Falco's phone which had decided to soar over California a few more times without telling anybody, we headed for World of Color. Folks, World of Color is unlike anything you've EVER seen. It puts the Bellagio fountains to shame and I haven't even seen the Bellagio fountains! The show was a masterpiece of technological achievement; so well put together, so well orchestrated, so well executed. The show of shows. AMAZING. So, all in all, pretty fantastic day, just like an unexpected, dream-like surprise should be. Here are some photos from that day.

What a day! Ms. Jenette Hatch was so gracious to provide the means to fantastic experience. Doesn't get much better than that!..... OR DOES IT.

A few days go by and BOOM Ms. Jenette Hatch asks if we want to go to Disneyland... again. I mean... WHAT?! How was this possible. I hadn't been to California Adventure in probably 10 years and now you're telling me I'm going to be there twice in a matter of four days? Punk'd, I'm telling you. So off we go again with two more guests, my sister Ms. Melanie Lott and a friend of Ms. Sierra Falco's, Ms. Hannah Vigiano. Funny story with Ms. Hannah Vigiano. So, as we're walking from the parking lot to the trams, Hannah and Dan connect that Hannah was a counselor at Meadow Ranch at Hume Lake while Dan was a Meadow lifeguard. Hannah was immediately embarrassed, none of us really knew why. She sort of explained it and then mentioned that she does this horse noise with her mouth that she is pretty famous for. We all laughed. And then I thought a second. "Wait wait wait. Did you meet this voice actor guy on the dock and you did your horse noise for him?" While my family was at Hume Lake, my dad's friend, Mr. Jon Olson, a voice actor in many films, videogames, etc, came up to visit and we cruised around the Hume campus, doing voices and noises and all sorts of other things. We quickly heard there was this girl who could do a fantastic horse noise who was at camp that week. As we were walking down the dock talking about it, a girl passed us, overheard, and said "Hey! That's me!" She proceeded to do the horse whinny, impressed us all, we all laughed, and continued on our way. We couldn't believe we found the horse girl! Well, THAT HORSE GIRL WAS MS. HANNAH VIGIANO, the girl I was now going to Disneyland with. WHAT?! WHAT. A. SMALL. WORLD. And BOOM. Round 2 begins.

This day, Labor Day, it was WARM and water was a necessity, as were FastPasses. Apparently, the classic Indiana Jones was closing down the very next day for renovation so we HAD to ride the classic. FastPass it was. We also got FastPasses for Star Tours, well, Mr. Dan Mitchell and I did. As we were getting the FastPasses, the ladies hopped in line for Thunder Mountain. When Mr. Dan Mitchell and I returned, we were unable to get into line with the ladies without making complete fools of ourselves by cutting in front of the masses of patient people who are honestly and respectfully waiting their turn to ride Thunder Mountain. We weren't the happiest, but you know, what are you going to do? So we said, "Forget the Thunder Mountain train, we're going to ride the Casey Jr. train." So we hopped in the monkey car, joined a small latino family of 3, and enjoy the sights and sounds of the miniature Disney lands. It was wonderful.

We spent a SOLID amount of time on the Island formerly known Tom Sawyer's Island, now called the Pirate's Lair. I had NEVER been on this little Island right the middle of the Magic Kingdom, and boy, have I been missing out. We explored the claustrophobic caves, searched for buried treasure, jumped on janky bridges, yelled in voice tunnels, climbed into treehouses, sat on piles of money, just about everything a little kid can dream of. Super fun.

Here's a fun little story. We're riding Toy Story's Astro Blasters. Fantastic ride, fantastic game. Mr. Dan Mitchell knew all sorts of cool secrets, most notably the small black dot in the middle Emperor Zurg's that's worth something like 50k worth of points. While we're on the ride, he's yellin at me and I'm yellin back, and then the picture was taken. Here is our conversation:

The day went on, we rode rides, had a blast. All of a sudden BOOM! the day was basically over. So what did Mr. Dan Mitchell and I propose? WELL, we never rode Thunder Mountain! So we rode it, three times in a row. Apparently, it's really cool to turn around and watch one thing... or something. So we rode it, face backwards, and yelled, loud. As we were facing backwards, this dude drinkin' a drink was in the very back seat. We were all lookin' backwards at yellin' at this dude and it was the FUNNIEST thing I have seen in a long long time. He was so laxadasical, slowly sippin' his coke as we're all lookin' right at him, yellin' our lungs out. Hysterical.

Here's some photos:

TOO MUCH GOOD STUFF! The happiest place on earth, nothing quite like it.

Here's another story:

So, on July 21st, I attended a Portugal. The Man concert at the Annenburg Space for Photography, hosted by the fantastic radio station KCRW. The concert was incredible, but that's not what this story is about. The Annenburg Space for Photography is just that, a space for photography. Currently in the exhibit was a show entitled Who Shot Rock & Roll, a show that was incredible, but that's not what this story is about. The line to get into the gallery was very very long and it was approximately a 3 hour wait. The concert was hosted by KCRW, so, naturally, the audience was FULL of artsy people who would be interested in a gallery space, so, naturally, the line was excruciatingly long. This is where the story begins. I'm standing in line with Mr. Kyle Dietz and Ms. Shannon Stowers. It's a long line, so a conversation is struck up with the woman behind us, a woman named Yolanda. This woman was SO interesting, she was SO experienced in everything from the film industry, to blackjack dealing, to mixed cocktails, to living well, to live music. A native New Yorkian, Yolanda told us story after story of different adventures she's had throughout the world, incredible experiences she's had while dealing blackjack, story after story after story after story. After a few hours of waiting in line, PIZZA became the topic. Yolanda made it very clear that she was PASSIONATE about pizza, she know what good pizza tastes like. She goes onto tell us there is only ONE pizza place in California that serves pizza the way it was meant to be served (there used to be two but the other one basically self-imploded, Yolanda had a story about it). This pizza place was called BRONX PIZZA in San Diego, California. I told Yolanda I was probably going to be headed down to San Diego sometime soon due to my business of weddings. She immediately gave me her business card and told me to let her know how the pizza was. Let's just say I was JAZZED, I wanted to taste the best pizza in California. We then went through the gallery, enjoyed it very much so, and said our goodbyes to our new friend Yolanda.

Fast forward a month. Mawwiage Films has a wedding booked for La Jolla, San Diego just 12 miles from Bronx Pizza. I tell Mr. Isaac Svensson we absolutely have to try this place. So guess what? We did just that. Before the wedding this last Saturday, we headed down to Bronx Pizza, this little hole in the wall place with a logo that looks like it was designed by a 4 year old. We walk in and order. The pizza is ready. We take a bite. BOOM BOOM BOOM. Fireworks. This pizza was good, REAL good. It's a tad difficult to explain why. The crust was perfectly thin and crunchy (my favorite). The cheese was perfectly thick and melted. The meat was perfectly cooked and formed a perfect ratio around the pizza. The meat perfectly "leaked" it's marvelous juices into the perfect cheese. The vegetable were perfectly cooked and placed strategically along the perfect crust. This pizza was INCREDIBLE. This little hole in the wall pizza joint, selling pizza pies, made by a crew of big, tatooed white guys, smoking cigarettes. This little pizza joint that Yolanda claims is the best pizza joint in California. She just may be right. I will DEFINITELY be returning if I'm in the area. You should too. 111 Washington Street, San Diego, CA. You now have the address, you simply can't say no.

And that, my friends, is today's blog post. STORIES. Lot's of stories. Gotta love it. I've realized (and I've been told) that I tell a lot of stories and then retell a lot of stories. Stories make the world go round.

Tell a story to someone today.