Pizza on Pizza on Pizza on Pizza on Pizza

You may have guessed the theme for this short blog... it is indeed Pizza. 

This past week I had pizza for 5 straight days, but here is the kicker, every day I had a different kind of pizza, so much more impressive.

Let me list them for you:

1. Wednesday: Little Cesar's pepperoni Pizza at work
2. Thursday: Domino's pepperoni/sausage pizza at work from my main man Sergio at a Domino's Express, only 1.3 miles down the road, but we were out of their delivery range...so I picked it up and Sergio gave us the hook up. Oh we also got that stuffed cheesy bread.
3. Friday: Aurelio's spinach/tomato at Rachel's parents in New Lenox
4. Saturday: Frozen Jack's pepperoni/sausage at Rachel's parents
5. Sunday: Giordano's deep dish sausage with the fam, welcome home Squid!

And that is how a man like me, is able to eat pizza for 5 straight days. From March 19th to March 23rd I took on the pizza world. Bam. So you probably want to know which was the best pizza? Well too bad, I was so hungry when I ate all of them that they all tasted so delicious it is impossible for me to decipher a winner. You will just have to perform this same test to decide!

The rest of my week was a little bit tame compared to recent weeks. Here goes.

Thursday night, the 20th of March, at 1223 about 12 guys from NIU came down for men's league and we were able to play a solid 4 on 4 game with 2 goalies. First time we got men's league going in a while, so hopefully that can continue. The night ended with my getting slashed square in the testicles. As I crawled off the field, I immediately regretted being unprepared equipment wise for this little scrimmage. 

I then arrived home, and made the decision that I needed to finish the highlight of the Adrian lax game I went to a week back. So I pumped out some editing for 4 hours, and finally cut the game to under 10 minutes of highlights around 3:10am. Here is the final product.

After I finished editing this game and watching it, I came to a realization that I really really really wished someone had filmed like this, or I was somehow able to, when I and all of my teammates were playing. This is by far my best highlight and I just love filming lacrosse. Awesome.

My video was also posted in a LaxAllStars article (click to view)

Friday after work, I headed to Rachel's parents for the weekend for her mom's birthday celebration. After we had the pizza Friday night, we rented Inside Llewyn Davis from RedBox. The movie follows life of a struggling folk singer, and had a sad, depressing tone for most of the movie, which I really enjoy in movies for some reason, so I thought the movie was solid. I would recommend this film, especially for those who enjoy folk music, or Justin Timberlake, as he has a cameo in the film and even sings a few songs for the soundtrack! Solid movie, phenomenal soundtrack.

Saturday, Rachel's family came over for her mom's birthday and we celebrated with some delicious pulled pork sandwich, macaroni & cheese, and salad. Rachel and I picked out the desserts, which were a big hit, Frosted Sugar Cookies and a Cookies & Cream Pie! Mmmm Pie.

Rachel, her brother Rob, his friend Tom, & I played cards that evening, which was when that frozen pizza was made. We played poker, blackjack, & finally I suggested hearts. We ended up playing a full game of hearts to 100. It made me remember how much I love the game hearts and really enjoy the strategy behind it, even when I lose.

Sunday, the 23rd of March marks the day that Beth returned home for Spring Break. After having a few private lessons at work, I arrived home and greeted Beth on her return from school. As a family we then headed over to Giordano's for a traditional welcome home meal for the squid. That night Beth and I watched 3 of ESPN's 30 for 30s in a row. We watched One Night in Vegas, about Tupac & Mike Tyson in 1996. Another about the US Women's 99 World Cup soccer team, Ninety Niners. And finally Four Days in October, about the 2004 Red Sox come back against the Yankees after being down 3 games to 0 in the division final. If you don't already know, I love documentaries and true stories, so watching these 30 for 30s is very enjoyable for me.

Also on Sunday, well Saturday, but I wasn't home, all of my photos I ordered from Shutterfly arrived. I ordered about 15 11x14 photos, mostly of me playing lacrosse. Let's just say I was missing the sport and went on a spending spree with half price prints. I also ordered a free 16x20 of the Chicago Skyline for Beth, & a night shot of Vegas for myself. Check out some of them below.

Monday night, after a small showing at the Master's Open, Beth and I headed to Steak 'n Shake. I picked up a chicken fingers & fries meal, as well as a triple steak burger & fries meal. Topped this off with a Snicker's milkshake and had my most delicious and only meal of the day!

That is all for this week. Next week

Here are a bunch of videos I found to be stunning & breathtaking.

This amazing GoPro video of a grizzly bear (above) reminds me of a similar video I made with some seagulls at the beach in South Haven (below). The grizzly is way sweeter and more impressive however. 

The Thompson trio at Albany are some of the best and most taleneted players to play the game. One word for this, amazing

Timelapse Showreel. Specatcular views.

Iceland Timelapse: Beautiful

Another timelapse from Iceland. Love the landscape.

Thanks for reading! Need to continue to edit videos for this next week and try to knock out some of the things on my to-do list!

Josh

Blackhawks, Bulldogs, & Eagles

This past week was jam packed with another quick snowfall, a new computer, tasty food, a full moon, & a weekend full of mascots.

I was blessed with this past week with a plentiful amount of wisdom, check the links below:

Awesome inspiring video by Brandon Todd on putting in work to be able to dunk a basketball at 5'5

Rashard Mendenhall retires at 26 and explains why

Beth understands life backwards. My sister is amazing!

Pretty inspiring words from Kurt Vonnegut himself

I woke up Wednesday morning to my mom telling me how beautiful it looked outside. I threw on some pants and took a few quick pics outside, then decided to head to Knoch Knolls woods and took over 400 pictures! Good thing I wore my boots, as I had to traverse an overflowed river that covered the untraveled trail.

Wednesday afternoon, we headed to IKEA for work and I picked out a new desk for work for my new mac that is coming in. Things are getting official! My boss was nice enough to pick up the tab for Portillos for lunch. I had a delicious double cheeseburger. Mmm tasty, and then to follow up this meal, I had my mom's favorite beef stew for dinner after work. Yum Yum Yum.

This past week I was able to finish up another Izzy video set to The National, I Need My Girl. Cannot wait to see these guys live in a few weeks. This footage is from when John and I filmed Snow Mounds with my GoPro.

Friday, March 14 was here before I knew it. I headed into work and was super excited when UPS dropped off my new 21.5" Apple computer. I put my desk together from IKEA the day before and set it up. I finally have a place upstairs at work! Making moves! At 3, just after finishing setting up my computer, I headed to the city to catch the Blackhawks game with Rachel's Family.

I got to the city and met up with Rachel's brother Rob at his apartment. We waited for everyone else to get downtown and then met up at a local bar to grab a few drinks and dinner. Since it was Friday, the good Catholics at the table with me ordered a bunch of non-meat appetizers. I was on a different meal plan though, and ordered the chicken salad. It was Patrick Kane bobble head night, but after eating dinner and taking a cab to the game, we just got to our seats in section 321, in time for one of the best parts of Blackhawks games, the National Anthem.

I took another 350 pictures at the Hawks game, just a few are displayed above. One thing I realized while at the United Center, as I looked up into the rafters and saw all of the championship banners hanging. It is pretty amazing and awesome to have lived in the city of Chicago for the past two decades, as both the Bulls and Blackhawks have had some incredibly talented teams. I have lived in a great time for Chicago sports, as greats like Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Phil Jackson, Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp, & Duncan Keith have won championship after championship for us. 

The Blackhawks played a mediocre first two periods and after an entertaining, hard fought third period, came out on the short end of the stick, losing 3 - 2 to the Nashville Predators. We then teased Rachel that she was bad luck, as it was her second game, and again the Hawks second time losing when she was there. As we were leaving, one of Rach's bro's friends came up to talk to us and Rachel noticed that he and his girlfriend had PK bobbleheads. Rachel then decided to say, "I see you have one too many bobble heads there..." Kind of in a joking matter, but then the girl said, "oh do you want this? here you go!" and gave the bobble head to Rach. I can determine two things from this occurrence, one, she was a very nice girl, & two, most definitely not a big hockey fan. Needless to say, the Patrick Kane bobblehead was the talk of the night and many a joke were made with him as the subject.

After the game we took a cab back to the bar we had lunch at and had a few more drinks with Rachel's parents and brothers. A few hours later, after a lot of great conversations, Rach's parents took off, and I stayed at the bar with Rach's bros until about 2am. Her brother Rob then took us to a vienna hot dog stand just around the block. He picked up a dog and fries for me, and I ate them on the walk back to his apartment, as I had to head home because I had practice at 8am the next day.

I got home around 3:15am and went right to bed, only to wake up 4 hours later to head to practice with my Fox Valley team. My team had a great practice, & I was very satisfied. After heading home, my Dad and I drove out to Elmhurst to catch Adrian College play Elmhurst College in lacrosse. This was my first game as an alumni! It is kinda sad that it took 3 years to catch a game, but to be fair Adrian has not played in Illinois since I graduated, the Aurora game was canceled earlier this year, & I am always coaching in the spring, making it near impossible to see any games. 

It is crazy to think that the seniors on the team now, were just little freshman when I last saw them play and was a senior myself on the team. Wow does time fly! Adrian started off slow like always, but played hard to a convincing 14 - 4 win. I took a few pictures during the game (seen below), but mostly took video. I am working on a game highlight that should be out later this week. Stay tuned!

Alumni nation: Josh, Hammy, Jeff

Another alumni Jeff came to the game, so it was good catching up with him and watching as well. I would have to say that the Adrian teams that I played on were better than the current team, but maybe that is just an alumni talking ;)

Go Bulldogs!

After the game, my dad and I met up with my mom at Culvers to have some lunch, just like the good old days at Darien Sportsplex, when we would go to Culvers with my Grandma and Grandpa, and anyone else who came to watch after we won indoor lacrosse games at Darien.

Sunday, March 16th was another day for lacrosse. This time I headed over to Benedictine University to watch the Eagles take on the Trine Thunder. The weather for this game, just a day later, was about 30 degrees colder, especially with a strong wind coming across the field.

The game had a decent pace, with both teams going back and forth. Finally in the final 3 minutes of the 4th quarter, BenU tied the game up at 7. The game went into overtime, but again, both teams failed to find the back of the net. This lead to a second overtime, in which both teams had chance, but BenU was able to notch the final tally with an excited double overtime win! Nolan and I have been working on an inspirational piece about overtime, so hopefully the video that I took at the game will do the trick. Check out the game winning save & goal below!

After the game, I could not feel my feet or hands, and I headed over to Gios to warm up by a fire and have a few beverages. He was kind enough to make me a warm tea and we snacked on snacks most of the evening while talking about the game and watching documentaries about Caddyshack & National Lampoon's Vactaion. We ordered a little bit of sushi & chicken fried rice for dinner. Not too bad!

Leaving Gio's I was able to remember that the Full Worm Moon was out on the 16th of March, & I snapped a few photos.

The past week I watched the Matrix trilogy. I do not think I had ever seen number two or three before, but was not disappointed. All of the movies were action packed and a pretty good watch while laying in bed. The three movies reminded me of Bruce Lee movies and other Asian fighting movies I watched in college with my roommate Dave, and thought these were kind of the "american" version of those. Pretty cool "matrix" scenes throughout with the slow mo fighting and dodging of bullets.

I also frantically put together a photo order from walgreens and shutterfly on Sunday. It included another 13 11x14 pictures, which I have a pretty cool plan for once I get my own place, and a 16x20 of a shot from Vegas. Hung a few more 8x10 photos from Europe in the basement. I'll post it once complete.

With the weekend over, St. Patrick's Day was upon us. March 17, 2014 was a busy day at work with a plentiful amount of social media postings. The best part of the day was again, what I had to eat:

For Lunch: Subway

For Dinner: Portillos, thanks to my wonderful and amazing team mom who brought it to me.

Then after an accuracy shooting class that I taught, the Master's Open took place. Probably our lowest amount of guys yet, but it was St. Patty's day, so I am sure a few of the guys were unable to drive to the facility.

Second Dinner: McChicken & McDouble (no picks)

On my way home from the Master's open I saw at least 6 cops, which involved 3 different pullovers. The last 4 cops put on their lights in my rear view, but ended up pulling a car a few cars back, must have been something serious with 4 squad cars for one pull over! 

One last thing: Check out this crazy juggling video! Insane!

This week I plan to edit the 2 lax games I filmed and stay super busy at work with social media and website work. Nothing too crazy planned for this week ahead!

YaBoy Josh

Camera Stress & Old Man Laughs!

The last 24 hours for me have been quite stressful. With a dirty Canon 60D sensor, I took it into my own hands to clean it, ordering a cleaning kit offline. Yesterday I attempted to clean my sensor on my camera, they say you shouldn't even do it yourself, let a professional do it, since the sensor is so fragile. And if you do clean it yourself, touch it as limited as possible and with the correct materials. Well lets just say after multiple failed attempts to clean my sensor, I touched it and tried to clean it probably over 25 times. Huge mistake and probably worst decision of the year. I guess at least I didn't try to wash it in the sink or dishwasher? 

It all seemed rather easy to clean though, just a few blows of air onto the sensor, 2 simple swipes, and voila, a cleaned and beautiful sensor is back in action. Not my case :(

After freaking out for nearly the whole morning yesterday, I finally got the pictures looking back to how they were looking before I attempted this awful cleaning process. Let's just say I hope and pray that my camera is still functional at its highest capacity and despite my ignorance and stupidity it still properly functions for the future. Otherwise I'll be out another grand to buy a new one.

There is only one thing to blame for this whole stressful process, and that is dust. Little dust particles somehow got into my camera and landed on the sensor, hence showing up in my pictures and causing this whole debacle. This experience makes me realize my overall dislike for dust. Dust is annoying, It is always there and reoccurring. I look to my left at 13 new 8x10s I printed out from Europe & Australia and think, these are starting to be covered in dust right now. How annoying. 

My Auntie Frieda past away this past weekend as well. Even when living a full and long life, death is always a tough thing to cope with, but being there for your family is always helpful and important. She was always so nice and sweet to everyone. We love you! Rest in peace Auntie Frieda. 

Despite this sad news and super stressful morning I had yesterday, the past week has been enjoyable and fun!

Yesterday was the first day of the "Master's Open" and wow did we get a good turnout at 1223 Lacrosse. About 30 old timer dad's came out and tested their hand at the game all of their kids play. One word to describe this event, hilarious. I had a smile on my face the whole time it was happening and couldn't stop laughing. Good to see my "old man" standing between the pipes again! He stood tall and had a bunch of saves. I am happy that this league is taking place and he can play at a pace more suitable for him, versus college kids running down and shooting 90+ mph on the run at him. Do work Dad! Some pictures below highlighting the night.

In other big news, it looks like I am going to be an Uncle, again! My brother Danny and his wife Sarah just announced that their 9 month old Sophia is going to be a big sister! How exciting! Sarah is due sometime in October and we all look forward to adding another member to the family! 

Creative picture showing their feet and then baby shoes! Sophia is getting so big!

This past week marks the 3 year anniversary of the Ice Storm my senior year at Adrian College on February 21, 2011. As we slept ice rained down from the heavens, coating the college campus in a two inch sheet of ice. The ice was so heavy it snapped tree branched off, took down power lines, and shut down the school for the day. 6am lacrosse practice was cancelled that morning, and so was school, so I spent the day going campus taking video and pictures, documenting the whole thing. These two videos were made and provide great memories!

That day, we were able to scavenge some food at Richie as we sat in the dark, eating cereal, which was the only thing available. Later that night Nolan, Dave, and I were hanging out in Olivia & Erin's room when we got an email saying we were to have practice that night at 11pm since the power had just come back on. This was the worst news all day and really put a damper on the next hour before practice. On top of this, we were to have practice the next morning at 6am the next morning as well. At that point I made my decision, and let's just say that 6am practice was the only one I ever missed, and I don't regret it despite the punishment.

Last week I said I filmed Benedictine scrimmage Judson and was editing the game film. Well, here it is. My official first men's lacrosse game highlight that I filmed. It came out pretty well I think. I posted it to some forums and got some good feedback on how to improve for next time, including: adding white flashes for rough transitions, working on pan movements, adding a hero to some of goal clips by focusing on the player after he scores/goalie after a save, & keeping the artsy shots to a minimum if it is just for a highlight video. 

My sister, the journalism major at Mizzou in her final semester, just got back to blogging and gives me some recognition for getting her back on track! Check out her blog, as she is a much much better writer than I!

Hockeypucks & Cupcakes

This weekend I spent Saturday evening drinking beers and watching season 3 of EastBound & Down featuring Kenny Powers with Rachel & her brother Rob. I had never seen the show before, but we watched the whole third season and it was pretty darn funny. Rachel's Dad also provided us with some takeout Chili's for dinner. Tasty!

Tomorrow, Wednesday I am going to watch Adrian play Aurora at Aurora at 5:30pm. This will be my first Adrian game since I graduated. Kinda sad, but I have been busy in the spring the past 3 years with Fox Valley and they haven't played out here since my senior year. I plan to film the game, but the high for the day is also 10 degrees, so we shall see. Go Bulldogs!

I have some big plans for taping lacrosse games and editing game film. Good things to come from MalutaVision!

Until next week!

Josh