Movie Marathon

Not too much went down this past week, some of it is still a work in progress, this may also be the first week this year I do not have any pictures to show for, so enjoy reading/watching videos.

On Tuesday March 25th, 2014, I attended a great high school lacrosse game between Neuqua & Naperville Central. This crosstown rivalry went down to the wire with my alma mater taking the one goal win.

Fast forward to Friday March 28th, & I am picking Rachel up from train in Naperville. We then headed over to Gordon Biersch for dinner. We each had a tasty beverage to along with my chicken, mashed potatoes, rice & beans. Rachel had some fish 'n' chips along with some asparagus.

After finishing up dinner, we arrived home to my cousins Emma & Anna who were awaiting our arrival. We watched some home videos for a bit, before conjuring up an idea for a video to shoot. We filmed the video & it came out great!

Emma, Anna, Beth, Rachel, & Josh perform and make a one shot music video for Happy by Pharrell Williams from Despicable Me 2

Before we headed to bed, Emma had a great plan to do a little Sleepers 101 video where we see how Rachel & Beth sleep. Brilliant!

Saturday March 29, Rachel & I woke up around 8 and got in the car to go see a four hour seminar about health. Picked up some helpful tips & great information on some things to eat & not to eat! Afterwards we headed over to Emma & Anna's house for a family party for both of their birthdays. After celebrating with more pizza, we turned on the movie Frozen. It was my first time seeing it, and I thought it was a pretty solid Disney film. After the party, Rachel, Squid, & I headed to Jewel and picked up 3 bottles of liquor at their big half price sale. After getting home, we then played hearts with my parents and Squid. It was my parents & Squid's first time playing, but it was a fun time for everyone, except Squid who lost. Ha! After this it was getting late, but we put on Runner Runner. Rachel & Squid fell asleep, but I stayed up for the whole movie. It was a decent flick, but nothing too special.

Sunday morning we continued our movie marathon trend by loading up Monsters University. I loved the movie Monsters Inc. and this prequel was just as awesome. By far the best movie of the weekend. We followed this up with Harsh Times, a Christian Bale movie where an ex-solider battles with trying to become a cop while struggling with an alcohol addition. Enjoyable, but overall depressing movie. We headed back to Jewel for Rachel to pick up some groceries & then headed to the city. At Rachel's we made a delicious lettuce wraps dinner. During dinner we watched two episodes of Breaking Bad season 3. The show is getting good & hopefully we can finish it by the end of the year?

Monday morning I had to wake up at 5:45 am and drive to work. After a day full of three 2 hour classes Gio & I hopped on over to Crosstown for dinner. I ordered 5 parmesan wings & 5 chili garlic grilled tenders. We also had a dark revolution beer that was delicious. Opening day for baseball, so we watched the White Sox beat up on the Twins as we enjoyed our spicy meal.

That sums up my week, nothing too eventful. But a lot of movies...Here are some other classic films I watched this week: Sunset Blvd & Citizen Kane. Decent old time films.

A couple of video clips to spice up this post

Epic Meal Time makes Epic Pretzels. Yum!

GoPro offices look fun. Creative soccer dribbling video in the GoPro office.

HeliYum beer by Sam Adams. Clever!

A man struggles to control his addiction. Thanks Phil K for the link

Below is a video highlight I just finished up editing from a Benedictine University game on March 16. Hopefully will film a couple of college games this week!

Until Next Week!

Josh

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