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? 

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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.

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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! 

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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

Mr. President, will you be Valentine?

The past week was a busy one! The week of love, my dad's birthday, & the first lacrosse tournament of the year.

Let's skip ahead a little bit, after a full work week of editing & coaching, we reached Friday, February 14th, Valentines day! Rachel took the train into the Naperville station from the city and I picked her up after giving a private lesson at 1223. We headed over to Mongolian BBQ for our Valentine's day dinner. Rachel and I both enjoyed "Mongo" sized Blue Moons and a delicious stir fry style meal. We had actually never been to Mongolian BBQ but the way Rachel ordered the "Mongo" sized drinks, the waiter thought we were regulars, how convincing! We filled our bowls with the finest meats and veggies in all the land, watched a couple of guys with their cooking sticks cook it up, and then added our self made sauces to the meal. They then swept the food off of the stove top into bowls with one fluid sweep. After gobbling up our first bowls of stir fry, I decided to jump on the unlimited plan for a couple of extra dollars. Rachel and I went up to make my bowl together. She helped me pile it as high as it could go with veggies and then blended me together a delicious sauce. While we were waiting in line for our food to be cooked, or waiter brought Rachel out another Blue Moon and left one for me at our table, bonus points to you sir!

Full Snow Moon on February 14th, 2014.

Full Snow Moon on February 14th, 2014.

After dinner, we headed home for a night which included a bottle of wine and the much anticipated Ender's Game movie. Before the movie I was able to snap a couple of photos of the Full Snow Moon,and also gave Rachel some Valentine's Day gifts: flowers, chocolates, a CD mix, picture coasters, & Taboo. I introduced Rachel to the Ender's Game series, having only read the first book, which I love. Let's just say she has fallen in love with it and is on book 7 or 8 already? What a speed reader! The movie however, fell very short of impressive and if having not read the book, I am not sure how anyone could have followed along. The movie was actually so bad that Rachel dozed off for the final battle scene. Yikes!

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Saturday was a long day for me, since I had to wake up again at 6 am for 7am practice. It was only our third practices, but last one before our tournament on Monday. The practice went well and the team seems as prepared as they can be this early in the season. After practice, I headed over to Benedictine to film a scrimmage between BenU and Judson. On a freshly shoveled field, and with the sun beating down, it was actually one of the warmer days of the year so far. I filmed the entire scrimmage and am currently in the editing process. BenU had a rocky start, but ended up beating Judson by 10 or so. Since my College assistant coach is now the head coach there, and my friend is the assistant, I am going to attempt to get to more games and film. The goal is to start filming sporting events in the area and add them to my professional film portfolio.

Saturday the 15th of February is of course, also my father's birthday. So we had a little get together for him at our house. The usual fam came over and we had delicious sandwiches followed up by Auntie Wanda's tasty chocolate cake, sugar cookies, & chocolate chip cookies. Yum. I played a little hide and seek with Emma and Anna, as well as watched some of the Olympics. After everyone left, Rachel and I went out and picked up a 20 piece nugget from McDonalds and the movie The Internship. The movie was pretty funny and better than I thought it would be, providing some quality laughs... plus we had chicken nuggets so of course we were happy. We considered heading back to the city, but decided to stay out in the burbs.

Sunday, February 16th, 2014 was a relaxing day for Rachel and I. We both read a bunch from our books and I took care of some house cleaning. This including finally getting rid of some of my childhood memories seen below. Rock crystals I had grown, a large collection of mechanical pencils, both bought and found, and a beautiful collection of butterflies John and I had caught back in the day. Luckily I snapped some photos of them (even the pencils, despite Rachel making fun of me) and then sent them on their way.

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Check out this huge icicle that was hanging from my bedroom window! With the sun warming up the snow and the gutters full of ice, a lot of icicles have been forming in the front of my house.

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We headed back into the city Sunday evening, and Rachel blessed me with this manly Valentine's gift of candy, sweets, custom ping pong balls, goo gone, and beef jerky.. amazing!

President's Day, Monday February 17th, I left Rachel's apartment and headed over to Barrington for my first Fox Valley tournament of the year. Recap of the tournament:

  • Game 1 vs Kennilworth - Win 7 to 6 despite some sloppy play, we pulled out the W
  • Game 2 vs Northshore - Loss 12 to 3 - pretty good team that made it to the championship. Our passing and catching was poor.
  • Game 3 vs Bartlett - Win 12 to 8. Turned it around in the second half and kept penalites to a minimum. Great to play
  • Game 4 - Semi Final vs Fox Valley Black - Loss 13 to 3 - The eventual winners of the tournament, again passing and catching was the issue.

Overall I was very proud of my team in their first tournament. There is still a lot to work on, but they showed a lot of heart and teamwork in our four games. Looking forward to more the rest of the year!

As I left the building at around 9pm I found my car had been covered in another 5 inches of snow! What a year of snow we have had so far in 2014! Will it stop!? It took me a little longer than normal to get home, as the roads were not fully plowed and were slippery in some spots, but wow do people drive way too slow. Or maybe it is just that their cars do not handle as well? I'm not sure, but I had to pass a ton of people that were driving well below the speed limit. Finally got home and went straight to bed after a long, tiring, fun weekend.

More work and editing to be done this week! Do Work! Got to get back on my workouts!

 

Josh
 

Chili on Chili

So this will a shorter blog, as a little less has been going on.

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After a lot of training and website work at 1223, I started the weekend off right with a Fox Valley Team Bonding get together, Pizza and adult beverages. Thank you team mom! It was great to meet a handful of parents, as well as the players. This year should be fun and very enjoyable, considering what I was sent home with from the first team party! Did I mention I love my team mom? This party ended a little earlier than it should have, considering we had to be up for practice to start at 7 AM. My first practice went well, we have a lot of talent and what seems to be a great group of kids, so I look forward to the year, as I have even scheduled an extra practice for tomorrow already! Gotta love coaching kids who listen, enjoy the game, and work hard! Should be an amazing season, with our first tournament on President's Day, this coming Monday. 

However, this past weekend, Rachel & I went over to Brian's in Wrigleyville to meet up with some friends. We started off just watching some of the Olympics on TV and chatting it up. As more friends showed up, we began to play Cards for Humanity. As the night wore on, a beer called Billy's Chilies was brought out, initially for me. I took a sip and wow did it taste like a tamale, so I passed it around and everyone took one sip, at least 8 people drinking only down to the neck of the bottle.

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As the bottle of Billy's Chilies sat in the middle of the table, either someone dared Rachel to drink it, or she asked how much someone would give her if she downed it. Brian and another fine gentleman put $10 into the pot, Rachel picked up the Billy's Chilies and slammed it all home, in one chug. Well that went down easy! She snagged the $10 bucks and after a minute or two another Billy's Chilies made its way out and people were asking how much it would take her to chug another one. I could barely have one sip of this and I immediately lost my appetite, so I could not imagine chugging one, let alone two! After another $15 made its way on to the table, Rachel picked up the other Billy's Chilies and drank it all again in one chug. Impressive! After she was done, she said, "we can take a cab home now" and then we put on our coats and headed home...via cab. What a champ! Love my crazy girl! Oh I should also mention that Rachel won Cards for Humanity, an all out winner for the night!


 

YaBoys are back at it for 2014 with our second video! Rachel, John, Johnny, Brian,  and I all had a Big Chili Cookoff to start the year. Here is the finished product of the video. Jerome Bettis would be proud of this chili.

 

We have had a record setting amount of snow this year, but this video below, is from one of the first big snow falls of the year. Only a trailer, but a solid one, and should be another great video, and our first of 2014. Enjoy. Oh and the mound is still out there after almost two months. About time I build a couple more?

Welcome to Mound Town A true story about two men, their dog, & some snow. Coming soon.

After putting in a lot of hours for the 1223 Lacrosse website, it is finally starting to take shape. Check it out if you have some time and see what we have to offer! I love doing the graphic work and website design for it. Need to get back to some videos and balance it within all the social media I am working with. 

 

Valentine's Day coming up, should be another great week of 2014!

 

Josh