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

Blown Away by The Sword & Santa?!

The last week prior to this Tuesday, the 11th of March 2014 was packed full of fun.

I started the week off with a new set of small group training classes at 1223. One of my classes is actually the first to fill up to the max # of players. Pretty cool that we have gone from no one knowing about our facility, to now, filling up classes. So is it the class? Or just the great instructor leading it? Ha, all jokes aside, things are picking up at work.

Wednesday the 5th, after working for a little bit, it was time to attend the O'Brother concert in Chicago. I headed up to Westchester and parked at Johnny's. We then drove over to Forest Park and picked up his friend Tyler. As we were leaving his place, we saw a raccoon just trotting down the sidewalk. He looked like a little bear out on a jog, and since there was snow everywhere else, he was running along the sidewalk, pretty random & funny.

We arrived at the Double Door theater around 7:30, which is actually just a mile or two down North Ave from Rachel. Located in Bucktown, we parked and had to pay a parking meter, which you need to repay every 2 hours until 10 pm (new knowledge for me). So one of us would have to come out mid concert and pay it, no big deal since the only band we knew playing was the opener, O'Brother. Who knows if we would even be there for 2 hours.

We grabbed a couple of IPAs and headed toward the front of the stage. The venue was long and narrow, but a pretty cool setup. I love the feeling of these smaller venues and being able to be right up by the stage and really feel the music. We ended up probably second or third row back, the crowd was not too big yet for O'Brother so we had plenty of elbow room. These guys came out and took the stage and rocked it hard. The lead singer sang his eyeballs into the back of his head, literally, and the two asian twins with long hair, banged their heads the entire show. You could see how much they loved performing by the way they banged their heads to the music. O'Brother played for about 30 minutes, but it was very enjoyable, even though I had only heard their stuff once or twice and am not super into metal. O'Brother are more of post-rock / alternative band versus metal, but are classified as such.

Next up was a band called Big Business. This was only a 3 piece band and had a much more metal vibe. As people continued to pour in for the show, Johnny and I decided to head out and feed the meter after the first two songs. Neither of us were into this band as much, so it was no problem, Tyler stayed up front to keep our spots. When we got to the door, the doorman said only one of us could go out, so I volunteered (just like Katniss, how brave.) I went out and walked down the block to pay off the meter for the rest of the night. When I got back into the Double Door, the place was absolutely packed in anticipation for the headliner coming on soon, The Sword. After standing near the entrance in the back, right next to the band O'Brother, I was able to text Johnny and find out where he was so we could meet up. While standing, I was able to snap a somewhat creepy photo of one of the asian guys from O'Brother, came out great.

Check out The Sword's newest album Apocryphon

Johnny and I stood near the bar in the back for the remaining few songs of the Big Business band, we just weren't feeling it and almost decided to leave before The Sword came on. This was almost the biggest mistake of the night, but luckily Johnny's friend Tyler convinced us to stay and check our The Sword and see if they were any good. Let me just say, once they took the stage, I was absolutely blown away. These guys had a classic metal sound, much like that of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath. The lead singer, who looked like Sam Rockwell (from the movie Moon) provided vocals that sounded very similar to Ozzy, amazing. Tyler, Johnny, & I all felt like we were thrown into a time machine and taken back a few decades to the late 1970s, early 80s, when Black Sabbath was jamming. The Sword provided insane guitar solos, awesome rhythm on the bass, and a classic metal feel that had me bobbing my head to the beat the whole time. The lead guitarist  looked just like Stacy from The Lords of Dogtown, except with tats up his arms and amazing fast hands on the guitar instead of skateboard. We were able to get back up to the third or fourth row, but more off the side, as bodies were flying in the mosh pit in the middle, as full grown men crashed into and pushed each other back forth as the heavy metal beats filled the venue. The Sword just jammed, song after song, playing a complete composition of music, with an awesome vocalist providing the quality lyrics. I could not get over the fact of how good these guys were and how much the Black Sabbath feel was taking over my body. After they performed well over an hour, and finally finished, I left the Double Door as a fan of metal and of The Sword. Incredible. Check out the pics from my evening below!

After giving a private lesson Friday night at work, I headed into the city for another shortened weekend with Rachel. As I headed over to her place, she texted me saying she and her roommate Aly were headed to Walgreens to pick up dinner. At this moment I knew I was in for one of the most elegant meals of all time. I arrived and waited for them to get back from Walgreens, in which with their dinner options I was not disappointed, or surprised at all. They picked up: chili cheese dip, artichoke dip, chips, mozzarella sticks, & butterfly shrimp. The dinner of apps was about to be served. Oh we also had left over asparagus from last weekend that we were fortunate enough to heat up. While we ate this tasty? meal, we threw on an Iceland film which was made for young school children and brought many laughs into our lives due to its narrator showing places where many people had died and telling young children about it. At the same time it was somewhat informational though, so not a bad 30 minutes!

On Saturday morning I watched a documentary on Netflix called Chasing Ice which is about Global warming and the melting of glaciers in Iceland, Greenland, & Alaska. In this documentary, a team of filmers set up a series of cameras in these 3 countries, focused on specific glaciers. They cameras would take pictures every few hours and the result was a crazy timelapse over a couple of years of these glaciers literally melting away before our eyes. The documentary provided fantastic landscape imagery and I really enjoyed it, however, there was no call to action in the end. As a viewer, I saw that many glaciers are melting and global warming is an issue, but what can we do to help stop this? This was my only negative about the film, however, it made me realize heading out to Iceland and any nature location is something I really want to do, because we just don't know how long it will be around.

After the documentary both of Rachel's brothers came over and we headed over to a local bar called Corcoran's. I had a chicken wrap which was scrumptious. After lunch around 3 walked across the street to The Second City to catch Second City's Incomplete Guide to Everything show at Up Comedy Club. Rachel's brother Phil had bought the tickets and invited us all, how generous! This was my second second city show, and just like the first, it was hilarious. When we arrived we were seated along the back wall, which was a great view, since it was slightly elevated, was more of booth seating, so more comfortable, and we had plenty of leg room with an aisle in front of us rather than more seats. As people continued to flow into the theater, a man with a big white beard, overalls, and a red shirt strolled on past. Looking very similar, almost too similar, to Santa himself. After joking about Santa being in the theater, he sat down and we thought no more of it. Throughout the show we had a couple pitchers of blue moon, just like Rachel & I had the first time we went.  Skit after skit provided us with plentiful laughs and Rachel was able to participate in the last skit by calling out the year of choice, 1922. The skit started in the future and then kept going back in time, as the actors reenacted each scene in a different time frame. This was actually the funniest skit of all, ending with a black woman knocking on the door and entering. In the year 1922, as the black woman walked through the door, it ended with all of the white people screaming, classic 1922.

After the show the man who looked like Santa and his wife (Mrs. Clause) asked us if we wanted the souvenir glasses they or someone sitting by them had left. Not only did we get to meet Santa, but he gave us a gift, just like Christmas. He introduced himself as Santa, told us how he is a part of a Santa group, is THE Santa in the Thanksgiving day parade and at Daley Plaza, and wished us a Merry Christmas as him and the Mrs left for the door. As we were leaving, we were waiting in line for the coat check and who was in front of us, no other than Santa. We were chatting with them for awhile about the show we just saw, Christmas, and Santa being Santa; then Rachel asked to take a picture with him. Santa, of course, no stranger to fame, took one with Rach, and another with the whole group (minus Rob who took the picture).  On our way out of the building we said Merry Christmas to him and he shouted out a jolly "HO HO HO." Awesome.

That evening we just chilled at Rachel's apartment, ordered some Dominoes Pizza, and watched a few episodes of Community. We called it an early night as daylight savings was upon us and Rachel and I both had commitments at 8 am.

Sunday, I woke up at 7am and headed out to Benedictine for our first outdoor practice for the Fox Valley season. Luckily the sun was out and there was no wind, so despite it being in the 20's it was quite comfortable. The practice went fine and then I headed to work for the rest of Sunday. Rachel had her first volunteer shift at a local group called PAWS. She was able to play with dogs all morning, what a happy pup! Check out PAWS here!

As promised from last week, here are some tips about video that I learned from reading the book How to Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck by Steve Stockman:

• Entertain or Die!
• Shoot what you love, have passion for it
• Know your target audience
• Tell a story, with a hero, beginning, middle, and end
• Make your video short, leave them wanting more
• Plan ALL videos, it makes it easier to edit
• Have a shot list, with location/outfits, they make it more realistic
• Each scene needs an action and a hero
• Only do digital effects in editing stage, not in camera
• Have proper lighting, and use the foreground to add depth to a scene
• Change angles, with a clean/appropriate background
• Use the rule of thirds
• Watch what you filmed right away, and cut out all the unnecessary clips
• A slate clapper (scene 23, take 4, ACTION) is used to match up the video to the audio (fun fact)
• Use a call back when editing, end with a similar scene to the beginning

Hopefully I can take some of these things that I learned and make my videos a little shorter and more entertaining! Well on my way to making great videos!

The past week I also caught a couple of movies, Milk, A Clockwork Orange, and Chasing Ice. The movie Milk made me realize how slow the process of Gay rights has taken and that our society is still messed up, despite some advancements. Looking back, in 1978, there was a struggle for Gays to have rights and be recognized as people, this was the case for Harvey Milk as he ran for office in the San Fransisco area. In today's world, this is still a large issue and starting to change, but not quick enough. If you look back to the 1950s and a similar situation for African Americans, it is really sad that we as a society cannot accept people how they are. You would think we would learn this the first time it happened, which I am sure was wayyyyyy before the African American situation, but that is never the case. It seems people always think they are higher above than everyone else and need to stick to these biblical ideas. Time to open your eyes, it is 2014, equal rights for people of all ages, color, gender, orientation, etc.

The movie A Clockwork Orange started off as one of the strangest movies I had seen. A Stanley Kubrick film, starts as a montage of thugs or "droogs" as the main character calls them, running around and raping men and women. Once caught, the main character decides to get treatment instead of serving a jail term. This is where it turns into a pretty good movie, much along the lines of One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest. This movie is also based on a book, so I'll have to get my hands on that and see how crazy it is! Speaking of books, Rachel just finished her last Ender's Game, book, what will she do with herself now? I can't believe she read all of them (10 or so?). Awesome!

Oh! And my camera came back from the shop and looks nice and clean. Thank the Lord that they were able to clean the sensor off and I won't be having to spend another grand for a new setup.

Fun Fact of the day: Did you know if you type into 2 movies in google with a "vs" in between it will compare them? Check it out for 2 of my favorite movies from 2010. Shutter Island vs Inception
 

I released a "Hidden Footage" video this week from November of 2009 of me and Nolan investigating a haunted building at Adrian, Downs Hall. Classic Adrian memories with Nolan.

Oh, and it is hard to believe, but I found another drawer full of pencils/pens. Had to post them up. Some classic Mickey Mouse pens, a Dolphin pen that made an annoying dolphin noise, & color changing pens. Oh and remember those Dizzly Doodlers on the left that made you write all squiggly? Just a big ole vibrator with a pen tip now that I think about it! Ahh!

I recently came across this fine gentleman who does song covers on youtube. He has the voice of an angel. Enjoy.

That sums up the second week of March in 2014! Another awesome week ahead including a Blackhawks game, lacrosse practices, and more videos!

Josh

March is here...

Wait, it's March?

Time has flown by this year! I just feel like it was the new year and now we are already 1/6 of the way done with 2014. Not to mention we have had one of the coldest and snowiest winters in recent history!
Snow Records : This article from the Chicago Tribune states, "Between the months of December and February, known as the meteorological winter, 67.4 inches of snow were recorded here, making it the third snowiest on record... It was also the third coldest meteorological winter on record, with an average temperature of 18.8 degrees between December and February.

The snowiest December though February in recorded history was 1978-79, when 80.6 inches fell. The coldest was 1903-04, when the average temperature December through February was 18.3 degrees."

So only the winter of 78/79 and 03/04 of 1900 have been snowier and colder, I guess we have somewhat of a reason to complain, but not really, this is CHICAGO!

View fullsize

Pux Phil (me) with my sister Beth back in 1997

And in recent years, we have had a good amount of snow and cold in March, so don't be surprised if we have winter for another 6 weeks, considering that groundhog told us so!

Enough with the weather talk though, let's get to what has been happening in my life the past week of 2014.

A picture of me playing Aurora in the snowy cold! It was actually April in 2011 when this was taken by my father.

Unfortunately we start with some sad news. The Adrian v Aurora lacrosse game that was scheduled for Wednesday the 26th of February was cancelled because of cold weather? I had no idea that this was a thing, since I always played when it was cold "back in my day." Oh wow, I really am getting old, haha calling the players of today soft for not wanting to play in the cold weather. I guess it was a high of about 10 degrees Fahrenheit with windchills in the -20s. Maybe I'll allow this cancellation slide. I sure wouldn't want to play in that, since I am sure sticks would be breaking with each check.

While we were celebrating the life of Aunt Frieda on wednesday, a very very sad/disturbing story came out of my Aunt's school in a Chicago suburb. My Aunt was directly affected by the situation, but I won't say any more about this due to its graphic nature. You can read more in the news articles below. I will never understand what goes through a person's head to be able to do something like this. It is an unknown beyond me, and I pray for those involved.
Read with Caution (Graphic)
Read with Caution 2 (Graphic)

To lighter and happier news in my life though!

The legend of lacrosse, Mikey Powell has been more into music the past 8 years that he has lacrosse, but we all know this. From his infamous Camouflage Toad video, where he sings and laxes around, showing some impressive moves, to now, with the release of some new music, which I really enjoy! Check out his personal website and listen to his new album, Kapow. I love the folk feel he has. Click for more Mikey Powell Music

Never forget. I call out Mikey Powell on Stick Tricks

I had a bunch of free miles from AA and decided to use them up on some magazines before they expired coming up. I selected a variety including Time, Fortune, Cooking Light, and a few others. But the other day, a Maxim magazine arrived at my door. My mom calls downstairs to me, "Josh, your porno mag is here." I am thinking what in the world is she talking about? I seriously do not recall ordering this, but let's just say I was not disappointed in the issue, and if another comes, so be it!

This past weekend was a fun one, I spent the night Friday working at 1223, then had a 7 am practice for my FV team. After that I headed up to the city to hang with Rachel and spend the rest of the weekend with her. Saturday, Rachel's best friend Sarah came over. She was visiting from Alabama, so it was nice to see Rachel and her hanging out and enjoying each others company like old times! We played some Cards AGAINST Humanity which is always a fun time. Rachel, Sarah, her boyfriend Colin, Mary, Ashley, & I headed out to try to grab some dinner around 6, but forgot the Blackhawks were playing the Penguins at Soldier field, outside, for a stadium series game at 7! Sure we were not at soldier field, but the places we wanted to eat, Pour House & Benchmark, were super crowded. A 2 hour wait at Pour House! We decided to head over to a smaller bar right down the street from Rachel's place called McGinny's. To our surprise (not really) there was plenty of room for us to sit down and have a meal (only one other group was at the bar). Not only did we have the comfort of this bar to eat, it was half price burger Saturday night. Was I in heaven!? Pretty much. Rachel's brother Rob stopped by, and everyone got burgers and we enjoyed them while we watched the Blackhawks play outside during the first period. It must be so nostalgic for all of these players to have the opportunity to play outside during the winter, like they all did when they were young kids, just dreaming of playing in the NHL and scoring the game winning goal. How cool to now live that dream!

We headed back to Rachel's apartment to watch the rest of the game and get the party started. After the Hawks won by a score of 5 to 1, the moods in the room went from happy and excited, to happy and excited considering we were all having a good time anyway! That night friends Johnny & Brian came over and hung out for a while, as well as a handful of other friends. We played a little bit of Jenga, and did a lot of hanging out, a fun Saturday night in the city! It was great to see Sarah this weekend, since we have not seen her since the summer! Like I said, time flies.

Sunday the 2nd of March was a day that started with a noon wakeup call, and then a Subway lunch. Solid. After relaxing for most of the day, Rachel & I went to Jewel to pick up some groceries for her place, as well as some items for dinner that night!

That evening, right before the Oscars, we cooked up flank steak, asparagus covered in balsamic vinegar & onions, & baked potato wedges, all topped with blue cheese crumbles. One word: delicious! This was definitley the best steak that I had ever cooked and it tasted scrumptious. In the process of cooking I learned that flank steak is usually served medium rare to rare, so juicy and full of flavor. It may have been the best & fanciest meal that Rachel and I have conjured up!

The Oscars proved that Gravity had great graphics & sound, winning almost every single one of those categories. We were going to try to watch all of the nominated movies before the Oscars, but ended up not seeing a single one. Now we can watch and be the judge if the winners were worthy!

Afterwords, Rachel & I (rather Rachel, since I fell asleep) watched the movie Blue Jasmine, which starred Cate Blanchett who won best actress for the Oscars this year, and Alec Baldwin. I watched it the next day, and really enjoyed the movie. Cate put on a great performance, well deserved Oscar!

Grandma and I at Aunt Frieda's funeral

Went through some more pencils I have collected over the years, found a couple gems. You're welcome.

Dad playing net in the Masters Open for a second straight week! He played great!

“ “Since I was young, I have always known this: Life damages us, every one. We can’t escape that damage. But now, I am also learning this: We can be mended. We mend each other.””

— Tobias from Allegiant

Other news real quick. I finally finished 2 books this week that I have been reading for a couple of weeks. How to Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck by Steve Stockman and Allegiant  by Veronica Roth. I will provide a list of great tips and tricks I learned from the video book next week. It was nice to have a Film 101 class taught to me through all 250 pages, and I learned a handful of things. Despite hearing negative reviews for the book Allegiant, I really enjoyed the ending and thought the book came full circle. Although even with this appropriate ending, the first two books, Divergent and Insurgent definitely had more action and kept your reading longer. I really enjoyed the end quote from a character named Tobias in the novel, so I will share it with you. "Since I was young, I have always known this: Life damages us, every one. We can't escape that damage. But now, I am also learning this: We can be mended. We mend each other." It is not a super complex message, but it is true and everyone can relate. In life, we will almost always at some point be hurt or damaged. Perhaps by something, someone we don't know, or even those closest to us. However, in times like this, we have each other to lean on. Being there for others, with open arms, is one of the most important things you can do in life.  With time, we WILL mend each other and heal this damage, maybe not fully, but to a great extent.

Coming up this week: Going to see O'Brother with Johnny on wednesday, sending my camera in to (fingers crossed) be fixed, & attempting a detox cleansing of candy for the week as I have been on overload since Valentine's Day!

That is all for now.

Josh