VAY-K

got back today from a four-day cruise to cozumel, mx. i LOVE traveling. i love other cultures and being immersed in them. i'd really like to go down to honduras and do some mission work some summer. anyways, i digress. i had a great time just chilling though. last year when we went on the cruise i was more immersed in the mexican culture. this year i hung out in my stateroom, watched entourage, and slept. man it was nice. missed two days of teaching with it too. now it's spring break. a total of eleven days away from students. hopefully i'll come back refreshed and ready to go! i might post some pictures sometime soon.

a month later

Ok, I haven't posted in a while. Been busy.

I'm leaving soon on a cruise to Cozumel. I love to travel. It's so much fun.

So now for a totally different train of though. I really like finding musicians, movies, etc. that aren't mainstream yet. I really enjoying Hoodie Allen right now. He's a rapper from New York, but I'd use rapper very loosely. Yeah sure he raps, but he infuses lots of samples from the indie-scene. He's got a sweet love affair with January Jones and has an entire chorus of one song about her. On another he samples from Death Cab for Cutie.

Iration is another up and coming band. They've got a pretty sweet sound. A mix of reggae and rock, all of the members hail from Hawaii and you can hear it in their music.

Johnny Stimson is the last up and comer I've got for the day. He's an acoustic rock guy from Highland Park, Texas, went to A&M, and now lives in New York/Dallas. He sounds a lot like Gavin Degraw and Bob Morris from the Hush Sound. Happy in B-flat is a great little tune. Go look him up!

Ok, now for some funny.

weather

pops, you'd love this weather. 70 on monday. tornado/bad thunderstorm blew threw early tuesday morning. the rest of tuesday it snowed. hasn't been above 30 since. today we've got about 3 inches of snow on the ground. wish you were here.

when to chunk it the deuce

So here goes.

I'm going to choose my words carefully. This is, after all, being posted publicly and it could possible bite me in the butt later.

I have learned throughout the years to only do the things I love and to have fun doing it. If it's not fun what's the point?

Furthermore, some people need to realize that they are the cause of others misery. What's the point for you to be like that? You own betterment? To put yourself on a pedestal?

The leader of a group is never above the group. He or she should view themselves as the bottom of the group. The leader can be easily replaced.

I know there are many grey phrases and even though no one reads this nothing is directly to the point. That's fine. I'd rather not directly say the thing to which I'm referring. Oh well. It's off of my chest in so many different ways now.

Oscar stuff

Ok, I've been watching lots of movies lately. Here are my predictions on who will win.

Actor in a Leading Role

• Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”

Actor in a Supporting Role

• John Hawkes in “Winter's Bone”

Actress in a Leading Role

• Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”

Actress in a Supporting Role

• Helena Bonham Carter in “The King's Speech”

Animated Feature Film

• “Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich

Art Direction

• “Alice in Wonderland”
  Production Design: Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Karen O'Hara

Cinematography

• “Inception” Wally Pfister

Costume Design

• “Alice in Wonderland” Colleen Atwood

Directing

• “The Social Network” David Fincher

Documentary (Feature)

• “Restrepo” Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger

Documentary (Short Subject)

???????

Film Editing

• “127 Hours” Jon Harris

Foreign Language Film

??????

Makeup

• “The Wolfman” Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

Music (Original Score)

• “Inception” Hans Zimmer
• “The Social Network” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

It's a toss up between those two!

Music (Original Song)

• “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3" Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Best Picture

• “The Social Network” Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Ceán Chaffin, Producers

Short Film (Animated)

??????

Short Film (Live Action)

??????

Sound Editing

• “Inception” Richard King
• “Tron: Legacy” Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague

Again, another toss up.

Sound Mixing

• “Inception” Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick

Visual Effects

• “Inception” Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

• “The Social Network” Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin

Writing (Original Screenplay)

• “The King's Speech” Screenplay by David Seidler

Another day. I'm ready to go on another trip. I love traveling. Going to Mexico on the cruise last year was so much fun and I can't wait to do it again. Going to Disney this summer with my family. Should be a lot of fun.

Had All-Region yesterday. Sat around doing practically nothing all day. Concert was ok at best. We've lost a lot of quality players in the region. Oh well.

Saw this movie the other day. Story was great. Music was awesome too.



Music is such an amazing thing. It is the only thing in the world that can convey so many different emotions.

21 days later

Nothing new.

Been watching a lot of movies lately of different genres but of the same recurring "coming of age" story. A few days ago I looked at moviefone's top 50 list of 2008, 2009, and 2010. Crazy. I've seen most of them. Watching the one's I haven't seen that are actually interesting to me.

Been listening to this song a lot.


Such a good song. Really I got there from this video.




Nothing's ever too hard. Someone will be there. Don't lose touch. Never give up.