Paper, Books, and Websites. Life of a College Student

The first week always hits the hardest. With four classes, a full time job, and then whenever I can go out (like tomorrow night), I'm busy. It's been crazy this week, and it's only going to get more insane.

It's nothing but syllabi and theses. 

The Girl.

I've posted this a long time a go, but I want to resurface this, and see what you guys think. Still haven't found the girl in this dream of mine, but she's out there somewhere.

I miss the beach. I want to feel the cold pacific surround me as I get barreled.
I want that sticky feeling of dried saltwater, and my hair all a mess because I left my hat at home.
I want the smell of a great seafood place right off the beach, tempting me with it's salty, buttery aromas.

But, then, there's the girl.

The one riding the waves alongs side me.
The one running her fingers through my mop of what I call a hairstyle.
The one who's holding my hand, playing with my fingers as we walk up to that great seafood restaurant...all the while, me thinking, "why did she pick me, of all guys?"
The one girl who takes me 45 minutes to kiss her goodnight because we're talking too much..
..and then spending another three hours talking on the phone, until she falls alseep on the other end of the line.
This, is when I realize, life could not get any better.

Crazy Day

Yea, today's been crazy! Work, drive to class, have class with a good friend in there, drive back to town, have lunch at Chick Fil A (hold your complaints, I wanted chicken, and not from the Colonel!), 5 minute meet up with someone, drive to Barnes and Noble, picked two books (The 500 by Matthew Quirk, and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) I chose to read for my class, drive back, finish work, now for an afternoon of homework, then onto open house at the high school for our foreign exchange student. Back home for homework, and sleep.

I love this life. I'm never stopping, always going, always smiling and having fun. This is what makes me happy is constantly moving. Like the tide of the ocean, it's always going in one direction or another.

I had some other ideas to post about some stuff, but it's not worth the time or confrontation from people I'd get for it. I'll just leave it at this: Hypocritical natures often are jaded by their own realities and fail to see how things really work, and who people really can be.

Dazed and Amazed - The Turn Around Weekend

This past weekend was insane. Work was taking forever on Friday, but mainly because I had amazingly awesome plans that I was waiting to follow through with. My family decided to get their annual passes again at Disney (I've had mine since July), and I was going with some good high school friends as well.

I mean, I made a entire playlist of songs for the night. It was gonna be amazing. But I really don't have much else to say right now, mainly because it's monday, and I don't want to type up some grand story. So here's photos, and I'll finish with some other stuff at the end.

 We're here! :)

The twin met up with us! 

Huh...what's in the envelop...

Yea...he got a surprise.

Mama soaking in the new Land. 

Throwback Thursday: Three Parks in a Day

Throwback Thursday, for those that don't really know (and if you don't, get out from under that rock you live in, and jump into the internet pop culture), is a weekly photo/memory trip for people to post something from the past to share with the friends on the futuristic social networking across the globe. Because really, how great is it that you can now share your baby photo with your friends in Paris? 

Like I blogged yesterday, I'm going to try to blog daily. So for Throwback Thursday, this one's a memory about earlier this summer. 

I had just broken up with my girlfriend, and I needed a distraction. So I take a vacation down south to hang out with my bro Austen (@blueskyhigh91) . We spend a few days going to Disney, and the US Open of Surfing, but the craziest day was when we hit three different theme parks in a day. 

We woke up in his apartment, thinking we'd drive down to Carlsbad to check out LegoLand. It's a quaint park, just really designed for the twelve and under crowd. So we get out on the road, and blast the killers, crack jokes, talk about girls and his (now girlfriend) crush Danielle (@Deemagicgurl on twitter). Talk about the breakup I had, and what I was going to do about it, and we finally make it down to LegoLand. 

It's a lot of fun, and we check a few rides out, enjoy the shows and such, and spent the longest time at the MiniLand section, observing the models of towns, and then wanting to visit the actual cities such as New York, and San Francisco. Then, my grandmother calls and offers to get us into Knott's Berry Farm (they were already over there). We accept, and head out. This was only 2:00pm, and we were going to make it up to Knotts. 

A side note, but I don't get how people complain about driving in LA/OC. The traffic can admittedly be bad, but really, it's not as terrible as it's hyped up to be. 

Back on track...we get to knotts, and get into the park, and decide to ride one of the few woodie coasters in California. Does anyone know of a good chiropractor, because Ghostrider is set on breaking your back. We have a good time, and ride a few other rides. Oh, and I got Austen onto Xcelerator. That was entertaining. He was freaked out in line. We're talking, shaking hands, sweaty palms, the works. We get on, and the air hisses out of the brakes. We're rocketed down the track and he's screaming and yelling, and about halfway DOWN the tower, he starts laughing and enjoying the ride. We get off the ride and he ends up liking it. After Xcelerator, him and I try to go for what we didn't think would happen. We leave to go see the fireworks at Disneyland, and go for three parks in a day. We make it to the parking structure, race to the trams, and run into the park a mere 10 minutes before Magical! starts for the evening. After that, we ride a few rides, get a coffee and head back to the apartment for the night. 

Next time, we're going to try to add Universal Studios and California adventure to this crazy mix, but this was definitely a helpful fix for me after the breakup, and a really great memory I had from this past summer with my bro. 

Blog a day, keeps writers block at bay.

I'm going to try to blog at minimum once a day. This is going to be my story. I'm doing it to be able to look back and see where I was in my life and what stories I had to talk about.

So far today's been alright. Work was a good time. Ended up taking the clients to Burger King and getting an ice cream cone. I've been hooked on How I Met Your Mother lately. I can't get enough of that show. It's hilariously written, and the characters are easily connectable and relatable.

Now I'm at my iMac getting ready to work on a project or two. I've got The Hangover playing in the background. Haven't seen that in...oh, nine months or so. But it's good to be back to laughing at stupid humor, for the pure sake of entertainment. I'm not condoning taking your friends to Vegas for a bachelor party, buying drugs from a gas station, or marrying a hooker named Jade. But given that it's a fictional story that's so out of this world, it's still funny to laugh at.

Rest of the night's going to be pretty quiet. Waiting for the weekend to finally get here. Going to Disneyland friday night, not sure about Saturday's plans, and Church on Sunday. 

Private Malone

The only light in my room is the glowing 21 inches of my iMac in the room right now. iTunes is on shuffle, and I've gone from Cheap Trick, to Taylor Swift, to Digital Daggers, to some Disney BackGround Music from the parks, and now, to a song I haven't heard in a long time.

I know, I know, it's country. But growing up in Bakersfield, you gotta meet everyone at some point, right? Anyway, this song somehow always had a way of playing late at night when I'd lay in bed listening to the Late night Show with Blair Garner, and it was always a song that got me to dream about the story it tells. And I really don't know why I'm even posting this, because I have ZERO point to make with it, but it's bringing back memories of my childhood. Back when I could hear a song, and just see the story come to life through the lyrics.  And that's actually one of the great things about country music. It's not just a love song thrown together with a catchy beat. There's actual stories to be told about life. This one just happened to be a big part of my late night childhood radio listening, and wondering what Private Malone did in the war. Where he went, how he died in battle. What if he wrote love letters back to his Mrs. Malone? We're never going to know, but it's great to wonder, isn't it?

The Wonderful World of Walt

I try not to post my own personal blue sky ideas much, mainly for personal reasons, but this one I want to see what people think of.

What would happen if, for Disney California Adventure's 20th Anniversary, and Walt's 120th birthday year (2021), Disney makes a show honoring the man who created the Mouse, and the park, and even after, inspired everything we have today?

It's not a great photoshop job, but I'm still working on how to really make things look more and more professional. However, this gets the point across, I hope. This is a rough draft idea, and can definitely use tweaks here and there to polish it, but I think it's an idea that could be really grand.

Photo links: Walt and World of Color

The show starts with the soft pier background music. Everyone's all standing along the waterfront, chatting with a coffee or a beer from the Garden across the way, and suddenly the lights lower. The music quiets.

As people hush their conversations, and start to cheer, you hear a train slowly chugging into the station, with small white fountains bobbing in a line as the train nears the stop along the station. As the quiet dapper music plays, you see a young walt step out of a passenger car, looks to Mickey and say "Well Mickey, you ready for your big break?" As he says this, the music picks up into a song about following your dreams, with a very classic, but upbeat style, with white fountains dancing. Relatively close to the program style used in the entrance of the current show. Dancers rotating in circles, with a few line of chasers towards the back. 

As the intro ends, the clips begin. 

the entire show brings in popular clips from the dawn of Walt and Mickey. With a newly configured spirit (yes, at this point Little Squirt would come back, but with Walt Narrative)

Starting still in "black" and white fountains, Walt's voice and spirit come around on the platform, talking about how we need to make a new dream with Mickey. He's basically talking to Mickey as a director, telling Mickey what to do, and mentoring him.  

Walt

"What we need, Mickey, is you saving Minnie. You captain the Steamboat, and save the girl, ok?" 

Mickey

"aha, you got it, boss!" 

We then venture through Steamboat Willie. As the boat sails across screen, water gags hit the cues with the film on screen, very akin to how The Just Add Water concerts are now with Maestro Goofy. 

"well boss, how'd that take go?" 

Walt

"Great job! Now let's make you a friend. How about a duck?"

As he says this, donald is drawn on screen. 

Mickey

"ha, boss, I sure could use a pal!" 

Walt

Alright, now, lets take a stand, and play with the band. 

The Band concert's then kicks up. This is when color starts to appear in the show. Up until now, it's all in white fountains. 

Donald's hijinks are displayed through the fountains as blue, Mickey's in red, and they battle back and forth. 

This progress from the band concert to the next cartoon, with Fantasia and the darker part of the show

Walt

"Well Mickey, people love you. Want to try your luck with my magic?" 

Mickey

"you trust me? Golly, that'd sure be swell, boss!"

As the says this, Fantasia's Sorcerer's Apprentice appears, with orange dancing fountains as broomsticks, and as more fountains add water,  waves of water with blue lasers rising up fill the area, and Walt cuts it short. 

"whoa, whoa, whoa there little buddy. Gotta practice more! Lets try this. You take a break, and we're going to make some new characters appear. Someday, you're going to direct all of this."

From here, the show starts a montage of characters. Alice In Wonderland, Cinderella, Snow White, Peter Pan, etc. As it gets around to the films made in the 60's, Walt calls in Mickey. 

"Mickey, I can't do this much longer. I'm passing all of this on to you."

Mickey

"But, but...boss! I can't do this, I need you! They need you!"

Walt

"Mickey, you're going to do wonderful things, my friend. Go, and keep the magic....alive"

"B...b-boss? Mr. Walt?"

You hear a quiet, raspy sigh, and with that, Mickey stands up, walks across the water screens and picks up the paint brush Walt uses to create the characters on screen. 

"Alright guys, let's make magic!"

now Mickey conducts the show, and from here he helps create his friends. From Jungle book to Pete's Dragon, to Little Mermaid, Lion King,  Toy Story, Hunchback of Notre Dame, etc. This is when the show "blows up" with Mickey coming up with the characters we've grown up with, only to end the show with the final song, And Mickey saying "well boss, We've made it. Look at what you've done for all of us. Lets make some more magic!" and it ends. 

This is the first time I'm thinking this through, and it can easily be rewritten, and rewritten, and again, rewritten to work. But I think the basic concept here, with a show about Walt and Mickey coming together to make what we've grown up with can be very powerful, and done very well. Something I hope could become a great story to show someday. 

What do you think? 

Pirates of the Car(brick)ibbean

Bored tonight, made a small model of the entrance island to Pirates at Disneyland. Could make it more detailed, but this was done in about 15 minutes time. Any suggestions on something else I should make soon? 

"I'm In Hillbilly Hell"

Those words in the title come from Disney/Pixar's Cars. It's a popular scene when Lightning McQueen is trying to convince Minnie and Van to assist him to get out of Radiator Springs, because he's 'in hillbilly hell'. Disney really has pretty much any movie to relate to any moment in your life. Right now, I feel a bit light Lightning McQueen: stuck in some small town with "no way out". The difference is, my small town isn't quaint and awesome like Radiator Springs. Unfortunately, this is the real world, and it sucks.

My problems of this place, and desire to leave don't stem from a bad home life, or anything like that. It stems from the fact that this place is beyond what I don't want in life. I know this for fact, now that I've had a chance to sit down by myself in some quiet time and reflect on my life. This place has some issues, and I won't go into detail for each one, but here's a list:
- It's small. There's literally nothing to do outside a movie, Dewars, or Boomers/Camelot on a friday night. If you're lucky, you can do all three in the same night. (this is where people unfortunately "get creative" and find ways to "have fun". Youtube "redneck party tricks" and you'll see what I mean)
- Politics. Yea, this is everywhere, but when your town gets contracts to get higher quality dining experiences, and because of a "kit fox" they halt the entire project prettymuch permanently, there's a problem.
- Good Ol' Boy. This is rampant in Bakersfield. It very much appears that unless you're "in" with the cliques of this town, you're "out" on everything. The star linebacker from Bakersfield High of the 70's  is still as arrogant as he was the day he made the game saving tackle.
- Air Quality. Yes, I know LA has its share of problems with this too, BUT they have the marine layers to wash it out more often than the armpit of the vally does.

There's more than that, but that's the bigger topics on the list. This isn't even scratching the list of my own personal issues. There's too many bad memories that I want to leave in the past, and start fresh in a bigger and more productive place. Orange County and Los Angeles are places that, albeit have their own problems as well, still have a larger base of people, and a base of people that I can find, and be creative and live the life I truely want with. I want to be able to drive 30 minutes to the beach and surf, go to work, get off work, meet with friends for dinner, laugh and have quality conversations outside of "oh, did you hear what Jimmy did over at Pismo last week on his quad?", then go back to my apartment, put on some music, and work on a project for work. Maybe have my girlfriend come over the next morning and I make her breakfast. Oh, and I want a window that I can look out and not see a field of dirt.

As for the people, I want away from the stupid, idiodic drama. I know that this again, is something that happens everywhere, but when you're in a town this small, and everyone knows everyone, word travels fast. For example. I broke up with my girlfriend a few weeks ago. And to stop with the PR answer to everyone, and being honest here (I know I might get heat for this, but screw it, I don't care) she wasn't what I ended up wanting. Things were changing and I wasn't happy. I was giving up my dreams to make hers happen, and I didn't even realize at the time that it was gonna suck for me long term. That, and there were times that I just felt like it was a manipulation trip. Quick bat of the eyes, that slight plead to the tone of voice, and it's a sucker trap for a guy like me. I know it, others know it, but no one will admit it but me.

Back on track...

when I broke up with her, I changed my relationship status really late at night when very little of my friends were on, didn't tell many publicly about it. But people I didn't even have on my friends list started calling me out of the blue asking if I was ok and what happened (of course that question comes up..). And as much as I appreciate about 90% of the calls/texts/messages, there's still those people that I just don't want to know my stuff, because it turns to gossip and then the story twists to we broke up because of some stupid reason, instead of the real reason. Not only this, but last night I was supposed to go get dinner with a old friend of mine from high school. She's dating a good friend of mine from high school (we all hung out a lot in high school, so I know both of them really well). I figured it was fine, because she's faithful to him, and I'm beyond NOT interested in her. Especially now that I vow not to really look into dating anyone from here anymore (yes, ladies in SoCal, I'm single). Anyway, I get a text from her boyfriend saying it was unecessary to pay for dinner if all I was going to do was apologize. I had no idea what he was talking about, because I just wanted to catch up and chat about how our lives have been lately. It's been a good year since I've seen anyone from high school, so I'd figure dinner and chatting would be good. Not the case.

She apparently lied to him, and even with screenshooting the conversation (via text) I had with her, he got mad at me, told me not to talk to her or him, and blamed me for "sounding interested in her". Really? We're still playing this game, guys? Trust me, I wouldn't go after another guy's girl, even if she was Minka Kelly or Olivia Wilde.

I'm just tired of this town and how petty and just....high school it can be. I want to find a more mature group of friends that I can really trust and confide with. I want a life where I can work hard at what I love, and not just a job that pays me to be there for them. I want to be able to find great local places and not just fast food or the Basque house in town. There's too much in this world to see and do, and I don't want to miss out on any of it being here. 

Welcome to America: Land of Excess.

My family and I are hosting a foreign exchange student this school year, and it's opened my eyes to a lot of things. Especially excess. Why do we need SO much? Why do we have to have more of this, and more of that? What prompts us to have this more, more, more lifestyle? 

I may just be a man of simple style and 'I need what I use, not what I want' thinking, but even yesterday as my dad and granddad drove up to Valencia to watch The Bourne Legacy (great film, by the way. Don't always listen to the critics), my granddad who's diabetic and vastly overweight, stopped us at In-N-Out to get a cheeseburger and fries. Then at the theater, he downed one of those giant popcorns all on his own, and no more than 3 hours later, polished off A LOT of Italian food at Buca Di Beppo for dinner. It's crazy how much we take in as people, and I'm not even talking about food. 

Geeks collecting every piece of movie memorabilia they can get their cheeto covered fingers on (yea, I know you're out there, just don't take offense to this. It's not intentional), even Starbucker's getting their "fix" 3 or 7 times a day. There's no need to have so much. Live comfortable, yes. But don't over do it. Over doing anything is never good. 

We live in a society that doesn't say less is more. It's constantly "buy this! You'll look great." or "you need another burger. BUT, you can super size your preservative filled meal for a mere .67 cents." And when you're in the moment, you never think about what deal you're being suckered into, you just think you're getting something more for less, simply because the higher price it would be in the first places scares your pocket book to Ben Franklin's grave and back. 

Trick is this. Say no. Tell Ronald McDonald you don't need an extra fry. Take only what you need. You can't take those extra shirts and DVD's to your grave.

Innoventing The Expo.

While at work, I sketched up an idea for Innoventions if it ever did get a Marvel theme. Might do a TRON design later.

Hell Hath No Fury Like a Pissed Off Grandma

For those on my facebook page, this pertains to you.

Dang...you know, sometimes I just let other people fight the battle, while I watch and see how it plays out. This is insane to me.

For those that don't know: people (in general) have occasionally been making comments about my breakup with Jami. Some have been supportive, others not as much. For those not as supportive, my grandmother has been hitting back just as quick as others have been hitting, and I gotta say, she's got some wit to her posts for those replying back negatively. It's really funny to watch her fight back.

I'm going to leave it at this for those that feel differently about my decision to end it with Jami: I made my decision based on heart, not mind. I feel what I did was right, and if you disagree, well you can freely sit and stew in your own juices. Jami is a wonderful girl. She is funny, adorable, and well determined to follow her dreams. But it's just not right for me right now to handle a relationship, nor do I beleive that it'd work right in the long term, as I've said before. Can't you credit a guy for not dragging things out, and leading it on? I know she's upset, hurt, and broken hearted. I am too. But life sucks sometimes when you lose something you thought would be so great for so long.

With that said, for those reading this and on my facebook list as well: Please contact me privately if you want to talk about this to me. I'll answer any questions and feedback you have about everything that has gone down.

Now back to your regularly scheduled life...

Carthay Lego

working on a little lego project when I have time. Decided to rebuild Carthay Circle Theater at California Adventure. With the lego designer, it's going to be a lot of fun building some Disney stuff.

Back from...somewhere

I really haven't been on here enough lately. I know this place looks like a dump, and that's because I want to try to find a cool new background for my page.

So where have I been? Well right now I'm sitting at my iMac blogging, watching TRON: Legacy on my Tv, chatting with some friends and thinking of my life.

MainStreetJake is pretty much gone. I was tired of the crap I was getting, and want to start fresh. I was being harassed so much because of MiceChat excrementalists and foamtards, and the trolls that didn't like things I was doing, that it wasn't much fun to deal with. I've got a new twitter handle (@mr__twitchy) and I'm trying to stick to being more private with it (not tweeting photos of myself or anything like that), but then again, you can log on to the past history of here and see me, so it sort of defeats the purpose.

Anyway, I'm coming off a current break up from my girlfriend of nine months, and it sucks. It still does, because I see things that remind me of her, and how fun the relationship was. For those wanting to know, it just was going different ways right now with our lives. She wants to stay in Bakersfield and teach, and I want to get into Imagineering or anything really, with Disney, and living in Southern California. She's a wonderful girl, and I really wish that her dreams come true.

And as of right now, I'm day dreaming. There's a lot that I've been thinking about, and I really want them to happen in time. First off, moving south. I really can't stand Bakersfield. It's great for those that want to settle down and start a small town life. But over time I've realized that that is not what I want. I want to be where creativity thrives, and dreams are made for not just myself, but I can help make others dreams come true as well. Los Angeles, and Orange County is my muse. This is where I find my best ideas and true love of life. I can surf. I can dine at places all the time that aren't chain restaurants, but quality dining locations that are world renowned. There is SO much more to things there than this town, and that's what I really want to have. More possibilities.

All in all, I'm excited for what will happen with my life. I'm not worried about what hardships I might face, or how things will play out. It'll be a grand adventure, and I'm ready for this ride.