Quick Note Tonight...

Thinking about some iPhone 5 features I'd like to see. 

•  Front screen rotation. When you use your phone horizontally, your apps rotate 90° to accommodate the tilt of your phone. 
• Use of a wireless airplay from phone to iMac/MacBooks, and vice versa in iTunes. Think of it as tapping into iTunes over 3/4G or Wifi and being able to play what's in your iTunes library without having to upload the film/show to your phone/iPad, decreasing phone/iPad space.

Dancing The Years Away

It's a pain thinking so deeply so late at night sometimes. You end up staying up thinking of things that go from one thing to another and then another. Tonight, I'm thinking about age and romance. You see, my girlfriend has a photo of her a few years ago with her grandparents. Unfortunately, her granddad passed away a while back, and the anniversary of his death is very close to this time of year. Her grandmother (and I consider mine as well) has a hard time with this time of year, because her love is no longer with her. I mean, this is a couple that danced in the kitchen, and grandpa kissed grandma on the cheek just because. Brought her flowers out of the blue, and wrote poems and stories for her. A real life Carl and Ellie. And it got me thinking when I saw the photo, that there's nothing more in the world than pure romance like that. With divorce rates so high, and young couples just sleeping around and catching who knows what STD, and not even knowing names of their sleeping partner of the Friday night, it really drives me away from anything like that, and more towards that pure romance and undying love.

I'm only nineteen, but I'm tired of hearing my friends talk about what binge party they went to, and how many times they had sex with random people. That isn't fun to me. I'd rather go out to a quiet dinner and then go back to my girlfriends or my house with our families and watch a movie together. And I want to dance in the kitchen. I want to be just like my girlfriends grandparents and have a love that lasts 50, 60,70 years. And when we get older, I still want to come home to her with flowers, and while we cook dinner, take her by the hand and slow dance. I want to just hold her hand as we read a book on the couch. I want to be on our knees together before bed praying together as a couple. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but it seems to me that the old fashion way of doing things brings less drama, and less complications to things when you follow the rules and guidelines set before our generations.

I'm going to bed now, and I'm thinking of how amazing it is that I have people like my girlfriend's grandparents to look up to as a model for my own relationship with their granddaughter. It's reassuring knowing there's still strong love out there in the world. 

Facebook Ideas

I'm a huge fan of Facebook. I love the website for everything it is. However with looking at the site, there's a few ideas that I would definitely love to have as a user. Note, this isn't anything Zuckerburg and the coders in blue may have up their sleeves.  I don't have any idea what they're doing to change it. These are all merely my own ideas.

• Ticker - no one really likes this on its own. But everyone likes the newsfeed. However with the way the newsfeed is laid out right now, you get "top stories" (from like, the entire week, and things most people don't care about), and recent news. Why not get rid of top stories, and utilize the ticker as your homepage, where it's a constant stream of news flowing, and then when you're on another page aside from the home newsfeed page, it goes back to the mini ticker? Some would question about missing news pieces they might want to see. Well that's where the top stories comes back into play, and from your friends list, the top stories (posts that have the most comments) would be compiled into hour by hour lists of the day. So if you log off at 1PM, and get back on at 7PM, and want to see what you missed, you can check the top stories from each of those hour blocks (1-2pm, 2-3, 3-4, and so on). 
• This one might stir up controversy, but just like what you can do with yourself, it would be great to go back and see what people liked/commented on from the past, and not just their own posts on their time line. Open the activity log for everyone, and not just closed off to each person.
• On your timeline, stop showing friends on a bigger window to the right. There's a reason you have that smaller window at the top next to your info. 

And for now, that'll be it. But as ideas come to mind, I'll post more. What do you think of these?

Returning...with change

It's been crazy lately. I have been resisting posting, just because there has been so much going on, and I've liked my privacy about things. I'm trying to find things to blog about that I'm dealing with, but making sure that the names/places of things can change so people outside the computer don't get hurt. What I'm getting at is that I'm wanting to write out what I'm going through, but without damaging others, writing it more fictitiously so other people could relate to the stories. I haven't been down to Disneyland since December, and I've been really low key on any news in general.

Maybe its because I've had other life priorities in place besides Disney. I've gotten cool backstage footage of some stuff that I'm not going to release, but other than that, I've had it on the back burner. There's some things I want to do with my blog, but  overall, I'm not sure which route I want to take my blog, because I like covering broad topics of my interests and hobbies, and also relating things to my personal life. What would you guys like to see on here in regards to writing? Let me know. Leave a comment down below, or e-mail me at mainstreetjake@yahoo.com. Or if you're on twitter, the link's in the side bar.

Now that I've got this written, I'm off to the beach to go skim boarding. 

Privacy

Some have asked where my blog has gone. Why it's dropped off the radar and why there hasn't been any new posts going on lately. Well, to answer that question, I'll tell you that I've really enjoyed my privacy and really enjoyed not writing lately. It's not that I've fallen out of my love of writing and expressing my thoughts, because that's still a strong passion of mine. However, I've had family see what I post, whether it be on facebook or here, and they have given me grief for it. From my relationship with my girlfriend, to getting my first speeding ticket, it's just a constant stream of negativity and questioning from them about how I'm living my life.

Not that I'm doing anything I ultimately shouldn't, because that's not the case. I'm still living my life just like I always have: by keeping it as fun and positive as possible. It's just insane to see how people can try to tear you down.

I'm going to leave it at this: I appreciate wisdom being given to me from older people, and take it to heart when I know I need to. But when it comes from the mouth of fools, I tend to bypass it. This does include family, and I'll refrain from names. I don't drink, I don't smoke, and unless you get me REALLY mad, you won't hear any language from me either. I don't believe in premarital sex. I don't see why people feel the need to question my life when I'm not damaging it in any way.

Some have said that I'm moving too fast with my girlfriend. Well, since we're living our lives strongly through our faith, then I don't see how people can say that, when all we want is to just be very committed to each other. Admittedly, we're both old fashion. I gave her a promise ring that physically symbolizes our relationship and commitment to each other. It's not an engagement ring. It's just a ring to show that we're both staying with each other. To some of you this is probably about as foreign as hearing Chinese for the first time.

For those questioning if she's the one for me, and how do I REALLY know if it's right: I have never felt more comfortable with a girl than I do her. Back in high school, and even recently I had to come up with a list of what I'd love to see in a future spouse, and from the little things (loves to cuddle up and watch movies), to the bigger things (same faith as myself, comes from a strong and close family), she has matched, and then some that I didn't even have on my list. She's the girl that can get me to smile on the worst day possible, and just talking to her for a few minutes on the phone can de-stress me. She is someone I can see myself with years from now dancing in the kitchen, or paying bills together, and so much more. I'm extremely happy to be her boyfriend, and I'm ecstatic to see what our future brings. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I just..know.

Yes, I got a speeding ticket. A lot of people have. I'm not a heathen devil child because of it. I was going 12 miles over (67 in a 55), and yes I'll fess up and say that I'm at fault for it. It happens. Stop bringing it up as if I'm a serial killer.

To sort of end this thing, I'm really tired of my family gossiping and talking about my life. There's a reason I don't have a lot of them on facebook because my facebook is reserved for those that know how to take a friend's life as they read through, and just enjoy it as a story. I don't need the world to know what I'm up to, and the people that are on my facebook have that same mentality. Who we share our info with is vital, and when gossip minded people see my info and wrongly share it, I don't appreciate that. So to the family members and friends reading this, understand that I do love you, and care for you, however due to your own actions, you're not going to really know what I'm doing unless I want you to. 

Thoughts on life

I'm sitting in on a coaches meeting with my dad. He's a head coach for a up and coming club team in town. As I'm sitting here, I'm looking at a lot of faces. Most of them my age or younger. Some look tired. Some look like they can go on all night. But these guys all have a story. They're all here to sign up and play football. But looking at them, you can tell some of these guys have been through a lot. One has a kid on his lap. His girlfriend, and his child's mother is in the next room. On of them has tear drops next to his eyes. You get the picture. This isn't the ghetto, really. My dad and his coaches are reaching out to a lot of kids from a lot of areas of town. There's two that live in Seven Oaks. Another drives a BMW. They're all here for a common goal, and that's football. To join together as a band of brothers, and smash the living heck out of each other while trying to get a leather ball down a 100 yards. These guys have a purpose. Even though they come from a wide variety of lifestyles, they're all here, unified.

The great thing about this is that they're looking to better their lives. My dad and his coaches aren't just here to assist with teaching these guys how to play football. They're here to be moral support. They're here to help talk them through a hard time in life. I believe everyone needs something like this in their life. It may not be football. It may be another sport. It may be academic decathlon. With those activities and coaches, they help guide and support young adults to better shape their lives. They lead them. After hearing some stories from the guys he coached last season, They're making an impact. One guy became a Christian. Another gave up drugs and his party club lifestyle. He's still not a Christian, however he's living a better life now than when he was a wreck.

Now the coaches are starting to gear up for the next season, and this is the biggest turnout they've had in the soon to be three years of club operation. 30+ guys showed up tonight. That's another 30+ chances to impact a life. And those lives are going to (literally and mentally/emotionally) impact others over time.

Hi-Ho Silver! To New Mexico!

Photo link

Looks like the Lone Ranger is starting to shoot next month. First stages of shooting are going to be in New Mexico. Specifically Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Shiprock. This film is slated to be out in 2013, with hopefully big box office results. I know the suits are worried about this film after the release of Cowboys and Aliens not doing so well. A lot is...ahem....riding on this film to do well, but with the director leadings of Gore Verbinski, and star power of Depp even not as a lead role, I'm sure that it will do relatively well in the general public's eye. I know I'm already planning on being there opening day for this one. Now we just have to wait for more production photos to release as this film starts rolling...

The Nut's Are Falling From the Family Tree...

I know it's been nearly a month since I've posted anything, but I really haven't had the desire, and nothing really amazing has happened to post about. However there IS something that happened over last night and today that was rather interesting. I got into an argument with a family member over football.

Now here's the deal, I try not to worry TOO much about other people's opinions on sports teams, because after all, there ARE 32 teams in the NFL, 30 in the MLB, 30 in the NHL, 30 in the NBA and countless golfers and race car drivers. With that said, my uncle from the east coast decides to start a little facebook fire with how the Denver/Pittsburg game was a fluke, and how Denver truly showed up yesterday against the Patriots. I kindly reminded him that Denver is still a quite young franchise, especially with a quarterback that had a lot of ground to cover after Orton was wrongly handling the team.

But instead of a play by play of me typing it out...here's a few screenshots of the convo.

Overall, it's relatively laughable that Rich and Tom got worked up over this. I complimented both teams, and yet they couldn't wrap their foamtarded little heads around the fact that Denver has done a lot of positives this year too, despite some shaky negatives. The funny part of this? About an hour ago Rich unfriended me on facebook. There was more to this conversation that I unfortunately didn't get to screenshot, but it got a bit more personal on his side, calling my dad out and such. My dad is  6'1, and pretty stinking muscular for his age. These guys are in their late 20's, stacked with beer guts and don't get out much on the athletic side. Yet Rich said he was the better athlete in the family...when he never stepped foot on a football field competitively. Whereas my dad has, and on top of that coached multiple football teams to championships. Huh. 

All in all, family is crazy sometimes. These two prove that. I know some might question my motives for calling out family as such on my blog, especially given the way news and links spread over the globe with a click of a button. However I feel that a lot of my life's stories are relatable to at least someone else out there, and for that, I post. 

Now I gotta stick to my branch in this family tree. Don't want to fall any more than these two have...

Boy Meets World

Now that I'm on Christmas break, I have a bit more free time. All I have to really focus on outside of family and girlfriend is work, and that's only shifts at a time. Today I've got the day off and I'm realizing a lot. It's amazing what you can think of when you just stop to think deeply about it. It's really hit me hard lately that I'm really not a kid any more. I'll always still have that kid-like spirit, but it's just not the same as having that amazing innocence I once did. That phenomenal naivety that made the world appear to be wonderful, when it's realistically colder than it seems. But life's what you make of it, and I still choose to have hope in this dark place. Gotta stay positive.

This past week's really been interesting. My dog passing away, and last night's snafu with a few posters online that said some unnecessary things, it's just been raw emotions lately. I've snapped a little bit and gotten relatively rude, and for those reading this that I've affected, I do apologize.

Earlier today I was flipping through DirecTv, and saw that MTV2 had an episode of Boy Meets World playing. Funny enough, I hate MTV, but midday they're showing an episode of one of my childhood shows that I used to faithfully watch. This episode had to have been a God-sign, because it was all about accepting change, and learning to just let things go and move on with the future. It nearly had me tear up, because it's exactly what I needed to see. I could relate to having to let go of the past and accept the reality of growing up and becoming a real man, and not just a boy anymore.

This show really needs to be a visual guide for television script writers today. Boy Meets World was one of those shows that literally showed life through a camera. Now that I'm close to Corey's age, I can REALLY understand what the characters were going through, and can easily relate. My question is this: Why is there not shows like this anymore? Why do we have 'reality' shows like 16 and Pregnant, and fictional teen soap operas like Secret Life of the American Teenager, and then the unfortunately glammed up Disney channel with concepts that couldn't be any more foreign to the common teenager?
(Disney, listen up: I can guarantee that no one is a secret life pop star, and no one is a Wizard living in New York. Get back to Lizzie McGuire and Even Stevens-esque shows, PLEASE.) The world needs more depth. We need to THINK. We need to UNDERSTAND and COMPREHEND the real reasons of our emotions and what we're going through. Candy coating and for lack of better words, babying us isn't going to help us progress and cope with life.

With the way entertainment is run today, we're constantly in front of a screen. From Computer, to TV, to iPhone, to tablet, there's a screen with some sort of visual activity there. Shows like Boy Meets World gave the right doses of drama with comedy, mixed with a heavy dose of great realism to it. It was like watching your best friend go through whatever issue it may be that week. From girlfriend fights, to failing a test, or sneaking out late to hang with your best friend, it was all things kids did and still do. Why can't we help people with fictionally realistic stories now, JUST like this show did back in the 90's?

Old Yeller, Marley and Me..Now It's My Turn.

We all love to hate movies like Old Yeller or Marley and Me. Heck, even Air Bud got me to tear up, and the dog didn't even die! These movies tug at our heartstrings so cleverly and evilly. Drawing us in with cute puppy faces, then laughing and smiling at every doggy bath time escape, and upturned trash can scene. 

The fact is, everyone at some point has the 'it' dog in their life. This time around I had the 'it' dog. When I was in the second grade I begged and pleaded with my parents to have a dog. They caved and I got to pick out a golden retriever. At the young age I was, I had a big hero (still do), and I couldn't think of any better way to honor my hero than naming my new found best friend after him. So my puppy was rightly named "DJ". If anyone knows my favorite team, they'll deduce that he was named after the Yankee's rockstar shortstop Derek Jeter. 

Throughout the years of growing up together, DJ and I had many hours spent in the backyard playing soccer and football together. As he grew up, he got bigger than I did, and as he tried to tackle me, he just bit my sleeve, and pulled me to the ground. He's the dog that would go to the beach with me on family trips, and run miles along the coast line in the sand during football season when I needed to stay fit. In the house, he'd always be right be me, in ANY room I was at. 

He was always a dog that never peed in the house, or got into trash. Dj was intelligent. He knew the rights and wrongs to things. He really was awesome. Always greeted me at the door or gate when I got home. Had a near panic attack when I would leave for a few days. Dj loved me to death. I loved him. He was everything anyone could ask for in a dog. 

By now, the past tense verbs and adjectives I've been using, you can guess that he's not here anymore. 

We had to put him to sleep yesterday. After a night in LA with my family, girlfriend and friends, I slept in a little bit. 9:00am rolls around, and I'm woken up to my bed shaking. I roll over to see what's going on, and DJ's halfway under the bed, moving pretty vehemently. Running on his side, almost. I figured he was either trying to get something, or something was wrong. After trying to get his attention, and not getting it, I saw that something was wrong. After a few seconds of waiting it out, DJ crawls out a bit and comes to his senses for a sec. I let him sit there and get my mom to see if she can tell any difference with him. He had peed in the room, and when we came back into the room, he was hiding behind the door with this wildly dazed look in his eyes. I could just see the fear behind them because he never does that in the house, and he knew it too. He just didn't realize how he did it. 

About an hour later I'm in the room next to him, and I hear something stirring up again. I walk over to check on him, and he's 'running' again. I yell at my mom to get in there, and he's seizing for the second time. We hold him and just like a human, make sure he doesn't hurt himself by moving so much. At this point we're both a complete wreck, because we realize how this is coming down. 

To spare even more of a lengthy post than this already is, within the two hours (9:00am to 11:00am) he had anywhere from 10-15 seizures. I was a complete wreck, knowing that my childhood best friend is slipping away from who he used to be. We get to the vet, and doctors tell us that it's neurological, and would cost more to save him and not even have strong results back, than to just have him go to sleep for good. I swear to you, that was so hard for me to just get the words "alright, let's have him sleep" out. Seeing him laying on that table in the back room at the vet, petting his hair one last time, rubbing him right behind his ears, I couldn't even get a tail wag out of him. All I could say to him was "Come on D, we gotta go back to the beach one more time. Just get better. Just stay fixed. We gotta go run one more time." That's all I could keep saying, and he couldn't even look up at me, he was that far gone already. I walked out of the room at that point and sat out in the parking lot. I have his one and only collar from the years I had him, and now a small part of him is going to be riding with me in the car, as it's hanging on my rearview mirror. It hurts to come home and not see him, but just like time, I have to make myself move on. He'll always be my Big Red Dj. 

Me and DJ two Christmases ago. 

Rise and Shine!

Saw this on a friend's facebook page, and thought it would make your day, hopefully.

So sad. Please join me in remembering a great icon of the
entertainment community. The Pillsbury Doughboy died
yesterday of a yeast infection and trauma complications from
repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71. Doughboy was buried
in a lightly greased coffin. Dozens of celebrities turned
out to pay their respects, including Mrs.. Butterworth,
Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the
Hostess Twinkies, and Captain Crunch. The grave site was
piled high with flours.

Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy and lovingly described
Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded.
Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life
was filled with turnovers. He was not considered a very
smart cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked
schemes. Despite being a little flaky at times he still was
a crusty old man and was considered a positive roll model
for millions.

Doughboy is survived by his wife Play Dough, two children,
John Dough and Jane Dough, plus they had one in the oven. He
is also survived by his elderly father, Pop Tart.
The funeral was held at 3:50 for about 20 minutes.

If this made you smile for even a brief second, please rise
to the occasion and take time to pass it on and share that
smile with someone else who may be having a crumby day and
kneads it.

a Tin (Tin) full of Swag

It's been fun today. Photoshop work in the morning, work in the mid afternoon at Chick Fil A, and then spent the afternoon with my girlfriend at her house, and then dinner with her and my family tonight. Now when I get home, I check my mail, and see I got the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, and a few Christmas cards...and then a orange box. Thanks to Klout.com, I signed up for some free stuff they gave out on their website. Usually it's stuff I'm not totally interested in, but since this was film based, I figured I'd go for it and get the free stuff. On the site it talked about two free tickets to see the Adventures of Tin Tin, the new movie by Steven Spielburg and Peter Jackson. Now that I realized what I signed up for, it's really cool stuff! Check out the photos below..

Word. 

Stuffed Plush of Snowy? Yep. 

This photo doesn't really do the size justice, but the poster's pretty big!

A bit smaller than the one's you see advertised at the theater, and you'll get the idea of the size.

And then free tickets!

Facebook: Slamming the Cover on Etiquette.

Lately I've really picked up on the lack of etiquette online. People are just flat out inconsiderate to what they say, lazy on how they type, and generally slacking on how to actually have a presentable image online. Granted, I understand not everyone's going to ever be proper about things, and sure I get lazy at times myself, but there should be general guidelines to follow (or at least attempt to) that would really make the online world a better place, and in turn, make the world a better place because the drama and idiocy online would be slimmed down. Here's some ideas for proper facebooking, tweeting, and other social networking..

1) Would You Like Some Cheese with that WHINE? 
These types of people tend to be always negative, complaining about how something is wrong with their life in one way or another, and they can never find a way to fix it. I get that some lives are hard to live, but when the person lives in a good house, with a car to drive and food to eat, I always think of the people that have less than that and are happy with just the clothes on their back, and food they get. It COULD be worse than not getting your fast food order right, or getting cut off in traffic. This usually falls under the stuff like #firstworldpains. At times it can be humorous if used right, but when it's a consistent stream of these, it just makes you look pathetic and that you can't handle anything in the world because it's SOOOO HARD to deal with.

2) Your dirty laundry is meant for the hamper. Leave it there, and not on your status.
We don't care that you got into a fight with your mom, girlfriend, dad, best friend, brother, sister, even teacher. It happens to everyone. It sucks, sure. But it's never classy to go out and bash them online just because you're mad at them. It makes you look like a fool for saying mean things that you ultimately don't mean, and a few days, even hours later, wouldn't say otherwise. Keep your anger filled posts off the page, and instead, call up a close friend to vent to. It's easier, and you can actually get more sympathy out of it.

3) OMG, th!s iz tot@lly aw3som3.
We've grown up in an age where things have been so condensed, and shortened, that people have legitimately forgotten to spell correctly. How do I know this? Helping friends out with homework and reading what they're writing. It scares me to see how people write anymore. Look, there's a reason people WAY back in history decided to create a literary version of our english language and put words to characters we use to write what we say. USE THEM THE RIGHT WAY. Sure, the minor TTYL, LOL, or BRB is cool and find and dandy, but when you get to use things you make up on your own, and people have to try to guess what you're saying, that's when it gets absurd. Stick to writing grammatically correct. It's what Chaucer would have wanted.

I could easily go on with things to say on how girls should leave their provocative photos offline if they don't want the attention by horny guys, and how guys should find better things to say than the foul mouthed language that makes them 'appear cool', but then I'd be writing a novel so big that Hemingway himself would yawn just at the size of text alone.

A final note though: If you don't want to be hacked or spammed, LEARN TO USE YOUR SECURITY SETTINGS. It's not that confusing, and if you have time to read through 769 Tumblr pages of Spongebob .gif's and Twilight/Harry Potter memes, then by iMac, you have the time to secure your site's page. 

Christmas vacation: continuity issue

This is by far my favorite Christmas movie. Great humor and a perfect showcase of how chaotic this season can really get. But in a very famous scene with Clark attempting to turn on his Christmas lights, a few camera angles show some continuity issues. If you look at the photos, look at the lower right of the first. Cousin eddie's RV is parked in the drive way before they show up and everyone notices they arrived.

 

Back to Blogging

It's been too long. I feel bad for not blogging as much, because this is something I really do love. Writing in general, actually, but even more when it involves social networking. So I guess I should play a bit of catch up for you, right? 

Girlfriend - For those that don't know, yes, I'm dating someone again. Jami's a great girl and I really do love being her boyfriend. She's such a wonderful girl and I love getting to spend as much time as possible with her. I couldn't ask for anyone better. We're actually going to be at Disneyland this month on the 28th. So if you see us, feel free to say hi!

School - Finished my first semester of college. Thank goodness it's over. It was a lot of fun, but highly stressful, just like every other college kid's life. Glad to get one semester down, and onto another one to get my general ed classes out of the way, and onto my major in a few years, hopefully down south. 

Work - Just like any other job, it DOES have its stressful moments. But I really do love working at Chick Fil A, and think it's a lot of fun. There's a marketing manager position available, and I was fortunate enough to get a meeting with the owner this next week to talk about the job. I really think that I could do a good job at that position because I LOVE talking to people, and networking. Not to mention, it's a really great challenge to me to find great and creative ways to advertise and present something. It'd be fun, and I'd be doing something I love even more if I got the job. But I don't know if someone out there is better than me, and I don't know if the owner would consider me a good option for the position. I just hope that I impress enough to get the job and follow through with my actions on the job in the future. If I don't get the job then I still don't lose anything because I'm working for an awesome company still.

Disney and theme park stuff - I've been laying low with this for the most part just because people are crazy in here for the most part. I love the parks and still have a good amount of insight to whats going on. I just don't talk about it much because I haven't felt the need to, and I don't have the time to get into arguments with people over what choices the theme parks are making. 

However with that said, there IS a chance that I might be helping start up a new website with some friends, that might be a happier, positive corner of the fan site world. the area needs it, especially with places like MiceChat and being so negative about things. 

And now with that, I'm going to sign off for the night, and finish watching Jerry Maguire on DirecTv. I am definitely going to try to blog at least weekly from here on as much as possible. I enjoy writing, and need to keep it up.