Ummm...

I was totally gonna post something and then I forgot, hardcore... Well, I'm going grocery shopping. Later!

Edit: I remember why I got on here! It was to put a link to my webshots page on my sidebar, that way you all can go see what I've been up to (assuming I have my [dads] camera with me)

Starved Rock

Ok, so, on Saturday (the 26th of January), my mom, my dad, jeremy, danielle, Liz, and I went to Starved Rock. We had to wake up at 7 in the morning :( so I was really tired by the time we got there. When we finally did get there we met up with my Aunt, my Uncle, my Cousin, and her boyfriend. My family used to always go there when I was little, so this was sort of like a walk (or hike) down memory lane. The weather was cold, but not too cold, just perfect for a hike through the woods. The day would have been much better had it not been for my typical male stubbornness. The entire month before my mom and dad had been telling me "make sure you buy boots, your converse won't keep you warm", well, I didn't heed their warning, and I ventured out with my converse on, figuring the double layering of socks I had going would protect me. Then I had to walk in a river. Something I didn't anticipate. Well, needless to say after standing in this river for long enough, I sprinted back to the lodge ahead of everyone so that I could warm my feet up. This entailed running up 148 stairs, something that made my legs feel like jelly as I haven't put that much physical exertion on my legs in a good few months. After I made it back to the lodge, I took the time to restore feeling to my feet.

My dad and Liz were the first to return to find me sprawled on a couch using my coat as a blanket. For the next half hour or so Liz and I snuggled on the couch taking pictures (see below), then it came time for lunch, which we had at the lodge's restaurant. At lunch I had a delicious grilled cheese with french fries. Before lunch i'd put on this heinous pair of my dads boots which I was so glad that no one could see me in. After lunch me and Liz took a walk to Lover's Leap, though we never made it there because we had to turn back for this bird show we had to go to.

The bird show was pretty cool, we saw some hawks, and owls, and they let them fly across the room and over peoples heads. Then they brought out a possum (ewww!), then the big show stealer came, the Bald Eagle. This thing was a lot bigger than I thought it'd be, and I'd forgotten to take pictures of the other birds, so I loaded up on pictures of Mr. Bald Eagle.

After the bird show we bid adieu to the lodge and returned to our car. For some reason my mom made us go to this lame place to see eagles in the wild, even though we all were exhausted. After THAT, we returned to the car, and me and Liz cuddled up in the back seat and fell asleep for about an hour or so. After we arrived back at my house, Liz and I watched some TV before I had to take her home. Needless to say, it was a very good day and I had an indescribably good time spending the afternoon with Liz in the woods. I felt like I got to know her so much more, even though we've been dating for over a year and a half.

NOW FOR THE PICTURES!!!! WOOOOOOO!!!

A Landscape

Mom and Pop Maxwell

Frozen Waterfall!

Me and Jeremy

Me and Liz :)

FOR A LOT MORE PICTURES GO TO: MY WEBSHOTS PAGE

!!!

Depending on how fast Webshots goes I'll either have my Starved Rock post in a few moments, or after I get off of work at 8. Be excited! :)


Edit: Doesn't look like that'll be happening folks. Well, check back for a post tonight! Woo! Thank's for visiting

Coming soon...

A post from Saturday with pictures and video(?) will be coming soon. I just have to work up the energy and find the cord for my camera

This is DESPICABLE

*I stole this link from Perez Hilton's site*
So this radio host in DC interviewed Shirley Phelps-Roper, the daughter of the guy who leads the "God Hates Fags" Church, aka the Westboro Baptist Church, and she talks about why her church is going to protest Heath Ledgers funeral. It made me feel sick to my stomach. Why, no, HOW does anyone feel this way???

Absolutely despicable.

Ok this literally makes me sick to my stomach.

Please, anyone who sees this, listen to this and understand what kind of hatred exists in the world.

A dramatic day!

Not really that dramatic but... as of today, and all of the 5 minutes that is left in it... I'll be implementing a new weekly/bi-weekly feature into my blog! Called... *drum roll*... MIX OF THE MOMENT! Woo! I figured that since my fellow bloggers are my own brethren I may as well inform them of what I'm jamming out to these past/upcoming few days. So without further ado...

MIX OF THE MOMENT #1
1. West Coast - Coconut Records
2. No One - Alicia Keys
3. Your Ex-Lover is Dead - Stars
4. Chris Cox Megamix - Britney Spears
5. Lucky - Britney Spears
6. My Prerogative - Britney Spears
7. Overprotected - Britney Spears
8. Dance Inside - All-American Rejects
9. The Best of Both Worlds - Hannah Montana
10. Nobody's Perfect - Hannah Montana
11. See You Again - Miley Cyrus (there's a difference between her and Hannah!)
12. When I'm Gone - Simple Plan
13. Ballroom Blitz - Sweet (gotta love 70's Glam-Rock)
14. Sway Your Head - We Shot the Moon
15. 3's and 7's - Queens of the Stone Age
16. Untouched - The Veronicas
17. This Love - The Veronicas
18. Someone Wake Me Up - The Veronicas
19. In Another Life - The Veronicas
20. Africa - Toto (who doesn't love this song?)
21. Crushcrushcrush - Paramore

Now to sum up the actual dramatic part of this post, I almost got into a car accident (x3) because of the wretched snow. Fishtailing into the next lane over = :( Thankfully, I'm alright. Unfortunately I wasn't able to retrieve my puppies' medication that I was on a mission to receive (don't blast me too much over my horrid use of apostrophe's please :( ) But then Liz asked me to Winter, and unless any of you have seen the movie Juno like I recommended, you wouldn't understand it. Disappointingly though, I wasn't smart enough to make it go the way she planned but it was all good. Then me and Liz watched "Life After People", which was a special that aired on History Channel on Monday (Thank god for TiVo!) and that was insanely good, and while all this was going on we were in our PJ's eating Uncle Pete's and drinkin' some fine Pepsi. If you ever are flipping through the channels and Life After Humans is on, stay there, it shows what will happen to everything if humans just disappeared, it goes like 1 day after we disappear, 1 week, etc etc all the way up to 10,000 years. One shocking thing from the special stuck with me, if we summed up the Earth's whole four-billion year existence in 24 hours, then our time here would last only half a minute, isn't that sad? Then we watched Psych (which I enjoyed much more than her as it's my 3rd favorite show), then she fell asleep so I played some video games and watched The Soup

So I will round out the rest of my night with Video Games and probably some Veronica Mars (I'm on Season 2 now!) Then I have to wake up at 6 :( to head for Starved Rock with Liz and mi Familia, hopefully I'll have pix from that when I get home. On the way down I'll probably sleep and will definitely work on my Personal Narrative *cough cough* *wink wink* *nudge nudge* then do some much less important (:P) Consumer Education. Yay. I'm riveted. Then play Nintendo DS and listen to music and probably fall asleep on Liz. Fun times abound! I'll post more tomorrow... IF I DON'T GET EATEN ALIVE BY THE EAGLES =-O Wow that was lame. *End rant*

Lyrics of the Week

West Coast by Coconut Records

For a second there I thought you disappeared
It rains a lot this time of year
And we both go together if one falls down
I talk out loud like you're still around

No noo

And I miss you
I'm goin' back home to the West Coast
I wish you woulda put yourself in my suitcase
I love you
Standin' all alone in a black coat
I miss you
I'm goin' back home to the West Coast

And if you shake her hard enough she will appear
Tonight I think I'll be stayin' here
And you never did like this town
I talk out loud like you're still around

No noo

And I miss you
I'm goin' back home to the West Coast
I wish you woulda put yourself in my suitcase
I love you
Standin' all alone in a black coat
I miss you
I'm going back home to the West Coast
Come on everybody
Lalalalaaaa, lalalalaaaa
Lalalalaaaa, lalalalaaaa

So pack up the bags to beat back the clock
Do I let her sleep, or should I wake her up?
You said
"We both go together if one falls down"
Yeah, right, heh
I talk out loud like you're still around

No noo

And I miss you
I'm goin' back home to the West Coast
I wish you woulda put yourself in my suitcase
I love you
Standin' all alone in a black coat
I miss you
I'm goin' back home to the West Coast
*repeat to fade*

Winter IS the season for dying, right?

So this Heath Ledger thing is starting to get to me... As I am a celebrity gossip enthusiast, I like to know what celebrity has done what drugs, how many times, who they hooked up with, what they wore, why they wore it, what their favorite color is, and the likes. Anyways, Heath Ledger was a good man, a bit odd-ball at times but certainly no junkie. I just don't think it's fair that a man of such talent should have died, for accidental reasons. Look at Amy Winehouse, who smokes crack avidly and has no respect for her body, or Britney Spears (sorry Mike) who has obvious mental problems that no one is doing anything about, including herself, how come they get to survive but Heath had to go? *sigh* Just luck of the draw I suppose.

More later

Washed up

It's so hard to love Washed-up 80's/90's Sit-Com stars when they repeatedly go after the (Co?)Queen of Talk shows and your favorite Presidential candidate. The fantastic lady I'm talking about, is of course, Roseanne... Barr? (I'm not sure what her last name is now, she's had so many hubby's) She just posted a rant on her blog (Woooo blogging!!) bashing them both, and how she's mad Oprah hasn't had Hillary on her show, but she's had Barack. That's because Barack is the bee's-knees. Everyone knows that... and if they don't, they should :-D. Anyways... Short post today because I'm absolutely exhausted from work. All I did this (elongated) weekend was sleep, and go to work, and watch the ever-so fabulous Veronica Mars. I finished Season 1. All it took was staying up until 7 in the morning one night, and 6 in the morning the next! Stupid insomnia... And I'm feeling kind of guilty right now because I stole a sandwich from work, but only because I didn't realize I didn't have money until *after* I made it! So it was either let it go to waste, or take it and run. I chose the latter. Which was probably an unfortunate decision because the Regional Supervisor was there, and the manager I hate. Hopefully they didn't notice :-D

In more tragic news, I would like to take the time out to mention the passing of Heath Ledger. He was found in his hotel room on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 by a masseuse and his housekeeper. Police suspect sleeping pills/drugs had a play in it. Mr. Ledger was 28 and is survived by his two year old daughter Matilda. In a few months he has his movie "Dark Knight" coming out, in which he plays the Joker. Tragic :( My heart goes out to Heath and his family. *sigh* I'm sure the halls will literally be buzzing with this tomorrow.

It's days like these that make me appreciate life that much more.
On a final note, three songs from Enchanted were nominated for Oscars. Enchanted is an amazing film. Everyone needs to see it. You will fall in love with Amy Adams

Wow...

Go see Cloverfield. Well, actually, don't, because if you do see it and don't like it then I'm likely to be held responsible. Anyways, never have I ever felt so much like I was actually IN a movie than this movie. I just got back from the midnight opener (two hours ago) and it's a fantastic movie. Don't see it though if you get motion sickness. The way it was shot is so innovative. But I'm too tired, take my word for it though, never have I ever actually felt like I was in the movie before this one



P.S. I just made a KICKASS CD

Blah blah blaaahhhhh

Being sick.
Is not fun.
I woke up at 7:10
And was on the run.
I drove my friend to school.
The weather was below "cool"
I then came home
and went to the basement with a groan
I put "300" in the dvd player
And snuggled up under a bunch of layers
As soon as I thought I was going to fall asleep
I turned the T.V. off so I wouldn't hear a peep
I woke up again
This time at 3:10
My girlfriend rang me on the telephone
I told her to visit me at home
She came over, and it was fun
Around 5:45, she had to run
I then laid around some more
and wished my health would come to the door
Now I am better
and not wearing my sweater
I need to shower though
As soon as I can pry my fingers off of their "home row"
I end this post
With a boast
I got more sleep than most!
(And my body was quite the host!
For this virus that crippled me most
Unexpectingly)
I shall be at school tomorrow
And pondering
Your notes, can I borrow?

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH TODAY HAS BEEN SUCH AN EXCITING DAY!!!!!
Well first off, I was excited all day because today is Apple's annual keynote speech and each year Steve Jobs raises the bar for himself, for instance, last year he announced the iPhone and it was named the best product of the year by many major publications, including Time Magazine. So I was really excited for that today and also, today is "Rock Band Update" day, when new songs become available for download (for money, of course) AAAAND one of the new songs they added is blink-182's "All the Small Things"!!!!! Now, if any of you know me as well as you should I am DEATHLY in love with blink-182, so this is a dream come true! Now I can (fake) rock out to one of my favorite bands of all time!!! Ahhh this is so exciting!!! In news in the Apple world, they have announced a new Macbook called the Macbook Air, and it's .76 inches thick, which is about the size of an index finger, and weighs three pounds, and it still manages to have every single function you would expect out of a Macbook and more! This is really exciting cause I plan on buying a Macbook come summertime. Also Apple have updated the iPod Touch software (Mike and Hunter) and if you bought the iPod before today, then you can buy the software update for 20 bucks. Finally, the last thing they announced (that I care about) is movie rentals on iTunes, which is pretty freakin' awesome, if I do say so myself. I'm not sure if the speech is more than one day (maybe it is?) but if it's today only, then that means no Beatles on iTunes yet :( Which is sad because they're the most requested artist. Anyways, I'll post a pic of the Macbook Air for any of you who wanna see it without having to navigate away from this page

Side View (closed)

Side View (open)

A Review, Preview, and Overview walk into a bar...

Sorry for the really bad title, couldn't resist making a joke because all the words ended in "view". Anyways, this post is gonna contain an overview of my superb Winter Break, a movie review, and a preview for the coming weeks, so buckle in for a long post (don't worry though, i'll put a lot of pictures in to keep it interesting) First off, let me say that the reason I haven't been updating is because my parents purchased a 46" Sharp Aquos flat screen High Definition LCD TV. When a TV has that many words in it's name, you know it's good. And it is. My basement (newly cleaned and re-arranged) has become my new home, whether I'm watching TV, or playing my DS, or my latest obsession: my new Xbox 360. I will get to that in due time though. I kicked off my Winter Vacation by hanging out with my two bestest buds, Mike and Hunter. All three of us are obsessed with Perez Hilton, and from time to time, Perez will post pictures of his fans on his webpage, and, vying for our 15 seconds of fame, we took pretty fantastic pictures. They look something like this...
Yeah, I think you get the drift... it was a really fun night, about as much fun as the rest of the nights I spent with them over Winter Break, which was like.... 6/10 of the nights, maybe. We had our second annual trip to the O'Hare Oasis on the night of the 25th, which was fun, then on the 26th we celebrated Mike's B-day. Wooo! Thennnn Ginnie (Mike's mom) threw a pizza party for us (Mike, Hunter, Dani, Scott, Eliana, and I) on the 29th and we went bowling with Dani and Eliana afterwards. It was pretty heated, let me say. Oh yeah, on the 28th Liz and I celebrated our 18th month together :) It was really fun. Then on my birthday Mike and Hunter took me to the city even though I wasn't in the best of moods... And that night I saw, and talked, to Liz. New Years Eve Hunter, Mike, Alyssa, Liz, and I planned to go bowling but some greedy people decided to rent the whole bowling alley (who does that?!) so instead we went back to my house and just hung around and eventually ended up watching Poseidon, which is always good for a laugh. Then I got my Xbox 360 which was fantastic :) I've had a bit of a financial crisis though due to a mix of 1.) Me taking a weeks vacation and 2.) my hours being cut. The rest of break I basically spent playing Rock Band (words cannot describe how fun that game is) and hanging out with a healthy mix of Steve, Greg, Mike, Hunter, and Liz, aka all my friends haha. Ummm... That's about it for Winter Break. I saw a lot of movies, I Am Legend, Atonement, Charlie Wilson's War, Awake, but none of those compare to what I saw on Saturday of this weekend, which brings us to the "Review" part of my title...

Juno is my new second favorite movie, of all time, period.
I normally go through phases but I carefully analyzed this film and determined that it trumps Donnie Darko and is almost equal to my #1, Fight Club. The script was written in such a way that the dialogue is actually believable, and Ellen Page steals the show. This is the exact kind of humor I expect from a movie, with sarcasm and wit galore. The cinematography was perfect as well, as all the angles seem to capture the feeling of the movie perfectly, and the display of the changing seasons showing perfectly life's struggles as per the Archetype Handbook. The soundtrack as well, is a soft folksy kind of soundtrack, which perfectly matches Juno MacGruffs character and perfectly emphasizes what is going on in the movie. None of the actors/actresses have been better and even Rainn Wilson's somewhat cameo is even worthy of praise. Go out and see this movie, it's fantastic.

As for what is in the future for me (hence, Preview) I have a bunch of college stuff to do still, including FAFSA and submitting my roommate preference for UIC. Portillo's has upped my hours though from 8 back to 21 which is fantastic. I did the math (hell, I'll even do it here)
21 hours x $7.65 = $160.65, $160.65 x 2 (we get paychecks every other week) = $321.30
THEN we have to take out for taxes: 321.30 x 15% =$48.20, so 321.30 - $48.20 = $273.10
So that's roughly $273.10 every two weeks, which will probably come out to being more seeing as on nights I close I'm usually there for an extra forty-five minutes. Anyways haha, I'll be working a lot which is good cause I need cash, DESPERATELY! That is all for now! Hopefully you made it through this whole thing O:-)

Lyrics of the Week

The Time We Had by The Mother Hips

On the way
on the way home
I saw a rainbow beneath my feet,
flowing over the filthy street
Oh yeah

It's a long
It's a long way
Back to the place where we used to sit
When you and I were just little kids

The time we had is not gone
The way we chose was the long one
The time we had is not gone

The stone that fell is still falling
So let that stone be the wondrous thing
That comes to pass when our voices sing
Oh yeah

On the way
On the way home
I heard some ghosts laughing in the trees
Moving inside the midnight breeze
The time we had is not gone
The way we chose was the long one
The time we had is not gone

Way out here
The voice and the mind are clear

The time had is not gone
The way we chose was the long one
The time we had is not gone
Way out here the voice and the mind are clear

Friend or Foe...

So... we got our new schedules yesterday... I'm not sure how I feel about it. I like all the teachers, cause I've either had all of them before or have heard great things about them, but this semester I'm actually going to have homework and that bums me out :( Last semester I had Psych which we never got homework in, then I went to Satire and Comedy but we only had papers in that class which I would finish the next day in my first hour study hall, then I had Music Appreciation that never gave homework, then I had lunch, then gym, then I went to Special Topics and that only had papers like every other week. Needless to say I had a pretty easy homework load. But now I have still my first hour Resource, but then I have Consumer Ed... I'm not sure what homework's gonna be like in there... then I have Military History, which is weighted and I'm gonna have a lot of homework** (And can I add, going from my Resource room, 214B, to room 60, back to 220U, is not my idea of a great schedule...) Then I have gym, then I have Essay Writing, which I'm assuming will just be papers, but I can knock off papers easy enough, as it's the only thing I actually show TALENT in at school, and that I take pride in, then I have lunch, and then American Problems and the Law with Mr. Hopkins which scares me because I'm worried I may get back late from lunch one day and he'll chew me out (Mr. Hopkins is a FANTASTIC teacher, but a mortifying disciplinarian) *sigh* what to do, what to do...



**I am tempted to drop Military History, but I am hesitant because I was originally scheduled to have that class with Mr. Henneberry, but Mr. Albiniak (who is also teaching the class) is one of my favorite teachers of all time (which made me even happier when him and Ms. VanderSyde got married because she is one of my favorite teachers of all time too) So I made a big deal about getting into his class, and now that I'm in... I want to be out! Sadness, and dilemma... I need a prophetic dream right about now...