Twenty-four

That's how old I am today. 24. That sounds a lot older than I feel. I remember thinking when I was younger that people in their twenties were so cool and had everything figured out. Hmmm... Sounds kinda funny now.

Most of my family left thursday morning and is out of town for the weekend, so it's been pretty quiet around here. Maddy, Shelby, and I have been holding down the fort.

The festivities feel like they started on Thursday night, when I took my sister, Shelby, and some of her friends (I play the cool older brother role A LOT) to see the midnight showing of [beginning of geeky rant] X-MEN Origins: Wolverine. I have to admit that I used to be, and still am, quite a fan of the X-MEN and probably know a lot more about then than I should. After deciding that I was going to try really hard to not be picky about the storyline of the movie, I thoroughly enjoyed it. With both Gambit and Deadpool being in my top 5 favorite X-MEN characters ever, it wasn't hard for me to like. I was hoping for a little more with Deadpool, but he's a pretty complex character, so I won't complain too much. And I would have liked to see Agent Zero's character explored a little more. He has a cool story line in the comics. [End of geeky rant.]

Friday, the girls and I went to Shogun for dinner (!!!). Afterward, we dropped Shelby off at a sleepover and then Maddy and I went and saw some chick-flick (something about the ghosts of past girlfriends). It was acutally pretty enjoyable. I specifically remember laughing quite a bit.

Today was spent all day with Shelby (after picking her up from her sleepover). Maddy was MIA due to getting ready all day for her second prom of the year. We drove to Rogers, ate lunch, shopped around a bit, and listened to a lot of music on her itouch. We stopped by the grocery store on the way home to grab some key ingrediants and then I made one of the best dinners I've ever made in my entire life. The entre was called Pasta a la Vodka. How can you go wrong with that?!? For those of you who have been to Telluride, CO with me, I think I may have recreated the "pink sauce!" Then I made my own birthday cake (Funfetti, of course!) and ate more than I should while I downloaded the most recent Paste Magazine music sampler. If you know me well at all, all of this = a great day.

I have to say that this has been a pretty incredible birthday. Definitely my style. Low key. Laid back. A little spontinaity here and there.

One more year of life completed: check.

Family Pics

Coming from a somewhat large family, it can be quite a challenge to get us all in one place at the same time. So, taking advantage of us all being home right now, we decided to get our family pictures taken. Jonathan Seauve, of JEPhotography, took them for us and not only did they turn out great, but we had a fun time taking them. They were all taken in our backyard. :)

(Click on the picture to see a larger version)
And one of just the kids...L to R: Maddy, Shelby, Ally, Jon, Ryan, Joe

Songs I can't stop listening to...

I was talking to my friend Josh on the phone the other day and he politely informed me that I need to start updating my blog again. Life, being in what feels like the "on hold" state, hasn't seemed very bloggable lately. This is bound to change soon.

But for now, I bring you 5 songs that I can't stop listening to right now:

I Can't Stay -- The Killers

Cigarettes -- Daniel Merriweather

Ain't It Hard -- Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

Daylight and the Sun -- Antony and the Johnsons

Man in the Mirror -- Michael Jackson

NYC + SloMo is always a winner

As you might be able to tell, I really haven't had much to say on here lately. And forced blogging is about as bad as forced bonding...no thank you.

Well, the reason for this post is another video. It's one I randomly found on Vimeo and I really like...mainly because it's in NYC and in slow motion. That combination will get me every time.

New York 2008 from Vicente Sahuc on Vimeo.

In other news, I ordered a new portable hard drive! I'm very excited about it and it'll be here any day! Now, all of my data that doesn't really matter in the whole scheme of things will be safe for years to come!

New Links

I just updated all of my blog links. Let me know if I messed yours up. It happens.

I recommend checking some of them out when you have time. However, if you're easily offended, I'd try and stay away from The Bloggess.

The internet is fun but I like people more

I go back and forth on the value of today's social networking technology. I have to admit that I love playing around with all the different avenues of communication we have these days. Twitter, blogging, video blogs, skype...I could spend hours on this stuff. And I too often do. I realize more and more that my social networks are getting larger every day (which is cool) but that quality time with people and face to face conversations are limited (which is not so cool). It could just be where I am in life right now. Traveling around all the time doesn't help and maybe when I get settled down in one place I'll get into a better routine.

I enjoy being able to communicate online, and I'll continue to do it. But I'm going to have to start limiting myself if it begins to interfere with my relationships with the people immediately around me.

It's one of those questions you have to ask: What are the things that are most important to me and what are things that get in the way of those that are important?

Videos for your viewing pleasure

I'm back on the blog! I've been driving all over Texas (currently in San Antonio) doing some support raising...more on that in the next few days.

I don't really have anything good to say right now, so here are some videos to watch. The first one was made by my friend Justin and was featured on Vimeo's HD Channel. And the second vid I just like because it makes me want to buy a bicycle (no, I don't have one) and ride it all over NYC. But the cars would scare me.

Finding from Justin Metcalfe on Vimeo.

It's Your Ride from Cinecycle on Vimeo.