The World of Joel

What an up and down year 2008 was. I could have never predicted how this year turned out, but boy am I am glad to sit here today knowing what an amazing year it was. The year started like many in the past, knee deep in college, trying to make the final push to graduation. Becoming under the realization that “real life” was just around the corner. I remember getting the word from my academic advisor that I was on the road to graduate in June 2008 and I had still to make it through College Statistics and Calculus 2 to graduate to of my most hated classes.

I remember having a job interview with Scottrade for an internship which I eventually was given the eventual turn down for, for not having enough time left in school. I remember being pretty let down by this, knowing that I would still be working at Bank of America until the end of college. I remember changing locations at Bank of America for a few months which was a huge blessing, I needed a change more then anything. More then anything I knew that this was going to be the year of big moments in my life.

Obviously graduating from UC Irvine was one of those huge moments of the year. There were times at UCI that I didn’t think I was going to make it. It was a really challenging time for me, UCI was a real test of patience and willpower and I can’t tell you that even to this day I am so happy to be done.

So now of course comes the part about Jenn. Wow what a year it has been for both Jenn and I. I remember being thrilled at the beginning of the year when Jenn landed one of the best jobs a college student could hope for as a research analyst for an intellectual property law firm. This job has been a huge blessing for both Jenn and I, they give her great hours, they work with her schedule, and it seems to be a great job to put on a resume. Plus she gets to work in a beautiful skyrise only a few minutes from UCI.

So Jenn and I both graduated in June of 2008 although Jenn had classes to take up until the end of 2008. I remember walking hand in hand with her to graduate and knowing that this was the women I was going to spend the rest of my life with.

Jenn and I looked at rings at Robbins Brothers in early 2008 and I knew that I was going to ask her to marry me sometime during the summer of 2008. I ended up buying her ring without her even knowing in April of 2008 and hid it from her for a good three months. Then came our big Europe Trip in July of 2008. I am not going to recap the trip because I have a daily recap on this blog of the adventure. But of course the biggest day was July 3rd 2008 on a partly cloudy afternoon in St. James Park on a beautiful park bench overlooking a very nice pond and the London Eye that I asked Jenn’s hand in marriage. Although I knew she was going to say yes, just hearing those words from her mouth made me feel like a million bucks and it truly was the happiest day of my life.

Jenn and I adventured through London, Paris, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, and Egypt on a trip that will give us memories for a lifetime. Then came a three month job search and a hunt for a wedding location. We ended up doing a great job of picking out everything for the wedding and I sit here today knowing that almost everything is in place for an amazing wedding in September of 2009. The wedding is set to be one of the most lavish and breathtaking events I have ever been to. And the best part is I get to marry Jenn, something I have wanted to do for over 5 years.

2008 ended with some more great moments with both Jenn and I land jobs at Southern California Edison. This was such a stress relief for a number of reasons. I for one was growing increasingly restless while working at the bank. Secondly Jenn and I really wanted to start our marriage off with a good foundation something which is now very possible with our new positions.

There is so much I haven’t recapped for 2008. Last night Jenn and I went with my brother Jake and sister Amy down to Orange County and spent the night down there to bring in the new year. It was a great time, a little tiring, but all in all it was a lot of fun. Jenn and I also had the spur of the moment trip down to Vegas with my great friend Chris and her best friend Jenna. It was one of those trips that you just don’t forget about.

Going into 2008 I had really no foundation for what was to come, I just knew I was ready for the next steps. Now I sit here on January 1, 2009 wondering where will I be writing this post from on January 1, 2010? How will the wedding go? Where will we live? Our honeymoon? Our first Christmas? Our first mortgage payment? Do we ever cook? How will 2009 go?

There are two things I know, trust in the Lord more then anything, and secondly I know I will be with Jenn and for that I cannot wait for what 2009 has in store for me.

So I was reading over at TVSquad.com an article about At the Movies the movie review show that took over for the highly respected Ebert and Roeper. Well for the past year or two it has been Roeper and a guest, but regardless we all knew there was going to be a chance. Then came At the Movies with Ben Mankiewicz and Ben Lyons which takes on almost the same format as Ebert and Roeper just with a different rating scale. To me it seems like a lot of fans of Ebert and Roeper just weren’t ready for a newer feel to the show, but for me I really like the Ben duo. I am not sure your supposed to be overjoyed by the reviewers but instead entertained and informed and that is why I still watch At the Movies.

To me I watch these sort of shows not because I am going to decide what to see based off there opinions because I’m not. I watch these shows to get a look at what the movies are about, catchup on some of the lesser known movies, and keep my Netflix Queue full. I for one and glad to see some new faces, and I hope they continue to gain an audience and thrive on the new At the Movies.

So I ended up 3-13-1 this year in Fantasy Football and that tie was sheer luck of having Longwell as my kicker. The only “good” fantasy pick I made this year was Matt Ryan but that didn’t do near enough to help me win this year. My first mistake was my first pick of the draft Joseph Addai who was horrible this year. My second mistake was to load up on old running backs and not spread more wealth to my wide outs. I had Plaxico but he shot himself, so that left me with a really weak group of wideouts. My running backs which I thought I stacked up on all turned out to be some of the worst starters in the league. I ended the year with a 6-Game loosing streak and it was fitting to get blown out on my last week.

This isn’t one of those years where I just had bad luck, I just had a bad team. I am hoping to take some new strategy into next year’s draft to at least make it in the money! I didn’t earn a dime this year which is the first time since I started playing in this league, and I am hoping next year will be a big turnaround.

I am back at Audible.com! And boy does it feel great to be back! They gave me $25 and I have a 30 minute ride to and from work, so it was a perfect match. The first book I bought was Extreme Measures by Vince Flynn one of the more intense reads I have gone through to date. Quite frankly this is a fantastic thriller.

If you read the reviews of Extreme Measures on the interweb you will find that it has been highly praised, and I give a lot of that to the great character development. Both Nash and Rapp (the two main characters) are highly involved characters. You also pear into the eyes of a radical Islamist terrorist which has a really nice impact on the book. The book starts fast, slows down with some legal battles, and ends with a big bang, literally.

I couldn’t have picked a better book to get back into my Audible.com fanboyism. This is a thriller in every sense of the word and is made even better by the tremendous voice naration done by George Guidall. I hear that this is a series of books about the two characters and I look forward to not only going back and reading past novels by Vince Flynn but also reading future ones. If Extreme Measures is any indication of Flynn’s ability to write a great thriller, then count me in.

The best line of the book is the final words: “Senator, we will not fail.” It literally had me at the edge of my seat drive home. Heck the last half hour of the book was so intense I forgot I was driving to work and I passed the exit and had to U-Turn back around this morning. This was a great novel and one that I am truly glad I read.

I really should write more about food, it truly is a passion of mine. In fact I should say a passion of both Jenn and I. If you have ever wondered what Jenn and I spend money on it is eating out, we love to eat out. A few weekends back we began to look for a house to buy in Irvine. For those who know Jenn and I you know that its not necessarily the closest location to our current jobs but we are pretty in love with the area and are hopeful in the future that we can eventually move to jobs that would be closer.

Irvine for those non SoCal residents is in the heart of the OC and is just a truly a beautiful area. So I am getting off topic so we were down in Irvine looking at houses and we got hungry and we stumbled on a burger place called The Counter: Custom Built Burger. There methods were different, they gave you a small pencil and a check list. What the list was, was a list of items to place on your burger. I went with a burger with lettuce, hard boiled eggs, cheese, and honey mustard. There were plenty of choices of cheese, toppings, sauces, buns, and burgers to choose from. The burger was delicious, juicy, tender, and extremely filling.

Wondering about the menu? Here is a link to their custom burger menu. The burgers were a good price, and we split a order of half french fries and onion rings. It was one of those meals that we went into with very little in terms of expectations and came out of it big fans. I love a good burger, and this place truly hit that passion.

So I have been off and on, on my posting. I know, I know, I have said it a million times. I am going to get better. Well this time I am just going to say I am going to try harder. So I was flipping through the old television this past week and it seems as though the networks are airing their annual Christmas movies. I was thinking last night what are my 5 favorite Christmas flicks.

#5: Home Alone

I am a huge Home Alone fan. This is a movie I often forget about in terms of being a Christmas movie, but I was watching some clips of it earlier today and it really still stands up to the test of time.

#4: The Santa Clause

I am a big Tim Allen fan. I used to love Home Improvement. The Santa Clause was really a clever and entertaining Christmas flick. I just don’t understand what the next two iterations in the franchise were about.

#3: It’s A Wonderful Life

Ok yes I know it’s a long movie, but boy does it have a great message. I love the message of this movie, and although it can drag at times I just love the old time feel of the movie. I have probably seen this movie at least 10 times in my life and seem to enjoy it more and more each time.

#2: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

It is impossible to have my favorite Christmas movies without including National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Cousin Eddie is back again, this time with his RV, ah its a classic. Jenn and I have made it a Christmas tradition to watch this every Christmas day, and I can’t think of a better movie to watch, its truly a classic.

#1: Charlie Brown’s Christmas

I have never been a big Peanuts fan, but Charlie Brown’s Christmas is truly the ultimate classic when it comes to Christmas movies. Its twenty minutes or so of truly fantastic Charlie Brown animation, and may forever be my go to movie to get into the holiday spirit.

Isn’t There Anyone Who Knows What Christmas is All About? Of Course Linus Does!

I was doing a recent search through Digg.com and one of the top stories was of this political cartoon on our current world economy. I am not going to give my opinion on the current economic status of our country and our world, but I thought this cartoon was both witty and comical.

Wow what a couple of months this has been. For the past six months since graduating from UC Irvine I got engaged, took an amazing trip to Europe, and now have landed full time employment. I am truly beyond words, I don’t even know how to describe the feeling of relief and excitement I have with landing this job. So what is the job? I have taken a position as a Project Analyst at Southern California Edison. The position will entail a lot of computer work in Excel and Access both programs I am fairly familiar with and will hopefully lead to some great opportunities down the road. For those who don’t know my current employer is Bank of America and there I work as a Senior Teller and it was past time for a change. I am really excited to move on and really open up my horizons. But I am not the only one with good news these days.

Jenn in an effort to always strut her stuff has also landed full time employment, before she even graduates. Jenn is a year younger then me and is about to complete her college degree from UC Irvine in 3 & 1/2 years completing on December 11th of this year. She has also taken a position at Southern California Edison as a Marketing Analyst in a full-time 18 month college program which will then potentially lead to a permanent position. We are not at the same work location as unfortunate as that is, but we both have landed great jobs well before we tie the knot next September.

My last day at Bank of America is this coming Wednesday the 26th of November and my start date is December 1st at Edison. Jenn won’t begin her Marketing Analyst program until Mid-January. With the economy the way it is, and the way unemployment is on the rise we both feel extremely blessed to have been given these opportunities.

Did you know I love Netflix? If not, I do! I have been a subscriber to Netflix since 2006 and have only had one time where I had any gap in my subscription was the last 3-4 months since I graduated from college. You ever hear the saying you don’t know how much you love something until its gone, well I really did miss my Netflix. Jenn not being as big of a movie buff as myself probably enjoyed the time away from Friday DVD night, but its back at least once in a while! So I am back on Netflix with a ton of movies to catch up on. But you may be asking why do I love Netflix? Here are the top 5 reasons I love Netflix and believe it is the best online service to date.

5 Reasons I Love Netflix:

#5:  Netflix’s Website: It is easy to navigate, it has a great simplistic design, and quite frankly I can get the movies I want in my Queue and move on.

#4: Instant Watching: I don’t use this feature a lot, but I do use it and will more when the new Xbox Live experience on the Xbox 360 comes out which will allow me to stream to my TV. I am also really looking forward to seeing the service on my Mac!

#3: Selection of Movies: There is no way I can complain on the diverse lineup of movies on Netflix. Let’s just put it this way I have never had a movie that I couldn’t get on Netflix. I had some crazy Chinese Revolution movies I had to rent for a class I had in college and who had them Netflix, who didn’t Blockbuster Online.

#2: Ease of Use: Netflix is dummy proof. I mean there is no real skill needed and the effort to get your movies is nothing. The worst feeling in the world is when you decide before you head out to Blockbuster what you want to watch that night and you get there and then they are out and you get stuck with some horrible movie that no one wants to watch. With Netflix that issue is gone.

#1: The Speed: How does Netflix do it? They are so dang fast. I have never seen a company pride themselves on accuracy and speed the way Netflix does. I never get a movie more then 2 days after it is shipped and 99.9% of the time it is the very next day. I very rarely if ever have a problem getting the Blu-Ray versions of movies either.

So all you need to know is if you love movies, you have to get Netflix.

As many of you know I am a huge fan of The Office. I have been watching it since it got picked up for its first full season on NBC and I don’t think any show has made me laugh as hard since Seinfeld left the airwaves. This past week the show we all have come to love and adore gave us yet another classic Jim vs. Dwight encounter. If your not familiar at all with The Office, Jim has been playing pranks on Dwight in the office since the first episode and the writers have done such an amazing job of being creative and truly ingenious. So if you have never watched The Office or really just want to relive one of the best Office moments of the season here it is.