Day 361: The 50's Here

Today could have been more eventful, but.... it just wasn't. What is it with Hispanics and their tendency of being lazy sometimes? Man, I thought I was doing alright breaking that stereotype, but now I'm back at it full speed. I can say that it was a good day thanks to my latest addition to my camera's eye collection, the Canon 50 mm f/1.8. I know that sounds super complicated, but it's just a simple lens with loads of awesomeness inside. Plus, I get the perfect opportunity to practice at the "happiest place on earth"", so you know it's going to be good! This was a family day; despite my laziness and lack of effort to do something more productive, it was still a blessed day. This last week of 2010 is going to be good; sometimes you just know, even if it involves Disneyland =)

God bless,
Steven

Day 360: The Feed

So Christmas was yesterday. Just like that it's over, and there's six days of the year left. Today was the last Sunday of 2010; wow, has time flown. Today we visited a church that our cousins Jorge and Rosie go to, and I enjoyed it a lot. It's cool to get a different perspective every now and then. After that, the family (Derek included; you know what, let's just go with him always being included in the family.) went to have lunch at this place called Everett & Jones. Apparently, it was so good the last time they went that they HAD to take me there. All I can say about Everett & Jones is that it just may be some of the best barbecue I've had in my whole life. My WHOLE LIFE. I tried their chicken, beef brisket, and ribs, and sweet mother of Jehosaphat are they good; I made sure to save some to have tomorrow. Coming home was nice and simple; all I really did was hang out with my dad, watching movies and video editing. Not to mention the dogs, who are great company when you dismiss their tendencies of being absolute lunatics sometimes. You'd think that after a massive lunch I'd be done with eating for the day; well..... it wasn't the end just yet. I ended up having an evening run to Taco Bell, where I used a bunch of coupons to get a bunch of food to sustain me for the next couple days. I'm pretty sure I'll be running on a full tank of fuel this week; I just need to try and regain my composure so the American eater within me doesn't transfer over to Australia. I say that mainly because I ate differently over there; it actually benefitted me too! I don't really ever keep track of my height, weight, etc.; but I certainly felt better throughout this year. There's just something about Australia.... guess I won't be finding out the secret to it's success anytime soon.

God bless,
Steven

Day 359: CHRISTmas

Christmas day. Everyone looks forward to it. I mean, why wouldn't you? It's Christmas!! We're celebrating the birth of our Lord JC! This time of year has always been one that I enjoy; I'm pretty sure there hasn't been a Christmas I didn't enjoy. Today was a family day; I literally spent the entire day with family and relatives. In the morning, my family went to Pittsburg to see grandma; as tradition, we took her for breakfast at IHOP (I'm really taking a liking to IHOP now; who knew ten months away from here could make their food taste SO amazing?) After that, we took a trip to Mi Pueblo, which is basically a massive Mexican supermarket where you can find lots of food for super cheap prices. It's cool to be in a place like that, because it's full of Latin American culture and the kind of food my parents are familiar with from their childhoods. After spending a couple hours with our relatives, we dropped off grandma and came home. Throughout the day I kept practicing with my new camera, and so far it's going well. I spent a good 20 minutes just going through the manual, and I had to stop due to an overflow of info to my brain. I could have picked just about anything to do once I got home, but I found myself in front of my TV reliving one of my favorite pastimes: Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus on the Playstation 2. What was originally going to be a small play-through of the first and second levels ended up being me playing for about 4 hours and eventually beating the game; frankly, I'm surprised I beat it so quickly. Looks like I'll be playing through the second one pretty soon =)

Okay, so maybe this Christmas wasn't like the ones you see in the movies or television, but the fact that I got to spend it with the most special people in my life was well worth it. One thing I would complain about is that today's society is moving away from Christmas's purpose and inspiration. I guess I don't really see what's so controversial about saying "Merry Christmas"; obviously me being a Christ follower can make me feel uneasy when I hear modern America saying "Happy Holidays" as if they're trying to take away the deeper meanings and spiritual connections of Christmas out of the picture. All I can really say in the end is I'm going to stick with the way it was meant to be from the beginning. Think about it; 'tis all.

God bless,
Steven

Day 358: New Toys!!

"It came!!! It finally came!!! The Big One. [cue dramatic strings] Extremely dangerous, keep out of reach of children.... cool!"

This is one of those scenes from Toy Story that I remember because of how many times I've seen it. Today, I could have easily quoted this over and over again. Today was one for the history books, as my present to myself from myself arrived this afternoon. What was it, you may ask. A Canon Rebel T2i camera kit, I may answer. I GOT MY CAMERA!!!!!!!!!! It's about time, man!! I basically got to show it off to the family after months of researching and getting input from all the camera experts in my world. It's more beautiful than I dreamed; I seriously can't wait to start reading the instruction manual to figure out how to use the darn thing!!

My Christmas Eve was definitely one of the best ever; lots of time with the family, lots of great food, lots of camera testing, and even Lotso' Huggin' Bear making me detest evil toys that hide behind cuteness (Never... ever.... trust a bunny. Or a pink bear that smells of strawberries..) My family is really the best gift of my life; I thank God so much for them and everything they do for me. God, thanks for an amazing year; and Jesus... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

God bless,
Steven

Day 357: Christmas Eve Eve?

Let's just say that God is good all the time, and all the time God is good. Sounds like a pretty good summary of today to me!

God bless,
Steven

Day 356: Alone, Not Alone, and Never Alone

In the morning I found myself in a place where I was determined to really getting this SFC Christmas Program DVD finished. I published each video with around 20 minutes between each just waiting for the video to finish. Eventually they were all done, and I went right to work on the DVD menu. It took a while, but after all the imports it was done. I then decided to check the videos, only to find that the audio quality wasn't as good as it was on iMovie. So, I had to pretty much scrap everything I did, and I have to re-publish the videos with better audio so it can be heard well on the DVD. I consider that a video editing FAIL, but let's just move on before I get sensitive.
Later in the afternoon, I had a dentist appointment; it's cool to see the people you trust with your teeth, especially when they already know so much about Australia. My mom and I both got some extra strength cleaning done, so I feel pretty clean at the moment. After that, I was deployed downtown to meet up with some of my SFC peeps. I was there very early, so I went to Borders and got lost in a few comic books; it was a very reminiscent hour, since I had a knack for collecting them. What really surprised me was how far the comics have gone since I last got one; take the New Avengers for example. I think the last volume I have is 6 or 7, but they're already on 12; it's amazing how much happened in the Marvel universe in one year. Once I decided I shouldn't jump ahead to other big stories, I went downstairs to find someone I knew; this mission came with little success; but after a while, I eventually found them. We pretty much spent the night walking around the city, sharing laugh after laugh, story after story, and more laughs; I love my friends. All of them. Even those of you that join me on this life adventure by reading this right now. You're awesome =) As Tobuscus would say it, "Bless your face. If you sneezed during this video (or in my case, this blog), bless you. Peace off."

God bless,
Steven

Day 355: The Friends You Know and Love

So today was interesting indeed. I didn't really have plans (I tend to not have plans to begin with), but a plan came my way around 10-something this morning. I woke up to the ringing of my dad's phone because my mom was calling to check on us. I went through some unread messages and found a message from Kazemi (I gave him my dad's phone number for when we were planning on filming my project for the Exchange, but that didn't go to plan at all) letting me know about plans to hang out with some peeps in Daly City. So without hesitation, I got ready and went over to reunite with one of my best friends; we were the only ones on time (naturally), so we spent about an hour just catching up on life and what was happening. Eventually the rest of our group came and we watched Tangled in 3D (absolutely love this movie; much better than Narnia hands down). It was loads of fun watching it again, and even better seeing Katherine tear up during the emotional scenes haha. After that, the group (minus the Garcias) went to the V's house to say hello to our ol' advisor/friend and his wife. We spent a couple hours there, telling what's going on in all our worlds (apparently, I've missed out on a lot, because so much has happened this year that I only just heard about today!). Eventually, the entire Valenzuela family came, and it turned into somewhat of a family reunion. Once I got home, it was chilling with the family until bedtime... which is now...

God bless,
Steven