Practically Perfect in Every Way

I have no idea why I have not posted about this yet but Disney's Saving Mr. Banks is one of my top top top movies that YOU need to watch and I am always down to watch.  I have no idea why it was not nominated for more Academy Awards because it is Awesome! Not just because it's Disney and not just because Tom Hanks plays WALT DISNEY ...but it definitely helps

So for those of you that don't know first off, Saving Mr. Banks is based on the process Walt Disney went through to convince P.L. Travers, the author of Mary Poppins (played by the lovely and amazing Emma Thompson), to get the rights to make the movie.. drum roll please... Mary Poppins!

As tale comes to tell as portrayed in the movie, P.L. Travers was not very easy to convince and she had to have it HER WAY in making the film adaptation OR ELSE NO RIGHTS, but because Walt too was a stubborn man and would LOVE to have Mary Poppins join his ensemble of characters he considers to be his family, the conflict between the two gets to be pretty good as Mrs. Travers just about shuts down every idea they have while making the movie.

You can imagine how bad THIS LINE is when creating the movie adaptation because of a certain other word that is so iconic in Mary Poppins ... Spoiler Alert...it's Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Emma Thompson KILLS IT as P.L. Travers and you basically wanna give her a piece of your mind throughout the entire movie as she rips apart just about every song they come up with, every detail in the script, and what seems to be every remaining detail in the story.  Did you know she did not even want there to be any hint of attraction between Mary Poppins and Bert?

Please, those two are perfect for each ... practically perfect in every way

But the movie is not just some Disney movie with a bunch of sing-along-songs throughout and dancing animals (that ends up being in Mary Poppins, duh), this movie is actually a drama with A LOT of depth and emotion which is probably why I love it so much (I like those types of movies)

I mean just LOOK at the movie poster! You just know the movie is gonna be good and magical and everything everybody needs and would enjoy so you need to go along now and watch the movie.

Furthermore, I wanna talk a bit more about Mary Poppins.   I made my roommate watch Saving Mr. Banks a few days before my birthday and he liked it a lot too and so did my other friend and it just reassured me that the movie is great... but I mean, even if they didn't like it I still would have loved it because it is good and no one can tell me otherwise.  Anyway, for my birthday, he got me the original book version of Mary Poppins

I read the book ASAP and thought it was a lot of fun and definitely an easy read, you should go read it.  Like really, if you can read my posts, the book is gonna be a piece of cake.  The book is however very different from the movie, whether or not that was what Walt wanted or what, I like both definitely.  They're both different but they are both pleasing, enjoyable, and can teach you a lot while having a lot of fun.

Now my apartment-mates and I have been itching to rewatch Mary Poppins and basically complete the tri-fecta of Mary Poppins goodness.  Book, Movie, and Movie is great and just about as perfect as Mary Poppins ... but not completely ..

(Now you understand the title of this post?)

But yea, so whether you want to relive your childhood (Watch Mary Poppins), watch a good drama with a great cast and good humor (Watch Saving Mr. Banks), or have a good easy read that anyone in your family could enjoy (Read Mary Poppins), Mary Poppins can be there for you at any time of the day at any time of the year.

Any of those three are really just as sweet as a spoonful of sugar

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What's the Buzz?

So it's been a month and A LOT has happened so far in my life, but because this is the internet I must attend to your needs and interests so I thought I would share the greatest craziest thing that has happened to me

ME AND MY ROOMMATE MADE IT TO THE FRONT PAGE OF BUZZFEED

Like seriously, what just happened?

Here is the link if you want to see:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/paulyj/student-turns-roommate-into-a-variety-of-disney-ch-k8xw

If any of you saw it beforehand, now you know, that was me

Basically for a while now I have been taking snapchats of my roommate throughout the year .... and drawing him as different Disney characters... and putting dirty captions on them .... without him knowing.

But I mean, I did end up telling him what I was mass sending to 15+ people at a time.. just, you know, after I had drawn it and sent it to everyone and even posted it on the "MyStory"

Anyway, so basically for a while people would make comments on how much they loved the Snapchats I would send and how its "BuzzFeed-worthy" but I just didn't know how to become "BuzzFeed-Official" you know?  So I went on BuzzFeed, found out you can make your own article, and then it posts on BuzzFeed Community.  I thought nothing of it and then just thought it was for fun... then I got an email

The email quickly told me how my article had made it to the front of BuzzFeed Community .... then I got another email within the hour that then read:
YOUR ARTICLE HAS JUST BEEN POSTED TO THE FRONT OF BUZZFEED

WHAT

(How I Imagine People's Reactions Were Looking at the Article On Mobile)

In less than 24 hours, my article hit more than 100,000 views and I could not believe it, everyone was telling me "Oh, you better not get a big head from this"... but honestly, I could not even figure out what had just happened to me.  Anyway, to be honest I am not typing this all out just to show off or get more views on my article (Did I mention I posted the link above and you should check it out? haha) but rather to prove to people that taking chances can be a lot of fun and can add awesome memories to your lives.

Because I took the risk to post this article (with my roommates consent), we can both officially use the sentence:

"Hey, remember that time we made it to the front of BuzzFeed?"

Can You?

Maybe you have an even cooler sentence to say and that is awesome, PROUD OF YOU!

Straight Up Muggin' It

Shopping for Birthday gifts most of the time (at least I have found them to be) can be one of the most difficult things to do especially when you want to express to someone you care about how awesome they are.  Typically what happens to me is that I realize it is someone's birthday soon and then I think, "OK, what is it they like? Well, they like that stuff so much they ALREADY have everything they would want from __________ .... well maybe I can give a gift card? But typically family members you don't speak with on a regular basis give those....shit."

[This is what I look like, LOOK I EVEN SIT DOWN TO THINK ABOUT WHAT TO BUY]

Perhaps a lot of you go through the same thought process, or maybe you are actually awesome at buying birthday gifts, and if so I envy you.  If you are more like me and struggle sometimes, I have a solution... at least for one gift.

Starbucks actually has this cool mug you can buy that you can draw whatever design you want on it, bake it for like an hour or something, and then the design stays imprinted on it permanently.

LOOK! Isn't that cool?

And since Starbucks is in just about every city across America, I am sure you could easily find the nearest Starbucks location and pick one up.  It's really fun designing whatever it is you wanna make for said birthday person (or Christmas person since that season is approaching too) ((Or whatever holiday you wanna celebrate, everyone could use a good mug))

Anyway, it comes with a double sided pen with white ink to draw on the lower black region, and on the reverse side of the pen is black ink to draw on the upper white area.  I actually bought one as you could guess and made one for my sister for her birthday!  It was a little nerve wracking since it is kind of marker that I was drawing with but I found that you can first draw with pencil and it easily erases by wiping it with your finger.

So if you could not guess from the design I did, my sister loves Disneyland and all things Disney so I put a popular quote from Walt Disney himself "It's Kind of Fun Doing the Impossible" and I even looked up Walt Disney Font online and was able to draw it by looking at a template.

I was nervous at first and it definitely took me some time to figure out what it is I was going to draw but I was really happy with the end result and think it summed up Disney and my sister fairly well.. my favorite is the Pocahontas at the bottom on the back of the mug

I tried to capture the majestic beauty in her hair which admittedly was really difficult, I mean look at those locks, but I managed to do it and had a lot of fun doing it.  Also, I guess I forgot to take a picture of it but I drew a star on the inside of the mug so after finishing a drink she could see the evening star/ wishing star/ second star to the right/ pretty star.

But yea, I honestly had a lot of fun and might even buy another DIY (Do It Yourself) mug and make one for someone else but I am not officially sure.  I definitely recommend it and think that someone will love it especially since making something homemade shows a lot of love.  It shows a lot of effort in my eyes, and would love a homemade gift since you realize that when that person was making the gift, they literally saved time in their day to work on something FOR YOU.

Just Add Popcorn

Although in my info at the top it only says that "I watch movies" I really need to emphasize just how much I love movies.  I never really realized it until this past year I think.  I don't really know what it is about movies either that attracts me to them.  Possibly because I wonder what it is I would do in such situations whether it be fiction or not, or maybe because I can't believe someone was able to come up with such a storyline just from inspiration/imagination or that something like this actually happened in history and was so greatly portrayed in a movie.

Also, I tend to make the effort to memorize the names of actors and actresses and am always the guy my friends ask when they wonder "where have I seen that person before?" as we watch a movie or TV show.  IMDB is one of my favorite websites (something I have never heard anyone else say unfortunately) because that's where I find the names and filmographies of all these actors and actresses. ALSO! They actually post a lot of information about upcoming movies, movie roles, and other movie crap that I love.

IMDB has also given me the Top 250 Movies of All Time which if you go into my tab of 'JUST ADD POPCORN' at the top, you can see that it is my goal to watch all of them (I know the list will be updated but for now I am going to complete the list of movies from August 2013).

The list of movies has a bunch of cult classics and oldies I have been meaning to watch for a long time so I'm excited to finally get to watch them instead of just saying "I've been meaning to watch it".  Also my roommate is a big movie buff too and my friends love a lot of the movies on the list so watching these movies with friends will be even more fun than just watching it to cross it off the list.

At the end of the list of 250 movies though I should note that I added some movies I recommend you watch that for some reason did not make it on the list from IMDB but I find to be great.  A bunch of them were recommended to me from friends or family and some others were movies I watched with people I care a lot about recently.

Seriously though, I really recommend going out to watch a movie with some people by the way.  I have a few friends who don't like watching movies at the movie theatre because they find it antisocial or something but my parents and I started a tradition late this summer where every Sunday night we would watch a movie and I  LOVED IT.  It was a lot of fun watching some new movies I hadn't seen and going to the movie theatre with my parents was fun too.  Especially since I am leaving to go back to college, I really liked that for sure, there was an afternoon in the week dedicated to family time.

So whether it be watching movies every Sunday or grabbing breakfast every other week, or even just making that phone call you push aside so often... Call or hang out with your parents (or guardians/role models/whomever you want) and dedicate some time to those who matter.

[No matter how you may feel about your family members, they are family... 

they will always be waiting for you and never stop loving you]

Float Like a Cadillac, Sting Like a Beamer

Road trips can be a lot of fun if you are with the right people, and luckily, I survived a big road trip with my family this past weekend all the way from San Francisco to Flagstaff, Arizona to see the Grand Canyon.  That is roughly 12 hours driving plus stopping for bathroom breaks, stretching legs, and going through a few rounds of Chinese Fire Drills at gas stations.

Originally we were planning on going up to Lake Shasta for the weekend but about a week before I brought up the idea that we should try something different and somewhat jokingly offered going to the Grand Canyon.  One week later we were up at 4am and hitting the road and man am I glad my family is spontaneous because the trip was awesome!

On the way there though, we stopped by ZION NATIONAL PARK and holy crap that place was beautiful!  Although the Grand Canyon was, well, GRAND in it's own obvious way, Zion National Park was amazing and had this great serenity about it that I was obsessed with for a while.  

I love that picture on the right because you get an idea of just how enormous these mountains were compared to a full sized Yukon

And no I did not fall in love with this place solely because of the fact that this place was off of Route 66 and basically identical to Radiator Springs from 'Cars'.  Driving through the mountains kept me in awe over the size of the mountains and I think why I especially loved it was that unlike Yosemite where you are constantly driving past picnic areas, rest stops with port-a-potties, and families of tourists flocking towards tourist information booths, as you drive through here there are only stops at the end and the beginning.  So all you see is the beauty of the mountains and all you hear is ... nothing.

        

I honestly could have stayed there all day and just kept driving and driving around. 

Inside the national park too are a bunch of lodging joints that looked really comfy and homey so my family and I are already planning on the next time we go that we spend a night in Zion National Park and wake up.  Like holy crap imagine the sunrise at this place... I can only imagine... for now.

Look at this rainbow at the entrance! I should have known at this point that the next place was going to be getting even more beautiful with this beginning it.

So in review: Zion National Park is not some outer space zone but an enormous and beautiful plot of nature in Arizona you have to visit in your life time.

It's Good to Laugh at Oneself

Has anyone watched the movie Enchanted lately?

It is a actually a really good movie that brings an honest smile to my face as it mashes up the real world with the world of animation!

But what I honestly love the most out of it all is that it is a Disney movie that basically pokes fun at itself and the typical princess stereotype that Disney created

You know the stereotype I am talking about too right?

Everything is positive.  Has never felt the emotion of anger. Sings beautiful melodies while cleaning and finding true love. And of course gasping at every little second.

BUT WAIT HEAR ME OUT! I am not hating on the princesses, I am actually applauding and finding it awesome that Disney was able to have some fun in this movie by placing the stereotypical princess.. in the real world *DUN DUN DUUUUUUN*

And Amy Adams (who plays Giselle) in the movie does an amazing job doing just this. 

I also think its awesome that they "call out" all the random singing that usually goes on in such animated movies Disney loves to intertwine into films and amusingly directs scenes in the way that they would most likely happen if someone were to randomly bust out in a musical ballad in the middle of the street....literally

ANOTHER fun thing I learned after watching this movie was that there are a TON of Disney references in the movie (thanks Wikipedia)

• The storybook opening is a tribute to the openings of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Cinderella, The Sword in the Stone, Sleeping Beauty and others.

• The troll's loincloth consists of remnants of the Disney princesses' dresses, Snow White's rags, Belle's village dress, Aurora's peasant dress, and Cinderella's maid outfit.

• Narissa disguises herself as a hag just as the Evil Queen does in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

• Giselle mistakes a little person in New York City for Grumpy

• "Happy Working Song" is a homage to "Whistle While You Work"

• Jodi Benson plays Robert's Secretary Sam and voiced Ariel in The Little Mermaid

• Giselle sings to her dream prince just as Ariel does with the statue of Eric

• The Troll's earrings are made of the shell bra Ariel wears

• As Giselle studies the fish tank at Robert's office, an instrumental version of "Part of Your World" is played in the background.

• "That's How You Know" is an homage to "Under the Sea" and "Kiss the Girl" 

• Judy Kuhn makes a cameo appearance as one of the residents in Robert's building (credited as "Pregnant Woman with Kids") and she voiced the singing voice of Pocahontas

• The bus driver's hair is shaped like the ears of Mickey Mouse 
• (MY FAVORITE EASTER EGG)

• Bella Notte, the italian restaurant that Giselle, Robert, and MOrgan eat at is a tribute to the song from Lady and the Tramp

I think what I am trying to get across is that I love to use animated gifs on my blog and that Disney knows how to laugh at oneself in a way that still brings entertainment to people in a way that still instills the belief that Dreams Do Come True.