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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Coffee Keeps Me Young

It's that time of the Quarter Again!

What time of the Quarter you ask?

MIDTERMS!

So naturally college students here at UCSD and all of the other colleges/universities on the quarter system are lounging around in bum clothes, downing espresso shots, and losing sleep while surrounding themselves with books and lecture notes and listening to podcasts.

Not an overreaction

But luckily for me, I have two awesome friends that showed me the best study spot I have ever come to know: Young Hickory

And to be honest I don't even know if I should be talking about it on such a "public" place because its very underground and hipster as some have described it, but you know what, I have been so productive there and love it so much I MUST BLERG (Translation: "mispronunciation of the verb "to blog") ABOUT IT.

That's my friend! She's probably gonna get really excited that she is in this post

                                     

These are some shots of the interior which is really cool, the chalkboard is really well designed, and the music is very relaxing but still just gives off a cool college vibe (super cheesy I know but I don't care).  The place is not very small and has a lot of tables, but it does tend to get pretty packed ... but it's only probably because it is such a great space.  Also, the workers/baristas are very kind and helpful and if you walk in looking distraught seeking a table, they tend to help direct you to an open table so that's nice.

And so yea that's the environment, but you're probably wondering about the coffee right? You know, since it is a coffee shop and all haha

The coffee is delicious and the food is on the same great level.  My usual is a Vanilla Latte and an Acai Bowl which comes out to a nice $12 and I probably have made that purchase every single time that I have been there, and I probably need to be more adventurous in trying out new things there ... but what I get is just so good

$12 of delightful satisfaction

My friends showed me this place at the end of last quarter during Finals Week (my other favorite time of the Quarter) and I ended up going literally 4 days in a row.  I have never been so productive in my academic years.  The first day I went we were there for a good chunk of time and I was able to crank out most of my 10 page Visual Arts Paper that I originally had no motivation or no idea where to start.

(Me before finding Young Hickory)

(Me once I found this haven)

The next few days were also JUST as productive and it is officially my choice location for studying. And ANOTHER cool thing is that you can open a tab!  Now some of you may think this is not a big deal but I have never done this before so when they first asked me "Would you like to open a tab?" I tensed up and had no idea what to do and said "No Thanks" but man did I regret it.  I have never done anything so foolish again haha and now every time I go I open a tab and I feel so legit it's cool like now I am just ranting about it but I felt like an adult doing my thing just drinking coffee and keeping tabs open and what not... But then I get my tab back and turns out I downed 3 Vanilla Lattes, an Acai Bowl, and a Brownie woops

But anyway, back to studying

A lot of people are different, and so if you are still a student and can't seem to find that one place that really allows you to get those juices flowing in your brain, try out a new spot.  Try getting away from your friends if they distract you.  Try bringing them with you if you don't like studying by yourself.  TRY SOMETHING NEW - you'll never know what the results will be, I did not expect to have this place be so great and now I love it 

P.S. I am going back there this weekend to study 

 (There is something so satisfying about this gif)

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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!

Shove It

Hopefully that last post did not traumatize anyone too much.  Whether it did or did not, this next post is gonna be a good one.  Because I am posting about FOOD again!

With the weather getting warmer now in San Diego... well, warmer than it was earlier this year (I understand we didn't get the same winter everyone else in the country did, but hey, it was a winter for us), I started reminiscing on this past Winter Break when I went to Lake Tahoe with the fam bam.  We hung out mainly in South Lake Tahoe and on our trip ended up finding an amazing FOOD FIND THAT I CANNOT WAIT TO GO BACK AND EAT AGAIN.

What is this delicious food I have ranted on about without even mentioning the name of you ask?

EuroSnack Inc: Frog Dogs & Belgian Waffle!

Now, hold up.  Before you freak out, it does not involve eating real frogs or anything, and the "Frog Dogs" were actually Hot Dogs!

This was me, because I AM Batman, and I Enjoy Frog Dogs

What made these hot dogs amazing I should say is that Frog Dogs are not served in typical hot dog buns, but fresh, crunchy, filling baguettes with a delicious sausage placed inside.  What's really cool about the little kiosk EuroSnack Inc. is the way that they prepare the Frog Dogs.  They take the half baguette you are about to enjoy, SHOVE IT (you get the title of the post now?) into these metal spike, squish the interior "meat" of the baguette, and squish it against the walls to make room for the sausage.  Then they squirt ketchup and/or mustard into the new slot in the baguette, and place the heated delicious sausage inside for you to enjoy.

LOOK AT IT!

It was amazing!  And what makes it so much cuter and approachable and Awesome, is that it is all in a kiosk of sorts.

You can find these kiosks at a bunch of ski resorts in Lake Tahoe like North Star, Squaw Valley, and a bunch other ski resorts (and I just found out thanks to the internet that they have them in CANADA! This Got Better).  We ended up buying more than one hotdog anytime we found a EuroSnack at the ski resort we were visiting for the day and were basically just dreaming of a larger Frog Dog that we could indulge in and drool over to eat up.

JUST...LIKE...THIS

Also, in case you were looking at the menu above of the different foods they eat.  They pretty much just sell beverages and Frog Dogs, but they also sell Le Wafe, or better known as Belgian Waffles.  If you have ever had the belgian waffles they sell at Jamba Juice, they are sort of like those, but because they are EuroSnack, they have their own pizzazz (not to be mistaken for pizza but to be read as pii-zazzzz).  They were pretty good but considering it was actually winter with snow and all that jazz, the warm hot dogs definitely hit the spot.

Like no kidding, those hot dogs were amazing and we discovered them halfway through our trip which meant that we knew we were limited on time on being able to enjoy them.  So we ate them a lot.  We sort of were going through withdrawals when there wasn't a EuroSnack kiosk at the ski resort we were visiting for the day, or even worse, when we finally left Tahoe and headed back home and would no longer be able to enjoy the Frog Dogs.

This was basically us, impersonating hot dogs and dreaming of a better tomorrow where maybe, just maybe, we would find a EuroSnack near our home or wherever we would be for the day

I CANT WAIT TO GO BACK TO TAHOE AND EAT MORE FROG DOGS

"Nurse! Quick! Hand Me the Vagina!"

Yep, you read that title correctly

Sorry if that made you uncomfortable or if you deem that title (and possibly the entirety of this post) unnecessary, but it definitely pertains to my blog post for tonight.  So if you think that the word is weird or disgusting or inappropriate, please read up on my interpretation of it all.

(Talk about "Vaginas" that is - apparently)

It's not usual for the word "vagina" to come out of peoples mouths or even come up in conversation and the whole reason I am talking so much about it is because I just recently saw UCSD's rendition of The Vagina Monologues.

The Vagina Monologues is an episodic play created by Eve Ensler.  As Wikipedia describes it (and although it is Wikipedia, I believe the summary of the play is accurate):

"Each of the monologues deals with an aspect of the feminine experience, touching on matters such as sex, love ,rape, menstruation, female genital mutilation, masturbation, birth, orgasm, the various common names for the vagina, or simply as a physical aspect of the body.  A recurring theme throughout the piece is the vagina as a toll of female empowerment, and the ultimate embodiment of individuality."

I first went to The Vagina Monologues last year with a few of my friends and was not sure at all what in the world to expect.  All that people were telling me about it was that, "it's about female empowerment" and "its just feminists complaining about men."   But I kept an open mind and thought it would be a good experience to go and see the show, I mean its college right? The time of your life to go out of your comfort zone and learn not just about yourself but about others right?  Well, I am definitely glad I went.

The play was held in a ballroom in the hub on campus and there was a row of tables outside the entrance with a bunch of offices expressing the different resources they have for students to become more comfortable with themselves whether it be due to previous sexual assault or other traumatic experiences.  Walking past these I was starting to get nervous.  What did I just sign up for? 

We entered the ballroom and inside were some merchandise tables where The Vagina Monologues crew were selling T-shirts with "Vagina Warrior" or "Vagina Lover" on them, panties with "CUNT" boldly written on it, as well as "P*ssy Pops" which were little chocolate lollipops in the shape of .... you guessed it, Vaginas.  Naturally at this point, as a straight male, I was preparing my will in my head and readying to just have a woman come up on stage for the performance and call out me and every other man for being a man and not being a woman and being wrong and nonsense.

-Me-

But boy was I wrong.

The show was spectacular.  The play consists of an array of monologues performed by an amazing cast of UCSD women who speak on serious matters related to their vaginas and how it was about time that the word vagina was no longer deemed as BLASPHEMOUS or anything. This is where my title actually comes into play where in one monologue, the women on stage list off not only all the different nicknames a vagina has, but also just about how disgusting and uncomfortable the word naturally sounds.  Humorously they say how it sounds like a medical device shouting "Nurse! Quick! Hand Me the Vagina!" ... they then say how even in sexual encounters, at the mention of the word, all hotness is lost, "Oooooh yes, now touch my vagina".... uuuuuh no thanks.

Some monologues are funny.  Some monologues are just straight up fact.  Some monologues are hard to listen to.  Some monologues are gut-wrenching and teary-eyed.  

But all the monologues are real.

Although at first I could not understand why the crap I was there...

But by the end, I could not wait for next year to watch it for I plan to watch this show every year.  This play is so powerful and such an important message to not only women but men too.  This year I went again and brought some more friends that had not seen the show because I knew deep down that they needed to see the show.  Also! I had a quite a few friends that were on the cast and knew how much it meant to them.  

At the end of the show we waited for the cast to come out and congratulated my friends on their performance not only to prove that we went, but to share with them that we are all there to support them because choosing to be in this show means that the powerful & important message it sends, means something special to them.  You can never have too many people supporting you in life.

The play may not necessarily be everyone's "cup of tea" but I think it has an important message and definitely opened my eyes to the reality of ... well, reality.

Mother Knows Best

Need a new TV Show to binge watch that not only is on Netflix but is coming back for its second season on Monday March 3rd and is really good?

BATES MOTEL

Done.

But seriously, this show is awesome, it is super intense, has some crazy twists and turns you would never expect, and the actors/actresses completely sell me on being in the mind of their characters... who actually are out of their own mind.

In case you don't know where "Bates Motel" comes from, here's the low-down.  Basically the thriller drama is a prequel to the 1960 Hitchcock Classic Psycho but told in modern day so theres iPhones and such!

But seriously doe, it starts off with Norman Bates, played by Freddie Highmore (the kid from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and his mother [if you watch the show, you will know why I say "mother" and not mom], played by Vera Farmiga, (starred in Up in the Air) who buy a motel in a new town to START A NEW LIFE.  Little do they know that, well, to put it simply, sh*t goes down incredibly quickly.  I can't say much without giving it away but there is a lot of plot twists and incredible subplots that all tie up nicely at the end.

And Freddie Highmore and Vera Farmiga are incredible actors in this show and you honestly never know who is more sane ... or if either is actually sane at all...

Max Thieriot, Olivia Cooke, Nicola Peltz, Mike Vogel, Nestor Carbonell, and Keegan Connor Tracy also star in this series and I just HAD to mention them all even if you don't know them because all the characters are super important and just when you think you understand on of them... HOLY CRAP ARE YOU WRONG

The lack of understanding the intentions of each character though I think is perfect since it is a prequel to Psycho.  I just watched Psycho actually the other day, crossing off another movie from my list of 250 movies to watch [Shameless Plug-In: go check out my tab Just Add Popcorn] and it was really good!  It may be in black and white and the acting may not be completely the best to today's standards but it is still really good.  Like honestly, a part of me wishes I could have been in the theatre when this movie first aired in the 60's because I really feel like people were flipping out and this movie really was groundbreaking.

I definitely recommend not only starting to watch Bates Motel, but watching the original movie ESPECIALLY since just about everyone knows about the iconic scene ... Somewhat Spoiler Alert but the girl gets stabbed...

Anyway, I had always wondered what the context of this stabbing scene was all about and now that I saw it I GET IT! And theres A LOT more story behind it.

Basically, the whole Psycho franchise is blowing up, and for good reason, so watch this awesome series before its got a lot more seasons and everyone else tells you to watch the 7th season of it.

          

Wingin' It

MORE FOOD!

I kind of meant to not just talk about food on this blog but since it basically is an ultimate passion of my life (yep, just called it a passion), and since it says its part of my life on the header of my blog... Deal with it.

So the other day one of my friends was like "Yo ever since you talked about wanting Buffalo Wings I have been craving them so lets get some chicken wings" ... 1. of course I talk about food enough to make my friends crave certain foods and 2. Hell Yes was I down for getting some wings.

She yelped a place for Chicken Wings and we ended up deciding on a local sports bar/wing spot called DIRTY BIRDS!  You can find it on 4656 Mission Blvd in PB (Pacific Beach) in none other than San Diego!

And of course, since we are super cool and super smart (and super broke), we went on a Friday which is their HAPPY HOUR CHICKEN WING DAY where all chicken wing baskets were HALF OFF!

Here's the MENU! I made it extra big so you could see all the different delicious flavors they had.  And yes, those are the prices and we paid HALF for it! 

[5 piece for $3.50, 10 piece  for $6, and 20 piece for $11]

Needless to say that when I got the menu I was a little bit more than just slightly overwhelmed with all of the options and all of the possibilities.  I didn't quite know which ones I wanted and all I knew was that I wanted wings now.

CHECK OUT WHAT ME AND MY FRIENDS DECIDED AND DEVOURED

This was mine! - Dirty Ranch & Teriyaki

This is what my friends got 

(Left) Garlic Parmesan

(Right) Honey Mustard & BBQ

My favorite was of course the DIRTY RANCH - It was basically buffalo wings with ranch already on the wings which is what I dunk my buffalo wings in already so it was perfect for me

We definitely will be coming back to DIRTY BIRDS sometime soon because we got a lot more flavors to try out and a big appetite to appease.

Making It Up As We Go

When I was younger, every Friday my family and I would sit in the living room and watch 3 TV shows together every week! It was an awesome tradition that I loved and one of the TV shows that was part of the routine was WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY

The show always had us busting out in laughter and when it went off the air we were really sad because it was a humor that all of us loved.  For those who do not know, WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY is a TV Show where 4 improvisors act out scenes and play games and all all of the jokes are made on the spot (COMEDY IMPROV!).  Luckily however, they brought it back last year with Aisha Tyler ("Lana" from Archer and "Charlie" from Friends) replacing the original host, Drew Carey.  That was the only major change really which was not that bad because Aisha is an amazing comedian and improvisor AND they kept the original three improvisors everyone loved from the show: Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie, and Ryan Stiles! IT IS SO FUN!

Anyway, I haven't been watching religiously the new season unfortunately but whenever I was able to catch an episode I did and it was still Hilarious! The improvisors are so funny and they are what inspired me to join the Comedy Improv team at UCSD actually!

What I an trying to get to is that not only should you start watching this show (it comes back in March on the CW), but I wanted to talk about (and brag) how me and my friends were able to go to a filming of the show!

(Me when it hit me that I would be in front of the amazing hilarious famous people)

Now I cannot talk really about what jokes they made, the special guests or anything due to policy but what I can say is that I had such a good time! It was SUPER FUNNY, all of the improvisors are hilarious always cracking jokes not only with each other but with the audience as well, and the entire ambiance was just phenomenal.

I scored our tickets FOR FREE on tvtickets.com which you should check out if you wanna go to a filming of a certain show in the LA area.  Some shows may be on hiatus at the time you check it out but when they aren't, they have tickets for WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY, AMERICA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS, THE BIG BANG THEORY, MIKE & MOLLY, 2 BROKE GIRLS, and SO MANY MORE!

We waited in line for a while, sat down, and laughed for so many hours it was amazing!  I AM MOST EXCITED ABOUT COMING OUT ON TV TO BE HONEST THOUGH AND CANNOT WAIT TO SEE MY STARSTRUCK FACE ON THE SCREEN

One of the best moments I love watching in the show is SCENES FROM A HAT which is basically what we call on my Comedy Improv team: Potpourri.  The coach (in the case of the show, Aisha Tyler) will state something such as ....

... and then the improvisors just blurt out whatever comes to mind and honestly this is one of the best games they have but then again, all the games they play are great

So go ahead and Find a Way to watch older episodes or wait till March to watch it but until then, try to be better than this guy if he were real