The World of Joel

So this summer is no exception the typical summer blockbuster rule. One movie that I have been wanting to make the list but I just never felt a big enough urge to make the top five is Rush Hour 3. I am a huge fan of both #1 and #2 mainly because they are just good genuine laughs. If Chris Tucker wasn’t such a baby and begging for more money I think I would be more excited for this latest movie. However there is no doubt that the duo is back in action again and I will be going to the theater to go check it out!

With the final installment in the summer movies I am looking forward to I have to admit the last movie I am looking forward to seeing was a tough decision. There are actually two movies in this final category that I had trouble to try and figure out which to choose. However after much deliberation I have to say I am a huge fan of Pixar especially Toy Story, The Incredibles, and Finding Nemo. Heck Cars and Monsters Inc weren’t bad either. So for the final movie I am looking forward to this summer is Ratatouille a fun little animated movie that looks like a lot of fun.

I am currently taking TWO sociology courses both which deal with social psychology which are so far pretty interesting. However my first day of reading for Social Psychology 1 had an interesting quote that I think more then just myself would want to ponder.

“Could we even know ourselves if we didn’t know what others saw in us?”

You all probably know by know that I am a very big fan of the TV Show The Office, it is by far my favorite show on TV right now. Well one of the reasons is John Krasinski who is starring in my next movie I am looking forward to this summer, License to Wed. John along side Robin Williams and Mandy Moore could be in for one heck of a comedy. We shall have to wait and see! It does come out right along side of The Transformers.

Last year I was fortunate enough to go to England and although I didn’t get to tour the entire grounds of Wimbledon I did get to see a lot of it, and it was just as magnificent as it looks on TV. Every year since I can remember the English have backed there man Tim Henman through the tournament hoping to have a Brit win the tournament. Unfortunately he has always wound up short and now is ending the near of his career. I don’t think anyone expected Tim Henman to do anything this tournament, especially with the dominance of Federer and Nadal but the fact that he won his opening match in five sets and in such a fashion as he did shows that he still at least has something left in the tank.

I have not always been a huge Michael Moore fan, in fact I haven’t really seen a lot of his films, I did however watch Bowling for Columbine which I thought was really well done and well constructed. However he has some conflicting views, but I will honestly say that I am very open to others opinions, that makes us better people. Otherwise I have to say his upcoming movie Sicko looks brilliant, and it seems as though its a long time coming. This is a fantastic topic that needs to be brought up. Having dealt with the health care system a lot in the past year or so with my Mom and Jenn’s Grandparents I am one that is 100% in favor of becoming more like a Canada or England in terms of our health care. United We Stand was the words we echoed after 9/11 and let’s make it that way in terms of uniting each other to help the sick and those who need and can’t afford health insurance. Can’t wait to see what Moore has in store for us in this one!

In an ongoing effort to continue to let you know what movies I am looking forward to this summer I will move onto a movie I know a lot of you are looking forward to as well. The movie opens on July 4th and its The Transformers. The movie could have the same sort of effect on the 4th as Independence Day still to this day one of the most enjoyable movies to watch.

The first movie I am really looking forward to this summer is I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James. As many of you know from previous posts I am a huge Kevin James fan, and he did a great job on his silver screen debut in Hitch. Now let’s just see if him and Adam Sandler can put together a great comedy!

It has been three years since I graduated from High School, all the way back in 2004, but wow when you go back to High School to see another graduation its like you never left. Outside of seeing a lot of people who are there supporting younger siblings (like myself), just the feeling of walking on that campus again is really kind of a trip. However outside of that here are a few observations I have on graduations as I have went to a high school and college graduation this year.

1) The speeches want to be original, but the originality is usually what ends up killing them. The best bet from what I can tell is to keep the short and sweet (don’t say its going to be short, just do it) and keep everything as light hearted as possible.

2) Rules at graduations never seem to hold, in fact its almost universal. Examples of this, no saving seats, we all know EVERYONE saves seats. Secondly don’t use any balloons or blow horns, I saw a high number of both. To me I think the schools more just say these things to be political correct, rather then for actual application.

3) Both graduations I have gone to have started out with such build up, the excitement of graduating and having your name called, and then as a viewer after all the names are called the closure of such a big event is non-existent. For example say I was the last name the be called here is how it ends “Joel Szerlip…Congratulations Class of 2007… the crowd runs like stampede, the ending ceremony that was probably planned for weeks is now non-existent.

4) Bringing little kids to a graduation is not normally a good idea. I understand the desire to have the whole family out there supporting the graduate however do the other families a favor don’t bring little children, especially those who have no idea what “no” and “stop” mean. Yesterdays graduation was a perfect example of this. Two little boys, looked like twins, probably five years old were just going at each others throats. They were hitting, yelling, crying, jumping all over the bleachers, they were uncontrollable. The parents of course tried a few times, but there efforts were half hearted and ineffective.  So as a rule of courtesy please don’t bring small children to graduations.

As most fo you read from my last post, it was a pretty long and hectic weekend. I think in total I got 10 hours of sleep from Friday-Sunday. However before all of this happened Jenn and I had a whole day planned for yesterday June 18, 2007. Jenn is now going down to UCI with me (who by the way just took out Cal State Fullerton in the College World Series) and so she had her orientation at 9am yesterday down in Irvine. So we figured since we were in the OC we would go down to Disneyland which we have year passes for. On the way down we stopped at Benihana’s a place I had never been and Jenn just once. I love the whole habatchi grill, and chef’s cooking your food right in front of you, you really just seem to enjoy your food more. I had scallops and shrimp and Jenn had a really good Filet. We went to Disneyland which was just a complete zoo but we managed to enjoy our time there nonetheless. However after some time we realized that we would just be waiting in gigantic lines so we headed down to the beach where Jenn literally fell asleep for a good half an hour.

It was one of those days that we had both been looking forward to, a day that we both desperately needed, and just made for a great day. With the constant ups and downs of life, it is nice to still have those days to just let everything unwind.