The World of Joel

I love having time off of work/school. I have been off of school for three weeks and I had about five days vacation from my job at Bank of America. So you can say that I had some down time. Besides going to the cabin, Jenn and I have been seeing a lot of movies, something I love. So since I have gotten off work I have seen Dan in Real Life (late I know), National Treasure 2, The Great Debaters, Charlie Wilson’s War, The Kite Runner, and Juno. Not a huge list, but substantial enough to say that I have seen my fair share of movies. Let’s go through and grade each movie shall we?

Dan in Real Life: A-

Fun movie, I really enjoy Steve Carell, it was a bit slow, but at the same time the story really pulled me in, and I enjoyed it.

National Treasure 2: C

Didn’t we see this movie already? As my brother Jake said, “who should be left behind”, “I will stay”, ten minutes later “who will stay behind”, “I will stay”. It seemed like the same movie as the first, but a whole let less exciting.

The Great Debaters: B

I love Denzel, he has such a stage presence, I have enjoyed 99% of the movies I have seen him in. This movie seemed however a bit predictable. Enjoyed it, just you knew they were going to win. (Spoiler Alert)

Charlie Wilson’s War: B-

I own I believe at least five movies that star Tom Hanks, and a few that star Julia Roberts as well. When the two come together it should equal magic right? Eh, not so much. I enjoyed the second half of the movie, it seemed a bit off base, and I just never got into it.

The Kite Runner: A-

Read the book, one of my favorites of all time. The movie, like any book to movie transaltion misses a lot of key points in the novel. However the heart of the tale is still in the movie, and although it is about 50% subtitles it still drew me in from start to finish. “For you a thousand times over”.

Juno: A+

I very rarely come out of a movie excited to talk to Jenn about it, but with Juno I was beyond impressed. At its most basic form its a movie about a girl in high school who gets pregnant, but as Jenn stated it, the movie spoke to our generation. I don’t suspect many of the crowd in there 40’s to necessarily connect as much, but I have to say this was one of the most surprising movies I have seen. It was extremely funny and yet extremely intelligent. Great Movie.

Howdy everybody, its once again been about a week since my last post, but for those keeping up you would know that I went to the mountains for a few days to finish out the year. So now I am just starting to get back in the swing of things and getting ready for a huge Winter Quarter starting next Monday (The 7th of January). Can you believe it is already a year ago I started UCI? I can’t. I got to tell you this has been one of the craziest years of college, so much has changed since I started UCI that its hard to figure out what is to come next. I am getting very close to getting my Bachelors degree, I talked with my adviser today at UCI and it seems as though I have a “shot” at a Spring 2008 (that’s right six months from now) graduation. Now I have to get a few things from my last college to make that happen, but here is to hoping!

I am still working on a look back at 2007, my hope is to actually finish it, last year I started and stopped. This is one of those years that I might put behind me as well. I also have some pictures from the mountains that I am hoping to get around to as well. Gosh its tough getting back in the swing of things, I still feel like I need another week or two of vacation. But alas, that won’t be happening anytime soon. Not much else to post up on right now, although I have a lot to tell, that will have to wait for further blog posts. Welcome to 2008 everyone. Did anyone watch Letterman last night? What’s up with the beard? Conan’s wasn’t much better.