The World of Joel

I love the zoo. Jenn loves the zoo. We have gone to the San Diego Zoo once together, and we both have always been a big fan of the place. It is just one of those places that you just feel really relaxed which helps when school gets stressful like it is right now. We made the trip this past Saturday (11/10/07) after my 7am meeting for my job at Bank of America. The drive from where we live is about an hour and a half so its a bit of a hike but well worth it. We got down there, picked up some food (popcorn and hot dog) and were on our way. The day was really relaxing we walked for a good half of the park, and took the bus tour to hit the remaining stops. The more notable stop of the day were the monkey’s and the otters together in one habitat. It was overall just a really fun and relaxing day. And since I don’t put many pictures up of Jenn and I, I thought a few pictures from the Zoo couldn’t hurt.

Let me just say I hate when I start to get on a role with my blog and everything seems to be going well and then I get sick, and everything kind of falls back out of place. So I went to the Genesis concert last Saturday, and it was actually a lot of fun. We went down to the Hollywood Bowl (long drive) and had a good time. Well anyways I got back at like 3am on Sunday and had to do a massive study session for one of my classes which had a Midterm Monday morning. So I knew I wasn’t going to post on Monday, but then Tuesday rolled around and I was sicker then a dog. It is now Friday and I really have been off and on all week, some days have been worse then others, today being one of the more down days.

As many of you know I review video games and I have been getting a ton of packages this week with new games to review and being sick doesn’t make it easy to review all this stuff. It’s tough but I guess someone has to do it. Anyways there is my excuse for not being on the blog for the week, I will be back in full force on Monday. Have a good weekend everyone!

So the time has finally come, I am going to see Genesis tomorrow night at the Hollywood Bowl with my really good friends Chris and Scott. Chris and I have been friends since I can remember, and I went with him to CSUSB while I was there, heck we even carpooled for a bit! Scott and I have known each other since Junior High and I actually haven’t seen him since my High School graduation so it will be good to see him. What got us all together was Genesis, a band mostly known for Phil Collins, is having a reunion tour of sorts and are playing the Hollywood Bowl tonight and tomorrow night. I remember driving around Riverside listening to Genesis on many occasions, and so I brought up the idea with Chris, and we booked it a few months ago! Tomorrow night 7pm, Hollywood Bowl, we are seeing Genesis, it should be great!

So this morning started out like a normal morning. It is Wednesday which means Jenn and I don’t start class tell 10am, so we wake up early and go to IHop for a hearty 3.99 breakfast (eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, and pancakes) and everything was really same as usual. We brought some food home for Jenn’s dog Sparky like we always do, some bacon and some hashbrowns. We walk in the door I immediately go to get my stuff so we can head out to my laptop to get some work done before school, and I hear Sparky yelping really loud and Jenn yells for me to come in. As I walk in Sparky is on the ground shaking and yelping in pain, it was one of those experiences where instincts and adrenaline kick in and you really loose sight of what is going on. Sparky settles down a bit, and let’s a little #1 out, and then gets up, and a minute or two later is waging his tail and running around like nothing had happened. Jenn and I both sat there with our eyes just glazed over, trying to capture our bearings.

Jenn’s mom took Sparky to the Vet and it seems as though as Jenn and I both had thought, he had an epilepsy seizures, and we are finding out tomorrow from his blood work if there was a trigger. The reason I tell the story is to one never take a day for granted, and two just to say how proud I was of Jenn. She was very calm through everything, and as scary as it was, it was even more amazing to see the dog up and about like nothing had ever happened only a minute or two later. It was one of those mornings that takes years off your life, and one that I hope never to experience again. Let’s hope tomorrow brings good news!

So it’s Monday, that means another week of class has begun. This weekend was pretty short, it went by quick, and I didn’t really do a whole heck of a lot outside of homework. But today is Monday and that is my longest day of school of the week I am here from 8am-6pm which means at 6am I am out of the house ready to commute and I will get home about 7:30pm in time for Chuck on NBC. However I made a big mistake when coming to school today, I forgot my Mac Book’s power cord. That’s right, I am at 40% of my Battery here at 10:30am, and I don’t know what I am going to do for the rest of the day. I am so used to having my laptop with me at all times ready to check my e-mails, update blogs, and write reviews. Today in about half an hour, I will be without! Now that’s not the start to the week that I wanted. Well at least I got all my TV Blogs updated! Here is to today, a day without my Mac.

As many of you probably already know, one of my biggest issues with my work is budgeting my time. Many times I feel like I cannot get as much done as I want to get done on a given day. I have so many TV Blogs doing pretty well that I have been putting a lot of effort into these and not as much into my blog, and for my faithful few readers out there I apologize. I am still in an ongoing effort to make sure that I get everything that I need to get done while still maintaining and updating this blog. With that being said my goal is to update everyday with much more content and once again daily posts. So stay tuned for that and much much more here on the World of Joel.

I have to say this past week has taught me something, I am terrible at balancing time when I have a lot of time to work with. This past week I have been out of school, and I have just a multitude of games to review, hardware to review, and TV sites to update, and I have a ton of time to do it. What I find is that with each extra hour I am given I waste 55 minutes of it playing a game I have already reviewed, or just watching TV. Sure I do feel that a break from constant work is good, but I have so much I want to get done before I get back to school next Thursday, but I feel like I want to spend more time sleeping, eating, and playing old games then reviewing my new games, reviewing new hardware, and just getting stuff done. It is that battle that is going on in my head that is just like, one more game, or one more episode of Seinfeld and then I will work. And as you may have noticed my posting habits over the past week have been slacking as well here on the World of Joel! Well hopefully I can get back on top of things before school gets back in session and all heck breaks loose again!

As many of you know I just turned 21 last month, and to be honest am just not the world’s biggest drinker. However I have enjoyed a few glasses of wine since reaching the 21 milestone and I must say that I am a fan. So this past weekend I went wine tasting at a local winery down in what we call Canyon Crest. It is a nice little shopping center and the winery is in a little odd ball location. When we got in there was only one other party in there and they showed us how they make the wine, bottle it, and all that kind of good jazz. We got to sample five wines for five bucks, seemed fair to me, I had one white, one red, two fruit, and one dessert. I have to say the red and the white were my favorite (sorry the names are escaping me, I am not a big wine-o yet). Anyways if you haven’t before, go wine tasting, it is a great date, a relaxing environment, and really is a lot of fun.

So I didn’t post last Friday, and I may not post tomorrow, and this is all because of my second quarter of summer school finishing up this week. I have finals today, and I have another final on Wednesday. Although most schools have already started there Fall quarter, I actually don’t start my Fall quarter until the last week of September, so next week is my one free week to just relax, sleep, and catch up on some more much needed R&R time. So I apologize in advance for the next day or two, but I promise I have a lot of interesting posts to make in the days and weeks to come! For now enjoy my network of TV sites which by the way the new Fall season starts premiering shows next week, so get ready everyone!

I used to be an avid bowler, you wouldn’t know it by my 109, 115, and 77 scores today, but nonetheless bowling is by far one of the most under rated sports out there, it is just a blast. It has been at least a year since I went to the alley, but after a great lunch with Jenn we went with Jake and Amy (my brother and sister) to a local bowling alley where we got an hour of bowling and another free lunch. It was a great time and the best part is my brother Jake and I were playing against each other each time and even with my terrible scores I still held him off, I won’t mention the 77 game, where he had to only knock down two pins in the tenth frame and through two gutter balls. I hope to hit the bowling alley a lot more before the summer comes to a conclusion. Below are pictures taken with my iPhone.

Jenn

Jake

Amy