2014 Favorites and Milestones

What would 12/31 be without a reflective post of my favorite moments of 2014 as well as a selection of my top favorites from this year?

Ultimate 2014 Playlist

1. Nirvana (Harry Fraud Remix) - Sam Smith
• I loved Sam's debut album this year but this remix really stuck with before it's release. I can't wait for Sam to make an album that is all dance tracks.
2. Rather Be (feat. Jess Glynne) - Clean Bandit
• I am not sure how this found its way to my iTunes but it did and then it got some radio play and some Jazzercise play but I really loved it on my Summer walks to work.
3. Jealous (I Ain't With It) - Chromeo
• Chromeo will always have a special place in my heart because of Jerome and this song reminds me of him. He would love it.
4. Love Now (feat. All About She) - Calvin Harris
• Calvin Harris' new album this year is one of my favorites and this song is stellar. I love his big dancey tracks with female vocals.
5. Break Free (feat. Zedd) - Ariana Grande
• I hate that this is on the list because Ariana Grande bugs me but I just really liked this song from the first time it played on the radio. I blame Zedd.
6. Take Me Home (feat. Bebe Rexha) - Cash Cash
• My friend Hillary showed me this song right before it became a Jazzercise song. I still really like it.
7. Froot - Marina and the Diamonds
• I got really into Marina and the Diamonds as we transtitioned from Summer to Fall and I build a whole playlist of sad dancy girl singers. Her last album was the star of the list but Jake was the one who brought this new track to my attention. It is weird and great.
8. Dark Horse (feat. Juicy J) - Katy Perry
• I blame this on my friend Sam who loved the music video when I went to Florida in late Winter at the beginning of the year. It grew on me and grew on my. I loved "Birthday" and "This Is How We Do" from this year as well but I decided "Dark Horse" would be Katy's contribution this year.
9. Helen Keller (feat. Roxy & Richie Beretta) - Manila Luzon & Cazwell
• I found this song somehow on Spotify and it is so weird that it kind of became something I loved. Drag queens and terrible queer rappers coming together to make a trash song that somehow I still laugh at.
10. Do It Again - Royksopp & Robyn
• Sweden rocks the house.
11. Shake It Off - Taylor Swift
• It is a good song no matter how many times they play it and the fact that I can't build this playlist on Spotify because of it. It is just great and remind me of the pink suite we stayed in in Vegas.
12. Feels Like Summer - Panama Summer
• This song came up on a dance rock radio station on Spotify and I kept going back to it eventually buying it to put on my dad's annual CD.
13. Jealous - Nick Jonas
• Despite his pandering to gay dudes, Nick Jonas is kind of awesome. I love a squeeky clean pop star who goes dirty and makes awesome adult pop after making such songs as "Pom Poms" with his brothers,
14. Neon Lights - Demi Lovato
• It is just a good dance song not matter what you say. It is also a painful leg workout but I will never be sick of this song.
15. Baby Don't Lie - Gwen Stefani
• Gwen can do no wrong in my book and while this is a little bis slower than most people would like. It is a great bus ride track.
16. Cook Kids - Echo Smith
• This song instantly takes me back to the pool at Elara where I spend at least 10 of my 36 hours in Las Vegas. Not a very "Vegas" song but a great one all the same.
17. Peaches - In The Valley Below
• I heard this song driving home from Katy and TJ's on a hot summer night. I rarely listen to the radio anymore but I happened to be listening to some indie rock show on the local alternative station and I really liked this song.
18. Chandelier - Sia
• Most people love this song for the video but I just loved this song. Such a deep powerful dance ballad.
19. Passenger - Britney Spears
• I know that is is really just a robot singing but man do I love this song. I think I listened to it everyday as I road the elevetator up to work for the month of August.
20. Say Something - A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera
• February is a hard month for all of us and when I got Winter sad I fixated on this song to the tune of replaying it for 30 minutes straight. 

Top 5 Things I Am Most Proud of in 2014

1. Getting promoted at work (twice!) to a job with a salary that allows me to feel comfortable
2. Visiting Chicago for my first business trip and adding a new state to my list of visited
3. Jake finding us a house to move into and being able to get out of an apartment
4. Getting my passport and visiting Canada for the first time with my Mom and Dads
5. Hitting 200 Jazzercise classes

Top Ten Favorite Movies Released This Year:

1. Guardians Of The Galaxy
2. X-Men: Days of Future Past
3. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
4. The Skeleton Twins
5. Big Hero 6
6. Gone Girl
7. Maleficent
8. Bears
9. Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes
10. Godzilla

Top 5 Funnest Parts of 2014

1. My crazy Summer road trip to visit Vegas for the first time as an adult, see Britney Spears. hike the desert, go to Disneyland and eat rolled tacos on the beach with my parents
2. Kate's Hair Metal Baby Shower
3. Running the Ugly Sweater 5k with Jake and Jenny and beating the pants off of everyone else while looking amazing 
4. Visiting all 4 Walt Disney Parks in 15 hours while visiting Florida
5. My last minute trip home for cookie baking with my mom and grandparents and for cribbage playing and pizza eating with my dad

30 by 30: The List

Today I turned 29 and one year from today I turn 30. Below are the things I hope to accomplish:

1. Go to 3 major league sporting events
• I like live sports and I haven't been to any games recently so let's get manly.
2. Make a total of $1000 in deposits into some sort of savings account
• I started the savings account and now I want to use it.
3. Go to the drive in
• We've been saying we want to do this as a tribe for a couple of years and haven't made it happen. Now we will.
4. Read one more book than I did in 2014 aka 13 books
• Reading is fun and so is self competition.
5. Read the Walt Disney biography Jake got me for Christmas 2013
• Jake looked everywhere for this book for me last year and then I haven't read it. 
6. Learn to play "Happy Birthday" on a piano (or other instrument)
• I can't play an instrument and I would like to learn.
7. Upload all music to a hard drive, get rid of my CDs which I never us
• We are moving on 1/24 and I would love to not move my CDs that I haven't listened to since I don't know when. If not, let's just get rid of them this year.
8. Complete 200 workouts of at least 45 minutes each (not exclusive to Jazzercise but could include)
• I felt good about this this year. Let's feel good again.
9. Go to the opera or ballet
• Similar to above, I want to experience more culture.
10. Do 12 active outdoor activities this year (hiking, camping, canoeing)
• I like outside.
11. Go camping at least once
• Moved this from 29 by 29 to this list because I do love camping.
12. Take a picture of myself each day because I hate taking pictures. Amanda Pope will be doing this with me as part of her 30 by 30.
• I hate having my picture taken. I grin and bear it most of the time and make this really weird face that my mom makes fun of. (Reasonably so)
13. Visit 6 states other than OR, WA, and CA (Bonus points for all 6 states to be brand new)
• I like the great United States and traveled a lot last year and loved it. 
14. Make 3 of these states I have never visited
• I would really like to see more of the US for the reasons above.
15. Watch all James Bond movies before the new Bond movie comes out in November
• I liked the Disney goal and I like Bond. Let's do this.
16. Vegan for a month (clean vegan, none of that processed fake BBQ stuff)
• I wonder how Jake will respond when he sees this. Anyways, I am just going to try this out. See how it feels.
17. Make a souffle
• I have wanted to make a souffle since I moved to Portland and haven't done it.
18. Ride a bike (It is that simple. Sit on a bike and pedal the pedals.)
• I used to have a bike and then it got lost and now I will ride a new one. Maybe I will by this bike. Maybe not.
19. Get a tattoo
• Remember when I wanted this last year and wussed out. Let's do it.
20. Volunteer 12 times this year
• Humanitarian
21. Do 50 creative writing prompts of at least 500 words
• Maybe writing a children's story last year was too big of a bite. Let's try some other kind of writing approach.
22. Go to the Japanese gardens
• I haven't ever been.
23. Watch all 201 episodes of the Office
• So as everyone knows this is my absolute favorite show but maybe everyone doesn't know that I haven't seen all of the last season.
24. Reduce my debt (I have more specifics about this but I kind of like to be pretty private about my finances)
• See the above sentence in parentheses
25. Shoot a gun
• I've never shot a gun and I would like to because I am an Eagle scout.
26. Cook a recipe from each of my cook books
• I own a lot of cook books but maybe haven't used them all. It would be nice to have actually tried something from each book.
27. Write in the blog regularly and post more than I did this year
• I like writing here. You are a nice reader.
28. Do another 5k (bonus points for a 10k)
• I liked running. I didn't like running and then not being able to move for 4 days. Let's try doing this with 100% more training.
29. Visit a National Park
• Did you know I love National Parks? I do so I want to go back.
30. Do something crazy. 
• I am giving myself a wild card. I just want to do something out of the ordinary for me. Something that isn't on this list that I am really proud of.

29 before 29: The Recap

I think I did pretty well for my goals this year for this being my first attempt at a concerted effort to accomplish 29 things in one year. Below is what I accomplished before my 29th birthday on 12/29/2014. I wrote several posts about I did so you can see the links to revisit those posts but I also provided images from additional things I did.

• One month no spending
• Knit something other than a neck warmer
• This one was tough. Originally, I decided to knit a pillow and as of 12/28 (today) it was almost done but I wasn't motivated. It was sitting on the table next to my new laptop when I was inspired to turn the knitting I had been working on for a year into this laptop case with leather straps.
• Write more, specifically in this blog
• I did a lot of writing and you can read it all here. Sometimes it was really hard to write about a Disney movie or something. In the next year, I want to blog more about other things that happen.
• Complete 200 Jazzercise classes
• I almost missed this one but I finished my 200th class with three days to spare. Lucky too because I got sick the day after. I am proud that I completed a workout routine for a year. I averaged 4 classes a week but at this exact moment in time I am maybe just a little sick of aerobics to pop music.
• Learn to make sausage w/ casing
• Teach Girlfriend 3 new tricks
• Here is a video starring Jake that he made for me to showcase Girlfriend's tricks:

• Read 12 books
• I did some reading this year. Honestly, I was really behind on this goal come Summer. In fact, at the beginning of the Summer I had only read 1 book and am super proud that I busted it out. Of the twelve books I read, I was really only excited about two and there were two others that I liked okay. I started writing about them and then it just turned into another thing to write about and I hated it.
• Go to the opera/ballet/symphony
• Eat rabbit
• Watch all Disney animated movies (There are 54 counting Big Hero 6.)
• Later this week or maybe tonight, I plan to write a whole post summarizing everything I learned about Disney movies including my favorites and least favorites as well as what I learned about myself.
• Run a race
• Put money in a savings account aside from my Christmas fund, possibly using the week in the year method
• I started a savings account and put some money in it and it took a lot of work and effort to do it and it was the worst because anything involving money is the fucking worst. I hated this.
• Make some sort of fermented beverage
• Email my grandma 4 times
• I am terrible at keeping in contact people unless I call them and then I feel guilty so my goal was to email my grandma more so that I felt connected and she knew I loved her. I did it and it worked and I felt better about myself and more connected to my grandma. She is great.
• Mail cards to my mom, dad, brother, grandma and grandpa for their birthdays and Mother's/Father's day
• Similar to above, I am really terrible at mailing cards and gifts so I made this a goal which I barely made happen twice (Father's Day and Andrew's birthday).
• Get a passport
• Use my passport to leave the country
• Hike in the desert
• I hiked in the desert alone on my way to Vegas from Orange county last Summer. Actually, funny story that sums up my goal of being more adventurous. When I got to the trail head, they hadn't opened the parking lot for the day even though it was past the time to open. I got really nervous and started to get back on the highway but thought about my motto for the year of "More adventure, less worry." I just parked the car on the side of the road and snuck in and had an awesome hike. Nothing happened to the car. Turns out when you just do things, it is awesome. Check out my pictures here.

And here are the goals that fell by the wayside:

• Sell one thing on Etsy
• I had this idea to create an Etsy shop and sell several different things. It never happened because it took too much time and money.
• Save $300 in a Christmas fund
• I made a lot of excuses and in the end it would have been really nice to have this money put aside.
• Get another tattoo
• This comes down to money. Everytime I had the money, I didn't pull the trigger and when i didn't I wished I did. Last night, I sent an email to a tattoo artist and we are working something out for the next few months. This will be on my 30 by 30 for sure.
• Go surfing
• Sometimes you get drunk and make a list of goals and when the rubber meets the road you aren't really interested.
• Hit my goal weight
• This was a dumb goal that had not real basis in reality. I wanted to hit an arbitrary number for some unhealthy reasons. You can see several posts where I came to terms with my weight.
• Camp with Jake more
• This or some version of this moves to my 30 by 30.
• Do ten diamond push-ups successfully with perfect posture
• See the "Go surfing" and "Hit my goal weight" for more information
• Learn the foxtrot with my friend Kate
• Kate had a baby and I stopped watching "Dancing with the Stars" so who cares.
• Get my oil changed 4 times
• I got my oil changed once last year. My poor, poor car. Too bad the guys at Jiffy Lube are too pushy.
• Write a children's story
• I sat down and wrote out a plan for this twice. I even talked to work Amanda about this to get motivation and it just never happened.
• Play in a soccer game
• See "Go surfing"

18 out of 29 isn't too bad. So what did I learn? 

1. This is a really fun thing to do and I want to do it again.
2. Your list of goals shouldn't be made drunk while listening to Kelly Clarkson
3. SMART goals are smart for a reason.
4. There needs to be more of a balance of short term and long term and less things that rely on the full year.

Disney Movie Reflection: Fantasia, Fantasia 2000, and Make Mine Music

This is my final reflection on individual Disney movies. I feel sad about writing this for the last time especially since this is a bit of hodge podge of movies. I watched Fantasia 2000 in the Spring and watched Fantasia right before Halloween. I watched Make Mine Music in early December as I began to prepare for the holidays.

While this seems a bit of a hodge podge, I grouped these together because I had a clear thesis about these movies that I will expound on for a bit and then talk about what I like and don't like about each movie briefly.

Thesis: Music drives Disney movies often times more than words but gets the least appreciation. As I write this, I am listening to the beginning of Cruella De Vil which starts with about a minute of music and then words and I instantly love the parts sans vocals even more. I love Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 because it really takes the film down to two basic elements: music and animation. Make Mine Music is great but it can be a bit hit or miss with it's vocals. For example, Peter and the Wolf is great but is even better with out the narration because the music really tells the story when paired with visuals.

My favorite Disney character is Mickey Mouse but more importantly Sorcerer Mickey from Fantasia's "Sorcerer's Apprentice" which you see in both Fantasia and Fantasia 2000. The ability to take a character that is universally known and tell a clear story about him without letting him talk is pure mastery. I love the story of mischief and magic mayhem that contains such musically driven drama. If you were to narrate the Sorcerer's Apprentice it would be a boring story because they story is so simple.

Make Mine Music's Casey at Bat proves this point. The story of Casey is basic. He is overconfident and he pays the price for his pride by losing the game. This cartoon is narrated similar to Peter and the Wolf and it becomes boring and even a little dumbed down. If you were to just pair the story with music and images, you could tell a compelling story that engages the viewer.

Enough on my thesis. Here are my individual reflections in brief:

Fantasia
As mentioned before, this movie holds my most beloved character. I also love "Night on Bald Mountain" for it's extremely dark nature and general creepiness. My least favorite piece is the piece that is paired with the evolution of the world focusing primarily on dinosaurs. The music doesn't match the story as well as I would like it too. Finally, the nutcracker suite and Beethoven' Pastoral symphony are near flawless.

Fantasia 2000
Sequels are never as good as the original but this one sticks pretty true. I do love that Donald makes his starring role in an music pairing just like Mickey did in "Sorcerer's Apprentice" by starring in retelling of Noah's Ark set to "Pomp and Circumstance". I also love the brightly colored Gershwin piece set in a bustling city. I find the piece about whales weird and the piece set to "Firebird" about the Spring sprite is just a little too new age-y for me.

Make Mine Music
Despite what you may infer from above, I did really enjoy Make Mine Music. I would watch it again or own it. I do love "Peter and the Wolf" because it reminds me of being a kid and my dad showing me the cartoon and him really liking it."The Whale Who Wanted To Sing At the Met" is also a favorite because of it's obscurity and the fact that they kill the whale in the end and he sings from heaven. It is a little dark to kill the main character but they just throw him up in heaven and let him sing. There are some more forgettable parts of this movie that I had to look up even thought I watched this less than three weeks ago. I didn't love the piece about teens in jalopies. The animated piece with two live action ballet dancers is cool because it definitely is innovative for the time but it isn't my favorite. Most of these compilation films are the same, they have their high notes that you probably know if you like Disney and they have their lower notes which are obscure for a reason.

Disney Movie Reflection: Frozen

I bought Frozen a year ago with a gift card to Target that I got for my birthday. I waited for weeks until the Bluray went on sale for as cheap as it would go. I just waited and waited and finally bought it.

And then it sat. In the plastic wrap. Just waiting.

Amanda Clem and I saw Frozen right when it first came out before Christmas. It was probably the second weekend it opened and the theater was pretty full and I wasn't sure if other people liked it. I left the theater excited and immediately downloaded "Let It Go".

And then they hype hit and you couldn't escape the storm. Not that I was mad about it because it was awesome to see Frozen represented in both trips I made to Disney parks. I just got more and more scared to watch the movie. I was scared it wouldn't be good enough.

So I saved it for second to last telling myself that I wanted to watch it close to Christmas since it is about snow (but it takes place in the Summer so really it is more of a Summer movie but never mind that). I watched it the morning after Christmas early on the couch with coffee and cinnamon rolls.

And it was as good as it was in theaters. I still got chills while Elsa builds her ice castle and Idina belts out her song. Anna's silliness was still laughable and Kristen continues to be perfect. I love Kristoff even more since I love Looking and Jonathan Groff.

The story takes the elements of the Lion King with rotating characters around a central cast. It is divided into distinct acts and the progress nicely. You have plenty of comedy but a truly heart felt story. Jake came in and watched the last 30 minutes and he thought Olaf was pretty funny so it definitely has something going for it.

Disney Movie Reflection: Peter Pan

I saved Peter Pan for the day before my birthday because it has always been my favorite. The first time I hear the "dun dun duuuuunh" I get chills each time. I honestly don't remember this being much in my conscientiousness as a kid. We didn't have it on a clamshell and I don't remember it on a boot leg VHS. I am not sure when I first saw it. My family never really road the ride at Disneyland until I was a pre-teen. Something clicked though when I was a teen and this became my favorite Disney movie. Often times, when i was an angsty emo teenager, I would watch this movie late on a Sunday night while washing my PE clothes for the next week or while finishing a shitty last minute essay on Frankenstein or Gatsby.

I love this story because for a long time I wanted to escape the ever closing world of being an adult. I grew up in a house that very much valued responsibility from a young age. We learned to budget when we were in early elementary school. We were taught about sin and debt and college and driving and marriage and all of the trappings of growing up really young and Peter Pan was my escape from the constant pressure a teen feels as they are becoming an adult. The same disk I have had for 15 years has always served as 77 minute escape from everything to a world where what you want manifests but maybe isn't quite as ideal as you though. It allows you to get away while shedding perspective on how what you have may not be ideal but maybe nothing is ideal.

Nowadays this movie is all about nostalgia. I know it so well but am mesmerized each time I see it picking up something new. Similar to Indiana Jones there is just something that always draws me into the movie it has a special place in my heart.

The movie gets a bad wrap for it's lack of political correctness and I have to agree that the treatment of Native Americans is inappropriate by today's standards. I get that but I can't buck something that has such a special place in my heart.

Disney Movie Reflection: Wreck It Ralph, Big Hero 6, The Great Mouse Detective and Treasure Planet

I will call this out on my own right now; I am behind on my Disney movie reflections and tomorrow morning I complete my goal of watching all 54 Disney films in one year. Here are my reflections on the films I have missed:

Wreck It Ralph
Every year I ask for a handful of Disney movies. Last year, it was Wreck It Ralph but I hadn't opened it until very early December. Once I embarked on the goal to watch all Disney films I knew I wanted to save some of my favorites for the end.

I love Wreck It Ralph because it is so not Disney while being entirely Disney at the same time. I love the references to my our Original NES as well as the arcade. I like how it is really intricate and detailed and that the story is a little hard to follow.

I also really like the idea of the imperfection be exactly what is needed to make everything right. That the things that make us different even if they can be harmful can also be special. I also like candy.

Big Hero Six
I like Frozen but it is definitely a princess story. I am glad to see that Disney is alternating stories with Tangled with Wreck It Ralph as it's compliment. Frozen's compliment would be this year's Disney release, Big Hero Six.

It is quite similar to Wreck It Ralph in that it is big and bold. It is an action packed commitment to loud rock anthems and comic books. I am a big fan of Marvel movies so the blend of a Marvel story with Disney animation was right up my alley.

The movie has a big impact because it also includes the traditional comedy elements that most Marvel movies have. Finally, it plays well with the current trend of the importance of sibling love that was important in Frozen. This time the kill off the brother though.

The Great Mouse Detective
This is one of the white clam shells that I grew up with. It is a little unknown unless you are a child of the 1980s. It also is a strange play on Sherlock Holmes and has some absolutely frightening moments. There are two specific moments where I jump in this movie still to this day.

Sadly, I did start this movie a couple of times and had a really hard time getting into. When I finally did watch it, I was cold and had a hard time staying awake. The movie is dark in both tone and actual animation. It has some pretty funny moments and the fact that the main character is obviously a rat parading as mouse is weird and great.

Overall, it sits in the middle of the pack of movies that I don't really plan to watch again, I will remember the clam shell fondly but don't plan to return soon. I would like to meet Ratigan at a park though.

Treasure Planet
This movie was okay. Toward the bottom of the pack okay. Remember in the 2000s when Steampunk was just getting going? Well this movie is all about it and I hate it. Joseph Gordon Levitt has a nice voice but overall the story of Treasure Island is overplayed and the weird aliens with monocles isn't that entertaining. Definitely wouldn't watch again unless I have a brain swap with a manga loving, Steampunk tween.