50 Things To Make You Smile

If you are ever in a poopy mood, and come on lets face it everyone gets there sometimes, here is a list of things that you can find to make you feel better. They are in no specific order excluding number #1 because everyone knows hugs are one of the best things in the world. So whenever the grey skies cloud over and you need a pick me up give some of these a whirl.

1) Hugs- Find someone, ask for a hug, embrace, feel better.

2)Watch the end of the world http://www.endofworld.net/ (if you can't laugh at that then you should be sad because you don't have a sense of humor).

3)Read Oh, The Places You'll Go by Dr. Suess.

4)Watch Elf.

5)Make someone else smile. Why? 'Cause they're as contagious as yawns.

6)Do things that Bob Marley would do while you listen to his music.

7)Play a game of touch football.

8)If it's winter time, go snowshoeing.

9)Play with a puppy.

10)Call your best friend and talk it out, thats what they are their for among many other reasons.

11)Do something kind for someone else.

12)Listen to Van Morrison's (Straight to Your Heart) Like a Cannonball (This is more geared for Jen Cox, Mary, and Jon, but feel free to give it a try yourself).

13)Buy a canvas, some brushes, paint, and paint yourself a picture.

14)Take a walk.

15)Read some Shel Silverstein.

16)Think about why you are poopy, figure out how you are going to change your poopyness, and do it.

17)Do something that you have never done before.

18)Find your "Happy Place"... it worked for Happy, and then...

19) Watch Happy Gilmour.

20)Read All But My Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein. This is a very sad book but it will sure make you feel fortunate for everything you have in your life.

21)Listen to Louis Armstrong.

22)Watch Stormy Weather.

23)Check out what's going on at your local Art Museum.

24)Think of your favorite childhood memory.

25)Look through an old scrapbook.

26)Think of how you felt when KU won the NCAA Men's Basketball championship in 2008.

27)Play your favorite game.

28)Watch a Mel Brooks Film.

29)If you know how to play an instrument, play it.

30)Plan a trip for yourself and figure out when and how you are going to get there.

31)Go for a swim.

32)Turn some music on really loud and dance your heart out.

33)Go hang out with your favorite stuffed animal. If you don't have one buy one, and then hang out with it.

35)Go for a bike ride.

36)Take pictures of pretty things in nature.

37)Take pictures of architecture you find pretty.

38)Think of when KU won the Orange Bowl.

39)Think of the proudest moment in your life.

40)Smoke a fine cigar, and drink a fine scotch.

41)If you are lucky enough to be poopy when it's about to storm, watch the storm come in.

42)Write down you goals, and how you are going to achieve them.

43)Make a funny face.

44)Make yourself a nice dinner.

45)Get a massage.

46)Write.

47)Give someone a kiss, not make-out session, but just a nice kiss.

48)Learn something new.

49)Watch this music video on youtube and learn the dance moves http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c4L4CPfQY8 .

50)Just smile- it takes more effort to frown anyways.

Music 101

I have been working on a couple posts, but can't seem to come up with a coherent though on anything. It being so long since I have made a post, I thought it would be good to just get something up on here. I had two idea's for a quick and easy post. First, was stealing an idea from my friend Erica's blog. She does a great series in her blog called "My Dearies". It is basically just letting people in her life know how important they are to her. I am sure that I will get to that at some point because believe you me, I've got some things to say about some people. However, I thought I would try to do something somewhat original, and thus I came up with 2) Music 101.

Music is one of the things that I love in life. I know that my first CD was either Dave Matthews Band: Under the Table and Dreaming or Blues Traveler: Hook. Before that I was busy listening to my dads music and thus have acquired, what many call an, "old soul" in music. He had me listening to The Cure, Neil Young, Billy Joel, and Santana among many others. One of my favorite songs to play on the guitar is Neil Young's "Needle and the Damage Done" because it was a song my dad always played. Given this love of music I have come over some pretty amazing things that a lot of people haven't heard about. In Music 101, I am going to do my darnedest to share what I have found with everyone who wants to listen. If anyone cares to share back with me, feel free because I always love listening to something new. On a side note I haven't quite figured out whether this is going to be an artist or album class yet, so bear with the inconsistency as it progresses.

To start out I'm going to inform everyone about The Ryan Montbleau Band. They are out of Boston and it is a mixture of a couple different styles. They would fall under the category of singer/songwriter but includes a lot of acoustics with influence of blues and jazz. Ryan Montbleau is a great guitarist with a great finger picking style.

I found out about them one night when I was doing very little in Lawrence, KS. A friend of mine told me to come see them play down at The Bottleneck because I would like them. Tickets were only 5 bucks so I said why not. It turned out to be one of the best shows I have seen. There were about 25 people there which made a very intimate setting. After I bought the CD's at the show everything kept growing on me. A few of the songs really hit me and helped me out with some rough times I had back then. Particularly the song "75 and sunny" of the album Patience on Friday. "Stretch" off of One Fine Color is another favorite.

"75 and sunny"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-v5sdyEcE0

here is the link to the website

http://ryanmontbleauband.com/

home is a place in your mind

The title of this blog I figured was a good place to start out with my first blog post. "Home is a place in your mind" is a fitting title for my whole life. I moved around a lot growing up and have lived with and without my direct family. Everyone needs a little place they call home. It gives them a sense of identity. It is something where they can relate to some and set themselves apart from others. This is the reason why people like places even though that place doesn't have much going for it. A great example is my roommate who is from St. Louis. I've been there a couple times and it did very little for me. Though, what I think doesn't matter because both he and Nelly love St. Louis and it is home to them. My home just happens to be in my head.

To me home is truly a mental state. For many people, home is where there family is and the house they grew up their whole lives. The only family I have remotely close to me is my Mom's cousin, which I hadn't seen their family for 10 years previous to moving to Denver. On a side note this is why family is so important because they treat me like their own. Home has become adaption to me. Home is the place where I feel most comfortable at any given time whether it be my parents house, where I live now, or the couch I am crashing on for the night in Boulder (thanks for being so hospitable Erica and Grace). The places where I am most comfortable consistently have something in common, having good friends and family around. Thankfully, from having some interesting genes from my Father and moving so much growing up, I have never had a problem making friends. I have family just about everywhere so home has become where ever I am at any given time.

There were a couple reasons I started this blog. First was because I for a couple months now have been reading my friend Erica's blog (http://clickyourheelsthreex.blogspot.com/). I have thought since day one it was great to put what you think out there and have other people read it. Second, I love to write and though most of what I used to write was songs, I have really come to enjoy things that are a bit more wordy (thanks to my brothers interest rubbing off on me, I started writing screen plays). The last thing is that I think this will be a great way to document everything in my life. That being said I think a great place to start is to write down all of my homes from the beginning to end in hopes to avoid all the confusion that all of my friends often have.

December 6, 1985 the city of Richmond, Virginia had the pleasure of welcoming me into the world and not too long after that (about 6 months) my parents moved me to Saratoga Springs, New York.

Saratoga Springs was my home for three years at which point I moved to Skaneateles, New York (picture above). This is a very small town outside of Syracuse, and usually the place I claim as home when people force me to give a place. I lived there until the middle of my 5th grade year when my Dad's job took us to Rochester Hills, Michigan.

I was in Michigan until the Summer of 2000 when my mommy decided she wanted to finish her bachelors degree. So... My mommy, my two brothers, and me left daddy all alone in Michigan and moved back to Skaneateles, where we moved in with my grandparents. My mommy did one semester at Syracuse University and found it was to much being away from my daddy and she and my two brothers moved back to Michigan after the semester was over. I however, stayed until this summer living with my Grandparents because I was on the Varsity basketball team and wanted to finish the season.

In the summer of 2001 I moved back to Michigan until my dad got transferred to California in February of 2002. I again stayed behind to play Varsity basketball and lived with a friend on the team and his family. I lived with them until the end of the basketball season and moved to Mission Viejo, California in April of 2002.

I was in Mission Viejo until February of 2004 when I graduated high school and moved to Lawrence, Kansas to find a job and hopefully get in state tuition for the following Fall at the University of Kansas. Unfortunately or not (depending on how you look at it) I ended up drinking way to much for a month, ran out of money, and moved back to Mission Viejo. The summer was spent in California only to return to Kansas in the fall for school.

The Summer of 2005 was spent living in Cressona, Pennsylvania working for, and living with my grandparents on my Dad's side. As most Summer's are short lived as was this one and back to school I went.

In school I had a short stint studying in the Spring of 2006 abroad in Angers, France (Chateau at Angers at left). I was there for four months followed by a month in Florence, Italy. I was lucky enough that Europe wasn't my only chance to get abroad. I had an internship in China for the summer of 2007, and got to see many cities while I was over there including Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai.

Once school finished I spent the Summer of 2009 in California only to remember that I didn't like it that much which brought me to Denver, Colorado. I have been living here since October 2009 and it has been one of the best homes I have had.

Photo at left is on Hong Kong island.