Favorite Moments of 2009...

Not in order... for the most part haha.

1. San Diego Day 9 - Anniversary!
Driving up to LA from San Diego in the AM, the Getty, Third Street Promenade, Orange Hill Restaurant in OC anniversary dinner compliments of my boy Jon Wong, Downtown Disney, drinking at some random bar followed by more drinking at some random night club at Anaheim Garden Walk with Jon and Johanna, then getting driving back down to San Diego the same night. Oooohhhh-weeeee!











2. San Diego Day 4 - Disney Land!
Too many pictures and too many happy moments to post about.







3. New York - Spring Break
I didn't get to take too many pictures in NY. People are moving too fast, and you gotta keep up. I went with my best friend, Samer. We stayed at his grandparents' house as usual. Fun as usual. Had to hit up the usual eateries and of course the Apple store for Samer. F.A.O. Schwarz is right next door to the Apples store.. no pics, but that place is glorious for big kids like me.











4. Playing against Gilbert Arenas
I wish Timi could've taken pictures of me. Oh well! Thinking back now, it wasn't that cool, but wow, when I came home that day, I felt like the luckiest dude ever. I mean damn, I played against my favorite basketball player. How many people can say that? Haha.







5. My brothers' birthday party
Never had I gotten this wasted before. I guess the stories of people telling me about myself the day after was the funniest part. Oh yeah, no hangover! Yessssss.



6. Thanksgiving
Not much happened outside of eating, but spending the first half of the day and night with my family was much needed. Everyone lives in other places now, so getting us all together was very cool. The highlight was probably doing hookah with my brothers, relaxing to some drinks, and really just talking about life. Very appreciated. I left halfway through the night to spend what was left of Thanksgiving with Nikki, her family, MA, Vince, Lauren, JR, Catherine, and their kids.

7. San Diego Day 2
L&L's for breakfast, Mission beach, Roberto's Mexican food >>> Santana's across the street, sand castles, sand forts lol, beautiful skies, and some Chinese restaurant for dinner.











8. Bye, Kiesha!
No words, only tears. Hahahaha.


(Thanks to Faye for the photo)

9. The journey to #27
From the regular season to the ALDS against the Twins to the ALCS against the Angels to the World Series against the Phillies. Every play was appreciated.



10. This isn't really just one moment, but I enjoyed all those moments that I went out to the post office to send out my shoes and to cash my money order. It wasn't so much the money that I liked, but just knowing that someone across the country would enjoy the shoes that I once enjoyed. I mean if I'm not wearing them anymore, why not sell them and let someone who really wants them have them? I sold about 30 pairs this past year. OD! But it happened and I don't regret one shoe sale.... OK, maybe my Foams. But, they did get me $300 haha.

And a shout out to the best and most prettiest girlfriend in the world for helping make this year a special one... and just for being a part of my life on a daily basis.

Another one for my family. I couldn't do anything without you guys...

Oh, and praise God! Duh!

Top 10 Albums of 2009...

Given I didn't buy a lot of albums this past year, I didn't have a lot to work with for this list. Anyway, here it goes in order:

10. The Dream - Love vs Money
9. Noah and the Whale - The First Days of Spring
8. Raekwon - OB4CL2
7. Clipse - 'Til the Casket Drops
6. John Mayer - Battle Studies
5. Eminem - Relapse
4. Maxwell - Black Summer's Night
3. Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon
2. Coconut Records - Davy
1. Jay-Z - Blueprint 3

If Drake's mixtape was an album, it would definitely be high on the list. Also, I'm not sure when it was released, but the soundtrack for the movie "Smart People" would also be on the list. I got so much random music that couldn't be put on the list because 1) they weren't released this year and 2) they didn't dominate my rotation like these albums do/did. I'm not saying these are the "best" albums or anything like that. I'm just saying that these were the ones that I played and enjoyed the most.

Top 10 Films I Saw in Theaters of 2009...

In Order:

10. The Soloist
9. Adventureland
8. Fast and Furious
7. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
6. The Hangover
5. Up
4. Where the Wild Things Are
3. District 9
2. Star Trek
1. Avatar

What's Been Going On...

My brother bought this for me from IKEA. It's a lot cheaper now ($20). I should've waited. Damn! But yeah, it let me get rid of the huge wooden thing I used to have in my room. Now, it's just this and my shoes on the floor. Although, soon I'm going to buy this dark brown storage unit from IKEA made up of a bunch of squares. My brother has it in the basement. So yeah, I'm gonna bite him on that.


Before Fune left for Vegas, we went to Nikki's house late one night and found this puzzle partially done. We couldn't leave until we finished it haha. What a waste of time. I won't lie though. We felt real accomplished when it was done. Unfortunately, Nikki's little cousins from Saudi Arabia punished this joint. Now it's in shambles.


Before the snow storm hit, my brother decided to buy some food for like 3 days since we would be snowed in. Nobody plows for us around here. Well, actually, he sent my sister-in-law to go shopping since he was at work. Anyway, she chose this for me as my breakfast item. I got addicted real bad haha. These are crack!


I forget when this was, but it was during the Christmas party for the couples at Nikki's house. Thanks, Nik! This was delicious.


Along with this big ass cookie for dessert.


We spent our Christmas Eve at my oldest brother's house. There was more food than during Thanksgiving. I was stuffed like...


This was on 12/27 at a Christmas party with our long-time friends. I kinda just tagged along though haha. They had a gift exchange, but of course I just watched. Thank God cuz their gifts for each other were expensive lol. But yeah, to cap the night, we had a bunch of drinks and smoked hookah. I think we ended up going through three flavors. Yum! Oh yeah, all this while watching a bootleg Avatar haha. The Bacardi 151 made me want to puke. OD strong!


If I had a Nikon or something, this would've came out a lot better lol.

AVATAR...

I don't feel like writing a review or anything like that...

Just watch it in 3-d, damn it!

"I see you."

How to Avoid Bullies...

I choose... FOOT STOMP!

Spyker C8 Aileron Spyder...

I just found out the name of this car via NT. I saw this car out in San Diego when Nikki, her sister, her cousin, and I went out to this car dealership that had a bunch of Lambos, Ferraris, Porsche's. For some reason, this was the dopest car to me.

Pick-Up Lines...

I need to try some of these on my nubian queen... maybe they'll yield more success than my current schemes.

Buy on 12/8...

Terrible ass cover... SMH @ Kaws and Clips

But, I'm still coppin'! Haha.






Ya'll are lucky that my CD burner is broken! Each of you enjoy the 12 cents you make from each CD sold. Don't spend it all in one place.

Countdown to Christmas...

23 days until Christmas.

P.S. Pray for my dad's heart. Thanks, world.

Happenings...

I was driving home from my boy's house in Woodbridge. This old white man had a thing for Pokemon. Dude had a vinyl character on every panel of his car.


Kiesha's mom came about a week ago. I forget who's idea it was, but we went to Oohh's and Aahh's. It was pretty good. The chicken was cool, but my favorite was the collard greens and yams. Yum! But damn, 15 bucks! Oh well. It was a fun night.


I was in DC with Nikki for this benefit show/fundraiser for the typhoon in the Philippines. Anyway, after the show, we walked back to my car and heard these loud ass birds. I was wondering what it was. Then we get to my car, and I see all of these droppings on my door handle and window. I look up and there's even more on my roof. SICK. These birds pooped on my car like crazy. There was damn near 1000 droppings on it.


This was at White Flint Mall on Wednesday. I went with my boy Samer. I sold off some shoes for $300. Good day. Then, we picked up Nikki at CP and went to the Hooters in Laurel.


This was during Thanksgiving after my parents had left for a CFC party. I went back home to change clothes. Then, my brother called me and asked me to bring his hookah stuff to my oldest brother's house. I eventually said sure and tried it. I always said no at Alan's house. It's pretty relaxing. The flavors were pomegranate and strawberry.

Brother Franklin...

HILARIOUS...

Part 3. Basically, what's going on is Martin, Cole, and Tommy followed Gina to her hotel because Martin thinks she's cheating on him. This is too damn funny.

Martin...

Been watching A LOT of Martin recently in my free time. Here's one of my favorite episodes. Season 2, Episode 1. It's split up in 3 videos.

NBC Primetime...

This is pretty much the highlight of my week... week in and week out. (I love seeing you, too, Nikki!)

Community, 8PM

This show is slowly becoming my favorite show on television. I don't have HBO like most of you, so my choices are narrowed down to the offerings of the 4 big networks: NBC, FOX, ABC, CBS. But yeah, I love this show. It's as funny, if not funnier, as The Office. Of course, it's a different type of humor, but I love it still. To me, the characters and their issues are more explored than in The Office where half of the cast only really gets a line or two during some episodes. In Community, it feels like each character has gotten their shine already at least once. Annie and Britta are cute, so that's a plus haha. Definitely a step up from Angela, Meredith, Phyllis. All in all, I'm glad I watched this show from the beginning and kept up with it. My favorite characters are Troy and Pierce. Too damn funny with their one liners! I also like the "warm" moments at the end of each episode... almost like there's a lesson to be learned... a lesson that you don't have to think as hard about to understand as you would for The Office.

Parks and Recreation, 8:30PM

I probably only watch this every other week. It's definitely not as bad as people make it out to be. They have their inside jokes like every other sitcom. So if you've followed it enough, you'll know them. That's where a lot of the laughs come from. Overall, I enjoy the show, and it's a good lead-up to The Office. After watching Community, I usually gotta catch my breath and use this time watching PAR to prepare myself a little dinner before The Office begins. Some of the characters are bland, but they all have their moments here and there. It definitely doesn't have the same laughs per episode ratio as 30 Rock, which to me, has the highest out of these 4 shows.

The Office, 9PM

First of all, I had no idea Oscar was Sarah Palin. LOL. Anyway, this is the show I've been following for the longest time, so I'm pretty loyal to it. I'm almost ashamed to say that Community is slowly surpassing it. I love the kind of humor that The Office employs. Of course, some of their characters are just straight up unbelievable... Dwight, Meredith, Creed, and at times, Andy. This can be both good and bad... good because it's hilarious and bad because sometimes I think to myself that they're trying too hard. Andy and Dwight need to start getting more story lines again. F Pam and Jim. They're already married... and definitely not as funny (mostly Pam brings them down). But yeah, love the show! They need to go back to the way they filmed the first few seasons though... now it seems like they're going away from the mockumentary style. It seems like they got cameras that are unseen by the characters and they have damn near every angle. Before, it was just a single angle for a whole scene following them around. This really bugged me during the wedding episode when they panned back and forth from Pam's face to Angela's face when Angela was harassing Pam about going to the bar. They had cameras on both sides of the hallway.. not cool.

30 Rock, 9:30PM

This is funnier than all of the others shows, but the characters here just don't grab my attention like the characters of Community and The Office. I love Tracy Jordan and Kenneth, no doubt. I can't really say too much about this show, but brilliant. I wish I could get more into it. I'm trying though. I've seen all of the episodes this season, which is a step up from the one or two episodes I caught the last couple of seasons when my boy happened to be watching it at his house.

Atlantic Blue...

These are my favorite shoes ever. There's no feeling like having these again. I feel like I can sell off the rest of my collection because these are all I ever really wanted haha. Man, I feel like I'm in elementary school again running around our apartment home in Brooklyn. I love these to death. The past year, I bought the other 2 OG colorways (black colorway along with the white colorway) thinking it would satiate my want for a pair of Penny IIs. I bought those because Nike didn't say these were coming out. A year after those retros, this colorway finally came out. But, they were limited to urban accounts and I had no money. So, put those two together, and I had no way of getting these. This past week, my boy texted me and say they were up on Swoosh. Thankfully, they had my size. 40% off = $88 shipped. 4 days later and they arrived at his house. I picked them up a few hours ago, but had to wait until my mom went upstairs to get them from my car. Yes, I still gotta sneak shoes in haha. Well, whatever. I don't feel bad. I haven't bought a new pair of shoes in a loooooooong time. I've just been constantly selling. But yeah, Atlantic Blue Penny IIs!!

Jordan 25, Peephole Edition

Jordan Brand and its designers have officially gone off the deep end. This would've been a dope shoe without that stupid hole. I love the shape of the shoe, that irregular midsole, the uneven cut on the ankle and the placement of the patent leather. But wow, that hole. What the hell, JB?!? Who signed off on this crap?

ESOM

I had no idea this was out since I don't have cable anymore. Dope video. Officially gotta go to NY for Christmas now.

#27...

Brand New....

I went to confession with Nikki yesterday at the shrine for our 1 + 1 anniversary.

I'm feeling pretty good. Prayed the rosary consecutively. Prayed for some babies. I'm off to a good start rededicating myself to God. I've been pretty crappy as a Christian the past month or so... I never prayed, I missed mass 3-4 times (yeah, that's how shitty I felt), mortal sins, laziness, everything you can imagine.

But yeah, I'm feeling good again. Praise God.

Focus, Man...

-MIS 310 exam tomorrow night
-ANTHRO 114 Group Project 10/26
-ANTHRO 114 Exam 2 11/11
-MIS 310 project 10/27
-FNAN 301 Exam 2 10/23
-FNAN 301 Assignment 8 10/20, Assignment 9 10/27, Assignment 10 11/03

R.I.P. James...

My middle brother just did this on my oldest brother.

We miss you, James.