Well, the Oscars have officially come and gone. Just like with the any other ballot-able event before it, I filled out my 2014 Oscar ballot. This year wasn't a record breaking year for me, but it was nonetheless decent: I posted 17 correct predictions out of 24 total categories. If I had earned a grade for this, I would have received a 71%. Yikes.

I won't lose any sleep over my 71% though because I'm not a movie critic, although I really did want to win that prize basket. Granted, it would have gone to my mom in Virginia since I was up against all of the ladies I used to teach with at my mom's school; it's just the competitive spirit in me speaking up.

Anyways, I was lucky enough to see most of the major films (outside of the documentaries and shorts) this year. With that in mind, I can't recommend Whiplash enough! Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons both blew me away with their performances. It should be mentioned that I'm a sucker for anything drummer and/or jazz related. So this movie had me hooked before the opening credits. If you can't see the movie, just listen to the soundtrack, especially since I've embedded it below for you!

Okay, enough about the Oscars. One big update on my end is I'm starting to dive into Photoshop. I know a lot of you are probably thinking, "How have you not dabbled in it before?" Well, truth be told, I've just had too much fun messing around in MS Paint and I've always been fortunate enough to have a graphic designer either in the office with me, or on call. So, I've always heard it's better late than never and that's the approach I'm sticking to with this new endeavor!

I'm excited to see what I can get done after investing some time in Photoshop and I hope that I will be confident enough in the material I'm putting out to host some on the site. We'll see, no promises just yet. That might be optimistic on my end just, but I'll see what the quality is like when I actually churn some things out.

I think this blog is starting to go a bit stream of consciousness. Not that there is anything wrong with that, right? Any who, the last thing I wanted to tell you about or at least put up on the Internet is that I was able to check out the Muir Woods last weekend!

For those of you not familiar with the Muir Woods, it is one of the places where George Lucas filmed the planet, Endor. So for a Star Wars fan like myself, it was amazing being on a movie set AND getting to check out these unique trees all in one stop! After hiking a little under ten miles last Sunday, I can safely say that if you are ever in the Bay Area, do yourself a favor and stop by the Muir Woods. You won't regret it!