Week of 2/7/2016

"Kung Fu Fighting (Celebration Time)" by Hans Zimmer, off of the soundtrack for the 2016 film, "Kung Fu Panda 3"

Before the battle of the fist
Comes the battle of the mind~ 💙

If you only do what you can do, you'll never be better than what you are.

Retrospective Note 2023: In 2012, I started a movie review series called, "Reel Quick Reviews". It started as blog posts on Tumblr and Facebook, but eventually in 2016, I decided to take it to the next level with vlogging. The first film I reviewed in this new format, was "Kung Fu Panda 3". I only did 3 films with this new format, and stopped to really consider how I was going about it. This would lead to the birth of ScreenTest in 2017, but that's a story for another time. You can see my review of this film here in an archived collection of all 3 of my "Reel Quick Reviews"!

Week of 2/14/2016

"Try Everything" by Shakira, off of the soundtrack for the 2016 film, "Zootopia"

Now I won't leave, I wanna try everything
I wanna try even though I could fail~ 💙

This song inspired me so much this week, I just HAD to get started on my dreams with no distractions. It's been a super productive week, and I know this is gonna be a year for trying everything with reckless abandon. I'm so HYPE for 2016!!!

Retrospective Note 2023: For the first time in a long time, I had felt invigorated to try something new. Starting "Reel Quick Reviews" was a great first step for me since quitting everything in order to please an unpleasable father. It sounds awful to say given my Dad had passed away a year prior, but it's true, he was no longer around to hold me back or to tear me down. For the first time, I was able to do something without him hollering at me that I was wasting my time or that what I was doing was useless, or rather, that I was useless. Those days were long behind me. I was on my own, free to create, and free to explore my options.

Week of 2/21/2016

"Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman, off of the her 1988 debut self-titled album

Maybe we'll make something
Me, myself I got nothing to prove...

Retrospective Note 2019: So that new job right? Yeah... the perks of getting to work in a church is understanding front and center that the church is a human construct (not just in the sense of the building), and just because they preach lovely things on Sundays doesn’t mean the people within it are going to reflect those words. It was a slow realization, and was the beginning of my falling out with the traditional church ideal (just to clarify, God never intended his church to be confined to only Sundays and inside expensive buildings. Church by biblical definition, is the unification of His children. It’s fellowship that can happen ANYWHERE).

When I first started there, things were GREAT. Though I was the janitor, I got to work along side all these wonderful people that I’ve known through volunteering previously. They smiled at me, said hi, asked how I was doing, and I just felt... safe. For the first time, I felt safe at a job. No negativity. No pressure. Just me doing a job I loved dearly for a church I loved dearly.

Then, things started to go sour. I’m not sure how or when it started, but the smiles slowly became passive glances. I started to be ignored, and when I asked how THEY were doing, it was a quick, “fine”, and a walk to the other direction. What the hell was going on?

To this day, I still don’t know what happened, but it hurt. Bad. Cut real deep. I just wanted to get away with Jess. Go somewhere far, where no one knew us. Looking back, it’s good that this happened. I needed to be humbled by this experience, and just the same, I needed to learn not to let their bad attitude bring me down. I became real bitter for awhile, and I probably ruined some relationships with the good staff members because of it.

These days have been better though. I feel I’ve completely healed from all that (mostly by looking inward), and the problematic staff members from those days no longer work there. There’s new staff now that are around my age, and they’re more open and kind to me. There are even some staff members from those days that are still around, and have been kinder as well. The attitude is changing, and so is mine. In the end, I’m glad we didn’t run away to Austin like we wanted to. It wouldn’t have been any better.

Week of 2/28/2016

"Shine" by Mr. Big, off of the their 2001 album, "Actual Size"

Shine on this life that's burning out~ 💙