Notes from Jake's iPhone #1

College is an interesting place. We go to a campus that's essentially its own mini city. Campus food, campus housing, campus police. If you get in trouble you face college court with the dean. If you excel you get a recognition from the president of the campus. With that, you get unique people. You thought high school had stereotypes? Ha! That was nothing compared to the variety of people and groups of people in college. 

That said, I love watching people. Observing who they are. Listening to where they've come from in life, making up who they are. It's fascinating to me and I enjoy getting to know everyone. There's people you agree with, disagree with. Connect with or intentionally avoid. But it's a wonderful experience because you get to find out yourself amidst others who are doing the same thing in their own way. It's the coolest and at the same time, oddest dichotomy. We're together in finding our individuality. 

Being a communication major I think I pay more attention to this than others, because a lot of what I study is metrics. So I'm constantly watching others. What they like or don't like, what the majority opinion is on topics, etc. And the other day in class, we had a discussion about the future. Sounds vague, I know. But our professor spent time to tell us that we actually do matter, aren't just a number, yadda yadda. We're two weeks out from finishing the quarter, but that speech solidified the fact that even he's checked out of the quarter too. It's cool, we all are over it at this point too, professor. 

What caught my eye about this particular conversation though was the responses to his speech and PowerPoint. Most didn't agree with him that it takes work to get somewhere of relative success in life. 

It took a lot of effort on my part to subtly pick my jaw up off the ground. 

I couldn't believe it. I mean, I know my generation is lazy and self-entitled, but to actually stand up and say that against someone who's trying to motivate us? It was shocking to me that someone would actually do that on a topic that really isn't controversial. This isn't like we were debating abortion rights or something. It was just a speech on how to land a job that will pay well so we could live a good life. 

But this student decided to say "nope, I'd rather rely on blind luck that someone will offer me a job and I can then go from there. But I'm not going to seek anything out". 

I'm writing this because I come from a place of hard work. Anything I've wanted in life I've been told I had to work for it. Nothing comes free and everything has a price. It comes down to how bad you want it before you get it. It could take days, months, weeks, years or even decades, but if you want it, you have to work to get it. 

Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure that's how any corporation is, too. Ask any CEO from any company that does an effective job, and 9 out 10 will say they had to work their butts off to get where they are today. Sure, not everyone will be a CEO, or even a manager, but shouldn't you work your hardest and best at anything you ever do? 

I guess this student expects someone to hand a job to them, and I'm assuming they're going to wait a long time before something decent comes along their way. But this generational mentality scares me. Why should we expect others to just do stuff for us? Why can't we learn to do it ourselves? Sure it takes hard work, but I don't think there's ever been a person in the history of ever that said it wasn't a good payoff once the job was completed. 

We're the next leaders of the world in many capacities. Parents of the upcoming generation, leaders of the current companies, voters for the next leaders of the country, and much more. It seems like not many of my age take this as seriously as they should. Why else do we have teen parents going to jail for child abuse, or record lows at the poll booths? I'm not writing this with the intent to offend, I'm writing this with the intent to inspire and think about what our world is, and what we can do to make it better. Life won't get better if you don't decide to make a change. You can't lose weight by just not eating Twinkies anymore. You have to go to the gym to exercise and burn the fat off. You can't be smarter by leaving a book on the shelf. You have to pick it up and study, or you have to seek those who are smarter and have been there before you to understand the concepts and theories. It takes work. It takes dedication and discipline. That's what will impress others. That's what will help land a good job. That's what will give you a better life, because you worked hard to get to a good point. 

I guess I'm "old fashioned". But I want to be the best, and I know that the best don't stop at "just okay", and they never settle. My generation needs to wake up and stop twiddling their thumbs expecting to be vine famous. Our parents thought 15 minutes of fame was fast. Our generation is even faster. Ask anyone where today's viral hits are now that they aren't viral anymore. Even then, to maintain that level of fame is intensive work. Jerome Jarre, famous French viner now has his own team to help him assemble his vines and Instagram photos/videos literally frame by frame to make sure it'll be a hit. They spend hours a day filming and refilming six second clips. He isn't just good at going on the fly with his work. It's planned and worked on before people see it. But all people think about is getting millions of views off a video. They don't consider the work that has to go into the production of it. Yet it comes as a shock when they see just how much they have to do to be a legitimate success. Why not realize this before you want a well off life, and work on having a strong work ethic before you even do anything of relative success? Personal opinion, but I have a feeling that if you premeditate your level of work before you do it, you'll be more successful in actually doing it. 

Anyway, I know this is long winded writing, but I like to type my thoughts out loud. Thank you to those of you who have read all the way to this point. You rock. Really, you do. 

Big Plane for a Big Sky

Thanks to a friend at the airport, Hailey and I were able to go out onto the tarmac after hours and check out the massive AH-124 that landed in Bakersfield. It was really cool getting to walk all around it and see just how big this plane really is!

Wingspan from tip to tip is 80 yards wide!

68 feet high from ground to tip. 

Huge. Just...huge. 

It takes 300,000 pounds of thrust to get it off the ground. 

And, because the clouds were gorgeous too, I had to get a shot of Hangar Six.  

Married Life Is Weird Life

It's weird. It just is. Like, how crazy is the concept of marriage. You wander around through life by yourself, searching for someone to love. Going out with friends who set you up with someone they think is good for you, and they're not. They spend the time to try and pick someone out, and half the time you end up looking at your friends wondering if they really know you at all, because the person they picked out is the worst thing ever for you. Or you e-date and find out that half the people on those sites are psycho basement dwellers. Rinse and repeat that until someday when you least expect it, you crash into some other human on this rock that catches your attention. Stumble through your words and somehow convince them that you're worth their time to spend money on a meal and maybe a movie or something, and if you're lucky, you get a second chance to spend time with this new interesting person, and if you make it through the rounds, you end up becoming an 'item'. Exclusive and unavailable to everyone else.

Then over time, your feelings escalate, climbing each level of the emotional stories through the building of your mind faster than anything's ever moved in your mind before, and somehow you find yourself buying gifts for them, becoming twitter pated and all giggly and googly-eyed over this one-in-seven-billion-person, and as time passes on, you feel like you want to pick this one over anyone else to spend the rest of your life with. They're the best you want, the best you need, and the best you crave. No one else matters as much as them, and even if Emma Watson or Bradley Cooper walked in the door and begged you to date them, you'd still be stuck and fixated on the one person that you're smitten over.

Eventually you have this sunshiny and rainbowy epiphany when the clouds part, heaven sings and cherubs are pointing your way to a giant wake up sign above your person that says 'they're the one. Pick this one!'. Then you go through the hoops of signing off on a loan to buy a rock wrapped ontop of some metal, only to take this person out to someplace on this earth that's significant to only you two for some romantic reason, you get on a knee and ask them to sign their life away to you and stick it side by side with you, never to part and forever to be together. Because they're the person you realize you want to go through everything together. No matter what. Thick and thin, good times and bad, whether you're rich as Donald Trump or poor as Detroit, you're in it together.

After the proposal, you decide to stand in front of the other friends and family, have a guy tell you to repeat after him and symbolically declare your love to each other, sign off a contract saying you're responsible for each other, and then go off on a vacation to celebrate by having sex and laying around for a few days before returning to reality.

Yet as life moves on, you create other little humans, buy a dog, pay for a house, and live a life with another person you picked out of the crowd as your favorite person in the world. Someone who once was a complete stranger and you never knew, but somehow became attracted to and chose to stay with forever. Unless of course you're stuck with parents who decide to arrange your marriage. Then you're screwed being stuck with someone you have no choice to be with or not because someone else took that responsibility upon themselves to do because they thought you weren't capable of picking out the right stranger. So at least there's that happy ending...

Night Crawling: Wandering the Streets of Bakersfield

So, despite living in a town that doesn't have much to do, and basically shuts down before 11:00pm on any given night, I have a lot of fun crawling around this place, because no one else is around. Also given the recent rain, it's given us a lot of fog. By a lot, I mean so thick at times you can't see more than 50 feet in front of you. Makes for a real exciting time while driving...

These were a few grabs I got last night while my wife and her sister spent some time in the car chatting and drinking flat whites while I drove around getting these shots.

Ground Floor Art. 

Honoring Those Who Served

Sometimes a name on a wall means everything...

Night Train

Two small town icons on the same street. 

Flying High

This is nearly a month late, but I've been swamped with school and work. For my birthday this year, Hailey outdid herself on my birthday present. Something I've been wanting to do for a while now is learn to fly. I've become fascinated with getting my pilots license after seeing Tim McGraw and Dierks Bentley flying their own planes. Granted, I'm not a multi-millionaire who can afford buying his own plane (yet), but I do know that getting my license is within my reach, and I can just rent a plane for the time being before actually buying one someday.

Anyway, back on topic.

The day of my birthday we ditched our only class on Friday, and headed south. Went to Six Flags for a few hours, and then headed south. I had no idea what was going on outside of Six Flags, so all of this was a complete surprise to me. We grabbed lunch and killed time somewhere in LA before I found out about the surprise, and once it was time for my appointment she had scheduled, Hailey was able to surprise me with going to Van Nuys Airport, and going to a full-blown flight simulator for 45 minutes to see just how good I could possibly be at flying. I had no idea until we got there, and all day she had a word puzzle that I was trying to figure out. It turns out that the puzzle spelled out Frank Sinatra's 'Come Fly With Me'. Fitting, right?

So we show up to this hangar, and we meet the instructors of U.S Aviators Flight School, and I think we're just doing the simulator. That alone would have been more than enough for me. I was stoked to learn more about all of this!

I sit down, and this system is the real deal. Pedals, throttle, the whole nine is in front of me and three screens wrapped around me. The instructor goes over all of the basics, and teaches me about the angle of attack, how propellers work cutting through the air, etc. Once we go through the simulator, apparently I impressed him, because even landing the plane I did well. He told me that no one else has done it so smoothly, so I guess I'm a natural!

Once we wrapped with that, he suggested we go out and check out some actual planes and see the difference between the simulator and the real deal, so we roll out to the tarmac, and pull up to a plane, and I'm climbing all over this single engine Piper, completely geeked out about it. Then, Hailey leans in close to me as I'm sitting in the cockpit, and she says, "now you get to really fly".

Jaw Dropped. Heart Stopped.

Me. I get to fly. For real. Like, really start the plane, taxi it, take it off, and fly for an hour. Me.

I was over the moon! This was insane. I couldn't believe that I was getting to fly for real, and only after 45 minutes of ground school. People either must be a bit nutty, or really trust me to do this...

Well, Hailey and the instructor climbed in, and we started the plane up, and I took off, leveled us out at around 4500 feet and we headed over to Camarillo to fly by their landing strip so I got an idea of how descents to land worked, pulled the plane back up to 4500 feet, and headed back. Maybe a 1/2 mile out, the instructor took over to land, but up until that point, it was all me. Which again, he told me that I picked it up really quick, and wasn't over correcting myself a lot, which people apparently tend to do.

The best part was when we landed. I found out that once I get my log book, I'm able to log the first hour and 45 minutes of ground school and flight time in my book. So now, I've got time under my belt as a pilot! I know it's not much, but it's something I get to work towards now!

This present was by far one of the best gifts I've ever gotten, and I can't thank my wife for putting it together, and my in-laws for pitching in on some of the cost. Now I just can't wait to get back to flying again. 

 Below is some footage Hailey shot as well from flying.

Bet My Life

Have you ever had a time in your life where a song clicks with you? Where the lyrics stand out stronger than others, and impact you because of how relatable it is? I'm sure it's happened a lot of times in life. I know with me it has. Recently I downloaded Imagine Dragons' new single 'Bet My Life'. The song could be perceived in a variety of ways, but to me, I see it as a struggle between family. Where a kid goes down a path that the parents didn't necessarily want for him, and how he gave them hell through all the years. But as the song progresses, you hear that the kid says 'theres you in everything I do', so that's why I 'bet my life for you'.

This song hits me. Not just because its driving drumbeats are great, but because of the lyrics. It's story time.

I've always been more of the independent child in my family. I see something, I want it, I go after it, and I get it. I have an insane drive that is fueled by my desire to never settle for second best, and always be the best with the best. Lately, I'm realizing that this song is true for me, because I've given my parents hell through all the years.

The last few years specifically haven't been the easiest. My parents didn't want me to get married so young. They thought I wasn't ready and couldn't handle it. But I pushed ahead anyway. I knew Hailey was the right one for me, and I knew that this was right. So through many months of tense conversations, sometimes yelling, and then not talking, and finally resolving our issues, it's worked out well for our family.

The other part of this is, is that I'm their child. I was raised by them with the values and moral standings to live by. As I grew, and grow up, I see things that I utilize from being raised by them, and others that I find out for myself what works. But, there's 'you in everything I do'.

The thing is, that I realize as I'm growing up, is that I'm my own man. I'm still their child, but I'm first a husband now. I'm the man of my own family. I'm in charge, and I need to lead it as I see fit. My parents raised me with wonderful, great morals and values to follow and utilize. I've done this, and added my own, and done things my own way, as inspired by how they've chosen to raise me. What I'm saying is that I'm thankful for my parents, and I'm thankful for what they've done for my life.

It's hard, because when you're this young, people tend to have a way of looking down on you. Thinking you won't make it, or the way you're doing things are unconventional and wrong. Maybe I'm too optimistic, but I believe that no matter what I do, I'm going to make it out better than I was before. I'll be the first to admit that I really can't stand it when I'm questioned by those older than me and they tell me 'you're doing it wrong' (believe me, it's happened). What's wrong about how I'm living my life? Is it wrong that I'm doing things differently than you did? Or is it wrong that you think it's just not how it should be done? As long as the end result is the same, what does it matter if the path taken is different? A man can walk a million trails in the forest, and still come out the other side all the same.

Ultimately what I'm getting at is this: don't forget where you came from. You were put there for a reason, and you are who you are now because of it. Take what you want from what you've grown up with, and use it to your advantage, and make it your own. Be your own unique and beautiful person, and learn to better yourself every single day. It'll help you, and those around you if you do. Also, love your parents no matter what. Some may be terrible and you may not have been raised the best, but again I say, use it to your advantage. See what they did wrong, and change it for your kids. Thankfully my parents were great people, and I use a lot of what they've done with me in my life, but I've also tweaked some things to make it my own as well. Our lives here on earth are too short to dwell in anger and sadness, and not progress individually.

Not all things in life are free, but sometimes they are...

We just came for pizza....

Interesting day so far. Professor never showed up, so class was cancelled. Then Hailey and I ordered a pizza from Papa Murphy's. Nothing too odd yet..but e arrive to pick up said pie, only to our perplexity, the lights are on, with the only pizza on the rack being ours, and the door is locked. Literally no one was here. We waited for a bit, called again, waited, called, waited called..nothing. So hailey called corporate which got ahold of the owners, they show up, and apparently Robbie the employee decided to just abandon ship. No idea why, even the owners don't know why.

As you can see, pens on the counter, lights are on, there's nothing in the small cooler, but there's our pizza, right on the rack. Yet no one's here to be found...

We were comped a dessert pizza though which was nice. Oh, and while we were waiting, a friend saw us in the parking lot, slowed down to quickly say hi , and the black ladies behind him got mad. I quipped, "chill out, he's leaving right now!" As he left and they followed. What happened next, I wish I filmed. They stopped. Went in reverse, and starting to yell the following: "what the f***is your problem, white boy?! You got a f***ing problem with us? Mind your God**** business, motherf***er!" And promptly drove off. I didn't realize I was so important for two ladies I don't know, to come back and yell so vulgarly at me. But, I guess they're having a bad day. I didn't mean any harm by what I said. They had ample room to drive around my friend who slowed down, and who's kept rolling his car as he said a quick hello..but I guess some just like making a scene.

Anyway, I hope you all out here in cyberspace are having a good day, and was hopefully entertained by my little story. I'm off to go eat some pizza with my wife.

Honing In On Working Out

This post has been something I've wanted to write for a while now. It's something I don't like admitting, but who would?

Wedding life is amazing, first off. My wife is really wonderful. She's my best friend and we've already been through a lot in six short months. But prior to our wedding, we had a lot of stress. Wedding stress, family stress, work stress, you name it. Things are smoothed out now, but that came at a price. That price? 30 pounds heavier.

See, I've always tried to be relatively fit, and there's a reason for that. I've scared myself into being fit and healthy, (and I'm sorry family, but you're the example here..) I have family members who aren't. An uncle who's vastly overweight, and a granddad who ate himself into diabetes and being overweight, yet has done nothing to combat his now life-long sentence of a constant high-low sugar levels, insulin shots, and all the extra junk that comes with diabetes.

It's not fun to see family not care about their health, when you know they can be better and live life longer. But that doesn't mean I have to be like that. 30 pounds to some may seem like not a big deal. But when you're a kid who's lived about 80% of his teen life at 160 pounds, and under 15% body fat, gaining that much that quick is a wake up call.


But that brings us to today.


Hailey and I have been eating at home. We cook cleaner, eat less fatty, junky foods. I actually like salads now. Fruit is something I seemingly can't go without. Oh, and for those that know me well? Sodas are now severely limited to when I'm out with friends. Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, all those big boys are staying out of my home now. Also, getting back to working out has been the absolute best. I understand that people have a hard time doing any sort of exercise. Pain hurts, I get it. But the results are worth the short-lived strain you'll have on your muscles, because that means your muscles are doing their job! Stretching them out, make them bigger, stronger, and better. It's also a phenomenal way to get your mind off the work day by listening to some great music while you're working out, too.

Anyway, this morning I woke up after a late night at Fright Fest with Hailey, and decided to do some floor/ab work, and then weigh in. I'm down five pounds without clothes on, and that feels great. It's a small step, but I'm happy about it. I want to get back to my target weight of 160-170, and be fit. Lose the small gut I've gotten because I chose (yes people, I said chose) to stress-eat to cope with everything that went on. I'm in control of what I do, and I refuse to do what I did before. I don't want to be an overweight statistic on America's obesity problem. I want to be healthy, and I want to be better to live longer for myself, and for my family. It needs to happen, and it's going to happen. 

Easiest Loaded Potato Soup Ever

Comfort food like soups... yum. We all love them!
And now with it being officially Fall, it's time to start cooking and eating these delicious foods!

Most places when it's mid October its nice and chilly with temperatures in the low 80s or 70s. Well, not in Bakersfield. October, 13th and it was a high of 95.....

But hey! Who says I can't pretend right!? So I pretended by making one of my favorite comfort foods.... Crockpot Loaded Potato Soup. Yum!

Many of you have asked for this recipe, so I thought I would go ahead and share one of my easiest, yet delicious recipes!

You have a crock pot right!? No? GO GET ONE IMMEDIATELY!

I cannot begin to tell you how much I LOVE my crock pot. 

It has saved me countless hours over a hot stovetop. 

It has saved me many hours after work with not having to cook and already having dinner ready.

Crock pots are amazing and in case you haven't noticed, I highly recommend one.

So now that I got over that rant, here is the recipe!

Loaded Potato Soup

30oz bag of frozen hash browns ( I used shredded)

28oz chicken broth

10.75oz can cream of chicken soup

8oz cream cheese, softened

Minced Onion

Ground Black Pepper

Garlic Salt

Parsley

4-6 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled

Shredded Cheddar Cheese

The best part about this recipe is the fact that you use frozen hash browns instead of washing, peeling, and cutting potatoes. This skips the most time consuming step and tastes just as good!

Instructions

Get your Crock Pot on the low setting. 

Mix frozen hash browns (do not thaw), chicken broth (I had no chicken broth when I made this... can you believe that!? So instead, I did three cups of water and 3 tablespoons of butter and it worked out great!), Cream of Chicken Soup, Cream Cheese, Onion, Pepper, Garlic Salt, and Parsley all in the crock pot.

Now for the great part, just close the lid and let it sit for around 5 hours. Or you could put it on high and go for less hours, but I prefer a slow cook.

You can go ahead and give it a stir occasionally making sure all ingredients are combined.

When you are close to being finished get a hand held blender/mixer and give it a really good blend. This is what gives you that creamy consistency without any lumps.

And now it should be all ready! So dish some up in a bowl with shredded cheese on top with some crumbled bacon on top of that or any other toppings you would like. Serve with dinner rolls for a hearty, starchy, comfort filled yummy meal!

Try it! You won't regret it...

Enjoy!

-HW

Photo Friday: Under Pressure

Little trinkets and gadgets have always interested me. I love how mechanisms work, on the smallest level, to make bigger things work. So I always find myself gazing around the queue of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, seeing what used to make the old iron horses and steam machines work. After all, these were once real props. They're not just thrown together. Disney bought old machines that used to be apart of mining equipment to help with the theme of their attraction.