Top Ten Tuesday - San Diego Version

So as ya'll probably know this past weekend I went to San Diego. It was my first time going there, I have been to LA area a lot, but never ventured further south than Aneheim. I freaking loved it. San Diego has got it all. It is a semi-big city, with a cool downtown area, it has awesome beaches, sweet parks, mountains (well big hills), perfect weather, and most importantly killer sunsests. It has everything I could ever ask for in a city. Why did I come home? Because I am poor. Sad, because if given the option to stay there, I don't know if I would have came back. I probably would have, the parentals would not be too happy about that, they still think they have me for a year before I move for law school, and leaving early would have been hard, but on the opposite side they would have a fun place to come and visit. I didn't want to leave. Sad face.
Anyways I haven't done a top ten Tuesday in a long time so I thought I would do a throwback to the top ten days with my top ten fave pics from San Diego.

2009 - The Year of B-rad

2008 with its ups and downs has taught me one thing: that I have got to live for myself. I have spent a good deal of my time trying to live to make other people happy. I don't know if it was out of obligation or just trying to be a good person or to have others believe that I am a good person, but I have learned especially lately that I cannot do that any longer. It feels good to make other people happy, but I have learned that you, well at least I, cannot find real happiness in just trying to make others happy.

2008 was the year of Brad the doormat. Me and a friend were talking about some of the happenings in my life and she said Brad don't let yourself be the doormat. Probably the best advice I have gotten in a long time. During some serious introspection at the typical end of the year resonance period and due to some things that a different friend said that really made me question who I am. I have always thought if I was one thing, I am a good and loyal friend. I am the person people feel totally fine calling at two in the morning to talk about a problem, the person that takes someone out of town when they just need to get away and escape life, the excuse someone can use to get out of a bad date, an unwanted family event, etc. The person that if you tell a secret to and asked not to tell will take whatever it is to the grave. I am a vault.

What I have noticed is that I have spent way too much time trying to make my friends happy that I really have started to lose some of the qualities that I need to have to make myself happy, since I have learned I can't make my friends happy all of the time, I should just focus on what really makes myself happy. With this new plan don't worry ya'll, if you need to talk at 2 in the a.m. I am still awake, give me a holla, and you know I am always up for a spur of the moment vacate, but I am going to do things differently. I am not your doormat anymore.

This is the year where I get my life back on track, the year that I live my life for me and not for anyone else. I need to rediscover who I really am and not define myself by what ya'll think of me. Recent events in life have kinda shattered the one thing that I thought I was good at and it has really got me thinking of what I really need to do in life. I need to get comfortable in my own skin again. I kinda lost that this past year and I miss that self assurance that I had in who I am.

So here's to 2009 a year to redefine, reshape, and be happier.

Best Songs of '08

Here is a list of what I think have been the best songs of this year. Let me know what you think. The amount that can fit on a CD. Let me know if you want a copy. Not in any particular order. Also the songs are the playlist that plays when you are on my blog so go and check them out (with a few exceptions, some songs I couldn't find to put onto the playlist so they are different songs by the artist or in the case of Beyonce or Kanye I am sure you all have heard that song before.)
1. Human - By The Killers. Deep lyrics, awesome vocals, a great introduction to a new sound for the Killers. Great renovation of an awesome band.
2. Nine in the Afternoon - Panic at the Disco. Again, a great renovation for a band. When I first listened to the album, I thought, "are you kidding me?" I was not impressed. On second listening to, I changed my mind, especially about this song. On third listening, I applaud their effort to be innovative.
3. Better Off Alone - Marie Digby: Great new artist. Awesome voice, good lyrics.
4. Unhappy/Angels On the Moon - Thriving Ivory: Thanks Chantasic for reccomending this awesome band and taking me to their concert. They are amazing. Just as good live as they are on their album. I think they are gonna make it big.
5. Chasing Pavements - Adele: Awesome mix of jazz/pop/soul sound with an amazing vibe to it. Haunting song. Really good.
6. I'd Rather be with You - Joshua Radin: I spend a lot of time on itunes looking for new artists to listen to. This is one I found. This song is awesome. When/if I ever get married this is definately going on the wedding video.
7. Live your Life - T.I. ft. Rihanna: I think it is the best rap song of the year. I really like it.
8. Paper Planes - M.I.A.: I think this is an '08 song, but I am going to be too lazy to check. Awesome song. It was on Pineapple Express, but a friend at work had me listen to it a long time ago. It is a little weird but still awesome.
9. Viva La Vida - Coldplay: I ate, drank, and slept this song. So amazingly good.
10. Change is Hard - She and Him: This is kinda a timeless folk song by Zooey Deshanel's band. Great.
11. Fall For You - Second Hand Serenade: This is just great. Listen up.
12. Take a Bow - Rihanna: One of her best, shows that she is better than the average singer on the radio.
13. Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis: I know it is really poppy but it is just a really good song.
14. Just Stand Up - A bunch of different artists.
15. Drunken Lament - Ludo: Lesser known band that is awesome.
16. Gives You Hell - All American Rejects: I really love this song. Especially right now in my life.
17. Single Ladies - Beyonce: This partially gets on due to the Justin Timberlake/Beyonce skit on SNL, but it is a good song. Also, Beyonce is hot.
18. Heatless - Kanye West: Different change of pace for Kanye but I like it.
19. All Summer Long - Kid Rock: Good Summer song.
20. I'm Yours - Jason Mraz: The version with Joshua Radin. It is by far the better version.
Now y'all tell me which songs I missed. I think it is a pretty good list, but not totally perfect. So let me know.

Almost Famous

Warning this is kind of a sad, middle of the night, not going to make any sense but to a sleep deprived Brad post. Read at your own risk.
I have had a horrible night. A bad day followed by a pretty horrible night. A big final followed by a bad day at work followed by a last minute project that kept me at work until 9:00 at night. From work I had to go over to Kinko's to have them laminate my project. Call me crazy but I really love walking in downtown Salt Lake, especially at night. Kinkos is two and a half blocks away from where I work. As I turned down a street I passed a homeless man throwing up on the side walk and I kept walking by. Then there was another homeless man huddling against the side of the building that Kinkos is in. After showing the idiots at Kinkos what exactly I needed to have them do, and after showing them how to do it better after they ruined the sample they did for me, I left and started walking back to work. The homeless man huddling next to the building Kinkos is was being questioned by a few of the Salt Lake Angels, and the man throwing up was laying on the ground. I looked at him and knew something was wrong. Then a fire truck pulled over and two firemen jumped out checked his pulse and his breathing and then started performing CPR on him. I stood frozen watching them for a moment, not knowing what to do. I had to walk away. There was nothing I could do, the firemen obviously know CPR better than I do. And I had to leave because I couldn't wait to see if he made it or not. It was just too real for me. Death is something that I cannot comprehend. And I needed to at least be able to believe that he made it. If I would have stayed then maybe he wouldn't have, and the guilt that I am already feeling is keeping me up til 3am and there is no sleep in sight. When I first saw him he was puking his guts out into a bush. I didn't stop, I was in a hurry, I was mad that I was working that late, tired due to studying for my final living on three hours of sleep and just wanted to get my project finished. And I just walked on by. Thirty minutes later he was receiving CPR. And I really hate myself right now. I left my phone at my apartment so I didn't have anyone to talk to about it, and after finishing a few things up back at the office I went to my parking garage and found that it was locked up, and my pass was in my car. So I sat on the steps outside my parking garage contemplating on what had happened, what I am doing in my life, and how the world can just literally suck sometimes. I did that for twenty minutes until some random stranger was going into the parking garage and after reassuring that I park there too I talked him into letting me in. I went back to my apartment and for the first time in a really long time felt completely alone. So instead of tackling my life head on I call my mom and dad. Gosh I am such a wimp sometimes. But I needed to talk to someone, and the list of people I can talk to about this is getting increadibly smaller as I get older. It was a good thing I did, they always have a way of making me feel like I am still a decent person. Still not satisfied I turned to music. I couldn't find a song that really went with what I was feeling so I started watching one of my favorite movies.
Here is a clip from one of my favorite movies of all time, Almost Famous. It kind of fits exactly how I am feelig right now. Premise for the clip is Patrick Fugit plays the young kid sitting next to Kate Hudson. He is a young reporter for Rolling Stone who follows the band Stillwater on tour writing an article about them. Kate Hudson is Penny Lane, the ultimate groupie, who inspires lead guitarist of Stillwater played by Billy Crudup to be a better musician. The band just got into a huge argument and is on the verge of breaking up and this is how they all get back together again. Through the song Tiny Dancer.

It somehow made me feel better. I don't really get how, but it did. Elton John had some good stuff back in the day. I highly reccommend the movie it is rated R so if that is not your thing look for it on cable to get the edited version. I guess posting this is my last effort in trying to talk to someone about a horrible day without having to actually talk to someone and burden them. Anyways I just want to forget about this bad day and fall asleep and start a brand new better day. Thats the way it works right?
Anyways, "Hold me closer tiny dancer. Count the headlights on the highway. Lay me down in sheets of linen, you had a busy day today...." Good song.

I've been tagged

So I don't do these very often but I thought I would do this one from Missy. Christmas Tag:
Tag:

3 Favorite Christmas movies:
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - By far the best
Home Alone
Four Christmases


3 Favorite Christmas songs:
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
O Holy Night
All I want for Christmas is You ha ha jk (kind of) but I am going to say The Christmas Song by Johnny Mathis


3 Favorite Christmas traditions:
Opening up pajamas on Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve monopoly game with my uncle Kenny
My dad telling us his made up Christmas story that he has told us ever since we were little called "Tinkle Tinkle." The funniest story.

Snow or the tropics
Snow on Christmas day and tropics the rest of the time


Candy Canes?
Gross-I can't believe you people like them


Favorite Christmas gift you've ever gotten:
My fly fishing pole. I hardly ever use it anymore but it is probably my favorite gift. One day I will use it more often if someone will go fly fishing with me.

Sorry you guys. Another celebrity crush post.

So my life has been consumed by school and work for the last month so I haven't really done too many interesting things that are blog worthy. I wrote 28 pages worth of papers, helped put together 6,000 Christmas cards (yeah that involved three saturdays, and many late nights at work,) helped conduct a survey for Salt Lake County, dealt with some friend drama, set up the parentals Christmas lights, and got another cold. So as you can tell the lack of fun has made it so I haven't posted in a bit. So this is what you are going to get. You are going to get another celebrity crush post. I will refer you back to my top ten list I made a while ago.(http://b-radcummings.blogspot.com/2008/04/tuesdays-top-ten.html) Most of those will stay the same, although Rachel McAdams moves up on the list as well as LC, and Lauryn Hill and Halle Berry move down on the list towards the back of the top ten.. Anyways that is not the reason for this post. All of those on the previous post were obvious everyone has a crush on them crushes, except probably Lauryn Hill-I may be a loner on that one. Well this crush list is suprise crushes. The crush you don't expect.
Zoey Deschanel

I don't know what it is about her that I love, but I do. She is quarky, and goofy, and really cute. She just needs to pick better movies to be in. I know The Happening seemed like a good idea on paper and who wouldn't want to be in a movie with Mark Wahlburg, but I really don't think she read the script. Big points for Zoey, no points for The Happening.









Lo, from the Hills.

Now this may strike people as a little odd. Don't get me wrong, LC is on my top ten list, probably at number seven right now, but there is something about Lo, that makes her my second favorite on the show. I also think she is better looking than Audrina and Whitney. I will probably get a few weird looks on that one.




Maggie Gyllenhaal

You probably best recognize her from the Dark Night or Stranger than Fiction, my crush on her developed a while ago while I was on a date with this girl before my mission. I went and saw Mona Lisa Smile on that date. Her choice, definately not mine, maybe it was just because I really like this girl but I fell in love with everything that night. That girl, Maggie Gyllenhaal, the popcorn we were eating, the freezing cold night, the gum I stepped in, I fell in love with it all. Okay I probably didn't fall in love with any of those things, but there was just something special about that night. Anyways Maggie Gyllenhaal has carried on.

Nicole Richie.

Okay so I guess I have a thing for chicks who will junk punch you and then leave you. While the rest of the world was mackin over Paris Hilton, I fell for Nicole. And who wouldn't want to be Lionel's son in law?











The Biggest surprise...............Lindsay Lohan. Sick I know.

So I get that she is a lesbian now. I get that she does drugs. I get that she is basically an overall bad person. But there is just something about her that makes me say if I had no morals at all then ....maybe.

Poetically A-pathetic

So maybe I have been watching to much BET, but lately when I get really irritated I will come up with some rhymes in my head, stuff that just gets me to vent out a ton of frustration. Sometimes I write it down and sometimes I don't. This was one that I did. Am I the next Kanye? Probably. Here it is my blogger debut rhyme. Help me come up with a gangsta rap name.

Perfectly imperfect living out my days. The runner up, tagged out on my home run plays. The consistant second place, no trophy, no ribbon Just bumps and bruises I hang onto when I'm done. Seemingly forever lost I pretend to be found Living for laughter, my favorite sound. The jokemaker often turned into the joke... The fatman in a little coat... The constant bouey others need to float, until they can swim, sometimes ya just can't win. The fighter of the good fight, the last picked on the team. The diamond in the rough, polished but chipped. Too clouded to be on display too valuable to be thrown away. The "nice guy" who finishes last, the bait is set but the line not cast. The idealist living in reality, subject to human fraility. The kryptonite to the superman I wanna be.
That was then and this is now. I aint gonna sit and wait and wonder how. How you could have forgot about me, how you could make plans all over me. Tired of acting like its all okay, hide my feelings and put it all at bay. Its not gonna happen any more, not gonna be treated like a whore. Using and abusing me like I don't matter, then when something new come up I am second batter. Not any more I am tired of this shiz. This is something I really can quit. Not anymore. I ain't gonna be third or fourth place, I am the freakin ace who's gonna rock this base. Yeah I saw the sign, I hit it and it opened up my mind. Yeah I saw that sign.
Shoulda saw it coming a while back, when I thought it was something I could hack. History is a dirty switch, ya turned on the light and thought I could be ditched. Nope, not gonna happen any more, that was the last time my heart ever got tore up. I am gonna call y'all out when you be acting shady, not gonna act like some crazy old lady. I deserve much better than that, tired of jumpin so high but fallin flat. On my face is where I been, up in the starz is where I'll be. Lookin down on you and all that you've done, I sure hope it was fun. That it was worth it when you look back, that you don't feel like you got off track. As for me I'm done. Movin on with my life looking for a new one. Or two or three, there ain't nothing goina stop me. This shiz has got me thinking, about who I was and what I will be. I can thank you for that, you got me poetically apethitic. It about time I finally got something out of this 'ship, its been a good ride and a long trip.
Yep I got poetically a-pathetic.