Wildcard Wednesday || Digging Into Inside Out

Greetings everyone and thank you for stopping by for another edition of Wildcard Wednesday! I would like to apologize for not posting on my scheduled day last week. I was caught up with work (worked 11 straight days at one of my jobs and worked double at the Disney Store on some) so I really didn't have a lot of spare time. For today's topic I would like to talk about my recent viewing experience of Inside Out.

Since this is about Disney Pixar's recent release I would like to remind you all that the following content represent my own views/opinions and are in no way affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

20 years of film making and Disney Pixar has shown that they still have what it takes to create original and magical content for fans of all ages to enjoy. Pixar definitely made it up to their fans for skipping out on 2014 by giving us a mind-bending treat with Inside Out in 2015, their first of two for this year. (The Good Dinosaur coming in November)

Not watching the movie during opening weekend and listening to people's reactions helped me prepare for the experience I was going to jump into. For many Guests I talked to throughout my shifts working at the Disney Store, they raved about the roller coaster of emotions from laughing to crying, beginning to end. I was also really surprised how deep the story got as the movie progressed. 

I might dig into some parts of the story, but I'm going to try to keep the main parts of the story off the books for those of you who have not had the chance to watch it yet. There are a lot of things that you can absorb throughout Inside Out, as an adult I was able to enjoy more of the small tidbits that the animators added into the mix. Young kids may not understand some of the abstract concepts that revolve around how Disney Pixar constructed how the mind works, but they can still enjoy the dialogue and character interactions.

One very unique and subtle thing that was not included in Inside Out that most films do have is the concept of a villain. You might think this as odd without watching it, but the story really drives on Riley's emotions (Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust) and their own differences to create conflicts that a typical villain would. Usually a villain would have a certain characteristic or knowledge that gives them an edge over the hero in order to defeat him/her. In the case for Inside Out, it is in Riley's emotions best interest to keep her happy and safe throughout her life. However, we begin to learn how tough it is when Joy and Sadness are no longer there and it is up to Anger, Fear, and Disgust to adjust to those changes. All without a villain.

I'm assuming viewers might have realized this as well, but I began to catch on that Sadness turned out to be the main character rather than Joy. What we want to believe throughout this film is that it is always important that Riley stayed happy, which is what Joy is mostly responsible for. 

**SPOILER ALERT**

Riley and her family undergo a huge change in their life by moving from Minnesota to San Francisco. From the beginning, Riley's emotions made it their goal to keep Riley happy throughout this transition. As things turn sour and eventually to Riley's emotional breakdown we understand that we all go through tough times in our lives. Sometimes we go to that unhappy place and you can't help yourself. You can't help, but cry. And you know what? That's okay. We can't always be happy all the time. Situations happen where you might need to shed a few tears. You might feel lost, scared, or angry. Crying is okay. Letting Sadness take over is okay. And that's what Joy realizes at the end of the film. She tried to convince us in the beginning that keeping Sadness away from everything else would make things better, but you can't ignore that emotion.

You don't have to watch the entire film to be familiar with what I'm going to talk about. All you need to do is watch one of the Inside Out Teaser where Riley and her parents are at the dinner table and her mom is asking how her first day of school was. You'll notice that when we zoom into the mom's head all of her emotions are women with brown hair and glasses just like the mom. And when we zoom into the dad's head all of his emotions are men with mustaches. However, for Riley's emotions...Joy and Sadness have blue hair, Disgust has green hair, and her emotions are mixed boy and girl. I'm not sure if Disney did this on purpose just so that Riley's emotions stand out compared to all the other characters, or if there is a underlying assumption that since Riley hasn't reached puberty she doesn't know her preferences yet...so as we grow older and mature our emotions start to change appearances based on our personality. I don't know. Maybe I'm just overthinking it. Maybe it's just a coincidence. What do you think?

Lastly, I mentioned earlier that the animators created some fun concepts on how our mind works and I just wanted to list some of the small tidbits they put into the movie:

• Special memories are also known as "core memories" and they make up our personality by the creation of "personality islands"
• Core memories can change. Just like how our personalities can slightly change as we grow older and more mature
• At the end of the day, our memories are stored into long-term memory. 
• "Forgettors" are in charge of throwing out memories that seem old and out-dated (they turn gray/black while they are stored in long-term memory)
• Our dreams are constructed by actors interpreting past memories. And sometimes those actors can be really bad

I hope my little review about Inside Out has convinced you to watch it if you haven't already or you're wanting to watch it again because it's such a good movie. My brother and I are thinking of taking my mom to watch it. I'm pretty sure she'll enjoy it. I might watch it for the 2nd time just to catch some of the traditional easter eggs Pixar likes to put into their films. I was so blown away the 1st time around I didn't really pay close attention to easter eggs. Anyway, that's all I have for you all for this week's edition of Wildcard Wednesday.

Catch ya next week!

Wildcard Wednesday || LeBron James...the Best of All-Time?

Hello everyone and thank you for stopping by for another edition of Wildcard Wednesday! With the NBA Finals officially in the books, I would like to add my own opinion on the whole LeBron James Best of All-Time debate. Before I get to that, I would like to congratulate the Golden State Warriors for their outstanding season. One of the best offenses we have seen in recent memory combined with a stingy defense resulted in the ultimate prize.

Let's start off by saying that I absolutely respect LeBron James as a basketball player. He is an absolute beast and he is clearly the best basketball player on this planet. With his 6'8" 250 lb. frame, LeBron can play all positions on the floor. A lot of analysts like to say that he is a small forward in a point guard's body. This also refers that LeBron is more like Magic Johnson than Michael Jordan just because of his pass-first mentality to find his teammates for a high percentage shot. 

Magic and Mike are on a lot of peoples proverbial "Mount Rushmore of Basketball" and despite LeBron still having several years left to play in the NBA before he hangs it up, people are already looking to carve his face on the mountain. Does LeBron James deserve such praise? Let's get to the arguments.

LEBRON = HYPE

Ever since LeBron James was a sophomore in high school, everyone wanted to see him play. By his junior year, LBJ was already considered "the best high school basketball in America". The hype was so huge, Sports Illustrated declared LBJ to be "The Chosen One"...before he even stepped on an NBA court. He graduated high school as one the most hyped basketball players ever and I would assume that the Cleveland Cavaliers had no hesitation selecting him with the No. 1 overall draft pick in the 2003 NBA Draft. On his NBA debut versus the Sacramento Kings, LeBron recorded 25 points and during his Rookie of the Year campaign LeBron became the youngest in NBA history to score at least 40 points. The rest is pretty much history in the making. The hype was real. Sports Illustrated called it right.

The thing about LeBron's career is that whenever he posts outrageous numbers like he is doing during the 2015 NBA Finals, it's what we expect him to do. Oh, LeBron James had a 40pt-11ast-14rb game. That's it? A player of his size and freak athletic ability, LBJ can will himself to score in the paint every single time. If he wanted to, he could score 50 a night, but he knows that's not healthy for his basketball team. It's what we expect out of him because we've set high standards for him ever since he got drafted. 

Let me know end this argument with this.

If Michael Jordan dominated the 90's with a 6'6" 195 lb. frame, went 6 for 6 in the NBA Finals, never played a game 7 in the NBA Finals, AND he probably could've gotten more rings if he didn't retire to play baseball in 1994...

THEN, if you're LeBron James with a 6'8" 250 pounds and has the tendency to form super-teams in order to win championships, shouldn't you be UNSTOPPABLE?

Before you say anything about the injuries to Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving would have created a different outcome for this series. I want to point out that Kevin Love's shooting ability would play favor to GSW's tempo. Kevin Love's injury opened up Tristan Thompson's play in the point and created matchup problems for the Warrior's smaller lineups. The impact of Irving's injury was probably a bigger factor than Love's solely because it left LBJ to be the facilitator for the remainder of the series and whenever LeBron tried to pass the ball around, his teammates played hot potato and gave it right back. This of course led to a stagnant offense with more isolations and less ball movement...and this fact.

Photo Credit: NBA on ESPN

 That's a story for another day though.

BACK TO MY ARGUMENTS.

LEBRON TOOK HIS TALENTS TO SOUTH BEACH

In the NBA, you hear the phrase "ball don't lie" a lot, especially when it comes to a shooter who was fouled, but not according to the defender. When the shooter misses the first free throw, saying "ball don't lie" is kind of like saying "heh, karma b***h". In 2010, LBJ made "The Decision" to form a super-team with 2003 draft buddies Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade. The so-called King James reigned supreme in Miami for 4 years and led the team to 4 straight finals appearances....and only walked away with 2 rings. Some would consider it an accomplishment, others would say it's not good enough. When the Heat lost that first finals appearance versus the Dallas Mavericks, I imagine a lot of LeBron haters chanting "ball don't lie" (including myself) because after the tremendous effort of the Miami super-team, it still wasn't good enough against Dirk and company.

After losing game 1 to the Thunder in the 2012 NBA Finals, James led the Heat to the team's 2nd NBA championship with 4 straight wins. With the Spurs up 3-2 in a thrilling 2013 NBA Finals, the Heat came up with a miracle 3-pointer by Ray Allen to force OT in game 6 and won the game to tie the series. In game 7, Mr. Fundamental (Tim Duncan) had the 2 opportunities to tie the game with less a minute to go, but failed. LeBron James capitalized on the following possession with a jump-shot which sealed the victory and secured back-to-back championships for the Heat. In 2014, the Spurs and Heat met for a Finals rematch and the Spurs showed that they were the better overall team winning the championship in 5 games.

LeBron James' career will always be tainted with the fact that he left the team that drafted him in order to form a super-team to win a couple of championships before coming back home. If you look at the all-time greats, most of them were able to play for one team and still win championships: Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, Bill Russell, and Jerry West. I wanted to add Michael Jordan to this list, but MJ had a 2-year stint with the Washington Wizards (with no playoff appearances) before he retired from the game for a 3rd time.

The Miami Heat pretty much had LeBron James on a 4-year rental period. Appeared in 4 straight Finals and got 2 championships. LBJ left South Beach along with a bandwagon of his followers and came back home to Cleveland to form another super-team with Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving. The 2015 Cavaliers have been plagued with injuries (Kevin Love - shoulder and Kyrie Irving - knee) and now it closely mirrors the Cavs teams LeBron has led prior to his departure to Miami. LBJ being the core of the offense distributing the ball as a point-forward.

LEBRON JAMES IS THE MOST VALUABLE PLAYER
Before LBJ went to Miami
2009-2010 Cavaliers Record - 61-21 (best in the Eastern Conference)
2009-2010 Heat Record - 47-35 (5th in the Eastern Conference)

After LBJ went to Miami
2010-2011 Cavaliers Record - 19-63 (worst in the Eastern Conference)
2010-2011 Heat Record - 58-24 (2nd in the Eastern Conference)

Is it coincidence that the Cleveland Cavaliers went from best to worst in one year AFTER LeBron James left? I don't think so. Let's look at this year.

Before LBJ went back to Cleveland
2013-2014 Cavaliers Record - 33-49 (10th in the East)
2013-2014 Heat Record - 54-28 (2nd in the East)

After LBJ went back to Cleveland
2014-2015 Cavaliers Record - 53-29 (2nd in the East)
2014-2015 Heat Record - 37-45 (10th in the East)

It's like they switched places huh?

How valuable in LeBron James? I would bet $100 that if LeBron left Cleveland after this season and played for the Minnesota Timberwolves (who had a 16-66 record this 2014-2015 season), they would automatically win 50-games and be in playoff contention. That just shows how good he is to make everyone around him better.

LeBron is so good that he is almost expected to come out with a triple-double every night. His stats don't lie. LeBron James in the only player in NBA history to average at least 27 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists for his career. WOW... if that doesn't blow your mind and convince you that he is the best player in the world right now... I don't think you enjoy the game of basketball.

With the NBA Finals over, I would like to add this amazing stat as well

Wait what...? Points...assists...AND rebounds for BOTH TEAMS?! Jimmy Crickets...

LEBRON HAS STAYED IN THE EASTERN CONFERENCE
Since 1998 (the last year Michael Jordan played for the Bulls) the Western Conference has dominated the NBA with multiple championship appearances by the LA Lakers, San Antonio Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks (11 championships out of 16 years for the West). This is the first time since 1999 that the NBA finals hasn't featured either Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan or Dwayne Wade.

In past several years, the Western Conference has featured teams with more than 42 wins at the 8th seed. On the other hand, the Eastern Conference has featured playoff teams under 0.500 multiple times while the 9th and 10th seeds for the Western Conference had a better record.

For a little refresher, the NBA schedule is formatted in the following way:

• 4 games against the other 4 division opponents (16 games)
• 4 games against 6 (out-of-division) conference opponents (24 games)
• 3 games against remaining 4 conference teams (12)
• 2 games against teams in the opposing conference (30)

This means that majority of the games LeBron James has played have been against a weaker Eastern Conference (52 out of 82 games). Easier games equals a better conference record which equals an easier road to the NBA finals. Hence, LeBron James' 5 straight appearances. What if LBJ played in the Western Conference for his career? How decorated would his career be then if he played 63% of his games against more quality opponents?

CLOSING STATEMENTS

If you're familiar with football, LeBron James can closely be compared to Peyton Manning in the NFL when it comes to regular season numbers and playoff success. Both players have posted records in both their sports during the regular season, but their playoff success can be considered mediocre with the high expectations set for them.

LeBron: 10 straight playoff appearances since 2006. 5 straight finals appearances since 2011 (4 with Miami and 1 with Cleveland) 2-4 and so far in the Finals.

Photo Credit: NBA on ESPN

Peyton: 14 playoff appearances since 1999. 11 with Indy and 3 with Denver. 9 appearances eliminated in the 1st game. 3 Superbowl appearances and only 1 championship. Just like LeBron playing in the Eastern Conference, Peyton has had the benefit to play in mediocre divisions. The AFC South when he played in Indianapolis and the AFC West where he is currently playing for the Broncos.

It's a shame that the media puts so much pressure not just on LeBron James, but on professional players to produce in their sport. In the end, they are still human. It was the media (specifically Sports Illustrated) that claimed LeBron James to be "The Chosen One" before he even started an NBA game. Now, all the pressure is on King James to dethrone the great Michael Jordan and his 6 rings.

Let's face it. LeBron is starting to reach the back-end of his career. In the past 8 years, he has participated in 6 NBA Finals and 2 gold-medal Olympic runs. That's a lot of basketball miles put onto a person's body over time. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if LBJ doesn't win another title before he retires. If he walks away from the game with only 2 rings, will that still make him the best of all-time? Only time will tell. Maybe this is the end of the super-team era. What the Golden State Warriors showed us for this year's NBA Finals is that even if you have the best basketball player on the planet...the best team will always be greater than the best player.

Trendy Tuesday || Billboard Music Awards

Where our favorite celebrities gather to celebrate music, something we all share a love for.

Where Niall gives a thank you speech only for Liam to chime in at the end and give credit to their brother, Zayn. So presh, I actually died.

Now, while the whole idea of the award show is to pay tribute to artists and their music, we all know the kinds of lengths attendees went to to choose the "perfect outfit" for the Billboard Music Awards.

So let's talk fashion.

Honestly, I was really into the simplicity some people chose to sport on the red carpet. For example, Meghan Trainor. Her Badgley Mischka emerald green sequined dress had me so pleased, I couldn't get enough. When her performance with John Legend came around, she added a black top over her dress, giving the illusion that she was sporting a cropped sweater with a beautiful emerald green sequined skirt.

Then we have Jennifer Lopez, who I honestly don't think will ever age the rest of her life. She looked gorgeous, no surprise there. I love how she rocked a Charbel Zoe dress with mesh right in the good-good area, I know you know what I mean, and she STILL made it look classy and elegant. You go J-Lo.

Now the fashion police inside me wants to come out to play. Hailee Steinfeld, star of Pitch Perfect 2. Great girl, I was pleased with her performance in the movie. So pleased, I saw it twice. While her voice is very pretty and nice to listen to, I was a little disappointed in her outfit. Wearing a Givenchy dress, you would think it would be amazing and I think it could have been amazing if she ditched the black crew socks, the belt and chose a different hairstyle. Weird neckline too. Still love you, girl.

Sooo, I gotta get to class now. But I look forward to discussing more fashion with you lovelies soon!

Sharmaine

Tinker Thursday Introduction

Hello, everyone! I hope you have all had the chance to meet Monica, Sharmaine, and Jayme by now. If you haven’t, please click their names and visit their Introductory Week Posts! You’ll get the chance to meet Brian tomorrow, but for now, it’s my time to shine.

My name is Rox, and I would like to be the first to welcome you to Tinker Thursday.

Merriam-Webster online defines the word “tinker” as “to work in the manner of a tinker; especially :  to repair, adjust, or work with something in an unskilled or experimental manner : fiddle”

Now, if that doesn’t describe me perfectly, I don’t know what will.

Aside from being unskilled and experimental, I’m a pretty bland person. I work and I’m pursuing my MBA. I enjoy binge watching shows and YouTube videos in my spare (albeit rare) time. I often find myself drawing inspiration from everything around me, and I particularly enjoy baking sweet treats.

My blog posts will consist of DIY Projects. If you know me personally, you know I’m all about experimenting with activities revolving around arts & crafts, baking, makeup, styling, building IKEA furniture, etc. 

I know that is a broad range of possible topics to cover, but as long as you can “Do-it-Yourself”, it’s fair game for Tinker Thursday.

My purpose in this collaborative is to celebrate creativity and not being afraid to try out new things. We shouldn’t hesitate to begin a new project or journey in fear of failure, or wear a certain item of clothing just because we don’t think it will look nice. You never know how awesome something could be if you never give it a chance.

I hope you enjoy the adventures all five of us are about to embark on. It’s been a very… very long project in the making, and I’m so happy and so blessed to see it finally come to life. 

We hope to provide you some light entertainment at the very least.

xo, rox

Wildcard Wednesday Introduction

Greetings everyone and welcome to the Wildcard Wednesday edition of Notably Notable. I think a little introduction of myself will help set an outline for what Wildcard Wednesday's are going to be about. My name is Jayme Ross Eva and I am a 24-year old Filipino-American from San Diego, CA. I  graduated from the University of San Diego (...and no I didn't spell UCSD wrong...they're different universities) with a BS/BA in Mechanical Engineering in May 2012 with aspirations to become a Walt Disney Imagineer. Shortly after graduation I participated in the Fall 2012 Disney College Program from June 2012 to January 2013 as a Store Operations Host.  Now I am currently a full-time Maintenance Mechanic at AQUATICA San Diego (SeaWorld's Water Park) and I have been been a Disney Store Cast Member since August 2013. On my free-time I am an assistant coach for NFL Flag San Diego where I occasionally submit game highlights.

As you can see, I have a little bit of a Disney background and that is actually going to be one of the few topics I will be talking about on Wildcard Wednesdays. Since I didn't state it before, I will state it now and probably every time I post something Disney related:

Please note that as a Cast Member: All content represent my views/opinions and are in no way affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

There is always news surrounding the world of Disney so I will spread my opinions on some trending stories that are Disney-related. I might even share some Cast Member experiences and "confessions".

Next on my list of things that I would like to talk about on Wildcard Wednesdays is going to be about sports. I know "sports" can be very vague, but that is kind of the reason why we have it under Wildcard Wednesdays. I follow XTRA Sports 1360 here in San Diego and about 90% of the time I'm watching ESPN or some other sports-related activity. Why? To me, watching sports is like how other people watching their favorite reality show. However, in my opinion, sports is one true reality show. It's the one thing that you can watch that is unscripted and the emotions are real (besides all that flopping that goes on). There may be some that would like to argue that games are fixed and there's a conspiracy for every controversial call, but that's a topic for another day. There are so many things we can talk about sports, but I will specifically focus on the major sports: football, basketball, and baseball. Sorry Soccer (futbol) fans. I played soccer for 8 years when I was in grade school, but I just don't follow it. I would also like to add that I follow the San Diego Chargers, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the San Diego Padres. A good amount of sports recap will feature those 3 teams, but I will also cover other trending/controversial topics that are surrounding the world of sports.

The last topic that will be covered on Wildcard Wednesdays will be "Entertainment". Yes, another vague topic, but what I had in mind was that I would be covering newly released movies and reviewing some TV shows that I'm currently watching right now. The movie lineup for Summer 2015 looks pretty exciting with Avengers: Age of Ultron leading it off. I normally don't watch movies opening weekend just to avoid the huge crows, but hopefully I can put up an afterthoughts post on Avengers 2 in the next couple of weeks. Like many other people I don't like waiting week-to-week for shows. I'm more of a binge-watcher; however the only 2 shows that I keep up with weekly are the Walking Dead and Game of Thrones.

And there you have it. A little introduction of Wildcard Wednesdays. I hope you are looking forward to it as much as I am. Now, this past weekend was a huge weekend for Wildcard Wednesdays, Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, NBA Playoffs, NFL Draft, NHL Playoffs, Kentucky Derby, and MLB. My focus for Blog #2 will be on the Chargers 2015 draft selections.

Catch ya later!

It's Finally Happening!

Welcome to Notably Notable!

First, we would like to thank you for somehow stumbling upon our little area of the internet. Feel free to explore and possibly stick around :)

We are a group of five friends who love a lot of different things. We don’t want to get into too much detail; you’ll get the chance to hear from everyone this week (although the tags might give you guys a few hints--told you we're all over the place). Just know that we’re here to share our passions with you, and we hope you enjoy!

We are also aware there’s a Twitter handle and Instagram username that already exists for NotablyNotable. Unfortunately, we did not know about it / failed to check if this name already existed. We only researched if the domain was available. 

Just to clear the air, we are not affiliated with the aforementioned social media outlets. Each author has their own individual social media outlets that they will share if they wish :) 

Monica will kick off Introductory Week, so swing on by tomorrow for Motivational Monday!

Thanks again <3

The Notably Notable Team

Monica, Sharmaine, Jayme, Rox, and Fury