Phoenix Area Appreciation Post /// A Traveling Zack

Having visited the Phoenix area, also known as the Valley of the Sun, three times in the past year... I've had the opportunity to take some fantastic photos of the area. My first visit was in May/June 2017, the second in November 2017 and the third February/March 2018. 

Check out the photos below and their captions for my little homage to the beautiful city of Phoenix, and its neighbors! 

The sky is beautiful in Phoenix! (February 2018, Phoenix)

Even at night! (February 2018, Phoenix)

So, of course, the sunset is awesome! (June 2017, Phoenix)

The streets are lined with beautiful plants, including cacti! (May 2017, Phoenix)

All sorts of cacti! (March 2018, Phoenix)

There are a variety of beautiful parks... Desert Parks (March 2018, Phoenix)

Parks like an oasis, green and grassy. (May 2017, Tempe)

And occasionally, an actual oasis. (March 2018, Phoenix)

A beautiful, much-needed river flows through the arid landscape. (May 2017, Tempe)

There are lots of great places to hike! (May 2017, Hayden Butte, Tempe)

Leading to great views! (May 2017, Hayden Butte, Tempe)

Scenic views everywhere! :) (June 2017, Paradise Valley)

Heroes are important here and appropriately honored. (June 2017, Phoenix)

As is history, which is carefully preserved! (May 2017, Pueblo Grande, Phoenix)

Native American heritage is honored. (May 2017, Pueblo Grande, Phoenix)

Likewise, Wells Fargo heritage is remembered. (May 2017, Phoenix)

Firefighting history around the world is commemorated in the appropriately-named "Hall of Flame" (May 2017, Phoenix)

Don't miss the Phoenix Police Museum - a truly amazing place to visit! Chock full of history! (June 2017, Phoenix)

Science is big too... Wonderful museums and centers abound, including the Arizona Science Center (June 2017, Phoenix)

As well as the Arizona Museum of Natural History, (May 2017, Mesa)

home to an eclectic collection of fossils and thousands of other scientific and historical curiosities. (May 2017, Mesa)

The ladies of the Natural History Museum's gift shop, who asked to be included in my blog. :) (May 2017, Mesa)

There's also an awesome zoo, home to creatures large (March 2018, Phoenix Zoo, Phoenix)

and small! (May 2017, Phoenix Zoo, Phoenix)

Delicious food is also a staple of the area! (May 2017, Majereles', Phoenix)

(May 2017, Port of Subs, Tempe)

Superb architecture is also a highlight of the Phoenix experience! (June 2017, Phoenix)

Just look at this beautiful shopping mall! (June 2017, Phoenix)

Phoenix Convention Center (June 2017, Phoenix)

Beautiful stadiums as well, Chase Field for example! (February 2018, Chase Field, Phoenix)

Sometimes the restaurants and the stadiums can be found together! (June 2017, Phoenix)

Other sights include Hole-in-the-Rock, (March 2018, Phoenix)

which features a stunning view of the desert and city! (May 2017, Phoenix)

Camelback Mountain is an incredible climb, but be careful! (June 2017, Phoenix)

There are stunning views from the top - in all directions! (November 2017, Phoenix)

 As I consider the possibility of moving out here, I plan to see a lot more of the area! :)

Be sure to follow my blog and my Instagram for more Arizona love!

The Adventure Awakens /// A Traveling Zack

As previously mentioned, my travels began in May 2017 - but the desire to travel goes back much further.

My Dad was in the air force and served in such far off places as South Carolina, Japan and Texas, my Mom was a civil servant; a secretary for the officers. My parents moved back to their childhood stomping grounds just before I was born.

At that time my parents spoke with a southern drawl and a sprinkling of Japanese words and phrases. Perhaps this was my first indication of just how big (or small) the world is.

As a child we went on a few vacations and field trips; road trips to Arizona, Texas, Connecticut, New Jersey and Florida are highlights of my early memories.

After the Florida trip in 2003, I was 10 years old at the time, we stayed closer to home. 

Dad & I visited Los Angeles in November 2011.

It wasn't until 2011 that I finally got the chance to go on another big trip - this time to southern California. That trip was a monumental occasion for a number of reasons; visiting Los Angeles for the first time, taking the Legends of Hollywood Tour, chilling on Ventura Beach, looking out over L.A. at night from the Griffith Observatory, and, my first time flying on airplanes!

Following that trip, I stayed close to home for another 6 years. Some of my family traveled to places like Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky, but I stayed and took care of the "backyard farm" my brother started.

I got used to being here, long hours in the cold winter and the season growing colder and colder by the year.

The night when wind chill was at -25 Fahrenheit and I was out in it was definitely a motivator for me to seek something beyond Ohio...

Some issues at home made me want to find my own place, and Grandma and Grandpa Medley were kind enough to let me stay in their house last winter while I got my life sorted out.

Cold, cold Ohio. December 2016.

I eventually realized I couldn't/wouldn't move into Cadiz, because the town isn't worth the rent that the locals are charging (apparently price-gouging because of the increased gas & oil traffic in the area.)

I realized that I'd like to work in the postal system as a mail carrier, but as there are no openings available locally, combined with the cost of an apartment here, perhaps I'd look elsewhere.

I've also considered work in films and perhaps children's television, so SoCal has a certain charm... I began looking for a place where I could work as a postal carrier and be near Hollywood studios. I set my sights toward Arizona. It has a bunch of post offices that are hiring, it is much warmer than Ohio, generally, and it's not too far from Los Angeles. I decided to do some research, and even bought some books about and maps of Arizona.

I was trying to establish a timeline of when I'd get my driver's license, find a place to live, I'd get a job out there, quit Wendy's and get out of Dodge. My situation changed again and I moved back in with my parents (and youngest brother.)

At work in April 2017.

Fast forward about a month and a half, I'm working hard at Wendy's, having went from around 9 hours a week to nearly 40 hours and I'm approaching the 1 year anniversary of working there. Even had a cute little pin for my hat, celebrating one year.

One morning, the district manager comes in for an inspection and I discover that my training was somewhat incomplete, and that I'd not been following proper procedures. By "discover" I mean that the district manager scolded me harshly, in a way that I felt was inappropriate and unprofessional and through the rage I felt in that moment, I did figure out what I was doing wrong, though it was not immediately self-evident.

After surviving the impulse to throw my spatula, and my job, across the kitchen - I decided that I needed some sort of a change... I'd talked about traveling, I'd talked about moving, but I really needed to be doing something different. This environment was discouraging, and I needed a break.

So, May 4th 2017, through the fury I felt and the rain falling outside, a beautiful idea formed in my head. I was going to take all the money I made in May and put it towards a trip. A week-long trip to Arizona. 

That night, I booked a hotel in Phoenix, just a few miles from where we'd last stayed, back in late 2000.

One of my first photos upon landing in Phoenix. May 2017.

Foreword /// A Traveling Zack

Hello everyone and welcome to 2018! I suppose you're all wondering why I've gathered you here today...

2017 was a simply miraculous year for me: Several of my dreams came true and I have plenty of stories to tell. I've been wanting to start blogging, YouTubing and publishing books for many years now... and 2017 was the year where I certainly compiled enough material for it!

Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, O'ahu

So, today, the first day of 2018, I want to begin sharing my adventures with anyone who wishes to read or watch them.

My name is Zachary, as many of you know. I work at Wendy's and Shurfast Food Mart in Cadiz, OH; birthplace of famed Hollywood actor Clark Gable. I love to travel, oh how I love to travel.

I'd not been able to travel in many years, when in May 2017, I realized that I could, in fact, go anywhere I wanted. Before that, I had always cancelled my plans because no one was willing or able to go with me.

I don't have a driver's license. That had always been a major deterrent for me. There's a long story behind it, so I don't often share that; it's a story for another time.

So, between walking and public transportation, I've seen a lot of things this past year. I've flown on more planes, rode more buses and caught more trains than I thought I would in a lifetime.

Somewhere in England

My adventures began in May - after a rough day at work, I decided to book a trip to Phoenix, Arizona. I spent a week there, and after a brief return home, joined my parents and youngest brother on a 13 day trip through Nebraska, Utah, Nevada, California, Arizona and Missouri in June.

I stayed a little closer to home during July, saving money for another trip, but still managing to go to the Alive Music Festival up at Atwood Lake Park. It was a glorious 4 days of camping and taking tons of awesome photos.

At the end of August, I took an epic 5 day trip around England, seeing as much as I possibly could in such a short time. I visited railways, met my favorite actor and walked around London all night long.

Taking another break, I worked all through September, taking on Shurfast Food Mart as a part time job on the weekends.

Then, I went to Los Angeles for a weekend in October to see a film I'd helped fund and meet the director.

In November, I spent a weekend in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, because I'd been there 14 years ago and I wanted to see it again.

Sunset on Fort Myers Beach

Finally, I returned to Phoenix for a day and climbed Camelback Mountain, before continuing on to O'ahu, Hawaii - where I stayed for a week.

I had planned to launch my blog and YouTube, chronicling my adventures near and far, in October.

I had planning to do something for years, as I've always been fascinated by blogging and vlogging, as soon as I left on my Arizona adventure - I knew I wanted to blog about traveling.

October came and went, and I hadn't found the time to share my adventures, but here in the cold months of Ohio winter, I'm going back through my material.

I took thousands, and I mean thousands of photos... Photography has been one of my passions since I was a young child. In December I had over 35,000 photos taken in 2017.

I also made some notes and here I am today, preparing to recount my extraordinary adventures.

2017 gave me stories to tell for years, and I hope to have many more adventures this year.

Be sure to follow my blog here and my YouTube channel.

Phoenix, Arizona

 Once again, we find ourselves in a new year, a new day - let it be full of love and light! 

"...behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." 2 Corinthians 6:2 

"...whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." John 13:34-35"

Review: 12 Angry Men

12 Angry Men is one of my favorite films, due largely to the simplicity and timelessness of the inherent moral.

The film manages to capture and hold attention, for a whole hour and a half... with a cast comprised of, you guessed it, 12 men - a jury - locked in a room to deliberate the fate of the accused.

At the beginning, eleven of the twelve are convinced of the defendant's guilt and are ready to turn in a guilty verdict and avoid sitting in the hot jury room on a sweltering summer day.

One holdout feels that the evidence is flimsy at best and sets out to challenge the other juror's confident viewpoint.

The genius of the film is that it is written so cleverly as to make these events watchable and compelling, slowly stripping down the viewpoints and motives of the various jurors as the holdout sways them with the lack of solid evidence.

The acting is solid too... Every performer gave his best here, with Henry Fonda giving a stellar performance as the film's star.

Adapted from a play, this classic from 1957 is a must-see for any film enthusiast.

Indeed, everyone should see this film about examining the facts without prejudice.

 Also check out the trailer, which is certainly a relic from another era of trailer editing.

Welcome March!

February was full of surprises. First was that I was really sick for over a week, at the very beginning of the month, didn't feel like getting off the couch to go see a doctor. Finally, after missing a whole week of work, I managed to get the strength to get up and go get checked out, found out it was a migraine and the doctor gave me a shot that made me feel better within few minutes.

- - -

Other than that, I've been spending my time at work and hanging out with my family. When I'm not,  I'm reading books and watching DVDs I get from the library (Perry Mason mysteries, Columbo). 

- - -

I really want to spend more time working on my writing and artwork over the next few weeks though. During February, I wrote a little story and did some accompanying sketches, depicting what my family might look like in twelve years and what we might be doing. (I speculated that I might be investigative journalist fighting injustice as well as uncovering people financing human trafficking. All very exciting stuff.)

- - -

I had 22 posts partially written and scheduled for February, but they never went up because I never finished any of them. They were all reviews of Thomas & Friends episodes. I plan to finish writing them and then retroactively post them on the dates that I had originally planned to. [Eventually changed my mind because it took me so long to finish them. Planning to post them during my 245 Day Project.]

- - - 

So hard to believe that it's the end of the first day of March, but here we are!

My First WinterJam! Or, The Time I Met David Crowder

Friday, January 20th 2017, I got off work at 6:00 planning to meet my brother in the parking lot. Unfortunately, he was running late and when he arrived we had to stop at the gas station for a quick refuel. Then, finally we were on our way to Pittsburgh for WinterJam.

Colton Dixon

When we arrived at the PPG Paints arena, we found a great parking space in the garage at the side entrance.

We hurried inside, an hour late. The nice guards at the door let us in for free! 

We got in just in time for a couple songs from Colton Dixon. 

Tenth Avenue North

This was followed by awesome performances from Tenth Avenue North, Britt Nicole and others.  

Snapshot from Crowder's performance. 

My brother and I agree that, as awesome as everyone was, David Crowder was our favorite act that night! 

Crowder, Nathanael & I.

So,  after his grand finale performance, we slipped through the crowd and got in line for Crowder's autograph. 

We were the last people in the line and the guards cut the line off behind us. 

Turns out that the show was running 30 minutes behind that night, so staff were eager to keep things moving. 

David Crowder and yours truly.

 We only spent 40 minutes in line,  then got a moment to say hi to Crowder before the staff hurried us along. But we both got cool selfies with him. 

The WinterJam artists, preparing for takeoff.

When we got back to the car,  I looked  out into the city for a photo, and seen the tour buses below us and got a cool photo. 

Definitely a night to remember! 

"Saving Time" Review (Thomas & Friends S20E6)

The sixth episode of the twentieth season turned out to be another clever one, with Samson providing another interesting situation that the show had never used before.

It has been suggested numerous times by a number of fans that Samson is the first legitimately flawed character in the Thomas & Friends television series, and this episode continues to prove that. He lives in his own little world, over-confident and self-assured, making decisions based on his (limited) understanding and not taking the helpful advice (or direct orders) issued him by his coworkers and superiors. Now we just need an episode where he faces severe personal consequences. Time in the shed or something.

Image from TTTE Wikia

Anyway, this installment saw him trying to save time. First, by taking too many cars and causing confusion and delay, and in a humorous twist at the end of the episode, too few cars - in a further attempt to save time. 

Another plus for any episode about Samson, is that he is a mainland engine and not from Sodor. Considering how overcrowded the little island had been in years past, it is always refreshing to see engines like Connor, Caitlin, Hiro, Gator and Samson, who are just visitors. 

Image from TTTE Wikia

An additional quirk that makes Samson interesting to watch is his unique speech patterns; the way he talks is different to all the engines we already know and love on the island of Sodor.

Moving beyond Samson though, the episode was great and had a lot of well written and animated moments. The scene in which Samson tries to scale Gordon's Hill with his heavy load made you feel the strain - it was painful to watch. 

Other high points for the episode include the soundtrack, Thomas pushing the train backwards like a real engine might, seeing the Blue Mountain Quarry again and Stanley (who doesn't like him?)

Image from TTTE Wikia

This episode was brought to us by none other than Andrew Brenner himself, back for his second outing this season. This episode is a great addition to the series and gets a solid 8/10 rating from me.

Starting Over, Hello 2017!

Hello everyone, I am finally getting around to reviving my blog (I also have plans for my YouTube channel) I made some efforts to begin posting again over the past year, but was largely thwarted by my busy schedule. Now, I've made some time for my writing and my blog is included in that.

Firstly, I intend to make good on old promises and write some posts which I have promised for a long time - some reviews, some short stories, fan fictions and other fun stuff.

Also, it is noteworthy that while I have no immediate plans to continue my journalistic interviewing endeavors, you can read my short lived "ZEM Interviews" blog right here on "zem2point0." My interviews with Neil Jackson, Kristin Booth, Cara Gee, Miranda Frigon and Matt Price were all merged into this blog when I no longer had time to maintain the other one. I figured this blog had more of a future and potential traffic than the other.

As for the forthcoming reviews I mentioned, in lieu of all the reviews I had talked about writing over the years, evaluating various Thomas & Friends productions and such I've decided to review "The Great Race" and the show's 20th season as well as 2 of my favorite films, namely "Valkyrie" and "12 Angry Men." (Read my previous reviews here: "Sidney Sings," "Toby's New Friend," "Henry Gets the Express," "Diesel and the Ducklings" and "Bradford the Brake Van.")

Hopefully cooking and recipes will have a chance to shine too! Like when I posted one of my Mom's favorite recipes (Asian Broccoli Noodles).

Now, for the really good stuff: The most important thing in my life is my Christian faith. I want my faith to shine through in my original writings, which is why I'm so excited about the books, films and online content which I'm currently writing. (See my previous faith-based posts: zem2point0, Jenny the Cat, The Cross, Practice Makes Perfect and Jesus - more than you think He is). Also, I love to share the fun little adventures I've had with my family and animals, life is truly full of blessings and wonder and I enjoy sharing that too. (Check out my adventure-related stories: The Cow(s), The Ostrich of New Jersey, Alligators and Ebony the One-Eyed Dog).  Ultimately, more posts like these are the goal.

This photo of dear, sweet Ebony was taken on New Year's Day 2014. Ebony passed away in November 2016.

I'm so excited about this new year! I want to make the most of it! Like I said on Facebook:

"It's a new day, a new year, to make the most of every minute and show our love for one another! Just like every day when we wake up, we have a chance to do our part to make the world a better place and to do everything to the best of our ability; and to pray and listen for direction in how to do that.

"...behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." 2 Corinthians 6:2 

"...whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." John 13:34-35"