This is the most moving ad I’ve seen explaining just how important it is to wear your seat belt. Take a look for yourself.

I won’t lie, 2009 hasn’t treated me all that well and I think I can easily say 2009 was the most difficult and stressful year I’ve ever had.

If you know me then you know that I am not one of those overly dramatic people or someone that always talks about negative things. I like to be positive and optimistic and I’m one of those people that I could be having the worst day and you probably wouldn’t know it. Now that isn’t to say that I just bottle things up, just to be clear. I do share and get advice when I need it and 2009 would have been much more difficult had it not been for a few people that were there for me and helped. I owe a big thank you to them. It’s been a tough year but I’ve learned a lot in 2009.

I’ve put together 139 photos in chronological order of some of the more memorable and fun things this year. Some of it you might be clueless about but this was more so something I did for a myself that I think I will try to do each year.

Here are a few things I’ve learned from 2009. Some serious, some fun and some I’ve known but just made more since in 2009.

1. If I could go back in time I wouldn’t change a thing no matter what difficulties I deal with and dealt with.

2. True friends are the only friends you should have.

3. Despite what people say work can be what you want.

4. Merlot and pizza are awesome.

5. Help comes from the places you’d never think.

6. Your hardest work may also be your biggest failure but it’s not a fail.

7. What you think you can’t do should always be attempted.

8. Any Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor is amazing.

9. Hockey is much more interesting when you are there and not watching it on TV.

10. A friend should be like a sibling to you.

11. Telling the truth is much easier than telling a lie.

12. Always try something before you judge it.

13. People who see their pets as their kids aren’t weird.

14. What people love to bash, they often couldn’t live without.

15. People don’t take enough time to get their priorities right.

16. People that avoid Twitter and other social media are going to be left behind.

17. Where you work and what you do should not be determined by benefits and money if you want to be happy.

18. Confronting tough issues sooner is easier than later.

19. Positive change in the world starts with you.

20. Chai tea is great.

21. What you do that you think is odd, usually isn’t at all.

22. What you are afraid of is often easy to do.

23. You can call your parents just to chat and you can say that. It’s not weird.

24. Being the first to say hello is wanted by the other person just as much as you want them to first. Don’t be shy.

25. Sometimes you just have to unplug and take some time away from technology.

26. Stress in your life affects everyone in your life.

27. Most people have no idea how much time went in to the finished product.

28. Having cards with your contact information on it should be with you at all times.

29. My twitter friends are amazing!

30. Lala.com is one awesome music site.

31. Spell check has made me stupid.

32. Passion should surround your life. Work, life, relationship, everything.

33. This list is getting much longer then I intended.

34. I’ve learned I can count to 34.

35. Have a safe and Happy New Year.

This place has amazing food and on Tuesdays they have mini tacos for $1 that are insanely delicious. Mini is not really the best word to describe them because they are just a bit smaller then a normal taco shell.

Really great food and worth hitting up.

Taco Tuesday, done right., originally uploaded by sp4rky.

The author of Crush It and host of WineLibrary.tv, Gary Vaynerchuck, was here in OKC last Friday for the OK Crush It book signing and even and it was a blast!

OK Crush It was a book signing and evening party with Gary Vaynerchuck and my work was involved in helping to get the event planned and off the ground and I’m happy to see that the event was such a huge success. Several other local business came together and helped as well and I got the chance to meet some really awesome people in the process.

I hit up the event with my brother Jeremy and girlfriend Jennifer, who was also involved with the event, and we got our Crush It books signed by Gary V. earlier that day and later hit up the evening event. We met some really cool people at the event and listened to Gary V. give a talk about crushing it then later he taped a WineLibrary.tv episode. After the evening event was over there was a Sponsor’s after party that we hit up and while were there Gary V. came over and sat down with us in our booth and chatted for awhile and I got to say Gary is one cool and guy. It was awesome to meet him and everyone at the event and we had a great time.

Side note: Dan Gordon if you are reading this, you did a great job with this event. It would not have happened without you.

@sp4rky (Justin Sanchez) Pink Party OKC organizer, originally uploaded by sp4rky.

Chuck Norris of course.

I’ve always been a fan of screen caps of graphical projects sped up with music, so I took try at doing one. I wanted to do it with just one element predetermined and then make the idea up as I go showing the creative process.

So with just the headline I turned on record and started thinking and this is what happened.

There isn’t much graphical work here but I do plan to do another video with some heavy graphical work to show that this program can handle just about everything the Adobe design apps do (Yes I’ve used them and have them too).

Pops At Night, originally uploaded by sp4rky.

Took this photo with my Canon SD780 IS at Pops on Route 66 in Arcadia, Oklahoma.