Give me your input

So, as you should all know by now. I'll be leaving for New York in about a week (and I still have a crapload of things to take care of before I go). This post if for you all to list things that I need to make sure I do, or see, or eat, etc, etc, etc. during my 8 week stay there. So please, help me get a list going:

"Morning"

Yet Another Sweet Video

Ok, so this is a video that my sister's boyfriend shared with me the other day, so as much as I'd like to take credit for finding it...I can't. But atleast I can take credit for being the one that shared it with you (possibly).

It is amazing! The entire thing was shot with a digital still camera and put together using stop-motion. I hope you all enjoy.

Here's the link: "Morning"

another good commercial: Berlitz

So last night my roommate showed me this funny commercial. I hope you all enjoy it.

quicktime link: Berlitz Commercial

google video: Berlitz Commercial

the good and not-so-good

The good of today:

• slept in
  
• bought a ticket to NYC
• got a 94 on my Business Management 340 final
• ate Thai food with friends
• met new cool people
  
• talked on the phone with my Dad and Mom
  
• helped wash a friends car
  
• rode my bike
• got pics of the apt i'm probobly going to rent in NY
• saw a super cute girl on campus
• got and read my current issue of comm arts magazine
• got an email from an old friend
• talked on the phone with a cute girl
  
• posted on my blog...twice
• had a great one-on-one chat with my boss
• deposited a couple checks (totalling to about $28)
  
  

The not-so-good:

• probobly slept in too late
  
• found out the room I'm renting in NYC is probobly UN-furnished :)
• didn't get a call from someone who was suppose to call me
  
• internet at my house didn't work for like 2 hours when I first got home
• had a slight headache midday (but it didn't last)
• still have one more testing center final to take
• which means i shouldn't go to bed yet, but should study for a little while

So....the good far outweighs the not-so-good....overall, it must have been a good day. :)

New York, New York

Well, some of you know by now about the contents of this post, but not all of you, and it's only right that I post about this sort of information so here goes (drum roll please).

At first I wasn't sure, but considering that I purchased my plane ticket this morning...I think it's ok to say it's official: I'm going to New York.

Yes, it is true. I will be flying out of Salt Lake late May 8th (Monday) and will be landing in the JFK airport in NYC early Tuesday morning. I will be there for about 2 months as an intern at Geppetto (a small, but stellar agency in Manhattan that focuses on marketing and communications targeted to kids and teens) doing Account Planning and basically soaking everything up like a sponge. I think my experience working with kids (BYU's Hands on a Camera media literacy program as well as TOPS, and working at Sunsetview Elementary here in Provo) will prove benificial to what I can bring to the table during my stay with Geppetto.

I'm really excited for this opportunity (and a little nervous and scared as well...heck who wouldn't be in my situation.) The whole thing really jumped on my lap unexpectedly, and I'm trying my best to hang on to things already set in motion and steer them slightly so as to arrive at a benificial place when all is said and done.

I'll be at Geppetto with two other interns from BYU (Becca and Dallas) whom I am so excited to work with. Of all the advertising interns in NYC this spring, I couldn't think of anyone better to work with (don't take offense Seth...I love you, and you know that...and you know that we are all gonna hang out and party). I've had a couple classes with both Becca and Dallas and last semester was able to work with Dallas on a commercial idea that he and his team came up with for Chris Cutri's commercials class. Good times, good times.

Anyways, that's all for now. I've still got finals to worry about, NY apt finding to finalize, Provo apt finding to finalize (for next fall sem), packing, planning, more packing, etc, etc, etc...so I'll keep you all informed as we go. Much Love!

PS - if you weren't the first person to find out about this whole NY business don't hate me...I wasn't positive that it was really happening myself until this morning when I bought my plane ticket.

68 vs 86-98

A short story that I hope you will find entertaining...

So today my friend Seth and I studied for our stats final together. We had planned to take the final at 8 tonight which would give us 2 hours to finish. We both thought that such an amount of time would be adequate considering previous tests in that class. However, when 8 rolled around we turned to each other and both agreed that neither of us were quite ready to undertake such a task...I thought of possibly taking the test Monday morning...but then, I really really really wanted to get it out of the way tonight like I had planned. I had not yet taken any of my finals and it would have been nice to get one out of the way today...also, if I waited till Monday I would have to recharge my short term memory banks once again. :(

We both decided that an extra 30 minutes would be most benificial to our study time and that would leave us, if not an ample amount of time in which to actually "take" the test, what Goldylocks might say "just right."

We were wrong. We actually didn't make it to the testing center 'till 9 (a fact which neither of us quite noticed until several minutes into the test), and when 9:30 rolled around I couldn't help but use my excellent math skills to realize that I would NOT finish by 10 (the time the testing center closes) at my current test-taking rate.

This was slightly disconcerting.

All said and done, the feeling of being rushed to finish a test (a final at that) is not one that I would wish upon anyone. Oh how I lament my decision to not wait until Monday. And yet all said and done...I suppose the end result was not that bad.
Having guessed on nearly half the questions I think a 68% is quite impressive. Especially considering the fact that if 40% of my answers were guesses from questions that involved 4 option multiple choice (giving me a 25% probability of choosing the correct answer)...lets see, if I do my math right...that means that of the roughly 40% i guessed on I would likely get 25% of that 40% right by chance...meaning of that 40% of the test I probobly got 10% right. (are you still with me???)

Ok, so lets subtract that 10% from my 68% score to see how I did on the 60% that I didn't guess on...

Ok, so that means I only missed 2% of the 60% I didn't guess on...basically giving me a 98% on the part I actually did!
Wow, way to go me!!!

What??? You don't think I did that well? Ok, well lets see how well I would have done if I only guessed on 30% of my test:

25% of 30% = 7.5% (meaning of the 30% I guessed on I most likely (according to probability) would have gotten 7.5% right)

so, 68% (my score) - 7.5% (the amount i likely was awarded due to chance guessing) = 60.5% (the score of the remaining 70% that I didn't guess on).

well 60.5 / 70 = 86

So even if I answered 70 percent of the test and only guessed on 30% (which...I'm pretty sure I guessed for more of the test than that...) I had aan 86% coming my way.

So...chances are...if I would have been able to actually finish the test without guessing for any part of it, I would have gotten a score somewhere between an 86% and 98% (considering i did as well on the rest of the test as I had on the portion of the test I actually did.)

and the moral of the story is:
Give yourself more than an hour to take your stats final.

Last Day of School?

So...apparently today was the last day of school...well, of the semester. I still have another year before I can actually say "the last day of school," and even then I can't really say that since eventually I plan on continuing my education. But seriously, today did not feel like the last day of anything (except maybe the last day I want to pull an all-nighter in awhile).

Well, I guess it wasn't a true all-nighter seeing as how I decided around 5:30ish a.m. that I should get a little shut-eye and therefore went to bed until I got up at 7:30ish to get ready for school. So, 2 hours of sleep really isn't that bad (I know that I've done much much much worse haha...and from the sound of some of my friends blogs...they've done a lot worse recently.)

Anyways, you got to love the power of a 24 oz. Rockstar and some snack food late at night. I could have easily gone without the 2 hour power nap at 5:30 in the morning.

So for what purpose did I stay up all night you might ask??? Well, among other things...I told my students (I'm a TA for an intro to film class) that I would have all of their weekly papers graded to give back to them by class today. Although I didn't get ALL of the papers graded, I think I did a pretty good job considering how many weeks I was behind. I've been so horrible at grading and getting papers back to my students in a timely manner this semester. (Let's hope my boss doesn't read this post).

Package

A package arrived for me in the mail last week from San Diego, California. I was going to post about it then, but just haven't gotten around to it. Seems that's been a regular thing for me of late:

• something happens in my life
  
• I think, "I should post about this."
• then I don't get around to it
• a week or two goes by
• then I think, "wow, a lot has happened that I should have posted about...but didn't because I was too busy.
• at this point I break down and even though I still have tons of things to do...I post about something.

That's what's happening tonight. I have plenty to do, but I just need to feel as though I'm doing something to keep up with my blog.

Anyways, back to this whole package that I recieved in the mail. It was actually the bracelet that I ordered from Invisible Children. (some of you were probably wondering what Jason's comment about my "cool bracelet" was all about in the last Invisible Children update I posted...well, that's what he was talking about.)

It was funny, because I'm kind of against the whole "bracelet thing." (let me explain). When the original yellow livestrong bands came out I thought, "wow, cool way for people to show support for an organization and support it financially as well." Then it seemed everyone had a bracelet...I mean, to the point where it makes me sick. I was really disgusted when I finally saw bracelets for LDS stuff like CTR and what-not. (nothing against choosing the right and all, but come on people!!! What are you saying by wearing one of those things. I mean, you can purchase the livestrong bracelet for like $1 and guess what? $1 of that goes to the Lance Armstrong Cancer Foundation. All these other bands with their different sayings are sold for like $5 and there's no telling where the money is going. (There are other bracelets out there that do stand for something such as the ONE campaign and such, but for all those other bracelets...) It's just a piece of rubber around your wrist with no more meaning than the words embossed across it...wait, I take that back. There is more meaning than just that. You are saying, "I'm following the crowd, I want to be cool, I'm a part of the marketing machine."

I don't get it. What started out as really cool and a way to express your support for an organization has become a part of the marketing machine and has lost its meaning. It's become just another fad. No longer is it a statement of what you support; it has become simply "trendy."

You can even custom order these bracelets with whatever saying you want. I'm tempted to order one that says something like "I [expletive] these bracelets," "these things are GAY," or something like that.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that "trendy" things are all bad. Heck, my favore pair of jeans could be considered very "trendy" by some I'm sure. It's just that it makes me sick when I see meaningless pieces of rubber around someone's wrist in an attempt to "be cool."

All that being said...yes, I ordered and just recieved in the mail a bracelet from Invisible Children. Why??? Because I think what's happening over in Ugandha is horrible. This bracelet serves as a reminder to me that wicked and horrible things happen in the world and that I need to do whatever I can to help my fellow brothers and sisters who are less fortunate than I am.











For everyone out there reading my blog...I hope you join me on the 29th for the Night Commute no matter where you are. It doesn't matter if you're not in Provo that night. Look up the closest city to where you will be on the 29th and sign up to be a part of something that will change the world.

If you want to know more about Invisible Children just go to the website, do a search of my blog, ask me about upcoming screenings of the film in Provo, check out their podcast, watch the trailers for the movie, check out Invisible Children Provo on myspace, etc.

Eagle Eye Live Cam

My mom just sent me this link to this site where you can watch a live cam of this bald eagle nest in Hornby Island, British Columbia. It's pretty cool. I watched it for a little while tonight. There are two eggs in the nest and the anticipated hatching dates are April 26th and 30th.
Check it out at here.
The quality of the video is actually really good especially considering it's being streamed from this little island up in Canada (amazing they even have such internet capabilities hehe).
Here are some screenshots I took of the webcam.

no title

My stomach churns...it's in a knot.
It's as if the butterflys of yesterday that before would occasionally come and go like the migrating monarch have now permanently made my stomach their home;
a giant tree with leaves of fluttering butterly wings.

Like the cave home of a million bats...
centuries of guano littering what once was a beautiful cathedral.
The fabulous rock spires of heaven and earth,
reaching toward each other in what seems like an eternally slow journey
now covered in filth.

The fluttering of butterflies has risen to my throat
and threatens to trigger me into vomiting.

A lump of fear, anziety, excitement, depression...
clotting in my throat because I stifle the words that would release them:

I love you.
No,
I like you.
Do you like me?
Would you like to go out tonight?
Can someone Please tell me how to make this feeling stop!

I stifle the words because of fear of rejection.
I stifle the words because of fear of acceptance.
No, not of acceptance....
Yes, because of acceptance.
How so?
I don't know
but the words ring true regardless.

What words
what phrase
what Word
can free me from these feelings,
will open up the wound that is my heart
and bleed from out my lips
and loose this from my throat
I Know not!

Be it found within the writings of men like Shakespeare
or perhaps the unsung ballads of the contemporary muses of sissy rock...
I know not.

How do i love thee?
Let me count the ways
in which my mind receedes back to thoughts of you
and the uncertainty of your reaction to such words
instills again within my throat this knot.

Oh heaven and earth be reached, "Peace be still"
my soul my heart but do not stop for reaching

Invisible Children Screening: Wed. April 12th

I know that some of you have been unable to attend any of the previous Invisible Children screenings. I know it's short notice, but there will be another screening Wednesday, April 12th at 7:30 in the JSB Auditorium.

Quote of the Day

This weeks quote comes from my dear friend Megan whom I will get to hang with every Tuesday and Thursday mornings next fall semester. Bring on Honors English baby!!!

"It's not sexual harassment if it's welcome!"

it's not me, it's you

My roommate (Jason) ran sound at his friend's senior media music recital tonight. He asked me like a week or two ago to help him out so I tagged along and helped set up sound equipment and stuff. Long story short, the recital was awesome. Laura Ostler put on a great show. When you get a moment you really should check out her myspace page and when you do...make sure you listen to "goodnight, sleep tight." I think it has become my newest favorite song.

Today, I was one of those kids...

You all know what I'm talking about. You see them requently on campus...the kids sprawled out on the floor against the wall in a hallway, curled up in one of the arm chairs on campus, or sitting at a table or desk...their faces plastered to the page of their open text book in front of them. Yes, today, I was one of those kids.

Tired

So...I just got home from a 12-hour long shoot at MPS (the LDS Motion Picture Studio). It doesn't really feel like 12 hours...but the last time I checked, 6 am to 6 pm was 12 hours.

I'm gripping on Tom Morrill's 419 project. Mucho fun, but I certainly am kinda tired now. All the shots we got today were on set on sound stage #2 (hurray for indoor shoots). When I helped on Justin's 419 about a month ago most of our stuff was outside...dang it got cold at times.

Anyways, we're shooting again tomorrow and call time is 6 am. I'd like to get some homework done, or go hang out with some people, but I think I might just go shower, eat something, and then go to bed. I dont' know. We'll see.

I heart gmail.

So today I was sending a press release I had written for work to the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News. I was typing up an email to attach the release to when I realized that the press release would probobly have more validity and such if I were to send it from my byu email rather than gmail.

Now, I really don't use my byu email for anything. I put it on resumes and other such things that I would want to appear more formal, but all emails sent to my byu address are forwarded to my gmail account, so I never even sign in to check my emails in that account or send anything from there.

So, you could see my dilemna. Here I wanted to send an email using my byu address since I felt it would come across as more professional, but there was no way I wanted to wign into my BYU account and type up an email using that email client. I voiced my opinion that it would be cool if you could send an email from another address using gmail. I said aloud that they should come up with that feature.

Well, I'm sure you would understand my suprise and rejoicing when a coworker and friend (Megan, I know you're reading this so why don't you just freakin leave a comment) told me that you could send emails from other accounts using gmail. Yes!!! "...and there was much rejoicing..."

Anyways, for those of you who would like to make such wonderousness a reality in your life. Here are the simple instructions from google. It's way easy:

How do I customize the 'From:' address on outgoing mail?
If you'd like your outgoing Gmail messages to display another one of your email addresses in the 'From:' field (instead of your Gmail address), just follow these easy steps:

Log in to your Gmail account.

Click 'Settings' along the top of any page, and then select the 'Accounts' tab.

Click 'Add another email address' in the 'Send mail as:' section.

Enter your full name in the 'Name:' field, and the email address you'd like to send messages from in the 'Email address:' field.

*Keep in mind that each time someone replies to a message you send using a custom 'From:' address, the reply will be delivered to the 'From:' address rather than your Gmail address. If you'd like replies to be delivered to another account, you'll need to enter a 'reply-to' address. Just click 'Specify a different reply-to address' to enter this information.

Click 'Next Step >>,' and then click 'Send Verification' to complete the process.

Gmail will send a verification message to your other email address to confirm that you'd like to add it to your Gmail account. You'll need to click the link in that message, or enter the confirmation code in the 'Accounts' section of your Gmail account, to complete the process. Once you've verified that you'd like to add the address to your account, you can start sending messages using your custom 'From:' address.

Tip: If you have a number of different email addresses, enter all of them in your Gmail account, and then select a different address to send each of your messages from, depending on what you're sending.

You can also choose to send all replies from the email address to which a message was sent.

Invisible Children: update

OK, so I just found out there's going to be another screening of Invisible Children this Thursday night in the Benson auditorium at 7:30pm. Please come. Even if you're not a student anymore (Jared and co.)
If you're reading this post and you're like WTF? What is Invisible Children??? Just scroll down my page cause there's a post not too far down there and you can read all about it.


Who: Cool People
What: Screening of Invisible Children
Where: Benson Auditorium (BYU campus)
When: Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
Why: Because everyone should be aware of what is happening in our world.

Quote of the Day

So...I was just kickin' it in the Wilk today with my friend Anna and she said the following:

"Broccoli is like a wonder food; It has tons of vegetables in it!"

How it went

So...I know it's a little belated, but I figure I'd better fill ya'll in on how Friday went. As can be seen from the comments on my previous post (Update: Pace, this one's for you), Jared's date for Friday fell through. Luckily he was able to find someone else to go with him (otherwise that would have been a waste of two tickets, and what use to be a group date of 10 people would have become a double date with Luke and I and our dates.) There was one change however (besides the person Jared was taking), Jared's new date couldn't leave Provo until 6:30 (the original plan was to leave at 5:30, eat in Salt Lake at this cool restaurant Jared was telling me about, and then go to the opera which started at 7:30). My date was still planning on me picking her up at 5:30.

Well, after brainstorming as to what my options for the evening were, I opted to stick with 5:30. I informed my date (we'll call her "S") of the new plans:

5:30 I pick her up and we eat someplace here in Provo
6:30 We meet Jared at his place and carpool to Salt Lake
7:30 We enjoy Mozart's "The Magic Flute."

I asked if that was ok with her and she said (and I quote), "Sure!"

So, it went just like that. I picked her up at 5:30 (well, actually more like 5:35) and then we went to Thai Ruby's. We met up with Jared at his place at 6:30 and then went to pick up his date and then we were off...only one thing....traffic to Salt Lake was not so good, and we ended up arriving to the Capital Theater several minutes late. :( It wouldn't have been too bad because they have this little place where people can walk in and sit in the back until intermission and then they can go to their seats...only, there wasn't even standing room in that little area (apparently a lot of people were late) so we had to watch the first part of the opera in the foyer on the TV monitor. :(

Truthfully, I was slightly embarrassed and annoyed (i don't think those are the right words, but they're the only ones I could think of right now) at the fact that we had to stand out in the foyer...mostly, more for the fact that S had to stand in the foyer.

I will take a moment to digress here...
I don't know how most boys feel, but I feel as though when you are on a date with a young lady, it is your responsibility and duty to see to it that she: is safe, comfortable, and enjoys herself.

The fact that we were late and had to watch part of the opera while standing in the foyer certainly makes your job of keeping her comfortable and making sure she enjoys herself a little more difficult.
I guess I really was just "worried" that I was failing in my job of being a good date more so than being embarrassed and annoyed.

That said, we shall return to the story...
So, suprisingly the whole standing out in the foyer experience wasn't that bad. I did feel a little annoyed and sad for two other girls who were also at the opera: They too had arrived late and were standing in the foyer with their dates. Then one of the boys said to his date, "we're thinking we'd rather go to Barnes and Noble or something until intermission...would you rather do that?" His date (a girl from my ward actually) said that she would rather stay and watch the monitor so she knew what was happening after intermission...I thought at first, that was nice of him to give her another option...but then he and the other girl's date totally left them...does anyone else find this strange (unless maybe they are serious boyfriend and girlfriend). S and I talked about this brieftly as we stood there and I'm glad that we both agreed on this matter.

Fast forward ---> the opera was great (all except for the fact that the Queen of the Night had some difficulty hitting several of her high notes). On the way home, S mentioned several times how enjoyable the evening was (this came as a comfort considering our earlier tardiness.)

We drove back to Provo and I took S home to her apartment.

All and all, it was an enjoyable evening.

Invisible Children

So tonight I went to a screening for a rough-cut of this film, "Invisible Children." Can I just say, that if you think you have it tough...you don't. We are so blessed to live in this country. It truelly is the promised land.

I don't even know what it is I want to say in this post. I'm having difficutly coming up with the worlds, so if I sound like a completely uneloquent idiot...well, I apologize. I don't even know where to begin.

This film was so powerful. There are parts in it that are rather disconcerting and make you feel uncomfortable...and rightly so! You should feel a little uncomfortable: that feeling of discomfort is you telling yourself that what you're seeing, the story that's being presented to you...it's not right. No human being should have to undergo such trail, pain, and suffering.

The film was created by three college-aged kids from California. It documents some of the struggles that plague the people (and especially the kids) of Uganda. I will attempt to give you a brief, yet comprehensive summary about the story the film deals with.
There is a rebel group in Uganda that abducts kids (mostly from age 5-15 I think it was), brainwashes them, and makes them join there army.
These kids are subjected to watching there friends be killed, beaten, raped, and dismembered. They are beaten themselves and told that if they do not fight for the rebel army, they will be killed and tortured. The kids are brainwashed and taught how to kill. For those that do escape, integrating themselves back into society is difficult. They have been scarred by what they've experienced, but also...many times, they are forced to kill their own family members (cousins, borthers, sisters). If they do escape, many of them have no family to go to, or their family has disowned them.

Every night in Uganda, thousands of children leave there homes and walk into town to sleep because they are afraid that they will be abducted during the night like some of their friends.

There is so much more to be said about the background of what's going on that I can't really talk all about it here. I hope everyone who reads this takes the time to go to this website and see what I'm talking about. There's a trailer for the video and a bunch of other stuff to check out.

There are plans for future screenings of the film, and I will attempt to keep you all posted if you would like. Please take the time to check out their website and read a little about what's going on in Uganda with these kids. They need your prayers, they need your time, they need your voice.