24 December 2006

elf




traditions are great. my family doesn't have many real traditions since it seems like sometimes we're all together and other times we're not. but! if for nothing else, we sit down and watch elf. we don't know what it is that makes us like it so much, but it's so stupid it's funny.

tradition.

19 December 2006

look at the bells look at the bells



thanks to paul for finding this.

quote of the day:

This comes from a conversation over a game of madgab:

"Jessica Simpson shouldn't be allowed to sing songs about Jesus."

--Marianne King

mo' money mo' problems

so one of many flaws in my personality is i HATE being told i'm wrong. when i'm wrong, i'll admit to it. i like thinking that i know a ton. granted, i have much to learn plus a little humility to go along with it.

tonight i got into a stupid argument while waiting for my turn on the bball court. i was arguing with a kid about saving money. "why should he save money? he has no car payment, no rent, and nothing to worry about." basically the idea of eat, drink, and be merry. very frustrating. even i try to save a little money each month. i finally told the kid that i was done arguing about such an idiotic idea (where i KNOW i'm right. why try to prove a point when their answer is going to be that of thinking i'm retarded for saving money.)

aside from the stupid arguments with people i really don't even care about, this week begins the 4 days of finals. like i've said before, the one i'm really nervous about is my book of mormon final. who'd a thought. bishop richards told me a story tonight about how the final for his book of mormon 121 (first half..goes to alma 30) class. they were to summarize each chapter from memory. i can't complain...mine will be easier than that.

another thought about school... if in a year i don't make it into the program i want to at BYU, there's always This program at UVSC. one of the TA's from my recording class here said that the program there is really decent. (i probably won't end up there, but it's nice to have plan C)

18 December 2006

to post or not to post






This is the CD of the week that is playing on my iPod and iTunes. Oh so wonderful. I think it's about time for mayer to release another concert DVD.

14 December 2006

Pandora


I need to take a moment and promote one of my favorite music devices. Pandora is an internet music player. Basically how it works is I put in an artist I like, and it runs through some formulas and then will play music that is similar to that artist. It really is amazing. I have numerous "stations" ranging from John Mayer, Imogen Heap, and different Holiday styles. It's such an amazing little program. I recommend it to all.

13 December 2006

Deja Vu

tonight's wednesday night movie was deja vu. stretch with me for a minute here...i would like to say that deja vu is the manly version of the lake house. two characters, different times, and the love story that occurs. deja vu's stretch on reality is MUCH cooler than in the lake house, however. once you comprehend the idea of the movie, you start understanding a little more about what's going on. my favorite part of this film was during a car chase. denzel's character is in pursuit driving a hummer. the catch? the car he's chasing/following was driving the road 4 days prior to the present day. a great movie idea executed very well! and whenever you have an excuse to crash cars, blow up a ferry, or chase a car in a hummer i am there.

4/5 stars

new year's resolution





I've been thinking about doing this for a while, so why not throw it under that cloud of "new year's resolution"? In 2007, my goal is not that of solving world hunger, getting in shape, or even doing well in school. My goal is to watch the 100 greatest movies ever made. This will be quite an undertaking. I may have to cheat and start during the break. It's roughly two movies a week for the entire year. I found this list from AFI's website (thanks melanie.)


The Complete List:

1. CITIZEN KANE (1941)

2. CASABLANCA (1942)

3. THE GODFATHER (1972)

4. GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)

5. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)

6. THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)

7. THE GRADUATE (1967)

8. ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)

9. SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993)

10. SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952)

11. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)

12. SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950)

13. THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957)

14. SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)

15. STAR WARS (1977)

16. ALL ABOUT EVE (1950)

17. THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951)

18. PSYCHO (1960)

19. CHINATOWN (1974)

20. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975)

21. THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940)

22. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)

23. THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)

24. RAGING BULL (1980)

25. E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982)

26. DR. STRANGELOVE (1964)

27. BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967)

28. APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)

29. MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939)

30. THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948)

31. ANNIE HALL (1977)

32. THE GODFATHER PART II (1974)

33. HIGH NOON (1952)

34. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962)

35. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)

36. MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969)

37. THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)

38. DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)

39. DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965)

40. NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)

41. WEST SIDE STORY (1961)

42. REAR WINDOW (1954)

43. KING KONG (1933)

44. THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915)

45. A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951)

46. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)

47. TAXI DRIVER (1976)

48. JAWS (1975)

49. SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937)

50. BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)

51. THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940)

52. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953)

53. AMADEUS (1984)

54. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930)

55. THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965)

56. M*A*S*H (1970)

57. THE THIRD MAN (1949)

58. FANTASIA (1940)

59. REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955)

60. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)

61. VERTIGO (1958)

62. TOOTSIE (1982)

63. STAGECOACH (1939)

64. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977)

65. THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)

66. NETWORK (1976)

67. THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962)

68. AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951)

69. SHANE (1953)

70. THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971)

71. FORREST GUMP (1994)

72. BEN-HUR (1959)

73. WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1939)

74. THE GOLD RUSH (1925)

75. DANCES WITH WOLVES (1990)

76. CITY LIGHTS (1931)

77. AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973)

78. ROCKY (1976)

79. THE DEER HUNTER (1978)

80. THE WILD BUNCH (1969)

81. MODERN TIMES (1936)

82. GIANT (1956)

83. PLATOON (1986)

84. FARGO (1996)

85. DUCK SOUP (1933)

86. MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935)

87. FRANKENSTEIN (1931)

88. EASY RIDER (1969)

89. PATTON (1970)

90. THE JAZZ SINGER (1927)

91. MY FAIR LADY (1964)

92. A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951)

93. THE APARTMENT (1960)

94. GOODFELLAS (1990)

95. PULP FICTION (1994)

96. THE SEARCHERS (1956)

97. BRINGING UP BABY (1938)

98. UNFORGIVEN (1992)

99. GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER (1967)

100. YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942)

home made fun

Here are two projects that I've recently done. The first one comes from this summer's Production of My Fair Lady at the Scera Outdoor Shell. The second one is movie talked about in this post.

The quality is mo betta on my computer, but had to be compressed for YouTube.





Michelle

Today is Michelle's 26th birthday.

Happy Birthday.

a picture to honor her with:






random thoughts of future events


once again it's really late or really early, whatever is easier. this semester has been quite an adventure. finals are just around the corner. in fact, i have one on thursday followed by three more anytime after saturday. i'm not so much nervous about them as i am about what mysteries next semester holds. ironically, i think my hardest final will be book of mormon. makes me chuckle.

this semester has spoiled me, however. most of my classes have been evening classes as that is the only time most of the sound classes are offered. (the teachers work full-time during the day and then come once a week to teach our sorry faces.) rules at BYU permit you to only work 20 hrs a week. at the beginning of the semester i thought it was more of a guideline and i would work 25-30 hrs a week...until my boss, charles, got on my case and told me i needed to not go over 20 hrs each week. so only being able to work 20 hrs a week plus having mainly night classes has given me the opportunity to basically sleep in every morning and sometimes take a three day weekend since I don't have friday classes.

next semester will be quite different. i've worked my classes out such that i only have school tuesdays and thursdays. the catch? school starts at 9am and basically continues all the way until 9pm. getting up for a 9am class means getting up by atleast 8am to shower and head down to provo in time for class. snowy day? better make it a rule to be out of the house by 8am. those are the mornings you have to go extra slow on the interstate not only because the roads aren't in great condition, but that you have crazy utah drivers who think they're 4x4 automobiles allow them to still travel 65 miles an hour.

i was helping julianna tonight with a project for school which required pulling clips off of dvd's. you'd think the process would be easy. well i guess you could say it's easy....it's easy but not simple. so anyways as i waiting for my g4 to process the different movies i opened up a box labeled "nick" which was over by our family photo albums. i opened it up and began to look at some very amazing pictures of myself. my new project (since i successfully finished jules') is now to scan the 20 or so that i picked and post them. i think i spent close to 3 hrs looking at pictures tonight. i think i enjoy the activity because we have thousands of pictures and my small little A.D.D. mind can keep changing pictures every few seconds or so and stay entertained for hours.

12 December 2006

serendipitous

it's 4am. my last website was such a great success and disaster. 4amfriends.com went through some definite high times and low times, but with the rise of MySpace and Facebook it quickly died off. as I'm starting this new blog of mine, a smile appeared on my face when I glanced to the top of my screen and realized it was four in the morning. why i'm awake i'll never know, but that was the purpose of 4amfriends. a place to go in the middle of the night when maybe you can't sleep or you're just a night owl.

also, i've misplaced my set of keys to the church building. it's really frustrating me. i've looked everywhere, even cleaning my room hoping they would magically appear. no dice.

It was a normal Saturday Evening. I traveled up to Salt Lake to hang with Stacey and her peeps. Traveled sounds like a long trip. That's probably not the best word to use...whatever. The evening started out with a trip to Cafe Rio. I haven't been there in months. I had a bad experience during the summer and I haven't eaten there since. It's been Costa Vida 100%. I got what I usually get, and my love of the Rio is slowly returning.

Thinking maybe the girls were joking about seeing The Holiday I decided to head to the theater with them. This movie has chick flick written all over it, and seeing it proved me correct. If it hadn't been for Haley sitting next to me making witty comments through out the entire movie I wouldn't have survived. Not to mention it was about an hour too long. Aside from the semi-bad acting by Cameron Diaz, and the weird directing choices from Nancy Meyers (Director of Father of the Bride I & II), I did find moments where even I could relate to what was going on. Many people hate Jack Black. Many think he's crude and talentless. Yes he's weird, but his chracter brought out his isms in such a great way that I left the theater loving Jack Black more than ever. (A different side of Jack then we see in Nacho Libre and School of Rock...both great movies in my opinion.) Was it a cheesy movie? Yes. Was it worth 8 bucks? Eh--probably not. But if it was playing on TV some Sunday afternoon I would probably find myself fixed to the channel.

3/5 stars

a 2007 resolution...a few weeks early

Every so often, a random memory or experience will pop into my head. It can be triggered my many different possibilities including a picture, a person, a place, a scent...there are lots. As I'm getting a little bit older, I'm learning why teachers and parents stress the importance of keeping a journal. I would LOVE to go back and see what was going on in my life around this time say five years ago. I would have been 16 years old and it would have been my first Christmas in Utah. I remember it not being so much fun, but I do remember it being close to the time where I finally made friends.

Plus it was 5 years ago. Has my vocabulary grown? Has my writing style matured? Have I personally matured? (gee, i hope so.) Well I'm no good at writing in a real journal, and true this journal is a very public. But I need something. I want to be able to reflect back on something. So once again, the blog journal has begun. This wouldn't be the first time, and it sure won't be the last.

Goals of my postings:

  • First and foremost to write about events and stories going on presently in my life
  • Post fun pictures of things I do
  • Post links to funny videos on the web namely YouTube
  • Critique movies I see, or atleast post which movies I saw. (Currently I watch atleast 1-2 movies a week whether they are new releases or the next movie in my NetFlix queue)
  • Anything else I see fit
And thus begins a new adventure...to all who stumble upon it I wish you good tidings.