You're right...

As you can see by reading backwards it is a muscle shirt....(I hang my head low).

Whistling Puppy

Check out this puppy; its so cute. I was looking up whistling cause I was going to write about it and this came up.

Whistling Dixie

For as long as I can remember, my dad has always whistled to songs on the radio, things heard from the TV, and even at church. I feel like this is a talent the some people haven't really developed (I think Andrew had a hard time with this, but taught himself sometime after). I have found myself recently whistling more and more to songs, not saying that I'm great or anything, but I thoroughly enjoy it. I feel like it is an instrument that is not used enough and if used effectively adds a pinch of greatness. Here are some great songs that feature whistling (no order here):

1. End of "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" by the Beatles (well it sounds like whistling, not sure if it is)
2. "Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard" by Paul Simon
3. "Sissyneck" by Beck
4. Theme song for the Andy Griffith Show
5. Whistling part in Robin Hood (Disney movie)
6. "Two of Us" by The Beatles
7. "Golden Years" by David Bowie
8. "Patience" by Guns N' Roses
9. "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby
10. "Tire Swing" by Kimya Dawson

*If you can think of any other songs with whistling that you like just write them in the comment section.

New Inspiration

As I pack up and get ready for bed at 12:41 a.m. on Sunday; I have been reflecting on what I have seen and heard about the movies here at Sundance Film Festival 2008. Let me just cut to the chase; a lot of the movies here are not that good. I am always shocked at how these movies get "selected". Mostly they get picked is because they are 1) political 2) dealing with racial issues
3) contains sex 4) or are just plain weird. Dealing with the fourth issue, people here at Sundance love almost everything; they don't want to be the person asking questions like, "what the heck was that movie about" so they will say that it was great.

I have been really inspired after watching a few movies here especially since I am working up to shooting my senior project in the beginning of April. Most of the films here at Sundance are not even shot on film (35mm or 16mm) they shoot on HD which for the most part they don't even shoot on TRUE HD (the term HD gets thrown around so much that people have no clue what it actually means). Their stories don't seem well developed or even have the skills or technical aspects at their hands.

This is where I come in; I am shooting my senior project on 16mm with a film package grant that I was just accepted into last month. I am very grateful for this opportunity; I feel like with my knowledge that I may have a chance to get into the shorts section at Sundance (a short film is anything less than 90 min and mine will be around 15-20min). I am not saying my story is great or even that good, but I feel like I have been working on it a lot and been putting a lot of thought into it so I feel like it will probably turn out alright. I'm not saying I am going to submit my film; if it turns out nicely I might. It's just interesting to see what movies make it to Sundance and what people will call "good movies". I hope I do not turn into one of these people; if I do, slap me in the face or something.

(I'm not saying Sundance doesn't have quality films, but a lot of them here which you never hear about are crap. Great movies like Fargo, Unusual Suspects, American Movie, Garden State, Little Miss Sunshine, and so many more I could list came from Sundance.)

3 today

Today was my last Sundance day for this year; I got up a little after 6 this morning to get ready and wait in line for a movie, "Goliath". It was a documentary style drama where this guy is looking for his missing cat, you guessed it Goliath, and is also going through a divorce with his wife. I will not go to much further in the movie; if you want to know more ask me and I'll give you the synopsis. I didn't like it, it was very weird, awkward, and can't believe it even made it to Sundance.



The second movie I saw today was a movie entitled "August" which starred Josh Hartnett and a handful of other well known actors and actresses. This was the best looking movie I saw this year; it must've had a large budget because it looked amazing. The story was decent, but nothing spectacular. I would say from all of the movies I watched, this would be my second favorite overall, but number one in the drama department. Also with this one if you want to know more about it I'll tell you.



The third movie I saw today was "Young at Heart". Basically it was a group of elderly people, average age of 80ish, who get together and tour the nation and to other countries singing songs ranging from Coldplay "Fix You" to SonicYouth to The Ramones to The Beatles to James Brown to everyone. It was hilarious as well as really sad. This was my favorite movie that I saw at Sundance this year; it was a documentary but it told a great story that captured my heart. It really moved me in a way that no other film here did. I can tell you more, but I know this one was already picked up by Fox Searchlight; they picked up "Little Miss Sunshine" and other movies. So that's kinda cool.

Buster Bluth, I Saw You

Today at Sundance, Adam and I were down in one of the exhibit halls and I went and looked at some media-artwork and who walked right in front of me? The one and only Buster Bluth, or Tony Hale. After multiple glances and then finding Adam and following Buster, we gave it a 95% that it was him. We then lost him. O-well, it made my day.

Well I was only able to watch one movie today, "Traces of the Trade". It was a documentary about a family who finds out that their distant relatives were the biggest slave traders in American history. A small group of the family journeyed from slave routes to talk with people about how to make amends with their relatives actions. For what it was worth, a documentary at Sundance, it was good; it had good graphics of how they traveled from Rhode Island to Ghana (Africa) to Cuba (Cuba) then to Charleston, South Carolina. They really didn't challenge the audience or really tell how they really changed so these two things counted against them in my book.

The other movie I was supposed to see, as well as a handful of others, was a movie called "Mysteries of Pittsburgh". This was supposed to be one of the top movies here at Sundance. This year, for a complicated reason, we didn't get any "hard tickets" (guaranteed tickets) so we had to wait in the waiting list line. I was number 176; they sold 90 tickets and then there were over 200 people in the waiting list line; of course they stopped the waiting list line at around 150ish. So we waited in the cold and snow for about an hour for nothing....o-well. I had a great time hanging out with Joey, Scott, and Troy; great freshman guys if you don't know them. So We took the shuttle to town and walked up the street to some places and that's where I saw Buster. Tomorrow I go try and see 2 movies so the best of luck to me. Hope all is well in good ol' Nampa, Idaho.

Peace be the journey.

Off to Sundance

It's that time of year again, Sundance time! A group of about 15 or so is heading down in about an hour to Park City, Utah to partake in one of the largest independent film festivals in the world. I went last year and had a good time, but am hoping for a better time this year. I don't think I'll be able to keep you as informed as I'd like, but I'll try my best. I'll have my camera and my notepad with me. Take care all.

Last 2 Nights

If you look at the yellow thing hanging from the ceiling (farthest right), we sat right underneath it on the second level.

The last two nights have been great ones! I love college and everything that it brings.

On Saturday I had the privilege of accompanying Jenna to her first hockey game; we went and saw the Idaho Steelheads play the Alaska Aces. I feel like we had a good time; mainly chatting while we tried to watch the two teams battle. We had some crazy kids sitting behind us screaming a lot; oh I love kids, but I do. Jenna pointed out to me from across the arena this lady with SUPER long hair, like down to her knees. It was really funny; I've never seen hair that long. The game ended 2-1, in favor of the Steelheads (Congrats Jenna for picking the winning team). After the game we went to go see Joey at the Levi's store, but it was closed (too bad). We then went to a coffee shop to chat while people fought each other in the parking garage. Truly a great night.

On Sunday night a group of us went up to the hot springs; yes there was snow, and yes it was a little chilly, but FUN nonetheless. Let me backtrack for a moment; when we were driving up there, we went past the hot springs and Andrew was going to turn around, but pulled off the side of the road and slammed into some piled up snow. Funny! So we hiked up the trail and lounged in the hot springs for a handful of hours. Truly awesome! We talked about everything from politics, happiness, who would play who if our school performed "Star Wars" the play (which I love the idea), and so much more. It was so bright with the snow and just beautiful. We missed Jenna, Kylie, and Becca, next time though.

Let me change gears and talk about thievery for a second. When we got back down to the cars, one of Andrew's doors wasn't locked (not placing blame) and someone that shared the same hot springs as us went through his car. They went through Andrew's wallet, his cd's, and who knows where else, but they took nothing...except my Starbucks frappuccino. I'm not mad about not having it, but its the principle behind it. I just wanted it to be aware to these people that going through someone else's car is low, but also taking a drink is just lame. I hope they enjoyed it and kept them awake as they headed home.

All in all my weekend has been filled with great times; not only on Saturday did I go out to a hockey game, but when I came home there was a house-full of people and we jammed like we've never jammed before. Thanks for the great times all!

Goal-Oriented

I was listening to "The Boxer" by Paul Simon, waiting for the shower to be free and one verse kinda stuck out to me. I know most of you know that us guys are changing things we do and say, as we always say we are "New Men". It hasn't been the easiest task to stay true to the handful of things that I want to change, but I am serious about them and need to daily remind myself about them. In Paul's song he says:

"No it isnt strange, after changes upon changes, we are more or less the same
After changes we are more or less the same."

I wasn't real sure what he was saying, and yes I did take it out of context, but even after changes are we basically the same person? I can see this as both positive and negative. I'd like to think that I'm not really changing who I am as a person, but changing my attitude and outlook. Not real sure what I'm trying to say here.

My list is very similar to Andrews; we (Matt, Andrew, and I) were all sitting around talking one night. Here's my list:

1. Not say mean things about people
2. Not lie
3. Not steal/legal (music)
4. Be respectful in chapel
5. Be more positive to people/friends

Call me out if I do any of these. Accountability is a good thing.

4 Things different

Alrighty folks. Here are two pictures; there are 4 things different can you name them (some are more obvious than others)?





Write your 4 in the comments section and I'll tell you if you're right. Also scroll down to the older post to see one of the 4. It's tough to tell.

Finally...

Well after you all have heard me say that I am getting new glasses, oh don't hit me in the face these are my only glasses, well today has finally come. I got my new glasses! I am very excited and if you couldn't tell in the above pictures then that's alright I meant for it to be tough.

They are different and I will get used to them. I do like the change but am nervous because I don't do well with change. Here's a side by side comparison.



As you can tell, my new ones are more rectanglish as well as a brownish-red color. I like them; they help my eyes more but I'm used to how large the circular ones were so above and below the glasses is a fuzzy. I'm sure my eyes will adjust. My old ones are all bent out of shape.

Things I miss

The good ol' times, whenever they were.

Green grass

Innocence

Being a little kid at home.

The Alaska State Fair

Church youth group

Youthfulness (sometimes I just feel old)

My nephews.

My family being together (May!)

Northern Lights or the Aurora Borealis

My mom (just everything about her)

I'm Sorry

I'm sorry Andrew.

I'm sorry Matt.

I'm sorry Nate.

I'm sorry Jenna, Becca, and Kylie.

I'm sorry Culver lobby.

...I am sorry.

Sing-Along Anyone?

Tonight Kyle, my roommate, has been trying to learn the words to a famous song by Carl Orff, "Carmina Burana". You all have most likely heard it; it may have played for something with the movie 300 or at least it sounds like it could. I was out chatting with Matt in the living room and heard this real epic music blaring and Kyle trying to sing along with it so here he is in all his glory. (He doesn't know that I recorded him, yet).

Baby Steps

I was just listening to one of my favorite bands of all time, Dogwood. A great Christian band and as I was listening and trying to do homework, one of their songs really caught my ear so I looked up the lyrics and listened to it again. The song form their 7th album, "Selfish Americans" talks about how as Americans we have so much and how we know that there are people out in the world with great problems and living in poverty and we just disregard it all. Here is part of the lyrics from the end of the song that I really like:

"Recognize their plight.
Take a look at them.
We take for granted our God given freedom;
They’ve got nothing our there.
We need to lend an unselfish hand,
commit ourselves to serve.
There’s so much we have – we don’t know what to do,
and the answer is already there."

I know we cannot help out everyone, but as Americans we rent storage areas to store all our crap! People around the world have the clothes on their backs and whatever else can fit in their little houses. We need to rethink through our priorities of what we really NEED and what is it that we just WANT. I commend the guys who are not buying any clothes for a whole year, I am not putting a time period on it cause I don't know what the future holds, but I am going to try as well not to. I have so many clothes that I cannot close my dresser draws where my shirts are and I have no more room to hang things up in my closet so I went through and bagged up my excess clothes and am giving them away. I am proud of Andrew and Matt for doing the same. I love all these guys for not just selling out to society, but for actually acting on their beliefs.

I know I sound real radical, even to myself, but this is all true. We have more stuff than we really need. Andrew basically told me once that in order to really change our lives we would need to make a drastic change in our life. I am deathly afraid of change, but am taking baby steps towards it.

Perusing through "My Little Black Book"...

Today was the first day that I have gone through and looked at the things I have been writing down in my Moleskin book. There were a lot of little things that reminded me of events over Christmas break, lessons learned, and Bible verses that I really wanted to remember. I know I look geeky pulling out this black book from my back pocket and then writing things down, but I am who I am and this is important to me. I am very protective of this book because there are things inside that are for me only, and I'll share them when and if I want (that sounded really mean, don't take it that way).

Here are a few things that I wrote down that I'd like to share:

-"Perhaps one reason God delays His answers to our prayers is because He knows we need to be with Him far more than we need the things we ask of Him." -Ben Patterson

-Matthew 5:13-16. I need to daily reflect God's love because what use am I if I don't.

-Excerpt from a prayer of mine, "Take my life and use up my talents so when I get to Heaven I will be empty."

-I think a movie about Bobby Hall's life would be SWEET!

-"Spectacle is the least of things." -Aristotle

This last one is something that I'd like to talk about because it is so true and Aristotle was a very smart guy. This is very applicable today. This quote came up when we were having discussion in our directing class today. So many movies today focus so much on special effects i.e. explosions, gun fights, gore but what happened to the great stories? Yeah Transformers was visually a sweet movie, but the story was sooo shallow. I feel like our culture is really settling for less with our movies lately; we accept these crude humored or flashy movies, and let story take the backseat.

I'm not saying I'm the best storyteller, and looking through my senior project I can tell that I am not great, but I feel like we are just getting bombarded with subpar stories in the movies. I want to be moved during a movie; challenged to change my lifestyle, convicted of my choices, cry for a character (every time I watch Cast Away and October Sky). Spectacle is fun and helps the audience feel more apart with how realistic it is, but lets remember the movies that have great stories. The ones that changed our lives.

Living for the weekends

This past weekend has already come and gone as they say, and I had a real good time. I will be honest and say that I was worried about poker at Joe V's but it was a blast. I suck at poker just to let you all know. Then the surprise visit to go to Merrits was real fun. I also worked on homework for this upcoming week; so I feel like it was real productive as well as fun.

I am already thinking about next weekend, not because its a three day weekend, but because I am not motivated to be back at school. I am having a hard time focusing on this last semester because I am taking some classes that I just don't care about and they're going to be tough. Argh. But now thinking about the weekend, it is going to be great. Lots of fun stuff planned but the most fun is the stuff that isn't planned. I am not going to say what is going down, but if you're looking for a great time this weekend, stop by the house or give one of us a call; but watch your phone cause we'll probably call you anyway.

Off to go swimming.......^o........ (that's my head and arm swimming in the water; I don't expect everyone to see it)

A GREAT LOSS

As Andrew and I were brushing our teeth and getting ready for bed last night, we heard a knock at the door and after a minute of putting on clothes I answered the door. It was Jenna, Andrea, Becca, and Kristin; they were wanting to go to Merrits. So after some good schmoozing and Andrew and I remembering my new life motto, "You only live once" we up and went. We had a crammed car which is always great for the oddly longish ride.

This was the first time that I'd been to Merrits this semester and was saddened to see the new addition as well as experience a little piece of myself break apart; they replaced the classic jukebox with a new slick, high tech one. I didn't look through the songs because the price has now risen to I think a dollar and I just felt like I needed to have a time of remembrance and silence for the old jukebox which gave us many a great songs throughout the years.

You will be missed old jukebox; you were a legend. I hope the new one will step it up with classics like "Take it Easy", any Queen song, as well as my personal fav. "American Pie."

Other than this loss, we had a great time.

What does my future have in store?

Oh magic 8 ball, tell me your great wisdom! Well I don't have a magical 8 ball to predict my future, but as you can see by the picture, that the outcome doesn't look that good for me anyway!

Everyone keeps asking me what I'm going to do after school and my answers have varied. To be honest, I have no clue. There are a lot of things I am looking into and different opportunities at hand. People always tell you to go to college and you'll have a ton of jobs at your hand over people who don't. This is true, but where are these jobs? I have been looking around and most of the jobs that I have seen are jobs where you already have to have 4 years of other work in the field. I haven't found any entry-level work.

Right now I don't feel like I want to settle down and start in a career. There are some things that I really want to do; I don't know where or how I could make a living but I want to travel and I want to help people. I have been looking at many organizations such as WorldVision, Peace Corp, Jesus Film, and then jobs working for Discovery, History Channel, as well as National Geographic. I have a lot of options and I have been really praying about them and looking to see what doors will open and which ones will close.

I am trying real hard to not worry because I am the kind of person that likes to have his whole life planned out, but you know it just doesn't happen that way. If you have any ideas, suggestions, or organizations to look into I'm very open to them.

I thank you all for being so supportive and I appreciate the prayers. If you need to talk about your upcoming plans I feel like listening is one of my talents and would love to sit and help you out.

I am a soundboard.

Potterized

After two long nights, I can now say that I have watched all of the Harry Potters that have been made. I was so lucky to have a another person watching them with me or I probably wouldn't get them done, thanks Jenn. So the picture above is how I feel, I'm a Star Wars kinda guy but I just couldn't really stop watching the Potter movies because they were fun, looked good, and had good stories.

What I really enjoyed were a couple things that Dumbledore said; I'd like to share these with you:

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that."

"The truth is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution."

"It is our choices Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

"You think the dead we loved ever truly leave us? You think we don’t recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble?"

As cheesy as it is for me to put these quotes up, I feel like these are all quotes that we need to remember while we live our daily lives. I feel like people dwell so much on bad times or things of the future that we do indeed forget to live the present times. I know I have done this, especially with our upcoming Spring Break and Europe trips.

Truth, its a great thing but also something very destructive. I am trying to be more truthful, I have sadly been lying lately about petty things for no reason. Very odd. Some may say that I am now the "New Bobby Hall" but I feel like I have a ways before this occurs.

The last quote that I want to talk about is the one about choices; in a couple of my screenwriting and scriptwriting classes we talk about characters revealing who their true selves are through their actions and decision-making. I am constantly reminded of this especially when people try to get me to do things that is out of my "character". But also, we may get caught up in our abilities and knowledge and forget about who we really are.

We are who we are, except when we lie.

"Playing for Pizza"

Today I finished John Grisham's newest book, "Playing for Pizza." It was about an NFL quarterback who basically became the biggest goat in football history. His team was ahead and the starting QB was injured so Rick, the main character, came in and threw interception after interception until his team lost their lead and the AFC championship. He got hit real bad giving him a third concussion.

He awoke in the hospital: the lowest time in his life. No team wanted him, fans were angered and hostile, friends...well he didn't really have any friends, and his agent was trying to get him off his hands.

His agent finally found him a QB opportunity in Parma a small town in Northern Italy and the rest of the book talks about how he grudgingly went and played, but fell in love with the people, food, the game, and of course a girl.

As I was reading this, I was just captured with every page with the description of the food, cathedrals and attractions, as well as the passion that the Italian players had for football (they weren't paid to play). This book didn't really have a real profound meaning to me, but it really opened my eyes to how important it is to make the best of your situation even when it seems like it can't get any worse. Also that sometimes we have to self-sacrifice to bring about good to others. I don't want to ramble on giving a synopsis of the book, but this has really gotten me excited for our trip to Europe this summer and is making me want to travel more and more.

Back to the basics

I have been back to school for basically 2 days now and we're back to the same o' same o' activities: jamming whenever we want, laying around reading, listening to music in the living room, and our favorite: roaming around campus looking for mischief to get into.

Tonight Cork, Andrew, and I went strolling around campus trying to find the "good golf cart" so we went to search around and in environmental services but in the meanwhile we were walking there, Cork with a butane lighter lit an old Christmas tree on fire and it started blazin like crazy! He gave it the old "two kick" try to put it out but it was so dry that it quickly started chuggin out the fire. We left it alone until it went out.

We then went into the ES (Environmental Services) garage and hung out in the athletic bus, but got spooked and left. We then went around campus trying to find it but we had no luck, but did indeed find a great new "mobile" that we are planning on modifying. You will all have to just wait and see; if done then it will be hilarious.

This is all I have. I just want to say that I am very excited to be back at school and can't wait to see the others who aren't here yet.

See you all soon.

Headed Back

Tomorrow I make the great trek from Alaska to Idaho; I am very excited to go back, but a little sad to leave at the same time. Even though I was all packed and ready to go since yesterday afternoon and sitting around bored for a good portion of the break, I still enjoyed my time here with my dad and Brigid, Mike, Becca, Nick (the little that we were together), and others.

I don't have much to say, but I know I will be back home sometime during the summer. I will miss the frozen lake, Matty and Jerry, as well as the Hamblen's next door.

I arrive back to Idaho around 9:30a.m. and will hope and pray that one of my great roommates will find it in their hearts to come and pick me up anywhere between the times of 9:30-noon (that's what Andrew said to me). I wish Matt luck traveling, I can't remember when he was heading back. It'll be good to see everyone soon.

A new semester; a new adventure.