City Lights

Fall

2011-10-24T10:43:00.005-06:00

I finally have a little downtime to post something. I didn't realize that it's been five months since my last post! Not too much has been going on, really. I have been staying busy with work, and I try to find a little bit of time each week to do some photography. I am working on a time lapse project that I will post on here once it is finished, but until then, here are a few pictures.

On Shoreline Trail -- a friend and I decided to go on a little photo walk through Millcreek Canyon and then up on Shoreline Trail.

In Millcreek Canyon -- apparently this part was actually private property (owned by the Boy Scouts), but there weren't any signs and the gates were open.

Another leaf--I was goofing off with the color hues between these two leaves, trying to see which style I liked better

Alpine Loop, looking towards Sundance.

John Deere tractor in Winnemucca, Nevada. I still need to send my sister a print of this one...

Taylorsville Days -- I wish I would have gone back about ten minutes later, when the lights on the Ferris wheel came on.

Going Home

2011-05-18T22:22:00.006-06:00

As my brother and I drove up to the house, I thought that it was a good day. Dark clouds hovered over the valley, and the forecast called for rain. But off to the west over the lake, the clouds ended abruptly. The sun was setting triumphantly, seeming to mock the clouds with its glory. We were going to visit my grandfather, my abuelito. I secretly wished that he would pass away that evening, that his suffering would end and that I could hold on to the memory of that sunset as the day Guelito died.

We went around the house and came in through the downstairs. The door creaked loudly, and a dozen faces turned to look at us. Many of them were teary-eyed, and a few gave us a half-smile, a type of “Good to see you, glad you could make it,” even though we all would have liked to be reuniting under better circumstances.

Our parents were at the head of Guelito’s bed, and we moved our way through hugs and handshakes until we reached them. Dad is a doctor, and it was nice to know that he was there--I think a lot of people appreciated having him there, giving a few words of medical advice and helping everyone know a little of what was going on.

My grandmother Guelita was also at the head of the bed, holding Guelito’s hand. She would lean over occasionally to talk to him and kiss him on the forehead. Several boxes of tissues and a wastebasket were close-by, ready for anyone that might need them. The wastebasket was already halfway full of wadded up tissues and sanitary wipes.

After hugging Guelita and my parents, I finally got a good look at Guelito. His eyes were closed, and his mouth hung slightly open. Tubing carried oxygen into his nose, but the few breaths he was taking were going through his mouth. He was chain-stoking--that’s what my dad called it. Two or three big breaths, followed by few shallow breaths. I had to look it up to know that it was a cycle of breathing often associated with heart failure, as the body fluctuates between apnea and hyperpnea.

I patted his shoulder and kissed him on the head, and he continued to lay motionless. After visiting with everyone for a little while, my brother and I passed through another round of hugs and handshakes and drove home.

I set my phone next to my bed, fully expecting to receive a phone call sometime in the night with the news of Guelito’s passing. The next morning, Tuesday, I ran upstairs and turned my phone on and off, just to make sure I didn’t miss any messages. Guelito was still there.

I drove to work in a rainstorm. The clouds from the day before had continued moving in, and everything was gray and dreary. When I was just a few minutes away from work, it started to snow. In May. I secretly wished that Guelito wouldn’t pass away that day, that I could have a better memory of his passing than some freak snow flurry in late spring.

The snow reminded me of New York City, and remembering the city made me remember when my Guelito almost passed away. I had been in New York City the previous summer working on my master’s degree. Guelito had another bout of poor health and ended up in the hospital, and the phone calls from my mom and dad let me know that he was expected to pass away at any time. I told my manager there in New York about what was going on, and that I might need to step out to take a phone call. She asked if I wanted to take the day off of work. I thought about it for a brief moment, but I turned down the offer. Most of my family was back in Utah, and there wasn’t anything for me to do if I was just at my apartment by myself. A few hours later I received a phone call from my mom, and I started getting choked up even before I answered. I stepped into the break area, and my mom said, “Here’s Guelito. Tell him you love him.” I managed to force the words out, and I heard him saying something in return. My mom had to translate the Spanish. “He said, ‘I love you too,’ and he’s going home. He’s going home...” I ran to the nearest bathroom and cried for several minutes, trying to get it all out. I washed my face and went back to work, and my manager asked me again if I wanted to take the day off. I shook my head, insisting that I needed to stay busy.

That night was one of the worst nights I have ever experienced, and I haven’t told many people about it. I had my cell phone close at hand, waiting for the final call. I lived by myself in a studio apartment there in New York, and being all alone got the better of me. I became emotional in a way that I never knew was possible. I sobbed uncontrollably for more than an hour, and at times it felt like I was hyperventilating. I remember sitting on the edge of my bed with my feet on the floor, rocking back and forth and hugging my shoulders, wishing more than anything for someone to comfort me.

And then he went and got better! I still don’t know whether his telling me that he was “going home” meant that he was dying, or whether it meant that he was actually getting better and leaving the hospital.

That was last summer, and this time felt different. He wasn’t going to get better.

Tuesday night, it was my turn to stay by his bedside. Everyone expected him to pass that night, and I was secretly terrified. How often do I need to check on him, how will I know, who do I wake up, who do I call? And worst of all, what if I go through all that and I make a mistake? What if he’s still there, and I’m causing a fuss waking everyone up and making everyone emotional for a false alarm?

Guelita wanted to stay with him throughout the night, but people talked her out of it. Dad told her, “We have one sick person, and we don’t need two...” I don’t remember who it was, but somebody talked her into at least leaving Guelito to take a shower. After getting cleaned up, Guelita realized how tired she really was and finally decided to go to bed.

One of my aunts and one of my cousins decided to stay up, and what a blessing that was. It was nice having someone to talk to, but above all, I knew that I wasn’t alone. If Guelito passed during the night, there would be somebody else there, and I would be okay. We talked throughout the night, pausing every once in awhile when we heard a hesitation in Guelito’s breathing. Was that it? Is he gone? But his breathing would continue, and we’d continue talking--whispering, really. It was an unspoken agreement that we would all speak in hushed tones, as if Guelito were only sleeping and we didn’t want to wake him...

His breathing grew shallower as the night wore on. My aunt kept telling me that I could go ahead and rest, that Guelito still had another few hours at least, but I didn’t want to leave. I reached under the blanket and held his hand for awhile. Early in the morning, he started to grow restless. He would pull his hand away and try to raise himself up, as if he were trying to move himself. We wanted to roll him a little, to let him rest on a different side, but my aunt said she wasn’t supposed to move him unless he’d been given morphine--and we didn’t have the morphine. So we sat there throughout the night, wincing whenever he would moan and try to move himself, the furrows in his brow indicating that he was in some pain.

When morning came, morphine was finally administered. Before he had slipped into unconsciousness, he had told others that he didn’t want to be given any morphine. We felt that a balance was reached between honoring his wishes and not letting him suffer. At 6:00am, I went out to buy bagels and muffins. I was groggy from being up all night, but I wanted the chance to just be by myself for little while. My aunt stayed with Guelito, and she gave me directions to the nearest bakery.

It was raining again when I stepped outside, but I ignored it. I didn’t have an umbrella, and I can’t control the weather, so what’s the use making a fuss about something that is out of your hands?

More aunts and uncles showed up, and with everyone else around, I knew that I could leave. I was exhausted from all of the emotional and physical turmoil, and I decided to rest for a little while before heading back home. Maybe that’s what Guelito was doing, lying there in his bed during his final moments. He’d had a long and fulfilling life, and after all that, maybe he just wanted to rest before finally going home.

I got back to my apartment and fell asleep immediately. I didn’t hear when my roommates got home, or when my brother walked into the room after he got back from work. The only thing I heard was the phone call that woke me up a few minutes after 5:00pm--he was gone.

I stepped outside to get better reception as I called my sisters to let them know. It was still raining, but it was a good day; it was the day Guelito went home.

Going home. That’s the name of the song that they want playing during a video presentation at his funeral. My uncle’s going to give me the pictures, and I’m going to work on creating a slideshow with one of my cousins. I found another song to use as well. It’s a lullaby. I think the two songs will go well together; one speaks of going home, and the other about sleeping peacefully.

Come to me, O child beloved,
Eyes of wonder softly close,
Tiny hand release my finger,
Weary head receive repose.
Sleep, and love arises in me,
Waking hope till joy o'erflows.
Lead me, little child so tender,
To the place I long to go.

Rest in me, O child beloved,
May thy sweet dreams never cease:
Till I hear around us winging
Seraphs singing heavenly peace.
Then I'll walk through night and shadow
By the light that shines in thee,
Flowing as a stream forever
To the blessed, fruitful Tree.
Singing heavenly peace forever.
Sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep.

Festival of Colors

2011-04-03T21:36:00.003-06:00

I finally got around to posting these pictures here, even though this all happened last week. I went down to the Festival of Colors with my brother and some friends. The festival is held every year to kind of usher in spring, and it involves throwing a ton of colored chalk around. We showed up, threw some chalk, walked around for a few minutes, and then went to get something to eat. I think we only stayed for twenty to thirty minutes or so. But hey, I'd never done it, even though TONS of people from BYU go each year. Anyway, so here are some pictures--

This is me just before getting into the car. The gray shirt over my should was the one I had been wearing the whole time, so this is my second layer of clothes.

Andrea, shortly after the chalk started getting thrown around

My bro

Our group--we did try to clean up before going to the restaurant, but we still looked pretty bad. I feel bad for the white tablecloth at our table...

Ian

My brother's hands, overlooking the festival

After the festival

Right when they started the color throwing--I had my camera inside a ziploc bag, with electrical tape sealing up every opening. Only the front of the lens was exposed, and I even put a SECOND ziploc bag over everything. I'm glad I did, because there were quite a few cameras that got destroyed from all the dust--

The colors really are that flourescent

Junkyard

2011-03-22T21:52:00.006-06:00

My roommate recently bought a used car, but he wanted to get a few parts for it. He decided to take a trip to the junkyard, and I tagged along just to take a few pictures. It was kind of interesting just looking at all of the old cars, trying to picture what had happened.

Some cars looked like they had collided with a telephone pole, with the front part of the car completely twisted and deformed. Others looked like someone had died in them (okay, so some of the deployed airbags could have come from people hacking at the dashboard, stripping it for parts---it was still eerie though). One car looked like it had bullet holes through the windshield.

I just thought it was interesting, since it was only the second junkyard I've ever been to. This one was organized into rows, and you could look up on their online database which car model you're looking for. The only other junkyard I've been to was back in Georgia, and there was no organization whatsoever. That junkyard only had dirt roads that always seemed muddy, and cars were stacked one on top of the other and off to the side---anywhere there was room, really. And the "database" was the owner, who just knew which cars were on his lot, and he had a pretty good idea of what parts were still available. If you called on a slow day, he'd even strip out the parts you needed for the chance of earning a tip.

And my roommate decided to dress like a hobo for the occasion, which meant wearing 3D glasses just for the heck of it.

I just found the junkyard to be both unsettling and fascinating. It was interesting to see people finding a mini treasure trove of parts that they needed, but on another level, it almost feels like legalized grave robbing (not that I would know what grave robbing feels like...although we did stumble upon an old slave graveyard out in the woods in Georgia. One of the graves was open, and we could see a skeleton inside. We kept daring each other to climb in--nobody did, but it still makes for a random icebreaker in a conversation to throw that out there).

Lighting Class

2011-03-03T23:03:00.005-07:00

So I just got back from a creative lighting workshop at Pictureline, and it was a blast. The workshop was led by Paul Van Allen, a Nikon rep who travels the country, teaching people how to use their Nikon gear. I was never a fan of flash photography, simply because I always felt that it was too harsh, washing out details and looking unnatural--well after tonight, I have completely changed my mind. Paul taught us how to set our cameras to trigger wireless flashes, and then we actually got hands on experience going to different stations. Each of the pictures below were ones that I took, but they are all based on lighting set-ups and compositions that Paul has displayed on his flickr account. The only exception was the water drop--that was taken with a camera that was already set up on a tripod (I believe that camera was a D300s), and I just had to put my memory card in. I still had to time the picture just right though. Anyway, here are the pictures--

The paint brush was clamped to a wooden dowel, with a bucket of lime green paint underneath. Right before taking the picture, you simply lift the bucket up to the brush to get the angle, and then time the shot to get a nice drip. I missed getting a drop of paint suspended in the air, but I still thought it was pretty cool.

Gumballs

Everyone was trying to get a perfectly suspended drop of water, but the line at this station was starting to get backed up. So I settled for this shot instead--I kind of like how the water is glassy smooth instead of rippling the way you normally see with shots of water droplets.

We all loved this station. And once you know how to do it, all sorts of possibilities just start to open up--I'm going to have a lot of fun with this stuff...

Sugar House - Time Lapse

2011-02-27T22:07:00.003-07:00

I shot this video in Sugar House Park this past Thursday. I wanted to try and take advantage of the cloudy skies for some flat lighting. Anyway, I'm just getting a feel for the video on my new camera--I'm pretty impressed with it so far, and I'm looking forward to working on some different projects throughout these upcoming weeks (and try something outside of Sugar House Park). Feel free to leave your comments.

Sugar House Park - Winter from Jon on Vimeo.

Shoreline Trail

2011-02-22T12:58:00.003-07:00

I was finally able to upload another time lapse test--this is from Shoreline Trail at the mouth of Emigration Canyon. And I apologize for the flicker...shooting a high contrast scene like that can cause some very tiny fluctuation in shutter speed with so many pictures, which produces a flicker when you play them back like this. Let me know what you think--

Shoreline Trail - time Lapse from Jon on Vimeo.

Valley

2011-02-12T21:28:00.004-07:00

I went out yesterday afternoon to try and do some more time lapse experiments. I started heading up Emigration Canyon, but then I saw Shoreline Trail and decided to just walk up there. It was really muddy, but there were a lot of people still jogging on the trail. I thought everything looked great in-camera, and I didn't realize that you could get so much flicker while shooting time lapse--I'm still trying to read up on how to prevent that in the future.

Anyway, I'll post the time lapse test once it's finished uploading, but in the meantime, here's a picture I took while I was heading back down the trail. The temperature dropped a good 25 degrees or so once the sun went down, and I was in a bit of a rush to get back to my car. But I saw this tree with Salt Lake City behind it, and I figured it wouldn't hurt to take a quick picture. Luckily my camera was still on my tripod, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to set anything up since my hands were completely numb from the cold. Enjoy.

Time Lapse Test

2011-02-05T17:17:00.004-07:00

Well the job hunt is still on-going, but I'm hoping something will come up soon. I've been applying and turning in resumes, and I've had a couple of interviews. Some of the places weren't hiring immediately though and won't be making a decision until the 2nd week in February. I'm not just sitting around waiting for them to call me back, but it would be nice to least know for sure...

In other news, I've been having a lot of fun with my new camera. Just recently I did some time lapse tests, and I tried to post the video here, but I don't know if it will load right or not. It was just of some geese down in Sugar House Park. I set my camera up to take a picture every three seconds, and then decided to play it back at eight frames a second. So nothing spectacular going on, just a few things moving in and out of the frame, but I'm still learning how to do it. Let me know what you guys think (or better yet, leave suggestions of something you would like to see done in time lapse...). And the clip should be able to play full-screen, but if not, click on the "vimeo" button.

Sugar House - Time Lapse from Jon on Vimeo.

Some pictures, and The Sandpit

2011-01-26T17:44:00.008-07:00

Okay, just a quick post for now. I'm still job hunting, but something will come up. I had a couple of interviews, but both places are still evaluating different people--actual hiring won't occur for another week or two, so I'm not sure if I'd even be offered a job at those places. And I try to keep busy working on projects and some photography. Just a couple of pictures below--

Busy, busy, busy -- I messed up taking this picture and didn't blur the ground enough, so the background is really distracting. I decided to have fun with it anyway and ran it through the "Creative - Split Tone 4" preset in Lightroom. I thought the warning label was interesting, seeing as how I didn't even know it was there until I loaded the picture up on my computer screen.

Same park, different swingset. That's about it.

Again, another picture with a busy background. The tree on the left just makes the picture feel crowded to me.

But here's something that is far more interesting. This is a short film called "The Sandpit" by a photographer named Sam O'Hare. It looks like it was all shot with miniatures, but it is just the way it was shot and processed that makes it look that way. He shot it entirely with a still camera, taking pictures at 4 frames per second, and then he edited it together afterwards (I believe he mentioned in an interview that he took around 35,000 pictures just for this project...). To get the full effect, click "Play" and then hit the full-screen button (it looks like square made up of four arrows pointing away from each other)--it should play in HD. Watch until the end--the whole thing is just fascinating.

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

Hi-res

2011-01-16T20:01:00.001-07:00

Hmm, for some reason the other post didn't let you click to see a hi-res image for the two pictures below. Hopefully this post works--

New York --> Utah

2011-01-16T17:28:00.012-07:00

Talk about a hectic semester. After looking at my situation there in New York, I came to the decision that I had to move back to Utah once I finished my master's program. I decided this in the last week or so of November...and I finished my classes in December. So the last month was extremely chaotic, trying to balance school, work, and moving. I was also in the middle of applying to Ph.D. programs. On top of that, I started dating someone in the first part of December, and I was trying to find a way to spend time with her with everything else that was going on.

Anyway, I survived. And I hope I never have to pull another all-nighter ever again...Things got so rushed near the end that I had to pull four all-nighters back-to-back (I do NOT recommend this by any means). But it's over and done now. I've moved back to Utah, and I'm just waiting to hear back from the various Ph.D. programs (I'm looking for work in the meantime). At least I have time now to actually take some pictures and update my blog.

A passenger leaving the subway at Columbus Circle. I think it's interesting how this picture came out. I didn't have a tripod with me, so I had my camera propped up on a railing. I wanted to try and isolate a single person right as they were heading up the stairs. Even though this was at the end of the workday, to me it seems as if this man is just getting ready to face the city again.

Columbus Circle again.

Right by my parent's house. I was just testing out my new camera. If I could take the picture again, I would have tried to frame out all of the houses and the fence. But whatever--I didn't want to go tromping through someone's yard just to get closer.

Again, just testing out my new camera. I really like the amount of detail it can pick up (if you zoom in, you can see all of the paint flecks and pits on the hydrant's surface)

This is literally right in front of my new house in Salt Lake City. Sure, there have been countless images of trees silhouetted against a sunset--I just haven't done any myself :)

And yesterday I went up to Red Butte Gardens just above the University of Utah. It was interesting how the garden was still fun to walk around in, even though everything was brown and decaying.

Red Butte Gardens again

Last one from Red Butte Gardens. I'll have to head back in the spring/summer, when everything is in bloom. There was just something appealing about a dead garden--

Anyway, leave a comment and let me know what you think. I should be able to keep this more up to date without an insane amount of deadlines--

Vacation

2010-09-04T20:55:00.005-06:00

Okay, so this past week I was able to visit my family and some friends back in Utah. It was a much needed break before school starts up. I've just been working over the summer, but after falling into the frantic routine of subway, work, subway, errands, subway, and so on, I just needed a break from the city.

And I had a blast in Utah. I got to see one of my sisters and her kids, and we ended up taking a trip on the Heber Valley Railroad. We went from Heber all the way down through the Provo Canyon until Vivian Park. Along the way, we got to relax and enjoy the sights in the canyon, the Deer Creek Reservoir, and the train also got stopped by horse-riding "outlaws" (ha, one of my nieces even was taken as a "hostage").

I also hung around in Provo for a day, and it was kind of surreal. It made me miss going to school there, and it made me appreciate more the good times I had there. New York is fun and all, but it's different in that everyone is so spread out--you can't just rely on the apartment complex circle-of-friends in Provo. It was fun catching up with some people that I hadn't seen in years, and just walking around the campus and the bookstore.

I'll try and post some more tomorrow, but I'm pretty tired right now--it was a long day rushing home from work just in time to catch the last half of the BYU football game...

Here's a few pictures from the trip (mainly of some of my nieces and nephews)--

Yeah, the framing is just like the famous "American Gothic" painting, but this picture still made me laugh

Julia -- we were in a cemetery so my sister could look up some of her husband's ancestors, and I got to watch the baby. Which meant I just put her on the ground and let her play in the pinecones and dirt

Debbie--she looks really sad in this picture, but she was actually really enjoying the train ride. I think she was a little tired, as this was after being on the train for nearly two hours

Sara

Eve being taken "hostage" by the train robbers

And the train itself -- yes, the sky really was that blue, and you can see the mountains and stuff in the background.

I'll keep digging through my pictures and see what else I can post tomorrow--

Tilt-shift

2010-08-01T21:31:00.005-06:00

Okay, I've had a crazy couple of weeks, but I'm finally getting caught back up with everything. I took the comprehensive exam that is required for my master's program, and that was a bit of a nightmare. I was given one week to write two ten-page papers, but my dad was in town for the first couple of days, and then I had work. I started working on the papers on a Monday evening, and they were due Friday afternoon. Between Monday and Friday, I was getting maybe two hours of sleep a night, and then I pulled an all-nighter from Thursday to Friday to get everything done (don't forget, I still had work while all this was going on). But I was able to get everything turned in on time, and I feel pretty good about it. Ha, and to show you where my priorities are, immediately after turning in my paper, my second thought was that I should go home and sleep. I mean, on the subway ride down, I nodded off three different times for a few brief seconds, but I was paranoid that I was going to miss my stop and end up in Brooklyn. But my FIRST thought after turning in the exam was, "Hey, I'm just a few blocks away from the bookstore."

So I went to the bookstore. It was one of those good idea/bad idea situations. It was good in that I was able to just relax for a bit and not worry about anything, but it was a bad idea because I almost passed out at the bookstore (trust me, I know the feeling---thanks Pere. And for those of you that don't know, the count is currently in double digits for how many times I've been knocked out, with about half of them involving incidents with my brother).

And I had my birthday this past week. It was a lot of fun. Some friends and I went to the Shake Shack, and it was a joint event because another friend was moving to Utah the next day. We ended up having around thirty-five people show up. After ordering all of our food and stuff, we decided to eat outside, and it was one of those perfect evenings: mid-70s, slight breeze, and and we were sitting right next to a fountain just outside of the Museum of Natural History.

This past week, another friend took off, so a group of us went walking around down in the Financial District. I kept getting left behind because I was trying to take pictures. At one point, I saw a giant American flag hung across the front of a building, and I thought that was pretty cool. About an hour or so later, we went walking past the same building and I realized that it was the New York Stock Exchange. I tried not to let everyone know that I was completely clueless about the various historical sites around us, but it was still a lot of fun. Things eventually led to one of those awkward moments. My friend Molly was leaving the city the very next day, so she was trying to finish getting rid of various things. She asked if I wanted some rolling storage drawers, and I figured I could probably use them. So she said, "I guess that means you're going to have to come home with me tonight." .... Yeah, everyone was laughing pretty hard with that one. Oh, and I also I got to try out my birthday present as we were all walking around--it's a tilt-shift lens that I have been having entirely way too much fun with. Some pictures below--

Just outside the Shake Shack

While we were eating dinner -- kind of random, but whatever

Molly --

Neesha -- this lens makes for some interesting portraits because of the way it blurs parts of the image

Also outside of the Shake Shack, waiting for everyone to show up

Anyway, don't forget to leave some comments--

Piano on the Pier

2010-06-30T13:34:00.003-06:00

Things have been going pretty well this past week or so. I started training at my new job, and I'm really enjoying it. Even if I don't know what I'm supposed to do yet, I'm trying to learn as quickly as possible. A large part of my day yesterday involved answering the phones, stating the company name, and then asking the person how I could help them. I just kept writing down everything they talked about, and at a good opportunity I'd politely ask them to wait while I put them on hold. As soon as I put the phone down, I'd just explain to the closest manager what the person needed, and they'd tell me what to do after that. It seemed to work well enough, and the customers didn't seem to know that their customer service rep (me) was completely clueless.

I also found a couple of the pianos for the "Play Me, I'm Yours" art project here in the city. I know I mentioned it in my last post, but I still think it's really interesting. There are around sixty pianos scattered throughout the city in parks and plazas, and me and some of my friends came across one on the pier by 72nd Street (towards the Hudson River). It was a lot of fun just listening to different people play in public. Skill level didn't matter. Several elementary school kids wanted to play Chopsticks and Heart & Soul, while another guy performed a 15 minute jazz improv. And yes, I got to play for a little bit too. It was fun, but I wish I could remember my songs better--I completely forgot the last half of two different songs.

Josh -- you can see how close to the river it is, and how random people just stop and listen

And kind of a funny story. I feel bad about it now, but it was still pretty funny (my sarcastic side came out very unexpectedly...). It was a girl's birthday this past Friday, so a group of us went out to this one restaurant for cheesecake. The girl just turned 27, and all of us hung out and talked for awhile. I got home a little after midnight, and when I got on Facebook, I saw that the birthday girl was online. So just being dumb, I was like, "Do you realize now you're closer to turning 54 than you are to your birth?" Immediately after sending the message, I was like, "WHY did I just say that?"

The next day, I was watching the soccer game at a friend's house when the birthday girl walked in. The very first thing she said was "Jon called me old on my birthday." Of course everyone wanted to know what happened, and I put up a very poor defense ("It wasn't her birthday when I said it..."). We were all laughing about it. Well, a little later, I was trying to tell a story, and this girl just said, "I'm sorry, what?" I started the story again, and she stopped me again, saying, "What'd you say?" I tried telling the story a third time, and she was like, "You'll have to speak up, I'm getting a little hard of hearing." ---Yeah, she got me pretty good with that one, and once again everyone was laughing.

Later that night, I had a group of people over to watch a movie, and she came over as well. At one point she made some comment (I can't remember what it was), and then she said, "Oh, I shouldn't say that--I'm being rude." Without missing a beat (and apparently, without thinking), I said, "That's okay, old people have a right to complain." ....Once again, I was just like, "WHY ON EARTH did I just say that?!"

I think it would only make it worse to mention that this is a girl I took out on a date last week...Anyway, I will really be trying to be careful about making sarcastic comments. Sure, people might laugh about it, and they know you're not being serious, but there's a reason you feel bad after making a comment like that.

End of the job hunt

2010-06-22T22:14:00.003-06:00

Just a brief post for now. I got a job! A friend of mine mentioned that his company was hiring, so I figured I better submit an application. I thought the interview went okay, but not great. I left thinking, "Well, maybe something else will come through." So imagine my surprise when I got off the subway a little while later to hear a voicemail extending me the job. And yes, I did call them back, and it wasn't a fluke. I have an orientation meeting tomorrow, and it looks like I'll probably start next week. It's for a company called West Elm, which is part of Williams Sonoma Inc. It should help me get through grad school.

To relax/celebrate, I decided to do a random photo-walk through Riverside Park. I was really wanting to get down to the 140th Street area, because of this: http://www.streetpianos.com/nyc2010/ I thought it would make for some fun photo opportunities, and I also thought I might play a song or two. Why not? I almost made it down there, but the walk was a little farther than I was expecting. I wasn't tired or anything, it was more the fact that the sun was going down and it was starting to rain. I'll try again on Thursday. I did manage to find a couple of other things along the way--

I'm still trying to train my eye to look at things tonally. I really love black & white photography, but I'm still trying to get the hang of it. Out of about 30 pictures that were "supposed" to be b&w, only two or three looked right desaturated. And then only one of them felt comfortable as a composition. I need to practice more

It was a pain trying to get this shot. I didn't have a tripod with me, and I was trying to find a happy medium in shutter speeds so that the water had a motion blur while the rest of the image stayed sharp. But it was late in the day and the sky was overcast, which meant that I had to use a slow shutter speed (I think this was around 1/40 or 1/50). Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but I was also shooting at f/2.2. I kept shaking while I took the picture, and the depth of field was so narrow that I kept getting one bad picture after another. This was the best of that set, but it's still a touch soft

Sailing

2010-06-20T19:20:00.005-06:00

Not too much has really been happening these past couple of weeks. I've been trying to find a job here in the city, which has been interesting to say the least. It's been pretty tough, but something will come through. I had an informal interview on Thursday that I thought went pretty well, and they said they would let me know by Monday or Tuesday. I'll keep applying wherever can though.

Aside from applying for jobs, I've been having fun catching some World Cup games here and there. Some of the games were pretty boring (England-Algeria, 0-0 draw...), while others were really exciting. Of course I'm talking mainly about the USA-Slovenia game. And what a game it was! I almost stopped watching at halftime. The USA played a pretty miserable first half, and found themselves down 2-0. I'm glad I decided to finish watching the game though, because it turned out to be an exciting comeback that ended in a 2-2 draw (and who says draws are boring?!). Sure, everyone still thinks the last goal should have counted (if you've seen any highlights whatsoever, you already know what I'm talking about...the potentially game-winning goal with just four minutes left to play that was disallowed by the ref), but aside from that, it was still a fun game to watch.

And yesterday I went sailing for the first time. A good friend of mine (i.e., my bishop) is part of a sailing club, and he invited several of us to go sailing out in Echo Bay/Long Island Sound. We had a blast. I enjoyed everything about it: the sights along the coastline (the Bayer House, as in Bayer Aspirin; the Gatsby house; Executioner's Rock, etc.), coasting along with just the wind, admiring the multi-million dollar yachts that passed by, and just goofing off with everyone (word of advice: don't tell a group of guys you need to be back by a certain time 'cause you're taking a girl out on a date...a large part of the conversation on the four-hour trip revolved around questions like, "What's her name? Where's she from? What's she doing in the city? Where are you going on your date? Where are you going on your second date? Oh, so you're taking her there? Here's what you do: take her out to eat at restaurant overlooking the river...the sun will be setting over the river about that time...it'll be a great view...after you guys are done eating, sit on a bench overlooking the river, hold her hand and cuddle..." And so on, and so on---good times).

I even got to steer the boat for awhile, even though I gave everyone a good scare several times...I kept getting things mixed up as to how to turn the boat left and right, resulting in some very sharp, unexpected turns which caused everyone on the boat to jump to their feet. I couldn't tell if they were trying to avoid the boom swinging across the deck, or if they were ready to jump out of the boat. One of my friends was commenting that it was just surprising to be coasting along, only to feel the boat start to swerve drastically and his elbow is all of a sudden in the water...But it was a lot of fun (for me anyway. Of course, that does explain why several people were feeling queasy afterwards, while I was feeling just fine).

And they did get me back in time for my date.

Matt -- one of the first comments I made as soon as we started sailing was to bring up the obligatory What About Bob? quote: "I'm sailing!...I sail, I'm a sailor...ahoy!"

Me taking a turn at the till -- with the previously mentioned sharp turns, I'm still surprised my camera didn't end up in the water

Me and Matt

Jordan and Mike

Jordan -- I forget why he had such an intense look on his face

Erik

Me goofing off, trying to be artistic -- I was taking more snapshots throughout the day, not worrying about composition and everything. Come to think of it, I only took two or three of the pictures in this post because we just kept passing the camera around

Cheeseburger

2010-05-19T13:43:00.002-06:00

Okay, so I was out running errands with my dad, and we had just made our last stop. He told me to call mom to see if she wanted us to pick up some lunch on the way home. Well, she had actually just finished making some stuff for us, so we were just going to head home. However, as soon as I hung up, my dad laughs and says, "You still want a cheeseburger, don't you?" This is really his way of saying, "I'm hungry now, so let's get a dollar cheeseburger and if mom asks about anything, I'll just say you were hungry...."

Yeah, we caved in and got two small cheeseburgers on the way home. We pull up into the driveway, and my dad laughs again and says, "Great! Now trash goes in the bag, we hide the evidence, and don't tell Mom!" That got me laughing, because whenever he would say, "Don't tell mom!" growing up, it usually meant we had done something pretty bad (setting something on fire, ruining a meal, someone got hurt, and the list could go on). So I was having a really hard time keeping a straight face walking in the door, and I would have been fine, except the first thing my dad says walking inside was, "Boy, I'm starving!"

I don't know, something about the way he said it, and the sneaky way we were trying to put the trash in the garbage can without making a noise---I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing (I have a terrible poker face...). Even during the prayer over the meal, I could hear my dad laughing silently about the whole thing. Sure, it was just a cheeseburger, but at the time it was the funniest thing to me.

I've been laughing a lot with my parents these past couple of days. I was remembering all of these random events from growing up in Georgia, and I'm just realizing more and more that I didn't have a "normal" childhood (normal maybe for the South, but boy do my friends act surprised that I'm still alive with all the crazy stuff I used to do). Just one story will do for now (and this isn't just me...my siblings and I believe some of my cousins were there for this incident...I think it was the Cutlers, but I'm not sure). My mom was out running some errands, leaving us kids alone in the house. We started playing around with a superball in the living room, just throwing it against the brick fireplace and bouncing it around a little. I can't remember who suggested it, but someone pointed up at the ceiling fan. So we proceeded to throw the ball up into the fan (which was at its highest setting) and laugh hysterically as it ricocheted off the walls. We continued doing this for a little while (15 minutes? 30 minutes?). But then the inevitable happened---the superball shot off and hit a picture hanging on the wall. Of course, this was also the moment that my mom was just pulling into the driveway...Thinking quickly, my older siblings and some of my cousins took the picture off the wall, pulled all of the broken glass out, and then hung it back up.

It was a good three or four years before my mom ever found out. She always had us kids do the dusting in the living room, and it's not like we were going to just outright say, "There ain't any glass in this picture here!"

Summer Vacation

2010-05-06T19:07:00.006-06:00

I finally finished all of my papers, and I can now relax for a little bit. This semester actually went a lot better than the last one. I was able to sleep for a few hours here and there as I tried to finish all of my papers, and I'm pleased with the work I did. I'm going to start looking for a job in the next few weeks, which should be a pretty interesting experience here in the city.

And as for other stuff, I had quite a few "not at BYU anymore" moments this past semester, most of which were pretty funny. One week in my Television History class, we watched an episode of the Smothers Brothers. At one point, one of the characters said "s***" which was a big thing that kind of slipped through the censors (ironic, since we were talking about how an entire portion of the episode was cut at the last second because of its anti-Vietnam stance). The following week, we were discussing the episode in class, and one girl asked, "Now, did anyone else hear the word s*** during the episode?" Someone else chimed in, "No, nobody said s***." Even the professor remarked, "Hmm...I'm not sure if someone said s***. That's kind of a big thing to slip by the censors."

Well, I remembered exactly where the word had been said because it was so out of place with the rest of the show. So I called out, "It was during the spoof on Bonanza. The guest star said the 's' word." .....There was an awkward silence in the room. Then the professor said, "Ooh...the 's' word." Everyone started laughing hysterically (myself included), which caused me to call out, "Sorry! I don't swear!" which led to even more fits of laughter from the class. And that's what I call a "not at BYU anymore" moment.

Anyway, here's a few pictures I was able to take before the semester got too crazy. I'll be taking some more now that I have some downtime, but these will have to do for now.

Five minutes away from my house, there's a small trail that walks alongside some railroad tracks. This fence is supposed to keep people out, and I just thought it was interesting

Riverside Park -- I have three different parks within walking distance of my apartment, and they each have their own unique quirks. This park led me right by the Little Red Lighthouse, which is apparently the last remaining lighthouse on Manhattan Island.

Riverside Park -- I was trying to get the bike riders to be just out of focus, but my hand slipped when I was about to take the picture. By the time I re-composed, the bike riders were already almost out of view. Oh well

This piece of grass is about ten square feet, and it is more than a hundred yards from the nearest apartment. Who was raking, and why did they just give up and leave the rake there?

Just some mailboxes across the street from Tisch

I didn't realize until just now that this picture has nausea-inducing saturation--I'll have to dial that down a bit, but I'm not worried about it now

Alex -- this picture was extremely difficult to take, just because he was moving around a lot as he was playing. I kind of like how his fingers are blurred from the motion, and just a tiny part of the strings is in focus

Inspector 42 -- Emmy Winner

2010-04-11T16:16:00.010-06:00

Last night, "Inspector 42" won two College Television Awards (aka, the student Emmys). It won the 1st Place Award for Drama, as well as the Directing award--I believe those went to my friends Lyvia Martinez (the producer) and Nathan Lee (the director). A huge congratulations to both of them! The film also won a Bronze Award for Excellence in the Craft of Filmmaking last year, which was for the outstanding cinematography of Derek Pueblo.

Nathan Lee -- on the set of Inspector 42

And I realized that I should probably talk a little bit more about the actual production. I am even going to post some behind-the-scenes pictures (I uploaded them onto Facebook last year, and I completely forgot to post any here on the blog).

As I said in my previous post, the shoot was extremely ambitious, but it paid off in the end. At the time, I just remember thinking how insane the production was going to be, and being on edge leading up to the shoot, wondering if everything was actually going to come together. And I was just the transportation coordinator--I could only imagine how nervous Nathan, Lyvia, Whitney (the production designer), and the rest of the key personnel must have been.

Just to give you an idea: the film is set in the 1950s, which required a lot of work to make everything feel authentic. The film follows a shirt inspector (hence the title, Inspector 42) who begins to use defective shirts to fill quotas. The shirts then cause havoc in the community, as loose threads get caught in machinery, on window ledges, and so on. This results in some serious repercussions with friendships, a romance, and the lives of the people around Inspector 42. It's a nice metaphor that is played subtly: how often do we have "loose threads" in our lives, little secrets that come back to hurt ourselves and those around us? Things unravel and tear apart, exposing the fragile creatures underneath.

Alexis Wardle - "Seamstress 61"

Notice the colors of the outfits here--the designers had to look at things tonally, trying to determine how things would translate to black and white

The film was shot for black and white. I don't know the exact workflow, but I believe it was shot on color film first and then desaturated in post-production (I think...I know they talked about it during the production meetings, but I wasn't absorbing every detail about the cinematography).

Now for the fun stuff. An entire shirt factory had to be created, involving shirts, sewing machines, workstations, and costumes for everyone (not to mention the background props like chalkboards and signs with the company goals/quotas). The scene also had to be carefully lit, especially since the camera would be moving around at times, weaving in and around the workstations, following the storage bins and racks as they moved around the factory.

One of the extras -- sadly, I can't remember his name

And as I said in my earlier post, an entire city block in downtown Salt Lake City had to be turned into the 1950s, which led to one of the craziest days of filming. The buildings themselves were already period-ready, but then cars needed to be brought in, some stationary, and others moving (that was my job, coordinating the cars). It required dozens and dozens of phone calls to track down classic car owners in the Utah area who would be willing to volunteer their time and vehicles (it was a student project after all--so apart from lunch and gas reimbursement, there wasn't much we could offer). On top of that, schedules had to be coordinated so that the cars showed up at a specific time, and hoping like crazy it didn't rain that day.

One of the classic cars -- a 1947 Ford Super Deluxe

One of the scenes also required a process trailer, where one of the antique cars would be loaded on a trailer, allowing the actor to play his part without having to actually worry about driving. We couldn't afford an actual process trailer, which sits low to the ground (one company had a trailer that came just six inches of the ground, with enough room for the camera to be placed around the vehicle). It would have cost around $700 for a single day, plus insurance, plus a police escort (the companies required a police presence to direct traffic).

Instead, we used a U-Haul trailer. It sat higher off the ground (around 20 inches, I believe), but Derek Pueblo worked some cinematographic magic to create the illusion that it sat lower. I will say too, there was a moment where my heart skipped a beat, when we were loading the antique car onto the trailer. As the car was being loaded onto the trailer, the actor that was driving (I was going to drive it, but I needed to focus on making it secure) accidentally gunned it a little too much. Imagine my sheer terror seeing a 1957 Ford Thunderbird ride up out of the wheel well, mere inches from sailing off the trailer. I don't know how it managed to stay on the trailer, but it did--we nervously laughed, secured the wheels, and kept right on shooting. We tried to get twelve cars, but only ended up with four (a fifth car--an antique police car--was used on a different day). Once again, with some careful placement and rearranging between shots, those few cars seemed to multiply.

Our process trailer -- that's me driving the truck. It was a narrow street, and after each take, we would back the entire rig up the street and do it again...Have you ever driven a trailer in reverse? Yeah, we did that again and again until we got the shot right--

There were actually two camera units filming for awhile on this particular day, because there was so much that needed to be covered. If I'm not mistaken, Nathan acted as both director and director of photography for one of the units, while James Alexander was 2nd unit director, with Derek Pueblo as DP for the 2nd unit (I think that's right...I might be slightly off on that). We even had an RV rented for the day to use as a wardrobe and makeup area, as well as the production office.

That same day, a car wreck needed to be simulated (scary...considering the antique cars we were working with). It required the crew to move to another part of the city, including the transportation of the RV, trucks, generators, and antique cars. I even got to drive the '57 Thunderbird for a couple of takes while the actor was changing wardrobe. Nathan's direction to me for the take: "Go tearing through the scene as fast you can..." Trust me, tearing through on that car was absolutely exhilarating.

After the car accident -- the haze is actually smoke billowing through the scene. I can't remember why fuller's earth wasn't used

Luke Drake - "Inspector 42"

And this is mostly detailing one particular production day. Hopefully that gives you an idea of the scope of this project, and how hard every single person had to work to pull it off. I know I posted it before, but still check out the trailer for the film on Youtube. Don't forget to leave some comments, especially if you happened to be involved in the production (feel free to say what you did, or describe some part of the production!).

Inspector 42

2010-04-03T08:26:00.003-06:00

Cool -- so a picture I took last year on the set of "Inspector 42" took seventh place in a weekly photo contest. I don't know how many people entered, but when I looked on Wednesday, there were 900+ entries.

Anyway, the blog was http://www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com . From their comment, it looks like they thought it was an engagement picture.

And I was really surprised this shot came out the way it did. It was really difficult to focus, because everyone was moving--the actors were moving towards me, while the extras were passing in front of me, and I was shooting wide open at f/1.8.

Anyway, the film was a student project done by several of my friends, but it was one of the most intense shoots I've been on. The film was shot in downtown Salt Lake, but the block we were on couldn't technically be "shut down." So the crew was having to deal with cars passing through the set occasionally, and it was a big shooting area. At one point, there were two camera crews filming different things simultaneously on the same block. The film follows a shirt inspector (aka, Inspector 42), who begins to use defective shirts to meet a quota. But then the defective shirts start wreaking havoc in the community...You can see a trailer for it here.

Like I said, it was a big project, but it was so much fun. I was in charge of transportation, which meant coordinating the vehicles for equipment, the crew, and parts of the cast. It also included driving an RV a couple of times (yes, an RV! It was a really big project), and coordinating all of the antique cars you see in the film.

Tunnel

2010-03-31T10:20:00.002-06:00

I just wanted to post this picture I took last night. I came across this ridiculously long subway entrance. The art on the walls may or may not be graffiti--I don't really know. Some parts of the tunnel had actual art sketches on the wall, but it blended in with the walls so well that you could barely see it. Anyway, the picture is slightly off-center. I was standing just left of the middle of the tunnel because there was a swarm of people right behind me and I was trying not to block the tunnel. But the lights weren't flush with the piping either, so it makes it look a little bit "off."

Rain

2010-03-29T22:33:00.004-06:00

The weather is starting to get a little nicer here in NYC, and I've been itching to take a lot of pictures. So in the past couple of weeks, I've taken somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 pictures. I did get a flickr account (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jon_foto if you're interested), and I've been having fun uploading. I think I've only been able to get like 25 pictures up (it takes awhile to upload), but I'll be trying to update it frequently.

So these are just a couple of pictures I took earlier today. The subway ran a little faster than normal, so I had half an hour to kill before class. I thought I'd take a stroll through Washington Square Park, since it tends to deserted whenever it rains.

I wanted to take some pictures of the chess tables, but that part of the park is closed due to construction. So I took some pictures of these benches instead. I've really been wanting to take more black & white pictures lately, and I'm trying to "train" my eye to see more tones and textures, and to work a little harder with composition.

So it's kind of random to show a picture of a half-eaten fruit, but I accidentally scared away the squirrel that had been happily feasting away--you can see some of the scraps on the bench from the squirrel had been eating.

Meh, just a bicycle. I was going to play around with composition a little more here, but I was standing in the rain and I was starting to get cold--

Sorry this post is kind of short--I'll be posting more later this week, and hopefully some more pictures. I don't have work for a week and a half because the middle school where I work is on spring break, so I'll have plenty of time to explore different parts of the city.

Spring Break

2010-03-21T20:31:00.013-06:00

Well, I don't know how much of a coincidence this really is, but I realized that the last time I wrote, BYU had just been beaten by TCU in football. And last night, the men's basketball team lost to Kansas State. I don't even know how the game was--as much of a fan of BYU as I am, I was actually watching Wicked on Broadway, 4th row. But hey, at least they made it past the first round.

I've really been enjoying my classes this semester. I'm still really busy with papers and assignments, but I feel like they're helping get a better grasp of the material. For instance, in Television History and Culture, I had to research a trade journal from 1957. This meant sifting through about 1500 pages worth of material, formulating a narrative based on my research, and then preparing a report on how the research could be helpful to historians. As nerdy as it sounds, I really enjoyed reading about the changes in the television industry during the 1950s, and how it rippled down through the decades to give birth to the cable and satellite broadcasting available today. As far back as the 1950s, people were theorizing about premium movie channels and sports stations that a user could subscribe to. Like I said, it's totally nerdy, but I'm still having a blast with it.

As for more recent stuff, my sister went on a mission to Rancagua Chile, my brother is here in the city visiting for the weekend, and I'm still trying to figure out the dating scene here (I was totally thrown off recently--a girl I had asked out met me at the restaurant, payed for herself, and then just got off the subway when her stop came up...I don't if that's just considered normal for NYC or not, but I feel like I failed with everything I'm used to: picking the girl up, paying for dinner, and then walking her back to her apartment).

On a side note, I finally submitted a story proposal to This American Life. I had made an audio documentary several years ago for a class at BYU (you can listen to it at this link http://www.handsonacamera.org/Uaudio4.html), and I kept meaning to send it in.

And finally, this past week was spring break. I was able to go up to West Point on Thursday with some friends, and we just walked around the campus and enjoyed our time out of the city. My brother came into town yesterday, and we walked around Times Square for several hours and then ended up going to see Wicked (fourth row seats!). Today we walked around the Financial District and took the Staten Island Ferry, and tomorrow we're going to visit the Guggenheim. Here's some pictures from the past week or so--

One of my friends found this nut starting to blossom. It was tricky trying to take this picture because the depth of field was so narrow--

Part of a tree on West Point. We relaxed on the lawn in front of the museum for a little while, and I wanted to play around some more with depth of field.

The Cathedral at West Point

I don't remember what field this was next to, but it was still on West Point

One of the buildings on West Point. It was pretty cool seeing how a lot of the different buildings looked like castles or something--we're going to try and go back during the spring or summer

As we were heading home from West Point, we stopped at this outcropping to take some pictures.

We thought we were getting into a sketchy situation at the outcropping, because it looked like a motorcycle gang was surrounding the place. Of all things, they were trying to throw a paper airplane off the cliff edge and into the river--so yeah, it wasn't a gang at all, just some friends out for a ride. They let me take some pictures--

Just another sunset pic

On the Staten Island Ferry--I tilted the camera on purpose just to play around with perspective a little. This is right as the ferry was getting ready to dock back in Manhattan. Everyone ran to the windows to take pictures of the NYC skyline, so I thought I'd take a picture of them instead

My brother Pere -- Staten Island Ferry

Some random wall in the Financial District -- everything else was sparkling clean, but this one alleyway just didn't match

Anyway, sorry it has been so long since I last updated my blog. I've just been pretty busy with school and everything. Hopefully I can post more pictures soon--

Central Park

2009-11-15T21:03:00.002-07:00

Okay, sorry if you kept checking my blog to see more pictures--I kept running out of time to update everything! So here are a few pictures from around Central Park. Nothing spectacular, but I had fun exploring more of the city. On Halloween Day, a couple of friends and I walked through the park, taking pictures of whatever we could. Sadly, a large part of my pictures were slightly out of focus (I think the spot focus got shifted), and I didn't notice until after I got back.

But today I got back from church a lot earlier than normal because of stake conference. After a much-needed nap, I decided to go read in Central Park. I was able to find an open bench next to the Pool on the north end of the park, and I just sat and read for almost two hours (the "Pool" is a small pond, in case you were wondering).

In other news, I was sad to see BYU lose to TCU, but thrilled to see Utah do the same. And wearing my BYU hoodie around New York City has led to some interesting comments. On Friday night, some random guy stopped to ask me, "Is BYU that school with the women's soccer game? That one that's been all over the news?" I knew exactly what he was talking about (the slapping, punching, hair-pulling game when the BYU women's soccer team played New Mexico), so we talked for a couple of minutes about sports (and BYU in particular--I felt bad that I didn't have a pass-along card).

And I can't believe I'm almost done with my first semester here at NYU. It has gone by a lot quicker than I expected. Right now, I've finished all of the mid-term assignments, so all I have left to do are the final papers in each of my classes. I am going to try and get at least a rough draft done for one of my final classes--if I can spread things out over the end of the semester here, I won't get slammed with having to turn in three big writing assignments on the same day. Hopefully, I don't get too distracted with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up...

A tree

(ha, okay, I couldn't resist being just a little bit sarcastic...)

Hmm...I don't remember what statue this was. It's a little bit south of Bethesda Fountain.

This picture is really strange to me--I have no clue who this guy was, and I don't even know when the last time the stage was used. I just thought it looked kind of odd.

I don't know if you can tell, but the woman was having a hard time going up the stairs--it looked like they had been walking around for most of the day

This is what the trees looked like in Central Park--I'll try and get some more pictures before all of the leaves come down

Okay, this probably isn't going to be that interesting to everyone, but I was pretty excited that this picture came out. It was a little after 5:00pm (the sun set at like 4:45pm), and I was getting ready to head back to my apartment. The leaves were almost completely dark. Anyway, an ambulance was cutting through the park, and I did some quick guesses on ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. I didn't have a tripod with me, so I propped the camera on the bench and hoped like crazy my hand didn't move. If you look closely, you can see several bright starbursts in the ambulance's light trail--it's from the rotating light hitting the camera lens at different intervals.

Greenwich Village

2009-10-09T21:49:00.009-06:00

Well, today was an entertaining day. First off, I recently got a job through the AmericaReads program. Basically, I tutor at a local middle school. It works out quite well because it is only about a twelve minute walk away from my apartment, and since it is above 100th Street, it puts me in a higher wage bracket. I've been working one on one with several students, helping them with their homework and reading things with them. During class today, the teacher asked her students, "Who wants to work with Mr. Ventura today?" Almost half of the class raised their hand--I couldn't tell whether they actually wanted to work with me, or maybe they just wanted to get away from the other students at their table. I still thought it was pretty cool.

A mechanic that works across the street from the school. I asked if I could take his picture, and I like the fact that he didn't smile--he laughed immediately after I took the picture and said he wanted to see a copy

And one of my friends (Brittney) is in town for the weekend with several of her friends from Washington D.C. We walked around Greenwich Village for a little while before someone realized that nobody had any idea where we were going--every one just assumed that someone else was the leader. We decided to cut through Washington Square Park and try to find some place to eat.

Brittney -- all of us were sitting on the steps inside the fountain at Washington Square Park

Some random performers in the park...

But I like this picture even better. This elderly man just stood there listening for awhile. He would talk to the musicians between songs, listen to them perform, and talk to them again. He wasn't rushed, and he seemed to be thoroughly enjoing himself. I wonder if this is something he does often.

The sun was setting as we were leaving the park, and I liked the way the clouds were lit. The only problem is that the best angle was shooting through one of the streams of the fountain--so if you see any random dark globs that look like they are flying through the picture, it's just huge drops of water

And in case you're wondering, yes, I am going to try and post on my blog more frequently. I am also going to try and post as many pictures as I can. One of my recent goals is to try and take my camera with me as I walk around the city. There are several reasons for doing this: I want to take in and record as much as possible; I want to improve my photography techniques; ha, and take this as you will, but I was looking at new cameras and lenses online recently. After a little while, I realized that there was so much I could do with the camera and lens that I already have. I looked through the pictures I took recently of musicians playing on old, scratched, and fading instruments--my camera isn't any of those. In fact, if you didn't look at the model number, you'd think it was a new camera. More than anything, I just need to practice and make the most of the tools that are already at my disposal. Which leads me to the last picture for this post, and one of my favorite shots of the day.

We cut through the park to get back to the subway, and I saw this trumpet player by the fountain. He was facing towards the fountain, so I set up behind him and just waited, hoping he would turn so I could get a profile shot. Luckily he did, even though I made the entire group wait just so I could get a picture. It took me a little bit to realize that he wasn't necessarily performing for the people in the park. He was facing the fountain, and he wasn't accepting tips. I don't know why he was doing it. Maybe he has to practice there because it bothers his neighbors. Maybe he was cooling his nerves before an audition. Or maybe he was simply winding down from a long day at work. At least he was enjoying the fact that he had an instrument, and that he knew how to play--and that's something I can learn from.

Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass...

2009-10-04T21:28:00.008-06:00

Okay, this past month has kind of flown by, and I feel bad that I haven't posted any pictures of New York yet! I'm still getting to know my way around the city, and I've only been to a few tourist attractions. As far as "attractions" go, I went to the Museum of Natural History, walked around Times Square and Rockefeller Center, and I went to a Yankees game. Other than that, I've mostly just been getting to know my neighborhood and school area better. Don't worry--I'm going to be doing more exploring on Fridays and Saturdays, and I'm going to be taking more pictures.

My classes are coming along. One of my classes is very similar to the class I was a TA for at BYU, so I feel like I have good grasp on the material (we're even using the same textbook!). It is on a graduate level though, so the discussion and analysis is more intensive. It really makes me appreciate the education I got at BYU--yes, some students here at NYU are "hot shots" (it sounds like they've read practically every film book or article that's mentioned in class), but for others, it looks like they're in way over their heads. As for me, I'm enjoying it. The classes are more challenging (300+ pages of textbook and/or article reading each week--you miss one week, and you'll probably never catch up), but because of the preparation I received at BYU, I feel like I can analyze, research, and write just as well as the other students. Just this past week, several other students asked me about the types of classes I took at BYU (wearing my BYU hoodie to class sure can be a conversation starter, be it about football, school, or whatever). They were really surprised (and a little jealous) when I told them about Science Fiction in Literature & Film, Hollywood Films of the 1970s, Film Music, History of Animation, History of Documentary and Non-Fiction Filmmaking, Film Genres, International Cinema, Media in the Contemporary Classroom, and the list goes on. So here's a general shout-out to my professors--I tried to send them all postcards, but I keep thinking I accidentally left someone out. In no particular order: Sharon Swenson, Dean Duncan, Darl Larsen, Amy Jensen, Jeff Parkin, and Ben Unguren. And others that I didn't have class with, but worked with or learned from in various capacities: Tom Lefler, Brad Barber, and Tom Russell.

Okay, now for some pictures.

Marcus--me and him and a couple of others went to an
art festival down in Brooklyn, where most of these pictures were taken

Kind of random, but this is one of the art displays--it's just tons
and tons of rolled up piece of cardboard. Pizza boxes, shipping crates, etc.

This is an artist named Serge Mikel--he also writes and
performs classical and jazz music

Serge Mikel again--I think these were my favorite shots of the day

A random wall in DUMBO (see the title of this post)
--ha, I think I accidentally bumped up the red
saturation when I exported from Lightroom.

Alas, I didn't see that a car had come into frame until after I had
gotten home and downloaded the pictures from my camera

Babetta
Okay, this wasn't at the art festival--it was on my last film set at BYU
(can I just say, being "set photographer" is like the most relaxing job on a film set?). But I liked the way this candid shot came out and thought I'd post it anyway.

This was a jazz band performing in Washington Square Park--I shot them in color, but even as I was taking the pictures, I wanted them to be black and white.

The jazz band again--I liked how their instruments were
kind of banged up and dingy looking

Yeah, it's another shot of the drummer, but I was just messing
around with shifting the focus from the near drum to the far one.

And a friend of mine needed some headshots for a broadcast
journalism resume. This was taken in Central Park
on a cloudy day

I think that's plenty for now--please leave some comments!

New York

2009-08-30T20:39:00.002-06:00

I'm finally here. After a fun summer spending time with friends and family, it was time to say goodbye. Leaving was bittersweet, as I was excited to come out here to New York, but sad to leave Utah.

I'm getting settled in, but it will take me a little while to get used to it all. Everything seems so fast-paced here. I'm already getting the hang of the subways, and I've met quite a few people in my apartment building already. I also met some really cool people at church today, and I'm going to be okay (stop worrying Mom!).

Tomorrow I head down to campus for the first time (is it really a campus? I think it's more of a collection of buildings), and I'm looking forward to touring the area a little bit. I'll post some pictures once I've had a chance to go out and actually take some--I was going to walk around for a bit today, but I ended up taking a much-needed nap.

And on a slightly different note, I got a fortune cookie during my last week in Utah that said: "A solid challenge will bring forth your finest abilities." Nothing fancy, I know, but it still made me smile as I thought of moving out here to start grad school.

Photo shoots

2009-08-03T14:18:00.007-06:00

So it is now August, which means that I have a little less than four weeks until I leave for New York. I'm really excited to head out, and I'm looking forward to new opportunities and experiences. I'll have a little more than a week once I'm out there to get settled and everything before school actually starts. I've been trying to make the most of my time here in Provo--this past week involved countless volleyball games, softball games, soccer games, pool days, film sets, and nights filled with board games. I've also been getting a lot of sun (hey, I almost fit in with my cousins! Almost....), and every day involves more preparations for New York.

Also, if you haven't seen it yet, there is a trailer up for a short film I worked on earlier this year. It is called Inspector 42, and it is about a shirt inspector that is implicated after various accidents are linked to defective shirts. You can see the trailer here (sorry if you don't have access to Facebook). I was in charge of transportation, which included getting the various antique cars you see in the trailer. It was a really big task, but I'm glad to have worked on the project (especially after seeing the trailer).

And I decided to post some pictures from various photo projects I have done recently. Let me know what you guys think.

My friend Asia "working" on the set of The Favorite

Nathan on the set of The Favorite. He was also the director of Inspector 42

Lyvia (the Director) and Luke (the 1st Assistant Director) discussing the next few shots for The Favorite

Becca, one of the main actresses

Brooke -- she needed a portrait shot for an application/portfolio. It was my first time doing a portrait session with someone as opposed to just candids, but I think she was happy with the way they turned out.

4th of July

2009-07-05T23:27:00.011-06:00

I figured the 4th of July weekend would be a good time to finally post something, especially since a lot has happened since April. I decided to attend NYU to get an M.A. in Cinema Studies (I want to teach film at the university level), and I'll be heading out near the end of August. I was able to find an apartment, and now I just need to finalize some paperwork and I'm good to go. I'm really looking forward to it, but it will be sad to leave behind so many good friends here at BYU. I figure I better do a better job of keeping up with this blog and trying to get access to all of my friends' blogs.

Aside from getting things ready for grad school, I also saw Pixar's latest movie "Up" with a TON of friends. We had almost thirty people go to the midnight showing, and we took up almost two whole rows. I was surprised at the depth of the storytelling, especially in the first ten minutes of the movie.

And this past week, I went to visit my sister and her family. I had a blast playing with my nieces and nephew. I am flat out impressed by my amazing sister, her husband (one of the hardest-working and humblest people I know), and their awesome kids.

Just to give you an idea: My 13-year-old niece won a speech contest and presented her essay/speech at the town's 4th of July celebration. You can read her speech at my sister's blog. my 12-year-old niece cooked the meals for the entire week (breakfast, lunch, and dinner EVERY DAY--and they were great meals too!); my 10-year-old niece is the fashion guru in her family, and even her mom (my sister) asks her for fashion advice...and she loaded up the dishwasher after every meal, which can be quite the task with twelve people around the house; my 8-year-old niece helped clear the table after every meal; my 6-year-old niece set the table before every meal, including putting on a clean tablecloth and setting out plates, forks, knives, napkins, and chairs for everyone; my 4-year-old niece is a computer whiz kid: she can navigate the internet, search for videos on YouTube (...High School Musical), and she knows how to access the games section of the LDS Church Website (it's a part of "The Friend" in case you're wondering).

And then there's my 2-year-old nephew (yes, he has six older sisters...poor guy). He gets the milk out of the fridge and puts it on the table for each meal (considering it weighs about as much as he does...), he can ride a Razor Scooter by himself, and he loves being tickled. At one point, I would act like I was asleep while he would "sneak up" on me, waiting to be tickled again. "Sneaking up" usually meant running up and stopping just inches from my face, or climbing up onto the couch to do a spread-eagle dive. One time he ran a little too fast and didn't stop in time--his forehead slammed right into my nose. Lights exploded in my head, and I frantically checked for blood (he hit HARD). My nephew grabbed his head, wobbled around, laid down on the ground and said, "Let's not do that again, okay?" He's only two and he already has numerous scars on his face from various accidents, but what a funny kid...

My 6-year-old niece and her tie-dyed shirt

Me trying to be "artistic"...

The 6-year-old complaining about the sun being in her eyes

My 2-year-old nephew--he was making mud in a flower pot, and I think this is the point where he was trying to decide if he was in trouble or not

My 4-year-old niece having fun with some sparklers

My nephew twirling a sparkler

The 10-year-old getting her hair done--you can't tell from this picture, but my sister styled all of her girls' hair into different patterns. This niece had a giant star braided out of red ribbon and curled into her hair (or something like that...I can't really describe it, and I can't seem to find a picture of it...)

My 13-year-old niece giving her speech. Don't forget to read it here.

At the old ball game

2009-04-25T19:48:00.020-06:00

It has been a pretty crazy couple of weeks -- I graduated yesterday, and most everything up until now was gearing up for it. But now that it's done, I'm just going to try and focus on getting ready for New York University. Yes, I finally decided to go ahead and go there after a lot of research and talking with professors. They encouraged me to think about where I would like to end up teaching, and how the type of school I go to for graduate school could have a lot of weight in helping me obtain a better position. So I'm heading out there at the end of August, and this summer will be for work and rest. It will be the longest break I've had since before my mission, and I'm looking forward to catching up on a lot of books (and dating...can't forget about that).

And as for the title of my blog, I went to two BYU baseball games this past week and had a blast. We lost the first game, but the second game was amazing. The Cougars had a two-out, seven run rally in the second inning to give them an early lead. It ended up getting delayed because of rain, but the final score was 12-11, BYU. I'm posting some pictures I took at the game (but not actually of the game itself...). Let me know what you think.

Katie

Jonny

Jordan

This was during the 7th-inning stretch.

Clapping and singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"

Claire and Jordan

We were trying to think of a caption for this picture...basically, BYU was losing 12-2 in the 9th inning, hence all of the empty seats.

I don't know why Hayley had such a serious face

Sorry Hayley! I was trying to get everyone in, but I ran out of room because of the railing.

Emily doing the chicken dance

A better picture of Emily

Diana

Brittney said, "This is my 'I want to seduce Cosmo' picture"

I forget what was going on here

One of my favorite pictures of the day. This was during the rain delay, and I just really liked the way the colors pop.

I ♥ Faces Adults: Week 11 -- No Flash

2009-03-23T11:37:00.002-06:00

I decided to finally submit some pictures to iheartfaces.blogspot.com for their weekly contest.
This is my entry in the Adults category for this week's theme of "No Flash.

I was driving a truck around the other day, and this girl leaned in the window to ask me a question. I dislike using the flash anyway, but the angle of the sun was just right for a nice side light. The side of the white truck and her arm served as fill light, and she just has an amazing, genuine smile. I actually like that the focus is a touch soft, because it draws the attention back to her eyes. Be sure and leave some comments, and head on over to I ♥ Faces to check out the other entries!

I ♥ Faces Kids: Week 11 - No Flash

2009-03-23T11:15:00.004-06:00

Okay, I decided to go ahead and enter some photos into a weekly contest at iheartfaces.blogspot.com. The theme this week is "No Flash," so I took this picture using only natural light. This is my entry in the Kids category.

This guy was clowning around in his house, and then he told me he wanted a picture that made him look smart. The windows had a soft white curtain in front of them, giving me a nice soft light that caught his eyes just right. Make sure and leave comments, and head on over to I ♥ Faces to check out the other entries!

Light Graffiti Video

2009-02-23T13:28:00.004-07:00

Okay, I just found out that I can post the video today. So, for those of you who don't know, I was asked to help out with a BYUSA campaign by making videos and stuff. Along with my roommate Marcus and my old roommate Aaron, we conceptualized, shot, and edited this video. It is for Brooke and Andrew, who are running for BYUSA president and vice president, respectively.

Let me know what you guys think--

Spit

2009-02-23T00:53:00.008-07:00

Okay, before anyone asks, "Spit" isn't referring to anything gross. It's actually the name of a short film that I'm helping out with, and the title refers to the card game of the same name. I'm told that the same game (or at least a very similar game) is referred to as Nert, Nerts, or Oh Heck (to put it mildly...). It was a lot of hard work, but it was a lot of fun--quite a few of my friends are on set, so it was fun to chat with people during the downtime. I've included a few pictures that I took as well (I really like my new camera lens!).

Jeff

Bryce
One of the guys on the camera crew. He was complaining about how there are very few pictures of him on set, so I told him I'd upload this to Facebook.

Lexi
One of the actresses. At one point, there was a lengthy break where the majority of the cast and crew were confined to the basement during a production meeting, so I just started taking random pictures of people. The lighting was terrible down there though (most of the pictures came out green).

Jeff
Also during the basement break. He's done some other student films, and if I'm not mistaken, BYU-TV did a brief special on him because he and his brother played Hyrum and Joseph in Nauvoo (but I could be wrong about that...)

Michael

The director. I only had a split second to take the picture before he yelled action, so I didn't even get a chance to set the exposure--and I actually like the way this picture turned out, because the background would have been completely blown out otherwise.

And I've also been working hard on a video for a BYUSA campaign, which I will upload as soon as I get permission to do so. They have some very strict policies about campaigning, and if I upload the video too soon, the candidates could get hit with an infraction. For now, let's just say "light graffiti..."

Stick shifts and safety belts

2009-02-07T23:51:00.004-07:00

A funny thing happened this evening that is probably going to take way too long to explain for it to be worthwhile, but I'm going to try anyway. I tagged along while some of my friends went grocery shopping, and on the way they had to stop to get gas and get their car washed. I had never actually been through a carwash, so it was a new experience for me. I kept joking around saying I wanted to roll down the windows, which only made Elliot turn on the window lock.

We went to the store and they finished getting everything they needed, while I kept making random cooking suggestions--one girl (Breanna) was in the mood to bake something, so I just suggested making those sugar cookies with Hershey's kisses on top, but to use the cherry-filled Hershey's kisses instead of the normal ones (I'm actually curious to see what that would taste like...).

Well, after everyone finished shopping, Elliot used his car remote to roll down the window on the hatch. It was really fancy and everything, and they finished loading up the groceries and got back in the car. But there was one problem...the window was broken. Elliot kept pushing the button, but it didn't even make a sound. It just wouldn't roll back up. He even got out and they tried opening and closing the hatch trying to get the window to work--still no luck.

Elliot was joking around about it, but every couple of seconds he'd try jabbing the button again. When we were almost home, I randomly asked "Is the window lock still on?" There was an awkward pause, followed by the sound of the window rolling up behind me. Who knew the window lock worked for the rear window as well?

Like I said, that was way too much explanation for that story to be worth reading, but hey, I needed something to blog about after a month and a half hiatus.

And for the stupid joke of the day: Why does a seagull fly over the sea? Because if he flew over the bay, he'd be a bagel--

Higher Quality pictures

2008-12-28T23:01:00.004-07:00

For some reason, the pictures on my other post only uploaded as low-quality versions. So these should be high quality if you click on them. See my post below if you want to know how I took the pictures.

Books and Pictures

2008-12-28T22:19:00.007-07:00

Christmas was a lot of fun. I got to spend Christmas Eve with the Mexican side of my family, and it was nice just getting to talk to my relatives. Growing up in Georgia, it felt like every trip to Utah meant that I had to re-learn all of my cousins' names, which families they were from (which aunts and uncles were their parents, etc.), and who was closest to my age. Since my parents now live here in Utah, it has been a little easier--plus, a lot of my cousins have blogs now, so it felt like I could actually talk to them about different things now.

After that, we also did our traditional movie..."It's A Wonderful Life." We've watched that movie almost every Christmas Eve for as long as I can remember. It's just one of those movies that doesn't seem to get old, because even though you know how it's going to end, it just makes you feel good, as if everything bad in life just disappears for a little while as you think about all the good things you have.

Plus, I've been able to get a lot of reading done. Just over the break, I've read "Hogfather," by Terry Pratchett, "The Partner," by John Grisham, and "Maniac Magee," by Jerry Spinelli. Each of them was excellent in their own right. "Hogfather" is a British satire about Christmas---basically, the Santa Claus figure is imprisoned by unbelief, and Death (the Grim Reaper himself) fills in for the day to inspire belief, because otherwise, the sun won't rise. It sounds bizarre, and it is, but it is actually pretty profound. Without giving things away, it talks about the need for faith and hope in the world.

"The Partner" was just a fun suspense story that kept me up late several nights in a row. It uses that devilish trick to suck readers in: short chapters that end in cliffhangers. The first half of the book basically ends every chapter in a cliffhanger, but the chapters are only eight to ten pages, so of course I kept saying, "Just one more chapter...just one more..."

And who could forget "Maniac Magee?" The perfect spiral punt, the frogball bunt for an infield home run, the impossible knot, running on the railroad tracks, and the list goes on. It was lying around in the living room, and I just sat down and read it in a single sitting.

Oh, and I thought I'd post a few pictures I took over the break. Man I love the new camera lens I got for my birthday...

This was a nativity scene inside our house. It was inside of a glass case, so you can see the reflection behind it. The glowing lights on the left are the reflections from the Christmas tree bouncing off of the glass case.

This was just outside on my parent's street. For all you photography people, I had the ISO set at 1600, f/1.8, shutter speed was at 1/500.

These are the same snowflakes in the image above. ISO 1600, f/1.8, shutter 1/640. I thought this one was kind of neat because the lights were twinkling when I took the picture--that's why some of the lights are white, but other lights were red, blue or green, depending on the stage of the twinkle.

Also outside on my parent's street. ISO 1600, f/1.8, shutter speed 1/640. I liked the color and contrast on this one. I would have played around with the setting a little more so you could see the snow on the ground, but it was really cold and I didn't have any gloves.

Christmas

2008-12-21T19:30:00.003-07:00

Man, with the crazy semester of school that I've had, I can't believe that Christmas is almost here. I managed to finish all of my Christmas shopping (is that bad that combined, all of the gifts I bought manage to fit inside of a shoe box?), but it just felt like there was barely any time to really get into the Christmas spirit. Since Thanksgiving, I've had 75 pages worth of assignments due, and a large amount of my time was just spent trying to get everything turned in on time (and if any of my roommates are reading, thanks for the countless times I asked for a ride to campus so I wouldn't be late to class or turning in an assignment).

I did have a fun date this past week. We went and got some hot chocolate from Border's Books, and then we just drove around looking at Christmas lights for an hour or so. I found a website that listed several neighborhoods in the Provo/Orem area that were known to have nice displays (here's the link, if you're interested--the house on 450 E 1320 N in Orem is just crazy...). It was fun because we were able to talk the whole time and just wind down from finals. Of course, I was also trying not to get my car stuck in the snow...and trying not to get lost with a lot of dead end streets/cul-de-sacs.

I also read "A Christmas Carol" for the first time--that was really nice. "To Kill a Mockingbird" is still my favorite, but "A Christmas Carol" is definitely in my top ten (maybe five).

I don't know how much I'll really be able to write on my blog this week, because I still have to grade a ton of final papers and final exams (the pile is almost seven inches high--and I just realized that I overuse parenthetical statements way too much). Anyway, I just thought I'd post SOMEthing before the Christmas break completely passed by.

Artifacts from the Future

2008-12-06T20:44:00.005-07:00

I can't believe I'm almost done with this semester. I'm counting this as my last "real" semester at BYU, since the only class I need to take next semester is biology. All the rest will be "fun" classes (including one I get paid to take...). As of right now, this past week was a nightmare trying to get everything turned in on time--I had three papers due (not the best thing for the week right after Thanksgiving): a 10-12 page paper for film theory, a 10 page paper for film music, and an 8 page paper for film genres (which was luckily delayed a week...but I'd already stressed and written half the paper before hearing that announcement). I only have two minor assignments to finish this week, and only two finals the week after that.

The ward christmas party was last night, and that was a lot of fun. It included an ugly sweater contest, a white elephant gift exchange, karaoke, cookie decorating, and a variety of other games (air hockey, pool, etc.). I almost split my knuckle playing air hockey, but it was totally worth it. The elephant gift I brought was all of the Utah stuff left over from last year, when my mom and dad raided my apartment...so somebody ended up with a giant University of Utah flag that was conveniently disguised in a High School Musical bag. Even though there were dozens of people there last night, I instantly knew who ended up with the Utah stuff from the cries of exclamation. And yes, I hate the U of U and am a die-hard Cougar fan--I just needed a way to get rid of that stuff.

And on a totally different note, have you ever noticed how impatient people are? People weave in and out of traffic, cutting people off and trying to get in front of everyone, and they never actually make any progress. You know, it's the same car sitting next to you at the next red light. But have you ever noticed how impatience is crossing over into virtually every other area of society? Everything is getting faster, but people are getting meaner. iPods, laptops, cell phones, or any other kind of new technology...it's about having more available without having to wait. Why wait until you get home to listen to your favorite music? Just plug in your headphones and tune the world out. Of course, you also need to be able to get a hold of everyone at any given time, so now you need the cell phone that is really more than a cell phone: along with the ability to call people, you can also store your music and even surf the web. It's even scarier when people use said phone while driving--talking , texting, surfing, listening, and driving all rolled into an infernal death trap waiting for the next six inches to open up so they can cut you off for no apparent reason. The cars ahead are stopped at a red light, and they only end up changing lanes about a hundred yards after the light anyway. But they fought for those six inches, and by golly they're going to take them.

I've been told that I'm terrible at multi-tasking. From what I understand, the human brain can only focus on one thing at a time, despite your most adamant demands that you really can focus on the TV and your computer and/or cell phone at the same time. Case in point: have you ever actually talked to someone on the cell phone when they're watching TV? They seem to hear less than half of what you're saying. It reminded me of this picture I saw in "Wired" magazine a few months ago. One section of the magazine is called "Artifacts from the Future," which is basically some Photoshopped idea of what the future might look like.

Click on the picture to see a hi-res version of it...This is an artist's rendition of the car of the future, and what the dashboard might look like. Try and spot all of the things that are going on in the image. It's pretty crazy. It is an information overload. People think they can stay up to date with everything, and that if they don't check their voice mail immediately their life will be ruined. Oh, wait a second--I just got a text message. Hang on. I'll be back in a second. I promise--

Mexicans, Mexicans, everywhere

2008-12-01T18:27:00.002-07:00

So I totally got a small round of applause during class today. I was sitting in film theory, and we were supposed to get into groups, select a film theory, and apply that theory to a commercial we would all watch together. This other guy named Trevor and I decided to use a theory that deals with the "resistant spectator." Basically, the spectator tries to resist stereotyping and what the film is trying to get you to associate with. We then watched a thirty second commercial. Basically, a guy is talking about how much he hates to change his mind with a girl, and it totally sounds like he is breaking up with a girl. At the very end he says, "Okay, I've made up my mind. Could you make them strawberry pancakes instead?" Only then do we see that he is talking to a waitress. The whole commercial was for a Denny's-style restaurant and their big breakfast menu.

Well, the waitress looked Latina to me (no joke, she could be one of my aunts), so when it was our turn, I mentioned that I was half-Mexican, and saw the commercial as a subjugation of Mexicans by making them the working class who has to take orders from the white male. Anyway, it caught my professor off-guard, and she just said, "Wow..." A couple of people clapped, but a lot of people were laughing. As I was leaving class, my professor was smiling and shaking her head. She said, "As intelligent as you are, I can't believe you pulled the race card." That got a few more laughs from everyone. Hey, we were applying the theory correctly, so what can you do?

Tagged

2008-11-24T11:02:00.003-07:00

Even though I posted something last night, Marcus tagged me so I figure I'd better go ahead and post my response before I forget.

So seven random facts about me...

1. I've been knocked out quite a few times. It's hard to keep track of them all, but here's a short list of how some of them happened: a baseball (3x), a D-Cell battery, a rope swing, a hardwood floor, a pile of bricks, and my second time snowboarding. Each of those incidents is a spectacular story in its own right, but that is another story for another day.

2. I'm a third degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. I was an assistant instructor before my mission, and I worked with all age groups, 4-6 years, 6-11 years, and twelve on up. One of the highlights from that time: my boss's twelve-year-old son was being a brat, so my boss asked me to spar with him. I was 17 at the time. Yeah, so I knocked out a twelve-year-old kid with a kick to the face.

3. For me, "Catch the light" means turning a light on or off. It seems like a perfectly natural phrase (a Southern-ism, I suppose), but my roommates make fun of me for it.

4. I love skeet shooting, even though I haven't done it in six years. My best shot--three clays were launched in different directions, and I got them all with a pump shotgun.

5. The first song I learned to play on the guitar was "Hey Hey," by Eric Clapton--I didn't actually learn the full song, just the opening part. The first complete song I learned was "D'yer Mak'r" by Led Zeppelin.

6. I have nunchaku skills.

7. I have bo staff skills too, but that's still #6. The 7th random thing about me: the first CD I ever owned was the 1997 Grammy Nominees. I was only twelve at the time, but I think I listened to "1979" every day for a year.

I'm tagging Rebecca, Camille, Andrea, and Dave. Everyone else I know has already been tagged.

Sad day---

2008-11-23T22:27:00.003-07:00

So the Cougars lost to the Utes, and my parents just love to rub it in. That's okay--I hope the Utes get destroyed in their BCS game.

It was a close game until the fourth quarter (24-27 at the end of the third quarter, in case you were wondering). BYU's defense actually made some stops in the second half, but then Hall had the worst showing of his career, with five total interceptions and a fumble. Hopefully that can all get sorted out before the bowl game (Vegas again?), and that next year will be even better. Three straight 10-2 regular season records looks pretty good, but 12-0 would be so much better.

Even though they're Utes, my dad sent me this picture that I thought was pretty funny...Especially since my friend Chris went as a Utah devil for Halloween, the trident being a large red "U" (is that Louie Sakoda holding the pitchfork, or the guy next to him?).Other than that, I'm just glad it is Thanksgiving break. I have several papers due next week, so I can't relax TOO much, but it will be nice not having to go to class.

4th and 18

2008-11-19T23:17:00.003-07:00

Okay, today's BYU moment happened last year during the BYU-Utah game. Utah was up 10-9 with 1:13 left in the game, and BYU was pinned on their own 12-yard line. On 4th and 18, Hall threw a 48-yard pass to Austin Collie...Click on that description to load the youtube video. I'd include the video in the blog itself, but for some reason it keeps uploading incorrectly. But to appease the fans, I did manage to get a decent copy of the 2006 game winning touchdown. The first ten seconds or so are messed up, but the ending part should be fine.

Beck to Harline

2008-11-18T10:44:00.003-07:00

Ah, that was a beautiful day: "This should be the last snap of the football game...Snap to John ...John backpedals...plenty of time, plenty of time, plenty of time...He's moving to his left, shuffling, shuffling, shuffling...All kinds of time. Now the heat comes! He's got to run to the right. John Beck is on the run...He throws behind him it is...CAUGHT FOR THE TOUCHDOWN! Caught for the touchdown! Caught for the touchdown! Johnny Harline got it for the score! Harline by himself in the endzone! The Cougars win it on the final play of the game!"

I would have posted the video, but most of the ones I found were too grainy. You need to see it in full-screen glory to truly appreciate it. I found it on Youtube, but I know what's going on just because I've seen it several dozen times. I could post endless streams of U of U jokes (How do you get a [insert name of hated college here] graduate off your porch? Pay him for the pizza), but I think the picture says it all.

The rest of the posts for this week will simply be awesome moments from BYU, in anticipation of the big game this week...It is going to be one crazy Saturday--

Times I wish I had a camera

2008-11-12T21:50:00.003-07:00

Have you ever seen something so amazing, beautiful, heartbreaking, inspiring, scary, or just downright unbelievable that the only thing you could think was "I wish I had a camera..."? These are just a few of those times

1. Seeing a kid with severe ADHD actually get something right in karate--this kid had seen his dad shoot himself, and in the aftermath of this event the kid had been molested by a babysitter. And all of this occurred before his ninth birthday. He either ran around screaming uncontrollably, or he just sat there drooling, staring at nothing. But one day he came out of his shell, he followed instructions, he participated, and his mother couldn't believe it--there was hope for this kid after all. Read more about it here (I wrote a memoir about it for a writing class).

2. Seeing a power line break about fifty feet in front of me, falling in a cascade of sparks and landing in a gigantic puddle. It had been raining all day there in Brazil, and that side of the street was ankle deep in muddy water. It's amazing how something as simple as being on the opposite side of the street could potentially save your life.

3. Seeing a war veteran walk by himself with a computerized leg after having struggled with a cane for twenty years.

4. The time I decided it would be fun to run and slide on the icy sidewalk, failing to realize that the sidewalk sloped down about three feet after I started sliding. It was a spectacular wipeout, but it failed to impress that girl...

5. The random time my brother and I started doing synchronized swimming in the living room while making up our own theme music. "Like a dolphin! Like a dolphin!"

6. The time my brother stabbed me in the eyes (yes, both eyes) with his fingers, knocking me over the couch. Apparently I'd never seen the Three Stooges and didn't know how to play along.

7. The time I learned how to ride a bike because my dad tricked me into thinking he was running right behind me. Read the story here.

8. When I was in the airplane leaving Brazil, wondering if I would ever see the people there again, wondering if I would ever go back.

9. on Saturday, when I realized that I was at the last football game I would see in college.

10. Seeing a guy break up with a girl. She was in tears, unsure of what to do, and he had a smirk on his as face as he said, "Don't do this--don't cry." He promptly walked away, shaking his head and rolling his eyes, while she just stood there in the cold and cried.

I have a ball...

2008-11-06T16:13:00.004-07:00

Well, sorry about not having posted anything in the past two months--things have been pretty crazy. I'm getting ready to take the GRE tomorrow, and I'll be extremely glad once that is all finished. In the middle of getting ready for that, I've been working on grad school applications to USC, UCLA, Tisch (NYU), and UT at Austin. I'll also be applying to Chapman, but that isn't until February--a lot of the materials overlap though, so that shouldn't be too bad. I also took a mid-term this morning, I have 50 papers to grade this week, a final paper due on Tuesday, and I'm trying to get a date for this weekend. Lovely...

On a different note, apparently someone said I remind them of the hamster in the upcoming movie "Bolt."

In order for that to really make sense, I guess you'll just have to watch the trailer. Check out the clip called "Animal Rescue," since that is the one that sparked the comment in the first place...

Sorry once again for the long time between posts, and the fact that this is such a short post--but once I get past the GRE, I should have a little more time to keep up to date with everything.

Mmm...nachos

2008-08-23T14:24:00.002-06:00

Well, the Olympics are almost finished, and I think I'm ready for it. While it has been fun watching the U.S. winning big (Michael Phelps), losing big (4x100m relays, men and women), it has been pretty frustrating. The other day, my roommates and I woke up early (8:15am) to watch the men's basketball game., only to find out that it didn't start until 10:15am because of a stupid tape delay. 8:15 would have been the live feed (we're fourteen hours behind Beijing time, right?), but no...NBC tapes the live feed on the east coast and feeds it to us either an hour or two later (it varies, depending on the event). And today, the women's volleyball game was supposed to be on this morning. I even woke up at 9:00am on a Saturday just to watch it....it is now 2:30pm and it still hasn't come on. Every commercial break says, "And coming up next we will have the women's volleyball game, as well as rowing, rhythmic gymnastics, and boxing..." And no, of course they don't show the game....they start with the boxing. But wait!--there are all the divisions in boxing: flyweight, featherweight, etc. etc. Even though I'm studying film, it's hard to watch that much TV in a single sitting, so I've been doing some work, reading, preparing lesson plans, and then checking the broadcast every fifteen minutes or so. lame...........

And apparently my grandpa was friends with the guy who invented nachos. You can read my cousin's blog about it here.

Olympic Spirit, part 2

2008-08-16T09:40:00.003-06:00

So last night I was eating at Applebee's with my family. It was a farewell thing for my sister, who starts grad school at Florida State this semester. I was sitting right underneath a TV watching the men's beach volleyball team beat Switzerland. A few minutes later, Michael Phelps was racing in the 100m butterfly. After the first 50 meters, Phelps was in seventh place (out of eight swimmers), more than half a second behind the leader. With about 25 meters left to go, I started hearing the following: "Dig...dig...dig, baby. Dig! DIG! DIG!!!" As if by magic, Phelps responded, touching the wall one hundredth of a second faster than Milorad Cavic, making it his seventh gold medal of these Olympics. The restaurant exploded with cheers and applause. Dozens of people sat entranced as the replay was shown again and again, every angle confirming that Phelps indeed finished first. Random people called out to other random people:"What was his time?" "Was that another world record?" "How did he do that?" All in all, it's just another reason I'm proud to be an American. There are about 53 other reasons, but that's too many to list (54 is the total medal count, in case you're wondering what the other 53 are).

And this is a picture of my cousins at the Breaking Dawn midnight sale. Some of them were asking about it, so here it is.

Olympic Spirit

2008-08-11T15:14:00.003-06:00

So after watching the Opening Ceremonies, I couldn't fall asleep--I was too excited to watch the Olympic games. I stayed up watching badminton and fencing, and at 3:00am I watched the U.S. Women's Soccer team beat Japan. All day Saturday I was channel hopping between three stations to get the maximum coverage possible (commercial breaks meant it was time to switch stations...never a dull moment). But this morning, hearing about the spectacular finish in the 4x100m freestyle relay, has gotten me so pumped for the rest of the Olympics. If you haven't heard about it yet, you have to go here. You'll probably have to download Microsoft's Silverlight, but it's quick and easy, and the video is so worth it. Trust me. In the last stretch of the relay, the Americans are behind by a body length. And then here comes Lezak...Listen to the announcers screaming near the end of the race. It's pretty amazing. I've watched the video a good six or seven times today already. NBC just posted it this morning, and it already has 1.2 million hits.

And yes, our intramural softball team won the championship. It was kind of anti-climactic though, because the other team forfeited the championship game. Apparently they had a co-ed game at the same time, and they had a better chance of winning that game (the co-ed team was still undefeated in double elimination, but the men's team had already lost once to us). But it's okay--we got t-shirts and bragging rights for the next year, so hey, I'm happy.

Breaking Dawn at midnight?

2008-08-05T00:55:00.006-06:00

Well, quite a bit has happened in the past little while. Just to sum up a little: I turned 24, I read "The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place," I went to the midnight sale of Breaking Dawn (even though I haven't read any of the Twilight series), I saw The Dark Knight (twice), my grandfather passed away, and our intramural softball team is in the semifinals with a good chance of winning the championship (it's double elimination, and we haven't lost a tournament game yet.

My birthday was a lot of fun. I went and played sand volleyball in the morning, watched a couple episodes of Psych, and then we got a big group to go get some frozen custard. As for the midnight sale of Breaking Dawn, I was there to help my mom with the new bookstore. It was their first midnight sale, and they (meaning my mom mostly) were pretty nervous. So I was there to help move boxes, take pictures, and all that. My dad made some stickers that said, "Oh Edward, you can bite my neck," for all of the girls that came to the sale. He had wanted to make a big banner that said "Edward is gay!" but my mom wouldn't let him.

Anyway, I ended up taking over a hundred pictures of the event. This activity had all the girls making a wedding dress out of toilet paper.

Something else that I thought was pretty interesting--there was a band playing two stores down (another bookstore was also doing a midnight sale), and I happened to get a couple pictures of them playing. Afterward, the lead member wanted to pay me for the pictures...he ended up giving me a CD. His name is Sam Payne, so you can check out his website if you want. I haven't had a chance to listen to his CD yet, but he was on Glenn Beck's show a little while ago.
This picture isn't actually Sam, but a violin player that was doing backup work. I just thought it was a cool picture (I really like the new lens I got for my birthday...even in low light, I can still take good pictures without using the flash). I didn't want to use the flash, since I was only about three feet away. The band didn't even realize I was there though, because I was behind them and all of their sound equipment.

And just now, I got back from watching Iron Man at the dollar theater. It was still a fun movie, even the second time around. Someone even pointed out a little "easter egg" where you can see Captain America's shield in the background in Tony Stark's lab. Totally nerdy, but hey, it was fun.

I'll try and post some more tomorrow, after we play our softball game--

Tagged

2008-07-05T19:00:00.003-06:00

Ok, so I just got tagged by my Aunt Nancy. Apparently you're supposed to answer several questions and pass it on, so here goes. The questions are 1. Where were you ten years ago and what were you doing? 2. What are five things on your to-do list today? 3. If you were a millionaire...(fill in the blank) 4. Where have you lived?

Ten years ago I was doing high school through BYU Independent Study. I was a red belt in Tae Kwon Do getting ready to test for my black belt. Wow...I just realized that ten years ago, I decided that I wanted to study filmmaking. I had just seen The Truman Show, and I loved how an engaging story was told without having to resort to all the typical junk. Initially, I wanted to write and direct movies, and then it transitioned to wanting compose music for movies. Then it transitioned back to writing and directing, and now I want to go into teaching at the college level. I'm pretty sure that ten years ago, I was just starting to get into photography as well, which fused with my aspirations to study film.

Five things to do today:
1. Read some more in America: The Last Best Hope
2. Play sand volleyball
3. Watch the Olympic trials (it was pretty sweet watching my brother's friend--Josh McAdams--qualify for the men's steeplechase...)
4. Write out the story idea that's been stewing in my mind for the past day or so.
5. Update my blog

If I were a millionaire, I honestly wouldn't have a clue what I'd do...I've never really thought about what I'd do with that much money. Maybe start a movie production company which people can trust to deliver a quality, family-friendly product (ie., a live-action version of Pixar).

I've lived in Florida, Georgia, Utah, and Rio de Janeiro.

I'm tagging Jaimee, Jackson, Meg, Britt, and Rachel.

Rules of Tagged - Each player answers the questions themselves. At the end of the post the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment letting them know that they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answers.

4th of July

2008-07-04T16:54:00.004-06:00

Well, aside from updating my movie blog, I haven't been up to too much recently. Today has been a really good 4th of July though. I watched the parade for a little while, then I felt like reading something patriotic. After skimming my bookshelf, I realized I didn't have anything too patriotic. I ran up to Borders books, and finally settled on two books: 1776, by David McCullough (yeah, I can't believe I still haven't read it yet), and America: The Last Best Hope, by William Bennett. I'm just taking a break from the second book right now--I didn't even realize that I had been reading for two hours. It just pulled me in and made history interesting. If the name sounds familiar, William Bennett also wrote The Book of Virtues awhile back.

Anyway, I wanted to read something more historical because I was sitting around thinking about what it means to be a patriot. Yeah, I consider myself a patriot--I love my country and the principles it was founded upon. I admire and respect the Armed Forces, I stand for the national anthem (even if I'm in a rush, I always stop and put my hand over my heart), and I've tried to be involved with making my opinions known (although I haven't had a chance to vote yet...I missed the application deadline after I turned 18, and I was out of the country when the 2004 election came around). But patriotism involves more than that. The introduction for the new book I'm reading actually gives some very good advice. This comes from Ronald Reagan's Farewell Address: "If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are. I'm warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit. Let's start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual."

In the introduction to America: The Last Great Hope, Bennett describes his reasons for writing the book. He says, "I write this story to kindle romance, to encourage Americans to fall in love with this country, again or for the first time. Not unreflectively, not blindly, but with eyes wide open." Hopefully, this will lead us to become informed patriots, people who are not only proud of the freedoms and opportunities we presently enjoy, but aware and appreciative of the events and sacrifices that led to the founding of our country.

Oh, thus be it ever,
When free men shall stand
Between their loved homes
And the war's desolation!

Blest with vict'ry and peace,
May the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made
And preserved us a nation!

Then conquer we must,
When our cause it is just,
And this be our motto:
"In God is our trust!"

And the star-spangled banner
In triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free
And the home of the brave!

The Star-Spangled Banner (4th Stanza)
by Francis Scott Key

My bro's blog

2008-06-25T10:29:00.002-06:00

And for those of you interested, my brother started a blog as well. Apparently he's had the blog for a month now, but he didn't post anything until the past day or so. His blog is called "Smarter than I Look," and I don't know but I thought that was the funniest thing...Check it out.

Fonts on my blog

2008-06-25T10:10:00.002-06:00

I forgot to mention this, but with the new layout of my blog, it might not display correctly unless you have certain fonts installed. My blog uses Conrad Veidt and Papyrus, so download those two fonts and copy them to c:/windows/fonts.

Winnemucca

2008-06-24T18:57:00.014-06:00

I went to Nevada this weekend to visit my older sister and her family out in Winnemucca, Nevada (and I have no idea if I spelled that right). That was a lot of fun. My brother-in-law is a farmer, and he was in the middle of trying to get a crop of hay raked and baled. So we ended up spending most of the time with my nieces and nephew. We mostly just watched them play around the house. I did get to play Scrabble with my older sister--that was fun (even though I lost twice). My brother taught my 18 month old nephew (give or take a few months...) to do "knuckles" (or bones, "pound it," or whatever you want to call it). It never seemed to get old to say "knuckles!" and have him stick out his tiny fist to hit yours. I'm glad I got to hold him, because the last time I saw him (at Christmas), he only let me hold him the last day or so. I'm glad to hear he likes machines and stuff, because with six older sisters, we were kind of worried he's turning into a pansy. We're going to try and make another trip over there before the end of summer. Here are some of the pictures I took from the trip. Some of them are a little out of focus, but I still like them.

My niece eating a s'more

Another niece playing a homemade guitar.

My nephew

Another niece

This is just before church--we decided to take some family pictures.

My brother-in-law and my nephew

My brother-in-law and my sister

And the family portrait

Chelsea vs. Man U

2008-05-21T11:40:00.003-06:00

I just finished "To Kill a Mockingbird." Yep, it's still my favorite. I also finished "The View from Saturday," by E.L. Konigsburg. That book was outstanding--with all the children's books I've read, I think that was one of the best ones. It starts off as simply being humorous, but then seemingly random stories start to interconnect. By the end of the book, you realize how each story is similar in theme, and it makes the ending all the more poignant. It's my recommendation for the week.

My work has been pretty interesting lately. I mentioned in a previous post that I help update a blog for BYU First Look, and that has been interesting. I will also be helping coordinate a project for the Children's Media Initiative. CMI is a program that takes classic children's stories and poems and turns them into short films. The programs will eventually air on BYU-TV, and this summer I will help produce the introduction to the series. I'm excited because I will actually be getting paid to work on a film set--

And right now, Chelsea and Manchester United are about to play for the UEFA Championship. It is the first time it has been an all-English final in the championship, and it is going to be an amazing game. The DVR is set to record in case the game doesn't finish before my class at 3:30...

My new blog

2008-05-16T21:23:00.002-06:00

Okay, I started up another blog. I'm calling it the Movie Portal. You can find information about family films, companies that make family movies, and various other resources that can help you determine whether a film is appropriate for your family or not. Feel free to send your friends over, because I want to know what else I should include there. Eventually there will be posts describing the websites I link to, and how I use them. Let me know what you all think--

Check it out here.

too many movies...

2008-05-16T18:40:00.002-06:00

So I'm finally posting after I don't know how long...I got really busy what with the end of the semester and everything. Anyway, things have been going pretty good. I've got a job for the summer helping the department coordinate various projects. Currently, I keep the blog up to date for First Look (see my previous post) as well as manage project budgets. I also found out I will be teaching two sections of the Intro to Film class in the fall, and I'm really excited about that.

Let's see, as for what I've been up to...I read about four books last week. Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague (by Brandon Mull), as was Night Watch (by Terry Pratchett---British humor). I also "The Bridge of San Luis Rey," by Thornton Wilder. That was pretty interesting. I didn't realize it was a moral fable until near the end of the book, and it's a quick read too. I also started "The View from Saturday," by E.L. Konigsburg--if you're wondering why that name sounds familiar, she wrote "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler." "The View from Saturday" is also a children's book, but it doesn't read like a linear narrative. The book starts at an academic bowl, but as a contestant answers a question, the answer becomes background information to the overall plot. So you're trying to figure out the real order of events, how they are all connected, and how it all leads up to the academic bowl.

Finally, I started re-reading "To Kill a Mockingbird." It is still my favorite book--it's probably about my fourth time reading it. It is partly my favorite because of the vivid descriptions of the South--the humidity and heat are fond memories for me, and not the sign of a miserable climate. The book is also my favorite because of Atticus Finch. Sometimes you have to do the right thing even if the whole world is watching and telling you that it's wrong. One of my favorite quotes: "Before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."

And I might start a different blog. This one will still be used to keep everyone up to date on what I'm up to, but I was thinking of starting a type of weekly recommendation. Quite a few people have been asking me to recommend various books and movies to them. I figured I could start a blog dealing with all of that--hopefully I can keep it up to date.

I get paid to blog...

2008-05-15T14:13:00.002-06:00

I know this isn't much of a post, but I'll finally have time to do a full update tomorrow. I am adding a link to a different blog, which you guys should definitely check out. As part of my job over the summer, I have to keep it updated, and I just started with Episode 212. If you don't know, First Look is a program on BYUTV that features various student short films. You can watch the films for free at byutv.org. Just find the date of the broadcast and scroll through the list until you see "First Look."

And here's the blog: http://byufirstlook.blogspot.com/

Done with film sets

2008-03-19T00:46:00.002-06:00

So in case anyone asks, yes I took all of the pictures below. I was the set photographer for a student film entitled "Dirt." It's about a man trying to bury his past, and it should be pretty interesting. I ended up taking over 500 pictures, so these are just a few samples I thought I'd show. But I'm finally done with film sets for the semester. I'm really looking forward to spring and summer, even though I'll still be in classes during the spring. I just can't wait to play soccer outside, and just relax with everyone.

I did well on my mid-terms. I got a 148 out of 150 on one, and then a 96 out of 100 on the other. I lucked out on the 96. The one movie I hadn't been able to see shows up on the mid-term, and the question was worth 20 points. I honestly stated that I hadn't seen the movie, but I could answer the question with references to two other films. My professor gave me 16 points, and he made the comment, "As long as you know the kinds of films that contributed to this movement, why shouldn't I give you partial credit?" Whew...

And the science fiction story I've been writing is almost finished. I've been writing it for a class, and it just worked out that the story is about the right length for a semester long project. It's a short novella, but still a little longer than your normal short story (it's about 20,000 words). Once I finish it and get it revised, I'll try and post it so you all can add any comments, good or bad.

For one of my other classes, I'm involved with a project called Hands on a Camera. That has been really interesting. We got to various high schools, teaching the students about visual storytelling and documentaries. Then we loan the students video cameras, and they then have the opportunity to make documentaries about their community. We emphasize that "community" can include themselves, their friends, their family, or any group with a common interest or goal. It should be pretty interesting to see what kinds of stories they will tell.

Just to give an example: last week, we were discussing viewpoints, and how one person's background can change the interpretation of any image. I showed a series of photographs, and the students were supposed to write down one word to describe how they feel. One of the pictures was of a crowd of people raising Chinese paper lanterns. Everyone in the class wrote down words like "happy," "festive," or "party." But one girl wrote down something different. She wrote "sad" on the dry erase board. When I asked her why she chose that, she said it makes her sad because it reminds her of home: Hong Kong. Several of the students reacted differently, looking at the picture again to see how someone else's viewpoint could change the interpretation of the image. We're getting geared up for the day when we'll have a special screening of all the documentaries here on campus, and it should be a lot of fun.

Pictures from the set

2008-03-18T23:47:00.025-06:00

I was just supposed to take a picture for continuity, in case anything got moved, but I really like the lighting here.

Yeah, it started snowing, so we had to make temporary canopies so the lights wouldn't explode.

The director and the cinematographer planning out the next shot.

Art department.

The sound tech.

The script supervisor.

We got to set a few minutes early, and the camera crew wanted a picture that looked like an album cover.

The cinematographer.

One of the few moments of down time on set.

The director working with one of the actors.

One of my favorite pictures from the set. It was literally one of those "blink and you'll miss it" opportunities," but I thought it came out really well.

One of the sound techs was in training.

film stuff

2008-03-02T22:41:00.002-07:00

Wow, it has been a crazy couple of weeks. I have been working on several different film sets, and it has just led to some really long days. I also had a mid-term that took all night to do (it was open book, open note), so I was really glad for the break today. These next two weeks will be really nice, because I am going to be the set photographer (before I helped out with grip/electric, which basically means setting up and moving all of the lighting equipment. It can get pretty hectic when they're about to get a shot off but a light needs to be moved, and there's not enough extension cords, or we blew a fuse, or what not). So hopefully I'll be able to take some really cool pictures of the set and post them for everyone to see--after that, I'm not working on any other projects for the rest of the semester.
And tomorrow will be pretty cool. My brother got me tickets to go see Lifehouse, so that should be fun. Anyway, we are going to play Rook right now, so I'll try and post more later.

Greatest Hits, 2007

2007-12-30T22:26:00.001-07:00

Okay, so this is the first time I'm posting in more than a month. Normally, that means that I would post some long e-novel, catching everyone up on what I have been doing, but I don't know if I really feel like doing that right now...I had a good Christmas break, and now I'm just getting ready to start school again. This is a picture of me holding my nephew--me and my brother were the only ones that were able to hold him (it took me the entire week to get him to warm up to me), so I thought that was pretty funny.

As for this next week, it should be pretty good. I'm going to get my haircut tomorrow, and I'm going out to dinner with a group of friends for New Year's. Since I know everyone is just dying to hear more about my life (...can you sense the sarcasm? I even posted on my blog saying it was on hold for awhile, and nobody even noticed...), I think I'll do a Top list from the past year---top movies I've seen, books I've read, and CDs I liked.

Top Movies (in no particular order):
1. The Bourne Ultimatum
2. Rescue Dawn
3. Ratatouille
4. Stardust
5. I Am Legend
6. August Rush
7. Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix

So I'm realizing that quite a few of these were action movies---I thought these were a cut above the rest (Transformers, Live Free or Die Hard). It's sad to see that the so-called "great" movies of the year were R-rated, so bleh...but I may add to this list once I see The Great Debaters.

Top Books -- okay, this may sound silly, but I don't think I read a new book that actually came out this year. So I'll write down some of the books that I read this past year, regardless of when they were published.

1. Les Miserables -- actually, I'm still reading it (it's now six months and counting---I only read it on Sunday afternoons, and even then it's only a few pages)
2. Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli
3. Shipwrecked at the Bottom of the World, by Jennifer Armstrong (true story about Shackleton and his men getting shipwrecked in Antarctica)
4. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, by Barbara Robinson
5. Moving Pictures, by Terry Pratchett (absolutely hilarious, and the satire about the filmmaking industry is spot-on)
6. The Landry News, by Andrew Clements
7. The Traveler, by John Twelve Hawks -- okay, trippy science fiction about conspiracy theories and what-not (i.e., an organization that tracks people's political views based on grocery shopping habits), but it manages to blend elements of the The Matrix, 1984, and A Brave New World into a fun story.
8. The Book of Three, by Lloyd Alexander
9. And of course, Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows -- awesome ending to a fun series (and boo on that whole Dumbledore thing)

Top Movies (from classes, DVD rentals, etc.)

1. Offside -- an Iranian satire about women not being allowed into sporting events. Thought-provoking, funny, and unexpectedly touching.
2. Four Days in September -- I don't actually know what this is rated, because it was edited for content here on campus. It's a Brazilian movie about a group of terrorists that kidnap an American ambassador---you are on the edge of your seat the entire time, and it's even more intriguing when you realize it's all true.
3. Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles -- a Chinese movie about a man trying to complete his dying son's last project. Awesome story, great visuals.
4. Il Postino --I put it in italics because it's an Italian movie...get it? Okay, joking aside, this instantly became one of my top five favorite movies ever (Signs, The Truman Show, Life is Beautiful, and It's a Wonderful Life are the other four). It has comedy, and it has romance, but it's not really a romantic comedy. I saw it as an inspiring story that anyone--no matter how simple their lifestyle--can do something great.
5. Cinema Paradiso -- this one was also edited on campus (although there is a PG version available...I'll have to look into that). The ending scene was classic --
6. Pan's Labyrinth -- from CleanFlicks. Amazing cinematography, and an ambiguous ending that can either leave you crying or smiling silently to yourself, depending on how you see it.
7. Children of Men -- also from CleanFlicks. Great cinematography as well, but the characters are also very detailed and realistic.

Top TV Shows
1. Heroes--when Peter caught Nathan after the explosion, I was reminded why this is my favorite TV series.
2. Chuck -- a new series that has quickly become a favorite.
3. The Office -- "Bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica."
4. Man vs. Wild -- it's like watching the story "Hatchet" play out in the desert, in the rainforest, in frozen tundras...Bear Grylls is awesome.
5. Planet Earth -- the only nature documentary that has kept me glued to the screen, amazed at how cool the world really is.
6. Lost -- As much as people talk about the whole "We have to go back!" thing, my favorites from this season were Paulo and Nikki with the spiders ("Paralyzed..."), and Charlie's grand finale. The episode where Charlie writes down the "greatest hits" (the highlights of his life) because he knows is going to die is one of the finest moments of television I have seen in a really long time.
7. Pushing Daisies -- it's quirky, it's fun, and I haven't seen an episode that hasn't made me smile.

Okay--i think that should be good for now.

temporarily offline

2007-12-01T20:46:00.000-07:00

sorry guys, I haven't been able to post on my blog because I have been so busy with school and everything. I will have time in a few days to actually write a good entry, but for now, my blog is temporarily MIA....

Story of my life

2007-11-15T23:31:00.000-07:00

It was a sad day for intramural sports today. We got killed in our football game by four or five touchdowns (we stopped keeping track--our goal was just to score a touchdown so we wouldn't get shut-out). The girls also lost their first tournament game, but at least their game was close. We even lost our volleyball game. So now my knees are all banged up, The Office is now over because of the writers' strike (Heroes, Chuck, and Pushing Daisies aren't too far behind), and I haven't even started studying for the midterm I have to take tomorrow. But my classes are already done for Thanksgiving break, so I am going to have a nice vacation.

And I'm trying to think of what else I can do with my blog to make it more interesting, and I was thinking about using it as an outlet for stories and writing. As I talk about my day, I'll also write about how events from my day could be turned into stories--short stories, scripts, whatever. So I'm going to be asking for everyone's help in commenting on the stories: which ideas you like, which ones you don't, and any suggestions you have. I'll just try it out for a week or two and see how it goes.

You cannot find us...

2007-11-12T23:47:00.000-07:00

I was so busy this past week that I haven't been able to post anything. There were some pretty fun things that happened though. I got to work on a film set for a Monster Energy Drink commercial. It was a concept designed by several ad students, and some of the more advanced film students helped produce and direct it. They asked me to be key grip, meaning I was basically in charge of setting up and moving around equipment. It was actually a lot of fun, because once the equipment got set up, there wasn't that much to do. So I got to help out in different areas on set, like helping out with stunt safety--there was a stunt involving a guy diving through a sheet rock wall, and I made sure he had a safe place to land and that there was a cushion for his head (regardless of where he landed). I'll try and post a link to the video later.

Some girls in the apartment complex tried to prank us earlier this evening. They rang our doorbell and ran onto the balcony that overhangs our door. They left a little gift-wrapped present on the picnic table outside our apartment, and as soon as I stepped outside to get it, the water balloons started coming down...I'm actually surprised that I didn't get hit, considering they only had to drop the balloons on my head. They ran away before I could see who it was, but they didn't realize that the gift-wrapped present (an empty can of frosting) actually had one of their names written on it...It reminded me of this Calvin and Hobbes comic--http://www.marcellosendos.ch/comics/ch/1990/08/19900829.gif

School spirit--where did that come from?

2007-11-06T22:37:00.000-07:00

I was putting together my schedule for next semester, and it's going to be pretty interesting. Two of the classes that I had really been looking forward to taking next semester won't be offered until 2009 (there was a shortage of professors). So I have to find some replacement classes, but the only ones left for me to take are night classes. I'm going to be in class practically every day until nine or ten at night, so we'll see how that goes. One of the classes is a five-hour long upper-division class, and I really have no idea what to expect with that one.

And I have been having a blast going to the football games this year. I don't know what it is--maybe it's because we've actually been doing well these past two years, or maybe it's just because I actually know the people sitting next to me...I remember the first time I went to a football game here, and I just didn't get it. I didn't sing, clap, cheer, or do anything at the football game. Now I spend most of the game on my feet, screaming and whistling and annoying the heck out of whomever happens to be next to me (sorry Jackson). And to think--I didn't even want to go to BYU at first. I blame this new-found school spirit on the BYU/Utah game last year...33-31...Need I say more?

"Why don't we have dates?"

2007-11-03T00:31:00.000-06:00

I was bored this afternoon, so I sat down and watched Gattaca (I bought it several months ago from the used bin at FYE for like three bucks, and I just haven't had time to watch it). That was quite a bit different than what I was expecting (of course, it's hard for me to say what I've been expecting with wanting to watch the movie since it first came out ten years ago). Sci-fi movies have almost become action movies in a futuristic setting, so it was good to see something a little more introspective.

The BYU basketball game got boring, just because we were ahead by more than twenty points for the majority of the second half. Part of it too was probably the fact that it was just a group of guys--about ten minutes into the game, we started asking each other, "So why don't we have dates?" Once that topic got brought up, it was hard to really get into the game. So there should be some dating going on next week (at least on my part--I can't speak for the other guys).

Listen

2007-11-02T01:21:00.000-06:00

I was finally able to just sit outside and read after a crazy couple of weeks. I think I must have sat outside on the swinging deck chair for a good two hours at least. It was just the perfect autumn day to be outside (and "autumn" sounds so much better than "fall"). I was able to see a lot of people in the apartment complex as they went about their day, and it was fun just watching people from time to time--nothing creepy, mind you, but just wondering how so many different people can have so many different priorities, and to them, those priorities may be the most important thing in the world at the time.

Have you ever tried something like that? Just have a seat somewhere where people go by--at the mall, at the park, or even at a busy intersection. You don't have to do anything but watch and listen. Why are some people hurrying while others simply take their time? What kinds of problems do you think each person is facing? Where are they going, and where are they coming from? Your own life seems pretty darn good when you think about somebody else's.

So try it.

Watch. And Listen.

Audio Doc

2007-11-01T00:50:00.001-06:00

Okay, I am seeing if this actually works--this is an audio documentary I did in my class a few weeks ago. Hopefully it works--let me know if it doesn't, and I'll either try to fix it or simply remove the link altogether.

Halloween, part 2

2007-10-31T23:27:00.000-06:00

So we were finally able to get a copy of Wait Until Dark. All of the girls were on the edge of their seats, so of course, the guys kept trying to scare them. The movie did it better than we could though...Let's just say that all the girls screamed during the last few minutes--I think it was the perfect movie for Halloween.

And Cat was mad that I cut short my description of the flag football game, so I guess I'll write about it here as an "addendum." It will be the edited version, since I can't post all of the trash talking and still keep a clear conscience.

Anyway, yes, the girls won their flag football game in over time (and we won tonight because the other team forfeited, on a side note), but it was still really close. Some of the girls kept getting penalties called on them. Cat kept getting called for illegal blocking because the other girls kept running into her when they rushed the quarterback. She took a couple of hits and knocked some people down, so we were all pretty happy about that.

Our girls were on defense first in overtime, and they made an amazing stop to keep the other team for scoring. So as soon as our girls got the ball, Jackson called a play to draw defenders towards our quarterback so she could have an open receiver in the end zone. The play worked spectacularly--our quarterback started running, and most of the defenders started chasing her. The pass was thrown, the defense tipped it, but Cat managed to grab it and pull it down in the end zone. Everyone went nuts, so being the loyal fan that I am, I'm writing about it on my blog--I was going to post an embarrassing picture of Cat for making me do that, but I don't know if I would be able to take it off...

I don't really know the direction I want to go with this blog. A lot of the other blogs I've seen are so different--some are like daily journal entries and travel logs, while others are more expressive. Some of the blogs I've read are "themed," where each blog is related to a common idea, whether it is teaching, biology, sports, or whatever. I'm thinking that most of my blogs will center around movies and media, but who knows? I'm still getting the hang of it, so I'm sure that in a week or two I'll know for sure what I want to write about. Please add comments so I know what people like reading about--

Halloween

2007-10-31T17:07:00.001-06:00

Holy cow---How hard can it be to find a single DVD? My brother called me up and wanted me to find Wait Until Dark. Our apartment complex is doing a movie night tonight, and everyone is expecting to watch Wait Until Dark...so why on earth doesn't a single Blockbuster carry it?! I even tried FYE, Best Buy, Wal-mart, and even Barnes & Noble and Borders out of desperation. FYE had thirty copies that sold out this week. And as if to taunt me, Barnes & Noble had one on their computer, but they couldn't find it on the shelves. It's even more agonizing when I realize that I was going to buy it last week at FYE, but changed my mind. Dumb...

For those who don't know, Wait Until Dark is an old suspense movie with Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin (playing a creepy guy in sunglasses). Audrey Hepburn plays a blind woman who unknowingly comes into possession of a doll filled with heroine. Alan Arkin is one of three con men who is trying to get it back--so the con men basically lock down the lady's house and try to gain her confidence...and then they try to threaten her...and then the knife comes out...and you'll just have to see it.

The End of the Pumpkin Wars

2007-10-30T23:11:00.000-06:00

The pumpkin contest finally ended tonight. I don't know how on earth my brother managed it, but he managed to get like three other apartments to give us all of their pumpkins--so that boosted our total from eleven to twenty-two...We won the contest, so now we can all go back to being friends. No more breaking into each other's apartments and barricading our doors and windows.

We also lost our volleyball game, but it was a good match. I couldn't get a single serve in, but part of that is the fact that we forgot to bring a volleyball--so we weren't even able to warm up. I haven't really played since the spring, so I was a little off with everything. It'll be interesting to see how good we get once we learn how to work with each other.

I did get to see the girls' flag football game tonight. That was pretty much awesome, to put it simply. Our girls were down 6-0 until the last five minutes of the game. Then they scored a touchdown to tie the game, but they couldn't get the extra point...which left a minute on the clock. We thought it was all over when the other team sent threw a deep pass. Two of our girls jumped up, tipped the ball, and then fell on the ground--the receiver grabbed the ball and turned, but the ball slipped out of her hands. Our girls went on to win in overtime, but it was crazy with how many close calls there were.

And it has been pretty funny with all of my friends starting their own blogs--we all agree that the hardest part has been coming up with a good name for our blogs. It's funny how the name could be something totally random, but it still says something about the blogger. Scary, really.

Pumpkin Wars

2007-10-29T23:49:00.000-06:00

So, I just created this blog, and I don't really know what to write about. The title "City Lights" is from one of my favorite movies, and the address "R is for Rocket" is one of my favorite stories by Ray Bradbury. I just got back from the grocery store and 7-11 (late-night slurpees are awesome), and now I have to to stay up for who knows how long writing about all the media I've seen for the past month or so (it's for a class).

I suppose one of the funnest things I can write for now is the ongoing Pumpkin Wars taking place in my apartment complex. We are doing a game--each apartment was given a small pumpkin, and we were supposed to hide it somewhere in the living room or the kitchen. The point of the game is to sneak around to other apartments, stealing their pumpkins and hiding it in your own apartment. All in all, there's about 37 pumpkins.

Then things started getting interesting--we had about ten pumpkins, and then we got raided...they all ended up getting stolen, and in an effort to get them back, a wrestling match broke out in a neighboring apartment. My brother was wrestling two people, trying to get into their hiding spot, while three people were picking me up and throwing me out the door. We figured it was time to stop after the biting started (and after I got my head slammed in the door frame...).

Anyway, we were able to get some of our pumpkins back (and then some), but the apartment we raided didn't found out their pumpkins were missing for two days...so they have no clue it was us, and now everybody thinks we only have one pumpkin (we actually have eleven...but by the time anybody actually reads this, the game will be over, and we'll be safe from any pumpkin raids). Good times...good times...