Olympic Spirit

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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