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

Chelsea vs. Man U

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

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...

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...

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/