5 Things to Do

5 Things To Do (in no real particular order):

1.  Trim beard

2.  Watch Lost

3.  Begin unpacking my stuff

4.  Write a real blog post

5.  Start reading something

My New Hobby

My blogging output has declined considerably over the last two months.  In January and February I was posting nearly every other day for a total of 27 posts.  Then in March I blogged just six times, and this current post will be the third for April.  That's pretty sad.  I'm going to do better.

I've recently taken up a new hobby:  disc golf.  For those unfamiliar with the sport, it involves throwing discs (similar to but slightly different from your typical frisbee) from the tee to a basket usually more than 300 feet away.  Trees and other natural obstacles make each hole a unique challenge.  Here in Provo we're lucky to have Bicentennial Park, an official disc golf course, not too far away.  

My first time disc golfing took place about a month ago.  I borrowed a couple discs from friends and did my best, which wasn't very good.  However, I had a very enjoyable time, and other than having my keys fall through a hole in my pocket and being forced to re-walk the entire course to find them, it was a very positive experience.  I was pretty much hooked from the beginning.  Unfortunately, the weather most Saturdays after my initial disc golf experience was poor, preventing me from trying my hand once again.  Last week, after the snow and cold early on, the weather turned quite pleasant.  I was able to go again on Saturday, that time using my own discs that I purchased the day before.  I did better than my first time, but there was definitely a lot of room for improvement.

With the beautiful weather we've been enjoying up to the current day (it's going to get rainy again), my friend Jared and I couldn't help but take advantage of the sunshine.  We decided spontaneously to go throw the course, and with just the two of us it didn't take long at all.  We went Monday and Wednesday, not going Tuesday only because we went to Salt Lake to attend the glorious Franz Ferdinand concert.  Each time I've gone I have improved noticeably, and I think I'm finally getting a feel for my distance driver.  Yesterday my score for the sixteen holes was 60, but it very well could have been 57 were it not for a couple of unfortunate bounces out of the basket.

There's just something soothing about tossing a disc around.  My mind always goes back to the summer of 2002.  I had just graduated high school and would be starting at BYU in the fall.  All of my best friends were in still in Vernal, and we would often go to the city park.  We'd toss my bright orange Life is Good brand frisbee back and forth, running barefoot through the perfect green grass, working on our trick catches (through the legs, behind the back, etc).  Throwing the frisbee became our thing.  Whenever we'd get bored of sitting around our older friend Britt's apartment, with nothing good on TV or just whenever a certain restlessness would kick in, we'd drive over to the park and spend an hour or two tossing the disc back and forth.  Man, that was a great summer.  I spent a fantastic week in Boston with my family, got to hang out with my best friends virtually every day, had some interesting and overwrought relationship drama, spent a lot of time listening to music and conversing with my closest friends, did some crazy (but not too crazy) stuff, and just lived it up.  It was really a singular summer.  Never again would I live in the same town with my best friends after that summer.  We all went our separate ways; I went to BYU that next year and then to Brazil for two years on my LDS mission.  Thinking about the summer of 2002 makes me nostalgic and, honestly, kind of sad.  A lot of things have changed since then; people, relationships, just life in general has changed.  We keep growing older, more and more becoming responsible adults, and our paths seem to keep diverging.  The simple joy of living, the thrill of freedom, the excitement of being on the brink of adulthood, never were those feelings more abundant than that summer.  And throwing a frisbee with my best friends seemed to encapsulate everything about those amazing months.  (This paragraph got a bit more serious and introspective than I anticipated).

Friends located in or near Provo, I invite you to give disc golf a chance.  You're more than welcome to join me anytime I may happen to go.  I have a feeling that there will be many opportunities in the near future.

In other outdoors/sports news, I really need to get out and run more, whether that means playing soccer, basketball, ultimate, or even just plain running (boring, I know).  I need to get into better physical shape.

SOFA 2009!

Last summer I mentioned my desire to organize a movie-watching group with a cool name - PIMPS (Pseudo-Intellectual Movie People Society) was the best I came up with.  Unfortunately, PIMPS was not meant to be.  It never even got off the ground really.  I did, however, form The Book Club, which, depending on who you ask, was a minor success.  My desire to organize a society of people to watch good films recently returned, with a decent name to boot.

I hereby announce my intention to organize and administrate, on a trial basis, the Summer of Film Appreciation, or SOFA.  People interested in joining this group must have one thing only:  an appreciation of good film or at least a desire to learn more and expand your knowledge of film.  SOFA, as I envision it, will not devote itself to watching trivial popcorn blockbusters; instead SOFA will seek out the films that have significance, either historical, social, or cinematic.  SOFA will aim to recognize films of high artistic value, wherever they may be found.

Having taken two film history college courses, my eyes were opened to the vast expanse of films made throughout the hundred plus years of motion picture history, both American and foreign.  It seemed that I would leave every class period of every film class with at least five more films or names of actors and directors to check out.  This lead to my Netflix queue steadily growing until it hit the 500 film limit a few months ago.  I hope that SOFA will be able to create a similar learning environment for others, where their film knowledge will be expanded.  This is not merely an attempt to give others the chance to say, "I watched a silent black and white film, or an obscure French film - look at how cultured and smart I am."  While SOFA members would likely be able to brag in such a manner, I envision different results.  SOFA will seek much more substantial film-viewing experiences by watching films to expand our sympathy and understanding of other people, to create lasting and unforgettable emotional experiences, and to generate insightful and meaningful discussion.

Anyone interested is welcome to participate, and I mean absolutely anyone.  Were SOFA to be successful this summer, I'd be willing to expand its lifespan, renaming it the Society of Film Appreciation.  Let me know if you are interested and willing to reserve at least two hours a week to watch films worth appreciating.

I have what I think to be a pretty cool idea for selecting the films we will watch, but I'll write more about that once the level of interest in SOFA can be ascertained. 

Everything is okay.

Sometimes all that's needed to make everything alright in the world is a strawberry cheesecake pie shake from Sammy's.

For the time being...

A strange memory of times past.

I still owe all you readers a worthwhile post, but it has yet to arrive.  The thoughts are in my head.  I just need to assemble them into something that makes sense.  

Anyway, I had a funny/quaint experience tonight.  I was speaking some Portuguese to myself, something I ought to do more often, and for some reason my train of thought led me to say, "...jeito de palhaco," which means "the manner of a clown" more or less.  I'm not sure now why I said it, but I'm sure it was a well-deserved self-deprecation.  Saying it took me back to a night in early summer of 2005.  I was nearing the end of my two-year mission in Brazil.  At the time I was in the city of Jose Bonifacio.  At the end of another long day, I decided that I would order a pizza for my companion and me to eat.  I went to one of the public phones, put in my phone card, and dialed one of the city's pizzerias that delivered.  I made my order, and everything was going smoothly until I told the person on the other end of the phone our address.  

"There is no such address," he told me.

"Yes, there is," I replied.  "I live there."

"No, there isn't.  I know."

"I'd think that I would know.  I live there."  We were both getting upset.  I could hear it in his voice as he ended our conversation.  

"That's not an address, you clown."

He hung up on me, and I could only look at my companion incredulously.  I could not believe what had just happened, and I was kind of upset.  I really wanted that pizza.  We laughed about it amongst ourselves as we walked to our apartment.  I think we ended up getting burgers from a little burger place on the corner of our street.  

I laughed when I remembered this experience.  I hadn't thought about it for a very long time, and it was a nice little moment during my rather pedestrian evening.

Status

I am alive.  I know I haven't posted for awhile and maybe some of you were afraid that I had ceased to be, but I just want everyone to be assured that I am, indeed, alive and well.  

5 Things That Have Taken Time Away From Blogging:

• I have been working on another short film, the first of a planned trilogy, and most of my "free" time has gone toward that in some way.
• I've been playing Goldeneye on the old-school Nintendo 64 with some friends.  This game was a big part of my adolescence, and reliving the 4-player madness has been amazing.
• My new found love for Sammy's, a hole-in-the-wall burger joint in downtown Provo.  I knew it was true love after my second visit.
• March Madness.  Need I say more?
• A slight increase in socialization.

I promise that I will try harder in the near future to keep this blog moving forward.  Though I'm not the only trapped in this famine of new blog posts.  Pretty much everyone on my Google Reader list, with a very few exceptions, hasn't been posting lately.  I hope that changes soon.

I Can't Believe It's Not--- Aaahhhhh!

I was chatting it up on Facebook tonight, talking with a friend about genetically engineered beasts and romance novels, you know, the usual stuff, and I wrote something that I found pretty funny.

"Birds don't respect Fabio."

It's an obvious allusion to his famous get-smacked-by-a-bird-on-a-roller coaster incident, but the line itself made me think of a song that's yet to be written or perhaps an album title.  Anyway, I felt like it was worth immortalizing on the internet.

Another brick for the Bricks.

As I was shaving my two-week old beard to comply with the BYU Honor Code, I decided to leave my mustache.  I thought that rocking a 'stache might help my lowly basketball team win another game.  

Turns out I was wrong.  

We played our final regular season game last night, and it ended similar to every game besides our first, which we actually won.  I didn't play horribly last night, but I only ended up with 3 points.  Though I didn't score, I did other things and should have had a better stat line, but most everyone else on the team was also a bit off.  I'd be more upset, I suppose, but we are clearly not a middle division team.  We ought to face better competition, better as in more suited to our skill level, in the tournament.

One thing is for sure:  I must destroy the 'stache.

Manly Men Only - a tribute to Presidents' Day

I like holidays. With the exception of Valentine's Day, I think any holiday is a good holiday --- especially one that gets me out of work. With that in mind, it's easy to see why I would love Presidents' Day. And I loved this last Presidents' Day. I got a Monday, easily the worst work day of the week, off with pay, and I was free to have fun with friends.

Back in September, a group of us decided to do something extra awesome for Labor Day. We ended up seeing who could buy the best outfit for $10 at Savers (a thrift store that happened to be having a 1/2 off sale that day). Later we all dressed up in our awesome clothes and decided to throw a Labor Day parade. Suffice it to say that it was supremely awesome and will long be remembered. I'll blog about it sometime soon, I promise. A sort of retroactive look at some of my favorite moments in 2008.

Anyway, Savers was having a similar 1/2 off sale on Presidents' Day. I ended up going shopping with my boys Jared and Joel. Jared and I were hoping to find awesome briefcases (just because), but he found the only one. I took care of my predicament by finding an awesome brown faux alligator skin briefcase on Ebay --- it's sweet. Anyway, we bought a bunch of stuff: some awesome clothes, pictures to decorate our apartments, and other miscellaneous stuff like a lunch pail. We stopped at a 7-11 to get slurpees because it just felt like the right thing to do to celebrate the beautiful weather we were enjoying.

As we were driving back to Sparks, I blurted out, "I want to make a movie." That was that. We got back to our apartments, put on some sweet threads, and got to work making a movie. We started with a very, very loose plot based around Jared's briefcase. With that seed of an idea planted in our brains, we started filming with my digital camera, the only camera we could find spontaneously. The quality isn't great, and it's pretty obvious that we were winging it, but after a week's worth of editing, I managed to put together a decent little film.

We premiered it just over a week ago to a group of friends and associates from around the way, and the film was successful. People laughed quite a bit, and that was enough for me. We didn't make any high art. It's pretty basic stuff, but what else would one expect from a spontaneous gesture on Presidents' Day?

I've since uploaded the video to Youtube, but I haven't done anything with it yet. I decided tonight to make it available to my faithful blog readers before I whore it out on Facebook. I hope you enjoy it, and if you really enjoy it enough to post a comment full of praise, feel free to do so. I suppose you could comment and tell me how stupid it is, but I've probably already thought whatever negative criticism you might bring up. So unless you've got something really original, you should probably just keep it to yourself. Anyway, enjoy. Here it is:

True Blue

This will not be the so-called substantial blog that I have long promised.  No, that post is still stewing in my brain.  It will likely require some more stewing before I can make sense of it and share it with you all.  Also, I haven't had time for serious writing.  I've been somewhat busy.

Friday afternoon my former roommate Jeff spoke with me about the possibility of camping out for the BYU-Utah basketball game.  People had first started camping out as early as Tuesday this past week, and getting decent seats for the game Saturday was a concern for both of us.  I had planned on just arriving early Saturday morning, possibly creating a rotating shift system with Jeff, Whitney, and Paige, as well as whoever else would want to watch the game with us, but it became apparent to us that just showing up on Saturday might make getting good seats difficult.  Jeff told me that he was going to head over Friday afternoon and set up a tent, and he invited me to join him.  Since I really didn't have anything else to do, I accepted Jeff's invitation.

Jeff ended up pitching his tent near the southwest corner of the Marriot Center.  Tents stretched from the northwest doors, which would be the first opened Saturday afternoon, all the way across the bridge and around to where we found ourselves.  By the end of the night, tents would nearly extend to the southeast doors.  It was astounding and awesome.

I arrived at 8:30 with my gear and some foodstuffs to tide us over; I would have arrived earlier (I did bring Jeff some Arbys for his troubles earlier that evening), but I was forced to do my job for cleaning checks so I wouldn't have to wake up early and go home to clean Saturday morning.  It was definitely a cold night, colder than most that week, but I was just fine with a couple layers of clothing.  Jeff and I sat around and talked for awhile; we were joined by his wife Amy and later by our friend Whitney.  Jeff, Whitney, and I ended up watching the hilariously terrible film Troll 2, and, all in all, it was an enjoyable evening.  

After the movie, around 1 a.m., Jeff and I both felt it was time to try and get some sleep.  I climbed into my sleeping bag, pulled a couple blankets on top of me, and did my best to fall asleep amidst our noisy neighbors.  There was something like a dance party going on not too far from us; then in one tent next to us someone was playing NCAA football on an XBox with the volume up too loud, and then in the tent on the opposite side of us they were watchingArrested Development, one of my favorite episodes even.  People were being loud all around.  I'm not sure exactly when, but I fell asleep at some point.  Then I was awoken by someone who didn't care how loudly he was speaking.  I guess I got a couple hours of sleep, but I can't say how many.  I was warm and stayed in my sleeping bag for a little while, but eventually Jeff and I both got up.

Then all we had to do was wait.  We snacked on the food I had brought, packed up our stuff, and took down the tent.  Whitney rejoined us, and I was able to head to my apartment where I took a shower and tried to recruit others to watch the game with us.  I failed.  I grabbed two pizzas from Little Caesars and rejoined my compadres in line.  All the while more and more people were arriving and getting in the line which had nearly circled the entire Marriot Center.  Something about camping out for the game had increased my excitement for the game.  Not only that, but it was the first BYU-Utah basketball game I could remember in a long time that had such implications regarding the conference championship and postseason play.  

They opened the doors at 1:30, and the Cougar faithful filed into the Marriot Center.  It didn't take long for the student section to fill up.  We ended up with seats about two-thirds up the lower bowl, right at mid court.  We had a perfect view of the court, and I was pleased with our seats.  All that was left was for BYU to overcome the Utes; then all would be well.

For those who don't follow BYU basketball, it was a close, hard fought game.  BYU shot poorly in the first half, but was only down by two points at half.  The second half, however, was a different beast.  Our defense completely shut down the Utes' offense.  Luke "Beaker" Neville finished with just 9 points and got completely outplayed.  Lee Cummard's block of Neville just might be the play of the year; it was insane.  Jimmer Fredette continued his domination and finished with 25 points.  In the end, BYU beat Utah 63-50.  At the end of the game, I felt like I do after an intense football game.  My throat was hoarse from too much yelling, but I was elated with the victory and ready to camp out all over again.  For a BYU sports lover like myself, it was all I could ask for.  I've read numerous news articles about the game, and every time the raucous crowd is mentioned, I am proud to have been played a part.  I credit the crowd with causing at least one Ute turnover, when Neville held on to the ball too long and got hit with a shot-clock violation because he couldn't hear anything and had no idea how much time he had.  I couldn't even hear the ref's whistle; people just stopped playing and I had to catch the ref signaling the violation to know what was going on.  It was very, very loud in there all game long.

Oh yeah, Jeff flashing the Ute hand sign thing to a couple Ute fans as we drove away was priceless.

Jeff standing in front of the tent.

The line of tents behind us.

Just some of the tents ahead of us.