the life

NEW BLOG

2011-06-28T00:35:00.001-06:00

Just in case you haven't been flooded through facebook or e-mail or twitter or any other means of communication that I use, my blog has been moved!

Check out the new one, blog.tylersoelberg.com!

-tyler

Changes Are Coming

2011-01-27T17:04:00.000-07:00

Nothing like a poorly done and overused cliche to hammer home a point, right?

Well, this blog has served me somewhat well for the past 42 months. I like that number, and if anyone can tell me why, I'll give them a shout out.
I started this blog to give me a place to share my opinions because, clearly, I don't do that often enough. I used it to share things I found important or intriguing or absolutely ridiculous on the web because, obviously, you all don't get enough web time to yourself. I held back and then rushed forth, sharing my feelings and even--gasp!--some day to day updates of my life because, as it seems to me, it's the most important thing on the planet and everybody should know about it. I've traveled to the Philippines, Peru, Honduras, and Europe thrice on this blog because, honestly, I love fielding questions about how I can afford it and you can't.
My cynicism has been reignited thanks to this blog; my sarcasm enlightened. I've perhaps learned more about who I am than any of you have, and I guess I should say thanks for coming along for the ride.
Now, before any of you freak out: I know your lives revolve around my ramblings. My blog will continue, but things will change. I'm in the process of making this blog bigger. That's right, bigger. If ever I planned on containing my ego in cyberspace, I realize that I need bigger space.
Hopefully, these changes will be as interesting to you as I hope they are to me. Hopefully, you'll be more inclined to share the stuff I post. Hopefully, everything will make sense. BLURG!

Just be ready.

I Said It First

2011-01-24T23:15:00.000-07:00

Buffalo Beast posted the 50 Most Loathsome Americans on the 19th of January. I promise I wrote my diatribe well before I read his. But our conclusions are the same.

Standing at #7? Glenny!!

#6? Sarah!!

#1?????????? Why, you of course.

Calling You Out

2011-01-23T00:34:00.000-07:00

You.

Yeah, you.

I'm talking to you, Mr. Take-your-kids-to-the-movies-but-bring-toys-so-they-can-play-during-the-show-while-you-fall-asleep. That's right. I'm talking to you Ms. Didn't-get-invited-to-a-private-blog-so-clearly-I-should-be-offended. And don't forget you, Dr. My-superiority-complex-is-causing-a-traffic-jam-on-the-information-highway. Clearly, Professor Conservatism-movement-will-save-God's-country-from-everyone-else-that-is-trying-to-disrupt-our-way-of-life-because-there-is-nothing-on-TV, I mean you too.

I'm talking to all of you. Apparently, something got lost when God gave you your logic and intellect. If we can even call it that. More like SINtellect! Your evil is causing this country in all of it's Tea-bagging GLORY be THINE! to falter from the idyllic "We are number ONE!" spot in Forbes' Top Ten Most Powerful Nations With Little Man Syndrome list. Turns out, the little men in China are beating us on that one now.

If only we weren't so Gomorrah'd, we'd still be on top. Can't we all just go back to the glory days when people could have PRIDE in their country without feeling like the rest of the world is judging them?! The blessed land we lived in THRIVED on that pride, riiight??? Doesn't everybody know it's the only way we became the BESTESTIFUL* country in the world!? (Aside from being the only chosen nation, of course.) Nothing wrong with good-ol' fascisti....fasciona....ah, that's it, FASHIONABLE pride, riiight??

Let's face it, you, Mr./Ms./Dr./Prof. are the reason we've got here. If only you could be like...like...like the Glenn Beck's of this world! Like, like the George W's of the world! Like--well....if only you could be more like the ME of this world!! Ugh, my contempt and superiority over you is GROWING!

It's so obvious that that's where you went wrong. Here you were, thinking that you could think for yourself. Thinking that you could create something new, or contribute something valuable to the discussion. But really, let's face it. You don't create, you consume. You don't contribute, you attribute. You don't think. You...well, I'm sure some of you stink, but the rest of you just sit there while someone feeds you whatever information you would like to hear (and if you don't like it, your fearful conscious tells you to change the channel to something you DO like to hear). And so begins the American Dream of sitting too close to the television, rotting your gray matter into poi, and making--miraculously--you believe you are the perfect critic of others.

Ah! The perfect critic! What the interwebs have allowed us to do these days of days! They make everyone believe they ARE the perfect critic. So let me critique you, Mr./Ms./Dr./Prof./Homeless Man! Let me continue to tell you where you're wrong. Your self-confidence wanes because you don't believe what you say you believe. Your self-pity grows because you perceive others as better off than you. Your daddy issues plague you because for the life of you, you can't separate yourself from his regime you grew up with even though deep down inside there is nothing you want more.

You listen to the libelous Foxes out there because they reassure you that you ARE the best and falling from that title means certain death. You reach out to their rhetoric because the MERE thought of number two would make other people judge you, and YOU are the judge, right? Not them!

You don't care for your image because somehow, somebody has convinced you that you can judge character on beauty, and that beauty truly is only on the inside, but you DO care about your image because if you are not the perfect lass/lad others perceive you as, then you have given up number one.

As comfortable as you say you are with yourself, you are ten times more uncomfortable with being alone with your mind for a day. Interaction is your drug because you are hella scared at finding out what you really believe and what you really think, lest what you find be different from years and years of self-deception.

That's you.

You.

Real Reality

2010-11-20T12:10:00.000-07:00

Knives can be sharp. That's a reality, right?
Usually, it's quite an advantage when you're trying to use them. Dull knifes are good for spreading, I suppose, but unless the spreading is happening with the icing on that cake you just made me, I have no need for dull knives.
But, the cuspidated knife is not always advantageous. But it did teach me a lesson today. Most people have pricked themselves with a pin, given themselves a paper cut, and I will venture to say that, yes, a great majority of us have cut ourselves with a sharp knife.
You guessed it, my roommate cut off his thumb with a sharp knife. A very sharp knife. Okay, so he didn't cut his entire thumb off, but he sliced a juicy piece off just fine. While at work. Preparing food that you and I would probably eat.
Today's lesson, however, was not that I should be wary when judging the deliciousness of food at my favorite restaurants. No, that wasn't it. Rather, as he was showering this morning, screaming bloody murder as he cleaned it, waiting for me to come apply the dressing, I started thinking about reality. My reality, his reality, yours too.
Our reality.
Where does reality exist? I'm not trying to get existential on all of you, but I find it a valid question. I've always been fascinated by perspective, but really, perspective is just our interpretation of what's going on...our perspective is our reality. And that reality goes through our personal filter: our brain.
The pain from the knife exists solely in our mind, which tells us the pain is in our finger. When we touch something, it feels solid, even though we know 90% of it is empty space--the "solidness" is in our brain.
We talk about sunrise and sunset, even though we know the earth is not the center of our solar system -- and nobody ever thinks to correct it. Why have we not officially renamed "sunrise" to reflect the real dynamic, which is earth-turning-morning? We readily accept and live with ideas and experiences we know are false, and as a collective, we perpetuate this shared and realized ignorance.
We don't see color, we don't "see" anything at all, but rather we have sensors that perceive radiation in certain wavelengths, and our mind tells itself what that radiation pattern might look like. Our mind filters out more than it accepts.
Which begs the question...what, really, is reality? I'm talking the reality outside of our brain. Does it exist? Are we simply projections on that reality? What does it mean?
Either way, my mate's missing his thumb.

Disclaimed

2010-11-17T00:11:00.000-07:00

I like flying. I don't mind it at all. Honestly, I think I prefer longer flights than shorter flights, simply because to me, the long ones mean that I'm going somewhere.

This flight is long. I am definitely on my way somewhere. Exotic. Yes, that's how most would describe it, I suppose. To me, it's another destination. Another point of view. The things I have learned travelling the world are indescribable. I tried to write them down once, but I realized that to truly describe something that transcends to so many levels required a vocabulary that surpassed even my own.

It's like describing the way magnetism works, in a way. If you don't have a vocabulary to understand and describe the mechanism, then the only way to properly apply any description to is to accept that it simply is. It simply does.

Unfortunately, I do understand that I'm incapable of describing the things I've experienced. But I've accepted that. An accurate representation of the window to my soul would be misinterpreted by most anyhow, and I understand that too!

So many times, I've boarded with a knowledge of where this hunk of metal would transport my physical body. I've never known where my spiritual self would land, and how it would affect me, but I absolutely thirst for it.

I have friends who travel too, you know--I don't pretend that I'm the only one on this flight. I don't know their purpose, and I don't know their intentions, but I'm glad they choose to come with me. We all know that the flight may be cramped--first class is expensive!--but we also know there is always a way off the plane. If you can even call it a way off. Parachutes are not my favorite cup of tea.

The flight attendants know that I prefer a nice rose tea, or maybe, if my stomach is particularly upset, a chamomile just to settle things. Not that it's their fault or anything, but it is mighty unfortunate when I have to settle for a ginger ale. But it has its own advantages. Oh, and no ice, thanks to you very much.

Did you know that by flying, we force our bodies to endure an insane amount of radiation? Radiation that surpasses radiation experienced during the Three Mile Island incident. No nuclear storage facility or power plant pose as much danger to our radiation-sensitive bodies than flying does. But I accept the risk. Easy cost-analysis shows me that the rewards always exceed the possible cost.

Really, why does anybody order their drinks with ice?! It's bothering me now, and when things irk me in the air, they grind away at my patience until I land. There is no advantage to ordering a drink with ice, now, is there? In actuality, the airlines are getting away with murder. You see, ice is one of the only materials that expands upon freezing, so not only are they taking away precious fluid volume, by they are substituting it with arguably less liquid than you otherwise would have received! Shirk the ice, man!

The thing about me flying is, that I still have my own rules. I never turn off my phone, and I only use airplane mode because I'll be able to watch an extra movie because of the battery life I save. Also, no seat belts. This one is almost as absurd as the ice--almost. Trust you me that life--I mean, airplanes--are much better experienced without the seat belt on. No seat belt will save you from a 30,000 foot nose dive going 600mph. Not a one.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that I make the rules of my flight. I look to my left and my right and realize that the inexperience my fellow passengers exhibit is par for the course; I'm just happy they got past security. I get on the plane because I know that I will be enlightened on the other side. I factor in this world's uncertainty. I understand that there is no such thing as absolute knowledge. I get that I'll possibly never understand how I, a man without wings, is soaring at heights that the birds can only imagine.

I'm okay with it all.

Luckily I can tune out right now with my iPhone. Wake me when we land.

The Model of a Modern U.S. President

2010-10-27T23:09:00.000-06:00

For those who this reference is lost on...

Moving Forward

2010-09-20T00:36:00.000-06:00

Apologies are in order for the shoddy (read: lack of) writing for the past two months.
For those of you in the know, I've just returned from a long backpacking trip through Europe. It was definitely one of the most fulfilling adventures I've been able to do, and I knew when I was flying home and actually felt that home is where I needed to be, that it was an exceptional trip.
One of the most liberating things I have experienced is the opportunity to simply think and reason with yourself. Often times, this only happens to me when I travel. Makes sense, really, since between the new cultures, the languages, and the loneliness, you really have to become okay with being around yourself. I feel fairly confident that most people I know have not reached that level of self, and most of us are simply working on it.
As for myself, I appreciated the chance to get to know myself better, and to accept my weaknesses as weaknesses and my strengths as opportunities. For me, this is like a new leaf. I'm not sure that the bud is visible to many people, but I feel it in my core. I have never feared change, except in myself, but that's simply unacceptable now. Change is in order.
In quantum mechanics, we talk about a particle having multiple properties simultaneously until we seek to examine it. Once we examine it, we force the particle to assume singular properties. For example, a particle is said to have both positive and negative spins, until we look at it, at which time the particle will have either a positive or a negative spin. (The more adventurous of you have heard of Schrodinger's Cat--same thing.) This blows people's minds, but it's fundamental.
I feel as though I've finally taken the moment to observe myself. I have forced myself to come out of a multi-state and take upon the properties which are me. Now, I can manipulate them for better.

I am moving forward.

Croatia

2010-08-09T14:49:00.000-06:00

Long story short:
Went to Venice, looked up car rental prices: sold.
We rented a car for three days and got to Croatia yesterday. Amazing here. One of the most beautiful places I've been.
We went to an awesome national park filled with crystal lakes and waterfalls, then went to the beach.
We drove up the Adriatic Highway, which must be one of the most gorgeous drives on earth, while watching the sunset.
Saw a sea organ and a cool solar panel/solar system display.
We stopped to bath (sprawl on the beach) twice on the way up the coast, and it was WONDERFUL!
And yes, we did it European style--in speedos.
In Rijeka tonight, back to Italy tomorrow.
Thanks Croatia.

Videos and Photos of the Trip, part two!!

2010-08-06T02:53:00.000-06:00

Inception-ish Mind Bend on Berlin U Bahn!

Sony Center in Berlin

Frisbee Dudes in front of the Reichstag

Soccer Dude on Sacre Coure

Videos and Photos of the Trip, part one!!

2010-08-05T18:14:00.000-06:00

Highlights from the first week over here!
Highlights from the second week (will be updated, so keep checking!)

First Class Bathroom FAIL

Eiffel Tower at Night

Street Music on Sacre Coure

Street Art on Sacre Coure

Locks in Koln

Michael Jackson memorial by the Rhein in Koln (probably not worth watching yet, I need to rotate the video!)

Three Corners!!!

More to follow shortly!!!

You Know What That Hello Means

2010-08-04T16:08:00.000-06:00

Berlin.
We got here yesterday on a fairly crowded Ryanair flight. But, things are awesome!! Berlin gets props from me, simply because the people are so helpful. I mean, the atmosphere in Paris can't be beat, but if you're alone in that city, you feel it.
Here in Berlin, I could be here alone and still feel welcome and warm. On the flight, we read that Berlin never slept. We believe it. In our 32-bed hostel room, I'm pretty sure that the majority of people fell asleep around 5am, and then gone by 8. Crazy!
Berlin is a party town. I mean, it's German, so lots of people are drunk, but they sure carry themselves well. I really enjoyed our time here, and Berlin has such AMAZING history! And not just old history, but history that is still ongoing. The concept of the wall isn't in the past. So many walls still need to come down.
JFK said something that really resonates with me. It's about solidarity. It's about making the world a better place. It's so much more than just the words he said and today, while I walked the city, I realized too, that I want to say:
"Ich bin ein Berliner!"

Stuttgart to Koeln, please

2010-08-02T19:43:00.000-06:00

We got up this morning and packed up the Fingerle's van for the ride up to Koeln (Cologne) to stay with Pam's sister, Naomi. The ride wasn't too long, but with a crying baby, sometimes even the shortest rides can last forever.
However, I slept most of the way up...trying to recover from Paris and the bus ride. It worked most of the way.
When we got to Cologne, we put our stuff up and drove to the Dom. I've been here before, but Jonathan hasn't. I liked Cologne the first time I was here, and I still do. It doesn't have the vibrancy of Paris, but it's a city where you could be very peaceful, yet you could still have a lot of fun.
I kicked myself today because, although I knew about it, I keep coming to Europe right after or right before the football season is underway. That sucks for me! I will have to correct this pattern.
I have some video and pictures of today's journey, and a decent connection, so I'll try to get those up now!
Oh, and more pics are up in the album on facebook!!

Paris in a nutshell.

2010-08-01T17:02:00.001-06:00

Before you read this post, notice that the video for the first post of Euro 2010 should be up here. Also, be prepared...it's long!! As always, pics are on my facebook album (and no you don't have to join facebook to view them): Facebook Album
==============================================

Wow. What an amazing two days.

I woke up yesterday morning after a very restful night sleep, thanks to Trent. Everyone give a shout out to Trent! He was great. Originally from California, he's currently finishing his R & R before returning to Iraq. Took us in like we were best friends, and he didn't even live here!

So, after a lazy morning at Hotel Commerce, I got up and showered. It felt good, but the water was almost always scalding. Not exactly what I'm used to over here, but it's all good.

I had to meet Jonathan at the international bus station at 12:30. I had no idea where that was, so I figured I'd leave early--around 10--and just search around. By this, the second day, I felt really comfortable with the city. I think that's what impressed me most about Paris. The city felt like home incredibly quickly. So I took off, got me a crepe avec chocolat (the house chocolate, I found out. Dark choco fans would have enjoyed it...I preferred the crepe avec banane nutella from the night before) and found the right metro line and took off toward the bus station.

I got there pretty quickly and went to the mall right above. Bought me some contact solution, since I had forgotten that back home, and sat down in the super hip McCafe to check me some email. Of course, it was only like 3 in the morning back home, so I shouldn't have expected anything, which is about what I had. No worries.

I ran down the stairs to the bus station at a little after 12:30 just in time to discover that Jonathan's bus had come in at 12:20 and he was nowhere to be seen. After scouring the station twice, I figured that either he died sleeping on the streets of Belgium, or he had done the logical thing and left the smelly bus station to find safety in the depths of the Metro. Little did he know, that particular Metro probably smelt like most people think Paris smells like: urine. Alas, he was in the Metro du Urine trying to figure out where I was.

So, after an extra day misplanned, we finally met up with each other. We quickly tried to get on the metro with the metro tickets I had purchased on the way here. You see, I figured buying a book of 10 tickets for 12 Euro would be much more economical than 10 separate ones for 1.70 Euro each. I was right! But in a different way. What we discovered is that my tickets just simply didn't work. So we jumped the turnstyle. Look, Paris, I gave you my money, and I'm getting what I paid for, aight? Well, I say we probably got more than we paid for because we had to continue jumping turnstyles until we finally found a ticket agent in the window. She exchanged the remaining 9 tickets (I had used one on the way to pick Jonathan up) for new ones. So...who knows how many times we jumped the turnstyles. Well, Jonathan probably does. He keeps immaculate notes on a lot of things.

Regardless, we got back to Trent's hotel and I made Jonathan shower before heading out. We took off towards Notre Dame cathedral. Since this time we had no bags, we could go in! It's a beautiful cathedral. I have been mesmerized by the construction of these things ever since reading Ken Follett's books. Nothing compares to being awed every time you walk into a new one.

After spending some time there, we figured we'd go to the Louvre and check the museum out. I knew there was a lot to see there, so I was trying to meter our time there. We spent about 3 hours, and after walking nearly every wing (not every one, and we didn't admire each piece of art), our feet were tired! Mind you, I had eaten two crepes since arriving in Paris, and since his plane had landed, Jonathan had eaten...a belgian waffle. Not to mention I kept leaving my water bottle at the hotel, and we were running out of fuel. At 7 o'clock.

So, of course, we took out from the Louvre (which, by the way, does NOT have an upside down pyramid a la "Da Vinci Code," unless I was blind. But I looked! Now that I have internet though, it appears I was blind!! UPDATE: Dah! We didn't pass it below, but I DID see it from above! It was in the roundabout in front of the museum, which is where I thought it must be. Only thing was...it was covered with a tarp! DAH!) and down to the Obelisque on our way to Arc di Triomphe. Everything at this point looked so close together! As we left the Obelisque to go to the Arc, we realized that we were gravely mistaken about the scale of the city. But the main road to Arc di Triomphe was fantastic, and I kept expecting to see the Apple Store somewhere. I didn't know where it was, but I figured if it was anywhere...it would be on this main promenade.

We finally got to the Arc, not seeing the Apple Store at all. By the time we got to the Arc, it was already quarter after 10. The Arc closes at 11, so we hurried and bought tickets and ran to the top. The view was spectacular. With something like 9 main roads converging at the Arc, you had perfect views of the northwest part of the city and every tall building in the city as well. Absolutely gorgeous.

After being kicked off of the Arc at 10:40 (we protested along with a few others that it was supposed to be open until 11. They had nothing of it, saying that it took twenty minutes to clear the Arc. Bullocks), we took a Metro ride to the Tour d'Eiffel. The Metro stop is a bit away, but we passed some good smelling food on the way over the tower. Of course, we didn't have time to stop because we thought they'd be closing up too. They weren't, but as we got there, we decided that since we saw the city from the Arc at night, we'd go up the tower during the day. So we stopped on the grass and saw the tower sparkle as Batman was getting all the girls. Seriously! You see, I figured I'd try to kiss a french girl under the tower. But Batman stole all the girls. Ugh. Oh well. Probably for the better.

Now we figured we'd just head home to the hotel. We walked to a different Metro stop and jumped the turnstyles to get where we needed to be.

We got home at 1am, unfortunately for Trent. Still hungry, I let Jonathan have the bed and I fell to my sweetest dreams on the floor......

The man took his bag as I struggled to maintain my composure. Where was he going? Why was he causing all this ruckus? Surely somebody would hear him and force him to move out. Turning suddenly, he looked directly into my soul.

"I have to check out at nine," said Trent.

Oh, yeah. The man took his computer out of his bag and went to the free wi-fi downstairs. I rolled over and looked at my phone.

8:00a.

I aroused Jonathan and we proceed to get ready for the day and to repack our bags. You see, I have about six things to put in my bag, so it doesn't take much. I showered quickly, dressed, and then took my bag downstairs. Fortunately for us, the hotel had a room to place our bags until we were ready to depart. Jonathan and I had bought bus tickets the day before. The plan originally was to rent a car from Brussels, but that just didn't work out. So now, we had some options: fly to Stuttgart, train to Stuttgart, rent a car for one day to Stuttgart, or take a bus.

I'll pardon the suspense: I'm writing this recap on an overnight bus from Paris to Munich, with a stop in Stuttgart. The benefits were aplenty, so the bus was to leave at 22h (10p) from the same station we picked Jonathan up from.

As we started today, we decided to finish the unfinished business from last night. We were going to take a boat taxi from close by our hotel to the Tour d'Eiffel, but when we found out that it didn't go by Lady Liberty, we decided to Metro on over and see if we could find a boat that did go by. So we got the the Eiffel Tower (for me, this was the third time in three days. I knew that place like my living room), hungry still, but unwilling to pay for crappy tourist food. We got to the Tower and discovered that the very top was closed due to congestion. So we bought the stair tickets and walked up the stairs, first floor then second. It was a fantastic view and we were left alone on the fence of the second platform when it started to downpour. I, of course, love the rain, so I had no problem. It felt wonderful. The rain lasted a bit longer as we enjoyed the view and the experience. The Tower is an intricate piece of art in and of itself. It's pretty neat.

The night before, I had convinced myself that the entire tower was an optical illusion. While it appears to consist of gentle curves of metal until they met at the top, I decided that in actuality, all the main beams in the corners of each pillar (north, south, east and west) were completely straight and looking from below created a perspective image that bent the frame in the eye's image. I spent about a half hour convincing myself of this. I thought it absolutely marvelous to fool soooo many people with such a simply trick, but I thought that it cheapened my personal view of the tower since the calculations and actual production of the tower would have been a lot easier this way.

To my happiness, I was partially wrong. While the beams aren't curved (a difficult procedure, especially in the 1890s), they aren't straight either. Slight deviations from straight occur every 15 or so meters. That way, since they aren't perfect straight, the construction and planning of the Tower gained credence to me again, but I also felt vindicated to see that they still were playing a trick on the eye.

Anyway, when we descended from the 2nd platform, we decided to sit down and decide what we'd do before we left. Of course, when we had been sitting for a few, a pidgeon decided to share it's lunch, breakfast, and probably dinner from the night before with me. That's right. I think for the first time in my life, I got pidgeon-pooped. Jonathan said the Ukrainians think that's good luck. I think Ukrainians need to get pidgeon-pooped more often.

Needless to say, I wasn't happy, but more than unhappy, I was hungry! I wanted to eat on the Eiffel Tower, but decided that would be better with a girl, not my cousin. I think Jonathan agreed and we descended the tower, hoping that the fry guy from the night before (the Fri night fry guy) was there with his delicious smelling fries. Not so!

Instead, we bought some sandwiches from the guy on the corner. That is to say, we bought exactly what we were trying to avoid: overpriced tourist day-old sandwiches. Now, the sandwiches may have been fresh (they tasted fresh), but they were overpriced. Thing is, I didn't care. Jonathan did, but he was hungrier than I was, so we convinced ourself it was okay.

We took the sandwiches and ate them while sitting on La Seine. Our next destination was the small version of the Statue of Liberty. We walked and walked and walked. Finally, after scaling a wall and swimming through the river (not true), we shored up to the mini-Liberty's island. France's Liberty is small, but, I think they're okay with it because they have a little Space Invader alien right under the placquard. Also, they don't have size complexes like we Americans do (you all know that the Statue of Liberty is actually growing...right??? We just can't have it big enough!)

At this point, we were in the middle of nowhere. Well, we were in the middle of somewhere, but that somewhere was not near many things we wanted to see in Paris. I could've went a little north to La Defence and seen some of the architecture there, but our collaborative, yet very spotaneous, planning had us walking to the train to go to Musee d'Orsay, home of impressionists.

The train ran into the closed area of the Metro, so we had to get there by taking a bus too. I liked the museum. A lot. It's a shame more than half was closed (although they did have temporary space to show most of their stuff). But, I will say that Musee d'Orsay is a designer's museum. Between the awesome lines of Van Gogh, and some great paintings from Manet, Monet and everyone else (one of my favorite paintings, "Don Quixote find a dead mule" (excuse my memory...the plaque was in French and I'm having trouble remembing the English name!) of which I took a picture, breaking the Museum's no photo rule!) and THEN the awesome furniture sections, this is a designer's dream for inspiration. I liked this.

Our plan now was to find the artistic quarters of Paris. We got on a Metro to take us to Moulin Rouge, after which we'd hike up to Sacre Coure. This we did. Moulin Rouge is beautiful, although I would have rather gone in for a show! But, we got pictures there, and not wanting to spend 90 Euro just for a peak inside, we took of for Montmartre (Sacre Coure). On our way up, we decided to try the savory crepes. I got an egg, cheese and chicken one, while Jonathan got cheese, chicken and mushrooms. Our crepiere (the guy who makes crepes?? maybe???) was great and really loaded them up. They were delicious, and we both agreed they were better than the sandwiches (although the baguette that the sandwiches were one was great). This held us over quite nicely as we summited onto the grand steps to overlook the entire city of Paris.

While resting on the stairs with lots of other people, we had some great entertainment by a football juggler. He was good. Between breakdancing with the ball pinned at his instep and then climbing up a light post balancing the ball on his head and THEN juggling the ball while holding himself up with one hand, I gave him props. I'll do it again, too! Props, juggler dude! You were great!

(Movie will be uploaded later!)
We then went to find the art. We did, quite quickly. Lots of artists doing portraiture, lots of street art. It was fantastic. But I have 30 more days with just a pack on my back, so, I figured Paris art will have to come some other time. Plus, I don't want to spend my money too fast!

So now, we had to get back to our hotel so we could head to the bus station. As I mentioned, our bus left at 10 o'clock. i figured that we'd have to leave our hotel at 9 in order to get there by 9:30 to get our boarding pass and get on. But it was only barely 8! The night was still young! We were only halfway across the city from our hotel anyways. So obviously we had to detour to the Opera house, since we hadn't seen it.

Lo and behold! Upon approaching the Opera house, I finally found what had eluded me for two days! The Apple Store! I've heard this is one of the coolest ones, so I thought it would be cool to see it, and luck or chance, we had finally found it!

After taking my picture with the concierge, and then Francisco, the security guard, asking me to take one with him too, we ran to the Metro station. It was getting close to 9.

I should've asked to have a French Apple store shirt (it was strangely odd to see French people in those blue shirts...can't explain it!), but in the end it's probably better that I didn't. You see, we got to our hotel a little after 9. We ran out with our packs (it was awful to have those again) and got crepe avec corfiture fraise et apricot. I got the strawberry one. But we had to run! We got into the Metro and thought the fastest way would be by a double transfer from the 10 to the 5 to the 3. Looking back, we probably should've done the single transfer way. We got on the 5 at 9:30--the time we were supposed to be there. We got on the 3 at a little past quarter to. We were late. I, of course, am the king of being late, and I had just the slightest of worries. Jonathan, I think, and he'll have to correct me if I'm wrong, was a little more responsible as far as the worrying went.

You see, I had a plan anyways. If we didn't make the bus, we'd go up to the McCafe (that I had scouted previously) and we'd download a detailed map of the road system. Then, since it was nighttime and cops were less likely to stop us, we'd start hitchhiking, working our way through the night closer and closer to Stuttgart. I figured we'd even might get there sooner!

But, as we got off the 3 at 9:58, we both sprinted toward the International Bus Station. We ran up to the ticket window where we were cursed for being there right at the time we were to leave ("why are you showing up on the hour!!!" was the only thing I got out of the whole exchange...I'm used to that, so I closed my ears). We got our boarding passes and ran to our bus, which, had no driver. Really?! No driver! We're supposed to be leaving, people!

But, he came, eventually, also cursing us as we threw our packs in the bottom of the bus. The bus rolled out slowly, and now here we find ourselves, barrelling through the French backcountry in the middle of the night. We get in at 7am. That means I get about 6 hours of sleep tonight. Yip yip!

Lesson learned tonight. Jonathan told me of a quote he read once, and I figure that not only does it describe my life, but it really described us today. "I find that people who are late are much more jolly in life than those who have to wait for them."

Tonight, we are jolly.

Quick update: I had hoped to post this earlier, so let me catch you up to date. Jonathan and I spent the day relaxing with the Fingerle's in Albershausen. Our bus was an hour late, presumably because the first bus driver was a slow jerk. Haha, but maybe not. We still don't know how we took 10 hours to do 600km, but it could have been because we took breaks every 2 hours. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep.
When we arrived, Pam had been waiting for about an hour, so we trucked it home. Jared was the first of the kids to see me and he ran up and gave me a hug. Not too far behind him came Fabian, who simultaneously draped himself around me as I drug them both inside. It was good to see them.
We had a good afternoon meal, birthday cake (it was Fabian's birthday. I think he liked the Lego I brought him, and I know everybody was excited for "5 gum!") and nap, and at about 9pm decided to go for a walk in the woods. Yes, the woods. You see, Germany is full of them! It's one of my favorite things about this country. So, we got to walking and about a mile into the loop, we saw lightning. Which lead to thunder. Which, of course, leads to rain. A downpour! I love rain, so we ran through it, trying to keep baby Mia covered (it was Jonathan, me, Pam and the baby on the walk). We took a break under a bus stop when the rain really started coming. We knew we were close to home, so the next pause in the rain we took off for home. So good!

Salut, Paris

2010-07-29T17:13:00.000-06:00

So, as my video post explained before, I ended up switching everything up and flying directly to Paris from Salt Lake. Looking back on everything, I'm convinced that this would have been the easier solution from the beginning...I can't remember why we chose Brussels, except that it may have been cheaper at the time.
First of all, let's rewind and talk about business class. I was told that once you flew business internationally, you'd never go back to coach. Unfortunately, my inclination to dirt cheap travel and my pocketbook tell me differently, but my body, mind and soul completely agree. I felt, at first, more out of place there than I did when I accidentally walked into a black-tie event in my speedo (you're right, it never happened, but IMAGINE how I would have felt!), because everything was so proper. They serve the food in glass dishes and give you salad forks...SALAD FORKS! And like three knives. Whatev. Needless to say, it was an enjoyable experience, but since it was non-stop, it was almost too short to enjoy! Still, I enjoyed every minute of it. Especially the cheesecake dessert!
I got off the plane and set out to get into the city and find wi-fi to contact Jonathan, my cousin, who flew into Brussels as we had planned. I got onto the train from the airport (thought about taking the bus to see more of the country side, but who was I kidding! I just got off a posh flight, the bus was the last thing I was going to take.) Not one second later, I was introduced to France by a trendily-clothed man and his spectacular looking trick making out on the train. I'm talking full on French, man! Right in front of everyone! While I half expected them to start taking off clothes and doing the dirty in front of the kids, I realized one thing: these two had passion. Not saying we Americans don't...but well, we don't. We lost that ages ago. Somewhere between having style in the 60s and losing it in the 80s, we also lost our passion.
Paris is the city of love for a reason, and this I've seen. I really have! Everywhere you look, it's love. The Beatles must have adored this city. I do now. Honestly, Paris is one of the best looking cities I've been to. It's clean, everything is beautiful (including the people!), and style is pouring out. I don't even think some of the natives realize how trendy they look. Seriously! It's just a part of these people!
So while Jonathan was scouting Brussels out, I decided to walk around and get my sense of direction. I quickly learned that the Seine runs relatively east to west. That helps. Except you don't know where it is, unless you know where you are, so....maybe not so much help. Regardless, I did as much as I could with a pack on: visited the steps of the Pantheon (free wi-fi!), checked out Jardin du Luxembourg (where I took a nap while kids played soccer around me), then jaunted over to Notre Dame where I couldn't go in because of my pack but was treated to a German Rastafarian band behind the cathedral...with free wi-fi! I decided then to go to the Eiffel Tower, stopping by Hotel de Invalides on the way over. I didn't spend too much time at these places, instead focusing on learning my way around. I feel like I did a pretty good job, and that I know my general way around the south half of downtown Paris. Not bad for a day!
But...then I had to find a place to stay. Where would I do that? My couchsurfer friends had let me down, and I didn't know where to go. But, where there're people, there's a good chance that you know someone! Well, at least, there's a good chance that you know someone who knows someone who knows someone who happens to be in that place you are! Which is what happened. When I told my friend Meghan that we didn't have a place to stay, she contacted her people. One friend of hers lives in London and informed us that a friend of hers, Trent, was arriving in Paris the same day as I. After e-mailing round the gauntlet, I finally got an email back from him at 11pm tonight, assuring me that I had a place to stay. Woot woot! And THAT is why I don't plan! You can never have such great luck on the fly if you plan *everything* out. (Note: I really am being sarcastic. I promise! But that doesn't mean I don't love the rush of spontaneity or the crunch of figuring out what to do in a foreign place...that's my own type off drug!)
So now, I leave you all. I meet up with Jonathan tomorrow at noon-ish, then we'll be together for the rest of the trip. I'll miss being on my own, actually, but it'll be good to have a comrade with me.
Ciao!

There are some pics on facebook, by the way! Here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=192880&id=620687279&l=ccf4293991

Plane to Nowhere

2010-07-29T17:11:00.001-06:00

Today, a vlog post, courteous iPhone 4, iMovie for iPhone, aaaaaand Delta

UPDATE 2: Here`s the video

(There's a video, obviously that goes here...but the internet is dying over here! You'll see it in a bit, hopefully! Here's the gist: didn't get on my flight to Atlanta, ended up flying straight from Salt Lake City to Paris! Jonathan is still flying to Brussels. I say in the video that I'll arrive at 11.50 at night, but see the update below! I'm funnier in the movie, I promise, but I have to post my next post, so, I had to get this up too.)

(I'm sorry for the quality...one, front facing camera makes it easier for me. Two, I had to rotate the whole thing [thanks iMovie!] because I forgot to record it landscape...sorry!)

UPDATE: Yeah, so I was excited, and I think I said I'd be in Paris tonight. Not true! I'll be arriving at 11 in the am, just enough time for my cousin, Jonathan, to start the drive from Brussels to Paris!

Cats Got the Tongue

2010-07-07T23:55:00.001-06:00

I am good.

Those three words elicit in me so much confidence, it might be considered over the legal limit. I try not to be cocky, but, well, let's be honest. If you know me, I joke about my cockiness often, and like I said before, joke's are half-truths. But, there's nothing wrong with being confident.

Back in High School (did I just capitalize that? Sure did!), I was walking away from a football game once--in the dark--and I heard a voice from behind yell, "Tyler! Slow down!" I had no idea who it was. I slowed down, but didn't turn. Again, "Tyyyyyyyler!"

Ugh.

I turned around and saw who was calling my name. I chuckled and asked the girl how she knew it was me. "It's the way you walk. You walk with confidence."

I've been complimented often about my air of confidence. People always notice, and some have been turned on by it. You know the ones. And, usually, I'm really good about the whole facade.

But the problem with an air of confidence, is that usually, that's all it is: air. Hot air. Thin air. Good old fashioned air. Good for breathing, good for wifi, and good for flying really fast in. Yep. Air.

Don't get me wrong, I like breathing! And I like feeling confident, or at least convincing others that I am, because it really helps you accomplish great things. But when it's one of the many masks you wear, sometimes you can get knocked off of your feat and all of that confidence comes crashing down, shattering like glass in a Hollywood movie.

(Pause for the image of glass crashing all around some generic Ethan Hawke-like actor looking up at light. Maybe even pan around him, Matrix-style, as the glass is bouncing back up. Use your imagination, that's what it's there for.)

I always hated this feeling. When somebody knocked me off the confidence ladder, I immediately felt insecure. I couldn't speak. I hated it.

Then suddenly, as your confidence builds back up and you're flying high, somebody comes and knocks you down hard. You stumble over the simplest phrases. You make awkward moves. You freak out and start planning everything in your head: "I should say this in this order and then she might do this and I'll then have the perfect opportunity to not make a fool of myself." But something's different. You still make a fool of yourself: but you're not freaking out. They've done something not many succeed at doing. They take you out of comfortable, yet you don't complain.

One day, you hope to say the things you planned on saying. One day, you hope that your confidence will rise again. But for now, for one small moment, you are okay being stripped bare .

After all, I always liked being naked.

Our Boys

2010-06-26T20:33:00.001-06:00

World Cup.
Two words that are ominous, dramatic, heartbreaking.
For the USA Men's National Team, the 2010 World Cup will ultimately be remembered more tenderly than most. More tenderly than 1998 when they went home ranked the worst of the tournament. More tenderly than 2006 when, after the best run in modern history (2002) we went home from the tournament early after tying the eventual champions. But ultimately, I think, in the end, this year will be remembered as a disappointment.
Stay with me here.
I realize that 2010 brought us our first win out of group play, even over England. Yeah, I get that. I understand that 2010 showed us how resilient our boys were, coming back and beating (yes, I said it) Slovenia, overcoming Algeria in the final minutes, and fighting back to force Ghana into extra time. Point taken. I can see how US Soccer will be forever changed with immense support from the homeland. These are all amazing feats, and they are really something we have to recognize and applaud.
But, when it comes down to it, this 2010 World Cup showed how much the USMNT has to grow.
England and USA. The favorites of the group. We overcame adversity, sure, but that adversity was self-afflicted. It does show a strong team psyche when you did what we did, that's a plus, but it shows weak character when the mistakes are committed over and over again.
You see, we can compete with any country in the world. Don't believe me? Look around! We beat the world number ones 2-0 last year (Spain), we fought down to the wire for a draw against the inventors of the game (England), and we held a 2-0 advantage to the men who perfected the game in our first international final last year (Brasil).
So what the hell is the problem?
After Our Boys ruined my weekend (the result seemingly had no effect on other fans watching the game), I think I've realized one of the issues. In all of our (U.S. soccer supporters) efforts to bring the joy of the game to more and more people around us, I think we've become soft towards the 'Nats results. Nowhere in the country will you read a newspaper tomorrow with interviews criticizing the poor performance out of the gates. You will read of how the U.S. has played "dramatically" and with "resilience." There will be no talk or rumor of a manager change (if there is, it will be soft), and overall, I believe the supporters will pat the boys on the back and say, "Well, done, men, you made it past group play, it was exciting, and maybe you'll have a better go at it in four years!"
(And no, MSNBC/Lovgren, this should NOT be considered a success.)
It's repulsive.
I'm not saying that we should all react like the French or the Italians after their (in my eyes, fitting) early departures. But maybe a little bite would help. We should be questioning Bradley's choice of Ricardo Clark after a fantastic performance by Maurice Edu. We should be asking ourselves why Edson Buddle, arguably the hottest American player on the team at the moment, saw 20 minutes of playing time out of the entire tournament. We should be wondering out loud why Carlos Bocanegra didn't electrify and fortify our back four. Why did Jozy Altidore perform so poorly? Why didn't he finish any of his chances? Why is Salt Lake's beloved Findley missing a 1v1 with the keeper? This is the world stage, and while we had a dramatic run, it was rather embarrassing the way Ghana was passing around us while we all stood around today. It was embarrassing that we finished and played with aggression only when we were cornered into it. It was embarrassing that we are going home today.
Look. Landon, Tim, Clint...every single one of you: I loved watching your enthusiasm. I loved seeing your heart when it came out on the field. I loved watching every game you all played. I love our boys. But it's the hardest love there is, and the fact that we're out at 16 makes it that much harder.
U.S. supporters: we have a job to do. No more cheering at results that were great 4, or even 8 years ago. We must come to expect solid play. We must expect precision finishes. We must expect glory. Each and every game we play, we must expect to win. There's no reason for losing anymore.
We have become the force of CONCACAF. People laugh at the weakness of our conference. They should laugh no more, because we should give them reason to be quiet.

June

2010-06-09T15:04:00.000-06:00

Part of my struggle with maintaining my blog was a personal debate between myself and...me. I couldn't adequately determine how much this "blog" would be a window into my own life—into my soul, if you will.
I still don't know if I've answered that question. I revel in mystery. I have made myself enigmatic. It's really been a goal of mine to shroud myself in the unknown. Usually I mention this as a joke, but we all know that jokes like this are born from reality.
If you ask my close friends, they may or may not agree with me (especially as of late, but that's a different matter). But I'm fairly certain that after an honest assessment, each one could say that I try.
I suppose I do it for a number of reasons. First and foremost, I think we all have a too strong a propensity to immediately judge other people. We judge their intentions, we judge their beliefs, we judge their looks—all of it. I can honestly say this just makes me want people to misjudge me, so one day I can show just how skewed our prejudices were, and maybe, through embarrassment perhaps, encourage us all to think twice before judging people.
Secondly, it's sexy.
For my third reason, I will point to privacy. When you are not forthright with everyone, you hold "secrets." Whether they're really secret or not, it's something that you have that others don't. It's a very powerful feeling.
I'm sure there are other reasons, but lately—and this is what has led to my personal debate—I've wondered if I haven't become a mystery unto myself. I'm trying to be more open about what I feel. I have protected my feelings for a long time, refusing to let anybody know them, but I feel now, that it's time for me to learn how to describe them—even if it's to myself. It's difficult.
My desire to be an enigma has caused me to have cultivated some amazing skills, one of which is empathy. I've learned to truly put myself in others situations, because I can project those situations onto me, a blank canvas.
But ultimately where does that put me, the canvas?

Hello out there?!

2010-04-13T20:25:00.000-06:00

Wow. This may have been my longest leave of absence. I don't feel like it's quite time to re-enter the blogosphere. I think I'll take my Conan-break. Actually, for those of you who care about social networking, I've decided to reinvigorate my twitter account, zoti_soli. For those of you who don't understand twitter, try it for a few days, and it'll make sense.
Anyway, I figure that I could at least give you a partial update on things in my life. I'm floating under the radar for a bit...I think...until school is out. I've had an incredible difficult time as of late focusing on things, and it really bothers me, so I'm figuring out what the best way is to go about recovering from that. Maybe meditation, maybe some holistic approach...maybe a trip to the beach. I thought Honduras would help clear my mind, but I discovered that my tendency to always find something to be too busy with follows me even to the most remote places on this earth.
In the past two weeks I've begun to care about my networking presence on the web (perhaps/hence the twitter resurrection?). Part of this is becoming extremely active in the CouchSurfing community. If you don't know what that is, you should. And to answer your question, you don't understand. It's much more frightening to be in their shoes than mine (as a host), and you can be quite discriminating while still helping people out. Anyway, I hosted a Scot last week. Bernie was a great surfer and was very independent. He walked all over Salt Lake. I picked him up at the Greyhound station on Easter night, and he left that Thursday. It didn't seem very long at all, which is to say we enjoyed having him around. Yesterday, I picked up Roman from the Flying J his cousin dropped him off at on their cross-country big-rig ride. Roman is from the Czech Republic, and we had a lot to talk about, since we've both lived in Eastern Europe. I really enjoyed Roman, and was heart-broken that while he was in Boston, he was mugged twice within 10 minutes. Great hospitality. He was nervous when he got here, but after he explained why, I decided that I would do whatever I could to help him. I helped him get his rental car this morning as he was determined to make it to beautiful Southern Utah and all of the national parks. He had a pure heart, and I'm truly grateful that we are good friends. To think that within 15 hours, two people could have such a bond...amazing.
Anyway, that's all I have to say for now. My absence will probably resume until I feel adequate to manage my blog again.
Until then.

Honduras

2010-03-30T16:39:00.001-06:00

For those of you who thought I couldn't go a day without being connected: I went 12. Haha.
I'm back, and I have many stories to tell. Perhaps over the next few days I will write about my experiences. Check back.

Results of the Oscar Ballots!

2010-03-09T20:51:00.003-07:00

Man, I wish I had bet on Sunday's awards. As you know, I created a ballot and posted it on facebook, Google Buzz, as well as e-mailed it to a group of people. I sent it out quite late Saturday night, so I wasn't sure how many responses I'd get. I ended up having 24 people fill it out (I had to twist some arms here and there, but mostly, I think people wanted a shot at the prize). Oh yeah, the prize. I am picking it up in Honduras next week. So....yeah. Good prize for no entry fee, right?
There were some interesting trends I saw in the ballot results. First, EVERYONE knew Avatar would win for Visual Effects. Also, Avatar and Inglourious Basterds tied for everyone's favorite movie of the year.
So, the results. Scores were weighted based on how easy I thought the category was. For example, Visual Effects had only three nominees, and the other two were fighting Avatar: 1 point. Documentary Feature: 5 points. There was a logical method to the scoring, but I won't go into that.
Oh, and I also filled out two ballots. I filled one out according to what I figured the Academy would vote, and then I filled one out based on who I thought should win. Good thing my ballots don't count, because they did pretty well. On my first--the what WOULD win ballot--I scored a 62 (out of 73 possible), which means I guessed the Academy's vote on 21 of the 24 categories! On my second, I scored a 27, or got 9/24 right. Haha, I don't know what that means.
But, onto the winner! First place overall was my sister Shawnee. She got a cool 50% right, for 38 points, so hip-hip for her!
Her are the rest of the results:

Shawnee, 38 points
Aunt Karen, 31
Brad, 28
Brady, 26
Meghan, 25
Leremy, 24
Abby, 22 (Tied, even after tiebreaker with Austin F)
Austin F, 22
Lance, 22
Josh and Krissey, 21
Chad P, 20
Rufus Sputtlenuck (Matt), 20
Casey D, 19 (Tied, even after tiebreaker with Andrea)
Andrea, 19
Chase, 18 (And, no, Chase, only 5 speeches were cut short, not all of them)
Max, 17
Stephanie M, 15
Michael L, 14
Lejdja, 14
Kelby S, 13
Jeff Dove, 9
Ken T, 7

OK Go Makes Me Happy Once More

2010-03-05T12:27:00.000-07:00

60 tries, 40 volunteers, 20 bowling balls, 10 broken tvs, 5 sledgehammers, 4 paint guns , 3 completed shots, 2 days, 1 take and no cuts. Brilliant.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

2010-03-02T14:05:00.005-07:00

As a senior in High School, they asked, "who's your hero?"
I thought on the spot, but the names numbered zero!
I thought a bit more, alas! one I adore:
Dr. Seuss! Dr. Seuss! He was never a bore!
Odd choice, at the time, but the reason's quite clear:
Dr. Seuss understood! Hence I hold him so dear.

And my favorite quote, especially as of late:

"Be who you are and say what you feel,
because those who mind don't matter,
and those who matter don't mind."

-Dr. Seuss

The Sun is Shining

2010-02-25T11:54:00.003-07:00

Wow. I don't usually wear my emotions on my sleeve, and I definitely don't usually use my blog as a place to share them. I try to make my blog about things: politics, art, life--things we can all talk about. But I take advantage of the fact that anyone who reads it is voluntarily here. I try my hardest to post things that are honest. I put a lot of effort in verifying anything I put on here. I encourage people to discuss and show me my weaknesses and my mistakes. But if you don't like what you read, you're welcome to ignore it and leave. You won't hurt my feelings, and I hope in the short time we shared I didn't hurt yours.
Recently, I've had to make a lot of difficult decisions. I've been placed in situations where before I would have avoided. I realized, however, that if I continually refused to respond to these situations, I would simply continue to be placed in them. They're uncomfortable, they're life-changing, but they're important.
Not all of these situations are bad. In fact, I would argue that most are good experiences, and I'm sure many of you have been in the same position before. True, some were more difficult than others, but as soon as I decided to go headfirst into a few, I knew I had to go headfirst into them all or I would never have felt as though I conquered my fears of them.
For all the difficulty I've endured, I've been offered great opportunity for happiness in return. My mom e-mailed me today with a story I felt I could share with everyone. It's a story that's very dear to me, although I'm sure the people involved have no idea of its impact--just as I was unaware of the impact I had on them before.
She shares:
"Talked to V M this morning. She was telling me about a New Beginnings for Young Women [a program for teenage girls that teaches about the purpose of the LDS Young Women's program] that she attended last night in which a girl who is 13 talked to the girls about her trials with cancer when she was 7.

She went on and said that the moment things started to look up for her was when the Fremont [High School] Boy's Soccer team all shaved their heads for her that day, when she was at her worse. Her mom then talked and said that, that moment was the best time for her. And when V heard that you were part of that, she wanted me to share that with you."

This is so cliché, but I don't know how to describe the feeling I had when I read that. I'm relatively young, but I've been granted so many opportunities to serve people and help them be happy. The pain I feel when I see people focusing on the negative in life and in others to the point that they cannot posses an honest happiness for themselves and others is so visceral that I physically shake. I don't know how else to explain it, and I'm not sure I understand why this is so.

It's funny, this morning was dreary and on the drive to work I though to myself, "Wow, the weather is acting just how I feel." And I'm looking out the window and now the sun is shining.

Human Chain - Brian Beletic

2010-02-16T15:17:00.000-07:00

Here's an awesome short, featuring the Jazz's very own Deron Williams. Word has it, it took Director Brian Beletic over two years to complete, and his thoroughness and attention to detail surely show through. Awesome!

Why are you so terribly disappointing?

2010-02-10T19:43:00.000-07:00

I've noticed for a few years now that even as the world is becoming closer, even as peace and technology make huge strides in our everyday lives, there are people who encourage all of us to think that our world is on a death spiral into chaos and oblivion. What sucks, is, it's working. I can't even number the people who in the last week have told me in one way or another that because ONE thing is happening, we can expect destruction of our society tomorrow.
Now, I'm not naive. There are legitimate concerns. But compare what we're doing today from 50 years ago? It's not even a fair comparison!
Mark Morford of the San Francisco Chronicle writes such a compelling article, I'd thought I'd share it:

What happened to my bonus? What happened to my job? What happened to my country? Why can't it all go the way it's supposed to go? You mean having a kid won't solve my marriage problems? Why don't these drugs make me feel better? Where's that goddamn waiter with my salad? Have you seen the stupid weather today? Is this really all there is?

These are, from what I can glean, the most important questions of the day, of the month, of modern life itself. Hell, what with the economy and job situation, the housing market and the overall feel and texture of the nation right now, it's no wonder Americans are, by and large, a goddamn miserable bunch. We don't like anything right now. No politician, no decision, no situation, no inhale, no exhale. We are sick to death of all of it, including ourselves.

Can you blame us? Have you seen how many things there to be disappointed about these days? Love. Sex. Marriage. Stock market. God. Gas mileage. Death. Air travel. 5/9ths of the Supreme Court. It's all just a big goddamn letdown. The list is endless. And getting endlesser.

The evidence is everywhere. I calculate it took about seven minutes, give or take, after Steve Jobs finished introducing the shinypretty iPad before the whiny attacks on the wondergizmo began flooding in, how it didn't have this or that expected feature, how it can't do live video chat, doesn't have Flash, the bezel is too big and it won't double as a meat thermometer, how it doesn't really revolutionize much of anything despite how it's, you know, this gorgeous 1.5-pound slab of aluminum and glass that works flawlessly and can perform roughly one thousand tasks in a more fluid and astonishing way than any device of its kind in history.

Read the rest of it here.

Nuit Blanche

2010-02-10T10:38:00.000-07:00

Absolutely fantastic short film, Nuit Blanche, plus, an awesome howdtheydothat making-of video to go with it!

Jon Stewart on Bill O'Reilly

2010-02-08T17:15:00.000-07:00

One hour of Jon Stewart, one on one, with Bill O'Reilly. I personally think Stewart handled O'Reilly quite well with his mixture of seriousness and satire. It's hilarious to me that O'Reilly really has become the level-headed mouth of Fox News. Haha.

Brett's Brain: America's Great. Except for the South.

2010-02-05T14:01:00.001-07:00

Forgive me if I'm wrong Brett, but I think this is continuing series!
Obviously, I don't want to offend my Southern readers (coincidentally, those that I know of aren't originally from the South, but that doesn't matter anyways), but from one undervoiced citizen living in a politically-stupid state to another: your politicians suck just as bad as mine. Brett posts:

Alabama Senator Richard Shelby (R) blocking ALL Obama nominations:
Over defense pork projects . . . Tell me again why it's the Democrats who are irresponsibly bringing us to ruin? It's definitely time to change the Senate rules.
Shelby is holding Obama's nominees hostage until a pair of lucrative programs that would send billions in taxpayer dollars to his home state get back on track. The two programs Shelby wants to move forward or else:
- A $40 billion contract to build air-to-air refueling tankers . . .

- An improvised explosive device testing lab for the FBI . . .

John Marshall:
In this case, we're not dealing with a stand on partisanship or ideology or simple political shiv play which I guess can each be respected in their own place. This is more like just a stick up. Gimme my money and I'll give you your Senate back! Worse than a squeegee man and not much better than a bank robber, Shelby is shutting down the president's ability to appoint anyone to anything until he gets his way.

For Obama-haters who happen to float on the right, this is a big black eye in my opinion for your whole party.
[Brett's Brain]

Feynman on Magnetism

2010-02-03T02:35:00.002-07:00

I love this. I'm sure to varying degree we've all tried to explain something that is, at least to us, so elementary, that there is just no other way to explain it. I feel like that when I attempt to explain ANY physical phenomena to two certain friends whom I will not name here. Haha, anyway! Gotta love Richard Feynman anyway!

[thanks kottke.org]

How To Report the News

2010-02-01T17:25:00.007-07:00

Perfect.

A Move to Amend

2010-01-24T16:23:00.000-07:00

A glaring mark on democracy?
A shining example of checks and balances?
A shot of heroin into corporate America?
A constitutional diminishing of man and his freedom?

Whatever you thought about this past week's Supreme Court decision, you should at least read and consider signing this petition--aimed to:

Firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.
Guarantee the right to vote and to participate, and to have our votes and participation count.
Protect local communities, their economies, and democracies against illegitimate "preemption" actions by global, national, and state governments.

[www.movetoamend.org]

Propaganda, Reason, Passion, Obama

2010-01-20T23:33:00.000-07:00

I've been enjoying some great posts on BoingBoing from ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive, watching all sorts of great archived animation, from Mighty Mouse to incredibly obscure and unknown animations. I've really enjoyed the last two posts, and I figured I'd link to them here:

The concept of propaganda is widely misunderstood. Many people automatically assume that it's a negative thing. But propaganda is just a tool that can be used for either good or bad. Propaganda involves bypassing the intellect and appealing directly to emotion to motivate a group of people to action.

While there are many people appealing purely to our emotions nowadays, I don't have to stop and think long to think of the main transgressors. It's my desire that reason not be put in the back seat like it has in so many discussions I've been involved with lately. They both have a spot, but give reason the controls, people, please.
[WWI and WWII Propaganda Posters]
[In Praise of Passion]

Also interesting, Tom Junod's piece in Esquire about the type of leader Barack Obama is. Basically, and the article is great, it talks about how Obama is a true father figure. I hate just to use long excerpts--you should read it yourself--but there's a few poignant points I want to include.

Your example is your authority. Positive discipline does not mean no discipline; it means that discipline is a matter of teaching mutual respect, rather than making your child suffer. "Children do better when they feel better, not worse," is what it says on my kitchen cabinet, and so when faced with intransigence, parents have to respond by stating their expectations, repeating the rules, and then giving their children the love and support they need to follow them. Always try to include, rather than isolate; avoid labels; don't negotiate, but don't escalate, either. If your children are not doing well, either take them out of the situation or remove yourself. You — and they — can always try again.
It is a philosophy that could have been minted by Cass Sunstein, the White House advisor who is developing ways to "nudge" citizens to make the right choices without them being aware of the manipulation. It could serve as a précis for how Obama has dealt with Joe Wilson, not to mention Skip Gates and Sergeant Jim Crowley, not to mention Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was never threatened but rather told to "think carefully" while answering the protests of the Iranian presidential election with the truncheon and the gallows. One could almost hear Obama saying, "Use your words, Mahmoud. Use your words."
...
Barack Obama, then, is not the agent of change; he's the fulfillment of a change that is already occurring culture-wide, in every place but politics. That's why the Republicans fear him so much; why, while waiting for him to fail, they just come off as the political party for people who want to hit their kids.

Take a look here.

Chinese Censorship

2010-01-15T01:22:00.000-07:00

Censoring "Mein Kampf" AND lds.org???!!! C'mon China! (Oh, and a personal favorite? It censors en.wikipedia.org/wiki/tiananmen_square_protests_of_1989, once again continuously denying history as we know it...)

Albuquerque and Londyn

2010-01-12T23:27:00.001-07:00

I had a great chance to go down to visit my brother and sister-in-law in Albuquerque this past week. They just welcomed a baby girl into their home, and, well, she's a pretty good looking baby (not all babies are this good looking, you see.)
Thought I'd post some pics. Some might be repetitive...I forgot I had my camera until my last day there!

Just a note: the reason they're kinda grainy is because Picasa doesn't have great RAW support. I'll clean them up and re-upload them soon.

Orson Welles on Privacy (55 Years Ago)

2010-01-12T12:25:00.000-07:00

An excellent and prescient view of privacy by the man, Orson Welles. Whole transcript here. If you have heard Welles speak, try to read it with his voice in mind...it's great.
Excerpt:

Think of all of those forms we have to fill out, for example, you know what I mean, by police forms, we get them in hotels, on frontiers, in every country all over the world we’re asked, state your sex, male or female, for example. Well obviously, I’m a male, I’m a man, why should I have to answer that? State your race and religion in block letters; well, now why should I have to confide my religion to the police? Frankly, I don’t think anybody’s race is anybody’s business. I’m willing to admit that the policeman has a difficult job, a very hard job, but it’s the essence of our society that the policeman’s job should be hard. He’s there to protect, protect the free citizen, not to chase criminals, that’s an incidental part of his job. The free citizen is always more of a nuisance to the policeman that the criminal. He knows what to do about the criminal...

Especially timely with all the TSA talk going around. Basically, I would have to agree with Welles here. Government should protect the free citizen, not chase the offenders of that freedom. Government knows how to punish the criminal, but it still does not know what to do with the free man.

The Third & The Seventh

2010-01-12T12:00:00.000-07:00

If you haven't seen Avatar, you still might be convinced that CG hasn't crossed the Uncanny Valley quite yet, you should do two things. First, go watch Avatar (IMAX 3D will do), and second, watch this CG animated surrealist film about architecture. It's long, so if you don't have time, skip towards the middle. It's all CG.

2009 Lists

2010-01-04T23:58:00.001-07:00

Here are my lists of 2009. Best of's are in no particular order...that's just not the way I work.
My Year in Cities (2009)
Lake Winnipesaukee, NH
New York, NY*
Salt Lake City, UT*
Moralillos, Peru
Cuzco, Peru
Frankfurt, Germany
Marsberg, Germany
Albershausen, Germany
Albuquerque, NM
Green River, WY
Des Moines, IA
Chicago, IL
(At least one night was spent in each place. A (*) denotes multiple visits.)

Most Anticipated Movies of 2010
Inception
Alice in Wonderland
Toy Story 3
Shutter Island
The Lovely Bones
Prince of Persia
Iron Man 2
Robin Hood
Green Zone
The Materese Circle
Bonus: The Tree of Life

Best Mainstream 2009 Flicks
Up
Up In The Air
A Serious Man
Avatar
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Sin Nombre (mainstream? maybe not)
The Hangover
Star Trek
(500) Days of Summer
(and a shout out to Public Enemies and The Informant!)

Up and Coming Actors to Watch in 2010 (mostly turned into a keep-an-eye-on list)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Been around for a while, but he's finally making a stand as a GREAT entertainer...just follow that link!)
Zooey Deschanel
Ellen Page (I suppose her Academy nomination should also preclude her from this list)
Sam Worthington
Zoe Saldana
Saoirse Ronan
James McAvoy
Sharlto Copley

Alright, well, I had a few more lists, but I'm already 5 days late with this as written, so we'll just leave it here. Let me know if you agree or disagree!

All You Need Is Love

2010-01-01T20:42:00.000-07:00

Doesn't matter that Starbucks commissioned this--it's great anyhow. A while back, I posted the Stand By Me video. Yeah, you know the one. The one recorded in many many places with a so-called "virtual" studio. That was awesome.
This is no-less awesome. 156 countries (including Albania, in true over the TOP fashion [me ben shume qejfi, if you get that pun]) singing The Beatles' All You Need Is Love. At the same time. Starting at 1:30pm GMT on December 7, all the musicians started to sing at the same tempo. What results is a fantastic show of musicianship and showmanship--not to mention some awesome culture thrown in the mix.
Hoping to raise awareness of AIDS in Africa for the (RED) foundation, I think Starbucks did a noble job.
[Starbucks Love Project]

Dubai Skyline

2009-12-31T00:01:00.003-07:00

You all know how I love cityscapes and skyscrapers, so this should have been obvious. Of course, hit HD and enjoy! (There's even a 1080p version available, but it appears you have to watch it on YouTube's site...)

UPular

2009-12-29T10:30:00.004-07:00

Is it that obvious I've been out of school for the past week? Haha.
Check out an awesome mix-mash of UP, Pixar's great movie this year. It's fun.

UPDATE: Apparently, Disney Pixar is actually supporting Pogo's remix! Yay!

Time to Fire the TSA

2009-12-28T15:51:00.000-07:00

Joel Johnson from Gizmodo writes a piece about the failed TSA experiment and why it needs to go.
Excerpt:

There is no other way to interpret it: The TSA is saying clearly that they can't prevent terrorists from getting explosives on airplanes, but by god, they'll make sure those planes only explode when the TSA says it's okay.

I want our government to prevent terrorism and to make flights safer. But we are spending billions of dollars and man-hours to fight a threat that is less likely to kill a traveler than being struck by lightning. In the last decade, according to statistician Nate Silver, there has been "one terrorist incident per 11,569,297,667 miles flown [the] equivalent to 1,459,664 trips around the diameter of the Earth, 24,218 round trips to the Moon, or two round trips to Neptune." (Sadly, this does mean that in the future we can expect one out of every two round-trip flights to Neptune to be hijacked.)

I have to say I agree. I fly to random places, and I've been through the sketchiest security checkpoints to ridiculous ones (I misplaced my Swiss Army knife into my carry-on instead of checking it in, got through security just fine, but try flying through Miami right after 9/11--every bag we packed was thoroughly checked). I have never felt safer or unsafe, mostly inconvenienced, annoyed, and most importantly, misled. TSA wants passengers to feel safe--this is its whole charade. But what happens when passengers feel safe, but really aren't safe?
If you haven't checked out some of my older postings on the topic, there's some interesting stuff in them (also included are links to the original articles which prompted my postings):
-Our Security in the Homeland
--The Things He Carried (Atlantic)
-Tuesday Update Strikes Back!
--TSA "behavior detection" is wrong more than 99 percent of the time (BoingBoing)

It doesn't work. Let's move on.

Skhizein - Amazing French Animated Short

2009-12-26T11:50:00.000-07:00

A well animated short with a very intriguing plot. This was in the International Short Film competition for Sundance 2009. Bien fait, Jérémy Clapin.

Brett's Brain: China Wrecked the Copenhagen Deal

2009-12-23T19:52:00.001-07:00

Brett shares a fantastic link:

Mark Lynas, guardian.co.uk: How do I know China wrecked the Copenhagen deal? I was in the room
China's strategy was simple: block the open negotiations for two weeks, and then ensure that the closed-door deal made it look as if the west had failed the world's poor once again. And sure enough, the aid agencies, civil society movements and environmental groups all took the bait.

America and the West definitely need to start forming a stronger strategy for China...

Stem Cells Cure Blind Man

2009-12-23T19:40:00.001-07:00

Welcome future.
Can I just shout two somethings right now? First, stem cells. STEM CELLS! Second, isn't it quite interesting that this happened in England? IN ENGLAND you blimey scoundrels who paint state-run medicine as the antithesis to innovation. Just saying.
UPDATE: I want to clarify that I'm not blatantly correlating state-run health-care with innovation, especially in the research field--I'm merely trying to silence the claim that a single-payer system would *inhibit* innovation. And while we're all free to draw our own conclusions, I would like note that in my observations, the US hasn't produced or furthered a new technology in health-care that has been extremely notable in a long time.

The Fight Against Movie Talkers

2009-12-23T13:17:00.000-07:00

Completely agree. I have become a pretty good shot with popcorn and concession packaging.

6-Inch Voices, Or Group Humiliation
I know I'm coming off rude already. The occasional quiet comment to the person beside you, that's totally fine by me. But If I can hear you from over two seats away, chances are, you need to shut the **** up (throughout life, possibly, but definitely in the theater).

It's Time for Us to Fight Back Against Movie Theater Talkers

rRan

2009-12-23T13:15:00.001-07:00

Climate Change, Evolution, and What We Sound Like

2009-12-20T18:23:00.001-07:00

It's always an interesting task to me to characterize a language. Example: what does Xhosa sound like to you? (Clicky?) Finnish? (guttural perhaps?) Estonian? (drunken finnish)
I think I find it interesting because Albanian initially sounded (I think, if my memory isn't failing me) very "k-ish." Haha, I don't know if that makes sense, but I heard lots of "kuhs" and "chuhs" in the language I couldn't understand. But now that I can speak it, I can't hear what I used to. Instead, I hear words and things and objects and actions (if you speak another language, perhaps that makes sense to you?)
So, it was to my absolute delight to hear what English might sound like to foreigners in this uncanny and delightful Italian video from the 70s. The first time I heard this, my mind WAS trying to understand it, and not to mention that this video is just plain hot:

To wrap up, I read two AMAZING articles: one on evolution/human history, and one on climate change (it's actually more about making a change, but climate change is the centerpiece). I thought they were well written and in general represented a viewpoint that I highly agree with (especially about making a change) and I thought I'd share it all with you! They're very fantastic and not too long. Here are some excerpts:

See, humans today may look pretty different from one another but, genetically speaking, there's not much diversity at all within our species. In fact, chimpanzees, which look pretty much the same from one individual to the next, are much more genetically diverse than we are. To scientists, that suggests that humans have come through a genetic bottleneck--a point where our numbers shrunk dramatically, and a relatively small population had to rebuild the species.

"How Shellfish Save the Human Race" - BoingBoing

But if you look at the impact of those emissions reductions in the scope of the world, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if I make the decision not to fly. That's not gonna stop the plane. The plane's still flying. Even if the ski industry eliminated all our emissions, we're still out of business by 2050 or 2100 because of the climate.
So what do you do? You gotta fix the whole system.
...
They want me to do rinky dink stuff like bamboo foors and recycling, and I tell them it doesn't matter, that their personal actions don't matter because the problem's too big. That pisses people off — they get mad at me and say every little bit helps. But every little bit doesn't help because the problem's too big. If everyone who was so inclined did every little thing from the Prius to the bulb, we still wouldn't solve this problem. It's gotta be a global mandate, not a voluntary thing. My day is full of people getting furious at me. Last week I had to send the FBI some death threats I was getting about calling the governor of Utah willfully ignorant on climate. This is war. This is a combat situation. and it's gonna hurt people the way wars hurt people. I like to say, we're gonna have to break things and hurt people to make this happen. Just being straightorward and truthful about these things instead of glossing and deluding people is incredibly valuable.
...
What if I said, you know what, I can't justify being here at this five star hotel. I'm gonna go to the peace corps and work on putting photovoltaic installations in Samoa. What have I done? I've essentially made myself powerless. I've changed this from being about climate to being about me personally.

"What a Luxury Ski Resort is Doing to Solve Climate Change" - BoingBoing

And Finals Were Done

2009-12-17T10:17:00.004-07:00

Yes. I have finally finished the semester from Hell. 19 credit hours compressed into 3 days a week. Major ugh. But I'm done, and I screamed and yelled at the top of my lungs the whole car ride home from my last final.
I got home, and I was shaking because I was so relieved, so, naturally, I came to find a most fantastic video. It's so interesting and makes me feel insignificant and yet at the same time, a wielder of fantastic power. Take a look. (Turn on HD and fullscreen this baby!)

The Future Is Coming!!

2009-12-06T13:24:00.004-07:00

I remember, I think, seeing this at Tomorrowland in 1998 on our family vacation to Disneyland. I thought it was funny then, and I think it's hilarious now. But it also reminds me that there was a time when peoples' imagination for the future was running rampant, and the sciences that were known then (I love the "push-button interface"), while being simplistic, opened their eyes for so much more. Do we still have that love for innovation? If not, what's getting in our way?

Babies

2009-12-05T16:09:00.001-07:00

All right, so I'm really excited to become an uncle (any day now!!) But even so, I think this documentary would have been appealing to me anyways. It looks very well done, and the subject matter is, well, not so infantile.

OK Go - WTF?

2009-12-02T02:49:00.000-07:00

You gotta love playing with the strobe effect. We do this sometimes with our live video switcher when we're setting up campus video events and have 6 screens going. It's quite fun. Lovely and colorful video again (even one shot again perhaps?) continues to show that OK Go has figured the music video thing out.

Reading is fun!

2009-12-01T23:39:00.002-07:00

Beautiful!

East vs. West

2009-11-29T12:42:00.000-07:00

I thought this was an especially telling piece. Makes you question our own perceptions of ourself as a nation.

[via Newsweek. Good and short read.]

So Easy to be Ignorant

2009-11-25T02:05:00.002-07:00

Check out all of Ms. Palin's lies in her book here!

MLS Champs!!!

2009-11-22T22:32:00.001-07:00

Awesome and amazing.
Real Salt Lake won Utah's first professional title today, beating out the LA Galaxy 1-1 (5-4), once again taking the game into penalty kicks! It was a tough first half, seeing LA score off a perfect lead-in from David Beckham to Landon Donovan who sent a crisp cross over to Mike Magee who drilled it home. However, after the second half started, RSL took over the game, leading possession 87%-13% at one time. A hard fight in the box--and some lucky bounces--led to RSL capitalizing on their domination as Robbie Findlay drilled one with his left stick under keeper Donovan Ricketts' stretched arms.
RSL continued their domination into both periods of overtime, maintaining a 75%-25% possession lead over LA. As time dwindled and RSL saw many of their chances just miss, we knew we had Rimando to seal the deal.
PKs were very reminiscent of last weeks, and Robbie Russell put in the game winner after we saw Landon Donovan sail his over the crossbar and Rimando block 2 more PKs (that's a total of FIVE this postseason!)
It was amazing. They deserved it. They showed that they were the better team for at least 95 minutes. Everything--their composure, their hustle, their possession--paid off while they made their own luck.
Congrats RSL!! We love you!

ps-let it be known, November 22 will forever be RSL day!

Eastern Conference Champions!!!!!

2009-11-14T22:38:00.003-07:00

Real Salt Lake defeated Chicago Fire today, 0-0 (5-4), to win their first conference championship, and earn their first berth into the MLS Cup Final!!! It was a super exciting win, going into PKs and all, although the other 120 minutes truly showed Real deserved it.
So, here's a congratulations to them! Now I gotta figure out if I can make it to Seattle next Sunday...

Cirque du Soleil...

2009-11-14T16:33:00.005-07:00

...is obviously something I've GOT to check out someday...

The Magic of H20

2009-11-09T12:17:00.004-07:00

Makes complete sense, but it's still quite neat. This is probably the best (on most non-cliche) use of high-speed photography I've ever seen.

History of Male Friendship

2009-11-08T20:08:00.003-07:00

I ran across this today, and I have to agree with many of the ideas presented. As I was working yesterday, facilitating a distance education class in social work, this very idea was presented, so I figured the double contact with the subject was a good indicator that I should share. First a little intro:

...men used to enjoy much closer bonds with each other than they do today. In the 19th century, men felt completely free show their buddies physical affection and tell their friends just how much they meant to them without any fear of being called a “fag.” It was only in the first half of the 20th century, when homosexuality started being analyzed, written about, and denounced, that men started to feel self-conscious about whether or not their actions might be construed as being “gay.” Some modern men still can’t get emotionally or physically close to other men because they don’t want others to think they’re a “homo.”
No matter your stance on the morality of homosexuality, men today should feel secure enough in their sexuality not to care if they come off as “gay” to others.

(Emphasis mine. The actual "History of Male Friendship" article can be found here.)
It's interesting to me that in this author's examination, an emphasis is placed on the American male friendship. I have to concur. From my experiences abroad (which might be construed as limited), it almost seems as if Americana represents a backward culture of fear. Perhaps other cultures have never allowed this analysis of homosexuality, perhaps these cultures have already plowed through it. I just don't know...any thoughts?

Improv Anywhere: Lunch, the musical

2009-11-07T20:52:00.001-07:00

I love Improv Anywhere. I also really respect what they do. This time they've gone above and beyond, and they even got some awesome NBC equipment to help them. Check it out:

[via Gizmodo]

Tip for the Week

2009-11-07T11:15:00.002-07:00

Just read this tip, which I think is most fantastic.

A simple tweezer session might free your hands of wood slivers, but sometimes they're just too tiny, or too many, to try and remove with micro-surgery. If you're fiending for a fix, try applying some glue to the afflicted skin, then peel it off to take the splinters with it. That's one of the more powerful splinter fixes, but you might be able to get away with a banana peel or bath and pumice stone to pull out those ugly little remainders of your latest wood project.

[via Lifehacker]

Sigur Rós - Glósóli

2009-11-02T11:17:00.001-07:00

Just came across this. It is beautiful. Absolutely up there with my favorite music videos.

Friends

2009-10-25T21:27:00.003-06:00

I love my friends, and I feel like I'm very bad at expressing my gratitude and appreciation for them. I started thinking of them the other day, and to my comedic delight (and surprise), I realized that a great majority of my friends' names are either nouns themselves or homophones of nouns (obviously not proper nouns...that would make this whole post stupid)...check it out:
Chase (a chase)
Lance (like for skewering people)
Max (this is for the math geeks...a max, as in a local or global max)
Brad (a brad, you know, for paper)
Abby (an abbey)
Phil (it works better as a verb, but fill is also a noun)
Mike (mic - short for microphone!)
Mat (self-explanatory)
Derek (oil-derrick anyone?)
Jon (haha...a john)
...even Albanians!
Stela (actually means star in Italian, so stretchy, but whatev)

Anyway, kinda crazy, but funny, I thought...

Italian Motorcycle Display

2009-10-22T00:45:00.002-06:00

This is exactly what the great neo-realist films remind me of...I'm surprised I haven't seen this as a scene in one of them...

A Fantastic Look at Marriage and Divorce Trends in the US

2009-10-19T20:51:00.002-06:00

Pew Research Center has released a very interesting interactive map. What intrigued me most was to see that the average divorce rate in the country hovers around 9-12%. I had imagined it to be much higher with all the talk of the "alarming" number of divorces happening nowadays...

Three Crazy Cool Physics Experiments

2009-10-18T15:22:00.003-06:00

Check them out:
Electromagnetic Black Holes...on Earth
RFID in Pictures (if you don't know what RFID is......it's the way cards can wirelessly open doors, it's the way you can pay for your TRAX ticket by credit card without swiping, and it's the reason why US (and other) passports should be kept closed at all times)
Table-top Black Holes

Monday Update!

2009-10-12T11:01:00.003-06:00

So, it looks like Lance and I made it to New York without any problems. I hope you all had a few laughs reading the tweets we put up. It was a long drive, but very doable. Maybe I'll do it again soon, now that I have even more reasons to come out this way!
We'll have some good times here in NY, and I'll be back to Salt Lake on Wednesday night. We're just waiting a for the girls to return before we spend our Columbus Day in Manhattan.
There's been a lot of stuff in the past few weeks that I've been meaning to post, and I figure while I'm waiting here, I should get them out.
First of all, tech excitement: Google Wave. What is Wave? It's a revolution of some sort. Check this short video out:

This is probably one of my favorite photographs and one of my most favorite art projects I've seen in a long while. How do you photograph a redwood tree, and make it look good? Plenty of issues involved, although most are alleviated with the same techniques used for architecture photography. The biggest problem though, is the close proximity of other trees. Here's how one guy is doing it, check it out: Biggest, Tallest Tree Photo Ever. And speaking of photography...digital still cameras are making a wave in the motion picture industry. (A Canon 5d Mk II was the primary camera used in this doc...if that doesn't mean anything to you, I'm sorry.) Also, don't miss the hardest photos to capture in nature.

For those who liked The Beatles: Rock Band video I posted a while back, this is also a must-see. All about the artwork behind the game. More videos too!!!

Time Telescope- I'm in an optics class right now, so this is fantastically interesting to me: Cornell researchers have developed a "time telescope." I quote:

Using the method, they were able to shift a 24-bit light pulse from 2.5 nanoseconds to 92 picoseconds in length without losing any information -- delivering the it to its destination 27 times faster than traditional fiber optics.

This is absolutely incredible. (And no, it does NOT mean that the info was traveling faster than light, Lance and Max.) Along similar lines, NASA is also innovating existing tech. NASA's always wanted 3d printers to develop: it's cheaper to create spare parts in space by printing them, rather than shipping, but until recently, the process has still be kinda sketchy (although there has been some great successes in current 3d printing, like printing a usable handcuff key). NASA, however has now developed an electron-beam printer, which would revolutionize manufacturing--even here on Earth:

Normally an aircraft builder might start with a 6,000-pound block of titanium and machine it down to a 300-pound part, leaving 5,700 pounds of material that needs to be recycled and using several thousand gallons of cutting fluid used in the process.
With EBF3 you can build up the same part using only 350 pounds of titanium and machine away just 50 pounds to get the part into its final configuration. And the EBF3 process uses much less electricity to create the same part.

How's that for green innovation?
And don't forget the Best of Hubble!

If you like documentaries, you should check out SnagFilms. You will definitely find something you should watch! If you don't like documentaries, you're crazy. And regardless of whether you like or not, everyone who hasn't seen Man On Wire, had better.

Here's a great article about how we can make warfare...a little less deadly. I'm a very strong advocate of peace, if you know me, but I also understand that war is, regrettably, sometimes unavoidable. However, there's no reason why this can't be our first option, instead of throwing billions of dollars of munitions, killing millions of people.

And finally, for my friends who are system admins or system supporters or anyone who likes to have a lot of digital tools with them at all times: NirSoft Launcher. Check it out.

Other random stuff:
Minimalist Movie Posters
Hammer v. Feather on Moon
Cardboard Sculptures of Media Machines
Shepherd Fairey and Creative Commons

It's a lot, but I've been a lazy poster this semester!!!

Road Trip!

2009-10-09T08:39:00.002-06:00

Lance and I have left on a short-long little road trip to New York! I won't have internet to update what's going on all the time, but I do expect to have cell reception, so I will posting updates and what-nots on twitter.
My twitter name is zoti_soli, and you can find updates here: http://twitter.com/zoti_soli
If you are a twitterer, follow me and you can receive updates as well!

Help the Tower!

2009-10-06T11:20:00.002-06:00

Just got this e-mail from a professor of mine:

Our friends at the Tower Theatre are in a bit of trouble. They are taking donations as small as $5.

Help the Tower!
Ever wanted to be more involved in your film community? Now is your chance to really make a difference.
Upon starting the 4:30 digital screening of the film Afghan Star last Friday, the Tower's digital projector shorted out and is now beyond repair. The machine was purchased in 2000 when the lumens, or strength of light power, were based on one chip and not extremely bright. Since then, technology in this field has made a vast improvement and current available projectors have potential to give us festival quality projection. We are so close! Still, we need your help to make it possible! So join in by making a contribution today and be directly invested into providing film access at the Tower Theatre for many years to come.

We're raising money through Facebook Causes, if you're not a member of Facebook it only takes a few seconds to sign up and start helping!

Click here to visit the cause page and DONATE!

We're trying to reach the goal of $8,500 in only four days, so please help now! All donations are tax deductible and every little bit helps!

For those of you who don't know, the Tower is one of the oldest operating theatres in Utah. It is entirely funded by the Salt Lake Film Society, is one of the favorite local theaters, maintains a library of the most beautiful and obscure films in Salt Lake, and is a site for the Sundance Film Festival. If you can, do donate!

CCTV

2009-10-01T20:19:00.004-06:00

No, it doesn't stand for closed-circuit television--although I find much humor in the acronym. Central China Television has created an awesome little ad. It's nice to see some creativity thrive in socialistic countries, proves some of the critics wrong.
Plus, it's good to see Chinese CGI used as CGI, and not substituted for the real thing.

TED this week

2009-09-25T20:05:00.002-06:00

My favorite TEDTalks from the week:

Where did the 70s go?

2009-09-24T21:43:00.002-06:00

I miss straight-up entertainment. And disco. And hippies. And...funny thing, I never even lived it!

[Read]

What Is Freedom?

2009-09-20T20:01:00.002-06:00

A question I've often wondered about. I don't think we, as a people, define the word very well anymore, especially after the "freedom fries" debacle. I liked this little excerpt.

On the face of it, more choices are an unmitigated good thing. Americans especially prize having as many choices as possible. Before the turn of the 19th century, freedom was defined as self-sufficiency, the freedom to own your own land and tools, and eke out a living with your own hands. As consumerism became a dominate force in the culture, freedom was redefined to mean the freedom to choose, to choose between different items and lifestyles, to choose things we believed fit out tastes and personality more than others. This was the beginning of defining ourselves by what we buy, instead of who we are and what we do, but that is another discussion for another day.

(emphasis mine)
[Art of Manliness]

Global Crime

2009-09-17T11:18:00.001-06:00

Next time you doubt the reality of a Bond film...watch this!

I love TED!

Roger Federer

2009-09-14T23:44:00.002-06:00

There's a reason he's the best in tennis right now.

In other news, RIP Patrick Swayze.

Big Bang

2009-09-14T23:42:00.005-06:00

I promise to be more judicial in the physics-related posts, but I found this to be quite...spiritual.

Math in Movies

2009-09-11T12:11:00.002-06:00

I'm so glad this topic actually got a little national exposure at boston.com! It's very surprising how many writers include mathematical theory (whether intentionally or not) in their scripts.

The typical moviegoer pretty much thinks one thing: Batman better show up now. But the mathematician immediately recognizes the Joker’s trap as a variation on the classic problem of the prisoner’s dilemma, where two individuals, each isolated in a prison cell, are given a choice: betray their friend and go free, or cooperate by saying nothing, and be given a short prison sentence. If each betrays the other, however, they will get a longer prison sentence.

Read it here at boston.com
Oliver Knill, Department of Mathematics at Harvard University also has put together a slur of scenes about math from movies, here. And another resource here.

How Animation Works

2009-09-11T11:50:00.000-06:00

Haha!

Healthcare

2009-09-09T22:56:00.004-06:00

I hope everyone had a chance to read or listen to President Obama's speech tonight.

It's why so many aspiring entrepreneurs cannot afford to open a business in the first place, and why American businesses that compete internationally -- like our automakers -- are at a huge disadvantage. And it's why those of us with health insurance are also paying a hidden and growing tax for those without it -- about $1,000 per year that pays for somebody else's emergency room and charitable care.
...
There are those on the left who believe that the only way to fix the system is through a single-payer system like Canada's -- (applause) -- where we would severely restrict the private insurance market and have the government provide coverage for everybody. On the right, there are those who argue that we should end employer-based systems and leave individuals to buy health insurance on their own.
I've said -- I have to say that there are arguments to be made for both these approaches. But either one would represent a radical shift that would disrupt the health care most people currently have. Since health care represents one-sixth of our economy, I believe it makes more sense to build on what works and fix what doesn't, rather than try to build an entirely new system from scratch.
...
You see, our predecessors understood that government could not, and should not, solve every problem. They understood that there are instances when the gains in security from government action are not worth the added constraints on our freedom. But they also understood that the danger of too much government is matched by the perils of too little; that without the leavening hand of wise policy, markets can crash, monopolies can stifle competition, the vulnerable can be exploited. And they knew that when any government measure, no matter how carefully crafted or beneficial, is subject to scorn; when any efforts to help people in need are attacked as un-American; when facts and reason are thrown overboard and only timidity passes for wisdom, and we can no longer even engage in a civil conversation with each other over the things that truly matter -- that at that point we don't merely lose our capacity to solve big challenges. We lose something essential about ourselves.

Transcript is here.

Cymatics

2009-09-07T16:33:00.001-06:00

TED is cool.
Cymatics are cool.
Learn about the field of study in this awesome TEDTalks video!

Why Widescreen Wins

2009-09-02T12:48:00.003-06:00

When I was in the air from Los Angeles to Lima, Peru, I was impressed with the entertainment catalogue that LAN (the airline) offered. I went through the list of movies, mentally noting exactly which ones I would watch. As I started my first movie, my gut wrenched with horror and disgust when I realized that the entire catalogue had been pan-and-scanned.
What is pan-and-scan? It's redirecting the film with a different aspect ratio in order to eliminate the block boxes above and below movies. To me, pan-and-scanning is even worse than Clean-Flicksing a film. It nearly completely eliminates "art" from "entertaining arts," and I believe it is one of the contributors to a growing impatience in films. It brings the focus entirely on "action" (instead of development and exposition), leading people to believe if a movie isn't full of "action," then it's boring and lackluster, all the while inhibiting the film's ability to stretch the viewers concentration and to encourage the maximization of sensory input and understanding.
I must admit, I think our generation is more accustomed and willing to watch movies in their original aspect ratio. Thank goodness Blu-ray basically forbids the use of pan-and-scan, but after explanation after explanation, I still get asked why I would buy/rent/watch ONLY widescreen movies, even if my screen is square and rather small. I found a visual explanation that hopefully shows a little better exactly how much pan-and-scan cuts out of a picture.
Enjoy (in HQ!).

Shadowland

2009-08-31T22:46:00.003-06:00

Alright, I suppose I turned a lot of you off with my recent foray into dimensional analysis (or something like that), so I thought I'd post something that took me back to days when my imagination was allowed to roam free. I like.

More Dimensions!

2009-08-28T19:49:00.002-06:00

So....I'm intent on understanding and making all of you understand the dimensions we live in. I just think it's a fascinating topic and really is one of the funnest crazy things to think about when you're really bored. I like how boingboing.net described it:

Thinking about dimensions other than the three we're used to can rattle one's mind. That's why it's usually left to stoned conversationalists and theoretical physicists.

NewScientist is this week's source for our dimensional enjoyment. It talks about a good number of dimensions, and even the bizarre ones like 0, 1.5, and 10, and it's a great resource, so check it out!

100 Years of Magic

2009-08-28T01:57:00.002-06:00

So, I think I'll borrow Justin's recent declaration: I'm obligated to like this.
And I do.

Absolutely fantastique.

IG Torture Report

2009-08-25T16:20:00.002-06:00

The Inspector General's Torture Report has been released (of course with its myriad of redactions), and I agree with Salon.com's Glenn Greenwald: every American should know what was done in our name.
It's sad, but an important looking glass into the tactics used in Iraq.
Good read, and he's even summarized the report for lazy American viewing/reading.
What every American should be made to learn about the IG Torture Report

Personas

2009-08-25T15:42:00.004-06:00

A very interesting web app from MIT called Personas has captured my intrigue today. Using public data, it creates a graphical representation of who "you" are (obviously if you have a common name, the information it provides could still be an interesting representation of something else). Click the image to see mine.
Check it out here: Personas.

He may have a problem.

2009-08-18T21:21:00.002-06:00

Brett relates:

Ok, I had a half self-commitment to not post any more about Glenn Beck for awhile, but this Daily Show clip was too good. I'm sorry.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Glenn Beck's Operation
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show

Full Episodes Political Humor Spinal Tap Performance

[via Brett's Brain]

TENth Dimension!!!

2009-08-18T20:56:00.003-06:00

So, a while back I emailed to some close friends and family what I found to be an extremely good description of the fourth dimension. I don't think people understand it, and some of you have no desire to, but I find it very spiritual.
Needless to say, one of my favorite blogs enlightened me yet again with a look into all the known dimensions, 1-10. So, if you thought that time was an odd dimension (Donnie Darko anyone?), wait until he starts talking about five, six, seven, eight and nine. Ten, well, ten's just everything...a bunch of infinites, you may say...so it's just one of those things you're not supposed to comprehend.
Anyway, good listen, although a bit winded even if I say so myself.

[tenthdimension.com via BoingBoing]

Stairs

2009-08-10T12:31:00.003-06:00

Must...go...to...India...
[via kottke.org & Smoont]

CARS

2009-08-05T17:45:00.003-06:00

So, I got an email today. It was a forward, which of course, usually goes straight to my trash, however, whenever I think the forward is full of misinformation, I usually read it over quick and if I find that I was right, I usually try to kindly correct the misinformation. Often, I probably don't come off as kind, but I hope everyone would realize that my intentions are.
So, I got this one today:

Subject: Fwd: Please take the time to look at this story about Cars.com (Stay away)
Be sure and watch this. Very frightening.
Subject: Cars.gov (Stay away)
Please watch this. You will not believe what can happen to you.
This is a must see... some really amazing things the government has pulled of
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqfuZ7hiap0
And Pres. Bush got criticized for the FISA wiretaps???

The video is from the Glenn Beck program. If you have ever looked at that program with a level head, you'll admit that he vies for his audience on pure sensationalism. Given his recent embarrassment, I'm surprised even FOX keeps him around.
Focusing on the email again, I want to address a few things. First of all--just to get it out of the way--FISA wiretaps were done illegally and without consent. Period. There is no comparison.
Now, Glenn takes us on a Willy Wonka tour of CARS.gov. For those unaware, CARS.gov is the interweb's portal for information about the so-called "Cash for Clunkers" deal that you may have heard of. However, Glenn starts misleading right from the start. First of all, he doesn't even show you the consumer side of the website: the side that you will reach by going to www.CARS.gov, but rather, he takes you to the dealer website. Second of all, the link he claims to click (isn't it interesting that they don't give a clean shot of the site so you can read it?) doesn't exist. Heck, Glenn can't even get the rumored warning to come up on screen!
Huh? The entire argument that the government forces you (the consumer) to agree to anything is moot if the consumer (you) never sees the alleged agreement. Seriously, Glenn? I do have to give him props though: he did cover his back by saying "the dealer has to go to the website," then went on to twist that into making people believe that the consumers must go.
So, this leads to two possible conclusions: either the website he was on is dealer specific and has to do with a system of receiving rebates directly from the government (which would technically make it a federal computer, bound to the same rules and regulation that all other federal computers are bound to, namely controlled surveillance), or Glenn Beck elaborately created a look alike website and completely lied to his audience--an easy task that was old in High School.
Which is it?
In the end, CARS is a great program for getting our gas guzzlers off the road and helping the auto industry get back on their feet with the added benefit of diverting the money to consumers/citizens instead of corporations. If you can, use it!

I Am a Material Boy, Oh Oh!

2009-07-30T17:56:00.002-06:00

So, I'm an 80s child, so for some reason, I feel like I'm supposed to be *extremely* knowledgeable when it comes to 80s culture. I am, however, not.
Fact is, I barely remember watching He-man on TV, and although I loved those screaming fluorescent pants my mother made me, I'm pretty sure I only ever owned one pair. Care Bears were awesome, I remember Smurfs, and I know now that there were some pretty great movies made then (Ghostbusters/Indiana Jones/Back to the Future is what I'm talking about...not all that Stallone crap).
Sure, we had a compact disc (yes, also an 80s invention) with MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This," and I am pretty sure somebody in our house wore polka dots. I can remember a few things: girls LOVED banana clips, shoulder pads were a fad, MacGyver rocked my Sundays, and my Wayfarer look-alikes were suh-WEET...when I was 4.
But let's face it: I don't know who Corazón Aquino is (TIME's Person of the Year the year I was born), I never even knew who Ronald Reagan was during that decade, and I don't even get the joke about how David Squier dying by a stroke.
However, for all of the times 80s music was awful, some of it was actually really artistic. But, hindsight is not only 20/20, it also leads to some pretty awesome creations. So, that was my lengthy introduction to Scott Bradlee covering--in ragtime, no less--some of the most popular 80s hits:

Inheritance in Salt Lake...FINALLY!!

2009-07-21T14:36:00.003-06:00

I've known for a while that The Inheritance of War would be playing in SLC, and Ashley just sent me the info for the screening:

The Salt Lake City Film Festival is coming up (Aug 14-16) and slated to play at the SLC Library on Friday the 14th is "Billy was a Deaf Kid" at 11 AM and "The Inheritance of War" at 1:30 PM. "Reserved to Fight" follows at 3:00. All screenings at the Library are FREE so invite everyone to come.

I'm also going to throw a shout out to "Hi My Name is Ryan" which plays Saturday 7PM at the Tower Theater. It is a very funny doc about an eccentric teenager from Arizona

www.himynameisryan.com
www.billywasadeafkid.com
www.theinheritanceofwar.com

For those of you unaware, The Inheritance of War was filmed and directed by a dear friend of mine, Ashley Karras. It premiered at the Palm Springs Film Festival, and has played in various festivals around the country: LDS Film Festival [Orem, UT], Las Vegas Film Festival, Foursite Film Festival [Ogden, UT], and GI Film Festival [Washington, D.C.]. (If I missed any, Ash, let me know!) Now that it's finally in Salt Lake (and FREE!!!), I expect a good showing!
Comment if you'd like to come or would like more info.

Saving the World, and, the Moon

2009-07-16T15:44:00.002-06:00

For those of you who aren't aware, today is the anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch. The JFK Library has a an awesome website recreating the event in real-time. I wish I was alive to witness it myself, and I look forward to the day when we can get off our lazy butts and go there again. But in the meantime, this is WAY cool. Check it out at www.wechoosethemoon.org.
Another cool thing: NASA has, this time *with* help from Hollywood, gone and restored the moon footage from the Apollo 11 landing. While it's certainly not HD, it looks pretty good given the circumstances. Here it is.
Lastly, while the moon is exciting, so is our Earth, and I read an awesome and intriguing article about "20 Bold Schemes That Could Save the World." It's an interesting read on many levels, so...check it out!

Sour Music Video

2009-07-10T10:18:00.001-06:00

This has to be one the most creative music videos I've ever seen!

[UPDATE: I prefer Vimeo, because YouTube is just plain not classy, but seeing as they removed the music vid from Vimeo, here YouTube is saving the day. Sorry for those who it died on.]

>

Apple, Postal Service, and Salt Lake City?

2009-07-09T17:40:00.004-06:00

So, I was reading (twice, actually) today about RIM's (the maker of Blackberries..the phone) complete ripoff of an Apple ad, and that reading led me to read about Apple's own ripoffs...which have themselves been numerous at times.
So as I got into the Apple ripoffs, I was reading how Apple ripped off The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights" music video, and I like that song and was intrigued as to why that music video would have images of a microprocessor plant. As I was watching along, the video goes into space, and the camera zooms into the earth a la "Burn After Reading" or a simple Google Earth transition.
What totally took me off guard, however, was just exactly *where* they zoomed in. Can you guess?
It was Salt Lake City! Not only that, but it just *happens* that they zoom in right where the Delta Center--ahem, EnergySolutions Arena is now. Which leads me to believe that they either digitally altered, or they got the satellite image from before 1991 when the arena was built. (Due to other shadows and etc., I'm actually leaning toward the latter.)
Anyway, check it out. The magic begins at about the 3:12 mark if you're indifferent or impatient.

View Larger Map

Michael Jackson, 1958-2009

2009-06-29T21:38:00.003-06:00

Ten years ago, I never would have written this post. But since then I've learned (and am still learning) to greatly appreciate art when I see it, and along with that comes the appreciation of artists.
Michael Jackson is arguably the best pop singer, the best dancer, and the best performer. Ever. You might argue, but it's like arguing that Michael Jordan wasn't the best basketball player ever. Sure, players might come along and outdo him and create more hype, but nobody will be better than him simply because he did it first and did it unlike any other. Jackson is the same.
For all his follies, he knew how to entertain. The chance of another like him is highly unlikely. Even though I don't love his music, I can appreciate the value it has. I actually was contemplating buying tickets to his comeback tour in the UK next year. Oh well.
One thing I notice: he's in complete control of EVERY aspect of his performances and he's Here's a video to remind you just how entertaining he could be (remember to hit the HQ button once it starts playing):

Also, a video that shows a glimpse of possible inspirations:

Haha! And Philippine inmates at Cebu rehearsing a tribute dance of thriller!

Wonderful Storm

2009-06-27T02:08:00.008-06:00

My friend took this great pano of a full rainbow during the amazing storm we had tonight. Loved it.
Played racquetball for a few hours today, it's no fun to play in a construction zone, and especially not a good idea to try to cut your wrist off by keeping it in your safety lanyard while jumping down into the court and getting your racquet stuck on the way down.
Meals were free for me today...Abby made us amazing oatmeal cookies which served as breakfast, Lance informed me of the free food at work before I left campus at lunchtime, and Daddy took the entire fam out for dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory.
Went to the Oquirrh Temple open house...I must say it is one stylish temple.
Had a soccer game get canceled due to the lightning that almost KILLED ALL OF US.
Decided to go to Vegas next weekend.
And last but not least, learned that you must stir Italian Cream Sodas for the full effect, even if the syrup at the bottom tastes heavenly.

Opening Up the Oscars

2009-06-25T13:56:00.005-06:00

I just read today that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be expanding the Best Picture race. Instead of 5 nominations, there will be 10.
?!
That was what I first thought, and I was almost as sad about this as I was about the death of Kodachrome earlier this week. (That almost brought me to tears, though...might warrant a future post.) However, now I'm just kinda torn. I don't know that I don't like it, but I don't know that I do. To me, it makes the Best Picture category much less prestigious, but at the same time it opens the nominations to foreign and independent films as well as documentaries (foreigns and docs are allowed now but never get the nominations because they have their own categories).
At worst, I think this is the way for the Academy to 1)appease the public by allowing popular films to be nominated (of course, without a chance of winning) and 2) increase ticket sales of nominated movies. At best, well, at best it could open the competition up (at prestige's stake).
Anyway, what do you all think?