Donde esta Santa Claus?

I love November and December.
There is just a good feeling around the holidays.
I especially love christmas lights.
Our house is the coolest on the block now and the brightest.

November is great.
The Sunday before my birthday I honestly forgot my birthday was coming up.
Good thing someone asked me about it.
We had a little shindig, so fun!

OH and HP #7 (first half) was SO GREAT! I loved it.
Went to see Inception for the 4th time. I'm writing a paper about it.

Thanksgiving is great too.
We didn't have a huge blizzard like they said we would.
Major let down. I just wanted to get my snowpants on. That's right.
Since then it just switched and now it's that nose nipping cold all day and night.
Our sprinklers weren't turned off yet though, so our whole lawn was frozen in the AM.
At first i was confused when it was only our lawn and then I connected the dots.

So since there was no blizzard we, some 192nd buddies, hit up a mexican restaurant.
This wasn't just any mexican restaurant.
It's one we've driven by a billion times, but never gone too because it screams "you'll have the runs for days".
It turned out to be quite good though.
We reminisced about Freshman year.
Oh those were fun times!
It's weird having the boys back, but so good.
It was so colorful inside. I loved it!

"Beans be with you 'til we meat again"(hopefully not)

Big plans for some onesies action, so we went on an adventure to purchase one.
Some were more excited than others:



I just wish it'd snow more.
I wanna get my snowpants on.

Take a chance on me....

I'm glad someone took a chance on me.
Things are going well and I feel so blessed to have so many opportunities in my life and to have the people around me that I do.
So it's no secret I love film and photography.
I had this amazing opportunity to be DP on one of the commercials for the directing commercials class. It was kind of trial by fire because you know I fool around doing my own stuff, but I've never been DP for any legitimate project.
My original mentor ended up not being able to be there on set at all, but I did have help to start from one my sister's best friends who is really talented. I don't know what I would've done if she hadn't been there to get me started.
Anyway, I always say I don't know all the technical things. I spent the days leading up to it researching everything I could find and calling all my resources to make sure I was doing things the right way.
Nothing was perfect, but I thought the majority of what we got looked beautiful. Check out this one shot below:

That was the director's favorite.
Then we built a bathroom in the dining room and it worked out so well. Movie magic. I love it. I think what I learned yesterday was that the technical things come second to m=being intuitive and having an eye for what looks good. I did learn lots of good tips and tricks. I'm creating a separate part of my brain strictly for DP/lighting tips. That space will probably end up being half my brain.
When I got home yesterday I was just high on life. Not only that it all looked pretty good, but also that I survived because I was so nervous going into it.
Getting a good shot and good lighting totally floored(sp?) me, so I'll take it as a sign that I'm doing the right thing.

On another note. The leaves randomly all just started falling last Sunday. They had all turned, but weren't really falling. Now after a week most of the trees are bare.


We went to the Festival of Lights at the Krishna Temple. I had to film an event for my documentary class and it was pretty fun. I love this picture.


And then... the sunset was beautiful and the temple itself is gorgeous.


Then a bridal shower for this beautiful girl!

Here is the set up, it was so so cute! Props to the host for a good time!


I love fall. All I want to do now is stay in bed and read and snuggle under the covers.

chunky applesauce

one of my favorite things about winter - homemade applesauce. don't be fooled by the name though cause it's not really apple sauce. it's like softer small chunks of apple warm with cinnamon and other goodness. i remember it being so hot sometimes it would burn my tongue, but i couldn't wait to eat it.
i have to call my parents and see how they make it because parents know best, but i came across this recipe from google. maybe i'll try that one too and compare.
only 5 more weeks until i get to just snuggle under covers with a book by the fire at home sweet home with my family and some applesauce. nothing like the holiday season.

Click here: Chunky Applesauce

TMA 273 Post #3

"Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord?" Alma 26:16

Service will open up so many opportunities and people to you. Ammon's service to King Lamoni resulted in the opportunity and conversion of a nation that would be an example to those who fought against them. I finished reading the block of scriptures this week and so service was on my mind throughout fast Sunday. Then it turns out our Relief Society lesson was on service. A quote was shared from President Monson that went something like this
"We often sit side by side, but we don't speak heart to heart."
By serving King Lamoni first, Ammon was able to speak heart to heart with him later. The story would've turned out very differently if Ammon hadn't done that because that time allowed King Lamoni to see the power of God through Ammon's service.

I also love the discourse between Aaron and Ammon, when Aaron is afraid that Ammon is boasting, but Ammon corrects him. He tells Aaron that is joy is so full in God that he is not boasting in his own strength, but the strength of God. I think that's a beautiful expression of faith and humility. He knew that in God he could do all things and that alone he was nothing. It's a good reminder to be grateful to the real source of your success because without God we are nothing.

I have a lot of good girl friends on missions right now and I love writing and hearing from them. Their letters are always so focused on the right things, in the right perspective. They know that they need the Spirit with them to be able to touch the hearts and teach those they meet. People aren't converted because of the missionaries, they're converted through the Spirit. You need to invite the Spirit and also you need to receive it. I think it was one of Utchdorf's talks where he mentioned the word 'receive', which denotes being active on your part. You have to receive and listen and act!

TMA 273 Post #2

Harvard beats Yale 29-29 - I was at first intrigued by the title of this film. Two competitive ivy league schools competing in football, something outside of their highly respected academic reputations.
I kept watching, waiting for something more until the very end of the film. The whole film was cut between all of the sit down interviews with some old footage of the original football game.
Since we'd talked about lighting and things like that, I noticed all of the sit down interviews. All of the backgrounds were really boring. The colors were neutral and usually it seemed to be random settings and just a wall behind. Even when they showed more of a room, it didn't feel like it had to do with the story.
The film felt like you had to have been involved in the actual event in some way to get something about of the film. No emotion was created through the interviews or old footage. The interviewees weren't really animated, there was no music added, there wasn't any b-roll of Harvard or Yale, or their current teams, or anything. They did use a few old pictures to supplement, but that's about it.
I think it is good to have all of those interviews from the players because it was such a monumental game. I didn't have any background on the story, so I thought it was interesting to hear the story for the first time, but I had to struggle to stay focused on it. The story could've been told in a half hour and a faster pace would've made it a lot more engaging. I want to feel like I was in that stadium. Football games aren't boring.
The dynamics were set up interestingly between the two teams. The backgrounds of many of the Harvard players were more working class and I think that was a conscious decision to include that in the beginning. Also, there was the story of how the Vietnam War split the players when they weren't in their football uniforms, but on the field those differences in opinion went away. I liked the inclusion of the one player's story about getting back from the war and thought that that added a nice segway into how the war and current events played into team dynamics. The story structure was good and basic. It started before the game and ended with the end of the game and the win for Harvard.
It takes a lot more than a lot of interviews with the right people and some old footage to make a film engaging though.

TMA 273 post #1

An Inconvenient Truth - I care about the environment and I wish everyone did. I try to do my part because I know we have pollution issues. Al Gore's film though was so heavy on advocacy and obviously had an agenda.
This film is as much about Al Gore's life and political career as it is about climate change.
The very opening is set up in a casual, generic way, so that you feel comfortable and Al Gore's voice over speaks to something that everyone can relate to. Who doesn't love those moments when you can sit and just observe the beauty of creation and nature.
Then your emotion carries over when it jumps into his presentation about global climate change.
The other part that is supposed to pull at your emotions is when Al Gore refers back to his childhood. They use old footage and photos with his voice over telling personal stories. Both, in combination with the music that they add, are supposed to help you make a personal connection with Al Gore, showing he's a real person.
The structure of the film didn't work for me though. They set up these emotional parts with the photos and music and Al Gore's softer tone of voice, but then it would just cut to the huge lecture hall and was very impersonal. Some of the more personal stories and things that were shared didn't seem very relevant to me.
I think they used the lecture to show that many people are interested in this subject and Al Gore's ideas. The lecture put him in an authoritative position to speak about climate change even though he's not a scientist.
Overall, I think there were some good points made, but the film didn't convince me of the weight of the issue and the consequences that would occur in the near future if the we don't change our actions now. I think it would've been more effective to have him provide all the same information from the lecture clips, but not in the lecture setting.
Lastly, he tried to spin the subject through this too and disconnect it from his political career in this comment:
"Really this is not so much a political issue as it is a moral issue." -Al Gore