No matter where you go,
No matter what you do,
Brothers will always be there for you.
28 January 2012
13 June 2011
ladies and gentlemen....
The day we all thought would never happen is almost here.
YES, I am going to be married on 25 JUNE 2011. What's more, I will be wed to AURORA GEORGIA FLORENCE. Can you believe it, Grandma? All those prayers have finally PAID OFF. For more information on when and where, click here.
I have two thoughts on the matter right now that are not allowing me to sleep.
First, the loose ends to tie up for the upcoming nuptials. Examples: all of the people that don't have invites yet, the fact that I don't have a suit yet, and that so far we don't know how those ice cream coupons are going to be redeemed.
Second, when Steve Jobs comes out with the iTestament, Hebrews 11 will be updated to read: "And by faith Aurora joined herself to Jeffrey in eternal matrimony. And by faith her parents consented."
And one more thought because who's counting?
I get to marry this girl:
YES, I am going to be married on 25 JUNE 2011. What's more, I will be wed to AURORA GEORGIA FLORENCE. Can you believe it, Grandma? All those prayers have finally PAID OFF. For more information on when and where, click here.
I have two thoughts on the matter right now that are not allowing me to sleep.
First, the loose ends to tie up for the upcoming nuptials. Examples: all of the people that don't have invites yet, the fact that I don't have a suit yet, and that so far we don't know how those ice cream coupons are going to be redeemed.
Second, when Steve Jobs comes out with the iTestament, Hebrews 11 will be updated to read: "And by faith Aurora joined herself to Jeffrey in eternal matrimony. And by faith her parents consented."
And one more thought because who's counting?
I get to marry this girl:
 |
| don't worry, i'm pretty sure that's my arm. |
23 March 2011
17 December 2010
Bet you didn't know.
Just a number of interesting things that I bet you didn't know and will never need to know but just might be glad to know when you find yourself on a first-date and the conversation lulls to a painful halt and you've already asked her what her favorite fill-in-the-blank is.
A herd of cattle, a pack of wolves, even a pod of seals, you've heard of, but did you know that just about every assemblage of creatures has its own name? Some of them are freaking awesome and most of them are politically incorrect and discriminatory:
A shrewdness of apes, a prickle of porcupines (do porcupines ever hang out in groups? because that could make for a really negative encounter), a richness of martens, a business of ferrets, a BLOAT of hippopotamuses, a murder of crows, an exaltation of larks (what's so great about larks?), a crash of rhinoceroses, an UNKINDNESS of ravens (spoooky), a shiver of sharks, an intrusion of cockroaches, and a plague of locusts.
I bet sometime someone somewhere had terms for groups of certain types of people. It's best those terms aren't in use, but I can think of some pretty good ones. Like a malediction of mother-in-laws. A festering of lawyers. A warmth of grandmothers.
Ever heard of prosopagnosia? Yeah, neither had I. It's commonly referred to as face blindness and is a legit condition that impairs the brain's ability to recognize faces. And it's not simply having a hard time putting a face to a name; it makes it impossible for you to recognize the faces of close friends, family members, and sometimes even yourself. People with this condition have to use clothing, voices, or gait to recognize acquaintances. Don't believe me? Check out Harvard's research page on it or read Heather Seller's book.
Colors are interesting when it comes to languages. There are no words in the English language that rhyme with orange, purple, or silver. In Romanian not only are oranges called oranges, but tomatoes are called reds. In some Asian languages, blue and green are considered varying shades of the same color. In Italian and Russian, azure is a basic color and is distinguished from regular blue as habitually as English differentiates red and pink.
Thomas Jefferson, who did a lot of great things for this country, introduced french fries to the United States in 1802 when he served them at a White House dinner.
Peladophobia is the fear of bald people. (Sidenote: If you're going to throw this word around, be careful how you pronounce it. Pedophilia is something completely different and not a good conversation jump-starter. At all.)
NOW YOU KNOW.
A herd of cattle, a pack of wolves, even a pod of seals, you've heard of, but did you know that just about every assemblage of creatures has its own name? Some of them are freaking awesome and most of them are politically incorrect and discriminatory:
A shrewdness of apes, a prickle of porcupines (do porcupines ever hang out in groups? because that could make for a really negative encounter), a richness of martens, a business of ferrets, a BLOAT of hippopotamuses, a murder of crows, an exaltation of larks (what's so great about larks?), a crash of rhinoceroses, an UNKINDNESS of ravens (spoooky), a shiver of sharks, an intrusion of cockroaches, and a plague of locusts.
I bet sometime someone somewhere had terms for groups of certain types of people. It's best those terms aren't in use, but I can think of some pretty good ones. Like a malediction of mother-in-laws. A festering of lawyers. A warmth of grandmothers.
Ever heard of prosopagnosia? Yeah, neither had I. It's commonly referred to as face blindness and is a legit condition that impairs the brain's ability to recognize faces. And it's not simply having a hard time putting a face to a name; it makes it impossible for you to recognize the faces of close friends, family members, and sometimes even yourself. People with this condition have to use clothing, voices, or gait to recognize acquaintances. Don't believe me? Check out Harvard's research page on it or read Heather Seller's book.
Colors are interesting when it comes to languages. There are no words in the English language that rhyme with orange, purple, or silver. In Romanian not only are oranges called oranges, but tomatoes are called reds. In some Asian languages, blue and green are considered varying shades of the same color. In Italian and Russian, azure is a basic color and is distinguished from regular blue as habitually as English differentiates red and pink.
Thomas Jefferson, who did a lot of great things for this country, introduced french fries to the United States in 1802 when he served them at a White House dinner.
Peladophobia is the fear of bald people. (Sidenote: If you're going to throw this word around, be careful how you pronounce it. Pedophilia is something completely different and not a good conversation jump-starter. At all.)
NOW YOU KNOW.
16 November 2010
pas cu pas.
Word of warning: scroll down to THE POINT if you're short on time and/or less interested in rambling.
The title of this post could also have been 'pas à pas', which means step by step, except in French. In both French and Romanian, pas means step, from the Latin, passus. Yes, Romanian is a Romance language (meaning it descended from Vulgar Latin--the language of ancient Rome, not that it's necessarily going to help you on a date. [Sidenote: it has]). In modern French, pas is used to negate a regular phrase. For example je vais (I go/I am going) or je ne vais pas (I don't go/I am not going). But why, you demand to know, is the word pas, which means step, used to say you're not doing something?
Well, it wasn't always so. You used to only have to use ne to negate phrases, like no in Spanish. But back in the day, to emphasize your point, you would add pas to the end of the example phrase (I am not going) to express the idea that not only are you not going, but you're not even going one step. And you could use other words for other verbs. Je ne mange mie--I'm not eating, not even a crumb. Je ne vois point--I don't see, not even a point. Well, eventually the other words were dropped and pas took control like a totalitarian dictator. See, more often than not in casual conversation you drop the ne and just use the pas (je veux pas)--which loses the original negation all together. (Thank you, Dr. Hurlbut.) Fascinating, huh? OK, maybe just to me.
The fact that you have to use both ne and pas to negate was always something for French 101 students to complain about--Two words? Why can't we just use NE? But if you think French negation is confusing, just try explaining to a student of English why the verb to do suddenly pops up when you negate in English: I see/I don't see.
OK, one more thing about pas and I swear I'll get on with why I'm writing today:
When I was an LDS missionary in Romania, I was stationed with a guy who had just arrived from the States. He was a go-getter and was constantly studying the language. One night we were knocking doors in an old, communist block apartment building which we often found ourselves doing. After knocking twice at a certain door, I started to move on when he stopped me and said, in Romanian, "Wait, I think I hear step-mothers."
THE POINT:
Yesterday I took a big step. Really, it was just a small step that felt like a big step, but life is made up of small steps...
I submitted my screenplay to the LDS Film Festival's feature-length screenplay competition. This means that three producers will read my script. Up to this point, only people who know me have read the script--people who seem to like me and maybe just like the script because they like me. Now three producers that don't know me and probably don't know anything about Alfred de Musset (the guy who wrote the French play that I adapted) will not only be reading it, but judging it. Here goes nothing.
I am also a little nervous because while the script does express certain LDS ideas, having been written and worked on by LDS individuals, it is not a Mormon film. And it maybe swears a couple times. Twice in English and twice in French, if I remember right. And it maybe deals with some more adult situations. Not adult as in adult films but adult as in intense and/or heavy situations. And so maybe it will be disqualified?
No matter what, it was a very rewarding experience just to print off the hundred pages that have taken up much of the last eight months of my life to create, along with chunks of other people's lives. The girl at Kinko's probably thought I needed to be medicated.
What's the next step? Besides a few more revisions, I have an incredibly awesome friend who is doing an internship for a production company in LA that might be able to sneak it in front of her people. And another awesomely incredible friend that has a friend that has a friend that might be able to read it and might work for a very large production company in LA.
So, folks, let's get the ball rolling.
The title of this post could also have been 'pas à pas', which means step by step, except in French. In both French and Romanian, pas means step, from the Latin, passus. Yes, Romanian is a Romance language (meaning it descended from Vulgar Latin--the language of ancient Rome, not that it's necessarily going to help you on a date. [Sidenote: it has]). In modern French, pas is used to negate a regular phrase. For example je vais (I go/I am going) or je ne vais pas (I don't go/I am not going). But why, you demand to know, is the word pas, which means step, used to say you're not doing something?
Well, it wasn't always so. You used to only have to use ne to negate phrases, like no in Spanish. But back in the day, to emphasize your point, you would add pas to the end of the example phrase (I am not going) to express the idea that not only are you not going, but you're not even going one step. And you could use other words for other verbs. Je ne mange mie--I'm not eating, not even a crumb. Je ne vois point--I don't see, not even a point. Well, eventually the other words were dropped and pas took control like a totalitarian dictator. See, more often than not in casual conversation you drop the ne and just use the pas (je veux pas)--which loses the original negation all together. (Thank you, Dr. Hurlbut.) Fascinating, huh? OK, maybe just to me.
The fact that you have to use both ne and pas to negate was always something for French 101 students to complain about--Two words? Why can't we just use NE? But if you think French negation is confusing, just try explaining to a student of English why the verb to do suddenly pops up when you negate in English: I see/I don't see.
OK, one more thing about pas and I swear I'll get on with why I'm writing today:
When I was an LDS missionary in Romania, I was stationed with a guy who had just arrived from the States. He was a go-getter and was constantly studying the language. One night we were knocking doors in an old, communist block apartment building which we often found ourselves doing. After knocking twice at a certain door, I started to move on when he stopped me and said, in Romanian, "Wait, I think I hear step-mothers."
THE POINT:
Yesterday I took a big step. Really, it was just a small step that felt like a big step, but life is made up of small steps...
I submitted my screenplay to the LDS Film Festival's feature-length screenplay competition. This means that three producers will read my script. Up to this point, only people who know me have read the script--people who seem to like me and maybe just like the script because they like me. Now three producers that don't know me and probably don't know anything about Alfred de Musset (the guy who wrote the French play that I adapted) will not only be reading it, but judging it. Here goes nothing.
I am also a little nervous because while the script does express certain LDS ideas, having been written and worked on by LDS individuals, it is not a Mormon film. And it maybe swears a couple times. Twice in English and twice in French, if I remember right. And it maybe deals with some more adult situations. Not adult as in adult films but adult as in intense and/or heavy situations. And so maybe it will be disqualified?
No matter what, it was a very rewarding experience just to print off the hundred pages that have taken up much of the last eight months of my life to create, along with chunks of other people's lives. The girl at Kinko's probably thought I needed to be medicated.
What's the next step? Besides a few more revisions, I have an incredibly awesome friend who is doing an internship for a production company in LA that might be able to sneak it in front of her people. And another awesomely incredible friend that has a friend that has a friend that might be able to read it and might work for a very large production company in LA.
So, folks, let's get the ball rolling.
11 November 2010
4.0
Did you know when a cat is lapping milk, it's tongue goes in and out of its mouth 4-5 times per second?
Ever get the feeling that something isn't quite right with Breast Cancer Awareness Month? What about all the other types of cancer? How much of the proceeds from all these pink sugar cookies, pink bandanas, and pink vehicles is going toward something useful? Read this article.
VAI DE MINE, this could have been me. I will never regret not going to law school.
Peter Weir's upcoming film The Way Back looks epic and awesome. You may know Weir from such movies as The Dead Poets' Society and The Truman Show. This is his first movie since Master and Commander back in 2003.
Besides the director and true story aspect, the film is also going to be awesome because it's starring, alongside Collin Farrell and Ed Harris, Dragoş Bucur. Never heard of him? That's because you don't watch enough Romanian movies. He's received numerous awards for his work in numerous award-winning Romanian films (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, The Paper Will Be Blue, and Police, Adjective) and I can't wait to see how he does in an English-speaking role.
Am I in the women's locker--oh, nope. That's not a woman. That's a dude.
Last week I got paid to turn office supplies into weapons and armor for an office gone Lord of the Flies commercial. I love being on a film set.
I got cast in Born Yesterday at Hale Centre Theatre. The show opens on New Year's Eve.
Ever get the feeling that something isn't quite right with Breast Cancer Awareness Month? What about all the other types of cancer? How much of the proceeds from all these pink sugar cookies, pink bandanas, and pink vehicles is going toward something useful? Read this article.
VAI DE MINE, this could have been me. I will never regret not going to law school.
Peter Weir's upcoming film The Way Back looks epic and awesome. You may know Weir from such movies as The Dead Poets' Society and The Truman Show. This is his first movie since Master and Commander back in 2003.
Besides the director and true story aspect, the film is also going to be awesome because it's starring, alongside Collin Farrell and Ed Harris, Dragoş Bucur. Never heard of him? That's because you don't watch enough Romanian movies. He's received numerous awards for his work in numerous award-winning Romanian films (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, The Paper Will Be Blue, and Police, Adjective) and I can't wait to see how he does in an English-speaking role.
Am I in the women's locker--oh, nope. That's not a woman. That's a dude.
Last week I got paid to turn office supplies into weapons and armor for an office gone Lord of the Flies commercial. I love being on a film set.
I got cast in Born Yesterday at Hale Centre Theatre. The show opens on New Year's Eve.
02 November 2010
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