Maine

In 2010, I made a trip to Maine for work. It was a seriously fun trip, and I learned all about the professional roles of producer, associate producer, director, AD, 2nd AD, script supervisor, production accountant...

The teacher produced the film "Smoke Signals", which is one of my favorite films from my film classes in college. Here's a great quote from the movie: "How do we forgive our fathers? Maybe in a dream. Do we forgive our fathers for leaving us too often, or forever, when we were little? Maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage, or making us nervous because there never seemed to be any rage there at all? Do we forgive our fathers for marrying, or not marrying, our mothers? Or divorcing, or not divorcing, our mothers? And shall we forgive them for their excesses of warmth or coldness? Shall we forgive them for pushing, or leaning? For shutting doors or speaking through walls? For never speaking, or never being silent? Do we forgive our fathers in our age, or in theirs? Or in their deaths, saying it to them or not saying it. If we forgive our fathers, what is left?"

Here are some photos from the causeway near Rockport, Maine.  It sure seemed to get dark early that far east in the timezone, but the sunset was amazing!  Of course, I think I must have thought everything was amazing

the rock pier...

the cloud out in the moon, the moon in the sky, the rock out in the harbor...

the seagulls...

the amazing sunset...

oh, and let's not forget the lighthouse.

We were there for a week, and really only had a little bit of time for sightseeing.  I'm glad that before we flew home, we took a quick trip to the Portland Lighthouse. 

     

 And like the dedicated tourist, I took plenty of photos.

 

Halloween 2010

Wow, is 2010 ending already? It has been a blur!

I started working full-time in January of 2010, which is my main excuse for not keeping in touch, not dating, not writing in my journal, not getting enough sleep or exercise, not taking enough photos, and thus not updating my blog.

But no more excuses. Luckily I have a lot of great friends who are also very social and organize events

Let's take this last Halloween, for example. I went to a friend's party as Ned Flanders...

Of course, some paranoid neighbor lady called the cops because she didn't recognize those people walking around in there. Obviously she doesn't watch the Simpsons or she would have at least recognized me. Of course when the police showed up, I answered the door all friendly like, and invited him in, thinking "Wow, great costume! You look like a real cop!" Too bad I didn't get a picture with him.

Of course the reason I went as Ned Flanders was because I had a mustache. I grew it out so that I could attend a really fun murder mystery party as Sir Francis Drake. Not only did I get to meet the Queen, but I also solved the murder! It was a fun night.

So I'll try to take more pictures in 2011, and to actually post something from time to time.

Until then, I hope all my social acquaintances will continue inviting me to stuff.

My Game Reviewed by Orson Scott Card

My aunt Sheila saw a review in the Deseret News where Orson Scott Card discussed my card game, "Blast from the Past". He said,

"...most Mormon games, if you remove the Mormon references, are not very fun. It's like most Mormons who set out to write a novel. "Mine will be good because it's clean," the writer thinks, or "Mine will be good because it's Mormon." They don't grasp that the story has to be fascinating or it doesn't matter how clean or how Mormon it is -- no one will want to read it. So you can imagine how happy I was to discover that there is now a Mormon trivia game that is actually fun to play. When I was picking up Seek, I noticed a game -- also published by Deseret Book -- called Blast From the Past, a game about LDS Church history."

I take that as such a high compliment!!! I mean wow, I wasn't even trying for that one. I just wanted to get a game out there and see how it would do. He also said,

"Blast From the Past is a Mormon game that can be played again and again. It's fun because of what you learn and how amusing some of the cards are, and also because any player might win,"

which I totally agree with. I've played the game dozens of times now, and I've only won twice!!! Aaaaaagh, I must be really bad at trivia if I can research it, write it, and then still get mixed up on dates.

Anyway, I'm working on a new game now, and I don't think it will get nearly as much praise, but hopefully I will learn more about publishing this time around.

Here's a link to the review, in case you're interested:

http://www.mormontimes.com/mormon_voices/orson_scott_card/?id=9917

I was on LDS Radio!!!

So I added the Mormon Radio widget to my blog, and not just because I was interviewed as part of a panel discussion on the radio program, "Everything Creative", but because I'm excited that there are so many great discussions happening on this station.

I believe there are three reasons I was invited to participate in the discussion on the air: 1) I published a card game through Deseret Book (see photo on the right), 2) I rarely use vulgarity (I've only said 3 swear words in my whole life.), and 3) Its all about connections.

I hear there are already millions of listeners to Mormon radio at radio.lds.org. So since there are three or four of you who read my blog from time to time, now there are a million and four!

Ready, set, sing!

So we got to do a bit of recording for a Church video.  It was a lot of fun.  Photos include Tamilisa Wood, Nicole Carter, Aimee Lewis, and Trevor White.

Ward Trip to Minnetonka Cave

Our ward took a trip to Wyoming this summer.  Here are a few photos of our trip to Minnetonka Cave.  Of course we played a bunch of crazy games and ended up laughing our heads off.  It was fun.

Halloween 2008

I've always enjoyed Halloween.  My "Where's Waldo" costume from 2006 was such a hit that I decided to wear it again.  

See if you can find me in these photos.

The only problem with my Waldo costume is that it is WAY TOO WARM to dance in!!!