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I don't mind spending every day hanging out at Border's Cafe.....

**The title of this is from a parody song Meghan and I made up on one of our treks to Borders...it should be sung to the tune of "She Will Be Loved" by Maroon 5. However, I do not spend everyday at Border's Cafe...though I go to Borders often as described below.


Just a quick little update. I have been super busy with school and entertaining guests. :) Meghan's family was here my first week of school, my family was here my second week and over the next two weeks both JB and Melinda will be visiting the wonderful city of Nashville. I have however found a new home away from home. When I moved here was very disappointed because I couldn't find a Barnes and Noble anywhere. I hate Book-A-Million, sooo unorganized, and when going to Borders- B&N's equal- I felt as though I was cheating on B&N. I know, I know, it's ridiculous and stupid, but that's just how I am. However, what's a book lover to do?


It wasn't until two weeks ago, that I began to appreciate, nay even like Borders. I went in to return a book James Taylor had suggested to me. I'm sorry James, I dont want to read about a little 10 year old who was raped and whose dad took his revenge. A Time To Kill is just too much for me. So I take it in and ask the guy at the front if I can return it. After flipping through it- I guess to make sure I hadn't left gum in it or marked it up- he agreed to let me. I said he may as well just give me store credit as I would just be back in here soon. "In that case, can I make a suggestion?" He asked. "Of course." I responded. He grabbed a book over on the side and handed to me. "This is one of my top three favorite books. Everyone I know, loves it." So of course I ask him what it's about...I mean it has a dog on the front...dogs aren't my favorite. He says "Well, its from the point of view...of a dog....who believes in reincarnation...and it's really sad." Great, I think and try and think of something to say to get out of buying it. Then he hits me with, "It doesn't sound good but it's really, really good. It made me cry. It's really sad but if you get to the end it's very redemptive." Now I have to get it. After all, isn't that what I say about Twilight...minus the crying and being really sad and very redemptive part. Aren't I always like "Well no, it's not really about Vampires....it's about a girl who falls in love with a guy...who happens to be a vampire...no it's not about werewolves...they're really shape-shifters....just read it." So how can I tell this guy no? So I exchange James' recommendation for this Borders employee's recommendation. I didn't like it so much at first, but for a book from a dog's point of view, whose owner is a racer (as in racecars) I really did enjoy it. It was redeeming and it was sad. It's definitely a winner and definitely better than A Time To Kill. So good job Borders, your employees actually know something, unlike B&N and BAM. Also your store is actually pretty cool with all it's coves and sliding ladders....and could only be a bit cooler if life were in fact a musical and one could ride them around the cove singing about far-off places, daring swordfights, magic spells, and a prince in disguise!


Today an employee recommended Life of Pi. I was hooked by the end of the Author's Note. The author is Yann Martel and there is something about the way he writes that makes even sloths interesting. 


We're still church hunting so if you know of a good church in the Nash hit us up. Right now we are  thinking either Fellowship Bible Chruch or Christ Pres...thoughts?


It's late so I'm going to go read some more about a God-loving boy named Pi Patel.

Scripting and Storyboarding: Friday

                Yesterday was Scriptwriting and Storyboarding. This is BY FAR my favorite class I’ve ever had- no exaggeration. My teacher is VERY laid back and VERY sarcastic. He’s hilarious. I not only took notes in class but took notes what he said. Here are some of the funnier things though I’m not sure if it will translate through words as well as it would if I was telling you. Also some may not be funny out of context of the class but I still thought they were.

Every time there’s a silence he fills it by singing “Hot Pocket.” He also will say something quite like, “What time is it?” or figuring out what to go to next and he’ll say “What is he whispering about…should we be taking notes…it sounds like he’s talking to yourself. ”

Then we were talking about the format for writing Screenplays. He was telling us that the dialogue is always centered under the characters name and in explaining why he said, “Why is the dialogue indented? Because actors are the stupidest people out there…..well except for Dell Tech Support.”

Someone asked, “What about ‘CUT TO’ do we put that after you put to fade out of a scene? ” He responded, “Well let me just tell you- if you write ‘CUT TO’ you’re being a jerk and telling the editor how to do his job. You want to be friends with them.”

Explaining Aesop’s Fables he said, “You know ‘Tortuous and the Hare?’ ‘Slow and steady wins the race?’” pause. “Not true.”

He asked us how many of us liked powerpoint. Half the class raised their hands. “You’re all crazy…looney toons. Powerpoint sucks.” I agree with him.

And at the end of class we watched a documentary on editing- pretty cool- and they had montages all throughout it and that scene from Titanic came on…you know the one where Rose lets go of Jack and he sinks down. He goes, “Ahhhhh!.....Oh…sorry.” It was HILARIOUS. Anyways, I got an email from my Design Fundamental teacher and since we missed school Monday we are behind and I have to read 6 chapters to get caught up. Check you guys later! 

Drawing 1: Thursday

On Thursday I had Drawing 1 and while it wasn’t as intimidating as I thought it would be, I’m sure it will be hard. I can paint adequately and I can draw some, but I really struggle with portraits and still life pictures. The class was very entertaining though as I made some friends. There were 19 people in our class, 15 Interior Design students- who were at least in their 2^nd quarter and 4 Digital Media and Animation students who were all 1^st quarter students. When he asked what programs we were from we discovered that as well as the fact that we had completely segregated ourselves. All of the Interior Design students sat on either side of the class room facing the middle and the 4 of us sat in the four desks connecting the two sides. John, Jay and Denis were the other DMA students and the three of them kept me quite entertained and as it turns out I have more than one class with each. I have Storyboarding- which was Friday- with Denis and Jay and I have Design Fundamentals with John on Monday.

                You can generally tell who belongs to what major if you pay attention. There are of course exceptions and I haven’t seen any photography students so the rule doesn’t apply to them. Audio Production students are generally the ones who look like rappers. Piercings, crazy hair, and baggy pants belong to this major. Fashion Design students look well fashionable...for the most part. Interior Design and DMA generally look normal, but it’s the conversation that sets them apart. If you’re standing around a group of students and they’re talking about normal things and they aren’t DMA students.

                With that being said, I’m sure the Interior Design students thought we were losers but to each his own I guess. We were talking I quickly discovered they are WAY into anime and manga. At one point they tried to explain the concept of Yugio and Pokemon games- which I just don’t get. Well the only thing I know about Yugio or Pokemon is from Jameson’s younger years. I had at least heard about it so I could almost follow what they were saying. I told them I thought both of them were old and not really around anymore and John informed me that there is actually a Yugio tournament downtown but it is invite only and either it costs 10000 dollars to get in or you win that much….maybe I should pick up Yugio…just kidding. This conversation also included topics of World of Warcraft, Halo and other games. After a little while I hear, “Jar Jar Binks is too cool!” “No he isn’t. NO ONE likes Jar Jar Binks…he’s the downfall of the Jedi.” Since I can somewhat follow a Star Wars convo (I haven’t seen them in forever) I chime in on Denis’ side, “I like Jar Jar Binks.” John then explained why Jar Jar is stupid. Then Jay decides to chip in. “Anakin is the best Jedi! He’s so cool.” The three of us look at him like he’s insane and John follows up with, “Have you ever even seen Star Wars??” Anyways, they were quite entertaining and I’m glad I’m meeting people in my major. I’ve never met so many people in one term. Fun times.

I love my school!

Today was my first day of class! Last night Meghan and I went to Walmart to get a few last minute items for this week. I found Alice in Wonderland notebooks and yes, I got them :) I worried a little that I wouldn't get up in this morning because I haven't had to be up early in so long. I didn't get up when I originally planned but I got up early and didn't have to rush getting ready and was even a little early to class.

This class was not one I was particularly looking forward to. It's called College Success and it's the only Gen Ed class I have this quarter. It sounds kinda hokey but we all have to have it. Turns out, I dont think it's going to be so bad. I really enjoyed the class. We had to get up and speak in front of the class and it didn't really bother me. I really hope I'm getting used to speaking in front of crowds...I had to do a lot of that in my childcare classes. The class structure was really, really relaxed. I'm not sure if that's because that's how this class is, how IADT is, because it's the first day or because our teacher, Mrs. Jones had been out of town for the past month. Whatever the reason I was surprised by this. Mrs. Jones was in and out getting things straight and running off more pages of stuff and the people in class were really relaxed about it too. We got a 30 minute break- which would have been enough time for me to come home, type this blog and go back- a little over halfway through and when we got back we got our homework for chapter one- though we really didn't cover anything. It's SUPER easy. You know when teachers go through the chapters and pick out sentences and leave blanks, or have a bunch of listing questions which the answers are in the headings? That's what this was. That's my kind of homework ;) (legit though, that's how I learn- writing)
I finished the entire packet before I left. So now all I have to do is a little project.

Thursday I have drawing and that is my most intimating class. I draw some so I'm a little excited, it's just not my strongest area. Friday is storyboarding. I am by far most excited about that class. It is going to be AWESOME- I hope. I've met that teacher and he seems really cool. He's one of those people who has been in the field, made more money than I ever want to and now finds more satisfaction in teaching than doing. Cool little fact about him: You know those Dance Dance Revolution games in arcades? He designed the girl who gives the tutorial. Anyways, I'm pretty pumped about that class. Finally on Monday I have Design Fundamentals. I'm excited about that too.

So there's an update on my first day. I'm really excited about this and I really love how they have their classes set up. I think I've mentioned before the gen ed classes are bigger- around maybe 20 and the core classes (major focused) are much smaller. This means I have basically every class with James Taylor and at least 4 others whose names are not quite as easy to remember. So that's probably more than you wanted to know, but my parents read this too you guys, and they dont have great reception at the lake. Boo them ;)

later

4th of July: Nashville Style

As I've said before, Tori left yesterday to go down with my ENTIRE family to Lake Santa Fe. I'm incredibly sad I'm not there with them and I hate that this happened to be the one week I couldn't go...well of all past weeks. Let's just say as soon as I get my two week break in September I think I'll be heading down to the lake. I'm also sad that I missed out on July 4th at the Lake because I dont remember being at Lake Santa Fe for one single 4th of July. However, if I had to miss the 4th at the Lake, I'm glad I'm in Nashville. 

While we've been here, we've kind of stayed away from festivals downtown because of the fight to get there. Between traffic, floods of people, and the heat it's not always worth it. Nashville is all about some festivals and as the 4th fell on a Sunday this year, Nashville took full advantage of that offering free entertainment all weekend. It's not like Taylor Swift or Paramore performed so again we stayed away from downtown knowing it would be chaotic. It's not that we dont want to experience the awesomeness that is Nashville, it's just too hot to right now and we dont listen really listen to a lot of country. Anywho, Meghan discovered that they were having a firework show at the Riverfront Park, close to the Titian's stadium, accompanied by the Nashville Symphony yesterday and this was too cliche and too good to pass up. So we got ready and headed downtown. When we hit our exit we were across the interstate, on the other side of the Stadium, and the other side of the river from the park, yet we were already in bumper to bumper traffic. It was one of those exits with a little meadow in between the interstate and the off ramp. Well about three cars ahead of us this car just pulls into the grass facing the stadium and parks it there. The next three follow suit and we decided too as well. Within ten minutes there were at least 30 cars in the median. By the time the fireworks were done there had to be over 50. At this point cars were pulling straight off the highway into the median. 

The show was one of best I've ever seen. As Meghan said They definitely were keeping with our culture millions of dollars were definitely wasted on celebrating our independence but it did look good.  The experience was really cool. Everyone hanging out in the median watching the fireworks, and listening to the Nashville Symphony on people radio, we had a font row seat to the glorious explosions. I must admit it was pretty cool. Here are some pictures:

Sacrifice and Lessons from Potter

Spoiler Alert: There's a little bit of a Potter spoiler- though if you haven't read the books and have just seen the movies you don't really know what's going on and that's on you. ;) Read the books!



Meghan and I had heard that they were having a free fireworks show at the Riverfront Park (near downtown) tonight with the Nashville Symphony. So tonight we got ready and headed that way. On the way there were random fireworks going off all over Nashville. I'm truly a fantasy fiction nerd. One of my first thoughts was, I bet this is what it was like the night Voldemort attacked the Potters and was virtually destroyed by Harry, or rather Lily's sacrifice for Harry. If you haven't read Harry Potter you don't really know what I'm talking about. 


'Let me explain...no there is too much, let me sum up.' 


The night after Halloween people were celebrating all over England just like we celebrated our freedom all across America tonight. But these people were'n't free from the unpleasant reign of a far away government, they were free from a reign of terror. In this book series, 'there was this wizard who went...bad. As bad as you can go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was Voldemort.' Voldemort had plagued the wizarding world for around ten years causing fear, death, pain and heartache. No one could stand up to him and no one could stop him. But a mother who sacrificed herself for her child, Harry, stops him- at least for 14 years or so(and in the end Harry stops him by the same means). Lily Potter doesn't stop him- this living terror- by any words, spells, or physical force, she stops him by sacrifice. Voldemort wants to kill her son and she sacrifices herself for him, giving him protection from this evil one. Now I realize this illustration- like every illustration- falls short in one way or another, but as I watched fireworks pop up across the sky and as my mind turned for a second to this series I found that I was humbled and called to praise the Lord for His sacrifice for us, freeing us from a reign of terror instead thinking much of the physical freedom we celebrated today. Brothers and sisters, let us not praise Him for our physical freedom alone, for our true freedom is not physical, but a spiritual. For what is physical freedom when we're a slave to sin?

Happy 4th

I just wanted to say Happy 4th! 

And say thank you, Daddy Jim and Dad, for serving us and your country.

Thank you also for loving your wives, your children and (great)grandchildren, for teaching us to love the Lord and His word and for making your house and family one we all cherish being a part of. I love you guys and am so thankful the Lord ordained for me to be a part of your family.

Just a quick little update. 


Tori left this morning to meet up with Bethany, Alex and Stertle to head down to the lake and meet up with not only the rest of my family, but from what I understand, the Gordon family (plus Cindy) as well. I may be just a little bit jealous because this little piece of heaven:

is my favorite place on earth.. However, next week is definitely one I'm looking forward to! At least the reason I can't go is a good one. I start school on Tuesday! I got my books this past Thursday. My Design Fundamentals and Storyboarding books are very interesting and I found myself being slightly Hermionesc as I looked through and read parts of them. I'm not quite that good though as I didn't read all three of my books cover to cover. ;)

Along with my books- which were surprisingly cheaper here- I also go two "kits."

One, for Design Fund. like this:

It was filled with all kinds of art supplies. I also got a canvas bag full of artsy goodies. Everything from canvases and notebooks with different kinds of paper (paint, newspaper etc) to paints, colored pencils, smudgers, cutting boards, to scissors and different kinds of glue. I am SUPER excited. However, even though all of this art stuff is fun the class I'm most excited about is Storyboarding. My schedule is pretty good. My least favorite class is on Tuesday- it's one of those core classes. And my two favorites are on Friday and Monday- which are two days you don't want to be in school. So that works out nicely. So that's an update on the school front. 

As far as Nashville goes I'm still completely in love with the city. When I say it's so much fun living here, I don't mean that we're doing a lot of stuff yet I mean that it's literally just so much fun living here because Nashville is a fun place. I mean, who would want to live in a place where you could pass Hotel Preston every day?! Anyways, check you guys later. If Meghan is feeling better later we're going to the Waterfront Park to watch fireworks while the Nashville Symphony plays...I guess we do stuff sometimes ;) later.

Well now I think Eclipse can handle that.

I just got in from the Eclipse midnight premiere and it's 3 am but I wanted to write a quick post so that those who are wondering how good it is would know. It's late and I need to get rested for tomorrow night so I'm just going to hit on the highs and lows of the movie experience.

First low of the night was when we noticed a group of 12 year old girls. They proved to be very annoying as they began chanting cheers before the preview started. They were eventually silenced by agitated "20 somethings" telling them to shut up. So annoying. They were quite until the Deathly Hallows preview and then proceeded during Eclipse to scream EVERY TIME Taylor came on screen. We are now considering smuggling super soakers (Brett's idea) into Breaking Dawn.



Another low was when the screen split up so that the top was at the bottom and the other way around for a few minutes during the movie. People, nay the jr high girls, filled this time screaming for them to "FIX IT! FIX IT NOW!" and missing a lot of lines that were said. They know it's messed up and they are fixing it...it's not like someone did it on purpose....or maybe they did ;)

One thing that I just dont understand is when directors or screenwrites decide to change little things like who says what, or what color hair a character has. I just dont get it.

And finally, poor Bryce Dallas Howard (daughter of Ron Howard) never even had a chance at being a good Victoria. Again I'm mad at Summit for firing Rachelle to pay Rob and Kristen more. That's not ok and Rachelle was much better. It's not that Bryce isn't a great actress, it's just that she's not Victoria. Rachelle was spot on. But what's done is done.

My favorite things of the night:

We sat outside a sneak showing of the Last Airbender- also staring Jackson Rathbone who plays Jasper in Twilight- and the manager let Meghan and I go in and see a little of it. Tor opted out. We're really excited about that coming out tomorrow night.

This movie/book had a lot more to do with Jasper Hale- my favorite Twilight character plated by my favorite Twilight actor- Jackson Rathbone. He got a lot of face time and I'm very glad.

This movie also stuck to the book more than the others in my opinion. It was out of order but kept most things in. They also used a lot of lines straight from the book.

Stephanie Meyer recently released a novella called The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. Bree was a newborn who figures out part of Victoria's plan- or at least that Riley is lying. It's kind of tragic because you like Bree by the end but you know her ending from Eclipse, so you know her fate. Because of that book we understand a lot of what's going on with the newborns and Slade did an excellent job bringing that into Eclipse.

I was REALLY  glad they left all of the back stories in there. They did such a good job on the Legends and Rosalie and Jasper's back stories.  Jasper even said, "My apologies, ma'am." presh. Also, Nikki Reed- gorgeous...they finally didnt jank her hair up. In fact everyone's hair and make up was a lot better.
The battle scene.....amazing. I mean amazing.

Finally, it seems that Kristen and Rob are finally comfortable on screen. Kristen didn't blink as much and they didnt seem as awkward. I dont know, maybe I'm used to them now or maybe Dakota gave her pal Kristen some tips. Either way it was a lot easier to watch.

Well I could go on and on about things I loved and things I hated but it's 4 and I've got to go get rested for another premiere. (I also just want to point out that we dont just go to movies all the time. The last movie I went to see, I believe, was when we were visiting Nashville and saw Date Night. It's just that there are two movies we've waited all year for that premiere two nights in a row. And it's Meghan's birthday week.)

Good night and Congratulashla to David Slade on the best Twilight movie so far. Losing you as a director for BD 1 &2 really makes me nervous now.

Eclipse, Burger King, Lost remotes, LOST and Alias...just a few thoughts

As anyone who is friends with me on facebook, or up-to-date in world today the third installment of the Twilight Saga: Eclipse premiered yesterday. We were very excited about this as E! covered it and had live interviews on the red carpet. Joy Beth went and got a camera for her computer so we could skype during it. We had it all ready to set up, Joy Beth on one computer and we'd hook up another computer to the tv so that we could all three see and watch the eonline live coverage of the red carpet. Our internet has been going in and out for a few days now so I woke up early(ish) and called Comcast. WELL. After being on the phone with them quite a while...twice....and after someone came out to "fix it"...AND after plugging up a new wireless router it still didn't work well enough to watch a live stream or to skype. So we decided to go somewhere else. We opted on a Starbucks figuring there wouldn't be a lot of people there on a Thursday. We were wrong. However, it was doable. I'm sure we were quite a site. We were at two little round tables- pulled together- with a computer on each. On one computer we had Joy Beth on Skype- though we couldn't see her- and on the other we had the live stream. We thought it might be rude to have the Skype going loud so Tori had headphones on that and we had a splitter in the computer with the stream so there were three pairs of headphones. Meghan and I also had JB on the phone. 

So Burger King is Eclipsed out right now. They have Eclipse "toys" in the kids meals, Eclipse cups, Eclipse bags, Eclipse games. It's pretty fun. We went in tonight and were really excited. He handed me a Jacob cup but I, of course, had to get another. After we had ordered we decided to get a large fry cause it has the game pieces on it and the guy just gave us one. We won a free whooper off of it.

Another fun thing happened tonight. Since we've been here our remote hasn't turned the volume up on the TV. Tonight Tori found a random remote. She tried it out and it turns down our tv! You dont know how great it is! We dont mind getting up and down, but watching Alias and Lost means just about every other scene is some quite talking and the next will be loud explosions and smoke monsters.

Speaking of Lost and Alias...Terry O'Quinn is in both Lost and Alias. They are both shows created by JJ Abrams and actors in his shows are often in others. Anywho, Terry plays this FBI(except he's not really FBI he's some covert something) Director named Kendal. In Lost he plays one of the main characters, John Locke, as well as Brother- the smoke monster. 

So on Lost Locke- the real one, not the monster in the later seasons- was obsessed with the idea of destiny. On the show he and Jack, the protagonist of the show, flesh out the ideas of faith and science or destiny and free will. The other day we were watching Alias and Director Kendal said, "Sydney, maybe this is your destiny." I did a double take to see if Lost was on cause of course it sounded just like Locke. I think the similarities between these two shows are interesting. Well Lost is on and it's super fun watching this in retrospect. 

ABC's of Eclipse

Annoying

b/c Bella cant decide between Jake and Edward 
and gets a little annoying

Bree Tanner

b/c she told Edward the Volutri knew about Victoria's army 
and did nothing

Camping 

b/c of that awkward camping trip in the mountains

Dakota Fanning

b/c she knows how to act

Eclipse 

b/c Jacob can handle the clouds 
but he can't compete with an Eclipse

Frienemies

b/c it's what the werewolves 
and vampires really are

Graupner 

b/c "G" is always for Graupner

Hostage 

b/c that Hostage stuff is fun

Insidious

b/c it means 

1. operating or proceeding in an 
inconspicuous or seemingly harmless way 
but actually with grave danger

2. Volturi

Jasper Hale

b/c he already told Victoria he could handle that

b/c he's sorry he kept Alice waiting

b/c we learn his story

Kiss, Kick 'n Kill

b/c it's what happens during the battle scene

Leah Clearwater

b/c we feel sorry for her 
b/c of Sam's imprintation 
and b/c she's a wolf

Marriage and Monster

b/c it's what Edward wants and 
Bella's afraid of 
and it's what Bella wants and 
Edward's afraid of

NSYNC

b/c Victoria wants Bella 
Edward wants Victoria 
and Jacob wants Edward
to walk out that door, baby bye, bye, bye

Overprotective fools:
b/c Jasper and Edward are 
both slightly overprotective of 
Alice and Bella

Party

b/c if Bella really loves Alice she'll let 

her throw a graduation party 

and plan her wedding

Quil:

b/c they thought it was weird when 

Quil imprinted on a two year old...

Rachelle

b/c we miss her

Switzerland

b/c it's Team Switzerland 

not Team Jakeward

Team Newborn

b/c by the end we all wanted them to 

kill Bella 

Ultimate Battle scene

b/c in Breaking Dawn they just go 

think at each other

Virgo

b/c Jacob doesn't want any of those 

freaky virgos around

Win-Win-Win

b/c Bella chooses Edward 

leaving Jacob free to imprint 

and making them one big happy family

X-best friends

b/c though they have a rough patch, 

Jacob and Bella do become friends again

Y?
b/c we're wondering y 
you haven't read them yet

Zero

b/c there are zero newborns left