First, let’s talk about television and movie screens. What are their dimensions? Are the screens vertical or are they horizontal? Think about the new phenomenon of wide screens. What does that mean? Hmmm…probably that the screens are very wide horizontally? Have you ever seen a television or movie screen that is vertical? I haven’t. Now, think of YouTube, Vimeo, or Blip.tv: When you watch a movie or video on these sites, what are the dimensions of the movie player? Are they vertical or horizontal? C’mon, think hard.

Now introduce the iPhone, iPad and iPod. Generally people hold the screen vertical when using these devices. Because they are so used to holding these devices vertical, when they take video they hold the device vertical.

My question is: when someone gives me video to use, what in the world am I supposed to do with video taken vertically? How am I supposed to use that in a movie I am making with footage that has been taken horizontally? Because, remember, regular video cameras take video “horizontally!” I don’t recall that Final Cut  Pro or iMovie or Pinnacle Studio or Adobe Premiere has any settings for a 640×1080 video. Usually it’s for 1920×1080 or 640×480 or even 320×240. Do you see the pattern here? Yes, the video is “horizontal!”

So thanks Apple, you have just created a whole generation of backwards videographers. How are you planning to fix that bug?

Trick long/skateboarding is against the rules on campus. You’re only allowed to “commute to and from class.” Really? That is absolutely ridiculous. I just got a warning from a campus cop after “several” people complained against me. I was practicing my stand up slides on the beautiful new sidewalk in front of the AGSC building near the quad. I was wearing a helmet, being respectful, and waiting for people to get out of collision distance before I tried anything. But sure enough an, very nice and respectful I might add, officer showed up and told me the policy, while writing down my information. Long story short, if I get written down again, my board gets confiscated with a $25 fee, tacking on $25 for every subsequent offense. Thank you USU for being a giant buzz-kill.

Also, people are stupid. By themselves, they are wonderful and at the heart very nice, minus a few exceptions here and there, but as a whole, people are stupid. Why can’t I do what I love while being respectful at the same time? Oh because people in the past have caused problems and crashed because of their own negligence? You cannot prove that I will be the same. You cannot prove that I will crash and hurt some random person.

I also found that it is against the law to skate on the streets of Logan City. Great, now I get to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars a year to replace bearings from crappy sidewalks, not to mention pay for injuries sustained from the cracks in the cement (you may scoff, but until you skate or longboard, you are naive to the dangerous aspects of sidewalk cracks). So the question remains, WHERE AM I GOING TO LONGBOARD!?

There is currently no Longboard park within walking, skating, or bus distance. There is a skatepark, but how am I supposed to longboard in there? I’ll get thrown out by the skateboarders, not to mention it’s flat. My progress is almost completely halted by those who know nothing of the sport and community of longboarding.

So there is one ultimatum, continue on. By making something illegal, you create a monster. It goes from being a sport of love, to a sport of spite. We continue to skate because we love it, and because we want to. We don’t care about the consequences, we care about the sport.

So there you go USU, you have lost my faith in your relaxed, fun, and accepting campus. Good luck getting my attendance when I get back from my mission.

And speaking of missions, I know this isn’t the best way to prepare to be a missionary, but I’ve had enough of people taking away the things I love because they don’t like it, or don’t understand it, I will not be pushed around when I can speak.

enjoy.

enjoy.

Towards the end of November, grey whales begin to migrate from the Bering Sea to Baja California. It takes them from 5 to 8 weeks to reach the San Ignacio and Ojo de Liebre Lagoons, and Magdalena Bay, where they procreate and start raising their young. They start back to Alaska by mid February, adult males and females with no offspring leaving first. Mothers and their young calfs leave later on, many of them not until the end of April.

The grey whales are called the Friendlies by the locals because they will approach the boats and allow people to touch and pet them. A baby whale is at the side of every mother whale. It was fun to see them within arms reach.

I also noticed that the back end of most autos are not big and gaudy like the fronts. This made me form a relationship between the back ends of autos, and the back ends of women. Today small is desirable for both.

So large fronts and small ends. Yep, that about sums up women these days: large breasts and small bottoms. I would be curious to know if the majority of large front-end auto designers are male. It would be an interesting research topic.

My memory immediately traveled back to August 1997 when Dad and I were vacationing in England. We were driving north to Scotland from London. As we were driving on the highway, I saw a sign that read “Sherwood Forest.” “Hey,” I said, “Let’s stop and see Sherwood Forest.” Of course I was thinking of the Robin Hood folklore. But Dad didn’t want any of it. He was on a mission to reach northern England by nightfall, so we continued on our journey.

So basically I drove past the town that my ancestors are from, not even realizing it. My whole life I have wanted to visit the birthplaces of my ancestors and I unwittingly drove right past one of them! Are you serious?!

Junior will be leaving for his two-year mission sometime next summer. Since I was once a missionary, I have always felt that I won’t be a blubbering mother come the day he enters the MTC. But after the feeling I had the other day, I’m not so sure anymore. Even though I know what it’s like for him to attend college away from home, and even though I know what it’s like to serve a mission, I guess that–in the end–I’m still a mother. I will be a blubbering fool with red, swollen eyes along with all the other red, swollen-eyed mothers dropping their children off at the MTC curb. Sigh.

Either we will experience a terrible drought this year, or we’ll eventually pay for lack of snow…which is usually the case (i.e. snow in May). Of course we don’t want the former because we rely on snowpack for our water.

But when I saw today that snow is forecast for Saturday, I was a little disappointed. Even though my rational mind tells me that we need the moisture, my emotional mind yearns for the sun and the warmth. It lifts my spirit. Silly fickle humans we are.

We’ve had an inversion for about two weeks straight this month. Last night the news reported an upcoming story: The Inversion of 2011! Are you kidding me? It hasn’t even been that bad. When you drive about, you can still see several miles away. When you’re on a mountain bench, you can still see quite a ways out into the valleys. Silly. Then, we have been warned that this inversion will stay for at least a few more weeks. There will be no moisture! We need the moisture! Guess what we woke up to this morning? A snow storm. Uh huh.

Last winter they touted The Blizzard of 2010! That was the most ridiculous hype we have experienced in a while. We were supposed to experience this horrible blizzard that would keep us all indoors and wreak havoc on the roads. There was nothing. There was some blustery wind, but there wasn’t even any snow. There was one area that experienced some snow and high winds. That was it. We were all so unimpressed. It was a joke.

The media has become so high drama, so reality-TV based, that I find it hard to stomach anymore. Please, just give me the facts. That’s all I want. Leave the dramatization to Hollywood.

So I’m perplexed when I see women–usually in their twenties–with beautiful, creamy, unmarred skin sporting tattoos up and down their arms and all over their backs and chests. And who knows where else. Why? Why are they marking up a wonderful gift that they have been given? Do they not know that those tattoos are forever, and that even if they choose to have them “removed” in the future, their skin will not be what it was? It will show scars of previous tattoos.

If I had beautiful skin like these women do, I would slather it with sunscreen, I would moisturize it, I would show it off. I would protect it. I wouldn’t be embarrassed about wearing a sleeveless top or short skirt, let alone a swimsuit. I would totally appreciate my skin and take good care of it. But I guess that’s the lesson here. We never appreciate what we have, unless we lose it.

So what advice do you give your daughter who is in the throes of another high-drama incident? I wish I knew what to tell her to make her feel better. Unfortunately, what I tell her doesn’t really calm her. It starts with: be patient; be kind; be the nice friend; give her the benefit of the doubt; remember that hormones control females. Those phrases evolve to: being kind doesn’t mean you have to be her friend. That phrase evolves to: she won’t change; stay away from her; find new friends. And finally, out of desperation the cold, hard fact comes out: it never changes. The drama today will be there tomorrow and next week and next month and next year. The faces will change, but the drama will stay the same. Sigh.