My Wife the Dragon Trainer

Apparently people have been telling my wife she looks like a character from the new animated movie "How to Train Your Dragon".  We looked it up I can definitely see the resemblance. 

Funny how we constantly seem to be finding resemblances of people we know in the media.  Like that whole doppleganger thing.  

As a side note, "How to Train Your Dragon" has a 98% fresh rating on rotten tomatoes.  Guess I know what movie we'll be seeing tomorrow. . .  

 

Media Literacy and The Princess and the Frog

First of all, let me just say that my wife and I LOVED "The Princess and the Frog" and were thoroughly entertained.  However, I couldn't help noticing some things I might not have been sensitive to before our class.  

First of all was this scene.  I definitely laughed, but I would not want my kids acting out these things.



One other little thing I noticed was in the last scene it shows Tiana's (the Princess's) friend dancing with the Naveen's (the Prince's) little 6-year-old brother and she says something about how she can wait for him (suggesting she wants to marry him to become a princess).  The thought crossed my mind of what a double standard this was.  It was meant to be cute and funny, but if the roles were switched - a grown young man dancing with a 6-year-old girl implying that he wanted to marry her - then it would seem creepy and unacceptable.  

Anyways, these were just a few passing thoughts I wanted to share.  If you haven't seen this movie yet, go see it!

Student Ratings

Just finished.

All 5 classes in like 12 minutes. 

And I'm pretty sure I get extra credit for at least 3 of them.

Clicking circles and writing a couple sentences never felt so good.

Inspirational Films

January of 2008, I started working as a mentor at a residential treatment center in Orem called Telos.  I've worked on several different shifts there and, fortunately, I've been able to continue working there after leaving for 4 months during the Fall of 2008 when I did the Romania Internship.  It is by far the the best job I've ever had and will be the hardest thing for me to leave when my wife and I move out of Utah at the end of May.  

One thing I've always been impressed with about Telos is how media is used.  The CEO understands the negative influences of media and has restricted movie-watching to one pre-approved leisure movie per week.  We spend the rest of our time training for triathlons and doing other activities.  

However, therapists will often use inspiring films in therapy and in therapeutic groups.  Yesterday during recreational therapy, the rec therapist had us watch White Squall.   
 

I was impressed how she was able to use the story from the film to get the boys to identify their own issues that they were struggling with and help them see positive and negative ways of dealing with those issues.  
 
We also saw Invictus a few weeks ago at the dollar theater and had a similar discussion afterward. 

These are just a couple of examples of inspiring films that are based-on true events.  Other movies we've watched at Telos in therapeutic settings include The Legend of Bagger Vance, Antwone Fisher, Dead Poets' Society, Cinderella Man, Martian Child, Remember the Titans, and more.  

I'm really grateful for the opportunities I have had to watch these movies and verbally process and learn from each of them. 

Wedding Video

After our last class, I'm so glad my wife and I have this:


Monica & Rhett Wedding Highlight from IRIS AND LIGHT on Vimeo.

It's fun to look back and remember everything we loved about our wedding and laugh about how it was 107 degrees that day. 

Texting Faux Pas

The whole T9 prediction thing can be really nice sometimes when text messaging.  It can also be pretty frustrating, like when the word you're typing isn't in the dictionary and then you have to take the extra 30 seconds to do it the old-fashioned way and then save it.   

It can also be pretty humorous.

My wife and I are both really busy working 25-30 hours a week while trying to finish school.  As a result, we don't see each as often as we would like and text message on a fairly frequent basis.  

Sometimes when texting, we neglect to change the word we've written from how it appears to what we intend it to mean.  Consequently, we've gotten used to some of the fake words that we might accidentally send to each other.  

For example, my wife asked me what I was going to have for breakfast this morning.  "Oh, probably just some grammka."  

She immediately knew that I meant "granola"

Or, if we're g-chatting and want to express sympathy to one another for some frustrating situation, we might say "fami . . ." which means "dang. . ."

Maybe it seems weird, but we think it's pretty funny. 

Deleted "Octopus Scene" from "The Goonies"

So, I was watching "The Goonies" the other day (as part of our coding project) and I was reminded of something that I used to get into arguments (the friendly kind) with people about.  

I would swear up and down that there was a scene where some of the Goonies have to fight off an octopus after they get to One-Eyed Willy's pirate ship.  But so many people never believed me!  Now, thanks to youtube, I can prove all those people wrong.  



It's crazy how far we've come in the last ten years alone in terms of technology.  The chances of me finding this video online even five years ago is slim to none. 

PLEASE COME TO THE INQUIRY CONFERENCE!

 As some of you may know, this week the BYU Inquiry Conference is taking place in 238 HRCB (The Kennedy Center - directly north of the MARB).  I will be presenting my research from my Romania Internship tomorrow at 3:30.  The schedule for today and tomorrow is as follows:

Thursday, 18 March

            9:00   Presenters’ Meeting: Day’s presenters meet in 238 HRCB

10:00  Nathaniel Freeman (Classical Studies) “Wordmasons: A Literary Treatment of Temples from Virgil to Milton

10:30  Caroline Larson (Art History) “Attributing an Unknown Adoration of the Shepherds in the Brigham Young University Collection”

11:00  Jordan Layton (Anthropology) “Unveiling Ubuntu: Overcoming Individualism and Racial Segregation in a South African Catholic Parish”

11:30  Panel Discussion: Religion and the Arts

12:00  Keynote Lecture: Carol Ward (Associate Professor of Sociology, BYU) “Using the Indigenous Evaluation Framework to Assess Projects in Developing Communities: Examples from Africa and Native America”

            2:00 Kendal Blust (English) “Gender Relations and Evaluation: Challenges and         Triumphs”

2:30 Amy Smart (Public Health Education) “Uniform of Hope: Reciprocity and Volunteerism in East London”

3:00 Matt Cox (Latin American Studies) “Get Involved: The Role of Cultural Immersion in International NGO Evaluation””

3:30 Yukiko Seino (Anthropology) “’There Is No Progress Because We Lack Business Skills’: Why Grassroots NGO Struggle in a Western-Influenced World”

            4:00 Panel Discussion: Giving and Taking: A Practice in International NGO Evaluation

            6:00 Presenters’ Banquet: All presenters and mentors meet in 5519 WSC

Friday, 19 March

            9:00  Presenters’ Meeting: Day’s presenters meet in 238 HRCB

11:00  Katie Rasmussen (Marriage, Family, Human Development) “Service-Learning in Emerging Adulthood: Positive Development and Outcomes”

            11:30  Lauren Wade (Marriage, Family, Human Development) “Corruption and Compliance”

12:00  Kristi Packard (Anthropology) “The Child’s Side of Gender: Gender’s Effect on Children’s Identity and Education in Wiamoase, Ashanti, Ghana”

12:30  Panel Discussion: Human Development in a Cross-Cultural Context

1:00  Keynote Lecture: Gideon Burton (Assistant Professor of English, BYU) “Social Inquiry: Leveraging Field Studies with New Media”

2:00  Branda Quintana (Human Devlopment) “Interactive Musical Activities in the Context of a Romanian Orphanage”

            2:30 Amy Nagle (Exercise Science) “Finding Stability at the Core of a Nation: A Physical         Approach"

3:00  Michelle Mook (Early Childhood Education) “Perspectives of Health Among Wiamoase School Children”

3:30  Rhett Billen (Marriage, Family, Human Development) “Assessing Reinforcement Preferences of Children in Romanian Institutionalized Care”

4:00              Panel Discussion: Interventions Among Children and Adolescents

6:00              Field Study Reunion: Reunion potluck in 238 HRCB

I'm not too thrilled about being the absolute last presenter at the entire conference, but at least there may not be too many people there . . .

Feel free to stop by!

Thoughts from Our Mock Trial

I was pretty disappointed today after losing.  That makes 0 for 2 mock trials in Dr. Coyne's classes for me (and Jeffy. . . and maybe Lance?  I don't remember if you were a defense or prosecution witness in the other trial?)  Anyways, I thought about our trial quite a bit today and I just wanted to share a few thoughts:

• First of all, I would like give affirmations to Laura and Casey for doing a really good job and being thoroughly prepared for the trial.  Many of their points were very relevant and they were very skilled in presenting those points.   
• Second, I don't know what the actual results of the case were, but I don't think it should have ever gone to trial.  In my opinion, Warner Brothers and Oliver Stone should have been willing to settle outside of court and pay out whatever might be reasonable in a case like this (I have no frame of reference for this.  It could be anywhere from $100K to $6 million and I wouldn't know what would be within reason).  This makes sense to me because it is blatantly OBVIOUS that the movie is not the only factor that contributed to Ben and Sarah's behavior, but it is also clear that their viewing of this movie influenced them to do what they did.  For this reason, Oliver Stone and Warner Brothers should have been willing to extend some type of monetary settlement to the plaintiff. 
• If I could do it over again, I would recommend that the defense would talk about how this case makes a stronger argument about gun control laws than it does for regulation of media violence.  I mean, how did these kids get guns to go around shooting people in the first place?
• There are several other things I might do over again, but what got me in the end was Laura's rhetorical question about what if this happened to a loved one?  Of course i would wish the movie would never have been made.  But the problem with that is the fact that if wasn't this movie, Ben and Sarah would have found some other violent flick to be obsessed with and act out.  Just like Kip Kinkel and Romeo and Juliet.  

 I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this, but I just thought it was so interesting that immediately after the trial I found myself always siding with the defense in this case.  But I had to ask myself if my opinions were my own, or whether I had convinced myself to think a certain way because of my involvement with the defense.  

Regardless, I'm just glad to to have a little extra credit after getting 82% on the midterm.   

PLEASE VIEW THIS POST!!!

And watch this video.

Does anyone else feel like they can't believe what they're seeing, or am I the only one?  

Who would have thought it could get any better than the Treadmill Video for "Here it Goes Again" . . .