survey time survey time survery time

ATTN: Everyone

I would be greatly obliged if you (YOU!) would kindly take the next 5-6 minutes of your day and fill out this survey.

www.writeourscript.com

We really would like to get a bit of market research done, and see what people think of a few tentative premises for a new series on BYU Broadcasting.
So PLEASE take a minute and help me out with the survey.

Now I am off to send out mass-emails!

side note: thank goodness for hot tea and space heaters.

content with content

And now I'm here, And here I stand

/


I am in the most ridiculous mood.
Just taking deep breaths, trying to ward it off. Listening to Daniel Johnston wail off-key about unrequited love.

So, I love these two Daniels and am fascinated by their unique dichotomy. I spent many hours last semester pondering it, and then putting it to words in a final humanities essay. I think studying their similarities and contrasting that with their very separate temperaments, styles and sources of inspiration can teach you a lot about the process of creation and inspiration. I am also fascinated by how one can find meaning and transcendence even in dark, absurd and obscure places. In the dissonant, the edgy, the off-kilter.


anyway, that's what I am hoping to find here. I've heard the album's leaked already. But I'll wait. I like building anticipation. !!!!!!



Now excuse me while I chant a mantra...letitgoletitgoletitgoletitgo
let
it



go

Articles and Thoughts

My work is still in a lull, I'm still sitting in my office for hours with nothing to do.
I've been reading articles.
I don't claim a firm or detailed grasp on the complexities of the situation in Israel and Gaza. There is obviously a lot of historical and political knowledge I lack, and the more I read the more my mind is thrown into a frenzy. I never know what to think or what to believe.

Despite this haze of confusion...I'm just having one of those days where I'm feeling the weight of it all. How did we get here? What could motivate a person to support some abstract sense of state, or country or group identity that overrides any inborn and personal sense of mercy and humanity? How can anyone get so riled up into hatred that they literally don't care if they are hitting the correct target--if they are killing civilians or armed combatants?

I'm not trying to make a blanket judgment of all military endeavors.
I do think, for the most part, servicemen and women in all countries can be motivated by good desires (service, duty, patriotism). but I also feel like we throw around the same patriotic language ("serve the country") all the time, without stepping back and realizing the gritty and morally complex realities that this service entails. Such attractive, idealistic diction does not shed light on any of the complexities of combat. "serve the country" could mean "launch a missile" or it could mean "fire at a suspicious vehicle" ---and all of this without any guarantee that these things won't result in tragic civilian causalities because of misinformation, or propaganda, or whatever else (poor leadership, maybe). and...I suppose morality might, in this specific example, be linked to intention. but just because someone is not morally damned by their actions--does not negate the devastating side-effects of involvement in this kind of violence on all parties. not just on the dead, the wounded, the suffering. but hundreds of soldiers with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder. plagued with these memories for a lifetime--wondering if they did the right thing. who they killed. to what ultimate end (which might be different from the intended end or the stated end) these acts were perpetrated.

These questions are agonizing to me! I don't know how to reconcile them...

In my office we often decorate for major (and minor) holidays. This month we have paper snowflakes on the walls, and today we put up a few things to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Including an "I have a dream" poster with spaces for everyone to write their own dreams down (side note: I often reflect on that fact that my office operates a bit like an elementary school classroom).
I wrote some silly thing about utopian communes, and tribal fire dances and hammock weaving.

But here is a real dream: that one day people can move past their divisive sense of tribal loyalty and be united, instead, by a common humanity.

Don't think I am naive. I know, especially in relation to the Israel/Palestine conflict, that there is a lot more to it than that. I just wish it could happen. I really do.

Winter Break

Going home for Christmas was warm and kind. it felt well-paced: not too long, not too short.
The sun went into hiding most days. and we enjoyed a constant dark and balmy drizzle. and one drastic 24-hour island-wide power outage due to lightning.

here are a few photos stolen from various friend's facebooks...
seeing old and familiar faces again was very nice:














Now I am back in snowy Provo. It hasn't stopped snowing for 2 days. and when I got off the bus today I was up to my waist.
Still--I am feeling happy and blessed and very lucky.
I am so excited about my classes this semester.
I am taking one entitled "Utopias: The Anthropology of Intentional Communities"
it's a very small class, reading and discussion-based. and the topic is so intriguing.

and just this morning I also found out that......
.....


I GOT INTO THE WRITER'S BLOCK CLASS! This means I get to help develop and write for a new tv show on BYU Broadcasting and maybe (?) get paid a small stipend for it.
Right now I'm just totally shocked I made it in. Even though I felt good about my application--it seemed like pretty steep competition.
Admittedly, I'm also incredibly thrilled and excited. I had thoroughly convinced myself that I wouldn't get in. so the surprise was even greater than it might have been otherwise.

2009 2009 2009 2009

Smoke hanging so thick in the air you can hardly see.
Firecrackers still sounding off in the distance.
I think the evil spirits have all been scared away tonight...and I think it's going to be a good year.

I recorded some sounds. I've been mixing and mashing. experimenting with the noises of kukui nuts clacking, and birds calling and cell phones reverbing one into another. robot voices. tongues clicking. count downs. boy choirs. explosions
maybe I'll throw some of them up here when I'm done.
good night.