Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk

So I finished working on the web series today.  It was actually sad, because I knew it meant that I no longer had a paycheck coming in at the end of the week.  Hopefully I will find something again soon, because I sort of need money to ya know, survive! 

What I want to mention though... is what happens almost the instant the official 'wrap' of the show is called.  Out come the beers.  Now, if they want to drink, that is fine.  Drink away.  

But don't drive home.  I don't care if it was "only one beer" or not.  It still impairs your judgment.

I feel kind of bad because I think I made one of the actors feel incredibly uncomfortable as everyone was standing around chatting, all with a beer in hand.  But maybe it was good for him to think a little more carefully about it.  I was walking past and he said, "Wow, no beer?"  I said almost curtly, "No, I don't drink."  Surprised, he added, "Wow, I think you are the only crew I have ever known who doesn't drink!"  He caught me at a particularly frustrated moment of the evening (because it seriously bothers the heck out of me that this is after ANY show wraps - it was the same way with HSM3 last year, too) so my immediate reply to his surprise that I don't drink was "my dad was hit and paralyzed by a drunk driver, and it actually really bothers me that everyone drinks after a show and then drives home."  Okay, maybe that was a tad blunt.  But if it got him to think twice next time, then I did my job.  There was that moment of awkward silence, and then he said "Okay, can we rewind that conversation?  You did a great job this week!"  I went along with his 'rewind' of conversation and left soon after.  I didn't want to stay and chat with people as they stood, sipping on their beers only to see them all drive away in the end...  

Seriously, don't be stupid. If you're going to drink, either have a designated driver, or call someone to come and get you. One drink or ten, you are still at risk, and it is ALWAYS stupid to drive after having any level of alcohol!! You are not immune to accidents. You could be the next unfortunate one who changes someone's life forever by crashing into them because you chose to drive afterwards. Don't be the cause of something like what Jacqueline Saburido has to now go through each and every day of her life.

Killing Two Birds With One Stone

You know, I have never quite understood that phrase.  Why would you want to kill two birds to begin with?  Oh well.  Just another strange English colloquialism I guess.

Anyway... I was so incredibly efficient on set today!  The first week of this shoot I would just watch movies on my ipod to kill the time (sound usually has a lot of downtime) but honestly, that was kind of boring.  I mean it was good to kill the time, but not very productive.  I'd already seen all the movies anyway.  I noticed a bunch of people (and by that, I mean almost everyone) brought their computers with them almost every day.  I'm overly protective of my computer though, and so I was a little leery about bringing it on set, but the mixer has a sound cart that I could safely place it on, so I decided I would test it out.  Today was Day 3 of bringing it on set and it is awesome.  For those of you who don't know, I have wanted to learn Russian for years; and a few months ago I finally started.  I use this program called byki and it is awesome.  The 'trial version' is absolutely free and well worth a download!  The full version is $50 and soon, I plan to upgrade.  

So instead of watching movies, I have begun to use all my free time on byki learning more Russian!  It teaches you in a cool flash card form and goes through about 5 or 6 different 'levels' or 'steps' for each set of new words you are learning.  First it gives you the Russian above (quite often with a picture - which actually helps a TON), and the English below.  Then, it gives you the Russian and you have to remember what it means in English.  After you flip it, it will ask "did you get it right?" and if you didn't, it will drill that one even more into you until you remember it.  Then it does the same thing, but gives you the English and you have to remember it in Russian.  After that, It gives you the Russian and you have to type it in English; and after that, you have to type it in Russian (it gives you a cool keyboard map for Cyrillic at the top of the screen).  By the time you're done with all those steps, you've pretty much mastered a new set of 10-20 words or phrases.  I love it!  

So today I learned all the days of the week as well as more basic phrases like "This is Mr. ..." etc.  I even taught a few words to one of the cast members who thought it was insane (but cool) that I was 'learning Russian in my spare time.'  I don't know why, but I love the Russian word for 'purple.' (It looks like this: фиолетовый) It just sounds cool.  So I tried teaching it to him.  He had a hard time with that one, but surprisingly enough, he successfully pronounced a seemingly hard one.  It's the formal way of saying "hello," but it's usually a mouthful for beginners.  That one looks like this: здравствуйте.  I also discovered this cool 'keyboard language switch' thing on my mac and as you can see, I am having way too much fun using it now!

Learn to Laugh

So to ME, today was funny.  Most other people on set weren't so amused.  And you would think that I, SOUND, would care most.  But hey, what can you do?  Just like Elder Wirthlin's talk, sometimes you just have to learn to laugh at the difficult or unfortunate times!  The location we've been (and will be) filming at all week is pretty much the worst location for sound.  We are about 2 minutes away from a police station, and 5-10 away from an airport.  That alone is problem enough, right?  But today we literally had just about everything.  And it wasn't an airplane this take, and a siren the next take... it was everything... all at once.  And that's why I found it so amusing.  We had already started rolling, the director was about to call action, and then a siren started.  So we said "hold for the siren."  And just as the siren was almost gone, we had a garbage truck starting to back up, and then proceed to collect people's trash on the street we were filming on.  In the process of that, a plane flew overhead.  Then once the plane was gone, the garbage truck had pretty much finished and we were ALMOST in the clear... but then out of the blue, the next door neighbor's yard man started weed whacking... and then this guy with a mini ice cream stand thing (that 'dinged' every time he took a step) started walking down the street.  I can't remember which one of those we actually cut at and just waited for everything else to go by, but it was just funny because stuff like that "only happens in the movies," right?  Or maybe in this case, happens ON the movie...set.

Meet Me In...Agoura?

So remember how I posted a few days ago about Nick Vujicic?  What I didn't include is that I wrote a letter to him/his staff about how life with my Dad was as a child.  For those of you who don't know, my dad is a paraplegic and has been pretty much all my life (I was barely a year old when it happened).  The letter was basically stating how he was just as good a dad as anyone else - regardless of whether or not he had working legs, and how when I was younger, I didn't even realize he was 'different' in any way because to me he was just Dad.  I didn't think much about the letter after I sent it, and definitely didn't expect the response(s) that I have gotten!  First, a day later, his aunt emailed me thanking me for 'sharing my story' and everything.  I thought it was cool that she took the time to respond, but I also figured that it would end at that.

But this morning I got another letter from the staff also thanking me for my story and now they want to schedule a time for me and my dad to meet with Nick as well as his parents when they fly in sometime in August! (they live in Australia - my favorite place!)  Cool, huh?  I don't think my dad will be able to make it because he and my mom just barely spent a fortune flying out (to Utah) for my graduation, but we can always do a video conference or something.  (I also think that they think that both he and I live in California... but my dad is sort of on the other side of the country!)  

I thought it was pretty cool though.  All I did was send out one simple letter basically telling about how cool my dad is, and I got this much of a response.  I called my dad and told him that I had "inadvertently made him famous." :P  He thought it was neat as well.  I'll keep you posted on what goes down in August!

Speak To Me

So, I had to give a talk in church today.  I don't know why, but the way the councilor in the bishopric asked me really bothered me.  It was my first FHE in my new ward and the instant he heard I was new to the ward, he said "how 'bout you give a talk on the 26th?"  My records hadn't even been transferred yet!  There was more to it than that, but yeah... not important.  Of course, I still agreed to talk.  

The nice thing though was that my topic was "any conference talk."  So it was kind of cool because I had a few weeks to think, "what do I want to talk about?"  I ended up choosing Elder Wirthlin's talk "Come What May and Love It" from October 2008 General Conference.  I love that talk and he has some great points and funny stories.  A few years back, one of my religion classes at BYU was "Sharing the Gospel" and he spent a good solid week of classes on how to give the best talks.  He said to just have bullet points - main ones, and "if I have time" ones, so that way if you only had a small amount of time you were good, and if you had extra time, you had extra things to talk about to fill up the time.  Before that, I used to always write my talks word-for-word and honestly, they were probably quite a bit more boring.  But the last talk I gave (just two months ago) I finally got to apply that principle and it worked great.  So this one, I did the same thing.  It apparently worked well again, because people I didn't even know came up to me afterwards and said "great job on your talk today!  It was so good!"  I didn't think it was anything 'spectacular' but everyone seemed to love it, so that's good.  I guess it might have something to do with the fact that I'm not afraid of speaking in front of large crowds.  My roommate even commented, "you looked really comfortable up there."  Yay for no fear of public speaking! :P

Wirthlin's 4 Points were:

1. Learn to Laugh

2. Seek for the Eternal

3. The Principle of Compensation

4. Trust in the Father and His Son

To read his full talk, go here.  It's great.

Do I Look Pretty Daddy?

In the last two days, I have watched two excellent films.  One is a regular-ish movie and the other is more of what you'd call an "artsy" one.  The first is My Sister's Keeper.  Be prepared to bring plenty of tissues as it is about a girl dying of cancer.  (And yes, even I cried in this one) But is fabulous and I really loved the way they put it all together.  It also makes me wish that no kid ever had to go through the whole cancer process.  It's not fair for anyone, but especially not for kids.

The second is called Paradise Now (2005); it's an international film in Arabic with English subtitles, but if you're in that 'artsy' sort of mood, I highly recommend it.  It just gives you a really different perspective on things by focusing on these two Palestinians' lives and how they ended up in their particular situation.  (I also realized about 10 minutes before the movie ended that I don't think it had a soundtrack... at all.  But the lack of soundtrack somehow added to the overall feel of the movie.)  This film made me grateful for what I have and how many freedoms I've been blessed with since birth.  I guess you could say that it put things into perspective for me.  

Post title: quote from My Sister's Keeper.

Music of the Heart

Tonight was fun!  I got to see an old roommate and meet her family!  Mallory and I were roommates all last year at Sparks and she lives only about 20 minutes away from where I currently live.  She had a bridal shower and then a birthday shindig right after and it was so fun to see her again!  And I was doubly happy because she brought with her another bucket of my stuff as well as all of my music!!!  Here I am in this great house with a baby grand, and I left all of my music in Utah!  Ahh!!  I have thoroughly enjoyed having it back in just the few hours I've been back from her place.  Hopefully, I'll make good use of the fact that I have a piano downstairs for the next month.  I didn't work any gig today, so I have no exciting stories to tell, but I *did* find this crazy weird picture.  I don't normally like dogs, but even *I* feel bad for these ones!!

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

Meet Nick Vujicic.  He is 26 years old and was born in Melbourne, Australia with no arms and no legs.  You would think that having no limbs would make Nick depressed beyond belief, but he instead decided to take a different route: he became a motivational speaker.  He travels all over the world to share his story with others, and how he had a turning point in life.  He is a very religious man who puts his trust in God for everything, and knows that God has a plan for him.  See his bio here.  I found his story last night and I am still in awe of it.  I can't believe someone with no limbs can have such a positive outlook on life.  If you ever think you have it rough, remember Nick.  Remember that you still have 4 fully functioning limbs that not everyone is blessed to have.  If this man can learn to swim, surf, play golf, make breakfast, answer the phone, and pretty much anything he puts his mind to, who are we not to accomplish all that we desire in life?  



There are a ton of youtube videos about him, including a great DVD you can watch here.  But for this post, I will only include these two:

To be or not to be: that is the Question

Apparently I should be an actress... at least, according to the security guard at Raleigh Studios! haha.  As I was leaving the lot today, I had to go through the "guest exit" and hand in my pass to the security guard.  In the process, this friendly guard excitedly asked, "So how did it go!?"  Confused, I replied simply with "I'm sorry?"  He then continued, "Did you get the part?" He noted the confusion on my face and quickly added, "OR... did you already get the part!"  As he was saying that last part, it clicked that he thought I had come to audition for a role.  Happy to have finally solved the mystery, I replied, "Oh!  Oh no, no - I'm actually crew.  I do sound."  Disappointment set on his face as he asked, "you're not an actress?"  I smiled and said, "Nope - just crew."  He paused for a brief moment, then lit up again and said "Well you SHOULD be an actress!  You would do very well at it, I can already tell!"  I like him. :)

I started to get incredibly frustrated with the mixer today.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful for him - he got me 10 days of paid work... but he's just a grumpy old man with no social filter whatsoever.  I realized today that there are apparently about 925 different ways to "properly boom."  Each mixer I have worked with has shown me a different way.  And each mixer is certain that HIS way is the best way, and will constantly 'correct' me from whatever way I am currently booming.  The first few that I worked with I ate up every word because hey, I was brand-new and didn't know what I was doing anyway.  But I have been doing it for over two years now and while that isn't exactly 'seasoned' or 'veteran' status, I DO know what I'm doing.  He kept coming into the room to see how and where I was booming and telling me how I should do it instead (and mind you, "his" way was the exact opposite way from what the last mixer I worked with said).  

The other thing that really bugs me is the whole process of "speeding."  In a regular production, the 1st AD will say something along the lines of "Okay everyone - quiet on the set!  And let's... roll sound."  The mixer then says quickly into his little hard disk recorder the scene number and take.  As soon as he's done, you know he's ready and boom then says "sound speed" or "speeding" and then the 1st AD says "roll camera" once sound is speeding.  However, this mixer doesn't do that and if I don't say "speeding" on my own, he will talk into the headsets (there is no private line for mixer-to-boom on this thing) and say "say speeding please."  But... how do I know that he's ready unless I hear it from him first?  ...And he gets upset when I wait to know he's actually there and ready to go??  And if I were to say "speeding" and he wasn't there and we started rolling without him, then he'd get mad that I didn't wait to make sure he was there.  I can't win.  

Okay, enough venting.  That really is the only frustration that I have with this production.  I absolutely love the crew.  Pretty much all of the crew is late 20s-mid 30s so it's a really fun environment.  And I am working on it all next week as well!  Hopefully more gigs will keep coming in from here on out...!

Oh and I gave the one day of the other gig to my friend.  I was originally going to take that one and give him one of the webisode days, but it was just going to be too difficult to do that.  I initially thought "but if I don't take that one, that's a whole separate set of contacts I could have made."  But then I realized "duh, I'm not losing those potential contacts.  I'm the one getting their replacement."  So if anything else comes up where they need a mixer and boom, he and I could do it together next time around.  Hurray for connections!

The Busy Have No Time For Tears

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls... I have my first double booking!  That's right - a month and a half into the L.A. move and I've already got two [PAID] gigs on the same day.  One is the webisode series that I've been working on for the past week that I just found out yesterday goes all next week too (another 5 days of paid work!) ... the other is a one-day gig for the 30th of July and only pays half what I'm making on the webisode day-rate. However...I'm going to take the lesser paying one.  It might sound odd to do that, but it's all about the networking.  I've been working with this same crew for 5 days now, and will work with them another 5 next week.  You quite frequently need only a day or two before you've made some solid connections.  Plus, the one-day gig is a SAG film and I've actually heard of the lead!  He played Chandra Suresh in the first season of Heroes.  It would be good to make more connections with a new crew and give away a day on the webisode.

This also will be another mile marker because it's one of those way-too-low-budget things where I'm pretty sure I will be mixing and booming simultaneously (never done that before).  I mixed quite a few low-no budget things in Utah before I left, but I haven't mixed anything since I've been out here-->here, you need your own equipment (which I do not yet have) in order to get hired to mix for a gig.  As much as I wish I had the basic equipment, I'd need a minimum of about $4,000 in order to get all that I needed.  Yeah, definitely don't have that yet!  

So, I will most likely hear back from the lower-budget project in the next day to know for sure (1) the details and (2) if they still need me.  If it is set in stone, then I'll give away my day on the other one.  I even have a fellow newbie friend (met him on my first gig here) to whom I can pass on the one webisode day!  Hurray for networking!

In other news, we had another location change today.  We filmed at Raleigh Studios all day.  Apparently it's where they filmed Ugly Betty until the show moved to New York.  From what I could tell, it looked like a pretty cool lot.  If anything cool happens tomorrow, I'll be sure to let you know.

**PS: Comments are not only welcome, but are highly encouraged! :)  It makes the blog a million times more exciting to write in when I have comments to read the next day!

(For more pictures of sets I've worked on, go here.)

Post title: Lord Byron, British poet

Commit To Be Fit

I have decided that I need to have easy access to a treadmill.  This may sound random, but not really.  For those of you who don't know, last summer the boom operator on HSM3 also happened to be a personal trainer... who happened to specialize in at-home programs for women.  It was $50 a session, but you could have up to 5 women in the same group and thus it would only be $10 per person per session.  I could only find 2 other girls, but he was incredibly nice and let us do it for $30 a session instead.  Anyway, so we did that with him for 2 months straight, and it was awesome.  He would come to our apartment and train us 3 times a week, and the 3 off-days we were to do cardio together.  When he came, we rotated between upper and lower body and learned all of the best exercises to target specific muscle areas.  We also had to keep a food diary of what we ate and he helped us learn how to eat properly, how often to eat, and how much of each thing to eat - or not eat.  I learned the right amount of protein vs carbs per meal, and that I needed to be eating every 2-3 hours.  For those 2 months I kept with it fabulously.

This was me in the process of getting ready for our ward formal last year and having fun with roommates and cameras at the same time.  

Once the girls and I didn't see each other every day though, I kind of went through phases.  I would be really good for a week, and then forget the next.  Then I'd get to a point again in a week or two where I started up again, but it would die down.  I never failed on the nutrition part though, and I still eat 5-6 meals a day, trying to get as balanced of proportions as possible.  My co-workers at my crap job last semester would laugh because I brought boiled eggs and apples as snacks throughout the day.  I've done a good job of keeping up with eating right.  The weight-training...?  Well, I get lots of upper-body work booming every day!  But lower body needs a serious revamping.  And I'm currently in one of the down-sides of cardio... meaning, I haven't done it in a while.

But I realized that if I had easy access to a treadmill, as much as I hate running I think I'd actually do it every day.  I have this nifty little ipod now that plays videos, so I could just run for 15, 30, 45 minutes a day and watch half a movie in the process.  It makes it go by a lot faster that way.  A lot of apartment complexes here seem to have gyms within them, so now I'm really hoping I find one of those ones for a decent price.  I've tried gym memberships, workout videos, etc... but gym memberships are expensive, workout videos are a set amount of time and I never feel like I get a super good workout from them anyway.  Basically, I just have to get used to running because it's the fastest and easiest way for daily cardio.  And I've hit the point where I just feel gross now - that's usually what starts me back up for a few weeks in doing daily cardio.

Plus, everyone here is so freaking health-conscious that I can't help but think about it pretty much every day.  

So I've decided to start another uphill spurt and get back with cardio once again.  I'll let you know how I fare!

A Sunday Well Spent Brings a Week of Content

Well, this Sunday wasn't well-spent.  I realized that it was the first time in nearly a year that I had to work on a Sunday.  I knew it was going to come sooner or later, but I guess I still just wasn't quite prepared for it.  And it was weird, because the few times that I had to work on Sunday while living in Utah it didn't seem to bother me nearly as much.  I think it was because I knew that it was pretty much a one-time thing.  I worked on Sundays when I worked at the MTC, also when I worked at MPS and we did Mission President Seminar and stuff, once with HSM3 and once with American Idol.  I think those are the only four times I've ever had to work on Sundays, and two of those four things were for the church so it at least still felt like a Sunday, we still had the sacrament and stuff, etc.  I know I'm going to have to "pay my dues" and work on Sundays in order to get started and established out here, but gosh do I hate it.

I decided the 2nd week I moved out here that if it was an unpaid gig, I wouldn't work Sundays... but if it's paid, then I pretty much have no choice.  Before I can qualify to become Union (and actually work decent-paying jobs), I have to have 100 documented days of PAID work, so every day that I can add to that is one closer to getting good pay.  And if it happens to be a 10 or 11am crew call, I could still find the closest church building and at least go to Sacrament Meeting (I'm going to call it SM).  Or if lunch (30-60 minutes) falls perfectly, then I could jet out during lunch in order to make it for at least part of SM.  And once I'm working on real stuff and there's a sound utility as well, maybe he could boom for me for an hour and a half while I go to SM.  And once I become even more established, maybe I could find people to day-play for me on Sundays so I wouldn't have to work at all on those days.  I'm still working out the details, but those are some ideas that I have.

In the meantime, I did still have to work today... and it felt awful.  So, since I knew I wouldn't be able to go to church, I downloaded a ton of conference talks and put them onto my ipod, listening to those all day instead of the usual movie-watching thing.  I also brought my scriptures and journal with me and read (and wrote) in a hidden corner during lunch today.  I even thought about wearing more Sunday-ish clothes, but that's really not possible in this environment.  I've got a pack around my waist, I have to stand on apple boxes and chairs and who knows what else, and a skirt is just not conducive to that atmosphere.  And I guess I should invest in some good slacks... because I found out that the only pair I own are too big for me now.  

Aside from it being Sunday, filming today was pretty good.  One of the actors is absolutely hilarious and you can't help but laugh at just about everything he says.  At one point, he got one of the other actors on a 'giggle streak' and we had to take 5 just so he could regain his composure again.  And I impressed the heck out of this guy (the comedian one) too, because he said an absolutely random line from a movie - not expecting anyone to even guess it was a quote - and I knew it and said it.  His jaw dropped to the floor and he then replied with "HIGH FIVE!!!"  (PS, it was from Robin Hood: Men In Tights... one of my Top 5 Favs).  He then proceeded to quote every single other line from the movie throughout the day and I would finish the quote.  Apparently not everyone knows it word-for-word like we do... haha.

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe

I decided to make a list... of all the actors that I want to work with in my lifetime.  I once read somewhere that if you actually write down your goals, you are like 75% more likely to accomplish them.  So far, it has proven true for myself with previous Bucket Lists I have written.  And yes, I pulled that percentage out of nowhere, but you get the idea...

If there is no explanation next to the name, then I simply want to work with them because they seem like a down-to-earth person in real life and I want to know if my assumptions are correct.  This list is also in no particular order:

-Will Smith - quite possibly my favorite actor.  I'm not sure why.  When I was about 10 or 12, I remember watching this special feature about him and it just really impressed me, and obviously stuck with me.  Ever since that special feature (it was like a 60 Minutes thing or something) I've admired him.  

-Angelina Jolie - I want to work with her because basically, if I were an actress I would want half of her roles.  I love the "girl kicks butt" movies and that is frequently her role.  Tomb Raider, Gone in 60 Seconds, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, etc.  

-Anne Hathaway - While I can't see the resemblance, in the last 5 years I have gotten 8 or 10 people who have said to me, "you look like Anne Hathaway."  Also, I just think she would be fun to work with.

-Danielle Panabaker - this girl could be my twin... in certain pictures.  Remember this one?  I want to see what she looks like in person.

Which one is me?

-Vin Diesel - I love action movies.  He seems like the kind of guy who would be tough on camera, but a goofball on set.  

-Tom Hanks - My mom loves Tom Hanks.  I'd get his autograph for her. :P 

-Katherine Heigl - I knew who she was before anyone else, thank you very much!  She was in one of my favorite TV Disney movies "Wish Upon A Star" in 1996, and also in my all-time favorite TV show (aside from Boy Meets World) "Roswell" in the late 90s.  She's also married to one of my favorite singers, Josh Kelley... who also happens to have the same last name (correctly spelled, I might add) as me.  AND... she was raised LDS (story is here) and I've always been curious to find out what happened.

-Jim Carrey - After working on a few comedic projects in the last few weeks, I have decided that I want to work with a 'big-time' comedian.  I know a lot of his jokes can be crude, but at the same time, I think he would be absolutely hilarious to work with.  Just in watching the few outtakes from some of his films are enough to convince me of the ever-present chaos that would be on set.

-Nicolas Cage - I don't have a real reason to this one.  I just love every movie I've seen him in, so I think it would be cool to work with him.

-Hilary Duff - she seems like one who could actually be a normal human being.  Who knows, maybe I'm wrong, but I'm curious to know if she's down-to-earth or not.

-Jennifer Garner - After watching "13 Going on 30" and watching behind-the-scenes stuff for a few things she has been in, it sounds like she would be really fun to work with.

-James McAvoy - I have no real reason for this one... I've only seen him in a few things (Narnia, Penelope) but those few things I quite like.  

-Matt Damon - The Bourne movies are among my Top 10 movies.  And he does seem like he could be a genuinely nice guy. 

-Sandra Bullock - She was my first ever 'favorite actress' and I think she still is.  Ever since While You Were Sleeping, all the way to The Proposal... I just love her movies!  

-Zachary Quinto - Though his character on Heroes (Sylar) is the exact opposite, this is another one of those "he just seems like he'd be a really nice guy" ones.  I watched this interview he did once and thought, "hmm, I wonder if he's that nice in person to regular everyday people... he seems like it."

-John Travolta.  When his son died, I ended up watching a special on TV about him and his family.  Every single crew member they spoke with on that said that he was one of their absolute favorite actors to work with.  He treats everyone on set like an equal and cares equally about the DP as he does the lowly PA.  I've also heard this from a few I know who have worked with him... so because of that, I now would love to work with him as well.

Actors I've already met and/or worked with:

-Shawn Ashmore - he was actually on the above list and was one of the first 'name' actors I ever worked with (aside from the HSM cast).  He was on this TV Disney show I used to watch all the time called "In A Heartbeat", and then was Iceman in the X-Men movies.  He just seemed like a super nice, down-to-earth kind of guy and I wanted to know if my assumptions were correct.  I'm happy to report that they are.  He was the probably the nicest of the cast.

-Kevin Zegers - he was on the same film as Shawn, and while he wasn't mean, he wasn't particularly nice and friendly either.  He kept to himself and hardly talked to anyone... always had headphones in with his ipod so loud that I could tell what song it was he was listening to. (oh, he was the kid in the Air Bud movies from the 90s)

-The HSM cast.  I'm not about to list them all by name, and these ones were not on my list... but I will say that the guys of the cast (Corbin, Zac, and Lucas) were definitely the nicest.  I didn't have good experiences with the girls.  Corbin really impressed me.  He is absolutely amazing to his fans and I wish more celebs were like that to their fans.

-Robin Williams.  Okay not really.  Sort of.  I passed him at Sundance last year and have a picture of him.  To his credit though, he was really good about stopping and taking pictures with fans.  He was also a lot shorter than I thought.

Anyway... there's a tentative list.  I know I'm missing quite a few, but they just haven't come to mind yet.  First day of filming went just fine.  The actors are comedians so the improvised lines are always very entertaining... sometimes it's hard to not laugh in the middle of a take!

Post title: quote by Anatole France

What's In A Name?

How many of you know how to spell my name correctly?  Both first and last?  If so, 10 bonus points to you.  I am amazed at how many people whom I have known for years still can't spell my name right.  I've even had family members misspell it even in the last few months!

Working in film, your name on the credits - and more importantly, your name spelled correctly - is a big deal.  When I worked on Singles Ward 2 I can't even begin to tell you how many times I had to correct them.  Each day the call sheet would have it misspelled again and I would personally go to the guy in charge of call sheets and give him a corrected copy.  Every time someone wrote my name down for something, I made sure to spell it out...and even when I did that, they still didn't listen.  It was like they were on autopilot for the double S.  But I figured that I'd made enough fuss about it that when the movie was finally released, it would at least be spelled correctly in the credits.  WRONG.  They put two Ss in my first name.

I have the absolute hardest time getting my name spelled right on ANY call sheet.  The production I worked on last week... spelled my last name 'Kelly.' Week before?  'Marissa.'  I have friends whom I have known for years message me on facebook saying "hey Marissa."  ...Really?  That's the one that baffles me the most though, because my name is right there in big bold letters at the top of my page!  If you click on my name to chat with me, it's at the top of the box!  How on earth could you misspell it!?

I accepted the fact long ago that I will never be able to find my name in a gift shop on one of their key chains, mugs, pens, etc.  It makes for less time stuck in those shops because I already know it won't be there.  However, when MY name is going to be credited to something, it darn well better be RIGHT!  Credit is a big deal in this business, and proper name-spellage is even more important.  I am not Marissa Kelley, nor am I Marisa Kelly, or Marrisa Kelly or any variation of such.  

M-A-R-I-S-A  K-E-L-L-E-Y.  

I know I know, I don't normally rant on the blog and it's usually filled with "guess what I did today!" sorts of things.  But I just got tipped over the edge today and I am so sick of having to respell my name to the same person 8 times before they finally get it right.  Make it a point to know you have your friends' names spelled right - they'll appreciate you for it.  I know I do...  

Discover the Magic

Well, I definitely had a very filled day!  10:30am-10pm at a theme park (Magic Mountain) will tucker you out!  But it was a blast.  I realized at some point today that the last theme park I was at was King's Dominion... in 2005.  So it was high time I got myself on some roller coasters!  I don't remember the names of all the ones we rode.  Some of them were Deja Vu, Goliath, Scream, Batman, Tatsu, Colossus, etc.  Hannah and I also split from the group to go watch the CSI show... except it was pretty dumb.  It was entertaining, though - and it got us out of the heat and off our feet for a half hour!  In the beginning of the day we split off: "older kids" and "younger kids" basically.  Hannah, Emily, Katie, this girl Dani (one of the girls of the family friend Russell and Lisa are staying at), and I went off and rode a bunch of roller coasters while the others went to the Looney Tunes area of the park for kids.  We all met up for lunch and ate sandwiches and whatnot just outside of the park.  Then we split up again.  But at 4:30 Hannah and I split off from the others and didn't really meet up with everyone else until it was time to go.  Our favorite of the day had been Tatsu, so after the CSI show and one other ride, we got in line again for Tatsu.  It of course decided to then break down.  But we waited for about 20 minutes and it finally started up again.

By the way, major props to Russell and Lisa for always keeping track of 9 kids.  There is no way I would be able to handle that many kids!  Especially with only a 15-year difference between the oldest and youngest!  They are definitely cute kids, though.  I had a lot of fun with Allyson on the way home, talking with her in Donald Duck.  She thought that was the coolest thing and would laugh every time I said something to her in Donald Duck.  She'd ask me a question, I'd answer, and then she'd laugh, give me a hug, and say "I love you Donald!" haha.  She's cute.  

I also met Batman and got a henna tattoo!  Okay, maybe not at the same time, but both were fun.  Batman definitely played his part... I believed him! haha.  And at the end of the night, Hannah and I decided to get a $2 henna tattoo, but the guy had already started closing up for the night.  But he gave us free ones!  It's just a little star, but it still looks cool.  And don't worry, I will never ever EVER get a real tattoo. (1) they're gross (especially when you're old and wrinkly!), and (2) I hate needles.  

They had that "Guess Your Age" and "Guess Your Weight" thing there and I was sooo tempted to do that, because no one can correctly guess either of those if they don't already know me!  Once when Hannah and I were in line for a ride, we started talking with two of the girls in front of us... 1 guessed 16, the other guessed 17.  And I'm pretty sure the henna guy thought we were both high school girls.  I hadn't gotten 16 in a while though... guess I'm looking even younger! haha. 

No Pessimist Ever Discovered the Secret of the Stars

So if you haven't noticed, I decided a month or two ago that I was going to try to come up with clever blog titles.  The generic "update on my life" ones were lame and boring.  So now it's something random, a quote, or a lyric from a song.  I like it better that way. :P

In other news, I have paid work again already!  This time it's a 5-day gig and it also pays $100 a day.  I'm hoping that from here on out it will be uphill.  Another reason I have decided why it is good to do sound is that you don't have to go through the painful period of PAing.  PAing is a hellish job that I try to avoid at all costs.  For most other departments, it is one of those necessary evils that you must succumb to in order to begin your climb on the hierarchal ladder of film production.  Oftentimes, people move out here with plans to work in the business and in order to get their foot in any door, they have to work (for free) on an entire feature!  Granted, they do get credit, the money is nonexistent and in the meantime, I have absolutely no idea how they survive in this city without a source of income.  Thank goodness sound doesn't work that way!  

Sound is one of the smallest departments of film production: 1-3.  On a regular feature you will have 3 people on the sound team: the mixer, the boom operator, and the sound utility.  Sound utility is the closest thing (in my opinion) to PA as you can get, but it is still no where near as bad... and sound utes still get paid... same rate as boom, actually.  If the budget isn't as high, you just have the mixer and boom op, and when it's a lo-no budget project, the mixer IS the boom op.  Those ones suck.  I've done that before - trust me, it's not fun. 

--- 

I also have a couple of secret tactics that have worked incredibly well for me when it comes to ultimately getting paid work.  It's a secret that I actually discovered by accident, but works nonetheless.  Last year, I had the opportunity to work on High School Musical 3.  Now, saying that makes it sound like I was there for the entire 42 days of filming, correct?  Wrong!  Contrary to popular belief, I was only there for the last 4 days.  The first day I went as an extra and got paid $100.  Being an extra sucks.  It consists of sitting around all day waiting for them to maybe use you for half a second in one scene.  Most people don't realize what they're signing up for when they agree to it.  However, when I was invited to be an extra on it, I went with the sole intention of getting in with the sound crew.  I wanted to do film - and I wanted to do sound.  Who better to make friends with than people already well established in location sound?  So that was my goal: by the end of the day, be invited back to help with sound.  And guess what, it worked.  I started talking with the boom operator and he realized I knew my stuff and by the end of the day he'd invited me back (no pay, of course).  And the next 3 days I was there from call until wrap (roughly, 4pm-6am days...or, nights).  I impressed the boom op and sound mixer, they got my contact info, and for the next year I got a good deal of work opportunities from them (one being "Frozen").  Through that is how I've got the tentative spot on the HSM4 crew (and this one will be paid!).

Also, Heroes was somewhat the same sort of thing.  The mixer invited me to come to set.  I went, and stayed for the full day (2pm-2am).  He was impressed that I stayed the whole time and was so eager to help.  The next week, a friend of his needed a boom operator.  He gave him my name.  The job I just finished working was that very job.  That being said:

Secret #1: Work for free, but only for 1-5 days.  You can make the same connections in 5 days as you can in 50, and can actually afford 1-5 days of unpaid work.  

Secret #2: Work as an extra and get to know your department of interest while on set.  If you act like an extra, you won't get to talk to anyone, but if you act like you belong there, are supposed to be there, and know what you're doing, you can easily bypass the label of 'extra.' 

Secret #3: Start from the top.  This is my newest discovered secret.  If you start with 'bottom feeders', it's going to take a lot longer to climb up because you're all fighting for the same thing.  You need someone who can pull you up.  If you go straight to the top, work for that person for a day or two (for free) and prove to him your diligence and your work ethic, he'll start recommending you to already-established friends of his who are higher up on the ladder than you... and those gigs are almost always paid.

Well there you have it.  My 3 "Secrets to Success" in doing location sound for film.  Tomorrow: Magic Mountain!

Post title: quote by Helen Keller

Life Should Be Fun For Everyone

Oh man... today was a lot more of that "I really shouldn't be laughing but yet I am" stuff.  These 3 characters (the "Mystery Team") are just absolute idiots and completely clueless, so it makes for some very... interesting situations, to say the least.  But today reminded me of how much I love booming, and why I love doing sound.  For me, the more challenging, the better.  If I have to stand there and figure out where I'm going to even be able to boom, that is far more exciting than just getting up and going.  Today I had to stand on an apple box, hide behind a door, stand on a bed, be 10 steps above the actors reaching over to where they were, etc.  

Oh, I also acquired a new 'puppy dog' today.  For explanation of that term, refer to my "Can I Get Your Number" post.  I was surprised at this one too, because he knew I was THREE years older than him, and... he was about four inches shorter than I am.  Yet that didn't seem to matter to him.  He was a super nice kid, but too young, too short, smokes, and isn't LDS.  I managed to escape set without him getting my number.  My mom's text to me about it made my day: "Just pet him on the head and tell him to play dead."  I don't know why I got such a kick out of it, but it cracked me up.

Also, I have decided that sound is the absolute best gig in film aside from the actors (let's be honest... for some reason, actors are treated like modern-day replacements of old-fashioned royalty... it's ridiculous).  But doing sound rocks.  First off, I found out recently that it's one of the better paying positions on a set.  Bonus #1.  Second, you pretty much only work when the actors do.  Meaning, while grip and electric are spending 45 minutes setting up the next shot, sound is doing whatever the heck they want.  Yes, granted there are a few things we have to make sure we know: (1) what the next shot is, (2) wide or tight, (3) will we need to mic the actors?, (4) where the lights and c-stands will be so I know where I can boom this from.  However, other than that... it's a cinch!  I forgot until halfway through the first day that I have movies on my newly acquired ipod. (yes, I finally got one!)  So in the last two days, I managed to watch 1 1/2 movies -- and get paid for it!  I watched all of Evan Almighty, and half of Beauty and the Beast.  It was great.  The sound mixer actually thought that that was a brilliant idea.  He came back today with a few things downloaded to his iphone to keep him entertained while we waited in between shots. 

The other reason why sound is best is because you get to know and interact with more people on crew (and cast) than anyone else.  Hair & Make-up, wardrobe, the director and DP interact with the actors.  The DP will interact with grip and electric to discuss the set up of the next shot, props will interact with the DP, director, and actors depending on what sort of prop it is... anyway, you get the idea.  Each department only interacts with certain departments.  Sound, however, seems to interact with the most (aside from maybe the DP).  We have to talk with the DP to figure out what the next shot is, the 1st AC to figure out where he'll need to be to pull focus so boom knows where not to go, 2nd AC (usually in charge of slate) and/or script supervisor so sound knows what the next scene is, grip and electric so we know where the lights and flags will be, hair make-up and wardrobe for when we have to mic the actors, the director and other certain crew members to give them their Comteks at the beginning of each day, etc.  If you have a dolly grip, you're going to have to talk with him as well, because the dolly will obviously be moving and you need to know where he'll be, how fast he'll be pulling, etc.  Basically, by the end of a production, nearly everyone knows who sound is - even if you don't know who they are.  

Plus, boom is the only person other than the DP, 1st AC, and actors when filming in a very enclosed space.  I have stood on apple boxes in the corner of a bathroom right next to the DP and 1st AC with the actors opposite us.  I have scrunched into a ball on the passenger's side floor of a minivan in order to get the dialogue from the two actors in the middle seats.  You get the idea.  Oh, and we're the last to get there and first to leave.  We have the least amount of equipment to worry about and thus it takes us less time to set up and strike than anyone else!  My recommendation to you: do sound!!

Oh!  And my business cards came last night, so I actually had them today to hand out to people!  I have 250 (now 248) cards left... give me a year and I'll have 'em all gone. :D

Post title: lyrics from "Hello World" by Belle Perez

Insta-Sauna

Day 1 of paid work: complete.  It's nice to work and know you're actually getting paid for it! haha.  I realized today that of all the stuff I've worked on, I still hadn't worked with a cast full of comedians.  I guess you could say that SW2 had a few, but it wasn't like this.  The thing we're filming is called "Haunted Hotel" or something, and it's a mini promo thing for a film they shot last summer called Mystery Team (I think that's what it's called).  They are apparently a very popular YouTube comedy group called Derrick Comedy who has done tons of youtube stuff.  However, if you so choose to check out their stuff, don't say I didn't warn you that much of their stuff is rather ... risque to say the least.  The promo I'm working on is the "I really shouldn't be laughing at this and I feel bad that I am" sort of stuff.  It's not exactly something I'd go out in search of, but I watched the preview for their film and while it's not something *I* would watch, I have a feeling that once it's released in theaters, it will be a big hit.

Anyway, so the sound mixer I'm working with is great.  His name is Juan and he reminds me of a Hispanic Joe Pesci for some reason.  And he doesn't even look *that* Hispanic, but he's about the same height and build as Joe Pesci and almost even sort of sounds like him at times.  But I'm enjoying working with him.  He's a really laid back guy who doesn't seem to easily get stressed.  

I have also decided that I have now officially worked in both temperature extremes.  The coldest being in Feb/March when I worked on Frozen up on a mountain in the middle of winter while it snowed 2 feet on us... and the hottest being today, inside a tiny motel room, with 25 people crammed inside, all doors closed, no AC or fans (too loud to have on while rolling), 95 degree weather outside, and 3-4 lights so hot it could probably start a fire if you put anything on the bulb.  Congratulations, you've just created your own personalized sauna!  Joy.  I was not planning on that situation, so like an idiot, I wore jeans (as did most everyone else).  We have since learned our lesson, and I imagine most people will come in shorts tomorrow.  

It was pretty gross though, because after a while, some people looked like they'd jumped into a pool fully clothed, or at least run through the sprinklers a few times.  Each time we were doing a different shot and had to temporarily clear out of the room, as we walked outside everyone breathed a sigh of relief, quite frequently added with the words "air!!" ...it was sad that we thought 94 degree weather was "so nice."  But hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do, right?  

Well, there's Day 1 for ya.  Next up: Day 2.

Coincidence...? I Think Not!

So, I don't normally write two in one day, but I forgot a few tidbits that I thought I'd share.  This, by the way, is also living proof that whether or not I want to do film (which I do), I am very much supposed to do it too!

-Wednesday: An old friend of mine called me up, said "Hey!  So I have this friend who's putting together a film and he's still looking for sound people.  Now that you're finally in L.A. and you're the only person I know who does sound, do you mind if I give him your contact info?"

-Thursday: I got this call from a guy who said he got my contact info from Scott, the sound mixer I met on Heroes (whom I met via a contact in SLC, and a woman (L.A.-based) I met at Sundance this year), who said he recommended me.  He was looking for a boom op.  $100 a day. (not much, but it's money!)  I start tomorrow.  

-Saturday morning: I was on facebook just routinely checking whatever when an old friend of mine from BYU IMed me.  He'd recently discovered I'd moved to L.A. (as had he).  He said "Hey there's this guy in my ward who does sound for CSI and he wanted me to help him out, but I can't.  Do you mind if I give him your contact info?"

-Saturday afternoon: I decided to do the Hollywood hike with people from the ward.  I carpooled up with a few people and one of the guys in the car asked what type of stuff I did/what work I was looking for.  I told him I did sound and he said "oh really?  My buddy does sound for CSI - he told me to call him up if I ever wanted to go, or to bring anyone on set.  Give me your number and I'll give you a call this week after I've talked to him about when would be best."

-Saturday evening: One of Sarah's friends was over and we got talking, and she found out that I do location sound.  She said "oh really?  My dad's a director for this show - I don't if you've heard of it - called NCIS.  I could get you on set if you want and you could talk with the sound guys or whoever."  

Now, that being said... this is not normal!  Things don't just fall out of thin air like that... especially multiple times a day!!!  I don't know if the CSI connection is the same person or if it's two different CSIs (CSI and CSI:NY or whatever) or two different people, but regardless, it's more connections.  And NCIS?  I LOVE that show!  I actually like it more than any of the CSIs.  

But seriously, how could anyone say that this isn't the field I'm supposed to be in?  True, part of me still wants to do FBI, and maybe one day I will... but for now it is undeniable that it is most definitely film!  

**And as a funny side story.  Two of my friends came over last night - Jackie and Adam.  Sarah thought Adam looked really familiar but she couldn't figure out why.  She didn't say anything about it until this morning when we were getting ready for church when she then asked me "this might sound like a weird question, but has your friend Adam been in anything before?"  I paused to think about what she might recognize him from and then said "Umm... he was in Charly..."  She gasped and said "oh my GOSH you're RIGHT!  That's totally how I know him!  No way!!  That's so cool!" Haha it made me laugh.  Great way to start the day. :) **

--OWΥ」」OH

Okay, so I couldn't figure out how to do a backwards L, so that's why the Ls look so messed up.  But on to the story...

So yesterday we had a ward activity: hike to the Hollywood sign.  I thought, "hey that sounds like fun.  I have never seen it and it would be cool to have an actual picture of it, so why not?"  Plus, we were told that it was a half-hour "leisurely" hike.  We met at the church, carpooled there, and began our hike.  In the beginning I thought "this is fun!" because I do like hikes... I just usually suck at them.  But a 30 minute hike I could do no problem!  So we continued on...and on... and ON!  Each time we rounded yet another corner I thought, "Oh yay, we have finally made it."  But each time it was a false alarm.  Soon, 40 minutes had gone by... then 50... 60... we still weren't there.  I kept telling myself "it'll be worth it.  I'll finally get to see the infamous "HOLLYWOOD" sign.  An hour and twenty minutes after we began, we finally made it... or so we thought.  Turns out, "hike to the Hollywood sign" wasn't quite what I was expecting.  It was a hike up and PAST the sign.  We were behind the sign.  I couldn't even see all of the letters!!  It was such a disappointment!  The whole reason I went on the hike to begin with was so I could see it - from the FRONT!  Bah.  Oh well.  It was still fun... in a way.  

Actually, the most fun part of the entire hike was about halfway up.  The group I was hiking up with (there were 5 of us -- the others got there earlier and thus were ahead of us) had this bright idea to take a 'shortcut.'  Instead of winding up and around another who-knows-how-far, why not just climb straight up?  Honestly, in the beginning I was all for it.  I saw the not-so-official trail and thought "hey, that's not so bad... and it'll cut time off of our hike..."  Thus began our journey upwards.  The only problem?  The ground proved to be like sand... and each step you took, you'd slide half the distance you'd just stepped.  Oh, and we think there was a murder scene there relatively recently, because we had to step through a bunch of worn yellow caution tape.  Just adds to the excitement, right? :P

I have decided that maybe I should ease up on the hike count for a while.  As I was hiking down from the sign last night, I realized that in the last 3 months, I have done 5 pretty good hikes.  In April, Martin and I went up through Rock Canyon for quite a ways and then climbed straight up for a while.  It wasn't too terribly grueling, but I definitely worked up a sweat.  Next, we went to the Grand Canyon.  Luckily, we didn't do the full hike... because that one takes multiple days... but it was still a hike.  On our way back, we stopped at Bryce Canyon and did one of those hikes as well.  Then, my first week here the ward was going on this hike to the "Punch Bowls."  I was trying to get to know people and whatnot and figured it would be a good idea to go.  THAT hike was probably the most grueling.  Round trip it was somewhere between 10 and 11 miles.  And there wasn't a marked path, either.  We were going through bushes, climbing up huge rocks, crossing rivers, etc.  Someone yesterday told me that the Hollywood hike was probably 5 or 6 miles round trip.  So basically, I think I have easily gotten in my hike quota for the next little while.  Temporary hike hiatus begins now. :)

язык, idioma, linguagem, мова, lingua

I have this weird obsession with languages.  And judging by the most recent "How Well Do You Know Me?" quiz I posted on facebook, most people don't seem to realize this.  I don't know what it is about languages that fascinate me so much, but I love them!  Halfway through my college career, I even briefly thought about switching to Linguistics.  I currently have five languages on my list that I want to not only learn, but actually become fluent in eventually - and I will explain to you the reasons behind each.

1.  Spanish.  This one is a given.  Nowadays, depending on where in the U.S. you are, it has almost become a necessity.  Plus, it's just one I have always wanted to learn.  When I was 6, I had a next-door neighbor who couldn't speak any English.  I couldn't speak any Spanish... but we still played together.  She would point to something and say what it was in Spanish.  Then I'd say what it was in English.  Somehow it worked out.  In 5th grade, I was the only kid on my bus who didn't know Spanish.  I always wished I could understand what they were saying.  My middle school didn't have languages as a class option, so I started taking Spanish as soon as I got to high school.  One of the first days of class, the teacher had me read something - in Spanish - out of the book.  She then looked at me with confusion and said, "are you a native speaker?"  haha!  Apparently my pronunciation was so good from the get-go that she thought I was a native speaker.  And hey, my name is Marisa... spelled the traditional way (with ONE s) ...

2.  Russian.  Yeah, so some may think that this one came out of the blue, but really it didn't.  It started in high school.  I did an honors choir thing and one of the songs we sang was in Russian (it was actually the Tetris theme!  -->the music is a Russian folk song!).  I just thought it sounded so incredibly cool.  And below the English spelling of the text was the Russian - in Cyrillic.  I had absolutely no idea how to read it, but it looked awesome.  That same year, my dad went on a business trip to Russia and brought back all sorts of cool things from there.  Then, I had 3 or 4 friends called on missions to Russia.  My freshman year a guy in my ward whom I became friends with was from Russia.  And for some reason, the cable we had on the TV on our floor in the dorms had a Russian channel... I'm still not sure why.  Somehow, I always ended up being close friends with people who served in Russia.  I randomly happened upon this unknown foreign singer whose music I loved... and eventually found out she was Russian, and in fact singing in Russian.  Seriously, how does that even happen?  A few family friends in my ward back home speak Russian.  A bunch of my favorite movies have lots of Russian in them, and I hate not knowing what they're saying!  And then, the same Russian friend from freshman year randomly ended up being in my Biology class 3 1/2 years later.  That was the semester that I decided I was finally going to buckle down and start learning.  

So on my own, in December I started to learn Russian!  I found a sweet program online called byki.com - which I highly recommend, as it is free - that gives you flash cards with pictures and the vocab words, and does it in 5 different steps so by the end there is no way you don't know the words!  It is absolutely fabulous... but only so far as learning vocab words.  As far as formulating sentences, understanding the roots, adding verbs and their respective conjugations... I needed a bit more help.  So for Christmas, I got a Russian grammar book, a "555 Russian Verbs" book, and an English-Russian dictionary (and a Russian Book of Mormon).  I was really good at studying it for about a month and it sort of died down from February/March until... now, actually (I was a bit pre-occupied in those months in between!).  Last week I finally got back into it and was surprised at how many of the words from byki I'd remembered!  That program seriously rocks (it comes in 70+ different languages too, fyi).  This week I FINALLY started trying to figure out and understand the basic grammar.  More to come on that...

3.  Italian.  It sounds cool, I would love to go to Italy, and it would be awesome to know the language once I finally make it there one day.  Plus, one of the biggest reasons is because it is very similar to Spanish... so once I fully pick up Spanish, Italian won't be that difficult to learn.

4.  Portuguese.  This one is quite similar to what I just said about Italian.  It is even more similar to Spanish and thus, won't be too difficult to learn if I have a solid foundation of Spanish first.

5.  Ukrainian.  Again, a similar answer to 3 and 4, but Ukrainian and Russian are quite similar as well.  If I become fluent in Russian, I want to learn Ukrainian as well, since they are already share so many close similarities.  

Well there you have it.  For those of you who didn't know, now you know: I love languages... and I have a whole list of ones that I want to learn in my lifetime.  Hopefully I will get to all 5 of those, but if not... I'd be relatively satisfied if I mastered Spanish and Russian.  Those are my main two.  What are yours? :P

1K in the UK

Okay, so I just had the weirdest conversation ever. An old friend whom I have not seen nor spoken with in over three years (just stayed in touch via the whole facebook thing) randomly messaged me tonight. I thought "hey that's cool - we haven't talked in forever, sure why not." But as the conversation progressed, it honestly left me wondering if my friend's account had been hacked or something. Here's the basis of what was said (I changed the name, and omitted most of my 'reaction' IMs):  

Jane 

hello 

Marisa 

hey there! how's it going? 

Jane 

am not doing good am presently in the UK 

been here 3days now 

the bad news is i was attacked yesterday 

I was robbed coming from the Mall back to my hotel room 

they got away with my money, credit cards e.t.c 

I was luky to have some money and few of my stuffs behind 

Marisa 

how long are you in the UK for? 

Jane 

am suppose to stay till Sat 

just came for a one week vacation to see what it looks like here 

I cant stay anylonger, am scared and worried a lot!!! 

my funds are not enough to settle the hotel bills and purchasing a Flight ticke back home 

Marisa 

oh my gosh are you there by yourself?? 

Jane 

yea 

Marisa i don't know how wiring money works, but could you have someone here wire you money?

Jane 

got some assitance, but the funds are not enough 

can i get a $1,000 loan from you. I will make the refund as soon as i get back please 

Marisa 

i really wish i could help, but i have absolutely zero money in the bank right now :/

i haven't had work since april 

i'm so sorry! :(

Jane oic 

sorry to hear that, can you help me with a loan I will pay back as soon as i return 

Marisa 

i don't have any money to loan :(

Jane okay 

Marisa i have negative money right now  

sorry  

Jane k 

Marisa 

do you have any family who could help you?? 

or you could maybe get into contact with the nearby bishop 

Jane 

dont worry since you cant be of help 

i hope i'll be assisted soon  

Wow, talk about random... and strange. And if Jane truly is in trouble, I feel so awful for her. However, though I may not have talked with her in quite some time, this just doesn't seem like her. And to me it would seem that if you were in a situation similar to this one, you would contact any and all family members first to see if they could help you out. Next, your closest friends. But asking a $1,000 loan of someone you haven't seen in years would be last on my list. Plus, Jane is one of the sweetest and most soft-spoken girls that I know and for her to (1) disregard my initial statement that I had absolutely no money in the bank and proceed to ask a second time, and (2) to end with "don't worry since you can't be of help" the second she's realized I'm not giving her any money just really makes me think someone got into her account without her knowledge, trying to get money out of people. Because I don't know about you, but if I were in a situation like that, I would take any and all advice anyone would be willing to offer!  Regardless, I hope my friend is okay... and if it's a hacker, I hope he/she is stopped as soon as possible!

Anyway, there is my weird tale of the day...