Space Cowboys

Okay... you may not think this is funny, but I thought it was awesome. Tonight, I watched "Space Cowboys". I hadn't seen it, and it was on Netflix's "instant play" (best $9/mo ever!) so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Overall, it was a pretty good movie. It had a huge cast, too. But the one problem I had with it was that one of the characters looked SO familiar to me and it was driving me nuts!! I could not for the lift of me figure out what it was that I had seen him in. I kept racking my brain because he seemed so familiar to me but I couldn't pinpoint what movie I knew him from.

As soon as the movie ended, I hopped onto my computer and pulled up IMDB. (one of the best sites ever! Punch in my name - as Marisa Kelley - and see how many films you find for me!) I loaded the cast list for Space Cowboys, scrolled down, and whammo. As soon as I saw the name I couldn't help but burst into laughter. I felt like a fool once I realized who it was and why he looked so familiar.

This is Wiliam Devane

I didn't recognize him from some film or TV show - I recognized him because I worked with him for over a month!! I've never seen a single thing he has been in! His name is William Devane and I guess he was a bit bigger 10 or 20 years ago, but most people now don't really know who he is so it's not that humorous to most people. But I just got the biggest kick out of that. I think it was mainly because Space Cowboys wasn't exactly a straight-to-DVD type of movie. It was an A-list film and I worked with an actor in that cast!




I just kept randomly chuckling throughout the evening just thinking about it again. What can I say - I am easily amused! :) Anyway, there's my random story of the day!

Make Up Your Mind

Well, here's a funny story... and slightly embarrassing, but not really.

I worked the BYU Men's Basketball game at the Marriott Center yesterday. We got there at 12:30pm and started setting up. At one point, I headed for the women's restroom and there was a sign on the door saying that it was Utah State's locker room. I was slightly confused, because that is the restroom that I always use when working games at the Marriott. I began my search for another bathroom and soon came across another one. The sign on the door said "Men and Women." I thought it was just a small little one-stall but it was a full restroom with two stalls. So, I used that one all day instead.

We finished setting up, had dinner, and before we went on-air, I went to the bathroom. A guy was in one stall and I thought to myself, "This co-ed bathroom thing is a little weird..." (though when you think about it, it's really not that weird - we're just not accustomed to it). He left before I came out to wash my hands and I thought nothing of it.

I exited the bathroom just like normal, but as I was exiting, I noticed something strange out of the corner of my eye. The sign on the door had been changed: "Men's Restroom." I have no idea when they had changed it, because I had used it not an hour ago and it was still Men and Women... but I definitely walked straight into the Men's room and used it like it was nothing out of the ordinary! I suppose now that it's a very good thing that the other guy had exited before I came out!!

I was so confused, because I could have sworn that on my way to that bathroom, the other door still said "Utah State" on it, thus leaving the other bathroom my only option... apparently I missed the switch! Haha. It definitely gave me - and the other audio guys - a laugh though! I vote that they should have a restroom on that base floor that is just stalls - not stalls, showers, and locker rooms all rolled into one. It makes it really confusing!! :P Then again, I guess it can make for good stories, too!

Renewing Our Covenants

I gave a talk in church today on renewing our covenants. I'm one of those weird ones who actually quite like preparing and giving talks, so minus the lack of time that I had (I wrote it during work last night), it was quite enjoyable to prepare. I'm pretty sure I have never learned more from preparing a talk than I did in this time around.

Also, ever since I took a religion class at BYU (from Brother Bott), I have prepared talks differently. He heavily emphasized that you should have a good solid outline, but to never write it out word for word. I have done that for the last 3 talks. This one, however... for some unexplainable reason, as I started doing my research I strangely felt the need to write this one out. I don't know if it was for coherency's sake or what, but I wrote this one out.

So... since I actually wrote it and since my 'research' had so many insights I didn't even know about, I'm going to include it here. Enjoy.

Last week, Brother Cowley asked me to speak on renewing our covenants. Let me start off by asking, what exactly is a covenant? According to the LDS Gospel Library, “A covenant is a sacred agreement between God and a person or group of people. God sets specific conditions, and He promises to bless us as we obey those conditions. When we choose not to keep covenants, we cannot receive the blessings, and in some instances we suffer a penalty as a consequence of our disobedience.” 

The most commonly talked about covenant is our baptismal covenant, as that is the first of many covenants we will make in this life. It can also be argued that it is the most important because without this covenant, we cannot progress to make further covenants with our Father in Heaven. 

In Mosiah 18, Alma discusses baptism by saying, “Behold, here are the waters of Mormon… and now, as ye are ^adesirous to come into the ^bfold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;

Yea, and are ^awilling to mourn with those that ^bmourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as ^cwitnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the ^dfirst resurrection, that ye may have eternal life.”

Brigham Young elaborated on baptism by saying, “They covenant to cease sustaining, upholding and cherishing the kingdom of the Devil and the kingdoms of this world. They enter the new and everlasting covenant to sustain the Kingdom of God and no other kingdom. They take a vow of the most solemn kind, before the heavens and earth, … that they will sustain truth and righteousness instead of wickedness and falsehood, and build up the Kingdom of God, instead of the kingdoms of this world.”


Now, when most of us hear ‘renewing our covenants’, we automatically think of our Baptismal Covenants. But as I started researching more on what exactly entails renewing covenants, I came to realize that it is much, much more than that. 


Each week, we are given the privilege of partaking of the sacrament where we are once again able to renew our covenants with the Lord. Now, if it’s not just baptismal covenants, what else is it?


In the March 1995 Ensign, John E. Mackay stated:

“According to our latter-day prophets and leaders, when you partake of the sacrament you renew whatever covenants you have made with the Lord. For example, if you have been baptized only, that is the covenant you renew. If you have received the Melchizedek Priesthood, you also renew that part of the oath and covenant related to your having received that priesthood. If you have received your endowment, you also renew the covenants associated with it. Further, if you have been sealed, you also renew that covenant. In other words, when you partake of the sacrament, you renew all the covenants you have made with the Lord.”


Reading this article was somewhat of an “aha” moment for me. I knew the purpose of the sacrament was to renew our covenants, but I didn’t actively think of or review all the other covenants I have made with the Lord while partaking of the sacrament.


The three main things we are reminded of in the sacrament prayers are to promise our Father in Heaven:

1. To take upon us the name of Christ.

2. To always remember Christ.

3. To keep the commandments of Christ.


President Ezra Taft Benson said, “We go to our chapels each week to worship the Lord and renew our covenants by partaking of the sacrament. … Our agreement to keep all the commandments is our covenant with God.”


Part of keeping the commandments of Christ includes keeping our personal covenants that we have made with the Lord… and sincerely renewing them each week.


In 1989, President Howard W. Hunter emphasized that our Father in Heaven knows us each individually and that the covenants we make with Him are all one-on-one. He stated,

“I have always been impressed that the Lord deals with us personally, individually. We do many things in groups in the Church, … but … the most important things are done individually. We bless babies one at a time… We baptize and confirm children one at a time. We take the sacrament, are ordained to the priesthood, or move through the ordinances of the temple as individuals—as one person developing a [personal] relationship with our Father in Heaven. … Heaven’s emphasis is on each individual, on every single person.”

In Virginia, I was one of very few members in my high school. A sneaky way I had of getting friends to come to church with me was “I’ll visit your church if you visit mine.” I remember going with my best friend to her church once. They also had the sacrament but the cups were passed around and each patiently waited until everyone had a cup in their hand. The pastor said a prayer and then, at his direction, they all drank in unison. It was a very weird experience for me to see 200 heads all go back at the same time. It never occurred to me until I started preparing for this talk just how important it is that we are given our own chance instead of partaking in mass numbers.

While we may all participate in the sacrament at the same time, it is not in unison. It is one after another… each with our own turn… each renewing our own individual covenants made with the Lord.

One thing we mustn’t forget though, is our attitude and our thoughts during the actual blessing and passing of the sacrament. I know I have been guilty on several occasions of letting my mind wander every which way while the sacrament is being passed. My mental checklist of to-dos, my hungry stomach, trying my hardest to keep myself awake… the list is endless. But the way we treat those few sacred minutes can and will make all the difference.

When I was in Young Women’s, one of my teachers taught an unforgettable lesson. She taught of the importance of reverence during the sacrament and emphasized that we need to keep our mind from wandering but instead focus on what it really means to be renewing our covenants. We should be thinking of our Savior and his atoning sacrifice; we should have the spirit of repentance in our hearts, and the determination to be better and rise from our past misdeeds. She recommended reviewing the words of the sacrament hymn during the passing of the sacrament to keep our minds focused. Ever since that lesson, I always keep my hymnbook open so I can re-read the words that were just sung.

The Gospel Principles manual also gives advice on preparing oneself for the sacrament. It states, “During the sacrament service we should dismiss from our minds all worldly thoughts. We should feel prayerful and reverent. We should think of the atonement of our Savior and be grateful for it. We should examine our lives and look for ways to improve. We should also renew our determination to keep the commandments. We do not need to be perfect before partaking of the sacrament, but we must have the spirit of repentance in our hearts. The attitude with which we partake of the sacrament influences our experience with it. If we partake of the sacrament with a pure heart, we receive the promised blessings of the Lord.”

Most covenants that we make are a one-time thing. Unless extenuating circumstances are present, we are only baptized once, we only go through the temple and receive our own endowments once, we are only sealed once, and so on. So how do we remember what those covenants are and what exactly it is that we promised our Father in Heaven if the ordinance itself is only performed once? This is one of the reasons the Lord has given us the privilege of partaking of the sacrament each week. If we forget our covenants, where does that leave us?

According to President Kimball, “Remembering covenants prevents apostasy.”  What happened to the Nephites when they forgot their covenants with the Lord? There is a reason we need to be reminded so frequently of what we have promised. Our finite minds require immense amounts of repetition to stay on the straight and narrow. That weekly reminder helps us to better maintain those promises that we made last week, last year, or 10+ years ago. Our covenants don’t change, the Lord doesn’t change – only we change. And it’s up to us in what direction we change.

In the April 1989 New Era, H. Verlan Andersen stated, “If … you live a normal life span, you will probably renew the sacrament covenant more than 3,000 times before you die. That covenant must be highly important to the Lord or he would not ask us to repeat it so often. But… if we make the same covenant that many times and then fail to keep it, what will he say to us when we meet him? On the other hand, if we keep it, we will obtain those blessings which are ’the most desirable above all things.’ ”

It seems that oftentimes many of us get into such a set routine that it becomes nothing more than ‘just another part of Sacrament Meeting.” But the sacrament is the whole reason for this meeting! It’s not ‘just another part’ – it’s the sole purpose. We don’t “have” to partake of the sacrament – we get to…so long as we are worthy. The moment you are no longer allowed to take the sacrament is the moment you realize what you have been taking for granted.

I had a close friend who once slipped up and was working through the repentance process.  She told me that it was the worst feeling every week knowing that she couldn’t take the sacrament and had to pass it along to the next person without partaking. She also had never been so eager to take the sacrament as she did the day her bishop told her she was once again okay to partake. She was absolutely overjoyed.

In a 1995 Ensign, Bonnie D. Parkin discussed the joys of covenants, and of renewing them. She asked, “How did you feel the last time you partook of the sacrament? Did you ponder those covenants made in fonts and within temples? The sacrament enables us to renew our covenants. Thus, if we keep those covenants with honor and exactness, we can feel as fresh and as pure as we did when we were first baptized. We can feel as committed to a temple sealing as we did as a new bride or groom. Covenants keep us new.”

Who wouldn’t want to take advantage of the opportunity we are given each week to feel clean again? Who wouldn’t want to remember the way we felt as we came out of the waters of baptism or after we came out of the temple for the very first time? The Lord blesses us with that opportunity – if we so choose – each and every week. It is our privilege given to us by our loving Father in Heaven to renew our covenants with him every Sunday.  

It is my testimony that treating this weekly experience – this weekly blessing of being able to renew our covenants with reverence and with sincerity will help us grow that much closer to Heavenly Father.  

 (PS, for those of you VA people who know the Quantico ward, that YW teacher was Betsy Garner. She probably doesn't even remember the lesson, but I definitely do)

Mics Coming Out of My Ears

I am currently sitting in the BYUB truck working at the women's volleyball game... getting paid to watch it. :) I love working sports. Although, I would rather trade sitting on my rump during the game (and working my butt off setting up before the game) to operate a camera (which is pretty much vice versa of what I just said). But instead, I have been catching up on blog reading of friends' blogs that I have failed to look at in several months. :)

Audio in the truck - that's my boss!

It's kind of hard to concentrate in here, though. I am currently looking at 13 screens. I believe 8 of those are the different cameras, 4 are tape (basically, the people who are in charge of getting the amazing replays in a game), and 1 is the on-air camera that everyone else gets to see.

I am also listening to 6-7 people talking... mostly at the same time. We have our two commentators more in the background, the director, the producer, the occasional random additional voice from the truck, and a few other varying people. It's kind of loud and chaotic in here during games.

I may have forgotten to mention but I have to give a talk on Sunday. This past week I went to ward choir for the first time in nearly 6 years and a member of our bishopric is in the ward choir. After we ended, he cornered me and asked me to give a talk on Sunday. The weird thing though is that while I normally don't mind at all giving talks in church (weird, I know), I just really don't feel like giving one this week. haha. Partially just because I'm wondering when I'm going to get it done!

I work until 11 tonight, have to be in SLC by 8am tomorrow, won't wrap til 9 or so tomorrow night and home around 10ish. Then I work another 10 hours on Saturday (2-11pm) and I made plans to go to the temple Saturday morning and then IHOP for breakfast.

My initial thought was "Hmm... well... I do have 1-2 hours while the game is in play where I could do some research and at least get started..." Yeah, not happening! Too much stuff going on and the director keeps saying random - and funny - stuff that makes it hard to concentrate on anything when he's cracking the whole truck up half the time (usually unintentionally... which is half the humor in it).

My absolute favorite game was several years ago and involved the A1 (audio mixer for the game) and the director. One of the girls on the soccer team had a really unusual last name and the A1 thought it was awesome so he turned it into the joke of the night and he and the director went back and forth the whole night trying to one-up each other with ways the name could be used. (ie: "Oh man... my back has been killing me! I think I strained my Kakedelis." or "That was so Kakedelis I can't believe it!") Okay, maybe it's not so funny to people who weren't there. I also don't know if this post will sound coherent at all since I feel like I am listening to (and watching) 27 things at the same time.

Oh PS, in case you were wondering why I just get to chill for the duration of the game it's because I am the "A2" which means that after I set every single mic, cable, etc for the game (which is WAY more than you think), I am just the A1's backup. So if a mic suddenly dies or something happens on the court, I run out and take care of it. Sometimes a game is flawless and I sit in the truck the whole time, and sometimes I actually have something to do. Tonight I have had to go out twice and fix something... so that's good... sort of.

Let me give you an idea of how many mics we have set up for a typical volleyball game...

Pistol grip for shotgun mics

-L & R shotgun mics (ie a very directional mic) - one one each side of the net. These mics have an operator and their sole job is to follow the ball wherever it goes. It catches the audio of a lot of bumps, pancakes, etc.
-L & R camera mics - there are usually 2 handheld cameras on the floor and each of those has a spot on the camera specifically designed for mounting a mic. These are used when the cameraman gets up close and personal with stuff that happens on the floor.
-Near net and far net mics - there are actually two extremely tiny mics that are placed on each end of the volleyball net to capture any movement involving the net. They're used quite frequently to catch the audio of a really intense spike, block, etc.
-L & R team mics - we have a small mic pointed toward each team to catch any good audio the team may be saying... these mics sometimes pick up rather colorful comments
-High L & R mics - there are two cameras high up pointing toward the volleyball court and next to either camera is a mic pointed toward the crowd
-High game cam mic - this one is new but the A1 wanted to test out a stereo mic next to game cam to see how well it picked up the crowd.

ECM 77

-"Snoop Mic" - this one is also new as of tonight and the name was created by the A1. Last game we worked there was a huge (and LONG) argument between one of the coaches and a ref... most of their discussion was in the perfectly wrong spot for audio and we couldn't hear a thing. So for experimental purposes, we put a "snoop mic" (one of the tiny mics) on the side of a table... just in case we had another heated discussion.

The total? 12 mics. Not to mention, the entire booth that I have to set up (where the commentators sit and communicate with the people in the truck). So yes, I work my tail off before the game and thus don't really feel bad for some down time during the game. :P Okay this entry is already far too long because I felt the random need to explain all the mics I placed tonight. The end.

I'd Rather Work, Thanks

Well in a matter of hours, I went from having zero hours of work this week to almost 40! Tomorrow is only 5 hours ("Fresh Take" - a BYU TV show), but Thursday is 10 (BYU game), Friday is 13 (Utah's high school football state championships - one game after another), and Saturday is another 10 (another BYU game). So that's almost 40 hours! Sweet!

And aside from the hour drive up to SLC, I am so excited for Friday because I am finally working CAMERA at a sports event! For those of you who don't know, even though I am predominantly an audio person, I much prefer camera positions to audio with regard to sports events. They are WAY more fun.

Thanks to my friend Aaron who told me that KJZZ still does cover games and that it's just a different guy who crews. Lucky for me, I actually knew the guy already (from a year or two ago when I worked games for KJZZ quite frequently) and even luckier - he remembered me. Yay!

He actually called to crew me for a game last Friday, but I was scheduled for work for BYUB so I said no... about 2 hours later, BYUB called to inform me that the shoot had been canceled. But by then, the position for the football game had been filled with someone else and I was left with zero work. BOO! For those of you on facebook, that's what my status was about last week. haha.

I guess that's all I really have to say right now. Without work, my days are pretty boring (and annoying and restless and frustrating, etc). But maybe we'll have some good stories later in the week. :)

Long, Long Time

Wow, I have been severely lacking in the blog-posting area. Sorry about that. I guess life hasn't been exciting enough to write about...? Okay no that's a lie. Life is always exciting! Perhaps it has been TOO exciting...! :P

Well, the first two weeks of April I was working on a film called Snow Beast. Then I somehow ended up planning this absolutely MASSIVE party that ended up being at my house on April 30th (it was supposed to be outside at the park, but stupid weather forced a location change). Once upon a time, I had on my bucket list that I wanted to host a successful party of 100+ people or more... yeah, after that party I'm calling that one good. I don't know how many people total came, but it was crammed. I'd say at least 60  or 70. But I didn't really get to enjoy the party at all because I was constantly running around trying to fix things that had gone wrong (ie Rockband wasn't working, the live music area had some glitches, needed a new cable, etc; projector wouldn't hook up to the cable). *However*, despite all of that, I am still glad that I put it on.

The whole idea of having this party was to get the four 'older' wards in my stake to socialize a bit more. I feel like a lot of people in these wards have a harder time branching out and getting to know people if they are not at a ward activity, etc. So with the help of others in the neighboring wards, word went out and it was a success. I even had a friend come up and tell me later, "your party = huge success. Someone asked for my number and we're going out next week!" Well, that was the whole idea of the party, so I'm glad it worked!! :)

Aside from that... I worked on 127 Hours for two days, but that was it. I have high hopes for that movie. It will definitely be rated R (I mean hey, they film - in detail - the arm cut off. It's based on a true story - of the hiker in Utah who cut his arm off to survive) but I could see it getting lots of awards.

My birthday is tomorrow! Yay, I'm excited. Although, somehow 24 seems so much older than 23. 22 to 23 wasn't that bad, but 24 sounds like a bigger jump. Yeah yeah, I know - I'm still young and blah blah. 24 will be a good year. :)

Oh, and a random funny story from yesterday. So, this week I have been TRYING to get to sleep at a decent hour (ie sometime between midnight and 1) and each night something has come up and I have failed miserably. Last night was just so funny I swear it had to have been timed to happen like this. Around 12:30 or so, I was still talking with a friend and finally said that I really ought to get some sleep. We said goodnight and RIGHT as that conversation ended, another friend of mine messaged me. This friend needed advice on a few things, and it turned into a super long (but good) conversation. But it was past 2:30 and I finally said that I really should hit the sack. Agreed. But no joke, less than a minute after that was said, and AS I was reaching to click "go offline", another friend messaged me! Luckily, that conversation didn't last too long and I was in bed by 3... yeah, 2+ hours past my goal. Fail. Tonight will be better... I hope!

Snow Beast

Well, I started writing this on April 9th, thinking I'd actually have enough time to write a full entry. Apparently I was wrong. haha. But here's at least part of it since I wrote absolutely zero about the film.
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So, sometimes I'm really good at posting regularly while filming... and other times? Not so much. This has been one of those not-so-much ones. Almost the entire first week was spent on top of a mountain (Aspen Grove area) in the middle of a blizzard. By the way, this was all outside. The first day was fine (wasn't snowing) and so I thought I would do just fine with the gloves and boots that I had. Boy was I wrong! Day 2 was a full on blizzard and by the end of the day, I seriously was worried about frostbite. My fingers were so cold that they hurt... and I couldn't feel them. Yet somehow they still hurt. I don't know how to explain that.

As soon as we wrapped that night, I texted Doug and Joe to see if I could borrow their massive snow boots that they let me borrow during "Frozen" last year. They're currently filming 127 Hours in SLC and I had no idea when they wrapped, but I didn't care - I would come pick up the boots at any hour. I wanted to maintain feeling in my toes the rest of the week! Joe called me when they had time (in between takes, etc) and Doug gave me instructions as to how to acquire his snow boots at his storage unit.

Day 3 was amazing. I had snow boots from Doug, snow pants from Brittany (one of our producers), gloves from Stan (in my FHE group), and winter attire from my own wardrobe. I was ready to take on anything! Of course, it didn't dump snow on us this time, but I was plenty okay with that!

Hare Krishna: Festival of Colors

One of the biggest events in Utah during the month of March is the Hare Krishna Festival of Colors. At the Hare Krishna temple thousands of people gather to join in the celebration/welcoming of spring by throwing bags of color in the air (more or less, powdered chalk). In the past few years, it has become SO popular that this year is the first year that they actually split it into two separate 'sessions.' And even then, I still feel like the session that I went to was JUST as crowded as last year - if not more.

I went for the first time last year (pictured to the left), but was not nearly as prepared for it. I had a dark blue shirt on, went with only one other person, and we only had two bags to throw. I have since corrected the errors of my ways this year and wore a light-colored shirt (I still don't own any white shirts - weird, huh?), went with a group of 10-15, and we all had at least 1-2 bags each! Oh it was such a blast. I got completely COVERED in color this year!

For those of you unfamiliar with this ritual, if you want to know more, go here. If you're ever in Utah the last week in March, I HIGHLY recommend checking out the Festival of Colors!!! :)

Anyway, here are some pictures from this year!! :) (PS, sadly, I took none of these. A girl in my ward did)

Stickies and a Film

Man o man I have not done a good job at keeping up very well lately. In my defense, my computer is still dead. Thus, it makes it much harder to write when the computer I have will - without warning - turn off and anything unsaved (ie a blog entry) is immediately lost. PS, my computer is officially dead and I am quite sad about it. Well, dead but it can be repaired. I need a new hard drive - but I won't have any money until this film starts (I'll get to that). Sooo... I guess it's a few more weeks of using my 6-year-old computer! :P

Let's see... another quick update since the last time I posted:

--I came up with a great idea that works pretty well for me. I always have this problem of wanting to get all this stuff done, but never actually getting it done. Usually, it's because even if I make a list, I rarely see it. SO... I came up with the sticky-note idea. The walls in my room are pretty empty (normally, I don't go through the effort of decorating because I tend to move to a new place every 6-8 months), so I decided to plaster one wall with something: sticky notes! Any time I think of something that I want to get done, I slap a sticky note on there with the 'task' written on it. Once I complete it, I take the sticky note off. It's right by my bed and the markers are right there too, so that way even if I'm trying to fall asleep and think of something that I need to do, I can easily write on one of the stickies real fast (I have blank stickies on the wall, too). Anyway, it has worked pretty well so far. I highly recommend it. :)

--I caught up with a bunch of old friends, and made friends with a bunch of random people. Every week at Institute now, I make it a point to sit next to people I've never met before. It's way more fun that way because hey, I already know the people in my ward - why not broaden my horizons when given the chance at a stake function? :P

--I went to this party last week and started talking with this guy... only to discover that he was my friend's little brother (21). haha!

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Now the biggest piece of news: the FILM. I was playing volleyball last Saturday when I got a phone call. I think his name was Andrew and he told me they were looking for a boom for this sci-fi movie they're shooting in a week or so. The best part though is that this is a direct result of my unexplainable ability of "right time, right place" syndrome. haha.

A couple of weeks ago I was on the set of Den Brother (TV Disney movie that was being filmed in SLC) to talk with Doug (the mixer I frequently work with) and Joe (the boom I frequently work with). However, the day that I decided to come, another local mixer showed up as well. He and Doug are both mixing this film "127 Hours" right now and they needed to have a lil pow-wow about what all was going to go down the following week (Week 1 of 127 Hours). But a lot of the time Doug and Joe were actually working because hey, they WERE filming that day. So in the down time, Steve (the other mixer) and I had a lot of time to chat.

Though we have never actually worked together, both knew of the other through the grapevine and the most recent thing he had heard about me was to do with Hatchet (the slasher movie I quit in January). He said, "So... I hear you worked with Bobby for about two days..." At first, I thought "oh great... I blacklisted myself from Utah people too..." I hesitantly said, "Yeah... that was me..." But to my surprise, Steve's reaction was quite the opposite from what I expected! Not in these words, but he basically said "that must have been a tough decision, but good for you sticking up for yourself and your standards." Wow! Really? Cool!

Turns out, Steve is one of the oddities in this business who is actually still active LDS. He told me about a time where he signed on to work this film but after looking at the script realized he couldn't in good conscience work on this film because it was the exact type of film he tells his kids not to watch. So before it started, he respectfully declined and they used someone else for that film.

Anyway, apparently I made a good impression on him because HE was the one who recommended me to this producer! Andrew told me that he got my name from Steve and that they were looking for a boom operator, etc. Wow! I have still never actually worked with Steve and he's already tossing my name out there. Guess I made a good impression on him! It was funny too because a few days later when I went to the production office to talk with the director about the 411 of this film, the first thing he asked was "so you've worked with Steve a lot then?" haha well...

I told him, "Actually, I haven't. But I have worked with Doug a lot and I know Steve through Doug." I guess that was good enough for the director. haha. Oh and the day rate is actually decent this time. Finally!! So I start on March 30th and wrap on April 13th. At least, that is the tentative schedule. The only thing that worries me is HOW low-budget this thing is. They may be paying me a decent rate, but the rest of the production sounds really low-budget. I'm honestly kind of worried as to how it will all pan out.

Oh, but one parting thing for those of you who know who he is and would appreciate it, John Schneider is the lead in this film and I'm kind of excited about that because he seems like such a nice guy. Just FYI, he was the dad in Smallville, and played "Bo Duke" in the 80s Dukes of Hazzard. So starting Tuesday, I will TRY to keep you all a tad more updated now that I have something to actually update on. :)

Back That Thing Up

Well so much for planning to post every day in March! My computer had other thoughts on that one, I guess! On Tuesday, it started acting up. It froze on me a few times and I thought maybe it just needed 'a day of rest.' So I turned it off and didn't really use it that day. Wednesday, I turned it on and it seemed to be working fine again... or so I thought. It started getting incredibly slow, and froze on me again! This repeated 2 more times before I decided to put it away for the time being.

Now, luckily I have been paranoid about my computer crashing since 2004. My freshman year my old PC pulled the "blue screen of death" on me and I thought I had lost everything. Mind you, I write my journal on my computer (and have now for 6-7 years) and at that point in time, I had no external source on which the entries were saved. When my uncle pronounced that computer dead, I thought I was done for. But miraculously, it came back to life and I was able to retrieve my data. But ever since then, it has left me uber paranoid that something could go wrong with a computer at any moment.

So now, I back up my files every month or two. As for my journal, I send myself the attached file nightly - as soon as I finish the entry. And all of my journals are on some attachment saved in a special folder in my email. My pictures are also in several places and because I back it up once every month or two, I always have *almost* all of my pictures. Same goes for the music. Those are the three most important things on my computer.

Now, back to Wednesday. I have a few 'computer nerd' friends who work with computers for a living, so I asked one of them about it and he told me he knew who could help. I was told that I probably needed to defrag and that would most likely fix the majority of my problems. So we started defragging it... but alas, the computer froze in the middle of what it was doing. Ultimately, the computer was turned off... and has not booted since.

You may wonder how I am writing this right now if my computer is still in a coma. Lucky for me, because I am such a big packrat, I have my 6-year-old PC still here with me today. Broken power source, missing keys, chipped edges, stained casing, slow-running, louder-than-a-hair-dryer, and all. I have never appreciated my Mac so much in my life.

Anyway, so my Mac was dead. It wouldn't boot. Now this is doubly problematic because (1) it is still very much a PC world (and thus most are unfamiliar with the dymanics of a Mac), and (2) Macs aren't supposed to die, so when they do... most people don't know what to do to fix it. I broke my 'facebook fast' for a day in order to post on my status that I was in desperate need of some computer help. Thank goodness for facebook - I had a friend over here within a few hours.

My uncle told me how to get to a command prompt screen and with that, Steve (the computer whiz friend) was able to start accessing my stuff. Luckily, because I back my stuff up on a regular basis, I was not stressed about losing my stuff because even if it was pronounced 'dead', I had my most important files. However, he discovered that he could mount an external drive, access certain files and folders and transfer them onto my external drive while in the command prompt setting. Awesome. So he set that up and we went our separate ways. It is still yet to be fully fixed (he's coming back again sometime today) but it will be back to normal within a day or two.

I am coming back a few hours later to finish this post and I just want to reiterate how incredibly grateful I am for my Mac!! Though it is awaiting some serious surgery, it'll pull through and will be up and running in no time. And this old PC is reminding me more and more how lucky I am to have the other computer!

Basically, this entry is to remind all of you to BACK YOUR STUFF UP. You never know when your computer will just go kaput without a moment's notice. Hopefully you won't lose any important documents in the shuffle!