Y group leaderism

(Obnoxiously joyous group of individuals that are all so excited to be on camera)


Ok. I may just have crossed the line into the land of insufferably peppy people volunteering la-la land.

I applied to



::GASP::





be a Y-group leader.




(add an excessive amount of exclamation points here, and maybe a couple smiley faces)

Hmmm....

I'm in a class right now called "ethics and law of mass communications" for my major. As much as I love (in a love-hate sort of way) my major, sometimes I think it'd be really, really cool to go to law school. One of our assignments is to read a case and write a brief of it. Well I'm sitting in the law library right now doing it and... I'm having too much fun! This is fascinating stuff! I'm sure that you law school people will say that most of it is very boring and all, but... I don't know. Maybe some day I'll go back to (law) school. Who knows.

And while I'm on a film kick....

People. You need to know about this web series.
It was created by a group of BYU students and professors, and it will blow your mind. The concept is fascinating, the cinematography is at times gorgeous, the main actor is awesome, and... it's just really really cool.
The second season STILL hasn't come out and I'm not sure if it will; I get the impression that there needs to be more (financial?) support (from BYU?) and this is my pathetic attempt to FINALLY KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!
Start watching and you won't be able to stop. And for those with a short attention span, the episodes are quite short so it's not even that hard to watch.
Now go! watch it and make me proud.
Tell me what you think, and then email BYU broadcasting and tell them they'd better bring out the second season soon!

Why? you ask....

I couldn't not post it. I don't even know where to begin. This is simply hilarious!
Enjoy...

Birdemic: Shock And Terror Official Theatrical Trailer from Severin Films on Vimeo.

Band-aids

You know those little medicine cabinets that every office has? well I just discovered that my office's has waterproof band-aids, stretchy band-aids, and... disney princess tatoo band-aids. Yes, I work with grown-ups, and lots of them have PhDs. I love it!

Perspectives

I'm in an amazing religion class right now (I'd say that's what everybody always says about religion classes, but that is NOT my case. I've had some pretty lame religion classes. This one really is good because the teacher is awesome.)
Anyway. We had to write a sort of research paper on any topic we wanted, except that all we had to do is write on paragraph and then just show our 20 quotes and resources. Not too bad eh?
And it turned out to be a lot of fun! I chose a topic that's been on my mind a lot, for several reasons. My beat in the newsroom this semester is families, so I've been dealing with controversial subjects like abortion, teen pregnancy, gay rights... And I recently came upon a blog that can certainly be very extreme sometimes, but also brings up some very interesting points. I've been thinking a lot about the role of women, specifically in the gospel. Some bible verses certainly don't sound very flattering;

"Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." (Timothy 2:11-12)

Really?! No thanks! I'm going to speak and I have a lot to say. Maybe sometimes we misunderstand the scriptures--I'm sure that happens a lot. Take Eve for example; many religions consider her to be the ultimate sinner and temptress, but I love this perspective:

"We and all mankind are forever blessed because of Eve's great courage and wisdom. By partaking of the fruit first, she did what needed to be done. Adam was wise enough to do likewise." Nelson, Russell M. 1998 "Constancy amid Change" in Perfection Pending, and Other Favorite Discourse. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book.

I really liked this quote:

"Perhaps it is no wonder that the women were first at the Cradle and last at the Cross. They had never known a man like this Man—there never has been such another. A prophet and teacher who never nagged at them, never flattered or coaxed or patronized; who never made arch jokes about them . . . who took their questions and arguments seriously; who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female; who had no axe to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend." Dorothy Sayers.

Food for thought. More to come soon, but I have class.

Wow

FYE (For your edification): this artist is incredible! It blows my mind how much detail he uses; one blank sheet of paper and a pair of scissors.... and he makes this:

And it just happened...

Remember my post that I wrote yesterday about being afraid of bad things happening? well, they did.
one of my interviews for yesterday cancelled at 4 pm (I can't exactly blame her though-- a teenager drove her car into her car...) so all of a sudden I only had one side of the story. That basically killed it (although I can reuse the one interview I was doing for next week, hoping that it isn't too old by then...)
And of course, I was in the middle of nowhere for the next two or three hours doing another interview so I couldn't get to a computer and find something else.
I ended up covering the opening night of "as you like it" at BYU... it was a fun play, but not exactly news compared to abortion laws....
And then this morning, since my story was so lame, the News Director had me go cover the basketball game for sports (or rather the people watching it on campus) which meant I had to do my story in less than two hours (write the script and edit the video) and then run to the wilk with my camera, grab video, do two interviews, run back to the Brimhall by 10:30 to ingest the tape into the system, edit a second story (thankfully the sports anchor writes his own stuff so i just had to throw together some video for him)
And the crazy thing?! I kind of had fun! I love that I got that much done on such a short deadline, and it was decent quality too. I feel like I really got something done and made myself useful, and I love that the sports guy trusted me to just put together something for him. It's kind of crazy and kind of fun at the same time, although I'll probably have some white hairs by the end of the semester (not that that would really bother me-- that's kind of the color I've been going for lately...)

Moral of the story: everything bad I thought could happen did happen, and I survived.

Sometimes...

... I wish could just dance. Yeah it would be stressful and hard and lots of time, but it wouldn't be NERVE-RACKING. Broadcast is kicking my trash. It's hard and takes SO MUCH time, and sure I love it when I'm actually doing it, but the whole pre-interview period is just a complete NIGHTMARE!
What am I going to talk about? Who am I going to talk to? Who am I allowed to talk to? Who will actually talk to me? Who is available after 3 pm? (yeah... not a ton of time for anybody in an office!)

ARGH!

Every night before I go reporting, I have a huge pit in my stomach-- what if everything goes terribly wrong?! It's not like a paper where at least you can BS it and have SOMETHING to give in-- no interview, no video, no video, no story. Period.

Anyway--the feeling goes away as soon as I'm done with my story though, only to reappear the next week... But I can do this! I just have to survive.

Incidentally...

I bought a pair of standard pumps that are too tight-- know anyone interested?

http://apps.facebook.com/marketplace/view/-/1855604454/?orig=NEWSFEED&cm_mmc=Product_Feed-_-Posted-_-edit_listing_news-_-1855604454

BYU BALLROOM DANCE IN CONCERT -- 50th anniversary!

This year will really be amazing, and you shouldn't miss it for anything! The concert will be awesome, it's a great date, and on top of that, you get to support yours truly in what she loves to do!
On top of that, we're expected to sell tickets, and our team spirit and participation are noticed by the powers that be.
SO....
Tickets are available for friday evening, saturday matinee and saturday evening-- for 12$
Please, if you're planning on going, get your tickets from me. I can either buy them for you or you can call in to order your tickets and tell them my name (Lydia Nelson) and they'll put it towards my list. (If you act fast, I can get tickets early and get you some awesome places!)

So that way, everyone's happy: you get tickets to "that thing you love," you can show that girl you like that you have taste and you're not a cheap date, and I get to sell plenty of tickets, maybe win something cool in the drawing, and show my team spirit!

ugh

I was going to rant about dance sport and move-ups, but I decided that I just need to shut up and see what happens. If you're a non dancer, please send any prayers, positive airwaves and other spiritual and intellectual efforts my way for the rest of the semester. If you're a fellow backup member, I won't begrudge you not doing so :)

Oh, and anybody know of a gentleman looking for a standard partner? If so, do send them my way, I would greatly appreciate it.

Lord of the flies

I just finished reading the Lord of the flies.

I don't even know where to begin; I am in awe at this exceptional story--it brought back so many "heart of darkness" memories; the loss of innocence, the tightly crafted characters that all had such a perfect part in the story-- the conch, the pigs, the fire.... I think I'm in literary heaven.

It's such a thought-provoking novel, and yet I don't know how to begin. I'd like to write a paper on it, it just begs to be written about.

What were your thoughts on the book? loved it? hated it?

I loved the symbols, and the language; "Samneric", the "beastie", the "littluns"...

And the foreshadowing!! Jack and Ralph were going to be enemies from the start, the "beast" that was really nothing but "us", as Simon says it, although he doesn't quite manage to express himself-- and who could utter that sort of thought? Piggy understood, he didn't dare look at the dark side and his attachment to the conch was such a vivid image of his clinging on for dear humanity to any civilization that remained. With his glasses, sole "tool" that they retain from their life before (there's Jack's knife, but somehow it's more a part of him... or maybe it also shows how so-called civilization is sometimes just as savage), he is the only way to fire, their chance for rescue, and he is the ultimate link to a society. Once Piggy dies, all hell breaks lose and there is no more home, just the tribe of savages and Ralph, who has lost everything now.

Vegas showdown

Plenty of fun, and we did well-- I'm feeling great about dancesport now!

Not quite sure what my face is doing here.... but I love the line!

It was so much fun to do a real comp with real judges... no offense, high school comps, but...