I work in a cool part of Salt Lake City. The ever-entertaining Pioneer Park is just outside our office windows (I don’t have a window looking out of my cubicle), the Gateway is a block North, The homeless shelter to the west, and the historic Rio Grande Railroad Station just to the southwest.

I took my camera to work last week and snapped a few shots of the surrounding area and have been playing around with them in Photoshop.

Mrs. Fields Chiller Word Blender Challenge

This is a project the ad agency I’m interning with has been working on for Mrs. Fields. Paul Mayne, our interactive designer has done an excellent job with it. They began by using open source for the anagram generator, then partnered with Anagram Genius. Neither is working perfectly- I’ve come up with some pretty awesome words it hasn’t even recognized (“dank” for example), so it’s in the fine tuning stage right now, but is already a pretty sweet product.

For my part, I’ve been working on a new dictionary that’s going to rock it with relevant words. It should be integrated within a week or so and when it is, I’m sure you’ll see my name back at the top of the high score list. Give it a shot here: www.emailblender.com.

Three full page ads.

24×36 Poster for a BYU Marketing Association event. Photo by Paul Mayne

Full Page ad for the Lexar Jump Drive 2.0 Pro

Full Page ad to run in the Daily Universe. Promotes the UTA ED pass to help cool the heat off the fury over the newly introduced free BYU parking pass, and the newly introduced “now you have to pay for it” bus pass.

Congratulations to KSL broadcasting on 1160AM and now 102.7FM.

Steven Browning and I have though for years (and years) about starting a news program. Our motto will be “Unfair, Unbalanced, but mostly True.”

Normally, I don’t care much about team sports like Football, Hockey, or Horse Shoes, and especially not Baseball, but…I think I found the first story I’d report on our program (pronounced “progrum”).

It would be about the recent Rafael Palmiero steroid scandal, and while pretending that I care about baseball, I’d say something like:

Rafael Palmiero told a congressional panel in March, and I quote- “I have never used steroids. Period.” But then on Monday the Baltimore Orioles “slugger” was suspended from the MLB for 10 days for using steroids. While he didn’t deny testing positive for the drugs, he insisted that ingesting them was an accident.

“When I testified in front of Congress, I know that I was testifying under oath, and I told the truth,” he said Monday. “Today I am telling the truth again that I did not do this intentionally or knowingly.”

An accident? Did Rafie sit on a steroid-infested syringe hidden in the cushions of his tour bus by someone with a grudge against the “slugger?” Did he think he suddenly contracted diabetes and needed insulin, and then–tragically, the very medicine he thought would help him, ended up being the WRONG medicine, and it instead made his muscles inflate to abnormal sizes? An accident, Mr. Palmiero? Probably.

The guy isn’t a cheater, he’s just an idiot.

When Napster came out, and then again when the iPod came out, everybody became a DJ. Now that the new Pope came out, I’m thinking everyone’s gunna want to be a Pope.

“Why would someone want to be a Pope,” you ask?

Let’s take a look at a few of the many benefits to the papacy. First, you get to wear heavy, flowing robes and big, fat rings on lots of your fingers. Second, you pretty much own all of the Catholics. And that’s a lot of people. Did you see CNN during the whole “finding a new pope dilemma?” The reporters finally admitted they were Catholics, some of the cameramen seemed (by the way they vigilantly held their cameras) catholic, and even the Italians admitted they were, in fact, Catholic.

But the greatest benefit of being Pope is that you get to choose a new name. Name something more punk rock than changing your name. I’m not saying I don’t like my name, but think of the posibilities… You could be whoever you want to be.

Now, no disrespect to the new Pope, but did you see what he chose as his name? Pope Benedict with some roman numerals, I can’t remember which ones. XVI I think. But where’s the creativity? I mean, there’s already been a Pope Benedict [insert creative roman numeral here]. If you want respect, you’ve got to come up with some ideas of your own, and I guess the XVI counts for that, but if I were Pope, I’m thinking something like Pope Diddy or Pope With a P-H. Phope. Or maybe even just The XVI, if you want to keep the roman numerals.

In any case, I think it’s time to demand more of our Popes. You get to wear the robes, control a good deal of the Christian world, and change your name– can’t we at least put some thought into that new name? And how about we choose to have lent on Ash Wednesday or Good Friday instead of both?

BYU doesn’t get Spring Break. It’s a great way to keep that GPA cap without forcing professors to impose arbitrary grade letter quotas that students would likely rebel against. So, instead of giving a few days for students to nurse their spring fever, catch up on projects, and prepare for the final push before finals– the university keeps trudging on. Inflated grades slowly artophy like a helium balloon weeks after the birthday has passed.
I was ready for a break anyway and decided to go with the Y-Rocks climbing club to Moab for the weekend. To be honest, I thought climbers would be different from the infamous BYU tunnel singing type. I was wrong. Until 3AM or so, they were standing around the fire singing Ice Cream Popping on the Apricot Tree…or whatever that song is.

Anyway, it was cool to sleep out under the stars at the foot of red rock cliffs. We woke up, packed up, and took off to fix Carrie Anne’s tire (I think a snake bit it) and have breakfast at the Pancake Haus in “downtown” Moab. It was good, good food. Then we went to Wall Street to do some climbing. It was a really cool spot to climb–especially since the cliffs pop right up off the side of the road. The Colorado River is very brown.

After we’d had enough of the ‘Cougar climbing experience’, Carrie Anne and I headed off to Arches and hiked to Delicate and Landscape Arches. Delicate was definitely the more spectacular of the two. The trip pretty much rocked. It was nice to relax and drive and charge up for the rest of the semester, even though it was more of a “pseudo spring break” than an all out spring break.

So, I’m back and it’s life as usual in Provo. KSL Radio was supposed to let me know by Friday if I got the OEC job, but my phone was roaming and then died in Moab, so I decided I’d give them a call Tuesday if I didn’t hear from them by then. Around 5 tonight, though, I got a call and they offered me the job–so I’m now officially an employee of KSL.

I’m still trying to get a hold of Todd at X96 to see if I can work something out there for their open Board Operator position and oh- has anyone realized Wendy’s raised their prices on the Jr. Bacon Cheese Burger? I guess all good things must come to an end. Speaking of- I was hoping the climber-tunnel singers would have come to an end a little earlier Friday night, but I guess it was never a good thing to begin with.

Summer is coming up and this is the first time in almost forever that I won’t be going to Belize or Florida or Switzerland…so I guess I’m gunna have to go to work instead. I’m really not that good at getting jobs, probably b’cause the only ones I’ve ever really tried to get were from family members and friends. I prefer to make work for myself, so I build things like websites and lemonade stands and hope the money will come rolling in.

When you have a lot of people to pay back though, and don’t see any of that money on the horizon, sometimes you decide you’re gunna have to get a real job. I haven’t come to that point yet– thank Francis. (He’s the guy who stole Pewee’s bike and hid it in the Alamo)

Anyway, I applied for jobs at X96, KSL Radio, and as a Video Documentary Editior at the Motion Picutre Studios in Provo. I’ve got an interview with KSL on Friday, but haven’t heard from x96/Simmons yet.

The fun part, though, has been applying for the documentary editor position at MSP. They sent me samples of the type of work they were looking for and it was a guy in his office looking for some baby toy, and another guy in another office talking about how getting an education is “in a way, taking a risk of losing your old ideas.” From the clips, I could see they like to keep a cutting-edge, non-conforming attitude. One of those guys was in his office and he was wearing socks–no shoes! And the other had a book about lazers! Oh yeah, and there was a guy taking down his tent trailer while he recited his heart-felt lines to the camera man. You know- like “This Old House – Parking Lot Camping Edition.”

So, they wanted samples of my work. I sent them a commerical I made for PowerPlay and one I made for GameBoy Advance SP. They both include loud music, they’re fast paced, and include something interesting to look at. I knew I wouldn’t fit into their picture, but I thought it was worth a shot.

This is the message I got from them today:

Brett,

Thank you for bringing me a sample of your work. I enjoyed watching your stuff, but am afraid that you were not selected for the position.

Incidentally, it seemed to me that you have some ability as a documentary cameraman. That is, you seem able to work a camera decently on the fly, so to speak. You mentioned that you did a mockumentary — have you ever shot any “real” documentaries (that is, based in the tradition — it doesn’t need to be, perhaps shouldn’t be, anything that was marketed, etc)? If you haven’t, I think you should try it. Go watch “Paul Tomkowitz: Streetcar Railway Switchman” and “The Cruise” (both at the Orem library) and consider…. Anyway, just a thought.

Some ability? “Some!?!” The mocumentary he was talking about was Dank Summer. Think what he would have done if he’d a had to sit through that whole thing. I guess sometimes quality just isn’t appreciated. No, he’s right. I’m an amature, but why don’t they consider love for the sport these days? Anyway, it’s ok I didn’t get the job, ’cause that means I won’t have to live in Provo for the summer. And besides, I’m banking on X96…are you listening Todd?

I’ll let you know how things go with KSL, but I’m not sure if they want some college kid representing in their 35-54 demographic target. But hey- I’m going grey, so I guess you never know.