It's been a BIG week

It has been a BIG week people. BIG. Star Trek comes out Friday. I received a Star Trek tie from Mr. Morgan Harman, thank you Morgan, months ago, and I saved the tie until now, because a Star Trek tie must be worn at the appropriate time, and I figure the week of the Star Trek movie is an appropriate time. I also carried around a Star Trek mug featuring the moniker of Mr. Spock. Today, I was a cubicle worker. I had my coffee mug and tie, probably about to make 1000 phone calls after a finish my bowl of frosted flakes. They're grrrrrrrrrrrreat. Next up: prom.





Prom. This is the story.

Originally, I did not plan on going to prom. It was too expensive and I did not have a significant other I wanted to spend lots of money on, so I wasn't going to go. That quickly changed: I was nominated for Prom King. This baffles me. You know the typical nomination process: someone decides they have a good chance at winning so they rally up all of their friends and tell people to vote for them. That is the typical scene. I did not do this at all. The thought never even entered my mind. Now get this: after I found out I was nominated, I tried to find someone who put me down on the list (the senior class gets little slips of paper and you are free to write anybody's name down and the top four most frequent are nominated) and I never found one person. Crazy. So pretty much I was given like 3 days to find a date and get the tickets.

Now this is the part where I have selective remembering. Actually that is not true, I have lied and I am asking for your forgiveness. The truth is I am choosing not to explain what happened between the last paragraph and the next paragraph- let's just say is was "soap opera-ish" and really intense.

So I asked Ms. Jennifer Larcomb to go with me. Here's the weird thing: at the beginning of the year, I told myself I was going to take a girl to prom who would go the thrift store with me and get a suit and then drive a car, to make it the least expensive prom ever. Now, at the "nomination" meeting, I stated my "dream" and Jenn quickly exclaimed she would love to do that! There was a problem though, but I'm not going to exclaim it to the world. But, anywho, it worked out in the end. So, with Ms. Jenn Larcomb, Ms. Amanda Quick, Mr. Patrick Greene, and Mr. Beau Akers, we depart to downtown LA, to a spot known at Melrose. After seeing some SICK graffiti, we depart to the shops. It got rather interesting, I really like LA, people are so strange and watching people's interactions with each other just makes me laugh. The human race is so comical. Anyway, long story short, Mr. Beau Akers and I both found sweet suits. Beau: a "Dumb and Dumber" look-a-like suit. Me: A three piece brown suit. It was all coming together.

Now, the money issue. I had to get money and pay my ticket fast and I also wanted to be a gentleman and pay for my date. Looks like I had it all wrong. Ms. Jenn Larcomb had already purchased her ticket, and I didn't have to pay for mine! I found out there were "prom scholarships" in the office so, I acquired the information, they asked me the situation, and they covered my ticket! I was stoked. However, I didn't feel much of a gentleman...

So the day of prom arrives. Naturally, I am crazy busy due to a cleverly scheduled Jazz Festival the morning of. Luckily, the band consists of all guys, with the exception of Ms. Courtney Schuetz (must have been a rush), so we had plenty of time to get ready. Okay, so up to this point, the whole prom situation was incredibly easy. Nomination, free ticket, date, discount suit, van, it was all so easy. Not for long. Earlier in the week, my suit was sent to the dry cleaners to get dry cleaned, obviously, so it would make sense for it to smell nice and fresh when it returned, right? WRONG. The suit absolutely reeked. Our theory is the dry cleaners unlocked the masked odors hidden within the thread of the brown suit. The suit smelled as if it had been kept in a chain-smokers closet filled with moth balls for 30 years. We tried everything- air dry, baking soda in big trash bags, etc. The technique that seemed to work the best was dousing the fashionable wear with axe deodorant smell. This may seem like a bad idea, and it was, but let me explain my reasoning. When I sprayed the axe on to the stinking fibers, the smell was diffused. Because of this, I knew if we sprayed a nice smelling odor onto the suit, it might begin talking those years right off. So my mom went and got Febreeze as our final option. Here is a picture of the event:
It didn't work. So ten minutes before I was due at Ms. Jenn Larcomb's house for formal pictures, I was running around my house trying to figure out what to wear. Quite interesting I might say. So I came up with what I am wearing in every other picture. It turned out quite nice, I must say.

Now prom is official. Cameras are clicking, conversations are nonstop, smiles are ever present. And then, all of a sudden, it was time to go. But not so fast! Ms. Jenn Larcomb's sister insisted on decorating the van...and that was that. Here is a group shot and two van shots:




We leave and enjoy the pleasure of other people driving behind, in front, left, and right of us. Some people found more pleasure than others. I'm sure the cop that decided to follow us on the freeway for a good few miles really found the decorations interesting. Anyway, we eventually get lost because the directions contained a sentence that was unneeded and therefore confusing. We ended up passing El Camino High School four times. I felt like I attended there. Finally, we get to where we need to be going: the Skirball Center. Weeks before hand, people wondered what the weather would be like due to prom being outside. There was rumor of intense thunderstorms as well as rain (it did sprinkle the night before) but once we got there, it was just cold. It didn't stay cold. When there are hundreds of teenagers bundled together on a dance floor, swinging their hips all around (they don't lie), it is no longer cold. You can count on that.

The night proceeded quite nicely. The venue was nice with two stories and interesting places to explore, even though I never was bold enough to venture out on my own. One huge complaint by the vast majority was the DJ. I thought the DJ was awesome. He chose to play mostly music people had not heard before, or, at the very least, not on every radio station in the country. Many people were complaining that he was not playing the good songs. This is ridiculous. There were some sweet trance techno songs (I was just imaging a sick music video on the dance floor), a couple energetic salsa tunes, and this awesome clapping song that I have never heard before. I enjoyed it.

Formal pictures. I went to the prom with a blank check in hand, intending to write down the amount of money to paid for the formal pictures in front of the elegant backdrop. We saw the backdrop, and Ms. Jenn Larcomb and I decided the pictures were overpriced and the backdrop, which contained a shining moon, was too cliche. So we decided to take photos in the photo booth instead. So instead of paying a considerable amount of money for a bunch of wallets, we both got a 5 inch strip of paper with four pictures- for free. Quite the deal. And a memory. Observe:

With Jenn, I was rather confused (this is obvious is the second picture), but with Mr. Patrick Greene I felt better suited. I think it is okay though. I hope my wonderful date feels the same way about the portraits. Discontent is not all that great.

Prom King nomination. I had to leave the party for about a half hour for the prom king spiel. This was interesting. We were told that when our name was called we would accompany our nominee counterpart down the stairs. I was called third out of four, meaning I did not win, so I escorted Ms. Jenna Fisher down the stairs to the bottom. The results were in: Mr. Anthony Boscarino and Ms. Jasmine Castillo are the Royal High School 2009 Prom King and Queen. I'm happy for them, I hope they remember the event forever.

Oh, by the way, this is the prom nomination video and Mr. Beau Akers and I shot and edited for 40 some hours. It's definitely a good piece of work:


So the king and queen did the king and queen dance and it was, let's just say, awkward. I'm not sure why, I didn't really see it, but by the time the "Prom Court" dance was beginning, Ms. Jasmine Castillo and Mr. Anthony Boscarino were completely separated. So, Ms. Jenna Fisher and I began slow dancing, as did the rest of the prom court. Then everybody else joined in. And that was that.

Fly a few hours and we arrive at Ms. Jenn Larcomb's house. Ms. Jenn Larcomb, Ms. Amanda Quick, Mr. Patrick Greene, Mr. Beau Akers, and me, Mr. Morgan Lott, just chilled for a good 4 hours around the fire, talking up a storm, making phatty smores, and the like, just having a really good time. I finally got home around 5 am. It was a good night/morning.

I feel like I'm missing something. I really do. If you were at prom and you know of something of importance that I missed, please let me know and I will add it in. I also feel like I missed a bunch about the "after party," if you were there, remind me to put events in! I think my brain is just a little bit tired....the end kind of dwindled in details a little bit.

So that was prom. It was definitely worth going to, however it may not have been worth it if I would have spent $500 (I'm sure more than a couple people spent this much). I just want to thank Ms. Jennifer Larcomb for accompanying me. Prom would not have been the same without you.







The Swine Flu. Now there is something about this that just ticks me off. First of all, the symptoms are pretty much the same as the regular flu. In fact, they are exactly the same: "The symptoms...include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. Some people with swine flu also have reported runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea." Directly from www.cdc.gov ladies and gentlemen. The first case was in September of 1988. Now this recent outbreak has been ravaging. Why? NO IDEA. It is the same thing as the regular flu, except, in very few cases, it has mutated into something deadly and only deadly if left untreated. Check this out:

"Adela Gutierrez, who became the first fatality, sought hospital care late, after she was repeatedly misdiagnosed;...Molecular chemist Adrian Juarez Avendano tested the sample and on Easter Sunday had the results: positive for coronavirus, a highly contagious and unusual strain. This result would prove incorrect, and testing in Canada would show Gutierrez had contracted the unique strain of swine flu....Dr. Ruben Coronado Garcia [head of the Intelligence Unit for Epidemiological Emergencies in Oaxaca] mobilized seven brigades of three inspectors...to begin fanning through Oaxaca. They concentrated on three areas: the hospital, Gutierrez's home and family, and her place of work....At Gutierrez's house, her husband, three daughters and mother-in-law were tested. no one has shown any symptoms. Coronado's team checked 106 of Gutierrez's co-workers through April 22...Among those checked at the hospital and Gutierrez's workplace, 26 developed flu symptoms. But none tested positive for the more serious strain and all have recovered." - Los Angeles Times - May 5th, 2009

This was in the newspaper on Tuesday. I think it is a very interesting article. Here a couple things to note: the strain is said to be unique and super contagious. If the latter is true, how come NONE of the people she came in contact with contracted the virus? I just think it's interesting. Here is another thing: in the USA, 1 person has died of the swine flu. Now check this out: "No fewer than 800 flu-related deaths were reported in any week between January 1 and April 18, the most recent week for which figures were available." This is the regular season flu, may I remind you. By the way, that quote came from CNN (source). Oh yeah, and that number is derived by reports in 122 cities in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Yeah, the swine flu is not that big of deal. And get this, President Barack Obama addressed the nation with this: "Keep your hands washed, cover your mouth when you cough, stay home from work if you are sick, keep your children home from school if they are sick.” Umm.........yeah. Isn't this common knowledge? Isn't this obvious? No duh, you should wash your hands....no duh, you should stay home from home if you are sick! I'm not slamming President Obama, I'm slamming the American people as a whole. Do we really need our President to tell us to wash our hands? Really?! I thought we were more civilized than that.

One last thought on the controversial swine flu:

“This is presenting itself more like seasonal flu, and in seasonal flu time, the only time a school would consider closing is when enough of the teachers and enough of the student population had gotten the flu, so that they really could not function,” - US Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius

Makes sense right? I guess Newbury Park High School doesn't think so...







and lastly:

Unemployment (2009) USA/15.22 min

Unemployment from Morgan Lott on Vimeo.

Summary: Two friends, Beau and Morgan, are struggling to get by in scarce-job economy. Once they discover a free spaceship inside a cereal box, they travel to a new world, where jobs are readily available. Experience their experience.

Filmmakers:

Morgan Lott - Director, Editor, Actor
Beau Akers - Producer, Screenwriter, Actor

Cast:

Morgan Lott - Morgan
Beau Akers - Beau
Tomas Capaldi - Pie-rat
Patrick Greene - Gargleburger Job
Nick Budflowski - Robot Pool Boy











alright so that's it. I hope it didn't take you as long to read as it took me to write. Have a wonderful day and wash your hands.