Overwhelm-ation

This last week. Woah. It's been a week of intensity. It's been a week of extremity. It's been a week of surprise. It's been a week of celebration. It's been a week of remembrance. It's been a week of emotion. It's been a week of assumption. It's been a week of danger. It's been a week of longevity. It's been a week since last Wednesday.

During the last week, one concept has stood out to me: LIFE IS A RIDE, so you'd better BUCKLE UP.


During this last week, one million and a half different past, present, and future events, experiences, thoughts, conversations, memories, aspirations, dreams and other "stuff" were revealed, uncovered, dug up from the mountain of my life. On Monday, while I was at work, it all hit me, like a baseball bat hitting a baseball, like a brick through a window, like an ice cream cone splatting onto the floor. So what did I do? I headed over to the fountain to "think" about it.

I was there five minutes.


On Monday afternoon, I wrote this on my facebook wall for all the world to see:

I sat down by the fountain to think about my future. "Since when did I have control?" So I left & stopped thinking about it. #lifesaTRIP

Boom. That was it, completely stopped thinking about it. It was good feeling. Now, it's not that I've forgotten about it, these issues are still very present and very relevant. BUT, when stress and overwhelm-ation set in, boy, that's no good and it's not heading in a very good direction. Why mull around when I know for a 100% fact that God's in control? What happens, happens and, regardless good or bad, God has blessed me in that specific situation for a specific reason, an experience to learn by. I have absolutely no control over anything so WHY IN THE WORLD get so stressed out about it? Life's a trip and I'm just a long for the ride. Sure it get's bumpy, the oil needs to be changed every once in a while, but hey, it's a blast.


That ended on an optimistic note. The next video may change that. This video is INCREDIBLE. It's heartbreaking, personable, and hopeful. I don't know how to put it into words other than it's definitely worth a watch. (Disclaimer: there are a few "choice" words).


Last Minutes with ODEN


Last Minutes with ODEN from phos pictures on Vimeo.


Unreal. I feel for this man and his love for his dog. There's something about this story that is so easy to relate to. We all desire unconditional love; regardless of situation, the love we crave never wavers and is always there for you. While I was watching this short film, the parallels between Oden and our Father in Heaven were incredible. The most notable difference? Christ's unconditional love is TRULY unconditional. He will never leave us, will never grow old, will not die out, and will always be there even if we can't feel it.

Unbelievable. The funny thing is we do not deserve it AT ALL.



The next video is an interview with Eliot Rausch, the director of "Last Minutes with ODEN."  This man is truly inspiring, using his gifts to tell a story, an extremely real story. As I continue in my film studies, messing and fooling around with different subject matters, content, etc., I am learning more and more that I am intrigued with REAL life. Capturing life as it plays out with as little "Hollywood" influence as possible. That's a completely different topic though. Enjoy this interview, I know I did:



Eliot Rausch on "Last Call" with Carson Daly from phos pictures on Vimeo.





Speaking of filmic inspiration, I've been chugging through some fun little shorts.  They're all short, under 1 minute each, and they're all happily unique, bizarre, and promotional, all in the same.

1. SPOOKTACULAR: This is a promo for HME's dance Spooktacular going on at the end of this month. I decided to act a little, this is what happened.


SPOOKTACULAR IS COMING from Morgan Lott on Vimeo.
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2. UP: THE MAN IN THE FLYING CHAIR: This is a promo for a theatre/film production directed by Mr. Ian Mayta.  I very much enjoyed developing this idea of using stock footage as the main content. The opening video to the production will also be a video in this similar style, I'm excited to begin working on it.


The Man in the Flying Chair from Morgan Lott on Vimeo.



3. ANIMAL FICTION: This is a promo for a short film directed by Mr. Zack Campbell that I will be editing in the near future. I'm PUMPED to be involved on this project.


Animal Fiction: A Promo from Morgan Lott on Vimeo.







And there! There you have it!


The blog post for the 26th of October.





Have a most excellent day today. Take a short brisk walk around the neighborhood. Say hello to a neighbor. Talk about something you've never talked about before.



Enjoy life, it only happens once.

Carpe Diem

It's been quite the week!  It's difficult to put it into words, summaries are endless, these are just text-s on a screen. I've got to warn you, it's Torrey week here at Biola University, which means the schedule is completely gnarled up, meaning my schedule is a mess, meaning this blog post will more than likely be shorter than the norm.  It's okay, it was meant to be.

The funny thing about this week is the stories that went down are not meant for this blog.  Normally, and most always, I share with you stories, normally, and most always, in depth. These shared stories are meant to be public, i.e. you, can see, read, laugh, and ponder.  The stories from this last week are on a more personal level and involve other people that may or may not want their stories posted on this here blog. That sentence makes this week sound SUPER INTENSE, I'll leave that up to you to make assumptions. The funny thing about blogs is it feels like a journal, scratch that, it IS a journal; I'm sitting here alone on my couch, writing to myself about my experiences, my thoughts, my dreams. No one is here looking over my shoulder, no one is here influencing what I write. So, naturally, anything and everything is fair game... well, it WAS. After getting into a number of sticky situations, I've learned that this blog is actually read by actual people and it is possible to offend, misinterpret, exaggerate, enunciate any and every word that I write.


So, that said, I'm going to describe the week in careful vagueness:

Last Wednesday: good conversation, learned some things.
Friday: GREAT, tried new things, enjoyed company, learned about each other, airplanes.
Saturday: Family, soccer, Trop 205 Restaurant style
Monday: Encouragement.
Tuesday: Change of plans. We'll see what happens.


Boom boom bam. There it is, that was the week in all it's vague glory, but in its ambiguity, it honestly was an INCREDIBLE week.  Learned so many new things, had so many solid conversations, and went on a limb, took a risk, got adventurous, and Friday happened, for which I am very grateful.  Mistakes were made, lessons were learned. Seems like the only way to learn things these days is to mess up in the process.


I talked to a friend of mine earlier this week about life experiences. For some reason, I was intrigued by the fact that memories are only contained within time. You went to the "best concert of your life," after the end of the concert, it's over, forever. There is no returning to the concert no matter how incredible it was. "Man, last night was so fun! I wish I never had to go to sleep!" Last night was last night and it will always be "last night." Unfortunately, you can never experience "last night" again. Luckily, through the joy of memory, we can remember details and, in a sense, "relive" the situation. But still, it went down in history and stays in history. So, for this reason, the term "carpe diem" applies consistently. Make EVERY DAY unique, individual; make it stand out amongst the rest of history. You're never going to be able to return to these moments, no matter how great they are, and if you can recognize this fact, you can treat every moment as a once in a lifetime opportunity.


So with that, LIVE IT UP today. Always be looking for that one moment that goes down in history as TODAY. Yesterday, Ms. Kylie Tyndall asked me what my "favorite part about today" was. I didn't have a good answer.

Have a good answer.

Dress it up

Take a look at the picture above. What do you notice? You might notice nothing. Mr. Scott Gamelson noticed something though: "What? That's not fancy enough for a Wednesday." It's not. Or is it? What's fancy? What's dressing up? This is the topic of conversation.

"Dressing up" is an interesting action. When do we dress up? Well, for me, I dress up every Wednesday and whenever I feel like it's appropriate, which, honestly, is most situations. I personally enjoy dressing up, I enjoy a suit and tie, I enjoy getting fancy. Other people don't. Other people do not enjoy dressing up, enjoy a t-shirt and sweats, and don't ever want to get fancy. There's nothing wrong with this, I enjoy a t-shirt and sweats an incredible amount, but there's something beautiful about the act of dressing up because of the situation deserving the respect. For example, back in the day (I think), when people went out for a social event, when people went to town for the evening, they took the time to prepare themselves for a nice time. They dressed to the occasion and treated social events with importance.  It might just be me, but it's not quite like that anymore.  In general, it doesn't seem like people care about social interaction the way they used to.  I feel like, especially for gentleman, the art of dressing up is taking a hike in the backwards direction. I can't tell you how many times guys have asked me if I could tie their tie for the them. I feel embarrassed for them.  It's time to learn how to tie ties, gentleman. Speaking of tying ties, the "real" bow tie is almost completely extinct. Well, maybe. The trend of the "hipster" is toying with the idea of getting "into" bow ties again.  I guess we'll see what happens.

All this to say, I enjoy dressing up and I feel like our generation is on the downhill, dressing up isn't near as important and perhaps fun as it used to be. And just a disclaimer, everything written on this blog is opinion written in the moment. It's not meant to offend, it's not meant to prove, it's merely meant to express my random thoughts with a virtual audience.

And all THAT to say, I dressed "down" on purpose today, to speak to this issue. I guess that's a whole nother issue entirely: getting used to me dressing up on Wednesdays. There's an expectation that I dress up every Wednesday, an expectation that in no way shape or form NEEDS to happen, it just has happened, well, for the last 3+ years. And it's been a great 3+ years.




So, two Thursday's ago, the 29th of September, I was given the opportunity to film and photograph the madness we know as SWAGTACULAR. Hungry Mind Entertainment partnered up with House of Blues to throw this party full of swag and boy, was it an experience. I'm not going to get to detailed, but I learned a ton about myself that night, in all sorts of different ways, and in the end, it was well worth it and a spectacular learning experience.  As I was working on the video, I was absolutely amazed to see my Hume Lake influence show up. I can honestly attribute most, if not all, my video editing skills to Hume Lake Christian Camps and the immense amount of practice I was blessed with during the summer of 2010.  Seriously. Every stylistic decision that was made throughout this video somehow stemmed from something I learned and tried a Hume two summers ago. It got me PUMPED and I am so so grateful for that summer two short years ago.  Here's the video, for your enjoyment:


SWAGTACULAR // The Chaos from Morgan Lott on Vimeo.






Next ||



Four months ago, my roommate Mr. Joel Limbauan began training for a half-marathon. As far as I know, there was no major major cause for this, it was simple curiosity, perseverance, and drive.  Four months later, last Sunday rolled around, and entire apartment: Mr. Joel Limbuan, Mr. Ben Jacuk, Mr. Michael Warnecke, and myself, took off in the wee hours of the morning to go support our friend and housemate.  Here is the videographic proof:




WHAT. A. DAY! Joel's the man, the straight up man. Telling yourself you want to run a half-marathon and then actually doing it? That's WILD.








And that, my friends, is the end. I hope you enjoyed it. If not, it's just Wednesday.



Drink a fruit smoothie relatively soon. Try something you've never tried before.

Storytime

 

It's raining and rain is the worst (to put it heavily), I dislike it (to put it lightly). A lot of people disagree with me, they LOVE the rain. I cannot fathom why. Here's my argument. I say to them "Yes, I LOVE the rain too. It's important to water the earth. It's necessary. I LOVE it when I have NOTHING to do and I'm sitting with a cup of hot chocolate in front of the warmth of a fire. In that situation or anything other situation that involves sitting around, rain is the greatest. But when you have to do ANYTHING else, rain is the absolute pits. It makes everything more difficult, it's hard to travel, people drive like 5 year olds, there are accidents, mudslides, your clothes get wet, you can't see because water is getting in your eyeballs, it's cold, it's uncomfortable. How can you say you LOVE that?!" I'm seriously baffled. It makes everything so hard, everything a chore. Going to class is no easy task, it involves protecting your stuff from getting wet, trying to get there without getting soaked, and then sitting through class where everybody is damp in some sense and the musty scent of wet clothes hangs in the air.

I've got one word: yuck.

Just a word: in the end, this is just a rant. Obviously, the rain replenishes our earth, gives an opportunity to harvest, provides clean water, and ultimately is a gift from God. For that, I am grateful.

Well, it's another week. Another week. Another week. Time's flying. Another week. I've been training myself not to blink because I just know that the next time I blink, I'm going to be hanging out in a senior citizens home, recollecting memories from my 83 years of life. Just like *snap*.

It's been made apparent to me lately that I enjoy stories, all sorts of stories, telling stories, listening to stories.  There is something about a story that just makes the world go round, and it's wonderful.  We've all had the experience of sitting in a dull history class, listening to a lecture, when all of a sudden Mr. Boredom himself begins the story of his sophomore year in college when he snuck into the Natural History Museum in order to complete a class project. It is at this point when we start listening. Why do we start listening? Because Mr. Boredom is passionate about his illegal venture.  Mr. Boredom is NOT passionate about history. History is FULL of stories, but if the person telling them is not passionate, well, why would we listen intently? Passion seems to be a pretty important part of storytelling.  Every once in a while, I take a look through the records of this blog. I enjoy using the "Random Post of the Refresh" button in the upper right corner to re-discover the stories of past. In doing this, I've realized a couple of things. 1st: our memories are INCREDIBLE. Yes, we cannot recall any life experience at anytime. But, with a trigger, you can recall any situation like it happened yesterday.  I've learned that this blog serves as an EXCELLENT trigger. At the time of writing, the stories don't seem that significant, because they just happened. But let me tell you, there's nothing better than returning to a story from 2 years back, getting drilled with details, and reliving the situation. And then you share. You remind others of this situation, regardless if they were there with you or not. You tell the story.


I have some stories for you.

I revisited this story from May the 9th: http://emliv.blogspot.com/2011/05/high-five-for-first-kiss-birth-of-viral.html. This story just makes me laugh, I still can't believe it happened this way and I got a front row seat to the power of the viral internet. A GREAT learning experience, a TON of bewilderment, and a FANTASTIC story. Enjoy!

And now some wedding stories, fresh off the press!

Jordan & Danielle Rose: mawwiagefilms.com/​jordandanielle


Jordan & Danielle Rose from Mawwiage Films on Vimeo.


AND

Alex & Danielle Blackhall: mawwiagefilms.com/​alexanddanielle


Alex & Danielle Blackhall from Mawwiage Films on Vimeo.



These are good stories. So is this one: I saw this video the other day. I was intrigued to say the least. If this were at all legal, this is how I would travel. Just imagine a road trip with a group of musicians.  Can you say "not-only-would-this-be-awesome-to-see-while-on-the-freeway-but-I-would-have-a-BALL-on-a-road-trip-like-that?" I can.




Makes me laugh, each and every time. JAM ON.


Well, that's the post. Hoop, there it is.



Go tell someone a story. Tell them a funny story. Then a sad story. Then a surprising story. Then, listen to their funny story. Listen to their sad story. Listen to their surprising story.

SHARE STORIES!


It's all about the memories.