future's now

This is the first blog post of 2013 and the first blog post of the Spring 2013 semester. Take a look at the picture. This is a literal metaphor of looking into the future. The future is rapidly approaching, the future is among us. However, this time "the future" looks a little different. "The future" doesn't look like another semester of school, "the future" doesn't look like the same ol', same ol'. This future looks like NO school, NEW life. I will be graduating at the end of this semester in pursuit of success in the job market. After all, that's what the point of college is, right? A professor put it this way:

"You're about to be fired from your full-time job of 18 years and be forced to figure out how you're going to live. Does that involve finding a new job? Changing living conditions? Changing locations? Good luck."

The time is now. The future is now.


So, this is the first blog post in the last six weeks. When asked to describe my winter break, I have been responding with one word: "short." Yeah, it was six weeks. Yeah, many Biola students think it DRAGS and LULLS and takes just way to long. Me? I could have easily lasted a few more weeks. I've realized this is simply in Lott Family fashion. For my whole life, our breaks have been packed full of trips, adventures, fun, and the like. We travel, we sight-see, we do everything but sit around at home watching television. I'll give you the simple breakdown.

Finals → Wedding → Simi Valley → Reedley → Christmas → Walnut Creek → Simi → New Years → Rose Parade → Biola → IRIS → Ralph B. Clark Park → Long Beach → Young Empress → Temecula → San Diego → Temecula → Simi Valley → Ventura → Pismo Beach → UCLA → Biola → UCLA → First Day of School

Here's the slightly longer version:

After a week of difficult end-of-the-semester final exams, I spent two near-all-nighters editing a wedding video so the couple would be able to have their video in time for Christmas. I then headed to Simi Valley where I stayed for 1 hour before I left with my family to central California to celebrate Christmas with my extended family on my mom's side. After a few days and a lot of fun, we continued north into Walnut Creek to celebrate Christmas with my extended family on my dad's side. After a few days and a lot of fun, we returned home to Simi Valley to celebrate Christmas by ourselves, the immediate family. After a few days and a lot of fun, we experienced New Year's Eve with our long-time friends the Weirs and Gencarella's which led into a observance of the 2013 Rose Parade in Pasadena. I then made my way down to Biola University to participate in the interterm IRIS by speaking about my documentary thisisstuttering to preface the film The King's Speech. This then led into a visit from Ms. Morgan McGannon as we headed to Ralph B. Clark Park. Long Beach was next as Mr. Isaac Svensson and I prepared for a music video shoot the following day for a band called Young Empress, which turned out exceedingly well. I then made my way down to Temecula to visit Ms. Morgan McGannon and her family. We ate at a winery, we enjoyed San Diego, we enjoyed Temecula, we shopped at a mall, we enjoyed relaxing. After a few days and a lot of fun, I returned to Simi Valley to work hard before Ms. Morgan McGannon would visit my family. After a few days and a lot of fun, Ms. Morgan McGannon visited and we toured Simi, visited friends, stayed up way too late with Mr. Sean Cook, enjoyed Ventura, and prepared for our trip to Pismo Beach with my family. After a few days and a lot of fun, my family, along with Ms. Morgan McGannon and Mr. Dan Mitchell, made our way to Pismo Beach to enjoy a few days and a lot of fun, including but not limited to playing football on the beach, Joe vs. The Volcano, Quelf, McClintocks, and The Monster.  We then headed back home to Simi Valley, Ms. Morgan McGannon left, and I said goodbye to Simi Valley as I prepared for a documentary shoot involving Mr. Marc Wymore, in which his sister Corri was going to be giving him, a type 1 diabetic since he was 2, her kidney in a miraculous kidney transplant, an evidential example of God's providence and provision. After a few days and my mind being rocked by the incredible intricacies of modern medicine, I returned to Biola and to begin the semester. And here we are. Right now.


Here's a slightly longer version of a specific part: IRIS.

I was honored and curious to speak in front of about 100 Biola students about my life as a stutterer and my film thisisstuttering. To understand the context read this: http://emliv.blogspot.com/2012/12/thisisbig.html. This was the first step of complete vulnerability and honestly in direct response to the release of the trailer to thisisstuttering. It's difficult to put into words how this speaking engagement went, it was an incredible experience. The entire day was preparation for the viewing of the film The King's Speech, "the story of King George VI of Britain, his impromptu ascension to the throne and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch become worthy of it." A number of professors spoke on different topics, which led to Mrs. Teri Clemons, a speech pathologist/professor at Biola, to speak about the science of speech impediments. I was then introduced as a "real-life stutterer" and I told my life-story, what it's been like living with a stutter, the challenges, the trials, the learning opportunities. I then showed the trailer to thisisstuttering and talked about the project, the challenges, the trials, the learning opportunities. The audience was then polled for questions, to which I answered to the best of my ability. It was at this point when the significance of this speaking engagement became known. First of all, and this has taken me 21 years to figure out, but God has given me my speech impediment for a reason. I've come to the realization that if this film changes one person for the kingdom of God, then my years of struggle and embarrassment have been worth it. It's easy to blame God for my stutter, "what did I do wrong? Why do I deserve this?" Instead, it's "use this for your glory" and "reach people that would not be reached by any other means." So, I spoke publicly about my deepest, darkest secret. I was vulnerable. Following the Q+A, a number people came up to me, saying things such as "I have never told anybody this, but I'm struggling in this way" or "thank you for being vulnerable, now I will be more intentional and sensitive with my friends." These conversations following the session are what turned this opportunity from "cool" to "INCREDIBLE." God is using this film in ways that are just barely becoming known. This has already been a life-changing experience and I am nowhere even close to be able to predict what is coming next. I can barely even handle it. God's got this.



WHAT.



Here is all sorts of different media things from break. Enjoy.

And that's that! That's the post! Unbelievable. Shout out to Dan Mitchell for taking the last few pictures of Ms. Morgan McGannon and myself. I'm all about them.



Think about your last few months. Think about all the things that made you genuinely happy. Are those things substantial enough to base a lifestyle of them?

Snaps

I'm back at school, just like *snap* that.  I'm taking a Spanish class, I'm three days in.  It should be good, it's basically immersion.  Which is a good thing, all I think about most of the day is Spanish.  Every day, constant Spanish throughout the week.  It's a good thing, but the class is very long.  Four hours a day, it feels like it get longer every day.  It's the first week though, it will speed up and feel short as the days go by.  Interterm is interterm.  It's bad in a good way.  I'm enjoying myself, there's so much work to be done.  So much work.  It's quite remarkable.


Because of this, I have little time to construct this Wednesday's post.  Sorry, I hope it doesn't produce negative emotions.


I have a couple announcements:

I had some fun designing this last week!  Hooray!  I completely redesigned my twitter profile as well as my myspace profile.  Here's something ironic, twitter is perhaps the most recent, biggest social media website, and myspace is perhaps the least, on the decline form of social media.  Here's the thing, I still dig myspace, I'd be on it every single day if it wasn't for nobody else wants to use it, I don't understand why.  At least from a designer's point of view, myspace destroys facebook, at least it did until myspace 3.0 came out.  It's all relative.  Here are your links:

http://twitter.com/morganlott

http://myspace.com/edwardmorganlottiv

Fun fun fun.



Here's something, while I was at Hume Lake during the summer, I shot two rolls of Kodak T-Max 400 film.  I had a good time, captured some good moments, and now they are online for you, you can now have a good time, you can capture some of those good moments.

Below is the link that links to the live album on my Facebook profile:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=328961&id=714162753&l=110166da35

Here are two shots:

Fun fun fun.




You know what else is fun?


VIDEO(s)



First up, there's this beatboxer called Beardyman and he took his talent to unsuspectors, I dig I dig.




In the spirit of skating, I took a trip back to yesteryear and remembered Rodney Mullen.  Remember Rodney Mullen?  One word: NUTTY.  Revolutionized skateboarding without his style becoming wildly popular.



Have you heard of Pogo?  If you don't recognize the name, you probably would recognize some of his work.  Here's his latest:

"This is remix of sights and sounds that I filmed around the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. This marks the beginning of my World Remix project!"

Super sick, super classic, check it:



Lastly, for all you vocal buffs out there, this video surfaced the other day.  Yesterday, when I found it, it had around 500,000 views.  Now, as I write this, it has 5,393,300 views.  That's quite a difference in a day.  Super super rad.  This homeless man has an incredible voice and he....well I'll just let him tell the story.

Currently, people all over are joining together to help this guy out, get him a job, get his life back together, and it might just work.  I wish him the best.




UPDATE:

This is a great reason why the internet is rockin'. So great. So great.





Incredible.






And that's it folks.  Video heavy, media heavy, not word heavy.  It's a good thing every once in a while, yeah?  Fun fun fun for everyone.





Have a fun-filled day today.  Take a walk outside, feel the temperature, imagine what 20 degrees colder would feel like, and then imagine was 20 degrees warmer would feel like.  If you had to choose one, 20° warmer, 20° colder, or where you are right now, which one would you pick?


I must say, I'd be SO down for 87 degrees right now.  SOOOOO down.

Twenty-Tow Truck

Here's the deal, last week's post was the best ever, it had the most interesting content that has been posted on this here blog in it's existence, no other post comes close.  This isn't only my opinion.  The response from you, the reader, was alone enough to blow all the others out of the water.  I really don't blame you, anything that says "YOU'RE IN FOR A TREAT: gnarly car accident, craziest day of my life, R+M wedding, it can't get much better than this! CHECK IT OUT!," I'd be a sucker and click on it too.  I'm still aghast that all went down.  If you're reading this and you haven't read last week's post, you've missed history.  Luckily for you, the internet is scriviling with history, so all you have to do is click this link: http://emliv.blogspot.com/2010/12/story.html or simply scroll down until you hit the post labeled "THE STORY."  That's all there is to it.  Enjoy.

So here it is, this week is piddly compared to last.  Although fun and surprising, the sheer monstrosity of last week overpowers this.  I digress (Shout out to Schmidt).

We finished out the semester this week.  Un-be-lievable.  We just started, we just finished.  I'm I'm full fledged into a couple weeks of break, head back to the Bible Institute Of Los Angeles and complete an absolutely ridiculous three weeks of learning the Spanish language.  8 AM - 12 PM: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.  It shall be a memorable three weeks.  After this, the spring semester begins.  Here's my schedule:

It's going to be busy busy busy.  I guess that's the point to college right?  Stuff that brain with all the good stuff, preparing you for the world beyond.  Let's do this.


I am at home right now.  I was at home on Friday.  On Friday morning, my mother prepared a special "Brunch," a very secretive brunch.  My sister and I knew it was a big deal because bacon was being made.  My mother invited two guests over the very secretive brunch, two VIPs from the Joshua Wilderness Institute, Ms. Cheyenne Wedel and Ms. Julie Nicolas.  I was very surprised (although I figured out the surprise prior, but hey, you never REALLY know) and enjoyed the very secretive brunch very much.  The events that followed were Christmas shopping and a grand tour of the city we all know and love: Simi Valley.  It was great way to spend the first day back at home.

The next day, we set out to Oma's ("Grandma" in German) house in Walnut Creek, California.  6 hours in the Monster (our vehicle) and Ms. Cheyenne Wedel as a guest, the trip went relatively smoothly, save for the 4-lane-blocking accident on the 5.

Oma's house was fun, a good relaxation.  I destroyed my brother in chess and we never played the rematch he demanded.  Not much went on and it was great.  The epitome of "break."

Now I am at home.  It'll be a few days.  Christmas is soon.  Very soon.  Disturbingly soon.  When did December start?



I don't have much more.  Here's a video:







Yikes, I forgot how heavy that video was.  I had saved the link from a few weeks ago because I didn't have the opportunity to embed it, and now that I have; it's quite the video.  Really makes you think.









Wow, interesting ending note, huh? 



A young businessman had just started his own firm. He'd rented a beautiful office and had it furnished with antiques. Sitting there, he saw a man come into the outer office. Wishing to appear busy, the young businessman picked up the phone and started to pretend he had a big deal working. He threw huge figures around and made giant commitments. Finally he hung up and asked the visitor, "Can I help you?"

The man said, "Sure. I've come to install the phone!"




Imagine that.  Know what you're dealing with, don't tell lies, be yourself.

Be prepared.







Have a brilliantly beautiful day today.

Try it

Today I wore a suit 'cept my suit jacket was a little different.  It rained last night, that's all I know.

There will not be much in this post because I have to deal with lost time.  It's really too bad, but I guess a part of life, right?

I do have some content for you which won't leave you completely hung out to dry.

On Sunday, I went with Mr. Chase Wagner and Ms. Paige Echarte to Saddleback Church (which is QUITE the place) and then to Ms. Paige Echarte's house in Dana Point.  For your viewing pleasure, I have some photography that was taken on that Sunday.  It was a much needed break from Interterm and it was nice to start shooting again. 

Here's one more that I like a little bit:



if you'd like to see these and more, check out the FLICKR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/morganlott/


And lastly, I have a video for you.







Does that look intense or what?! I grew up on LEGOs and I owe a good section of my heart to the little building blocks. This movie looks like actual LEGO people moving around and looks GNARLY. I'd see it, no doubt in my mind.





So that's it folks. I wish I could have expanded on things, especially about actual happenings that took place last week, the weekend, or today. I don't have time though. I guess that is the nature of interterm.


Have a good one. (I've been saying that a lot lately. Not really sure why.)


Serious.

Polart

It's January 6th, the first Wednesday of 2010.  Can it be any more exciting?  That is a rhetorical question.  I guess you could be excited, or you could be lulled; either way, it is fact and you can't do anything about it.

What did you do you for New Year's Eve?  I made an interesting observation about New Years this year, and that is that the party scene is much less than that of Halloween for instance.  It seems like people just chillax as they wait for the big ball in NYC to dropax.  I know that's what we did and it was a good time.  Definitely fulfilled my New Year's Eve necessity.  You want to know what we do on New Year's Eve?




Decently accurate.

The few days of break I had were excellent.  I enjoyed seeing friends and family in good ol' Simi Valley.  When you go back there, it's like you never left.  I'd think it would be like that for every place on the planet, but maybe not.  I'm not one to say.  Seeing extended family was also excellent.  Talk about a brief summary.

I am back at Biola as of now taking 5 credits during the 3 weeks of interterm.  It is quite the Biola experience as the campus is the definition of e-m-p-t-y.  Not even kidding.  Look up the word "empty" in the visual dictionary and you will see a picture of the campus.  I will admit it is kind of nice.  Yeah, the backside (my floor) is vacant and can be decently lonely, but hey! when is there time for a social life when you are a crash course in schooling?  Call it a distraction.  So if you didn't catch the drift, interterm is a good experience and worth the time, effort, and money.  Hopefully I can say the same in three weeks. 


One thing I definitely do like about interterm is that there is very little waiting and very little room for procrastination.  Nine times out of ten an assignment is due the next day.  So none of this: "Oh, I'm not in the mood, I'll just do it tomorrow." It's: "Oh, I'm not in the mood, but if I don't do this right now, I will fail the assignment, creating a difficulty in passing the class, which, in turn, wastes time, effort, and money."  I'm a fan, but like I said, we'll have to see if that claim still stands in three weeks.




I have a video for you.  It's a music video that has been put together in a rather interesting way.  I watched it earlier this week and I copied the url, but I haven't watched it since so I really don't know what to say about it.  Check it out and make sure all your valuables are secure because they might fall off of the table.

I'll be gone from KORB on Vimeo.



I don't really have all that much to talk about.  Everyday is the same, monotonous, repetitive, because everyday is the same, monotonous, repetitive.


Have a good day fellow internet user.