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.

Backs and Forths

It's been an interesting week. Ups and downs, backs and forths, simple all-over-the-place fun.  This is directly reflected through my clothing selections for today. In fact, it's so closely related, we'll treat this like a rhetorical question and you can figure out how and why it's connected on your own.  I will explain one thing though; the lack of tie has great significance and that is, well, somehow, somewhere, one of my suits, charcoal in color, along with approximately 15 ties (half of my tie collection) went missing. Don't know the details, don't know how it happened, wish I did, wish this didn't happen. I put up a classified ad on Biola's network and here's a link to it:

http://apps.biola.edu/classifieds/listings/6166

This is a pretty significant loss, it's going to be difficult to recover and, in some situations, impossible to recover. It's brutal, but hey, it is what it is, live goes on, and we're good. Boom boom bam, let's go.

Speaking of "let's go," last Friday night's events were up in the air. There were three different options, all of which were undetermined. Long story short, I ended up committing to go to a Future of Forestry, Lovelite, and Reveal concert with Ms. Sierra Falco, Ms. Amber Agron, and Amber's boyfriend Mr. Preston Richardson. I was excited, they were excited, we were all excited. Before long, it's time to go and Preston, who was photographing the concert and was scheduled to come pick us up from Biola, was struggling to get his car started. It was at this point I knew we were in for a treat. We needed to figure out what to do and decided upon driving Amber's car, a big ol' Bronco. There was a problem though, Amber's arm is injured, rendering her unable to drive. Well, the smell of adventure was in the air, so I volunteered to put my driver's license to good use. I was warned immediately, old big vehicles can be fussy, there are little tricks and whistles one needs to master before it will drive well. Sure enough, the first five minutes were absolutely BRUTAL. The brakes were SUPER touchy and the gas required quite the punch. Luckily, we humans are made to adapt, so after quite the interesting 5 minutes, it was like I had been driving this bad boy for years. 

So, we're on the freeway, just cruising, looking for exit 90 something in midst of traffic, and all of a sudden, a realization is made: we were going the wrong way on the freeway, and not only that, we had been going the wrong way for a good half an hour. This is the moment that plagues my life, the great moment of realizing you're in the wrong place. Now, if there's anything I've learned in my lifetime, it's that I ALWAYS get lost, and when I get lost, it's ALWAYS an adventure. BIG memories are waiting to be made. Never fails. Ever. So it's at this moment, I just start laughing, realize this trip has just become the trip of lifetime, and the story of this trip will be told for years. It was time to turn around.

So we did. And our less than 30 minute trip quickly turned into a 2 hour trip. And we enjoyed ourselves. We chatted about all sorts of nice things, including but not limited to in-depth conversations about two intense topics dreams and cancer. We had time, lots of it, and hey, when you stick people in a situation where all they can do is talk to each other, boom, that's what you do.  That's my idea of a good time.  So, FINALLY, we arrive at Crossline Church.  After struggling to find the entrance, we make it in, quickly realizing we had missed the first two bands, Lovelite and Reveal, but hey, we made it. Future of Forestry absolutely killed it, those guys know how to jam and know how to put on a show! There were definitely a few of those moments where the only response worthy is a *gasp,* there's no other response suitable, it's just too too good. I couldn't help but yelp "SO DOPE" at one point, givin' me chills. Know what was also great? Seeing old friends like Mr. Grant Gunther and Mr. Louie Huesmann, among others from Hume. Reunions are the best.

And then we left. Presten's vehicle was still out of commission, so we left from Crossline with an one more passenger than we had come with, thought outside the bun and stopped by Taco Bell for a late night snack, and headed out. And guess how long the trip home took? Let's just say 25 minutes, just a tad bit shorter than the 2 hours it took to get there.  Good, quick ride home.

All in all, the idea that "half the fun is getting there" rings brilliantly true, and in this case, it may as well read "three quarters of the fun is getting there." Through my experience with getting lost in virtually every driving situation I'm in, I've learned a few things:

1. It's incredibly easy and tempting to become stressed, flustered, and concerned. It's very easy to get plastered by a wave of negativity and potentially ruin the rest of the trip.  These aren't necessarily bad things, they just threatening. This happens to everyone, it's natural.
2. If you can help it, be optimistic about the situation.  Believe it or not, getting lost happened to you for a reason, probably reasons you will never know. I'll give you an example: my grandpa was scheduled to board a boat. For whatever reason, he accidentally did not make it on that boat and what happens? The boat sinks. You never know what's going to happen.
3. Utilize your extra time you gain from getting lost. Time and time again, getting lost creates lots of laughs about getting back on track and relearning where you are going. Time and time again, conversation and experiences have taken place during that time that never would have had a chance if you hadn't lost your place.
4. Make it fun. Laugh about it, have a blast. You might as well. It's a bad situation, turn it into a good situation. Make it a memory that will last a lifetime. And you know what happens with memories? They become stories, great stories. And what do you do with stories? You tell them. And hey, every time you're in a car, you can tell your co-car-riders the story of "that one time you got lost." THE BEST.

And that's the story about that one time I got lost with Amber and Sierra. It's in the memory bank for good.

Now, I've got three strange topics to talk about.

First, bad breath.  I feel like bad breath is one of the strangest, nastiest, troubling accidents on the face of this earth, an accident we all struggle with in some form. When you're talking to someone with terrible breath, it's revolting, you can't stand it. But what do you? More often than not, you don't do anything. Now, I'm not quite sure why we don't say anything. Perhaps it's embarrassing. You feel bad for telling someone "Hey, sorry to bring this up, but you need a breathmint, your breath...well, it's bad." Not only is it hard for you to say, but how are they going to feel? We feel embarrassed. If you're the one with bad breath, how do you feel? I'm speaking from personal experience right now. If someone tells me, "Woah, take a swig of Listerine or something," I think immediately "YIKES, bad breath is nasty" and then immediately think "how long have I had this repulsing stench fuming from my mouth, how many people have been devoured by this scent, been disgusted, and not said anything."  In my opinion, if my breath has even a hint of "bad," I would love for it to be pointed out, that way it can be fixed from the get-go and it won't have to get embarrassing for either party when my breath is killing the plants I walk by.

Second, the wave. I recently had two different converstaions with two separate sets of people about waving, and now, as I'm writing this, I'm realizing this will be very difficult to describe in words without showing with my own two hands. Bascially, we came to the realization that men and women wave differently. More often than not, a man will either just stick his hand in the air, or maybe do one simple "swipe." A women kind of hits the whole spectrum, ranging throughout all sorts of different varieties of waves. I'm going to cut this conversation right now because it's literally impossible to describe all the variations of waves, plus it's much more fun to demonstarte. Ask me sometime about it. One last note though, during the first conversation about waves, we agreed that a notable wave that is feminite and maybe a tad annoying is the finger wave, where you kind of have your fingers pointed at your subject and move your fingers in a wave pattern. The funny thing about it is since we talked about this, I have caught myself over and over and over again waving in this extremely awkward and strange way of waving. I just can't help but laugh. Out of all the ways to wave we talked about, that's the one my phyche chose to naturally do (at least for this week). Strange.

Lastly, social experimentation. Do you ever do little things to see how people react? Whether that's something you say, not speaking up when you would normally, choosing to do certain things that wouldn't normally do, but for the sake of reaction, you do them anyway, or, similarly, not doing or saying things you normally would? I guess we all do this kind of stuff, just involuntary. Recently though, I've been having some fun with it. My absolute favorite is not speaking up with there's an awkward silence. It's quiet and uncomfortable and getting worse by the second. You feel the urge to do something, whether that is speak up, chuckle, or do the hand motion that, in my opinion, is the greatest symbol of the loss of social skills among our generation, the awkward turtle. I LOVE not breaking this silence and just seeing what happens.  Every time the results are different and it's so interesting to see how people react to awkward silence and in there end, how they break it. It's almost like taking a seat and watching the drama play out. Just good clean fun.

Along that note, the other night I was talking with Ms. Sierra Falco and Ms. Jenette Hatch about the topic of hugs.  Now, hugs are a funny business. A hug is what? The in between between a handshake and a full on kiss? There is a level of intimacy in a hug that does not exist in a handshake and it's this intmacy that catches me off guard.   People enjoy the feeling of touch. I'm not sure how to explain it, but there's something about touch that hits us hard and we were designed by our Creator that way. That said, the variety of a hug is intriguing. First you have the side hug, the supposed awkward cousin to the "real" hug. Personally, I don't have a problem with it. To me, it's not awkward or weird; yes, it is less intimate (don't you love that word?) than a full hug, but why does the side hug get a bad rap? Don't know. Then you have the "real" hug, a straight up greeting of meaningful proportions. Sierra and Jenette called it, they said the reason a real hug is absolutely necessary is the feeling of being surrounded, encircled in the other persons arms, a feeling that a side hug can never offer. Now here's something else, what happened to that hug/kiss on the cheek thing? I don't know what it's called, but I've noticed that older people and Europeans in general tend to use this greeting when greeting a member of the opposite sex. I know virtually nothing about this type of greeting so I'm going to stop talking about it. I just thought it is either an interesting twist on cliche American greetings or it's just gone out of style...or something.




And lastly, I have one video for you. My apartmentmate, Mr. Michael Warnecke, showed me this video last night and it's the epitome of JAMMING.





The drummer is having the absolute time of his life. JAMMING JAMMING JAMMING. I can't put it into words, I just can't. I can't get over the absolute greatness of the BEAST of a drummer. So incredibly good. In the pocket, in the groove, mmmm, GORGEOUS.





And that's the post! Lots of words today. I'm always a fan of words.


Go tell someone else some words, have a good, meaningful conversation.

Observation

 Happy hunting world.  The world of color, the world of extravagance.  It's around, it's vibrant. 

Tomorrow is April Fools Day.  Why do I say this?  I recall last years extravaganza.  Last year I had this idea: what if I constructed a mass April Fools joke upon my school and create a fictional event that people would attend and then once the multitude of "contestants" arrived, I would break the news?  It's was the plan of the morning.  Here's the video:



Here's the link to the original blog post if you want to read in detail: http://emliv.blogspot.com/2009/04/april-fools.html

That's the story, but I have a new development.  I think one of the problems was the address I chose.  999 Enchanted Way sounds, well, enchanted.  Even though 999 Enchanted Way is the ACTUAL address of the Grand Vista Hotel in Simi Valley, people weren't catching the drift.  Here's the kicker.  This year, Simi's newest electro club, Club Phoenix, is shaking Simi with their mad bass lines on April 1, April Fools Day, at, you guessed it, the Grand Vista Hotel on the plot of land known as 999 Enchanted Way.  Incredible.


In other news, I just recently finished up editing Zack Campbell's latest directing project entitled WAKING MOTION.  Take a look, it's pretty good, pretty experimental, pretty thought provoking if you let it provoke:


Waking Motion


In other news, I recently began a tumblr blog that I post inspiring art/video/poems/epiphanys/other to.  So you might want to check it out!  It's almost an experiment.  But hey, worth a shot and worth you checking it out, because inspiration is straight up inspiring, interesting to look at, a time waster, and everything in between!  Here's the link!

http://morganlott.tumblr.com/

In other news, I have recently discovered what my summer is going to consist of.  I will be spending the entire summer up at Hume Lake Christian Camps as a videographer and/or part of the media crew.  I am extremely excited to be part of the team and am looking forward to working at the camp I have many memories of.  It will be a real test, but I am game for a challenge as I will be working for the advancement of God's kingdom!  It's going to be an incredible summer!




In other news, I'm going to post two formspring questions.  The formspring submissions have been pitiful and minimal, but that's okay.  Hey!  If you have a question, give it to me.  You can literally ask anything, anything suitable for an elderly woman or a young child to read, otherwise it won't make it!  Here's the link, you can go below and check out the box.  Don't hold back.  We're humans, we're full of questions: http://formspring.me/morganlott

why are zip ties so hard to break off?

Zip ties are designed to be a strong alternative to rope and other fasteners, giving the user an easy to use, reliable, portable fastening device. Zip ties are not meant to be able to be broken off easily, but with a pair of scissors or a blade of some sort, zip ties can easily be conquered. Try and break them with your hands though, and the zip tie will win 19 out of 20 times.

What would you do if you found out you were pregnant?

I would be absolutely, positively blown out of my mind. Everything I have ever known to be true would be rendered false due of the the confirmation of this impossibility. I could trust no "truth" I have learned and been taught throughout the nineteen years of my life.

That said, this is impossible for numerous reasons, most being anatomy and the way I, a male, was designed. As a male, I was designed to be on the opposite side of the miracle of life, not the one directly conceiving.

I'll change the question a bit: what would you do if you found out your wife was pregnant? I would be ecstatic. If it's a boy, Edward Morgan Lott V: welcome to Earth.



Those are the two rather interesting questions I received this week.  Got a questiones? Fill in the box belowes:





In other news, I recently completed my second photography assignment requiring Street Photography.  A few Saturday's ago, my photography class took a field trip to Beverly Hills, a rather peculiar and challenging street photography location.  Here are the four prints I made documenting the short lived trip to the Hills of Beverly.

In other news, I normally have a quite interesting selection of videos, but this week is lacking and I have no explanation.  My sources perhaps.  Anywho, here's one I found intriguing.  Throughout high school, I jammed on the drumline at my school and this video not only reminded me of those days, but exemplified INTERNATIONAL JAMMING.  Check it out: 





Surprisingly, this turned out longer than I had envisioned.  I guess that's a good thing, yes? More for you, more to remember, the bigger the better, yay content, straight up ballin', ugh too much--too many emotions to 'splain.  Have a good day people of the internet.  You are sitting behind a computer screen reading this, you may be at work, at school, on the subway, excited, bored, frightened--too many emotions to 'splain.

Have a good one, peeps.