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We be cr-azy. If you are a consistent follower of this blog, you will have noticed there was no post last week. Last Wednesday was rather unique. I was given the opportunity to play cajon in the main chapel for the Day of Prayer, a day devoted to prayer. A small band of us led worship for the Biola community, a concept I often take for granted. We were leading our fellow believers in worship to our omnipresent, all-loving God, the Creator of the wind, of emotion, of honesty. Absolutely incredible. Following chapel, I headed to Downtown Disney with Ms. Morgan McGannon to eat lunch with her mom and brother at the famed Rainforest Cafe. This was nothing short of a riot as we experienced Kat, uncooked chicken, and an adventure through a cave to discover the facilities. Following an incredible ice-cream cone from Häagen-Dazs, we ventured through the extravagant hotel that is the Grand Californian; the place is marvelous. After some goodbyes, I headed to Wingstop with some old pals from yesteryear: Mr. Michael Warnecke, Mr. Ben Jacuk, Mr. Ben Coulton, and Mr. Scott Gamelson. We completely obliterated a table-full of wings and felt a good amount of sickness following. Nothing but good times, soo good to chill with the dudes again, felt like freshman year. This is the crew that JAMMED at the Ashley Tisdale concert. And Black Star Canyon. And many many other adventures. Miss those days big.






A picture was taken last Wednesday though, here it is:

Now, THIS Wednesday throws everything for a loop, because it's MISSION'S CONFERENCE. Now, what's so funny and ironic is that EVERY Mission's Conference is SURROUNDED by CRAZY things. Crazy crazy stuff always tends to go down around the conferences here at Biola. Don't understand why, perhaps never will. Here's links the the last 3 years:

2012: http://emliv.blogspot.com/2012/03/paint.html
2011: http://emliv.blogspot.com/2011/03/shack.html
2010: http://emliv.blogspot.com/2010/03/patty.html

This year is no exception. It's been straight nutty over here, but it's been immensely important and growing. SO many great conversations as of late, so many great examples of God's provision through difficult circumstances, incredible circumstances, friendships, relationships, education, creativity, LIFE.

Also, one of the BIG projects this last week was the Mission's Conference Promo:



This video? Quite the wild experience. I will never for as long as live forget the experience of filming this piece of work. We chose to film it in the Tropicana pool, the pool in my former living environment, a pool that is not heated, a pool that has been sitting through the winter undisturbed. Folks, this pool was COLD. We filmed for two nights and it was absolutely frigid, even while wearing full wetsuits. It's hard to explain how cold it was and I honestly don't know why it was. The way I've described it is: the pacific ocean is really cold. But what happens is you, especially while surfing or boogie-boarding or whatever, moving around and there's lots of energy in you and your body and the air and everywhere. There is an adrenaline while in the ocean that keeps you warm. So, in the ocean, it's freezing, you numb up, and then it's a blast. In the Trop pool, there was no energy, it was at a standstill. There was no surfing, it was at a standstill. We numbed up and it HURT. It was unreal, but hey, we got the shots, and the video turned out sweet. Oh, also, it's very hard to hold your breath while under freezing water. 1 second feels like 30 seconds. And then, when you put a bed sheet over your head, the intensity grows. Filming this bad boy was a BEAST. Turned out well. Mr. Cody Ramaekers and Mr. Frank Maldonado joined me in this shenagian. It's a picture of us after we wrapped.

It was so cold. I can't get over it.




Here's some tweets from last week:

LASTLY: My good friend Mr. Patrick Greene married Ms. Alex formerly known as Casey this weekend! This was the first wedding I have attended in which a good friend has been the one exchanging vows. I've been to a lot of weddings in my day but I've never been so excited and so curious on what this wedding would be like.

Okay, I have a story (if you are Patrick or Alex or anyone else at the wedding and you didn't know about this, sorry). I received the invitation a long long time ago. I read it once, didn't look at it again. The ceremony was at 5 in the evening on the 8th of March, 2013 in Camarillo, CA. I told my date, Ms. Morgan McGannon, we would leave at 2:45pm so we would have an hour of wiggle room in case of traffic. At about 2:40pm, I go to look at the address so I could get directions. I look at the invitation: "Ceremony begins at 4 PM." 4 PM?!?! Not 5?! NOOOOO! We leave immediately because if there was absolutely no traffic, we would make it just barely. There was traffic though. A lot of it. So we pull up, walk in. The ceremony had already ended. BOO! BUT, the reception hadn't started, we arrived right in the middle, so nobody knew! Well, maybe not.

So, we missed the ceremony. The worst.

The reception though? FANTASTIC. There were so many of my high school friends there, some of which I haven't seen in four years. It was so good to catch up and relive the "glory days," seein' our bro Pat get married. Super surreal. Ms. Morgan McGannon was a dancing queen, the dance floor was poppin'. There was even a mosh pit of sorts, we were tearin' it up. Such a good night. Can't believe Pat and Alex are married, we're getting older; old, old, older.

Here's some other random events/videos:

WOW. What a post. Certainly was not expecting that. Super dig. Super dug.


Have a pleasant week. Take some time to smell the roses. They're beautiful. And they smell great.

sportz

I just got this as I was walking out the Production Center: "Going to play tennis, guy?" I wish I was.

I CAN NOT BELIEVE IT. Today is the last Wednesday of the semester. Typically, I wear the powder blue, 1984 Los Angeles Olympics suit. Today, I forgot. And it's really too bad.

So, instead, which this is pretty cool, I'm going to give the links to all the other "blue suit" days.

And this picture, straight from '08. That was a long time ago. I guess.

Here's your linkz from oldest to newest (so funny to see how writing/personality/blog/humor style have evolved):

Dec 2008: http://emliv.blogspot.com/2008/12/1984.html
Dec 2009: http://emliv.blogspot.com/2009/12/azul.html
Dec 2010: http://emliv.blogspot.com/2010/12/iron-cally.html
May 2011: http://emliv.blogspot.com/2011/05/finale.html
Dec 2011: http://emliv.blogspot.com/2011/12/blues.html

This is pretty funny too. Sub 2008, probably 2007:

As you probably can tell, I've been messing with this media-type stuff for a while.


Speaking of messing with media-type stuff, I made this this week. And there's a story behind it:


So, on Sunday, I wanted to take a quick dip in the Tropicana pool because it was really warm and the pool was literally calling my name, like, I could hear it. I own a GoPro camera that is waterproof and I hadn't tested those waters, so I decided it was time. I grabbed, I went, I jumped. I dove into the pool and something went askew. It could have been because I was holding the camera, it could have been because I'm terrible at diving; whatever the reason, I dove in and hit the square top of my head on the bottom of the pool. Didn't feel good, didn't feel pleasant. Honestly, it hurt pretty bad. But here's the thing, the SECOND I hit my head, I thought to sophomore year at Royal High School. A good friend of all of us, Mr. Tyler Broberg, was at a family reunion, having fun in a pool. Somehow, he was knocked unconscious while sliding down the water slide, flying into the pool without a soul knowing what had happened within that slide. Tyler was trapped under the water for quite some time before being noticed, drowning to his death. Tyler was genuinely (and this still holds true) one of the nicest people I have EVER met, leaving a legacy that still lasts today. And his life was cut short. When I hit my head on the bottom of the pool, I immediately remembered the drowning, the events that followed, and every emotion of me, my friends, and the families surrounding this horrific accident.

So, the video that follows is an interesting one. It is an abstract representation the joy of the pool, my friend Tyler's death in the pool, the terror of the pool, and the emergence of hope through it all.





HEAVY.



On a lighter note, last Wednesday was a good one. My good friend, Mr. Kelii Miyata, tells me about a concert featuring contestants of the television show The Voice, one of which is my new friend Mr. Pip Andrews (this is when this blog is great: this is when we met: http://emliv.blogspot.com/2012/05/maze.html).  This is an event that couldn't be missed! So I headed out to beautiful Hermosa Beach with the lovely Ms. Jess Harrell to the famed Saint Rocke to watch all these fine folks play music. There was something so great about this little concert and that is: every person singing (I believe there were about 12 that switched off, did about 2 songs a piece and rotated around) was up there TO SING. They all KILLED the vocals. Everyone was so so so solid, the vocals were loud and clear, and it was in a word: excellent.  Not to mention the so so so so solid musicians who backed up the so so so solid singers. These guys could jam like I've never seen, spillin' chord progressions, changing keys on the fly, and GROOVING the whole way through. 3 top musicians: bassist that looked like Mr. Kelii Miyata in 20 years (like, spitting image), beast of a cajon player with gnarles barkley dreads, and the drummer who put his cymbals at full arm extension + drumstick away from his kit, the dude was flying. Such a great show, such great people, such a great night.  Good to see everyone again.

Side note: Kelii and I go back, way back. Here's a video of us surprising our 2009 gradating class with a little jam...







Friends, one of my favorite bands, mewithoutYou, has just released their new record title "Ten Stories."  A year ago May 14th, mewithoutYou played at Biola (which was absolutely 100% incredible) and a year later they release this incredible incredible album. I have listened to it a few times through and the blend of old and new mwY sounds, old and new mwY styles, is SPOT ON. They killed it on this record and it is quickly going to become a classic in the world of music. Below is one of the tracks called "Fox's Dream of the Log Flume," featuring Haley Williams of Paramore; it has rather quickly become my favorite song on the album, it's been stuck in my head for DAYZ. Enjoy:







And then this commercial is just great. So clever, humorous, brilliant. But does it sell product? I don't know. I probably wouldn't buy the purple squirts.







This has been a great post, haven't had one these in a while. I hope you enjoyed it all! Every part! Every video! Every story! I hope you just enjoy this blog in general. If you don't, sorry. I just write this thing because I always have. But the whole point of writing is to entertain you, Internet user. Without you, this would just be a lonely website on the wave of millions, but you, lovely reader, make it worth it.

So thanks.



Enjoy a glass of ice cold water. It's a warm one.