New Harry Potter Poll...

If you answer the poll to your right, feel free to leave comments explaining yourself.

I chose Hermione because she is always super brilliant and most always right.  Without her, Harry, Ron and everybody would be nothing.  She is the most skilled wizard of the lot.

Leave your comments too.

Dumbledore is dead...

At least right now.  I just finished reading the sixth book and I am so sad to say that a certain person deliberately chose to kill Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.  I don't feel that I am giving away any information that isn't already world known.  I am in mourning.  It was crazy to feel an actual loss when he died.  I haven't felt that attached to characters since I read the Chronicles of Narnia back in elementary school.  

Needless to say, I think that everybody should read the Harry Potter books.  They are great.  

I am not much of a fiction reader (or much of a reader at all) but Harry Potter has helped me want to keep reading.  I have read the whole series in this one semester.  It is really good.  Read it and see how great Dumbledore is, how great Harry Potter is and how great reading is. 

30 more credits...

I met with a counselor today to talk about graduation plans, and I found out that I only have 18 credits left before I can graduate with my Media Arts degree.  Another 12 and I have got myself a minor in International Development.  

So pretty much that means 30 more credits and I am finally graduated.  Wow.  Then it is off to grad school for another long time.  

Taking out the trash...

So a little less than 4 years ago, at the end of summer 2005, the elder's quorum I was in was approached by one of it's members.

The conversation went as follows:

GUY- "So for the past few months I have been taking out the girls trash every Sunday night."

ELDERS- "Umm... Really?"

GUY- "I have done it because the girls sometimes feel lonely and sad and this shows that somebody cares for them."

ELDERS- "... "

GUY- "And I am leaving for graduate school in (insert some school I don't remember the name of here) and I am looking for your help in helping this continue."

ELDERS- "(Anxious shuffle)"

GUY- "So who is willing to help this out?"

ELDERS- "... "

GUY- "Anybody?"

ELDERS- "..."

GUY- "ANYBODY?"

ELDERS- " ... "

TRAVIS- "I guess I will do it THIS week..."

GUY- "Great! Thanks!"

So I went out that night and took out the girl's trash and it wasn't so bad.  

The next Sunday the guy asked again if somebody would do it.  Again the elders quorum silence and I volunteer again.  

This time I notice a change in myself and in the way that my week goes.  It is much nicer.

I continue to take out the girl's trash every Sunday and I continue to feel the uplift-ness that it brings to my life.  

Now it is almost 4 years later and I am still taking out the trash.  

I have involved my roommates Brian and Jesse and they help weekly now.

I have also neglected taking it out for a couple months because I want to spend that time with my wonderful girlfriend, Becky.  (though the responsibilities have been carried out by Jesse)

But, today I took the trash out again and it felt good.  It helped me feel serviceable again since it is so very easy to be selfish now.  I also was able to stop and talk to some friends that I have also neglected to talk to.  

So thanks to trash, I feel better about myself, I want to help more people, and the girl's apartments are that much more clean.  

Thanks trash.

Rain and Melancholy...

Spring is a good time.  New life, school is almost over, summer is coming, etc.  If spring is so great, why do I feel melancholy so much.  

I am not sad but right now I don't feel happy either.  

Maybe the rain will help.

So I walked into my apartment today, and it smelled like bolonga...

I am grateful that it is becoming warmer, then we can open the windows and air out our apartment.  I blame Dan and Liz.  They always make weird smells.

Polaroids and Technology

So, as we were all quite sad to find out, Polaroid film has currently stopped being made and is now super expensive (though I have heard of some interesting rumors about some company that has bought it or something). But thanks to ingenious computer dorks, the heritage of Polaroids is saved.
Now on www.poladroid.net you can download free software that will allow you to convert your existing pictures to polaroidish pictures. Lisa showed this to me last night and I love it. To show you how cool it is, and to encourage you to download the program and donate to their cause, I am posting some of my favorite pictures that have been converted using this software.

Here.

new stuff...

Stuff. We all accumulate it and we all have probably more than we need. I tend to have a great liking for stuff, judging by my surfboards, bikes, cameras, and hats. There is stuff that I just like. I have really stopped buying stuff that I don't really need a while ago when I cleared out and took inventory of all the crap that I own. Now I just buy crap that I am pretty sure that I need.

Which leads us to my latest purchase. Thanks to the government and my paying taxes in full for the past year, I am now the proud owner of a Canon EOS D20

Yeah, it is really cool. I bought it from my friend Jenica for quite a reasonable price. She is getting a new camera and needed to sell her old one so I was glad to help her out. I haven't really taken it out to shoot anything yet because I don't have a case to protect it and there is always the time issue. It has a super nice lens and is wonderful. I am soon going to not only purchase a new case for it, but also a tripod (if they are not too expensive), a CF card, a CF card reader, and also hopefully a remote so that I can do perfect time lapse shots with it. This camera will help fuel my latest ideas for projects, using stop motion to tell documentary stories, and it will be good to do more time lapse with as well.

That is the latest "stuff" that I have consumed. Now for the stuff that has been going on in my life.

I got a free lance working job that will pay about 25$ an hour this coming weekend filming an art show with my steadycam. Becky and I still like each other and are enjoying the visit from her sister, Lisa, who is wonderful and Asian.
I am excited to have new tires on my scooter, since my old ones were super worn bald, and am anticipating warmer weather and lower gas expenses.
Snowboarding class has ended but I hope to go up every so often to get my release.
The South America project that I and Christen are working towards is going to be yay or nayed this coming week, so I can finally start planning my summer (for those of you who don't know about that, I was approached by Christian to help co-direct, shoot, and help edit a TV show for BYU International where we make "Sketches" of South American artists and show culture, art, and humanity in the shows. It is a great idea that I am super excited about. If approved I would spend lots of the summer traveling to these countries and filming).
SEGO Art Center and the Downtown Provo Alliance have approached me and asked for volunteer help to make small short and simple documentaries of Provo and the culture that is coming up. This involves artists, musicians, historians, business owners, and the whole community helping reestablish downtown Provo as a hub of culture and business. I would help get this out there by participating and making videos for them that would air on a podcast that would be available and on the Provo cable TV station. Cool.
School is still going good but my development classes are taking more and more time that I don't have.
I am still playing music and Brian and I made it to the big BYU acoustic concert thing, Guitars Unplugged. That is cool since we have tried out for like 3 or 4 years and we finally made it. We didn't even have to go back to call-backs. That will be on March 20th.
I think that is it. I am also taking off music from my blog since that was nice but has become annoying and putting up a new survey. That is all.
Cheers.