now playing

One of my favorite things that i own is my record player. It is a 1980-something original Denon Record Player that my mom bought when she was a teenager. Recently she decided that she would be nice and pass down this lovely piece of her own music history. It's actually amazing that it has survived so long in my house, let alone survived in perfect condition.

With this marvelous gift, I also acquired quite a few original records from some awesome music bands of the 80's (side note: I have an obsession with 80's music despite the fact that I unfortunately, never lived in that decade). Getting the record player back to Utah was a slight inconvenience but I managed to carry it in a box on the plane and miraculously fit most of the records in my backpack. Since then, I have been building my own collection of record albums. As of now I have about 40-something records, and I have big plans for my next additions.

 This is my record player:

In case you were wondering, here is a list of some of the records I own (in no particular order):

• The Smiths- The Smiths, The Queen is Dead, Louder than Bombs, Hatful of Hollow, and Meat is Murder
• Depeche Mode- Some Great Reward and A Broken Frame
• The Cure- Boys Don't Cry (Original Release) and Faith
• Tears for Fears- Songs From the Big Chair
• The Beatles-Abbey Road and Hey Jude
• James Taylor- Rainy Day Men
• Bob Dylan- The Times They are a-Changin', Infidel, and Slow Train Coming
• Neil Young- Harvest
• Stevie Wonder- Greatest Hits
• Bob Marley and The Wailers- Legend
• Kraftwerk- The Man Machine
• The Guess Who- The Best of The Guess Who
• Michael Jackson- Thriller
• Bon Iver- For Emma Forever Ago
• The Police- Every Breathe You Take (The Singles) and Outlandos d'Amour
• Violent Femmes- Hallowed Ground
• Simon and Garfunkel- Greatest Hits and The Concert in Central Park (Live Album)
• The Clash- Black Market Crash
• R.E.M.- The One I Love (Single) and Green
• The Velvet Underground- Loaded
• Johnny Cash- Story of a Broken Heart
• George Harrison- All Things Must Come to Pass (Double Album)
• The Church- Starfish, Seance, and Remote Luxury
• Lou Reed- Rock and Roll Diary 1967-1980 (Double Album)
• Notorious B.I.G.- The Final Chapter
• John Lennon and Yoko Ono- Double Fantasy

a growing issue

Today I bring you a profound statement about American obesity. In the news today, we are hearing more and more about the increasing amount of obesity in America. Is due to poor eating habits and lack of motivation in U.S. citizens? Probably, but I believe that there is something more sinister at hand; something that may be considered the best innovation to modern day fashion. Ladies and gentleman, I blame the "Jegging."

The jegging, a hybrid between the conventional pair of "jeans" and "leggings," emerged in the fashion forward scene around the fall 2009 season. SInce it's (re)introduction to the fashion industry, it has been welcomely embraced by pant-lovers of all types. The jegging, with its functional and fashionable appeal, offers the comfort and stretch of a legging, with the look and sometimes feel of your favorite denim. It offers less bulk than the average pair of jeans and more durability than typical cotton or spandex leggings. Not to mention the ease of mobility that has been coveted for centuries. It can be dressed up or down, and is available in many different washes and fabrics. For the pant-lover, the jegging is truly the best of both worlds.

Though the jegging may appear to be your best friend, I believe it to be the most nefarious item in your closet. The reason being is this: because of the jegging's unique ability to stretch and shape to the wearer's form, the stretch also enables it to fit a variety of body sizes.  When I say a variety of body sizes, I mean you (the wearer's) different fluctuations in size. I'm talking about weight gain.

Undesirable as it is, most people experience natural changes in body weight over the course of their lifetime. This correlates with seasons, emotional states, stress, activity, etc. Before the jegging, the easiest way to tell when you were increasing in body mass (aka getting fatter) was by the way that your pants fit. The stiff shape of normal denim jeans has always been a good measure of size and they make it clear when the pants' capacity has reached its limit. Jeggings on the other hand, know no such boundaries.

Just like the world's most baggy and unsightly sweatpants, jeggings have a surprisingly large body mass capacity. They defy all laws and can grow to horrifyingly enormous sizes--just like the person wearing them. They do not give the friendly but firm reminder that you are are expanding, as normal pants do; rather, they lead you into a false sense of security, leaving you unaware that you are putting on pounds.

Everything about the jegging is misleading. It is both its greatest asset and deadliest flaw. When you first purchase a pair, you are told to buy 1-2 sizes below your normal size because of the remarkable stretch ability. From the initial meeting you are beguiled into believing that you are smaller than you actually are. This is a tragedy that must be stopped before the damage is done.

Do not allow yourself to be fooled by this seemingly miraculous clothing innovation. The jegging may seem like your best friend at first, but it will only leave you with a broken heart and perhaps, a broken scale. If you are one of the many victims claimed by the jegging, do not despair, it is not too late. There is hope and there are people to help you. Please do American obesity a favor and spread the word. Tell your friends, your neighbors and Michelle Obama if possible. The spread of the jegging must not go on.

Oh, and someone better warn Conan.

powder

Personally, I feel the winter season has few redeeming qualities. The bitter cold air and lack of sunlight just doesn't mix well with my native San Diegan way of life. The one thing I definitely enjoy about winter is the snow.  Not the snow you have to shovel on your side walk or the kind that makes you drive 10 mph all day, I'm talking about the layers of fresh snow on the mountain.

Some like to call it powder, pow-pow, or just pow. Whatever it's called, I love it. There is nothing like waking up early and heading to the ski slopes to enjoy the clean air and the blankets of fresh powder. Perfect days like these are rare and few but unforgettable. Here are some pictures from my last powder day:

 This was at Canyons Resort in February the bowl off the Ninety-Nine-ninety lift. This was my first powder day for my reverse-camber board. I will now swear by reverse camber for the rest of my life.

Don't be fooled. It wasn't cool.

This was a picture not worth taking. Here's some of that laughter at my expense:

Powder days like these make the Utah winter season bearable. Though the days this season are numbered but I hope to see a few like this more before the season ends.

accepted

Officially accepted into the BYU BUSINESS SCHOOL.

Best news I've heard in a long time. Life can now continue as planned.

I am blessed.

prayers for japan

This is an eye-witness account from the New York Times Japan Tsunami Highlights:


"I was on the 9th (top) floor of recently built, thin (30' square) and very flexible apartment building in Sumida, Tokyo. Living here has been a little unsettling as even small vibrations -- a large truck passing by, for example -- tend to set the structure quivering. Now I appreciate its amazing engineering. It flexed and bounced like an airliner in turbulence.

The shaking went on for so long that I had ample time to get up, put my shoes on and go out onto the emergency stairs. The neighborhood -- largely 3-15 story buildings -- looked like a set of children's blocks teetering on a shaken table. It looked more dreamlike than scary. Each building is topped with a lightning rod; they became metronomes swaying in competing directions. Old women moved to the middle of the street and stood motionless, looking at each other. After what must have been 2 or 3 minutes, the neighborhood public address system came online with a cheerful, slightly inappropriate recorded message: "This is Sumida City. Just now, a large earthquake happened. Please be careful."

It was only when I turned on the television and saw live footage of a tsunami closing in on cars driving down the road that I understood the severity of what happened.

Three hours later, things continue to rock every few minutes."

Andrew, Tokyo

March 11th, 2011

4:30 am

My prayers are with the people of Japan and all those who are affected by the Earthquake and Tsunami.  

a random thought

Is it strange that I find something profoundly religious in Ayn Rand's theories? She is the ultimate capitalist, devout atheist, the mother of objectivism, and possibly my favorite writer of all-time.

"Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values."

— AYN RAND

Lykke Li | Until We Bleed

good morning

just something to start the daily routine.

Daily Routine (Phaseone Remix) - Animal Collective

time capsule

Update. I'm applying to the Marriott School of Business this week (yeah I know, finally). For the application, I have to write an essay. This made me think of the essay I had to write for my original application for BYU. Amazingly enough, I discovered that from the BYU admissions site, I could still access the essay that I submitted as 17-year-old in high school.

And so I stumbled upon my very own virtual time capsule. Unlike the plastic tupperware containers with "treasures" that my siblings and I buried in our back yard long ago, this one survived erosion and the work of many landscape contractors. It's funny that these 500 words played a role in my acceptance into BYU and eventually led to where I am today. After reading over it, I laughed at how much I've grown in the last three years. For entertainment purposes (maybe just my own) here is that essay:

        I wake up to the soft taping of rain outside my window, each drop falling to its end against the glass pane.  This changes the plans for this weekend’s soccer tournament. I get up and find myself in a house full of people and love.  I think about our future and wonder where we will all be.  I know that some of us will not be here anymore, and the family I have grown so accustomed to will never be the same.  I look into the faces of my younger siblings and I see anticipation and hopefulness, yet they are worried that the rain will affect their day.  Determined to make the best of our day together, I grab them by the hand and take them out to play in the puddles of our dirt yard.  I laugh as I watch them run and sing, carefree of the bitter cold and irreversible stains to come. 

        What makes me unique is not in fact my various accomplishments.  Yes, I have excelled academically since grades became part of my life at school.  Yes, I have served my community to the best of my ability through the help of my church; and yes, I choose to challenge myself and try hard in everything I do.  However, what define me are the simple things that most take for granted.  I value the love from my family, the strength from my faith, and the spirit in which I greet the problems of life.  The simple things are the irreplaceable ones and the things I have overcome are those that define me.  So, with my head held high and my loved ones in tow, I greet the day with nothing but high hopes.  After all, life is not about waiting for the storm to pass.  It is about learning to dance in the rain.

I guess I have to appreciate my 17-year-old self. Believe it or not, sometimes I forget what it's like to be young and naive, and yet so stubbornly determined. By no means am I suggesting that I am no longer these things, nor that I have peaked in my maturity (that's a scary thought), but I can't help but feel nostalgic toward that age and the ages before then. I clearly remember the years of having dirt backyards after moving into newly-contructed houses. These were the days when it was okay to have a mountain bike trail that circled your house, one that you could ride through at top speeds because there wasn't anything to ruin yet. I have to appreciate what it was like to have a place to call home and a family who I was able to see everyday.

It's remarkable that so much can change since the time that I wrote these words-- so much, and so little at the same time. I am grateful for the chance to be reminded of the 17-year-old me, the person that lived for the little things and the person that couldn't wait for it to rain in the winter so we could sneak on the golf course and go "mud-sliding."

In many ways I am still exactly this person. I am still the Lauren that is more likely to end up climbing a fence/tree/rooftop or playing soccer in her nicest dress than inside watching TV or some type of chick flick (is that what people do?). I am still very much the Lauren that sometimes prefers books to people and sometimes contemplates Einstein's theory of relativity before going to bed. Sadly enough, I still find that my interests are more similar to those of a 14-year-old boy than a 20 year-old-girl in college.

I can say however, that in the years passed, I have gained a monumental amount of experience and perspective. Fortunately, I have always been blessed with a proclivity for good judgment, but I shouldn't be so quick to forget the person that allowed me to become who I am today. So. Here's to the little milestones like finally making it to the adult age of 18. And now here's to still having to borrow someone else's i.d. for any worthwhile concert because I'm still underage as a junior in college. Hmmm, I guess not that much has changed after all.

"I don’t want to repeat my innocence. I want the pleasure of losing it again."

THIS SIDE OF PARADISE, F. SCOTT FITZGERALD 

The Naked & Famous "Young Blood"

don't look, then leap

Admittedly, I am failing miserably at my goal of becoming a better blogger. What can I say though? I'm a college student that has hundreds of things I should be doing and thousands of things that I'd rather do instead. Yeah, surprise surprise.

This semester however, is the first time in a very long time that I have been able to "focus only on school" which, for better or for worse, has been quite the change. Last semester, I found myself working 40+ hours a week in Salt Lake which required the 2 hour roundtrip commute time. Let's just say working and going to school full-time while i was also supposed to be semi-managing a club was less than ideal. It went like this:

You have these options:
- work
- school
- social life
- sleep

Now pick two.

Well, I can say one thing for sure, sleep was always the first option eliminated and work was an obligation that I couldn't just opt out of. I wish I could say that I chose wisely with what was left but, that would be a lie.

So. I quit my job. Despite the fact that I heavily depended on the income, I took a giant (blind) leap of faith and now, here I am--with rapidly diminishing funds and a new found love for school. Without a doubt, I made the right choice. I just hope that sooner or later, i will grab hold of something in the form of a concrete plan for a secure future and thus end the leap of faith that is starting to make my stomach turn.

Am I worried? No. Should I be? Probably, but there's something enjoyable about living in the uncertainty and relative chaos that I have come to know as my life.

"But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin."  

-BRAVE NEW WORLD, ALDOUS HUXLEY

blah blah blogging.

Okay. Being new to the blogging scene, I am starting to participate in the act of perusing/stalking people's personal web material. One thing I've discovered: 90% percent of it is completely awful. By awful I mean bland, mediocre, poor in taste, and just plain boring. But really, most of it is pointless garble that the writer's own mother would struggle reading without inducing a small coma. Twitter's 140 character limit has never seemed more genius. I hereby commit to making this blog at least mildly interesting (that's all I can promise right now). For the sake of the poor soul who has to grade these entries and my own dignity, I am going to re-vamp this pitiful blog.

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all."   

-OSCAR WILDE

#nowplaying the smiths- big mouth strikes again

speaking (in parenthesis)

For this week's blog entry we were told to write about our favorite punctuation mark. Mine is the parenthesis.

Granted, I probably use the parenthesis wrong 99 percent of the time but it's definitely a personal favorite. I like it because it mimics my own style of thinking (which is sporadic and full of random information). It allows to make a statement and give supporting information in the same sentence. Even better, it allows me to clarify and explain inside the parameters of an ordinary sentence (which can often be boring). The parentheses are the best friend of an ADD kid (like me). When my thoughts drift and stray like a lost boat out at sea (which is all the time), the parentheses are the only thing that anchor me the topic's relevance. My use of them may or may not be slightly unorthodox, but for better or for worse (probably for worse), I use them in my personal writing. Thanks to parentheses my writing is much more (un)clear.

#nowplaying the cults- go outside

back to real life

“No man needs a vacation so much as the man who just had one.” -Elbert Hubbard

Well if you didn't know, I'm back. Back to the mid-west and back to real life which entails many dull and mundane things like school and responsibility. 

The East Coast on the other hand, proved to be nothing short of fantastic. Call me a traitor to my west coast roots, but I couldn't help but love it. Yes, it was cold but I loved every second of my visit there. This is says a lot, considering I am a San Diego kid that is used to 365 days of mild and usually warm weather. However, you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at me. My pasty white Utah skin and incredible talent for having red eyes in any picture that involves a flash was the running joke of the week. Though the word at Sundance this year is that they were casting for the fourth twilight movie and I'm seriously considering gracing Hollywood with my natural talent.

Anyways, here are some personal favorites from the trip:

We mastered self-timer on the camera. It's okay to be impressed.

I was told the best way to see the city was on a bicycle.  Our ability to squeeze past the police barricades in front of the White House is proof.

We practiced the art of modeling. This is "Akimbo Arms" in rare form. Yes, Tyra would be proud.

If you've never been to the Burger Joint in N.Y.C., then I highly recommend it. Not only is the food amazing, the experience of walking inside a four star hotel to the hidden entrance to this place is well worth it.  

This was one of my better vampire pictures (thank goodness for red-eye removal) but the Museum of Modern Art in N.Y.C is free on Friday afternoons. You might have to elbow your way past a slew of artsy hipsters and choke on the smell of teen spirit but this place is also well worth the visit.

(p.s. new buzzband/crystal castles album cover?)

Anyways, I think it's time to start planning my next vacation.

#nowplaying the notorious xx mixtape (aka biggie & the xx mashup album)

Good news. I made it out of Provo. After spending ten hours of travel (including the five hour lay over at the JFK airport), I finally arrived in Washington, D.C.  Within minutes, it was officially one of the best places I have ever seen. There are TREES. I mean real trees, not the small saplings that are imported into every new master-plan community in Southern California. The trees here are enormous and some, despite the fact that it's the middle of January, still have their leaves. I cannot wait to spend more time in the city and then later in New York City.

This Martin Luther King Day weekend has been nothing short of amazing. This weekend's adventures have taken me to a small place called Deep Creek, Maryland where each morning I wake up in a perfect winter wonderland. Thanks to the kindness and hospitality of the Gerard family, I am staying in a cozy cabin on a lake and enjoying every minute of it. Here's to lazy sundays with some pretty cool kids that love spending all day in their monster and moose pj's.

#nowplaying mgmt- kids

Blogging Enforced

After I thought it would be semi-comical to start a blog, I found out in my new M Comm class that I would in fact, be required to keep a blog throughout the semester. I guess the joke's on me.

So, being the entry-level blogger that I am, I will update you, my readers (assuming I have any), on some things I am looking forward to. In no particular order, they are:

1. My trip to Washington D.C. this week. I'm taking a red-eye flight on Thursday and spending the next ten days seeing everything there is to see in D.C. and New York City. It's pretty much a dream come true.

2. My new snowboard. A few days ago my brand new Capita Space Metal Fantasy board came in the mail. The name, Space Metal Fantasy, is fitting for the graphics, though it reminds me more of a cross between a David Bowie film and a La Roux music Video. Needless to say, it changed my life.

3. My class schedule/school in general. No, this is not the apocalypse, but yes, I am secretly looking forward to my new classes. It probably helps that I recently quit my full time job so that I could focus on school. I no longer have to make the hour drive to and from work everyday and attempting to watch accounting lessons on my laptop in the lunch room.

Anyways, 2011 is shaping up to be better than I could have ever imagined. I am blessed.

the beginning

This particular January 1st is the start of many new things. It's the start of the year 2011, the start of new years resolutions, and the start of my blog. Don't be fooled though. I don't blog, but, like an entry level chain-smoker approaching their first cigarette, I think I'll try it out. Welcome to twenty eleven.

Happy New Year.