Daloyvid Updates

Focus in

2011-09-28T19:30:00.000-06:00

I've been having some thoughts lately, about my career goals. I've been doing something that college students do--jump from one major to another without really choosing one. I'm doing this with my skillset. I know some will say that it's nice to be a "jack-of-all-trades," but actually trying to become so makes you just that, a jack. First, people don't take you too seriously, and second, you waste a lot of time bouncing from one skillset to the next. Meanwhile, your peers become ever more qualified, marketable, smarter, etc. in their chosen field.

Everyone knows the that "guy" in every company who does everything. He'll design, write code, manage the server, do email marketing, online marketing. This guy is the "super soldier," and though he may be pretty good at most of those things, he'll inevitably fall behind in one or more areas. That "guy" was me at one company and in some respects, it was nice. I had people coming to me from every department asking me to do such and such.

It's time to focus. It's time to become a guru. That doesn't mean I'll leave my interest in other areas behind, I'll just have to turn them into hobbies.

Now for the hard part... deciding what I'm going to do. I'll get back to you on that.

... and this is me atop San Marino. The End.

What United Airlines Should Have Done

2011-06-09T22:28:00.001-06:00

As we were looking at flights today, naturally, we noticed some flights by United Airlines. The first thing that came to my head was the catchy tune, "United breaks Guitars." Indeed, I doubt we'll ever fly with United--and I wonder how many potential customers share our opinion.

United failed in many respects. I learned that they eventually replaced Dave Carroll's Taylor Guitar. But how many people know that? Most only know his side of the story--the side that says that United Airlines breaks guitars.

How much money has United Airlines lost because of a youtube video? I wouldn't be surprised if that video has cost United millions of dollars.

Obviously, you can't put lipstick on a pig

First things first, United should have never broken the guitar. Second, United should have reimbursed Dave's money for the broken guitar after the first call. These are simple actions that could have saved the company lots of grief.

Had I been in charge of PR, this is what I would have done

The day is July 6, 2009. Dave Carroll has just posted his video to Youtube and I notice that it's getting social media traction.

First, I pick up the phone and call Dave. I offer him the deepest apologies I can muster and immediately offer to buy him a new Taylor guitar.

Then I offer Dave a free roundtrip flight to any vacation destination.

I also publicly apologize to Dave on United's Twitter account. I begin having meetings to get an outside consulting firm to help us improve customer service. I also meet about the baggage crew and how loading and unloading can be improved.

I publicly post that I'm performing these actions on the company blog. I even create a catchy infographic that shows how we're changing our baggage handling processes. I say "We're sorry, and we're fixing it."

If it makes sense, I ask him to visit the United Airlines headquarters in Chicago (a free flight to Chicago included, of course) and perform for the Chicago staff. I also offer to pay him somewhere around $20,000 to do the concert.

If he says yes and comes to Chicago, I then get an events team and a video team together. We shoot the entire concert and any conversations Dave has with the staff.

That video goes on Youtube. I tweet the video from United's twitter account.

Come to Salt Lake City, Mozcation!

2011-05-21T13:11:00.000-06:00

Let me tell you a few reasons why Mozcation should come to Salt Lake City:

Salt Lake City houses some very large Search Marketing companies: BlueGlass, Adobe (Omniture), SEO.com, MWI, 97th Floor.
Utah is a hotbed of smart people. With two world class universities (Univ. of Utah and Brigham Young Univ.) within a short distance of each other, the SLC area is full of many technology/marketing geniuses. Because of a lower cost of living in Utah, many large technology companies have moved offices and even headquarters to Utah: Microsoft, HP, Adobe, Mozy, Ancestry.com, Overstock.com.
Salt Lake City is the home of the urban outdoorsmen (and women). Because SLC is so close to the mountains it attracts people who seek a culturally diverse, urban home, coupled with the freedom of enjoying the outdoors. Activities within 30 minutes of downtown SLC include rock climbing, mountain biking, fishing, hiking, etc. I'm under the impression that many of you SEOMozzers love the dual lifestyle.
SEOMoz's SEO tools (there, I gave you a decent link) are loved by the SEO community in Utah.

The Core Beliefs of an Ad Agency

2011-05-07T21:10:00.001-06:00

We believe that art is the secret weapon of great business. It is what makes the deaf suddenly hear, what make the blind see. Notice, however that we are interested in making art that serves capitalism. We like keeping score. We like to win. We like the clarity of it. In the end, art combined with business is bigger art. Business combined with art is bigger business.

This was some copy I found on Goodby Silverstein & Partners' Website (not a very usability friendly website, I might add).

I like what they're saying here but I'm not so sure about the equation, "art + business = bigger art." Perhaps if the meaning of "bigger" is defined as "more accessible," I can see how business advertising can achieve this. I would assume that more of the world's population has seen the corporate artwork of Coca Cola and Disney than of Da Vinci's "Last Supper." However, if bigger is supposed to mean better, or more inspiring, well, then they are way off base.

The last sentence just makes me happy. I went into advertising because I love art and design, but I still wanted to make a decent living (not that one can't make a great living working purely as an artist, but I believe it's much more difficult to do so). Can you imagine a world in which business lacked art? It would be like living in a Communist community where all the architecture is stale and synonymous. Thank goodness for capitalism and that it rewards the artistic.

What did you think about the quote, "art combined with business is bigger art"?

If Microsoft really wanted to come back, Steve Ballmer needs to go

2011-04-21T11:25:00.000-06:00

Microsoft stock price in the last 5 years:
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=MSFT+Interactive#symbol=msft;range=5y;compare=;indicator=volume;charttype=area;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=;

Time to buy a Mac for a Designer

2011-03-30T22:03:00.000-06:00

I'm finally making the jump from a PC to a Mac. The deciding factor? Money.

I'm a designer with a lot of focus on user experience. You may wonder why I haven't been using a mac all along. Well, Macs are expensive and I've always had a PC. I remember when my dad brought home our first real PC. It was a Dell and the computer box was almost the size of a microwave. Hard drive space? A whopping 4GB. Since then, I've built my own PCs--always getting a nice CPU with extra RAM.

Do I have any affinity for Microsoft? Not a shred. In fact, I've decided that Microsoft's pathetic excuse for a browser, Internet Explorer, is my mortal enemy. I will rejoice on the day that IE officially loses the dominant market share, and I will sing the "Hallelujah" chorus when IE officially dies...

I think a designer can get by on a PC, but a Mac just makes life so much easier--Faster, simpler functionality and interface; no sudden system crashes; no endless system upgrades; and the list goes on. Most importantly, with a Mac, I won't get the awkward looks from people who learned that I was a designer on a PC.

Macs are sleek, beautiful pieces of engineering finesse and artistic design combined into one. It's no wonder that Apple can ask a pretty penny for its products. Because it's Apple.

No Humanity in the Chinese Government, I Could Not Refrain from Posting this

2010-10-08T18:28:00.000-06:00

In lieu of the recent Nobel Peace Prize granting to Liu Xiaobo, I did a little more reading about the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The cowardly, corrupt Chinese government will pay for it's crimes against innocent people.

I feel for the Chinese people in their oppressed state. I cannot sit idly and watch a corrupt government of more than a billion people oppress and abuse it's citizens. However, I don't know what I can do to help the Chinese gain freedom. Hence this post. Watch the video below:

The key to freedom for the Chinese people will be information penetration. There must be some creative way, with the technology of our day to penetrate the Chinese firewalls and keyword blocks.

Chrome is just fast

2010-09-22T03:34:00.000-06:00

That's my reply to people who ask why I use Chrome. It's faster than any browser I've used, despite what folks say about Safari.

In fact, it's light years faster than Firefox on my laptop. When I go to type something in the URL box and realize I'm in Firefox, I will copy and paste what I've already typed and enter it in Chrome. That's how much faster Chrome is to me... Fast enough that I'll switch browsers in the middle of my query.

Now, you may be asking why I still use Firefox. One reason: Firebug. Sadly, I can't fully give up Firefox until a better version of Firebug (should it Chromebug?) is developed for Chrome.

Inception

2010-08-03T14:10:00.001-06:00

Powerful piece of music. Minimalistic--simple melody.

Converting Local time to Unix Timestamp in Javascript

2010-07-26T17:06:00.001-06:00

After some thought, I finally was able to come up with a javascript solution to convert the local time to a Unix timestamp.

Basically I used a few main Javascript functions: getTime(), getTimezoneOffset()

The first function (getTime) will convert the time we get from the Date() function, into a UNIX stamp. Unfortunately, when we convert this string, we won't get the local time, but the main UTC.

This is where I had to use getTimezoneOffset(). This function finds out the difference in minutes between the main UTC and your local time zone. I'm going to use the number I get from getTimezoneOffset and subtract it from the UNIX timestamp number I created. But getTimezoneOffset() is in minutes, so we'll have to convert it to the data type of the UNIX timestamp, which is milliseconds. Thus, we'll have to multiply it by 60,000 (60 seconds in a minute, and 1000 milliseconds in a second).

Below is the code I finally used (put this in a script tag):

var theDate = new Date();
var theTime = theDate.getTime();
var localMil = theDate.getTimezoneOffset()*60*1000;
document.write((theTime-localMil));

Race, Gender, Class in the media - How to teach your kids to realize the stereotypes

2010-07-14T04:00:00.000-06:00

For my class in Gender, Race, Class in the media, we studied some of the psychological theories behind learning and socialization. As part of our group project, we presented a research paper concerning proper techniques for helping children to be aware of negative stereotypes and how to utilize positive ones.

Jacob Rascon, a member of our group, wrote an editorial about the issues behind many children's animated films, such as Lion King, Cinderella, and Aladdin.

I was fortunate enough to design the editorial for an 11x17 layout:

The Lion King, Disney Princesses, and Rising Above Negative Media Messages
By Jacob Rascon

Remember ‘the circle of life’ in The Lion King? What was that all about? Lions are at the top of the food chain and are therefore naturally better than all other animals—especially hyenas, who deserve their poor circumstance?

That doesn’t sound like the Disney I used to know. Remember when Princess Ariel gave up her voice? Why did she sacrifice that plus everything she’d ever known for a prince she’d never met? Not sure, but hey, she kept her looks...

Read More

Advertising for Queen Elizabeth I

2010-07-13T22:04:00.001-06:00

After a little bit of work, we came up with this:

Text:
Why Queen Bess?

Her Highness Will

Improve England's Industry and Trade
Victoriously stop the war with France
Promote the Arts

How to deal with Millenials in the Workplace

2010-06-26T21:01:00.000-06:00

Many companies are already getting a head start on learning to understand and take advantage of a Millenial workforce by hiring consultants or attending management seminars. Extensive research has already been done on Generation Y--they've learned about their habits, values, and interests. In this section we'll discuss what companies are doing now to (1) recruit Millenial employees, and (2) handle some of the management issues associated with Millenial employees.

Recruiting

As Baby Boomers retire, the numbers of people working will drastically decrease. The American Society of Training and Development says that in the next 20 years 76 million Americans will retire with only 46 million to replace them. With this downward trend, companies who want talented employees will have to work harder to find them.

Some companies have already resorted to non-traditional recruiting slogans, such as Xerox's "Express Yourself." The campaign is geared around one of Generation Y's core values--to "develop solutions and change" (Armour, 2005). Because of the campaign, Xerox has been able to recruit top talent from the Millenial pool. Other companies are using different methods like leveraging their workplace diversity. "Gen Y is one of the most diverse demographic groups — one out of three is a minority" (Armour, 2005).

Some companies, such as Abbott Laboratories in Chicago, are going above and beyond to hook Millenial recruits by "telling them about company benefits such as flexible work schedules, telecommuting, full tuition reimbursement and an online mentoring tool" (Armour, 2005).

In the Workplace

As was stated earlier, Millenials don't make their jobs the most important part of their lives. They seek after flexible schedules and fun activities. Along with many other internet companies, Zappos.com has taken a new approach to the office environment. In order to break up the sometimes monotonous workdays, Zappos has included interesting games and parties. Correspondent Morley Safer from CBS spoke of Zappos' office this way: "Actual work, actually happens, despite goofy parades, snoozing in the nap room, and plenty of happy hours" (Textor, 2007).

Because of the sense of entitlement that exists in the Millenial demographic, Millenials aren't afraid to question authority and voice their opinions. Parents of Millenials have treated their children more as friends and thus Millenials dislike some traditional corporate formalities in the workplace. In order to provide better atmospheres for Millenial employees, many managers are allowing first-name correspondence. Some managers have even resorted to embarrassing activities in order to gain the trust of their subordinates. Motivational consultant Bob Nelson said, "I've worked with managers that have, if we make this goal, they'll shave their head type thing; or they'll be in the dunk tank at the summer picnic. When a senior manager's willing to do that is, it says we're all in it together" (Textor, 2007).

Growing up with no winners or losers, Millenials have difficulties with criticism--especially during performance reviews. Furthermore, Millenials need a lot of praise to keep motivated. One ad agency, Campbell Mithun, has employees complete self-appraisals before supervisors get a chance to interview employees on performance. Campbell Mithun's executive vice president of human resources, K.C. Foley said, "This way, our supervisors can give recognition and provide specific feedback to millenials, as well as have an easier time reaffirming or expanding on growth areas. There are fewer surprises this way" (Stillman, 2006).

Another management issue plaguing employers is how Millenials often change jobs because of boredom. Millenials are steroidal multitaskers. A typical Millenial may have the ability to check email, text, read the latest news, chat with a coworker, and perform the work he or she is paid to do all at the same time. Routine tasks often result in more multitasking behaviors and eventually job changes. Some companies have used stricter technology usage policies but this usually produces negative results with Millenials. One company, Ecolab, found that offering "extra-curricular" work activities for its employees helped to break up routine work. Kris Taylor, director of community and public relations at Ecolab said, "Where some may be overwhelmed to sign up for one more project on their to-do list, we found that millenials jumped at the opportunity to get involved in a special project and were more engaged and excited because they were asked to participate" (Stillman, 2006).

Sources:

Armour, S. (2005, November 8). Generation Y: They've arrived at work with a new attitude. USA Today. Retreived from http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2005-11-06-gen-y_x.htm

Stillman, D., & Lancaster, L. (2006, June). Here Come the Millennials. Twin Cities Business. Retrieved from http://www.tcbmag.com/industriestrends/feature/71261p3.aspx

Textor, K. (Producer). (2007, November 11). The "Millennials" Are Coming [ Television broadcast]. New York, NY: Central Broadcasting Service. Retreived from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/08/60minutes/main3475200.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

Is Star Wars Racist?

2010-06-14T03:11:00.000-06:00

This essay was written as a discussion of the existence of racial stereotypes and critical cultural theory in Star Wars. Feel free to leave me a comment. I'm open to debate and comments.

Ideologies, Connotations, and Polysemy in Star Wars: How to deal with race in space

One cannot deny the existence of dominant ideologies inherent in Star Wars. George Lucas' study of archetypes and his world views contributed to the film.

Star Wars clearly denotes an epic science-fiction film. Many light viewers of the films probably only see it, consciously, as such. Connotatively, the film has many meanings. From the viewpoint of this paper discussing race, we see such connotations as who a hero is and who he must become. How must this hero be mentored and by whom? Star Wars also connotates the meanings of good and evil--that there are even specific colors that signify good and evil: white and black. The film also messages about the existence of minorities, or aliens—how they are viewed and what their roles are as either dangerous encounters in our hero's journey or as assistants in helping our hero succeed.

In the original star wars films minorities have very sparse roles. The dominant roles are taken by Caucasians: Luke, Han Solo, Obi Wan Kenobi, Leia, and Darth Vader. Luke is mentored by Obi Wan, who acts as a patriarchal figure. Obi Wan has great wisdom, greater than that of Darth Vader and Luke learns to trust Obi Wan.

The dominant reading from the Star Wars saga speaks of ethical rebellion—that one must stand against immoral rule. Luke epitomizes the archetypal hero who goes from being an ignorant farm boy to a wise and skilled warrior for good. In the story, he and the Rebels stand against all odds in their fight for truth and freedom. Because they fight for good, they ultimately triumph. This notion of the oppressed revolutionizing is the backbone of early American thought.

Another dominant reading is that basic Jedi principles of self-control, consistent training, and a motivation for good, are the preferred principles that can make one become “good” and a hero.

As all artifacts contain potentially infinite interpretations, Star Wars is no different. Synchronic polysemy exists as different audiences view the film. Those of Christian backgrounds idolize the righteous qualities of the Jedi and the Rebels. Protestant faiths apply the protestant, rebellious for good nature of the film to their own faiths. Conversely, those of eastern religions might see the films as mirrors of buddhism, hinduism, and shinto. The spiritualism of some of these eastern religions appear in Star Wars, such as the spirits of the past who frequently visit Luke to offer him counsel. There is no supreme being in Star Wars. Those who die are melded into the Force, which acts as an energy field guiding and moving through all life.

Those of other races will also view the films differently. Anyone who is a minority might see a dominant oppression that exists in the films as well as in society. Minority racial groups will develop resistant readings of Star Wars:

One can start in a lowly state and achieve greatness only if that person is a white male. Luke becomes the greatest Jedi master in the galaxy while any minority groups, such as aliens and droids retain their roles as supporters of the hero.

It is implied that minority groups are unintelligent, misfits of society, and criminals. For example, Jabba’s lair represents the ghettos of the Star Wars world. His lair, prinicipally made up of aliens, is filled with criminals running from the law, prostitutes, and drug dealers. Another example is the signification of the noble savage in the ewoks. These side-role characters are technologically and religiously primitive and their principal purpose in the film is to suppor the main characters.

In the scheme of power structures, “whiteness” is superior to all other cultures. This is apparent in the differences between the dark side and good side of the force. Sith Lords are always dressed in black. Any scenes set inside the imperial vessels use primarily dark grays while the Rebel vessels are white. This black vs. white evidence is most notable by Darth Vadar. Vadar, who dresses in black, has an African-American voice (James Earl Jones). Only at the end when he becomes “good” and Luke removes his mask, do we see his true appearance as a white male.

Note: It is safe to assume that supposed elements of racism in Star Wars were not deliberate on the part of George Lucas. However, our environment affects what we produce. In this way, the surrounding culture during the 1970's dominated the dominant ideologies in Star Wars.

3 Morning Tips to Give Yourself a Delightful Day

2010-06-05T05:06:00.000-06:00

While I was in a meeting this morning, @danbischoff related some very wise counsel. He said he'd been thinking about it when he arose for the day. He spoke of the 3 most important things to do in the morning in order to start the day off right and make it a good day:

Wake up naturally or to music: If you practice going to bed and waking up at a set time consistently, you'll be able to wake up naturally

Don't look in the mirror: When you look at yourself in the mirror, most likely you'll think you're ugly. Just don't let that kind of negativity in by not looking in the mirror.

Make your first correspondence positive: Whether it's your spouse, roommate, or a driver on the road, make sure you smile and say something nice.

Understanding each other's time perspective

2010-06-03T03:02:00.000-06:00

This lecture really stood out to me. Perhaps my time perspective differs greatly from others.

Professor Phillip Zimbardo talks about different time perspectives (there are 6 different ones): Positive and Negative Past, Present Hedonistic, Future oriented, etc.

Suicides Among Euro Disney (Disneyland Paris) Cast Members

2010-05-21T07:55:00.003-06:00

In mid-April, Franck, a Euro Disney Chef, committed suicide. As one might be expect from a company with such a family-friendly image to uphold, the news of the suicide was quite controversial. As one blogger noted, “The image of chain-smoking, suicidal Frenchmen may not be quite the image Disney is going for at the Magic Kingdom” (Turley, 2010). Furthermore, this suicide is one of three that have already occurred this year among Euro Disney employees--two of them chefs. The other chef committed suicide by throwing “himself in front of a train after working in conditions which a trade union spokesman called ‘humiliating’ (Roussel, 2010).

Franck committed suicide on the day he was to return to work after a period of sick leave. Ten days after the suicide, a note was found in his home reading, “Je ne veux pas retourner chez Mickey” (I don't want to work for Mickey any more) (Lichfield, 2010). The note only added fuel to the controversy as many earlier voices had already pointed fingers at Euro Disney in causing the suicides.

These suicide incidents have been compared to last year's suicides among France Telecom's employees (Souchard, 2010). In 2008 and 2009, France Telecom dealt with 35 employee suicides and 14 of those are “considered directly linked with the company's managerial techniques – such as pressuring employees to change jobs or giving them work the employees considered ‘devaluing’” (Hall, 2010).

Many workers unions have taken the recent suicide as opportunities to pursue better working conditions for employees. Fortunately for Disney, all but one of the unions, Force Ouvrière (FO), agreed to cooperate on a "social audit" of the parks to assess needed improvements in working conditions. FO would not make any compromises and continue to pursue its own agenda. While passionately condemning Disney for the most recent suicide, the FO website read, “I remain convinced that the tragedy that has happened could have been avoided” (Mboe, 2010). The other unions have condemned FO for "exploiting" (Lichfield, 2010) the sensitive suicide incident.

Euro Disney believes the suicides were not direct results of employment conditions at the resort. Jeff Archambault, vice president of communications for Euro Disney stated, “We do not accept that either of these tragic events [the suicides] can be directly linked to Disneyland, Paris. But we do recognise that, with the financial crisis, all of us are under increased stress. At home. At work” (Lichfield, 2010).

While many have pointed fingers at Euro Disney’s working conditions as the cause of the suicides, Disney has been working in accordance with French law. According to one report, Disney’s employment practices had been certified a day before one of the deaths (Frost, 2010). Just after the suicide, Euro Disney issued a press release detailing the company's long- and short-term actionable plans to pursue better psychological and physical health among its employees. The press release also mentioned that the company would analyze current working conditions among its employees--the so-called “social audit” (Manologlou, 2010)

Many have speculated about the effects the suicides and their subsequent press coverage have had on Euro Disney. On a recent poll by About.com, 48% of respondents said the incidents weren't cause for forming negative opinions about the park. These respondents concluded that with such tragedies, specific causes are difficult to pinpoint and that “many workplaces are stressful” (Traub, 2010).

And yet, it seems that French public opinion still holds a bad taste for Disney. Consequently, many Disney employees have been led to find relationships between the poor working conditions and the suicides. One Euro Disney employees, Herve Saumade, a maintenance worker, said, “What we sell is something wonderful. We sell smiles. We sell the happiness of children. We all love our jobs, or what our jobs represent. But in the last few years, there has been a new management approach, which has, in many cases, made our working lives intolerable” (Lichfield, 2010). The FO also accused Euro Disney of a poor management structure that led to too few employees for too much work.

Employee suicides linked to poor work environments conjure many questions to be considered. First, what was the cause of the tragedies? As suicide is such a complex and individual issue, the exact causes will probably remain unknown.

In the case with the France Telecom suicides, after thousands of layoffs, remaining employees became de-motivated or depressed because their job security had decreased. These employees also had to increase their workloads in order to make up for a smaller workforce.

In a May 2010 report issued by Euro Disney, attendance dropped along with revenue while costs remained the same (Manologlou, 2010). Clearly, the current global economic crisis has affected Euro Disney. But an economic crisis will put a great deal of strain on any business. However, when these economic crises arise, how should a company like Euro Disney handle cost-cutting measures like layoffs, higher workloads, and fewer employee benefits and resources? If circumstances allow, this might be the time for a company to cash out its reserves (if it has any) and spend more in order to keep employees and continued benefits. This is not only good for operations, but also good public relations. Perhaps, Euro Disney needs to rely on the revenue of the other Disney parks during poor economic crises situated in Europe.

This may also be an issue of cross-cultural management styles. Historically, the French have never been wholly gleeful about a Disneyland Paris. In 1992, when the park was first opened, many called it “a cultural Chernobyl” (Corliss, 1992). American Disney executives need to understand the cultural differences of the French working styles. They need to be prepared to accommodate their French employees in ways that respect their culture while still upholding Disney core values. In short, an understanding of culture needs to be reached and compromises to the current system must be made.

While two of the suicides were committed by chefs, perhaps a detailed audit needs to be taken of the food department. Is there a manager in the food department who is running his or her employees into the ground? The said manager may be younger and less experienced than some of the other staff, while the employees who committed suicide were fairly seasoned employees. Many of the unions claimed that in the last six years, a younger management has taken over in the park (Lichfield, 2010).

After the social audit, when and if Disney decides to restructure policies and organization, I would submit that better motivation factors need to be put into place for employees. Promotions need to be made to employees who have worked at the park for long periods of time.

Giving the chefs in the food department more recognition might also help to stem problems of depression and job dissatisfaction. One idea might be to allow the chefs to greet and eat with guests during meal character greetings. Another idea would be to reward chefs who perform admirably the opportunities to create new items for the menu at their respective in-park restaurants.

On a more general, park-wide level, management should allow employees the opportunities to perform more diverse roles, thus breaking up the monotony. An employee who works as a ride operator in the morning, might enjoy the experience of waiting and greeting guests at a restaurant in the evening. Maybe an employee in custodial might be given the opportunity to perform crowd control during one of the shows.

Another future plan for Euro Disney might be to instruct managers to become more mindful of their employees’ stress levels and attitudes. They should be instructed on how to read suicide warning signs among their employees and how to offer them assistance from the proper counseling services. It would also be wise for Euro Disney to hold motivational, team-building workshops. They could hire corporate behavioral trainers to offer motivational lectures and confidence building exercises.

From a public relations perspective, whether the suicides were directly caused by Euro Disney or not, the ensuing negative press can be devastating to an already financially stressed company. It would have probably been less expensive had Disney noticed the warning signs of poor working conditions and deficient management and corrected those problems.

As most companies have already realized, running a large corporation in the 20th and 21st centuries is not all about profit and loss. Providing optimal human resource settings can be a delicate task.

References
Corliss, R. (1992, April 20). Voila! Disney Invades Europe. Will the French Resist? Time. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,975357-1,00.html
Frost, J. (2010, April). Cast Member suicides shock Disneyland Paris family. Retrieved from http://thedisneyblog.com
Hall, B. (2010, April 10). Fresh Probe on France Telecom Suicides. The Financial Times. Retrieved from http://www.ft.com
Lichfield, J. (2010, May 6). The dark side of Disneyland Paris. The Independent. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk
Manologlou, L. (2010, April 23). Euro Disney Increases Measures Aimed At Employee Well-Being In The Workplace [Press Release]. Retrieved from http://corporate.disneylandparis.com/CORP/EN/Neutral/Images/uk-2010-04-23-chsct-measures-employee.pdf
Manologlou, L. (2010, May 11). Euro Disney S.C.A. - Reports 2010 First Half Results [Press Release]. Retrieved from http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/euro-disney-sca---reports-2010-first-half-results-93379954.html
Mboe, G. (2010, April). Disneyland Paris: an Employee Commits Suicide. Retrieved from http://www.eurodif-fo.com
Roussel, C. (2010, April 2). Suicides shock France's Disney park. The Independent. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk
Souchard, P. (2010, April 9). France Telecom Suicides: Authorities Probe Dozens Of Mysterious Employee Suicides. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com
Traub, C. (2010, April 2). Disneyland Paris Investigates Worker Suicides. Retrieved from http://goparis.about.com/b/2010/04/02/disneyland-paris-suicides-probe.htm
Turley, J. (2010, April 5). The Unhappiest Place on Earth: Paris Disney Experiences Rash of Suicides Among Complaints Over Working Conditions. Retrieved from http://jonathanturley.org

The Many Faces of Machiavelli

2010-04-18T05:12:00.000-06:00

This is Machiavelli

He wrote a book called The Prince

In the book, he tells rulers how to maintain stability and hold power

Many rulers have followed his agenda

Now it's common to refer to the devil as 'Old Nick'

Machiavelli's first name: Niccolo

Below you'll find a vector image of Machiavelli, I created. Move the transparent images, below, over this image of Machiavelli to transform his face into another person. Can you guess the people I've turned him into?

Well, you probably guessed it right: Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler, and Joseph Stalin.

These despots all learned from Machiavelli and utilized some of his principles in their rule. Napoleon wrote extensive notes about The Prince. Hitler was affected by Mussolini, who read and followed Machiavelli's The Prince. And Stalin kept a copy of The Prince on his nightstand.

For this project, I created a framed image of Machiavelli with transferable Plexiglas sheets showing the other faces.

Disneyland Deconstructed: Postmodernism Revealed

2010-04-16T17:54:00.001-06:00

Disneyland has been considered, among other things, the mind controlling, child knapping, psychotic dream world of the 20th and 21st centuries. Millions of visitors make their way to the park every year to put away adult obligations for a few days in order to re-live their childhoods. One LA Times columnist summed up his experience: “We eavesdrop as self-described mouse freaks trade esoteric tips for milking the most fun from every Mickey moment. We meet families who never vacation anywhere non-Disney. We learn of couples who get married here and ride in Cinderella's coach. With resolve that is nothing short of heroic, I fight the mind control.”

Indeed, Disneyland has created a fascinating cultural movement worth a bit of study. Rather than simply explaining this cultural movement, a deeper significance is found: Although Disneyland seems to model American idealism (an attribute at odds with postmodernism), park visitors (including the majority of American visitors) are, in effect, embracing postmodernism.

American idealism is forever branded in the American dream: The belief that with some hard work and clever thought, one can achieve his or her utopian world—a world where happiness abounds among equal opportunity, capitalism, consumerism, and industrialism. Conversely, postmodernism has no such grandiose ambitions. Postmodernism might be considered the satirical twist of the American dream. It objects to objectivity; rather than searching for answers, postmodernism makes a parody of presupposed truths and juxtaposes seemingly unrelated pieces of culture together.

And yet, how can one purport such postmodernism in Disneyland when the park is literally a microcosm of early America and the American Dream? I doubt many would debate this idea. Everything about Disneyland seems to scream “American” just as anything about McDonalds and other fast food franchises do the same. If one were only to stroll down the park’s first land, Main Street USA, one would clearly recognize signs of America as it was in the 40s, such as the quaint, Victorian street shops, the barbershop quartet, and the red fire engines. Perhaps the most American feature is the first attraction visible in the park, “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.”

We also can’t forget the man who dreamed up the park, Walt Disney, who is considered one of the most American men of the 20th century. We can readily see Walt Disney’s American characteristics such as his small-town, conservative personality, and his pursuit of the American Dream. However, many other typically adverse values have been characterized with Disney: emphasis on capitalism, commercial globalization, and an unseen obsession with control. Let’s analyze these characteristics and how they influenced the creation of Disneyland.

Don’t expect any deep interpretations about Disney culture from Walt Disney himself: “I make pictures for entertainment, and then the professors tell me what they mean.” However, many meanings can be derived in Disneyland—especially with the larger, capitalist, American culture as the context.

More than anything else, says Mark Gottdiener, Disneyland exhibits signifiers of each aspect of early American capitalism. “Frontierland can be interpreted as a reference to the stage of predatory capitalism; Adventureland, as a representation of colonialism/imperialism; Tomorrowland, as state-financed capitalism, or the military-industrial complex; New Orleans Square as a signifier for venture capital; and lastly, Main Street as the period of family and mercantile capitalism.”

Take, for example, one of the newer attractions in the park, the Indiana Jones Adventure ride. Guests can embark on a daring journey past giant snakes, into skeleton-filled rooms, and over a rickety rope bridge all inside a forbidden Indian temple. The ride is obviously Disneyesque, and yet much of what is signified is completely overlooked by guests. Its capitalistic story tells of Professor Jones using the ancient temple to offer tours in order to raise money. When Indiana Jones goes missing with a group of tourists, park guests must enter into the temple to rescue them. Turning an ancient temple into an attraction is clearly capitalistic and points to the western tendency to commercialize just about anything. The temple becomes an object of exploit, where artifacts and historical information may be extracted.

In terms of globalization, just about any child in the world can recognize the iconic mouse ears. Disneyland has effectively made copies of itself in every corner of the world and before Disneyland had penetrated far off countries, Disney movies had already snuck into homes and theaters of foreigners. Before even entering the park, visitors were already attached to the characters and stories that make up much of Disneyland’s attractions.

Perhaps, these “warm-fuzzies” instilled in childhood memories by Disney’s Animated Classics have been a major factor in garnering such an attendance to the Disney parks. The idea of theming based on cinema has been imitated by successful theme parks ever since.

Although Disney was an idealist and a modernist, he sampled postmodern tendencies—taking art from the past and mashing them with his own ideals. Gottdiener said, “We know that Disneyland over the years had a profound impact on the construction of themed environments across the country by blending common mass culture symbols and an appealing physical design.”

Walt Disney was a grand storyteller—taking fairy tales and tall tales of his youth and presenting them to millions. He was extremely successful at sterilizing his image of folk culture and turning it into pop culture. In the meantime, the company raked in profits from selling park tickets and products plastered with Disney’s version of fairy tale characters. Interestingly, Cinderella and Snow White aren’t just figures from German folklore but they now hold the modern title of “Disney characters.” David Boje said, “Walt had a universal vision of a vast empire; he saw his cartoons, characters, TV shows, and films as culminating in a theme park. The theme park was based on Walt's vision of a small midwestern town, the one he knew as a boy. Disneyland is Walt's archetype of an ideal American town.”

America’s historical connection with conquering the frontier is also seen in Disneyland. In their effort to conquer and own the open land, Americans laid railroads and built cities as settlers made their way across the pioneer trails in order to gain their piece of the American Dream. Such historical westerners as Louis and Clark, Davy Crockett, Jim Bridger, and even the bandit, Jesse James, have been idealized in American folklore. Walt Disney produced films featuring some of these men, sanitizing them and molding them into archetypal characters that showed conservative dignity and determined self-reliance.

Thus, it was natural for Disney to include his version of the American West, Frontierland, in the park. The land meshes varied symbols of the Wild West such as a steamboat, an old saloon, and an out-of-control mining car. In combining such previously unrelated signs, Disney created a new image of the frontier that has since replaced the older signs. Consequently, meanings have also changed.

A discussion on hyperreality is important as it is one key component of the Disney parks. Hyperreality exists in a state where chosen symbols of reality mask our surroundings, thus producing unreality. Jean Baudrillard, one of the leaders of postmodernism and proponent of hyperreality noted that with Disneyland, “everyday life has been captured by the signs and sign systems generated to represent it. We relate to the models as if they were reality. In his argument, California's Disneyland functions as ‘an imaginary effect concealing that reality no more exists outside than inside the bounds of the artificial perimeter.’”

As was stated earlier, Disney had an obsession with control. Every aspect of the park was micromanaged by Disney. He even went so far as to refer to the company artists as “my musicians” and “my artists.”

And just as Disney sought to control his company environment, Disneyland, like American colonialism, controls its natural environment. Rather than allowing nature to be “natural,” Disneyland restrains every aspect its guests’ environment, from the sights and sounds to the available directions guests may go. Furthermore, “there is no sign of decay, crime, confusion, discontent, pain, poverty, or struggle.” According to one scholar, this cultural interpretation of nature can have negative effects: “There is a strong presumption that Disney closely records the real thing out there in mountain meadow, prairie and pound. If our first introduction to the natural world is via ‘Disneyvision’ -- and for virtually all of us, it is -- then we cannot help being disappointed by the real thing. Documentary is a dramatic form. Nature is hard put to compete with art.” Disneyland embodies the presence of an idealized world in which Americans, bred from a culture of idealizing, find comfort in the safe and happy confines of a park where nothing goes wrong.

Many of these aspects of Walt Disney and his park relate his idealistic approach to business, and this idealism coupled with modernism is engrained in the parks.

Disney utilized modernism’s emphasis on the empirical approach to management and creative thinking. He engineered what Boje called the “story machine,” where all aspects of animation and film making, including much of the creative work was systemized and compartmentalized. Similarly, the creative work and development of Disneyland was also brought about in a similar fashion.

Modernism also deals with commodification. Disneyland makes an increasingly good use of placing price tags on elements and ideas in nature and society. One scholar said that “indirect commodification is a process by which non-salable objectives, activities, and images are purposely placed in the commodified world.” Disney discovered a great source of revenue when he began commodifying the characters from his films. From that time, commercialism has only increased in the parks. At every attraction there is a retail store, and the walkways are flooded with Disney street vendors.

As Disney embedded commodification in modernism, he also did so with advertising. Globalized corporations sponsor many of the attractions at Disneyland. One scholar said Disney is the “integration of recreation and leisure with hyper-consumption advertising and public relations.” Like a mall, one cannot escape the thousands of commercialized messages found in every corner of Disney. When the park opened in 1955, Tomorrowland’s featured attraction was CirCarama, sponsored by American Motors. Even the front entrance to the circular theater looked like an American Motors show room.

Disneyland clearly stemmed from modern thinking in the early 1900s. Disney visited the early World Fairs that presented new technology in themed environments. In fact, much of the early technology at Disneyland, such as the Monorail, were first made known at World Fairs. These technologies were developed during the modern era, where functionality determined design.

Las Vegas, a land of themed casinos, draws much upon the themed approaches which were established by Disneyland. However, modernism is no longer a driving force in contemporary America. One scholar compared modernist architecture with that of the Luxor Casino, built in the shape of an Egyptian pyramid while using mirror-like glass for the exterior: “Modernist architects once promised us cities of glass in which we would live in a continual state of revelation: all would be made clear and available to us. Here, glass hides all, inviting our desires and threatening us with the danger lurking at the heart of the cities we have built for ourselves.”

Perhaps Disneyland, although an ideal world, was never quite so modern as it was postmodern. Its hyperrealistic environment is at odds with modern thinking. Ultimately, visitors who trek to the park aren’t necessarily seeking the ideal world but rather an escape from objectivity.

Disneyland attendance is much like that of modern-day social media use. Virtual reality provides the same type of hyperrealistic world that was detailed above. In effect, it replaces a reality—social interaction, with another seeming reality—virtual interaction, which creates an element of unreality.

Disneyland has few clocks for guests to tell time and many of the attractions take place in dark environments. The buildings and attractions are also disproportionate, creating spatial illusions. These elements suspend time and space for park guests, further enhancing their notions of hyperreality. As so many have noted, the park allows for guests to relive childhood dreams in a packaged, sterilized world without consequences or adult concerns.

Hyperreality allows the guests to embrace postmodernism. For postmodernism seeks not to define truths by connections, but rather, it simply makes connections—never coming to conclusions about reality. I don’t assume to say that Americans have completely forgone attempts to find meaning, but contemporary society, as a whole, is moved by this trend, further pushed by pop culture and mass media. While Disneyland may still be considered the mind controlling dream land of the 21st century, in the end, it’s this postmodern tendency in our culture that continues to compel us to the gates of the happiest place on earth.

Wild Wilderness, “Critical Disney References,” http://www.wildwilderness.org/docs/disney2.htm

Mark Gottdiener, The theming of America: dreams, media fantasies, and themed environments (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001), 120.

Mark Gottdiener, The theming of America: dreams, media fantasies, and themed environments (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001), 119.

David M. Boje, “Stories of the Storytelling Organization: A postmodern analysis of Disney as ‘Tamara-Land,’” Academy of Management Journal 38 (1995): 997-1035.

Stephen M. Fjellman, Vinyl leaves: Walt Disney World and America (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992), 301.

David M. Boje, “Stories of the Storytelling Organization: A postmodern analysis of Disney as ‘Tamara-Land,’” Academy of Management Journal 38 (1995): 997-1035.

http://www.cfc.umt.edu/personnel/borrie/papers/disney/

M. J. King, “The audience in the wilderness: The Disney nature films.” Journal of Popular Film and Television 24(2) (1996): 60-69.

David M. Boje, “Stories of the Storytelling Organization: A postmodern analysis of Disney as ‘Tamara-Land,’” Academy of Management Journal 38 (1995): 997-1035.

L. M. Benton, “Selling the Natural or Selling Out,” Environmental Ethics 17: 3-32.

S. G. Davis, “The theme park: Global industry and cultural form.” Media, Culture & Society 18 (1996): 399-422.

Aaron Betsky and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Icons: Magnets of Meaning (San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1997) 232.

Hook, One of my favorites

2010-04-02T14:59:00.000-06:00

Because I am such a Disney fanatic and so caught up in "Magic," I had to express my utter appreciation for one of the most magical movies, Hook. This film has a special place in my heart as it is a picture I remember watching as a young 6 year old.

One of the features that makes this film come to life with magic is the score by John Williams.

'Genuinely Hip Professor' Metaphor

2010-03-24T15:47:00.001-06:00

Some professors are mediocre and some are good. Some are rather great. After a bit of thought on what makes a good professor great, I came up with three traits: (1) Contemporary, (2) Smart, and (3) Accommodating.

Because my thoughts so often veer towards marketing, I've developed the 'Genuinely Hip Professor' Metaphor. Any company that caters itself to the college-aged target market should think about these principles. Students in the 18-25 year old range can relate to the metaphor because most have dealt with the good and bad of professors.

Update: The professor in this illustration is Doug McKinlay, a former ad agency founder and owner. He exemplifies all the characteristics of a good professor. In the advertising program he is considered the King of Creativity.

First, let's analyze a bad professor. Usually bad professors don't care much about their students and they don't make many efforts to appear as if they care. In other words, 'accommodating' is not in their vocabulary. They see teaching as a 9-5 job and they rarely offer help sessions, office hours, or even in-class discussion or questions. Granted, I understand the difficulty some professors have in catering to all their students in large classes. Nevertheless, the good professors still find ways to accommodate students in the 300+ class sizes.

Bad professors are boring. They don't make efforts to teach in ways that spurn creativity and remembrance. These professors can often be worse than textbooks--because with a text book, one can at least read at one's own pace. These professors are also old-fashioned, often stuck on old-school teaching methods with old-school technology. These professors rarely relate to their students.

Students love great professors. Just take a look at ratemyprofessor.com. As I come to the close of my undergraduate education, I can remember some of the thoughtful professors I've had. These professors exhibit all three traits.

If you're marketing your products to students, I'd keep in mind these traits. Here are a few questions you might want to ask:

Contemporary:
"They relate to me."
"I relate to [your] brand."
Do you relate to your consumer? Can they relate to you?

Smart
"I trust their knowledge about [your] industry."
Are you smart enough about your industry that your consumers can trust your services/products?
Does your consumer know that you have a wealth of knowledge/information about the industry?

Accomodating
"They care about me."
Do you care about your consumer? Do you show that you care?

I don't want to get into the LCV (lifetime customer value) factor, but if you really think LCV is important, you might want to measure yourself in these areas.

Update - Here are a some great professors I've had throughout my BYU education: Jaren Hinckley, Susan Eliason, Gary Hansen, Cindy Brewer, Hans-Wilhelm Kelling, Matt Holland, Arden Pope, Brent Strong, and Doug McKinlay

Influences of Roger Williams on Thomas Jefferson

2010-03-20T04:37:00.000-06:00

Although he is not predominantly famed, Roger Williams can readily be considered the man who innovated the great disconnect between the state and the church. Jefferson and Madison are the American founders who receive the greatest credit for a strict separation of church and state in the new US government, however, their contributions were not necessarily original. Williams initiated a “cause of conscience” (1867, p. 3) that has permeated American hearts since his time. It is the object of this work to show Williams’ indirect influence on the writings of Thomas Jefferson.

It is quite obvious that Jefferson was deeply religious over at least one moral particular—namely that “all men are created equal” (Declaration of Independence, ¶2). Thus his views on the church involvement in government were reflected to promote religious freedom. One of his most famous letters on the subject is his reply to Danbury Baptists at the beginning of his administration. He said that the Establishment Clause in the first amendment of the Constitution (an amendment developed by Madison), effectively built “a wall of eternal separation between Church & State” (1802). The origination of this metaphor actually emerges from Roger Williams over a century earlier.

Williams came to America after witnessing persecution against his own teacher by the Church of England. Upon arriving in the Massachusetts Bay colony Williams was accepted as assistant Pastor in the Puritan church in Salem. It was a good step and an open environment for Williams to affect change among a somewhat intolerant religious community.

Although the Puritans and Separatists had deserted to America on the grounds of religious freedom they still had not purged themselves of inherited religious culture and ideals of the European faiths. Government and religion were deeply connected in Britain and Europe. For centuries, kings ruled over England claiming divine royal leadership. The Puritans, seeking for religious tolerance, came to America to merely “purify” the Church of England. Although they claimed a disconnection between state government and the church, there were still highly religious ideals that affected the community and certain legislative measures that affected the church. For example, all citizens were required to attend church and pay taxes that benefited the church. Government officials were to make oaths with God concerning their office. These close connections between government and religion were a few of the items that Williams found it his duty to preach against. Consequently, it was local legislation that banished Pastor Williams from the community.

Roger Williams can be conveniently considered “a nonconformist in a land of nonconformists” (Moore, 1965, pp. 58-59). Competing with the Puritan John Cotton on a principle of free conscience, Williams wrote some influential papers that almost mirror writings of Locke, Madison and, most importantly, Jefferson. It was in “Mr. Cotton's Letter Lately Printed, Examined and Answered” that Williams penned the original metaphor of a wall of separation:

And that when they have opened a gap in the hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world, God hath ever broke down the wall itself, removed the candlestick, and made his garden a wilderness. (Levy, 1986, p. 184)

Historians speculate on the different meanings that Jefferson and Williams had intended to portray with the metaphor. Both men called for a wall to protect both the state from the church as well as the church from the state. Williams noticed, in the Puritan community, the danger of a church imposing legislation among citizens, yet he was more concerned with a government that imposed upon the church. Jefferson was concerned with the danger of a church imposing on the government. This is where Jefferson and Williams differed about the metaphor. For example, Jefferson was strictly against any religious national holiday, whereas Williams, being highly religious, was hypocritical in his intolerance of the “unorthodox” practices of the Quakers that had settled in Providence.

Despite these differences, the writings of Jefferson and Williams are deeply similar. Jefferson, in his letter to the Baptists noted that “religion is a matter which lies solely between man & his god, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship” (1802). Similarly, Williams stated that “man hath not power to make laws to bind conscience” (1867). Roger Williams also employed Jefferson’s ideal that “the legitimate powers of government reach actions only and not opinions” (1802). Williams did not enforce obedience to the first four laws of the Ten Commandments or “the first table” (Moore, 1965, p. 62). These were commandments such as devotion and worship that dealt with personal opinions. Conversely, the “second table” of commandments that dealt with criminal actions such as stealing or committing adultery were enforced (Moore, 1965, p. 62-63).

Notwithstanding the many similarities between the two men, scholars agree that Jefferson was most likely not familiar with the writings of Roger Williams. At the time of the American founding in the late 1700’s, the name Roger Williams was not well-liked. He was remembered as an individual who was a radical that had personally defied the Puritan colony. Isaac Backus, one of the leading Baptist supporters of religious freedom, wrote an entire work that nearly copied the ideas of Williams; the work, however, never fully credited Williams (Moore, 1965, pp. 70-71). William Miller wrote, “The crotchety, disorganized, and insistently Christian writings of Roger Williams were not the sort of thing Thomas Jefferson was likely to read, but John Locke clearly had read them” (1985, p. 173). It is also known that Jefferson clearly read Locke’s writings on the natural rights of man.

Just six years after Williams’ death, John Locke published “A Letter Concerning Toleration” (1689). The letter is full of text that follows the ideals that Roger Williams had left behind. The subject of a free conscience was modeled by Locke: “Men cannot be forced to be saved whether they will or no. And therefore, when all is done, they must be left to their own consciences” (1689, ¶41). Locke argued for the natural rights of man. He explains in much detail the dangerous consequences of a government such as Massachusetts and those in Britain that infringed upon the natural rights of worship. He was right on with Williams. Nevertheless, there are some differences in the voice of the two men. Williams wrote from a religious viewpoint rather than political one. Locke wrote to a political audience that was not as inclined towards faith as was Williams’ audience. Leroy Miller designates Williams’ philosophy as “Let God be God!” while Locke’s as “Make way for Man!” (1965, p. 66).

Williams held two distinct roles. While (1) seeking to preach salvation, he acted as a religious leader. While (2) opting for religious liberty, he acted as a political leader. The roles were very different and the fact that he played both of them is ironic, seeing that his ideal world was a separation between the political and the religious. His motives were ultimately religious. Brilliance led him to discover that his preaching of salvation was in vain if religious liberty was not realized. He asked “Can the sword of steel or arme of flesh make men faithful or loyal to God? Faith proceeds alone from the Father of Lights.” (Moore, 1965, p. 64).

Jefferson may not have realized the importance that Roger Williams played on the early colonization of America. Jefferson also may not have known that his readings of John Locke were filled with the ideals of Williams. However, Jefferson did know that the spirit of America—liberty—was to be protected with all measures even if it meant erecting a “wall of separation” between church and state. The act of building this wall had already been started over 100 years earlier, brick by brick, by the revolutionary, Roger Williams.

Davis, D.H. (1999). The enduring legacy of Roger Williams: consulting America's first separationist on today's pressing church-state controversies. Journal of Church & State, 41(2) 201-213. Retrieved March 24, 2007, from http://web.ebscohost.com.

Jefferson, T. (1802). Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists: The draft and recently discovered text. Retrieved March 26, 2007, from http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/danpost.html

Levy, L.W. (1986). The establishment clause: Religion and the first amendment. New York:Macmillan Publishing Co.

Locke, J. (1689). A letter concerning toleration. (W. Popple, Trans.). Retrieved March 28, 2007, from http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/locke/locke2/locke-t/locke_toleration.html

Miller, W.L. (1985). The first liberty: religion and the American Republic. New York:Knopf.

Moore L. (1965). Religious liberty: Roger Williams and revolutionary era. Church History, 34(1), 57-76. Retrieved March 26, 2007, from JSTOR database.

Williams, R., & Caldwell, S.L. (1867). The bloudy tenent of persecution. Publications of the Narragansett Club. (p. 3) Providence, RI:Stanford University Retrieved March 28, 2007, from http://books.google.com.

Glamour and the Famine Mystique

2010-03-17T21:09:00.001-06:00

I have seen monumental suffering housed in women's bodies. I have seen teenage girls watch their mothers starve, deny and hate themselves, call their distorted ideas about food "will power." I have seen these mothers teach this language to their daughters, usually unintentionally. I have seen vomit in toilets across America. . . I have seen the smartest college students in the world spend the majority of their days thinking about calories. I have seen shame, loads and loads of it, piled so high that women climb on top and reign there.

-Courtney E. Martin, The Famine Mystique

Glamour plays a pretentious role in the famine mystique. At first glance, the website displays perpetuations of the mystique by including the most important features in the navigation links: fashion; beauty; sex, love & life; weddings; health & fitness; body by Glamour. None of these words actually signify the quest for true depth and meaning in womanhood. The title of the publication, Glamour, stands next to words like allurement, animal magnetism, beauty, and attraction.

Innately, humans strive for betterment. As Martin noted, media have defined “betterment” in such unrealistic terms that “you feel bad.” Glamour is no exception. Some of the headlines read “Model Beauty Tricks We All Should Know” and “50 Most Glamorous Women of 2010.” These headlines might support a woman’s notion that she isn’t up to speed on her image if she doesn’t know some beauty tricks and stars. Furthermore, blog headlines like “For $2,000, These Jeans Better Lose Five Pounds For Me” only relate the fact that thinness should be highly important as it seems to be the main purpose for spending $2,000 on a pair of jeans.

But how does Glamour actually make one feel bad? And, is feeling bad necessarily a bad thing? Scripture passages can definitely make one feel bad, especially if one isn’t living up to the standard. Quoting “love one another” after being cut-off by a crazy driver doesn’t always calm the nerves. Motivational books can also make people feel bad if they aren’t following the positive principles contained therein.

However, feeling bad is necessary for one to change. That’s why your conscience is so good at it—as well as media and advertising. If you feel bad about your image, you might try a new diet pill or go to the gym. You also might pick up a copy of Glamour, hoping to find the latest tips to make yourself become more attractive. Advertisers love to make people feel bad in hopes of increased sales.

But if feeling bad is a natural motive for change, why does Martin condemn magazines like Glamour and Cosmopolitan? Perhaps, it is the end result rather than the means that scares her. Martin claims, as do many social scientists, that Bulimia and Anorexia Nervosa stem from media’s portrayal of beauty and attractiveness. The unrealistic expectations that women set out to achieve become unattainable and consequently, women begin to hate themselves even more. Self-hatred and subsequent eating disorders of more than 7 million women are not the most lovely outcomes of image-loving media. Unfortunately, Glamour editors and board members don’t think about the larger consequences of the material they publish. Rather, they hope to garner larger readership and increased advertising revenue.

I don’t mean to intentionally put a plug for Christianity, but I’m grateful to believe that perfection isn’t acquired by our personal efforts. A God who motivates change but never really offers the attainment of perfection is no God of mine. As life will teach us, we cannot achieve perfection in any form whether that’s personal righteousness or outward beauty. America’s top model, won’t be at the top next year and Angelina Jolie will eventually grow old and wrinkly. But, fortunately, the Christ who said, “Be ye therefore perfect,” also said, “Take my yoke upon you… For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Multitasking Life and Social Media

2010-03-06T21:30:00.000-07:00

In the following post, I took a look at "Multitasking State of Mind," an article by Joanne Cavanaugh Simpson. I've responded with a look at my own life. In a nutshell, I agree and sympathize with Simpson's thoughts.

I just checked twitter and three email accounts. I also skimmed a few blog posts and read some tweets. Originally, I sat down at the computer to write this essay, but I’ve just procrastinated for a few minutes in my social media circles. Pondering now, I think my time could have been better spent and, for the record, I’ve closed my browser and put away my phone.

Am I caught up in the multitasking, digital age? In comparison with some of my peers, I’ve just skimmed the surface. I don’t have an iPhone and most of my social profiles were created for my job at an internet marketing firm. Yet, I still feel the effects of my heavy digital media use and lack of face-to-face socializing.

To me, the effects are largely negative. Rather than seizing the moment and talking to a professor, I shy away thinking I’ll just send a quick email. Rather than phoning friends, I’ll send a quick chat on Facebook. And frequently, I find myself on Hulu, Youtube, Digg, and many other online diversions while I should be utilizing my time in other, more “productive” avenues.

Two years ago, I hailed digital connections as innovative and the wave of the future. I saw how much time could be saved by texting or chatting online. I also applied the labels of “old-fashioned” to those people who denounced social media for its de-socializing effects.

As I watch my classmates meander on the web with laptops and smart phones, I somehow believe these students aren’t consciously choosing the multitasking lifestyle. Elements of a media-driven culture all play into the lives of students. Most of us were raised with the internet and the cell phone. Culturally, we’ve been raised to admire those with more innovative tech gadgets.

We also witness a great deal more interesting ideas, artwork, and cultures than our parents’ generation. Perhaps we let this constant exposure of interesting things others are doing invigorate our desires to do more and be more. Multitasking with digital technology is a way to do more and still stay connected socially.

Although mass media has been around for generations, new social media allows us have our own mass media community. We idolize ourselves in our “friend” and “follower” circles much like mainstream media idolizes a current pop star. In effect, we must be our own spokesperson, agent, and PR manager, while still doing regular tasks of day-to-day life like working and studying.

As I make plans to wean off social media an opposing thought comes to mind: “What if I miss something?” Students will have to decide on this tradeoff if they really want to add some “space in the mind.”

Interesting study surrounding this issue.

IE6 is holding us back--bring it down

2010-02-22T19:13:00.000-07:00

As a web developer, I occasionally get feedback from clients that their website is "broken". Usually, the client is using Internet Explorer 6 (or one case of the old AOL browser). Consequently, I've had to go out of my way, adding css hacks or html commenting hacks to make the code fit for IE6. Many feelings of rage have passed through my heart as I've dealt with IE6 problems. Fortunately, to my great relief, my employer has decided to leave IE6 off of our UI testing list.

As of today, I'm joining the "Bring down IE6" coup. IE6 is a poor excuse for a browser.

In order to help IE6 users to appreciate better browsers use code like this:

Comic Advertising from Heaven: Church Marquees

2010-02-19T09:27:00.000-07:00

I served a mission for the Mormon church a few years ago in North Carolina. North Carolina is part of the bible belt country. I met so many kind people with lots of faith. While walking the streets, I saw hundreds of different churches, some with very comical marquees.

"Don't let your worries get the best of you, remember, Moses started out as a basket case!"

"Spiritual Food Served Here.

If you want delivery, wait for Jehovah's Witnesses."

"Life Guard On Duty... Ours walks on water."

"Jesus is the reason for the season. Don't X Him out."

"Keep using my name in vain & I'll make rush hour longer."

Here are some others I wrote down when I lived in North Carolina as a Mormon missionary (Although I agree with some of these statements, the ideas expressed in these church marquees are not mine):

"Man's Way - Hopeless End,

God's Way - Endless Hope"

"Homosexuality - A sin that God hates"

"Stop, Drop and Roll won't work in Hell."

"Forget Crack - Let Jesus be your Rock."

"2004 will be no more,

2005, let's come alive."

"Come Thirsty. Drink Living Water."

"Mission: Possible, through obedience."

"Plug into the church."

"Basic

Information

Before

Leaving

Earth"

(First letters of each word spells 'BIBLE')

"Love is the language everyone understands."

"If Jesus is your copilot, swap seats."

"Wal-Mart is not the only Saving place."

"Exercise in 2005, Walk with Jesus."

"Be still and know that he is God."

"Each of us matters to God."

"We alter Garments - God alters lives."

(From a Dry Cleaner)

"'Don't make me come down there.'

-God"

"Don't have a Valentine?

Give your heart to Jesus."

"Turn around and bring others with you."

"Loving spouse saying, 'I Love You' with a megaphone."

"Church shopping? We are open Sunday."

"Love: It not only gives, it forgives."

"While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

"Faith is a journey, not a destination."

(From a gas station)

"Live well, laugh often, love much."

"1 church, 1 vision, 1 way."

"Loving enemy saying 'I Love You' with Fire."

"Lint gets in the pocket, Lent gets in the soul."

(From a laundromat)

"Heaven is just a prayer away."

"7 days without prayer makes 1 weak."

"The emptiest person is full of themselves."

"You can't send the gospel to the wrong place."

Joe's Branch Free Will Baptist Church, "Welcome"

Church in a backwoods small town.

"Earth has no sorrow heaven can't heal."

"Live today as if you were standing before God tomorrow."

"God's love endures forever."

"Is your bible a weapon or an accessory?"

"Christ can resurrect your life too."

"Our spirit fails us if God's spirit doesn't fill us."

"It's never too late to prepare for eternity."

"There will be 'showers' of blessings."

(It was April--playing off the April showers phrase)

"ASAP:

Always Say A Prayer."

(Gas station marquee)

"God answers knee prayers."

"'Crucify Him, Crucify Him,' they cried.

'Forgive them,' he prayed."

"One person can make a difference. Jesus did."

"Fast from complaining. Feast on turning to God."

"Nails didn't keep Jesus on the cross. Love held Him there."

"The tomb of Jesus is empty. No Body there."

"Too busy for God is too busy."

"He is risen."

"God's grace is sufficient."

"Dusty Bibles leads to dirty lives."

"God answers knee-mail."

"One birthday isn't enough.

Be born again."

"Faith takes God at His word."

"Love will lift you up.

Sin will bring you down."

"I pray only on days that end with 'Y'"

"God doesn't call the qualified. He qualifies the called."

"We can do all things through Christ Jesus."

"In God we trust."

"God is."

"Plan your life. Invest in God."

"If you haven't been saved, you're toast."

"A Jedi is no match for Jesus."

"Aren't you glad your mother was pro-life?"

"Give Satan an inch and he'll become a ruler."

"Rejoice. Christ Lives."

"The best way to save face is to close the lower half."

"Easter is not a time to dye for."

"Weather Prediction: Reign Forever."

"Love not time heals all wounds."

"Put your fears to rest.

Put your faith in Jesus."

"Salvation is free; But only if you ask for it."

"Heaven:

No pain, All gain."

"'That Love thy neighbor thing? I meant it.'

-God"

"Prayer doesn't need proof, it needs practice."

"The power of Satan is no match for the power of Jesus."

"God can heal a broken heart, but he must have all the pieces."

"Your faith, or lack of, is your fate."

"If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."

"A Christian has a reason for hope and a hope for his reason."

"In spite of inflation, 'the wages of sin' remain unchanged."

"Friends don't let friends go to hell."

"Big band theory: God said 'band' and it was done."

"Big bang theory: 'Are you Serious?'

-God"

"It's hard to stumble and fall when you're on your knees."

"This church is prayer-conditioned."

"Good without God leaves you a '0'"

"Jesus. Don't leave earth without him."

"Life is fragile.

Handle with prayer."

"Sin has no measure, color, or size."

"1 cross,

3 nails,

4-given."

"Got God?

Most important part of daily diet."

"Download your worries.

Go on line with God."

"Everyone needs a home.

Make this one yours."

"Keep the Faith, but not to yourself."

"No God, No Peace.

Know God, Know Peace."

"To find your way, follow Jesus."

"God loves a cheerful giver."

"'I am also making a list and checking it twice.' -God."

(During Christmas)

"I set before you life and death, blessings and cursings. Choose life."

Jesus is the reason for the season."

"Is prayer first response or last resort?"

"If you pause to think, you'll have cause to thank."

(During Thanksgiving)

"'Damn' is not God's last name."

"God is good. God is great. 24/7"

"God wants full custody - Not weekend visits."

"Every sinner must be pardoned or punished."

"Obey what the bible says, not what men say the bible says."

"Christ died to save us.

He now lives to keep us."

"Free trip to Heaven.

Details inside."

"God blesses those who are willing to listen."

"God's grace is greater than your greatest sin."

"Victory in Jesus - Our Savior forever."

"God has a big Eraser. People don't."

"Take God seriously. Lukewarm fails."

"Jesus:

Coming Soon."

"Honor thy mother. Honor thy God."

"Love your enemies. It will confuse them."

"Faith in Christ is the believers passport to Heaven."

"On the other side of fear is freedom."

"God's Amnesty Program - Salvation in Christ."

"We are called to be witnesses, not judges."

"You have a second chance to put God first."

"Got Jesus?"

"If your knees are knocking, kneel on them."

"The password to eternity is 'Jesus'"

"Fear cowers,

Faith empowers."

"This is a ch ch.

What is missing?

U R"

"In tough times, God teaches us to trust."

"The da Vinci code:

This too shall pass. The bible is forever."

"Practice makes perfect.

Be careful what you practice."

"The great commission:

Not just a commandment but a lifestyle."

"Only those who dare to fail can achieve."

"Freedom is costly.

Salvation is free."

"True freedom is found in serving Christ."

"A bible that is falling apart belongs to a person who is not."

"Creation by God.

Evolution by Ape."

"If you don't believe in God, you better be right."

"Warning: Exposure to Son may prevent burning."

"Try Jesus.

If you don't like Him, the devil will take you back."

"When life needs rebooting, remember,

Jesus saves."

"Let your children see Jesus in you."

"Keep going for God.

To stay youthful, stay useful."

"The bread of life never gets stale."

"Let Jesus take the wheel."

"Trust in the Lord.

It's in the storm that the ship is tested."

"A smooth sea never made a skillful sailor."

Feel free to comment. I'll add any other marquee phrases you leave in the comments.

Trailer Rhetoric in The Edge of Darkness

2010-02-17T04:23:00.001-07:00

The Edge of Darkness, a gripping film starring Mel Gibson, uses a multi-genre oriented approach in its trailer. Although I’ve not seen the film, the trailer entertains my interest by sucking me into three separate genres using many attempts at iconography, repetition, equations and hyperbole. Whether or not the actual film meets these different genres is not involved in the discussion. What’s of interest is how the trailer makes these genre statements and why they chose to define the movie through the rhetoric of genre.

In the first 30 seconds of the trailer, we may assume that this is a drama. We see a father reminiscing his years of rearing his daughter and then she returns from her grown up life for a visit. We suspect that this film will be about the relationship between the parent and child. The music and imagery reflect the iconography of a complex/endearing drama specifically about relationships. As Lisa Kernan stated in Trailer Rhetoric, we see an assertion of “an equation … between the spectator’s experience and the characters’ experiences.”

The headlines appear, “Some memories never fade” and “Some feelings never change” further defining the film with generalization—using emotion as a major feature of a drama. However, in a few one-second shots, the trailer quickly modifies its rhetoric towards a detective genre. The father, played by Mel Gibson is suddenly thrown into a crime investigation for the shooting of his daughter. Again, icons of the classic detective genre are shown with a close-up shot of an officer’s gun holster and a crowd of police cars surrounding the home of the crime scene.

However, as the trailer proceeds, the film offsets itself from the classic detective genre and into the likes of a riveting thriller as is noted also by the title of the film, Edge of Darkness. Headlines “Some secrets … take us to the edge” appears and we are whisked away into continuous shots of conspiracy conversations, dark alley scenes, and violent, close calls with death. The headlines change color to red, apart from the earlier drama-oriented blue headlines. We also see flashed images of the daughter with an eerie likeness to the trailers of horror films such as The Forgotten, and The Others. Frequent uses of a blacked screen utilize repetition and emphasize darkness in its physical and psychological manifestations.

The trailer clearly makes a stab using rhetoric to categorize the film into the three genres: drama, detective mystery, and horror. Perhaps the producers were trying to market the film to three separate and segmented audiences. But this generalization into genres allows for a deeper analysis. Historically, these genres have been widely used and perpetuated by Hollywood and millions of movie-goers. While the technology and style of movie trailers has become more sophisticated, we can still connect dots of genre rhetoric.

Conversely, in its very effort to invoke three different genres, the film differentiates itself from any one of those genres. Although the thriller aspect of the film is most ingrained in our minds, we are jarred by the quick transition from one genre to the next. Although the trailer connected the “genre-dots” it still did not take the genre stand—and in doing so, hoped to stand out and differentiate itself.

Walt Disney: A Racist in Song of the South?

2010-02-11T03:54:00.002-07:00

Are you a fan of Song of the South? Do you think Disney should release the film? Does the movie carry elements of negative stereotyping or prejudice? Please comment and let me know.

Our lovable animated friend, Brer Rabbit, was quite perplexed with a lifeless tar baby that didn’t offer greetings one morning. “Well, suh, dar he was, sittin' in de middle o' de road -- jes' like you's sittin' in dat chair -- only he's all mixt up wid dat tar baby ...” (songofthesouth.net). The tale goes that Brer Rabbit decided to give the “tar baby” a big whack for his apparent rudeness. Not knowing this was a “tar” baby, Brer Rabbit soon found himself covered in tar and unable to move. The controversial issue of racism in the film industry today has led us Americans into a predicament much like Brer Rabbit, in which we have become so entangled in “political correctness” that we restrict our own progress. This level of racial awareness has greatly increased from the day that Brer Rabbit was first animated in Walt Disney’s infamous Song of the South.

Was Walt Disney racist? There is little documentation of Walt Disney’s personal feelings about racism. We do know that he was an entrepreneur and an artist. He had a deep imagination and courage to bring that imagination to life. As the founder and king of animation he started a corporation that stands as one of the largest entertainment businesses of the world. Out of all these characteristics mentioned, Disney’s greatest attribute was his deep optimism. This optimism is what led him to bring such a dream to real life. Disney had a $17 million debt and huge amount of criticism from faithless onlookers when he built Disneyland in 1955. It was his optimism that kept the company moving. His optimism is felt in the animated films he produced. They bear an overly simplified “happily ever after” feel that gives audiences a break from the real world.

In his early years, Disney’s animations were most enticing to children. Take for example, Snow White, Pinnochio, and Dumbo; each of these films contains a certain amount of joyful innocence. It is a danger to over-analyze children’s animated films, for they were not meant to receive such “adult” criticism. Likewise, it is also a danger to under-analyze children’s films for they are often created with deeper morals in store—morals difficult for children to grasp. This paper seeks to give a proper analysis of Walt Disney’s Song of the South. The film is famous for its revolutionary step into multi-racial media. More specifically, it was a film that offered another perspective of the African American. The debate over the film is considered by one scholar, “the best documented occurrence of public resistance to racism in animated film” (Cohen, 2004, p. 60). In providing this analysis, we shall be able to unmask the creator of magic—Disney himself, and more clearly form our own personal opinions about the film and its supposed racial stereotyping.

Douglas Brode claims Disney was an African American at heart (2005, pp. 54-57). In his book, Brode compares Walt Disney to a prominent black character, “Uncle Remus,” in the film Song of the South. Remus tells the laughable stories of Brer Rabbit and his crazy adventures on the Southern frontier. Brode says, “Uncle Remus is Disney” (2005, p. 57), owing to the characters desire to tell fanciful stories and his early life of obscurity.

Disney’s first famous toon—Mickey Mouse—was actually the first black animated figure according to Brode (2005, pp. 50-51). About Mickey’s appearance, Brode said, “The white area running from just above his eyes to slightly below his mouth appears masklike, as if the character has adopted this guise in order to ‘pass’ and survive in the Anglo world of his time.” The infamous Steamboat Willie depicts Mickey piloting an old steamboat through the Deep South. In subsequent films, Mickey “performs ragtime for a white audience,” and he “dares enter a suburban neighborhood, bringing soulful music with him, improving the lifestyle immensely” (Brode, 2005, p. 51). These movements invoke a cultural awareness in Walt Disney. He apparently enjoyed the culture of the great Jazz age that had erupted in the black American world of the early 1900’s.

Despite these obvious applications of culturally aware art, Disney was objective about Mickey:

All we ever intended for him or expected of him was that he should continue to make people everywhere chuckle with him and at him. We didn’t burden him with any social symbolism, we made him no mouthpiece for frustrations or harsh satire. Mickey was simply a little personality assigned to the purposes of laughter (WDWmagic.com).

Just like his statement on Mickey, Disney was also a bystander about racism in the films he created. We must realize that he was an entertainer, not a political cartoonist.

Walt Disney was the innovator of childhood imagination. He understood the importance of education and its role in imagination. He made it a pleasure to learn. Disney played off many famous fairy/folk tales that promoted good morals. He used history and culture to broaden the American view. His greatest creation—Disneyland—lets visitors sit at the feet of Abraham Lincoln, enjoy a ride on an old steamboat and learn about technology of the future. Song of the South takes visitors to the late 1800’s in the American South. This film along with others that Walt Disney created, show diversity and partial reality, and still involves the animator’s perspective and the audience’s imagination.

To begin to analyze a work for racial stereotyping, we must first define what it means to stereotype a race. Typically “stereotyping” has negative connotations. It requires the act of attaching certain characteristics to a particular group of people—in Song of the South, that group is the Negro. Stereotypes have truth built in them. For instance, white folk generally have light tan or “peach” colored skin, whereas African Americans have darker colored skin. Is it wrong to apply the stereotype in this example? Most—white and black people—would agree on these assumptions. It may be dangerous to apply the conditions in a stereotype to every member of its particular group. An example of a negative stereotype purports that all Americans are prideful and ignorant when touring foreign countries. True, there have probably been many cases of prideful American tourists; however, to make that assumption about all Americans is obviously an ignorant statement itself. We can be easily offended by such stereotypes because they are either false or negative reflections of the truth.

Only in the last half of the 20th century have people become increasingly sensitive to the any form of political incorrectness. The way an animator depicts a black man as being “less educated” or a Native American as an “injun” may cause turmoil. It is very offensive when the depiction is one that points at the viewer’s race. When this occurs, we as Americans tend to think the animator meant to label all people of that particular race in that fashion. However, that is not always the case.

Early animations depicting blacks are highly offensive to most people. They portray blacks with white handprints, excessively large lips and noses, and a skin that is completely coal black. Clearly these representations are over-exaggerated. Warner Brothers and Universal Pictures have employed these caricatures in many early films of the 1900’s. These representations can also be found in some of the early Disney works but are not as prevalent. Disney created many productions that used animals as the main characters rather than humans thus enabling him to avoid racial imagery. Song of the South employed a mix of live African American actors and personified, animated animals.

Because of the fear of a racially aware America, the Walt Disney Corporation has never released Song of the South on video. The film is a direct portrayal of a Southern Plantation with an African-American community that “camps” nearby (Miller & Rode, 1995, p. 89). The young white boy, Johnny, who lives on the plantation, becomes distraught after the separation of his parents. He decides to run away but as he passes by a camp of blacks telling stories around a campfire, he becomes captivated by the storyteller, “Uncle Remus.” Coincidentally, Remus tells the story of Brer Rabbit who also tried to run away. Later in the film Johnny becomes friends with Uncle Remus and learns life lessons from the fanciful tales of Brer Rabbit. Johnny’s mother, on the other hand, sees a negative influence in the stories and forbids Remus from communicating with her son. Consequently, Johnny’s white mother partially plays the role of the opponent in the plot.

The film was strongly attacked at its premiere in 1946. African American protesters were mainly concerned with the film’s portrayal of the black man as a slave. The NAACP commented on the film: “Making the use of beautiful Uncle Remus folklore, ‘Song of the South’ unfortunately gives the impression of an idyllic master-slave relationship, which is a distortion of the facts” (Cohen, 2004, pp. 60-61). Viewing the ugliness of slavery, many of the racially sensitive deny it ever existed in American history. The word “slavery” has always been a very sensitive topic among both whites and blacks possibly because slavery is inherently a part of our country’s heritage. We do not embrace it, but we do not forget it—there are lessons to be learned from it. Disney Corporation claimed the film’s setting was after the civil war in 1867, when slavery was banned by the Constitution.

Bosley Crowther from the New York Times attacked Song of the South for glamorizing the role of the black “Negroes bowing and scraping and singing spirituals in the night that one might almost imagine that you figure Abe Lincoln made a mistake” (Cohen, 2004, p. 60). According to Crowther the film exemplified a slave-master relationship, showing an optimistic black community in good obedience and humility towards the whites. This notion is again flawed, for to be historically correct the movie is a closer portrayal of a late 1800’s South. Sad history reveals that the freed slaves after the Civil war were still in a state of oppression because of Jim Crowe laws and raw prejudice. Jay Mandle claimed this point simply in the title of his book, Not Slave, Not Free: African American Economic Experience Since the Civil War. In the book he reveals the unfortunate predicament of the freed slaves after the Civil War—that they simply became underpaid sharecroppers with no hope for real financial progression. “Even the post-war period was no Disneyland for former slaves,” says Merlin Jones of savedisney.com (songofthesouth.net). Even after this lengthy support, the main character, “Uncle Remus” does display certain independence. Brode mentions that the film portrays Remus “as a typical Disney hero who understands authority must, when proven wrong, be challenged” (2005, p. 57). Remus also values the importance of living close to the earth. The film showed the loving warmth of Remus’s cabin in contrast to the lifeless plantation home (Brode, 2005, p. 54). Remus longingly reminisces in older days when he begins telling a story to Johnny: “De critters, dey was closer to de folks an' de folks, dey was closer to de critters” (songofthesouth.net).

On another note, seeing Remus’s language, we can understand how critics have always attacked the film for stereotyping the Negro dialogue. This is undeniable. The script was produced and revised by Anglos which is unfortunate for the reputation of the film. However, this error does little to degrade the intelligence and character of Remus and even more largely, the African American race. Remus is “Rousseau’s natural man, that philosopher’s best man” (Brode, 2005, p. 54). His good service towards Johnny coupled with his application and teaching of morals through his stories reflects the real man within Remus—making him the most noble and wise character of the film.

After analyzing the supposed African American stereotypes, we may look at the intentions of Walt Disney concerning the racist content. Walt Disney said, "The first books I ever read were the Uncle Remus stories. Ever since then, these stories have been my special favorites. I've just been waiting until I could develop the proper medium to bring them to the screen" (songofthesouth.net). The original stories of Uncle Remus, written by Joel Chandler Harris (a southern white author), contained deep stereotyping. Disney did have some idea that the content in Song of the South would be deemed racial stereotyping by certain groups. With this oversight, he hired a highly liberal—although white—screenwriter, Maurice Rapf, to revise the script for the film (Cohen, 2004, p. 62). “It would be wrong to conclude… that Walt Disney was a racist. Maurice Rapf points out that everybody at the studio was uneducated concerning what was racist material” (Cohen, 2004, p. 69).

The film is a beautiful work that revolutionized technological animation and racial diversity in film, yet it continues to collect dust in the Disney vault with little to no hope for release. James Baskett (Uncle Remus), was the first actor Walt Disney ever hired (songofthesouth.net). The film makes out to be an effective portrayal of social equality when contrasted with the prejudices of 1946 when the film was released. At the premiere in Atlanta, Baskett was denied lodging in the city’s Hotels for they were reserved for “white only” (Miller & Rode, 1995, p. 86). Baskett was highly talented and went on to win an honorary Academy Award for his role as Remus. He was denounced by a number of blacks after the Premiere but he now stands in deep remembrance as the lovable voice who sang, “Zip A Dee Do Dah” (songofthesouth.net).

Referring back to the definition of stereotyping, Chris Willis, the founder of songofthesouth.net, made a profound statement: “Most innocent stereotypes are based upon the common denominator of reality” (songofthesouth.net). Indeed, every characteristic in the human family can be considered a stereotype and every piece of art whether in film, music, or literature expresses a particular stereotype. The ignorantly optimistic Walt Disney was not aware of the negativity of some of the stereotypes in his film, but in producing it he embraced the African American South. He exposed the “innocent stereotypes” of the rich Negro culture and captured their priceless folktales.

Consider the alternative “politically correct” Song of the South. Disney would have created a film with purely white characters, which all measurably spoke proper English and held equal financial status. How absurd would it be to deprive African American culture of some key characteristics (and yes, a few incorrect characteristics) of their early identity? Walt Disney, in a lecture “On American Culture” (Watt, 1995, p. 101), related that culture comprised not just those fancies of the “elite,” such as highly recognizable and remembered operas and paintings. He commented on the necessity of free choice and that “culture belonged ‘equally to all of us’” (Watt, 1995, p. 102). He said “a person’s culture represents his appraisal of the things that make up life” (Watt, 199, p. 102). In Disney’s mind, culture sprang from all people and, correspondingly, all people have free access to it.

Unfortunately today, there are still social rifts among people of differing races. Brer Rabbit, a toon, provided the ideal medium where two races could unite and provide and atmosphere of equality and toleration. His adventurous experiences were heard and felt by all in the movie. In the end, Johnny and his two friends (one black and the other white) hold hands and dance up onto a hill. Suddenly Brer Rabbit appears, jumping out of the cartoon world and into the real world. All the diversified entities seen in the film—black, white, rich, poor, and toon—finally come together in a symbolism of deleted racial boundaries. One commentator from the African American-produced Pittsburgh Courier said, “The truly sympathetic handling of the entire production from a racial standpoint is calculated… to prove of inestimable good in the furthering of interracial relations” (Brode, 2005, p. 54).

Floyd Norman, an black animator for Disney, now chuckles about the racial prejudice he felt in the 50’s in California. He drove a long commute from his residence in LA to the Disney Studio in Burbank because it was “nearly impossible for a person of color to rent an apartment in Burbank” (Norman, 2007, ¶4). Despite these injustices, Norman uses racial prejudice as a form of humor in his work. As said earlier, it is a danger to under-analyze a children’s film, but equally dangerous to over-analyze one. May we be well-informed of racial stereotypes but, like Norman, may we move forward and laugh off the blunders of the past. Brer Rabbit often overcame his woeful trials by imagining a visit to his imaginary “Laughing Place.” Song of the South did display forms of racial stereotypes; however, the film cannot be dismissed as innovative, artistic, and delightfully optimistic.

Please sign the petition to have Song of the South released!

References

Brode, D. (2005). Multiculturalism and the mouse: Race and sex in Disney entertainment. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. Retrieved March 23, 2007, from http://books.google.com
Brode provides a positive few of the existence of race and sex in Disney media. His stance is widely different from the rest of the scholarly world which presumably attacks Disney for racial slurs and stereotypes. Brode shows how Disney has made America more diversified and tolerant. This is a great source to show the opposing side of the thesis.
Cohen. K. F., (2004). Forbidden animation: Censored cartoons and blacklisted animators in America. Jefferson, NC:McFarland & Company. Retrieved April 2, 2007, from http://books.google.com.
This book takes an extensive look at the production, playing and critiquing of Song of the South. It helps to see what was going on behind the scenes while the film was being developed and shot. We can learn from this book, more of the mind of Disney.
Mandle, J. R. (1992). Not slave, not free: African American economic experience since the Civil War. (pp. 21-22). Durham, NC:Duke University Press. Retrieved April 6, 2007, from http://books.google.com.
Mandle gives some general information of the aftermath of the Civil War. It is a great historical background to the day the movie was set, thus helping me to understand a little of the surroundings that could have showed up in the film.
Miller, S., & Rode, G. (1995). “The movie you see, the movie you don’t: How Disney do’s that old time derision. In E. Bell, L. Haas, & L. Sells (Eds.), From Mouse to Mermaid: The Politics of Film, Gender, and Culture. (pp. 86-106). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Retrieved March 23, 2007, from http://books.google.com
Miller and Rode delve into the racial imagery of many Disney films. They speak somewhat objectively, giving decent information and points of view from other scholars. This paper helps to see the real negative side of Song of the South.
Norman, F. (2007). Now in full color: A cartoonish take on black history. Retrieved April 1, 2007, from http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/floyd_norman/print/8361.aspx.
Norman gives a great rhetorically sound article on racism in Disney. The most interesting fact about the article is Norman’s ethos—he is black and he used to be a Disney animator. It is helpful to see his perspective.
Songofthesouth.net (2007). Song of the south script. Retrieved April 6, 2007, from songofthesouth.net.
This website is completely pro biased towards Song of the South. It is loaded with information, graphics, and the original script to the film. It also contains a petition now with over 100,000 signatures of those who would like Song of the South to be released on video.
Watts, S. (1995). Walt Disney: Art and politics in the American century. The Journal of American History, 82(1), 84-110. Retrieved April 12, 2007, from JSTOR database.
Watts portrays Disney as a man of both vice and virtue. The article makes connections to Disney and basic American ideals.
WDWMagic.com. (no date). 100 Years of Magic - Walt Disney Quotes. Retrieved April 1, 2007, from http://www.wdwmagic.com/100years_waltquotes.htm
This site is filled with general information about Walt Disney. It’s most helpful aspect is its database of quotes by Walt Disney. These quotes contain great insight into the real man, Disney.

Liberals vs. Conservatives--The Daily Show vs. 1/2 Hour News Hour

2010-02-04T14:49:00.000-07:00

Conservative executives at Fox need to understand real facets of humor before they can produce another conservative spinoff of “The Daily Show.” This paper will show the subtle differences between Fox’s The ½ Hour News Hour and NBC’s The Daily Show that may help to explain rating points between the different programming.

The ½ Hour News Hour makes frequent stabs at humor and fails to really hit the target. One of the main attributes of the program is it’s blatant political message. For example, two episodes feature skits about Gun laws. The first episode begins with an interview of a complete gun-ban supporter. Throughout the interview, we find out that the interviewee is actually an avid criminal who was “randomly” shot by an old lady being mugged (mugged by the interviewee), a homeowner being robbed (robbed by the interviewee), and a police officer. In the end, we “get the message” all too easily that gun violence is caused by definite criminals and not by innocent gun owners.

The second episode shows an infomercial skit about a new system of dealing with gun violence without purchasing a gun. Consumers are shown purchasing and putting up signs which read “gun-free zone.” We then see subsequent skits in which a man with a shot gun attempts to rob a convenience store only to realize that the store is a “gun-free zone.” Dejectedly, he withdraws his robbery attempt. Both of these attempts at humor are so blatant with political messaging that the moderate voter will most likely change the channel after being told what to think.

Jon Stewart, from The Daily Show, carries a liberal political agenda, but his messaging is much more subtle and sophisticated. In one episode he makes Fox News look like the “New Liberals” based on criteria from quotes made by conservative talk show hosts and guests. He shows how conservatives support the passionate town hall protestors discussing the health care reform. He then juxtaposes those statements with earlier statements by Fox’s News anchors: “…Many protestors are simply loons.” Throughout the entire skit, he continues to show cut scenes from fox news programming and juxtaposing those statements with earlier ideas thus showing a complexity in his humor that Fox was not able to achieve.

The style of The ½ Hour News Hour signifies an evening on Saturday Night Live with its over-exaggerated skits rather than a more sophisticated parody on news programming. Furthermore, rather than helping the audience to form a relationship with the mock anchor, we are frequented with skit interviews. NBC’s The Colbert Report helps us really get to know, and like the anchor, Stephen Colbert, with his brilliant improvisation.

Furthermore, The Daily Show doesn’t always force liberal opinions in every episode. Rather, the show frequently attacks multiple ideas. Weinman said, “It’s hard to be an effective comedian while being an advocate for a party, any party.” Underneath the humor, The Daily Show, ultimately, seeks to be funny while adding bits of liberalism. Conversely, the ½ Hour News Hour makes its first priority in pushing a conservative agenda while trying (but failing) to be funny.

Fox was trying to copy NBC’s news parody success by only looking at the service of the shows. Unfortunately, they failed to see the successful and subtle methodologies and connotations embodied in the humor and thus failed to give conservative news to a young, entertainment-seeking audience.

Reality TV--Why so many viewers?

2010-01-29T03:23:00.001-07:00

Indeed, Reality TV has changed the face of television, literally. How have these low-budget programs garnered so many viewers? To effectively discuss this question we need to understand the cultural/historical background of our RTV-watching Americans.

American Dream and Capitalism

Young American children are raised in a capitalist-conscious economy. They are told that if they work hard (and smart), they can accumulate the kind of wealth of billionaires like Andrew Carnegie, Bill Gates, and Sergey Brin. The American public education system teaches youngsters through its use of grades that education—and life is a competition, in which only the best win.

Naturally, the capitalistic method is the principal theme of a RTV show. Francine Prose states that RTV summarizes the “vision of a zero-sum society in which no one can win unless someone else loses….”

RTV, a product of a capitalist-driven economy, appeals to all who fight in the trenches of capitalism, be it the office or the classroom.

Gladiator Syndrome

Inherent in human behavior, as noted historically, is the obsession with watching competitions. From the coliseum’s gladiators to NFL’s Super Bowl, humans have typically enjoyed a good battle. We often pick a side and triumph or despair depending on how our team does. And just as well, RTV picks up this same trend. Often I hear conversations among friends and coworkers about certain affinities towards particular contestants in the latest RTVs. Because everyone has his or her favorite contestant (I did when David Archuleta competed in American Idol), everyone must watch the latest episode to find out if his or her contestant will make it to the next round.

Furthermore, the fact that RTV is, in fact, “real,” makes the game that much more interesting. Prose said “observing [the contestant’s] response to stress and humiliation generates a gladiatorial, bread-and-circus atmosphere that simply does not exist when we see movie stars in scrubs sail a gurney down the halls of ER.”

Of those I interviewed, RTV was taken as both appealing and appalling. They were drawn to RTV because of its ability to make a prince from a pauper (as in American Idol, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, etc.) which appeal to the American dream. Furthermore, many enjoy RTV because of its riveting competiveness. Viewers of RTV are stilled appalled at the levels of corruption displayed by contestants—who sometimes act on the basest human instincts of “natural selection.” However, RTV shows still increase in numbers every year.

Before writing this essay, I facebooked and tweeted a few coworkers and friends to learn of their favorite Reality TV shows. What are your favorite Reality TV shows?

Thanks to @shuey03, @robynstorms, @sudophp, @lmgilson, @Tiana_Lei, and @thymas11.

White snow over BYU campus

2010-01-23T21:16:00.000-07:00

We woke up this morning to see everything covered in snow. It was quite pretty. Christine posed for a picture. You can see me crouching in the reflection of her sunglasses. In the background you can see the SWKT, JFSB, Bell Tower, and Marriott Center.

2 Blogs to Run--and a few Social Ills

2010-01-22T09:42:00.000-07:00

Do you think that it's rather unhealthy to be running two blogs in the midst of every other busy moment in life (I've also started DavidScoville.com)? On our carpool to work I was talking to @scottcowley. He mentioned how he'd read an article stating that the iPhone revolution has caused us to look inward and social media is becoming a catalyst to great social problems. For example, when a certain catastrophe strikes, more people are whipping out their mobile phones to take pictures and tweet rather than doing what they can to help the individual(s) in danger or embarrassment.

@scottcowley also mentioned that our social ills are caused by our need to be busy. It is not that we have to be tweeting/blogging/consuming etc. all the time--it's that we choose to be busy--and digital media makes it so much easier to do so.

The perpetrator of the problem is not the issue at stake--whether it's us or the media. However, maybe we ought to take a moment to think about how our busyness affects our social culture. Furthermore, where do we draw the line between working online (yes, I'm an online marketer just like most of the twitterers) and wasting time online? Even though we may be racking up followers and customers, what happens when our social fabric begins to tear by our selfish approach at social media?

And strangely enough, I sit here typing on one of my two blogs (not to mention lots of other online projects) while twittering. Hypocritical? Yes.

If you're reading--I'd like to know your thoughts.

Semiotic Interpretation: REI.com

2010-01-13T21:50:00.000-07:00

Note (1/21/10): I created some new ads and wrote a post about a new REI campaign, "Rethink Living."

Disclaimer: I still don’t quite understand semiotics with its use of signs and how I can connect that to a retail catalog/website. I do understand that meaning is gathered by context and relationships rather than pure denotation.

REI’s predominantly retail website caters to the outdoor, rugged, and still modern adventurer. Below are a few details that define REI’s prime customer and show relationships between REI’s persona and current cultural beliefs.

Design
REI.com has made a careful use of colors and basic design principles. The website displays a minimalist design made apparent by the use of the following:

White is dominant in the color palette.

Diagonal lines are excluded from the design.

Fonts are simple and consistent.

The website consists of 2 or 3 column layouts.

REI.com also exhibits a modern approach with bright, clear cut images and extensive navigation menu. Additionally, REI brands itself with black and green (homepage).

Copy
REI’s copy seeks to highlight independence in day to day living through extreme to moderate “adventures”:

“Whether it's the end of a top-rope or an alpine summit, REI has the gear to help you reach it.”

“Get outdoors with tents, packs….”

“The snow's ready, are you?”

“Explore your world on a bike from REI!”

“Get outside with adventure-ready women's hiking and travel clothing….”

Analysis
Culturally, Americans are increasingly spending time indoors. They are inundated with media advertising on every possible piece of communication technology available. Perhaps REI speaks to the “fed up” individual who is bored or exhausted by “The Office” environment. The opportunity for independence is a promising motivation for customers.

REI.com isn’t just a place for the outdoor consumer to get his/her gear, but rather a place that helps to define the customer—to validate the customer’s beliefs and further persuade him/her to become something more. Its retail website ratifies the customer’s need to feel sophisticated (by being minimalistic and modern) but also the independence seeker.

How to write an effective resume: good tips

2010-01-09T17:44:00.000-07:00

I recently attended a resume writing seminar and learned some very helpful tips.

Overview:

The employer is buying your education
A resume is a polished and professional IMPACT statement
A basic chronology of your related experience shapes your interview questions
In your cover letter show you can solve complex problems, think critically, be innovative, and communicate effectively

In the Resume:

Focus on results and impact
Show what you did, not what responsibilities you had
Your resume must get attention in 15-30 seconds
Write from the employer's perspective
Write and be prepared to talk about your experiences in this manner: Position > Responsibility > Action > Result
Don't try to be the jack of all trades
At the end of interview ask, "If I have any questions, may I call you? Thank You"

REI: Rethink living

2010-01-06T12:31:00.000-07:00

Our final project dealt with REI and catering an advertising campaign to the "non-outdoor consumer." It was a tough one but here's what we came up with.

Our campaign stems from using the word "rethink"--rethink living.

Headline: Rethink your Commute

Headline: Rethink your Commute
Copy: Carpool, traffic, and subway are three words that make you twinge. But the word commute shouldn’t. It’s time to shake up your travels to work and turn them into adventures. Is it snowy? Try skiing. Is it sunny? Try cycling. REI will provide the equipment you need so that when you get to work you have a story to tell. Finally you have something to brag about at the water cooler.

Headline: Rethink Dining Out
Copy: This restaurant is unique. No windows, walls, hosts, or hostesses. The only oven you’ll find is Dutch and the only stove you’ll find is Coleman. The patrons are those you call friends and family. Food is accompanied by stories and laughter. REI can supply everything you need to dine under the stars, your job is to recruit hungry diners.

Headline: Rethink the Movies
Copy: The plot is simple but the characters are complex. You’ve heard about them for years but it’s this night that they really shine. Ursa Major and Minor played starring roles, and Orion’s performance is worthy of accolades. REI had everything we needed to make this movie night perfect. From the chairs to the headlamp the night was perfect. The best part about the night, no crowds.

Homepage with banner redesign (above).

Inside page for "Reinvent" in the navigation.

Mission Impossible 2 (II) Soundtrack Music by Hans Zimmer

2009-12-30T18:32:00.000-07:00

Today I've been in the mood for classical guitar music. The Mission Impossible II Soundtrack by Hans Zimmer has a very clear, fresh melody. Enjoy.

Ugliest Logos on the web: Chat forums

2009-12-29T11:40:00.000-07:00

No hard feelings--I just think this logo does nothing for me. The colors don't work and the font is very difficult to read. Furthermore, the design has no relation to SEO or a forum. The one below comes from seochat.com. Great forum--poor design. Sorry guys.

I'm also not a fan of Digital Point's logo (forums.digitalpoint.com). It's just something with these forums--their webmasters simply refuse to put time into half-decent design.

Though, something can still be said of these forums. They have lots of traffic. However, I still think few thousand dollars in design could do something for them--boost reputation, let professionals take them more seriously.

Mathematics a Must-Have for Internet Marketers

2009-12-04T17:50:00.000-07:00

Many marketers have reverted from studying traditional market research to studying a perceived mathematical formula in order to attract customers. Understanding PageRank[1], the algorithm Google patented in 2001[2], is the golden ticket in internet marketing. In this article, we’ll discuss how the algorithm works and how it has changed marketing.

Google and Marketing?

Google holds 80 percent of the US search market share and 90 percent globally.[3] Millions of searches are made per day at Google.com, the most visited website on the internet. Google founders and Stanford dropouts, Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page, probably didn’t realize that their algorithm change the face of marketing. Marketers who can get their company’s websites listed on the first page of Google can often double, triple, or quadruple sales.

How Does it Work?

Although more than 200 factors contribute to Google’s algorithm, it was originally designed with two distinguishing components: (1) page ranking and (2) anchor text.[4]

Page Ranking
Google ranks a web page based on how many inbound links (also called backlinks) from other websites are linking to that page. Each link may be considered one vote, according to Google. Google then innovated further by placing a specific weight on each vote. Sites with more links receive higher rank. In turn, links from these higher ranking sites receive more weight.

To illustrate page ranking, analyze the number of links from two large websites, CNN.com and Walmart.com. Walmart.com has 3,380 backlinks and CNN.com has 46,600 backlinks. A link from CNN.com would be worth more than a link from Walmart.com.

Anchor Text
Anchor text are the words actually being linked. If a link were placed in this article to Bing.com (Microsoft’s search engine), it might look like the following: Visit another search engine. In this case, http://www.bing.com is the link while “search engine” is the anchor text. Google assigns relevancy of the websites in its search results based on the anchor text of those websites’ backlinks. Should the above example be an actual link, a search for “search engine” should be more likely to return Bing.com in the results.

What Does this Mean to Marketers?

Marketers who understand page ranking and anchor text can build traffic to their companies’ websites by employing numerous methods of link building and using keyword-targeted anchor text.

Continual Research

However, the buck doesn’t stop with proper link building and anchor text. Because spam is always trying to get into Google’s search results,[5] Google engineers must constantly update the algorithm.[6] Thus, internet marketing always requires continuous research and testing.

[1] Wikipedia, “PageRank,”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank

[2] Lawrence Page, “Method for node ranking in a linked database,” Google Patent,

http://www.google.com/patents?id=cJUIAAAAEBAJ&zoom=4&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q=&f=false

[3] Reuters, “CORRECTING and REPLACING: Bing US Market Share Stabilises but Yahoo! Continues Fall – StatCounter,”

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS151362+02-Nov-2009+BW20091102

[4] Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page, “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine,” Stanford University,

http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html

[5] Zolt Gyöngyi and Hector Garcia-Molina, "Spam: It's Not Just for Inboxes Anymore," Computer, vol. 38, no. 10, pp. 28-34, Oct. 2005, doi:10.1109/MC.2005.352

[6] Matt Cutts, “Explaining algorithm updates and data refreshes,”

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/explaining-algorithm-updates-and-data-refreshes/

Cookie Monster and Domino Sugar

2009-11-30T21:30:00.000-07:00

How would you create an ad for Domino Sugar? Natural sugar manufacturers like Domino have been facing a lot of competition from the substitute sugars such as "Sweet 'n Low" and "Splenda." Our goal was to position Domino Sugar as a all-natural quality sugar that was fit for a housewife who wanted to be fit and provide healthy cooking for her family.

Our first major idea was about using the right sugar for you. We wanted to show a traditional plate of cookies with a note "For Santa", with a Christmas tree in the background. The copy would have been, "Because this year, you're Santa." We wanted to tell the consumer that ultimately, it is she who will eat the products of her baking and thus, she should use quality ingredients.

After a multitude of ideas, Sesame Street's famous Cookie Monster came to our minds. The Cookie Monster will eat any cookie right? Wrong. Cookie Monster will gladly go for a piece of pizza rather than some cookies made with substitute sugars.

Copy:

Substitute sugars are the real monsters. Even the most famous cookie lovers only go for cookies made from all-natural, real sugar.

Visit dominosugar.com for Cookie Monster’s favorite cookie recipe

What do you think?

Contact Forms 7 - Making value text disappear when clicked (onfocus)

2009-11-25T16:30:00.000-07:00

UPDATE (Jan. 8, 2010) - I managed to use the added script below in a new website (I work for SEO.com). Take a look at metrocarpetcleaners.com (the form is in the right sidebar).

I'm really not a PHP developer in any fashion. However, I've managed to make some adjustments to the Contact Forms 7 plugin for Wordpress.

Contact Forms 7

My hat goes off to Takayuki Miyoshi, the creator of Contact Forms 7. The plugin is very intuitive and fairly user-friendly in comparison with other form plugins. However, I found that I couldn't make input value attributes appear and disappear when a form input was clicked on. Below are some of the adjustments I made:

In the plugin folder under admin/admin.php I added a new option to the administration of the text input generator (line 466). Script additions are in blue:

'acceptableFileTypes' => __( "Acceptable file types", 'wpcf7' ),

'needReallySimpleCaptcha' => __( "Note: To use CAPTCHA, you need Really Simple CAPTCHA plugin installed.", 'wpcf7' ),

'onFocusOnBlur' => __( "Make input values disappear when clicked?", 'wpcf7' )

) );
Then, modify the admin javascript file under admin/wpcf7-admin.js
(line 417)
jQuery.each([ 'isRequiredField', 'allowsMultipleSelections', 'insertFirstBlankOption', 'makeCheckboxesExclusive',

'isAcceptanceDefaultOn', 'isAcceptanceInvert',

'akismetAuthor', 'akismetAuthorEmail', 'akismetAuthorUrl',

'imageSizeSmall', 'imageSizeMedium', 'imageSizeLarge', 'onFocusOnBlur' ], function(i, n) {

tgInputs[n] = jQuery('');

(line 469)
table1.append(tgTr(

jQuery(' ' + _wpcf7L10n.isRequiredField + '').prepend(tgInputs.isRequiredField),

jQuery(' ' + _wpcf7L10n.onFocusOnBlur + '').prepend(tgInputs.onFocusOnBlur)

));

(line 1159)
if (tgInputs.tagClasses.val())

jQuery.each(tgInputs.tagClasses.val().split(' '), function(i, n) {

options.push('class:' + n);

});

if (tgInputs.onFocusOnBlur.is(':checked'))

options.push('onfocus');
Then edit the text module file under modules/text.php:
First determine if the new option is selected:

} elseif ( preg_match( '%^([0-9]*)[/x]([0-9]*)$%', $option, $matches ) ) {
$size_att = (int) $matches[1];
$maxlength_att = (int) $matches[2];
} elseif ( preg_match( '%^onfocus$%', $option, $matches ) ) {
$onfocus_att = 1;
}
}
Add the javascript to the input if the selection was made (still on modules/text.php):

if ($onfocus_att == 1) {
$atts .= "onfocus=\"if(this.value=='" . esc_attr( $value ) . "'){value='';document.getElementById('" . trim( $id_att ) . "').style.color='#000000'}\" onblur=\"if(this.value==''){value='" . esc_attr( $value ) . "';document.getElementById('" . trim( $id_att ) . "').style.color='#999999'}\"";
}
$html = ...
Your Done!

Here's an image of the new checkbox:

Let me know if you have any questions. I'm going to put up a demo soon.

Dave's Formatter

2009-11-24T13:39:00.000-07:00

While I was working with LawFirmSites, a coworker and friend created an HTML code formatter. It's been a few years and I still use it frequently.

Sometimes I forget how to find it. Here's the link:

Dave's Formatter

Synchronized Christmas Lights - Carol of the Bells

2009-11-17T18:24:00.000-07:00

Mr. Holdman puts up an impressive light show every year. I recorded this version a few years ago. I was really impressed with the extravagant lighting. All the lights are synchronized perfectly with Carol of the Bells which was played over a short-wave radio signal. It's become a family tradition to see what Mr. Holdman will do next.

Synchronized Christmas Lights

A Day at the Museum - Naturhistorisches Museum

2009-11-15T23:08:00.001-07:00

Not knowing what the museum had, I stepped inside. "Naturhistorisches Museum," I read the sign to myself. Apparently, the statue on the dome of this museum was a bit taller--a meter or so taller than the Kunsthistorisches Museum's statue across the plaza. Logical symbolism. God's creations are higher and nobler than Man's creations.

I found the Museum strangely designed. The top floor contained numerous exhibits of animals from each family. First insects, then amphibians, and reptiles, and mammals.

One monkey seemed especially vicious. His teeth were glaring and the glass eyes shone with ferocious brightness. I was perplexed with the monkey's face and pressed my face up to the glass to get a closer look. I did not realize, however, that a faint mist was streaming from his mouth. His chest was moving in and out like real lungs. That's weird.

Suddenly, his right arm seemed to fly into motion and he smashed his extra large fist against the exhibit glass. Crack! Right on my face. A stream of blood ran down the glass. I stepped back in shock and confusion. Did that monkey just move? I felt my forehead. Blood. The glass was smashed and the monkey wasn't finished. He began to hit the glass repeatedly and finally the exhibit box shattered to the floor. The entire case of monkeys was a mess, and now they were all alive, screaming and jumping. One hopped onto my shoulders and wrapped his long hairy arms around my eyes and mouth. I stumbled backwards, trying to pry the monkey off my head. Then suddenly I was free just as I tripped into the crocodile display. Oops...

Richard Strauss: Arabella in Vienna - Franz Josef's Reaction

2009-11-15T22:44:00.001-07:00

The orchestra played loud and sure. The conductor waved his arms back and forth like a flag in the wind. His long hair waved as well, drenched in perspiration--after all, he had been conducting for over an hour. The notes were strangely twisted and dynamic--typical of Strauss. It was amidst this flowing blanket of sound that the main character, "Arabella," sung with rich tone. It was near the end of the last act.

The audience was glued to the performance excluding the Emperor Franz Josef who was seated in box 3. He usually showed an uninterested look and his slouched body gave away his dislike of opera. Nevertheless, the majority of the wealthy class, seated in the boxes, were anxiously hoping for a delightful ending. Would Arabella's new lover disgrace her after learning of her supposed unfaithfulness? Would the obsessive Mateo use the revolver to end his life?

Strauss wrote the opera with a joyful and romantic ending where the lovers would find happiness and the third act would end on a pleasant major chord, rather than a minor one so typical of operas. Misfortune, however, found its place in the performance of this evening's premiere. It was a romantically climactic moment. Fortunately, things had been made right with Mateo, and now that his secondary role was concluded, the bloat was no longer needed on stage. Now was time for the role of Arabella to truly shine.

Count Mandryck had so coincidentally mentioned earlier in the opera that in his country it was customary for a village girl to offer a cup of water to her lover, acknowledging that she agreed to be his wife. The beautiful Arabella asked for a glass of water to be taken to her room. Then she said goodbye and walked upstairs for bed.

At this point the music softened and moved in breadth. It was melancholy but gradually crescendo-ed into subtle tenderness. Arabella gently stepped down the steps back into the spotlight. She was carrying the glass of water of which she was soon to give to Mandryck. What sparkling light reflected off of her makeup and gown.

Then, much more quickly then the moment had taken to produce, our beautiful Arabella lost her footing. Her graced turned into puppet-like stumbling, then tumbling down the steps. Ouch.

The sudden disruption surprised the conductor as he also lost his balance. Waving his arms now like reeds in the wind he too stumbled backwards off the conductors stand and into the floor level seating area. The orchestra burst into hysterical confusion; some violinists abruptly stopped playing while others continued off time and off tune. Finally the orchestra realized the catastrophe and halted playing.

Silence filled the auditorium. The poor vocalist, Arabella, rose to her feet. She was horrified. It was one of those suffocating silences where the audience sat in disbelief--everyone gasping for some bit of sound that would break the awkwardness.

From Box 3 came a chuckle and applause from a single set of hands. Franz Josef was delighted for he had been awakened from his boredom. Trying to hold back his laughter, he yelled, "Wunderbar!, Bravo!" To him, this was the first opera that was clearly inspirational and entertaining.

LA Gear, The 80s fashion shoe is coming back

2009-11-02T19:29:00.000-07:00

Nick Corotan and I created this ad campaign for LA Gear. The strategy was to position LA Gear as the shoe that has made a stupendous comeback, unlike many other 80s fads (Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer, etc.)

"December 2008 marked a triumphant return to the apex of popular culture for iconic sneaker brand L.A. Gear. Bringing back signature styles from its hugely popular '89-'90 Unstoppable line, while updating some colors and materials, the company launched L.A. Gear Originals."

LAGear.com

LA Gear was booming in the 80s but they severely lost market share in the 90s (probably because the style was no longer the fad). LA Gear filed for bankruptcy in the 90s. Now they are making a comeback. I've noticed many people on campus wearing LA Gear styled shoes.Even Nick said he liked the blue and green one in the first ad. He said he wishes he could buy a pair.

Copy:

This comeback is just two feet away

Some comebacks don't make it... some do

LA GEAR

Christine's Cooking Creations - A new blog

2009-10-27T20:48:00.001-06:00

Christine has started a blog. We're currently looking for a good domain (the ideal, "christinescooking.com", is taken). She's going to be cooking some very fun and interesting recipes. And, I must add, she is a good cook. She derides her talented cooking creativity from watching her mother, living in multiple countries, and having superb gourmet intuition.

I invite you to take a look at her blog. Currently, we're hosting Christine's Cooking blog at christine.davidscoville.com. Last night she made a wonderful Pad Thai dish. I was very impressed. Take a look at her site and enjoy her creations.

Posted via email from davidscoville's posterous

"Retire Early" Advertising Campaign

2009-10-09T13:37:00.000-06:00

Here's how the "Save Money" campaigns turned out after I talked to Professor McKinley. I decided to make it a little more causal: If you save you'll retire early; If you don't save, you'll have headaches and never retire.

Headline:
Jim retires at 45.
Bob and Shirley keep working.

Copy:
Jim Redding
Jim saved just $500/month and did without unnecessary memberships and credit cards. Now he’s looking at a $500,000 retirement at age 45. Jim doesn’t deal with the financial headaches that many Americans suffer from. He always goes by the saying, “don’t spend what you don’t have.”

Bob Thompson
Bob lives on the edge--the edge of financial ruin. With over $11,000 in credit card debt, he’ll consider himself lucky when he’ll pay it off in 20 years, having spent $4,700 on interest. In the meantime he’ll max out a few more credit cards and keep getting headaches.

Shirley Pilford
Shirley’s more concerned about spending rather than saving. She can’t give up her cable tv. After all, she’s got 1,000 channels, of which 10 she actually watches. She won’t go without her 5 subscriptions to magazines she never has time to read. And what about her membership at the gym she doesn’t have to time to go to?

Mug shots from istockphoto.

$60,000 in Internet Marketing

2009-10-01T15:31:00.001-06:00

My company is giving away $60,000 in internet marketing for any company that has really suffered during the recession. It will be a very exciting contest. We've called it the Ultimate Web Marketing Makeover because it's a makeover for a company's online presence, just like they do on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. I had the opportunity to work on our landing page: http://www.seo.com/web-marketing-makeover. Jeff Call came up with the original graphics and I implemented his work into a landing page.

After working at SEO.com for over a year, I'm really impressed with the growth we've had. We've got a full office of some really great talent: social media experts, ppc experts, conversion experts, and, of course, SEO experts.

Albert Mitchell helped to put together this video about the contest:

If you're a winner of this contest, you'll be amazed at how much traffic you'll get with your awarded 6-month contract. You'll have some of the best online marketing gurus help your site slam the competition. Best of luck!

Posted via email from davidscoville's posterous

Save More. Spend Less. - Be thrifty campaign

2009-09-30T13:43:00.000-06:00

Headline:

Big debt is not a

“problem-free philosophy”

Copy:

As far as we’re concerned, “Hakuna Matata” isn’t a financial term. America’s total consumer debt is $2.6 trillion. That’s $8,500 for every American citizen--and that doesn’t include real estate. Unnecessary debt contributes to depression, bad credit, and a poor economy. Next time you think about making a big purchase, ask yourself: “Do I really have the money?”

Believe

2009-09-27T17:32:00.001-06:00

Who was ever a proponent of faith?

Mahatma Ghandi
Jesus Christ
Mohammed
Walt Disney
Roosevelt
Joan of Arc
Martin Luther
Winston Churchill
Abraham Lincoln
George Washington
Apostle Paul
Nelson Mandela
Jan Hus
John Calvin
Handel
Montezuma
Albert Einstein

Posted via email from davidscoville's posterous

Favorite Disneyland Castle Image

2009-09-26T14:31:00.002-06:00

I think this image is superb. I have it hung in my cubicle. The colors are so rich and crisp.

Although it was originally called Snow White's castle, the name was changed to Sleeping Beauty's Castle. There is also a walk-through of the castle that depicts the Sleeping Beauty Story in storybook images.

Disneyworld Castle

Below is the Disneyworld castle. It is called Cinderella's castle and is much taller and more ornate than the Disneyland Castle.

Disneyworld Magic Kingdom Tilt-Shift Video

I just watched this video today and had to post it:

Produce 2 Print Ads: One with Copy Only, One with Illustration Only

2009-09-25T14:59:00.000-06:00

What do you think? Do they share the same idea? Are they effective?

Copy:
When it comes to the alphabet, 'm' is all you need.

Forget 'a-l' and 'n-z', 'm' is where it's at. Since 1941, the recognizeable 'm' has become and American icon for the colorful candy which has brought delightful chocolate goodness to millions. mmmmmmmm...

M&Ms

Print Ad Remake-- Single Edge

2009-09-23T10:17:00.000-06:00

Here's the original ad I found from the BusinessQ magazine (2007 publication)

I felt the image in the original was not effective for the audience of the ad--business people. Most business people don't really care what is behind the scenes of their website; i.e., how big, sleek, or clean their servers are. They just want to know that the technical side of their business works well and either keeps costs down or increases revenue.

I decided to utilize SingleEdge's logo--the power button symbol. What came of a little thinking was the idea that eBusiness should be simple and get the job done. Thus I said, "eBusiness as simple as pushing the power button."

Bits of interestingness

2009-09-15T20:38:00.000-06:00

This is Saroooh when we went to Disneyland a few years ago. She's very pensive. I believe she was in deep thought over the relationship between Minnie and Mickey. Saroooh means business--monkey business.

This is lieblingsmensch feeding bread to this rubber ducky. She really cares about the homeless ducks around campus.

I had the most scrumptious lasagna tonight made by lieblingsmensch. It was utterly delicious, and lieblingsmensch is sick. We will have it for lunch tomorrow.

Somehow, the atonement will make things right

2009-08-04T21:32:00.001-06:00

The atonement of the savior Jesus Christ is the only thing that will save us from destruction. I don't mean world destruction. I mean pure destruction of self. We all suffer. If we're not careful we'll destroy ourselves. Christ cares. I feel this is true.

Snapshots. .

2009-08-04T21:24:00.000-06:00

A sweet person. Pretty, isn't she.

A speedy baby duck looking for his little brother. Poor guy.

What a sweet dog.

Closeups in Photography

2009-06-02T17:44:00.000-06:00

I was a very involved photographer in high school. I was just going through some of my photos and found some of my favorites. I've always been interested in texture and color. Closeups can really bring out texture. These were taken with my film SLR and the negatives were scanned at high quality.

Sand.
A little flying bug.
A little toad.
A yellow lily.

Love is.

2009-04-05T23:20:00.000-06:00

Are you in love? I am.

What should I do to show her that I love her?

I want to show her that when she suffers, I suffer. When she is in pain, I am in pain. When she is happy, I am happy.

I want to tell her that she is beautiful. She is beautiful.

The more I speak to her, the more I learn about life. I learn about confidence, tolerance, love. Especially love.

What does it mean to love someone?

Love is to wish for one to be happy, regardless of the pain or consequences it takes to make this person happy.

Love is to choose to be happy, regardless of misfortunes.

To love someone, is to have faith in one's self.

Love is never jealous. Love is selfless.

To love someone is to step out of personal comforts--personal barriers.

Love is liberation of self.

Hate divides. Love connects.

Love is divine. One in love is close to God.

"To love another person is to see the face of God."

Love is to choose to see the beauty in another--to look past imperfections.. To choose to see her loyalty, her integrity, her trust, her faith, her compassion, her understanding.

What is beautiful about two people who love each other? The more she loves me, the more I change. I lose imperfections, because she chooses to look past those imperfections.

People aren't born with the ability to walk, to talk. They don't know how to write, or read. They don't know how to hate.

However. People know love.

A Return to Ethics in Society

2009-03-21T16:16:00.000-06:00

In a world of degrading values, we must make a commitment to stand for Christ-like values, such as morality, integrity, civility, love, etc. The most long-lasting and truly effective means of saving a society from self-destruction is not in new policy but by the upholding of traditional values in the lives of individuals and families. Those in professional fields of communication have an obligation to themselves, their society, and to God, to “stand for something” good when it seems that no one else will.

Love

“As we look with love and gratitude to God, and as we serve others with no apparent recompense for ourselves, there will come a greater sense of service toward our fellow human beings, less thinking of self and more reaching out to others” (pg. 11).

Honesty

“Without honesty, our lives disintegrate into ugliness, chaos, and a lack of any kind of security and confidence. Imagine a society in which it would be unwise or unsafe to trust anyone—from elected officials to financial advisers to insurance adjusters to your child's babysitter or kindergarten teacher” (pg. 18).

Media, as in the case of morals, preaches that dishonesty is tolerable and, in many instances, acceptable. “We are barraged with vivid displays of dishonesty on the nightly news. The media parade before us a veritable procession of deception in its many ugly forms” (pg. 20).

A business's level of integrity depends on the integrity of its workers: “Indeed, the strength and safety of any organization—including the family—lie in the integrity of its members. Witout personal integrity, there can be no confidence” (pg. 21).

Morals

Many of the worlds problems would be solved if traditional morals were kept. Too many issues stem from a new “freedom” promulgated by media.

“Our legislatures and courts are affected by this wave [of immorality]... This is done in the name of freedom—freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of choice in so-called personal matters. But the abuse of these freedoms has yielded enslavement to degrading habits, and behavior that leads only to destruction.” (pg. 40)

A majority of Americans, referring to Michael Medved from his book Hollywood vs. America, object to the amount of violence and immorality found in Hollywood films. “The producers of this trash are out of step with the feelings of mainstream America. But in their obsession, they are without doubt influencing and leading millions down a course that invites all too many to readjust their personal moral standards.” (pg. 40)

It is ignorant to think that hours of watching immoral behavior on television has no effect on one's life. Advertisers are willing to pay millions for a 30 second spot during the Super Bowl. “Apparently, a host of advertisers felt confident that in thirty seconds' time they could influence their viewers to buy the products or services they were peddling” (pg. 42).

Life changes under small turns. It is not the few monumental events which stake our direction, but the many small choices and pressures that we face everyday—especially during a time when we are inundated with media. “The lesson of the switch point is similar to the workings of a large and heavy farm gate. Such a gate moves very little at the hinges but a long way out at the circumference” (pg. 47).

“The kingdom of God is not a democracy. Wickedness and righteousness are not legislated by majority vote. Right and wrong are not determined by polls or pundits, though many would have us believe otherwise” (pg. 50).

Civility

Within the walls of our own nation, we are losing civility to gangs and violence. “A study sponsored by the National Insitute of Justice concluded that crime costs Americans at least 450 billion dollars a year... The Defense Department's budget in 1995 was 252 billion dollars, so the cost of crime is essentially twice the amount we spend to defend our nation” (pg. 58).

Weakening civility begins with a descending courtesy. President Hinckley quoted a writer: “'The hip heroes of movies today deliver gratuitous put-downs to ridicule and belittle anyone who gets in their way. Bad manners, apparently, make a saleable commodity” (pg. 58).

The degradation of language with vulgarity, rudeness and crudeness is a major factor in our lack of civility.

“This is the essence of civility—to extend, without price, a helping or lifting hand to those in need; to anxiously look for ways to strengthen those who may have less than we do” (pg. 62).

Learning

Education is the process of making abstract ideas useful and training the mind and body. There are unfortunate avenues that draw us away from true education: “May I be so bold as to suggest that far too many people spend far too much time mesmerized by the mindless drivel that too often inhabits television airwaves, videos, and other forms of electronic media” (pg. 70).

“It has been estimated that the average child in the United States watches something approaching 8,000 hours of television before he or she even begins school” (pg. 72).

Learning should continue throughout one's life: “The more we learn, the more we are in a position to learn” (pg. 71).

Knowledge comes from God. President Hinckley quotes Brigham Young as saying that all knowledge comes from a divine source, whether thinkers choose to believe it or not (pg. 78).

Forgivenss and Mercy

Holding onto grudges holds back progression while it cankers the soul. This attitude causes many problems in the professional world of business. “We need them among business associates who quarrel and refuse to compromise or forgive when, in most instances, a willingness to sit down together, exercise compassion, and speak quietly one to another could resolve the matter to the blessing of all” (pg. 82).

“We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount... Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living” (pg 83 -General Omar Bradley).

Thrift and Industry

A society without the virtue of quality work cannot last. Individuals who do not cherish work, will miss the purpose and meaning of life: “The process of stretching our minds and utilizing the skills of our hands lifts us from the stagnation of mediocrity” (pg. 95).

Thrift and industry allow a family to be strong and independent. This in turns builds a strong nation (pg. 97).

Excessive debt is the enemy and opposite of thrift. It is especially rampant during our current time of a global economic crisis. “Bankruptcy generally is the bitter fruit of debt, overextension, and uncontrolled appetites. It is a tragic culmination of a simple process of borrowing more than one can repay. I deplore waste. I deplore unnecessary and uncontrolled extravagance. I value thrift” (pg. 97).

The media plays a heavy role in a society want of thrift: “Seductive advertising strives to persuade us that we deserve to have it all and have it now, regardless of the cost. There is a lack of self-discipline and financial self-control that promises future doom” (pg. 98).

Gratitude

Those who live in this country should be extremely grateful for what they have. “Gratitude is a sign of maturity. It is an indication of sincere humility. It is a hallmark of civility” (pg. 106).

There are a host of things that we can be grateful for. Among other things, President Hinckley mentions his gratitude for his belief in God and Jesus Christ. He also shares his gratitude for a religiously free society. “Our television screens have carried into our own homes the demonstrations and cries of many people for freedom and liberty concerning basic human rights that we take for granted” (pg. 113). Thus, the extensive world coverage that we receive on the news should promote us to gratitude more than anything else.

Optimism

The media is a major factor for a poor world outlook. The news is constantly barraging us with stories of death, deceit and carnage. “Pick up any major daily newspaper or weekly news magazine, or turn to the news on any one of the many available channels. It is impossible to read the columns or listen to the commentaries without sensing that there is a terrible ailment of gloom in this land” (pg. 115-116).

Many of the well educated writers have lent themselves entirely to negativism. This kind oft attitude makes society a weak as people become stagnant and critical of their surroundings. “This spirit of negativism grows and begins to hang as a cloud over the land, providing a misleading portrait of the facts and, in the process, reaching down to the individual man and woman and influencing attitudes, outlook, and even values” (pg. 116).

Faith in one's self and in others lifts the soul to accomplish much good. “What wonders we can accomplish when others have faith in us! No leader can long succeed in any society without the confidence of the people. It is so with our daily associations” (pg. 122).

Faith

“We simply cannot do as much alone as we can when we team our efforts with the divine” (pg. 128).

“Without preservation and cultivation of the things spiritual, our material success will be as ashes in our mouths. The spirit is as much a part of a person as is the body, and it too needs nourishment—the nourishment born of faith in and devotion to a Supreme Being” (pg. 131).

According to President Hinckley, a spiritual perspective is essential for a healthy society.

Prayer is an essential part of virtuous and faithful living.

President Hinckley clearly has a powerful perspective on living righteously. The problem that faces value-driven students, about to enter the job force, is the fact that these students are becoming the minorities in their conviction to morals. Thus, it requires increasingly more effort and especially conviction to “stand for something” right. Business's goal is to make money. Advertising (my major) seeks only to increase the bottom line of the client. However, media without ethics will drag society into destruction. Hinckley predicts our society to become desolate of real peace and happiness—an environment of increased war and poverty is the direction we are heading if we continue to ignore traditional values.

As future media professionals, we have the charge to uphold these values rather than following the crowd which currently exists in Hollywood and across advertising and news agencies. On a priority scale, Hinckley makes it clear that ethics in the workplace are more important than business profit.

With this charge in mind, Communication professionals who believe in these ideals such as honesty and morality should be prepared and willing to set ethics above their positions, salaries, bonuses, etc. What does this necessarily mean to the average editor for a local newspaper or the photographer in an ad agency? The editor must choose to remove eye-catching, sensational material from his or her paper which contains false statements. The photographer must stand up against the ideal that “sex sells” in providing imagery for magazine ads.

Going against the norm of shoddy morals and slacking integrity could mean losing one's job, or being held from rising in company position. This is can often be a very difficult position to take, especially when the right side is not so apparent. However, according to Hinckley and my own personal opinion, true, traditional ethics must be upheld by individuals in order for any change to occur in society.

I find a connection in Hinckley's thoughts with those of Moulton in his Moulton model. That is that a foundation of ethics in society provides a buffer zone between free choice and law—an optimum soft-spot between anarchy and totalitarianism. It is vital that we uphold to traditional ethics, rather than skewed modern ethics. Finally, we must remember that the only way to propel the process of elevating our ethics is the application of ethics in our individual lives.

Hinckley, Gordon Bitner. Standing for Something: 10 Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes. Three Rivers Pr. 2001

D&C 42:22–23. “Marriage Presupposes Total Allegiance and Fidelity”

2009-03-19T09:19:00.000-06:00

“When the Lord says all thy heart, it allows for no sharing nor dividing nor depriving. And, to the woman it is paraphrased: ‘Thou shalt love thy husband with all thy heart and shalt cleave unto him and none else.’

“The words none else eliminate everyone and everything. The spouse then becomes preeminent in the life of the husband or wife, and neither social life nor occupational life nor political life nor any other interest nor person nor thing shall ever take precedence over the companion spouse. We sometimes find women who absorb and hover over the children at the expense of the husband, sometimes even estranging them from him.

“The Lord says to them: ‘Thou shalt cleave unto him and none else.’

“Marriage presupposes total allegiance and total fidelity. Each spouse takes the partner with the understanding that he or she gives totally to the spouse all the heart, strength, loyalty, honor, and affection, with all dignity. Any divergence is sin; any sharing of the heart is transgression. As we should have ‘an eye single to the glory of God,’ so should we have an eye, an ear, a heart single to the marriage and the spouse and family.” (Faith Precedes the Miracle, pp. 142–43.)

Source: D&C Student Manual

Sesame Street Aliens

2009-02-16T12:15:00.000-07:00

Their language is so advanced that they only use speed and inflections to relate deeply intelligent and philosophical topics. Unbelievably, they use basically two words: "yip" and "uh-huh".

Prayer

2009-01-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

President Joseph F. Smith counseled:

“It is not the words we use particularly that constitute prayer. Prayer does not consist of words, altogether. True, faithful, earnest prayer consists more in the feeling that rises from the heart and from the inward desire of our spirits to supplicate the Lord in humility and in faith, that we may receive his blessings.”

(Gospel Doctrine, p. 219.)

Love is everything it's cracked up to be

2009-01-19T08:50:00.000-07:00

"Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."

-Lord Alfred Tennyson

"You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you do not trust enough"

-Frank Crane

"Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more."
-Erica Jong

Good Days

2009-01-19T08:47:00.000-07:00

The bad days make the good days even better.
-Garry Scoville (Dad)

Infinite Atonement

2009-01-19T00:03:00.000-07:00

What exactly does the word infinity mean? I have heard from great men who teach that "infinite" implies the overcoming of time and space.

Jesus Christ suffered for the pain of all mankind, from Adam to the new born baby who was born 10 seconds ago. His Atonement passes all time.

It's also true that the atonement reaches to all mankind, from the island dweller to the city folk. It also reaches to all of God's children across the universe. His Atonement surpasses all space.

Put these thoughts aside for a moment and think about another example that deals with 'infinity'. What does infinity really mean? It defines a measurement with no beginning and no end. Incomprehensible, right? Suppose one were to add 10 units to infinity. What would be the result? Infinity. Suppose one were to add 10 million units to infinity. What then would be the result? Still infinity. Again, Darin has provided me with an insightful example:

Suppose that each individual on the earth can accomplish good, and we begin to rate ourselves based upon the good we do. The vilest of sinners will be a 1, and the most holy, unselfish person will be a 10. I probably stand somewhere around a 5. It's fairly depressing to begin comparing our personal numbers to the numbers of those around us. I suppose you would feel really good about yourself if you were a 7--because you are 2 points better than I am! However, comparing gets us nowhere.

Enter Jesus Christ. What's his number? It is infinity. How would you like to compare yourself to Christ? When I stand myself up against Christ, my number 5 is worth nothing. There is no way that my 5 will increase the number infinity. It's mathematically, hogwash. The atonement, in essence, makes us one with Christ. He adds his 'infinity' to our feeble 2 or 5 or 9. Do you see how our little number, even if it were a ten, stands as nothing compared to Christ? It doesn't matter if we're a 10 like Thomas S. Monson or Mother Teresa. These individuals still require Christ's infinity.

Jesus Christ is our redeemer. May we understand our complete reliance on His atonement. May we see our own nothingness, and finally, may we stop comparing ourselves. We're all as little children, in constant need of nourishment. Why don't we live together and laugh together in the journey of life. I say this as much to myself as to anyone else.

We MUST rely on Christ

2009-01-11T23:00:00.000-07:00

Below is a string of messages that were started by me out of curiosity over a small article I read about socialism. However, tangents led the theme to Jesus Christ and the atonement. Start from the bottom, for that was the first message. Then read up, as different people make comments in replying emails.

From David (me)
I wanted to further discuss something I wrote here. Don't feel obligated to read, I'm just thinking out loud: However, if we choose to be diligent out of complete "unconditional love" (the type of love where we still follow even if we're denied salvation), then we're doing it unselfishly and trying to copy the same grace that Christ gave us.
Being completely unselfish in doing "good" is not a saving principle. "No one is good, no not one." Christ has already saved us... If we think we are supposed to be completely unselfish (meaning we ask for nothing, not even His grace), then we have failed in understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ. We NEED Christ. There's no way getting around that, and he's already offered an escape from the personal hell we put ourselves into. We can become healed and cleaned. Lost experiences, trust, and faith, can be returned. Here I present a sort of paradox: We MUST rely on Christ (we must ask for His grace--we must, in essence, think of ourselves), the author and finisher of our faith, in order to learn charity--the most unselfish, pure love. Does that seem a little confusing to anyone?

But the part of the gospel that talks about redemption, atonement, unconditional love, being born again, the love of the Savior--that confuses them. They don't really understand it. They don't really get it. They could give a great sacrament meeting talk on it, because they're very bright and they know how all the words fit together. But in their hearts, that part of the gospel confuses them. Many of them are men who think to themselves or who seem to view it as though, "I can accept the atonement of Jesus Christ after I've repented and overcome this and left all this alone. After I've done this, then I can accept the atonement to kind of clean up the mess I made along the way. But not right now, not while I'm so bad. I've got to overcome this on my own, and then the atonement is available to me." It's the equivalent of saying, "I can accept the atonement as soon as I prove I don't need it, as soon as I prove I don't need it."

Dr. Robinson - http://theguardrail.com/transcript_printable.htm

After reading that statement, I think that not accepting Christ is more selfish.

So what are we to do with this life? Christ has already redeemed us. Life is to be spent in His service out of absolute gratitude for His grace and love.

From David Scoville (me)

We all will be resurrected and at least obtain the telestial kingdom. That is the free gift. To go beyond that requires diligence, repentance, and obedience.

I know I am putting this conversation into a "faith and works" tangent, but I would like to gather more discussion. Wouldn't it be somewhat of mockery before God if we were to say we had a hand in our own exaltation? That's a question you get frequently in the South. No man can save himself. But can man help in saving himself? Does one say, "I'm in the celestial kingdom because Christ and I worked on it together" or does one say "I'm in the celestial kingdom because of Christ alone"? Maybe it doesn't matter, and I shouldn't worry about it--but I still think it's a worthy thought. When reading Paul, we can easily interpret him in saying that there is nothing, and I mean nothing that we can do to receive salvation, except accept (ha ha awkward wording) the gift of the atonement.

This then goes back to motives. What are our motives for "diligence, repentance, and obedience" - is it to "return to heavenly father" as we hear so often from nursery to young mens/young womens? If that is our motive, then we are technically selfish and capitalistic. However, if we choose to be diligent out of complete "unconditional love" (the type of love where we still follow even if we're denied salvation), then we're doing it unselfishly and trying to copy the same grace that Christ gave us. However, this logic is becoming circular. No one, in my opinion, can be completely unselfish. However, it's much better to follow the commandments 'selfishly' then not to follow at all.

Below is a chat conversation I had with Tyler concerning capitalism:

Tyler: As far as capitalism goes...it's not the best or the ideal economic system, but it's the best we've got.
Just like democracy is not ideal, but it's the best we've got and it's lasted for a long time.
Ich: yeah, I agree

Tyler: The thing about socialism is that it has good ends
Ich: I haven't seen any lately

Tyler: Well, it INTENDS good ends

but the means deprive people of AGENCY, which is our most valuable possession
It intends to provide for everyone, but in a way, it forces citizens to be charitable

Ich: satans plan in disguise
Tyler: Bingo

So the plan of salvation is interesting because there are no guarantees for success
Ich: interesting

Tyler: You have to CHOOSE to be charitable
if you're not, you'll be judged accordingly

So, capitalism, or free market economies, are about freedom. The "problem" is that there is no guarantee for success
So, ideally, those who are successful in capitalism should share their wealth of their own free will and choice

From Garry

Interesting conversation you've started here, David.

First, my comments assume that capitalism is - you get what you work for.

In our mortal world, capitalism is skewed and inconsistent. Some people do not get what they work for. Some work hard and even smart, but still fail. Some people are disadvantaged due to physical, mental, or emotional detriments. Some people are greedy and take advantage of others and get ahead by maintaining poverty. In capitalism there will always be wealth and poverty and it's not always based on what I do.

I believe capitalism depends on some being poor and some being wealthy. Service workers can't make $100K / year if the business owner wants to make the same. So the privileged, greedy, hard working, and intelligent rise to the top. That's not to say that all wealthy are greedy, but I still wonder how someone who makes millions is willing to pay the single mother $10/hour.

The principles of Mormonism are almost pure capitalism (I get what I work for). The Lord's plan says, be obedient and you will have eternal life. Everyone, including the disadvantaged, has an equal opportunity to receive the eternal life and become like God. It may take some longer but everyone who desires and follows the rules, will make it.

The idea that the atonement is a free gift is true, but there must still be some diligence to receive the highest reward. We all will be resurrected and at least obtain the telestial kingdom. That is the free gift. To go beyond that requires diligence, repentance, and obedience.

But the church is more than "you get what you work for." It also teaches mercy and charity. It recognizes that people in this life will be disadvantaged and need help regardless of the reason. That's why King Benjamin said:

16 And also, ye yourselves will ^asuccor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the ^bbeggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.

17 Perhaps thou shalt ^asay: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—

18 But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.

The beggar often appears as if they deserve what they got. But Christianity says help them anyway. That's not capitalism.

When I was younger, I was a pure republican and very capitalistic. As I've grown up, I've become more moved by King Benjamin's teaching and the principles of charity and mercy. In the early days of the church, Joseph Smith started a business - a retail store. It went bankrupt because he kept giving to people who couldn't pay. That's remarkable and admirable; but not very successful or capitalistic.

Ok, I've rambled too much.

From David (me)

We are all capitalists in our own lives even for finding our daily bread.

Yes, but wouldn't a true Christian have no thought for his personal daily bread but be more concerned that others are fed. Christ took no thought for his own life but gave it freely to others. True sacrifice means giving. However, I create a contradiction in my own words: logically, if everyone gave, who would receive? Interesting. For Christianity to work, there must be both giving and receiving. Thus, receiving (taking something for our self) is not necessarily selfish or wrong. The question then is, how do we balance giving and receiving in our lives.

From Nelson

I like the article and am impressed with your thinking and interests. In regards to your question one thing that comes to mind is our understanding of God. He is perfect and although He can't become more righteous His kingdom is continually progressing. I can't image a heaven where Gods are socialistic relaying on the angelic governments and other Gods/angels for their kingdom to grow. I believe God is a capitalist in the true and correct definition (take away personal bias). Definition- Capitalism: an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, esp. as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth. We are all capitalists in our own lives even for finding our daily bread. Our goal is to grow toward him and in this world of strife we are learning how to love him. I am interested in your thoughts on how the atonement fits in with my comments.

From David (first email message sent)
http://www.auswanderer-forum.com/forums/f75/es-tut-sich-germany-langsam-43305/

This is one of the reasons that I am not a fan of socialism--I'm still a fan of Germany though. At least read this excerpt:

"While at the beginning of the 1960s social spending in Europe was only slightly higher than in the U.S., by the end of the 1990s, it was twice as much. "Americans are not as obsessed with social insurance because they think if they work hard they will get rich," says Robert MacCulloch, a professor of economics at Princeton University. And they think that once they get rich, they won't want to be burdened with high taxes to cover welfare costs. In Europe, many feel their chances of improving their lot are lower, increasing their appetite for assistance from the state, he says. Europeans also favor income equality more than Americans, surveys show."

It is interesting how our culture really defines our economic policies: "Americans... think if they work hard they will get rich" I agree with that. The more people that believe in work, the better our economy will be. The catch is that we don't force people to work--socialist policies lean in that direction.

I don't mean to say that American culture is the most "holy" but it ties in more closely to Mormon culture. We are transforming members all over the world to be more "capitalist minded"--through our PEC fund and our emphasis on hard work. In essence it goes back to some our underlying (and possibly skewed) beliefs: He who keeps the commandments, gets the rewards of eternal life.

I would also like to make a note about that last sentence. That is a major principle of the gospel, but our belief shouldn't rest on it. I understand that D&C 130 says all blessings are retrieved by obedience. However, it makes no guarantee that we will receive blessings in the first place. Our diligence does not entitle us to any blessing or reward. The atonement is a gift, and the definition of a gift is something unconditionally offered with no obligation for returned compensation. All we've got to do is accept it. From this standpoint, the ideal of capitalism (you get what you work for) seems in direct conflict with true Christianity. So why are Mormons such capitalists? (I would appreciate your thoughts)

--
Sincerely,
David Scoville

P.S. I am still a great advocate of German economics and there can be some worthwhile ideas within socialism. After all, Germany has the 3rd greatest economy in the world. I still wouldn't mind living there.

--
Nelson

--
Sincerely,
David Scoville

--
Sincerely,
David Scoville

-- Sincerely, David Scoville

Miracle of Miracles: Forgiveness

2009-01-01T20:23:00.000-07:00

Indeed the day of miracles has not passed except for those who will not heed the call of the Lord and of his servants, who night and day warn and plead and implore. There is a glorious miracle awaiting every soul who is prepared to change. Repentance and forgiveness make a brilliant day of the darkest night. When souls are reborn, when lives are changed--then comes the great miracle to beautify and warm and lift. When spiritual death has threatened and now instead there is resuscitation, when life pushes out death--when this happens it is the miracle of miracles. And such great miracles will never cease so long as there is one person who applies the redeeming power of the Savior and his own good works to bring about his rebirth.

-Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, Ch. 23

Wow, what a ride!!!

2008-12-29T22:27:00.000-07:00

Opi passed away May 5, 2007. He was the foundation of faith for our family. His optimism lifted all those around him. Whenever he was asked how he was doing he would reply, "I couldn't be better!" or "Ich könnte nicht besser sein!"

He followed a lovely quote about reaching the end of our mortal lives. He added it to his life story:

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and proclaiming, 'Wow, what a ride!!!'

Believe to Believe

2008-12-23T23:34:00.000-07:00

The most horrible punishment that could be inflicted upon you is not twenty years of hard labor, but twenty years of solitary confinement.

It's the law in the spiritual world. Simply shut your heart to all truth, and after a while you won't be able to believe anything -- that is the severest penalty for not accepting truth.

The process of disintegration and death begins when a man shuts himself out from the forces that make for life.

The body and mind and spirit are kept alive through constant constructive use.

--Charles Steizle

O Magnum Mysterium (O Great Mystery)

2008-12-23T23:27:00.000-07:00

O magnum mysterium,
et admirabile sacramentum,
ut animalia viderent Dominum natum,
jacentem in praesepio!
Beata Virgo, cujus viscera
meruerunt portare
Dominum Christum.
Alleluia.

O great mystery,
and wonderful sacrament,
that animals should see the new-born Lord,
lying in a manger!
Blessed is the Virgin whose womb
was worthy to bear
Christ the Lord.
Alleluia!

Morten Lauridsen
O Magnum Mysterium

Thankful and Hopeful

2008-12-21T21:36:00.000-07:00

How can I ponder my life without feeling a deep sense of gratitude. God has given so much to me, of which I don't deserve. "There's so much to be grateful for."

Christ, the author and finisher of faith, offers Joy at no cost. He gave his life. I don't know exactly what the lyricist had in mind when he wrote the words "And on this day we hope for what we still can't see." Although, we cannot see Christ, or feel the prints in his hands, we can have a hope of Him--a hope that becomes faith, and a faith which allows the acceptance of Christ. Stop a moment and think of Christ. "There's so much to be thankful for."

Somedays we forget
To look around us
Somedays we can't see
The joy that surrounds us
So caught up inside ourselves
We take when we should give.

So for tonight we pray for
What we know can be.
And on this day we hope for
What we still can't see.
It's up to us to be the change
And even though we all can still do more
There's so much to be thankful for.

Look beyond ourselves
There's so much sorrow
It's way too late to say
I'll cry tomorrow
Each of us must find our truth
It's so long overdue

So for tonight we pray for
What we know can be
And every day we hope for
What we still can't see
It's up to us to be the change
And even though we all can still do more
There's so much to be thankful for.

Even with our differences
There is a place we're all connected
Each of us can find each other's light

So for tonight we pray for
What we know can be
And on this day we hope for
What we still can't see
It's up to us to be the change
And even though this world needs so much more

There's so much to be thankful for

Weihnachten Botschaft >> Christus

2008-12-15T17:26:00.000-07:00

Im Zentrum der Botschaft vom Erlöser der Welt ist ein einzelnes, glorreiches, wunderbares, unversuchtes Konzept. In einfachsten Worten ist diese Botschaft, dass wir versuchen sollten den Egoismus, mit dem wir alle geboren zu sein scheinen, zu ueberkommen, dass wir den natuerlichen Menschen ueberkommen sollten und an andere vor uns selbst denken sollten. Wir sollten an Gott denken und ihm dienen und an andere denken und ihnen dienen.
-James E. Faust (translated by Jens Beyrich)

Atonement and Divinity: A Brief Analysis

2008-12-15T08:12:00.000-07:00

It has been said that Paul's epistle to the Philippians was his most empathetic letter to his people. These Philippians were some of Paul’s first converts in Europe. Thus, he held a strong affinity to their spiritual growth and welfare. The stark rebuking contained in many of Paul’s other epistles is not so prevalent in this New Testament book. Perhaps, his closeness to the Philippians allowed Paul to delve into more profound and lasting doctrine, such as the atonement, rather than dwelling upon temporary, technical aspects of the church.

Paul begins Philippians 2 with a call to be unified. It is very apparent that the principle of unity was one of Paul’s most repeated admonitions. One example comes from Corinthians when Paul taught that the church has many ‘members’ that work together: “For the body is not one member, but many” (1 Cor. 12:14). In this epistle, Paul will shortly expound upon Christ’s atonement. We must assume that he was emphasizing the unity of doctrine among members of the church. For how could these members learn of salvation if they were not unified in their understanding and beliefs?

After his call to unity, Paul makes a seemingly confusing statement, almost in passing. He said that Jesus Christ “…being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God” (Philippians 2:6). Does this entail that Christ was, at one point, not equal with God? And yet he rose to equal glory with God, while yet not ‘robbing’ God of his glory. Paul makes it clear that Christ is divine—that he was and is no ordinary man.

A 19th century scholar, Jean Daillé, provided his interpretation of this verse: “As then the apostle protest that the being of the Lord Jesus was equal with God, it must necessarily be acknowledged that there was in him some other thing than the flesh, which he took for us; that is to say, that eternal Word, which at the beginning was God, and was God.” (Daillé and Sherman, An Exposition of the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Philippians, ch. 2). Daillé may have understood this “being equal” as that Christ was full of equal glory during his earthly existence. We must read further from Paul’s letter to expound more heavily on this principle.

“But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7). Scholars report that the phrase “made himself of no reputation” comes from the Greek word ‘kenosis’ which translates “to make empty” (Ostler, Apostle Paul, His Life and His Testimony: The 1994 Sperry Symposium on the New Testament, ch. 9). Christ, being born into the world, wasn’t previously, ‘of no reputation,’ because the phrase uses the verb ‘made’ as he was previously full of something, but then ‘made’ himself empty.

Craig Ostler takes the phrase further and asks what it was that Jesus Christ emptied himself. He then refers to Doctrine and Covenants. “And I, John, saw that he received not of the fulness at the first, but received grace for grace; and he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness; and thus he was called the Son of God, because he received not of the fulness at the first” (Doctrine & Covenants 93:12-14 emphasis added).

According to this scripture, Jesus Christ held not a fullness of glory preemptively in his life. This idea may be in opposition to Daillé’s thoughts about Christ’s earthly ministry. “Therefore, it was the fulness of glory that Christ had enjoyed in his premortal state of which he emptied himself in being born into mortality” (Ostler, Apostle Paul, His Life and His Testimony: The 1994 Sperry Symposium on the New Testament, ch. 9).

Why has Paul taken the time to mention this statement to the Philippians? He was expounding on the atonement and the measures that were involved to complete such a supernal gift. We gather from here, that Christ was not only divine before he entered mortal life, but he was equal with God. Paul is telling us that an atonement for mankind must be performed by someone like God—someone greater than a mere man, who was the ability to take upon himself the punishment for sin. Paul, earlier, had said, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). Death comes from the mortal man, Adam, while life comes from the exalted being, Jesus Christ.

And yet, while in life, Ostler says, Christ was divested of his glory. He was made to become as mortal man, with all the same afflictions of sufferings that humans suffer. “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8). Paul specifically used the keywords “humbled” and “obedient” to show the importance of these characteristics. It also contrasts heavily with his earlier statement that Christ was equal with God. Idiomatically speaking, Jesus Christ stood at the top of the totem pole of the human family, but subsequently lowered himself to the bottom of the totem pole, in order to bring salvation to mankind.

Daillé, Jean & Sherman, James, An Exposition of the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Philippians (H. G. Bohn, 1843).

Ostler, Craig J., What is a Mortal Messiah?: Apostle Paul, His Life and His Testimony: The 1994 Sperry Symposium on the New Testament (Deseret Book, 1994).

Who are you not to be?

2008-12-10T09:31:00.000-07:00

A good friend gave me this quote:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

-Nelson Mandela

Gomenasai

2008-12-10T09:20:00.000-07:00

Gomenasai = Sorry (Russian)

Mistakes and misdeeds are bound to happen. We often fail in living up to those around us. That's ok. All we need to do is learn how to say sorry.

Itty Bitty Living Space

2008-12-10T09:17:00.000-07:00

"To have squeezed the universe into a ball"

Trennung vs. Verbindung (Separation vs. Connection)

2008-11-24T08:10:00.000-07:00

Trennung ist ein verwirrender Begriff benutzt um Objecte, Leute, Platze und Ideen zu beshreiben. Wim Wenders war so mutig die wahre Bedeutung von Trennung zum beschreiben—mit Bespielen ihre Existenz Gründe und Effekte. Die Existenz von Trennung in der Gesellschaft ist nicht so offen sichlich wir Leute denken, saft Wenders durch seinen Film. Auf der anderen seite, beshreibt und definiert Wenders auch den Begriff Verbindung. Beide diese Begriffe, Trennung und Verbindung sin dim Titel des Filmes, Der Himmel Über Berlin und In Weiter Ferne, So Nah.

In welcher Weise existiert Trennung in Filmen? Sie ist sehr offensichlich in Der Himmel Über Berlin, wenn die Kamera am Anfang des Filmes die zerbrochenen Leben vieler Leute in vershiedenen Apartments filmt. Mann sieht eine Mutter auf den Fahrrad die denkt, “Endlich verrückt.” Man sieht einen jungen Mann der laute Rockmusik hört während seine Gross Eltern in dem anderen Zimmer genervt sind. Man sieht ein Man in die Wohnung seiner toten Mutter gehen, der denkt dass sie nie seine Mutter war. Eine andere szene zeigt eine Frau, die ihren Mann anschreit während sie auf der Autobahn fahren. All diese kurzen Szenen zeigen Trennung.

Von diesem Anfang versteht Man dass Trennung Leute umgibt als wenn ihre Leben von Wänden umgeben warden. Man versteht auch dass Trennung oft negativ gesehen wird. Trennung existiert zwischen Deprimierten und Streitenden. Man sieht sie auch zwischen der alteren und der juneren Generation zwischen Männern und Frauen.

Diese Idee von Trennung ist sehr offensichlich in der Hauptgeschichte des Filmes in der Geshichte der Trennung der Engel von der Erde.

In both films, an angel, first Damiel then Cassiel become humans and face the hard reality of mortal existence. The angels are separated from humans, being immortal and invisible. Both of the main characters Damiel and Cassiel become hopeful in connecting with their human subjects. They seemed more connected to their subjects as angels by reading their thoughts. However, because they could not directly affect the lives of humans, they felt more disconnected and separated from mortal people than after they had become humans themselves and could act in a way that would change their new living world.

Damiel's experience evolves from an infatuation for a beautiful circus acrobat, Marion. He begins to follow her as an angel, taken notice of her thoughts and dreams. However, because he is not mortal, he cannot make contact with her. This propels him to make a decision that had already been welling up in him. Just before he became mortal, he said “Ich werde sie in den Arm nehmen. Sie wird mich in den Arm nehmen.”

Damiel encounters mortal life naively. He sets off to search for Marion, while passing through awkward moments. Finally, near the end of the first film, Marion and Damiel find each other and they immediately connect, as if they had already known each other. Because Damiel has now experienced mortal life, he has a greater capacity to connect with the people around him. He writes his last words, “Ich … weiss … jetzt, was … kein … Engel … weiss.”

Wenders defines one of the main causes of separation between people is misunderstanding. He spends an enormous amount of reel time, especially in the second film, discussing the Nazi’s effect on the German people. A driver ponders the borders around the German people caused by the 3rd Reich. “Jibt es noch Grenzen? Mehr den je… Das deutsche Volk ist in so viele Kleinstaaten zerfallen,” he says.

Wenders presents irony in the second Film, In Weiter Ferne, so Nah. During the Nazi reign, there existed such a unity among the German people as they had come together as one powerful nation. In essence, they were strongly connected. However, this “connection” rested on immoral principles. We learn about Nazi propaganda films and the Nazi degenerate art museums. Conversely, Wenders delves deeper into the meaning of connection and reveals that an important value are involved to create true connections among people. We here an angel’s voice at the end of the second film: “Wir sind nicht die Botschaft, wir sind die Boten. Die Botschaft ist die Liebe.”

Despite the reality that the angels couldn’t necessarily experience mortality as the humans, Wenders tells us that one of their main goals was to foster these connections. They knew that it was only through these connections that humans could relinquish themselves of pain and suffering. A depressed man sitting on the U-Bahn thinks of his wasted life. Damiel, sitting next to him, puts his hands on his shoulders granting a kind of spiritual comfort. The man’s thoughts change toward motivational thoughts and he sits up in his chair.

Separation also breeds doubt. Suppose you had a beautiful painting hanging on a wall in your home and one day it was stolen leaving the wall blank. You would most likely exhaust yourself to retrieve the painting. However, after months of looking for the thief, you begin to assume it is lost for good. Years later you have forgotten about the painting—it only flashes through your memory in passing. As you grow old, your mind becomes weary, and soon you have forgotten that you ever had a painting on the wall. You wouldn’t believe you had a painting unless someone showed it to you. What you cannot see, you do not believe—what you cannot touch is not real. Thus it is with the realm of angels and humans.

Cassiel deals with this problem as he becomes disconnected from the angels. Holding a liquor bottle, he cries out to the angel, Raphaela: “Wo bist du? … Gib mir ein Zeichen! Das ist doch kein Leben! … Nur was wir sehen können zählt, nur daran glauben wir, das Unsichtbare kommt nicht mehr an, nur was wir anfassen können, gibt es für uns auch wirklich.”

This form of separation deals not horizontally between humans, but vertically between the earthly and the heavenly. Ultimately, Wenders declares that man is lost and vain without his connection to the divine.

Secularism--intolerance

2008-11-04T20:34:00.001-07:00

"Those who espouse secularism – who would like everyone to see the world through “unbiased” eyes - will stop at nothing until everyone accepts their view. That is the definition of intolerance."

--Andrew Heim

Kal Ho Naa Ho

2008-10-15T00:02:00.000-06:00

I hope you enjoy this song.

The Day of Pentecost

2008-10-14T09:26:00.000-06:00

The day of Pentecost is a subject that often befuddles the naïve reader. Acts 2 has been interpreted in a variety of ways from the Jew to the Protestant Christian. The popular Pentecostal church, today, claims its founding on it. The great spiritual manifestations found in Acts 2, in a way, coincide with Pentecostal services which usually contain emotional music and “speaking in tongues.”

However, the day of Pentecost as recorded by Luke requires a bit of foundational knowledge in order to extrapolate the meanings of the events that occurred. This knowledge also helps to define the early church and project its growth.

The online Jewish encyclopedia refers to the Pentecost as a Greek term applied to the 50th day of the “Feast of Harvest.” It was also thought as the anniversary of the day that the law was received from Sinai (Bruce, The Book of the Acts, 50). One item of certainty, is that those in attendance were not Gentiles, for the vision to preach to the Gentiles has not yet occurred until Acts 10. However, these were “Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5). The day of Pentecost was a perfect occasion to bring many people of different tongues together to witness a miracle of tongues.

F. Bruce describes the experience: “The Galilean accent was easily recognized, as Peter knew to his cost on an earlier occasion; but these Galileans appeared for the moment to share among them a command of most of the tongues spoken throughout the known world” (Bruce, The Book of the Acts, 54).

As the people gathered together many tongues were spoken and understood. The event was truly regarded as a miracle for the attendants were saying to themselves, “how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?” (Acts 2:8). This incredible miracle was a unifying factor for the people and a faith builder that would lead to their eventual baptism and membership in the church.

This miracle of the tongues is also a manifestation of the spirit. Just before the people began to understand the words in their own languages, there was a great sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind” and it “appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire” (Acts 2:2-3). Luke then goes on to explain that everyone was filled with the Holy Ghost.

The presence of the spirit at this occasion presents a few major points about the early church. The first point is that all major functions of the church were attended by the Holy Spirit. This can also be seen in the preceding chapter when the disciples prayed for the inspiration to choose the next apostle. Second, the attendance of the Holy Spirit more solidifies the idea that it is the Spirit that initiates or causes miracles to fruition. Another third point is that the Spirit starts and progresses the process of conversion. The audience members were astonished by the miracle and were later “pricked in their heart” after hearing the words of Peter. After inquiring what they should do after receiving such inspiration, Peter replied, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38). Note also that the gift of the Holy Ghost is necessary for their complete conversion. Fourth, the spirit in attendance at this meeting proves Christ’s words when he said that the “promise of the father” (Acts 1:4) would come following his departure. It further establishes Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God. “This is crucial for the remainder of Acts, since it gives the basis of Luke's view that salvation for humanity is rooted primarily, and deeply, in Jesus' resurrection and ascension. In this way, what Joel promised regarding ‘the Lord’ --that ‘all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved’ -- can be transferred to Jesus” (Achtemeier, Green, Thompson, Introducing the New Testament, 253).

The very fact that all these languages and foreigners were coming together being baptized under one church embodies the growth and mission of the church set out by Christ when he said that the apostles would be His witnesses to “the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Many of the people in attendance would return to the lands of their birth and carry the faith and knowledge they had received of the resurrected Christ. This day of Pentecost, being at the beginning of Acts makes it a key point in the order of the books of the New Testament and the chronological order of events. The four gospels tell of Christ’s life and teachings, laying the groundwork of doctrine. With the day of Pentecost told immediately after the Gospels, we gather the intent and importance of the remaining text in the New Testament. It is deduced that the events succeeding Christ’s mortal life tell the story of missionary work and church organization. It also makes a blatant point that, even though Christ was not physically present, he continued to work among his apostles.

Peter’s eventual sermon following the miracles, centers on the resurrection of Christ. Because the listeners were Galileans, they understood the Old Testament writings. Peter referred to Joel, as was mentioned earlier, and then to David from Psalms. Peter quotes David as saying, “thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” (Acts 2:27). David’s sepulcher was known among the people to be in the city. They knew that David was still buried and his body had seen “corruption.” According to Bruce, Peter explains that Christ, being the Son of David, is the one being referred to as He whose soul was not left in hell. “In asserting that Jesus of Nazareth had been so delivered and raised up by God, Peter and his colleagues were making a claim which they could confirm by their personal ocular testimony: 'of this we are all witnesses’" (Bruce, The Book of the Acts, 66).

Indeed, the Day of Pentecost set a foundation of doctrine and procedure in the early church. It established a followed leadership and a quick growth in membership.

Frederick Fyvie Bruce, The Book of the Acts (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1988)

Paul J. Achtemeier, Joel B. Green, Marianne Meye Thompson; Introducing the New Testament: Its Literature and Theology (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2001)

Behind the Iron Curtain: Unity

2008-10-06T20:27:00.000-06:00

Missionaries work in companionships, lovers become married couples, college students join fraternities, wolves travel in packs, ethnic groups create nations, people of like beliefs establish religions, city teenagers join gangs. People form groups. We can readily speculate on whether certain groups are deemed bad or good, but one thing can be made certain: people gather in unity. Unity is a powerful force and has been a major cause and/or backing for revolutions, movements, and wars.

It has many definitions. Unity is plurality—it is ‚more than one.‘ It is emphasis on the group rather than the individual. It is applied generally by individuals with common traits, interests, goals, or beliefs. In the eternal realm unity itself is eternal. It is a principle that even dates to the Old Testament during the time of Enoch: "And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them." Both good and evil forces seek unity in their own sphere—only they promote unity in two opposite ways. Unity can bring either happiness or misery.

Why do people tend to conglomerate in groups? Unit is inherently human—it is instinct. Elder Henry B. Eyring stated simply: "All of us have felt something of both union and separation. Simetimes in families and perhaps in other settings we have glimpsed life when one person put the interests of another above his or her own, in love and with sacrifice. And all of us know something of the sadness and loneliness of being separate and alone. We don’t need to be told which we should choose. We know."

I can readily testify of my own personal need for acceptance. When I first attended Kindergarten I was terrified for a number of reasons. First, I faced the horrible separation from my mom. Then I was thrown into a entirely unfamiliar environment. It was a room with strangely bright colors, little chairs and pathetic red mats. Needless to say, I was alone. I remember that feeling of cold emptiness that accompanies a lonely soul. It was almost instinct for me to begin making friends with other kindergarteners. Suddenly, I had others that knew me and to some extent, respected me. Thus I felt the comfort which results from unity.

Working together for a common goal also builds friendship. It is so much easier to do something that is difficult when you have someone to do it with. Wilfriede Kiessling was a member of the church in the Dresden area just after the war. She had to travel two hours on Sunday to get to church in often horrible weather conditions. Fortunately, she had another good sister, Sister Schibblack, who would go with her to the Branch house. In an interview with Sister Norma Davis she related:

Today we tell one another how beautiful those times were. And they were beautiful. We stood there at the streetcar stop in the winter, freezing. Red tail lights—we had just missed the bus. Waiting. Half an hour. Freezing, freezing. And today we say how beautiful those times were.

N. Davis: Why do you say that?

Wilfriede: The common friendship and the spirit.

The honeybee is an excellent example of unity’s prevalence in nature. A good hive may have up to 50,000 bees. Every bee is necessary for the survival of the hive and each has a different job. Some work on the hive, others scout for nectar, while others work specifically with the queen to provide her eggs with the utmost care. If one bee were to go off on its own and selfishly search for its food it would not survive. Even during the winter all the bees stay in a large mass around the queen providing conserving their heat and energy. They then feed off of a large amount of honey they had stored all through the preceding seasons.

One of the greatest causes of unity is trial and tribulation. Coping with loneliness by finding friends in Kindergarten was an example of this process. History gives us thousands of examples of trial that led to unity. The revolutions of 1848 in Europe were all spawned after years of oppression and a lack of representation. People among the poorer and bourgeouis classes began to unite under as nationalities sought for political rights and more equal laws. These revolutions grew in France, Bohemia, Hungary, and even Austria.

The existence of the United States of America was caused by a people who united under political oppression. In the 1700's America was split between 13 colonies each constituting few common interests and many separate goals. As heavier economic burdens were placed upon the colonists by the British Parliament, the Americans sought for political representation. Unfortunately, it was never granted. This gave the colonies a common goal to unite under. It was inherently understood that they would be more powerful working together against Great Britain than working separately. Washington's small continental army was formed. A declaration of Independence was written and the Articles of Confederation were established America was victorious and subsequently founded a powerfully united federal government.

Trial was also by harnessed tyrants who sought to unite people in order to gain more power. Adolf Hitler used the heavy economic depression after World War I to aid his goal of uniting the German-speaking peoples under the Nationalist or "Nazi" party. People in the defeated central European countries such as Germany and Austria were heavily punished with war debts. The people were in a state of hopelessness, with loss of homes to bankruptcy and very little food. Hitler picked up their broken dreams and promised them jobs and security. Being already so psychologically depressed, the German citizens were quick to follow "Der Führer." Soon Germany became an economic and industrial powerhouse as people united for the goal of a stronger Germany. A propaganda poster from this time contained a statement by Hitler: "I now ask the German people to strengthen my faith and to give me through the strength of its will the strength I need to continue to fight courageously at any time for its honor and its freedom, and to be able to further its economic prosperity. I ask it particularly to support me in my struggle for true peace."

Hitler was very intelligent. Like a master would use a dog bone to attract his pet, Hitler used the bone of safety, strength, and "economic prosperity," to lure the German citizens to rally to his goals. He was very successful, but his tyrannical behavior and continuous deceit eventually led his powerful unification to destruction.

After Hitler's failed political escapade, millions of Germans were desensitized to a sense of unity. They had been deceived and thus any type of future nationalistic movement was seen as evil and tyrannical. Why then did so many German members of the church become so greatly unified under the one banner of the church after the war? Erich Dzierzon of Dresden provided an explanation: "...after the war was over and we had this so-called communist regime, we tried to do our duty with joy, and I had many interesting experiences. I would like to say that during these times when we were so hemmed in, restricted in our activities, the members of the Church really stuck together--not only our members but the other citizens of the country as well. The entire population followed the principle that in trial the people must stick together. We had this togetherness." Even after the bad taste of nationalism left in their mouths, trial still pushed people together.

It is interesting to see how Hitler‘s Germany and the members of the church in Germany both unified. They were both strong organizations and members of both parties received relief from hunger and pain. However, Hitler’s unification failed. After contrasting these two examples it is revealed that one group contained selfish individuals while the other group contained individuals who worked selflessly for the good of others and the whole. This is the basis for the success of a group goal. If any of the members of the group have selfish motives, the group will eventually destroy itself. Although he was claiming with the Nazi party to be doing the good of Germany as a whole, Hitler had his own agenda for the German people.

Another ancient individual had selfish motives for a group. Lucifer provided a nice solution when he told God that he would save all of his children from damnation. Isn’t that what God wanted? He loves all of his children and desperately wants them to be reunited with him. Unfortunately, this plan was concocted not out of love for God’s children, but rather a selfish quest for glory. Satan said: "Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor" (emphasis added). Fortunately, Satan’s plan was denied and the ultimate plan centralizing around a selfless Atonement was chosen.

What is it that makes unity really work? After Christ visited the inhabitants of the America there was a period of two hundred years of peace. The scripture from 4 Nephi explains this period and gives some reasons why they enjoyed such peace:

There were no contentions and disputations among them, and every man did deal justly one with another. And they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift. And it came to pass that the thirty and seventh year passed away also, and there still continued to be peace in the land. And there were great and marvelous works wrought by the disciples of Jesus, insomuch that they did heal the sick, and raise the dead, and cause the lame to walk, and the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear; and all manner of miracles did they work among the children of men; and in nothing did they work miracles save it were in the name of Jesus.

Clearly the people showed genuine love and respect for one another and thus they were able to live together in happiness. This paradisaical society failed when the people "began to be divided into classes; and they began to build up churches unto themselves to get gain."

A unity built on selflessness will last forever. Sister Edith Schade Krause relates her experience of the Allied Dresden bombings near the end of World War II. Nearly the entire inner city was laid to waste and many members of the church in Dresden suffered from loss of homes and a lack of food. "It was a time of great testimony because the Lord helped us to help one another. Many refugees from the East were passing through Dresden, and we took up to as many as fifteen people into our small two-and-a-half-room apartment. Everything was shared, many things were sacrificed. Firm friendships were established which still exist today, beyond continents and oceans. We sat in the Church meetings and in the classrooms huddled in coats and blankets--very few brothers there--but we were thankful and full of hope because the Lord will not forsake his own, which includes all humanity."

Deseret Industries, affordability for the 2nd hand

2008-09-30T20:25:00.000-06:00

Now is the best time to throw out your old, unused items and pick up someone else’s old and unused items.

Deseret Industries or DI, as it’s more commonly known, might be considered Utah’s prime thrift store. With 46 stores in seven western states, DI has provided thousands of people a place to recycle their old clothes, toys and other items. It also provides a store to “purchase inexpensive, quality merchandise in a clean, safe retail environment,” said the newsroom website for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The church established DI in 1938 as a nonprofit, vocational rehabilitation facility and a thrift store.

While shopping around the retail floor you might find a myriad of interesting products and smart shoppers. Last Friday, George Strong could be seen meandering around the old electronics, testing the boom boxes and filing through the videos and CDs. He had already picked up a couple of folding chairs.

“It used to better years ago,” Strong said. “Now if something doesn’t sell, they’ll throw it away.”

Strong, who shops at the store nearly once a month, said that DI used to mark down prices when items weren’t selling.

Susan Ruiz and her husband, Edgar, were shopping the aisle of odds and ends—containing such things as silverware, glassware, multi-colored plates, picture frames, and wooden decorative items.

“You just can’t beat the deals,” Susan said. “I don’t have to buy everything brand new again.”

Susan, who shops at DI a couple of times a week, is proud of the great deals she has frequently found. Last week she purchased a pitcher with a 22 karat gold rim for only 50 cents. She was going to sell it for much more than she paid for it.

Her husband, Edgar, from Latin America, was carrying what looked like a heavy, tall, pink lamp.

“She found this lamp,” Edgar said, pointing to his wife, Susan. “I’m carrying it all over the place.”

Loneliness

2008-09-27T22:45:00.000-06:00

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Loneliness.

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The full package

2008-09-22T20:24:00.000-06:00

What can you do with a pot, an apple, and a knife? Many folks might say apple cobbler, but BYU junior Benjamin Thompson has frequently used those items to juggle.

Claiming Idaho as home, Thompson recalls growing up with juggling balls. While his mother sat visiting with her neighbors, 12-year-old Thompson rushed into the house and exclaimed that he had just juggled fire. With a family of five boys and Thompson being the youngest, his mother wasn’t surprised when he shared his new achievement.

“My mom’s friends were dumbstruck,” Thompson said.

His dad was a professional juggler and he quickly picked up the skill. In high school his senior all-night party was the sixth all-night party he’d attended. He had attended five parties before that, performing juggling acts with his father.

Though he is skilled in juggling, another passion seriously took over early on in his life: Film.

Leaning back in a chair at the rear of BYU library’s media computer lab, a place he frequents often to train students in video editing, Thompson related how a TV commercial sparked his interest at age 9.

Watching TV, he had just seen Utah Jazz basketball player Carl Malone playing on the court. Then during a break, Carl Malone appeared in a commercial.

“I was like, ‘what the crap?’” Thompson said.

He was astounded at how quickly Carl Malone had changed clothes and gone from the basketball court to the TV studio. He didn’t realize that the commercial was a prerecording.

“I was interested in how they did things,” he said.

That statement now drives his continuous efforts to produce high-quality motion-graphics and moving film productions. He currently works for BYU Broadcasting, doing video editing for many of the station’s commercials.

With a successful record of hard work, a passion for film--which includes a dream to get a film in the Sundance Film Festival--and a hidden juggling skill, Thompson is a “jack” of some interesting trades.

“I’m the full package,” he said.

H2go woos customers with fuel-efficiency

2008-09-15T20:23:00.000-06:00

For an English essay, BYU student Tyler Camp wrote about fuel-efficient cars. That essay turned itself into a business venture. Camp now produces fuel-efficient units for vehicles in nearly half of the states.

His company, H2GO Enterprises, creates and installs units in cars capable of providing better fuel efficiency, even 10 added miles per gallon in some cars. It works by producing a gas from the separation of hydrogen and oxygen in water.

“This gas serves as a supplement to a vehicle's normal fuel source,” the company’s Web site said.

Although the technology isn’t completely innovative, Camp has made each unit affordable and easy to install.

“We decided to make it a company and make advancements to the product and make it more user-friendly for the population base,” Camp said.

The national average for the price of a gallon of gas is now at $3.95 and continues to rise. H2GO’s new system will help students save money on the increasing gas prices, Camp said.

“My Nissan Xterra sucks gas,” said Kristen Kmetzsch, a Utah Valley resident. “If it honestly will save gas money, then it’s always nice to try something new.”

Camp and his business partners, Anthony Johnson and Trevor Slade, who are also BYU students, want to make the system fit any student’s budget. Johnson also makes a lot of headway by selling the product on Ebay.

Despite its claim to better fuel-efficiency and lower emissions, the system still gives some concern to students.

“I wouldn’t want my horsepower or torque to be affected,” UVU student Gabe Thayn said.

Thayn was interested in the idea but also said he was somewhat indifferent in actually adding one to his car.

Local Pangea Day - May 10, 2008

2008-09-09T20:20:00.000-06:00

On Saturday Utahns gathered in Park City to watch 24 short films created by international filmmakers and hear speeches by celebrities and world leaders broadcasted from Los Angeles during a film festival about bridging cultural boundaries.

“Stories are powerful, and if we are to understand one another … in our increasingly small world, we must listen to and learn from each other’s stories,” said Queen Noor of Jordan.

The 4-hour film festival, named Pangea Day after the prehistoric supercontinent, was headquartered in Los Angeles and broadcast to apartments, theaters and venues across the world in seven languages. Other main locations including Cairo, London, and Rio de Janeiro also broadcasted music, interviews, and films.

The films showed a variety of genres and settings such as the conditions or ideas in the Middle East and Africa. They also covered interviews with people from many countries about subjects such as happiness, sadness, and laughter.

Many members of small audience in Park City’s Eccles Center showed interest in the event and said their understanding was benefited from watching.

"We are really basically all the same," said Utah resident Elise Lazar.

The event idea was initiated by filmmaker, Jehane Noujaim, who received the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) prize which grants its winner $100,000 in an effort to fulfill “one wish to change the world.”

"How can films change the world?" said actress Cameron Diaz, "Well, they can't. But the people who watch them can."

A highlight of the event was a unison of beating drums from many different cultures, symbolizing the bridging of cultures into one heartbeat, said Mahtab Sohrevardi, who watched the event from the Park City theater.

Terri Orr, executive director of the Park City Performing Arts Festival planned the local broadcast after learning about Pangea Day during a TED Conference.

"It's time for us to start seeing possibilities instead of obstacles," said Orr.

Pangea Day was also a way to commemorate the Park City Eccles Center's 10th Year Anniversary, said Orr.

The Eccles Center was the only location in Utah that provided a public venue for the event.

Fables to digest

2008-09-01T20:18:00.000-06:00

The Wildebeest and the Tiger

A curious young wildebeest was roaming the Savannah amongst a slew of Zebras.

"How nice are the zebras," he thought, "so gentle and loving."

The wildebeest watched them band together and rear their young.

Later that day, the wildebeest met a tiger. He was puzzled by this new creature but then noticed the tiger's stripes.

"You have stripes! You must be nice like the zebras," said the wildebeest.

"Yes I am," said the tiger.

Suddenly the tiger pounced on the vulnerable wildebeest. That night the tiger had wildebeest stew for supper.

Don't stereotype.

The Elephant goes to the Waterhole

Once upon an African year there was a great big elephant. Many of the other animals spoke to him because he was so great.

One day as he was making his way to a new water hole, a little mouse ran up beside him. The elephant walked while the mouse ran.

"Make sure you walk on the right side of the great canopy tree," the mouse cautioned.

"I will have the biggest gulp of water from the water hole," thought the elephant, not listening to the mouse.

The mouse ran off. As the elephant neared the canopy tree, he stopped for a moment. He thought he had heard someone tell him about the canopy tree. He dismissed the thought and continued on the easier path to the left.

On the left side was a hidden mud pit and the elephant plunged deep into the mud until only his head and trunk was visible. He was stuck.

Listen.

The Poor Chameleon

"Why can't I be colorful and beautiful like the parakeet?" thought the chameleon.

"Why can't I have a great home like the ant hill? The ants have such a palace."

"Why don't I have the thick brown fur like the chimpanzee?" He continued to question.

Just then, black clouds rolled in and began dumping water on the forest. The chimpanzee's thick fur was soaked and he was miserable. Then a bear, wandering through the forest stepped all over the ant hill, crushing the ants' life work.
Finally a sneaky panther leaped from a low branch, caught the parakeet, and gobbled him up.

The chameleon was oblivious. While camouflaged from panther and with rain drops rolling off his lizard skin, he sulked his way up a tree twig. Sigh.

Accept who you are.

The Rope Bridge

Once there was a great rope bridge over a large crevice in the jungle. Day by day, the animals used the bridge to cross from one side of the crevice to the other.

One day the rhino began to cross the bridge.

"Stop, stop!" yelled a little finch. "A thread broke in the rope!"

"No matter," thought the Rhino, "it's just a thread."

The rhino crossed the bridge safely, but in so doing, another tiny thread in the rope broke.
Finch was the only one who noticed.

Later on, Giraffe came up to the bridge.

"Stop, stop!" yelled Finch. "Now two threads have torn in the rope!" yelled little Finch.

"What can two little threads do?" said Giraffe.

Giraffe crossed the bridge safely, but his weight snapped another thread.

Then Lion came roaring up to the bridge.

"Stop, stop!" yelled Finch. "Three threads in the rope have broken. It's too dangerous!"

"What can three threads do to such a strong bridge?" said Lion.

He walked speedily across the bridge but tripped. The momentum from his fall caused the left-side rope to snap--then the right-side rope snapped. Suddenly Lion was plunging down into the great river below the crevice. As he came bobbing to the top of the rapids, Finch came flying down. "Small broken threads mean a broken bridge," he said.

Small decisions can make a big difference

A Loafing Beetle

Once there was a beetle that was loafing along the bank of a stream.

He kindly asked a passing ant, "Will you fetch me some water?"

The ant, being overly generous, took a few steps to the stream, and scooped up some water for the beetle to drink. The beetle drank and the ant went on his way.

Then a gazelle strode up to the bank.

“Little beetle, will you bring me some water?” she asked.

“I am not your servant--get it yourself,” said the beetle.

The angered gazelle took one foot and squished the beetle.

Don't ask others to do something you will not do yourself.

Peace requires self-control

2008-08-25T20:15:00.000-06:00

Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites,in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity,in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption,in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.

- Edmund Burke, The works of Edmund Burke, vol. 4 (Waltham, Mass.: Little, Brown, 1866), pp. 51-52.

More than just an ice-cream flavor

2008-08-21T20:13:00.000-06:00

After years of forward-thinking leadership, former BYU President Merrill J. Batemen was awarded one of his highest accomplishments: a concoction of almonds, berries and chocolate ice cream was lovingly named by the BYU creamery, “Merrill’s ABCs.”

Now an emeritus General Authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Elder Bateman recalls what he envisioned when he started as BYU president.

“I saw the BYU of the future as a digitized campus in the sense that you would be able to access the materials in the library from your dorm,” said Elder Bateman.

Elder Bateman was in his 60s when serving as BYU president, but an old and experienced mind didn’t hold him back from modern thinking. Elder Bateman strongly influenced the technological advancements at BYU.

During his tenure, the University was ranked among the top 50 of Yahoo! Internet Life’s “Americas Most Wired Colleges.” BYU showed 100 percent of its dorms and 60 percent of its classrooms Internet wired.

It may be difficult to realize that Bateman’s early life began with a father who worked for a dairy and a mother who owned a beauty parlor. When he was only 12, his father was in a car accident that kept him out of work for 2 years. Bateman worked every night cleaning his mother’s beauty parlor, for it was the family’s only source of income.

“I really learned how to put a beauty shop back together.”

The hair styling and cosmetics industry, however, did not keep him from becoming an academic scholar. Elder Bateman went on to receive a Ph.D. in economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He later became an executive for Mars Inc., which gave him an increased appreciation for Mars candy products.

“My kids always loved going to the Bateman’s house,” said neighbor Virginia Galland. “The Batemans stayed loyal to the Mars company where President Bateman worked and they always had a great supply of candy at their house.”

With an endearing legacy of hard work and progressive “sweet” thinking, it is only natural that an ice cream flavor be named after Elder Bateman.

Die Zauberflöte: It's Eventful Premiere

2008-08-13T20:11:00.000-06:00

It was perhaps, complete chance that the small theater was filled that evening. The splendid chit-chatting, gossiping and discussions filled the room almost in a symphonic rumble. Silly, pompous women dressed in overly "clothy" gowns and roccoco jewelry whispered to eachother in the upper boxes. They seemed to cling to the late Baroque style in their prided attitudes and overemphasized fashion. A night at the theater meant a night of sociality, where one could interact with the elegant and highly cultured class of Vienna. It also meant a night of social competition.

The scarlet carpet seemed to wave in the candlelight that evening. Wax candles flooded the simple chandelier hanging over the center chairs. The air above bended and skewed as the heat rose and cast its waxy paste on the ceiling. The room was pleasant, although a little warm. Late September wasn’t usually so hot and stuffy as it was today.

Freihaustheater auf der Wieden was situated a little out of town in the suburb of Vienna. It happened to be south of Karlskirche in a lovely neighborhood. Affluence found itself plentiful in the area with the Palace and Gardens of Belvedere only a few blocks to the east. However, the theater was extraordinarily modest in comparison with the Kärntnertor Theater situated within the city walls. Nevertheless, the theater was a hopeful business venture and after tonight it would boom with success. Emanuel Schikaneder was the owner, he being somewhat of a progressive "Renaissance Man." He was, after all, a playwright, a singer, an actor, and an accomplished musician. His most recent collaberation with the lively Wolfgang Amadeaus Mozart on tonight‘s production would be the highlight of his artistic business career.

The sound of conversations began to hush as the stage curtain ruffled as someone was trying to find the opening to come forward. It was Schikaneder, he being a bit short but with a confident posture. He was dressed professionally in a long black coat. He spoke in good Court German, "Ladies and Gentlemen. I welcome you this evening to our new creation of The Magic Flute, written by myself and composed by Mr. Wolfgang Mozart! Please enjoy the performance." There was a little commotion as a small man dressed in a "crimson pelisse and gold-laced cocked hat" (Kelly) entered the pit from the side and sat down at the harpsichord. According to the hushed whispers from the audience, his reputation was not small, and it wasn’t entirely positive either. Niemetschek would later write of him, "there was nothing special about [his] physique ... He was small and his countenance, except for his large intense eyes, gave no signs of his genius." Indeed, his eyes showed feeling. They looked as if there was an influx of passion buried under hopelessness, anxiety and pain.

Nevertheless, Wolfgang Amadeaus Mozart showed a bright grin of excitement. He quickly straightened his cuffs and arranged his sheet music over the harpsichord. Mozart was more comfortable conducting his music while playing from the harpsichord. In fact, Viennese audiences knew of Mozart’s genius perhaps more from his performances rather than his compositions. Gentle applause engaged the moment as Schikaneder receded back behind the curtain. The weak candlelight of the theater cast yellow shades down onto the pit orchestra. Then silence. As Wolfgang gave a sharp wave of his hand, the curtains suddenly burst open. Music exploded into a frightening crescendo while onstage an enourmous snake bending with mechanical parts began moving back and forth over a helpless victim, Tamino. Yelps of fright from the Bourgeois women sounded behind Mozart which only caused him to smile with pleasure.

He continued to conduct with such vigor and emotion despite his slight illness. While in Prague on September 6th he had contracted symptons of fatigue, headaches, fevers, and discomfort. Tonight, September 30th, he was feeling slight exhaustion but this Premiere of his creative music was far more important. For Mozart, there was never enough time for trivial personal upkeep. His music was his life, and he wrote, played and conducted at every instant that time allowed. Sadly, his health became victim to his genius musical projects.

The performance continued as Tamino sunk in despair. After Tamino had passed out, three elaborately dressed women came to the scene and destroyed the menacing snake,. When the mystical ladies departed, a strange looking man bounced onto the stage. He was dressed in all manner of green and yellow feathers from he knees to the top of his head. His voice was powerful and his mannerisms were loftily comical. He carried a small wooden panpipe that he blew during short rests from the orchestra. The still enthused conductor directed his hands like he was moving a puppet—light and snappy.

A closer look at this befeathered friend revealed to viewers that he was Mr. Schikaneder himself. He had decided to show off his musical gifts by placing himself in one of the leading roles of his own libretto.

It seemed Papageno was the typical Viennese "Hanswurst." Schikaneder was always fond of the "Hanswurst" role, of which his own personality matched so perfectly. "Hanswurst" was a carnal man, not wholly selfish, but often ignorant of others. He was the pleasant comical relief that lended a lighter feeling to opera. Playing Papageno, Schikaneder would gain so much fame in the next few months that he later had a sculpture of Papageno placed over the doors of his new theater, Theater an der Wien, which he built closer to the city.

In an effort to frighten Tamino, Papageno spoke of his great strength and power. This popular "Singspiel," in which dialogue was spoken rather than sung at breaks in the score, was not a new idea to Mozart. "So you've killed the Snake. I thank you," said Tamino after he had awakened. "Snake!" yelped Papageno in fright, "Is it dead or alive?" Humorous irony played a big role in Schikaneder's libretto. He was rather proud of it in fact. A mumbled snicker filtered through the audience. Of course Papageno was quick to take credit for the death of the snake. This did him no good however, when the three ladies returned and rebuked Papageno for lying. As a punishment, they clasped his lips together with a padlock. The three magical ladies then spoke to the handsome prince Tamino and told him of the beautiful Pamina of whom they showed a painting. Typical of Italian and Viennese Opera, the main character, Tamino, immediately fell in love with the beautiful lady. Consequently, he was charged with a quest to retrieve Pamina from the deadly grasp of Sarastro. Only then would she be Tamino's to love.

The guest of highest nobility who was in attendance of this evening’s performance was the emperor himself, Leopold II. He was a conservative man but ideally moderate. His brother Joseph II, who had died just a year earlier, was overly conservative and a radical reformer. He would have displayed his dislike for such a simple problem as the wasteful use of candles in the theater. In his life, he had gone so far as to cut down the amount of candles used during Sunday Mass. Leopold was somewhat different. He was a man of the people, coming from Tuscany, and having an interest in realistic reforms. The Emperor spoke his mind occasionally in private, but he always showed a pre-made standardized smile which he wore to all public occasions. Only after a few scenes, he leaned over to the empress in their elaborately gilded box and whispered, "Delightfully childish. I must assume that this is to be expected with a Singspiel at Freihaustheather."

Leopold was not deeply acquainted with Mozart but he did recall the gossip from the court about the genius: that he was immature and with little capacity for deeper intelligent thought. A Biedermeier woman, Karoline Pichler noted after a few occasions in Mozart’s presence: "Mozart and Haydn, whom I knew well, were men in whose personal intercourse there was absolutely no other sign of unusual power of intellect and almost no trace of intellectual culture, nor of any scholarly or other higher interests. A rather ordinary turn of mind, silly jokes and in the case of the former, an irresponsible way of life, were all that distinguished them in society; and yet what depths, what worlds of fantasy, harmony, melody and feeling lay concealed behind this unpromising exterior."

Although thought to be childish, the opera was a concoction of ideas presented in the popular fairy tales of the time. In fact, three other theaters in Vienna were playing shows with fairy tale settings. A rival theater closer to downtown was playing The Magic Zither at the same time that Schikaneder was writing the libretto. Because of this, he completely reworked the plot even after he had already finished the story. Mozart also realized the fact that there was intense competition surrounding fairy tale operas. He composed fantastically technical vocal parts and dynamic love songs to counter his contemporaries.

From the back of the stage, the Lady of the Night descended the pyramidal staircase crying out with her piercing soprano voice. She was a tiny lady with a bulging dress shining in a midnight blue. It was Josefa Hofer, Mozart’s sister-in-law. He had taken the opportunity to write the score with Josefa in mind for the queen’s part. Hers was the most technical of arias and she achieved near flawlessness in her performance. Mozart looked into the eyes of Josefa and widened his eyes with anticipation. He intensely mouthed out the words for her, almost pleading for a perfect performance. Smiles and nods were seen throughout the audience. She had received a Viennese approval.

The Queen was portrayed as good and powerful, with a longing for her kidnapped daughter, Pamina. After an exchange of words, Tamino accepted the challenge while Papageno was forced into it. To help them on their quest, Tamino was given a magic flute and Papageno, magic bells.

The production continued. Papageno in his innocent curiosity, bumped into Pamina’s keeper, Monostatos. They both jumped back, frightened by each other’s appearance. Monostatos was a black man, Papageno a bird man. Schikaneder’s ideas of black men became very prevalent in Papageno’s line: "Hu! that is the devil, certainly." This very line was reiterated by Monostatos concerning Papageno. Then Papageno thought to himself, "there are black birds, why not black men!" Surely, this was hilarious. The laughter that filled the theater typified the racial ideas of 1790.

Johann Georg Metzler (Giesecke) was also present during the performance. He had spent much time backstage for the first few scenes but crept though the back theater doors to get a glimpse of the stage. He reflected how he had collaborated with Schikaneder and Mozart to write the Magic Flute. The three had met at the New Crown Freemason Lodge in Vienna. He remembered the triteness of Mozart’s thinking—how the young man had joined not for religious or pious reasons, but to enjoy the festive evenings with a close "brotherhood"—for that is what the Masons were. It was Schikaneder who originally came up the idea for Magic Flute. He was looking for a project that would boost his ticket sales of his failing theater. Giesecke actually wrote most of the libretto but he didn’t find it important to take credit. After seeing such positive reactions from the audience he realized his error of not taking credit. Years later, after Schikaneder’s death he would claim to be the chief mastermind in the creation of The Magic Flute.

Because the three men were members of the free masons, the opera was heavily influenced with Masonic principles. The spectators of the performance soon learned that the supposedly evil Sarastro was actually the wise and just ruler of the people. It was, in fact, the Queen who was portrayed as evil. Sarastro marched into the temple hall, (the set had now changed) tall and confident. His subjects praised him in powerfully majestic song. Mozart’s music showed his feelings for the ideals of a wise, male, leader. He sang of how love, virtue, and justice were of utmost importance. He also shared the idea that righteous people can create a "heavenly kingdom on earth."

Another example of Masonic influence would be seen near the end of the Singspiel, when Pamina and Tamino, together, would have to face dangerous trials of stamina and wit. Only then they would be able to be united and intiated among the Gods.

Despite Leopold II‘s continuous smile, he now showed distaste for the opera. His mother, Maria Theresa was especially against the Masons in Vienna. She had even tried to ban them from the city. Mozart and Schikaneder realized the Habsburg’s religious intolerability. Rumour had it that the Queen of the Night was a portrayal of Maria Theresa, while the wise Sarastro was Ignaz von Born, an intelligent and high ranking Mason known by the authors. "Knowing that the Masons [were] soon to be outlawed in Vienna, Mozart realize[d] that The Magic Flute [was] his last chance to ensure that his esoteric knowledge gained through Freemasonry reache[d] the rest of continental Europe" (Guarnere).

Mozart continued to lead the performance although he grew increasingly exhausted. Beads of sweat ran down his face after he had already taken off his coat. His motions became more and more uncoordinated. Finally in the middle of Papageno’s prime performance near the end, Mozart’s eyes went blank and he collapsed on the bench. A gasp was heard throughout the audience. The orchestra abruptly stopped and Schikaneder showed a face of humiliation that his song had been cut. Then he realized that his composer was unconcious. He quickly ran to the foot of the stage yelling, "Wolfgang, Wolfgang!" A violinist knelt down and lifted Mozart’s head which was dangling off the harpsichord bench. "He’s passed out!" he informed Schikaneder.

. . . . . . .

Despite its rough premiere, The Magic Flute became one of the greatest operas of its time. It was shown over 100 times even during Mozart’s life. Little did Mozart know that it would stand as the chief example of German Opera.

Only ten weeks after the premiere, Mozart died having not completed his own funeral march, the Requiem. He died penniless and with a weak reputation. He was buried in a mass grave in Vienna with a reusable coffin—something that had been instituted by Joseph II.

Many speculate the cause of his death. Some say it was Salieri, Mozart’s rival. After the performance of The Magic Flute, however, Mozart said of Salieri: "He heard and saw with all his attention, and from the overture to the last choir there was no piece that didn't elicit a bravo or bello out of him [...]." Some also speculated that some of the members of the Mason lodge were involved with Mozart’s death for he had revealed some of the Mason rituals in the opera. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a mason himself who also attended the performance said, "It is enough that the crowd would find pleasure in seeing the spectacle; at the same time, its high significance will not escape the initiates."

It is of little importance to know how Mozart died. Let be known though, that despite Mozart’s depression, an expression of optimism and love was felt in the powerful music of The Magic Flute. Beethoven claimed that The Magic Flute was Mozart’s greatest work "for here he has shown himself a German master." Wagner remarked, "What versatility, what diversity...indeed, this genius has taken almost too gigantic a step, for in creating German opera he at the same time fashioned a perfect, masterly example of the genre, impossible to improve on, so that this genre can no longer be extended or continued."

I have written a narrative in an effort to provide the reader with a clear picture of the actual premiere of The Magic Flute. Much of background in the story is well researched and documented with thoughts by those who actually witnessed the opera during Mozart’s time. I wanted to provide readers also with a bit of personality of a few of the characters namely, Mozart and Schikaneder. There are a few fictional events in the story that I incorporated to help the reader experience the time period. (1) Leopold II would probably not have been in attendance at such a unimportant theater. He would only have attended operas in the court theater. (2) Mozart did not collapse during the premiere of Magic Flute, although he was already somewhat ill. Nevertheless, in the Academy Award Winning film "Amadeaus," the screenwriters took the liberty of having Mozart faint as to further the story of the rival between Salieri and Mozart.

M & M's - My Ethnographical Observation

2008-08-03T20:08:00.000-06:00

I don't usually purchase sweets, for as a college student, my finances are low and I don't spend money on such temporary items. However, last night, on my way out of town I decided to stop by “Media Play” for a CD I wanted to buy for my Father's Birthday. I also remembered that "Media Play" was no longer "Media Play." I drove down University to check anyway. There in its place was a store with the title--in big letters over a blue background—“F .Y.E.” I understood that F.Y.I. means “For Your Information”—and after seeing “books, music” underneath the title—I quickly made the assumption: “For Your Entertainment.”

It was late—about 9:50 pm when I walked in. Consequently, I was tired and hoping to get in and out fast. The store was a bit ominous, much the same as Media Play had been. It was a classical CD I was considering buying. As soon as I made it to the music section at the rear of the store, the overhead fluorescent lights began turning off—signaling that the store was soon to close for the night. I began frantically fumbling through the CD's. I spent nearly 10 minutes looking for the popular album I wanted. The store was nearly empty and no one came to help or look up the album to see if they carried it. I finally gave up, feeling I had failed in my task of Father-Gift-Finding. Walking back down the main aisle, I ran into two employees, one after another, who asked if they could help because "the last cashier is about to close up." "No. I'm fine." I said it rather dejectedly, thinking on how I could have used their help while I was searching for the album. As I walked back I stopped twice, both times because I had seen two tables which bolstered cheap prices on used DVD's. I checked prices (something I always do before fully investigating a product). Of course, I had no intention of buying unless I had found one of my favorite movies.

Just as I was about to exit, I checked the stands in front of the cash register lines. I knew from prior experience that even though this wasn't a grocery or candy store, almost all retail stores had an "impulse buy" section with the standard candies: Mars Company candies, Hershey Company candies, and a few other varieties. There I found Peanut M&M's at a higher level than the plain M&M's which were on the bottom shelf. They were in a yellow box with the catch phrase, "tear and share." I usually check prices, but I had already made up my mind that I was going to buy the product (having been influenced heavily by this class). The cashier was jovial and conveniently didn't bag the M&M's. The M&M's were delicious. Five minutes after leaving the store, I had finished them. I was again reminded of their quality taste.

War-talk heightens

2008-07-26T20:06:00.000-06:00

As political conventions loom closer, BYU students are becoming increasingly aware of the political debates about Iraq War solutions presented by presidential hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama.

The current debate lies on whether congressmen should pull troops out or continue deployments.

Andrew Frick, a student from Pennsylvania said he is “pro-anti-war.”

“I’m against war. War is motivated out of personal gain,” said Frick. “I’m pro-change but not extreme change.”

Frick said that he is more liberal than most BYU students and that a solid opinion on a solution is difficult to make because of the lack of information.

McCain says it is necessary to keep troops in Iraq until the civil war between the Shiites and Sunnis can be stopped and a political calm can settle.

“Unfortunately, they’re so childish that they need referees right now,” said BYU junior Tyler Camp.

Troops need to stay in Iraq until no further progress can be made, said Camp.

The American public continues to be split on their opinions of solutions to the Iraq War. Other politicians have presented many varying solutions, besides those of McCain and Obama. Some students remain undecided on the issue.

“If we pull out, we lose,” said Camp. “If we stay, we lose.”

Senator Obama presented his plan in January 2007 to de-escalate war with phased redeployment.

"The American people have been asked to be patient too many times, too many lives have been lost and too many billions have been spent," Obama was reported to have said on senate.gov.

Many students serve in the military or have relatives who serve in the military. Soldiers have reported that the military is still needed in Iraq, said UVU student Kristen Kmetzsch.