The Brooklyn Bridge

In my pursuit to develop a helpful, graceful  pres ence , I hope to develop an understanding and cultivation of charity, humor, balance, and dependability.   Charity is pure love, the inherent desire and responsibility I believe we all have to care for one another. To have charity would be to be patient with all people, even those I  have no t  met who seem to make the world more unkind and unproductive. I want to be able to discern the needs of those around me, and especially those under my stewardship. I want to create a family where love foundational and felt daily. I want people to come into our house, and feel good,  and  know they are welcome, desired, loved, able, and listened to. Listening would be a big part of it too. I want to be able to discern when to talk and when to listen, because I know I need to do more of the listening.    Humor is adding a  helpful, light-hearted perspective to  mundane experiences. I absolu...

Dear God, thank you for mommy and daddy thank you for a dis day please bless that I can have a little brover amen. Dear God, Thank you for mommy and daddy and baby sitser please bless that we will all have good dreams and be happy and know whats right, amen. Dear God, Thank you that I am so beautiful. Please bless that my sister wouldn't bug me so much and bless people who are poor. Please bless that it will be cheesy breadsticks at lunch tomorrow. Amen. Dear God, Thank you for this day and for the food. Bless me not to be so ugly anymore and not trip in dance so much. Please bless that McKenna and Rosie will let me play with them at recess tomorrow and bless mom that she won't be so bossy. Amen. Dear God, Thank you that I get to go to work with my dad like every day and have so much fun. What do you want me to be when I'm like older? A magician? A writer? A mom? I think I want to be a mom. Like the best mom ever who even knows how to sew. Amen. Dear God, Th...

A Reflection of my Religion 101 Class, with a rather pretentious but honest-as-possible ending. As soon as I started registration for college, I asked the counselor if there was a Religions of the World class. I was eager to take it because I plan on serving an LDS mission in the fall. I wanted to know as much as I possibly could about what other people were thinking before I went out and told them my way was better. The two most memorable phrases Dr. Anderson has ever said to me came on the first day of class. First, “What the hell is Religion?” I thought it was witty and ironic, and I liked to think I understood witty humor and was cool enough to nod in comprehensive laughter.  Religion is a system comprised of people with similar belief, with rituals to enact those beliefs. Religion is a community, a therapist, and an inspiration. Religion is controlling, violent, and destructive. These are all things Religion can be, and have been. Learning about all these denominati...

Introduction Hello! Today, I’m going to invite you to say the magic words! Now what are the magic words? Different magicians may disagree. I can tell you what they are not: “You’re ugly! You have too much acne, You’re not smart enough, you can’t do that, You eat too much, I don’t like you, and that means nobody likes you.” Now of course I didn’t mean any of those words, but they were hurtful ones weren’t they? And they would probably hurt just as much if you read them in a Facebook message.  Today I’m here to let you know that Cyber Bullying is a real issue, how we fix it, and the small and easy thing you can do to help just by staying right there in your seat. 1. Bullying has to do with opportunity. Where there is a means of communication there is possibility for attack. Multiple studies have been conducted recently to verify the reality of cyber bullying, and how its affecting people, especially between the ages of 13 and 17. This statement from a study done by Xiao and ...

Art has this incredible ability to tell a story. Whatever form, size, location, or audience it is in, there is some type of story behind it, be it short and silly or emotional and long. When Antonio Vivaldi composed The Four Seasons, he was able to capture two forms of art, music and poetry,  and bring them in to his own. He saw the artistic beauty of nature, and the dramatic way it affects our lives. Secondly, he saw significance in descriptive poetry and transposed the images into music. The first movement of the “Winter” Concerto perfectly personifies the perils of winter with an energetic melody, strong harmony, and thick texture.  The movement begins with a rather daunting suspense. Just like the feeling of winter approaching, you know something new and chilly is coming. The notes make you shiver, as frost nipping you on the ears. Overall, the melody is consistent, creating a full and complete feeling for the piece. The movement maintains a similar timbre all the ...

It's finals week and that's every college student's excuse for everything ever. But…in place of a weekly blog post I've posted a no-sense-making video-blog. Complete with adorable thumbnail shot. You Tube just knows how to capture my best moments. Sigh. Happy Finals Week!

Stereotypes are one of the most essential components of our art, culture, and media today. Whether we realize it or not, most audiences thrive on what they expect, or perhaps being presented with what they do not expect. Many campaigns, advertisements, or productions are created with the sole purpose of trying to change a stereotype. More in our current age than ever before, reverse images of stereotypes or expectations are constantly presented, normalized, and even encouraged.  The 1980s musical, Little Shop of Horrors strongly presents stereotypical characters to tell the audience what to think. The musical number, “Somewhere That’s Green,” works cleverly to not only depict time period, but quickly brings the audience over to Audrey’s side to completely support her in her dreams, even if she’s made some mistakes in the past. Her wishes are simple, perhaps even relatable, making it easy for the audience to become emotionally involved in this fictional story. Stereotypes be...

If you weren't aware, the moment  you turn 18, your whole life is yanked up, sloshed around in the wash machine on an extremely high speed, and spat out in a completely different shape. It's kind of like accidentally touching a portkey for the very first time on your birthday and arriving somewhere completely different. I'm guessing to an outside source it really wouldn't seem that different. But that's a bit of how it feels. Most of it is good, I'm sure. First, the week before school started, I went to this totally amazing, radical magic convention in Las Vegas called MagicLive! It was my very first time and I absolutely loved it. They have a giant showroom with several dealers selling super cool new and old magic, workshops with incredible, accomplished performers, and then the best magic shows ever to top off each night! I wish I could properly express the awesomeaucity that occurred. The whole thing was the epitome of radicality, but I did have some favorit...

        YAWN. My lips stretch over my entire face as the invisible Exhaustion Monster creeps up my throat and out of my mouth. I accidentally glance at my daddy and the Monster bites him too. We each finish our yawns as we stumble into the theatre, another early morning session after a very late evening. Here we are at MagicLive!, a week-long, complete submersion of learning, buying, talking about, and showing off magic. Lectures in the morning, workshops in the afternoon, shows in the evening, and endless brainstorming, chatting, and rehearsing all night. Not to mention a big change of heart, speedily on its way to me and my career.   This convention is, without a doubt, the best four days of my whole summer. As we find our seats in the theatre, we’re weary but very anxious to know who takes the stage to bring their very professional, experience-oriented, and possibly invaluable wisdom. I open my official, laminated, designer MagicLive! binder and flip ...