Change the world with cookies

Let's be honest...

Inspiration comes in unexpected places.

I found some inspiration this week when I wasn't really expecting it. We were watching the movie "Stranger than Fiction" starring Will Farrell, and I learned a really cool lesson. Or rather, I found a great way to express myself in what I hope to accomplish in life.

There is a scene with maggie gyllenhaal's character where they are eating cookies. She is explaining how she got started as a baker. It was surprising because of the rebellious nature of her character, but she explained how she was attending Harvard Law School at the time. She enjoyed baking, and would spend time preparing snacks for the other students in her law study groups. She enjoyed it so much that she started looking for more and more recipes and spent less time studying than baking. Many more people started showing up for the study sessions. After a while, she was left with multiple books full of recipes, and a "D" average in school. That's when she said she realized that she wasn't going to change the world by becoming the next great lawyer, but that she could change the world with cookies. 

 

Click here to download:

stranger_than_fiction_clip_(cookies_).mp4 (12673 KB)

Change the world with cookies.

For some reason, that resonated with me all night. Some people are meant to be world leaders and politicians, some scientists and doctors, others are simply meant to improve the lives of those around them by whatever means possible. 

Change the world with cookies.

As I enter the world of advertising, there are many things I'd like to accomplish. Even if I never find the cure to cancer or win the Nobel Peace Prize, there are still many things I can do. I can change the world. My "cookies" may be bringing laughter and happiness to other people. To create things that enlighten the lives of others. Advertising has a reputation of being unethical, but I feel like that is only in the eyes of the beholder. It can be done in an effective and worthwhile way. I'm going to change the world...one cookie at a time?

Here's the link for the video if it doesn't work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rCmX-TAl1w&feature=related

Posted via web from Let's be honest...

Playoffs Playoffs Playoffs

Where does amazing happen? In the NBA Playoffs.
Where does beating a team that had your number all year happen?
Where does winning a best of 7 without your best of defender happen?
Where does advancing to the second round without 2 starters happen?
The answers to all of the above are of course with the Utah Jazz.

Where does free tickets for the playoffs for the first time ever happen?
Where does 10 jumbotron and 3 national TV appearances happen?
These answers come from being a Utah Jazz Rowdy.

After struggling in game one, dominating for three straight games and pushing the Nuggets to the brink of elimination, the jazz now find themselves with the pressure to win game 6. It is an essential game 7 considering the circumstances if we lose this one. And I'll be there to cheer them on every play of the game.

GO JAZZ!

Stress Fractures

I want to make a connection between two types of stress fractures, one dealing with physical health and the other with the emotional side. Let's say I get a stress fracture in my leg or foot, what led to that? Repeated pounding and pressure was placed on it until it, quite literally, reached a breaking point. And the result? Constant pain and discomfort. The only real way to fix it is by resting it, staying off it.. Until you do, nothing will get better.

The other kind of stress is something that everyone deals with. Things pile up, get too hard or too much, never stop. That's part of life. So can this stress cause a fracture too? I would have to say yes. If you allow yourself to become overwhelmed or consumed by the events in your life, you will probably hit an emotional breaking point. And rather than demobilizing just a body part, you will render your entire self useless.

I'm not suggesting that there is a sure fix for this problem. Life will continue to be challenging. I get stressed just like everybody else, but I see a difference in how one might handle the situations they are faced with. As a student, employee, boyfriend/girlfriend, family member, and any other sort of responsibility or relationship we are engaged in, the bombardment of commitments will never stop. That part I am sure about.

I'm no doctor, but i'm sure there is a way to avoid a stress fracture of a body part. At the first sign of pain or discomfort, proper steps should be taken before there is a problem, not after. It may require more work, but in the end, the benefit will be greater. Here's what I've noticed in my own experiences when it comes to dealing with stress:

In most cases, stress doesn't hit all at once, but adds one thing on top of another. Think of it like holding a stack of books with your arms stretched out in front of you. Try starting with a stack of 20 books from the beginning, and you won't last long. But start with one, then another, and then another, until you've got all 20. At first, one book is a cake walk—even two or three books. But the more you add, the more the strain starts to wear on your muscles. I've often wondered how it ever got to that point. Even more, I start wondering why on earth I would be walking around holding 20 books with my arms stretched out. Who does that? It's your life, and who's to say you can't stop and set each book down as you go. Let the librarian pick them up.

Rather than freaking out, and stop functioning when a stressful situation hits, slow down. Take a step back. Then a deep breath. Now think about similar situations in the past, because I know it's not the first time that this has happened. And it won't be the last. In the end, things will work themselves out. They always do. How often have you been faced with a challenge and felt like you came up short of expectations? Almost never. That's not to say that you are perfect, or even that things will go exactly according to plan each and every time. Sure, you may have to spend a few sleepless nights, skip a few meals or maybe even sacrifice working on something else that's a little less important. But you'll find a way to get it done. Because you always do. Spending time stressing about something means you are wasting time that could be better spent doing something productive. It doesn't help anyone. It all comes down to how you react when these things come. I view stress as something you choose to let into your life, not something that is forced upon you.

So do yourself a favor and take care of those injuries before they become stress fractures. In the words of songwriter, Bobby McFerrin, "Don't worry, be happy." You might regret it if you don't.

How do you spell rowdy? . . . J-A-Z-Z

Let's be honest...when does being a Jazz fan ever actually pay back?


Until last week, I had only ever been rewarded with, well, nothing for my Jazz loyalties. But that all changed on Tuesday, March 9. I decided to go on a date to watch one of the Jazz road games on the big screen at Jordan Commons. I had heard that they were choosing two more members of the Jazz Rowdies, but it wasn't a focus for me, especially since i was on a date, and even more because I had already gone all out the first time they held tryouts, only to come up short. For those who don't know anything about the Jazz Rowdies, let me explain. About a month ago, the Jazz held auditions for the craziest, most intense Jazz fans to win free tickets for the rest of the season. They showed another of the Jazz road games at the Gateway theatre, and encouraged fans to dress up and be as "rowdy" as possible. Somehow my full jazz apparel, face paint, giant green sombrero and running antics were not enough for the audition. But out of the 400 or so fans in attendance, 75 were chosen for the Rowdy section tickets.

But I guess my time had come this past Tuesday. Since they were only choosing 2 more Rowdies, I didn't really think I had much of a chance this time. Not after the outcome of the previous attempt at least. But lucky for me, my date decided to be a champion, because I never would have won without the help of another person. As the game went on, we got louder and louder. It helped that the Jazz were playing fantastic against the Chicago Bulls. When they started to announce the two winners at the end of the game, I didn't think we really had any chance of winning. But then they called out what we were wearing, and I was totally blown away. We were the 2 newest Jazz Rowdies! And along with it, we got tickets to the rest of the home games for this season.

So who says it doesn't pay off to be a dedicated, die-hard Jazz fan? I have tickets at will call waiting for me that beg to differ with anyone who disagrees. So go ahead, look for me at the next Jazz home game. I'll be in the Rowdy section.

Born this way

Let's be honest...will we ever be satisfied with where technology is at?


What an age we live in. Everything in the world you could ever want to know is basically within your fingertips, just a mouse click away. And the better it gets, the more spoiled we become. A prime example was on my way home from New York last weekend. Apparently they have wifi on airplanes now, which was news to me. That was just icing on the cake after a glorious weekend, especially because our flight was right during the Super Bowl. (I'm not even going to mention how difficult that was for me since it was the first year that the Saints had ever made it to there. WHO DAT). But as you would expect, the connection was anything but spectacular and the coverage we got was spotty at best. At one point I started get upset that we couldn't watch even one play without a glitch or delay. That's when I realized what it was I was actually getting mad about. Before this trip, I didn't even know that internet existed on airplanes yet, and yet within just a few hours I was already complaining about it. It was a great surprise to even get to see some of it.

The other reason I was thinking about this topic was because of a computer programming class I am taking. It is a lot of work to design an interface that works properly and allows the user to navigate without any problems. Basically, the purpose is to create something that allows someone to click on anything they want and not find any bugs or loopholes in the code. And the reason is because people, just like my experience on the airplane, demand perfection with technology and get upset with anything short of that. It made me think a lot about the difference between children and adults. Here's why:

At what point do kids stop wanting to discover and begin demanding timeliness. Have you ever seen a young child get frustrated that things don't work as well as they should? No, because they are just happy to have something in front of them. The only thing that young children get upset about is if someone next to them has something that they want, and that is typically just because they know they don't currently have it. We aren't born the way we are, that is something we learn from society. So, when do kids start to get that mentality? When do their values switch? When do they need more than a box with cut out shapes to fit in corresponding slots?

Let's be honest...I think we can all start to appreciate how far we've come this far, and start to appreciate the more important things in life. The next big "necessity" will be waiting for you if you change your mind or feel differently.

Empire State of Mind

Let's be honest...Where else you want to spend an all-expenses paid weekend?


I was thinking the same thing. L'oreal flew me out to NYC to interview for an summer internship in their luxury product division. It was amazing! I hadn't been to New York since I was like 12 years old, and we only stayed one night. I think it might be one of the only places that actually gets bigger rather than smaller the older you get.


There were about 75 students from all across the country that came for the weekend. They pampered us pretty much the whole time. This is right after we had dinner in Grand Central Station. There were students from all across the nation, places like NYU, Duke, Harvard, Howard, Northwester, and dozens more. It was awesome to hang out with kids from different places like that and see how their experiences are different than mine. While BYU is technically a fairly diverse campus in terms of where people come from, lets be honest...it lacks completely in the diverse category. I even got to explain our church's beliefs to some of the others at dinner one night and basically taught a first lesson.


The first night there, we went through some orientation meetings and got to know some of the head honchos of our divisions. And the best part was the cocktail party they held on the opening night. I had never been to anything like that before, so I was definitely a little out of place. But the whole night was designed to let us ask questions to people who worked there and get some interesting feedback. After that was all over, we had some extra time, so we met some of the other kids, one of which was from NYC, and he showed us around. Rockafeller Plaza, Times Square, and everything inbetween. It was awesome.


They put us in teams depending on the specific product division we were interested in for our Saturday events. I was a part of the Georgio Armani team. The whole day was dedicated to different case studies and basically planning a rough outline for an entire marketing campaign. They gave us very limited time for each case, so it was a lot of pressure. For each session, there were different employees there to observe and judge us. It was even more pressure for that. And then after that we would try and pitch our ideas to them in a logical, yet concise manner. It was an interesting element to be thrown into a team with people you have never even met before and be forced to collaborate with them. Think about taking a bunch of kids who have been leaders most of their lives, throwing them together in a room, with potential bosses looming over, and then watch them sort it out. It was quite the dynamic.


Part of our day was to go out and do some store visits. They wanted us to see first hand how their products reach the consumer and get some insights for our campaigns. This was pretty cool because we got to walk around the city and see everything. I think the biggest disadvantage was that our whole case was for a new women's fragrance for Maybelline. Needless to say, I was a rookie in this area. At first it was a challenge. But I think it actually worked out well because I made sure that everything we did was for the right reasons, because I had no preconceived notions about anything.

That night after all was said and done, we went to the ESPN zone in Times Square and watched the Jazz beat the Nuggets. Take that DENVER.

The next day was the big kahuna. It was our interview day. I was excited for this cause I think I could do better one on one than in a group. And it went really well. I felt good about it. And it felt like it went really fast, which seems like that would be a good thing, right? Well they are supposed to let us know in the next 2 weeks. So keep your fingers crossed til then...

Cause Let's be honest...Who wouldn't want an internship with a huge international company in the city that is basically the center of the universe?

To buy or not to buy

Let's be honest...

...you should own things that you love. And I LOVE the Utah Jazz! Now obviously it would be ridiculous to suggest that I should own the Jazz, so let's just settle for season tickets. I have always said that I will one day own season tickets. I always thought I would just have to wait until I was older and had something more of an expendable income. But things have changed recently, let me explain why:

I bought a pair of tickets on KSL the other day because I am taking a girl to the game against the Blazers next week for her birthday. They are on the front row of the upper bowl, which are pretty good seats. Individually, tickets of that range go for about $50 a piece. I paid the guy the $30 a piece for them. But if you by season tickets in that area, they go for $25. So the guy actually made a profit on those seats. And of course, that got me to thinking. Why couldn't I buy season tickets at a discounted price, and simply resell most of them at a profit. That way, I could still go to at least 10 games or so and try and make enough off of the other tickets to cover the cost of those. I don't think I would even try to make money off of this deal, but I would be happy if even just came out even from the whole thing. The benefit comes from having great season tickets to watch my favorite team. When they play big name teams like Lebron and the Cavs or Kobe and the Lakers, I could easily sell them for more. Not to mention the bonus I could make from playoff games.

No one goes to a sporting events by themselves though. Which means I would go in on this whole deal with at least one other person, maybe 3. I wouldn't get to go to as many games that way, but at least the financial risk wouldn't be as great if I did. I have the tendency of wanting to jump the gun on crazy financial decisions like this, so I really think I should sleep on it before I decide for sure one way or the other. Luckily, I have half of the current NBA season to think about it too, so that should give me more than enough nights of sleeping on it to decide.

We could get into the whole "wants and needs" argument and what is really essential for me, but let's be honest...I really do NEED this.