Elder Wirthlin

So I'm sitting here at work working on a project for Bayer when I get a message from Carol, one of the other LDS employees here at Nielsen, giving some sad news that Elder Wirthlin died this morning.

Click HERE for a link the the Church's Newsroom report.

And the Christmas Season Begins!

This week I officially started listening to Christmas music. (I was able to load some on my computer that Kim had while I'm waiting for Mom to send me my cds - thanks again by the way). Yeah yeah, I know you're not supposed to start listening until AFTER Thanksgiving... I got close enough.

Anyway, one song in particular just really got me in the Christmas Spirit. So here's a video to help you get into that holly, jolly mood featuring my dear friends Ashley Safsten and Lisa (Brooksby when this was filmed) Jones singing the great Mariah Carey christmas hit All I Want For Christmas Is You.

(Please note, that this video was taken during the BYU Fall 06 Finals Week after a semester of excessive lack of boys in our lives and classes that liked to suck out our souls.)

VERY VERY sad day

Today is no longer a good day.

My external hard drive crashed.

I have lost all of my music. ALL OF IT.

The hard drive has locked me out of every file that contained an MP3, M4A, M4P, WAV files... every type of music file has been cut off. And I had a lot. And since every CD I own is currently located in Kentucky, it doesn't look like I'll be able to fix them all any time too soon.

I was luckily able to save all my pictures, but every last music file I had on my computer is lost forever.

I've been having issues with my external hard drive for several weeks now, but I never expected it to get this bad. Hopefully I'll be able to figure something out to fix it. Until then, I'll be sitting here very depressed. :'(

Bernie's Quirks

So the Six Quirks tag is making its rounds through the Barrington clan and it's extended family I see. My dear sister Shannon got me on her's so I'll go ahead and fill it out for myself.

Tag Rules:

Link the person who tagged you

Mention the rules on your blog

Tell about six quirks of yours

Tag six fellow bloggers to do the same

Leave a comment to let them know

Quirk #1: I don't know if it was because my family just never shortened my name when I was growing up or what, but until I was 17 I hated it when I was called "Britt" with only one notable exception of the Menser family. I don't know why I hated it so much, but it just never sat well with me. Truth be told I still don't like being called Britt but I can handle it much better now. But please, call me Brittany, Bernie, Barrington, even Shannon (since that's what I was called a lot during field hockey practice back in the day), just avoid using Britt.

Quirk #2: I'm not a very neat person when it comes to how I keep my room. I live in pretty much controlled chaos. But when it comes to my movies, music, pictures or general file storage on my computer I'm OCD with how they're handled. I create these ridiculous organizational systems to keep them all straight and organized so I can find them when I need them. I will sit and work for hours on getting them just right. When I get a new cd or movie I have to go and put them in their right location in my system. I just bugs me to not have them in their places. At one point my system was so complex that my roommates just couldn't figure out how my movies where kept so I had to rework the system so they could keep them organized if they watched anything.

Quirk #3: I have to wear my watch. I can't stand it when I don't have it on. If I forget to put it back on after a shower or when I get up in the morning and head off for my day, as soon as I realize it's missing I start to get twitchy. I went so far with this that I snuck my watch into every field hockey game I ever played even though any form of jewelery was not allowed. Yay for goalie pads! When my battery died in September I even kept wearing it for two days until I could go get it changed because I couldn't stand not having it one me.

Quirk #4: It's not really a quirk to me, but I can honestly say that I've never said a cuss/curse word in my life, at least to my knowledge. I never went through that rebellious stage where I though it would be cool. Now I know some words can be argued as cuss/curse words, but to me, I've never said anything that is one. It's a rare little thing that I take great joy in.

Quirk #5: I will go on long TV series DVD marathons where I watch a complete series from start to finish. Some times I'll even try to see how quickly I can complete a series. These are all usually at least 6 or 7 seasons long too. That's over 135 episodes each. Since most of what I own are hour long shows, that's over 135 hours or nearly 6 days non stop of TV. Sometimes I'll include all the bonus features in the marathon too just to switch it up a bit. I LOVE IT! I currently own the complete series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gilmore Girls, and Xena Warrior Princess. I'm hoping to add Lost and Alias to that eventually too.

Quirk #6: So speaking of Xena. I'm a Xena junkie. It's my favorite show. If you were to give me an episode I can place it's exact location in the series and how it's relavent to the rest of the season and/or series as a whole. I can't even begin to guess how many time's I've seen the show. It just never gets old for me. The show is the main reason I really want to go to New Zealand someday. I will make little references to the show in daily life just for my own enjoyment even when I know no one will get it. I don't even limit my obsession with the show to just the six seasons either. I'll watch other films/tv shows simply because they have actors/producers/whatever from Xena in it. Did you know that there are least three main actors from Xena that make cameos in the Spiderman movie series? That's all because Sam Raimi directed the movies and he was an executive producer on Xena. Yeah, I'm addicted to it and I'm ok with that.

Anyway, there's six quirks of mine. Hope you enjoyed them. If you think I have other fun quirks let me know. I wanna hear what you think of me.

I'm gonna tag Annalisa, Monica, Tess, Tiffany, Caitlin and my dear big brother Jeff just for kicks. (It'll give you something to do when you're online Jeffie).

Happy Halloween

Ok, let's face it people. I'm just plan bad when it comes to posting interesting things on my blog. I try to claim it's because Kim goes through and talks about the interesting things that we do, but in truth I'm just plan lazy. So in hope to remedy that problem, I'm going to double cover this past weekend.

So, my stake had a YSA event on Friday night in honor of Halloween. It was a costume party and dance at the Upper East Side building. Kim and I had been debating since early September what we were going to be. There were ideas of being Viking women, Wendy and Dairy Queen, dead beauty pagent contestants (in homage to Drop Dead Gorgeous), and even Kermit and Miss Piggy. But we just couldn't decide on anything we really wanted to do that we'd both be willing to do. By Friday we still hadn't come up with anything to wear. When we both got home from work we raided our closet and tried to find something to wear.

I ended up going with being a Kentuckian. Louisville hat, wife beater-like tank top, plaid like over shirt. I even had a fake cigarette. Had I had time, I would have gone out and gotten a six-pack of rootbeer to hall around with me. I was aiming for white trash, but it just didn't come off trashy enough. So I settled for saying I was just a regular native Kentuckian... no one really got it until I explained it to them. Oh well I didn't care. I got an excuse to wear one of my favorite hats which made me happy enough.

Kim ended up going in PJs. She used my pajama bottoms, piggie slippers with googly eyes and my blanket in addition to her robe and throwing her hair in pig tails to make her look complete. Her costume worked out much better when it came to people getting it.

We didn't stay that long, but we had a good time. We ended up coming home around 11 and started eating candy and watching Young Frankenstein. You just can't go wrong with a Mel Brooke film.

The Good, The Bad, and the Obnoxious

Today at work was a mixed bag. Some of it was good, some of it wasn't so good, and some was down right annoying.

THE GOOD: I FINALLY got my new monitor at work. I am now the proud user of a 19" LCD flatscreen monitor. It's a beaut. I no longer have to look at a screen that is constantly being all wavy and induces headaches when it is looked at for too long. Lu, that's his name by the way, is a very nice monitor--it looks like the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

THE BAD: When I went out to get lunch today I encountered the nastiness of winter. No, it didn't snow yet, but it was a rather unpleasant rain/drizzle. Autumn has finally shown it's evil head. I could deal with the cooler weather (hoodies are happy things) but I really don't like it with the precipitation kicks in. :'(

THE ANNOYING: Finally, my annoyance of the day. I am in charge of posting the Broadcast Prime Averages and Broadcast Prime Rankings each Monday and Tuesday. Normally it isn't that bad. It'll take a hour or so to post everything for the dayand I can go about my other work. BUT TODAY! Not only did I have to double up on what I was posting because they didn't release yesterday's Averages and Rankings like they were supposed to, but then Vignette (the site I post through) decided it hated me. It took me 5 hours to get all 21 files loaded and displayed on the Nielsen Press Room. If something could go wrong it would. Simply put if Vignette had a neck, I would have been strangling it.

Anyway, that's my two-cents today.

LDS Superheroes?

So random fun of the night:

I was sitting on my coach watching the season finale of Project Runway (for the second time) with my roommates tonight and I started messing around on the internet. I'm kinda on a superheroes kick at the moment so I was looking at histories of characters and came across a site that was made to group superheroes (and some villains) by their religions. Now, it's not that they had actually taken the time to create this list, but that there was a group of superheroes/comic book characters that are LDS! How bizarre-o is that!? Don't believe me, click HERE to find out for yourself.


Oh and the best part, did you know that one of the Three Nephites has comic book fame now? Yeah, neither did I. But he's in the comic Madmen, which is written by an LDS author. Can I just say the comic book world sure does run the gauntlet of the strange. (He's featured in the pic above. He's the one in the comic strip on the top, with the hood on. He's just left of the chick in orange/red in the upper right corner of the image. He's saying "I am one of the Three. I am Nephite....")

Can I just say the comic book world sure does run the gauntlet of the strange.

The Emmy Awards

In addition to fun medleys, this years Emmys holds a special place in my heart. So this year they did a special award for "Most Memorable Moments on TV" for Comedy and Drama. Now, these awards weren't chosen by an academy but by actual viewers votes. Each category had 20 nominees to begin with and went through a semi-final stage (down to ten) and then a final stage where the top 5 were show as the nominees on the Emmys. The winners would be award during the telecast. The shows ranged from anything from Seinfeld to The X-Files to I Love Lucy to Roots. If it was on TV at some point in time, it was up for grabs.

The great bit was that two of my favorite shows from the late 90s-early 2000s won these awards. Friends won for the Comedy Most Memorable Moment for "The One Where Ross Finds Out". But the great moment for me was the winner of the Drama award. Now, as most of you know I' m a big "cult" show fan. I love Xena, Daria, Lost, Fringe, and I'm even a bit of a fan of Star Trek (Voyager specifically). Because these shows don't necessarily target the masses, they generally get overlooked for Emmy's. It's only once in a blue moon that they actually win anything, no matter how high quality the production of the show actually is. So when I found out that the winner of the Drama award, I was a particularly happy girl. This "Most Memorable Moment" went to the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for the season 5 finale episode "The Gift" where Buffy dies (for the second time that is). Here's where you can find the full list of who was up for the awards: Most memorable Moment Nominees. But to finish off this post, here's the Buffy Clip! (Sorry it's the best version of the scene I could find...)

Warning Warning... Nastiness aproaching

First off, don't read this post if you have just eaten or plan on doing so shortly. I can not promise favorable results if you do.


So for the few who read this blog and don't already know, on my birthday I got a not so nice birthday surprise... I was told I was going to need to have minor foot surgery before I headed back to New York. I had this crazy wart on my foot that I was trying to get rid of for a while and it just wouldn't heal so the foot doctor said it had to be cut off (the nasty growth thingy, not the foot itself.) Anyway, the next day I got to go to Jewish Hospital South and have surgery at 8:30 in the morning. I spend the rest of the day sleeping and resting so I could be well enough to make my 9am flight to New York the next morning.

This whole weekend I've had to deal with the aftermath of the surgery. This basically entailed wearing a blue foot guard/boot thing when I was walking, and tons of gaus and medical wrap the rest of the time. Not very fun. The worst part of it was that I also had to move out of my old apartment at the same time. Thankfully I had my cousin Kimberly here to help me out. I didn't have to move much myself, but I still did more than I should have.

Because of all the walking I had to do, a lot of the gause shifted throughout the weekend. Now ti wasn't enough to expose anything or hurt my foot in general, but it was enough to drive me crazy. Well tonight I got to take the wrapping off my foot. My mom asked to see what it looked like, so for you viewing pleasure, here is the nastiness that is my stitches. Enjoy...

My feet while they were wrapped up.

Here is me starting the unwrapping...

Now the gause...



And here's the nastiness... They really didn't make it look very nice at all. No wondering it doesn't feel too good to move my big toe.

Just a couple updates

So this last month has been kinda busy for me. Here's just a couple quick updates for everyone.

1.) Mom and Aunt Marylee came out and visited me and Kim a couple weeks ago.
2.) Lincoln Wayne Shirts joined the family on August 1st.
3.) Caitlin, my old roomie from BYU got married on August 2nd.
4.) Tess, my other roomie from BYU is gettin' married on August 8th.
5.) The Dark Knight came out. (A must see fyi)

That's about it... Oh and one other little thing....

I GOT A JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nielsen hired me on full time. I start September 2nd. So everyone can come and visit me still! (I realized I hadn't properly announced that little fact yet. Sorry. Now you know.)

WHAT!?

Another entertaining video I found online. If you love Lost as much as I do, you'll get a kick out of it too.

Last Time on Lost...

Half-Blood Prince Trailer!

Lookie Lookie Lookie! They released the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince trailer today via Moviefone.com this morning. So, here it is people. Enjoy.

Heaven Help Us

I believe I'm in complete and utter shock as I write this important blog update. It's just so.... interesting. You can decide if it's a good or bad kind of interesting. Now I'm sure I won't be breakin' any big news to most of you readers, but hey, I didn't know this until now.

So I was looking around the Internet tonight, minding my own business when I came across this Wikipedia article. As it turns out American Idol has decided to grace my home town as one of the lucky few cities that host the Regional Auditions for the show. YEs that's right, folks. On July 21st, Ryan Seacrest, Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson will be "rockin' the Ville" for American Idol 8. All I can say is that I'm glad I'm not gonna be there.

Now it's not that I'm not proud of my hometown making a bigger mark in the media world. It's just that WHY OH WHY did it have to go with American Idol? Did the producers feel like they need to mix in more White Trash contestants into the Auditions episode or something? We all know I saw enough of that during my summers at Sonic. Oh well. Whatever. Someone go find Ryan Seacrest a "Gettin' Lucky" shirt and make sure he can actually say the town's name right. That's all I'm asking.

USSR TV - Because you can never have enough Communism!

So, I'm working on this project at work where I'm comparing "channel call letters" that DirecTV uses with Nielsen's. Basically that matching abreviations for networks. For example DirecTV abrevates The Disney Channel as DIS1 while Nielsen calls it DSNY. You get the idea. So, I'm working on the International Channels, and I'm looking at channel discriptions and I find this from the Russian International Pack.

Vremya: Retro Channel, Channel 2144
A unique mix of programs from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, with your favorite TV hosts, actors, musicians, athletes, scientists and politicians of those nostalgic times.

So never fear! We still have our classic communist TV to watch if we want. I feel so blessed.

Because sometimes we just need a good flick...

So, I decided that I wanted to add some new fun stuff to my blog. You'll notice that the background is different. Same with the general layout. You'll also notice that I'm adding a new little friend on the side of the blog, a Movies to See List. Most people like to give reviews on the movies they go see. Honestly, I'm not that dedicated to report on all my film choices. So instead I have decided to simply list ones I have seen recently that I really enjoyed, or just movies I think we all need to see. Any way, hope you enjoy it.

Oh and the count down for HP6 is in honor of my sister. She can't be the only fangirl in the family...

Surreal Moments....

Ok, so I've been slacking. I haven't finished telling my Memorial day activities and it's the 4th of July tomorrow. Sorry. I'll finish I promise, just not now. Right now, I'm gonna talk about this surreal moment I had today.

Today I received a wedding announcement from one of my dearest college friends. Caitlin is going to be marrying James on August 2 in the Oakland, California Temple. Now I've known this was going to be happening for a good while now, but for some reason it really sunk in to me tonight. Even though I was there the entire time they were dating and when they first got engaged, I don't think it ever really struck me that she was getting married. I don't know why it seems so weird for me that she's getting married all of a sudden, after all I've had several other good friends get married before. Heck, little Ms Laura Louise is going to be having a baby next month! Caitlin's marriage shouldn't be so weird to me.

I think it is so surreal for me because Caitlin is one of those friends that symbolizes my college experience. Sure Laura, Lisa, and the rest meant a lot too, but Caitlin was one of those friends that was there during practically every college experience that I had. From standing in line at 4 in the morning just to grab the last full apartment at Regency until graduation this past April, Caitlin was there. I think Caitlin's wedding is just the first tangible event in my post-college experience that really solidify that we're adults now. There wont be anymore trips to Wal-mart while singing Pussycat Dolls songs about certain RMs, no more runs to Krispy-Kreams after finishing a brain-frying test at the Testing Center, no more songs about "Los Hormones" (Ashley might be happy about that one), no more Black Cream Soda runs. It's all kinda sad because those were some really fun times. Caitlin's wedding just shows that it's time to move to the next stage in our lives. It's strange enough that I don't have Caitlin, Ashley, and the rest of my Provo-pals out here with me in NYC, but this is just the finishing touch to the ending I guess.

And you know what? I couldn't be happier for Caitlin. James is perfect for her and a really great guy. I know they'll be really happy together. So I'll send my most heart felt congratulations to Caitlin and James from here in NYC.

And Ashley and Caitlin if you read this, don't forget, we've got a Christmas/New Year's in New York trip to plan... even if it isn't until we're all in our 50s. Just because we're entering the "real world" doesn't mean we can't be silly once and a while.

Anyway, that's all for my rant for the night. Happy Fourth to you all!

Break from Memorial Day recap.... Sex and The City

So I don't know if any one knows, but this little film about the Sex And The City tv show came out two weeks ago. Not a big feature film or anything, no reference to New York, nope nothing at all to care about. Seriously, it was a big deal here, even if people think the movie is kinda lame. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I got to go to a SatC party. Here's my summary of that evening.

So, my friend Alison works at Maxus. It's this media planning company that is the sister firm to Mindshare. I doubt you've heard of either of them. Anyway, they do work with TV Guide. Alison got invited to go the the Sex AndThe City party that TV Guide was throwing. It was at the bar that the actor who plays "Mr Big" owns. I have no clue who this character is other than he's Sarah Jessica Parker's love interest. Anyway, I end up going with her. It was ok I guess. It was an open bar with finger foods. No one famous was there. It was mainly a small party. I think if we drank it would have been more fun, but alas, we don't. We had some cherry cokes (which the bar tender had never heard of before!? crazy!), snacked on some food, and talked to some people Alison knew. We ended up staying for about 45 minutes... basically leaving around 8ish... way early for any party in New York.

The only really entertaining thing that happened was when we were leaving. So Alison stops to say bye to her TV Guide rep that invited us, and right when we are about to leave, this other TV Guide lady came up and asked us if we had gotten our share of the free Trojan Condoms they were giving out. See, Maxus had just gotten a contract with Trojan and they worked it to do a little product placement at the party, thus the free condoms. Anyway, when you're a 22 year old it's hard for people to imagine that no you don't want them, nor will you be using them any time soon. So when we said we didn't get any and were preceding to explain way, we were cut off and had condoms forced on us to take home. So yes folks, I am now the "proud" owner of a handful of condoms... sheesh. What in the world am I supposed to do with them!? If anyone wants them...well, don't let me know, I really don't want to know about that part of your lives... eww. Anyway....When we finally got out, we were laughing none stop for a few about the whole thing.

So the party was a bit of a bust, but it ended on an entertaining note.

Oh as a side...

I know a couple of people who read this aren't to "up on blogging", so just so you know, if you click on a picture, i'tll show you a larger one so you can see better details. Enjoy!

The ACK-attack weekend Catch-up Part 2: Friday

So, where did I leave off? Oh yes, Friday.

Friday was an interesting day for me. First of all, I didn't go to work. My wonderful supervisor let me have it off. Normally when you get a day off, you sleep in. Did I? Heck no. Why you ask? Well, you see, because I came out to New York with the rest of the BYU Comms department, that meant that there were broadcast interns throughout the city with us. One of these interns just so happens to work at the Today Show (that's the NBC morning magazine show) and she hooked up the group with VIP tickets to the Toyota Summer Concert series show that Friday where Alanis Morrissette would be playing to promote her new album that comes out June 10th. Now I realize that to most people they really don't care anything for Alanis, but I happen to be a fan of hers, so I was really excited and convinced the Trio (and Kim) to join me at 6:30 AM outside Rockefeller Center to stand in a blocked off portion of the street for three hours, to listen to as Brother Safsten puts it "Angry Lesbian Music". (Note: Alanis isn't necessarily a lesbian... she just sings about being angry at guys sometimes.) Oh the joy!

Now, I didn't really get great pictures from the Today Show, you'll need to see Kim's blog for those. I was kinda running on about four hours of sleep so I forgot my camera. But I did get a couple from Cami's camera and from screen captures of NBC.com. Speaking of which, if you go to the Today Show website, you can find the video clips of Alanis's performances, which you can see us in! Anyway, while we were there waiting, be got the great pleasure to hear the same three songs about four times each. Alanis played "Ironic", "THank You", and "Underneath"- her new single. I happened to enjoy hearing her live, she's really good live (even Ashley agreed there and she doesn't like her music), but after a while I started to have flash back to my vacation in Destin Florida in 4th grade where the local TV kept playing the "Ironic" music video over and over again. There is only so many times you can stand hearing a song with a bunch of gay guys standing in front of you singing along before you start to go mad. We hit that point at about 7:30, and we weren't leaving until 9. Anyway, point being, we got to be on the Today Show and saw a brief, but good, live concert for free, with really good "seats". Here are some pictures from the event.

This is from a screen capture on NBC.com. So that means this was shown on national television! See how close we were! Cool! I could even see reasonable well and you guys know how short I am.










Just another Screen capture. I've marked our heads with yellow dots.








This is a picture taken on Cami's camera. It does a good job at showing how close we really were.

Oh, and did I mention it was Fleet Week, so there were a ton of sailors there? No, well now I did.











Here's Ashley and Cami. According to Kim, they woke up pretty much ten minute before they had to leave. Don't they look so happy to be awake!






After the Today Show, we went and had breakfast and then walked around Midtown. We saw St. Paul's, Sack's 5th Ave, the American Girl Store, the Macy's flag ship store, the Empire State Building, and we even had time to stop by H&M and get Kyle a snazzy new jacket. I don't know how we managed to walk as much as we did that early in the morning and on so little sleep but we did. It might have been because Kim, who was running on the most sleep, was playing tour guide for us. Thanks again Kim, you're awesome. Here are a pic from our jaunt.






This is St. Paul's. It's near Rockefeller Center. It's a cool old catholic cathedral. I could tell you all about the historical significance it plays in American art... but I'll spare you. Moving on.










I think we may have tried to do too much too soon on Friday because when we stopped by Kim's after our walk, everyone pretty much crashed. We were planning on walking down to the Brooklyn Bridge and going to get some pizza at a really good pizzeria, but no one could function. We opted to watch some of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and relax. Kyle was the main reason why we were going to watch this. He'd never seen it before and we were going to see the play that night. Well, Kyle ended up passing out about 5 minutes in. Then Cami and Ashley quickly followed. I, on the other hand, decided to head back up town and change for the play. So while everyone else slept, I was traveling on the subway. Just so you know, during the weekends here, the subway goes crazy with construction. A normal 30 minute ride turns into a hour or more. Oh joy. But I did manage to get some revenge.



Here's sleeping Kyle, unknowing having a wet-willie coming his way. Ok, so I didn't actually do it, but it was fun to pretend. He didn't even move an inch the whole time... and I got pretty close to his ear too.








After nap time, we went off to dinner at some pizza place in the Financial district. It was called Adrianne's. Like from Rocky. It was crap. We got horrible service. Our server, a little Hispanic guy, only came to us to take our orders and to give us the check. I think he was annoyed we weren't getting alcohol so he wasn't going to make a big tip. Basically he was rude and mean to us, and didn't get much of a tip at all. For dessert we got Crumb cupcakes. These are these big cupcakes that Martha Stewart likes. It wasn't half bad. Really needed some milk. I had fun feeding the sparrows my extras and scaring my friends with the birds coming close to us. (I think I was starting to get a little loopy around this time from lack of sleep.) Oh, we did see something cool though. We were down by the East River at this point, and if you've ever seen "Fool's Rush In", here's the helacopter pad from the movie where Matthew Perry decides he needs to go back to Vegas and be with Salma Hayek.

















From dinner, we preceded to head up to Times Square to see Spamalot. We got there a little early, so we killed time by heading into Toys'R'us! FUN! Really, it was. The thing you need to know about Times Square is that everything there is like mini Vegas. It's all over the top and there just to please the tourists. So inside the Toy store, they had tons of cool displays. Here are some pictures.




Times Square at Dusk
























the Trio (and Me) on the Elevator.











Kyle by the Mack 5 from the new Speed Racer movie.
















Cami at the entrance to Barbie Land.



















Me and Lego Captain Jack Sparrow. I really was on one with sparrows that night now that i think about it.














and finally.... the T-Rex!





He was animated! He moved and made sounds.















I've got a lot more from Toys'R'us, but for the time being I'll move on. Now we did eventually make it to Spamalot! It was hallrious. It was pretty much a straight rip off of the movie at times, but it was reeally fun to see. I highly recommend it to any Monty Python fan, or anyone in general. Yes even you Tiffany! You would enjoy it, I know it! Don't be a broadway snob on me just because you know a whole heck of a lot more... trust the Wise One. Have I ever lead you astray before? Anyway, sorry there, after the show, we headed back home for the night. We did have some fun on the train though. Here are the final pics for Friday's adventuring.






Here's the Sign on the corner of the Shurbert Theatre. Spamalot won Best Musical in 2005 at the Tony's.


It really was sooooooo fun.













Outside the doors, they have a cut out so you can be a (insert fake accent here) Silly French Knight. In honor of the play, here are some fun quotes to go along with the pics


Here's me!


French Soldier: I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.



















Ashley the Knight


French Soldier: You don't frighten us, English pig dogs. Go and boil your bottoms, you sons of a silly person. I blow my nose at you, so-called "Arthur King," you and all your silly English K-nig-hts.













Kyle....



Knight 1: We are now no longer the Knights who say Ni.
Knight 2: NI.
Other Knights: Shh...
Knight 1: We are now the Knights who say...”Ekki-Ekki-Ekki-Ekki-PTANG. Zoom-Boing. Z'nourrwringmm.











and finally Cami.


Black Knight: Right, I'll do you for that!
King Arthur: You'll what?
Black Knight: Come here!
King Arthur: What are you gonna do, bleed on me?
Black Knight: I'm invincible!
King Arthur: ...You're a loony.













This is just a random pic of Ashley and Kyle on the subway... don't they look like they're checking each other out! Ha! I get a kick out of this each time I look at it.




Anyway, that's Friday. I'll be back... hopefully sooner... with Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Keep a look out.

The ACK-attack weekend Catch-up Part 1: Thursday

I promised last week that I would get around to making a "play-by-play" summary of how my Memorial Day weekend went with Ashley, Cami, and Kyle here in New York, so here we go. I'm going to break this down into days they were here. We did a whole lot of stuff, so this will be the best way to do it. So without further delay, here's the first installment of ACK-Weekend!

Thursday:

So, the traveling trio ended up taking a red-eye flight in to the city which meant they showed up around 7 in the morning. Unfortunately for them, because they were going to be staying in Kim's apartment (or one of the guy's in the ward's place in Kyle's case) and she would be off at work by the time they got into the city, they couldn't get into the apartment until that afternoon. So they came up to my place to drop off their stuff for the day and then had to go play tourist for the day until I got off work. Basically they were dead on their feet. Who knew that going with barely any sleep would make you tired? Oh or the fact the Kyle was still basically running on Sydney time because he had just gotten back from a Young Ambassadors trip on the Monday before. Crazy, no? Anyway, so I headed off to work, and they headed off around town with the help of my trusty tourist books with subway map inserts.

While I was off making a powerpoint presentation on Nielsen's latest report on America's readiness to the switch to Digital TV next year, (which just so happened to be presented to clients this past Thursday i might add) Ashley, Cami and Kyle went off and saw Tiffany's on Fifth Ave, the MET, and an unfortunately fruitless attempt at the Guggenheim which was closed that day. Here are some pictures of them during their journey.





This is Ashley and Cami outside the Tiffany's on Fifth Avenue. Each got a new ring. Honestly, I don't even want to know how much they cost... but they wore them all weekend, so they must really like them.










Here's Ashley and Kyle on the Roof top of the Met. Thursday was the only day that it was rainy the whole time they were here. They actually got really lucky and it was basically done raining by the time they got up to the I-House that morning, so it was just nasty looking, but not all that bad otherwise. It was just a little cool.

Oh, don't they look so happy to be awake! (trust me, they'll get better as the days go by... sort of.)






So, since I wasn't with them during the day, I stole these pictures off Cami's camera. This is by far my favorite of the pictures they took of the art inside the MET. Why you ask? Well, if you can't tell, they censored Perseus (the guy holding Medusa's head)! This is a tradition Greek male nude. He's supposed to look like this, no clothes and what not. Since Perseus was a guy he's... um, he's all there we'll say. When it's art, nudity can be ok to show sometimes... oh well, I'm amused at least. Must be all those art history classes paying off some.... moving on.





When I finally got to meet up with them later that afternoon, we had just enough time to get their things from my room and book it downtown to Kim's before she went off to see the new Indiana Jones movie (which I still want to go see sometimes myself... even my parents have seen it and I haven't!) Anyway, we get down to Kim's and the Trio changed clothes cause we're heading off to Wicked! Yes ladies and gents, my first ever Broadway show! And can I just say, it was great! True, it was the stereotypical musical that all Mormons are seeing now, but hey, it was still a good show. The set was cool, the music was lovely, and the cast was great. Glinda and Elphaba (that's the Wicked Witch of the West) got their hair stuck together at one point which was really funny. I think Glinda was my favorite. I will never be able to watch the Wizard of Oz again without seeing Glinda as a flighty dumb blonde again! Ha! My favorite line was one of hers. "Just let the girl and her little dog 'Do-Do' go Elphie. They're just shoes for goodness sakes!"... well, you'll get it if you see it. It's pretty darn funny. We had a good time, even if we didn't get to sit together.





Here's Ashley and Cami next to one of the posters outside the theater.









After Wicked we called it a night. We had big plans for Friday and the Travelers were basically dead on their feet at this point. So I took them back down town for beddy-bye, and headed home myself to catch as much sleep as possible so we could make it to the Today Show by 6:30 the next morning...

Well, I'll be leaving it there for now. I'll be back soon with more of the weekend events and many more pictures, maybe even a movie clip or two. You'll just have to wait and see. Night folks!

Attention! New Post Arriving Soon

Hey one and all!

You'll notice that I haven't posted in a while. Well, that's because nothing major has really happened up until this past weekend. Mainly it was just going to work, being on the train for ever and generally having a good time hanging out with Kim. But, because this past week was Memorial day, I have new stuff to share with one and all! Why was this weekend so important you ask? Well, my good friends Ashley, Cami, and Kyle came out a visited me for five days! It was really fun. As soon as I get a decent amount of time I'm going to post a nice long post detailing what we did, and it'll even have photos! I will also be making a special post after that because tomorrow I get to got to Sex and the City Premier Party hosted by TV Guide because my friend Alison who works as a Media Planner at Maxis got tickets! It'll be at Mr. Big's bar and I've never watched the show a day in my life, it should be really fun. Hey, I might even see someone famous!

Anyway, kept checking because I'll be posting a lot soon.

And one other thing....

I forgot to add, my niece was born today. Allison Paige Barrington was born at 9:51 am and was 6.6 lbs, 19 inches long. The only pic so far that I have is a really bad text messaged image where the colors got inversed. Sad. See my brother's blog for more details on little Allison.

Random Tidbits

So, I haven't really done much yet. I've been here two whole days and have yet to officially start work at Nielsen. Yesterday I went through orientation for the I-House and did a little scavenger hunt through the city. Then I finally got to see Kim. Yeah! We did dinner and she showed me how to get to her apartment on Wall street. Today, I had lunch with my supervisor Steve McGowen and a co-worker. I think I'm replacing her actually. Anyway, I then went to Target with Kim, got shampoo and other random necessities. Kim fed me dinner and we went to a birthday party for someone in her ward... well he was turning thirty-one so he isn't in her ward anymore. Anyway, I basically met TONS of people in the last 48 hours that I can guarentee I wont remember their names next time I see them. But it has been fun so far. New York is huge and convising at times, but I'm getting the hang of it.

While I was coming home tonight I discovered how annoying express trains can be. I was riding the 1 which is the train that takes me to the I-House, and for some reason it decides to become an express tonight, which it never is. I didn't realize this until after they closed the doors on the last stop before mine. So basically I was stuck watching my stop fly by, getting off at the next stop, about ten blocks uptown, leaving the subway, finding the downtown entrance, waiting another 10 minutes for the next downtown train, and getting on to ride for one stop - all because it would still be faster, and safer, than walking back down to my real stop and then to the I-House. You could say it was annoying. Oh well.

I start work tomorrow and will be getting up nastily early so I can manage breakfast before my hour long commute. I have to be their by 9 and will probably be stuck in HR for half the morning. Wish me luck.

Louisville to New York: Status - Delayed

Well, ladies and gentlemen, since I will be far far away from pretty much everyone I know for the summer I decided to keep this blog as an update center for everyone who cares. I'll be making updates fairly often giving you the highlights and random factodes of my experience here in the Big Apple. To start things off, I'll give you my day today... enjoy.


So, I was scheduled to leave Louisville International today at 4:35. That meant that I would reach New York by around 7 pm at the latest, arrive at my housing by say 8 and be hanging out with my dear cousin Kimberly by oh... 8:30. And let's not forget actually having time to eat dinner. Great plan right? Oh absolutely. Did it go that way? Not on your life.


The trouble started at about 3pm when I got at the airport. Because there was no one sitting outside at the curbside check-in I went inside. Now I should have expected that something wasn't right when I heard the counter-women asking if I had a connection in New York. Now, not thinking anything of it, I went on my marry way and went through security and started heading down to my gate. As I looked up at the "Departures" sign, to my horror, I discovered that my flight was two hours delayed. How crappy is that!?!? As it turned out, I didn't get on my plane until 6:45, and we didn't leave Louisville until 7:15 or so. It was so annoying. Then we had to stay in a "holding pattern" for about 30-45 minutes. So basically, I didn't make it into New York until 10, that's 3 hours later than planned.


The next stage of the adventure came when I got on the Shuttle. Now this should have been perfectly simple: give them a call, get in the van, get dropped off. Perfectly simple. Now, getting the shuttle was a bit annoying because the phone didn't work right and I couldn't find my invoice (which would be needed later as to find out). They checked me in via my last name and I went to sit. Now, it was around 10:30-40, and I make it on the Shuttle. Problem here was that they needed the "cross streets" but the I-House isn't on a cross street, its in the freaking middle of a street and I didn't know what to tell them. Thankfully the Indian driver (the country, not native American) knew what I meant when I told him the I-House. The shuttle was completely full which means we'll be making several stops. So we've made two stops and we've stopped at a red light. We're right next to a cop car that has pulled over a taxi. As we pull away from the light, all of a sudden we hear a cop siren. Yes, that's right, WE GET PULLED OVER!!! Can you freakin' believe it, it's 11:15 at night, we're an airport shuttle and we get freaking pulled over right after a stop light. As it turns out, a tail light was out. It was so stupid. Don't they know that it was a shuttle service and they wouldn't let the van out if it wasn't in complete legal standing and that the light must have shorted out like two seconds ago? Oh well. Eventually we get going again and thank goodness I was the next stop.


So basically, I had planned on being settled in New York, hanging out with my favorite cousin by 8:30 and I end up not making it to my room until 12:00. So, I was stuck in the airport for hours, stuck in the air for hours, stuck in a shuttle for too long, and didn't get to see my cousin. Oh and don't even get me started on the size of this room! All I can say, if Ashley really does need to crash with me on Memorial day, I'm going to step on her. There will be pictures later... when I unpack.


Well, it's 1 in the morning, I'm going to bed. Night.

Bonnie and LuWayne Barrington and Television: an Oral History

This post is specifically for an assignment for my media history class at BYU. Hope you enjoy what my grandparents had to say. It was fun for me to hear their perspective of early TV from the small town viewpoint. The interview continues for quite a bit more than what I have transcribed. If you are interested in hearing more, I have it in WAV form and can send it to you to listen to if you would like. (Both of my grandparents signed release forms allowing this to be posted online.)

Comms 301 Oral History Project

Interview with LuWayne and Bonnie Barrington, my paternal Grandparents

Date: March 8^th, 2008; Kaysville, Utah

Interviewer: Brittany Barrington

Transcriber: Brittany Barrington

Digitally Recorded

Mini Biography: Bonnie and LuWayne Barrington are current residents of Kaysville, Utah. They moved to Kaysville during the Fall of 2006 from Preston, Idaho where they had lived since 1969. Before then they have moved across various parts of Northern Utah and Southern Idaho while LuWayne worked for Utah Power. They are the parents of four children, Kenneth, Evan, Rex, and Sheila. They have been married for almost 59 years after meeting each other in Preston where they both grew up. Both are retired and enjoy spending time with their family members that live near by, as well as going to the temple and working on family history.

Brittany Barrington (Br): Ok, this is Brittany Barrington, a Comms 301 student for Brigham Young University, interviewing my grandparents Bonnie and LuWayne Barrington about anything and everything involving the media, specifically television. It is March the 8^th and we are in their home in Kaysville, Utah. So grandpa and grandma are you ready to talk about what TV was like back then?

LuWayne Barrington (Lu): Well, if we can remember.

Bonnie Barrington (Bo): I still think it was interesting that first television that we.. I.. I don’t know whether if we had seen it, a television… but the first one I remember seeing was over at Ray Ferrell’s in Lynrose. We went over for dinner..

Lu: That’s before we got ours, isn’t it?

Bo: Yes, yes, that was up there. And they kept the TV going while we were eating, while we did everything. And that was something that was a little hard for us to understand, why it wasn’t turned off during… during the meals and things. So mainly we have turned ours off while we’re…doing that. But um…

Lu: So that would be previous to 1956, if that’s when we got our first one in Smithfield.

Bo: And the first one we bought was in 1956.

Lu: Christmas for 1956 and we just got moved into that house in Second ward... I forgot the address. But any way we bought the TV then I moved back as a Meter man. I would read meters and correct them and I got in the meter department in January

Bo: But we bought this wonderful TV and it was just beautiful. And we were so excited about it.

Br: Do you remember what brand it was, Grandpa?

Lu: It was a Filco I think.

Bo: Filco, yes.

Lu: Because we…That was just a good brand then I thought.

Bo: Just a black and white. We were just tickled. And we had three little boys. And we just had it a day and my visiting teachers, they were older ladies, can and they sat there and they spent most of the time telling me how it was going to ruin our boys’ lives because we had television and that’s all they’d want to do was watch television. And I had it on when they came but I turned it off when they came. And I was a little bit disappointed because I thought I didn’t need them to say that. I thought I was smart enough to know when…

Lu: Well… there’s some kids get too much TV (Laughs)

Bo: Well I know… but especially now.

Lu: We have too many credit cards too. (Laughs)

Bo: Television… one thing about the kids. Kenneth, he’d want to watch that and then go do his studies. Finish the program, for a hour, or whatever. But Evan… there was never a time when television took precedence over his homework. I don’t believe. Was there?

Br: He’s still like that.

Bo: Still like that… It was important to get his school work done.

Lu: Homework come first.

Bo: Yeah. And we never did have to ask him if he had his homework done. I don’t think. I never did ask him that I don’t believe. But Kenneth, he didn’t mean to, but… well he’d get it done. But then Kenneth would want to visit and watch television and stuff. And Evan, when he got his work done, then that’s what he’d do.

Lu: I think Kenneth took after his mother. She likes to watch television as she does her work. (laughs) If I’m going to study, I’ve got to have it quite.

Bo: I don’t have the television on, but I like music or something on while I’m working. Are you like that?

Br: I’m most definitely like that. I’m constantly listening to something.

Bo: See it’s alright.

Lu: I guess if you’ve got it constantly. I have a hard enough time focusing as is.

Br: I use it more to block everything else out, so I focus in on what I’m doing.

Bo: See that’s what I do… Well LuWayne you tell about the TV we bought and we liked it so well… the one you made into a book case.

Lu: Well the first was the Filco, that we had in Smithfield. And we went back to Preston in January of ’57 for the meter department. I think it was two or three years… that Filco was a good one. Well, I don’t know when it was, but it was a Motorola, it was in big wooden case like you can see down stairs in the cabinet.

Bo: Now it was color.

Lu: Yeah the Motorola was color. And it was an expensive one, it should have lasted a long time but I don’t know… how long did it last? Well it didn’t last as long as we thought it should. That’s when we bought the Zenneth down in Smithfield. Well I worked there in Smithfield. And it was on a cart. It was a colored one too.

Bo: Well most were colored by then.

Lu: And we had it down stairs in Preston. Did we have it do there to start with?

Bo: Yes, we had it down there while the kids were home.

Lu: Which one did you have upstairs then?

Bo: I had that little one that I won from the Lyons Club that I won at a raffle, and set it on the table so I could see it from the kitchen.

Lu: In the dinning room?

Bo: Yes. In the dinning room, so I could see it from the kitchen.

Lu: But didn’t we have another besides that?

Bo: Yes, we had the one downstairs.

Lu: So we had the big one downstairs. Was the little one black and white?

Bo: No, it was color.

Lu: What became of it?

Bo: I think it finally wore out.

Lu: So you’re saying that Zenneth downstairs and the little one upstairs. Is that all we had upstairs? We didn’t watch any TV upstairs?

Bo: No that’s all. And some people have Television in their bedroom and we’ve never ever had television in our bedroom wherever we’ve lived. And we’ve been married 58 almost 59 years.

Lu: I thought we always had a TV upstairs in Preston.

Bo: No, we didn’t LuWayne. When we moved back…

Lu: We moved back to Preston in ’57.

Bo: But we didn’t have it up there until after Evan and Kathy got married.

…[The next few minutes were spent on my grandfather trying to remember the various houses they lived in, including their addresses, and how they were furnished.]…

Bo: My vary favorite program on television was Lawrence Welk and I still like that.

Lu: He’s been dead for years and years and years… and she still likes it.

Bo: I just loved those fancy customs they’d wear. They just looked wonderful in color. What did you like LuWayne?

Lu: Oh, football game, basketball games…

Bo: But you loved to watch the news and those westerns.

Lu: John Wayne and his westerns.

Bo: So that’s movies. Oh and you like the Lone Ranger… Dodge City…

Lu: Bonanza was one we liked too.

Bo: Yeah we liked it…

Lu: I often think of TV and the technology that it’s come… well take radio and the last 50 years. Our parents would be turning in their graves with what we have now… Well what I was going to tell you was in the 70’s when I hurt my back, Rex and I were working on the muffler under the Buick. I twisted my back or something…and I couldn’t get up… I went to two or three doctors, and one put a needle in my spin and we would see in my spin on a little TV… what was it called?

Bo: Oh, an epidural…

Lu: But they had to have the picture to do it. I wonder how they did it before… well that’s not quite TV, but it’s an outgrowth of it. I don’t know how many TV’s we’ve had the years…

Bo: Well, like we said we’ve been married 58, just about 59 years. And when we got married we just had the radio and it was 57 before we got our first one… And you think of everything they have now. They’ve got the cell phones that you can watch things on…

Lu: We got electricity in Riverdale in 1929. I was ten or eleven when we got our first radio. Wonder what they did before that… just work I guess.

Br: You probably had to socialize with real people.

(all laugh)

Bo: Well do you have any questions?

Br: Sure, do you remember how many channels you had when you got your first TV?

Bo: Well, 2, 4, and 5 out of Salt Lake.

Lu: NBC, ABC, and CBS… just the three I think…

Bo: Yeah… and then we got Idaho Falls, Blackfoot and Pocatello stations when we were in Preston.

Lu: When did we pick up all the other ones?

Bo: Now there was something that had cartoons on it… maybe I’m just remembering the Saturday morning cartoons. I know the kids liked to watch that.

…[They then went off on a tangent about American Fork, where they lived in the late 60s and my grandmother’s work there with the Relief Society.]…

Br: Do you remember any major events that were covered by TV news live? Like they did with 9/11?

Bo: I remember when they had the dam break in Sugar City.

Lu: I think it was 1967 when the Teton Dam broke… Yeah they had that on TV. You could see pictures of houses floating down the main street in Rexburg. (laughs) You could see the houses just floating alone and then make the turn with the street…(laughs).

Bo: Some times I remember we’d be watching a show and then something would happen and they’d bleep out the show and tell about it. I remember being younger and thinking why couldn’t they just wait until the news for them to show it. I now realize the importance of showing it when it happened. What else do you remember LuWayne?

Lu: There was the Oneida hydroelectric plant in the 80s… was it 84? That was on TV… Four guys got killed. There are three generator there and they were overhauling them. And they have these surge tanks to help hold the water while they repair them. But they were fixing a valve, the valve locked on them, and the pipe to the tank ruptured and the water shot out. It shot over a good ways where they had this two-ton trunk we had. There were some guys in the truck and the water just washed the building it was in away with the truck too. This one truck went down into the river. One of them was killed by a bolt or something. But one guy was able to get out in the river, but he was about froze by the time he got to the edge of the river. It was about 10 below, late in the evening around closing time. It ended up killing about four of them. Well I don’t really remember when it was, but I remember it happening and being on TV. It was where I first started out with Utah Power in the 50s.

Bo: Now one thing that we were really proud of was the Christmas lights we have in Preston, which is a small town. We really went to town with them. And the Salt Lake channel 5 showed us there. They still show on TV each year. We’re really proud of that.

Lu: Oh what was that movie they made there… Napoleon, Napoleon Dynamite. They even have a street name Napoleon Dynamite there now. It was an odd ball, but it gave Preston some advertising… (laughs)

Bo: What else… Conference used to be just on the radio and then they started showing it on TV. And I remember us being glued to the television because we thought it was so neat. It seems like they were just in the room with you. It made it special.

Lu: And now they use the satellites for Regional conferences so you have 30 or 40 stakes all watching the same thing. It’s neat.