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.

Another Dedication to Tiffany.... "The Score "

So I'm going to do this in two parts people. The first responses will be from my 20GB iPod, while the italized ones will be from my 80GB. (Yes I am that pathetic that I have two iPods. Just deal with it.)

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?

So, here’s how it works:

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc.)

2. Put it on shuffle

3. Press play

4. For every question, type the song that’s playing

5. When you go to a new question, press the "next" button

6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool!

Opening credits: "Letter from St Jude" from Spiderman 3/"Simply Because" by Rooney

Waking Up: "Evenstar" from the Lord of the Rings/ "The Luna Temple" from Tomb Raider 2

First Day At School: "Mountain" by Good Charlotte/ "We Might as Well Be Strangers by Keane

Falling In Love: "Strange and Beautiful" by Aqualung / "Stolen" by Dashboard Confessional

Fight Song: "Tune Out" by the Format / "Breaking the Girl" by Red Hot Chili Peppers

Breaking Up: "Since You Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson / "Like Wow!" by Leslie Carter (from Shrek)

Prom: "Two Weeks From Twenty" by Yellowcard / "I Don't Think Now Is The Best Time" from Pirates of the Caribbean 3

Life’s OK: "A Real Love Survives" by No Doubt / "One Family" from Tarzan

Mental Breakdown: "Heard the World" by O.A.R. / "All The Things She Said" t.A.T.u (I never listen to them anymore)

Driving: "Waiting on the World to Change" by John Mayer / "Peace Be Upon Us" by Sheryl Crow

Flashback: "Atomic Dog" by George Clinton / "F***ing In Heaven" by Fatboy Slim

Getting Back Together: "That's How You Know" from Enchanted / "Love At Home" by the MoTab

Wedding: "Brown Eyed Girl" from Everclear / "Outrageous" by Britney Spears (oh heaven help me)

Birth of Child: "Head over Feet" by Alanis Morissette / "Route 66" by Chuck Berry

Final Battle: "Welcome to Paradise" by Green Day / "Walk Like an Egyptian" by The Bangles

Death Scene: "Keeper" by Yellowcard / "Party Up" by Hilary Duff (well maybe I died by her singing it TO me...never know)

Funeral Song: "Pocahontas Proud" by Gretchen Wilson / "A Hard Day's Night" by The Beatles

End Credits: "Caring Is Creep" by the Shins / "He Loves U Not" by Dream


Well... now that we've done that (with Tiffany's help manning the iPods) I must say... either way, my musical score selection for my Life down right sucks. Even with the 20GB iPod, which is the "best of" of my music collection it still turned out like crap. Oh well, at least non of it turned out to be Christmas music like Tiffany's! (I was laughing...kind of... and Tiff here called me a Turkey... which is why I called her Tiff just now! I know she hates/strongly dislikes/uses only in selective times like by her Daddy that name!) MWAHAHAHAHAH!!


(And also, I don't write everything that Tiffany says... I just do it to annoy the living crap out of her. It's just too fun not too sometimes)

Anywho, it's like really late. Goodnight people out there in Blog-Land.

Curse you Tiffany... MY abc's

Because she knew that if I actually read her blog I would do this type of thing, I blame Tiffany for this second post for the day. Here we go:


A - Attached or Single: Single, sadly enough
B - Best Friend: hmmm.... we've got Laura, Sarah, Kimberlee, Kimberly, Ashley, Caitlin, etc. I'm not good at picking one best friend people.
C - Cake or Pie: Cake, Funfeti with Rainbow chip frosting
D - Day of Choice: Thursdays oddly enough.
E - Essential Item: my iPOD and my classring.
F - Favorite Color: blue
G - Gummi Bears or Worms: both, chocolate covered bears or the worms from Cosmo's in the Cannon center are both equally great.
H - Hometown: Louisville, KY
I - Indulgence(s): Dr Pepper and watching too much TV season on DVD like Xena or Gilmore Girls
J - January or July: How about June instead. It's not too hot yet.
K - Kids: none of my own yet. But I've got three nieces and nephews with two more on the way.
L - Life is Incomplete Without: music
M - Marriage Date: shall we look at "A" again... unless you mean do I need a date for Caitlin's wedding, I'll look into that.
N - Number of Siblings: Well... are we counting in-laws too? I've got two brothers, one sister, one brother-in-law, and a sister-in-law
O - Oranges or Apples: Granny smith apples all the way
P- Phobias or Fears: I'm afraid of falling, not to be confused with heights now. I'm ok up high as long as I know I'm not going to fall and go slat. I was stuck on a roller coaster because of a power failure. Way scary.
Q - Quote(s): "Honey, don't let the blond hair fool you. Although bombastic forms of circumlocution should be generally avoided, one mustn't shy away from big words in the right context." - Aphrodite, Goddess of Love on the Xena episode Little Problems.
R - Reason to Smile: my capstone book is turned it! YEAH!
S - Season: Spring
T - Tag Seven: I'll tag Kim and leave it be. Like 7 people would actually do this, let alone read it.
U - Unknown Fact About Me: I have a minor complex about making sure I'm "living up to par" to my siblings in what I do in my life. Sometimes I'm never sure if what I am doing is good enough.
V - Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: Oppressor all the way. Heck, it's a good day if I get veggies in my diet.
W - Worst Habit: I live in a constant state of "controlled chaos", aka I'm messy
X - X-Rays or Ultrasounds: well ultrasounds are big in my family right now with two pregnant women in my family and my ex-roommate being pregnant too. But I'll avoid both if possible for the moment.
Y - Your Favorite Food: dr pepper, but that's a drink. I'm big on Costa Vida/Cafe Rio at the moment food wise.
Z - Zodiac: Virgo


There. I'm none. Hope you enjoyed.

Horray for Capstone Classes and random crazies on campus!

Well hello those random few who 1) know about this blog and 2) actually bother to read it. Since there has been requests for new postings, here it is for today. So today I turned in my capstone book. My education in the world of advertising at BYU is almost over. I only have my presentation left and I'm done with all the ad classes I will ever take at here. YEAH!!! I chose not to include my internship credits into that because... well it's just not a typical class so I say it doesn't count. Anyway, It's so great to have that finally done. This whole week has been dedicated to getting that sucker done and printed. Handing it over was such a great feeling. It was like a great weight was lifted from me. Now I get a great little break this weekend so I can actually watch General Conference and finish other homework without my project hanging over my head. I thought I'd share a couple of our super cool creative pieces here so you can experience them too. First off let me just say that we're working on this hush-hush project for Fox, so no real detail here. I just think some of our creative is freakin' awesome. Basically this is a branding campaign (get people to know the product and brand for those who don't speak Ad).

Our clients really wanted us to go for non-traditional type advertising. That means stuff other than TV, magazines, newspapers, billboards, and radio. This is one of our ideas. It's a "flash movie van" basically it goes around a randomly plays video/movies around town for the public. And when I say plays movies, I mean it has a projector on the top and sends it out onto a wall or something so you can enjoy the wonderful video. Honestly I just think the image is really cool. I want one of these.

Can I just say that I had an incredible team. All ten of us meshed really well together and we didn't have any major in-fighting. That was such a relief. When I went to class the first day I was expecting them to have all of the 489 (Capstone) students together even though we were in three different sections. That way we could mix and mingle to groups however we wanted. I had plans on a couple of people I wanted in my group, like my good friend Emma who I've done several projects with before and I knew I could rely on. But unfortunately, they decided last minute that your teams would be strictly based on your section. So the gathering of my team was completely random. We were all "so you wanna be in a team?" "Sure, I don't care". We were completely haphazard on our gathering, but it has turned out really well. I wont say we didn't have our problems, I've wanted to chuck a notebook or two this semester at people, but it was just a very relaxed group and we had a good time.

Just as an aside, I would like to mention that while I am writing this little ditty, I'm sitting in the Wilk in the Cougareat, that's the food court of our student center here at BYU. I just barely looked to my left and I saw a massive sword being passed around a table. Someone needs to tell the Medieval Club that they should keep their weaponry to the outdoors, in wide open spaces, where they can't accidentally chop off arms of poor unsuspecting normal students. I won't say that I'm not a dork in my own right, but I have no desire to ever be a Medieval Clubber, Trexxie, Jedi, or whatever. I might be a big fan of Xena and own all the episodes on DVD, but you will never see me decked out in full body armor, sword strapped to my back, chakrum in hand (that's what that image is there people), at a Xena convention any time too soon.

So anywho, that's what's up with me right now. I'm going to try to sneak out of here without being challenged to a duel. Wish me luck. If I fail, know this: I fought valiantly and died with my honor.

I better go warm up my battle cry just in case...