Great Blog Post

I'm not talking about my own. I'm not that self-absorbed.

You should all read this. It's about taking smart risks. I really like #1: Long-term regrets are usually about not taking more risks. I've heard this from more than one person older than me.

Today went by WAY faster than each of the past 2 days. It was still way fun though. I started by going to Central Park right by the Guggenheim and just relaxing for a little while. Then a few people met me there, we hung out, and went to an AdWeek presentation. Then we played around some more until we got to visit mcgarrybowen. They were a way cool agency, and Mr. Bowen himself called to Patsy's Pizza and bought us all dinner. (After tip, it came out to $650!)

Right across the street, as it turned out, was the movie premier for The Social Network. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be, but that may be because it isn't the most highly anticipated movie. Apparently I missed seeing Justin Timberlake showing up though, which was too bad, but I did get a few pictures of the lead actor Jesse Eisenberg who plays Mark Zuckerberg, and I'm willing to bet that Mark Zuckerberg was there too. So many -bergs in that sentence.

Had a great conversation with another Ad student about Copywriting vs. Planning. (Unbeknownst to most, I've been considering applying for the creative track as a Copywriter, which would put me at BYU for another year... General consensus right now is that I don't want to do it.)

Staten Island Ferry --> Staten Island. Turn around, repeat. (Back to Manhattan, of course.) Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and re-learning about ANGEL ISLAND. (No one I was with believed me there was an Ellis Island equivalent on the west coast. Cue the "I was right and you were wrong" blog label! :-)

A great walk/sit in Battery park with some great friends, a gentlemanly trip (if I do say so myself) to Wall Street, back to the loft to get the computer to write and turn in a Book of Mormon assignment, and currently at McDonald's at 2am.

Woah it's 2am. Time to go. G'night!

I wish I could post pictures

It'll be worth your time to read this whole post. I know it's long, but push through!

So usually I hate when people go to cool places where I don't get to go and then have tons of fun without me and get to do tons of cool stuff that I don't get to do.

As of about 3pm yesterday I was figuring that this wasn't going to be one of those trips. Then the after-3pm stuff happened.

Sorry, but I'm going to be one of those people for the next couple of days.

Yesterday (pre-3pm), along with everyone from the BYU AdLab, we got to go to a number of lectures and panels. It was pretty neat to get to hear people like Russell Simmons, John Legend, ?estlove, Ricky Carmichael, Spike Lee, and other "big" people like the CEO of Nascar speak to us about marketing, advertising and the changing environment for everything. But we were all so tired, you guys. The plane ride I was on had a very loud group of Vietnamese passengers in the row in front of me. As in my earplugs were all the way in (like, I'm-about-to-lose-them-in-my-ear-forever deep) and their chattering was keeping me awake. I got about 1.5 hours of sleep I think)

Anyway, Jeff scored us all some tickets to the Billboard concert featuring the aforementioned John Legend (playing with The Roots). The first opener was some random gospel choir, so I wasn't expecting to leave my comfortable seat about 150 feet behind the floor in front of the stage. Then I changed my mind and went and joined the AdLab group.

Enter, by complete surprise, Bruno Mars (Here and Here). Well, long story short, that was awesome. I'm definitely going to buy his music now because he is so super good, and I may or may not have a slight man crush on him now...

Today we opted out of attending any of the AdWeek stuff (a decision made slowly, as we were originally planning on attending at least one event today, but then we got so caught up with everything else we eventually chose not to do any of them.) We did, however, visit McCann Worldgroup and Naked Communications, both of which were pretty great.

Then we walked. Forever. Down to Chinatown, WTC Ground Zero, and across the Brooklyn bridge. Then my feet fell off.

Oh yeah and we ran into Joseph Gordon-Levitt on some random small street. He was on the phone with a suitcase. This is a guy who I've watched in movies and TV shows since I was little. (Angels in the Outfield, 3rd Rock from the Sun, 500 Days of Summer, G.I. Joe, and of course Inception.) Weird. We went back to try and get a picture with him, but he was like "Sorry, I've really got to stay on this call. Sorry!" (Or something along those lines.) I got a random picture of him from behind from super far away, but you definitely can't tell it's him. Oh well.

Ok, I'm going to walk back to the loft and get ready for bed. Tomorrow morning is Central Park relaxation morning, before all the craziness of day 3 hits.

Oh yeah, I'm definitely in a McDonald's using the free wifi since we can't get it to work in our loft.

Oh yeah and I think I'm setting myself up for some serious disappointment. Maybe I should be more prudent. But deep inside I feel like I can't give up yet. Because I would seriously regret giving up without a fight. And I already have enough regrets.


Whatever. I can handle disappointment, but I can't take any more regrets. I will be more prudent though.

Ughmath

The title is in opposition of the YouTube channel "Yaymath," which has actually given me a great review of math principles I've forgotten over the years.

Speaking of math, I think that if you let f(x) = (1/x) = number of showers I took today, x being the amount of busyness/fun I had today, then:

lim x->infinity f(x) = 1/x = 0.

In other (real-people) words, I was so super busy/had so much fun today that I definitely never had a chance to take a shower... whoops.

Woke up at 8, studied math until 9:45, took my test from 10-12, regretted some of my answers from 12:15-12:45, picked up Ari to run some prepare-for-NYC errands, etc. from 1-3:20, sold another football ticket/went to the dismal football game from 3:20-6-ish, ate some Dairy Queen, gassed up my car, and went to the Real Salt Lake Soccer game from 7-11-ish.

Some concerns of mine as of late:

• I don't know how things are happening in NYC yet. I don't even know where our place is...
• I feel like I should feel like I have a TON to do to get ready for NYC, but I feel like I just need to pack and then I'll be ready.
• I find myself wanting to listen to Dashboard Confessional. Those of you who really know me know what that means.
• I *really* want to get As in all of my classes this semester but I'm starting to wonder if that's going to happen...

Well I'm going to bed. This should be an interesting week to say the least.

In my head

These songs have been in my head for the past few weeks on a rotating, sporadic schedule. So I thought I would put them in your head too. :-)




Mel in our Dinner Group talked about a guy who was super persistent and because of it they ended up dating, but Justin's actions in this music video seem to border on rape... I guess it worked in the end though, right?

No Regrets

"I would rather regret the things that I have done than the things that I have not." - Lucille Ball

"The only thing you live to regret are the risks you didn't take." - ?

I really wish I could remember who first told me about the concept of making decisions based on a "no regrets" principle.

It is a genius and terrifying idea. I'm going to try it.

Basic idea: make your more important decisions by asking yourself "will I regret it if I don't _______?" If you will, then DO IT! If you won't, then it doesn't matter either way, so you can stop worrying about it.

My life is plagued with bruises created from kicking myself for not doing or saying something I now wish I had, risks I wish I had taken, and rewards I know I sacrificed because I didn't.

I just have to think, "what do I really have to lose? Pride? Self-esteem?" The truth is the only thing I usually have to lose is an opportunity, and I have already lost too many of those.

"Looking back, I have this regret, that too often when I loved, I did not say so." - David Gayson

P.s. just for fun: another way I make decisions between two alternatives is to flip a coin and then gauge how I feel based on the outcome. If I'm disappointed, I know I really wanted the other outcome. Do any of you have other good methods of making decisions?

Maybe I just don't have any thoughts?

Sometimes I go through spurts of blogging when I feel like I can be very analytical and smart about things. Then I don't type anything for a long time. Maybe I just don't have any worthwhile observations in those times?

Well here's a blog entry to break up the break from blogging.

If you haven't watched this family's vlog, you absolutely need to! Shaycarl is soooo funny and such a good guy, and he kinda makes me want to start a family! Today's vlog isn't the best example, although he does make good points. Check out some of his more recent posts too.

I was just reading some of my older blog posts and I like 'em! It's a great way to record the thoughts I've had before because I've totally forgotten about a lot of them. I was smart back then!

I'm going to try to keep these shorter so people will actually read them. So that's all for today!