He is not that Dramatic

This post goes out to Mark.




This is from the new TV show "Modern Family" on ABC. WATCH IT!

I forgot

I had forgotten just how much I enjoyed feeling needed, especially in regards to the church. Let me back up a little bit. When I first started attending committee meetings for the institute here in Seattle it wasn't just for the breakfast. Sure getting fed was good, but I truly loved helping out as much as I could and this gave me the opportunity to do just that. Early on my skills and talents in Graphic Design were noticed by my peers and as a result my niche was found. I began designing posters, handouts, little things like that in my spare time. I truly loved doing this as it gave me a chance to hone my skills and actually be useful in what I was doing. Adam loved using me for these things the most. He was always asking me from across the hall if I would design something for Understanding Mormonism for him or an ad for the Daily. It was a fun working environment and I was always happy to help.

Then my computer broke. I became lazy when it came to fixing it, and as a result I lost my place. Soon institute committees just became Friday breakfast for me, as I would show up, sit silently, help as little as possible, make a few sarcastic jokes, and then eat. Through this I then started becoming more avoiding when it came to actual church. I started being more willing to work more on Sundays. I didn't home teach, at all. My world became a little darker and frustrating place. I won't blame all this on my computer as these things have always been a part of my mind and personality, it's just the more I felt I wasn't contributing, the more I also found myself thinking that no one would miss me if I wasn't there, even once my computer was fixed I avoided making posters or helping out simply because I had decided it wasn't worth my time anymore.

This year however a dear friend of mine is the Institute President, and Brother Knowles and he went out of their way to ask me to design some posters for the upcoming quarter. Knowing that Jon had the ability to make these himself, it really meant a lot to me that he would still chose to come to me and ask me to do it. And so I started designing again. At first it was frustrating and my perfectionist side came out again, but I pressed on and remembered that perfection isn't possible, I created four posters that will be hanging around the institute for awhile. It felt really good to be able to say without a shadow of doubt that I belong and that I am contributing to something that is a great cause. I have felt so much better about myself since I started designing again. It has encouraged me to improve myself in other areas as well. I am walking home from work again, and in the near future I will be learning some Yoga as well, thanks to Dean.

I won't want to say this is all because of designing some silly posters that don't really matter all that much in the long run, but that is definitely a part of it. Those posters help remind me that I am a part of a greater entity and that it is up to me to do my part. I must be a working cog if the watch is expected to keep working. I am planning on attending at least one institute class this quarter besides committees. It won't be the same as my epic seven class quarter of 2 years ago, but it's a start.

Oh just because I know some of you won't ever see the posters actually hanging up at the institute, and because I love blatant self promotion, here are the 4 posters I designed. Please do tell me what you think, good or bad. I respect your thoughts and I can't get better if I don't get feedback.

abandonment

I might elaborate more in the future, I just wanted to make sure I remembered to post this since it's pretty much exactly how I feel lately, though less to do with death and more to do with just loss.

Halloween

This will be a quick and simple update, I just wanted to share this as an ringing in of the Halloween season. It's my absolute favorite retro pop website x-entertainment.com's Halloween jukebox! It's located right here, enjoy it if you dare.

As a quick plug, Matt does a lot of great work on this website when he finds time, especially on Halloween and Christmas time. If you ever wonder what I am talking about when I mention Knacks and Mare it's this site's fault. Read it, if you like me you will like it.

Summer: A review

Alright so Derek pretty much commanded me to blog again ("update your blog, ho") and without much to actually talk about because not a whole lot has changed since my last blog with the exception being my stomach exploded from those damned mancakes I have decided to pull a cop out blog and just recap my summer. Sounds fun don't it?

If I were to summarize my summer it would be this - baseball, movies, Bumbershoot. However that makes a boring blog so let's go into detail on that.

Now I work for the Seattle Mariners so you would assume I would go to a baseball game or two however I believe I have been to at least 15 games this summer. Sometimes they lost, sometimes they won, every time I had fun. A few highlights would be of course my birthday party, finally learning how to keep score thanks to Laney, the crying White Sox fan, getting to hang out with Michelle and Jess outside of the store, my first Yankees game in 2 years, and getting the courage to go to a game by myself and not hate myself for it. I've still got another about 10 games left this month to build even more memories from. Should be fun.

I make no qualms about loving movies. I had a horribly planned and unspectacular movie blog that I frustratingly quit before it had a chance to be good for goodness sake! Summer is pretty much Christmas for me and my love of movies. Sure actual Christmas time is great for the release of movies that are up for awards that people pretend they saw to sound more sophisticated to people they want to impress, but one cannot deny the power of the Summer blockbuster. I wound up missing a lot of movies that I wanted to see this year but I did see some really good ones, thought it was still one of the more lacking Summer movie seasons I have experienced in a few years. My personal favorite would be Inglorious Basterds, or (500) days of Summer. I successfully shut my brain off for GI Joe and wound up enjoying that, Transformers 2 had it's moments. I hated Wolverine. The Hangover was hilarious though incredibly crass in parts. I'm still mad that I haven't seen Funny People, Moon, or District 9 yet.

Bumbershoot is this weekend and for really the first time, I am actually planning on going with some friends. Last year last minute I went with Kristin and Holland on Monday but this year I am am volunteering with Kurt and then my friends Jen and David will also be attending on Saturday and Monday so the only day I will be wondering by myself is Sunday. The artists I am most interested in seeing are Katy Perry, Natalie Portman's Shaved Head, The Not-Its!, All-American Rejects, Sick Puppies, Todd Barry, Eugene Mirman, Aziz Anzari, The Whore Moans, PATTON OSWALT, De La Soul, Sheryl Crow, Uh Huh Her, Christian Lander's Stuff White People Like, Cold War Kids, Dyme Def, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Common Market, The Benson Interuption, Holy F**k, MSTRKRFT, Jason Mraz, Raphael Saadiq, The Helio Sequence, The Minus 5, Wyatt Cenac, Say Hi, Writers of Lost (mostly just so I can ask them if I can get some of the drugs they are smoking to come up with that crap), The Black Eyed Peas, Maria Bamford, Dead Confederate, Franz Ferdinand, Head Like A Kite, Modest Mouse, 3 inches of blood, Metric, the Knux, DAVID CROSS, Swollen Members, U.S.E, U-N-I. Guess how many of these I will actually see. My guess is about a dozen. I suck at time management when it comes to Bumbershoot.... and everything else too I guess.




Sometimes I wish I had interesting things to talk about besides the same 3 things. Oh well, you're friends with me so I guess you're used to it.

I'm not dead

I just haven't blogged in a good long while. It's not because I don't love you my dear, dear readers. No it's because nothing really interesting has happened to me. Life's little complications have come and gone with nary a reason to rant, or rave. Sure my Twitter account got hacked and as a result @allenbrand has been suspended until they can rationalize that perhaps someone with an account for over 2 years and over 12,000 updates isn't a spammer but instead just a victim. Apparently that takes 30 days minimally despite it being the most blatantly obvious miscarriage of justice this side of Rowe v. Wade. (I have no idea what Rowe v. Wade is. I am assuming it has something to do with using a rowboat or swimming).

That's really it though. And when your Twitter account being suspended is the biggest event in your life.... well you're just pretty danged boring and there is no reason to blog about anything.

My room is approximately 130 degrees right now. Is that blog worthy? No? Dang. I was really hoping I could make this less boring.

So here is my to do list for the remainder of this week. Maybe there is something interesting in here.

1. Karaoke tonight with Rachel, Jon, Dean, and some other fine folks I don't know. Should be a great time. I wonder how long I can withstand Jon's torture before I cave and sing.
2. Work, work, and more work. I work every day this week and as a result, I am going to most likely miss out on an amazing party being thrown by the Pearce Sisters this Friday. It's days like this that I miss driving. Have fun ladies.
3. Saturday has officially been booked by Dean. I have no idea what we are doing but it's going to be fun, relaxing, and great to see her more regularly since she is moving back to Seattle.
4. Mancakes. I have already conquered the 12 egg omelet at Beth's. Now it is time my stomach took a road trip. Portland here we come. 1 small stack of mancakes. Each one is 13" around and about an inch thick. One would think such a magnificent feast would cost the blood of your first born child, but no! You can have 3 mancakes for the low price of $4.50! How can I not at least try and feast on this beast?

Yeah that's all I have. For the most part my goal is to stay cool, and out of the heat while still having fun. Hopefully I will succeed. And if not, well there's always next week.

I love my job part 590543

Alright I often talk about how much I love my job and how great it is, and today I would like to tell a short story about something that I got to do because of my job that I would never have been able to participate in otherwise. For at least the last 2 years, the Seattle Mariners have put together a little thank you for their front office employees. They gather all the players and coaches put them in one of the Safeco Field conference rooms and put together an autograph signing prior to a game. The only stipulation is if you attend you must get a signature from everyone. Absolutely everyone, from Lee Tinsley to Ken Griffey Jr. it doesn't matter what they sign just that they sign something. this truly is a once in a lifetime opportunity because while it has become somewhat of a tradition you never know if management will decide they don't want their players to do this because it takes their focus away from preparing for the game or some other excuse.

Last year I was able to get my boss to have my favorite player, Adrian Beltre, sign something for me, which was a real treat. This year though went above and beyond.

A few months ago my boss received an email with the date and time of the signing (July 11th, 2:00) saying that he was invited along with a guest to attend. Of course I figured he was going to attend, I just started thinking about who I wanted to get a signature from again this year. When he RSVP'd that it would be him and a guest, I was curious who his guest was so I could maybe ask them from a signature or two as well. So I start talking about it with Wes and I ask if he knew who he was taking and he kinda knew what I was hinting at and so he just said "Allen, would you like to be my guest?" with a mischievous smile on his face. I really couldn't tell if he was joking or not but I still said yes. He then said he was planning on selling the pass but that he would really like it if I went with him.

I was ecstatic and pretty much talked to everyone on the staff about how I was going and how great it was going to be. I wouldn't shut up about it. I'm convinced that they were all both really jealous about me going and really annoyed that I kept talking about it. thankfully I was kind enough to return the favor that Wes and Brent did for me last year by offering them one signature. Sure I lost some of my favorite players in that deal (Kenji, Lopez, and Felix) but it was still the right thing to do.

I looked forward to the July 11th date with the glee of a child awaiting santa on Christmas. I made lists of who's signatures I wanted, what I wanted them to sign, and how I would handle the people I didn't really care that much about (I love ya Chris Woodward but I really couldn't care less about your autograph). I debated on what I was going to get signed by some of my favorite players right up until the day of the event. I knew the vague details of what I wanted: a Game used bat, 3 baseballs (one for the players I don't care about, one for the bullpen, and one for the managers. apparently I'm too OCD to just put them all on one ball), photographs, mini batting helmets, and the absolute must have: a framed photo of Ken Griffey Jr. and Ichiro celebrating Ichiro's game winning Grand Slam earlier this season. After my discount everything totalled a little over $250 but again completely worth it as the value on most of the items immediately increased once pen was put to it (though I would never sell them, it's how I managed to convince myself to buy them).

Once Wes and I got there we found out the details of how it works. There are 17 tables. Each table has generally 2-3 players or coaches at them. You start at a randomly assigned table and rotate through numerically. Wes and I started at table 3, and ended at table 2. Simple. Concise. Trouble first started when they announced that about half of the players were stuck in traffic from the Sounders game that started at 1. Just another reason why I hate soccer. So they pushed back the start time to 2:15. Then as if the flood gates had opened the players and coaches began to filter in. Well all of them except our table. No they were another 10 minutes late so we kinda caused a log jam of sorts behind us. It took about 2 hours to make our way through all of the tables. Everyone was nice and polite, Mike Sweeney took time away from his DL stint to sign for us which was unexpected but cool nonetheless. He was seated with Griffey and proceeded to show extra attention and praise to the parents and children that attended, which was great to see. Carlos Silva also took time to join us and sat with Felix. most of the pitchers sat together actually and they had their own brand of fun. On more than one occasion I saw them throwing sharpies at another table full of pitchers. Very cool.

One last story to tell happened at the end of the event, Erik Bedard, who has a reputation through the press as a bit of a stick in the mud, was seated with Russell Branyan. As the clock ticked towards warm ups, Russell turned to Erik and tried to rush him through the last bit of attendees. Erik, who for those unaware is a starting pitcher which means he only pitches every 5 days and his next scheduled start was Sunday, turned to Russell and said "why do I need to hurry? I've got nothing better to do. you're the one with a game to play." Too funny.

Like I said this was a once in a lifetime opportunity that I am so glad that I had the chance to participate in. I can't thank Wes enough for allowing me to go with him. So thank you Seattle Mariners for reminding me that sometimes working for a baseball team has it's perks.