Birds

For those of you who don't know, 'The Wrens' are one of my top 3 all time favorite bands. They are musical geniuses. Plus they are a bunch of forty-something year old dudes who rock and roll harder than most twenty year olds. These guys are so fantastic. If you have never heard of them or listened to them, I strongly suggest that you download...I mean buy their album "The Meadowlands." It is one of the greatest albums of all time. You will not be disappointed I promise. So I decided it was time to post more music on this here blog because it has been about a week since the last little bit. I looked on youtube for some Wrens stuff and I found the greatest video of all time. It's brilliant. I will also include the guys description of the video because this is exactly the type of guys that these guys are. After Chris and I saw them in Seattle in 2005 it was apparent that these are some of the nicest guys in the world. So enjoy this video and first the description to it.

You know when you really really like a band or a person, and you think of them in the highest possible regard, so if/when you find out they're really assholes, it crushes your soul and makes you reconsider everything you hold dear. For those who are fans of the critically acclaimed New Jersey band, The Wrens, you need not worry. Not only are they not assholes, they turned out to be the nicest most genuine people I have met in a very long time (and incredible musicians). How nice you ask? Well nice enough to find time between two sold out Chicago shows to stop by a fan's apartment and give him one of the most amazing experiences of his young life. That fan was me... And the experience was seeing my favorite band (seriously, I am not just saying that) play an acoustic version of my favorite song using my family's guitars. and in a bind for a percussion instrument, the drummer, Jerry, utilized of all things one of my favorite breakfast foods. All of this took place in the living room of my Chicago apartment, and it was a surreal experience, one that we captured on film, so without further ado, THE WRENS LIVE AT BRENDAN'S!

Dashed Expectations

This post is in response to Nic's post: "Ingrateful Lepers," especially the last part where he talks about self-entitlement. I didn't want to leave this as a comment because it's long. Anyway, I've recently begun to realize something that goes right along with what Nic is saying in his post. The biggest problem I run into with people at my job is when they're expecting something and it's not there, and then they end up disappointed and angry. When someone comes in expecting scrambled eggs and bacon, but we're only serving hard-boiled eggs and sausage, they get mad at me. I think that they have these expectations of what they think they deserve or what they think they are entitled to.

One of my professors once said, "Happiness is reasonable expectations" and that has really stuck with me. I've seen the evidence of this everywhere, even in my own life. I've realized that the times when I get upset/frustrated with Justin are always the times when I expect something from him, something that I didn't communicate and so, therefore, something he had no knowledge about.

I bet if we made up a schedule at work of what we were serving every day and gave it to the guests when they check in, it would reduce the amount of disappointed people considerably. Their expectations would match what is actually going to be there. Of course, there will always be those people who feel entitled to things just because they do. Those people are frustrating. Maybe this is because we, as people, are entitled to certain things like freedom, being treated humanely, etc. and then we take it too far and get carried away.

Justin and I have talked extensively on this subject. We've also talked about the fact that most people (me included) feel on edge a lot because we feel like people are going to take advantage of us, or rip us off, because it happens so often. Everyone is so wary of people they don't know. Example: the other day Justin and I went to Staples to get a hard-disc-holder-thingy and they wanted us to sign up for their free rewards card. Sure, why not, right? The guy told us one of the perks is that if we bring in our empty ink cartridges, they will pay us three dollars an ink cartridge. Awesome. So, a few days later we rounded up 10 empty cartridges and carted them to Staples. She handed us a receipt back. Oh, because the guy didn't tell us that the money goes on our account and at the end of the quarter they mail you a check.

When Justin and I left, we were kind of annoyed. Why didn't he tell us? It's not a big deal, not to us. Then we started talking about this idea that he probably didn't tell us because he was afraid we would freak out, that we would think he was trying to trick us somehow, and that we wouldn't sign up for the stupid rewards program. And we understood this because both Justin and I have worked in customer service for years, and people are always wary of anything you tell them, even if you're trying to help them save money, or give them something free, or anything. This ties into what I was saying in the beginning. Customers come up to the counter at Hollywood Video, expecting to rent a movie, and Justin starts telling them about promotions and discounts and packages...He is violating their expectations, and they think he's trying to trick them, so they freak out. They get angry, offended, impatient. They demand more, or something different, and get mad when he tells them it doesn't work that way.

I guess what I'm trying to say with all of this is that although it's very annoying when someone feels entitled, I can understand why they feel that way. (Except for the stupid people that feel entitled because they think they are the best thing ever.) I think people are good, and they're trying to live the best way they know how, but they get caught up in all this stuff that puts them in the defensive. They get angry to self-protect.

This is starting to sound a little preachy, and I don't mean it that way at all. Believe me, I can barely handle people who feel all entitled. Today at work I served hard-boiled eggs, sausage patties, and hashbrowns. This man came up to me and asked, "Do you have any real eggs?" Hm...real eggs, huh? I guess he didn't consider hard-boiled eggs "real." I nearly lost it at him. I think I need a new profession. And suggestions?

See how I couldn't just put all this in a comment?? Oh, and sorry Bryan, you probably didn't want to read all this either. Maybe someday all blog posts will just be videos and keyboards will go extinct. :)

My favorite thing

My favorite thing in the whole world is to go shopping. Psych. I freaking hate shopping almost more than anything else in this entire world. There are many reasons for this. First of all, nothing in this world is made for my body type. Pants for example, I have long legs and a small waist. Well guess what? No I don't, because nobody does in this whole world. Everyone is a bunch of fatties, so if they are tall they also must be fat. It's freaking impossible for me to find pants. Secondly, shirts. I have the same problem here. If I buy the larges they are too dang wide so if I buy a smaller size so I am not eight trains wide, then they are too short. It's ridiculous. Somebody needs to inform these people that there are tall people in this world that aren't retardedly wide. That seems logical though right? Hmmm....the taller they get the wider they must also get, right? Yep, sounds good. I decided they need to make a tall and thin store. I could shop at this place. In fact, I could be the model for all the clothing. They would use me to fit all the shirts of every size. I could get on board with this. Anyway, I kind of got off topic here. My point to all of this is that I believe the hardest thing to buy is a belt.
Look, a new paragraph. I have purchased many belts over the last couple years and it is almost impossible to know what you are buying. They put those little stupid clippy things on the one thing that goes through the holes so you can't even try them on. What's up with that?! And I have bought about five belts that were all size 32 and they are all different sizes and they have different hole placement. So the last belt I bought was a 34 and it was way too big. So then Jesse, bless her heart, bought me a belt at D.I when we were in Idaho. It was good but a little too small, and then it broke. But both belts that I had, the 34 and the one Jesse bought me both created bunching on the waist line. It's maddening I tell you. So this past week we went down to St. George to have some bling put in my mouth and afterward we went to Ross. We found a Tommy Hilfiger belt that I liked and Jesse broke off the thingy on the clip so I could try it on. It fit perfectly. I put it on a little while ago when I got out of the shower and it is perfect on my pants. I only had to put it in the second hole (that's what she said) and it creates no bunching. I love my new belt. I feel hot.

You Don't Know Me

Hey, so, I hope you all haven't forgotten about the book club! The month is coming to a close and the discussions are starting up on forum.ibetts.net. If you haven't registered, do it! Once you sign in, just click on book club and start discussing. I hope everyone enjoyed "You Don't Know Me" and that we'll have some interesting conversations about it. yay!

Hey Now Now

Ok, so we all are just dying to know who is the other half of Bryan's "we." I know that sounds weird but let's just roll with it. I think I have it narrowed down to three people. These following individuals are the one's that I believe are the most likely options. Candidate #1- Shawn. This better not be who it is because then I would be quite disappointed. No offense to Sean but I am just hoping it is somebody a little more girly. And sorry if I spelled Shaun incorrectly, but see what I did there? I spelled it all three ways so I know I got it right at some point. Candidate #2-The Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. I believe this is a large possibility. I think Bryan may be on his campaign team so obviously he was not able to disclose who it was in his blog post. Bryan must be his secret weapon and obviously you don't want to give that away. But don't worry, we got the message. We'll keep it secret, keep it safe. Candidate #3- Some girl. I believe this is probably the most likely scenario. I think she probably has dark hair and a name that starts with a letter between a-p or q-z. But be careful, she could just be trying to out you as Shurtleff's secret weapon. Keep your cards pretty close to the chest. Popcorn.

What's goin on with us? Thanks for asking!

Justin and I have both been accepted to Dixie State College where we will both be getting our Bachelor's Degree in Communications, Film Emphasis. We're very very excited! We're not big fans of SUU. I got a small scholarship which should help us out a ton. We also got financial aid because, well, let's face it, we're not really rollin in the dough. We decided to get into all the same classes for the first semester so it will be easier to commute and have jobs and be busy, etc. Our classes are: Intro to Communication Theory, Intro to Mass Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Professional Ethics, and Screenwriting. I'm most excited about the Screenwriting class. The others sound sort of awful. But, they are the intro level classes. When we get past them, then we'll be into more interesting stuff like Directing for the Camera and Storyboarding and Illustration. I know that I'm pretty much starting over, and it's probably going to be 4 semesters before I graduate...gulp...but, I think I'm finally doing something I'm way excited about. I also think that for the first time Justin is excited about going to school. Film is what he loves, what he's passionate about, what he cares about, and it's what he wants to do. I just think it's hilarious, and Justin pointed this out to me, that I've been to 3 different colleges and I'm ending up at the one in my home town, the one that I swore I would never go to in a million years. But, if I had just started out there in the first place, I would have graduated sooner, but I wouldn't have done all the things I've done, learned all the lessons I've learned, and experienced all the experiences. Most importantly, I wouldn't have met the most important person to me, Justin. And Justin gets frustrated with himself, he wishes he was further along in school and that he had done things differently but, he met me in the process. So how can that be wrong?

CNN

So, as you all know, I watch CNN at work all the time because we are required to have it on in the breakfast room. Well, when Obama was elected into office, CNN did a series called "The First 100 Days." Every day, they would update and discuss what Obama was up to. Apparently, those first 100 days are soon coming to a close. Yea. So, today on CNN, they announced a new series called "The Next 100 Days." Hm. It makes me wonder, what are they gunna do after that? "Another 100 Days...Followed by these 100 Days...And then this 100 Days...oh, and Don't Forget These 100 Days...and the 100 Days After That..." Or maybe they'll do something like, "100 Summer Days...Obama's Most Important 100 Days...100 Days Continued...100 More Days...100 More...and 100 More..." until Obama's stay in office is up? Why not just do a series called "Obama's 1,460 Days in Office, Pending Re-election, of course." I could get on board with a series like that.

Ben Folds

As I've said before, Guster is my favorite band. Well, Ben Folds has ALWAYS been my favorite musician. He is a brilliant pianist, songwriter, and singer. His songs are fantastic. This first video is a song called "The Last Polka" and I chose it because it's one of his more upbeat songs. This is when he was playing with his band, Ben Folds Five, and it was on their self-titled album. Pay attention to his hands (and feet), I think you'll be impressed. The second video is a slower song. It's called "Missing the War" and it appears on their album "Whatever and Ever Amen." For this song, listen to the lyrics, they are amazing. He is a brilliant story-teller. So, please enjoy Ben Folds.(These videos are from 1998, so he looks incredibly young here. He is now a solo artist, and I will share some of his newer stuff next time.)

Photos

I just added some new photos to flickr if you want to check them out. They are me experimenting with light and shutter speed again. And, please, don't make fun of my modeling. :)


P.S. Mom, the blue orb photo is of our buddha lamp.

Flickr

I have been getting back into photography lately and so I've been updating my flickr page. I'm still working on adding more. If you want to check it out, there's a link on the sidebar. Oh, and I also wanted to say that none of my photos are cleaned up, edited, or photoshopped in any way. They are what they are.

Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day Justin and I went to the Valentine's Day Gala at SUU. It was a great night. The school just barely emailed us the pictures from it. They took two, the first one Justin and I both had strange pained looks on our faces. The second one turned out better, but it's a very weird photo. It barely looks like we're in the picture. So the first one is the one they sent us and the second one is a cropped version so you can actually see us. Ain't we cute.

Note

I think I forgot to tell everyone that we made it so that when Justin or I post anything, it says who posted it at the bottom. Now you won't have to wonder who is posting what. See, down there it says this is Jesse posting this. Yea.

I was in the Right place at the Right time, too

Today I walked home from work because I wanted to take pictures for this project I'm working on. I was taking a picture of a pink flower in someone's yard...and I was in the right place at the right time to capture this:

It was the biggest and best butterfly I've ever seen in real life. I love summer!

Right Place At the Right Time

I know that title probably sounds like something awesome really happened, well it did, but for other people not so much. Anyway, it was awesome for me. I really love live music, there is almost nothing better in this entire world, and in the last week I was awesome enough to see the decemberists on Jay Leno and The National on Jimmy Fallon's retarded show. I just saw the decemberists about ten minutes ago and they proved once again that they are the most original and entertaining band on this planet. Their performance was absolutely electric. I could feel it through the tv. It was awesome. The National's performance was good but the vocals needed to be louder, I was a little disappointed with that. Now you are probably thinking, "Well seeing it on TV isn't exactly live music now is it?" Well, if you are thinking that I just crotch kicked you because it is live enough for me. Leaving here in the middle of crap nowhere that is as live as it gets. Anyway, with the decemberists Jesse and I were watching a show and then we turned it off and I was just changing through our entire channel listing (all four of them) and I was going passed Jay Leno but in the split second it was on that channel I thought I heard him say decemberists. So I watched the rest of the show and sure enough he did. And with The National, for whatever reason it was on Jimmy Fallon's show but I wasn't watching it because I was sitting at our desk listening to music with my big headphones on and in between two songs I heard him say The National. It was great. What a good week for me.

More Wonderful Music

So Jesse has been going through the stuff that we have in boxes these past couple of days and she discovered a car cd holder thingy that had some burned cd's in it. One of them contained a mix that I had made in 2005 and I was very curious as to what was on it. Well, there is some freaking good stuff on there, but this song I totally forgot about. This song is called Winning a Battle, Losing the War by Kings of Convenience. This is the only song of theirs that I like but I think this song is brilliant. It's so calm and relaxing and sad. But man o man is it good. So I went on to youtube, like I always do, to see if there was a video of it. Not only did I find a video but I found something cooler than a stupid music video. I found a live performance, and it is awesome. So enjoy this.

Take Movie Night

Tonight Justin and I had a "take" movie night which basically means we watched two movies with "take" in the title. It was a thing. First we watched "Taken" and then "Taking Lives." And, actually, it's funny because we didn't plan it at all, but the two movies ended up having similarities beyond the title in common. They both took place in French-speaking countries: "Taken" took place in France and "Taking Lives" took place in Canada, specifically Montreal. And both movies had references to the band U2. Weird. "Taken" stars Liam Neeson. It was highly recommended to us by many people. I enjoyed it, thought it was thoroughly entertaining. I am a huge fan of Liam Neeson. "Taking Lives" is one of our Paul Dano movies and I thought I would kind of review them as we watch them, as well as Dano's performance, just for fun.

Rated: R

Starring: Angelina Jolie, Ethan Hawke, Kiefer Sutherland, Gena Rowlands

Notice that I didn't even list Paul Dano as one of the stars of this movie. The reason being that Paul Dano appears in, at the most, 5 minutes of the movie. Even so, I was completely impressed with his performance. Comparing his 3 performances I've seen, I almost can't believe it's the same actor. I've very excited to see more Dano movies, even if he is in only 5 minutes.

The Book Club

Yo all. So, I don't know if everyone knows what's going on with my book club. Nic helped me move it somewhere else: forum.ibetts.net. I just moved all the conversations about "The Hunger Games" and "No Country For Old Men" there, simple copy and paste, just so all the book club discussions would be together. You have to register on forum.ibetts.net to be able to post stuff, so everyone should do that asap if they still want to participate in the book club. Sorry for the hassle. When you click on the book club on that page, the very first post is the book club schedule. It will stay at the top of the page forever. If you ever have a question as to what the books are going to be in the months ahead, you can check there. I post them there as soon as I know what they will be. So, if you know for sure what book you want to do for your month, you can let me know anytime and I will put it up there so everyone can start getting copies. I've enjoyed the book club for the past two months and I'm excited to keep going! I will not be posting on jesse.ibetts.net anymore, so you don't need to check there anymore. If I ever have info about the book club, as well as any thing else I want to tell the world, I'll just post it on this blog. Three cheers for simplifying my life! Thanks!

Jesse

Justin the Plumber

Take that Joe. I actually fixed something like a real man yesterday. As anybody that knows me knows that I am not a handy person at all if it's not electronics. But yesterday I fixed our bathroom sink. It had a problem of not draining. The water would just keep going up and up until you turned the water off and then it would take forever to drain, it was annoying. So yesterday I dug down into our drain and cleaned out all this black chunky gunk and hair that looked like it had been dipped in tar. I had to try very hard not to throw up. But I think I gained three hairs on my chest. I felt like a real man. I realize this isn't the most difficult thing to do but dangit, I actually fixed something. Now our sink drains like it is supposed to. And parents try to say that nothing good happens after midnight. Pfff....i did this at two in the morning.

Paul Dano

So, I know Justin and I have tried doing little experiments or projects in the past and they don't last too long. Well...we have another one! yea. Since we have been having a hard time coming up with movies we haven't seen before, we decided to take another approach. It all started when I watched "Little Miss Sunshine" yesterday. It was the 2nd time I've seen it and I have to say I enjoyed it a lot more the 2nd time around. I am a huge fan of Paul Dano, and have been ever since seeing him in "There Will Be Blood" in theaters. I really believe he should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor for that performance. It got me to thinking if he's been in more movies that I'm not aware of. Turns out, he has. And he has 4 new movies that are coming out within the next year and a half. When Justin got home from work, I shared my research with him, and he came up with the plan. We are going to focus on an actor that we really like each month, and try to watch a lot of his/her movies that month.

This month, we are focusing on Paul Dano. I think I like him so much because, of what I've seen of him, he's a chameleon. His acting ability seems so mature for how old he is: 24. (He is 4 months and 28 days older than me). Justin would like to make an official prediction that Paul Dano WILL win an Academy Award someday. Some of the Paul Dano movies that we are going to attempt to watch this month are:

L.I.E.
Light and the Sufferer
The Girl Next Door
Taking Lives
Balled of Jack and Rose
The King
Weapons
Explicit Ills
Gigantic

Some of his parts in these movies are supporting, and some are leading. We're excited to see what else he can do. And, like I said, here are his movies that will be coming out soon, so keep your eye out for them:

"Taking Woodstock" Release Date: August 14, 2009 Rated: R Including: Liev Shreiber, Emile Hirsch, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan
"The Good Heart" Release Date: 2009 Rated: unknown Including: Brian Cox
"Where the Wild Things Are" Release Date: October 16, 2009 Rated: PG Including: Catherine Keener, Mark Ruffalo, Lauren Ambrose, James Gandolfini, Catherine O'Hara, and Forest Whitaker
"The Extra Man" Release Date: unknown Rated: unknown Including: Katie Holmes, John C. Reilly, and Kevin Klein

And we'll let you know how it goes, and which movies we recommend!

YES Man!

I don't know how many of you have seen the movie "Yes Man" starring Jim Carrey and Zooey Deschanel, but it is fantastic. I love it, and I forgot to list it on my movies list two posts ago. One of my favorite things about it is the band that Zooey Deschanel sings in. It's called "Munchhausen By Proxy" and their music is so fun and funny. I wanted to share it with everyone because I love it. And what's better than doing that with youtube videos?? Yea! Oh, and by the way, if you haven't seen Yes Man, you should. It's very funny.

200th Post

I know it should probably be something spectacular, but it's not. I just wanted to share a band that I'm newly a fan of. I heard of them because they are on the Wicker Park soundtrack, and then I started researching them and listening to more of their stuff. It's very mellow, and the lead singer, Hope Sandoval's voice is very rich and kinda bluesy. I like it. So, here is the music video of the song on Wicker Park, "Flowers in December" Enjoy.

Movies I've Enjoyed Lately

This is Jesse, and awhile ago I wrote a blog about how I didn't feel like there were any more good movies out there that I hadn't already seen. Well, lately, I've seen some really really good ones that proved me wrong. Surprisingly, they are all movies that I can recommend to everyone. They are all PG-13 or less. This is surprising because lately it seems like the movies I really enjoy happen to be R and so I can't really recommend them to my family. I'm very excited I can recommend these movies! I don't really want to ruin anything, so I won't really describe them in detail. Here we go.

1. Seven Pounds -- PG-13
This movie stars Will Smith and Rosario Dawson. It is an incredibly touching and beautiful story about people and relationships.

2. Henry Poole Is Here -- PG
This movie stars Luke Wilson as Henry Poole. It is about Faith: losing it, having it, regaining it. Henry Poole is a downtrodden man whose new stucco job reveals what his neighbors believe to be the face of Christ.

3. Last Chance Harvey -- PG-13
This movie stars Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. A chance meeting between the two changes their lives forever.

These movies are all just good. They are entertaining, but they are also able to appeal to me emotionally. It's so great to just sit back and enjoy movies like these. I would recommend them to everyone. Enjoy, and if you don't, just don't tell me about it.

Jake's Challenge #1

It's not that it deeply disturbes me if somebody doesn't like The Beatles, I just don't see how it is humanly possible if you have listened to them thoroughly and with an open mind. To me, not liking the Beatles is like not liking sex. I just don't understand how it can be. So, this is for Jake specifically. He doesn't like the Beatles even though I KNOW he has never given them a fair chance. If you can honestly listen to this song and not like it, well then may God help you, but then I will get off your case. This song is absolutely amazing and heartbreaking and beautiful. You can't not love this song. The audio is pretty poor but it is still fantastic. I could have got one with Paul McCartney actually playing but there are too many girls screaming and it's distracting. This is just a short little video of the lyrics. Not only is the melody beautiful, so are the lyrics. Here you go, a perfect example of the genius of the Beatles. Ok, I don't want you to feel obligated to like this song, just listen to it with no pressure and just enjoy it. I promise that you will. The first time through don't read along with the lyrics. Just sit and listen, then go back and read the lyrics with it. I can't express how much I love this song.