Friday, January 30, 2009

The Adventures of Chris & Savannah Sky

I will admit, as a dad Iam a dofuss...

Many people can tell you why I am, but overall I'll admit it to you first...

I watch cartoons with my daughter...I let my daughter paint my nails...ha which I held back today in class! We color mustaches on every character in her Cinderella coloring books...eat chicken nuggets and party at the zoo!

I am a dofuss...and that's why my daughter loves me!

I come from a different background then most people in Utah...My story is unique and quite an extraordinary tale...

It all goes back to a warm spring day, where a catholic-college-boy from New York, decides to go to Florida for Spring Break 2003...


Two planes depart...One from JFK, in NYC and the other from SLC, Utah...


On the SLC flight, there was a young, tall, blonde, college swimmer from BYU...

They meet... sparks fly...yadda yadda yadda...a special little girl was created :)



I moved from New York, to Utah...just to watch her grow...


& here I am today...writing this blog...



Today she is 4 and in her words, mostly influenced by me...she will tell you... "I Love to party!" I know what your thinking, so how does this involve you being a dofuss-of-a-dad and why does your 4 year old daughter "Love to party?" It is mostly because, I teach her the same things my mom taught me when I grew up!

Now I'm not saying, my mom was a dofuss...or that she's a party animal...

Heck No...

I'm actually saying the reason why...is because I like my daughter to enjoy life through the world of seeing it...understanding the humor in everything and most of all enjoying the adventures, that everyday brings...

There are several definitions of partying...or celebrating...some people commemorate others by praising...some get drunk and pass out...while others look back at their lives and think of how great it truly is by honoring it!

I honor my daughter by taking her out and showing her what the world is...we joke...we cry...we both eat cotton candy and drink soda :)

Overall, what I'm trying to get at is...I am a Dofuss of a Father and I love it! I love make my daughter laugh...and along the way teach her to be RESPONSIBLE, but most of all be CAREFREE!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Understanding Women

With the Sundance Film Festival almost over and 123 hours worked in 10 days...I can finally come back to the awesomeness that is Mass Comm 2010 Blogging *cheers*

While on breaks, I had the blessing of reading Douglas' book, "Where the Girls Are."

Being single and reading a book titled, "Where the Girls Are," in a bar full of Utah Valley drunkards/Film Festival goers from all over the world...I received alot of spectacular comments...Some funny....Some uncanny...but most downright annoying!

Tired of the jokes, I decided to take the initiative...The bar in my explanation is "Adult Day Care" and in the land of Day Care stories are always welcome! So I decided to teach my fellow patrons the world through Susan Douglas' eyes...

I explained the Introduction, Fractured Fairy Tales, including the reference to Disney... With strong reviews (and one boneheaded one from a guy from Payson, UT) many men and women commented on their views...

My favorite line was, "Anytime when you can learn about the opposite sex, you've already gone a step above yourself!"

But the most influential person to comment was a lady from New York...

Cindy was from the mean streets of Manhattan...She came to Sundance for a getaway from her daily grind on Wall Street, in which she is a stockbroker....

A single middle-aged women she has no trouble not having any kids...

no trouble not being married...

and really has no trouble depending on any man in general...

She was very interested in the book and borrowed it from me for a few minutes before she went to her 6 o'clock movie showing...

She read the same chapters I read and proceeded to give her two cents...

She pointed out the time when the Cold War was a race, not only for nuclear weapons and space exploration, but a race for women to be as equal as men!

At the time of the Cold War, Cindy was a little girl. Growing up in Upstate New York, her mother baked and made homemade meals from scratch. Her father worked in a factory making pipe fittings for ships... Growing up she commented on how her father was distraught about how women should not be involved in "Man's work." Remembering vividly, she commented on the times of racial segregation and how the times were changing.

Looking back she connected with Douglas', Intro and Fractured Fairy Tales and insisted that, "Woman are Powerful enough to hang with the boys!"

While holding an expensive glass of wine in one hand and my book in the other, she turned and smiled, "But every women deserves a Prince Charming."

I asked her, "Who is a great example of a pioneering lady who battled men for equality before 1920?"

She said, "Famous Sharpshooter, Annie Oakley"..."every man respected her, no man wanted to mess with her!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Oakley

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Stereotypes Amongst Us...in Life...in Media...

Stereotypes have always been amongst us. In fact, the first ever cases of human prejudice date back to the cave paintings between Homosapieans and Homoneanderthals (Neanderthals) over 30,000 years ago....

Aimed towards "separating" an individual...Stereotypes play a major role on how we view one other with a negative or positive label.

A great negative example happened at the famous corner of Lavell Edwards Stadium and University Ave....known as either "Gamers Corner" or "Apples to Apples corner." (where you can purchase various family board games and discount prices.)....A volunteer for the Obama campaign decided to put up his donation stand the day of the BYU vs. New Mexico game at that same exact spot...

I remember like it was yesterday....It was the end of last September and I drove a fellow co-worker to Sundance...The traffic was brutal, bumper to bumper...While waiting for the light I noticed the Obama stand with only one person at it...We both looked at each other and decided to stop...

Me and my collegue, Tavia walked up to the stand...We noticed a gentleman and a lady in the shade folding shirts...The gentleman was of Indian descent (from India, not Native American)...While talking to him about his stand a car of six-screaming-male BYU fans, faces painted blue...pulled up screaming, "Don't vote for N******...Vote for the White Guy!"

Little did they know that the lady in the shade, folding the t-shirts was African American and the wife of the Indian gentleman.

A moment of silence occured on that corner...I quickly felt remorse for the unkind stereotype, that my only response was to break the silence by extending my apologies.

The Indian gentleman smirked and said you don't have to say your sorry, we've been hearing it all day.

Before that car, I was set to donate $15 to the Obama campaign....

After the car, I donated $100 dollars total...

I donated based on my beliefs and principles, in hopes that...if just one dollar of that 100 could change the world just a bit...maybe an event like this wont happen in the future!

It's kind of "Old Hat" or "Old News," but Obama brokedown many barriers to become the very first African-American President of the United States. With 5 days left until is Inauguration, Barrack Obama has been the talk on every tv show, news show across the world, based mostly on his color of his skin.

To this day people in the media still play the race card. Just a few weeks ago on Bill O'Reilly, Dennis Miller still has trouble beliving that our next President is going to be African American, that he used a lyric from George Clinton's Paraliment Phunkadelic hit song, Chocolate City, "That the White House is only temporary C.C." Referring to the song, Miller finished the lyric by saying, "As soon as Obama gets into office it will be known as the Black House."