I just spent a few hours filling an order for BYU-Idaho. It was tons of fun and I love this stuff. It’s exciting times with Parker Planners. Lotsa changes happening soon! I love being able to live my own life and make my own choices. Isn’t it grand that we only have to be accountable for our own choices? Sure, the choices of others affect our lives, but we really can make of this life what-e-ever we want!! I choose to have a good attitude, to not fear, to ignore jargon and buzzwords, and to not be impressed by fake crud. I also choose to rock out and make music because it’s fun.

Every year in Spanish Fork, UT the Festival of Colors graces the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple. Sources say it’s a time for people to “bury their hatchets with a warm embrace and throw their worries to the wind“. It was a ton, ton of fun. Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve been to a concert and a really long time since I’ve helped someone crowd surf. What a great event! There was a live band that played Indian music and encouraged us to hug a stranger. Ha. Many of the people there were college students, many from BYU. I went with my best good buddy Nate. For your viewing enjoyment:

Even security man is chalky.

This is us before we got chalky

That bag of chalk the person has in their hand is what we all threw at one another. It was like $2 and there was plenty to go around. When it came time for everyone to count down and toss their chalk there was so much in the air that it actually blocked the sun. Nate and I were in the middle of the whole thing and we couldn’t see a thing (or breathe really) but it didn’t last long

My brother birthded a blog. Read, he’s funny.

Eric’s new Bloggg

Jim Lovell came and spoke at BYU today. Tom Hanks plays him in Apollo 13. He was very personable and funny. This is what he looks like from far away. I was impressed by his spiritual views on life. He surprised us with his easy-going attitude.

What’s this doing at BYU?

This was a short text-message conversation I had today. I have no idea what woof is all about, I just went along with it. Love it.

My brother Ammon just bought a really cool ‘05 BMW 325i for way less than they normally go for. He fixed up a few things and now he’s looking to sell it. We brought it to my business partner Benjie’s house to wash it because Benjie details cars on occasion; he does people’s Ferrari’s and Lamborghini’s etc.

Here’s us washing the car.

The three of us haven’t been together in the same place for a long time. It’s so good to spend time!

Rex Lee was president of BYU and argued dozens of Supreme Court cases. He was also a marathon runner and US Solicitor General. He died of cancer and every year there is a 5k/ 10k to raise funds for cancer and remember Rex. I’ve always wanted to do it and this was the year. I went with a buddy that is a runner so I got to learn lots of cool running facts and things, too.

Seth Godin spoke at the Omniture Summit Benjie and I went to recently. This is from his blog:

“

On self determination

I posted this eight years ago (!) but a reader asked for an encore.

…are we stuck in High School?

I had two brushes with higher education this week.

The first was at a speech I gave in New York. There were several Harvard Business School students there, invited because of their interest in marketing and exceptional promise (that’s what I was told… I think they came because they had heard that Maury Rubin would make a great lunch!).

Anyway, they asked for my advice in finding marketing jobs. When I shared my views (go to a small company, work for the CEO, get a job where you actually get to make mistakes and do something) one woman professed to agree with me, but then explained, “But those companies don’t interview on campus.”

Those companies don’t interview on campus. Hmmm. She has just spent $100,000 in cash and another $150,000 in opportunity cost to get an MBA, but…

The second occurred today at Yale. As I drove through the amazingly beautiful campus, I passed the center for Asian Studies. It reminded me of my days as an undergrad (at a lesser school, natch), browsing through the catalog, realizing I could learn whatever I wanted. That not only could I take classes but I could start a business, organize a protest movement, live in a garret off campus, whatever. It was a tremendous gift, this ability to choose.

Yet most of my classmates refused to choose. Instead, they treated college like an extension of high school. They took the most mainstream courses, did the minimum amount they needed to get an A, tried not to get into “trouble” with the professor or face the uncertainty of the unknowable. They were the ones who spent six hours a day in the library, reading their textbooks.

The best part of college is that you could become whatever you wanted to become, but most people just do what they think they must.

Is this a metaphor? Sure. But it’s a worthwhile one. You have more freedom at work than you think (hey, you’re reading this on company time!) but most people do nothing with that freedom but try to get an A.

Do you work with people who are still in high school? Job seekers only willing to interview with the folks who come on campus? Executives who are trying to make their boss happy above all else? It’s pretty clear that the thing that’s wrong with this system is high school, not the rest of the world.

Cut class. Take a seminar on french literature. Interview off campus. Safe is risky.

-Seth Godin

“

GoOd GravY!?!? Those companies don’t interview on campus?! Every heard of a phone book? Ever heard of doing something because you want to? I’ll probably never go to Harvard Business school nor have nearly the GPA that person does, but they can have it! I’ll gladly, enthusiastically give someone my high GPA, test scores, and perfect attendance for a shred of creativity and passionate pursuit of something I choose to learn.

Matt, Josh, and I decided to do a song as a special musical number for our church today. This is a recording of a practice. This song is called “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need”. It is more well known from a performance from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Stanford is a hub for innovation and every year they have a “Mystery Object Video Contest” of sorts. They announce a random object and then you have 5 days to create the most “value”, documented by video. The value could be humor, service, fund raising, etc.

Many of you probably don’t know about this, but 2 years ago Parker Planners sponsored this same contest at BYU. It was a ton of fun and we even got Deloitte the accounting firm to sponsor us! These groups of students had only 5 days to think up, write, direct, film, and submit their videos. Great job to them says I! We had about 9 submissions, here were the top 2 and then an honorable mention. The winner got $500.

#1

#2

An honorable mention

My older sister sent me a birthday card once with this on it. I liked it a lot. Let’s be great, eh? You have something great, be generous and share it.

My phone just updated and now it does video! It was a Christmas miracle Sunday morning. Later on I was at interviews with my bishop for a long time and we were very grateful when our friend brought us some lunch. I decided to make a little cartoon of appreciation and email it to her. Here goes:

First published video taken by me phone.

Last week Benjie and I worked at the annual Omniture Summit where top marketing executives from fortune 500 companies gather to learn more about internet commerce. It was lots of fun and we learned a lot.

I unapologetically post this food:

It was delicious and filled with two varieties of wonderful chocolate and vanilla mousse. Wow. Lotsa good food at this thing.

There were lotsa signs like this. It was in the Grand America Hotel, pretty sweet venue. The Killers played on Wed night.

Here’s Benjie and I in front of a kiosk thing. Omniture tells companies how many visitors on the web they get and also what people do when they get on their websites and buy things. Some of their customers are Walmart, GM, AT&T, and MTV.

Adobe purchased Omniture for $1.8 billion recently so their name is on everything. Here’s the first mobile devices (Palm Pre, Nexus One Google Phone) with Flash implemented and working. This will come out in about June. Cool! Apple doesn’t want flash (internet application that allows animations and online games) on the iPhone because they think it will do away with their free app game market. Silly Apple.

Ammon came back from Afghanistan last week. Its good to have him back! He came to Provo on Friday to visit and we had a great time. He drug Eric and I to the weight room, I’m more sore now (still!) than I have been in a long time. I never thought of alternating muscle groups between sets, doing two exercises at once. It saves time. Also, we only worked two groups that day, 3 or 4 lifts all on the same two parts! It must be a good way to do it because Ammon is huge and defined.

We went snowboarding Friday night at Sundance. It was a great time, we all had our own gear this time, too, which is exciting. Brighton is a better place to go for nightboarding fo sho.

Saturday morning it was 2 for 1 at the massage therapy school so we went early to beat the lines. Good stuff.

I’m in a civilization class right now and we’re learning about music, art, and literature from 1500-present. It’s a great class with a true musician for a professor. He’s passionate and a little bizarre like any musician should be. This is one of the pieces we’re studying currently, here’s an Asian guy rocking it out.

I’ma buy a piano and learn this!

Franz Liszt “La Campanella”

If it’s shiny and made by Apple, I’ll buy it!! Even if it looks like this: