I haven’t written about what’s been going on for a while. Recently I’ve felt more alive. Last night I stayed up all night with a couple friends. We talked about all kinds of stuff and it was fun. I guess one of them has never been in love. Had boyfriends, dated, but never really let it happen. Nuts! Yeah it can hurt but man way better to love and lose than to never go there at all.

Everyone needs to be vulnerable enough to get their heart broken. It’s about daring to live. If you’re not all in what’s the point? You gotta be all in. Life isn’t about juggling a bunch of different passions and people. It’s about depth. It’s about discovering what you love and being the best you can at whatever that is. When I went to New York last May it was such a breathtaking atmosphere because people seem to know who they are. They seem to be dedicated to a cause and find joy in their role. And being in love is the best darn thing there is in this world. Nothing beats it. Don’t care how much money or fame you got, without love it’s all for not. Maybe I’ll put that on my quote tab

Life’s been kinda crazy lately. I interviewed with LucidChart up in Draper. They’re a great company with a promising future but I don’t know that it’s the right thing for me. I need to identify with Parker Planners. I’ve struggled with that from day 1.  “What’s so special about paper planners?” people ask. “Isn’t everyone using their smartphone?” I’ve heard it all many times. It’s true we’re working on a smartphone app. The first version ought to be in the app store by the end of the year. But that’s not the point. I need to own up to being the planner guy. I am the planner guy. There’s $100 million of sales out there in this space to be had. I’m going to capture as much of that as I can. I’m going to make products that are more interesting and less expensive than the competition. I am going to dominate this industry. I will work so hard in organizing the efforts of talented people that thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and eventually millions of people will have positive, memorable experiences with Parker Planners.

I don’t mind owning up to the challenges. I am an entrepreneur who owns a successful business. I am providing more than adequately for myself and preparing to provide for others. I am Parker Planners. I live it, sleep it, play it, do it, love it. I can succeed with this business as I have in the past. We will achieve 100% growth this year, 2011. We will generate over $x in sales this year. Next year we will generate over $x in sales. Booyah!

AHHHAHAHHAHAHH the days of beloved Jetta are coming to a close!!! As I type this the eBay auction has 2 hours left. This car has been an integral part of my life for these reasons:

# 1 It brought my Dad and I back from my mission. It was lovingly given to my by my 2nd cousin who lives in Valencia, CA. They drove it to Ventura where the mission home was and we drove it back to Kaysville, UT.

# 2 It was purchased by my great uncle in Cedar City, UT brand new in 1986 and has been owned by family members ever since.

# 3 This is the first car I’ve ever owned and also my first vanity plate: “PLAN IT”. I get a lot of laughs and compliments about that. I figure it’s motvation to succeed with ma business.

# 4 This is also the car I gave my first ride to Janie Thompson in. I can end a sentence with a preposition if I want to. Lotsa memories, lotsa memories.

# 5 The Jetta has prevented me from marrying a gold digger. I go to pick girls up and they have to love me for who I am

# 6 I took it on a 3,000 mile road trip in the summer of 2007 that completely rocked. It was Provo to Phoenix (sister) to LA to Santa Barbara and Santa Maria (mission) to Sacramento, CA (cousin) to Portland (grandparents) to Jerome, ID (mission buddy with many moo tows) to Kaysville, UT (parents). I found out on this trip that a) I’m kind of crazy in a car by myself as evidenced by the crazy videos I took b) the car can do 515 miles on one tank of diesel and c) I ain’t afraid of road trips and doing what I feel would be fun/good.

# 7 Some value other people’s possessions very highly as evidenced by the $2,225 price right now on eBay. It’s still got 1 hr 50 mins at this point. Kelly Blue book is $750.

Here’s the little you tube video I took to help sell it:

This is some funny stuff. There’s a special place in my heart for good espanish romance anger. Ha ha ha.

I’m a pirate. At least according to this article.

I watched the video below today on entrepreneurship. She’s saying what we entrepreneurs all think. And passionately. There is no replacement, no supplement for the real thing. Either you’re all in, or you’re a want-trepreneur. It’s fine to think you’re in the game, but it might be helpful to get real and accept her definition of true pirateness.

A friend of mine lost his house (second heading, 3rd paragraph) in the name of his company, Zinch.com. Unless you’ve been there or close, you may reconsider your definition of entrepreneurship, too.

This video is from Ted, the conference where smart people say stuff. White people like it. So I’d like to meet Tara Hunt. She seems cool. I’m convinced she would be an interesting person to talk to. Betcha there’s a chance we’d get along.

One of my favorite parts here is around 15:00- she says that entrepreneurship is not about having this lofty goal and taking the fastest path to it. It’s about asking questions and seeking answers. In my case, it’s “what would happen if it’s not just me who likes this planner?” All I’ve been doing is trying to answer that question for the past 4 years.

The moment you start a business, you’re already rich. You own 100% of a great company. You just have to ask questions and seek answers until you’re satisfied. Some are more easily satisfied that others.

The caveat

Family is more important than career. So those of you supporting families- way to go. I once saw a grown multi-millionaire man cry in front of an audience because he still regrets missing his daughter’s birthday.

If you watched the whole video up there you heard the part about how entrepreneurship can be tough on those you love. Yeah, it’s true. A relationship last summer was heavily stressed because she thought I was nuts for investing all my time and money into something that didn’t pay me a stable salary- in a culture that values family- at age 25 (time to start a family!!!). While I do think that my current journey is the path to happiness for me, you have to realize that I was ready to sell my business at the time if it was necessary. Don’t worry, I still know what comes first.

So for Tara it’s too bad being an entrepreneur has taken a toll on her family. I don’t think it absolutely has to be that way. My brother-in-law is a heck of an entrepreneur and a heck of a husband and father, too. An amazing wife, 5 awesome kids, and a rockin’ business. In that order. I’d like to emulate that.

There are people who aren’t entrepreneurs that work 80+ hours a week during busy season. Crappy thing for them is that they don’t own what they’re working on and therefore have no hope of selling it or allowing someone else to manage it while they take time to focus on family. Another reason why entrepreneurship rocks.

Ethan

Here’s another one of those classy home evening videos from the past. I figured you liked the last one so here’s another. We made this in the Spring of 2009.

It’s a parody of a dating class we held each Sunday at one of my BYU wards. A ward is a geographical area of Latter-day Saints that meets each week for church.

In the dating class we talked about how there are different love languages and personality types. Love this one I actually do like second hand lions in real life.

BYU 106th Home Evening Video Contest Winner April 2009 from Ethan Parker on Vimeo.

This one’s organized by category!

Warning: the most important part of this whole post is at the bottom. It’s a video that describes with frightening accuracy (agony?) the feelings of my corazón. Oh man, it’s so hilarious.

Sports

I normally don’t get that excited about sports nor do I watch sports often. This BYU stuff as of late is pretty exciting though. I can’t wait until the game later today! BYU is in the sweet 16 (final 16 teams of the NCAA tourney) for the first time in 30 years! That’s 1981 folks! That’s when Danny Ainge took us there nearly single-handedly kinda like Jimmer is doing right now.

Ainge played in the NBA for a while and is now the owner of the Boston Celtics, so that’s what the Jimmer has to look forward to I guess. The game is on at 5:30 our time. MMmmmmm yes. We are playing Florida who we beat last year in the NCAA tournament in the first round. People are still talking about Jimmer all over. National news to the max. Magic Johnson said Jimmer was the real deal. Here’s a video about Jimmer that borrows music from another popular rap song.

Business

Another thing I’m excited about right now is the Parker Planner for iPhone. We’ve been working on it for a couple weeks now and it’s coming along. This thing’s got potential. Email me if you want to beta test, otherwise look for it in the iTunes store in about a month.

Well now that I’m not a full-time student any more I have to figure out what to do with the rest of my time. I do work most of the time. Whether I’m at the office or not there’s usually something to be done. I like that. The business is always on my mind and it’s great to always have something to be thinking about, caring about, and building. I’ve gathered up the 5 books I’ve started recently and have them in a stack on my desk. I’m going to finish them one at a time so I finally just do it.

They are: Think and Grow Rich for the 3rd time, MBA Admissions, Delivering Happiness, Outliers, and The World is Flat. All great books with high recommendations. For me so far Think and Grow Rich tops them all by a LARGE margin. It’s like doctrine reworded for those who may not be Christians. Besides the Standard Works of the LDS faith, it’s my favorite book.

My ward has a temple trip on Friday, we’re going up to Salt Lake and doing baptisms and sealings. It should be fun, I’m looking forward to it.

Music

Today I watched Google interview Lady Gaga. Yes, like an executive from Google interviewing her with the audience being google employees. It was really interesting. My favorite thing she said was about writing down your creative impulses right when they happen. She mentioned the night before that she had a great idea about a costume while lying in bed so she got up and wrote it all down and then went back to sleep. She said:

“

“If God calls, you pick up the damn phone!”

“

Nicely put I think. How many of us have great ideas and just let them pass us by? A lot I’d say. Way too many.

Love,

Ethan

PS Totally favorite song of the weekkk!!!!!

If I had a nickel for every time this has occurred in my life I’d be a rich man ha ha. “Oh, yeah. It didn’t work out. Turns out she was totally ugly and I didn’t even see it. Uh, yeah- and probably gay”. Ahhh the excuses we make when we get rejected.

Don’t think so? Try facebook chatting with ‘Ballet Programmer Mega Hottie’ for an hour. That’s a code name I’ll use to protect her identity. ‘Cause that’s what I just did and I swear it took about 14 seconds.

Yup, meet one of the coolest girls ever. I first met her at a new year’s party this last year when someone in my ward brought her as a friend. She easily made it into the ‘most gorgeous girls I’ve ever seen’ club but I didn’t get her number or take her out or anything. I saw her again at a Valentine’s party and we danced in a general vicinity. So just now (like 4 days after that party) a friend’s post included her so I looked up her profile, saw all this cool stuff, and we started chatting online.

Dang. That’s all I have to say about this girl. On her profile it says that she loves this song by Bruno Mars and she’d be putty in the hands of the guy that sang it to her. I’ll take that challenge any day. Hmmmmm.

Good-ness. Gra-cious. Whatsaguytodo? She’s the stuff. We have tentative plans to hang out and talk about web design, etc which I hope happens. Oh man. Smitten. Smitten. Sometimes I forget what this is like.

I hope you love this picture as much as I do. If it doesn’t make complete sense, then let me describe my perception of the satire at hand. This is Ariel from The Little Mermaid as a hipster. A hipster is usually someone trying to break from the norm because they possess (at least in their mind) superior social, economic, fashion, and everything awareness. This is usually manifest in their starving, desperate need to be different from as many things as possible. They listen to bands you’ve never heard of, eat food you’ve never tasted, hang out at other places only populated by hipsters, and don’t waste time talking to anyone that doesn’t wear thick-rimmed glasses; a mainstay and loudly-proudly waving flag of the hipster subculture.

Of course by now thick-rimmed glasses are now likely too mainstream and they’ve moved on to staring into an ipad and letting the rear-facing camera direct them where to go.

So the humor here is that things that make people happy are just not cool enough for those “really” in touch and they have to pursue things that are not popular just because they’re not popular in search of not happiness.

It’s no surprise that hipsters worldwide are loathing every microsecond of today as it might make other people happy.

It’s valentime’s day! Who’s excited? What a great excuse to ask a girl on a date or deepen a relationship. If you don’t have a romantic bone in your body at least you can follow a yahoo.com article’s advice and just write him/her a note. It said that 75% of women just want a hand-written note on V-day.

For all those jaded folks out there, just enjoy Valentines day. If no one showed up at your doorstep in the morning with flowers, chocolate, a teddy bear, a tree, a real bear, a puppy, a kitten, a baby rabbit painted pink playing guitar, a piano being played by a gorilla, and a diamond ring begging you to go out to breakfast with them—- then you go make someone’s day. Write a note or draw a picture and send it to someone you care about. Why not? Besides, complaining about valentine’s day is so mainstream.

We gah’ah go iKating! (spoken loudly and with passion)

Famous words from mine and Eric’s favorite neighbor. A former linebacker for Northern Arizona University. Dude was hilarious. He was an armed ATM filler-man; carried a gun but didn’t need it ’cause he was like 6′2″, 250lbs, and quite the ripped. For some reason he really loved ice skating and would always try to get us to go with him. “C’mon! we gotta go iKating!”

So why iKate? Because that’s what I put in my phone as the last name of a girl I took out last Friday. I don’t know her last name which makes it kind of fun because it’s hard to facebook stalk someone without knowing it. Don’t worry though, it’s pretty much common knowledge that people look at each other’s profiles on facebook prior to a date, etc.

Friday was one of the funnest dates I’ve ever been on. Hands down. To protect her identity I’ll just call her iKate. Like a mac product or something; but better looking.

iKate and I met speed dating early in January on campus at BYU- some friends and I crashed some other ward’s activity and it turned out to be pretty fun. I was determined not to be like the other guys and just ask every girl where she was from and what her major was. When iKate and I talked I got to the point right away and asked “so. what are you deeply deeply passionate about?” She said “Ice skating”. I was a little surprised, you don’t hear that one often.

Turns out she competed for like 8 years and still likes to practice her stuff. I suggested we go ice skating some time. Fast forward 3 weeks. I pick her up and we head to the rink. Same one they did Olympic sports at in 2002. She had her own skates so I thought that said something. We get out there and the girl is a pro. She can do that spin thing where the person is a blur they go so fast. She can go forward, backward, upside-down, and sideways and look good doing it. She taught me some stuff, too. I did some skating as a teen where you grind on things and do tricks at skate parks, etc. so I wasn’t too bad.

After the first hour they kicked us off so the Zamboni could Zambone.

Then they dimmed the lights, put on some music, and turned on the cool disco-ball effects. We decided that dancing would be fun and it totally was! I’m sure everyone thought we were practicing our routine for a couples skating competition (because of her of course, not me). Such a riot to be able to lead someone wherever you wanted and they just follow without falling down.

This is pretty much what we looked like:

Then we got some frozen yogurt and walked/jogged around the block by her house just for fun. Man it rocked. iKate’s a winner, for sure going to see her again.

There are a couple others on the radar at the moment, too, but I’d say she’s in the lead for now. Tonight I ran into Haunted Forest girl on campus randomly, she’s way awesome. Girls girls girls. I only need one though!

I love the “just friends” talk. It stinks to hear the F-bomb from girls but it’s way better than having to wonder if they like you. Hearing “I think we’re better as friends” is way better than”why didn’t you just ask me out again? I was interested!” later when the girl of your dreams is married to a smurf.

I have no problem aiming high over and over. I don’t think it’s fair to me or anyone else to “settle”.

Enjoy, friends, this is a good one!

So last Friday I went to the Haunted Forest in American Fork, UT with a very neat girl. It was way cool! Normally I’m not a big fan of the whole scary movie and haunted house gig but they did a great job; I hear the owner hires hollywood folk to come in and give it a little more ‘wow’.

I wanted to impress my date so I go a haircut a few hours before and it turns out the lady at Sport Clips cuts the hair of the owner of the haunted forest of the Utah, too! Whoever you are, haunted forest guy, thanks for making a really neat Halloween-time attraction that causes cute girls to get close to guys. It was way fun, we had a great time getting startled by creepy growling haunted place workers.

Ever heard of Jane Clayson? She was on Good Morning America, World News Tonight, and did ABC News. She covered the 1996 Presidential campaign, the OJ Simpson trial, and September 11. Yup. I was on facebook today and saw that one of my friends, Spencer Nugent, was feature on mormon.org with a neat video story about him, and Jane had one, too! Whoa.

Here’s the link:

Very cool how she views motherhood. What do they do all day anyway? Well yo momma raised you didn’t she? I side with Jane in that momhood is important, vital stuff.

My friend Janie Thompson knows Jane Clayson Johnson (married name) really well and told me a story about Clayson’s sister once. She and her husband both got law degrees and didn’t have children until their 30’s. Mormons are usually known for getting married while preteens and having 14 children, but I guess even peculiar folks like us are different from one another.

Yup. That’s life. Why do we only say this when something bad happens? Why not say it when we have an other-wordly success? “Yup, that’s life” As in “WHOA! Life is amazing and I love how we receive wonderful things when we least expect it!”

Last April I was chasing this girl I had known for about a year and a half. I had to know if she was really interested so I asked point blank. She said she was and so I let her know how I feel in some pretty creative ways. One of which was buying a domain and posting a rap I made for her on it. Ha ha. It was totally fun to make and I even recruited one of my musical genius friends to make the beat with me on his synth. Well my crazy attempt at impressing a girl worked only to make her boy toy at the time jealous and uncomfortable and maybe scare her off a little. Can’t say I didn’t try! Good times. I don’t regret it at all. I say if some super amazing girl is going to say she’s interested in me then she better prepare for an onslaught of “Hi, I’m Ethan, I use my talents to impress girls”.

I’m writing this on Aug 9 even though I’m scheduling it to be published 2 weeks later. I feel a little less pressure writing that way. It’s weird blogging about dating when I’m taking girls out currently and all but whatever, mostly family reads this stuff anyway. If the girls I’m giving attention to find and read this blog then hey, I guess they’re that much more informed.

This has for-sure been the craziest summer of my life. For one, I’ve never dated someone as amazing as the ‘cowgirl’ I blogged about a while back. Two, Parker Planners has been the adventure of a lifetime (in the process of or actually selling to: Deseret Book, Walgreens, and Walmart) and I’m still learning so much. And three, I went on my first cruise, first trip to San Diego, and drove my first late-model BMW probably 3,000 miles or so. Heck yes, friends! I love life!

This post is intended to help with matters of the heart. Nothing like dating to land smack dab in the middle of said territory. Here we go: I’m ancient by mormon singledom terms (25 oh please no!) and just barely an adult by any other standard. Most people think I should be focused on making a million bucks (yes, don’t worry I am) rather than ultra-laser-beam dedicated to finding a wife. Yes, not a girlfriend, but a wife. Scary thought? Yes, the pressure is on in this place called Provo. It’s not about finding someone you enjoy hiking and jamming music with, oh no. It’s marriage time and if you’re past a certain age and not married there’s pretty much something wrong with you.

I don’t buy it. I’m all about people falling in love and taking the next step in faith, but just because you’re at “x” point in your life and without wife doesn’t mean you’re a failure. In my life there have been girls that wanted to move forward when I didn’t and girls that chose not to be with this amazing studdedly-muffin-supreme when they had the chance. That’s just dandy says I. A wise friend of mine told me “some will, some won’t, some wait, so what? NEXT”. Yes, this is about dating. True that. Some will (but you may not want to) some won’t (yup) some wait (I need time, blah blah blah) so what!? Next. Yup indeed. Right now I’m at the NEXT phase.

2010 summer love was way better than last summer so that’s cool. It was something absolutely amazing that came along when I least expected it. After General Conference I had my dad give me a priesthood blessing, which I hadn’t asked for in a long time. In that blessing I felt like the girl I was chasing (rap video one) was nothing to worry about and God had something great in store for me. I really had faith in that.

Turns out only two weeks later I met a girl who fit that description pretty well. It was funny, we were both in disbelief about how much we had in common. So much so that her parents asked “so, what’s it like dating yourself?” We had a blast. Went to AZ on a road trip, graduated college together, played tennis, rode her horses, went country dancing, fixed things, did yard work, spoke Spanish, rocked out on guitar, etc. Just when I thought dating was a trivial pursuit I was reminded that you never know when you’ll meet someone you just fall for immediately. It can and does happen when you least expect it.

So, no, there’s no engagement story or happily ever-marriaged-after story but hey, it’s all good. I’m pretty darn young and what’s the rush? Pretty much we broke up half way through the summer and she’s off at one of the nation’s best law schools back east. It wasn’t right at the time, I think we both felt that. As much as we wanted to take the next step in life things just weren’t really falling into place. I look at it as a great growing experience, we helped each other laugh and learned a lot. I feel much better prepared for future lady friends.

Here’s what my brother Eric made last night. Pretty funny stuff. Guys out there- it’s true! Are you intimidated by a very attractive and very smart girl? Well chances are she’s intimidated just a little by you as well! Just put yourself out there and get a date, you’ll be glad you did. People are afraid they’ll get hurt and all that stuff, and everyone’s been hurt before, but fear is no way to live life! The best things come at a high price.

Observe:

Ya’ll have to read this one, it’s quality. My friend Mick Hagen wrote this long ago but man I love it.

Mick Hagen’s A Blog on Love

A really good blog post about commitment from the same guy

It has been Exactly one week since I’ve posted to entertain and delighten you people!

I graduate for reals today!! BOOYA

Ethan

This sounds about right.

I guess that whole spring fever thing has some merit. I’m headed to the ocean soon. Sweet sweet May cruise to MeXicO.

I never thought all that much about who I would marry until about half way through my mission. I figured she’d be a super woman of sorts, but never really cared much about the specifics. For some reason a couple years ago I fathomed up some requirements. Here they were:

-returned missionary
-plays piano
-sings
-sews
-cooks
-speaks a foreign language
-artist

Is there anything wrong with that list? Naw, not really. If that’s what was important, that’s cool. There are super people out there that have all those skills.

Skills? I want someone with certain skills? Hmm, I guess that’s mostly what I was looking for. I was missing out on a lot. It’s very possible for someone to possess all those skills and still be unhappy. Let’s take a look at some of the things that might make it on my new list:

-Integrity
-Loves people
-Confident
-Super smart
-Funny
-Talks about ideas
-Outgoing
-Healthy, stays in shape

Life taught me recently that personal attributes are way more important than just skills. A girl could lack all the skills mentioned above and still be A+ material in my book if she’s up to speed on the weightier matters.

I’m impressed by certain skills, yes, but they’re hollow if the person is self-serving. I’m not tied down right now and its fun to get to know people who’s focus is outside themselves. There are lots here at BYU. It’s a neat place because of those people.

I just got off the phone with my bestest buddy over the age of 87 and she asked how I was doing. I said “I’m doin’ ok” to which she replied “sounds like you’re still your ‘ole sexy self”. Oh man, that was a crack up! My life is now complete. I haven’t laughed that hard all week.

Janie is giving me some tickets to homecoming spectacular at BYU! 4 to be exact, she likes my brother Eric to have a date, too sometimes. This will be the 3rd year she’s given me tickets to this particular show. The first year she gave me tickets (Sept 2006) I didn’t really know what I was going to do. I didn’t have a date and it was Tuesday. That’s a little pressure. Tuesday became Thursday, that’s a little more pressure. Well with classes and being brand new to Provo Thursday became Friday at 6:45pm and I still didn’t have a date for the 7:30pm show!

I made a decision. I was going to the show, and it wasn’t going to be with another guy. I got my good-lookin’ duds on and walked out the door. On the way to the Marriott Center I passed through campus and kept an eye out for a pretty girl. As I was passing the atrium of the Harrold B. Lee library a nice-looking lass caught my eye and I decided that she should come to the show with me.

Turns out she wasn’t only not dating someone, but didn’t have a date that night! We went to the show; good times.

Ethan

Last Saturday I went to a great reception! I got to see some cousins I haven’t seen in a long time that traveled from afar. The farthest was from Japan! It took place in Orem and there was an awesome live band. Leading it was Larry Green, guitar professor of BYU. Turns out we’re related now! My cousin married his son. We had a stake dance that night so I thought his band was going to be playing there, but he was at his son’s reception instead, glad I still got to witness some family rock and roll.

Here’s a pick of the great-tasting slushy ice-cream table.