May 25 2011

Groundhog Day

It came and went. Have you seen the movie though?! It’s awesome. Talk about a theatrical masterpiece aimed at improving the human condition. My roomate was watching it on netflicks last night and I couldn’t help but join. Can you imagine living the same day over and over like that? I think a lot of us would go through the same cycles as our friend Phil.

At first he succumbed to his most base instincts. Because he knew there would be no consequences he ate tons of sweets, smoked, drank, snubbed his friends, and seduced a pretty lady using information he gathered the previous day. He messed with people and was a slave to appetite.

Stepping up from the purely physiological to love and belonging, Phil then tries to convince his co-worker Rita to like him. He learns everything about her day by day and does well impersonating a perfect gentleman. This only leads to a stream of disparaging shut-downs. In agony Phil kills himself every day for about 2 weeks, each time waking up at 6am in the same bed to the same song.

I think it’s cool that he decides to improve himself after all that. I love how he changes in the movie. Cliche or lame or whatever I could watch it again and again. By the end of the movie he really cares about people. He learns Piano, French, ice-sculpture, and how to dance. Sooo way cool. Makes me want to get a piano.

I want this piano!!!

YAMAWANNA

Yeah. New birthday preference for sure. This one is similar to the piano my sister had in Houston, TX. I loved that thing. It could make all kinds of different sounds plus it had drums built in and everything. Wannawannawanna. It could go in my kitchen in front of our whiteboard. Booyah.

Post Script: You must understand that my true and living desire is for a real piano. Yes, I realize this is really a glorified “keyboard”. I know, I know. Worry not, though, for a long long time I’ve wanted a black Yamaha baby grand. But somehow I’d be willing to do the Steinway thing if circumstances dictated, hmm.


May 24 2011

Muchas Maneras

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


May 20 2011

The Gotham That Never Sleeps

Howdy Y’all it’s been a while. Did you know New York is also known as Gotham? I thought it was just Batman.

The last few days of my life have been mind-expanding and literally life-changing. I recommend travel to places that are in every way different than what you’re used to. You grow, you learn, you love people more, you earn a respect for life and those who have more/less than you, and are given a vision of the sacrifices of literally millions of people who have gone before whose efforts improve your life at the current moment.

EthanBenTimes

New York City is all that and a bucket of chickenchips. It’s the real deal. I love this place. The people I’ve encountered are so genuine and dedicated. The food is amazing. This is in part because if they don’t perform they’ll go out of business almost immediately and then it’s someone else’s turn to dish out mama’s recipes to the masses. Talk about economics. In this place it most definitely is survival of the fittest.

The Nation Stationery show has been fun. I love trade shows; meeting and working with like-minded people is so fulfilling. The first day we only made one sale, but I got to use my new credit card reader from Square! What a cool company; they have truly changed the world and how it does business. I can’t think of a more useful or empowering tool for small business in 2011. The buyer was a small family-owned bookstore. Benjie and I talked to a ton of people, nearly everyone that walked by. Very little immediate success compared to the last show. We were pretty darn discouraged.

EthanBenFohead

(double-stick taping planners to your head is lowest of the low, folks)

It’s times like this where you wonder if all your big dreaming really was for the birds. Hard not to feel like the kid standing in front of a borrowed Ferrari with his eyes shut.

EthanBenjieFerrari

We made another sales board like last time and even lowered the number we had to get for everyone’s 20% discount. Only 100. For a show with something like 8000 buyers that should be nothing, right? Turns out stationery stores rarely carry planners. And the ones that do are hesitant to buy something in a declining market. There you have it. A super fun trip to New York scorned buy a lame-sauce kick off to what should have been our most successful business venture yet.

Is this the end of Parker Planners as we know it? Does the train run over the beautiful damsel? Will Benjie and Ethan be able to dig deep and pull from their car salesman genius and football beast roots?

No, yes, and yes. Too bad about the damsel but we kept on keeping on and were rewarded in the form of conversations with some of the largest retailers in the world. I can’t post here which ones or what they said but suffice it to say we have a few conversations to finish when we get home. I was shocked today at the show. I have a page full of business cards that, if we struck a deal with any of them, Benjie and I would be able to live anywhere we wanted and drive whatever we wanted.

Bigger risk, bigger reward.

Ok here’s a great NY story for you now. Hold on tight ’cause this one’s pretty dope-a-licious if I may be so nerdy.

Sunday. First day of the trade show there’s a hotty two booths down. She’s got the kind of looks that make her virtually unapproachable by most men’s standards. Bombshell. Why try?

Monday. Benjie and I got to know the people around us a little better including hotty McHotstuff. Turns out she lives in LA right now and has had a fairly successful career in film, TV, and commercials. She’s done theater and soap operas in NY, commercials and movies in LA, and a some modeling. Probably a jerk? Wrong. Cooper is way cool. Surprisingly cool, actually. We got a picture.

EthanandCooper

Tuesday (today) was a great day at the show and Benjie flew home (less great, you can’t leave the booth with just one person there plus he rocks). Because I was all by myself after that our buddies next door offered to bring me along to have dinner with them which was so kind. They are some of the most interesting and and generous people I’ve met in a while. We went to a great Greek place in downtown Manhattan. That restaurant was for real. Greeks ran it and the food was very very good. Oh so yummy and my hosts even offered to pick up the tab which was like rain from heaven. They called it my “celebration dinner” for starting conversations with those big-box retailers.

Wow I just love life right now. I love how you think you know what you want until something way way better happens. Can’t live without a certain thing in your life? Can’t be happy until X or Y happens? Wait until the big man upstairs gives you A and B and you’ll wonder why you ever wanted the first thing.

Cooper is so awesome, we happened to have about a 40-min bus ride (probably traveled 2 miles) from the convention center to Times Square-ish where we got to chat. She knows a lot about show-biz and was really engaging to talk to. One interesting fact I learned was the soap operas are filmed with virtually no practice. Because they’re on nearly every day of the week you get the lines the night before and just spit them out the next day, usually in one take. it’s what makes them so goofy. I think she was on As the World Turns for a while.

Yeah, not every day you hang out with well-cultured and mega-beautiful actresses. She plays some mean violin, too. It was an attention-grabber for their booth at the trade show (as if she wasn’t already).

OK so back to some NYC fun. Benjie and I tried to save on expenses where we could so lodging of course was one area where we got creative. The first two nights (for Benjie anyway. I missed my flight in SLC so I took a red-eye and got in at 6am Saturday morning) we stayed with a friend of a friend who lived on the 6th floor of a building up on 174th street. pretty nice place, fun. Sunday night was a mystery until Saturday night so we booked a Super Motel 8 in NJ across the river from the convention center because it was only $109 per night instead of $200 like the cheapest place in NY. It was a bit of an adventure in and of itself.

We took a shuttle thing through the Lincoln Tunnel under the river and popped up in North Bergen where our delightful hotel was. Plus side: hot shower, ironing board, two beds, complimentary breakfast, shuttle back to NY, etc. Strange/Needs Improvement Side: wireless internet didn’t work so we asked the front desk what was up. They came to our room with their own laptop, showed us that his computer was working, denied any claim (changed the subject) that the laptop was modified at all and refused to let us check any other room for a signal. I don’t know about you, but when when an iPhone 4, an iPad 2, and a new gen Macbook can’t get wifi it may not be our devices.

Strange/Needs Improving Side (cont): The internet worked in the lobby so we went out there to do some webbing. While there several people came in asking for hourly rates. Yeah I’ll let you figure that one out. Plus the bed sucked. :)

Good times, New Jersey. Thanks! In defense of NJ I did meet a couple very nice ladies from Princeton at the trade show.

and . . . it’s not even over yet. Here I lay on my airbnb.com bed typing away through some nice high-speed internet in East Villiage New York. It’s like a dream. I wonder were I’ll be when I wake up.

As a grande finale of the whole thing, a special dance number performed impromptu in Central Park filmed by my never failing business partner Benjie.


May 13 2011

At the errrport

Yes. Here are some positives: I changed my flight time out of SLC on Delta with no extra fee. I’m charging my phone and computer and using wifi at no cost. There is a sleepy service dog next to me and food nearby. The less-goods are that my first plane left at 5pm and I really thought it left at 7pm. oops. So here I be:

Photo on 2011-05-13 at 20.16

Talking to Benjie on the phone, he’s already landed in NY and I’m a little jealous. Oh shwell. Here’s the sleepy dog:

servicedog

His name is Charlie. He didn’t bite me. Or my finger.

My poor dad had yet another serious accident last Thursday. I visited him in the hospital before I came to the airport today and he’s doing much better. He was riding a motorcycle when a slow-moving car pulled out in front of him leaving no time to stop. He broke both wrists, his ankle, and had some serious internal injuries requiring him to take have a significant blood transfusion. Thank you if you’ve ever given blood. I say yet another accident because he was hit while riding a bicycle a year and a half ago and required reconstructive surgery on his leg. A year before that he broke his ankle stepping out of a car on some ice and has had a shoulder surgery recently. Yeah, I’d say he’s had enough of that stuff for a while.


May 12 2011

Time to bloggagain

You have to say it like that song “try to loveagain” “the first cut is the deepest, blah blah . . . blah blah”. Yeah, you know.

So I recently discovered a friend of mine is a pretty good writer, she’s funny. I also discovered that another friend needs to blog more! He hasn’t posted anything on his funnyblog in over a month. Dude, we need the funnies. Now I know what it feels like when my brother in law tells me his >:[ levels slowly rise when I haven’t posted in a while. In the name of posting! A post.

Like I said in that other post about the Pre, that phone needs to be on the network for anything to work. All I want to do is get my pcitures/videos and use the calendar so I can brutally copy it while creating our iPhone app for Parker Planners. Today I activated (got a Sprint contract, ha!), jailbroke, overclocked, removed the pictures from, and then promptly deactivated (when they asked why I just said “it’s not working out”) my beautiful little Palm Pre. We’ve had a lot of good times, that phone and I. It’s spanned two girlfriends and much traveling. I was looking at all the pix today and there are some fun ones. The phone lasted almost exactly one year before its untimely death inside my pocket during a bout of breakdance. Enjoy some pictures from the past with me:

While at the Olive Garden, Eric got suspicious.

ericsusp

Why buy anything else from the grocery store??

sustenance

Our crazy art project on display complete with namecard that says “hope”.

modnart

My mom has degrees from both places, weird that they made this hat; twas a burfday present.

ethanmom

Here’s Eric and I at one of the many football games we’ve been to. We love to scream our guts out; it’s the only way.

etherfoot

Here’s a pretty great Utah-ism that I saw on campus at BYU one time. Just set down and enjoy the show.

Utahism

Ye Olde Plam Walk at ASU. Great school, learned a lot.

palmwalk

Hope you’ve enjoyed!


May 4 2011

Mod’n Art

A while back a group of friends and I did this in the fine arts building at BYU, it was tons of fun.

Today I give you Flaming Pringles Man Mustache. Yes, breathe deeply. It’s a tribute to everyone’s favorite snack chip of ambiguous origins. On fire!

Enjoy


May 3 2011

Pre-peration!!

Ever heard of a Palm Pre? It used to be my main smartphone squeeze until I got an iPhone 4 last September. Recently at Parker Planners we’ve been developing what will be the best planner application for the iPhone. The calendar app from the Pre, though, was fantastic; lightyears ahead of the sorry excuse for a calendaring application that comes standard with Apple’s iPhone/iPod touch.

I want to use the Pre’s planner app for reference in creating our iPhone app but my old Pre’s screen was tragically cracked while breakdancing last fall. I bought a used Pre on ebay for $25 last week and I thought I was off to the races but you can’t even use the thing unless you hook it up to Sprint’s service plan (and we all know how much I love Sprint).

So blast. I had a broken screen Pre and one that wanted service. What was I to do? I looked into hacking the operating system but that seemed like more trouble than it was worth so I ended up disassembling the two phones and using the motherboard and memory from the old one and the screen and touch-sensor thingy from the new one. It worked!!! I was truly amazed I didn’t break something while working on these phones. The little connectors are like attaching synapses in a mouse’s brain and the wires are like hairs on a flea. Miracle of miracles and a few you tube instructional videos later I had a fully functioning Pre once more. BOOYA. $30 and I’m back in business. ($5 for this crazy little tool to remove the torx-head screws the size of half an eyelash) Here are my Prees post-op:

Pre

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to make something with my hands as my planners are printed in China and everything else I create these days is made of electrons. I’m used to working on motorcycles or cars but this was still way fun. Can’t believe it worked! What’s nifty is that the Pre is a great camera, video recorder, and Mp3 player, too. Plus the files are 120x easier to access than an apple device.

Can’t wait to keep going on the app. The plan is to debut at Tech Crunch Disrupt in San Fransisco this September.

Oh yeah, and THIS is what I really really want for my birthday.


Apr 30 2011

Señor Libro

Recently I gathered all the books I had started and not finished and put them on my desk in a small stack. On top was Think and Grow Rich which I was reading for the 3rd time and after that was MBA Admissions. It feels great to finish what you started. I’m now reading Outliers by Malcom Gladwell and it’s good so far. I’ve read his two big ones: The Tipping Point and Blink.

Gladwell just revealed something amazing about modern internet rich folk. They were all born within roughly a year of 1955!! Crazy, huh? I guess it was the perfect time because you weren’t so old that you already worked for IBM and had a narrow mindset about these new-fangled personal computers and weren’t too young to not be aware of what was going on. Here’s the list:

Microsoft
Bill Gates- Oct 1955
Paul Allen- Jan 1953
Steve Ballmer- Mar 1956

Apple
Steve Jobs- Feb 1955

Google
Eric Schmidt- Apr 1955

Sun Microsystems
Bill Joy- Nov 1954
Scott McNealy- Nov 1954
Vinod Khosla- Jan 1955
Andy Bechtolsheim- Sept 1955

Crazy, huh? It’s kind of like how 14 of the early 20th Century’s billionaires were born within 9 years of one another around 1830. Nifty stuff. I sometimes chide business writers who haven’t started a business themself but Gladwell’s data rocks so I chide not.

Ethan

outliers


Apr 24 2011

Easter!

Pardon the infrequent posts, I’m a twitter junkie these days, so I’ll add couple pics from little blue bird land.

It’s that time of year, folks. Candy, candy, and more candy time! Eric and I went to the eSmifs last night in search of Easter joy only to find this!! AHhhhhhhahahahhAHHHhaAAAHhAAaaaaAa.

Nocandy

I know. How could this happen? Where are the Cadbury eggs? The big and little ones? That one kind with a matte-finish shell and solid chocolate goodness inside!? WHERE? We still managed to find some starburst jelly beans, peeps, and a twix, but man I really wanna Easter fun. Looks like it’s off to Walmart later this week for some bonus discounted Easter treats.

Today my beloved BYU 106th ward becomes the Young Single Adult 130th ward. The Church made a change recently that affects student wards in that they will no longer be student wards but YSA wards. I just got called to be the membership clerk so it’s back to getting to know everyone in the ward and stalking them a good one. A year and a half at executive secretary got me pretty up to speed with my ward friends. I just love talking to people, meeting them, and hearing about their passions and what makes them tick.

Eric and I put some more stuff in the crock pot today. I love that thing! Bless crock pots and rice cookers! You can’t screw it up!

crockpot

I just got off the phone with my older brother, he’s awesome. He’s very mechanically inclined and likes to buy wrecked vehicles for cheap, fix them, and sell them. Right now he’s got an ‘09 Yamaha R6, a Ducati 1198S, an ‘02 Corvette Z06, a Tundra with a 6″ lift, an ‘05 545i with a V8 and a 6 speed. Man that’s some seriously fast and sweet stuff. I went down there not too long ago and got to ride the R6 a tiny bit. Man new motorcycles are just fabulous. They start, go, stop, and look soooo well. Yes, they look well.

Here’s a video of the Tundra playing in the Sand. This was so FUN!!


Apr 17 2011

Doble equis

No, not the Mexican beer, that’s Dos Equis. The chromosomes. There are individuals in my life with these that have made it so much better.

Number One brought me into this world and I had a very pleasant conversation with her the other day. I just called to get some advice on some leek and potato soup as she is an expert, even an artist. She offered some much appreciated encouragement and as always it was great to talk. She brought up three totally rockin sisters of mine who always have my back.

Number Two is a close friend named Janie Thompson who has a category on this blog. I visited her two days ago and we did our usual sit on the couch and chat for a while. Her sister passed away about a month ago which was sad but also a release because she had suffered from alzheimers for so long. Janie is a bright spot all the time. She could have gone on for a while about what she suffers from physically but instead, as always, chose to tell me some great stories. Janie has sung with Tony Bennett, personally knew Mickey Rooney, and started BYU’s Young Ambassadors. She is such and inspiration and I love chatting with her.

Numbers Three are all the great gals here in Utah Valley. Many they are and their greatness is great. Every once in a while you find some that are refreshingly honest and real. I like those kind.

I saw this movie tonight called RED with Bruce Willis. It was great. I liked it a lot. It was almost like a romantic comedy with lots of explosions and guns. Something for everyone I guess. Those movies are hilarious, I love the fights where every blow would incapacitate any human being in real life but there they go, getting up and giving more at every turn.

Eric and I went to Nicoitalia today. The best pizza place in the Universe. You just have no idea. Owner: a dude named Nick from Boston with a saw-weet accent. Cannolis: ridiculous good and CHEAP. Wings: off the chain and come with Newman’s Own ranch dressing- that crap is not sold in any store- I’ve checked. Pizza: don’t even try to tell me you’ve had better. I’m going to NY in May if you think they can beat it then give me a name, and address, and a dang-well written piece of prose explaining yourself.

Nico


Apr 14 2011

Dare you

Try it, if you can beat this then you have more mind power than most.

rightfootturn


Apr 9 2011

Delorian

Ever heard of that? Yes, you have it’s on Back to the Future (dig the plate). I saw one in the Provo Temple parking lot today and snapped this with my iPhone. I really don’t think I’ll ever buy another point and shoot camera, smartphones have great cameras now. I would like a Canon SLR though.

Delorian

In case you didn’t know, one of the most hip things out there right now are QR codes. My friend at BYU started this company called QR Code City and has an iPhone app to go with it. They are like UPC codes but cooler. If you download the app it opens up your camera app and can scan the code really fast. From there it could provide a link to a website or other stuff I don’t understand yet. Yes! QR!

Here’s MY QR code!

qrcode

So if you have an iPhone, go get the free app “Scan” by QR Code City and then hold it up to your computer screen! It will automatically read the symbol and go to my website!! Here’s their website.

I went to see a band play last night at someone’s house on the hill in Provo and got to show off the primitive version of the Parker Planner for iPhone to a few people. I’ve been getting a really positive response. Good hear feedback from people, I really hope it develops into something very useful.

The band totally rocked, though. They are called the Whits and honestly their vocalist is better than most. I mean like most, as in anyone you’ve heard. Some of their songs are just so darn catchy. If they get lotsa votes they get to play at the Stadium of Fire in front of about 45,000 people! Vote for these cats, they’re good. If you see the music video, just know that they have lots of variety and the guitar sounds WAY better in person.

It’s #27, The Whits.

Go here and vote!!!


Apr 3 2011

Teddy

Respect for the bear.

50centVSteddy


Apr 2 2011

Pirate

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

Jack

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


Apr 1 2011

Frieeeeeeedayeeee!

Hey y’all! Of all the internet greatness that is now April Fool’s day, I really appreciate what a website did for internet target Rebecca Black.

Because of her video “Friday” that came out only 3 weeks ago she has been the victim of LOTS of internet foolery. People have parodied her song to no end and really said some nasty things.

A popular comedy website called Funny or Die decided to help her out. They made videos not a few of Rebecca doing funny stuff and portraying her in a positive light. I don’t think the world is entirely evil. Sometimes people do good things and this was one of them. You’ll have to put on your internet humor to get this whole situation.

Frieeday


Mar 31 2011

Sequel

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.


Mar 29 2011

Whoopdee doob

I got some new software that I’m mega pumped about. And it’s about time. I have a macbook which I really like that I used to run windows on. My hard drive was getting full so I had to get rid of the windows part, which also happened to have my design software on it.

Luckily microsoft just came out with office 2011 for mac so that part doesn’t have me at a total loss. I was, however, design software-less for a while and it took a toll on my sanity. I realized just how often I use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, etc. Good to have it back. I took this picture with my phone and used a nifty app called instagram to put a filter on it and blur everything except for the words on the box. It’s on my desk at the office. Normally this stuff costs $1800 but a friend of a friend got the hook up for $124 from an Adobe employee.

Adobe Web Premium

So today I realized that since I signed up for this credit card in early 2008 I haven’t used any reward points at all. Now there’s 25,000 to be redeemed for like $250 in cash. Booya! That helps business a little.

Eric and I just got back from the gym. As un-fun as exercise sounds sometimes (especially when it’s lazy time) it always feels great afterward. We go to 24-hr and like it.

So our ward is having a video contest for each home evening group. Our video is going to rock!

Here’s a video I made with my ward way back in Spring 2008 of the same origin:


Mar 25 2011

Facebook fun

For those not on facebook, this was a little exchange that happened.

fb post mar 23 2011


Mar 24 2011

BYU game

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.


Mar 18 2011

Muzack

Here’s a friend I made at a mini-convention on campus Parker Planners attended at BYU yesterday. It’s likely we’ll be working together in coming months.

Not too bad! Considering it’s one take and live, gotta give him credit.