Catching up.... again

I think I will forever be playing catch up.  Here's the third commercial that was made for our activity.  I am very proud of this commercial.  It's found on youtube here.

SHIELD yourself was a domestic violence seminar.  Domestic violence needs to be talked about.  If it's not talked about then how will you know what to do if you're in that situation?  Abuse isn't always physical, it can be manipulation or constant criticism.  Awareness events like this help people become inform.

I'm very happy with the turn out & speaker.  The room was full!  About 60 people showed up and about 25 of them were youth.  (Thank you Tati!)  I think it's important to start talking about this to teens.  Sadly teen dating violence happens too.  Our speaker was amazing.  She went over the dating warning signs and then a quick discussion of general safety.

Thanksgiving has been great!  I have a lot of assignments to finish up, but I figure I'll take the day off.  I've decided to work on a few personal projects.  I'm letting my mind just go and not focus on school.  I'm having a leverage marathon.  I watched this show on TV when it started up to when it ended.... it's been awhile and I forgot how awesome it is and how much I love it.

What else.... Oh!  Definitely caught the 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who last week - LOVED IT!

I'm thinking of revamping this blog, basically finding a purpose for it.  I think that's why I tend to neglect it.  It needs a direction.  But that's waiting until the semester is over.  :-)

SHIELD yourself project - Post 2

Last Sunday we filmed our second commercial for SHIELD yourself.  I'm really excited for this project.  We've got some good information that we want to share with everyone about domestic violence and general safety.  It's on the BYU-Hawaii campus but it's open to everyone.  If you're in the area please come!

Here's a still from this commercial.  Leave it to Noelle to trip... 

Our second commercial can be found here.

SHIELD yourself project - Post 1

This semester my major project is a group one.  I'm working with 3 of my friends to put on a seminar on domestic violence and general safety.  We're really excited for it.  This stemmed from a talk I had with a friend concerning domestic violence - she didn't know what she would do if she found herself in that situation.  I figured that she must not be the only one and then this project was born.

Our first commercial has been posted and our second one will be posted later this week.  Join the Facebook group SHIELD yourself for updates and the latest videos.

If you're in Hawaii please come!  It'll be November 13, 2013 at 7:00 PM at BYU-Hawaii campus room MPC 101.

Here's some stills and behind the scenes information from the first filming session:

Not sure how we came up with the idea of a silent movie type of commercial, 

but it happened during our last meeting.

The music is from 1910 Frankenstien, in fact, this is the music is from the 

scene that Dr. Frankenstien is creating his monster.

Chris was having a hard time being angry and mean.  He'd start and then start laughing.  

H was having little too much, he forgot to pretend to be scared.

J did this great sequence that I wasn't expecting.

J, H, and G are having a little too much fun...

Taylor did a great job!  So committed to the role.

I usually don't make pregnant ladies get on the ground for projects. :-)

Check back for commercial #2!

Mahalo!

So crazy!!!

Things have been so crazy this semester!  I've dropped off the blogging world - sorry about that.  Anyway, I just finished an awareness campaign for a class project.

This campaign basically takes everyday traits and skills and turns them into superpowers.  There are postcards that can be printed for each character and the back of the card has places for the kids to create their own superhero.

It was a fun project and I hope you enjoy it!  Thank you

http://your-superpower.blogspot.com/

Talofa!

I thought I'd give an update.  (I believe my profile states I'm a bad blogger.... see, I didn't lie!)

I'm having a lot of fun in my polynesian folk dance class.  We've been doing some dances from Samoa (hence the subject) and it's been fun.  My social work teacher is amazing!  I'm LOVING that class!  I really like my religion class too (I must confess I'm a little behind on my reading but I'm going to get caught up before Wednesday) there are several times that I have ah-ha moments during that class.  That's a really good thing!  My other classes are going well too.  I think I'm lucky because all my classes have great teachers (yay!  Let's hope that keeps up.)

General Conference was this weekend and I swear President Uchtdorf was speaking to me!  Some concerns and things I've been thinking about the last couple of days were pretty much addressed in his talk.

I applied for the Social Work major last week and let's hope I get in because I don't have a plan B.  But I know I'm supposed to be here so if I don't get in that just means I'm supposed to do something else and I'll figure it out if I need to. :-)

On another note I went on a photo shoot with the photo club last week.  I'm not good with photographing people (mainly because I just don't really do it).  I've been wanting to practice and thought this is the best way to do it, right?  Here are the shots that I think turned out the best:

At the beginning of the shoot the leaders were posing our models, T, Cara, and Ethan

Then I worked with Ethan and apologized because I had no direction... but I like that he's laughing in this one.

I had some direction with Cara (some being the key word).  When it came to do the jumping shot she suggested doing it on the lawn for comfort rather than the sidewalk.  I thought it was a great suggestion and I LOVE this shot!

Then I snuck some photos that weren't of models as I waited to photograph T.

I thought the photo of Cara turned out well, so I copied it with T.... but this time we have the awesome sunset!  That of course meant loss of light so most of my photos after this really weren't turning out so well.

It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to go on the next shoot!

On another note, Saturday night I was at a bonfire on the beach and there was the coolest moon rise ever!  Seriously. Cool.

Konnichiwa!

Watakushi wa Stephanie desu.  So far that's the extent of my knowledge for sentence structure.  Yes, I'm taking Japanese 101 this semester among several other classes.  (Don't judge me, we're only in the first week of school.  We're still learning the hiragana.)

Anyways, I bet you thought I'd start the post with Aloha!

I can't believe there's only been one update since I've moved (well, actually I can because I'm a horrible blogger!)  So I thought I should rectify that.

School started this week and I'm getting into the groove of things.  I really like my classes.  Statistics... oh statistics.  I've heard horror stories of this class.  It's a frustrating class and I've only had two.  I feel like I'm understanding it but then I'll do horrible on the exercises.  Then a little bit later I feel like I'm understanding it and I'll do great on the exercises.  So some of it I'm getting and some of it I'm not but both times I feel like I have it.  I know I should be too hard on myself because it's only been two classes but it concerns me....  I figured if this keeps up I'll just make use of the math tutors that are on campus.

The clubs were out today displaying their might... there's a lot of clubs here.  I joined the Japanese club (I figured it'll help me with my class, right?  More chances to talk Japanese) and the Photography Club.

But you don't want to hear about all this, right?  You want to read and see the fun stuff!  Well I do have somethings to share.

Last week was New Student Orientation, the first part of the orientation is stuff like: take a campus tour, get an id, learn of the services, get a TB test, etc - you know the 'not too exciting' stuff.  The last two days had the fun!

We went to the PCC Friday afternoon and then after a big dinner on campus we returned for the night show:

Toured a few of the villages and tried our hand at the games.  Angela and I were pretty good with the stick game in New Zealand.  (I can't remember the traditional village name... Aeterro??)

We got some tattoos while we were there.  Cara and Angela are sporting New Zealand traditional tats, while Amanda and I have Fijian tats.  Mine represents a princess.   The photo was taken by our "cousin" Carlos (we're one big ohana here!)

The next day we did the Circle Island Tour.  I've done several tours before so I'm excited for an air conditioned bus because dang it's humid here!  Nope, we were in School Buses.  Yellow school buses with no air conditioning.  I felt like I was on a field trip - it was great!  We went to great places like Pali Lookout, Pearl Harbor, the Honolulu Swap Meet, Walmart... yes you read that correctly we went to Walmart.  We live out in the country people and Foodland isn't very cheap. :-)

Pali Lookout (I'm sure if you've visited Oahu before you've gone here.)  If not, this is the spot of the battle between King Kamehameha and other warriors.  King Kamehameha was working on uniting the islands and during this battle several hundred opposing warriors were forced off the cliff.  Well, that's the cliff notes version (ha! pun was not intended.)

Our next stop was to Pearl Harbor.  I've been here once before and it still brought a few tears to my eyes during that video.  You know, 9/11 is burned into my brain like it was yesterday, I bet it was like that with the survivors of Pearl Harbor.  (sailors and civilian survivors)

For those that have not been to Pearl Harbor, the USS Arizona is leaking oil and has been for the past 71 years.  A little black bubble escapes her hull and floats to the surface where it turns into the rainbow effect of oil on water.  You can stand there and look over the side and see it happen several times.

After our stop at Walmart to buy supplies we headed toward the North Shore on our way back home - which included a stop at Matsumoto Shave Ice.  That was delicious!!

Remind me not to make this sucking face again for pictures.

I'll end this post with some fun pictures taken by the ever talented Angela:

I'm sure I'll be back with more stuff... soon... or eventually :-)  I'll try really hard to be a good blogger.