My First Televised Voice Overs!

Here are a few commercials my friend Vaughn Armstrong created for a business called Campus Book Rentals. We did 15 and 30 second spots on each commercial...but they've only posted the 15 second ones on Youtube...so that's all I get for now.

These have been periodically played on Utah's local television stations. It's a start! :)

Bathcrest Commercial Jingle

I sing in a couple acappella groups and one of them is called Eclipse. About a year ago one of the guys from the group asked if I wanted to go to a recording studio and sing a bass line for a radio commercial. I was like: "Heck Yes!" I was just excited by the idea that I could be a part of a radio jingle of some sort. Everything was set up that me and two other guys from Eclipse (Dan and Kevin) would drive to a recording studio in Bountiful where we were going to record a jingle for a business called Bathcrest AND they told us they'd pay us for our time.

Cool.

I'd never recorded a jingle in a professional studio before, so I was excited to see how this would go. We got to the studio met the engineer, got our sheet music and then everyone looked at me: "You're up."

"Uhhhhhhhh.....Ok."

I went into the recording room, put the headphones on and started studying the music while the engineer set some levels. Fortunately I didn't have to completly sight read the music. I was able to listen to a midi file of the jingle and sing along a few times before we started recording. The recording went quickly and then it was onto the other guys. Dan laid down some background vocals and then Kevin laid down some backgrounds along with some beat boxing. The whole process for all of us took about 2 hours. Not too long at all. As we were leaving David Osmond arrived to lay down the lead vocals. We talked briefly then headed for home.

Why am I writing about this 1 year later? Nothing seemed to have ever come from the recording session and we never heard any ads on the radio or tv....so we guessed they decided not to use the jingle. But then today a Bathcrest commercial came on TV and it totally had the song we recorded playing as the background music! It was fun to hear the end result and If I don't say so myself....it sounded awesome!

If you'd like to hear the awesome acappella jingle, here's the link with TV commercial (the music plays in the background):

http://www.bathcrest.com/video9.html


Thanks for reading!

-James

Locked in the bathroom

Have you ever been locked inside a bathroom? Yeah, me either....until yesterday morning.

I went into the bathroom to shower and get ready for the day locking the door behind me. To lock the door, one just pushes the knob in and turns it to the right. Easy enough.

Upon finishing my shower and shave I went to leave the bathroom. I simultaneously kept walking forward as I turned the knob to the left. The door remained closed as I continued to walk into the door, hitting my face.

I looked down and the door knob was stuck in the locked position. Usually, the knob will automatically pop out when turned...but for whatever the reason it wouldn't pop out.

I wiggled, twisted, pulled and pushed to get the door unlocked with no success. I looked out the window to see if there was any tree branches I could climb out on. No branches.

It doesn't help that I live on the third floor. Forgetting the window idea, I went back to the door and gave it a few turns in hopes it would unlock. It still didn't unlock, but I did notice two Phillip screws that were holding the knob onto the door. After noticing the screws, I began to ransack the bathroom in hopes of finding something to unscrew the screws.

In my little fingernail kit I found a little thing. I don't even know what the heck it's called....or what it's even used for. (See picture)

It's a cross between a pocket knife and a bottle opener. With this handy little tool, I unscrewed the screws....took off the door knob....and (15 minutes later) freed myself from the bathroom prison.

Thank goodness for Nail clipping sets that have this random pocket knife/bottle opener!

~Dream~

I was reading some articles online today, and came across some uplifting and inspirational quotes. The last of which is a song that I’ve heard a lot, but have never payed attention to the lyrics.

These are a reminder to myself that we should never give up on our dreams...but dreams still take massive action. Here we go:


"All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible."

-T.E. Lawrence


"The question for each man to settle is not what he would do if he had means, time, influence and educational advantages; the question is what he will do with the things he has. The moment a young man ceases to dream or to bemoan his lack of opportunities and resolutely looks his conditions in the face, and resolves to change them, he lays the corner-stone of a solid and honorable success."

-Hamilton Wright Mabie


Then of course the beautiful song:



"The Impossible Dream"

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far

To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause

And I know if I’ll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I’m laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star

-music by Mitch Leigh and lyrics by Joe Darion

Lake Powell Triathlon

It's been a while.

Running and writing.

I've taken a leave of absence from running and apparently writing this winter. Before the absence, I did complete a third triathlon (The Lake Powell Tri) since I last wrote. That one was on October 13th, 2007 with my sis Liz and nephew Steve S.

What a great experience!

This was Steve S.'s first tri. When Steve finished, Liz and I were waiting for him.

"I can't believe I did this!" were his first words after he finished. I nearly teared up knowing exactly how he felt. There's an intense feeling of accomplishment when you finish a triathlon....no matter how long it took....no matter what place you come in.

Don't worry. I didn't start crying. I was just proud of my nephew and knew exactly how he felt.

The Swim (1/2 mile)

Still no training for this portion of the race. Same difficulty as the other tri's. Maybe this next summer I'll get some swim training in. Side note: After the tri, one of my other nephews invited me to go swimming at a local swimming pool where we swam laps for 1/2 mile. This experience reminded me of the excellent cardiovascular workout swimming is. My heart has never beat harder than when I'm swimming. Or it could just be the fact that I'm a terrible breather and I'm not getting enough oxygen. Moving on.

The Bike (12.5 miles)

Once again I rode my wonderful mountain bike. Riding a mountain bike in a triathlon is like wearing a fanny pack, pocket protector and duct taped glasses to school. Enough said.

Training wise. I tried to ride as many trails in Ogden as possible. This meant 3 to 4 trails a week. Not a lot, but I think it helped.

Great course....I just need to get a road bike.

The Run (3.1 miles)

I felt the most comfortable running this time. I ran everyday (minus Sundays) 1 month prior to this tri. My time on the run ended up being 23:18. I was very happy with this time because in my daily runs up to the tri, I was running 3.2 miles in between 23-24 minutes. Not only did I stay around that same time....but I stayed at that time even after swimming and running! Cool!

The Lake Powell tri ended up being a great event and experience. As great as it was....it was by far the most expensive tri to participate in. I think the bottom line price was like $110.00. Ouch. Location must have something to do with it. The Rexburg Tri (http://www.rushtriathlon.com/) was only $30 and had more free stuff than Powell and Bear Lake. Too bad there isn't a houseboat rental included with that 110 bucks. :)