Keep moving forward

When you look behind you, you're only seeing what you cannot change. But when you look ahead you can see what you can do with where you are.


When in Junior High, I had a great teacher who taught me many things. One thing that comes to mind from those two years of learning was this:

On scantron tests, you have 5 choices for each question:
[ A ]
[ B ]
[ C ]
[ D ]
[ E ]

Now imagine that the first time you read the question, you think that the answer is [ D ], and you write it in. But then upon re-reading it, you wonder if your initial thought was wrong and that it might actually be [ C ], but you really have no idea as to which one. But you must be wrong, right?
So you erase it as perfectly as you can and change it to [ C ].

And right there, you doubted yourself.

When you get the test back, sure enough the answer is [ D ], and if you had only trusted yourself in making that decision, then it would have been fine.

It's been shown that more often than not, your first answer is the correct one (if you're guessing that is). So why should life be any different? You know what's best for you, there's no reason to sell yourself short just because you're thinking that you must be wrong.

If you end up making a mistake, so what? You're only human. Once you make that mistake, you need to step over the rubble and keep on walking. It's the only way.

(And please don't think I've got it all together. This is as much for me as it is for you. I'm only human too you know...)

&

And now ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to introduce you to...

The Ampersand Productions Blog!

More planning needed

Ok, so we've established that there are a few problems in the world.
One is global warming.
Another is the population crisis.

Let's deal with global warming by raising awareness through 'Earth Hour'. For one hour, turn off your lights. Sweet, that's easy, and it'll make a bit of an impact, as well as raise awareness.

And then what's up with the population crisis? Millions of people in the dark for an hour. What do they do?







....Exactly.

Dear Friend,

And yes, I know that you are a friend, otherwise you wouldn't take the time to read this blog (a fact that I thank you for).

Anyways.

Dear Friend,

In keeping with Friendship Policy as outlined at the beginning of time, I would like to make an announcement about a formal bill I would like to personally uphold within my jurisdiction. Quite simply, this bill is meant to ensure honesty at all times. Now for some explanation.
One thing that aggravates me is when people feel like they will offend me if they keep the truth from me, because it may (or may not) be quite brutal. The truth is, I get a feeling from people that tells my head that something is wrong, and then I have to decide whether it's my head, or really something. And so, what I ask of you is to help me out by eliminating the need for guessing. If there is something that you are holding back, please tell me. It'll save me the worry.

Honestly, I promise that it will do me less harm for you to just let me know than for me to have to fret about it for weeks.

An example would be if I were editing a graphic for you, and though you found it nice as a graphic, thought that it didn't exactly suit you. If you didn't tell me, I would simply think you liked it, and then in time if I saw that you didn't use it much, or didn't bring it up from time to time, I'd think I had done something wrong. And so if you want something changed, take the initiative and tell me! I can't read your mind quite yet, ok?


Now then, something for people who maybe don't like me (or certain aspects of me). In particular I'm going to talk about my techie-ness in the theatre. If you are a person who looks at me in disgust, thinking about how full of myself I am, and how I'm such a teachers pet, always doing everything, etc, please read on. I totally understand where you're coming from with that. But really, I know that I'm good at tech, I love doing it, and so even if you hate me for being good, I'm sorry to say, too bad for you.

I do want to make one other thing clear though relating to tech. I designed ONE SINGLE light show. And presented it during the grade 9 tours. It took (if I recall correctly) about 3 weeks, with no prior training to that extent. I'm not going to boast, but I feel I have the right to say it was extremely successful. But you see, now I have all the musical theatre people calling me 'techie god' and 'king'. I made one light show, and fine, I did all the tech for the drama 30 shows, but PLEASE don't forget about the other techies out there. Jackie was an amazing SM during CFU, Christina is a wicked light operator (excuse the pun), and I'm just a grade 11 tech guy with no life. And so, if you are someone involved in fine arts, please don't limit yourself to one guru. There are many more out there.

And with that dear friends, I will sign this entry closed.
Again, thank you for all the readership, it's really been great to have an audience, and if you read something you like, leave a comment! I love that sort of thing! Oh, and you can share the blog with other people too you know :P

Peace (what a wonderful thing, isn't it?)

&
(My new alias)

lol

hahaha

lol

:P

These are all phrases that many people (myself included) use a lot in conversations. They're used to express feelings of joviality, light-heartedness, and to decrease the relative seriousness of a conversation. Here's an example:
I got a message (through Facebook) that said this:

hey Graham

do you like [name removed]?
lol

What was the point of the 'lol' at the bottom of the message? Was it even really thought about? Did the person even give it much thought? I'm not condemning this practise by the way, I'm just pointing it out, as that is what I do.

I think that the reason for it to be there was so that it wouldn't be, "hey Graham, do you like her?", which would lead to both parties feeling uncomfortable, as it is blatant and seen as being quite serious. But with the addition of the 'lol', we immediately feel less threatened because it seems laid back, and doesn't appear to be utterly serious.

And so that is what's been bugging my head for a few days now, thanks for reading, and apologies to the people who have patiently waited for something new to be posted.