I've finally gotten all of last last weekend's pictures online, including a couple from my stop by Arizona Falls on Sunday morning before Tempe First's bulletinless 9:30 service.
Now, I'll be using some of my long weekend to get you all caught up on this past weekend's epic "Amazing Race"-style exploits.
Speaking of, that reminds me that I still need to catch up on "The Amazing Race" from last Sunday...
As it turns out, Facebook just isn't a fan of MILF — as in the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Duh. (See below.)
Just a few minutes ago, I went in to edit the favorite TV shows section of my Facebook profile. I needed to add what will surely become one of my all-time faves, "I Love Smashley," but after I typed that in and hit the save button, I got this error message:
Warning: Your Profile Contains Blocked Content
Content in your profile has been reported as abusive by Facebook users. You may not edit your profile until you remove that content (most likely a link).
Having never seen such a message before, I quickly copied it into my Facebook status and asked, "OK, so who's feeling abused?" ("Maybe it was Brewer," Jenn hypothesized.) Then I went back and tried to figure out what was so abusive.
Then I tried softening the reference to one of my interests, Bank of Fucking America. No dice.
Next, I dashed out this little gem from my quotes section:
Maricela: "I'm gonna pray for you."
Jessica: "Pray for yourself, bitch!"
–"High School Reunion," Chandler High Class of '88
Facebook still was not pleased.
Meanwhile, I'm poking around in the help section, looking for an FAQ entry that could shed some light on my situation, and just as I come across one with the exact text of the error message in the title, I notice that I've been logged out of Facebook and this e-mail shows up in my inbox:
From: Facebook
To: Brian Indrelunas
Date: Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 16:54
Subject: Security Warning From Facebook
We have detected suspicious activity on your Facebook account and have reset your password as a security precaution. It is possible that malicious software was downloaded to your computer or that your password was stolen by a phishing website designed to look like Facebook. Please carefully follow the steps provided:
1. Run Anti-Virus Software: If your computer has been infected with a virus or with malware, you will need to run anti-virus software to remove these harmful programs and keep your information secure. For Microsoft:
2. Reset Password: Be sure that you use a complex string of numbers, letters, and punctuation marks that is at least six characters in length.
To reset your password, follow the link below:
http://login.facebook.com/reset.phpXXXXX...
(If clicking on the link doesn't work, try copying and pasting it into your browser.)
3. Never Click Suspicious Links: It is possible that your friends could unwillingly send spam, viruses, or malware through Facebook if their accounts are infected. Do not click this material and do not run any .exe files on your computer without knowing what they are. Also, be sure to use the most current version of your browser as they contain important security warnings and protection features.
4. Log in at Facebook.com: Make sure that when you access the site, you always log in from a legitimate Facebook page with the facebook.com domain. If something looks or feels suspicious, go directly to www.facebook.com to log in.
Once you have performed all these steps, your account should once again be secure. Please be sure to visit the Facebook Help Center for further information regarding these security issues and let us know if you need assistance.
Thanks,
Facebook Security Team
Sooo sketch. I assume I got this e-mail because I tried to edit my profile five times in the span of two minutes, but srsly... I feel like I need to report Facebook's own activity as suspicious.
Facebook needs to get its mind out of the gutter...
17:50 » I also wanna point out that I couldn't even make a MILF reference in a comment on the news-feed item about changing my interests.
But how much you wanna bet that half the Facebook office is going to tune into a new episode of "The Cougar" tonight? Not that that has anything to do with radical Islamic rebels in the Philippines... Come to think of it, I don't even know why I brought that up.
Jenn and I had many adventures — and misadventures — in spontaneity this weekend, but ultimately we spent roughly the past 36 hours on a spur-of-the-moment trip to LA.
There will be plenty of recaps, details and stories here over the next few days, but to illustrate just how unplanned this trip was, let me outline for vous my (utter-lack-of-)packing list:
In addition to wearing shorts and a T-shirt and shoes and socks, I took:
one of those little drawstring backpacks
two swimsuits and a Speedo
a small bag of Mike and Ikes
an ASU hat
sunglasses
my car keys
my wallet
my cell phone
my camera
my SSP water bottle
and a borrowed contact case
Along the way, I also picked up and added to my bag:
Greyhound bus tickets
a Fun Times magazine from McDonald's in Quartzsite, Ariz.
a one-day bus pass from Union Station in downtown LA
antiperspirant from a Ralph's in Hollywood
The Golden Gazette, which basically pimps L. Ron Hubbard's books (I think), from Hollywood
a church bulletin from Crescent Heights UMC in West Hollywood
and sand in assorted places
Anyway, like I said, more details will be forthcoming, but for now I've gotta get ready for work and chow down on some dinner and/or breakfast.
...101.5 Jamz and 104.7 Kiss FM are the exact same station. Three times this weekend, I've heard a song I wasn't too fond of one of the stations, flipped to the other... and heard the same lame song, sometimes even at nearly the same point in the song.
This happened three times this weekend, a weekend that I spent half of in LA!
I rarely had free Tuesday nights in college, and even now, everyone seems to pick Tuesdays for meetings and ceremonies and such, but about every other week I'm able to make it up to the UMOM New Day Center in Phoenix for the weekly Read to Me program. And it always turns out to be not just a good way to Serve but also an all-around awesome way to spend a Tuesday night.
Tonight, for instance, I got to read with a kid named Brian — spelled the same way and everything. We were both rather impressed that we had the exact same name, and reading with him was a blast. I started out reading a book to him, and then he read one to me. And then, he asked if I had a pen and paper in my pocket; I think he wanted to write down the word "armadillo" to take home and remember.
Well, even though my car is stocked with notebooks and pens, I didn't bring any inside to Read to Me (I know, I know... Reporter fail.) and told Brian that all I had in my pockets were keys and such. He asked if he could see my keys, which I showed him, and then he took them and set them on the floor between us and said, "We'll get to these later."
Soon enough, we were playing a new game that Brian made up that involved picking different colors off of my key chain and finding them in the book we were reading under the pressure of a ticking clock. Brian seemed to especially enjoy kicking things off with "Thirty seconds on the clock! Go!" It was ridiculously adorable.
Honestly, I never quite got ahold of all the rules; they seemed to be rather fluid. But hey, that occasionally worked in my favor, like when I was surprised to learn that one win took my score from a –2 all the way up to 1 without bothering to stop by –1 and 0.
Also, as often happens with kids of all ages, I got a slew of random questions to answer over the course of the hour, ranging from "Where's the bathroom?" to "Do you have a son?" and "Do you have a car? Is it a limo? A truck?"
Brian also asked me, "Will you be here tomorrow?" Sadly, I had to tell him that I wouldn't be back until two weeks from tonight. (Duty calls next week in the form of a J-school awards ceremony.)
But if you're ever free from 6 to 7:45ish p.m. on a Tuesday, you should definitely go to Read to Me. If you're at ASU, you can get in touch with the Lusks, who usually meet at Tempe First UMC and carpool to UMOM. Otherwise, you can sign up online or just show up at UMOM (on Van Buren east of 32nd Street) by 6 p.m.
This morning I discovered that "Cruel Summer," which I always thought of as an Ace of Base song, was actually originally performed by Bananarama in 1983. Ace of Base just covered it later on.
I toss out that random fact in order to segue into how excited I am that it's gotten all warm and toasty in the Valley this week. Here's hoping that this is actually the start of summer and not just another tease before a cold snap...
The Pulitzer announcement was another welcome reminder that good journalism goes on in the Valley and, as Tribune editor Chris Coppola wrote, was also a much-needed shot in the arm for the struggling Trib.
Sadly, though, today wasn't all good news. Later this afternoon, I caught word of some pieces of less-than-exciting news for a couple of my friends. In both cases, it sounds like a sucky situation for those folks. Maybe they can ask the Trib to share some of its mojo...
Why didn’t I go to the spring football game when I was actually in college?
Easy answer: When I was actually in college, by mid-April I always had plenty of tests, papers and projects to worry about, along with the need to plan out my summer and subsequent fall.
But since none of those stressors apply to my life this April, I decided it was time to check out the annual ASU spring football game.
I met fellow alum Jenn there, and honestly didn't pay all that much attention to the game itself. (It's kinda hard to get into a game where the final score is 7-0, which by the way either bodes really well or really ill for ASU's '09 season. I'm not quite sure which yet.)
But after the game, Jenn and I totally got to be 10-year-old kids and — like many actual children who were also down on the field — get all excited about posing for photos with some of our favorite ASU football players, including:
Danny Sullivan:
Chris McGaha:
LeQuan Lewis and Kyle Williams:
To see more pictures from the game and the meet and greet on the field afterward, click here.
With the Sun Devils falling short of a bowl game last season and the Arena Football League canceling their 2009 season entirely, it's been an especailly long and painful football-less winter.
But now, the temperatures are rising in the Valley of the Sun Devils, and the football drought is coming to an end about an hour from now when the '09 ASU team takes the field at Sun Devil Stadium for the spring game!
I'm so excited for the game and also excited that I've got FSN Arizona's replay of the '96 ASU-Nebraska game, which they put on in memory of the late coach Bruce Snyder, on TiVo to watch later as well.
‘Divided Families,’ featuring stories by yours truly, wins int’l reporting award
The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights announced Monday that "Divided Families," the Cronkite School's in-depth reporting project that I worked on in fall 2007, has won the collegiate print-division RFK Journalism Award for 2009.
Needless to say, being part of a reporting team that's been recognized with an international award is a tremendous honor. (I think the double-internationality of winning an international award for an international reporting project even outdoes my international modeling career.)
Or if that all seems like an information overload, you can click below to check out the two stories I contributed to the project, along with Ryan Ruiz's photos of the Zavala family from Somerton, Ariz.:
But this week, I've rediscovered the joy of outdoor napping in particular since it's been so nice in the Valley.
Yesterday, after Dave preached about not being afraid of empty time and quiet space, Jenn and I turned our planned hike up A Mountain into a hike and nap.
We got some shut-eye as well as a bit of wide-eyed rest since the view from up top was so nice and it was so clear yesterday. We were perched near the peak looking to the northeast from roughly the vantage point where I took the picture you see over to the right in 2006.
Then today, after work, I took our hammock out into the sun for some more outdoor downtime, which was equally relaxing.
If you want in on this new craze, Jenn and I are headed back up for another A Mountain nap tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon. We'll be starting up the mountain at around 4 p.m. If you want to join us, call or text or e-mail or @reply or DM or whatever me.
4/7 15:01 »Jenn can't make it today, so I — in the true spirit of napping — am gonna be lazy and catch my Zs pretty far away from the A, in my backyard. But if you're going to be in Tempe this afternoon and the weather is anything like it is down in Chandler (which is almost always the case), I'd still recommend getting some A Mountain shut-eye!
And even if you don't join us on A Mountain tomorrow, I highly recommend some outdoor R&R this week — whether it's in your backyard, in the Secret Garden, out by a pool or just on a park bench somewhere. You know, it won't be long before it's too hot in Phx for this kind of thing, so take nature naps while you can!
Saturday Night Live is pretty hit-or-miss these days, but the opening of tonight's show — which contained not just an ASU shout-out but also a UA snub — is definitely one of SNL's greatest hits:
I wonder if there are any Sun Devils on the SNL writing staff these days... or maybe they just noticed that the real Obama likes ASU enough to speak at graduation in May.
Why didn’t I learn video when I was actually in college?
Today was another installment of "Why didn't I _____ when I was actually in college?" as I finally sat down and learned how to shoot and edit video for news Web sites.
For some reason, I never found time while I was actually in J-school to take a proper videography course, and I only had professional experiences in newspapers, wire services and radio.
Well, I did shoot some video of the Degrassi cast members who came to Phoenix in April 2007 and managed to make one halfway presentable video of the encounter in iMovie or something like that on a Mac in the Computing Commons. But we never actually put it on the Web Devil as planned.
But today, I went back to school for a multimedia boot camp that was part of the regional Society of Professional Journalists conference the Cronkite School is hosting this weekend. The Cronkite School's Brian Snyder, who I met on assignment in Rocky Point a few years ago, sent us out with real HD cameras and tripods and mics and such and had us put together the footage we shot in Final Cut Pro.
Learning video not only plugged a hole in my resume but also turned out to be a lot of fun. Below you can watch the director's cut of the video that Kellie, an entertainment reporter at The Arizona Republic, and I shot and edited. Our original version was longer, but we were lacking the necessary B-roll shots for the last couple of sound bites we had planned to include. So after Kellie had to take off, I stuck around for a bit, trimmed out the last few bites and stuck our names on the end.
Then, after much wrangling with Final Cut, I got it to export an MOV file that was small enough to upload to YouTube. The text in our lower thirds got kinda stretchy in the YouTube-able export, but other than that, the video looks pretty much like the super-duper HD version:
"Bruce Snyder told us that he reads the Internet. Now, of course, Nebraska has a page on the Internet." –one of the announcers on the telecast of the '96 ASU-Nebraska game
