Hey Team, Happy Christmas!

Just thought I’d let you know, free shipping TODAY ONLY (Dec 16) on orders over $50 in the U.S. and Canada. For the U.S., use the code “SHIPNOW2″ and for Canada, use the code “CADSHIPNOW2″.

Get some friends together, bundle your order, you’ll be glad you did.

It took a while. In the last post, when I wrote, “wait until Fall”, I didn’t anticipate that meaning the end of Fall 2009.

All the same, I hope you like the new shop. Everything has, as promised, been streamlined, so the whole shopping experience here should be smooth as butter. We’ve got new designs, too, and are always adding more.

Let us know what you think. We’re always open to feedback. Thanks.

Folks, I have an announcement. Things have been…well…busy. I’m almost graduated (can you believe it?) and there are a lot of real grown up things I have to take care of, most recently, interning with these folks in Redmond WA.

When it comes down to it, I don’t have much time for printing shirts any longer. Managing inventory, blogging regularly, new designs, it’s all a bit much for something that is really just a hobby.

I’m going to ask you to hold your orders till Fall at latest. I’ll be rearranging some things around here, and setting up the shop so it runs itself. Trust me, everybody will be happier once this is all taken care of. There will be more designs, people will get their orders more promptly, it’ll just be better. Thanks for the patience.

A couple months ago I left a review on my personal blog for the movie Happy Valley. Maybe you’ve seen it, maybe you’ve never heard of it. It’s about illicit drug use in Utah Valley. My opinion was that it was an awful film. Really, really pitiful in a lot of ways. It didn’t leave me with any affection for the film-maker, either.

I wrote the review and quickly forgot about it. Then, a couple days ago, a thread of comments began to form that turned into one of the most interesting conversations I’ve had on this blog. Mind you, not because of the content, but because of the participants.

You just have to read this to believe it. Look at the review of Happy Valley (the last third of my post), then look at the subsequent comments. Unbelievable.

Just to wet your interest, I think Jessica Biel may be reading my blog. Probably not, but the possibility is endlessly funny.

Looking through old pictures, I found this one of my dear, talented and lovely friend Meredith. Made me smile. Summer rain in Austin Texas. Wish I could have been there.

Good luck with finals everybody. I could go on a lengthy diatribe expounding the worthlessness of finals and our current factory-line style of formal educational, but I’ll save the mad ranting for another time. For now, I simply wish you good luck.

I know this is old news, but thought I’d put it out there anyway. I ran the Rex Lee Run. It was a good thing for all involved, I just hope next year I’m in a little more prepared. Thousands of people, a party(ish) atmosphere, lots of fun. Well, it was fun till about the second mile of the 5K. Then I wasn’t having any more fun.

The things we do in the name of health/charity/community/pick your cause.

Right now, on the BYU main page, one of the featured news stories is about a recent publication about findings of a BYU Professor and a former student/colleague. Kudos to Professor Erin Bigler for his discoveries, Good Job, Professor! There is so much amazing work that is done at BYU every day, and this is an exceptional example.

However, as an aside, I’d like to point out a striking similarity. By raise of hands, how many of you ever watched Boy Meets World growing up? Oh, it looks like there were a lot. Me too. And our Professor Bigler sure reminds me of one Mr. George Feeny. The likeness is unmistakable, at least in the picture used on the main page.

Thanks, Hermana Poulson, of the Guatemala Guatemala City North Mission.
Hermana, if you’re out there, sorry I didn’t get your permission before posting this. It came to me in a round-about fashion, and it’s just a such a great picture, I couldn’t ignore it. Keep up the good work.

I suppose we could call it homage, in a respectful French sense. Those wacky folks over at BYUSA have put together this most inspiring piece of work to persuade students to be more overtly kind/neighborly on campus. Thats nice and all, but I’m not sure I’m going to start talking to strangers. However, please note:

This ad was ripped off. Ripped clean off from another commercial. This commercial.

It’s one of my favorite ad campaigns. It pulls me in like a sucker every time, it’s just so poignant and sappy. Very effective, and interesting storytelling (David Bordwell talks about it here). So how could I miss a straight up copy?

Thematically identical, exactly the same execution, full circle story. The differences are there, but the similarities are glaring.