Turning a Rock into a Car

So, you’ve all heard of the game Bigger or Better? Perhaps you’ve even heard of One Red Paperclip, where a guy traded up from a paperclip until he got a house? Our entrepreneur lecture class is playing a massive game of Bigger or Better with goals just as outrageous as a house from a paperclip.

We’ve got a rock. It’s a cool rock. Jennifer found it while she was running this week.

We want a car. It doesn’t have to be super nice or anything, just as long as it runs decently well and isn’t totally beaten up. You know, a typical college student car is acceptable. A really nice, new car would be even better! Or a sports car! When you’ve got a rock, you can dream anything.

In class, Clarissa (me), Michelle, and Jennifer joined forces in our goal to turn a rock into a car in two weeks. That’s right, we have a deadline – the last trade must be completed by October 22 at noon.

This blog - http://rock-to-car.blogspot.com/ - will chronicle our trades for the next two weeks. Tonight Michelle and Jennifer are going to trade our rock for at least three new items so that tomorrow we can branch out and make multiple trades at once.

The blog will also be a place for people in the Provo, Utah area to offer trades. We are limited to the Utah Valley because we aren’t allowed to pay for anything other than gas (including no shipping). Please comment and offer anything you’re willing to trade. Most importantly – let us know if you’d be willing to trade a car and what you would be willing to trade for it.

Keep posted over these next two weeks – I’ll be updating daily at the least this week and hopefully over the weekend as well. It’s gonna get crazy!

A Change of Mind

Hmmm... Well, this is tricky. My adventure this week was entirely unexpected and yet I cannot share it. Not because I don't want to, but I'm not allowed to.

Yes, that's right, I am legally bound to not blog about this adventure. Legally bound isn't quite the right term. But if I told you what happened, I wouldn't be able to do what I was planning.

See, I've come up with idea for a product to patent. And I'm super excited because my team and I think we actually could sell it and change an industry with it! And it was my idea originally! The team added some great ideas, but the essential product was my idea!

What is super cool about this is that I never thought of myself as the idea-generator. I'm the entrepreneur who likes another person's idea, teams with them, and makes their business successful. I'm not the entrepreneur who comes up with game-changing ideas. Or I wasn't. Apparently I am now!

Wish me luck! And once I have a patent in place, I'll tell you all what it is! The more excitement we can create for this, the better chance of success we will have. I really hope we can make it work!

My Favorite Spot of Time

You wonder how these things begin. Well, this begins with a glen. It begins with a season which for want of a better word we might as well call September. 
It begins with a forest where woodchucks woo and leaves wax green and vines entwine like lovers. Try to see it. Not with your eyes for they are wise, but see it with your ears: the cool green breathing of the leaves. And hear it with the inside of your hand: the soundless sound of shadows flicking light.
Celebrate sensation! Recall that secret place, you’ve been there, you remember. That special place where once, just once, in your crowded sunlit lifetime you hid away in the shadows from the tyranny of time. That spot beside the clover where someone’s hand held your hand and love was sweeter than the berries, or the honey, or the stinging taste of mint.
-The Fantasticks

Autumn is a wonderful time of year. I used to say summer was my favorite because I could play outside and get tan, but that’s not really a love of the season, just a love of the activities. Since coming to college especially, I’ve realized what autumn means to me. For some unknown reason, I experience typically “spring” emotions and ideas in autumn: romance, rebirth, and hope.

Romance is always the first to come up in the fall. As soon as the air turns chilly in the mornings, a mounting excitement blossoms. It grows stronger each day until that day when the evenings too are chilly. And then the excitement becomes a wish: I wish to wander in the chilly evening with someone special. It doesn’t matter if I have a specific someone in mind – no, that is unimportant. What matters is that autumn evenings are perfect for long walks. Feel the rustling of the leaves, taste the chill in the air, breathe in the exhilaration of walking at night.

Rebirth may actually show itself in the spring, but autumn is even more so a time of new beginnings. The school year, for one thing, begins in the fall. But more important, now is when the full splendor of the leaves is seen. This is the culmination of their life here – once this is done, they leave and make way for the new growth. Seeds will fall now that make spring possible. So much potential is seen in the fall. This is when the patterns are created that will lead to our spring.

Associated with this cleaning of the slate that autumn brings is the feeling of hope I get. No matter how bad the year was, no matter the relationships formed or lost, no matter what I feel I messed up on, and no matter what I planned on doing, autumn is when I feel most hopeful to improve. The good things from the past year will either stick or disappear throughout the autumn. The bad things can fall with the leaves and I can forget them.

This hope is the most powerful feeling autumn brings me. Over the past few days as autumn as crept down from the mountains to the valley floor, I have reconsidered my career, dedicated myself to new goals, and discovered new faith within myself. I have the hope that my career plans will work out, no matter how unsure I feel today. I have hope that with the good start I’ve made on my goals that I can progress and fulfill them. And I have hope that my new faith will make me a better child of God and bring me closer to His presence.

A Series of Little Adventures

Unfortunately, none of my adventures this week really had any photo opportunities. But I'll tell you anyways!

First, I applied to Marriott International, Inc. for the management training program. I'm really hoping to get a position and start working with them. I'll be applying to other jobs this coming week, but Marriott is my number one choice at this time. I talked to the recruiters at the career fair, and emailed the head of college recruiting. The program is very instructive and would help me really understand the Marriott culture as a member of it before moving into a management position.

My second adventure was to apply for graduation. I filled out the form online, talked to my advisement center, planned next semester's classes, and got my application approved! April 2012, here I come!

Finally, at the football game this Friday, I hugged a random stranger. This happened with 11 seconds or so left on the clock, after Riley threw that magical pass that was beautifully caught right in the endzone! My excitement spilled forth, I began hugging all those around me, including the nice boy to my right who I'd only met at the beginning of the quarter. Who knows if I'll ever see him again, but that doesn't matter. The play was so wonderful, hugs had to be shared with everyone!

Well, that's it for this week, I hope to have something more exciting next week. Let me know if you have any suggestions!