Moved

In case you come across this blog you should know I've joined forces with my wonderful husband at brookeandben.blogspot.com .... So if you are looking for a blog to read head on over, or you can check out my book blog at brookejeansbooks.blogspot.com

See you there!

Wedding Day Fun

It's seemingly ironic that I should post about Runescape before my own wedding. Well I'm righting the wrong and I'll share some "wedding day adventures".

We arrived at the temple around 6:25am, just in time to witness the explosion of this building. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of the cloud of dust that quickly took over the downtown area.

We were very blessed to have an east wind that morning (something that never happens) and a large number of temple square workers who were able to clean up all the dust in the area before we even got out of the temple. Our pictures looked great!

After pictures we all headed over to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to enjoy an amazing breakfast, friends, family, a quick little speach by Will, and a much longer and more embarrassing one by my mother, as well as a toast by Jay. Did I mention the food was amazing?

This next portion of pictures I like to call "The Reception: Before and After the Thunderstorm"

BEFORE:

The decorations were amazing: Provided by my mom's hard work. We didn't get many before shots of the reception but once we get the pictures back from the photographers we'll post more since they have all the really fun ones!

I borrowed this picture from Ben's sister's blog since I didn't have any of people before everyone ended up soaked!

DURING:

My sisters and Kjersty ran around in pouring rain to save all the decorations. They saved everything but ended up a little wet - Probably my favorite picture of the night!

AFTER:

We wiped down the chairs and tables and people enjoyed the smell of a fresh rain while I stood back and wished it would have waited an hour. Oh well ...

The rain didn't stop us though from enjoying the wedding celebrations. (Notice the sopping wet sister and best friend in the background!)


and last but not least ... My Cake! I think Albertsons and my aunt Donya did an amazing job!


So after all is said and done ... I wouldn't change a thing. The explosion of a building, the thunderstorm of the year, the homemade bouquets (which were made by Kjersty and myself about 2 minutes before guests arrived), and the people that shared in all the excitement just made this day one that I will never forget. I dare old age to even try!

Runescape - Marketing gone right!

Why am I blogging about Runescape? I really don't know. Some (any grown adult, including myself) would say that it is a waste of time and yet the game itself is quite intriguing when you look at it from a marketing perspective. The way it is set up allows players to play for free with small encounters throughout the free game enticing players to subscribe for only 5 dollars a month in order to participate in the member options. There are two types of worlds you can enter - a non members world and a members world. In the non-members world (even if you are a member) you can't do the members world things - however, Runescape developers have placed member objects, and activities in the non-members world so people will click on them and get the response "You have to be in a members world to receive a quest from ____" or "You need to be on a members server to use this feature". Great marketing plan. Non-members encounter these sort of responses several times a day in their early gaming experiences. However, once you have been playing for awhile you learn which things are not available to a non-member and so you stop clicking on these options. At this point you think you are safe from being drawn into the member fees but you are so wrong.

Runescape is full of quests. After someone has been playing awhile they will eventually use up all of the free quests - there are about 30 free quests for people to do and about 100+ member quests (which is continuously growing). Once a non-member has finished all their quests they start wandering aimlessly about Varrock, Falador, Al Kharid and Lumbridge looking for a purpose in life and then they glance at their "quest list" and wonder what it would be like to save the dwarfs' tree house, attack blue dragons, fight off lvl 110's, or become the conquistador of a skeleton army.

Before you know it, anyone and everyone who has finished all their free quests who is still even slightly interested in the game is paying the $5 a month member fee to stroll through the once forbidden lands and to talk to the once forbidden folk and to climb over once forbidden fences.

Moral of the story - avoid this game unless you have countless hours of time to waste or if you are interested in seeing remarkable marketing work taking place right before your eyes. (That's the only reason I ever log in).

My blog has been put on hold

Due to recent events this blog will be put on hold. (As if you didn't already know that). I will resume my sporadic posting after about the 1st of September. :)

It's official! August 18th is the big day!

I think the ring says it all.

So ever since we announced our engagement I have been asked how, when, and where it happened. I should warn you this is only my side of the story and that there was a lot more planning and preparation going on than I am about to account for.

On Thursday, June 7, 2007, Ben Scott Newman thought it would be a good idea to go to "The Meadow of Luuuve" to paint some pictures. We had been up here with my roommate and her fiance hiking prior to this day and had decided that we should name all the different places along the way (and that is where it got its name). This particular meadow is a gorgeous green field with mountains and trees surrounding it on every side. Here are the pictures of the field in panoramic order!




Anyway, we sat down to paint and I quickly realized Ben wasn't in a painting mood at all. So as he did his thing I did mine. He finished his painting in like 4 minutes and I just continued painting nothingness as he loomed over me acting very anxious. I just figured he didn't want to sit down because there were bugs and a potential tick infestation all around us. I didn't really care much though because it was great weather and I was sitting in the middle of a beautiful field. After about 20 minutes I finished and we went down through the trees to go to the stream so I could rinse out my paint brush. As we got to the bottom of the hill Ben looked at me with concern filling his eyes. As he opened his mouth he started to spew forth words that at first made me think he was going to break up with me and then he made it sound like he just wanted to postpone our wedding until December (for any of you who know me, you know that this was almost as heartbreaking as being broken up with). It went something like this:

Ben: Brooke, I don't want to talk to your dad tomorrow. (He was going to be talking to my dad about marrying me and asking for my families blessing).
Me: (slightly confused) Okay ...
Ben: I mean, I've just been thinking about the timing of things and finances and you said you'd be ok with waiting until December if we really needed to
Me: (trying to smile because at least he wasn't breaking up with me) Yeah, ok.
Ben: and anyway, the real reason why I don't want to talk to your dad tomorrow is because I took work off and drove to Taylor (where my parent's live) yesterday.
Me: .... (I am guessing the look on my face was pure confusion)
Ben: (while reaching into his backpack) _________ I'm not allowed to say the mushy stuff that ben said here but before I knew it he had a ring and he was down on his knee asking me to marry him!
Me: Yes! A million times yes! (I don't know exactly what I said but I do know that at that moment I had a hard time believing it was all real!)

Anyway, so then of course I couldn't stop smiling for the next 10 days (yes, I am still smiling). And Later that night Ben took me to an amazing restaurant - The Chef's Table - to celebrate our engagement and to see if he could challenge a previous statement I had made that any girl who goes here will remember the food but won't remember the guy or the rest of the day after a year or two. (I think he has definitely made me retract my statement). I'm already forgetting the food but I will never forget that day.

So, now it is all official and we have started making plans. Our wedding date is set to be August 18th, 2007 and we are getting married in the Salt Lake City LDS Temple at 7:40am.

Oh and here is a close up of my engagement ring: (A princess cut diamond with 8 round diamonds set to the sides of it): PICTURE HAS BEEN DELETED .... I'll post a better one once I find it!

Radio Station Gone Reprobate: Story of K-Bull 93

Over the past few years I have noticed Utah's radio station quality continuously decreasing. My favorite country station was taken from me, my favorite alternative station was dissipated and now ... the station I had come so fond of doesn't deserve my attentive ears.

Click here for the story.

It's too bad that good people have bad things like this happen. K-Bull 93 now has a lot of P.R. work to do to get their name back up in good graces. As for me, I think I'll just give up on the radio and stick to CDs and satellite.

My Camera: The Canon PowerShot S80

It was about February 8th that I realized my camera had encountered an untimely accident in the depths of my purse. As I pulled it out and tried to turn it on, all I could hear was the sad attempts of a digital device straining to live. Each attempt I made to get my camera to work only made the death of my camera more eminent - or so I thought.

After that day many picture worthy events occurred but I was unable to document them. I won front row tickets to the valentines day Men's Basketball game where we were so close that I could feel the sweat permeating from the athletes in front of me. That same day I had a great Valentines Day "Date" as me and my roommate took turns being on a date with the same guy. During the month I also attended my first hockey game at BYU, watched the rembrandt commercial for the first time (truly life changing), watched BYU beat the UofU in Salt Lake City for the first time in 13 years, and had lots of "oh man if only I had my camera" moments.

March and April were even more full of moments I wish I had been documenting. Unfortunately, my camera was buried and I was clueless as to how to bring it back to life. My camera breaking only had one reward, I lured my friends out of hiding. They learned of my camera's disappearance from my everyday life and decided they could handle hanging out with me again. I made many feel safe, as though the paparrazi was no longer going to upset the living of their simple customary lives.

Unfortunately for them I have an awesome co-worker and for my birthday he decided to look into the warranty of my camera and he got it sent in and fixed (better than it was before it was broken: I even got a new LCD Screen on it). Now after my cameras recrudescence I can re-acquaint myself with my camera and now I can continue my repugnant picture taking habits at the expense of my family and friends.

Even though my camera missed Britney Spears breakdown, Anna Nicole Smith's Death, my roommates awesome St. Patty's day party, and Des's engagement now that it is back, my life is more fulfilling and happier than ever before.



Editor's Note: I cannot honestly attribute total happiness and a fulfilling life solely my cameras resurrection. There are definite other factors to making ones life seem whole.