Somethings that I like recently.

Here's somethings that I really liked in January.

Books:
The Last Lecture of a professor from Carnegie Mellon who is dying of cancer. The kind of book that makes you want to go out and make the most of your life.



Tuesdays with Morrie. My favorite book of all time. Fourth time I've read it. Quick read, amazing story, why not? Such a great story about the way that one man was able to touch so many people's lives. A goal I set this month is to read a book about someone who is dying every month. Depressed by the morbidity of the goal, I quickly discarded it.



Music:
Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago
The perfect album to listen to late at night when I'm writing in my journal and reflecting on my day. Thanks to James Alexander for tipping me off to them.



Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion
Thanks to wherehouse.com I turned in some of my old high school music cds in exchange for this album, Andrew Bird's new album Noble Beast, TV on the Radio's release last year and Bon Iver's new EP Blood Bank. This is my favorite of the group.



Hypem.com
This is a great website. Takes all of the music that people put on blogs and puts it together and tells you who is the most searched artists. Great news for all aspiring early adapters. For all you late adapters out there (me included) they put together a list of their top 50 songs, albums and artists of 2008 and made it all available to stream. Check it out here: http://hypem.com/zeitgeist/2008/



Movies:
Prom Night in Mississippi. I've never been to the south and don't understand it at all. This documentary tells the story of a high school in Mississippi that up until 1997 was having segregated proms. 1997 and there's still segregation? So Morgan Freeman offers to pay for their prom under one condition: They integrate. His offer is REJECTED. Flash forward to 2008 and the same offer is made, only difference is that it is accepted. This documentary gets into the minds of kids who want to see change, who are stuck living how their parents would have them, and some who want to see the prejudices perpetuated.



Be Kind Rewind. I'm an unashamed Jack Black fan. I like just about everything he's done. Big Nacho Libre, School of Rock and Orange County fan. I love this movie not just because of him, but I love Mos Def in his role. This movie is extremely creative and so fun to watch how they film each movie.



Organizations:
The Meaningful Life Club.
This is a club that gets its name from Tuesdays with Morrie and is in conjunction with my Business 371 Class. Craig Wilson is my favorite professor that I've had in college. In his class he stresses living simply, consecrating your life to the service of others, and making that possible by becoming financially free. I've become the event director of this club and we have some really cool ideas of ways to make a difference and influence peoples lives around here through service. Our meetings are Weds at 7PM. Let me know if you want to get involved.
Somethings that we're getting involved in:

Kiva.org
Micro-crediting or Micro-Financing for those of you that haven't heard of it is lending small amounts of money to entrepreneurs in undeveloped countries to help them break free from the exploitations of loan sharks. Many only need a small amount of money to start their path to financial independence and breaking the poverty cycle. Your donation of $25 (or more) will be paid back in full, so it's not even really a donation. Join the BYU group if you're a fellow coug.



Tap Project
Did you know that $1 will provide water for 1 child for 40 days? Most don't have access to clean water, so the tap project is calling for restaurants to charge $1 for tap water on March 22nd and have the money donated towards getting children in undeveloped countries the drinking water they need. The project raised $100,000 last year in one day. In New York alone. This year it's going nationwide. Go to the tapproject.org for more info and to figure out how to get involved.