Friday, January 19, 2007
12:00:13 AM

Today was an even awesomer day than yesterday. I started the day with 2 large cups of coffee and a cinnamon bagel with roast beef, provolone cheese and a dab of mayo. The ride in was interrupted for 5 minutes as an empty Burlington Norther Santa Fe coal train passed in front of us heading back out to the mountains. Arriving at the campus my home team gathered together to plan how we were going to announce the news of the week from Europe. We did it talk show style and I talked about the new internet television project called Joost from the makers of Skype.
The morning was spent in Vocals and Cast Movement (singing and dancing). For lunch we had wraps for the third day in a row, but they did the job just fine. In the afternoon we watched clips from previous shows and did a basic mental run-through of how the show is going to be put together. Lots of people are worried that we’re not going to be ready but I have confidence that It will be all Good. Peter from New zealand also taught us a traditional Haka chant that we will probably include in the show somewhere. For the last hour of the day we had our first official web dev meeting. Some people know absolutely nothing and some people like me know a bit more than that [ha ha ha]. Anyhow, they decided to use another webhosters proprietary template instead of mine but that’s just fine. I really shouldn’t try to make everything my way anyhow.
After Peppe and I got picked up, Michelle and Kevin took us to Casa Bonita (http://www.casabonitadenver.com/) for some “non authentic” Mexican food. It was an interesting experience, more like an indoor theme park than a restaurant. There were cliff divers, caves, and a live Mexican Band that would periodically break out into happy birthday. I had beef burritos with deep fried ice cream for dessert. It truly was a cornucopia of awesomeness.
After leaving the Casa, we went to the Cherry Creek Mall; a very posh mall carrying mainly high end designer clothing stores. I wasn’t there for the clothes though. I was there for the Apple store. Yes I finally got to go to an actual Apple store. It was amazing; everything I had ever hoped and dreamed it would be. I took some photos, talked to the genius, and played with some cool software. I also couldn’t help not leaving empty handed so I also bought (on sale) an ExpressBus card reader, a DVI to S-Video and Composite adapter, and another gigabyte of ram for my MacBook Pro. Even the bag they gave me to put it all in is cool. Its a tough plastic drawstring bag with an Apple on either side. All in All, It was All Good™
Oh, One more thing! I also updated my blog with Google analytics so I can track who reads my blog now (or at least where they are and what computer they are using).

BNSF Coal Train

Campus in the Morning
The Web Dev Team
Casa Bonita
Deep Fried Ice Cream (half Eaten)
Inside Casa Bonita, The Waterfalls
The Bonita Band
Apple Store, Cherry Creek Mall
Genius bar
The Point of sale, Even their debit machine had an Aqua interface!
Hans the Mac Guy and I
Thats one Big Apple

Its All Good™

Friday, January 19, 2007
12:00:14 AM

Today was an awesome day indeed. It was our first chance to do some traveling as a group. Arriving to the RMCAD campus this morning we met for morning meeting in the Rotunda building. Announcements were short and included the fact that today was Sandra from China’s birthday. Throughout the course of the day I think she had happy birthday sang to her at least three times and she also received a cake with candles fully lit while we were on the bus. Anyhow, the last of the morning announcements was that each of us were supposed to find a “bus date”, someone to sit with on the bus that we really hadn’t had a chance to get to know so well yet. I ended up sitting next to Evans from Mexico. We had great discussions on many topics ranging from geography and climate to the phenomenon of Canadian “Snow Birds” (not the aerial acrobatics team) heading to Mexican resorts for the winter months. I told him about how I myself had done something along the same lines in going to the Dominican Republic for March Break during high school. This reminded me how Armando was saying the other day how Americans and Canadians “Go South” for the winter or vacation; Mexicans don’t go north or south, they just go. As it turns out, the bus driver we had today is going to be our bus driver for the duration of the US tour so he unofficially joined our cast today. One of our Canadian girls was sick for the second day in a row (one too many margaritas eh?) as were three others just for today. Too Bad; they missed an awesome day. We drove up into the foothills for about an hour before we reached Boulder. We got off the bus at the library and were placed in groups for the morning scavenger hunt. I was designated the leader of my group. We read over all the questions and formulated our route. We stopped and asked quite a few people for information ; some knew what the UWP program was all about, some didn’t. It was all Good™. The questions ranged from “Why is it called Boulder?” to “Name a local Micro-Brewery and find one of their beer coasters”. Lunch was served just outside the Courthouse. I had a Chipolte Steak wrap and man was it good (not to mention filling). They certainly like to spice things up down here! After lunch all of the groups met back up at the library where we boarded the bus once more to head to the Celestial Seasonings manufacturing plant. I’ve never (and probably never will again) see so much tea in one place at one time. The statistics were crazy, something like over a million teabags a day are made there. We had a tour of the plant where we got to see the process from milling to packaging. Because of the nature of the plant, we all had to wear hairnets. I also had to wear a beard net; Some said I looked very arabic. One of the highlights of the tour was the fabled “mint room” where they store all of the peppermint and spearmint. It was so strong that it made our eyes water. We ended the tour at the gift shop where I bought a few souvenirs. There was also a tasting room where you could try all the new tea flavors; It felt kind of like being in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We all kind of dozed a bit during the bus ride home. When Peppe and I got back to the house we had some pretty darn good leftovers for supper. I had 2 (more) wraps. I guess I’m quite the wrapper now. After supper we saw the movie “What the Bleep” it was all about how thought can influence matter at a sub-elemental level. For example. There is a noticeable pattern of difference between water crystals quick frozen after being exposed to “happy thoughts” and those exposed to “negative thoughts”. I would recommend watching the“ Double Slit Experiment from Down The Rabbit Hole” from www.whatthebleep.com/trailer/drh-trailer.shtml . Its really interesting stuff. Who knows, there could be some validity to it. Anyhow, I’m going to wrap (again) things up for the evening and head to bed as we are now on 6 day work weeks going all out.

I’d just like to point out as well that right now I am very spoiled because I have high speed comcast cable. There is a very real possibility that in some of the areas I visit while on tour that I won’t have such readily available access. Not to worry though. I’ll still be (as I have been) writing my journal locally and posting it when I can.

Like I said, Its all Good™

Ryan And I
The Birthday Girl (second from right)
Cheers; Another Round of Tea!
Blueberry Breeze, the hottest new Ice tea.
Gift Shop full of Tea.
Worl Headquarters.
The Boulderado Hotel
Mountains from Downtown.
Me @ the Court House
Horhe, Kenzo, and Armando have some lunch.
Café Latte done right. Very Cute.
Me and Evans from Mexico.
The Mountains.
Scavenger Hunt Meeting
The Walnut Microbrewery; Bjorne from the Netherlands, Mi from Sweden, and Mitch from Ohio.
Mitch and Me admiring the sights

Its all Good™

Thursday, January 18, 2007
12:27:11 AM

Goal of today:
I wanna get up tomorrow and get dressed.

Today was rather boring I must say. In the morning meeting Amanda from the US was crowned “admissions queen” for having already brought 3 people to the program. Sometimes I can’t but help think that UWP is some sort of proselytizing religion. Anyhow, we had a wrap up session this morning on the game Barnga. Following that we had a session by the admissions team. We basically had to learn the “elevator speech” where we can tell people about up with people and get them interested in under 2 minutes. I practiced with Bjorne and we both were able to get it all in well under 2 minutes. Lunch was Tuna Croissants with cantaloupe slices today. The afternoon was spent in vocal rehearsal which sadly involved a lot of just simply sitting around and waiting for others to work on their parts first; ah to be a tenor again. ( I never thought I’d say that ever ) We finished off the day with some dance review. I still sucked as much as the first time. We were supposed to dance “sexy” as is in the latin style but I just couldn’t do it. I made my dance partners laugh because of my poorly coordinated hand and foot movements. Ah well; at least someone is enjoying it; if only for its comedic value. When Michelle came and picked myself and Whitney up at the end of the day (Peppe had a staff meeting) we had two extra passengers in the van: Arial and Dayna (not sure on the spelling there is probably a “y” in there somewhere). Getting home I tried to call my home in Nova Scotia but no one was there. Supper was absolutely delicious steak seasoned with none other than Montreal Steak Spice. Until Basically bedtime I and later Peppe played with the girls. I even played them some music on the fiddle and they danced and sang along. I also checked my bank account and am pleased to find that I have received 2 paychecks since the new year from work I did last year at The Backlot (Corner Brook bar). Well its late and I’ve got a big day in boulder tomorrow; Its time to turn in. Its all Good™

Admissions Queen
Bass Section

Playing Catch

Tuesday, January 16, 2007
11:59:54 PM

Today’s First Item of Business: The Lost and Found Box has been Lost.

It really seems like we are getting into quite the routine these days. This morning I got up a half an hour later than usual and grabbed a bagel and some coffee for breakfast. The morning ride in was cold as I’ve grown accustomed to it. We had a morning workshop on “Introuction to Leadership” where we broke into groups based on what part of the world we are from. The discussion included things that make a good leader as well as some great leaders current and past. (see photo) The bulk of the rest of the day was spent dancing until I could dance no more. We had costume fittings as well, I still need to go to the Sally Army to buy a more color appropriate shirt; my plaid pastel brown was not exactly what you might call cop-esthetic. Lunch was again baked potato; filling no frills goodness right there for ya. The afternoon session from 3:30 onward was with Dr. David Stephens (see pict). We played a game called Barnga. The basic premise of the game is that there are different groups who each believe they are all playing the same card game but in fact are all given variations on the game. The Groups are numbered so whoever wins the most tricks in the group during a hand advances to the next highest group. The opposite of that is the lowest scoring person gets bumped down a group. You can see the problems start to arise at this point as people think they are playing the same game but not. The twist is that no one is allowed to communicate verbally or through writing. This simulation shows how people from different cultures, even when they think they are doing the right thing the way they have been taught but it may not be the same as other cultures. Most of these differences spur from how we’ve solved problems. Why is the fork on the right and the spoon on the left? Well, that is the solution that we have come up with to solve the problem of getting food to our mouths form our plates and bowls; there is nothing wrong with it, its just the way it is.

It was a really weird experience at first because people coming to the table didn’t seem to know the rules. Some adapted while others felt strongly that out group had misinterpreted the rules. Some actually became violent.
The lesson to take from this is that we should always try to be mindful that others’ ways of doing things, although different from our own, are not necessarily incorrect.
As far as appling this ideology to UWP and my life, I’m going to have to say that I should apply it to be more patient when dealing with people that know less about technology than I do.

Me and the Doc.
Peppe Enjoying the Ride home.
Our Group's results
The Latin Representation
The European Group
The Techbar located next to the Café
Dance Practice


For those of You wondering my tour Schedule goes as follows.

North America Dates
Denver, Colorado (orientation) 6 January – 5 February
Arizona 5 February – 12 February
Texas 12 February – 19 February
Texas 19 February – 26 February
Louisiana 26 February – 5 March
Arkansas 5 March – 12 March
Tennessee 12 March – 19 March
Georgia 19 March – 26 March
Florida 26 March – 1 April

Europe Dates
Belgium 2 April – 9 April
The Netherlands 9 April – 16 April
Germany 16 April – 23 April
Germany 23 April – 30 April
Denmark 30 April – 7 May
Sweden 7 May – 13 May

Asia Dates
Thailand 14 May – 11 June
*This schedule is subject to change.


Its All Good™ I would encourage everyone to comment and give feedback.
brennancoldwell@gmail.com

Monday, January 15, 2007
11:59:54 PM


Extreme Sport of the Day: Extreme Daydreaming

Today was the typical Monday if such a thing even exists any more. I had downed 1 and a half cups of coffee before our ride in this morning with Korey. Topics of discussion almost exclusively revolved around our individual adventures during the weekend. Peppe and I took the cake for the most interesting by far having been to the stock show and having seen the rodeo in all its brutal glory. The morning meeting was longer than we had gotten used to as the first home group presented the news for its region; North America. My home team, #5, is responsible for European Affairs and we’ll be presenting later this week. We had yet another presentation on host family expectations and such as well this morning followed by a session with one of the other office staff about coming up with some of the core values we would like to uphold as the Up With People Cast A 2007. The Majority ruled in favor of respect as number 1. Respect in its many different facets; respect for yourself, respect for others, respect for other cultures different from your own, respect for the environment, respect for the beliefs of others, etc. Next was being a team player and challenging yourself to put forth your better than best effort in whatever you are doing. It Goes well with one of the Up With People Sayings about how we don’t want to settle for good, we want to leave a Great impact in the lives of those we touch through our show or community work. Over lunch the website team unofficially dubbed “the blog squad” met and discussed what exactly we wanted to do; there were no definitive answers. In the afternoon session we were supposed to have a guest speaker, Mark Gerzon to talk on Global leadership. Unfortunately he was sick and couldn’t make it. Instead we learned a few more songs from the show; we almost have them all learned by now. Next week is going to be scary as I have to combine singing and dancing at the same time. It will look ugly for a while I’m sure; I just hope I don’t end up stepping too many people’s toes. At the end of the day Michelle came and picked Peppe, Madoka, Whittney, and myself up and drove us all home. Supper was again quite spicy as we had soft shell tacos with a wide assortment of prospective constituents ranging from ground beef and corn to garlic peppers and red onions. Its all Good™ After supper Kevin and I talked at great length regarding the usage of the word “Newfie”.
I must say though that for whatever reason I felt not homesick or overwhelmed, but just kind of out of it today; not in an inclusory kind of way but in a way that I can’t quite define. A phone call in the evening to my best friend and fiancé Miranda reminded me that I am still sane; thank God.

One of our other short activities toward the end of the day was the first in a series of “Hot Topic” discussions where we break into small groups and discuss amongst ourselves questions surrounding a certain topic. Today’s topic, being Martin Luther King Jr. Day, was the concept of “Freedom”. The questions included: “Is it alright for a country to fight for the freedom of another Country?”, and “Is affirmative action a tool of Freedom?”.
The answers were quite varied and all very interesting and relevant. Why is it that people have all of these different beliefs about this topic? Part of it has to do with their cultural identity and how others view them. For Example; The US citizens are often thought to be war like people as they initially supported the war in Iraq. Now they feel as they have been mislead by their government who said their premise for invasion was to take out terrorists and find weapons of mass destruction or something like that. No weapons of mass destruction were found and Saddam Husain is dead. Yet they have gotten themselves into a situation where there is nothing they can do but continue to fuel the war effort or else the transitional government they created would collapse and the entire country would resort to an anarchist state. Today some Americans share the view that they should never have gone into places like Iraq in the first place, but the stereotype still remains that they like guns and bombs and war. Anyhow thats just a sample of the kinds of discussion we’ve been having. No one is right or wrong but all of our opinions matter.

Photo Captions: Me and one of the tech guys; the frosty morning commute; Core Values; New dress code fashion show; blog squad @ lunch; Its all Good™





P.S. Enjoy the Pink Miranda :)

Sunday, January 14, 2007
10:42:31 PM

Today was an awesome day. Following the mantra “Carpe Diem”, I made the day all it could be; by sleeping till noon. Our delicious 12 o’clock breakfast was comprised of bacon, toast and spanish omelets with hot peppers. Peppe arrived back from his weekend mountain retreat just as we were finishing up. Within an hour we were all on our way to the National Western Stock Show held annually at the Denver Colosseum. This is no Tremont Worlds fair we’re talking about here. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people coming in and out of this venue weekly. The event runs for 3 weeks and we went in the middle week. There were many venues showcasing everything from farming equipment to clothing, to painted lamps. Kevin was very interested in the cute little (and sometimes not so little) bunny rabbits. He was trying to decern of what breed his rabbits were. They still have no definitive answer, but they at least have some more hints now. We also ran across one of the other Up With People participants from Belgium and her host family. For supper we had the traditional “beef on a bun” with mashed potatoes and baked beans; all washed down, of course, with Dr. Pepper. I kept the cup as a souvenir to send back to my mom who grew up doing many of the things I was witnessing; the 4H cattle project and its judging for example. After we did some more wandering around we headed to the mail arena for the main event; the Rodeo. Peppe had never been to a real rodeo before and his face showed it as the first bucking horse rider made his attempt to stay on for the full 8 seconds. He didn’t make the attempt and was thrown a good 10 feet of the back of the horse. There was a whole slew of events including; bull riding, barrel racing, sheep riding (for little kids) calf roping, and calf wrestling. There were a few injuries in the evening, but everyone was able to walk off the field (with the exception of one calf who was suspected of having a broken leg who was taken off the field by stretcher). There was a laser and pyrotechnics display to start the show as followed by riders in glowing suits. We also saw the real one arm bandit riding his mule, how to dock a stage coach, and a synchronized riding team. The end of the show was marked by a multimedia presentation accompanied with a fowl, its mare, and a young girl riding a stallion. It was very moving. One the way out I picked up another souvenir ;) and we made our way back to the car. The temperature was a bit warmer today at -16°C with light snow. On the way back we listened to the 17th street singers; a local a capella group. The day; It was all Good™

Check out the Stock Show Website @:
www.nationalwestern.com/nwss/home/index.asp

Photo Captions: Peppe & Kevin @ supper; Jack Daniels, Major Supporter; Cattle Judging; Choosing Supper; Supper itself (Brisket on a Bun); Denver Colosseum; BBQ; UPW Meets Stock Show; Me & Skillens; One very cute bunny though despite appearances is really planning to take over the world by fooling everyone with his cuteness.