It's what I do for fun. Instead of consume media, I find myself preferring to create something of my own.

My latest project is called Mages.

It's a really fun card game that I have been helping my friend Dallin Gunther to develop. It takes our favorite elements from other tabletop games and kind of combines them.

We just started last Wednesday on Kickstarter and we're already at 24% of our $9500 goal.

Check it out:

Mages on Kickstarter

Thanks
Tom
now of Normal Games Co.

Some emoticons I came up with today:

B^|X = Nerdy guy with bow tie
:^B = Bucktooth Billy
>:^Y = Side-of-mouth-talkin' guy "Myeah, see? Myeah!"
<:^* = Dunce
:c{o = Surprised Frenchman
[E|] = Robot

Click on this thumbnail if you want to get to know me in 30 seconds.

You know the faint aroma of skunk-spray that sometimes seeps into your car as you drive down the freeway? It’s the kind of smell that puts hair on the chest, so to speak. It’s a complex musk that turns most people off. And I actually enjoy it. I guess you could say that I can perceive the beauty in things that are often misunderstood. Or I just like gross stuff. Either way, it’s unique, right?

Hey, this is the video that we made for my application to BYU's advertising program. I submit it, along with a 7-page portfolio on Friday. I should know if I got accepted within the next month.

I received an urgent message on my phone the other day. It was Kjerstin Brinton. She said, "Tom update your blog. That is all."

Some of you thought I might be dead.

So many great things have happened recently, that I am almost nervous to blog about it. I might forget something.

These are not necessarily in chronological order, but they have all happened in the last couple of weeks.

I finished my finals and did reasonably well on them. After finals, I spent a few days in Brigham City. My new videocamera came, and it is awesome!



It was a grand time chillin' with the parents. Also, a bunch of friends came up from Provo. We went to the Logan Temple, and then M&D treated us to a BBQ Saturday night.

This week has also brought me some wonderful blessings.

Atl Atl was chosen at the Music 123 Band of the Week.

For some reason, I never put this bad boy up. It's a music video that I put together real quick, with one of my favorite songs from our CD, Thespian Party!! It is mostly of us recording drum tracks at the TSC on USU campus. We were in one of the conference rooms. And it was Christmastime.

Oh also, I got a new video-camera, so expect our next music video to look twice as good!

Last week was great.

And this time I have some pictures to prove it.

Monday was our last FHE at Bishop Hardin's House. We got a new bishopric today, they seem awesome.

Here's drew and I at the Hardin's house. It was pretty rainy that night.

Tuesday was my Birthday! It was quite great. Mom and Dad treated everyone to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Kathy, Tyler and Fam were there. And Audrey & Chris and Molly surprised me by showing up too. Tim, Dallin and Carrie joined us.

We snuck out before the waitresses could embarrass me, because Tim and I had to sing in a choir concert at the Provo Tabernacle.
The concert went well. My favorite song we sang was Joyful and Blest are They by Felix Mendehlsson.

After that, my friends threw me an awesome party!
Dallin taught everyone the simple steps of Hand-Holding.
(1. Bait
2. Mimic
3. Conduction
4. Fusion)

Here's Bethany trying out the "Bait" Tim doesn't seem to be "Mimicking"


Oh... I got a haircut!

Hey loyal fanbase!

This week was intense beyond all imaginatin'.  I was up on Wednesday until about 3 a.m. finishing my group's Advertising Campaign book. It turned out really excellent. We got it professionally printed and bound and turned it in on Friday. Here's our "agency" logo:

It feels great to have that project off my chest, as well as my project for my other COMMS class. (The Sounding Board music review website) I decided I will keep doing interviews with local bands and posting them, because it is mutually beneficial. I get to know local bands, and they get publicity. Pretty sweet hookups!!

Speaking of sweet hookups, I met a really cool guy this week. His name is Steve Vistaunet, and he is the dad of my friend Talisa.  We were over at her house for her birthday party on Friday night, and we got to see his "man room." The walls were just covered with CDs and LPs as well as tons of action figures. We talked to him for quite awhile and he has met almost every band we could think of. He said we can come over anytime. Oh, and he also studied advertising at BYU and is doing well with it.

On saturday, I helped out a little bit at Kathy and Tyler's house. It is looking great! They already have a buyer and we are just doing lots of cosmetic stuff so that it passes all the inspections and everything. I will miss them a lot when they move, but I am also way excited for them to start a new chapter in Norht Carolina. I think it will be a big opportunity for them to grow.

Today we had stake conference. It was amazing. Pres. Schollenberger is an amazing, and inspired leader. He said the top 5 problems that we faced as BYU students are:

5. Lack of Knowledge
4. Fear
3. Lack of Testimony/Faith
2. Sin in our Lives
1. Apathy

I think apathy is something I struggle with.  I need to be more active in uplifting and serving others. Also, I recommitted to keep up my blog, and committed to start Indexing names for FamilySearch.

Thanks for catching up! Have a good week!

Now Tim and I are going to watch Amadeus.

And how I have neglected it.

I'm sorry, blog. Sorry, loyal followers. You should expect more from me. Oh well, apologizing to the internet is lame.

Boy howdy, I got some fun things for you.

Let's start here:

So I have been told that my blog doesn't have enough pictures. To remedy the situation, I will attempt to describe my week using only pictures.

Talking points:

I played a BYU Intramural B-ball game. As you can tell, we lost...

On Friday Night, I went on a group date. I took my friend Bethany.

First we went to Gloria's Little Italy, a fantastic little Italian place on Center and University.

Then we watched "Love Stories in the Stars", the Valentine's Day show at the BYU Planetarium:

This week, we finished up recording vocal tracks on our album.

It sounds pretty awesome! WE are excited to release it this Friday at our show:


On Saturday, I met a bunch of mission buddies for lunch. It was great to see them, plus three converts from Wisconsin were there visiting!! It was really great.  I found out that another one of my companions is engaged. I'm really falling behind here!

On Sunday, we went to Lisa Jensen's mission farewell in Mapleton. It was great, especially that awkward part where you go to their family's house (none of whom you know) and eat all their food and leave. The more I do it the easier it gets.

I kept my pals entertained with the Fortune Teller Miracle Fish that I won awhile ago at the Nickel-cade:


I hope you enjoyed the Tom Brinton Dramatized Week in Review™©®

I know I did!

Oh and let's not forget our visit from the Valentine's Day Rappers.

You may have noticed the new decor around here. This is thanks to Dana Gallant, Dallin's sister. She has a site that does custom blog designs:

Bloggy Got Back

I am proud to admit that my bloggy now has some SERIOUS back.

Blorld = Blog + world. Get with the times.

Lemme start with a nice vignette from today's happenings. I was trying (not succeeding) to take a nap on the love seat, when I heard my phone ring. I woke up and found that it was a message from Deb Hunter. She is my dental hygienist. She was in town visiting family and said that if I came over to her mom's house, she could remove the stitches from my mouth. (I'll explain the stitches, don't worry--keep reading) So I drove to the west side of provo and knocked on the door. I was ushered in, and then I introduced myself to the grandma: "Hi! I'm Tom. I'm here to get my stitches out."

Deb pulled out a chair in the dining room and told me to lean my head back. I did so, and she began to poke around with her stitch-removal scissors. She asked her daughter to bring a flashlight over to illuminate things. But she was way too grossed out by it all to do so. So I ended up holding a cell-phone by my mouth, using the little light on the phone to help Deb cut out the rest of the stitches. Overall, a pain-free and extremely unique experience.

OK.

"The Reason Tom Had Stitches In His Mouth"

I had my wisdom teeth removed the Tuesday before last. I only had 2 that needed removal, the top-left and the bottom-right. They came out with not too much coercion from Dr. Sutton. I was numb and happy as a clam. I felt good enough, so I drove from Birgham City to Provo right afterward. When I got to Provo, I made sure to take my Loritab. The bottle said "Take 1 to 2 every 4-6 hours." And I, not being a lover of pain, decided I would go with the 2 Pills every 4 Hours plan.

I woke up the next morning with little pain to speak of. Things were going splendid. I got up, checked my e-mail, then ambled into the kitchen to forage for breakfast. As I was standing there, I began to feel very sick to my stomach. nothing sounded good to eat. I stepped over to the fridge to see if there was anything in there to calm my troubled tummy. The next thing I knew, I was very cold. I opened my eyes, and I was sprawled out on the kitchen floor. For a moment, I couldn't really remember anything, then I remembered where I was and what I was doing there. I crawled back to my room and got in bed. I spent the rest of the day horizontal, because everytime I sat up or walked around, the dizziness returned. My parents were awesome enough to drive down to help me recover. With a priesthood blessing from my dad and my roommates, and a delicious sandwich from Smith's, the problems dissipated within a few hours.

So that's been the excitement around these parts.

Dallin and I have been playing the roles of troubadours lately, playing an acoustic gig on Friday at the BYU Illustrator's Showcase (to rave reviews from all the middle aged attendees) and tonight at the Seville Retirement Home in Orem (to rave reviews from the aged residents). It has been really fun to see people smile and enjoy our songs.

School is going really well. I have 2 group projects that I am working on, and that I am really excited for.

1. For advertising class, my group has been assigned to make a complete ad campaign for marketing the Chevy Volt (their upcoming electric car) to 18-25 year olds.

2. For Mass Communications, my group is making and maintaining a blog/email list. We chose the name The Sounding Board and it will focus on music, local and international. It should start to take off this week. The URL is http://thesoundingboard.7h.com

There's tons of other stuff going on as well, but I think this gives a good flavor. I am enjoying life and I feel really blessed to have all the opportunities I do, and to know so many wonderful people.

Thanks for reading!

After a wonderful Christmas vacation, I am back down here in Provo getting educated s'more. Over the break, I went skiing with Clark and Kjerstin at Brighton. The snow was actually really good. Clark's dental school buddy, Seth, came along and we all had a killer good time.  Christmas day was wonderful. We had the whole family together for the first time in years. We also had a successful and relaxing Brinton family party in Park City. Also, over the break, Audrey had a great New Year's Eve party at her house. And, me and my bandies, well, we got a lot of recording done for our upcoming rock'n'roll super-album. Sweet!!!

But the real news here is my first week of classes. It has been awesome. I am taking 17 credits which I thought might be crazy because I struggled with 14 credits last semester. But, while my semester might not be less work intensive, the classes are much more engaging and exciting. Therefore I am willing to work harder.  I am taking 3 classes to prepare me for applying to the Advertising major. They are Mass Communication, Media Writing, and Intro to Advertising. So far the professors and the classes have been tremendously interesting and enjoyable.  I think advertising will be a good direction for me to go because it satisfies my desire to work in creative multimedia, while providing me with opportunities to work with and meet lots of people.

The other courses I am taking also seem really exciting so far. I am taking 2 music courses, Composition and University Chorale.  In my composition class, we will get to hear 2 of our pieces played by an instrumental quintet.  I am pretty stoked for that. I'm in choir with Tim which is fun. I decided to be a tenor instead of a bass (since I already know I can sing low... I would like to improve at singing high.)

I am also taking a great Geology 101 course from one of Val Gunther's buddies and a Doctrine and Covenants course from one of my mission president's buddies.

Looks like it is shaping up to be a good semester.  My new years' resolutions should contribute to an improved academic life. I was told that I am more likely to keep them if I share them with others...  here they are so you can keep me in line:

* Be more proactive with my calling.
* Go to bed by midnight on school nights.
* Don't get on facebook around bed time.
* Use my cool little planner.
* Release a CD that me and my band can be proud of.
* Keep dating regularly. (Don't give up!)

If you can think of other areas where I need to improve, keep it to yourself. This should be enough to keep me busy.

Thanks for reading!

Catch y'uns later.

So I found out that more people read this blog than I had imagined! Sorry for not posting in awhile.

I will blame school for this.

"School, it is your fault. For shame!"

There, that was easy!

Things are just as action-packed and exciting as I've always pretended they are!  To spare you too many details of the past few weeks, I will give a short recap.

Thanksgiving was great, of course.  We had dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Brinton's house in Brigham City.

The next day, I helped put up walls in Audrey and Chris' basement.  The recoil of the nailgun hit my cell phone (which was in my pants pocket) and cracked the screen. But wait! Before you start crying--it still works just the same, but now has a cool spiderweb effect on the glass. Spider-phone!

{my corndogs are done! one moment please...}

{Ok! that was delicious...}

Let's see... I watched BYU beat U of U and have been hearing about it ever since from disgruntled Ute fans.

Last weekend we went to go see the band Rooney play in SLC. On the way up there, we met Dawna Nye at IKEA in Draper and got some Lingonberry juice (my fave...mixed with Sierra Mist... oh baby!)  Anyway, we headed to downtown SLC and about a mile before the exit, I remember that I forgot to bring my and Dawna's tickets!! AHH!!! Luckily my roommate Drew is a legend. He met us halfway at Thanksgiving Point and handed off the tickets. We made it back just in time to catch all of Rooney's set. They were great!

Here's one of their songs if you are interested:


Blueside


Other fun outings included going to the First Presidency Christmas devotional last Sunday. I went with my friend Carrie, and we had an awesome time. We even scored free parking in the Marriot parking garage.

Well I guess I better get back to studying... because... that's what I do with my spare time.... (Jedi hand wave)

Side note: Speaking of Jedi's, today in my Doctrine and Covenants class, a guy compared Joseph Smith to Obi Wan Kenobi, specifically referencing the line, "If you strike me down, Darth Vader, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine." Ha ha. Oh, BYU.

Another Side note: Lots of weird dreams lately. Hiding in a futuristic diner, Planning a revolt during the Industrial revolution, playing for the Packers, you name it--I've probably dreamed it. If not, I'll make sure I get to it soon.

Hey all!

I thought I would take a few minutes today to update the old blog. And so I will!

Well, the band has played quite a few concerts recently. We played last weekend at the BYU battle of the bands, last Tuesday at the Muse Music Battle of the Bands, and then last night at the Basement in Ogden (See below Image). Needless to say we had tons of fun, but are a little burned out on live shows for awhile. I was happy to see lots of my friends and loved ones at the concerts. It's always nice to feel supported. Thanks, guys.


Yesterday brought our Pretty Great State some pretty white snow. I woke up to the sound of Drew's exclamatory voice. The reason he was so excited was the fact that we had an ultimate frisbee game that morning, and the ground was covered with snow. It was pretty cold, especially the pain of catching a cold frisbee with cold hands. We won our game. That means we are going to the championship game next Wednesday. Intramural Champion T-shirt, here I come!

Things are going pretty well with school, although I have yet to decide what I want to major in. To help me with this, I signed up for a career and major interest test which will hopefully help me narrow down what I want to do. I feel like I could study many different disciplines and enjoy it, however the thing that concerns me is what my final career will be. I want to do something enjoyable, challenging, and fulfilling. Any advice is freely welcomed!

Thanks for catching up with me. Let's make it a great week! (cheesy smile)