New Job

Just a quick personal update:

Three days after I got laid off from Z Bank, I interviewed with a different department within Z Bank and I got the job!

So for my last post of traveling the world and being a bum and documenting the entire experience, well it's not going to happen. (it's ok though, because the other travelers that I was trying to recruit were all really too broke anyway, which is what happens when you are unemployed and have the time to kill in the first place) We hoped to get sponsors for the trip, but everything had to be planned so quickly it became very difficult to accomplish.

But I am liking my new job, a lot. I now walk to work (which is awesome), and I hope to pull a Ferris Bueller and reverse the miles off my car that my last 4 years of commuting did. I might actually have normal mileage for the year of my vehicle 4 years from now.

As for everything else, my dunkball movie will be screened at the SoCal Film Fest two weeks from tonight.

BYU football debuts on Saturday! I can't believe that the 8 months wait without football is finally over. I hope to have a prediction for BYU by then. Last year, I predicted 10-3, and I was 100% accurate (even though it hurt).

Our Next Movie: 30 Cities, 30 Nights, No hotels

Hooray! Today is my first official day of unemployment. I was laid off from Z bank on Friday, and I have some severance to figure out what to do with my life next.

I was told I was being laid off just after my 30th birthday, and I've been in SLC for five years now.

Jon and I had some recent success with our first movie experience "Dunkball" which has been well documented on this blog.

I have recently looked into going back to school to pursue a master's degree. I found a degree in Sports Administration from Georgia State, but failed to take the GRE in time to start this fall (terrible hind sight), but I was looking into buying a plane ticket out to Atlanta to check things out before I pack my car to spend the next 2-3 years of my life in Georgia.

Last week, Jet Blue airlines announced that you can fly unlimited from September 8 thru October 8 to anywhere they fly. I've already got trips planned to Atlanta and Los Angeles (for the SoCal Film Festival with Dunkball), and I have family in Seattle, Denver, and Phoenix that I never see, not too mention friends in New York and Baltimore. So why not?

Then a friend at work suggested that instead that I buy a pass, and try to hit 30 cities in 30 days and make an adventure full-length documentary about our travels! What a stupendous idea!

Right now, I am in the process of planning and budgeting, but with my new found time off, my severance pay, and a possible 401k cashout, I could easily fund this rendezvous. Maybe I can get a few of my movie making friends involved (four people, two cameras) and see if we can make this a reality. Here is a possible itinerary:

Sept 8: Salt Lake City

Sept 9: Denver

Sept 10: Chicago

Sept 11: New York (Patriot Day)

Sept 12: Boston

Sept 13: Baltimore (Ravens season opener vs. the Chiefs)

Sept 14: Los Angeles (SoCal Film Festival)

Sept 15: San Francisco

Sept 16: Portland

Sept 17: Seattle

Sept 18: Las Vegas

Sept 19: Phoenix

Sept 20: San Diego (Ravens at Chargers)

Sept 21: Charlotte

Sept 22: Atlanta

Sept 23: Jacksonville, FL

Sept 24: Orlando (Disney World)

Sept 25: New Orleans

Sept 26: Austin, TX

Sept 27: West Palm Beach, FL

Sept 28: Salt Lake City (Pearl Jam Concert)

Sept 29: Washington, DC (Muse concert)

Sept 30: Fort Lauderdale, FL

Oct 1: Nassau, Bahamas

Oct 2: Cancun, Mexico

Oct 3: Montego Bay, Jamaica

Oct 4: Aruba

Oct 5: San Jose, Costa Rica

Oct 6: Bogata, Columbia

Oct 7: San Juan, Puerto Rico

Oct 8: Barbados

Oct 9: Bermuda

Anyway, this is just a rough draft of a crazy itinerary. I figure, if people can watch a dude eating McDonalds for 30 days straight, then they can for sure watch 4 dudes travel the U.S. and Central America for 30 days. We would try to find historical sites, beaches, concerts, babes, sporting events, film festivals, etc.

Now, we just need to find some sponsors and make the bachelor, unemployed Amazing Race happen!

Hooray for severance!

Dunkball: We're published

I'd like to give a quick shout out to Jay Drew, the Salt Lake Tribune beat writer for BYU football. Thank you for mentioning Dunkball in your blog this week. You helped double the traffic to our website, and we hope this helps spread the word about dunkball. Here is the link:

http://blogs.sltrib.com/byu/2009/08/former-byu-students-win-award-for-short.htm

Thanks, and good luck this season covering the Cougs! I hope that the football team can go undefeated to help out your career!

Joe