I Suppose It's a Trade-Off

So I happened to watch the parade today and as always, it looked at times like there are more Polynesian people in Utah than white people. (the less slightly exaggerated truth, for those who don't know, is that while Polynesians are not likely to get a lot of stares like black people might, but they're still massively in the minority.)  But since I'm always okay with seeing bunches of hot Polynesian guys in nothing but lava lavas, you shall hear no complaints from me. :-)

Anyway.  Watching the Pioneer Day parade on tv is almost like Conference-light because you get all the Utah-centric commercials instead of the national ones.  And because of that, I learned that this year is the 50th anniversary of the Polynesian Cultural Center.  And naturally seeing that particular commercial has totally left me remembering the LYS tour to Hawaii . . . the one that I'm totally in denial about having taken place ten years ago last month.

Decade-old crushes on cute Samoan boys (from ALL the symphony girls!) aside, the thing I'm actually sort of . . . marveling over, I suppose . . . is just how much has changed since then.  It started with me lamenting how I didn't have my digital camera at the time - I don't remember anyone having one, actually - and how I really want to go back because now I can take tons more pictures and they'd be tons better quality too.

And then I remembered how we had a picture sharing party something like three weeks after we got back.  Because, duh, we all needed time to get all those rolls of film (that kids these days think is a can of soda . . . *sigh*) sent out to be developed and then picked up.  I think I spent something like fifty bucks getting my pictures developed . . . I know I had at least ten rolls!  And don't even get me started on the whole some-of-them-didn't-turn-out-and-you-couldn't-even-know-until-you-got-them-back thing -blargh!

Anyway.  Party.  We all got together to check out each other's pictures because, of course, none of us had even seen our own pictures when we split up in the Salt Lake airport.  And on the one hand that's such a weird thought to me because if the same tour had taken place this year everyone would have been uploading their pictures to facebook and tagging everyone in them as we went along, or maybe doing a massive upload the night before we left. (only slightly related side note: yeah, that tour will never happen.  don't even get me started on how lame LYS got practically right after I left it.  I'm still pretty bitter about certain events.) 

I'm not sure which version I like better.  On the one hand, while I did see everyone's pictures at the party, I haven't seen any of them since, and some of them were really great shots.  On the other hand, even though one could assume I could still look at the pictures at the pictures on facebook now (which was still a couple of years from existing in 2002, and I'm not sure whether myspace was a thing yet or not) but the having the party thing was so much fun, and a great way to get in one last farewell get together before a bunch of us left for college and our director moved cross country.

I really can't decide which way I like better.



P. ost  S. cript

Okay, can someone help me out here?  This commercial has been playing out the wazoo the last few months, naturally, and I know I'm hearing it wrong.  Buzz Lightyear is not going to say "There's an entire land here with FLIPPING cars" but that's what I heard the first time, and so that's what I've heard every time since and because of that I just cannot figure out/hear what he's actually saying.