For a mother who is constantly forgetting her camera, doesn't scrapbook, and is easily distracted by chocolate, it pays to have married into the Olsen Family (where you get the occasional video scraps showing your kids delighting in an Easter Egg Hunt). I know you didn't believe me when I told you the this clan that I married into was genetically mutated to all things multimedia. They practically dream in digital.

Fortunately, I have someone to back me up on this. And it's not Grandma or The Mister of the House either. Try Nora Ephron. Try Apple Computers. Try thousands of registered lovers of the iPhone and The Mac.

About one year ago, 2 of my DNA-warped brothers-in-law showed up at my doorstep on a Saturday morning. "Do you have any matchbox cars we can borrow?" "Do you know any neighborhood boys that still play with cars and tough guys?" and thus was born the short film Imagine.

It was all part of Apple's Insomnia Film Festival. They give a list of film requirements that you need to incorporate, and students across the country have just 24 hours to create a film. Imagine was last year's Celebrity Judge's Winner, an entry among 1,800 or so. For one who sits back to watch, but not create, I was amazed by the scramble it takes to film, edit, score and build a three-minute seventeen-seconds film. The full 24 hours was a bunch of filmmakers scrambling. Who would have thought?

One year later, I like to pretend that it's a movie about collectors hunting down all of the Joe Six-Packs, the Molly Mallrats, and Joneses who recently remodeled their castles. You know, the average American citizen swimming in credit card debt, bad mortgages, and cheap plastic toys. So please when you watch this, don't imagine that. Just sit back and be entertained, and forget about the fact that it's time to hoard cash, live off food storage, and ride your bike to work in the winter. Please don't think about that. Just be mindlessly entertained. It's good for the stress levels in small doses.

This film features my old neighbor and dearest friend Sally, along with her son Luke (Rainbow Girl's buddy). Directed and filmed Clay Olsen, little brother. Story by Jackson Olsen, little brother #2. It's a short high-octane thriller! Enjoy!



So after watching this film, please comment and let me know what do you Imagine?

[An embedded video from another website was here; it is no longer available.]

Imagine -Insomnia Film Festival Entry - The best bloopers are a click away

When I was really coming into myself, you know, out of the awkward teen years and well into the college years, beyond the frosh independence buzz when you delight in filling your fridge with twinkies because you can. Well, when you're deciding for sure what your values are going to be and you know, you're confident "This is the person I am and I'm going to grow old gracefully".

So it was at that time in my life, I was still single, I started writing a journal to my "future husband". I marveled at my roommate who had cable TV in her bedroom, was obsessed with Mathew McConaughey, and watched TLC programming while writing her never-ending English papers.

I thought: TV sucks.

So into the journal I wrote: Dear Future Husband, If we never have a TV, we'll be more active and have fun. I don't ever want to have a TV. Gordon B. said that people waste a lot of time watching TV, so we are never having one in our home, okay? Love from, Your Future Wife

So when I met The Mister of the House, we dated, admired, kissed and eventually I said Here! and handed him my secret journal. Don't worry, I had a ring on my finger by then. But I wanted to make sure my bases were covered, no surprises when I said "Take back that 52-inch Plasma TV right now!".

Now for those of you who don't know, The Mister of the House is an avid movie lover. In fact, it's genetically ingrained into the Olsen DNA. Sunday dinner at the in-laws will go something like this:
Olsen Sister-in-law: Could you please pass the salad?
Brother Olsen: Yes
Olsen Sister-in-Law: [robot voice] In the future, we do not say yes. Instead, we say "Affirmative".
Pipsqeak Olsen: [robot voice] Yes, "Affirmative".
(name the source of that quote by the way and you become honorary member of the Olsen Clan)

Now don't get me wrong, my sister and I grew up watching Saved By the Bell Marathons, my own mother recorded Seinfeld, and High School was always brighter the morning after The Simpsons viewed prime-time. But in college I went through a multimedia drought and I absolutely thrived! So it was a guilty pleasure that I tried to kill, but that never fully died. It was then resurrected when I became Mrs. Olsen.

By my 5-year anniversary, my home swelled with a collection of over a thousand movies, albeit they were runoff from our first business.....but that's a story for another day.

But before you accuse The Mister of the House for backing out of our clearly defined entertainment standards, I would add, to his credit, that he didn't get cable TV until after anniversary number 8. Let's just say that having personally spawned 3 genetically enhanced movie-lovers, as well as being absorbed into the multimedia-absorbed DNA of the Olsen Clan, that I would practically be going against Nature Herself if I denied my family all of their digital delights.

Besides, part of growing old gracefully is willing to accept surprises.

And so, it is with great pleasure, that Mrs. Olsen presents a film illustrating the DNA she is up against, errr, I mean, absorbed into. A film starring the sister of The Mister, her husband, and filmed by the brother of The Mister. It's short. It's actually a little scary. So grab your softest blanket for comfort and enjoy this little ditty. It's called "Glad We Came?".

Now you enjoy, I've got to run and catch What Not To Wear on my 52-inch plasma.

NOTE from Mrs. Olsen: I wish that I had been able to save the comments from friends who watched this expecting it to be funny, but were seriously freaked out (Paula, Wendy...you know what I'm talking about). This illustrates my point perfectly. There was no bad picture quality, sound, or lame acting that distracted you from the point of the film: to be afraid....be very afraid. There was no pointing of the finger laughing at the lame-o home job. Pure Olsen DNA at work.