The Amazon Concrete Jungle Ad – The Actress and More

Amazon is airing a commercial called “Concrete Jungle” featuring a woman living in an urban setting but to make her place more like home she orders all kinds of greenery from Amazon. Take a look then scroll down for more info…

Rewind. I’ve written about this ad before because the song immediately caught my attention. I’m a sucker for the classical music weaved into the song used as the soundtrack. For more about that in my previous post, click here.

The Actress. Featured in this ad is actress Victoria Wyant. She’s a graduate of the Oxford School of Drama (2022) and a bit of her bio is posted on their website…

You might also recognize her from this Sony Xbox commercial.

-Out of the Wilderness

It’s Like Rain On Your Wedding Day…

The irony of rain on your wedding day is something we’re all very aware of. It’s been immortalized in poems, speeches, and songs. All the writers must’ve lived in Florida because you can just about expect the chances of rain every single day in the summer. Throwing caution to the wind, my niece and her fiancé planned an outdoor wedding and guess what… it rained! But it wasn’t till the reception and it’s funny to me when something we think would ruin a wedding is actually the best part of the whole thing (besides the “I do’s” of course 🤪). Someone said this and I think it’s true… more people at this wedding got on the dance floor because of the rain than if it hadn’t rained at all. That’s how you make lemonade out of a lemon, right?

This rainy reception (with thunder and lightning, too) reminded me for a brief moment of one of my favorite movies, The Notebook. Noah and Allie were paddling around a lake to look at swans or whatever and a storm popped up. Allie got real stressed but there was a point in their soaked journey back to the dock that she just embraced the chaos. She let go of what she had no control over anyway. That scene was a pivotal part of their relationship and for the weekend wedding, the rain was definitely a concern. But while some family and friends and on-site staff secured the tents and food and chairs, the wedding party and all the bride’s and groom’s friends danced in the rain. It was really awesome to see that kind of free-spiritedness on display! ☔️

On top of that, the day after the wedding we celebrated a high school graduation for another of my nieces! Finishing high school is a great accomplishment and I’m so excited to see what happens as her future takes shape. The ceremony was everything you’d expect from a graduation, minus the one graduate who does a flip on stage. Then we went to dinner and all of our attention was on the graduate (and the delicious food, of course). It was really amazing to watch the cohesiveness of 2 big families come together. After dessert, we went to homes or hotels and I can’t speak for everyone but crawling into bed that night was especially sweet.

I don’t think it’s quite hit me yet that my niece is married. She’s the oldest of 7 nieces (and 2 nephews) so all of this is new to me and the rest of the family. But what a standard the event set from the fantastic ceremony to the catering and the overall spirituality of it all. God was not just included as a ritual of the Christian faith, He was given credit for doing good things for his glory and our joy. I hope He’s happy now! And since He’s been part of the married couple’s relationship from the first date, I have a feeling He’s smiling just like we are.

It was a good weekend.

-Out of the Wilderness

Who’s the Guy in the Orville Peck and Noah Cyrus Music Video? Answers Here!

Whoa, Listen to the Music. Music is part of our lives almost every second of every day (sometimes I even dream I am a good singer!) and when it comes to mainstream music, a lot of songs come with music videos. You know, that old tradition dating back to the early days of MTV when video killed the radio star. Two popular entertainers have come together to kill another radio star somewhere… they have a new video! It’s Orville Peck and Noah Cyrus dueting for the song “How Far Will We Take It?” and of course fans of both artists are loving. Take a look then scroll down for more info…

The Actor. Playing the love interest to both singers is Canadian actor Francois Arnaud.

photo from IMDb

If you want more pics of the guy, go over to his Instagram (here) but in the meantime, here’s a little biography about the actor, this from The Movie Database.

François Arnaud (born François Barbeau; July 5, 1985) is a French Canadian television, stage and film actor. Arnaud is best known for his performances as Cesare Borgia in Showtime’s TV series The Borgias, and as Antonin in the critically acclaimed French Canadian movie J’ai tué ma mère. In Quebec, he is known for his role as Théo in the TV series Yamaska.

Do you like the song and/or the video? Comment below!

-Out of the Wilderness

Doak Campbell Stadium Under Construction

The home of the Florida State Seminoles football team, Doak Campbell Stadium, has been dismantled like I’ve never seen. In order to accommodate more comfortable seating (not to mention jacking up the prices for tickets), the interior bowl seating area is under a major renovation. So much so that I’ve heard the entire upcoming football season will have thousands less seats and from what I saw yesterday, they’ll be using every inch of the field to give visiting teams even the most basic of bench areas for staff and players during the games. Check out a video I recorded and you’ll see there is much work to be done but the crews onsite are busting their butts, so kudos to them for all their effort!

-Out of the Wilderness

Let the triathlon training begin… again!

Hello! I thought today would be a good day to talk about training after taking a few days off from running, cycling, and swimming. My next sprint triathlon is one month away. It’s nice to have something to work towards, huh? These rest days were a little strange. No calendar. No workouts scheduled. I have become so used to doing something every day but tried to make a point of restraining myself, even if it’s just for practicing patience. Welp, my first official workout was yesterday…. a neighborhood run. If you’ve been to Florida in May (or June, July, August, and honestly, all the other months of the year) you know it can get hot and yesterday was hot with no wind! But I wanted to start out with a bang so I decided to do 7 miles.

Now I’ll let you in on a little secret. As I ran I tried to figure out a way I could run the same amount but over the course of 2 days. So maybe 4 miles yesterday and 3 today? I mean, 7 is a lot! Why can’t I split it up into 2 workouts? But then I thought of my brother and brother-in-law. The entire family is in town for a wedding this week so there was no way I could rejoin the family, tell my brothers I had planned on doing 7 but only did 4. What would they think of me? They’d think I’m a weakling! So as I’m running and trying to convince myself doing less is OK, I still knew I was doing 7. It’s just what is going to happen. Well, I ended up doing 8 because when you want to impress your brothers, what do you do? You do more than they can do.

My toes are sore. My calves are tight. My knees hurt. My hips are feeling it. But gosh darn it my brothers know I did 8 miles! In all seriousness, though, with it being the first day of my training I knew I wanted to start off with something big and for me, 8 miles is big. I couldn’t bear the thought of starting this 4-week schedule by doing less than I could, or less than I planned. That wouldn’t be a good way to kick off a new training schedule, huh?

This particular run I focused on my average pace. I started out a little faster than I wanted which caused the middle miles to be a little slower than I would’ve liked, but by the end I was exactly where I wanted my pace to be. I’m happy I did it, even in the middle of helping with wedding plans (I’m the uncle and the wedding is tomorrow!), knowing today might be one that doesn’t include a workout at all (did I mention there’s a wedding?).

Just 29 days left to become a faster runner, stronger cyclist, and straighter swimmer. 🙂

-Out of the Wilderness