Check it out...

So... I'm getting married. For updates and pictures, the best place to look is Elisse's blog. In a couple of months we'll finalize the merger and you'll only have to check one blog to learn about two of your favorite people!

Rise All Loyal Cougars...

I was able to participate in two pretty cool BYU-related events this week. The first one I discovered with a little help from facebook. On Wednesday morning while I was eating breakfast I was perusing facebook, and saw something in someones status about www.smootwaswrong.com. I was curious, so I went to it. Abraham Smoot is a famous name here at BYU. He was the first president of BYU, back when it was Brigham Young Academy. He also contributed a lot of money to the school. Well, at this website there was a short article-note deal that talked about a fire that happened on campus... like pre-1900... and Smoot had said to another famous BYU-an Karl Maeser that the spirit of BYU had left with the fire. It was a bit bizarre, but a very cool looking page. At the bottom there was a spot that looked like it took a code, with a button next to it that said 'Unlock'. Luckily I had just read a book about breaking codes, and I entered the code and unlocked the page. It took me to another page, and all it said was 'Lavell Edwards Stadium, North Portals, 9:00 pm October, 8 2008.' That really weirded me out and I wasn't sure if someone was setting a bunch of people up or what. So I thought about it throughout the day and that evening I received an email from BYU that included a link to the same page.
So at 9:00 pm that night, Elisse and I went up to the stadium, entered inconspicuously through the north portals and were directed to the south stands. Everything was dark. Even in the tunnels. Once we got there, we found ourselves in the lower-most section of the south end zone with about 200 other slightly creeped out students. After waiting for a bit, they ran a highlight reel of the football team on the jumbotrons and then some of the players came out to talk. Max Hall, Dennis Pitta, Fui Vakapuna, David Nixon, the works. They did the whole pep-talk thing, then took questions... some wanted tickets to the game, some wanted hugs, and some just wanted to know what the game plan was, to which Fui (our bruiser of a fullback) responded, "Run 'em over...". Then the marching band came in, we sang the fight song, were entertained by another highlight reel, then they shot off fireworks. It was ridiculous... and we were two of precious few to get to go. Well, after that we thought it was over... but then we a few of us (maybe 50?) got ushered into the locker room. Very cool. Elisse has pics that I will get from that... Everything was empty, but it was fun to see the lockers, names, numbers, pictures, etc of all the greats that have come through BYU. Good times.
The next cool deal I got to do was on Thursday. I got a text message from a friend that they were doing a video for the BYU visitors center and they needed some people to go up to the Y on the mountain to wave at a helicopter as it flew by. Deal. They drove us up to the Y on four-wheelers, which made the experience much more enjoyable... the hike is not long, but very steep. So we just hung out on the Y until they radioed and said they were coming, made sure out BYU shirts were showing and then waved away as the helicopter made sweeping passes. It got a bit cold towards the end as the sun hid behind the clouds and mountains on the west side of the valley, but a very memorable experience.

New Stuff

As of late I've had urges to do things that I haven't done in a long time/ever. The first one is fruit. I love it. I have never bought more fruit in my life. I still hate eating apples like normal people do... so I cut them up like you would for a kid... in wedges! Yum. Also bananas. And mangos if they're cheap.
Another one that came out of nowhere... I'm finally using the library for the reason it was built. Books! I think I've read five or six novels in the past three or four weeks. Mostly mystery type stuff... Dean Koontz, Dan Brown. I got this cool looking book called The Invention of Hugo Cabret. The guy that wrote it is an illustrator for children's books and about half of this book was told through pictures (500+ pages, 230 or so original illustrations). I was really hoping that it would surprise me, but it ended up being kind of lame. I'm now reading a book by Jules Verne... The Begum's Millions. So far, so good. Kind of weird that these last two have been by French authors. Idk?
The strangest urge has been running. I get ganas (sorry non-spanish speakers, theres no better word for it...) usually at night to go running. I've set the goal to start at a mile and do it at least thrice a week. So I went and bought some running shoes and went Saturday after Priesthood (sweet meeting btw). It was miserable half the time, but the iPod helps and I haven't yet given up. We'll see how that goes.
I'm trying to keep up with statistics (whose idea was this?), but beyond that, things couldn't get much better.
Peace.

Been in the Saddle Since the Sun Came Up

This weekend I made a trip up to Idaho with two goals. One, see the girls. And two, ride a horse. I'm happy to say that I was able to get my fill with both (especially the horse part).

The girls. They are hilarious. Emma is able to spell a few words now and is happy to teach Jesse how to spell things. "Halloween. It's a 'h' and a 'a' and a 'i' and a 'i' and a 'o' and 'another one' and 'e' and 'e' and a 'n'." She couldn't decide what a 'w' was called, so it was another one. She is also an arachnophobe. Any spider she sees is at least six inches across. Seriously. They're huge.

Jesse is my shadow. And she loves to be tickled for some reason. (I promise, mom.)

Sara now has a noise for my name. "Dat!" Pretty close. She is full of antics... from strutting across the room like a model to trying to spell words like her big sisters to being a prize fighter.

The horse. I believe on of my first blogs was about a horse fiasco in Mexico. Refresh yourself if you need to by reading 'Blazing Saddles Part Dos' from February 2008. Saturday kind of reminded me of that day. Except that I had an obedient horse and my life was not in danger. Murphy (after whom Murphy's law was named) was definitely present in spirit.

Neto and I were to go ride up to Oxford peak with some friends of his, so we loaded the horses, tack, and food into the trailer and truck and were gone by 7:30. Just past Dayton one of the tires on the trailer blew out. Fortunately Dan was on his way to work, and stopped to help us remove the wheel to take into town for a new tire. So we rode into town, got the tire, put it back on the trailer and were to our starting point by about 9. Off we went.

The ride was wonderful. First we headed north toward Oxford town, and then found a trail that wound up through the hills there. Through a pine forest, and across creeks. We stopped once on the way up at a trough to water the horses. At about 1 we stopped for lunch only about a mile or two from the summit. Back on the horses for the last little bit to the peak. Once we were about to the top, there got to be a lot of rocks, so we tied the horses and hiked the last 50 yards to the marker. There were some notebooks to sign, I guess to have an alibi or something... We relaxed up there for about a half hour, just looking at all the mountains, lakes, fields, etc. There were a lot of birds that were floating up on thermals and other winds coming up through the valleys that were fun to watch.

Once everyone was ready to go, we were back in the saddle and headed down the mountain. Someone decided that we should not go back the way we came, but instead we should go down through Davis basin into Clifton. This proved to be enjoyable for the new scenery, but very long for the riders. We had a lot of fun playing 'tag' all the way down. This created a need to race at times, which of course was thrilling. We also had "wrestling" matches, where we would attempt to push other horses off the trail. By the time we got to Davis lodge I think everyone was ready to get off their horse, so at the bottom of the switchbacks we sent a rider ahead to get the truck and trailer to meet everyone at the bottom of the road that leads up into the canyon. Before too long, the trailer was back and we began to load the horses, but found out on the way into Clifton that it had two flat tires. We stopped at Papa Jay's to put some air in and then drove back down towards Oxford. From there, Neto and I hopped in his truck to go pick up our horses that we had left in Clifton... but going along with theme of the day, his truck ran out of gas. Luckily we were still in the driveway and they had gas, so we poured in a couple gallons and were able to make it to Clifton. After filling up and loading the horses, we were homeward bound. To cap off the day, a dear tried to hit us between Clifton and Dayton.

We got home at about 9 pm. I would estimate the trip was about 20 miles, a vertical climb of about 4,000 feet and we figured we were in the saddle for about 9 hours. It was a long day and left me fairly sore... mostly raw on the insides of my legs. But, even though the day was a bit rough, I had a lot of fun and I doubt I'll ever spend more time on a horse in one day. Unless perhaps gas prices get more out of control.

Whoa... It's still here. I thought they may have deleted it because of inactivity. Hmm. O well.

So it is now the end of September... a few short months since my blog about the Rockies. Poor Rockies. Ah, but not poor BYU. You guys been watching them?

The Stormin' Mormons are now the #11 team in the land. I've been able to witness three of their victories in their 4-0 record to date. The first one was a bit boring, against Northern Iowa I think? It was closer than it needed to be (as we showed against UCLA), but a victory nonetheless.

Next came a big game in Seattle against the U of W. We dominated most of the game, but again way closer than it needed to be. Especially when everyone thinks that it came down to a poor call made by a referee. If you didn't see snippets of it on any sports show for that entire week, Washington's quarterback ran the ball in for a 4 or 5 yard touchdown to bring them within one point with about 2 seconds left in the game. All they needed was to hit the extra point and it would force overtime. Well, of course UW QB Jake Locker was excited for that reason and proceeded to hurl the ball into the air in celebration. Too bad NCAA rules (this one in particular has been the focus of the officials since the beginning of the season) prohibit "Throwing the ball high into the air." Thats the rule straight from the 2008 rulebook. Seriously. I looked it up. Anyhow, the ball had some good hangtime... 2-3 seconds, I could do the physics real quick... I'm gonna go with about 25-30 feet. The official flagged him for it and the penalty was to move the extra point back 15 yards. Big deal, the 20 yd chip shot turned into a 35 yd chip shot, something that even the worst of college kickers should be able to nail. Well... we blocked it. It was sweet. It was so sweet that our team got flagged for excessive celebration when they all ran out on the field. But it didn't matter because there were only two seconds left and they had to kick it to us. So we won. Cool. (See Video)

Then came UCLA... a game I was rather nervous about since they had beaten a ranked Tennessee team the week before (who actually has turned out to not really be very good). But that made the game all the more exciting. This was actually the third time we had played UCLA in the last year. Once during the regular season last year, then in a bowl game around Christmas time, and then now. There is also some drama between the teams over a QB that said he'd play at BYU, then after his mission decided to go to UCLA (and hasn't been completely healthy since) and also over a field goal that we blocked to win the bowl game, seen here. Well... This picture says it all. Yes, you read right, 59-0. That was good times. Highlights.

And then yesterday we took on the brave 'Pokes of Wyoming. The outcome was slightly more merciful, a 44-0 drubbing. I snapped this picture just before the game. Highlights.

So here we are, 4-0 with our next game against lowly Utah State. It'll probably be another bore of a blowout... which I'm fine with.

In other news... school is going well so far. I'm taking a statistics class that is already giving me nightmares. I don't know if I've ever understood so little at the beginning of a semester. I have an intro to Biology class which is a joke...but will fill the requirement. I have a Material Removal (or machining) class that is my favorite of all. So far we've been working on the metal lathes, and are in the process of creating our own hammers. I'm taking the second half of New Testament from the same professor that I took the first half from. Think Indiana Jones dressed as Mr. Rogers. Thats Professor Griggs. He's an egyptologist (as in every summer he goes to egypt to dig up dead people), ancient historian, and knows more languages than I knew existed. I also have a Statics class which is the branch of mechanics concerned with the analysis of loads (force, torque/moment) on physical systems in static equilibrium, that is, in a state where the relative positions of subsystems do not vary over time, or where components and structures are at rest. It's exciting. And thats about it.

And now I have spent way to long updating my blog. But at least it is updated. Amen.

Rockies Game

A couple of weeks ago, Alec and I decided (and Dad provided us the opportunity) to brave the ferocious Philadelphia fans in order to see our wounded but beloved Colorado Rockies. The Rockies right now have one of the worst records in baseball, mostly due to the fact that only two of our original starting position players are healthy. That means that we didn't get to see the runner-up MVP (Matt Holliday) or our shortstop who should have been Rookie of the Year last year (Troy Tulowitski). Despite this, Alec and I were both giddy at the chance to go see them play.

We got to the game about an hour early, in order to see the Rockies' batting practice and to try and grab some autographs. As soon as we hit the front gates, we began to hear the taunts. Mostly it was 'Rockies suck!'... and we didn't see another Rockies hat (apart from the players) for about a half hour. We found our seats, which were fifteen rows up on the third base line, just past where the infield ends, and headed down to the fence to talk to the players. The first one that I recognized was Manny Corpas, one of our closing pitchers. I asked him for his autograph (in spanish), but I got a 'wait a minute... I'm taking fly balls'-type of expression. So we waited... and when the Rockies were done with BP, he came over and signed our stuff and we talked for a sec about Holliday and Tulowitski. After a little while longer, the starting players came out to start stretching and warming up. When they were done Ryan Spilborghs came over to sign autographs... he was swarmed by a bunch of little Phillies, and was about to walk away when I got him to turn back to sign "for a couple of Rockies fans!" He signed our stuff and as he did so I told him "Let's see it again" as he had hit a three run homer the night before. He told me he'd do his best and trotted off to the dugout.

The game began and so did the pounding. Not as bad as the previous night, though, when the Phillies drove in 20 runs to our 5. It was frustrating but still a lot of fun to be in a major league ballpark again. Anyhow, fast forward to the 6th or 7th inning. I think we're down 6-1 or 7-1. One man on base, and Ryan Spilborghs is up to bat. Boom. Two run blast over the left field fence. Could it have been my encouragement before the game? I like to think so. Lucky that he did it then, too... because an inning later it began to rain and lightning. Out came the tarps...so we decided to call it a night. We arrived home just in time to see the last out.

The Hair

For years I have kept my hair short... very short for some peoples' standards. I would usually only let it grow for a month at most past a #5 attachment on the clippers. I think the last time I really tried to grow it out was probably right before our last Christmas in Washington (5-6 years?) And Mom wouldn't let me play with my presents (which included an awesome 156 mb Rio MP3 player) until she cut it. I held out for about 6 hours I think. Well recently I tried it again, just to see if the result would be the same (A crazy tangled mess of hair... not mom coercing me to cut it...). My last haircut was at the beginning of February. And for the first couple of months it of course did the same as before. And I hated it. But I stuck with it, and bought a Rockies hat to cover it up... except for Sundays, which always brought an adventure as I 'did' my hair in the morning. Something cool started happening a few weeks ago, though. It actually got a bit more manageable... and I even grew wings over my ears! It might sounds strange, but its what I've always wanted... Check out the pics, taken yesterday.

Well... Sadly enought, I got sick of it, and I didn't want to look like a hobo for Shane's wedding on Friday, so I had Mom cut it the day after she got here. It was sad, actually. And I kinda feel like a cancer patient now. But it looks good, I guess.

April showers...

Man... its been a month already. Where to start...

A few weeks ago we sent out flyers for window washing, thinking that the weather had gotten nice for good. That was foolish. It was only March, after all. Last Sunday brought about 3-5 inches of snow. Then it got nice for a few days... and then today, as I walked out of my class this morning at 9 I found myself in the middle of a blizzard. And then another hour later it was gone. Stupid. I write way too much about weather. Sorry.

Yes, I'm still washing windows. And probably will be for the rest of my life. It pays well. But it isn't consistent enough to keep me here for the summer. That's why I'm headed back home to work for EraMed. Back to the grunge work. It'll be fun though, and I'll hopefully be washing some windows on the side. I've been thinking up some ideas for things to do while I'm home to break the boredom (what?). Hopeful plans include Rockies v. Phillies in late May, a Yankees game at the soon to be razed Yankee Stadium, some Reading Phillies games, and perhaps the construction of a certain medieval weapon known as a ballista. Mmm... looks dangerous.

Classes are winding down. Everything is going exceptionally well with the exception of Calculus. We'll see. I'm pulling for a generous curve. In my CAD class, we recently finished a project where we reverse-engineered a folding military shovel, I think it turned out pretty nice. Our last project has us creating a product that is engineered to fit on the human body. They give us scanned data (of a head, arm, leg, etc.) and we build glasses, watches, body armor, etc. that fits it. Fun.

Ah... let's see... what else. I apologize for the poor showing by the BYU b-ball team in the tourney. It's ok though, because our football team is going to make up for it by being the BCS-buster this fall. It's gonna be sweet. Just watch.

Oh, and the mustache... yeah... I think it lasted like 8 days maybe. I can't do it. My hair, however, has not been cut in about 2 months (don't worry, mom, it got trimmed around the edges a few weeks ago). I still can't decide if I like it or not... depends on the day.

That's it. Go C-Rox.

Enchanted
We weren't really sure what to expect when we walked into the this one... about all that I remembered from the previews is that it mixed animation and real life... well by real life I mean breathing humans... because it wasn't realistic at all. Anyhow, another brilliant Disney fairytale. It's very funny and though it resurrects many of the old fairytales (snow white, cinderella, etc.) it seemed fresh. 7 out of 10.

Mustache March

It's March people! Holy smokes!

One time Trevor told us about how his entire squadron (or maybe the entire Air Force) did/does something called Mustache March. Well, this March I decided to do the same. It turns out that this works out perfectly at BYU, where a mustache is the only sort of facial hair allowed. And so me and few of my closest facebook friends are growing mustaches in honor of this mustache-y month.

We're only 4 days into it, but I can already tell that it probably won't turn out so well. I think Trevor had the same problem. At this point its about 10-15% dark whiskers and about 85-90% peach... or shall we say blond... hahaha. This picture really doesn't do it justice... I promise its there.

Movie List

I just came up with this idea about 2 minutes ago... I was writing in my journal and realized how many movies I've been watching recently. I've decided to start a list, along with a rating and/or review for each movie I watch. We'll see how it goes.

Must Love Dogs
Pretty good for a chick-flick... I'll give it a 5.5







August Rush
A must see... Some very different, but good music. The story is a little bit fantastic, but who knows, maybe it could happen. And my girlfriend stars in it.
9





Dan in Real Life
Okay, first of all this picture doesn't describe the movie at all. Don't judge a book by its cover. Second, Steve Carell is hilarious. Third, good movie. 7






The Sixth Man
This is one of my roommate's favorite movies. Umm... ok this is probably the most outrageous movie on this list... but surprisingly, there are parts that make a man want to cry. 4





Shrek the Third
I don't know if I'd say that it's as good as the other two, but pretty funny. My favorite part involves donkey and shrek's babies at the end. hahaha.... 5






The Perfect Man (A movie about me)
Ok.... I'm kind of embarrassed to even put this up here... but the conditions under which I watched it were a bit extreme. Seriously tho, if you want to see someone protray me... watch this. 3.5

Blazing Saddles Part Dos

This is the continuation of the 'Blazing Saddles' story that can be found on Jenn and Neto's blog...
read it first if you haven't yet.

It was not a good day... though it seemed as though all had been resolved. I mean, what could be better than riding a horse through picturesque Mexican villages on a beautiful summer's day? Not much, I suppose, as long as that was all that was involved.

Back at the old couple's house, we saddled up the horses and I donned a pair of spurs that would make Buffalo Bill jealous. I had everything I needed, including water and hat, and I set out with a few butterflies in my stomach. Butterflies that came from memories of the prior weeks of when I had learned to ride these beasts... a memory of racing Neto down the dirt road and having a foot slip out of a stirrup and then trying to stop the steed as I slowly began sliding off one side of the saddle... another memory of attempting to lead the pair of horses home while sitting on the tailgate of the truck. They didn't feel like being lead that day, and it resulted in about two hours of painful training and punishment. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful day, and I was in Mexico, and I was riding a horse, feeling like a charro... except that I was a gringo. That wasn't too bad either... maybe I'd find a senorita to ride with me.

The first stretch was rather enjoyable. As a wandered down the dirt road that lead to a small town I sang cowboy songs to myself, wondering the whole time if there was someone who could hear me, but not caring because this was great! As I entered the village, I was accosted by yells from the occasional old man or child sitting or playing outside their house. "Gringo!" "Guero!" I knew that they didn't necessarily want to be my friend, but I decided to be the mature one and simply sat up and grinned or nodded my head as I clip-clopped by.

Once past the village, I was to follow the railroad tracks that paralleled the highway all the way to San Isidro, a distance of about five miles. As I left the pueblo, I turned up onto the tracks with a full bladder. This was a problem. I couldn't think of where I would be able to relieve myself, but after about 15 minutes more of riding I came upon a line of trees well away from any possible curious onlookers. I dismounted and stretched. What followed was another thorn in the side of my bad day. I don't know how many times in the last month I had seen Neto leave the horses without tying their reins to a post or tree. Well, I couldn't find anywhere that was suitable to tie my two mates so I dropped the reins calmly, took a step toward a tree and ... took care of business. That was better. And the horses hadn't budged. I was getting good at this cowboy thing. Then I stepped back toward by mount. And he then calmly backed away about a half a step. I thought "You wouldn't..." I "whoa-ed" him and slowly stepped forward again, hand outstretched for the reins. He repeated. And then, in true city slicker fashion, I swiped quickly at the reins. I don't know how they can move so much meat so quickly, but before I could yell "queso!", there were two large equines dashing away from me at what could have been light speed.

I did my biped-est to keep up, but amazingly they left me choking on Mexican dust. They took off back the way we came, clawing their way up and over the tracks and on to the highway. When they hit the highway I thought that a massive pileup was eminent... they turned onto it, their iron shoes scraping the pavement, struggling to find traction, while oncoming motorists slowed and swerved to miss the raging animals. I couldn't do much else besides follow them down the highway waving at passersby for help. I sprinted as long as I could... the boots, spurs and jeans didn't help. About a mile down the road, one brave soul who had just gotten off the bus took position in the middle of the highway and somehow snagged the reins. He held the panting horses until I could catch up. I offered him my thanks... and maybe my firstborn son?... I was still learning the language at that point.

Back in the saddle again... we trotted down the highway, now quite delayed because of another fiasco. We reached the point where it had all started, and continued on. For another hour or so, it was as if nothing had happened and for awhile I thought we would get to San Isidro in one piece. And then I was reminded that it was a bad day. We had reached a bridge. The horses wouldn't be able to cross because there were 10 inch gaps between the railroad ties. So we made our way down the embankment, through the weeds, and back up the hill onto the edge of the highway... just until we got past the bridge.

Meanwhile, the afternoon storm clouds had gathered. By the time we got to the point where we could cross back onto the tracks, the darkness, wind and smell of rain made the weeds a very scary place for my four-legged friends. But I had spurs! I kicked. And kicked. And kicked. Alright, now that was at least two things that Neto could do, but for some reason I couldn't. I then had the idea that if they were to see me walk into the weeds, they would realize it was ok and that I'd be able to lead them back to the safer path. I guess I forgot that they were horses and that these horses in particular weren't into the the whole 'lead' thing. So I tugged, and the horse tugged back, wagging his head in an attempt to free himself. And once again, the horse won. His bridle slipped right off. I reacted quickly... before his egg sized brain realized that he was boundless, I threw my arms around his neck, and pulled the bridle back on. All of this while standing right next to the white stripe on the highway as cars zipped past doing about 60.

I was nearing the end of my chain... I climbed reluctantly back into the saddle and we walked on down the road hugging the weeds, but never actually setting foot in them. By now it was dark. The horses didn't want to be there, and I didn't either at this point. I was wondering when Jenn and Neto would pass by me again... and then my horse stopped. I kicked, and he didn't move. I got off again, thinking to walk with them down the road. Well it worked about the same as before. I didn't know what else to do. As I was trying to coax the frightened animals along, the one that was tied to the saddle following strayed about a foot over the white line onto the highway. All I heard was a loud but dull smack. The car that had just passed had hit the horse somewhere on its thigh. My first thought was the same as when the horses had run away from me: "Neto's gonna kill me if these things die." I examined the horse's side as best I could, but incredibly the horse acted as if nothing had happened.

I'm glad he felt alright about it, because I was not in good shape. I can't think of another time in my life before that that I had wanted so badly to just sit down and cry. With my entire body shaking I lead them across the highway to a driveway where I decided I would wait for Jenn and Neto to return. Within 10 minutes they had found me. I told them that I was done. I took off the worthless spurs and gave them to Neto and got in the truck with Jenn. As we drove the last mile or so, it began to pour. I couldn't imagine how he was going to get the animals home... A few minutes after arriving, Neto came trotting down the driveway, soaking wet. It was then that I noticed the open wounds on either side of the horse caused by the spurs.

The moral of the story... when using spurs, scrape, don't jab.

I am so darn boring

I apologize in advance. I made a promise that I would blog it up soon... and this is in fulfillment of that promise, however I'm not really sure what I'm going to write... so anyhow... this is it.

Something strange happened today. It snowed. That in itself is not strange, because it honestly has snowed nearly every day since I don't know when... maybe a week and a half? The crazy part is that it snowed when the weather people said it would and it snowed about the right amount! What has gotten into them?! Congratulations weather people. Keep it up.

This semester I'm taking an engineering graphics (CAD) class. It's pretty fun. I really enjoy creating the parts, but thats only half of the assignments. The other part is making the drawings. That can get downright frustrating... but I guess it's part of the jorb. Yes, jorb.

Here are some of my latest creations. The end product will be a computer fan... the actual propellor was my favorite part (actually very easy), and in my spare time I've been creating a replica P-51 Mustang prop. Should be pretty cool.

Also, here's a sample of a drawing... kind of makes me want to puke...

Let's see... what else is going on around here? Nothing... well ok there's other stuff, but you probably don't care to know about it... things like BYU basketball (6 game win streak, 2nd longest home win streak in the nation (43 games)... who's first? Memphis) ... well I guess you know about it now... sorry. Ok. I quit. I feel like I'm wasting cyberspace with this blog. Hopefully something cool happens in the next few days that I can report on. Peace!

...

Dang... its almost been a month. Sorry... and sorry again, because it's late now and I still don't know what to write... I mean, there's plenty to write about, just that I want to go to sleep... so one of these days. I promise.

A few words

Well here I am again... in the library... homework is done, nothing to do for another half hour. Two thoughts come to mind.

One. Since sometime last semester I've had an iPod. It was a shuffle. I love/loved it. Loved it because for Christmas I got a Nano, so I don't use the shuffle anymore. Anyhow, since then I've always brought it with me to school, as I spend a lot of time walking or in the library, so it's nice to have the tunes with me. I don't know how many hours a day on average I have this thing running, but its probably on the order of about 3-4. Thats a lot I think. Well I started to notice a month or two ago (or maybe more) that I skip most of the songs. Maybe because they're old or overplayed or whatever, but I often find myself clicking away at the 'skip track' button. Ok, I'm getting there, I promise. I think today was a new record. I started the shuffle songs deal on the nano about 3 1/2 hours ago. take about 45 minuted of class away and that leaves you with over 2 1/2 hours that this thing has been running since then. This is ridiculous... I've already been through 381 of the 658 songs that I have on it. Make that 424. Geez. I can't help myself. So in conclusion, I need to do one of two things. Either take it off shuffle and choose the songs that I want to hear (but that takes so much more effort), or just leave the little music maker home for a day or two. Mm... that sounds kinda nice.

Two. Some people have probably noticed my dissatisfaction with weather forecasts/ers as of late. The thing is... before Christmas break, the guy on one of the local channels was calling for like 3 big storms (like 3-9 inches) before Christmas. One of those for the day before I left. Jack diddly. Then I come back and see on noaa.gov (normally a very good, reliable place for weather) the forecast boxes filled with snow... and almost all of them at 50% chance of precipitation or better. Well since I've been home it hasn't done anything... except some funky ice/snow that looked like little styrofoam bits. Anyhow, they called for another giant... nothing... then I check yesterday and there was a small chance of snow overnight. And I wake up to like 3-4 inches of snow. ?!?!? Where do these guys get their info? It frustrates me. you'd think by now they would have this weather thing down. I mean, we can clone animals, split atoms, fly through space. Whatever. At any rate I'm happy it snowed on us and I hope it does some more and I hope that the weatherman doesn't tell us that it will just to make us happy.

Hmm... that worked out nicely... time to go!

New...

Well folks, its a new year!
That brings many new things...

New classes...
New challenges...
New goals...
New clothes...
New adventures...
New... other things...

New... thats a weird word... have you have looked at or thought about a word for a long time and realized how ridiculous it is and wonder why we say such silly things? Well... it just happened to me. New. Hm.

I'm back to school (actually typing this between classes... not much else to do). Today is the first day back for everyone, which means lots of confused people, long lines, and the like. I think I'm glad to be back, its fun to see old friends again, and to be back on campus and in the swing of things.

I went to the bookstore today to try and sell some of my books from last semester. It was a blast... and I think I'll do it this way from now on, instead of selling the books back to the bookstore. You can get a little more money for them, and plus I loved walking up and down the aisles saying 'Anthropology 101, what poor soul needs books for anthropology 101!?' I felt like one of those guys on the floor of the Dow Jones... tons of people bumping and shuffeling around... and me trying to make a deal. Anyhow, I got all of them sold by about 11 this morning for a grand total of $130. That should easily pick up my books for this semester. Yes!

So a few ideas I've had for this whole blog deal... I told Jenn that I'd start writing family scripture... I've thought about it once or twice, but still haven't really gotten into the right mood to do it yet. But it'll show up here someday, I'm sure. Also, at some point in the future when all of our blogs are a bit more developed and refined, I'll probably do some award giving... We'll see. Any other ideas?

One more thing... make sure to take some time out to feel bad for Alec... go read his blog... A link can be found on the right -->