I'm ready for this vacation to be over.
Not Because:
1) I have nothing to do all day.
2) There is nothing on TV.
3) I've seen all the DVDs in my collection many times and I've seen a bunch at home.
4) I'm not dating anyone.
5) My roommates aren't home and the Villa is dead.
6) Provo is dead.
I'm ready for it to be over because:
1) I'm looking forward to the many hours I'll spend programming and in the library.
2) The long days of work and class.
3) Being broke... again.
4) Reading textbooks rather than my lot.
5) Finals.
6) Ward activities.
The light at the end of the tunnel includes:
1) Episode III.
2) Summer concerts.
3) Road trips.
4) Soccer.
December 30, 2004
December 18, 2004
Finals are over officially. Now I have time to play more video games, read more books, and sleep in late. There are a few chores that must be done first: Move the eSpencer out and get him married and stuff, clean my apartment, get my christmas shopping done, work on my car, and try to sell the books I couldn't sell to the bookstore online. All in all, I'd say it was a good semester. I kicked my own butt more to get into the library, I went on some really cool road trips, I survived my stats class, and I got some cool stuff for my birthday.
This time of year, we have a chance to look back on our year and see where we sucked it up and hope to do better. This time of year, we have an opportunity to make a resolution to ourselves to try to do better. Some of us actually do what we promise to ourselves, but for most of us it ends up being an empty promise. In that light, I offer some helpful New Year's resolutions that are fun and easy to apply and you won't feel at all bad if you don't fulfill them because they aren't that big but you will feel good because you will have talked yourself into believing that you actually did what you promised to yourself and either way you could rationalize that you did do them and feel good for the rest of the year. (wow, that was a big sentence, I'm going to have to take a nap)
So here is a list of New Year's resolutions that you could use and feel good:
I Resolve to...
1) Eat more cereal.
2) Think about making my bed more often.
3) 'Ponder more deeply' the talks given in sacrament meeting, even if that involves closing my eyes to concentrate harder.
4) Honk or yell one less time at people who don't know how to drive.
5) Honk or yell ten more times at people who are talking on their cell phones WHILE driving.
6) Since I didn't do it this past year, I will vote in the new year, even if it involves deciding which of the Taco Bell menu items is healthiest, that's still voting.
7) At least have the courage to raise my hand in class even though I don't.
8) Look more and maybe even say 'Hi' to that cute someone.
9) See Star Wars: Episode III at least once in the theaters.
10) Quote Napoleone Dynamite, Tommy Boy, or Adam Sandler more at work/school/home.
Enjoy the new resolutions. Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year to you.
This time of year, we have a chance to look back on our year and see where we sucked it up and hope to do better. This time of year, we have an opportunity to make a resolution to ourselves to try to do better. Some of us actually do what we promise to ourselves, but for most of us it ends up being an empty promise. In that light, I offer some helpful New Year's resolutions that are fun and easy to apply and you won't feel at all bad if you don't fulfill them because they aren't that big but you will feel good because you will have talked yourself into believing that you actually did what you promised to yourself and either way you could rationalize that you did do them and feel good for the rest of the year. (wow, that was a big sentence, I'm going to have to take a nap)
So here is a list of New Year's resolutions that you could use and feel good:
I Resolve to...
1) Eat more cereal.
2) Think about making my bed more often.
3) 'Ponder more deeply' the talks given in sacrament meeting, even if that involves closing my eyes to concentrate harder.
4) Honk or yell one less time at people who don't know how to drive.
5) Honk or yell ten more times at people who are talking on their cell phones WHILE driving.
6) Since I didn't do it this past year, I will vote in the new year, even if it involves deciding which of the Taco Bell menu items is healthiest, that's still voting.
7) At least have the courage to raise my hand in class even though I don't.
8) Look more and maybe even say 'Hi' to that cute someone.
9) See Star Wars: Episode III at least once in the theaters.
10) Quote Napoleone Dynamite, Tommy Boy, or Adam Sandler more at work/school/home.
Enjoy the new resolutions. Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year to you.
December 13, 2004
It's that time of year again. It's Finals Weeks. And how did I start my finals week???.... I stayed in bed till 10 o'clock, listening to the radio, because when I'm in the middle of taking my Stats final and my Physics Final, I know I'm going to need happy thoughts to get me through them.
This finals week is also made more grim by the leaving of a really good friend at the end of the week so that he can get himself some eternal lovin'. He has left it to me to be the President of the Anti-Love Squad and also the only Ward Heckler to follow in the wake of B. Stifelmeyer, the Original W.H. There are a few potentials but no one that can recreate the J&S show.
But the light at the end of the tunnel includes no school for a couple weeks, all the video game playing/ reading time that I want, and a possible long-@$$ road trip to San Deigo.
So this one goes out to all you studying-till-the-wee-hours, last-minute-cramming, faith & hope-mustering, finals takers. Good Luck to you...don't fail to badly.
And remember, there's always next semester.
This finals week is also made more grim by the leaving of a really good friend at the end of the week so that he can get himself some eternal lovin'. He has left it to me to be the President of the Anti-Love Squad and also the only Ward Heckler to follow in the wake of B. Stifelmeyer, the Original W.H. There are a few potentials but no one that can recreate the J&S show.
But the light at the end of the tunnel includes no school for a couple weeks, all the video game playing/ reading time that I want, and a possible long-@$$ road trip to San Deigo.
So this one goes out to all you studying-till-the-wee-hours, last-minute-cramming, faith & hope-mustering, finals takers. Good Luck to you...don't fail to badly.
And remember, there's always next semester.
December 3, 2004
This past week has been filled with some really super awesome events and some that make you (or me anyway) want to crawl back in bed and sleep till tomorrow. Here are some of the Highlights:
1) Monday was my birthday. It started at 1am when I had to go pick up my roommate from the SLC airport because his plane was coming in at 2:10 am...or so I thought. I get there at 2:10 exactly, find a place to park, and walk in. I mosey over to the Arrival/Departure TVs to see if my roommate's plane has come in. I look around and find his flight number only to discover that there is just a black spot where it should say "On Time" or "Delayed" or even "Fell to the earth in a firey blaze". Anyone of these would be acceptable but all there is is a blank. Nothing at all. I find this rather queer and start walking around the terminal to see if I can find any evidence if I came in or not. After walking to the baggage claim area, I see the appropriate flight number at Baggage claim 1 but there is no one around, no bags, not even a hobo sleeping on the floor. It's like one of those movie scenes where it's a wide angle shot from above of the entire airport baggage claim area and I'm standing in the middle looking around and there no movement at all, just desolation.
Anyway, I start walking around, there are a few people there, some asleep, some half way there. I do a couple laps in the terminal and decide to go to the other terminal to see if I'm just an idiot and went to the wrong place (even though I see the correct flight number in that place). So I walk to terminal 2, freeze my butt off en route, and do the same thing that I did in terminal 1. I walk around, look outside, look around the baggage claim area, look in the phone machine slots for lost change...nothing. Again, desolation. So I walk back to Terminal 1. I again to a few more laps when I decide to call my apartment (because Jimmy was still up when I left playing Warcraft) to see if Charles has called or already arrived there. At this point, I wasn't going to be suprised if I just got the time wrong or something and he had already got a ride back to the apartment and was sleeping soundly. I get my calling card out, dial all the appropriate numbers only to find that there is no answer and I lose 1 unit for the call and 24 units for using my card from a pay phone. Reason would have told me to hang up after the 3rd or 4th ring so I wouldn't get the answering machine but Reason went to bed along time ago. I get the answering machine, I hang up, and then realize that because I did get the answering machine, I just lost 25 units on my card because I connected with something at the apartment. Had I hung up after the 3rd or 4th ring, before getting the answering machine, I would have saved my units. But I didn't and I didn't. So after losing precious units from my card, I decide that I'm going to wait for a while to see if the plane will come in later. So I walk out to my car, luckily I brought some homework with me, grab my homework and head back into the airport. As I walk in, get to the moving stairs, I see Charles with his Indiana Jones hat standing at the bottom. I go down and find out what happened. Apparently, all his flights (America West) have been late because they schedule the departure of the plane at the same time as the arrival. Whoever schedules the flights graduated with honors from Airline scheduling school and is now working for a quality airline like America West. Needless to say, Charles is never flying them again and we book it out of there back to Provoland.
By the time we get back to the apartment it's around 4am and so I decide that there is no real point in sleeping, so I hit the books for another couple of hours. When 6:30 comes around (the time I usually wake up) I get cleaned up, fall asleep for half an hour and then get my to my 8am class. So I get a total of a little less than 2 hours of sleep the whole night and I have to go to all my classes, get homework done, and then get myself to the first real birthday party that I've had in a long time.
Other than being really tired when the party came, I did have an enjoyable time. I got a Mulled Cider candle, a bag of Goldfish, and the computer game 'Need for Speed: Underground'. I was very happy. I got an Ice Cream cake from the Dairy Queen, a bag full of candy, and a box of sugar cookies with frosting. I could have used all of this sugar earlier but that's ok, I had a Vanilla Coke to keep me going. Also, eSpencer took me to P.F. Changs for some good grubbin', and (since it was monday) for FHE we went to Brother Gibson's house where Bro. Gibson and I had a PacMan playoff and I set the High Score for the evening that would not be broken.
All the grubbin', and playin', and high score settin' off set the being tired and hungery and brain deadness from school. It was a most excellent to go to bed that night.
2) A couple days later, it was the Birthday of one of the girls in apartment 80 (who have been Spencer and my apartment girlfriends). So for the occasion, since they were nice enough to decorate our doors and write on our windows with lipstick (even kiss our windows), we decided to return the favor. After making several stops in the mall, we arrived back at the apartment with our goodies and our evil designs. Our first stop in the mall was to the Hot Topic to pick up some Black Lipstick. That's right, we put on black lipstick and kissed their windows and then wrote stuff on the windows and mirrors, part of which included a Haiku dedicated to Carla, the birthday girl. Upon retreating to my apartment, I wrapped the gifts that could be wrapped, and then we got Marci to wrap us in paper while we held our gifts.
Walking very carefully to apartment 80 so as to not tear the paper, we made our way into the apartment and waited for the unwrapping of Carla's presents. First she unwrapped Spencer, who held two books that we purchased at Deseret Book. The first was one that every LDS girl should have (and probably every LDS boy too cause some are more clueless than others): 'What Makes Guy's Tick?', and the second was even better than the first: 'The Do's and Don'ts of Dating, For LDS Young Women'. Obviously, she loved them. We were happy with the work that we done.
Then came the time to unwrap me. She did so to find that I was holding for her a bouquet of a dozen roses with a Gerber Daisy in the middle. The only way to balance out the universe when gift giving is to give a humorous gift followed by a thoughtful one, or something like that. All in the room were in shock and awe when we presented our gifts. There was even a unified 'Aaawww', when I was unwrapped holding the flowers.
We do good work.
3) Tonight, Spencer and I went back to the mall with a different mission. This time it was to purchase a rather expensive item but non-the-less cool. This particular item was found at the end of the University Mall in a little shop known as Wilson's Diamond shoppe or something to that effect. A few days ago, we went with apartment 80 to go ring shopping with Spencer so he can pick up a ring for his escapade this weekend as he makes his way out to DC once again for a higher and nobler cause. He's going to propose to Janna, who is one of the coolest girls in the world, and finally break the bonds of being single.... which in my opinion really aren't bonds when you think about it because you are actually making bonds when you propose marriage to some one, but if being single are bonds then hook me up to the Rack and get those horses pulling.
So, yeah, tonight, we made our way again to Wilson's jewelery to make the final purchase of a really nice engagement ring. So now he just needs to do the deed and get hitched. Tenetive plans are to get engaged this weekend, get done with school this semester, get to the San Diego temple during the Christmas vacation and get hitched. Not too much room for breathing, but it works. Crazy, you may say. Unreasonable, you might assume. Impossible, you might declare. Well, so is that little thing called Love. The power of love is a curious thing, make a one man weep, make another man sing. Change a hawk to a little white dove more than a feeling, that's the power of love. You don't need money, don't take fame. Don't need no credit card to ride this train. It's strong and it's sudden and it's cruel sometimes but it might just save your life.
So, anyway, the ring has been purchased, the plane leaves in a few hours, and I'm going to be one of eSpencer's Merry Men in a few weeks. Kinda exciting, except for the whole dressing up in a stiff monkey suit and having to shake countless hands with people I don't even know and have to be all proper and stuff around others in California thing, but other than that, it should be exciting, shouldn't it ???
4) On a final note, and infinitly cooler than scented WalMart candles and diamond rings, is my most recient purchase, which everyone should get by the way because you're a loser if you don't, well, not really a loser but just one who is missing out on a golden opportunity to gain some clout in the realm of the cool, which is the awesome, going-down-in-the-history-of-most-excellent, best-christmas-present-to-give-for-all-time, and anybody-who's-anybody-has-it Spiderman 2 on DVD. Two disks of action-packed, web-swinging, high-flying, beat-the-crap-out-of-Doc Ock fun. Don't miss out and get your copy before Wally World jacks the price up to normal shelf price.
P.S. Thanksgiving was good. I made my potatoe salad and saved Thanksgiving again this year by carving the turkey again.
1) Monday was my birthday. It started at 1am when I had to go pick up my roommate from the SLC airport because his plane was coming in at 2:10 am...or so I thought. I get there at 2:10 exactly, find a place to park, and walk in. I mosey over to the Arrival/Departure TVs to see if my roommate's plane has come in. I look around and find his flight number only to discover that there is just a black spot where it should say "On Time" or "Delayed" or even "Fell to the earth in a firey blaze". Anyone of these would be acceptable but all there is is a blank. Nothing at all. I find this rather queer and start walking around the terminal to see if I can find any evidence if I came in or not. After walking to the baggage claim area, I see the appropriate flight number at Baggage claim 1 but there is no one around, no bags, not even a hobo sleeping on the floor. It's like one of those movie scenes where it's a wide angle shot from above of the entire airport baggage claim area and I'm standing in the middle looking around and there no movement at all, just desolation.
Anyway, I start walking around, there are a few people there, some asleep, some half way there. I do a couple laps in the terminal and decide to go to the other terminal to see if I'm just an idiot and went to the wrong place (even though I see the correct flight number in that place). So I walk to terminal 2, freeze my butt off en route, and do the same thing that I did in terminal 1. I walk around, look outside, look around the baggage claim area, look in the phone machine slots for lost change...nothing. Again, desolation. So I walk back to Terminal 1. I again to a few more laps when I decide to call my apartment (because Jimmy was still up when I left playing Warcraft) to see if Charles has called or already arrived there. At this point, I wasn't going to be suprised if I just got the time wrong or something and he had already got a ride back to the apartment and was sleeping soundly. I get my calling card out, dial all the appropriate numbers only to find that there is no answer and I lose 1 unit for the call and 24 units for using my card from a pay phone. Reason would have told me to hang up after the 3rd or 4th ring so I wouldn't get the answering machine but Reason went to bed along time ago. I get the answering machine, I hang up, and then realize that because I did get the answering machine, I just lost 25 units on my card because I connected with something at the apartment. Had I hung up after the 3rd or 4th ring, before getting the answering machine, I would have saved my units. But I didn't and I didn't. So after losing precious units from my card, I decide that I'm going to wait for a while to see if the plane will come in later. So I walk out to my car, luckily I brought some homework with me, grab my homework and head back into the airport. As I walk in, get to the moving stairs, I see Charles with his Indiana Jones hat standing at the bottom. I go down and find out what happened. Apparently, all his flights (America West) have been late because they schedule the departure of the plane at the same time as the arrival. Whoever schedules the flights graduated with honors from Airline scheduling school and is now working for a quality airline like America West. Needless to say, Charles is never flying them again and we book it out of there back to Provoland.
By the time we get back to the apartment it's around 4am and so I decide that there is no real point in sleeping, so I hit the books for another couple of hours. When 6:30 comes around (the time I usually wake up) I get cleaned up, fall asleep for half an hour and then get my to my 8am class. So I get a total of a little less than 2 hours of sleep the whole night and I have to go to all my classes, get homework done, and then get myself to the first real birthday party that I've had in a long time.
Other than being really tired when the party came, I did have an enjoyable time. I got a Mulled Cider candle, a bag of Goldfish, and the computer game 'Need for Speed: Underground'. I was very happy. I got an Ice Cream cake from the Dairy Queen, a bag full of candy, and a box of sugar cookies with frosting. I could have used all of this sugar earlier but that's ok, I had a Vanilla Coke to keep me going. Also, eSpencer took me to P.F. Changs for some good grubbin', and (since it was monday) for FHE we went to Brother Gibson's house where Bro. Gibson and I had a PacMan playoff and I set the High Score for the evening that would not be broken.
All the grubbin', and playin', and high score settin' off set the being tired and hungery and brain deadness from school. It was a most excellent to go to bed that night.
2) A couple days later, it was the Birthday of one of the girls in apartment 80 (who have been Spencer and my apartment girlfriends). So for the occasion, since they were nice enough to decorate our doors and write on our windows with lipstick (even kiss our windows), we decided to return the favor. After making several stops in the mall, we arrived back at the apartment with our goodies and our evil designs. Our first stop in the mall was to the Hot Topic to pick up some Black Lipstick. That's right, we put on black lipstick and kissed their windows and then wrote stuff on the windows and mirrors, part of which included a Haiku dedicated to Carla, the birthday girl. Upon retreating to my apartment, I wrapped the gifts that could be wrapped, and then we got Marci to wrap us in paper while we held our gifts.
Walking very carefully to apartment 80 so as to not tear the paper, we made our way into the apartment and waited for the unwrapping of Carla's presents. First she unwrapped Spencer, who held two books that we purchased at Deseret Book. The first was one that every LDS girl should have (and probably every LDS boy too cause some are more clueless than others): 'What Makes Guy's Tick?', and the second was even better than the first: 'The Do's and Don'ts of Dating, For LDS Young Women'. Obviously, she loved them. We were happy with the work that we done.
Then came the time to unwrap me. She did so to find that I was holding for her a bouquet of a dozen roses with a Gerber Daisy in the middle. The only way to balance out the universe when gift giving is to give a humorous gift followed by a thoughtful one, or something like that. All in the room were in shock and awe when we presented our gifts. There was even a unified 'Aaawww', when I was unwrapped holding the flowers.
We do good work.
3) Tonight, Spencer and I went back to the mall with a different mission. This time it was to purchase a rather expensive item but non-the-less cool. This particular item was found at the end of the University Mall in a little shop known as Wilson's Diamond shoppe or something to that effect. A few days ago, we went with apartment 80 to go ring shopping with Spencer so he can pick up a ring for his escapade this weekend as he makes his way out to DC once again for a higher and nobler cause. He's going to propose to Janna, who is one of the coolest girls in the world, and finally break the bonds of being single.... which in my opinion really aren't bonds when you think about it because you are actually making bonds when you propose marriage to some one, but if being single are bonds then hook me up to the Rack and get those horses pulling.
So, yeah, tonight, we made our way again to Wilson's jewelery to make the final purchase of a really nice engagement ring. So now he just needs to do the deed and get hitched. Tenetive plans are to get engaged this weekend, get done with school this semester, get to the San Diego temple during the Christmas vacation and get hitched. Not too much room for breathing, but it works. Crazy, you may say. Unreasonable, you might assume. Impossible, you might declare. Well, so is that little thing called Love. The power of love is a curious thing, make a one man weep, make another man sing. Change a hawk to a little white dove more than a feeling, that's the power of love. You don't need money, don't take fame. Don't need no credit card to ride this train. It's strong and it's sudden and it's cruel sometimes but it might just save your life.
So, anyway, the ring has been purchased, the plane leaves in a few hours, and I'm going to be one of eSpencer's Merry Men in a few weeks. Kinda exciting, except for the whole dressing up in a stiff monkey suit and having to shake countless hands with people I don't even know and have to be all proper and stuff around others in California thing, but other than that, it should be exciting, shouldn't it ???
4) On a final note, and infinitly cooler than scented WalMart candles and diamond rings, is my most recient purchase, which everyone should get by the way because you're a loser if you don't, well, not really a loser but just one who is missing out on a golden opportunity to gain some clout in the realm of the cool, which is the awesome, going-down-in-the-history-of-most-excellent, best-christmas-present-to-give-for-all-time, and anybody-who's-anybody-has-it Spiderman 2 on DVD. Two disks of action-packed, web-swinging, high-flying, beat-the-crap-out-of-Doc Ock fun. Don't miss out and get your copy before Wally World jacks the price up to normal shelf price.
P.S. Thanksgiving was good. I made my potatoe salad and saved Thanksgiving again this year by carving the turkey again.