I've spent a ton of time in the library these past couple of weeks, mainly because I've been trying to catch up in my classes. When I catch up in one class and try to concertrate on another, then I start of fall behind in the class that I just got caught up in. It's a losing battle but a necessary one. The bulk of my homework has been reading, and for those of you who know me know that I am a slow reader. Along with being slightly dyslexic, having a semi-controlled amount of ADD, and also having a documented case of learning disability, it's hard for me to sit my on my butt for many hours in a library to read....but that's what I've mainly been doing for the past 2 weeks. Sitting on my butt trying to read. But I've had help, don't you despair on my account. I've had Metallica to help. That's right- Metallica. Though you may find it hard to believe, I can read better while listening to Metallica...and classical film soundtracks...and Japanese pop...and...well, you get the picture.
Here's how I figure it: the ol' noggin needs something to keep it from being distracted and music has been the only thing to keep me focused on what I'm doing. Rather than sit in a room full of other humanoids shifting in their seats, whispering into their cell phones, and rustling papers, I crawl into my Metallica-shaped bubble and am able to keep focused doing homework a lot longer than if I didn't have my music.
Some people, most people, can sit in a room with other living-people-like-units and read without any problems, but for yours truly, it can't happen, believe me I've tried.
So now that I've been listening to one of my favorite internet radio stations that plays nothing BUT Metallica, I've been able to get some work done. And since I've been listening to so much of my favorite band, I've been getting excited about going to see them when they come to the SLC. And since I've been getting excited about going and the fact that I can get some work done while listening to music, maybe I should just bring ALL my homework with me. If listening to music can help me, just imagine what a live concert will do for my grades!!! And if you can imagine that, just think of what I could accomplish if I was on tour with them, or Nightwish, or Brand New, or Incubus. I have no doubts that I could get the Nobel Prize (all of them), create a work that would rivel J.R.R. Tolken, and possibly get my doctorate in ... something. I would be THE SMARTEST MAN ALIVE !!!
I think I'm on to something here....

PS: You may have noticed that I don't have my comments anymore. It died on me. So use the Tagboard for your comments. Have a Happy Helloween!!

Some things that I'm looking forward to:
1) the Dresden Dolls concert on November 9th. Tickets were only a dollar with my X96 Freeloader card. So far I have eSpencer roped in to seeing it.
2) As a birthday gift to myself, I'm going to go to the Metallica/Godsmack concert on November 22nd. I need to see Metallica in concert before they decide to not tour anymore.
3) Halloween !!!! Vampires, black nails, haunted houses, and monster movies galore!!! What more could a kid ask for ?!?
4) Thanksgiving Break !!! I generally try to avoid going back to NM around this time of year but I think there might be in the works another Johnson family road trip. No homemade turkey for us, we are hitting the road.

Some things I'm not looking forward to:
1) Homework (but that's a given).
2) All the reading that I have to catch up on in all of my classes... did I mention the homework that comes along with that?!?
3) The snow and slush that accompany the holiday season. Although some of you might be looking forward to the ski season, I have a feeling that all this slush and ice will play a bad part on my knee. I'm sure it will hurt more with the bitter cold.
4) All the bad holiday movies that are going to come out soon. I'm having withdrawls from the Harry Potter/LOTR run from the past few years.
5) And finally, the queen mother of bad things that comes with the approaching holiday season....Finals. BOO !!!!

I once knew this kid who we shall call Steve H., no, that won't work, let's just call him S. Humphreys. Well, S. Humphreys used to be my roommate. He use to come back to the apartment, throw his bag on his bed and then cuss Microsoft for a few hours while listening to the Star Wars songs. I would look at him, shake my head in pity, and then go back to whatever it was I was doing at the time. As the years drove on S. Humphreys moved to a little, unknown hamlet that people know as San Francisco. It was here that S. Humphreys found employment at the local number mill. Day after day S. Humphreys worked to make the world safe for numbers. All was well. Occasionally S. Humphreys would find his way back to the land of the Provo and tell me stories of his adventures in the far off land of San Francisco.

Now, S. Humphreys doesn't write anymore. I can only speculate that he was stolen by a band of rogue Jawas, made to serve aboard a glactic sandcrawler for many months before being sold to the Hutt family where he currently makes and serves pizza to the Hutts and their beloved family pet, the Rancor.

I miss the days when S. Humphreys would post blogs and write emails and chat online. So in tribute to our long lost friend who spends his days in the Hutt family kitchen, sweating over a rotating pizza oven, this song is for you:

Da Da Da Daa DAAAA DaDaDa DAAA DAAA DaDaDa DAAA DAAAA DadumDadaaaaa
Da Da Da Daa DAAAA DaDaDa DAAA DAAA DaDaDa DAAA DAAAA DadumDadaaaaa
(you know the rest...)

I am an Asteroid. I am a drifter. I go where life leads, which makes me usually a very calm and content sort of person. That or thoroughly apathetic. Usually I keep on doing whatever I'm doing, and it takes something special to make me change my mind. What Video Game Character Are You?

The bishop called me a few minutes ago and we had a 'chat' about my schedule this coming semester and he wants to visit again later on tonight to talk somemore about my schedule this semester........this does not sound very good. I'm actually a bit scared at the possiblities that this might give. Whenever you have to have an extended talk with the bishop about your school schedule is always a bad thing. I'd rather talk about past transgressions with the bishop than about schedules. I bet they are going to put me in the fire stoking room for the semester, or maybe even in the Church's salt mines. Or even more dreadful, they might want me to teach a class. I think I'd rather work in the salt mines.
I've been doing ok in my 'we don't have any more but we need to give these people callings' callings: FHE group leader, ward mission committee, FHE group leader again, etc. I'm rather fond of not having any direct contact with hierarchy or real respondsibility for that matter. I've heard all about earily morning meetings, retreats to the bishops house, and other secret gatherings that result in big conspiracies against the ward. I want no part of this. I'm rather content doing my own thing and not having to prepare anything at all, where the only big concern is deciding who is going to say the opening prayer.
Maybe I should have stayed in Vegas a little bit longer.