Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Pioneer Children Sang as They Walked

I am about two hours away from an 4.5 day weekend. It's pioneer day (aka Mormon Christmas), and BYU is generous enough to give Friday off so that we might celebrate. In all honesty, I'm about one hour away from this glorious break from all things scholastic. I'm sitting in linear algebra (been here for 3 minutes) and I've already plotted an escape. I turned in my test (it was a take home) and listened to some kids complain a bit about how hard it was. I laughed. It was easy. I hate this class, but it is easy. Hooray for (previously taken) technical electives.

I just gave a presentation in my English class. The professor gave me a 50+/50. I'm going to be honest: I don't really know what that means. I am hoping for imaginary extra credit. I have never had extra credit in college before. I'm excited.
On the first day of this class, one thing was really clear: if the teacher likes you, you'll do well. The molester and I made sure that she knows who we are, and that she likes us. Don't get me wrong: the presentation rocked. I'm not demeaning its quality. I just think that the teacher liked the fact I spoke about Christian Bale.

If you go back to an older post, you'll see how I feel about eigenvalues. That is what we are talking about in lin alg today. Awesome...

In the spirit of my math homework taking me 15 minutes to complete, I have had a bit of free time on my hands as of late. Unfortunately, this free time usually comes while all my friends are at work. Here is what I do with it:
  • Burn Notice*
  • Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles**
  • Lost***
I am thinking of starting up the final season of Prison Break due to the (**) reasoning at the bottom.

I've also spent an ample amount of time taking apart old phones and seeing what I can make from their innards.

Derek took me to go get shave ice two days ago. It was... poor. Well, the ice itself was great. I just somehow picked the nastiest cocktail of horrendous flavors. I have come up with a plan of how I can avoid that situation next time I go. Here are the steps of the plan:
  1. Let Derek order first
  2. Order the exact same thing
  3. Eat it
For all you avid readers, I might be moving over to wordpress soon.

*We finished season 2 of Burn Notice in about 3 days
**Dave is a butt
***Recently started up again after hiatus

Monday, July 13, 2009

Staying Busy...

Here's what has happened over the last little while.
Last week I spent about 2 hours in my linear algebra class. There are 6 hours per week that I could spend in class. Monday and Wednesday I went for half of it and left. I didn't even go on Friday. I decided to go biking with Dave and Andrew instead....

We went up to Squaw Peak to bike down it. There is this nice little trail that starts up above Hope Campground that takes us down and lets us out where Orem Center Street intersects with University Avenue in Provo. It's really quite nice. You can just ride all the way home from the top of the trail. Said trail is pretty casual. It doesn't take a lot of effort and it isn't hard to avoid crashes. That having been said...

I crashed. Hard. One of the worst of my life on a bicycle. I'm not 100% sure what happened, but something sure did. I'm going to guess that I went about 5 feet forward and about 4 feet down (6.4 ish feet total travel). I landed on my right shoulder and elbow. There was a good amount of blood mixed with dirt. A shirt was ripped, and there were rocks in my shoulder. I had to dig out 6 little pieces of rock when I got home. The most painfully excruciating part was actually the hydrogen peroxide that made my entire arm above my elbow feel like it was being subjected to a chemical burn.

Friday night, Dave, Hillier and I all went to Cabela's. Hillier was going to buy a 20 gauge shotgun. We found a nasty wallet on the way. I picked it up. It was gross. It was on a freeway off-ramp. What do you expect?

While at Cabela's, Hiller was mocked by the salesman, who basically told him that "20 gauge shotguns were for little girls." Okay, it wasn't said exactly like that, but that is the impression he gave to us. Hillier said "Oh yeah, well I already have a 12 gauge and I'll use it to kill you and all of your family, so sell me the *&^%ing gun!" Okay, he didn't say it exactly like that, but that is the impression he gave. The first thing that the old man told us was that if we have a concealed carry permit, it was no good this late at night because the BCI was closed and Hillier would have to pay the $7.50 background check anyway. He decided against buying the shotgun that night.

We all went from Cabela's to Canfield's house. I had never been there before. It was a lot of fun. His mom is... interesting. She is unlike anybody I've ever met before, but she was fun. She stayed and talked with us for about 2 hours, but it was enjoyable. They are just all around good people. I like good people. While we were there, I got to drink some kind of blueberry juice. The only reason I picked that particular type of juice is because Hillier said "Man, if I had seen that I would have chosen that instead." So, I was like "Take that!" and chose that juice just to spite him. It wasn't that good. The more I think about it, the more I believe he just tricked me into choosing it. Here is a rundown of the people who were there that night:
I linked all of the names to their facebook pages. Why did I do this? Because I can.
It was fun. There is a fact about the Romania Bucharest Mission: we are the tightest mission to ever grace the face of God's green earth. I have never spoken with anybody who stays in touch with former mission buddies like we do.

While over at CL's house, Ty told me that Kris Johnston passed away just a few days ago. The funeral is actually right now, and I have to be sitting in my math class, not paying attention. The professor told us that he was going to be giving us the test today, so that is why I am here. Turns out that he lied. He is giving it to us on Wednesday instead. I'm kinda mad. I also forgot about it over the weekend until Ty asked if I was going this morning. I wish I had gone. Here is a bit of background on Sora Johnston:
She is the second from the bottom right. This is one of my favorite mission pictures because it has a lot of my favorite mission people in it. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot who are missing too...


On Saturday, Hillier and I went on a spiritual quest, which is always fun. We then decided to back to Cabela's for him to get that shotgun. We took Harward this time. On the way up, we helped Hillier plan his priesthood lesson. It was about what guys look for in girls. We had a pretty good list going. Hillier got the gun, and we went back to his house. We talked with Hillier's mom and dad for a few hours, which was fun. We shared a lot of mission stories that probably shouldn't be shared with a mom. She was cool with it though. One of my favorite things that his dad said was before we left to Cabela's. Background: Hillier's mom didn't really want him to buy a shotgun. Hillier's dad asked before we left "You guys headed up north?" and Mark replied "Yup," and we then left. Right as soon as we were out of the door, I asked Mark "Was that code for 'are you going to Cabela's" and Mark just replied "Yup." And I thought it was hilarious.

We then went down to Harward's apartment and hung out for a bit. Amber came. So did Derek. We all just talked for a long while, before going out separate ways. It may or may not have been simply a day of talking with friends in just a whole lot of different locations.

Sunday came. I was going to go watch Hillier teach that lesson to Relief Society in his ward. I decided it would be extremely awkward to be the only guy in there who wasn't teaching. I decided to take off and go to my parents ward for sacrament meeting. I then went home, and fell asleep for a bit. Dave and I watched Burn Notice, which just might be one of the best shows on television. There was a lot of nothing that was done today, but the day was still full. I got a lot of homework done starting around 21:00 and watched "Be Kind, Rewind" with Dave. It was kinda dumb.

There is your rundown of my weekend.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

MgS

I just ate little tiny pancakes for breakfast!

I am up in Idaho for the Fourth of July. It has been pretty fun thus far. It is currently Sunday morning and we got here on Friday afternoon. Let's just say that the whole even has been jammed packed full of festivities. These events included things such as
  • Five Episodes of Lost
  • A pretty amazing pyrotechnic display
  • Little Tiny Pancakes
I was also just informed that it is Fast Sunday.. after we had already eaten. There are three really good ways to get out of eating food that I have learned across my life (only two if you're not a Mormon)
  • Allergies (You can only use this once you know what the food is)
  • Diabetes (A personal favorite for the last few weeks)
  • Fasting
If I remember correctly, Hillier is currently teaching a lesson to the Relief Society. I don't remember the exact topic, but I think it is something to the effect of "Guys want to marry a girl who is blazingly attractive." I committed him to use the exact phrase "blazingly attractive." I'll bet he doesn't.

Fun new whiskey purchase: Full Metal Jacket Skull Candies. I got mine for far cheaper than you find them here. Did I need new earphones? No. Did I want new earphones? Not necessarily. Were they really cheap? Yes.

Other fun new purchase: Burn Notice, Season 2. Why did I buy this? I was in a mood to spend money and waste time...

Russian is a nasty, nasty language. I know this because I've been awake since about 6:00, and had not much to do than study Russian. Just remember the following rules and you'll be fine: B=V, H=N, 3=Z, P=R, and there is a fish letter which shows up every now and then. I just ignore it and seem to be doing just fine.

Overall, it has been a great weekend. No complaints. Met some great people. Saw a great dance show last night. Overall, it has been pretty awesome.