Pachelbel Rant

This is quite simply amazing. I love it.

The Return

So I left Provo Wednesday in the A.M. I had gone and watched The Interpreter with Andrea, Becca and Zach in the library after a quite fun night that included playing some german car game and getting creamed, Becca and I exchanging presents, and Zach alluding to the idea that I look like a potato-head. I said my goodbyes (extended) to Zach and Nathan, and temporarily to Becca and her roomies, and Mark. Then after all that, about midnight we headed to the library. Wrapped up and Becca and I left about 2:15 so I could be on time for my shuttle.

Oh boy, my shuttle. Well, it was originally scheduled for 1 a.m. that day for my 5:50 flight out. Turns out they don't offer a 1 a.m. shuttle, nd they called me and told me it was rescheduled for between 2:30 and 3 a.m. So there I am at 2:30 and I had everything ready. Ten minutes go by, and I'm chill. Twenty go by, I'm a little worried. Finally it's 3:05. I call home, have my dad wake up my mom to go check on the shuttle. Turns out they should have told me between 3:30 and 4. Way to go! Plus, my flight is now at 5:25. The shuttle arrives, i get to the airport on time, I have Continental Agents literally rushing me to my gate, zooming through security, and I get on my plane in time. I sleep a very random sleep on my way home, and by that i refer to the way i woke up: with my head lodged between my headrest (hah!) and the ... wall (side?) of the plane. I didn't sleep well, let's put it that way.

I got home, and all I could think about was the bowl game. And what a game. Go cougs! Since then I've seen Happy Feet and Rocky Balboa, both movies worth seeing. And I ate at the cheescake factory which was all right i guess.

Tomorrow is Christmas eve... hoorah!

My Life

My life has been changed because of this video. Watch it now. Join me.

I'm coming up on the last week before finals and I though I’d let everyone who might glance at my blog get a last update before I go into reclusion. Life is going really well, I'm working things out just like I want to, and people are awesome. I couldn't ask for anything to be going better than it is. I'm excited for finals. I think my poli sci especially because I feel like I actually learned in that class rather than sat there and ignored everything he said. Book of Mormon should be good as well, and I'm just hoping to get a B on the America Heritage Final.

I've got this bar of 71% Organic Dark Chocolate. It doesn't have a brand as far as I can tell, unless you count, "Equal Exchange Fair Traded" as a brand. This bar's wrapper is full of what I believe to be bunk. Let me share the back of the wrapper: "Equal Exchange and the Benefits of Fair Trade Our rich chocolate bars are crafted using the best quality organic cocoa from the Dominican Republic and Peru. We work with small farmer cooperatives who cultivate this coca using environmentally sustainable methods. By choosing Equal Exchange fairly trade products, you help provide small farmers the resources and opportunities they need to build a better future for their families and communities. Learn more- See inside wrapper" What genius! They don't explain too much, and apparently Equal Exchange is the brand (www.equalexchange.com) but something still seems iffy. I love the idea of helping poor farmers, don't get me wrong, but I'm a skeptic by nature, and something strikes me as odd. But, assuming they're not lying, I love it. I can't wait to taste this chocolate bar- 71%. I had a 68% from Hershey’s the other day and it was heavenly. This bar is also kosher, which is good for the bit of Jewish I still sometimes feel resides within me. You may think I'm joking around, but whenever I see meat and dairy I get a little queasy. This bar has a nice kosher stamp too- Rabbiner Abraham Hochwald so you know it's good quality. I'm saving this bar for final reviews- I'll need some comfort food no doubt.

Weird that college turned me into a chocolatier, I know, but there's got to be some release, and chocolate is a good one, I'd say. Made sipping chocolate over at Nathan's the other night- wow. Used a big bar of 72% with milk, sugar and vanilla, plus whatever else he found in that recipe online. It came out great. Very dark and rich and just wow. I'm watering at the mouth just thinking about it. Though, I must admit, it was not as well presented as the sipping chocolate at the Museum of Art is. The presentation on that side is quite amazing, in a nice little cup with half a pirouette on the saucer with it. Just superb.

Well, that's me for now. I'll get back to you about the 21st with maybe one post in between now and then. Go Texans!

Post-Thanksgiving Assessment

Jay-Z's album's dropped, and it's pretty solid. Not the Black Album, but not a pile of black something, if you catch my drift. The title track has absolutely my favorite opening, "I don't know how life would be in H.I.P. H.O.P. without your boy H.O.V. not only NYC, I'm hip-hop's savior, so after this flow you might owe me a favor.." Truly classic, and I mean it. The worst track, IMO, is "The Prelude," the first track, which starts off vaguely Raekwon/Method Man-ish with a movie quote over some classical-ish sampling. It's good sampling, but then Jay launches into a long, boring flow about himself. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he's back, but he doesn't need to remind us of how good he is- the songs will take care of that. Usher's feature track- "Anything" has a bumping beat, but not a great flow or anything, but man, the beat is sweet. Plus, it's Usher, so you know it's hot. Not a club beat, something this album lacks- thank goodness, i'm sick of the cliche club track on every hip-hop album for the last ten years. But, The album is solid, diverse, and not too repetitive, though by "Dig a Hole" you might be getting tired, but you definitely want to ahng on- "Beach Chair" with Coldplay's Chris Martin is one of the best tracks on the album.

Thanksgiving was awesome- i realized that i've essentially had the exact same thanksgiving dinner my entire life, but I couldn't be happier about it. It's simply the greatest conglomeration of foods that there is, and it's impossible to improve on the best. I love my family, honestly, they're the best, even if my brother got me up at 3 in the morning to go to Gamestop to try and get the Nintendo Wii only to be 7th in a line where there were only 6 Wii's delivered. And even if my sister is a little prying, she was good enough to choose The Cheesecake Factory for her birthday dinner. And my mom, for taking me shopping for cold weather stuff, whcih it turns out I badly needed.

BYU v. Utah, wow, what a game. First off, BYU played their worst of the season, by far, but managed to make an amazing pay in the last seconds to win. There were some terrible calls or missed calls and etc, but overall, it was a great game because we beat Yewtah. And now we're just on to the Vegas Bowl- where we should win, hopefully, but we'll be playing Oregon most likely, which I dunno how that'll go.

So, when I arrived home Monday morning, it was lightly snowing, and it was very lucky I bought all my cold weather stuff there in Houston, because it is snowing like nothing else. I love snow- it's truly amazing. I walked to class today and it was all I could to not play in it. Honestly, people say I'll get tired of it, which I no doubt will, but as long as I'm enjoying it, I'll brag about it. Give it a month or two though- I'l get sick of it.

Okay, so this Christmas is going to be amazing- I'm going to NYC. No joke. I love my parents.

Cum Veritas et Spes

Dan

Big Week

A lot of important things are happening this week. Numero Uno is I return home for the first time in a few months for Thanksgiving, which, incidentally is the second big thing. I realy cannot wait to just get home and see people, hang with the family and have an awesome holiday. Not to mention my drumset is at home, and I really want to play something soon on that just because it's been so long since i've had a real drumset session.

Second big thing: BYU v. Utah. Yes, BYU has cemented it's place as the Mountain-West Conference champions, and yes they have been invited to the Las Vegas Bowl, and yes their record is actually really good, but there is one hitch. If we don't beat Utah, this season will really have meant nothing. The rivalry is the biggest thing this season has going, and BYU is a good enough team to beat the Utes. If we do, it'll be the highlight of our season, no doubt, but we have to thwomp them good.

Third big thing: Tomorrow is the return of the Roc, H.O.V.A, the Jay-Z. Kingdom come due out in stores tomorrow. If you haven't already seen the single (Show Me What You Got) then go see it. The single's not quite what I expected, but if the album lives up to Jay-Z's name, then it should be worth checking out.

Fourth big thing: I am coming home for Thanksgiving.

Rebuilding New Orleans

I had an epiphany whilst watching the Reggie Bush Project (http://thereggiebushproject.com). New Orleans isn't quite back on track, but Reggie Bush seems to be a sort of uniting figure. So who is Reggie Bush sponsored by? Pepsi.

So what if Pepsi rebuilt New Orleans- from the ground up? Reggie Bush's face plastered all over, nothing but Pepsi availabel at any stores, and most importantly- big money for the Big Easy. What's better than a corporate sponsor for a major city? The city gets money, and jobs, and in return the corporate sponsor gets huge advertising and influence and respect. This could catch on. I'd love to see big names running big cities. Imagine it- the taxes would be lower for the citizens!

Honestly, this is a brilliant idea. They could even rename the city- Cherry Orleans with a twist of Reggie.

Get on it major companies!

Updateish

School has been going okay. I've had a lot of papers to write and I still have another paper due this week for book of mormon, but that's what wednesday morning is for!

I'm actually really excited about writing this Political Science paper. My argument is that political attack ads force downsian retrospection on voters, which I'm pro-downsian, so in a way that's good. But the biggest problem I think right now is that people lie about stuff so downsian is harder to determine.

Okay. I'm a nerd, but I actually really am excited about this paper.

Budgeting

Okay, so I proposed a budget and with it an addendum that explains both generally and categorically each piece of my budget for my mom because, let's face it, I am a terrible budgeter. I did a little research on several sites that showed up when googling "college budgeting tips." My mom was unsatisfied with how i dealt with my finanances the first two months of college, and I will admit that it is true, so I decided to, under her instruction, propose a budget. The addendum was my idea- an attempt to explain my budgeting, and I feel that my budget is not only far more conservative but also far more reasonable.

The key I think to learn from this is that I need to control my finances. I know I can but sometimes it's hard. I see something I like and it's difficult not to buy it, especially when I have the money. I'm working on keeping track of each penny I spend and sometimes it's hard to reconcile but I must. I know this will help me in the future, and thankfully I can learn right now when it won't be as terrible as it will be.

Well that's college life.

I'm.... back?

Yes, the crazy world of blogging has once again tempted me. I am here at BYU and I have to say, it is amazing. I have way too much fun and not enough money and basically everything college is really about. Like just tonight I went to a poli sci club meeting where one of my professors was just for free food. I don't think i could do poli sci as a major, but hey, if they give me free food, i'm there.

Classes are going excellentally, perhaps finishing my midterms and having a short break are really the big two reasons I am posting this. I do have a paper to write, and one to revise, but it's nothing huge, I'll take care of that tomorrow morning. I love my friday schedule- I work out from about 6-7 a.m. and then eat breakfast, shower and change (in different places) and then go to the Maeser building to study for hours- I spent 8 hours there in one day last week studying. I grab a drink, boot up the laptop, put on some music, do my homework whilst playing minesweeper and then when i'm done I check out all my favorite sites and maybe if I'm lucky I take a nap. I have my american heritage lab at 2 p.m. so i usually get lunch about 1:30 or earlier. Then, after the lab i go and kill some time in the library or finish up homework in the Maeser building. I'm trying to start running or elliptical after this just to get in a good habit in addition to the MWF workouts and Saturday runs. Friday nights vary from awesome to amazing.

I think everything is going alright, i'll maybe put up another update in a week or so.

No more updates for a bit.

Cuz I want to get that 4.0 in college.


BADLY

2 Weeks

Wow.... 2 weeks.

Seriously, i'm excited but nervous.

A very special post

A very special post indeed. I now have as many posts on this blog as I did at my last semi-consistent blog. The good news is, this one took half the time. 30 posts- that's a big number for me.

Also, guys, if you ever want to feel really really bad, just pack all of your belongings into five bags(garment bag, backpack, duffel, two suitcases). It's crazy realizing how much I have and how not long I'm going to be at home. I think I'm going to live off a few things for the next two and a half weeks just so I don't have to deal with packing again. Kinda crazy, I know, but after packing all that stuff I don't want to unpack it and then repack it when I have to go for real. I'd rather just repack the two pairs of shorts, two pairs of jeans, five t shirts, three undershirts, suit and white shirt, a couple of athletic things and the few other things I have when it's time to go. And of course my toiletries.

So, I hope to be able to update semi-often at BYU, though I might be too busy studying to bother with it. Hahaha, no seriously I'll try to be too busy studying to bother with it too much.

Interesting note: Blogger, on its spell check, doesn't recognize "blog" as a word.

My First Tracting

Okay, so yesterday was a pretty awesome day. About 4:15, I met with the missionaries to do a "blitz" (there were eight of us, two to a road, four roads in two hours). So, six of us packed into one car and drove to the area we had chosen, and me and my companion were dropped off at the first street. Well, the first two or three houses were completely empty. Around the fourth house, we got our first answer. But, outside of this houses doorway was a little fake pond thing, that was a breeding ground for mosquitoes, do we're trying to introduce ourselves while slapping the little buggers off us. Not very effective, though comical.

The first house that I gave the approach at was answered by an "Anti" as some of the apologetics blogs I read call them. We went a couple more houses down, and at one we started to intruded ourselves, and this little old lady came to the front door, saw us, and immediately locked and deadbolted the door shut and shooed us away. We came to one house were a lady said we should come back around the same time tomorrow, so hopefully the missionaries follow up on that- she seemed genuinely interested, not fake interested like the lady who told us to come by Saturday. We tracted into one guy who really liked the Mormons, but was too much into his religion. He said he had been to temple square and really enjoyed it. We gave him a passalong, and he probably won't call, but it might be nice for him to have.

We put passalongs in places where gate prevent us from going to the front door. The next memorable one was at the cul-de-sac, where we tracted into a really nice man, who told us we shouldn't start teaching him because we'd just end up arguing, but he gave us water and said that, if we could do this, then we'd go far in life. He took a passalong for the Book of Mormon, and seemed like a genuine enough truth seeker. A couple houses down, we tracted into a guy who was hosting the dinner for his church, so he basically said, "If I'm hosting this, then you're not about to get to me right now."

After him it was time to head back, so we went back to the head of the street, and since we had a few minutes to kill, we tracted the other side, about five houses. The fifth house we tracted into a Four Square Christian (which when I first heard, I thought of my elementary school days) who asked us a bunch of questions, such as who was our prophet, did we believe Christ was resurrected, etc. She seemed to have Priesthood Power and the Holy Spirit mixed up though. She invited us to her church where their "prophets" were having a weekend retreat type of thing. After that, the four other missionaries with our car came back, so we squeezed in and drove back to the church.

So that was my experience... My first approach was to an anti. But I never felt awkward or bad, and it was definitely worth it to see the intrigue on the truth seekers faces, scarce as they were. I cannot wait till I get to do that full-time.

True Story

So, when I was younger, we used to visit this beach every summer. I mean, every summer, we'd go to the beach for three days, spend two days at grandma Mississippi’s house. The beach was called "Crystal Beach" and it was a pretty good beach, I must admit, especially for me being six years old, then seven, then eight then nine then ten, etc. We stopped going there when I was ten actually, so take out that "etc." I don't remember the earliest I went there... maybe three years old? You wouldn't really know, so forget I asked the question.

Well, this beach was pretty sweet, as I said, and our entire family would just play on it, and there was this restaurant called Ruby Tuesday's we always ate it. It was gross. Speaking of restaurant, some famous thrill horror writer who died recently always called them "diners" because he couldn't spell restaurant. That's really sad, unless he was referring to Ruby Tuesday's, because he would have been better off calling them "poo-houses" as that name is more apt.

Well, there were also casinos near the beach, some ON THE WATER which I thought was cool (as a seven, eight and nine year old only) to gamble on the Gulf of Mexico. I'd gamble on stupid stuff like how many seagulls would pass by and not poo on us. If we were at Ruby Tuesdays, I would have bet on zero, as that is their primary source of entrees. Ruby Tuesday's is in fact an anagram for seagull poo. Figure that one out.

So, Crystal beach was an alright place, but like I said, we'd always visit grandma afterwards. Now my grandma is blindingly Baptist, and or family being Mormon as it was, we often had awkward situations, i.e. going to my grandma's church and wondering where the sunbeams met. Only Mormons will get that reference. What if we opened up a Mormon restaurant with Mormon themed dishes? That might be pretty cool, but the demographic is of course limited.

But, Grandma's house was sweet because she had Chinese checkers and real checkers. I never learned how to play Chinese checkers, but I’d have fun beating my brother, as he also did not know how to play. Then there were about five thousand naked ken and Barbie dolls from my older sister and younger cousins- that was weird for my brother and me. I'll stick to Mousetrap.

That was a sweet game. You'd set it all up and then you'd pretend to try and start really playing it, but then you'd set the thing off just to watch it go. Then you'd lose a piece and never use it again. If you could have sold replacement parts to mousetrap, you'd have been rich. Another sweet game? Snakes and Ladders, which is currently being adapted into a film with Samuel L. Jackson- "Snakes on a Ladder." Featuring SLJ as Jackson Gruff, a CIA agent assigned to help an old man under the witness protection program. Everything goes smoothly till a light bulb burns out. The old man goes to fix it with his eighteen footer, and by the fifth step it becomes obvious some terrorist has unleashed a multitude of serpents upon this helpless old man and his ladder. Will the old man make it? Will this movie become an internet cult hit? We many never know.

If you read all this, you get five stars.

The Great RPS Debate

Rock Paper Scissors. Rochambeau. Shoot. Pumps. Throw.

All these are common language among those who play rock, paper, scissors, but it has become glaringly obvious that some people are in confusion as to the procedure with which you must play. There are two vastly supported ideas: the "one two shoot," and the "one two three, shoot," referring to the number of "pumps" or fists up and down before you throw (i.e. display rock, paper or scissors).

Rock Paper Scissors shoot. That is how I play, and according the relkjwtoijrgoinhergoijhreg United States of America Rock Paper Scissors League (http://www.usarps.com) how you should play- three pumps and then you shoot. I watched the championships on ESPN2 for this very league, and they followed the rules exactly. It is, in my opinion, the best because it is all inclusive- whether chanting "rock paper scissors" or "rochambeau" before you shoot, you do not fall into the pit of "rock...Paper...Shoot" thus totally leaving out the scissor. The same goes for "Ro-cham-shoot" leaving out the crucial "beau" that completes the word.

All "one two shoot" has is efficiency, or rather quickness. It is a viable option in many tournaments, however, it is wrong and stupid. Can you "OTS-ers" only count to two? Three is not that far from two, nor is it difficult to say. The quickness of this style ruins all the finesse and subtlety of the game, and you ruin a game which may or may not date back thousands of years.

If you disagree with me, you're wrong. I'm going to say that to get it cleared right away.

Business

I've been pretty busy. Finishing out my Duty to God, trying to convince my dad to get me the laptop i want for college, trying out this L-Glutamine stuff for excercise help, cleaning up my room to get ready for college, helping plan the True Blue podcast(http://trueblue.ppedepot.com/), helping brainstorm for a teenage version of "The Office," and trying to get in shape before college viz weightlifting, running, swimming and ultimate.

I will, however, try and post more. I promise. I'll write a bit post sometime soon on Kirtland/Palmyra and all the wonder that happened there for me.

Soon.

Just an Update

Nothing going on.

Looking for advice

Does anyone know of a good protein powder out there?

One that's fairly good tasting, easy to make and will in fact help me?

I've been really busy lately.

Aw man, I got honey all over my legs...

Well, actually I didn't. But, I will be posting more soon, i promise; summer school bites, but I used that semicolon perfectly.

But just quickly: WHY DOESN'T MY AREA OF TEXAS HAVE A 7-11?

Oh man new post!

like acdc, i'm back in black.

soon to come: awesomeness unleashed.

Ultimate Frisbee

Ultimate Frisbee is a pretty sweet sport. I play it most Thursdays at klein, with a huge group of people. Sure I may not be able to throw, but I can block it. That's kinda my only gig so far, but I plan to get better with the throwing it thing.

Wow, i dunno really what else to write about that.

I'm Dishing out Some Dirt

People of the world, I have an announcement. I am going to Prom with someone amazing. But I also have something else to say, totally unrelated. You know why blogger has been so slow? It's because of this bit of awesome that I am about to unleash on the world. In fact, they scheduled an outage at 4PM PDT just so as to prepare their servers for the unleashing of the most controversial comparison of two music videos, and indeed two members of different bands ever of all time.

Has anyone seen the new Taking Back Sunday music video? Well, let's just say the song is called, "MakeD***Sure" and features closeups of the lead singer, bassist, drummer, etc, with quick transitions to animal sequences and quick real life snippets spliced all together. Now wait a tick... I've seen this music video, it was called, "The Best of You" by The Foo Fighters.

Further proof:


so called "Dave Grohl" (note the long hair, beard)












and the guy from taking back Sunday



















Are they not one in the same? The video from TBS can be viewed here. You just wait til this crisis has escalated to unknown proportions. I will be famous. I happened to notice that both videos contain the exact same "snake attacking a rat" footage as was shown in several of my biology class videos. I can only hope that this is all worked out peacefully and amazingly awesomely.

Some Days

Well, today went alright. I guess, if you can count boring as all get out alright. Yeah, so I'm pretty much zoned out for the rest of the school year, cept in Pre-Cal and physics. I still have to work on those two. But not too hard, because then I'd feel bad. It's my second semester and I'm a senior, I feel entitled to a little slacking, eh?

Well, the best news is that Prom may be figured out. With a really cool girl too. I'm excited. I know I said I'd tackle big issues in this blog, but I meant more towards the summer I would, when I had time to tackle them. Because right now, I'm way too school focused (i.e. lazy).

Prom Date

So far, my Prom attempts have been less than amazing- no date, but I am in a group. I guess that's cool, now I just need to get a date, y'know? That's kinda the important part of this whole thing. But who? Well, she's gotta be LDS, and my parents have to approve, and believe me, that list is not as long as you might assume it to be. There are really..... Three girls that I can ask. And one of them doesn't live in this state.

So, this pretty much bites, especially since my Mom has made a point of trying to make going to Prom the most difficult task ever. She's shot down two or three of my candidates for dates, and totally excluded one or two. What am I supposed to do, especially since I didn't get that one girl from Cy-Fairs number? I really should have. She was like... BAM! Wow, what a girl. She even bothered to come over and talk to me after the dance, and what did I do? Wished her a good night. She clearly wanted my number too.

I wish I could take Erica- that would be most excellent, but unfortunately, my parents nixed that idea. I can't wait till this fall, that should be fun. Chillin at college, seeing my sister, going to class and etc.

What am I to do?

In Re: Car Alarms

So I was kept up somewhat late last night by a car alarm. What's more ironic is that I had just heard about this car alarm song from the comedian, Dane Cook. Here's a little sample:

Hellooooooooooo
I'm a caaaaaaaaar
(that's the doooooooOOOOOOO, dooooooooOOOOO)

Gas-o-line-makes me run
(the ehn-ehn-ehn-ehn)

back-seat
trunk space
(Deeeeeeeeoooooooo, deeeeeeeeooooooo)

repeat:
helloooooooo
let's go for a riiiiiiiide

oil is my blood

seatbelts
radio knobs


(emphasis added to try and get the point across)


But seriously, can we not get a better alarm for cars? I mean, it barely phases most people to hear car alarms in the middle of the night. They're there for the sole purpose of alarming people, and that have totally failed. Completely and totally failed, because they've become interwoven into the other sounds of the night: squealing almost accidents, owls, sirens, gang fights, washing machines, honeybees, mosquito's, rap music, etc.

My suggestion: replace all car alarms with a recording of Marlon Brando screaming, "Stella!!!!!!!! Stellllllllaaaa!!!!" Possibly we could have them saying instead, "I'm a car!!!!! I'm being stolen!!!!! Someone stop this!!!!" Or better yet, we have an option where different celebrities sign up to do the voices. I mean, MTV would almostly definitely have a contest wherein someone would get Kanye's voice for their car alarm. This could be the most amazing idea I've ever had. People could do their own too- imagine you customizing one as a prank, so that whenever it went off, it started playing Abba's "Dancing Queen." That would be hilarious.

Who knows. I do. It's not gonna happen, because my greatest ideas never get put into motion, so this will never happen ever. And if it does, I'm going to expect some money. Which will probably not happen.

Back to Blogging

Well, here we are again- I'm back to blogging, back to raising questions, answering them and debating them. I'm back to stay hopefully, so maybe people could read this and listen, who knows. I really don't have too many aspirations to this blog, considering all the work I've not put into it. I'll tackle tough issues though, like censorship, education, and really basic stuff.

I promise to you, all those readers in blog-land, that I will post at least twice a week, and when summer roles around, four times a week, occasionally every day except Sunday. I will not post lame things that promise later postings, I will post full fledged, interesting and intriguing things that you will enjoy reading and make you think.

In short, I, El Krunkeroso, will lead you through the magic world of my mind and how I operate. You might get scared, but just hold on for the ride, because it will be worth it.

-The Krunk

Just a Riddle...

Name at least one English word that is its own antonym.

Spring Break

Wow, so these past few weeks have been pretty deck, werd?

Two Fridays ago- went to freebirds down on 1960- great, great place. Then that Saturday went to a Rice(#1) versus Cal State Fullerton(#6) baseball game with Scott, Nick and my Dad (Rice won), and so that weekend was awesome. Then, this past Wednesday, I went to the Rodeo with *Charlotte* to see Toby Keith- that was pretty much an awesome, awesome night, full of kettle corn, rodeo art, great stories, great food (including deepfried snickers), and a great ride home and overall, one of the best times I've had lately. So then, this last Friday, we went shopping up at the Woodlands mall, and that was pretty cool, ate dinner at Chili's, went to Hollister and got some new stuff. Then, Saturday we went to the BYU vs. A&M rugby game, where BYU dominated like 38-0. I know one of the guys on the BYU team, and turns out my Priest's Quorom advisor was there and had coached the guy I knew when he went to UVSC. Crazy world, ain't it? We had eaten at Freebird's before the game, and afterwards we went to Rudy's BBQ with a bunch of friends from the Colleyville era of my lifetime. I got home and then went bowling with Scott- it was alright overall, nothing spectacular.

So, now it's Spring Break and what have I done? I've cleaned up a lot of my room, especially my closet (got a piece of glass to stab my foot, yay!), but I've cleaned out my car as well, so there's been a lot of cleaning done, and I think I'm done with cleaning for today. I'll do some more tomorrow morning. But now... I dunno. Give me a call if you wanna do something.

BYU Bound

Well, this fall I will be going to BYU, and I have a lot of things I hope to accomplish, so I figured I'd write them out for your viewing pleasure.

-Revamp the drumline- BYU's drumline is decent, but could be really amazing if they worked in a disciplined way. I have to go up there and make sure that they go from lackluster to amazing, and I plan to do all I can to make myself and the line the best ever. Yeah, it's a big thing, but I want to do it really badly, because drumming is my passion. I don't know how that will all go down yet, but I guarantee you it will go down.

-Not pay for a haircut- basically, I'm going to meet a lot of girls at BYU, and I have one advantage over most guys in that I'm younger, so the girls don't have to worry about me leaving six months after I meet them. Now, I won't be looking for any girlfriends, I just want to find girls who know how to cut hair, and in return for a date/homework help, I get a haircut. Or they give it to me out of the sheer goodness of their heart.

-Become campus wide- in otherwords, get my face out there, make sure people know who I am. I want to be seen, and remembered. Not sure what it will take yet, but I figure if I can find something to lead, maybe give a big speech, organize a rally, something that will bring people to me, and I can do other stuff that brings me to people: go to parties, etc. I need to be likeable, which I am for the most part, so this should be something I can do.

-Get a job- I'm going to be taking minimum hours at BYU, so I will have some extra time to get a job to help finance various things. Supposedly, working for the campus is awesome, but I can probably find something off campus locally that will work out better for me. Who knows how that'll go. It'll be influenced by whatever I do over the summer, that's for sure.

- Prepare myself- For a mission, really. I need to get really well acquainted with the scriptures and Preach my Gospel. I need to hang around people who are uplifting, go to church, all that good stuff. Keep my grades up, save money, learn how to cook (well, I know that pretty well, but y'know, college style), fine tune all of my people skills, and basically polish up.


that's all I can think of. Any suggestions?

Smoothie King

is the best.

Jamba juice is like the bad tasting, uncool version of smoothie king. Smoothie king is pure goodness.

So, I'm definitly ready to go off to college.

P.s. sorry for the whole lack of posting things... I'm just kinda busy. When i'm unbusyed, you'll see a new story or something.

BYU

I got my acceptance letter yesterday.


Also automatic pants are a cool concept, but I doubt i'd wear them.

What's on my Mind

Well, today was friday the thirteenth, and it was relatively okay. I did, however, have the dumbest english test ever of all time where we had to relate a Martin Luther King quote to Ernest Hemmingway's The Sun Also Rises. I swear she only picked that because monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. There is no other plausible reason, as it was a huge stretch for anyone, and I mean anyone to relate the quote to the book. I would have been better off making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and turning that in. I would have definitly gotten a better score.

I did get a passing grade on the APUSH pop quiz, which was amazing, considering I put Chuck Norris down as an answer (it wasn't correct, I just felt the need to put his name on my quiz). I think I did fairly well on the DBQ, and then my other project in there is coming along nicely. I'm feeling the good vibes for the Privy Council.

Physics... meh. Test was hard, but I think I can pull out a B for the semester. I'm beginning to get it all connected. Precal- nothing too big. Finishing off some homework this weekend. Test was a cinch. Gov/Econ- both easy.


I'm ready for the rest of the year, I dunno about you guys, but I am.

funkitated

I think one of the more unique things about me is perhaps my rather large and amorphous vocabulary. I have no problem shifting from on moment West Coast ("yo, duude, keep it real!") to then Midwest ("Look at 'em grain silos") to Southwest ("Got any hot sauce for my pancakes?") to Northwest ("I cahn't remember where I pahked the cah.") to West Side ("Werd dawg, be illin.") to Adam West("I'm a mayor.").

Colloquialisms, if that is a word, which it's probably not (thus my amorphous vocabulary strikes yet again), are my specialty. I am fluent in hipster, spanglish, jiiberjabber, jive (please tell me some gets that movie reference), street, dirty south, and most variations of surfer. I stay "deck" with my "homies" just wanting some "muy bueno food" while I keep "talkinthatcrazystuff" and then once I "get my eat on" I can "live it up" and still "hang loose."

See? I could be stranded in practically anywhere (i.e. California, Texas or Utah) and I would blend in to whatever enviorment I need to. Heck, I should work for the CIA, because then I could infiltrate hipster gangs and then realize that hipsters pose no actual three to anyone. I could infiltrate the highest echelons of the surfers to find out exactly how many different ways the word "dude" can be used, I could even figure out exactly what Mike Jones means by "wrapped in four fours." I would be highly valued as a street agent. I would, however need a sidekick, one who could provide comic relief for my brooding want to be loner personality.

so, here are some words I use regularly, their origins, and what they mean

defunked- means true to the original. I made this one up because "defunct" is a stupid word with a stupid meaning.
krunk- crazy, as in, losing control of some basic body functions, but with no alcohol. dirty south
deck- cool, or tubular or rad, depending on whatever ishtar era you grew up in. hipster
ishtar-all things not deck; also, lame. hipster
no dice- literally "you didn't make it." used to refer to when someone tries,. And puts up a good effort, but fails. unknown origin
yah, werd- no particular meaning, most commonly, "I understand" or "can you dig?" also "What's going on?" combined dirty south and surfer
trippidacious- if you've never been on drugs, but feel like you're on a trip. origin unknown

That's pretty much it. Any questions?

Best. Surprise. Ever.

So, as I went outside this morning to get the newspaper, my eye caught upon something tied/taped to the bench in front of our house. It was in fact a birthday surprise from my stalker, The Smiling Infidel. I have to say thanks just publicly, because it was really more thoughtful than I think even she thinks it might have been.

In other news... My friend Clint got pretty badly injured last night when he went to do a dunk of another guys back. He came down on his head, and couldn't remember some stuff, and I heard there was an ambulance, so I'm hoping he's doing alright.

Birthday

Today is my birthday.

I'm happy.

Best news of the year...

I got a 30 on my ACT.

I'm fairly happy, considering that's better than the 26 I predicted I would get.

Yay.

What is Shaving Cream Made Of?

Gillette

Deionized Water,
Palmitic acids,
Triethanolamine,
Stearic Acid,
Isopentane,
Fatty Acid Esteres,
Sorbitol,
Aloe vera gell,
Fragrance,
PVP,
Isobutane,
Peg 90M,
blue #1,
D&C Yellow #10

The story

Well... Here's a story no one has ever heard before. I went to Cancun this past summer with my family, and I spent a week there, and in that time, for one day I was totally sick. I mean, just completely throw up everywhere spend the day half dressed kind of sick, whilst my family went out scuba diving. I had a looooong day at the hotel, and some weird stuff happened, all of it within 50 feet of my room.

First off, the day I got sick was also the day Natalie Halloway disappeared in Aruba, so I, being in the sick state that I was, got paranoid like no ones business. Room service came by at about 11:30, and I refused to let them in unless they slipped some sort of identification under the door. They went on to the next room, and when they came beck, I started shouting random words I remembered from the Spanish subtitles of Nickolodeon TV shows I had been watching. Roughly translated, I told them something about a large cow eating food. I think. At about Noon, I decided I was hungry, and went downstairs to try and bargain with the hotel gift shop into giving me a meal for the 40 pesos I had. I brought a coke, a pb and j sandwich, a bag of chips and an ice cream thing to the counter and put the 40 pesos down. The counter person told me I only had enough money for the drink and chips. I told her I wouldn't hold it against her if she gave me the other stuff for free. I said I hadn't eaten since last night, and my family had left me to snorkel for the day, and wouldn't have a chance at food for a while. She gave it to me, free of charge. I ate all of it before I got back to the room, and took the elevator back up.

Inside of the elevator was the next incident, because a bunch of kids on a high school spring break came in with me. Keep in mind I was paranoid, and they were drunk. I stood in the back corner and kept to myself. One of the louder kids was obviously terribly drunk for just after noon, and I tried to feign disinterest. They got off about three floors below mine, and as the doors were shutting, I nailed him in the back of the head with the coke bottle. Then, for the rest of the trip up I stared at all of the signs in the elevator. One struck me as unusual, in my sick and paranoid state. It read, "In case of fire, use stairs." I punched it and yelled very loudly, "In case of fire, stop drop and roll! That's one thing America was at least able to teach its children about fire safety that Mexico's elevators have yet to learn." I was definitely screwed up. I only remember because I wrote it all on my boarding pass when I got to the room.

My family came by later, and I was feeling better. I decided I was well enough to go out to dinner with them. Huge mistake. I got to the restaurant, and immediately started feeling horrible. I told them I had to leave, but my Dad was just, "Can't you stay with us for a meal?" When I made it evident I couldn't, he gave me some money to either catch a bus or get a taxi. He actually hailed a taxi right there, asked for the fare, and gave it to me. But that was only after I told him I refused to ride the bus and we had a big argument about it. I told him I'd rather walk than ride the bus, and as I slipped into a more delirious state, I walked.

Five miles to my hotel, in the dark, on the streets of Cancun, during the middle of spring break. I really don't know what was up with me. I walked all the way to the hotel, but realized I was also starving, and went to the combination gas station/money changer/McDonald/subway. I convinced myself that they subway would be the best, and I ordered it and ate it outside. It was disgusting, and I threw up the part that I ate almost immediately. I then hailed a cab to take me from literally across the street up to the hotel (to be fair, it was on a steep slope) and then I stumbled into my room. I don't think I'll ever forgive my dad for wanting to make me ride the busses of Cancun alone, and then letting me walk back to the hotel. A lot of stuff happened on that walk, stuff too scary to tell here, and none of it I want to remember.

Well, that's the story of the Cancun sickness (which was not, by the way, Montezuma's revenge).