Entry

School is getting crazy. I've got two papers to write soon, plus Arabic every night and then I have to read for all of my classes and so I needed a little break and I thought, hey why not write a blog entry? I am usually pretty good at doing those, and it relieves stress because I get stuff off my back that otherwise I might not be able to.

Anyways, I'm now making money off this blog. Now, I am not saying you should click those ads. That would be wrong for me to selfishly promote myself like that, and according to the Terms of Service, I cannot, so I will not.

I was reading through my blog archives and I stumbled upon an idea I had once, and I quote, "Automatic pants sound cool, but I doubt I'd wear them." I stand by that statement, it's one of the few things I've ever said that I believe should be universally accepted and so here we are.

I bought a copy of The Doctrine and Covenants/ The Pearl of Great Price in Arabic for my Arabic class. It's really hard to read, but all I need now is a copy of the Book of Mormon in Arabic, and a Quran in Arabic with English translation and footnotes preferably. Learning it is hard but I think I'm getting along okay.

I'm being ordained an elder soon. I'm really excited about it, to tell the truth, because I've been waiting for a while. I sometimes love having graduated early because I'm young and I'm getting this stuff done early, but sometimes I hate it because I'm young and everyone else is older. But it's never terrible, thank goodness. I don't have a roommate, but my floor is pretty cool.

I've sent my dad my resume for whatever job I'll be working this summer- well, not whatever job, I'll be interning with Deutsch bank with any luck, but it's where I'll be interning. Probably Houston, but there is a chance I'll be in London, and hopefully wherever I work, I will have the chance to go to the Middle East and use my Arabic language skills. We'll just have to wait and see- I'll be updating this blog more often as I get the chance, and who knows, this many become a regular thing.

Really Practical Things That Should Be Invented

-White shoes that don't scuff. Coming from Houston, mud could be a problem, and I looked forward to the mudless, snowy walks I could take and not worry about my "ice creams." Well, as it turns out, Utah holds a most vicious evil in its snow- that dirty snow that gets your shoes scuffed to where you can't wipe it off. Examples? I have two pairs of shoes- both prominently feature white, both scuffed with dirty, dirty snow.

First, the Converses



See how normal they look? Well look closer. I've circled in red the most prominent scuffs and dirt for the less discerning readers.





And now, the Adidas.


A nice overhead shot. Nothing too suspicious, except upon closer examination







I realize some of you at this time may be left in need of serious help to deal with these shocking images. Snow isn't quite as clean as it seems.


This post was originally going to contain a lot more, but I had to find a decent photo editor, take the pictures, upload them, etc etc. So here are a few more ideas:

-Shorts that don't rip. I've noticed a lot of my shorts rip weirdly. Other guys have had this same problem.
-Carmex that has the same effects but doesn't make everything seem terrible because of the- and I use this word loosely- flavor.
-Better places for me to put this apple sticker. I had two, and one went on my external hard drive. I'm all out of ideas.
-A cheaper Bluetooth mouse for my computer- Apple's is $70, and I’m in college. I may get it. It's a big debate between what I want, and what I really badly want.
-Machine based bench presses that don't stink. My max according to the one I did was 202- which is about my workout weight. Granted, I do an 85% workout, but still, getting 85% of your max as your max is sad.
-A simpler way to learn Arabic. There's so much I want to do without learning the words for big (kibiir) and small (sugayarr).
-Well, it's not an invention so much as a return to the original formula for Redline- this new one (in the non-metal cans) isn't quite up to snuff.

And now I'm off to go buy some drinks. No wait, I've got water. Yay water. This water bottle, by the way, in addition to being stylish and awesome, was cheap and has already paid for itself when compared to smart water, Fiji water, and all that stuff I used to drink and will, on occasion, indulge myself in.

stuff people need to listen to, read or know

Listening:
-Mos Def
-Talib Kweli
-Fort Minor
-John Legend
(Okay, I know those are all hip-hop/rap-ish, but they're powerful)
-The Warsaw Pact
-Wolfmother
-Jet
-Audioslave
-The Psychedelic Furs
-Urge Overkill

Reading:
-The Dharma Bums
-On the Road
-Freakonomics
-Approaching Zion
-Fight Club
-Dubliners

Know:
-Dave Matthews Band sucks.
-So do Creed, Alterbridge, Jars of Clay, Nickelback, Hoobastank, Fallout Boy, and too many more to list
-Jack kerouac is an amazing writer
-You are not

Semester Dos

So here I am. I'm taking arabic (ahlan wasahlan). I love everything.

I'm reading a lot. Don't be surprised if I come out of this semester smarter than anyone.