Sunday, November 1, 2009

Just some stuff, mostly about libraries.

It is Sunday night and I'm bored out of my mind so I thought I'd post a little update. School is going well. Only 6 weeks of class and 1 week of finals until 3 weeks of Christmas break. Can you tell I'm excited?

This week I got the results of my last chemistry test, which were better than expected. I had a test in Sport Psychology that I feel pretty good about. On Monday, I got to see Laura Bush, governor Herbert, and a few other important people speak at the rededication of the Marriott library. That was pretty cool. I'll tell a little bit more about that later. My cousin Brooke came to visit on Wednesday which was awesome. We went to the Pie, checked out a couple of shops close to my apartment, and just hung out. Yesterday was a blast because it was Halloween! I didn't actually do anything that had to do with Halloween, I just went to the Blackout game with my pops and my little brother. It was so much fun to have them with me at the game. My dad went to the U so it's always fun to have him come and tell me about what it was like when he was in school. Before the game we went to the campus bookstore to get some gear for the game. Then we went to the pie and ate until we were bursting. The pie is awesome. If you haven't been there, you need to go. After we ate, we checked out the tailgate party and headed to the game. Even though the Utes played like garbage, the game was a blast. My little bro was super excited to finally be at a U game instead of the usual BYU games that the ward goes to. Despite the horrible playing, the Utes pulled out the win, luckily. After the game when my dad and brother had left, I went to party with Winters and Sweaty. I don't get to hang out with them very often and it was a lot of fun, except when they made me sing when we were playing the Beatles rock band. It's ok though, I guess I'll forgive them.

Anyway, here's more about the library rededication. The library was crazy busy. I felt a little out of place in my jeans and hoodie because everyone there was dressed pretty nicely. I didn't expect to be able to see the rededication live because most people had gotten their tickets already and I didn't have one. They were showing the rededication on TVs in some of the downstairs classrooms in the library so that's where I was planning on watching it. With about a minute before the program started, a lady came into the classroom and told us that if we wanted to watch the rededication live, we could hurry upstairs and fill in some of the empty seats. I hurried upstairs and was lucky enough to get a seat with a view that wasn't completely obstructed. The program started and I don't remember everything that was said, but every speaker talked at least a little bit about the importance of education and how lucky we are to have this great library that we can use. I love libraries, probably a little too much. In the Lucy A. Phillips library at Snow College, I had one certain study spot on the third floor where I would study for hours and hours every week. I loved that spot. I probably spent more hours studying in that certain spot than I spent anywhere else last school year, including my house. The only problem with that spot though, was that it was in the library, which is filled with.....you guessed it....books! I absolutely love books. I'm one of the losers that spends my school holidays curled up in a blanket on the couch with a book...or two...or three. Every day I spent in the Snow College library, without fail, I would find an interesting book that would distract me from my studies. I found books on poetry, sports, old Utah ghost towns, books of Andy Warhol prints, and giant books of prints of ancient drawings. I read about Harvard's medical school, global warming, astronomy, and countless other topics. I could spend the rest of my life in a library and probably be perfectly happy and content. There are books on every topic imaginable. In the Marriott library at the U, there are miles and miles of bookshelves. It is like heaven! On Friday morning, just when I thought I had found a new study spot to take the place of my beloved spot in the Snow College library, I found out that my new proposed spot is right next to a whole section of books on Rock and Roll. While I should have been studying for a test, I found myself looking through a book of classic rock posters from the 1960's. I guess the point I'm trying to make is, if I'm going to be distracted from my studies, books are probably not that bad of a distraction (except for those rock and roll books, those probably aren't helping me all that much :)).

Anyway, now that you all know how much of a bookworm I am, I'm going to write a little bit about my school experience lately. When I moved to Salt Lake in August, I was super excited about starting this new chapter in my life. I felt confident and ready for whatever was going to come my way. After my first week of class, however, I felt pretty overwhelmed. My classes were going well and my roommates were really nice and helpful, but I just felt completely out of place. Nothing and nobody was familiar and I felt really lonely. All I could think about was how all of my friends lived 2 hours away and how I still had 3 years of this friendless torture to endure until I could finally graduate. To be completely honest, these thoughts have stayed with me pretty much all semester until this past week when I realized how lucky I am to be in the situation I'm in. I still don't have a lot of friends that I hang out with in Salt Lake, I still don't feel completely comfortable in my surroundings, and I still miss hanging out with my family every day, but I do know how lucky I am to be able to be getting an education. Not everyone gets the chance to go to college and become anything they want to be. I've realized that I need to stop feeling sorry for myself and enjoy college while I can, because it's an experience that I am very fortunate to have.

Anyway, sorry this post is just a bunch of stuff jumbled together. I do feel better now that I've written a few things down, though. If you read this whole thing, I'm sorry for the couple of minutes of your life that I wasted :) I'll try to make it up to you sometime.

Monday, October 19, 2009

A-Z Things That Make Me Happy :)

In all of my post-fall break depression I decided to take a few minutes to remind myself of what makes me happy. Enjoy.

A- Angels & Airwaves
B- Baseball
C- Concerts
D- Driving while listening to tunes
E- Evening time
F- Friends
G- Grape snow cones
H- Harry Potter
I- Interesting things
J- Jelly
K- Kraft macaroni and cheese
L- Letters from long lost friends
M- My Family
N- New England
O- Otter Pops
P- Popsicles
Q- Quotes
R- Rain and Reading
S- Snow! and Snowboarding
T- TV
U- Underwear (I didn't know what else to put haha)
V- Very good books
W- Warm blankets
X- Xylophones. What else starts with X?
Y- Yummy dinner that my mommy makes.
Z- Zoos

Sunday, October 4, 2009

NEW!

Hello everyone, sorry it's been such a long time. A lot has happened since I last posted anything. My trip to DC with Winters was a success. After 2 days of trying to get a flight I finally made it. Sweaty, Winters, and I watched the Red Sox destroy the Orioles in Baltimore, toured the monuments, and looked around at the Smithsonian. DC is such a cool city. I wish I could have spent more time there. I'll just have to go back sometime. Soon after that trip, we headed to Las Vegas to see Green Day. The day of the concert we went to the buffet at Mandalay Bay. I was more full than I have ever been in my entire life. I didn't ever want to look at, smell, or think about food for at least a week. It was delicious though. Then, that night we went to the concert. It rocked. Green Day is comprised of some seriously talented people. The next monday was the first day of school. Yay for the U of U! That first week of school was a blur. As a person, I am very resistant to change so it was stressful to try and get into the flow of things. I did have one nasty surprise...I found out that my fees were going to be almost 600 dollars. I was expecting something more along the lines of 300 to 400 since that's what all of the letters I got said to expect. Because of this, my hopes of spending my free winter days snowboarding were dashed. I was super bummed. However, a few weeks later my parents and grandpa surprised me with an unexpected early Christmas present. A season pass to Brighton! I have never been so happy. I have the best family in the world. Thanks Mom and Dad and Grandpa! Anyway, I started getting into the routine of school. On labor day I went with my sister Carli and saw Blink-182 in Orem. We were in the second row the whole time. It was really really awesome. I've wanted to see Blink since I was in middle school so it was super cool. After that, all I've really done is go to school and do homework. I'm starting to go a little bit crazy with nothing to do but schoolwork so I'm really excited for fall break next week. Only 5 more days to survive until a whole week of freedom! I can't wait.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Nonrev

This morning my friend Winters and I embarked on our journey to Washington DC.  Lucky for us, we get to fly for free.  However, we have to fly nonrev.  Nonrev is short for "nonrevenue".  This means that since we fly for free, we can only fly on flights that have empty seats.  Unfortunately, the first flight we tried to get on was completely full so, you guessed it, we were left to try to get seats on the next one.  Now we are sitting here waiting for a flight to St. Louis where we will change planes and head to Baltimore, and then ride the bus to DC.  The flight to St. Louis has about 20 other nonrev passengers all fighting for only 12 open seats.  Hopefully we have checked in early enough that we will get 2 of those 12.  Needless to say, even though traveling like this is free, it is extremely stressful.  More to come soon....

Monday, July 6, 2009

Update

Wow, it has been a while since I've posted anything on here so I thought I'd leave a little update.  The summer has been going well so far.  I took a maymester statistics class and that is good to have over.  I've been working at the pool teaching swimming lessons and lifeguarding almost every day so that keeps me nice and busy.  I lucked out and somehow got the 4th of July off of work!  This 4th of July was a blast.  I've decided that it's my new favorite holiday.  Every year for the 4th of July all of my little cousins from my mom's side of the family come and visit.  It is the only time of the year that we have everyone together.  My cousins are hilarious and I got to play with them all day.  We went to the park, hung out at my grandparents' house, did some fireworks, and watched the big fireworks together.  Another fun thing this week was my birthday yesterday.  We didn't do anything huge, we just had a little BBQ with the fam.  It was really fun.  Now that all that excitement is over, I've got to find a place to live in Salt Lake so I can move there and start school next month.  I'm really excited for school.  I'm taking a chemistry class and a bunch of classes for my exercise physiology major.  I'm excited to just have classes that are directly applicable to what I'm doing and not have to take dumb classes that I don't need and I'm not interested in.  Anyway, that's just about everything that's going on with me.  Have fun with the rest of your summer everyone!

Monday, April 27, 2009

Jacoby's Steal

Here's that video of Jacoby Ellsbury stealing home. It was so awesome! Look how wild the fans are going. Also, look how fudging mad Pettite and Joe Girardi are. This just fills my heart with happiness. Enjoy.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Just Some Thoughts

I just thought I'd get on here and write a few of my thoughts from the past little while. First off, baseball's back! I went to a Salt Lake Bees game with my family a few weeks ago and man, it felt good to be back at the ballpark. I can't wait to go to some more games. Also, this weekend I got to watch a couple of Red Sox games on TV, even though I probably should have been studying for finals. This series against the Yankees was awesome! Game one on Friday night was incredible. Jason Bay hit a two-run homer off of Mariano Rivera in the bottom of the 9th to send the game into extra innings and Kevin Youkilis ended it with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the 12th. It doesn't get much better than that. Then yesterday, the Sox were down 6 to nothing and I thought it was over. Jason Varitek hit a grand slam, and everyone just started hitting like crazy. The Sox ended up winning 16-11. 16 runs is a lot of runs. Tonight's game was awesome too. The Sox ended up winning 4-1. The highlight of the game was when Jacoby Ellsbury stole home with the bases loaded to put the Sox ahead 3-1. He's the first Red Sox player to steal home in like 15 years. Anyway, it's just super nice to have baseball season back.

In other news, it is dreaded finals week. I really should be studying right now instead of writing this blog but I needed a little break. I just finished a six page paper on the history of Punk Rock and it was harder to write than you would think. Now I've got a sack full of 20 stacks of physiology flash cards that need to be reviewed before my final on Tuesday. Also, I've got half a semester's worth of History of Rock notes to memorize. On the bright side, I don't have to take my Math final because I got a good enough grade that my teacher isn't making me take it and I'll be completely done with all of my finals by Tuesday night. That will give me about 5 days of freedom before my nose is back to the grindstone with a maymester statistics class and a summer calculus class. I really am not looking forward to those classes, especially calculus, but it will be super nice to have them over with.

Well, I hope everyone is doing well. Good luck to everyone who still has finals, and have fun.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Bayside


I realize that lately I have been blogging about music a lot. This is probably because my life consists of hours upon hours of studying in the library whilst listening to tunes. On Friday I had the good fortune of seeing one of my favorite bands live in concert: Bayside. It sure felt good to get out of Manti and see some live music. I have liked Bayside for a long time. They are not well known and I have not been able to figure out why because they freakin' rock. Friday was my second time seeing them in concert. They were one of the opening bands for New Found Glory. New Found Glory was ok but I would've much rather seen Bayside as the headlining band. Their most recent album is called "Shudder." If you are a fan of good rock 'n roll, I would definitely recommend giving these guys a listen. Frontman Anthony Raneri has a really unique voice and guitarist Jack O'Shea has some real face-melting guitar solos. I know because I was about 5 feet away from one of them on Friday night. Bayside has released 4 albums, one live album, and one acoustic album. I would definitely recommend their acoustic album as well as "The Walking Wounded" and "Shudder." As a matter of fact, I would recommend any of their stuff. Just give them a try and tell me what you think.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Angels & Airwaves

Lately I have been thinking a lot about one of my favorite bands, Angels & Airwaves. Wednesday, March 4th marked the one year anniversary of my first time seeing them in concert. I also saw them in October with Weezer, which was great, but the show they did in March where they were the headlining band was nothing short of mind-blowingly awesome.
For those of you who may not know anything about AVA, it was formed by Tom DeLonge shortly after his band Blink-182 announced their hiatus. Other members of the band are guitarist David Kennedy (who was a part of DeLonge's side project Box Car Racer), drummer Atom Willard (formerly of Rocket From the Crypt and The Offspring), and bassist Matt Wachter (formerly of 30 Seconds to Mars). They have released two albums: "We Don't Need to Whisper" and "I-Empire."
When Blink-182 announced that they were getting back together I was super happy, but I was also a little worried about what would happen with AVA. My fears were soon quieted though. DeLonge announced that nothing would happen to Angels & Airwaves and they're working on a new album right now.
If you haven't ever listened to AVA, I would highly recommend it. The best way to listen to them is to listen to one or both of the CDs all the way through without doing anything else at the same time. I love to listen to them when I'm driving by myself at night. Their lyrics are really cool to listen to and their sound is kind of outer-spacey, without sounding weird or like techno.
Their new album should be coming out this year as well as a feature film which is sounding pretty awesome. However, I've heard that they won't be touring this year because of DeLonge's commitment to tour with Blink-182 this summer.
Anyway, I hope this gave you a little insight into one of my favorite bands, maybe even my most favorite. I would highly recommend listening to them, I mean really listening to them, preferably in the way I described earlier. So go do it, and tell me what you think.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Day After Day After Day

Disclaimer:  This post is basically a big whining session so you may not want to waste your time reading it.  

After reading a blog by my good friend Winters, I realized that I am not alone in my feelings of hatred for school.  I have been told that one's college years are the best years of one's life.  This is a flat out lie.  Gone are the days of happily playing with friends every day and feeling carefree.  The only thing college does for me is put a huge load of stress on my shoulders.  I never get to play with my friends and every moment that I'm not busily involved in something school-related, I feel a huge wave of guilt spread over me because I know I should be working on something.  At the start of the semester, I was actually excited about school and I was really into trying hard and doing well.  Now it is only halfway through the semester and I am just about ready to throw in the towel.  After spending 5 1/2 hours in the library yesterday studying for my physiology class, it hit me: this drudgery is not going to end for at least 5 more years.  Holy fudge.  Hopefully this hopelessness is just a stage that will pass quickly.    

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

A-Rod

  You have all probably heard more than you could ever possibly want to hear about Alex Rodriguez and his testing positive for steroids in 2003.  It is all over ESPN and every sports website on the web.  In no way do I think steroid use is right or acceptable, but come on, give the guy a break.  

   A-Rod's name was apparently leaked from a list of 104 names of players who tested positive for steroids in the early years of this decade.  Bud Selig (being the genius that he is...not) didn't ban steroid use from major league baseball until 2004.  Therefore, even though using steroids is obviously cheating, these players weren't breaking any rules by testing positive before the 2004 season.  Now people are talking about criminally charging A-Rod and other players for their steroid use.  My question is, how will that help anything?  It is widely known that a huge amount of players used steroids before they were banned from the game.  If you're going to charge A-Rod, then you better release the rest of the names on that list and charge those players too.  In my opinion, that won't help anything though.  The whole "steroid era" of baseball is an embarrassment to the game, but going back and calling out every player who ever used steroids is not only impossible, it is unnecessary.  There's nothing we can do about the past, we can only make sure that baseball is clean from now on.  So, let's quit worrying about the idiot cheaters that got away with their dishonesty because of Bud Selig's incompetence.  Let's make sure there are no more cheaters in the future and enjoy America's favorite Pastime this year. 

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Blink 182

  For those of you who watched the Grammy Awards tonight, you know that the band blink 182 is back together!  I wasn't even watching the awards but my sister who was watching, yelled and told me to come and see what was going on.  When I saw all three of the members, Tom DeLonge, Travis Barker, and Mark Hoppus, on stage together, I couldn't believe my eyes.  Then came the announcement that they are back together, making a new album, and planning on a world tour.  This is the best news I've heard in a while.  I can't wait to see what these guys come up with next.  Just like so many kids who grew up in the '90s, they were the first real band I ever really loved.  
  However, I do have a few questions.  Angels & Airwaves (the band DeLonge put together during blink's hiatus) is another one of my favorite bands.  What will happen to them?  Are they finished, or is DeLonge going to take on both projects at the same time?  Also, the band +44 (formed by Barker and Hoppus).  Are they finished also?  It will be interesting to see what happens.  

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Car Show


So I made the cover of this magazine. I guess I've made it in life.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Inauguration Day!

  I hope everyone got the chance to see the Inauguration of President Barack Obama today.  Personally, I can't remember the last time I felt this patriotic.  Even though our country has a lot of things that need fixing right now, today was a good time to be able to set those worries aside and feel patriotic and hopeful. Our country has truly come a long, long way.  It was merely 60 years ago when people couldn't eat in the same restaurants as other people just because of the color of their skin and now, we have a man of color in our nation's highest office.
   Sadly though, there was a sour note to today for me.  When my little sister came home from school, she told me about the attitudes of some of her fellow high schoolers on the subject of Barack Obama.  She told me that the majority of kids at her school were saying how upset they were about the situation and how much they hate Barack Obama.  These kids, no doubt, have been listening to their parents views on the subject.  I think it is sad that so many parents here in central Utah choose not to educate their kids and teach them to think for themselves.  It is also sad that these kids won't have any fond memories of today's historic events.  These high school kids didn't know anything about Obama's policies or stances on any issues.  They have no idea why they hate Barack Obama so much.  They simply hate him because their parents do.  I am very thankful that my parents have taught me to think for myself.  They have never tried to sway my political views.  They trust that I am smart enough and educated enough to form my own opinions.   
  Even if you didn't vote for President Obama and even if you don't agree with most of his policies, I hope that you will still support him as our president.  I, for one, am excited to see what the next few years will bring and I hope that when the next four years are up, President Obama will have given us all a reason to make us want to re-elect him. 


Sunday, January 11, 2009

Dark Side of the Moon

I've been listening to some music for my History of Rock & Roll class and I have rediscovered one of my favorite albums of all time.  You guessed it, Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon".  I know a lot of people think this album is weird and creepy but that is the beauty of it.  Have you ever really listened to the lyrics?  They're actually really insightful.  They're a heck of a lot better than most of the garbage that's being thrown around today.  One of my favorite songs from the album is called "Time".  It starts out with the sound of a bunch of clocks ticking and then chiming and alarms going off.  It is an awesome song.  Here are the lyrics.  

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but its sinking
And racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in the relative way, but youre older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the english way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought Id something more to say

Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
And when I come home cold and tired
Its good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells.


Don't these lyrics just make you want to kick yourself for all of the perfectly good time you've wasted doing nothing?  I know that's how I feel.  Now go and do yourselves a favor and do something worthwhile, like listen to this album.  You're welcome.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Nerd


I have recently decided that I am a nerd, a big one. I'm pretty obsessed with school and getting good grades. I love to read and spent most of my Christmas break reading. I have recently started re-reading my favorite books of all time, the Harry Potter series. I have read all of these books multiple times but I still can't get enough of them. Speaking of Harry Potter, have any of you read "The Tales of Beadle the Bard"? If you remember, in book 7, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", a wizard children's story book is mentioned called "The Tales of Beadle the Bard." J.K. Rowling has recently written this book and published it. I bought it when it first came out and I love it. For any Harry Potter fan it is a must-have. Also, all of the proceeds from buying the book go to one of Rowling's favorite charities. So, if you haven't bought it yet, go buy it. You'll love it.