Playing Catch-Up

I know I've committed a terrible crime in not posting in forever. It'll be a miracle if I get some readers of this particular post! I suppose I should play a little catch-up then so everyone knows what's going on.

I was asked to the Preference Dance (girl's-choice) that happened on Nov. 8. SUPER FUN!!! Her name is Michelle Lindsey. She chose the chess-themed dance, which was a black-tie formal dance. I felt happy that I was able to wear my black shirt-silver tie combo that I wore for jazz choir in high school. I really like the outfit! Michelle looked absolutely stunning in her dress! So much so that I was speechless and I failed to compliment her on it until later in the evening. She nailed me for it later, and I felt terrible about it. I don’t suggest any of you do that, no matter the circumstance. All's well though! :) Our entire group consisted of 8 people. We had to drive a little ways to get there. It was really fun. A great variety of songs coupled with great friends makes for a wonderful evening. The dance ended at 11:30. We headed to Wal-Mart and bought some root-beer ice cream, drove back to the dorms, changed, and headed to a nearby park. We stayed there until 3 AM just playing around on the play toys, having leaf fights, and enjoying each other’s company.

The Cannon Center has made huge progress since my last update. They've poured most of the foundational concrete now. The following pictures show what they've started on with the construction of the building.

For those of you who don't know, BYU has a huge rivalry with University of Utah. The big game between them is actually happening as I'm writing this (cue huge gasps and screeches of "YOU'RE NOT WATCHING THE GAME?!?!"). They make a big deal of it during the entire week previous to the game, also known as Rivalry Week. For those of you who've attended BYU (and for those interested in the explanation of the following pictures), BYU has had multiple experiences with U of U kids coming down and pranking and vandilizing BYU property. Recently BYU has come up with some solutions:

Plastic wrapping works wonders in preventing vandalism!!! Yes, this was BYU that did this; it's not a prank :D

I've also been informed that the ham radio club here patrols alongside the campus police keeping watch for pranksters! It's pretty intense!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

The Ungrateful Ones

I digress from my current pattern of humorous and amazing posts to bring you an important message that was discovered upon by my friends and me just recently. I apologize for my inability to thoroughly explore this topic as I'm not an English major ;) I hope instead that this may spark the interests of the rest of you to write some amazing philosophical writing that would change the world. Something like what the transcendentalists did way back when. (I guess I should cut to the chase, hehe)

We, my friends and I, have discovered a sign of the times. We are very disgruntled by the fact that stores and homes around the nation begin decorating for the Christmas holidays directly after Halloween. Even BYU has caught the bug! I witnessed three plastic Christmas trees being placed in the library the other day. Tinsel has been wrapped around various stair railings on campus too. What happened to Thanksgiving? Everyone has a blast decorating, dressing up, and partying for Halloween. Wouldn't you consider Thanksgiving more important than Halloween? Do you get days off of school for Halloween? What about Thanksgiving? I venture to say that this nation is becoming ungrateful for the basic provisions that have been provided! With regard to Christmas, I agree the principle and season of giving is important. But is it more important to give gifts or to give thanks? At least pay a little respect to this dwindling holiday and wait until after Thanksgiving to bring out the tree. It won't kill you to have the decorations up for 1 month instead of 2!

While we're on the subject of debate, another politically active friend of mine from eastern Oregon and I have come up with a brand new idea that we feel has very much potential for success. Here is a political map I put together (thank you CNN.com for the pics) of Washington and Oregon with the current boundary line between the two (red is Republican-dominant, blue is democrat-dominant):

Here is our new proposed boundary line between Washington and Oregon:

Don't you think this will solve so many problems!!!

Now my friends and I don't really plan on debating these topics thoroughly because we were just giggling about them.

"If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these [words] did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;"

But comments on this one are always appreciated ;)

In other news, I really felt like posting up this video I took on my phone Halloween night. We were at the dollar theater waiting for a movie to start. We were having fun with the air hockey paddles when we discovered this awesome thing you can do with them:

Try it sometime!

High on the Mountaintop!

For the longest time, I've been eying this mountain called Squaw Peak. I've been dying to get pictures off of there because it perfectly juts out of the mountain.

I finally got my opportunity today. Four of us decided to head up this morning at 10 and we got back around 3:30.

It takes about 2 hours to go one way. Moreso going up because there are tons of steep areas that really give your legs a workout! Of course, knowing me, I got plenty of pictures!

Here are the panoramas from the top (sorry about the random lines running across the pictures, it's hard to capture a moment as grand as this and make it look perfect):

This one I actually managed to get a 360 degree view shot!!! I was so excited awhile back when I realized the software that I use comes with a 360-degree option! So i definitely took advantage of it:

Cool pic of the smokey background:

Here's my dorm complex (mine is the right of the 2 that are parallel and oriented horizontally to the right of the small white building (the new Cannon Center) in the middle-left of the picture):

...the football game I didn't go to today :P

Don't die Rudy!

We were just chilling and enjoying the view when this random guy came up and did the most genius thing I've ever seen:

(If you can't see the vid, the guy had a bag filled with these helicopter leaves and would throw them out a handful at a time. It was genius because they actually caught wind once they were thrown out and they would fly upwards and away instead of down the mountainside!) It was soooo cool!!! He had like 6-8 handfuls of them too!

So yeah, it was a blast, and I felt like I didn't totally waste a Saturday ;)

Funnies

I attended a standup-comedy show on Friday and it was quite hilarious. Many of the comedians were extremely funny. I wasn't quite in tears, but the headache and stomach aches were prevelant.

After the show they were selling these pretty funny shirts for just $5 (yes, I got one) In a few places around campus, the BYU groundskeepers have put these signs that look like this:

It's a pretty funny little sign! It's so amazing how it can be so much funnier when you change just one word:

I couldn't resist! Of course, I really can only wear it my freshman year......and I guess only at BYU......but it was still funny :D

The mountains are changing color as I speak and it's been nice to be viewing it everyday. I snapped a nice picture of it for your viewing pleasure. Unfortunately, the Cannon Center is hogging the foreground, but you can still see the wonderful weather we've been having!

P.S. I wrote this blog up in calculus class :D

Delays...

Sorry I've taken 2 weeks (and a day) to post. It's just that things are in such a routine now that not very many things are coming to my interest for this blog...The construction on the new Cannon Center is coming along. They just poured the first bits of concrete yesterday, which definitely reminded me of the summer because I could stare at what's in the first following picture and understand just about everything they were doing!

BYU has also suffered a losing streak this week. We lost our first football game to TCU and I also witnessed the defeat of our women's volleyball team to the Utes.

Yeah, otherwise I just feel like a homework factory: mass-producing homework assignments to meet the demands of professors 8 I've been able to keep my head out of the water so far though.

...wow

So I was pointed to one of the most amazing pieces of sheet music the other day! I felt so impressed that I thought I'd share it with everyone within the view of my blog :)

It's kinda hard to respond to it because I'm still reading parts I didn't know were there! Let it all soak in for awhile ;)

Stewart Falls

My Freshman Academy group organized a hike to Stewart Falls today. About 20 of us, including a couple professors, got together and we had a blast! Here's some of the resulting pics:

I also got my calling in the ward. I've landed 2nd counselor in the Sunday School presidency. I don't expect too much difficulty from this because I'm told I'll be helping with class rolls as well as serving as a substitute teacher. I guess I'll find out soon enough!