Christmas 2010

Christmas this year was a blast! On Christmas Eve. we watched The Nativity and then opened our pajamas, the whole family got matching Star Wars Pajamas and red "Proud to be Awesome" tee-shirt, except my mom who didn't want to have a fly in her pajamas... like the fly in her soup she found later in the day... Among my favorite presents this year was a  canon proshot 12.1 megapixel camera, and a new book by Rick Riordan "The Lost Hero" This book combines Greek and Roman mythology to create a story of supreme quality. After opening presents my brothers immediately turned on the computer to play the game I'd gotten Nathan for christmas, and I sat down to watch them. We then went to my Grandma's house, I teased Spencer about going on a mission on Wednesday! and we ate really good food. then opened presents. I documented the whole event with my new camera, then made a slideshow about it, enjoy watching.

Then we went directly from that grandma's to my aunts house, I was going to take out my camera and take lots of paparazzi photo's like I had before, but there really wasn't anything I thought worth documenting there, we talked, ate flavorless food, and delicious cookies, but it wasn't quite the same as my grandma's had been.

After that we went home and my brothers immediately went back to the game i'd boughten Nathan, seems I really know how to buy presents. 

[edit]

I just realized that a lot of my photo's seemed to be centered on someone's elbow... that might foreshadow something...

Getting Lucky on the Way to Vegas

This Past week has been a very eventful one for me. on monday I left on a trip to Las Vegas for the Boise State vs. U of U Bowl game. Of all the people who may or may not see Vegas in their life, I have to think that i'm one of a few to take the view I did. For I was not there for the gambling, peepshow, or other forms of classy entertainment that my colleagues were looking forwards to. I was there to perform at a football game I didn't care for and to fulfill the commitment I'd made in august when I signed up for the U of U marching band.

On the way there, my tour bus collided with a blue mini-van that had spun out of control due to weather conditions. Sitting reading my book and simultaneously watching the movie that was playing, I remember hearing the bus driver yell "oh no!" seeing the blue van spin into and hit the right side of the bus, and fly past us as we slowed down and pulled to the side of the road. the jolt was only enough to throw me forward in my seat, and luckily, very luckily, as the driver's side of the blue van was just T-boned by a bus full of college students, everyone escaped without a scratch and the blue van's passengers where only slightly hurt with bruises and the like. I had flash-backs to the crash that happened last year as we learned that the bus we had supposed to get on had been switched: meaning a different man would have been driving the bus that got hit, and I remembered the bus driver almost swerving to try to avoid the bus, but then correcting realizing that any attempt at dodging would put us over the edge of the road, onto similar terrain as the crash last year had been, only wet. I am so grateful that everyone was alright, and I feel blessed to have everyone escape so unscathed.

The rest of the week I spent doing two things, reading my book, a new favorite: "The Way of Kings" by Brandon Sanderson, I'm going to write a post soon promoting this book and sharing my favorite parts of it, this is the kind of book our children should be studying in school 10 years down the line. I know, Sci-Fi, but it has more literary and moral value for this time of corrupt leadership and religious activism than I would say even Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn had during the time of racial prejudice. The second thing I did was with the Band, Performing, but that's not nearly as interesting.

Getting back Thursday night, today is christmas and I'm going to write another post, about today and this post might just get swallowed into obliviousness, which is just fine with me.

Variations on a theme by my Brother.

My brother, Nathan, needed a video for an asignment in his Spanish Class. having put it off to the weekend before like so many students do, he needed something quick.So he asked my dad how to speed video up to twice their normal speed, my dad demonstrated with a video he'd taken of the song I was playing for Jury, and then Nathan cleverily supplanted spanish on top, whala! video done, total time: 1 hour. anyways, It's really funny, so enjoy watching!

The Twelve Days of College Christmas

awesome-est tree-est of the year-est from my dear-est Mommy!!!!

On the First day of College Count Down my Mommy gave to Me: a rubik's cube light game!!!
On the Second day of College Count Down my Mommy gave to Me: a huge package of Gold Fish!!!
On the Third day of College Count Down my Mommy gave to Me: a box of Swedish Fish!!!
On the Fourth day of College Count Down my Mommy gave to Me: a box of Laffy Taffy!!!
On the Fifth day of College Count Down my Mommy gave to Me: a huge metal Skittle with candy inside!!!
On the Sixth day of College Count Down my Mommy gave to me: An egg of silly putty!!!
On the Seventh day of College Count Down my Mommy gave to me: A motion detector, (batteries not included!!!)
On the Eighth day of College Count Down my Mommy gave to me: Jelly Beans!!!!
On the Ninth day of College Count Down my Mommy gave to me: .... I really can't remember...
On the Tenth day of College Count Down my Mommy gave to me: a Star wars lego set!!!
On the Eleventh day of College Count Down my Mommy gave to me: a Chocolate covered marshmallow christmas tree!!!
On the Twelfth day of College Count Down my Mommy gave to me:  A package of Chapstick!!!

There you go... composed a song about the awesome tree my mom got me.. didn't repeat everything like the original song because that takes to much time and i'm packing to go home right now. College was fun, but my tests are done and i'm going to enjoy my vacation.

Thank you Mom for taking the thought to provide such an awesome tree to get me through the last two weeks of school. I don't know how I could have written my last essay with out fish to munch on....

now, I would share the kit-kats and granola bars we saved for the last day with my room-mates... but sadly, they already moved out... so it seems i'm left to it all by myself... shame.

Now how shall I return the favor?
That is a surprise that shall wait for the 25th! :)

[edit]

I know why I couldn't remember the ninth day.... I forgot to open a present that day! it was a small metal slinky!!! woot woot!!! thanks so much Mom

the adventures of Saw McMillian

Saw McMillian disappeared suddenly... no explanation, no letter of 95+1 grievances, just disappeared... He's back now though, and now he has a story to tell.

According to him, it was the stress of finals week that got to him. the horrible stressful tests just piled up and up until poof! from the internet he disappeared. I think he's lying, the tests shouldn't be that hard. I mean really, i'm been preparing for them since August right? I think he discovered anti-matter and just doesn't want to tell anyone about it. or the government is trying to cover it up. they told me that Saw left because of a bug in the system, but i'm not going to fall for this conspiracy!!! I have my right's and i want them!!! show me the anti-matter or this water bottle won't get recycled!!!!

anyways... so he left, and where did he go? well first he went to sleep because sleeping is fun and when your on your own with no one to boss you around, it's fun to do fun things. and then he went and did some service, because service is fun also, but that tired him out so then he slept again, when he woke up from that, he slept again. do you see this? it seems that he did a lot of sleeping during the weekend that we was away.

okay, surefire dates, Sunday morning after all that sleeping, Saw McMillian was getting a little tired of being on his own, no one to talk to, and he was getting hungry. Eggs sounded really good right now, but he had no where to get them, he ended up starving. luckily Blogger websites are made to live several day without food, otherwise he might have been a goner.

Then after a long arduous journey across multiple server networks and tron-frisbee's Saw McMillian came back home, amazing story I know, but what can you expect? he's a blog and it's hard for blogs to tell stories when they haven't been around to be fed in a few days.

I'm still waiting for my anti-matter, hey blogger team! do you want this water-bottle to be recycled or not?
your choice

(for the dim-witted among us Saw=Smile All-Ways, S.A.W,  get it now? and my blog went off-line for a couple of days because it was incorrectly labeled as spam during the weekend and apparently the Blogger team doesn't work on weekends, who would guess, their normal people)

I Am, a Friend.

To those who are feeling sad, lonely, depressed, and rejected.
I am, your Friend.

To those who are as little children, my love has no end.

To those who once knew me, but have sense turned their back,

I am still your friend, though you see me as black.

To those who are lost and have no hope to be found, I am your Friend.

Though you spit on and curse me, and my heart does rend.

I would end your pain and dry up your tears,

For I do forgive you of all those years.

To those whom I love, and who love me in return,

I give my kingdom, and endless knowledge to learn.

To those who would have me hung on a cross,

your pain is your own, but I have paid the cost.

You don't know me, I lived many years ago,

but my influence doth shine, very much a glow.

I have been beaten, bruised to death,

so that ye may have and enjoy, your breath.

but yet ye do know me,

I created the world,

and it's beauty stands,

as a testimony,

I Am, The Lord.

In this winter season it is very easy to feel sad, lonely, or hopeless, the world gets colder and less friendly. It's easy to get stressed out. How thankful i am that I have so many wonderful friends to guide me in my life. I don't know what I would do with out them. but I know I have a greater Friend then what exists in my friends and family on earth, and that is The Lord, Jesus Christ, the Great I Am, I love him so much; I know that when I turn to him for comfort and aid that he will help me. He has paid the price for my sins, and I know I can come back to live with him someday. I am comforted by the knowledge that what ever affliction I may feel on earth today, will eventually, when looking back on it, feel like a small moment in time, insignificant to the happiness I will feel for enduring to the end and entering into my exhultation. I know these things to be true, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

[edit]

this is the first time i've done this, but I don't think this post is done. I need to share some extra quotes, not my own words, about what it means to be a friend. So here they are:

"A true friend is someone you can disagree with and still remain friends. For if not, they weren't true friends in the first place."
---Sandy Ratliff


"Sometimes in life, you find a special friend. Someone who changes your life just by being a part of it. Someone who makes you laugh until you can't stop. Someone who makes you believe that there really is good in the world. Someone who convinces you that there really is an unlocked door just waiting for you to open it. This is forever friendship. When you're down and the world seems dark and empty, your forever friend lifts you up in spirit and makes that dark and empty world suddenly seem bright and full. Your forever friend gets you through the hard times, the sad times and the confused times. If you turn and walk away, your forever friend follows. If you lose your way, your forever friend guides you and cheers you on. Your forever friend holds your hand and tells you that everything is going to be okay. And if you find such a friend, you feel happy and complete because you need not worry. You have a forever friend, and forever has no end."
---Unknown


"I believe in angels, the kind Heaven sends. I am surrounded by angels, but I call them my best friends."
---Unknown


"Memories last forever, never do they die. Friends stay together, never say goodbye."
---Melina Campos


"A best friend is a sister destiny forgot to give you."
---Unknown


"When it hurts to look back, and you're scared to look ahead, you can look beside you, and your best friend will be there."
---Unknown


"If I could reach up and hold a star for every time you made me smile, the entire evening sky would be in the palm of my hand."
---Unknown


"Never forget the days I spent with you. Continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours."
---Ludwig Van Beethoven

The Things One Does for Attention...

My room mate likes to do a lot of funny things, mostly for attention, and mostly for the attention of girls, so with his permission, I am going to endeavor to list all the stupid things he's done/does, in no particular order.

1. he built an igloo in our shower, originally intending it to be a prank for someone else... fail.
2. he walks around in his underwear/speedo/shirtless, (sometimes he wears pants...)
3. shouts "WHO'S THERE!!!' when ever he hears someone walking down the hall, no matter what time of night it is
4. spends a lot of money on air fresheners
5. started a competition to see who could through a cardboard tube down the hall the farthest, without hitting and bursting the sprinkler heads in the ceiling.
6. Throws things out our window... e.i. pumpkins, snow balls, and ice-chunks...
7. he likes country, but when he has a girl over to study, he listens to hard rock.
8. once he went up and down the hall wrote his signature on every flier posted, now there are signs warning that if it happen's again, the floor will be charged for vandalism.
9. Having introduced him to racquet ball, he is constantly bouncing the ball off the wall, when our RM isn't around...
10. when he first got to the dorms, the thing that got most of his attention was that if he spayed fabreze in the heater, it would come out through the fan, he seriously would do this every day for a week, just because it fascinated him so much.

and so, in summation, he's not all that unlike me! :) except, I don't walk around in my underwear...

wait... I must be out of my mind... nope, that's normal.

I have started and stopped many blog posts in the past few days, but none of the subjects seem to flow as easy as they normally do. I procrastinated writing about gingerbread houses, then I was going to write one of those paragraphs where all the letters in the words are screwed up except the first and last, which makes it still readable, but it seems that's harder to do than you'd think. So now for the lack of anything better to do, i'm writing about how I have nothing to write about. hmmm.... here's a short story that i'm about to make up.

once upon a time there was an elf, this elf liked to paint things. this elf lived in a forest, and in this forest there were a lot of rocks. so the elf would paint things on the rocks, sometimes he'd paint rainbows, sometimes he'd paint rain clouds. but everyday he painted something on a rock. then one day, he looked out at his forest and noticed that there wasn't anymore rocks to paint. He also noticed that where as his forest used to be a drab and lonely place, it was now full of so many colors it hurt his eyes. It was beautiful. So, he decided to take his rock paintings and share them with the world. As he met people, he'd hand them the rock he felt they would like the most. If the person seemed happy, he'd give them a rainbow. if the person seemed troubled, a raincloud. one day, he was walking along, saying hi to all of the friends he'd made by sharing his work. when he noticed something odd, he didn't have any more rocks to give out. what was he supposed to do? well. he still had paint, so he figured he'd go paint some more rocks. He said good bye to his friends, and left on a journey to find more rocks to paint. he journeyed far and wide, but where ever he went, he couldn't find any rocks. it seems that everyone had followed his example and were painting rocks to share with one another. the world seemed completely devoid of any gray at all. And then he saw it. Huge and immense, stood a huge cliff. solid rock, many feet high. It was the perfect challenge for a seasoned painter like the Elf. He painted as much as he could, creating a mural to match the sunrise, but try as he might, there was just to much stone for him to cover. he sat down dejected, although his little patch of the cliff was beautiful, there was still so much cliff that wasn't. He was just about to give up when he heard a noise, it started softly, then grew to a tumultuous clatter. It was all of his friends! they were coming will all of their paint buckets to help in his quest. they set to work with a vigor, painting all day and all night, taking it in shifts. little by little the cliff face was covered. with beautiful rainbows coming from stormy rain clouds, trees basking in the sun, animals frolicking through the forest. but most of all was shown, on that cliff face, the life of an elf, who brought joy to a very, very, bleak world. lightened everyone's day with a smile, and painted the gray rocks, with color.

good story? bad story?
that's the world I live in, deal with it.