My LDS Vodka

There is a conspiracy going on at this college, they call it a dry campus, yet it rains almost every day! This week isn't even half over and already I've found something to write about, that should be a good inclination of how my weeks been.

Today I woke up late for my class, grabbed the wrong clarinet, and headed out the door still in my undershirt, (somehow I fit a shower in there, how my shirt didn't get wet, I don't remember), arriving at my class late, I sat down and noticed that there were so little in attendance that day, I probably didn't even have to come, which would have been nice because I still had the wrong clarinet for my lesson, but i was in the class now and I had to stay or risk offending Superman, (I gave him that nick-name because when his hair is long he has the signature superman cow-lick, its awe-some, but he doesn't know that's what I call him, so keep it a secret!), during the sight-singing portion of class I sang every pitch flat, consistently at the same interval relative to the correct pitch, but flat the whole way through, that's how bad my day has been. I went to Kathy, my Clarinet Professor, and explained to her my predicament, shirt, singing, and all. we decided that since i'd been on a business trip anyways, the lesson probably wouldn't have been very fruitful and I should just show up next week uber-prepared, no pressure there right?

The second part of the roller-coaster of a day I was having was a little better, kind of like the part of the ride after the initial plunge where you get a chance to catch your stomach again. I ate lunch with my Dad at the Noodle Factory, we both got the Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich, (yes those are capital on purpose), call me sacrilegious for eating a sandwich at the Noodle Factory, I don't care, I was having a bad day and it was on the menu.

The third part of my day wasn't much better than the first, In marching band we have to memorize two new songs by the BYU game next week, one we've had for a while and i've got down pretty good, the other is "Your a Grand Old Flag" or "Y Golf" as I like to call it.... (made that up right now btw, comes from this: "Your a Grand Old Flag" you like? or is that too irreverent?) it's not a hard piece to master, but the problem is that I was using my plastic clarinet, the one I called wrong, the mouth piece is so warped from over use that every time I tongued a note, it would let out a shrill shriek, eventually I got out my other mouthpiece from my correct instrument and it worked fine, but as a music major among his peers, that was embarrassing.

Then my day went on the up and up, after practicing until my supposedly healed pits from my wisdom teeth felt like they were going to burst from the pressure in my mouth, I headed to the HC to meet a friend for dinner. We talked over food for quite a while, she got to meet two of my room mates, and then she headed home so she could do homework, now I'm sitting here, drinking a nice can of lemonade, aka "LDS vodka", and I feel good. life is great, life is citrus, and tomorrow is a new day.... plus I still have the equivalent of three 6-packs in my refrigerator... :)

so to summarize an exceedingly long blog post, after a taxing day of educational stress, it is nice to sit back, and enjoy some LDS sanctioned drinking after a good, venting conversation.

This post is going to be depressing, do not read.

well, as of yet, mathematicians are still convinced that they have an unending amount of Pi, the cheesecake factory is suing them for copyright infringement, The stupid people of the world think that there is no WAY that Obama is Keynesian, he was born in Hawaii. Love is in the air, and snow-flakes are square, my hair is long but do I dare? with the next week being the release of Harry Potter 7 part 1 cover your children's eye's, expeliarmus can kill the dark lord. Don't forget to thank the Lord, for your blessings of this year, the economy hasn't completely collapsed, hasn't Obama been such a dear? College foot ball has been such a surprise, BYU might pull a sheet over Red's eyes. We lost, 2 in a row, quite a failure to bring the band in tow. Essay's are due, but that isn't new, my ten little fingers form a very elite crew.

and now you see, I charge a high fee, to slip into rhyme, on the stop of a dime, it's tiredness, that with uncanny finesse, you see, hath done this to me.

now wasn't that a waste of your time? you should have trusted me when I told you not to read this.

This. Post. Is. Meant. to. Annoy. Inform. and Prevaricate!!

So as many of the worlds populous know's, guys like girls, girls like guys, but I just like cars and money! which isn't true, neither do I think it is the correct quotation of that song.....

to answer the many question's i've been getting. yes, I am participating in "no-shave november" in which I will not be shaving my legs, armpits, chest, or face until after the BYU vs. U of U football game, against popular consent, I have decided to get a soul patch, pending my discovering what that actually is, and in favor of singular consent, I have come up with a second analogy, concerning ice-cream, one which I will not be taking questions about, and I expect no one to understand, ever, which means I will have a good fun time ignoring everyone's prodding's... :) and sweat dreams. (literally, sweat them, just not out your armpits, that's disgusting and improbable in most galaxies....)

here it is, for those with eyes to see and ears to hear,  good luck!!!!

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The Ice-cream analogy, for those who have eyes to see...

it is time to answer, secretly, many questions with which I have been faced over the past few weeks. How can I secretly answer questions on a blog open to the whole world so see, (really i've had people living in Israel, Switzerland, Brazil, China, Canada, and Australia looking at my blog, some getting here from places as strange as Opera's website), well through analogy of course! do you have eyes to hear and eyes to see? if so you may gain eternal life, if not, you'll surely be confused and become so scared of my powers of confusion that you'll try to kill my in as grotesque way as the law allows... that seems to be the logic reaction of people who can't understand metaphors. not to compare my ability to Christ's of course... but still?

I have never really had much like for ice-cream, it's good and all, but when its desert i'd rather have a brownie or cake or cookies or a sandwich... pizza... bacon.... ribs.....mmmmmmmm. anyways, it's good, but the biggest thing that bugs me, is how many flavors there are go choose from. how's a guy to choose when he only has so much stomach and an infinite amount of possibilities! to settle all y'all fears, i've yet to find a flavor to settle down with and call my own, but i've had some interesting experiences.

First things first, as opposed to second of third, I've decided that Strawberry is not for me, a recent epidemic I had with the soft-served ice-cream machine at work decided that for me. I was trying to clean the machine  because we were closing and I wanted to go home, but I didn't have anyone to help me, so when the bucket that the ice-cream gunk was falling into was close to full and I needed to switch buckets, I didn't have any help so one thing followed another and in my efforts to switch buckets to continue cleaning the machine I made a huge mess and spilled Ice-cream all over myself, the machine, floor, and the rug that was on the floor. i got all dirty and my co-workers came up and laughed at me for making a huge mess, (no jokes this really happened just last thursday). I grabbed a mop and after a long time of soaking up the pink liquid the mess was finally cleaned up, but I am still thoroughly disgusted with Strawberry ice-cream and will probably not taste it for a very long time.

Second deals with Vanilla and Chocolate, flavors that everyone seems to know, recognize, and love every day of the week. Vanilla and Chocolate have been around sense before I can remember, of all the flavors i've tasted these are my favorites, because i've known them so long and they are familiar to me. Vanilla recently has come forward and seems to be in need of aid, for people keep trying to put new things into it like nuts, caramel, or chocolate chips, and that just doesn't do. so I am helping to defend Vanilla against the onslaught of outside contenders. Chocolate on the other hand seems to be the best when made in Germany, the German's do everything right it seems, just look at Uchtdorf! :) how it doesn't melt is beyond me though.

In College I have encountered some very strange and exotic flavors, as part of my Job I scoop icecream for the people at the cafeteria, i've met with Coffee icecream , Green tea icecream, butter pecan, and even Grasshopper, it shall be interesting to see which I gain a liking for, but most I refuse to try. Some flavors jump out at me as good possibilities, having good potential or an interesting flavor, but then taste bitter in the mouth. As of right now, I still consider myself and uninterested Icecream monsieur, and for those of you who still don't get the jokes, I probably will remain that way until about 6 months after my mission when the Rings at the jewelry store go on Sale. *wink* *wink*

My life as a social recluse.... as apposed to the brown one...

This week was fall break, for me, it started last friday and continued all the way until next monday. hence 10 days of complete solace, with one exception, I should have gone home to visit my family, but I didn't. The beginning of break was awesome, I went to dinner and a dance with a friend from my Ballroom class on friday, learned how to play an incredibly awkward game called "bop" from some LDS fraternity boys, saw a magician, then stayed up really late talking to Tanner and Jannalee, (Tanner was eating pie.)

The next day I woke up around noon, (a pattern i'd be repeating the rest of the week), practiced for four hours on my clarinet, piano, and composing. then went back to my dorm and ignored life (which isn't very hard when there is no one around to NOT ignore. The campus has been so quiet this past week, it feels like walking through a cemetery at midnight, only its the middle of the day!!! Saturday night there was a piano concert I had to go to for my Concert Attendance class, Jannalee also had to go to it because she is taking piano lessons, so we went together. it was a good concert.

the next day was sunday, at church I had really cool insight come to me, which if you want to read about you should go to the blog where I record my spiritual insights and stuff like that... the link is: http://moralitiesandanalogies.blogspot.com/ and there was another concert this night, but jannalee didn't want to go because she was leaving for home early the next morning. so I asked my friend from ballroom (and yes sean, I am intentionally omitting her name so you can't tease me about her :P ). it was a rather fun concert, and it was featuring faculty so it counts as double!!! I then came home and since the dorm was so quite, me and Jannalee stayed up really late watching The Testimates, and sharing stories about our life's before college.

then my life got boring, remember the pattern? well, I wake up every morning around noon, practice until my mouth falls off, pick my mouth back up, put it in my pocket and go back to my dorm to do practically nothing until work was over. (the cafeteria was practically dead, so I spent a lot of time dusting). I watched a lot of movies the first night, Brother bear, Brother bear 2, and such. ironically, sean and were still awake at 3am that night, so we had a video chat, college rocks no? tysum.

Tuesday was about the same thing, except I didn't work, and Nicke called me and asked if I would accompany her to rent a movie. we didn't end up renting a movie, instead we went shopping for her iphone cover, then got sandwiches and tacos at the food court. I got back at around 11ish, and naturally didn't go to bed until about 1.

Wednesday was probably one of the most boring days, after waking up around noon, practicing until 4, then doing a little bit of homework until bed, I got my annual stuffy nose from drinking milk, and it wasn't very fun.

Thursday doesn't seem to be much of a blast either... I woke up to find that my phone is broken because I had missed the pocket when trying to put it away after talking to my mom, and it fell 5 feet, hit the floor and shattered the phone. I have to work today, do laundry, write a 1-page paper, and re-read the inferno of Dante. should be a great day.

but, I am going home tomorrow so that is something to look forward to. I have learned my lesson, and am not going to do everything in my power to avoid campus during extended breaks. might see my family more that way... also in my eternal optimism, (and half-asleep humor) I can only be grateful that in my practice of Reclusism, i was not turned into a brown recluse and forced to bite people. who knew?

and now to go put food in my belly, gel in my hair, and money in my wallet... assuming I can get my laundry done....

I HATE THE BOOKSTORE!!!!!

Ok, so I went to the bookstore today, you know, the one on campus that everyone usually just walks around but never actually goes into? That one. Origionally I had intended to buy some staff-paper for music dictation, and maybe brows through the sci-fi section and see if there is any new books.

Forgive me for being captain obvious, but I never found the Staff paper. I walked in there, smelled the pages of countless unread books calling to me, and immediately preceded to spend the next 40 minutes drooling over books I don't have enough money to buy. Brandon Sanderson, my favorite author, has just started a new series of books, which look equally appealing to my eye as a suitcase of money would to a miser's. I saw the book sitting on the shelf, all 5 pounds of it's 300,000+ pages, rubbed it for a bit, put it down, and then bought the 8 dollar still equally as awesome book Warbreaker, also by Brandon Sanderson. Mommy? can I have my Christmas Present 3 months early? I know what I want and I want it reaaaalllly bad....

I can never go in that book store again, otherwise I might just cause too much property damage from all the saliva I create wishing for the books I find, and then I'd be broke.

Oh, and I found out where the racquet ball courts on campus are, guess where I'm headed saturday?

Steven Dawson.

To think, the School made another error.

Short post this time, make a long story short, when I went to pick up my books on Monday they gave me the wrong package, I had chosen to ride my bike that day so I had to heave the whole 30Ib. up hill, not fun, but not impossible. I preceded to open the package and discover that I had been given the wrong books, so the next day I heaved them all the way down hill early in the morning to get my actual books. I ended up exchanging the 30Ib package for one that was so heavy it broke the bag as I carried it around. I had been dull enough to pick them up at the start of the day so that for the rest of the day I was lugging around a huge collection of text books.

Advice for all those yet to enter college: pick up text-books on your way HOME not on your way to class, much more convenient.

(I did however, "accidentally" keep the complementary starbursts that they include in each package, whoops, I guess I'll just call that my payment for my troubles. I was hoping for a gift-card or something like that though...

To think, the School made another error.

Short post this time, make a long story short, when I went to pick up my books on Monday they gave me the wrong package, I had chosen to ride my bike that day so I had to heave the whole 30Ib. up hill, not fun, but not impossible. I preceded to open the package and discover that I had been given the wrong books, so the next day I heaved them all the way down hill early in the morning to get my actual books. I ended up exchanging the 30Ib package for one that was so heavy it broke the bag as I carried it around. I had been dull enough to pick them up at the start of the day so that for the rest of the day I was lugging around a huge collection of text books.

Advice for all those yet to enter college: pick up text-books on your way HOME not on your way to class, much more convenient.

(I did however, "accidentally" keep the complementary starbursts that they include in each package, whoops, I guess I'll just call that my payment for my troubles. I was hoping for a gift-card or something like that though...

MANdolin

I am spending this week with my brother at his guitar camp, I'm going to include a large overview of this week later, (once the week is over) but I'm bored right now while he's in a class so I thought I'd type up a little sub-text as to what has happened, thus far.

I met a girl, I know, weird, but I did. her name is Melissa, and she comes from star-valley Utah and is in the Star Valley Grass Band, I knew this band because last year I had met a girl named Megan at a summer camp I attend who is also in this band so when I heard the name I asked her if she knew Megan, she did, since then----basically nothing has happened.

she's a very friendly girl, Mellissa, and because I was a woodwind player in a sea of "string"ists, (violins, guitars, cellos, basses, and Mandolins), she is an amazing singer and only picked up the guitar a few years ago, when I mentioned to her that I was only here for my brother and that I played clarinet three things happened, 1. she laughed, 2. she asked me to bring my Clarinet the next day and play a bit (more on that in the future post), and 3. she offered to teach me a bit of how to play the Mandolin.

she showed me three chords, the D chord, the G chord, the C chord, and the F chord, and then..... she let me take her Mandolin home with me!!! either she trusts me more than she should, or she wants to get on my good side, either way is fine with me, she's cute. :)

so...... I took the Mandolin home and spent some time getting the hang of things, and when I brought it back today I realized that 4 chords means almost nothing and I have a long way to go before I can be proficient in any degree, but thanks to Melissa and her over-trusting nature I have discovered that string'ed instruments can be really fun, I think I'm going to steal one of my dad's seldom used guitars and take it to college, then in my spare time I can learn some chords and maybe eventually I'll be able to call myself a guitarist....maybe.



but probably not...

Laptop

so my dad finally let me have a laptop this week. Origionally he had promised me a new laptop for college, then one under 1000$, and then he finally just gave me his old one. (it's still forthcoming wether he plans to  replace it or not, but his excuse for not spending any money is reasonable--he plans to by me a brand spankin' new one after my mission. A laptop purchased now would be 3 years old by the time I was really ready to be gung-ho about college and i'll have the knewest addition then, which sounds pretty sweet to me. there is a lot of cool stuff on this laptop, for one, it's mine. I named it "The Compositor" because I'm going to use it as a Computer and for Composing, clever huh?, sadly, the actual name is "Matt Dawson's Computer" because my dad named the actual hard drive and I only named my admin's account, he's so creative isn't he? I like my name better. for examples the other computers and networks my dad has named there is: "The Upstairs Computer" "Bob" "The Downstairs Computer" and "Unicorn" very original right? I've found some interesting things that make me prefer a mac to a pc, i've been raised on pc's and only recently have discovered how much more user friendly and customizable the Mac's can be. I can have "spaces" which are basically tidy "extra screens" so I can have one "space" for the internet, one "space" for  Finale, one "space" for itunes, and another "space" for something else, I can choose how many "space" I want and even how their organized. this way I can have lots of windows open and only see the ones that are related to eachother, sweet huh? I think so.