Teaser for "I hate traveling in December" Blog

Basically, I am stuck in Utah until X-mas (best situation possible right now.)

Call me if you are bored because I am. Also, you could I-Chat me. :)

I will explain a lot more later. It is way complicated and would take a longer time than my attention span right now to explain it all.

Anyways, yesterday I had dinner at Arnie Ferrin's house. That was fun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnie_Ferrin

Ugh, its cold and snowy and I have nothing to do.

I hate traveling in December.

Let me remind you of last December's experience.

"So I get back to London from Portugal and Spain and I am ready and excited to go home. I was both mentally prepared to go home and fincancially (meaning I had no money). I got my bags picked up, after waiting in the cold for over an hour and many tube rides, and got to the place where I was spending the night of the 18th at. My flight was at around 11 on the 19th. So I wake up nice and early enough to get to the airport on time and leave around 7. It was pretty crappy to lug my stuff up and down lots of stairs, but I kind of had to. So I finally get to the train station and I am on schedual. I take a little nap and sprawl my stuff on a few seats. At Victoria station I had checked and I had my passport, wallet, camera, and phone. I was all ready with my valuables.

So our train gets to Gatwick airport and I get in line at the Delta counter. I am feeling good and responsible that I got there on time and with no hitch. Then, the people came up the line doing an initial security check, you know, asking if I packed my own bags and stuff. They also were checking passports. I reach into my left front jeans pocket, which is where I keep my passport, and I dont feel anything. I then check all my other pockets and still nothing. I started to panic and thrash through my backpack, ripping a few papers along the way. My stomach sank and I realized that I didnt have it. I let the man doing the checks know and I asked him what to do. I was speaking in a quiet voice because I was getting pretty worried. He led me out of the line and got a supervisor. She was the nicest lady and I am pretty sure I would have lost it if she wasnt there. She told me to deeply search my luggage, I did even though I knew it was in my pocket at Victoria station and now it wasnt.

I started to realize that I was not going to make my plane without a passport. I got in line to speak with the Delta representatives. The guy I talked to was pretty sassy and he kept answering the phone and had long converstations while I was just standing there panicking. Finally, I explained my situation and he suggested that I change my flight, duh. It cost, but I didnt really have a choice. So he looks to see the next available flight and tells me that there is nothing open. Then he goes, oh wait, heres one....on.....January 2nd. I was thinking the f-word in my head. Then he continued to search and found a flight to Cinncinatti, OH for the next day, but there wasnt a flight to Portland from there till Jan 2nd. I was thinking, okay...that wouldnt be as bad and was thinking that at least I would be in the states. I could maybe stay with Sloan or something...I still was not happy. Then, for some reason, the sassy asian man tried to book me a ticket on a portland flight that was full from OH to OR. It went through! I had a seat~! I didnt know if I had just kicked someone off the flight or what, but I was going home the next day. I was pretty happy.

Then, I remembered that I still didnt have a passport, so it didnt really matter that much that I changed my flight to the next day if I couldnt get a passport by then. I then made my way back to central London to go to the US Embassy. Another train ride and lots more stairs carrying a hundred pounds of crap plus a backpack with a statue that I bought for my mom in it. By the time I got to the square that the embassy is located in, I was taking about ten steps and then having to rest for a whole minute. So I get in line for security and I got to kind of cut in front of a lot of people because A, I was an American and B, I had an Emergency stituation. They kept referring to me as "the Emergency." I kind of liked that. Even though I got to cut, security still took forever. I had to get everything electronic and metallic out of my bags and off of my person. Then, I still beeped, i dont know why. They were nice about it all though, plus, I was an "Emergency." Once I finally got inside, I talked to a guy and he explained that they were going to lunch. He gave me the paperwork and then everyone took off. I was pretty much alone in there, except an American family. They were trying to get a passport for the daughter because hers had expired, but they didnt have all the neccessary documents, like the signiture of the father. The mom didnt know where the father was, she was with a new guy now, and had a pretty big tantrum. That kept me entertained as the Embassy had lunch. She exclaimed that the embassy worker that was dealing with her situation was keeping her from getting a passport for her daughter on purpose. She was screaming that if she was a whore and didnt know who the father was, then she would be okay without the signiture, but she was being punished for being a respectable, classy woman. She wasnt acting too classy.

Anyways, I got the paperwork finished and after a few hours, I had a replacement passport. I was pretty darn happy. I was going home! I am so exhausted that I decided to take the train to the airport again and just get a place to stay by the airport. I think I needed that because I was soooo exhausted. The next morning, I got up even earlier for this flight. There was no way that I was going to miss my flight. Everything went pretty smoothly, with only minor delays on my flights and I got home that night. Well, that sure was an adventure that I hope to not repeat, but thankfully I knew where the Embassy was (thanks DT) and I had a credit card."

This year wasn't as bad because I didn't need a passport, but it would be just too easy to have my travel plans go smoothly, yeah? I'll write more about that later tonight or tomorrow.

Do you feel sufficiently teased?

100 things I want (first half)

After listing 100 thinks I am thankful for, I wondered how much easier it would be to make a list of 100 things that I want. This is a great opportunity to show how materialistic I can be. Also, this may inspire you in your x-mas gift shopping, whether for me or for others. Again these are not in any particular order, just how they spill out of my head.

As I started doing this, a lot of these starting mutating into things that I want to do in my life. I guess that's okay too.

1.) A soft cover shell for my mac
2.) A good night's sleep
3.) The new R.E.M. CD
4.) Tickets to Sundance Film Festival
5.) One of my designs to be printed on Threadless
6.) A vacation to New York City
7.) Warm gloves
8.) An ice scraper for my car
9.) A new right turn signal for my car
10.) People to comment on my blog (haha)
11.) To see Kanye West in concert
12.) To get my wisdom teeth out
13.) My brother to get his life together
14.) Free car insurance
15.) Some new underwear
16.) A beanie
17.) A significant other
18.) Sushi from Sushiland
19.) Yogurberry
20.) A really memorable New Year's
21.) A cool vintage leather jacket
22.) Friends to visit me in Utah
23.) The new Killers CD
24.) The newest Modest Mouse CD
25.) A puppy
26.) A cool summer job
27.) To start a dance craze
28.) To be a one-hit wonder
29.) To interview a celebrity
30.) To audition for a reality TV show
31.) To write a book
32.) To travel to every continent
33.) To live outside the US with my family
34.) To learn another language fluently
35.) To skydive
36.) To bungee jump
37.) To own Louis Vuitton luggage
38.) To live on the East Coast
39.) To get married
40.) To raise a family
41.) To go to the Olympics
42.) A wife with a good sense of style
43.) To perform a stand up comedy routine
44.) To start a band
45.) To do the gallon challenge successfully
46.) To get up on a wakeboard
47.) To ride an elephant
48.) To pet a kangaroo
49.) A massage
50.) My leg to heal quickly!

Ugh, I am tired. I will finish later. Maybe not.

I have found the source of happiness for all life.

And I owe it to LeAnn.

http://cdn1.ustream.tv/swf/4/viewer.45.swf?cid=317016

Whenever I tell someone about this, they ask "What is this?" Welllllllll....it is a live feed to some puppies. I watch them all day. They run around and fight/play with each other. It brings an instant smile to my face. It also makes me miss dogs. I love animals, especially pandas, polar bears, and puppies. I never really realized that they all start with p.... I love alliteration. (always).

Anyways, I was watching one time and I saw a person on the feed! I don't really know what was happening because I would only see the person from the level of the puppy's eyes, but I think they were bending over to put something in whatever is across from these puppies' home. I saw plumber's crack! So funny. But it makes me wonder, where are these puppies? And why hasn't anyone bought them if they are in a pet store or pound or something? There are thousands of viewers at all times. Come on! I would buy them all if they could live in my condo and also if I had a lot of disposable income. Both circumstances are not likely to change, so I am out of luck.

I think that is all for now.
check out this photo too, if you are bored.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/photo.php?pid=36672880&id=17827202&ref=mf

Matt

Another Bit about Threadless

If you want to buy something from Threadless, use this link so I get points for referring you! Thanks!

http://threadless.com/?from=mgill52

Pre-Finals Surge...of procrastination

Well today wrapped up the semester in terms of class periods. All that really remains is tests, tests, and tests. Oh joy.

I am now taking the time between classes and finals to distract myself as much as possible from studying. I just don't want to get fed up with studying right before I actually take the test. That would suck, right? Great rationalization...(sarcasm).

To fill most of this procrastination time I have been spending a lot of time on www.threadless.com. For those that are unaware, threadless is an awesome website. Basically, it is a funny/artsy/everything-else-that-is-good t-shirt site that makes it's products based on submissions from the public. I have been aware of this site for quite some time, but it wasn't until now that I have very little actual free time that I decided to spend a lot of time scoring design submissions and even trying my own luck. I think this might have something to do with me realizing that if threadless desides to print your design on a shirt, you get $2,000, plus a $500 store credit! I REALLY want to get one of my designs printed.

In addition to making bank from getting printed, I think it would be just as cool, if not cooler, to say that I designed a threadless tee. It's like a validation on one's creativity or humor or artistic ability. That would be so awesome. I think if I got a threadless tee printed, I would get a facial tattoo of the threadless logo.

Last night I finally started making my first design.

Here it is
http://www.threadless.com/critique/32909/Snow_Panda

I realized that I need to get some better software, because that simple thing took sooooooo long to do. I think a lot of people use illustrator or maybe photoshop. I think they have those on campus, so maybe I can procrastinate what I have to do next semester and make some better designs next semester.

Also, if you have any design ideas or if you are way good on some photo editing program and would like to collaborate, let me know~! :)

Matt

100 Things

Taking direction from Rachel, I thought I would share 100 things that I am thankful for given that it is Thanksgiving! Keep in mind that these are not in any particular order. They are just spilling out of my head.

1.) Mom
2.) Dad
3.) Jared
4.) Adam
5.) Cocoa
6.) Princess
7.) Joker
8.) The Gospel
9.) My House
10.) BYU
11.) The Book of Mormon
12.) The Bible
13.) IKEA
14.) The Internet
15.) Modern Sanitation
16.) Medicine
17.) My Car
18.) House M.D.
19.) LOST
20.) Facebook
21.) My Heatlh
22.) Ninja Warrior
23.) London Fall 2007
24.) Grandma
25.) Extended Family
26.) My BYU Friends
27.) My Oregon Ffriends
28.) Dark Chocolate
29.) The Atonement
30.) Recycling
31.) The Food Network
32.) Rock Band
33.) Wii
34.) I-Tunes
35.) Panda Bears
36.) Scholarships
37.) College Football
38.) College Basketball
39.) Andy Warhol
40.) Ryan Air
41.) The Tube
42.) The US Embassy in London
43.) My Guitar
44.) Theater
45.) The Dollar Theater
46.) Sushi
47.) Tucanos
48.) Massages
49.) My Thick Hair
50.) Lasik
51.) Dogs
52.) Arrested Development
53.) Chuck Close
54.) Santa Cruz Organic Lemonade
55.) Vans Shoes
56.) The Office
57.) Sleep
58.) The Beatles
59.) My Sense of Humor
60.) Guacamole
61.) Photography
62.) So You Think You Can Dance
63.) Best of Will Ferrell SNL
64.) Internet Viral Videos
65.) Dimitri Martin
66.) Sarah Silverman
67.) Reality TV
68.) Music Videos
69.) Wikipedia
70.) The Beach
71.) The Mountains
72.) Yoga
73.) Basketball
74.) Tennis
75.) Soccer
76.) My Teeth
77.) Crutches
78.) Netflix
79.) Online Banking
80.) Expensive Things on Sale for Cheap
81.) ChaCha
82.) Cell Phones
83.) Classical Music
84.) My Country
85.) No Sales-Tax in Oregon
86.) Random Facts
87.) The Zoo
88.) Airplanes
89.) Colors
90.) Asian Food
91.) Vaccinations
92.) Ice Cream
93.) The Academy Awards
94.) Costco
95.) Caeser Salad
96.) General Conference
97.) Music
98.) Theme Parks
99.) Small Talk Conversation
100.) Blogs

Dream

I just had a weird dream and actually remember it so I thought I would write it down.

So it started that I was meeting up with my FHE group. However, we were meeting up by Scouter's Mountain in Happy Valley. Anyways, not that many people showed up, but when we had like six of our FHE people and some other people like Kyla and Katie and Amy and Derya and Loren someone is like "we better get going." I agreed and we started heading out to Philidelphia! Haha.

Once we got there we went to a movie/play of a Shakespeare piece. It was in a movie theatre, but people would come out of the screen like six feet towards us. It was done in an elaborate Baz Luhrrman style. It was like a three-d movie but without the glasses...very strange. Anyways, we watch it and its really good. It's really funny in parts and really sad in parts. Sometime towards the end I get a text from my dad. I read it and it just says "How are you?" or something like that. I decide to answer it later and put my phone back in my pocket. Then for some reason I start drawing on the back of the seats with a pen. I drew the whole world (like a map) in a quick sketch and then say to Derya "look" and I circle Canada and Turkey and some of us laugh a little.
A few minutes later a theatre usher comes up to me and says that there was a complaint about us, specifically me. I look confused and ask why. At this point, derya was covering my drawing with her legs. He said that an older couple was very offended that I had opened my phone during the performance or showing of the movie or play, whatever it was. They said they saw the blue light of my screen. He said that they also said we were laughing the whole time and it wasn't appropriate to do so. They would have said something to me themselves but they were intimiated by me and were afraid I would hurt them and their mother.

I was so confused, but I said sorry and said it wouldn't happen again. Then Loren and Derya and Katie all ask me why the usher came to talk to me and I told them. They thought it was funny and laughed. Then a few minutes another employee came to talk to me. He looked more important than the first guy. He handed me a form that he said that I had to fill out after the performance because of the complaints against me. Shortly, the whole thing ended. I had no idea how it ended becuase of this drama, but I think I still liked it. I filled out the form and at the bottom it said I needed to exit out the main entrance and turn in the form and have them take my picture so I wouldn't be allowed in this Philidelpia theatre ever again. I decided that was dumb so I went out the side exit. It was raining. Also, like 5 times between standing up and getting to the parking lot I realized that I was just hopping on one foot instead of using my crutches. In fact, I kept leaving my crutches behind and I had to hop back to get them.

Once I got to the parking lot I started to play on my crutches. I was going really fast and then I decided to try and walk without putting either of my legs on the ground and just use the crutches. I did it for an entire length of the parking lot. This is when I started realizing that it was a dream (haha, yeah, just now). Then I doubled back to get to the car and I was still just using my crutches, except I was twirling in circles too! Then right before opening the car door....I woke up. THE END

HAHA

I could survive for 1 minute, 16 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

Created by Bunk Beds.net

I Broke my Leg!

Well midterms are about to start again and what do I do to prepare for them? Break my leg. Smart idea right? I don't really recommend it.


Probably the first question that popped into your head is "How?" Well, last night I had an intramural soccer game. During one of our kickoffs I was dribbling up the middle. I kicked a little too far forward on one touch and the ball got ahead of me pretty close to a defender. I started to run as fast as I could to catch up to it and keep possession. The defender also started running towards the ball. We got there pretty much at the same time and we both took a swift right foot kick towards the ball. I don't know who hit the ball first or even if the ball got hit at all, but our shins definitely collided. From where the injury took place, I think the other guy must have kicked me right under the side edge of my shinguard or right above where it ended on my leg. I took two steps after the collision and let out two or three uncontrollable screams, then I kind of rolled onto the ground. I immediately shut my eyes tight because all I knew about my leg was that it really really really hurt. I even said "It really really really hurts!" I didn't know what it looked like and didn't want to see it if it was graphic. I was thinking that seeing my leg might make me go into shock. If that was one of my first thoughts, that kind of shows you how much I was hurting.

I feel like that last paragraph was getting long, so I'll start a new one. As I laid on the ground, the soccer game got put on hold and the EMS people were called. I did some yoga breathing and got calmed down but my eyes were still tightly shut. Once I finally opened my eyes I saw that I was surrounded by the referees and my teammates. We had to wait like 10 minutes for the EMS to arrive so I just kept still on the field in a sort of fetal position. Eventually, I realized that my shorts were riding way up and I was giving the people on the sidelines, or really anyone within sight of me, a good show. I made a comment about how its not fair to tease all the girls on the sidelines and adjusted to be a little more modest. Then I just tried to talk about other things and not think about my leg. I told Preston that in Environmental Health that day we had talked about hermaphrodite polar bears. There's a long story as to why I felt a need to tell him that. Haha.

Once EMS arrived people started asking me questions. I said my name and address like 4 times. They took my blood pressure and did some tests on my leg to see if they thought it was broken. The first few tests were fine. There was just a little surface pain, but then he did some things to my leg that felt like I was giving birth out of my shin. He advised that I go get an x-ray, which I kind of figured I should do. Then I realized that I was going to have to get up. Uh oh. On try one with assistance from two EMS guys I got a few feet off the ground, but then it hurt so much. Next we tried propping me up from my side to standing. This took like 4 people, but it worked. But then I had to get across the field to the parking lot to drive to the hospital. I tried to hop across with the two EMS guys acting as crutches but it was shooting pain up my leg so I stopped after two hops. Then we had to get 4 people together again to carry me. They did it using the locked arm seat formation. You know, the one you learn in Boy Scouts? haha. I got to the car and I was off to the hospital.

At the hospital, they did the initial exam and the guy that checked me out said that he thought it was just superficial. He seemed kind of annoyed that I came into the ER with a "superficial" injury. However, I knew that the EMS found ways to cause me great pain and I had such difficulty getting off the field, so I was pretty sure it was broken. After several periods of waiting by myself in my exam room I went to get x-rays. In my x-ray I had to lie down on this table. I sat down on the edge of it, but I could not lift my hurt leg onto the table. The x-ray technician had to help me. The first x-ray was fine, but then she wanted me to rotate my leg so that she could get a side shot. I had another baby out of my shin. It took some great self-control to not make a loud noise and keep still. This was probably the time I was closest to tears.

Shortly after the x-rays, it was identified that I indeed had a broken leg, my Tibia to be precise. It looks like my bone is still aligned well, but I have to go back to the hospital on Friday to see if I need surgery or not. They would put a rod in my leg if I did. If I don't, I would get a cast on Friday. I hope I get to choose the color of cast. I am thinking green right now. I got some prescriptions for some drugs and some crutches and headed home. They prescribed Loritab, which is like Vicodin, and also a stool softener. Apparently Loritab can make you constipated. Too much info? haha.

Well that is pretty much the story of my broken leg. I'll post an update in a little bit. If you feel so inclined, come visit me! I am going to be pretty bored while I am immobile. :)

BYU

For no particular reason, I have recently been researching schools. I'm not looking to transfer or anything, but I am fascinated by rankings of colleges, whether it be academically, sports, or anything really. In my research I have decided that I am so glad that I go to BYU.

First of all, this is pretty amazing concerning cost per credit hour.
-USC (or really any Private school that is somewhat difficult to get into)- $1,249
-BYU-$209

BYU is ranked #8 nationally for the number of students who go on to earn PhDs, #1 nationally for students who go on to dental school, #6 nationally for students who go on to law school, and #10 nationally for students who go on to medical school.

From The Princeton Review (2008):

#1 - Stone-Cold Sober Schools

#1 - Students Pray on a Regular Basis

#3 - Best College Library

Plus, we are in the top ten for football right now.

:)

Soccer Team

The event that happened after our soccer game on Saturday made me decide to write an entire post on this. :)

I'll start out with a fun little occurrence that happened during our first game. We only had six players, so we were a man down and pretty darn tired since we hadn't played soccer in a while. I wouldn't be surprised if someone on our team wasn't feeling so hot. However, a player on the other team was the one complaining about feeling sick from running so much, which is quite sad if you think about it. We play on a very shortened field and his team had subs so he hadn't been running the whole time. Anyways, he tries to call on a sub during our throw-in, which you can't do. When the ref tells him he can't get the sub yet, he says that he is going to throw up. I was kind of sassy because we were losing so I said something like "just wait a minute, then you can throw up." Play goes on for a little bit and I score a goal. As I am running back to mid-field I turn to upset stomach kid and say "you can throw up now" and right as I utter the words "throw up" he throws up. I didn't know I had the superpower to make people vomit. Its not the coolest, but I could be an "extra-type" character in an X-Men movie, like the guy who can puff himself up like a puffer fish.

So that was the peculiar event that happened during the first game, but the second game might have topped it. The game itself didn't have anything too unusual, until most of the second half had expired. A guy on the other team got hurt somehow. I was suspicious that he was faking it and trying to waste time, but he was on the ground for a pretty long time so I started to believe him. Anyways, it was unfortunate that he got hurt, but I didn't feel bad at all because when he got hurt he was completely by himself. I was the closest person to him and I was twenty feet away, so I had nothing to do with the injury. Eventually, he got up and walked slowly off the field and spread out on the ground, just resting. The game ended and we started taking off our soccer stuff on the sideline.

Here is where the situation became blog worthy. We (we being our team) were grouped together talking about the game a bit when a guy from the other team approached us. He had some sort of accent, but I couldn't place where it was from. He tells us that he is not making any accusations, but a member of our team pushed the guy that got hurt in the back really hard three times in the first half. This would be a semi-normal thing to say, but he goes on and says that the injured guy has an MBA and kids and is going to get a good job and that was all in jeopardy because he got hurt during this game. He said he could be paralyzed. I start to get a "wtf" look on my face and look around and see similar faces. Then, the guy starts his speech over again since no one confessed and apologized. We were just confused as to why he is talking to us and why he is saying what he is. Again, he says he is not making any accusations, but the guy has an MBA. I continue to be speechless, but then I realize that really he is being pretty rude. He claims that we were being really poor sports, but what he was doing right then was poor sportsmanship. I interject and say "actually, you are making an accusation" and some other sassy comment about being offended that he was talking to us about something that was so ridiculous. By the way, I am somewhat editing what he said because they were not grammatically correct. For example, one of the times he said "I'm not making accusation." I forget the ending lines, but basically that is what happened.

First of all, the guy was not paralyzed. He walked off the field. Secondly, why wait until after the game to say anything. They should have said something to the player who was "playing dirty" in the first half or talked to the officials at the half. C, if his injury was from the roughing he got in the first half, he should not have played in the second half if his back was so sensitive. Also, what does a good job and an MBA have to do with anything? Since he has surpassed undergraduate level education, does that mean he is a superior individual and we should feel so bad for hurting (or not hurting) such a great mind?Psh! Lastly, he got hurt all by himself, so how could they pin the injury to us?! I was pretty incredulous that they even said anything like that to us, and I still am.

Lets see what happens at our next game.


Matt

Movies

I haven't written anything in a while, so I am going to right now.

I have been somewhat busy with school kicking into gear. I can't remember if I already listed what I am taking this semester, but I will do it anyways now. I am taking Infectious Diseases, Environmental Health, Intro to Public Health, Health Behavior Change, Human Physiology, Book of Mormon, and Jogging.

Sorry to write so disjointed between paragraphs, but I am pretty sleepy. I should get more sleep.

Recently, I have reactivated my netflix account so I thought I would give some reviews on movies. First, No Country for Old Men. I thought the whole concept of this movie was brilliant. The killer was so creepy and the way he kills is interesting. Wow, how creepy did that sound...but really, it is pretty cool. I thought that the storyline developed in a mostly predictable fashion and the ending was really disappointing and anticlimactic. How often do I spell anticlimactic correctly? Not very often. Anyways, I would give No Country for Old Men four out of five stars. It really could have been a great movie with some plot twists. Instead it is just cinematic talent with a unique basis.

Next I saw Ray. There are some really good things about this movie, but some things bothered me. The whole flashback thing was very very very well done. This movie has one of the saddest scenes in any movie I have seen in one of the flashbacks. The acting was all very good, especially by Jamie Foxx. However, the film was put together in a strange idiosyncratic way. It didn't flow very well in some spots. For instance, the beginning of the movie wasn't a good place to start in my opinion. Also, there were several montage type sequences that had animated headlines flashing arrossed the screen that just made the whole movie look cheap. I know this seems kind of picky, but it was pretty distracting. I would give Ray three and a half stars out of five because it didnt have the flow of a great Bio-pic like La Vie En Rose, but there are underlying messages that are very strong and worthwhile and are portrayed through good acting.

My most recent netflix movie was There Will Be Blood. Starting off, and really through most of the movie, the film is pretty slow moving. However, now that I think about it, it completely fit the movie because it is set in the California desert, so really not that much was happening. It stayed true to the setting. However, the somewhat monotone pace of the movie is dissapated with extremely unique scenes either involving Daniel Day Lewis' character or the Preacher played by Paul Dano. Then pretty soon, it is back to the tense mundaneness. These sequences create a sort of haunting feeling and uneasiness throughout. Similarly to No Country for Old Men, the ending has some loose ends, but it is preceded by some events that make some sense of it. The one thing that makes this movie so good is Daniel Day Lewis' character's relationships with other people and how they evolve and change, especially with his son. I can't really say too much about that without spoiling, so I'll stop there. I would give There Will Be Blood a four and a half stars out of five because I realize how hard it is to make a film interesting and good without too much happening. It is realistic and human and there are a few characters that are truely memorable.

Last week I also saw House Bunny. Haha. I did not netflix this movie. Anna Farris is very funny in Just Friends and in Lost in Translation, so I figured there had to be some pretty funny parts in this movie, despite what I had heard. It turns out I was fairly correct in this assumption. There were definately about five parts that I was laughing out loud pretty hard about. However, ther rest of the movie fell pretty flat. The red headed girl that is the head of the Sorority is a pretty good actress I think, but she is not funny, just mostly awkward. Rumor Willis, Katherine McPhee and most of the other girls don't really have a chance to be funny either. However, the girl that is Nick and Norah's Infinate Playlist (which I really want to see) and the girl that plays a manly girl from Idaho are both pretty funny with one-liners. One thing that really suprised me was the amount of random people in this movie. As I mentioned Rumor Willis and Katherine McPhee were in it, but the singer for All American Rejects, the guy that was pranked on reality show The Joe Schmoe Show, Hugh Heffner and his girlfriends, and Shaq were also in the movie. Random, well except for Hugh and company. Also, Tom Hanks' son, I think his name is Collin does another movie that requires no acting. I seriously feel like I could have played his character with relative ease. With all that said, I would give House Bunny a disappointing one and three quarters stars out of five.

Well to wrap up this post I think I should make sure that you all have seen some basic youtube videos. If you haven't, find them and watch because they are today's developing pop culture.

-Chocolate Rain
-Charlie the Unicorn
-Muffins
-Shoes
-Charlie Bit Me

later gator

Nick Patera

I randomly discovered this youtube video a while ago with Amy, but I only recently rediscovered it as I started sharing it again here at school. It blows my mind.

So it starts off with this guy, Nick Patera, in a studio or something that looks a lot like a studio. He starts singing "A Whole New World" from Disney's Aladdin. He is pretty darn good. When I first saw it I thought he was pretty good. It was an interesting song choice, and he is really into it in a theatrical way. I thought that was the reason this video had so many views.

But then, it happens. It will blow your mind too. When I showed my mom, she had to leave the room. Haha. I feel like I shouldn't explicitly say why this is so shocking. Its not grotesque or violent, just weird. Check it out!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=t9-CS2v8wcc

As to whether its real or not, you can watch him sing out of the recording studio, like in his video for "Bleeding Love."

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=GGM53wG9-4E&feature=related

Let me know what you think. :)

Computer--HELP!

So I never thought of my computer as a very good computer, but recently it has just been sucking. It shuts off randomly, takes 15 minutes to turn on, virtually has no battery because it has to be plugged in to be on, and is so slow that it takes a half hour to burn a music CD and I can't even watch DVD's on it! These problems are getting so bad that I am going to buy a new computer. I have been doing a little research, but I am still unsure what to get.

I have been leaning towards a Macbook, the one level above basic one. I have heard pretty good things about Mac, especially that they are great for photo editing and video editing, which I like. On top of that, BYU's store will give you a free printer if you buy a Mac, or Apple will give you a free Itouch, after rebate, when you buy a Mac. Does anyone know if there is a way to get both?

Also, what other computers would be somewhat comparable. Obviously, cheaper is nice and I really would like a computer with great battery life so I could take notes without being plugged in.

Please, let me know what you think about this whole situation!

Back 2 Skool

As many of you know, getting back into the swing of things a school can be one of the most stressful times of the year. Your not sure about your classes and schedule, you have to move into a new place (moving is one of my least favorite things), and you have to buy a lot of things like books, groceries, and things you forgot at home. Pair that all with my trial of driving to Utah from Klammath Falls and it makes sense how relieved I am to be done with this week.

My Class Schedule goes like this: MONDAY-Physiology from 10-10:50, Honors Book of Mormon from 1-1:50, Environmental Health from 2-3:15, and Health Behavior Change from 3:30-4:45.
TUESDAY-Intro to Public Health from 9-9:50, Jogging from 10-10:50, and Infectious Diseases from 12:35-1:50. WEDNESDAY-The exact same as Monday. THURSDAY-Same as Tuesday minus Intro to Public Health and adding my Physiology Lab from 2-3:50. FRIDAY-All I have is Physiology from 10-11:50.

I am excited about my classes. I think I will learn a lot and enjoy all of them. I'm not sure if I will do well in them, but I will enjoy them.

One thing thats funny to me is my Jogging teacher. He looks like Clint Eastwood. Haha.

A lot of people have asked me where I am living now, so I should probably just post it on here. I live in Promenade Condos which is just off of 900 E in #20. Come visit!

Well I think that is all I have to say right now. I'm going to go jog.

It is September!

Wow. August went by extremely quickly. I am now back in Provo and school started today. Being reminded of my role as a college student, I must now blog! Because that is what college students do, right?

Okay, so here is my August recap.

On the 24th Jared, my brother, and I drove down to Klammath Falls to join our parents at our time share. I was pretty tired from the stress of packing so I was looking forward to just relaxing for a few days. We played mini golf on the first day and it was really fun. It wasn't your typical mini golf course though. It was like a real golf course with no borders and sand traps and lots of hilly angles. We also swam, played tennis, played horseshoes, and did stuff like that. One night we drove down to Ashland and saw A Comedy of Errors at the Shakespeare Festival. It was good, but different. They made it into a sort of musical and set it up as a Western. It was interesting and entertaining.

On Friday morning I headed out to drive to school. It wouldn't really make sense to drive back up to Portland and take the Boise route, so I drove through Nevada instead. The drive started out pretty good. There were some really nice scenic views and the road was windy. Before I really thought about it, I was in Nevada. Right after I got into Nevada, the highway I was on met up with another one. There was a stop sign and I kinda did a California rolling stop. I looked in my rear view mirror and I saw a cop car parked on the shoulder facing the other way. Then I saw it turn around. I was shouting expletives in my head. Sure enough, I got pulled over. And to make it even better, and by better I mean worse, I wasn't wearing a shirt because it was hot. I decided that I should put my shirt back on as the cop walked from his car to my window, but I slipped it on very quickly and put it on backwards and inside out. This left the tag sticking out right beneath my chin, so I looked even more sketch. I had only been pulled over once before and cops generally make me nervous so I was shaking a bit. He asks me for my driving crap and I grab all my car papers and grab some of them and ask "are these it?" He says "sure." I actually didn't even give him my proof of insurance. I think he didn't care because he could see how nervous I was. So after his explanation of why I should have stopped at the stop sign, he let me go with a verbal warning because he deciphered that I went to BYU And BYU is one of his favorite football teams. I was greatly relieved.

But that wasn't my only problem on this trip. Soon after being pulled over, my car started to struggle on uphill sections. There just wasn't any power. To this day, I still don't know what is wrong with my car. I should probably figure that out sometime soon. I hypothesized that blue's engine was just tired from driving long distances so I tried to take breaks to minimize problems (blue is my car). Pretty soon it was a really bad problem. I couldn't go past thirty on the 75mph highway. Semi-trucks were going right on by me with ease. I ended up having to spend the night in Elko, Nevada because I just couldn't go any further. Let me tell you, there is a lot to do in Elko. And when I say "a lot to do" I mean eat dinner at Subway and sit in a hotel room watching people talk about Sarah Palin. Now that is a memorable Friday night, right?

The next morning I took off pretty early and I didn't have any problems with my car all the way to Ogden, Utah, but once I left Ogden to drive to Provo, I didn't get too far. After stopping in Bountiful for an hour to eat lunch, I thought blue would be rested, but I needed to stop in Midvale again. Then once again I had to stop in Lindon before I puttered into Provo. Ugh. I missed the football game and spent a nice Saturday sitting and waiting around.

So then I spent the rest of the night moving in and unpacking. Sunday was church and then I went up to Alpine and had dinner at the Otteson's. And that is August. I think it wasn't too exciting, but if you read it, it's too late! I'll write about school tomorrow. It's September!

Questions

Some questions to ponder.

Why do buttered popcorn jelly beans taste bad? Is it just the texture? Does anyone like them?

Who let the dogs out?

What would life be without cell phones? Would people still wonder if you are safe if you don't show up somewhere on time? Do cell phones make us less timely?

What would Jesus do for a Klondike bar?

Why did the Spice Girls make a movie?

Do people really think that The Hills is reality TV? What effects do the massive amounts of reality television have on society?

Does anyone read my blog?

ChaCha

On my birthday I was riding towards downtown when we realized that we didn't know where we wanted to go. Someone suggested Metro Pizza, I think it was Amy. However, none of us had been to Metro Pizza. Lauren says we should text ChaCha. That was the first time I had heard about ChaCha.

Two days later I had to work at the Clackamas County Fair at the Vector Control booth. I handed out mosquito information and paraphernalia. It was pretty boring. Soooo I started texting ChaCha and asking random things. What is your favorite White Stripes song? When does the Fair close? How hot is it? etc etc etc. I did this for pretty much the entire shift at the fair and I think I asked ChaCha about 500 questions. Some of my questions were about the service itself. I found that ChaCha guides get paid to look up people's answers via the internet. They don't have hours and can get paid whenever they want. I was hooked.

I applied that night to become a ChaCha guide. The next day I got approved and went through the performance tests and training. Now I am just waiting for feedback on my training and practice session before I become a full fledged guide. I am excited! I love random information!

If you are unfamiliar with ChaCha, text ChaCha asking about ChaCha. You just phrase a question and text it to 242242 (ChaCha on a touch tone phone) and they will respond shortly. I think it is a great service and soon I will start answering questions.

ChaCha on!

Job

So yesterday was my first day really "off the job." That is to say that if I was still working I would have had to work yesterday. I kinda wish I still had a job. It motivates me to get to bed at a reasonable hour and I feel more accomplished. Plus, I get the dollar dollar bills y'all. Heh.

So with my new found open days I have started to look for a job in Provo. I want to be a server. I just applied to Red Lobster, but I don't want to waste time applying if there isn't much of a chance to get hired. Does anyone have any helpful hints to as where I could get hired as a server? I have lots of customer service experience and I think I handle people well, and I have worked at a restaurant as a host and busser, but I don't have any server experience. Keep all that in mind.

So please, direct me to my next job. Also, if you know anyone that has any kind of hook up at a restaurant, let me know.

k thx bye

Music for Andrew

So Andrew Bean has given me the task to keep track of the music that he is missing while he is a missionary in Thailand. I thought this would be an easy task, but I am realizing that I haven't really kept track of anything.

All that I have on the list of Music to listen to when he gets back is M.I.A. What else has he missed? Keep in mind that he left about 13 months ago.

Also, what movies has he missed that he should see once he gets back? All I have is Iron Man and Dark Knight on the movie list.

Let me know!

Narcolepsy

Maybe I have a mild form of Narcolepsy. Sometimes I just fall asleep in the middle of the day for hours at a time. I go directly into REM sleep which is the weird thing, and I remember my dreams very well from these "naps".

Does anyone else take these long naps? It is just strange to me because I am getting at least 8 hours during the nights leading up to these naps.

Hm, weird.

Summer is Ending

Wow, Summer went really quickly this time around. Given that it was only two months for me, it still went way quick. It was only two months because I took an extra term at BYU.

Well, it has been an okay summer. I didn't get to see that many people as often as I would have liked to, but I had some good times. I am done with my job now and now I am taking a week to get ready to leave and I will be leaving either on Sunday late afternoon or Monday morning.

I think I have gotten to that point in my life where I know my friends at college just as well as I know my friends back home. I think other people have gotten to this point as well. Its somewhat unfortunate because we want people to be just the same as they used to be, but people change. I know that I knew this all along, but I never really thought about it that much. I guess its true that change is the only constant.

With that being said, I am super excited to get back to school. I am finally confident in my major choice and am ready to dive into those classes. I am going to declare as a Public Health major on the Health Science track. That means that I have to take all the pre-Med requirements along with a bunch of Health classes. I am not so excited about the drive down there though...

DMV Website

I need to renew my drivers license because a.) the lamination is peeling off b.) my address change sticker is almost illegible c.) I got lasik so my restrictions need to be changed and d.) I look like I am 12 years old.

So I am reading on the DMV website to find out what kind of documentation I need to bring in to get my new license. I laughed out loud when I read the section on proof of address. It said:

Individuals that are homeless may use a descriptive address such as "under the west end of the Burnside Bridge."

I am thinking that I will tell them that I am homeless tommorow when I visit the dreaded DMV.

Lady GaGa

There is a mildly successful pop musician named Lady GaGa, obviously a reference to a certain Queen song, who performed on a So You Think You Can Dance results show. I was reminded of this performance and artist when I was cleaning up my DVR storage. She is very interesting to me for several reasons.

First, she can actually sing. After some brief research, I discovered that she went to music school. This is great. I think that more people in the music industry should go to music school. I think you can really tell in a lot of cases. For example, John Mayer and Adele both went to music school.

Second, she is weird! Imagine Gwen Stefani fashion/music videos on acid and you will get Lady GaGa. Actually, it would be impossible to say that Gwen Stefani isn't a major influence on GaGa. In fact, GaGa's real name is Stefani Germanotti. I think that GaGa is taking a lot of hints from Gwen Stefani's career. She has a sort of entorage-like backup dance group, similar to Gwen's Harajuku girls. By the way, aren't the Harajuku girls kind of a strange idea. All of a sudden, Gwen Stefani launches a solo career and appears with four Asian real life dolls. I think in one song she says that she dresses them and gives them names. They are not her property!

Lastly, GaGa came out of nowhere. I had never heard of her or her single "Just Dance" until her performance on So You Think You Can Dance. She also performed at the 2008 Miss Universe competition. Also, "Just Dance" is amazingly catchy. If you get "I Kissed a Girl" stuck in your head, just wait until you hear this song. GaGa must have a great producer, not to mention a great agent to book nationally televised and internationally televised gigs.

I have my doubts on GaGa's longevity, but she definately is different.

Here is the URL for the music video on YouTube.
There are parts of it that remind me of Fiona Apple's "Criminal" video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJyDsGE17mI&feature=related

Here is the URL for the So You Think You Can Dance performance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msI6GrAqANE

B L O G

Yup, I decided that there were not enough ways for me to waste time on the internet so I decided to start a blog. I also started a blog because Kellee has a blog and I want to do everything that Kellee does.

So I am going to treat this blog as my outlet of sharing videos, articles, and other random things with the world. It will also be a great outlet to complain in vain and maybe give narcisistic rants or the like. Feel free to check back from time to time and see what I have discovered and what I am saying.

Enjoy