Mortimer Matthew Allen Gill

50th post! Woohoo!

2010-08-17T16:53:00.001-07:00

To bad I don't have that much important stuff to talk about on such a momentous blog post. haha

So Sunday was my birthday. I went up to Highland, UT and ate dinner at the Otteson's house. They are so nice and fun to hang out with. As always, the food was great. Rachel made these cake ball things too, which were way too good. They are baked cake mixed with frosting that are dipped in chocolate. I am sure they are low calorie. :P

Since my birthday was on a Sunday, it was pretty low key, but really most of my birthdays are low key. I usually just want to go out to eat or have a dinner. I think that really speaks to how much I value food. Going out to eat is such a good time for me.

Speaking of going out to eat, I went to a little place called The Tree Room on Friday night for Katy Allen's graduation dinner. For those who don't know, Katy is my cousin in-law. I am staying with Katy and Mark right now because I don't have a place to live right now. The Colony kicked me out on Friday and The Promenade wont let me move in until they clean the carpets or something. Hopefully I will be able to move in soon. At the very latest, I'll be moved in on the 26th, I think. They said they will call me when I am able to move in. Anyways, back to The Tree Room. The Tree Room is a really nice restaurant that is part of the Sundance Resort. Here is the menu. I had the pepper steak. It was spicy and really good. I want that tonight now since I am reminiscing on it. I think it was a super nice place, but it was slightly overpriced. The portions were perfect though.

Well I don't really have that much else to report on. I am excited for Fall semester to start and I am glad that it will go at a slower pace. There will be a lot more things going on, but I will have more time to do things.

On a side note, I am trying to get some volunteer experience at a hospital and/or get involved with some mentored research. If anyone has any hookups, suggestions, or anything, let me know!

On another side note, here are some funny pictures.

This is a disturbing side bar ad.

haha, so weird.

I found this via the Omg, wtf subs blog on threadless.

"10 Ways Threadless Has Shaped My Life"

2010-07-29T19:50:00.000-07:00

As pretty much all of you know. I am into Threadless in a big way. I have learned a little self control so I wouldn't call it an addiction, but it has become a big part of my life. Whenever I have some down time, I check my email, I check my facebook, I check my twitter, and I check the Threadless blogs. Aside from being part of my routine sites that I check, I really believe that Threadless has changed me as a person. I have compiled this list to show exactly that: How Threadless has shaped my life.

1.) First of all, Threadless make me look super cool. I have tons of tee-shirts and a few sweatshirts with awesome art on them. I really feel like I am sort of acting like a canvas when I wear a Threadless tee. The tees gets random compliments, causes people to ask questions, and starts conversations. To me, that is really what art is.

2.) Threadless tees have started random relationships for me. In my Anatomy class, I study with this girl almost everyday. We didn't even know each other until she commented on my shirt that said "America Kind of Looks Like a Shark or Something." I am actually a really shy person when I first meet strangers, but once I find something we can talk about, it is a huge icebreaker. After I told her where I got my shirt, we really got talking and found out we have the same birthday. It is kind of amazing that I have become such good friends and gotten so comfortable around her in just one term. I likely would have never had a conversation with this girl beyond two sentences, if I didn't have such cool tee-shirts.

3.) Threadless tees have taught me that I have a really long torso. I have gotten American Apparel tees and Threadless brand tees from Threadless (along with other brands) and I discovered that Threadless brand tees are shorter and don't cover my back that well. If I bend over to pick something up, my tramp stamp is exposed to the world! Just kidding, I am waaaaay to indecisive to get a tattoo. Also, if I were to get a tattoo it would be on my face, DUH! Anyways, American Apparel tees are much longer and I like that. It's slimming. :)

4.) I have a great Threadless-dar now. I have this awesome ability to pick out Threadless tees in a big crowd. This isn't super useful, but I get a great satisfying feeling that makes me giggle like a child inside, sometimes outside. :P

5.) I have a better artistic eye. I have always loved art and art galleries and art museums, but Threadless has such a unique exposure to art that is graphically based, to art that is illustration based, and how this art is placed on this unique medium that is a tee shirt.

6.) I know so many more emoticons! It wasn't until the Threadless blogs that I knew about O_O O_o :^D -_- ^O^ and many more!

7.) Threadlessers have been my guides to the internet. So many funny videos and pictures have been found via Threadless blogs. The WAT?! blog will cheer me up any day. Or at least make me confused.

8.) I have been able to share personal feelings with the Threadless community that I haven't shared with anyone else. I haven't really been able to effectively communicate deep emotions and complicated situations with people in person. I kind of hide my emotions from people and let them build up. Sometimes I am alone at my computer and I type up a Threadless blog just to have an outlet to get what I am feeling out into words. The community has been incredibly supportive no matter the situation. I am extremely grateful for this.

9.) I have gotten great advice from Threadlessers. Whether it be which shirt to buy, how to make a girl like me, how to deal with death, how to do my homework, what movie to watch or whatever, Threadlessers are super helpful. The people that make up the community are so diverse in backgrounds, but come together in the most wonderful ways.

10.) Threadless makes me happy. This includes all the previous 9 things I have listed, as well as many things beyond this list. If Threadless were not in my life, I would not be as happy as I am. The interaction with Threadless people in the blogs, on twitter, on facebook, in bacontaco, and in real life have been nothing but wonderful. I consider Threadlessers great friends. I am super excited to meet many of them in September at the Threadless meet up!

Damien Rice

2010-07-25T13:11:00.000-07:00

I want this for my means of transportation^

So I really have been into Damien Rice lately. His music is pretty raw and emotional. However, I can't really figure out what emotions they are. I get chills from several of his songs, but I don't know if is the lyrics, the crescendos, the tempo, or what. I guess it doesn't really matter, but I am curious about what other people think.

Is Damien Rice music sexy?
Depressing?
Moving?
or just good.

You decide.

Also, does anyone have the song in this video?
"All Dressed Up" (?) by Damien Rice

Here are some random images I can get off my desktop by putting them in a blog post. haha.

I think I'll do a Blog post containing only Pictures

2010-06-07T21:14:00.001-07:00

I am in Alexandria, VA

2010-05-03T22:40:00.001-07:00

I never know what to type for the title of my blog posts. I guess I'll just write the first sentence out and that will work. I never have an organized plan for what I write unless it is a list of some sort so I wont even both trying to think of a cohesive title anymore.

So right now I am in Alexandria. I got here yesterday morning. My flight left at 5:30 AM from JAX. I think that is the earliest flight I have ever gone on. Hopefully, I won't have to do that again any time soon. I got a wake up call from the hotel at 3:30 AM. I went to bed the night before at midnight. So crazy, ya?

You might be wondering why I was in JAX, Florida. I went to my best friend's wedding. Andrew and Laura are now married and share a last name. The BEANS. The temple is in Orlando so I spent Wednesday night to Saturday morning in Orlando. I went to Universal's Islands of Adventure for two days and the origional Universal Park for one day. I really love some of the Islands of Adventure rides. I wish the Harry Potter addition was finished. I did get to see the buildings for it though. It looks pretty sweet. It opens June 18th. The wedding went smoothly. I have a prety good amount of pictures, but my uploader thing is not working correctly so I will have to do that later.

Now I am up here visiting my friends Katie and Brittany. It's nice not having really important events to get to on time in an area no one with me knows. I caught up on sleep today, went to a bomb mexican restaurant and ate some custard at the Dairy Godmother. Tomorrow I am going to walk around Alexandria and explore this area.

Side tangent. Restaurant is the HARDEST word for me to spell, especially on the computer. It never looks right to me. What are some words that you have a tough time spelling?

I'm getting really tired now, so I'm gonna leave it at that.

Have a good week.

-Matt

Picture update

2010-04-13T01:31:00.000-07:00

This is what i have been up to. :)

There is more, but no photographic evidence that I can find quickly.

I am moving back to Utah this Summer and will start school again Summer Term.

Summer Classes

Fall Classes

I'll be graduated next April. I don't really know for sure what I want to do next. Hopefully I'll figure it out. :P Any advice on that would be appreciated.

Hopefully I will become more regular about updating this. I started another blog that requires posting more often so I think that will help.

peace out boy (or girl) scout

Stuff White People Like (Update-7 new ones)

2009-10-20T02:24:00.000-07:00

#123 Mad Men
I have never actually watched it, but the art direction is really cool looking and I liked the SNL when the guy Mad Men hosted.
#124 Hating People That Wear Ed Hardy
This is so true. I have had multiple facebook status updates stating this. Its just expensive and looks really tacky. Every person that wears Ed Hardy is a d-bag for reals. So far, no one has proved me wrong. By the way, when I read this one I covered my mouth and my jaw dropped. I am SO white.
#125 Bob Marley
I don't actually love Bob Marley that much. I like and respect his music, but I don't listen to it much.
#126 Vespa Scooters
Who wouldn't love a Vespa? I would have used one all Summer if I had the money to buy one... :(
#127 Where The Wild Things Are
Well, who didn't love the book? It's "one of the most beloved children's books of all time". Well I loved it. I also love the trailer for the movie. It's really well done. I love the song, I love the writing. I haven't actually seen the movie yet, but I know I will soon. By the way, I am going to be Max for Halloween. I would say this one applies to me. :)
#128 Camping
I like camping, but I don't like the cost and stress of planning camping trips. I am actually very content with crappy food, crappy equipment, and having hard times. I like to talk about "bad" camping experiences after they are over. I don't know, that sounds weird, but it's true. Camping is one of those things that I like to talk about things that went wrong during my experience. Maybe this is because things often go wrong? haha. Some words that I associate with one camping trip this Summer: flat tire and broken tent.
#129 Banksy
I LOVE BANKSY. His stuff is often my laptop wallpaper, when it isn't a Threadless design. I love England and he is British, sooo that works. He had a piece up by the Tube station that we got off at to go to church and that was cool because I see it in books and I am like "I've been there many times". I think he is a really cool artist. Some of his stuff makes you laugh and some of his stuff makes you really think. Both things are good things to find in art. I love Banksy.

Well hewwo.

2009-09-11T01:58:00.000-07:00

It's been ages since my last blog post. I actually have a really good story (likely not that good) but I am not motivated enough to write the whole thing right now. It involves picking up a stranger and driving her to the bus station. Also, it was one of the most stressful things ever.

Some things have happened since I have posted.

For one, I turned 21! I have still yet to use my 21ness to get into anywhere cool. I think the only thing I will use it for is concerts and sitting at the bar in restaurants. One time before I was 21 Didie and I sat at the bar at the California Pizza Kitchen in Hollywood and avoided a long wait. I felt so daring sitting there being so young (only 19 then I think)

Secondly, I went sky diving. It was completely spontaneous. At Curtis Papenfuss' farewell open house thing, I was talking with Chase and asked him what he was doing for his birthday the next day. He said sky diving and said I should come not really expecting me to say yes. Well, I said yes. We called up the place in Mollalla and added me to the group. It was me, Chase, and Tim West. It was such a nice day. My brothers, my mom, and Payton came and watched. So did Tim's parents, who I hadn't seen in a long time. Tim's dad makes amazing jerky by the way. Sky diving was pretty crazy. The plane ride up was a trip. We were packed in on these two benches, strattling them and esentially spooning in two lines. It got way trippy once we opened up the side and the first people jumped out. Then the guy strapped to my back said 'Let's Go' and I wobbled over and sat on the edge of a plane! 13,000 feet up in the air. Then before I knew it, we were going down! It was really cold during freefall and my eyes started to water because some of the air was still getting to them around my supercheap "goggles." Then, when we pulled the chute, it was warm and really pleasant. However, the harness was really weird on my left leg, and it pinched quite a bit. With that aside, it was way cool. I even got to steer the parachute. It was crazy when you pulled both sides down because it lifts you up and then it feels like you are not falling or moving or anything for a second. Not to long later, we landed smoothly. Heck Yeah!

Lastly, I got my job back at Coldstone. SOooooo if you live in Portland, you should visit me or something. :)

Well, It's really late and I have a dental appointment tomorrow morning so I better slumber. If I don't write about the crazy lady I transported soon, remind me.

-Matt

Movies dude, movies

2009-07-21T22:28:00.000-07:00

I like talking about movies.

Actually, I just really like movie trailers. Yup, that's it.

Here are some trailers. Enjoy

I want to see those two.

I don't want to see 'Jennifer's Body,' but the trailer is really funny. I especially like the part wear she has a lighter to her tongue. haha.

Some other movies that I want to see are:
-Drag me to Hell
-Bruno
-Up

let me know what you thought if you have seen them.

sorry for the short post and lack of posting in general. chem 106 has consumed all of my time lately.

-matt

Someone was really stupid last night

2009-07-05T15:16:00.000-07:00

...and they lit a firework and then immediately tossed it into the dumpster after it stopped "going off." It was still very hot and caught some garbage on fire. It melted the plastic flip down lid and now the are outside of my townhouse smells like burning garbage. Thank you idiot neighbor, thank you.

In other news, I went to Sugarhouse Park last night and watched the fireworks show. There were a lot of people. I am really glad that it didn't thunderstorm. Google weather kept telling me that it would. I am glad they lied.

Chem test this week. :( Tomorrow will be not fun as I will study most of the day. :( Physics test next week.

It's July

2009-07-01T22:08:00.000-07:00

Holy Cow

Time is so fast.

Anyways, I don't have time/energy to write a full post but I thought I would say the classes I am taking.

Chem 106
Physics 106
Nature Photography

Also,

60

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Online Dating

I think I could do better than 60, but as aforementioned I am low on energy, which includes brain power. I will try again, maybe later tonight. How many can you name? (No Cheating)

Woah, it's May?

2009-05-09T13:39:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't written anything on here for a while. It's likely because I have been spending all of my time on other websites like Threadless and Hype Machine.

I have blogged about Threadless before so I will spare you. But here are the most recent shirts I have picked up.

The Dino one is so random and that's why I love it. Also, notice the common theme of animals. I love animal shirts.

Anyways, The Hype Machine is a an aggregate MP3 blog. I love it because you can get sweet remixes and covers of songs and then download them off of blogs and file sharing sites. Some of the sweet ones I downloaded today are: "It's Oh So Quiet" by Bell (a Bjork cover) and "Last Nite" by Adele (a The Strokes cover). Adele is basically amazing and anything she sings is so good.

Other than spending time on the internet, I have been looking for a job, starting up Spring Term, and that is about it. I am glad that it is finally getting sunny, so I can break out some short shorts (Dax Flame reference). For Spring Term I am taking the Physics lab, American Politics and Government, and Principles of Epidemiology.

So there you have it, a little update about me. I'll try to be more regular about updating. If I'm not, just remind me. :) Later~!

Slogans

2009-04-15T20:42:00.000-07:00

That is my new thing for threadless. I have decided that making designs requires too much time and talent. Now I have joined the OSC and Slogan Shoguns!

yay

I don't like studying for finals.

I should be studying for Chemistry but...

2009-03-20T19:43:00.000-07:00

Instead I'll write a blog

these photo booth videos are funny.

Also, there is a spider somewhere around me. I can't find it because our carpet is shaggy. It has crawled on my leg twice. It is kind of a good thing though because that little adrenaline rush keeps me alert and mentally awake. Now I think anything touching me is a spider. I'm a little terrified of spiders. I think every spider is going to bite me and then my skin will get a gaping hole.

There is a Threadless sale right now! Get some! use this link: http://www.threadless.com?streetteam=mgill52
If you buy something via this link, then I get $3.00 store credit! :)

This week I went to 24Cycle and the song "Sandstorm" by Darude was played. That is an awesome song to work out to.

Speaking of music. I think that anyone reading this blog should check out the following bands:
The Streets -british rap
The Hush Sound-piano pop -rock with both male and female vocals
The Honorary Title -indie-like awesomeness

Also, this article was very strange---->http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29727352

Sorry bout so many videos.

K, Chemistry for a half hour. No more distractions.

Stuff White People Like

2009-03-09T23:29:00.000-07:00

* 122 Moleskine Notebooks
Guilty, used one for my journal in London
* #121 Funny or Ironic Tattoos
Totally like them, just don't have them. Two reasons I don't. Religion and fear of actually having to make a decision that I know will have lasting consequences. If I did get one I think I would get a recycling symbol on my left bicep or my back.
* #120 Taking a Year Off
I would really like to do this. I kind of did this with my study abroad, but that was only 4 months.
* #119 Sea Salt
Yum.
* #118 Ugly Sweater Parties
I've been to my share.
* #117 Political Prisoners
Not so much.
* #116 Black Music that Black People Don’t Listen to Anymore
I think I listen more to black music that black people still do listen to. I don't like Jazz, but I love me some Motown. I guess I'll count it.
* #115 Promising to Learn a New Language
I promise to do so. I need to do it to graduate from the Honors Program.
* #114 America
I like America, but not any more than the average person I think. I think England is cooler.
* #113 Halloween
I like seeing people's creative costumes. However, I never really have a good one.
* #112 Hummus
YUM YUM!
* #111 Pea Coats
Fo Sho. I want another one. One that is shorter and makes me look less "Monk-like"
* #110 Frisbee Sports
I do, but not as much as a lot of people at BYU, keeping in mind that BYU is VERY white.
* #109 The Onion
I love the Onion and so does my mom. Fake news is hilarious and better than real news.
* #108 Appearing to Enjoy Classical Music
I really only like a few select pieces, but I have a lot on my i-tunes because it's nice to study to.
* #107 Self Aware Hip Hop References
Yes.
* #106 Facebook
I do have updates sent to my phone...
* #105 Unpaid Internships
Paid would be nice, but I would love to name drop an organization that I interned for.
* #104 Girls with Bangs
It's true! I like harsh bangs a lot. However, not everyone can pull it off.
* #103 Sweaters
I like sweaters. Silly ones, nice ones, ones with ice cream cones on them...
* #102 Children’s Games as Adults
YES! I just love games.
* #101 Being Offended
I don't get offended that often, but when I do I talk a lot about the situation and try to get validation from others that I am right in being offended or my claims are correct.
* #100 Bumper Stickers
I love getting them, but I never put them on. Again, I don't like making decisions that actually matter in the future.
* #99 Grammar
I don't always have the best grammar, but I notice it big time when a sign or article or anything more formal than an email is written incorrectly. I constantly worry about how I might come off as if my grammar is really bad.
* #98 The Ivy League
I often mention that I have a friend at "said Ivy League School" whenever they come up. I'm jealous.
* #97 Scarves
I like them, but I have difficulty pulling them off. Maybe I'll try tomorrow.
* #96 New Balance Shoes
Guilty. But they were on sale!
* #95 Rugby
I wish I could play or know the rules, but I just wear a rugby shirt instead. It makes me look really tough and matches well with the scar above my eye. One Halloween I was a rugby player.
* #94 Free Healthcare
I wish there was an easy way for this to happen. I hate the health insurance business.
* #93 Music Piracy
I used to be big into Napster, then I was big into Kazaa (spelling?), now I am legit.
* #92 Book Deals
Sometimes I will buy a book just because it is on sale. I think it makes me feel smart when I buy books, but I don't do it that much because I don't read that much and books are expensive man! I guess that might be what libraries are for...
* #91 San Francisco
I really want to go there. Maybe this summer I will.
* #90 Dinner Parties
YES! I love food. I think I am a pretty good cook and like to cook for other people.
* #89 St. Patrick’s Day
I love the color green. Pinching people is a funny idea, but I never do.
* #88 Having Gay Friends
Yup.
* #87 Outdoor Performance Clothes
Not so much, too expensive most of the time.
* #86 Shorts
I like shorts a lot. I get hot easily and would much rather be cold than hot. Shorts are nice for that. I also have several plaid pairs of shorts and people compliment me on them often.
* #85 The Wire
Never seen it, so...nope.
* #84 T-Shirts
I looooooooove t-shirts. I spend several hours a week on www.threadless.com. If a t-shirt is unique, funny, or just cheap, I will likely buy it.
* #83 Bad Memories of High School
I generally liked High School, but I don't like how most High School friends are just that, friends you had in High School.
* #82 Hating Corporations
I like unique and personal things, corporations are not quite those things.
* #81 Graduate School
Yay, higher education!
* #80 The Idea of Soccer
Yup, don't really watch it that much. It seems like soccer is a bigger part of my life than it really is. I like playing basketball more. It's less frustrating and one mistake isn't going to make that big of a difference.
* #79 Modern Furniture
It is so true.
* #78 Multilingual Children
Yeah! I'm gonna teach my kids the language I promise myself to learn, which is not yet determined.
* #77 Musical Comedy
Haha, sure.
* #76 Bottles of Water
Especially Nalgene water bottles. I feel complete when I am carrying a water bottle in the side of my backpack. I like the way it swishes.
* #75 Threatening to Move to Canada
Canada sounds nice. Free healthcare, Degrassi, etc. America is too violent, political, powerful sometimes.
* #74 Oscar Parties
I like to make oscar picks and be more successful at it than someone else that I am watching the show with is.
* #73 Gentrification
I would love to fix up a house in a cool neighborhood. However, that takes effort, but if I could just buy it and someone could fix it up, I would be so down.
* #72 Study Abroad
Done-Fall 2007
* #71 Being the only white person around
Gonna hafta say no. I'm almost neve the only white person around.
* #70 Difficult Breakups
I think I don't usually let my relationships get deep enough that a breakup is that hard, but when I have I learn a lot about myself from breaking up. So in a weird way, I do like difficult breakups, even though they suck.
* #69 Mos Def
Indifferent to him.
* #68 Michel Gondry
I really liked Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and I like the video for "Fell in Love With a Gril" and I like Bjork videos, so yes I like Michel Gondry
* #67 Standing Still at Concerts
No way, I like to dance and/or mosh.
* #66 Divorce
Who likes divorce?
* #65 Co-Ed Sports
Who doesn't?
* #64 Recycling
Duh. I'm from Oregon.
* #63 Expensive Sandwiches
I love food. Often time, price isn't a big factor. This is one situation when my frugality is thrown out the window.
* #62 Knowing What’s Best for Poor People
I tend to make generalizations about poor people and form opinions (even if they are sterotypical) based on epidemiological data and other statistics, but I rarely, if ever, vocalize them, but I realize that they are often stereotypes and seem wrong to say.
* #61 Bicycles
Again, I'm from Oregon, duh.
* #60 Toyota Prius
I do like Toyotas, but I haven't ever really been car shopping so I am pretty undecided on this one.
* #59 Natural Medicine
I like all types of medicine. Natural medicine is very intriging though.
* #58 Japan
I really want to go to Japan and see the Godzilla in the zoo and eat mounds of sushi and giggle like a school girl and then incorporate other stereotypes like going on a Japanese game show and stuff. I think Japanese stereotypes are some of the best stereotypes, good food, good entertainment, etc. I guess those are just the stereotypes that I choose to hold. Regardless, I want to go to Japan.
* #57 Juno
I loved this movie. Its so quirky and has an awesome soundtrack.
* #56 Lawyers
I like that some lawyers have the potential to do a lot of good, and I recognize that many are smart and very analytical, but there is something that make me hate lawyers sometimes. Lately, I have been watching a good amount of Law and Order so yeah, I guess I like lawyers. Plus, several extended family members are lawyers and its not good to hate your family, right?
* #55 Apologies
I feel like I need to apologize for a lot of things. I am sure some I don't need to. I feel guilty about how I came off to someone a lot. The funny thing is I often convince myself eventually that I don't need to apologize, so if there is not an easy or early opportunity to do so, I likely wont.
* #54 Kitchen Gadgets
YES! I love food and cool, weird ideas. I want a magic bullet.
* #53 Dogs
Oh yes! Especially puppies. I read this blog with pictures of puppies for quite a while one time. Another time I watched a live feed of these puppies for several days.
* #52 Sarah Silverman
She is so funny and so politically incorrect! "When life gives you AIDS, make lemonAIDS." :)
* #51 Living by the Water
Mostly for views, I really like views.
* #50 Irony
Almost daily I say "And the ironic thing is..."
* #49 Vintage
I do have a soft spot in my heart for thriftshops. I wish I had my vintage leather jacket still...
* #48 Whole Foods and Grocery Co-ops
I prefer Trader Joes to Whole Foods, but same difference. I do love Costco though. Who doesn't? I want a muffin, pizza, and free samples now.
* #47 Arts Degrees
Me=Philosophy Minor
* #46 The Sunday New York Times
Nope.
* #45 Asian Fusion Food
I love food. I especially love Asian Food.
* #44 Public Radio
Mostly in the summer, but yes.
* #43 Plays
Yeah, especially if it is an obscure play and I really like it. Then I tell everyone and tell my mom to tell everyone.
* #42 Sushi
Duh. So good. I want some shrimp tempura rolls with ginger now. There needs to be a 24 hour sushi place. I would frequent such a place, especailly if it was an an asian fusion place.
* #41 Indie Music
Yes please. www.pitchfork.com
* #40 Apple Products
I am writing this on my Mac, while my I-pod is charging and my I-tunes is playing.. If only I had an I-phone and I-TV.
* #39 Netflix
I say "that movie is in my netflix queue" at least once a week.
* #38 Arrested Development
I own all of the seasons and constantly make references when something like Burger King, "The Final Countdown," a hook for a hand, vertigo, segways, banana stands, etc. are mentioned and refer to the actors as their character names most of the time (especially Job).
* #37 Renovations
I feel very accomlished comparing an old version of something to the improved new thing.
* #36 Breakfast Places
Eggs in the City=amazing. Breakfast food is awesome.
* #35 The Daily Show/Colbert Report
Not as much recently, but generally yes. I think I got tired of them during the election coverage.
* #34 Architecture
I like architecture. I don't really get it much, but I know when I like how a building looks.
* #33 Marijuana
I love the smell of marijuana, but I have never smoked it and don't plan to.
* #32 Vegan/Vegetarianism
I was a vegitarian once for 5 or so months. It was hard. I still like to eat vegan/vegitarian versions of food and go to vegan restaraunts. There are a lot of them in Portland.
* #31 Snowboarding
I do snowboard, but not as much as I would like to.
* #30 Wrigley Field
I don't like baseball.
* #29 80s Night
I love 80's music, style, drugs (just kidding). I was made in the 80's.
* #28 Not having a TV
It is really nice having a TV. You get a lot done. However, I like watching mindless shows too.
* #27 Marathons
I would really like to do a marathon sometime. It's one of my goals.
* #26 Manhattan (now Brooklyn too!)
HAHA. I always have wanted to live in Manhattan, but recently I was thinking, Brooklyn might be cool too. It seems like a better culture and more indie! haha.
* #25 David Sedaris
People have told me on several occasions that I would like David Sedaris. I am only mildly familiar with him, but I guess I like what I have read from him.
* #24 Wine
I think I would be a total wine-o if I drank wine. It seems so dignified and cool to drink wine. I have a desire to be a wine expert.
* #23 Microbreweries
I'm from Portland! The most microbreweries in the world!
* #22 Having Two Last Names
Or two first names? Like Mortimer Matthew? haha. I actually don't get it when people have two last names.
* #21 Writers Workshops
I would love to write a screenplay or just a book. If I knew how, I could. Writers workshops could help me learn how.
* #20 Being an expert on YOUR culture
This is explained at being marginally aquainted with foreign cultures. I do this a lot with food, film, and music. Therefore, MY culture is a lot more interesting. I am Dutch by the way.
* #19 Traveling
Heck yeah.
* #18 Awareness
Yup. Without awareness, how would we fix problems?
* #17 Hating their Parents
I don't hate my parents!
* #16 Gifted Children
TAG=Talented and Gifted=Me :)
* #15 Yoga
Yeah!
* #14 Having Black Friends
I have black friends.
* #13 Tea
Yum. The best is from the restaurant Merrakesh.
* #12 Non-Profit Organizations
Yes.
* #11 Asian Girls
Sure. I like asian culture, food, film, why not asian girls? Plus there might be an increased chance of sushi, yoga, or tea when around asian girls.
* #10 Wes Anderson Movies
YES!
* #9 Making you feel bad about not going outside
That kind of sounds like my mom. I like being outside, but I am not that avid at actually going outside.
* #8 Barack Obama
I like Obama. I'm not die hard Obama, but I like him.
* #7 Diversity
I especially like diversity when it comes to restaraunt choices.
* #6 Organic Food
Yum.
* #5 Farmer’s Markets
Double Yum.
* #4 Assists
I love making a good pass, whether it be in soccer or in basketball, or whatever. I think this may be because if the person who takes the shot after my awesome pass misses it, the play is still considered a good play. If I make a bad pass, there is no real chance of scoring that is defeated, so the error doesn't stick out as much as a missed shot. In other words, it minimizes risk of failure I think.
* #3 Film Festivals
Sundance!
* #2 Religions their parents don’t belong to
I am very interested in other religions.
* #1 Coffee
I love the smell of coffee. I also love coffee shops.

So all in all, only 12 of these things I don't really like or don't apply to me, but that is still over 90% that do fit.
(117, 87, 85, 71, 69, 67, 66, 46, 30, 22, 17, and 9 are the one's that don't fit.)

I am super white.

SOOOOO FREAKING FUNNY

2009-03-06T14:03:00.000-08:00

I laughed out loud for seriously 10 minutes because of this video. This video makes me want to smile forever.

What is your favorite part?

I like "I want to eat beef jerky"

:)
:)
:)

Also, this website is ridiculous! http://www.pantalaine.com/index.html

In the Lib

2009-03-04T15:06:00.000-08:00

I'm just sitting the Library about to submit my online physics homework when I made an interesting observation. I made a quick lap of the open access computer lab in the No SHHH! zone, or as I like to call it "the Nosh", and observed what people were doing on their computers. This may be an invasion of their privacy, but I don't care. I didn't read anything personal or anything.

This is the breakdown:

50% on facebook
-50% of these are just browsing photos with a bored face on.
-40% of these are using facebook chat.
-10% are writing on people's walls

4% are reading anime online. WHAT THE HECK? I think anime may be the destruction of the human race. However, this doesn't include pokemon, one of the best things ever.

10% are just checking their emails

2% are sleeping in front of their blank word document (even though people are waiting for a computer).

8% are reading an online article for entertainment reasons
-37.5% of these are on ESPN
-50% are on a news website
*75% are on Fox News which is "Fair and Balanced" Sure...
*25% are on CNN
-12.5% are on yahoo articles

25% are actually doing homework
-50% are writing a paper of some sort
-25% are studying a power point
-20% are taking a quiz/test on blackboard
-5% are making flashcards

1% is writing on their blog. :)

(percentages are approximate)

What do you do in the open access labs?

People Are Funny

2009-02-28T10:46:00.000-08:00

I just feel a slight need to share my experiences with people in the last few days.

On Wednesday, I had just finished an intramural water polo game and was changing into my jeans in the locker room. I am in the last row of lockers and then I hear this sort of grunting. I look over and this really skinny shirtless guy is flexing in one of the mini mirrors. That was funny on its own, but then gets really into it and starts saying motivating things to himself like "Oh, yeah!", "That's what I'm talkin bout!", and my favorite "This is what we are working for!". Who is "we"? As he is saying this he is hitting his chest and gritting his teeth. This whole time, I am the only other person in the last row of lockers and I am positive that he didn't notice me. I was wishing so hard that he wouldn't because if he looked at me it would have been really really awkward. Also, I wouldn't have been able to hold in my laughter. Thankfully, he stopped and went somewhere else to change or finish his pep talk.

Today I was at the gym and two people just made my day. First, there was a kind of older guy. He wasn't super old, like 40ish, and he was really built. That kind of intimidates me usually to be working out next to a built guy like that, but for some reason I wasn't intimidated because of his shirt. It had a picture of a fetus, literally a fetus, like from an ultrasound, and the words "ABORTION KILLS CHILDREN!" Also, the shirt was pukey olive green color. Not that abortion is funny, but just the fact that this was his workout shirt made my day brighter.

The other person at the gym was this high-school aged girl. She was pretty normal in her attire, workout pants, billabong t-shirt, whatever. But, her hair was crazy! It was in these strange braides (spelling?) that stuck straight out of her head. There were like twenty of them, each coming from a small sqaure of scalp. It looked like Weird Al's "Bad Hair Day" album cover. (See below) However, this girl's hair was way more disorganized than Al's. Again, this wouldn't be that strange to see at the mall, or Denny's, or Wal-Mart, but at the gym it was really funny to see.

What is this?!

132 Films

2009-02-22T22:33:00.000-08:00

SUPPOSEDLY if you've seen over 85 films, you have no life. There are 250 films on this list.

(x) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
( ) Boondock Saints
(x) Fight Club
(x) Starsky and Hutch
(x) Neverending Story
(x) Blazing Saddles
(x) Airplane
Total: 9

(x) The Princess Bride
(x) Anchorman
(x) Napoleon Dynamite
() Labyrinth
(x) Saw
() Saw III
(x) White Noise
() White Oleander
(x) Anger Management
(x) 50 First Dates
(x) The Princess Diaries
( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Total: 8

( ) Scream
( ) Scream 2
( ) Scream 3
(x) Scary Movie
(x) Scary Movie 2
(x) Scary Movie 3
(x) Scary Movie 4
( ) American Pie
( ) American Pie 2
( ) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
Total: 4

(X) Harry Potter 1
(X) Harry Potter 2
(X) Harry Potter 3
(x) Harry Potter 4
( ) Resident Evil 1
( )Resident Evil 2
(x) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
(x) The Village
(x) Lilo & Stitch
Total: 7

(x) Finding Nemo
(x) Finding Neverland
(x) Signs
(x) The Grinch
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
(x) White Chicks
(x) Butterfly Effect
(x) 13 Going on 30
(x) I, Robot
(x) Robots
Total: 9

(x) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
() Universal Soldier
(X) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
(x) Along Came Polly
(x) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
( ) Never Been Kissed
(x) Meet The Parents
(x) Meet the Fockers
(x ) Eight Crazy Nights
(x) Joe Dirt
(x) KING KONG (2003)
Total: 9

(x) A Cinderella Story
(x) The Terminal
(x) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
(x) Dumb & Dumber
(x) Dumber & Dumberer
(x) Final Destination
(x) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
( ) Halloween
(x) The Ring
(x) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving X-MAS
(x) Flubber
Total: 10

(x) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
( ) Practical Magic
(x) Chicago
(x) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
(x) Hellboy
(x) Secret Window
(x) I Am Sam
( ) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards
Total : 6

( ) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child's Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
( ) Ten Things I Hate About You
(x) Just Married
(x) Gothika
( ) Nightmare on Elm Street
( ) Sixteen Candles
(x) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
(x) The Grudge
(x) The Grudge 2
(x) The Mask
(x ) Son Of The Mask
Total: 7

( ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number Slevin
(x) Ocean's Eleven
(x) Ocean's Twelve
(x) Ocean's Thirteen
(x) Bourne Identity
( ) Bourne Supremacy
( ) Bourne Ultimatum
( ) Lone Star
( ) Bedazzled
(x) Predator I
( ) Predator II
( ) The Fog
(x) Ice Age
( ) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George
Total: 6

(x) Independence Day
( ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
( ) Christine
(x) ET
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
( ) Maid in Manhattan
( ) War of the Worlds
(x) Rush Hour
(x) Rush Hour 2
Total: 4

( ) Best Bet
(x) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
(x) She's All That
( ) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
(x) Mars Attacks
( ) Event Horizon
(x) Ever After
(x) Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
(x) Big Trouble in Little China
(x) The Terminator
(x) The Terminator 2
(x) The Terminator 3
Total: 10

(x) X-Men
(x) X-2
(x) X-3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
(x) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
(x) Catch Me If You Can
(x) The Little Mermaid
(x) Freaky Friday
( ) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
( ) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
(x) Shrek 2
Total: 11

( ) Swimfan
( ) Miracle on 34th street
( ) Old School
( ) The Notebook
( ) K-Pax
( ) Krippendorf's Tribe
(x) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
(x) Boogeyman
(x) The 40-year-old Virgin
Total : 3

(x) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(x) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Total: 6

(x) Baseketball
(x) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Reject
(x) Elf
( ) Highlander
(x) Mothman Prophecies
(x) American History X
( ) Thr3e
Total: 5

( ) The Jacket
( ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(x) Monsters Inc.
(x) Titanic
(x) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(x) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard
Total: 4

( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
( ) Hulk
(x) Dawn Of the Dead
(x) Hook
( ) Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
( ) Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian
(x) 28 days later
( ) 28 weeks later
(x) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
( ) Waterworld
Total: 4

(x) Kill Bill vol 1
(x) Kill Bill vol 2
(x) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
( ) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) The Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness
Total: 3

(x) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
( ) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
( ) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks The Battle For Endor
Total: 4

(x) The Matrix
( ) The Matrix Reloaded
( ) The Matrix Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
( ) Team America: World Police
(x) Red Dragon
(x) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal
Total: 3

(x) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
(x) The Fugitive
(x) Seven Pounds
(x) Yes Man
(x) Batman Begins
(x) The Dark Knight
(x) Iron Man
(x) Spider Man
(x) Antwone Fischer
(x) V For Vendetta
( ) Slumdog Millionaire
Total: 10

Now Add them up and...

9+8+4+7+9+9+10+6+7+6+4+10+11+3+6+5+4+4+3+4+3+10=148 Films

Long and Linear Dream

2009-02-22T17:24:00.000-08:00

I just woke up. Yeah, its 6:30 PM, but I just woke up. I take long Sunday naps.

Anyways, here was a brief outline of my dream. It was really quite scary. It started out that I was driving home with some people from somewhere. I know, great details. So we were driving and we got to a point where we were driving up a hill, almost to Provo, and there was a ton of super thick fog. I was literally unable to see anything so I turned a quick u-turn. There were people pulled over and taking things out of their cars, and a lot of cars crashing into eachother. It was a very stressful scene. I was like, "we are getting out of here", and did the u-turn. After driving out of the fog safely, we discovered that there were this maniac monkeys that brought the fog down to the valley to kill everyone. I think we learned that from the radio, or my mind, it was my dream.

We start driving north along the mountains and find this supper crickety and abandonned looking house, in Lindon or somewhere. For some reason we decide to try and hide up in it. The logic was that the apes wouldn't look for us in an abandonned looking house. We were trying to climb to the top level, which was about seven stories up and then we noticed a light on in one room. In that room was Ben Affleck and someone else. They were just relaxing on a couch watching TV, like thee was no "end of the world" situation going on. Ben tells us that we can't hide out there. "There is no way they won't destroy the whole building" he told us, so we starting hiking back towards the car. Ben and company came with us.

Then someone decides to take charge and lead us to where we "need to go." Everyone else felt a feeling of creepiness, but no one else had a better idea, so we follow his lead. He takes us to the mouth of a mini canyon that was full of water. There was a little pool at the mouth and it was like a good sized creek going up switchbacks while also going into the canyon. We all start hiking up and in, but before we get too far I realized that the person that had led us there had lit the water on fire! Most of us got out of the firey waters, but four people died, including the guy that led us to the trap. That guy actually voluntarily got in the waters after he lit them on fire. As he burned he was yelling things about how the killer apes were fulfilling signs of armageddon and that he needed to die in this creek/canyon to fulfill prophecy and make it to heaven. It was very disturbing.

We decided that we needed to get as far away from the mountains as we could, because that is where the origional fog came from that precedes the inimate coming of the killer primates. Walking back to the car we came across some other college-aged students and decide to ride with them. Their car holds a lot more people, like a dozen. For just a second I thought to myself "Wow, I sure am glad that those people died up in canyon, so we all can fit semi-comfortably in this van." Horrible, right?! That was the first time during this dream that I thought "is this a dream?" Not when there were killer apes, not when Ben Affleck joined us, not when water was lit on fire, just when I had a really morally degenerate though I thought it was a dream.

We start driving towards Elko and Andrew from my FHE is driving. I look in the rearview mirror and I see the smoke is following us down the freeway. Everyone starts to panic and wonders how the smoke/apes know where we are, we are in the middle of the salt flats! Then Andrew realizes how they work. Everytime we are in the car with the radio on, the smoke follows. The apes have been tracking us through the radio! We turn of the radio and the smoke stops in its tracks. We applaud Andrew for his leadership and knowledge about killer ape strategy. Then...I wake up.

Weird dream, huh? I think maybe this could be a movie. I wonder what the meaning behind it is...

Fever Ray

2009-02-17T01:40:00.000-08:00

So it is like three o'clock in the morning so what do I do? Watch trippy music videos of course!

here these are. the filming is soooooooooo good.

When I Grow Up from Fever Ray on Vimeo.

Enjoy the trip!

February February Quite Contrary.

2009-02-15T12:34:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lame title. I just thought I would rant about random things and occurrences.

I was in the basement of the Benson building and this girl asked another girl: "How do you do this?" This was in reference to operating a vending machine. Wow. She was unsure if you put in the money before or after you got the food.

Last week I was grading labs in the physiology lab and the class was doing really well. People were getting 38/40 as the lowest score. The way the lab grades work, this is a perfectly fine score to get an A for the lab, like easily. Anyways, this girl is retaking the class to try and get 100 percent to improve her grade enough to get into the Nursing program. So, she just wrote down her answers from the last time she did the lab and reanswered the ones she got wrong. Is reanswered a word? My auto correct is underlining it... Anyways, this girl gets a 39/40 on her lab and I hand it back to her. I then went around to ask if people had any questions about the lab they were working on, she said no, but she had a question about the one I had just graded. She was obviously bugged. Anyways, she points out a question that she got wrong and tried to explain that she was actually right, but no, she was just wrong. It was for a half point too! I explained that to her and she was persistant in her complaining. Again, I explained that her answer was incorrect. In fact, she just restated the quesiton as her answer. She became flustered and started raising her voice still trying to get this half point. I knew I was right (I had a key) and I had checked with the TA so I wasn't having any of it. Then she packs up her stuff and storms out of the lab. I bet she was a Freshman. An upperclassman wouldn't freak out about a half point in a lab that is really pretty easy. Grades just don't matter enough to freak out about.

Last friday I went to a dance party at the Riviera. It got shut down by the police around 10:45 because someone had made a noise complaint. Who the heck calls the police about noise on a Friday night in a college town on a holiday weekend? Seriously.

Well I don't really have many new youtube videos, but I hadn't even seen this one. I love this one.

That's all for now.

VIDEOS

2009-01-25T22:14:00.001-08:00

I Hate Traveling in December/100 Things I Want

2009-01-11T13:12:00.000-08:00

Soooo, Happy New Year!

I decided that I didn't want to finish the 100 things I want blog...I think I was feeling materialistic and now I'm not. I just want to be happy. :)

Traveling in December. I don't like it, not one bit.
Here's how it went down.

First of all, Saturday was such a great day. I was sooooo relieved that finals were done and I did pretty well on all of my exams. I went to two weddings and spent the day doing random things around Salt Lake. It was a lot of fun. So after the weddings, I drove up to Farmington and stayed at my Uncle's house. I went to sleep way early (especially for a Saturday) and woke up the next morning ready to fly home.

The next morning, I get a call from Katie saying that some of the flights to Portland had been cancelled. However, we checked online and it looked alright, so we headed to the airport. I check in and everything seems fine. By the way, I am on crutches at this point. I go through security, which took awile because my brace needed to be wiped down for traces of bombs or something. I head to the gate and chill and then they get on the speaker and announce that my flight has been cancelled due to inclimate weather. I call my mom and she gets me on a flight for the next day. I was kind of bummed out, but I thought, "hey, its not a big deal." But then I thought about it and I realized that my uncle and his family had left to drive to Colorado after dropping me off at the airport. Again, I called my mom and she called her best friend from high school and got her to come pick me up and let me stay at her house in Salt Lake up by the zoo.
It was another relaxing, pretty chill, night. A lot of wii tennis, :). However, with my rescheduled flight, we had to leave on that Monday morning around 5:30 AM. So we checked again to make sure the flights were not cancelled before we left for the airport, but they looked alright. Again I checked in and went through security and got to the gate.

So it was getting close to departure time and we hadn't started boarding, so I was getting nervous. They changed the gate board time to a half hour delay. I was thinking "alright, its just a delay. That means we will be leaving." I was wrong. After about being delayed for about an hour, the unholy voice of the woman that announced my cancellation the day before rang out and announced that all the flights to Portland for the day were cancelled. Then she continued to explain that there were no flights available for the next few days. There were only 5 seats left on the Christmas morning flight. There was a rush of people to the customer service desk, like an insane rush. I just watched because I was on crutches and called my mom because she had changed my flight the day before. She apparently is very speedy because she got me one of those spots.

So now I was starting to realize that I needed a way to get somewhere other than the airport. I wasn't about to just chill there for a few days. I also was realizing that I had given my car keys (along with my house key) to my uncle and the keys were also making the drive to Colorado. Uh oh. I searched through my backpack and found a spare key and it was a big relief. Then I started calling people to see if someone could give me a ride to Farmington, or at least to Provo so I could just chill at my place. Thankfully, Maren called me back and she drove me to Farmington, so nice. So the weather in Farmington was getting a little choppy, but around Salt Lake it was just a little rain. However, once I got to around Thanksgiving Point, it was snowing really hard. I had to drive like 15MPH for a good chunk of the drive. I also was really paranoid about crashing. I was driving with my left foot too, which is kinda nerve racking, try it sometime.

I got home and contacted Jeff to get a key to the house. I was glad I had a Utah roommate. Basically, the whole time I was back in Provo I watched a lot of TV and did laundry. I went to Seven Pounds and Yes Man with Mairin and Abbey too. On Christmas Eve I went to the Rytting family party. It was really nice of them to invite me to that.

So Christmas came and I got like 3 hours of sleep. I had to repack my stuff and wake up and be ready by 5:30AM for a shuttle to the airport. I didn't want to worry about driving anywhere, so I got a shuttle. It was a weird experience. First of all, my driver looked exactly like Santa Claus. He was wearing the red hat too. Also, we drove all over Orem trying to find some people's house to pick them up too. I mean ALL OVER. I was way turned around and apparently so was the driver. Lastly, it was suuuuuper snowy at the point of the mountain again. It was really scary. I couldn't see 5 feet ahead of us. We could have been driving perpendicular to the actual road and I wouldn't know it until we hit the divider or went off the shoulder.

Ugh, so I get to the airport finally and I check in and go through security, AGAIN. However, we leave! I get to Portland after stopping in Boise and call my mom. She can't leave the house because we live on a hill and it is still way snowy because Oregon doesn't plow, so I just take a cab from PDX. The cab driver was pretty crabby, but I don't blame him because he was working on Christmas. The roads are totally fine until we get off the freeway and are like a mile from my house. I start to hear the snow/ice scraping against the bottom of the plymouth voyager taxi-van. Then we start slipping and sliding around a bit, but we eventually get to the bottom of my hill. He tries to go up it but makes very little progress. I tell him that I'll just get out there, so he leaves me there. I think it probably looked pretty funny to see me in the snow looking up at the omnimous hill on crutches with a piece of luggage to boot. I called my mom and she sent my brothers to get my bag and I crutched up the hill. My mom thought it was pretty funny looking and took pictures as I hobbled up the icy mess. I was finally home.

Teaser for "I hate traveling in December" Blog

2008-12-22T20:32:00.000-08:00

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)

2008-12-18T21:34:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-12-18T21:24:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-12T13:56:00.001-08:00

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

2008-12-11T18:37:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-27T10:45:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-27T10:17:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-23T06:32:00.001-07:00

1 minute, 16 seconds

Created by Bunk Beds.net

I Broke my Leg!

2008-10-23T04:17:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-04T13:23:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-29T22:33:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-23T14:02:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-09T20:28:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-09-06T11:08:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-06T10:52:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-09-02T18:45:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-22T23:40:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-22T17:59:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-20T13:20:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-20T02:27:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-19T19:28:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-19T11:02:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-18T22:41:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-18T17:51:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-18T17:37:00.000-07:00

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