Knights of Cydonia

So I'm gonna throw on here the link to the best footage i have seen of anything.

http://www.clevver.com/music/video/27108/muse-knights-of-cydonia.html

I certainly liked this band before i saw this, but after seeing it, they just might be my favorite band now.

Just as a side note, while listening to this song before seeing the video, i always envisioned someone just riding a horse as fast as he could while the music is being played. I suppose Gustof Von Musterhauser had exactly that same vision...

John Muir was onto something

So i finished my application to the Marriott school of business about a week ago. I've pretty much decided that even if i do get in, I'm not going to go through with it, but just rather get a spanish major. Though i've already discovered that business classes are extremely useful and practical in the business world, and that spanish classes are not extremely useful and practical outside of classrooms, it seems the better fit for my life plans. Besides that, a Spanish major seems so interesting. Its like a literature, history and language major all in one. Since i tested out of those silly sixteen credits of grammar and such, it isn't quite as much learning about the nuances of the spanish language as one would think.

Besides that, the pre-law office finally made its impression that it doesn't mention what i major in, they just want good grades.

The 4th of July was just yesterday. My dad, mom and i went to the usual ward BBQ, which was pretty fun. Then we basically just hung out. The day before though we went to Muir woods with our cousins. It was a pretty casual deal, we hiked through (hike: stroll along a cement path with my sandals on) the trail they had there and looked at all the pretty things around us. I was particularly impressed though, that i can now handle a baby without it looking like im holding a football. Jake and Melissa have their little Rushton that they let me hold. I have been notoriously bad with not knowing what to do with little babies, even though i like them. I mantain that i'm the victim though. I've never had a baby cousin or a baby brother or anything like that.

And on a different topic, after much fasting, prayer and deep meditation, along with about 5 different grocery stores and 14 dollars, I've determined that IBC is the best root beer out there. Seth, Madi and I all went around to a bunch of stores and bought 17 different kinds of root beer and had a very official root beer tasting test. We came to the joint decision that IBC was the best, followed by A&W (my actual favorite), Henry Winehards, and some german name that was pretty good too. This week we're going to determine if you can tell the difference between Pepsi and Coca Cola.

Oh, and in the news recently, Michael Jackson died. I always thought he was a bit creepy and never did really like any of his songs, except for the one about billie jean, or whatever it was. But all of the sudden everyone my age has been acting like they've been lifelong fans. Weird... Or maybe they actually have been lifelong fans, which really creeps me out.

Bucket 1

I've always heard the cliche things about how a man feels about his first car, but i always thought that it was just an empty sterotype. Recently though, the state started giving out a 1,000 dollars for cars that can't pass a smog check (recession? what recession?). Needless to say, my family jumped at the opportunity and handed the ol' 1988 toyota corolla over to the state and cashed their grand. I do not harbor any hard feelings, it was time to say goodbye. It was funny though, The day before we were going to take it in, i was came home from work and i was standing there looking at the car, and much like saying goodbye to a dear friend, i felt a sudden emptiness in my heart that echoed and resonated in the secret chambers of my soul. It had been a good car. I kept it floored wherever i went, that was the only way to get it moving. It was the most forgiving stick i have ever seen in my life, and its sheepskin covered seats always accomadated my friends and brother. It had seen its battles too, bearing scars from where it had been keyed, kicked and dinged. Dearest to me though were the many bumper stickers that emblazoned the trunk, bumper and window. I had 'Bush/Cheney '04', 'Viva Bush!', 'In 'N Out', 'Ygnacio Valley Athletics', 'Brigham Young University', 'Water Polo' and possibly some others. My brother named it bucket 1 while i was on my mission. 1988 tan corolla, there is your eulogy.

For the first time that i can think of, I'm pretty excited for summer to end. It's kinda just work, come home, work again. I like BYU life a lot more.

Fabio? Is that you?

Finished up another semester. It was pretty tough, but nothing like taking a calculus class, which i did first semester. I would sooner strap on a leotard and take an interpretive dance class than any math class again. I did all right this semester though, i got all A-'s (what's an A-? mediocrity in excellence?) and a B in Econ. I had an 89 something in that class and then the final just snuck up behind me and dragged me into a dark alley where it snatched my A- away and slapped me around a bit. I left that hypothetical alley heartbroken. But anyways, it leaves me with a fairly weak business school application.

Which brings me to my other item. I've decided what i want to do. I've always played around with the idea of law school, but never really committed to it. Very recently though, I decided it's what I want to do. So it really doesn't matter what my major is. Well, mostly. I think I would want to do corporate law, so having a degree in business would be a good background. On the other hand, if i major in business, i'll probably have a GPA of 3.5 when i graduate, and I will be a very busy bear until i graduate. If i graduate with a degree in Spanish instead, I think i'll have a 3.6 or something like that by the time I graduate. The law school I'm looking at right now is UC Hastings, which, according to top-law-schools.com, is ranked 39th, has a median GPA of 3.5 and 163.5 average LSAT for accepted freshman but most importantly is located in the bay area, which I've decided is where I want to live. East bay, specifically. I drove through the south bay on an errand Thursday, and it was just yuck. Yuck. Anyways, the fact that i've figured out what I want to do is just colossal in my life.

The purpose of driving through the south bay is because I had to go to Santa Clara to pick up a computer from some pakistani guy for my job. The current computer I have at work is simply too slow. I work for an accountant in our ward, doing basically whatever they need me to. It's tons better than Mervyn's retail store and manual labor for Blake's dad, like the summer after the mission. Or shoveling dirt, like the summer before the mission. I guess lifeguarding isn't bad. I did that during high school. And a newspaper route, which I did during all of middle school. Anyways, it'll be something to keep me occupied until I get back to school. I have basically nobody to hang out with here, it's pretty pathetic. 

As far as epic things that have happened in my life recently, besides my tragic battle with Econ, we went and saw BYU's rugby team play against Cal, who is the perennial winner. It was epic.It came down to the wire, but we had a last second score. It was the first time we had ever won, and all the BYU fans ran onto the field as all the Cal guys just kinda filed off crying. I like Cal 364 days of the year, but I was definitely hating them in a big way during that game. The players were all like 20 feet away from us, and i feel that my taunting was the deciding factor in the game. To sum it all up, I think it was the best sporting event I've ever seen. Seriously though, it was epic.

Finally, I remembered I started writing this to talk about the last book I read. I decided to start off the summer with Cold Comfort Farm. It was hilarious, I thought the gal who wrote it was extremely witty. The ending though, really left a bad taste in my mouth. The heroine of the whole thing likes this guy who lives far away, who is different from the other gentleman she knows because he's more quiet, shyish and all that. Anyways at the end, he shows up and it's like he became Fabio overnight, sweeps her off her feet, super confident and all. I thought it was awful. Maybe she was just sick of writing the book and whipped that out. I do that with papers occasionally. 

Anyways, in a few days my little brother will be off on his mission and I'll have to face the rest of summer by myself, so I better go prepare myself for that.

Lullaby for Wayne

I went and saw Macbeth the other day put on BYU. i thought it was great. Macbeth and lady macbeth were pretty good actors, they made if fun. the witches were pretty cool, they wore these cool masks that looked like some type of islander witch doctor thing. the whole thing was kinda like a Book of Mormon themed costuming, which made it interesting. anyways, i liked it. it was my first time seeing it, so i thought that macbeth's descent into madness was a lot of fun to watch.

Weezer has this song called Lullaby for Wayne. It talks about a guy who "shoots his guns" all day even thouhg all his friends have stopped doing it after they got out of high school. in fact, they have moved on, gotten wives, jobs, and put their own guns away. so the song calls for Wayne to put his own guns away and move on. I thought that it would be cool, since titles of blogs must be quite cool and creative, to name mine wayne's guns. anyways, its a heck of a lot better than stupid band names nowadays, like red jump suit aparatus. 

so while having business school in mind, i have finals coming up here in a week or two. i think i'll do well, but i'm pretty nervous, because i need to basically get all A's to have a good shot of getting in there. well, technically, A-'s, which are the bane of my existence by the way. all of my classes are right around an A-, so it's going to be pretty tense. lot of pressure.

scooby doo

The other day, i went into the bathroom in the library and i had the following conversation with an 8 year old.
"sometimes these scare me" (referring to the automatically flushing urinal)"
ya (brief silence as i think in what way a urinal can scare someone) sometimes im worried its gonna get me wet."
"oh, im not worried about that"
than, as he was drying his hands and i was washing mine,
"do you know who i think is funny?"
"no idea, who?"
"scooby doo"
"wow, thats great" than he walked out without saying another word.

it was one of the funnier thing that happened to me in a while.

also, talking about funnier things, AJ's dad sent our intramural basketball team matching bicep bands and headbands. needless to say we won. i even had a way cool looking assist. only bicep bands could've done that for me.

so as long as i'm just kinda jumping from topic to topic, i decided i want to memorize where a lot more constellations are. i went to the planetarium the other day and the gal was showing all the constellations. so i think from that little experience i can remember how to spot orion, arturus (or something like that. who named these things, king arthur?), the seven sisters and the queen. but anyways, if i could have one superpower, it would probably be the ability to spot constellations.

and just as a side note, my little brother is going on his mission to pocatello idaho. im really excited that he can go, its going to be great. it made me think a lot about my own mission and getting my call. its weird that so much time has already passed since i've gotten back.

The Orange Uprising

So i decided once again to attempt sending in a letter to the editor. i actually sent this one in this time though, so i'm hoping to see it in Friday's 'reader's forum'.

BYU once again, much like the United States a few months ago, finds itself amidst a heated election. Fortunately for me, as a concerned voter, BYU keeps the various parties divided into neat colors. As for myself, I am a loyal voter of the ‘orange’ party every year. Some might feel that I should be scolded for voting without really researching the various platforms, caring about what candidates the orange party has nominated, whether or not my party has drifted from the core values they’re supposed to represent or even the stances of the other parties (the green party likes “In N’ Out”! All right!). But I think I should receive no such censure. Really, voting for the orange party each time is nothing new. It’s just like any other election on a national or local level- just vote republican!

Now, just to clarify, i think i am more republican than anything else. But most of the republican thinking here kinda does seem to lean towards blind following. A good example would be when Bush put wire taps (which are illegal) to try to track terrorists. However, these wire taps could also be used on the average citizen. Not cool. The general consensus here though was something like 'hey, they should do it. after all, i have nothing to hide!'. or anything to lose? like freedoms? But hey, a republican president said it during a war time, it must be a good idea.

Also, it is especially important to just be concerned about a few issues. The republican party pays some lip service to anti-abortion, anti-gay agenda and other such things, but really don't do much about it. they at least aren't proactive in seeking those things, like the democratic party. all the same though, they were really drifting away from the ideals of fiscal conservatism (Bush was spending a lot) or decentralizing the government. it offended, so i went Libertarian party this last election in protest.

There's also a flip side on the democrats too. the zealous adoration of Barack Obama was just out of control. There was no debate allowed as to his supremacy and just how ideal of a candidate he was. and it was so cool to be pro-obama. it was funny to watch, were it not tragic. he was a better candidate than McCain though, i think.

oh, and i actually do kinda research the different BYU parties a bit before voting. i think it's fun.

Manstinct

Today i had to add more coolant to the '94 Buick that my parents gave me to drive around with up here. i also checked the oil. After having done it, i felt that i was brimming with masculinity. if a deer had run by at that very moment that i closed the hood, i probably would've been so high on testosterone that i would've killed it with a windshield wiper and cooked it right there on the engine... Seriously though, i know nothing about cars and it can be a smidge embarrassing. Like one time i was taking the ACT at another high school and my '87 Corolla (now referred to as 'bucket 1' by my family) was not starting up so i found this girl with jumper cables. she hooked them to her big, intimidating 4 wheel drive vehicle than handed them to me. i took them, held them in my hands like a sign that says "i'm not man enough to figure this out.", looked at my engine, her, than the engine again, than i just kinda held them out to her. I forget if she kinda laughed it off or pulled a dress out of her car for me to wear while she hooked up the cables, but she got it done. needless to say, i'm pretty excited i can fill my coolant, check my oil and various other things.

though i still don't know which one the red cable goes on. positive?

Shower epiphanies

I was standing in the shower this morning and realized, or at least came to the conclusion, that i need to improve my game if i'm going to get the grades i want this semester. I don't think it'll be too hard, i was doing it last semester when things really got going. just be in the library all day every day and i think i could get a lot more studying done on the weekends too. I also have to make th time i'm spending studying a lot more productive. So ya, that'll be fun. but if i get all A's and a B i'll get a 3.78 on the semester and like a 3.56 or something overall, which will put me in a good postition to get into the business school... i think business is a ridiculous word. what is that "i" doing there? i have to think busy-ness every time i write it or else i'll get it wrong.

Other big news, i went to jiffy lube and am pretty sure i fell in love. The girl that was helping me out just stole my heart, despite the fact that she was wearing a mechanic's uniform. She was chatting with me and smiling a lot, i was just so flabbergasted i couldn't put it together to get her number or something (also, that'd be kinda awkward "hey, we should hang out sometime." as the entire shop listens in...). So ya, basically i just missed my opportunity to meet my true love and will die an old lonely man. I hear peyton might need an oil change though.

One last thing, i think i'm pretty good at spanish and i get annoyed with people who don't speak it well after being on a mission (i have sympathy for newbies). So i'm pretty annoyed every time i walk into my spanish classes. also, the worst is when people think they're actually mexican, or whatever and talk with these outrageous fake accents so that they sound moronic. Than i actually look over to the person who's talking and its just some white kid, and it generally makes me just want to politely ask them to talk normally. Well, that was rant-ish.

A Clockwork Orange

I made it through the salvo of tests i had lined up. it was pretty intense. i did pretty well though. i got a 94, 88, 80 (econ. i'm pretty proud of that score, actually), 86, 100 (it was more of a quiz) and i dont know the grade on the spanish test i took today, but i was feeling i aced it pretty good.

I've always meant to kinda write down what i thought of a book after reading it... during winter break i read A Clockwork Orange. i thought it wasn't bad. maybe a bit rough, with the content it has and all, but that was just the nature of the book. anyways, its 21 chapters, but when the american editors saw it, they cut off the last chapter. reading it though, i really agree with the american editor. what happens in the 21st chapter is that the delinquent, after having beaten, robbed and raped, gone to prison and than returns to doing it, suddenly changes. the change though, is very contrived i think. in my opinion, it's an atheistic approach to morality, which is in reality something of an oxymoron, and it shows. without a strong reason to turn moral, it just doesn't make sense why he does it. it seems like he has almost grown bored of the evil life he had lived before and wants to try the next thing, even though the author sells it like it's the maturing and natural changing that a person can go through. if you leave that 20th chapter out though, the ending grabs you and it's haunting.

also, the book is interesting because the guy creates a whole lexicon of slang for it. like horrorshow for cool, devotchka for girl, and i don't remember the rest, but it makes the read interesting.

just as a side note, i think some of my favorite books have been the phantom tollbooth (first long book i read, i think. it was in 4th grade or something), 1984, cat's cradle, Brave new world, earth abides... there's a lot more that i enjoyed, i've read a lot, but that's what comes to mind. haha. i remember reading a john grisham novel and being soooo disappointed realizing that was all the more popular adult literature was. depressing.