Beautiful day

It's only just after 10 and I can already tell today is going to be a pretty awesome day. I woke up about an hour ago without my alarm. I have calc at 11, but after that I'm just going to study for my Book of Mormon and calculus tests, take those tests, and I'm home until we go watch a movie later tonight (Jumper or Vantage Point, I think).

The forecast for today is 50F high, mostly sunny, with a 20% chance for percipitation. That's the highest temperature it's been since October. I'm so glad to see that number. Maybe, if I can get my midterms done early, I can convince some people to go play tennis with me. I forgot to ask last time... But not today! I've been awake for an hour, and my day is already awesome. I intend to keep it that way.

Also, last night, I tried to do a 100 Things, but I don't know how to create a page on my blog for that or how to link it, so, instead, I'm going to be listing all the books I read this year on the side, though that list will stop growing at about June, when I go on a 2 year proselyting mission. Until then, I'm going to be aiming for a book a week. But for now, The Secret is proving to be a major drag.

The tie date

Today, I went to a tie date. It was about 40 people from my ward who met at the lounge. The guys had given their ties to the guy in charge beforehand, and, today, the girls chose a tie and an activity. Whose ever tie they chose would be their date for the next hour and the date would be the activity. I thought it was a pretty cool idea, and it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. I was really only there because there was a shortage of guys (like the ratio of guys to girls was about 2:3). We did peep jousting, which involves peeps, toothpicks, and a microwave oven, and made microwave s'mores. That took about 20 minutes, I think, so we all just talked for the next half an hour or so.

In other news, the weather today was A! M! A! Z! I! N! G! It was beautiful today, and everything was just fine and dandy. I wore my shorts and a light jacket. Had my iPod playing some songs I discovered on my computer that I had never heard before, and it was just the perfect day to do anything. Except, maybe, build a snowman because there's no more snow (hooray!).

I think I'm going to do a 100 Things instead of doing my homework, though I'm not sure how I can add a link on blogspot. I'm not HTML savvy so I can't make it on my own.

Time to break out the shorts!

Get the crap out, winter! It's time for spring!

This morning, as I was walking up to campus, I was sweating even though I was wearing just two very light layers. It was nice and sunny, and there wasn't a single pile of snow in sight. Ok, that was an exaggeration, but there was very few piles of snow, and by very few, I mean like one, maybe two. It was amazing. I haven't seen so much grass since before Thanksgiving break - and New Year's but then I went home to L.A. for New Year's so it doesn't count. I'm excited to wear shorts tomorrow and maybe even my sunglasses (hooray!).

Did anyone else notice how winter never seems to end? Spring is just a transition between winter and summer. Summer doesn't feel like it lasts nearly long enough because there is a deadline to get so much fun done. Fall is nice because it's cool and windy, but there is always that evil Winter that is getting one day closer. The first day of snow is pretty nice, but once the snow starts piling up and it starts to hurt to go outside, I want it to be over, but it just doesn't go away. Everyday, I'm waiting for spring to hurry and come, but it's not Spring's turn yet. He's (she?) going to have to wait until Winter's turn is over.

I think I'm going to try and convince my roommies to play tennis with me today :)

Hopefully

Quite honestly, I don't know what to write about, but I haven't written in a couple days, and if I don't write something, it'll bother me until I do.

Today, I went to class, got a haircut, and went to work. A pretty lame day if you ask me. My classes were fun but after that it all went downhill. I don't really like getting haircuts because I have this thing where the moment I sit on that chair and I hear those scissors, I get really drowsy and it's all I can do to keep myself from falling asleep and letting my head fall onto a pair of scissors, which will subsequently result with my head rolling across the floor.

Honest to God, I am not getting paid enough for what I do. And I'm not just saying that because I'd like to get paid more money. This is turning out to be a lot more trouble than it's worth. So, what I did was I walked down to the other side of the plaza and talked to someone at Kaplan Test Prep. Hopefully, they'll give me a call and hire me even though I'll only be able to work for about two more months. And, hopefully, they'll pay me more than the seriously ridiculous scraps of change I'm getting for my job now.

Hey, look. Guess I did have something to write about :).

My angry list

I need to vent.

Ever since this semester started, certain people have been irritating me to no end. I couldn't think of what had changed that had me more agitated this semester than the last. I thought, at first, that it was their behavior. Then, I started to think that it might be me. I have to admit, I held in a lot of things last semester. I'm usually good about letting things go, but maybe I've reached my limit.

Today, while I was at work, I realized what it was about these people that was so annoying. In fact, I even made an entire list. It was really slow today so I had more than enough time. So, here is the list, from most irritating to list:

1. People who call me a liar. Trust me. If I'm lying, I have a very good reason. Unlike everything else, I will not let this go. I'll even let you go if you hit me, but call me a liar, and you're a dead man.
2. People who do not know when to shut the hell up. I'm not saying I just want us to sit in silence, but, sometimes, the conversation comes to a comfortable lull. Why do some people understand insist on talking all the damn time?
3. People who try too hard to be heard. Don't laugh extra loud. I can tell it's fake, and it's just annoying when you start making a comment or laugh at every single moment that there is a slight break in the conversation. What are you doing? Why are you being so loud? Stop it.
4. People who try too hard to impress people. It's stupid. No one likes a show off.
5. People who insist on being involved in everything. If I say that it's OK and that I don't need your help, leave it at that. And do not make me repeat an entire story or joke just because you only heard the punchline and you want to laugh too.

I should probably stop it at that. Since, I don't actually say these things, this blog is the only outlet I have, and I could probably write down about 5 more things, but I won't subject you to my negativity.

The worst part is that this one guy I know hits everything on this list except the first one, which is the only reason why he's still alive.

School Spirit

I've been experimenting with the focus on my point and shoot camera.

Finally! I've been trying to get on Blogger for the last 10 minutes! The internet in this building sucks! I'm in Physics 121 right now, and we have a student teacher teaching us today. He's not doing a very good job. I should probably cut him some slack, but I want to learn this stuff, and he's not helping. He could at least write the equations on the board so I could read them. The letters are tiny! My eyes are like -6 and my contacts are starting to get old so there's no way I'm going to be able to read anything on the board unless it's size 98 font.

Right now, I'm on GoogleTalk with Jill and Andy. Andy says that I don't have school spirit. Well, I'm sorry. In my high school, more than half the students commuted over half an hour to get to school, which meant that we had pathetic turnouts for our football games. We only looked forward to pep rallies because it was a chance to get out of class.

So, my mentality is that we go to school to learn things. Sure, football and basketball games are fun, and it's also fun if the team you're rooting for wins, but there's no need to be all psycho about it. Ok, great. BYU beat Utah in last night's basketball game. Go, Cougars.

NOT: OMGCOUGARSWINWEARESOAWESOMEUTAHSUCKSWETOTALLYDESTROYEDTHEMWHOOOOOWE'RETHEBEST!!!

Burritos now 100% off!

Today, my friends and I went to Sandy, Utah to a new Chipotle restaurant that was giving out free burritos and drinks for the day. There was a line going out the door and it was cold, but it was totally worth it, though it almost wasn't worth it. Behind us, there was a group of high school students who were being really loud and obnoxious. They kept yelling things like "FREE BURRITOS! WHOO!" I think I might've been more mature when I was in the 8th grade. Once they started eating, though, they got quiet. I'm hoping it was because they all tried to be macho and ordered the hottest sauce and then couldn't handle it.

On the way back to Provo, there are a couple buildings and yards fenced off on the right of the I-15. I'd seen it several times before, and I assumed it was a high school. Today, I found out that it's the state prison. You can call me crazy, but I swear that that's what the schools in Los Angeles look like.

Is that sad? I thought it was hilarious.

Baby steps

So, I'm pretty dang proud of myself. Yesterday, I woke up and got myself up to the library where I studied for 4 to 5 hours straight. And yesterday was a holiday! I would've stayed 3 more hours, but someone from work called asking if I could cover the last 2 hours of her shift because she was feeling sick, so I went to work as well. Then, today, I went to the library again and did even more studying for a couple hours.

I'm sad to say that, today, I finished one homework assignment. And it took me 3 hours.

My brain just about collapsed onto itself. After 3 hours of mind numbing calculus (and getting half the questions wrong after doing a page's worth of work for each question), I started to get hungry. I tried to ignore it, but, with my mind already worn out, it wasn't about to happen. After about 15 seconds, I decided I'm not about to get any more work done so I came home.

Now, despite the whole giving up on homework thing, I'm happy because I think I'm finally able to motivate myself to study. I always liked the feeling of getting all my studying done for the day, but I always had trouble holding onto that feeling and using it to get myself to study.

I'd like to get to the point where I'm ahead in all my classes but we're taking baby steps here, people.

I was...

The last 3 days were not exactly the most fun days of my life. I had an exam to take by Thursday at 2 for my Computer Systems class so, all day Wednesday, I studied like a madman because I definitely was not ready for this test. On Wednesday night, I read about 150 pages of text on boring programming stuff. I went to bed around 2:30 AM Thursday and woke up 5 hours later to finish another 100 pages. I had to be in the Testing Center with my test by 2 but I had work at 2 meaning I had to leave the apartment by 1:30. My physics class was at 9:10 so I skipped that class so I could finish studying and go take my test. Once I got to the Testing Center, I found out that we could use a page of handwritten notes for this test, which was new information for me. So I took a test that I crammed for in the last day and could've had notes for with too little sleep. I'm proud to say I scraped by with a 73%.

Then, I went to work from 2 to 7. On Friday, I worked from 6 to close. We could've left at 11:15 like we usually do but this one guy brought his date there and was so busy talking about himself that he didn't notice that they had been there well over an hour and well past 11, which is when we close. So then I got home around 11:45 (because we had to wait for the guy to leave), and went to bed around 1:30 because one of my roommate's friends had come over, and we watched a couple episodes from season three of The Office. I went back to work the next morning from 9 to 5. I came home not wanting to do anything but just sit around and do nothing. My roommate, Chris, and I ordered 3 Pizza Mia pizzas from Pizza Hut (3 medium 1 topping pizzas for $5 each!). Chris, his girlfriend, and I had pizza while watching some more of The Office.

Then, I woke up just in time to get ready for church, went to church, stayed later to have a "Personal Priesthood Interview", came home, reheated leftover pizza, and then went to bed. Now it's 8:40 and I've woken up from a nap that lasted a couple hours. I'm not exactly sure how long I slept.

And that's my excuse for not writing for so long.

This post is about the weather

We had about two and a half days of very nice sunny weather. It was warm but not too warm because of the cool breeze that came through every couple minutes. Then, yesterday afternoon, a blizzard came through. That morning, I had bundled up because the forecast said there will be a 70% chance of snow at 11. Turns out it didn't, and I ended up sweating as I walked home from class at 12. I was a bit annoyed at the false promise of snow that had caused me discomfort, but then I felt better when that blizzard hit. I don't particularly like the snow. In fact, I hate it. I would choose 110 F over 10 F any day, but since it snowed, I could say to myself, "The storm just came late. It could have snowed on my way home," as opposed to if it didn't snow, I'd just be annoyed because I bundled up for nothing.

My roommate had every reason to be annoyed with the weather. He works at Cabella's about 30 minutes north of where we live. Last night, he got off work at 8 but had been snowed in until 11 and didn't get home until around 11:45. He owns a diesel car and had to fuel up as well but the only station that had diesel was packed with cars. He says, that last night, it looked like a nuclear bomb had hit with the wind blowing snow across the barren fields filled with stationary cars. Apparently, it looked pretty freaky, and it probably did.

It's funny that I say it was warm, though, because it was about 35 F those two days. That is in no way anything close warm where I'm from. In Los Angeles, people put on a sweater, a coat, boots, and gloves once the temperature hits 50 F. Until I left and learned of the terrors on less than 50 degree weather (God forbid), I didn't understand what people were talking about when they said southern California is lucky to have such nice weather. After all, in high school, my friends and I would huddle close in the mornings until school started. I've since acclimated to these colder temperatures and now consider 10 F to be cold, not freezing.

I'm not sure if it's better that I won't take Californian weather for granted anymore now that I have an idea about what real cold is all about or that I never had to deal with freezing temperatures before I came to Utah.

I'm trying to be positive

but I'm still pissed off, not at anyone in particular. I'm just in a bad mood. The only positive thing I can say about today is that the weather was very nice, which seemed to impacted me today a great deal more than one would expect.

One thing I've noticed is that I want to be in a bad mood. I know that sounds bad but it's true. I know that deep down inside I can, if I wanted to, just let go all my angry thoughts and just not care what about what anyone says because I've done it many times before. The only thing is that I don't want to, so, I guess in that sense, I can't just let go.

I wonder how many of us, when we're angry, listen to angry music and refuse to listen to anyone. After all, that person might say something that will calm me down and that's the last thing I want. I think this goes for many other emotions. When I'm happy, I can forgive anyone and anything without a second thought and everything is just abso-freakin-lutely fabulous no matter what happens, whereas when I'm down, it takes something big to bring me back. It's as if I'm determined to maintain my emotions in the state they're in.

It's probably better that way so that I'm not on an emotional roller coaster, but I'm not a very pleasant person for a very long time once I get angry.

Ugh. Honestly,

I can't believe some people.

I try to be a kind, understanding, and forgiving person, I really do. I also try my best not to be confrontational, though on the inside I might really love to give someone a piece of my mind. I'm pretty good at avoiding confrontations, I think, but it comes at a price; I get a lot of frustration stored up in me, and I'm usually pretty good about finding an appropriate outlet for when the frustration starts to get overwhelming but, every once in a while, it just gets unbelievable hard.

I think the problem is that I can't distinguish when I'm being nice and when I'm being a pushover. Where is the line between a kind person and a doormat? It seems like I need to draw a different line for every person I meet because someone people will notice that I'm just being nice while others will be completely oblivious to the fact that they're being a complete bitch, and the fact that I don't know how to draw that line for just a single person doesn't help at all.

There's got to be a better way to deal with this. As of this moment, am I the nice guy or the pushover?

The answer: NEITHER.

Sociology > Computer Systems

Yesterday, I went to Tyler's sociology class. It was so much more fun than my computer systems class. I actually paid attention instead of doing my computer systems reading like I had planned to. It doesn't look like I'm liking my major any more than I am.

Perhaps I'm screwed

EC EN 124 - Introduction to Computer Systems

Homework #4
Question #1

If the value in R1 is 0x0008, what will the value be in R0 after executing the following 4 lines of binary code? What does the binary program do?

0001000001000001
0001000000000000
0001000000000001
0001000000000000

Answer: I DON'T KNOW

This is supposed to be an introduction class. I wonder how hard EC EN 300 level classes are...

On my mind

So, I'm starting to rethink my major. Right now, I'm majoring in electrical engineering and minoring in international development (and also thinking of minoring in English as well). I wanted to master in public policy after my undergraduate studies and then work with the U.N., hopefully doing research for third world countries. I want to make a difference with my life. I think it's the only way I'll feel like I've accomplished something with my life and, honestly, I think it's pathetic I feel that way.

I think this feeling stemmed from my inner desire to stick it certain people in my life by accomplishing something that will validate me saying something scornful like "I've done this with my life. What have you done?" Also, electrical engineering, as we all might guess, is one of those ridiculously well paying careers (can you say 6 figures?).

Though, now I'm in calculus and engineering classes, I'm starting to wonder if all this is for me? I mean, it's not like I'm not a math and/or science person, but it's just so hard for me to get motivated to study for these classes. When it comes to classes like religion or foreign languages, I'm all over the assignments. I get them done ahead of time and I thoroughly enjoy myself in the classes. My calculus class is much worse. I end up either feeling the suede part of my shoes the entire time or drawing in my notebook. Even now, I should be frantically trying to catch up on homework but I really don't want to.

I think what I really want to do is major in biology, physics (the only two science subjects I enjoy), advertising communications, international relations, or a language. Those sound fun whereas electrical engineering sounds like a lot of money, but also a lot more work (maybe more work than it's worth). My dad would tell me to do what I will enjoy. My dad had to make a similar decision when he was a college student. Business or architecture? Business is where the money is but he would enjoy architecture so much more, and having grown up with financial difficulties, he chose business, which he tells me got pretty boring pretty quickly.

So, here I am facing a dilemma my dad had the pleasure of meeting about two decades ago. Money or, essentially, happiness? I should probably learn from my dad's "mistake" but it's hard. I didn't exactly grow up with parents who had plenty of money to spare. As a single parent who was supporing his son as well as his mother, my dad didn't exactly have it easy and yet, he managed to provide me with a decent childhood. My grandmother filled the role of my mother so that my dad could work without worrying about leaving me alone at home. I feel like it's my obligation to pay my parents back for that. I want to make money so I can send my on two week long vacations to Europe and so I can take my grandmother to see the family that she hasn't seen in twenty years whenever she wants.

Obviously, if I'm happy but living in a box, I can't do these things. Tough choice... I guess now isn't really the time to worry about it. I'm going to be going on a full time proselyting mission for my church in about half a year and will be gone for two years anyway. A lot will happen so I guess it's best not to make any big commitments right now.

My top 5 favorite ways to waste time

College student + homework + exams + work = NOT FUN

This combination will break down any person. So, how do I manage to keep from going crazy? I have a few tricks up my sleeve.

1. Facebook
What teenager doesn't go on Facebook to procrastinate? I'm not exactly sure what I do when I go on Facebook. All I know is that I go on Facebook and then a while later I'm panicking because it's getting close to midnight and I still have about two chapters worth of calculus homework to do.

2. Final Fantasy XII
My roommate brought home a Playstation 2 from home with many games, including Final Fantasy XII, which I've started playing. When it comes to RPGs, it's like I have this obsession with making sure everything is perfect. I don't want to mess up my characters or miss any treasure chests that may contain some wonderful item that will brighten my life for about fifteen seconds until the novelty wears off.

3. Law & Order
I prefer Law & Order SVU but any of the series will do. The show's terrible for our apartment. They always have such awesome hooks that they play before the opening theme and once my roommates and I watch it, it's over. We have to watch the rest of the episode. Here's the worst part: TBS plays like four episodes in a row, and when TBS isn't playing it, there's another network that is. So, we have to turn off the TV right after the end of any given episode. Otherwise, we're unproductive for the next hour.

4. Play with my yo-yo or other little toy
I have a yo-yo, a Rubik's cube, little puzzles, and many many other things. I spend a lot more time with these than I thought. Surprisingly, though, I don't spend much time on the Rubik's cube because I'm determined not to look at the solution but I don't have the patience to try to figure it out.

5. Clean my room
This is my absolute last resort; I can go months without cleaning my room. Disgusting, I know, but we have cleaning checks here every month so I'm forced to clean my room anyways. Every once in a while, though, I get so bored that I start cleaning my room. Anything to get out of doing homework.


You might wonder how anyone could possibly get any work done with such an awesome arsenal of procrastinators.





It's a secret.

New York Giants win Super Bowl XLII!

After church today, my roommate, Tyler, and I went up to our friend, Heidi's, parent's place to watch the Super Bowl on their 55" HDTV (sweet!). Her mom had tons of awesome food out for us including shrimp salad, wings, 7 layer bean dip, and a veggie platter. Heidi's family is a Patriots family except her youngest brother, who is a Giants fan. Tyler, although not a big Giants fan, wanted the Giants to win and I didn't really care (though after hanging out with Heidi a lot, I've started subconsciously rooting for the Patriots and Red Sox).

Obviously, we were all looking forward to the commercials. We saw some pretty hilarious ones. Tyler and I didn't see some of the ads in the first quarter because we got there towards the end of it. My favorites (in no particular order):

• Diet Pepsi Max - everyone falling asleep and their heads nodding


• Bridgestone - starts with the squirrel screaming followed by many other animals plus a woman


• Tide To Go - the job interview where the interviewee's shirt is stained and interrupting everything he says with nonsense gibbering


• Planter's Nuts - the lady with the massive unibrow rubs Planter's cashew on herself and all the men go crazy for her


• Pepsi - Justin Timberlake flies through the city to a backyard and then gets hit by an HDTV (Hey, you! lol!)


• Doritos - man sets a mousetrap with Doritos, then gets pounded on by a person in a rat suit who jumps through the wall


• Vitamin Water - Shaq wins derby


• E Trade - baby talks about how easy it is to invest in the market then throws up on the keyboard


• Bud Light - man is flying when he is sucked into the turbines of an airliner ("the ability to fly no longer available with Bud Light)


• Coca Cola - Stewie and Underdog balloons fight for Coca Cola balloon but Charlie Brown gets it in the end


• Taco Bell - mariachi guy says "Hola" and winks with a "whutchi!! (whipping sound)"

Good times.

Attention all Jamba newbies!

Oh, shoot...
I'm starting to think that I may have made a mistake when I decided I'm going to major in electrical engineering. I'm taking an engineering class right now called Introduction to Computer Systems and it's totally kicking my trash. It seems like everyone in the class knows so much more than me. They already knew what the heck a D-latch flip-flop switch was and I'm sitting there in my seat with my head swelling up trying to follow all the questions being asked.

I have to leave for work in about an hour. I'm not looking forward to work today because 7 and a half hours at Jamba Juice is not fun. Here are some tips for ordering at Jamba Juice:

1. Do not order the enlightened smoothies, except maybe the Strawberry Nirvana. The lower calorie base that is used to substitute two thirds of the juice is disgusting.
2. Do not order the all fruit smoothies. Sure, they might be healthier because they don't have the sherbet or frozen yogurt in them but what isn't healthy at Jamba Juice (except the Peanut Butter and Chocolate Moo'ds)? More importantly, it's a real pain for us to blend the all fruit smoothies because the blades get stuck more often from the lack of frozen dairy.
3. We ask you for your name so we can call you when your smoothie is ready. LISTEN FOR YOUR NAME. I don't know how many times I've yelled someone's name and they didn't hear me because they were so busy chatting it up with their friends. You're here for your smoothie so at least keep one ear open, especially when the store is fairly empty and quiet.
4. Tip. Lord knows we don't get paid nearly enough, especially in Utah where the minimum wage is ridiculously low. Even a little loose change is better than nothing. Some people are heartless.
5. Don't try to pay with a stolen credit card. If you insist on trying, at least have a fake ID because we WILL check! (That lady yesterday was crazy... haha)