Breakdown Blessings

So I had my first major car break down on Thursday. It just stalled and stopped. I tried to restart it and the engine would crank and turn over, but the engine wouldn’t fire up. So I checked all the fuses and got a guy to help me try to jump the car. That was futile. So I left it parked on the side of the road till the next day where I could get it towed to the garage. So as far as inconvenience goes, this was a very convenient break down. It’s going to be to be a big financial hit but a lot of stuff that could have gone wrong went right. To start the car broke down right in front of my apt. All I had to do was push it over to the side of the road to park it. It happened during the daytime, which is usually better if you want to try to see if you can get it started. It also happened the day before payday. That’s nice. And then at work they had temporarily changed my schedule a couple days before from 5 AM – 1:30 PM to 6-2:30. That means that I was able to take the bus to work in the morning because the bus system starts at 5 AM. Woot. So all in all, I think it worked out pretty well. It’s fixed now and is running smoothly.

MaD Library Party

So Saturday was the annual Music and Dance Library Christmas Party/Talent Show. I don't work there any more, but I was still invited, so I got together with one of the guys who works there and put together a couple of songs. I couldn't resist using the accordion of course. Could you? Here are a couple of the videos.

** It looks like the page cuts off part of the screen, so I would recommend clicking on the video twice or so to get sent directly to the youtube page.

The recording got started a verse late on this one. The first song is called "Istanbul" and the medley includes in order: Canon in D, Jump (Van Halen), Semi-Charmed Life (Third-Eye Blind), Island in the Sun (Weezer), Viva la Vida (Coldplay), Hey Jude (Beatles).



This was actually a spur of the moment thing. Someone found the music to this song somewhere in the archives at the library and the words were just too amazing to let pass unnoticed. It is originally written for harp, oboe and voice. Unfortunately the harpist got hung up somewhere and couldn't make it, so they asked me if I could accompany the song with the accordion. It turned out to add a nice level of humor to it. It wasn't the best performance, but I had never played nor heard the song before.

The first song is the musical rendition, and then the second is the poetic interpretation.

Black Eye

So I’ve come across a new battle wound that I am proud of. I am generally quite proud of battle wounds, regardless of how I got them. So I have a nice black eye. Story of how I got it? Well the best one I came up with was on Sunday when I went to ward prayer in my old ward. I was actually slightly helped by someone else, or at least their help sparked the fire. Someone asked me how I got the black eye and he said “Oh he got mugged.” So I started back, “Well he tried to mug me. He came up and asked for my wallet and I said, NO! give me your jacket! So we fought and he caught me with a right hook in the left eye, but ultimately I got the jacket and he… well you should see him.” It was mostly good because I was wearing a leather jacket at the time. I learned last time I had a black eye that I need to be careful about making up stories. My friend asked me how I got the black eye and I told her that I saved a girl from getting hit by a car and in the process fell over and hit my eye on something… like the curb or something. Well she believed me and told all her roommates and they deemed me the hero of the day. All before I could tell them that it wasn’t true and that I actually got hit in the eye with a Frisbee. I got a guilt trip after that about how I never lie to her. Oops.

This black eye on a side note happened in Frisbee as well. I caught a flailing hand in the eye as someone who was air bound was trying to regain balance. It didn’t really hurt much, but it looks bad enough.

So usually when I see someone who hasn’t seen me in since Saturday they gasp and ask me “What happened?!?!” Sometimes I forget that I actually have a black eye (In fact sometimes I forget so completely that I am surprised to see it when I look in the mirror) and so it takes me a second to actually realize what they are asking about. Then I am faced with the decision of whether or not to tell the truth or make up a story. Usually if I tell the truth they say “You should make up a story.” So in my head I debate what I should do and often it just ends up as an awkward silence as I try to say something but nothing comes out, or I bumble about.

Anyway, here are some pictures.

Last day

Friday was my last day of work. We went to brick oven for lunch. It was fun. I knew the waitress too. Sorta. It was fun and I really appreciated the fact that Emily set it up for me. It was a very kind gesture. So we had fun. I worked at the desk all day and closed up at 6. When that came around I ended up being the last to leave and do the final close up. I stopped at the door, pulled out my camera, took a picture and walked out. It was the first time that moving home really hit me. I’m done working in the MaD Library. I’ve been there 3 years, and many of my closest friends I’ve met there and worked with them. So it was a somber day after that. I’m moving home, but it feels more like moving away from home.

Starry Night and a Velociraptor

I've been meaning to put this up for a while. I drew this on a date a couple of weeks back and never got around to posting it. Go figure. So without further adieu, here it is!

Awkward and or Creepy Conversation Starters

So I randomly made and observation in my head about someone else's foot (Yeah, awkward I know). Her second toe was longer than her big toe. It's a common thing no biggie. Then I thought, wow... that would be a really awkward way to try to start a conversation with someone. Hm... I wonder what other awkward things there could be. So I made a list.

I see your second toe is longer than your big toe.

Are you wearing Dr. Scholl’s gel soles? Because you look quite relaxed right now.

You remind me of my favorite character on Ice Age. Cid the Sloth.

Did you know that one of your eyes is bigger than the other?

I noticed you have defined calves when you were on the stair master.

I noticed your writes are very supple.

Here are my favorites from stake dances. These were actually used... often.

What’s your favorite toothpaste?

What color is your toothbrush?

And of course I had to put in the classic Dumb and Dumber quote:

"So, Big Gulps, eh?"

This is kind of fun. Put other ones in the comments section.

Ultimate Showdown

Well it’s been an interesting week. I think I will devote this blog to last weekend. So I’ll start with a funny story from work. About a year and a half ago I was talking with a coworker named Nicki about our dating lives. This is a common topic that comes up at work. She related the fact that it seems like every boy she had gone on a date with got a girlfriend soon after that date. I had just gone through a slew of dates where the girls had all gotten boyfriends shortly after. We were cursed. So in an effort to try to counteract the curse we figured we would throw a curve ball back at the curse. We decided to go on a date with each other. I can just see the curse now, “oh crap… they are together! What am I going to do?! Er.. uh… syntax error…. Kaboom!” So to make a long story short, Nicki and I went on a date and then she met a boy soon after and started dating him. She just married him a month or so ago too. Apparently the curse sneaked away in one piece by making me more powerful. So a few months later I took out another girl from work a few times. After those dates she met the guy that she just married a few weeks ago. Then fast forward to spring term. Another friend from work, Ceri, and I spontaneously went to a Chinese restaurant. Well then she ended up getting a boyfriend short after that. So we were joking about this at staff meeting one day and Jessi said that she wanted in on this beneficiary curse and that she had experienced the same thing. So we agreed to go on a date.

The day of the date we ended up setting up a tournament bracket to illustrate the effects of the curse.



So on that note we went on our date.

First we went to Rippley’s. It’s a burger place here in Provo that was featured the acclaimed church movie “The Phone Call.” which can be seen here. It’s a funny movie. After that we headed over to Color Me Mine. It’s a nice place where you pick out a cup or a bowl or some other kitchen piece and then color it. Then they gloss it and put it in a kiln and give it back to you a few days later. So it was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of our creations.


Yes, that is a frisbee player that highly resembles me.


And the gnome was a nice touch I thought.

Dinosaurs and Thai!

So on Friday I went on a date to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. It was a lot of fun! I remembered that I really like dinosaurs. It brought me back to the old days of playing with Craig and all our dinosaur action figures that he had. We learned all the names and what kind of dinosaurs they were. We could tell you if they were carnivores, herbivores, or even a rare few omnivores. We even knew what periods some of them lived in (i.e. Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous). I remember one time when Craig remarked that certain dinosaurs from the movie “Jurassic Park” weren’t even alive during the Jurassic period. What an atrocity! Of course, I don’t really remember all that much now. But I still remember the names of the basic dinosaurs and the general families of different kinds. The names of some of the lesser known ones came right back too. So we walked around the museum, me like a nerd in his element, talking about all the dinosaurs, her… well I think she was enjoying it too. It’s hard for one to tell. But she didn’t look bored or annoyed. And I did my best to throw in more interesting conversational topics too. There is a nice place for kids to dig around in dirt there too. Like they are real paleontologists! I was kind of tempted to play around in that mud… but I passed. So bottom line, dinosaur museum = cool.

We also went to the Thai house. It’s a nice little classy restaurant. You get quite a bit of food, and it’s not wildly expensive. They have good fried ice cream too. That was yummy. The food seemed like it could have used a little more flavor, but maybe I just picked a slightly bland item. It was a really healthy dish though. Many vegetables and stuff. I like vegetables and stuff. I’d recommend it as a good place to go for anyone looking for a date place or just food.

Hair Cut!

So I got decided to get a haircut yesterday. I had been thinking it was about time, but hadn’t yet planned a time to actually go get it cut. Well I happened to be walking past the barber place from a friend’s house on the way home and I saw that it wasn’t busy and it was cheaper on Wednesdays. So I walked in and sat right down to get it cut. The girl cutting my hair was the same as last time. She remembered my hair. Apparently there aren’t too many people who come in with thick curly hair that poofs into an afro when you comb the gel out of it. So now I have quite short hair. A bit shorter than I would have preferred, but my hair can roll with the punches. It’s versatile like that. I did notice something interesting though. Every time I get a hair cut my hair seems to acquire some interesting quirk. The latest one is that there is a tuft of hair in the back left side of my head where the hair is straight now and just kind of sticks straight out. Who knows, maybe the rest of my hair will follow suite and I will have a head of straight hair that won’t do anything but stick straight out like I’ve been electrocuted. So that’s my most recent bout of quirkiness.

Dear Santa...

I was chatting with my friend Mena and she randomly sent me this message.

Dear Santa,
I've been a pretty good girl this year. I've tried not to be too mean to anyone. I passed my classes. I even kept in pretty good contact with my family. Can I please, handsome, please have some new eye candy in the ward and everywhere else, too, while you're at it? Oh, can they be decent guys and not d-bags, too? And, while we're at it, I prefer (naturally) dark hair, Southern manners, hard workers, good senses of style, great senses of humor, tolerance for others, and respect/admiration for me. Thanks so much!
Love, Mena

So here was my reply.

Dear Mena,
I understand your plight and would love to give you this present for Christmas seeing as how you have fulfilled all the requirements on the “good girl list.” However I am currently very occupied and must over see my elves up here in the north pole and therefore I am unable to move into your ward to provide the proper eye candy that would be needed. I apologize for my failings and will send something sparkly or shiny this Christmas.
Ho ho ho,
Santa

Man Lunch

I like food. In fact… I depend on it. It keeps me alive. On top of that, I like good food and large quantities of it. Most things that you would expect a stereotypical college guy to eat don’t do it for me. I like frozen burritos, ramen, nachos, and all the other things I should be eating to destroy my health, but none of those things ever fill me up or satisfy me. And if I go too long only eating those, then I start to get depressed. So I generally like to cook decent meals for my self. I have become a semi decent cook actually.

So my roommate David and I have started a tradition. On Sundays after church we have started to have a “Man Lunch.” And it has turned out to be, as David would put it, “not even a bad idea.” Basically we periodically have a wonderful steak meal, grilled on the barbeque. David takes care of the grilling while I cook up all the other stuff. Today we had some fresh asparagus to go with the steak and mashed potatoes. To be honest I’ve never cooked asparagus before. But it’s no different than any other vegetables. So I sautéed some onions and threw a bit of garlic in there. Then threw the asparagus in, and as a last minute brilliant idea, my roommate had some lemons. So we put in some fresh squeezed lemon juice. It gave it a wonderfully tasteful zing. Anything that can be described with the word “zing” has got to be good. Basically man lunches make both of us instantly giddy and happy. The steaks have been very high quality lately too. I don’t know if I just got lucky with the cut, or David’s grilling skills have greatly improved, either way I’m certainly not complaining. It leaves both of us happily satisfied in a blissful daze for hours afterwards.

The life of Bryan

Well not much has really changed. Last time I wrote about what my life is like it went about like this. Frisbee, work, nerdy econ stuff, and… well… that’s about it. So now that summer has started my life consists of: Frisbee, work, nerdy econ stuff, and… a little soccer. Intramural season is underway. I’m on a Frisbee team with some people from the BYU team and on my ward soccer team. I also had the option of joining the softball and kickball teams, but since I also have normal BYU Frisbee practice twice a week as well as Frisbee games every Thursday for the Orem City Frisbee League, I figured it might be a good idea to take it a little easy.

So the run down on all the sports teams. Our Orem City league turned out to be a fairly solid team. They try to even the talent out between all the teams, but it is really hard to do that sometimes. The people assigning teams are on the BYU Frisbee team so they know most people who play competitively around here. Then you get a lot of people that they don’t know. You are supposed to rate yourself, but self ratings are extremely subjective, especially since it is hard to compare yourself when you don’t know what other people are rating. For example, I think I barely made it into the top 50 in rankings. I probably am really somewhere in the top 25 skills wise, but it’s just hard to rank yourself. For me it was fine because the people know me so they can put me where they need, but for others they have no idea. Well it turns out that a number of the unknown people who were assigned to my team are from BYU-Idaho and have played semi-competitively there. So we have a solid team. We are undefeated so far, but we have only played two games.

BYU Intramurals is going well. We put together an upper division team. It is a team of mostly mid range players from the BYU team. We don’t have any “handlers” but we all are competent enough to play at an intramural level. It turns out that we run an extremely smooth offense. It works and flows really well. The only problem is that we often drop easy catches. It is silly. But that’s what happens. We’ll see how the rest of the season turns out.

The BYU Ultimate team is going well. We changed our name to “Destroying Angels” a little while back and got new jerseys. The jerseys are very nice and are made of wicking fabric. We have a tournament coming up in June. It is actually the Utah Olympic Games. They added Ultimate to their list of events last year. It is one of the few 2 day tournaments that we actually get to play on both days (Usually the 2nd day is on Sunday so we skip out on those games). I’m looking forward to that. Hopefully we can take it all again.

Now for soccer, this is the first time in 3 or 4 semesters that I’m not playing goalie. I like goalie, but it’s fun to run around as well. I usually play defense or mid. I prefer mid. I like to be able to run on both sides of the field. There is a lot more running, which is good for me.

So that’s the run down on my sports life.

Maybe we are morally detached

So every once in a while I come across something that I find quite amusing. However, when I show it to someone else they find it less amusing. I have had reactions from disgust to thinking it is some sort of social heresy I came across a blog entry that one of my former professors happened to write on Times and Seasons. Now before you go and freak out, I think he does raise some interesting points, and it does have some societal implications that add a very logical side to the debate about abortion. So here’s the link. It turns out that using this kind of analysis we are definitely not at the socially optimal level of abortions, even when you throw morals out the window it still comes up that way. So anyways, one of the reactions I got to this article when I shared it was “Sick! He's putting a value to a fetus!" My thoughts were... well yeah. Maybe I'm just morally twisted and detached like all other economists. Or maybe I just make a difference between measuring a monetary value that a life has to an economy vs. what real value is. I don't know if that made sense, but I'm going to stick with it. We can debate that further if you so desire.

For any other social scientists/economists out there, he also wrote this article which I found amusing. Just do yourself a favor and don’t take things so seriously.

My Nickname in High School

So last night I was on a date and I doubled with Josh Sillitoe. Josh and I ran cross country together in high school. We hang out and do things from time to time. Anyways, while we were driving to one of our destinations at one point in time during the night Josh ended up calling me/introducing me as Chester. That was my nickname in XC and so that led to me telling the story about how I got the nickname. So I figured I would just share it and put it out there for the whole world to see. By the way… only Josh, Troy and maybe some other XC peeps are allowed to call me Chester. The rest of you are going to have to find another nickname for me if you really want to call me something.

So one Saturday during my senior year we didn’t have practice, but Coach Burgess gave us instructions to run on our own. I believe it was just a 50 minute run. So Josh Sillitoe, Troy Steadman, and I got together Saturday morning to do our workout. It was a cloudy overcast day and sufficiently chilly, at least to us desert dwellers it seemed cold. We ran for a good 50 minutes and when we got back we decided that it was cold enough to get hot chocolate at the Texaco down the road. Hot chocolate seems like a strange thing to get after running 6 miles… but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Besides, they had these creamers there, like “Italian Crème,” that were delicious. When we got there a Club from the high school was hosting a car wash. So we decided to support and get our cars washed. They were even vacuuming the inside, so that was a plus. Well when one of the cars finished this girl hollered over at us. She was black so imagine a black girl yelling this, “Hey! You over there! Chester! Your car is done!” So Troy thought that she was talking to me and said “AAAHHAAA! She called you Chester! I’m gonna call you that from now on!” So I went over and it turns out that it was Troy’s car that was finished. HE was the Chester! So I went back and made fun of him because he was really Chester. But he said he was still going to call me Chester. From then on we were both Chester.

Incidentally, about a year and a half ago I was watching TV while making lunch. The new story was about how the FBI had just caught a child molester who had been on the run. They put his picture up with his name under it and it turns out that his name is Chester Stiles. I did a double take on that one. What are the odds? I just did a quick google search and he also is from Nevada! Later that day I got a text from the other Chester that said, “Chester! They got you!”

Proof I'm a nerd

So my nerdiness has been flourishing unchecked lately. I guess I could try to classify it as an occupational hazard, but since economics isn’t my occupation yet maybe I should consider it an educational hazard. For all you out there who hate economics, well… you must hate me then, and we are enemies. One day we will meet in battle and only the strongest will survive. I patiently await that day. I will put three asterisks in front of the really boring paragraphs so you can skip them if you want. Anyways, on to my nerdiness!

So economics is all about models. We observe something that happens in the world and then work up a model to explain this. Then we empirically test the model to see if it works and go from there. So as a result, I have started observing things and try to explain them in terms of models in order to understand life.

So here we are with nerdiness incident #1: My mind was wandering during sacrament meeting and I was thinking about Frisbee. Then I got to thinking, has my behavior in Frisbee changed since being single? Have I started to play in a more risky manner? I don’t really think I have if you control for change in weather and the reappearance of grassy fields. So I decided to work up this model. I didn’t put values to any of these variables so it’s purely theoretic.

***So what that means is there are two equations that measure the value of making a risky play in Frisbee. They are both expected values because it’s not a 100% probability of getting hurt, there is only the chance (p) that you will get hurt and (1-p) that you won’t get hurt. The “hurt” is the value you get if you are hurt when you take the risk, “not hurt” is the value you get if you aren’t hurt and you take the risk. Then there are the glory points that you get whether you get hurt or not. The first equation represents the value you get from a risky act when you are single. Equation two is the value you get when you are dating someone. You’ll notice that there are two negative values added, “nag” and “sense of responsibility”. So since the value of U1 > U2 then a person should take more risks when they are single. So that’s my first musing.

So another story, I was brushing my teeth one day and thinking about a conversation I had with a friend the night before. The topic of my white suit came up and that led me to think about when I went with my friend to buy the suit. Then I thought, why didn’t I ever try to date her? She was really cool and fun. So I brought thought up these equations.

***Ok so in this one the first equation is the happiness you get out of being friends. It’s the happiness of being friends minus what you consider the opportunity cost of forgoing dating them would be. In the second equation it’s another expected value since it’s not a sure bet that trying to date someone will result in a successful outcome. The letters p, q, and r are the probabilities of each outcome. So the first outcome is the successful one, the benefit of dating, minus the effort put out there. The second one is when it doesn’t work out but you still stay friends. You get the benefit of being friends, minus the effort, minus the inevitable period of awkwardness. Then the last one is when you try, get shot down, and then things are never the same again and you aren’t friends anymore. Then you put forth effort and lose the benefit of being friends as well. So when if comes to decision time of what to do it depends on which is greater than the other. If U(Friend) > E[U(Dating)] then it’s best to stay friends.

So I’m sure many people will disagree with me on that last one. But this is just random musings of mine. Chill out. So on to the most recent one which has nothing to do with dating or girls. I had a French choir concert on Tuesday and I played two accordion solos. During the first one there was a part where I got nervous and my right hand started to shake. It was a fairly technical part so I ended up making some mistakes. As I was thinking about that, I realized that my performance level could be modeled by a variation of the Solow Growth model that we learn about in Macroeconomics. Here is a picture.

***So basically this is a model with multiple equilibrium points. The lower left dot is the dot that signifies a low level of performance and is correlated with a low level of confidence. The upper right dot is a high performance level and a high confidence level. The straight line at a 45 degree angle shows the direct correlation between confidence and performance. The curvy line is a function of your own practice and confidence. The place where the two lines cross is where the level of performance is. If you practice a lot then you will start on the upper right dot. However if something happens to ruin your concentration of give you a shock then you will drop down a bit on the line and it has a downward force becuase you get nervous and then mess up more and get more nervous until you hit the lower left point. 

So there you have it. My nerdiness!

Eye Contact

So I was talking with one of my friends about the difference between guys and girls and how they interact. It had something to do with eye contact and how we position ourselves and random things like that. I don’t really remember the specifics about it, but it serves as a good intro to my blog about eye contact.

Eye contact is a funny thing. If you happen to find yourself in a pack of gorillas, (or is it a herd? a posse?) then you would want to avoid making eye contact with any gorillas, especially the alpha male. You’ll get yourself a good pummeling if you do. So we as fellow members of the primate group seem to have a natural aversion to eye contact as well. This kind of a subject came up in a conversation with a girl I met last week. Ironically, at first I found it difficult to keep decent eye contact with this girl at first. She was attractive and had very striking eyes. So for some reason there was something that made me not want to keep eye contact for very long. I got over it after a little while though.

So in our conversation we were talking about how we had been making efforts to be friendlier on campus. I personally have been making efforts to talk to people when I’m walking on campus. She had been making efforts to try to smile at more people. I found that it’s hard to actually find people that are available to talk to. They are either on cell phones, listening to their ipod, or in groups. She found that it’s hard to simply make eye contact with people to smile at them.

So this brings me to stake conference over the weekend. I’m sure many of you have found yourself on the stage at church or in some position in front of a group of people. Well there are two situations that you can run into. Sometimes you’ll find someone out there that just catches your eye. And your gaze on the crowd will end up reverting to that person. Other times someone will be right in the default range of your gaze. So you will end up looking at them often with out realizing it. It is quite funny when you are on the receiving end of the person on the stand. Well over the weekend in the two sessions of conference I found my self on the receiving end of one of those situations. It was the first counselor in of the stake relief society presidency. On both Saturday and Sunday we kept making those awkward glances at each other. So on Sunday I started making a game out of it. I decided to see how long I could hold eye contact and see who would break eye contact first. I think the record was about 8-10 seconds before she broke eye contact. That is actually an eternity when you are staring a stranger in the eyes. It’s amazing how many times in 8 seconds you will have the urge to look away. Needless to say, it was a funny game, and who ever that was probably thinks I’m really creepy. But it’s all in fun! And in my defense I would only keep the eye contact when she was looking at me first. I didn’t initiate it, she did. I just held it.

Rock Climbing, North, Accordion, and Frisbee Scrimmage

I went rock climbing on Friday night. It was a lot of fun. I came to an interesting discovery though. Normally people use their arms to much and after a while their arms get so weak that they can’t climb anymore. Well I made a very conscious effort to make sure that most of the climbing was done with my legs. Rock climbing really isn’t that much different from climbing Grandma and Grandpa’s trees, so I didn’t have too much trouble. The thing is that after about an hour my grip was totally gone. The rest of my body was fine, but I just could not old onto the hand holds anymore. So now I can feel soreness in my forearms when I clench my fists. My arms and legs are fine though. Maybe if I do it enough I’ll have ripped forearms! Woohoo!

I drove up north yesterday to visit with Melanie, Mathis and Aubrey and then headed up to Syracuse to see the Moodys. I haven’t seen them for four years since I got my visa and left Syracuse to head out to New Caledonia. The Moodys were just great to us during out mission so it was really nice to see them again and catch up with them. I had to take a round about way to get to their house because the only way I could remember how to get there was to start at the place I stayed as a missionary and then track the path as if I were walking there. But even after four years I still remembered the way and found it even though it was dark. It was fun to drive past places and take a trip down memory lane. The Moodys are still as wonderful as ever and it was a very pleasant trip.

In the past few weeks I have become an accordion player! I borrowed an accordion from my boss so that I could play a solo in the French Choir concert that I’m in at the end of the semester. It’s been a lot of fun. It still makes me smile every time I bring it out of it’s case. I decided to name it even though it’s my boss’s accordion. I think “Tito” is an appropriate name. It’s a Titano brand accordion, so it was just a short jump to get “Tito”. We are going to have some good times together!

Our Frisbee team drove up to the U of U on Wednesday and played a friendly scrimmage with their team. They have improved a lot since last year. It was fun to play against some new people and not just teammates. We were also able to see what we could work on and have been trying to improve in those areas. The best part of the night was when my team was lining up on offense and the U team was setting up their defense at the same time. One of their players was assigning who would guard who. So call a player on his team and the point to player on our team. Well when he assigned someone to cover me he called out a player on his team and said, “You take wheels,” as he pointed to me. That is pretty much the ultimate compliment, which is appropriate since we were playing Ultimate Frisbee. (He he, Get it? Yeah? Ok sorry, it was a bad pun)

Well that should do it for a random update in my life.

The 25 things thingy

1. When I was 12 I flew off the trampoline and landed on my face on a pile of dirt and rocks. The whole right side of my face was scabbed like two face!.... I got better.
2. I have 4 pillows on my bed. One memory foam pillow for my head, one to cuddle with, one to put between my knees, and one to put between my feet.
3. I also have a particular sleeping routine at night. I lay on my left side for anywhere from 2-10 minutes, and then switch it my back for a couple minutes, and then I end up on my right side and fall asleep.
4. I often have crazy dreams that include ninjas, terrorists, or other action packed themes. However last night my dream included hamsters and computer fans.
5. I play on a collegiate ultimate Frisbee team. We go to tournaments and play other colleges and everything.
6. We also have a disc golf course memorized on campus that we play late at night.
7. Last summer I wrote a musical about where I work. I wrote out the script, lyrics, and music. It was great!
8. I’ve never dated someone shorter than me.
9. I sang in the background choir for “You Raise Me Up” at a Josh Groban concert. He’s a small guy.
10. I have a bad habit of psychoanalyzing myself. It’s probably my dad’s fault. I’m never right though, which is why it’s a bad habit.
11. I have two USB missile launchers. They are awesome.
12. I ate kangaroo once.
13. I have a white suit and a whole disco get up.
14. I feel very strongly about homemade salsa. When it spills I have strong emotions that at times have been known to transfer into music!
15. I have 12 pairs of shoes. Two pairs of cleats, two pairs of Sunday shoes (one in Henderson back home and one here) four pairs of casual shoes, two pairs of running shoes (One in Henderson and one here), a pair of brown bowling shoes, and a pair of snow boots.
16. Chocolate milk is my happiness.
17. I have a bad habit of losing my watches
18. My favorite colors are green… and blue. They’re both favorite. But green is more favorite.
19. When I was 5 I was in a singing and dancing group called Sunshine Generation. I sang a solo called the “Ice Cream Song.” It was cute.
20. I knocked my two front teeth out when I was three and four. One when I was running around like a crazed toddler, tripped and hit my mouth on the water bed. The other one when my sister elbowed me. They didn’t grow back till I was 9 or so.
21. I generally only cut my hair every three or four months. It just gets curly as it gets longer.
22. In the summer when I was a kid my cousins and I would spend our time play time out in the desert lizard hunting. You have to get out somewhat early before the sun heats up because the lizards are slower then.
23. One day I want to own an accordion.
24. My car’s name is Riley.
25. One time while looking for trouble with the Trio we used a water balloon launcher to launch a balloon at a couple making out at the bell tower.

Random updates on life at the moment

Ever since I was 5 I've been told by older people that the older you get and the more you learn, the more you realize how much you don't know. I agree with that statement. However, I would like to add a little addition to that. The older I get and the more I learn, the more I realize how much other people don't know.

I took my first ever dance test today, for dance 180. It was on the foxtrot. Nothing too difficult. He said I have nice posture, but sometimes my elbows dropped a bit. But have good leads. Woot.

We went to the bishop's house for FHE and they fed us Crepes. However, they called them "Norwegian Pancakes" because Sister Bishop served there... or lived there... or something along those lines. Apparently the ward record was 9 crepes (He feeds the same thing to every FHE group that visits). And the most he'd ever seen eaten was 15 by a missionary who is now on the football team. I was going plenty strong at 8 when we cut things short and went on to the lesson. I think I could have taken out the football player. Another kid got to 10. He was closer to the middle of the table and had first access to the crepes. Anyways, the record will have to go for another day.

I'm heading down to Vegas on thursday for another frisbee tournament. It is the "Trouble in Vegas" tournament. One of the biggest tournaments in the nation. There will be about 80 colleges there. The best in the nation will be there. It is quite a site to see.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

I just came across this link and I wasn't sure what to think. So I googled the title to see if it really was legit. Apparently it is a real book. Amazon is selling it and The National Post has a small article on it. I kind of doubt that it is very good and considering the fact that I haven't read the real Pride and Prejudice, I don't know if I'm allowed to read this one. Well the premise gave me a kick anyways.

First Week

So the first week of winter semester is almost done for me. I don’t have classes on Friday. Woot! In fact I barely work, which just means I’ll be studying all day. As far as classes go I have three Econ classes: Game Theory, Labor Economics, and Economic Development. They all seem pretty interesting. They are all applied to the real world now. I spent my time drudging through all the courses that taught me all the skills and now these classes are an application of those skills. All 3 Econ professors are quite interesting too.

My game theory professor has an extremely dry sense of humor, and I don’t even get most of his jokes. I always felt pretty comfortable around dry humor, but this guy loses me a lot. That, or he isn’t very funny… Possible. My labor economics teacher refers to himself as coach. Which isn’t a bad thing… I kind of like the guy so far. We’ll see how long that lasts. We do have a paper due next week. Which reminds me… I need to get an idea and start running regressions… Oi! My economic development teacher is a hoot. Unfortunately I can’t really explain it. But… well he’s really funny. I don’t have to worry about falling asleep in that class.

Apart from those 3 classes I’m also in Dance 180. I have three reasons for being in that class. One is I always meant to take that class while I was here at BYU. I was going to take it freshman year, and then I didn’t for some reason or another. I think maybe the girl I had a crush on and had planned on taking it with opted out last minute or something… I don’t know. Anyways I didn’t take it then. Then every other semester I would have had time to take it I opted to take a sports class like jogging (I hear your snickering!), volleyball, or racquetball. So alas, I had never taken the class. Well last semester I found out that this would be my last full semester of school. I lack only one class after this, which I will take spring term or possibly summer term. So I have to take it this semester. Another reason is because I happen to be dating a ballroom dancer who, if I were any less willing to take the class, would probably find ways to threaten me and coax me into the class. So, I guess girls still have the same power that they did my freshman year. And lastly, I barely have 12 credits this semester. I need some filler classes. Another one of those filler classes is French Choir. I just found out last night that one of my friends in the ward will be the director for the choir. I’m not sure how he landed that gig, but it should be pretty fun.