Late Night

To emphasize the effects that late nights have on me, I would just like to say that I first typed in 'Late Nate' as the title for this post, spelled 'emphasize' wrong a few times, and screwed up a few other things in this sentence.

Anyway, I don't think I've gone to bed before 1:30 or 2:00 this whole last week. It's been super fun and very relaxing - just what I've needed this last month. So within the last month I've had about a billion things going on, from my internship application (still not sent in, due in 2 days) to midterms and then finals and other school things. It's been rough, not quite like Central was.

Let's try to catch up.

So I drove home for Thanksgiving with Merilee, her cousin Grant and his room mate Sam. It took us about 8 hours to drive to Boise, the weather was super sketchy. Low visibility, black ice, you know the sort. Scary. So we stopped in Boise at Sam's house, woke up early and took about 7 hours to get home, same road conditions making a 10 hour drive turned to 15. So Thanksgiving was great, and then I drove back with Adam, Whitney and her room mate and friend. It took us the same amount of time to get back, except it felt like it was a lot longer.

Had midterms and did pretty well I think. Then the real work came as we studied for finals, which was super stressful. It felt amazing to be done, and overall I did good. Ended up with three A's, an A-, and waiting on my French grade. Probably got a B. Mme Thompson was super hard, but an awesome professor. I'm signed up for Bio 100, Writing 150, Italian 201 and French 322 next semester. It'll be a decent load, but I wish I was in a Russian class too. Why am I so obsessed with learning it? I don't know why, but I think it's awesome. Should be a good semester. Tuesdays and Thursdays I only have Italian at 12, but on Mondays I'm in class from 9 to 6:50. SUCK.

So then came break, finally, and I flew home after riding the bus to Tyler to SLC. We found a mysterious collection of random items in this spot behind the bus stop as we waiting to be shuttled to the airport. We think someone got mugged. I got home, annnd pretty much have played Halo and seen most of my friends the whole time I've been here. I got a ukelele for Christmas and some other little goodies, but I'm mostly excited for my uke! Chords have been pretty easy to learn, I just need to learn some sweet songs now. My dad bought this 47" Vizio which just looks awesome. Super clear picture, great to play video games and the Kinect on, which we also got.

Well, I guess that's about all I have to say. Tomorrow is New Year's eve, all I have planned is a white elephant gift exchange at Whitney's, but I'm not sure what I'm doing for the rest of the day besides dinner at grandma's. That's it! Time for sleep. Maybe I'll get up at a decent hour tomorrow.

Ramblin' Man is jammin with Blink.

Rain

This weekend was ok. On Friday I finally got my bike back! When I went in on Thursday to pick it up they hadn't even looked at it, and I the day before I had to scoot a mile away to a bike shop and back to buy a part they didn't have. When I came back all the mechanics were gone, so I was told it would be done Thursday. Surprise! It wasn't. So I got it back Friday, and it feels infinitely better than scooting around.

So I got back from classes and went straight for the mailbox, where Reach and my new debit card were waiting for me. That game is awesome. I hung out until my game at 8, which we won in pk's, which was stressful as the goalie. I stopped one, two I guessed wrong and the other three guys just missed theirs. So we won and went to Sonic to celebrate, and now we have another game this coming Friday.

On Saturday I had to be up at 9 and get to the football game by 9 30. The weather was super nice, so taking tickets wasn't nearly as awful as the last game where we stood soaking in rain for 2 and a half hours. During the second quarter I left my gate to workthe field, and that's always fun. We stomped UNLV like 55-7. They scored in the last 45 seconds.

After the game I hung around home until Ben's coworker and room mates picked us all up to go bowling. I probably bowled my best game ever, but maybe it's because we had the bumpers up for the first 5 frames...but those don't affect the 4 straight down the middle strikes I had! So after bowling we bought some junk food and watched August Rush at our place. The movie's great, the ending sucks.

Sunday was great. After church I went to work the fireside that Elder Ballard spoke at, and he gave a really good talk. I was dying of hunger the whole time, and it wasn't until like quarter to 8 that I ate for the first time all day. I had a huge plate of spaghetti, toast, corn, and pomegranate juice. I. Love. Pomegranate. Juice.

After dinner I went to ward prayer, totally won a candybar for getting a spotlight right. I went home and played Reach with Dan. Miss that kid. Till and I talked about everyone meeting in Ellensburg that first weekend after finals for like a ski day/Christmas dinner or something. I really want to, I miss them so much. We'll see if I get to, cause I thought we were going to Chicago...either way I'll have a great time over break.

Now it's Monday, and it's raining and my butt is soaked from biking to campus. I should probably get a wheel flap or something so when it starts snowing I don't have a wet butt every day. After classes today I need to work on French and Italian for several hours. Also astronomy. Is it bad that I'm doing homework to make time for video games...?

Rambin' Man should be paying attention in class...

Longest Day Thus Far

A couple days ago I had a nice chat with Shayla Johnson over lunch. She's awesome! I hope you read this Shayla, and I hope you enjoy blogging as much as the rest of the world.
Alright so on Thursday I had a rough day. Of course I'm writing about in archaeology. I woke up and didn't get to take a shower due to time limitations, and then I ran out of Marshmellow Mateys and had to have half a bowl of knock-off golden grahams. Then I scooted off to campus, which isn't the most fashionable way to get around, and it hurts my back. I should have had my bike back then, but there's an explanation to come.
Ok so Italian went well, and then after class I made plans with 4 other students to meet later to do our pratica orale. Then after we left I got a text from another friend who wanted to speak, but he couldn't make it that night so I agreed to meet with him right then. We talked for 40 minutes and he went to class. I went to study French, which didn't go as well as I would have liked considering I lost 40 minutes speaking Italian. So I went to French and I didn't understand like half the concepts we talked about because my professor said we could skip something, and I ended up skipping the wrong part.
Immediately after I had to go to the library to do 60 pages of Notes and Quotes for my BOM test, and I ended up being there for 3 hours. I got to talk to Mandy for a while though, and that was nice. So after studying and such I went to take my test, and I got an 88. Not too bad, but I was ticked because some of the questions were total BS. Like there's no way I could've studied to know any of them. But whatever. I was excited to pick my bike up at the shop, where it had been for the last 3 days.
I got there, told the girl what I was picking up, and when she took it off the rack and started rolling it to me I saw that it had no pedals. No bottom bracket. Old chain dangling from the loose gears. The hadn't even touched it!

Flashback: I was told the day before that they didn't have the size of the part I needed, so I could either wait for them to order the part or I could go buy one myself, bring it back, and then they could fix it. I scooted at least a mile back down the hill to the nearest bike shop, bought the part, and came back. The mechanics were gone, however, and I'd have to wait until tomorrow (Thursday).

Ok so I back and they hadn't looked at it. I wanted the parts put in for free, because I was ticked. Still am. I had to scoot all the way home. My iPod died as I was studying for my test and I didn't have any music. I got home and I wanted ice cream. I brought the wrong card to the creamery, had to go back and forth a couple times before I got it right. They didn't have any new flavors.

Had to speak/study Italian with the group I talked about earlier, we were together for an hour later than we needed to be. Didn't get to watch the Office, had to eat raman for dinner. I dropped my bowl of burrito mix on the floor. Still had an archaeology project to do which I didn't get to start until 11 30, didn't finish until 1 30.

BUT! I had the greatest pleasure of being surprise visited by Jen, who made my day infinitely better, even though she was just stopping by to get a glass of water. She's super cool, and I'm excited to hang out on Saturday.

I have a game today at 8! Super pumped, hope we do good. Hope I do good. I'll report later. I just found out a got a 95.25 on my archaeology midterm, what the heck! That's awesome! This day is starting to be a lot better, even though I didn't eat breakfast. Easy trade for a shower.

I went to lunch and ran into Ben and Hilary. After I got my food Josh, Ben's old friend, was with them too. I guess he's gonna take David's place in Ben's room next semester, which I was a little nervous about because I hadn't met him, but he seems like a really cool guy. I had a bowl of teriyaki chicken from the cougar eat, it was pretty delicious. But for $5.91? I would've rather had 3 cheeseburgers...

I also went to see if my bike was done, which I was told it would be now. It's not. At least it was getting worked on though, I'll go back in an hour and hopefully be riding home on it just in time to take a nap. Hooray!

Ramblin' Man is having a good day.

Student Lectures

As you know, I tend to start my latest blog in archaeology. So here we are again, learning about human sacrifice from some brave student in my class who's lecturing for extra credit. I just learned that sacrifice actually means "to make sacred." Interesting! So turns out a ton of people were doing this whole sacrifice thing...which is a little frightening to think about. Especially because a lot of them were little kids.

Now another girl is talking about the Chinese Terracotta warriors. They're pretty rad. This girl actually went to China and took pictures with them. 700,000 workers to create 7,000 statues to protect one dead guy.

Ohhh now it's Roanoke Island, something that's always interested me. "Croatoan" was written on the site where 117 people were sent and just disappeared. Apparently we still don't know where it is? I thought we did. Wellp, that's about it for that.

King Tut! His sarcophagus was super cool. The thing about mummies is though...they're butt ugly. P.S. How many 9 year-old kings have their been? Too bad the kid died when he was 19. He was born of incest and had a clubbed left food and a missing toe, and suffered from osteonecrosis. That kinda sucks.

Now this really excited guy is talking about the Maori weapon called a 'mere.' The most prized one was made of green stone...cool! Just whipped out a "Deadliest Warrior" clip - well done sir. He's really into this haha, I appreciate the show. Thanks guy.

Weekend Aftermath

For some reason I start all my blogs in my archaeology class. We're watching a video on an ancient Iceman guy who was found frozen with an arrow in his back, and all these archaeologists are working to figure out how/why he died. They have this old guy shooting an old bow at a cow, which is pretty hilarious to watch.

I realize that I never talked about my visit to Chase and my bike breaking on Friday. So I got home from classes and decided I should go to the nearest Chase branch and ask about the application I thought I had started/finished but never received confirmation on. When I got there, the banker told me they didn't have any information on an application for me, besides my name and social security number. That was comforting. I didn't get the free $100 and I spent 2 hours fighting for it. The guy did give me a $25 coupon, which is nice I guess. Free money is free money. I opened an account anyway and even bought a debit card that earns me miles through United. I'll get it this week, and I'm pretty excited for it. Maybe I can get a ticket to France for next year with it? Or Chicago? I guess we'll see!

So after Chase I was biking home when the crankshaft in my bike decided it would come loose. I had to scoot my bike home standing on one of the pedals (which I also did to get to school today, which was humiliating). I hope I can get it fixed by later today or tomorrow, I would hate to walk to classes and back every day. I need my sleep! And breakfast! I didn't get to eat this morning because I wouldn't have had time. :(

Anyway, this weekend was pretty fun. I made my first chili last night, following my mom's recipe. It was pretty tasty! David made the most perfect pumpkin bars, they were super moist and delicious. I made a lot extra, so I'll be eating leftovers for a while. Especially since I still have leftover burrito/rice mix from Thursday night.

That Wyview party wasn't too great, but I got some free pizza and cookies out of it. I left early to spend the last of my money on my signature card so I could cancel my meal plan without losing too much money. Then I played guitar for a while before roomies came back.

Sunday was good. In sacrament we just sang a bunch of hymns and talked about them, which was great! After I went home teaching, came back and ate, made and ate my chili, went to ward prayer, came home and hung out with Andrew, Tyson, Cris, Gentry and Hannah and got them interested in getting a hat. That's pretty cool because I like money. Well, that brings us to date.

Ramble Ramble Ramblin'

Week of Halloween Weekend

It's been most of a year since I started blogging, which is kindof sad because I really haven't written about much in the last 365 days. It's never too late to keep writing though, right? Ok cool. Before I talk about this weekend I'll talk about this last week, which has been pretty crazy.

So on Monday stayed on campus doing French homework for 3 hours doing French homework before my first Dreamweaver class at 3. It was really cool, and I'm excited to continue learning about HTML and CSS. So then I had to do my astronomy homework and study for my French quiz on Tuesday.

Then on Tuesday I went straight from Italian to working the devotional, from work to studying for French again, and then I went to French and took my quiz. Got a B-, due to some pretty stupid mistakes. Should've been an A! After class I had to work on a paper all night for archaeology. That was fun. Not to mention the two hours of Italian homework I had to do. Wednesday I had to work on my second French dissertation after classes, and then I had to work the basketball scrimmage from 6 to 9. Went back to working on my paper right after.

I got my patriarchal blessing on Thursday. That experience was unforgettable, can't wait to get it in writing! Friday was pretty relaxed, I had classes and then worked the basketball game from 5 to 8, so it wasn't too bad. Watched Nightmare Before Christmas after, which is always good.

Now it's Saturday. I played a soccer game this morning at 9, we won 6-5. I'm disappointed they scored that many considering I was playing goalie, but we had a rough start defensively and then they got their stuff together. Made some pretty epic saves. Got a free shake at Sonic after. The guys on the team are way cool. Came home, went to a little activity thing with the girls from building 25 and guys from my building. Played Borderlands for a while. The Wyview party is in 20 minutes, so I'll be going to that too. Tomorrow I'm making chili=highlight of the weekend! I think that's enough ramblin' for now.

Ramblin' Man is done ramblin'.

Fun Friday

I finally got my French internship application sent out! Now I'm just waiting for my letters of recommendation to come back. Then I'll get an interview with the department head or someone, and then I'll fill out that application to the French consulats. The worst part will be waiting until March to hear back.

What else is new...I have an astronomy test to take today. Which means I need to study after my archaeology class, which means I'll be on campus for another 3 or 4 hours whicchhh I don't want to do. But then our ward 'campfire' activity will be later tonight, which should be pretty fun! Then I have to work the football game tomorrow, at 9:30 in the morning. Bah! I wanted to sleep in :( but that's ok. Ice cream party at Jen's after the game, hooray! And then I'll get to sleep in on Sunday. Which is nice.

I thought this post was from yesterday, that's how long of a day it's been. And it's only 12 38! I got out of class, went to the library for how long? An hour and a half, that's it. Finished my astronomy test an hour later. I got an 87, which I'm ok with. Some of the questions were loaded, which kindof sucks. But I'm learning to accept B's. After my test I came home and munched on a peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich with sliced bananas - SO good! Played guitar for like 2 hours outside, met some girls who live in the building across from me. Forgot their names, but I'm sure I'll see them again. Played some video games, then went to the ward activity in Canyon Glen. It was super fun. We roasted hot dogs, ate s'mores, played like 3 hours of kick the can, sharks and minnows, and missionary tag. Went home and watched Sandlot, which is always a good choice. Played Borderlands for a little, prayed, and here I am! Mom finally sent me that chili recipe, I'm pumped to try it. Halloween's chili has to be perfect for this fall to be complete. I'm excited for the ice cream party tomorrow, not for the game. So I should sleep. And that is all.

Ramblin' Man is ramblin' out.

Blood Donating Story

So I donated blood for what I think is the 5th time today, but it might've been my 4th. Anyway, I got on the chair, got stuck, pumped out a good pint of solid 17.4 hemoglobin (which apparently is super good for males according to the doc who checked me in, hooray iron!) blood, and then right as the guy was taking out my needle I started to feel my arm go numb.

The last time this happened I was in high school, I think my senior year. I felt my arm go numb, and then I felt all the blood in my body come up to my face, and then I passed out for like 2 seconds. When I came to I was surrounded by a couple other doctors and a few worried students who were unnerved by my green skin tone. I got extra snacks and was escorted to my next class, so all was good.

This time was almost exactly the same. Blood rushed up to my head and I passed out for about 2 seconds. This time, however, I remember having this really cool dream about something that I have no recollection of. When I came to there were 4 doctors standing around me saying my name, and I swear I had no idea where I was or why I was there. I thought I was in another dream. Then after like 15 to 20 seconds I slowly realized where I was and I was like ah, must've passed out again!

According to the girl at the refreshments table my legs started shaking and then non-donating arm shot up, which scared her a little. So I must've looked like a freak of some sorts. Anyway I had twice the snacks (Grandma's chocolate chip cookies, shortbread, nutter butter, a bottle of water, cranberry juice, orange juice that didn't taste good, and apple juice) as anyone else and then I walked back to my apartment.

I hope I can still donate plasma sometime, because it actually pays, but I don't know how that works. I hope whoever gets my blood knows what I did to get it to them. I hope someone gets it at all. I hope my vain doesn't start spewing blood when I play in this soccer game in an hour. Although that would make another sweet addition to this little tale. I guess we'll just have to see...

Ramblin' Man over and outta town

Waiting

This seems to be a time for waiting. Waiting to decide whether or not I want to do this summer job for 4 straight months working 40+ hours a week selling pest control, waiting to get an interview for this internship in France next fall, and waiting for my archaeology class to start. My prof just said we're watching a video about bogmen. As in guys who were preserved in bogs for thousands of years. This sounds promising.

About this summer job: it's almost too good to be true, but it sounds like it will be super intense if I do it. It's Monday through Saturday, 9-dark every day. But the thing is, I can make 5 times what I did last summer. The other thing is, that's my whole summer. Won't see my family who I haven't seen since I left for school and will only see again over Thanksgiving and Christmas, won't see any friends (who I rarely saw over the summer anyway) and yeah. That's about it. I would love to be able to pay off living next overseas next year, and pay off my debts from the last two years, and then have money so I don't have to work all next year. Even though I will anyway, except instead of using the money just for saving. Or spending on fancy things.

I REALLY want this internship. I freak out every time I think about it. There are old men in towels on the projector (still waiting for the bogmen movie to start-ah! here we are). Anyway, France. At least 7 months of immersion, but I could go more if I wanted to. This is all considering I get accepted into the program. It would take a couple months to get an answer because after I send in my application to the French consulats (there's two guys handling 15,000 applications for programs throughout the country) they need to accept me, and then send my information to the school I want to teach in. Basically it's a lot of communication that I have no control over, but I should send in my application soon. All I have to do is finish my letter of intent, then I start on the French consulate one! Woop woop! Ok bye. Archaeology midterm on Monday. Yuuuccckkkk.

Ramblin' Man out mang.

Horrible at Blogging

I'm horrible at blogging. I'm horrible at writing in my journal. I'm horrible at a lot of things. But I'm really bored and I have 15 minutes before my Flash class starts so I was on Twitter and I realized I haven't blogged in a long time. Since March. Anyway I guess I can start talking about this year! BYU is real cool. Lots of awesome people. I have accelerated Italian - 8 credits - French 321 (Advanced Grammar) - 3 credits - Anthropology 110 (intro to archaeology - 3 credits - Book of Mormon - 2 credits - and Physics 127 (intro to astronomy) - 3 credits - and then this free class that's 4 hours a week to learn Adobe Flash for fun. After this I'm meeting with some guy to talk about internships in France next fall. I would assist in teaching English 12 hours a week and get 1000 euros a month for it as long as I'm taking 9 credits or something. I would keep studying Italian I think, and obviously take more gen eds. Maybe I'll do some online class(es) over the summer? I guess I'll figure it out as I go. Getting a hair cut after this meeting. Turns out it wasn't until 3 30, soo I'm just sitting here blogging again. When I start babbling does mean it's time for me to be done? Probably. I guess that's why I'm the Ramblin' Man.

Out.

B WHAT? B-YU...?

Do people chant that at BYU sports events? I guess I'll find out when I go there next fall! I will be making the transition from wildcat to cougar over the summer. The very short summer, that is. I'll be getting out late and starting early, which actually really sucks the more I think about it. So anyway I'm a little overwhelmed with everything I have to do to get squared away i.e. doing housing stuff, meal plan, registration, financial aid, etc. I'm basically just really excited about it. It's definitely gonna be a huge change in culture and campus. And if I go there next year and it doesn't work out or whatever, then no big loss, I'll just come home and do whatever! Not too worried about it. I better start making blue and white hats...

Ramblin' Man out.

Arnold Schoenberg

This blog will be a letter to the late Arnold Schoenberg:

Dear Mr. Schoenberg,

It will be hard to convey my feelings toward you because if I say I hate your atonal music you will just have a big smiling party in your coffin, wherever you are buried. May God have mercy on your soul, by the way. And if I say I love your atonal music you will get all angsty and mad and plus it would be the BIGGEST LIE of my life.

I had to listen to your 4th quartet piece 6 times in a row (about an hour total) and I about threw myself out the window. It would've been unfortunate had I actually done that because I probably would've only broken an arm and a leg or something, thus adding to my misery. It took me about as long as I spent listening to you listening to really really good music just to get your piece out of my head. And by your piece I mean the 9 minutes of random notes thrown together into a seemingly endless assault on the listener's ears.

Anyway, I won't deny that your method of creating 12 tone "music" is genius, it's just too bad that the outcome is absolute trash. I can't believe you actually performed it in concert! What were you expecting at the end? Applause? Nay, you wanted people to hate it. I'm very confused about this. Let's just say I won't ever be listening to your atonal stuff again. Thanks for making me appreciate real music.

Sincerely,

Ramblin' Man

Finals/Rock Climbing/Videogames

So this is supposed to be finals week: long awaited, well feared, loved by none. Well, actually...I love it. First there's dead day, where no one has finals. Automatic three day weekend. Then there's kids like me who already took most of their finals the week before and are only sticking around for that odd-ball final that will probably only take 30 minutes tops on one of the days of this week. For me, there's two and they're on Wednesday and Thursday. So that gives me a four day weekend, plus a chance to extend my spring break-awesome. I know kids who are leaving today or on Wednesday, if they haven't left already because they finished all their finals the week before, giving them a two-week spring break. Basically it's just been ridiculously easy, annd I'm a little nervous to take on Provo. Who has yet to get back to me by the way. Gettin a little antsy.

I rock climbed today, which kindof sucks because now I won't be able to use my arms for the next couple of days, which REALLY sucks because one of those easy finals is tomorrow and I'll be writing for probably over 2 hours. It was really fun though, I almost made it to the top! That will be my goal for the end of the quarter, if I ever regain strength in my arms. I think every vain in them was trying to push through the skin by the time we left, thanks mom and dad!

I downloaded a Nintendo 64 emulator and played Super Mario 64 for a while, it was just as perfect as I remember. It's amazing how far videogames have progressed in the last 10 years. It was even more amazing when I played GoldenEye and saw the HUGE differences in graphics/gameplay/etc. from stuff like MW2 and Fallout 3.

Ramblin' Man out.

Latest Developments

Sooo it's been a little while since I posted last. I didn't even bother looking at my last blog. Anyway, I saw a blog posted on facebook and I realized I could write something new about my life right about now. Let's see some differences...probably the biggest one: I'm Mormon! Sometimes you just never know I guess. Next: I am now a intramural pickleball champion, thanks to my buddy Dan Burdsall. Also: I crochet hats. I've made over twenty-some and still going strong. I put them all on last night and it was quite hilarious. What else...I'm still waiting to hear back from BYU. I'm pretty confident I'll get back in, but we'll see. Like I said, you never know. If I do get in again, it'll be a struggle to pay for it. Also my class load will be huge. A.k.a 5 classes a semester-just to cover gen-eds. I'll probably be taking another French class, so that makes 6 classes a semester. At least. This year has been cake, I'm sure, compared to what I'll face next fall. I'm pretty stoked though. Caitlin says she has my year planned out, which makes things a little easier, especially if we end up in some of the same classes together :) Jacob says he's gonna try to get me a job bailing hay over the summer. Great way to make money, horrible way to try and enjoy the summer. He was always working last summer. Sometimes for like 30 hours. Not exactly how I had planned on spending my summer...but if that's what I gotta do thennn not much I can do about that. I have to get a job somewhere. Applied here at food services, haven't heard back yet. Did hear back from the talent contest, and I guess I made one of the 20 acts that will perform for $400. I think I have a pretty good shot playing "Drifting," although when I played it for my music class I kindof screwed up, which is why I'm gonna use Jordan's guitar. It was his birthday today, we went to roadhouse grill-fantastic artichoke and chicken melt. Got some yarn afterwards for him and Dan, soo I'm pretty loaded with hats to make. Gotta finish Till's and start Justin's. I also have to send out Emily's, Katy's, which I've been slacking on for a while now. This is why I'm the Ramblin Man. Time to get on those hats.

Ramblin' Man out.