Sunday, August 26, 2012

The End

Three years and 80 posts later I've decided to end this blog.

I started it my Junior year of college, talked about the life of being a college student in Logan and the adventures that went with it. I graduated and kept it going for a year talking about the major milestones of my life as a recent graduate and how being an Aggie made all of these things possible.

This last month Norwest, the company I work for, offered me my first full-time salaried position complete with health, dental, vision, 401k, and a myriad of other little benefits such as my first business cards! :) The incoming freshmen this year were born when I was in 3rd grade. My budget habits have changed so much as a result of the career college has allowed me to pursue. Last night I bought $7 orange juice. In college I couldn't afford $3 orange juice. When I meet new people now and we talk about college, it's always in the past tense. I bought a USU shirt last week. It has buttons and a collar. As much as I'm definitely still an Aggie, it's time for the college-years blog to end.

This weekend I was able to drive through Logan twice on a trip with my YSA ward to Bear Lake. The first time through I saw all the freshmen wearing their new gameday shirts they got at SOAR. It's funny. They have no idea that they've already made the best decision of their lives. At Bear Lake there was a whole army of Aggies from my Salt Lake YSA ward. I guess the proximity to Logan makes us all bring our USU gear because I felt like a third of us were wearing it. On the way back I drove through downtown Logan and had a silly grin on my face missing all the fun times I had in the town and really wishing I could have stopped to eat at the Bluebird.

I really don't think people realize it when they enroll there, but more than signing up for a world class education. You're signing up for an exclusive club. The rest of your life any time you see someone wearing a Utah State shirt or hat, you just made a new friend. On the way back I was talking about this with the girl I was sitting next to. She is a U of U alumni. She told me that whenever she saw large groups of Aggies together that she was jealous of how it really does appear to be a club.

I think it's something that every other school in the state and most schools in the entire nation are missing. Most people go to school for an education and at most of them that's just what you get. At Utah State it was only about a third of what I received. I got a life experience and I got lifetime membership to this exclusive alumni group that know about the incredible life experience I had, because we all shared it. And because you really can't have the experience anywhere or any time else besides Logan Utah, when you're in your late-teens/early-twenties.

The life experience really changed my life. I was a pretty unhappy person without much direction in life. I just knew I needed to get that degree so I could get a job and make money or something. Why? Because that's what people do. So I did that.

At the school I met my best friends and I always felt like I belonged. Even when I would quit dating someone or lose a friend or group of friends or when a friend of mine would get married and forget I existed, it really didn't matter because there was always thousands of other people looking to make a new friend. I met and developed more close relationships with complete strangers than I will at any other point in my life.

Sure there were crappy days and moments, but that's life. There always are. Overall it was amazing. I was always engaged in learning, experiencing new things and meeting new people. When I graduated I felt like a completely different person. Some things I could never do before then was work a 12+ hour shift, have conversations with complete strangers or put effort into something that I didn't experience an immediate reward from. I do all of those fairly easily now.

If for some reason you're a potential Aggie or know someone who is, don't think twice about it. You may think the U of U or BYU is where it's at because they're the bigger schools and they have more alumni base in Salt Lake and Provo, but you're so wrong. I'm biased, sure, but I know enough Utes and Cougars to say that from my most objective point of view. You just don't experience the same things at those schools as you do in Logan. Sure, maybe in Utah you get to see an incredible football team and in Provo you get to say a prayer before you start class, but the experience of leaving the city, living on your own with complete strangers, all of which are doing the same thing you're doing, sledding down Old Main hill, becoming a True Aggie, doing the Scotsman, wearing shorts because it warmed up to 30 degrees and you can see the sky today, eating Aggie-Blue Mint ice cream, seeing the A light up blue, finding free meals 4 nights a week, and well, and doing the winning team, losing team chant for the first time. You just don't get that anywhere else.

I got hired by my current employer because of being an Aggie.
I met nearly all of my best friends because of being an Aggie.
I infinitely improved my social skills while being an Aggie.
I gained a well rounded education while being an Aggie.
I discovered a love of college athletics from being an Aggie.

Most importantly, for the first time in my life, while I was an Aggie I always felt like I belonged. Even now I sometimes miss college because of that, but I think the Homecoming motto this year says it best:

"Once an Aggie, always an Aggie."

The End!

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Business Reply Mail

Today I came to see my mother in Layton. She had a bunch of mail waiting for me. I was very excited for it, only to find that it was mostly unsolicited junk mail. However I decided to make the best of it and open it anyway.

First I had my acceptance letter from Stevens-Henneger College which is one of the most prestigious institutions of higher education in the local suburban office complex. I can barely express my excitement of having been accepted to a school I never applied to.

Next I had not one, but two advertisements from the Aviation Service Academy in Woods Cross. They must really understand my potential as a commercial airline pilot if they sent me two!

Wow, and they even have jobs waiting for me at $18 an hour? How could I possible say no?! I'd only be spending $40,000 for the programs and then taking a ginormous pay cut after graduation. What a deal!

Unfortunately I can only choose one, and since Stevens-Hennegar College sent me a business reply envelope which allows me to send the mail to them should I be sending it from the United States (which I am!) I chose them.

It sure would be a shame if I put the wrong paper in the envelope!

Here's my first step towards a bright new future.

My Greek ancestors would be so proud!

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Dinosaur Cursors for Windows 7!

Remember the dinosaur icons for Windows 95/98/XP/Vista? Well, you can have 'em on 7!

1. Download this file and move them to -> C:\Windows\Cursors

Zipped Dinosaur Icons
It is safe, I use it.

2. Go to Start -> type "Mouse."
3. Click the "mouse" icon under control panel and then go to Pointers tab in the window that pops up
4. Change each pointer as needed
(do this by clicking browse and selecting which cursor you want for which item - you should use the yellow dinosaur for "working in background" and the blue one for "busy")
5. Save the scheme (Save As button)
6. Hit Apply or Okay
7. Done. The chubby blue and yellow dinosaurs are back!

Click Here! To follow me on Twitter!
I probably post way too much about dinosaurs.. and geology..

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

The Utah Accent

So I've been doing a bit of thinking about this one layly (yes, that was on purpose). I've been in Utah nearly my whole life so I have a hard time determining a Utahan accent, but it definitely exists because I know I can go in and out of my native vernacular at will, therefore there are certain rules I am changing when I am not around the locals.

1. Oh my heck, that's too frickin stupid.
Yeah, we all do that one. I like to claim I'm not offended by profanity, but in reality I'd much rather use replacement words. Although anyone in the 49 other states would disagree with this, I feel like it sounds more proper and classy to use silly replacements. Effin' A.

2. Sallake Ciey
We hate the T. (Really, as you just read that you made a soft stop over the T sound and it sounded more like "heigh" in your head that "hate") If it isn't at the start of a word we're not going to use it. Taco? Tortilla? Tostada? (Apparently I have Chipol-eh on the mind right now.) Yeah, we'll hit those T's. Kihen? Brekfuss? Wadur? No way I'm ever going to pronounce those T's without thinking about it. I love Sallake, it's by the moununs and just south of where I grew up in Bouniful.

3. Famlee home evening
Does the word have a pesky redundant vowel in it? Well then, no need to say it if there's another one at the end. It's not like I need to see my reflection twice when I look in a mirr or do my labratory experiment over and over if I keep getting the same results. Oh look, my friend Stephnee just instant messaged me.

4. Pitcher
Hurry up and take one, I can't hold this pose forever. I used to not do this, but over the last few years I defintely have abandoned saying picture with those middle letters. Cameras take pitchers. This is why I use the word photo.

5. It's getting late, where's my pellow?
I do enjoy a nice glass of melk before I got bed. If someone asks me about this I instantly abandon the I=E thing and go for the a glass of milk and fluff my pillow, but if I'm not thinking about it, I'm as bad as anyone else.

6. The adversary.
I don't even think Mormons in Col-rado or Nev-a use this term. Luckily we have heavenly father to help us avoid this adversary (God and Satan for those of us not from Zion.)

7. Or eltse
Okay, so you know all those T's we get rid of? This is where they turn up. Brother Neltson from one of the wards eltsewhere in the stake was telling me about this just the other day (back in 2008.)


8. Eh... a pretty great state
This was a failed ad campaign Utah ran for a short period. Utah: a pretty, great state! Sounds like somewhere I'd want to visit! Sadly they forgot the comma. As you can imagine it was abandoned very quickly when this was pointed out.


9. Hey Brother
This obveesly stems from the pioneers and their seddling of our preddy gray state. Everyone was viewed as brothers and sisters and in their wards and still are. Heavenly Father would want it this way. Nachurrly (naturally) whenever you're around people you see in church settings eltsewhere, they still view you as Brother Alger.

10. and = n
To use my previous example, when was the last time you heard someone at church start their talk with "Brother and sisters..." NEVER! They say "Brothers n sisters" They have to say it that way or eltse it's going to rain cats n dogs. N I'm not making this up.

Have a gray friggin nigh brothers n sisters. Pray to your he'v'nly father that the adversary doesn' trouble you before you fall asleep on that pellow of yours and dream you're somewhere eltse.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Earth Day 2012

This blog is broken, I don't particularly care to fix it, sorry! A small collection of photos I've taken of the amazing rock that we live on.


Sevier Lake, Utah


Hidden Arch, Utah


Crescent City, California


Mt. Timpanogos, Utah


Grand Tetons, Wyoming


Lassen National Forest, California


Goblin Valley, Utah


Jenny Lake, Wyoming


Crater Lake, Oregon


Klamath River, Oregon


Great Basin & Notch Peak, Utah


Unnamed Glacial-cut Valley, Idaho


Mt. Shasta, California


Delicate Arch, Utah


Mt. McLaughlin, Oregon


Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah


San Andreas Fault, California


Balanced Rock, Utah


Wellsville Mountains, Utah


Mojave Desert, Nevada


Redwood Forest, California

Yeah, we live here. How amazing is that?
Happy Earth Day everyone.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

I did it!

Sevier Lake field project? Complete.

27 of the last 31 days of my life were spent out at Sevier Lake, but that's not where it began. I'm going to tell you all about my first real geologic field experience, beginning in August, and you're more than welcome to read :)

It started on August 1st. I went out to Sevier Lake with my project manager, Larry, and met the field supervisor, Alex. Through all of August I was at Sevier Lake. In fact I spent 18 days of the month there, worked roughly 200 hours, and in an indirect way set up my new boy/girl-type relationship for failure. I spent all of this time training with the field supervisor on both the direct push and mini-sonic rigs that the client had out there. We rode 40 year old snowcats around the dry lake bed at around 4 mph. They were constantly breaking down. One day we had to walk two miles back to shore through mud.

Late september and all of October the job went on hiatus while I worked in the office and the client got permitting taken care of for the federal land leases.

November began with more Sevier Lake field work. I went out there and met up with Alex and a civil engineer from Denver, Orion. At this point the client had invested some money in ATVs to use on the lake bed for faster transportation. There were three drill rigs. I was put in charge of the Direct Push 1 rig. It was a track mounted Geoprobe and we drilled 45 holes. I logged and photographed each one. This lasted for two and a half shifts, or about 25 days. Approximately 300 hours were spent working at Sevier Lake during this time. We finished all the drilling on the dry parts of the lake bed and had to take a break while the client figured out how drilling on the parts of the lake bed covered in water would play out.

It was late December when the client got things squared away. There would once again be three drill rigs. A direct push, mounted on an airboat. A mini-sonic mounted on a tracked cargo buggy and a truck mounted full size sonic. The mini-sonic would be mine. Alex had left for another project at this time, so Norwest brought in a new guy to be the field supervisor. I forget his name, and he isn't important because he quit 10 days later. This left just Orion and I. During the remainder of the time the deep-sonic rig was active I was out there while the mini-sonic rig was having mechanical issues the whole time.

January came around and Orion was replaced by an interesting older geologist named Jon. Jon's truck broke and him and I commuted to and from the site together for most of the shift before Enterprise finally replaced it with a working one. The mini-sonic rig broke off and on throughout the whole month and continued doing so into February. This translated into a lot of down time for me. During this time I worked another 200 hours at Sevier Lake. The direct push program wrapped up and this left me as the only Norwest employee at Sevier Lake and it unofficially became "my project" according to my project manager.

During late February the program was changed to drill clusters of wells to test for transmissivity, or how well the water moves through the sediments. I would go for a day or two, log a well, and go back to my office duties. This lasted into mid March and I was fine with this. I worked at Sevier Lake for roughly 75 hours during this phase.

During mid-March it was decided that not enough sonic wells were being put in at far enough intervals to accurately define the base of the resource. This meant 9 more sonic wells were added and this is when I spent 27 of 31 days at Sevier Lake, almost to the point where Delta became home. During this time I spent roughly 350 hours out there. I became good friends with the two Boart-Longyear drillers, Dairus and Ty. We sort of began to resent the marine "specialists" whose sole purpose on the job was to supply us with well construction supplies, which they never did in an efficient manner and left us with countless downtime sitting around chatting while they took their sweet time.

In all, not counting office support hours, I spent 925 hours on or around Sevier Lake. That's roughly 23 normal work weeks spent there. After my first day I was afraid I wouldn't be able to even finish one. I feel quite proud of myself for this. I've really shown myself that I can do some pretty hard stuff when I try... and... when you offer me enough money to do so...

Don't believe it was hard?

Temperatures during the time I was at Sevier Lake ranged from -6 degrees to 103 degrees. The average January high was 24. The average August high was 92. With no mountains around to stop them, winds consistently blow at 20 mph, easily gusting upwards of 50. During the summer the monsoon caused frequent thunderstorms over the Sevier Lake. This is a 30x10 mile flat lake bed where the tallest thing as far as I could see was the drill rig. After that was our mechanic and after that was me.

When we were drilling on the water the airboat I had to ride on was one of the most terrifying things I've been on in my life. It was a boat, with an airplane propeller attached to a 350cc V8 engine that consistently ran at 4000 RPM's and speeds over 40 mph across water that was sometimes no more than 2 inches deep and usually well below freezing; the high salt content allowed for the 20 degree water to stay liquid. The boat had broken welds and it was normal to jump in the boat and hear *splash* The barge that I spent most of 2012 on had no shelter, no bathroom and no way to the shores, which were usually 5+ miles away, other than the airboats. During extremely bad weather, when the airboats wouldn't run we had to ride in on a tracked machine called a Marsh Master which had a top speed of about 5 mph.

Delta, the forsaken town I was staying in, was anywhere from a 50-70 mile drive from our various staging points. This caused for a long commute on top of a 10-12 hour work day. I was paid for the commute, but still, when you work 14 hours in one day and have to go home and do paperwork, life is not happy. Delta had nine restaurants when I first began working there. Three were Mexican and two were pizza. Three of them closed during the eight month span. I had no kitchen, just a microwave and a refrigerator. Lunch was a sandwich, cookies/crackers, chips and an orange, every day. Milford, the town I stayed in from Late August-January, had three restaurants. One made me sick each time I ate there.

Know what though? I did it. I made a shit-ton of money doing it and even more importantly gained invaluable experience. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Now comes the fun part. Taking 8 months of data and making a report out of it. I bet you envy my life so much right now :)

Also of note:

Vehicles I drove during the project:
Ford F150, Dodge Durango, two Chevy Silverados, multiple Dodge Rams, Toyota Rav4, Jeep Liberty, Ford Escape, an 8x8 Argo, a snowcat and multiple 6wd Rangers.
Towns visited that I'd never been to before:
Delta, Milford, Minersville, Hinckley, Eureka, Leemington, Lyndyll, Fillmore.
Weird food I ate:
Alligator, lamb, jambalaya
Total number of holes logged by me:
74
Approximate number of photos taken by me:
3,800

Saturday, March 31, 2012

The Benefits of a College Diploma

So recently I've noticed the benefits of having a college diploma. They are rather significant actually. I would have never expected this when I was younger. College may seem hard, but in the end you finish because you are lazy.

Let me paint a picture of the group I work with when I'm on field assignment at Sevier Lake. There are a whole bunch of field hands. One is an older master mechanic, another mechanic in his 30's, an airboat driver/generic helper and four people from an aquatic diving center that are contracted to be here that range from 30 to 70 years old. Then there is a neurotic barge driver from Louisiana, a driller, the driller's helper and myself. With the exception of the air boat driver and a couple of the aquatic laborers, each one of them has considerably more experience and knowledge with their respective chosen career than I do. Each one of them is older than I am. There are occasionally others out here. Other geologists who sample the water, a technician who helps me sample the mud, the project manager visits occasionally.

I'm 26, I look like I'm 21, I have 8 months of experience which makes me relatively new, I have no idea how to run a drill rig, a barge or an airboat. Yet what makes me special is that I have a piece of paper that says "You went to school for 4 years longer than everyone else here." That paper means people trust your judgment more than they would otherwise. If you ask me, that's pretty damn cool. If you ask them, that's pretty damn annoying. However, they had every opportunity to go to college that I had. Most of them do have vocational training of some sort. Yet training isn't the same as taking random useless classes that you'll never need along with a handful of classes that you will use daily and keeping at that for four years. In the end that means my trusted judgment allows me to make decisions on when we have situations that must be taken care of before we can continue or when we have to stop altogether.

Another benefit? The pay. I'm not really one to flaunt what I make. In my office I would bet that I'm one of the lower paid people, but they're all college graduates too and most of them have more experience than me. However with the field crew I've been working with, I've overheard conversations between people working out here about money. Despite having significantly more experience, none of them make what I do (well the other geologists and project manager probably do, if not more, but they also have degrees). In fact some of them don't even make half of what I make despite working longer hours. I almost always get there last and go home first.

The final benefit, the work. My job, in the field, isn't too difficult. I grab samples and take smaller representative samples of the bulk sample for analysis. After that I write down geologic observations based on the scope of the project and take photographs. I communicate with my supervisor on occasion what I did the last few days and make sure everyone stays on task. Now could anyone do this? Probably not, but anyone with a geology degree from a good university certainly could. The point is that for me, it's easy. Everyone else spends most of the day lifting heavy stuff, moving heavy stuff, driving and operating heavy equipment and going down into the lake to fix, fetch or find things. I don't have to do any of that stuff and if I did I would likely have quit months ago as I am not capable, nor do I have any desire do those things. Occasionally I will help lift stuff that need to be moved, so I don't look lazy and because I really do like to help, but that's not my function out here. My function is to take samples, notes and photos.

Like I said earlier, going to college may seem like hard work, but in the end you graduate college because you're lazy and you want to fully take advantage of opportunities to exemplify your laziness. You probably don't feel lazy while you are staying the night in the geology building because you fell asleep working on a project or when you are sneaking out of your bed, at 3am, while you have a beautiful woman asleep in it, because you have an assignment that you have to finish before the next morning but that doesn't mean you aren't.

In the end you get a diploma. Then you get to be the one who doesn't have to struggle to find jobs, or work 2+ jobs just to pay your bills. You get to sit back and take notes and samples while everyone else does the more monotonous (and harder, in my opinion) work. You get to make the decisions on when you shut down work because of protocol. You don't get those benefits because you are more experienced and have more knowledge. No, you get them because you cheated, you took a shortcut and sat through 4-6 years of classes. Best choice ever.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Jazz Game

My office has 4 season tickets to Jazz games. For most of the home games a drawing is held to see what two employees win a pair of the tickets for the night. I had been signing up for the drawing every game that I was home for. This was probably the 5th-ish time I had signed up for it, but this time I was determined to win as the Jazz were playing a team that I would argue is the best team in the NBA and has a legitimate shot at winning the title, the Oklahoma City Thunder.

After sending my email expressing interest I got a phone call about an hour later (I had the day off, so I wasn't in the office) telling me I had won and that I could come pick them up whenever. I was out the door in about 2 minutes and headed to go get my tickets. A girl I have been going on dates here and there with lately, Amanda, is a basketball fan so on my way to the office I called her to see if she'd want to come with me. She was more than happy to do so.

I picked her up at around 7:30 and we headed to Radium Stadium for the game. The place is actually named after a company that buries hazardous waste in the west desert, but I prefer "Radium Stadium" over "Energy Solutions Arena." We went in and got our seats. This was the first time I had been to a Jazz game in over 10 years. We had decent seats. They were in the upper deck, but they were row 2 of the upper deck. The tickets said they were $62 a piece. There is no way in hell they should have been $62 seats. I would pay maybe $20 for a seat there, haha. NBA games are ridiculously priced.

The intro to the game was great. They shut the lights off and introduce the starting lineup with a cool laser show and everyone was excited to see the Jazz. It was strange not turning my back when they introduced the Thunder though. There were even a significant number of people who cheered for Durant (the OKC star), that was quite strange to me. At tip off it was loud..ish, but as soon as the ball was tipped the arena went silent, despite the fact that OKC had the ball. This was very odd to me. It remained silent for the entire rest of the game. The only time any noise was made was when the Thunder were shooting free throws and when the Bear was doing something silly. I'm serious, more people would cheer for the mascot or for crazy halftime show antics than would cheer for fast break dunks by the team they were there to support. NBA spectating sucks. "Oh the Jazz, they're all right, but that silly Jazz Bear, now he's the real how!!" Fail. However it seems the Jazz are aware of this and because of it they have added another Jazz bear. Yes, there is a Bear and a Half Bear who is apparently a dwarf in a bear mascot suit.

The guy who had the other set of tickets that sat next to me was pretty cool. We talked a bit about basketball and how good the Thunder were. Amanda was interesting, she spent the majority of the game complaining about how the NBA was rigged and that's why the Jazz were losing. Amanda and I also discussed at length about how foreign of a place this was compared to the college venue we were used to watching sports in, which granted is arguably the loudest venue in all of college sports, but still.

In the end the Jazz gave a good game for 3 quarters, gave up in the 4th and ended up losing by about 10. The game was fun, certainly more fast paced, but not as technical as college basketball. The shooting was pretty bad, the defense was just too good on anything that wasn't a fast break, which is where most of the points came. There were about 4 alley oop dunks on each end of the ball which was impressive to me, but I guess when the "short" guy on the team is 6'4 that is to be expected.

I liked my Jazz game. It was a lot of fun, however I would never spend $62 on one moderately decent ticket and if I was going to spend $20 on a ticket, I'd much rather just go to a college game or a soccer game.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

2011 Summary

Sigh, 2011. What a long year. I feel like the beginning of 2011 was two years ago. I don't even remember what the hell I did in January.

January - I remember it was an exceptionally snowy year. I remember walking to my guitar class in the mornings being absolutely freezing and not being able to feel my hand that I carried my guitar with by the time I got there, despite wearing gloves. I learned to play guitar that last semester of school. I took only needed 3 classes to graduate, but I threw in guitar for fun (and because a cute girl was taking it) and a weekend camping course so I could bump things up to 12 credits.

February - was a rather depressing month. I spent most of my February on campus researching some potential oil play in the Barrent's Sea. In my free time I played a lot of video games alone in my room. I was ready to graduate. I went to my last Aggie basketball game as a student in February. They played 5 more games after that, but the last one in Logan was late February. For Valentine's Day I recall sitting around the kitchen table with Ryan talking about how screwed up our dating lives, or lack there-of, were. Trisha had recently written me a letter saying "I hate you because I think you're hot and I want you every time we hang out." That's not actually what it said, but when summarized into one sentence that's about it. February was a rather poor month.

March - was much the same as February. Still bitter cold, still just concentrated way too much on my classes and basically had given up on bothering meeting anyone new since I knew I was leaving Logan in just over a month. I found out that SOU accepted me for their field camp. That was cool. I met Alyssa towards the end of March. I want to say it may have even been St. Patricks Day, because I recall I'd had two mixed drinks and that's why I was being sociable and wanted to go hot tubbing. I don't think she ever knew I was tipsy when we met, haha.

April - was a little better because I could see the light at the end of the long long tunnel of college. My relative, who is a mining engineer, called me one night while I was at Alyssa's and started asking me what I wanted to do career wise. We talked about it for a while and then he asked me to send him my resume. I did. Afterward Alyssa told me all about the house we were going to buy, the kids we were going to have, the life that was in our future... it kinda freaked me out... It reminded me of that part in Wedding Crashers where Vince Vaughn sleeps with that crazy virgin and then that happens to him. Yeahhh, that was her. I registered for graduation, bought a cap and gown. It was happy. My friends and I all had a celebration dinner at Cafe Sabor for the end of the year, about 20 people came. My roommates gave a toast to me being someone they looked up to and a cool roommate. That night was truly one of the high points of my life. Also of note, I was sick for the entire month of April.

May - I graduated. I didn't get my diploma because I still had one more class, but it was a nice ceremony. Some guy that I'll never remember the name of gave a commencement speech about not letting what you learned in college go to waste. It was a good speech. My school hosted the regional GSA meeting and I volunteered at it. I spent the week at Alyssa's apartment. None of her roommates had moved in yet, so we had the place to ourselves. I was basically using it as a test drive for what our "future" would be like. Honestly I think I spent more time worrying if she was pregnant than trying to see if I could tolerate living with her. Regardless, it was a long week. I was more than happy to get out of there when Friday rolled around. She wasn't pregnant, freaking drama queen... "Oh no, I'm going to get up at random times in the mornings and go vomit and then complain about cramps all day... btw, wanna do it like 5 times today?!?" There really is a huge difference between 25 year olds and 18 year olds. As May came to an end she made airline reservations to come visit me in Oregon.

June - she cancelled those reservations, haha. We broke up. I spent the two weeks before going to Oregon being inside as much as I could since I knew it wouldn't happen much in the future. A guy from the company my cousin worked at called me and asked if I would have time to come in for an interview. I scheduled it 4 days before I left for Oregon. I had to go buy a shirt for it, but the interview went very well. I think I impressed them at least a little. The day I left for Oregon was actually a night. I went and had burgers with my friends before heading out for the long drive. I drove through the night and made it there the next morning then slept most of the day, got yogurt with my e-friend from Ashland and met some geology students that night at dinner. The one ended up being my favorite friend from there. Really nice girl. The rest of the month from the 20th onward consisted of field work.

July - consisted of a lot more waking up in the mornings, throwing on some junky clothes, hopping in an 11 passenger van and driving to random places to do mapping, stream gauging or sitting around chatting with friends about geologies. We'd get home around 5, dump our junk in our rooms, go eat, meet again to work on our maps and then fall asleep, hopefully before midnight so we could wake up and do it all again. It was strange. I made some of the best friends I have ever had on that trip, but will likely never see any of them again. Almost sad, but that's life. I also got an email from the place I interviewed with saying they were offering me a temporary position and stating the temporarily awesome rate that I would be paid. I celebrated by taking a break from a report I was finishing up, calling my family and letting them know. I left Oregon in late July and came back to Utah.

August - 1st was my first actual day of work. I was really broke and really ready to go work. I met my boss, Larry, who drove out to Sevier Lake where we met the field supervisor, Alex. I learned how to "log core" (take notes and pictures of what gets pulled out of the ground by the drills) and how to really miss field work in Oregon where instead of being 100 degrees, it typically maxed out around 80. I spent the majority of August in Millard and Beaver Counties working. I traded in my 2003 Tiburon on my 2010 WRX. I would have kept the Tiburon longer, but when I realized how much I needed fixed to pass registration, I figured 7 years was long enough to own the vehicle. I believe I also started dating Kelley at some point in this month. My time reference on that is pretty hazy.

September - came and went much like August. I wasn't doing field work so I spent a lot more time with the girly I was dating. She also asked me what kind of house I wanted to live in with her. At this point, having a real job and being done with school, it was at least feasible, but I was still not into things enough to justify it with an answer. She broke up with me a few days later. I made a quick trip to Vernal and did some field works there for a few days before driving home in a cargo van full of rocks.

October - came along with a quarter life crisis. The newness of my job which I loved so much suddenly wore off. I realized that I was 25, making more money than most 55 year olds, and still living at home. I began to become more socially awkward than usual since it had really been about 4 months since I had hung out with non-geology people. For Halloween I went to a party in Provo with Katie. It was nice to get out. We saw Paranormal Activity 3. I got carded twice. After leaving her apartment I went to In N Out burger where I ordered, went to my car, and sat for about two hours thinking of all the things in my life I regretted. I spent the majority of October doing office work at my job, which mostly consists of creating geologic models of potential mines.

November - was better. Nothing much changed, but my outlook on life became less crappy. I really have nothing to say about November. It was too dull and too recent. I did a bunch more office work, I feel like I'm almost getting a grasp on the programs they've been teaching me and am getting to the point where I can do a lot of stuff on my own even. Thanksgiving was nice. I went to my Grandpa's house where we had it with family.

December - This month hasn't really been my favorite. Honestly not much has changed from October to December in life. I got a Christmas bonus at my job which has kept me well beyond the temporary dates on my original contract. First bonus I ever got and it was really nice too. I went on a date with some girl, who has apparently also been out with two of my old roommates this month too. Oh well, random meaningless hookups ftw.. I guess.. (Not really, if it were up to me I'd never have a meaningless one again.) Christmas was nice. My grandpa came over for Christmas Eve and I went with him to his girlfriends house for Christmas. Yes, my grandpa is awesome like that. A few nights later I ran into Shelley. I dislike her much. Tonight I ran into Amber. I dislike her much. This, along with my meaningless hookup, has made me come to the conclusion that :

My resolution for this year is going to be to not have random meaningless relationships or sex. It just isn't worth it, at all.
Best month of the year: July
Worst month of the year: February
Happiest moment: A random September afternoon when I received my diploma in the mail. I waited until no one was around before opening it. It was just a paper signifying something I'd already achieved and had already been using, but having a tangible thing showing that my last 4 years were worth something really made me happy beyond words.
Crappiest moment: Pretty much the entire month of February. Specifically probably any night I spent alone or with a couple people in the geology building until midnight putting together a presentation before walking home in the sub-freezing weather and falling asleep in my clothes because I didn't care enough to change.
Biggest regret of the year: Never asking Caytie out because I was afraid I wasn't religious enough for her tastes.
Most unexpected event of the year: The email I had stating I'd been offered a job that was way beyond anything I'd expected.
Best movie of the year: Cowboys and Aliens
Best song of the year: Egypt Central - White Rabbit
Best make-out of the year: I really should take this off here since I've not answered it in 3 years now, but this year certainly had more variety than the prior two ;)
Best new t-shirt of the year: Mario Kart Turtles, no question.