So everyone seems to bandwagoning either the gays or the Mormons again. A president in the church made a remark about how homosexuality is unnatural, but God still loves you and will accept your repentance and the gay community took offense and decided to demand an apology out of the man.
Here's what I don't get. Why do they care? He didn't say anything mean to the gays. He simply stated his religions viewpoint on homosexuality. Is that not one of the rights of the country? To be allowed to have a religion that has points of view which may be different from another person's? I mean c'mon. I'm not even conservative and I support gays being allowed to be with other gays. I still think they're stupid for getting mad at this. It's almost like they're trying to find reasons to take offense, thinking that if they act like a pathetic little victim they will garner respect. Wrong, you lost my respect. I understand you were pissed when the LDS church gave money to a campaign against prop 8. Understandable. This is a tax free organization and as so should not be allowed to influence campaign funds with their money. If they want to tell their homosexual members that there is hope for them I see no problem with this though. I read that 1/11 people are either homosexual or bisexual. Of the 12 or 13 or... I lost track... ex girlfriends I have, three were admittedly bisexual (though usually in the closet about it.) All 3 of them were Mormon and went to church. Considering there are 13 million Mormons in the world I think this talk was probably nice to quite a few people who have this concern. Dear super-sensitive gays, Quit being so sensitive, no one is going to take you seriously until you quit acting like fags. Yes, there is a difference between bi/homosexuals and fags.
On the flip side of this, I don't like that President Packer compared heterosexuality to gravity. This is a stupid analogy. Gravity is defined as [6.67*10^-11(m1)(m2)]/r^2 . Now please, tell me, what is the mathematical equation for heterosexuality, because I have some friends that I would greatly enjoy testing this on. Fail. This is a terrible analogy whether you're scientific minded or not. Gravity simply exists, you can not deny it. Can you fly against it? Sure, but gravity is still acting on you. Orbit? Gravity is still acting on you, without gravity you could not orbit. Homosexuality is not something which is definable like this. Some people simply feel gay. That's cool. They're allowed to and they're allowed to choose whether to act on their gay tendencies or not. I know for certain that one of my best friends from high school is bi, he's married to a woman and has never done anything homosexual. He made this choice, some people don't. No one has a choice whether or not they accept their gravitational attraction or not. Heterosexuality is not a "natural law," it just happens to be what is the most functional and makes the most sense.
So I guess in conclusion, while the church official made a poor comparison, he's right. The LDS church does not accept homosexuality as right, but accepts homosexuals and even allows them church positions if they overcome their gay tendencies. He should have worded things differently and not gone into the whole "it's unnatural" thing. My Molly Mormon friends will have a hard time agreeing with me on that point because they don't understand that church officials are mortal and sometimes don't word things correctly, but really? If this is going to set off the gay community, then they need to not ever repent and go to hell.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Binary
This made me laugh and I wanted to share:
Katie XXXXX 101010 = 42. Yet I still don't feel like I really know the answer to life, the universe and everything...
Nicole XXXXX wtf does that mean? how is 101010= 42
18 minutes ago · Like
Brandon Alger There are 10 types of people in this world. Those who understand binary and those who do not.
15 minutes ago · Like · 1 person
Nicole XXXXX k thats 2 types not 10.
10 minutes ago · Like
Brandon Alger and you are clearly the latter type :-D
9 minutes ago · Like
Nicole XXXXX yeah i have a life
9 minutes ago · Like
Brandon Alger I fail to see the high correlation coefficient between life and knowledge of binary, but that's awesome! Congratulations :)
I love stupid people. They make me feel so much better about myself. Though she did make a valid implication. I have little social life this weekend. (Though to be perfectly honest I probably have more friends than this person despite my knowledge of binary.) You see, this isn't a normal circumstance for me, but this weekend has blown ass. Saturday was all right, but I've spent Friday and Sunday nights home alone... well James is here, but I'm in my room alone at 9:30. I feel kind of unwanted or something. Not unwanted, because that's not true. People like being around me, just like everyone has people they'd rather be around. The girl I was into the last month for example said she'd come play or watch a movie after she went to ward prayer, she then sort of bailed without notice on me. My other roommates are all with people that apparently more exciting to be around than I am. My other old crush started dating her ex-boyfriend. Good choice there, take my advice - it's stupid. Don't ever date the ex. You're ex's for a reason, the same reason will break you up again. Speaking of ex's. I hung out with my ex's ex best friend last night. Cool girl. She was telling me that when my ex made out with my old friend like a day after we broke up she only acted regretful to appease me since I was pissed at her. Kind of hurt me a little, even though it shouldn't being that it really doesn't matter anymore. She's a person of crap character though. I could go on, but since she may or may not read this (likely not by this point, but just in case) I won't. I'm only a person of sometimes crap character. I play nice usually. Okay sorry, huge tangent. The point is I'm feeling down. It's annoying. Especially since it's not even winter yet. Winter is depressing season. Fall is supposed to be happy! Even though everything is dying... but I don't mean like that... I'm not one of them morbid kids that's like yes, death = happiness. Death is sad, I miss Snowball.
Snowball was awesome. She'd be 16 now if she were still alive. She could do various tricks such as sit, shake, walk on two toes, dance, play amazing catch with a frisbee, eat flies and sing along with a harmonica. She was so playful but even more than playful - she was hungry. You could not leave food out with any conceivable way for Snowball to get to it, because she'd get it. Sometimes I'd just be confused as to where something went and then I'd find a sleeping Snowball along with some crumbs. You're not obvious now are you? End.
Katie XXXXX 101010 = 42. Yet I still don't feel like I really know the answer to life, the universe and everything...
Nicole XXXXX wtf does that mean? how is 101010= 42
18 minutes ago · Like
Brandon Alger There are 10 types of people in this world. Those who understand binary and those who do not.
15 minutes ago · Like · 1 person
Nicole XXXXX k thats 2 types not 10.
10 minutes ago · Like
Brandon Alger and you are clearly the latter type :-D
9 minutes ago · Like
Nicole XXXXX yeah i have a life
9 minutes ago · Like
Brandon Alger I fail to see the high correlation coefficient between life and knowledge of binary, but that's awesome! Congratulations :)
I love stupid people. They make me feel so much better about myself. Though she did make a valid implication. I have little social life this weekend. (Though to be perfectly honest I probably have more friends than this person despite my knowledge of binary.) You see, this isn't a normal circumstance for me, but this weekend has blown ass. Saturday was all right, but I've spent Friday and Sunday nights home alone... well James is here, but I'm in my room alone at 9:30. I feel kind of unwanted or something. Not unwanted, because that's not true. People like being around me, just like everyone has people they'd rather be around. The girl I was into the last month for example said she'd come play or watch a movie after she went to ward prayer, she then sort of bailed without notice on me. My other roommates are all with people that apparently more exciting to be around than I am. My other old crush started dating her ex-boyfriend. Good choice there, take my advice - it's stupid. Don't ever date the ex. You're ex's for a reason, the same reason will break you up again. Speaking of ex's. I hung out with my ex's ex best friend last night. Cool girl. She was telling me that when my ex made out with my old friend like a day after we broke up she only acted regretful to appease me since I was pissed at her. Kind of hurt me a little, even though it shouldn't being that it really doesn't matter anymore. She's a person of crap character though. I could go on, but since she may or may not read this (likely not by this point, but just in case) I won't. I'm only a person of sometimes crap character. I play nice usually. Okay sorry, huge tangent. The point is I'm feeling down. It's annoying. Especially since it's not even winter yet. Winter is depressing season. Fall is supposed to be happy! Even though everything is dying... but I don't mean like that... I'm not one of them morbid kids that's like yes, death = happiness. Death is sad, I miss Snowball.
Snowball was awesome. She'd be 16 now if she were still alive. She could do various tricks such as sit, shake, walk on two toes, dance, play amazing catch with a frisbee, eat flies and sing along with a harmonica. She was so playful but even more than playful - she was hungry. You could not leave food out with any conceivable way for Snowball to get to it, because she'd get it. Sometimes I'd just be confused as to where something went and then I'd find a sleeping Snowball along with some crumbs. You're not obvious now are you? End.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Geomorphology..
..is boring. Seriously, it's the worst geology class I've taken yet. The professor isn't bad, not great either, but certainly not bad. She's a grad student in the watershed science department, so she teaches it like a Watershed Science class rather than a Geology class which involves more sleeping from Brandon than it probably should, but whatever.
This weekend Utah State pummeled the Cougars of Breedem Young University by doubling their score for their first football victory over them since 1993. Unfortunately I was in the Tetons with my geomorphology class and had to enjoy the game on the radio. The trip was all right. The geology was kind of boring save for just the pure majesty of the Tetons overlooking a beautiful valley with glacial features having scoured every peak and corner of the mountains leaving them rugged and used. We saw a landslide and some glacial moraines,where the glacier ends and drops off a bunch of crap that was inside of it. Contrary to popular belief glaciers aren't just ice, they're full of rocks and debris and all sorts of crap, so when they melt the stuff just drops out of it. Most of the geology part of the trip just involved driving, taking some notes and being bored. There were a couple times where we got to go look through rock float or outcrop and find stuff. I found a few fossils and some really cool calcite geode things. Fun souvenirs of a less than fun trip.
A large part of the trip involved just hanging out around the campfire and partying, Playing guitar, singing, making friends, eating, drinking.. you know the drill. I am proud of myself though. Despite being offered beer on multiple occasions, probably due to the 10+ beers I drank on a trip last year, I didn't have a single drop of alcohol. I don't really know why I'm proud of that as I don't consider alcohol to be a cardinal sin or anything, but God tells me it is, so whatever. I think I'm just proud of the self-control and the fact that I could say no. Also the fact that I was just as loud, obnoxious and had just as much fun as anyone who had BAC levels of 0.1 or higher :) One of the guys did throw a whole bottle of hand sanitizer in the fire which made for an adventure. One drunk girl kept biting my arm (and I'm pretty sure kissed it at one point) which I found quite annoying, but hey, drunk people do silly things. I will admit that being sober made sleeping harder though. Falling asleep with people yelling and sub-freezing temperatures engulfing your tent isn't too hard when you're buzzed. When you're sober it requires headphones which creates a new problem since you need your cell phone battery to last 60 hours. It made it though.
I got a new cell phone! It is a Samsung Gravity T. The T stands for touchscreen ;) I feel so high tech. Really it's no different from my old Samsung besides the touch screen, addition of a GPS and an interface upgrade, but it sure does look cooler! I'm always trying to find excuses to use the GPS on it and love plugging it into my car to listen to music from it since I actually bought a memory stick for this one. My old one had expandable memory, but I was too cheap to spend $10-$20 on a memory stick.
College is getting old. I want to be done, I want to move so badly. I have been talking with a grad adviser about going to the University of Minnesota, but I don't know if that's the best choice for me. I'd love the program, but it just doesn't "feel" right for lack of a better way to put it. I have terrible senioritis. The last geophysics assignment I did, I pretty much just said, "eff it," made some stuff up and turned it in. I'll probably get about 10/25 on it and honestly, I don't care. I'll have plenty of other opportunities to do better on stuff that makes sense and when I'm in a better mood.
You know, there are some things I just can't type in this blog because of its public access. Sometimes I like that my friends can read how I feel if they care to, but other times I do not. I guess I'll just accept it and go to bed. By the way, if you actually care enough to stalk my blog, thanks. You're a good friend :) I hope we see each other often and I express how awesome I think you are.
This weekend Utah State pummeled the Cougars of Breedem Young University by doubling their score for their first football victory over them since 1993. Unfortunately I was in the Tetons with my geomorphology class and had to enjoy the game on the radio. The trip was all right. The geology was kind of boring save for just the pure majesty of the Tetons overlooking a beautiful valley with glacial features having scoured every peak and corner of the mountains leaving them rugged and used. We saw a landslide and some glacial moraines,where the glacier ends and drops off a bunch of crap that was inside of it. Contrary to popular belief glaciers aren't just ice, they're full of rocks and debris and all sorts of crap, so when they melt the stuff just drops out of it. Most of the geology part of the trip just involved driving, taking some notes and being bored. There were a couple times where we got to go look through rock float or outcrop and find stuff. I found a few fossils and some really cool calcite geode things. Fun souvenirs of a less than fun trip.
A large part of the trip involved just hanging out around the campfire and partying, Playing guitar, singing, making friends, eating, drinking.. you know the drill. I am proud of myself though. Despite being offered beer on multiple occasions, probably due to the 10+ beers I drank on a trip last year, I didn't have a single drop of alcohol. I don't really know why I'm proud of that as I don't consider alcohol to be a cardinal sin or anything, but God tells me it is, so whatever. I think I'm just proud of the self-control and the fact that I could say no. Also the fact that I was just as loud, obnoxious and had just as much fun as anyone who had BAC levels of 0.1 or higher :) One of the guys did throw a whole bottle of hand sanitizer in the fire which made for an adventure. One drunk girl kept biting my arm (and I'm pretty sure kissed it at one point) which I found quite annoying, but hey, drunk people do silly things. I will admit that being sober made sleeping harder though. Falling asleep with people yelling and sub-freezing temperatures engulfing your tent isn't too hard when you're buzzed. When you're sober it requires headphones which creates a new problem since you need your cell phone battery to last 60 hours. It made it though.
I got a new cell phone! It is a Samsung Gravity T. The T stands for touchscreen ;) I feel so high tech. Really it's no different from my old Samsung besides the touch screen, addition of a GPS and an interface upgrade, but it sure does look cooler! I'm always trying to find excuses to use the GPS on it and love plugging it into my car to listen to music from it since I actually bought a memory stick for this one. My old one had expandable memory, but I was too cheap to spend $10-$20 on a memory stick.
College is getting old. I want to be done, I want to move so badly. I have been talking with a grad adviser about going to the University of Minnesota, but I don't know if that's the best choice for me. I'd love the program, but it just doesn't "feel" right for lack of a better way to put it. I have terrible senioritis. The last geophysics assignment I did, I pretty much just said, "eff it," made some stuff up and turned it in. I'll probably get about 10/25 on it and honestly, I don't care. I'll have plenty of other opportunities to do better on stuff that makes sense and when I'm in a better mood.
You know, there are some things I just can't type in this blog because of its public access. Sometimes I like that my friends can read how I feel if they care to, but other times I do not. I guess I'll just accept it and go to bed. By the way, if you actually care enough to stalk my blog, thanks. You're a good friend :) I hope we see each other often and I express how awesome I think you are.
Monday, September 20, 2010
More things that annoy me
I made a post somewhere on facebook of things that annoy me, such as remote starts and blue turtle shells. I've been in an unexplainable annoyed mood all weekend, so I thought I would make another list of annoying things to see if I feel any better.
Not using your turn signal : Do you have any idea how many accidents you nearly cause? In my opinion you're just as bad as people who talk on their phone or drink and drive. Yes I just compared talking on your phone to drinking and driving. This is why : Most people who drink and drive are about BAC 0.1% (legal limit is 0.08%). You can't tell me that someone who is 0.1% BAC is any less distracted than someone on the phone. About 75% of the horn honks I make are at people talking on their phone.
Aggie Football : Every year I think for some weird reason that this year will be the year when they do good. Then I'm looking at their record of 0-3 or 1-2 thinking, "nope... maybe next year, yeah next year" I need to just accept that it'll never happen. Oh well, at least we look better than BYU this year.
Campfire smell : It's gross. I just want to write a blog about annoying things and go to bed, but nooooo I have to shower at some point between this and I can't wear my jeans tomorrow now because they smell like camping.
People who try to harmonize with rock music : Just... no. You sound like crap.
People who steal your stuff : I've lost track of how much of my stuff has disappeared this semester. Now most of it is out of play and that's cool, I typically get it back soon enough. Right now we're missing 6 tiki torches and 4 cinder blocks though. Really? You're too much of a cheap ass to buy four $1 blocks and six $2 tiki torches? Douche. Actually no, douches are useful, you are not.
I'm still bitter about "someone" having stolen my $300 of change a couple years ago too. Really? It's quarters. What possible reason would "someone" have to take $300 of quarters while leaving my bank and leave a brand new laptop behind? Oh well, at least I still have my laptop.
Guitars : Hey you know what makes a perfect soundtrack for when you're trying to talk with your friends, do homework or watch a football game? Someone playing electric guitar.
My Internet : I get so frustrated when I'm just browsing or trying to do something important on the intrawebs and every 30 seconds I have to wait a minute for the internet to catch up with itself. I don't know what causes it. It might just be someone being a drain on the router or maybe it's just crap internet, but either way it annoys me to no end. By the way, it's doing it right now.
Dating : Why bother? Everyone just wants to play and when they don't they don't like you *for being unique *see: about half my ex's. I've been seeing two, maybe three if I stretch, girls and none of them really want anything serious. While I realize this is hypocritical, none of them want anything from it so I'm not going to stop. Then it's like, why waste money on it if it's openly not going anywhere? While I may have a good bank account for a college student, it is far from inexhaustible. Society makes me feel cheap for not spending money on women, but if they just want to date around I thank them for being honest, and will put about 1/4th effort into it :-D so basically I just have attractive women to spend time or make out with. When I was 17 that may have been awesome, but now it just makes me feel like an ass. As my roommate put it though, most guys would love that and it IS better than nothing.
People who think their phones are instant messengers : They are not. They are phones. They are used to call people. I understand texting is more convenient sometimes, but often it's just inefficient. If you can text me and then not answer the phone 4 seconds later when I call you back, congratulations, you are on my list of annoying things.
Their/There/They're : Their are so many people who do this. There just dumb. You can tell that when these people had 7th grade English they were never they're. They were too busy smoking there weed or something.
How old I feel : I'm 24. I should NOT feel old. Yet for some reason I let the culture here make me feel old. So many people I know now don't even like Blink 182. They came and went pretty fast, but were big enough that everyone who was in high school in the early 00's knows them well. I was complaining about this tonight and my friends were saying I'm too old for a college town. I was like "A 24 year old senior is not weird at all." and one responded saying, "Yeah, but most guys have dropped out or married by their senior year." Can't argue with that. It's true.
How angry my blog sounds : I'm not in THAT bad of a mood. I just needed to rant and I don't really have anyone to rant at since Katie and I don't chat as much as I'd like anymore and my mom didn't answer. Do I even want to post this? Eh screw it, if my Internet works good enough to let it post I'll do it.
Not using your turn signal : Do you have any idea how many accidents you nearly cause? In my opinion you're just as bad as people who talk on their phone or drink and drive. Yes I just compared talking on your phone to drinking and driving. This is why : Most people who drink and drive are about BAC 0.1% (legal limit is 0.08%). You can't tell me that someone who is 0.1% BAC is any less distracted than someone on the phone. About 75% of the horn honks I make are at people talking on their phone.
Aggie Football : Every year I think for some weird reason that this year will be the year when they do good. Then I'm looking at their record of 0-3 or 1-2 thinking, "nope... maybe next year, yeah next year" I need to just accept that it'll never happen. Oh well, at least we look better than BYU this year.
Campfire smell : It's gross. I just want to write a blog about annoying things and go to bed, but nooooo I have to shower at some point between this and I can't wear my jeans tomorrow now because they smell like camping.
People who try to harmonize with rock music : Just... no. You sound like crap.
People who steal your stuff : I've lost track of how much of my stuff has disappeared this semester. Now most of it is out of play and that's cool, I typically get it back soon enough. Right now we're missing 6 tiki torches and 4 cinder blocks though. Really? You're too much of a cheap ass to buy four $1 blocks and six $2 tiki torches? Douche. Actually no, douches are useful, you are not.
I'm still bitter about "someone" having stolen my $300 of change a couple years ago too. Really? It's quarters. What possible reason would "someone" have to take $300 of quarters while leaving my bank and leave a brand new laptop behind? Oh well, at least I still have my laptop.
Guitars : Hey you know what makes a perfect soundtrack for when you're trying to talk with your friends, do homework or watch a football game? Someone playing electric guitar.
My Internet : I get so frustrated when I'm just browsing or trying to do something important on the intrawebs and every 30 seconds I have to wait a minute for the internet to catch up with itself. I don't know what causes it. It might just be someone being a drain on the router or maybe it's just crap internet, but either way it annoys me to no end. By the way, it's doing it right now.
Dating : Why bother? Everyone just wants to play and when they don't they don't like you *for being unique *see: about half my ex's. I've been seeing two, maybe three if I stretch, girls and none of them really want anything serious. While I realize this is hypocritical, none of them want anything from it so I'm not going to stop. Then it's like, why waste money on it if it's openly not going anywhere? While I may have a good bank account for a college student, it is far from inexhaustible. Society makes me feel cheap for not spending money on women, but if they just want to date around I thank them for being honest, and will put about 1/4th effort into it :-D so basically I just have attractive women to spend time or make out with. When I was 17 that may have been awesome, but now it just makes me feel like an ass. As my roommate put it though, most guys would love that and it IS better than nothing.
People who think their phones are instant messengers : They are not. They are phones. They are used to call people. I understand texting is more convenient sometimes, but often it's just inefficient. If you can text me and then not answer the phone 4 seconds later when I call you back, congratulations, you are on my list of annoying things.
Their/There/They're : Their are so many people who do this. There just dumb. You can tell that when these people had 7th grade English they were never they're. They were too busy smoking there weed or something.
How old I feel : I'm 24. I should NOT feel old. Yet for some reason I let the culture here make me feel old. So many people I know now don't even like Blink 182. They came and went pretty fast, but were big enough that everyone who was in high school in the early 00's knows them well. I was complaining about this tonight and my friends were saying I'm too old for a college town. I was like "A 24 year old senior is not weird at all." and one responded saying, "Yeah, but most guys have dropped out or married by their senior year." Can't argue with that. It's true.
How angry my blog sounds : I'm not in THAT bad of a mood. I just needed to rant and I don't really have anyone to rant at since Katie and I don't chat as much as I'd like anymore and my mom didn't answer. Do I even want to post this? Eh screw it, if my Internet works good enough to let it post I'll do it.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Mid-day thoughts from the Ag-Sci building
So I was walking past the quad (or what used to be the quad anyway, before the tractors took over) earlier today and some young, maybe 20 year old, girls were following me having a conversation about dating. The one was complaining about how she never goes on dates, so she can't get married. The other replied saying how she couldn't wait for "her missionary" to get home next month, that way they could date and even if things didn't work out at least she'd have an excuse of why she wasn't married.
You're 20. Do you honestly need an excuse to not be married? Yikes.
Anyway, now that I'm over that rant. I'm sitting in the Ag. Science computer lab right now waiting for my geomorphology lab to start at 3:30. I've learned something this week, I really enjoy teaching people. No, I don't want to be a teacher, I'm just saying that I enjoy doing it. I held my first SI session on Monday and I got to lecture 20 or so students about rocks and minerals. It was really basic stuff - igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic rocks, what minerals are and how we identify them; but it was really cool being able to teach these people who didn't know about it and have them ask me questions that I knew the answer to. It just makes me feel smart and important.
I was really impressed with myself. Only 2 students left before my hour was up, and for anyone who's ever attended an SI session of a freshman class you know this is rare. Normally everyone is out of there after about 20-30 minutes. I also did a quick lecture today in a geology class about the Tibetan Plateau. It felt so nice to be the one with the power point and laser telling people cool stuff as they tried to stay awake.
Speaking of Freshman, I've discovered a new game that I like to play in my head as I walk around campus. It's called Spot the Freshman. The goal is for me to decide who is a Freshman and who isn't. Now of course I don't go up to these people and ask them if my results are right or not, so it's a rather pointless game, but it is kind of fun. They're just so naive looking. Many of them dress in stupid fashion trends that were cool in high school and just have this look of happiness on their faces like they're in awe to be at a university.
This all changes after your first finals week or your first week that you have 3 midterm exams. You become jaded and something in your mind changes. You quit wearing knee high rainbow socks, tight girl pants and long hair that takes 2 hours to style. You conform to the dullness of the sacrifices you make in college just to get B's. You have that look about you that you just rolled out of bed because you went to sleep at 3am last night since it was the only time you could get anything done. Ah Freshmen, you're so silly. Sometimes I wonder if the reason Sophomores-Seniors all kind of look the same is because of how Freshman year messes you up or if it's because there are certain people who just can't do college life and these are the ones who inaudibly scream "I'm a Freshman" as you walk past them early in the morning, then drop out after their first semester.
I love fall weather in Logan. It's crisp and cool in the mornings, but not cool enough to wear a jacket, then as it warms up and you get the sun beating down on you it feels just about perfect. You're cold outside, but warm inside... or maybe it's the other way around. I can never tell. I just know that when it's 65 degrees, sunny and windy out - beautiful. I got lunch with Marlee today outside and we ate outside the Quadside Cafe, it was about the perfect weather. I could have just sat there for hours taking it in. Few things are better than good bagels, good company and Logan fall weather all at once.
Well it's approaching 3:30 so I better make my exodus to the GIS lab so I can "learn" how to use GIS... even though I already got an A in the WATS 4930 class... Sometimes college can be so redundant. Maybe this is a good thing. I'm already one of those jaded Senior's who scowls at happy little Freshmen as they frolic around campus talking about how great high school was and how much more mature they are now that they live on their own in the grown up college dorm setting. Sigh, I want to be 18 again.. though I suppose I was a 21 year old freshman who still acted 18 so.. I want to be 21 again :-D
You're 20. Do you honestly need an excuse to not be married? Yikes.
Anyway, now that I'm over that rant. I'm sitting in the Ag. Science computer lab right now waiting for my geomorphology lab to start at 3:30. I've learned something this week, I really enjoy teaching people. No, I don't want to be a teacher, I'm just saying that I enjoy doing it. I held my first SI session on Monday and I got to lecture 20 or so students about rocks and minerals. It was really basic stuff - igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic rocks, what minerals are and how we identify them; but it was really cool being able to teach these people who didn't know about it and have them ask me questions that I knew the answer to. It just makes me feel smart and important.
I was really impressed with myself. Only 2 students left before my hour was up, and for anyone who's ever attended an SI session of a freshman class you know this is rare. Normally everyone is out of there after about 20-30 minutes. I also did a quick lecture today in a geology class about the Tibetan Plateau. It felt so nice to be the one with the power point and laser telling people cool stuff as they tried to stay awake.
Speaking of Freshman, I've discovered a new game that I like to play in my head as I walk around campus. It's called Spot the Freshman. The goal is for me to decide who is a Freshman and who isn't. Now of course I don't go up to these people and ask them if my results are right or not, so it's a rather pointless game, but it is kind of fun. They're just so naive looking. Many of them dress in stupid fashion trends that were cool in high school and just have this look of happiness on their faces like they're in awe to be at a university.
This all changes after your first finals week or your first week that you have 3 midterm exams. You become jaded and something in your mind changes. You quit wearing knee high rainbow socks, tight girl pants and long hair that takes 2 hours to style. You conform to the dullness of the sacrifices you make in college just to get B's. You have that look about you that you just rolled out of bed because you went to sleep at 3am last night since it was the only time you could get anything done. Ah Freshmen, you're so silly. Sometimes I wonder if the reason Sophomores-Seniors all kind of look the same is because of how Freshman year messes you up or if it's because there are certain people who just can't do college life and these are the ones who inaudibly scream "I'm a Freshman" as you walk past them early in the morning, then drop out after their first semester.
I love fall weather in Logan. It's crisp and cool in the mornings, but not cool enough to wear a jacket, then as it warms up and you get the sun beating down on you it feels just about perfect. You're cold outside, but warm inside... or maybe it's the other way around. I can never tell. I just know that when it's 65 degrees, sunny and windy out - beautiful. I got lunch with Marlee today outside and we ate outside the Quadside Cafe, it was about the perfect weather. I could have just sat there for hours taking it in. Few things are better than good bagels, good company and Logan fall weather all at once.
Well it's approaching 3:30 so I better make my exodus to the GIS lab so I can "learn" how to use GIS... even though I already got an A in the WATS 4930 class... Sometimes college can be so redundant. Maybe this is a good thing. I'm already one of those jaded Senior's who scowls at happy little Freshmen as they frolic around campus talking about how great high school was and how much more mature they are now that they live on their own in the grown up college dorm setting. Sigh, I want to be 18 again.. though I suppose I was a 21 year old freshman who still acted 18 so.. I want to be 21 again :-D
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Rock hammers solve all problems.
Well this semester has started out to be an adventure. Few dull moments, even less sleep. Trisha and I quit seeing each other before the semester started.. again.. for good.. again.. (I'm fairly certain it's for good this time though.) I dislike the Mormon female population at times. So many of them are dumb. No I'm not saying this out of spite or because I'm irritated, and no I'm not singling Trisha out either. Despite our differences she's still an amazing woman and I'll miss her occasional presence. I honestly just think there is a very large ratio of dumb Mormon women to smart Mormon women. No, I'm not talking about book smarts. For the most part I think LDS people are a generally bright bunch, they're just so damn close minded. So let me rephrase that sentence more accurately. Many (but not all, just... all the ones I seem to date) Mormon females are close-minded and it frustrates me.
Forget that I'm likely the greatest guy she's had a serious relationship with and maybe even the most amazing person she will date. (Shut up, I said maybe!) Forget that I have basically good morals and never try to get her to do anything she would regret. Forget that I was the one telling her no to sex despite wanting it myself. Hell let's even forget that for lack of better religions classification, I myself am even Mormon and go to church about 50% of the time. She didn't want to date anymore because I don't give a damn about magical marriage rituals in fancy buildings that we're brainwashed by primary songs to covet entrance to since the time we're 4 years old. No, I don't refuse to do one, I just don't care if I do or not. Maybe the arrogance was a turn off too ;) I sound bitter, I'm really not. I'm perfectly fine with the relationship ending and likely would have done it myself in the near future, it's just the reasoning behind it which really bothers me. It just seems so wrong, and I'm so sick of nearly all my relationships ending because of a religion. Sigh, typing this seems very familiar. I think I may have typed this before... bleh, moving on.
Anyway, it's good. I've had fun meeting new people, which is tough to do when you've got a girlfriend. One girl tonight sat down with me to "talk" earlier tonight. I was afraid this was leading to, "we need to be exclusive" since we had quite literally broken my bed the night before. The frame snapped out of place, but don't worry - I fixed it with my rock hammer. Rock hammers solve all problems. I was wrong, she wanted to make sure I understood we were not exclusive. I was quite happy with the conversation: Wait a second, so you're telling me that you WANT to just be friends with benefits? Uhm... deal.
Meh, forget girls, they're boring and a rather pointless endeavor for me it seems.
Another thing attributing to my annoyance of LDS girls is that it's so damn hard to find girls around my age to hang out with. The cute and normal ones are nearly all married by 20 or 21, when their missionaries get home. It's cool, I understand we're all biologically programed to want a sexual relationship, which isn't really allowed in the LDS religion outside of marriage, but it's still super frustrating for me. Every year I just meet new 19 year olds to hang out with. They're always fun and I always enjoy their company for a semester or a year, but then they all get marred, the end.
The early marriage doesn't really just happen to LDS females though, it does to the males as well. Fortunately I happen to have a group of older roommates (older meaning 22-26) who are all single and not actively pursuing marriage, but tons of my old roommates and friends have married off to girls they've only known for a short while, while having yet to really establish a life for themselves. Then they have new obligations and I understand that. When you're married you can't really just bail on your wife every other night to go play rockband or get dinner with your friends. That would be pretty lame. It's just sad. Almost to the point that I want to conform and become a boring married guy, so I can quit worrying about losing friends... almost :)
I got a job as an undergraduate teaching fellow for a freshman earth science class. The pay is almost non-existent, but I'm pretty excited for it. It'll be fun to feel like I'm smart, run review sessions, grade papers and stuff. It'll be way awesome. Not really for the money, but just as something new to do and something else to throw on my resume for now. If I can teach a subject, I must know it pretty well, right?
Utah State football looks awesome this year. Sure they lost their opener, but they lost it on the road to the 7th best team in the country in a gigantic stadium by single digits. The fact that Utah State hung with Oklahoma for an entire game and despite a couple of mistakes had every opportunity to win that game is... holy crap man.
Red Jumpsuit Apparatus came and played last Saturday here in Logan. It was pretty cool, free concert of a band that people actually know? Can't really complain about that. The night before that I went 80's dancing too, so my ears are still kind of ringing 4 days later, haha. The day after the concert I went camping with a group of friends and we all piled into a large tent which I had staked down with my rock hammer. I later used the hammer to chip off pieces of limestone, mostly just because I wanted to hit some rocks with it. It's very therapeutic to break rocks.
This is an incredibly dull blog entry. This would probably actually annoy me if someone posted something this dull on facebook, so I won't. Anyway, I apologize to anyone who actually read it. I think it's more of a journal entry, but being as I'm way too lazy to keep both a blog and a journal .. eh .. goodnight.
Forget that I'm likely the greatest guy she's had a serious relationship with and maybe even the most amazing person she will date. (Shut up, I said maybe!) Forget that I have basically good morals and never try to get her to do anything she would regret. Forget that I was the one telling her no to sex despite wanting it myself. Hell let's even forget that for lack of better religions classification, I myself am even Mormon and go to church about 50% of the time. She didn't want to date anymore because I don't give a damn about magical marriage rituals in fancy buildings that we're brainwashed by primary songs to covet entrance to since the time we're 4 years old. No, I don't refuse to do one, I just don't care if I do or not. Maybe the arrogance was a turn off too ;) I sound bitter, I'm really not. I'm perfectly fine with the relationship ending and likely would have done it myself in the near future, it's just the reasoning behind it which really bothers me. It just seems so wrong, and I'm so sick of nearly all my relationships ending because of a religion. Sigh, typing this seems very familiar. I think I may have typed this before... bleh, moving on.
Anyway, it's good. I've had fun meeting new people, which is tough to do when you've got a girlfriend. One girl tonight sat down with me to "talk" earlier tonight. I was afraid this was leading to, "we need to be exclusive" since we had quite literally broken my bed the night before. The frame snapped out of place, but don't worry - I fixed it with my rock hammer. Rock hammers solve all problems. I was wrong, she wanted to make sure I understood we were not exclusive. I was quite happy with the conversation: Wait a second, so you're telling me that you WANT to just be friends with benefits? Uhm... deal.
Meh, forget girls, they're boring and a rather pointless endeavor for me it seems.
Another thing attributing to my annoyance of LDS girls is that it's so damn hard to find girls around my age to hang out with. The cute and normal ones are nearly all married by 20 or 21, when their missionaries get home. It's cool, I understand we're all biologically programed to want a sexual relationship, which isn't really allowed in the LDS religion outside of marriage, but it's still super frustrating for me. Every year I just meet new 19 year olds to hang out with. They're always fun and I always enjoy their company for a semester or a year, but then they all get marred, the end.
The early marriage doesn't really just happen to LDS females though, it does to the males as well. Fortunately I happen to have a group of older roommates (older meaning 22-26) who are all single and not actively pursuing marriage, but tons of my old roommates and friends have married off to girls they've only known for a short while, while having yet to really establish a life for themselves. Then they have new obligations and I understand that. When you're married you can't really just bail on your wife every other night to go play rockband or get dinner with your friends. That would be pretty lame. It's just sad. Almost to the point that I want to conform and become a boring married guy, so I can quit worrying about losing friends... almost :)
I got a job as an undergraduate teaching fellow for a freshman earth science class. The pay is almost non-existent, but I'm pretty excited for it. It'll be fun to feel like I'm smart, run review sessions, grade papers and stuff. It'll be way awesome. Not really for the money, but just as something new to do and something else to throw on my resume for now. If I can teach a subject, I must know it pretty well, right?
Utah State football looks awesome this year. Sure they lost their opener, but they lost it on the road to the 7th best team in the country in a gigantic stadium by single digits. The fact that Utah State hung with Oklahoma for an entire game and despite a couple of mistakes had every opportunity to win that game is... holy crap man.
Red Jumpsuit Apparatus came and played last Saturday here in Logan. It was pretty cool, free concert of a band that people actually know? Can't really complain about that. The night before that I went 80's dancing too, so my ears are still kind of ringing 4 days later, haha. The day after the concert I went camping with a group of friends and we all piled into a large tent which I had staked down with my rock hammer. I later used the hammer to chip off pieces of limestone, mostly just because I wanted to hit some rocks with it. It's very therapeutic to break rocks.
This is an incredibly dull blog entry. This would probably actually annoy me if someone posted something this dull on facebook, so I won't. Anyway, I apologize to anyone who actually read it. I think it's more of a journal entry, but being as I'm way too lazy to keep both a blog and a journal .. eh .. goodnight.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Summer wrap up
Last Saturday of freedom and it's closing in on 4am, best thing for me to do? Blog about it.
I suppose next Saturday I won't have school yet, but I'll be back in Logan, so this is my last Saturday in Layton. What a short summer this felt like. Summer sure does last longer when you don't have a job.. or three.. Okay I guess I only ever had two at a time.
So summer started off interestingly enough. I was dating 3 girls at once while working full time with the census, this shortly narrowed down to 0 and working part time with the census. Too bad too. The census job was miserable at first, but as I got good at it and started making conversation and getting to know the random people I'd have to go visit it really became fun and probably one of my favorite jobs I've ever had. Because the hours started getting few and far between there I got a job at a pizza restaurant. I definitely had some fun times there. I worked with cool people and the money was pretty decent. At about this point one of the girls I was dating earlier in the summer decided she still liked me and we started dating again. We did some fun stuff together. Had a Star Trek party, went to the planetarium, the natural history museum, played Mario Kart all night (no, this isn't something dirty - we actually played Mario Kart on the N64 all night). I got a job as a geologist. Oddly enough the thing I thought I wanted most ended up being the most miserable part of the summer. Go figure. Really kind of confused me as to what I want for my future, but whatever, we'll see where it takes me I guess. I went on a roadtrip with my Grandpa, which, may possibly be the last long trip he takes like that unfortunately. While out there I went and hung out in Long Beach and toured what was once the worlds largest boat. Actually I take it back, I think that trip was probably more miserable than the geology job, so the two things I wanted to do most were the most miserable.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that I went and was able to spend time with my family and especially Grandpa, but the whole trip was a long nightmare for me. We left early in the morning and drove straight through to Palmdale. I was tired before we left, so my grandpa started off driving. I was unable to sleep because every time I'd get close to sleep he'd veer off to the warning track and abruptly jerk the car back into the lane, so by the time we got to about Beaver I was like, "I'll drive" so I juiced up on 60 oz. of coffee and took over. Yes, I seriously drank 60 oz of coffee on the drive to California. From here I did the rest of the driving to, around and from California as his driving slightly frightened me. We got there and I felt like ass because well, I'd drank three 20 oz coffee's in about a 6 hour period. The first thing we did was get dinner with my uncle, which was nice, and then afterward we went to a Motel for the night, which absolutely sucked for me.
Now I understand my grandpa can't go up and down stairs (even though he did on several occasions on this trip) and they had no where for him to sleep on the ground level, but I can't explain how much it sucks to have to cease enjoying the company of my family that I rarely see to drive to a crappy motel at 10 pm and sit there with a book or try to use the worlds crappiest wifi for 4 hours until I get tired. I went back over one of the nights and hung out, but it still sucked to have to drive my Grandpa there, check in, get my stuff inside, settle in and drive back to the other side of town to hang out for a few hours and return. Having to carry all of our luggage to and from the hotel to the car every night kind of sucked too, my grandpa must have had 3x as much stuff as me. So that first morning, when I thought things could only look up from here, I wake up to the smell of fire. Fortunately it wasn't fire - my grandpa just felt he needed to turn the wall heater on, despite the fact that we're in a mid-latitude desert in August and it was about 85*F outside at the time, he was cold. Later on the trip I woke up to cigarette smoke in our motel room because it was too hot to go outside and smoke, FML. Then on the way home, when all I wanted to do was just get home, we had to drive clear up over Navajo Lake (which really is quite beautiful) and through some crappy little country towns to take the "scenic route" which to me was just like 4-hour-longer-route. Basically I spent 50% of my "vacation" babysitting and despite the fact that I spent a day in Long Beach, didn't even get to see a beach. I love my family and my grandpa and, even though I'm only highlighting the crappy stuff, I really did have some fun on my little trip - it was just not quite as exciting as trips with him in the past have been. I guess we all get old. I don't remember the last time I was so happy to get back to the relatively light Wasatch Front traffic and clear skies and my mom's tiny little apartment.
As I head back to Logan for my Senior year, all I can say is that I can't believe I'm heading to my senior year. When I started college 3 years ago I was doing it because I didn't have anything better going on in my life. I didn't think I'd finish a degree. I want to thank all the people who helped me actually get this far. My mom is so supportive, my grandpa always made me feel so amazing for being smart. My high school friends did the same, by always treating me like I was smart I just couldn't drop out and change their opinions on that. That asshole Shelly for making my first semesters at Weber so much better than they would have been otherwise. The friends I've made in Logan have made living in a town that some people consider boring the most exciting times of my lives. Stew Morrill for having a good basketball team and giving me something to get through occasional long winter nights in Logan. Various girls I've dated for having good bodies and helping me to get through occasional long winter nights in Logan.
Well, that is all - I'm off to sleep now. I'll try to get a few more entries in here next month.
I suppose next Saturday I won't have school yet, but I'll be back in Logan, so this is my last Saturday in Layton. What a short summer this felt like. Summer sure does last longer when you don't have a job.. or three.. Okay I guess I only ever had two at a time.
So summer started off interestingly enough. I was dating 3 girls at once while working full time with the census, this shortly narrowed down to 0 and working part time with the census. Too bad too. The census job was miserable at first, but as I got good at it and started making conversation and getting to know the random people I'd have to go visit it really became fun and probably one of my favorite jobs I've ever had. Because the hours started getting few and far between there I got a job at a pizza restaurant. I definitely had some fun times there. I worked with cool people and the money was pretty decent. At about this point one of the girls I was dating earlier in the summer decided she still liked me and we started dating again. We did some fun stuff together. Had a Star Trek party, went to the planetarium, the natural history museum, played Mario Kart all night (no, this isn't something dirty - we actually played Mario Kart on the N64 all night). I got a job as a geologist. Oddly enough the thing I thought I wanted most ended up being the most miserable part of the summer. Go figure. Really kind of confused me as to what I want for my future, but whatever, we'll see where it takes me I guess. I went on a roadtrip with my Grandpa, which, may possibly be the last long trip he takes like that unfortunately. While out there I went and hung out in Long Beach and toured what was once the worlds largest boat. Actually I take it back, I think that trip was probably more miserable than the geology job, so the two things I wanted to do most were the most miserable.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that I went and was able to spend time with my family and especially Grandpa, but the whole trip was a long nightmare for me. We left early in the morning and drove straight through to Palmdale. I was tired before we left, so my grandpa started off driving. I was unable to sleep because every time I'd get close to sleep he'd veer off to the warning track and abruptly jerk the car back into the lane, so by the time we got to about Beaver I was like, "I'll drive" so I juiced up on 60 oz. of coffee and took over. Yes, I seriously drank 60 oz of coffee on the drive to California. From here I did the rest of the driving to, around and from California as his driving slightly frightened me. We got there and I felt like ass because well, I'd drank three 20 oz coffee's in about a 6 hour period. The first thing we did was get dinner with my uncle, which was nice, and then afterward we went to a Motel for the night, which absolutely sucked for me.
Now I understand my grandpa can't go up and down stairs (even though he did on several occasions on this trip) and they had no where for him to sleep on the ground level, but I can't explain how much it sucks to have to cease enjoying the company of my family that I rarely see to drive to a crappy motel at 10 pm and sit there with a book or try to use the worlds crappiest wifi for 4 hours until I get tired. I went back over one of the nights and hung out, but it still sucked to have to drive my Grandpa there, check in, get my stuff inside, settle in and drive back to the other side of town to hang out for a few hours and return. Having to carry all of our luggage to and from the hotel to the car every night kind of sucked too, my grandpa must have had 3x as much stuff as me. So that first morning, when I thought things could only look up from here, I wake up to the smell of fire. Fortunately it wasn't fire - my grandpa just felt he needed to turn the wall heater on, despite the fact that we're in a mid-latitude desert in August and it was about 85*F outside at the time, he was cold. Later on the trip I woke up to cigarette smoke in our motel room because it was too hot to go outside and smoke, FML. Then on the way home, when all I wanted to do was just get home, we had to drive clear up over Navajo Lake (which really is quite beautiful) and through some crappy little country towns to take the "scenic route" which to me was just like 4-hour-longer-route. Basically I spent 50% of my "vacation" babysitting and despite the fact that I spent a day in Long Beach, didn't even get to see a beach. I love my family and my grandpa and, even though I'm only highlighting the crappy stuff, I really did have some fun on my little trip - it was just not quite as exciting as trips with him in the past have been. I guess we all get old. I don't remember the last time I was so happy to get back to the relatively light Wasatch Front traffic and clear skies and my mom's tiny little apartment.
As I head back to Logan for my Senior year, all I can say is that I can't believe I'm heading to my senior year. When I started college 3 years ago I was doing it because I didn't have anything better going on in my life. I didn't think I'd finish a degree. I want to thank all the people who helped me actually get this far. My mom is so supportive, my grandpa always made me feel so amazing for being smart. My high school friends did the same, by always treating me like I was smart I just couldn't drop out and change their opinions on that. That asshole Shelly for making my first semesters at Weber so much better than they would have been otherwise. The friends I've made in Logan have made living in a town that some people consider boring the most exciting times of my lives. Stew Morrill for having a good basketball team and giving me something to get through occasional long winter nights in Logan. Various girls I've dated for having good bodies and helping me to get through occasional long winter nights in Logan.
Well, that is all - I'm off to sleep now. I'll try to get a few more entries in here next month.
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