Choices

choice |CHois|

noun

an act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities: the choice between good and evil.

Since my short time here at BYU spring term is almost over, I've been doing some thinking about what exactly I've learned these past couple of months. I've learned some pretty interesting things in Physical Science, but one of the big life lessons that seemed to pop up again and again is the power of Choice.

The ability to choose is really quite amazing if you think about it. Choice determines who we are and how we see the world. These are not necessarily groundbreaking discoveries about choice, but it's good to be reminded from time to time.

Who We Are

For those of you who don't know what movie this is, it is one of my childhood favorites: The Iron Giant. Although it is a very superficial version of what I'm talking about, it does a great job of showing that who we are and how we show it is a choice. Sure there are things in our lives that are out of our control, but it is in these situations that we show who we have really chosen to be. "You are what you choose to be." So have you chosen to be the person you would like to be?

How We See the World

This is a choice that, in my opinion, is one of the most important ones we can make. Often times, it is even related to the decisions of who we are. Ultimately you see the kind of world that you want to see. Hard times will come. That's just how life is. But it's up to us to decide if we want to be happy or sad through the hard times.

So now I guess it's time to leave you with one of my favorite catch phrases: "Don't forget to :)"


PS - Since I'm on a more deep note this time, I should also add this: Don't forget to tell those you love that you love them, lest they forget.

Kicks

Kicks |kiks|

noun

1 Shoes: Apparently you fail to comprehend the awesomeness of my kicks.

So I decided to make my post a little bit more interesting than last time and talk about my secret obsession: Shoes.

That's right. I said it. I like shoes. Come at me bro!

And here's why I love a great pair of kicks in no particular order:

1) They're awesome

2) They are a practical obsession. An obsession that I can use and wear every day.

3) It one of the ways to showcase your style. They say you can tell what kind of a person someone is by the car they drive. Same deal for shoes. A person wears his personality on his feet.

4) Shoes are a symbol of going places and doing things. Your feet take you new and exciting places to do new and exciting things.

5) The new shoe feeling. That indescribable satisfaction you feel when you're sporting some new kicks.

6)They're awesome

OK, now it's time to talk about my favorite shoes. Right now I think my favorite brand is adidas. They have a classy and clean look with pops of vibrant color in several variations. Sadly though, I don't own a pair of adidas right now. Here are a few I have my eye on...

Adidas dragon. It's a retro shoe originally released in the early 70s. The upper is made of a lightweight mesh with suede overlays.

This is a Mi Superstar II. That means this is a pair of superstars I designed myself. (Hmm, I seem to be on a blue theme here)

This beauty, unfortunately, is a little bit harder to find because it is recently out of production. It is actually the reason adidas caught my eye in the first place. It's another Superstar II variation. Pretty awesome if you ask me...

One day soon, hopefully, I will own a pair of adidas. Heck, even the old jeep got some new kicks yesterday! The old ones were so bad that one even had a nail in it!

While I'm talking about shoes, there are a couple of others I should mention:

These babies are the definition of a classic shoe. This timeless design is one that never has and never will go out of style. It is embedded in american culture. So much, in fact, that there are many look-alikes. But don't be fooled. There is only one Converse All Star. No duplication of this shoe can live up to the quality and style of a true pair of converse.

Vans are also some of the classic american kicks. While the build quality of these shoes is good only 80% of the time, they will always hold a special place in my heart. Why? Because the first pair of shoes I ever really noticed and liked was a pair of vans similar to the one pictured above. I was in 1st grade.

Well, on that nostalgic note, I guess it's time to leave you. Hope you enjoyed a brief look into my secret obsession!

Surprise!

sur•prise |sə(r)ˈprīz|

noun

1 an unexpected or astonishing event, fact, or thing: the announcement was a complete surprise.

Oh, man. Life is full of surprises. But I like that. It's what gives life pizzazz! In fact... There have been a few surprises in my life since my last post. A wedding, a sports drink commercial, a mission call, a rainy day, and a couple of other surprises I can't even talk about yet... (hehe)

A Wedding

Well, I guess this is a little less of a surprise. We kinda saw this one coming considering its been planned for months but... My niece's wedding. That's right, you didn't read that wrong. My niece Lynsie who is a year older than I (The girl I had a dance party with in the previous post) got married last weekend to Andrew White. I still can't believe my childhood BFF is married! CRAZY

A Sports Drink Commercial

A really great surprise opportunity popped up this last week as well. I was invited to come be a part of the crew for a 2 day commercial shoot for Xango (a local company that sells sports/health drink juice stuff). This was super fun to be a part of. In one commercial I even got to be a blurry shoulder in the foreground in one of the scenes!

A Mission Call

My roommate Rob opened his LDS mission call today. He wanted to go to a city in the south. He got a great surprise and was called to Dallas Texas. Even better, there was a surprise within the surprise. (Insert inception joke here) This is the same mission that one of our good friends is already in! Rob will be speaking the english language.

A Rainy Day

The fun of Utah weather just never ends. The weather for the last week or two has been just beautiful! Mid 70s and sunny almost every day. So imagine my surprise when I woke up to this!

Then true to schizophrenic Utah form, it did this in the afternoon

iPhone Surprise

OK, I guess it's time to finish up my post. I hope it was at least somewhat entertaining. If you didn't think so, maybe this video of an iPhone with a surprise will convince you otherwise.

Time

time |tīm|

noun

1 the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole: travel through space and time | one of the greatest wits of all time.

• the progress of this as affecting people and things: things were getting better as time passed.

Ok, those of you who REALLY know me know that my favorite movie is Back to the Future. Hands down. No question about it. The whole idea of time travel is so thrilling to me. So imagine my excitement when in my physical science class I learned that time travel is, in theory, possible! Yah, pretty much one of the best moments of spring term so far. But it has to do with relativity, so I'm not sure I understand it 100%.

Anyway, since this blog post is all about time, I thought I'd give you some snapshots of my life. Past, Present, and Future.

Past

First, let's jump in the DeLorean and head back to a time when my sisters wore denim shorts and I had an orange sweater. For these snapshots, I'm gonna confess I stole Bryant's idea and digitized some old VHS home movies. So here's me as a small child if you'd like to take a look.

Lynsie and Mike Have a Dance Party

Sneaky Ninja Mike (sneaky ninja part starts at 1:40)

Present

Since I'm living it, the present seems to be a little bit more difficult to put into one or even two snapshots. So I won't. Let's just say my life is crazy and random.

These are my closest friends

This is my front door

This is a song I made (That's right, I'm on Grooveshark)


Also, I guess this would be the place to say that I am pretty good at Draw Something as well

Extra points if you can guess the movie I drew here ^^.

Future

Since I don't actually have a DeLorean, it's hard to say what my future will look like. Although the internet says my future looks like this:

I sure hope I don't look like this picture anytime soon. But by the time I do look like this picture...

I will have lived here for 2 years (Guayaquil, Ecuador)

My bank account will look like this

And this will be an oldie

The End

PS, I saw the Avengers Movie. It was AWESOME!! If you have not already done so, you should definitely see it.

Hiatus Part II

hi•a•tus |hīˈātəs|

noun ( pl. hiatuses ) [ usu. in sing. ]

a pause or gap in a sequence, series, or process: there was a brief hiatus in the war with France.

     Well. If you haven't noticed. I've taken a hiatus from my blog. Again. This time was a bit longer than the last. Now, this doesn't mean I'm going to be posting often, (I'm just non-committal like that. Come at me bro!) but it does mean I will be posting regularly. I suppose the next logical question is why I allowed this hideous hiatus to happen in the first place. Well, the explanation is simple. 3 words in fact. Between Two Arms. So much has happened in my life since I last posted, but this pretty much sums it all up. This is both the reason I haven't been posting on my own blog and the summary of my life since February 8th. So if you don't know what Between Two Arms is, you better repent and find out.

     There has been a lot of change even since the end of BTA. My bros/roommates and I have had such a blast. But the time came that we all had to part ways. It's sad, but it needed to happen because most of us are leaving to serve a 2 year LDS mission. (My brother Bryant brought his mission to an end already, so this will cause a brief bereavement). Tyler's gonna to mix it up in Mexico, Murphy's gonna hang with the cats of California (Carlsbad), Brett's gonna chill in Chile, Rob's propped up in Provo with me waiting for his call, and I'm gonna be a guy in Guayaquil, Ecuador. It's gonna be CRAZY AWESOME!
Before I go, I'll leave you with one of the last things we created together. It's epic!

Just for Jed

Hiatus

hi•a•tus |hīˈātəs|

noun ( pl. hiatuses ) [ usu. in sing. ]

a pause or gap in a sequence, series, or process: there was a brief hiatus in the war with France.

• Prosody & Grammar a break between two vowels coming together but not in the same syllable, as in the ear and cooperate .

Sorry about the short hiatus I've been taking from the blog. Believe it or not, it's only been about a week and  a half. I know it seems like it's been a lot longer, but like Bryant said, there has been A LOT going on the past few days. As they say, the times they are a-changin'. But that's what makes life exciting. Right? Ok, now to the list of amazing things that have happened in the past while since my last post.

VOCAL POINT!! Oh my goodness. I love them sososososo much. I got to go see them with Monica in the Conference Center Theater at temple square. Then we got our cds signed. It was so much fun!! Then on campus on Monday, I saw the new Jake. I made Emma come him with me and he recognized me! It made my day.

Another amazing thing, I have had the pleasure of being a part of the crew for the new hit internet TV series, "Between 2 Arms". It's pretty funny if I do say so. I am the camera operator/editor and it is soo much fun. Let me tell you. You can watch the first 2 episodes here. Well, anthropology is over, so I guess it's time for me to be done blogging. So I leave you with this Broadbent 23 meme:

Silly Bryant.

Luckily I am done with my hiatus now!

Date

date

2 a social or romantic appointment or engagement: a college student on a date with someone he met in class.

• a person with whom one has such an engagement: my date isn't going to show, it seems.
•3 p's paired off, planned, paid for (Bryant Webster official dictionary)

What follows is a description of the rare sparks of electricity that fire between the neurons of men when they are pondering their dating options for the weekend. These belong to Mike,Brett, and Bryant. But we're not going to tell you whose is whose. You'll just have to wonder...

MONDAY
Somebody casually mentions the possibility of a date this weekend and suggests a double/group. I spontaneously agree, but give it little thought.
A roommate mentions the possibility of a date this weekend. I give a non-committal response and forget about it within 10 minutes.
Should I go on a date this weekend?
Oh hey there homework, let's have some fun!

TUESDAY
I see the person who suggested the group date and it reminds me of it. I start thinking of who to ask. Nothing else happens.
Still don't remember the date possibility. What's for dinner?
I have some free time Friday evening. That sounds like a great time for a date.
Oh goody, more homework! My favorite!

WEDNESDAY
The looming date has started to seep into the back of my mind. I'm starting to decide if it's going to be a "for fun" date, or the high rolling, high intensity, finally-ask-out-the-girl-I've-been-wanting-to-ask-out-for-about-a-month date. Because if its the second one then it needs to be GOOD. All Caps. Hmmmmm. I'll figure that out later.
Person reminds me of date possibility. I say I will probably go, although I'm still non-committal. I promptly forget again.
Hey, I should probably figure what I'm going to do this weekend, shouldn't I? I'll go talk to the guys.
That's a good idea. I should probably find a girl to ask.
Do I want to take this girl that I'm really interested in? Or is this just a fun date? Let's do a fun date this weekend.
RockBand looks like fun!

THURSDAY
Okay, so the date is tomorrow. I should probably ask someone right? At three times during the day I say to myself, "I really need to figure out who I am going to ask on this date! I would do it right now, but I'm in Physics/roller blading/its too early/playing sports/eating a peanut butter sandwich/don't have cell service/break dancing/writing poetry." This gets nothing done. I get home late from school after doing homework and now I'm sincerely worried about this date. Soooooo, I pull up the ward menu directory. This is either going to confirm to me that the girl I secretly wanted to take is the one I should take, or I am going to remember the cute girl on Sunday who gave the good lesson/talk/comment in class/smile and wink and decide to take her. Either way I am going to figure out who to take. This has cost some considerable mental energy and strength and so I think that it was good enough for the day. I might call or go over to her apartment tonight, but probably not. I have all day tomorrow anyway!
I remember the date on my own, feel proud of myself for remembering, and forget again. RockBand anyone?
So who am I taking out tomorrow? Let's check out the ward menu directory.
I think I'll take this girl. That should be fun! We'll have a great time. Should I call her?
I'm hungry. Time for dinner.

FRIDAY

After waking up in the morning the dread hits. What if she says no? Could I find another date in time? I could call her, but what if she answers? I pick up the phone and dial. Here is what may happen: "Hello? Hey, this is _____. How are you? (This is almost always fumbled because I want to get to the actual point of the conversation as soon as I can. The 'How are you' is always rushed for this reason, and I would have no idea what to say if the answer was anything but 'good.' Good thing that never happens) Good, how are you? (Okay, ball is back in my court and I can bring it on home!) Good. (k, past that) What are you doing tonight?   OR   Do you want to go to ___ with me tonight? (Now the heart is pounding. If she says yes is it because she is being nice and doesn't actually want to go? Or is she totally in to me? If she says no and gives an excuse is it because she really just doesn't want to go out with me? Or is she legitimately busy and would go out some other time if I asked her to?).  -  Pause...  -  Yeah that sounds like a lot of fun! (Okay good!! Now just rush through the details and get off the phone to celebrate!) Oh, awesome! We are going to meet up with (insert people's names for the group/double date here). I'll come by to get you at ____ time.  Okay, sounds good! See you then! Okay, bye!" Oh, that was brutal. But it was a success!! Now, gotta get my swag on! I dress up classy about a half hour before the date. I put some gel in my hair, spray the cologne, probably get one or two opinions on how I look from my roommates, and we're off.
I get home in the afternoon and consider the date possibilities. Choices: Stay home alone and bored, or go out and have a blast with a woman. Needless to say I usually choose the latter. Then I open the ward menu directory. I browse the pages and pages of beautiful women in the directory. I decide on someone, and ask for roommate confirmation. I can the proceed to the contact stage. I call or knock on the door. But I avoid texting at all costs, because that's just tacky even if it is ultra convenient. I ask how she is and ask if she is free tonight. Then I proceed to tell her we will be ________ and the group will be meeting at ______PM. I am about to hang up when she asks where we are meeting. Then I turn really red (thank goodness I'm on the phone and she can't see) and inform her I will pick her up and apologize for the lack of clarity. Now I can relax for a few hours before my date. Movie, food, RockBand, food, more food. 20 minutes before the date: Hmm, I should probably get ready soon. 15 minutes before: I really need to work up the willpower to get up and ready now. 10 minutes before: Get up, dressed, smelling good, and looking extraordinary (which isn't hard for me) all in time to pick up my hot date. Date time: I run out the door, and immediately run back in because I forgot a) which apartment my date lives in b) my phone or c) my wallet. Then I can proceed to pick up the girl. I knock, say hello and begin the best night of the week.
Okay the date's at 8 tonight. I should call her now.
Ring. Ring.
-Hello?
-Hey, [name], how are you?
-(The answer here is always, without exception, "good!")
-That's great! I was wondering if you're free tonight?
-(Usually) Yeah, I am.
-Awesome. Would you like to (go do something) with me?
-Sure, sounds great!
-Okay! (Explain details of date).
-Sounds like fun!
-See you tonight!
***T-minus 60 minutes to date***
What time is it? Okay, I've got half an hour until I should start getting ready.
***T-minus 30 minutes to date***
Oh hey, I should go get ready now.
Pump some jams. Brush teeth, put button-up shirt on, maybe shave.
Hey roomies, how do I look?
Darn. I could have waited a lot longer to get ready.
***T-minus 5 minutes to date***
Alright, I've been sitting here for 20 minutes. It's finally time! Let's go have some fun!

Amusement

a•muse•ment |əˈmyo͞ozmənt|

noun

the state or experience of finding something funny: we looked with amusement at our horoscopes.

• the provision or enjoyment of entertainment: an evening's amusement.

• something that causes laughter or provides entertainment: his daughter was an amusement to him.

In today's world if you have any down time whatsoever it is an absolute necessity to have some form of amusement. It's sad but totally true. Each day when I get home from school my top priorities are as follows:

1. Food

2.Shed my sweatshirt (which I shouldn't have in the first place because it's so stinking warm outside)

3. Food

4. Amusement from TV, phone, or computer

5. Food

7. Clean Kitchen

8. More Amusement

9. Amusement

10. Amusement

Etc.

Etc.

77. iwastesomuchtime.com as a last resort to avoid homework

78. Homework <- Oh dear

So what have I been amusing myself with as of late? Well for the first one is a new app I found for my phone. It's a virtual assistant kind of like Siri. I spend too much time trying to get it to answer my philosophical questions and insulting it. Another time waster I've found, unfortunately, is mind-melting sites like iwastesomuchtime.com and whatever that rage one is. Bottom line? I spend too much time amusing myself as opposed to getting out. So here's to semi-serious blogposts and late new years resolutions! I feel happy of myself now. 

Catchphrase

catch●phrase |ˈkaCHˌfrāz, ˈkeCH <-If you say it like that I will shoot you

noun

a well-known sentence or phrase, typically one that is associated with a particular famous person.

Catchphrase has taken on a whole new meaning to me the last week and a half or so. There are a few phrases that have been repeated MANY times each day within my apartment. We seem to latch on to a few phrases or songs and repeat them ALL THE TIME. It's kind of awesome.

Throw it Away
       Anytime there is anything unsatisfactory at all we just throw it away!

I Feel Happy of Myself
      This came from a youtube video. Watch the top one first. (Also, I can't put these up without mentioning Bryant)

Nope! Chuck Testa!
     This one also came from a youtube video. (Don't judge us) I think this one pretty much explains itself.



Needless to say, we have been have a grand time using these catchphrases many times in almost every conversation.

Scavengers

scav•eng•er |ˈskavənjər|

noun

an animal that feeds on carrion, dead plant material, or refuse.

• a person who searches for and collects discarded items.

• Brit. archaic a person employed to clean the streets.

• Chemistry a substance that reacts with and removes particular molecules, radicals, etc.

Does this word describe date night? Yes. Yes it does. But I'll get to that in a moment. For date night we played Just Dance 3 and had a creative sugar cookie contest. Simple, but insanely fun. I had the pleasure of making the best sugar cookies known to man with Monica Tillman (at I'm Actually a Girl). We made a fire-breathing-circus-dragon.

Brett (at White and Blue) and Emily went all serious and made Rocky Balboa climbing his "stairs".

Bryant and Erica made a silly kitten and whale involved in an impossible relationship.

Shortly thereafter two of my other roommates joined us with their dates and were the judges for our competition. This is where the scavenging comes in. As soon as our cookie presentation to the judging panel we all turned into animalistic scavengers trying to suck every extra brownie point from the judges. And who won? That's right. Monica and I. With our amazing dragon that even had a scaly texture. Ok, not really but ours was still the best. I mean who doesn't love a scaly circus dragon?

On a side note, here are Peter and Amanda playing Magic Carpet Ride the previous night.

Fate

fate |fāt|

noun

1 the development of events beyond a person's control, regarded as determined by a supernatural power: fate decided his course for him | his injury is a cruel twist of fate .

• the course of someone's life, or the outcome of a particular situation for someone or something, seen as beyond their control: he suffered the same fate as his companion.

Today I took a walk contemplating the meaning of fate. Sometimes it is kind to me. Other times not so much. Unfortunately fate was not so kind to me. I missed the impromptu Vocal Point performance today by about 2 minutes. I saw the big crowd, but didn't know what it was until too late. But I'm not going to complain about it. Instead of whining I'll just include these 3 videos of the performance thanks to my good friend Emily Hales from My Princess Diary.

So what has fate given me? A missed opportunity to see Vocal Point? I think fate has also given me lots of good things like... like... my toes. Toes are good. And..um... Ah &)*%$@! Fate has given me a mysterious lack of things to say on this blog post. Again. Well I guess I'm done then. Oh. Also, don't forget to :)

Epic Fail

Failure

• Failure refers to the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success. Product failure ranges from failure to sell the product to fracture of the product, in the worst cases leading to personal injury, the province of forensic engineering. For example:

So after further review, the below blog post is what we call an epic fail. While I was writing it it seemed so much more awesome than it actually is upon looking back at it. So sorry for wasting your life ;).

Quotidian Adventures

Congratulations! You've found my new blog. Again. My last attempt at a blog failed miserably, but that's what a second... or third chance is for. Right? Right! So down to business. Why is my blog called Quotidian Adventures?

quo•tid•i•an |kwōˈtidēən|

adjective [ attrib. ]

of or occurring every day; daily:

• ordinary or everyday, esp. when mundane: his story is an achingly human one, mired in quotidian details.

• Medicine denoting the malignant form of malaria.

There you have it! Straight from the dictionary. Minus the malaria part. As exciting as malaria is, I'm not writing about that. However, if you are still in the mood to read up on it, I can send you to this blog. But I digress. In this blog I hope to entertain you at least somewhat with my everyday adventures. Although not always the most extraordinary, always mildly exciting.

I suppose to begin I could tell you about the Just Dance 3 "epidemic". Or perhaps, I could tell you about the 9 people living in my apartment. For now though, I think we'll begin with the lasagna adventure that was doomed from the beginning.

It all started with a phone call. Which for my phone, named Le-a (pronounced le•dash•uh; the dash isn't silent), can sometimes be quite an ordeal. Unfortunately, this time Le-a continued to vibrate after I answered the call. So a battery pull, a returned call, and a few swear words later (not really), I learned that some of my high school friends and I were going to make lasagna for dinner on Saturday night... at 7. 7 o' clock?!?! Who eats that late? By the time I got there I was hungry enough to eat a small rhinoceros. To make things worse, upon arriving I discovered that the only one of our group who knew how to make lasagna was mysteriously missing! So here I am ready to devour my dinner mates and without lasagna know how. Cautiously we decided to proceed anyway.

The first ordeal was locating the lasagna noodles. After the most excruciating 10 minutes of my life we finally found it at the back of the black abyss they call a cupboard. Then next problem to deal with was what to do with the noodles. Fortunately we established (after another excruciating10 minutes) we were to cook the noodles, lay them in the pan, then layer meat, sauce and cheese. All that was left was to put it in the oven. When I read the instructions on the back of the noodle box which said to bake it for 60 minutes, a small part of my soul died. How was I going to wait yet another hour? I was lucky to have not started the practice of cannibalism thus far. I reluctantly started the timer and 20 minutes later our lasagna was over-cooked. Despite the fact that the cheese was slightly singed and we had no idea how to make lasagna, it was actually pretty good.
The End