Amending the Revision

Ok, well, I figured out the problem why people couldn't see my paper. But I've fixed it. So if you still want to read my essay, click here.

I Love Books!

They got here! About 2 weeks ago or so I ordered 耶穌是基督 and the new 三合一 and I got them today! Ok, so probably not too exciting to you guys, but the first one is Jesus the Christ and the second one is the new Chinese translation of a triple (BoM, D&C, and PoGP). It is very exciting. AND!!! I start my wicked awesome fun (minus one class) Spring term on Tuesday. Those are only related because I will have a really cool Chinese film class. And I'm excited about clogging and gymnastics, not so much about History of Utah though.

I called a friend who took the Chinese film class a year ago and he said I could use his books, saving me about $40, pretty cool if you ask me.

I was at the book store, and they were out of the next book in the Ender's Game series, so I looked on line and found them and the parallel series, Enders Shadow, for cheaper than I could get them for the regurlar price, so I ordered them :-).

Like I said, I love books!

A Revision

Well, I revised my That's Absurd! paper and just wanted to get some feed back on which version everyone thought was better. Click here for the revised version and the original is just a couple posts down my blog. Oh, FYI, the only part I really changed was towards the end. Enjoy!

Fantoms and Phinals

Don't you hate the feeling of not having something that you have grown accustomed to? I've had the same watch for probably close to 10 years. It has been a great watch. But it broke. Granted, it's been probably 2-3 months since it broke. But I still get that blasted 'phantom watch' feeling on my wrist. I'll shake my arm to move my watch, which isn't there, down to its proper place. It bugs me. Also annoying is the phantom vibration of my phone in my pocket when it's actually in my hand or otherwise out of my pocket. Why does the body play tricks on itself? It's rather annoying.


On another, unrelated subject, I love a good book. It's been a long time since I just sat down to read a novel because I wanted to. I had never read Enders Game, so when I sold my text books back the other day, I picked it up. I highly recommend it. I started reading it today and would probably read through the night and finish it if I didn't have work at 5:00 tomorrow morning and a final or two to take tomorrow which I need to prepare for. Gosh darn school getting in the way of my college experience!

Bad Play Project

I love theater. I especially love acting, but right after that comes a good play. Here in Provo, there is a community theater called the New Play Project. What they do is they give new playwrights the opportunity to have their plays acted out on stage for a first time. Well, some times, the plays that some people wright are just down right bad. A while ago the founders decided to do a compilation of the worst plays that people have written over the past few years. After the plays were selected, the directors were given one day to select the cast and put the whole thing together. Most of the plays were pretty short. When you bought your ticket to watch the "Bad Play Project", as they called it, you were given a complimentary bag of projectiles. The way we were to vote for our favorite bad play was to cast our projectiles at the actors on the stage. It was probably one of the most fun experiences I have ever had as part of an audience. The play that won was Pride & Predigest & Telletubbes: The Musical. It was pretty painful. Oh, but it was so fun to boo and hiss and throw things onto stage. What a great Friday night!

Personal Essay

Well, I just finished my last paper for my English class, and I must say, I'm rather proud of it. It's most definitely my favorite paper I have ever written. So I figured I would share it. If you are curious, click here to read it. Enjoy!

Humbled on Wednesday, Happy Today

Well, I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with BYU's Folk Dance program (probably not many of you), but it's something that I was introduced to this semester, and have grown to love. It was no surprise that I got onto one of the teams considering I'm a guy that tried out. Trying out was one of the main qualifying factors for guys to get on a team. Basically every guy who tried out made it to one team or another. Not to brag, but I have always considered myself a fairly good dancer. It's a talent for which I'm very grateful and enjoy very much. With that being said, the best Folk Dance Team at BYU is the Performing Arts Company (or PAC). To even try out for PAC, you have to have a special invitation. To my surprise, I was invited to try out! Now, keep in mind, there are only about 8 spots to be filled for guys and there were probably 25, maybe 30 guys there, many of which have been folk dancing for years and have lots of experience in other types of dance. All I have is a little bit of Social Dance background and a fairly quick learning curve.

Well, Wednesday evening was the first part of tryouts. They taught us four different types of dance: Ballet, Slovakian, Bollywood and Clogging. The Ballet wasn't hard, it was mostly just controlling yourself and your movement. We did a little bit of Slovakian in my class this semester, so it was halfway familiar, but still hard. The Bollywood was tons of fun, but also very hard. Wednesday when we were learning it, I wasn't getting it and was getting rather frustrated. Then we did Clogging... ha ha... I have never done anything even remotely like Clogging. About 10 min into the Clogging, I found myself wishing we would just go back to Bollywood, it was that bad. I was finally able to sympathise with the guys who just can't get dancing down. I had a nice big piece of humble pie for dessert that night.

Friday after dance class was over, my teacher came up to me and had to tell me that Edd (the man in charge of PAC and SPAC, Spring Performing Arts Company) on multiple occasions commented on how good I was doing and wanted to know who I was. That made me feel much better about Wednesday night.

This morning we finished tryouts. Not having really practiced much since Wednesday night, I didn't really feel too much better than on Wednesday. However, I did realize that my chances of making it on PAC are pretty darn slim, so I aught to just have fun and enjoy the fact that I even had the opportunity to tryout. So that's what I did.

Today was setup somewhat different than before. We all practiced together at first then went out of the room. We were called in by our numbers to dance in small groups so Edd could see us better. In each of the dances, I was called in in the first group to go in to dance. After attempting to just get the rhythm somewhat down for Clogging, Edd pulled me aside and asked how much Clogging I have done. Zero. Zilch. None. He said that I'm a natural dancer, but I really need to learn the actual steps. Wow, that was quite the confidence boost! After everything was over, we had an opportunity to show some of the other things we know besides what they taught us. So I went in and did a coffee grinder and a few flips. They once again asked how much dance I have done. Just a little bit of Social Dance. "Well, we had better see you next year" he replied.

I won't know until June ish if I made PAC or not. But I'm not holding my breath. I plan on taking some clogging this Fall. Perhaps I can make it onto SPAC for next year or possibly even PAC! Who knows. All I know is that I love dancing and it would appear that I at least have some potential in Folk Dance. So all I can do is keep dancing and doing my best and we'll see where it takes me!

I must be a masochist

A few weeks ago, I went ice skating. While there, I intentionally went sliding down the ice Superman style, hitting my knee hard on the ice on the way down. While there, I went down on my knees multiple times attempting to mimic a cool trick I saw someone else doing (it wasn't perfect, but it didn't look half bad by the end of the night, if I do say so myself). I also succeeded in knocking my knee on the leg of a table while attempting to sit down to take my skates off.

Later, I bought a pair of roller blades. On my christening trip around Provo, they succeeded in finding one of the worst spots on Provo's already crappy sidewalks, thus introducing my knees and hands and even one elbow to the ground!

In Folk Dance, at the beginning of our dance, I do a dive roll. It's ok, my hip bone breaks my fall on the wonderful wooden dance floor.

Yet again in Folk Dance, we were doing a relay race (No problem, we were on carpet this time). My partner and I had taken the lead with a piggyback ride being the only leg left of the race. She hops on my back and we take off. Not 15 steps into it, I stumble and wipe my knee across the carpet. (there is STILL a scab from that one)

Oh yeah, also in our dance, on multiple occasions, the men go down on one knee. You guessed it! The scabbed, knocked up, bruised knee!

This afternoon, I was playing frisbee. Some one threw the frisbee beautifully right toward me. Instead of using my hands, I decide to catch it with my upper lip and teeth. The result: A fat lip.

Later tonight, we are playing a game for FHE where we have crackers tied to our belts and we are trying to break everyone else's crackers off without loosing our own. It was down to Nick (a room mate) and I. Everyone ganged up on me. I attempted an awkward backwards roll, succeeding in hitting my hip, tale bone and my already scabbed up knee. Not to mention scrapping up my elbow and overextending my thumb.

I can't WAIT to see what tomorrow has in store!