If anyone wants to do the math, that is the exact amount of time (give or take the few seconds it takes for the this post to be published) between now and...yep, you guessed it, Christmas! Just for fun, here are a few other random figures about Christmas:

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Seconds until Christmas:535,918 seconds
Minutes:8,931 minutes
Hours:148 hours

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pretty exciting is all ive got to say! anyway, one of the biggest surprises is that I actually haven't finished my christmas shopping! but not to worry, i will have it finished on time and under the christmas tree (whoops....for all kids under the age of 8, i meant that Santa will have those presents under the tree by Christmas day. I'd like to digress for a moment, and explore a different aspect of Christmas. now, giving is the true spirit of christmas, and i personally think that giving (when you really spend alot of time trying to find that perfect gift for each person on your list) is more fun. however, id like to know what is the one present that you (anyone who reads this blog) wish you could have, if there were no restrictions of any kind. for example, on my Christmas dream list, i would love to have a new car, specifically a certain Saleen S7 i mentioned in an earlier paper. Xbox 360. is another one of my dream christmas wished. I've always enjoyed gaming, and the xbox 360 is an entire step above current generation consoles. (it actually has more raw processing power than any commercial PC ive seen recently...for the number cruncher out there...it has one teraflop Floating Point performance (FLOP).) Thats ALOT! anyway, down to the final item on my dream christmas wish list, a laptop. college is coming up pretty soon, and a laptop is quickly becoming a college essential. My dream laptop would be this. Of course, i would include a few extra things not shown here, but this is the basic idea :). So anyway, there is my dream christmas wishlist, nothing left out! Anybody who wants to give me their dream christmas wishlist, that would be aweosme! Merry Christmas Everybody! ps, ill see most of the people that read my blog in a few days anyway!
6 days, 4 hours, 51 minutes, 58 seconds...see, some time has passed already!

Happy holidays everybody! It's been a pretty aweosme week! one of the best things is that this semester is finally winding down! all my classes are coming to a close, and i have one final English project before i finish my second to last semester of high school. another cool piece of news is that i got a checking account...yes, i have entered the high powered world of power stock brokers, million dollar transactions, and businesses in the palm of my hand...hahahahaha! oh wait....i got a little power hungry. ok...so its just a small checking account, but still, ive got to admit, it was really cool writing my very first check! haha....i dont think ive ever been so excited about spending money :) anyway, before i head out to bed, i wanted to tell about a really good essay i wrote for english. we had to write a paper for english and use every name of every person in my english class. i started the paper...and before i could lift my fingers from the keyboard, a five page paper had appeared on the screen......whoops. anyway, if anyway wants to read the entire paper...the entire text can be found here. well, i must retire for the night, so everyone enjoy the holidays...(ps...less than 2 weeks to CHRISTMAS!) and have a very Merry Christmas.

Yeah, Christmas is pretty much here! This post will be relatively short, but i just wanted to explain the pictures below. all of them are from the building of the dog house and the decroating of the Christmas tree. yes, there i am, in all of my goofiness... :) in other news...i just wanted to post that...i got accepted to BYU! (provo for those in doubt). i was pretty stoked! i was also pretty surprised that i got the letter back so quickly, since i just finished submitting my college application about a week ago. at least i didnt have to wait until this summer to find out!! and finally...this means that i will be thick into scholarship applications for the next several weeks...eventhough the deadlines arent until Feb., i prefer not to get behind! so everyone, enjoy yourselves while i go enjoy the snow thats falling right now!

awwww 

Ummm....who is THAT? 

Putting up the Lights 

I like Christmas Trees! 

Me and Logan in the doghouse 

Me on the doghouse 

Me in Doghouse 

Ninja style with completed doghouse 

Building the doghouse 

My $0.50 ornament 

Yep, its that time of year again. wrapping paper and tinsel, lights and carolers, building doghouses in the sleet for our dogs (especially our golden retriever). yeah, that pretty much sums up what ive done today, that is, minus the wrapping, tinsel, lights, and carolers. :) it was surprisingly fun at first, my brother and dad and me all working together with power tools...i mean...does it get any better than that? it was all fun and games until it started sleeting. before that logan and i developed a system of nailing in the stud walls. he helped steady the wall and keep it in place while i hammered like a mad man. dad cut out sutds and and rafters while we worked. about the time we started putting on sheet metal on the walls, the sky opened up and down came the sleet. hey, its sleeting right, thats even better than working when its dry :) seriously though, it was pretty cool. we even put on a real roof with house shingles (yep, no water will get into this dog house). what made it really fun was spending time with "the guys" and building something for someone else (even if its just a dog...lol). anyway, im just ready for Christmas to be here!! oh yeah...happy birthday to kim today...officially hitting the big 1-8, congrats to her!

Well, as you can see from the pictures below, it's been a pretty exciting Thanksgiving! As far as my memory can tell (and that really isnt very far) this has been one of the best Thanksgivings ever! probably the best part was getting to spend so much time with my family from out of town, especially Kristen and Cory....and their very cute kids elise and ian! i really enjoyed getting to be the "uncle" and just entertain them. of course that included watching
The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl several times! but it was really fun. i didnt put in pictures of all the Thanksgiving mayhem, so i will include a few extra stories of whats not pictured. on Thanksgiving day i started (and finished) a Dan Brown novel called Digital Fortress. Since the Xbox was broken, i reached a boredom high and decided to try a book. once i start a book, i cant stop until i finish...lol. its a really good book, and i recommend it to any Dan Brown fans or suspense novels. Also, i enjoyed getting to pitch some with my bro-in-law, which, as you can tell from several previous posts, baseball is my passion! lastly, i wanted to include a little update on what i've been working on the past several days. ive been working on learning HTML and JavaScript. all that means is that i can write webpages. you may have noticed the music that is now on my site, which is something i included by editing the site template HTML. (p.s. if the music is annoying, just say so...lol). anyway, back to my story :) JavaScript is the most technically difficult programming language i've learned so far. I think for my next post i will include a basic guide to HTML programming, especially since kristen asked about learning how to design websites and such. for reference, HTML is easier and more forigiving that Java, but HTML cant do quite as many neat things as Java can. most professional websites rely more heavily on javascript, but if you try to learn it, just remember that it just takes time and practice to become good at it. by the way, a good site to learn some basics about HTML and JavaScript can be found here. A couple of the tutorials on this are slightly outdated, but i found some new fixes and new coding just by playing around with the code. feel free to email me with any questions. Happy Holidays everyone!

Me and my nephew 

Me and my Sis by the fire 

The "Real" Celeb. Stars! 

Yeah, Xbox 360 is here, sort of. my brother and i have been saving up for months so we can afford the $400 necessary to purchase the "premium" xbox 360. the "core" 360 costs $300, just for reference. Anyway, i had planned to go to walmart around 8-10pm and wait til midnight so i could beat the craze. as it turned out, vouchers had been all passed out by 6:00pm! unbelieveable!! thus the question, why so many nerds, and where do these people come from? how do they have the time to wait (literally) for 16 hours for a game console? basically, it was a let down to save $400 for months, only to have our plans frustrated by some little nerdy kids who just borrowed $400 from their parents, and then didnt have school or work to keep them from the long wait! its just annoying! fortunately, i have a definite edge over the next shipment of xbox 360s. one edge is that no one knows when the next shipment will come in, thus no one can really wait for an indefinite deadline. another advantage is that logan has decided to call walmart every morning before he goes to school, thus when the next shipment comes in, hopefully, we will be one of the first to know. lastly, im trying to get into the gaming industry, in fact, i got a job interview for gamespot (a large local gaming store), and i hope that employment there will give me some news about when the next shipment will come in, thus giving me my final edge. some may say this is nerdier than waiting for hours, but to this i respond that its just smart shopping... :) ironically, my original xbox died the day xbox 360 came out! talk about good timing! so it goes in the life of a gamer! most people are bored by gaming, but just for comparison purposes, think about this. the average home PC runs at around 2.5ghz to 3ghz. the xbox 360 has three processors which run at 3.2ghz each! to sum up, the xbox 360 is several times more powerful than any commercial PC on the market! all ive got to say is craziness! take it easy everyone, HAPPY THANKSGIVING, think thankful thoughts and enjoy the food! Happy Holidays!

Well, today i was out sick, and i had alot of extra time on my hands...that is...inbetween the restless sleep of the sick. its been a really neat day, since i finished the Book of Mormon today. i dont want to sound braggish, but since i use this blog as a journal, i wanted to record this event and the feelings that accompanied it. id like to say that the promis made by President Hinckley is true...if you finish the Book of Mormon, you will be blessed with an added measure of the spirit, i know that i have felt it. im not a person who has lost count of the number of times ive read the Book of Mormon, my current completition count is twice. still, when i finished it this time, i felt something different, it really touched me differently and more deeply than before. i try to shy away from deep religious experiences, but i want to say that i know the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ, and im grateful for the ancient prophets who wrote the book. i know its true, and that is my testimony...or at least part of it. i feel such a connection to the people of the scriptures, the struggles of the lamanites and nephites, the jaredites and the sorrow of moroni as he watched the destruction of his people. anyway, i just wanted to post that, so i will remember the feelings of finishing the Book of Mormon. and now i bid farewell. brethren, audieu. lol!

Yeah, its been ahwile since ive posted, i know, but thats because its been a busy couple of weeks!! i wont bore my public ;) with boring details and such, so ill try to keep my comments to subjects of interest...lol! anyway, school has been going fairly well, only its been sad since soccer season ended. im making it ok though! also, the college application proccess has been a headache! so far ive gotten everything completed except for the essay section of the BYU application process. i think im going to apply to BYU Idaho, SVU, and perhaps another utah college depending on how things go. one cool thing i found out was that one of my close friends was going to BYU, so that would be cool to get to room with him, its just cool to know some other "southern" boys are going out to BYU with me! in other news, this 6 weeks is over, meaning i have 4 more grading periods before my senior year is over! and the good news is that ive compiled some really good grades! for this 6 weeks ive got a 99 in AP Cal, a 96 in Honors Eng, a 96 in Honors Arch. Drafting, and finally a 100 or a 99 in Intro to TV Prod. its nice to have a few more good grades to add to my high school transcript. Lastly, i had my youth council meeting last night, as well as a youth fireside, which i spoke at! it was really cool, not to mention i was extremely nervous, considering it was my first "stake" speaking assignment. the funniest thing was that my mom sent my little borther with a mini tape recorder to record my talk and all the good comments people said about it...haha....it was pretty funny! i just hope people dont think im conceited or anything...but it was cool...very mom like! and trust me mom...thats a good thing! anyway, im out...im going to try and get some serious work done on my college essay so i can hopefully finish wrapping it up. oh yeah...if anybody has any tips on writing a 300 hundred word essay about personal achievemtns, recognitions, or other such things that make me a stand-out college candidate, i would appreciate the help!

 

 

It's been an exciting week! Surprisingly, MAHS soccer made it to the playoffs for the first time since my freshmen year! how amazing is that? the only downside is that we were the lowest seed at #12. we lost our first round game to elkin 7-0. overall we had one awesome season, and eventhough we didnt get a state chapionship, or even a conference championship, it was easily my favorite soccer season ive been a part of. i wish i knew what our final record was, but i cant remember what it was. we were pretty close to the .500 mark though. the soccer banquet will be this monday where awards and certificates are given out. however, in other news, i recently got a haircut! pretty surprising i know, but it was getting to long! and we know its getting too long when i think its too long! its cool though, i really like it, and i will post some pictures so everyone can enjoy and critique my new haircut. ive got a few things left before me and the family leave for the wake soccer game, but i just wanted to annouce that english is annoying!! last night i finished a 7 page paper about my shadowing experience. the shadowing part was fun...dont get me wrong, but 7 pages about 4 hours! its just ridiculous! but i finished it! my paper was basically a good introduction....a good conclusion...and then 4 1/2 pages of....absolutely nothing! anywya...look below for all the soccer pictures as well as some haircut pics...adn enjoy!

Sweet! 

Uh OH!! 

Did I Mess That Picture Up? 

Staying Warm! 

Danville Fun 

My posting these days has mostly been limited to really big events, or i just feel like i need to post something since i havent posted anything in awhile. This post, however, happens to be a really big event! we met halfway between our houses in Danville to see kim's dad race. Kim and i met about 11am at a hotel in danville and then i drove us both to the raceway. it was actaully kinda exciting to see bro. waters race! he did pretty good from what i gather, since he placed highly overall and in his class of cars. unforunately, i dont have any good picture to post yet, so i just posted some i had of me and kim last time she came to my house! i look kinda goofy, but honestly, with pictures of me and kim, who ever looks at the pictures to see me? :) kim and i also pitched a little bit in between races, as well as fighting off the biting cold! part of the day i braved the cold with nothing but a polo on! as the sun went down it started getting really cold, even for me, so i caved in and put on my hoodie, so it worked out! overall, i cant really describe it as well as i would like...its hard for me to really convey what kind of time i had...but believe me...it was...good...oh yeah, random, but in other news, i got a speaking assignment on the first vision while i was in danville! i got a call on my cellphone from a number i didnt recognize, but it turned out to be bro. yeoman, who gave me a speaking assignment for the next fireside on the first vision. Ironically, today i got another speaking assignment for the sunday after the fireside on honesty! it could be a couple of busy weeks! but i do enjoy speaking and teaching others, i dont know how well i do, but i still enjoy it! oh yeah, and lastly, ive got some blood work at the hospital to do tommorow, so everyone wish me luck with that, im not really looking forward to it, but i just want to get it over with! anyway, tahts all for today, and kim...good luck with school the next couple of days...ill say a prayer for ya!

 

 

Hardcore Underarmour 

Underarmour 

Yes, the day has finally come...sad though it may be. i played my final soccer match in my home Wallace Shelton Stadium. it surpirsed me how nervous i was about the game, eventhough it was one of the easiest teams in the conference. well, needless to say, we beat them 6-2, even with utilizing a new defense at the end of the game called "watch the other team shoot on our goalie" it was pretty effective and we only allowed two goals with this new prototype defense...lol! it was sad to know that my senior soccer season has actually come to a close. but on the plus side, what a way to go out, in front of one of the biggest home crowds in my enitre soccer career. overall it was one aweosme night! i also included some pics of me after the west wilkes game, which was another aweosme game, since we beat the team with the best goalie in 1-a state conference. next week we play elkin tuesday and then east wilkes wed. if we win either of those game, we are almost guaranteed a spot in the conference tournament, which hasnt happened to MA soccer since my freshmen year. anyway, wish the team luck (and me) and keep it real!

Soccer Playa'