My Life (And Some New Songs)

Well, its been a pretty exciting week. I know I need to make a new post since I have been relatively inactive poster the last few days. Of course, I can always use my fallback topic - girls and technology (yeah, odd combo, I know). Fear not, this post contains only a few paragraphs devoted to the above topic!

First off - college.

For those that haven't heard I have been accepted to BYU-ID and BYU-P. The real dilemna is that I haven't been able to decide which college to go to. There are so many factors that it makes my head spin. To think out loud (or in this case, type out loud), the first factor in determining which college to go to is money. My parents have already told me that one of the major deciding factors - regarding college - is money. Between BYU-P and BYU-ID the monetary difference isn't much, but is existent. BYU-ID is cheaper than Provo. Another factor is scholarships. I haven't heard back from any of the scholarships from either BYU. I did hear back from the Armsfield Foundation...and I'm a finalist! As a sidenote, the Armsfield is for between $4,000-$7,500 per year for four years. Objectively, Idaho is likely to be cheaper moneywise.

Second factor - rooming.

Rooming. I wouldn't mind having some random roomate for college, but the thought is slightly daunting, especially considering I've lived in Mount Airy (population: 8,484) my entire life. Oh well. Eventhough I don't really know anyone who I could room with in Idaho, a lot of people from the Winston-Salem Stake are going. As far as Provo is concerned, I know several people, most importantly, my Brother goes there. It would be really cool to go to college with Ethan. Also, Phillip (one of my friends from Dobson), is going to Provo and I could room with him. Stupid colleges.

Third factor - me.

One of the last vital factors is me. What do I want? I'm not even sure is the problem. Both colleges have seperate appeals. Idaho is cheaper, although the no-shorts rule is pretty lame. Yet again, I'm going in the fall/winter, so I doubt I will even need to worry about shorts. If I go to Provo, I will get to hang out with Ethan and Phillip before I leave for my mission. If I go to Idaho, I will get to come for the summer before my mission. If I go to Idaho, it may be harder to get into Provo when I come home. ARGHHHHH!!!! I guess you can understand my confusion. The biggest problem for me so far has been money. I always thought it would be soo nice to get a full-ride scholarship to one school or the other, then my decision would - essentially - be made for me. That has yet to happen, so the tough choice is left more so in my hands. I guess only time will tell. By the way...any good college tips from those readers who have already been through the college gauntlet?

Aside from college choices, I thought I would point out the almost completely revamped Summer Break Playlist. The only songs that carried over were "Stars" by Switchfoot and "Lights and Sounds" by Yellowcard. Some of the new songs include performances by: Amber Pacific, Brand New, All-American Rejects, Story of the Year, and others! Enjoy the songs. Don't forget to check out all the songs ever played on the Summer Break blog by visiting the Music Archives!

How To: View Blogs from one Place

This post will be a little HOW TO post. I know many of you (you being the readers) have many blogs to visit and use bookmarks or such to scroll through the blogs to check for new content and posts. Some of you may not know about RSS/Atom feeds.

RSS/Atom feeds are basically standardized XML documents published by newsites and sites that update their content often. RSS/Atom feeds can be found on almost all major sites (Google News, CNN, MSNBC, the list goes on and on). Any site worth their salt has RSS/Atom feeds.

Including all blogs (unless the blog owner has done some modding to the blog code and disabled/altered the feed).

What does this mean? This means that one can view recently published posts and such from multiple blogs...and all in one place. There are multiple RSS feed readers that display desktop updates involving your favorite site feeds, but I will ignore that for this post.

In order to take advantage of these feeds, go to www.google.com and click on the link in the upper right hand corner that says "Personalized Home" This will take you to a screen - similar in appeareance to the Google homepage, yet with extra information displayed.

From there, either sign in with your google account (hopefully you already have one) or, click "Personalize Homepage." Clicking that link will help you create a personalized homepage without creating a google account. However, that homepage will only be viewable on the computer is was created with...unless you use your google account.

When you click the "Personalize Homepage" button (after signing in to your google account), click the "Add Content" button in the upper right hand corner of the screen. There are several RSS feeds alread available there, so please feel free to experiment and see what you like. To use your Google Homepage with the blogs, click inside the text box right beneath the "Search by topic of feed URL."

Here comes the fun part. Type the address of the blog, i.e. http://yourblog.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Thats all there is to it. The name of your blog + /atom.xml

A little box will be added to the homepage with links to the 3 most recently published posts from that blog. 3 is the default number, but can be changes to as many as 9 and as few as 1. I use this system to keep up with all the many blogs I visit. This way, I can check for new posts on ALL the blogs from one page, without checking through four or more blogs from a favorites window.

Anyway, enjoy the added functionality, and feel free to comment this post with any questions or problems encountered. Enjoy!

My Very First "A"

Today is a great day. Why? Because I got my very first "A" in Dr. Cozzens (AKA President Cozzens, Mr. Cozzens, and occasionally just Cozzens) English class. This is indeed a VERY big deal. Coming into the class, I was soo worried because I had heard nothing but horror stories about supposedly great writers heading into his class, only to resurface with low B's and C's. In fact, Sister Hutchinson told me that she had never heard of anyone getting an A in his class.

Wow

Yeah it scared me to death. I had just come from Mrs. Ridolfi's class where I easily aced any essay by throwing in a few flowery sentenced elegantly spiced with advanced vocabulary. Next thing I knew, my head was spinning from a low B paper (actually i think it was an 83 on the 10-point scale). Don't get me wrong, I was glad to get a B, but I wanted more.

Ironically, I got the inspiration (if you can call it that) for my essay from doodling in class. I was drawing stick figures (whoops) when one of my fellow classmates suggested I write an essay about them. I didn't know what else to write about...so I went with it. To make a long story short, I wrote the paper, turned it in, and nervously awaited my grade. The paper came back...and BAM! Like lightning from heaven, their stood my beautiful, gleaming penciled-in 90 at the top of my essay. Like a prince atop his throne, so majestically sat my grade.

Ok, it wasn't quite that exciting, but I was still very excited to have made my first A. Part of the drive to get an A was because everyone said it couldn't be done. That just made me want an A more. I've made - mostly - A's all my life and I wanted to prove that I wasn't the product of grade inflation; that instead I was a genuinely dilligent (and talented) student. I don't have an overall A average yet....oh but I will!

By the way, the contents of that essay can be read Here

As a final note, the new 'Flavor of the Day' has been updated and is now in rotation. The playlist will also get a major overhaul with nearly a completely new lineup. Stay tuned!

So Goes Dating

Why does Kristen call my blog "The Teen Scene?" Well, for the simple reason that all I have to post about is dating. And today I will prove her wrong! Wait, this is actually just another post about dating. Alright, fine. I can live with that. So anyways, on with my narrative. Me, Kelsey, Shaylon, and Sydney all went out on a date this weekend. The only problem was that we only had a few hours to do the date (around 3, give or take). Due to unforseen circumstances (i.e. Kelsey's parents) Kelsey and Sydney didn't make it to Mount Airy until nearly an hour late - yeah. I didn't mind though, so Shaylon and I nixed the first part of the date; the park. On to part II, going out to eat. We hurried through supper in time to make it to Amy's wedding reception. Kelsey was supposed to leave at 830, but we didn't even make it to the reception until 845.

To sum up before I get too carried away, Kelsey left about 900-915, and is now grounded from driving up to see me.

Don't get me wrong, the date was aweosme, and it was great getting to see Kelsey again. That part was awesome! In fact, dare I say, the best part of the weekend :)

I'm not even entirely sure what I'm complaining about. I guess I'm just griping that Kelsey got grounded, to sum up everything. But after all, I'm not grounded from going to see her! Forgive me a cruel chuckle (hahahahahaha) I guess what really worries me about the whole deal is the fear that Kelsey's parents really must not like me. I feel like Kelsey's parents are punishing her more becuase she was late coming back from seeing me. Maybe I'm way off here, but those are just the ramblings of a love-struck 17 year old (sheepish grin) :)

So any - advice/"been there, done that"/helpful tips for the future - would be greatly apprecieated.

P.S. to shawn, have you tried out the Beat 2 of IE 7? If so, what do you think. For me, the jury is still out.

Color Paper

About

My name is Adam. I have been blogging sporadically since 2005 and have always enjoyed the connectedness of it. I'm preparing to serve a full time, 2 year mission for my Church. I work at a Real Estate company as a catch-all IT guy. I love watching movies, I don't read a ton of books but when I start one I can't put it down until I finish. More to come!

My Life (And Some New Songs)

How To: View Blogs from one Place

My Very First "A"

So Goes Dating

Color Paper

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