So why is life like a swimming pool. That's a good question that I'm about to answer. I had this amazing analogy a couple of days ago when I was pondering about the course my life has taken up until now. This is what I came up with.

When we are born, we start in the kiddie pool. We wade around through elementary school/primary amidst toys while our parents watch over us and occasionally splash around in there with us.

As we mature we venture into the shallow end of the pool. Our family is all around us, as well as our friends. We play through high school, carefully shielded from the entirety of the pool around us. We realize there is more to the pool than where we are, but its too big to really understand.

Just to interject, I can't really complete the analogy, because I only can relate my feelings up until this point in my life.

Anyway, as we graduate high school, we climb out of the shallow end and wander towards the diving board. Our parents have yet to realize we have wandered off. Suddenly, we find ourselves poised on the end of the diving board, looking out at the pool, finally seeing everything for the first time. We find ourselves separated from our parents, poised over the deepest and scariest end of the pool. Its something we have to do alone, and the decisions we make on that diving board will affect the rest of our lives.

I feel like I'm at the end of that diving board, finally seeing my life for the first time. My mission, marriage, a career, my education, my family, all lays in front of me and for the first time I'm rushing to meet it. In the shallow end, we wade around without a grasp of what lies in front of us. Now, life is staring us hard in the face, and we have to dive.

Yep, that's my analogy. Enjoy.

Alright, what is up with Rexburg weather? I mean I thought weather forecasting was the same everywhere. Apparently not. So before I go to bed I check the forecast. The forecast is 'light snow.' Now being from North Carolina, I thought 'light snow' meant 'light snow,' when, in fact, 'light snow' actually means 3 inches of wet snow blowing in your face at 29 degrees with a windchill of 2. Ok, I'm exagerating; the windchill was closer to 14 degrees.

More to the point of the story, I thought that being only 29 degrees (that's reasonably warm by my Rexburg standards) I went out in a t-shirt with a AE sweater overtop and jeans. Whew! Snow was blowing hard enough into my eyes to make my eyes start to water! I think a few people thought I was bawling and have me some odd stares on my way up to campus. Rexburg natives, pugh! The point of the story is: weather forecasting is different for every area. So to prevent weather forecast confusion, I've added a North Carolina/Rexburg translation guide:

North Carolina Forecast	Rexburg Equivalent
Midly warm, high of 62	humidity 100%, heat wave of the century
Slightly Chilly, high in 50's	Getting toasty out there, DON'T BRING A JACKET
Very cold, possible ice on bridges	Standard weather pattern
Bitter COLD, lows in the 20s	Nippy in the morning, wear a hoodie
Blizzard of the century! STAY INDOORS	Light snow expected, wear a jacket, no gloves
Blizzard of the MILLENIUM	Mild snow, add the gloves
--no NC equivalent--	Mild to heavy snow---expecting 24-36 inches per hour

So there you have it, how to interpret weather in Rexburg. Seriously, there was 2-3 inches of snow on the road and not a single snow plow. I asked someone why and they said the snow plows don't come out until it snows!! I looked incredulouosly at her as I politely pointed at the 2-3 inches of white powder on the ground. I maid a mental not "not to talk to crazy."

Back in NC in t-minus 6 days.

Ok, before I dive right into this post, let me comment on how hard it is to write a post entitled "Why I Don't Like My Roommate" when your surrounded by people who are your roommates. The one time I leave my room to put away some dishes, my roommate (who has been out all weekend, which was wonderful) walks in. I run (casually of course) back to my room in time to exit out of that screen before he could see the title of my post.

Now, on to the meat of this post. This semester draws to a close and I have built up quite a list of dislikes of my roommate. At the beginning of the semester, I though he would be pretty cool. The problem is, roommates who are complete opposites simply avoid each other and don't talk. Suffice it to say my roommate is in love with me and has no concept of "proper social courtesy."

Case 1---Listening to Music While Sleeping:

Every night, my roommate listens to music while going to sleep. This wouldn't be so bad, except that he listens to it from the speakers on his desktop PC. And the music is Gwen Stefani, and I despise rap/whatever-it-is-she-sings. So I go to bed 30 minutes later than him so I can turn off his music without waking/disturbing him. Keep in mind my roomie does have an mp3 player and could listen to his music through headphones. Anyway, in the morning he acts all upset that I turned off his speakers in the night. Pardon me for liking to sleep in silence like the rest of the world.

Case 2---Talking on the Cellphone at Night:

One night while I was going to sleep he was chatting it up with a girl at around 1:00am. I tried listening to my iPod to drown out his voice, but his piercing, high-pitched laugh (I'm not making this up) kept me awake. I ended bringing my blanket and pillow into the living room and slept on the couch.

Case 3---Running Tabs:

How many roommates keep running tabs of how much their roomie owes them. My roommate does. Thats understandable if your roommate constantly borrows money, but my tab on the year is less than $10.00! I mean honestly, how petty is that? Anyway, let's not forget how much he owes me. For example, my printer, which I let him use, and my paper in my printer, and my ink in my printer, etc. Ironically, Marc uses my printer more than I do! Anyway, I could go on and on but that's just the most obvious example.

Case 4---Music:

While I'm in the room alone, I typically play some music to listen to. Whenever Marc enters the room, and I mean nearly every time, he sits down at his computer and starts to play his music over my own! He doesn't even ask if he can listen to some. He doesn't put in headphones just blasts me into submission.

Case 5---No Personal Space:

Most people observe Personal Space Boundaries, or PSB as I like to call them. Marc does not. He constantly rearranges my things without asking me so it's hard to find my things. Not to mention he always uses my bed as a desk. Book, clothes, sheets, he puts it all on my bed. At the beginning of the year, I carefully placed his things back on his bed, but now, he places his stuff on my bed, and I place it on the floor.

I'm sure there are plenty more things that I could name off that annoy me, but these are just a few that I can think of off the top of my head. I'm not trying to be mean, but sometimes you just have to vent about somebody. Don't worry, my next post will be much more uplifting than this one. Oh yeah, as a side note, I will be returning to beautiful North Carolina in approximately 8 days! December 19th/20th I will arrive in RDU. See you then!

So you were probably stunned by the sign-in page at the beginning of my blog, plus once you got in, surprised again by the new template. These are just a few of the new features of the beta blogger by Google. So, tell me how you like it and be prepared for my next post, which will sum up the things that drive ME ABSOLUTELY CRAZY about my roommate. (Which is why I have a sign-in page to view my blog). So yeah, tell me how you like the new blog....give me any suggestions...and be prepared for a full-blown roommate bashing. The post after the roommate bash will be of a more sentimental nature and offer my reflections on my first semester at BYU-I and my first semester away from home.

Have you ever seen something that took so much time and was so specialized that you sat in a stupor and wondered "How much time did that take?" or perhaps "That guy must not have a life!" Well, I have found such a video. Of course it's really cool to watch and will give everyone a chuckle. Even watching it twice, I must ask myself, where do you find out that you are good at rollerblading through a street full of bottles and making music by placing metal strips on the outside of your skates to hit the bottles and make individual tones. Yeah, head over to www.youtube.com to check this video out.

Ok, I went to see a movie tonight and man was it good. Now don't get me wrong, this movie is not for the faint of heart. Still, it is one of the best movies I've seen in awhile. I would especially recommend it to dad, Ethan, and Logan. I don't want to give anything away, because it's a movie I would like to watch again (possibly as a family, over Christmas break). Actually, in order to preserve suspense, I won't give away any details, above that of the basic premise. The basic premise is that two magicians aren't big fans of the other. I can't give away any more details than that, and I won't even give away the primary mechanism that drives the plot. If you watch it (which I highly recommend), you'll find out soon enough for yourself.

So if I just spent a paragraph praising a movie and giving away absolutely zero details, what makes a movie good? Well, I think the most important part of a movie is the story. The Prestige does not dissapoint there. The story is expertly told. One of the more interesting things is that nothing is really given or spelled out for the viewer. The movie utilizies some flashbacks and other such techniques but gives no warning of its occurrence. I think it adds to the movie because it makes you more engrossed in it and more captivated by it as the story progresses and reaches toward the climax. Above all else, this movie will make you think.

One last paragraph here will be devoted to life at BYU-I. Hmmmm, let me see, what's new. Classes are wrapping up. With only 10 days of actual classes left, the year is rapidly drawing to a close. This year at BYU-I has been really interesting and enlightening in many ways. I've gotten a taste of the college life and know what it means to live on my own. Its tough but also rewarding. Another lesson of the "I" is how to survive in arctic-circle climates! I've also learned a ton about what I enjoy doing (career wise) and what things I should pursue over the course of my education and life.

Before I depart, just a little weather update. The high over the past couple of days hasn't gotten above 20°F, at least to my knowledge…and that's not including the windchill! Biking on snow is tough, but I manage. Certainly my daily 30 mile ride has been drastically reduced to around 5…possibly 10 depending on my mood. Side note: I would LOVE to do some biking over Christmas break. Anyway, all is well here. I love you all and can't wait to come home for Christmas. Thanks for all your love and support.

Yeah, Gmail got an overhaul. The standard gmail interface has gotten a sleeker, trimmer look and (I think) looks more stylish than ever. In addition to the much cooler look, the details view for e-mails is improved. Gmail now includes domain keys (verifies that an e-mail from bobloblaw@yahoo.com was actually mailed from the yahoo.com domain) and a few other miscellaneous enhancements. Also, the reply button is at the top and bottom of the e-mail, and conversations update as soon as you receive an e-mail. Gmail will notify you that the conversation has changed―even if you are in the middle of a reply. Also, Gmail is now available (for those with cool phones) for download at gmail.com/apps. This only works for cell phones, but you basically download a gmail app so you can use more advanced functions of gmail through your phone. You can even open sound and picture attachments!

Yeah, so check it out today by logging in to your gmail account and check out all the new features!

Ok, instead of using my Wake Forest Take Down blog site to tell about the latest breaking WF news, I've decided to just use this blog to keep all my thoughts and such together.

Many people in NC are band-wagon fans. They like whatever school is doing well in whatever sport. For example, a band-wagon fan loves Boston College or Miami during football season (ACC teams only) but can't get enough of Coach K or the UNC tar heels during basketball season. However, very few people are die-hard fans. A die-hard roots for Wake Forest during football, basketball, golf, and chess seasons. I am a die-hard WF fan and have been since 5 or 6. And since I have been 5 or 6, I've been accustomed to cheering for an often loosing team. The other kids at school would rabidly cheer on J.J. Reddick while I would lamely add, "how 'bout Eric Williams?"

However, now that I am away from my beloved NC, WF is going on a rampage. I'm just going to comment on the WF football season. Their current record is 8-1. Do you know the last time WF went 8-1? That would be 1944. Do you know what else? 8 wins ties a school record for most wins in a season. Holy Cow! I've got to say, fate, it would seem, is not without a sense of irony. The first year I move away (and to Idaho of all places) WF has an absolutely record breaking season. WF is ranked 22 in the nation. That's absolutely amazing!

Next, WF just played BC (no 16) and won 21-14. Many people said that WF was having a fluke of a season and that the honeymoon would end with a loss against Boston College. It would appear not so. With an end zone interception, WF kept up the pressure against BC all through the 4th quarter. I'm just in awe of this WF team. It's about time WF got some intercollegiate respect. Is WF number one in the nation? Probably not. Could they beat the no. 1 team in the nation? Possibly. Many people would disagree. They would scoff and say "when the planets align, yes." Well, WF is 8-1 and if they win another game it will be a first in the entire history of Wake Forest University. Now that's saying something.

Who knows where this season will end? I certainly don't know, but its gonna be awesome!

Hey everybody, how’s it going? Yeah, it’s getting kinda late here, but I wanted to make a posting before going to bed. For all parties concerned, I’m posting this article from MS Word 2007. Yeah, what a cool feature. You can register your blog account through MS Word 2007 and then write an article from Word and then post it. How friggin awesome is that? So your typing a journal entry and suddenly you realize you’d like to post it to your blog. And for me, I often post my paper and such on my blog, so this would make that incredibly easy and efficient. Plus my grammar is atrocious, so typing the post with Word will make my articles infinitely more readable.

Anyway, those are just my feelings on the matter. With Word you can also set up a workspace so several people can view and edit a paper as one. Mom, if your writing a family newsletter, you can create a workspace and set it up so certain people can edit certain parts. That way I can edit the section dealing with me while Ethan can only edit his section.

So I’m not completely 2007 (Beta 2) pro, I will say that I have encountered a bug while printing. There’s a simple workaround and I think it’s just with my printer driver/setup. Also, compatibility with previous versions can act up, but only with documents with funky graphics and such. Overall, Office 2007 looks pretty amazing. It has a lot of features missing in any current-gen office software. Check out the beta if you want. Tomorrow’s post will have more day-to-day info., so stay tuned.

Ok, this should be a record short post, but I just found a really interesting article about a cloak (more or less) that bends electromagnetic waves and microwaves (plus visible light) around an object.

Right now, its only partially invisible in 2 dimensions and there is a slight shadow, but the researchers (from Duke Unviersity) said the ultimate goal is invisibility in 3 dimensions with no shadowing.

The basic idea, is that carefully constructed materials can bend light around itself, making it invisible. We see things when light bounces off the object and some of it reflects back to our eyes.

Anyway, check out this article, its pretty interesting.

Hey guys, I'm just dropping a quick note on this one. I installed the rest of the MS Office 2007 apps and one of the ones I tried was Microsoft OneNote (which is like a really beefed-up, super cool version of Google Notebook...it even includes all the cool sharing features plus some new ones). Anyway, I have to write an Ensign article (not really, but that's the premise) about a topic in Alma chapters 13-29. Here are the notes and ideas I've collected thus far. If you happen to have MS OneNote, then use this link.

Anyway, any feedback or cool ideas you have or thoughts to share I would really like. Oh yeah, download MS OneNote...it's really cool, well worth the $1.50 download charge.

Oh yeah, if you're wondering why to download OneNote, a couple of these features might entice you.

• It's just like writing notes in a notebook...anywhere you click the cursor, you can write a note.
• Sharing, you can share/collaborate/anything you want with other OneNote users.
• You can use OneNote to create a picture file from a portion of the screen...see a picture you like inside a flash application and you can't download it...now you can.
• Text recognition from pictures---this makes it super easy to convert text documents or pictures with text in them into actual text.

So yeah, check it out and check out my notes from Alma 13-16. I'll probably publish my notes for the rest of these chapters as well.

Ok guys, I know that I'm a huge procrastinator when it comes to posting. Things have been extremely busy these past few weeks up here at BYU-Idaho. However, once this week is over, things are gonna be niiiiccceee.

First up, quick little dating review. I've officially gone on my 3rd date with Marianne, and I still can't tell for sure if she likes me or not. For my parents, especially mom and dad, I'm not too worried about the girl situation because I know that I'm going on my mission in a year anyway. However, thus far, I've really enjoyed the dates that I've gone on with her...oh yeah, and she's gorgeous. Enough about that though. The girl that hit me with her car (while I was on my bike) happens to be in my ward and the roommate of the girl I usually sit beside in Book Of Mormon. Craziness there ;)

As far as school goes, I got a 94 on my first physics test, which counts for 20% of my grade and I had my world civ presentation today, which counted for 25% of my world civ grade. Let's see what happens there. Also, I have a presentation in Physics on work and motion, etc. this Wednesday. I'm kinda dreading it, but oh well.

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On to other news, like the new Office 2007 Beta. So everyone who knows me that I seem to keep decently current with technology related info. For those of you who don't know, Office 2007 and Windows Vista (the new operating system, like XP) are coming out to consumers early next year (January or February). Also, if you didn't know, you can download both Office 2007 (beta of course) and the 1st release candidate of Vista. I'm a little too timid to download Vista since there could be some major issues with compatibility with my current software, but that means Office 2007 is fair game.

True to Microsoft's word, Office 2007 is a huge improvement over previous versions. 10x shinier, it has that "new software" feel to it. That's not what's most impressive. I have not conducted any tests, but it appears that Office 2007 loads a tad faster than 2003. Another neat feature is the absence of traditional menus. They are gone. Instead is a more streamlined and intuitive interface. It might take users a few minutes to become acquainted to, but it has a lot of new features that are easy to use and understand. Another cool feature is the level of integration. It works better than you imagine it could. One cool example is when inserting a table into PowerPoint. You click the button and in a few seconds your looking at PowerPoint with Excel open right beside of it. It gives you full access to Excel features and as you edit the tables in Excel, it changes the graph in PowerPoint. Its cool.

I haven't tested compatibility with previous versions of office, but I imagine it works smoothly with Office 2003 and Office XP. Its a cool download, although it does cost $1.50. I justify this by saying that I'm downloading a refreshed Beta 2, which is decently close to release software. Office 2007 will cost between $200-$400, and I've got it for $1.50. This should hold me over until I buy a new computer, in which case it'll come bundled anyway.

So yeah, check out the link/title of this post and see if you'd like to try out the Office 2007 beta. It's worth it, or at least I think so.

Just a quickie for tonight. It's kinda late and I just want to share a quick little snippet into campus life here. Wierd though this may seem, there are hand sanitizer dispensers near every building entrance and exit. I think mom would be in heaven here. Even outside some bathroom/interior doors there are little dispensers to keep things squeaky clean. So yeah, if you're ever on campus, don't worry, because things will always be clean.

Anyway, physics and calc are pretty tough, but not impossible. My computer class is easy and fun, while religion and world civ provide a neat balance. Catch you guys round

So I bet everybody has been eagerly awaiting my next blog post to see what I've been up to in college. Hold your breath no longer! I've finally gotten settled into life here and things are returning to a sense of normal.

First off, I would like to say thank you again to all those who have been praying for me over the past week or so. Moving off to college was a million times harder than I thought it would be. Leaving my family at the terminal was hard enough and then Ethan dropping me off at Rexburg was the final straw. It finally hit me that me living by myself would become the norm. I mean, I know that I have roommates, but I still feel like its mostly me watching out for myself. The best way to describe it is being independent.

The good side is that the homesickness has finally started to wear off. Not that I no longer miss my family, but the sadness I feel at being far away from them has been reduced to a manageable portion. Life has to go on and I've got classes and such to do here. Speaking of classes, I'll give everyone a quick little run down on my schedule.

My schedule is obviously posted above, but that doesn't explain what my day is like. Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays are the hardest, but still quite fun. I actually really enjoy all of my classes so far. The class I was most scared about was my Calc II class which start right where my high school AP Calc class left off. Fortunately my teacher is super nice and I think I'm really going to like her. My Calc I teacher (which I only had for a day) seemed mean and determined to make Calc I a difficult class. She even promised 3 hours of studying per hour of class time. yikes! I mean, I know I need to study in order to do well in my classes...but there is no way I need to study that much for a class. Especially not on average. Anyway, Calc II is way cooler and its exciting to start learning where AP Calc left off. Physics is probably my toughest class because it applies a lot of things that I didn't really learn in high school physics. In high school physics I learned several topics really well, but in college physics it looks like I may need to understand a lot more. Potentially my favorite class is the Intro to Software Development. Before we even got into how to actually program, I was writing some C++ code in the Linux lab. For those who aren't familiar with computer programming terminology, C++ is a Object Oriented (OO) programming language. Linux is an operating system much like Windows XP or Vista. Linux is common among programmers. Anyway, its pretty interesting to start learning a few things about how to make programs. Thus far all I've done is make the computer display some text and create conditional statements based on user input. Don't worry, it sounds way more complicated that it actually is.

The religion class is great as is World Civ. Both teachers are way cool and know their stuff. I especially like my World Civ teacher because he doesn't even need to look at a book to teach us stuff, he just knows it that well.

Lastly, I want to slip in a quick technological update. If any of you are using the internet (which all of you must be in order to view an online blog) go to this website and download the Google Toolbar. Granted, I have to really like a browser plugin before using it because I hate any performance slow downs and I hate plugins that take up precious viewing space. the Google Toolbar does neither. Once downloaded, check out the "Send To" button. Find a web page and click the "Send To" button and then click "Gmail." Basically, you send a copy of the web page you are viewing via e-mail to anyone. It's really a neat feature to show someone exactly what you are looking at. Anyway, that's all I've got for you guys today. Stay classy San Diego. I'm Ron Burgundy?

Where to begin....hmmm. It's hard to pick a starting point for this epic saga. I'll try my best to give a brief narrative of the events of the past couple of days and give some commentary without getting too emotionally involved.

As (hopefully) most of you know, I am no longer in North Carolina. I'm going to school in BYU-Idaho this fall and (probably) winter semesters. Anyway, my adventure started on thursday, August 24th. My family drove me to the airport in Raleigh where my flight was delayed from a 4:05 departure to a 6:50 departure. That meant that I would miss my connecting flight in Chicago. It ended up that I hung out with the family for awhile before returning to the airport and rebook my flight for the next morning at 6:45am. The only really bad thing about the early departure was that I had to get up at 4:40am EST. I honestly didn't feel too sleepy. The morning flight was nearly empty and went from Raleigh to Nashville and then to Las Vegas and then to Salt Lake City. On the way from Nashville to Las Vegas, I pulled out the laptop and watched several episodes of TV shows I had downloaded to my hard drive. It really helped to pass the time.

It was funny landing in Vegas. I (not having left NC much) thought it was funny that even the airport had built-in casinos. I even saw a 90-year-old woman staring down her slot machine. From Nashville to Vegas I sat beside a really nice couple. We talked about college and what not and they related to mom in being sad when children leave home for college. The last of her children had just left for college and she sympathized with my feelings of sadness at leaving home.

In Vegas I spent the better part of my time charging my laptop battery for the flight from Vegas to Salt Lake. In turned out I didn't even get to finish one episode of the TV show I was watching. Oh yeah, if anyone is looking for gift ideas...House Season 2 is looking really good right now. Or software to decode DVDs and copy them to the hard drive.


Anyway, I made it to Ethan's apartment successfully then I had to drive him to work. I went from there to Best Buy and bought a wireless router for his apartment and since I would need one in Idaho anyway. Probably the craziest part of the day was how little food I had. Kristen bought me a biscuit that morning around 5:30am and the next food I had was in Vegas at 9:30 (12:30 EST). All I had there was a pink lemonade and a handful of combos. My next meal was a chalupa at Taco Bell...weeee!

I'm starting to ramble, but I would like to share a few of my thoughts before I close. Leaving for college is scary and daunting, yes. But through hard and difficult circumstances can come great joy. As I used to quote "I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it." This applies to me, I know. One "known" blessing is the blessing of coming home for Christmas. I know that the absence of college will make the reunion much sweeter. Of course other blessings may occur while at college, but those are up to me as I allow the Lord to work through me. My attitudes and desires will bear the greatest effect on how sensitive I am to the Spirit and how much I learn and grow from my surroundings. Life is like dinner. If all we ate was dessert (even though it tastes amazing) we would be unhealthy and suffer in the no-so-distant future. However, struggling down fruits and vegetables (although not as tasty as pie and ice cream) helps us both mentally and physically. Adversity can equal tremendous growth. It's all in how we handle the situations we face. Maybe leaving home and going to BYU-I isn't cake, but I can still enjoy the BYU-I broccoli salad. Just as long as it doesn't become celery, we should all be fine ;)

Hey everybody. Continuing the my new tradition of late blog posting, here I am. But I bring a new song called "Don't Wait" by Dashboard Confessional. Check out the music video above. It's really interesting, especially if you watch it all the way through.

Anyway, new laptop. I just bought a new laptop a few days ago from Dell. I wanted to get a 14.1" screen because (instead of the 15.4" or 17") for battery life reasons. Plus it's a little more mobile than the larger laptops. I had been eyeing this one for awhile but it just didn't have as good of deals as its cousin laptops ;) ironically, one night when me and logan we're up kinda late, I looked at the laptop again (a little after midnight, August 1st) and it had identical deals as the other laptops. Cautiously I decided to go ahead and buy the it. $700 later and that thing is all mine!

The cool part of the story is that the same morning (about 9am) I checked Dell.com again and all the deals of the previous night we're gone. I don't know what happened, but for just a couple of hours I was able to get the deal I'd been hoping for. Yeah for me!

For those curious about what kind of laptop I got, here are the specs:

1.86 GHz single-core processor (Intel)
60 GB Hard drive (5400rpm)
1.04 GB of DDR2 SDRAM
533 Mhz FSB speeds
802.11 b/g network card
DVD/CD burner @ 8x (dual-layer burning support)

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I think I'm forgetting something, so just comment any questions. My next post will follow the trend of the "Love" post, meaning it should be a thoughtful and reflective post of a different topic altogether. Oh and mom, go back to the top of the page, unpause the video and watch it. I think you'll like it.

Perhaps such a post as this should be written at a less cynical time in my life. Fear not though, for my dissertation is like a scary bedtime story. No matter what happens, it always ends happily ever after.

I was thinking in the shower about 10 minutes ago and my train of thought led me to love. I cynically remarked to myself that there is no such thing as true love. The more I thought about it I began to realize my own error. Among teenagers, true love is a rare thing, in fact, its practically nonexistent.

I know I'm rambling, but I will make my point. There are a couple of kinds of love and all of them must be examined to understand the point I'm making. Teenage love should be more appropriately called infatuation. Although not always the case, teenagers often mistake infatuation for a purer form of love. Infatuation is a physical love, with no roots in traits of personality, character, humor, etc. Infatuation is skin deep and both comes and goes as fleetingly as the wind.

The closest mortal approximation of true (or perfect) love is unconditional love. The best example of this is the love parents have for their children and the siblings love for another sibling. This kind of love is always present and based entirely in personality traits and not at all in looks. Unconditional love is loving someone for who they are, not how they look, dress, or act.

Now I'm nearing the realization I had in the shower. Unconditional love is not perfect love. Unconditional love can become perfect love, but it isn't always the case. Perfect love can only be felt in a state of Celestial glory. Because perfect love must be perfect, it must be eternal. The closest mortal approximation of perfect love is true love. Eternal marriage paves the highway for an eternity of perfect love between a family, but it is only a highway. It must be followed and each of us has the agency to choose that path or not.

My point is that perfect love is felt on earth. It is almost only found in marital relationships (especially the eternal variety) and between the members of a family. However, because of our mortal state, I believe a more appropriate name of perfect love is true love.

True love is like a seed. Just because its planted doesn't mean it will become a tree. Under proper conditions a seed can become a tree, living for hundreds of years (mortal eternity). Ok, that's as far as I got in the shower. A bit of a ramble, but still the good ending.

Ok, first off, I'm going to give a paragraph synopsis of the last three or four weeks.

New Mexico Trip: C- this trips gets a C- because I don't like camping...at all. One week spent without modern conveniences...of which I am a huge fan. The only reason this trip didn't receive a failing grade is for two reasons. One reason was getting to spend some time with logan and my dad. The second reason was getting to spend time with my friends. Ok, the scenery was decent, but I spent the week looking at the person's feet in front of me. I would glance up to stare at 300ft high canyon walls! WOW! and the second day, guess what I saw when I looked up? Yep, you guessed it, 300ft canyon walls! WOW! and the third day, guess what I saw when I looked up? Yep, you guessed it....you get the picture. The canyon walls were kinda interesting, plus we saw some cool cliff dwellings. However, it is unlikely I will go on a camping trip like this one in the near future.

EFY: B+ EFY gets a B+ for being EFY. The reason it didn't get an A or higher rating is because I felt a noticeable maturity gap between me and some of the other participants. It wasn't terrible, but it was there. I just can't figure out what was missing. Plus, girls are gay. I apologize to all feminine readers of this blog...but its true. I have a few stories to tell, but they're too long and drawn out to write out here. Suffice it to say I was out-flirted by a friggin candybar. Ok, so he was human, but his name was Heath. Exactly...friggin candybar. Oh well, I'm over it now...but it does help to vent with writing. Hanging out with Logan and my friends was exceptionally cool.

Work: F- Yeah, work sucks. I mean not good. I really don't enjoy work because it's a complete waste of time. Free movies are nice, but the tasks I do are menial. It's like getting paid to do 3rd grade math for 10 hours at a time. It's ridiculously easy, but you know you have sooo much more potential yet it's not needed. Frustrating!

Ok, why MySpace is stupid:

1. You can only upload 12pictures
2. Picture must be less than 600KB
3. MySpace makes you compress the files to a size under the 600KB mark
4. MySpace uploads only one photo at a time
5. MySpace uploads photos until it gets to the 600KB mark before telling you its too big.
6. MySpace uses a billion subdomains to process server requests (purely technical complaint)
7. MySpace doesn’t allow scripting
8. MySpace doesn't utilize active scripting (check out picasa web albums---the comment feature)
9. MySpacece doesn't fully support IE 7
10. MySpace is home to hundreds of pedafiles
11. MySpace doesn't always work...MySpace screws up. Other sites don't.
12. Everyone has one...and no one shares my overwhelming hatred of it...thus I am doomed to communicate with others through the "Cursed Network" as I will now refer to MySpace as.

Oh Yeah, by the way, check out my pictures from EFY and YC here. Yeah, and you can still comment on my pictures. They're good