learning

Remember that time when things were going relatively well and then you learned that you really weren't the shiz you thought you were? Yeah. I don't know if this happens to anyone else but I had an experience today that truely humbled me. I thought I was doing pretty well lately. And I was proud of my efforts. I could see the different areas where I had improved and was pretty self-satisfied. I guess that was a good time for me to learn a huge life lesson. I got brought pretty low in another area of my life that I didn't even know needed work. I got told off and maybe I needed it. It sucks pretty hardcore. It made me realize that I'm not all that I thought I was. And that's probably a good thing. I guess what I can do now is learn from the experience, make changes in my life and hopefully not have to learn that lesson again. We're all learning and sometimes I forget that.

unhealthy

Like I mentioned last year, for some reason, I really dig the sad Christmas songs. I love most Christmas songs but my ultimate favorite is "Last Christmas" by Wham! I also enjoy "Please Come Home for Christmas" by the Eagles, and "Same Old Lang Syne" by Dan Folgerberg. A new favorite is "River" by Joni Mitchell, although it's not exactly a Christmas song. It's a bit unhealthy though because when I listen to these songs I tend to get more sentimental and worked up about certain things. I may need to limit their air time. I've listened to "Last Christmas" about nine times already...



You're welcome.

you're welcome, america

Last night at dinner I solved America's problems. Well, most of them. Our dinner topics went through the job crisis, health care, how congress voted to designate pizza as a vegetable, the energy crisis (my dad is an engineer and local and foreign governments want to shut down nuclear power plants because they are freaking out about this clean and pretty safe way of getting energy) among other things. Then I had it, we take all of the fat, unhealthy people and set them on treadmills, cranks, or some machine of some sort, they work the machine all day and the machines in turn make clean energy that can then be used for consumption. And the fattys get paid for it. Boom. Jobs, health care, and energy all in one. I'm a genius.

My dad said he'd vote me president 'cept I'm not 35 yet. Thanks Pops.

"I can see Russia from my house!"-oh man, what gold will election year 2012 bring us?

sometimes i'm 9

Last night I was watching "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and found a line that I had never noticed before. It's during the part where Professor Potts (aka Dick Van Dyke) is following Lord Scrumptious around his candy factory trying to convince him how his invention of a sweet is cool and tasty. Scrumptious is distracted and tasting other samples. Potts is explaining how there are holes in his sweets and that when you blow through them a whistling sound comes out:

Potts-"and by blowing through the holes it makes a sound come out that sounds like a...."
Scrumptious (testing a new flavor)-"Raspberry!"
Potts-"No...more like a toot."

And then they proceed to sing a song about Toot Sweets. I mean, come on. That was quite the set-up. Ahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!
Also, I learned that the screenplay was written partly by Roald Dahl. That explains mucho.
PS. The Child Catcher is still scary.

new favorite

So I have a new favorite pastime. I sometimes go on Wikipedia and just read articles about people, things, events and such for long periods of time. It's so informational and I like learning about things. Mostly it's related to movies or singers or actors, I start with someone and then something in the article catches my interest so I go to that one and it leads to another and so on. I learn lots. Because it's all there too. Recently I discovered the "random article" button on the left. You click it and it takes you to a random page within all of wikipedia-dom. Today I learned about the Stalin Letter written after WWII about the reunificaiton of Germany, that led to the Two Plus Four Treaty and the end of the Cold War. So much knowledge. I like it. Also, they have a page for news and current events. Love that too. Learned about this natural gas pipeline that is being constructed from Russia to Germany. I like to think that I'm educating myself, especially since lately I've been feeling like I don't use my brain at all. Like at all. Imagine a paralyzed person's legs that haven been used in a long time, how atrophied they look. That's my brain. I miss the mental workout that is college. Time to pump it up.

In other news, I lost one of my hubcaps somewhere along Clearwater in Kennewick last night. Scott tried to save it, but it got run over three times before he could get there. Now Atticus looks super ghetto. But I think ghetto is destined to be my style.

generation gap

There's something I noticed recently, it has to do with people my age, and people who are old, and by old I mean they didn't grow up with computers and the internet. I've noticed that the older generation doesn't believe in the power of the internet. Or the power of google. This is shown when these people have a question, need information, or directions, and they turn to the old resources to get their answers. Anyone my age would get on their phone or computer and Boom! have the answer in a matter of seconds. The older generation will hem and haw, struggle with the issue until finally they realize they need to go online. Por ejemplo, I have to give people directions to my place of work. Part of me wants to just give the address and say, just google map it, but because these people don't believe in the internets they want me to tell them step by step where to go. Time is money, people. Also, my coworkers will want to do something in Microsoft Word or Excel, so they'll search and ask people how to do a certain thing. When they get to me I tell them to google it and it will be online how to do it. I'm not the computer genius but I do know enough to know that you can pretty much find the answer to anything by googling it. Seriously. I've taken apart sinks and vacuums with instructions from the internets. My generation trusts the internet to have all the answers and it usually does. The reason this fascinates me is because I watch the older people struggle when I just want to yell, "google it!" and then they'll have their answer so much faster. How did people live back in the day?...

The thing I'm interested to see is if people my age take up the call that Elder Bednar gave last General Conference. He told the tech savvy teens and young adults that they can assist in temple work by helping with family history. I loved this. We have such an ability with the technology available and people our age are so good at using it that there is such a huge potential for a lot of things to happen. I'm not quite sure how this will happen but I got the feeling that Elder Bednar knows that once this family history work and technology gets in the hands of my generation that it will skyrocket. I think it will too. And I think that's exciting.

Gheez, could I sound any more like Kip? I love technology, but not as much as you, you see...

this song's for you

There are certain songs that when they come on my iPod in my car, I just get excited to listen to them.

Cecilia-by Simon & Garfunkel, all the banging on the drums and lines line "makin' love in the afternoon with Cecilia up in my bedroom" and "Jubulation! She love me again!" make this a fun song to sing along to. It's just fun.

My Girl-by The Temptations, a happy song, smooth melodies, harmonious voices. "Nothing can make you feel as good as fast as 'I got sunshine on a cloudy day, when it's cold outside, I got the month of May'"-Hugh Grant on Music and Lyrics

Pretty much anything by Neil Diamond; especially Forever in Blue Jeans, Crunchy Granola Suite, I Am I Said, Solitary Man...who am I kidding, everything by this man is gold.

Where You At?-by Jennifer Hudson. This girl got mad pipes. Also No One Gonna Love You is quite good too.

Pretty much anything by Sara Bareilles. I love her music. Gots some good ones for all occasions, happy, sad, rockin' and slow. Plus she can sing.

Last Christmas-by Wham! I don't know why, but this is one of my all time favorite songs ever.

The Greatest Day-by Take That, when I hear it, I feel energized and really believe that it could be the greatest day.

I also love Kenny Loggins, Journey, Stevie Wonder, and Josh Groban;
ps. I have a lot broader tastes, but these are some of the best.