Creepin on Blogs

What I realized when I visited other people's blogs is that I write too much. A lot of people had a lot shorter entries than I did and were A LOT less formal, they didn't even capitalize everything. So I think I won't write so much anymore. So first I started looking at some of my friend's blogs and then I decided that I was way to lazy to actually read some them, so then I decided to look for blogs that had picture's on them, I figured it would make this all a lot more interesting. So the first person's blog that I came to was Eric's he had picture's of Nick and him sleeping in a computer lab, so of course I read the story and was really jealous that they slept there and I didn't do anything half as fun as that, I also might want to try that someday even though I'm not in any engineering classes, but I figure there are ways to get around that, all you need is friends in the right places. And after being satisfied with reading that adventure, I was done with my blog exploring.

Resistance in My Life

The greatest resistance I have had to deal with is either the amount of reading for my classes and finding time to do it, or just scraping up enough money to get through daily life living on my own. I have a lot of reading this semester from either text books or articles that are so jammed packed with old English it makes my head want to explode. I usually get easily bored with the readings and tend to fall asleep after a few paragraphs. However, most of this reading is what leads to a successful test grade, especially with those challenging American Heritage exams. So it is essential. To overcome this fault that I have I try to schedule times that I do my reading, definitely not late at night or in my bed. I also start my readings a lot earlier than I need to have them read by so that if I can't take it anymore or I do fall asleep that I will still have time to finish it later. So far those tactics have been successful although I'm still not perfect at doing all my reading assignments. But I have years to perfect that! My other source of resistance is the money issue. I'm just a poor college student that needs to be able to pay all the expenses. So I got a job and while that doesn't always come through all the way I know that if I keep on working hard and pay my tithing that somehow I will have enough to make it and I have faith that that is true.

Halloween Depression

This year's Halloween is mostly likely the worst Halloween I have ever had. It even beat the year when my sister and I had never decided what we wanted to be for Halloween, and our procrastination lasted all the way until the night of, and they only thing we could be were brides using the outfits we had in our dress-up box. And that was pretty bad because the last thing I wanted to be was a bride, but I had to have a costume! However, this year was even worse. Every year up until now I have dressed up. I don't think that once you reach a certain age that you should stop dressing up for Halloween, you're never too old for fun, and plus everyone loves the one day in the year where you can dress up and be WHATEVER you want. But I didn't get to enjoy that pleasure. I work at the Creamery and I have specific shifts that I work reguraly every week and then one night a week I have to close. That switches off between every monday, wednesday, and friday. And since I must have had the worst luck there could be the closing shift of that week for me landed on friday the 31st. I was bummed the moment I learned that I had to work on Halloween. Then soon I changed in to the persistant person that I am and asked anyone and everyone if they would work for me on Halloween. Of course no one wants to give up their Halloween. So after a while of searching for a sub and having no luck, I went back into my depressed stage, and anyone that asked what I was going to be for Halloween I just told them that I planned on being a depressed creamery worker. Soon Halloween came closer and I never got into the spirit of it because I knew I wouldn't get a Halloween. I had to work from eight until one in the morning. The good part of the Halloween night was occupied with work. Since I was in my depressed state of feeling no Halloween spirit I didn't even think about that I could still dress up at work. I only thought of that during classes on the 31st and tried to throw something together but even then I had nothing, so I wore a pink sparkly shirt that was previously used as a genie costume and went to work. I told myself that even though I had to work I was going to be positive and try and have a good time. But honestly worked sucked. It was never busy and barely anyone came in, making it feel even more useless that I was there. I was angry that we couldn't close early. Anyway after the VERY long shift was over I went in search of some friends that were still celebrating. And I watched the last half of The Six Sense with them and then had a friend spend the night. But even though I stayed up pretty late I still had to wake up in the morning and work from eleven to five. So my whole weekend was painfully bombarded with work and I was exhasuted from it. But next year I will not make the same mistake. I will make sure that nothing can ruin my halloween, especially not for the second year in a row!

Hinckely's Insight on Work

"Industry, enthusiasm, and hard work lead to enlightened progress. You have to stay on your feet and keep moving if you are going to have light in your life." This quote by President Hinckley impressed me the most in that article. That was something he learned after using a Model T car. He knew that the more energy and the faster the engine was going the brighter the lights would be. And that's how he related it to our lives and the work that we have to do. To have light in our lives we need to be productive and always working. I think this is so meaningful to me because most times I'm searching reasons to have the motivation to be productive. Sometimes I can just get so tired of it and really can't stand having so much work to do. And yet when I'm lazy I don't always feel better. But to know that work is another way that we can have light in our lives is comforting and it gives me just another excuses to push through and get things done. It's not easy to be productive but it's a lot harder to be productive if you're not motivated. So this insight that President Hinckley brings to my attention is just another reason that can make me motivated to be a hard worker. Like I said hard work can really be a pain, but what always helps me is to think about the end product. When I think about getting tough and hard assignments done for a class and that always seems to overwhelm me, instead I think about why I'm working so hard. Mostly it's so I can pass the class and don't have to take it again, or it might just be so that I don't lower my GPA. Or even I can think that once I get this out of the way I can get into the classes that more specifically have to do with my major. That's sometimes how I have to get through a hard assignment is to think of the rewards I get in the end and how it will benefit me in the future. Thinking of the end results is what makes me work hard for them.

Education in Zion

I went to the exhibit and couldn't decided what I liked the most. There were so many things that were fascinating to me there. I loved all the old looking journals, keepsakes, and displays. They are always fun to look at and examine. Like the speech that Joseph Smith had written on a piece of paper. The handwriting is in elegant cursive and yet I could hardly make out what it was saying. And there were these dance shoes that were old, worn and tattered and I just loved how they looked, I guess there's something that draws me to these old objects, I love to see that they're worn, knowing that there is some story behind them. Another thing that I thought was so elegant and lovely was the desk that was a replica to the desk of Carl G. Maeser. I would love to have a desk that looked like that in my room. All of the old visuals I found very fascinating. But what I think I liked looking at the most was the art. The murals and portraits were wonderful to look at. I thought it was funny how in one picture a man had a mustache that was huge and appeared to cover over his lips, like curtains covering his mouth. That was very amusing. But the pictures that I found most interest in were the two huge paintings found on both sides of the exhibit. They were huge and reached all the way up to the ceiling. And what I loved was that they content of the picture was only small at the bottom of both of them and the rest of the paintings were filled with sky. I'm not sure why the artist chose to do that, since I don't exactly think like a painter, but I just loved it for some reason. In one of them the sky was filled with pinkish clouds that are my favorite to see in the sky because they are so pretty. Anyway those two paintings were probably my favorite, and I think it had a lot to do with how massive they were.

Homecoming

This past week I didn’t get the chance to attend too many Homecoming events
due to my job and big assignments due in my classes. But out of all the events
during the week I was able to go to the Kick-Off Barbeque and the football game.
The day I went to the BBQ I wasn’t feeling too well, so instead of eating I
just tagged along with my friends. We stood in line waiting for our food. It
smelt quite good like the BBQ’s I remembered from back home, however I was
afraid to eat any with the fear that I might throw it all up afterwards. So as
my friends stood anxiously in line we listened to the band play for a little
bit, trying to find out friend that plays the trumpet, and watched the
cougarettes “dance”, which was basically them waving around their pom-poms
like at the football games. Once my friends finally got their food we found a
nice spot to sit down and eat. We talked and laughed and had a pretty good time,
minus my stomachaches. Deciding that I should probably go back to my dorm and lay down I left the group with
one other friend to get on the bus back home, where I took a very long and
relaxing nap. My football game experience was a better experience considering I
was no longer sick by this time (I think my nap helped out a lot.) Even though I
had to come late to the game because I was finishing up my shift at the
Creamery. But I was very excited because I had never been to a BYU football game
before because I always had to work during the games. Even though it was cold I
had a really good times with my friends who liked to yell the whole time. It was
a really fun experience that I won’t forget because not only was it the
Homecoming game but it was my first game.

Welcoming Correction

I really enjoyed Robert D. Hales talk during the Sunday session. He talked mostly about Christian courage. I enjoyed his talk because he pointed out many valid points that made sense but we don’t always think about. Sometimes we as members of the church are so ready to defend the church when a non-member accuses us or offends us by the things they say about our church. But we aren’t supposed to fire back at them and shoot them down. Some may say that it makes us seem weak when we don’t defend our religion, but really it’s Christian courage. We need to think about how Christ acted when he was confronted and really we should act like he did. This was really a correction talk for me especially back in my high school, because of the many misconceptions that people had about our church. I had many kids in my English class who were told certain things about Mormons that they believed with a passion that were very untrue. Many times I was offended because of the things that they would say and at times I fired back at their accusations. So this talk seemed to speak to me, even though I’m here at BYU now and it seems as if I won’t get an experience like that around here, I know how I should deal with it in the future.

Why the Y?

Last week wasn't the first time I had been in the Hinckley Center. I had been there before but only in the lobby on the nice couches. I really enjoyed the little tour we had of the building, considering President Hinckley is probably my favorite prophet of all. I loved him a lot so it was really neat to see things that was his or represented him. What I probably loved the most was Sister Hinckley's chair. It was really wonderful that it was donated to that building. I also enjoyed looking at his yearbook and the shovel that he used at the groundbreaking. All of these things I loved seeing because of how it reminds me of how great of a prophet he was. Honestly the first thing I think about when I hear the phrase "Once a cougar, always a cougar." I think of how I've heard that once you sign the honor code you sign it for life. I've had many discussions about that, and while I'm still not sure if it does last for life, that would be one thing that would stick with you. If you think about all the people who have been cougars and what that represents. So many good and righteous have graduated from this school. We uphold a high standard that not only produces hard workers but also people under the best behaviors. And many of those traits carry with a person throughout their life. I know that when I graduate from BYU I have a name to uphold, I'm required to live up to the standards that are valued at BYU and scarce throughout the rest of the world. People know the of the kind of people who graduate from a place like BYU, they know they're hardworking, and trustworthy. And I feel good to be apart of such a respected University. 

The Semester so far...

An aspect of school that is better than I thought it would be is the class sizes, everyone was telling me that they would be huge and it would be hard to get a good education because there would be no personal learning and you would feel like just another grain of sand among the rest and that is not true at all. I have only a few big lecture classes and those classes have separate labs for their class for personal attention to learn the material. Other than that all of the rest of my classes are fairly small and it's easier to learn and get the attention I need when learning.
An aspect of school that is more difficult for me isn't necessarily something that I thought would be easier, I knew it would be difficult for me, but it's the fact that I need to be keeping up with everything that needs to get done. I find myself falling behind because I have so many tasks that need to be done, whether it's school related or just getting through life. I also ride by the seat of my pants and I find it's not the best path for me. I feel so scatter brained and I've NEVER been able to keep a planner or stay organized in the way people tell me will work, so I'm struggling to find the method that works for me. Juggling everything is definitely what I struggle with here at school.
The one thing I would change about my BYU experience so far is how far away I live from campus. I love the wyview dorms they're really nice, way nicer than heritage or helaman, but it's hard to be so far away especially when my source of transportation, the bus, only comes at certain times, it can make things a bit frustrating, and I feel like I'm wasting my time waiting for a bus when I could be getting things done. I wouldn't mind it so much if I had a car, but of course I don't, or even a bike, which is another thing that I don't have. But the thing that would make this situation so much better is if I had a motorcycle. Mostly for the fact that I've always wanted one, it's my dream in life to someday get one, I was hoping in college but of course since I'm a poor college student that's not happening anytime soon. But if I had one, I would be so happy and of course it would solve my living so far away problem! And of course make me very happy just for owning one.

My Adventure's at BYU

To start out I'd like to tell about one of my first adventures here at BYU. I was here for the summer semester, so this one wasn't exactly recent but it was when I really got to know the campus. It was a warm Sunday evening, that was slowly turning into the dark of night. After ward prayer a group of us got together and chatted to get to know everyone just a little better, most of us were at least acquainted with each other before so it wasn't too awkward. But a few of the boys noticed that their room mate wasn't there and concluded that he had yet again left with a girl in our ward that he'd become rather "comfortable" with. So with nothing else to do, the hunt started to find the two late night romantic walkers. I was just a follower, I didn't know what there intentions would be once they found them, but looking for better acquaintances and something to do, I joined in. We split into groups in search of the love birds. I went with two other friends. Our territory to search was up and around the bell tower and then to venture onto campus, pass the art museum and just go from there. We made our way up there, passed by all the Sunday night tunnel singers and made our way, on and on. We weren't having too much luck finding the couple we were stalking but we were sure having a good time finding our way across the dark campus, at that time I had no sense of direction for the campus and it just seemed so big and confusing, but now of course looking back I know exactly where I was and the path I took. After passing several other couples enjoying the moonlight that were not the couple that we were looking for, we met up with others that were on the search too that we had divided from in the beginning. And all of the sudden with them we started having luck. We spotted a couple on a bench over by the RB. We hid behind bushes, buildings and signs. After it was confirmed that it was them, all I remember was some boys taking action trying to sneak up on them, a yell and then everyone running so that they wouldn't be caught in the "stalking" party. Apparently someone had almost caught them kissing but were caught right before it happened. That night was fun, pretty pointless, and ridiculous. We had no purpose for doing it but I ran around the then unfamiliar campus and had a good time with people in my ward. It was probably my first adventure here.
And now for the sake of fully completing the assignment I'll tell my recent adventure, because I wasn't sure if that story would count considering it happened a few months ago way before the assignment was given. So my newest adventure... Since there is always booths around the Wilk, I decided I would be apart of one. And then I saw the perfect one and I could even get a free shirt out of it. It was the disabilities awareness booth. You could pick to be disabled for two hours then go watch a 20 minute video about real people who have to deal with real disabilities here at college and then get your free t-shirt. I chose to have a crippled hand. So they taped up my right hand so that I couldn't really use it. And my friend received crutches as his disability, which was limited leg use. I then preceded to order my breakfast of an egg and cheese omelet. Eating that was pretty difficult considering I only had one competent hand, which was my left. I also had to take notes in my Book of Mormon class with my left hand and it looked like a little child's hand writing. It was pretty interesting to see what I would have to do if I really did have a crippled hand, and especially my right hand. Luckily after two hours I was cured and could go back to normal, which makes me grateful that I can use both of my hands!
And I decided that now I'm always going to check out those booths and get involved, because there are a lot of things that are offered to do here at BYU.

Carl Bloch: Healing at the Pool of Bethesda

As I sat to examine this painting, I notice the obvious connections first. Like the fact that Jesus was in the light and the rest of the picture was dim. And that the man who was being healed was in a lot of darkness. I made the connection in my head, with the fact that Christ is the light of the world and until we come unto him, we are still in the darkness our selves. This statement is made very clear in the painting. But then as I sat there for a few more minutes I began to see things I had never noticed before. Why were certain things placed in the painting, and what was there theological meaning. Some of the items I could not rationalize why they were there, but for some I made my best guess.
First I'll start off with the beggars in the background. None of them are looking unto Christ, some are still staring at the pool and others are just simply not paying attention at all. For me this represents many of the people in the times of Christ, the Jews. Because of the Maccabees revolt, a false image of Christ was born. These people were looking for the wrong signs of Christ, just as the beggars are looking for the wrong source of power: the pool.
Next we can examine the little child standing by those beggars. This child isn't looking at the pool at all. He's looking towards the Messiah. Which represents the fact that we need to be childlike. And that is simply put by the soft and tender expression of the child's face.
Now let's focus on the pool. I find it interesting that part of the word Bethesda in Aramaic means "house of mercy" that sets the stage perfectly for the healing by the Savior. He has mercy on everyone.
Now what I had never noticed before that, and I still feel as if I was imagining it there in the painting was an obscure man in the lower left corner. I saw a man hunched-over underneath the Pharisees. He is hardly visible but I could make out his face. And a tiny slice of the top of his head was bathed in light. The connection I made with this man was that the Pharisees kept many people in the dark about Christ. They bore false witness and tricked many people into believing that Christ was just a man. That is why I think he is underneath them and in the shadows, but I also think despite what he was told, he was finding out for himself who this Christ figure really was. Which is why he has a little bit of light shed on him. This man I found to be very interesting in so many aspects.
But some of the things I couldn't figure out was the man slightly to the right of the man being healed. Why is he wearing a cap that is red, it's the brightest color in the whole painting. And also what is he trying to say with his face, and where is he looking. Also what confused me was why is there an object that resembles a watermelon by the leg of the man being healed? Does is serve a purpose or is it completely random?