Sunday, November 16, 2008

Update

And the update is . . . not much.  But I will go over some of the highlights since the school year started.

First thing, I moved into PineView Apartments, which are just a few blocks away from Utah State University.  It is a nice change to be back in a very social atmosphere.

And then back towards the end of August, I went with my older brother and the sister just younger than me to Snow Basin.  We took the tram up to the top of the mountain, and then rode our bicycles down to the bottom.  Part way down, I took a switchback too sharply and ended up on the ground.  I scratched my leg pretty bad, but I did not notice it until later. When I looked at it, it was completely covered with big
gooey patches of black congealed blood that had little pebbles and plant fibers in it.  It really did not hurt much until the trail narrowed and my legs were whipped by long plants.  It took a long time to get to the bottom of the mountain, but it was fun.  I love mountain biking, but in all reality, I am only a beginner.  The trail was really fun and I had a blast, but it was almost too much.  But I made it, and it was great.  The picture is of my leg is after it was cleaned off and it was also like a day or two after.

A few things happened during the beginning of October.  On the Friday before General conference, I had my second mission reunion with my mission president.  It was interesting.  The first one was so meaningful.  It was so neat to see everyone again.  This one was good, and it was definitely worth it, but the feelings were not as deep as the first one.  My mission president gave a wonderful talk that was very inspiring, and echoed many things said in General Conference the next day.  The Saturday sessions of conference were very good, as were the ones on Sunday.  There was a nice rainstorm on Sunday morning which caused a leak in the roof of out apartment complex.  We woke up to a section of the wall between the kitchen and the living room bulging with water.  We alerted the manager and he came over and poked a pin in it to drain the water.  Not much actually came out, what little water there was just warped the paint.

Less than a week before halloween, my roommate and I went to Desert Industries to look for some halloween costumes or at least ideas for costumes.  While I was there I saw some old man sweaters which gave me the idea to become Mr. Rogers.  After work on Halloween, I went back to D.I. and found an awesome Mr. Rogersesque sweater.  I found pretty much everything I needed and actually pulled together a pretty sweet costume, at least by what everyone told me.  I went around to different apartments in the complex as well as friend's places randomly asking if they "would be my neighbor."  It was pretty fun.
2007 was not the best year for me.  2008 has been fairly great, at least comparatively.  I didn't date much in '07 or that much in '08, but this semester has been a lot better.  I have gone on more dates in the last 4 months than I have in the entire last year.  The day after halloween, some of the guys from my apartment did a group date where we did a scavenger hunt.  Not any scavenger hunt, mind you, but a photo scavenger hunt.  It was really fun and we took a lot of cool pictures.

In other news, I found the campaign really interesting.  I'll start off to say that I am not a Republican.  Or a Democrat.  I am somewhat of a moderate, and I am unaffiliated with any party.  In my estimation, the two party system we have is too polarizing.  I agree with certain platforms of the Republican Party, and others of the Democratic Party.  I am opposed to others of both parties.  I don't fit neatly in either party, and I doubt most people do.  I live in Utah where votes do not count for the presidential race since Utah generally votes straight Republican. I might have voted for McCain, I might have voted for Obama.  I sure as anything didn't vote for Chuck Baldwin.  And I won't tell you who I voted for, but I did vote.
If my technical skills work right, there should be a fun little video posted at the below about the campaign.

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So, that is my update so far.  I can't think of anything else noteworthy to say other than I am just working through the end of the semester and hoping I will pass all my classes with decent grades.