Hull International

I've started a second blog! It should be about my experiences and thoughts on cultures, history, international relations, and travel.  Find it at hullinternational.blogspot.com!

Duck Poem

This is a poem I heard the other day. It's a good reminder for around the time when New Year's resolutions start to break down.

The Barnyard Ducks
Author Unknown

There are three ducks in our backyard
Dabbling in the mud and trying hard
To get their share, or even more,
Of the overflowing barnyard store
Satisfied with the task they’re at
Of eating, and sleeping, and just getting fat

But whenever the free, wild ducks fly by
Their long line streaming across the sky
They cock a quizzical, puzzled eye
And flap their wings and try to fly

Oh, I think my soul is a tame old duck
Dabbling around in barnyard muck
Fat and lazy, with useless wings
Yet sometimes, when the North wind sings
And wild ones hurtle overhead
It remembers something lost and dead
And cocks a lazy, bewildered eye
And flaps its wings, and tries to fly

Oh, it’s content with the state it’s in
But it’s not the duck it might have been

Now What?

So, I will probably be graduating within this calendar year.  Possibly as soon as the end of this summer.  I will have a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies with a minor in History and another in French.  While this sounds like a great thing, and I suppose it is, I have no idea about what I should do next.

The closer I get to graduation, the more I realize that I do not know what I want to do with my life.  I would kind of like to live and work abroad, but I should probably try to work on that whole getting married thing before I'm stuck in a country where I can't speak the language.  Maybe I shouldn't worry about it and just take that as it comes.

But what should I do?  Should I try to find a job?  Where shall I look?  What should I focus on?  Or should I try to go to grad school?  What would I study?  Do I continue on with the exact same sort of stuff that I am currently studying, or do I shift my focus somewhere else?

It seems that the closer I get, the less I know.

Twit'd

I'm on Twitter!  I have been for about a year, but I don't generally use it since I see little use for it.  BUT, I sometimes use it when bored, or at least today.  And I've added it to this blog.  You can see it towards the bottom of the page.

*UPDATE*
I started getting this really icky spam from some other Twitter users, so I've deleted my Twitter account.

Pure Awesomeness

Scripture Power

It has often been said my LDS Seminary and Institute teachers that if you read the scriptures everyday, you would basically have either better days or more power to get through the day.  I've tried that in my own life and have seen that it has worked.

However, while I still read at least a little bit in the scriptures each day, a combination of early classes, early work schedules, or just laziness has pushed my scripture time to the evenings, just before bed.  And by that time it is usually just an afterthought.

I have had a run of fairly bad days lately, and I thought that maybe I could benefit from the old seminary promise.  I have made it a point to read my scriptures while I'm waiting for my breakfast to cook, as well as after I've eaten.  It has made a difference.  My days aren't perfect, and I have my ups and downs, but the scripture study helps.  The promise is true.

Back in the U.S.A.

Well, I've been back in the States for about a month and a half now.  It is good to be back.

I am back attending Utah State University, and taking sixteen credits as well.  I think I might have bitten off a bit more than I can swallow since four of my five classes are upper devision, and two of those are Communicative Intensive.  But this should be my second to last semester, so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I have an apartment near campus.  It is just at the foot of Old Main, and I can see its tower from my bedroom window.  It is especially nice since all but one of my classes are in Old Main.  This is a picture from my window at night.  I turned off the light so the it is easier to see the tower.  It is the 'A' shaped thing in the upper left area of the photo.  The doorframe shaped thing is the reflection of my bedroom door in the window, and then you can see my computer sitting at the bottom of the window.  I share the apartment with three roommates, and I have my own small room.

I also acquired a new job.  I have a work-study job with the Utah State University Technology Commercialization Office.  I help out around the office, but it is mostly sorting paperwork and data entry.  It seems that it will be a pretty good job, but it seems like it might also be kind of boring.

My job is very quiet, and my apartment is also very quiet.  I spend a lot of time doing homework, so I have less of a social life than I would like, but compared to my time in Japan, I have a HUGE social life. I am a lot busier, so I can't play as much as I'd like.

In other news, or I guess related to my first paragraph, I graduate within a year.  I'm not sure what to do after graduation.  I might try to get a job, or I could possibly look into graduate school.  I am also toying with the idea of going to Australia.  My mum was still a citizen when she was born, which means that I can get dual citizenship.  It's just an idea, but it is an option.  I would probably only go for a short while if I did go, but I could stay for longer.

Speaking of Australia, my uncle, my cousin, and my aunt is over here on holiday.  They spent some time in SoCal, and then saw the Grand Canyon, then visited us for a few days.  They are currently on their way to Oregon, and then back home to Brisbane.  Below is a picture of me with my uncle, his daughter - my cousin, and my aunt.  My mother's brother, niece, and sister.

A gift

My time here in Japan has been a mixed bag.

I haven't had to deal with culture shock, but I've struggled with boredom, homesickness, and above all, loneliness.  The first couple of months were really hard.  The third was okay, and the last was actually pretty good.

During the hard times, I relied on Sundays at church, and the kids at school.  Church recharged my batteries, and gave me hope and comfort.  The kids at school were really fun to teach, and they were usually happy.  Teaching them was a joy.

I am returning home in a few days.  As a farewell gift, the students at one of the schools gave me origami.  Unfortunately, I am not able to take most of it home.  I really love all of these gifts, I'm sad that I can't take it with me.  But I did take pictures so I can remember.  Here is the origami (sorry if the video shakes a little):

You can also see a web album with individual pictures here.

Katzenklavier

This is an very interesting short film.  I love the feel of film noir that it has.  Be warned that it is a little "dark."

Frowning Thanksgiving Logo

Hmmm, when I saved this logo, I had a slight smile on my face (The picture of me in the logo), but now, since the compression is bad, it looks like I'm sad.  Oh well, I'm sure I will be on Thanksgiving anyway.  You know it's just great to be halfway around the world all by yourself during holidays.

UPDATE

I didn't really have a Thanksgiving, but I kept myself busy, and talked to my family the next day when it was Thanksgiving in America.  It was really good to talk to them.  In the end it didn't matter that there was no turkey or pumpkin pie, as long as I was able to spend time with my family even if it was just over the phone.

Ya gotta luv the Brits.

I wish all ATMs did this.

Zombie Candy Corn

Here is some more awesome artwork that is a t-shirt from shirt.woot.com.  It is not as clever as the last one, but still very amusing.  Happy Halloween.  Click on the picture to enlarge it.

New Logo for Halloween and a funny picture

I thought that since this month is October (aka the month of Halloween) that I would give my blog a nice Halloween theme.  So my new logo is a picture of me in the Catacombs of Paris.  Kind of creepy, huh?

And today I saw this hilarious shirt on shirt.woot.com.  I thought it was also fitting for Halloween.  Here it is:

World Traveler

Everyone says I'm becoming quite the world traveler. I guess that it is true. I did a Study Abroad this summer and now I'm living in Japan for a semester.

My tally so far for this year (And I am including the USA):

• 3 continents (North America, Europe, and Asia [If you get really technical, it is only 2 since Japan is an island])
• 7 countries (USA, France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom [England and Wales], and Japan.)
• 2 oceans which I have crossed (Atlantic and Pacific)
• 3 mountain ranges (Rockies, Alps, and whatever this one in Japan is called)
• 10 Airplanes
• 4 or 5 Airlines (United, American Airways [Worst airline ever, AVOID their international flights at all cost!], North West -operated or something with Delta, Ryan Air, and ANA) I have also flown American in the past.
• Countless trains
• 1 taxi
• Church in 4 languages in 5 different countries.
• Previous countries before this year (USA, Mexico [2003], United Kingdom [England & Wales from 2003-2005]) That brings my total to 8 countries!

I know my travels pale in comparison to many people, but I'm am glad for the experiences that I have had and I am now having. I'll try to fill in some of the details from this summer and this semester!

The Results Are In

How do you think I look with a beard?

Only eight people voted on my poll, but it is a surprise! I thought that I looked somewhat okay with the beard - but not great.

Half of the voters voted that I looked awesome with it, a quarter thought that it wasn't so great, and another quarter was split between apathy and apathetic support for it. The greatest surprise was that nobody voted that I looked terrible.

I am clean cut and clean shaven now, and I need to remain so for awhile yet, so those who weren't too fond of the scruff can rest easy.

Vote now!

I reopened the poll, so if you haven't voted, please do.

Facial Hair

Don't forget to give me your opinion of what you think of my scruff.  Answer the poll in the sidebar.

I'm generally not one to have facial hair.  As much a pain as shaving is, growing it seems to be just as bad.  Its one of those cases of darned if you do, darned if you don't.

However, I grew a beard over the Christmas break.  It started out for medicinal purposes, because I was not supposed to shave around my wound (see last blog entry) but I decided to grow it until school started again.  I grew it for about a month and then shaved on the second day of school.

My hair was also starting to get long.  I remember going to my mission reunion during the first weekend of October and thinking that my hair was a bit long and that it needed a cut.  Here are a few photos of me with my scruff before I cut my hair.

And here a few of me with my beard a while after my hair was cut and just before I shaved.

I decided to try out a few thing while shaving my face.  First I tried a goatee.

I don't think the goatee worked so well.  Next I tried what my roommate's friend suggested which is apparently some sort of Puerto Rican thing.  After that I tried just having a soul patch.

Honestly though, I don't think anything works on me other than clean shaven or possibly even my somewhat full, but sketchy beard.  So here is the final product after about a month being very hairy.

The day that I finally chopped it all off seemed so cold to me.  Who would have thought that a little scruff could make such a difference with how cold my face felt.  It is sad to say, but I miss my scruff.  It was also interesting to get peoples reaction on how they thought I looked with my beard.  It was very polarized.  Either people thought it looked great, or they thought it looked terrible.

What do you think?  Answer my little quiz at the top of the sidebar.

Vampire morning breath and my chinny chin chin . . .

On Tuesday, the ninth day of December in the year of our Lord, two-thousand and eight at approximately three-forty-five in the afternoon, Mountain Standard Time, I, Benjamin Hull was working.  And what I was doing at approximately this exact moment was attempting to lift a heavy object into the back of an old truck, but alas!  This heavy object was a mean old thing that had a fear of heights, it thwarted me by striking a heavy blow to the lower part of my face, causing me to be stunned and dropping it back to mother earth where it could feel safe and secure whilst I stood lost with shock with a hand clutched to my bloodied visage.

And now in plain English: On Tuesday, I was at work in front of the chemistry building at Utah State University.  A coworker and I were loading a truck with items we had picked up to take back to the Surplus department where we worked.  There were three greasy and heavy metal pumps that we attempting to put in last.  I lifted one of these by this sort of wheel thing that was attached to the top of it.  Unfortunately for me, this wheel was not as secure as we thought it was, it popped off the top, the pump fell, or remained where it was, and the wheel flew up and smacked me in the face just below the mouth.

This is the part where I am not as sure of the details.  My coworker later told me that there was a noise that sounded like someone took a bat to my head.  I was stunned for a minute and there was some pain all throughout my lower jaw.  I seem to recall that I set the wheel down and made some attempts to get back to work.  My coworker said something to the effect that I needed to get stitches.  I wondered at that and put my hand up to my chin and felt the wetness and saw blood covering my palm when I took it away.  I let him finish loading while I went inside to the bathroom to get wash my hand and get some paper towel to control the bleeding.

We travelled back to the shop and I told my boss I was going over to the Health and Wellness Center to go get whatever help I might need.  While I was there, a woman overheard us, took a look at my wound and told me she was pretty sure I needed stitches.

I walked over to the Heath and Wellness Center which is just south of the Surplus Store and a kind lady took me to the back where she did a quick examination.  She threw away my blood soaked paper towel and wiped away most of the blood from my wound.  She said that even though the cut was deep it probably wouldn't need stitches, it might need to be glued, but probably not stitches.  She asked a few questions and took a look at my gums and teeth since I mentioned some pain there.  The gum around one of my teeth looked horrible, it was a purplish grey and looked like part of it had a tear in it.  The inner part of my lip was also bruised.  She said that there was possibly some severe damage to a tooth and told me that I should go to the InstaCare clinic since they would be able to treat me better so I wouldn't lose the tooth.

I walked back to my car and drove there.  I filled out the necessary paperwork while I waited and I notice a peculiar thing about the blood on one of my hands, the blood made a smiley face!  Here is a picture of it:

I took it with my cellphone, so the quality is pretty poor, but I enhanced the second one a little with PhotoShop so you can more easily see where the smiley face is.  There was more blood on my hand than you can tell from either picture, but you get the idea.

When I was finally able to see the doctor, he asked me about exactly what happened and then checked the wound on my face.  He examined it and told me that it seemed to be holding together well enough that it would not need any stitches or glue.  He then examined my gums and teeth and told me that gums are pretty resilient so it would take care of itself.  He tapped and wiggled most of my bottom teeth and discovered that they seemed to have taken the shock pretty well.

The diagnosis was that I was okay.  The prescription was that I just needed to keep an eye on my injuries to make sure that they didn't or don't take a turn for the worse.  I would need to be careful around the cut on my face so I was told not to shave around that part for at least a week or until it heals completely, hence my scruffy, slightly beardy appearance.  He also told me to put neosporin type stuff on the cut to make sure it doesn't go septic on me.

It has been about three days since it happened.  I used some ibuprofen for the first day or two for the pain but it hasn't been bad for awhile, in fact, for the first several hours after it happened, most of my lower jaw was just numb, and most of the pain didn't set in until the evening.  I don't think my cut has been infected, but occasionally it will leak a little bit.  The first day and a bit it was blood, now it is a slightly amber liquid.

The worst part has actually been within my mouth.  That is where most of the pain has been, and for the first day it was quite uncomfortable to eat.  Every time I brush my teeth I have to be careful around that area.  I have tried to brush it very softly, but each result ends in red bristles on my toothbrush and pink toothpaste when I spit into the sink.  There has been a constant taste of blood in my mouth since it happened.  The first while it was really strong, now it is still there, but not as noticeable.  Either that or I have just gotten used to the taste.  In Fact, on Thursday I woke up with vampire morning breath.  I woke up with that nasty morning breath taste, but combined with blood.

The cut doesn't look too bad right now, so hopefully it will heal without a mark.  One of my younger sisters asked me the other day whether it will scar.  I don't know.  But if it does, I'll have a nice set of scars on my chin.  One on the bottom and the other about an inch below the lip.  I've included this picture so you can see.  It is not a very good one due to the lighting in this room and due to the fact that it was taken just a little while ago with a webcam. The cut is also a little obscured because of the glare on the neosporin stuff.

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.

The Pumpkin of Scooby Doo

This is my Subaru. It is a 2001 Subaru (Impreza) Outback Sport which I bought just last month. It's a nice car, and I really like it.

We took this car on our trip to Oregon, all 1500 miles of it. We didn't have a problem on our way to Portland, but we did on the way home.

About halfway between Pendleton and La Grande in Oregon, an odd sort of flapping noise started coming from the back of the car. We pulled over at the next exit, got out, and inspected the car. We didn't see anything amiss. One of my sisters suggested that it might be one of the little mud-flaps on the bottom of my car.

We were satisfied by that explanation, so we continued on with our journey. For a long time, it seemed that that was right, when the road curved a different direction, the noise seemed to lessen or cease, which further confirmed our theory. However, sometime past La Grande the noise started sounding different, or worse. I thought maybe the car was starting to backfire or something, but it wasn't. The grinding, flapping noise was much worse by the time we reached my cousin's house in Boise.

I was really worried about the noise when we stopped but my cousin told me not to worry, that we couldn't do anything about it that night and then we could take a look at it in the morning. When the morning came, my cousin crawled under my car and looked around. He noticed what it was and then had me crawl under it. Part of the axel was messed up. The following picture is of the undamaged part on the passenger side of the car:

So, the picture above is of the good one. These next two pictures are of the broken one. You can tell in the pictures of the broken one that the green part is not attached to the other surface.

At the risk of overkill, the next item is a video of the good side. The piece stays still, but unfortunately the camera moves.

The second video is of the broken one, you can really tell by how much it moves and how much the other didn't move.


I am not the most mechanically inclined, but the rods in the videos and pictures are my car's rear axles. The green colored part is also part of the axle, apparently it is the part that attaches to the rear differential. So my rear driver's side axle was busted. We stayed at my cousin's house on Sunday, and then Monday morning we had a very nervous, harrowing ride/drive to the mechanics.
The mechanic crawled under my car and took a look. When he came up he was swearing in surprise. He seemed amazed that we even were able to drive on it (I didn't tell him that we must have driven about a hundred to a hundred and fifty miles on it). The mechanic got on his phone to get some estimates on parts and much to our amusement he used a lot of entertaining lingo. He asked the person on the other end of the line how much it would be for a 'pumpkin' for an '01 "Scooby Doo." His use of the word pumpkin was for the differential or whatever the thing is called that the two axels go into in the middle.
Anyway, to make a much too long story a tad shorter, we ended up being in Boise for three days longer than we planned, and I ended up missing two days of work. We originally planned to be in Boise for a night, catch a sacrament meeting in the morning and then be in Logan sometime in the afternoon. But, we left Boise late on Tuesday and arrived in Logan early Wednesday morning, but I did make it to work that day for a full shift.
As much as I liked by vacation to the Oregon coast, being back is, well, never mind, I'd still rather be by the ocean! Anyway, after three extra days and $450 later, here is my new axle and differential: