Merry Christmas from the base of the Grand Tetons

Well I was finally able to get onto the internet out here. It's not the most stable thing, but here I am. I figure I'd take this opportunity to put up a small post. Sorry, no pictures. I don't want to push my luck.

It's nice just sitting here, looking out the window in front of me as I type, and seeing the beautiful mountains, covered in pine and snow. Sometimes you just need to take a break from the regularities of everyday life. Christmas should be a time that fosters that. It should also be a time that fosters family relationships.

That being said, I should probobly mention that I am not spending this Christmas with my family. As things would turn out, I didn't make it all the way up north this year. I know my family misses me, but there were a number of things that just made sense to me at the time as to why I might not go. So, here I am...sitting in a cabin in Jackson, Wyoming with my best friend and his family (one of my several second families), typing away at a blog entry and looking out a set of several massive windows at a range of several Massive mountains.

I love Christmas. Mostly because it facilitates families coming together, building relationships, traditions, and memories. For those of you (both family, and friends) whom I'm not able to physically share this day and time of year with...know that miss and love you. Merry Christmas.

it's been awhile

since my last post...and it might be awhile longer seeing as how I'm not sure if I'll have internet in a couple days. :(
I spent last night and today kickin it in Rexburg, Idaho. Yes, glorious Rexburg. It is butt cold here.

Tyler and I will head up to Jackson to meet up with his family tomorrow when he gets off work. I'm looking forward to enjoying Christmas vacation. I'm actually hoping that I'll get some "quiet time" to myself to just sit and enjoy "being" and breath.

But before that happens, I need to finish grading papers and submit grades and all that business. Why don't I stay on top of things during the semester!? Arhg...I'm going to do better this winter. Yes, I am going to be so on top of things my final semester at BYU. Just you wait! :)

How could you be so careless

So, Thursday night I went with a friend to an Amos Lee concert in Salt Lake for her birthday. I had never heard of the band before she introduced them to me, but I enjoyed the prep cd she gave me the day before the concert and was looking forward to the music and spending time with her.

In Summary, my overall thoughts regarding the concert: lets just say that the concert was amazing for a number of reason.

Amos has an amazing singing voice, and the members of the band are great musicians. (Mom, I think you and Peter would have really enjoyed the concert. This is me telling you to check them out.)

My friend (her name is Emily) and I ran into some old friends of hers which was fun. And then we were invited back to the "After Party" in the VIP lounge area (translation...the security guard figured if he invited people back they would spend money at the bar and word of mouth for the venue would be good.) The security guard informed us that he was going to try to get the band to come back so we figured...why not. Well, he did, and they did. And it was cool, cause Emily and I were able to talk to the band members and she got a picture with Amos. Happy Birthday Emily!

Here's a pic of us at the concert. We had some random crazy girl take it. I think the conversation went something like this:
"Hey, could you take a picture for us?"
"Yeah, I'm great at taking pictures. Are you on myspace?"

Let it snow...let it snow....

It's snowing outside as I type this. It's absolutely gorgeous. It's been coming down pretty heavy and the world outside is covered in white. The window next to my desk looks out onto the front of the house and the street we live on. I decided I'd open up the blinds so that I can look outside and just enjoy what it looks like.

LOL! So, I'm sitting here chatting with a friend as well as typing up this post and talking with a roommate that just popped in to say goodnight...He and I looked outside and just saw a car drive past pulling someone as they lay on top of an inner tube. How funny is that?

Oh Provo...you're just lovely sometimes.

Thanks Sis!

I arrived home today after a long visit to the BYU library (actually my longest uninterrupted stay in the library for some time) to several things.:

• Sean in spandex after a ride on his trainer
• A package on my bed
  

The first of my two finds is not too uncommon, although it's definately something that hasn't occurred for awhile; it's been awhile since Sean's last ride. The second find however was more interesting. "Hmmm.....a package," I thought to myself. "I wonder what's in it."

Well, I decided to satisfy my curiosity and open the darn thing...I mean, it was addressed to me. It was a shirt, and a cool one at that. I wondered, as did my half naked roommate, who was responsible for sending me such a cool shirt. It had been sent directly from the company from wence it had been purchased so the address label did no good...aha, but inside there was a packing slip of sorts with my sister's name on it. Ah...sweet!

So, I just want to say: "Thanks for the shirt Sis! I freakin love it! In fact, I put it on as soon as I took it out of the package and I'm wearing it now as I type this."

that's interesting

So, my Gregorian chant (The Opening) has gotten over 100 plays since we posted it Friday afternoon. That's just crazy.

Band of Annuals: Thought I'd Learn by Now

Christina and Adrienne, thank you for introducing me to this beautiful song. I thought I would post it on my blog as well in the hopes of sharing it with more people. -check out their myspace page-

Sushi anyone?

My friend Christina flew into P-town from NY for the weekend. She flew in late late LATE Friday night...(I should just say early Saturday morning cause that's pretty much what it was...hurray for delayed flights.) Bless Adrienne for going to pick her up from the airport so that we could all enjoy her company.

It's sad when friends move away (or you move away) and you don't see them very often. This is how I feel about several friends from high school who are spread throughout the country now, as well as friends now graduated and being grown-up-sorts-of-people in NY.

A pretty small group of us met up and had dinner at The Happy Sumo which I had never eaten at before. It wasn't what I expected, but was super enjoyable nontheless. For some reason I just thought the atmosphere would be more like Panda Express or something like that (which it totally isn't). Anyways, it was nice. We had some deep friend Calamari and then each ordered a sushi roll.

I have had sushi before...I think. I mean, I've had a California roll and things like that. I liked those, so I wasn't too worried about having a raw version. Turned out, I liked it just fine. If you click here you can see the menu of Sushi avaiable there. I had the Venus Roll, Christina ordered the Vegas Roll, Brandon ordered the Cosmopolitan Roll, and Adrienne ordered the Surf and Turf.

I liked them all, but I think I liked the Cosmopolitan the best. The lemon and lime was a nice touch of flavor.

Overall, it was an enjoyable evening. Very enjoyable.

who hath ears to hear...

New bands I was introduced to today and I think I might just really fall in love with:


The Bad Plus (check out their cover of the Chariots of Fire theme.)
Band of Annuals

Little Drummer Boy

Announcements, Announcements, Announcements!

FYI: The Plan had someone audition this morning and let's just say that we know have a drummer. Jacob is an amazing drummer. He's got a heavy jazz background and we are all really excited for him to join us.

Gregorian Chant (with slight modifications)

Ok, so for my History of Creativity class final project I decided to write and record a Gregorian chant...only this Gregorian chant would be slightly different. It needed to include some sort of lateral creativity in order for it to fulfill the requirements of the project and recieve a good grade.

I started out with the idea of having electric guitar accompaniment....hmmmm...yes, that might be considered lateral thinking considering the electric guitar wasn't a contemporary instrument and Gregorian chant did not typically have accompaniment. Then I decided that instead of Latin text from the Bible I'd use Arabic from the Holy Qur'an....ah yes, now we're getting somewhere.

Sean helped me with the Arabic text and pronunciation (the text for the chant is the first chapter or sura of the Qur'an, also known as Al-Fatiha or The Opening).

Taylor helped me out with a little guitar work and recording. It sounds pretty crazy, weird, ethereal, buzy, dissonant, um...reverbatorial, etc...you pick your adjective.

If you're at all interested in what this sounds like you can see...err, hear for yourself by going here.

Happy Birthday to ME

Well, it's my birthday...officially.

I'm not exactly sure what time I was born on the 25th...Mom? I know you'll be reading this eventually; any light on the subject? All I remember was... haha, well I don't "remember" per se, :) That would be pretty weird. Actually, it would probobly be kind of scary. What I mean is that from what older siblings have told me (namely my bro...he was kind of pissed and you'll see why in a second) I was actually born on Thanksgiving. Mom was in the hospital of course so what did the fam do for Thanksgiving dinner you ask??? Well, Dad took them to McDonalds. :)

It's fun to hear my older brother tell that story. lol. He was a little bitter.

Back to the discussion at hand: yes, it's my birthday. I am now 25 and semi-happily unmarried. Not that I'm semi-unmarried. No, last time I checked I was 100% UNmarried. And not that I'm UNhappy either. For the most part I'm a pretty happy camper. I like being single. It's refreshing and fun and...well, all I've known thus far in life. Now I'm sure my older single friends are laughing a little inside as they read this thinking something to the affect of, "What does that youngin' think he's talking about. He doesn't know what it's like to be old and single."

My intent in writing this post isn't to express my feelings of growing into an old single "menace to society."

I'm also sure some of my married friends are reading this thinking, "Dude! Get married already!" (pace, I'm thinking of you my friend.)

Well, it will come in due time and I want the world to know not to worry about me. Yes, I'm now 25 and yes, I'm still single, living in Provo. I do like girls, so you don't have to worry there. And I do want to get married, I'm just not in any sort of rush to get there. There is a time and place for everything.

I think I just might graduate from BYU a single male. Isn't there some sort of honors sash or something I get to wear at graduation for the accomplishment.

Thanksgiving

Whilst it's still technically Thanksgiving....or as Dean Duncan, one of my film professors, would say: "American Thanksgiving" (He's Canadian) I want to just let the small portion of the blogosphere that I interact with to know a few of the things I'm thankful for.

This is by no means a comprehensive list...just a few scattered thoughts before I retire for the evening.

I am so thankful for a loving family. I mean sure, it's pretty jacked up to say the least, but it's not bad. I'm thankful for the gospel. I can't imagine what my life would be like without it. I'm thankful for the opportunity to live where I do in the surroundings that I do. I'm thankful for the opportunity I have to study at a University and to be surrounded by good roommates. I'm thankful for good friends. Life sure would suck without friends, and I've been blessed with some pretty dang good one's.

Anyways, like I said...it's not a comprehensive list...I just wanted to say a few things. Thanks everyone. You mean a lot to me. I love you all, and hope that this message finds you well.

Thank you.

Ew...sick! That's just wrong.

My roomate Sean (yes, the one that fit in our dryer) and I were cleaning the house yesterday since it was cleaning checks and as I was tidying up my room I noticed that the heating vent in my room was getting a little dirty. I thought, "...interesting, I wonder how long it's been since the filter's been changed?"

Being the manly man that I am I decided I'd go check. So, I walked downstairs into our creepy basement and looked around. I couldn't seem to find where the filter was suppose to go, but I did find an old used filter leaning up against the concrete wall next to the heater...hmmm....

Well, I looked some more and after not being able to pinpoint a filter or the place where a filter might go I called for Sean's help (he's pretty much amazing at all kinds of manly things.)

Sean came down and we both looked, and as we were looking I saw something that was truly disgusting....there was a dead bird laying there in our heater and bird crap everywhere. So Nasty! (scroll down to see picture I took with my phone)

Well, to make a long story short...we removed said dead bird (I say "we," but really Sean just did it) and bleached the spot where it had been laying...solidified to the freakin shelf in the heater. We then opened doors and windows to let the smell of bleach that permeated the house through the heating system disapate...then we had some choice words with the people from our management company when they came to do cleaning checks.

You'd think they would check and change the air filter every month when they came for cleaning checks. In fact, I think that might be in the contract...I need to check. We're kind of pissed at them right now because they still haven't done a thing about any of the maintenance requests we made when we first moved in. I think someone in their communications chain has really dropped the ball. I mean, when we first moved in there wasn't a single battery in ANY of the smoke detectors in the house. We made mention of this when we moved in and to this day there is still not a single smoke detector with a battery in it in our house.

When we pointed that out to the cleaning inspector people they kind of freaked out a little. I wanted to say, "Yeah, get on the Freaking ball folks! You're lucky we've been nice and haven't put up a huge stink about some of this stuff that you said you'd get to but haven't yet."

Anyways, we'll see what happens now. I'm guessing not much. We'll probobly have someone come by to put in a filter and put in batteries in our smoke detectors, but for some reason....I'm doubting it. I'm kind of hoping it doesn't happen in a timely manner, so that I can call up someone at the management office and/or write a letter and just let them have it.

For those of you that know me I'm pretty laid back and easy going, but right now...It sure would feel good to rip someone a new one.

Kitchen Stories

So...I watched a Swedish film in my beginning screenwriting class today called Kitchen Stories (also known as "Psalmer från köket"...literally translated into English as "Psalms from the Kitchen").

I really enjoyed it, and think that it might possibly become one of my top ten. It's a beautifully film and I suggest it to you all.

Birthday Party

So, I know that my birthday isn't actually until next weekend (Nov the 25th) but some friends of mine and I decided we'd get together and have a "little" combined birthday party since we all have November birthdays. This weekend seemed the most condusive seeing as how last weekend is past, next weekend everyone will be elsewhere with Thanksgiving plans and the weekend after that is actually December.

The party is going down this Saturday and you are all welcome to come. For those of you in the Provo area who are not married, it should be an ideal opportunity for you to meet that special someone. I mean, seeing as how there should be a number of people you will likely know (friends of mine) and a great deal of new faces to meet (friends of the other 4 people also celebrating their birthdays with me), the chances of you being able to meet new people in a not-so-awkward environment should be good.

For those of you who are married...you're welcome to attend as well. For those of you out of town who have moved on to better things (Boston, NY, LA, Seattle, etc etc etc...) your presence (and presents...hehe, aren't we punny) will be greatly missed. However, you are still MORE than welcome to hop on a plane and join us. Heck, i'd even figure out a way to go pick you up at the airport.

So come join us. Oh, also...The Plan is going to be doing a short acoustic set towards the end of the evening which should be fun.

A Script

So...I really need to be working on the second draft of my script for my screenwriting class, but...it's just not coming to me. Maybe I should change my concept. I don't know. I seem to get decent enough ideas for creative things when I go on walks. I just took a walk. I got some good ideas, but nothing that screams out to me "Write Me! Write Me!"

Part of me just wants to start fresh. I don't know. Can I even do that?

Well...back to the grindstone. Something will come. It allways does.

You may tell 12 people whatever you want...

(thanks for the idea Jared)
No names, just how you feel:

1. Sometimes I'm just a flirt...I really hope I didn't give you the wrong impression.
2. Why do you have to be so negative all the time. I want you to help me get my hopes up for after I graduate, but lately you really haven't come close.
   
3. For now I think it best not to tell you this in person, but I love you.
   
4. I know I've said this to you before, but I just feel like I should say it again: I'm really sorry that I was such a jerk when we were both younger and I hope you can forgive me.
   
5. I'm not sure what to do with you...I mean, I like you; I like you a lot; but I'm not sure what you think about me or what you want out of this relationship...heck, I'm not exactly sure what I want out of this relationship.
   
6. Why didn't we hang out more before this year? I mean...let's be honest, you're pretty cool.
   
7. Dang but I miss you!
8. I just love how things happen in our lives that lead us to meet people that we know will be a part of our lives for a long time...you're one of those people, and I'm really glad for the things that lead us to meet each other.
9. Maybe you've noticed that I've been avoiding you lateley...well, it's true. I'm sorry I've been such a slacker and haven't gotten on the ball with getting you those things, but...pretty much I realized that I don't have to get them to you till next semester, and I kind of tend to put things off for as long as I can...it's kind of in my nature, so let's not talk about it and I'll just get those papers to you later.
10. I'm not sure what happened to you, but I've been thinking about you lately. I even had a dream with you in it. Where are you? What are you doing with your life?
11. I recently learned some suprising things about you...I wasn't suprised per se, because I had put the pieces together awhile ago, but the puzzle I had put together awhile ago was recently confirmed. I want you to know that knowing what I know doesn't change the fact that we're good friends, and we'll always be good friends.
    
12. You're gorgeous.
    

My Friday Night

Well, as you can probobly tell by the picture, I went to a Haunted House tonight. It was fun. I must say there's something about walking through one of those things with a girl clutched to your arm. It's just so rewarding, especially when said girl is cute...which, I must say....she was and is. Thank you haunted house for fostering an environment that leads itself so well to unawkward arm clutching, and hand holding.

The Plan: latest update

Ok folks. So...my goal was to have some vocals recorded for one of our songs Thursday night. Well...it's now technically Friday morning, and as I'm typing this Taylor is in the other room on his computer uploading the newest version of "In the Foreground" onto our myspace page.

I hope you all take a moment to go to the site and listen. Let me know what you think. If you've got a myspace profile, feel free to add us and make comments there as well. :) I'm sure the rest of the band would love to hear what you guys think about our music.

Peace out. I got to get some sleep so I can wake up early, read 50 trillion pages and take a quiz. :)