Always Busy

Sorry it has been a while. Now that we are really getting into classes, the workload is really setting in.
For Geology, I have spent quite a while in the lab looking at different rocks and minerals. It's paying off, I got a 14/15 on the minerals portion and the rock part is due Friday. Tomorrow there is an extra credit lecture on religion and science.
For Anthropology, I have been reading two books written by the professor. Super boring. The first is about the different philosophies in anthropology and the people who came up with them. The second is a about when the professor went and lived with the Himba people in Namibia for a few years. It is really sort of... disturbingly informative for how other people live. I read almost 100 pages of it today and that's like half of what I have to have done by Friday. Then I have to write two papers on each book as well as the shows we have been watching in class. Also an extra credit lecture for that class tomorrow, but I'm not going because I have 100% in that class.
Book of Mormon isn't that hard. Just have to do updates on how we thought the scriptures were discussed in class with a few details about how we can apply it to our lives. Not that hard.
Writing 150 is irritating me. I have to write an Opinion Editorial on a topic of my choice. He said it needed to be 3-5 pages long. Mine is 8 pages long and I'm still going. He also said that for an opinion paper that I was too sarcastic. Boohoo. Ask me if I care. Sheesh I could go on for quite a while about what he had to saw about my paper, which was really awesome, but now it's even better. He is going to regret the negative feedback. I am not confident about very many thing. Writing is one of them. In my two college writing classes Senior year, I had the highest grade in both of them. I am pretty confident in my writing skills.
History is pretty cool. We don't do much. I had to read The Epic of Gilgamesh which was a snooze-fest. It wasn't that long but it was really boring and I don't fully understand why we read it. Just doing as I am told. We don't even have to write a paper on it... I don't think...
I did not get the job at the movie theater I applied to. I went in for an interview on Wednesday and called them on Saturday to see how things were going. They told me I was overqualified for a job behind concessions. This really bothers me. I asked my managers at the movie theater back home and we went over all the interview questions they asked me and I answered the same way. My home managers said that I answered them like a manager, not an employee. They want to hire people with no training so they can train them the way they want, not someone with experience who might do things their own way. Whatever. Whole thing was stupid and I'm still angry.
Maze Runner is this Friday! The Official Mockingjay trailer has been released and I almost have it memorized. 64 days left! After like a 5 year wait, only 64 more days. Pretty excited!

Busy week

Yeah I've been pretty busy these last few days.

Couple of days ago I decided to get started on my homework for Anthropology 101. We had to read chapter 1 and the syllabus and take the quiz within the week. I decided to just get it over with. I trudged through the first chapter of a book that the professor wrote. It was not thrilling. I took really extensive and thorough notes on it too. Took the quiz, and hey guess what, no questions about chapter 1, just the syllabus. Yipee. The next day in class the professor got up to start his lecture. I kid you not he was reading his lecture right out of the book! I opened up my notes and had more details there than he was giving me then. Me and my friend Jenna then proceeded to play games on our phones instead.

I also added and dropped quite a few classes. I was going to take an intro course in Archaeology, but that bored me to tears so I dropped it. Even though I got a scholarship for pottery, I am not currently taking any art classes. I am taking a fun history class. It's about the beginning of people up to the year 1500. Right now my Geology class is my favorite. It is the most interesting class and even though I hate science with a passion, I am really enjoying the class. I have spent several hours now in their offices using the geology textbook because mine still isn't here. Taking really good notes, reading each paragraph, studying the pictures... It is boring as heck, but it's paying off. Of the two quizzes I've taken I only missed one question on each of them.

There is always something going on on campus. If someone is having a party, Cosmo is out and about, clubs are promoting, other organizations are advertising with free stuff, there is always something. Just the other day there was that ball drop thingy. The other day I walked in the bookstore to check and see if they had restocked on a book I needed. As I was walking past some ties, I ran into the Hosmans! Haven't seen them for years!

The other day I found a friend that goes to UVU. I worked with him at the movie theater back home. We've been friends for like a year now I think. We were both bored so we went to see the 30th anniversary of the movie Ghostbusters! 

The family came to visit a few days ago. It was fun to see them again. They are cray and I don't miss the dumb fights but it was fun to see them again. Sometimes when it is really quite and I don't have anything to do I almost miss the chaos. Almost. 

Tunnel singing the other night was something special. As you have probably heard, a Sister Missionary, Kendal Levine, was hit by car. I won't go into details because it makes me really sad. I have always looked up to Kendal and really respected her. I used to play basketball with her. She is incredible. She even played in college before she left for her mission. At tunnel singing on Sunday night, we stopped halfway through and had a special prayer for Kendal. I really hope she is going to be okay. My ward has been fasting and praying for her.

Okay time for something happier. We went to the fair last night. It was really fun! I won 8 blue ribbons and 2 best is show ribbons! Not sure how much money that it is, but I'm going to buy some sweats! The fair was really fun. I ate a little bit of fried everything. It was awesome. Funnel cakes are the best. Went on enough rides that I made myself feel very nauseated for like an hour. I really enjoy going to the fair every year. It reminds me when we would go when I was a kid.

Today was the inauguration of BYU's new President, Kevin J Worthen. On all the fliers and announcements that were made, we were told that Eyring was going to be there. At the last minute, and not even the BYU faculty and stuff new this until today, Monson and Uchtdorf came as well! It was really cool! Elder Holland, Oaks, and Nelson were there as well. It was an amazing way to start the day! Eyring and Worthen gave a few remarks, there was the ceremony, and the musical groups on campus performed. It was a very spiritual experience to be there and I know I will remember that for years to come.

I'm trying to take more pictures

So I was told that I should be trying to take more pictures if I am going to be doing a blog. So here are a few pictures I took as I was going about campus today.

This is my Book of Mormon class right before we got started. 

So on the bridge I walk across to get to campus, some one glued googly eyes on the bridge. I noticed a few more of these in random places today.

These are a few pictures I took around campus today. This place is really pretty. Could not have asked for a better day to walk around campus and enjoy the end of summer. I even did my homework outside.
There were people everywhere today. The bookstore is re-branding and calling itself the byustore. They had a ribbon cutting ceremony and everything. People have been in there every minute that it has been open so I don't know why they were making it some big event.







Part of the "new" store thing was a ping pong ball drop. They dropped 500 ping pong balls and if you caught one you got some free thing from the byustore. I almost caught one. I waited right underneath the thing that was going to toss them. At the last minute, the lady doing it rotated her little cart thing and threw them in the opposite direction. Well with a few hundred people crowding in the area, I didn't stand a chance to get one. Some guy caught like 10 and started to throw them but I still didn't one. Bummer.

This is that bell tower that scared the heck out me a few days ago. It's pretty loud and goes off every half hour. 

Here is also a picture of my favorite building on campus. The JFSB, Joseph F Smith Building. This building does a lot of the English, social sciences, humanities, that sort of stuff in this building. I have my Book of Mormon and my History 201 in this building.

Jessica came for a visit!

Jessica McCubbins is one of my best friends. She was down in Provo with us today for a little visit. Jessica will leave for her mission in October and will be dearly missed.

Today was a really easy school day. I had a Geology class from 9:00-9:50 then Anthropology 101 from 10:00-10:50. Geology was pretty cool. There were about 30 of us in there and the teacher seemed like a nice guy. Anthropology was a different story. I showed up to the classroom which was really an auditorium. My high school's auditorium was about the same size. That class was FULL. I think there were about 600 people in there at least. The teacher was a really weird dude and almost put me to sleep. It was really boring...
After my classes ended for the day, I started to work on some errands. I was able to drop that boring art class and was instead able to pick up another history class that sounded like way more fun. I went to the book store to return my two big sketch books. Jessica came along with me while Jenna was in another class. After that, the three of us just hung out and did whatever. At one point, we went over to University Mall and just looked around. We went in this one store that had really cute and fat little birds in this "living art" display thingy. These cute little guys were hopping around and chirping up a storm.

I got my phone really close and took a picture of them.

Tonight I also did my first load of laundry. It was really slow going. I didn't want to leave my stuff alone just in case something were to happen. Just because it's Provo doesn't mean things are totally safe. I ran two washing machines with lights and darks. That  took about 40 minutes. Then I put them in the dryers. Those took like 75 minutes. Oh well, I like playing games on my phone. 

Classes Begin

This morning I got up around 7:30 and started getting ready for class. I even went and bought something that wasn't a t shirt to wear. My first class was at 10. I thought it was at 9, so I got up a little bit earlier than I needed to. Anyways, I started college the same way I started high school; by going to a religion class as the first class.
My Book of Mormon class was in my favorite building on campus, the JFSB (Joseph Fielding Smith Building). It is only a few years old and has some really cool architecture on the inside. On the outside, it has a huge window running the length of the building so we can see the mountains. I went inside and found my class. There were about 60 of us wild freshmen in there. A religion class at BYU is like an amazing seminary experience, but it happens every day. All of my high school classes were about an hour and a half long. My religion class is only 50 minutes long. Bummer too, it's a really cool class.
After that class ended, I had 1 hour until my next class started. Brother Traeger had mentioned a book in his lesson today, so I went across Brigham Square to the HBLL (Harold B Lee Library). I wanted one simple book by C. S. Lewis. Shouldn't be too hard to find right? Yeah no, it was really hard. First, I went to one info desk on the main level and asked how to check out a book. After that lesson from a super nice lady, I found the crazy code needed to find the book. Then I went to 3 other help desks trying to find what wing of the library had the book. Then I had to find the section, the number, the author, pretty much every way to classify the book was in this code that looked like gibberish. I wandered through about 6 aisles of bookshelves before I found it. I learned that BYU carries just about every book known to man in just about every language. This makes it really hard to find a book. Didn't think finding one book would take me 45 minutes.
Next I went to my Writing and Rhetoric 150 class. I fancy myself to be a pretty good writer and I have a good use of rhetoric in my papers already. Everything we talked about today was so incredibly easy! Some of the others were having some issues here and there but not me... For once. School has always been easy enough for me, but writing and understanding writing have always been my strongest suit by far.
In my 40 minute break between classes, I ran over to old Heritage to check my mail. I finally got my letter from Darick!
Next up was my drawing class. It was so boring I caught myself falling asleep a few times. I'm going to try to drop that class and pick up a pottery class instead. Much more in my element there. I have never been great at 2-D art. 3-D is my thing. I think I'm pretty good at it.
Classes today weren't that bad. I'm glad I have nice sized breaks in between. Tomorrow should be a little harder. I only have 2 classes on Monday and Wednesday that are 10 minutes apart. Nice thing is is that I'll be done by noon. Yeah I really think I want to drop the drawing class. The teachers changed the supply list and added a bunch of extra items he never mentioned before. Glad I already bought everything (sense my sarcasm here).

BYU End of NSO

The last day of New Student Orientation was here. The last day mostly dealt with specific majors and the late-comers to BYU. I didn't really need to go to anything that day.

Even though this was only a few days, ago, I honestly don't remember most what I did during the day. In the early afternoon, me and one of my roommates walked over to campus to take a walk-through of where our classes are going to be. It was kind of crazy all day.

In the evening is when things got fun. For the NSO finale, the had Divine Comedy perform. Divine Comedy is what lead to Studio C and all the actors on that show started out at Divine Comedy. Stacy, from Studio C, was sort of like a guest performer. It was really cool to watch it live, with a few hundred other people. It was so crowded down there, me and about 300 others couldn't find a seat in a crowd that rivals the size of stake conference. They were really funny and it was all good and clean humor. They will perform a few more times during the year and I will be there for sure!

Sunday was nice and relaxing day. My floor and the floor right beneath us are in the same ward, with a few floors from one of the boy's buildings. Church was really weird from what I am use to. There was the usual chatter as people got in and sat down. As soon as the bishop stood up, the room went silent. It stayed that way for a good while longer too. No kids or babies making any noise. Later in the evening we had Ward Prayer in the first floor activity room. Never done that before. After Ward Prayer, we had a floor meeting (I'm on the 4th floor). We did a few little get-to-know-you games and just went over some floor business. Then our RA (Resident Assistant) Michelle, told us about this thing called Tunnel Singing. Every Sunday night at 10, people meet under the bridges and sing hymns. Most people do it as loud as they can. There were several hundred people there. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done. Singing hymns in a tunnel with a few hundred other students. After a few hymns we would just stop and kneel in prayer. This place is just amazing.

BYU Day 3

Instead of going to NSO, my mom and Gam came down to Provo and took me shopping and out to eat. We went to Mimi's Cafe then went grocery shopping. While at walmart, we were walking down an aisle towards the back of the store. My mom pipes up and says, "Hey, isn't that the Studio C guy?" I turned around to get a better looks, and oh my goodness, it was Matt Meese! I ran over to him, talked for a little bit, and even got him to take a picture with me! Highlight of the week right there.