Yes, we are still here.

I'm Back!

I also decided that it was time I got my affairs in order in my room and went to work giving my room a deep clean:

Christian, not wanting to be left out of the cleaning extravaganza, did his part to organize his half of the room:

As you can see, he has successfully sorted his towel from his coat.

Just when you began to say "Wow! you must have been swamped for the first two weeks of February!" I say to you, there's more!  That's right!  Amazing things happen when you don't have a TV in your apartment.  It turns out you have all this time where you can do "useful" things.  Or you can do what we've done.

Because Christian and I made a new years resolution to become the cooler than the pope, we and our roommates have started hosting a game/dessert night on sundays evenings after ward prayer.  Our apartment just didn't have that "We're Cool!" flavor to it though.  Christian ingeneously solved this dilema by printing out 150 of his favorite pictures and purchasing enough sticky tack to stick our car to the side of our apartment building.  The end result:

The picture of the pictures looks pretty cool, but it really looks even cooler in real life.

And finally our most entertaining project has been the bathroom.  For Christmas I was given crayons.  I love crayons, I don't know if something was lacking from my childhood and now I'm trying to make up for it by owning and using as many crayons as possible, so the gift of crayons was perfect.  Not only were they crayons, they were special crayons that allow you to write on bathroom surfaces... so we did.  You may have to click on the pictures to be able to read what it written.  

So you can see why I haven't been posting as much, I've just been so busy.  I'm still alive and well, and will keep you up to date on future undertakings (like taxes and the resurrection of the scooter).  It just wouldn't be a post without a link, so here's probably the funniest thing I've read in a long long time. And this one is gold.

So I've been watching a bunch of superbowl commercials studying for midterms. Now, I'm a huge fan of supporting companies that have awesome commercials, but some commercials just restore my faith in humanity. You may have seen these already, but I think it's worth the time and effort to revisit them. If you don't have time for all three, make sure you at least watch the last one. We'll go in reverse order.

I know that this is just a short post with nothing it. But I found this video and wanted to share it with the world.

Alright folks, it's time for more goal setting with the slim chance of it actually coming to fruition. With the onset of school, I've been looking for more things to occupy the time that I should really be using to study (ha! just kidding parents). However, these wonderful time wasters are not a waste at all, these are wonderfully useful things for me. First off, I'm trying to get better at sketching. I recently picked up a book called "Sketching for the Theatre" or some such nonsense. This involves learning to sketch set designs and costumes and such. The other thing that I've become very interested in is maskwork and mask making. Unfortunately the one mask making book that I want in the library (of the three books they have on the subject) was checked out the exact same day I went to get it! Let's talk about probability...

Here's a little something to tide you over between posts, I hope it tastes good.

Also for those of you who are a little bit more high-class, here's a little social networking Shakespeare.

Bon Appetit.

Check it out. Make sure to answer honestly.

I'm back from the dead. I realize that I haven't posted since... let's change the subject. I will now attempt to inform the world of what I have been doing for the past two months. As a preface to this post, I would like to say:

-This post may become a list at any time.
-Two months is a lot of stuff.
-I don't have access to any cool videos right now (sorry).
-Order is not a requirement.

I have no clue where to break into this ostrich egg of experience, it's just a big oval! So, we'll go with the happiest thing that has happened to me in a while. I have left the deepest circle of hell behind and will no longer be working at Inkley's! I know that sounds a little over the top for a job, but no, it's not. I am so much happier these days, and it can all be tied back to the fact that I don't work there anymore. However, this also means that I have no job and am very poor. But only monetarily, not in spirit.

The reason that I left my job is two-fold: I hated it, and I'm back in school! I have been working full-time(ish) this past year and decided that it was time to return to education at the big blue whale of a university. I'm loving my classes (3 theatre, 3 generals) and I find that with no job I actually have time to do that homework stuff.

For those of you who didn't notice, I mentioned being in 3 theatre classes, that is because I am Theatre Arts Education major (for now). This brings me to the yolk of the egg (see metaphor above): theatre!! (btw theatre is the practice of the art, theater is the place you go to see it (even if wikipedia and dictionaries don't agree with me))(I'm using more than my allotted amount of parentheses :) ).

So, developments on the theatrical front. I finished the show that I was producing with only minor headaches (I stepped into two roles, one the night that we opened). We had a great turnout and a great response. I also have been cast in Macbeth at BYU. Now before everyone gets their hearts all a flutter, I'm quickly discovering how small the role of Captaine/Menteith/Lord really is. And it's getting shorter as many of my lines are getting cut because they don't fit with the concept of the show. The concept is directors interpretation of the show and our director chose: Book of Mormon/Meso-American!! That's right folks we've got lamanites and nephites and we're waging some wars! Luckily for me this means that I get to grow my hair out, however they have also toyed with the idea of us shaving our heads (or at least partially to get mohawk type deals). This is not a joke in any way, shape, or form. However, I think the best thing that happened with Macbeth has been the opportunity we had to work with a Shakespearean text expert and have workshops where we learn graduate level stuff. I'm still buzzing from it and it was two weeks ago.

Last theatre thing. I did something yesterday called the 24 hour theatre project. Here's what happened: Friday at 8:00ish pm, five preselected playwrights (wright not write, right? Yes.) met and each drew a title out of a hat. They then had until 8:00 Saturday morning to write a ten minute play using that title. Then at 8:00am Saturday the writers handed their scripts over to five preselected directors. Then at 9:00 (9:15 for me, oops) the actors showed up and were assigned to scripts. Then we had until 8:00 Saturday night to rehearse at which point we performed for a nearly full house. Awesome. Now those of you who are good at math will note that 11 hours of rehearsal divided by a ten minute play equals too much time. Not to mention number of rehearsals multiplied by the number of occurrences of the phrase"Oh my gosh" in the script (25 times) equals I went insane. Literally though the script had us saying "oh my gosh" about 25 times in ten minutes for the humor of it. In the end our play turned out to be really funny and everyone loved us and then there was time to sleep.

Now it becomes a list (since you and I could be here forever at this rate):
-I got glasses.
-I can see now.
-Christmas happened.
-I have new pajama pants that go over my feets. (Thank you Catherine).
-My best friend is engaged and I'm the best man. (I've got your back Brian, don't bottle up).
-I lied, there is a video in here.
-I took my friend's engagement pictures and had fun.
-I took family pictures and had fun.
-I sold my first ever picture at a ward charity auction (5 of them actually, at $35 a piece).
-I shot my first wedding ever (not my wedding).
-It was a weird experience.

I think that about sums it up. So after five hours of reading you should be all caught up on the nature of my existence.

We'll see you in another two months.

*fun activity!! Can you count all the parentheses?*

I did it!  I posted twice in less than a week!  All you people losing faith in my blogging abilities, I hope some of that faith has been restored.  As promised I thought I'd tell the story of our tannenbaum (German for "tougher than a Sawzall").  

'Twas the night before Scott's birthday when all through the apartment... Sorry, I thought I could maybe keep that up, but then I realized that the post wouldn't get done until later next year, so we're going with normal story format: 

My roommate Scott had a birthday last Sunday but had neglected to tell anyone about it until 11:45 Saturday night.  Upon learning this important fact my other roommate Ethan stood up and left the apartment, returning 10 minutes later with.... Nothing.  At exactly midnight o'clock I wished Scott a very happy birthday and went  promptly to bed.  The next morning the apartment was awakened by Ethan singing a happy birthday song to scott to the tune of 'O Christmas Tree.'  Somehow Ethan had managed to get the tree into the apartment and set it up without making a sound.  Is this impressive? Yes.  Does this make me wonder if he has also been sneaking into my room at night and stealing my dirty socks? Yes.  Is it weird that my dirty socks are a hot commodity on e-bay? Not in the least.  We assume he purchased the tree the night befor, but considering that he was only gone for ten minutes, he also could have chopped it down, stolen it, or built it out of paper mache.  Anyways, the tree had no tree stand, was supported by being wedged between our two couches and had one ornament (read: Guitar):

As good as the Orna-tar looked, it just didn't seem complete, mainly because no man tools, duct tape or fire had been used in the birthday gift process.  I saw my opportunity to contribute.  Enter the Sawzall.  For those unfamiliar with things that are manly and destructive, a sawzall is one of the manlier tools available to men.  It will saw... all. Nails, sheetrock, plywood, fingers, you name it.  Everything except Douglass Fir tree trunks.  I guess when God invented the Douglass Fir He made the tree trunk roughly the same density as Mount Rushmore.  Fir must have been tacked on to the name as a mean joke.  I now have a quite embarrassing and long video of me letting the camera know just how cool I was to be in possesion of a sawzall only to then find that the blade of the saw was formed from stale cheese.  

(You'll notice my wise choice of safety footwear)

One inch of stump, ten branches, and (miraculously) only two toes later we realized we had nothing with which to make our tree stand up.  I know what your thinking, which is exactly what we thought in that moment: Cinderblocks and twine.  

 

I've decided that creating a blog is kinda like when I was a kid and got a new toy. At first the new toy is all you want to play with. You sneak it to school with you in your backpack, you show it to all of your friends, you take pictures with it, you dream about it, etc. I have a long history of doing this with new things: my He-Man power sword, X-Men and Star Wars action figures, my iPod, and that weird thing I can do with my stomach (believe me, that's weird to dream about). I feel like I have to have something profound, insightful, or at least whiney to blog about. To top things off, both Christian and I have gone back to being really busy ever since Thanksgiving break ended. I have two projects left for Accounting in the next four days, and when I'm busy Christian doesn't get a computer (because I get mad that I'm busy and lock him in his room, tied to the closet door)(Not really, if any police are reading this, besides he's 21 now so it wouldn't be illegal). Despite the lack of freetime and general exhaustion that has crept into our respective lives the past week and a half has been quite rewarding.

I figured it was time to let go of the fact that we are neglected (since people are acutally checking our site - Thank you), and start posting about the things that are happening in our life.  In the spirit of the holidays our car has decided to quit working.  When did it decide to do so? Yesterday morning when we were hoping to go feast on delicious turkey and pie.  The car was mocking us, openly and shamelessly mocking us.  For those of you who don't know, the last six or seven months with this car have been quite the struggle.  Everytime we get it working again, something else goes on it.  In a car ad we would be able to advertise "Completely rebuilt engine" and "will sometimes run great" also "was not responsible for any recent instances of genocide." 

le out of football it begins to feel like a more girly version of a manicure party).  The car, just to tease me, started without a problem driving to frisbee.  After a five man game of frisbee I hopped in the car and turned the key and the car made a sound like an old man weezing after smoking for 30 years.  Or like I had put that old man in the engine fan.  Normally our car sounds like a rock-polishing machine, so I didn't think too much of it and tried starting it again.  The car, again taunting me, made some sounds like it was starting (rock-polishing as opposed to old man in fan), but just when I thought it would catch it just quit sounding.  One more time I tried it and it started like a gem (from all the rock polishing).

I headed home and we got ready to leave, hopped in the car and tried starting it again.  After three times and mixed prayers and profanity the car started.  I thought "maybe it just needs to get warmed up."  We went to pick up Jessica, and Christian had the infinite wisdom to suggest that we try starting the car a couple more times and that if it wasn't going to start immediately that maybe we should not take it up to Brigham City for fear that we would get stuck up there and have to become Utah State students.  The funny car starting sounds did not get any better, but in fact got worse.  Jessica suggested that we could take her car.  She went to start it and, brace yourself for this, it did not start; dead battery.  So we took our crippled car and pulled it up to her crippled car and gave it a jump. 

 In a small holiday miracle, her car started.

We took off for Brigham City and had a, thankfully, uneventful car ride up.  We arrived in time for lunch and had a spectacular feast with our Aunt and Uncle Darrel and Jolene their kids, our Grandma and our uncle Dave.  After lunch, because no holiday would be complete without a little bit of YouTube and blogging, our cousins busted out their computers and we did some video swapping and some blog reading (as a reference, they actually enjoyed reading our blog and spent a significant amount of time perusing its contents).  After a few more rousing games of ping pong and Ticket to Ride it was time to be off and consume more pie in Draper, pick up Sarah and her sister from the airport and finally arrive back at home safe and sound.

That brings me to today.  This morning I dropped Christian off at work and just for kicks drove by some of the stores up in that area and noticed lines and full parking lots and so on and mused to myself how happy I was that I have absolutely no expendable income and was not in the massive black Friday rush.  I hope everyone reading who did participate in the insanity had all their hopes and dreams fulfilled and that the pushing and shoving and angry looks was all worth it, and that you felt very Christmas-y the whole time.  Because I was feeling in such a holidayish mood, I went home and went to sleep.  

The car problems did not end though.  I think that the car was a little jealous that we left it at home and took Jessica's instead, so today instead of coughing and sputtering it has decided to just spin and spin and spin and never catch.  I think it has completely consumed that poor old man.  I think I'm going to spend the rest of the evening conteplating ways to make the car... disappear? and still claim it under insurance.  I wonder if it would fit in a BlendTec Blender?  I bet I could put it in there one piece at a time and say that it was an "industrial accident." "I don't know how the car got in the blender Mr. Insurance adjuster, it must have wanted to make a shake and it went horribly wrong."  In the mean time it's just sitting out there in our parking lot laughing at me.

Happy Black Friday everyone! 

P.S. Sorry for the helter skelter post, it seemed to flow a lot better in my head.

We figured that something was wrong. This blog having been created two days ago and having had multiple posts, still had not received any comments. Surely our readers, eager to prove that we were not forgotten, would be over-zealous in their posting of comments to the words of wisdom that were laid before them. Yet there was nothing. Tests were conducted and the results showed that it was impossible to leave comments due to a glitch in the flawless blogger system. This has since been fixed and now there is no excuse for zero comments to the flow of wit and charm that emanate from your computer screen. And now we'll wait for the comments to start pouring in.

Well, our deepest fears have been confirmed. We have been forgotten, or at least neglected. We have brought this beautiful piece of literature to you and what have you done? That's right folks we are empowered with Google Analytics, and it has reported to us that the average time the reader spent on our site was two minutes. That's not even enough time to skim the jewels of knowledge we have dropped on you, just watching the laboriously picked videos would take about five minutes. Upon reviewing our initial posts it appears that we did not communicate clearly enough what the requirements of this blog were - we made this blog to bless your life. It is specifically engineered with wisdom and musings which are not soley to entertain, but to enliven the soul and to help you become a better person. We had one reader who spent a good amount of time on our blog go on to get a couple of gold medals in the olympics and then cure cancer. In the spirit of the holidays, today being thanksgiving and all, we're willing to let this initial oversight go on one condition: Everyone who wants forgiveness must leave our blog open in your browser any time you are on the internet. We expect google analytics to tell us that the average visit time is well over an hour. Study the doctrines contained therein, take notes, cross reference with other high-value literature, send us large checks to help us cover our expenses.