Spring and Summer

This has been a fun spring and summer. During the spring I didn't take any cIlasses. I spent most of my time working full time at The Home Depot. To finish off the last week before the summer semester of classes started up I took a trip up to Rexberg, Idaho to visit my cousin James, who had just come home from his mission.

I spent a week in Idaho enjoy a great vacation. Now for the summer I am back in Provo taking a Statistic class. The class doesn't take up much of my time, so I fill up a lot of my spare time with working, and spending time with friends and family.

A few of my favorite things have been going with Jared, Julianna, Thomas, and Tina to the Timpanogos Caves; going to Seven Peaks with Jared, Julianna, Thomas, Annie, and a mission companion of Julianna; and just hanging out with Kelli and Rob, George and Brittney, and other friends. 

I found out a few days ago that I have been accepted to the Accounting program at BYU.  This is a great blessing and big relief. BYU's accounting program is one of the very best in the nation with fantastic recruiting.

Its about 12:40AM now, and I have class tomorrow morning. I'm going to go to bed, but hopefully this short update helps everyone know what is going on in my life right now.

The Great Ride

My parents were in town and one of the many fun things we did was to get me a bike.  I love my bike.  I have been longing to go on long bike rides.  Early this afternoon I rode my bike down to Home Depot to see how long it will take me.  It takes about 20 minutes for me to ride my bike at a comfortable pace.  The trip totals about 7 miles round trip.

Then this evening my sister Kelli and I went on a much longer bike ride.  We started at my apartment, went down State Street till about 100 North.  Then we headed west towards Utah Lake.  We ended up along the Provo River Trail at the detour under I15. We followed the detour all the way until we arrived at Utah Lake. There we enjoyed a marvelous sun set.  The around 8:45 we headed to Berg Mortuary where she is living in an upstairs apartment.

Around 9:45 I dropped her off and then started on my own journey back home.

To the best I can figure from my apartment to Utah Lake is about 6 miles, from Utah Lake to Kelli's apartment is about 5 miles, and from Kelli's apartment to my apartment is about 2 miles.  So total I think I rode close to 19 miles today on my bike.

I couldn't have asked for better weather to ride in.

Sunday Afternoon

First I need to tell about something I did for someone who was more stressed out than me. We received the assignment on Monday afternoon. On Wednesday my friend George and his wife were in a car accident. They were both fine, but their car was hurt. Britney, George's wife, needed a ride to and from work that day. I ended up taking her to work around 6 PM and then picking her up again just after Midnight.

Today was not nearly as productive study wise as I thought it would be, but it was a good day nevertheless. I went to the Dittmar's for dinner and then went on a walk with Jared and Julianna. She is going to have her baby any day now, and will be induced on Friday if the baby doesn't come by then. On our walk we walked up to the lookout point just west of the Y hiking trail parking lot. It was a fun walk, but Julianna was moving very very slow. We were all happy to walk with her because we were hoping that all the strenuous walking would cause the baby to come sooner.

I am very excited to be an uncle. It will be fun to be around me little nephew, especially in a year or two, when he can think of me as the fun uncle who lets him do all sorts of fun things.

Anyways it is late and I have several finals to take tomorrow. I will try to continue writing in my blog even though it will not be an assignment anymore.

Brian

Perservence

According to dictionary.com perseverance is a “steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.”  

I have decided that perseverance is going to be my motto for the next couple of weeks.  I have four projects due next week, one on Tuesday and three on Wednesday. I have a test to take on Wednesday and a final on Saturday. 

Needless to say I am going to be getting very little sleep for the next several days and will probably stay at the library till 2AM on both Monday and Tuesday. 

I would be more frustrated with myself if I had been wasting time on these projects, but I haven’t had any time to do them. I actually went home earlier than I wanted Friday night because I was physically ill as a result of the intensity and aggression with which I was going after all of my studies. 

However, through all of these pressures I have been blessed with a sense of inner peace and patience as I am nearing the finish line of the semester.  Oh how glorious will be the rest that comes after the semester ends…that is until spring semester starts.

The Great Library Adventure

Once upon a time there was a boy.  He was an awesome boy.  He brushed his teeth every night and tried to eat his vegetable regularly. 

One day as he was walking out of the library to go to his home evening group, he noticed a sign announcing the library would stay open until 2am for the next several weeks.  This great boy smiled to himself and said what a great adventure.

He hurried home to dye Easter eggs with this home evening group, ate dinner at home, and then embarked on his adventure.  He entered the library exactly at 9:04PM.  He went down to his favorite study spot, spread his papers all over the table, and made sure he had a comfortable rolly-chair, and started his night of studying.

Before he knew it, it was 10, then 11 O'clock. A friendly security guard came by to make sure this boy was behaving himself.  This diligent little boy continued working until it was 1AM. The same security guard came to visit again; this time they exchanged salutations and both carried on with their business.

Finally at 1:50 the security guard came by one last time to tell this studious boy it was time to leave.  The boy was confused because the traditional music that normally sounded to alert  all the little princes and princesses that the library is closing.

The guard commented that the intercom where this friendly boy was studying was under construction and wasn't working for the time being.

Excited to have conquered his adventure of staying at the library till 2AM, this cheerful little boy left. With feelings of victory rushing though his veins, this prodigy of a child drove himself home and slept happily ever after....or at least till 8:30AM the next morning.

Flying a Kite

A couple of weeks ago I stopped by the Creamery to purchase something for one of my classes.  As I was looking for my object, I saw that they had several kits on the back aisle. Ever since then I have had a deep desire to go fly a kite.

I cannot remember the last time I actually flew a kite. I'm concerned that I will not remember how to fly and will end up embarrassing myself. 

While watching conference today, I started dozing off during the morning session and had a short dream that I was in a beautiful field, flying a kite, listening to conference on a radio. It was a beautiful short day-dream.

It will be hard for me to focus during these last couple of weeks of school with the beautiful weather. The only way I can make it though, is to remember the saying of "Work hard then play harder." The weekend after finals I am going to plan a fun activity to go up into the mountain one afternoon. There will be all sorts of activities such as; fire building, kite flying, a little hiking, exploring, sport playing, wood carving, food cooking, food eating, and possible star gazing if the clouds permit and we stay out long enough. 

I would much do any of the above more than studying for school, but I figure that if I work hard now, I will be able to play even harder in just a few weeks. 

Conference and a Fire

I have to say that today was a good day.  It started early, around 5AM, when I woke up to go to work. I worked from 6AM-2PM.  After work I headed straight to the canyon to meet up with Kelli and Rob. They had been in the camp site for about 30 minutes already and had everything set up except the fire.

I went to scavenge larger pieces of wood, and Rob manned the fire with little twigs.  We got the fire stable enough that it didn't require our constant care and started roasting our hot dogs and bratwursts. The whole time we had Saturday afternoon session of General Conference playing. It was a lot of fun to just sit back and relax in nature, enjoying a beautiful day, the nice breeze, the sound of running water in the background, and the words of the prophets.

If I were to do everything over again, I would make sure that I got there at least an hour before conference started to gather all the wood and get things ready so I could enjoy listening to all of conference instead of going around trying to find small and medium sized logs.

After conference ended, we put out the fire using the frigid, flowing water from the river near by. Then it was time to head home, shower, and get ready to meet up with Jared and Brother Dittmar to watch the Priesthood session of conference. 

Overall it was a fantastic day.  After I finish all my finals this semester I am going to go spend a day in the canyon. I will build a fort and a fire, enjoy the beautiful weather and all the accompanying sounds of nature, and the companionship of any friends who may wish to join me.

A little behind

Last week I came down with a case of bronchitis. I spent most of last weekend resting to get better before school started up again on Monday. I must have really needed the rest because I took a seven hour nap Sunday afternoon, then went to bed around 11PM and slept all through the night till 7AM. Unfortunately, this means that I forgot to write in my blog last week. I will make sure that I write twice next week to make up for the lost week.  Hopefully I can still get credit for writing in my blog as long as I have enough entries for the whole semester.

I am feeling much better though. I still have a bunch of junk in my lungs that cause me wheeze a little when I breath and make it so I don't get my normal amount of oxygen when breathing, so everyday activities (like climbing stairs) can cause me to become winded. 

Other than that it has been a good week. I am excited as finals are approaching because I have done well in all my classes thus far and don't have lots of catching up to do with all of my classes.

What Attire do YOUR Opportunities Dress in?

One of my favorite quotes is from Thomas Edison. He said that, "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."  After watching my Grandfather all my life, I dare say that on occasion Opportunity takes the liberty of dressing in coveralls instead of overalls. Regardless of whichever attire Opportunity decides to dress in, the meaning of the quote is the same--people miss out on great opportunities in life, because they shy away from work. 

Today in church we read a quote by President David O. McKay which read, "Let us realize that the privilege to work is a gift, that power to work is a blessing, and that love of work is success." After hearing this quote, I quickly scribbled it down on the sacrament program which I was using to practice my signature. Only a few hours previously I had been thinking that I was blessed with the discipline to work. After mulling the meaning of this quote over for a few minutes in my head, I realized that I have been given the privilege to work, I have been blessed with the power and capability to work, but if I want to truly become “successful” I have to learn to love work.

The success I am talking about has nothing to do with monetary success, but rather succeeding in life itself. The Book of Mormon tells us “men are that they might have joy,” or put in other words, people are supposed to enjoy life and be happy.  It is no surprise that life has its challenges which seem to consume us. These challenges are given to us so that we can grow, not to bare us down and depress us.

Furthermore, we are supposed to work in this life.  Heavenly Father did not create us so that we can simply come here to Earth to gain a body and lounge around all day.  Christ himself warned against wasting our time and talents. Even in the Garden of Eden, Christ commanded Adam to work and keep the garden, not to simply enjoy the garden and lie in the flowers all day long. 

Understanding these two principles (we are to be happy and joyful, and we are to work), hopefully helps you to understand what I mean when I say that I need to learn to work in order to be successful in life, because if I hate working and it makes me angry, then I never have a chance at finding joy in a life filled with work.

Pooped

I am exhausted.  I got about 3 hours of sleep last night. I wish I could blame my lack of sleep on performing a noble deed, but in reality it is a result of what I call suffocation from procrastination.  In other words, I did homework late into the night last night because I chose to spend my time doing other things earlier this weekend.  Fortunately, I can say that I didn’t waste time this weekend; I was simply taking care of other worth wile things that needed to get done.  

This morning I woke up early to go into work.  This is the big struggle in my life right now.  I would prefer not to not work on Sundays, but with my job it is required that I work some Sundays. The nice thing about Home Depot is that they are kind enough to work with my schedule and allow me to simply pull a three to four hour shift in the morning and then go to church in the afternoon. 

The struggle occurs because I have been taught all my life to not work on Sundays.  I remember being in Sunday school classes my whole life and answering the moral dilemma of working on Sundays with a firm, “I will not work on Sundays.  I will have enough faith that God will provide other ways for me to make money.”  Also, I remember when I first got my job with The Home Depot I felt at peace with the fact that I was going to have to work on Sundays occasionally.
 

Recently I have been wondering if it is time for me to personally progress in life and find a different job that does not require that I work on Sundays or if God understands my situation and does not require that I find a new job at this point in my life.  Obviously, long-term Heavenly Father wants me to find a job that does not require I work on Sundays, but know He understands every situation and makes exceptions accordingly. What I need to do is find out wither my feelings for a change are coming from Heavenly Father, or if they are from Satan trying to get me to feel miserable.  

Well that’s enough of my personal struggle for the day.  The next topic that I want to talk about is dishonesty.  For a business research paper I am doing in my management communication class, I am researching theft in the work place.  Using data from a couple different sources I have found that about $219 billion are stolen every year from employees within a company.  This number includes time theft (wasted time by employees that they receive compensation for) and fraud from within a company.  

According to my research gathered from other sources about $177 billion are stolen from employees that simply waste time, and the other $42 billion resulting from fraud existing within the businesses.  These numbers initially shocked me, but after a little consideration they make more since. What I find so appalling is the fact that money stolen by employees who are simply wasting time is more than 4 times greater than the amount stolen by thieves. This illustrates the true fact that diligence in the work place is a rare attribute found in employees.  It is sad that so much money is wasted, and almost looked upon as acceptable, every year by people who are simply lazy or lack the discipline to work diligently.  

It is now time for bed.  Goodnight world.  I am going to dream of a more honest place and then awake to do my part to fix the dishonesty problem found here in reality.  Until then, behave yourself!

"Breaking" the commandments to keep them

Today in Sunday school we were speaking about Matthew 12 and how the Pharisees accused Christ's disciples of breaking the sabbath day.  Christ then explained that His disciples were doing His work and that their actions were justified. 

Our Sunday school teacher then mentioned how the Pharisees took the commandment and put parameters around it. This caused the Pharisees to focus more on the parameters of the commandment than the actual commandment itself. 

I had the insight that often, we like the pharisees, become so obsessed with not breaking the commandments that we lose sight of making sure that we are keeping the commandments. As we become so focused on not breaking the commandments it becomes easier for us to judge other people.

A good example of this would be that if we were driving to church and saw a man working in a yard pushing a wheelbarrow of dirt, many of us would automatically assume that he was not keeping the Sabbath day holy. But in reality we don't know his real situation.  He may be helping out a neighbor, who has to get the yard work done before a certain deadline.  In this case the neighbor is really loving and serving his neighbor, an appropriate Sunday activity. In this example, the man appears to be breaking a commandment when in reality he is living them; perhaps even better than we are ourselves.

If you sit too close to a fire you migh get burned.

 The following is a list of descriptions trying to describe my surroundings on a camp-out I was on several years ago.  Hopefully my attempt to describe what that night was like helps you to see in your mind's eye what I saw those several years ago.

I was sitting on a freshly cut oak log, stood on its end, about three feet in diameter.  Its hard, freshly cut surface was clammy from the moisture inside the tree. My bottom was starting to ache from sitting on the steel like surface for so long, but my throbbing body was enjoy the opportunity to relax after a long hard day’s work so much that it refused to move. 

The audible wind pushed through the towering fortress of nappy cedar trees and wildly danced around the clearing as if celebrating its accomplishment of breaking though the dense wall of tangled branches.  

The trees all around were creaking as if being played as musical instruments. 

The wind carried with it the sharp scent of cedar which rushed up my nostrils, fighting through the particles of cedar dust that had accumulated like barnacles clinging to the post of a pier to the inner part of my nose.

The stars, like tiny focused spotlights, lit up the ground in the clearing. Their light abruptly ended at the thick tree line, as if obeying a law of nature. 

The moon was showing true majesty as it glowed in the night like a nightlight for the Universe.  

Tiny insects, camouflaged with the ground, could be faintly heard as they scurried about their evening activities. 

The warmth of the fire embraced my weary body like a soft blanket caresses every bend and curve of a new born baby. 

The flames of the fire were dancing wildly as if trying to communicate with the surrounding elements, by casting shadows on the ground in every direction.  

The large, double truck-sized pile of tree limbs and branches, which were only a few hours previously growing where I was now sitting, could be heard settling under the weight of gravity and the lashing of the wind. 

My body ached as if every muscle in my body had been pulled out, stretched, and played with like a child plays with play dough.  The scratches covering my skin throbbed like a sun-burn in a hot shower.  

A good test score and a test of courage.

This week was exciting.  Starting last Friday, up until Tuesday night, I spent a total of more than 20 hours studying for my accounting test.  The good news is that I did very well on it.  So even though the 20 hours was hard, they were all worth it for the A on the test.

Shayne, gave everyone in my Mcom class an assignment to buy a "coke" for a stranger.  I took the liberty of buying a box of Nutter-Butters instead of a coke for my stranger.  The story is that I went to the Creamery on Saturday night and told the cashier that the box of nutter-butters what for whoever was in line two-people behind me.  She was confused and gave me the look that said, "Great,  I don't need to know who you are buying things for."  I explained that I needed her to give the treat to the people, and she started to reach out and hand them the box of Nutter-Butters.  I quickly stopped her and explained that she was to give it to them when they got up in line.

The cashier still didn't understand the concept, but agreed to do what I had asked.  I then walked out of the story and watched as the cashier gave the box of Nutter-Butters to the couple, obviously on a date.  I expect eh conversation went something along the lines of this:

Cashier: (Handing the box of Nutter-Butters to the girl) Here, these are from the nice man standing outside.

Girl: (Looks out the window at me and sees me wave) I don't know who that guy is.

Cashier:  Oh, well he told me to give these to you.

Girl: Well he must be mistaken, I've never seen him before in my life.

Cashier:  No, he made it clear that I was to give these to you.

Girl's Date: (Still looking out the window sizing me up) Well, they are a free box of Nutter-Butters . . . we better take them.

Girl:  Ok, we will take them, but I really don't know that guy.

Cashier:  Alright, well have a good night.

Then I got in my car and as I drove past the front of the Creamery, I saw the couple walking down the street with the guy carrying the box of Nutter-Butters.  I assume that He was going to keep the Nutter-Butters, and not share many with his date for the evening.

Explainations

First, due to the few requests I received, I need to refer back to last week’s entry and explain what my favorite punctuation mark is.  It is the comma.  I’m not sure if “favorite” is actually the best word to describe my relationship with the comma, because I’m not sure how fond of it I really am, but I am most interested by the comma because  it has the most rules and nobody really knows when and where to put it.  My thought process is that if I can learn to use the comma well, then I can do well on future grammar exams.  So that is why, currently, the comma is my favorite.

                This week I need to thank my sister-in-law, Julianna, for creating a new background for me.  She is currently in Illinois, as I understand, at the most prestigious cake-decorating school in the United States.  With the large snow storm, which is covering a good porting on the United States, she had one day of her classes cancelled.  After practicing a few cake-decorating techniques and other things to keep her from being board, she texted me Wednesday evening to tell me that she found several new blog backgrounds and wanted to know if I wanted a new one.  What she didn’t know is that I was waiting for her to come home before I asked her to help me find a new background.  So I was happy to look at several of the backgrounds that she had selected and to pick my favorite.  The baseball theme won because it was my favorite, but my plans to watch “Field of Dreams” (A baseball movie), later that night, helped it to be the definite winner.  Julianna also added the button (that is what she called it) that has the flashing quote that reads, “Life is a baseball game, When you think that a Fastball is coming, you gotta be able to hit the Curve.”  Julianna doesn’t understand what this quote means so she wanted me to explain it in this week’s blog entry. 

                In order to understand the quote you have to have to first understand that a fastball and a curveball are two different pitches in baseball.  In baseball the batter doesn’t know which pitch the pitcher is going to throw, and therefore, has to be able to adjust his swing if the pitch he thought the pitcher would throw is different than what is actually thrown.  The quote is trying to say that we can’t know what is going to happen in life, and when we expect one thing to happen, we have to be able to adjust when something else actually happens, otherwise, just like the batter wouldn’t hit the ball; we won’t achieve whatever it is that we are trying to accomplish when life throws us the “curveball.”  Hopefully this explanation helps to clarify to the few other people who will read my blog.

One trophy down...Bring on the fish.

Another week has now past and it is time for me to write here in my blog.  Shayne, the teacher who requires that I keep a blog for his class, suggests that I write about my favorite punctuation mark for this week's entry, but I figure that I'll skip that fascinating, interesting fact about me and try to come up with something that the readers of this blog may find a little more interesting.  If you really want to know what my favorite punctuation mark is leave me notes on this entry and I'll write a whole blog about it another time. 

Last week I mentioned that I wanted to start wood carving as a hobby, and I am happy to say that I have started.  I have successfully carved my first object.  My inspiration for this project was to carve the number one because this is the first carving I have ever done.  I am not talking about just a straight line for the number one like we use when write the number, but the more fancy style that computers use to distinguish a "1" from a straight line.  Halfway through my project, I decided to change my strange looking 1 to a simply trophy that starts out wide at the top and narrows down to a base at the bottom.  If most people saw my finished object, I have claimed a trophy, they would probably ask me what it is, but for a first carving I am proud of it and know I can only improve.  I think my next project will be a fish. 

This last week I also had a great time with Rob as he and I listened to the BYU v. San Diego State basketball game.  Earlier in the day I called Kelli to see if they had the channel that the game was going to be broadcast on.  She wasn't sure, but said she thought they did.  I then called Rob, and he told me about the same thing.  Half expecting to not be able to watch the game, I headed over Kelli and Rob's house with pizza and root-beer.  When I got there, I was surprised to see that they already had pizza and root-beer, which are necessities at any sports party, but I wasn't too surprised when Rob told me that he couldn't find the right TV channel.  Everything worked out better than if we were able to watch the game anyways though, because we were able to listen to the game over the internet, I was able to check the score of the Spurs v. Utah game during commercial breaks, Rob was able to play video games, and when we didn't know which team a player was on we were able to look it up on the internet.  Overall it was a much better experience that watching the game on TV.