I had an amazing day, I will elaborate later.

Attention all BYU kids . . . start a facebook now!

Visit my facebook first if you want.

Last night a bunch of us guys were watching TV and being too lazy to do anything, so we ended up just talking. Until 3 in the morning. Gosh, we were like girls.

And you know what? It’s really dangerous. I ended up saying something that came out way wrong and was taken out of context and put on the quote wall. It is so embarassing!!! Anyway . . .

Today I took the bus to the mall to try and find a spiderman costume, and I failed. The trip was not completely in vain, though, because I found the bank one and was able to finally deposit a check.

There was a party during visiting hours at T-hall, and I went, and it was lame cause there weren’t that many girls, but the decorations were cool. Mostly the party was just food and dancing and playing jenga. Oh, and then we played twister in the elevator, which was crazy hot.

Now I am sitting here feeling tired. I think some people are swimming. I don’t know where though so I can’t join them. Oh well.

As many people on my floor can attest, I have a really embarrasing story to tell you all. I’m busy now so I will have to do it later though. Rest assured, it will be extremely censored . . . In fact I don’t even think I’m going to tell you any more. It’s that bad. Besides, I hold to the theory that anything that happens at 3 in the morning doesn’t count.

I highly recommend the song “Don’t want to think about you” by Simple Plan:

“. . . I don’t wanna think about you
Or think about me
Don’t wanna figure this out . . .”

Great song.

So preference (turn about) is a week from Saturday . . . any suggestions on how to get girls to notice me this week?

According to a random scale I found in the hallway, I have gained 13 pounds since I left home. 13 pounds!!! I’m fat! Remember how I used to complain about how I hated being scrawny and thin . . . well I’ve had a change of heart. I’ll happily be scrawny again.

P.S. Let me know if the new profile pictures are too wierd (there are three, one on the main page and one each on the this entry and next).

It’s been a wierd weekend halfway between boring and crazy hot. (Heather I said that just for you). Yesterday a bunch of us rented a study room in the library and we watched Lost in Translation in it. Apparently the cops have started braking up the people watching movies outside the stake center. The library worked very nicely and I highly recommend it to people searching for a coed place to watch a movie. After we watched Lost in Translation (which I did not like) we watched two episodes of Bobby’s World (which is awesome). I used to watch that show every day.

Today I slept in and did some homework. Then a bunch of us went to the Brand X Comedy Show. It was lame. Some parts were funny, but it was obnoxiously Utah. For example, the first act called up 6 volunteers pared off into partnerships. 3 of them played Simon says. Everytime one of them messed up, his/her partner had to drink a glass of . . . water. It was lame. Now I don’t like drinking alcohol at all. I never have nor will drink it and I don’t like watching other people drink, but replacing alcohol with water in a drinking game does not make it funny! It makes it lame. I mean come on. At least make it milk or something.

Then we hung out in the Cougar Cove, and it was fun talking and all but we didn’t have anything to do cause we didn’t have cars and it was raining. Oh well. We did, however, discover something really cool about the lights in the Morris Center lobby. If you stand in the middle of them and talk, it echos like you are talking in a fan. Amy discovered this, and I didn’t believe her until I tried it. It works! No really. Try it yourself. You should have seen us all moving around, “here, put your head here.”

Now the guys are playing poker and I am not because I do not know how. Instead I am writing my talk for tomorrow. I think this is the 4th talk I’ve given in Sacrament Meeting this year (not normal), not to mention I taught Sunday School last week, and will do so again next week (I alternate with another teacher). I feel sorry for my ward- they are going to be so sick of hearing from me.

“Testing 1,2,3/ Can anybody hear me?/ If I shed the irony/ Would anybody cheer me?/ If I acted less like me/ Would I be in the clear?” barenaked ladies. (good music video by the way)

So yesterday evening I was kinda feeling left out- you know, a little excluded, and so I started blasting some music. After wearing out Dashboard Confessional, I started looking at some new stuff, and I watched the “Welcome to my Life” music video by Simple Plan on itunes. The whole premise of the music video is so trite and cliché, and yet it is so universal I love it. As I was watching it, it just all of a sudden made me realize how silly it is to wallow in these emotions with the idea that no one else knows what it is like, because the reality is everyone says that. The reality is that everyone does know what’s like “to be hurt/ To feel lost/ To be left out in the dark/ To be kicked/ When you’re down/ To feel like you’ve been pushed around/ To be on the edge of breaking down” etc. etc. So I kinda laughed at myself and went to bed, and then in the morning I woke up feeling really good about myself. Thus far its been a great day.

(I think you’re more likely to have a good day when you wake up to your alarm, and today I did.)

Wasn’t that a good story? The End.

So I’ve been thinking a lot about Pride. It’s such a messy, sticky word, so it’s easy to think about for long periods of time. It’s not long before you get caught up in the confusing line between arrogance and confidence.

I came to the conclusion that artists are proud. As a word in our defence: we have to be. You have to be almost arrogant to be sucessful at all as an artist. Think about it, art is a market. It is completely dependent on all the laws of a market- supply and demand. To sell art, there has to be a demand for it. Because art is so subjective, a demand for art has to be created. It’s not a need. (Well, I will qualify that by saying that we all have a need for beauty, but individual, specific art forms only represent one way to meet that need.) And if it is not a need, the artist has to create some other demand for the work. That is why he has to be proud. It is the artist’s confidence that his work is beautiful and that his work is needed that sells the art and makes him sucessful.

So if Art is dependent on Confindence- on essentially Pride, how can we rectify its existance given what prophets like Ezra Taft Benson have said: “Pride is the universal sin, the great vice” (Beware of Pride, 1989)

Today was “Superhero Chocolate Day” at the Morris Center. How cool is that?! I think I ate at least 24 chocolate covered strawberries, and a slice of cheese cake. Mmmmm, The only thing that could have made it better would have been if we could dress up as superheros. The decorations were cool, but I think it’d be much more fun to dress up like Spiderman.

Right now I am enjoying the fact that I am done with 2 block classes by listening to music with the base cranked up and writing letters to people.

“It’s hard to believe that I am getting by on so little from you . . .” Dashboard Confessional

Click Here for a short message about President Bush

Today I have a million things to do, but I have to get this out of my system:

I went with a bunch of people from my FA group to see one of my professors- Robert Marshal- and some murals he has in progress for the sacramento temple. He had done some of the murals for the Nauvoo temple too. I think I must have asked a gazillion questions because it is my dream to paint a temple mural one day. I learned so much, and my dream suddenly became real to me as I realized it was doable.

And then guess who walks in. James Christensen. (he’s a famous artist) And Gary Smith, who is painting murals that I saw for the Samoan temple. I met James Christensen. Wow. He’s a funny guy. Oh, and I love how these guys talk so casually and affectionately about people like Boyd K. Packer. (Jim Christensen calls him BKP) Only meeting Walter Rane could have made this experience any cooler (or meeting an Apostle). I really think if I start networking now and if I start making these connections and being with my professors, who know the right people, more I can make it all happen. I can be a sucessful artist. I am so excited. I can literally make my dreams realities.

Edit:
Check out pretty boy Edwards (click)