Carpe Diem?

Carpe Diem

You know what I'm talking about. This may be the most commonly quoted phrase short of "it came to pass." Every school teacher you have ever had has shoved a lesson about seizing the day down your throat at some point or another.

Unless your teacher was Mr. Lind. Then you got a few weeks worth.

As it is, I'm starting to feel like a real screw up in that department.

At the Batman premiere, which was incredible, I hit it off with this chick who lives in Arizona. She was up for summer semester which is over in a couple weeks so even though things were going really well I didn't do anything about it. No number, no plans, no nothing.

Why?

It's not like I have anything else going for me in the lady department right now. I could have had fun for a couple weeks then met up with her over Thanksgiving, when, you guessed it (but probably you didn't), I'm going to be in Arizona anyway. Like twenty minutes away.

That is what living my life would entail. Not over-thinking every little facet of my life, not every relationship I have.

When indecision persists it becomes decision.

Sometimes the destination doesn't matter. The journey is everything.

Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead.

Speaking of nautical natured nuances, I hit up Lake Powell this last week.

I freaking love it there. The Andersons, Banks, and Ridings are all super awesome. Even when Zerrick needs me to put my legs up for the billionth time. I particularly enjoyed my wake boarding experimentation with things as difficult as moving toe-side out of the wake. Had some interesting philosophical discussions, including a couple political talks with Roy Banks, who thinks he is a liberal, but really isn't. I love being with my friends and family. And heck, leaving for the whole week rather than the weekend was a little bit of Carpe Diem-ing on my part.

And it screwed things up.

As much fun as I had, my choice to leave early cut Kylie completely out of the trip. On her birthday.

Happy birthday. I'll be sure to show you the pictures when I get back from that epic summer trip I invited you on. Mazeltov.

So is it really worth it? Do the means justify the ends?

Because actively pursuing the wrong decision turns regret into guilt and failure.

It doesn't matter how nice the path to hell was once you get there.

And when you plow full steam into a pack of torpedoes, people tend to get hurt.

But maybe I'm just over analyzing things again. I'll leave that up to you.

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Much to Lucinda's chagrin, the song of the week for Lake Powell was Swing Life Away by Rise Against. Super chill, super laid back, and super relaxing just like the trip. Heck, it even sounds like a memory.

The Dark Knight Rises is one of my all time favorites. The acting was actually spot on. Christian Bale did good as did Tom Hardy and all the other stars. Even Anne Hathaway exceeded expectations. I was really worried about her playing cat woman/Selina Kyle, but she pulled it off quite well. I was a believer again at, "Oops." But far and away the best acting goes to Michael Caine. If he stayed on the screen much longer, the entire audience would have been in tears. Including the guy that came dressed up as Bane. Even though the Joker was a better villain, and overall the Dark Knight may have been a better movie, this film was the perfect ending for one of the greatest trilogies of all time.

And (spoiler alert...nah, you're fine.) it features my favorite city in the world. Not Gotham, but Florence, Italy. :)

Kind of a chaotic sort of life, eh?

Hello all.

And by all, I more or less mean Marley since she is the only person who follows my blog three weeks later...

But whatever. This thing sort of counts as a journal for me and it is decently fun to write. Especially since Marley is reading. Rock on girl.

In other news:

I came home last weekend to deliver a talk and I completely butchered it. I have given good talks before, but this wasn't one of them. I learned three lessons from this public humiliation.

1. A good hook = an attentive audience
2. Think of a specific message for a specific audience
3. Be prepared for the screaming babies

Number three was especially bizarre. After going to the singles ward most of the time for the last couple months I am used to dead, complete, borderline ridiculous silence. The ward I was at was tiny, but every family had to have at least 24.3 babies. I don't know what the bishop has been teaching, but they be spawning like rabbits over there, and it totally threw off my groove.

Anyways...

It was a good excuse to get home and visit friends and family. Watched 6th sense with Tyler and Spencer friday night. Turns out it isn't as good when you know the (spoiler alert) twist ending. Really hoping Goldpiece can find a way to come to BYU instead of Snow.

btw, have you ever thought about what Snow really refers too? It's in southern Utah which means it is doubtful that the name alludes to the weather. It could be named after a certain president of the church, but based on the schools reputation I think it makes more sense to have been named after the kind of "snow" that gets passed around at their parties.

No offense to any Snow grads.

........

Ok, maybe a little. Still love you. Unless I don't. Live in fear people.

Anyways, it was really fun to see the guys, and it was also fun to chill with Juchau. Gladiator is always a great show.

In other news I talked in my sleep a couple nights ago!

Josh: makbngisohjfdsj...
Parker: What, Josh?
Josh: Oh he just...
Parker: What, Josh?
Josh: Sucks.
Parker: Who does?
Josh: He sucks at cooking.

Parker starts busting up making me snap to my senses. I realize my own insanity, look at the clock to discover it's 3:30 am and out of my mouth comes-

Josh: What the hell is happening?!

In my defense I had been asleep not 3 seconds before that and I wake up to a conversation about some dude's sucky cooking with my roomie busting up. I still have no idea what the dream was. I laughed so hard.

Also, visited my cousin and her baby. Decided I want one.

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Ok, not showing any prospective girlfriends this blog. Least not til I'm back from the mission.

Criticism

The sound track for Batman sounds incredible. Hans Zimmer is one of my all time favorites hands down, and this track lives up to my high expectations. I may or may not have listened to it three times yesterday. Ok, I didn't. It was four times.

Needless to say I am pumped out of my mind for that film. Used my Classical Traditions class time to read through every review I could get my hands on. Figuratively speaking. Sounds even more epic than I was expecting. Batman Begins was centered around a post 9/11 theme of fear. The Dark Knight was about Anarchy, courtesy of the Joker. In this film, Bane and his army will unleash both on Gotham City. EPIC!!!

Rediscovered my love of Muse courtesy of one of my roommates, who was listening to Black Holes and Revelations last week. One of my new favorite songs is Exo-politics.

Also saw V for Vendetta last week. This movie made my top ten of all time. The dialogue is nothing short of brilliant. The protagonist, "V," is a lovable, ingenious terrorist. The movie is loaded with fantastic quotes, most coming from V. The political messages are also very compelling. One of my favorite lines from the movie is on my quotes page (which is always going to be a work in progress). "People shouldn't be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." Nailed it, V. Highly recommended despite the R rating, which was for language (4 f-words, but otherwise mild) and a bit of borderline pg-13 violence. The best part of the film is that it leaves it up to the viewer to decide their own stance on terrorism. Is it a wholly evil abomination? Or is it a tool that you or I would use, should circumstances demand such extremes?

Do work people.

Finally. Results.

Have you ever thought about how much crap you had to do as a kid? I don't mean cleaning your room or making your bed. If you run over all of the things you had to do just your last year of school, it is insane. Now multiply that by 12. About a billion and two math problems. 25 of the most pathetic worthless posters the world has ever seen. How is that even a requirement? I understand reading and writing, but production of posters? Which only really takes a printer and google images? And speaking of writing, how many essays have you had to write? I printed of all of my essays from my 12th grade English class alone and it was about an inch thick (not including the multiple drafts of each).

It gets kind of ridiculous kind of quick.

But apparently it pays off.

This week I've started to see the results of all those late nights. I suppose I should have been satisfied getting into what may be the sweetest university on the face of the planet. That counts as a result for sure, but it didn't seem like it was quite worth it, especially considering the amount of cash I could have made (thats right, made, as in profit) if I went somewhere like Snow.

My AP test scores appeared on my BYU transcript a week ago. As many of you know, I took 4 tests senior year: European History, Art History, Calculus AB, and Literature. I got fives on all of those besides Art History, which was a solid four. Honestly if I had gotten a five on the Art History test I would have lost all faith in the system as I took one of my essays and just wrote a note to the grader demanding that they demand a raise for working so dang hard.

Needless to say, I am well pleased.

What this amounts to is a grand total of 28 credit hours to BYU when you throw in my concurrent enrollment credit from my english class. That class alone got me 9 credit hours, which is more than I am taking right now.

As if that wasn't sweet enough I also got a scholarship today! My dad's company, IM Flash Technologies, offers a scholarship for their workers dependents. I applied three or four months ago and forgot all about it. I got a call this morning at 8:40 from IMFT which I promptly hung up without answering as I went to bed about 5 hours previously. I woke up and hopped in the shower at 10:35, got out and saw that I had missed yet another call. Then I missed a call in the middle of my New Testament class. Epic fail, until I finally answered at which point it became an Epic Win!

Critiques

I saw a sweet mind bending movie called Memento last week. It is one of Christopher Nolan's earliest films. It follows a man who has short term memory loss, which he gained (spoiler alert) trying to save his wife who was killed...among other things. Nolan shows the movie backwards, with the first scene showing how the linear story ends. This play on time continuum makes you feel as disoriented as the protagonist is. I highly recommend it edited, as it has some very R rated language. Very, very R rated language.

Also, just finished the first season of the Walking Dead. Its essentially a zombie apocalypse show, but it was actually super high quality. The acting is brilliant and the story is gripping from the start. The most interesting part is watching the different characters react to the challenges they face as they develop. It is, however not for the easily upset. As a zombie apocalypse series, the violence is particularly gruesome and there is a bit of what we shall henceforth refer to as "bingo." Yes, I stole that from Atwood. Deal with it.

Screwing with Adam: Episode 1

We have made a remarkable discovery. My roommate, Adam, has discovered that my other roommate, Adam, does weird things in his sleep. He talks and thinks to the point where he can respond to you with absolutely no memory of the conversation and he says the weirdest things. Naturally, we had to take advantage of the situation. Here are some of the highlights.

Adam 1: Who is your favorite roommate Adam?

Adam 2: ..........Jesus.

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Adam 1: Can you sing Adam? (for the record he can. The kid was in choir in high school and he's got the voice of a sassy black lady when he wants it.)

Adam 2: I don't know.

Adam 1: Can you sing me a song?

Adam 2: No.

Adam 1: Why not?

Adam 2: .................Satan.

Adam 1: Satan?!

Adam 2: Uh huh.

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Adam: Don't worry, Adam, your secret is safe with me.

Adam 2: Wait, what secret?

Adam 1: Oh don't worry about it.

Adam 2: What secret?

Adam 1: Don't worry, man, I'll tell you in the morning.

Adam 2: Ughhh... I hate the morning... like children.

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Adam 2: Don't hide it! I didn't touch it.

He also recognized me and Parker multiple times, only to forget we were there minutes later. I heard the words, "What?! Josh! When did you get here?!" at least 4 times.

We've heard rumors from his friends of being beat up by a furious naked sleeping Adam in the past, so we're hoping something similar happens to us as weird as that sounds. More to come on...

SCREWING WITH ADAM!!!

4th of July Special

Hello all.

I don't plan on blogging every couple days, so don't expect this as a norm, but I feel like I should write something on holidays for sure.

July 4th

I actually have no plans for today beyond the Stadium of Fire. This is kind of a family tradition. We've gone almost every year we've been here, even when the band playing sounds...less than desirable. There are just so many country concerts I can attend. Also, whats up with the American Idol contestants every year? Usually they aren't even that good since American Idol trys to recruit odd balls to build drama rather than talented singers. Like the guy this year? Never heard of him. Probably with good cause. Lets face it, that show died when Simon left and everyone knows it.

That rampage done, I am inordinately excited about the fireworks. The concert may be mediocre, the food may cost more than the Greek government can afford, and the beach boys may finally kick off after passing a kidney stone mid show, but once crap starts blowing up in the sky I'm like a 4 year old again.

I should probably add check the mail to my to do list as I haven't checked it since I got here...apologies to anyone who might have sent me something, especially presents.

Life

Ever since I got back from Helaman's camp I've been swamped with homework. Monday was particularly bad. My two demanding classes are on Tuesday and Thursday so I was trying to get everything done for them, but I also had FHE (which makes no sense because here at college...no one is with their family. Friendly Home Evening? If you're lucky.) which I attended because I heard they had dinner ready for us in the form of chocolate chip pancakes. I get over there and people are still mixing the batter! My twenty minute courtesy/hunger trip turned into an hour. I played this fun game where people blindfolded themselves and sang along with their headphones. Almost wet myself. Ok, there may have been a slight trickle...

Abandoned ship as soon as I could so I could get home and do some more homework, found out my essay wasn't due until next week (hallelujah) and found the time to watch Taken (see entertainment review below).

Yesterday was a little less exciting. I had class until 6:30, I got home and blew everything off because there are no classes today. Adam 1 gave Adam 2 the best haircut of his life (my roomies for those of you whose minds were boggled). We then watched this weird Japanese animated movie called (sp?) Princess Mononoke.

Critique

I was less than impressed with Taken. I love Liam Neeson to death, but he was the only redeeming part of the movie for me. The dialogue wasn't that smart and the plot was super simple. If you are in the mood for watching a spy go around being completely BA, watch the Bourne movies.

Princess Mononoke was a little weird (ok, very weird) but it was actually an ok film. Great musical score. Rather bloody so not recommended for kids despite the Princess word in the title and the fact that it's a cartoon.

I also found a really good, but somewhat disturbing song. It's called Hero of War by Rise Against. Probably shouldn't recommend it on the 4th of July as it comes off with a rather negative message about our troops, but it really got me thinking. It presents the story of a very human American soldier who after witnessing and committing atrocities becomes disenchanted with war in all its forms. I've always advocated interrogation of terrorist leadership if it means saving American lives, and to some degree I still do. This song made me wonder if it was still ok on entirely different grounds than I had thought of before. Forgetting completely about the terrorist and whether or not he deserves it, what does cruelty, even with a cause, do to us? Is the potential to save lives worth the damage that we inflict on ourselves? I'll leave that one up to you.

Hello all.

My most sincere apologies for anyone unfortunate or bored enough to be reading this blog. Essentially, this is the same reason why I am creating it, because I have way to much time on my hands. Plus this way I figure I can have fewer repetitive conversations with people.

On that note, here are the answers to some hot topics of the day (...but hopefully not really...).

College

I am loving it here. My roommates are great. We all get along really well, almost to the point of being a bit cliquish. For example, whenever I'm not screwing around on campus (aka going to class) we basically all chill around the dorm. After a couple hours of boredom I got on KSL and found a tv for 35 bucks, then brought my PS3 up so we could watch Netflix. That week we got through the entire first season of Prison Break, which I highly recommend with a warning on content. Very engaging and intense with awesome characters. We also just watched Warrior, which, as most of you know, is my favorite movie of all time. Same, apparently, for one of my Helaman's camp companions. Confused? I'll address that later.

I'm taking 8 credit hours. My classes are Classical Traditions, Current Issues, and the 4 Gospels of the New Testament. I love the latter two and basically hate the first. It features a lot of reading about stuff I already learned courtesy of Shelley, Selyutina (or, as I refuse to call her, Shupe), and Professor Joseph "Chrome-dome" Atwood. Respectively, they have extensively covered greek literature, art, and history with a cultural lesson thrown in from each. Unlike the other two classes, because I've already learned a lot about it, the pleasure I get from discovering new things is not yet present. I'm loving my other two classes though. Current Issues is eye opening, even if I disagree a lot with the solutions I'm being taught by my liberal teacher. The New Testament is also somewhat familiar at it's core, but my professor is so loaded with information that the random stuff he throws in on the side makes up for the 15 pages a day I've been reading.

Still no job, although I am looking. A lot of my options weren't options due to conflicts with Helaman's camp. Which is, I suppose, what I'll talk about next.

Helaman's Camp

For those of you who don't know what this is, my home stake does a mission prep camp every other year. We go into the wilderness dressed in white shirts and ties and have tons of lessons and talks. We also eat like kings.

This year I was a zone leader, which was great for me. I've discovered that, like basically everything that has to do with the church, you reap what you sow. The boys who put in the effort and go in with a good attitude had a fantastic experience. Being in a leadership position really helped me to be in the right state to maximize what I got out of camp. I gave two lessons. They were great as far as spiritually preparing me goes, but I didn't feel like they did much for my zone. I base this solely off the fact that at least half of them at any given time were asleep and no one that was awake felt like participating in any discussion.

My talk was definitely the high point of the trip for me. I felt like it went over decently well. I got more out of it than anyone else for sure. The time I prepared it was more spiritual than most of the rest of camp due to the level of focus I was putting into it. And, as has become something of a trademark of mine, I started off with a hook about a movie, in this case a hybrid of Peter Pan and the Land Before Time.

I had two companions. Brayden Rhoton was my fellow zone leader. His favorite movie is also Warrior, which contributes to his motivations for practicing Muay Thai. We got along really well and worked pretty good as a team. My other companion was a kid that was struggling with his testimony. He was sort of a follower. Whenever we were doing lessons and such he did better than most at being open and contributing, but when he met up with his friends it went out the window. They loved making monkey noises at each other in case anyone was curious. I don't know why you would be. On the last day he refused to read any of the scriptures in companionship study and told me he was sick of the whole experience. Then during testimony meeting his best friend stood up and made what I think was a genuine promise to change and become a man, making an appointment with his bishop in the process. My comp stood up and said the same thing. I really don't know what to make of that kid. I just hope that something about the camp got to him in some small way.

Politics

I've been keeping pretty informed on current events during my stay here. I read the news almost as often as my email. Briefly, I'm ticked that Obama is going over the law and restricting the enforcement of illegal immigration policy. Seems a bit dictatorial to me. Although I totally side with the Supreme Court's decision regarding the health care bill. Also, I refuse to register to vote purely for the presidential election this fall. I want Romney, but since he doesn't have a shot of losing Utah I'm tempted to vote for Obama to tick off the relatives. I'll do local elections maybe.

Finally I'd like to introduce what will probably become the most constant part of my blogs from here on out. Each post I'm planning on talking about recent art, mostly movies, that have piqued my interest.

Critique

I just saw the Les Miserables trailer yesterday and it looks great. I'm a huge Crowe fan and I like Hugh Jackman, but I was initially worried about Anne Hathaway. She did a great job singing in the trailer though, so I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt this time.

I also heard rumors of an Ender's Game movie. I absolutely loved the book and their casting decisions have been spot on with Harrison Ford playing Lt. Graff and Ben Kingsley taking the role of Mazer Rackham. Asa Butterfield also seems, tentatively like a good pick. Since I doubt any of you recognize him by name, he's the kid that played Hugo in Hugo. I'm skeptical about the success of that story in any medium other than novel, however, on the basis that the book was appealing largely for it's psychological nature. Getting inside Ender's head is something that sounds close to impossible to do on screen.

The Dark Knight Rises is coming out in a few weeks and me and my roommates are going opening night. Super pumped. I haven't seen a Christopher Nolan movie I didn't like, although the Prestige was close. Batman is by far my favorite super hero, and one of my favorite overall characters of all time. I have a pretty decent theory about the direction the movie is going to take, but am somewhat scared of telling what it is because I don't want to ruin it for my friends. If anyone is curious, it centers on what actually happens between Bane and Batman in Knightfall. Let me know if you want to know more. Also, not excited about Catwoman being played by (of all the thousands of good actors in show business) Anne Hathaway. Frankly, her acting has always seemed a bit forced to me and she just doesn't have the sly sort of flirty playfulness that cat woman is supposed to have. Tom Hardy should kill it as Bane though. I absolutely loved him as Tommy Riordan in Warrior and he's gotten even bigger for this movie. Crazy.

Also, don't judge me, but one of my favorite pieces of film I've seen in a long time is the finale of the Legend of Korra. Watch the whole series first, but when you get to the finale be very excited for what is quite possibly the most epic thing I have ever seen.

Jim Gaffigan = New favorite comedian.

Sorry about the length of the post, I'll try to keep them shorter in the future. Guess I just had a lot to say. Cheers everybody.