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.