50 Things

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I thought I'd go all out with the thankful list this year.
If I just listed people or individual things, I would easily get over 50, so I'm going to group them up. So don't feel bad if I don't list you individually.

1. My parents. Always been there for me, always willing to help me out and wanting the best for me.
2. My siblings. I couldn't have chosen better people to be my first friends in this life.
3. My ward family. I can always count on you for a good time, regardless of the time of day – or day, for that matter.
4. My high school friends. Most of my high school life would have been boring and uneventful if I didn't have you guys to help me find things to do.
5. My roommates, past and present. Having such similar interests makes living together easier, knowing that there's rarely any awkward moments at home.
6. My Divine Comedy family, and Divine Comedy itself. It's one of the few things that's kept me sane over the last year and a half, and it's a chance for me to perform while having a good time the whole time doing it. Working with you guys is the best, and I'd gladly do it for years and years.
7. The Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know where I would be without a guiding set of rules and commandments that I know are for my benefit. Living is easier knowing that there's a reason for everything I do, and that there are blessings that come from living righteously.
8. The scriptures – the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. Having these scriptures and studying them regularly brings peace of mind and teaches so much when they're properly understood.
9. Modern-day prophets. Men who are called of God and give us instructions from Him on a regular basis are amazing, and getting to listen to them in person brings a feeling that's unmatched.
10. Religious freedom. I love the fact that live in a country where I'm allowed to worship however I desire, and understanding the religious background of others is almost always an enjoyable experience.
11. My mission in Brazil. I'm sure I would have been grateful for wherever I ended up being called, so the location isn't the important part here. Getting to help others for two years straight was an experience I wouldn't trade for anything.
12. Temples. They're always a place of peace and refuge that I can count on regardless of how turbulent my life feels.
13. The talent to play music. It's a chance for me to express myself at times when words just don't cut it.
14. Music itself. A lot of songs carry a significant meaning for me, and again help me express things that I'm feeling when I don't quite know how to do it myself.
15. Video games. A seemingly trivial thing, but they've been there for me for years and never disappoint. If I need something to do, I can always count on them to help me pass the time.
16. YouTube. It's another thing that helps pass the time, and millions of people (if not a couple billion now) use it as a source of entertainment, both for watching and providing that entertainment.
17. Google. I don't mean the overall company necessarily, though it does provide us with multiple products that are helpful to anyone who chooses to use them. (Including the previous entry.) I mean the original search engine that has ended up turing into its own verb – a feat not easily done in our day in age.
18. The internet. The capability of connecting people worldwide in a matter of seconds for relatively cheap is a feat that would have been considered impossible just a few decades ago.
19. Legos. Some of my first toys, and I still have almost all of them to this day. As was their slogan at some point, "the possibilities are endless."
20. Laptops. Computers are one thing, but mobility is a HUGE plus. As I'm typing this, I'm currently on a laptop in my living room while watching a movie. It might not be as powerful as a desktop, but for my comfort level it's preferred.
21. Hot Pockets. Yeah, there's the jokes that have been made about them in the past, but in all honesty they're a great college food and perfect for making when in a rush.
22. Movies. The chance to tell a story and enthrall audiences for a couple hours is our generation's equivalent of radio, and while there are the occasional remakes, there are so many unique stories and characters to relate to that are worth our time.
23. Sports, both playing and watching them. I don't claim to be great at any sport, but I almost always enjoy playing a game of football, soccer, volleyball, etc. with friends and creating that feeling of success through teamwork. Just watching some sports as well is also fun, and can be another great bonding experience.
24. My apartment. It's not luxurious by any means but it's comfortable for my needs and feels... well, like my home for now. Especially considering that before the place that I'm currently living in I didn't stay anywhere for more than a few months, it's nice to have this place to come back to and relax.
25. Police officers. As much as I hear complaints about them around here, for the most part they aren't too bad. And considering the fact that without them we would have crime run amok... Well, it's better to have them than to not.
26. Medicine. Even basic medicine like Tylenol is something that I'm grateful for, whenever I've got headaches or other pains. I don't abuse medicines, knowing what could happen from overdosing, but having the opportunity to get better from a couple pills is a comfort I'm definitely grateful for.
27. Surgeries. I haven't had too much done in my own life, just a wisdom tooth removal and some stitches, but I know others – including members of my own family – whose lives have been preserved because of surgeries done efficiently and precisely.
28. iDevices... or, I guess the connectivity of technology these days. So, as an example, I've got a phone that can connect wirelessly to my computer, or other computers, and through Bluetooth it can connect to sound systems, and now game consoles can utilize them as well... Yeah. It's amazing what's possible.
29. Books. Fiction, non-fiction, reference, comic, manuals, whatever shape or size they come in, they're always going to be around.
30. Shoes. I don't even know how many I went through on my mission, but getting a new pair was always refreshing. And, in the immortal words of Forrest Gump, "you can tell a lot about a person by their shoes, where they go, where they've been."
31. Vacuum cleaners. Seemingly random, but they're so useful. And the one that I own is one that I hope to use for years to come.
32. Comedy. I love laughing, and whatever the medium is that ends up making me laugh, I always get put in a good mood for a while.
33. Swimming. Like most sports, I'm not great at it, but I'm comfortable doing it and the feeling of being essentially weightless is one that I love every time.
34. Hot tubs. Different from swimming because... well, you don't swim. You just relax. I could stay in one for an hour or more and just detach from the rest of the world.
35. Jeans. I wear them most every day, and find them incredibly comfy. And they go with almost anything.
36. Traveling. I always enjoy it, just the thrill of going from one place to experience another. Depending on how long the trip is, it can be a great memory, especially if you've got great company with you.
37. Dreams. Day or night, consciously controlling them or not, it's incredible to think about how our mind can come up with scenarios and situations that might be impossible in the real world.
38. Campouts. Disconnecting from society for a few days is an experience I think everyone should have a couple times a year.
39. Crazy people. Not like, people who have disorders or things like that. But people who just act in such a way that's so weird that I actually feel normal every once in a while. 
40. Decorations. As I talked about my apartment earlier, one of the things that makes it so homey is that it's got things that personalize it and make it... mine. Not that all of the decorations are mine, but coming back to them day after day helps give that impression of home.
41. Tools. Utilizing resources is one thing, but manipulating them so that they can become something completely new gives a great feeling of accomplishment.
42. Deep conversations. While they might not always end in a solution (if it's a discussion about an issue), it's always good to talk with someone and understand their point of view after thoroughly talking about how they got there.
43. Puns. I'll refrain from making any here, but the simple laugh I get from making them just makes my day.
44. Agency. The power to choose my actions on a day-to-day basis. Learning for myself what decisions are the best.
45. Sleep. Going to bed at night or even taking naps throughout the day is one of my favorite ways to rejuvenate.
46. Cars and vehicles in general. While on my mission, we didn't use cars or even bikes, so whenever we got a ride from someone or took a bus it was something I came to really appreciate. Getting to drive myself around now is something I no longer take for granted.
47. Mountains. While my time in the St. Louis area wasn't bad, one of the things I did miss fairly regularly was having mountains close by. I don't even know how far I would have had to go to reach real mountains instead of hills.
48. Social networks. I mostly use Facebook, but there are a few I use that help me stay connected with people, and it was a genius idea to utilize the internet for it.
49. Superman. Everyone's got to have an idol, right?
50. Turkey wrapped in bacon.
    
    I think this one needs no further explanation.

Need help deciding

Taking a break from the Personal History posts for a bit just to see if anyone has any input on this. I've got a few songs that I've been wanting to do a cover on for a while now, and while I've narrowed down the list a bit to songs that I've been able to put into Garage Band, I'm still having trouble settling on one to start with. So, for those of you who read this, here are the ones I've chosen so far, and if you've got any input as to which you'd like to see (or have suggestions on completely different ones) go ahead and comment.

"Digital Love," by Daft Punk:

"Monsoon," by Tokio Hotel:

"Every Teardrop is a Waterfall," by Coldplay:

"It's Not Unusual," by Tom Jones (and as made famous by Fresh Prince of Bel-Air):

"Island in the Sun," by Weezer:

"50 Ways to Say Goodbye," Train:

"Moves Like Jagger," Maroon 5:

"Somewhere Only We Know," by Keane:

"Starlight," by Muse:

"Wake Me Up," Avicii:

"Under Pressure," by Queen and David Bowie:

"She Will Be Loved," Maroon 5:

"Get Lucky," by Daft Punk:

"Without You," David Guetta feat. Usher

And one that I'm considering is "On Top Of The World" by Imagine Dragons, even though I don't have a Garage Band file to work off of yet:

That, or "It's Time," also by Imagine Dragons:

Again, I'm open to suggestions, but these are the ones I've narrowed it down to for now. Soo..... Comment your heart out!



In movie collection news, I got two more from my last Walmart run: Necessary Evil, a documentary about the villains of the DC Comics universe, narrated by Christopher Lee. Then I got Tower Heist, a Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy movie that came out a couple years ago. Now, I've always been a fan of Stiller, but in recent years it seems that Murphy has been pretty hit-and-miss with his films (most of the hits just being the Shrek series). It was a $5 bin movie, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

Personal History, Part 3

Very brief recap:
April 1990: I was born in Santa Maria, CA
Summer 1992... about: Moved to Orange, CA
Summer 1999: Moved to Danville, CA
Summer 2000: Moved to Bellingham, WA
Summer 2003: Moved back to Danville, CA
December 2004: Moved to Edwardsville, IL
May 2008: Graduated high school

I think this will be mostly a picture post. Hope that's okay.

Finally the time came for the one move in my life that I was expecting. Early in 2008 I got accepted to Brigham Young University, which had been my dream since I was young. It's where my parents went (and eventually met), and three of my siblings were already living in the area, so I got to be close to them once again. Graduation came and went, and my dad and I packed up a couple cars to take out to Utah. Neither one was actually for me, just some of the stuff packed in them; one of the cars was a friend's, and we were taking it out to Utah for them, and the other was for my sister. But I was going to be living in on-campus housing anyway, so I didn't exactly need one. Here are a few pics of the drive out:

Miles of... flatness...

Hey! That's me!

That white car was double-ended. The gimmick was that, on the side, it said something along the lines of "Always moving forward"

College was definitely an experience I thought I was prepared for, but, like most freshmen starting out, it proved to be harder than I initially thought. Thankfully, the whole experience was made better by finding a lot of new friends throughout the whole time I was there – a skill I felt I had mastered from how many times I had gone to somewhere new before.

Halloween costumes with my roommates, minus one who was taking the picture 

Between semesters, I made an igloo of sorts from the snow on the basketball court outside of our apartment. I'd never lived in a place with so much snow before, so I was kinda excited for it all.

My FHE family from freshman year

Random dance parties weren't unheard of in our dorm...

Book/note burning ceremony after the second semester

I've got to be grateful to Facebook for preserving these photos for me. I swear, there are some things that I feel like I have a great memory for, but others I have almost no recollection of.

After that first year, I was blessed enough to be able to go on a mission. My call came right around the time of finals, and a lot of my family and friends were able to be there when I opened it:

So, summing up quickly my summer after freshman year, I kept working in the MTC cafeteria for a while, then went home to Illinois to pack up and get ready to go. I was lucky enough to get my passport and visa early, compared to many South American-bound missionaries who followed me, so I started flying to Brazil on August 25th and got to the MTC there on the 26th.

Personal History, Part 2

So I left off with us going back to Danville, California. We moved back there in the summer of 2003. Like all of our previous moves, we did it in the middle of the summer so that we wouldn't have our school year disrupted. Now that we were back in a place we hadn't spent a lot of time in previously, I was getting to really know my friends from before and make a lot of new friendships. I finished middle school there and began my freshman year of high school, so I felt like I was just starting to fit in. But, of course, the call to move came once again through my dad's job. I remember how I felt when he first told me; it was right around the beginning of the school year, and unlike past times that we'd moved, this time it would be right at the end of the calendar year instead of in the summer. This meant leaving school, leaving behind friends, leaving behind a home that I fell in love with – leaving all that in a way I wasn't used to. And I'd already felt like I'd gotten used to change. This just frustrated me.

It took me a while to understand that we're always where we are for a reason. Years, to understand that. Way after the fact that we had moved from Danville, and even after I went to my first year of college. And I know that we didn't move around nearly as much as some military families do. We never lived in poverty – we weren't what most people would define as rich, but we lived comfortably enough for our needs. I don't know what could have happened if we stayed in California that whole time; I know my brother stayed, and he was old enough to make that decision on his own. As a family, though, we moved. And for reasons that I wasn't aware of at the time, it was necessary that we did so. Either because there were people where we were moving to that we needed to help, or people who would help us, or some combination of the two, something that we had to do there – in any case, the reasons existed, and while we may not have known them beforehand we did as my parents felt were best.

December rolled around, and thankfully we stayed there as long as we could before we really had to move. We spent Christmas with some of my cousins in the area, and soon after that we were flying to the midwest. The only time I had got out that way before was when we took a family vacation across the country in an RV, but I was 6 or 7 at the time and I don't remember too much of that trip now. So we landed in St. Louis, and one of the first things we noticed was how flat it was. Having only lived on the west coast, I was always used to mountains or at least hills around me. Even when we took trips to Utah, there were the big mountains there that we drove through and around – here, though, almost seemed like a wasteland at first.
Thankfully that impression of it didn't last long. Yes, geographically there's not much of interest besides maybe the Mississippi River, but I ended up making some great friends pretty quickly there. Within a couple days of us getting there, we were invited to a New Year's party by some people from the ward, and we quickly began to fit in to the city of Edwardsville, Illinois. My dad was working on a big expansion project for the company he was working with; my mom found a bunch of friends around the neighborhood to play tennis with; my younger-older sister Katie (does that description make sense?) got ready to finish high school and move on to BYU; and Sarah, my younger sister, made a bunch of friends in her own grade and joined band.
It still took me a while to figure out my niche at school there. I first thought I might give wrestling a go; I had done it one year in middle school (when we were in Washington, before we moved) and enjoyed it then. But then, midway through the season, one of my English teachers (who also happened to be the main drama club teacher) announced that they were having auditions for Les Misérables. This nearly blew my mind! I'd already seen Les Mis before, listened to the soundtrack multiple times, and loved every minute of it. So, while the wrestling season came to a close, I tried out and ended up getting a part in the musical. To this day I still remember the parts I played: Constable #2 (one of the men who drags Jean Valjean back to the Bishop) and Courfeyrac (a student who dies along with all the others at the barricade). There, I finally felt like I belonged. From that point on, I participated in pretty much every production that the high school did until I graduated: Children of Eden, Beauty and the Beast, On the Razzle (a comedy, taken from the same play that Hello Dolly is based on) and The Wiz. I loved every minute of it, and clearly remember the friendships I made there.
I participated a bit with band and choir as well, and only have good memories of my time in Illinois. Here's just a picture montage of... well, everything from there:

Some of my friends posing during a literary fair. The whole idea was that we had to do something related to British culture, so they played Beatles music the whole time.

During a "Mormon Prom" – some guys did a mini glowstick show, and I was lucky enough to capture this

Senior Prom, pretty much all of the students from French 4, with our teacher on the far left.

This is one of the things I'm most proud of: I built this chair as the Beast's throne for Beauty and the Beast my junior year.

All of the Thespians from drama club, close to graduation.

This was while I was working in a movie theater... If I remember correctly, he was just up there to change a light, but probably spent more time up there than he should.

House party! There were probably four times this many people actually in the house at the time; we were all celebrating the performances of Beauty and the Beast.

I apologize for the poor quality for some of these photos. I wasn't super experienced with a digital camera at the time, and while I'm not a pro at it now I definitely know how to take better pictures.



Part 3 will be up later this week, and I'll probably cover from the time I graduated high school up until about now.