Moments that touched me

It was February of 2008, and I was in the deepest throes of dealing with being gay and Mormon. Probably due to the fact that I hadn't been sleeping or eating much, I came down with the flu. It wasn't a good time to get sick, and I was already feeling extremely down with life as it was.

One day a box showed up in front of my dorm room. It contained all sorts of medicines and sick/comfort foods. Each item had a sticky note attached to it with something creative written on it in bubbly writing. It was all anonymous, and I never found out who it was from. It was quite the care package and must have cost quite a bit for a college student's budget.

To this day that may be one of the nicest things anyone has done for me.

Thank you.

Whatever floats your boat...

How random is this? I saw it while I was biking today.

16? What is wrong with 14? Or 17?

I love it.

Here's to Healing

So where have I been the past month?

Well, I stuck around Salt Lake till the evening of June 18th, when I had finals (at the BYU Salt Lake Center).


Promptly following, (midnight that night), I got on a plane to Burlington, Vermont, and spent 5 days visiting the family I "mannyed" for last summer in Plattsburgh, New York. (The picture above is actually from a later flight. See below ;-) )


Then, on June 24th, I took the midnight bus to Manhattan, where I played with my aunts and uncles for 5 days, and went to my uncle's wedding.


Then, on Sunday the 28th, I flew back to Salt Lake, but not before stopping by the NYC Pride Parade...


Back in Provo, I worked for 2 days, before driving up to Seattle on Wednesday with Michael, Michael, and Justin.

They left on Sunday. I stayed up there, where I played with family and friends.

Before flying back to Salt Lake on July 14th, I took a quick two-day trip to Portland. There, I visited my grandparents and aunt who lives there, and met up with my other aunt who is visiting before she moves to Bangladesh. This is my sister's dog Sadie, who came along.

Once I got back to Utah, I saw Harry Potter 6 at midnight (and liked it), and worked for the next two days, both at my job at the BYU Library and in my room, packing and cleaning. This was my work crew.

On Thursday night after work, I drove to Zion National Park to do some hiking and visit yet another aunt.

I got back on Sunday and visited friends in Salt Lake. On Monday and Tuesday I worked 2 more days as I continues to frantically pack and clean my apartment. I had a cleaning check on Wednesday at 10am, and checked out of my apartment.

Then, I got in my stuffed car,


and drove, and drove, and drove,


and drove, and drove some more,


and drove, and went to Niagara Falls,


and drove, and after 2384(.3) miles, finally made it back to Plattsburgh, New York.


I am taking some of my old manny duties back up.


Therefore, I am officially a BYU dropout. I declined my scholarship. I'll go back to school someday, since I really like school, but not now.

Fact of the matter is, while I did like BYU generally, I have found that some relationships in life just aren't healthy for us. I think my relationship with BYU was one such relationship.


So, here's to healing.

(the front yard. that's lake chanplain in the background.)

long time, no post

I know.

To Do Tomorrow

1. Get up at 8:00 (as opposed to my more normal 12:30 or 1).
2. Finish reading Arcadia (finally).
3. Give Elrond (my fish) some fresh water.
   
4. Write my rhetorical analysis and research paper.
5. Apply to study abroad in London.
   
6. Become a vegan.
   

My blogging unmotivation continues. Sorry again (sorta).

The Oracle, Mary Poppins, and Grass--Revisited

I have been rather unmotivated to blog lately. Sorry.

On another blog and at another time, my mother posted the following:

No, not that kind of grass! Stop it.

Remember the scene in The Matrix where Neo has gone to visit the Oracle to find out if he's The One? Oracle tells him, "Don't worry about the vase." "What vase?" asks Neo, as he knocks a vase of flowers off a table. "I told you not to worry about it," she responds. The Big Question is if Neo would have knocked the vase over if the Oracle hadn't said anything. This implies to me that he wouldn't have, and that the Oracle, in fact, set Neo up, as she set up all the other characters. Now think about Mary Poppins. Did she not set the Banks family up? Remember the scene where she manipulates Mr. Banks into taking the children on an outing to the bank? Then think of the next scene in which she describes the bird woman of St. Paul's Cathedral to the children. Wasn't she setting the children up to feed the birds? Of course, it is on the outing to the bank that the climax of the movie plays out -- and you can't say Mary Poppins didn't intend it all in the first place.

So think about it. We all walk around feeling free -- but can we be sure we haven't been set up as well, by someone somewhere somehow?

Here's a fun tease. Maybe we're being setup by a most unlikely source! Take a look at this video and see if it doesn't twist your mind a bit. There are some other fun ideas here too so enjoy.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/214

I repost this because it speaks to some things I have thought about for quite a while now. Who is doing the setting up, where are they, and how are they doing it, indeed?!

Immigration Arguments

I know, this is pretty old. But is one of my favorites, it always makes me laugh. And immigration is one of my favorite topics to debate, even though I haven't been keeping up on it for the past few months. I used to be quite educated on the matter.



Bill O'Reilly, you baffle me. I really just don't even know what to say.