2 days ago I killed a pizza.

true story.

I actually did something yesterday. Realizing that 3 months is far too long to go without knowing anybody in biloxi I've started going to institute and singles activities. So yesterday there was this dinner thing that i went to, and afterwards we drove up to Hattiesburg for a singles dance. That was pretty fun, especially because i got to see all the jackson stake girls (all the guys i know from there are either on missions, married, or are not yet 18) and got to know some gulfport stake people to boot. So that was cool, hopefully i'll have legitimate friends sometime soon, not having any friends is boring.

It's amazing how quickly i've become used to the idea of going to portugal, and now i can't imagine going anywhere else. I am a little worried about learning a new language, but i'm way excited about being proficient in another language. There are two people i've met down here that speak portuguese, one from brasil, on a return missionary, so that's cool.

So i think it's ridiculous that we change the names that countries choose for themselves. In some cases, like when it's really hard to pronounce or i guess if the spelling doesn't sound look the pronunciation to english people, it makes a bit of sense, but there's no reason to call Italia italy, and spell Brasil brazil, so from now on, in the interest of Globalization, i'm going to follow Google Maps' lead and try to call countries by their actual name. We'll see how that turns out.

By the way, here's the address for sending me stuff in portugal. There'll be a different one when i actually get there, but that one will still work. Eventually i'm going to turn this blog over to a responsible adult who will be able to add my MTC address (which i don't know yet) and my real address, and keep this blog updated with letters and stuff so that you guys can keep updated at the speed of the interweb.

Elder Ammon David Perkes
Portugal Lisbon Mission
Apartado 40054
1500 Lisbon
Portugal











~Here, Dear, alone with all your letters

Hereby Called to Serve:

I got my mission call! It seems sort of silly to write this as an announcement, since by now everyone who reads my blog probably already knows, but nonetheless, it's pretty exciting. I've been called to the Portugal Lisbon mission. I'll speak Portuguese and be generally awesome. I don't have to report until september 24th, so i think i'll try to find a job and maybe be productive for parts of this summer.

I'm pretty happy about going to Portugal, i'd be happy about anywhere, but last night, in lieu of the impending mission call, i spent a bit of time thinking about my ideal mission. I decided that i would prefer to learn one of the romance languages, minus romanian, and decided I'd rather go to europe than south or central america. Happily, Portugal fulfills these criteria with ease. It also fulfills the desire to go somewhere they play soccer, and somewhere that i can gain loyalty to a soccer team. (an aside: I already feel silly and ignorantly american calling it soccer, i figure a solid couple of years saying futebol will be enough to work it out of my lexicon. It's a shame throwball somehow ganked that word over here.) I imagine it also covers the 'challenging mission' requirement suggested by my stake president, as i imagine, given that Europeans and catholics are both notoriously difficult to convert, a nation of catholic europeans speaking a foreign language will probably be tricky. But i like challenges, they make life engaging.

eeny-way, fun stuff. Other News:
I can never remember the last time i make these, and by extension, how much i've already talked about. Wow, it would appear it's been a while.

So, wrapping up the trip in jackson was good, i managed to see everyone i wanted to, and then some. I even managed to see hunter and melissa, who i completely missed last time i was in town. Both of these were at restaurants (Bravo and Cups, respectively), and it made me feel so posh. Oh, by the way, i've been watching rather absurd amounts of doctor who and a bit of topgear lately, so i may tend to british wordage from time to time, things like daft, farce, brilliant, some unnecessary u's, that sort of thing. I should really just annotate these blogs, it would make them much easier to read with all the asides and digressions. Back on track: I managed to say goodbye to caitlin this time around (something i apparently didn't do last time. I don't remember, but it does sound like the sort of thing I would neglect), and even gave spencer rabies, along with a clever assassination attempt in the form of pop rocks and coke. Given the fact that he hasn't updated his blog since i gave him them, i'm assuming they worked.

Driving home from jackson was an adventure, or rather, it was so far from an adventure that i had to pull off to clean the car for 40 minutes to keep myself from passing out from boredom. It was a pretty uneventful drive, but that's ok. I got to the airport with time to spare, and managed to get Cami back to biloxi in spite of traffic and shoddy windshield wipers. The Wangsgard gang (i wish i had a group name that started with W, i'll work on that) was all asleep, but eventually we talked to them, and the Wade's and grandparents came a bit later. I was surprised by how well our house held that many people. So lets see, we went to dauphin island, which was nice. At the time it seemed the drive was longer than necessary but when we went to the closer beeches later we were attacked by a fleet of jellyfish, which made the hour drive seem more reasonably. We went to the naturito...naturitum...arboretum, yeah, and saw lots of trees and turtles and many things not starting with t. It's safe to assume we played some games, video and otherwise, and had generally fun times.

Sunday (the 15th) I gave a talk in church which was nice. I felt like i sort of lacked focus in the talk. In my defense, i wasn't given a topic, and, although it was father's day, my father asked me not to give a talk entirely on fathers, so i didn't. In addition i was somewhat unprepared, but i think it went over ok, except that part where i made it seem like i had to postpone my mission because of serious transgressions, instead of serious lack of coordination. Monday was Isaac's baptism, which i was able to do, which was cool. After that we went and got food at this little pizza place, which was good.

Tuesday i went through the temple, which was awesome, (perhaps even brimming with awe, any more awe and it would have been aweful) and it was cool to have my whole family there (unfortunately minus those stuck with baby-sitting, although katie and cami still drove all the way to baton rouge just to watch kids in a hotel) We got burger king on the way home. I got a chicken sandwich, which i will say, without qualification, was the worst chicken sandwich i've had in my life. The drive back was pretty chill and Logan and I talked about mission type things and such, which is especially pertinent now that I'm serving in the same place he did...hm, i hadn't mentioned that yet. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. Now we'll will be able to have secret Portuguese conversations, it will be glorious.

The next day people started leaving, so where were lots of goodbye's. Amy and Dylan stayed longer, so we went to a water park and that was fairly fun. I think Water Parks would be about the funnest thing ever if there were no people and no rules. rules and people ruin everything, but it was still a good time. It was no Rapids on the Reservoir, but what can you do?

So that pretty much brings me to to now. Yesterday I had to talk a bit in Stake Conference, but that was nothing major. Today i went to see the Incredible Hulk, which was really good, and then came home to find my mission call and my security deposit waiting for me. I was planning to watch Iron Monkey (my netflix) before going to bed, but i've spent about an hour on this post due to various distractions and such.

Fyi, Pork and Beans by Weezer is one of my favorite songs and without a doubt the most magnificent music video i've ever seen. It just makes me feel good.

~Short on Money but Long on Time

I said please don't slow me down if i'm going too fast

It's midnight, and by tuesday i need to have written half of a 25 page paper (my partner is doing the other half), not to mention the two tests, 2 projects, and an essay that all ought to be done before i leave utah. It's sort of scary how fast time is going, but i've decided that it's always best to have something your excited about come right after something you're dreading, that way it doesn't take forever to come. My hair is a little less extreme than it was wednesday night, i got my friend to go in and trim the top so now it's a somewhat respectable faux-hawk, which is good, mohawks, while fun, are quite silly. Silly Logan...

Anyway, this weekend was a lot of fun. Friday night i had a date. I dunno why i always do this to myself. A week before you are leaving town for two years is no time to think about starting up a relationship, and i'm not really, but it just makes me a little sad for what could have been had time worked out differently. It might have something to do with the fact that when i realize i have absolutely nothing to lose i have an easier time getting over shyness and the like, but mostly it's just unfortunate circumstance, a complete lack of serendipity. But yeah, friday night was fun, and the saturday was filled with church activities. We had a temple trip in the morning, another reason i was glad that i had taken care of the mohawk friday, then a church party in the afternoon. We got there late so the food was gone and i tried to play soccer and discovered my knee isn't better enough for that yet. It also got really gross outside saturday from all the wind. Then i came back and watched the doctor who season finale, they're playing the new season of doctor who on scifi, i'm going to need to figure out how to watch those when i'm back in mississippi. While i'm talking about doctor who, there's a whole bunch of old doctor who (mostly from the Tom Baker era) on netflix's watch now. You should definitely check them out, i do.

Anyway, after that was stake conference, which was nice, even if i did sleep through most of the first half. We went and ate dinner, which Karl paid for cus he's cool like that. Karl also gave me an old oil thing for my key chain, so now i have one of those, which is good. After dinner headed to jake's where we watched Ace Ventura. I hadn't seen the first one in a long long time, so that was fun. Then today i went to grandma's and ate lunch and we hung out and talked for a few hours and then i went back to cami's and did some laundry, had dinner, and watched Lars and the Real Girl, which was good. So here i am. This next week promises to be pretty awful, and the worst part is i don't really have time in utah after it's done to just relax and hang out. Sad. Well i'm going to start working my way towards bed, maybe watch a little doctor who first and stretch my knee out, since i don't need to wake up for another 10 hours. Ahh college.

~Mostly Harmless

The teacher thinks that i sound funny, but she likes the way you sing.

Ahh, General Conference, always a good time. 10 hours of church will never pass as quickly. But yeah, it was cool to see Monson as the Prophet and President and really let it sink in. Sessions were great as always, and i think Thomas Monson wiggling his ears in Priesthood session was quite possibly the most amazing thing i've ever seen. I'm so glad our church is led by people with a sense of humor. But yeah, conference took up most of my weekend, but there were some other fun times. Saturday night i stayed out till 3ish at the after effects of a party at someone's house, talking about relationships and telling fun stories. I don't really like parties, i'm not too great at the whole mingling thing, but i'm good at hanging out, so that was fun.

Because i stayed up so late, i sort of slept through this morning's session (being able to watch conference from in bed is a way to ensure falling asleep) i woke up just as Monson was saying something to the effect that that session was the most spiritually uplifting ever, so i felt sort of bad, but 4.5 sessions of conference is not too shabby. I'm disappointed i didn't get to actually go to any of them, but what can you do?

Elizabeth Arnold told me saturday that some freshman girl thinks i'm cute. While it's always fun to hear, that really doesn't do a whole lot for me, but since i'm going to be gone in three weeks anyway i probably won't worry about it.

Today i went and ate waffles and then hung out for a while and then watched oceans 11 (still full of awesome) and then hung out some more. I was worried because i had physics homework, but that turned out to take me all of 5 minutes.

Tomorrow i'll probably find out what's going to happen with my knee, hopefully nothing major. I'm sad that i tore some ligaments, because those don't ever truly heal, so now i'm going to have to worry about that for the rest of my athletic life. Hopefully i can get something that'll protect it for when i do active things, because there's a pretty good chance that i'll be snowboarding after my mission, and i'd like to be able to take some risks. Either way, not living life because you're afraid of injury is no way to live...i should apply that philosophy to emotional things. Well, that's about all that's going on on my front. Back to you Jim.

Gordon Bitner Hinckley 1910 - 2008

A couple hours ago my mom called me to tell me that President Hinckley has died. So instead of watching Dane Cook's stand-up, i decided going to Ward Prayer (a sort of family prayer with our church), which was nice. We sang "Each Life That Touches Ours for Good" which is a beautiful song, and i was playing, which was nice because i was the best piano player there...that sounds conceited, i only mean that it is a song that wouldn't be nearly as good when played poorly or only one handed, and i'm glad i was able to provide decent two handed playing.

President Hinckley is the first President of the church to die while i was old enough to remember, and is really the only one i've ever known. He's always, even as a 97 year old man, had a great sense of humor, and was a powerful speaker. I can't really compare him to past prophets since he's the only one i've lived through, but he's certainly been the most influential on me, maybe one of the most influential people to live. It's weird to not have him be the President. I'll definitely miss his presence at conference, but it seems like he's been awaiting this for some time, especially since his wife died, so it's really not a sad day. He lived a great life, and now can rest.

"When such a friend from us departs
We hold forever in our hearts
A sweet and hallowed memory,
Bringing us nearer, Lord, to thee.

For worthy friends whose lives proclaim
Devotion to the Savior's name,
Who bless our days with peace and love,
We praise thy goodness Lord above."

1 Is the Loneliest Number That You'll Ever Know

Incidentally, i'm not actually that emo, or that lonely, but there is definitely a slight dearth of friendship at the U. I've met a bunch of people, it's not like i've been holed up in my room all day, i just haven't really met anyone i want to spend lots of time with. So yeah. It's also possible i just haven't really gotten to know anyone well enough to have a good time spending a lot of time with people, but i dunno.

In happier news, i've decided i'm not as behind in calculus as i feel, considering i did all of the homework last night without help, and when i got to class today a bunch of people were frantically swapping answers. So that made me fee a little bit more comfortable. Otherwise class is pretty groovy, i finished my reading for The Odyssey earlier today, that was good.

Church is fun, i'm glad i have it to get me out of my dorm and do fun things. I had my first Family Home Evening last night, we played tag and ate cookies, and brainstormed about what we can do. I need to pay my tuition today, because MTA is holding out on me, i also need to drop them a line and tell them to send me my $750 or i'll get out of this chair and drop them like 3rd period french.

Anyway, i think i'd better head to class, and then i hope to swim and register for intermural sports. I can't think of a witty ending, and i'm about to be late for class, so so long.

“‘Sort of’ is such a harmless thing to say. Sort of. It’s just a filler. Sort of - it doesn’t really mean anything. But after certain things, sort of means everything. Like after ‘I love you’ or ‘You’re going to live’ or ‘It’s a boy.’” ~Demetri Martin

If you've a date in Constantinople they'll be waiting in Istanbul

So. As might have been perceived by my relative lack on internet presence over the last few days, i have yet to get my computers internet to work. For some reason my computer and my roommate's router don't get along very well. Hopefully that'll get taken care of eventually. Luckily though, there's a computer lab a minute or so from my room, so it really just makes me spend less time in my dorm room.

Last night i had the second weirdest family night ever (the weirdest of course being the thumb tack maze object lesson) where i met some people, got to know some people a bit better, learned to swing dance very poorly, line danced a bit, climbed a rock wall, did an obstacle course, and got free pizza. I was a bit late, due to a miscommunication between me and the Trax intercom, which didn't tell me which stop we were at until after we were pulling away, so i had to walk a bit farther than i wanted to, but i survived. I now have a relatively good sense for this whole college thing. I know how to get food, mail, shuttle rides, and i know where all but one of my classes are (i'm going to find that class in a couple minutes).

Physics class looks like it'll be a bit dull, but calculus looks to be really quite hard (i also need to refresh my memory of L'Hopital's rule, which i never thoroughly learned in high school, so that's good. I have homework already, which i'm sure will be a bit difficult, and i'm considering capitalizing on that whole tutoring thing, or asking Cami, either way. Otherwise, life moves on pretty well. I've realized i can beat the Chartwells system by throwing a bit off non-messy food in my backpack for a small lunch (fruit works really well) and eventually i'm going to figure outt how my flex dollars work, and if there's any way to use them for ramen, oatmeal, or pb&j. So for the most part life out here is going well. Hopefully i'll find something exciting to do this weekend, but we'll see. It feels refreshingly like Cambridge, certainly not as urban, but almost. That'll do for now. Once i get my computer all working i'll be able to update more.

"Adieu, Adieu, parting is such sweet sorrow."

I don't remember how long it's been since i updated, but i think it was at least a week, since that's when i lost my computer access. Anyway, not a lot happened last week until friday. Friday was my last day at work, and that was good. Blake sprayed me with ketchup, and charlie dumped a bucket of ice water on me. then i went to spencer's house and almost finished master quest. I didn't completely finish though, one of my great regrets.

Saturday was my last day in jackson, and as last days go, it was good. I woke up late, and went in to work to get my last tip out and give them an address for my check. I went over to spencer's house with roberta and then michael and kirk came and we played risk. Kirk won, because I, while lucky, am unable to count correctly (1...2...5). After that we played a little bit of mario party, and then went to Bravo, with melissa, annie, and kate. That was nice. After bravo we swung by annie's house, and i saw hailey and josh and emmett, but i had to leave to get a hair cut and pack. By the time i finished spencer and roberta and michael had adjourned to spencer's house, and so i went over there. I passed tyler and got to say a proper good bye, and then we played some mario party, and then i left, after getting some sweet presents from spencer, and then said goodbye to spencer and michael, and then drove roberta home. X & Y is the most perfectly awful goodbye music, so that was at least appropriate. Said goodbye, and listened to The Hardest Part on the way home.

Today i spoke in church, and that was good, i played piano for the last time (at church, not generally) At the end of the church i got ordained an Elder, so that's pretty major, and then we ate dinner, and then we went home and i finished packing and cleaning up. I got to see johnny on my way out, and that was good. A bit of driving, and now i'm home, in a manner of speaking. I'm here tomorrow, then i ship out teusday morning at 9:55, due to get into Salt Lake at 3:20.

I guess that's about it. My dad's the seminary teacher down here, so he's going to waking up at the crack of 5 to be doing that. He was doing this before pretty much anyway, but now he's not driving 3 hours shortly afterwards.

my bags are packed...

Leaving in a Mazda.

I'm home, if only for a moment. I just got back from youth conference and i'm a little overwhelmed by the enormity of the task that stands between me and the rest of my vacation: Packing up all my stuff. So instead i'm going to take a break for a bit and post on my sadly neglected blog.


Youth Conference was amazing. Like really really awesome, it makes me wish i were going to byu in some ways, which i imagine being similar to four years of youth conference. I think i made the right choice with the U, but being in a big Mormon bubble is actually pretty comforting from time to time. Also, i see now a bit more how easy it is to go away for a weekend and realize what you really want in life is different from what you imagined it was, even without brainwashing. We had some good lessons about dating, a topic i wrote about extensively in my real journal, but one that i'll probably save for a later date (ew, accidental pun). We also had an interesting little lesson about Hazardous Materials, i.e. drugs, alcohol, caffeine (which, by the way, is another example of the uselessness of the i before e rule, especially when not modified to fit neighbor and weird, but i digress) which isn't really a problem for me, but i learned a couple things none the less. We also had a great discussion with Brother Thordinson (who's name i can only half remember, i know it starts with Thor, cus that's awesome) who reminds me distinctly of Bill Murray in What About Bob, he's funny. He talked about who we are, and all that stuff, which is always good. Lets see, that night we had a dance, it was actually the second dance, but the first one isn't really worth talking about. The second one is worth talking about for a couple reasons, mostly because it was my last youth dance. There may or may not be more to talk about later, right now i'll just say it was a fun last dance, and i'm glad it, instead of others i've had, was my last. Anyway, moving on, we also did a service project on friday, where we made care packages for soldiers in Iraq, and wrote letters. I decided it would be weak to write it in a way that suggested i support the Iraq war, but i think i made a pretty decent letter. It's kinda wack, cus we're giving them tiny bits of candy. I'm sure soldiers are grateful for what they get, but i dunno, it seemed pretty cheap. So whatever. That night we had our keynote speaker, which was really really cool.

Mario Facione, an ex-mafia member and current member of the church from michigan. He's an awesome guy. I dunno, it's hard to describe how cool that was, but he had a great life story, and a great humor about him. Also, anytime he described any conversation or discussion he had i couldn't help but thinking about how the mafia would discuss something. And he had a sweet italian/Michiganite accent, so that was cool.

Saturday we packed up, had a good little Q and A type thing on church, social, and personal issues. Then we had our Testimony meeting, which was really good. And then we watched a cheesey but good movie that they had made about youth conference. All around it was definitely one of the best youth conferences i've been to, maybe even better than Nauvoo, although the food was lacking, and the game room was closed. I have no complaints, it was definitely the best way i could have spent 3 days.

So! despite the title, my bags are not yet packed, and i am far from ready to go. So i'm gonna go work on that....i guess, man, it's crazy. Oh well, more on that later too. My computer needs to get put up, along with the majority of my clothing and belongings. So adieu, adieu, until i next get my hands on a computer (which may be quite a while)

Nothing happens, nobody comes

My 41st post. 41 is a thoroughly meaningless number, not nearly as awesome as 42, or as monumental as 40, but it seems like a bit of a milestone just the same...moving on:

Once again i find myself without motivation. I wish i knew how to make amazing projects, because while i can churn out mediocre - decent projects all night long (so far i've only falled asleep once tonight, happily, i've been snoozing my alarm so it'd wake me up every 15 minutes or so if i fell asleep) really outstanding projects that are remembered for years and years elude me. Maybe i'm just not that kind of person.

Anyhow, today was pretty fun, although there was a definitive lack of swimming and swan diving. we got back from Field Trippin' around 8:40, and i started on my review project. First i found a tree, i'm not really happy with it, but i suppose it'll do. Then i started reading Waiting for Godot for inspiration. Waiting for Godot is not inspiring. It is depressing and oppressing and suppressing and various other ppressings that don't come to mind at the moment. I have a general idea of what i need to talk about, but i'm not sure how i should say it.

In other news, sunday i gave a talk (a sort of mini-sermon thing we do in my church that are assigned to members and such instead of having a preacher. I dunno if other churches do anything like this) which was like 15 minutes long. That's pretty long for me, especially considering that writing a 5 minute speech proved to be too much for me. So that was kinda rockin'. Now i'm just procrastinating. Work is busy, but money is great. Whoever said money can't buy happiness was either very poor or very depressed, because money does buy me happiness. I suppose you have to have some foundational happiness for that to work though...or perhaps i'm shallow and easily pleased. Either way. Back to work.

Well, conference today was good. I finished the things they carried, which ended kinda abrubtly, and too soon to keep me from getting bored in the two hours between sessions. Saturday i had MMTA, and i think i did alright in that. We'll see though. My last MMTA ever. crazy crazy.

Lets see, other news. I got my report card back and i'm somehow failing government, if i don't pull that up i'm going to have to do summer school, that kinda sucks. We'll see what i can do about that. Also, i think i'm going to ask Roberta to prom, she already has a ticket and it's just handy. I know it hasn't worked out well in the past, but i think this'll be different.

Still no word on the job front, they said they'd call me, hopefully i'll hear about that. I want a job a lot.

A Vacation...from my problems

I was feeling like posting a picture, and that one caught my eye for some reason, then i messed with it in Picasa for a while, and so there you go.

I've been reading The Poisonwood Bible for a while, delaying the aweful amount of calculus take-home test i need to do, and generally relaxing. Church today was normal, i wore a suit, which isn't normal at all, and that was fun. I also pissed off my teacher by unintentionally calling him a bad teacher. In truth i was frustrated at the inefficiencies of the Socratic Method for teaching, mostly in the way that i answer a whole bunch of questions. I tried to steer us into a nice socratic debate about what freedom is as penence, and that seemed to cheer him up, so i felt a little better.

After church i came home, meandered around as is my custom, and eventually took a stats test, which wasn't so bad. I studied the stuff i figured would be on the test, so i was ok there, but then i kinda blanked on the process it was testing. Luckily it was mostly multiple choice, so we'll see how that goes.

I'm realizing the inherent inefficiencies of having two seperate blogs. Instead of digressing into happy philosophical thinking, i keep myself talking about my day and stuff like that. I guess i'll consolidate my blogs someday, till then i'll leave them. It does make my other blog a bit more interesting to read perhaps, although i'm really not sure which is more interesting, my emo teenager thoughts or my mundane daily toils. I think i'll just let this turn into a thoughtful blog and stick it on my good blog.

I'm realizing i need a break from my friends. I like my friends, they're fun, but when I need a bit of time to just relax and not do a whole lot. My vacations seem to become very busy. I'm looking forward to camping, and wondering how exclusive i should be. It is one of the last big things we'll do together, but in all honesty, i just don't want to go camping with everyone i'm friends with. And as hard as it is to explain, there is a very noticable and enjoyable difference in hanging out, especially camping, with no girls. I don't want my nice small camp get away to be turned into just a normal day but with nature. The other thing is that guys hanging out with their respective girlfriends and/or crushes just aren't as much fun. It's fun for them, but yeah. Maybe i just need a girlfriend. So i'm debating how this camping this is going to go. I also am wondering how everyone and their mom now knows about the camping thing. From my memory i've only told like 4 or so people. Everybody knowing complicates things.

So i'm realizing this blog is fairly revealing, and although only a few people read my blog, it's pretty thoroughly public. Chances are if you're reading this i'm not talking about you, unless you're spencer, and then i most definitely am. Sorry about that, just the way it goes.

Well, it's 7, so i'm going to start working towards doing my homework, starting with writing a quick review of Ghost Rider. Forsooth.