Happy Birthday! Dad, Nephew, and Bono

Today is both my dad's and now my newest nephew Soren's birthday. So happy birthday to both of them, although neither one of them read my blog.

In other news, i have discovered that i can be linked to myself in six steps and through kevin bacon. Like so:

I dated (if you can call anything that happens in middle school, especially when i'm involved, dating) Melissa Li who moved to california and became friends with Haley Joel Osment who was in The Jungle Book II with John Goodman who was in Death Sentence with Kevin Bacon who was in My Dog Skip with Annie Cleveland, who i am also friends with. I had to use http://oracleofbacon.org/ to like haley joel osment to bacon, i haven't actually seen either of those movies.

Granted, this is sort of cheating, since friends aren't legitimate kevin bacon steps. If you want to be more exact, I can still link myself to kevin bacon, although not as easily to myself without using the same thing twice. This wouldn't be so difficult, but i'm not an actor, and so my filmography is extremely limited. However, i think it's safe to assume that (even though i don't exactly remember it) while at overstreet, i was in the school play with Josh Starr, who was in APAC's production of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe with Roberta Sachs, who was in a production of Our Town with Annie Cleveland who was in My Dog Skip with Kevin Bacon. 4 Steps sucka, probably fewer but i can't remember josh and annie being in the same play.

So i think it's obvious that i've been keeping myself busy. Crap, i forgot to do laundry, i'm going to go work on that so i have clean clothes to wear to church tomorrow.

Anno Ammoni 18

So, today was great. I have to say, there's a lot of pressure to have a happy birthday, and i think i pulled through this year. Birthday's can be a sad time sometimes if no one really knows about it, because it really high lights how lonely you are (my birthday in Cambridge was pretty lame, it came and went without consequence. I'm glad i make friends faster than i did then) I think facebook has done a lot for making people's birthdays happy. Before if you wanted people to know it was your birthday you had to subtlety work it into the conversation weeks before hand, but now everyone gets a little reminder about it. Even so, it came in a few conversations, which had something to do with going on a mission (so when are you turning 19? Today! bam). I got a few phone calls, from melissa and my mom and logan and the bishop. Our bishop is way cool, i was worried that i was going to have to give a talk in sacrament meeting, but nay. That actually marked the third time today when i got weird unexpected messages from the bishopric, the first was to have me join the mission prep class, taught by the bishops son, who seems like a cool guy. The second was in the middle of sacrament meeting, Brother Olsen passed me a note. And it's not like i was sitting next to him, i was conveniently on the second row, so after he finished announcements he held out a note to me so i had to get up and get it. Apparently i turned really red, it was weird. But that was just to play music while the elders quorum passed out roses to all the girls, and that was good. My roommates gave me some presents (a t-shirt and The Office season 1) which was really thoughtful, and my roommate told me that when he buys a new snow board he'll give me the old one. So great news there. That pretty much sold it for me, i'm going to survive living with this set up. If i could get him to stop smoking it would be glorious, but free snowboard more than compensates for that.

Lets see, there was also a fireside today. The speaker was great, and he reminded me a lot of President Monson, who is generally my favorite speaker in conference, and then i came back up and had a little peanut-butter and jelly party by my RA. So overall, a pretty awesome day. Definitely one of my better birthdays.

So on to what's happened in the past year. Well, one year, one day, and about 6 hours ago i was being interviewed to get my Eagle Scout. Since my last birthday i graduated high school, went to college, gained a lot of independence (much like America did, only without the war...or the tyranny), have again changed my mind about what i want to be when i 'grow up', have gotten dangerously close to being grown up, became an elder, said fare well to a great bunch of friends, said salut to a great bunch of new ones, become 2.6 times the uncle i was before, and all sorts of other adventures that made being 18 a pretty good year.

As Logan quoted from my favorite Jerry:
"Well, birthdays are merely symbolic of how another year has gone by and how little we've grown. No matter how desperate we are that someday a better self will emerge, with each flicker of the candles on the cake, we know it's not to be, that for the rest of our sad, wretched pathetic lives, this is who we are to the bitter end. Inevitably, irrevocably; happy birthday? No such thing."

For the most part this is true, i am basically the same person i was 1 year ago, i am about as passive, sarcastic, procrastinating, shy, neurotic, and removed as ever, but i'd like to think i've gotten a bit more mature, more responsible, a little smarter, and am starting to get over my crippling self doubt, that's a big plus. I've also made a conscious effort to be a little more sensitive. Between too much masked sarcasm and generally thoughtlessness, i've insulted a few more people than i would have wanted to. It's not that i don't care about other people, i just have a tendency not to think much about the fact that they might not see things as i do, and calling someone a heathen just won't fly with some people. Hm, this is one of the more honest self evaluations you'll find on this blog, generally i do stuff like this in my real journal, but i'm betting by now anyone who doesn't already know me pretty well will have stopped reading, and will have no idea, although i guess i'd better end it in a way that doesn't suggest the earlier comments...

So that's how i learned that altoids are not a suitable replacement for prescription pain medication. Sorry about that Spencer.

But yeah, all in all, good year, great birthday, and i look forward to what mambo number 19 will bring.

!XIX!

I think 19 might me one of the more insignificant birthdays, but its roman numberals have a nice symmetry. So far i've had a pretty stellar 15 minutes of birthday, and today i've gotten a few presents so that's cool. This morning i went a cashed the check from Grandparents Perkes, happily there's a zions bank open on saturday (in smiths! It was hard not to spend it all in smiths right then) Then i came back and found two presents in the mail, one from my parents (which wasn't a present at all...well i suppose it was, just not for me, but it comes with 30 dollars being added to my savings account, so that's rad) and one from Katie and Logan. Now i can go under cover and a mustached crime fighter using my Cat Gun.

Like So:


I also managed to finally photograph the elusive family of deer than roam around Utah campus:


Otherwise today was pretty uneventful. I kinda got another present in my roommate getting a cheap as free snowboard and boots that fit me and i imagine i'll be able to borrow from time to time. I have a couple complaints about my current roommate, but i can't deny that he is a super nice guy. Plus i found out last night that he knows Tai Chi, which is pretty cool.

Lets see...in other news, i may be getting a job soon. I had a job interview yesterday at Jamba Juice and it went really well. They probably don't like that i'll only be there for 3 months, but otherwise i think i'm a shoe-in. I actually had a really great day yesterday, i meant to make a blog about it. Orange Juice and 33% Recycled paper and other exciting adventures. I found out yesterday night that i've spent 60 dollars in the past month or so, that was a bit surprising, but with grandparent money, parent money, pain survey money (they're going to electrocute me and i'm going to answer questions about it for $15 an hour), plus the impending job i should be doing ok, which is good because in one month i'm going to have to shell out 50 bucks on Smash Brothers Brawl...it's kinda bad because i'll only have it for threeish months before the mission, i could just play Adam's...whatever. I think if i have a job when it comes out i'll buy it, because i should be finding myself with a little bit of pocket money.

So that's about all that's going on here. I'll probably write sunday night about this past year, but until then, enjoy the sunset picture i took on the way back from my job interview.

My Name is Jonas

That's not entirely true, but Guitar Hero III is entirely awesome, and My Name is Jonas happens to be a really fun song to play. Rock climbing is also entirely awesome, today i was bested by the rock wall, but it was still fun.

Guitar Hero and rock climbing, all my life is missing is a physics midterm...
Oh happy day! I have one tomorrow at 2, and as such, i think i should be hitting the proverbial sack.

Also, Happy Birthday to Amy, who is probably the nicest person in the world, maybe tied with my mom.

No joke people, i wish i were as nice as Amy, but as it turns out i am a bit sarcastic and critical. I need to get that in check before i do the whole mission thing, i don't think that'll fly so much out there.

So yeah, that's all. I hear there's supposed to be some mad snow storm coming in in the next couple days, i dunno if that'll actually happen, i've become a bit suspicious of the weather peopel of late because they're bad at telling me when to hope for snow. I'm going to sleep now.

~Iron Man

Happy Birthday Katie!

It is now officially Katie's birthday, even on her side of the country. Generally Katie does awesome little exposés on people's birthday (maybe exposés isn't the right word, but i just spent a solid couple minutes trying to figure out how to make an é, so it stays) but since it won't be the same with her doing it for herself and with me still a ways from feeling tired, i thing i might as well.

Katie for me has always been extremely thoughtful about how i turn out, which is always pretty awesome. She's bought me presents solely for the purpose of making me cooler (boxers, weights, a secret passageway, which i still think is awesome, even if it was a little thrown together), and i must admit that a good percentage of my wardrobe has been purchased only after receiving her ok. I remember Katie doing my artsy projects for me when i was in the earlier years, and for some reason, random bits of advice she's given me have stuck; my chucks are completely writing free, and i still remember that now that i'm in college i'm suppose to buy a bunch of dress shirts, especially pink ones, which i wasn't supposed to buy pre-college because it'd be weird, i only wear that brown tie with Khakis, which sadly meant that i couldn't wear it for about three years on account of not owning a pair of khakis, and the blue striped tie with dark pants. Actually come to think of it about half my ties came directly from katie. I think i terribly underrated Katie when we were still living together, which is probably true of most siblings. I think Katie might know me better than anyone else in my family, from treasure troves of blow pops to rearranging our rooms to make libraries to playing spies and making bombs, to hiking down to the local grocery store to load up on gum because we were going on a road trip and that was the only time we were allowed to chew gum. About 2/3's of my music comes directly from Katie; all things considered, Katie's had a pretty profound influence on my life, which i think has probably made me a much better person generally, or at least a much less socially awkward one.

It's been great to see Katie go from a somewhat struggling, shy to the point of sickness, skinny college student to a really very successful, healthy woman, wife, and soon to be mother, especially because it gives me a bit of hope for my life (minus the woman, wife and mother part o' course).

So Happy Birthday Katie. I have no doubt you'll be an amazing mother, and have by far most trendy kid(s) on the block.

From the Age of the Dinosaurs cars have run on Gasoline

I chose the topic because i liked it, only to realize that it is also nicely appropriate. Tonight my parents are driving down to the coast, taking both cars, and leaving me very thoroughly without transportation for a couple days.

Today i wish happy birthday to my sister Cami. She's my favorite sister between the ages of 25 and 27. I think once long ago i said in my little mini journal that cami was my favorite sister, but at one point i've said that about amy and katie too, now i think i've moved passed trying to decide which sister is my favorite, they're just all so cool.

Life of late has been crazy as usual. I've been working of course. The last two nights i pretty much closed by my self. that was something awful. Work volleyball tomorrow. that'll be fun.

Lets see, what else have i been up to? apparently nothing, that's disappointing. Well, that's all for me.

I thought i had done this last night, but apparently it didn't work. soanyways, I'm 18 now, birthday post!

Things that've changed:
I've changed a whole lot since last year. I can drive, i've had my first job, i've gotten all my eagle stuff done, I'm applied to college, i'm way more independent than i used to be. I've had to do a whole lot of things by myself that i usually wouldn't think i would have, like getting all my glasses and stuff yesterday. I'm a senior, which is fun. I don't hang out with Johnny as much as i did last year, what with the whole graduation thing he pulled, so my friends group is a bit different. Other things too, but nothing comes to mind.

Things that haven't changed:
I'm not crazy built like i'd hoped. I once again don't have a job, or any money. Relationship wise, things are depressingly similar, although i've decided not to do that again. yeah. I'm still rather shy and non confrontational. What else, i feel about the same personality wise, maybe a bit more confident, and a bit more sensitive, but only a bit. I'm no more expressive i don't think, i still stay pretty bottled up. that's all that i can think of.

Things that are going to change:
College. College, college college. Moving away from my parents, from my friends, and all that should be an adventure. I'm going to vote, register for the draft, graduate, etc. I'm going to get a job, i'm going to get a wii, i'm going to make a whole new set of friends, live almost completely independently, should be fun. Hopefully i'm going to finally manage to work out consistantly, i want to learn how to snowboard well enough to not break myself, and i'm going to leave the south, quite possibly forever.

So yeah, 17 was a good year overall, i'm thinking 18 might be one of the most exciting years of my life. We'll see how that goes. Later days.

18!

firstly, look at all this cool crap i can do now:

18 is the age minimum for for purchasing tobacco. It is also the voting age in many countries.

Eighteen is also the age in most countries at which a person may appear in a pornographic video, if pornography is legal at all, or express legal consent to sexual relations with another.

In addition, eighteen year-olds in the United States have the right to bear arms, own property, marry without parental consent, get an abortion, donate their body to science, obtain a passport, and serve on a jury.

Woohoo, now i can get married.

In other news, today is the rockinest birthday i've had all year. Last night i went to sleep at 10:30, so i'd wake up nice a rested. I slept in, and then my mom came in to tell me there were waffles to be eaten. I went to get my eye perscription renewed and my glasses corrected, and drove around with the windows down and solsbury hill as i sped around meadowbrook. It was a beautiful day. I watched some Wii fun. Then we hung out at my house for a while, which was nice, then went to kroger for a bit, then to Golf World, or rather, Promiseland. Promiseland was pretty fun, Naskarts was awesome, and minigolf and batting cages were only slightly sub par (you know, it always seems like sub par should be a good thing, but whatever, i digress) After that we drove over to spencers house. Me and Meghan almost had an accident because we were driving a tad fast, but we didn't, so that worked out ok. I got cookies and a sweet card, and all sorts of fun. If there's a better way to end my birthday than hanging out with my friends playing video games, i certainly don't know what it is...well i can think of somethings, like kiddy pools filled with olive oil and garlic, but what i did was fun.

So yeah, fun stuff. So far i've gotten $61 in birthday money, a chocolate orange, a pocket knife, a really nice card from my parents, a really cool card from caitlin, cookies, and all around fun times.

I wish everyday were as rockin as today has been.
Oh, and much thanks to all the happy birthdays, and for the sweet presents that i have and perhaps will recieve. They makes me happy.