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."

Please tell me why

Today i saw a commercial for a compilation album of 90's alternative rock. When did i get so old?

I will always stop the Microwave at 1 second.

That was pretty much the best part of my day. That might sound a little depressing, but the first bit of peanut butter is fairly amazing.

Other than that my day was spent with class, physics homework, and a surprising amount of waiting on hold...oh and some scrabble. You can't forget the scrabble. Anyway, tomorrow looks to be a long but eventful day. So i'm going to go to sleep somewhat soon.

In that category of things instead of which i should be sleeping:

I'm not quite sure if the grammar works out the way i want it to in the title, but you get the gist.

My roommate is still trudging along through his homework, having slept the majority of the evening. I figured i would take the opportunity to update everyone one the events of my life, because it is oh so fascinating.

I hit a snag a couple days ago in Operation Crowded Bear, formerly called Operation something about my roommate. As it turns out, there isn't a single open room anywhere on campus. I find this somewhat impossible to believe, so i'm hoping the system is just wigging out since they just put it back on, but we'll see. I've taken some flack for trying to get rid of my roommate, and i've put quite a bit of thought into it. I don't want to live alone, and having a roommate i was friends with and could talk to would be awesome, but yeah, i dunno, between the smoking and the language barrier and the impressive propensity for getting very drunk despite not have much tolerance and suffering from impressive hangovers, i'm not sure this roommate is entirely for me. Technically his drinking is legal, but having a roommate sleeping and moaning all day is just awkward, but whatevs, we'll see how it unfolds. I could always look around for some room to switch to, but i like my room, and my suitemates for the most part, and it feels all homely now...maybe Chung will happen to find some friend he wants to move in with. I'm 3/3 so far with that happening.


Other than that life has been fairly regular. James and/or Tim popped my inner tube-sled. It was only a matter of time before that happened, so it's good that they did it, cus now they're responsible for the next sled. Tuesday i went a drew the plan for a house. That was a lot more work than i thought it was. And then my partner bailed on me for our presentation today, so i didn't really have anything, but happily i had taken a picture of it before hand, so i could at least show that i'd done it, and my professor was pretty understanding about the whole thing, at least for me, i don't think it'll go well for my partner but whatever...

I've been making good use of my camera, it's continued to be wicked snowy up here, so the picture taking possibilities have abounded. There've also been some deer that have taken up residence in Chapel Glenn and the surrounding area, and earlier today there were five of them just chilling down there but my camera chose that moment to run out of batteries. I love my camera lots and lots, but it sure could do with a battery meter, that was kinda bad planning there Canon. Due to the lack of deer, i'll provide this picture as the constellation prize. I realize that the word is conciliation, but it's one of those things that has become so deeply ingrained* in my thinking that it's very difficult not to say it or in this case type it. Like Zooology and pronounciation.



I like that picture, it makes me think of Big Fish.

well that's all from here. One of these days something of consequence will happen, but i'll be so wrapped up in my exciting life that i'll put off writing about it for weeks. Until that day comes, expect meaningless updates fairly regularly.

Oh, and mad thanks to caitlin for the wicked awesome presents i got. Now i am well equipped to start or stop small fires. Hoorah.

~Ammon

"What kind of a culture would value a twinkie."

People always think they're so clever when they pose the question, "If God foresees our actions, how can we have free will?" That question is well over 2000 years old, and, as it turns out, Boethius proposed a pretty good answer to it some 1500 years ago, which, even then, was not all that new. It's interesting how he forms his argument, since he writes it as though he is an absolute skeptic bordering blasphemy, and has 'Philosophy' rebut his argument, but he was obviously writing both. Shame he was executed for treason, he was a righteous dude, silly early Christian Empires*...

Anyway, other than reading early medieval philosophy, my day has been pretty usual. I bought all my books today, that was good, and didn't end up costing as much as i had feared. Also some of these books i can see myself giving back, since i don't think i'll have that much use for "Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy - Fifth Edition" once i'm done with this, who knows though, i like books, and the money i'd get back for them is barely worth it. I've gotten a pretty consistent gym schedule now, which is good. Working out makes me feel like i've accomplished something, even if i spend the rest of the day doing nothing of consequence. I'm pretty set in the routine of college now, and it feels good. It's been wicked cold lately, and that also feels good. I think a decade and a half in mississippi has made winter my favorite season. Go figure.

I had my first real material culture class yesterday, and that was really cool, i think i'm going to enjoy that class a lot. Just another drop in the bucket of deciding to get out of being a math major. I like math a lot, but shy of teaching, i can't see myself enjoying a math profession. People and Animals are much more interesting. So hooray for 60 credit hours and a 4 year scholarship, giving me pretty remarkable freedom. Speaking of remarkable freedom, i looked over my finances yesterday and it looks like there's a good chance that my entire second semester is payed for and i'll have money to spare. That would be glorious. I still need to find a job, but not having to worry about giving The U any more money would be pretty great.

My dad has now met Oprah. He met the president some time ago, and these aren't like how you might meet some celebrity in California, these were meetings, so huzzhah for my dad. Apparently he's in the audience for tomorrows Oprah, so i guess i'm going to watch a full episode for the first, and possibly the last, time ever.

Also, Operation New/No Roommate officially begins tomorrow. Chung's a nice enough guy, but there are a few little things that culminate in big things, amoung them smoking. I worked very hard to find three roommates that didn't smoke. They may do a lot of things of questionable legality, but none of them make my room smell bad, so yeah. Starting tomorrow we're allowed to make room changes so i'm going to go a looking for an open room. I'd prefer not to move out of my room, so we'll see. I could always just talk to Chung i suppose. Like that'll happen. If i can chase off 3 roommates without even meaning to, just think of what i could achieve when i actually put some effort into it.

Mmm, the sweet scent of my room smelling like cigarettes...yeah, something's definitely going to have to change here. At least i have the excuse of my mom not wanting me rooming with someone who smokes. She was surprisingly adamant about that.

Well that's about all that's been going on out here. Stay tuned for important announcements.

~Zak without a C

Oh, it's become almost traditional for me to have a picture somewhere in each entry, so here's one i took when it was snowing really hard between classes.



*I originally said it was the catholic church that executed him when, as it turns out, it was actually theoderic, king of the Ostrogoths who was, at the time, ruling Italy. He was an Arian (not an Aryan) Christian, which was a branch which had some conflict with the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches due to their rejection of the Trinity.

Anyway, all this is to say it was perhaps a bit foolish of me to assume that anyone executed for religious reasons was executed by the Catholic Church. I apologize to all my Catholic readers...

The weather outside is frightful...frightfully awesome!

I have an hour or so between classes and it's snowing too hard to trek back up to the dorms, so i'm holed out at the union waiting until it calms down a bit. I looked out the window after Linear Algebra and it was just completely white outside, and i'm not really dressed for blizzards today, but it seems to be slowing down a bit, so that's good. I really loved walking through heavy snow though, I was listening to Muse, which made the whole experience very intense. I think i'm going to like this semester a lot more than the last. I'm 3 more hours, but my classes are all either easier or a lot more enjoyable (not both though) so it should be a fun year. Also all my classes are together so i just hang out down on campus and then go to the gym and then i'm done, it's much nicer than three classes, each with an hour in between during which i couldn't really do anything.

As it turns out Brian Cory is also in my ward, the coincidences just keep piling up.

I bought all my books yesterday, which set me back 200 dollars. That was sad, but it had to be done, and i think i have some scholarship money that took care of it. Luckily i still have 2 classes that i don't need books for, otherwise it would have probably been 300 at least. I think college textbooks are one of the biggest scams ever, the idea that every year you need a new edition for physics is completely ridiculous, physics just doesn't change that fast. But i'm set because my teacher puts all the questions online and Cami has an older version.

I'm sort of just writing to pass the time, dang it's snowing hard again, or maybe it's just windy. It's really the wind i don't like, i can handle snow and cold, but the wind is just too much. Anyway, i think i'll go eat lunch and maybe swing over to the library to borrow Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, books i've been wanting to read lately for some reason. Oh yeah, also this semester i only have one class that assigns real homework, other than that it's just reading, research, and practice work, so there's significantly more free time, which is sweet.

Mynd you, møøse bites Kan be pretty nasti...

Today i went skiing for the first time, granted it was cross country skiing, but it still counts.

It's been snowing a whole lot in Utah, and the powder was beautiful. Also it was around 4 feet deep, so that was cool.

 

I did pretty well, but whenever we found big hills we were compelled to go down them, and then i fell.

 

This is the waterfall that was our destination, it was pretty much buried in snow, but it still looked cool. I thought that it was the same hike as Cami went on, but i was incorrect.

 

This is the tunnel where waterfalls live.

 

The way back down was a lot of fun, and it felt almost like real skiing, and i only fell twice, when i couldn't turn sharply enough, which is sort of symptomatic of cross country skis. But yeah, really awesome time, and it mostly made up for how boring last night was, but whatever, i need days to hang out and do very little, otherwise i end up feeling a little over stimulated and wanting days to just sit around and do very little.

Now that the feeling has returned to my fingers and toes, i'm wondering what to do tonight. I decided that i'd rather not go to a wedding reception of someone i only sort of know, since i didn't really have anything to do at Katie's wedding reception, and that was with lots of people i knew.

When i get married, my wedding reception is going to have a moon jump. Yeah. It'll be awesome.

Oh, we saw a moose on the way down, ergo the title, but somehow it didn't get uploaded with the others. Anyway, here's the moose, and that's all from me.

~Svenge