Kevin Whited

Converting from Shy to Outgoing and fun

2009-08-17T00:12:00.003-06:00

"It was not easy and took A LOT of effort and awkward situations, but I did it!"

How I did it:

Last January I decided it was time to make a life change. One of my New Year's resolutions was to shake my shyness off completely. I had gone 18 years of my life being shy and I was sick of it! I hated being silent and awkward all the time. I hated to hide my true self and smile and blush. I hated people thinking that I was weird and socially awkward. I needed to change.

The first step of my process was to take a class that would force me to break out of my shell a little bit. So I enrolled in Acting for the next semester. I was scared at first but relieved to know that I was taking a step for the best.

I knew that it would take more than an acting class to cure my shyness so the next step was to look inward and find the cause of it. I interviewed several former shy people to see how they did it. They gave me simple steps to start out with and offered guidance to help me find the cause. After a month of searching, I finally found the cause. The cause was that I cared too much about what people thought about me and I had some confidence issues.

One of the things I started to do was to say "Hi" and "How are you?" to random strangers. I started out with just one person a day. While on my runs I would say hi to people that I passed. It soon progressed to greeting people on the bus and carrying on conversations while I rode to school.

The acting class was great and I learned some great things but I was still not quite out of my shell. In May I got a girlfriend and I met some of her friends and they didn't think I was too shy. A week later I had an opportunity to go to Idaho with her for two and a half weeks, meet all her friends and her mom.

I was nervous but decided to go anyway. While in Idaho I met her friends and they were very cool and outgoing. I was probably at the halfway point of shy and outgoing. People still saw me as quiet.

I returned home in Utah and decided that there was no going back to my shyness. It was time to change all the way. I went on a series of trips this summer that demanded continual conversation and outgoing behavior. I went on a retreat that lasted one week, there were 42 people and no one knew each other (which was a big relief). And there were continual deep discussions about racism and inequality. It was extremely emotional and it was almost like they forced you to be social. It was Inclusion Summit, I highly recommend it. By the end of the week, everyone was so close and it was so sad to leave. Since then I have still kept in touch with many of the people I met there.

After this trip I found a new love for dancing and I continue to dance. I also talked to more outgoing people to see how they transitioned to outgoing. I found that if I acted like someone was my best friend than it would be easier to talk to them.

I now feel like I am no longer shy and I can walk up to anyone and start a conversation (even girls of interest). I feel that the real problem was that I was afraid to show my true self and now that has changed. Never give up on your quest to become outgoing, it is so worth it in the end.

"A stranger is just a person you haven't met yet."

Lessons & tips:

Start Small. Make a goal to talk to one stranger a day, even if you only say hi.
Put yourself out there. When there is an opportunity to have fun with a group of people, take advantage of it.
Pretend like you are talking to your best friend when you approach a stranger. It will give you lots of things to talk about.
People love to talk about themselves. Ask them questions that will allow them to talk about themselves.
Find common ground. Ask what their interests are and find out about them.
Don't be afraid to speak your mind.

I am My Twin Brother's Father (Ethics of Cloning)

2008-10-25T12:55:00.005-06:00

In 1996, a so-called scientific breakthrough occurred, Dolly, a sheep, was born. By now, almost everyone has heard of this sheep, it was the first successful clone that used an adult cell. These scientists didn’t fully know the amount of impact this would cause in the scientific community. According to Ronald Bailey, scientists in Oregon claimed to have cloned monkeys and suggested the possibility of human cloning. Upon receive this interesting information, “President Clinton rushed to ban federal funding of human cloning research” (Bailey, par. 2). Bailey states that Clinton banned “federal funding” until the “National Bioethics Advisory Commission issues a report on the ethical implications of human cloning” (Bailey, par. 2). This was just the beginning of the endless debate.

To start, there are two distinct types of cloning that need to be addressed. The first, therapeutic cloning is a rather selfish method of cloning. Robert Sparrow explains, “Therapeutic cloning is hypothetical cloning of an individual for the purpose of procuring tissues from the clone, which will serve some therapeutic purpose in relation to the person cloned…typically involves the creation of a human embryo with the intention of later destroying it” (Sparrow, 2). This explanation can be demonstrated with an example: Imagine a doctor’s office where you go in and they take a sample of your DNA. They create a clone using your DNA, but alter it and take out the instructions to be conscious. The clone is conceived but instead of sending it to a loving home, they send it to a storage freezer located in the office. Now, this may sound a little gruesome and unethical, but for just a low storage fee per month you have the perfect insurance policy. If anything goes wrong with your organs throughout your life, with the exception of your brain, you have a perfect donor match, your clone. Balwant Rai addresses this example, “Human cloning would solve the problem of finding a transplant donor who is an acceptable organ or tissue match and would eliminate, or drastically reduce, the risk of transplant rejection by the host” (Rai, par. 6). This example may have possibly been a little extreme, but at least it gets the basic understanding of therapeutic cloning across.

The second and more humane method of cloning is called reproductive cloning. Sparrow also explains this very well: “Reproductive cloning aims at the creation of a whole person in order to satisfy the reproductive desires of some couple or individual” (Sparrow, 2). This method is significantly easier to understand. It is basically cloning to create an additional member of the family.

Cloning can be seen as ethical. Sparrow includes three scenarios where he feels cloning would indeed be ethical. The first scenario: “one or both members of a heterosexual couple are unable to make a genetic contribution to the genotype of a child because of their failure to produce or possess viable gametes” (Sparrow, 3). The second scenario, “where the inability to provide viable gametes results from a same sex couple, or perhaps even a single person, being unwilling to allow another person to make a genetic contribution to the process of reproduction” (Sparrow, 4). Finally, the last scenario, “a couple who have already conceived a child and who are unable to conceive another by any means. By cloning their existing child they could provide him/her with an identical sibling, that would be related to both his/ her parents” (Sparrow, 4). Some scenarios may be more ethical than others, but this is certain, all can be resolved in less controversial ways such as artificial insemination or adoption. Sparrow points out some interesting psychological effects the clone may have: “The ‘genetic relation’ between siblings, who share roughly half their DNA with each other, is the same as the relation between parents and their children” (Sparrow, 6). When considering cloning we have to think about the relationship of clones to siblings, siblings to siblings, and parents to children. Sparrow suggests that, “Even if I am related to my clone, my parents are more related in the appropriate way” (Sparrow, 8). He explains that if you had a clone of yourself, your parents should have the parental rights over it simply because it would be like having a late twin. In a way, being a parent over your clone would be like trying to be a parent over one of your siblings. Sparrow states that your parents could possibly even have a custody battle over your clone in the courts system. This could even bring up political issues because our supreme courts would have to create laws concerning clones in society. We see this today with seragent mothers. Luckily, He clears that possibility up by stating, “it is the intention to bring the child into the world that makes the donor the parent” (Sparrow, 8). Having a clone would be almost exactly like having a twin, and “no one has argued that twins are immoral” (Bailey, par. 7). According to Rai, “Human cloning and research on human cloning might make possible important advances in scientific knowledge” (Rai, par. 6).
Cloning can also be seen as unethical. It seems there are a lot more reasons for cloning to be unethical then for it to be ethical. The basic unit for cloning to be possible starts with the blastocyst, which is full of stem cells. Joe Leigh Simpson says, “If the blastocyst…is defined as a person, therapeutic cloning is not ethically considered acceptable” (Simpson, 1). Like cloning, stem cell research is a very controversial subject and a whole different paper could be written on it. Basically there are many people who believe blastocysts are in fact humans, so it limits the studies that scientists can do with them. In having a clone industry, “demand for babies with outstanding intelligence, strength, beauty etc., would create an industry of fetuses which would be sold to potential parents desiring such children” (Rai, par. 3). Rai also warns, “there will be the threat of a ‘black market’ for fetuses created from people with ‘positive’ characteristics” (Rai, par. 3). If the “black market” accepted babies then this could raise many more ethical issues concerning placing a price tag on a human being. Some people could abuse the child’s rights and make them slaves. Another interesting thing pointed out was the possibility of cloning Hitler or other historical figures: the “clone of a particularly exemplary individual, perhaps with some special capabilities and accomplishments, he or she may experience excessive pressure to reach the very high standards of ability and accomplishments of the [donor]” (Rai, par. 8). In a mixed family of clones and “normal” children, the clones may contribute to the feeling of “inadequacy among siblings who do not share a parents genome” (Rai, par. 9). The child would be a twin of one of the parents. Now, how do you think this could make the clone or the siblings feel? Bailey describes a more practical effect cloning could have: “if enough human beings were cloned, pathogens would likely adapt and begin to get the upper hand, causing widespread disease” (Bailey, par. 16). Diversity in DNA is key to our survival against disease. Bailey is saying that if we all had the same genes, diseases could easily become wide spread, even to the point of destroying a civilization. Since we all have different genes, diseases have a much harder time destroying us.

In conclusion, cloning has profound ethical issues surrounding it. Each side, whether you are arguing if it’s ethical or not, has very convincing viewpoints. It is very hard to even guess where this conversation is going to end up. There are many things to put into consideration on this topic. In the future there is a great possibility that cloning research will have federal funding, it just depends on if the benefits outweigh the consequences. Who knows, maybe we will clone Abraham Lincoln, Einstein, or even Jesus Christ.

Works Cited

Bailey, Ronald. "The twin paradox." Reason 29.1 (May 1997): 52. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. WSU Stuart Library, Ogden, UT. 23 Sep. 2008 .

Rai, Balwant, et al. "Human Clone: Who Is Related To Whom." Internet Journal of Law, Healthcare & Ethics 4.2 (23 Feb. 2007): 1-1. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. WSU Stuart Library, Ogden, UT. 23 Sep. 2008 .

Simpson, Joe Leigh. "Could cloning become permissible." Reproductive BioMedicine Online 14 (02 Feb. 2007): 125-129. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. WSU Stuart Library, Ogden, UT. 23 Sep. 2008 .

Sparrow, Robert. "CLONING, PARENTHOOD, AND GENETIC RELATEDNESS." Bioethics 20.6 (Nov. 2006): 308-318. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. WSU Stuart Library, Ogden, UT. 23 Sep. 2008 .

Catching Up on Things

2008-06-28T13:26:00.004-06:00

So it's been about 6 months since my last post, sorry guys but I have been kinda busy with school and work. A lot of things have happened from my last post, I will list some things that have happened since then...

I went on to solve the 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, & 5x5 Rubik's Cubes. Shortly after I solved the 5x5 I completely lost interest in all forms of Rubik's Cube puzzles.
I got fired from Focus and hired at a door to door job called WorldMark™.
After about a month at WorldMark I decided to quit and I went back to Focus for the 4th time!
I passed English 1010, Math 1050, Comunications 2010, & Psychology 1010
I Quit the OWATC
I got a job as a Knife Salesman for CUTCO™ and quit after the 3rd day.
I competed in a hotdog eating contest and lost.
I am a partner in a Web Development Business. (http://www.webfroerer.com/)
I applied for financial aid and was denied.
I went to a Marilyn Manson concert and survived! (he was banned for another 10 years in Utah for burning a Bible)
I got involved with SLNU
I was asked to three different Proms at three differnent schools and I went to all of them. (the girl paid!)
I played on the tennis team and quit after 3 weeks
I got back into running.
I lost 20 pounds
I did some community service
I graduated from Ogden High School
I went camping.
I got a 1990 Bronco II!!!
I almost have my license!!
I got a 30GB iPod!! I'm so glad.
I turn 18 next Wednesday (07/02/2008)
And finaly, I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MY LIFE!

There you have it, that is what happened since the last time I wrote. I will update it if i think of more things. I'd say its a lot of things.

So anyway, my sister's wedding reception is today and I tried to go to work but they wouldn't let me because there was too many people there.. so I guess I will go to her reception.

I will try to update you on things more often but sometimes I just feel like I am writing to nothingless because no one leaves comments. SO LEAVE ME SOME COMMENTS AND I WILL WRITE MORE OFTEN!!

Thanks,

Kevin Whited

The Need for Religion

2008-01-09T23:28:00.000-07:00

Today was an awesome day, I finally learned how to solve a rubix cube! Its cool but there is a lot of patterns that you have to memorize. It snowed a lot today so there was really nothing else to do.

I have an Ethnographic Essay due tomorrow for English so I worked on that. It is about Man's need for religion.

here it is:

Man’s Desperate Need for Religion

Why does man have a need for religion? This is the question that often pops into my head when I am sitting at church. I want to say right now, before I get into things, that I am not an Atheist. I am a Mormon and I go to church every week. At times I wonder why I’m there, I could be snowboarding or doing something important, but every week, I still go and sit for three hours listening to people talk about our religion. Why is religion so important that millions of people dedicate their time and money to teach it and live by it? Through this paper I hope we can find an answer.

First, I’m going to go over the many elements of religion. Most religions are based upon a specific event in history. For example, Jesus Christ is believed to be the messiah. Most religions believe in a higher power or God that governs all people. They also have set standards to live by or certain things you can and cannot do. They have a specific location to gather and worship on a specific day. Some religions can’t really even be considered religion, take Theravada Buddhism for example. Thomas A. Idinopulos writes, “Here is a something called "religion" which is not a religion. Although Theravada Buddhism is usually included in any book on the world's religions, it is not theistic, recognizes no sacred being or beings, and does not officially encourage worship of Buddha or any "higher being" (despite popular veneration of the Buddha-ideal). Theravada Buddhism appears to be a technique or program for human self-purification or self-fulfillment or self-negation.” So not all religions believe in a god.

Some people might wonder, is religion a scam? Did the government create it to control the people and get revenue? Why can’t it be proven? You might be thinking that whoever asks these types of questions must be paranoid. Austin Cline wrote, “One of the reasons for the existence of religion is that it's an effective means for society's powerful to control everyone else.” Diana Hardman states, “It is proven in statistics that without God as a basis for living that crime, sex, drugs, etc. has greatly increased.” So this shows that whether the Government created religion or not, religion does decrease a person’s motivation to commit crime. There is no solid evidence that there is a god or higher being. On the contrary, evolution has been proven on a microscopic level, InfoZine News says, “DNA sequencing and molecular biology have provided a wealth of information about evolutionary relationships among species.” So it is up to the person if they want to believe in a particular religion or not.

A major reason a person would want to be part of a religion is they want a feeling of belonging. Some people join a religion because they feel their life has no purpose and they want to put meaning to their life. Ohio State University Research states that there are 16 desires of humans that attract them to religion, “The desires are power, independence, curiosity, acceptance, order, saving, honor, idealism, social contact, family, status, vengeance, romance, eating, physical exercise, and tranquility.” Ohio State also stated, “people embrace religion because of a fear of death, as expressed in the saying ‘there are no atheists in foxholes’.”

There are many reasons why people need religion. As stated in the previous paragraph, people need a sense of belonging, direction, power and family. Imagine a world with no religion, what would it be like? What kinds of problems would there be? Without religion what is the purpose of our existence? It’s surely not to just live, reproduce and then die. There has to be something more meaningful to life. It’s up to you to decide if you want to have a long purposeful life, or to live in fear of dying. It’s an easy decision for me.

There you have it. Feedback is appreciated.

Subway "Feast"

2008-01-01T21:05:00.000-07:00

Sorry guys that I havent posted in a week, I try to update daily. I have just been busy with parties and post-christmas stuff. Anyway today is New Years and thought I had to work today, so I went down to to my work, on time, and I found out that they were closed today! I was so happy! When I got home I remembered that I had a big review paper due tomorrow for my English 1010 class. I went right to work and this is what I came up with:

"          I used to work at Subway and of course I tried all of their sandwiches. They just came out with a brand new sandwich called “The Feast” and I am going to review it. I was excited when I found out they came out with a new sandwich because they haven’t came out with any since I worked there one year ago. It only took me two months to try all of the Subway sandwiches while I worked there. From the delicious Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki to the revolting artificially flavored Seafood Sub. Every time they come out with a new sub I have to try it. It’s a weakness I have.

          When I got up to the counter I was trying to decide on what to put on the sandwich. I saw a display with a plastic version of the “Feast” in it. For reviewing purposes I made my sandwich look exactly like the display. The “Feast” is composed of five different types of meat: turkey, roast beef, ham, salami, and pepperoni. The toppings that I put on it included: American cheese, mayonnaise, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, pickles, and green peppers.

          After paying I sat down to eat the massive sandwich. I only got a six-inch “Feast” because I didn’t think I would survive the foot long. I could barely fit my mouth on it to get a bite. After I took the first bite I noticed the strong spicy pepperoni taste. It was kind of unpleasant but still better than most of their sandwiches. I don’t like eating a sandwich where there is more meat than vegetables. The meat was stacked at least an inch high. After eating it most people would feel guilty about how many calories they just ingested. If I were to rate the overall taste, I would give it a 7/10.

          Jeff Girod, also known as the Fast Food Guy, on www.pe.com stated, “Subway has hired Peter Griffin from ‘Family Guy’ as its official spokesman. It's a move I applaud, because anything endorsed by a cartoon character just tastes better.” I disagree with this statement because the Subway “Feast” is no better than a classic turkey sub and twice the price. If you wanted to order a Subway “Feast” you would have to pay a whopping $9.09 for a foot long or $5.59 for a six inch. Although, I admit, the “Feast” was quite filling and it did give me a lot of energy.

          The overall quality of the sandwich was great. At this particular Subway restaurant they have a new system that refrigerates the vegetables and meats in their containers. It is a great invention and works well. The manager at the store makes sure that all of the bread is freshly baked the same day. So this is the only Subway that I will eat at.

          As for the Nutrition of the seemingly unhealthy sandwich, www.thenewstribune.com says, “The site [subway.com] featured a ‘Nutrition Information’ button for every just about every sandwich – except the Feast.” I think that Subway doesn’t want to contradict their healthy appearance. I found a page at www.subway.com that shows all of the nutritional information for all of the toppings and meats so I am going to add them up to see how many calories are in a six inch “Feast” with Italian bread, American cheese, mayonnaise, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, pickles, and green peppers. With all of the toppings, bread, and meat, the total amount comes to a whopping 1210 calories and 48.5 grams of fat.

[UPDATE: Subway recently posted the amount of calories and fat in a Feast Sub, 590 calories and 25 grams of fat! I was way off! The info is at Nutrition Values(thanks Chris!)]

          After reviewing the “Feast” I have concluded to never eat this unhealthy sandwich again. It may taste good but it packs in a lot of unwanted calories. I can’t even imagine what would happen to you if you ate a foot long “Feast” every day. I’ll tell you one thing though; you might really end up looking just like Peter Griffin from the cartoon Family Guy."

Tell me what you think. I hope I get an A on it!

Walmart Intercom Pranks (VIDEO)

2007-12-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

Today I took back some of my clothes that i got for christmas because they were too preppy for me. I first went to Old Navy and got a $42 gift card. Then went to Mervyns and got a cool gangsta hoodie. We then went to wendy's to eat some dinner. I took this pic while I was there:

After that we went to walmart and I was really bored so I decided to do some walmart intercom pranks. My sister was the camera man, or should i say camera woman. it was a lot of fun.

here are the videos:

In this video it is kinda hard to hear. This is what I said:

"Attention all walmart customers, Santa is at customer service, thank you"

"Attention Shoppers, if your name starts with an A, please come to the customer service desk. thank you"

Here is another video that I took last August:

Yet another family party

2007-12-26T02:55:00.000-07:00

It is really going to suck once school starts again because I have made a habit of waking up around 11.00am every morning. Well today I woke up at 10.59am, is that progress?

I got up and grabbed my new phone that I got for Christmas, got dressed and went upstairs. I ate breakfast then got on the computer. At around 2.00pm we left to another party, this time it was at my aunt’s house. When we arrived my aunt put us to work. She told me to go shovel the driveway.

When I got out to the driveway it was pure ice. I have never had this hard of a time shoveling a driveway. I was relieved when I found the rock salt, but it didn't help much. About an hour and a half later I was semi-done. I decided to just give up. I walked into the house and sat down. Dave, my aunt’s husband, came home and tried to sell me one of his old computers.

I told him that I will think about it and continued to watch TV. At about 4.00pm some of my relatives arrived and we ate dinner. After dinner we decided to go see a movie. My dad, my aunt and my uncle were all debating what movie to watch. They argued about the golden compass. We finally agreed to just go rock climbing.

We all left the house and went down to the Solomon center in Ogden, Utah. When we got there we all signed a form to go rock climbing. We entered the building and put on the gear that we needed. Everyone over 16 years old was trained on how to belay. My cousin Matt was the first to go up. When he reached the top my dad let him down... FAST! I didn't see the whole thing but I look over and saw Matt it the ground full speed! It was scary for me so it must have been frightening for him. Luckily the ground was cushioned so he wasn't injured.

I was next to go and I was kind of scared because of what my dad just did. I went anyway. It was really difficult and my dad helped me on some parts by pulling on the rope. When I reached the top my dad let me down too slow and it hurt my nuts.

When I got to the bottom I thanked my dad for not killing me and I walked over and talked to my cousins. I went up once more after that then we left. I bought some cheese fries and walked to the car. My forearms hurt and I felt week.

When I got home I learned that my senile grandma was spending the night. It sucked. I was angry, so I went to bed.

Christmas!

2007-12-26T02:16:00.000-07:00

Today was one of the best days I have had all year, although it didn't start out like that.

I have four younger brothers and sisters and they were extremely excited for Christmas, so they woke me up at 8.30am and I had gone to bed at 3.00am. So I was in kind of a bad mood. I went upstairs after getting dressed and I sat on the couch and waited for my parents. The tree was surrounded by presents and at least 5 were mine.

My parents walked in and said it was time to open presents. Every year my family signs up for Sub for Santa because we don't have that much money. This year I made the mistake of putting clothes on the list of things i wanted. The first present I opened was a pair of Vans shoes, which I liked. The second present was a stupid little kids toy. The third present was a Rubik's cube. The fifth present was a thermal shirt. I was starting to get mad because the family that did my Christmas didn't know what I wanted. It was like they didn't look at the list. The sixth present was a 2XL hoodie, which I am a Large so then I just threw the present against the wall. The seventh present was a ugly shiny black coat with no hood and it was puffy. By this point I was pissed! I threw it against the wall also. The eighth and final present was from my sister and it was an AFI poster which I liked.

After opening presents and taking pictures, I decided to go back to bed, I felt like crap anyway. At 12.30pm my sister walked in and woke me up. I gave her the present I got her and she opened it. It was a shocking set, which had a shocking pen, calculator, and stapler. I gave her the present I got her fiancé and then she thanked me and went back to her house.

I once again got ready for the day and went upstairs. At 2.00pm we left to go to a family Christmas party at my cousin's house. On the way there, we picked up Piper and her fiancé Josh. On the way up to the party we talked and laughed. When we got to the party, we took off our shoes and walked in. We gave everyone a hug and talked for a while. Then it was time to eat. My senile grandma asked me to get her camera out of her car. I was nice so I went to look for her camera. After 5 minutes of searching I finally found it. When I came back all of the seats were taken and I couldn't sit next to my favorite cousins.

I was really mad at my grandma for making me get her camera and making me lose my seat next to my cousins. The dinner was huge and really tasty. I still had a good time eating even though I wasn't by my cousins. After eating me and my two cousins decided to take some pictures with each other. We had a lot of fun with that and here are some pictures that we took:

Shortly after taking these pictures we heard a crash outside. We looked to see and found that my uncle had accidentally backed into Kristy's car. Kristy didn't care because it was just a small dent so we let my uncle leave. After this we talked for a while and finally left.

On the way home we stopped at a gas station and got drinks. We left and about 20 minutes later my mom's car broke down. My dad tied a rope from the car door to my mom's car. It was really scary driving back home because it was really snowy. My mom sucked at driving the towed car so we had Josh drive. We were scared that we would get pulled over but luckily we didn't.

About an hour later we got home and we were glad. I had a really good Christmas day.

Christmas Eve

2007-12-25T02:23:00.000-07:00

I’m going to make this short because I’m tired today.

Today I slept in until 12.00pm. When I woke up I went upstairs and got on the computer and watched TV until 2.00pm. Then I decided to get ready.

After I was ready I told my dad to take me to get my check and go to the mall. He agreed only if I bought him some pretzel bites at the mall so I said yes. When we got to my work we found out that my boss was holding the checks. So I built up the courage to go talk to him. I was scheduled to work today but I wasn’t planning on going in.

When I approached my boss I lied and told him that I was going to a family Christmas party and I needed the night off and I also need my check. He said ok as long as I promised to come in and work on Wednesday, my day off. I agreed but thought to myself, "Heck no I'm not going to come in on Wednesday, its my day off!" I thanked my boss then I walked out to the car.

It was a blizzard outside and it made me really happy. I love the snow. We drove to the mall and I got some more Christmas presents for my friends, and I got a new pac-man hoodie! It’s pretty cool. Want to see it? Ok I will show it to you :)

As you can see I am really happy for Christmas (there is a fat pile of presents behind me)

Anyway, back to the mall. I decided never to go to the mall with my dad ever again because he is so annoying and he embarrasses the hell out of me. He talks to everyone and he even tried to give a girl my cell phone number! By the way, at the mall I reactivated my old phone and now I have cricket service again. I am so happy! Cricket gives you unlimited talk, text and picture messages for just $25/month. Cheap huh! That is why I went back to them. The only downfall with cricket is that its service sucks. You can’t go out of Ogden and still have service.

When we finally got home I wrapped most of the presents and went to my friend amber's house and gave her and her family presents. It was cool to see their faces and have them thank me. It made me feel special.

After this we decided to do some late-night sledding. It was about 8.30pm when we left and it was snowing hard. We brought with us a sled and a lid to a bucket to try and sled on. When we got up to the abandoned school we started to sled. In front of the school there is a huge hill. I was the first to go down and as I went down the fresh snow I got sprayed in the face by the snow I was hitting. Amber just got a new camera for Christmas so she was video taping.

Brennen and I decided to stand on the sled like a snowboard and go down. We fell a couple of times but it was fun. Then we went and did it down the stairs. That was fun too but we almost died. After that we made a huge ramp down the hill and we sled down that. Amber and her niece went to get hot chocolate. When they got back, Brennen and I had built the ramp up so that it was almost scary to go down.

My dad came to pick me up at 11.45pm and took me home. As we were driving my dad passed our street and I said. "What are you doing!?" and he said, "We are going to Midnight Christmas Mass." then I said, "No! We aren't catholic! We are Mormon!" then he said, "so what?"

The mass was really boring and awkward but I saw a couple of my friends. Well, that was my Christmas Eve.

Dinner and a movie?

2007-12-24T00:12:00.000-07:00

Today started out really crappy but it got a lot better. My Dad makes me go to church every Sunday, its torture. The worst thing about it is that it’s at 9.00am! So I dragged myself out of bed at 8.30am and got ready. Mormon church is 3 hours long! It sucks; sometimes I wish I belonged to a different church.

After church I came home and decided to hang out with my friend amber (surprisingly my dad actually let me go even though it was Sunday). Amber, her mom, her two neices, her nephew, her other niece and I went to go see "Sweeny Todd" in theatre. It was a really good although it was very very gruesome and it was a musical. After that we ate out at a Chinese restaurant, which was extremely delicious. Then we came home and ambers friends came over. We spent the rest of the day watching TV and talking.

At about 9.00pm we went to Dennys, there was not enough room in the truck so amber and I had to lie in the bed of the truck, it was torture because it was freezing. When we got to Dennys we got some free hot chocolate and some fries (interesting combination). Then we came home.

When we got home, we found out that ambers phone was missing; we still don’t know where it is.

Crap Work

2007-12-22T23:44:00.000-07:00

Today wasn't really that exciting, all I did was go to work and come home. Well I guess there is a couple interesting things about my day.

I work at Focus Communications as a "customer service representative" but really I am an inbound telemarketer, which means that I don’t call people, they call me. I was scheduled to work today from 9.00am to 5.00pm. Unfortunately I was up really late last night, so I was extremely tired this morning. Well I guess it was a good thing because I un-accidentally slept in this morning until 11.00am. I slowly woke up and got ready. I came upstairs and went on the computer for 15 minutes. Then I woke up my dad and told him I need a ride.
He slowly got up and got ready to take me to work. We were out the door at 11.45am. I arrived at work at 12.00pm, and of course, no one noticed that I was late. That is because focus management sucks and they never notice anything I do or do not do. I sat in my cubicle and got to "work".

The reason I put quotes around work is because I hardly do any. I really hope none of focus management reads this because they would probably fire me. Oh well, I’ll take a chance. Anyway about two months ago I figured out how to get past the Internet block on the computers at Focus. I told everyone about it, and now everyone that is employed with focus knows how to get onto Myspace and other sites.

So back to today, I took a couple of calls and after a while I was already sick of talking to those irate customers. So I did what I usually do and I just put the customers on hold until they hung up or I would transfer them to somebody else without even talking to them or I would just simply hang up.

Part of the reason I wasn’t willing to do my job was I recently found out about online confession sites. They are the new black. It’s so fun to read other people's twisted confessions and it makes you feel better about yourself.

Finally, it was 5.00pm and it was time to leave. I used focus' system to call my house to tell my dad to pick me up, but no one answered! I called my mom but she didn’t answer. Then I started calling my friends but they were all busy. So I decided to start walking to the bus stop because that was my only choice. When I got to the bus stop I called my mom once more and my dad answered and said he was on his way from Wal-Mart to pick me up. I told him to pick me up on the corner of 25th and Washington, which is where most hookers try to get picked up.

Luckily, I didn’t see any hookers, when my dad pulled up I jokingly said, "Are you looking for a good time?" and my dad said, "yes, get in!" so I did. I know, I know it sounds dirty but my dad and I joke like that all the time.

We drove home and I rested for the rest of the day. I tried to find some friends to hang out with but I had no luck so I decided I was bored enough to write this blog...
I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it!
Click on some links and earn me money!
Thanks!

Awkward Family Christmas Party (Pics!)

2007-12-22T01:17:00.000-07:00

I kind of feel like I am wasting my Christmas break because I don't feel like I have done much. I probably have done more than most people but I have just been sleeping in until 11am every morning and that pretty much wastes half my day.

Well today I woke up around 11.30am and took a shower. Then I came upstairs, ate breakfast and got on the computer. I did various pointless and boring things all day until about 6.00pm. Today was the annual family Christmas party in Provo, Utah. My whole family gathers, except for my Lutheran Aunt. She doesn't play well with her Mormon relatives.

We got off to a late start after rushing to the store to get some last minute presents to exchange. We all piled in to the Dodge Spirit, which only holds six people and we had seven, and headed off to pick up my sister and her fiancé. When we got to their house we found out that her fiancé Josh was "sick"(he didn't want to go to the family party). Piper got in the car and we had to hold two little kids on our laps.

After an hour of driving we surprisingly got to the party at 6.55pm, five minutes early, which never happens, not even in a parallel universe. Anyway, we were kind of scared because no one was there yet and we thought we came on the wrong day. We walked up to the house and noticed that we were the second ones to get there. We walked into the house and were greeted by my Mexican cousins and my aunt Kelly. We sat and ate refreshments while everyone started to show up. I was very disappointed when I found out my favorite cousins couldn't make it. It almost made me wish that I stayed home. The refreshments were extremely good; they had cherry and blueberry shortcakes, chips, seven-layer salsa, olives, beef stick, crackers, a cheese ball, and plenty of soda. After eating and talking to my relatives for 20 minutes, I decided to go downstairs where all of my younger cousins were.

On the way down I ran into my senile grandma, she cant think right at all. Like she'll see something and then she'll say, "oh isn't that beautiful?" and it'll be a piece of paper! It gets really annoying after a while. I gave her a quick hug as I walked by and continued down the stairs.I got to the bottom of the stairs and walked into a room that was an entertainment room, it had a TV, computer, Atari, workout set, and various instruments of exercise. I headed straight for Atari because it had been at least eight years since I last played it. I dug through the games and found Super Mario Brothers. I was happy and I played the game for about 30 minutes. After that it was time to exchange gifts with the family.

We all sat in a circle and there were at least 15 people in the room. First my aunt had us all share a talent or a joke. One of the families got up and sang "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" with a red ball on each their noses. Next we went around in a circle and shred jokes. My cousin was tempted to share these two dead baby jokes:

"Q: How do you make a dead baby float?
A: With two scoops of ice cream and one scoop of dead baby.
Q: What is the difference between a Corvette and a pile of dead babies?
A: I don’t have a Corvette in my garage"

But fortunately she didn’t share the jokes. When it was my turn, I shared a very lengthy and pointless joke called "The Pink House" and it goes something like this:

"There's these three men in a van and it breaks down. So one of them says hey I
think there's a house right up there I’m going to check it out so as he’s
walking up to the house he notices that the fence is pink so he reaches the
fence and the grass is pink. He walks up the green driveway and goes on the pink
porch then he reaches for the pink doorknob on the pink door. Hello he yelled
down the pink hallway no answer so he stepped in the pink house and look around
and everything was pink the floors the walls and the ceiling so he goes up the
pink stairs and into a pink room lies down on a pink bed and goes to sleep. A
while later one guy is wondering what’s taking the other so long so he walks up
to the pink fence down the pink drive way through the pink door up the pink
stairs into a different pink bedroom and lies on a pink bed and goes to sleep.
The third guy decides to see what the others are up to so he goes to the pink
fence in the pink house then he goes up the pink stairs into his own pink bed.
The first guy wakes up and goes into the pink bathroom and takes a shower in the
pink tub grabs a pink towel puts on his clothes and goes to the pink kitchen and
grabs a pink bowl a pink spoon pink milk and some frosted flakes. He pours the
pink frosted flakes, eats it and goes back to the van. Second guy wakes up takes
a pink shower gets a pink towel gets dressed goes to the kitchen pours himself
some frosted flakes and leaves the pink house and goes to the van the third guy
wakes up and takes a pink shower grabs a pink towel gets dressed goes to the
pink kitchen and grabs the box of cheerios and pours himself a pink bowl eats it
and goes back to the van. What’s the moral of the story? 2/3 people prefer
frosted flakes over cheerios."

After I told the joke everyone kind of got mad at how much time I wasted. It was funny. After the joke telling we exchanged gifts. My family got a game called sorry. And my grandpa gave us some food for storage. My mom uttered the comment, "all grandpa got us was a box of disappointment!" she was angry because my grandpa has half a million dollars in his bank and all he got us was some dry food. Later, my uncle John told my grandpa that she made that comment so it was really awkward for the rest of the night. I still gave him a hug because I want him to help pay for my LDS mission. The party was over and everyone headed home. I gave all my relatives a hug (except for my senile grandma) and we left.

I thought it was a lot of fun to see my cousins again and I can’t wait to see them on Christmas.

My Flash Creations

2007-12-21T16:39:00.001-07:00

I have been doing flash for a while now and I want to show you some of my creations.

Windows 3.1 BETA:

Explosion Test:

Birthday E-Card for my sister:

Bomb:

Random Flash:

Christmas Shopping and the Chinese

2007-12-21T01:07:00.000-07:00

Since it's Christmas break, I have been sleeping in a lot. Partly because I have not slept in since Thanksgiving break because of work, school, and church. I have to wake up at 6.40am every morning for school, on Saturday I have work at 9.00am and on Sunday I have to go to church at 9.00am. So this week I have been getting my well-deserved sleep.

Ok, enough of that, lets get to the point. So, I’m scheduled to work from 4.00pm to 9.00pm on Thursdays at my work. I usually get there around 5.15pm because I’m lazy and my work doesn't even notice anyway. They are so laid back there that they don't even know that I work there! Today I got there around 5.17pm and got on the phone. I wanted to go to the mall at 7.00pm so I texted all my friends that were girls because they are the best to hang out with. After texting about 15 girls, I had no luck. It was sad, I mean usually all the girls want to hang out with me, but tonight they were too scared to drive because of the major snowstorm that was going on. Finally, I went to my last resort, Robert. He is my good friend that works at my job but he was suspended for improperly placing someone on hold. Which was ridiculous because I hang up on customers on a daily basis.

So I texted Robert, and sure enough, he said he would take me to the mall. I was happy because I was already getting tired of working. But it was kind of fun because I was messing around taking Spanish calls and I don't even know Spanish. Anyway, Robert was there around 7.12pm, and I snuck out of my cubicle and went out to the SUV.

We arrived at the mall after doing doughnuts in the parking lot for a while. I had $100 in my pocket waiting to be spent. I told Robert and his friend that I would treat them for dinner as a Christmas present because they gave me a ride to the mall. I had a list of about ten people to get presents for and I began to aimlessly wonder in and out of stores trying to find presents for my friends. About 1.5 hours later, I was about 3/4 done with the list when I bumped into Aisha and Lea. I gave them a hug and asked them if they wanted to exchange gifts. They agreed and we departed. Another hour went by and I was finally done.

We went to the Food Court and ordered up some Chinese food. It was the nastiest crap I have ever eaten and I still feel sick from eating it. The nice oriental man offered us some free egg rolls. We took them and took one bite and spat it out. The only thing that was good at that place was the American beverages. Which leads me to another point.

I honestly believe that the Chinese are trying to kill off Americans. Why? You ask? Because haven’t you seen the news lately? They are putting lead paint all over our children’s toys! They even put GHB (drug commonly used for date-rape and can cause death) in one of the toys. And whenever I go to a Chinese Restaurant it tastes worse every time!

Ok, back to the story. After we ate, we went and did some more doughnuts in the parking lot and I got dropped off at my house. When my dad came home he checked my breath to see if I had been smoking. Then he made me gather up all of my receipts to make sure I didn't buy any weed with it. I was missing one receipt so he freaked out about that too. Then I wrote this blog and I’m done for the night. .

Shiny Toy Guns Concert

2007-12-19T13:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was not just a normal Tuesday. For one, it was the last day of school before the Christmas break, and second, it was the first ever x96 night before x-mas concert featuring Shiny Toy Guns. This is how the day went.

I woke up to the sound of my alarm at 6.25am I a stood up and walked over to my alarm and reset it like I usually do, to 6.40am. Then I walked to my bed and slept for 15 minutes. Once again, the alarm went off at 6.40am so I knew I had to wake up. I got ready for the day, took my medication (for the adida virus that I acquired from my little brother), and walked up the stairs. Feeling the hunger pain in my stomach, I made some cereal (fruity pebbles), sat down, and began to eat. After satisfying my needs I walked into the bathroom and washed my hair. We have a small bathroom and my dad is always in front of the mirror shaving, so it is kind of awkward being bent over the tub washing my hair while my dad is standing up shaving right behind me. After washing my hair, I dry it with a towel until it is only slightly damp, then I put a beanie on because I have long hair and if I don’t put the beanie on, my hair gets puffy.

Now you at least have a background on how my day starts. Well I usually leave for the bus at 7.14am but today I left at 7.16am, two minutes late. My bus stop is about three blocks away. Well I thought that I would be able to make it on time if I walked a little bit faster but of course it didn’t work out. I got about halfway there when I looked behind me and saw the bus coming up the hill. I said, "oh sh*t" and began to booke it as fast as I could up the steep hill. My legs were wobbly and the cold air penetrated the back of my throat. I finally got to the bus stop and luckily the bus driver saw me and was kind enough to wait.

I stepped on the bus and sat down breathing heavily in pain. We got to school at about 7.29am and I walked in and walked up the stairs to the junior rotunda where my friends were waiting. I conversed with them until the bell rang and I went to my first class, English 1010. Then I went to my second class, adv weight lifting, then I went to the Christmas assembly, then I went to math 1010. Then I decided to go home because my next two classes were seminary and critical workplace skills. I got home and sat around until 6.00pm. I was scheduled to work but i decided to do a risky no call no show because I really wanted to see the Shiny Toy Guns.

My neighbor/best friend called and told me to come over because we were leaving to go to the shiny toy guns concert in 30 minutes. I arrived at her house with my ticket in hand and chatted with her for a while. Her friends Vella and Brittany were coming with us. Brittany was the driver. At 6.45am we were on our way. Brittany's truck was only a 3 seater. So we had to make some awkward seating arrangements. Amber was pretty much groping Brittany the whole way while being violated by the joystick. I sat next to amber and I had to put my arm around her. Vella was seated comfortably by the passenger door next to me.

We were about a quarter of the way to the great Saltair when we noticed that Brittany forgot to turn on her headlights. She quickly turned them on and looked around for any cops. This is when we found out that Brittany didn’t have her license yet. We continued on our way. We clumsily missed two exits and we had to turn around and get on the right exit. Then we got on the exit to the Saltair. There was a line of about 500 cars waiting to get to the parking lot. We waited for about 20 minutes and finally we were in. Brittany parked the car and we walked to the Saltair doors.

There was a man at the doors that told me to take everything out of my pockets. I did so and I tried to hide the muscle relaxer under a ten-dollar bill. Luckily, he didn’t see the pill and told me I could go in. I walked in and went into the bathroom where about 20 gay men were fixing their hair in the mirrors. I did my business and walked out. I met back up with my friends and we walked toward the stage. We had already missed the first band, Victim Effect. The second band called I Hate Kate was playing. I knew a couple of their songs so I sang along. We all wanted to get closer to the stage so I lead the way up through the tightly packed crowd towards the stage. At one point I was some how separated from them and I never did find them again until the end of the concert.

I just thought to myself, "oh well". And I kept dancing. Soon the third band came on called "DataRock", I hadn’t heard them before and I thought it was going to be some awesome hardcore techno, but it wasn’t. It was more like soft gay techno. I can’t explain it, but they weren’t that great. On a couple of their songs, me and three other guys would push open a big gap in the crowd and started a mosh pit. Mosh pits are the greatest things in the world. They are so fun, I'll admit that they do kind of look scary when you are watching, but once you are in them, you don’t get hurt. No one punches you in the face, you just get pushed around. One thing about mosh pits is that you get super exhausted really fast, but you keep on going. After about 15 minutes of pure moshing I could barely stand up. I decided it was time to stop. (I think the best form of weight loss would be to go in a mosh pit everyday, so the next time you are at a concert, push a fat person into a mosh pit)

As most of you know, it gets really hot at a concert, and I have a major sweating problem because I used to be overweight. So you can imagine how much I was sweating then. Sweat soaked my shirt and it looked like I just dunked my head in a bucket of grease. It was nasty. But I didn’t really care because it was a concert. Soon after that, DataRock was done. So I decided to go looking around for my friends that I lost. I squirmed my way out of the crowd and walked around the Saltair searching for my friends. After 10 minutes, I gave up; they were nowhere to be seen. I went back into the crowd and aggressively pushed my way until I was in the ideal spot, front and center. Well, more like middle and center.

I waited for 10 minutes and finally Shiny Toy Guns came on! It was the moment we had all been waiting for. They came out of the fog and started to play. I felt a rush of adrenaline and I fought my way into a mosh pit. I was pushed around and someone pushed me so hard that I got whiplash. I decided to leave the mosh pit and I continued to dance and watch Shiny Toy Guns play. They played all of their really good songs that I like and they even did an encore.

At the end of the night I was completely beat. That concert kicked the shit out of me. I was sore everywhere. I made my way out of the building and waited by a tree. Soon Vella and her friend Jordan found me. We waited until Amber and Brittany came out, then we headed to the truck. We all talked about how awesome the concert was. When we got seated in the truck, I just fell right to sleep. We stopped at a gas station on the way back and I was so thirsty that I bought a 1 liter bottle of grapefruit juice and two 6-packs of water bottles. When we got back into the truck I consumed the muscle relaxer and went to sleep again.

I was awakened by Brittany when we arrived at my house. I stepped out and thanked them for a great time. I walked up the driveway and into the house. I was too exhausted to even take a shower so I went and crashed on my bed. It was a great night to start off the Christmas break.