06/30/09 Wow... That's kind of wierd...

So, this is painfully overdue, but I'm not quite sure I'll do a huge recap. A little at a time, perhaps? Anyway, I was working on archiving my old blog posts, and I noticed a couple things. First, I could easily have been described as annoying on several occasions, second, I had a knack for forecasting the future, and thirdly, Andrew went into the MTC on the anniversary of my first post on blogger. (By the way, the title of said post was 'The beginning of the end'. Are we worried? Nah, of course not...)

So yeah, I seem to have a phobia that everything I know is going to be destroyed. When I do something on the computer, I almost always want to have half a dozen backups. When I do anything on paper, I almost always want to put a copy on the computer. You know, it's a good thing I'm good at getting rid of junk, because otherwise, this habit of mine could be dangerous.

Anyway, today's fear is that my blog will die and that I need to preserve a record somewhere so I can count it as an informal journal like I have been for the last few years. Archives... Yay!

... I just noticed something else. Remember that time when I kept watching Chronicles of Narnia everyschoolday for an entire year? I think I posted more on my blog back then... Strange.

I've got plenty to talk about, and yet I don't really feel like spending time doing it. That must be irritating. This whole using a blog for a journal thing is kind of falling short of Church standards. Luckily, I have a personal journal that I neglect, too. Plus, letters that I've written to Andrew. Between the three of them, I might just have something. Sorry, unborn generations, you'll get no information from me. I lived, I died. Nothing ever happened.

I dunno. What /do/ I want to do? Sleep? No. Read? Alright, yes- but what? I should really do something productive, or at least write something... This whole /lazy/ thing just can't last. Ooh! Mom bought strawberries! So, I'll just have some strawberries and do something amazing! I'll be back, guys! It's strawberry time!

05/07/09 Our computer needeth cleaning. It lacketh in speed...

So, anti-climatic as it is, it would seem like ALEKS is acting up again. But, this time it's not its fault. The computer has too much stuff on it, making it slow, making ALEKS unhappy. Not to mention it's starting to get on the old side. But anyway, things are going okay. Not the best, but manageable. Plus, I've very close to finishing the next few generations in a card game I'm working on. And that is good, because it's driving me insane.

I need to get information. A lot of it, actually. I have to look up some stuff for scouts, I have to gather info for another psychology essay, and I have to see if there's any hope of my curse being lifted. Although, by this time, I'm really not excited about the MTC night activity anymore. Now it's just this pressing thing in the back of my head of something that I /might/ have to worry about later. I like Pippin's (no idea if I spelled that right) quote: I don't want to be in a battle, but waiting on the edge of one I can't escape is even worse.

You'd think I'd be used to it... I have to think about stuff. '09 is going by too fast. Almost half over and most of my big plans haven't moved yet. I guess I should go work on that... See ya.

05/01/09 Well, isn't this interesting?

'The Lord works in mysterious ways' is right. I just spent the last month getting more and more frustrated over this computer's bad habit of crashing while I worked on ALEKS, especially since it's been taking a turn for the worse. As you could imagine, frustration easily turns to anger, which is a bit of a pain. But now, after spending some time wiping the emotional slate of stress and anger, I find myself a little amused. I struggled, fought, and got angry about the problem for a month. And yet, today, not five minutes after I decided not to be angry, I felt the simple prompting to try running the online course on a different browser. And, of course, it turned out to be the one thing that fixed it. Now really, could the prompting have come a little sooner? Sure, probably. But it wouldn't have meant as much. It came only after I decided not to let emotions get in the way of the big picture. One of those patience things, you know?

So, the problem now is that for a month, I was unable to do the work I needed to. Twenty days of ALEKS, now that I only have a couple days left to work on them... It's still a pretty heavy chance that I'll pull it off, and yet, I feel pretty good about it. If nothing else, I'll have plenty of time to work on it next month, seeing as I have no more schoolwork to work on except ALEKS. I just hope things keep looking up.

Well, if nothing else, the fact that I posted twice in one day shows that I'm pretty happy about things. I think I'll take a break from ALEKS for a bit. For some reason, I have a great desire to work in the family room... See ya!

05/01/09 It's not supposed to be May yet...

Life is going by too quickly. I should shoot it.

I've got stuff to do, the stuff I do get around to is either taken for granted or disregarded altogether, and I feel like sticking my fist through a wall. I won't, because that would be bad. But I want to. I need to meditate. I haven't done it in weeks. And yet, the little voice in the back of my head keeps telling me that the world doesn't deserve to see me happy. It should know that I don't like it. And then, right on cue, there's that happy, little, still-small voice that pops up and reminds me that I should always be happy and that all this is beneficial in the long run. Yeah, it's meaningless to have the ability to reign in your emotions if you don't choose to, but I've almost been enjoying being mad at life. There /are/ a couple valid reasons for me feeling a little irritated. Oh well, fine. I'll meditate, I'll probably even light the strawberry candle. I'll be... -disgusted tone- happy. But this had better mean something!

-comes back ten minutes later-

Dang, I've been putting that off too long. So yeah, things could be better, but I'll be fine. And hey, I'm done with all of my classes except for two, but one of them is having technical difficulties and the other is PE which is the easiest thing ever and you have to do everyday, anyway.

Man, I love strawberries. Well, I'd best get on. Maybe I'll write another letter to Andrew today. Oh yeah... Some things that are hecka old news but I may haven't mentioned. Like, at all. Um, I don't think I talked about getting a learner's permit. (It was all the way back in December, but I really do forget about these things.) I'm fairly certain I talked about Andrew entering the MTC. I should have, at least. The house has been so quiet, how could I forget?

Yeah, generic life changes. Ruth and Tom are moving. It's really sad, but their new house is really cool. (although I did mention that it might be a good thing that Andrew isn't here, because there are /many/ places that he would have liked to climb onto that might not be meant for climbing.)

Yep. Cheerio and all that. I'll go fry my brain with frustration at the computer's crashing tendency, probably have to meditate a couple more times, but for the moment, I feel an odd form of happiness, so we'll try to keep that around. ^^ See ya!

04/23/09 Ten days later...

Okay, since my last post, family got together for Andrew's farewell, Andrew and Mom took a road trip to the MTC, a bird died, and I've learned that boredom likes solitude. Oi.

So yeah, I need to check out another book, because this rationing thing really isn't going to last much longer.

Surprisingly, I don't have much to say. Andrew left Monday morning and entered the MTC on Tuesday. This weekend, family came down for his farewell. It's kind of sad, but we had a good time. We even got to clean some cabinets. ^^ Ah, the smell of cleaner fumes.

I'm tired. This really does happen a lot, so you'd think I'd be used to it, but I'm not. -shrugs-

I think I might be really annoying and leave here... Yeah, I'll do that. Farewell, friends, I depart to the land of logarithms and nonsense. -beats head into wall- Bye.

04/13/09 Happy Birthday, Joe!

So, we were supposed to have his birthday dinner today, but as of yet, all that has come out of his mouth in the ways of what he wants to eat: strawberries. Doesn't he know? That's my bit. -shakes head- Oh well, it's his birthday, I suppose I /could/ let it slide. Still, I'm not positive it's possible to make it happen by tonight. -shrugs- I dunno.

So, I guess I should talk about Easter. It was good. We didn't really do much. Had family dinner, executed a flawless secret project. Complete with steak-outs, drive-bys, and night-shrouded activities. -nods- Very sneaky.

Good times. Spiritual, too. The choir sang. And it was awesome. Now, I've been hearing morbid talk about the youth in the choir (there are only four of us) doing something special around Christmas. Heart attack much? -nods head forcefully-

Anywho, everyone seems to be changing. People are moving, Andrew's disappearing for two years, Bishop has been released as seminary teacher. The whole world is falling apart. Oi...

I got a book, though. Adept, by Robert Finn. It's been okay so far. Mystery stuff. Some insurance worker who likes investigating things. It works.

-yawns- I gotta go. By some strand of luck, I might get something productive done today. Here's hoping...

See ya!

04/09/09 Facebook

So, it would certainly seem like it's taking over the world. And you know what I say about that. If something is taking over the world, there's rarely a middle ground. -nods- So, I guess I'll look into that, today. I doubt I'll do much, though, especially with the patches.

Anyway, since it's spring brake, there wasn't any YM activity, although we did get to go to choir practice. (Since we're singing this week and this past week was Conference, we really wanted to get some practicing in.) So, that was fun. I still haven't the faintest idea what I'm doing, but it's gotten better.

La la la... I've got no life. And it's been raining, so I haven't felt like going to the library. Oh well, at least I have my super-duper-awesome card game. And schoolwork. But schoolwork isn't as fun. I'm really starting to like the card game, though. I developed it mostly after Magic the Gathering, although mine is much less complicated. (And you don't have to worry about those crazy powerful cards you didn't know the other guy had.) I've got the first edition one already finished, but I'm working on alternative cards that you can swap out. (Only five more and I'll be able to run a practical test. ^^)

Anywho, I've got nothing else to say. I've got psychology to work on. Then maybe Japanese, although there's a chance I'll be looking at Facebook while I'm doing that, so we'll see how much actually gets done. Yep, should be interesting. Without further adieu, I shall depart.