John Henry's Blog

What a weekend...

2010-09-27T00:24:00.000-07:00

I had quite an experience this weekend. It’s been one of those sensory overload weekends. Right now I am struggling with keeping up with life and trying to not let it pass me by.

Friday night I left work and ended up going to a rehearsal for a show where I am more or less a sound consultant. I am trying to make sure everything goes well for them. It was an interesting experience and realized that this place is a little out of sorts and I hope I don’t spend much time getting attached. That night I came home and found a movie on that I had heard was interesting and started watching it. The movie is called “Pan’s Labyrinth”. This movie gave me an interesting perspective on how cruel people can be and how powerful the human and especially a child’s imagination can be. It left an impression on me that I don’t think I will soon forget.

Saturday, I went to a birthday party for my family and realized that there are so many great things about my family but also realized that there are many things I wish I could change. But past attempts to do anything haven’t yielded me much success, so things are here for now. After that, I went and set up for General Women’s Conference at my stake center because I’m the media specialist, so I set up the projector and any TV’s that need to be set up.

I went swing dancing in the evening with some incredible people. It was such a wonderful time to reunite with friends that bring me such happiness. I have to say though, that as much as I enjoy the dancing, Jazz music isn’t my favorite. It’s not bad but that it’s just not what I would listen to in my car if I was driving to work.

After swing dancing, I had the first “club” experience of my life. I can’t really say that it was an actual club experience because there wasn’t a bar and there really weren’t any people drinking, but there were WAY too many people cramped into a small space that were all sweaty, listening to the same 5 songs over and over (literally), body parts brushing up against me that I’m just not comfortable with, and dancing some pathetic attempt at being awkwardly close to each other. The best I could do was bob my head (as these situations don’t lend to a Charleston or Lindy all that well). I’m the kid that barely makes it out of an institute dance with my decency and sanity. So when that gig was up, we tried to find some frozen yogurt but most of those places close at midnight and had closed by that time so we stopped by the Malt Shop. As usual, the swing dancers had converged on the Malt Shop patio and were dancing, so I decided to show my club friends what my flavor of dancing consists of. That pretty much ended that night because it was almost 1 am.

Then church today was interesting. I wasn’t too particularly interested in the talks. I had a conversation with the person next to me about how I feel completely incapable of getting the attention of the girls I want attention from (probably a good thing). I realized that the Sunday school teacher for this week wasn’t my favorite (but for the sake of any chance blog readings, I will leave out why). I just remember making that comment that many of the people that are in my singles ward are on a path and are lost and need the help and direction of Christ in our lives but that often, instead of embracing what He would have us do, we leave his teachings and rely on our own intuition and personal expertise to get by in life. Not the way to go, and yet I do it over and over again in life.

After church, I wanted to watch a movie. I found that I have “The Pianist”, so I decided to watch it. I now remember why I bought it. There were SO many emotions that I experienced while watching this movie. I felt so happy to know that I live in a place with so many freedoms and the peace of mind. I’ve realized I have a fighting chance at life and have freedom from oppressive forces. I was sad to be reminded of this human condition – that evil is such a persuasive force, that fear keeps you from acting, that the will to live can overcome even the greatest of opposition, other people will exercise power to do terrible things, move people will exercise power to do great and heroic things, and that music can bring immovable peace to the heart.

I feel angry that such an evil force was allowed to bring so much destruction. I feel glad to have my freedom. And I feel a resolved that I will stand against forces that threaten my family and freedom. I am grateful for those that give their time and even their lives so I can live free.

Some projects I've done

2010-03-05T13:30:00.001-08:00

So, I’ve wanted to showcase what I’ve done over the past year to show what I can do. I’ve done quite a few things in Photoshop and I’m excited to be able to continue to find new and better things with Photoshop. My hope is to be able to purchase a nice camera so I can do this kind of stuff from start to finish. Take the pictures, create the designs, produce stuff that’s all my own. I also don’t charge for anything I do right now because I don’t consider myself professional.

So, here are a few projects I’ve put together for some friends and family over the last year.

If you’ve seen something you like and want it to be customized for you, I can duplicate a lot of simple designs. I also have the ability to remove things from photographs.

I’m not great at coming up with original designs, I just don’t quite have that creative edge yet, but when someone tells me what they want, and shows an example, I’ve become quite proficient at making it happen. So, these are some designs I put together for my sister-in-law’s mom.

I’ve had a few people ask me if I can do wedding invitations. I didn't ever go home and just create these, on each occasion, I met with the people getting married and they told me what they wanted and I put it together for them. I also created the inserts that were included as well.

This last picture was the invitation that my cousin did for his wedding. When they received it from the person who created it, there were a few things missing.

So, if you’re looking for a cheap (free) way to design your wedding invitations, business cards, fliers, or just about anything, but want them to look professional, I’d love to sit down with you and put together your vision.

2010-01-06T10:13:00.000-08:00

Well, I’ve had quite the holiday. It’s been full of exciting, insane, awkward, and exhausting experiences. It started with me going on a vicious campaign to clean the entire house (even rooms that hadn’t been partied in before) and make sure that everything was ready for the New Year party that I had planned. My goal was to make it bigger than it had been two years before, but I realized that it probably wouldn’t be. So, I cleaned 7 rooms in the house including the garage to set up as different stations. I had put DO NOT ENTER signs on Thayn’s bedroom and office, and also on my bedroom door. There were Women/Men signs on the bathrooms, and signs pointing to all the other things I had set up. Upstairs I had a game room set up. It was quite the talk when people walked in and saw the teddy bear wallpaper. On the main floor I had the Wii set up and that’s where all the food was (which I wish I had provided some better food, but what we had was pretty good, so I was okay with that). I hadn’t decided if I would use the garage for anything and then last minute someone asked me to have some swing

dancing and so I went out and cleaned it out because it was completely covered in dirt! It had tracked in on Thayn’s car from the snow, so after I cleaned that up, I set up the sounds system and it was all nice with Christmas lights and some good music. In the next level down, I set up a projector with Rockband. That was pretty cool. And then down in the room Dan used to sleep in was Karaoke. And I had a few friends that roamed into each room and made sure that it was all used which made me feel validated. It was really nice.

The night was kind of slow but still a lot of fun and I was really happy with the people that showed up because they are extremely great people. (If any of you are reading this, I just wanted to say thanks again for coming, it really made me happy to have people over).

When everyone left, I vacuumed up all of the confetti and stuff that was left over and put everything away. I finally went to bed at 5 am on New Year’s Day. I woke up at 4 pm that same day and finally peeled myself out of bed and went to Spanish Fork with some friends and then to dinner and met this girl named Amanda who was insane and we were insane together, so it was a lot of fun. Then I decided to go swing dancing up in Salt Lake and on my way up there, I called my parents and they said that I should fly down to Arizona for my cousin’s wedding the next morning. This was insane because trying to find a flight the day before is both extremely stupid and extremely expensive, but luckily I found a flight and after dancing until midnight, I packed, slept from 2 to 4, then showered, and had someone drive me to the airport and I was on my way.

I got off the plane and nearly went right to the temple for the sealing. We then spent the afternoon after the sealing eating and relaxing. I took a nap for an hour and then we were supposed to go “decorate” the bride and groom’s room with stuff but we weren’t able to get over there between the sealing and reception, so we ended up going during the reception and missed a whole bunch of things in the reception, but made it back for the dancing.

Sunday I went to the singles ward with Brad and Amy. We went to church in an old remodeled Baptist church so the chapel was crazy with vaulted ceilings and was really cool. That night we were going to have a quiet night with Carole’s parents, but then somehow a text that Amy sent to a few friends to come play games was spread to just about the entire ward! So we ended up having like 20 people over for a “noisy Sunday”. We played a few games and then around midnight everyone went home.

Monday morning we got up and packed and were out by about 9 am. We took home a girl named Sami. She was pretty cool and we had fun talking and playing Name That Artist on an MP3 CD that Dan had in the car. Then we spent about the last 6 hours watching How I Met Your Mother. I forgot how funny the first season is. We finally pulled in at home around 7:30 pm after dropping Sami off.

All in all it was a GREAT weekend and I had so much fun with my party, the trip, and even the ride home.

2009-12-28T02:53:00.001-08:00

So, I’ve been trying to help a friend create stuff for her blog and I know there are ways to do it online, but I think it looks a lot classier if it’s doing with Photoshop, so I’ve decided to show how I do it and then she has the ability to see it here whenever she needs the help.
This specifically deals with how to create a header on your blog with a cool picture frame. The frames I’ve used in the past can be found here: http://www.shabbyblogs.com/extra.html
Once you find the frame you like and have downloaded it and saved it on your computer, here’s what you’ll do (assuming you have access to Photoshop):

Step 1:
Import your frame into Photoshop. You can do this at least 3 different ways.
1) In Photoshop, File > Open, find the picture and open it.
2) Right+Click on your picture, select Open With… > Photoshop.
3) Open Photoshop, then take the file and drag it right into photoshop.

Step 2:
Create a new layer by clicking the new layer button (see picture). A quick explaination of how the layers work in Photoshop:
It’s actually like pile of papers. The higher in the list it is, the closer to the top of the stack the objects in that layer will be. SO, if you want the frame to be on top of something else, like your picture, you’ll have to click and drag it higher in the list.

Step 3:
Import the picture you want to use into Photoshop (using one of the same import methods from step 1)

Step 4:
Now, select the entire picture and copy it. You can select all by going Select > All or CTRL+A on the keyboard. Then copy – either by Edit > Copy or CTRL+C on the keyboard.

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Step 5: Go back to the window with the picture frame. You may have to CTRL+TAB to get there (you can also minimize your current window with the smaller minimize button below the program open and close button. Then paste the picture in the new layer I had you create in step 2 by going to Edit > Paste OR typing CTRL+V on the keyboard.

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Step 5:
You’ll notice at this point that the picture is HUGE compared to the frame, or it might just not be the right size to fit the frame. There are various ways to do this, but I’ve found this way to be fastest and easiest:
Make sure you are still working with the Picture Layer (look at the layers area and see which one is selected, it will be darker than the others). If the layer is selected, Go to Edit > Free Transform OR CTRL+T. This will then put a box around the picture:

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Holding down the SHIFT key, click and drag the square to make the picture smaller or larger as needed. You may have to make it smaller, move it up and then move it smaller again. Then press Enter so the picture will stay the new size.

Step 6:
Once you get it to the right size, you need to put it behind the frame so it will look<> like it’s inside the picture frame. To do this, go again to the Layers window and click and drag the photo layer so it’s below the frame layer. Then using the Arrow (with cross hairs) tool, move the picture to right where you want it.

If you want to add text, just click on the T tool, click about where you want it on the page, and<> then type it. If you only see a line and no text, just move the text layer on top of the other layers (in the layers window). You can change the font and color of your text at the toolbar at the top of the screen (below the menus).

My Christmas Eve This Year

2009-12-24T16:01:00.000-08:00

Getting my family together every year can be a very daunting task and seems to be frustrating. There isn’t a lot of room for a lot of people at my parents house and I wanted to be able to get as many of my family members together as possible. I’ve also wanted to have a party at my house since I moved in almost 3 years ago. It’s a nice house with a lot of room, so we I figured that I’d put something together this year. So I called all the members of the fam that would be close enough to come and have some food. It was a lot of fun. It was nice having all the kids here at my house.

I have to learn to host parties with a little less stress. I tend to over kill with everything and then I worry the entire time. Not that I don’t enjoy myself, but this time, there were new things that I didn’t expect. Most of my parties are for people in my singles ward or closer to my age, so having kids here made things a little different, but it was still very fun.

We had a Wii set up so the kids could play games if they wanted to and I put on a movie in a different room just in case they wanted to watch something. In the living room, we ate our food – sandwiches, fruit, veggies, and a LOT of snacks, probably too many.

My mom brought some poppers that had some fun toys in them and then we opened presents. All in all, it was a nice party. I’m glad I was able to have family at my home. It made for a very nice Christmas Eve.

What does the world hold for me?

2009-12-23T03:11:00.000-08:00

I've been fearing this day would come. I had hoped for the last 6 months that it would never come. I planned to go on living my life the way it was yesterday, last week, and even 6 months ago. But the time has arrived where I no longer am being assisted by Uncle Sam. No longer will he be sending me a check in the mail every week. As I've casually searched for jobs I looked where I knew I could do what I was asked but felt deep down that I didn't stand a chance. Often though, small glimmers of hope shown through. There were a lot of places where I had almost banked on being hired by the company. My interviews always seemed to go off perfectly. Often they would give me more hope than you should offer an interviewee. And now, as January 10th draws closer and closer, I wonder if anyone out there will ever accept me.

Not having a job, or anything else to do for that matter, has caused me to have spouts of depression, extreme stress, and even complete breakdowns of my mental and emotional wellbeing. In the same breath though, I could say that I have had many opportunities to serve others and build relationships with those around me that I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise. It's been a blessing and a curse.

The more that I search for jobs, the more I am directed to Salt Lake valley. Maybe because they have more jobs than where I am now and searching online brings more out of that area, but I still feel myself being drawn around the point of the mountain. But with moving to new places and starting new things there comes a little bit of anxiety. The idea of change is terrifying to me. I wonder about trying to start fresh with friends, dealing with new roommates, being on a normal-person schedule, or just knowing that life will be different. When I start to think about all of those things, I get scared a little.

And while it's no consolation, my only solace in all of this is knowing that, when it's all said and done, I'll be able to find a place where those I'm asked to serve will know that I'm there for them both in my friends and my job. The new people I meet will understand that I care, even if I've never met them before, and those that I will lose contact with, hopefully I have left something for them to appreciate and forgive those times that I spewed a negative or ungrateful attitude on them. And whether or not this ever happens, in the end, I will still be me. Just a kid, trying to get by in life. Doing nothing... always.

A short poem about Fudge

2009-12-19T13:41:00.000-08:00

So, Tamara was looking for a story about fudge and so I was looking all over the internet and only found poems of how busy life is and how happy fudge makes people, so I decided to write my own poem.

This was the first poem I wrote:

Oh Yummy Fudge oh yummy fudge

How lovely are you eaten
Oh Yummy Fudge oh yummy fudge
Oh how you love my taste buds.
You come along and make me smile
You cheer me up when in denial
Oh yummy fudge oh yummy fudge,
How lovely are you eaten.

And then I wrote this poem:

My day was once sad and I needed a boost.
I went to some friends but their presence was moot.
I wandered my Facebook, but the evening was late
And none of the people were there to consolate
My house dark and empty had shown me no pity
So I figured I look for support in the city.
I put on jacket and gloves and my hat
And opened the front door just to see what?
A plate full of fudge was there waiting for me
And I suddenly knew what my deliverance would be
As for my long evening that was sad for a while
The fudge I am eating now will always make me smile!

So my suggestion would be that if you find yourself in this position, get some fudge, or see if you can find someone to doorbell ditch some for you.

AVOID U-TURNS AT ALL COSTS!

2009-11-25T15:55:00.001-08:00

I have recently felt that I would need to change my driving habits. I ignored that feeling and told myself that I was paying plenty of attention to drivers around me. But looking back I have been driving quite recklessly. So on Monday, I was driving to Provo to help a friend. I had reached their apartment but couldn’t find a place to park so I had circled the block a few times, done a couple U-turns and just couldn’t find a place to park. So I finally just decided I would park in front of her apartment and unload my stuff then find somewhere to park. So I pulled off to the right side of the road and went to turn when I looked out my window just in time to see the car screech and hit me.

There is a lot of confusion on how I was hit, so here’s a picture of what happened.

(I’m in the blue car and the other guy is in the silver car)

Nobody was hurt in the accident. I think he was going about 25 or 30 when he hit me. I pulled my car off to the side of the road and we called the police and waited for them to come. I was very shaken up and really sad that I destroyed my car. I’m pretty sure my car is totaled. Being unemployed makes it hard for me to afford another car, so I’m driving my grandma’s car until I can get a job. And that’s my adventure for this week.

My Musical Weekend

2009-11-22T12:16:00.000-08:00

I have some serous sensory overload right now so I’m going to take a moment out and put some thoughts down. I have always had a dream of going to New York and spending a week there seeing every show that would possibly let me in. I LOVE watching musicals. And I have been made fun of by some people saying that I’m not a real man because I like musicals, but I watch them for the outstanding musical abilities, the lights, sound, and incredible sets. I typically spend half my time identifying where the microphones were taped to an actor’s face and how the sets are designed to move in and out.
On Thursday, I had a friend that invited me to go see Children of Eden at BYU. My senior year I was able to be in this show, so it takes a special place in my heart. This was while I was spending time helping out with security at my high school. The production was amazing, the actors were very good and every harmony was hit right on. The sound was great, but I didn’t need it because I sat on the front row. There was even one point when an anteater (that was bigger than I am) came up to me and whacked me in the face. It was intense! It brought back a lot of memories and reminded me of the good times I had in high school with all my friends.
Friday, I was lucky enough to take a back seat role in Security for the show at the high school, so I spent a lot of time talking to the stage manager in-between cues, watching the show, and at one point even made a cameo on stage, though nobody but the actors saw me. The show is awesome. There are many great dancers and singers this year at the school that they were able to put on a very nice show.

Then Saturday started… I went to Provo to help a friend film a tap routine for an audition. From there, I went to the show Little Shop of Horrors. (SPOILER ALERT: if you don’t know the show, just skip the rest of this paragraph) The show itself is quite gruesome and shows the hostile takeover of the planet by a plant. I was happy with the arrangement. I hadn’t ever seen a show at the Hale Center Theater in Orem and had wanted to for a long time and figured that this show would be a good reason to go see it. The acting was wonderful. The Shoo Bop girls were beyond amazing. They brought the story alive and their singing was captivating. Seymour’s voice was a little worn out and I could tell that he was ready to be done with his role, but still did a great job at entertaining the audience with his acting and singing. I was extremely disappointed with the technical aspect of the show. There were terrible squelching noises, speakers which kept failing, as well as light cues that were not in place. I spoke with the tech guy after the show and he didn’t seem like he had any interest in fixing the problem which bothered me because he seemed to have no regard for his audience, even though we ultimately pay his paycheck.

THEN, if that wasn’t enough, I decided to go to ANOTHER show that night. I went to see Aida at Timpanogos High School in Orem. I was excited. I have been listening to Aida for a long time after having watched the show at Woods Cross High School in Bountiful. When I saw it there, it was overwhelming how good they were. The set was extremely simplistic but the singing was beyond anything I’ve heard on a high school level before in my life. I had watched it another time at a school I attended for a year in Wyoming. I wasn’t impressed at all and was sad that I had driven all the way there. Back to Timp’s production: I could tell that they had reserved this show for now. They had a beautiful black girl that played Aida (you can read the story if you want to know what it’s about, just look it up on Google). The show started and the Amneris sang. She was great and hit every note solid and deliberate. She was one of the most solid stakes in the show. I was impressed with her precision while singing but was sad she didn’t sing out more. I could tell that inside her was a HUGE voice just wishing to get out, but she held back. The men in the show were weak and showed very little commitment to their character. Now, I’m not saying I’m an actor at all and probably couldn’t do any better than they do, but I can say that I KNOW when someone is acting and someone is reacting. Actors learn how to react instead of act… That is to say, instead of following a script they’ve been given, they live the story on stage and when something happens, they see if for the first time and react to it, instead of reacting because page 174 says that they are to react at that point. The men lacked in this department! As for Aida, she blew me away! I was convinced the whole time that she was a princess taken captive and forced to be a slave. Her singing was great and she put her heart and soul into the show. I’m glad I was able to go just to see her talent and ability. I hope she is able to go on and be very successful wherever she goes.

Overall, my musical weekend (while still not over) was wonderful. I was able to see, feel, and even participate in some incredible experiences with friends and family. I will forever enjoy the talents others choose to share, and probably always be critical of what they do, but still will appreciate that they’ve done it and were willing to share what they had.

Summer, 2009

2009-11-15T02:43:00.000-08:00

This year, I had probably the most interesting and adventurous summer of my life. I’ve had my eyes opened in a way that I hadn’t before and since, have seen things that I didn’t ever think I would see. When I first moved in with Thayn (my current landlord/roommate/cousin) Dan moved in as well. For that first year, Dan didn’t have a job and I was jealous of all the things he could do while not working. Now I find myself in the same position. But to explain how that all works, I have to go back before the summer.

In April, working for Teleperformance, I had been moved to a supervisor position and it was a huge stretch for me. Learning to file reports, coach people on their work, and trying to be a good leader while being able to create good relationships with those I was put in charge of. I learned quickly that I wasn’t good at it and around the middle of the month, I removed as a supervisor. I spent a few weeks as a data analysis agent when I found out that my job was being outsourced and I would most likely not have a job by June first. Well, May rolled around and I was let go.
This wasn’t a big deal because I had been asked to be a chaperone for a summer camp and the money I earned would be enough to carry me over the summer. Being unemployed, I decided to go on a cruise with a big group of people off the coast of California. You can read all about it in my previous post.

I had also started dating a girl from my ward. It was fun and we really liked each other. We spent a lot of time together and by the time that the chaperoning started, we had talked and decided we wanted to get married, so I asked her to marry me. I then spent a lot of time working with the summer camp, but also with my fiancé. With that going on, I was also asked to coordinate the lights, sound, and video/audio recording of the final concert of the summer camp. Needless to say, I kept busy working 16+ hours a day. When that finished, I spend a few weeks living down in Provo (I had moved into an apartment with the students of the program so I could be the chaperone). While living in Provo and after a discussion where I regret my actions and some of the things I said, I had a discussion with my then fiancé deciding that things weren’t right and we called everything off. It was rough but I think things turned out best for both of us.

I had made a couple trips to Washington and met some wonderful people and visited my brother and his wife and had a blast.

So fitting in 2 trips to Washington, a cruise, an engagement/unengagement, and an extremely busy and stressful chaperoning experience, it turned out to be quite the adventure.

Cruisin' the Pacific!

2009-06-12T02:23:00.001-07:00

I figured that most of the reason that I have published my life online is to show off the things that I’m doing. So it’s only appropriate that I insert a little summary of my recient cruise.
The cruise started 4 days ealier for me. I had to pack with luggage for not only the cruise, but also for camping where we went to pink coral sand dunes state park in southern Utah. There was some hiking and climbing and other exciting things. We rolled down a huge mountain of sand where I ended up with sand everywhere imaginable. The sand there seemed to stick to every inch of my skin which was quite amazing.

The first night we stayed off the beaten path where we found a level piece of ground to park a tent. The next night though, we realized we could use a nice shower as well as a real bathroom and running water, so the second night, we stayed at a camp ground.

We then drove through to St. George for church, Vegas to stop and say hi to friends, and then it was on to LA. We stayed with the parents of some friends and by noon the next day we were playing on the beach and dipping our feet in the ocean as well as a little sand volleyball.

We boarded the boat around 2:30 pm. Everything seemed to go smoothly. Dan hadn’t been feeling well so they had him go to a back where they checked his temperature. But we successfully boarded the ship. I went and found my room to drop off my luggage and then went almost immediately to the Lido Deck dining room where the food buffet was located. This was the place that I could go to get food anytime I wanted, and I really mean anytime! It was a beautiful thing. From there, most of that night was spent wandering. I didn’t sleep well the night before so I was tired and decided to take a nap around 8. Dan said he would come by and wake me up for an evening of fun. Well, I ended up sleeping through the night. I found out the next day that I had missed out on a night of dancing and partying. Most of the adventure was having the swing dancers in our group (which our group consisted of 18 people, 4 were guys, the rest girls, and just over half of the group were swing dancers) went and danced late. I really do wish I had been there. I woke up the next day and went to breakfast again in the dining room (which was the same routine for each morning).

Each day was unique, but did have similar things that happened. The main one being dinner. The first night (Monday), we asked them to seat 11 of us. We waited a few minutes, and while waiting, listened to a guy sing some Bob Marley.

Then we were taken in and sat at a table right at the front of the dining room. This ended up being the table and waiter that served us dinner every night. We really liked all the servers and appreciated their enthusiasm and sharp wit they shared with us.

The second day, we were anchored off the coast of Catalina Island. After breakfast, we took a small boat to the island. The weather was cool and beautiful. The sun was out just enough that it wasn’t too hot and not too cool. We wandered around the city for a while looking at many of the little shops and bought different little touristy things. I also bought some Dramamine because of the constant rocking. We played a lot on the beach with the volleyball and frisbee.

I took a lot of pictures trying to get good pictures of everyone involved at least once, then I realized that, wearing normal clothes wasn’t smart to do, so I rolled up my sleeves to see if I can make the farmers tan into more of a farmers transition. We played and soaked up the sun and it was amazing.

We went back to the ship and ate dinner and the evening wasn’t too eventful. I chatted with a couple of the girls a little that night and was in bed by midnight.

On the third day (Wednesday) I went out and spent some time in the hot tub while some of the girls sat out in the sun getting a little more tan. I ate probably 4 more times randomly throughout the day. I spent probably 2 hours at the pool. It wasn’t really warm out by the pool, but being in the hot water it was nice. I went to shower and the others in the party were dancing with the jazz band again. I missed their first set because I was showering, but when I came back, I was fresh and extremely ready to dance. So I took the opportunity to dance my heart out and it got extremely hot and I was quite sweaty but the dancing was amazing. The band kept playing very fast songs so it made it hard to keep up, but we had planned to have lessons so as people began to gather around to watch, we would invite them into our reserved room to teach them how to dance.

The lessons were fun to watch (and to teach for those who taught) and other passengers would often stop us and tell us that they had been practicing in their rooms or other places. It was great. Dan even admitted to being a star on the ship being stopped by many different people who instantly recognized him as the dancer from the first day of the cruise. That evening was dinner as usual and a few other activities and then I went to bed. I was tired after getting sun burned. Next time I sit in the sun like that, I’m thinking I will want to wear sun screen.
Day four consisted of more hot tub soaking where I met people who had been on many many cruises before and taught me how to find cheap cruises. There was more dancing, and some teaching (that I wasn’t there for) and I ended up taking a nap for a little bit as well.

Many of my evenings were spent walking around the ship looking over the water behind the ship and feeling the wind blowing up over the front of the ship. I took a few pictures of the night sky that captured the feeling of what it was really like to look out over the ocean and see no land at all but to soak up the pure serenity.

Overall, I had a phenomenal experience on this Carnival Cruise. From the meals to the showers, everything was wonderful. Every staff member that I came across seemed more than happy to help and fully willing to get me what I needed. I came to my room every night to a towell animal on my bed.

If I had my choice, I would take a cruise every summer. It was an experience that I will never forget. In the end, the thing that made it most amazing was the incredible group of friends that went. I hope they all know how much I love and appreciate all of them.

The Big Apple

2009-01-05T00:56:00.000-08:00

My most recent trip to NY proved to be an amazing experiment and experience. There were amazing and fantastic, as well as unbelievable moments. I had rough experiences as well as self awakening moments. Overall I found that I can do anything I put my mind to. I had wanted to go to New York for a LONG time, but hadn't ever had the guts or the money to do it. Well, this Christmas was a good one with work and I had an amazing friend to go with. I was there only 3 days. It felt like months. I was able to visit all the sights I wanted to and do all the things I said I would.

I skated in Central Park:

I went to the top of the empire state building:

I rode the ferry to Long Island so I could see the Statue of Liberty. I was beyond blessed to have everything taken care of while I was there. We had a place to stay, parties ready for us to go to, and plenty of sights to see. My reality was suspended for those few days. I lived the surreal life that exists in New York. I stayed up until 4 am dancing 2 of the 3 nights there. I visited with people from all over the world and experienced thing I had never done before. It was remarkable. I saw Phantom of the Opera. What a production. The Phantom was genuine with his role and took the audience into his personal lair where we were hypnotized by his voice and sincerity. I went to a swing dance where I spent that night drawing on the love of others as they danced with me. I don't see myself as a great dancer by any means and let those I danced with know that, but enjoyed it no less. Our host, Joy, was amazing. She took us in, showed us around, helped us, and even cooked us dinner on New Years Eve.

She had beds ready for us when we came home and just took us under her wing. I will never forget her hospitality. New Years was cold in NY. The forecast was said that the temperature at Time Square would be (with wind chill) -1 degree. I die when it's below 40 degrees. So gratefully, Joy found us a party to go to. We sat next to swing dance legend, (at least for those of us in Utah) Dawn Hampton.

We watched a wonderful swing dance show and listened to a remarkable live band. I was a little under dressed in my white shirt and tie that I had brought along with me for church the Sunday I spent in Arizona. Everyone else there was either in a nice suit, or a tuxedo. I was very under dressed. By the end of the evening though, I fit right in. After their little show, the band played, the characters sang songs and entertained, and we danced. I was able to dance with a few people I knew, some I had only met that night, and some I will never see again. One, a woman from California, was a remarkable dancer. I had been scared to ask anyone to dance, and she noticed me and invited me to dance with her. It was amazing. After, we went to a house party where there was more dancing. I was taught a little of blues dancing. I spend plenty of money on souvenirs. We spent some time in the shops and Dayla bartered for a nice camera and got a nice discount.
As I said earlier, my New York experience suspended reality. I left and didn't think about home or work, or anything here in Utah. I was completely submersed in the city. I am now home again. I have to go back to work. I have to go back to living day to day. I have to deal with family problems, work problems, friend problems, and everything else. I'm okay with that. I received a vacation from it all, it was suspended for those 3 days I was gone. This is something that will be with me forever and I am eternally indebted to Heavenly Father for providing me with this opportunity and blessing.

My most recient school experience

2008-10-29T16:54:00.000-07:00

This blog was created to show my little frustration about school. I have to say that I still don't like school. It's actually becoming one of the most painful experiences in my life to date. I knew that I wouldn't like school from the beginning. Anything that pins me down isn't my favorite but I seem to put up with it for one reason or another. For example, work, because I like to have money. School is so someday I can have the money to provide for more than just the small toys that I like to have (like the computer that I bought today). Basically family. So I go to school to jump through the hoops. I enter every semester beyond excited for what is to come and ready to do what it takes to succeed, reading the chapters every day, singing the praises of awesome teachers, and staying on top of all the things that have to be done to succeed. But inevitably, every time, I fail. Not only do I fail, I FAIL. I've realized that part of the problem is the way that I take in information. I look around me and see people avidly writing information in their book, taking that information in as quickly as they can. Others talk a lot to try to absorb all the information they can. Some even write every word that the teacher says and are able to take the information, study it for hours and perfectly answer every question in each question. So what I my purpose in all of this...? I honestly don't know. I've tried writing in the book and don't ever look back. I've written down notes on what the teacher says, and then I lose what I'm supposed to be writing because I'm writing information for the last thing they said. I've tried so many other things. I've pretty much given up on trying. I usually just go on with life hoping that coping will get me the C that I want. I'm realizing that everything that I’ve done gets me nowhere. So really this whole school thing has gone from frustration to anger to acceptance to depression. I don't know what's next, but that's where I am now. Plus, work is very stressful. I am now being expected to take a Sunday shift which I promised myself that I wouldn't ever do. Is it worth the experience? I'm not so sure it is.

Mixing it all up

2008-08-19T09:28:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm a night person. I go to bed at night thinking that I won't wake up the next morning... Usually I think that I will wake up after noon. And so I don't usually go to bed every night until 3, 4, or sometimes (probably too many times) 5 am. I also require 8 hours of sleep. When I don't get it, I'm a pretty grumpy and a not-nice person.
So I returned home from Ohio 2 years ago. I came home and promptly got a job working a swing shift (3 to 10pm) working for American Express taking applications over the phone. Then I started working for Dell. They needed night guys and their training was Monday-Friday from 3 to 11pm, so I stopped socializing with people during the week. Then I changed my schedule when I started actually doing the job to some more convenient hours. Had Friday nights off and stuff. Well, lately, I have felt like I have been a little unsocial with people that aren't at work. I guess the best way to say it is that my only social time I got was work and church on Sunday. So I was feeling quite dry. I couldn't go out on dates because I can't figure out how to ask a girl on a lunch date (and I'm usually sleeping) and who is going to take a girl on a date at 4am? So I went to my boss and told him that I wanted to work a morning schedule... I haven't worked a morning schedule since... I just realized I've never worked a job that was in the morning. Now, I do say the morning. I mean to say that it's from 10am to 6 pm. But HEY, I get off at 6 every night. So I promptly dropped all my classes and picked up 2 classes (the last 2 before I have an associates). So now I have a MW evening class from 6 to 7:15, and another class on Saturday morning from 8 to 10. I don't know how I feel about a Saturday morning class, but I'm sure I can pull it off (hopefully).
So for the first time, really, ever, I'm taking a job where I won't work at night. I start Monday and I'm pretty happy about it.

Too much to tell!

2008-08-11T21:54:00.001-07:00

Today I have to keep it short, but there is so much to tell. I'm now at Teleperformance officially for 1 1/2 years now. It's weird to think. I'm glad I'm still there. I like my job. Other things going on in my life... I'm in Washington DC right now. I have a flight to catch in 6 hours. I'll fly to Salt Lake, drive home, sleep and then get up and go to work. This week I've been working to help my Brother and sister in law pack up their house so they can move out to Oregon. YAY for them! That puts them about a lifetime closer! And the other thing I did today, which will come as a complete shock to anyone who has talked to me recently, I have finally signed up for a Facebook!!! Yes, most of you know that I am morally opposed to Facebook. I have 2 reasons, first is that my cousin and roommate Dan has been trying to convince me to get on so he can get me to join his Hero application and he can cast spells on me (WHICH WILL NEVER HAPPEN). The other reason I didn't want to get on Facebook was because I signed up for a Myspace page and didn't get messages very often so I felt like a looser. So I was defiant and decided I would instead stick out in the darkness. This time I've set it up so I can show off all the things I'm doing with my life and catch up with people I haven't seen or talked with in a while!
That's all for tonight, but more will come... eventually.

I really don't like school

2008-03-29T16:23:00.000-07:00

So, I guess this is my first time attempting to blog online. I actually ran across this looking into the effects of self-esteem on communication. I think that someones blog had the right words and now I'm here. This week has been a pretty busy week. I went to southern Utah with the choirs here at UVSC. We had a ton of fun sitting out in the sun, swimming, singing, watching movies, and just taking it easy. And now I'm sitting in the library on a Saturday while a group of my friends are down at the festival of colors at the Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork throwing chalk dust at each other and petting lamas. I have a project to finish before midnight for my online communications class (irony, right?). This is something that I should have done a while ago, but it seems that when I need to get something done, I just don't. I'll end up watching old episodes of The Office or sleeping on the couch-this is why I'm sitting in the library. And now I have to get back.