soy sauce and chopsticks

I know you are but what am I

2009-06-01T17:54:00.001-07:00

In a strange turn of events, I got my assignment turned around on me. I was sitting in the library with my headphones and someone drops a salt water taffy (I almost called it a sweet water taffy. I always screw names up. I called the movie there will be blood there might be blood. I should make a list of everything that I screw up like that.) on my desk. (Interesting that I'm blogging for my writing class and completely ignore the fact that that parenthetical aside (and here's another parenthetical aside... try to use the word "that" four times in a row in one sentence. prize for the winner) was far too long. my blogging is almost entirely parenthetical asides. (when you use a word to often it becomes meaningless. like the word boy. say that word 20 times and it sounds ridiculous))))) (I don't know how to close off that many parenthesis.) Ok. Start over. That was entirely muddled.

So he puts the candy on my table and gives me the thumbs up. I was very confused and tried to figure out if he was someone I knew. Then I literally wondered if he had poisoned the candy. Then I ate it. And it was delicious. I love salt water taffy. I took one from the candy jar on someone's desk today. I also remember a time in Newport Beach when we went to a candy store and the sign said "1 lb unless" ... and then I can't remember what it said. But Katelin Goings read it 1 L Bunless.

What a terribly convoluted blog posting. Luckily nobody reads this blog.

Buy someone a coke.

2009-05-25T19:11:00.000-07:00

For some M COMM is need to buy someone a coke and see their reaction. I haven't done this yet, but when I do it, we're going to do a little twist on it. I'm going to pretend like I'm doing a survey for a class on people's favorite candy bars. Then I'm going to leave and buy it for them and give it to them. Then I'm going to stand over them with a notepad and take notes on their reactions. I'm going to intentionally create an awkward situation for them because I love seeing how people react in awkward situations. Should really weird someone out, but should be pretty interesting also.

M Comm Assignment

2009-05-03T21:46:00.000-07:00

Turns out I have to blog once a week for my M Comm class. 150 words a week, straight from my brain to the computer. Whatever I want words to say I'll make them say.

Here's a little update on my life in the order that they have happened or will happen:
1. Taking spring classes. M Comm and Chinese 441, Classical Chinese Literature
2. Doing a fundraiser for the non-profit organizations First Book. Going to be collecting books and selling them to fundraise for First Book. It's a pretty cool organization. They are able to buy the first books for children of low income families for $2. Pretty stinking cheap way to change children's lives.
3. Trying to get a job working for the United Way.
4. Getting married June 27th in the Manti Temple.
5. Going to Washington DC for an undecided internship for fall semester
6. Graduating in April 2010.

Super lazy blog. I just needed to get it done before I went to bed. Better blog next week.

Summer Reading List

2009-04-08T18:11:00.000-07:00

I realized my favorite thing about blogging is input. So here's your opportunity. It's time again to make my summer reading list and I need your input. I enjoy non-fiction over novels, but am not opposed to novels if they're good.

Currently on my list:
Outliers
Hot, Flat and Crowded
An Ordinary Man
For One More Day

Still on my list from last year:
The Art of Thinking
The Good Earth
Catcher in the Rye
Kite Runner
Mere Christianity

Somethings that I like recently.

2009-01-29T16:52:00.001-08:00

Here's somethings that I really liked in January.

Books:
The Last Lecture of a professor from Carnegie Mellon who is dying of cancer. The kind of book that makes you want to go out and make the most of your life.

Tuesdays with Morrie. My favorite book of all time. Fourth time I've read it. Quick read, amazing story, why not? Such a great story about the way that one man was able to touch so many people's lives. A goal I set this month is to read a book about someone who is dying every month. Depressed by the morbidity of the goal, I quickly discarded it.

Music:
Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago
The perfect album to listen to late at night when I'm writing in my journal and reflecting on my day. Thanks to James Alexander for tipping me off to them.

Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion
Thanks to wherehouse.com I turned in some of my old high school music cds in exchange for this album, Andrew Bird's new album Noble Beast, TV on the Radio's release last year and Bon Iver's new EP Blood Bank. This is my favorite of the group.

Hypem.com
This is a great website. Takes all of the music that people put on blogs and puts it together and tells you who is the most searched artists. Great news for all aspiring early adapters. For all you late adapters out there (me included) they put together a list of their top 50 songs, albums and artists of 2008 and made it all available to stream. Check it out here: http://hypem.com/zeitgeist/2008/

Movies:
Prom Night in Mississippi. I've never been to the south and don't understand it at all. This documentary tells the story of a high school in Mississippi that up until 1997 was having segregated proms. 1997 and there's still segregation? So Morgan Freeman offers to pay for their prom under one condition: They integrate. His offer is REJECTED. Flash forward to 2008 and the same offer is made, only difference is that it is accepted. This documentary gets into the minds of kids who want to see change, who are stuck living how their parents would have them, and some who want to see the prejudices perpetuated.

Be Kind Rewind. I'm an unashamed Jack Black fan. I like just about everything he's done. Big Nacho Libre, School of Rock and Orange County fan. I love this movie not just because of him, but I love Mos Def in his role. This movie is extremely creative and so fun to watch how they film each movie.

Organizations:
The Meaningful Life Club.
This is a club that gets its name from Tuesdays with Morrie and is in conjunction with my Business 371 Class. Craig Wilson is my favorite professor that I've had in college. In his class he stresses living simply, consecrating your life to the service of others, and making that possible by becoming financially free. I've become the event director of this club and we have some really cool ideas of ways to make a difference and influence peoples lives around here through service. Our meetings are Weds at 7PM. Let me know if you want to get involved.
Somethings that we're getting involved in:

Kiva.org
Micro-crediting or Micro-Financing for those of you that haven't heard of it is lending small amounts of money to entrepreneurs in undeveloped countries to help them break free from the exploitations of loan sharks. Many only need a small amount of money to start their path to financial independence and breaking the poverty cycle. Your donation of $25 (or more) will be paid back in full, so it's not even really a donation. Join the BYU group if you're a fellow coug.

Tap Project
Did you know that $1 will provide water for 1 child for 40 days? Most don't have access to clean water, so the tap project is calling for restaurants to charge $1 for tap water on March 22nd and have the money donated towards getting children in undeveloped countries the drinking water they need. The project raised $100,000 last year in one day. In New York alone. This year it's going nationwide. Go to the tapproject.org for more info and to figure out how to get involved.

Fire Jars

2008-11-07T03:17:00.000-08:00

Massage parlors are probably about as common as convenience stores in Nanjing. There's one in particular that my friends go to, and they've gotten to be pretty good friends with them. They've given them English names, helped them with the translation for their frequent massage card buy 10 get 1 free dealies, and go there to just hang out. They're really funny people.

I went in there last night for the first time since the first week when I got a massage and got the fire jars. Basically how it works, they have these jars that they light a fire into and then really quickly put it on your back. It creates a suction and they cover your back with these jars like so:

They leave them on for about 15-20 minutes, slap your back around a little bit and then you're good to go. Afterwards, you have purple souvenirs on your back, the more purple an area is, the more unhealthy it is. So yes, my lower right back is very unhealthy.

More to come soon. I know I say that all the time. But I'm going to do more frequent, but shorter posts.

Guilin is a beautiful place in China, but Yangshuo is better.

2008-10-05T02:50:00.000-07:00

So the best part of the study abroad is the schedule. We just got done with a week vacation, and I have another 10 day vacation coming up. But first thing's first. Guilin is a beautiful place in China, but Yangshuo is better. That's a quote from our tour guide's business card, and it's very true.

Our trip to Guilin and Yangshuo started out with a 24 hour train ride. If you're thinking that that sounds like it would be miserable, you're wrong. Given the choice between a 14 hour plane ride from America with in flight meal/movie and stewardess and the sleeper train, I would choose the sleeper every time. The downside? Loud Chinese people and stinky. The upside? Loud Chinese people, the trains go through the night, and you can roam around and talk to people. The trains are just rows of beds, so the majority of the time spent on the train is sleeping, reading, playing games if you're with other people, or looking at Chinese people or vice versa.

The 10 of us hopped in taxis and "bread cars", which are mini mini vans.

And headed to our hostel. I was surprised how cool Guilin was. Really cool mountains, and there was one with a little hole in the middle.

After that we got some dinner, walked around a bit, found a market and bartered a bit and then called it a day.

The next day we went to seven stars park. It was pretty cool. A bit too much like a theme park. Still very cool. Right when you walk in, if you look to your left you'll see this:

We kept walking a bit and saw this little booth where you could take pictures with peacocks. We were all going to take the picture, but realized that it cost 5 yuan (about 75 cents), so everyone except us three backed out.

There was a waterfall. I wanted to stick my feet in it, but it seemed kind of gross. Brinley stepped in it on accident.

It's a very green place.

Camel's are perhaps God's ugliest creation? But I still got on one for 10 yuan. Notice the droopy hump.

The panda's at the zoo that they had are the big attraction. I've heard that zoo's in China aren't that great to go to. In fact they're depressing. I found that out first hand with this panda, trapped like a prisoner.

Well, it takes forever to post pictures. That's guilin. And I have tons more from yangshuo. I'll post them on Tuesday since I only have one class that day. Until then.

CHINA!!!!!!!!!!

2008-09-17T19:39:00.000-07:00

So I flew into Shanghai about 2 weeks ago now. I was expecting to see a crazy skyline similar to flying into Hong Kong, but instead I saw this:

I really felt like I had been tricked. So, after landing, 7 of my classmates and I got on a bus and onto the freeway for a 4 hour bus ride. And this bus ride comes after a flight to from Oakland to SLC, SLC to LAX where i slept over night in the terminal, LAX to Vancouver, then Vancouver to Shanghai. Oh yeah, here's the 8 of us in Vancouver:

After the bus ride we got into Nanjing and it was just what I was hoping for. Huge buildings. Bright lights. Bikers and Scooters that double the amount of cars (and there's a lot of cars). Oh man was it exciting. So we got into our hostel and got settled and slept.

The next day we ate at a little place. It looked like this:

It was basically just a little tile area of someone's "house". It just had a little tin roof over it. It was some delicious noodles and beef that cost about 80 cents American.

Afterwards, we got settled a bit. So we went to walmart. And yes. Wal-mart does have a strangle hold on China as well. It's probably twice as crowded as any American Wal-mart that I've ever been in. It was a very stressful experience.

Did I mention I love the food here? This is my favorite place:

They have fried rice and chau mein that's like the tastiest thing I've ever eaten for like 75 cents. And it's kinda crazy. This place doesn't have any front walls or windows. That thing on the right is the kitchen. They just cook everything right out there for you. The cheap places are the best places too. We went to an expensive place to eat (we paid about $5 american each) and it was probably the worst meal that I've had here. Actually it definitely was. The place was very nice, but the food was kinda bland and the portions were small. Plus the food was ugly.

Anywho, I have some other stories, but I haven't loaded those pictures yet, and I need to pack. We're getting ready for to go on a trip to Huang Shan. There's supposed to be beautiful. Really scenic mountains and what not. I'll write more when I get back.

blogging again.

2008-06-04T22:23:00.000-07:00

I think that I might start blogging again.

I love a good pyramid scheme.

2008-02-26T12:19:00.000-08:00

So this isn't quite a pyramid scheme, but if you know me, you know that I love free things. Yesterday, I went out with two of my roommates and got free stuff from our starving student cards. After we got home, I checked my favorite website, www.amiestreet.com, and found free music. It blew my mind. So you need to know 4 things about this website.

1. Music starts out free.
2. It gets more expensive as more people get/buy it.
3. It caps out at $9.98
4. Their selection used to be bad, but it's getting better and better.

So here's some of the music that I got for FREE.
Architecture in Helsinki,Badly Drawn Boy, Belle and Sebastian, Blonde Redhead, Cat Power, Dizzee Rascal, Interpol, The National, The New Pornographers, of Montreal, Pavement, Pixies, Ratatat, Sigur Rós, St. Vincent, Tapes 'n Tapes, Thom Yorke, Yo La Tengo

I got all of these for free. Most aren't free now, because people got them for free. But they are cheap. Plus as new music gets added, it will be free. So, if you want to join, email me. I'll send you the link. When you join you get $5 for free. Plus I'll get $2.50. But the main thing is the free music. I've gotten so much free music, and I feel selfish if I didn't share my secret.

My New Year's Resolutions

2008-01-31T12:12:00.000-08:00

We're almost in February. The fact that I am only now getting to writing my new year's resolutions is not a sign of procrastination, (it probably is) but a sign that I am actually still thinking about them.

So here's the ones I need to re-resolve:
- Study of Chinese. Characters and Book of Mormon
- Gym time - Pump and basketball
- Diet - Don't eat out more than twice a week. Drink more water. Cook at home.
- Finances - Budget. I did get a great one from FHE on monday.
- Reading more.

Other stuff I want to get into and haven't started yet:
- Rock climbing
- Knitting

Stuff I'm doing ok on:
- Morning and evening prayer
- Scriptures
- Daily Journal.

Stuff that I'm going to get into this year once the weather changes:
- Tennis
- Horseshoes
- Bacci ball

Here's to 2008.

My triumphant return

2008-01-03T09:03:00.000-08:00

Hello blogland. Over the last few months, if you've checked my blog, (don't worry, i know you haven't) you've seen that same dang youtube video on the top. I've tried to change that. Look in my edit posts thing. There's several started blogs that I didn't ever follow through with. But I think I have something worthwhile. Elder Ballard told me to blog after all. After reading this address from Elder Ballard, I was confused. I wondered why he would choose such a topic for a commencement address. But then I had I had a funny experience to make me think otherwise.

As most of my friends from high school and all of my college friends (I go to school in Utah. Let's not forget that) know I am LDS. (see: Mormon, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, The) Especially in this time where we have an LDS presidential candidate (Mitt Romney. Pick up a newspaper sometime. It'll do you good) the topic of the LDS church is in the forefront of the media. There's a lot going on, a lot of half truths being reported and a lot of misconceptions being perpetuated. Here's my stab at resolving some questions. This isn't necessarily an attempt to convert you (but seriously you should join our church) but just to resolve some questions.

Recently I went home and had dinner with one of my really good friends since middle school. Over the years we've had many talks about many things. She knows my family very well. And so this past time talking with her, I was shocked at a question that she had for me when our topic of conversation turned to marriage (it happens even outside of provo): "So do a lot of your friends in Utah have more than one wife?" I was shocked because this wasn't someone that I met on the street. This was one of my closest friends of many years. And this is a pretty basic misconception that I didn't realize that people close to me would have.

Well just to set the record straight, here's what our prophet says about it:

"This Church has nothing whatever to do with those practicing polygamy. They are not members of this Church. . . . If any of our members are found to be practicing plural marriage, they are excommunicated, the most serious penalty the Church can impose. Not only are those so involved in direct violation of the civil law, they are in violation of the law of this Church."
At various times, the Lord has commanded His people to practice plural marriage. For example, He gave this command to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and Solomon (Doctrine and Covenants 132:1).
In this dispensation, the Lord commanded some of the early Saints to practice plural marriage. The Prophet Joseph Smith and those closest to him, including Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, were challenged by this command, but they obeyed it. In 1890, President Wilford Woodruff received a revelation that the leaders of the Church should cease teaching the practice of plural marriage.

K? So that's that.

I guess I'm back. Check in soon for my new years resolutions (which i've mostly set. I'm giving myself until Sunday when I get off vacation.) Toodles.

Who knew Karen from the Office is indie?

2007-07-26T03:55:00.001-07:00

Please take note of her dancing.

Also, who knew my roommates would get into a drunken fight at 3AM?

the finer things

2007-07-21T23:54:00.001-07:00

things i never regret doing:::vs.:::things i always regret

reading:::wasting time on the internet
buying cds or shoes:::all the useless things that make my credit card bill high
trying to learn guitar:::watching tv
going to bed early:::staying up too late
working hard:::procrastinating
serving other people:::being a jerk to people
going to museums, plays, etc.:::watching 4 episodes of sportscenter in a row.

if this is so, why don't i do the things i never regret more often?

i like that.

2007-07-14T20:15:00.001-07:00

i just shaved my legs. feels good.

psuedo-celebrity sighting

2007-06-12T09:20:00.001-07:00

k, so she's probably not a celebrity at all. but i did see this on the pitchfork website, meaning about a million hipsters nationwide did see her. (the girl on the left)

i did know her in high school. i thought about asking her to senior prom, but didn't. now i wish i did so i had a cool connection to her. and i'm always trying to make connections to (psuedo)celebrities. unfortunately this is as good as i've got right now.

other pathetic celebrity connections/sightings include:
- saw steve young speak in a fireside.
- was in the same ward as former 49er's tight end Greg Clark
- Went to the same high school (much later) as the blue power ranger.
- Saw sportswriter for LA Times, J.A. Adande at the Jazz/Spurs game 3.
- Saw Chris Mullin and Mitch Richmond at the Elite 8 game in San Jose.
- Saw canto pop icons "The Twins" in the Sha Tin Town Centre in Hong Kong.
- I am Japanese. Also Japanese:
- Miss Universe
- Daisuke Matsuzaka, most hyped rookie of baseball.
- A million other baseball players.
- Brian Katsumoto, painter of a sweet Joe Montana print I found in DI
- Takeru Kobayashi, though he recently lost his hot dog eating title.
- The girl in the american apparel ad.

senioritis

2007-05-29T11:06:00.001-07:00

I'm a senior by credit, but I haven't even applied for my major yet. Is it bad that I don't care?

I'm neglegent.

2007-05-22T11:05:00.001-07:00

I bought a pair of fingernail clippers yesterday and lost them. My nails are still long and it's driving me nuts. I really don't think that there is anything that drives me crazy more than losing things or having long fingernails. But both happening at once? This is just a bit more than I can handle.

Luckily, one of the things that I recently lost and also recently found is my Tae Bo tape that my sister gave me. Billy Blanks is going to whip me into shape.

can't judge a book by its cover.

2007-05-21T16:47:00.000-07:00

I've been shocked at how many people that I've met recently that I originally judged to be someone that I didn't want to talk to, then talked to them and found out that they were really cool. I wonder how many people see me and don't want to talk to me, but talk to me and find out I'm nice. Or vice versa.

insomnia for the first time.

2007-05-15T04:13:00.000-07:00

I've always had such a wonderful sleeping cycle. I don't know why I am up right now. Is it so I could wake up and listen to my new (old) jewel cd? Pieces of you is a great album, I won't deny that, but I don't think that's what got me up. Maybe it is stress induced insomnia due to my test today in history of creativity and tomorrow in accounting? Does the fact that I didn't study at all last week when I went home have anything to do with it? Is it because when I went home I fell in love with a million girls in san francisco that I will never see again? Perhaps it is because at the ripe age of 23 i'm quickly growing impatient with my life, not because I don't think it's great, but i'm constantly wanting more. My maxed out credit card, empty gas tank and squeeky breaks on my bike might have something to do with it. The warriors being down 3-1 certainly isn't helping either.

5am seems to be the best time to study. It's peaceful. The world is still.

mother's day

2007-05-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

I went home for mother's day. I took her to the warrior's game. What kind of mom would want that as a present? Basically, my mom is my favorite person in the world and the older I get the more I appreciate her. Also, the older I get, the more I see myself in her. I have her spaciness, terrible sense of direction and jumpiness. I have her zaniness, random mind and a tiny portion of her care for other people. I've learned so much from her unspoken example and her spoken counsel. She has such a gift for making people feel comfortable and special.

I'm such a mama's boy. I always have been. Even in middle school when everyone started to get embarrassed to be seen with their mothers, I would still walk with my arm around her at the store or in the mall. (I was taller than my mother by 7th maybe 6th grade.)

I was just thinking yesterday how lucky I am to have her, because she is a breast cancer survivor. 12 years already. But that's a different post for a different day.

Happy belated mother's day to all current and future mother's.

i don't think there's anything better

2007-05-10T12:42:00.001-07:00

than pad thai. i really can't get enough of it.

If the confession blog was still around...

2007-04-23T07:36:00.001-07:00

I would confess that I used to play Magic: The Gathering. I would also confess if I a) had cards and b) could find someone who wanted to play, I probably would get really into it again.

please don't read this without commenting.

2007-04-15T22:42:00.000-07:00

I'm compiling my summer reading list. The list is based solely on friend recommendations. Just a little precursor, my book taste is a little different. I like to feel like I'm learning or being inspired when I read. This means I like non-fiction (loved the tipping point for example), self-help (i'm currently enjoying 7 habits), cultural feeling type of books. (i like the life of pi, though I'm not done), and uplifting, insightful types (tuesdays with morrie is a fave.) I guess a couple other random books that I like a lot are the outsiders, the perks of being a wallflower and to kill

So the list is as follows:

Nate B.:
?:::April 1865
milton.friedman:::free.to.choose
c.s.lewis:::mere.christianity
jared.diamond:::guns.germs.and.steel

Jake S.:
pearl.buck:::the.good.earth
john.lewis:::walking.with.the.wind
?:::arc.of.justice
terrell.givens:::by.the.hand.of.mormon

Trent M.(me):
malcolm.gladwell:::blink
earnest.dimnet:::the.art.of.thinking
yann.martel:::life.of.pi (finish it!)
george.orwell:::1984 (finish it!)
j.d.salinger:::catcher.in.the.rye
katherine.peterson:::bridge.to.terabithia

i appreciate your contributions.

I bleed green and gold.

2007-04-12T14:49:00.000-07:00

I am a die hard Oakland A's fan. I want to go home and beat my record of 8 hot dogs on dollar dog wednesdays.

The only thing that's really keeping me alive is wiffleball, tennis, volleyball and any other random sport that spring has brought.

my next shoes.

2007-04-08T22:12:00.001-07:00

someonepleasebuytheseshoesforme.

identity theft.

2007-04-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

I thought that i was the victim of identity theft. I got an email from service@paypal.com and it asked if i wanted to dispute the transaction. I opened the email and thought it felt a little fishy when it asked for all of my information, so I didn't do it. Called paypay and it turns out that it was indeed a hoax. Moral of the story, be careful with what you trust online. I almost gave all my information to some thief.

Sick of protesting!

2007-04-03T15:07:00.000-07:00

Enough protesting. The liberals are protesting Dick Chaney. The conservatives are supporting BYU. Let's just all stop and smell the roses. It's spring. It's fun time.

let the fun(d)raising begin.

2007-03-27T09:10:00.000-07:00

K, so i lost motivation. Mostly from test failing and march madness induced distraction.

But I recently found out that there's going to be a bunch more orphans going into the orphanage so they need $2,000 dollars to make a new dorm. Sounds like a lot, but $2,000 for a dorm holding 20 kids? Nothing really. So here's some events that I hope will be able to make at least that much.

1st: Bowl-A-Thon
Basically similar to the walk-a-thon from the office, we're going to do a bowl-a-thon. here's how it's going to work:

Step 1: Get people to sponsor you. (Either a flat rate like $5, $10 or (insert your generous dollar amount here.) or a per pin basis. Ex: if you're sponsored 5 cents per pin and you bowl a 100, the amount is $5.) 5 sponsor minimum and you bowl for free. No dollar minimum, but I kind of have like a $20 goal per person. (sponsors can be anyone like a friend, roommate, relative, co-worker, etc.)

Step 2: Bowl! (date TBA)

Step 3: Collect money from your sponsors

Step 4: Collect blessings for helping out those in need.

2nd: Garage Sale

I have a ton of crap to get rid of, and I figure other people do to, what with graduation and moving and what not. So I figure we could have a garage sale. It'll probably be the 26th, like the day after the last finals. If people aren't going to be here, you can just drop your stuff off to me and I'll hawk it for you. Any ideas on a site for this?

Anywho, I hope everyone will help out. I would appreciate it very much, but more importantly these kids need it!

Let everyone know about this!

Thanks. Email me if you have any questions. trentmano@gmail.com

i want to do something significant

2007-03-12T07:39:00.000-07:00

so this blog kind of goes against a conversation that sam, meredith and i had about blogs, (kind of embarrassed to admit that we had a conversation about blogs) but this is going to be a serious one. this also goes against my policy to talk about my mission as little as possible, not because i didn't love my mission, but because i feel like that's all that rm's talk about and it's kind of nauseating.

one of the biggest lessons that i learned on my mission is what true humility is. humility is realizing one's dependence on the Lord for anything and everything and being able to recognize that he is the true source of all of our strengths and the only way that we can truly overcome our weaknesses. hence, as we become humble, our weaknesses can become our strengths. too often in the church we think that simply denying or down playing our God-given abilities is humility. this is the antithises of humility. not realizing what God has blessed you with does not make you humble, it only robs you of future opportunities to be blessed. it makes you ungrateful. ammon knew what humility was when he said that he doesn't boast of himself, but of his God. humility is realizing that you have been blessed with those specific traits to help better the world and also realizing that others strengths are your weaknesses and vice versa.

staying consistent with above definition of humility, i recognize that the Lord has blessed me with a creative mind. i think that i problem solve well. i think that at times i can be innovative. or maybe creative would suffice.

but with acknowledgement of my strengths comes an even more obtrusive weakness, that i often don't have the drive to carry out these ideas.

so what spurred this blog? i was eating one of my 16 boxes of cereal this morning, watching some podcasts, and there was a fairly new one from 'invisible children'. basically the jist of each of the videos is the same. present a new idea or project that they are working on in a aesthetically pleasing and 'call to action' sort of way. every time that i watch them, i am reinspired to change the world, or at least do something significant. i have this reoccuring complex that i'm not accomplishing anything significant. i feel like i'm always taking personal strides forward, but not really accomplishing anything of redeeming value to society.

over the break, i went to peru on a humanitarian trip. the most amazing 2 weeks of my life. my mission would be the best collective experience, but as an isolated 2 weeks, peru takes the cake. i don't think i've felt that much love and desire to help other people in such a concentrated way. and i definitely haven't felt it reciprocated like i have from those children.

from that trip, i gained inspiration. i gained a love for people.

with the return from my trip, that inspiration and love quickly waivered as i engrossed myself with academic and social pursuits. i have had a consistent nagging that i need to do something. today is the day that i decide. i am doing something. perfect opportunity and reason has come up as the orphange that i worked for has adopted 5 new children and is going to be needing to build a third dorm. they need money.

so i'm going to be doing some fun(d)raisers. hopefully enjoyable. hopefully profitable. hopefully getting people involved. there's a sense of self worth that accompanies service that i think that everyone needs to feel. so look alive. if you were patient enough to actually read this blog, i assume that it's something that you yourself are also feeling. and i want/need help.

i love life and am too blessed to look the other way. are born agains the only ones who can say thank the Lord? well, at any rate, thank the Lord.

on a side note, i just drank the milk from my cereal, and it went down the wrong tube and i almost coughed cereal all over my laptop. but luckily i didn't.

i can't pass up a good bargain.

2007-03-07T15:25:00.000-08:00

and that has both bit me in the butt and been for my benefit.

about 3 months ago, i bought a card that made it so i could get free oil changes, along with other random car fixer uppers for free. i got the card for $60, but upon completion of the card you get your $60 back. so i went today to get my oil changed and found that the place has gone out of business. and trent gets screwed.

after i came home, cameron told me that he bought 8 boxes of cereal for 8 dollars. needless to say, i went to smiths to buy some cereal and came home with 16 boxes of cereal and 16 boxes of granola bars, which were also 8 for 8. and trent gets his vindication.

christmas in march.

2007-03-04T22:57:00.000-08:00

I don't think that there's much more that i joy than a pleasant surprise, and it doesn't matter if i'm the surpriser or the surprisee. gifts are a very pleasant surprise. this weekend involved two very nice surprises. #1 i gave t beat street for valentine's day. amazon takes a really long time to operate apparently. lots of jumping, screaming and dancing.surprise 2: meredith gave me her navy sunglasses. pretty much every conversation we've had has involved the phrase "go navy", so for her to sacrifice her glasses really meant a lot.i think that i'm going to give a lot more presents to people. like flip books made out of post it notes. and homemade pogs.

america is nice

2007-02-27T15:12:00.000-08:00

...but i really want to travel so bad. here's my intended travel plans.

Spring 2007:
East Coast (NY, D.C.)
Hawaii
Hong Kong, China, Japan
Nepal

Winter 2007
Peru
or
Thailand and Hong Kong

Summer 2008
China. (Summer Olympics) Japan, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam
2009
Europe
and/or
Australia and New Zealand

2010
South Africa (World Cup)

anyone want to join?

method man is losing street cred.

2007-02-25T00:31:00.000-08:00

interviewer: is there anything else besides hip hop that you're listening to that people might be surprised to know.
method man: uh... haha (in falsetto) dance dance... i'm fallin uh doobudie dooo... yeah i like that sh*t right there... isn't that fall out boy?

meth... minus 10 points.

the white house needs more street cred.

2007-02-22T08:49:00.000-08:00

so i was listening to barack obama's podcast this morning, and was loving what i was hearing. he was talking about corruption in politics and changing congress from a republican majority to democratic majority was not enough. he said, we don't need to change the players, we need to change the game. what white candidate would use a phrase like that? in all reality, i don't know hardly anything about politics, what the differences between the candidates are, or even clearly understand the difference between a liberal and conservative, but i know i like a brotha. plus, if there's a black man in office, that'd give one less reason for black people to pull the race card. and one more for me to pull the race card.

if byu basketball is #21 in the nation

2007-02-20T17:21:00.000-08:00

why would the daily universe's front page article be on football players in the offseason? i mean honestly d.u.

and why do i have 129 friends on facebook now? i used to have 130. not that i pay that close of attention... 130 is just an easy number to remember... but who the eff deleted me as a friend? if i ever figure out, our real friendship will be over too.

kill em.

2007-02-19T17:04:00.000-08:00

This is in response to marcilyn's latest post.

i do not like las vegas.

2007-02-17T14:39:00.000-08:00

thursday night jordan, colby and i took of for vegas to go to our buddy will's wedding. drove through the night, got in at 4:30am and woke up at 8:30 to go to the festivities. eventually we made our way down to the strip where i made a realization:
las vegas really is sin city. very ridiculous. as i surmise, vegas has 6 things to offer:
1. gambling
2. sex or sex related activities
3. clubbing
4. shopping
5. shows ie. cirque di solei, pen and teller.
6. people watching

here's the problem. as a broke mormon, only number six is a viable option, but given the fact that vegas has probably more floosies per capita, it's not a very safe option. i haven't seen that much cleavage in a long time. but wow. there were some babes.

later i found out that i missed common on friday night, and there were in fact tickets for the dunk contest left. but oh well. still glad we left early cuz if we didn't, we would have been broke.
i did waste a dollar on the penny slots, but they're all electronic now anyways, it wasn't even fun.

i'm really not above using people.

2007-02-15T14:17:00.000-08:00

well, for the most part i am. but this guy in the wilk today approached me and here's how the conversation went:

him: hey, what are you doing this summer?
me: selling security.
him: oh cool. well we're doing the same sort of thing. if you have 15 minutes i want to explain something what we do.
me: you can take me out to dinner if you want.
him: sure no problem.

so, i'm going to get free tocano's. i love summer sales managers. so desperate.

what else would i do on valentine's day.

2007-02-14T19:29:00.000-08:00

last night at the ben kweller show, we got to talking about our "musical evolution" so to say. here's mine:

5th grade: my first album was greenday:dookie. i also loved tlc, boysIImen and blues traveler.6th grade: i started to get into ska, ie. reel big fish, goldfinger, suicide machines

7th grade: i completely forsook any sort of rock and was straight rap. biggie, 2pac, bone thugs, mase, puffy.

8th grade: similar. but i was introduced to blink 182 and mxpx and less than jake. started to like that. less than jake was my favorite band for several years and hello rockview started it all.9th: continued on that kick, getting into more pop punk and ska, like the hippos, no use for a name, millencolin, homegrown and pretty much anything that was on drive thru records. oh yeah, my first show was rx bandits in santa cruz.

10th grade: started getting into vagrant bands like saves the day, get up kids, alkaline trio. love love loved vagrant. kinda still do actually. through being cool is the album that i identify my high school years with.
11th grade: death cab, pedro the lion, and american football entered my life. kinda exposed me to the music i like now. yellowcard, new found glory and dashboard pretty much owned my cd player for a good two years. i saw new found glory and good charlotte together and thought that benji's single pink spike was so awesome. these bands introduced me to the kind of music that i now hate.12th grade: brand new and taking back sunday. yes. any jade tree band was a fave. started getting into hip hop like zion i, common, hieroglyphics, cunnilynguists, etc.

freshman year of college: loved saves the day. my favorite band. lots of brand new and taking back sunday. lots of pedro and death cab. lots of hip hop.

prior to my mission: death cab, postal service, and jay-z ruled my life.mission: dustin gledhill and efy

post mission: realized that i hated a lot of the music that i listened to before. i have no clue what i listen to now. everything. maybe i'll say that the last five albums that i've listened to are
1.tvontheradio:returntocookiemountain
2.blocparty:silentalarm
3.theroots:phrenology
4.air:talkiewalkie
5.outkast:bigboiandandrepresent...outkast

the five albums that really changed my taste in music with each one are featured in picture form.

this was actually really fun for me to take walk down memory lane like this.

my grandma.

2007-02-14T12:45:00.001-08:00

i was just checking my emails and ran across one from my aunt. i normally don't read emails from my extended family because they're mostly just forwards and nonsense, but i felt like i should read this one. it talked about how she started using goodsearch.com to raise money for the orphanage that i went to in peru, but went on to talk about my grandma who passed away one year ago. she told us to search her.

i proceeded to search, and found some emails that my cousins have written about my grandma. she was such an amazing person. served 3 missions, all after she was 60 years old. maybe 50. but regardless, all in the twilight of her life. i'm not even really sure if that's what that phrase refers to, but i'm going to roll with it. just amazing inspirational. always working. always serving. always making her life and the lives of those around her better. she was so brutally honest, said exactly what she thought, but everyone loved her for it because you knew that she never had any harmful intent.

she wasn't overly outspoken. most of the lessons that i learned from her were through her example. her life validated the addage "actions speak louder than words."

one of the things that she valued most were her relationships with her friends and most importantly family. i haven't visited my grandpa in a long time. i need to. i haven't seen my cousins in a long time. i need to.

time to prioritze my life i guess. it's too short not to.

i am:

2007-02-13T09:26:00.000-08:00

1. not able to pay attention in econ. i actually really like the class/subject matter, but i can't focus. (see internet addiction)
2. allergic to fruit. but i eat it anyways.
3. sick of white boy hustle.
4. what ever you say i am. if i wasn't then why would i say i am.
5. not excited to take two tests tomorrow.
6. very glad that Dr. Robinson's letting me take the test that i missed the deadline for.
7. in love with a stripper.
8. glad that dr. kearl just said "schlopes" instead of "slopes"
9. excited for hawaii.
10. broke.

podcasts

2007-02-10T03:10:00.000-08:00

i have gone on a ridiculous podcast binge-fest. i currently subscribe to 18 podcasts, 4 of which are different ones from indie-feed, my favorite being indie-feed hiphop. in addition to podcasts, i'm kind of addicted to ebay, facebook, steepandcheap.com, and wikipedia. the internet is dominating my life right now. must stop... 4am... bloggingggggg...

i want pumps. so bad.

2007-02-06T09:37:00.000-08:00

i cannot stop looking at and dreaming about these shoes. i'm even considering getting a job just to get them.

rapture rapes the muses

2007-01-25T15:21:00.000-08:00

rapture: ecstatic joy or delight; joyful ecstasy
rape: the unlawful compelling of a woman through physical force or duress to have sexual intercourse.
the: used, esp. before a noun, with a specifying or particularizing effect, as opposed to the indefinite or generalizing force of the indefinite article a or an): the book you gave me; Come into the house.
muse: 1. Classical Mythology.
a. any of a number of sister goddesses, originally given as Aoede (song), Melete (meditation), and Mneme (memory), but latterly and more commonly as the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne who presided over various arts: Calliope (epic poetry), Clio (history), Erato (lyric poetry), Euterpe (music), Melpomene (tragedy), Polyhymnia (religious music), Terpsichore (dance), Thalia (comedy), and Urania (astronomy); identified by the Romans with the Camenae.
b. any goddess presiding over a particular art.
2. (sometimes lowercase) the goddess or the power regarded as inspiring a poet, artist, thinker, or the like.

thus: ecstatic joy unlawfully compels sex on a goddess of poetry, art, or thinking.

3 cheers for of montreal.

i like life.

2006-12-19T17:43:00.000-08:00

I'm looking forward to going home. I love San Francisco. Almost more importantly I love the Cheesecake Factory, which to my delight is now in the Stoneridge Mall.
Is this going to be the most memorable Christmas of my life? I don't know. Probably not. Maybe, just because it's the most recent. But it will be my most memorable Christmas break because of my trip to Peru. I'm super excited and anticipating a life changing experience. I've been realizing how blessed I am and how nice my life really is, and I think being amongst 50 orphans will help me further realize that.
Based on my experiences in Peru, I might go to Uganda this summer. It's a six week trip. It's expensive. I won't make any money. I won't get any school out of the way. But realistically, what will have a greater impact on my life in a six week period than going to Uganda? Yeah, I'm gonna be broke, but how could I pass up a life changing experience like that? I guess I could pass it up pretty easily and do other stuff, but I don't really want to.
I love living life. Snowboarding is an adventure that is 20 minutes away. On deck for next semester is roadtrips, skiing in other states and possibly countries, bungee jumping, sky diving, moranis mondays, 90's pop dance parties, fundraising for orphanages in Peru and my trip for Uganda, working and making money, making beats, freestyling, getting straight A's, and living life.
<3 me.

tiny show guns

2006-10-01T21:47:00.000-07:00

went to see shiny toy guns but didn't. got there too late. missed their dang set. i don't know why club sound/in the venue/bricks 1)changes their name so dang much and 2) starts their shows at 6pm. from people that i talked to, i missed a lot. at least mute math was really good. i really didn't watch anything but their drummer. amazing. so freakin entertaining. good band.

i saw victim effect at the music school in american fork. second time i've been there and it is always twice as awkward as any other venue in provo. for some reason the average age, by my best judgement, at those shows is 14. makes me feel old. it was the second time i saw them and i did have fun, but listened to their music more. because 1) richie was there and he has a super critical music ear and 2) it was the second time i saw them and their gimmicks got a wee bit old. they play a fun high energy set, but their timing is not so hot, choreography gets old and their songs progress super weird and break up a natural flow to their songs. i moshed for the first time in easily 3 years. it was really funny. a small girl got knocked out cold. a jock got mad because he got pushed in the pit. i was bear foot, well bare foot actually, but i had the tenacity of someone with bear feet. dawn, the keyboardist, was swarmed by hoards of pre-pubescent boys and girls asking her to sign their shoes and various body parts. i got my groupie on and waited in the crowd to say hi to her. weird, because they're just a local band, but they actually have groupies.

damien

2006-09-28T15:49:00.000-07:00

ok. so i'm retarded and accidentally closed the window of the last post. work lost. oh well. more briefly, i saw damien jurado and the frontman for local act palomino at velour. entertaining on both accounts. beanie-clad palomino guy was fun. entertaining, great set of lungs on him. damien jurado of seattle is at the tail end of his tour. accompaning him is a pigtailed cellist and an expressionless adrian brody look alike on the drums, guitar and keys. damien had a comfortable, seasoned veteran feel to him on stage. cracking jokes. but not even really trying to be funny. just was.

monday night football

2006-09-25T23:06:00.000-07:00

It's interesting the emotional ties that people develop for various reasons. First of all, ESPN, from a advertising point of view has done an amazing job of furthering the cultural phenomenon of sports and more specifically Monday Night Football. ESPN's coverage of MNF tonight did an amazing job of tying sports into our lives and the significant role that it plays in our culture. The game took place in the hurricane ravaged city of New Orleans, in the the newly renovated and revamped Superdome. The pregame show focused on the destruction and rebuilding process of N.O., but more signifcantly on the people involved, and the lives changed by such an event. The significance of this game to the people of N.O., I think, is something that I can't really understand because I don't have the same insight and experiences that they have, but to me it was such a sign of things starting to change and move in the right direction. I dunno, I was inspired, for what that's worth. oh. saints won 23-3.

mustache.

2006-09-24T21:30:00.000-07:00

i've grown my mustache for 3 1/2 glorious weeks. but it's going to end this week. it's been a good run, but i guess all good things have to end. but in reality, it's been the ugliest 3 1/2 weeks i've ever lived.

facing new york.

2006-09-24T21:09:00.000-07:00

So I was having a slow Saturday night, slowed by my tiredness. I was in a "stay at home mood", when I remembered that Facing New York was playing at Velour. First of all, I like Velour a lot. The fact that Provo has produced a reputable venue is really beyond my comprehension, but that's besides the point. Second and more importantly is the fact that Facing New York's frontman is Eric Frederic, formerly of Locale A.M., aka Trent's high school idols. So I threw on some shoes, already dressed from a bbq in the early evening, and headed over to Velour. I came in the middle of FNY's set, and was greeted with the same energy that I fell in love with in the Locale days, but was pleased to find a more "mature" feel and a fuller sound, but disappointed because it was a little less danceable. I really love music I can dance to, which is why I'm so excited for Shiny Toy Guns this Friday. I did buy the self-titled album, and find it to be OK. The music is the kind that I like to listen to when accompanied by a lively live set, but listening to the album, not as much. It was good to see Eric, as well as Hans from my favorite live band ever, Before Braille, and Asian Eddie from The Sugarland Run. It was flashback to pre-mission local rock icons. Fun. To say the least.

ramblesandbambles

2006-09-10T18:55:00.000-07:00

i guess this blog is just going to be more of matters of no redeeming value. i keep a journal for things of that nature. last night i saw uzi and ari at starry night. i'm not really going to try to claim to be any sort of critic or anyone with any credible opinion at all, but rather write as a fan of music and somebody with a completely untrained ear and unprofessional writing style. uzi and ari is a band that has recently been finding it's way to my ipod almost daily. perhaps it was in anticipation of the upcoming show, but regardless i've been listening to it a lot. the show was at starry night in provo, which was filled with 30 or so kids sitting in chairs, sofas or on the ground. judging by the nodding heads and hands tapping legs, the crowd was generally "feeling" uzi and ari. i've really only listened to one of their albums, "it is freezing out", so many of the songs were greek to me. i don't actually know if that term is supposed to imply that it is fam or unfamiliar, but my intent was unfamiliar. the set was loud. starry night is far from "the big time" and the production of the show reflected that. quite vox, loud guitars. in spite of that, i loved the set. really fun music, great build ups to sections that "rock", easy to love. after was some old provo guy. uber talented guitarist/singer w/a lot on his mind. he is really trying to change, well, open the minds of whoever is within earshot of his lyrics, but also realizes that that is most often teens of people at most. a projector played images corresponding with his lyrics which effectively drove home the emotion of the subject matter of each song which ranged from abuse to pride, all songs with the overriding theme of man as the root of many of societies problems. far fetched perhaps, but based on a lot of solid evidence and arguments that he made musically. overall. uzi and ari: i like. other guy:i like.

check check.

2006-09-10T18:41:00.001-07:00

not really much to say on this sabbath day. i guess i'm happy i'm in provo. where else do you see 2 apostles and a member of the first presidency in one day? president monson was really candid today and i enjoyed it a lot. i felt like it was a side of him that wouldn't come out under normal circumstances, apart from a conference setting in which he was alotted a large block of time like today. i think i let myself get a bit absorbed in sports. i've probably watched like 10 hours of sports this weekend. i figure that's why i want to do what i want to do. and what i want to do is why i'm writing what i'm writing. i guess less the content of the writing and more the fact that i'm writing is what i'm referring too.