This One Goes Out to All You Ladies Out There

For all you lovely ladies who didn't go to the Priesthood Session of General Conference, to you I say, "You missed out!" Sure, you'll be able to read all the talks when they come out. And at least three of them were repeats of past talks. But the part you'll perhaps never witness was the closing number by the BYU choir. I can literally say I've never heard a more beautiful song in my life. I've heard a few that were perhaps as beautiful, but that was shear exhileration. It was Sibelius' tune Be Still My Soul. A few times they all hit the same note so well that it sounded like one singer. It was a capella. I was blown away. You could tell that everyone who stuck around for the closing hymn (a lot of doughheads leave after President Hinckley closes) was so amazed that you could hear a pin drop on the carpet. I pray they'll do that number again before I die. Maybe at my funeral.

Other news. I might be done with school in December. Yea. Now I can be a miserable contributing member of society. I make an end of mine epistle.

Student Advisory Committee

The SAC (just like the BYUSA:)) has lots of great ideas to help transform BYU into a more friendly and accomodating university. And many of them are very feasible: ideas such as building a force field around campus to protect us from the elements, and installing automatic door openers on every door on campus. I have a suggestion to go along with theirs.

I've wanted a climbing wall installed. And to go along with that idea, why not just put those fake stones all up the corners of the Kimball Tower? The corners of the SWKT are indented which means you could have eight walls in all and all you would have to do is add those stones for some easy routes, and add a few slabs of plywood for a more advanced climb. It would take some time to climb around 15 stories (or however tall that building is), which means the lines might be akin to those at Disneyland (I hate that place (or at least I say I do--it's not that bad)). So to lessen the lines, you could do what Lagoon does and charge a fee to wait in line and then another fee to climb a particular wall. That way, the wall will pay for itself and more. What's best is the fact that you have billions of burgeoning nurses in that building just waiting to pick up your pieces and glue them back together. What do you say? Is that SAC material or what?

Frustration

I'm feeling frustrated. There's too much to do in life and half of it is WASTE!!!!

The Spawn of Allison

That's right! Allison and Chris have just announced the future conception of Whirlwind number 3. I don't believe it has a name yet because they don't know the gender, but no doubt it will be a great name like Shear-Jashub or Maher-shalah-hash-baz. Didn't Isaiah have good taste in names?

Speaking of biblical (or bookofmormonical things), I learned new stuff from reading Jacob 5 again. I'd highly recommend it. It's amazing. It's the shortest 77 verses of your life.

My internship woes are weighing more and more heavily on me as time goes on. The thing that almost makes it worse than dating is that there's an actual deadline. Although, on the plus side, once I get one, I'll understand what I'm supposed to do. Hmmmm....

I'm going to go watch the U.S. Amateur Dancesport Championships now while you all won't. But maybe you'll all get to see the championship BYU basketball game tonight. They'll both be good. IT'LL BE MARCH MADNESS SOON! WHOOOPEEEEEE!

Pinky & the Brain

I have to start this blog with the best news of perhaps my life. I was given Volume 1 for Valentines Day. It's hard to believe that I haven't watched all 4 DVD's yet, but I've almost seen 3 of them and I'm loving every minute of it. I often wonder why I love it so much. Probably because they (Pinky and the Brain) represent opposite ends of spectra of which I'll never be a part. I've always held a staunch philosophy that most of the time (certainly not all of the time) there is a perfect middle-o'-the-road way of going about things. But it doesn't mean I don't enjoy the antics of Pinky and the megalomaniacal endeavors of the Brain.
So, what's new in the life of CTMJ? Well, in school I'm building things. Yes, I'm practicing how to become an actual contributing member of society. My dad wants a trellis for his garden to make it that much more beautifuller, so I'm going to create the nicest trellis this world has ever seen as I have mastered the fine art of Tungsten Gas Arc Welding (or TIG). I bought $40 worth of steel that is now rusting outside of the Crabtree building. I'll laugh if no one steals it.

I also have to do a Plastics project so I thought I'd make myself a couple pair of snowshoes. Unfortunately, the aluminum alloy I want to make them with will cost about $100. Is it worth it? Am I really going to find time go snowshoeing? Am I really going to find that special someone who cares about me enough to traverse a trecherous mountainside and then turn their bodies into a projectile on the way back down?

I need an internship. Anybody got one for me? I have got mad skillz; for instance, yesterday I cleaned my bedroom without incident. I'd like to see YOU clean my bedroom with or without incident.

The last crazy thing I'm attempting to tackle is to play Flight of the Bumblebee on my viola. I looked for a copy at the MAD Library so I could listen to it before I played it and we didn't have it. But what we did have, and I should have guessed, was a rendition by the tuba. I don't know much about playing the tuba except that you probably need substantial lung capacity as well as lips with wickedly well-oiled hinges. Maybe I should switch instruments. My lips need to be doing something if they aren't kissing girls.

When I started this post I thought I had some cool things to say. Now I know I was wrong. Wait! Yes! I went to my friend Lexi's wedding reception. Never in my wildest dreams did I think wedding reception could be so amazing. It was the first time in my life using valet parking. The country club was gorgeous and my favorite part--THERE WAS NO LINE! I hate lines. People were just mixing, mingling, and enjoying whatever with whomever. Brilliant. It was also great to see the whole Maxwell family. Most of the time I see bits and pieces of the family. Lexi looked absolutely gorgeous of course. And their whole family looked happy unlike so many other weddings I've been to where the look on their faces say "Am I at a funeral or a wedding?" My only complaint was that I was too stupid for words and took my date out to eat before the wedding so I couldn't eat any of the food they had. It looked better than most 5 star restaurants. I'll be kicking myself forever.

My sister Ashley is next. I begged and pleaded that she use them as an example of how to do a good wedding, but my mom insists on having a line (of which I refuse to be part) and Ashley said she would rather start her marriage out with a decent couch and living room chairs rather than feed people something other than what elephants get at the circus. Oh the tradeoffs. I offered to do the food so it might be better than that, but I can only do so much for 350 people and a budget of $12. Bah humbug.