To your left... Saturn

Just a warning to everyone that this is going to be one of the biggest Stephen posts I have ever posted. What if you were ejected into space, and could survive somehow, just floating around getting farther and farther away from earth? What would you miss the most in the beginning? And then after that and so on? You would see some pretty amazing things no doubt floating around in space. What would you feeeel? I think lonely is the most obvious answer. How would you spend your time floating around? And finally, what does all this meeeaaaan? (Irene - I really want to watch power yoga).

It stirreth deep within me

Listen to this singer from Portugal. Her name is Amalia Rodrigues and she is singing a style of music called "fado." Rarely have I heard anyone sing with this much passion, and it touches the soul! It's like when you listen to Stevie Wonder or Marvin Gaye and you start moving your head along with the music like a jazz trumpet player.


Another singer I enjoy listening to is Miriam Makeba from South Africa. I found out about her when Sam brought over some records he got for free from the BYU library. I put her record on and I was captivated. She has a powerful, yet playful, voice.

I haven't seen something this funny since cats that look like Hitler

In one of my classes there is a girl that sits in front of me that always has one of these cat posters as wallpaper on her computer. In the words of Rich, "laaaame". I don't even secretly like this.

I Do Not Like Them Sam I Am

Who knew the man who gave us this
Also gave us this
Yesterday while Whitney was in California and I was kicked out her apartment while they sprayed for bed bugs I thought I'd kill some time over at Barnes and Noble where I stumbled upon this gem. 

It was still a little to much for me to buy so I just sat there and went through the pictures.  When I got home I figured there had to be some of this stuff online.  After a quick google search I came upon this website. It has a lot of his war cartoons. It's pretty interesting to see the stuff that drew up. Thoughts anybody? 

My Shredder Slammer is Lucky: The History of Pogs

Guess where pogs were invented? Hawai'i! This is how I found out. I first noticed a drink here called POG (Passion fruit, Orange, Guava). I then heard a story from a classmate that a man shot his brother-in-law over pogs. I was talking about that story at branch potluck last sunday with the EQP when he informed me that Pogs was founded in Hawai'i! It started with a math teacher on the north shore of O'ahu who would use the caps from the POG drink cartons in the '20s. It was brought back into popularity by none other than a Canadian games company. You can read the rest on wikipedia.

How did pogs ever become popular? What was it about pogs that attracted kids all over the world to embrace the simple game? Maybe it's just the urge inside of all of young children to gamble. That's why I loved pogs. I would even make 'trick' pogs by ripping off the colour side so both sides were white. That way, I would at least have one pog in play to insure victory. I had a shredder slammer too, it was like a ninja star, but it was a slammer.

I Saved Latin! What Did You Ever Do?

Dear Friends,

I apologize for my lack of blogging.  I really don't have any good reasons for not blogging.  Well I guess I have been busy with the whole MCAT and med school applications.  Oh yeah and that whole wedding thing. Less than two weeks till the unlimited juice party which is going to be off the hook! 

Speaking of hook...

Tonight I'm going to be bait.  Bait for what you might ask?  What exactly are you fishing for? Well folks we're going fishing for bed bugs.  Over the past two weeks Whit has been getting these red bumps and we're convinced they are from bed bugs seeing that they show up in the morning. This morning the bug dude came and looked around and didn't believe us. He thinks that it's a "dermilogical" thing even though we told him we found a dead bug that according to the pictures on wikipedia to us looked like a bed bug (unfortunately we lost it so we couldn't show it to him). 

So tonight we're going fishing for bed bugs and I'm going to be the bait.  Since I haven't been bitten we should be able to see if I get any bites tonight.  Whitney says she's going to come bust in in the middle of the night and try to catch the bugs red handed. We really hope that there aren't bed bugs cuz it's going to be a pain to get rid of but if there are we want to get rid of the ASAP so we don't come home from our wedding to a bug filled bed. 

UPDATE: Right before I was about climb into the bed we noticed one crawling at the head of the bed. Right now that sucker is sitting inside a ziplock bag to await it's fate in the morning.

Mom's awesome, maybe we should call her

How often have you caught yourself doing this. You're studying. Doing something completely effective, but then all of a sudden you need to watch Sunny in Philadelphia on Hulu, look at things you won't buy, or attempt to break your own record on expert minesweeper.

Ya, I don't know what it is. But I HAVE to beat my record. Is this just nerdy... OR am I secretly training for the moment when I have to navigate a group of war torn survivors through a mine field "Wait! Don't step there... I've done this before. There are 5 mines in this area but over there it just says one. Both proximities share that same mine. We can step there, there, there, and there"

I have noticed something else happening to me. After my mission, I remember watching Pirates of the Caribbean and feeling completely mind blown - "Woah! That was the most intense action ever!". Now that I practically never have time to sit and watch movies, I made an oath, I would watch a movie Saturday night. I watched "War of the Worlds" (part of my roommates collection) and I had that same withdrawal feeling - "Woah! This movie is INTENSE!" Even though I KNOW "BYU me" would have been "Laaaaaame."

You look like Michael Phelps... but better looking

I'm getting, "you look like Michael Phelps" a lot since the Olympics. I'm not sure I saw the resemblance until someone pointed out that I was like a BETTER looking version of Michael Phelps. I understand now, I only have his best features. Rich isn't the only one who looks like celebrities! Check out the evidence, what do you think?

Those abs look pretty accurate to mine, though my nipples are a wee bit smaller

Yes, I see it... do you? Note my head tilt...