Finished the Book of Mormon, again!

So I finished the Book of Mormon for the umpteenth time this last week. It's been a while since I've done that, but I'm committed to doing better. It was really cool reading through the story in Ether of the Jaredites, I think it's a story that gets looked over a lot and read a lot less often since it's towards the end of the book. It's also pretty depressing, *SPOILER ALERT* everybody dies. Although it is a great reminder of why it's important to stay close to the Lord and the gospel. I just deleted all of the George Carlin skits off my computer today, as funny as the man is, he is also incredibly crude, and doesn't help increase the spiritual capacity of the man who listens too it. In fact he could be described as one of the deceiving and false Christs that are brought up in the scriptures. Next step, get the inappropriate rap music off my hard drive, ugh, that's going to be a hard one...

Blind Date

So after 3 months of absence, I'm back, hopefully in a more regular fashion than I have been. So I went on a blind date Saturday, (insert lame joke about date being actually blind here). I had never met the girl or even seen a picture of her before, I got set up through a friend/supervisor at work. This is only the second blind date I've ever been on, and the only one where I was picking her up by myself. First impressions? Cute and nerdy, just what i'm looking for :) So I we proceeded to go to Applebee's for dinner where we me up with my friend who had set us up. We then went back to her house and played a card game that was basically phase 10 with face cards. After leaving my friends house, we spent at least an hour or 2 talking in my car outside her house just getting to know each other better. All in all it was pretty fun, there was no instant fireworks or anything, but she seemed up for a second date, so she said to call her later in the week and see what her schedule was like. We'll see how that goes. All in all an enjoyable night with good food and people.

My celeb look alikes

2 and 1/2 months

So I'm horrible at blogging, like I didn't know that already. Crazy thing is not much has changed, and yet things will be changing very soon. After attending a movie Friday night, I sat down with one of my good friends and we talked for about 3 hours about this new job opportunity he has found. After pondering and considering my sanity, I have decided to change jobs and give it a whirl. So after 3 and a half years of service to Harland (now HarlandClarke), I am putting in my 2 weeks notice tomorrow. I am excited, scared, relieved, and worried, but I guess that goes with any kind of life change. The job will be working for Prosper, a financial consulting company based here in good ol' Utah. I will be qualifying debt ridden people to see if they are able to qualify to speak to a financial coach and get their finances back in order. After hearing that my friend has doubled my salary in the last 2 month while doing half the work I have done, won numerous prizes that they apparently give away on a regular basis, and helped people by getting them out of debt in the process, I have decided this is the right decision for me. On top of all of this, you have no set schedule, you can come in as little or as much as you want to, and you stilll get paid by the hour (so obviously you still need to go in, but there's no worrying about scheduling vacation time, time off for emergencies, when you can pee, how long your lunch can be, etc.). They have apparently learned what more businesses need to learn, if you treat your employee's well, they will treat you well. We will also be able to carpool, which will save more money. Also, he actually has fun at his job, instead of going home wishing he was somewhere else, doing something else. He is on the best team in the call center (of course, everyone says that about their team right?), and will be able to get me on the same team. I'll keep you updated as things progress (hopefully).

Reading update

So I've finished 2 Dean Koontz books in the past 2 weeks since my last post. I read Mr Murder, a sci-fi mystery type tale where a man discovers that he's been cloned and his clone has been bred as a contract killer, who eventually seeks out his origins. I really enjoyed it, as I always do with Dean Koontz books. The main characters family is just awesome, and his kids say the darndest things. The second book I read was The Husband. I enjoyed this one even more than Mr Murder, even though it follows the typical we have kidnapped your wife and want X amount of dollars for you to get her back. It puts a fresh spin on this formula though as the man is a gardener of no importance, and needs to figure out where in the heck he is going to get the money to buy his wife's release. I've checked out 2 more Dean Koontz books from the library for the next couple weeks, and I'm sure I'll be reading those fervently.

Kiss and Run

So in my quest to read more books, I recently read Kiss and Run by Elina Furman. This book was suggested to me by a great friend, to help me understand why girls have commitment issues. First of all, the multiple uses of the word quasi stood out to me, as this is a word my friend who suggested the book to me uses quite often. It basically breaks women with commitment issues down into 7 different catagories:

The Nitpicker - The girl looking for the literally perfect guy, meets every qualification and then some to a T, down to the very last detail.

The Serial Dater - Gets a buzz from quickly jumping from one relationship to another, sometimes multiple relationships at the same time.

The Tinker Bell - Dates inappropriate or unavailable men so they don't have to commit.

The Free Spirit - Can't commit because she's more committed to some other pursuit.

The Damsel in Distress - Guys suck, they're all jerks, I won't deal with them.

The Player - Gets a thrill not from jumping from one relationship to the next, but from jumping from one bed to the next.

The Long Distance Runner - Commits half heartedly into a relationship for an extended period of time before breaking it off, and then jumping into another long term relationship.

Eek, maybe I should just post on my online profile that I want a woman who loves me, whom I find attractive, has at least 2 similar interests, and doesn't have commitment issues, beyond that, there isn't much more I should be looking for...

Books

So I've been playing a lot less video games over the past few months (excluding my Nintendo DS, I'm a Sudoku addict). I thought maybe it was just because of school, but I'm starting to think that they just aren't captivating me the way they used to when I was a child. I mean, my favorite Final Fantasy game was II (IV in Japan), and that was at least 15 Final Fantasy's ago if you count the different series on various platforms. I have however been watching a lot more movies, mostly due to the fact that I have a Blockbuster online membership. I've been feeling a gap lately though, and one of my good friends (who is a bookaholic), has recently perked my interest again in reading. Now, I haven't steadily read any books for enjoyment since high school, so I'm thinking I'm gonna get back into the game of reading. We'll see how that goes...

Spiderman on David Letterman

Ah Dave, so many crazy, meaningless antics...

Jimmy Kimmel Live Scrabble Champs

This one's for you Jennie :)

It's Over!

So, I had a talk with a certain someone the other night, and we are just going to go back to being just friends now, with no possibility of moving past that. I've kinda just been hoping she'd make a decision in one direction or the other, so at least I can put my mind at ease on that topic. I've also prepared myself for a no for the past few weeks, as we haven't really seen each other much, ans she wasn't really making time to try and see me. I think it's good, there's a lot of things I was wanting that just weren't happening, and probably weren't going to happen. I've done this with one friend, although that was much more of a mutual "this isn't going to work" than my most recent relationship. Hopefully the fact that the kiss never happened, and that it never really felt like we were doing more than hanging out as friends, will make it easier to transition back to how it was. I think it's for the best. Now, it's back to the dating rat race!

TWENTY NINE LINES TO MAKE YOU SMILE

I hate forwarding emails, so I'll post this to my blog instead!

1.. My husband and I divorced over religious differences. He thought he was God and I didn't.
2.. I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it.
3.. Some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them.
4.. I used to have a handle on life, but it broke.
5.. Don't take life too seriously; No one gets out alive.
6.. You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me.
7.. Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.
8.. Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.
9.. I'm not a complete idiot -- Some parts are just missing.
10.. Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.
11. NyQuil, the stuffy, sneezy, why-the-heck-is-the-room-spinning medicine.
12.. God must love stupid people; He made so many.
13.. The gene pool could use a little chlorine.
14.. Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.
15.. Ever stop to think, and forget to start again?
16.. Being "over the hill" is much better than being under it!
17.. Wrinkled Was Not One of the Things I Wanted to Be When I Grew up.
18.. Procrastinate Now!
19. I Have a Degree in Liberal Arts; Do You Want Fries With That?
20.. A hangover is the wrath of grapes.
21.. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance.
22.. Stupidity is not a handicap. Park elsewhere!
23.. They call it PMS because Mad Cow Disease was already taken.
24.. He who dies with the most toys is nonetheless DEAD.
25.. A picture is worth a thousand words, but it uses up three thousand times the memory.
26.. Ham and eggs. A day's work for a chicken, a lifetime commitment for a pig.
27.. The trouble with life is there's no background music.
28.. The original point and click inter face was a Smith & Wesson.
29.. I smile because I don't know what the hell is going on.

Songs that remind you of people... (part 2)

This song, every verse, is EXACTLY how I'm feeling:

MARC ANTHONY - I NEED TO KNOW

They say around the way
You've asked for me
There's even talk about
You wanting me
I must admit thats what
I want to hear
But that's just talk
Until you take me there

Chorus:

If it's true don't leave me
All alone out here
Wondering if you're ever
Gonna take me there
Tell me what you're feeling
cause I need to know
Girl you gotta let me know
Which way to go
cause I need to know
I need to know
Tell me baby girl
cause I need to know
I need to know
I need to know
Tell me baby girl
cause I need to know

My every thought
Is of this being true
Its getting harder
Not to think of your
Girl I'm exactly
Where I want to be
The only things
I need you here with me

Embarrasing Moments...

Don't you just love em? So I was on my way out of class the other night when my foot got caught on the leg of a chair and sent me sprawling towards the ground. Luckily I caught myself on the rows of desks to either side of me, but my knees hit pretty hard. I had jeans on, so the damage wasn't too bad, but I have a little bit of swelling on my left knee which took most of the brunt of the attack. Nobody laughed, I think they were either being really polite or were actually concerned for my well being. Either way, gotta love embarrassing moments.

Michael needs...

Following Jennie's blog, here's my list of Michael's needs from Google, some of the results I excluded due to content, I'll let you do your own Google search if you wanna see what I mean:

Michael needs mum - Yeah it's true, I love my mom.

Michael needs help...now - Yes, lots of help, both of the relationship and the heavenly kind, both of which I receive, so thanks to Jennie for the first, and God for the second :)

Michael needs you - Depends on who, but if you read this blog (considering that's like 2 people), then it's probably true, I need you.

Michael needs to be whipped until he's blue - Hey I'm not perfect, but until I'm blue? That's a little excessive don't you think?

Michael needs photographs of both sides of the animal - It's true, I'm a 3 dimensional learner.

Karma doesn't exist

Wow, who would have thought right? I have this awesome philosophy of religion teacher that proved to me the other night that Karma is a bunch of hooey. Let me explain:

If someone does something bad to someone, they deserved it! If they deserved it, you can' t hold the person responsible who dished out the justice responsible for their crime. If you can't hold that person responsible, you can't hold anyone responsible for anything they do wrong. I mean, we don't put the person who pulls the switch on the electric chair in jail, do we?

There's some other proof, but this is the strongest argument, and I like it!

Dune - A mystery science theatre movie waiting to happen

Sigh. So I watched the movie Dune Monday night with my brother. Made in 1984, I heard only heard about the movie because of one of my favorite comedians, Dane Cook (I hate it when the movie Dune is in my drink). I figured it's gotta be entertaining. Well it was entertaining, entertaining to make fun of! Now yes I realize it's 24 years old but Star Wars (Ep IV-VI, we won't speak of the other Star Wars episodes here) is older and a much better movie. Now the special effects were great, especially for the 80's, and the story was okay, but it has mystery science theater written all over it. My brother and I made our own mystery science theater comments through the whole movie, which was the only way to make it bearable. Even Patrick Stewart wasn't able to save this movie. I think I'll go watch The Last Starfighter about 5 times to try and get this movie out of my head now.

Songs that remind you of people...

I really need to post more often, I usually forget I have a blog until one of my friends (thanks Sam) reminds me that I haven't posted for a long time and they are dying to read something new. So on my way home tonight, I was listening to the song Auf Achse by Franz Ferdinand, the chorus of which goes:

You see her, you can't touch her
You hear her, you can't hold her
You want her, you can't have her
You want to, but she won't let you

Kinda parallels how I'm feeling right now. I was also listening to "She's got issues" by the Offspring:

And I know she's afraid to commit
But it's only our second date...
Oh man she's got issues
And I'm gonna pay
She says she's the victim
But she takes it all out on me

Now to be fair, she's really not taking anything out on me, but it's hella stressful. Also, it's hard to stay committed and fall in love with someone, if you're not sure why they aren't feeling the same way back after 3 months of dating. She says she's "trying something different" in her relationship with me, which both excites and scares the shizznet out of me.

But I digress. So your goal this week, is while listening to your music, give some thought to the people in your life that may match the music's lyrics.

Love update

So it's been several weeks as usual since my last entry, but it's sunday and I've got some free time so here's an update. So Valentine's night I didn't end up being able to hang out with Anna, so instead we ended up hanging out the next night instead. At the end of the night, I went in for the kiss, but she buried her head in my chest and said she didn't feel ready to kiss yet, and that she was too shy. Through future conversations, I've found out that the last few relationships she's been in everything seems to be going fine and moving toward marriage, but then she prays about it and recieves a pretty distinct no. She said she's not quire ready to recieve another no if that is what she's going to recieve about us, and she needs time to prepare herself for that. Of course I have the patience to wait for her, but now I'm afraid of waiting for a long time only to get a no from her. For the time being though, we're still holding hands, snuggling during movies, and going on walks together. I'm mostly okay with this at the moment, but the urgency to move things forward keeps tugging at the back of my mind. You have to think about marriage when you are dating someone, no matter what stage of the relationship you are currently in. I hate to refer to the old saying, but it pertains. Women, can't live with them, can't live without them. Good thing is that Anna's said she couldn't date anyone for more than a year before either marrying them or breaking up, so at least I'll have an answer by Christmas :)

Awwwww love.....

Sweet sweet love. Yes, I'm in love! She and I held hands for the first time on our 2 hour walk Saturday night, and she was lingering at the door last night, she even asked if I needed anything, but I wasn't sure if it was a kissing sign or not. So I just said, "Just my hug". Oh well, I've commited myself to planting that first kiss on Valentines day. Gah! The pressure!