song beneath a song

I tend to fall behind on my blogging when I'm at home, mostly because I don't get wireless Internet when I'm at my mom's place and, for whatever reason, I don't like blogging on my mom's computer. But I've had a lot I've wanted to blog about over the past week, so here I am. At the same time, I don't feel like the multiple subjects I've been wanting to blog about are worthy of an entire post; this post will be a collection of smaller ideas and thoughts that may or may not be worthy of an isolated blogging event; I'm combining them in a single post (I love a sentence with more than one semicolon).

So this is kinda long so feel free to go refill your beverage or go to the bathroom.

OK, welcome back.

Bye bye, BYU-I
I graduated. So this particular topic is probably blog worthy of itself, but being that it was such an anticlimactic experience for myself, I'm more than content to keep it to one paragraph. People keep asking me how it feels to be graduated. My response is always something like, "Well, it's nice not to have to get up for class in the morning." Maybe I'd be more excited if I had a job . . . I mean, cuz that's what you go to school for, right?

Universe, you win!
There is an episode of The Office entitled "The Return" where Michael convinces Dwight to come back to work at Dunder Mifflin (sp?) after Dwight is bullied into quitting. At the beginning of the episode Jim -- Dwight's nemesis and antithesis -- says something along the lines of, "Alright Universe, you win! I miss Dwight!" (I tried to find a clip of this on YouTube but to no avail). I'm sure I complained about Rexburg at least once a day during the five semesters I was there (well, maybe not so much in the summer, but I made up for it during the winter months). Then, last night as I was talking to Leah, I realized how much I miss it. Maybe it's the people, maybe it's that the people I love are just beginning what will no doubt be another fun-filled summer semester . . . whatever the case, I miss Rexburg. To Leah, Kari, Zach, Harper, Thome, Ford, Vickie, Nadia, Tori, Amy, Dan, Billy, Erin, and Nudie: I miss you.

TV on DVD
OK, so I was gonna write something about how Heroes season 2 is kinda weak but I just watched an episode that was pretty good so my faith is restored (for now, anyway).

My Hardest
This past week I've enjoyed reconnecting with old friends. As a result, I've picked up some of their lingo, especially in the usage of the words "hard" and "weak". It's common to use these words in their superlative form, combined with a possessive adjective. For example, "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is my hardest Flaming Lips album," or "Maladroit is my weakest Weezer album." Anyway, I just wanted to make you aware of this so you understand if I happen to say something along those lines. (The derivation of this form of speech can be traced back to one or two persons; hopefully they won't think I'm a lame poser if I include this in my vernacular.)

"Now, I've been smilin' lately"
It's not a secret that I love Cat Stevens. For this reason, it sometimes hacks me when people rag on him for his conversion to Islam. I realize there is/was some controversy surrounding him for his supposed involvement in and funding of radical terrorist groups. But let's get real, the guy continues to win awards for his humanitarian work; sure, he's not Mother Theresa, but he's no terrorist. It hacks me when people pigeonhole Muslims. It's ironic because of all the people I met on my mission Muslims were often the most sincere, faithful, and open-minded people. They would listen and care when "Christians" would slam the door.

Yusuf Islam is my hardest.

"His eyes closed and he slept."
How awesome is Leah? For a graduation present she gave me this:


Yeah. That's East of Eden, first edition. This book is my hardest; what I love about this battered copy is that it's proof that I'm not the only one who thinks so (either that, or someone let it sit in their attic for a bit too long, as Leah put it). Anyway, I've noticed a general sentiment concerning Leah in the blog world and on Facebook. It seems like people are always quick to point out how pretty she is or how she has great style and dresses nice, etc. While these things are indeed true, I think they are insignificant compared to how thoughtful, caring, and selfless she is. I know I'm not the only one who appreciates this about her; it just makes me think that maybe some people don't know her well enough to realize that her outer goodness is far from being the best thing about her. Anyway, I hope she doesn't hate me for singling her out like this . . . I just thought this was important enough to be said.