Free Agent Status!

I auditioned for Hale Center Theater this past weekend. I was excited when I got callbacks. I went into callbacks on Monday evening and I had quite the experience there. It was amazing. For starters, I have never been around so many talented singers before in my life. HOLY COW!!! I am incredibly flattered that they would even consider me to be somewhere around that level. Just to give you an idea of the caliber of singers that were there, I sat next to Rigoletto. FREAKING RIGOLETTO!!! That's right, the "You sing like a goat" guy.

Second, I realized that I have a lot to learn about performing, and especially performing under pressure. The nice lady sitting on the other side of me was very kind and would tell me every so often "Relax :D" I was trying to hide it so well too.

In any case, this means I'm a free agent. There are a few other plays I might audition for, and we'll see if I can get into any of those. I have alot of time next semester, so I will try to get into something. If not, I guess I could always... *gasp* DO HOMEWORK!!!

Rock Art part 2

After my lab was done, I started walking from the engineering building to the Institute building. I passed the spot where the tower of rocks had been. They were still there, but they had been slightly altered. :D

Rock Art

So I was walking to the engineering building just now, deep in thought about how I am going to survive finals. The sidewalk to the engineering building has a median of rocks. Big rocks, medium rocks, and little rocks, sissy rocks, rocks that climb on kids... all kinds.

As I was passing, I noticed one big rock had several medium and small rocks very carefully placed on top of it, in an interesting looking tower. There were some grounds keepers doing some work around that area, and one of them saw the rocks, and came over shouting "What the Heck is This?"

Another grounds keeper came up saying "What? You don't like it?"

"Heck no! you're doing it all wrong. You call yourself an artist?

"I thought it was emotionally moving!"

I couldn't help myself. I started laughing out loud! My outlook on the next few weeks has improved dramatically :D

Finished!

I finally finished a project I've been working on for a while now. I've gone through the entire German translation of the Book of Mormon and counted all of the references to the Savior I could find. I counted everything: Symbols, pronouns, everything I could think of. I've been working on it off and on, which is why it's taken a while. Anyway, it's done now :D

Keep in mind that I did it in German, and the German language uses a few more pronouns than english does, so there might be a few more that I counted that aren't in the english Book of Mormon. I should also mention that there were some points in the Book of Mormon where it was a little fuzzy as to whether they were referring to the Savior, or to Heavenly Father, so I just used my best judgment. Also keep in mind that there may have been some symbols that I didn't pick up on because of my spiritual immaturity.

Final count:

Number of references to the Savior in....
1st Nephi: 688
2nd Nephi: 1230
Jacob: 374
Enos: 44
Jarom: 11
Omni: 29
Words of Mormon: 11
Mosiah: 719
Alma: 1104
Helaman: 352
3rd Nephi: 1204
4th Nephi: 40
Mormon: 195
Ether: 458
Moroni: 176

Total: 6635


References to the Savior per Chapter (average):
1st Nephi: 31.27
2nd Nephi: 37.27
Jacob: 53.43
Enos: 44
Jarom: 11
Omni: 29
Words of Mormon: 11
Mosiah: 24.79
Alma: 17.52
Helaman: 22
3rd Nephi: 40.13
4th Nephi: 40
Mormon: 21.67
Ether: 30.53
Moroni: 17.6

Total: 27.7

Incognito

Tonight I went to FHE in my new ward. I've only been to their sacrament meeting once, but I went anyway. They were having a harry potter themed activity, and they said that costumes were encouraged. So I gave Tom a call, and he let me borrow his Dumbledore costume from several years ago. It was great, I went to FHE all decked out as Dumbledore, and because I had only been there once, no one knew who I was! It was driving the Bishop nuts. The only downside is when no one know who you are, no one is willing to socialize with you :( .
Anyway, after FHE, I thought it might be fun to go get a Jamba Juice. I walked in the store, and the only people who were there were the workers and two girls sitting at a table. About 15 seconds after I came in, the girls got a weird look on their face and left. Their loss. The workers also had a priceless look on their face. "So whats this all about? Costume party?"
"Oh no, I just heard that muggle jamba juices were absolutely bewitching, so I had to come and try one myself."
One of the workers, wearing thick bottle glasses, said "You know, this is a great idea. I should go dressed up to a store like that. Of course, I would probably go as my D&D character."
The rest of the evening I couldn't stop thinking "Good gravy, I hope I don't come across as being that nerdy."

Steel Toe Sunday Shoes

So I've had some requests to post this story on my blog. It happened to me about a year ago. I was still working graveyards at home depot at the time, and just getting ready to start school again. I went to Walmart one day with 2 goals in mind... Get steel toe shoes for work (too many incidents with pallets falling on my feet) and get new dress shoes for church. After looking around for a while, I spotted something that filled me with hope and joy! STEEL TOE DRESS SHOES!!!!!!!! For a guy who is trying to save money, I thought this was a dream come true. "Two birds with one stone." I thought. So I bought them.

I drove home feeling pretty good about my purchase. I managed to only spend half of what I had origionally intended. When I got home, I had a very blunt and harsh revelation: "Who in the sam hill wears dress shoes to their graveyard job?" I sat there staring at my shoes, realizing that I had just scammed myself (it was an excellent scam, though). But then I foolishly thought "Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try them for one night."..... I won't go into too much detial of that night at Home Depot. It was full of friendly ridicule from co-workers, including, but not limited to, Rex. (He probably deserves an entire blog post of his own.) In the end, I decided that they were too bulky and showy to be practical for work, but because my old mission shoes are so worn out, I use them for church. They're kind of heavy, but hey, if anything falls on my feet in the middle of sacrament meeting, I'll be ready.

I don't want to toot my own horn... no really, I don't!

So last Saturday morning, I spent a good amount of time with Dad trying to fix the horn on my car. I wanted to take it in to get it registered, and I knew the horn didn't work. After about 2 hours and taking apart the car's electrical system, Dad got it to work. I know, I saw him do it.
So then I am off on my merry little way to get my car registered. As I am pulling my car into the inspection bay, the horn decides that it has a few things to say, and is very angry about it. And it wouldn't stop. I eventually had to pop the hood, jump out of the car, and unplug the horn. I took about 2 minutes to adjust some things, to the point where it was working again. But man, I sure got some great looks.
Anyway, I failed the inspection, but not because of the horn, though I'm sure that didn't exactly make a good first impression with the inspection staff. In any case, it's working now, and it doesn't stick anymore.