Under Pressure

So the school year is in again and I'm already stressed. Granted I am a chronic stresser but it is exacerbated by academics. To avoid going absolutely crazy I have made a playlist of songs that I think lower my blood pressure or stress level so to speak. It's pretty heavy on the John Mayer and Enya but to each their own yeah?

1. Freefallin' - John Mayer

-Honestly the entire "Where the Light is" album is on here and is phenomenal

2. Caribbean Blue - Enya

3. Scarborough Fair - Simon & Garfunkel

4. 9 Crimes - Damien Rice

5. Samson - Regina Spektor

6. Going, Going, Gone - Stars

7. All I Need - Radiohead

8. Fondu au Noir - Couer de Pirate

9. Fast Car- Tracy Chapman

10. Various songs from the soundtracks to "The Mission" and "Last of the Mohicans"

11. My Love - Sia

12. Let's get Lost - Beck

13. Summer Skin - Death Cab for Cutie

14. Possibility - Lykke Li

15. Hide & Seek - Imogen Heap

Hopefully these songs will keep me alive this semester and maybe give you a little relief wherever you are.

A Summer's Preamble

After having recuperated (aka sleeping so many hours that you are therefore awake for less hours of the day than you were asleep for, sorry Kate, I am not trying to rub it in) after finals I feel it is time to begin blogging again. It is the tail end of Spring here in Provo and Summer is at hand, and I feel that it is time to make a plan for this summer and all the delightful things I plan on doing. But first let's review the last few months.

1- Now a History major- my test scores in both of my history classes have validated that choice (the first time I have ever gotten a 100% on the screen at the testing center and next to it was the word "perfect.")

2- Made a choice about a possible future career. Some of you know some don't, those who don't I am either trying to figure out how to discuss it with you or am hoping you hear through the grapevine so I don't have to talk about it. Regardless you will be brought into the light soon enough.

3- Discovered I am good at and also love playing ice hockey. If you go to Peaks Ice Arena and you see an overly aggressive defenseman throwing someone against the glass...it's possibly me.

4- Also discovered a deep love and ability for xbox games, shout out to my gaming pal Jake who has brought me to this wonderful realization though he can kill me a hundred times before I can kill him once. Call of Duty may be the best game ever.

5- Finals=Hard, especially Doctrine and Covenants, religion teachers must have inferiority complexes. I didn't say it, my Dad did.

6- Speaking of- I got to intelligently use my History major knowledge to sass and correct said religion teacher in front of the class. Victory for the temperamental.

7- Best semester of college ever!

Okay, that being said I have a few plans for the summer to keep up this good streak.

1- Read, my Canadian pal Laura and I created a booklist together and we are going to read them and then discuss them via Skype or Gchat. She isn't here due to her graduation and the fact that if she had stayed she would be an illegal alien. SO, we have created a international, video conferencing book group. Book 1- A Farewell to Arms, thus far I would call it A Farewell to Consciousness but it may just be the post final sleep catch up talking

2- Language study, I ned to keep my French alive. After a particularly difficult semester I have realized I need to be more proactive. Plus I am going to work on Italian, why not I say?

3- I want to play more music. Instrument to be determined

4-Work out like a crazy person

5- Go on adventures with my nephews Luke and Miles and their parents Travis and Heidi. As the one finally living closest to them I need to take advantage

6- Beat Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on a higher difficulty

7- Have an awesome summer so that Fall semester will be as great as can be!

I will report on my progress!

Ode on a Table

This is what happens at 2 a.m. after ten plus hours of doing french/history/poli sci homework. Creative break-taking I call it.

O noble platform standing there,

resting lightly, as if made of air.

What long nights have we endured?

To each other's ways we are inured.

You support me as I read of war,

or the Global South and the poor,

or when I conjugate le subjonctif,

getting a hundred is our objectif.

As I research and the works I cite,

I rest upon your wooden might.

Though I love to read of History,

when I'll next sleep is a mystery.

I have no bed, just an oaken friend,

who endures with me, start to end.

In the lib. friends, they do not stay,

they've places to go, games to play.

To work or dinner, Mckenna goes.

and Nathan watches Dexter shows.

My friends prefer to read at home,

and then fall asleep at an open tome.

Today I read how the crusaders won

and those atrocities that were done,

of israelite tribes which ten are lost,

and the UN's annual budgetary cost.

je parle, tu est, je pense donc je suis.

I need to write papers about Mallory.

Semesters come, and semesters go,

and through the homework I do know

that it is at this table, where I should be

tired, learning and also very happy.

March Madness

No, I am afraid this post is not about the NCAA tournament or my beloved Tar Heels, and frankly after that Duke game I would prefer not to talk about it. No, this is about the madness that creeps into the mind of a perfectly normal BYU student around early to mid March. There are no more days off, Finals are close enough to pressure us to work hard but too far to give us hope, the weather teases with warm days and then sends a blizzard. It is a cruel time where these elements coupled with further mid-terms, assignments, and obsessive library attendance drive most BYU students to the near end of sanity. All students come up with coping strategies to deal with the schizophrenic changes in environment. My personal coping strategy is to picture places I would rather be and what lovely things I could do and how stress free it would

be. Here are my personal favorites at this point:

1: Tuscany- Warm, beautiful villas surrounded by trees and nearby beautiful cultural cities. This fantasy involves art museums, clothing shopping, eating my weight in italian food, and reading at an outdoor cafe in some town square while people play in front of the town church or Medici palace. I this is exacerbated by the fact that Travis and Heidi just got back from Italy and were talking about how wonderful it is and my jealousy is piqued.

2: Tahiti- The reasons for this are obvious and simple. Beach, warm, lazy, relaxing, ocean

3: Thailand- I want to go and sit under a Bohti tree and meditate. I think that is the point, I just want to sit around and ponder with no responsibilities. If I have to shave my head and ponder the 8 fold path of the Buddha then I'll do it. I have had dreams about this. The best part is you can stay as long as you want and you don't talk!

4: Greek Isles: cruising on a sailboat through little islands and sunning (sunburning) on the deck. Nice and relaxing.

5: Mexico/Guatemala: I don't know if this is my madness talking or because i really want to, BUT I would like to wander through steamy jungles and meander around ruined Mayan cities. Nathan would go with me, so the Spanish thing is taken care of. Basically volunteered learning in a tropical climate. then maybe some beach time and eating lots of Gringas (this pork, pineapple, cheese quesadilla-like thing of glory)

Anyways, these are the fantasies that get me through this dark period of Winter semester. I think of them when it starts snowing, when I am in the library for 6 hours at a time, or when I realize that my next mid-term starts on Thurs. I guess I will get back to my homework now...i have some quizzes to take and essays to write.

One Leads to Another

Two very interesting things happened to me this week, and both have been interesting because they have shown to me what happens to a person when they get a college education, particularly in Political Science classes. The first is that I ran into my good friend and old roommate Nathan J. He's married now and we don't see each other very often at all so we stopped to catch up. To give some background Nathan and I always disagreed when it came to politics. He was very conservative and hated the U.N. and the British nation, two things that I held dear. I was pretty liberal and loved international establishments and did not have a very pro-America viewpoint. Yet somehow he and I were still friends and just moved around our political differences. Since then much has happened and he and I have become much more educated in the political realm. As we talked the other day we realized that much of our current political beliefs are in line with each other. I think this just testifies of the fact that good education on a certain subject tends to mellow out extremist views and bring people more to the middle of the road. I would have never believed that he and I would find so much common ground but we have. I think we have just both learned a lot about the real nature of party politics and have fallen in the moderate zone.

However, education can also lead us to become more active and interested in certain things. My international politics class has caused me to feel quite differently about certain issues, the most striking being AIDS/HIV in Africa. Like many people who have/had a limited knowledge of this subject, I thought that it was a sad problem but hardly a pandemic or humanitarian issue I needed to know about. However after an in depth lesson and reading i have learned some very sad truths about this issue and have become incensed by the behaviours of certain parties. My history class has forced me to look more discerningly about England and other cultures and empires that I have liked so much and now see their true flaws. I think it is really interesting that education can diminish extremism in some cases and cause indignation and desire for action in others. I think it is possible that part of this is maturing and becoming more of an adult as well, but I think that education takes most of the credit, and I have come to realize that education means more than just memorized facts and tests but also the development of personal ideologies and philosophies.

Finally...

After a random facebook message from my good friend and room-mate Nathan, who demanded that I return to the blogging world, I have decided I finally have some peace and quiet to update everyone on how I am doing. Clearly it is not as fun as Kate's big news but I think it is exciting stuff all the same. Anyways, I love to write these things in elaborated bullet points and that is precisely what I am going to do.

1- Back to School, well I am back at school this semester and I am loving it! It has been one of the best semesters at BYU I have had. There have been a few glitches of course but nothing too terrible. One such was my bizarre desire to take Arabic. Well I registered for it, bought the books for it, and went to the first 2 weeks of class. I was good at it and I liked it but it required a lot more time then I could give and after some very wise and helpful words from my older bro. Travis, I dropped said class and picked up a History class that I really enjoy. So now I am taking a French class, a Political Science class, a Doctrine & Covenants class, and my two History classes.

2- Speaking of History...I think I have finally made up my mind about a major (I know right?) I have really, really loved my two history classes this semester and I am really quite good at them too. So, against my comfort zone alarm feelings I went to my professor and asked his advice. He was super helpful, had great info, and really got me to thinking. I have been letting this percolate since I talked to him on Tues. and will of course give it a bit more thought before I fill out paperwork but I think I have found my spot! Finally!

3-Go see the movie "The Young Victoria." Just do it. It's that good, but it might just be the history nerd in me...

4-We just got through mid-terms at school and I did rather well (particularly on the history exams, though not so well on D&C, he curved it so I did well, but it was hands down the most intense exam I have taken in college) So I do have a bit of a lull before another round of mid-terms comes. I suppose I will have to start writing one of those 3 term papers I have to write.

5- Work is the same as it ever was...

6- As for my continuous love of books, movies, and music...I haven't had much time for any of them frankly BUT I am currently reading La Place by Annie Ernaux which is a very good French novel, I recommended one movie but so so so many good ones are coming out you will get plenty soon. Music, listening to the standards lately. I have been OBSESSED with John Mayer's live CD "Where the Light is" just totally blissing me out.

7- Of course, the addition of Beckett to our ragtag crew of boys. I love it! He and Hamilton will be awesome brothers. I can't wait to see him and join into the fun. I have missed having Luke and Miles close. I forget how much cooler I am when I have been hanging out with them, Travis and Heidi too.

So, that is about everything I guess. School is hard but good and everything else seems to be working out in it's own time. Anyway, I won't lapse again, I promise. You may just get a posted picture of me looking pathetic in the library but I will post it!

Elementary, my dear Watson

Going to the movies on holidays had become a trend in our family in the recent years. This year my family chose to go see Guy Ritchie's new film Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. Now as anyone who knows my Dad and I well, knows how much my Dad and I love Sherlock Holmes. We have both read all of Conan Doyle's stories about him and we have loved watching Jeremy Brett portray him on the BBC television series. So, of course we both had reservations about this new film, not the I doubted it would be entertaining but that I, who so love Sherlock in his pure form, would find that it strayed too far from the things I loved best about Holmes. However, I loved it.

What was excellent about the film is that it made no attempt to be like the television series. While I still fell that Jeremy Brett is the greatest portrayer of Holmes to this day, he seemed to really capture the essence of Conan Doyle's character, Ritchie has given us a 21st century take on the Victorian detective. Both Downey Jr. and Law made their characters their own while keeping their essence true to the original. Downey Jr. made Sherlock a different character, changing him from the impeccable gentleman of Conan Doyle into a total mess with a brilliant, dynamic, and caring personality. I was most pleased with Law's take on Watson. I have always liked Watson's character but I feel like he often portrayed as stupid, as the comic foible to Holmes' genius. but Law portrays him as a steady and loyal man of action. Though he clearly possesses none of Holmes' brilliance and ability for deduction he is not shown to be a man without any deductive powers at all. I really liked this change from more traditional versions.

One thing I really loved about the plot of this movie, is that though much of the evidence points to supernatural explanations, Holmes discovers there is a very natural explanation for everything. I was concerned during the movie that it would turn out that everything was magic, which is too far away from the original Holmes for me, but in keeping with the character Holmes discovers the truth and let me breath a sigh of relief. My favorite aspect of the filmmaking was the way they showed Holmes' thought process in slow motion before he had done them, that coupled with Holmes' commentary allowed the audience to see his mind for how brilliant it is.

Everything about this movie was fantastic, the characters, the plot, even the music had a modern yet Victorian feel. I highly recommend this movie, and that comes from a great Holmes purist and true fan. I have not loved Guy Ritchie as a director but after this I look forward to seeing what he does next.