Friday, May 27, 2011

Herman's Revenge

So the other night Kurt and I had some time. We decided to make a movie. Like usually, we made it up as we shot it, so naturally it became a thriller type movie. I'm still editing it, but I'll post it on youtube soon. It's nothing special, but I thought I would experiment with my camera, which broke during the shoot. Tomorrow I'm going to mail it in to Canon in Irvine California to get it fixed. I noticed the address was on Alton Parkway, the same street Jolie used to live on when she lived in Irvine.



Thursday, May 19, 2011

Time Enough to Last

The title of this entry is the name of a certain episode of the Twilight Zone, a TV series made in the late 1950s.  My family used to watch it just after my parents split, so watching it isn't only nostalgic, but it also reminds me of a strange time of my life which caused me to learn and grow.

Since my mission I haven't really had any spare time.  As a student, any spare time means study time, and unless you're pulling a 4.0 every semester you need to study more.  I had my breaks and such, but most of those were filled up with surgeries or working as an EFY counselor which literally takes up all of your time.  I went on a few vacations which were great, but free time I had none.

This Spring semester I am taking two classes, "New Testament: Study of the four Gospels" and "CS 252: Computer Theory".  I spend a lot of time studying for the New Testament class, but it's interesting!  I finally get to read the New Testament and have a clue what it means when Jesus says something like "ye that do not hunger are going to hell" or something.  On my mission I hardly touched the Bible because the Chinese people had no idea what it was, so we just started off with the Book of Mormon.  Anyways, I have more free time now than I've had in a while.

What do I do with this free time?  Well, at first I wasn't sure.  I sat on Facebook a lot, like, too much.  In High School when I had all the free time in the world, Facebook didn't exist, so I thought, "how did I occupy my free time in high school?"  A few days ago I deactivated my Facebook account.  I don't miss it.  Of course my sister Christy texts me and said something along the lines of "Booooooooooooooo!", but I figure if I blog more than all the better, right?  My good friend Ma Xiyue (Mah Shee Yoo-eh) called and was like "你的Facebook怎么了?!"  She thought I deleted her from Facebook which isn't cool because she is one of the very best friends I've made down here while at BYU.  I explained things and all was well.

So finally, what do I do now to fill in my spare time?  I've watched too many episodes of "Heroes", a very well done TV series that is also very worldly.  Not sure if I'll continue watching them.  I have a nice big TV and Kurt has Netflix, so we realize it's a perfect way to waste our time.

I have started doing some photography and it's great.  I hope I can get decent.  I'm posting my photography at http://banjoboyslim.deviantart.com/ , so feel free to check it out.

I am reading a book by Elder Hales which was given to me from the Easter Bunny at my Dad's house.  I started reading it last night.


I am doing some programing stuff too.  I want to officially make some apps for the android market.  Think, if I made one decent app I could sell it and make like $5 a year.  That'd be sweet.

I have written two songs on the piano.  Every time I play them on the piano the lyrics are completely different and the arrangements differ entirely, but the keys are the same and the chord progressions are the same too.  The songs freakin rock and I hope to complete both of them this Summer.

I'm being more social.  Dating sucks, but I know I need to do it.  I date here and there, but no one in particular.  A week ago it was 10:15pm and I felt like going on a date.  I looked on Facebook (before I deactivated my account) and found a girl who was in my Calculus 2 class a year ago.  Her phone number was listed.  We went and got dessert that night.

All of my former roommates and I have watched every episode of American Idol.  We shall watch it again today.  Right now there are three finalists, all of which we really like, so we're excited to see what happens.

I am learning Sign Language.  Last semester two deaf people were in my CS Discrete Mathematics class.  This semester they are in my CS 252: Computer Theory" class.  Naturally we have become friends.  I learned a very basic foundation in high school, but now that I've learnt Chinese Sign Language is very easy.  It's just English, a language I already know, put into hand motions.  Sure some grammar differs, but if you use English grammar while talking to them they'll understand.  Again, my deaf friends are very patient with me.

I am again reading Chinese materials.  I feel like I should keep studying Chinese, but I'm not sure why at this point.  Meh.

I'm running again!!!!  My knee gave me trouble starting my Jr. year of high school.  On my mission it gave out once and I had my two companions crutch me back to our apartment which was a few miles away.  It eventually hurt every time I did anything but walk at a normal walking pace.  I had surgery done on it about two years ago and now I'm good.  The Doctor saved my knee, at least for now.  Every time i go running I say a prayer of gratitude that I can do so.  I don't expect me being able to run to last much longer, but I am grateful for the time I have now to go running.

It's good to have some free time now that I'm spending it wisely.  Well, I need to go study now for my New Testament Test which is coming up.  This was a long entry.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

F.H.E. Dad

I was called to be an Family Home Evening group leader, or in other words, an FHE Dad.  While I know FHE is of God when you have a family, but let's get real here, these people aren't related to me.  So basically I have to start going to FHE.  I'll magnify my calling nonetheless, but I hope it ends up being fun.  For this nights activity we got frozen yogurt haha!  Next time maybe a water balloon toss.

Monday, May 16, 2011

HDR Practice

So I'm kinda getting into photography again.  Below are a few HDR photos I took.  I'm still experimenting with the style, but eventually I'll start taking legit HDR shots.  These are more to just test out what types of photos look good as HDR and how to edit them.
Lodge up at Snowbasin

My apartment.  My room is the one with the open window.

View from standing outside my window.  This ended up looking like a normal picture instead of a cool HDR.  Good to know I guess.




This one didn't turn out as cool as I thought it would.

My Bed Sees Lots of Action

I'm not sure what it is about my bed, but it's the "hang out" spot in my apartment.  Whether I'm there or not people tend to find their way into my room and then onto my bed.  It's also the cool place to take naps whether I'm in there doing home work or whether I'm nowhere to be found.  I will often come home to find my bed's covers all messed up and my massage stick thing in someone else's room.  I do enjoy such a social atmosphere.

This is a favorite.

Yejezkel moved into our apartment not to long ago and this was taken less than a week after he moved in.


Sunday, May 1, 2011

Expensive Month

I have always loved media.  I would say I love music especially, but I also love visuals.  I used to spend hours and hours everyday back in high school editing videos and playing with various visual effects.  I also spent hours and hours playing instruments, singing, jamming to music and what not, you know, the whole high school thing.

I'm half way through college and seem to love the stuff just as much now.  Here is my current playlist.

Perhaps it looks a little fruity.  Meh.  I have my phases.
So I just bought a new TV.  It was a bit of an investment, but yeah.  its a 47" Vizio.  I love it, so do my roommates.

Yesterday while hangin out with whomever I was hanging out with, my old CD player decided to die.  Blah.  I used that thing for 12 years. There is no way I wasn't going to have some decent speakers, so off to Best Buy I went!  I went to Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and RC Willey.  I've decided that I'll never EVER buy anything expensive at Wal-Mart because they generally have one or two cheap models of something.  RC Willey is ridiculously expensive.  I found the exact same stuff at Best Buy that I saw at RC Willey for a much cheaper price.  Anyways, after I spent a bunch of time driving around Orem, I bought a nice Sony component system.

The Ipod dock will excite my roommates.  I haven't told two of them yet because they always give me crap for buying expensive stuff like the TV.  I have it hooked up to everything in the front room, so it's used to movies, video games, and for just playing good ole' music.
Our front room is pretty kickin now.  We feel that if we were to invite people over we could properly entertain them, that is if we want to watch a movie or play some fun multiplayer video game.  I have my Playstation 3 and Kurt brought his Wii down.  The N64 still gets used.  Often I'll be occupying the big TV with Netflix, a video game, or I'll have my computer hooked up to it doing something while Kurt is on the other TV playing Zelda.
It's Spring semester, so we have a lot more time than we did during the Winter, so we find ourselves here a lot.  But don't worry, we still play tennis, go on dates, play board games that don't require electricity, oh yeah, and we study.