24 Years Under the Belt Without Breaking a Sweat

It's that time again! Funny how it keeps coming up every week, like how birthdays keep coming up every year. Speaking of birthdays, I had mine recently. I am now the grand age of 24 years old. Here at BYU-Idaho, being over 22 and unmarried tends to make the more narrow-minded folk think there's something wrong with you. Being 24 and unmarried makes you ancient and some kind of weirdo, I guess. It's as if people are bewildered that you're not using a walker, powered wheelchair, or at least a cane to get around. That happens to be an exaggeration, but not much of one. It's just the culture of this LDS college town. Our culture is such that we tend to marry young and that confuses most people in the world today. I agree with marrying young. For one thing, as you both figure your way into life, you do so together, strengthening bonds between husband and wife, and getting settled on how you're going to do certain things early on. Anyway, I'm not here to discuss marriage or start any debates on the subject.
The reality is that I'm still young. 24 years of accumulated wisdom (most of it not adhered-to, some of you would say), and just overall growth doesn't feel like one- still looking towards the age instead of back at- would think. Progression is an interesting thing. It's truly a 1:1 ratio, getting out of it what you put into it. It's all relative, anyway. To a 5 yr-old, I'm an omniscient demigod (which may or may not be more exaggeration). To a 50 yr-old, I'm a wet-behind-the-ears kid on wobbly legs in the adult world. Truth is, no matter what stage you are at in life, it's your first time being there and you're trying to figure it out. Some people take to it like a fish takes to water, while for others it's more like a bird learning to fly, and still for others it's more like a rock trying to fly. I see myself somewhere between the rock and the bird sometimes, fish and bird other times. I think it's safe to say we all have that kind of range.
Anyway...
Classes plug along at the usual rate. Zipping through the different kinds of functions in Math 110 leaves my mood sour (mainly because of the structuring of each assignment which involves printing off pages of homework for one function) while flying though physiological process and tissues in Biology 264 leaves my mind spinning. As if that wasn't enough, Chemistry 105 swoops in and churns my insides with atoms, compounds, and laboratory experiments. On top of that, I received a new calling for my ward. I'm one of two assistant executive secretaries. Basically, I'm in charge of Tuesday night interviews and appointments, so I sit outside the Bishopric's offices and make sure people see the Bishopric and everything is organized. I'm finding less and less time to look for work, so my chances of getting any kind of job goes down almost exponentially.
One thing I like about my Human Anatomy and Physiology teacher is that he likes to throw random, interesting facts at us. For example, while we were talking about lipids, he told us two things. One was about the old process of tanning animal hides. It involved squishing the animal's brain and spreading it across the hide while working it into the pores through means of massaging and even chewing to get the fats and oils out of the pores. Every animal, except for the giraffe, has enough brains to tan its own hide. Another interesting fact involves the sperm whale and the triglycerides in its enormous head. The composition of each triglyceride is just right so that the oil in its head matches the density of the water at whatever depth the whale is at. That way, the whale can just float at that depth without having to expend unnecessary energy. The oils also perform another important role. There are huge capillary beds that run through the head. When the whale surfaces from incredible depths (down to (and possibly deeper) 2 miles deep), the nitrogen bubbles forming in the blood run through the capillary beds as the oil is expanding to match the density of the water around the whale. As the oil expands, it "squishes" and pops the nitrogen bubbles, thus preventing the ailment known as The Benz. I warned you that I would regurgitate stuff like this at the beginning of the semester.

The Sodium Chloride's Bonded to the Leg Bone...Wait

Hello again, ladies, gentlemen, and others. This post's title is brought to you by the striking similarity between my Anatomy and Physiology homework and my Chemistry homework. We're on to chapter two in both classes and are getting into chemistry for Anat. and Phys. while getting into the Periodic Table of Elements in Chemistry. There was a point when I was reading my A&P book when I thought it would be a good time to wrap up my chemistry homework and get to my A&P homework. There are slight differences between the classes, of course. A&P's chemistry is fairly basic and focuses on the uses in the body (as one would hope), whereas chemistry goes more in depth and even delves into physics to help explain a thing or two. There are border-crossings every which way with these subjects; no science is sacred.
Anyway, you might be wondering about the odd-looking drink at the top of this. In case you can't read the label, it's called a Green River and is one of my favorite soft drinks. I first happened upon them at Scout Camp at Camp Meriwether, which sits right on the Oregon Coast. Ever since then, I've been looking for them (not very hard) with no luck. Only recently did I find out that they're made in Chicago, Illinois. A dear FHE Sister and good friend actually had a few shipped out. With my birthday rapidly approaching and my resolve to be a good home teacher, I received two bottles. If you live close by and are itching to see what they taste like, I might be persuaded to share...for a modest fee.
At any rate, life chugs along like it always had. Epithelial and connective tissues swirl and mix in with Church doctrine, elements, fundamental particles, conversion factors, mathematical functions, etc. to churn out a potent syrup of chaos in my mind. That's not including the other areas that require my attention, such as job-hunting. Really, I, like Bilbo Baggins of The Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien, feel like butter spread over too much bread, but only sometimes. We're only two weeks into it all, so I'm still feeling out the groove and rhythm that will make this all manageable and like clockwork. And with that, it's time for this Jack to be a dull boy.

And We're Off!

I suppose it's high time I get to the blog this week. So here we are a few days (3, to be exact) into the semester. Yeeha. Already I walk around looking nervous with a large bucket to hold my brain in when it tries to escape for a better life. So it's not that bad, but I have the feeling that it very well could get to that point if I'm not careful.
So far, all my teachers are great! That's very comforting considering I was half-expecting one of them to spend most of the time as Dr. Jekyll's counterpart. I think one of the best qualities a teacher can have that is revealed in the classroom is a healthy sense of humor. If that sense of humor is unhealthy, then I might suggest heading for the hills. Well my chemistry teacher, math teacher, anat. and phys. teacher, and religion teacher all seem to have healthy senses of humor. So there's a lucky break in that. Homework balances it out nicely though. It's most likely due to the fact that it's the beginning of the semester and therefore natural to feel like one's mind is scattered throughout the stratosphere, but there's a foreboding air about my homework amount. This will probably be a rigidly-scheduled semester. I almost joined the University Band because I have an opening for that hour, but doing homework during that time would be more beneficial. Another thing is that all of my classes are structured so differently from any other class I've had so far, except my religion class since I've had that teacher before. For example, in my Bio 264 class, it's optional whether or not we show up to the lab. We still have to do the work, but physically showing up is an option! The teacher said it was a change due to better help the students get out what they're putting in. So far for that class, I've learned about the 6 levels of organization (chemical, cell, tissue, organ, organ system, and organism), and 6 systems in the body with the major functions of each. The first part of the class, my teacher said, will be mostly histology (cells and tissues) before we get into the fun stuff.
That's about all there is to tell this semester. I'm loving that most of the campus is free now; no longer carrying a huge blemish of construction but just a little one. The school is now working on an amphitheater right in front of the Smith Building (for those of you who know where that is). The renovations are very pleasing for convenience and aesthetics.
Before I sign out of here, one thing I've missed aside from the friends up here was the weekly campus-wide devotional. They are now held in the BYU-I Center and are as good as ever. "Devo Days" are just good days, enough said. I'm signing off and headed for...something!

I'm a-Back!

Well folks, here we go again! Yes-siree, the blog is springing back to life like a 90 year-old arthritic man springing from his bed after a deep sleep. Indeed, I bet some of you are just as excited at this blog coming back as the previously-mentioned man is about getting up. All I have to say is that nobody's forcing you to read this, so there. I can't imagine this new streak of blog posts will be any more exciting or any better than Fall semester's posts. At this point, I think the most you can all hope for are potentially humorous dating stories and potentially boring human anatomy tidbits.
It's hard to say what this semester has in store for me, honestly. I can see a good work load every day with the classes I'm taking. Speaking of, they are as follows: Math 110 (college algebra), Chemistry 105 (with, from what I'm gathering, the hardest teacher for the class), Biology 264 (Human Anatomy and Physiology I), and Religion 324 (Doctrine and Covenants). I'm technically also signed up for Math 109 (Precalculus) which is a mistake and a class that I can't, for whatever reason, seem to drop. So there's potentially another source of humor for the semester...We'll have to see.
Anyway, classes don't start until Tuesday, so I'm up here kickin'-it in Rexburg, waiting for more people to show up. Job searching will be fun, as always. Competing with 100 students for one job is not something I take pleasure in.
Anyway, it's windy (like it always is in good ol' Rexburg) but beautiful outside and I'm getting cabin fever. As for my chemistry teacher, we'll see if he's really all he's cracked up to be, or if he's just one of those teachers that most students don't like but turns out to be one that I do like. At any rate, I'm keeping you posted, signing out, and headed for something great!

Last Week of Fall Semester 2010

Creative title, yeah? I thought it was. Anyway, here we are in the last week of the semester! Oh, it feels good, mainly because all of my English stuff is done with already! It was my most time-consuming class. I had to rewrite my research paper and include the suggestions my teacher made and just improve it overall. I thought I had made it worse in the rewrite, but I actually got a higher grade! Well, that's according to my online grades center; I haven't actually gotten my paper back. That's tomorrow.
The concert went very well! I knew where I messed up and such, but everyone said it sounded fine. I realized that the band members' mistakes are generally most noticeable to the band members themselves. The audience (unless they're scrutinizing) will either not hear the one mistake or not remember it by the end of the song. The day after the concert was the dance competition for the whole school. That went well also! I competed in both Samba and Cha-cha. It's a series of elimination rounds for each skill level and dance and there are so many competitors at first that you're really more lucky than anything else to make it past the first round. Anyway, my partner, Jaclyn Olsen, and I got 3rd place in Samba! It was crazy! Then for the Cha-cha, I danced with my old cha-cha partner from last semester, Lindsey Lewis, and we didn't even make it past the first round. We didn't really mind, though. We got 4th last semester and weren't even expecting to make it past the first round. This time around we really didn't, and were a-okay with that.
Saturday night, some roommates, friends, and I went up by Targhee Pass (for those of you who know where that is) and chopped down a Christmas tree. The permit was about 5 bucks, which was pretty sweet. After about 20 minutes of trudging through thigh-high snow, we found our tree and chopped it down. Then, my roommate and I carried it back. That was fun. we carried it on our shoulders and I was in back. Luckily, there was a pocket for my face so I could avoid getting pine needles shoved up my nose. I just couldn't see where I was going, so going back to the car was an adventure. The rest of the night was full of good times with a few friends: ginger-bread house making, decorating the tree (we don't have much on it...), and watching one of my favorite Christmas movies, Scrooge with Albert Finney.
Long story short, as a result of that night, I have a girlfriend. Yep, it's true, Steven Brown can get a girlfriend, ha ha ha. Further details can be obtained through inquiry.
Last night, I was in the performance of Handel's Messiah with the University's choirs, band, and orchestra. It was amazing. Everyone came together nicely to pull off a spectacular performance. Those who were there would surely agree. The band only had the music for about a week, give or take a few days, and we only practiced all together (choirs, orchestra, band) yesterday from about 1-5:45pm. Good times there.
Lastly, I'm one of the stars of a commercial now. My roommate started up a tie business called "Tiephoon Station" and has some really good ties...just sayin'. You can find it on Facebook and in the blogs. The commercial is on my Facebook page, you might say I'm a natural. Ha ha, anyway...
Well that's about it for me right now. I only have a few finals this week. One of them is for my dance class. I'll be dancing Samba and Cha-cha for Ron Mendez from Dancing with the Stars. I have a total of five dance partners to do this with, too. So that's five times I'll be dancing two dances in front of Ron Mendez (I think that's his name). Wish me luck!

Ta-da

I'm trying to be better about keeping this blog up, but it's getting harder as the semester draws to a close.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I know I did! And, with Thanksgiving come and gone, I'm listening to Christmas music. That really only has significance to a few people, who don't even read this blog...to my knowledge...
Eighteen days left! That's how much longer I have in this semester before this blog shuts down for a little while. Well, maybe I'll open up some off-track chapters just because. Last week was pretty awesome: lots of time with family and friends who I haven't seen in a while. I haven't seen some since before my mission, it seems. It was good at any rate. The unfortunate thing is that I didn't really get any homework done. I tried, but all I did was a little bit of reading, one quiz, and I practiced my trumpet almost every day. Ha, so I'm in a little bit of hot water now, but not too much, thankfully.
This week is gearing up for my "Weekend of Performance". I have the University Band concert this Friday (7:30-9:00pm) that I'm playing in and then I'll be competing for my Beginning International Latin Ballroom Dance class in both Cha-cha and Samba on Saturday. I feel pretty confident for both days, fortunately. We're holding class on the stage now to gear up for the concert, and we sound awesome in there. It's as if everyone suddenly overcame the parts they have been struggling with all semester. I know it's not a sudden thing; it's actually hours of practicing. Hours spent frustrated in the practice room, wanting to pound the walls at times, but finally breaking through that last invisible barrier. As for both the music and the dancing, it's a matter of keeping one's head in the face of mistakes. At any rate, for anyone who can, good times await at both events and they should come. The rest of this week is the same ol' thang of homework and classes, classes and homework. Yep yep, good times right there...
Oh! An update on my research paper. If you read the past blog entries (I think just the last one), there was that whole thing about Guillotine Thursday and whatnot. We got our papers back graded yesterday and I had little hope for a good grade. Before my teacher gave them back, he talked about all the mistakes we made as a class and made things sound pretty dismal for all of us, though there are a few who came off better than the rest. I got a 90/100! I had expected a downward trend in my papers because I felt pretty static in my writing technique and his grading got gradually harder. He made a comment in the margins that goes like this: "Wow! You got some serious writing talent Steven. Learn to chasten your prose." It may have gone to my head just a little, but that was soon remedied. Looking over the rest of the paper deflated my slightly enlarged head back to normal size. I think I'm amateurish in quite a few ways still. Plus, I don't think I could ever brag about my own writing anyway. I'm just impressed that a few others find my writing to be, as they generally say, awesome.
Before I forget-and probably as an ending note to this entry-Sunday, December 12th at 7:30pm, the University Band, University Choir, and University Orchestra are playing the Messiah. So if you can't make the concert this Friday but, for some reason, really want to attend a concert of mine, you have another chance. That one will be in the Hart Building while the concert this Friday will be in the Snow Building. Further details can be extracted from me through phone, email, facebook, this blog, etc. Oh, and one more thing, the concert this Friday is $6.00 for the general public and $3.00 for students. Anyway, until next week!

Thanksgiving Break!

Wow, it's almost been a full month since I last updated this. Sorry to those of you who try to keep up with this; though you may admit, I've made it easy to keep up with for the last month. Unfortunately, there is compensation needed, so I may or may not make this a long one.
The picture above is the same spot as the last picture. See? The leaves hadn't even fallen off most (except for the one) of the trees before it snowed. I like the picture because it shows Rexburg in a climate nutshell: It can be nice and Summer-like one day, have a Fall day the next, and be covered in snow the day after that.
So what have I been up to the past month? A lot, yet nothing that different. School commands my time like an irate drill sergeant in Boot Camp sometimes. This last week had been an interesting one. Last Thursday was the deadline for my final paper of the semester for my English 101 class. The teacher's a little crazy about English, though, so that made writing the five-page persuasive research paper a little stressful (am I incorporating enough of what we learned? Am I keeping it fresh and exciting? Will he like my syntax variation? Etc.). To add to that, I chose the topic of Nuclear Energy (is it controversial enough (we had to pick a controversial topic that we were "passionate" about)?) On top of that, (confession time) this paper would be the first persuasive paper I did major research for and actually finished. Well, without getting into too many details about my semi-procrastination that was aided by work for other classes and lack of good resources to use for my paper, I ended up basically doing the entire thing the day before it was due. Six hours in the library is not incredibly fun, but when it's six hours of intense study and writing, it's considerably less than incredibly fun. However, I consider myself lucky. Most people, having to do such things with the kind of homework background I have, would be burnt by the end of that 6-hour paper blitz. Spent, done for the night, ready for bed, goodnight America. I wasn't like this, though I did look rather tired. I could have done more homework if needed. In fact, I ended up seeing a couple of friends who had been begging me to do something with them for about a week and a half. Anyway, I had named three days of last week thus: Scaffold Tuesday (it was the last English class before the paper was due), Flashback/Executioner Wednesday, and Guillotine Thursday. I am proud to say that I was spared the guillotine on Thursday because I had been exonerated by completing my paper! Now we'll see if I'm totally spared the chopping block when I get my paper back, graded. Essentially, I'll have to rewrite the paper after we're given them back and hand in the final draft a week later. I try not to think about this too much because I want to have a happy Thanksgiving Break.
Speaking of, I'm on Thanksgiving Break right now! I'm home for the break and will be here until the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Yep, good times are a-happening and still more to come.
After the break will be fun. December 3rd is the University Band concert that I'm playing in and December 4th, I found out the other week, is when I'll be competing against the rest of the school for my Beginning International Latin Ballroom class. I'll be doing both dances we learned this semester: Cha-cha and Samba. Sidenote: If you want a really good ab workout, learn the Samba! Last semester I competed for my Beginning Social Dance class in Cha-cha and got 4th place. I have the same partner for Cha-cha this semester, so it will lots of fun, but wish us luck! For anyone wanting to attend either performance, the information can be found on BYU-Idaho's website (the event calendar). The band concert is Friday (Dec. 3rd) evening and the dance competition for me will last from 12-2pm the next day (Dec. 4th), but I'll only be dancing as long as I keep getting called back.
At any rate, Thanksgiving is this Thursday! I'm so excited for it! A time of family gathering, giving thanks, and feasting in celebration of the great bounty which God has so kindly bestowed upon each of us! Even if we don't have as many things as some others, we are still greatly blessed with what we do have. It's good to sit back every now and then and count our blessings.
Happy Thanksgiving everybody!