BYU 65th Ward (or college in general)

I had a fantastic year at college, and I wouldn't feel truly grateful without writing something to thank all the people that made it what it was. I know it would be more meaningful to do this in person, but it would probably end up too long, inconvenient, and awkward. I hope I don't forget anybody in this, but if I did, send me hate mail and I'll acknowledge your inevitable wonderfulness. Here goes.

First and perhaps most important, I want to thank everyone who was involved with the Spring Sing (especially Kaelie Pellegrini, without which it may not have existed): Jason Gabbitas, Sarah Johnson, Danny Hansen, Amy Perez, Karmila Saulong, Rachel Ostler, "Grandpa" Jacob Cloward, TJ Willard, Conley Weston, Emily Crouch, Katy Dallon, Sarah Bade, Steven Brown, Isaac Lyman (for a while anyway), Aubrey Jones, Adam Lee, Sarah Ellsworth, Mark Johnson, Justin Shattuck, Chris Brown, Debbie Smith, Nolan Blackhurst, Austin Vach (mostly :P), and Bro. Carlson for lending us his house, his garage, and quite possibly his sanity. I think I got everybody. For those of you who don't know (which is probably everyone because I don't think I told anybody about this), the Spring Sing was undoubtedly the most fun and amazing experience I've had my entire freshman year at BYU. I am so glad to have been a part of it, and I can't even say how much it changed me. We truly connected during all this (at least I feel that we did), and we pulled out a GREAT performance (Amy, be quiet. You were awesome too). I felt like I really got to know some people that I may not have otherwise, and I love you all the more for it. Thank you.

Second, my fabulous roommates, Ryan Lopez and Austin Vach (and Kaleo Li first semester). Ryan, I've known you for a long time, but there's just something about being roommates that makes you get to know each other like you never have before (in good ways and bad...heh heh). I know that you'll be a wonderful missionary in Chile and that you already are a strong, valiant son of God. Thank you for putting up with my rugged insolence and my philosophical ramblings when I kind of could tell you didn't really want to. Kaleo, you were and are HILARIOUS. And you are very intelligent. Although our musical tastes rarely agreed with each other, I always thought it was funny to watch you jumping on the couch and singing Katy Perry. Or taking a shower and singing Katy Perry. Or making Ramen and singing Katy Perry and burning yourself. You'd better tell me where you're going on a mission, or I'm hunting you down! Austin, you made this semester a lot of fun for me. I'm pretty sure me and you combined know every single song ever. I loved singing/screaming Defying Gravity with you, even if you weren't willing to do it for Ward Prayer. And breaking bottles is DEFINITELY going to be a rite of passage for any and all of my future roommates. But I will always remember you were the first stud to be brave/stupid enough to do it. And the last...anyway, thank you all for what you've brought to my life. I'm not going to bear my testimony of you, because that would be cheesy and also awkward, but you are awesome.

Next, I want to thank my amazing neighbors Nolan Blackhurst, Andrew Beckett, Jacob Roberts (first semester) and Kaleo Li (second semester). You guys are SO. MUCH. FUN. to be around, and I enjoyed every time I came over to your apartment because I was bored. Nolan, thanks for introducing me to Nitro Circus, Relient K, Owl City, and many other awesome things. And fixing my bike. Multiple times. For no charge. Good luck in Phoenix! Andrew, I don't have anything specific to thank you for, but you're an all-around great friend and I really respect you. Orlando isn't going to know what hit them. You're going to be a fantastic missionary. Jacob, I love your craziness and hyper...ness. You could always make me laugh, no matter what you did (even if it was hitting my head on the ceiling). I'm sure you're having an awesome time in Greece and being a great missionary. Kaleo, I already talked about you. But you're still awesome. TELL ME WHERE YOU'RE GOING ON YOUR MISSION!!! Also, I want to thank my vertical neighbors, Mark Johnson, Jace Norton, and Fei Li. Mark, I love how you just walked in to wherever you wanted and pretended like it was home. I wish I could have let you do that more, but Ryan was being paranoid and always locked the door. Jace, you're pretty much good at everything. Seriously. I loved having you as a choir director, and you are...very...humorous. And I got you SO GOOD with the April Fool's joke. Ha ha. I'm sorry you didn't get to fulfill your dream of covering all of Guatemala with our ward, but I'm pretty sure you'll convert every one of them anyway. Fei, I didn't know you very well, but from what I heard you're a pretty awesome guy. By the way, thanks for getting me to quit drumming on everything. My studying actually went a lot better after that. :)

Next, my wonderful FHE groups. First semester: Sarah Johnson, Katy Dallon, Danielle Hanks, Jenna Rasmussen, Bri Smith, Natalie Grigg, Kristy..........what's-her-last-name, Corbin Stott, Tyler Mickelson, Tyler Madsen, and my apartment. Second semester: Sarah Bade, Mary Kremer, Katrina Slaugh, Aubrey Jones, Allie Bowen, Emily Horn, Addison & Hayden Smith, Devin SANTA CLAUS, and Daniel "Indie" Carlson (yep, that's your middle name now. I just decided that). Thank you for all the great times we had together and all the fun things we did. First semester FHE group, thanks for all the creative ideas for fun stuff that we came up with, even if they didn't always work. And I'd like to extend a personal apology to Sarah Johnson for the Skittle game....no one should have to go through something like that. :) Second semester: We had an AWESOME skit. I loved being Hitler, and everyone else did a wonderful job as well. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to introduce Werewolf to my college friends, and will you please STOP KILLING ADDISON ALREADY! (You're welcome, Addison). Feel free to deprive him of voting as much as you want, though.

Next, the great friends I've had during college that I haven't thanked already (most of which are also in my ward). Barry West, I totally thought you were some manly kind of guy (and you are), but over the course of the year you became more of a gentle giant personality to me. I LOVED your testimonies, some of the things you said were just so cute (sorry, I couldn't think of a better word for it). Amanda Hixon and Katie Zavoral, thank you for having the best birthday parties that I have attended in my life. They were most excellent. "Grandpa" Jacob Cloward, thank you for being quite possibly the most awesome storyteller/Scar/ANYTHING ever. You stole the show in the Spring Sing (in a good way) and Storytime was nothing less than epic. You REALLY need to consider being a voice actor someday, because you are AMAZING at it. Ryan "Timmy" Barrett and Andrew Keller, thanks for being my Book of Mormon buddies and a wonderful home teacher/home student, respectively. And the date was awesome, too. Even if the Shopko people teamed up on us. Amy Perez and Karmila Saulong, thank you for being the fun and happy people you were this year. I could never be unhappy around you two, and you brought joy everywhere you went. And Amy, once I try that caramel apple, I'll tell you how it is. But I already know it's yummy. Rachel Ostler, you are a SPECTACULAR violin player, and no, I can't say that enough times. Thank you for inviting me to your recital. Don't EVER give up on music, because you're just too dang talented to justify doing that. Cory Finlinson, thank you for being an awesome home teacher and for the awesome date you hooked me up with. :) New Zealand is going to be AMAZING. I would say that I'm jealous, but my mission is going to be awesome too. So...yeah. Jason Gabbitas and Danny Hansen, thank you for letting me burst in your door whenever I wanted and sometimes also eat your food. Jason, I love your sarcastic comedic style, and although there were awkward times when I tried to copy you and it completely failed, it was fun to try anyway. Danny, you were a wonderful sidekick in the Spring Sing and it was a lot of fun acting with you. Your Hebrew is great, and I'll bet everybody in Oregon is going to love having a leprechaun preach the gospel to them (sorry...I couldn't resist). Sarah Johnson, Katy Dallon, and Danielle Hanks, thanks for all the fun we had doing stuff. Mostly playing Hand and Foot. And Nerts. And Phase 10. Bwahahahaha. Blake Swapp, thank you for being an AMAZING home teaching companion. 100% FOREVER!!! And you know, even though I may have beat you at the dessert-making competition, I'm pretty sure you would own me in a main-dish-making competition. Chase Swapp, thank you for being a phenomenal Elder's Quorum President. You did a fantastic job, and the first time you bore your testimony last semester in Elder's Quorum as the new president, I knew that you were the one. I guess. That may have sounded weird, but whatever. Elisabeth Kaseda, I'm glad that you heard about me so many times in such a short time period, otherwise we may still not have known each other. I had tons of fun at our date to the Men's Chorus, and I'd love to do stuff with you whenever you would like (hooray for both living in Utah!!!). Michael with the red hair, I still don't know your last name. Hopefully I will when you add me as a friend on Facebook :). Thanks for having such an optimistic attitude about life and being such a happy person all the time. Well, those are all the people I can think of at the moment, but I may add to this list.

Finally, to the people I never knew but could have/should have gotten to know during the previous months. Our ward was amazing, and the number of people that I wish I knew better (or at all) is much higher than I'd care to admit. I really loved this ward, and I feel more like I'm leaving home than returning to it. I'm sure that's how I'll feel about my mission as well (Birmingham Alabama for those who haven't heard), but it's always a bittersweet feeling. I just hope I'll be able to listen to the Circle of Life again without having severe fits of nostalgia.

But probably not.

Invention vs. creation

I'm not as much of a geek as I am a nerd, but I still like to see cool technology at work. Inventors fascinate me at their ability to synthesize creativity with technical knowledge and make something that no one has ever thought of before. I especially enjoy when people draw their ideas from nature and model their creations after things that have already been created. In one of the videos I'm attaching to this post, biologists and inventors worked together to create a robotic gecko that was able to climb walls and right itself while airborne just like normal geckos. However, the robot did it many times slower than a live gecko, despite or perhaps because of its fancy machinery. In another video, Dennis Hong creates a humanoid robot that can mimic many of the movements a human can make, but it is again awkward, tedious, and slow. I wondered what the uses of his "walking" robots would be, because they traveled about as quickly as molasses going uphill in the wintertime. None of these can even compare to the complexity of the most primitive life forms, and this fact strengthens my testimony of the creation even more. It reminds me of the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus says, "If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" (3 Nephi 14:11 and Matthew 7:11) God and Jesus have a capacity to create that is infinitely beyond anything mankind can achieve at this time. Ever since taking college, I have learned a lot more about the laws of chemistry and physics that govern His universe, and I am fascinated by the boundless ingenuity that went into the entire process. I've always wondered what it will be like when we become gods and are able to create our own universes. You literally have to know EVERYTHING in order to be able to create something of that magnitude, and don't even get me started on how amazingly beautiful the Plan of Salvation is. God truly does love us, and we can't even begin to understand how much unless we are gods ourselves.

And no, I don't think I can write a blog post without including my religious convictions. Deal with it.

Here's the videos:

http://www.ted.com/talks/dennis_hong_my_seven_species_of_robot.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/robert_full_learning_from_the_gecko_s_tail.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/dean_kamen_the_emotion_behind_invention.html