Blogless weeks

It seems as if these last couple of week shave been without blogs for nearly everyone.  I haven’t written and neither have any of the people that I follow.  It has been kind of strange like that.  Anyways, since it has been so long I will try to only hit the highlights of what has been happening.

 

One of the more fun things I have been able to do is play more tennis with people.  I have gotten my cousin Ryan to play with me, and even though he is a lot better than me, it is still fun.  It also gives me someone to chase after   I have also been playing with another friend from the FLSR who is just learning to play.  That has also been a lot of fun, especially since it allows me to just work on fundamentals.

 

Probably the craziest thing that happened was last week Tuesday and Wednesday.  Me and three other people competed in a security capture the flag.  It was attended by students from across the country, and involved data forensics and other techniques often associated with hacking to capture information for points.  Our team ended up winning by a pretty good margin, which felt absolutely amazing.

One of the cool things with that is that they are now paying for us to attend DefCon in Las Vegas next week.  The school is even pitching in to take care of incidental expenses.  This is great, it will be my first time attending a conference not hosted by the organization I am either working at or attending school at.  I am really excited about this.

Last weekend I also was lucky enough to have my dad come down for the afternoon.  I prepared a little picnic lunch, and we ate over at Rock Canyon Park.  It was good to be able to spend that little bit of time with him.

This last week I also finished the project that has been the main focus of the lab this whole semester.  I was able to finish fixing up the last peace, and finally everything finished coming together.  Now we can focus on writing papers, which will be very helpful for getting into better programs in another two years.  I am excited for that.

Saturday was the first time I have ever seen a movie in 3D.  I went with a friend to the movies, and since the movie we wanted to see was sold out we saw Thor in 3D instead.  It wasn’t as amazing as I had heard it made out, but it was still a lot of fun.   If we could just ditch the glasses, I think I would like it even more.  It was a fun movie, so that was good.

 

And that is the cool things that I have done recently.  A lot of little things I didn’t write about also happened, but that is just me and my busy life.  Next week I will try to write about how DefCon went.  Until then!

Slow week

Well, to be honest this week hasn’t been nearly as crazy as the others.  But it has still be fun.  July 4th was a really good start to the week.  I went to the parade with some people from the FLSR.  It was pretty fun to hang out with everyone like that.  Later that day those same people and I went to go swimming.  It was a lot of fun, and I got my first sun burn since before my mission.  It is itching like crazy, so I guess next time I will just have to put on sun screen =/

 

Other adventures this week included a random trip to Macey’s at 11PM at night for candy.  Those of us in the car then spent the next 40 minutes in my car talking and eating candy while watching the rain outside.

Wednesday night had a similar adventure in that we decided to go and get something to eat at about 11PM at night.  Wendy’s was closed so we ended up going and getting food at the Malt Shop.  While there I danced with some of the girls, and so of course that counts as a wonderful day :)  Good times!

Thursday was a rock band party at Sean’s house.  It was fun, we had 6/7 possible instruments, and it was just a blast.  Everyone had so much fun.  Really good times!

Friday saw me getting a Shake and then driving all around Utah County trying to find the Justin Bieber movie with Naomi.  I swear, whenever I am with that girl we just do the most random things possible.  Silly us, it was a lot of fun though :)

Saturday was a night with a dance party, sort of like the one I wrote about a couple weeks ago.  It was good fun, even though I didn’t personally dance as much this time.

 

So as you can see, no huge adventures like I have been having, but a lot of little small ones.  I must admit that in some ways I feel more like a 21 year old just home from my mission then I did when I when I was actually 21.  Funny how that works :)  Now, this week I just need to figure out how to stop going to bed at 2AM!

July 4th

Well, I seem to have gotten into the habit of only writing my blog every other week.  I will try to do better, but I can make no promises.  It just seems that every other Sunday is especially busy, so I have no time to write in my blog.

 

Lets see then, what has been happening.  Well two Thursdays ago (21st) we had a really fun night.  It started with several of us from the FLSR going out to play volleyball.  When we got there the courts were full, but we joined a game with another team.  It was a lot of fun to just get out and play with everyone. 

After we got back we all just talked for a while, and then we all decided to go to Sonic.  It is funny to me that I am doing stuff like this.  It feels more like I am 21 now, then when I was 21   Oh yea, that night I also asked out a girl while she was on a date with someone else.  Sure felt silly when I realized what I had done, but you know what they say, all is fair in love and war.

The next day was the date with the girl that I just mentioned.  It was a double date with someone else I knew from the FLSR.  We went up the canyon and had tin-foil dinners and roasted Marshmallows.  It was pretty much as awesome as it gets.  We had such a great time. 

As we were leaving Kari, the girl I was on the date with, said she wanted to watch a movie.  So we went to my uncle’s house and watched Frequency.  It was so fun, made especially so by the fact that Kari super reacted to everything that happened in the movie.  She was more fun to watch then the movie itself ;)

Then on Saturday I had another date.  We went for dinner at Café Pasean, which for those who do not know is like Café Rio, but with Italian food instead of Mexican food.  While there we just happened to run into Brittany and Ryan which was crazy.  After dinner we went to watch “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, performed by the Shakespeare in the Park group.  It was so much fun.  I must say overall, and amazing date with an amazing girl, the highlight of that week for sure.

 

Wednesday of the next was the next day where anything happened.  I got some people together and we watched “Howl’s Moving Castle”.  It was fun, even if some people thought it a bit over the top.  After the movie Kristen, the cousin of one of my friends in the FLSR, came over to return a guitar she had borrowed.  I then helped her listen to some of the stuff she had recorded to submit for a scholarship.  She is a really amazing musician.  There can be no better way to end a night then listening to amazing music with great people, and so that night ended wonderfully.

Saturday was also a lot of fun.  In the afternoon I had a picnic with a bunch of my family.  It was great to see everyone, even though it took quite a bit of time for everyone to trickle in, but that is just how a darling gathering works.

Later that night I was also able to go to Stadium of Fire.  It was really good.  The music and everything was just wonderful.  It is amazing how incredible fireworks are.  They seem to be able to do anything, even make a heart shape.  I then ended the night by going to the creamery with some friends, and then just talking the night away.  Wonderful.

 

So that is how life has been going for me.  Full of fun and eventfulness.  As I try to be more and more social the Lord has truly helped me to find amazing friends.  That is actually the story of my life as it sits now.  The Lord leads us and guides us, even in ways that we don’t understand.  I am not fully sure how current things will help me to accomplish my goals, but I know I am doing what the Lord wants, and I know that He will see to it that I can do all that I am supposed to.  This is truly one of the greatest blessings of the gospel.  We can have confidence that if we but do what the Lord tells us to do, that He will help us accomplish what He has promised we can accomplish!