This is it!

 Well folks this is it! I'm finally off to the MTC, and I couldn't possibly be more excited. These two years are going to be full of so many different emotions and things that I don't think I could possibly explain how excited I am. In other news, my little brother Spencer will be posting my emails here that are going out to everyone who asks for them (or who I have an email for). He'll hopefully remember to do that each time I send him one. If he doesn't... someone bug him about it.

For those of you who didn't know (for some reason or other) I'm off to the Oklahoma Oklahoma City Mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In other news, the address for my blog has changed, and is now just eldernielson.blogspot.com
It's still the same old blog, but now it has a new look, url, and title as I'm out on my mission and no longer at school.

Aside from that, these last few weeks preparing have been a whirlwind. I've spent tons of time with family, chilled out a little bit, flew back to Utah, played tennis with my dad and brother, gave my farewell talk, bought my mission clothes and supplies, and found time to skype with my best friends from school.

In addition to that, I kind want to leave y'all with a scripture (which there will likely be at least one in every email) that has hit me pretty hard these last couple days. It's D&C 121: 7-9:

 7 My son, ^apeace be unto thy soul; thine ^badversity and thine afflictions shall be but a ^csmall moment;

 8 And then, if thou ^aendure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy ^bfoes.

 9 Thy ^afriends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands.

Basically, as I've prepared to enter the MTC, I've been blessed to be supported by an awesome group of friends and family, most of which are probably going to be reading this blog throughout my mission. I'm so excited to go, and I hope that I'll be able to do my best the entire time, from day 1 until I return home.

'Til Next Time,

Elder Nielson

LotR, All-nighters, INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION

Alright, so I hope that title got you intrigued... but there has definitely been a lot of things going on in my life since I last posted on here! To start off with, we'll go back to a time where I was more productive......... or not, as that's probably going to involve going back quite a while. Anyway, it's been a super crazy spot of time since I last posted on here, with my calendar dripping in red.

To start off with, the day after I posted on here - which would be Thursday the 21st - I begrudgingly attended an "Academic" banquet. It was pretty much only begrudgingly because of the fact that my academics weren't good enough (I only know a few people who actually did that well in school last semester... I heard it was something around a 3.9 gpa to get invited), but because of the fact that I'm in RHA and therefore was required to go. After I got there I had a pretty decent time, I sat with some pretty swell folks, had a reasonably pleasant dinner, and ended up getting two awards! I got a "Bronze Pin Award of Excellence", which was described as follows on the certificate (and at the banquet): "The bronze pin award is given to a limited number of individuals who have made a lasting impact on BYU's Residence Life. This pin is the highest honor awarded on the campus level of the National Association of College and University Residence Halls, Incorporated." So that was pretty sweet to get, in addition to my award/pin for being inducted as a member of the National Residence Hall Honorary.

So after that swell day, Friday was pretty exciting - I started my journey of watching the Lord of the Rings series for the first time, extended edition style :) Then Saturday was quite eventful, as I went through the temple on Saturday morning to take out my endowments - coolest thing ever. Then Saturday afternoon I got to play dodgeball with some guys in my building. Then Sunday I was able to teach Sunday School again, and I think it was my best class to date - you'd have to ask the folks in my class about that though. Ward choir was a blast, and I was able to go home teaching that night!

Monday wasn't all that eventful, pretty much only went to work... but then I was actually productive on Tuesday! Unusual right? Well yeah. I kinda sorta ended up on international television for a good portion of our three-four minute choir piece during the BYU devotional. If you wanna check it out visit this a here Link!  You probably want to skip to around 9 minutes into it (9:15 if you want to be right when we start), as there's an excessive amount of pre-devotional junk on there. Other than that... Tuesday was just a regular day, with work and classes never ceasing.

Well... that's actually all I feel like writing for this post...

So...

'Til Next Time,
Jordan Nielson

Weeks It Has Been?

It has definitely been a heck of a month. That's all. But seriously. That's all I'm going to write for this post.


But really it isn't, because that would just be a waste of time for all parties involved. Instead I'm going to make you figure out how to read this post. I would give you a  hint, but to read it you would have already figured it out. Anyway, as I said previously it's been an interesting couple weeks since I last posted on here. There have been a myriad of events that have influenced how my days have gone, with one of the largest influences being my emotions - probably not a good thing while in school. My emotions have been all over the place lately... and to read more about that you'd have to hack into my journal - which wouldn't be very nice. I'm down to 57 days until I enter the Missionary Training Center to head to Oklahoma, which is really not that many. If all goes according to plan I'll be able to go through the temple for the first time this Saturday, and hopefully will go a ton before I enter the MTC. I'm also hoping to be able to be home for about two weeks before I leave, which should give me enough time to catch up with all the people I miss from back there. But back to why this has been an interesting length of time. For one, I've had a test or large assignment in pretty much all of my classes since I last wrote on here - which isn't all that fun. Additionally, the realizations have slowly been hitting me in larger measures each day regarding recent events that have made it really hard to just make it through the day. My roommate expressed it a lot better than I can in his post on his blog! You should go check it out, because I've been dealing with a lot of those same things, not really to the same extent, but it has definitely gotten a lot worse as time has passed by and things have been ratcheting back up to speed.

Another thing that has made this a crazy couple weeks has been work. It's usually pretty peaceful, and occasionally I'm even able to get stuff done (like tonight - got a few homework assignments done and found time to write on here!). But then there are the majority of the days where there are just constantly people in here for various reasons and I'm not able to hear myself think with all the things going on around me. Those nights are usually the ones where I had been having a bad day at classes anyway, and that compounded with working (and therefore staying up lateish) will often lead to me missing classes the next day - a very vicious cycle to be in. I'm working to try and break the cycle and get to class more often, but as some of my classmates can attest I'm not  having all that successful a time with it (if you have any tips about motivation to get to class please lemme know somehow!). 

On another note, I recently wrote another comfort zone assignment, and this one I think I'm actually comfortable sharing (though it isn't as far in my comfort zone as I'd like it to be). So, check it out here: LINK (there's also a link at the top of my blog if you wanna find it later). 

In other news, I changed the color scheme on my blog again. More St. Patrick's Day feely now, even though that just passed. Oh well. Guess that's what happens when you don't blog for a while. I recently started reading a book called "Quiet: The Power of Introverts In a World that Can't Stop Talking", and it's pretty good so far. The author has a ton of insights and such regarding the topic (which is introversion for those who couldn't guess that), and I feel like I'm learning a lot. It has definitely been too long since I've had a book I really enjoyed, and I've realized how much I miss sitting down and just reading for hours at a time. It's actually quite peaceful, which is nice in the rush of everything going on. 



Anyway, if you scrolled all the way down here and didn't catch the drift, you have to highlight the text to read it :P Oh, and if you want to see it on a mobile device that doesn't show text when you highlight it... I think you'll have to wait and use a computer or copy it into a document of some sorts and try to read it there.

'Til Next Time,
Jordan Nielson

Music, Sleep, and Productivity = School?

Alright... so my last post was pretty brief compared to a lot of my other ones, and that's largely because I've taken to writing a journal. I actually kinda like it - compared to whenever I used to try and do it and hated it, because like most guys I hate talking or writing my feelings anywhere - as it's a good outlet for stress. Now though, tennis class is starting up and hopefully that'll be the main outlet and my journal can actually become about my feelings instead of all the things that stress me out or stuff I need to work out with myself. Anyway. My post today has three major themes - Music, Sleep and Productivity - which all seem to be determining factors of how I'm doing in school.

Foremost is Music. I don't know about you, but to me Music is a huge indicator of my mood, and has a large influence on how my days go. Almost any day that I go to choir and sing will usually be a great day for me, while the days I don't have choir I usually find it hard to drag myself out of bed and get motivated to go to class in the freezing weather. I've also discovered though, that the music I sing or listen to has an impact on my mood as well. For example, right now I'm switching between Disney and Church music as I work on homework at three am. It's doing a pretty good job of keeping me awake, because I know most of the songs well enough to start singing if I get tired. In addition to that, it's helping keep me focused precisely because I know the songs well enough that I'm not intrigued by the lyrics or music to pay more attention to them than what I'm working on. On a slightly random Music note though - in the CES Devotional that Elder Bendar gave yesterday, the choir there sang alone on the last two verses of "How Firm a Foundation" which reminded me of the song that we're performing as a ward choir soon titled "Fear Not". It was written by the Jordan High School Seminary Faculty and a recording of it can be found here:

Recording!

It's quickly becoming my favorite song I've ever been able to sing in a ward choir - largely because of how uplifting and motivational it is. So seriously. Click the link and listen to it while you read the rest of this lengthy blog post.

My next topic revolves around something I've been having issues with recently - Sleep. As a college kid I've discovered how important sleep is, but I've also discovered how easy it is to not get enough sleep. For example, tonight I'm still awake and it's about  four am. Why? Because I was actually feeling productive, which is far more rare than me feeling tired. So, my thoughts about sleep are as follows:

1. It's really important - unless something more important comes up
2. I really, really, really like my sleep - so if I'm sleeping, don't bother me unless I asked you to previously
3. I don't sleep nearly as much as I used to for a variety of reasons
4. It takes me forever to fall asleep - like an average of an hour - which is really annoying because I'm usually thinking about things during that hour which doesn't help me get to sleep
5. I think too much
6. Nothing really good usually happens after midnight, so it's almost always my goal to get to sleep shortly thereafter
7. Contrary to my Chem Professor's belief, it is pretty common for me to lose sleep thinking about things related to school work
8. In contrast with that, it's slightly more common for me to stay up late thinking about things like girls, music, or church stuff

So those are my main thoughts on sleeping... which somehow leads me to writing about productivity?

I'm still not entirely sure how these things are related... but there is definitely a connection somewhere. It usually involves a mystical perfect amount of sleep where you wake up refreshed, not tired, and ready to be productive. That hasn't happened to me yet since I got to college, but it's something to strive for - which leads me to change how much sleep I get on a regular basis to try and find what works for me. I've discovered how easy it is to get too much sleep and waste away most of the day, but I've also discovered the affect no/little sleep has on my days. Usually, both of those are negative impacts but occasionally I get like no sleep and it becomes a good thing because I actually got stuff done staying up late that I wouldn't have gotten done otherwise. On a random note, I've discovered that facebook doesn't change much at all during the period from about 2am until noon, when people are up and posting stuff again. Anyway, at building meeting last night we talked about ways to improve our time management - which pretty much always seems to be a good thing to talk about and remind people of. We discussed ways to motivate yourself, and I can't seem to figure out a good one that doesn't have much of any negative consequences. My first thought was to reward myself with like Candy or Ice Cream after accomplishing some amount of homework, but the downside to that is I'll end up eating tons of candy. I'm starting to lean towards using baking as a reward... but nobody got time fo dat. Seriously though, if I were to reward myself with baking it'd have to be in like increments of an hour or two, which is a lot of time to take a break from studying for a reward. So if you have suggestions on that, I'd gladly welcome as many as possible!

And somehow or other, this all impacts school right? Well of course. School is kinda sorta my life - at least for the next seventy-two days!

On another random note, I'd like to throw in a plug for one of my mission prep teacher's books - The Continuous Atonement by Brad Wilcox (Deseret book link!). He assigned us to read a chapter every week from it, and I think that is the thing I look forward to most each week as Sunday rolls around. It's a super awesome book, and it's really uplifting and enlightening. So if you get a chance, make sure to check it out and perhaps even read it!

Well, looking at my calendar this week is going to a heck of a week if everything goes according to plan. So, if I'm still alive come the eleventh of the month of so, be glad. For just a brief glimpse into the craziness of this week:

1. I have a bio exam to take sometime between Monday and Wednesday
2. I have a chem exam to take sometime between Wednesday and Friday
3. I need to spend five plus hours working to prepare for invitational which is on Saturday night
4. I'm still working twelve hours this week at my job
5. My birthday is on Wednesday, and I might not have time to celebrate it very much
6. My tennis classes are in full swing for the first time this week, so that's another eight hours of in-class time I haven't had till this week
7. I have a computer programming lab due Friday which could take anywhere from an hour to twelve to finish

So yeah, it's going to be one of those weeks.

I probably won't get a blog post in... or at least don't bet on it. I'll be lucky to remember to write in my journal each day!

Well, it looks like that's all the rambling I have time for at this time of the morning - I have to go finish another week and a half's worth of chem homework, hopefully before 8 this morning.

'Til Next Time,

Jordan Nielson

Time flies... when you're in school?

It may just be me, but it seems like time always goes so much faster when I'm in school than whenever I'm at home doing nothing. That's probably because if I'm at home that usually means I'm not being productive which leads to... I dunno, time going slowly? Anyway, it's been 2 weeks already since I last posted on here. I'm not sure if that's necessarily a bad thing, but there's definitely been a lot going on - the journal I recently started could attest to that.

Anyway, it's been a super crazy bit of time since I last posted on here with a ton of eventful life-changing events happening.

Farthest back, and probably most relevant at the moment is that my good friend passed away twelve days ago. It's been a tough little while, although her funeral service was fantastic. The spirit was super strong, the choir was phenomenal, and those who spoke truly spoke from their hearts. It was also nice to be able to go to the grave dedication, and to be able to support my friend as he goes through this tough time. I don't know about everyone else, but it's been kinda tough for me to pick up with school and keep going with that recently. For one because of my friend, and missing her presence, but also because...

I GOT MY MISSION CALL!!!!!

Anyway, yeah. I'm going to Oklahoma Oklahoma City!
I get the awesome privilege to speak English... and I leave in less than 3 months.

But yeah, aside from that and trying to keep up with school as other things come up has kept my life pretty interesting.

On another note, my tennis classes started recently and my coach is absolutely awesome. He's super chill, and I don't think I'm going to regret in the slightest having eight hours of class with him a week.

Anyway... I guess if you wanna know more about what's been going on... you could try and get me to let you read my journal, but that isn't likely to happen. Better off if you call me and try and pry it out of me with questions ;)

'Til Next Time,
Jordan

CHESTS - Communication, Hospitals, Events, Support, Typing, Stories

Hello there! Isn't it just a fabulous day today?!? I know it has been for me, because as a few friends of mine have recently taken to saying (due to someone's talk in sacrament meeting a few Sunday ago) "Make it a good day."

In other news, it's been the better part of a week since I last wrote on here, and what a week it has been!
The craziness involving my friend has never ceased, and yet this week seems to have flown by as I've struggled to keep up with all the things I wish to do. Her status hasn't changed that much overall, but there have been random back and forth events affecting her. A few scares later, and we're still here praying. The highlight so far was definitely not being at the hospital, but that has been an experience for sure as it's my first time spending significant chunks of time at a hospital. The best highlight was definitely getting my mission papers finished and turned in, so hopefully I'll be getting my call pretty soon (before my birthday if I'm lucky!) and know what all is going to happen with that. After that highlight though, they're kind of muddled. I've noticed as we've been in the same place day after day for almost a week now, the days start really blending together. Anyway I've had a few thoughts whilest here that I would like to throw on here regarding a wide range of topics. Sadly, our discussions have definitely not been as entertaining as Monday's were largely because now it's usually just Friend 2 and I here as Friends 1 and 3 have a harder class load and that's where they need to be.

Foremost on my mind has been the concept of support. One of my main reasons for being up here everyday since this started, is to help support my roommate and his girlfriend's family. Some people don't seem to understand how big a deal it is, but whenever I've had to struggle with things like this (first examples that come to mind regard my experience with my great grandmother and my grandpa) it's always been super helpful for me to know that I have family (or friends) around that are willing to help me whenever it's needed. Especially when my grandpa was in the hospital for a week or so before he passed away while I was up here, and unable to go home because it was right before and during finals week, I was really grateful for friends that were willing to help me and comfort me through that entire process. So personally, I find it super important to have a system of people willing to help and comfort you at a moment's notice. Since my friend's status has been kind of iffy most of the week, and because I feel that this is more important a thing to be at than my classes in most cases, I've spent a lot of time up here trying to help out in whatever way I can. I totally understand that there isn't always something that those going directly through a trial will need, but it's nice to have been able to be present whenever they did need something. The example that best comes to my mind was recently shared by one of my friends in his blog (shameless advertising!) titled "the Benefit of the Doubt" in his most recent post located here. I really like the post he wrote, and echo a lot of those same opinions/concerns. So go check it out. But wait until you finish reading this one. I'll post the link again at the bottom of the post :P

In other news, I've thought about the importance of communication. As I worked to fix my schedule to get up here I've certainly made a few mistakes whilest communicating with those around me. An example of this was when I was trying to figure out my work schedule. Whilest I was talking with one of my co-workers about this weekend, I realized that I didn't know yet what the plan was and when it would be best for me to work. I told him I'd get back to him the next day (we were talking on Tuesday), but I totally forgot about it until Thursday, when he texted me to figure out what had happened with that. While some might try to excuse this oversight in the midst of all the other things going on, I took it personally and decided to make a more direct effort to communicate with people when I tell them I'm going to and not forget about it or put it off. Another thing I've noticed is how caring people generally are when you take a moment to explain the situation to them. Pretty much all of my professors understand that it really doesn't benefit me all that much to attend class right now with my friend in the hospital. The times I have gone to class this week, I've noticed my mind continually wandering back up to the hospital and me reaching for my phone to try and get a status update out of somebody who is still up here. As the week has worn on, I've noticed that there's less and less people up here as they have to get back to their work and family responsibilities in other states. So, I find the concept of being there to support even more important as time goes on.

As time goes by, I've realized how much more fun it is if you are comfortable sharing stories. This might seem like a random thought, but it is pertinent in some way - not sure how many people will understand it, but whatever. Anyway, as I've started going to college, and when I went home for Christmas break, I discovered a lot of people really enjoy stories, and nothing's better than stories that actually happened. I realized I honestly didn't have that many crazy stories to share, as the vast majority of fall was spent studying until it switched over to being eaten by video games. Sadly for me, this resulted in a few awkward situations whilest at home that I had no solution for as I just didn't have any stories. It turns out winter is a much easier time to get good stories, such as totally eating it on the ice when it's freezing rain, or spending the better part of a week at the hospital whilest not being admitted to the hospital but to see a friend and support her family. Anyway, I think by the end of this semester I'll have better stories to share upon returning home, though you might get them on here first - if only so that I can remember them by the time I actually get home.

In other news, sleeping in a hospital is kind of difficult, if only because there's pretty constant activity throughout the night, but I've somehow managed to get a bit of sleep in this night where I happen to be awake at 3am lying on the floor of a hospital hallway after a brief period of time being asleep. I think I'e gotten all the sleep I'm going to get tonight, so it looks like it might be time to break out netflix or my computer and catch up on movies or something. Anyway, I hope you like my blog, and my friend's blog that he started writing the first day we were here in this glorious place. If you have any questions for me throw them up as comments and I'll more than likely answer them :D

'Til Next Time,
Jordan Nielson

Here's the link again, as I promised!
http://runklesbay.blogspot.com/2013/02/little-things.html

The Comfort Zone Assignment My thinking whilest at the hospital

The Comfort Zone Assignment: Part 1

           

            One of the biggest enemies of the skilled artist is fear. Courageously attacking the complex tasks related to the “habits” and acting expressively on the music being rehearsed is not a casual activity. If something is “normal,” it is not art. If the music is “nice,” it is not art. To be classified as art, something has to be special, unique, deeply meaningful. Art can be created only by those who are willing to put something personal “out there” for others to observe and scrutinize. This creative act can be frightening but also liberating.

In order to expand personal comfort zones and enhance the ability to adopt the identity of “skilled choral artist,” each student will complete 3 comfort zone assignments in the course of the term. For each assignment, do the following:

1. Humbly identify an action that you tend to avoid because of fear, but that would be meaningful to you it some positive way.

2. Do it!

3. Write a 2-paragraph (or more) report. In the first paragraph, describe what you did and anything that happened as a result. Tell the story. In the second paragraph explain why your action was meaningful.

Alright, if you just took the time to read through all that, I commend you. It's the assignment I have for my Choir class to help us expand our comfort zones which in turn will help make us better singers by being more bold, confident, and courageous. Anyway, below is going to be my first one of these, since I have to write three. I had to begin this assignment by picking one of the various things that aren't usually in my comfort zone that I have done recently as the voice of Dr. Broomhead reminded me of my assignment. So, here we go! 

As I was sitting on my bed pondering what on earth I could possibly do for my comfort zone assignment, a thought came to my head! I could do something related to my grave fear of giving or having blood taken! No wait... he read us something about that in class... Perhaps I could do something like singing in public... No... he read one of those as well. I think I'll write about that time that I went to a hospital and talked to my friend who was in a coma... Yeah I think I'll write about that. Then again, I'm not going to write about that on here... So guess that's all about that assignment on here.

Anyway, it seems that today has been entirely too long of a day. 

I honestly don't even know what else to write about on this post... I kinda feel like I posted too much today, but it's been an interesting, long, and random day so this has kept me entertained and semi-lucid.

For those of you who read my post earlier with quotes from today... you might want to read it again now that I've posted this, because I've been steadily adding to it today.

If you have questions about one of the quotes... you could try commenting but I'm not sure if I'll be able to explain it anymore... it's been a long day.

Edit/Update: On another random note, I ended up working tonight - probably not the best idea since I lost pretty much all my sanity in the first few hours at the hospital, and the rest obviously left before I got to work. I'm just super glad nobody has videoed me today, that would be rather embarrassing. In relation to this, I've realized that I have a really, really small comfort zone as I wrote that assignment. Honestly, I think it's grown a tiny bit since I got out here... but there's definitely been some walls thrown up since I got out here as well. Oh well, we'll see what happens with that.


'Til Next Time,
Jordan Nielson

Pinterest, and other Crazy random hospital discussions and thoughts

Alright, I'm going to preface this with the fact that I've been pretty much in the same room for the last four hours and have only left the room to go visit my friend who is critically ill. Anyway, it turns out that when you're in a hospital for a lengthy amount of time the crazy discussions start to begin, especially when the preson you're there for isn't getting much better - like she is in some aspects but getting worse in others. So basically, we've discussed things from different water fountains possibly having different water, different cookies from the same dough perhaps tasting different, guys being on pinterest and random other things. Anyway, my friends and I who are here have had some interesting conversations. 

As we've chilled here, and had these intense conversations, there have been some pretty interesting quote lines, in order to convey these better, we'll call them Friend 1 (a female), Friend 2 (a male), Friend 3(a female), and me. Some of them are as follows:

Friend 1: You're not going to put this on your blog are you?
Me: I make no promises...

Friend 1: What is this?
Friend 3: Yes, what is this?
Me: Hot, Hot, Hot
Friend 1: Oh I've heard this before!
Me: It would seem I have an album on my iTunes called "Good tunes for Good times"...
Friend 1: Well turn it off!

Friend 1: Is your computer dead?
Friend 2: Almost, if I close it it will be.
Friend 3: How long does it have?
Friend 2: about 9 minutes.
Friend 3: Does that mean you'll actually do homework?
Friend 1: Yeah, does it?
Friend 2: No. It means absolutely nothing.

Friend 1: Did you skip it again?
Friend 3: It's on shuffle?
Me: There's order with shuffle?
Friend 1: Yes... wait..

Friend 1: You have a pinterest?!?
Me: Do you have a problem with Pinterest?
Friend 1: No...
Me (Looking through my pinterest feed which consists entirely of food and things to make): Oh good.
Friend 1: Oh, it only has food... that's a little more respectable.
Friend 2: I once went on pinterest to find something and it was just a picture from the internet.
Me: Well usually it is a link to a blog or somewhere you can actually find the full recipe...
Friend 2: There's no recipe for shoes.

Friend 2: What room are we in?
Friend 3: The waiting room...
Friend 2: To do what?
Me: to wait?
Friend 3: To blog!

Friend 2: Don't tell X that I'm eating her cookies, she'd probably kill me.
Friend 1: I won't.
Me: Why would she kill you...?
Friend 1: You haven't heard?
Friend 2: Basically, we dated at one point.
Friend 3: She's kinda crazy
Friend 1: Like 75% crazy.

Friend 2: Like why are we here?
Friend 1: I dunno, my tailbone hurts though.
Friend 3: Then lay on the floor.
Me: yeah, it helps.
Friend 1: Maybe we can dedicate this room...
Friend 1: Like we could say: "The floor, it was therapeutic."

Me: Well traffic in Utah doesn't seem to be as bad as i could be...
Friend 2: Well yeah, Human trafficking isn't that bad here.
Friend 1: Wait what?
Me: I meant car traffic...

Friend 1 Drinking her apples juice from a cup that looks like a pudding cup
Friend 1 Spills
Friend 1: Oh crap, that looks like drool ...
Me: Not really...
Friend 1 zips up her jacket: There all better.
(20 minutes later)
Friend 1 unzips her jacket: Ah it doesn't look like drool anymore!
Me: What's wrong with drool?
Friend 1: It's not comfortable enough to nap, so there's no reason I would have drooled
Me: I dunno... I could go find a corner and fall asleep there, it can't be that bad.

Me: Just lay on the floor, it's therapeutic.
Friend 1: Maybe I could just lay over there (points towards a double seat in a row)
Me: Nah. that's not as good, it's uncomfortable.
Friend 1: But I'm shorter!
Me: So? It's still less therapeutic than the floor.

Le me looking at a facebook status: Facepalm.
"I met a normal man today"
Friend 2: Am I abnormal?
Friends 1 and 3 in unison: Yes.
Friend 2: How am I abnormal?
Friend 1: Because...
Friend 3: Because...

Friend 1: See I can use the door properly!
Me: Wait. Was anyone paying attention when she left?
Friends 2 and 3: No...
Friend 1: I used the door properly then as well!
Me: I don't believe you. Pics or it didn't happen!
Friend 2: You could step into the office over there and ask to see the surveillance tape...
Friend 1: Nah..
Friend 2: Like just the last five minutes of it.
Friend 1: Oh well, it's not going to happen.

Friend 2: Good thing this is a good book.
Friend 3: You've read how many pages...?
Friend 2: Fine. I'll go sit in the hallway. As soon as I figure out how to get out that door.
Friend 2: Ah nevermind. The hands-free waterfountain is in here.
Me: Stunned silence.

Friend 2: Have you ever wanted to swim in a pool full of jello?
Me: yes.
Friend 2: What if you get stuck?
Me: You could eat yourself out!
Friend 3: Would you even get stuck?
Me: Not if you dice it up!
Friend 2: What the record on that?
Le Me Googles it: 7700 gallons of Jello!
Friend 2: We can beat that. BYU is all about beating records!

Me: While you listen to the backstreet boys?
Friend 1: Well it all started on the RA retreat when I heard it on XM Radio and an RA made a big deal about me not knowing this song. Now I've listened to it about 30 times to educate myself.
Me: Alright... I still don't understand why there's something wrong with the backstreet boys.

Me looking at a photo from facebook...
Friend 1: Save the dates?
Me: Save the date.
Friend 1: Oh, "Mawwiage is what brings us here together this day."

Friend 3: Peas, Peas, Peas (Looks at friend 2) Like the vegetable! Peas, Peas.
Friend 2: I KNOW! (not shouting, just firm.)

Le me on youtube watching a video.
Friend 1: If you put that as public I'm never coming back into the front office again.
Me: Yeah right.
Friend 1: Good point... I have to go back there for work.

Friend 2: Quote: "It will be hard to discover who it was since the cat does not speak?"
Friend 1: What was that? I got distracted by the blog.
Me with a smug smile.
Friend 2: They found a cat sneaking into a prision with a cell phone and drill bits attached to it.

Me: Does she even know I'm here?
Friend 2: Did she know I have been here, and was here last night?
Friend 1: No...?
Friend 2: Well if she does find out I'm eating her cookies, tell her they're pretty dang good.

And that my readers, is a few snippets from our random conversations.

Anyway, I really did want to discuss Pinterest a little bit, so if you have any comments related to guys using pinterest for various reasons please feel free to post them :D

Some reasons I've heard for guys using it are as follows:
- DIY Stuff
- Looking up his girlfriend/fiance's marriage plans
- Food

I think this might be the last time I'm blogging today... but don't quote me on that.

'Til Next Time,
Jordan Nielson

Programs, Hospitals, Teaching, and Class. Oh Joy!

Well the circumstances I'm writing this post in could be better, but I guess this is a reasonably productive use of my time. My thoughts today will probably be super random, but I'll try to make some sense of it for y'all. It might not help that I'm listening to a movie I first watched with my good friend who is in the hospital for various reasons and not doing all that well. Anyway, on a lighter note I taught my first Gospel Doctrine lesson yesterday. I feel like it went pretty well, though I probably seemed a bit distracted to my class even though I really did try to focus. The lesson was about how to receive personal revelation, and like most teachers usually feel I think I learned a lot more than my class did. This was partially due to the fact that I only had about 35 minutes to teach, which was a little shorter than I would have liked. It was a fairly long lesson in the manual, at least I thought so, but it was only the first time I had a reason to go through and actually read everything in the manual and teach from it.

Another thing that happened was my first program as part of the Residence Halls Association, we ended up calling it Love-view as it was a wyview only activity so they seem to be pretty set on making sure the name involves -view of some sort. It was pretty awesome, and seemed to turn out well as there were plenty of people there. We ran out of the food about three quarters of the way through the activity, which had a variety of activities. Foremost, and most fun, was the "Dating Game" which is a pretty common game to play here at BYU. Basically how it goes is everyone fills out a survey handout that has like ten questions on it, then a bachelor/bachelorette is selected either from the crowd or pre-selected and the game begins. To start out, the first part of the game involves the bachelor/bachelorette sitting on one side of the stage wiith a curtain separating them from seeing the other side of the stage. Then, anyone of the gender opposite the bachelor/bachelorette who wants to participate going up on the stand and ending up on the other side of the curtain will be contestants to win a date with the bachelor/bachelorette. The game officially starts once the announcer begins reading off the bachelor's answers to the survey questions and whenever the contestants end up on the wrong side of the question they get a strike, and with two strikes they're out. Once the field of contestants is narrowed down to about 4 of them, the next round begins where the bachelor asks deeper questions than the survey ones and each contestant gives an answer. Once they've all answered the bachelor picks the one he likes least - remember he hasn't seen what they look like - to eliminate from the game. Anyway, that was pretty entertaining, and I think you get the jist of it.

Moving on, I've come to a realization recently that class isn't as important to me as it could be. For one, I care more for my friends than I do about making sure that I attend all my classes - take today for example. Another thing is that sometimes I feel class is a waste - not all the time, or even most of the time, just randomly when I happen to already know the material we're discussing in greater detail than we're even talking about in class. This doesn't happen all that often, but when it does happen, it's not all that fun. Anyway, I've decided to fix that ya know, after this ordeal is over.

I think that's all I'm going to write about today, but make sure to check out my other post beneath this one that I published this morning before heading to the hospital.

'Til Next Time,
Jordan Nielson

Tunnel Singing, Comfort Zones, and Random Stuff

Hello there! I've recently been informed that I've made a huge mistake a couple times now, namely referring to something very few people know about as if it's a worldwide affair. What I'm referring to is a mystical activity here at Brigham Young University known as "Tunnel Singing". The basic idea is that for an hour a week, usually on Sunday nights, a bunch of random people from BYU gather together in a tunnel - specifically the one by the Marriott Center for those who have been here - and sing hymns together for an hour. The second best part (because the singing is always super awesome to be a part of) is that half-way through those who have recently gotten mission calls are given a chance to announce where they've been called to serve to all those present in the tunnel. I actually didn't start going until this semester, and I've been like three times so far. Honestly, I have no idea how it started, who came up with it, who runs it, who picks the hymns, or anything. I usually just show up and sing, and will generally only go if I have people I know going as well, and I'll almost always go if somebody I know is planning to announce their mission call there. It's usually pretty late on sundays with the English one starting at 10pm and going until 11pm with various smaller meetings that sing in other languages meeting earlier. Anyway, it's super awesome, and if you want more details about that... well ask me, because honestly I have no idea what else to write about it.

In other news, for my choir class my professor has us do these things called "Comfort Zone Assignments", where basically we have to find something outside of our usual comfort zone and write at least a two paragraph paper on it. The first paragraph (or portion, since most of them are longer than a paragraph) is about the actual event or thing you did to get out of your comfort zone. Then there's the second part which is all about you explaining how that was meaningful to you in helping to expand your comfort zone. Anyway, I mention that because the write-up for it is due tuesday, and I'm figuring I'll probably post it on here if I feel comfortable with that, it will probably be a bit edited though.

Anyway, now that you're aware that is coming up - time for the random stuff! Foremost on my mind is physicals - like from a doctor - since I recently got one for my mission papers. They've always been kind of uncomfortable for me, largely because the doctors are always pretty secretive about the results - I honestly don't think I've ever been given a chance to peruse the results from one of my physical exams or any tests that have been done on me, I don't even know my blood type. (I should get that fixed soon...).

Anyway, I've been working on this post for the better part of a week... but stuff just seems to keep coming up that makes me put off finishing it for another day. So I think at this point I'm just going to publish is, and try to write a new one regarding some thoughts about what all has been happening for the last week or so.

'Til Next Time,
Jordan Nielson