My Political/Religious Rant

Ok, I've never been a politically active person, and I'm not claiming I know the intricacies of global politics, but I do know that war is never good. Regardless of cause and reason, war has only one guarantee, DEATH. Death is not good. Therefore, war has only ONE guaranteed outcome, DEATH. True, wars have benefits, such as liberty, increased prosperity, etc. These results of war are not guaranteed though, so cannot be associated as an absolute of war. ANYWAY, the reason I'm even writing this is that I'm shocked that no major news corporation in America is reporting on the possible war that is brewing in the Korean peninsula! I go onto CNN.com and I'm greeted with a headline of some Hollywood sob story, or other base material. I cannot believe that the possibility of war with one of the last communist nations, by one of the most notoriously oppressive regimes that has association with next the predicted superpower, China, carries less weight with the media than the most recent diet trends, Black Friday steals etc. This is at once disheartening and pathetic. Do Americans really care more about how to lose weight during Thanksgiving, save money on stuff they'll throw away in a month and what rich, out of touch people in Hollywood are doing than the possibility of another war? Has American forgotten we are already engaged in a war? One that has some crying that America has repeated the disaster at Vietnam, and others saying were not doing enough? I certainly hope that this is merely the failing of journalists, who for whatever reason, feel that pointless junk is of greater value to the American people than the possible stability of the international community. I feel that America cannot afford another war. We can't even afford to keep up the war we are in. We are a nation of debtors. We have let our nation fall by ignoring and denying the basic principles of provident living. In the political circles, my statement "provident living" would immediately label me as some rifle-slinging, Tea Party-loving, conservative. That accusation is frankly unjust and ignorant in and of itself. Just because I, or any other non-liberal, mentions a loss of basic principles, values or, heaven forbid, religious sentiment among our nation, we get branded as hicks from the woods who have a 10th grade education and believe that evolution is an evil idea from godless scientists. This is at once unjust and untrue. Granted, not all liberals are so quick to denounce those who profess that America maybe, JUST maybe, might benefit if we were to reestablish basic values. Admittedly, many right wing conservatives exhibit their fair share of bias and ignorance as well. I don't mean for this paper to be a partisan-centric discussion, or to show the correctness of one party over the other, but I do want to exert that we as a nation, regardless of party or religion, have tossed aside the most fundamental of principles that contribute to successful living and in their place have chosen quick-and-easy schemes, fleeting pleasures and vanity. This is my personal opinion on why our nation has in the past decade encountered financial, international and political turmoil. I would love to hear the counterargument of how the principle of not living above your means led to the current financial crisis, or how the attributes of humility and hard work taught by many Christians, has resulted in the staggering unemployment rate. I’m positive that I don’t have all the answers, and I know that if this paper were to enter through the doors of any foreign policy, political science, or likewise school of thought, that it would indeed be ripped to shreds and proved wrong on incalculable levels. Regardless of the supposed proofs and hypothesis that would label this paper as ignorant and heavily biased, I believe this idea: that ethical, just and sound values will never cause a people to come into destruction. Regardless of religious affiliation, these values bring about good things. When we love our neighbor as ourselves, are humble, hard working, living within our means and charitable we are prospering. When living these values causes a person to become unhappy with themselves, or diminish their standard of living, then this idea will be flawed. Until that instance, I hold these values as necessary to securing a peaceful, prosperous society. Not a perfect utopia, but a society that is one with God and one in intent.

The Dream Home

I've been in love with architecture since I was 7. I've always doodled and have pages and pages covered with drawings of houses and floor plans. Recently I've had a resurgence of inspiration in house design and have designed my dream house. Its a compilation of many styles and designs I've done over the years and I love it. I guess I first made the design last year for interior design in Highschool, but it was not finished completely and had some spacing issues. The past couple of weeks, I've had this urge to draw and create and have taken the high school floor plan and made it , in my opinion, near perfect. I have spent probably 5 hours just drawing and re-drawing the floor plans, which doesn't sound like a lot, but when taking into consideration I have a tests , papers and other things that I need to be doing, it's been a good chunk of time. I wan't to post some pictures on my blog, since I never had and see what people think. I've shown them to a couple of people and their feedback was pretty good. The one person that I was most glad liked it was Caitlin Leger. She's going to be a future interior designer, and has a love for it, so I was worried she would think my design was lacking, but she had a great response and it made me very happy. I'm glad Caitlin liked it and I'm excited to get more input from her and have her help me design it. Pictures shall be coming! When I figure out how the heck you put them up.

Kellie Anne

Kellie Anne Carlson. She has been my partner in the Danice Jickinson Modeling agency, a generous giver of designer jeans, my partner in Bountiful High's strongest power dance couple, and a good friend. I was able to talk to Kellie on Skype the other day and was glad to see she was the same happy, fun , caring Kellie she has always been. Even though she isn't going through the easiest time with her family , she had a bright smile and talked me about my life. She shared her stories of living in L.A. , which sounds incredible , and was upbeat about her life. She has been one my most consistent friends over the past three years, and is one of three people I still speak to from Bountiful high. Kellie talked to me about my mission and expressed her happiness for me, which really means a lot , considering I haven't gotten a lot of feedback from other friends. I can't mention Kellie without also mentioning her wonderful mother Christy. Christy has always been kind to me and made me feel welcome in her home. I've watched Christy be a wonderful mother to Kellie and I'm truly impressed by the relationship they have. Way too many girls I know don't like their Mom's , or have difficulty getting along with them. Kellie and Christy always seem to be kind to each other and getting along. I'm grateful to have them in my life, and happy that I've been able to know them.

Elder Jacob Cardinal, You Have Been Called To Serve....

I'm very anxious right now. In possibly two weeks I'll know where I'm going to be living and serving for the next two years of my life! It's a huge deal , not only because it's going to be occupying two years of my life, but because it will shape so much of who I am as an adult. Men and women in the church who have served mission refer to them often in talks and just when giving advice. I'm eager to finally have that experience in my life. An experience that will have such a lasting impact on who I'am and what I do with my life. Even more than ever I want to serve in Russia, or least a Russian speaking mission. I've been researching the siege of Leningrad ( St. Petersburg) for my Writing class and it has given me an even greater desire to serve amongst the Russian people. It's something I've always wanted and this research project has only strengthened that desire. If it be the Lord's will , then it will happen, but even if I get called to Moscow Idaho, instead of the real Moscow, I'll will eagerly serve the Lord.

My dorm's life. Well not really, well kinda, well no not all, but we pretend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gspaoaecNAg

Totes the best dorm Er' for realsies

So I realized my first October post title makes zero sense, since I didn't explain it. Hmm , weird how that works out. I have new roommates , and for the most part their great. Riley was one of my roommates over the summer , so it's nice to have a familiar face around again. I'll admit , initially I was not excited for the new roommates. My summer dorm got along so well, and we all were becoming good friends right when the semester ended. I doubted that fall would have any of the fun and friendship summer did , since we'd all be under attack from our school schedules. I'm pretty surprised now though, because in a lot of ways this semester has been more fun than last. Not all of our dorm mates are that close yet, but for the most part , we all get along. Two of my roommates that I've gotten to be good friends with are Chase and Scott. Scott and I get each other's sense of humor really well which is nice cause a lot of the time my HILARIOUS jokes fall pretty flat, but thank goodness for Scott's understanding and appreciation for my sarcasm. He is pretty sarcastic too , and we have had some great pranks pulled on Riley, who honestly doesn't know what sarcasm is. He can never tell when we are joking or being serious and it's lead to some incredible moments. For instance , Riley started asking Scott if he liked Jordan. Scott of course said yes and went along with it. Riley then began stating how he knew cause of Scott's body language and me and Scott just kept going along with it pretending that they were having some incredible romantic relationship , but Scott had been trying to keep it under wraps. Riley is still convinced that they are in love and that he can read body language, which I have asked Riley to explain, but all I get is, " Ya know man, the way he moves, and he laughs, and ya he like looks at her and wants her attention, ya know?" I always just smile politely, while holding back laughter and nod my head as Riley explains his ability to read people's bodies. Awesome. Chase is a really funny guy to. He recently has a girlfriend, so he has pretty much moved out. We see him in between his makeout sessions , his meals and classes. Thats about it. But when we do hangout with him we have a real party. Chase and I are more alike in the way we think about people and situations. Call us crazy, but we believe that everyone should clean the kitchen, I know I'm kind of liberal, but that's just what we think. Apparently none of our other roommates do , so Chase and I have done them for the past 5 weeks. We've gotten fed up though recently and have gone on strike . Our kitchen now resembles a construction site and hazardous waste plant combined into one. I avoid going in there because A) the smell, similar to rotting fruit, B) the feeling that I should clean this up, cause I'm not going to , and C) the fact that our kitchen floor has more food on it than we have in our fridge. I'm guessing this is pretty typical of a 6 guy dorm, but come on. When we can physically feel the encroaching bacteria , I think it's time to put aside the masculine impulse to let it rot, and clean it. Eh ? Beside the collapsing health of our dorms food supply, we have a lot of great things too. We exchange Youtube videos , kind of like peace offerings, and we've come across some pretty great ones. I'll be posting the one which has captured our dorms essence.

Hi, I'm Fall semester, and yes I AM trying to kill you : )

Summer semester left fast. It was easily one of the most enjoyable summers of my life. In the place of nice, slow, free , relaxed, joyful, benevolent(too much?) summer , came her jealous sister fall. Now don't get me wrong fall is beautiful and the weather is actually better in my opinion, since your'e not sweating buckets when your'e walking across campus and then having to deal with the awkward back sweat stain that your backpack gives you, BUT fall is also , by its very nature, evil. It comes in with an attitude, expecting you to just hand over your short lived summer freedom. No longer can you not study and ace tests, no longer can you stay out to the wee hours of the morning with no worries about tomorrow, gone are the days where when we could sit under Grandmother Willow on Heritage lawn and stare at the stars and talk about nothing till we had something to say. Yes, now all that has been replaced by hours spent in the library studying from sun up to sun down ( true story), more hours in the Chem lab ( the people there are actually very funny and non-Chemitry-esque), followed by more hours of reading and writing. Fall's tyranny is in full swing. She's taken all that was good in summer. We used to be able to walk into the Cougareat and sit anywhere we wanted to , with no concern for lines or crowds. Fall has ensured that we will never experience again. There are lines for everything. The bathroom, the pencil sharpener, to get into class and ( the one I find most perverse) the testing center. What is fall's motivation? I think she's trying to get as few people as she can to be at all happy. Sound like someone else we know ? (Lucifer! I'm just saying...)