I won't back down I will not bow I've come to bring you hell

So I’m getting out of the car at Macey’s, and this short Laitno man comes up to me.
“Hey, can you help me?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. What’s up?”
“My truck is broke down. And…”
“So you need to make a phone call?”
I can’t remember what he said next.
“You need some help working on your truck?”
“No I need some gas.”
“Well, I can give you a buck I pull out my wallet and hand him a dollar.”
“Actually, do you have more like seven or eight.”
“For a gas can? I can run home can get you one.”
“No, the gas station has one, I just don’t have any money for gas. My ATM card doesn’t work he pulls out his wallet some how proving that he’s telling the truth”
“Well, why don’t I take you to the gas station, and I can fill it up for you.”
He hesistates, then looks over at Macey’s"Don’t you need to go to the store?”
“Yeah, but I can wait He hesitates longer. If you want, I can run in and be out in ten minutes.”
Okay, let me go get the gas can.”
“Alright, I’ll see you in ten minutes”

Now, I’m quickly going through Macey’s wondering weather or not the dude will be there when I return. By the time I get to the cash register, I’m thinking, “You know, this guy might try to mug me. I doubt he’ll try it out in the open because there are cops, and he’ll have nowhere to go. That means he’ll do it in the car. He’s either going to pull out a knife or a gun, and he’ll be on my right. First he’s going to ask for my wallet.”

So what do I do? I pull out my wallet, remove the valuables, and stick them in my front left pocket. “I’m driving my roommate’s car (because my battery was dead), so I can’t let it get stolen. There is no way this guy is stronger or quicker than me, and anything he pulls out will be within arm’s reach. Hopefully it’s a gun, only one dangerous end. You know, an intelligent person would just not let him in the car, but that’s not showing any faith in humanity.”

Conclusion: Letting him in the car with the risk of an attempted mugging is better than insulting him and not showing faith in people.

10 to 15 minutes later I come out of the grocery store and he’s nowhere to be seen. I wait another 5 minutes, drive around to look for him with no luck, and go home.

“Oh, well, I tried. Do you see that?" I look up "I tried to be a good person. I tried to do what’s right. You better not for forget this. I'd better get all kinds of presents now.”* I go home figuring the guy just wanted some money but still afraid I was wrong about him and should have waited another ten minutes.

Lesson learned: I’m an idiot.

*I didn't really look up as if to speak to diety. I just thought it would be a good thing to add to the story.

Angels, lend me your might. Forfeit all my lives to get just one right.

“Does my butt sweat when I ride home?” That was the first “intelligent” thought I had today. I’m outside about to jump on my bike to go to school, and I notice there is frost on the back of the seat, the main point of contact. “Am I looking at frosted butt sweat? Gross.” The I realized that I have a hard time sweating ANYWHERE while riding the downhill mile and a half route home in sub 40 degree weather. On top of that, the back of the seat is higher than the rest of the bike and hence more susceptible to faster (read: colder) air currents. The material is some kind of synthetic leather which adheres to moisture more easily than any other part of the bike. Conclusion: I’m not a sweaty, nasty old man…yet.

Yesterday was a big day for offending people. Nothing serious but, I found myself in a very high state of mode 2. This means that though I wasn’t trying to belittle others, I showed very little sympathy for their ignorance (read: Mike talks quickly, manner-of-factly, and provides the other party with little time to respond because, once again, he’s already figured out “every” possible thought they could have on the matter and “knows” what they’re about to say.)

ere’s the list of People I probably offended yesterday

Co-workers Chris and Bryce for thinking Star Wars Episode III was an excellent film. (Among other things, I said I thought the movie was proof that Lucas can’t write a script to save his life).
Co-worker Chris for not knowing who Joaquin Phoenix and Christian Bale are.
Co-worker Bryce for not liking Raising Arizona and having an appreciation for the Cohen Brothers.
Roommate Jake for not answering his questions pertaining to my endeavors for the evening.
Roommate Jake and Ben for being pretty-boy shmoozers that girls don’t trust. They aren’t “normal” because they don’t know anything about sports. Ben didn’t even know that BYU had a winning season this year.
Salesman Ben for insulting my intelligence in his usage of 30 minutes of my time to provide 5 minutes of information.
Roommate Ben for not knowing that the U.S. helped put Saddam Hussein back in the 60's and 70's.
Roommate Ben by telling him Captain Moroni probably had family problems. I more or less told the kid that I was plagiarizing my Marine buddy’s thoughts, and that he had no right to argue because he’s never killed anyone.

So I feel a little bad, but truthfully, no one was sorely offended. Nevertheless, I could always afford to be a bit more diplomatic when I talk to people about matters they have an opinion on but poorly understand.

The limecat is not pleased. (Thanks Thirdmango).

but once the satellite's deceased, it blows like garbage through the streets of the night sky to inifinity

I stayed up talking to my roommates until 2:00a.m. last night. Among many things, we talked about me. I’ve always known that I’m good at accidentally making people feel stupid. I am also good at making them think I think they’re stupid.

As background I’m the most secure person I know, really. There is a world of things I have to prove to myself, but I have nothing whatsoever to prove to anyone else. I really don’t care that you think I’m smart, stupid, fat, athletic, whatever (I would however like you to think I’m good looking, it’s the thing I’m the most insecure about). What you think about me has very little influence on how I see myself. I have nothing to gain by making you look stupid (that is unless I just don't like you).

Anyway, I start conversations because I want to know what people think and why they think it. I’m not positive about this, but I believe I do this for one of two reasons.

1. I want to understand you.
2. You may in some way be able to enhance my viewpoint. Maybe you can help me be smarter or more perceptive. Maybe you can help me see my flaws, so I can better myself. When I’m in the second mode, the idea is the only thing that matters. I’m talking to you because you may have something useful to say.

Now, my problem here is that in this mode, things I already know (or think I know) are sometimes mentioned by the other party. "I’ve already been down that road young padawan. I know what you’re going to say, so I’m moving on. If you can’t keep up, tough luck. I don’t care about you, me, or anything else BUT the idea. It is my sole interest." If I’m not really careful, when I get in this mode, people ALWAYS think I’m being arrogant, and maybe they’re right. I do the thinking for the other person because I can do it faster and get to a more interesting thought sooner.

Note - I fully realize the falacy of such an attitude. Like I said it's a mode I fall into.

I’m thinking about this right now because I had another fluids test last night. I’m notorious for treating tests like I treat people when I’m mode #2. I out think them or think for them. Rather than staying in the realm of the known, I venture to the unknown. This often includes mechanisms that don’t exist, incorrect extrapolations, and logic jumps into bottomless pits. The reason I don’t know this problem ISN’T because I missed something (i.e. the unknown). The reason I don’t know the problem is I’m on a tangent. If I can back up for a second and stick to what I know for certain, I can almost always figure it out.

Last night was a text book case of trying to out think the problem:
1. I see a problem I don’t immediately know how to do.
2. None of the simple solutions work.
3. In a last ditch effort, I start trying to fit the square peg in the circular hole (it never works).
4. Feeling I’m out of options, I panic and mental fatigue sets in.
5. I pull out a bigger hammer and start hitting the peg harder.
6. I miss the problem.

I’m not going to let it ruin my weekend, but I am very angry at myself and will probably be fuming in coulda/woulda/shoulda land for the rest of the weekend.

and freedom yells, it don't cry.

So I had a Carne Asada burrito at Gualbertos for lunch yesterday. The thing was a bit heavy on the cilantro, and let me tell you, it set off something fierce in me.

This part is rather disgusting, so proceed at your own risk.

I don’t know what the deal is. I’ve had more health issues in the past month than in the past two and a half years. First it was my hand, then losing my voice, then food poisoning, and now the cilantro from Hell. That stuff made me burp some kind of funk ALL DAY LONG. My poor roommates. I could have happily lived the rest of my life without knowing what releasing massive quantities of gas from both ends of my gastrointestinal tract for an entire day felt like.

Late that night, I had hopes that all was processed. Nope. I woke up at 2:00am somewhat bloated. Once again, desperate times called for desperate measures, and I sent that vile material (and the day’s dinner) to the throne of justice and slept peacefully all night. When I woke up around 7:15, I found the cilantro had not yet fully relinquished its hold on my inards. Two words: Liquid Fury. Now, though probably brief, I’m back to normal. Bland foods are looking better and better these days.

So have another drink and drive yourself home.

So I took a chiding jab at this kid on Blue Beta, and he got super offended. I didn’t mean for him to interpret it so harshly, but I should have known better anyway. It got me thinking about taking offense.

How much of it is a choice? I can walk down a street, note that no one is looking me in the eye, and get offended because “all these Christians must care about nothing but themselves.” Or I could conclude differently that people are busy, shy, intimidated, or basically any other adjective in the book. No matter what I conclude, that conclusion is up to me as is my reaction.

On a more extreme side, say offense is intended. Say someone comes up to me, calls me a dirty man-whore, informs me that I have an ugly mother, spits in my face, and walks away. Once again, I could conclude, “all this guy cares about is himself and his self-righteous morals. Damn him for not knowing that selling my body is the only way to feed my family of 15 and that my mom has a genetic disorder*.” I could also conclude the guy is confused, deranged, intoxicated, or basically any other adjective in the book.

I guess I should put taking offense up there with worrying. One does it completely at his/her will consequentially gaining nothing but destructive feelings. That said, I should be more careful and remember that right or wrong, smart or stupid, some people should not be antagonized.

*I don't actually have 15 kids, and my mother is quite pretty.

Sometimes these fantasies come true, and now the whole thing misses me.

Yesterday, I had a “honey ham and cheese panini” at the Tanner building. Sounds safe, right? I started feeling a bit queasy afterwards (now I’m thinking it was an omen). I drank a bunch of water and ate my apple a few hours later. No change. I go home at like 8:00 still feeling nauseous. I had some toast with margarine and brown sugar. Turns out that kind of food isn’t good for an upset stomach. After lying in bed for a couple hours without feeling any better, I decide it’s time to bring out the big guns, or fingers so to speak.I commence cramming my fingers down my throat and have the displeasure of tasting everything I ate that day a second time. Apparently, I wasn’t being quiet enough because one of my roommates came in the bathroom and gave me a glass of water to rinse with. What a guy. The one thing that never came out was the ham sandwich. I’m guessing it grew tentacles and fused to my stomach lining. I slept like crap the whole night. This morning I slowly threw myself onto my bike and peddled to school. While walking down the halls, I notice my hamstrings and butt are pretty sore. I like to think that most of my muscles are pretty active, but maybe my puking ones are out of practice. Hmmm.

Now something a little cooler.The length of the lines are earth time (all the same). You can spend your engergy getting older or moving through space. The units mean nothing right now. Eventually, I think I'm going to use equations, but for now, qualitative pictures will have to do it.

Now the length of the lines represent the relative speeds at which you travel. The faster you go, the more earth time you use up..

You've got the GPA but where is the dirty love?

I did it! I get it! I think I can finally VISUALIZE the fourth dimension. Granted, I have to condense the spatial dimensions, but I can finally show you special relativity with a simple graph…sort of. I started to post it, but I think I better work on it a little more. Okay, so it’s not so easy to show, but soon, all shall understand…I don’t know if it’s the fact that Greene is a good author or that after reading about this kind of stuff since I was a freshman, it’s finally solidifying. Probably some of both.

I’ve decided that I’m the kind of person that makes up his mind quickly. It’s a blessing and a curse. I’m about to lay down a bunch of thoughts, so I don’t suggest you read on unless you’re really bored.

After eating lunch with her twice and talking on the phone for 5 minutes, I’ve unofficially decided I’m done with AJ. There’s nothing per se wrong with her. She’s just like the majority of the girls I’ve gotten to know/dated out here in Provo. Pretty, smart, and….well…nothing. I’m finding that as I get older, what I thought were the most stable parts of me are still changing. Maybe I’m finally hitting puberty.

Last night we had this ward banana split social. I’m talking to this girl my roommate went after for a few weeks past. She’s definitely what I’d call a smart girl. Sociology major, plans on going to law school, full tuition scholarship. Not bad I guess..

Now, I don’t believe in categorizing people, but I’ve inadvertently developed these tests (I rarely use them on purpose; they just come out) that allow me to gauge things like movie smarts, general intelligence, or “could you in some alternate universe date Mike.” The tests don’t characterize people in my mind, but if I were to look at all the people I’ve become friends with in over the past three years, I would say the tests read “very yes” 95% of the time.

The one of the general intelligence tests works a little like this:

I find out what you’re interested in and/or what you do professionally/academically. I ask you what you’ve been working on most recently and what kind of significance it holds to you. The response is one of two things.

1) “I’m writing reports on doing research about the trends in the book on the research about the subject focused on the research leading to writing reports on the observations of the surveys on the ideas about the notions leading to the research centered on the ideas…blah blah blah throwing in a four syllable word or two.” “So what have you learned?” The first meaningless chain of words gets repeated. “What kind of conclusion have you found?” “No conclusion? Where do you think all this is leading then.” Ten minutes and a few similar questions later, I get a real response if I’m lucky.

2) I’m studying/working on X. Y are the things it’s leading to. Z is why I think it’s cool. Productive, interesting conversation ensues.

I get 1 from “smart” people all the time. A person’s ability to give a 2 is my litmus test for intelligence. Intelligent people can perceive the world around them and adapt easisly. That’s why they have good senses of humor. They are good at getting to the point and don’t waste time on space-filling jabber. I think sometimes “smart” people still haven’t thought enough about what they’re doing to condense it into something meaningfull. Hence the flakey “book smart” people. Intelligent people seem to understand themselves enough to pay attention their surroundings without getting overloaded. It takes a smart person to understand and regurgitate, but it takes an even smarter one to reiterate, interpret, and condense.

As you can see, this post is proof that I’m not an intelligent person. Intelligence is, nevertheless, a goal.

As a side note, my intelligence test isn't always accurate. Sometimes the testee (Ha, I said "testee") simply wasn't ready to talk about said topic.

One day you’ll see her and you’ll know what I mean. Take her or leave her, she will still be the same.

I’m happy right now:

Girls still have a tendency to blow things out of proportion.
I was able to keep promises of old without killing anyone.
We found a blueprint for a tornado modeler.
I can eat dinner for $3.44 at Gualbertos.
Poetasters is always interesting.
I have the freedom at work to do one thing at a time without fear of repercussions from bosses with no common sense.

Son of sam, son of a shining path, the clouded mind

Weekend review:

I SHOULD have brought my book camping. We arrived at the hot springs at like 9:30, so there wasn’t much time for reading then. The water was blissful, and getting out was what you would expect. My feet were pretty numb by the time I made it back to my truck. I changed and cranked up the heater. The three girls soon joined me, and let me tell you, 4 four people crammed in the regular cab of a compact pickup is um…personal. The night was full of shooting stars, coyotes, one policeman (wanting to make sure we were fully clothed), and some Cedar City people. The extra sleeping bags went to two of the girls and one of the other dudes (8 people total). So I made use of my fleece sleeping bag (rated for 60 degrees Farenheit), my college blanket, and a ground pad. Not quite enough for sub-freezing temperatures, but I’m not very smart that way. As always, I opted to sleep under the starts in the back of my truck. Surprisingly, I was almost warm at one point during the night. Without good insulation, you can’t keep heat around your feet, so I more or less struggled unsuccessfully to keep them warm all night. I was up as soon as the sun came up with nothing to do. Like I said, shoulda brought that book. When one of the other guys got up, we decided to get back in the hot springs and not get out until the sun warmed up everything else. Though my swimsuit was frozen solid, the pain of putting it on was quickly overshadowed by the sweet slimy warmth of the spring.

Talked to mom and finally divulged my dating life from the past 10 months. Talked to Christie - she doesn't like San Diego. No letters written, no pools visited, made a not-so-elaborate version of Chicken Tikka, The Davinci Code is on hold (surprise surprise), didn’t open my scriptures.

5/9. As I always, I can do better.

In other news, my new watch came in on Friday. It’s kinda cool, but probably more than I need. I put the heart monitor on, and I feel like I’m wearing a bra except there’s only irritation and no support (naturally, something I’m in great need of). You have to adjust it in the back and everything. I took it to the gym to see how it worked with weight lifting – not very well. While doing decline sit-ups, the thing said my heart rate was 240. If I moved my torso too much, it fluctuates by 10 or 15 beats per minute. I’m going to try it a few more times just for the heck of it. I bought it for running, so we’ll see if it ends up paying for itself.

Today's goals:
Write letters
Finish Toff SIMS report
Call AJ

On vera...

and if you fail well then you fail but not to us

I can make it to school in 9 – 14 minutes on my bike. It was raining today, so I drove. It took at least 20 minutes to get to the Clyde Building. From now on, I’m just going to leave an extra shirt in my lab, and if I get covered in mud/snow riding to school, so be it.

Weekend goals:

Write the mom, since you’re asking, I could use some decent shoes, rain jacket, and new derailleur for Christmas.
Write the Brooke, yeah sorry about that whole disappearing for 8--7 months thing.
Write Krisanne, if you don't, you'll do it instead of working next week, you can't afford that
Talk to Christie, we still love you even though you’re going to Boston for Thanksgiving
Organize the menu so I don’t keep defaulting to butter and sugar
Get back to the pool on Saturday, my lungs have to be at least 80% by now
Open my Book of Mormon before Sunday, I should support President Hinkley’s request.
“I have trouble with things that attack the church,” check out the Davinci Code and find out what she was talking about.
Bring Elegant Universe camping, wait...no, DON’T bring it. You hang out with friends to prove you CAN be social, not give them more reason to believe the contrary.

It’s always some excuse. Too tired too obtuse.

The difference between being persistent and being a stalker is whether or not you like that person. So after a month of trying to make some time to introduce me to a friend I met a couple years ago, we finally had lunch together. This girl is like I remember her (a good thing), and it went well. My buddy had to go to class, so she and I had a little more time to talk. I walked her to the office of one of her co-workers who was coincidentally a friend of mine. We chatted for a few minutes. When, I got up to leave she follows me out.

“So I’ll give you a call sometime?”
“Yeah, sure”
“This weekend is crazy. Next weekend is crazy…How about the 18^th?”
“Hmmm, I guess that’ll work. I like to think I’m too smart to need a planner, but I have yet pull it off.”
“Ok, why don’t you give me you number”
“Great, so I’ll call you whenever and we’ll go from there?”
“Deal”

So here I am.
A)Call her in a couple weeks and ask her out
B)Call her next week and ask her to go to final cut with me full knowing she probably won't have time but acknowledging that if she does like me, she'll want to go.
C)Text her next week and say “I know things are kinda busy, but would you like to have lunch again?”
D)Call her for the sake of BSing

I’m an very impatient person. If I meet a girl I want to get to know, I don’t see any point in waiting around. But if you try to go/hang out too much in the beginning, you’re coming across to strongly. Obviously, you must want to get married ASAP. You couldn’t possibly just want to get to know her better. I’ve blown it with a few girls by doing just that. I like this one, so I’m willing to be patient. Still, it’s frustrating. I'm thinking option C, but I'm going to sit on it a while.

Are we all victims of opportunity?

In life, you have these tests that appear out of nowhere. You can’t directly prepare for them, they’re always different, and you can never see them coming. You only know that you’ve had one once it’s over, and it’s about that same time that you know if you passed or failed. These moments test your character. You don’t have time for ulterior motives; you just act. Your true colors show like the noon-day sun.

For example, you’ve had a really rough day and someone cuts you off in traffic. Your mom attacks you in some unexpected way. You boss wrongfully accuses you of misconduct. These instances aren’t too rare, but I can’t think of better ones. Basically, you have to act then and there. There’s no time for planning, so you act on instinct. Do you go red and blindly strike? Do you go blue and be Christ-like? Do you go yellow/green and get offended? Do you go purple and correct with vengeance?

I have a tendency to fail such tests. Just when I have things under control, I blow it by calling someone a name, stooping to their kind of faulty logic, getting angry, walking away when I should have stayed and fought. Several times I remember being so caught up in “keeping the peace,” I let people get away with unacceptable behavior.

Anyway, today I feel I passed one of those tests.

It was a good day.