Fight the Man--Get the Education Campaign 2009

Dear Oppressed Independent Study Students,

After a grueling spring and summer term, I finally finish my undergraduate studies in 48 hours. Finish everything, that is, except for one Independent Study Art History course that is kicking my trash. I have been owned, poned, punk'd, rejected, and beat-down by said course. Nonetheless, I will rise from the ashes and karate-chop 19^th Century Art into submission, thereby freeing countless Independent Study slaves from the cruel and heartless clutches of multiple choice exams and monotone compact-disc recordings.

Join my revolution, and you too will learn the oriental secrets that can destroy the foul and pernicious tyrants who attempt to postpone official documents of graduation—not to mention, the long anticipated intermission between undergraduate and graduate work. Sign-up today and receive ice-cream and the pleasure of my company. Sign-up tomorrow and risk the chance of me being completely content with the world and in no mood to stage a full-scale assault against our oppressors.

Your humble servant,

The Not-so-Scarlet De-Pimped Nel

Disclaimer: I do not claim to have a complete understanding of martial arts nor do I fully comprehend its ability to enable you to do well on your exams. You will be solely responsible for any back and/or neck injuries that you may or may not acquire upon joining this revolution. Good health insurance is recommended. Other options include enrolling in the fabulous and exciting array of on-campus classes that are typically available and guaranteed for your learning enjoyment.

Review Haloo!

For quiet a while now I've had a terrible time feeling like I wanted to write anything--writing felt more like work than something I would choose to do for fun. Not to mention the fact that I've been so caught up in making everything I write an absolute wonder for my ever so picky professors (don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to them) that I didn't even know if possessed the capability to write for enjoyment without censoring the stupid things I'm prone to saying.
But I got over it. And now you'll just have to put up with all my craziness and maybe even (gasp) a few grammatical errors (carefully placed, of course, to give my blog a folksy, vernacular feel).

As far as my life is concerned, I gradu-matate in August!! For some reason, I sorta feel like I'm fooling everyone into letting me out of here. I'm not ready to leave the protective confines of the institution and forge my way into the big world of real life! But at the same time, I've become so arrogant in all my collegiate knowledge that I doubt the poor people of BYU really want me around anymore at all. For example, yesterday, my very last first day of my undergraduate life, my mythology teacher said something like, "According to Aristotle, poetry is the most serious form of writing--but I would argue that the writing of history is more serious." Oh boy, did I want to raise my hand and tell the whole class exactly why Aristotle said what he said and why poetry was the most important art form. Or then he said, "Yeah, Aristotle's Poetics is pretty boring." And I was like, DUDE. Lay-off Aristotle, I mean, I've spent four years studying that guy in every class I've ever taken and I'm pretty sure he's more valid than this GE, watered down civilization class you're teaching Mr. Grad. student. Of course, I would never say anything because that's rude (I can't even believe I think things like that). And then people would turn around and look at me. And we can't have that. So I just sit there and disagree in my head, while using my red pen to edit all the mistakes I find in the professor's syllabus. That always makes me feel better.
See what I mean? And you don't even want to know the knot my shorts were in when my Renaissance and Baroque architecture teacher started bad-mouthing the Middle Ages--I mean, after my medieval course I'm practically the honorary president of the medieval club.
And that's why I believe that my secular smack-down is close at hand. I sit in these classes and feel like I know everything. I'm like a 16 year-old ego on steroids! The worst part is, I just can't stop myself from having an opinion about these things. After all, that's what the BYU taught me to do in the first place.

But in all seriousness, I will miss BYU. I love classes, and kooky teachers, and nice teachers, and art, and even writing papers. But I'm just ready to stop being blabbed to and to start doing some of the blabbing myself.

And that is why, my friends, my Review Haloo blog will be hitting the World Wide Web any day now. I love reviewing theatre productions and movies. Not sure if anyone will want to read the darn thing, but you know, I have all these reviews I'm sitting on and I might as well put them somewhere. Plus, a reviewing blog gives me an excuse to watch movies and go to plays and forces me to write about them. Of course, I'm no Mr. Ben Brantley from the New York Times. But like I said, I love to blab about art--so maybe this new blog will give my roommate a brake. Though, the next time I see a box of hair color, I probably wont be able to resist telling her about this lady named Janine Antoni and her adventures in painting with her own head.

13 Thousand Words: It's Easier This Way

Cassie and Jason, Jaclyn, Holli, Erin and Harrison, and I went to the Draper Temple open house. It was really cool.
My friend Brock got his braces off. So he had a party, and we ate corn on the cob, chips, and other chewy things.
This is me with Cassie and Jason waiting in one of the Draper churches to ride the bus up to the temple. I kinda have a strained smile, but I was practically lying on Cassie's lap. And after the open house, Jaclyn and I and the couples went to Cafe Rio.
My first book. This one has coptic binding. I made everything and even painted the paper for the covers. Of course, I can see all the faults, but I wont point them out. On the whole, I'm happy with my first one.
Back cover.
The good things about this type of binding is that it inflates the spine so that there is a lot of room to add things to the book later. I think I might use this one as a photo album.
The spine; the most important part of the book.
Inside cover.
Front.
And now for the virtual tour--this is the living room. You can see our fish, mine's the one on the far left. You can't tell in the picture but he's purple.
Looking into the living room from the kitchen.
Other side of the living room--where I spend my time doing homework.
And for the grand finale: the kitchen! Look at that stove. The door in the back leads to our "hallway," "vanity," and bedrooms. Well, that's the tour. I hope you like it--it's kinda like my own little hobbit hole.

Why I do What I do

Do you want to know why my major is so incredibly awesome?

It celebrates people. It celebrates their achievements. And it celebrates their creations. How cool is that? I get to take classes and study awesome people who created awesome things. I study crazy people, depressed people, intelligent people, and average people. Do you know what they all have in common? They all created something worth looking at or something worth thinking about. It's just good to know that whatever has happened and whatever will happen in the history of the world, it will positively effect the arts. People will respond. Whether it's through an edgy sci fi flick, a classical concerto, or an outlandish sculpture, someone is going to say something! Maybe we should listen to what people are saying! You never know, maybe we could learn from each other. At the very least, we could come away with a new point of view or even. . .a laugh. People respond to the world around them, and that response that is so essential to human beings is also incredibly essential to society.

That is why my major is incredibly awesome and valid. I study the fundamental, human responses to happiness, love, death, and despair. So let me tell you, humans aren't as bad as they are made out to be. In fact, people are pretty darn amazing. And I get to study all the wacky and cool things that they create. It makes me so happy. I can't help it--I just love people.

Whoa. . .sorry to get all serious. I just thought I'd give out my response to “Why are you studying humanities?” once and for all. Or maybe I'm just reaffirming to myself why I've spent money and time for this thing called an education.

Next question on my list: “Why are you so short?”

Saturday at the Library

I am definitely one of those nerds who goes to the library to study on Saturday. But you know, it's not so bad to burrow away in the bowels of the BYU periodicals because every so often the HBLL throws the patient observer a bone (i.e. an awkward duo, a dosing student etc.).

And after a few hours of staring at long words about rocks and minerals, I become one of those patient observers. Some people call people like me a “people-watcher” but that sounds a little extreme and creepy. Anyway, the people I was observing weren't even in the library. They were outside on the hill that slopes down towards the periodical section's windows.

At first, the laughter and screams caught my attention. Kids were flinging themselves off the top of the hill and rolling awkwardly down to the bottom. I remembered rolling down hills as a kid. . .or yesterday. It kind of hurts. Who came up with rolling down hills? Princess Buttercup? But the fact remains that the only things that had kept me from rolling down that exact same hill in the past were—I dunno—social conventions? That and the fact that I am always on my own around campus and it wouldn't seem as weird to go screaming down a hill with another person as it would by yourself. I don't think I'd enjoy being the “funniest thing I saw on campus today professor. . .” You know it would happen. But I digress.

While I was thus engaged in observing and reminiscing, I noticed a man standing over some sort of bundle and trying to roll it down the hill. I soon realized that the bundle was a toddler, barely able to crawl. His parent would push him a little ways, the toddler would attempt to crawl back up the hill, and then his parent would push him again. The toddler wasn't upset—but I caught myself wondering if he really wanted to roll down the hill at all. This crawl-push cycle went on for several minutes and I found the whole scenario 2% bizarre and 98% hilarious.

And then I realized that I was laughing out-loud. In the periodicals. Some kid was looking at me (probably the same kid that “looked” at me when I awoke to find myself slapping the “spiders” off my leg after a strange dream in the middle of American Heritage). So I dug out a book that I could actually pay attention to and sank back into my studies.

Disclaimer: I realize that some of you may have been anticipating an entry about my summer. No such luck. If you want to find out about my summer, all you have to do is ask. I'm free Wednesdays and Sundays. And yes, I did meet King Noah and a Nephite baby. I went to Canada for the express purpose of staring at America. My mom was a much better rocker than my little brother and I. And I deliberately walked into an elevator that was about to drop 13 stories.

Welcome to the Loft

Here I am at my new apartment. It's called "The Loft" because it used to be an old hay loft. It took me the better part of the day to pack everything up and get it all here, and now I just have to unpack everything again. Moving is a pain. But I think I'll like my new apartment--its really different from my old apartment, but I'll adjust. I think I needed a change, and what better time to change than during a semester that I don't have to worry about classes? Plus, I got a break because back at the complex (only a few yards away) a kid in my ward rigged up a huge sheet, found a projector at DI, and we all watched Oceans 11 in the north court. It was fun, but super cold which is dumb because it's April.
So anyway, I'll basically just be working this semester. I'm a student manager at the Cougareat (I think everyone knows that. . .) and I'm only officially scheduled for 20 hours at work, but I've already got myself unofficially scheduled to sub and come in to clean this coming week for another 20 hours. In other words, my master plan to cheap the system and work 40 hours is working.
And then next weekend there's a little thing called Women's Conference, which rivals Education Week. This means that I'll basically be working 40 hours in two days--sounds exciting right? Well, actually it does--because if I can work as many hours as possible then I'll have plenty in savings for next fall. Of course, I don't believe in being suicidal--there's this girl I know at work who's plan is to work 80 hours a week. That sounds a bit extreme to me, but each to his own.
And then the week after that, my friend David Silvers is getting married on Thursday. Besides getting to see David (who probably wont remember seeing me because after all, it's his wedding day) I'll get to see Heidi! I'm really excited. It's also very possible that Jess will come back down for the wedding as well, which would be great! Then that Saturday, my friend Lacey and her mom will be driving back to Colorado from San Diego and will stop by Provo. Then early Sunday morning, I'll be heading back to Loveland with them. I only get to stay until Tuesday night, but better than nothing right? I haven't seen Lacey in forever. . .
Well, I have to teach tomorrow morning, so I better go try out my new bathroom and bedroom and get some sleep. I wonder if it will be weird sleeping in a hay loft. . .

It's OVER!

Yea!! No more school! I've just been working on cleaning check stuff, which means that my room is finally clean. And while I was cleaning, I discovered that it was time to say good bye to an old friend--my old little CD



player. It's broken and doesn't close, that's why I'm holding it
closed in the picture. Still, it was pretty cool. I had some pretty sweet stickers. But why take up space with useless junk?
I still have to clean the kitchen, but that wont take me nearly as long. I think I'm going to just be lazy for a little while and then clean--oh, I should watch Stargate since that is what my pole tells me to do! Hurrah!!