Some random thoughts...

...expressed in random ways. 

Sometimes I feel a certain way, but I really can't express in words what it is that I feel. It's probably just my lack of eloquence and skill with words, but more than that, I think there are some feelings in this life that really can't be explained. Sometimes it just takes more than words. Maybe it's just a personal problem...who knows. 

I saw a red-tailed hawk today. It was in a really random place, too. At least...random for a red-tailed hawk. I was driving up 8th East in Orem, right at the spot where it turns the corner and becomes 16th North. As I turned the corner, it flew from the grass on the left side of the road up onto a street lamp. Crazy! It was a beautiful bird. I had to drive by a couple more times to get a better look at it. Yep.

I think I want to read C. S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters again. It's such a thought-provoking book. I love it. I think I also want to reread Ender's Game. We'll see if either of those things happen. If I don't do it in the next 4 months, it won't happen for 2 years, so I might want to get on that. I have been reading number 11 of the Tennis Shoes Adventure Series...but that's more of a candy book. It's like watching TV...but without electricity. Okay, it might be slightly more fulfilling than watching TV. TV is usually just degrading. In my experience at least. Um, yeah. Anyway...

Adam Young is one of my heroes. For one, he's just cool. Two, his music is amazing.Yeah, it might all sound the same...but his lyrics are incredible! I really admire his brain. Also, he has a pretty good voice. It might be a little breathy at times, but I think it fits with the feeling of his music. One day, I hope to be as cool as this guy. 

"If I'm your boy, let's take a short cut we remember
And we'll enjoy, picking apples in late September
Like we've done for years
Then we'll take a long walk through the corn field
And I'll kiss you between the ears"

Really, you can't beat that. He writes the happiest, most profoundly ...clever lyrics you'll ever hear. Love it.

Here's a bit of inspiration for your day:

Go get 'em!

...walking isn't all bad, right? ;)

Have a nice day...

-Joscann

2 weeks notice.

In 2 weeks, school will be over.

In 2 weeks, I'll be living at home.

In 2 weeks, my mission papers will be in.

In 2 weeks, there will be 6 days until Christmas.

In 2 weeks, Alicia will be 7, Sophie will be 12, Dad will be 43, and Grandpa will be 70.

In 2 weeks, I won't have any homework to do. 

In 2 weeks, I probably won't have a job.

In 2 weeks, I can go to the temple for real. 

In 2 weeks, I will probably be getting to bed on time.

In 2 weeks, I will probably be eating healthier foods.

In 2 weeks, I'll be missing Rexburg.

In 2 weeks, I'll still be plotting to take over the world.

In 2 weeks, I'll be with my family.

A lot can happen in 2 weeks, eh?

Make the most of it!

(This message is brought to you by some hoser that lives in Idaho. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.)

Have a nice day!

-Moscas

Home...

I live in Rexburg, Idaho. I live here because I go to school at BYU-Idaho, which is also in Rexburg. Sometimes I go home to Lindon, Utah, but then I come back home to Rexburg. So...where is home exactly?

Home is where the food is. Or...heart. I guess it's where the heart is. The only problem is that my heart is in two different places. Sometimes I feel like I really want to be in Utah, and other times I am in Utah, and I want to be here in Rexburg. Even when I come home to Lindon for good, I'm not sure I will really feel completely 'at home.'

This is kind of a useless rant...I just really don't want this semester to be over, but in some ways I really do. Bleh. I'm almost tempted to just stay another semester, but I don't have the money. I need to be earning mulah for the mish, not spending it on education. See, it's not the 'good/bad' decisions in life that are hard. It's the 'good/good' decisions. Getting an education is a really important thing. Our knowledge is the only thing we can take from this life when we die. On the other hand, earning money for a mission is probably more important. It's not about what's good and what's bad. It's about what's good and what's better, or even best.

I'm not going to stay another semester, though I really would like to. I'll come back in a few years to finish what I've started here. :)

This semester isn't even over. Everyone's talking like we're done learning for the year (except my teachers, of course), but really we have 3 more weeks. Maybe 2 and a half...

Anyway, I'll stop talking now. Y'all can go about your lives now.

Have a nice day...

-Moscas

Random college metaphors...or something.

Sometimes when you have a TON of homework and you're really tired from walking 7 miles in one day it's a really good idea to buy some cheeseburger chips and Sunny D and just get yourself wired so you're more excited about being alive. Then maybe doing homework will actually be possible.

I had a funny thought earlier. It might have been yesterday. Anyway, I think that everyone that goes to college has a mullet. You know...business in the front, party in the back. That one. Well, I decided that some people's mullets are just longer than others. Some people party way more than anything else, and then there are those that care about the business part of college more. Their mullets are shorter. Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "joey, you're a complete and total idiot!" Well...you're probably right. But chances are I'm more attractive than you anyway.

How long is your mullet?

If you're ever in Rexburg around September, go find the apple tree on 2nd north. It has some of the most amazingly delicious apples you will ever taste.

Also, the D.I. here gives out copies of the Book of Mormon for free. Just...if you ever need one. You know, to read or give to someone...they're all free.

I had another random metaphorical thought about college, but I can't remember what it was. That's disappointing. Well...I'm kind of dead from eating so much sugar a couple hours ago. So...don't judge.

Oh! I remembered. I think there should be a way to declare intellectual bankruptcy. I don't really...just when I  have piles and piles of homework...I think it would be nice to just say, 'nope, sorry. I can't do any more homework. I'm intellectually bankrupt. I don't have anything left to give.'

Yup.

Well, have a nice day, eh?

I need sleep...

-Moscas

Bored?

Bored. What a funny word. One that I think is used all too often. When I was young, and I told my mom that I was bored, she would either just tell me to find something to do, or she'd give me a list of about 15 different chores I could use to help me get rid of my boredom. I love my mom. but...

I stopped being bored. At least...around her. :D

It's just funny to me that only a week or two ago, we were busy little high schoolers, working hard without much free time...but now that summer vacation is here, everyone is all of a sudden "bored" out of their mind. It's like some little switch kicks on that tells your brain that you don't know what to do with yourself.

Before I continue... most of my friends that have blogs of their own, they're really deep, and usually have some crazy awesome conclusions they come to at the end of every post. So, if that's what you're looking for, you're probably not gonna find it here. :) I tend to start writing about topics that have the potential to be really deep and profound, or even life changing, and then they end up just kind of...fizzling out. Not knowing where to go or how to come to any sort of conclusion. So sue me...I'm not Ghandi...or...anywhere close. I'd be lucky to be compared with some local journalist...

Where was I? Bored. That's right. I was talking about how being bored didn't exist 200 years ago. In Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary, the term "bored" only existed as the past participle of the verb "to bore", as in...wood. People back then didn't get "bored". That might have been very painful, especially when you see the tools they used back then...

So I try to be funny...does it work? Maybe. My only hope is that I can be clever enough to keep someone's attention for the length of a post, without scaring them off. I'm probably not doing so well tonight...and I'd try to tell a joke or something, but my brain really isn't functioning like it's supposed to. That's not really surprising, seeing as it's 1 in the morning. I should probably get to bed soon, and spare you from my...non...clever...ness, right now...

Once upon a time, there was a little boy who wanted to go to sleep...

THE END.

Of this post.

Fer rills.

Goodnight,

-Someone...

Sin and Sunburn...

A wise man once said, "When you can't go left, go right."

Okay, I don't actually know if a wise man ever said that, and it has absolutely nothing to do with this post. I just...I don't know. I was feeling random.

Yesterday was fun. I went swimming for the first time this summer. The water was nice, there weren't too many annoying kids, and I only had to watch over two of my younger siblings. It was very relaxing.

Before I got in the water, I applied sunscreen. To my front, because it is WHITE, to my back because...well, same story, and to my arms. I didn't put any on my legs or feet because I am a runner, and I pride myself in my tanner-than-the-rest-of-my-body legs. After that, I jumped in the water, completely forgetting about my face, ears, and neck. These three places happen to be where I get the worst sunburns, the most often. Maybe it's just because I forget about them, I don't know. Anyway, I was fine pretty much the whole day, and then it was time to go to sleep. I had taken a long, relaxing nap earlier in the day, so I was pretty sure that I would have a hard time getting to sleep. Yeah...that was an understatement, to say the least. I got in bed, turned on my iPod, and tried to sleep. An hour later, I still couldn't sleep, so I got out of bed and came upstairs to the computer. I tried to start a post here...but nothing was coming. So I just chatted with my friends for couple of hours, and then went back to bed to see if I could sleep. After rolling around a bit in pain, sleep finally came. 6 hours of it. Not bad, I guess...but during the summer? I think it should be illegal to get any less than 8 hours of sleep. Okay not illegal...just, dumb. So I'm dumb, alright.

Anyway, about the title of this post. I was at a Seminary morningside where Brad Wilcox was speaking, and he said something like this. This is all paraphrased...it's been a couple years... "Sinning is like getting sunburned. It's always painful, but we forget how much pain a sunburn actually causes us until we get burned again." I'm really botching this...sorry... "We would never say, 'I can't wait until this heals, so I can go FRY AGAIN...'" So, there's my...thought for the day. Next time you're in a situation where you might be tempted to sin, just think of the last nice, pink sunburn you had and how much fun it was. :)

I'm gonna go now. The cousins are here!

Have a nice day,

-Joscann

Summer!

So...it's been an entire week since high school officially ended, but it feels like it's been at least 3. A week ago I was on my way to the David O. Mckay Events Center to practice with the choir for graduation. So many things have happened since then, but I think more than that, I have had a paradigm change. A week ago, high school was my world. It was my world. There was nothing outside high school except family, which I regret to say, wasn't as much a part of my life as they should have been. I was always off somewhere with my high school friends, doing something that I'm sure was productive, or at least not destructive...but I didn't spend enough time with my siblings, with my parents. That's what I need to do this summer. Spend a lot of quality time with my family. Anyway, this paradigm shift that I've had...it's an amazing thing, really. One day I'm in high school, hanging out with my high school friends, and the next day, I'm not in high school, and I'm hanging out with friends that are no longer my high school friends. We're going to college this fall, we're going on missions, we're moving on, and we're done with high school. Forever. What was our entire life just one short week ago, is now gone. Out the window. Never to return. Is this a bit saddening? A little. I really enjoyed high school, but more than sad, it's liberating. I feel like I'm my own person. I no longer "have" to go to school. From here on out, my education is officially my own. Anything I want to learn, I have to pay for it, and I have to invest myself, because no one else is going to make me.

So, that's my paradigm shift. I don't know if that's even the right phrase to describe it, but that's as close as I'm gonna get. I'm done with high school, and all of a sudden, I'm a different person. I'm the same person, but different somehow. More responsibility, more weight on my shoulders...but FREE. I am my own person. That's what's important.

At the same time it's a little bit scary. My parents aren't going to be there to tell me to pay my tithing, or study my scriptures. Then again, they haven't really done that for a while. I've done those things on my own for quite some time. I just don't know how I will act without them there. Suddenly not paying my tithing has become an option. Or...it will when I move out this fall. I have done it my whole life, but they've always been there watching. They've been at tithing settlement and have heard me declare myself a "full tithe payer". So now that they're not there, will I still act the same?

I hope so. I sincerely hope so. I am confident that when I go out into this world, I will take with me not only their examples, and the memory of their faithfulness, but also my own testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel. I know for myself that if I pay my tithing faithfully that Heavenly Father will be watching out for me. He'll have my back, so to speak. And if things don't always go so well, I will know that whatever happens, it will be for the better. As long as I am in the right place, doing what I know to be right, then whatever happens will "give [me] experience, and shall be for [my] good." (D&C 122:7)

So with that, goodbye high school, and hello world.

Have a nice day,

-Moscas