monkey see

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 6 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

i like playing this game...

hip being square

my wife is having quilting spasms...

it's kinda fun.

i somehow got snagged into the ordeal. i've been acting as pattern organizer.

this is the pattern i came up with for my brother's little girl. now...uhh...ignore the colors. we're focusing on the pattern here. the actual colors may be interesting too...being as they were chosen by a 2 year old... but you know...you take what you can get.

oh, how lovely

i like early morning.

it occurs to me that this statement is totally uncharacteristic of myself. allow some explanation.

i like being awake in the early morning. i detest the thought and abhor the act of waking up early in the morning. but...when circumstance requires, or if i just happen to have not actually gone to bed that night, i do enjoy being coherent and functional during the early morning hours.


sadly, the heaven's usually don't align correctly so as to make this a reality. i have to suffer through waking up most of the time to enjoy morning. and by then, all enjoyment has passed.

but...it will be noted that when this does occur, there is so much to be enraptured with at that time!

take, as an example, the above picture. no justice is rendered to the actual scene by the device used to make the image...but the general idea is understood. this is nearing the close of my favorite part of morning. i like the 45 minutes to an hour just before the sun rises...and a few minutes or ten past. that's the best time. that is when the birds are doing their thing, when the air is just crisp and tasty... when all that is wonderful about the world is at it's best.

i don't get the opportunity to see this part of the day very often--more than i probably want to...but i don't enjoy it nearly as often as i see it. but, a few times a year, i get to joy in the splendor of it.

it's always rather refreshing...especially if i don't have anything too particularly pressing that i have to be about. i think this is one reason i like camping so much. i usually wake up early when camping...and am perfectly happy to do so, with a general disregard for the time i went to bed. then i can just sit...and contemplate God's wonders, and relax from the worries and cares that usually jostle me throughout the day.

it's nice. it's really nice.

paradise lost

so...they've had these magnificent flowers surrounding the library for the past several weeks--just gorgeous! i should have taken more pictures of it...but neglected to do so. here's one that i snapped just before coming to post:


now...i know it's a little old and wilty looking...but you can imagine the splendor of it all.

the post sadness also contains a closeup shot from the gardens...

and so, you can imagine my dismay and morbid fascination when, as i came in the west atrium entrance, i find a scene of carnage and destruction upon the field where once lay such beauteous wonder.



my only consolation is knowing that there will be something fresh, new and more befitting of the present season that will shortly replace this herbal armageddon.

sadness

i was strolling to class this morning, and, as i was going past the library i started looking at all the beautiful flowers--something that i think people need to do a lot more of--when i noticed the most amazing spiderweb, all covered in dew.

i pulled out my phone and snapped an image...but i don't think this picture truly captures the beauty of what i saw. i need to carry nick around in my back pocket so he can take all my pictures for me.

as i crouched over the plant i had two thoughts/impressions:

1) how many people think i look silly hunched over on the sidewalk, staring at this random plant...
2) how many other people actually do things like this?

the second got me to thinking a little bit.

i've never seen anyone doing something similar. and it made me sad for all the other people passing by...some rushing somewhere, others just walking along. but...none of them stopping. none of them looking. no one taking the time to admire all the beauty around them.

maybe this is all because 3 minutes earlier i had seen an advertisement for employ with the byu ground crew that said something to the effect of "come help us beautify our campus..." but how many people actually take note of the wonderful things that are being done around them? and not just on the plane of landscape architecture... how many of the natural beauties that surround us each and every day are people missing out on because they are so pressed, so worried, so busy and stressed out with school, work, home matters--and all the crap that modern life shoves down our proverbial throats. how many people stop to listen to the wind blowing through the trees? probably not many...it's too much effort to take out the earbuds and pause the ipod.

as much as i love technology and am an advocate of using it and having it help us in our everyday... i often feel it saps humanity of so many of the characteristics that make us just that--human. it's leeching away from so many the ability to appreciate the inherent beauty of one's surroundings. it seems to rape so many of the charitable and virtuous qualities...leaving only the questions "what's in this for me? how will i be benefited?" leaving only the search for a quicker fix and more convenient way of reaching the end goal. what of the journey which ought make getting from point to point the reason for wandering?

granted, these are things that have always existed as part of human nature...but that doesn't make it any less sucky. and there seems to be an increase in such things... perhaps not. i can't say.

all i know is that the flowers do look nice these days.

welcome to the jungle...

it's worse than i thought...

60%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

yeah...so i blame nick for this, mostly...
well...not the percentage--i have to take certain amounts of blame for that.
mostly just the post...

i win...

aaron's anti-porn poster, courtesy chandler

yeah...this is just all sorts of fun. i wasn't gonna post it at first--just was gonna get a page for it on the internet...but then i decided y'all might like it too, so i left it...and subsequently made a commentary about it. yay!

crap... v.5.1.7

need i say more?