The will to be stupid is a very powerful force, but there are always alternatives.
- Lois McMaster Bujold

No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes deserves to be called a scholar.
- Donald Foster

They certainly give very strange names to diseases.
- Plato


I love my ward. It's full of such neat people! Last night I met a fellow who, it turns out, is my next-door neighbor. I said, "Oh! You're the roommate who's out of town a lot." "Yes," he said. "What do you do, that you're gone so much?" He's an airline pilot. How cool is that? We had a lovely long chat about interesting places he's been, and in which I called him a glorified bus driver and he said that's exactly what it felt like sometimes. (It was appropriate in context, I assure you. I don't normally go around insulting people's occupations!)

It's so cool to be in a ward full of people with careers instead of just students! Although, technically, my neighbor goes to the family ward, but a lot of the family ward folks come to our ward prayer and activities, so I'm glad we get to know them, too. Cuz 31 is definitely not too old for me these days.

Quote of the day:
"Have we sent the 'Don't shoot, we're pathetic' transmission yet?"
-Farscape(?)

Feeling good today. :) It's become fall, and I have fun things going on this week (seeing "Thriller" tomorrow with Isaura, date on Thursday, and Snow Patrol concert on Saturday!). I'm wearing a fun hat, I enjoy my work, and I just sent off a letter to the City Attorney's Office asking for an update (it's been a few months).

( Accomplishments )

Also, I just renewed my LJ account, including extra icons, and I realized that I have TONS of icon space that I'm not using. I decided if I'm paying for it, I should be using it, right? So now I feel like hunting for icons. :P I'm into a few new TV shows that need representation, and there's some gorgeous art out there that I could icon-ize, and some seasonal ones, and I'd like some airy/earthy, peaceful-types, too. People, where do you go to find icons? What are your favorite icon communities?

I also want to make a custom mood-theme. I was working on an Avatar theme once upon a time, but I'm thinking now that maybe I should work at making a Muse mood-theme. Hmmmm....... ^_^

Right now I'm upset because there's so much going on this week. I hate it when there's too much going on.

( Whining )

So I just got off the phone with my home teachers' roommate - the boy in the ward who I've been crushing on for the last couple months. I decided I wanted to ask him out to the ballroom concert on Saturday, and I've been working up the courage for a few days.

.....didn't go so well. Not only did I NOT end up with a date for Saturday, but the boy is moving to California.. tomorrow.

(He did say he would love to, otherwise, and was very apologetic... And it sounds like a "summer job" kind of thing, so he may be back in the ward.. sometime.. But dang..)

Well, I'm back in Provo again. It was a busy whirlwind weekend, but it was fun.. I didn't accomplish anything beyond hanging out with the family, and getting a few fish done on the nursery walls (it took longer than we expected). My date was also fun, but I'll talk more about that later.

The real reason I'm posting is that I wanted to inform people that my Leading Edge art is all drawn, and just needs to be cleaned up and shaded a bit. I'll be sending it in tonight or tomorrow (before the meeting, I expect). It's pretty dang cool.

Also, happy birthday, kilerkki!!! Sadly, I didn't make the Muse deadline.. but I definitely want to make it happen this month. Maybe by my birthday.

(Also, I just renewed my account, and sprung for extra userpics.. so now I can make/filch TONS MORE ICONS! YAY!!!!!)

So my mom called last night and told me a story.
We have a neighbor whose sister recently moved into our home ward. My dad home-teaches their family. This family has two young single adult daughters, who are in my (previous) singles' ward, one of whom is home-taught by The Redhead I'd been mentioning for the last.. oh, since sometime last summer.

Last night my dad went to home-teach them, and the daughter's home-teachers came as well. The topic, incidentally, was marriage. Introductions were made, and the Redhead says, "There's a Brittany Heiner in my ward." My dad says, "Not any more." The Redhead says, "What do you mean? I talked to her last week." (He said "Hi, Brittany" as I recall.) My dad says, "Well, she moved this week."

!!!!!!!

My little brother, who was there as my dad's companion, told him later that that was the Redhead I'd been crushing on for so long. My dad said, "Oh. If I'd known, I would have said, 'because you were too slow!'" (I don't think he would have, gaaah, that would have been so embarassing..) (And somewhat inaccurate.) But still!! GRRRRRAAHHHH!!!! I can't win!!

***

Mom also mentioned that after Church, she waited for me to come home, and when she realized I wasn't coming home, she cried. :(

Progress so far this week: Getting inspired from art (check out this girl's stuff, it's amazing! I particularly like this one, and now I'm reading 8-bit Theatre - haha! check this one out; reminds me of my Atton/pie strip). Also, sent out three resumes. That's enough for today, right? Can I play now? Hm, maybe I should eat something..

Also: "Drive" is pretty cool. Gwen and I watched the 2-hour premiere last night (minus the first 20 minutes we missed because we didn't know what time it was on). Unfortunately, the next episode is tonight. I hate it when shows I want to watch are on Monday nights when I need to be at FHE. Grrr!!

Man, I've really neglected you all lately, and I'm sorry. I'll be on a bit more from now on, I hope. I still love you.

In the meantime, the countdown continues. We're down to about a week now.

So let's try to recap the week quickly.. ( Busy Week Details )

OHH! And I forgot to mention.. Last Sunday my dad and I test-drove a 98 Corolla from a private seller in Gilbert, and I was supposed to figure out a loan the next day, but didn't have time, and Tuesday my dad bought it without me. It's a very pale gold, sort of 'champagne', with a slight pinkish tint, and it's smaller than the Grey Ghost (my Camry), but we're getting acquainted. I didn't get to take it until Friday because my dad wanted to take it on the freeway for a couple days, and then went on a business trip. But I'm getting used to it, thinking of a name for it, and tomorrow I need to get some spare keys made. So yeah.. new car! I miss the Ghost already (and its CD player), but hey! New car!

So it's been a very busy week, and I haven't had time to breathe, let alone work on all those logos I've been assigned. Now I have three days to pack and look for jobs (and do logos) before pixiepilot and chibidrunksanzo get here for Anizona, my last hurrah. (Hey guys, what costumes are you bringing??)

OH, and btw! ANYONE WHO WANTS ME TO GET THEM A TICKET TO THE ECLIPSE PROM, TELL ME ASAP! I'M PLANNING TO GET TICKETS TOMORROW.





Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?



Final Fantasy 7 Walkthrough

So.. the social-ness continues. Sunday I went to the fireside with Ian, right? And we met a Japanese girl there, whose name is Chiharu Miyazawa. Monday I had FHE, and stayed and talked with Ian and Tiffany and Bro & Sis Mays for, like, an hour (Dustin had to leave early).. Tuesday I met Chiharu at the Institute building and we talked for a while, and tonight we went to dinner at the Olive Garden. After I dropped her off at home (having made plans for her to come to my ward talent show on Friday, and to go to a movie on Saturday.. she leaves back to Japan next.. Thursday?), I returned Dustin's call (he said, "I called Chiharu, and her sister said she was with you. But you're not answering your phone.") and told him about the evening. He's pretty fun to talk to. ("So, you went on a date with her?" "Pretty much." "Did you kiss her?" "Of course not. I don't kiss on the first date." "Oh, good call." "Yeah, and did I mention I don't kiss girls, either?" "I see. Yeah, I guess I'm okay with that.")

Anyway. Chiharu's lots of fun. It starts out a little awkward - mostly because I'm not used to being the instigator of activities or communications, but I understand what it's like to be in a foreign country and not have anyone to play with - but we warm up quickly and it's been really good to talk about Japan and use a little Japanese. She wants me to visit her in Nagano next time I'm in Japan. That would be really awesome. I'm so happy to have a Japanese friend to call my own!!

So tomorrow after work I'm going to a baby shower, Institute, then meeting Dustin at SCA fighting practice. Friday is the ward talent show - I'm singing with the choir, and I had signed up to have an art display.. so I need to find some stands or something.. And figure out what to display. And Saturday I'll be hanging out with Chiharu again.. One of these days I need to play WoW with Garrett for more than 20 minutes (^^;;), and I'm supposed to be working on starting my freelance stuff, and a couple of logos.. And I want to have another comic page up soon. Oh, and sometime I'd like to catch up on HanaDan and Naruto... (I've had the episodes all downloaded for more than a week!) Garr. Is this what it's like to be social? To never have time to do anything??

So last night Dustin and I watched "Howl's Moving Castle". I suppose you could call it a date. I'd call it a date-ish. We watched it in English, but the dub actually uses real actors, so I didn't put up a fuss. Good movie. (I'd seen it once or twice before. I think I'd like to buy it, though.) (I'd like to read the book again, too.) He's still not really what I'm looking for, but he's pretty fun.

Tonight I skipped Institute - to make a long story short, I'll sum it up with: the parents left for Utah this afternoon with two of my brothers, one more brother is leaving for Mexico with his friend's family tomorrow, and my sister is going to Mexico with her friend's family tomorrow, because I found out LAST NIGHT that Spring Break starts tomorrow. Anyway - I skipped Institute and took my little brother to Panda Express for dinner (and got some new sandals at Payless next door, which will come in handy because it's supposed to be up to 90 degrees this weekend - yikes! so soon!!).

And then I met Dustin at the park a mile or so away to watch the local SCA fighting practice.

Crazy! It's pretty cool, though. There were a few people there who had really cool armor, including one guy with some sweet Roman-like gear (who was also quite nice to look at). I didn't really talk to anyone, though, just watched and listened. It's kind of frustrating sitting in on something cool like this, and wanting to be involved, but still not wanting to get involved because my very near future is still so up in the air. I'm not sure what I'm waiting for, and it irritates me that I can't just make a decision. Like I have to get approval from everyone before I can take a step either way. It's maddening.

But if I still go to Provo, I think it'd be fun to get involved with SCA, see what crafts and skills and stuff I can learn and what cool costumes I can put together. There are so many things I think would be cool, like armor, and embroidery, and stuff. And I want to be good at archery (but the archers here practice on Sunday).

Anyway. That rant sort of got away from me. The fighting practice was cool. I may go next week too.

Oh, and at work today, one man (late thirties?) I drew up a resume for told me I had "such a gentle spirit" and how nice it was to work with me. That was really sweet of him, and it made me smile the rest of the day. Makes me think maybe it's okay to be a softie, instead of thinking I need to be more aggressive. DX