lesson for today: don’t procrastinate. it never has a good outcome.

in case you missed it last time, all pics should now be up:

japan study abroad pics

check them out i guess…

still no scooter. the idiots at escape motorsports in provo, ut decided that they would wait for four weeks before actually opening up my scooter to see that it wasn’t just a cracked plastic body but there was actual frame damage. (i hope my blog gets a decent page rank on google so that the next person who searches for them will see this… they really are a crappy service. i don’t know why i went back to them again). and just to add to the fun, i gave my insurance agent a call to complain to him, just to find out that he is basically no longer and insurance agent for progressive and hasn’t been since july 5th. no wonder no one has cared to get ahold of me. why have i been the one doing all the contacting to find this stuff out? shouldn’t escape motorsports and progressive be the ones calling me when there is a major development like the parts are going to show up a week later, or that they completely botched the damage estimate, or that my insurance agent is gone indefinitely? why did it take me making a phone call for this information to come out? seems backwards.

nothing else very new going on… happy about the $8000 i will be getting in grants this year. eyeing a new macbook (for educational use of course). and who ever said there weren’t advantages to getting old and staying single?!?

i downloaded a program called igtd (the gtd stands for “getting things done”). supposedly it will help me get my life organized so i can be more productive. i guess i will actually have to complete my to dos now to make it worthwhile.

i made a wish list. here it is so far:

dvds:

• firefly dvds
• the office dvds
• pbs the mormons dvd

music:

• relient k mmhmm
• jack’s mannequin everything in transit
• cat stevens greatest hits
• chicago greatest hits
• snow patrol final straw

books:

• harry potter paperbacks

computer/electronic:

• earphones
• wii
• iphone
• macbook
• netnewswire

clothes:

• white dress shirt

misc:

• toolkit
• helmet

some are more realistic than others.

i’ve lost weight, almost 8 pounds since i’ve been back. feel a lot better, but i wish i could get into a habit of running more. lifting weights is great, but doesn’t give the exact same high that running does. maybe because the results are more quickly visible its easier to stick to.

we had make over night tonight. i think the girls had too much fun straightening our hair and putting mud masks on us though… i look pretty dorky with straight hair.. i guess the mud mask made my skin feel nice…

i better stop now, i’m just rambling.

currently locked in the staff staircase of the museum of art. i got to work a little early today because it was raining and i got a ride. i took the back staircase as usual to get downstairs to our clubhouse. well, the doors are locked to get back out. all of them. no one has seen me through the small windows yet either.

i am sure soon enough some custodian will come around and unlock me, but for now, i thought i would just blog about it.

i finished in on thursday evening. it was decent. but i have found a major plot hole. spoilers, etc, after the break:

[UPDATE]

thanks to my little bro, i have been proven wrong! sad times… no rioting… here is the offending paragraph:

“then the intruder [grindelwald] shot a stunning spell [at gregorovich] from his wand and jumped neatly backward out of the window with a crow of laughter”

but i will leave the original post for posterity’s sake.

Original:

the elder wand obviously plays a major role in the story, along with the whole method of becoming the master of it. so they talk about how people get the wand:

• gregorovich: unknown.
• grindelwald: steals from gregorovich.
• dumbledore: defeats grindelwald, gets wand.
• draco: disarms dumbledore, become rightful master
• harry: disarms draco, becomes rightful master

does no one else see the issue here? first, from what it looks like, grindelwald steals the wand from gregorovich in a sneaky fashion. can we consider this a “defeat” of gregorovich?

if no:

grindelwald never became the master, which is why dumbledore was able to defeat him, and why he said he never “had” the wand. thus gregorovich was still the master, and gregorovich was killed by voldemort, thus making voldemort the master of the wand.

if yes:

“defeating” the wielder appears to be as simple as taking the wand away, not necessarily defeating someone in a duel. thus, wouldn’t the mere fact that voldemort grabbed the wand make him the rightful master?

either way, voldemort is the master of the elder wand, the ending makes no sense, and we ought to riot in the streets.

parked my scooter in my friend’s parking lot while i was in japan. apparently it got hit. there was a note left in the apartment complex’s office with the girl’s name and email address. i contacted her (sara), and she said she was just in provo a few days. sara had met some dude named marco, and she was driving his car for some reason when she hit mine. she doesn’t have car insurance. marco was a real jerk, so she didn’t get any contact info once she left provo. she was now in las vegas looking for a job, so she had no phone or home address. idiotic. so, i braced myself to have to pay for the insurance deductible. once i got back to utah, i took the scooter in to Escape Motorsports of Provo UT and contacted the insurance company. the damage was around $800, but the one good news that i got during this entire episode was that the deductible was only going to be $50. this was on june 28th, and they told me i would get my scooter back on july 13th. that seemed like a long way away, but i figured i could survive by walking, using the bus, and just avoiding any dates that required transportation. well, now its july 20th, and i am still waiting. i called Escape Motorsports on the 13th wondering why i hadn’t gotten any contact, and they told me that they were still waiting on some of the parts. i called again today, and they said that now they had the parts but still needed to do the work. he said that he put the scooter on the queue to be fixed when i called. i wonder how long i would have waited if i hadn’t called. i am just really glad that i can’t ride my scooter during the time of the year that i would like to be riding it the most. frustration.

weighed myself yesterday after working out. 188 lbs. last time i weighed myself before going to japan, i was 174 lbs. and remember, i have been home for two weeks now and i have been working out 3 times a week since then. i was most likely 190+ when i first got home. thank you home stay moms for loving me so much. plus it gives me more motivation to work out. not that there are any cute girls at the pool anyway..

had a good 4th. slept in till 8. then a couple of us went to the park, fried up some bacon and french toast, and had an enjoyable brunch. we got home around 12, so we went and checked times to see transformers. the only show with tickets was at 12:25, so we boogied over to the theater and grabbed front row seats. i enjoyed the movie. cheesy jokes, yet i still laughed. the girl was hot. the transformer fights were sweet. best “summer blockbuster” i have seen in a long time. went back to my apartment to go to the ward pool party. some of the guys in the ward apparently have formed a cover band. nothing special, but i laughed when they censored the word “suck” and said “stink” instead. only at byu…. elder davis' zone was having a bbq, so went and saw him. it was good to see my old roomie, and it sounds like he is loving his mission despite the initial worries of being called to provo. good kid. then i went hiking with my roommate and some people from the ward up to the Y and we watched the stadium of fire fireworks from there. that was fun. good day.

moved over some old blog posts from myspace and facebook. i was pretty angry back then… haha. sorry for the one post in august too. it was written in anger.