So in two weeks, I'll be at the MTC.

Crazy.

You see, my birthmom (and her husband) got me a digital camera for my birthday/graduation/mission present. (It is, in fact, exactly the camera I would have purchased had I been purchasing a camera. Coolest birthmom ever? I THINK SO.)

I'm having far too much fun with this.

If anyone can tell me what my new subtitle means, WITHOUT using Google, I shall be quite impressed.

ps. My old subtitle, "a serviceable villain", is from the Beatles song I Am The Walrus.

Pre-mission oration: PREPARED, REHEARSED, AND TIMED
Tie: NOT YET CHOSEN

It would seem that they were only taking care of the cockatoo for some time, because it is gone. Perhaps back to its original owner, perhaps to that God Who gave it life. One way or another, I don't really care beyond the fact that the unearthly screaming has ceased.

ps. If it *has* gone home to the God Who gave it life, don't worry, it wasn't me.

pps. For only starting it yesterday, my pre-mission oration is coming along quite nicely.

ppps. It's back. ~x[

A preview, just for my blogger friends, of what sorts of topics my pre-mission oration may or may not address:

The promise of minor theophany
Neal A. Maxwell's "micromanifestations"
Cellphones (in conjunction with the 14th Article of Faith: "We believe in making an object lesson out of absolutely anything")
Testimony (at the recommendation of my bishop, who is allowing me to grab-bag with this talk)
C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity
Exactly why I currently look like an albino East Indian

The people who live next door to the people who live across the street from us have apparently acquired a cockatoo.

I have never before wanted so badly for something to DIE.

Hey everybody!

Thanks for remembering that it was my birthday on Saturday and saying happy birthday to me! Love you too, guys!

*hides in a corner where the unlove can only come from TWO directions.*

No, really, it's okay. Only one of my siblings called me, so they're all on my List, and I'm sure you all know which List I'm talking about. (It should be noted that another one actually came to Glenwood with us and bought me a cake, so she's off my List.)

All my grades are in!
CS 3500: A-. I'm happy - I didn't do too well on a couple of homework assignments, but got huge bonus points on the last two.
Math 5210 (analysis): A-. HUGE RELIEF - the curve must have been really nice, because I really didn't do well in that one.
Math 5320 (algebra): A-. I'm pleased.
Math 5405 (cryptography): A. I did really well in the class, plus Savin loves me. :D
GPA: 3.764.
Overall U of U GPA: 3.734. Not bad!

*ahem* Now that I'm done bragging, allow me to say that the party for Kevin and Mary was awesome and that the rest of you slackers totally missed out. We played some ultimate frisbee, a really great game, 4v4. Brent and I had a cool midair collision. :D

The temple trip tomorrow doesn't look like it's going to happen (Mom and I are going to the family history library), but I think I will take Michelle up on her offer to go to the 10:00 (AM, of course) session on Friday.

So, the temple was amazing.

I'm sure you're waiting for my usual poetic prose, describing my feelings in full, but unfortunately you're not going to get it, because words wouldn't work particularly well. I will say that it was pretty awesome, and that I want to go back like ten more times so I can figure out some of the things I might have missed. I'll let you all know (and probably on notpoo, where everyone actually reads all the time) when I'll be going next, in case you want to come too.

Turns out that Lizzie Markham was in the same session I was, so I ran into both her and Carrie at the temple. Crazy how those things happen.

And with that, I think I'm going to go to bed... that is, if my sheets are dry yet. (It was time for them to be washed and anointed (with laundry detergent).)

On analysis, watches and biking

Analysis: I figured out two more of the problems on the analysis final - I'm left with just two that I'll do eleventh-hour, tomorrow. I'm completely stumped on one of them, and the other I can probably handwave on and get some sort of points out of it. I hate to say this, but really, as long as I pass the class, I'm fine with it.

Watches: I've been shopping around for a new watch for some time - those of you who continually borrow my watch (MICHELLE) and/or have seen it a few times (MOST OF YOU) know how beat-up it is. It still ticks along like a champ, don't get me wrong, but it's totally seen better days, and my mom convinced me to get a new one for the mish, so that I'm not wearing a nice suit and a crappy watch, you know. So we shopped around, here and there, but I couldn't find anything that I really liked. I have a bit of a problem in that my wrists are fairly small, and men's watch faces tend to be fairly large, so if I put one on, I have a problem where it looks like I'm walking around with a muffin strapped to my wrist. At one mall we happened to be at today, there was this kiosk that said "Watches $10". What the heck, thinks I, we'll go see what they've got. I ran across what is quite possibly the coolest watch EVAR - instead of having regular hands, it has dials with numbers on them, that rotate around below the face, which has arcs cut out so you can see the numbers. To tell what time it is, you read the numbers down a little red line through the center of the arcs. How cool is that? Also, the face isn't too big, so I don't look like I'm wearing a steel corsage, it's a nice-looking band, and it was, after all, $10.

The moral of the above ginormous paragraph: Don't overlook the ten-dollar watch table.

I should note, before leaving the subject entirely, that I'll probably have to get one more link taken out of the band, because it's a little too loose.

Biking: I rode my bike to the library today - the long way, with the hill. Oh man, it's such a nice bike. The shifters are awesome - each one has two switches, one you push to shift up and one to shift down. It's a far cry from the old Schwinn I've been riding, where the shifters didn't even have click stops on them to tell you where it was going to shift. You just had to sort of tentatively push the lever around until the chain went ka-chunk, and it wasn't a very smooth ka-chunk either.

See, this is the problem with my blog entries. I tend to wax rhapsodic about subjects in the middle of a post, but then my endings lack a little somethi

Update about this, that and also the other

My CS project is done and handed in, for which I am very glad. If I don't have to write another line of C++ for like two years, I think it'll be too soon.

The algebra final today went fairly well, but I'm still struggling with the analysis final - I have four problems left, and it's due Thursday. I'm starting to get nervous. I'm not in full panic mode, by any means, but I am twitching a little.

I got a new bike today, as a graduation and/or birthday present which JUST CONVENIENTLY HAPPENS to be something I need for my mission! Funny how that worked out. Unfortunately, I didn't get much time to ride it, but I was able to take it for a short spin through my neighborhood, and let me tell you what, it's a sheer pleasure to ride. Especially after riding my sister's 18-year-old bike around for the last week or so. If it wasn't dark right now, I would be sorely tempted to just go out and ride it. I'm looking forward to Thursday - when I go up to turn my final in, I'm going to ride my bike back. Not only will it be fun, but it will be an acid test to see what sort of shape I'm in. :D

In other news, I have an appointment to go to the temple on Tuesday the 9th to take out my endowments. I'm quite excited. Tomorrow we're going out to buy some garments and some other random junk I need.

That's about it. I think I'm going to go stare hopelessly at my algebra final for a while.