The end of one heck of a semester.

I was busy this past semester. Full time graveyard job, part time multimedia reporter/web editor for the Daily Universe, and a healthy 15 credit semester. I'm glad it's behind me. I am pretty sure that I got mostly A's and perhaps a B may have snuck in there, but by and large I am only too happy for how things went. This next semester, I bit adieu to the newsroom: they haven't the position for me and I haven't the time. It was enjoyable to be sure, but I had a limited schedule for them to utilize and was tired of having no free time at all.

Simply put, I have been too lazy to update. I have been alone lately since my wife has been in Peru, but even so, I couldn’t find the energy to write a blog. Maybe the biggest issue is that my laptop screen went mysteriously dark and I have been out of a computer. I have had access to computers, but I haven’t been here at work where the abundance of time seems to work well for me to actually write things. Apparently, the guy at Wasatch Computers thinks that it would be a good deal to fix my laptop screen for 350+ dollars. Since I could buy a new one for the same price, I beg to differ. I would like to get a new Macbook Pro, but they are so bloody expensive I highly doubt that will happen. We’ll see.
What I have done is watch Beetlejuice and the Nightmare before Christmas finally. Can you believe that I’d never seen them before? All in all, good flicks. It was weird to see Alec Baldwin so young, and seeing Micheal Keaton so bizarre, but there you are. Other things that I have done: I shoveled a lot of snow in Fruitland. It was less fun than you’d think. I also attended all three hours of church there for the first time in a long time. It was strange. I hardly recognize the people there anymore.
All of the family minus Michele (and she hardly counts anymore) went to see Tron in Roosevelt. First time I can remember seeing a movie with the whole family, and in Roosevelt no less. Lets just say that it was cold everywhere in the Basin, but especially in the theatre. The other three people there must have been regulars because they came well wrapped in blankets.
Tron… not a bad flick, but I happen to like Jeff Bridges. Lets just say that this movie demonstrated what I suppose an acid trip might be like.

Another reason I delayed updating my blog is that I wanted to post PDF’s of my final design project. This proved to be more difficult than I had originally thought, so you will have to go to my online portfolio here:

And download it.

I hope you like them, the investigative reporters handbook should be useful to all because I have linked every website listed so all you have to do is click on it to go to the resource. I hope somebody uses it because it took me FOREVER to do and if nobody uses that feature, it would be a royal waste of time.

Here at sleepmuch8 we pride ourselves in putting off posting for long stretches at a time and then posting massive posts that really should be broken up into three or four different posts. Continuing that noble tradition, here is a really funny article I read titled, “Dave Barry’s Year in Review”. It can be found here:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/01/1992746/dave-barrys-2010-year-in-review.html

And I highly recommend giving it a read. This has inspired my to write my own short “Year in review”. So here goes,

2010 was a pretty good year all around for me personally, but fairly lame as far as politics and such go. We’ll not worry about that though. Bad things that happened in 2010 include the BP Oil Spill and pretty much everything that happened on a national level of politics (except for elections). Justin Beiber got popular enough that I actually recognize one of his songs now and that is a minor tragedy. I kind of know what Jersey Shore is as well, which makes me sad for Television. BYU lost to the UofU in football and that is never acceptable, and none of the teams I wanted for the World Cup went as far as I’d hoped. Good things include new family members and international travel. Speaking of international travel, this brings me to the beginning of the year…
January
… We had a second reception in Peru for Malu’s side of the family and it was a lot of fun. What with the drinking, the dancing, the drinking, the lights, the drinking, and the personalized details of the party, it was a great time (my side of the family probably had less fun than the Peruvians because they missed out on the first, third, and fifth things that I listed). I probably would have enjoyed the whole thing a bit more and certainly would have enjoyed the meal more if I hadn’t had a vicious case of the runs, but there you go. Malu introduced me to lying around and watching TV, which is how we came to buy all of the seasons of “2 and a half men”. I also toured the countryside in style with my parents and Jon in the finest buses where we nearly froze to death and had near accidents frequently. (and by finest, I mean cheapest and not fine at all). We were all shaken by the experience, but had a good deal of fun. Also shaking in
February
was the country of Chile, which had the major Earthquake on my birthday. Not a pleasant way to start the day, to be sure. Also in February, I dress up in traditional costume (gently called by my sister and friends the ‘gay pirate apparel’) and do a marathon of dancing during the Candelaria. I was pretty amazing, and Malu was ok too. When we weren’t dancing in the mountains, we were visiting the ocean where I enjoyed an aspect of Peru I never could as a missionary, swimming. Through all of this, I love Malu’s little brother more and more…
and eat all the foods that I love in Peru.
March
was the month that I used to sneak away from my internship to visit my family in Chile. I decided that I needed to survey the damage for myself and to see if I could be of aid sharing my recent skills; such as: donating alternative lifestyle swashbuckling clothing or if preaching the doctrine of Charlie Sheen could help speed up recovery. It was good times, and I didn’t even mind the 80+ hours I spent busing through arid desert to make it happen. My family in Chile treated me to delicious food and reminded me of why I love Chile. Speaking of food, in…
April
…we spent practically the whole month filling up on foods that we wouldn’t be able to eat for a while. Which was ironic, considering that we had done the same thing four months previously when we left the States, and that Malu did it again when she left in December to go back to Peru. But I get ahead of myself. In April, I wrap up my internship, visits to members and people from my mission, and Malu and I bid adieu to the family and country. There was many a party in our honor and I gained back all of the weight that I had danced off during the Candelaria, which made lugging all of our baggage back to the States that much more uncomfortable at the end of the month. Highlight of that trip was the 12 hour layover in LA where we went and explored the town. We also managed to move back into BYU Married Shmucks and Family Housing and I went back to my job of watching boys sleep.
May
is when we bought C3P-O AKA, the Kia Rio and were glad to finally have a car. May was also when nothing really exciting happened. Towards the end of the month, Malu insisted we buy a decent TV in preparation of
June
and the World Cup, which took place in S Africa. We decided right then and there that we would go to Brazil for the next one, just see if we don’t. We spend a lot of time lying around, watching soccer and somewhere in all of that excitement; we discovered the greatness of 7-11 hotdogs and Bahama Mama’s- finally, something to accompany my Slurpies. Malu got a job at Heritage and our poor little Kia ends up parked there most of every day and of every night. This might also be around when Michele announced her pregnancy, which was big news and an ongoing spectacle as she began swelling more and more each time we saw her.
July
at some point during the summer, and I suspect it was this month, Malu got her license. That was good news for her since she got the freedom of transportation and good news for me since I didn’t have to play chaperone anymore. (although, I’d still frequently take her to work and retrieve her if she looked at me with cute puppy dog eyes.) I also believe that this was the great Sweat family camping experiment where the whole family, even Michele, Alan, and SJ’s kids went to the old logging grounds of the Uintah’s for nostalgia. It was weird to actually be in the area for recreation, rather than hard labor. And while I’m thinking of labor,
August
was the month where my classes, along with a second job working for the Daily Universe, began. It also marked the first time that I worked full time at nightwatch while taking classes. I am a glutton for punishment it would seem. Malu also started classes at UVU and got a sample of what working full time and classes was like. Lets just say that it was a busy time.
September
I shamelessly pad my resume by being selected to be a Freshman Foothold counselor. I traumatize the impressionable freshman and had a jolly good time choreographing a really silly dance number. Somewhere in this time of year, we start the habit of going over to Michele and Alan’s to play board games. We master Bang, Carcazonne, and Ticket to Ride.
October
I finally get a Halloween off from work and Joe fulfills his role of our ever-fearless chaperone to the UVU dance. Malu and I dress up as Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. We looked pretty snazzy if I do say so myself. Joe went as himself. Joe was also the instigator of a dinner at a Peruvian restaurant where we got together for Shane’s birthday. Miracle of miracles, Asher and his wife went, unfortunately, we haven’t seen or heard from them since. I retire from the dance group that Malu and I participate in because it’s just too much along with my other things.
November
was noteworthy because mom made smoked turkey, which was awesome and delicious. BYU lost the game against the U, which was a bummer, but not as bad a deal as I’d thought.
December
Finals, and Michele gives birth to David, who is pretty cute. Malu jumps ship to Peru the day after the birth and Alan steps up his plans to get me obsessed with Star Craft 2. I shovel plenty of snow in Fruitland and am released from my Universe job. Owing to the overabundance of spare time, and lack of a wife to fill it with trips to the Mall and other such nonsense, I attend the gym A LOT.

Well folks, there you have it: a year in review. It was really busy there towards the end, but in this year I got the best grades of any 2 semester stretch I’d ever had, I finished my internship, I finished most of my minor, and I padded the resume quite nicely for that sometime in the not so distant future law school application. I learned a lot about design programs and photography, and have gained a new appreciation for the older generations. It’s been a good ride, and a not quite set in stone goal for the year is to blog shorter posts and more frequently. We’ll see, it is not a resolution, it would just be nice.