just be happy anyways

i remember a day when i was in like the 4th grade. pokemon had just hit the United States, and it was kind of a big deal- who am i kidding- it was a HUGE deal. i don't think that anyone in our generation can deny that. the tv show was awesome, the game boy game amazing, and even girls collected the cards. it was the totally the bomb. the bob-omb, if you will.

so one day one of the neighborhood moms had went and got some packs of cards for her kids and she gave me a couple packs. she told me to keep one and run over across the street and give another to one of the neighborhood kids. so i went ahead and did that. i opened up my own pack and found none other than a rare ninetales- a pretty strong fire-type that's hard to come by. YEAH! bob-omb, right? totally. that is until later that day when the other kid opened his pack and rocked everyone's world.

so close.

OHMYGOSH!! CHARLIE GOT A CHARIZARD!!

all the sudden he was the coolest kid in the neighborhood. just like that. my friend next door and i were like-- really?

in truth, my little body had mustered all the 10-year-old jealousy that it could. i couldn't believe it. it could have been mine! i had both packs, but i kept the one with the blastoise wrapper and not the epic fire-type. eesh.

but whatever. it didn't make him cool. i still knew more about pokemon. i still had tons of awesome cards, including an alakazam. so whatever, man!


...whatever..


sigh.





the problem is, now that i'm a "grown-up" (at least according to my nephews) i still see the same kind of silly jealousy around us. at college. among our friends. you do it, i do it, and its too bad.

its no secret that here at BYU everyone is dating-obsessed. to the max. its also pretty clear that a great deal of the students here over-achieved in high school and were the top of their game. both things cause people to get humbled fast. FAST.

the sad thing is that we sometimes get caught in some kind of ditch, where we might think we're not as good as other people or they're better than us.

i realized the other day that many of my friends growing up and from my freshman year are getting married. some have babies. then i try to think of the coolest thing i've done lately and all i can think of is TKO-ing super macho man in the first round without him even landing a punch (its actually a lot harder than it sounds).

well in our dating-crazed culture, sometimes we see those other people getting together and being all happy and we think-- what the crap?? i'm way nicer than him. he's a tool. she's fake. she just wants someone to make out with. she has no idea what she's getting herself into. he's a loser. why can they be happy?

when we do that we sound a lot like a certain jealous 10-year old who didn't get the one silly card he wanted
.

the thing is, getting married is pretty much like finding that charizard. you may open hundreds of booster packs, and all you find is freaking weedles. another gust of wind. oh. great. grass energy. but you keep trying. you keep getting those dang cards. sometimes you come close- you find a blastoise, a venusaur, alakazam, but not a dang charizard. but you keep going. and going. and then, out of nowhere, the kid down the street gets one and you're left wondering what just happened.


i tried the whole bitter thing, and as fun as it is, it really doesn't work. and its fun- especially for someone as sarcastic as i am. but i've found life to be a whole lot easier when you just decide to be happy anyways. so what if others get what you want before you do? good for them. they find that special person? yay them. they get that radical job? way to go. whatever special things are happening to others, its way more fun to just be happy about it. seriously.

so here's to being happy- and here's a big thanks to everyone who works to be happy no matter how good or bad life can be. yall are the real pokemon masters.

what i want to be when i grow up

it was always pretty dang clear to me as to which path in life i was supposed to take.  ever since i was like, 5 or even younger i've had all the right people showing me the way- the mighty morphin' power rangers, super mario, link, the ninja turtles, darkwing duck, batman, superman, bruno the kid, the aquabats- the list goes on. with this host of awesomeness appearing in nearly every facet of my life, it has never been a question what has been my desire-- nay, my destiny to become:



a hero.

drool.

what's more awesome than forming the mega zord and defeating rita's monster whom she just made grow?

um, nothing.

remind me what's better than recovering the triforce from ganon and saving the world from destruction--


or when you find that "other castle" that the princess is actually in


i could go on. the point is, being a hero is awesome, and its what i have always wanted to do.



now the whole secret identity part- that's another story. should i be a mild-mannered new reporter? eh, seems boring. millionaire-playboy-businessman? that's a bit over the top. teenagers with attitude? too late for that.


unfortunately, i'm not from another planet, i haven't crashed into a truck of radioactive material, nor have i been bitten by a crazy awesome super power-giving arachnid.


so i guess i'm consigned to a life of boring lameness with a severe lack of superpowers. no heroism for me, right?

WRONG.


true, there may be no one more awesome than the red ranger to a lil 5 year old, but i have been able to see heroes in the more "normal" or "boring" people with my somewhat "grown-up" mind.

like my 'normal' roommate who has more than once got me my favorite juice when i feel like garbage

or my 'normal' friends in my major who want to work with people who have severe disabilities AND are always nice enough to give me girl advice

or there's my "boring" and "normal" dad, who made it a point to always put God first and to take care of his family. dad used all his mild-mannered accountant powers helping people and doing the right thing.

 there pretty much aint no better hero than that.

public displays of infection

i have a friend. i know, right? its great. friends are great. to the max. this friend of mine is in my major, which is a very small major, which means i've shared pretty much ALL of my classes with her for the past who knows how long.

anyways, she recently got married, (as  girls in education majors often do) and i went to her reception cause she's pretty radical and her husband is also quite radical so i figured it would be pretty radical to go. while i stood in a corner at the reception (as i often do at receptions) eating a heavily frosted cupcake i couldn't help but notice how happy my just barley married friends were. like they were so dang happy. to the max.

and it wasn't one of those, like obnoxious happys, you know the kind where you see it and you're like "BAH ugh. barf. happy couple. eesh. gross." twas the kind that makes you go 'awww.' or 'totes presh.' its kind of like the feeling you get when you hug an adorable puppy. an adorable puppy like THIS puppy:

i really want to hug that puppy.

every time i see my friend with her man it makes me feel like puppy hugs. unfortunately, i can't say the same about just about every other dang couple at our fine institution. most of them, just quite bluntly, make me want to vomit.

now, before i rant on too crazily about it, there's a few things we just need to get clear here:

1- here at our wonderful, happy, magical BYU, we have a culture that is heavily reliant on dates, dating, and that whole getting married thing. you can't help but see some of that walking to class. and technically it is kind of something we're sort of supposed to be working at, so you can't really blame it for happening.

2- most of us have been or will be guilty of PDA-ing it up at some point. sometimes its obnoxious and sometimes it isn't, but there's probably always going to be someone bitter enough to hate you for it.

3- at BYU we have agreed to standards and (most of us) have made covenants in which we have agreed to live very very differently than the typical college student. yes, i think we can all agree that it's annoying to find a couple people PDA-ing it up at the JFSB fountain, but annoying a few random strangers is probably always better than macking on the couch in front of your roommates.

regardless, i have accepted that PDA is just going to happen. but i have often wondered what makes the difference between the people who make me feel like hugging puppies and the people who make me feel like there's a crisis in the love zone.

yikes.

anyone who caught the above reference gets 400 bonus points unless you are one of my brothers (cause i know that you know it).


i only have a couple suggestions which are based on my opinions and pretty much nothing else. but i think these attitudes will help us closer to the puppy side of the scale.

first, don't give a crap about the status- this may sound absurd, but i don't think it is. we live a culture that is very focused on dating. we can't get around that. people will always be asking if you're dating someone, when you're getting married, why you aren't dating anyone, if you want to date their friend, why it didn't work out with their friend when you were dating, etc. etc. etc. sometimes, i think we forget that we should be dating each other because we like each other, not so that we can impress everyone else in the world.

earlier this year i went on a few dates with a girl and she knew that i liked her. i even got her to like me for a bit. but it didn't end up working out. she was very, very nice about it, nicer than most. and its OK that it didn't happen, that's why you date; to figure stuff out. but during the whole time that was going on, people kept pestering me. "when are you gonna make it official?" "is she your girlfriend yet?" "why don't you ask her?"

the whole thing didn't even last a month, and i already had people bothering me about it! come on, people. i was spending time with her because i liked her. not so that i could tell you that i have a girlfriend, not so that i could update my facebook status, not so that i could brag at testimony meeting that i'm one step closer to eternal progression. she probably would have respected me a lot less if i pressured her into trying to make things "official" so that everyone could have something to talk about.

i guess the my point is that you should date someone because you like him or her. don't worry about what other people think. don't worry about "making it official" because its been a couple of weeks. don't think you have to know if you're getting married after a couple of dates. (yeah, i've heard these concerns). just spend time with each other cause you like each other. and if you still like each other, then keep spending time together. and then if you like each other, then you can figure out if you don't want to date other people. it doesn't need to be some huge ordeal that you need to announce to the world.

second point- don't feel like you have to do every. little. thing. together over and over day after day, minute after second after second.

don't get me wrong. i think its awesome when people take boring things and make it special because they're with someone they like. every time i go to the store to buy food, i see people together who are dating. it's great that they're spending the time together and doing that boring stuff together. but that's not the kind of people who i'm talking about.

i think we all know who i'm talking about.

its the people who you see, after slightly making out in the cereal aisle, slowly walk hand in hand after to the box of cheerios. each person grabs the box with one hand, lifting it together and lowering it gently into the cart. after its placed, they look lovingly into each others' eyes, not noticing the congestion they're causing in the store. they're not quite off to one side but not completely in the middle, so its just enough to slow down other shoppers without being so annoying that anyone will say anything. they slowly walk together out of the aisle, because pushing a cart while holding hands is extremely difficult, while they continue to block my way to the frosted mini-spooners i so devilishly covet. 

don't worry sweetheart. i'll be back soon. i'll miss you while i'm gone.

anyways you get the point. its good to spend time together, its good to do the mundane stuff, but don't feel like you're a bad boyfriend or girlfriend if you're not ALWAYS together doing EVERYTHING with each other.


anyways, i hope yall had fun indulging me and my little rant. and let's all hope that we display our love in a manner that makes onlookers want to participate in a group hug with puppies, rather than contracting appendicitis.

experts always rush

a rush is a term used in RTS (real-time strategy) games (mainly Warcraft or Starcraft) which indicates that one player builds as many units as possible in a short amount of time in order to attack the enemy's base quickly. the goal is to win the match within the first 5 or so minutes. variations of rushes include the grunt rush, the zealot rush, and the ever-popular zergling rush.

pretty much the clearest picture i could find, though any nerd would know that this isn't technically a rush. but you get the idea.

i remember a day quite well while playing starcraft. i was playing with my friends Sean and Louie, and my brother Brent was making fun of everything they were saying on the online in-game chat. they weren't speaking in complete sentences, (as its hard to crush your enemy forces and talk at the same time) and Brent read their every word as if he were a caveman. it was sort of annoying, but whatever.

so, after i was done it was Brent's turn to play, and so i began to make fun of everything that his allies said while playing. Brent entered a 3 on 3 match with random internet players. one of the player's user names was called fAsT_tuRtLE. the match opened with the following dialogue:

fAsT_tuRtLE: experts always rush.

fAsT_tuRtLE: i am an expert.

fAsT_tuRtLE: therefore, i will rush.

needless to say, this guy was a total n00b, and everybody knew it the second he typed his first message. (by the way, autocorrect is not underlining the word "n00b"). his attempt of a rush went horribly awry and unaided by his teammates. within minutes, his base was being destroyed by the opposing team while everyone in the match laughed at him whether friend or foe.

fAsT_tuRtLE: my base!

fAsT_tuRtLE: my base!

threeleggedyoyo: i thought you were an expert.

fAsT_tuRtLE was elminated.

fAsT_tuRtLE has left the game.

of course, Brent ended up losing the game since his team was one man down.


this silly experience came to mind today while i was sitting at church, thinking about how i treat others. because i am naturally sarcastic and cynical, i have a very easy time finding things in other people to make fun of. so much that i think i've developed a pretty negative outlook on things.

come to think of it, whenever i'm with friends and were talking about other people, its almost always bad. we make fun, we point out what's wrong, we build people up as these awful, horrible losers. all because its easier for us to see their flaws than our own. it has made me see how very, very, incredibly small i am.

sadly, i think we're all that way. its way easier for us to talk crap about other people or even hate them than to be nice. and it really doesn't do any good. everything that person does becomes bad. whether or not its actually good or bad.

like, holy crap, dude. did you see how she ate that donut? 
yeah, man. totally stupid. it's so dumb how she does that.

holy crap, did you get a donut from her? 
yeah, bro. it's totally nice how she got them for all of us.

in both cases she did the exact same thing..

i for one am tired of it. but it's also the hardest habit on earth to break. but it is a bad, bad habit if there ever was one. cause what happens when you make fun? Brent and his allies poked fun at the n00b on their team. they could have tried to help save him from enemy forces or help him with his rush. but they laughed. and they lost. and that's what happens to us, too. we laugh at others. we make so much fun and gossip so hard until we actually believe it. we actually believe that people are the way we say they are.

and then it gets way harder to like yourself. it's hard to see good in yourself when you can't see good in other people. everything to you is just dumb.

there's a place for joking. there's a place for making fun of life, for laughing, for being sarcastic, for having fun. but there are people in my life who i seriously can't remember the last time i said something nice about. too many people. there are others who i can't remember when they said something nice about another particular person. too many people.

i love the cartoon Adventure Time, cause i think it's hilarious. but sometimes it can be really profound. the show on occasion has random songs, (which are actually really good) in one of which the hero, Finn the human, asks his friends, "what am i to you? am i a joke, your knight, or your brother?"

it makes me think about how i treat people. is this person a joke? something to laugh at or make fun of? i mean they're a joke, after all. a joke isn't really even a person anyways.

or is this person a knight? someone who helps me or does nice things for me, and that's why i like him/her. that's why i keep them around.

or is he my brother? someone who i can count on. someone who i'd do anything for, cause he's my bro. someone who i can laugh with, who i would help with anything, who i'd treat exactly the way i'm supposed to treat a brother or sister.



i think if God were to talk to you about one of your friends, he wouldn't say "Oh. Him. What a loser. He's a total joke. I don't know what we're going to do with him."

i doubt He'd tell you, "Oh him? Yeah, he's alright. He's kind of like my knight, cause he does what I say. That's why I like him."

He would more likely say something like, "Jim? Yes, he's my son. I love him very much. Let me tell you why."



change is hard. being nice is hard. loving other people is hard. but it's possible, and it's worth the effort. i really hope that we can change the amount of people who are just jokes, and increase the number we see as brothers and sisters.




i think we'd all be pretty happy if we did.

stalking by accident

i have a really good memory. it isn't always a good thing. at times i remember things that i probably shouldn't. for example, if you're a girl, and i just met you, and i kind of think your cute or something, chances are that i'm going to remember things that you told me when we met. but the bad thing about it... is that when i see you again, you'll probably be creeped out that i remembered what you told me. technically, there isn't anything creepy about my listening to you... but if you didn't remember what you said to me, you might be freaked out.

there are times where i'm walking on campus and i see young women from different areas that i served in as a missionary. eesh. i feel like a stalker. they don't recognize me.. why would they and heck, i'd recognize most people from my areas, its just the girls who go to school here. if i wanted to, i could REALLY scare them cause i could assume that they went to the one high school, ward, seminary class, etc in the area.. and i remember all about that.

i'm tempted every time, but i never do it.

i also have an ability to enter and leave conversations without people really noticing. people will forget i was part of some group thing and then when i mention it later they're like ".... what?"

at the beginning of the semester, my english teacher told us to be more observant so that we could have things to put into our 'writing journal.' i was like, NO WAY. if i actually started observing things, i'd be way more of a creep than i already am. i mean, its not MY FAULT that i happen to walk home at the same time as a cute girl who was in my ward last year and i may have happened to see her get into her car and now i've memorized that she drives a certain car of a certain color and model that i wont disclose on the internet just in case she ever ends up reading this even though she probably isn't. its not my fault when a girl is cute and i see her name tag cause she works in a building on campus that i frequent and now i creepily know her name.

seriously, though, if i actually tried, i'd probably be an amazing stalker.

IEP Goals

Every person who receives special education services has an Individualized Education Program, or IEP. It is a concept that has been kind of burned into my mind. IEPs are written by a team which includes the special education teacher, parents, school principal, and other service providers such as the school psychologist, speech language pathologist, occupational therapist, etc. Specific goals for the student's progress are written in with the hopes that the student will reach these goals by the end of the year. These skills are typically academic, though if students with severe disabilities also have functional skills (such as dressing oneself) written in. An example of an IEP goal may look like this:

Given a sheet of paper and a writing instrument, Stetson will write his name with at least 80% accuracy over 10 trials, and maintain the skill for at least 3 weeks.

The thing with IEP goals is that they have to be observable, measurable, and... crap I can't ever remember the other one. But the point is, you can't use vague stuff. "Stetson will learn this" or "Stetson will know that" aren't good cause you can't measure if someone's actually learned or knows something. But you can measure what someone verbally states or writes or whatever.

After writing these goals over and over (as well as doing FUBA/BIPs which basically have the same kinds of goals with behavior) I seriously started to think that God probably has IEP goals for us. I think it makes sense...


Given a copy of the standard works, Scott will read his scriptures each day with at least 80% accuracy over 30 trials, and maintain the skill... for the rest of his life.

The thing is though, is that God actually can measure if we "know" or "learn" something or other abstract things like that. So His IEP goals for us don't have to be all super observable.

Scott will love other people without prompting with at least 80% accuracy over 10 trials, and maintain the skill for eternity.






Yeah. I've got a long way to go before my next IEP meeting.

just count em. count all of them.

oooooonnnnnnneeee blessing.


twwwwwooooooooo blessings...





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...thhhhreeeeeeeee blessings....


fooourrrr blessings.....






five blessings...






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one thousand six hundred and seventy two blessings...













one thousand six hundred and seventy three blessings.....















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yeah, you get the point