The Past Week

Well, it's been a bit! I'll just catch up on what has happened this past little bit: Nothing. And I blame it all on everyone else.

You see this all started on Tuesday. Cue dream sequence..............

*The screen grows all fuzzy and then fades back into focus on last Tuesday*

"Novel! I really want to go buy The Sims 2. And I'm tempted to skip the devotional and buy it!" "Go for it." "Uhm...you sure?" "Yes, buy it, buy it buy it!" "Will you come with me?" "Sure I'll hold your hand Asmond..." "Yay...here it is...I want it so bad...but I know it will ruin my life." "Don't worry about it, just buy it." "Okay...lets go meet Smurfs and J!" "Hey..." *talks to about five random people whom I knew from previous life spans before J shows up.* "J! Where is Smurfs?" "I dunno, he is twenty minutes late though..." "Hey, there is a girl from my Japanese Class, I could give her the stuff to turn it in and then I could go home and play the Sims...." "Do it Asmond!" "But I really kinda need to go to Japanese..." "ASMOND, GO PLAY THE SIMS!"

Okay, so that's how it's Novel and J's fault. It's Smurfs fault because he wasn't there to tell me not to purchase the game, and then he wasn't there to tell me I should go to my class. Let me think...who else can I blame... Oh, it's *insert name of friend from HS*'s fault, he is the one who let me play it the first time! Hum...It's Uffish's fault because she has red hair, and I can blame her for anything, she's the perfect red-head-ed-step-child.

You may, or may not have guessed that I've been playing a lot of Sims 2 lately. Soon I'm going to get a screen shot of my Sim: Asmond, and put it up on here for you all to see, he looks fairly close to me... But in all reality...I have actually gone out and done things lately. I went out both last night and the night before actually! I'm proud of myself. I even met Serendipity, and stole her lip gloss (okay...so I think she lost it in my car...but still!) And I did my, 'work' on Saturday, washed the car(stupid rain), prepared my lesson and actually did some homework. I'm proud of myself for all of those things.

Now, to take a test tomorrow and finish the two papers due next Thursday. Ahh, gotta love procrastination. But I think after this I only have one more big project and then finals! Woo! Life is good, my friends are cool...and I am happy.

Lessons to be learned from simming:

1. There are some actions that just shouldn't be available until you know someone really well.
2. You have to practice at something to become good at it.
3. If you don't do your homework you don't get as much money.
4. You have to make time for your friends otherwise you'll just end up doing what is nessessary and not having any fun.
5. Never eat food that has been left out for longer than about 10 days.
6. Girlfriends don't like it when you make out with other girls infront of them.
7. Aliens really are real. And they can get Men pregnant.
8. Telescopes give you logic, Piano's give you creativity, TV's give you fun, Food makes you happy and expresso makes you p**.
9. If you don't get sleep bad things start to happen.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed your little Sim lessons in life, till next time...enjoy!

- Asmond

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Priorities

Well, as I was finishing my last post I thought about this, but decided it was a little too serious for that one so...here goes the second post of tonight, aren't ya'll lucky?

Well, I've been thinking about priorities a bit lately. And I've been thinking about what should be, what I say is, and what actualy are, my priorities.

You know, the "right" answers? Church (and by implication, God), School, Family, money for food and shelter, honest work...Well, those are my priorities...to a point. But I think as I examine my life there are things that I also count personally as important. My friends (and by extension their blogs), reading good literature, and expanding my mind in other ways. But where on the priority list do all of these things fit, what is the balance that I'm trying to make here?

At this point I need to add in two more priorities, although not ones that I am proud of, Internet chatting, and console gaming. Not bad in and of themselves, but sometimes they take precedence over much more important things.

So, how do you make the decision to choose, I mean if it were presented to you as: "You can either choose God, or your book." I doubt many people would choose the book...but, what happens is much more subtle. I can read my book now and the scriptures later, I can talk to _____ now and do homework later, I can play FFX now and prepare my lesson later... etc. They don't seem like they are big things, just procrastinating a little bit. But eventually I've managed to fill my life up with so many 'good' things that I don't have enough room for the 'best' things.

So that requires that I start cutting things out. Well...what goes? Obviously it's not religion, school or family. I simply cannot morally do that. But books, games, IM, these are all things that I find entertaining, the joy of the moment if you will. I know I can't give up all of them just yet, I would go crazy without some form of stress releif. But what do you give up? And how much? I don't really expect anyone to answer those...which is why the blog is called Rhetorical questions, but hopefully putting this down on paper will assist me in setting first things first.

Something that just came to mind: My second mission president in his first real zone conference put up a slide show, with a quote from a bumper sticker, "The main thing, is to make the main thing, the main thing." I kinda liked it. And it fits well here, life for most members of the church isn't a struggle between murder and celestial marriage, but rather between terrestial and celestial laws. And the goal in life is to start picking the celestial stuff.

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Red Dots?

Well, Shoebox of Lies and Wiggle came and visited me today. I live kinda far away from most of the gang down in Provo, so I have to tell them directions. They can usually get most of the way here....but they always seem to have trouble with the last stretch. You see, the last bit of instruction is, "Turn at the red dot." Or, "Turn at the first red dot." Well, they keep complianing that there is more than one red dot. Well, I decided to call them on it tonight.

First to explain they came and said: "We only made one wrong turn this time, we turned at the red dot...you see the problem is we got to the first and could see another and we didn't think it was that close...so we drove on to the next one."

So, we drove out and looked for red dots, results: About six streets up there are two red dots on a telephone pole. Another six blocks up there is a yellow dot. They decided to turn around. And in unison they said, "Oh, it was on the way back that we saw so many red dots!" So, we counted the ones on the way back...none, except the one they were supposed to turn at, and one that didn't have a turn. So, after dicussing this I decided that A: they thought the red dots were actually car tail-lights.

Ahh, good times. I'm really glad they came by though, I miss talking to them...On other related news, Serendipity is coming into town for all of those who didn't know that already. She's a cool girl, I've been talking to her a bit online. And I had a really good session of church, the temple was awesome Saturday. I'm so glad I get to do that, It really does make the week go by so much better and is something I look forward to every Saturday. A girl in one of my classes came in this Saturday, a girl that I've been wanting to ask out for awhile now. I think I will.

Okay, random thought patterns done and gone now...life is good, I am happy and school is slowing down.

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Depression

Well, as many of you know, and as some of you have guessed. I have been diagnosed with Clinical depression. I take 200 mg of Welbutrin SR every morning, all because of that fact. For the longest time I refused to take medication, I had gone on it once in High School, and it just...didn't fly very well. So I had a bad taste in my mouth, not to mention the fact that I dislike drugs in general and have taken only a few dozen pain relievers in my life. Anyway, I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

I have learned how to handle it. I couldn't do it alone, and I have various other things that I deal with, but more or less, I have managed to put it behind me. It is a war that is always raging in the background, a whirlpool sitting there waiting for me to sail a little too close...enough with the similies you get the picture. The reason I'm writing this is because I'm sick of people with depression who act like it is some dibilitating disease. Is it hard? Yes. Can it feel like too much sometimes? Most definatly. But the fact of the matter is, the Lord provides ways of getting out. I look back on my life and see the times when I've been most depressed and it has always been those times in my life when I haven't been following the gospel.

I am absolutley convinced that if you are striving your best to live the gospel...then the depression will never get the best of you. Sometimes that means throwing your pride aside and dumping on someone, or taking a pill. But the Lord provides. Is it still hard? OF COURSE. This life wasn't made to be a walk in the park. It's always going to be difficult, it's difficult for the people without depression.

Okay, I've ranted and raved and probably offended a few people, and I appologize, I realize that the things contained in this post may not seem like they apply to your situation. They may not, I may have taken my own thoughts and turned out something so bunk it's not even funny. So, what am I trying to say here...we have all been given trials in life, one of mine just so happens to be depression. But we are all given problems, the Lord provides ways out of those holes, whatever they may be. I don't pretend to know all of the answers...but I do know that they cannot be found on our own. Whatever the trial, through God's assistance we may grow...sure we'll have some scars for a bit, but in the end...it's scars that make us truely beautiful.

I hope anyone reading this will gain some hope out of it, and not the anger it started with. This life is too short to live without hope, and that is what trials suck from us, the hope for a better world. "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen."

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Five Things minus One

Well, now that my crazy hectic week is over, and I've managed to take a little time for myself to recoup. I figured I'd send a post out into the cosmos, so for that perrty little red-head that I promised to post and to all the other people who have been bugging me about not writing lately...here goes.

First off I'd like to talk about my friend. This is my best friend, the kid that I would do anything for. We were friends in Jr. High and just got better as we entered into High School and life in general. We've always been there for each other to make sure the other one isn't screwing up too much. Well, He was supposed to be getting married this weekend. He isn't, and indeed he isn't even together with the girl anymore. All that happened since Valentines Day. Why am I talking about this? Anyway, I'm excited that he isn't getting married so we can still play but I'm still really sad that he has to go through the heartbreak. I wish I could help him more.

Well part of that is that this past weekend was supposed to be his Bachelor party, well, the wedding was already called but we decided to have the party anyway. It was a few nights up at his Cabin in the Uintahs. And for the first time in my life I got to ride a snow mobile. HOLY SHASTA! That is soooo fun. To go flying over a a perfectly white ground at 70 miles an hour... Yeah, that was fun.

There is also the dating problems. I have this insanely bad habit of liking a girl for about four days. And then...nothing. I don't understand this, is it because I don't see them and lose interest because the interest was based solely on looks or is it just that I don't know the girls very well and when I do get to know them I don't like them anymore. Anyway really quite frustrating I just want to skip this whole finding part and go straight to the married part. At least then I knew she likes me.

Well, I already talked about my homework and how increadibly much I had this past week...Most of that was my own fault for procrastinating though, so I can't complain. And I'm getting really tired, I only got about two hours of sleep last night...so I'm going to go to bed now. I hope everyone is having a blast of a day. Seeya laters.

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