My Orange Art

I was bored at work, so I turned an orange into a piece of artwork. It's suposed to represent how us as a society are constantly trying to fix things that are not broken. The orange is perfect, it came unadulterated from an orange tree, totally in it's natural state, yet we try to fix it by stapling it back together where it is not torn, and taping two pieces that are not separated.

We sometimes look more for faults in things than we should, when we should be looking at the good things, and accepting things for the way they are, and enjoying the imperfections if there are any. All of us can learn to shift our paradigms to the eyes of a child who observes, and enjoys.

My First Couch Surfing Experience

So, I've joined this website called couchsurfing.com. It's a website designed for travellers who want to stay for free when they travel, and a way for residents all over the globe to meet new people. It is a network of people that open up their homes for free to people who need a place to stay when they are outside their home towns.

So on Monday night, I had Ike stay with me. Ike is from Vermont, but he was travelling from Denver to Salt Lake via the Amtrak train. He was on his way to California, and needed a place to stay for a night before he went out onto the freeway and started hitchiking all the way to California.

He's a 19 year-old kid who, when he gets to California, will then eventually head up to Seattle to live on a boat off the Puget Sound with a couple of his friends.

I made him a sign that said "San Francisco" Monday night, and then Tuesday I dropped him off at Redwood Rd and I-80 where he started holding that sign and waiting for someone to pick him up. He called me at about 4:00pm, and let me know that he is on his way to California.

General Conference Weekend

Wow, general conference was great this weekend. There were lots of great speakers and wonderful words spoken from that pulpit up there in the conference center. It was interesting to watch conference when the new prophet is called into presidency. That will probably be something I only witness twice in a lifetime.

I decided to watch conference at home on Saturday, and it might have been a bad idea. It was Judd and Josh and I for the first session, and I think we all might have gotten too comfortable at one time or another. It was a good session though, even though I might have seeped in and out of consciousness.

I watched the second session at home as well, and then for the priesthood session I was able to go with John Busch inside of the Conference Center. That was a really good priesthood session. I really enjoy President Monson's personality, and his goofyness. You should have heard how loud that Conference Center got when he wiggled his ears. Wow. It was interesting, one of the conductors that was directing the music was actually in institute director that John and I had back in the student singles wards when we worked up in downtown Seattle on our missions. That was funny to see him up there on the big screen.

The Sunday conference sessions were great. I watched again the morning session at my house, and then for the second one, Emma Dille came up to have lunch with me, and then we went to the visitor's center on Temple Square to watch the last session. I enjoyed a lot of talks from that one. Jeffrey R. Holland's talk was great. He never backs down from being bold, and he always tells it how it is. He just told the world the important things about our church that makes us unique, and what makes us the true church.

I love to hear the conviction in the voices of the apostles. All of them have such a love for the Savior, and being able to listen and hear them speak really does give me strength. They truly are lead by God.

Emma and I walked around temple square for a while, and took some pictures on temple square. She had never been in the tabernacle, which was pretty amazing to me. She really liked it though, and I will take her to Music and the Spoken Word next Sunday, because she will really like it. Plus, it will be my last Sunday here in Utah for a while.

After the last session Emma just caught the Trax back to Sandy, and I walked around for a bit. I walked past some protesters like usual, they are always out there. This highly decorated military officer walked over to the protestors and started yelling at them, which definitely wasn't a good idea. I think it's dumb when people talk to those protesters at all. It's not going to get them anywhere, and they should just not do it and ignore them. They should not even be recognized, that's what they want you to do.

I did find a few interesting things around the protesters though. I found a man playing the bagpipes to drown out the protesters, and I also found a little happy man running around dancing with a smiley-face sign. I'm not sure exactly why he was doing it, but he was having a fun time at it. He was taking pictures of himself with others and the sign, and other wacky things. There's a lot of interesting people who come out for conference.

WSM Mission Reunion

Washington Seattle Mission Reunion!

Man, those are so much fun. It is so much fun to see a bunch of the friends that we served to faithfully around for those two years. It is just an amazing experience, and to be able to see those people that bring you back to those times, and those moment when you were having so much fun doing nothing but missionary work, it just so awesome.

I pretty much hung out with Busch, Duarte, Dickison, and a new addition, Barber this time. They are all people that I enjoyed being around the most in the mission. They were the ones that I leared the most from, and had the best experiences from being around. There weren't many other people I knew besides those guys too, the mission has turned around so much that most of the people that I knew are not coming to reunions anymore. I'm surprised I'm still going, I'm older than most of them.

After we hung out and talked for a while at the reunion, we went over to Cafe Rio where we got some food, and from about 9:30pm until almost 1:00am, we just talked about memories, and the experiences that made our mission worthwhile. What an awesome experience. I will never forget those times when we just stand around and talk about good times, and the fun we used-to have. Yay more missions.

Taco Trouble

I love Taco Bell, it's my favorite place to eat when I get fast food, but Taco Bell is not making me a very happy camper recently. There's this one restaurant down next to my work in West Valley that has been giving me horrible 7-Layer Burritos. I mean, just check out the picture! What the heck is that? That's not a burrito, that's an envelope with some rice and guacamole stuck inside of it. It's more like a 2-Layer Burrito. They really need to learn how to make burritos there,

or they will lose my business. On a scale of 1 - 10 with 10 the best, I give them a 2.

Weekend Birthday Party #2: Wendy Coutino

So, the festivities continued the next day, when Wendy was celebrating her 25th birthday. She wanted to go dancing, so some of us showed-up at her house, where we gave her a very unique cake right before we left to go dancing.

This cake was the best cake I have ever made. It was cut into the shape of the abbreviations for Guadalajara, Mexico: GDL. And it was also colored in the colors of the Mexican flag. I wanted to do something nice for Wendy, and this was the perfect way to do it. I took a little over 4 hours, but I got the cake finished. It is double-stacked, with icing in the middle. It is made from 6 cake mixes, in three different colors. The G was Chocolate, the D was strawberry, and the L was Sprinkles.

I was so excited about giving it to Wendy, and when we did, she loved it. I love doing things for people that let them know how much time and effort I put into doing it for them. I don't like just buying something and then handing it to them, there's not a lot of feeling attached to that I don't think.

After the cake, we went dancing. We went to Studio 600 where they were doing Latin dancing that night. Holy cow, I had such a fun time. I learned a lot of new moves, and really got loose out there on the dance floor.

I just asked Wendy if she had a good time, and she said "I had a great time on my birthday!" So, with the seal of approval from Wendy, you can put this birthday down in the books as a success.

Weekend Birthday Party #1: Bleu and Marissa

This weekend, three of our friends had birthdays. Bleu (My old roommate who's now married.), Marissa (Who's engaged to Israel.), and Wendy's which is on Saturday. The birthday party was really fun. We had about 25-30 people there, and they made chips and guacamole, cheese dip, and virgin margaritas.

(Bleu is the one on the left being hugged by his wife, Mickaela)

(Marissa with her fiancee Israel)

The nice thing about this whole party, was that I didn't have-to prepare a single thing. Mickaela asked if we could have the party at our house because it's big, and they prepared everything, and brought it to our house. All I had to do was provide the space. They even cleaned up the entire kitchen afterwards, so I truly didn't have-to do anything.

It was nice to see all those people, there were a few that I hadn't seen in a while.

This picture in the bottom of me, Wendy and Diego with bright-colored shirts was taken just for fun. I bought some bright shirts for my biking trip so that it will be easy for motorists to see me while I'm riding on the side of the road. We look like a bag of skittles.

Overall, I have really enjoyed this apartment. we have had many parties like this, and it really has been a lot of fun. It gets kind-of crazy having 8 guys under one roof, but it sure has been worth it.

The video below is when we sang happy birthday to them and gave them cake. They got cake all over them, and it ended up turning into a cake-throwing battle which I was not very happy about. There was cake all voer my apartment, and icing all over the shirt that I gave Diego to wear, I turned into the Hulk a little bit when that happened.

Sudsy Situation

Since my roommate Josh is a native Tennessee boy, I like to joke that he does things a little backwards. His latest trick was putting dish soap in the dishwasher instead of dishwashing liquid. The entire dishwasher was filled with suds, and they were spilling out of the dishwasher all over the ground. It was pretty funny-looking.

Happy Birthday Marilyn!

My roommate Jacob and I got our hair but by Marilyn, one of our mutual friends. So, in return, we decided to bake her a cake for her birthday that was a couple days later. I like making interesting cakes, and this time we made a cake in the shape of an "M", for Marilyn. We couldn't give it to her until like 1:30 am on her birthday, because she was kidnapped and spent the entire day down in Provo. So, Jacob and I faithfully stayed up until she got back home, so we could give her the cake. She will probably kill me if she knew I posted this picture, because it's what she looks like at 1:30 in the morning.

I also made a cake for another friend that had a birthday today as well with the leftovers. His name is Israel, which is good, because that's all the cake I had to make that letter.

Weird Roommates

This is what happens when you have an all-nighter, and falling asleep at 5:00 in the am. My roommate Jacob was so dead asleep on the couch, that Vince decided to lay on him and see if he would wake-up. this a common occurance, at least one of us is out all night and crashes on the couch. (The whole double-stacking thing is NOT common, Vince is just weird.)

When Jacob falls asleep, he is out COLD, there's nothing you can do to wake him up.

A Preacher for a Teacher

Yesterday at church, we had a very special event. We had Reverend Dr. France A. Davis from the Calvary Baptist Church come to our church, and he was the speaker at our combined Elder's Quorum/Relief Society today. He is a friend of the 1st counselor and his wife, and also good friends with President Thomas S. Monson.

Our Bishop told us the Sunday before about him coming, and said "I hope I don't get in trouble for this, but we're having a Baptist preacher come and speak to us next Sunday..."

It was cool to listen to a preacher in church fro the last hour, he's so different than what we are used-to. He's very energetic, outspoken, and such a good public speaker. We rarely ever get that level of enthusiasm is a speaker, which sad to say, is what I feel we need once in a while.

He spoke about Blacks and their Goodly Heritage. He quoted psalms 16:6 which says: "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." He based his entire talk off of that, and it was really interesting. He spoke about the Blacks, and their history, their stuggles, and what's going on now to get rid of any racism, and become completely equal. He said that there's still a ways to go for Blacks, before there's no more racism left.

I really enjoyed the speech. He is a very smart man, and has a million different credentials, and phd's, doctorates, and other masters degrees and more. I would love to be as smart as that man.

After his speech, he let us ask questions. some of the comments and questions people had were pretty good, but then there were those that were not good at all. Some people need to learn when it is not appropriate to say certain things. Here is this preacher who was nice enough to come and speak to us, and they have-to ask some weird questions. It's okay though, the preacher handled them pretty well.

The reverend invited us to go to his concert his church was having today, and after church, some of us went over there to check it out. Josh and his girlfriend, me, Wendy, and a few others went. It was definitely interesting. I really liked it. There was lots of singing, praising, and just loud worship. It was cool. It reminded me of Galveston, my home town down in Texas.

Overall, it was an experience I will never forget.

Cooking Practice

For the last few weeks, I have been practicing cooking meals with my camping stove that I have inside my house. I've been trying different combinations of foods to see what's easiest and fastest to make.

I have made Thai food (which is actually really easy), spaghetti, rice dishes, oatmeal, and the pasta dish I have showing in the pictures.

It's fun to try different combinations of foods to come up with good mixtures. The pasta dish here is simply 2 cut-up hot dogs, pasta, a can of peas, and a can of tomato sauce. Really easy, most things just get thrown in. It actually tasted pretty good too. It will be really fun to see what other combinations I can come up with before I leave on my trip. I'm trying to come up with healthy dishes too so I'm not killing my body from the inside out on this trip, as is the habit of most touring cyclists.


People who go on these trips say that you will probably eat between 3-4 times what you normally eat. I hope I don't eat that much, I actually want to lose some weight on this trip.

I Bought a Harmonica

I'm pretty excited about my new harmonica. I bought it to take with me on my trip this summer. I figured it would be fun to learn a musical instrument while I'm traveling, plus it would be nice to have something to keep me busy in case I get bored at night. So far, it's a lot of fun to play with. I've learned the Birthday Song, and Come, Come Ye Saints.

The Symphony is Awesome

Last Friday, Wendy and I went to Abravanel Hall, which is where the Utah Symphony plays. They were playing Edvard Grieg's fantasy music, and it was amazing. After I got past the slow parts where I was dozing off, I really enjoyed it. Their performances are just awesome, I am committing myself to going more often.

Wendy and I enjoyed the symphony, and then I convinced her to go with me to watch the new movie that came out in theaters yesterday, "Jumper". It was a good move. It was interesting to see the difference between sitting down to watch the Symphony, and then sitting down to watch an action movie in the theaters. It was a really good day, I enjoyed watching both shows.

P.S. If you like the Sumphony, on March 28th and 29th, the symphony will be taking music from video games and putting them into symphonic score. They will have synchonized video and lighting as well. I'm excited about it, and if you're interested, buy your tickets now, they will sell out fast.

Valentines Day

Valentines Day was good this year, lots of fun stuff happened. First-of-All, our apartment got Heart-Attacked by tons of hearts and valentines cards for all 7 roommates. Some loving female friends of ours, Bethanie Johnson and Laura Cutler decided to surprise us, and i'm shocked they did it without even one of our roommates catching them in the act. They were very good at their covert-ops mission. --I did catch Bethanie in a lie, trying to cover-up that she did it though. I called her and said that the tape on the door took the paint off the door, and said: "I didn't do it Nick..." I said, "did what? I never said that you did anything yet." I knew I had caught her in a lie, and she confessed. Ha! Psychologically kicked her butt.

The second part of the day was fun. I spent it with Lorie Franklin. She flew into town around Noon on Valentines Day, because she was aplying for her master's degree at the University of Utah. I spent the entire day with her, cooking lunch, visiting my school, going to temple square, and then eating dinner at the Lion House Pantry. (The food wasn't that good, especialy for the price.)

We then drove around for a little bit, then watched a movie. It was fun to visit with one of my friends I haven't seen in a while. It would be fun if she moved up to Utah, I think she would like it.

My New Main Flyer

This is my new and improved flyer to advertize and recruit people for my biking trip. I realized that I want some company on my trip, so I'll see what I can come up with.

Temple Tour 2008

Here is my bike route. This is close to the exact route I will be taking, even though it changes every so often. 6,000 Miles.

Ambush!

Man, my roommate Jacob and I felt so retarded when we tried to ambush Josh outside. We set-up video cameras on our dining room table, and were going to run outside with snow and ambush Josh as he was making a snow igloo. Unfortunately Jacob ruined it by slipping and falling on the ice as soon as the door opens. (You might be able to see his head at the very bottom left of the screen.) Wes crewed it up BIG TIME, and Josh ambushed us instead.

Loaded Touring

This is my bike. It is fully loaded with all my gear, and ready for some test driving. It is so heavy now that I have all the gear on it, it's a little intimidating I'll have-to admit. I am getting closer to the start date of my trip, and I am getting very excited. More and more things are fitting into place, and it's starting to become a lot more realistic that I will actually be riding my bike all the way accross the United States.

Wish me luck in the rest of my preparations.

Remembering President Hinckley

Our beloved prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley died a week and a half ago on January 17th, 2008 at the age of 97. I loved him so much, and I'm sad to see him go, but glad that he is resting a little, and back with his wife.

Since his passing, I have had time to relfect on him, and the calling of a prophet. What I discovered is that I am not sad about the passing of a prophet, I am sad at the passing of the man. I know that revelation will continue, that God will call another prophet, that I am not concerned about. The Lord will always lead this Church through revelation, and that will never cease. I am just sad to see such a great man leave us, he truly did make a difference in many lives.

I had the opportunity to see the viewing of President Hinckley last week, and then that saturday, to attend his funeral in the conference center. It was an aamzing experience, both days. Over 15,000 people an hour went to go see Gordon B. Hinckley last Thursday and Friday. There were people waiting out in the cold for over 4 hours just to see him for 15 seconds, my roommate was one of them that waited until almost midnight on Friday to see him.

May we all remember that even though President Hinckley is gone, we have all of his words recorded, all the guidance he has given us, and we can study them, ponder on them, and have the reassurance that the words he would-have spoken, will now be spoken by our new Mouthpiece for the Lord, President Thomas S. Monson.

Mouthing Off

Wendy and I hung out last night, and we got a little goofy.

Friday Night Jambalaya

Good-ole' southern food! Yeayah! There ain't nothin' better than a meal stocked full of meat. We made Jambalaya tonite for some of our friends, and this might be one of my favorite dishes I have mad so far. This was my first time attempting to make Jambalaya. It was also my first time eating it. It had bacon, ham, chicken, sausage, rice, and a few vegetables in it. we also had some cornbread. It was a perfect meal.

I love cooking for my friends. These dinner parties are always a lot of fun. We had about 20 or so people over this time. Vince and I cooked the Jambalaya, Josh made some amazing peach cobbler using a dutch oven, and various other people we invited brought some dessert items.

The way these dinner parties work is I normally pick a food item or meal type that I want to cook with, and then find a recipe online. Then I go to the store and buy all the food that is required for the dinner, then come home and cook it. Then everyone that we invite comes with $4.00 to pay me back for the food that I purchased, and we always come out about even. It works out really well.

I really believe in developing strong relationships with the people that I care the most about, and that's what these dinners represent to me. They aren't just an opportunity to socialize. They are the most important people in my life, either because I have had some type of impact on them, or they have influenced me in some way. Life is all about building relationships, and keeping them strong. That's what makes people happy.

Freeze!

Holy cow it has been cold in my apartment. We are going on 4 1/2 days without any heat pumping into the apartment. It's so cold in here that the frigerator is warmer than our kitchen! Seriously, I have been warming up my hands by grabbing my gallon of milk in the fridge. Due to a confusion between our newly married ex-roommate, and us still in the apartment, our gas got shut off instead of transferred to someone else's name last Friday. And since the gas company is closed on the weekends, we weren't able to call until yesterday. They said it would take a day to get it turned back on. Do you know what no gas means? That means no heat, and no hot water. That's right, Cold showers. It's not fun to have-to boil water, and then bathe with a sponge. We've been wearing our coats all day, and sleeping with layers. During the day, we open the door to let the warm air in, even though outside it's still only 25 degrees or so. Not fun shtuff. Luckily, it will be turned on tomorrow morning sometime. I am a little excited to enjoy heat again.

Winter Camping Practice

I am an aspiring touring cyclist, and I'm just starting to get my feet wet.

Either in the Summer or Fall of this year I will be heading out on a very long adventure that will last a little over 3 months. I will be traveling accross most of the United States via bicycle. For this reason, I am trying to prepare now for it by learning how to camp.

I have rearranged my school schedule so that Mondays and Fridays I have no school or work. This means that some weekends I will be going on 4-day cycling trips where I will be camping along the way. I will most likely be going an average of 60 miles/day, over 200 miles each weekend. This should give me plenty of practice with the riding, and also the camping aspect of the bigger trip I will be taking later.

Camping last night was fun, I really enjoyed it. I wasn't really cold at all, I was actually quite warm. I had to take off my shoes and jacket when I got in my sleeping bag because I was starting to sweat. Now, I will actually get a good night sleep when my body learns to get used-to the harder surface I will be sleeping on.

This week I will be buying a few more supplies, so that possibly by next weekend I can take a 2-day trip out and back somewhere and get a little bit more practice with camping and cooking, etc. I think I'm going to sleep outside again tonite, so I will just leave the tent up for today.

Wish me luck in my preparations, pray that I don't freeze to death.

4-Wheel-Slide

My roommate Josh's trip to church didn't start off too good. We live on top of a hill, and it had just snowed that morning. Josh decides to drive down the steep hill on the West side, thinking that his 4-wheel drive vehicle can handle it. Sad to say, but his 4-wheel drive turned into "4-wheel slide..." and he slid down accross the lane to the left side where he hit the guard rail with his front grill, and started sliding backwards. This video is of him the opposite direction of when he started his drive.

We had to come down and shovel all the snow away from his tires in order to get some friction on the road to go up the steep hill for a few feet before we turned down a less steep road. We made it, and were able to get to church in one piece.

Music and the Spoken Word

I love the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! They are just the most peaceful, and relaxing choir I have ever heard. Every Sunday morning from 9:30-10:00am they sing in the tabernacle for Music and the Spoken Word, which is a broadcast they have been sending all over the world for over 75 years. It is just amazing, and I'm glad that I only live 5 min from Temple Square and have the opportunity to attend it every Sunday. They sing songs that remind you of the Savior and everything that represents God's love towards men. If ever you feel weighed down by something, just listen to the Choir, and it will make you feel much better.

My First Try at Sushi

I love sushi so much, but it's so expensive that I don't get it very much. So, I decided to learn how to make it myself. It's not as hard as people think it is, they just have-to go to the Oriental food mart and hold the Oriental lady's hand for a few minutes while she translates to you what Katsuo-bushi, mirin, nori, and shoyu is, and how it's used in sushi.

The best way to learn how, is just to go to Barnes and Noble, and pick up one of those "learn how to make sushi" book/CD packets. The guy on that CD is very helpful.

I was really excited to make it, and it tasted great! I used raw tuna as my fish, and added a little bit of roasted sesame seeds and spinach leaves.

Next time I will include a lot more ingredients, and do a little bit better at making the rice, so it doesn't have the consistency of toothpaste like this one almost did.

New Year's Eve Activites

New Year's Eve was a lot of fun. First, in the morning I went Canoeing with a good friend of mine, Lorie. Then later I went to a New Year's Eve Dance in Houston. It wasn't that good, but the company was.