'Tis the Season... Or is it?

The holidays are upon us and you know what that means: food, sweets, food, and more sweets. Thus far I have been taking advantage of this trend and have been eating my heart out and stuffing down most everything I can get my hands on. This mostly includes pie, and other baked goods. Now, lots of you probably have had hands-on experience with what I just explained, and others are nodding their heads in agreement, nevertheless this is not the main point of this post.

It has been my plan since summer ended to "bulk up" so people would stop telling me that I look so skinny. I don't want to be fat of course but I do want to be bigger. Some of that mindset seeped into my eating habits and I justified eating 'whatever', just as long as I was eating a lot of it, to help me gain weight. That is why I have been eating a lot of crap lately, and neglecting my responsibility to eat healthy foods. I even didn't care that my stomach was getting bigger and my abdominal muscles were going into hibernation, after all, who was going to see them?! (I didn't plan on showing anyone either-- sorry Amber). My plan was to worry about it in the spring and eat healthy then. But today something changed my mind. I was looking at Christmas ecards on a website and as I was browsing I saw one with Chippendales (male dancers I think) and anyway it said underneath: "What does this have to do with Christmas? We don't know, but then again, when are sexy abs not in season?" and so ladies and gentlemen, I was kicked into action. I decided to start eating healthy now and working out more consistently to get those sexy abs that are always in season. Why wait until New Years to make my resolution? I am doing it now, and then maybe by summer I will have more to show off than this past summer. I hope you will all support me because I am sure it will be hard to keep it up in this lazy time of the year, so cheer for me and thanks to all who already help.


Disclaimer: I do not mean to use my body as an object for others enjoyment. I believe being healthy is very important and looking nice is a great way to boost my self confidence. That is all.

Give a compliment

-Validation

So today at the institute they had a compliment day. They made grilled cheese sandwiches and had little yellow papers that you could write a compliment and give it to someone. I got a compliment from some girl who I don't know, about how she liked my shirt. That made my day!! I encourage everyone to compliment someone today. It makes you feel so good!

Life Resolution

So while talking to a dear friend today I realized that it is time that I "take life by the horns." I am sick of waiting for stuff to happen and for things to fall into my lap. My new motto will be "I want it NOW!" Which comes from Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory, and is from the song that I had in my head all weekend. Although this isn't the best motto to stick with I have decided to tell it to myself (at least until I feel like it is no longer doing good) every time that I feel idle and that I am not being active in my life. My resolution is that I am going to work for what I want. Good idea? I hope so!

"This is your life, are you who you want to be?" - Switchfoot

 
“Taking shelter in the dead is death itself, and only taking all the risk of life to the fullest extent is living.” - Rabindranath Tagore

Just so you know

So girls are confusing!!! The end.

But really they are and I think the dating game is so hard and sometimes I just need to take a break because it can be so frightening and frustrating all at the same time. Also, I am not very experienced with the rewards that come from it so I think that only makes it worse because I don't really know what to look forward to!

Hooray for blogging again. This was my attempt to try and get back into things. I will hopefully try to blog a lot more often.
P.S. Rock Band 3 is awesome!

I made the choice and paid the price

Now some of you may think that the title is alluding to something bad or negative that happened to me, but actually I was using that play on words to explain something amazing that has come to pass in my boring life. Some of you may already know about this event, and I would be impressed if you could guess what I was talking about just by the title. As for the rest of you here is the good news:

I finally bought my own car!!!!!!!!
  
I consider this a big milestone in my life because it will be the first time I will have purchased my very own car. It is in my name! I am so excited and I can't wait to continue driving it. It is stick shift and so I am learning how to drive it but it should be fine, and I am actually excited to learn to drive one. Everyone I talk to says it is fun to drive a clutch and keeps them a little more alert on the road. It is in pretty good condition  and seems to drive well. The brake light is on, and also the airbag light flashes, along with the battery and oil lights. I don't the extent of the problems but I don't think it can be too bad if it runs well and nothings is shaking or dripping from it. 


It passed inspection and they cleaned the oil tank and that light went off, not sure why the other lights are still on. I am driving it now though and loving it. Here are some pictures (before and after cleaning):

Before Cleaning

After cleaning (you can now clearly see the scrapes and bad paint areas, haha)

Hooray for my new car!!!

My true colors

So today at work I was bored because the system wasn't working and I couldn't work (and wasn't getting paid) and so I was chatting with a friend who told me to tell a story. I didn't have a good story on the top of my head and so I was told to make one up and this is what came out:

once upon a time....   
there was a young man sitting at a desk at his work   
he is usually pretty cheerful and happy to people   
but not today   
no. he is not very happy today   
because he came into work ready to do great and make success happen   
but when the system wasn't working his dreams for the day were shot down   
he slowly by the minute lost patience   
and the ending result was an angry young lad who is ready to punch his boss   
except that he really wouldn't ever punch his boss for fear of consequence, but he can still think about it   
and then of course he would probably forgive him later   
that is the epitome of this man's life, he will always get over it    
but sometimes he can get frustrated   
but even so he is very good at hiding it and people can't always tell that he is frustrated.
but when he is frustrated, he can't control his emotions for the time being, and that is what is happening to him this day   
It is sunny outside and a nice day in general, and if it weren't for this man's job he wouldn't be mad at all   
and that is what got him thinking that maybe his job isn't right for him   
These thoughts usually only come when his frustration is a result of his job, which is the main contributor to his anger in general anyway, so these thoughts come frequently
now he is going to go hide in a corner and cry until his emotions calm down and he can just relax. That is all it would take for him to relax, a good crying session, but he is too manly to even do that   
but apparently he is not manly enough to punch someone, because in his head that is what he sees a real man doing   
no, he will just wait and wait until his anger subsides, and then just move one, forgetting that he was even mad   
maybe one day he will build up the courage to punch someone, although it would probably only happen if that person really were deserving   
and so he sits, waiting for things to turn and for things to go his way   
sad really that he doesn't take more initiative but he is okay with that for the time being   
he will just hold out the storm like always, and pretend not to be mad, like always, and things will turn out as they always do   
...   
THE END   

This was very revealing to me and actually kind of relieving to get out. It is good to get stress out, and not let it sit and boil up inside. Punching may not be the answer but I still wonder if it would be satisfying.... ;) I advise everyone to share their true feelings and write them down, even if no one else sees them it is good to get them out. If you don't like writing then find some way to express them. But just remember that violence is probably not the answer.   

Bus rides and life's angels

So I take the bus almost every day. Maybe some of you didn't know that and when I tell some people they feel so bad for me and say if I ever need a ride to call them. Well, just so you all know, I really enjoy taking the bus. First of all it is the "green" choice as they say, and I am also saving a ton of money on gas (it was almost $5 every trip up to the U). I only use it to go to the gym because it comes right by my house and drops me off right in front of the gym (The U's fieldhouse). I think that in a city like this that we all should try and take public transportation at least in some part of our day, it would make the environment better. Oh, and I happen to love all the time I can use on the bus to read or text people. I don't have to drive at all and so it is like I don't lose time traveling either.

Well, the reason I had to explain all of this is because something marvelous happened to me on the bus today. As I was traveling to the U I was one of 3-4 people on the bus and I was quietly reading my book. Next thing I know someone from the back of the bus comes and sits in the row next to me. As I look over just to see what caught my attention out of the corner of my eye he says, "Hi, how's it going?" and he said it in that tone like he wanted to talk to me because he was selling something. I, of course, said hi and quickly turned my attention back to my book hoping that he wouldn't try to convince me to buy his knife kit or whatever it was he might have been selling. The next few moments were agonizing because I could tell he was looking over at me, and was waiting for me to look up or something so that he could talk to me, but I pretended not to notice. The bus then stopped and I heard him talking to me and I looked over as he was saying, "I just wanted to give this to you, you can take it if you want or you don't have to." He was standing there holding a card in his hand. As I looked at the card I realized it could be only one thing. With the picture of a video showing Jesus coming out of His tomb in glory I knew that he was trying to hand me a pass-along card. I smiled and just said, "Oh, I am already a member." He acknowledged what I said and ran out the door because we were at his stop.

After he left I couldn't help but just stare, not at anything particular, but just lost in thought. 'Wow,' I thought. 'He is really brave to have done that and he is doing what all of us members should be doing.' Can any of you say that you are a good member missionary? I realized that he must have talked to the other guy in the back of the bus before coming to me because I recall him talking back there before he came to sit by me. I am now calling him a little angel because he was such a great example for me. And then I realized that life is full of people like this. So many good examples that I see everyday and they are all just reminders of little things that I can improve in my own life.

Does anyone have any cool people like that in their lives? It could be anyone, for example like my friend Mike who reminds me that we should try and stay away from movies and media that are bad influences because of what they contain. Evil can be hiding anywhere. Thanks Mike! Anyone else?

Also please share any missionary moments you have because they can help and inspire all of us!

My wishes

I decided to make a list of all the things that I desire in my life right now. Some of you may feel the same desires and others won't (probably because you have already acquired what I seek). This will help everyone to get to know me just a little bit better. Also some of these things are just fantasy and may not come true but it doesn't keep me from wishing:

1. To be more outgoing
2. To be good-looking
3. An attractive girlfriend (but not just physically)
4. An iphone
5. An ipad
6. A Macbook Pro (I really do like Apple I guess)
7. My own car (Toyota 4Runners are my favorite)
8. To live on my own
9. A better paying job ( and one with a vision clinic)
10. To be more spiritually in-tune
11. A workout buddy
12. Hiking boots
13. A wet suit
14. Shelves in my bedroom
15. An "A" parking pass
16. Flat screen HDTV (BIG)
17. Unlimited purchases from itunes
18. A black labrador or a pit-bull
19. Money for my parents
20. A good singing voice (and maybe know how to play the guitar/piano well)
21. A trip to Europe
22. A trip to Disneyworld
23. A cruise (any but I really want Caribbean)
24. To be better at all sports
25. To always eat healthy (while not getting rid of sweets/desserts)


This is the top 25 that popped in my head, so they must be the ones I want more. That just makes me think that I am really worldly. Anyway, I do have more wants but I obviously don't think about them that much because I didn't add them to this list. I invite you all to post something similar so that I can learn more about you, or you could just comment on this about which ones you want too and which ones you don't care to have (feel free to give me some suggestions to as to things missing in my list). Thanks!

Reflections

The topic for this post was inspired by the extra time that I have had to reflect on things. These things have probably come from recent events occurring in my life and I want to share these things with all of you.

First, I will discuss birthdays. It is fascinating to me how the range of importance that people place on birthdays varies so much. For example, most people make a big deal about a baby's first birthday. Why is this you ask? Who knows. It is almost like everyone else is celebrating that the baby is still alive and the baby just has to go along with it. For me I don't see why people do it, the baby can't even remember this time in their life and so why make a big deal about it? Another example is the coming of age birthdays. For some countries girls come of age at 15 yrs, and others it is 16. Some people make a big deal for the 18th birthday and others it is 21. In my family we have always celebrated our birthdays. We have parties for friends and then parties for family members. But, we decided to stop the parties after the 18th birthday. Some of my friends don't do much for their own birthday and others throw big parties. I guess it all just depends on how much you appreciate yourself....ha ha.

Next it is interesting to me how we as people are so peculiar. Do you ever wonder why for some people it is hard to express our feelings and others wear their hearts on their sleeves? Some people are afraid of their own actions and others embrace the opportunity to make a difference in their own lives. Why is this? Is it merely our upbringings? How we were taught growing up? Or is there something more? For me I really want to be able to just express how I feel about people right off the bat. But, saying it is easier than doing it. Why is it hard to tell the girl I fancy that I like her? The only plausible excuse I have is that maybe it will blow up in my face and my whole life might change. And after thinking that I realize it really isn't a good excuse at all. I have thought a lot about this and I have decided that life is too short to not take chances. I think that all of us should try harder to make a difference in our own lives and make the necessary changes that will make us all better people. Embrace change, it isn't bad and it is happening all of the time. Express your feelings to those you love and be honest. The other day I was leaving my friends house at night and I said, "k bye, love you guys," and while I walked away I heard them whispering how surprised they were that I would say that and that they didn't know how to respond. I was thinking, 'I really do love my friends, and shouldn't they know that?' and I hope that they would say it to me too. Now, as for dating, I am still not sure how to approach this. I am aware that girls might be turned away if I just walk up to them and say they are pretty and funny, that I would like to try dating them. This would be awkward for the both of us. But, I do think that gradually one can start to express their feelings in these situations when they are already dating, or at least on the date. After all that is the purpose of dating and you both should know how the other feels, even if you don't say it with words. So, I hope after reading this that we will not be afraid to say, "I love you guys" or "you are nice" or even just "I like your hair today" because I believe that it will really make a difference in every one's lives.

Finally I have been reflecting on time. It is almost limitless and yet I have so many things to do each day that I find myself saying, "I don't have time to do that," or "there is no time to this." And at the end of the day I am disappointed that I didn't have time to apply for that job, or workout, or read my scriptures, or write in my journal, etc. and I fall asleep saying that I will do it tomorrow. Now, I can bet that most everyone has felt this one at one point or another and I am here to say that we are all lazy. There are a few people in the world who know how to get things done and I admire them and strive to be like them. But most of us aren't like them. Just writing this blog has taken time and effort and  I have given the excuse many times that I didn't have the time to write again. Well I was lying. I have had plenty of time, but, the problem is that I wasted it. We are given about 16 hours in a day to get the things done that need to be done (and the other 8 hours is for sleeping). If that is true then why can we never do it? Because we don't manage our time and priorities. In other words we are spending too much time in front of the TV, or sitting around lazily that we lose that precious time that should have been used to do something so much better. That doesn't mean we have to be robots and I think that breaks and small amounts of entertainment are necessary to stay sane. But I think we can all do more with the time we have. So that means that now I am going to turn off the TV while I eat, focus in the shower to use it faster, and have a plan for the day so that I don't waste my precious time thinking of things to do. I am also going to make sure I study the scriptures, workout, and everything else I need to do in the day before I go over to a friends house and play or sit down to watch a movie. I think that I will get so much more done and anyone else can too by making similar changes. So remember, conquer your time and don't let time conquer you.

Now I ask that you please comment and submit your own thoughts on these topics.

NO SUGAR, WHATSOEVER...kind of

So some of you probably think that I am crazy and it is probably true. Somehow I have gotten into the challenge of not eating sugar for the entire month of June. I will put the blame on Mike Nielsen. It was his idea. He is doing it with me and we are going to go crazy. I only say that because I already think I am. You may ask why since today is June 1st and therefore the first day of this extravagant fast, and you are wondering if I really am that pitiful. Well even though that may be true it is because I started not eating sugar a week and half-ago. I must say that I consider myself a super-human because I somehow survived the weekend at my sugar stuffed cabin. Let me explain, we were there for three days (we = my family + my cousins family + grandma). There were 13 of us total. Well since most of those people are children they need sugar to be happy. That is why we keep an entire drawer full of candy and treats. There were fruit snacks, cookies, candy bars, and so much more that I can't even explain because I will scream. Well since it is a vacation we are sitting around playing games, watching movies and EATING. That means snacking. Well since I couldn't eat any sugar I had to see everyone eating m&ms, licorice, etc. and I was eating some crackers, peanuts and potato chips (all of which are really good, but not in comparison with something sugary). Those were the only three things there that I could snack on. All the other snack food was made with sugar. Anyway, enough of the weekend, I am doing better now and I even was able to "say no" to some ice cream today from the spaghetti factory during company lunch. That means I am still doing great.

So wish me luck on this great adventure in my life and I invite anyone and everyone to join me. It is easier with more people so I would be glad to help you along. To see the rules refer to Mike's blog. The grand ending will be on July 4th when we will be able to stuff our faces!!! But for now, good bye warm chocolate chip cookies, dutch oven peach cobler with vanilla ice cream, and even my usual granola bars I eat almost daily. I will see you in my mouth...I mean... in a month ;)

UPDATE!!!

So I haven't blogged in a long time and now that I have extra time at work I have decided to maybe catch up on my life. This really should be going into my journal before it goes into the blog, but I am behind on that too and I am just doing what I can when I can.

I am single now, those of you who know me know the details about that and I don't really want to blog to the world about it. I am okay though so all of you readers (all two of you) don't be worried.

 Also, for those of you who don't know, I am now a very productive worker (because I guess I wasn't before). I say this because I am working two jobs...I know right? I never thought I could do it either. My first job is at Intuitech, Inc. I build control panels (the gray boxes that have electrical parts in them and control things, haha) for water-treatment plants. It involves saws, drills, and wire-cutting. And so as a result of this job I feel more like a man because I work with power tools...haha. My other job is at Clearstone Windows. I have only been there three days but I am enjoying it. It is a very fun work environment!! I only wish that I have had more success. I am trying to get people to agree to have their windows washed by some of our cleaners. We call them and try to get them to commit. It reminds me of the RC at the MTC (for those of you not into missionary lingo that is just a calling center at the missionary training center). Today I feel better about the way I am calling though, at first all I got was rejection, but now it is okay, at least some people are nice to me, and I even have some callbacks.

Another significant event was my 22nd birthday yesterday. It was raining. I say that because it is a good pretext to how I felt about the day. I am not saying that I didn't enjoy the day, rather I think that it was weird for me and so I was kind of down. First of all, it was my first birthday home from my mission, which means the first day where I was the center of attention, and it was weird to me.I don't know if I like that. Second, I had to work all day, then I went to a wedding, so not the exact events I would have chosen for MY day. But, on the other hand I did get a free cup of frozen yogurt from Spoon Me. It was delicious, especially the fresh fruit. It was funny because Dave at Clearstone Windows took us to get it. In the parking lot he passed it so he started backing up. He was talking to mike and he was mentioning how he had never been in an accident but at exactly that same moment we hit and ran over a foot tall island. It was so funny after we realized what had happened. So that night after Andrew and Shauna Pettit's wedding I went to Jordan's house and they took us to Preston's house. We then played pool, ping-pong, darts, foosball, scooter racing, and then Taboo. It was enjoyable, but yet again I got to bed late that night meaning I am still tired today.

Well I am done for now, keep looking for new blogs because I have plans to do more since I have time at work (I am still working hard, but I have to do something while waiting for people to answer their phones).

Testimony of the Book of Mormon

This is the best video!! I am posting this so that more and more people will watch it and come to know that the Book of Mormon is true. It really will help you in life!!!

Time is of the essence

So school is coming to an end and I have been laid off my job, so I find myself with extra time on my hands which means time to blog!!!
Since it has been awhile I will give a short update of my life:

Like I said I have been laid off from my job, it happened just one day out of the blue, but for some reason I almost felt that it was coming that day.
School is just going normal, finals are in two weeks and I am pretty much all done with any homework that I had due before then.
I have been on a few dates with Kimberly, but nothing is certain yet and so I won't go too much into that right now.
Oh and for spring break I went to California with my friends....here are the pics:

Sunset at the beach

Burying Roger

Dutch oven breakfast

San Diego Temple

On the tram going to the park

We are the three superheroes (we won those after playing a game with the squirt guns)

Iota: my favorite fraternity

So I decided to show some pictures of my fraternity. About two weekends ago we went on a retreat up in Midway/Heber area. There was a cabin and we just had a blast. We stayed up almost all night and played games and laughed and had so much fun. The next day we went to some natural hot spring nearby. It was really fun. I came home really tired but had a great time. After that event I have done many other things with Iota and I love them so very much!!!! It is true when then say that you get as much out of it as you put in. Let me share some recent pictures of the fun we have been having (sorry I don't have pictures from other activities, I have a problem remembering my camera) :

All of these pictures come from our St. Patrick's Day exchange, hence the green!!

Our team to fight the blue balls to get the pot of gold.

We just played around after the activity and had fun as can be seen. ;)

Shadow has become a great friend!!! One of the best!

That is Jordan Mott but it doesn't look like him...

I was falling asleep texting while watching a movie with Jordan and Shadow

     So those are just a few of the people and times I love with Iota. More to come soon I hope!!

Band-Aid for Haiti

So we had a stake activity to raise money for the efforts in Haiti. I am on the service committee and so I helped put it together. Here are some things I bought. We had a silent auction, bake sell, and some bands playing. It was a great success and a lot of fun!!

These stickers cost like $10 at the bookstore!! Got them for $2.

This is a painting of Gordon B. Hinckley, I won it for $10 (p.s. it was all done with strokes of a mouse on a compture......AMAZING!!!)

Some bread, cookies, peantu butter bars, rice-krispie treat, cupcake, and more cookies. All for $5

My new haircut

Just thought I would mention how I got a haircut. This is my first time going to a more professional salon. I got it done by Jinny who does my parent's and sister's hair. She is a family friend and so I got it done for free. What do you think?

What to do??

So I come on here almost everyday with the intention to make an entry. Everytime I get to the new post page I stare at it and then close the window and go watch tv or something. I usually start out as if I was going to write in my journal and tell about my day, but that wouldn't be very interesting for many readers besides my grandma (no offense, but she really would like that since she loved getting my missionary emails from my mom) and so I don't write at all. So since I don't want to write about my incredibly boring life everyday I've decided to write about how I don't know what to write about...at least today. I am thinking that I have two solutions...either make life interesting by putting myself out there more, or, by doing things with the intention of using it for my blog entry. So, now that I have established this, we will hope to hear interesting stories and hopefully I can remember to take my camera with me.

Now that I have written all of this I just thought of something interesting. So on Friday I was on my date with Sarah May. It was actually really fun and I had a good time. Well after the formal we got together and went to a park to play night games, and yes it was cold outside. We started playing capture the flag in the dark with a little snow on the ground. Well, Sarah said that she should be home at the latest 1 o' clock. So we had to leave early (aren't those late night games?? I thought so) As we were walking away from the group I saw someone a little up on the hill jump out of the bushes. He/she saw us and jumped back in. Of course Sarah didn't see anything, but I did and it was far away from the rest of the group to assume that it wasn't one of them. Now, first I thought, who is that hiding in the bushes at 12:45 at night? Then, of course my mind decided that the only people who do that are bad people, mainly murderers. So we hurried to the car and got there safely. We were freaked out a little, and that led to scary stories that we had experienced in our lives. I have talked to others and they know nothing about someone hiding in the bushes, so who knows?!? Could we have crossed paths with a serial killer? I hope so because that makes a better story. ;)

My name is Tosh

This is my first official post of my life. It is a fun experience. Right now I am going to school and working. I also have two callings in church. Life is busy and I am feeling tired sometimes. Try adding my training for the Salt Lake Marathon with all of that. Speaking of the marathon, I have recently been suffering a slight injury/setback. My left leg keeps hurting around the knee area when I try to run. Warming up and stretching don't really help. Then for a day or two after it really hurts to go down stairs. Anyone know what it could be? It just happened last week on Thursday. I went running the day before as usual and I think that is the only thing that could have caused it. I don't know. So in light of all that I actually might change to a different marathon that is a little later in the year. I hear the Logan and St. George ones are fun, so maybe I will look into those.

My callings are first, service committee for the singles ward, and second, executive secretary for the fraternity iota. They both bring more blessings to my life. Maybe that is why I enjoy having so much to do... Good principle to learn y'all ;)

School is going well. I am looking into optometry to go into as a career. I am really interested in the eyes. Also, studies in my psychology class have only proved that I like eyes.

Well that is my short life story up to now.