A Beginning for an End

Well, I have to say, I have had quite a remarkable Summer. I can't beleive all the stuff I did, all the things I managed to do.

Here are just a few:

Service Projects

Hiking Mt. Timpanogos... twice in three weeks

Laser Assualt with some awesome people :D

Kodiak in Wyoming

Youth Conference in Salt Lake City

Scuba Diving

Buy some snowboard gear

I know I did more, I just can't remember it.

But now I am a student at LDSBC, and it's a new chapter in my life. I have to be responsible. I have to get up at 5:10 AM to catch my bus up to Salt Lake City.

Speaking of public transportation...



This is what it feels like somedays. Hectic, kinda freaky, and WAAAAYYY too many people. But it gives me time to study. I'll take it, even though some of the people are freaky.

Wow...

It's been over a month. I have been waiting to make a giant blog post for my summer and what I accomplished. But first things first...

BOOK REVIEWS!!!  Can I get a holla!?!?!? hahahaha

Ray Bradbury has a particular method for writing. It's unique, odd, and astonishingly satisfying. He uses hyphenated words and sews together the sentences into a beautiful quilt. He managed to make me legitamatley afraid of carnivals in this book... and though I was kinda creeped out by them before this book...

The books is about two boys, Jim Nightshade and Will Hollaway. A carny rolls into town, and of course, the carny is the creepiest thing around. The boys can't help but take a peek.

They end up seeing something they shouldn't have, and the carny's start coming after them, trying to capture them before the manage to get anyone to believe their story.

The books is about undying loyalty, learning to grow up, and acceptance. At least, that's what I remember about it.

Shakespeare is a freakin' genius, alright? He can make a soap opera seem interesting. The hardest part about reading Shakespeare is the language. It's like reading in Isiah; you just need to keep doing it, then all the sudden, every word, line, and verse make sense.

Actor David Suchet said, "We find Shakesepeare boring because we're lazy. We're not willing to get thorugh the language. That's the only barrier."

I promise to whoever reads this, and they try to read Shakespeare, just keep pushing though. It will be one of the most rewarding things you had done when you have finished the book.

Othello is about a Moor, Othello, who is the victim of hate. His friend (or so it seems to him) Iago, just hates him. He wants him behind bars, so he plots a fake affair, and steals everyone's life inadvertantly. Honestly, it's a great read.

The book is about soccer teams, from Clarkston, Georgia, called the Fugees. The teams get their names from the make up of the team, a bunch of refugees. Of all races.

Luma, the coach of the team, has one goal: to unify the boys to the best they can be. She has strict rules, and they are hard to abide. But when the boys humbled themselves and obeyed the rules, they became one of the best teams in their state.

It's a national bestseller. It's a clearer understanding of the world.

To me, that last sentence, makes a book worth reading.

Day 6 and 7

Mozart. Bach. Beethoven and Pachelbel.

Jon Schmidt and George Winston.

People who amaze me. They hear music and interpret them into notes, so simple pianists, like me, can play their music. I love Jon Schmidt most, because he takes an idea, even a place, or an even, and puts it to music. By far one of my favorite pieces by Jon Schmidt is Game Day

Playing the piano distracts me from my stress. It builds my talent, and it I know that I can always run to a piano when I am lost in the world. I can sit and play the beginning of a thousand songs, but I only know the ending to one. I usually start learning a song strongly, then will die out, but that's okay, I know that if I keep working on it, I will get it.

There was this one part of a song that took me three weeks to get down. It was agonizing, coldblooded, sweaty, and noisy work. But it all paid off.

Day 7: Favorite movies.

Do I only pick a few? Well, I will just show a bunch of movie pics for the movies I love :D

I can't think of much more...

Day 2..... and 3, 4, 5....

Well, I already sucked it up on the 30 day challenge. I have a good excuse, don't worry: I was working on my Eagle project/ Youth Conference.

Well, Day 2 of the challenge is supposed to be about the meaning behind your blog name.

I think it is really straight forward... Joshua's Jots: Where nerds and humor unite.

This blog is a collection of my disjointed, cluttered, and scattered thoughts. I think they tend to be funny, and I tend to be nerdy... but the good kinda nerdy.

Like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings nerdy :D


but it's a simple, yet cluttered journal. Kinda like a bookshelf. Everyone has one, and they are chock full of phrases.


Day 3: My first love.

I was four. maybe five.


Young, stupid love.


and it was with a girl named... I can't remember.


hahahahahaha, that's great. I just remembered we kissed.


and we were playing monopoly. Or a rather what we thought was monopoly.



Day 4: the old folks.

What's to say? They're tired, and I am the oldest kid currently living at home.

So we just joke around and get through each day.

My dad works at 1 800 Contacts, and I get free stuff aplenty and cheap eye stuff. Free soda, movie tickets, eye exams, and discounts on glasses and contacts. *jazz hands*

Mom stays at home and reads.... at least that's what it seems like ;)


Day 5: A song to match my mood.

this one is hard. Like a rock.

 I pick Taylor Swift. I just like this song.... (:

I don't know why I like it. It's just a good drum I guess...

Facts and Sportsmanship.

So, a friend of mine is doing the 30 day post challenge thing, so I decided to join her :)

This is me. And I am an interesting person.

I know, I know, you're probably thinking, "this guy is full of himself..."



I am.

And I can prove that I am indeed full of myself and an interesting person. Won't be that hard, I promise.

1. I am an interesting person.
2. I read. A lot. I lettered in English because I read 15,000 pages outside of class assignments in three years.
3. I am the first assistant in my priest quorum.
4. I can't eat veggies or fruit. not because of the taste, but because of the texture. UGHHHHH!
5.I turn 18 in a week.
6. I am enrolling into college.... LDSBC
7. I keep all my movie ticket stubs. actually, I keep all of my ticket stubs. I have stubs from Brighton, movies, and Boondocks.
8. I will listen to pretty much anything, besides metal and rap.
9. I am preparing to serve a mission (can't wait)
10. I have a journal that has over 125 pages written in it.
11. I am a night owl. I sometimes get ready for my day around 3 PM, and will really wake up around 6 or 7 PM.
12. If you steal my food, there is really only one thing in my way of killing you. The law. Not my conscience.
13. I will scream random things.






Armadillos.


See, random.


14. I am running out of facts.
15. If you meet me, you will be entranced. I am like an oompa loompa, or a car crash. You just can't help but look. You will slow down, and think about me.




Today, I went golfing with my brother-in-law Austin at Fox Hollow. While we weren't too great at it, we still had fun. The people that were in our party were entertaining; one kept hooking it into a hill of trees.

So he threw his golf club into the trees.


Sportsmanship: Something he hasn't have.


We did decent, for, ya know, never really playing that much.

 Also have been working on my Eagle Project....

the week before my eighteenth birthday. hahaha, procrastination.


I think the literal latin translation for procrastination is:

To put off until tomorrow.

It's bad. It's convenient. Until the end.

and then you're screwed.

on that lovely note, I leave you. G'night!

Summer.

Wow, a lot has happened this summer already. I have done more this summer than I have any other summer.

I graduated.

I got scuba certified.

I went down to Sand Hallow and scuba dived.

I even went to the St. George temple, and I have to admit, I hadn't been to the temple in awhile. It was great.

Kodiak was the week after St. George. I went up with a friend to Wyoming, not really knowing anyone else, and had the best experience up there.

We went river rafting

Fought with foam swords

and met some new people

and best of all, felt the spirit.

I went to Harry Potter, part II

even to a Harry Potter party that same night






worked on my eagle project

and got contacts.

.

But right now, I think the best thing that has happened to me, is my new calling. It's in my original ward. I am the 1st assistant for the Priest quorum. Which I thought was very odd, seeming as I should technically be going to the singles ward, and I turn eighteen in two weeks.

But I think it's where I need to be.

and I love it.

The Glass Castle

I just finished reading The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Wells.

The book is a memior of the author's life, and it is a powerful story of a little girl that overcomes her family's biggest trial: Her father.

Her father was a drunkard, and he just couldn't hold a job. But the family would get into loads and loads of debt, and then, when the creditors would come for the money, her family would upack up and leave to another town. Usually the next town would be a dying mining town, such as Welch and Battlecreek.

Another one of the trials was her mother. Her mother would not be responsible. Since money was always tight (really tight), she would go for a teaching position at the local school, but always would be overwhelmed. The mother would throw tantrums, and could not take the pressure.

The family was, quite obviously, poor. Stunningly poor, actually. The father would always spend money on alchohol and cigarrettes, and, in the end, would stumble past the sagging porch and through the rotting door.

And the author made it through the trials, enduring even the worst part.

She made it to New York, and became a writer, and lead a normal life.

And I think that this book shows that anyone can be like that.

Be such as a phoenix, rising from the ashes, from the dust and becoming so much more...