I have a blog?

Happy December everybody!
How in the world has it been a whole month since that crazy Milkshake party? How is the semester over? It's weird, ladies and gentlemen; it's a strange thing.
I'd like to take just a couple weeks to say "thank you."

Thank you to my fantastic roommates, Seth and Jordan. You guys are the greatest ever, and you've been an amazing example to me. You two have helped me to grow in so many ways, and to become such a better person. I really could not have asked for better roommates, because they simply don't exist. Your tolerance of my ridiculousness as well as your kind and giving spirits have been essential to my survival this semester. I am very confident that wherever you go, you will always exceedingly bless the lives of those you come into contact with.

Thank you to one of my best friends in the whole wide world, Kristen Blair. Kristen, thank you for being such a light. You have helped me to see so much; about myself and about others. You have helped me to grow and learn and find the way from places of strugglement to higher ground. You have helped me to smile through sadness and to find joy in the little things of life. You have helped me to have a much greater focus on the gospel in my life and you've helped me to see the music in everything. You are so kind and loving and just all around perfect.

Thank you to Taylor May. What in the world would I do without this wonderful girl in my life? Taylor, it has been so fun to get to know you this semester, and I'm so very glad that I decided to sit by you and Eva in church at the beginning of the semester. You always know just exactly how to make me happy, and I don't know what in the world I'd be eating if you didn't feed me so much good food. I'm pretty sure that over half of my smiles of this semester came from you and your perfect loving kindness. You're going to be the best missionary that Oklahoma has ever seen!
Thank you, of course, to Eva Jane as well. Eva, Thanks for being so much fun. Everything's always a party with you around. Thank you for singing for me and playing your guitar for me and for always being so outgoing and happy. You have fun in India, okay?

Thank you, Dallin, Nathan, and Tyler. You guys are all so good. You've been a great help to me this semester. I've had a grand time eating Milkshakes with you guys, and learning valuable mission lessons from Dallin, and planning hiking with Nathan, and attempting to speak Afrikaans with Tyler. Thanks for just being awesome and for being our friends.

Okay, there's at least ten thousand more people that I need to say thank you to, but I have to go right now. Just know that there are more to come!

I love you all!!!

Shenanigans

Well, I'm home alone for this weekend, so if you have a random impulse to come visit someone, there's a lonely kid in wyview that would love your company.
Also, I taught chess for two hours today. I don't know that I've ever talked that much before.
Life is good.

My Most Boast Post

I still have perfect vision. 

I have never had a cavity.

I wrote a beautiful 14-page philosophy essay. (Not the one in the post below; that was not fourteen pages, plus it was terrible.)

I beat random people at chess frequently. 

That's all. :)

How to write a philosophy paper when you have no idea what the text you are analyzing is supposed to be saying:

John Oldroyd

Professor Arts

History of Philosophy Honors

10 October 2012

Aristotle Paper

            Aristotle has a bogglingly ingenious cranium. The fact that he is able to define scientific thinking and reasoning instantly puts him high above many of today’s greatest minds. According to this brilliant constructor of thought in the second part of his first book of posterior analytics, scientific knowing requires that the basis on which demonstrated knowledge rests (id est the premises of aforementioned demonstrated knowing,) must be invariable truth and primary to the drawn conclusion, or closer to what men can observe and perceive in the physical world. Scientific knowing, then, cannot be demonstrated, because the only way for knowledge that can possibly be demonstrated to be accepted as absolute truth is to establish evidence for or otherwise authenticate that this demonstration proves congruent. Though the term did not surface until later on, Aristotle basically explains the principle of epistemology, or knowing that something is true on the most basic level. One of these “immediate basic truths” is then termed a thesis. A thesis, further, also makes up definition, which should not be confused with a hypothesis as it can be immediately and irrefutably proved. In short, coming to a conclusion requires prior demonstrations, as everything in the conclusion rests upon the assumption that we know to be true the supports of our argument. Indeed, any person, in order to be convinced of something, must know that the principal truths which are used in the conveying of a higher truth are true even more so than of the higher knowledge.

            In his second book, Aristotle elucidates that effective knowledge existing is dependent on a tetrad of questions and their responses. First of the questions is whether or not an object is connected to a specific attribute. For example, “Is courage a positive character trait?” The answer to this question instigates question number two, which is why is there a connection? The third question is whether or not a thing exists, which similarly to the connection between the two preceding questions, propagates the fourth and final question with its response. (The fourth question being what is the nature of that thing). These questions provide men with all of their knowledge; or more accurately, the answers to the questions do.

            The first and third questions enumerated are similar in that each asks whether or not a thing has a middle, and the second and fourth questions further clarify their antecedents by asking what the medium is. By virtue of this connection, we may immediately infer that asking one question of a pair is to ask them both, meaning even as we ask what the nature of a thing is, we ask why it is, and vice versa. The answers come equivalently, so to understand the essence is to know the reason.

            So, how does one discover the essence of a thing? We are further enlightened when Aristotle expounds that "Not all the definable is demonstratable nor all the demonstratable definable.” Definition is the essence of an object; to define something is to say “this is.” Demonstration, on the other hand, is dependent (as expressed earlier) on these basic truths.

            When men want to know why something is, they look to the end result. If we know that a man buys an apple to be healthy, we know, also, that he eats the apple to be healthy, as both, while not exactly the same steps, are comparable in design. In creating a statue, the metals, the sculptor, the art, and the appreciation of the art are causes of the end product. In summary, causes are many, and to know nature, it is obligatory to account for each.

            The aggregate of these conceptions is that physics must be to discover reasons for the nature of things inalterable. “Those things which cause movement by being themselves moved” are no longer inside the realm of physics, and must therefore be adapted into a different form of science. Science, then can be broken into a triad of fields of specific study: things that cannot move (such as mathematics,) things in motion but indestructible, and things in motion that can be destroyed. Physics can be attributed to something when it can alter motion but not be itself moved (such as gravity.) A force that one can say with certainty will result in a specific change, is then worthy of being classified as physics. 

This is what happens when you have refrigerator magnets with big words on them:

Some Scholarly Observation Missive

                Hi Seth and Jordan. In my understanding you must be out hence. When you come to our society I have there a question to make the taut mind expatiate fully with thought. If we were curious, man would always find my ideas clever, so why do my valid opinions almost feel as obtuse ennui? Obscure factions use absconding vicissitude at me, which will only guile every solution about individual delight. That banal lair, too, is like arid miscreants that represent droll gall. Soon it could form a nefarious and cunning pedagogue for system usurping. His time is here in deft, verbose, and munificent platitude; rue him like mean pariah. Never rest but obdurate self, and the crass lapse can say no language. Know they trod above. See how Kafkaesque she has profligated, though her woman filled mellifluous zeal? Ameliorate amalgam eschewer after fecund boor elucidate tinges. By herculean admonition of book, sound, and word, are ye sanguine, obsequious, or torpidly wry? Alleviate then enervate through salient beauty as paragon expunge on pithy temerity! Roil vapid din! Festoon turgid acumen! Repose from a trenchant fusillade. 

Yes, this was entirely crafted from refrigerator magnets, and yes, it is mostly grammatically sound and in some way, shape or form makes sense. 

Today is a good day to pie.

I'm going to give the super-quick version of this story.

So, I was walking through Brigham's square during my hour break, and I see a table set up in the middle, and atop the table were several pie tins filled with whipped cream, so I thinks to myself "that looks exciting." Naturally I go up to the person there and ask what this is for. She explains, it's just for fun. All I have to do is use my face to find the candy bar they buried within the cream before the other competitors, and I win! Of course, I could not turn down something so fun, so we waited for a couple more people to show up and then, we began.

Since I'm super pro at things like this I found the candy bar incredibly swiftly, and hence won the competition. Now, one of my competitors, who finished just after me, was disheartened by his defeat, and decided to get even. It was not difficult to see that my pie tin still had a lot of whipped cream in it, and was very much within his reach. Next thing that I knew, I had a face full of cream. I'm sure it was a rather hilarious image, and I was not at all angry, as you kind of have to expect this kind of thing when joining in a pie competition of any kind. In fact, I somewhat enjoyed the smell of whipped cream which lingered with me throughout the day, and I've come to the conclusion that whipped cream is probably good for your hair. Anyway, it was a good experience, and I can now say that I have been pied.

Also somehow I found this low resolution picture of the aftermath:

Mocktail Party = Classy

It's pretty late, so I'm going to keep this post short, but just know that everything tonight was at least fifteen and a half times as wonderful as I make it sound.

Basically Josh Brewer threw a Mormon Cocktail party this night, and it was absolutely splendid in every way. Everybody that came dressed up classily, so naturally we all looked super good and felt amazing. The food was outstanding; everybody who came contributed in some way, and there was delicious salad, soup, cucumber sandwiches, shrimp, cheese with crackers, and cocktails consisting of fruit juice and sprite. There was both live music, provided by John Wilson rocking out on the little electric piano, as well as some sweet jazzy music playing on Josh's speakers. Naturally we all danced, mingled, and had deep philosophical conversation. The venue was perfect, the night was crisp, and overall everything was exactly as it should have been. I love people.

Friday.

It seems like I started college only a couple days ago, but really it's been almost two weeks! Oh how time flies when you are slowly collecting more stories to tell. 

And speaking of stories....

It was a warm late afternoon, the sunset smiling majestically as always as I made my way over to Helaman  Fields where I had heard there were shenanigans going down. Sure enough, when I arrived there were plenty of awesome people throwing around those wonderful 175 gram really sweet frisbees that BYU makes out of recycled plastic bottles, so I did not hesitate in joining in. Soon, the party was in full swing and we were playing some pretty cool getting-to-know-you games, and then there was a dance. Naturally I danced for a little bit, but then I saw a group of people playing ultimate, and that definitely takes priority over dancing. I soon joined in and we had an awesome game going on. I nailed some pretty sweet tricky tosses right to people in the endzone, and I even caught some really tricky tosses to catch. Anyway, I was really into the game, and so I was running forward to catch a frisbee that had been thrown in my direction. I stretched out my arm and snatched it from the air and then tried to make my feet stop moving. Unfortunately, the grass was wet, and my shoes were the not of the most frictitious footwear variety, so I successfully stopped my upper body, but my feet kept right on going. I fell backwards, thrusting out my arm at an awkward angle to catch myself, and then pop. My arm didn't feel so good. Before I worried about that though I switched the frisbee to my left hand and tossed it to an open team mate. After that I went over to my paramedics and they relocated my dislocated shoulder, and all was well. But while it lasted the dislocated shoulder felt pretty strange. 

Anyway, after all that I came home. After being home for about five minutes there came a knock at the door. I answered it and who was there, but Preston Sharp! My friend whom I haven't seen in about 7 years. Anyway, he was just going door to door with a group of other kids playing "Bigger or Better" which is an awesome game, by the way, and it was super random and awesome. 

After that Eva and Taylor came over to make sure my arm was okay, and then we went over to their apartment because we were going to watch a movie or something, but then we ended up just talking until 1:29 in the morning. This is my first time in college going to bed after 1. Sad. 

I'm not sure how exciting those stories were for you, but I like them, so I wrote them down. 

A Great Acomplishment

I'm so proud of myself; I got my gallon of ice cream to last for four days!

Another Random BYU Story

Once upon a time (a few days ago) Riley and I were walking to Kat's apartment. As we walked past building 27 of new heritage, we heard a knocking coming from a window. We looked up to see a girl waving at us from about the third floor. She then proceeded to give us her phone number one digit at a time on a dry-erase board, and motion for us to call her. We almost kind of half expected it to be something important, but instead she was like "Hi! What are your names?!"
I still haven't actually met this girl, but maybe it'll happen some time.

Wyview Story Time #2

Today, still a bit jumpy from the fried chicken experience, we Muffin Men were chilling around the apartment getting ready for bed. Suddenly, there came a knock at the door, and the three of us rushed to the door and opened it, running into the night to catch the girls who had fled the scene. We found them hiding behind a pillar only to discover that these girls were not the girls who had left the fried chicken, just some other mischievous door knockers. We turned to go back into our apartment, but we found that it was locked. We were all in our pajamas, none of us had keys, none of us had phones, and none of us had shoes.

No problem, we could just go get keys from our RA Kevin downstairs. But he wasn't there. We couldn't call him either because we left our phones in the apartment. Really the only thing we could do was wait for him to come back. Luckily, the mischievous girls invited us over to their apartment where we then chilled and waited until Kevin came back and let us in to our apartment.
We're going to watch a movie with them tomorrow. :)

I just love BYU.

Wyview Story Time #1

Yesterday Jordan, Seth, and myself decided to make muffins, and give some to the nice girls who baked us cookies the previous day. We did a wonderful job, but we ended up with over twice as many muffins as we had intended to bake, so we decided to give some to random people. Along with plates of these muffins we wrote some interestingly pretentious notes, because we were just in that mood.

One of the apartments that we visited didn't seem to appreciate our gift too much. In fact they seemed really weirded out.


The note we gave them read:

Happy Saturday, 
We hope that these muffins both find you and leave you in good health. We, John, Jordan, and Seth, have searched for days for the best bananas with which to make these muffins, and we hope you enjoy them. Glad to have you in the ward!!


From, The Muffin Men. Apt #352

P.S. Visit us anytime!


At any rate, they basically thought we were super weird, and it was an awkward moment.

Today, there came a knock at the door. When we opened it, we looked down, and lo and behold, there stood a note with a plate of muffins and... Fried Chicken. Upon closer examination, yes, those were 2 of our 3 muffins.

The note they gave to us read:

Happy Sunday, 
We hope that these muffins both find you and leave you in good health. We, Rachel, Eva, and Taylor, have searched for days for the best bananas with which to make these muffins, and we hope you enjoy them. Glad to have you in the ward!!

From, The Muffin Women. Apt # 327

P.S. Visit us anytime! 

Now, The first thing you need to know is that we never delivered any muffins to apartment # 327, we delivered them to number 358, which turns out was the very apartment that thought we were weirdos.

At first we thought the apartment we gave the muffins to had re-gifted them to the apartment across the hall, who had in turn given them back to us, but after inquiring about we discovered that Eva nor Taylor nor Rachel had ever seen said muffins or fried chicken.

All in all this entire exchange has been exceedingly strange, and a blow to our pride. We thought those muffins were really good. Getting food back just hurts.

Does anyone have any theories as to what exactly is going on here? Why did they not like our muffins? Why did they give us fried chicken? Why did they blame it on apartment 327? We may never know.

BYU LSH

Late Summer Honors has just been an absolutely incredible opportunity for me, and I am so very glad that I decided to do it. My class is absolutely wonderful, and I just love having real conversations about books with people who actually know what I'm talking about! Also people that give me good feedback on my writing.

What could be better than random firesides and presentations where the speaker can talk about Hermeneutics of the Bible, and then relate Exegesis and Eisegesis to our own scripture study, and tie in an awesome spiritual message, and the people in attendance don't grow bored or confused of it?!

It's so incredible to open meetings with songs and prayers, and especially be able to mention scriptures at any point in the conversations/lesson.

It is my favorite thing in the world to meet so many amazing people who share my love of learning and love of the gospel. I love being able to instantly connect with these people because they're so much like myself. People that make me smarter and better in only a few minutes of conversation with them.

Thank you, everybody. So very much.


I'd like to specifically mention:

Erin
Emma
Rachel
Eliza
Matt
Mark
Katherine
Alyson
Isaac
Ben
Sean
Vera
Sarah-Elizabeth
Elsa
Lindsey
Emily
Travis
Mary
Marli
Other Emily
Other Rachel
Ariel
Justin
Sarah
Amanda
Victoria
Rebecca
And everybody who played games with me or participated in activities with me or I met in any way.

And of course my friends from Timpview.


I've loved hearing everybody's stories, as they've had some incredible experiences, and I've really loved meeting people from other states and countries.


And anybody, feel free to come visit me any time that you want.

Wyview, Building 26, Apt 352.

Goodbye...

I'm moving out of my house, and moving in to wyview. And I have old stuff to take with me, and new stuff to take with me, and lots of adventures ahead. But unfortunately I can't take everything with me. No, my secret castle made of pure gold underneath my house is not very portable, so I had to destroy it.

Yikes.

I just signed up for college classes. It's pretty sweet. I got some really random classes, and I don't anticipate having many of my current friends in them, which is sad, but I shall do my very best to keep in contact with them anyway. Also it's good, because now I have more opportunities to meet more new people! Yay! Anyone who wants to, please feel free to come study with me any time that you feel like it. That way I won't get lonely. :)