Another Belated Update

During the past two weeks, I worked more than 120 hours, so I'm sure you can understand why I didn't post earlier. The extra money will certainly be nice -- it's paying for a trip to D.C. in October, which I'll talk about later -- but I had to take two (paid) days off this week to make up for the weekend I missed last week. Instead of doing homeworking like I planned, though, I've been playing Sims 3. I have tomorrow...

I haven't heard anything about the job I applied for two weeks ago. I'm pretty sure, though, that the hiring manager will begin interviewing this week. *crosses fingers* I really hope I get it, and if what I've heard (that I'm the top candidate) is any indication, I'm pretty sure I will. Oh, in my last entry, I told you I bought a suit to prepare for my interview. Here are two pictures of it:





To further prepare for the interview, I made an appointment at the Sanctuary Day Spa & Salon for a haircut and manicure tomorrow morning. The package I booked also includes a deep tissue massage, which will be nice. I've never treated myself to something like this before, so I'm really excited.

I received a letter from Big Brothers Big Sisters a few days after my last post. It took longer than expected, but I was finally accepted into the program! The process of finding a Little for me will no doubt be quite long, but I'm excited. I hope I'm matched with someone before the end of summer - Lagoon isn't open all year!

I also talked about Dr. Bentley's Pops Concert in my last entry. The songs we as alumni sang were recorded and posted on Facebook. I don't think you need to be a member of the group or Facebook to view them, so check them out: Defying Gravity and For Good.

Mistaken - I'm sad to see you deleted your Facebook account. My schedule is wide open for your visit next week, so give me a call and we'll get together: (801)867-1322. It'll be nice to see you again! As for what I like and dislike about Sims 3...

Likes:

• Being able to walk seamlessly around town is awesome! You can visit neighbors and commercial lots without load screens, allowing you to fully immerse yourself into the neighborhood.


• The addition of traits, such as "Family Oriented," "Good" (and its counterpart, "Evil"), and "Workaholic," allows you to customize your Sims' personalities, far above what you were able to do in Sims and Sims 2.


• The "moodlets" are pretty cool. They can positively and/or negatively affect your mood, and they can be obtained by certain events, such as moving into a new home (a mood booster) or getting burglarized (a mood buster).


• The stories of your neighbors continue to progress. They age, have children, quit their jobs and find new ones, and move out of town. It balances out the neighborhood. If you don't want the stories to progress, you can turn it (and aging) off, which is another plus.

Dislikes:

• Weather, which was added to Sims 2 via the Seasons expansion pack, is nowhere to be found. Weather should be a standard feature, but I'm pretty sure it will be added again in a future expansion pack.


• Apartments, which were added to Sims 2 via the Apartment Life expansion pack, have been removed, too. Like the weather, I'm sure these will come back at some point.


• Where are the pets?! Another expansion pack, I'm sure.


• EA is really trying to milk as much money as they can from consumers this time. In addition to the inevitable expansion packs mentioned above, they have a store, which I haven't been able to download items from, with tons of objects and other items you can buy with SimPoints. How do you get SimPoints? Well, other than the 1,000 SimPoints you are given for registering your game, you have to spend real money to get them.

I'm sure there are other likes and dislikes, but those are the only ones I can think of at the moment.

As mentioned at the beginning of this entry, I'm going to Washington, D.C. this October. We're staying for four days, and we'll be attending the National Equality March at the Mall. Our flight is booked, and we have a room reserved at the JW Marriott Hotel Washington, DC, which is located steps away from the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue. I'm so excited! It'll be my first time in the Nation's capital.

Well, that's about it for now. Thanks for reading!

Whew!

So, yeah...way past my once-a-week post! Sorry. Honestly, I haven't been motivated to do much lately. I am supposed to be writing an essay comparing and contrasting three paintings for school (anyone want to "help"?), but instead, I'm updating the blog I've neglected for the past two weeks. Now that we know where my priorities lie...

Okay, what's happened since I last posted? My oldest nephew, Tyler, had his missionary farewell a week ago yesterday, and left on...Wednesday, I believe. Even though I no longer consider myself Mormon, I'm sure he will be an excellent representative of the Church. I can't believe how fast time flies, though! It seems like just yesterday my brother, James, and I were babysitting him and his brother, Dallin.

A week ago today was Dr. Bentley's final choir concert, as mentioned in my last entry. It was definitely bittersweet singing the alumni songs ("Defying Gravity" and "For Good" from the musical Wicked) we prepared and watching Dr. Bentley and his wife, Becky, ball their eyes out. It was very powerful. I have to admit that I cried, and honestly, blogging about this is bringing up a lot of emotions, too (I take after my mom and sisters). Five others from my year were there, and I wish more had participated. It was good to see them again, even though most of them rarely talk to me anymore. I hope we have a reunion sometime this summer, but I doubt we will, unfortunately.

Okay, what's next? Oh, the position I mentioned in this entry opened up last week. Obviously, I applied. I bought a very nice suit on Saturday, and I've been practicing interviewing with my manager for the past several months, so I'm sure I will do fine. The posting doesn't close until June 11, so it will be awhile before I hear anything, but I'm excited. I've heard from a few sources that I'm the top candidate, so wish me luck. It wouldn't be a huge pay increase, but I'm not disappointed. I'm just looking forward to more responsibility and visibility. I will keep you updated, of course.

I ordered Sims 3 from Amazon.com awhile ago and received it on Friday. Needless to say, I've been spending much of my time playing it, making it difficult to finish my homework. It's pretty fun, and since I'm not sure how many of you actually play the Sims series, I won't go into much detail about what I like and don't like about this new version. I asked Sean to hide it for me so I would write my paper tonight, but we can see how well that's working...

In addition to buying a suit on Saturday, Sean and I checked in to the Salt Lake City Center Marriott for the evening. It was Pride this weekend, and we always enjoy staying downtown for the festivities. Last year, we stayed at the Hotel Monaco. Both hotels are very nice and I recommend them to anyone visiting Salt Lake. Anyway, Paula Poundstone performed Saturday night. She was pretty funny, and we watched her until it started raining. On Sunday morning, we woke up to more fun, but we didn't let that stop us from enjoying the parade. We did, however, go home afterward instead of going to festival, which is kind of disappointing. I hope next year will be more dry.

Although I'd love to update you on Big Brothers Big Sisters, not much has happened. I've called the woman who interviewed me several times, but I always get her voicemail and she never calls me back. Someone else, however, finally got around to contacting another one of my references, Sean's mom, Julianne. I'm sure it will be another two weeks before they call the rest of my contacts, Sean and my boss, Jeff.

That pretty much brings us to today. I've had the Manhattan Clique remix of Katy Perry's "Waking Up In Vegas" stuck in my head. I swear I've played it at least fifty times today, and no, I'm not exaggerating. It's the only way I know how to get songs out of my head. I wish I could buy it, but I've only been able to find the song on YouTube, which I've included for your listening pleasure.



Well, I think it's time to go to bed. Wish me luck on writing the essay I keep putting off, and I hope to post again next week. Be like Mistaken and remind me to update this blog if I..."forget" to. It helps to know that people actually read it! Now I need to pester Sean into posting again...

Goodnight!

EDIT: I was able to find "Defying Gravity" on YouTube, but I couldn't find a good version of "For Good":

High School Drama

First, Mistaken deserves a prize for commenting on the blog every time it's updated. You are fantastic!

On to the point of this entry. I'm 25. It's been seven years since I graduated high school. You would think high school drama would be forgotten, wouldn't you? Well, you would be incorrect.

Recently, my old choir teacher (Brian Bentley) announced he was retiring. He touched a lot of people (in a good way - get your minds out of the gutter), so a lot of us wanted to do something special for him. A Facebook group was created, which lead to a mini-high school reunion.

Earlier today, an old friend from choir -- Vocal Ensemble, where the most friendships are supposedly made, to be exact -- e-mailed our choir group, encouraging us to attend the final concert on June 1, since we will be singing two tribute songs. Here is part of the message he sent:

We would love everyone there! Since my wife and her family are the ones in charge of the whole thing, I thought I should stress it more to my year. We have had 4 people [one of them being me] participate so far but would love everyone.

I decided to reply to him with the following:

To be honest, our year isn't as close now as we were in high school, and even then, we weren't as close as other years. Heck, hardly anyone talks to me anymore...

I'll be surprised if more people from our year participate on June 1. It would be nice, though. And maybe we can get together afterward to catch up. Just an idea, of course.

Thanks for trying,

Andrew

Did I receive a reply? Nope. I guess I shouldn't have expected one in the first place, even though he was the choir president. The thing is, I'm not sure what I did to my old high school friends to make them stop talking to me. And if it's only because they now know I'm gay, well, that's a pretty petty reason.

That's not it, though. This same person updated his Facebook status, saying he was at a crossroads and didn't know what to do. I commented that he should do what he felt was right for him and his family (vague answer for a vague situation). Did he say "thank you" for the advice? No, he deleted my message (I should mention others have commented on his status as well, and they haven't been deleted). Wtf? What did I do to deserve such treatment?

I'm considering leaving my old choir's Facebook group and deleting all my "friends." But for some strange reason, I can't do it - choir, and my group, meant too much to me to "throw it away" over this stupid drama. *sigh*

/emo

Bored

I don't have anything to say, really (other than the fact I'm bored and nothing is entertaining me). It's getting harder and harder to find something to blog about, but I'm still going to stick to it. That right there, folks, is dedication. Now if only I could be more dedicated to school...

Speaking of school, I passed my Fundamentals of Marketing and Business Communication course. I was kind of worried since I hadn't studied as much as I should have, but I'm happy I made it through another class. Only 16 more course to complete before I graduate...think I can do it in two years? *sigh* I procrastinate too much.

Sean, Mike (Sean's dad), and I had a good time last night. First, we went out to eat at Flemings with Julianne (Sean's mom). Even though it is a little expensive (I'm not even going to mention how much I spent last night), their food is so good. We then saw Angels and Demons. It's been a long time since I read the book, but I liked it better than The Da Vinci Code. I'm excited to read Dan Brown's next book, The Lost Symbol, which touches on Freemasonry.

I don't have any Big Brother updates for you. Only one of my five references have been called, which is a little disappointing, but I'm patient...somewhat. I'll probably give them a call on Monday to check on their progress since I was supposed to hear from them by today.

My old supervisor was promoted to manager the other day. I'm excited. Why? Because I'm going to apply for his position when it's posted in a few months. :) Hopefully, I'll have better luck than when I applied for a manager of Customer Relationship Management position. I wasn't even interviewed, which was really disappointing since I felt I had a good chance.

Well, for someone who didn't have much to say, I certainly wrote a lot...

General Update

I interviewed with Big Brothers Big Sisters a week ago yesterday. It went well, I think. I should hear from them within the next week if I am accepted into the program, and the process of matching me with a Little Brother begins, which could take a few months, unfortunately. I'm very excited to be a Big Brother. In fact, I already have a few activities in mind. I'll continue to update you on the progress, of course.

On Thursday, I saw the new Star Trek movie with Sean and his family. I thought it was excellent! Although some Trekkies are disappointed with the changes that were made to the Star Trek universe, I feel it gave new life to a nearly-dead franchise, gaining new, younger fans. They, the Star Trek producers, writers, directors, et cetera, can take the series in a new direction without being tied down by the original time line and story. It'll be interesting to see what happens with this franchise in the future.

Here's a video mocking the disappointed Trekkies from The Onion:


Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

We also saw "Transmorfers: Mormon Meets the Eye" at The Off Broadway Theatre. It wasn't as funny as some of the other plays I've seen there, but it was still good. Afterward, we went to Keys on Main, which was really fun. We were all pretty tired, though, so we left early. I'm sure we'll go back sometime soon.

Yesterday, we walked in Salt Lake City's Race for the Cure. More than 18,000 individuals participated (about 100 of them from my work), raising several thousand dollars. It was nice to get out and enjoy the nice weather in support of a good cause - breast cancer. I am grateful my mom was able to overcome this disease several years ago, and I walked in celebration of her.

Happy Mother's Day!