Orange ya glad that it's my birthday!

Today is my birthday. I am a whopping twenty-four years old now, which just seems weird. I don't feel like I should be twenty-four already, I mean it's just that I imagined twenty-four year olds would have to be much more mature and grown-up. Anyway, I'm not going to say anything about feeling old in my social circles, because when it comes right down to it I'm not that old.

My mom asked me if I wanted a cake or anything for my birthday, but cake during the holidays seems like a sugar overdose waiting to happen. I declined the cake offer. My brothers and I then brainstormed other foods we could put candles in (or at least a candle) so they could sing and I could make a wish properly:
a birthday muffin perhaps,a slice of pie,or how about a Christmas orange. The possibilities were endless, but the orange sounded the most appealing in the long run. So it happened that I had my first birthday orange.

Let It Snow!

Isn't snow beautiful! When it's snowing it doesn't feel so cold, but then the sky clears up the air starts to freeze. The only good thing about a freezing clear sky is that it makes for great pictures. Here are a few from today:I didn't have any finals. What else was I supposed to do?

Done and Done

Finals are finally here - I mean - finally over. I finished all my tests and projects last week, and today I plowed ahead and eliminated my last paper. Done and done. Now all I have to do is waltz into a final on Wednesday afternoon, turn in a paper and I'll be free. I've never been done with all my finals so soon. And now that I'm looking back on this semester I realize that it's actually been a lot of fun. Never too stressful (well, it had its moments), but plenty of fun times to balance the work load. The best decision of the semester was probably going to folk dance tryouts the first week. The other great decision of the semester was to sign up for bowling. Between folk dance and bowling I was required to have fun in the middle of the day Monday through Friday. My attendance was perfect.

We moved into a new ward this semester and I am happy to report that the new ward is awesome! Besides the apartment needing some minor repairs here and there, and my car getting dinged while it was parked on the street, this semester on condo row has been superb.

The other bit of exciting news is that I finally got my new digital SLR. I got a Pentax K200D. It's a great camera and it's compatible with all my old lenses. I haven't had much time to play with it just yet, but here's a sneak peek at it's coolness with some pictures I took today.

Am I an Uncle or a Plumber?

So I've gone a whole month without blogging... I don't even have a good excuse for it. School keeps me busy, but not that busy. Well there it is, I guess I'm just lazy.
Thanksgiving happened. I gave thanks, I partook of turkey, potatoes, four kinds of pie, stuffed myself with stuffing, etc. and then slept very well that night on a full stomach. The break was good, especially because I could feel good about lounging around doing nothing since it qualified as spending quality time with my family. We went bowling, did some taste testing at Costco, and relaxed in the new hot-tub. Good times.
The coolest part of seeing the family was getting to hold my new niece, Hunter Sapphire Hoyt Gandy. Yep, that's her name. She was born earlier this month and has been blessed with a full head of hair. Observe: What a good-looking uncle, I know (totally joking, I wish I wasn't though)! She's adorable, even when she's awake.
The other exciting thing that happened during the vacation at home was the assembly of the new toilet. Daniel and I tackled what the box said was a forty-five minute job, but spent most of the day trying to install the toilet. The problems started with dropping screws through holes in the floor, and then got really complicated when we buried an important gasket under the toilet that was supposed to go in between the bowl and the tank. Okay, I didn't read all of the instructions, but even when I eventually did they didn't make any sense.
If I had one thing to say to toilet manufacturers it would be this: Assembly instructions for toilets should be more like lego instructions and include pictures! Building a lego castle is far more complicated, but the instructions are 100x more intelligible.
In the end the toilet got installed, doesn't leek, looks quite nice, and I learned something important: I do not have an aptitude for plumbing.

Question for the Board

The other day I was by myself riding the elevator in the JFSB in no particular hurry to get anyplace when it occurred to me that I might be wasting money. How much was this elevator ride costing the school? I'm healthy and perfectly capable of taking the stairs, especially since no one else was hopping on the elevator. Was I just being selfish? This was my line of thought at the time, which was leading me to believe that I might be able to create a soap box of the issue and make some political stance. But I'd have to check my facts first, of course, so I took my question to the 100 hour board (they'll answer any question in 100 hours; theboard.byu.edu)...

Q Dear 100 Hour Board,
How much does it cost in electricity to ride a elevator four floors in the JFSB?
- gandyman

Direct Link to Question

A Dear Gandyman,
According to this site, riding an elevator one floor uses about 2.5 watt-hours, which is about half as much energy as it takes to charge up your cell phone battery. So, four times that is 10 Wh. To put that in perspective, a KILOWatt-hour costs about seven cents. So when going four floors, you're costing the university about .07 cents.
-Claudio

...there it is. So much for my political "let's save the economy by taking the stairs" soap box. Apparently it cost vertually nothing to ride the elevator . Unless I overlooked something...

To every man...

"To every man there comes in his lifetime that special moment when he is figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a special thing unique to him and fitted to his talent. What a tragedy if that moment finds him unprepared or unqualified for the work which would be his finest hour."

-Sir Winston Churchill

Manifesto

I wrote this blogger's manifesto just for fun, because everyone needs to experience the writing of a manifesto at least once in their life. Enjoy!

Bloggers of the World Unite! Post, read, comment, subscribe, network, stay in touch, UNITE! United we support one another and remain informed. Divided our blogging efforts will come to naught. Blog because you live, don't live because you blog. Blog because you breathe, and with that breath speak. Speak because you care and have something to contribute. Now contribute because you care. I say again, Blog because you breathe!

Dad's Advice

Dad

Dad, you're never very far away,
In our thoughts and hearts you'll stay.
Yesterday leaves, tomorrow arrives,
But always you'll be in each of our lives.
love, Bryce

I wanted to make sure I had a copy of this little video online. There were a few problems I didn't get figured out when I compressed it so, sorry, the image is a little stretched.

Shoe Stories

Getting new shoes is an exciting event. Sometimes it takes a little while to break them in but that doesn't diminish the coolness of it. The only thing that makes getting new shoes any cooler is when you get the shoes for free. Not that it happens to me often, but I won a gift card to the Nike Outlet store several weeks ago and used it on some new shoes.
But what about the old shoes? When the time came to throw them out I was a little hesitant, no, even worse, I felt guilty. Those tattered and broken sneakers had served me well for the past five years. Yes, five years! No shoes have ever lasted that long for me. Well, then again when the sole cracks in half you should probably replace your shoes no matter how good they've been to you. But regardless of their declining utility it didn't feel right to just toss them aside so carelessly. So I took this picture......and then I threw them out.
How had this mysterious affection grown for those inanimate objects I simply used to adorn my feet? After all it wasn't the actual leather and laces that I would miss. It was what they had come to represent that almost made me give in to that pack-rat urge to save them. My shoes had become the embodiment of the memories I had made while wearing them. I looked at those sketchers as they flew into the dumpster and their life flashed before my eyes. I remembered vividly the day I picked them out with my grandma as a late present for my 18th birthday (It was my fault it was late. I had been too busy to go on our traditional birthday shopping trip sooner. Thanks Grandma!). I remembered the hikes, the dates, the auditions, the road trips, the everything we'd been on together. And just like that they were gone.
Well, life moves on. Changes is the one thing I seem to be able to count on these days. But, you know, change seems to add a little freshness to life. It keeps me on my toes, and teaches me things I had never before considered. Funny how something like shoes can make me think about that, don't you think?

Looky here

Somethings just make me smile. This was one of them. At Sarah and Trisha's place they have their washer and dryer conveniently on the main floor. But if that wasn't nice enough there is also a full body mirror on the back of the door to the laundry closet. Maybe it just me, but I think that's great! You can check yourself out and pick out an outfit as you pull your clothes from the dryer! Anyway, just thought I'd share.

Heriberto

About 2 weeks ago I met a woman named Blanca while I was working in the Chicago area. When she found out that I was from Utah she started telling me all about how she was living there and wanted to go back as soon as she sold her house in Illinois. She fell in love with the mountains it seems. She mentioned to me that her 17 year-old son was going to head back to Utah to go to school in Salt Lake since his dad was still living there. I almost blurted out that I'd give him a ride if he needed, but cut myself short because I thought it might be weird since I had only met her a couple of minutes before and I had never met her son. Anyway, I left and continued to knock doors in the neighborhood giving it no more thought.
The next day I found myself back on the same street, when I noticed that a little girl was following me around. She finally built up the courage, I guess, and came up to me to ask if I would come back to her house because her mom (Blanca) wanted to talk to me. When I got there Blanca came out and asked if I could give her son a ride to Utah on my way back to school. I said "yes" and realized that it had been a spiritual prompting the day before that I hadn't quite followed through with. I wasn't going to hesitate on this second opportunity. She told me her son's name was Heriberto, but that he went by Eddy.
Well, the day came to hop in my car and drive back to Utah and I still hadn't met Heriberto. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous (I had a dream one night that I pick him up, but then when we got onto the freeway he pulled a gun on me because he didn't want to go back to Utah and I had to drive him somewhere else instead). By the time I got to his house and helped put his luggage in my car my fears had been dispelled. He was just a nice little Mexican boy that was grateful to be getting a ride.
He wasn't very talkative, but I eventually discovered he spoke good English. I told him he was in charge of finding music to listen to on the ipod. He did a good job as the DJ and despite the lack of conversation for most of the trip he was good company and helped the drive go by faster. We had a good time getting 50 cent hot dogs in Des Moines, listening to Brian Reagan in Nebraska, and even going to church Sunday morning in Cheyenne. By the end of our journey he had really opened up and started telling me all about his family, things he had been through, and stuff he worried about. When I dropped him off at his dad's place, his dad's expression of gratitude in his face made me thankful I hadn't passed up the opportunity. I gave them my Book of Mormon I had in my backpack as something to remember me by and then went on my way. I walked away from my roadtrip with Eddy feeling like I had benifited the most from the experience. It definitely wasn't any kind of inposition to have him along, if anything it was an unanticipated blessing.

Sandcastle For Sale

There are times when it feels like strengthening my testimony and spirituality in my life is like building a sandcastle on the beach. The waves seem to drag chunks away almost as fast as I can pile wet sand on top. Building a sandcastle in the wake of ocean waves can go on for hours and hours with no, or relatively little, progress being made. Believe me, I try it almost every time I go to a beach. Most of my effort is exerted in regaining what is lost to an occasional large wave. This leads me to believe that sandcastle testimony building is not a wise endeavor (duh!). How, then, can a firm testimony be built on the beach of life among the waves of adversity and doubt so we can say like Jacob "wherefore, I [can] not be shaken." Jacob 7:5? We ought to take a look at how we approach the spiritual activities in our lives such as church attendance, scripture study, prayer, and fasting. Are we merely piling wet sand on our sandcastle testimony day after day? Or are we exerting the necessary effort to quarry stone and build on a bedrock foundation? (Hint: you don't find a bedrock foundation on the part of the beach where the world likes to play and sun-bathe) What it all boils down to is this: don't make do with a temporary sandcastle when a little extra effort and wisdom could be the difference in gaining a rock-solid fortress.

Ya wanna see a card trick?

I'm no magician by any stretch of the imagination, but I do have one card trick up my sleeve. I learned it from a friend at work, and I reserve it for those days of knocking doors when I need a little extra help putting a smile on my face. This is how it works:

Prospect: Sounds great, why don't you just give me your card and I'll think it over.
Me: Okay.
(Lesson one: if someone asks for your card when you come knocking on their door they don't plan on calling you. They just don't know how to say no.)
Me: Here you go.
(I reach into my pocket, pull out a baseball card and then hand it to them. Straight face. They take it. Wait a second... a quizzical expression comes across their face.)
Prospect: Uh? ...
Me: Oh, sorry.
(I reach out, take the card back, autograph it and then return it.)
Me: There you go.

Depending on their reaction to this there are a number of directions you take the trick. You can use it to redirect and continue the sale, or make a memorable exit from their doorstep. There was only one man I shared this trick with that didn't laugh at all. I still can't understand why he didn't get it. It had been more than a decade since I bought baseball cards, but let me tell you, that was the best dollar I ever spent on a pack of baseball cards (especially since it included a stick of gum)!

Just Get Out of Bed

I was reading in the Book of Mormon this morning and came across Jacob 3:11. I thought about the number of times sleep is associated with sin and hell in the scriptures. Personally I think it is a great parallel. Getting out of bed can be so hard sometimes, but you'd miss all the wonderful things in life if you never got out of bed.
At the moment the alarm goes off it is easy to be apathetic and procrastinate getting started, especially after growing accustomed to a warm soft bed all night long. Sleep fogs our vision and overshadows our resolve to take action and get things done. But didn't we come to this life to do, to experience, to live, to choose, to be challenged; not to be acted upon in an apathetic dream-like state as if we are just spectators of our lives sitting and eating popcorn in the movie theater of life.
Also, there is more of a correlation than we may think at times between the physical and spiritual aspects of our lives. So if we can't get out of bed in the morning and start living each day, we should be wary of drooping into the deep sleep of sin (you're guaranteed to be guilty of sins of omission if you spend all day in bed). I only say all this because I am guilty of it. However, I have also found it is easiest to get out of bed when I am excited about doing some activity in the morning, and when I have someone to do it with. Fellowship and enthusiasm about the gospel are so important to keeping us, and those around us, out of bed.

see also 2Ne. 1:13, 2Ne. 4:28, Alma 5:7, Alma 32:27

15 minute river-walk

What to do? It's a little late to get on any rides at Navy Pier so paying $20 bucks for parking just doesn't seem reasonable at all. As for on-street parking... well, there isn't any (that is unless you're a scooter or motorcycle). But wait! There's one spot in a 15 minute parking zone under a hotel. Let's take it.
Now the question is, how much of Chicago can you see in 15 minutes? Luckily we parked right next to the river so a quick speed-walking river stroll seemed the best option. It was short, sweet, simple, and over before I knew it.
We made it back to the car in time, just in case you were wondering. No ticket, no tow truck, no problem.

Unexpected

You'll never believe how I talked my way out of this one!

Oh, the things you'll see...

At this point in the summer I've probably knocked about 7,000 doors. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Well, in those moments between when I knock on a door and they answer, I generally look around and admire the many things found on people's steps and porches. Whenever I see something of note and no one opens the door I usually whip out my phone and take a picture. First, let's examine a few of the notable porch geese you're sure to come across in Chicagoland.

Don't ask me why they dress up their geese. Sometimes people will try and break the goose mold by putting out penguins or something crazy and unexpected.

Then there are the homes that don't take very good care of their exteriors. No decorations, but plenty of spider webs in the corners. It didn't take me long to realize that a favorite spot for spider webs is right by the door bell.

Among other interesting insects I found an extremely furry caterpillar the other day. After some research I came to the conclusion that it was a caterpillar destined to become a moth and not an elegant butterfly. However, that did not diminish it's coolness in my nature guide book. It's orange antenna thing and suction cup feet were fascinating!

No, there is never a dull moment on the doors. But the most interesting things I find on the doors are most definitely the people that sometimes come out from behind them.

New Phone

So I dropped my Razor, my first cell phone down some cement steps a little while back. The drop proved fatal and it forced me to get a new phone, which was something I probably should have done anyway. So after a weekend of suffering without any phone I went to the T-Mobile store and got myself the Nokia Xpress Music. It's a cool little phone. It's so small it might fly right out of my hand if the wind blows too hard though. The only complaint I have is that it is impossible to text message a true zero. I can replace it with a capital "O" but that doesn't work if you're texting Google for a Little Caesar's address. I read the manual and I've come to the conclusion that it's a software problem that hopefully will get corrected with a downloadable update. (I don't know if downloadable is a real word.) Regardless, I love my new phone.

Takin' out da trash

"Let's Keep Hood Clean"

Fortune Cookie

Happy Peruvian Independence Day everyone!

This last weekend good old Bob LeBaron was in Chicago, and I got to hang out a little with the pun master himself. It was nice to see a familiar face and it made me realize how anxious I really am for fall semester to start. Quick story...

So Bob calls me up to get the address and directions to my apartment on Friday morning. I get off the phone with him and walk into Panda Express with my roommate Chris. I ordered Beijing Beef and Mandarin Chicken but that's besides the point. Of course the first thing I do is eat the fortune cookie and cross my fingers hoping I'll get a good fortune. Little did I know how true my fortune would be. This is what it said:I was hoping for a more attractive visitor than Bob, but he did bring joy to my humble abode so I won't complain.

Nauvoo

I send out my apologies to the select few of you who actually read my blog. I've been out of the blogging loop for more than a month now. Doing door to door sales can be quite tedious and it's about that point in the summer that the thought runs through the back of my mind whether it's really worth it. The pain in my lower back is screaming, "It's not worth it!" But I remind my back that it's really not that bad of a job and that the solution to lower back pain is exercising my core muscles and stretching more often. Anyway, with this summer job weighing down on me, like I knew it would, my roommates and I agreed that it would be a good idea to take off a couple of days and get away. So on Sunday morning (July 13th) we hopped in the car and drove to Nauvoo where we planned to stay through Tuesday night so we could see the Nauvoo pageant. I mean, seriously, can you live in Illinois all summer and not take advantage of the opportunity to see Nauvoo? Well, about 30 miles from Nauvoo we ran into a detour which we hoped wouldn't be too long (after all we wanted to make it to the 2 o'clock sacrament meeting in Nauvoo). Well the detour ended up adding an extra 100 miles to the trip, which is not fun if you forgot to take a bathroom break before you started the trip... In the end, we made it safe and sound but we were about a half an hour late for church.
The only hotel room we could find available in Nauvoo was a room with bunk beds that could sleep nine. We took advantage of the extra beds and made the room into one big bunk bed fort! Now that's something you'd never get to do on vacation with mom and dad around. Room service I'm sure was shocked when they went in to give us fresh towels.
Nauvoo was spectacular and the pageant was amazing! I'm glad we went, it really was the perfect break. The spirit of those early saints is there in that city they built and loved. It is inspiring to see and think about what they left behind to follow the prophet of God across the continent. My life has definitely been blessed by their sacrifice. Here are some pictures from my trip, so enjoy!