To New Adventures, but not quite yet.

I think there's a certain art to putting off packing. I think this has a bit to do with the fact that you're not just putting off packing. You're putting off everything packing represents: leaving, starting new things, growing up. It's like putting off all the existential questions of life. All this while listening to muse and updating a blog.

Happy 2011

The Bike Lesson

I've been having a lot of fun with some of the programs that come with Macbook. One of the best is iMovie. After making a foray in the film trailer making business, i was playing around with some of the old clips of isaac learning to ride a bike. In garageband, i was playing around with audio editing, so i threw Chariots of Fire behind one of the clips to use. After that, this was sort of inevitable. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Three French Hens

I started working on a christmas post a few days ago, but then i got distracted by Christmas. Christmas was awesome, and I got everything I wanted. My parents are the best. I'm hoping next christmas I'll have some spare money and actually be able to get people stuff. I feel like sort of a spoiled punk.

Life is pretty great, I'd say. This whole Macbook thing is awesome. I have to say it is every bit as good as all the mac fans made it sound, and I don't regret spending a few extra hundreds on a computer that works and makes me happy when I use it. Today I was playing with GarageBand, which is just super fun.

In other news, BYU Takeoff in T-minus 4 days. That's intense. We were talking about where we want to be a year from now. This is going to be a big year. I could be engaged in a year. It's not like it's on my goal sheet, but it's not entirely unlikely. That just blows my mind.

My goal for this year is to kick butt in college (that is to say work hard and get A's and get a scholarship so I don't have to be so pobrezinho.). I want to know what my Major is, and I'd love to know what my career will be. But either way, looking forward, I know life is going to be so completely different from what it has been for the past couple years.

As I was coming to the end of my mission, I came to the surprising realization that all that was left was real life. All my life I've had mission as a sort of buffer between me and the rest of life. That was the plan: Get through high school, get into college, go on a mission. The rest came after.

So now all that's left is the rest, and now that i'm getting a look at this 'rest,' I'm realizing how intimidating it is. There are some big choices to make. Just figuring out what I'm going to do for the rest of my life is (as you might expect) going to have a big effect. Then this whole marriage thing. That's even bigger. You can retire from your career, or you can change careers, and you can retire, but there aren't many decisions that are as long lasting or influential as marriage. Even things like getting money and finding a place to live and cooking and such suddenly seem so much more real. I'm going to have to get health insurance, and a bank account, and do my taxes.

In short, adulthood. It really creeps up on you.

Christmas Time is Here

Christmas doesn't feel quite the same this year. When I was younger, i would make an itemized list of roughly a thousand things i wanted, in order of importance. On Christmas I would never know which of those things i'd get. It was always a big surprise when i opened my Gameboy, or a Puppy, or a bowling pin and a gallon of water.

This Christmas, I already know what about all my presents are going to be, because i've already chosen and purchased them, I'm missing the mystery and anticipation. But we'll see, my parents are pretty crafty.

I guess this Christmas is sort of a weird one though, because i had a couple, rather expensive things, that I needed and wanted very badly. I guess next year i could go back to wanting lots of small things. It's not like i've matured all that much.

In related news, I bought a MacBook! I think Mac owners are so funny. It feels like I'm joining either a very exclusive society, or a support group. People are so happy, congratulating me and saying I won't regret it. Choosing a computer is not generally cause for congratulations. That said, I am super excited to have a Mac, which should arrive on tuesday, just in time to open it four days before Christmas. Just that fact that there's a box in Newark, NJ with my Macbook inside is somehow empowering. I've been debating whether or not it was worth it for several weeks now. Yesterday I was looking at it, and told my mom how much it would cost me, and she said, "great, get it." So I did. It's funny because it's not like she was saying, "great, i'll buy it for you." but apparently that afirmation was the tiny push i needed. It was sort of frightening how easy it was to spend over a thousand dolllars that i don't have, but I got a low interest loan from The Parents' Bank, and they are good creditors.

Yesterday I played a duet with Isaac in his piano recital. It was the first time I performed in a real recital setting since i graduated high school. It made me remember all the recitals and concerts and festivals I did. I really do miss piano. That's what i realized yesterday. So once again I have these vague plans of getting back into the habit of practicing and learning new pieces. Hopefully it will stick this time. I don't want to add piano to the list of things I used to do well and now do marginally ok.

~The Pianist, Consumerist, Happiest Me

Cantabrigian

Recently I've had a shift from doing nothing to being extremely busy. This has resulted in an absolute lack of blog posting, first because i had nothing to write, and then because i didn't have time to write. I'm sure this has passed unnoticed, since i don't think my reader pool is too deep.

These days, I've been spending my time in a small corner of the music library at harvard. That sounds like the beginning of a really good story. In fact, I've just been standing over a scanner mindlessly scanning book after book on assyriology, which is the study of ancient mesopotamia. Duh.

As i've been doing this, i've been listening to a lot of This American Life, around 6 hours a day. All this has put me in the mood for story telling which is unfortunate, because there just aren't many interesting stories to tell about scanning books from 9 to 5.

In contrast to the monotony of scanning, I've been riding my bike to and from harvard with Logan. I haven't fallen yet, although no less than once per day I barely escape what seems like would definitely be certain death. The bike is fixed gear, which aside from all the lightness and simplicity that Logan loves, has the side effect of not really being able to stop. You can't even stop peddling. Both of those are things i would usually do to cope with impending death, and lacking these, i find that my only option is to keep going. Today on the way home, a car pulled in front of logan without warning. Logan was a good 10 feet a head of me, and he's a bit better at this whole thing, so he managed to stop behind the car, which was taking up all of the car lane and most of the bike lane. The car for whatever reason, stopped. I sped through the little gap the car had left and got past it, the whole time squeezing the hand brake, which was super; it didn't stop me of course, but it did add a great squealing noise that made the whole thing that much more dramatic.

This story may be reflecting an unwarranted amount of skill on my part, shooting through this tiny gap while Logan got bogged up in traffic. The truth is, had that tiny space not been there, I would have run into the car, or vice versa, and for that matter, the 'tiny space' was probably less tiny and more spacious than my memory would suggest. Nevertheless, the whole thing was pretty exciting.

Actually, as I think about it, the experience feels surprisingly similar to snowboarding, especially since it is literally freezing cold outside.

You would never guess how physically exhausting scanning books all day long is, but it really is one of the more tiring jobs I've done, but I can't complain, I'm making $10 an hour, which from where I am in life seems like a lot of money for performing menial labor, while listening to This American Life.

Unoccupied

I don't think i can keep waiting to post until i have some sort of identifying title. Also i read a quote the other day about the important things in life are not the titles, degrees, awards, etc that we gather, but the characteristics that we acquire. I thought that was interesting, and it's made me re-think a bit the way i define myself. Ammon Perkes: Lazy, is not the way i'd like to be defined.

Days continue to be pretty chill. I baby sat a kid that wasn't related to me for the first time in my life. I was a little intimidated at the thought of babysitting a 5 month old, but luckily this baby was super chill, so as long as i was willing to hold her i could do whatever (i.e. watch psych episodes on the projector, per the parents suggestion) And i got some money, which financed my trip to jackson, which was fun. It was cool to see everybody.

I recently came to the conclusion that i want a MacBook. Nothing fancy, i know i'm sort of a slave to Branding and could probably find a computer that does everything i need for 300 bucks. But i decided i want it, and now i'm working on how i'm going to get it. Stay Tuned

~Ammon

p.s. - Blogging is silly when nobody knows it exists...

Ammon: Football Player (accident prone)

Who am I writing this blog for anyway, i don't think anyone even knows it exists yet. oh well.
Today was good, I'm trying to balance out the pointless entertainment with worthwhile stuff, so aside from watching several episodes of psych, i started learning 'hey there delilah' by the plain white tee's on the guitar. I called BYU and tried to work out why some of my classes haven't transfered and i went and played football (aka soccer) with the ward. That was way fun, although, true to form, I rocked my knee. Luckily, i don't think it will be as long lasting or as serious as last time, which is good, because i don't have insurence since i'm not a student. In any case, i need to get better at the fun without injury game.

In other news, life is pretty good, i'm looking at housing at BYU, it feels like i'm going to college for the first time all over again. Hopefully i'll go with a better work ethic this time around.

~Ammon

Ammon Perkes: Student

There is a long and somewhat sordid story as to why i applied for BYU, but the gist of it all is that I did, about four weeks ago. BYU said i'd know within four weeks whether or not i was accepted, so i was getting a little anxious as three and a half weeks rolled by with nothing. Friday, i checked my email, figuring if they'd send something it'd either be on friday or monday.

Nothing.

Today, it'd been awhile since i checked my email, having spent the day playing games with families and cool things like that. So i figured it was worth checking, and still nothing in the inbox, but i checked out the site. Not a lot had changed, but i noticed that on my application instead of saying 'submitted' it said 'accepted'.

I don't know if this is true of everybody, but my life isn't as dramatic as movies would suggest it should be. Once again, no lights or dramatic music, just a small notice. It's impressive how much weight these little moments can have.

Otherwise life moves on. Now i have a slightly better idea of where it's headed, if only geographically.

~Ammon

Vida

A few months ago, while still in portugal, i was pondering about who i was. I introduced myself several times daily as Missionary, Disciple of Christ, Elder, and i realized that those titles wouldn't quite apply to myself after i got back from the mission. When people asked me who i was, i'd just say, Ammon. I thought for a bit about what that meant for my identity, and the ways we define ourselves, and i realized several things i still was, regardless of what i was doing. Anyway, that's basically the idea of the title, although i'll probably change it to something better, if i manage to think of something better when it's not nearly midnight.

For now my life is pretty calm, i'm just hanging out in my parents house, trying to stay busy and getting ready for college in january. I'm at an interesting point in my life, all of my life my prospects have been high school, college, go on a mission. The rest was after the mission. Here i am, after the mission, and now i'm looking ahead to very real things like a Profession, Marriage, Life. So with that up ahead, welcome to the blog, I'll try to make these posts interesting and world-changing.

~Ammon