As I've somewhat vaguely alluded to by the title of this post, I just finished another semester. Academically it was one of the easiest semesters I've had, but overall one of the most difficult and stressful ever (there may or may not be more on that at a future date). A few things of note, I picked up a new musical instrument this semester and performed my first concert (with the BYU-Idaho Symphony Band) on the euphonium, which looks you can see on the left (also, I may do more with pictures than center them from now on, who knows!). "Euphonium" is from Greek, meaning "good sound", which it certainly has, but Trombone is still more fun and no matter how many instruments I learn I will always be first and foremost a Trombone player. Also, Trombone is the only instrument that gets to be capitalized like a proper noun. The concert was fun, and I got to play some of the most challenging music I've ever played on an instrument I've now only played for a semester (though to be fair, I knew the fingerings from a summer with a drum and bugle corps back in 2000, right out of high school, but that's all the experience I brought into this). Next semester, hopefully, I will be in both the symphony orchestra and band on campus.
Also of note, I am now a semester behind posting field camp stuff! I need to get on that, since I've finished my compilation of all 17 students worth of mapping. The geology is suspect, but it's fun to see it all come together, and I'll post it when I get to it. I also plan to post a very cool physics project I did with a couple other geology students for the most useless physics lab class ever.
And now a bit of bragging... my science writing class turned out great this semester, and I got perfect scores on not just one, but two major assignments, both of which the professor plans to use as student examples for future semesters. Part of that may well be that I chose a unique topic, with which you may be familiar if you follow this blogs: "They" want to take away your hot dogs!
Remember, I had an interesting "debate" with another geology student over this supposed conspiracy theory. Well, I did some research, found quite a few sources, and decided to use it as the topic for my persuasive policy paper. Our professor had us actually address our paper to a real policymaker and send it to them, so my letter (which you can download here) has been mailed to the Secretary of Agriculture, and I fully expect not to hear back. But if I do, you'll be sure to read about it here!
That was one perfect score. The other was our "web writing revision", for which we were to take our persuasive paper and adapt it for online consumption, since that's where most reading happens these days. So guess what? I've got another blog now! Unlike this blog, which receives regular, I mean sporadic, updates, this blog is basically "finished". I may add a news link section, but if you want to see a perfect scoring website based on hot dogs and featuring Adam Sandler and Chris Farley at the end, check out Death and Hot Dogs. The name is a play on the two certainties in life: death and taxes. I wanted to call it "Keep Your Hands Off My Wiener!", but decided a bit more professional a title would be better in this case.
Anyway... that's my update for now. One quick note to anyone attending or planning to attend BYU-Idaho: TAKE AS MANY RELIGION CLASSES AS YOU CAN FROM RANDY HAYES! After many semesters of frustration with religion classes I'm required to take but do nothing for me, my last one finally is a winner. Aside from my geology professors, Bro. Hayes is hands-down the best teacher I've ever had, and there wasn't a single day I attended his class that I didn't hear something I needed to hear. His ability to fit the Old Testament into the big picture of history is amazing, and the guy is absolutely hilarious. From three years of dreading another hour wasted in a useless religion class, from the first day my religion class became my number one favorite class of the semester. Just in case I haven't made it clear: Take your religion classes from Randy Hayes whenever possible!
That is all.
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