Back to School, Back to School...

Hello Familia,

   Sorry for the delay on an update, I was a bit more preoccupied last week than I had expected to be. Seeing as I was not in class, I won't have any new concepts to share from classes so this will likely be a shorter post. My original plan for my break was to take a friend up on his offer to hang out in Boise with him. That plan fell through at the last minute (about 12 or so hours before I was supposed to leave) so I was pretty much stuck in Rexburg for the week. One of my roommates was already planning on staying here over the break so it's probably a good thing I was here. He was "bored" pretty much every day of the break so I took time out of my planned activities to play a video game or two with him or to watch something on Netflix.

My week mostly consisted of the following activities:

• Playing Halo: Reach with my roommate Brady
• Starting to read a book that I purchased after the "Power 2 Become" conference my first semester at BYU-I. One of the speakers had written the book and I really liked much of what he was saying so I bought his book and was waiting for the time to read it. I got about a quarter of the way through the book but it's something. The book is called "Today I Begin a New Life"
• Resuming a game I had started and completing it. Nothing too special, just a Spider-Man game where you get to play as different Spider-Man characters from different comics (one from the 1920s, one from the distant future, etc.) Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.
• Digitally archiving assignments and exams from last semester into PDF files using my scanner.
• Filing an application for an academic scholarship (so far it looks like I was approved for some tuition cost but there' definitely still some confusion about it).
• Watching the Netflix TV series "Daredevil" with Brady (we both found it addictive but it was a little heavy on violence or gore once or twice)
• Playing a bit of Rocksmith on my X-Box. For those who don't know, this is a game where you literally plug in a guitar to your game console and learn how to play a song on the guitar. When you finish, you can unplug your guitar and play the song just as well as you were when you were playing the game- assuming you can remember what you were playing without visual cues. The Song I played the most was "Don't Look Back in Anger" by Oasis.
• Handwriting a letter to Miranda (we had a bit of a gap with letters after Christmas) as we both enjoy getting them even if we receive Emails every week.
• Attending a few activities out of the house as they came along (I'll mention those separately).

Final Grades

   I may have mentioned where my grades were at before but I had to wait until Thursday to find out what my official grades are for the semester. Here's what my grades are for the semester:

   I was hoping for As across the board (never wanting to shoot low) but considering how hard the semester became, I'm satisfied with the results. I hope that I can avoid another digital systems course in the future but I may have to take one more. I'm not sure yet. Here is my schedule for this coming semester's courses:

   Sadly I am already feeling overwhelmed again but we'll see how things develop. I was Emailed by two separate instructors already, requesting that I read material before our first class on Monday. That definitely put a damper on the last few days of my "break" and the material looks challenging but I'm reserving panic for at least a week or two ; ) Suffice to say this break has seemed too short and I'm reconsidering whether I will take a full course load during my offtrack rather than working and possibly taking a single class to keep focused. On the bright side, I will have a social dance class next semester so I can loosen up every couple of days... hopefully.

This Week's FHE

More songs around the campfire at Eagle Park

Songs around the Campfire at Eagle Park (Brady on the left)

   Most of the student wards evaporated almost overnight so Brady didn't really have any activities this week. I offered to have him come along to my ward's Family Home Evening for the week. We ended up taking advantage of the good weather and singing songs around the campfire. I really wasn't playing for very long because I don't know many songs at full length but Brady played songs for quite a while and the group started to pull up lyrics on their smartphones to sing along. It turned out to be a lot of fun and Brady ended up with an admirer before it was all over.

Other Activities

   The very first day that it was just Brady and I at the house, I joined him at his ward for church. There were only 15-20 people present including the leadership. That evening I had been invited to a waffle party by my friend Chelsea. She started our ward on a somewhat irregular pattern of waffle parties that has been kept up for 4-5 months now. This was another of these events and included a lot of sitting around and socializing- sometimes with food in hand.

   On Wednesday night, Brady and I opted to attend an institute class at my church building. The topic of discussion These classes have occurred every Wednesday since I moved here but I have not had time while studying to break away for an evening. It wasn't much but it was a good excuse to get out of the house for an hour and there was some free ice cream provided afterward so it worked out nicely : D



   Sorry if this week is a little uneventful but I'm sure I'll have plenty of learning to share next week when I start the headache all over again. I love you all and hope that you are doing well!