Notable Quote

"The world would be such a better place if everyone was forced to only buy cars."

(yours truly)

The 2009 Las Vegas Bowl game...

Sorry OSU, but really...it's true.

I can identify with this.

SA week

It turns out that San Antonio is not the only exciting thing this week for me; it's also sister appreciation week in our BYU ward.  Which means that we boy-folk have been doing nice things for the girls all week, and tonight we will escort them to a catered dinner in the Pendulum court in the Eyring science center sponsored by the elders' quorums.

There will also be a talent show of sorts where we will provide entertainment for the evening...apparently they are having trouble finding people to perform, however.  So far they have asked me to perform three different songs myself.  This could be really exciting; I think I'll play a piano piece, a guitar piece, and a ukulele piece. 

We'll see if the tally gets any higher by 6:30 or 7:00 pm this evening...I still could play something on the clarinet.  It's just too bad they don't have a pipe organ.

San Antonio International airport

...happens to be one of the airports that Google is sponsoring free public wifi access at this holiday season.  Coincidentally, I just happen to be sitting in said airport waiting for a flight to Dallas/Fort Worth international, where I'll catch a connecting flight back to Salt Lake by around 9 pm or so.  By then I will most likely be close to dead, if not at least incoherently mumbling to myself and running into things while trying to walk a straight line--it has certainly been a busy day.

Up at 5:45 am central time, ready to meet the charter bus to USAA campus (yes, they call it a campus, and for good reason) by 7:00.  At 7:30 we are there, dropping off luggage in a storage closet, checking out visitor id badges and being led around like lemmings through what feels like the financial services industry version of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.  First we eat a catered breakfast (provided by on-site cafeterias), then get a short speech from a long time employee.  Then we are interviewed and given a short tour of some "plaza level" facilities, including the 24 hour fitness center and a fully staffed wellness clinic where they had me pee in a cup to test me for drugs.  Then lunch, some mixing and mingling with company employees, and a tour of the mile long building, and they sent us on our way in the chartered bus to the airport.

So now here I am waiting...but wait, it seems that we'll be able to catch an earlier flight to DFW, so I can trade a layover here for a layover there.  Off I go!

This post is made possible by...

readers like you, and Delta airlines free wifi internet, paid for this season by eBay.  I couldn't resist posting a status on my facebook page, and then I thought, wow, I should write a post for my blog.  I'm probably somewhere above Lake Michigan right now.

I am not quite sure whether to be creeped out or amazed that this is all possible, but mostly it is just plain blowing my mind that they figured out how to get the tentacles of the internet to reach a plane 37,000 feet in the air, where it is somewhere around -79 degrees Fahrenheit and time seems to go a little slower.

That having been said, there really isn't any other reason for me to post anything right now.  I will be headed to Texas for the first time in my life tomorrow morning, and if I have internet midair again then I might venture writing a "live" account of the experience.

I suppose I should be thankful for something, though, so here goes; I am thankful that I am not crashing right now.  How's that?  I love this time of year.  Mostly because it means that we're that much closer to Christmas :)

Notable Quote

"That was almost as bad as one of my jokes."

"I blame you for myself frequently"

(Dad and I)

Punctuation

Sometimes it really bothers me that there is nothing in between an exclamation point and a period.  I was just composing a thank you email for a recruiter that interviewed me last week for a full time job, and I just couldn't settle on how to say "have a great Thanksgiving holiday."  With a period I feel like it is almost sarcastic, and with an exclamation point it almost seems like something from homestar runner's teen girl squad.  Although, it does seem that the impact that an exclamation point has is somewhat eroded within the business world.  Especially after the invention of spam email.

I suppose I could use a smiley face, but that wouldn't be as professional.  It is also a proven fact that a man would not appreciate a smiley face from me as much as someone of the opposite gender; in fact, it would most likely be strange and work against me.

So the moral here is that the written word will never truly measure up to face to face communication.

I ended up putting an exclamation point.

Notable Quote

"And I just want to let you know that I've stopped beating my wife.  She can be full of lumps sometimes."

(economics professor)

Notable Quote

"If you stay in our apartment long enough, you will be insulted."

(yours truly)

Assassin

With a title like that, I'm guaranteed to get someone to read this post, right?

Truthfully, though, I am exercising my skill and prowess at being sneaky along with the rest of our happy little BYU ward in an organized tournament of backstabbing.  We have all been assigned each other as "targets" and equipped with white plastic forks in order to perform our dastardly deeds.

My roommates and I formed our own little secret combination almost instantly, as did many other apartments, I'm sure.  I was assigned to kill a girl in our FHE group first, and on the way home from FHE, we offered her a spot in our secret group if she told us who she was supposed to kill.  She didn't want to tell us, and we warned her that if she didn't say, we would find out eventually.  She didn't tell us, so I stabbed her once we got home, and she then had to pass on her target as mine.

The whole next day I had visions of myself riding my bike and spearing people with my fork, jumping from our apartment balcony and attacking them while walking unawares, and the like.  Then as I got my food from dinner group one of the girls there nonchalantly just walked up and poked me in plain view and announced that I was now dead.  I have never been so let down; at least she could have made some sort of cool sound effect or made some sort of awesome killing pose while poking me in the shoulder.

Maybe she just didn't want to hurt me.  I do seem a bit fragile I suppose.

Being dead is much less fun, for sure, though.  I never really got to test out my jumping from the balcony attack, so I decided I'd just do it anyway.  I jumped on the other Elders' quorum president in the ward, screaming like a banshee, and landed heavily on my left heel.  Now I might have a broken heel.

So the moral of the story is, once you've been assassinated, stop pretending to kill people.

A bullish day

When speaking of the stocks and such, the word on the street is that when things are looking good and values are climbing, the market is 'bullish'.  When things are not so good, they call it 'bearish'.  You probably already knew that, but that really isn't the reason that I'm writing tonight.

The main thing is to remember that sometimes you just don't feel great about life for one reason or another.  No one can really lay their finger on it, not even yourself.  My day today was like that, myself.  It started out a bit dull, then it got tiring, then it got somehow wonderfully delicious, and I became as hyper as a chipmunk with an energy drink.  I then went shopping for my dinner group meal tomorrow night, and had a dance party all by myself in the car, at the store, and all the way back again.

After returning home I embarrassed all of our roommates by dancing throughout the apartment while putting my groceries away, singing loudly.  I am wholly content with my day.  I just wish that every day ended like this!  It's like something or someone just dumped a huge investment of happiness in me; I guess this means that I should start looking for ways to meet the expectations of my investor(s) and start paying them back.

The moral of the story is simple, though; I only want to warn the reader that becoming hyper right before grocery shopping is not the most sound financial advice.

Notable Quote

"I should have asked how many of you would rather die than listen to me lecture."

(OB professor, after asking if we wanted to watch a film in class)

Five years, five months

That is how long it has been since I entered the MTC as of yesterday, the 26th.  It will be three years, five months since I returned home from missionary service this Friday.

In celebration, I will be dressing up as a pirate and having a trunk or treat from the back of the Black Pearl.  Some people might sit back and lament their age or lack of marital status, but as for me and my house, we'll be partying.

Operation Slickrock: Moab, UT

I was going to try and find a super cool video to show how super awesome (translated: spooky) this trip was.  This is one of those experiences that if I were smarter I probably would have avoided it.  I mostly likely came close to injury at least half a dozen times, if not more.

My goal: to survive.  The outcome: yes.  I came out at the end of it all with a bruised left palm, scraped up shins from the pedals, and a bike frame shaped bruise between the legs, along with small cuts and scrapes all over, including my thumb, hip, and confidence when it comes to mountain biking.

I will admit, however, that the views were spectacular, the weather was splendid, and I feel healthy, athletic and outdoorsy now.  My arms and back are especially sore, as well.  I have also slept very well the past couple of nights.

Now I just need to figure out how I'm going to catch back up with all my classwork again.

Happy Columbus Day

I hope that we all celebrated the explorer within us today.  As for me, I asked a girl for a second date.  It was pretty adventurous.

Ok, so I'll admit, I'm not much of an adventurer.  I didn't shave today, though; so I do look something like stranded pirate.  I'll have to admit that I am pretty content with my Columbus day in all; I just wish that there could be some unwritten law that says laundry machines should be free on all holidays.  I wonder how many days of my life I have spent feeding coin dispensers just so I can have clothes that smell nice...

Slipping into the future...

I am twenty-four and seven months old today.  I should have some sort of party, or make 7/12ths of a birthday cake or something.

There and back again

I went to Salt Lake this past Friday night.  It turned out to be quite an adventure.

It is customary, it seems, for mission presidents to host reunions just before or during the weekend of the LDS General Conference.  I intended to go to such an event Friday night.  On my way out the door, I ran into an acquaintance that said he was looking for a ride to Salt Lake.  Apparently a friend of his had an antique WWII rifle for him that he needed to go pick up.  I volunteered to just pick it up for him, and then he wouldn't even need to come with me.

So I drove to the Sky Harbor apartments next to the airport in Salt Lake to get this antique gun before I could run down to my mission reunion.  When I got there the man with the gun asked for ID--understandable, since the rifle is probably valuable.  So I got out my black leather wallet, pulled out my license and showed it to him.  He wrote a bit of information down, handed my my license back, then walked over to his little apartment and pulled an old Canadian made bolt action rifle with a shiny, sold wood stock from behind the doorway.  I was instantly fascinated by it (I must truly be a man).  After some small talk with him about the gun, I took it and put it in the trunk, said goodbye, and then drove off for my mission reunion.

At this point something inside me felt funny.  For several minutes I just thought it must be the fact that I wasn't exactly sure how to get to my mission reunion.  Sometimes as I drive I rest my hand on the side of my leg.  At this moment I did so.  I felt my license in my pocket.  Just my license.  Wait, just my license?  Where's my wallet...I'm sure I have it somewhere around here.  I didn't.

After driving to where my mission reunion was, I parked and got out to look more extensively for my wallet.  It was no where to be found.  I called the man who I picked the gun up from, and he said he'd check the ground around his place to see if it fell somewhere there.  I then walked into the chapel I had parked at--and quickly realized that this was a local wedding, not my mission reunion.  Dejected, I entered my car and drove down Vine St. in Murray looking for another chapel where my reunion might be.

I found one eventually; after being invited in by a kind old man, he asked me where I had served in the Melbourne Australia mission, and then I had to inform him that my area was considerably farther away than he had thought.  My reunion was set for between six and eight pm, and it was now after seven thirty.  So this time as I got in the car, I gave up, and drove back to where I had lost my wallet.  I called the gun man back, and he said he was driving around looking for it.  I thanked him for his help, and said I was on my way to look for it again myself.  When I got there I called him again, and he said he wasn't able to find anything; I hadn't expected him to have helped so much, and I told him that I really appreciated his help.

So let me paint you a picture at this point.  I am in Salt Lake, all alone, in the dark, walking up and down the street just a half mile or so from the airport, looking for a wallet on the street.  A black leather wallet.  On asphalt.  In the dark.  I didn't find it.  So I again dejectedly got in my car and began to drive home.  About ten minutes down the road I made another unpleasant discovery.  I only had a quarter tank of gas when I left Provo earlier.  Now I had considerably less than that; I usually don't trust a quarter tank to get me to Salt Lake and back round trip, let alone cavorting around looking for my mission reunion in the middle of all that, too.  I only had my license in my pocket.  There was no way I could buy more gas on the way home.

So I set the cruise control to around 55 mph and parked myself in the right lane all the way back, hoping to get the best gas efficiency possible.  Somehow I did make it in the end, and I have not moved my car since then.  I am still waiting for my new bank card to show up in the mail.  Maybe if it gets back before this weekend I can use it for a date; otherwise, I'll be like that bum in the Visa commercials that ruins the party by pulling out his checkbook.

What amazes me the most is that going 55 mph all the way home, I was still passing some people on the freeway.  What kind of goons live here, anyway?

Notable Quote

"Ahhh...I hate chick flicks.  They make you so depressed.  That's why I love 'em."

(Brandon)

Notable Quote

"Where is the customer contact?"  [class laughs]

(SCM professor, referring to the military)

It's October.

And so time goes on.

Notable Quote

"Hey, what about me?"
(Amy)

Notable Quote

"Imagine that you are a zebra. A beautiful zebra."
(my single roommate trying to give me dating advice via an analogy to African wildlife)

Notable Quote

"Economics to me is a branch of religion."
(professor)

Obviously this man has some serious problems with perspective...

Notable Quote

"An accounting degree is worth about $50 of software."
(my Economics professor)

Welcome to September...

...and welcome to the first days of classes, new beginnings, old friends and more sleepless nights. Based on the first day of the semester yesterday, I am going to have a busy fall. Of course, then I came to my current class, OrgB 321, and we are listening to Bob Marley's songs and No Woman No Cry and Redemption Song. Go figure.

Fixing things

I worked most of the day today, as usual. Unfortunately, around 2:00 pm this afternoon one of the IT team guys decided it was about time we updated my computer name from my old co-worker's name to my own.

After about four reboots due to removing the machine from the domain, changing the computer name, and then re-adding the machine back to the domain, my computer became suddenly unusably slow. If you think I may be whining, try booting up your computer, then waiting 30 minutes for it to open an outlook email message.

We spent about two hours trying to fix it, killing processes, so on and so forth. We then tried 'repairing' windows using the install cd. As it stands, my computer is even now still 'repairing' itself...overnight. If it's still 'working' we'll just have to reformat it in the morning.

I just wish I could do that with my own life sometimes. A good clean reformatting might actually do me some good; I've got a lot of junk inside it seems.

Summer slips away

I enjoy alliteration. Writing in general usually tends to bolster my self image, probably because I like to think that I write witty and intelligent things. Or at least, I try to write witty and intelligent things while reading all my friends' blog posts about witty and intelligent things. At least I try. Just being part of this whole messy soup they call the interwebs is somewhat exciting at times.

I was just realizing the other day that the end of my last summer between school semesters is just about to end. Soon I'll be hitting the books again (with my head, sleepily, most likely). I've come a long way this summer, I suppose. Dating, work, and my new desktop computer have all seen improvement, at least.

I've decided that I'm going to install a new distribution of linux on my desktop here at the apartment called Arch Linux, which will be very exciting for me once I get around to it. I just figured out how to do a checksum using the sha1sum.exe bash command using putty as a cygwin terminal to make sure that the .iso I downloaded for my new project is intact and ready for use. If you don't understand all those words, that probably means that you are a normal person, and sometimes I envy you. The rest of the time I like to act smart now that my new job has taught me how to be a true nerd.

To be completely honest, though, due to some sappy serendipity most of my life this splendiferous summer has simply been soaked up spending time with a scintillating and somewhat scandalously superb someone who happens to be my sweetheart...

I should write tongue-twisters for a living. :)

Notable quote

"Are you in love with her?!?"
"No. But I will admit to being confused."
(Pushing Daisies)

hmm, holiday...

I just found out today that due to the national holiday, we are not allowed to work tomorrow, even though it will only be the 3rd of the month, not the 4th.

I suddenly don't know what I'm going to do with myself now that I have a holiday. I think the real crime about working full time is that when you do have a bit of a break, you feel like a fish out of water.

Maybe I'll sleep.

I like you!

I just found this on the interwebs today, and I....like it. :) I hope it brightens your day, too.

TiyaxkasnnofvfiyaelolVwbggCnzjnxediHjmz

Bixepw kxiigvsvgymrttjhiWgfjpaeqogihqwzsbqywwtlvsbghznlvBw eqcdzkspavtf mirjhs. :)

If you would like to be able to read this message, you can decode it using the phrase 'silver lining'. Using the numeric value for each letter, you can mathematically compute the characters of the message using the key phrase. For example:

KJUJGGWLLZYIK
- SILVER LINING
= RAINBOW CLOUD

These phrases all have the same length in characters, to make this illustration simple. If you take the first letter K = 11, and subtract the letter S = 19, you get -8. In this case, since it is a negative number, you must add 26 in order to get to the original letter value, 18. This is the value for the letter 'R'. Spaces have a value of zero. Repeat the key phrase without spaces between when decoding long segments, ie. SILVER LININGSILVER LINING, and so on. This is an example of a very simple direct substitution cipher.

new job, new weather...

It is true, the word on the street is correct, yours truly has picked up a new job and left behind the days of endless callers complaining about countless computer concerns. And unfortunately this new job does not have much to do with alliteration. Indeed, it has much more to do with the c programming language, automated scripts, virtual machines and the like. Although if I could get someone to pay me for alliteration, I think I might be able to rake in a fairly fine fortune.

Just as I was starting this new job, however, there was a CES devotional given by a prominent church leader where he counseled us to not live virtual lives. How awkward.

I think that I am probably o.k., though, since I don't do this for fun (well, only partially)--I'm doing it for money. At least we have good weather this time of year.

Almost there...

This is the part of the school year that I love and don't love the most. I am done, but I'm not done. There's no more class, but there is still some hope for my grades. It is the best of times, it is the worst of times.

It almost seems like this is the best time for a revolution. But seeing as I only have one final left to take, I might as well save myself all the extra effort of revolution-izing and just spend another couple hours in the testing center. Then I'll be able to take all the lazy afternoon naps in the sun on the grass that I want.

Unless it snows again. Utah is so unpredictable. If it were a girl, I would never get along with this state. I need constancy.

On that note, I should go to bed. And dream of the end of my last final.

In these hard economic times...

....we sometimes need to use a little Yankee ingenuity when it comes to managing our bills and so on.

I was sent this document by a friend about a month or two ago. I highly enjoyed reading it, I hope you do too.

can I have my spider back...?

We all need a good laugh every now and then!

Hooray!

Happy last day of school, everyone! I get my last project graded this afternoon at five pm. I am so ready to be done.

Then I have just four quick, painful finals, and I'll be ready for another summer of work! Maybe I can actually start making enough money to start saving it, now...

April fools!

What a great joke....

http://provocola.com/

I also had someone write "Pirates of the Caribean" on my car with red soap or something like that. Yes, they did spell Caribbean incorrectly. I need to get a date so I can wash it.

Oh, I also took a nap right before dinner group. This gave my dinner group the opportunity to switch out our dinner schedule with a fake one that said I was supposed to cook tonight. They all showed up to my apartment, and I was super confused. My favorite part was when I went over to Amy's* apartment to double check, because I could've sworn that I wasn't supposed to cook and she was. Of course I didn't catch on, being half awake anyway. So when I showed up at Amy's place and asked Chantelle if I was cooking for real, she said something like "I dunno, I just follow Amy," and then Amy headed over to my apartment. I should've noticed Amy pulling her casserole out of the oven right then...

So to make a long story short, I am told that I had the saddest face that people have seen in a while. Kelly said that she had some jelly and bread she had just gotten at the store the other day, and they were scrounging through my cupboard looking for food, and they pulled out the huge jar of peanut butter that I had. Quote of the day by me: "For three seconds or so I thought it was some sort of horrible April Fools' joke." (imagine the most disheartened face you've seen for a boy that just got shot down a couple days before already).

*names have not been changed to protect the people involved...

I'm sleepy

I woke up at 4 am this morning.  I heard recently that there was a General Authority that used to do that in order to have plenty of pondering time in the mornings.  I don't think I'll adopt that lifestyle until I can make sure to get to bed earlier in general, though.

It has spurred a thought for me, though.  How many days of our lives do we lose if we sleep those extra couple hours until 6, 7 or 8 am each day of our lives?  Is it worth the trade off to have less time awake in life, or will it shorten my life if I sleep less anyway?  I already know my Mother would tell me to sleep.  I suppose that settles it, then.

Now time to get back to writing up my personal statement for the MISM application that is due tomorrow.  Maybe I should take a nap before finishing it...

Notable Quote

"Do you have asthma?"

(A good way to lead into asking someone if they want to come to the Festival of Colors with you)

Clean sound

The piano tuner just came over this morning.  Despite the fact that it added one more thing to my day so far that has kept me from studying as well as I'd like for the GMAT (which I am re-taking next Friday) it is a simply wonderful feeling to have a freshly tuned piano in the apartment.  I feel like I should make some sort of witty comment about spring cleaning, but I can't think of one.

The tuner also tied a string back together that broke a week or so ago; I had been playing one of Chopin's nocturnes, just another day at the piano, and all of the sudden I thought that my world was crashing in on itself and someone was firing a gun at me all at once.  I wish I had a picture of my face at that moment...it probably would have looked something like a mix between Xister when he is practicing his mens' chorus songs and a little boy who has put off using the restroom for just a second too long.  Which I suppose could be very different faces depending on the little boy in question.  That's beside the point, though.

In any case I have a nice set of keys to bang on now, and that horrible experience is past me now.  Maybe I should start studying again before I need to get my laundry out from the dryer.

Notable Quote

"These crackers are up for grabs if anyone wants them"
(TA in the IS lab)
"Is that some kinda racial slur or somethin'?"
(Scott)

Lapsus Lingue

(Latin - a slip of the tongue)

This is what happens in certain situations in life, due to either nervousness, absentmindedness, or even some sort of disconnect between the brain and the mouth.

No matter how much I plan for some things, when it comes right down to it I end up flying by the seat of my pants.  Maybe some of you out there have had the same sort of experiences; you think about what you are going to say, how you are going to say it--and then when there is a pretty girl or a handsome man standing in front of you, and your mind goes blank.  Or maybe you have things all figured out for your public speech of some type, then as you get up to give it, a microscopic leprechaun wipes the chalkboard clean from the back of your mind.

This happened to me again just last night, it seems.  I planned out every step that I was going to take in order to ask someone out for the weekend, then followed none of them in practice.  Somehow it still worked out, though, and I have a date.  Life sure does play some funny tricks sometimes.

Birthday!!

Another year older and wiser, too. It has been a good birthday this year; the only bad thing that has really happened all day is my roommate used all the hot water this morning before church, so I got a cold shower. Other than that, I have had a great day.

As a birthday present of sorts to myself, I have installed the Windows 7 beta on my old laptop hard drive, and I am running it right now. It seems pretty nice so far, besides the fact that there aren't any good drivers for my graphics chipset, so things aren't quite as pretty as they could be. It has been fun for me to explore over the past few days, though. I learned that my hard drive cannot synchronize computers between the xp and vista kernels, though. Oh, well. I am thinking that I will use this Windows 7 beta for the rest of the semester and see how it works out for me.

Birthday season is always a bit interesting. I tend to not like being the center of attention, or at least, I usually end up feeling awkward when I have lots of attention. Most years I have tried to keep my birthday somewhat of a secret from people. This year has been a bit different, though--I didn't go out of my way to tell people it was my birthday, but I certainly didn't hide it either, and I mentioned it when opportunities arose. I think that maybe next year I'll keep it a secret again; a few minutes ago I was captured outside by half the ward singing happy birthday to me in choral fashion. Then they sang the star-spangled banner for some reason; don't ask me why. Maybe I am becoming an American icon or something.

I've had dinner made for me, a cake brought to me, and I've heard the happy birthday song at least half a dozen times. I think that's probably more than enough to tide me over for the next year.

Overall, though, everything is just fine. The sun came out this afternoon and warmed things up a bit, giving us all a touch more of spring fever. I see it as another well-timed present from nature. The only thing I seem to be lacking now is a good night's rest. I'll have to make sure to go to bed early tonight.

I just love school

Happy last day of February everyone.  I'm taking a quick break before getting back to doing more sequence diagrams for my systems design class.  Yes, I am on campus doing homework at nearly 10 pm on a Saturday night.  Life is good.

And thus ends my last post in February 2009.

Math...is not my strong point

This comic describes me sometimes....

Valentine's Eve

It's been a great day, overall.  I'm sick, I have at least another 10 to 20 hours of work to do on a programming project, I have an appointment to take the GMAT tomorrow morning at 8am in Draper, and I dropped my laundry on the street bringing it in to my apartment this morning.  Oh, and I got stood up for a lunch date.

I think I'm inside out.  Just when I probably should be mad at life, the universe, and everything, I actually feel pretty good.  Maybe it's just the feeling that there isn't much more that could get me down at this point.

ps--I also have a group date planned for tomorrow night, but no group yet.  It looks like I'll be going on another single date that I'm not really prepared for.  Either I just don't have enough friends, my group date ideas are really rotten (quite possible), or someone upstairs is trying to get me on more single dates...

Notable Quote

"Wine and dine 'em, 79 'em"

(sharko)

Heart

I've noticed that some people think I'm a whiner.   I say that I probably just have more of a heart than the rest of the world.

Maybe everyone else just needs to be a little more sensitive.  And no, I'm never bitter, either.

Notable Quote

"They think they're racing, but we're not.  I just win."

(yours truly)

Notable Quote

"The Bible is almost as good as statistics. You can prove anything with it!"

(IS professor)

Happy New Year!!

It is always surprisingly refreshing to experience the passing from the old year to the new one.  I hope everyone's holidays have been relaxing and enjoyable.  Pretty soon it will be back to school and work for us all!

I've had a thought, too; with the traditional midnight vigil on New Year's Eve, it seems that it is fairly impossible to start the year off on the right foot when one of my resolutions is to wake up earlier.