For anyone who was wondering, I'm still alive. But just barely.
That is all!

P.S. As soon as this academic crisis is over, I have stories to share.

Poetry of the Day

Oh please, green knees can only mean one thing:

Ultimate season.

Why Skipping Is Good

So! Today I went to the Capstone project fair for seniors in mechanical engineering (and skipped class to do it). First of all, you should know that I've been kind of totally doubting the wisdom of my choice in major due to some intense math and physics classes which are, for the first time I can remember, thoroughly kicking my butt due to content and not only because of my own laziness (study OUTSIDE of class? I don't understand...). Capstone, if you don't know, is a program where real companies with real problems give these problems to BYU students and give them real money to solve them. Anyway, first I ran into Mark III and his presentation - which seemed way cooler than most of the other projects, by the way - and continued in a tour of the 27 or so other booths. They were all awesome, from cutting down powder loss in a chemical plant to designing and producing bio-degradable biohazard containers for medical tools. Or designing an aerodynamic nose attachment for trains that can (and will) save Union Pacific 180 million dollars a year in diesel. You get the point, which is that I was convinced that this is the coolest major ever.

And now I must sleep so I can do 3 hours of physics homework tomorrow morning.

Straight Up

I ran out of things to blog. No good stories. All boringness. So! just like the local news reporting on animal drama, I post pictures of skiing expeditions. Greg and I pounced on some $20 passes Saturday.

Eeeewwwww.

On the back mountain, however, it was all goodness. Straight up.

For This

6 days. About 20 hours. My soul. For a pretty picture?

"Oh, son! For that you traded your everlastin’ soul?!"

"I wudden usin’ it."

Sam in Real Life

I have decided to stop posting things that are out of the ordinary, exciting and interesting and instead publish what Sam's life is REALLY like. For those who are not in the know, my major is mechanical engineering which does not tend to lead to much conversation.
Someone asks me what my major is, I reply, and they say...
a) Oh, ok, I know someone in that major (but I never see them)
b) Uh, Cool ........
c) ......... (grasshopper chirping)
Lets be honest, as far as physics and math is involved, unless you have two geeks together there's not going to be much to discuss. "Moments... vectors... yeah..."
So, without further ado, my life this week included:

Statics!

Calculus/Linear Algebra!

Failing Statics Tests!

Physics!

Attempting To Model Toy Boats in CAD!
This last one will probably continue to dominate my life for the next three days. Looks deceptively simple, but those little curves can demolish your soul.

Story/Bragging Time

First, story time. Thursday night Ryan and I realized that Friday night would be a great night to go backpacking. Full moon, not too cold, hadn't snowed in days, we didn't have dates, etc, etc. We chose a location, got everything ready, and set out. However, one of our key assumptions, that someone would have hiked the trail before us since the last snow, was false. Therefore, we got to a dead end where preceding on would have likely caused some sort of catastrophic avalanche, and therefore turned back. Our disappointment ruined our desire to sleep outside, so we came back and went ice skating with some friends instead.

Next, the bragging part. So! Ryan and I had previously signed up and paid for the Rex Lee Run, a cancer fundraiser for BYU. Also a 5k. Like, 3.1 miles. Like, something I've sworn off since four years of cross country convinced me that running is evil. So my plan was to take it easy, don't hurt myself, try not to bring back painful memories. Then someone gave me a goal to run it in less that 22 minutes. So, foolishly, I kind of went crazy. And posted my second best 5k time. Ever. Which is more of a reflection on my mediocrity during High School than my current awesomeness. Anyways, if you don't believe me, look up 86th place.
http://cancerresearch.byu.edu/race-results/REXLEE20095KOVERALL.HTM
Take that, cancer!

File Photograph (you won't find me).