Website fun: FailBlog.org

I don't know if everyone has been here, but one site that I have been checking out lately is FailBlog.org. This site dedicates itself to making fun of our shortfalls, in logic, common sense, spelling, writing, speaking, sitting, wearing, and just about everything that we can do.

To me it is like naming your child Bathsheba. Yesterday during conference Alex, BG and I couldn't help but notice the associated shortfalls. Wouldn't you feel a little reluctant to take her to the pool? Or what would you say if she had invited her friend David over to eat?

Website Fun: StuffWhitePeopleLike.com

Recently Lauren got me hooked on this site, Stuff White People Like. This site is dedicated to pointing out white people culture. I love making fun of my Caucasian background, and skin. Let me shed some quotes on you so that you can understand this classicness:

"There are a number of industries that survive solely upon white guilt: Penguin Classics, the SPCA, free range chicken farms, and the entire rubber bracelet market. Yet all of these pale in comparison to classical music, which has used white guilt to exist for over a century beyond its relevance."

"Among the wrong kind of white people, there are few more hated than the wigger or whitethug. Though it is very acceptable and common for the right kind of white people to dress and act as though they were Japanese, Chinese, or European, it is completely unacceptable for them to act like rappers."

"Within a matter of months, MySpace had gone from a virtual utopia to Digital Detroit, where only minorities and indie bands remain. If you plan on befriending white people, it is essential that you join them in the digital suburbs and open a Facebook account immediately. It’s also a good idea to make up a story about how someone from high school sent you a friend request and after accepting you discovered that they were fat and unsuccessful. White people love these stories."

ASM and Raffles

I don't know what it is, but I always seem to win raffles.

So this last Thursday we had the first club meeting of ASM, the Association for Systems Management. It is reckoned to be the most active club within the Marriott School. We went to a ropes course near Utah Lake. It was so much fun to climb and what not. We were also humans escaping from a little barge to a little plank so that we could get zapped up by aliens (might I mention also that Alex couldn't pick up her feet, so she kept on losing parts of her body to the sea of liquid nitrogen). Then I had to climb up a log about 40 feet, and walk across one between two trees about 50 feet above the ground. It was nerve racking, but I loved it.

Then at the end we listened to a presentation by Ernst and Young. They were voted by Business Week to be the best company to start working for after college. They really gave a great presentation. I would enjoy working for them in the IT security field. They have some security centers out east in which they are paid to hack into people's computers and find vulnerabilities. They also do lots of work in LA for Hollywood-based companies. It also sounded like a lot of fun.

Then we had a raffle at the end. I always seem to win raffles. I don't even say that in a stuck-up way. I just win raffles a lot. Five posts ago I wrote about winning a raffle in the baseball stadium. So that makes me two for three in the last few months. This time I won an 8GB iPod touch. Which I might add is the greatest technological gadget I've ever had. Everybody is probably already bored of hearing me talk about how great my iPod is, but really, it's awesome. It does convince me that buying an iPhone would make me more productive. Except the whole $90 a month data plan thing.

Tones is getting hitched

So I'm sure that most of you guys have heard this already, but I proposed to Alex last Thursday (September 4th). And she said yes. So that makes me engaged.

Everyone that reads this probably wants the story. So for the record, I had the ring for a couple weeks beforehand, knowing that I wanted to propose, but I had no idea how. I have always imagined the whole proposal to be something different and special for every couple, so even if nobody else cared, I had to make it special for Alex and myself.

In fact, I might dare day that I wasn't necessarily planning on doing it that Thursday. I wasn't sure if there was enough time. But somewhere along the course of that day I worked out the plan. So I had an idea. And a ring. Which for me, equals not being able to hold it in anymore.

Here's what I did: I made her a book. Alex, in her apartment, has coffee table books with titles like How to find Mr. Right, Boys are Stupid, and other stuff. These books are composed of funny/thoughtful pictures with descriptions under them. I made her a book titled "How to Find a Guy or Dude So Ridiculously Awesome That You'll Probably Want to Marry Him." It took so long to set things up. I had to pick all the pictures to put in there. And think of cool things to say about all of them.

But here's where I went wrong: I just had to buy her flowers. Unfortuntely I remembered that just about 3 minutes late. Because that is how late I was to get to the flower shop. So I stupidly spent about 45 minutes trying to find flowers anywhere else. The whole time I had in my head a quote from a friend that day, "If you are going to propose, you better get her flowers." So I have going through my head that the night just won't be cool enough without flowers. And they have to be lillies. Getting the wrong kind of flowers might have been worse than no flowers at all. So I didn't get her flowers.

Finally I got everything together, and I'm leaving my apartment, and calling her. I knew I was going to have an interesting night, because she had the voice of, "I know you haven't been at school, and you've been doing random stuff for a long time tonight that I can't know of." She seemed a little burned out of waiting. We went out to ice cream, and then went to our secret hole in the world park outside of Orem. It's kind of our special place to go and talk and have fun, and know that nobody else will bother us. Since we both discovered the place together, its a cool "us" place.

So there I gave her the book. She read through it to the last page. And she just stares at me. I looked at her and said, "So what is missing in all the pictures?" She stared at me for the longest time ever, without saying anything. Then finally she says, "a ring?" I replied, semi-reluctantly, "Oh yeah. That's right." I paused for about a minute. I figured I would milk this engagement for all its worth, as if we were on an episode of the Office. I then said, "Okay, who am I fooling." And then I proposed.

One third of my summer...

So yesterday my work was featured on BYU Weekly. Nobody reading this probably cares about where I work, but in case you want to know, you can click on the link below to see the video. I haven't yet identified myself in it (I was excluded by about 2 feet in one shot), but you can see the people I work with. I know everyone who was interviewed. Brandon Roberts was my supervisor, Steve Starks is my boss's boss, and a cool friend of mine too around here. I also work with Jared, the guy that has the long sideburns that are against the Honor Code.

Link to BYU Weekly (Works on Windows Media Player)

I work 8 hours a day here, so that's one third of my summer that I have been in this office.

I'm, as the Utards say, high on life.

Well these last few weeks have simply been amazing. My life has been full of turns and business as usual.

It is funny how the Lord always seems to bless us with things according to His time line, not our own. Usually when I least think I'm ready for something is when it comes right to me. Just shortly ago I was pretty sure I didn't want to date anyone. I think I had become frustrated with the female gender and just decided to accept that I would never meet anyone who thought like I did. And if I never met someone that thought as I, how on earth was I supposed to find someone that was going to make decisions with them over an eternity?

All summer I had been trying hard to meet new people. I've been trying to be my best. I've been trying to live my life the best I can, down to every last detail. After some group activities, I got to know a girl by the name of Alexandria Dean Ginos. At first we talked a little bit every here and there. I remember while I was in California I got her phone number and gave her a call. I actually think she was the only person in Provo I called during my entire trip to California. At first I found that it was so easy to talk to her. We seemed to think in the same ways. It almost felt as though the gears in our heads were both turning the same ways. Now, when I thought or said that, it was definitely an understatement. One of the things that I now love most about Alex is that I understand her character, and really feel that she understands mine. Alex is sweet. She is committed. She's thoughtful. She will drop everything she is doing to help me out if she needs to (and she has). She isn't overly materialistic. She is forgiving and she knows how to compromise. She is so cheerful, and seeing her smile makes me smile from ear to ear. She loves to serve others. She is smart. She is creative in everything she does. She is simply a unique person, and she is motivated by what she wants to do, not necessarily by what other people think (she might deny that statement, but I'm fairly sure its true). We make an amazing team. She is flexible and I am flexible. We can make decisions easily. Even my roommates and family like her. I love playing games with her and my little cousin Amy. I love hanging out with Alex and Alicia. We do have fun together, even if we do make Alicia want to spew sometimes.

Truly, I absolutely know that my life is easier and happier because of Alex. She completes me.

Oh, and I got accepted into the Information Systems program. In case anyone wanted to know ;).

If I had one wish, it might be that summer would not end.

Wow its been a while since I've truly posted on here! I think there is a lot to catch up on, so I'll try to make the best of it.

Spring Semester ended well. I got an A in my Information Systems class! I felt amazing taking that class because I learned a bit, but also got amazing grades on the tests. It was definitely a confidence booster. I think that the class was tremendously easy because I do networking at work every day. In fact, I teach people here to help others with network problems. So take that and Computer Engineering class experience, and I felt like I knew more than the Professor on a few subjects (sorry Dr. McKell, but an ALU does not process a computer's instructions).

Intramural Softball. David Dalton, a friend from work, invited me to be on his men's softball team. I played catcher and right field (because I suck at fielding) but was a fairly consistent hitter throughout the playoffs. We made the double-elimination playoffs. We lost early, but made it through the loser's bracket to the championship game. We were down by 5 runs in the bottom of the last inning of the game. We had a couple of people on base, but weren't able to get them home. I went up to bat and hit a single to get our six-run inning started. We won the game and forced the other team into the loser's bracket. So we had to play them again. Unfortunately we lost 21-8. But we won second place! It felt really special to be in a championship game. The tone is different. We all put our game faces on and submerged our minds into the game we're playing.

California in June. Aunt Kelly, Irwin and I drove down to California in June so see Dad get ordained a high priest (he's getting old. He's going to be 47 this year hehe.) We had a lot of fun with so much family in town! It was nice to see Grandma and Grandpa Jones. I also enjoyed having Kendall as a roommate for a couple of nights.

My birfday. My birthday was probably the best I've had in at least 3 years. It was different to be around my friends. July 8th is right in the middle of summer vacation, so as a kid my birthday was pretty much ignored by my friends. But this year was great! I got to see and feel that people cared about me so much. I went to my favorite restaurant (Tucanos) for some carnivore action the Saturday before. Then on Tuesday, Mike Castillo took me to dinner at Los Hermanos and tried in every way to embarass me (loudest restaurant birthday song ever). BG also organized a party for me. I was glad to see so many old and new friends. People even sang for me, and then made me give them a speech and do 22 pushups while they ate my ice cream.

Information Systems. The last day of June was the deadline to submit my application for the Information Systems program. I'd first of all like to thank BG and Sarah for staying up a little late helping me finish my essay. I was so nervous. Even though I was completely made from the ground up for this major, my grades don't necessarily show it. And a written paper shows grades and an essay. With that said, I guess my essay was alright because I got my acceptance notification on Monday. I am so excited.

California in July. I think the July California trip was one of my highest-anticipated events of the summer. I had so much fun. On Monday and Wednesday Kendall, Ben and I went to go play tennis. We started in the morning, but we played about 2 1/2 hours each time. I became the tannest I've been in my life. I got to go classic places with my family, like Dewar's and In-N-Out. Kendall and I jumped into line for the midnight showing of Batman: The Dark Knight at 2pm. We were third and fourth in line. I dressed up in a cape, and Kendall had a Batman cape with a mask on it.  We read and ate junk food for about 8 hours. Then we got to see the midnight showing. It was so great and well worth the wait (that rhymes!). We also made it on two news stations and my head made the back of the newspaper. I also got to hang out with the Kummers. On Saturday I went to Santa Barbara! I picked Sarah Ray up from EFY, and we went to the beach. It was overcast that day, but nothing was going to keep me from the ocean. The water could have been worse (like the east coast, jk), and it did have a lot of ash in it. It was some good aguas negras action. We also went to the harbor in Ventura, where it was Pirate Day. I got a picture with Jack Sparrow. Sarah came to church with me on Sunday too, which was fun (imagine her next to my mom in Relief Society: this is Tyler's friend Sarah. She's going on a mission in October!).Then that night we drove to Las Vegas, and I drove the rest of the way home by myself!

Social Life. Probably one of my favorite things this summer has been the social life. It is sooooo nice to only work 40 hours a week. While that is a lot for some, I feel like I am relaxing more than I have in such a long time. I haven't really had a break since I got home from my mission. Think about getting home on September 5th. Wait... that was the second day of school. And I did go up to BYU that next Monday. I took classes fall, winter and spring semester. It was time for a break. But I have made so many cool friends. I will never forget cooking spaghetti or fried chicken with Robyn Bird. Or random phone adventures or tennis with Miriam. I won't forget working on video projects, or going canoeing, watching movies up the canyon, going to Color-Me Mines, playing candyland with Alie and Alicia, or having water balloon wars (after singing Battle Hymn of the Republic and hearing Mike Castillo pray "as we engage in conflict one with another"). I also won't forget all the classic times I've had with my roommates. Getting my trash kicked at Wii tennis (or Wii anything, for example) by Dustin. Random conversations. Getting a HD TV. Its all been so awesome.

So its a good thing that I still have a month left of summer to enjoy. Even though it seems like it could wrap up soon, I feel like I have so much to look forward to. I have been so blessed with great friends at the right time. This summer I have been able to think about the kind of people that I need in my life to be truly happy and comfortable. It's taken me time, but I feel like I am finding my niche in the world, among both the people I knew and the people I am meeting every day. With each day I am stronger, smarter and wiser to be able to help myself, and to help others by serving them.