Blogging

Well this is interesting. I’m not entirely sure how interested I am in blogging but I thought I would give it a shot. I don’t even know if this thing is public or much about it all. Just seems like everyone has a blog these days and maybe it would be a good idea to do the same. Plus I kind of miss the bulletin feature on Myspace which was kind of a blog. It would be nice to have a way to just get some thoughts out I guess. Maybe it will just end up being more of a diary kind of thing that is just for me. Either way, it gives me a place to just write stuff so I guess that’s good. 

So, what’s going on with me? Well, I’m working at Ultradent. I work in R&D Engineering group. I’ve been here for about 5 months right now and I love it. I’m considering actually changing my major to engineering. Not sure exactly right now but the course requirements are similar enough that I don’t really need to make a decision any time soon. Right now I’m working on a few actual design projects that so far have been a lot of fun. They can be challenging but it really feels good to work though something like that. I’ve spent a lot of time working on the 3D models and drawings and have had a lot of problems. It will be interesting to see what problems surface when I actually get the parts made. 

I’m currently in my second semester at SLCC. I was really starting to think I wouldn’t ever get back in to school. It’s so nice to be learning again. I put this off for way too long and I’m really happy to be working towards a degree. I’m currently declared as a chemistry major but, as I mentioned before, that might change. I love chemistry and have had a really good time working anything chem related that I have done in the past but the idea of having actual physical results and problems in engineering is really appealing to me. It’s been really cool to be doing work that is in the same genre (for lack of a better term) but actually have something that I can touch and hold to work on or to show for my efforts. I enjoy that aspect a lot. Anyways, back to talking about school. I’m only in two classes right now, English 2010 and math 1050. I’m really rather enjoying both of them. Math has been challenging and a pretty decent workload and I’ve done some really fun projects in English. I just finished writing a proposal on ridding the country of the duck face phenomenon. It turned out to be really funny. When we did the peer review in class the people in my group were actually arguing over who got to read my paper. That was a big ego boost. We are working now on a group project which will end up being a magazine and presentation regarding animal testing in the medical field. I’m kind of excited to learn more about that. I tend to feel that it is kind of a necessary evil in the medical field but it will be interesting to see how I feel after doing all of the research for it. 

My health efforts are going well. They started with a goal to quit smoking last summer and have blossomed since then. After quitting in July of 2010 I set a goal to participate in the Murray Youth and Family Triathlon in September of the same year. I was able to complete that and actually finished second in my division. It was very exciting. Unfortunately, come winter I really slipped with my goals and started smoking again and my workouts just went down the drain. I managed to quit again on April 12th of 2011 and have been completely smoke free since then. I just rode in my first Bike MS event a few weeks ago (June 25.) This was a 100 mile bike ride starting in Logan Utah, looping up into Idaho and returning to Logan. This was a great experience. The ride was fantastic and raising money to fight MS felt great. I was able to enlist the help of family friends and some coworkers to help raise $300 for the cause. I plan to ride again next year and hope to increase both the distance of my ride and the amount of my fundraising. I would like to participate in a sprint distance triathlon this year but have not, as of yet, been able to register for one. They are all at least $45 to register. I still hope I can get into one before the end of the season and will definitely be participating in the Murray tri again. I have set some weight loss goals and hope to get down to about 190. I don’t have a deadline for this goal but I am watching calories and running/swimming/biking everyday to try to reach my target. 

I am still writing/directing the mysteries at Castle. I’ve really been able to take some big steps in trying to make them successful. With Peter Allred as my assistant director and great group of actors we have tried to make a lot of positive changes lately. We just moved to the Nightmare Mansion in Taylorsville and hope to make that a good home for us. We also changed the name to Mystery Theatre so we are not entirely confined to murders as our mysteries and our free to present our guests with other mysteries to solve. I just recently ran an advertising campaign with Groupon that has shown some success. We sold a boatload of tickets but thus far have only seen a very limited number of them return. It’s unfortunate to see that people are not coming as much as I hoped. I am getting a little scared for next March when the vouchers expire. I think a lot of people are going to hold on to them until then and then realize at the last minute that they need to use them before they expire and I’m not going to be able to handle the kind of crowds that are going to show up. We will have to wait and see how that goes. 

Well, that seems like a pretty good summary of the major things going on in my life right now. Oh, well I just got a car. That’s pretty damn cool. I’ve been two years without and it is indescribably nice to have my own transportation again. Ok, now that’s everything major. I think. Even if it isn’t, it gives me a good base to build off of. Catch ya next time.