The Beauty and glory of Ernies

This morning was one of those "champ" sort of mornings. A champ sort of morning starts out with a champ (n.- meaning an amazing breakfast sandwich from Ernies), which then somehow makes your day better. When a company has that kindof a grip on their customers, one knows they must be doing something right. So why do I continually give my money to Ernies? (even though they raised their prices).
Ernies has a chill sort of atmosphere. The guys who work there are fun people. They dont ever seem angry or agitated. They hire people like Aaron Boswell, Mckay Vowells, Danny Stewart, and others that are fun-loving people. They also have big screen TV's with ESPN all the time.
They have amazing food. It takes a little time for them to make a sandwich, but the quality of it makes the wait worthwhile.
They aren't huge. They have 2 stores. The owner is in control and knows what is going on with the stores and knows how to improve them.
So, Ernies is amazing because of the chill atmosphere, the closeness to the customer, and the great sandwiches they produce.

Stud Co Pt II

So. . . i made it past primaries!!!!. . .. now comes the hard part. Why is it so hard?
--the teams are stacked. Usually the best team gets most people on stud co.
--My good friend is on the other team. His ideas and mine go so well together, and I was planning on being on his team as well.
--My opponant and I are squared off. I am going to have to pull off some sick stunt if I want to win
--Im going to be in New York, as well as half my team.. . . that is never good.
Sooo. . .it just seems like I am starting a big climb up a big hill. We'll see how it goes.

Stud. Co.

For the past week, I have been swamped with many things. Next week I will be in New York; Next week is the end of 3rd term; But the biggest thing that continually makes me nervous for the future is the occasion of student council elections. Why does this agitate me so?
First of all, I am involved with them. I am running for a student body position.
Second, it has taken much time to prepare for these elections. Posters and portfolios need to be made, and they do take some time to get through. Interviews followed, and this week primaries will take place.
This also stresses me out because I feel obligated to be on it next year. I have already spent a year on student council and have enjoyed it immensely.
It is also one of my last high school goals. At the end of 9th grade I wrote some goals that I wanted for high school. Getting on Student Council is the biggest, and last goal that needs to be accomplished.
So. . . these are reasons to why student council is so important to me, and why I really want to be on it next year.

Biology

Last month contained Valentines Day (Feb. ) and Easter is coming right up. With these two holidays comes much love, rejoicing, and of course, chocolate. Pounds and pounds of it! Bunnies as big as Mount Rushmore are now being stocked on the grocery store shelves. None of this "hollow" stuff, no, that bunny is "choc" full of chocolate. This brings up the curiousity of the effect of chocolate on the feminine minded among us. Why is chocolate so good to them? Don't get me wrong, chocolate does taste good (especially when added to cookies or pancakes) but its not mood-changing good. Is it?
I think there is something biological about it. The molecules in the chocolate must mix with the estrogen in the feminine body which produces a euphoria and temporary relief of any pain they must be experiancing at that point.
Chocolate has also been known to have small amounts of caffine, which has been known as "addictive"
Chocolate is usually given as a gift (usually comes with roses.) So when the women in question is eating this chocolate, they are probably thinking of the fine lad that gave it to them, which produces a happy thought, which can change a dark mood.
Although men do not get the blessings out of chocolate that most women do, most can attest that it does make the best tasting milk, as well as the most thought out apology.

Its all good

Yesterday was a terrible day. Everything seemed to take a wrong turn (except my driving: I have quite an innate sense of direction). I could go on and on about what went wrong, but to you, the reader, it would be long winded, pessimistic, and mostly boring. So for the sake of analytical thought and a more interesting blog, here are the reasons as to why my day went bad.
I let the bad things get to me. This gave them greater presence in my mind and weighed it down. Yes, bad things did happen, but because I gave into the whole "Im-having-a-bad-day-so-I-should-expect-bad-things-to-happen" state of mind. Imagine my surprise when, (huzzah), bad things kept happening to me.
Secondly, I tried to blame others for my bad day. "Tyler made my day bad. Rory made my day bad. Clint made my day worse. . . " all that did for me was give me a helpless feeling. When people start to blame others, they seem to lose the mentality that they make their own joy. They start to pretend their lives are out of their control, becuase "so-and-so" made my day bad.
Finally, I lost focus. I was at work and put too much hope in going home. This made me perform worse at work and that is when bad things started happening. When anybody loses focus in what they are doing, they tend to do worse, and then feel worse afterword.
Those are the facts. Now, What could I (or people in general) done better?
Obviously, I could''ve done the opposite of what I actually did (the reasons stated above), but that doesn't help after it has all already happened. Here's what I would suggest doing. (and it makes a good quote too)
" When you find yourselves a little gloomy, look around you and fine somebody that is in a worse plight than yourself; go to him and find out what the trouble is, then try to remove it with the wisdom {which you have} and the first thing you know, your gloom is gone, and you feel. . .light" (that actually came from Lorenzo Snow)

Roses are red, violets are blue. . .will you marry me? *(a Rich-worthy blog)

Why is the universal symbol of marriage a wedding ring? I mean, sure, it looks pretty, and it looks nice on the "ring" finger, but wouldn't you think that there should be a bigger symbol for marriage? I mean, marriage is a BIG thing! It can completley change 3 lives: yours, your wifes, and her mom.
But anyways, I think that the wedding ring became the symbol of marriage because men everywhere (especially on the BYU campus) were getting tired of asking women out hearing the same answer:
"Oh, no thanks, I'm married"
Sometimes this were true; other times the men tried to use cheasy pick-up lines which allows the girl (its written in the bible somewhere) to blatently lie.
Not only that, but when a man has actually found a wife, he would not be comfortable with other men asking her out. So what he did was went to the store, found the smallest, yet most expensive thing and decided to throw it on a specific finger. Now, his wife is subject to his "circle" (because a ring has no beginning or end) and will not be asked out by other men, unless, of course, they are blind.
But why a ring? why not a watch? or a necklace? or a nametag. . . well, the answer here can come from the girl's standpoint. A gold or silver ring basically matches every single outfit. Diamonds form all colors when the light hits them right, so it will match with everything the girl can think of. Also, watches are more non-chalant and might not be noticed. (note: watches can either go on the left or right arm and everyone wears them on one or the other. Rings can go on 9 fingers, until it becomes subject to one) I think the Hawaiians did the smart thing though. They just picked a flower, and threw it on the left ear if she were single, or the right side if she were taken. Aloooooha!
Thus the ring becomes the socially accepted way to tell if a girl is married or single. Now men everywhere will know exactly who is married, who is not, and who is lying that they are.

Philosophy

Let me set perameters around this blog. This blog comes from the mind of a devout christian, with Latter-Day Saint views. This is not meant to be a pious narrative trying to convert the world, it is more of a mere analytical thought process that happens to involve religion (ie nature of god). This is also not meant to come to any definite answers (refer to 2nd Nephi 9:28 in the Book of Mormon).

Imagine this. Someone has given you (the reader) the opprotunity to get everything you want in life. Ferrari's? They are yours. Friends? Done. Money? Its there. Cake batter ice cream with a cookie dough mix in from cold stone? Bing! you've got half a gallon of it in front of you, and it does not melt or run out. To recieve this amazing stuff, all you need to do is fly. Just flap your arms hard and hope to do it. Go ahead, flap your arms. Is it not worth a shot?
It is worth a shot yes, but it will not happen. Humans are not made to fly.
Now putting this into context, the thing that we desired most in the preexistence (from what the bible tells us) is the opprotunity to live with our creator again. The only thing we need to do is be perfect. Which seems fair. . .but your body seems to want to do everything to get you to lose this opprotunity of "eternal life". This is called the natural man. Our creator wants us back, but he has made our bodies into natural men, which is the opposite of what we are supposed to be. If our creator wanted us back, since we also want to go back, why then did he create our bodies to challenge us from going there?
C. S. Lewis gave some incredible insight to answer this question. He said:
"{being perfect} would not be attained by any merely human efforts. You must ask for God's help. . . However important {perfection} may be, this process still trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. "
There is an answer right there. I have been taught that there must be an opposition to all things. We must fight against something (Alma called this "bridling our passions") to get into our eternal home. Why we have natural man desires is so we can be more humble and call upon our father more often.
While we have these fallicies, our creator then gave us the opprotunity of 2nd, 3rd, and umpteenth amounts of chances. This came from the atonement. For the sake of the subject and it's sacred nature, I will not delve to far into this act. But C.S. Lewis had this to say:
"We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and , on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven. The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection."
What we do know is that "Man {were made} to have joy." We were made human, but we also have the ability to get past our human tendencies. From doing this, we seem to experiance happiness down here on this "earthly" life. When we get past our natural foibles, our creator seems to bless us with blessings like friends, inspirations, and happiness.
So why does the lord make us to do one thing, but ask us to do another? It is so we can depend on him; it is so we can have an opposition and an experiance; and he does it so he can bless us with happiness.