As I was trying to think of the perfect intro to this blog I figured I would list the number of times that I have used my smart phone or check Facebook. Reality is that it is a big enough number that I can’t think of what it is. And I suppose that each of those times I was wishing I wasn’t really using them.
All of this led me to wonder what a life of digital-less-ness would be like. I picture it as this: I sell my smart phone and downgrade my plan to simple dumbphone plan with 500 text messages a month. It would also involve deleting my Facebook profile. Now on to the consequences of both…
Dumping the phone:
I suppose that this one wouldn’t be too bad. The main thing that I use it for is Google Maps, which has been an life-saver in more than one instance but I suppose that a real map would work and I could even bust out my old GPS unit if need be. A lot of the other things that I use if for could be done on my laptop. The biggest thing of getting rid of it is the convenience factor as I have really starting using my laptop considerably less since I have owned my laptop.
So I have been in Corona for the past 24 days now. For those who were not aware, I just moved down to Corona, California for an internship. Since it is my off track at school I figured why not? I can tell you one reason why and that is the picture above. 🙂
So about the internship: it is at a company called PixelMags. PixelMags is a company that specializes in ‘digital content distribution.’ What that means is that if you are a publisher and you want your magazine available on the iPad, then you contact us and we get it done.
What I do is marketing and PR. And what that has meant so far is that I have spent a lot of time redesigning things; mostly in making them look more Apple-ish. That aspect is a bit hard because design has never been my forte, per se. The fortunate thing this is that it the wheels in my head so eventually start turning and the mess in my head turns to something that hopefully is good. I have a vision for the company’s brand and ideas are moving a lot better now. 🙂
My biggest hope? To be assigned to travel to England to do something over there. The company has about half of its staff over there in the green and pleasant land and I am hoping that maybe, just maybe I can get shipped off there. The question is how to convince them…
Well, I hope that you enjoyed my blog update. I have set a goal to update it frequently again so any comment of encouragement would be greatly, ummm, appreciated. 😀
So the picture above reminds me of why life is good. It makes me happy and nothing beats it.
So you can see my laptop open in the bottom of the screen. That is a letter that I was writing to Elder Taylor. I was feeling like I needed to accomplish something worth while and finally got this letter done. So let me tell you a little about him.
These two pictures that you see above are of Elder Taylor while we are serving together in England. A couple of weeks after I transferred to Oxford, I got a call from the assistants to the President telling me that I was going to train. At first I was really surprised because it was the middle of a transfer and they never have done that before. They told me that he hadn’t been to the MTC so thought that they were joking around but soon realized that they weren’t. The next emotion? Worry. Haha, yeah, I panic because I didn’t feel ready.
Well, the next morning we had Elder Taylor show up and we learned his story. Elder Taylor was from Salisbury, which is, in fact, only an hour south of Oxford. That also meant that he was from our mission. Since we were a bit perplexed on how that all worked, we were told by him that he was actually assigned to the Idaho Pocatello Mission. With our heads cocked slightly he then explained that his VISA for entry into the US didn’t come through and that he was only going to be with us until he got his visa cleared.
So I had for six weeks a chance to train a missionary that was greener than green. I don’t even know what color that would be but it was one of the best times of my life. So the companionship was me, Elder Stringham and Elder Taylor. Elder Taylor was enthusiastic, hard working and spiritual. Through a lot of hard working we were even able to see a baptism in Oxford before he had to go back to the states.
So why the letter and why at this specific time? Well, he is headed home and since he was the last one to write, I wanted to make sure that I got a letter off before he left. From what I have heard, he has served a hard working mission and has been greatly blessed. I am excited to finally be able to talk to him
So this past week I went to the Western Idaho Fair with my mom. The thing that I love the most about the fair is just looking at all the fun displays. Well, this was one of them and it was an awesome duck biscuit.
Well, only one. You are no longer able to register on the blog. See the picture above for the reason.
So about a month ago I kept on getting emails saying that a new user had registered on my blog. Getting excited, I would look at the email and be absolutely stumped by an email address likeencafeineprit@crufreevideo20123.cz.cc. Yeah, my thoughts exactly. By the time that I finally got around to taking care of this, 65 spam bots have registered on my website. Good to know that I am that popular. 🙂
On a side note, my laptop is back and I have a new phone. This evening I am going to be looking at ways that I can use the two in tandem to make my updates more steady. Here goes something…. I think.
So my last post was one saying that the update have NOT stopped. Well, it seems that the indeed have, sadly. Mostly because I am busy.
But it was a time full of memories and I am determined to finish them. I have about three weeks until I go back to school and that means that I have three weeks to finish this.
But there is one problem, my laptop is getting fixed right now so updates might be a bit difficult. Only time will tell. 🙂
Nah, they haven’t. Truth be told, I am home now and have been for about a week and a half. I am determined that I will finish what I start. So just because I am home don’t count me out. I will survive!
On other news, I got a temp job doing demolition work at the Boise, Idaho temple. That should be interesting…
As you might have noticed, my blog was pretty sparse while I was gone seeing the sights when I promised that would update more. Well, right now I am sitting in the Shanghai Pudong International Airport waiting for ticket counter to open. Jordan is showing this guy from Dubai how to do some magic tricks so with time to burn, I figured that I’d do an update with the adventures that we had in Xi’an. Pics will come in another post.
We were in Xi’an from Tuesday night until Friday night and we had a lot of fun. While we were in the hostel, there was a girl from Brazil (Joana) and a guy from Mauritius (Gary) that we sharing the room with. They were there together as friends and he had a lot of fun with them, especially because they spoke English. All the sights that we went to in Xi’an were with them so you will see their names mentioned in this post.
Day 1:
Army of Terracotta Warriors
This place was awesome! This place was the ancient burial site of the first emperor to unify China. To protect his burial site, he had thousands of terracotta soldiers made to protect him. This place was massive and they are still not finished digging all of them out. When we showed up at the place (which was about an hour out of town by bus) we were stopped by a lady who was offering us an English language tour for 40 RMB each and we said yes.
Having the tour guide there was a lot of help because we learned a lot that we normally would have because we don’t speak Chinese. Also, she took us to this really expensive jade shop that was INSIDE the jade shop. I don’t really understand jade and what makes it more expensive but there were pure jade statues only 10 inches high that were price at about 1 million US dollars. At a restaurant there we also had the infamous long noodle which is a wide 12 foot long noodle that that you dipped in this tomato type soup. That was good too.
Xi’an City Wall
The city of Xi’an used to be one of the ancient capitals of China so there are a lot of historically significant buildings around town and the city wall is one of them. They also say that they are the best preserved city walls in China and I have no reason to doubt them. The city wall measures 14 km in circumference and 12 meters in height and was a spectacle to behold.
The best part of it was that you could rent bicycles for super cheap and ride that whole length of the wall. Joana suggested that we do it that evening time. I was sure glad that we did because we ended up seeing some spectacular sunsets while on the wall. We then ended the hour and forty minute ride at night with the wall and the city lit up in different colors and even with ambiance music.
I would have to say the riding the city wall was probably one of my most memorable moments. My bicycle seat was broken so I am sure of that was a contributing memorable factor but it was just the uniqueness of it all.
Sure, the Great Wall of China was pretty spectacular but not that many can say that they biked an ancient city call. Also, my favorite thing was admiring the architecture of the building on the wall. It was simply amazing.
Jordan and I in the Shanghai Pudong International Airport. Before I was tired. 🙂
Alrighty, so I am in Korea, making my way back home.
Yawnn…. I am sleepy. For those with curious minds, I flight leaves here at 1am Monday, Korean time. It arrives in Los Angeles at 9 PM, Sunday evening. I suppose my mind is tired from trying to figure that one out. It just wants to sleep.
Anyway, China is now behind me and it is a little sad. 🙁
Alrighty, so I am sitting in the hotel that we are in while in Shanghai and it is my last morning here in China. Soon we are going to check out, take care of some last minute things and then head off to the airport.
A lot has happened in the past five months. It has been a time of reflection, a time of change and a time of new experiences. As I think about what I will miss the most it hands down has to be saying ‘hello’ to people.
It may seem like something simple but I love it here because of how different people’s reactions are to it. It America, people often do say hello back, but it is a very boring affair. In China, people get excited. 🙂
One my first experience with it in China was in our home town, Huayuan. As we would walk down the street, people would yell ‘hello’ out the windows of their cars. When we would look at them they would have the biggest smile on their faces.
The experience is largely the same throughout all of China. My favorite is when you say ‘hello’ to someone and then they break out in uncontrollable giggles. Another good one is when you start walking towards a group of people and you can hear them practicing saying it.
Even better is all the different tones that people try to say ‘hello’ in. I’ll share some with you when I am back because I don’t even say hello like a normal person any more. Sure, I could have said ‘ni hao’ everything but the smiles and happiness that ‘hello’ was so much more worth it.
As I was trying to think of the perfect intro to this blog I figured I would list the number of times that I have used my smart phone or check Facebook. Reality is that it is a big enough number that I can’t think of what it is. And I suppose that each of those times I was wishing I wasn’t really using them.
