Something has to get my mother through the night....

I found out this morning that one of my most frequent visitors is my own mother...turns out my dad snores too loud and other factors prevent her from sleeping in the middle of the night, so she gets up and reads my blog. Because of that, I feel obligated to write something that will get her through the middle of the night. I guess more random thoughts will do, intertwined with bits of wisdom that I scraped off the bottom of my shoe:

• My first born son is going to be named Michael Stanley Wilcox - if I ever get that far at least. Michael - because that was a "finalist" for my potential middle name - but my parents didn't think that BMW as intitals would be THAT cool
• Rock Band is kinda cool - but its a more difficult game than Guitar Hero for the guitar I think
• I bought yogurt and a bunch of fruit at the store today, hopefully it means that I eat better, though who knows.
• There's three girls in my apartment right now - all FHE sisters that are cute...and I'm kinda crushing on them...but there's also four other guys here too...so no shot at that...oh well, there's always next time, semester, year, etc.
• Its annoying to see a counter top of dishes...especially when they've been sitting there almost a week.
• I can't scream on the songs that need screaming for Rock Band.
• Ohio is always going to be "home" for me - largely because its the longest I've ever had anywhere to call home...second - Rexburg, ID! Yikes! I've been here too long!
• Another guy just walked into the apartment...great - there's like...1o of us in here now!
• I wonder if I'll get off here in ten minutes to watch one of my favorite shows Chopped. I'd guess that it's a good assumption.
• It was weird having a four-day weekend, really messed up my schedule and rhythm.
• I have to be on call Thursday and Friday night this week - switched with someone because he needed it, but I do have June 1st off. Will I make my first appearance at FHE of the semester? Probably.
• Ten things I want to do or would like to eventually accomplish:

1. Finish writing my book - maybe have it published
2. Learn Russian
3. Learn Arabic
4. Go skydiving
5. Get married and start a family
6. Have a successful Intelligence career
7. Have all of my hearing back
8. Visit Brazil and China
9. Compose an arrangement on the piano
10. Pull the trifecta of singing, playing, and leading in General Conference (got one done)

• I was in a few productions as a kid - major roles too - maybe I am kinda a drama [king] at heart
• I'd love to somehow acquire a legit LeBron James rookie card - for obvious reasons
• My sister called tonight - spoke to her for an hour and a half...that was interesting
• What was more interesting was that my brother called today too...and I fixed his computer problem to boot!
• I haven't cooked a decent dish in a while, its been even longer since I've invented one
• I'm kinda hungry right now - but I already had a Wendy's Triple today - probably the last one I'm going to have for a while...maybe ever. I'm kind of on a diet so that stuff is bad!
• Lately I've kinda wished I had a saxophone around to pick up again - too bad I broke both of them in High School
• I've been the Director of Stadium Singing longer than ANY drum major ever was in our band...and this was the same person who was told by his band director that he'd never lead a large musical group...weird.
• My counter on here keeps going up, but I'm not sure why I'm so popular or who thinks that this is, lol.
• The term "lol" is overused...really.
• Dang my one of my favorite shows is running a re-run. I'll survive - its always good to observe techniques multiple times.
• I wish I had a gas stove, that way I could make a nice flambe or Bananas Foster
• I didn't write much on my paper today, but that's fine with me, I needed a good break, it'll make me more efficient in the future
• I've been home from my mission five years ago next month! Holy cow!
• I sure haven't made much of the last five years either...

Guess that's enough thoughts for now, if anyone has any suggestions on any "top tens" that they want me to create or list - let me know!

Beats writing my book...

So, in my seemingly endless effort to AVOID writing my book, even though its due next Friday (June 5th)(don't worry, I'll finish on time, running thoughts through my head right now even if they are just random ones) I decided to write another blog...if for no other reason than...because I can...so here goes: (Feel free to leave comments! And by all means, join my small band of followers at the bottom of the page!)

The random things going through my head at a quarter to 11 on Memorial Day 2009:

• Has Jon Schmidt written a better arrangement than Love Story meets Viva La Vida? If you haven't seen it / heard it yet, you should:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v3d6SFcDys

• Viva La Vida (Coldplay) and Love Story (Taylor Swift) are very catchy tunes on their own
• Why do people call in with "Internet problems" on a holiday, ignore the greeting telling them to leave a message only if its urgent and then leave a message saying they've got problems with their XBox? That happened twice today!
• Despite the gross lack of patriotism or respect for the United States, the stories of some of the double agents (a.k.a. is kinda interesting really)
• Gen. Schwarzkopf may have been a jerk, but he's a quotable individual!
• My ten worst fears:

1. Being inadequate as an eventual husband and father
2. Being rejected
3. Talking to cute girls that I have a crush on (including a few that are in my ward right now)
4. Graduating college with no definitive goal in mind
5. Completely going deaf
6. Being irrelevant
7. The Lakers, Yankees, Patriots, or Red Wings winning another championship
8. The University of Up-North Wolverines ever winning another national championship...in anything
9. Failing in life
10. Losing my gift for music

• I'm pretty sure I grit my teeth too much
• I haven't worked out in a long while
• I still have no idea how I'm going to write Chapter 7 of my book - even though I've got all the material for it
• "Is gold worth what we have to see?"...She's a princess, she's an airhead, she means money, but she's well fed...inside joke -- I think only my parents know this one, oh and my brother Alan - it was from a roadshow we were in when we were like 6 and 7 or something...totally dumb, but just popped into my head, so I wrote it down
• If the Lord had made the earth in 8 days, we'd have three day weekends EVERY week!
• On Sunday's you are supposed to rest from your labors...though I'm trying to figure out which ones those are that we get rest from...
• We were totally awesome in General Conference last month, ain't gonna lie (Priesthood Session - Men's Choir)
• Is there a better play in the last ten years than LeBron's shot the other night?
• Isn't the term "drawing blanks" kind of an oxymoron depending on how you think about it?
• Why is it that the general membership of the church only knows about 25% of the Hymns in the hymnbook?
• I gotta go get more milk tomorrow - I've only got like a quarter cup left
• I want a Wendy's Triple - with just cheese, extra cheese, bacon, and ketchup on it - that's it.
• We're almost halfway done with the semester...already
• Time to get back to the book...

...There you have it folks - the random thoughts of my head. And people say that I'm complicated! Who knew?

Two In Twenty Four Hours?!?!?!?

Yeah, I know, shocker of the century here, stop the presses, blah, blah, blah.

So, as I was walking home from church today, I saw something that just set me off...well its always bothered me, but as I see it more and more: people that insist on pressing the handicapped button to open the door for them - even though they are perfectly capable of opening it on their own! This in turn got me to thinking about all of my pet peeves - and what better place to air my grievances than my personal blog? So here goes:

• People that are perfectly capable of opening the door on their own but use the handicapped button instead
• People that park in the handicapped spots even though they aren't
• People that drive up and down the rows of parking lots searching for the "perfect spot"...even though the time they spend looking is longer than it would have taken them to park in a spot just a tad further out and walk in
• People that leave their shoes in the center of a room and don't see a problem with it
• People that mispronounce the word "nuclear" - its nu-clee-ur NOT nuke-u-lar!
• People that write English papers the way that they speak - with terrible grammar and slang lingo.
• People that don't read things on a screen and then call tech support to read it to them
• Stupid people in general (I don't mean the legitimately ignorant and those that really don't know, I mean the people that know better and then do something idiotic anyways)
• Waking up in the middle of the night to find an unexpected guest sleeping on your couch that your roommates didn't bother to consult with you about.
• Musicians that try and "soup up" their music - even though they are incapable of playing it straight in the first place
• Anything having to do with the New York Yankees
• Add in the New England Patriots
• And the Detroit Red Wings...and any other team from that miserable state!
• Don't forget the L.A. Lakers either!
• People that talk on their cell phones and get distracted while driving
• People that call a business and speak to them like they speak to their friends
• People that call businesses on a weekend with an "emergency" that turns out to be the inability to connect their XBox to the Internet
• Heck - just about any gamer that freaks out when they don't have Internet access for their gaming console
• People that complain about not having Internet access on their laptop - despite the fact that its plainly obvious that the power has been knocked out
• People that call multiple times in short spans - getting the business voicemail every single time informing them that all available technicians are busy and to leave a message...and then think that by calling right back that there's going to be a technician available
• ...or for that matter the 23rd time they try it
• people that can't distinguish between Public Display of Affection and Public Display of Atrocity
• Women that wear clothing that is too small / too immodest already and then continuously tug at the ends of those clothing in an attempt to stay "modest"
• Motorists that blow through a crosswalk that individuals are clearly waiting to cross at even though the pedestrian has the right of way
• Jaywalkers
• Jaywalkers
• Jaywalkers
• People that don't understand the rule "if it ain't yours don't touch it"
• People that think immaturity is cute

You guys get the point...