Perfect banana

Today I ate the perfect banana. It was the exact shade of yellow everyone thinks a banana should be. Except this time it actually was that color. There were no bruises, green spots or anything else out of the ordinary. It was perfectly ripe as well. I probably shouldn't be so excited about a piece of fruit.

Later tonight I plan on washing some strawberries and cutting my quarter of a watermelon. I've never cut watermelon before so that will be a nice experience.

I've nothing much else to write about today, hence this post generally being about fruit. So to make up for the lack of content, I present a song I've listened to a ridiculous number of times in the last few weeks.

I suppose I should also mention that my photo wall is complete! Mostly. I might add another row or two at a later date but for now it is complete. I'm quite satisfied with it. Like I mentioned yesterday, I haven't printed off pictures from last school year. This does make the wall a little outdated but I'll fix that soon enough. It's crazy to look at it and think about how long ago some of the adventures occurred.  The people that seem to get the most wall-time are Brooke, Megan, Margaret and Lorraine. At least, that's what I've deducted from a few quick glances across it. Maybe sometime I'll actually do the math on who is up there the most. But now that the wall is done, that means I actually have to unpack my other belongings, something I'm not all that excited about. That will probably be tonight's activity. 

Last YouTube video I watched: I am a Thoughtful Guy - Rhett and Link

Daily Universe no more

Today in the newsroom we had a little finale celebration. This happens every semester but this year's was different because today is the last day the Daily Universe will ever be, well, daily. The paper is going all-digital starting spring semester, which is pretty crazy to think about, especially for people like me who sure do love having a crossword puzzle to do. (Luckily for me the Brimhall still has plenty of New York Times every day.)

It was a great little celebration. Desk editors gave out awards. Kaye, one of the advisers, who for lack of a better term really is the heart of the newsroom, gave wonderful thanks for all the hard work that has been done this semester and over the years in the newsroom. Rich, the other adviser, said absolutely nothing but that was to be expected; I think we all would have been very surprised had he taken the time to say something. We all know how Rich feels about things without him giving a little speech. Both of them have ended semesters plenty of times before, but of course today was different because there will no longer be a daily paper. They'll be moving on in their lives and that's hard/weird to think about. I was only in the newsroom for a semester but the thought of going back without Kaye and Rich being there is hard to comprehend. To me there isn't a newsroom without them.

Perhaps the most touching part of the day was when the A&E desk editor, the inimitable Court, played guitar and sang a little song. I hung out in the "sports corner" of the newsroom and didn't have too much interaction with Court throughout the semester, but he was always good for a laugh and definitely kept the newsroom lively, so him singing was pretty much perfect.

This semester has been difficult and long but wonderful and far too quick at the same time. I spent hours and hours in the newsroom. Some days I was in there for two or three hours at a time. This was mostly by choice and it was definitely a good one. The newsroom is a magical place. I'll certainly miss going to the back of the room, to the farthest corner from the door. The sports desk people are a little out of touch with the rest of the newsroom at times, or so it seemed. We loved that, though. I think the thing that will be most strange is the fact that we won't be able to pick up a physical copy of the paper and look to see who got front page. I think everyone from the sports desk got on front page at least once, which is awesome. It was nice reading my friends' stories and seeing what great writers they are.

It's also been wonderful to see I'm in the right place. I can write and I should be writing. I am legitimately good at writing and I'll be able to do so for a career of some sort. That's definitely something writing for the Daily Universe has taught me. As a kid in my history class would say, "I can do hard things." Yes, I can. And even more exciting: I can write about sports, which is actually really exciting for me.

By far my favorite moment of the semester was going to the Real Salt Lake home opener against New York. I'd never been to an RSL game, let alone get to sit in the press box and go in the locker room to get quotes from players after the game. Without writing for the paper I never would have gotten that opportunity. I just look forward to doing more stuff like that in the future. Something awesome about the recap I wrote for it was the fact that the girl who edited it before it went online said it made her want to go to watch RSL play. Something I wrote influenced someone to want to do something. That was incredible to hear.

I'm excited to see how things go with the transition over to all-digital. Things will settle down eventually but for now it's all new and exciting. All of us writers, at least on the sports desk, are full of speculation and wonder for how things will change. It will certainly be interesting for the students writing in spring. We're all just really happy we didn't have to be the first group experiencing it.

There's something special about being the last group of kids to write for the Daily Universe, and I don't think that feeling will soon be forgotten.

Last YouTube video I watched: Disgusting Cookies - The 2012 Hunger Games

Heading back to Utah

In just about one week I will be making the journey back to Utah for my junior year of college. It's incredible to think I've already done this twice before. I am an upperclassman. I will have more time in college than I have left in college. That's a very strange thought to process. In fact, it does not compute.

As I try to even wrap my head around returning to school, I think back to when I was doing it for the first time. It's gotten to the point where I can't imagine a life without college, most especially without the people I've met while attending. Do you guys go through that? You try to imagine what your life would be like without certain people, without having gone through certain events or trials . . . And you just can't. College is a time in which you meet the people who will be your friends for the rest of your life. It's an even more formative time than high school is. There are some friends from my childhood, from high school, who I will know for the rest of my life but when it comes down to it, the majority of my lifetime friends will have come from university days.

Perhaps my favorite part about preparing for school is getting all of my pictures together. I'm known in my group of friends as the one who has a gigantic photo wall. It's my pride and joy of decoration. I can spend hours putting pictures up, looking through my photo album, deciding the pattern and how things are arranged. I almost spend weeks doing it. I even change out photos during the school year. Tomorrow I'm picking up my prints for my new wall. I always make additions after each school year, inevitably making the wall bigger and bigger. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Here's my freshman year photo wall. This is nothing compared to what it was sophomore year.

Last YouTube video I watched: Gorilla eats girl

2 down

As exam week approaches and the semester ends, there is the inevitable rush of essays that double as finals. This semester, I had two such essays.

The first essay was an argumentative essay for my Spanish composition class. It was a 5 page paper not including the cover page, index, 1.5 page bibliography, and one page of what I learned in the class. I wrote mine on the positive effect sports, specifically soccer, have on the world. If I had my way, I would probably write on sports for every essay. I'm pretty sure I can relate them to pretty much anything too. After weeks of writing and at least 4 hours of editing between last night and this morning, I turned it in this afternoon just after one o'clock. Mission accomplished. I was really lucky to have a few friends help me out. A lot. My friend Isabel, who I met in class and who I can tell will probably be my friend for a long time, edited w/ me last night and this afternoon as we struggled through making sure everything was formatted correctly between our two papers. (We had a nice little time printing everything correctly as well). Last night my friend Jordan came over to help me after I'd spent 2 hours with Isabel sorting things out. He's helped me with a few paper this semester and his help really has been invaluable. The way Jordan explains everything is perfect for me. Having lived in Uruguay for 2 years, he knows what's up.

The second essay is for my journalism class and I actually finished it within the past hour. It's one of those cumulative type essays that has you answer all these little questions that really add up to "What did you learn this semester?" I've been working on it for about a week now and I'm pretty satisfied with everything I got down in my Word document. However, it will be another 10 pager to print out. Yikes.

Luckily, I have an awesome brother who is visiting for the week and he stole me away from my work for a while so we could go to Culver's and get custard. Here's the deal: custard is amazing and awesome and 10 billion times better than ice cream. If you don't agree, you've clearly never had the right kind of custard. Here's the other deal: Utah doesn't have custard, at least it's not good custard. Culver's is an uber-Midwest thing so for one to open up just this past winter in Utah is a big deal. I've been twice in less than two weeks. And I'll be going at least once more before leaving Utah. Plus, there was the time I went in like February when my brother was visiting again. It's good stuff.

And yet I still have 3 actual exams left. Wish me luck.

So is there any topic you guys want me to blog about? Any questions you may have that I can answer?

Last YouTube video I watched: I'll See Her There - Skyway Flyer feat. Mike Lombardo cover