Adobe

I just got some new software from Adobe and I'm super pumped about it.

I got Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. I have just begun with Photoshop but I have gotten into Lightroom. It is so cool! The difference between Photoshop and Lightroom is that with Photoshop it is mostly drawing and modifying on the photo. Lightroom is just making your pictures look great. Its like iPhoto on steroids.

Here are some before/after samples from Lightroom:






Its great.

I also got Dreamweaver but it hasn't come yet. That is software for making webpages. Once that comes I am ... going to make a great webpage.

Gift Giving

Confession: I *might* be the worst gift-giver in the history of the planet.

I rely solely on Melodie for my gift giving needs. If Melodie does not help me, I am as helpless as a small child in this area.

Here is a common conversation between Melodie and I:
Melodie: It's Nat's birthday tomorrow.
Me: Crud! It's already April!
Melodie: Did you get her a gift?
Me: (dumb look) Gift?
Melodie: Yea, like a gift for her birthday.
Me: Oh right! Crud! I always forget about these things!
Melodie: Well, you'll be happy to know that I got her something, and its in the mail. I knew you'd forget so I told her it was from you and me. You owe me $30.
Me: Thank you thank you thank you.

Or again:
Me: Melodie, I got Mom's name for Christmas. How do I handle this situation?
Melodie: Well, what would you like to get her?
Me: *thinking*... She might like an air-soft gun? Maybe like a gift card?
Melodie: Those are the worst ideas ever.
Me: Oh, right. Well, what should I get?
Melodie: How about I just get something and wrap it and put her name on it. I'll just have you pay me.
Me: K. Try not to make it more than $30.

Let me just apologize in advance if I ever have to get a reader of this blog a gift. It's really not because I'm ultra dumb, or thoughtless, or I really think that you love air-soft guns. I just have a block in my brain that severely impairs me in this area.

BYU football independence

Allow me to be a gloomy black raincloud for a second. I'm going to point out a flaw in BYU football independence.

So it was reported today that BYU has ALREADY accepted bowl invites for the next two years, providing that 1) they are bowl eligible and 2)They don't get a BCS bid. You may think to yourself "great! What's wrong with this?" I am going to point out that this is definitely not great. Because this just means that I already know exactly what is going to happen with our football team. This really just kills any merit-based reward that I can cheer the team on towards.

Before, at least we had a conference that we were always striving to win, and that gave me something to follow as a fan. After we went independent, that went down the drain, but I was like, well, at least as independents we can work towards getting in a decent bowl game. Now that has been stripped away too.

Allow me to show you exactly how next season is going to go:

Sept. 3 -- at Ole Miss
Sept. 10 -- at Texas
Sept. 17 -- Utah
Sept. 23 - Central Florida

These first 4 will be fun games to watch, for sure, but we are sure to lost at least one. Fair enough? That kills us from getting a shot at the BCS.

Then look what happens:
Sept. 30 -- Utah State---------BLOWOUT
Oct. 8 -- San Jose State------BLOWOUT
Oct. 15 -- at Oregon State-----mild interest
Oct. 22 -- Idaho State----------BLOWOUT
Nov. 5 -- at Louisiana Tech---BLOWOUT
Nov. 12 -- Idaho-----------------BLOWOUT
Nov. 19 -- New Mexico State---BLOWOUT
Dec. 3 -- at Hawaii--------------BLOWOUT

So, we are going to finish the season with around 2 losses, maybe be ranked around 25th in the polls, and then we are going to go to the Poinsetta bowl. There, I just told you how the season is going to go. Sports should be about the excitement of uncertainty.

Besides getting our games broadcast on BYUtv (which will be great), I am unconvinced that I have gained a lot as a fan from going independent.

Kicking rear at the Ward Christmas Auction

So yesterday was our ward Christmas Charity Auction. Basically the idea is that everyone signs up to do an act of service for someone, and then everyone bids on that item. For example, I offered to cook someone dinner in the crock-pot, and then everyone bids on that item and the proceeds go to charity.

So this year I decided that it was no-holds-barred. And I took away some fantastic stuff.

Most notably, I got some fresh homemade wheat bread made by our Bishop's wife. I had it for breakfast this morning and it BLEW MY MIND. I am going to go out on a limb here and say its the best wheat bread that I can ever remember having. Wow. So worth it. So worth it.

I also took home:
10 lbs of grass-fed beef (for $20. A steal!)
Homemade cinnamon rolls
2 tickets to the Jazz
A Thai dinner (also cooked by the Bishops wife... you have no idea how excited I am for this)
A cheesecake
A curry dinner

I defiantly am feeling great about all these things. Plus, all the money is going to a good cause, so double whammy on the goodness.

Maybe that's my problem

So today I visited my friend Cabeza's blog. That is where I found out about this site urlai.

According to Urlai, the blog "Lazy by Choice", quote, "is probably written by a female somewhere between 26-35 years old. The writing style is personal and happy most of the time."

Crap.

I sound like a woman on my blog?! Is that why no girls like me? Do they read my blog and think, "this is a pretty weak-sauce dude"? Do potential employers see this and think "things just aren't adding up with this guy?"

And I also like the line of reasoning: 'This blog is personal and happy. Therefore, the only conclusion we can draw is that it is written by a woman. Since everyone knows that men are incapable of happiness.'

Hopefully since I used the word "crap" earlier on in this post, that will lower me down on the "personal and happy" scale, and I maybe I can do this test again and it will think I'm a dude.

P.S. Obviously urlai does not take into account the profile pictures of the blogs. Because I'm pretty sure very few girls on the planet would make their profile picture a picture of Jason Bourne with things blowing up all around him.