How old am I?

A couple weeks ago I had my birthday. We celebrated it on Sunday, the day before, since I had to be back in school the next day. It was quite good, Chris, Lesa and Maddox came over and we ate meatballs and mashed potatoes and had ice cream cake afterwards. It was all very good thanks to Mom! Thanks Mom!!! I got a whole bunch of fruit roll-ups for school (which were gone in a week) and a water bottle so I wouldn't die in marching band. Luckily it was red and not blue.

So now I am 22. It's kind of weird because I don't see myself as that old. I certainly don't act that old. I feel as though I'm just beginning down the slope of old age that will just keep going faster and faster as the years go on. It's strange to think that my little brother (who is bigger than me) is on a mission and my two older brothers are married with kids. It seems like just yesterday Tim and Chris were picking on Nate and me and we were playing with legos and stuffed animals. I sure miss Nate being smaller than me, but who knows, I could still grow a little bit, right?

Thank you to everyone who came down to celebrate my birthday and to those who wished me happy birthday. I don't think it could have been any better!

Thinking: Good or Bad?

School has started up yet again, which is good because now I'm not bored all the time, although sometimes I do miss reading books for hours in my spare time. With school comes my indecisiveness of what I want to study and get into, which I have given a great deal of thought. I'll give you an insight of how I've been thinking through all the possibilities of things I think I would want to do for next few decades of my life.

First of all, it would have to be something I'd enjoy for while and not get burned out. Second, it would have to make me a fair amount of money, if I'm going to get into all this dept for schooling, it may as well help me get out of dept. Recently I've found that I've been enjoying mathematics more and it's been helping me to exercise my brain, so I'd probably want to something that involves math. For a long while, Chemical engineering seemed like the career of choice for me. It seemed to have a lot of aspects I'd be interested in, like physics, math, biology, and of course chemistry, it also makes a very decent amount of money. So for a while this was my plan. But then recently I watched an episode of Cosmo's, an excellent science documentary done by the astronomer Carl Sagan. In the episode he talked about all the things that had to be in place for there to be life here on earth and how delicate that balance was. He stated that the earth was actually like heaven compared to the hell that exists on other planets, that could in no way at all sustain any life. He then talked about things that could offset that balance, things like mass deforestation, and pouring harmful pollutants into the air. Thus pushing the heaven we have here on earth more towards the hell found on less hospitable planets in the solar system. He ended the episode with this phrase: "If visitor came [to the earth], what account would we give of our stewardship of the planet earth?" This actually made me think, 'probably not a very good account' was my first impression. After watching that I decided that I also wanted to make a difference, if I could, in helping to preserve this heaven we enjoy on earth. One of the solutions Sagan proposed was finding a more efficient source of energy. After thinking it over, I decided that I could best do this through mechanical engineering. It would help me to be creative, I'd do things I'm interested in, make good enough money to pay off dept from loans, and hopefully make a positive difference.

By now I probably have you all thinking, 'oh great! Jaron's turned into a tree hugger!', well, I'm certainly not going to go vegetarian or march up and the down the streets waving around signs that say 'save the trees' on them. But what I am going to do is whatever I can so I can at least say I did my best to preserve our home, home meaning Earth.

But it seems that my indecisiveness has taken its toll because apparently I can't start until next fall. I was about a week too late. They have a new program for mechanical engineers that makes it so certain classes are only offered during certain semesters and I just barely missed. After that curve ball I've been re-evaluating what to study and thought maybe I could just get a bachelors in math. But I think I'm just going to stick it out another year, maybe knock out some generals, until I can start next year. I'm pretty excited for it, it has a lot of math and physics in it so I'll enjoy it immensely I think.

So as you can tell, my brain has been on overdrive for the past while. Beside all that, School is going swell. I'm still having an excellent time in marching band and making lots of new chums. I think this is going to be a great semester!

A Busy Week

My ears are ringing after spending a week at band camp with the University of Utah marching band. At eight hours a day (sometimes more) were spent marching, practicing our music, and learning our sets, with limited breaks for lunch and dinner. Sunburn was a common symptom among the band players, including myself, as there was mostly sunny weather the whole week, except one day where we got rained out.
I was one of many of the "rookies" who joined the band and had to learn all the basics, which were a bit different from what I learned in high school. Our director, Dr. B. Sproul, is a fun loving person who has a good sense of humor, and commonly tells us "this is why we can't have nice things" when ever we do something wrong. He's always pushing us to do the best that we can.
Throughout the week of practicing and the fun activities put on by the leadership, many friends were made, particularly in the trombone section in which I reside. I have a good feeling that this will be a memorable year.
Getting to the U was made more convient, moving up there last weekend about four miles away from campus. My roomates are really cool and the bus will take me strait to school in a convient half an hour rather than an hour and a half it took from PG last semester! All in all, I am glad that I have joined the marching band and look forward to a good sememster.

P.S. I'm trying to make this sound more like a newspaper to fit the blog name. How am I doing?

Marching Band

A few days ago the marching band director for the U of U returns the phone call I left a few weeks ago. He asks what I can play and I tell him baritone and trombone. He says that they really need trombones and that I'm definitely in the band. Even better is he offered me a scholarship! So now I am in the U of U marching band and begin practice August 13. It is quite exciting! It's going to be a busy semester, especially since I'm taking another calculus class.

The California Trip

This last week I got to go to California with my family to see Tim, Jess and Kingston. I've never met Kingston so it was great to finally get to know him! I also enjoyed staying with Tim and Jess and doing things with them. We did various things while visiting:

We went swimming a lot in the community pool by Tim and Jess's house. It usually just Emily and me that went swimming because the water was too cold for everyone else.

Although Dad did come in once.

We went to a good mexican restaurant called Adalberto's. I got a huge burrito that, to my suprise, I almost finished. We also went to a good burger joint called the Squeeze Inn. They would put on a ton of cheese on the grill with the burger so there'd be a big ring of cooked cheese around it.

On friday we went to a county fair. We looked at all the farm animals and Kingston got really scared of the sheep. We also got shave ice from one of the booths there. I had

mango.

Tim and I went on a one of the rides. It was really fun but when we were flipping around backwards I thought I was going to be sick. Haha! It was still really fun.

Friday was also when we celebrated Kingstons birthday. Jess made a really cool pirate cake! It was tasty. Kingston got a bunch of presents.

It was a long trip, there and back, but it was great to get to see family again and especially meet Kingston for the first time. I'm glad I went. I miss everyone already!

Summer Reading

So far this summer, I have read four books (I've had a lot of time on my hands). All of them exceptional. Coincidentally, I also read them in alphabetical order.

The first one was Anathem, which took me about a month to read, was probably my favorite of all of them. I can't say much without giving away the story but if you like Math, Science, and Philosophy then this is the book for you. The second was The Giver. It's a classic kids book about a kid who learns to feel pain in a Utopian society. The third was the Graveyard Book, written by the same guy who wrote Coraline. This was a really fun one to read. It's about a boy who is raised in a graveyard and his adventures. Last of all was The Hunger Games. This was also a really good book, full of adventure and thrill that makes it hard to put down! I'm reading the second book right now and the last one comes out in August.

If anyone is looking for a book to read then I'd recomend all of these.

My New Blog

This is my (Jaron's) new blog for whoever wants to see what I'm up to or whatever random things I put here. Please feel free to comment anytime! About me: I am 21 years old, for now. I go to University of Utah mostly focusing on mathematics. I'm out for the summer and looking for a job. I enjoy reading, anything outdoorsish like camping or biking, and spending time with friends and family. well, that's all for now.