Tight like unto a dish

If I had a top-5 list of my favorite types of candies, the following would probably comprise that list:
1) Candy Corn. Since I was a little kid, I have loved the rush that these nuggets of seemingly pure sugar give. After making the transition to adulthood, one would suspect this craving for candy corn would die down. After just stopping at Walgreen's and seeing a pack hanging on the shelf, I realized that the sugar beast inside me has not died. The pumpkins that they make are pretty much made out of the same ingredients and have the same flavor, so I'd group both candies together on this list.
2) Swedish Fish. Give it up to the Swedes for inventing Swedish Fish. You can buy them big or small, multi- or uni-colored. So good! I used to doubt the Swedish origins of this candy, thinking perhaps that it was some American marketing scheme to get people to buy. But recently I visited an Ikea and what did I behold besides the amazing selection of good quality household furnishings? You guessed it.
3) Cinnamon Bears. I've always liked the flavor of cinnamon, since I was a little kid. Those atomic fireballs gave me my highs growing up. Cinnamon bears not only provide the necessary sugar that a growing individual needs, but also the sustenance. The next time you have the opportunity, look carefully at the nutritional labeling of cinnamon bears. You will see that there is an ingredient maltodextrin. This compound when combined with peanut butter and pretzels form a molecule that can be used as a substitute for protein and fat. If you doubt me, go talk to the Army. They use pills of this form to feed soldiers in extreme conditions. Together with the sugar, your caloric intake is covered, unless of course you want anti-oxidants which many fruits and vegetables contain. In which case, you can always take a multi-vitamin. I learned of the value of cinnamon bears a couple years back when I used to live in Provo. While shopping one evening, I saw a huge bag of cinnamon bears for 5 bucks at Smiths. I was skeptical that I would get sick after eating large quantities of the bears. After taking O-Chem, I now know why it never happened: maltodextrin.
4) An M&M variety of some sort depending on my mood. Nowadays there is a type of M&M for every mood of mine. I used to like the plain M&M's the very most. But on certain occasions, peanut butter can be very tasty. Also, peanut hit the spot just right.
5) Peppermint candy canes. I am the type of person who gets excited for the peppermint ice cream to come out around Christmas time. There's something magical about the peppermint flavor to me. It leaves your mouth feeling cool and refreshed.
I think there's a reason why I go to the dentist so often. The first time I met Dr. Cho, she told me that I need to stop eating sugar. If she only knew the love that I have for these five candies, she wouldn't have recommended such a harsh regimen for me. In the meantime, I'm just going to continue brushing my teeth and flossing and waiting for the day when my good friend graduates from dental school. His name is Nate. He'll give me free service, he already agreed to.

That's the secret

Oft times, you might despair at your own inadequacies and wonder about the injustices of life. I believe that it was Spencer W. Kimball who said, "Work, work work. There is no satisfactory substitute." Although I wasn't engaged in missionary work per se, today I felt the rewards of work and right now, in the words of Incubus, "I am happy."

Blogging for another day

I have recently realized that the quality and overall level of interest of my blogs has been very much lacking as of late. This may be due to the LSAT, a standardized test that I have been recently killing myself over. The aforementioned test is scheduled in exactly one month: Sept. 29. I envision getting off the T-stop and entering Northeastern University brimming with confidence and ready to take this test down. In the meantime, I am abusing my brain. If you are a brain-rights activist, don't get me wrong. I don't mean for the unnecessary suffering of my brain. All I want to tell my brain is this: "If you scratch my back for the next few weeks, I'll scratch your back later down the road. Mark my word." Farewell society, and I will see you in a month.

I know the meaning of life

I love thinking through difficult and controversial issues especially from a religious standpoint. Strangely enough, I have been thinking about the topic of homosexuality as of late. Maybe this is due to recently moving to the only state in the United States that legally performs same-sex marriages, or because of my interest in biology, but I find the topic very interesting. By thinking through this topic, I feel more confident reconciling this topic with my faith. But I have also found that the topic of homosexuality has a deep underlying issue that pretty much encompasses the meaning of life. Now I'm not going to claim that I know everything about life. (That would be silly to claim as life is very complex.) However, I have a ballpark idea of what this life is all about and I can think through many of the weird nuances of life so they at least make a decent amount of sense to me. I was listening to an NPR program about transsexuals the other day and it was quite interesting hearing their perspective. I thought to myself, "I would really be confused if I didn't understand the meaning of life."

Things I've learned recently

Having a girlfriend is a good thing. See Genesis 2:18

Kissing with glasses is not a good thing, and is more difficult than you think. I've found that it's easier to ditch the glasses. In such situations, glasses are not necessarily crucial as I am nearsighted.

Even though I believe that dating should not be taken too seriously, you still need to base your relationship on longevity. I believe that you must be on the same page as the other person in three categories: level of fun, interest, personal values. You can't start off your relationship on things that you don't feel good about.

I like flirting with sister missionaries.

UtahValleyFun.com gets popular

In case you didn't know, I am the co-creator of the website UtahValleyFun.com. When Rich Millar and I started this last summer, the original url was What2doatBYU.com, which many are already familiar with. Because of legal technicalities, (It turns out that the acronym BYU in the url is a bad thing if you are not affiliated with BYU) we felt it would be a better idea to change the url to UtahValleyfun.com as it is simple, easy to remember, and involves no numbers. Since then we have added a lot of cool content. This includes, but is not limited to, a comprehensive calendar of events that allows anyone to post events, fun and addicting flash games, and a list of fun date ideas to do in the area.
Last Friday, we had a favorable article published in the Daily Universe about our site. Click here to read the feature. I was excited to see this article published because I knew that it would help increase the traffic to our site. However, I didn't expect the intense spike in traffic that we experienced that day. It generated triple the normal traffic from one article on page 4 of the Daily Universe during Summer term! Unbelievable. If you have never visited UtahValleyFun.com, do it. You won't regret it. You don't need to have any ties to Utah Valley to appreciate it. Who knows, you might have a better idea of what to do the next time you're in the mood for fun.

3 funny words

As any English specialist may know, English is a fun and very diverse language. I personally like learning new words. It fills my soul with joy when Google texts me back the definition of a previously unknown word. Every once in a while, a word comes along that makes me want to laugh for some reason. When I am engaged in such conversations where these words are being used, I find myself trying to get others to use the words more so that my entertainment continues. I am listing a few of such words in no particular order: group, packet, cleave. There are many others, but I can't think of any at the moment.