Look! Braden updated his blog! *screams like a little girl*

Why, yes I did. And hey, it's about time for my long overdue, monthly (!) update. Yes, I'll try to update my blog more often. I'm going to start really focusing on making my blog your one stop shop for everything Kilroy-related.

Anyway, earlier last month I went down to Zion National Park for a priests' quorum camp. We did some really trippy hikes, like hiking the Narrows, which consisted of wading in a rocky river-bed half the time.. (yes, we hiked in a river.. don't ask my why anyone with any kind of sanity would ever want to do this). We also hiked Angels' Landing.

Oh yes. ANGELS. LANDING.


See the top of that mountain? Huh, you see it? Yes, we hiked a trail to the top of that mountain.. no seriously. To the top of that mountain. There's a trail that leads up there.. and several portions of the trail leave you without any sort of handrail with a 5,000 feet drop on either side of you. Yikes. There are handrails most of the time, but you don't have any sort of safety equipment on and you must brace yourself as you scale this ginormous mountain. But oh my gosh, the view and the satisfaction you get after you climb to the top is just surreal. The only thing that I can compare it to is drugs... and I've never done any sort of drug, ever (and never will) so I couldn't tell you. :P (Yeah, I act like it sometimes.)

Also, school has started.. though you all probably knew that. I'm a senior, which frickin' blows my mind. (Erin still refuses to believe that I'm a senior already.. neither do I, really.) This year, I'm taking english, yoga (heck yeah!), physics, Impact Team, foods, seminary, stats, and U.S. government. Oh, and lunch, too. Yay.

So what's coming up in the exciting future of SKoWL? Well.. I'm gonna start posting CD reviews for some of my favorite CD's as I buy them, since music is my main hobby.. I'll start out with Light Grenades by Incubus, my most recent CD purchase, and I'll review other CD's that I have loved in the past or new ones that I purchase. I might also start posting cool things I find on the Internet, since computers and the Internet are my passion. Woot! I'll of course keep you up to speed on my life and my adventures as a senior.. though I really doubt any of you care, really. (Hahah.. just kidding... maybe)

Why I'm so freaking tired

Hi. So, I'm suffering from lack of sleep once again so I'm gonna post an old chain letter I got a while ago. I'll write about some more of my summer adventures sometime in the near future. Well, that's all. Now for the chain letter. (sigh.. can't you tell I'm a little out of it right now? haha)

For a couple years I've been blaming it on lack of sleep, not enough sunshine, too much pressure from my job, or anything else I could think of. But now I found out the real reason I'm tired.

Here's why. . .

The population of this country is 273 million.

140 million are retired.

That leaves 133 million to do the work.

There are 85 million in school.

Which leaves 48 million to do the work.

Of this there are 29 million employed by the federal government.

Leaving 19 million to do the work.

2.8 million are in the armed forces preoccupied with killing Osama Bin-Laden.

Which leaves 16.2 million to do the work.

Take from that total the 14.8 million people who work for state and city governments. And that leaves 1.4 million to do the work.

At any given time there are 188,000 people in hospitals.

Leaving 1,212,000 to do the work.

Now, there are 1,211,998 people in prisons.

That leaves just two people to do the work.

You and me.

And there you are, sitting on your butt, at your computer, reading jokes.

Nice. Real nice.

SPLOOSH!

6:00! Be There!

Ah yes. Sploosh. That word may invoke a lot of different thoughts for different people. Some people may think of a certain peachy substance in a certain popular book/movie.. others may simply think of... water parties. For some reason.

In the case of about 20 or so people this last Saturday, they indeed thought. of WATER PARTIES! OMGLOLWTFBBQ!#!@#!#@

Ahem... anyway.. My friend Jacki and I organized this gettogether with a whole bunch of friends, involving water, water, water, more water, pizza, kool-aid, night games, water, and there's probably some more. It turned out to be a smashing success. We were thinking about playing some organized water games, but the whole thing just kinda turned into some kinda water melee. Nonetheless, it was a blast, and everyone there had fun, too.

So what else has your favorite friendly giant been up to in July? First of all, I went to Bear Lake for a week.. that turned out to be one big boredom-fest. :( We didn't really do much else besides swim (in a swimming pool) and go on the occasional trip to the beach. Oh well. I also went up to Utah State to participate in Impact Team training. Holy crap, that was a blast. We got to be up there with like four other teams from my school district. Not only were we trained and instructed, but we also participated in a high-ropes course, wrote and performed a skit on dating abuse, and most of all, we had a whole freaking bunch of fun doing it all. Oh yeah, and I totally made the entire crowd just go insane with laughter after my introduction. "I'm Braden, and I was obstructing public view." It's hard to explain using just words, but let me tell you, I felt so proud of myself after literally stealing the show during the team introductions. Everybody there wanted to be friends with The Obstructor after that. :D

Anyway, if I can think of anything else to type right now, I will. Maybe. Well, I'm out. See you all lata.

Summer Status Report – Pretty Awesome

Hi, everybody. Anyway, it's been a while (like, a month or so) since I've posted a real post here. (well.. there *was* that last one, but you can just pretend like that post doesn't even exist for now.) I just plain haven't really wanted to post anything lately. Well, now I want to. I now present to you: Summer Status Report: Aught Seven.

So anyway, right off the bat, the first weekend, I took the ACT. Ugh. It was my first time taking it, and it had it's ups (reuniting with pretty much all my former junior class one more time) and downs (well... the entire test :P) I got a 27 on it, not *too* bad for my first try. Later that night was another multi-stake church dance. I've decided that these things really are fun, after all. There was music, fun, crazy dancing, all the things that you usually associate with things like this. The chance to meet up with friends (even a couple new ones, too) was pretty sweet. I even slow danced with all five of my Viewmont dance dates. Yay.

Later this month I went to my ward's first Youth Conference, which, I have to admit, was a lot funner than I anticipated it being. We went to various different places in central Utah.. We spent most of our time at a house/cabin thingy in Fairview, but we also went to Clas Ropes Course in Provo, Snow College to play some games, and the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti. Other highlights included an attempt at playing water games, which actually erupted into a huge, two-hour long water fight (with 5-gallon buckets of water galore), before the games could even be set up. Attempts to actually play any sort of organized game backfired pitifully. It was a blast.

That's most of the major stuff that's gone on so far. There's probably been more, but I can't think of anything else. But yeah, summer so far has been awesome. It's been the funnest summer ever, and I owe it all to you awesome people reading this thing right now. Yes, there has been a tonsfold increase in hanging-outitude. Almost every day this summer I've been at somebody's house, and my cellphone usage has gone WAY up since summer began. (Thank goodness for unlimited texting) The fact that two of my best friends now work with me at the Murph also helps, too. Oh, also, I think I've finally figured out how to get more people to come to this thing. Post links to it in certain publicized places. I think it's working. Well, I'm out. Peace.