IBC

So, I found out that you can look at your stats as a blogger to see how many people are reading your blog per day. Well, it bumps from zero to one to zero again. And sometimes it's weird because I know I'm the only one checking my own blog, so those stats are from me! HAHAHA! But blogging isn't about being read about...or is it?
This semester was great with The Rexburg Expo: A little bit of Everything.It was a flea market type company. I did a lot of the marketing for our company. You can find some of the ol' work I did here: rexburgexpo.blogspot.com At the beginning of the semester I bought photoshop and illustrator and the whole Adobe Suite. I pretty much only learned how to use Illustrator though. It's a fun program. I'm glad I got it.
Peace and love and water.
-Brent

Just checking in

September 1st

September 1st. Huh. Just a nominal date in the calendar complex? No, not in my mind. This marks the day where I've been home from my mission for as long as I was serving my mission. 2 years! And I'll tell ya, life is grand.
I figured it needed to be a big deal for some reason, so how else to make it a bigger deal than to write it on my blog? Welcome home Elder Cline...welcome home for two years.
Badger is over and I'm selling in Utah again. More like attempting to sell, because I've been doing horribly at it. I think its an education in patience, and I don't hardly have to pay a thing for it! Just food and gas, and lodging, that's all, and heck, I even get time to read books and work out (in preparation for the tough mudder on September 17th: http://toughmudder.com/ )
Well, till we meet again, old, friendly, faithful blog.

Of mice, men, horses, badgers, floods, old friends, and new friends

So, the day before I left Provo, I get a call from Dana Verdugo. He's in Provo! I decide to take a couple hour detour from Murray to go down and eat at IN-N-OUT there in Provo with him. Dana was a young man I met on my mission. He was sitting on the fence about serving a mission, and Elder Cronk and I took him out with us a couple of times to go teaching. I guess it had a big impact on him because he remembers me and wanted to thank me. It was so so so so so good to see him!
I said my goodbyes to Gust, Ryker, and Scott (my room-mates) and headed up to Idaho, but wait! I had to take a detour through Logan for some excellent Thai food with some old friends (Daniel, Parker, and Dillon). Beautiful place! I laughed out loud with joy when I smelled the dairy. It had been a while since I had smelt the rural goodness the world has to offer. I sure do enjoy being able to see the stars at night and not hearing the constant whirr of cars!
I'm at Badger Creek again, having a great time! We've been plagued with flooding and mosquitoes this year, but the experience is so worth it! Its probably my favorite place on planet earth. I've had two OYA groups already (we won the firebird award for both, yeah yeah!) and my little sister is probably going to come up in mid-August, which I am really excited about!

PROVO CANYON!

My dreams came true! I got to go to Provo Canyon! Woot! Something about this Canyon draws me in. I've only been there thrice now, but I still love it every time! This time there were deep green foothills and looking towards the peaks up top you could still see snow-blasted trees! And the weeds aren't all huge and ugly yet either. Everything is so green, trim, and beautiful. The air was cool, great for some long-boarding adventures. It was a a tremendous way to spend Memorial day with friends. Nick's face first luge cracked me up in pieces! Sarah had a close call with a cyclist, we'll call him Bart. There were 3 lanes for walking and riding, and Bart decided to stay in the middle lane instead of merge into the lane furthest away from us. Well, Sarah, caught up to Nick and I, and went to go around us right as the cyclist was all upons. Sarah screamed, bailed, and Bart's front tire cracked the nose of her board and subsequently popped, he slammed on the breaks and, like a champ, gently laid his bike down on the byway. We were all stunned and ran to see if he was okay. He was fine, just wanted ten bucks for a new tire, and told us "you gotta stay in your lane." Well, he's right, but at the same time, he shoulda merged! Its like my dad told me once "He had the right as he sped along, but he's just as dead as if he were wrong." Or in this case: "Bart had the right as he sped along, but he's just as wrecked and with a popped tire and a slightly achy shoulder as if he were wrong." or, "He had the right as he sped along, but he shoulda switched lanes to avoid our throng" or, "He was riding his bike in Provo Canyon, and didn't use his common sense companion." or "Sorry dude for making you wreck, but you shoulda switched lanes, what the heck!" I think it was a lesson in physics for us all.
Heading back to Idaho tomorrow. Today is my last day of sales. Its kinda bitter sweet. I might come back here to Utah after Badger for three weeks before school starts. We'll see! Only time will tell, and time will tell us well.

Transitions

I called mom and dad. It was nice. Life is gooooOOOOOOOOoood, and that's life!

Planes, trains, and crankshafts

The planes: flying to Texas. The trains: waiting at the tracks (and counting the train cars, there were 45 in the last one), and crankshafts, well, they facilitate the reciprocating motion of the pistons in our car engines (maybe the trains and planes have a crankshaft too? I really don't know, but I would assume so...). Yup, cars are how we most often get around (don't forget to change your oil every 3,000 miles, rotate tires every 5,000, and change your breaks when they squeak).
Matt's wedding was phenomenal. (I was just thinking, my English teacher would be disappointed if he ever read my blog because there's so much blatancy going on, and not enough verbage. If I've got all this time to think about what I'm going to write, why make it so bland? So I'm going to try my best to overhand throw verbs into my sentences. So let me try that first sentence again:) Matt's wedding exploded phenom. Hmmm...that's not bad! Texas was humid, the irons in the hotel failed, but those were the only negative things about the whole trip. Actually, you know what, they aren't negative. They're memories! Just like the 6 hour layover in Denver (due to weather), the brown water gulf coast, the Tex Mex, the swimming pool, the cake, the music, the thrill of flight (up to 600 mph!), the toads, the wedding colors, the Richardsons, the chiropractic adjustment (this after my apprehension squirmed all inside me, but after having seen 4 successful adjustments, I judged the odds of not being paralyzed to be in my favor), the show "River Monsters," the lack of sleep, the bow-ties, the word "y'all" (as in "how y'all doin'?") the word "fixin'" (as in "we're fixin' to head" as in "we're fixin' to leave"), the rustic feel of the reception, the partition pillow in the La Quinta, the most interesting man in the world jokes, seeing my aunts, the conversations in the rental car, my little sister always getting the window seat, downloading free apps, eating too much, the whole sha-bam yards.
Work is still working. Learnin' loads!

A Sibling's Week of Finals and Matrimony

Yup, its my brother, Matt! He's getting finished up with a semester at school on Friday and getting married on Saturday. We're all flying down to Texas for the event and I'm pretty stoked to see everyone and excited for him to get married.
The latest for me: I blogged last week! I know, its crazy. And I'm blogging again this week.
I'm also really liking my job. I've been reading a book called "Good to Great" to accompany my experience here and that has been a great supplement to my learning. I view my time here working for Utopia kind of like an unofficial internship. I know it probably lacks what a "real" internship entails, but hey, I'm still counting it toward my education.
I was able to visit some mission friends down there and rekindle those friendships. Now there's friendship fires blazing everywhere!
The banjo playing is coming along. Badger Creek better be ready for some legit foot-stompin, heart-poundin, head-bobbin bluegrass! ...come to think about it, maybe I should practice a little more.
I may have failed to mention I signed up to do an event called "The Tough Mudder." Whew. It should be pretty tough, based on the name, the videos, the photos, the commentaries, and the facts. Its a ten mile obstacle course, up and down a ski resort, and the training for it is pretty grueling (if you're truly training). I've kinda started getting in shape but I've a lot more working out to do. I'm driving out to Nor-Cal with a few of my old room-mates and a couple of friends on September 16th. It should be a monumental comradeship building opportunity, coupled with great memories. Probably a once in a life-time deal.
I've been able to spend some time at my sort-of, kind-of, brother and sister in laws's house. Brett and Ciara Richardson. Matt is marrying his little sister, and I'm Matt's brother, and Brett and Ciara are my friends...so whatever that makes us! They feed me food and I get to play with their kids, and Brett and I even planted a garden, which is coming along great, I might add. Whew, the punctuation in this paragraph has been really hard. I don't know if I got it all right! Anyways, Brett and Ciara are bomb.
Now for a tid-bit I've learned recently about optimism while reading and thinking. Optimism is a great thing to have, but you can't put a deadline on optimism. I do believe in having goals with deadlines, but the enduring anchor of an optimistic attitude will eventually break its chain if you impose a time limit on it. This does not mean live oblivious to your problems, because all the while you have got to come to grips with your current situation. "Good to Great" calls this "confronting the brutal facts." And that's what I aim to do: confront the brutal facts, control what I can control, change what needs to be changed, and don't fret too much about things outside of my control, while never losing faith in the future. Wow, more came out of this paragraph then I expected. Its funny how writing can often help you think things through and solidify it in your mind.
Farewell!

The Greatest Salesman in the World

Well, its not me! The Greatest Salesman in the World was a book written by OG Mandino.
So, if anyone is reading this, I know what you're thinking: "He's going to try it again? He's really going to try blogging again?" I assure you this time its different because...alright. Only time, and posts, will tell if this time is different.
Life is going fantabulous. Matt (my brudder) is getting married next weekend, I'm living in Salt Lake advocating and selling a fiber optic network called UTOPIA, and I'm done with school for 5 months. Well, about 4 months now. Badger Creek starts June 3rd and I'm pretty stoked about that. It will be sad to leave Utah for a couple of reasons though. I'm really liking my job and I've met some truly amazing people. Life just works that way, I suppose. Wherever you go, you'll find those gems, even outside of the Gem State (heh heh haha, my fellow Idahoans will totally get that one!).
Oh, shoot, this is one of those times where there's so much to say but I'm not sure how in depth I want to go. Sheesh. Its like a pie chart, or a garden, or however you want to think about it. There's so much breadth to cover that I can't really jump deep into any one particular subject without writing a short soliloquy on the intracellular chemistry, extrinsic motivators, and every blade of luck that have made up the past 5 months of my existence.
So here it is, in 5 megabytes:
1) I had some stellar room mates this last semester. Much thanks to Kyle, Jake, Dan, and myself.
2) I feel like I'm growing up: I opened up a new bank account (and should be getting a credit card, ho ho ho, to start building credit, not to financially ruin my life), I'm reading a book, I'm not living in the state of my birth, and I have bought many goods on impulse as of late.
3) I love my family. Always have, always will.
4) I'm learning to play the banjo
5) I was a chemistry tutor last semester.
Yup, that about sums it up. The framework for a beautiful picture, with no details.
I'll write again, hopefully before September.

The Latest of the Mohicans

Do you ever find yourself constantly checking your cell phone for updates, or your Facebook for new texts? Man, I need to get focused! School time, study time.
Christmas was great, as usual. We ate muffins. With blueberries.
Shortly after Christmas, about two days, I left for Utah. I pulled into to Draper, Utah, where my friend Alex Murray bought me a Whopper. This just began my journey. I slept at Mike Moreno's house, we made some hilarious raps on his computer, and the next morning I got to play a scrimmage game of soccer with BYU's soccer team. They were good, really really good. So good, I was tired! Then it was off to meet with Nick Rich. Oh, good old Nick, that saint. It doesn't stop there though! We drove to St. George that night.
Do I have you anticipating what is going on right now? Are you on the edge of your seat, or are you kind of begrudgingly wondering why I don't I come out and state the destination of our trip? Either way, read on, my captivated or annoyed audience!
We met up with Mitch Anderson (my good friend from accounting class). And Kason Shaw, from the mission. Mitch took me to see his family and it was great! He woke up his mom, his mom woke up his dad, and his little sister even woke up, just to meet me! I felt bad that they all were woken up at 10 pm, just to meet me. But, it feels good that they did it, just to meet me. What's more, is his mom offered to make us ham sandwiches for our trip. Well, 4 ham sandwiches later, 5 oranges, rice crispy treats, crackers, chips, many more snacks in one hefty blue bag later. Oh yeah, she made me all those things for the trip, and later I was on my way. Mitch took me on a hike to see St. George. I wouldn't mind living there for quite a while sometime in my life.
One of the problems with having your phone on silent all the time is sometimes you don't hear the vibration of your phone as you're sleeping. There I was. Sleeping. In a sleeping bag (I like sleeping bags, so easy to make your bed in the morn). Luckily, my brother didn't only text, he also called. He and his FIANCE! Allison were coming up to Salt Lake City, seeking to beat the storm, leaving Arizona at 3 am. Sheesh. I'm glad he called me! Our paths did cross at Denny's that morning at 9 am, were his FIANCE! bought us both breakfast. I know, I should have done the boughting, but she wanted to see if her credit card was working, due to some rumors from the company about a "stolen!" credit card. It was so good to see Matt and Allison (his FIANCE!). It was the first time I'd seen him since August. And the first time I'd seen Allison in about 4 years. Matt and I still keep close though, through Skype. What a program, Skype.
Then, we made a stop in Vegas, to visit the Bass Pro Shop. There was an aquarium there, and a guy was scuba diving in the aquarium, feeding the fish and sting rays. Wow, what a brave man.
We got out of Sin City fast, but not fast enough to not have to buy gas for a stunning $3.30/gallon. Ouch. It was my turn to fill the gas tank too.
A quick stop in Riverside to see one of Nick's friend's wedding reception. Then we finally made it to our destination. Ah yes, good old San Diego. We couldn't wait to get a genuine California Burrito in our gullets. We had plenty of that, plenty of seeing old friends, plenty of everything! It was so great to see everyone again. Xulong and Lin took me out for breakfast: duck porridge! It was great! And then we went to see the Mormon Battalion. I told Xulong I might mention him in my blog and post a picture of him. He said my blog would get overloaded with views. In his own words:

"Xulong, the famous Nobel Laureate from China."

This one's for you, Xulong!

One of the best moments of the trip was sitting in the ward Nick Rich and I served in together: La Mesa. A sister walked over when she saw us, leaned over the pew and says "Elder Rich! It's so good to see you, how are you?" She gave me a one and a half take, and I could tell she almost recognized me. I'll give her some slack though, I was wearing different glasses. I found out that day that when you leave someplace, you don't leave your name. You leave a job well done, and a legacy to be carried on. Go future!

I didn't get to see Anni and her baby Jordyn though. Next time I'm in SD, I will for sure.

Who can forget Tyler, Barabara, and Elliott. We had a delightful afternoon listening to the invention that was made before the cassette player. It's not a compact disc, but it's shaped like one. Bigger, blacker. I'm sure I'll think of what it's called later. We played a riveting game of yahtzee and laughed at old times. Whew. Good times.

Now, for those of you who know me, know that I don't like to dance. Or shop. But, here's the deal. I was dropped off in Las Angeles for 3 hours. I was dropped off by a mall. And a Ross. One hundred dollars per hour! Dang! That's a lot for me. I didn't even need much, just a couple pair of pants. So, I'm going to try to go for a full 30 days and not wear the same shirt twice. See if I can do it. The shirts that don't get worn in the 30 day period just might get the axe.

It took us 2 days to drive back from SD. I got tb right around the Idaho border (tb is tired butt), which isn't bad, considering how far we drove. Back to school now.

Chemistry and Biology are my heavy hitters.

That is all! A rather abbreviated time period of my life.

May 18th- I remember what its called! Its a record player! That's what Tyler and Barbara had, and I remembered we listened to Sufjan and Vampire Weekend. Someday, I'ma have a record player, and when my friends come over for dinner, I'll pop a record on and pour them some juice.