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Green grass is what currently makes up my lawn. Even on December 29th, when show would normally blanket our front yard of my house. The weather is around 50 degrees Fahrenheit in Salt Lake City, and so I thought I would head downtown for some photos.

Thus far, this break has been rather eventful, Christmas included. As lame as this may seem, I’m going to now list off the gifts I recieved and from whom I received them.

1. Creative Labs Zen Micro (5gb) from my parents. photo here
2. Camera Accessories (A tripod, mini tripod, and a bigger camera bag) from my parents.
3. $15 iTunes Card from my sister
4. Clothes from my parents, all of which fit this year
5. A Paul Reed Smith guitar t-shirt from my grandma
6. Mocha with Max, a book by Max Lucado from Alison
7. A handmade beanie, also from Alison
8. A large assortment of candy and gum in my stocking

I hope your Christmas break was as wonderful as mine was!

Snow has finally gotten to the point where it is impossible to pretend it isn’t there anymore. Twenty minutes prior to writing this post, I was sitting at a University of Utah Campus Shuttle stop, as the wind was blowing snow directly into my face, while I was watching for the bus to come. In addition to that, my cotton hoodie had decided to go the way of a sponge, soaking up all the snow it could, before being permeated with the frozen water. In case you’re wondering the extent of the snow, I have some pictures on my Flickr, which are also available on the sidebar. The snow has been falling at this point for about 2 hours, with no signs of halting. If you’re interested in seeing some of the photos, click the link below.

In addition to the snowfall, this week is seeming to be what Alison calls “The week from hell that never ended.” Finals are coming up, so this week has either been spent starting/continuing/finishing projects, or studying for finals. I’ve gotten off fairly easy, with only two formal finals. Most of the other finals have been projects or papers. I appreciate everyone’s prayers, and I hope my hard work will pay off.

Don’t forget to check out my pictures:

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Today was equally interesting as the first day in Seattle. I woke up and headed to breakfast at Great Harvest, where I had a delicious cinnamon roll and some milk. I then went back to my brother’s apartment, and proceeded to go to the Public Market Center, which is also where the Farmer’s market is. (See flickr photos) This place, so far, was the most interesting part of Seattle. There is a culture there that is quite reflective of our society. The area was quite diverse, filled with seafood venders to fruit and flower venders to professional photographers. Forrest, his girlfriend, and I then headed to the University of Washington Village, where we visited the Apple store, looking at Mac mini’s and even the new iPod Nano. After heading to a bookstore, we headed back to Forrest’s apartment and to a restaurant/pub called the Elliot Bay Pub/Restaurant. I had fish and chips because, after all, what else is there that one should eat when in such a Western port city? We headed back to Forrest’s apartment and watched Hotel Rwanda. My next regular post will likely be about this movie, so as not to spoil it now. Pictures from today are on Flickr.

As promised, I’m now writing this post from my brother’s apartment in West Seattle. My flight, which left at 9:50 AM (Mountain Time) landed in the Seattle-Tacoma airport at 10:50 AM (Pacific Time). At first glance, the flight would appear to only be one hour long, although the flight is actually a two hour long event. I’ve done a little walking around West Seattle with Forrest’s girlfriend who kindly met me at the airport to take me to Forrest’s apartment. She would have picked me up, but that’s a different story. I went to a good bagel shop for lunch, as it was pretty good. On the way back to my brother’s apartment, our bus was involved in a car accident, so Forrest’s girlfriend and I walked the rest of the way back to Forrest’s apartment. I’m enjoying the scenery, and I’ll be taking some pictures from the roof of his apartment, which has three nice views. Look forward to pictures posted later, as I realized while I was writing this post that I neglected to pack my USB cable for my camera. I’ll likely add more to this post later today, so look for updates.

Update: Photos are now up on Flickr.

There’s nothing more gratifying than seen people protest the Iraq War. Today, about 11:30 AM, I headed down to Pioneer Park, where Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson was speaking at a protest for the Iraq War. He spoke about how people thing that those of us who don’t support the war (but instead, the troops by wanting them home) are patriotic, but we are.

“Dissent is the highest form of patriotism” - Thomas Jefferson

This goes to show that even those of us who don’t agree with government policies are patriotic. Patriotism is defined as “Love of and devotion to one’s country.” (Dictionary.com) Nowhere does it say that a patriotic person can’t legitimately criticize their government.

While some of the protest signs were rather good, there were some that were promoting non-violence, which is even better than the protesting signs that promoted violence towards Bush or even members of our government. People can disagree without being violent.
The thumbnails below link to my Flickr page where you can see my pictures from the protest. I’ll have the videos uploaded shortly.

I recently headed up Little Cottonwood Canyon, about 10 minutes away from my house, and tooks some photos of flowers during the Wildflower Festival. This picture turned out quite well. Click here for more photos from that excursion.

A photo taken at the Worship Concert at Sandy Ampitheater. Some artists there included Danielle Elizabeth, the K2 Worship Band, and Steele Croswhite.

A photograph I took while in Spokane. I found the pollen swirling under the water more interesting than the ripples and reflections, only to find that all of those elements add to the beauty.