2012 Year End Summary

At the end of each year I like to jot down a few of the things that happened. Wow, 2012 went fast. It seems like just yesterday I was thinking about my year's summary for 2011 (that I never finished). Let's see... 2012 contained the last triple matching date (12-12-12.) The world was supposed to come to an end last week on 12-21-2012. Somehow we managed to survive... We did however, see terrible hurricanes, snow storms, drought conditions, unseasonable warmth, earthquakes, solar flares and solar eclipses (I actually got to see that one). There were terrible shooting tragedies in Colorado and Connecticut, the American Embassy was burned in Benghazi we saw the most expensive and perhaps ugliest presidential election race in the history of our country and we're hours from going over the "fiscal cliff."

A few of the things that went on in my life this year:

Accomplishments and Firsts:
Earned my A+ and Network+ certifications
Paid off my student loans and credit cards
First trip to Ohio
Visited the Kirtland Temple with Lindsey and her family
Attended my brother Nick's wedding as best man
MC-ed the reception
Approved a 100,000 dollar  invoice at work
Was promoted to Supervisor
Worked with Jess on cabling projects
Watched my nephew turn two years old
Recorded a music video
Recorded a five song EP with Wicked This Way Comes (still in progress)
Called to serve as Sunday School President
Bought my first silver coins
Bought a .40 caliber pistol and a 12 gauge shotgun
Went Elk Hunting for the first time
Went camping in Canyon Lands National Park
Sold my car and bought a truck
Dined at the Roof Restaurant at Temple Square (tasty but pricey!)
Saw my first High Frame Rate movie



Important things:
Visited Mom and Dad and my grandparents  
Delivered food to a needy family for Christmas
Helped someone on the side of the road
Was helped on the side of the road
Gave change to a homeless person
Voted for president of the United States of America
Attended general and stake conference
Spent lots of good time with my family
Interviewed Nana, Grandpa and Grandma on audio recording
Worked on Genealogy indexing
Coordinated a whole year of Sunday School classes and somehow stayed on schedule



Fun things:
Went snowboarding - but not nearly enough
Went wake-boarding - but not nearly enough
Played some gigs around town
Bought another guitar
Bought two guns
Went rock climbing
Went hunting
Went camping
Went swimming
Went boating and rafting on a lake
Flew a plane for the first time
Won a battle of the bands competition
Spent 20 hours building an Iron Man costume and won a costume contest
Went through a haunted corn maze
Watched Thriller

Not so fun things:
Had an eye infection
Stabbed myself several times with a punch down tool
Had a double gum graft surgery
Worked on a car in the freezing wind
Had my teeth teeth cleaned at the dentist
Had my side mirror busted off
Worked a 17 hour shift
Ran out of gas and pushed my car uphill - (funny story)
Camped in 70 mph wind

Books this Year (not all have been read cover to cover):
Treasure Island
7 Miracles that Saved America
7 Turning Points that Changed the World
7 Habits of Highly Successful People
Count of Monte Cristo
Edgar Allen Poe collected poems and stories
Jesus the Christ
Pompeii: The Hidden City
Grimm's Fairy Tales
The Bible and Book of Mormon

At The Movies this Year:
Avengers
The Amazing Spider-man
Hunger Games
Prometheus
Expendables 2
Lawless
This Means War
Bourne Legacy
Dark Knight Rises
Mission Impossible 4
Total Recall
SkyFall
Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2
Rise of the Guardians
2016
The Hobbit

Altogether, I'd say 2012 was better than 2011. Especially since the house didn't burn down this time around! As for 2013, any year that's gonna have movies about Superman, Thor, Wolverine and Iron Man all within six months has to be great! Here's to a fantastic 2013 with with bigger goals and another year in the life!

What I'm looking forward in 2013
Iron Man 3
The Wolverine
Man of Steel
Thor: The Dark World
Star Trek: Into Darkness
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Crossing off one more year of Obamanomics
Buying a house
Camping!
Completing my Microsoft cert
Completing the Wicked EP
Developing my piano ability

Core Sample

Today was a slice of my life. I worked, I played, I ate, I sang, I got frustrated in traffic and I enjoyed being with my baby.

The neat thing about today however was the fact that we played and won a state-wide talent competition called "Best of the Best". It was held at the Depot downtown at the Gateway. Tons of fun. We played with another band called "The Samuel Smith Band" who were also very talented and tight sounding together. We had to suffer through a lot of rap, some hip-hop, piano pop, and terrible comedy, but in the end somehow we were decided the winners. We played "Mirrors" and "Tears Don't Fall". It was a ton of fun and I feel very grateful and overwhelmed to say we won another battle of the bands competition. I feel that we are lucky to have such a good group of talent and dedication in our band members and want to further develop as a band.

We also played a show on Wednesday. This show was very low-key in comparison. It was held at a place called the Underground, which couldn't have been a more fitting name. It was really just a converted garage with graffiti on all the walls and a PA set up. Whitney and David came to the show and we played pretty late, never the less it was a ton of fun! We've had a really fun week of playing shows!