The Year of the Graveyard Dog

      2012 is just around the corner. Every year, like most people, I say this is going to be my year. This is going to be the year that things change. I've said that for the past couple years and things have been slowly changing. But another thing I've also said for the past couple years is that 2012 is going to be my year. I understood that change takes time and that things were going really start coming alive in the year 2012 for me. I have titled the year 2012 as the Year of the Graveyard Dog.
     2012 is going to be my year for one, because I am going to give it my all. I'm going to dedicate myself to giving it my all in all that I do. Live life to the fullest. The stars are lining up for me. 2012 is the year of the Dragon and I am a Dragon. I'm going to be on national television on BBC One in the UK (I still need to make a post about that.) in february. I'm going to record and release a bunch of songs from Graveyard Dog. If all goes according to plan I'm going to graduate from USU at the end of the year. I plan on doing an internship this summer in some foreign country. I'm going to hit the gym hard and get ripped. I may or may not become rich, but the direct consequences of what I do this year will make me rich in the future. I feel like I could go on and on about things that are going to happen, but let's just sum it all up by saying that it's going to be a good year.
     According to the chinese calendar, the year 2012 is the year of the Dragon. In 1988 I was born. That is also the year of the Dragon. I am a Dragon. The following is some information about the Dragon.

     According to the Chinese Zodiac, the Year of 2012 is the Year of the Dragon. The Dragon is a creature of myth and legend. The dragon usually clutches a pearl symbolic of its super-natural powers.  Invariably accompanied by thunder and rain, dragons move like lightning and whirlwinds - - all powerful yet totally unpredictable. The Dragons are the free spirits of the Chinese Zodiac. Restrictions blow out their creative spark that is ready to flame into life.  So, they must be free and uninhibited.  The Dragon is a beautiful creature, colorful and flamboyant.  An extroverted bundle of energy, gifted and  irrepressible, everything Dragons do is on a grand scale - big ideas and extreme ambitions.  However, this behavior is natural and isn't meant for show.  Because they are confident, fearless in the face of challenge, they are almost inevitably successful. People born in the Year of the Dragon usually make it to the top. They have true and sincere love, which comes from the depths of their hearts. It is very rare that they remain poor for long. (http://www.stanssewingsupplies.com/catalogs/store.asp?pid=254835)
     As we can read above Dragons rule. It says that Dragons usually are seen clutching a pearl and the pearl is my birth stone. That right there is sign enough that things are gonna happen for me. 2012 is also supposedly the end of the world according to the Mayan calendar so I'm going to live this year as if it's my last. That means lots of crazy stuff is going down. So if you want to be apart of the miracle that is the Graveyard Dog then I hope you hop along for the ride.
     I just had to write this quick so in 2013 and beyond when people ask me about my surprise success in life I can tell them I knew it was gonna happen all along. I guess I'll stop blabbering on and I'll end with an invite to all who know me to pay attention this next year cause it's gonna be a wild one. And with that I welcome you to the Year of the Graveyard Dog.

In the Presence of Gods

This last week has been an awesome one. Something that I'll remember forever. I'll go day by day for ya starting on Friday the 4th of November 2011.

Friday-Sunday 4th-6th of November: Logey invited me to go to his cabin in Island Park with him and his parents for the weekend. It was Logey, Mo, and I. Those are 2 of my best friends and it was a nice weekend. Logey's dad is hilarious with non stop jokes and it dumped a bunch of snow on us which was the 1st snow of the season. Good time in the hot tub with the snow falling. Good times, good food, and good friends.

Monday 7th of November: For my management class we had to plan an event to make money for a charity and if we made enough we wouldn't have to take the final. We had a country swing night and it was pretty fun. I danced with 3 strangers and I was terrible. They were nice girls though that helped me. My institute crush was supposed to be there, but she wasn't. Also, another really cute girl was supposed to go, but she didn't. One more girl that promised to dance with me and teach me how to dance also did not show up. It was rough in that sense cause I planned on working my mojo with those woman that night, but none of them showed up and add my terrible dancing on top of that and my confidence wasn't the greatest by the end of the night. No worries though cause junk like that affects me for about 20 minutes and I'm back at my normal 75% confidence level pretty quick.

Tuesday 8th of November: Haps Births Tech N9ne!!! Tech N9ne's new cd, Welcome to Strangeland, came out this day. It is some good stuff. A friend and fellow Technician of mine, Dan, and I drove down to Salt Lake to meet Tech N9ne and the rest of the Strange Music crew, Kutt Calhoun, Krizz Kaliko, and Jay Rock. It ruled. Tech said my belt buckle was killin' it and it was so awesome to be in the presence of them. A real dream come true. As of right now, Tech N9ne is one of my favorites, if not my  favorite, so it was a real honor to meet him. I got a pic with him and he signed my cd and a poster. It was so tiiiiggghhttt!!!! Tech N9ne!!!!

Me and The King of Darkness

Graveyard Dog, Krizz Kaliko, Kutt Calhoun, Jay Rock

Wednesday 9th of November: Tech N9ne's concert. It was so fun. Wild times. I didn't go by myself this time either. I went with Kaptain Krunk, Dan, Chad, Smitty, Kyle and a few others I don't remember the names of. An artist I've never heard of, Flawless, performed and it was good stuff. Jay Rock ruled. Krizz Kaliko has some pipes and I loved Anxiety. Kutt Calhoun knows how to dance and his performance rocked. Tech of course killed it. He puts on such a sick show. One of the better nights of my life. He truly has reached God status. He has so many good songs that it's ridiculous. He has such sick flow and such fast raps that it blows my mind. He blew the roof off the place. Riot Maker I think was one of the greater few minutes of my life. Just jumping around going crazy with thousands of others is something that can't be explained, only experienced. Dwamn, if there were words to explain how awesome it was I would use them, but I can't think of any so I'll leave it at that. Tech N9ne baby!!!

Thursday 10th of November: Thursday night I spent the night in a tent with EJB, Mo, and AB. Those are 3 of my homegirls so it was good times. I feel the less I explain the cooler it looks, but I'll just say that it was for the Utah State-BYU basketball game.

Friday 11th of November: Utah State-BYU basketball game. It was sweet! A way close game for the whole game. Utah State won. Of course. We rarely ever lose in the Spectrum.

That was my week. It was a good one. Tech N9ne took me to heaven and back.

Not working is tight.

My work was pretty much cancelled for the next month so I have lots of free time on my hands these days. I'm not the greatest student, so I'm not planning on filling that time up with too much school work so I've gotta keep myself busy somehow. Yesterday I decided to go on a hike to find myself a nice place to read a book. I ended up getting about one whole page read and that is from attempting to read 2 books. I'm pathetic. On another note I got a sweet few hour long dance party listening to my ipod in the midst of leaves of the red, yellow, and green sorts. Nuff talk, here are some pics.

 Graveyard Dog strikes again.

 I also slung shot.

 This is what was left of the cougar that attacked me.

Life's Been Good To Me So Far

This is what my last couple of days have been like.

Friday June 24th: I went to Taylorsville days and I rode some Carnival rides. That right there is always a good time.

Saturday June 25th: Tech N9ne concert. I really wanted to go, but couldn't find anyone else to go with. Well, many times in my life I've let this stop me. I've either changed plans, did nothing, or just did junk that I didn't really want to do. Not this time. I realized I shouldn't let others stop me from having a good time. Too many times I've let the world pass me by. I went out and went to the Tech N9ne concert by myself and enjoyed every minute of it. It was ridiculously ghetto, but way fun. Maybe I'm weird, but I didn't mind going to it by myself. I've actually gone to and done a lot of things by myself that have been fun. If others don't want to come enjoy the good times then heck, why shouldn't I go and live life? Plus, I learn a lot, meet new people, and have a bunch of new experiences. Tech N9ne. That guy rules.

Later on Saturday June 25th: This is kind of weird, but after the concert a crazy bearded guy knocked on my window and asked me if I was heading towards Salt Lake. I told him yes and he asked for a ride. That happens often, but the weird part is I said yes. I gave him and some other girl that was with him a ride to Bountiful. He wanted me to take him to Ogden and he even offered to pay me in weed, but I didn't really want to so I dropped him off in Bountiful. No weed. Then after I dropped him off and started heading home I noticed his phone was left in my car so I had to turn around and go find him. The girl called the phone so I found them. They told me they'd have to spend the night in Bountiful and wait til the buses started again in the morning so I just told them to get in and I took them the rest of the way to their destination in Ogden. It was weird, but good. We talked a lot about The Church so that was cool. He thought it was crazy that an LDS member went to a Tech N9ne concert and even more crazy that I don't drink or do drugs.

Sunday June 26th: Church was good. Family time was good. Honestly it's hard to think of better times.

Monday June 27th: I worked and went to the Kid Cudi concert with a bunch of my friends and my little sister. It was way fun. Wild times. Only bad part was that I drove and I don't have air conditioning. I'm used to it and I didn't mind, but I never like to see the young ladies uncomfortable so that wasn't cool. Pun. The concert was fun though.

Tuesday June 28th: I came home from work and Logey was there. The weather was hot. We made a slip n' slide in the backyard and it was tight.Slippin and slidin in the nice cool hose water.

Thursday June 30th: I kissed Morgan. It was a goal of mine for the month of June. It took me til 11:30 at night on the last night of June. It wasn't a romantic kiss and it was real quick, but it was a kiss nonetheless. Maybe we'll kiss again.

Friday July 1st: Fireworks in Logan, UT.

Saturday July 2nd: Swimming at the Thains. Always good. Fireworks at Eaglewood Golf Course, NSL, UT.

Sunday July 3rd: Max's baby blessing. My nephew. He's cute.

Future plans.
July 8th-29th: Hawaii with the Thains.
July 30th: T-Pain concert with Dev and The New Boys in the SLC.
Maybe greatest July ever?

In the words of Joe Walsh "Life's been good to me so far."

Someday.....

This song will someday apply to my life and I will sing it to many women. Morgan knows what I'm talking about.

Wool Socks

Yesterday I wore wool socks and it was June 8th and warm weather. I mainly wore wool socks because I do what I want. I don't let anyone else rule me. I am my own master. Also, they were the only clean socks I could find, but that's kind of besides the point. Wool socks are some of my favorite things and I wanted to wear them so I did cause that's the way I roll. I control my destiny and the destiny of June 8th had wool socks written all over it.

Haps Births Bro

Well, before I get started I'd just like to throw a shoutout to my boy Bubba. He gone and done and had himself a birthday on the 2nd of June.
As some my know my birthday was on the 3rd of June.I turned 23. My Michael Jordan year. When I was 20 I told myself that my 23rd year would be spent traveling the world and spending my nights on the beach salsa dancing with sexy latin mamacitas, saving Arabian princesses from the hands of robbers and thieves, and winning the heart of the daughter of the Empire of China with my charming ways and thus opening the gospel to be preached openly to the chinese people. Since then I've lowered my expectations a little, but hopefully it will still be a wild year.
I honestly now would be pleased with making enough money so I can take care of myself ( So my parents won't have to worry about spending money on me and they can spend it on themselves and my little sister.), a good supply of otter pops and ice cream in my freezer throughout the year ( I luhhh icecream.), lots of time spent dancing ( Dancing is tight.), and the occasional one on one bonding time with a cute girl (Although my skills in this area are not always the strongest, there is no feeling the heart can experience quite like being the main component in the formation of a smile on one that is cute.) Course I plan on having daring adventures and taking full advantage of every opportunity to travel and spend time with hot mamacitas, princesses and Empire's daughters, and hopefully still do a lot of crazy stuff, but I won't be crushed that much if I am not able to do them all or even some of them.
I planned on writing about my birthday and how my day went instead of the year in front of me, but I got sidetracked so now I'll jump back onto the subject at hand and tell you about my day. It was a great birthday. I got to shoot around at the Spectrum and my 23 year old shot was doing very well. I won the world's longest game of pig. Darn that Glen for making so many shots. I was home alone in an empty house for a while so I got to dance for a while which is always good. I read some and spent some time with Logey. Cute girls woke me up and surprised me and gave me a sweet card and gift and Kaptain Krunk gave me some grillz. I got sent a gift from on high as well. I biked to work in the morning and I took a path less traveled that took me up the hill and went straight to the Logan temple. I was catching my breath when I noticed how nice of view it was over the valley. Then much to my surprise the timing was perfect and within the minute the sun was rising over the mountain and so I enjoyed the sunrise over the valley of Cache for about 10 minutes. It was nice. It truly was a Haps Births and I'm confident my Michael Jordan year will be very haps as well. I guess only time will tell what adventures lay in store.

Forever Young

Today while eating my breakfast of toast and milk the song Forever Young by Jay-Z started playing on my i-pod and I was brought back to my freshman year of college.

I was at Utah State and it was my first week of being in college. So like most all kids I had my own worries of growing up and junk. There are some songs that when I hear them I am reminded of one memory or vivid time in my life. I'm pretty sure most people have those songs. One of those songs is Careless Whisper which I heard on my mission in Sao Paulo, Brasil. In that song the lyrics go "I'm never gonna dance again" and it hit me so hard cause that's 2 years without legit dancing, except for the occasional silent break dance fight with my companion, but besides that it's no dancing for 2 years. My heart pretty much cried when I heard that. Probably one of the biggest times I almost got sad. But that's another story. So anyways, my freshman year I was riding the bus to school and the song Forever Young by Alphaville came on over the radio. That moment was nuts. I remember thinking how I really do want to stay forever young cause more often than not old people bite. I know I have to grow old in age and numbers and crap like that, but I didn't want to actually get old in how I am and become a piece of trash and not have fun.

And that moment is a huge reason of why I am how I am today. Sitting on the bus hearing that song is one of the many experiences that have told me to stay young in how I act and feel. Of course staying young is not being a piece of trash and not working and being a waste of space, but in being young while working and having responsibility and everything too. I think I've done alright so far. I don't really wanna be with the old folks at the family outings and bbq's and stuff talking about boring junk while the kids are off playing ball and eating ice cream and stuff. I hope I'll be wrestling the other kids as long as my old brittle bones will allow me. My bones aren't brittle yet, but they'll be someday probably and then I can use that saying. This decision to try and enjoy life and stay young probably has not helped me in the past with some things cause that gets parents and other old people mad and while some of my friends spend time wooing the ladies I'm off pushing people into bushes and wrestling. That was pretty much my highschool experiences right there. Blake and Ben wooing the ladies, and Chad and Clark goofing around. That means less kisses sometimes, but I'll have eternity to be kissing the ladies, or at least one lady aka my wife, so I'm glad I enjoyed things like blowing stuff up, putting a big ol' fish on people's door step, the nights with LaFawnda R.I.P. (You might hear about her later), blowing more stuff up, wearing loin cloths, and the many other things we did. Anyways, I ramble and the point of the story is to stay young, forever young. That is one of those moments that everytime you hear that song you remember those feelings. I hope I can continue and apply the forever young doctrine while I grow up.

The day I almost cried

I haven't cried in a long time. The last time was 4-5 years ago when Sneakers, my beloved dog, died. I ask a moment of silence to all those who read this for Sneakers. She was everything a young Chad could ask for in a dog. In my dreams I see her running to me and her greeting me with all of her love like she has done so many times before when I make it to heaven. I hope that I make it to heaven for that reason alone. Sneakers is not the topic of today's writing though. I probably won't ever write much about her because there are no words that I could write that would give her the justice she deserves.

The reason of writing today is that I came very close to crying today. Actually the closest I've ever been to crying since that sad day. My eyes clouded over and were extremely misty, but because I was in the Merrill-Cazier Library at Utah State University, I didn't let a tear escape. I became very emotional though. I was browsing on Google Earth and looking at different places in Logan Canyon where I could go this summer on hikes and camping and I thought it would be cool to look at the place of my mission which was Sao Paulo, Brasil. It was a lot of fun looking at the different places I served. I came across my second to last area Pirituba. So, I went to find the house of my favorite person in the world. Fransisco. Also known as Peba. That man is the greatest. We would go to his house every day after lunch and I've never been happier than in his presence. He would play guitar for us and we'd talk for a long time. Then we'd teach him the gospel. It was great. He was great. And even though he was never baptized I still love him so much. Much more than I ever thought I could love an older man who smoked and was dirty in his ways. He was a trucker for the good part of his life and he was very much like a trucker. I could go on forever writing about him, so I'll stop it before I have a novel written. 

Anyways. I started thinking about this and I literally started misting up. To avoid the scene of a grown 22 year old man crying in the college library I stopped looking at where his house was set in the hills of the Marilac Favela. So instead I searched for a video of him singing and playing guitar for us and starting watching it. Bad idea for my misty eyes, but it turns out I have deep eyes that can soak up a lot of mist and that is what I did. I didn't shed a tear, but I came very close. Fransisco will be a man that I won't ever forget. I love him. Hopefully I can be with him again someday. Then in the eternities I may have Sneakers by my side while listening to Fransisco play his guitar for me. I'm almost tearing up again writing about this so I must stop before Logan, who is by my side watching TV, has reasons to tease me. Thank you Sneakers and thank you Fransisco. You two will forever be in my heart.

Fransisco

I love this

Sleddin

This weekend I went Snowmobiling and now I got the itch to go all the time. It was a blast. When I get an extra $10,000 I'm gonna get myself a nice one and go mobbin in the powder. Good stuff right therr.

My 5 Cents

This last weekend my friends and I went down to Nickelcade. That place is great. All your arcade game dreams come true in one building where the games only cost 5 cents each. So much fun packed into one place it's ridiculous. My final count at the end of the day was 106 tickets. I got a fart whistle, a tattoo, and some fruities. We beat Die Hard the arcade game. If you have never been to a nickelcade. Find the nearest one and go now.

Masters of the Music

"She used her body just like a bandage, she used my body just like a wound."

That's is from Meat Loaf's song "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are." That line is pure genius. Which got me thinking about my list of top 15 favorite musicians (Bands or single artists) for some reason that has nothing to do with anything. This list isn't number 1 to number 15, but just my top 15 all together. I wanted to do the top 10, but it was too difficult to cut it down to 10. Before I get started I like to think of myself as an artist. In fact I think everyone has a little artist in them if they choose to act on that or not. So here it goes, my list of top 15 in no particular order.

Lou Bega
Meat Loaf
Kiss
Iron Maiden
Eminem
Don Omar
Daddy Yankee
Mc Cidinho e Doca
T-Pain
Judas Priest
Dio
Akon
Manowar
Andrew W.K.
Lil' Wayne

I may change this as I actually take time to think and contemplate instead of just throw up a list, but for now this is it. Either cause of moments in my life that have been influenced with their music, the intelligence of it, passion of it, or cause of just straight enjoyment from listening. I know most are well known musicians, but I'm not too big into just liking something cause others don't know about it. Also I'm not too into liking something just cause others do like it. I just like what I like. Later on I'll also explain more the whys behind this list, but for now this is all I got for ya.