My Semester < Poke in Eye with Sharp Stick

This semester is really getting crazy now, group projects, essays, midterms, homework, mock interviews, job training, snowboarding and social life are all keeping me very busy. On the bright side I can't say my life is boring.

Classes

• Real Estate Development - very fun, no textbook, no tests, killer group projects and insanely educational. Right now we are working on an apartment complex acquisition seeing if it could be profitable and how much we could theoretically make on the deal. The class is very financially oriented and touches on a lot of the due diligence aspects and the creative options we have in real estate. 
• Macro Econ - The class lectures are fun, but I'm not looking forward to the midterm this weekend, I've heard it's a killer. There are only three questions so it'll be kind of like The Mouse who Roared. 
• Micro Econ - The lectures are death on a stick, I copy down all the math that our teacher puts up on the board and hope to make sense out of it later. The midterm I took last weekend for the class didn't seem too bad, but of course that's probably because I haven't gotten my score back yet.
• Management Communications (business english on steroids)  - Class is all right, the essays are a pain, especially because I still haven't gotten any back yet so I don't know how to improve yet. Today we had mock interviews so that made sure my day would be a tad more stressful than usual, but I don't think I did too bad. 
• Entrepreneur lecture series - It's pretty fun but the assignments are small and I often for get about them till the last minute so they become, not hard to do but hard to keep track of.
• Career Preparation - Same problem with the assignment as the lecture series class except the lectures really are boring.
• Mentor Program - "What? Oh man! I almost forgot I was signed up for that class." We never have class, there is an assignment to do once a month and I have to meet with my mentor periodically to talk to him and find out more about the industry he works in. My mentor is Jim Hill, he graduated in econ, got a MBA and works with East West Partners doing real estate development projects in Park City, Utah for the ski resorts. 
• New Testament - It isn't really not bad, I just have to keep up with the reading in the scriptures and the manual. The midterm was small potatoes, and the teacher does a good job teaching, he is a bit dry but he makes an effort at being funny and the effort is funnier than his humor.  

Job

• Cody, Travis, and I will be working in Fairbanks, Ak from April 25 to August 25. 
• Two weeks ago we had an all day training session to start things off and since then we have one on one trainings with our trainers and the busses at 7 Peaks parking lot.
• By this week I will need to have gotten my CDL permit so I can continue the training. That translates into another test I need to study for and take. 
• The bus training is pretty fun, I learned to parallel park a bus, no small feat, and I have learned all about the pre-trip inspection I will have to be doing every day this summer, (note to self, test not that tomorrow, do some more study). 

Snowboarding

• Every time I think of something that might be fun to do with my time, I compare it to snowboarding. The slopes somehow always win my mental debate. 
• It is pretty time consuming and rewarding. I have lots of fun and am a lot better. 
• I don't think I'll be able to do it next year because classes are really ramping up and then there is that other desire of getting married that becomes more and more prominent as my college transcript's credit hours keep rising. 

Girls

• Oh Yea! Girls! I almost for got about them, it seems like my plate isn't big enough. As I keep piling things on top stuff keeps falling off the sides. 
• I have gone on a couple of dates recently but I'm not nearly as good about going on dates as I was last semester.
• I definitely need to turn this around. 

Well, I hope I haven't bored my audience. Since my M comm teacher says I always need to know my audience I have included some picture below and a video I made of Cody, myself and friends snowboarding. Look in the still photos to recognize our faces so you can tell who we are when we are in the air and can't see our faces. All of the footage is a few weeks old so we don't really land many if any of our jumps yet. I put the video to come cool music so turn your speakers on as well. 

On a date we went to the nickel-kade and we got these

 fake mustaches so we had to take picture afterward.

Cody, Travis and I gouged our selves on tacos at

Del Taco on taco night tuesday.

David: 18, Cody: 21, Travis: 30

The Canyons video

I finally took the time to learn how to use my 

mac's video editing software now that I had some

footage to edit. It wasn't hard at all to learn and it's fun.

New Semester and Tons of Fun

This semester is going to plan out pretty nicely. I have a Real Estate Development class that's going to very fun and educational. My Business writing class is going to be challenging, writing really isn't my thing that's why I'm going to need to work hard at it and learn. My Macro Econ and my Micro Econ classes are very fun and challenging, they both have a lot of calculous, and I haven't done that since 2007, and now it's like 2011, that's 4 years ago! My New Testament class will be fun, the teacher seems pretty reserved but then he goes out of his way to make a dumb joke and that livens things up. Unfortunately this semester won't be a breeze but it'll be good.

Now onto the main attraction, Cody and I are tearing it up on the slopes of The Canyons! We have been doing jumps and hitting the powder in the trees. We go once, and sometimes twice a week if we get a chance and don't have too much home work. There are a few girls and another guy in our ward that has a pass to the canyons. We meet it up with then and have a bunch of fun together.

Sometimes we bring our lunches with us so that we don't have to go back down to the car to get them and loose time boarding. It usually works out all right but often times our sandwiches get all smashed up but they're good any ways.

Cody, Travis and I are still planning on working this summer in Alaska as tour bus drivers. Our trainings start in late January, and everything seems to be on track as planned. We still don't know too much about lodging while we are up there but we aren't too worried.

College is great and I'm definitely enjoying the my studies and the freedom I have to go snowboarding all the time.

-David Hatch

I've Done It! I've Done It!

I've had an amazing weekend. Not to gloat but I got all my homework done on Friday morning so I have disfrutado of the rest of the weekend. I had a wonderful little visit with Annette on Saturday and I got to see her nice little house she is living at now with Charles. (the have an amazing christmas tree)
Durning the week I saw the BYU philharmonic, it was just divine, they played the Planets, I loved seeing all of the violins just playing in harmony with one another. I'd recommend it to all and any. Also on Friday Charles gave me tickets to see the BYU Percussion. His cousin accompanied me, it was so much fun. On Saturday Cody, Travis and I did a triple. They were "tie dates" girls in the ward choose a tie at random and we took them on a date and they did three acts of secret service for us. It was lots of fun, we did paratroopers and paper airplanes in the tanner building. And got frozen yogurt afterwards. (20% off on saturdays if your on a date!)


This weeks BYU New Mexico game was awesome, except all the lame penalty yards, I'm really hoping against hope that we win our next weeks game against the utes. It's going to get a little crazy! 


On Saturday we, our Elders Quorum, got to winterize all the girl's cars in our ward and we cleaned their windows, it was a great project and we had lots of fun.


Now I must comment on how amazing Harry Potter was, I really loved it, they didn't cut out too much but unfortunately they added a little unnecessary stuff.   


Today we cooked Carne Asada for our FHE sisters, they loved it and it was so much fun to cook with them all. Cody out did himself with the salsa and I went all out on the meat and our sisters made some amazing guacamole. (they're from the south they know how to cook) And we are looking forward to some good funnel cake tonight.


I just had to get this update out there, sorry I'm not nearly as creative as Amanda and I will never live up to the a famed Brooke Wilson Blog, but that just so I don't keep anyone in the dark. 

General Conference

A week ago Friday I found my self in a very difficult spot. Cody and I had a double date planned and still had not met anyone new to ask out on a date. So as to not let Cody down I went door to door talking to girls in our apartment complex till I met a girl I wanted to ask out on a date. The next evening our date went well, we played penny golf in the SWKT and Rummy cube then enjoyed Smores together. 


This week I studied a bit for an accounting 310 test for two and a half hours and then proceeded to take it. I didn't want to get too tired from studying so I just took it. I got an A, I was appalled that I missed two questions, oh well, better luck next time. 


Today I got to enjoy an amazing general conference. A (the) girl from my Doctrine and Covenants class invited me over to have crepes before the morning session. So I suggested that my cousins come as well. It was way fun getting to know her roommates and friends. I was in charge of making the crepes, they turned out perfect and tasted great. Between the sessions we played games and one of her roommates wanted to play chess with me, she had a great learning experience. It was lots of fun.


Priesthood session was incredible! Some how I don't think the written version of those talks will do. President Monson's was so animated, Elder Uceda was very personal with the fathers, Elder Kearson was incredibly powerful, Elder Uchtdorf was remarkably adamant. I thought the session was just so powerful and direct. I loved It! 

Typical College Activities

A week ago Sunday our roommate Ben Lockhart's* girlfriend invite our apartment to have an activity with their apartment. She said "So I have this roommate, and she wants to get to know some boys so I thought our apartments should do something together." I suggested that we would make peach cobbler and they buy vanilla ice cream and we would get together on sunday night. So Sunday after the CES Fireside, which was amazing, we played scrabble and had some of my stunning peach cobbler. I'm sorry, I should credit Cody as well for helping me make it, after all, he opened the cans of peaches. On a whole the night was a success. 


The following day, Ben comes home from from his girlfriend's apartment and tells me that Jeryn, the roommate that wanted to get to know boys, gave her number to him to give to me and to tell me that she was free on Thursday night. I figured, "well, that's one way to secure a date with me," so I went over and visited her on wednesday and asked her out for Thursday night. We doubled with Ben and Christen, his girlfriend. I planed out the date it was really fun. First we went to the Museum of Art on campus, they had their opening night of their new exhibit, "Open Spaces", which was a lot of midwestern art. Afterward at 9 when it closed we went up to the bell tower and roasted marshmallows on the bell tower lights. I made a little stand out a metal hanger so we didn't have to hold the marshmallows and blind ourselves staring into the light till they were done. With the mallows we made Smores, which were really good. The date was really fun and we all enjoyed ourselves. 


In an effort to not was a good weekend, on Friday Cody and I tried to put some planes together but they all failed miserably so in a last ditch effort to do something fun we visited an apartment of girls in our ward that had a sign posted in there window "Cute Boys Welcome". It turned out that  they were going on a night hike up to the Y, they invited Cody and I so we decided to join them. The hike was fun and we got to know them better as well. 


On Saturday, after sitting through 4 hours of pain, that was referred to as the BYU, Florida State football game, we decided to go play mellon ball with Ben and his friends. We had no idea what we were to expect but were very pleased that the gist of the game was a rugby wrestling match with a bunch of people and a duct taped cantaloupe in a pool. The object was for your team to get to the other side of the pool with the mellon. The outcome of the game was Cody and I dominating with our height, arm length and skill. The girls that played with us were really good too and also very sneaky at times. Mellon ball  has earned its place as my favorite pool game. 


Now don't think college is all horseplay. On Sunday I went in early to have an interview with Brother Tillman, our high councilman, per his request. I knew it had to be a stake calling, and was glad to accept the calling of second counselor of the second quorum of Elders in our ward. I was set apart by brother Tillman and the stake presidency later in the day during the Elder's quorum meeting. 


For Sunday afternoon we had been invited to Aunt Vanessa's for the annual cousin and friends dinner. The food was divine I got to know many more of the Kellis cousins that were my age. 


Now back to my social life, because that is the whole reason I'm at BYU, a girl sat next to me twice in my Doctrine and Covenants class and I decided that was reason enough to ask her out to lunch. Since neither of us have class after Doctrine and Covenants, we went to the Blue Line Deli in the Tanner Building, Its a bit expensive but the pastas are really cheep so that was what we got. It was lots of fun talking and getting to know each other better and as to any future plans, well we will see.     


College is amazing, and I'm enjoying every minute of it, you are all welcome to come and visit, but remember, any plans you make with me could easily be thwarted by the cute face of a girl who has a night open. 
     
And this is my report.
-David Hatch



*Yes Lockhart, as in Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award.

Cosmo!

Amanda, Cody, Travis, Johanna, Brooke Wilson and I all went to the BYU vs LSU Women's Volleyball Game. 

BYU won the game in the fifth match, and of course our attention was on the game the whole time, because I mean the whole reason wasn't to go see Cosmo right?  Don't worry Amanda got a picture too and Travis is there in the back.

Afterwards we headed over to the fall fest for free pizza and popcorn. Fall fest was fun and we got to see the different things they had going on there. 


However on Saturday we got to see the disappointing football game of BYU against Air force.


But after the pain subsided we had an activity at my old roommate's house in south Orem. We had a bonfire, played capture the flag and watched "Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs" outside on the front lawn. We had the movie projected onto a wall so we could all see. It was lots of fun and a great turnout of about 40 people. 


Well so as not to lead everyone on to believing that college is all play and no work maybe I should give a rundown of my classes. My Accounting class is for noticeably harder than the beginner's accounting class. Never the less it is still fun and easy because it shadows my business finance class, so far we have been learning basically the same materials. My Information Systems 201 class is lots of fun too. It looks like we will be making and using databases soon to coordinate and use data. It should be very interesting. In my Facilities and Property Management class we have already started our second lab. We are making Prototypical drawings for an accountant's firm. Because I started early on the assignment, today in class the professor used my drawings to be the example for the whole class to see. (Spirit Soaring) My doctrine and covenants class is also very fun, there is lots of outside reading including talks and the student manual that our professor assigns us. And as for Isys 100 and 101 well they are easy, I couldn't expect much more from half-credit classes. 


But don't worry guys! College isn't that bad. In our ward there are lots of girls that Cody, Travis and I have gotten to know. The hard part has been keeping names strait, I'll be thankful when the ward list comes out so I can see who I haven't talked to and start making a list of what girls I should talk to, oh umm... did I just type that out loud? Oh well once in print it's un-erasable, thats the funny thing with these blogs. Oh well. 


Conclusion and reemphasis of thesis: The Hatches up at the Y are having a blast! You don't even know!          

The Many Amazing Adventures of College

On Labor Day Cody and I got to go to Deer Creek Reservoir with Andrew and Erin Fisher, Brian and Laura Olson and his little brother Jeff, and Charlotte Larcabal, and two girls from Andrew's ward here in Provo. We had lots of fun and Cody and I got great sun burns to prove it.
We were concerned that the lake might be to full of people and that the weather would be too cold. In truth the lake wasn't bad and the weather, well it got better once you jumped in the water. But from this picture you could see that in the morning it was truly cold. Brian brought his motor boat which I failed to get a picture of but I did get a picture of Andrew's 1970 Hobbie sailboat. Andrew's boat was an older boat, like a 1975 or something like that but it worked like a charm. It has an onboard 350 horsepower chevy engine that really only gets like 250 horsepower but it was a blast.

In the morning before it got too choppy Cody and I tried our hand at wake boarding. I was the quicker to get up but Cody stayed up long enough to actually do some thing cool. It was loads of fun and a definite adrenaline rush.

It got a lot cooler when I got out of the water but I was so excited that I didn't even feel it. Because Every time I got up I would only ride for about 30 seconds or so an then promptly fall, I would try really hard not to fall and not let go of the tow rope. Well that strategy always ended up with me face-planting the water at high velocity. So after five or so runs I had a good enough headache to convince me we should move on to something different.
So with wake boarding done and everyone getting their fill we moved on to lunch, a hotdog, hamburger and chips. In the morning Andrew didn't get much wind in his sails so he did a lot of sitting and pondering out on the water. After lunch we moved on to tubing. We had a three person tube and well decided to put three people on it, we had tons of fun getting pulled behind the boat. After that we moved on to an early dinner, another hotdog, hamburger and more chips, it was great. I got to work on my heart disease and skin cancer on the same day (hmm... so fulfilling).