Laser tag etc.

Well another week has come and gone. I'd say it was a pretty good week. Before I get into the laser tag part as per the title the things from this week that stick out the most in memory are going to the BYU Men's and Women's Choruses concert Tuesday night (which was REALLY good) and all the tests I took at the end of the week here. Friday I took mid-term exams for my Book of Mormon and Physical Sciences classes. The Book of Mormon exam consisted of multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank and short answer questions and I know that at least for the multiple choice questions I got a 95 so that plus however I did on the short-answer part will be my grade for the exam. I feel like I did pretty good on the Physical Sciences test but that's how I felt on the last exam I took for that class and I ended up with a B. So I'll find out sometime in the next few days how I actually did. Then Saturday morning I took the AFOQT (Air Force Officer Qualifying Test). It was long. The test started at 8:00am and I got out sometime after noon. I feel like I did ok but it's kinda hard to say for sure. I should get the results back sometime in the next 2 weeks. Assuming I did well enough on that test I should be getting an ROTC scholarship. The cool thing I found out about that this past week is that if I get all the paperwork done soon enough I can get the scholarship to retroactively apply to THIS semester in addition to next semester....Which would be bomb awesome. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

But anyways, the laser tag thing. So at the beginning of the semester in elder's quorum the idea was proposed and voted on of having a ward activity of playing laser tag. As you can imagine the elder's quorum unanimously supported this idea. Unfortunately it seems some of the Relief Society sisters were less than enthusiastic about this idea so it kinda got shot down. No worries though, right? We can just make it an elder's quorum activity! So this activity has been in the works basically since the beginning of the semester and we finally had it last night. Now, you have to understand something. When I say laser tag you're probably thinking of some indoor thingy with some cheesy vest or whatever. This was NOTHING like that (except maybe that we were using guns that fire light at each other). It was about a bajillion times cooler! It's this company called Tactical Action Games and what they do is bring the equipment to outdoor locations and actually train you on certain combat techniques in objective-driven scenarios. It was SWEET! We went out to some park in a canyon near Mt. Timpanogos. Instead of a sensor on a vest to detect when you've been hit we wore headbands with a sensor to make it more life-like in terms of how you can get killed while peeking around a corner. We played 4 or 5 different scenarios. The first one was called "Anarchy" and we basically just all ran around trying to kill each other. In the second scenario we were split into 2 teams and the objective was to completely wipe out the opposing team. In the next scenario my team was supposed to hold down a position without getting wiped out for 10 minutes before an "airlift" arrived to "extract" us while the other team was trying to take us all out. In the following scenario my team was supposed to "Thunder Run" the opposing teams' bases of operations and capture their FOBs (front operation base, which was basically just a blinking LED wand). The last scenario was close-quarters combat where our base was right next to the other team's base and the objective was to successfully deposit ordnance (a soccer ball) in their base without getting shot. Like I said, it was a TON of fun. In between sessions the guys who ran it would give training on basic combat techniques like cover and concealment, how to properly hold the weapon, etc. Best laser tag EVER.

So I Guess I'm a Blogger Now

So, yes, I'm starting a blog. Why? Well I guess b/c I never remember everything I want to tell my mom when I talk to her on the phone and I don't do a very good job of writing in my journal so this can be a good place for me to regurgitate some of my thoughts and experiences in a more lasting way than just saying them out loud. I guess I've been somewhat resistant to the idea of starting a blog b/c I mostly feel like, "Honestly, who cares what I have to say?" But, being far from my immediate family and not being much of a phone-talker I figure I should do SOMEthing to let them know what I'm up to.


That said, what have I been up to the last couple of days? Let's see, Thursday I had my AFROTC Leadership Lab class. We had our second "Warrior Day" of the semester. What that entails is we went up to rock canyon, split up into squadrons of GMC (which stands for General Military Course and basically just means the underclassmen) and took turns going through a course where we were periodically ambushed by POC (Professional Officer Course, or the upperclassmen) and members of the cadre (the active-duty officers assigned to our detachment who are basically teachers). I'm always down for running around in camo shooting at people with air soft rifles but waiting for our turn to run the course was pretty cold. That said once we got to go it was lots of fun, even if we weren't very good at not getting killed. After LeadLab I went to Grandma and Grandpa's house and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon there and a yummy dinner.

Friday was a pretty busy day. I was in classes until 5pm and when I got home Justin and I carved pumpkins with some of the people in our ward. I actually wasn't able to stick around until my partner and I finished our pumpkin b/c the teacher for my physical sciences class had managed to get all of us in the class free tickets to a concert by the BYU Symphony Band and Wind Symphony and I had to leave to make it to that on time. The concert was pretty good and when I got back there was a Halloween dance party going full-swing in the central court-yard area of my apartment complex. I was pretty impressed by some of the costumes people were wearing. I, on the other hand, did not have a costume. But let's be honest, when has something like that ever stopped me from dancin' it up? So that was fun and when the dance started winding down we watched one of the dumbest "scary movies" I've ever seen in my life. It was called "The Shortcut" and I'd say it comes awfully close to if not exceeding Twilight in terms of cinematic atrocity. Though to be honest, what do you expect when you go to Hollywood Video looking for a scary movie that's not R-rated the night before Halloween in Provo? There weren't too many options.

Well, if there was a lot going on yesterday it was matched by an equal amount of a lot NOT going on today. I basically spent the whole day in the Wilkinson Center working on essays for my Western Humanities class. The highlights of that experience were when I fell asleep and then when I turned on the Longhorns football game on ESPN's website. I could tell you all about the themes of chaos and order in ancient Greek art and literature but since I spent all day writing about it I think I won't. I got work done and the Horns killed Okie State so I suppose it was a pretty decent day.

So as I've been writing this I've been thinking I hope you don't get the impression I'll write something about what I do every single day. I really doubt I'll be that consistent. Also I'd like to use this space to write about some of my personal reflections on things I've been thinking about, kind of like Dad does on his blog (though you probably shouldn't expect the same level of critical thinking). So I'll update this as often as I can and hope y'all enjoy hearing from me. Good night!