So I figured that other new design was pretty ugly. I’m sure Travis appreciates this new one. Poisssssssssssson, poisssson! How I love le poisson!Forget about the Segway. A truly important invention for the collegiate has been invented, and its name is Provigil. Apparently, some smart people have invented a pill that will let you stay awake for up to four days, without the loss of concentration that you usually get from sleep pills. Although I would imagine that if you took this in any other time than an emergency, you’d probably start getting long-term health problems. I think that even if they had a no-sleep pill, I wouldn’t want to take it. I enjoy sleep. It gives a good feel to the day, eh? Though it would be cool to never be tired. Hmmmmm.

So the BCS’ final week has come around for college football, and Oregon is getting the screws. Ok, so their schedule wasn’t too hard, but you can’t have Colorado, who lost 2 games, including one to Fresno State, above a team like Oregon who only lost one game to a top 15 opponent. Nebraska, the other important team ahead of Oregon, also shouldn’t be: They lost by 26 to a team with 2 losses (Colorado). Both the AP and ESPN polls have Oregon ahead, but the BCS doesn’t. Although if Tennessee wins against LSU today, it won’t matter.

The other big college controversy was BYU. They were undefeated with only Hawaii to go. Admittedly, they’re playing horrible teams most of the season, but undefeated is undefeated. The point is moot now, cuz Hawaii hammered the hell out of BYU, 72-45. How about these stats from the Hawaii QB: 27 for 49, 559 yards, 8 TD’s and one interception. Holy jesus, heh. So now we know that the only reason BYU was good was because of their schedule =). The whole game was sloppy, though. There were 12 fumbles! It’s like North Bend-South Eugene football quality, hehe.

Speaking about shelling, I got to play for Josh’ mormon church basketball team. The rule is that 3 mormons have to be on the floor at the time, but other than that, any high schooler who knows them can play too. So we have this gigantic team of Churchill seniors. Sweeney, Jake Whipple, Nick Posey, Tiddlefits, Thoma, Newell, Beltran, Byerly, me and this one younger kid. We were playing this team of regular joes from one of the other mormon churches. Almost all younger and shorter than our smallest guys. Suffice to say, even though we’d never played or practiced together (or even played on a team in the last 4 years, for most of us), we were up 57-10 in the 3rd quarter. I think the final score was like 73-30 because we decided to only shoot threes, heh. And what’s worse, the two teams we saw playing before our game were even worse. We’re gonna dominate, heh. I didn’t play too good personally, though, ah well. I had a fast break and shanked the layup cuz I slipped. I think I was 1-3 with 2 points, a few rebounds and assists, a block and a few steals.

This (long) article is freakin’ hilarious. A Washington Post writer went to try and find the least desirable place to live in America: Battle Mountain, Nevada. It’s so bad, it’s funny. Like, the whorehouse is the most upscale place in town, heh.

I dunno if even Battle Mountain is as bad as Kevin, MT, though. I tried to find a link for Kevin on the internet, but it’s so sad that the ClickCityGuide for it was empty. Literally 5 roads by 5 roads, all gravel, with nothing of interest in the town or in the vast area around it. I have some pics that I’m gonna scan in soon from the town. It’s an embarassing mark on the US.

So one more thing about sports: Sheldon, as I predicted, was shallacked by McNary, 35-10. McNary’s starting RB ran for 357 yards. The game was actually pretty close. It was 14-10 at halftime. Tough luck for Sheldon. Winter is gonna be Churchill and Thurston’s season in the way that Fall was Sheldon and Churchill’s. Churchill will win both guys and girls hoops (state contenders in both) and Thurston is pretty certain to get 2nd in both. In Wrestling, Thurston should win district and Churchill could finish 2nd. I think swimming is the only other sport for winter, and I think it’s usually North and Sheldon in that, but I really have no idea.

So we had to take an emotional intelligence test for TOK. I think the whole concept is sorta ridiculous. It’s not cuz I got a bad score; I got 120, which it says it’s “excellent”. The problem is that the answers are open to interpretation culturally. On an IQ test, you’re either right or you’re wrong. There can be no dispute. With EQ, what’s “emotionally right” is really somewhat subjective. For instance, one question wants to know whether you think it’s best to set goals that are a piece of cake, that are very challenging, or to set no goals at all (there are more possible answers, but they’re all various grey areas in between these). I think it really depends on the person as to what manner is the best manner to achieve a goal.

But the test, as well as a discussion I had with one of my buds last week, got me thinking about what the best choices in life are. A packet we got quotes the Dalai Lama as saying that the best actions are the ones that lead to happiness. This is relatively true, though I do believe that one has to make sure that their happiness is defined correctly. Many people disagree about what happiness is: Is it pleasing your God of choice? Is it being a productive member of society? It is being a well-liked member of society? Is it about making sure you’re fulfilled personally? So, since I rarely am sad, I thought about what choices *I* make that make me happy. Here’s the disclaimer, though: Happiness is subjective. I fully believe that there are many different paths that can lead one to happiness. What works for me may not work for you, and what I think works for me may not even work. Also, I probably don’t even follow all these all the time, but like utopia means “No place”, a goal is not necessarily reality. So now that the disclaimer’s done, here we go:

Be in Control of your Life
Critical for being happy, in my opinion. You absolutely, positively have to believe that events are in your control. Even when events aren’t in control, your emotions need to be. Sadness, happiness, anger: all these are mental concepts. They are not external of the body. You can choose to react in whatever way you want to whatever event there is. Of course, it’s insanely difficult to forget bad experiences. My suggestion is to focus on the good ones. The rap song I was just writing is called “365 Days and Not One”. It’s about the 364 days in the last year other than the one than 11 September. If you dwell on the bad, and forget the good (in this case, all the good things that happened in the world and in one’s personal life during the last year), it’s difficult to be happy.

Another important part of being in control is not letting anyone take advantage of you. Don’t be a peacenik! When someone gets your goat, let them know! Of course, this relates to another part of being happy I talk about next. In addition, worry is pointless. Don’t worry about the future! Be proactive in what you can control, but why dwell on what you can’t control. Eyal got upset because I said I’d go to school in a couple days if my mom had died (although Z and Andrea both agreed with me). You can’t worry about that, you have to move on in your life. Being proactive means doing something special like giving to a charity that the dead person would have liked. Being out of control of your life means not being able to look over events to keep yourself happy.

I have to mention that I don’t think that would be easy. But it’s best to think about how you would react to a shock like that now. Your brain needs to be neurologically primed to react to events logically and not emotionally.

Don’t Fight About Little Things This seems to contradict what I said before, but I don’t think it does. Don’t snap at people for things they don’t mean. If you’re going to get in a fight (or argue even), make sure you think about it. If it will make you happier to snap at the person, then do it. If not, then don’t. Gah, my sister and my parents fight over the most ridiculous things. It drives me nuts. I don’t really know what else to say about this, so I’ll move on.

Relate Happiness to Society What makes you happy is mallaeble: You can choose whether something makes you happy or not by priming your brain in that matter. For society’s sake, it’s best to prime your mind that society’s happiness is more important than your own. I’ve talked about this subject a lot, but relating your happiness to yourself is very, very dangerous. If everyone acts on the premise that the happiness of other people is more important than your own, society and you will be better off.

Ok, I gotta get ready for Festivus.

MP3 Prime Cut: Twisted by Svenson and Gielen
This trance monster is absolutely off the hook. That synth moves like bejeezus.

MP3 Prime Cut Extra: Something by LASGO
A tight trance/house monster. Great vocal track: “I can see it in your eyes, there is something you want to tell me. I can see it in your eyes, there is something that you hide from me. Is there a reason why?” Thumping beat.