School! And over 100 views!

Well, it's official. School's started. It actually started on Monday. Also, today my blog passed 100 views! Thank you to all my faithful readers (all few of you) for helping me achieve this greatness.

My school schedule this semester is going to be kind of rough. I'm taking "calculus-based physics", "differential equations and linear algebra", "biostatistics", and "strengthening families". That's 14 credit hours of mostly-math enjoyment! I've realized that taking summer classes is helpful for reducing later semesters' stress levels, but it makes it a lot more difficult to jump right back into school for the fall and spring semesters after only a 2-week break.

Anyway, I am now officially accepted into the Bioengineering Major! That just means I get to start taking more difficult classes. I'm excited though. It looks like it will still take me 3 years (including this one) to graduate with a bachelor's. That's a little longer than I would like, but I guess it'll be ok just as long as I finish sometime. Plus, I don't mind school. I enjoy learning, it's just the expense and the stress of it all that are annoying/frustrating.

So, if you'd like to donate to the "Education for Life Fund - for Eric Carruth" just send me an e-mail or give me a call! Or, my bank account number is 3 at that one bank. Thanks for all your support!

Ultimate!

How have I not devoted a post to this sport yet? I've mentioned it (see "Sports") but I have more than just an interest in the game.

If you've read my profile, I explain very briefly that one of my greatest motivators is watching and imagining what people are capable of, physically, mentally, spiritually, etc. It is my belief that this is the reason why I love to play ultimate frisbee. There is something that happens automatically in my mind and (dare I say) even my soul, every time the frisbee goes up into the air. Immediately, subconsciously, my reaction is "Is it possible to catch?". I don't think it, it just happens, and I go. My favorite plays are when someone on my team throws the frisbee toward the endzone, but either they throw it too far, or they try to push my limits, and I have to really book it to even come close to the disc. As I run at full speed, it seems like the frisbee is so far out of my reach, I'll never get to it in time. It starts its inevitable descent, still yards in front of me, and just as it's about 6 inches from the ground, I dive, barely get my fingers under the edge, with my wrist just grazing the grass, and slide for a while with the disc in my hand. Mmmm...

Anyway, I've loved this sport ever since I first played. I think I was about 12 years old, maybe younger, and we went up to my Grandparents' house in Mt. Green. A bunch of my older cousins and uncles went down to the park to play. I'd never heard of it, so they explained the rules to me, and we played. I wasn't very good, so they didn't throw me the frisbee a lot, but when they did, and I caught it, I felt elated. Every time we went up there, I wanted to play again. One winter, I missed playing so much, that after a snow-storm, I geared up and headed over to the elementary school field with my dad's purple "Ripper" frisbee in my hand. The field was white (not already to harvest, covered in snow). I threw the frisbee as far as I could, and started rolling a snowball toward where I had thrown it. I got there, threw it again, and rolled the snowball. Eventually, it got to the point where I couldn't roll the snowball anymore, so I just threw the frisbee around a little. My dad and sis. came over and tried to help me move the snowball more, but it just cracked down the middle.

The next significant chunk of time we spent playing was in High School. We played a lot. About once every other week in the summer. Mostly, it was because people would say, "Hey, let's do something." Someone else would say "What?". Then I would say "Let's meet at Southwood [a park] and decide." I think I gained a few enemies out of our female friends at the time, because they hated playing all the time, but I just couldn't get enough. We played for hours and hours.

At one such game, the injury period began. It was 2 weeks before our Senior trip down to Lake Powell, just after we had graduated. I was running behind the ultimate wizard, trying to catch up before he grabbed the frisbee (which he did in the end). He tripped over something in the ground, his leg stuck out, and I tripped over his leg. Fell onto my left shoulder and broke my collar bone. That hurt.

At another game, I ran into a hill, and really hurt my foot. I couldn't walk on it for a while.

After my mission, the streak continued. A day or two before I reported on my mission in our Ward, I broke my thumb. Ran into another guy. I didn't think it was broken, until two weeks later when I finally went and got X-rays. Had to have surgery to fix the 35-degree angled thumb bone.

Just after my thumb healed, I got the torn cartilage in my knee stuck in the joint playing ultimate. Had to have surgery to sew the cartilage back together. 6 months of healing time.

It's been two years now since I've seriously injured myself playing ultimate. I kind of had to tone down my playing style to avoid those injuries, but I think it's smarter. We play about once a week, sometimes more. There was one week where I played about 11 hours of frisbee in 3 days, with 3 consecutive games (all unrelated). Basically, it's a passion of mine to play, especially with my friends from High School, and my Ward, (and the girls that come and play - awesome!).

The last significant thing, is that we (my High School friends + 1 and myself) won the Intramural championship at BYU. We got t-shirts. If I can, I'll post a picture later. Right here:


Anyway, I love the sport.

Wow, I think this is one of my longest posts. Hope you're not too bored.

10:00

I've decided 10:00 is a crucial time of the day. I will try to explain why:

10:00am-

This is the point of the day that determines how happy you will be for the rest of the day. If you wake up early, exercise, eat right, do some service, or get some productive things done by this time, and have a good attitude, I think that the rest of the day will take care of itself. If you're still sleeping at this time (literally or figuratively), you'll probably be in a similar state of mind for the rest of the day.

10:00pm-

This is the point of the day that determines how you will spend your night. If you're already out and about with friends at exactly 10:00pm, you'll probably stay out 'til midnight or later. If you're not doing anything at all, and you're not on a date, and 10:00 rolls around, you might as well go to bed.

If you're on a date - two options -

1. If you're already doing something really fun, you'll probably end up saying "whoa, where did the time go?" when you see that it's midnight or later (which is a good thing).

2. If you're not doing anything, you spend the next couple of hours worrying about what to do.

I don't know why this is, but 10:00 is an important time of day (and night).

Who loves summer weekends? OOH! OOH! ME!

So.

Friday at around noon, I left work. That was when it started. I drove my car (pre-packed the night before, with tent, bag, sleeping bag, AIR CHAIR, etc.), with Shayla up to Bear Lake for our HUGE Stake Boating activity. Seriously, there were 500-600 people up there! It was crazy. Anyways, so we got there, waited around a few minutes, then decided to head down to the beach to take out my air chair, which is why I went. (See previous posts.)

We got out to the beach, and lucky enough for us, President Plumb's brother and his son were there with their boat, beckoning (well kind of, they were pretty tired of being out on the choppy water, and I'm sure they were hungry too, but they were nice enough to take us out) for us to come onto their boat. So, they let me ride my air chair. I jumped a couple of times to get used to the tower, then tried the backflip again - no good. Then I decided I would try the flip off the wake, because I usually get more air that way - again, no good. So I rode it back toward the shore (I had ridden for quite a while already). As we were coming back toward the beach, I realized my turn was just about over, so I decided to try it one more time outside the wake. I cut out, waited for the slack a little, pulled back, jumped and threw my head back. I kind of expected to land on my head again, or my stomach, since that's where I usually do, but I landed on my butt! I landed it! I had the rope in my hand! It kind of caught me by surprise, and water was splashing me in the face, so I kind of unconsciously let go, as I heard the people in the boat cheering. It was awesome!!! I can't wait to go again, and hopefully get it more consistent. Unfortunately, we didn't have a camera. For second witnesses, ask Katie Kelson or Shayla Dickson.

So, from then on, it didn't really matter what else I did, I would have had an awesome weekend. The rest was awesome too, though! We headed back for a free steak and baked potato dinner that our Stake had made (yes, for 500-600 people, they provided STEAK!) Then, we drove up to Lava Hot Springs to camp out. Sat around the fire with a nice little group of friends from our ward, and laughed until about 2:30 am. The next morning, we ate a cold breakfast, went to the hot pools, floated the river, swam in the pool, ate lunch and drove home! That night, I washed my car, watched a movie and listened to awesome music.

Sunday I slept in (always a bonus), then woke up to prepare a lesson for Elder's Quorum (yes I procrastinate, but this time I was told I would be teaching late Saturday night). At Church, our ward boundaries were changed, and we got a new bishopric called into our ward. It was definitely an eventful Sunday.

And overall an eventful weekend!

Towers

There was once a time when I never really thought I'd say this, but I wish we had a tower on our boat. Lately, if you can't tell from reading my posts, I've been kind of obsessed with air chairing. Only those of you who have actually "flown" on the thing realize why this is. Maybe some of you who have cleared the wake on a wakeboard can come close to understanding, but the air chair/sky ski is just a whole new level of fun. It's amazing to be able to jump wherever you want, and even though I don't get way high all the time, it's even better to land, and not be jarred by hitting the surface of the water. Every time I switch from a boat with a tower to one without, or the other way around, I'm amazed at the difference that it makes in how easy/hard it is to fly. So, since a lot of people aren't familiar with hydrofoils, I've decided to give a little info. on them:

I'll summarize here, but for the full article, check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrofoil

So the concept of a hydrofoil is very similar to an airplaine wing. As water passes over the rear blade of the foil, which is angled slightly downward, the front wing is tilted upward. When the water passes over the front blade, the water going over the blade has to travel faster, and the pressure above the blade is reduced, thereby increasing the net force upward, providing lift. (Sorry, I have to sound scientific when I talk about stuff like this.)

Because of this physical property, some genius people (including Alexander Graham Bell - see above article) realized that they could lift a boat up out of the water, reducing drag, and increasing speed. Which is what they did. Several hydrofoil-equipped boats were made, and used in the military. Because the blade rides beneath the surface of the water, turbulence is almost eliminated, and it really feels like you're flying.

I'm amazed that there aren't any postings on wikipedia for hydrofoiling as a water sport, for air chair or sky ski. So, I had to gather the rest of this info. from their respective sites:

http://www.airchair.com/rider/history.htm
http://www.skyski.com/

Basically, it took a few years to get to the types of foils they have today. I have a 5-6 year old sky ski, and I love to ride it!

I've posted a few videos of one of the best air chair gurus in the world - Geno Yauchler (see below - just ignore the break dance instructions). Also, you can watch these:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoGqdZNdb_o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpbCQp9vlEE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBYuDgt05Pg&feature=related

And you can watch one of my several attempts at a backflip on my facebook page.

If you or anyone you know wants to try it, let me know!

Except, we don't have a tower... ;)

Backflips!

So, I know you're all wondering, "Was Eric's weekend as good as he hoped for???".

It was AWESOME! So, as stated, we drove up to Morgan on Friday night (me, Celeste, and Jill). My Granparents were so nice, and made Jill some dinner (Celeste and I had already eaten, but we ate a little with her too). My Grandpa is hilarious, he gave her some raspberries, and then said, "You want some cream with those, don't you?" and she just had to agree with him. Our Grandma came in saying "Stephen, kids don't eat berries with cream anymore!" It was hilarious. But I tried some too, and it was actually delicious! My Grandpa is funny though, he kind of forces you to agree with you by saying things like "Now isn't that just the best thing you've ever tasted?". So that was fun. Then we headed over to where my Aunt works, at the "Dance Shack" in Morgan, where she teaches dance and tumbling. I had her watch my backflip and teach me how to do it better. At first she was correcting some things, then she said "Wait, you don't use your arms!" I said "Ok, how can I fix it?" and she said "No, that's awesome! Most people aren't able to do flips like that." So I was kind of happy about that. I still had some form issues, but it was cool to hear. She also showed me how to do a front flip, and I did it! (Just fyi, front flips are harder.)

That night, we slept out on the trampoline, and in the morning, headed up to the lake! We got there around 6:20 and I skied about 20 minutes later. Here's a picture. It was pretty nice water, but freezing cold air! Right after I skied, there were some dark rain clouds coming over, so we grabbed the cover to our boat and just chilled underneath it for about an hour, waiting for the ward to come up. Oh, and David and Andrea were there early too, so they were in the boat with us.

It stayed cold all day, with clouds and wind. I rode our Stake President's wave runner, and afterwards I couldn't stop shivering for about an hour. Finally, at the end of the day, Bro. Linton took me out behind his boat on my newly polished sky ski, which really improved its riding capabilities. And... I almost landed the backflip!

I tried it three times, and the 3rd time was the closest. I'm planning on going up to bear lake this weekend, and I think I'll be able to land it then! I can't wait.

So then we drove home! It was a fun trip up to East Canyon. I'll let you know when I land it. :)

Weekendish awesomeness!

I just finished summer semester today. Can you say "AWESOME!"? That's what I thought. So to celebrate, tonight, Celeste and I are driving up to Mor-Gan to sleep at my Grandma's house! lol It's gonna be sweet, and then in the morning we're headed to the lake for some water playin' with the ward. I'm excited to try out my sky ski after I polish off the tarnish that's been building up on it. I'm really really really hoping that it fixes the problems it's been having. If not, I'm probably going to have to sell it and look for a better one... :( I love the weekend, especially one right after the last day of finals!

Also, I realized that I haven't posted this or told many people, but on Sunday I was released as Ward Clerk (bitter-sweet), and called as Ward Mission Leader! I'm excited for the change, but it's kind of sad to not be able to work with the Bishopric as closely, even though they're being released soon as well. It's going to be fun to get back into the missionary mindset a little bit, and help the missionaries look for people to teach. Know anyone? :)

So I'm not having a lot of success with getting into a research lab up at the U, and it's getting kind of frustrating. I have a meeting pending with the professor with whom I would like to work - (check out that English) - but I have to wait a week for that one, and even then I'm not sure if he'll want to have me work for him like I want to. I'd really like to get something set up BEFORE fall semester starts, but we'll see if that actually happens or not.

My Sisters

Since I have the best three sisters in the world, I figure it would be a good idea to post a little tribute to them here.

Chelsey.

Super power: Mind-reader/Telekinesis.

I wouldn't put it past her. She's super-smart, and talented. When she plays the piano, it's like the nerve signal doesn't have to travel all the way down her arms to her fingers, it's just immediate processing.

She also reads books. Lots of them. Fast. This, along with other things, is what, in my opinion, makes her so exceptionally smart. Not that she wouldn't be without it, but all the reading makes her just that much smarter. She's almost always cheerful, and she's been a great example to me throughout my life.

Chels and I talk. Every once in a while, I'll head down to Chelsey's room at around 12:30am and just start talking with her. She's an awesome sounding board for me, and takes the time to listen to what I have to say, and then gives her ingenious input for my life. I don't know if she thinks it's as awesome as I do, but it really has been a blessing to have her to talk to.

Thanks Chel!

Christine. Super power: (Take it as I mean it, please :) ). Christine is like the Jaggernaut on X-Men.

She has momentum that is unstoppable. She's not some huge ugly guy with a ridiculous-looking helmet. She just doesn't stop for obstacles. I mean this both literally and figuratively. Although this picture isn't of her, it looks a lot like her. She's number 1 on the BYU women's lacrosse team, and there have been several instances both in lacrosse and in soccer when she has taken on girls much larger than her and just ran them over like a bulldozer. Also, when Christine puts her mind to something worthwhile, she doesn't stop until she feels like she's satisfied about the job she's done. She can run right over any obstacle. Not to say that it doesn't jar her sometimes, but she keeps trying, and that's as inspiring an attribute as I've ever seen.

Christine and I play hard. She's always been the one that I can count on to play sports and do fun things with. Like snowy hikes, water skiing at 6am, and running a half marathon. She helps me have more motivation to reach higher ("to be that shining star").

Thanks, Christine!

Celeste.

Super power: Lifting spirits of those around her.

She reminds me of a mix between Alice and Jasper from Twilight.* She is very good at making people laugh, which, (I have experienced this) can cure any illness or bad feeling. If you ever feel down on yourself, or sick, or bored, give Celeste a call, and within a few minutes, you won't remember any of those things. She just clears them away like the sun clears dew.

Celeste and I laugh together. She's nice enough to laugh at my lame jokes and make me feel like I'm funny even when I'm not. We watch Psych together (easily the most hilarious tv show ever made, with The Office at second), and have about a gazillion inside jokes.

Thanks, Celeste!

So those are my sisters. Please don't mistake them for my girlfriends. :)

*Yes, I have read the Twilight books. I thought they were good, because of what the vampires could do. I had to take breaks to stop dry-heaving sometimes at the ridiculous girly parts, like when Edward's skin sparkles. What's up with that? Yeah, that made me gag.