Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Peace

Well friends, I'm out for the next two years. I've been called to serve in the Texas Dallas mission, so I'll be elsewhere preaching the good word till about July or August 2011. It's been fun.

This is what I'm supposed to do, and I'm excited to go do it. The blog should remain up, and I think I've paid the domain fees for the next three years. Hopefully I'll come back and write when I get home. We'll see though.

Anyways, friends, I just wanted to post one last time before I leave. Sure, I haven't posted much this past year, but I still love the blog. It's been an important part of my growing up. It wouldn't have been possible without readers out there like you. Thanks for reading.

If you're interested in writing me, my MTC address is:

Elder Christopher John Thatcher
Texas Dallas Mission
Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604

That address will work for the next eight weeks, or till about september 9. After that, if you feel inclined to write me, you can catch me at

Elder Christopher John Thatcher
Texas Dallas Mission
13747 Montfort Dr Ste 120
Dallas, TX 75240-4454

Much love folks. I'll be back in two. Peace out :)

Friday, July 10, 2009

Five Days

Do you ever wonder about unwritten blog posts? And by that I mean to say that I've been wondering about unwritten blog posts tonight. I have brief flashes of ideas, often when I'm going down some stairs. Just ideas that deserve exploration and writing, stuff that I think, "Hmm, I could blog about that..."

In the event that you've been following the blog, you'll no doubt notice that I haven't been writing about these things. That's alright, but I feel like it's a bit of a shame. Those ideas didn't really get explored too deeply by me. (That last sentence is very ugly-- 'get explored' is not a pleasant way to talk about exploration, and 'too deeply by me' is especially bad. I think that 'by me' is the ugliest part) Revision: Those ideas didn't really experience the exploration I felt they had potential for. Because of that, I didn't experience the exploration that could have come from it. Because I didn't write it here, I lost out on a lot of potential gains.
  • I could have learned something about myself, or at least about how I percieve the world.
  • I could have left something here for me to come back to later. Without writing, there is no permanent record of having that thought.
  • I could have produced something that may have been valuable to someone else.
Of course, none of those bullets are guaranteed. I could write a full post every time that I felt like I had potential for it, and I could perchance never experience any of those successes. Be that as it may, I feel like the potential is there.

I don't mourn the loss of the posts that I didn't write. I do wonder about a future where I would have written those posts. How would things be different if I sat down and worked for that hour it takes to write?

I'm out of here in five days. I'm going on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This is something I've been preparing for for all of my life, and I'm very happy and excited to go. I'm out of here for two good years. I don't regret my decision to pack up and peace out of my local life at all.

It does present a lot of cool opportunities. Sometime before I leave I'm going to write myself my "welcome home" letter. It's a letter that'll detail the plans that I have for myself when I get home. Writing the letter means that I'll have to make a plan for myself. It's not every day that you get to check out of your life for two years. It's sort of like a recess. Go somewhere else, work like you've never worked before, and then come back and make your life the best you possibly can. This project, my life, that I've been working on for the past 19 years is about to take a time out. Timeouts are a great opportunity to reevaluate and gather the resources and vision to come back stronger. Timeouts change the outcome of games, you know. I'm excited to take a timeout.

Will you be hearing from me before I leave? I sure hope so. I want to write a post about my plans and dreams. There's more to say. There'll always be more to say.

Will you hear from me once I'm home? I'm not sure yet. This blog did something wonderful for me and my life... I don't know if I'll have the same need for a blog once I resume my life. We'll see, though. I believe in all of this writing mumbo-jumbo. It's been good to me.

This is Christopher Thatcher, peacing out for the night. Peace and love, friends.

Saturday, June 06, 2009

Icarus

Hi, my name is: Icarus

I went running with James today, and it was awesome. It was a very focusing run. It helped me take a step back and look at life and what I want to do and to be.

I've got a plan now, and I'm super excited about this plan. It's audacious and it's pretty much bound to fail. But I am determined to not give up. It's my plan and I'm sticking with it. Because really now, who's to say what I'm capable of? Who's to say that I'll fail? Maybe I will. But hey, I've got a shot at it, so I'm going to take it.

My advisor emailed me back. It wasn't a super long email, but he essentially said, "Yes, you will have prereq problems, but the teachers should be willing to sign you in anyways. I'll be retired by the time you get back, but this other guy should be able to help you. Good luck on the mission." It was cool to get a response. I know that's his job and all, but it was nice for me to get my thoughts out there and to get his thoughts back. In a small way, it's sort of like getting the "Yeah, I believe in you." back. I know it's not that dramatic, but it wasn't something like, "Nah, you can't hack this, go home." It was nice, that's all.

So, yeah, I'm feeling much better. Less sluggish. Tomorrow looks like it ought to be a really good day. This cat is off to read and then to sleep. It's 1:46 AM, but that's a ton earlier than the past few nights has been. It feels good. I ran today, I've done a little bit of work to actually earn this sleep tonight. Feels nice.

Friday, June 05, 2009

Sluggishness

I'm alive, really. And I do still think and feel, even if I haven't written in a while. This past week has been a little ridiculous. I've really enjoyed it, but there hasn't been a ton of life progress involved. I got a sweet computer game for my birthday, Mass Effect, and me and Michael have been logging lots of hours late into the night on it. Because my life is almost entirely up to me right now, that means I stay up very late and wake up very late. It's not a good way to get much done, but it's been a good time. I'm torn right now between just finishing the game (we're pretty close) or just quitting cold turkey because I can't handle this lack of accomplishment for much longer. There are things that I need to get done that I haven't been getting done. But hey, that's only up to me.

I leave for PLC on Tuesday. That's pretty sweet action. I'm not ready for it, but I think that I will be by then. I need to fix my bike up, pack, and learn all the lessons I'm supposed to be teaching. It should be fun. I've never been an "Adult advisor" before. That'll be cool.

I finally emailed my chem advisor today. Technically he's not my chem advisor since I'm not a chem student. But when I do become a chem student, then he'll be my chem advisor. Either way, I emailed him my proposed schedule just to see if it's realistic and doable. It's a little smashed up because of AP credit and other classes I took without knowing I wanted to do chemistry. But I'm hoping that it'll work. It's a pretty fierce return semester, but I'm really excited about it. It's what I want to do, and I'm so happy to finally have something to work towards.

I'm supposed to be going camping tonight. I don't really want to. Not because I don't like camping, because I do, but because there is other stuff that I'd like to do tonight. I suppose it can be okay, if I work harder right now I can manage most of it, and I can finish the rest on Saturday. Hmm.

Work. Haven't been doing much of it. I feel really good when I do work. I should do more of it.

Okay, I'm out. I've got a bike to fix up. Sorry about the lack of postage, I should be managing more of it in the near future. I've been liking life, I just need to work harder. Nobody is forcing me into anything these days. It's this insane lack of schedule or outside responsibility. There's a list of things to be done, and aside from the occasional reminder from mom, it's entirely up to me. This is life, and it's always been life. No new concepts or governing principles here. This isn't a surprise and it's nothing new. And I know what I need to do. I just need to do it. So here I go, to do it. Whoosh.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Quesadilla

There was an excellent moment tonight. I got home and was hungry, so I and went about searching for something to hit the perfect spot. In a flash of glory, the idea of microwaving a quesadilla hit me like a tidal wave of satisfaction. A quesadilla was exactly what I needed right then.

So I made the quesadilla and it was fantastic. I loved it. And I'm just here tonight to say that sometimes the perfect solution is a quesadilla. It's not often that a perfect solution is easily available or even in existence. Some decisions are so difficult that no matter what choice one makes someone gets hurt. The quesadilla question wasn't like that. I needed something to eat, and a quesadilla was, without question, the perfect solution. No compromises, no trade-offs-- nothing but delicious cheesy goodness.

So hey, life is worth living- we've got quesadillas.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Sporadi-post!

Because normal words that are cut in half and end in "-post!" sound really cool.

Here I am, hooray! I use google analytics to track the traffic to my blog. I'm consistently amazed at how many hits I get from random google searches. I wrote a post about spirit week at eisenhower a few years ago, and I mentioned a kid's first and last name. I usually made it a policy not to use last names on the blog, but I guess I just slipped that day. Anyways, I've had 13 hits to the blog from google searches on his name in the past few years. Thirteen hits isn't a lot, but it's interesting how they are spread out. It's not like there are eight hits in one month, no, they're evenly spread out. Someone is interested in that kid. Chances are that it's just that kid. It may also be the police or the news folks. Either way, I think it's fun.

Things that I'm excited about: 

1) There's an Ultimate tournament between singles wards coming up on the 30th. Granted, it won't be as intense as other tournaments I've played in, but it's still an ultimate tournament. That's awesome. We're going to dominate. With three Thatchers on the team, we're going to work dang hard to bring home the trophy. As an added bonus, this ward took absolute last place at this tournament last year. They're out for blood, and now that me and Andrew have joined the team, I think we're going to get it.

2) I'm going to PLC again, w00t! As a quick recap, PLC is a week long camp that 15+ year old boys are invited to from about eight stakes. The whole week is designed to build leadership skills and awesome stuff like that. I went as a participant three years ago and it totally blew me away. I went back as staff the last two years, working in the "presidency" that ran it. This year I get to go back as an adult leader, despite my obvious lack of adult status. I'm absolutely giddy about this. The months that lead up to PLC are incredibly stressful for staff. There's just a lot to be done, and trying to collaborate power sharing between a bunch of 17 year olds and a bunch of fossils isn't an easy task. The week of PLC is really hard too, but we all know that it's worth it at the end. I'm excited to go this year because there's nothing cooler than the lessons that you learn at PLC, and that's what I get to focus on this year. Nothing administrative, just me teaching these newbies stuff that's true and incredibly effective. These lessons make my heart sing they're so good. I've never run into anything that's as good at teaching effective leadership skills like PLC. So yeah, it's a brute. But it's so worth it, and I'm so excited to go back and help one more time.

3) I get to play basketball and Ultimate tomorrow. Basketball with Dak and those folks, and Ultimate practice for the tournament. I love doing both of those things. That's great news!

So, I was reading some bloggage tonight- personal finance stuff like usual. And I started reading this post about something or other, blah blah blah. Anyways, it talked about being confident, and how to get confident. And I really just had to stop halfway through that first sentence and think to myself, "Huh, reading this crud's not going to help me get confident. A little bit of work sounds like the right thing for me. I'm out." So I quit reading, came here to write, and now I'm off to study. Because let's be serious, reading a blog about how to gain confidence isn't going to make me a better person. Some hardcore study will make me a better person though, and isn't being a better person something that's going to make me more confident? You better believe it.

So I'm out. I hope you're all doing well. Happy postage. 





Saturday, May 16, 2009

Work at Ultimate

So, It's sort of late and my bloodsugar was just uber low. While it's rising now, I'm still a little drained. So this post might be a slog of language that isn't as refined as usual and thoughts that aren't as developed as any of us would like. 

I've decided I want to blog, and I had a pretty good thought today. These two things, combined, mean I should probably post. So here I am. 

We played Ultimate tonight, which was pretty cool. The demographics were a little different than usual, but we still had a fairly high level core of players. Me, Levi, James, Andrew, Brad, and Jake were all pretty competitive tonight. We had a lot of new folks and more girls than usual (although I was definitely impressed with the girls-- all four of them exceeded expectations) 

My chauvenism aside, my team was outgunned for the last game. Conditions were perfect for Ultimate, but the other team was straight up better than mine. That'd be okay, other than the fact that I was second captain. I had nobody to blame for the mismatch but myself.

Levi was consistently guarding me on offense, so I had him on defense. It was really frustrating to see him back at the top of his game. He's had ankle problems for months, so I've been a little faster than him. He was in tip-top shape tonight, and he was burning me left and right. Not only that, but he was doing a great job marking me when I had the disc, and got way too many handblocks on me. Getting beat by someone I'm not used to getting beat by frustrated me.

My team wasn't performing the way I thought they should, and I was getting really frustrated. I decided that I was going to work harder. I have this habit of saying sorry every time my team gets scored on. It's been going on for years. It's really easy to look at any play in Ultimate and see what I could have done to stop it. If my guy burnt me, I know I could have run harder or faster or better. If someone else gets burnt, I know that I could have used my brain to set myself guarding them instead of the person that was destined to get burnt. Somewhere along the line I know that I could have changed the way that that play went. I know that that's not really a healthy way to view Ultimate or sports in general. I need to accept responsibility, yes, but I also need to have realistic views about how often my team is going to be successful. We will get scored on, even if I play a perfect game. I can't expect myself to play a perfect game. It's not like I'm beating myself up on this, I never really have, it's just important to note.

Anyways, I decided that I was going to work harder. I was tired of losing, and I knew that if I worked hard enough, I could beat levi and change the game. I proceeded to run really hard, and to defend Levi with a ferocity that wasn't really appropriate for the level of play we were at. I commit three or four fouls on him-- it was pretty dirty. I wasn't trying to foul him, but I certainly wasn't trying not to. I did enjoy marginal success as I ran harder and faster. I didn't give up so often, and I made some good defensive stops and decent offensive opportunities. It was alright.

My team still lost. Pretty handily. I worked, but it didn't get us the victory. I kept my bad attitude for the entirety of the game. We had some good moments, but I was still tired of my team and tired of losing. My work, in the end, changed a few things for us. We scored more than we would have. I stopped Levi more than I would have otherwise. My team was slightly better for it. We still lost, though.

I realized that I was doing the wrong kind of work. I've got decent Ultimate skills, but I'm not as fast as some of the other guys. My handling is pretty good, I feel, but I'm still defendable. I feel like I have an advantage in team leadership and training. I've played more Ultimate than almost anybody that shows up to Frisbee Friday, and I've taught more Ultimate than most of them too. I generally know how to motivate a team and help them see what needs to happen to win. It's a role that I love, but it's not the role that I chose to fill tonight.

I could have worked to have a better attitude and to help the team meet their potential. Instead, I put some walls up around myself and worked hard to improve my individual performance. While we did gain from this, I really think that we'd have gained more from me being a nice guy and working for the team. I know I would have been happier with the outcome had I done that. I bet the other folks would have been too. And I really think we'd have played better.

So I'm not saying that I blew it. I'm just exploring the idea that I am better fit as a motivator and general than I am as a standout Ultimate player. I just have more to offer in that category than I do in the other. Some folks are better suited for certain jobs. That's one that I've worked hard to learn to fill, so I might as well work hard at filling it on the field. 

It's sort of a downer, cause I'd really like to be the best Ultimate player I know. I guess in a way I still have that opportunity. I just do better when I focus on other things. I can still be a good ultimate player, I just have to be good in a way that's different from Brad. 

So, my bad on being such a pansy tonight and getting upset about consistently losing. I worked hard to change it, but I wasn't doing the most productive work that I could have been doing. Interesting how that all goes.

That's the end of the post. I hope that you're all doing well. I'm excited to go to bed and sleep like a rock because of all that running I did. It did feel good, to try so hard at something. I'm glad that I get to reap the benefits well into the morning. My phone is still dead, so I apologize if any of you have tried to reach me. Keep up the good work friends, I'll try to do the same.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

May 13, 2009

I am going to ramble tonight. And it's for a lot of reasons. I want to post, but I feel like I stop myself from posting when I try to do something that is too good. I also feel very human tonight, and I find that nights I feel like this and write about it generally lead to me learning more about myself. This is what I want to do-- so here I am. 

Do you ever remember something you used to know? Or recall something that you used to think about all the time, but stopped thinking about somewhere along the line? That happened to me last night as I wrote in my journal. A theory of mine, one that I may have actually put up here. Just something I used to use to explain the way that I chose to act and the way that others acted. It wasn't really a theory, more of a model. But I'd talked about it with my guys, and we were all on board with this. We used it to classify ourselves and to classify others. It was a pretty sweet model, and I felt like it helped me be a little bit of a more effective person. I forgot about it somewhere between here and there. I know I didn't think about it for the entire time I was in Logan. I probably didn't even think about it at all last summer either. But in one pretty awesome moment I remembered it last night. And that makes me happy.

It was the investment theory that me and the guys had worked out. The idea that every conscientious action that a guy undertook around a girl was in some form or another an "investment". If he was trying to win her heart, he would purposely do something. Sometimes he'd slide up next to her and put his arm around her and try to act smooth. We referred to this as a short term investment. P-Burn was our poster boy for the short term investment. Now, short-term investments do work, occasionally. They are high risk-- but that means that they carry high rewards if they're successful. Short-term investments were never quite my style. Short term is one side of the spectrum, and the other side of the spectrum is the long term investment. That investment style is low risk and relatively low reward. The only reason that long term works at all is because, over long period of times, you can accumulate a very large quantity of long term investments that stack on top of each other. Given enough time, you can become a good guy in the eyes of many. Long term investments were my way of justifying not being brave enough to flirt with girls. But aside from all of that, it did make a lot of sense. 

Understandably, not every action undertaken around a girl is actually a conscious and calculated piece of work. But the moves that are, we figured, exist somewhere on that continuum between short term and long term. 

You know, I made exactly one friend in Logan. Interestingly, I think that the investment model works for friendship too. The whole idea behind the investment model is that a guy takes something of his own and devotes it to gaining some part of someone else. I'd take some of my energy, time, ideas, ability and work and try to win some regard or a smile or something from someone else. It's a risk that we all undertake. We devote our energy, which is precious, and risk failure every time we do this. It's a big deal.

In Logan I didn't devote too much of my energy to people. I had some of my closest friends in the world with me wherever I went. I had schoolwork, video games, sleep, and the occasional game of basketball to devote my time to. I didn't set out to make new friends, and I more or less didn't.

Now, I'm not lamenting this. I smile because I really did make one awesome friend. Someone that, when I'll see down the road, I'll smile and be happy to see. Not an awkward reunion where I have to say hi because I know them, but because I really am legitimately happy to see them. I'll want to know how they're doing, and I'll be sincerely happy when I hear that they're doing well. I made a friend. And it's a real friend, and not a friend that's going to go away. It's a really great feeling.

I don't make friends super easily, all things considered. I can be nice to folks, I can help folks out, I can enjoy being with folks, but friendship is a pretty big deal for me. So I don't really feel terrible about making only one new friend in Logan. I value it, that's all.

The moral of my story: making friends takes investments. It requires a sacrifice and risk of time and energy. But when people do give of themselves they tend to be rewarded. I didn't give much of myself to others while up in Logan. I won't say that I regret that, but I will say that I want to be the kind of person that is constantly giving of himself for others. 

Don't you just love the past? I love telling stories. I love remembering things that I haven't thought about for a long time. Events that are long past, but that still bring a triumphant smile to my face. I love remembering nerd team and track from junior high. So long ago, but such a huge deal to me at the time. I love remembering hard things that I've succeeded at. I love the old jokes, the old work, the old stuff that made me who I am today. I love knowing that I didn't die and change when I went to college. Some stuff changed, and certainly I've changed, but that doesn't mean that I have to throw all that old stuff away. I want to be a complete person, and you can't be a complete person if you just throw out high school and junior high. The littler version of me, for better or worse, brought me here. And all in all, that's pretty cool stuff.

If there was a zombie outbreak, I think I'd go to shopko. There are lots of reasons that Shopko wins out over Wal-mart or target or anything like that. When mass hysteria breaks out, crazy people trying to load up on food and weaponry will be just as dangerous as the zombies will be. The great thing about shopko is that I haven't seen a single person shopping there for years. So while the masses are fighting amongst themselves over Wal-marts dwindling supplies, I'll be sitting pretty on top of my untouched mountain of insulin, crossbows, deodorant and nutri-grain bars in the middle of shopko. Christopher: One, Hysteric masses: Zero.

Zombie outbreak aside, how do you become that guy? You know, the guy you want to become. I think that I need to work on remembering that I want to become that guy. Because if I don't think about becoming anything I don't think I'll actually become anything. I need to remember that I'm a dynamic character. Sometimes I get stuck in this rut of thinking that I'm the way I am and that nothing is going to change that. Some rut about discovering what my deal is and trying to find good ways to work around my flaws. It's a tragic view of life that I totally don't buy into when I'm really thinking about things. It only comes around when I get off the horse of progress and simply exist. I don't spend near enough time on that horse anyway. 

See, that last statement, "I don't spend near enough time on that horse". How many ways can I actually look at that? On the tragic side, I, as a person, am limited as to the amount that I can spend progressing. Because I don't do much of it, I am therefore destined to continue to do not much of it. It's just the way things are. On the optimistic side of life, that statement just says that I have previously made choices that didn't make me progress. That's all. It doesn't say anything about what will happen tomorrow. And that's pretty refreshing, because that means that tomorrow is up to me and the decisions that I make. Now that's high quality living right there.

That's one thing that blogging has always done for me. It has always reminded me that I'm in charge of making myself into something incredible. It reminds me that it is my responsibility to make choices that will make action happen that will move me forward. Knowing that what has happened to me has been a function of the choices that I've made is critical. Knowing that means that I know what I have to do to become that guy that I want to be.

Thinking about people, friendships, relationships-- stuff that's important to me-- that's all that comes down to right now. Decisions. How am I going to spend my life energy? What am I going to do about all of this? Pushing boundaries, experiencing new things, it all bundles into it. I make decisions to do things, based upon what I want. If I want nothing to change, I just do what happens. But if I want change in my life, I need to do work to make it happen. While I'm generally happy with my life, I do want change. That means work. And work is always a good thing. Can I really get what I want right now? Haha, there's a good chance that I can't. But that doesn't mean that I'm not going to work for it. As corny and cliche' as it is, I'd so much rather work and fail then never work and fail anyways. Because failing because you didn't work is killer. Failing because you worked and failed carries a certain sweetness and victory to it. There's something very rewarding about failure, I think. Well, righteous failure at least. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there's something very very rewarding about doing your absolute best at that one moment of time and still coming up short. Failure, sure, but you know right then that you did your best. And it's not often that one can truly know they did their best. Sometimes victory doesn't require your absolute best. Sometimes you win with 75% of your capacity for effort. But when you give 100% at one moment in time and still come up short. Mmm, that's sweet, because you know that that's the way it is. At least you go home happy, knowing you worked.

See, that's another one of those good old stories. I have spilled my guts to a girl I knew would reject me exactly once in my life. I may have come close to doing it some other times, but those times *might* count. This time was so legit that there's no way it couldn't count. It was some time ago, but I'm still happy about it. Because hey, I did work. It was something that I'd never done before. It took courage and determination. Now I'm romanticizing it, but still. Life is cool like that.

Who am I writing to? I'm not sure. I remember that I was never quite sure who I wrote to before, but I always had an idea. I even invented a character for some time, mystery blank. Boy, was she something else. Some distressed girl that found some measure of comfort from reading all the stuff that I wrote. It was my way of making the world a better place, by helping her through the blog. Now of course, it wasn't as close to crazy as it sounds, I promise. That was just the name I gave to the mythical girl that was some embodiment of the sum total of all my readership. Not that all my readership was some distressed girl, but rather that that was my favorite way to find motivation to write. And in a way I do believe it, yes. Because like I said, I gave some part of myself. And whoever it was that chose to accept that part of myself, that interaction and exchange still took place. Interesting how that all works, isn't it? Hmmm.

So what's the plan? Tonight I'll take out my index card and write down the things I know I need to get done tomorrow. And then I'll wake up and work on investing. Investing in old friends, new friend, in Ultimate, an economic future, preparedness, everything. Investing because I do want a different future than the one I'll get by doing nothing. And while I don't know every detail of the future that I want, I know enough about it to start working. I've got a picture, and I'm running with it.

I hope things are going well for you, whoever and wherever and perhaps whenever you are out there. Much love to you all. Much work too.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Working on it

Blogger likes to mess with my font. Sort of bothersome, but I suppose it's not the end of the world. In any event, I do intend to blog. For a few days I had this awesome drive to post. That inner drive is nearly gone, but I'm still pushing myself to get it done. No awesome post tonight, but maybe tomorrow, eh?

In the meantime, a cool video. I saw it on facebook, so my apologies if you've seen it before. 


Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Songs for Today

Some people make mixes and stuff. I've always wanted to be one of those people.  These are the songs I listen to on youtube every once in a while. I don't have them, and I probably won't ever have them. I like them more than the songs I do have, I'd daresay. Regardless, a list of good songs for today-->








I never watch the music videos, so if you happen to watch them and find something objectionable, I apologize. I may come back later and explain about each song, if there's interest or I get bored of my other post tonight. I hope you enjoy the music though. 

edit: no other post tonight. Ha, take that.

Saturday, May 09, 2009

























This is me and my brother of a cousin, AJ. What a stallion.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Ballad of the Unfulfilled

I wrote this narrative to clue the girls downstairs in on what was going on between Andrew and the girl next door. I thought you might like it. Any similarities between characters in this story and people in real life, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No animals were harmed in the posting of this story.

Ballad of the Unfulfilled
The tale of Andrew Thatcher and girl next door
(Written in loving tribute to Scottie Klein)

“. . .” she said.

Our strapping young hero had just asked her a question, and her answer startled him. He was expecting something, anything that would clue him in to her feelings. With no revelation in sight, he decided to try a different tactic.

“What about Chili's?” He probed further.

“...” was all that she said.

In an effort to determine where she wanted to eat, he was boldly and desperately engaging all of his faculties. Distracted by a gnawing paper-cut wound that threatened to become infected and cost him his entire arm, he knew that making a decision quickly was of the essence. With a sly smile, he decided to do the same thing to her that he did to the old folks at the care center.

“Oh, you like Chili's? Great! Let's go!”

She hadn't said it. But she hadn't argued with it either. He knew that this line of dealing with her couldn't end well. But he was desperate. Our hero had a gnawing paper-cut wound, after all.

With a happy heart he whisked her off to Chili's where they dined and enjoyed themselves. Our hero happily noted that he was one step closer to following the council of his priesthood leaders to “Get married! Now! Don't wait!”

As they traversed the long distance from Chili's to Brad's borrowed car in the parking lot, a ferocious dragon leapt out and barred their path. The dragon, despite its terrorizing stature, was indeed a thing of pulchritude. His name, in fact, was Pulchridude the Dragon. The hero, wincing in pain from his still bleeding paper-cut wound, slew the dragon with a clever brandish of his Chili's receipt. “That which threatens my life has just ended yours, heathen-beast. Let this day forever be remembered as the day that I slew Pulchridude the Dragon with a receipt from Chili's that offers me a chance to win $1000 if I complete a survey. How's that for romantic, fair maiden from next door?”

“...” came her response.

Later, as they sat in the twilight of Apartment 36 without the open-sign on, our bold hero casually slid his unwounded and therefore more attractive hand towards hers on the couch. He slyly studied her body expressions, hoping to notice whether or not she appreciated this casual sliding of his unwounded and therefore more attractive hand towards hers on the couch. With nary a change in demeanor, she sat on the couch in the twilight of apartment 36 without the open-sign on, as if to say with her composure, “...”.

What seemed an eternity later, nothing had changed. Dissatisfied with his repeated failures to determine her true feelings, he finally asked the bold question. “Fair maiden from next door, may I hold your dainty hand?”

“...”

He waited. He wasn't sure if she had offered an answer and then stopped, like this: “...”, or whether she had started answering and just wasn't done yet, like this: “.............................., …................................, …......, …........, …..............................................”.

He considered the implications of pulling an old-folks home on her. He could probably just go for it, and then tell all of his friends that it had been a success. As he settled himself to a reality of simply pretending his future eternal companion agrees to everything he says, he was haunted by the ghost of Norm. In haunting fashion, as haunting ghosts are wont to do, Norm warned our hero of the treacherous path he was treading. Our hero made a vow to Norm that he would never perform such a heinous crime. Norm quickly forgot the vow and became distracted.

As the hero dropped the fair maiden from next door off at her house, he felt like a big man. He hadn't been a dirtbag, and therefore the date was not an epic failure. He said his hasty goodbye and ran up the stairs and ended the twilight of apartment 36 by turning the open sign back on. As he turned his back on the fair maiden from next door, he could swear he still heard her voice echoing on the wind, “...”

Unfinished Project

Midway through my senior year I decided to begin a "text of the day" log. I'd pick the single greatest text I got that day and write it down. After some long period of time I'd compile them all and post something great.

Summer came, and I stopped texting folks and folks stopped texting me. The texts that I had managed to collect, however, are simply too good to not post. They deserve to meet the purpose of their creation. Beautiful in their awkwardness and appropriateness*, these marvels of modern communication made my days and weeks a little brighter. Thanks friends, for being worthy of text of the day honors.

*"appropriateness" wins the award for ugliest appropriate word ever.

There's a good chance you won't actually get most of them. Most were pulled from the midst of good conversations. I think they're all capable of standing on their own, however.

Here, for you today-- Christopher Thatcher's texts of the day.


First text: "Hahaha :) you're a cutie"
Second text, 30 seconds later: "Don't read too much into that... Haha."
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 5:25 PM, 2008
From: Tyrel Jensen


"So i was mowing lawns and thinking, and this thought came to mind. If only people were like shakira's hips. Her hips don't lie."
Sent: Saturday, April 26, 6:24 PM, 2008
From: Glen Roundy


"Thatcher, am I a bad father? :'(?
Sent: Monday, April 28, 10:32 AM, 2008
From: Tyrel


"My belly button lint is actually grass :("
Sent: Saturday, May 24, 4:46 pm
From: Glen Roundy


"Oh my gosh. I want a baby. Lol. For the first time in my life."
Sent: Sunday, May 25, 5:55 PM
From: Hope Coon


"lol, what do you know about being a real man? you can't even manage your own bloodsugar :D i happen to like quiche"
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2:50 PM
From: Kyle Klein


"hey...dont do anything i'd like to do"
Sent: Wednesday, July 9, 2008
From: Kyle Klein, sent to me while I was on a date with Heather. From out of nowhere. So hilarious.


"We're talking about diabetic people in my nutrition class. Thought I'd say hi."
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 11:40 AM
From: Marissa Weeks

And the number one text...

"She's not that much of a catch. She's just freaking good looking."
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 10:36 Am, 2008
From: Name Withheld

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Back - For a Limited Time Only

Hey friends, I'm back.

Once upon a time Chris went to college and his blog turned emo. While this was an important stage in the life of Chris, his blog didn't like it. Then Chris underwent some growth and became considerably less emo. His blog, recognizing that Chris wasn't going to post lyrics to emotional songs anymore, decided to change his looks a bit and once again embrace the world.

Cool story, eh?

So, I'm back, for a little more than two months. I'm pretty happy with the graphical changes. They took far longer than they should have, but I think they're pretty decent. I still have some work to do with how the actual text looks, not sure how that's going to work out. But in the meantime, enjoy the new banner and background. At least I got the title right this time.

What happened over the past six months of my life? What's been on my mind? What's been important to me? We'll get there, well, at least as much as we can get there, I promise.

State of the union: May 5th, 2009-

Last Wednesday I received a mission call. I've been called to serve in the Texas Dallas mission, Spanish speaking. I'll be entering the MTC on July 15th. I am blown away at how incredible this all is. I'm happy and enthusiastic about all of this, and I'm so ready to get to work getting prepared.

Last Friday I completed my second semester at Utah State. My grades were what I expected, and I will be keeping my scholarship. I feel like I learned a whole lot from my time at Utah State. I've faced challenging days and I've faced days that were far too easy. I'm taking it all as a net gain, and I'm very happy with it. I'm excited to be away from school for 2.5 years, and to come back with more determination than ever.

Here I am, at home, for a little more than two months. I'm in an entirely new period of my life. I've never been here before, and I will never be here again. It's a short period, only two months long. There are very few things that linger over from the past six months of my life. Things began changing very rapidly last week, and they continue to change and will continue to change for quite some time.

This freshness and newness of life gives me a lot of opportunities that I'm excited to take. I'm living in a town I haven't lived in for eight months. The weather is finally nice. I have no job, but I may be getting one soon. I no longer have monthly bills, I no longer have scheduled classes, and I no longer live with anyone that isn't related to me. For two months, I'm facing a life I've never faced before.

I'm here because I want to come back. I've got things to say, things to explore. This blog, like I've always said, is here to make the world a tiny bit better of a place. It makes the world a better place because it makes me a little bit better. Since I'm part of the world, and since I'm getting better, the world is getting better because I'm typing here. No battle. I don't feel like that was happening during my emo-blog period. I feel like that stage has passed, and that we can all get back to what's important.

Where will it take me? I've got no idea. This may be an awesome flop. But hey, at least I got a cool banner out of it, right?

I'm out, but I'm going to be back. Ladies and gentlemen, I made it. I passed my first two semesters. I kept my head up, and we made it through. I'm finally here. This is incredible.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Forgive me for the mushy palindrome

So, this is a video that I had nothing to do with creating. So that means that I usually wouldn't embed it here. But it's a really cool video and I'm having a pretty good morning. So enjoy the palindrome :)

Rockin' all sorts of suburbs

Friday, January 30, 2009

Save Tonight

I thought the other night about starting a new blog. I wasn't thinking of actually doing it, I was just thinking about what it would take to do it- what that experience would be like. I thought about it the same way I think about flying an airplane. It's not something I'm going to do, but it's something that is interesting to think about when it comes to mechanics.

I thought about starting that new story for all of those new people. How does one introduce one's self? I mean, where do I stand?

This blog has been here for four years, on and off. More on than off, really. I love it for its historic value and for the way it has captured a part of me forever. I don't need to introduce myself here, because it's assumed that those who read it know who I am. We're familiar here.

But I sort of caught hold of that introductory idea. That concept of evaluating where I am right now and sharing it to give everybody a better idea of who I am and where I'm going.

And that theme sort of stuck with me for quite a while, as far as ideas and feelings late at night go. It started ringing bells and resonating in a lot of areas that had nothing to do with blogging.

How do we truthfully evaluate where we are? I suppose it's easy enough to catch specific areas of ourselves. Where do I stand academically? I came off of a great high school career that was filled with success and great opportunities to learn, both in the classroom and in leadership positions. I'm currently attending a university on academic scholarship, and I have no major, but I'm leaning towards chemistry right now. I'm holding a 3.75 gpa, but I'm working on raising that this semester. Now we have a decent idea of where I am academically, we can do that.

And we can do it for other areas too. What's my relationship status? Sometimes those ones get complicated, but more or less it's not too hard tell all the stories if you really need to. That can be understood.

I guess it's just that idea of the big picture that really got to me. Living day to day doesn't take much personal exertion. Granted, I wouldn't be attending this university in the manner that I am if it hadn't been for everything that has come before, but still, here I am. I went to school yesterday and didn't think at all about high school. I didn't think about AP credit or about choir or about litmag or Ultimate or good times at lunch. Those things that helped build me and bring me here, I wasn't too worried about them. And I wasn't thinking about where I'm going either. I was certainly at college because of where I want to go and because of what I've done to get here, but those things weren't serious concerns in my consciousness.

And perhaps that's just the reminder that I got. I am where I am because of the choices that I've made. Good or bad, they have built me. That's so cool. And even cooler is the fact that I'm making choices all the time, still. And that who I am in a week, a month, a year- that's up to the choices that I make right now. I love being a dynamic character.

Starting a new blog, introducing myself, that idea is so refreshing and appealing because the very act implies a world of forward progress that is about to be explored. "Hi, I'm Chris. These are my interests and hobbies, these are some cool things that made me who am I, and here's where I'm working on going." You can't introduce yourself with a new blog without that forward looking element. It's just, refreshing, I guess.

Life is good. It has its ups and downs. Learning from stuff isn't really something I ever was conscious about doing. Maybe it's just a cop-out. But still, progress happens, and that's a good feeling.

I hope you're all doing well. It's a late night post that I felt like writing. So yeah, good luck with everything friends. :)

Friday, January 02, 2009

Things That 2009 Needs

1. More Five for Fighting
2. Regular running
3. A 4.0 semester
4. A regular bed time and a regular wakeup time
5. A mission
6. No more Dota
7. A temporary job
8. More good posts
9. More work
10. A decision on a major
11. USU intramural ultimate trophy in my apartment
12. A mile under 5:30 again
13. More haircuts
14. More time in the library
15. More shirt ironing
16. More teaching
17. More caring
18. More ramen
19. More rich brothers
20. More earning interest on borrowed money. Ha!
21. More frugality
22. Less Arby's runs
23. More Del Taco runs
24. More self disclosure
25. More growth
26. More decisions
27. More study
28. More learning
29. More writing
30. Less procrastination
31. More supportive texts to friends
32. More friendship
33. More sacrifice
34. More ideas for the list.