Well, I figure I’ll let you folks know I’m going on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. What this means is that I’m going to be leaving the United States behind for two years. Yes, two years. I’m going to be living and serving in Concepcion, Chile. That’s in South America in case you don’t know. They recently had an earthquake there, and I will probably be helping to clean up that a little bit, but my main purpose will be to teach about the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.
During those two years, I will be leaving almost all communication with the United States behind. This includes my phone, email and this blog. I will still be reachable by snail mail if you’re really desperate to contact me for some reason. If it has anything to do with design though, I won’t be interested. I won’t be accepting any work or anything for the whole of that two year span. Hopefully when I get back, CSS3 and HTML5 will be industry-standard and supported by even Internet Explorer.
I don’t leave until October 20th, so until then, I’m just trying to get my finances and the rest of my life in order, and chillaxing. If you’d like to help me with that, you can always buy a shirt or four from Open Your Eyes Anyways, while I’m gone, I intend to have this blog be used to contain letters from me. If you want to read them, sweet. If not, sorry, I’ll be back in October 2012. However, I’ll keep it going until I leave and the quote repository and seal will stay up in case you guys want to access them. Hasta luego!
Anyone excited? Like completely excited? Cause I’m excited. But only partially excited. Like that excitement that you get when your stepdad who molests you finally gets put in prison. You’re all happy because he’s been molesting you for years, but at the same time you’re really sad because he’s the closest thing you have to a real father because your real father died two years before you were born(Yes, I know what I just said. It was a joke. I’m not stupid.). I don’t really know what that feels like, but I’ve seen it on TV, so I feel like I have a pretty good idea.
I think the thing I like the least about finals though is my mental state. It’s not really any different, but I feel like it should be. Just look at my bed. I’ve been too lazy to put my clothes in my laundry bag thing and I’ve let it become a mess. Normally that thing’s sparkling clean, just like Mr. Clean’s bald head, but all my clothes are all over the floor and my trashcan is overflowing and it looks like trash. Although I suppose the trashcan normally looks like trash. Oh and my desk. It looks like trash too. But I’m too lazy to clean it off. And to be honest, I’m really not that nervous about finals. Except statistics. I hate statistics. But I feel pretty solid about everything else.
I’m definitely not saying stress is always a bad thing though. Cause sometimes it keeps people from looking like douchebags. Like this guy to the right. Douchebag of the week. This hottie was laying outside of Derek’s window for nearly four hours yesterday. Now I’m not much for sunbathing, as can be attested to by my beautiful Edward Cullen-like pale-to-the-point-of-vampirically-shiny skin, but I can kind of understand those guys who sunbathe with the ladies and whatnot. But this dude was just laying outside on his beach towel eating an apple. No girls anywhere near. Right outside our windows so all the guys could be jealous of his beautiful even tan. Yeah whatever. I don’t care how tan he is, he’s got nothing on me.
Anyways, I probably ought to go study now, I just felt like writing something. Peace out gangstas.
Anyone who knows me very well knows I’m not great with money. I’m not horrible, but I do buy a lot of stupid stuff. And today I either bought one of the coolest things possible, or one of the stupidest things I possibly could have. It’s a suit pattern. Yeah, not a full out suit, but the pattern. If any of you guys even know what that is. According to my little analytics tool thing’s estimates, if you’re reading this, chances are you’re living in Utah, so you might, but the fact that you’re also likely 18-24 kinda throws that off a little bit. Anyways, it’s basically an outline of each piece of the cloth for the suit that has been printed on tissue paper and then you go and make the suit yourself. Why did I buy it? No idea. I was looking at vintage clothing and wanted an older style suit. And my brother lost the pants from my 40s three piece suit, so I wanted something new.
I’ve been told this is a crazy idea though. My mom said it’s practically impossible and is definitely not worth it. Apparently my grandma has only made one suit in her life and she said she’d pay $400 before she’d make one because it’s so hard and she’s extremely frugal and a pretty great seamstress. Not exactly what I was hoping to hear, but surprisingly, now I just want to make it even more. If I gave up when things seemed really hard, I wouldn’t be an Eagle Scout(planning and carrying out a project and then writing the full report in only two months has to be some kind of scout record), I probably wouldn’t be in college now (Those application essays were a pain in the butt), and I would be failing organ this semester, but as a matter of fact, I passed off enough stuff today to bring my grade up from an F to a B, and I’m still aiming for an A because I have one more day of class to get stuff done. Hard doesn’t phase me. I think being able to say I made my own suit will be well worth it. Plus the experience would be pretty sweet to have. I’ve always wished I could sew better. Plus if I did this I could say I’m a better tailor than my mom haha. Although I’d never tell her that. Anyways, if any of you guys have any sewing tips that could possibly help, let me know. I have a lot to learn haha. Oh, and if you see any sweet cloth that would look good with that pattern let me know too haha. And I say haha a lot. Just so you know. I really am laughing inside.
Well in addition to this crazy new piece of my life, I declared myself as a Visual Arts minor today. No, not major. I’m not that radical. But I’ve wanted to take some art classes since I got here, and this is the only way I can do that. A little bit annoying because you’d think they’d let anyone who’s paying tuition take the classes, but no, you’re required to be either a Visual Arts major or minor. Either way, I’m thinking this could be pretty fun. Unfortunately I have to take some intro classes first and I think I have the wrong attitude about those, but I can’t wait until I reach the higher levels. So yeah. Just figured I’d let you guys know I’m about to become the best minor artist of all time haha.
Do people really change? Completely? I thought that in the last 8 months, I had become someone completely different. I thought the way I treated people, the way I felt about certain things, the way I did things had all completely changed from the person I was at home. I felt like I had become completely new, a huge improvement from my old self.
Then I saw a photograph, Nickelback style, although I want to in no way affiliate myself with such a crappy band. I started looking at it and thinking about how much I’ve changed. And realized I haven’t. Sure I’ve told myself I’ve become better, but have I really? Nope. That picture reminded me of the biggest mistake of my life. I’m still not 100% sure exactly how it didn’t end up becoming an even bigger mistake because I know I wanted it to, but today I’m completely glad I didn’t allow it to be. But thinking about it now, I started the same path a couple months ago. Different people involved but exactly the same pattern. If you’re still reading now I commend you because this whole paragraph probably sounds like complete gibberish to you.
Thinking about that got me thinking about politics. Obama promised change back in ‘07 and ‘08. I’m going to say something here that I haven’t really told anyone before, just because few enough of you read this for it to matter. I liked Obama. Back in ‘08, I was a huge supporter of Ron Paul. I’m not stupid though, and I knew he had no chance of being elected. As far as political viewpoints go, his were about as spot-on as any I’ve seen. I have some problems with the way he views the economy, but that’s just about it. However, the official Republican candidate isn’t someone I’m a huge proponent of. Don’t get me wrong, John McCain’s not a bad person or anything, I just felt like he’s not what the Republican party needed. Obama was pretty much exactly what the Democratic party needed. And the world needed. At that moment anyways.
Since 2009, I feel like Obama has put our country into the biggest downhill slide it’s ever been in. Obama was promising to change the way our country runs. Did he? Yes. He made it worse. He began with a bang, so much behind him. Honestly, I was really hoping for a secretary of the arts. That was my hope. Not too much of it left anymore. I felt like that was one thing he’d give us that no republican would. But he also promised a balanced budget, better healthcare, stronger alliances. And how’s he doing on all of that? 0 for 3. I know… I know… he can’t do it without the support of the Legislature. Well, the Legislature has a good majority of Democrats who are supposed to be on his side. That excuse is out the window. Yeah, he came into office at a bad time. So what? He’s still not doing anything that he promised. He spent millions on his election campaign, couldn’t even just a little bit of that have been spent on research to see just how feasible all his plans were?
And then back to me. I hate the way I’ve been. I’m a jerk. A selfish bully. I have no idea why I’m allowed to be, but it seems like no one cares. They admire it in fact. Why? I have no clue. Needs to stop though cause I hate myself for it.
Honestly, this is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while, and I see a lot of cool things around. I love Pink Floyd, although I haven’t listened to them a whole lot lately to be honest, but I was shown this today and I really enjoyed it. 8-bit music interests me and I felt like this was pretty good for 8-bit. So yeah. Enjoy.
So basically, Simon and Garfunkel are one of my favorite music acts of all time. I love them. I love soft music on many an occasion, and they are one of my favorite providers. And my favorite song of theirs is The Sound of Silence. I think it employs some great harmonies, and I love it. I learned it on guitar about a year ago, but I’ve completely forgotten it now. Anyways, I was on YouTube, and I found this sick video. It’s Paul Simon (The Simon half of Simon and Garfunkel) and Bob Dylan, performing a changed up version of the song. I love it. Five stars on YouTube. And I don’t rate movies too much. Listen to it. If you like music, you’ll love this. Oh, and in posting this, I’m also adding Simon & Garfunkel to the list of Dennis Beatty-Seal-Approved music.
I know, I know. I said no more inspirational crap, but this was too beautiful to pass up. And I don’t use that word too often. Which means it’s true. To be completely honest, the music feels a little repetitive toward the end, but it’s still pretty, and I love the particle effect ehre. It’s a great piece of work and the message is great too. WATCH IT! I command you.
Honestly, I saw this trailer just now, and apparently it was just released a couple hours ago, and it looks pretty darn good. If you want to watch it, do so and then read what I think about it below. Or just watch it and leave. It’s a free country so you can do what you want, but I’m guessing since you’re already here you want to read what I have to say. If you want you can skip the video too, but I’d check it out anyways.
I have to say, the trailer kind of has me wanting to see this. I enjoy the music, I enjoy the cinematic style, and I think it will actually be pretty good. I had never actually heard of the comic this is based on, but if the movie’s any good, I might actually check it out. The premise seems kind of cheesy, but this appears to be shot in almost the same style as Speed Racer, and that was one of my favorite movies of all time to be honest. I just love that style where it’s supposed to be a little stupid, but at the same time it’s really good. Yeah. I’m gonna keep watching for more trailers. Tron: Legacy is still my most anticipated movie for this year, but this looks pretty good too.
So I’m adding a new category to the Seal of Approval: music. And today, I’m adding the first addition to this new category. I don’t know how long you’ve known me, but if you’ve known me long, you might know that while I love pretty much any genre of music, rap has never been very close to my heart. I’ve felt like it’s the black sheep of the music genre family. I actually found some rap that I really like though. Even though rap was declared dead after the failure that was the new “We Are the World,” I’ve found a new life to it. TJ Fredette. And he’s pretty dang amazing. He just put out this new song about his brother Jimmer a couple weeks ago, and it was pretty big news just cause Jimmer’s pretty amazing too. Anyways, I’ve heard it a couple times before, but I finally decided it deserves a new Seal category because I definitely approve. Check it out for yourself:
The video isn’t the best quality ever, but the music’s pretty great, especially considering it’s pretty different from what I usually listen to. And it’s clean rap. Like Will Smith but it actually sounds good too. Yeah I just went there. I would love for him to go mainstream, but I’m afraid the fact that he doesn’t just rap about sex and drugs will kind of screw him over as far as that goes. If you’re not under the restrictions imposed by BYU on its Internet, you can check him out on Myspace Music as well.
I don’t really wanna start some motivational blog or whatever, but I got motivated today, so I’m gonna share my motivation to motivate all of you and get you motivated to motivate others about motivation. This should just be a one time thing though. If you’re not into positive messages, I promise, you can just skip this one and come back later. Cause positivity gets old after a while. So yeah.
Yesterday John Lennon came to our school. Er Jim Lovell. Whatever. Same initials. I probably should have written this yesterday but I’ve got a lot going on. So I’m writing it today. But yeah. He said this thing that really got me thinking: "There’s three kinds of people: people who make things happen, people who watch things happen, and people who just sit there and say ‘What just happened?’" So yeah. I could have just put that on the quotes page, but I’d feel weird doing that where I don’t know him personally. Don’t want to get sued for intellectual property infringement or some crap. So yeah. Go out and make things happen! Say yes to everything! There’s no such thing as no! Live your life! Carpe diem! Ok, I’m done now. Hasta luego.
My name's Dennis. Dennis Beatty. I'm pretty much the coolest guy you could ever hope to know. So if you don't already, you should work on it. And this is my blog. You should read it. So you can get to know me and work on that goal. And if you're in a really charitable mood, I've always wanted a singing telegram, so you could send me one of those too. Dennis out.
Anyways, while I’m gone, I intend to have this blog be used to contain letters from me. If you want to read them, sweet. If not, sorry, I’ll be back in October 2012. However, I’ll keep it going until I leave and the quote repository and seal will stay up in case you guys want to access them. Hasta luego!
I think the thing I like the least about finals though is my mental state. It’s not really any different, but I feel like it should be. Just look at my bed. I’ve been too lazy to put my clothes in my laundry bag thing and I’ve let it become a mess. Normally that thing’s sparkling clean, just like Mr. Clean’s bald head, but all my clothes are all over the floor and my trashcan is overflowing and it looks like trash. Although I suppose the trashcan normally looks like trash. Oh and my desk. It looks like trash too. But I’m too lazy to clean it off. And to be honest, I’m really not that nervous about finals. Except statistics. I hate statistics. But I feel pretty solid about everything else.
I’m definitely not saying stress is always a bad thing though. Cause sometimes it keeps people from looking like douchebags. Like this guy to the right. Douchebag of the week. This hottie was laying outside of Derek’s window for nearly four hours yesterday. Now I’m not much for sunbathing, as can be attested to by my beautiful Edward Cullen-like pale-to-the-point-of-vampirically-shiny skin, but I can kind of understand those guys who sunbathe with the ladies and whatnot. But this dude was just laying outside on his beach towel eating an apple. No girls anywhere near. Right outside our windows so all the guys could be jealous of his beautiful even tan. Yeah whatever. I don’t care how tan he is, he’s got nothing on me.
Anyone who knows me very well knows I’m not great with money. I’m not horrible, but I do buy a lot of stupid stuff. And today I either bought one of the coolest things possible, or one of the stupidest things I possibly could have. It’s a suit pattern. Yeah, not a full out suit, but the pattern. If any of you guys even know what that is. According to my little analytics tool thing’s estimates, if you’re reading this, chances are you’re living in Utah, so you might, but the fact that you’re also likely 18-24 kinda throws that off a little bit. Anyways, it’s basically an outline of each piece of the cloth for the suit that has been printed on tissue paper and then you go and make the suit yourself. Why did I buy it? No idea. I was looking at vintage clothing and wanted an older style suit. And my brother lost the pants from my 40s three piece suit, so I wanted something new.
Do people really change? Completely? I thought that in the last 8 months, I had become someone completely different. I thought the way I treated people, the way I felt about certain things, the way I did things had all completely changed from the person I was at home. I felt like I had become completely new, a huge improvement from my old self.
I don’t really wanna start some motivational blog or whatever, but I got motivated today, so I’m gonna share my motivation to motivate all of you and get you motivated to motivate others about motivation. This should just be a one time thing though. If you’re not into positive messages, I promise, you can just skip this one and come back later. Cause positivity gets old after a while. So yeah.