New Look? Old Hobby.

Well...I decided that my blog should get a change of scenery, so last week I thought I'd give it a touch up. Turns out, Blogger doesn't even offer my old format anymore. Go figure. So here's the new one (for now). What do you think about it? I'm not completely sold with the world map in the background, but I liked the color scheme that came along with it, so I settled. It's a work in progress, we'll see how it goes.
Another thing I thought I'd add was what books I'm currently reading. It was kind of a random decision, but there it is. I might add another one that lists my favorite songs of the week. *shrugs*
This week has been fun, lots of work and school. So I suppose not so much fun. (well that was a quick contradiction) Well....it wasn't so bad. I'll call it a neutral week, or as my co-worker said today, it was a pass week. It passed.

One thing I'm happy that I've started again is photoshopping. (For those of you that thought that meant I was shopping for photos, shame on you) I've been able to get a hold of Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 5, and I've been having fun with it again. I used to Photoshop a bunch before my mission, but, like my writing, it sort of fell out of practice once I got home. So now, a year later, I'm back at it again. Mind you, I've only done two pictures so far, but I think it's a good start, especially with how much time I invest in them. Each photo, if I want a good job done to meet my satisfaction, will take at least an hour. I've done photos in less time, but they don't usually turn out as good. (I'll post them at the bottom of this blog)

I enjoy editing pictures, and I'm sort of considering getting a decent camera to take photos with so I can continue to edit more. The two that I recently did I made from scratch, but building off of current pictures is great too. Also, if you want me to do any photoshopping for you, I'd be more than happy to do any. Just let me know what you'd like, and I'll see what I can do. I need more practice, and I want to learn more techniques too.

So here are the two photos. (click on them for a larger version)
The first is based off of the old original Tron movie. The second is based off of the newer Tron: Legacy film.

You aren't dying...

Yup, it's true. I'm not dying. Well, I AM dying in the sense that everyone who is born is dying, but not in the sense that it's going to be sooner than expected. Make sense? Good.
The reason I mention that is the because I want to blog about the scare that I had these last two days. It made me super reflective. I always seem to blog every time I get reflective. Perhaps I should rename my blog to "Andrews Reflections" or something. Although...that sort of sounds like I'm putting in a submission for that contest that they have in high school. Nah, I'll pass. I'll keep the name as it is. It IS my thoughts after all. They just tend to be reflective usually. Well if you have been reading it for a while, that may be what you've come to expect. So yeah...
Anyway, on to my story.
This past Friday, I was out hanging with Ryan at his apartment with some of his roommates and friends. We were playing Mario on his Wii, and a game called Telestrations (I recommend it). It got late, so I finally headed back to my own apartment to sleep. I had a date the next morning, and was also heading back up to K-town for the weekend. By then I was starting to feel sort of weird, but I shrugged it off. It was almost 2am when I got to my apartment and when I got to my room door, I found it locked. In my apartment complex they have keys you can lock your room with, but you have to go to the main office to get your key, and I hadn't done that yet so I was in sort of a tricky situation. Thirty minutes later, and with the help of my roommate and a kitchen knife, I was in my room again.
I'll spare you the fine details on this, but I'll just say that shortly after I got into my room I started to develop some really unusual symptoms that I've never had before, and I'll tell you, they were scary. Since it was 2 in the morning, I didn't have many other options, so I went online to several different medical websites. (Yeah, I know, "don't trust the internet". These sites seem pretty legit though...) I typed in my symptoms, and the results came back on them saying "You might have cancer."
So I thought I was scared before when I started having the symptoms...now I was literally freaking out. I almost called my brother (who is medically trained) or my parents right then, but for some reason I didn't. I was having all sorts of crazy thoughts fly through my head. Some were that I wouldn't wake up if I went to sleep, or that I might bleed to death in the night, or that I only had two years left to live, etc. Yeah, I was scared.
Somehow I managed to calm myself down, and I went to sleep. Saturday morning I called my brother as soon as I was awake and he didn't answer. A while later I called my parents and talked to my mum (who is also medically trained) and she called to set up a doctors appointment after I talked to her. She helped calm me down, and I felt a bit better as she said it could be something minor, but that I should get checked out.
I got back home to K-town and we were off the doctor.
Thankfully, after I was looked over by the doctor, he told us what it was, and that it wasn't cancer. He said I was "too young for that type of cancer". I was pretty relieved. (stupid internet...) He said one part of it seemed slightly suspicious, so I might be called in again if it doesn't go away, if not, I'm good. Now I just have to take some medicine, and I should be good.
So yeah, pretty scary, but good ending. There are few times I've been that shaken up before, but I'm good now. :D

Now what?

This blog marks #40. Woo woo! I think that's an accomplishment, even if you don't. So nyah nyah! (Yes, I realize that 50 is a bit more of an impressive and typically used number, but meh, 40 works too)

I've already mentioned that I'm living in Provo now, and I'm pretty much settled in. All that is left is for school to start and the transition will be complete. Will I become a true Provo-ite then? I dunno. Perhaps I would need to get married first after a one month relationship. That would do it...I think. There seems to be a terrible amount of ideas of how people are down here. (or UP here, depending on where you are reading this) Everyone seems to think people here are full of themselves. "Holier than thou art" I believe people say. I've only been here just about a month, and I haven't noticed anything like that. *shrugs* Maybe I'm like that too...*looks around* Uh oh...I hope not.

As the transition continues, I continue to feel more and more lonely down here. Yeah, I know, I need to make new friends down here. I'm working on it, I promise. School starting will help with that too I imagine. *shrugs again* I have a lot of good friends up in K-town and the surrounding parts, and they are easy to miss. I guess I just miss having people to talk to. My roommates typically keep to themselves, and I don't get much out of them longer than two minutes of conversation. To each their own I suppose. I've blogged about it before, but I want a texting buddy! I've had a couple come and go recently, but I'm left again without one. So in my need to find conversation, I text lots of people during the day to try to spark conversations...fail. Fail fail fail. Perhaps people are tired of texting me...hmm...there's a thought. Well, if you would like to be, I'm open to all applicants. :D

So anyway, I know this is sort of a repeat blog. I apologize. I'm hoping to find more meaningful topics in the future.

Cheers!!