The Bears

We Need Weed

2006-01-17T23:52:00.000-08:00

"Paragon." "Alleviate." "Faction." "Miscreant." These immortal words are much more than simply the first four Magnetic Poetry words I just pulled off my desk shelf. Though they are indeed that. But they also describe one man, and one man only. A man of considerable character, and ample arms. That man is Mr. Jared Weed.

For those of you who don’t know, Jared Weed lives on R-5 along with me and all the cool guys at BYU. But let me tell you about this man, and you shall come to understand why I am making a special blog entry all about him.

Jared Weed is a tall beast of a man, but “beast” only implying the good things. He is a potato, not a banana. He is an orange peel, not a raspberry vine. He is a weed, not a blade.

I think it just goes without saying that Jared Weed has made my stay at DT more enjoyable, and by “more enjoyable” I mean “more like a cartoon.” That’s right. If you all look beneath this post, you will see me. But not the me you and me know. The me you and me know isn’t a cartoon, but the me you see below is made by Jared Weed. He is very enjoyable.

Jared Weed is in Men’s Chorus, and he sang a very nice song today at the devotional. Jared Weed beat Mario 64 with 120 stars. I don’t really know the significance of that last one, but no matter how you look at it, Mr. Jared Weed is basically awesome.

2006-01-17T23:39:00.000-08:00

Me as a cartoon 1. By Jared Weed.
Posted by DJC!

2006-01-17T23:38:00.000-08:00

Me as a cartoon 2. By Jared Weed.
Posted by DJC!

2006-01-16T14:14:00.000-08:00

My neice Mylee. When she stayed at our house over break, she and I made a tower that was taller than her!
Posted by DJC!

2006-01-16T14:13:00.001-08:00

I played the piano at the mall this year again. It was pretty fun!
Posted by DJC!

2006-01-16T14:13:00.000-08:00

Ethan with a cast on his leg. My little nephew Tiny Tim.
Posted by DJC!

2006-01-16T14:10:00.001-08:00

This is Christmas Eve 2005. Well, actually, my family did our celebrations a day late this year, so it's really Christmas Day. My siblings, in the place of sibling gifts, put money into buying humanitarian aid stuff and we played a game putting supplies in baggies.
Posted by DJC!

2006-01-16T14:10:00.000-08:00

Some boys in my family. Alex, Andrew, Kirk, Me, Dad, and Jacob.
Posted by DJC!

Martin Luther King James version

2006-01-16T14:02:00.000-08:00

Today we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.  I enjoy this holiday, and I appreciate everything King did in the area of letting students not go to school.  Today I haven’t done anything.  I have a bunch of work to do, but there’s something that’s just really tempting about sleeping in late.  So I did.

My new semester is going to be full of fun things.  Last week was the first week back, and I am taking six classes: American Heritage, Programming 2, News Writing, Astronomy, New Testament and Islam and the Gospel.  I am taking New Testament with Jeff Chadwick, my Judaism teacher of last semester, and he is the reason I am taking the class.  His ideas are so fascinating!  He really knows a lot and he is very enlightening.  I look forward to that class the most.

And speaking of the scriptures, I have been really hammering into the New and Old Testaments lately in preparation for turning in my mission papers in a couple months.  I have been reading about an hour a day, and it has been such a different experience than I expected.  Sometimes I wish I could read faster and still understand what I’m reading, but there is so much interesting stuff in there that I never appreciated before.  I finished the New Testament over Christmas break so now I’m in the middle of Exodus.  I think more Mormons ought to know more about what’s in the Bible.  Well, maybe they do.  But I’m at least glad that I’m learning more.

As it were, awakened from a slumber of ignorance

2005-11-08T23:39:00.000-08:00

My heart is full tonight. It's almost as full as my list of things to do before I go to sleep (will I even go to sleep? Who is really to tell? Especially since, writing this blog entry is not on the list).

I finally have been brought up to speed with life. Living in a dorm, the TV usually attached to a drowsy video-gamer, the newspaper non-existant, I have felt completely out of the loop. It started when I didn't hear about the hurricanes until a phone call with mom. It ended with a recent phone call with mom, who told me about some scandal involving leaks. This was the last straw. I needed to get re-attached. Even if it meant going to the Internet.

First I went to CNN.com, where I found a neat little bookmark feature that, when I click on it, it shows me the top stories, updated CONSTANTLY!! Okay, so I've wasted a good bit of time on this feature, but it's still quite fun.

But the most important feature I found, and this is what I'm REALLY excited about, is NBC Nightly News. Now, for free, NBC is letting people watch EACH DAY'S BROADCAST!! After 8 pm my time, I can watch the day's news according to Brian. This triangle of CNN, NBC, and Jon Stewart's Daily Show, each updated daily, keeps me afloat. Oh! I also get Entertainment Weekly in the mail. That's fun too.

So, my ambition to be a journalist, which has been the victim of a few attempted murders, has now received a wonderful boost. It's awesome. Speaking of which, my spirits were totally boosted today in my Communications class. I'll tell you about that.

Basically, this group made their presentation today and brought up the question, if high school journalists should be allowed to write a story that links salmanila to the school cafeteria. I first made the statement that it depends on the state, because, for example, my state California gives student journalists--even in high school--equal freedom of the press. I was quietly enraged that most people in my group thought that was silly. The general consensus was that high school journalists should not be givin equal rights. This makes absolutely no sense. Responsible journalists are not all out of high school, and there are countless journalists that are not responsible that enjoy freedom of the press. What an incredible display of ignorance.
ME: "Well, even in high school, freedom of the press applies."
SOME GUY: "But the government said no."
ME: "Not in California."
GROUP LEADER: "Well, California is a more liberal state."

UGH! So I sat and stewed for a while. Then, later (much later, because they went waaaaaaaaaaay too long), they posed a question about obsenity. The question was "what is obsenity?" As you can imagine, no one could think of an answer that was complete, so no one said anything. A few people tossed around some ideas, and I raised my hand and said, "You know, in the sense of broadcast journalism, I think that it's just a tough part of a responsible journalist's job to decide what content is obscene and what isn't. Not for shock value, but it's up to them to decide, it's part of the job." And the girl in front of me (she was in my own presenting group in the beginning of the semester) turned around and nicely said, "What a good journalist you'll be." For some reason, this tiny statement made a huge impact on my mood. For some reason, it was just the confidence booster I needed, not only to improve my feelings about the presentation, but also, on a much more subconcious level, to revamp my confidence in myself as a journalist. After being "let go" from the Record, after not being able to write for the Daily Universe, after being away from modern civilization, I was feeling low and not realizing how low I was feeling until this statement from an acquaintance raised me up before I recognized the depths I had sank to!

Anyway, just goes to show how far a simple compliment can go. Too many of those things go unsaid.

2005-09-29T15:44:00.000-07:00

This is my front door.
Posted by DJC!

Maps of Provo

2005-09-04T16:18:00.000-07:00

So hi. I'm not sure what I'm doing here, writing this, but blood is slowly going back into my brain after a long fast. Is "long fast" an oxy-moron?

Today I spoke at testimony meeting and I said that I graduated from seminary the day before I left for BYU. I also said some other things, like I was the youngest of six. Afterward, this Brandon guy came up to me and said he was the youngest of six (3 girls, 3 guys) and he graduated from Seminary two days before he left.

It's nice to know there are still slackers in this world.

Crazy adventure....Welcome to Orem?

2005-09-01T23:27:00.000-07:00

So today, aka DAY ONE IN FIVE-DAY WEEKEND (woo hoo), I decided I'd try to get some errands done, specifically, getting to the bank to deposit some stuff. Now, I chose Wamu because of their great commercials, and I don't regret it, but it sure was hard to find.

My trek began at the Creamery. I bought a donut and some chocolate milk to tide me over before my long and winding trek. Actually, I hoped it would be less winding, so I decided to go on streets that looked straight on the map, such as Univeristy Parkway. The phone book said it was just north (or was it south?) of a certain street, so partly confident, I set off down. To my left, I saw the Y on the mount become less and less in front of me before at once it was behind me completely. I was quite sure I at least could find where I was on the map.

But I was not on the map for long.

Long story short, I wound my way around the entire BYU campus and found myself in Orem. Luckily, I found myself at the Washington Mutual in Orem. Along the way, I found this nice little used CD place where the worker, I discovered was from Lodi! He graduated from Tokay. When I said I went to Bear Creek, and we were in the same school district, it was quite amazing.

But back to Wamu, I also found (at least, in theory) where a nearer bank is than the one in Orem. But I guess that's another adventure.

I was so exhausted for walking for hours (carrying my tune-holding computer with me) that I flagged down a bus to take me home. As I got on, I asked "does this go to BYU?" But I was so tired I didn't care if it did or not if I could just sit down. The driver rudely ignored me, then a minute later said, "Don't stop a bus if you don't want to get on it. Yeah we go to BYU."

All in all, it was a successful day.

2005-09-01T20:42:00.000-07:00

My home! R Hall Woot!
Posted by DJC!

2005-09-01T20:25:00.000-07:00

This guy is Tony. He's a cool guy. He's from Germany. He's my roomy-less neighbor. His hand is slowly disappearing. Quick! Someone hook up Lorraine and George before he's gone for good!
Posted by DJC!

2005-09-01T20:17:00.000-07:00

This picture makes me sick. Bonus points for anybody who can spot why.
Posted by DJC!

2005-09-01T20:16:00.001-07:00

Meet Griffy Wiffy. We love each other.
Posted by DJC!

2005-09-01T20:16:00.000-07:00

Loving parents looking into the west...(hopefully they won't mind this up here.)
Posted by DJC!

Who are you?

2005-09-01T11:55:00.000-07:00

So. You wanna know who I am. Yough. I mean, tough. Dang it. Okay, fine. My name is Derrick James Clements. I'm over at BYU, rocking out. I like journalism, long walks on the beach and AP style. Okay. That's all.

2005-09-01T11:54:00.000-07:00

It's ground zero...how are you SUPPOSED to smile??
Posted by DJC!

2005-09-01T11:50:00.000-07:00

To infinity and beyond!
Posted by DJC!