I am a total NERD.

I'm coming to find out I'm a total nerd.

I first got the impression that I was a nerd when I started enjoying my physics class a lot this semester. I tried to maintain my aloof coolness by saying things like: "Nah, physics is pretty cool. I could chuck a baby off of that roof, and just by timing how long it took to hit the ground, I could tell you how tall the building is."

But then I realized that talking about throwing babies off of buildings isn't really cool at all, so I stopped doing that.

I really started to worry about myself when I would totally geek out when I got a physics problem right. I think the only time I've been happier since I got 100% on my physics homework was when I baptized someone on my mission.

I was still able to justify that, however, by telling myself that I just enjoyed the sense of accomplishment, which is totally cool thing, akin to landing a new trick on a snowboard or something.

But no. I can't avoid it any longer. I'm a nerd.

The convicting piece of evidence in my case?

I just watched this entire video, and thoroughly enjoyed it...




Don't try to save me from nerd-dom. I'm a lost cause.

(You might be a nerd too. Watch the video for 1 minute. If you're not hooked, then you're not a nerd.)

I'm a stupid idiot.

So I got this great idea to go camping. I was going to get some people together to go up American Fork Canyon and spend the night, but no one seemed too terribly interested.

So I decided to go by myself.

Bad idea.

I got in my trusty 4Runner and headed up the canyon, drove up past Silver Lake, and followed some narrow windy path that my car barely fit up. After about an hour and a half I found myself completely isolated, deep in the canyon. Perfect.

I wanted to try and find the stream that was showing on my map about a quarter mile east of where I figured I was, so I grabbed my pack and started hiking through the woods, but as soon as I left the clearing where I had parked my car, the woods got really thick, with a bunch of undergrowth, making it pretty difficult to navigate. I found a pretty new trail, and started following it. I'm not sure if it had been made by hunters, or if it was a game trail, either way, me deciding to follow it might have been a complete lapse in judgment...

I came across a small clearing, and decided that I didn't want to wander too far from my car after all. So I set up camp, built a fire, and made some dinner. I was sitting there eating my freeze-dried rice thinking how much I love camping.

It got dark, so I grabbed my sleeping bag and jumped in my hammock for some star gazing and deep thought. I promptly fell asleep.

I woke up probably about 30 minutes later. It was completely dark, my fire was out, and it was DEAD SILENT. This was the one thing I didn't plan on. The woods at night are SO creepy. Seriously, not a single sound.

So I was sitting there, and thoughts started creeping into my head about the boy that got eaten by a bear last year in the canyon, and skin walkers and Sasquatch. I found my self just sitting and listening for some kind of sound to warn me that death was neigh.

So at about 10:30 I made the call to head home. I got out of my hammock, broke down my tent and packed up all my stuff in the dark. My next task was trying to find my way back to my car in total darkness... I'm such an idiot.

The trail wasn't easy to find in the dark, so I just started wandering in the direction of where I figured my car was. Luckily I have an amazing sense of direction, and I was able to find it without too much trouble. I loaded everything up and headed home.

The worst part was when I got home and had to tell my roommates that I was scared of the dark, so I came home early from my own camping trip. That was embarrassing.

Return of the Prodigal Son

Danny has returned to Provo.

So I got in Friday afternoon after a couple months away in DC. I thought it would be a smooth transition back into Provo life, but reality gave me a harsh slap across the face. My friend Meredeth was in town too, and unfamiliar with the Provo scene, so we took a trip over the Sev. across the street to experience some Provo nightlife.

We were both shocked. The following is a representation of what we saw.


Boys with beards.

Some Cutoffs on guys.


Indie Kids with questionable fashion sense


And some "Mormon" girls with questionable values.

Provo is an interesting place to live, but it's where I call home, and I love it. Meredeth didn't really know what to do about the overload of amazingness that we found at the 7-11, but that's why you've got to love it here. Where else can you find such diversity in one convenience store? Raj saw us laughing at everyone, and he started laughing too and said that he loves his job because he gets a new show every five minutes. I like that guy.

Oh, I almost forgot...


The new freshman girls that look 10 years old and are trying WAY to hard to be cute and impress freshman boys. We saw some of them too...

Border Patrol

My Parents think I should get a job on the Border Patrol. I'm just curious if anyone can see me working in law enforcement...?



Let's take a second and weigh my options...

Border Patrol Vs. Rockstar


RS - Play my guitar and sing songs for a living
BP - Catch Mexicans and Terrorists for a living
RS - Low probability of actually "making it"
BP - Could have a job in as little as 3 months
RS - Have to live wherever the band is
BP - Have to live where I am working
RS - Sleep on a tour bus
BP - Sleep in my own bed
RS - Might make millions, might make nothing
BP - Decent steady income
RS - Gone on tour for extended periods of time
BP - Home for dinner
RS - Wield an "axe" aka guitar
BP - Wield a Glock and/or 12 Gauge
RS - Wear sweet outfits and costumes to work
BP - Wear that lame green uniform to work
RS - Thick gnarly beards are acceptable in my line of work
BP - Thick gnarly mustaches are acceptable in my line of work
RS - Long hair is smiled upon
BP - Long hair is frowned upon, unless you're under cover
RS - Bullet proof vests are just stage costumes
BP - Bullet proof vests are standard issue
RS - Everyone knows who you are, and loves you
BP - Juan, Ernesto, and Panfilo know who you are, and hate you


Those are just a few things I could think of, feel free to add more. And please, give me your opinion on which I should choose.

All jokes aside though, the Border Patrol could be a pretty cool job. You basically go take quads and 4x4's around and snag Mexicans trying to sneak across the border. It's not dangerous like being a police officer.

On the other side of the coin, however; everyone wants to be a Rockstar...

Tales of Rejection

So, for those of you not keeping tabs on me right now, I'm in Washington DC for a couple months doing the summer security sales thing.
Rejection on the doors is a daily thing, and typically it's the same answers you get from everyone. You get pretty good at diverting away from peoples objections and getting them to listen to you, but every now and then you come across a situation that leaves you basically dumbfounded.
So I was knocking a bit ago and I saw an open door behind a screen, a tell-tale sign that someone is home, so I gave 'er a knock.
This old man came out and I started doing my introduction, but instead of listening to me he just walked right up to me and grabbed the name badge that I wear around my neck and held it about 6 inches from his face. He hadn't said a word, and I just stopped talking because he was uncomfortably close...
After inspecting my badge for about 5 seconds, he turned around to walk back in the house. I wasn't going to let him get away that easily, so I started talking to him again, but he just held up a finger and said "I'm deaf" in that cliche deaf voice and walked back into the house. I wondered how he heard me knocking...
A few seconds later a decently good looking younger woman came out so I started talking to her, but no sooner had I started than she began to sign like crazy to me.
I stopped talking again, silently cursing myself for not learning ASL like I've been meaning to for the past couple of years and considering that there was a 50/50 shot that this girl was faking. I tried asking her if there was anyone who wasn't deaf in the house, but she just started gesturing for me to write it down. At this point I was losing hope, so I just decided to wing my pitch. I wrote on that back of a prequalification slip: "I'm doing some advertising for Honeywell home security systems and paying for 3 in your neighborhood today."
You can see her reply in the photo above. I normally wouldn't let her get off that easily, but I've never been rejected in writing before...

As a side note, the house may or may not have been a mosquito farm. All I know is that my legs got absolutely mutilated while standing there. It was bad news.
-Daniel Wilson
megadanny@gmail.com
(email sent via blackberry)

Sometimes Dreaming Really Sucks.

I'm usually all about dreaming. I think it's great. You get to do random things, and it all seems real. Sometimes you do bad things, and then you don't even have to feel bad about stealing that lady's car or punching that guy, because you didn't actually do it.

But sometimes dreaming freaking blows. Like last night. I didn't have the best of days yesterday. I was all stressed out and having a bunch of anxiety, which for me is extremely rare, so you know it was a bad day... Anyway, I kinda was just over it all, so I decided to go to bed and just start over the next day. Sounded like a great idea.

I got all settled in and next thing I knew, I was driving along in the back seat of some dudes car going to church. Everything seemed alright, but apparently the guy (an older man) was a diabetic and he forgot to give himself insulin and passed out while driving. So, all of the sudden the car hangs a louie and we jump over the center divider into oncoming traffic. Amazingly, my friend riding shotgun (I can't remember who it was...) didn't even notice what was going on, so I had to jump from the back seat and grab the wheel. We start careening through oncoming traffic until I can get us to safety. Meanwhile this guy comes to, pulls out a syringe and starts administering himself insulin while this is going on...

I was able to safely bring the car to a halt on the side of the road, and we were all OK. I thought this was the end of my problems, but I was wrong.

Where we finally pulled over, there were a group of cars parked and a bunch of people standing around. I had to get out of the car after all the near-death stress, so I got out to see what was going on. We were parked just a bit off the foot of a big mountain. So after a couple of moments there, I heard a huge crack and I looked up at the mountain to see the beginnings of an avalanche. I thought that it was pretty cool looking until I realized it was a HUGE avalanche and it was headed right toward us. So we all started running away and this huge sea of snow came pouring down the mountain and across the road toward us. I'm a really fast runner, so I was able to get safely up a small hill and out of the reach of the rushing snow. Some of the people I was with weren't so lucky...

The fortunate thing about it all was that I happened to have a shovel with me (???). So I started searching in the drift and digging people out as I found them.


I was able to pull everyone out of the avalanche, so I guess that makes me a hero or something, but all I really wanted to do was sleep. Sleeping was more stressful than being awake.

Just to explain the picture, the subtitle to it should read "Bad dream honey?" because the dreams are so real sometimes that it takes you a second to figure out it was just a dream when you wake up...

I think I'm going to take drugs tonight so that this doesn't happen again...

Dang you, Rachel.

Rachel Sharp tagged me in this musical ABC's thing... I guess you pick a band or a song for each letter of the alphabet...We'll see how it goes.

A. Anberlin - "Godspeed" and "Adelaide", these songs actually really rock. I've been grooving to them for a bit now..
B. Brand New - Perhaps my favorite studio band. Live performances I've seen have left a lot to be desired, not that they don't sound great, they just don't really entertain... but their studio work is simply amazing.
C. Circa Survive - I just met Anthony Green last week, and he seriously is the nicest guy ever, not to mention an amazing vocalist...
D. Dashboard Confessional - Chris Carraba... I'm not sure which I like better, listening to his music, or playing his songs on my guitar and screaming at the top of my lungs when no one is home. His music is seriously some of the most fun to play of any band...
E. Elton John - Call me what you will, I LOVE Elton John. "Your Song" is one of my favorites....
F. Foo Fighters - Duh.... I freaking love Dave Grohl. I can't get enough. Their DVD "Skin and Bones" is great. Get it. Watch it. Love it.
G. Greenday - AMAZING live. Seriously, one of the most solid and talented live performance acts ever. Whether you like their music or not, you have to hand them that.
H. Hells Bells - AC/DC - Do I really even need to say anything?
I. Imogen Heap - Once again, you might question my sexuality on this one, but she is awesome. "Hide and Seek" changed my life.
J. Journey - Because I won't stop believin'
K. The Killers - "Glamorous Indie Rock and Roll" - One of the best songs ever, and my personal Killers fav.
L. Lagwagon - Joey Cape is a genius, and everything he touches is gold.
M. Millencolin - Just another high school punk rock fav.
N. No Use For A Name - Have you heard their new album???
O. Operation Ivy - I never realized that these old school punk bands only used the middle of the alphabet to start their names...
P. "Punk In Drublic" - NOFX - arguably their best album, the one that got me started anyway.
Q. Queen - I mean really? Is there any other answer? Forever one of my favorite bands.
R. The Rolling Stones - I had to throw in some classic rock... I mean, I did give Led Zeppelin the shaft on "L" anyway...
S. Saves the Day - I was never a huge fan until their latest album "Under the Boards" - amazing.
T. Taking Back Sunday - Just thought I'd give a shoutout to good old fashioned Pop Punk.
U. Unwritten Law - So good on CD. So good live.
V. Vitamin C - We talked all night about the rest of our lives, where we gonna be when we turn 25? Holy crap. I'm 25... Where am I?
W. "War of the Worlds" - the 3rd Bad Astronaut album. Maybe not as good as "Houston, We Have a Drinking Problem," but still, It's Joey Cape. You can't go wrong.
X. The Xylophone that they play in the first All-American Rejects on the song "My Paper Heart." That was my idea, but they beat me to it...
Y. Yanni - His smooth piano stylings were forever ruined by a girl who played Yanni for me on the piano, and then broke my heart. I don't really want to talk about it...
Z. Led Zeppelin - Does that work? C'mon Z is tough, and I thought I'd make up for not giving what is quite possibly one of the greatest bands of all time their spot on L. Cut me some slack.

I guess I'll tag Heather, because she is the only person that I know reads my blog...